“The art of illusions is the art of distorting reality. There are legends passed down from our ancestors that one may call themself a true illusionist only when they can trick the world itself and cause their illusions to become real.”

Lexi listened to Shaman’s explanation with rapt attention. They were inside of Shaman’s tent next to the crackling fire. The old goblin sat atop her rocking throne while Lexi sat cross-legged on the ground, her tail swishing on the ground behind her.

“Using illusion magic is not the same as the magic that humans use. It does not require a medium, faith, a contract with nature, or anything of the sort. Illusions are formed by magic in its purest form.”

“If there is no catalyst or medium, what fuels the spell? People are limited by their mana capacity, right?”

The old goblin smiled wistfully.

“That is precisely the problem. The ‘mana’ that is used today is too distorted and restricted, so only members of the immortal races are born with a large enough capacity to use ancient magic. There is no known method of increasing the total amount of mana a person can control so most people cannot learn this even if they want to.”

“I thought that expending mana to the limit increased the maximum threshold? That’s what the elementalists in my tribe taught me.”

Shaman shook her head.

“That is a common belief amongst the mortal races. However, they are just increasing the amount of their already existing capacity that they can control. By the Law of Conservation of Aeion, mana can neither be created nor destroyed. When you use a spell, you are just controlling a portion of mana that exists outside of yourself equal to some amount of mana that exists within you. The process accumulates mental fatigue but, otherwise, there are no benefits or detriments to using more or less mana in a spell. You cannot gain or lose mana.”

Lexi interlocked her fingers as she took in this revolutionary information. It was so basic, yet it was the first time she was hearing such a thing. If what this old goblin was saying was true, then the world was much more unbalanced than most people knew.

“Truthfully, I am unsure if a member of the mortal races other than goblins can learn this magic, but I believe my intuition which tells me that you can do so,” Shaman concluded.

Lexi nodded dutifully.

“I will do my best!”

“Then we shall see if my intuition is right. First, summon your mana.”

The young catgirl did as she was told, and the scent of fish filled the tent as her mana permeated the air around her. The only sound in the tent was the crackling of the fire. If she listened closely enough, they could hear the faint hubbub of many goblins moving about outside, far away from the tent.

“Good. Your mana has the potential to control magic from three of the human aptitudes. You may learn elemental magic, holy magic, and arcane magic. Though it is sealed, I see the possibility for you to learn the ancient magics. It will take you many years of intense practice. Are you prepared for this?”

“I am prepared,” Lexi asserted confidently.

Shaman raised her staff and leaned forward, touching the end of the staff to Lexi’s forehead.

“Then I will guide you on the first step. Move your mana in the way that I will show you.”

With the staff touching her head, Lexi felt a strange, overwhelming sensation flow into her from the wooden object. The sensation began to twist and turn within her and Lexi moved her mana to follow the motions.

Soon, a roaring pain filled her mind and her back arched as she hissed. Her arms and legs spasmed and it felt as if every muscle in her body cramped simultaneously.

After a very brief moment of determined, agonized resistance, Lexi collapsed and welcomed unconsciousness.

If she had been awake, she would have heard Shaman sigh.

“Those damned Precursors… she will be powerful one day, but the path ahead of her is full of pain and tribulation.”

***

Unlike her first time returning to Cairel, this trip was uneventful. While Ray was excited at the prospect of a fight with wild monsters, she didn’t seek them out as she was already late in returning to Cairel for her report.

While she was walking, she examined the contents of the magic bag she took from Peter. She deliberately ignored Ven and Helen’s bags to respect their privacy. She recalled that Peter frequently wrote in a journal that he kept stored in his enchanted bag. She pulled it out and flipped to the latest entry.

February 14, 7602

Today’s conquest was the two barmaids in the inn. Unfortunately, the innkeeper kicked us out afterward and refused us business. I guess his workers complained about me. Rather than take offense, I have decided to be optimistic about this - there are new conquests to be found!

I have never tried to conquer two at once before. Their names were Vera and Jen. Admittedly, I was slightly disappointed at how easy it was to enchant the two girls. With just a simple mind control spell and a few magically enhanced words, I had them obeying my every command. After dinner, I led them to my room for a night of passion. After closing the door, I proceeded to…

Ray read the next sentence and then slammed the book closed, disgusted at the depravity found within. She tossed the book back into the enchanted bag. Though Peter probably wouldn’t respawn, she decided to keep it until she knew for sure that he was gone. If brutal torture and dismemberment weren’t enough to keep him down, then she would need to try another form of attack.

She entered the town before noon. The streets were bustling with traffic as people moved about buying food for lunch. The orc, troll, and beastkin slaves shambled along beside or behind their masters, chains rattling softly, though the sound was overcome by the movement, talking, and shouting of hundreds of people.

Ray observed the slaves as she moved towards the Adventurer’s Guild to file her report. She’d heard a few stories from Lexi about how slaves were treated, and it left a bad taste in her mouth. For the most part, their gazes were empty. There were a few that still carried a hint of defiance in their eyes or in their shoulders, but most of them seemed to have given up.

“We can’t do anything yet, but I hope to fix this in the future.”

Ray clenched her teeth and nodded. She moved on, ignoring the slaves for now. There were too many of them and she didn’t want to start a war against the humans.

“By the way, Mr. New God. Do you still not have a name?” Ray asked, distracting herself from the depressing sight around her.

“I honestly haven’t thought about it too much since I’ve been focused on my tenets. I’ll add it to my list of things to do.”

Ray entered the central plaza and moved over to the Adventurer’s Guild on the left. The building was big yet plain and simple. The structure was little more than a rectangle large enough to have three or four floors, depending on the height of the ceilings. Ray entered without a second thought and, for the first time, she observed the inside of the guild.

The first floor was organized into four sections. Immediately to her left were a reception desk and a waiting area. The receptionists stood behind the desk. Since it was noon, the waiting area wasn’t very packed, but Ray had heard that there were long lines early in the morning as adventurers who procrastinated had to wait in line before they could register for a quest.

Ray didn’t fully understand why, but apparently, procrastination was an extremely common problem. She would have to ask someone about that later.

The second area was in the far-left corner of the room from the entrance. It had a large notice board covering half of the left wall and half of the central wall. The request board was partitioned into difficulties - bronze, silver, gold, legendary, and mythical - and then further sorted into different types of quests - suppression, collection, delivery, escort, and experiment. Obviously, there were no requests in the legendary or mythical sections. If there were, Cairel would be in big trouble. The spots were more of a formality than anything else.

The third and fourth areas, both on the right side of the room, were a bar and a seating area for drinking, talking, and recruiting new party members. Ray had no idea what the second, third, or fourth floors were used for. Presumably, the Guild Master had his office on one of those floors, but she wasn’t sure what else could be up there.

She approached a receptionist at the desk. Since there were not as many people looking to start new requests in the middle of the day, she didn’t need to wait for an open station.

“How may I help you?” asked a friendly man wearing a suit and tie.

He had his light-brown hair slicked back. That, combined with his square glasses and a friendly smile, gave him a professional appearance.

“My name is Ray, a trainee. I’m here to report about the excursion that I just returned from.”

The man’s eyes lit up with surprise.

“I presume you are from the missing party led by Master Jantzen Rovar?”

Ray nodded.

“I apologize for returning late. We ran into some trouble.”

“Seeing as you, instead of Master Jantzen, are reporting, I can see that an accident must have occurred.”

He pulled out a piece of paper and a pen and passed them to her.

“If you would please fill out all the details, leaving nothing out. Even if your party was inexperienced, we cannot ignore this. If this threat can kill a party of trainees, then merchants, farmers, and other civilians would be helpless against it.”

Ray smiled and accepted the paper. She moved over to the waiting area and sat down at a table, biting the end of the pen lightly as she considered what she would write. She had already decided, for the most part, but she quintuple-checked to make sure she couldn’t find any inconsistencies or other issues with the details.

The summary written in her report was this: they were ambushed by Ax the Pony and his bandits soon after they entered the Voskeg Mountains. They suffered no casualties and the bandits fled by using spatial magic grenades. They attempted to search for the bandits before encountering goblins and being wiped out. Ray managed to escape but the goblins chased her through the mountains for a day before she finally lost them. She camped out for the night alone and returned to Cairel on the third day.

At first, she had considered hiding the existence of the goblins, but she suspected that Ven and Helen might have woken up and seen the goblins before they were killed. If they didn’t corroborate her story, she would fall under suspicion for lying. The existence of the goblins would likely be revealed either way and, in fact, the guild already knew they were there since there was a standing request to hunt them.

After filling out the report, Ray made her way over to the magic quarter for Master Rambalt’s training. If their team was back, Kelsey would be there for the day's lessons. Since Ray had taken care of Peter and Jantzen, and Lexi was currently staying with the goblins, Ray, Suzy, and Kelsey would be the only students left.

When she slammed open the double doors to the tower, Ray flinched as she heard a loud shriek. A moment later, she saw a streak of white rushing towards her, and her eyes widened.

Kelsey embraced her. It was the biggest display of emotion that Ray had seen from the priestess.

“What brought this on?” Ray asked, patting the girl lightly on the back.

The priestess quickly pulled back, her face flushed.

“Our group got wiped out on the first day by the goblins. They were a lot stronger than we were expecting and I only survived by running and hiding,” Kelsey muttered. “When your group didn’t come back in time, I thought you all died as well…”

It was a surprisingly familiar story.

“We got ambushed by goblins as well. I was the only one who made it back…”

Kelsey covered her mouth as she gasped as she looked behind Ray. Her eyes started to water.

“I’m sorry. You must be really sad about Lexi…”

Ray hid her surprise as she observed Kelsey with interest. The priestess seemed to be legitimately sorry that Lexi had ‘died’ and wouldn’t be able to come back. She couldn’t help but wonder why Kelsey was being so familiar and empathic. Was she just traumatized from her experience? Or did she have an ulterior motive?

“There’s not much I can do about it,” Ray muttered softly. “She fought with courage and ripped her enemies apart, but the end result was what it was.”

Kelsey nodded, patting her on the head. She then motioned towards Master Rambalt who was observing the two of them with a piercing expression. He was tapping his finger on the arm of his chair impatiently.

Ray approached the old elementalist and waved.

“Ray,” he called out. “You said you wanted to learn dark magic, yes?”

She paused and nodded hesitantly. She wasn’t expecting him to bring that topic up so soon in her training.

“I would like to, yes. I am a bit interested in obliterator and dark healer magics.”

Master Rambalt pursed his lips as he examined her from head to toe, his eyes seeming to look at something beyond her physical presence.

“Why do you want to learn dark healing?”

Ray glanced at Kelsey for a moment before replying honestly.

“I have a rather unique ability to regenerate. I can recover from any injury without difficulty.”

Master Rambalt’s eyes furrowed.

“Can you prove it?”

Ray shrugged and summoned her shortsword. She raised it over her left arm and calmly swung down. Kelsey cried out as soon as she realized what was happening, rushing forward in a vain attempt to stop her.

Her left arm fell to the floor.