It was another day for Horizon Dawn.

The Black Mercy kicked up a dust cloud as it strode through the grassland. The sun shone happily, and the breeze was cheerful. All seemed well for this journey.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

Or not. It appeared a crisis had arrived.

...

In the training gym, Luxinna flew backward, slamming into the wall with a comical smack. Her opponent, Rem, fell to his knee with electricity running painfully down his nerve and dropped a flashlight from his twitching hand.

“Owww,” Luxinna groaned, prying herself off the wall. “You cheater! I would win if you don’t shine that light into my eyes.”

“Lux, you cheat the moment you were born,” Rem smirked emotionlessly. “Just give this puny human some slack, Ms. high and mighty elf. It is just a tiny flashlight. You can surely deal with this, right Lux?”

Luxinna gritted her teeth. Flashlight? Did that bastard realize how sensitive her eyes were?

Long story short, he knew.

Then both of them heard the scream.

“Did she discover a roach in the bathroom?” Lux wondered out loud.

“This is bad,” Rem gritted his teeth. “I try not to speculate about that problem, but it appears my worst fear has come true.”

...

In her room, Scathach was maintaining her weapon. On the white cloth in front of her, myriad arrays of throwing knives and blades laid ceremoniously. The brown hair woman fondly whetted an intricately carved Katana. She performed the act with Zen-like cyclical motion. It was a sacred ritual to rid the impurity, stain, and rust from the pristine blade.

Then she heard the scream. The wail so loud and horrifying it wrecked her Zen.

The brunette hair woman frown.

“Did that idiot find the cockroach beneath the cupboard again?” Scathach sighed. “Kid these days.”

…

Cytortia looked at the opened cupboard. Her face twisted by fear as the cold and cruel truth registered. She faced no cockroach. No, what her present enemy could kill their organization in a way no roach could. This was a grave crisis that threatened to cripple their foundation at its core.

The cupboard only contained one bag of flour, a few apples and nothing else.

“No,” Cytortia fell on her behind. “Our supplies… they are all gone.”

The goddess’s brain did a mental calculation on how long they would last on emergency ration. The flavor of said ration and their remaining stock killed her faith instantly.

She let out another moanful wail.

...

“WHAT!!!” The brown-hair woman, namely Scathach, shrieked. Her remaining Zen rocketed right into a mental sun. “How did we ran out of supplies? We bought at least two-months worth of rations.”

Luxinna’s eyes rolled into her head as the prospect of fasting sprinted into her mind like the harbinger of the apocalypse. She slumped onto the carpet, out for the count.

“Is it that surprising?” Rem resigned to his fate with calm of a blissful koi. His eyes were serene and relax, like the meditating monk. “You originally prepared the ration for two people, right? Now we have four. One of which is the avatar of gluttony, who selfishly faints as we face this massive starvation crisis. I am not even counting the feast Cy cooked in Lightwell. Given the amount of food Lux consumed, I expect we should buy at least ration a five-months ration for a dozen people.”

Cytortia cried a river, grabbed Rem by the collar and shook him like a rag-doll.

“If we bought food like that, we will go broke!”

Beside Rem, Lux’s stomach growled

“Yes,” like a storm coming after the calm, Rem’s eyes sparkled into a searchlight. He prided Cytortia’s hand from his collar and rose to meet the disaster.

“That’s right!” Rem shouted. “Money! No one can save the world solely on hope and dream. We need resources. Given that we are acting as a secret organization, our account and asset must also be untraceable!”

Rem slammed a paper-roll and spread it out on the table.

It read:

1) Fund/Asset

2) Liability/Expenses

3) Comparison

“Smart men do not work for money!” Rem’s eyes glowed with an intensity of thousand suns. “We make our money work for us! Right here and now listed all our sources of funding. It is time to manage our cashflow.”

Luxinna’s stomach growled.

“Well, this should be easy,” Cytortia said as she listed. “We have utility and food expense. As for asset...”

Silence.

“We have the van,” Scathach suggested.

“It is capital which does not generate any income,” Rem said. “And its value goes down every year.”

“Income generating asset, right?” Cytortia’s cheerful smile froze. “Scathach do we have...”

“No.”

“Right,” the goddess’ smile quivered. “Rem, what do you call when someone liability trumps their asset?”

Another stomach growled from the elf.

“Bankrupt,” Rem replied jadedly.

The goddess’s head slammed onto the table.

“So we are broke, aren’t we?” Cytortia’s empty eyes welled with tears.

“So hungry...” the elf’s stomach growling one more time.

...

After thirty minutes of planning, the gang finally cobbled a workable plan using the resources they got.

Luxinna and Rem dressed in a similar uniform; a black gi with several pouches and belts. Cytortia came out of the Black Mercy, dressed in a tank-top and dark green short. Scathach, in her human-form, began setting up the equipment. A bucket, a furnace, and a Buchner funnel.

Most importantly of all: baits made of dried sardines.

The goddess inhaled deeply and went over the plan.

“Okays team, our goal is to hunt after the Ravine Earth Snapper. We need it to make a cosmetic pill.”

Rem and Lux nodded stalely, much to the goddess’s annoyance. It appeared the newbie human, and the marooned elf didn’t know about the Ravine Earth Snapper.

“Scathach, please.”

Scathach walked over to the sparkling river-bank frequented by several breeds of grazing animals. The wildlife here resembled the image of Africa’s savanna with animals, which seemed to be a cross between the bull and bison, marching alongside the river bank. Overall, it painted a perfect safaris’ advertisement that would surely net some tourist.

Scathach tossed the bait.

The bait flew above the pack, and at that moment, a shadow erupted from the earth below. It snapped one of the bull-bison — officially called the Northland Cattle — and dragged the poor thing under before a death cry materialized.

Several moments later, the predator exploded from the earth and spat out the meal’s skeleton. The monster resembled dog with a horn of a lamb and flat mouth of the crocodile. It roared, sending the alarmed herd into a disorganised, panicked stampede before diving back underground.

Luxinna’s mouth twitched.

“That...” Cytortia said sadly. “... is the Ravine Earth Snapper.”

Rem walked back toward the Black Mercy.

“I will eat the Emergency Ration,” the boy spoke neutrally. “Just give me a lot of salt.”

Before he successfully retreated, Scathach spoke.

“We ran out of salt.”

Rem gazed over the mountain in a gesture of mourning.

“Seriously,” Luxinna gave Cytortia an incredulous looked. “You made medicine from that thing? What the hell are you Alchemist thinking?”

Cytortia slammed her hand on the table and started venting.

“Don’t look at me like that,” Cy ranted. “It’s not my fault that profiteers were overflowing the market! Do you think I want ingredient prices in the millions, tacky equipments and cooperate lackeys monopolizing the stock?! Look at the material we are working with! Do you think making a pill or concoction is easy!? Do you think the pill that instantly cures poison or elixir that increases stat growth rate is made from radishes? NO! They make those from ingredients grown in the Forbidden Zone. THE. FORBIDDEN. ZONE. AND THOSE GUYS KEEP COMPLAINING ABOUT PRICE HIKE!!”

Scathach and Rem backed five steps away from the furious goddess. After this, Horizon Dawn made a new unanimously agreed rule: don’t talk about the pill’s market.

“Anyway, the Ravine Earth Snapper is an incredible species,” Cytortia said, calming down marginally. “We can use its bone as a base for cosmetic pills. Its blood also possess revitalizing property once properly purified. The only reason it isn’t hunt to extinction right now is the difficulty in purifying and processing. Only B-rank or above Alchemist can prepare it. And only the S-rank like me can do it on a massive scale.”

Scathach bought a blade and stabbed them into the ground.

“You two will hunt them.”

Rem and Lux sagged.

...

Scathach and Cytortia sat near on the foot of the van.

In the distance, Luxinna dodged a Snapper’s attack. She landed nimbly and stretched out her arm. A golden gel wrapped around her hand and crystallized into a gauntlet. The Snapper rushed in again, but a punch from Luxinna smashed into the side of its jaw. A discharge of electricity and force shattered its teeth.

The Snapper twitched and rolled over.

“Fascinating,” Scathach looked admiringly. “So that is True Magic. A system that doesn’t focus on spell-crafting, incantation, rune or internal energy from the Dantian, but personalized energies draw from the user untapped foundation.”

“Rem said it is the very definition of who you are,” Cytortia groaned in jealousy. “Why can’t I use mine? I tried last night, and nothing came.”

Scathach stayed silent, deep in thought.

“Both Luxinna and Rem have no prior usage of Mana,” Scathach said. “You did.”

“I know!” Cytortia whined. “Are there any way to access my Mana Core?”

“You know what,” Scathach replied in a rare gentle tone. “Calmed down. Do you remember what Rem and Lux told you when they first used their True Magic? It is about world-view. So why don’t you try to contemplate over this.”

Cytortia rubbed her hair in frustration, stood up, walked around before finally leaving the area.

Scathach looked back to see Rem vaulting over a few Snapper, impaling its eyes out with a well-aimed knife throw.

Both Rem and Luxinna were powerful compared to those with their experience. Although she was happy, Scathach couldn’t help but feel disturbed when Luxinna informed her about her True Magic. Rem confirming that suspicion also added to the alarm bell.

Luxinna said that in her mental world she obliterated a mountain. Rem hinted that his body-strengthening broke supersonic speed. Both feats were enough to get them half a foot into the S-rank, and these two barely mastered their ability to its fullest yet.

Thankfully, two were nowhere near as powerful as they were in their Mana Core. Scathach assumed that both of their power got buffed massively in their own head. But for True Magic to be capable of those feats so early in its development.

Scathach shivered. How long until those kids contested A-rank? A year? Maybe two?

Why was Satholia so desperate to assemble these kids into a battlefield?

...

In the Black Mercy, Cytortia ground a golden-color leaf. She turned the pestle counter-clockwise and added in more solvent. The extracted essence pooled into a well of oil, reflecting her average face.

Her world-view? How did a worm peeking at the sky feel?

Among the current generation of Phantasia's most famous, she ranked last. Compared to her senior sisters, she was lower than dirt. Even her only friend on that list pitied her. That was her story. The tale of the girl who got on the celebrities’ most famous as relatable walking comedy.

She filtered the oil and wiped her tears.

Perhaps realities where Cytortia Tianshang never got famous in the first place, she would be happy. At the very least, she wouldn't have eyes of expectation and ridicule watching her humiliation. A blessing existed in anonymity. A boon of not being yard-stick of how much of a joke could a disciple of Nu Wa be — a blessing prematurely taken from an eight-year-old girl.

Cytortia began channeling her Mana into the oil.

All she wanted was helping a stranger. But selflessly helping and befriending the less fortunate won no glory.

The young goddess peered into her Mana. Transparent and colorless. A hue directly correlated to her identity: tasteless and irrelevant. Could such a tinge had any worth?

As she studied the stream of energy, her eyes suddenly felt heavy. The girl tried to force them open, but she blinked. Suddenly prying her eyes open again was impossible. Then she felt her consciousness left her body.

Truth was relative. Fact saw by one person differed from things seen by others. A worm might be stupidly weak, but any two-cent scientist can tell you that without them humanity would starve.

...

The air was calm and sweet.

Cytortia founded herself in a grassy plain. Behind her stood a massive tree. Inside the tree sat an orb of glowing emerald fire.

"No way," Cytortia barely believed herself. "I did it?”

'You did,' a voice echoed from the glassy plain below her.

Cytortia's heart nearly jumped out of her chest.

"Satholia?" Cytortia said. "You are here?"

‘Yes,’ replied the voice. ‘Even now, I am under a time-limit, but this is important.'

"Wait, you are here to explain my True Magic, aren't you?"

'Partly but have to tell you about the Law Equality. Trust me, you need to know this. This knowledge will either make or break you. Eventually, its existence will leak to the world, and I want you to prepare beforehand. But first off, your magic... let start with one question: do you consider yourself a fighter?'

Cytortia spent a fraction of picosecond to ponder that question.

"No… just no."

Somewhere, in the dimension isolated from cause and effect, Satholia nodded in agreement.

'Absolutely, you couldn't put up an attack spell to save your life. You are psychologically incapable of emitting any killing intent or malice. This means your True Magic contains no offensive function at all.’

Upon hearing that, Cytortia fell to her knees and started drawing circles on the ground.

"So it is like that," the young goddess said in semi-meltdown. "I should have known. I am so weak that my Magic is an equivalent of tissue paper, right? Guess my only job would be a walking bait… maybe Tai Hua was right."

Satholia gritted her teeth, wishing that she could leave her bloody dimension, and performed the back-breaking maneuver on that weak-willed idiot. But since she couldn't do that, she used the time-tested strategy: motivational speech!

'WAKE UP GIRL!'

Cytortia stood up on her feet.

'YA THINK YA MAGIC IS WEAK! WHO DECIDE THAT?! IT'S YOU! JUST LOOK AT REM! HIS MAGIC IS REALITY PETROLEUM AND HOW MANY TIME LUXINA WIN AGAINST HIM? THE LAST I RECALL IT IS 2 WIN AND 3 LOSS, ISN'T IT! THE POWER OF TRUE MAGIC IS HOW YOU USE IT, YOU DOLT! DO YOU KNOW WHY YOUR MAGIC REFUSE TO BE SUMMON?’

"Because I practiced spell-crafting and damage my Mana." Cytortia sagged. "Rem mentioned something about Mana deprivation."

‘FUCK NO!’ Satholia screamed. 'As good as Rem is at guessing, he is not infallible. He doesn't know that nature goddess like you are born with absurd resistance to Mana deprivation. The case that normally applies to other gods won't apply to you!’

Cytortia nodded in surprise as Satholia cleared her throat.

'You see my dear. The name of your True Magic is [Sage Force]. Every True Magic differs. Categorizing them into a fixed base is nearly impossible, but there is still a way to generalize them. Rem's would be an Augmentation-type. Luxinna's Static Glass would be a Creation-type. And your [Sage Force] is Blessing-type — the rarest of all.'