The atmosphere was tense. The team was prepared to fight. Jack wasn’t afraid, he was too strong here, but it was a mistake to be nonchalant about the fight. They could have some ace up their sleeves.

“So, you are going to hunt me down?” Jack provoked.

Alistair smiled lightly. “No, no.” He denied lightly. “The military don’t have resources to hunt deserters in the exterior, but would you ever want to return to the interior… It wasn’t my decision., b the way.” Alistair quickly whited himself out of it, seeing Jack’s grimace. “We are only executing orders. Higher ups decided you have stayed here too long already.”

Jack pondered the issue. ‘It’s not a great problem to be declared a deserter. Temporarily, I don’t have a reason to go the interior. Moreover, they would take me back with open arms, if I reach 4th tier. I suppose I won’t get benefits, though. They aren’t going to reward a former deserter.’ That was a problem, Jack wanted to reach 4th tier to learn better spells from the capital and to send his family to a city. These were his current goals.

“Do I have to go immediately?” Jack asked.

“I’m afraid so.” Alistair replied.

Jack sighed. ‘It’s hard to find 4th tier these days. My leveling speed is still nice, but it slowed down considerably.’ Jack decided to comply. There were other reasons as well. Jack was lonely here. He also wanted to have some fighting experience in a group and in the open.

“Give me an hour. I will go with you.” Jack said a bit resigned.

Alistair looked at his companions and replied. “Sure. An hour is not a problem.” They wanted to go immediately, but were going to accommodate Jack a little.

Jack used the fortress spells and brought out the bison back. A cannon moved and shot a projectile at the bison’s head. The head exploded in a dozen of fragments.

Ding… You have killed lv. 59 Bison Champion

Ding… LEVEL UP! You have reached lv. 40

The Alistair’s team was a bit shocked by the effortlessness of bison’s demise.

“Do you think he can create something like that again in a different place?” Andy asked. He wanted Jack to use the cannon for their team.

“I doubt it, or at least he will need to spend a few hours.” Adina replied.

“She is right.” Jack confirmed, even though he was too far to be able to listen with his ears.

Jack waited a dozen of minutes to completely assimilate the essence, and took out a 4th tier snake, which he killed in the same way as the bison.

Ding… You have killed lv. 61 Heavy Fire Snake

No level this time. Jack felt it was a bit of a waste to just kill the monsters, but he had no other choice. He couldn’t just leave them here, since they would escape. It was better to kill them for levels.

Ding… You have killed lv. 54 Swift Deer

Ding… LEVEL UP! You have reached lv. 41

Jack stood up. That was it. He still had to take his possessions. He had currently an armor from a 5th tier wolf, and three wands. Jack had bought a water, an air, and a new and better lightning wand. He also had numerous weapons, starting from a few standard spears he was taking to hammers and maces created with magic that didn’t. The Mace Handling skill seemed to be for all kinds of large blunt weapons. Most of the skills were similar, for example, the Footwork skill. The skill seemed about moving legs, but it was also about dodging. When someone moved only their head, they had to place more of their weight on one of the legs to make the rest of their body stay still.

Jack gathered his belongings that had some worth and turned to the team. He discarded hammers and maces since he could always make them anew. “Can you help me transport these corpses to the frontier?” He asked. “I will give you ten percent.” He quickly added, since they didn’t seem to agree.

“It will be a problem. These corpses are quite heavy.” Alistair complained, and wanted to refuse.

“I can use air mana on them, though it will lower their value a bit.” Opal happily proposed.

“Sure, go ahead.” Jack agreed.

The group of five people walked through the forest, dragging three huge corpses behind them.

“I think this was a stupid idea. These corpses are slowing us down. We may need to ditch them.” Adina complained.

“Don’t worry. We are still in the range of my fortress.” Jack reassured. It was impossible to send light mana that far, so the light spell in the fortress was molding light mana in Jack’s body into a spell. Jack could detect monsters this way even when outside. Naturally, the spell had its range as well.

The team soon walked out of it, leaving Jack with a feeling of vulnerability. He sighed. He had no longer strength of a 5th tier. Right now, he could only survive against a weak 4th tier.

“So? What kind of missions we are going to do?” Jack asked.

“Our next mission is already decided.” Alistair said, while casting a detection spell. They were taking turns, Jack was also required to cast detection spells using his water wand. He was a bit displeased by the commanding attitude of Alistair and the rest, as only Alistair had a higher level than him, but he decided to comply. In the end, they were more experienced than he was. His level wasn’t everything.

“We have to investigate the nearby frontier section.” Alistair said.

“They don’t have their own hunters?” Jack asked baffled.

“They should have.” Alistair said calmly, still concentrating on the spell. “Ok. Your turn Opal. I will tell Jack about our mission.” Alistair continued.

“The problem is that we have lost contact with that section headquarters. We need to get there to check what happened.” Alistair explained.

“It’s just our neighboring section. Surely, you can just send ordinary soldiers.” Jack said.

“Yeah, but it’s probably something with infected, so you need at least 3rd tiers for that.” Andy interjected.

“Infected?” Jack asked. “Is there some kind of disease spreading?”

The rest looked at each other meaningfully. “You haven’t heard about the infected?” Adina asked for the group.

“Well, I know about the four common diseases.” Jack defended himself. Their reaction was weird.

“You really must have been lonely in that fortress. Everyone knows about the infected now.” Adina said with a pity in her voice. Jack was a bit angry, though she just wanted to tease him.

Jack knew about the diseases. Many years ago, the study of life magic reached a level high enough to eradicate most of human diseases. A few were altered to be nearly completely harmless. Humans could destroy their own diseases, but not all of them in the world. Someone smart thought it was for the best to leave a few harmless diseases to train human bodies. The decision was proved correct, as a few times in the history monster diseases evolved and attacked humans. Jack suspected it was something similar.

“Actually, it’s not a disease in the straight sense of the word, it was just the first impression and everyone is now used to naming them like that.” Andy started explaining.

“The invasion started around a month ago. At that time, some people started to behave strangely. They were very clumsy and they weren’t even able to walk properly, while others attacked people like monsters, biting and scratching with fingers. Some of them were attacked, but they showed incredible regenerating abilities. After some time, we learned those people were possessed by life elementals.”

Elementals. Jack knew about them. They were living organisms, though they didn’t have flesh. Generally, an elemental’s body consisted of an element and the corresponding elemental mana type. For example, a fire elemental was a mixture of fire and fire mana. Their innate spells generated fire from fire mana and fire mana from fire, therefor elemental’s life was stable. They used essence to live, unlike humans and most of monsters, which would only weaken in an environment without essence. This was their weakness.

An elemental could only be destroyed with one attack by simultaneously destroying both element and elemental mana. Destroying only element or elemental mana resulted in increased consumption of essence, since an elemental was quickly producing the lacking part back. For example, vaporizing water from water elemental forced elemental to heal itself by producing more water. Therefore, it was possible therefor to kill an elemental by starving it to death by grinding it down. Sooner or later local essence concentration was going to lower with constant essence usage after all.

Jack had never heard of life elementals, though it wasn’t strange they existed. Jack had thought they were just extremely rare, unlike fire elementals or water elementals.

“Life mana had no conflicts.” Jack said aloud the main problem with a sigh.

“Exactly.” Andy confirmed. “It’s really hard to kill a life elemental.”

“What about its element?” Jack asked. Fire elementals’ element was naturally fire, but how life could be an element?

“It’s normally in a form of a cloud of bacteria, but the problem is that they like to use living organisms. They possess monsters and humans and they are replicating inside. After that, they attack others. Practically, only life forms with life mana resistance had some chance to avoid being possessed.” Andy explained. “Most of their attacks are actually clumsy and rather harmless, should you be absolutely sure you are immune to the possession. Unfortunately, they can also infect you with their bacteria, so they can even possess high tiers.”

“What about wards?” Jack asked. He caught himself that he enjoyed the conversation. Andy similarly to him seemed to be interested in magical theory. Andy also enjoyed the conversation, and they could discuss many ideas.

“Life elemental is a way better than you in life magic. You will need to use some sort of feedback, but that means you are leaving an open route to your body, which is bypassing your life mana resistance. On the other hand, without feedback you are fighting blindly. An elemental just has to break the ward at one point. So, you may use the life ward, as it gives a bit of protection, but never with a feedback.” Andy explained.

They also talked about Jack’s fortress. According to Andy, most counts and ducal families had similar fortresses, but they had more complicated spells inscribed. Jack was a bit wronged by the revelation that his fortress wasn’t unique, but he quickly accepted that. He wasn’t an arch mage, it wasn’t strange there were better earth mages than him.

Jack checked his status in the meantime.

Name: Jack Age: 15 Class: Magical Survivor Level:41 86% to next lv Stats: Base Essence reinforced Strength 36.19/50 162.13 (20% + (6+2)%/level) Endurance 37.39/55 167.5 (20% + (6+2)%/level) Intelligence 41.86/65 362.92 (70% + (10+7)%/level) Mental Endurance 39.48/65 213.19 (30% + (7+3)%/level) Agility 42.59/60 295.14 (60% + (7+6)%/level) Perception 22.98/40 114.67 (30% + (6+3)%/level) Affinities

Life

Earth

Light

Water

19.89%

12.59%

9.85%

0.08%

Class skills

Economy of Movement

Scavenging

Spell Slinging

59

29

38

+25% to agility

+10% to perception

+10% to intelligence

Professions: 5/5

Conman V

Masochist IV

Spearman VII

Wizard III

Trapper IV

Fighting skills: Sword Handling 8 Spear Handling 39 +10% to agility Archery 17 Battle Precognition 8 Footwork 48 + 10% to strength Wrestling 1 Mace Handling 21 Axe Handling 9 Magic skills: Rune Shaping 36 +10% to intelligence Words of Power 16 Meditation 26 +10% to intelligence Parallel Thinking 39 + 10% to mental endurance Crafting skills: Farming 19 Cooking 14 Crafting 22 Trapping 28 +10% to intelligence Utility skills: Analyze 28 +10% to intelligence Charisma 37 +5% to intelligence and perception Pain Tolerance 34 +10% to mental endurance Mental Intrusion Resistance 22 Tracking 12 Sneaking 12 Vitality 1332/1332 Stamina 1426/1670 Clarity 1963/2130

Jack’s stats exploded. He had had very high strength after the evolution, so he had neglected it a bit, and had concentrated on the rest of his stats. This way, he managed to raise them to the current level.

Jack’s life affinity was also high. High enough that it was already impossible for him to experience life mana saturation, but the affinity still wasn’t on the level to give Jack additional benefits just from filling his body with life mana. Unfortunately, Jack still had to pay attention to earth affinity and light affinity. He had been using earth mana in the past month, his body deteriorated already a bit, though there wouldn’t be a problem unless his body find itself flooded by earth or light mana for a long time.

Jack had lost Battle Mage profession, so he had to choose a replacement. He had currently two candidates for the slot.

Trapper IV

Requirements

Trapping skill lv.20

Crafting skill lv.20

Boost

+20% intelligence

+20% agility

+2% per level to intelligence

+2% per level to agility

This one was nice because of intelligence, but agility wasn’t very important for Jack. He was currently using it.

Maceman IV

Requirements

Mace Handling skill lv.20

Footwork skill lv.20

Boost

+30% to strength

+10% to endurance

+3% per level to strength

+1% per level to endurance

Jack liked strength more than agility, and he planned to replace Spearman profession with this one at some point in the future. Jack liked blunt weapons more. In a fight, Jack had to think more while using a spear than a hammer. Jack had high agility, but he still had to think how to maneuver his body. He would rather spend his intelligence on spells.

Alistair patted his shoulder. “Let’s talk a bit,” he said and dragged Jack behind the rest.

“You seem to hold some sort of resentment against us.” Alistair started. His tone was accusing. Jack kept silence. It was true. Jack would rather grind in his fortress, Alistair’s team had forced him out.

“You should remember we are only executing orders. You can always go to the Colonel or one of lieutenants to complain if you feel so wronged.” Jack could only sigh in his mind. He wasn’t suicidal.

“Let me tell you. I’m not going to lose anyone because of some stupid brat, thinking that we are your problem. These people, they are my teammates and friends. As the leader, I’m responsible for them. If you do something that endangers them, I will get rid of you personally.” Alistair threatened and speed up, to catch up with others.

“I’m sorry.” Jack said with a sigh. “I know that, it’s just… You are here, and I have nobody else to blame. I know it’s not your fault. I’m sorry.” Jack sighed. He felt his own behavior was stupid, but he had been angry. He still was, but he knew it wasn’t proper to direct his anger and disappointment at the team.

Alistair nodded. “Fine. I accept. Come, let’s catch up with the rest.”

The team reached the frontier after a few hours. They sold the corpses and divided the money, Jack received the most of it. Jack also placed some of his things in the team’s house. After that, the team went alongside frontier to the neighboring section. Jack wondered he would see Maria and Stave. These two had travelled to the frontier with Jack and Bob back then, but they had failed the test for being a hunter. They should be on the wall, or resting in barracks.

The soldiers on the walls were chatting, and some were even playing around. They were supposed to stand a meter from each other, but they formed groups a few meters from each other. Jack didn’t blame them. Ten kilometers distance from the forest was enough to form a proper formation in case of an attack.

“So, how are we dealing with the infected?” Jack continued previous discussion.

“Colonel ordered to create inscribed warding spells, which work as barriers for 2nd tier people possessed by life elementals. 3rd tiers have the resistance, so the spell doesn’t work for them, even if an elemental is inside. We are usually imprisoning possessed people and trap elementals in layers of essence pumping out spells, life wards and fire barriers. An elemental can live for a moment only with just mana or an element, so it is necessary to prevent spread of both bacteria and life mana.” Andy explained.

“As for life mana, the best solution is to use ward AND escape. Elementals aren’t fast. As for bacteria, you can use fire elemental barriers, though any elemental barrier is useful, some more than other. For example, an earth barrier would force elemental to leave behind bacteria, while an air barrier would only slowly kill bacteria with air mana.” Andy continued his explanation.

Jack took a while to proceed the information. Life elementals were indeed very dangerous. The team wasn’t strong enough to fight a life elemental straight on.

The group passed more barracks. Jack didn’t spot his acquaintances, but he could discern the soldier’s mood was dropping as they were moving closer the next section. Jack asked two soldiers about it.

“I have heard that the next section is no longer working. Also, sometimes infected are coming from the interior’s side. People feel their backs are no longer safe.”

Jack was surprised. He expected that the infected problem would be stopped at the borders.

“Life elementals spread to the interior.” Alistair replied gravely for Jack’s inquiry.” Western cities have their own wards to stops possessed people, but the countryside… “

That was bad. Very bad. His family was endangered. He wasn’t panicking, still remembering how his village had fought against the wolves, but he should help them. Jack hoped Bob had sent them some help, maybe a few magic tools. Jack had sent equipment and money to Bob numerous times in the past.

The group reached the next section’s territory. There wasn’t a clear border between the sections. A soldier from Jack’s section stood a meter from a soldier from the next section. Alistair asked them about their headquarters, but they just told them that they don’t know anything, only rumors.

Rumors about headquarters no longer existing, or at least, about headquarters being taken over by elementals. Others disagreed, saying that it was impossible, and most likely there was some accident with the communication spell.

The team walked for a few more kilometers. The distance between two soldiers enlarged. Now, soldiers openly talked about elemental attacks.

“There are no soldiers ahead.” Jack said. He observed the terrain with his light magic telescope.

“Can you describe it better?” Alistair asked.

“Well… Soldiers from this barrack are standing, but their line ends in the place soldiers from the next barrack should stand. Just like that.”

After a dozen of minutes, they reached the place.

“Why is nobody there?” Alistair asked soldiers .

They shrugged. “They just didn’t appear two days ago.”

Alistair raised his brow. “Why are YOU here? I doubt they just decided to stay in their barracks out of being lazy.”

They looked at each other. “We have been coming here every day for years, and we don’t have a reason to stop, at least for now.”

“How about the infected?” Alistair asked.

“We don’t fight them to death. It’s alright. Annoying, but fine.”

The team walked forward.

“There are some people ahead. “ Jack said. Barracks were only two kilometers from each other, Jack could already observe the next barracks.

“Can you show us?” Alistair asked.

Jack created an illusion of what he saw. While the next barracks were in the distance, many people walked without an order before it.

“Infected.” Adina stated bluntly.

“We should avoid them.” Andy said.

Most of the team nodded.

“Can I have a request?” Jack asked. “I would like to see what they can do. I have never fought them.” Jack asked. His team was more experienced, it was better to fight infected with them.

Adina groaned. “Don’t be selfish.”

“Wait, isn’t it better her us to let Jack experience fighting them? I mean, it’s pretty obvious there will be more of them as we are getting close to the headquarters.” Opal said.

Alistair nodded. “Fine. Let’s get a bit closer.”

Soon, a dozen of infected spotted the team. Jack could now observe them better. They didn’t look much different from normal soldiers. A few had loincloths, while the rest had armors. Generally, most 3rd tier soldiers had some sort of armor, so it wasn’t a surprise. They looked healthy, but their gazes… They didn’t have any emotions visible on their faces. Their eyes looked hollow. They wordlessly moved in Jack’s direction, moving their limbs awkwardly. Some tripped and fell on the ground.

“Most of them can’t even properly control bodies they are possessing. Andy.” Alistair told them.

Andy cast a spell and lifted up a dozen small stones. “Earth magic?” Jack asked surprised.

“I’m an earth mage, but I have taken it for ranged attacks. I’m not as good as you with delicate inscribing.” He cast the spell and rocks flew. Legs of infected blew up, dying surroundings red. Possessed bodies lost their legs, they could only crawl in the team’s direction. A splinter hit one of them in the chest, and Jack could observe how the seemingly mortal wound for a person without magic healed in a manner of seconds.

“This is the best way to stop them.” Alistair explained. “Now’s the hard part.”