The team was walking back. Jack felt bad.

“Hey, Jack! Do you have some trauma after that elemental or something?” Opal joked after seeing Jack’s sad face.

“That’s not it.” Jack denied.

“So?” Opal insisted. The rest of the team looked at Jack, waiting for his answer. He sighed.

“It’s about what we have seen there. A section isn’t working.” Jack replied.

Alistair nodded. “It’s bad, but there aren’t any direct threats to our section.”

Jack shook his head. “I don’t mean that.” He sighed once again. “It’s about my family. They live near the frontier. Around ten kilometers. Barracks make it actually safe near the frontier, but infected can easily go deeper. It’s only a matter of time for my family to be affected.” Jack explained.

“Shit.” Opal cursed.

“I thought first we could help with that section, but…” Jack didn’t finish his sentence. There wasn’t a need to.

Everyone stayed silent for some time. Jack though how to help his family, but teaching them life wards was the best he could do. Moreover, harvest time would be soon, farmers couldn’t ward everything. On the other side, imperial court probably wouldn’t send food to risk an encounter with infected. Jack knew farmers were tough, but elementals had wiped out a military headquarters.

“It’s not only your problem. I’s sure our Colonel would do something about it.” Alistair said. “By the way, Adina said you wanted to learn our magic.” He changed the topic.

“I would like to.”

“Good. I’m a lightning mage. Generally, I fight in close quarters and supplement myself with lightning. I suppose you know the basic spells?” Alistair asked.

“I know the lighting kinetic spell, and the lighting mana creation spell.”

Alistair nodded. “These two spells are enough to cast half of my spells. Generally, it’s hard to attack someone from a large distance with lighting. It’s about aiming. Lightning is chaotic, you can guide it, but it’s still a bit unpredictable. My ancestor was a powerful lightning mage, so I can tell you some things that novice lighting mages don’t know.” Alistair lectured.

“Lighting is everywhere, though it is in balance. Apparently, you can sense it with a high lighting affinity. Natural electricity restores balance. Generally, you have three options. You can disturb the balance by charging something with lightning mana, disturb it with the kinetic spell, or help to restore it. The third option is only viable when balance is naturally disturbed, like when there is a thunderstorm. It’s tricky, though and situational, so it can’t be relied upon.”

Alistair walked a few meters away and cast some spell. Lightning shot from his finger.

“Right now, I created lightning mana and charged myself up. It’s the most reliable way to shoot lightning, but you have to have lightning affinity. To aim, you have to uncharge point in the air with kinetic spell, so they can act like checkpoints. You fire lightning by using the kinetic spell to kick lighting out. You can also continue to charge something up and lightning will appear at some point, but such method is unreliable.” Alistair shot lighting which hit the ground in the distance.

“A better way for you is to charge an enemy, but if the enemy has lighting resistance it’s impossible. The spell you need is the Charge Condensation spell. It’s meant to seal positive or negative charge for some time. Watch me.” Alistair cast his spells. Nearly transparent small orbs appeared in the air one by one.

“And when you want a lightning to appear…” Alistair snapped his fingers and a bolt of lightning appeared between two orbs, which disappeared as the result.

“With two orbs, you don’t need to aim. As long as two orbs of opposite charge release their seals, a lighting will appear between them. Naturally, it won’t work if two orbs are too distant to each other. You can also break an orb on an enemy, but that’s less effective, though very handy in a pinch.”

Jack was very grateful. Alistair not only was going to teach him a spell, he also told him his experiences, which should save him dozens of hours of experimenting.

“Lightning is less destructive than fire, so it won’t be very easy to kill a monster with lightning immediately. Actually, in a team the effect of stunning and paralyzing muscles is better. I just need to paralyze a monster and my teammates will do the rest.” Alistair advised.

“Alistair, is it really okay to tell me this? I mean, I’m sure headquarters’ library doesn’t have many spells for a reason.” Jack felt grateful and didn’t want to handicap Alistair, even though it could help him.

“It isn’t what you think.” Alistair lightly replied. “Monsters don’t cast magic, but they could. They don’t know spells, but many has the capability. There isn’t many spells in the library, since the imperial court doesn’t want to give any spells to a hypothetical conqueror. This is the reason you can’t easily find any ruins in the exterior, or they are completely useless. We try to destroy everything useful as we are retreating. Actually, there are people who call themselves adventurers and think that they can find something useful there, especially in the ruins from the first era, but that’s just a wishful thinking.”

“Alistair, you aren’t normally that knowledgeable about history.” Andy pointed out.

“Yeah! That’s suspicious. Tell us what’s going on.” Opal demanded. Meanwhile, Jack felt anxious. ‘I have left my fortress with working spells behind. Some monster can use it as an archeological discovery! Fortunately, spells should crumble in a month or two, while in a year inscriptions would be completely unreadable.’

Alistair sighed. “It’s nothing much. I once wanted to be an adventured myself.”

“What happened?” Adina asked.

“Nothing. Parents told me to forget about it. They were right. Once, a group found many items and a new magical theory from the first era, but this is the only successful discovery ever. Most expeditions don’t even reach their target. Some returned, but they brought some magic items or materials, at best recompensing them their expenditures. Our research never stopped, most spells from the first era are outdated. That successful team managed to find a research about something we haven’t researched yet, an exotic magic. They were extremely lucky.” Alistair concluded.

“Anyway, you can freely ask for spells. I’m sure everyone will teach you if they have time.” Alistair encouraged. Jack asked about his worries. Although Alistair and the rest hadn’t told him to destroy the fortress back then, he wanted to be sure.

“Don’t worry. Those were only low level spells. Most high tier monster know some spells anyway. For example, have you heard about wolf tribes?” Alistair didn’t wait and continued. “High tier wolves are very intelligent. They formed something like a primitive tribal government. They can’t speak, but they have their gestures and maybe even some primitive hieroglyphs. High tiers teach each other simple spells.”

Jack was relived and naturally followed the previous advice.

“Ok, so… Do you have any more spells?”

“I know a 4th tier spell that alters lightning, boosting its paralyzing power, but decreasing overall power. I can’t cast it, but I can teach you, if you want it. I also know the Lighting Avatar spell, but this is a variation of common magic, like kinetic spell. Every element had its own version. The Lighting Avatar would be useless for you.”

“What does it do?” Jack asked.

“Avatar spells change temporary your affinity. For example, the Lightning avatar makes your lightening affinity 99% for some time. You have to have at least 25% affinity for being with to cast the spell.”

“I want to learn anyway. I can always use it as a reference.”

Alistair drew the runes as soon as they stopped for a break, which happened mostly to show spells to Jack in the first place. Soldiers stood on the walls here. “Opal, Andy, do you know more spells?” Jack asked hopefully.

“I only know something like that.” Opal said and started casting. Heat moved and concentrated between Opal’s hands, while frost covered everything around. Opal threw bright point in her hands and it crashed on the ground some distance away. A flash of brightness appeared. Jack felt heat on his face. When he looked at it, soil melted and a small pool of lava remained behind, radiating heat. It was still frosty around. They all moved hundred meters ahead to escape the cold.

“The spell is similar to Alistair’s seal.” Opal explained. Andy protested. “Opal, your spell is simpler. Alistair’s spell is sealing electric charge, yours is only a modified version of kinetic spell meant to hold heat.” Opal shrugged her shoulder. “Anyway, the spell is good to attack monsters with fire mana resistance.” Opal similarly showed him the runes.

Andy also had a spell. “It’s a 4th tier spell, but it’s the spell I want to cast the most. You should know I want to be a ranged mage. This spell is great for fire – earth mage. Anyway, the spell is used to exchange an object’s internal heat with its velocity and vice versa. An object needs to be already moving, however. On the other side, you can completely stop something by changing its velocity to heat. Naturally, there are limits. For example, there is limited heat in any material, so you can’t accelerate without a limit. It’s also easy for an enemy to stop you from using the spell by filling a projectile with conflicting mana.” Andy explained. Jack wasn’t able to cast fire magic on the spot, but he could use the spell in his future fortress.

The team continued their journey back. Jack experimented with his new spells. ‘That seal spell is used on volatile elements, so it has no use for earth or water, but it could be used for light.’ Jack experimented a bit, taking from both new spells and creating a new one. He failed a few times, but he was pretty certain he would succeed, so he didn’t stop.

Jack’s team members were startled when the light around Jack started to disappear and something like a black mist blocking light appeared. It flickered rapidly, creating a mystical sight. In the middle of it, a very bright point appeared. Jack was left with a bright point floating in the air. “I’m going to break the seal.” He said.

“Don’t look!” Andy shouted to the soldiers, which observed Jack.

The spell erupted in the extremely bright spectacle. Andy averted his gaze as well. When he looked back, there was no evidence of the spell on the ground, but half of the soldiers groaned in pain, or outright shouted. Some of them panicked due to loss of vision.

‘Shit. I can’t see anything.’ Jack observed the flash as well. He had his magic, so he wasn’t panicking. He was also sure life mana would do its task.

After a few minutes soldiers recovered partially their vision. Jack was the same, but the world he saw was still too much blue and green.

“Don’t use that spell ever again.” Alistair reprimanded him.

“It’s a good spell, but it’s tricky to use.” Andy said, surprising the rest of the group. Opal still cursed about the spell. She had been too curious to avert her gaze at that moment.

“Yeah. Frankly, I should have suspected that. ” Jack sighed.

Jack thought about shadow magic. The seal spell was only doing anything to volatile elements. The only element that remained unchecked was shadow. Jack knew the kinetic spell and shadow mana producing spell and tested them when he had been in his fortress. The outcome was… strange.

Naturally, Jack had started with shadow mana producing spell. After completing it, Jack was distracted by something, and in the end… he forgot about the runes for a few days, which after he discovered that rune. Jack felt a bit intimidated by that. He cast kinetic spell after that, though it was hard to concentrate on the shadow mana. There was no effect in the sun, however.

Jack felt skeptical about the spell at that moment. Shadow was naturally the lack of light. It was strange to manipulate a shadow directly and he didn’t expect to be able to do that.

Jack wasn’t able to manipulate light. Rather than shadows, a strange dark substance flowed out from the shadow Jack had used the kinetic spell on. Jack experimented a bit, and discovered a few facts. The substance was hard to concentrate on. It dispersed rapidly in the sun, though it could last for a few seconds.

Most importantly, its effect on items were scary. The substance destroyed materials, or maybe ate it. Dirt disappeared after being subjected to the substance. Wood, bones, everything disappeared in the substance. It wasn’t very fast, however. Jack had no idea what was happening, he suspected many things, like teleportation, or a direct annihilation, or a invisibility spell.

After being injured by his light spell, Jack felt reluctant to test the effect of a shadow spell. Also, he wasn’t able to cast it quickly anyway, he would have to create runes on the ground.

Actually, Jack had another encounter with shadow magic. He had literally stepped on a shadow crystal. Jack had found a cave in a vicinity of his fortress. The shadow crystal completely escaped his notice and as the result, he stepped on it. Shadow crystals were the most scarce and precious of elemental crystals. That crystal was currently the most precious object in Jack’s possession.

Jack had thought about commissioning a shadow wand, but was afraid he would forget about the wand. He didn’t know many shadow spells anyway. Currently, the shadow crystal was in Jack’s pack, wrapped in a normal stone.

The team reached the headquarters in the evening. Soldiers built defenses on the interior side, which made Jack angry. ‘Is the situation that bad? They should help farmers.’

They went the Colonel’s office and Alistair gave their report. Jack was able to see the Colonel again after his trial. Jack was a bit disappointed the Colonel didn’t care about him at all and only listened to Alistair, but Jack also thought that was for the best. The colonel was relatively calm about the situation, which also calmed Jack a bit.

“Excuse me. What about people close the frontier? Jack confronter the Colonel.

“We told them to not kill infected, but we can’t do much. Keep the finding a secret for now to prevent unease among the soldiers.” The Colonel didn’t say much, which Jack suspected was his normal interaction with his subordinates.

The team went to their house. Naturally, Jack was about to live with them. The team didn’t get any new orders the next day. They were supposed to take a break. Jack went to his brother. It seemed Bob’s team survived, as he found Bob in his old place.

Three people slept, including Bob. Smell of alcohol filled the room. Jack thought his presence would get them up, but there was no reaction. Jack went to his brother’s bed and shook Bob up.

“Fuck off.” Bob said and turned to the other side. Jack slapped his cheek. Bob angrily shouted and got up.

“Jack!” Jack was taken aback. There wasn’t a relive or joy in Bob’s eyes, rather, he seemed to be scared.

“Long time no see.” Jack hugged his brother despise everything.

“Yeah. Nice to see you.” Bob said without enthusiasm.

“How have you been?” Jack asked, as he let him go.

“Fine, I suppose.” Bob said with the same tone and groaned while grabbing his own head. “Sorry. I’m not in the best state.”

“I can see and smell.” Jack replied. “So? Have you caught something big? What was the occasion to drink? What’s you level?” Jack asked.

Bob smiled bitterly. “It’s nothing big.” He got up and went to drink some water.

“Tell me.” Jack insisted.

Bob sighed and pointed to one of the sleeping boys. “He upgraded one of his professions yesterday.”

Jack frowned. “And?”

“That’s it.”

“Well, I suppose gaining a skill level when it’s already high is a reason to celebrate.” Jack admitted. “Anyway, have you heard about the elementals and infected?”

Bob shrugged. “Yeah. I’m not deaf.”

Jack nodded. “The situation is quite bad. Have you sent anything to our parents? They could use a magic tool with a life ward.”

“No. I didn’t send them anything. I mean, is it really that bad? I thought the frontier is doing its job.”

“Not really.” Jack sighed. He wasn’t supposed to mention specifics.

“There are infected in the interior.” He told his brother regardless.

“That’s bad.” Bob said without emotion and drank more water.

“By the way, where are your teammates?” Jack asked since he couldn’t find two others. ‘They should also have a hangover.’

“I don’t know.”

“What? How can you don’t know? Did they go missing in the exterior?”

“No.” Bob seemed annoyed. “They should be somewhere in the headquarters, I just don’t know where exactly.” Bob groaned. “My head.”

There was something wrong with this situation. Jack looked over. His old armor lied close to someone’s bed. Jack had given the armor to Bob at first, but his brother had complained in a letter that he wasn’t going to always wear Jack’s hand me down, even in the military. Jack had many 4th tier materials so he had commissioned another armor for Bob, which lay close to Bob’s bed.

Someone groaned and slowly got up. “We need to stop drinking like that.” He said.

Jack frowned. “How much do you drink?”

“Not that much.” Bob said defensively, but his teammate didn’t have a clear mind.

“Come on! If that wasn’t much I have no idea how can you increase our drinking time. We are already drinking every day.”

“Bob.” Jack started.

“Shut up.” He said decisively.

Jack frowned. “I’m somehow responsible…”

“You heard me. Fuck. Off.”

“Where are the wands I have sent you?” Jack asked with anger.

Bob shrugged. “He sold them to pay his debts and spent the rest on alcohol.” Bob’s teammate was quite helpful.

“Shut up, you idiot.”

“Where are your teammates?” Jack asked Bob’s teammate.

“Not telling you.”

Jack sighed and took around hundred lesser coins. It wasn’t that much for him. “Answer my questions and you can have the money.”

“They are probably training.”

“You traitor!” Bob was enraged.

“We are not hunting! I need money, and I don’t have an older brother to solve this problem for me. Let’s just share him!” Jack was impressed by how shameless that guy was.

“Why are you not hunting?” Jack asked the next question. A girl, the last person still sleeping in this room, woke up with a groan. She was completely naked.

“What’s happening?” She asked, still half dreaming.

“Bob’s brother came to gift us money.” The previous boy replied.

“Nice! Can you gave me too?” She asked while seductively walking towards Jack. Unfortunately, she didn’t recover and tripped, hitting the ground with her head. Jack massaged his eyes. “My previous question.”

The boy frowned. “We don’t want to die. The exterior means death.”

“You will get demoted to soldiers.”

“Yeah. The plan is to enjoy ourselves before that.”

Jack sighed. “I see.” He gave the money to the boy and left the house without any more words. He didn’t know what to say. He was furious. His brother was wasting everything. He left parents on their own. ‘I was at least leveling,’ he consoled himself. Moreover, Jack planned to send something soon.