Once the decision to pursue the unusual footprints was made, the group rapidly started packing up the camp. The group left a few notes, written in some sort of military code, placed in semi-hidden spots throughout the place they had camped so that if the reinforcements from Metsel reached the camp before they returned, they would know what direction to go in order to meet up with the group.

The messages themselves were liberally coated in rainbow mana, making Alice wonder how exactly the coded messaged worked. Languages were exceptionally easy to learn due to the influence of the System and this world’s language skills, so there must be something backing up the coded messages to make it hard for others to just… learn whatever it said after a few days of trial and error. She found herself vaguely curious about how the Perks for the coded messages actually worked, but eventually put the question aside. She had more pressing concerns.

Alice took a final look at the group of [Guards] and Mages, trying to harden her resolve for the potential fight to come. She had only been in large-scale combat a few times in this world, and now that the moment was approaching again, Alice was having a hard time calming down the jitters in her body. She took a few deep breaths to steady her nerves. Her brain, fully set on throwing out whatever distraction she could think of, suddenly latched on to another idea.

Alice suddenly remembered that Ethan had hired a [Hidden Guard] for her as part of the deal she had made with him that led to her becoming Ethan’s apprentice. Was he still around? Alice wasn’t really sure whether he would be or not; after all, Alice was currently with Ethan himself, and having an Immortal who was mostly oriented towards combat was a pretty strong guarantee for her safety. However, Alice kind of hoped the [Hidden Guard] was still nearby, and Alice just hadn’t noticed them somehow. That would mean their group had at least one more hidden combatant, which would make her feel marginally safer.

As the group packed up the camp, Alice made her way to Ethan, and quickly pulled him aside. Ethan quickly tossed out his anti-eavesdropping Perk.

“Ethan. Is my [Hidden Guard] still around?”

Ethan gave her a mildly surprised look, as if wondering why Alice had suddenly brought this up.

“Yes, he’s mixed into the group of [Guards]. I thought there was some chance that we would run into an attack from the Society on this excursion, although I didn’t think we would be potentially attacking a base like this. If I had realized we might be attacking a Society base, I would have brought more [Soldiers],” said Ethan drily. “Let this be a lesson to you for when you become an Immortal; even Immortals can make miscalculations. So never let your guard down, or you might not live to regret it. I got a little overconfident this time.” Ethan seemed more exasperated than truly worried, but after a few moments, he heaved out an exasperated sigh.

“Anyway, I digress. Your [Hidden Guard] is still nearby, just in case we get into a confrontation with some more powerful members of the Society. You’re the apprentice with the best chance of reaching Immortality I’ve had in the past hundred years, and you’re mostly research oriented so there’s no need to focus on getting you good combat Achievements. Originally, I thought that you might be exposed to serious danger while I was fighting and distracted. I’m glad I insisted he come along. Why do you ask?”

Alice winced. “I was hoping I hadn’t seen him yet. Having an extra high level [Hidden Guard] along with us would make the fight feel less intimidating.”

Ethan chuckled. “I’ve learned for this kind of thing that no matter how many layers of security you bring with you, pre-battle jitters will never quite leave you.”

“I suppose. It’s still unfortunate we’re only working with 20 [Guards] and 5 Mages, though.”

Ethan simply gave Alice a sage nod. “This is a little risky, yes. So don’t get complacent or cocky. You have a [Hidden Guard] watching out for you, but he’s only level 80 or so, and he’s not a mage. Keep your own safety in mind first and foremost, and remember that your final and best line of defense against death is your own judgement and abilities. Trust in them if something seems off. Okay?”

“Thank you for telling me,” said Alice, doing her best to internalize Ethan’s words.

After that, Ethan dismissed whatever Perk he was using to prevent eavesdropping. Alice started wondering if it was worth picking up a Perk for lie detection and a Perk for preventing eavesdropping on her own. While they weren’t Perks that most people bothered picking up in their day to day lives, given the kind of life Alice was currently leading, it seemed that she often had use for both kinds of Perks. Perhaps at some point in the future she should pick them up?

[Scholar] seemed reasonably likely to have access to such Perks, since the class had some focus on the dissemination and proliferation of information, both from and to the user.

While Alice mulled over future Perks she might want, she returned to the camp, and finished packing up her tent, and stuffed it into her storage Perk.

Then, the group set off, following the footprints the perceptive [Guard] had found.

* * *

It took the group five hours to follow the footprints back to their source. A large part of the reason it took so long was that the group needed to send out [Guards] with more scouting-oriented Perks and wait for them to return every so often. Ethan was more worried about walking into a trap than he was about losing the potential lead. Which, Alice supposed, was Ethan taking his own advice about being cautious instead of reckless. Even though he didn’t seem too worried that the group would get ambushed by a larger and stronger force, he was still taking every reasonable precaution he could to make sure the group stayed safe.

Despite the consistent delays and slow travel pace, the group still eventually caught up to the source of the footprints. However, the group didn’t run into the multilayered concealment enchantment and hidden base of sociopathic Mages Alice had been expecting.

Instead, Alice saw a normal-looking village.

A normal-looking village that wasn’t marked on any map Alice knew of. Alice took a quick look at the [Guards] and other Mages, just to see if they had reacted to the village, and they seemed just as confused as she was.

At first glance, the residents of the village appeared to be simple [Villagers]. There were around sixty people turning wood into construction materials, farming, weaving, and doing things normal [Villagers] would do. The crop fields of the village appeared to be pretty normal, as far as Alice could see, and the clothes were nothing special.

Which was the entire problem. The ‘villagers’ were way too high level. Normal villagers would usually sit somewhere between level 40 and 60, with most people sitting near the middle of that range. After all, getting past level 50 without some good Achievements was quite difficult, and people occasionally changed Classes partway through life as they realized their Class didn’t fit them or they needed to change careers.

The camp of ‘villagers’ in front of them probably had an average level of 70. Which was about ten levels higher, on average, than the [Guards] Ethan had brought with them.

What kind of village was made of level 70’s? That was completely ridiculous. Not to mention, past level 50 Perks started getting wild. They did all sorts of bizarre and unusual things that benefitted one’s Class, depending on what Perks were combined. However, all of them made people much, much better at what they did.

Then, Alice frowned as she squinted at the villagers. She realized she was incorrect about something.

These people were definitely higher level than average: they were probably around level 60 or so. However, there was something else that was weird about the mana in their bodies.

They were flooded with unusual kinds of mana. For example, the ones farming looked like they had a [Farmer] mana infestation, and the ones hunting looked like they had a [Hunter] mana infestation. It was very light, but it… vaguely reminded her of Boris. The way he was infested with [Farmer] mana, and it had caused him to be obsessed with farming.

Alice frowned. Even taking into account their strange mana infestations, there was something very weird about this village.

Why did the crops and clothes of this village look so normal? If these people were level 60 [Farmers], the crops should have been doing something miraculous. The crops of this village instead looked almost like crops from Earth. Which made no sense at all, given how big of an influence Perks played on this world’s agriculture. Even without the strange mana infestations in their bodies, this village was incredibly weird.

None of the ‘villagers’ were Mages, either. Which implied that they weren’t members of the Society. Alice frowned. Was this some sort of strange experimental village from the Society of Starry Eyes? She could see them doing something weird to villagers and then setting up some sort of ‘testing ground.’ But if this village was an experiment site for the Society, why weren’t there any Mages nearby? If the villagers were being used as test subjects and nobody was guarding them, the villagers should flee the area.

The more Alice thought about it, the less sense the situation made. What in the world was happening?

Alice shook her head, trying to sort out her thoughts. In any case, the village needed to be investigated more thoroughly. Something was clearly wrong here. In fact, a lot of things were wrong here.

Ethan leaned closer to Alice and tossed out his eavesdropping Perk.

“What do their magic seeds look like? Are there any we need to be wary of? How precise is your ability to detect magic seeds in the first place?”

Alice swallowed her uneasiness. “I don’t see any magic seeds.”

“None?”

“None. And this village is even weirder.” Alice quickly explained all of the oddities she had noticed with the village.

Ethan paused, seeming just as confused by Alice’s statements as Alice felt. He fell into thought, giving the village a more wary and appraising look. “Are there any ways your ability to detect magic seeds could be fooled?”

Alice tried to think about what her Perk was doing on a more fundamental level.

“If they have some sort of stealth Perk that makes me subconsciously overlook their magic seeds, that might or might not be able to fool me. But it would probably need to be pretty specific, which seems awfully strange of a Perk choice unless they know exactly how my Achievements and Perks work. I find it unlikely, but not impossible. A specialized piece of enchanted equipment might also be able to do the same thing,” said Alice. “I’m not really sure if it would work, but maybe if they have a specific enough counter. That being said, the idea that this entire village has people with perks or equipment specifically targeting my abilities seems kind of ridiculous.”

Ethan grimaced. “You would be surprised. I hear that the entire Sigmusi Colonia’s army is required to take a specific Perk around level 10 or 15, specifically to screw with Allira’s sound-illusion Perk. Because if they don’t take that Perk, anytime Allira showed up to a battlefield they end up stuck in an illusion while the Illvarian troops blast them down, and if they cover their ears to block her singing, their hands are tied up and they can’t hear their commander’s orders. This is the real power of an Immortal; we never decisively swing an entire war in our favor, but every single Immortal can create incredibly annoying logistical issues that an army HAS to solve. The Sigmusi Colonia, and some of our eastern neighbors, have taken similar countermeasures against some of my father’s more offensively oriented Perks, and even some of MY Perks that are more directly focused on messing with enemies.” Ethan shrugged. “Though, the bright side of mostly being a kinetic and organic mage is that there’s not much they can do against my best abilities. A defensive perk or piece of equipment doesn’t help much if I just throw boulders at everyone and tear them to pieces with my bare hands.” Ethan sighed. “But you’re right. This village is very odd. Even I don’t know quite what to make of it.”

Alice thought over Ethan’s description of the Sigmusi Colonia taking specific countermeasures against Allira. “Am I well known enough that the Society would start actively researching and countering my Perks like this?” asked Alice, finding the idea more than slightly ridiculous.

“Well, you have clashed with them… what is it, three times now?”

Alice realized that Ethan was right. She had actually fought directly with the Society a surprising number of times now. She had stopped them from kidnapping Boris, tried (and failed) to stop them from kidnapping Samantha, and then had successfully rescued Samantha from a Society base along with Ethan’s army. Not to mention, it was becoming more and more well known that Ethan had taken another apprentice. When Alice thought about it like that, it made perfect sense that the Society was starting to pay attention to her. Even if she wasn’t anywhere near the most important person in the capital, she wasn’t just a random nobody anymore. Which was a strange realization.

She wasn’t quite sure how they could have figured out how her Perks and Achievements worked and taken countermeasures against her, but… if they had read her paper that was published in her magic academy, perhaps they had inferred some of how her perception worked, and then taken countermeasures?

It seemed a bit far-fetched to Alice, but then again, Perks could accomplish truly ridiculous things if they were specialized enough. She wasn’t willing to completely rule out the idea, at least.

Alice started scanning the area even more carefully, trying to figure out if there was some sort of deliberate trickery happening in the village. Instead, she noticed yet another oddity. “There’s no broken mana nearby,” said Alice, after another few moments of observation. The more she looked at the village, the weirder it got. It clearly wasn’t normal, since the villager levels made no sense, but it also didn’t have any telltale signs of being a Mage base either.

Ethan also frowned. “Indeed, that makes it seem even less likely this is a Society base of some sort. Even if they’re routinely cleaning up the broken mana nearby, we should still see a little bit hanging around as long as they aren’t literally cleaning it every second of the day.”

He turned towards the two [Guards] with more scouting-related Perks while dropping his eavesdropping Perk again.

“Do you detect anything unusual about this clearing? For example, an underground facility, or another set of people nearby?”

The [Guards] started scanning the area once more, and Alice saw rainbow mana flood their eyes for a moment, before they started to look confused.

“Nothing, Honored Immortal,” said one of the [Guards], looking completely bewildered. “How about you?” he asked, turning to the other [Guard].

“No. I don’t see a single thing,” he said. “Perhaps our Perks aren’t good enough, or our [Perception] isn’t high enough? After all, we aren’t really [Scouts]. We just have a few Perks that lean in that direction.”

“Hmm…” said Ethan, frowning. He turned back towards Alice, and his anti-eavesdropping Perk reappeared.

“What about levels? You mentioned they have unusual mana in their bodies, but what about their potential combat ability? How dangerous would this situation be if it blows up in our face?”

“Their levels are pretty high for random villagers. Even though they’re doing a bunch of things villagers would logically do… there’s no way there’s a random village filled with purely level 60’s laying around in Illvaria. That’s completely ridiculous. Something is wrong here.” Alice frowned, taking an even closer look at the village. “Not to mention, there are no children in this village. Which I just noticed.”

Ethan carefully observed the village again, as if he was trying to pry into the secrets of the village with his eyes, and sighed.

“I really do wish I had brought a few more dedicated [Scouts] with us,” he said, frowning.

Then, he gestured towards one of the nearby ‘villagers,’ who was a bit more isolated from the rest of the group, and sighed.

“We’ll grab one person and question them under some decent lie-detection Perks to see if we can figure out what’s happening here. If they aren’t hostile to us, and aren’t related to the Society, we’ll ignore the area, as long as it isn’t a threat or something illegal. But this village seriously strikes me as being off,” said Ethan, shaking his head. “Be ready for a fight to break out.”

“As you wish, Honored Immortal,” said one of the higher level [Guards]. Everyone started readying their weapons and Perks, although they didn’t point them at the villagers yet. It wouldn’t do to seem too hostile, in case the villagers weren’t actually enemies.

Then, two of the [Guards] began making their way towards the nearby villager in question. One of them, who looked a little nervous, reached for a small dagger, nearly hidden behind his belt, and then pulled it out.

Alice didn’t know what alerted the fake villager. One moment, the two [Guards] were creeping towards the ‘villager,’ intent on questioning him and potentially letting him go. The next moment, without a single indication of something going wrong, the fake villager whirled towards the [Guards].

The villager’s shifty eyes darted towards the [Guards], then spun towards the rest of their group. His eyes locked on to Ethan for a moment, and Alice saw panic flash through the man’s face.

“@#*$ @#%*#$ @#@@[email protected]#@!$ %#@#$#!” He yelled, in a language Alice didn’t recognize.

Through training, you have increased a skill!

Verinthian Language Proficiency 0 -> 1

The villagers gave the group stunned looks, as if they hadn’t noticed the [Soldiers] and the Immortal creeping up on them. Then, they looked at each other, and Alice swore that they were even more surprised to see each other farming in the village. The expression of pure confusion morphed into terror as they looked more closely at Ethan.

“Immortal! @#$ ^@#$# @#%**” yelled one of the ‘villagers.’

And then, all hell broke loose.

The fake villagers took one look in their direction, and Alice saw bursts of rainbow mana slide into their eyes. Then, almost without exception, bursts of rainbow mana surrounded their bodies and… the ground?

Alice realized that her original assumption was correct. These people weren’t mages at all.

The fake villagers activated a bunch of Perks to boost their speed as they fled the clearing, and at the same time, bursts of smoke, haze, and other vision-blocking Perks suddenly sprang into existence in the clearing.

Some of the splotches of rainbow mana ran to the edge of the clearing, and then stopped for some reason, while other fake villagers seemed to start speeding up.

Then Alice saw dozens of objects suddenly rip through the air towards the fleeing ‘villagers,’ and realized Ethan had taken action. Forty magic tendrils were quickly ripping into Ethan’s surroundings, plucking anything that seemed weapon-like and hurling it at their enemies.

Alice realized now wasn’t the time to sit around gaping, and joined the fight. She grabbed tree branches, clods of dirt, and pebbles, and hurled them as hard as she could at the fleeing fake villagers. She did her best to aim for legs, since those could be regenerated, but she saw one pebble rip through a man’s lower body, nearly ripping apart his spine as he tried to flee.

Another two villagers, both female this time, dropped to the ground as Alice’s missiles crushed their knees, disabling their movement. However, the fake villagers continued trying to crawl away.

Unlike Alice, Ethan had no problems seeing through the haze of smoke, and also had no problems hitting fleeing fake villagers exactly where he wanted to hit them. Several of the strange villagers lost legs or parts of their stomach, but he didn’t come anywhere near as close to accidentally killing a fleeing fake villager as Alice did.

Elder Sujia seemed to only have a rough idea where the fleeing villagers were, but that didn’t stop her from attacking. However, her attacks lacked the precision a [Kinetic Mage] needed in order to make their attacks effective. She accidentally killed two of the fake villagers, and missed several of the other ones, although she still disabled a few pretty quickly as well.

However, the fake villagers weren’t completely on the receiving end of the group’s attacks. Once it started to become clear that escaping would be nearly impossible as long as Alice, Sujia, and Ethan were bringing down escaping villagers, the fake villagers pulled out some completely ordinary looking pebbles. Alice was confused, right up until the six threw the pebbles at Alice.

And, just like if they were thrown by a [Kinetic Mage], the pebbles suddenly picked up ridiculous amounts of velocity in midair as rainbow mana burst out from the rocky missiles. They were moving at speeds well beyond what was needed to kill a regular human being.

The six pebbles sailed through the air, ripping straight towards Alice.

Why target me? She wondered, swearing to herself as {Adrenaline Rush} activated.

Taking advantage of the drastically slowed down time, Alice quickly reached out with her kinetic tendrils, making contact with all six of the pebbles. Three were hit with {Reflection}, immediately returning the ridiculously fast pebbles towards the throwers. The other three took a bit longer to seize control of, but Alice quickly stopped them in their tracks, before flinging them back at the attacking villagers.

Alice followed the strange pebbles up with a volley of tree branches and stones, to make sure the people who had thrown the dangerous pebbles at her didn’t have any working limbs to threaten her with.

Four of the fake villagers who had been throwing things at her went down, while the other two managed to dodge out of the way using an unidentified Perk.

Alice looked around, and saw that Ethan had used some sort of Perk that gave him access to another hundred magic tendrils, a truly ridiculous number that pushed his total tendrils up to one hundred and forty. A couple magic tendrils were boosting his body, allowing him to quickly charge through the smoke and haze and hunt down any fake villagers who were trying to flee. He seemed especially enraged by the ones that had tried to shoot down Alice, and a few moments after Alice had downed some of her attackers, a spray of pebble fragments killed the entire group. Then, Ethan quickly started using projectiles to surgically remove people’s legs, stopping their attempts at flight.

The smoke and haze Perks started to clear up, and Alice finally figured out why some of the people had stopped fleeing.

Standing in the middle of the woods, completely disguised from her regular eyesight, were some utterly and completely inconspicuous trees. If she hadn’t been able to see the rainbow-colored blobs of mana surrounding each tree, or the class seeds inside of each tree, she would have probably overlooked them completely.

Some kind of disguise-related Perk? Alice finally had a proper idea who the fake villagers were.

There weren’t many Classes that gave access to weird disguises, and the ability to suddenly and nearly instantly disguise oneself as a tree, combined with the strange village and surrounding context, made Alice guess that the fake villagers were spies of some sort.

Alice quickly pointed out the ‘trees’ that hadn’t been taken down by anyone yet, and used a few more sprays of projectiles to down any of the fake trees that tried to make a break for it. A few moments later, the [Spies] had all been captured or killed.

The threat seemed to be dealt with. Alice took a look at the prisoners they had captured, and sighed.

It was time figure out who the heck these people were.

Hopefully.