“So who are these guys?” asked one of the [Guards], looking over the prisoners with curious eyes.

Alice frowned, before looking at Ethan to see if he had answers. It was increasingly obvious that the people they had found weren’t from the Society. But the major oddities in the village, the strange [Farmer] mana clinging to their bodies that reminded her of Boris, and the random village of level 60’s in the middle of the country… all of these made Alice feel confused as she tried to figure out what in the world was going on.

At the very least, the group had benefitted from the fact that this wasn’t a base of Society Mages. If it had been ruled by the Society, the [Guards] and Mages of Illvaria might have struggled to win the battle against a group of Mages. However, the situation was still incredibly strange, and Alice wasn’t sure what to make of everything. Hopefully Ethan could figure something out.

Ethan started inspecting the prisoners more carefully, eyeing them as his eyes occasionally flashed with rainbow mana.

However, before Ethan was even halfway through his inspection, Alice saw one of the prisoners start glowing with rainbow mana.

Huh? Alice frowned, and immediately reached for her enchanted items and her Perks.

“He’s activating some kind of Perk,” she called out, just in case Ethan was caught unprepared.

The prisoner’s skin started turning green. For a moment, Alice thought that the man was just using some sort of green-colored mana, before she realized that the man’s skin was actually turning green.

Then, the man exploded like an overripe tomato caught in a hydraulic press, spattering all over the surroundings in a horrific mess of green and red liquid.

Alice gasped in shock, barely managing to activate {Speed Experimentation} in time to avoid getting caught up in the disgusting mess of oddly colored liquids. Which was exceptionally lucky, since she had already used {Adrenaline Rush} earlier in the fight.

She tried for a brief moment to deflect the red and green… remains back towards the corpse of the man who had self-destructed, but quickly realized she didn’t have enough magic tendrils. Before she could proceed any further, her [Hidden Guard] reached out, grabbed her by the wrist, and dragged her out of the way at a speed Alice could barely process, even with the 50% speed boost from her Perk.

Ethan, who reacted even more quickly than Alice, flung himself out of the way of the explosion by controlling his clothes, and also dragged all of the nearby [Guards] out of the way using their armor. Alice sucked in an uneasy breath, shivering as she looked at the ruined corpse of the person, who may or may not be a [Spy] or might be something else entirely. {Foraging} informed her in no uncertain terms that the man’s blood was now incredibly poisonous, and Alice was glad that nobody had touched the green and red blood spattered everywhere.

But that thankfulness turned into fear when Alice realized the man wasn’t alone. Another next prisoner started glowing with rainbow mana. Alice nearly lost control of her mana tendrils for a moment, but the time given to her by {Speed Experimentation} gave her extra time to recover. She activated {The Science of Mana Deprivation}, and then created a manaless field inside of the man’s body, trying to prevent him from blowing himself up with his Perk.

The moment Alice’s mana tendril entered his body, she felt like she had slammed her mana tendril into a brick wall. The man’s body desperately resisted Alice’s attempts to interfere with the mana inside of his body. However, despite the massive amount of resistance she was trying to push through, Alice still managed to slow down the rainbow mana. She quickly threw the rest of her mana tendrils into the task of keeping the fake villager alive, and with some struggle, she managed to keep him from blowing himself up.

The man’s skin, which had started to turn a sickly shade of green, started returning to a normal color palette as the man’s eyes widened in shock. He thrashed and struggled for a moment, and Alice saw the [Hunter] mana infestation in his body start to flash with its own strange colors, and then the man flopped over like a dead fish. Alice noticed another burst of rainbow mana try to appear around his wrists, but just like his other Perk, it was shut down by Alice’s Perk. And since the [Spy]’s movement was restricted, and he couldn’t see where Alice’s mana tendrils were, his attempts to escape failed. Alice heaved a sigh of relief.

And then realized that all of the prisoners were now glowing with rainbow mana. Some of them had their strange mana infestations light up, while some others seemed to only be activating Perks.

Alice realized that she couldn’t stop all of the prisoners from dying. She quickly maneuvered the man she had kept alive out of the way, tossing him out of the line of fire from the other exploding prisoners as she maneuvered both of them behind a tree. Her [Hidden Guard] moved along with her. Seeing Alice flee, Ethan and Sujia seemed to realize what was about to happen, and quickly moved the other [Guards] and [Organic Mages] out of the way before the other prisoners finished blowing themselves up.

Waves of sickening popping sounds resounded through the area, before silence returned. Alice felt nauseous. She peeked out from behind the tree she was hiding behind, and saw a giant mess of red and green. The corpses on the ground were nearly impossible to identify: if Alice hadn’t seen them seconds ago, she wouldn’t have even been able to tell if the corpses on the ground were human or not.

Alice shuddered in horror for a moment, looking at the ruined and mangled corpses of the other prisoners, who had destroyed themselves, and then spent a few minutes calming down her breathing.

Ethan looked at Alice’s magic tendrils, which had clearly played a role in keeping the final prisoner alive, and gave Alice a look of unabashed curiosity. Unlike Alice, he didn’t seem affected by the grotesque scenery.

“I didn’t know you could do that,” he said, giving Alice a more relaxed grin, before his face warped into one of concern. “Well done. Did you get hit by anything? You look pale,” he said, glaring at Alice’s [Hidden Guard] for a moment.

Alice shook her head, and did her best to give Ethan a shaky grin. “Just… very nausea-inducing,” said Alice, grimacing as she tried not to look at the corpses.

“Ah. Fair enough,” said Ethan, giving the [Hidden Guard] a sheepish grin. The [Hidden Guard] simply gave Ethan a nod and then went back to the scanning their surroundings.

Once Alice’s breathing was back under control, she scanned her System notifications to take her mind off of the… mess less than fifty meters away from her.

You have leveled up!

Explorer of Magic 73 -> 74, Scientist 55 -> 56

“I didn’t manage to prevent the others from killing themselves, but I managed to keep this one alive,” said Alice. “I don’t know for sure what’s happening with these people, but I hope you can figure it out.”

“I’ll do my best,” said Ethan, giving her a nod. “I know a good [Psychiatrist] who can try to extract some details from him, and see what in the world is going on with this village. Apart from that, I’ll have some [Guards] search the area, although I’m not going to let you look over the things we find until a more specialized set of investigators looks everything over. Just in case something is poisoned or dangerous.

“But you can feel good about yourself. Even if this must be a pretty stressful situation for you, you managed to keep a prisoner alive, didn’t get hurt, and even tried to keep others safe. Good job, apprentice. Your levels are getting higher by the day, and your reactions are excellent even when facing unfamiliar situations.”

Ethan gave her a satisfied nod, and then dragged the remaining prisoner over to him, ensuring that he wouldn’t harm Alice even if he managed to self-destruct. Then, he gave the [Guards] a quick scan. “Did anyone get touched by any of the green liquid that came out of their bodies when they self-destructed?” He asked.

The [Guards] started giving themselves careful examinations, one after another, before shaking their heads.

“Nobody got hit, Honored Immortal,” said one of the [Guards].

“Good. If anyone starts to feel strange, or notices anything out of place within their own body, let me know immediately so that I or one of the [Organic Mages] can look you over. I don’t want anyone dying today if I can help it.”

After that, Ethan turned towards Alice, and Alice stifled a groan. She was starting to get very familiar with the expression on Ethan’s face, and knew that this was about to turn into a test.

“Now that things seem safe, question time. Who do you think these people are?”

Alice resisted the urge to sigh. “I honestly don’t know. There’s way too much that makes no sense here. Most likely, I imagine they’re [Spies]. But I have no idea why they set up a village here, or why the person who supposedly investigated our camp didn’t tell everyone to pack up and leave once they noticed our camp. There are several things that just don’t make sense here. But I did notice that several of them disguised themselves as trees through the use of some Perk, and they seem to have committed suicide once we discovered them.” said Alice with a shrug. “Or they were killed from afar by someone else’s Perk, or the weird mana in their bodies killed them. I don’t know what exactly caused them to explode. I got a language skill for the Verinthian Language during the fight, so I imagine they’re from whatever country or region speaks Verinthian? Maybe that information is useful somehow, but I have no clue what to make of everything.”

Ethan nodded. “Honestly, this situation is very strange. Being able to admit you don’t know something is also an important skill for an Immortal.” He frowned. “Though, it’s also best if you make sure it only happens with other people who are in control of making decisions. Appearing uncertain around the rank and file [Soldiers] and [Guards] is important. Make sure to keep that in mind in the future.”

Alice nodded.

Ethan sighed. “We’ll see what we can figure out. They could be [Spies]: Several of their actions and Perks seem to line up with that theory. But there are just too many unusual aspects of this situation. I do know that I want to get us out of here before something bad happens.” Ethan frowned. “I also do want to point out that language skills usually don’t mean much. Languages are very easy to learn with the help of the System, after all.”

Alice frowned. “I suppose. So the language skill is a red herring?”

Ethan shrugged. “Who knows? That’s what investigations are for.”

Alice sighed, wondering what all of this meant. The strange mana infestations, the weird behavior of the villagers, the potential fact that they were [Spies] and the possibility that they were something else entirely…

She just wasn’t sure what to make of this.

However, Ethan seemed to be in a hurry now. The [Guards] quickly raided the houses of the fake villagers, grabbing whatever they could, before elder Sujia stuffed them all into her storage Perk. Then, the group hurried away from the strange village.

* * *

The group began making their way back to Metsel soon afterwards. Since the camp of [Spies] wasn’t related to the Society, and the group hadn’t spotted any other obvious leads on the missing villagers, they looped back to the village, where the [Guards] with specialized investigation Perks had finally arrived. According to them, the [Villagers] had literally vanished into thin air.

Alice was pretty sure this meant the villagers had teleported to Earth, and Ethan seemed to share her opinion, even if he wasn’t discarding other possibilities yet. She couldn’t help but feel a little amused by the idea of a bunch of fantasy-land [Villagers] with pseudo-magical powers suddenly getting plopped onto Earth, although the idea was as concerning as it was amusing. However, she did find a surprising upside in the idea of a bunch of Illvarians showing up on Earth as well. They could hint to Alice’s parents that she might still be alive and well.

She had always worried that her parents would spend months or years wondering if she had died or been kidnapped or something, and since Alice had no way to contact her family, she had known that they would simply have to live with their questions unless she found a way to return to Earth or send a message home. However, with a bunch of people with Classes and magic suddenly showing up, it might not be too hard for her parents to make the connection between this world and Alice’s disappearance. Alice felt that she was probably grasping at straws, but she couldn’t help but hope that her parents would realize that Alice was probably fine if they saw the Illvarian villagers show up on Earth.

Assuming they didn’t all die of broken mana baptisms from their accidental trip to another planet, of course.

Alice felt a strange mixture of hope and fear at her thoughts as they returned to Ethan’s manor. Ethan himself didn’t directly return as the group dispersed in Metsel, since he first placed the prisoner somewhere else, and then left to follow up on the investigation of the missing villagers. Since Alice wasn’t directly involved in questioning the prisoner, and was exhausted after the journey, she quickly fell asleep.

* * *

The next few days passed in a blur. Alice didn’t have anything to do with the questioning of the [Spy], and nothing new had been discovered concerning the missing villagers, she spent her time attending classes and waiting for news. Alice did start training up her riding skills, because she didn’t want to get caught up in another awkward situation where elder Sujia needed to help her ride a horse. Ethan quickly found a cavalry instructor to help Alice learn to ride, and {Riding} reached level 15 by the time Saturday came. After that, Alice took a day off to play board games with her friends.

When Alice returned, and was preparing to finally try forming a class seed in a magic seed slot, Ethan interrupted her by knocking on her door.

“I have a few things to discuss with you,” said Ethan, grinning at her after Alice popped open the door. “First of all, you finally have an official license to form a dimensional seed and study it. I know you have a lot of other things you’re also focusing on, so don’t feel like you need to form it immediately. However, you should still put this near the top of your priority list. After all, Illvaria seems to be facing a crisis related to dimensional mana now, and while a wave of dimensional licenses is probably going to be issued within the next month, you have a lot of excellent Perks and Achievements that make studying this kind of information easier for you. If you figure out how to prevent giant cracks in reality from spewing out broken mana everywhere and killing innocent people, that would really be quite helpful. I myself am going to be resuming some of my research into dimensional mana, which I largely abandoned a few centuries ago. You’re welcome to join me whenever you have time, and I would really appreciate your help.”

Alice nodded. “I’m more than happy to study dimensional mana on my own, or with you. It’s my only chance to return home someday, and while I do still want to spend some time focusing on other research projects as well, I absolutely intend to make time for it now that I can finally study it without getting chased down by the [Guards]. Even though I’m starting to feel like I belong to this world as well… at the absolute minimum, I want my parents to know that I’m safe, and I want to be able to see them from time to time.” Alice still ultimately wanted to return home, but with how many people and how many things she would be leaving behind in this world, she wasn’t entirely certain that she wanted to stay on Earth forever, either.

Ethan gave Alice a strangely hopeful look for a moment. “I’ll be honest. I hope you stay. I’ve been trying for so long to get someone to reach Immortality. It would be a huge shame if you reached Immortality, and then left Illvaria forever.” He sighed. “But if you do, I would understand. After all, this isn’t your world to begin with. But at least think about it, all right?”

Alice nodded. She would think about it, and make a decision if it actually became relevant. Since she had no way to travel back to Earth right now, it was currently theoretical, but she felt that she could find a way back home if she tried hard enough. She just needed to learn more.

“What are the other things you mentioned bringing?”

“Two other things. First, an update on the fake villager we captured.”

“Oh? Are they from Verinthia?” Alice asked, curious.

“We don’t know. But we’re pretty sure he has, at the very least, the [Spy] class. He also seems to speak the Sigumusi language fluently, and babbles to himself in that language quite often,” said Ethan, frowning. “He also seems to be… not in his right mind. He takes very strange actions frequently, miming controlling a bow and shooting at invisible prey. His actions confuse the [Psychologist] greatly, since the [Psychologist] believes that he shouldn’t be crazy, and yet he’s acting very oddly. The stuff we took from the village is still being investigated, but we’ve found some half-made maps of our country. But all of the writing on the maps is at least a week old. The fake villagers seem to have been making the maps, before they just… stopped for some reason.” Ethan’s frown deepened. “The situation is unusual, so some fairly high level [Investigators] are being escorted to the village with large groups of [Guards] to see if they can make sense of everything. But we will need more time to make sense of everything.”

Alice sighed. Her head hurt when she thought about the unusual village. Ethan, seeing Alice’s frustration, moved on to the final topic.

“That brings me to the final topic I wanted to discuss. As I’ve mentioned a few times before, you are possibly the most promising potential Immortal I’ve had the joy of teaching in the past few centuries. That also means that I want you to learn a little bit about the political side of being an Immortal, and how to create and manage your own network of resources, contacts, and people. You don’t have to go crazy with it, but you should know how to at least play the political game well enough that it doesn’t come back to bite you. Most Immortals keep tabs on the most important political figures from one decade to the next so that we can either stick our noses into Illvarian politics, or avoid them like the plague. But whether you choose to meddle in politics or steer clear of them, you still need an information network, and it’s much easier to learn how to manage an information network if I start teaching you earlier. Not to mention, there are some people I want you to meet who can help you acquire some resources related to research which, frankly, I don’t have access to on my own. I can leverage my social network to acquire them for you, but if you get to know them yourself, it’ll be less difficult to get things for you in the future. Such as your dimensional license.”

“Which means?” Asked Alice, who was getting an increasingly bad feeling in the pit of her stomach.

“There is a tea party being held by the second Princess next week. She has invited every Immortal in Illvaria, and while most will decline, my mother is attending, as are a few of the people I want to introduce you to. It’s a good place to get some perspective on how the political game works without getting thrown into the deep end. I want you to attend it with me. You need to learn these skills sooner or later, and this seems like a good time to guide you through some of the basics and introduce you to some people.”

Alice groaned. Not very loudly, but she was fairly certain Ethan would pick it up with his ridiculously high Stats.

“Do I have to?” Asked Alice, grimacing.

“You don’t have to, but it would be a good idea. And it’s not going to be that bad,” said Ethan, grinning at her. “Besides, you get to meet my mother, and she’s quite lovely. And you an also speak with the second princess. She’s a bit of an oddball, but she’s a fairly easygoing person as well. In addition, you can probably grab a couple boosts to levelling speed from my mother, in particular. She is one of the Immortals of Illvaria with the greatest variety of things she’s proficient in, since my mother spends a lot of time raising her secondary classes instead of focusing on her main class. She got frustrated by the slow levelling speed, and instead managed to get a bunch of Achievements that make her Secondary Classes almost as good as a main class, and so she’s proficient in a huge variety of things. And some of those can give you a few levelling speed boosts, similar to the [Teacher] Class. Stacking them together would be helpful for you, even if most of them only last for a week or two. The tea party is taking place in two weeks.”

Alice paused thinking over Ethan’s suggestion that she go to the tea party, before she sighed.

“Fine,” she said.

Ethan grinned.