That was a nice illusion at the end you had me fooled too. I freaked out like crazy. Well getting you to freak out adds to its authenticity.

So, we escaped one water hell to escape through another one. I can't say I'm very happy with how today has been going. And besides that, … What is this smell?! Well, it's a sewer after all.

My nose! Sometimes it sucks to have a good sense of smell, in cases like this and when Raishin forgets to shower! I'm in the same boat but there is nothing we can do about it now. We kept running through the sewers until we got to a sewer crossroad where Gregory and I had to split up.

Greg, you go to the right here and you go up at the third manhole. It will put you 1 block away from your place but you can never be too careful. You really know the whole sewer system by memory, don't you? I don't know if I should be impressed or sad for you. How did your sword test go by the way?

Hmm, it went well, maybe it went a bit too well. I almost cut off Charlize’s arm. Well, your “failed” projects can skin and chop up a boar mid-air so I'm not surprised.

Well, the thing is my blade didn't touch her, the little bit of air around the blade when I swung it did. How is that even possible? Anyway there is an easy solution for that!

What is it? Start sucking! You make us all look bad!

Well, not my fault your focus lies on non-offensive techniques! You'll see one day it will save your ass and you will be thankful! I'm sure about that, I will be counting on you for that! I'll do my best not to get captured, you should do the same!

I waved and ran towards my right turn. I thought I saw something and got distracted and I misstepped causing me to slip and fall.

Shit. I stood up and continued my escape through the sewer system. Agnis had informed me that my destination was the third manhole. As I approached my designated stop, I became aware of an unsettling disturbance in the shadows. I had heard of the numerous hostile sewer rats that roamed the area, but the energy flow I was sensing was not of any rat. I reached out with tendrils of shadows to determine the source of the abnormal magic flow. Regrettably, I had not detected this earlier, and Agnis was unable to see anything visually amiss. Nevertheless, I could feel that something was not right. It appeared that Agnis had gone beyond his designated stop.

Hmm, he might've found out something and is going to investigate. I chose to take a moment to reflect and plan my next steps before discussing the strange energy flow with Agnis. My intuition told me that this bizarre energy source could be connected to what Agnis had been observing. I made my way up to the surface, carefully using my shadows to scan the area and ensure that no danger was present. After confirming that the surroundings were safe, I emerged from the manhole, brushing off any dirt or debris that had accumulated on my clothing.

Pietro is going to ask so many questions… I walked the block toward my residence and was shocked. An individual was waiting in front of my door. I was still in a dark area of the street so I melded with the shadow and moved from shadow to shadow till I got close. The person seemed to be a client picking up a potion. I moved from shadow to shadow and entered the house from below the door. Pietro was inside reading a week-old newspaper. Our town is so remote that the newspapers that arrive here are quite outdated. They are required to know what goes on in the world though. I moved towards my small personal lab. I had a habit of locking it. I moved inside and left the shadows. I moved my equipment around to give the impression I was working here. I don't have a viable excuse to explain that I got kidnapped by Cecilia so I'm just gonna pretend I was too absorbed in a project to notice the time. Normally I would ruffle my hair and ensure that my appearance looks dishevelled but since I already look like a mess that wasn't needed. I left my lab and approached the kitchen.

“Oh, you were inside your lab? I called for you but you seemed to be occupied but man you stink; it smells like an animal died. go take a bath!” Please no more water…

“Vera! Gregory doesn't want to take a bath again!” Oh shit! I tried to run but unfortunately, I'm quite slow so Vera, Pietro's wife caught me easily and dragged me to the washing room.

Let me go! I can wash myself!

“You can yes but on some days you just don't. I don't know what it is with you and water.” I've had enough water for today! I will take a bath tomorrow!

“Bullshit! You've been in your lab the whole day!” Ugh. I got dragged to the washing room against my will. Will this water torture ever stop? I can't say my bath was bath-like. It appeared like Vera was trying to drown me and I was desperately clinging on to life. I'm sure it seems like that but that was my truth.

“Oh Gregory, Pietro, and I will go to the mountains early tomorrow for research, we won't be home for a long time” Oh, again? Have fun!

“You are thinking that you don't have to deal with baths if we’re gone, eh?” Vera became more forceful in scrubbing the stink out of me. After surviving more water today than any person should have, I retreated to my room. I was exhausted. We always comment on how Raishin seems to have infinite energy but how does Agnis still have the energy to investigate after all the events that occurred today? It would be a mistake to assume that I didn't do anything, but Agnis had quite a rough day too with him getting chased all over and then dealing with those crazy mothers while dragging me around. He probably is more tired than I am but doesn't show it. During combat but also outside combat he acts like our glue. He keeps us together but he also makes sure everything works out.

While Ted is the frontline tank, Raishin is the vanguard damage dealer, and I am half tank but more backline defensive support. Agnis fills the flexible role of being an offensive support and damage dealer on top of controlling the battle flow so that opponents are unable to overpower us by numbers or attacks. He fights either on the frontline or backline whatever the situation dictates. He exerts a lot of energy to make sure we can do our roles properly and he executes various types of battle styles to be as flexible as possible. His choice to use his sword against Charlize was a good example. Both Agnis and I are limited in the amount of magic we can use before nausea sets in, so he has been looking for non-magic forms of combat for when we inevitably get locked in some high-difficulty fights. I decided that I should make a potion to replenish energy and stamina instantly. In the past, he could rely on his mother and sisters with their light golden flames but that option is not viable anymore.

I started to get a bit homesick when thinking about them. My brother and mother came to mind. We all tried to play it cool but we all missed home. As the team's anchor, I shouldn't waver. Agnis recently found out how to break the slave marks so our escape was nearing. We just had to wait for Ted to come back from his martial arts tournament and we had to pick a date. I recovered from my homesickness and got a sewer water sample I got earlier. The disturbance in the magic seemed to be felt strongly in the sewers while up here on the surface it is hardly noticeable. Even though I hated it, it was a good thing Agnis brought me there. Because I would have never picked on this otherwise.

----------------------------------------

I purified the water from all kinds of waste without affecting the magic that was dissolved in it. Afterward, I extracted the mana, manipulated and moved it into a vial. During the manipulation, I could feel a sensation that was similar to the one I detected in the sewers. This confirms my accuracy. I manipulated the magic and split it into the most common elements to determine which element was causing an imbalance. I set the fraction aside that couldn't be split into the 5 most common elements. Out of my sample, 29% was unusable. Of the 71%, there was 32% earth, 23% fire, 4% water, 9% wind, and 3% lightning.

Hmm, there is a big imbalance here. Whatever was causing this was shifting the balance towards earth and fire. Correcting this balance is going to be a real pain. It would be paramount to get to the root of this problem before it gets worse. I snatched magic out of the air and used the same process as I did before. 25% of the magic was unusable and of the 75%, there was 20% earth, 18% fire, 12% water, 15% wind, and 10% lightning. The ambient magic seems slightly out of balance but in a relatively acceptable range. What concerns me is the addition of more unusable magic in the sample. Generally, this does not increase. The percentage varies slightly from location to location but within the location, it shouldn't change. Hmm is it possible that the sewers are connected to a completely different area? I hated the idea but it appears that I should return to the sewers…

I took some catalysts and equipment and put them in my backpack. I wished I could store things other than energy in shadows or have Agnis' dimensional pocket. I put on some boots and a water-repellent coat. I also put a canister of odor-canceling spray in my backpack. I sighed at the thought of going back down there. I mentally prepared myself and told Pietro that I would go out for a bit.

“You’re going out this late?” There is something I need to investigate; I won't be out for long.

“Be careful Cecilia came by earlier to look for you, I don't know why she is so fixated on you but I don't think it's healthy for a grown woman to be so fixated on a 12-year-old.” I got cold shivers when I heard that Cecilia stopped by.

I will be careful, Cya! I closed the door behind me and looked around and spread out my shadows when I didn't sense a presence. Nobody is allowed to tail me. The coast was clear. I went to the nearest manhole, mentally prepared myself again, and descended to the sewers. This time I could clearly sense the difference between the magical flow down here and the surface. I attuned to the magic flow here and caught the flow of the magic. Now the big question is: do I go downstream or upstream of the flow? I spread my shadow deep inside the sewers both upstream and downstream. My shadows pulled some magic out of the surroundings at set intervals in either direction.

I retrieved them, labelled them, and tested their composition. Upstream seemed to have the most disturbing composition while downstream it seems like the magic slowly is correcting its composition. I drew the hasty conclusion that whatever is causing this is emanating or excreting energy that causes these phenomena instead of pulling in magic and disturbing it. The direction of this flow would bring me to is north of the village. I vaguely sensed Agnis' energy trail. It was very faint. Anything that wasn't a three-tailed shadow cat or a nine-tail with Elgards eyes specialized like Agnis would probably have a hard time sensing him. Something was bizarre with this trail; it went north-westward but cut off at a certain point. It seems Agnis got himself into some situation again. I won't say I'm surprised because I'm probably going to do the same. I guess when both our investigations are done, we will hear the details from each other. Maybe whatever we’re investigating is related. He will do what he can and I'll do what I can. Now knowing that Agnis was also probably in a sticky or unfavorable situation my determination grew. I went upstream to the energy flow. After walking for 20 minutes, I decided to meld with the shadows and travel within these, it would go a little bit faster and I wouldn't have to deal with all the water here.

----------------------------------------

At around midnight, I noticed that the sewer pipes slowly transitioned into a cave. What was the deal with this? Was it normal for a sewer to just run into a cave? Who planned this town? As far as I know, this town is about 800 years old. Whoever was in charge of building this town must have known about this cave. What was its purpose? It certainly was to keep something hidden. The sewers are maintained by magic with the help of electronium. Electronium is a metal that when hit by lightning magic or electric fields generates magic. This magic gets used to power appliances and magic systems. Its raw version will convert the tiniest shocks into a violent magical explosion so it needs to be processed and made into alloys to keep its properties but do this in a more controlled manner. With an atomic number of 119, it is really heavy but also highly unstable. It gets mined and instantly trapped by some kind of magic or oil so that it doesn't decay, nor react, and then gets processed into alloys to make it usable.

I had mined some with Agnis quite a while ago and that metal is a pain to work with. Agnis and I almost got ourselves killed because we were careless and it exploded. Anyways the whole society is dependent on this metal because it makes life so easy. It is just mining it and processing it is quite dangerous but after that, it is really useful and harmless. I hope Agnis doesn't blow himself up whenever he needs to use eelectronium in his blacksmithing. Now the electronium gets going by using batteries or small lightning spirits. I don't know much about spirits but I know they can be everywhere but hard to notice. From my experience, their energy feels… transparent. They only seem detectable when you're close but that's because this is the range where they can be seen and interacted with, well kind of. Spirits don't like to interact with corporeal beings. The lesser small spirits sometimes don't have any choice because they get captured, this does require mages specialized in spirit magic.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

I think Agnis could fill in the gaps in my knowledge of spirits more since he is kind of a spirit himself. The nine-tailed spirit fox race is a bizarre exception in almost anything, they are bizarre for tailed beasts, they are bizarre for just beast kin type in general but they're also bizarre in being spirits. Maybe I shouldn't be so surprised when Agnis does something bizarre because nothing about him is normal! And that is not even considering his personality. Anyways the reason why nobody gets down here is because it stinks down here like it seriously stinks here and there's a lot of water and second there is no need because the electronium system seems to be working fine. If something would be amiss with it someone might get down here but they would only fix it and not go investigating the edges of the sewer system, because really, who cares?

The cave corridor seems to get wider and the disturbed magic is becoming thicker. The magic feels like I'm wading through water, I hate it. I'm not sure if this feeling is because I'm well attuned to the flow and density of energy or if the magic is just that thick here. It almost feels suffocating. I activated my shadow mantle to protect me from the high concentration of energy. I already started to get nauseous and uncomfortable because some of the magic was entering my system. I expelled the magic from my system to make sure I wouldn't empty my stomach and continued. A soft pink glow started to illuminate the dark cave corridors which became brighter. I exited the cave corridor and was in a big cave room. It seemed to be natural. What didn't seem natural was the bigass pink tree in the middle of the cave. Big roots were extending almost everywhere. The tree looked a bit funny though, it reminded me of broccoli. It did look like something took a bite out of it. Also, it seemed like there was a battle here.

Something big seemed to have slammed into the cavern walls in multiple places. Also, a lot of deep pink energy spears were sticking out of the walls and also on a part of the ceiling. The energy these spears gave off was unlike anything I had felt before. I instinctively know what energy belongs to what whenever I feel a new type of energy but I really can't place this one. The tree gave off similar energy but not as strong as these spears. I did wonder however what cold produce spears this big and dense in energy. I looked around but it was hard to see the whole cave because this place was enormous. The tree was easily 100m tall and probably 20 m wide. And this cave was big enough to have a town around the tree. There were 3 entrances to this cave from what I could see but there might be some that were blocked by my view because of the jungle of green and dark pink roots covering half the cave and the big tree itself obscuring the vision. One thing was clear though. This tree was responsible for the corruption of magic towards earth and fire element but it also seems to corrupt another type of energy.

Maybe this is the energy that Agnis kept seeing since that is the only energy type so far, I've never been able to feel. But with it concentrated so heavily here I have no choice but to feel it. I'm lucky I put up my shadow cloak earlier because my magical signature could become warped because of this high impure concentration and turn me into some abomination or it could cause magic poisoning, either way, both of those situations would be nasty. I hope Agnis stays far away from this place since I am probably the only living creature here that could survive and tolerate this circumstance. Unless there are some extremely hardy creatures close by. Whatever fought here might have been belonging to those kinds of creatures. I don't know if the creature that created those spears is still around so I melded with the shadows and moved around while observing the place. It was kind of hard to move about because the whole tree was giving off pink light and so did its roots. So, there were very few places that had shadows I could use to move about. This limited me to the perimeter of the cavern which the roots rarely reached and was relatively dark. Only 6 large roots seemed to leave the cavern while the rest stayed within them. There was also no creature to be seen and if it was still here it did a great job hiding. With the energy density and magical density so extremely high here it was impossible for me to feel out energy signatures from other creatures. After about an hour of investigating I went into a corridor to rest for a bit. I felt a slight soft ringing in my head. It was a telepathic message from Agnis.

Yoo Greg, remember that story that's called: remember the words of the old earth giant? Ooh, that's an old one, the official name is ‘Don't forget the words spoken by the ancient earth colossus.'

Do you remember the life lesson in it? Are you cooking up a weird strategy that needs this story?

Hmm not really, I just remembered this story. Hmm well, the life lesson goes as follows: Fire begets destruction, water begets decay, wind begets asphyxiation, lightning begets disintegration, and earth begets bloodshed but nature will act as a balance and keep the elements in check. It is a lesson to help you control your magic if it gets too strong or goes berserk. Not everyone has an affinity for nature energy but every living creature can learn it and gain proficiency at it will automatically calm down whatever element spirals out of control. Did you remember this because you want to apply this to your fire magic?

Hmm not really but that is a great idea, thanks, Greg. Did you arrive safely? You know that was almost 5 hours ago, right? You don't mess up time like this unless… are you doing something dangerous again?

Uhh, I have no idea but it can't be more dangerous than Charlize so I will be fine. Hmm sure, I'll just make some healing potions and concoctions to cure various status ailments when I have time.

Wow, no faith in me, eh? You are wrong, I have complete faith in you getting into trouble and returning with some exotic status ailment, I have known you for too long to be wrong in this.

Have you heard from Raishin yet? Hmm, not really after his so-called rescue he seemingly just disappeared. I am just warning you in front.

I have found 2 instances that indicate that something big might happen soon, firstly according to old lady Paula, the animals around and in the town are restless, secondly, I found a no-winged dragon under the Umbra mountain range who got wounded by that strange energy I kept seeing, according to the dragon it’s called leyline energy or dragon vein. A pink tree shot a spear at it. It must be a big deal because anything that can wound an earth dragon like that is no joke. Pink tree? I look at the huge pink tree in front of me. Now that I have this conversation, I remember Pietro telling me something about a pink tree. It was creating the barrier, is what I've heard. I've stumbled on something very important!

According to Pietro, the tree creating the barrier is pink. Wait, you know about the source of the barrier?

Yeah, he got called to inspect it half a year ago, something seems to be amiss with it at least back then. Pietro came back and told me a bit about what he did but he didn't disclose if whatever was wrong was fixed. Hmm well judging from the fact that it almost one-shot an earth dragon I think it didn't get fixed or maybe even got worse. Also, on top of this, whenever something big and bad is about to happen Raishin always acts odd and randomly disappears. An earth dragon? That could probably be what was fighting here.

Yeah it is like he feels it coming way before any signs appear. Hmm well, I did see weird fluctuations in leyline energy but since I'm not that attuned to it, I have no idea what it means, over the last year it has become denser but it also feels like it was charged with a certain. Feeling. But now I can sense it more easily. The energy is charged with the feeling of despair.

Hmm, that's not good. I will start storing energy then since it seems we will get into deep shit sooner or later. I doubt you will see Raishin but if you see him tell him to start preparing for the worst, Ted comes back tomorrow, right?

He comes back today at around dinner time. Ok let's discuss it together tomorrow morning then, I will also tell you guys what I'm about to do here.

You better not die on me! I'm quite attached to living so I will do all in my power to stay alive.

Good, there is something I want to talk to you about since I'm also investigating something but that can wait till tomorrow, cya in the morning.

After closing the telepathic link with Agnis I thought of what he told me. So, an earth dragon was fighting this tree and almost got one shot. This is no laughing matter. Whatever Pietro was tasked with doesn't seem to have worked at all. What kind of life form can almost one-shot an earth dragon? One of the toughest beings out there. This is ridiculous. I look at the pink tree and am suddenly filled with dread. This tree could make quick work of me if I'm not careful. I'm confident in my defensive abilities but I don't think I can out-tank an earth dragon. Also, Agnis seemed to have found something outrageous just as I would expect from him. I'm just calling it here but this is probably a prelude to a series of events where we will be doing quite a lot. If this tree is creating the barrier, we need to take it down but judging from the energy it gives off that won't be an easy task.

From my investigation, the only thing that I noticed as a matter of importance was that this cave has 16 exits of which one seems to go directly towards Boshi town. That was the path I came from. The other 15 seem to stretch into the mountains. Maybe 1 of these goes towards the lair of that earth dragon. Besides the exits, there are 6 big roots almost as big as the trunk is wide, that leave the cave. They don't leave the cave at any of the exits you could walk through. They exited through the wall to who knows where. Looking up 4 branches seem to do the same but the rest of the tree seems to be inside this cave. I'm assuming some body of water must be somewhere below because most of the roots don't extend past an invisible border. I want to investigate it but I'm afraid that might kick in the trees' self-defence system and I'm too young to turn into a cat skewer.

I thought back on the story Agnis remembered. Maybe nature's energy was the key to solving this problem. But out of all of us, Agnis was the most proficient at it and I say proficient but he's not that great at it. He only can use it internally to expel magic from his system, to do physical enhancements that normally use magic and some minor stuff. Dealing with this bigass tree is probably going to be too much for him or any of us if it comes down to nature energy. Anyway I went around and took enough magic samples so that I could go back to test these. I don't think that there is much I can do without risking my life. I already had a shitty day so I'd rather not. As I was looking for the passage that goes back towards Boshi town I saw a silhouette limping in one of the other corridors. I got put on alert because I honestly had no idea what I could expect down here. To my surprise, I saw that it was Agnis! We spoke about 20 minutes ago but I didn't know that he was this close by! He looked beat up and his skin started to show signs of magic poisoning. I rushed towards him to try and apply a magic cloak on him to protect him from the high concentration of energy here when he somehow triggered the tree's defence system.

Shit! Agnis, can you fight?!! pulled him aside by extending my shadow. Something seemed off with Agnis and his limping is a bad sign. He can't use his speed when his leg is that badly hurt. He seems to try and say something but I guess the magic corruption got to his throat and made it hard for him to form words. I managed to cover him with a shadow cloak. This could keep him safe from the high concentration of energy here but we now had a difficult problem. The tree was shooting pink energy spears at us and I'm slow as fuck and Agnis has his speed nerfed because of his leg. Agnis limps away and barely dodges an energy spear. I deflect a spear by making a big shadow claw and swatting it aside. It only moved slightly from its trajectory, tearing through my shadow claw and barely missing me. This was bad. Neither of us could deal with this at the moment. Agnis tried to use water magic but since the high concentration ambient magic desperately needed water to try and restore balance it just got absorbed by the surroundings. Well, that sucked.

If you use a fire element it should get boosted by the magic imbalance! Just don't incinerate me in the process! Honestly, I didn't know if this was a good idea. Agnis' fire magic was truly terrifying, it would also get boosted here since the magic balance was shifting hard towards fire and earth. If Agnis would use fire magic here could just turn everything into ash. I used earth magic to protect myself. Agnis used fire magic after I shielded myself but honestly, it didn't do as much as I was expecting. Agnis what's wrong... At that moment I briefly let my guard down and an energy spear was heading for me. Options flashed through my mind of how to not get one shot but nothing I could think of would be fast enough or strong enough. At that moment I felt something push me away and all I saw was Agnis before he got impaled by the pear.

Nooo! You can't die! We have so much we need to still do together. This was bad! I started panicking, the spear went right through him and got lodged into the floor. He couldn't move because the spear that went through his torso kept him suspended half a meter from the ground. Is this how it ends? I couldn't even protect my friend. And here I was being proud of my defensive capabilities! What a joke. Tears started to fill my eyes as Agnis melted and turned into a blob of shadows. Wait. This didn't just happen. I thought back to the moment that he appeared till this point. I can't say I didn't notice anything was strange but since it is always hard to sense him and he seemed injured and suffering from magic poisoning I didn't pay attention to it. But this is a shadow clone, isn't it? Embarrassed that I got fooled into a sentimental state, I decided to kick Agnis’ ass for scaring me like that when I see him again.

He seemed to have poured a lot of shadow into this clone which I used to make a big shadow clone of myself, drawing inspiration from Agnis. It got impaled by a spear shortly after but I used the energy of the spear hitting the shadow clone to put up a strong shadow wall and started running to the corridor going towards Boshi town. The movement I could meld with the shadows at the perimeter of the cave I would successfully escape. Nothing can damage me after I've shadow melded. There were exceptions but it wasn't anything I should worry about now since the tree is just spamming spears. The shadow wall got pierced but again I used the energy the shadow wall absorbed to make a stronger shadow wall. This is one of the reasons that shadow cats are strong in prolonged fights. The longer the fight goes on the more energy we can absorb and store. In this case, the length of the battle doesn't matter since these spears carry a massive amount of energy. This wall got pierced too but that was fine I reached the corridor I needed and melded with the shadow. A spear pierced the wall where I stood a second ago but that didn't matter. I headed back home through the shadows.