I awoke early to discuss my findings with Agnis. After discussing this with him we probably had to go look to see what Raishin was up to. I went to the blacksmith workshop but it seemed Philip and Hera were panicking. The first thing they asked me was if they knew where Agnis was.

I don't know, I haven't seen him since the market. I lied. I didn't feel like explaining our bizarre and exhausting day.

“He hasn't come home since he left to deliver a sword to old man Paul! We asked them but it seems he delivered the sword on time. Where is he?” Hera started losing it and Philip calmed her down.

I will look for him. I'm sure he is fine; I can't imagine anything being able to catch him. I tried to believe the lie I just told because I got reminded of how we got captured by Charlize and Cecilia and that half-assed shadow clone he made. After calming the two down I headed towards the hunting hut at the edge of the town to look for Raishin. Nobody home. Either he returned and went hunting or he didn't return at all. I melded with the shadow and slipped under the door and reformed inside the hut. It seemed like someone was here recently so I'm assuming Raishin went hunting.

Where is everyone? I decided to look for Agnis first since disappearing without a message was unlike him. I didn't want to go back toward the sewers so I followed the manholes on the surface. Only 3 manholes existed beyond where Agnis probably would have appeared to get back home. Unless the sewer pipes would make a turn, it's heading for the Umbra mountain range. That's bizarre, nothing of importance should be there. I got the sensation that unless I went through the sewers, I won’t be able to encounter any clues about Agnis' whereabouts. I sighed and was about to head back toward the nearest manhole when I felt the ground rumbling.

What the! And then I saw it, an enormous pillar of blue fire shooting up in the sky. It seemed to originate from deep within the Umbra mountain range.

This is Agnis magic! It seems I've found him easily but using this quantity of fire would probably come with various problems on itself. At least I didn't have to go through the sewers. I could feel the heat of that fire pillar from here, there is no doubt that whatever was there was vaporized into atoms so all I needed to do was look for a big hole. I headed back home to prepare for a trip to the mountains. Also, to possibly drag Agnis back. I grabbed some concoctions that could recover mana and stamina and headed off toward the Umbra mountains. I was really curious about what he discovered that took so long.

Nothing interesting happened until I got close to where I estimated the hole would be. What I noticed was that as I approached the hole the purity of the magic seemed to increase. It came as far as going to 5% unusable magic and then an even split between all the elements. I've never seen the unusable magic percentage drop below 12% and 12% was considered quite pure magic. I reached the hole and what I saw was just impressive. A massive hole was melted on the spot where the third tallest mountain of the Umbra Mountain Range once stood. The hole seemed to be about 1 km in diameter. It was still quite hot around here but nothing I couldn't bear. It was about 2 hours ago that I saw the fire pillar. I spread out shadows to ascertain if there were other people close by but oddly enough nobody seemed to be investigating what caused this.

Hmm, that is bizarre. Anyway, it's convenient for me that nobody is approaching this place. I shifted my gaze downwards. There was nothing to see, I saw magma glowing at the bottom but this hole was deep enough that even a 1 km-wide hole didn't help me identify what was on the bottom. The majority of the hole was in shadows or just simply dark. I could easily meld with it and descend toward the bottom. I covered myself in my shadow cloak because I assumed that Agnis was at the bottom and it would be hot down there. Using a quantity of magic like that was bound to immobilize him for a prolonged period.

Luckily his fire resistance is insane but that doesn't mean that I should let him float on a magma pool indefinitely. As I descended into the shadows I passed by various cave-like structures but whatever these caves led up to got vaporized. As I descended deeper and deeper it started to get hotter and hotter. I stopped at a height where my shadow cloak would still be able to bear the heat. There was still quite some distance before I would hit the bottom. I made a foothold with earth magic to rest on. I tried to make it as simple and efficient as possible to reduce the amount of nausea. But after creating it there wasn't even a trace of me getting nauseous.

Hmm, that's interesting. I tested the magic quality here and I was astonished. 0% unusable magic, and 20% of every element, perfectly balanced as every magic profile should be. I've never felt magic this pure before. This isn't normal. Was this the cause of Agnis' fire or was the magic in this mountain range always this pure? No, if that was the case it would've been discovered ages ago. I've never seen Agnis use fire of this intensity, quantity, and color ever. So, it would be the most probable cause of this purified magic.

A purifying flame, eh? I thought about the applications of this purified magic but as far as my knowledge of magic went a three-tailed Shadow cat it would allow for more efficient use of magic because the ambient magic won't obstruct it in any way or form and it would even be more beneficial for those who pull magic out of their surroundings like Agnis. Besides that, it could make technology running on magic more efficient.

Hmm is it possible that our nausea is linked to how the magic isn't pure? It seems to be widely accepted that magic always has a fraction of magic in it that is unusable but why is that? As far as I know, only certain phenomena on a grand scale can influence a magic composition like this. Or just big natural systems. Like in the mountains, earth would be slightly dominant, and near rivers, water would be slightly dominant but only by about 3-5% maximum. But nothing ever seems to be correlated to the percentage of unusable magic in the composition. Also, nothing to date seemed to be able to get rid of it. The only problem is… As I look around. There is a high likelihood he can't control it because vaporizing a mountain isn't his style. Ok maybe that is false, he would do that but only for a good reason. But he would never cause himself to become useless afterward so this must've been an accident. I looked down but I still couldn't see him. I could sense him though.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Despite there being a big mass of magma below him it still gave off pure magic but I did sense a life form that had an elevated level of fire that was slowly equalizing. And as always, his earth level is really low. This could be none other than Agnis. My shadow extended and tried to retrieve Agnis. I formed a fishing line out of shadows and threw the line out. I could use bait but it would just get burnt by the magma. After waiting for 30 minutes, it seemed like something bit. I was hoping that it would be Agnis and not some random magma monster. I reeled in the line and to my relief fished up a passed-out Agnis. I moved the magma off him and made him cool off. It didn't seem he would wake up anytime soon so I decided to carry him. This was a very easy task because for some reason Agnis was very light. I don't think this is magic or anything, I've noticed in the past that his mother and his sisters seem to also be very light. He only weighs as much as 3 bags of potatoes which is about 15 kg. He is gonna hate that I compared his weight to bags of potatoes but he is unconscious right now so that doesn't matter. It was nearing noon and I was wondering how I would carry him into the town like this.

Someone teleported next to me. Sup! Where have you been?

Hunting, why? I mean yesterday evening after you broke into Charlize’s house to so-called “save” us.

Oh, then haha that tornado after that water explosion totally knocked me out. Someone found me passed out and brought me to my hut where I woke up this morning. And since I didn't eat anything, I went hunting when I woke up. Want some? Raishin offered me a fried chicken leg.

Chicken again?

Nope! It's a pheasant! Isn't that just a chicken but with extra steps?

I don't know, it tastes the same to me so you might be right. What's up with Agnis? Raishin asked while he poked Agnis with his left hand and ate some fried pheasant leg with his right hand.

You didn't see that big pillar of fire? That was him. Oh, I thought that was a volcanic eruption.

What volcano creates a blue fire pillar? Anyway, Agnis was the cause of that, which is why he probably passed out. So, you could say he’s burnt out? Hehe. I smacked Raishin as we arrived at Raishin’s hunting hut.

How about we chill here until he wakes up? Fine by me but wasn't Ted supposed to arrive today?

At around dinner time yes so, we have about 7 hours till he arrives. Oh ok. I have an idea though! Raishin jumped up and down quite excitedly.

Oh no, I found a horde of pheasants, what if we release those into the town when we escape?

A group of pheasants is called a bevy and that is a terrible idea, we have another problem. There is a high possibility that the barrier outside this city won't let us out.

Whud? Why? And don't we leave the barrier all the time? I don't know the exact details, I slightly overheard Charlize talk about it to Agnis so I'm sure he knows the specifics.

Isn't that an easy fix then? How so?

Quite easily we just bust down the barrier and escape! Haha, I'm a genius. I mean the solution is easy, yes but executing it is quite the problem, I found the source of the barrier, and well Ummm it could easily one-shot me.

Wait, can it one-shot you? What overtuned boss are we talking about? It is not a boss, it's a tree.

So, you’re saying a tree can one-shot you? I don't understand. Are you messing with me? This interaction that I had with Raishin made me realize how ridiculous our situation was. We need to escape this town but to do that we need to break a barrier that is held up by an enormous pink tree that looks like broccoli which is several hundreds of meters under the ground and corrupting leyline energy and magic alike. The pink tree can one-shot me and almost defeat a dragon and for some reason, my unconscious buddy here vaporized a whole mountain. Thinking about it, anyone who would buy into this should get his head checked. I rubbed my hand on my head.

Listen I know it sounds crazy but that is the truth there is some pink tree underground that is preventing us from leaving. Hmm well, we've done and seen enough crazy shit together so I guess somewhere this makes sense. So, I assume we wait till Ted comes back to form a plan?

Yes, that would be wise, I also have something to share and I'm sure Agnis does too but we will do that when we’re all together. I like the people here but there isn't much to do here and the chicks here are plain.

There is plenty to do here; you just didn't want to sound like skirt chasing is the only reason you want to leave. Meh, am I that transparent? Yah. Ugh so hungry. Oh, Agnis is awake! Here, a fried pheasant leg! Raishin shoved a fried pheasant leg in Agnis' mouth as he was waking up. Hmmph???