As he passed the threshold, a thin layer of dust sloughed off of him like running water.

“Whoa. That’s pretty cool.” All of the sweat had evaporated off of his skin too, leaving him completely clean. Another step and a wave of cold passed through him, cooling him entirely.

A single obligatory shiver coursed through him from the abrupt shift in temperature, leaving goosebumps in its wake.

Tar stopped attempting to cover Cael’s mouth because apparently, Layla could hear everything anyway.

The inside of the building was not quite what he had expected. He’d kind of guessed it would also be sandstone, and conforming with the laws of physics. Not only was the home primarily wooden on the inside but, well…

He glanced down the hallways to either side and tilted his head. “Is that magic?”

The hall was definitely longer than it should have been. It ran laterally down the side of the house, well past the distance the house’s footprint covered.

“It is.” There was no further explanation, but the effects of the acting magics were pretty self-explanatory.

Cael activated his [Mana Sight] and translucent walls of mana faded into being throughout the room icy blue and black. Everything was tinted silver on top of that. With Tar’s advice in mind that he should be using [Mana Sight] whenever possible, Cael continued to channel mana into the Skill.

“So, who told you to come looking for us?” She chatted lightly as she led him down one unnaturally elongated hall. This seemed like a formality since she'd already likely heard him say it in his mind earlier.

“Trista,” Cael replied confidently.

‘Mercy.’ Tar replied, more accurately.

“Oh. I guess technically it was Mercy. Trista mostly just told me not to accept candy from strangers and stuff like that.” She hadn’t said that exactly, but that was more or less the atmosphere of the conversation.

Layla turned to regard them anew. Cael wasn’t sure what it was, but some new quality lay in her three eyes as she took them in.

“I can actually feel you staring at me. How are you doing that?”

“My apologies. I meant no harm.” She pushed open a door and they entered a large cubic room made of large panels of stone.

With his [Mana Sight] still active, he could discern thick magic coating every inch of the area.

In the center of the room, three individuals stood. Each was surrounded by a thin dome of dark gray mana. A half dozen wisps of color circled their magic bubbles.

‘Turn off your [Mana Sight]. You’re low on energy.’

Cael did as Tar advised, but not before watching one of the bubble people flick their hand in a wide arc, creating a growing blade of mana that swept across a full third of the room. The wisps dipped and swerved to avoid its path.

Even with his [Mana Sight] deactivated, he could see the line of distorted air carving toward him through the air.

Before he even had time to react, his vision exploded kaleidoscopically. A moment later, his sight returned to normal, as if a filter over a lens had been popped.

‘So you were Trista’s teacher.’ The magic did seem to have familiar characteristics to Trista's space magic.

“Correct. How is she doing these days?”

Cael was frowning. For once, he was silent, still a bit too shocked by the small explosion of magic to string together a proper thought for the poison to latch onto. Thankfully, Tar answered in his place.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

‘She’s arguably doing work on a Tier 2 planet.’

“And how would you argue that?” Layla crossed her arms as one of the three mages was tackled to the ground by an invisible force. One of her faces frowned at the mages she was observing, but the other was still engaged in her conversation with Tar. This one was smiling mirthfully.

‘Well, she only actually works one day in every four.’

“I wouldn’t say that.” Cael cut in, “She’s worked two of the past four.”

‘Yes, but that was a crisis.’

“Trista engaged in a crisis event?” Her middle eye turned its attention toward them.

“A crisis for me and the majority of the city she was stationed in. Not really for Tar, I guess. She and her team were well above the level of the threat.”

“And what threat was that?” A tall man popped into being beside Layla.

Cael flinched backward, his mind blanking again. An ominous aura rolled off the man like the electric tension that filled the air before lightning struck. Cael’s eyes widened and he took a step back.

“Oops.” The pressure was smothered instantly and the man no longer felt as threatening, which was intimidating in its own way.

In the place of the monster stood a lithe man around Layla’s height. He looked entirely human, if not for the fact that he was completely monochromatic. Like a person from a black and white photo, only he was wearing the most abruptly hot-pink shirt and an obnoxiously green pair of pants.

“Oh… what are you wearing?” Cael really hadn’t meant to say that one; it was just the first thing that came to mind as soon as he was able to take in the man’s appearance.

“It’s currently in fashion,” Layla answered. Based on her tone, Cael could guess that she wasn’t a fan of it. “This is Oscar. He spends most of his salary on vanity items and impulse buying.”

“And how could it not be the top of fashion?” Oscar expertly ignored the jab at his spending habits.

Layla rolled all three of her eyes and gestured for Cael to continue.

After a brief stuttering start, Cael was able to tell the pair about the three elementals that had attacked the city Trista was currently stationed in.

Tar had expanded on that by claiming each of the elementals' levels had averaged 300.

“I thought that the levels of everything on a Tier Two planet were supposed to be between fifty and a hundred.”

‘Yeah. On average. Most insects are lower than ten, and the Constabulary themselves are all hovering at just around two-hundred and fifty. They kind of have to be to maintain peace.’

“That’s crazy. Isn’t two hundred levels too much of a level gap?”

“Well, not really.” Oscar chimed in. “All of the instructors on an education planet are at level five hundred at a minimum.”

“That’s right. All of the faculty in a school are required to be above that level for security and experience purposes.” Layla chimed in, flicking an invisible wave of mana to drag the two remaining mages away from each other. Cael had no clue what exercise they were taking part in. “There's about a hundred such staff in Genus, and about three thousand cities planet-wide. In addition to necessary jobs like hospitals and religious centers… there are about half a million people above level five hundred on the planet at any given time.”

“Wow. I hope I can make it to level five hundred.”

“Aim higher.” She clapped a hand on his shoulder encouragingly as the final mage standing was tackled out of their barrier. “Five hundred is a level any low-achiever can obtain as long as they aren’t killed on their way.”

As the last mage fell, a dozen figures popped into being around the room.

Layla released his shoulder and stalked toward the group menacingly. As she drew nearer, they all snapped to attention, even the panting mages sat up to hear what she had to say. It wasn’t anything good.

“That was an embarrassment. Not a single one of you seems to know what is happening around you. The point of this exercise is not to put up shields and wait until you run out of mana, nor is it to just stab at those shields until they come down.”

She continued to rant, but Cael wasn’t quite able to understand some of the terminologies.

“What’s she saying?” He whispered to Oscar.

“This is their third day of training under us, and their first time running through this exercise. Think of them as our apprentices. The mages specialize in space magic, and all of the rest have stealth classes like [Scout].

“The purpose of this specific activity is to have the mages fight invisible opponents using their space magic to sense them, and for the rest of them to improve their pseudo-invisibility Skills to the point where they can’t be detected. Training students against one another is one of the easiest ways to give them experience and levels.”

“Isn’t it a bit unfair to have three against twelve, then?”

“Well, no. At this level, the mages can kind of throw them around like rag dolls if they know what to aim at. A lot of mage classes are stronger at low levels, but even out at later levels.”

“Huh.” Cael watched as the students resumed.

The mages began by setting up their shields again, but it didn’t take them too long to figure out how to find the [Scouts] with Layla’s assistance.

This was made evident by a painful-sounding thud as one of the [Scouts] slammed into a wall nearby. Their stealth Skill flickered, and he watched as they rushed back toward the trio of mages.