A greyish-white spell circle forms beneath my feet as all of the other human residents of our small little camp watch. Three magihawks and a sunhound also watch, the ones with present masters sitting beside or on the shoulders of them. Since his master isn't here, Fea is watching from a tree branch at the edge of the clearing. A certain dimensional slime also watches, held in Dakota's arms so that it doesn't try to roll up next to me as I cast.
The spell circle spreads out thirty inches and takes me one hundred seconds to cast. The moment I finish weaving together the magic, a notification appears in my vision.
You have learned [Air Flight].
As opposed to just [Flight], I suppose, since this one uses air magics to fly.
I inhale deeply as I dismiss the notification, then utilize my new spell to float up into the air. Taking things easy at first, I slowly allow myself to adjust to it. With the knowledge that obtaining the Skill grants me, I understand the basics of the spell. The magical wind whipping around me will shield me from things like air friction while also ensuring I have the oxygen needed to breathe and regulate the temperature.
No wonder the spell costs 500 Mana to cast and takes one hundred seconds at base.
At least I don't have to pay that full cost now that I have the Skill for it thanks to some of my other Skill Level bonuses. [Mana Manipulation] being at Level 3 reduces the cost by 20% of the base cost so rather than spending 500 Mana to cast the spell, I'll only need to spend 400 Mana. The casting time for the spell is also reduced by 2 seconds thanks to [Mana Manipulation] being at Level 3, too. It's not that big of a deal… but still helpful.
The maximum speed I can fly using this spell is a per-second rate, at a fifth of my Magic in feet. After I fly out of the clearing we're in and soar around for a little bit, I land and then upgrade the Skill using 2 of my 4 Skill Points.
"How's the flying?" Dakota asks.
"Took no time to adjust," I answer. "It's pretty expensive, though. I'll probably have to cast it fifty or so times and even after bringing it up a Level, that means spending a lot of time using it. Reaching them will probably take me about two or three hours."
It's been a few days since the battles with the three royal monsters and we've all been a bit busy since then. Crafting, training, studying, and so on. Todd's and Mr. Baxter's house has been constructed as well, as has the second slime yard.
During dinner yesterday, it was decided that if the flight magic I learned from the lullaby owl king works well enough, I'd go visit Grandma. I do miss her a bit and this spell will make it possible for me to head over there.
"That's why you're going with a ring filled with mana potions," Lucas says as he walks over with his dungeon backpack to help me pull on. "There's five gallons of in there. Worth a little more two hundred of the three-ounce bottles. Some are from the Perk Rewards, but others are from what we brewed up and are in actual gallon jars."
"Aren't those for trading?" I ask.
"No," he says. "Those are in here."
He pats on the pack. It's fairly large and quite durable, and we confirmed that it has a few pockets meant for holding goods which need cooled or kept frozen. There's some monster meat stored in those, adding to the weight of the pack.
"The weight won't be a problem, will it?" Trent asks. "I know the pottery adds up, too."
The first batch of his goods finished yesterday, so it was decided I'd bring some of them to the group as well. There's a decent amount of weight to the pack from all of the stuff that's in it – anything for the group is in there rather than the ring I'm borrowing from Lucas, which is on my right index finger. Since my own ring doesn't matter outside of Dungeons, it's being left behind with Lucas wearing it.
"It should be fine," I say. "Dungeon backpacks are designed to be rather durable and this one's designed for a region that's equivalent to Status Level 4. As for me? I've enough Strength that it's not an issue."
"Alright," he says.
"If there's nothing else," I tell everyone. "I'm going to get going."
No one has anything else to add, so I call for Fea, then begin casting [Air Flight]. While it might be faster to use [Wind Mastery] and I can sustain that longer, even if it would cost me more Mana to do so, I'm not sure I can handle all of the stuff that [Air Flight] does. Not without a bit of practice as well as getting a feel for how the spell does it.
I follow Fea for the flight, allowing the strange-minded magihawk to guide me to where Grandma and her group is. He flies slower than he can to allow me to stay with him, and doesn't seem to mind the breaks I frequently need to take. When I land, I walk with Fea flying above the forest.
Running might get me there sooner thanks to my increased Strength and Agility, except I want to be careful of the goods in the pack. None of the pottery or glass potion containers are enchanted, in order to reduce the cost.
We're about an hour and a half into the trip when a message appears in my vision.
[Air Flight] is now Level 3. Casting Time: 90 seconds → 80 seconds Duration: 100 seconds → 150 seconds Speed: 0.4 feet per Magic per second → 0.6 feet per Magic per second [Mana Manipulation] is now Level 4. All spell costs have been reduced by 10% of their base and casting times have been reduced by 1% of their base. [Air Mastery] is now Level 2. All air-based spells are now 10% cheaper to cast.
The cost reduction from mastery Skills applies to the current cost, not a subtraction from the base cost. With [Mana Manipulation] increasing in Level, the new cost for it is 350 Mana, then subtract ten percent to get the 315 it actually costs. And the notifications for a Skill's changes don't factor in [Mana Manipulation]'s bonus, but the casting time is actually only 77 seconds.
"Hey, Fea," I say. "I'll be able to fly for longer now, and cast the spell a little bit faster, too. So we won't need to rest as long."
Fea gives me a nod, then does circles around me for about thirty seconds.
We continue our journey and I watch the terrain below. The forest has faded away by this point, though I did see signs it was expanding. Smaller trees that were growing at its edges and saplings that looked recently-sprouted.
The mostly-flat terrain of the region seems to be retained outside of the bounds of the forest, though a few extra hills have formed. Streams and rivers flow through that I doubt were there before, and the lakes I see were probably smaller than they are now back before the Mana Flood.
Without the high amount of ambient Mana in the air, structures become visible not far past the forest. Cars are scattered on roads, buildings sit in various states of health or decay, and signs of battles against monsters are everywhere. Most of what I can see has damage from it either from attacks or just poor structural stability. Even if the ambient magical energies are lower here, they're still eroding things.
That lightens the further I travel, though. With fewer monsters, fewer stronger monsters, and less ambient magical energy, there's less to damage things. Electronics and such still don't work, though, so I don't bother trying to look for things.
Eventually, I spot people in the distance, a large group that's slowly traveling further south. The people number in the hundreds, and I can see isolated pairs and trios around the edges. Guards watching for monster attacks, no doubt.
Eight wooden wagons are the only form of vehicle for the group and as we draw closer, I can see that only the very young and probably the frail are in them. Mostly, there are crates and sacks and baskets and jars filled with items. One wagon seems devoted just to carrying what looks like rolls of cloth, but which I know to be tents.
Grandma mentioned that some of their carpenters built wagons during the week-long rest.
Five of the wagons are pulled by people, while the other three are pulled by beasts. One bull and two bears. All tamed familiars, no doubt.
Most people have packs on their backs, even the kids. Those packs contain the majority of their belongings as well as their food. It's around lunch time right now, and it looks like some of them are pulling food out of packs to eat or give to their kids.
At the front of the crowd is a woman who looks to be around sixty or so, wearing a purple, silver, and green dress that's suspiciously clean despite the fact that it touches the ground and she's walking on grass that's wet from a rain that must have passed through here sometime in the last day. Most others have muddy boots and pants. Around her neck is a silver necklace with purple and green jewels set into it, one of the few pieces of exposed jewelry I can see as I fly over the group. Another is a black ring which I suspect to be a [Spatial Storage Ring]; I told her about Reward Perks and I know she has [Dungeon Pioneer].
Though she's old, her brown hair has not a trace of grey in it and she walks with her back straight and with an aura of strength and authority.
Gripped in her right hand is a pale wooden staff decorated with a brown leather grip, from which hangs a few cords with purple and green beads and silvery feathers. More of those are at the top of the staff, which has a fist-sized purple crystal atop it and several smaller ones around where the larger crystal connects to the wood.
Something tells me that her staff is not new.
As I draw close, Grandma turns and looks at me, surprise in her leaf-green eyes. More than likely, she's sensing my Mana and wasn't expecting it to be a person. I can sense hers, and it's… absolutely overwhelming, even from here. How much of that came from the System, and how much came from before then?
Grandma gives a signal to someone, who calls for everyone to stop. That person then tells a couple of others to spread the word to set up cooking stations to prepare bigger lunches.
"Hello, Carter," she says as I land, mud splashing up due to me landing a little bit harder than I intended. "I could feel Fea coming closer and could sense a strong source of Mana accompanying him. Expected a mate, not my favorite grandson."
"Hello, Grandma," I give her a hug. "Stopping everyone just so I could say hello to you?"
"The plan was to push until it was time to set up camp for the night," she says. "Then take another break. The ground is muddy and that makes it a little bit difficult to travel, and more rain is expected tonight."
"Oh?" I raise an eyebrow. "And how do you know rain is coming?"
"Some of our ancestors were psychics," she states simply. "We inherited those powers. You've had gut feelings since you were little and I'm sure they've only grown stronger, yes?"
Gut feelings… like that I should go check out the old dairy plant. If I'd done that, I probably would have met Todd and his father sooner. That was because of a psychic heritage I have? Though I also had a gut feeling that we should have held off on making dinner until after I returned from the System Shop… and Dakota and the others arrived there while I was doing my shopping. Then there was the time that the Dungeon Gate would be at the lake and it turned out to be there. And the time that I felt I should go into the dark woods and ran into Trent and Grace.
"I can see by your expression that you've noticed," she smiles. "It's not a black-and-white, crystal clear power. Mainly, it takes the form of gut feelings and instinct. Can help us out with some day-to-day stuff, too."
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"Like knowing the weather?"
"I can make a somewhat accurate prediction of that if I focus my power enough," she tells me. "But only for a short time ahead of us. It also lets me know the relative danger levels for the path ahead for the next few days, though that's not as easy to predict with a group as large as this."
"And it doesn't give you the minutia," I say. "So some things can still surprise you."
"Yes," she nods. "I might be able to foresee a powerful attack that's coming, but not smaller ones. And it's not something that simply happens – I have to actually use my magic to cast the spell. Most of the time. I do occasionally receive visions that are better translate as prophecies. They aren't guaranteed, but what I say usually comes to pass, whether the prophecy is clear in its meaning or a riddle."
"How come there's no spell circle for the psychic instincts?" I ask. "That bit doesn't make sense. It's magic, isn't it?"
"It's more of us reading the flows of the universe and its energies," she answers. "So there's no actual spell being cast. Think of it more like a sense than a magic."
Reading the flows of the universe and its energies? Considering the things I've had a gut feeling for, that suggests the theory that everything in the universe is connected.
"One moment," Grandma says.
Grandma lifts her staff about two inches off the ground, then quickly lowers it back down and strikes the ground. The moment the staff connects, a brownish-orange spell circle spreads out, taking less than a second to complete while stretching three feet in diameter. [Earth Mastery], and its effect is immediately-noticeable.
The mud beneath our feet solidifies, and the mud on my boots actually slides off and back to the ground. As soon as the mud has solidifies, it begins to rise up, lifting Grandma and I up as it forms a platform beneath our feet. Walls begin to rise up from the platform as that finishes, with an opening for a doorway. Once the walls have completed, a ceiling forms above us, along with a stone support system for it. As the structure forms, so too does a fireplace against the right-hand wall when entering the building, a chimney stretching up through the roof.
The entire job takes thirty seconds to complete, a show of the difference in power between Grandma and I. When I build a structure like this, I have to do each part separately, and I can't just take from the ground and replenish the soil beneath it, which I'm sure she did since the platform is three inches above the ground rather than set into it and we aren't sinking. Just one part of this would take me longer than her entire job, too.
"Impressive," I say as a dark brown bear pelt appears in her hands. "What does Gri thinking of you having the hide of one of his brethren in your ring? I saw him pulling the wagon closest to you."
"He thinks the other bear should have 'got good'," she answers as she hangs up the pelt at the door, with it covering the entire thing from the outside.
It looks like there was solid stone on the ground at the door as well, creating a dry and stable area to step up from or down to when entering or exiting the house.
Once the door is covered with the thick fur, which looks like it's actually two of them stuck together somehow, Grandma pulls logs out of her ring and sends them into the fireplace, then ignites them with a little bit of [Flame Mastery].
"Cozy," I say as she starts pulling out a few more items from her ring, including a wooden table and a pair of chairs. "How big is the space in your ring?"
"Fifteen feet on each side," she gestures for me to sit, so I pull off my pack and take a seat. "You can get a new one for each increase of [Dungeon Pioneer] and I've been the first run for each of up to a Rank 2 Dungeon. We've not come across a Rank 3 one yet, though I'm not surprised. After leaving up there, we've not been in an area equivalent to one. They'll be quite rare."
"I see," I say. "Do you have a bed in there, too?"
"A frame for one," she answers. "It was made during our prior break, as were this table and these chairs. Some were angry I opted to have items that were practical for me but not the group, but they can deal with it. Some of us work hard to ensure the overall safety of the group and until a suitable location has been reached, and we deserve some luxuries. I can afford to have them made."
"You can also get some free," I tell her as I pull a box out of my borrowed ring and set it on the table. "Trent made these. He's figured out how to use [Water Mastery] to dry the clay without cracking them, and [Air Mastery] to cool them after firing. He says it would normally have taken him over a week for the drying phase and than a couple of days per firing due to needing them to cool, but magic reduced it down to just a few days."
Grandma examines one of the items sitting inside the box, a ceramic teacup with a brown-and-green floral design. It's part of a six-cup set, with matching saucers and a matching teapot.
As she examines that, I pull out four metal canisters, each one with a different label.
"They're not all 'strictly' tea," I say. "But there are plenty of things growing around up there that we can make various teas, including some actual tea plants. Lucas made the tea mixes, and he gave me one for his parents as well. Trent made a set for them."
How quickly Trent was able to produce finished pottery once he figured out the appropriate spells and got into the groove amazed me. I'm more than certain that it comes from him being magic-blooded – I already know that our magical bloodlines make it easier for us to pick up on things related to our ancestors' styles.
"Is the backpack for show, then?" She asks. "The magic within it indicates there are items."
"Those are more for sale or trade," I say. "Mainly sale, since most anything someone out here might have probably won't hold up that well up there. It includes monster meat, some hides, some potions, some ceramics, and a few other various items. More stuff was sent for you than just those, by the way."
"I'm interested," Grandma smiles.
"How private is this space?" I ask as I begin pulling out other items.
"The chances of us being overheard are slim," she answers. "A few people will keep others from bothering me while I'm in here and they stand a safe distance away. Unless there's an emergency, we'll be unbothered. Is there something private within that ring?"
"Actually," I say as I set a lantern on the table. "I wanted to ask what the fuck you were doing that caused the Mana Flood."
Grandma laughs for a few seconds when I ask that.
"To be honest," she says once she stops. "I'm not sure how it ended up stimulating Earth's mana veins. Doing stuff like that had never done so before."
"What'd you do?"
"Used my psychic powers to try and see if you were going to just remain as friends-with-benefits with guys you were interested in or if you'd ever start dating and if so, with who."
I groan as I bury my face in my hands. Why on Earth would Grandma look for that?
"You had just told me the night before about how you'd nearly hooked up with Lucas," Grandma says. "I wanted to see if there might be a chance for you to stop doing hookups and start doing romance with sex. It would be a sign of you healing, after all."
"Prying into my personal life like that got the entire world punished and quite possibly billions killed."
"Something else must have happened," Grandma says. "As I mentioned, I've done stuff like that many times before. I'm not sure why that time was any different."
"Probably because it was someone's personal life?"
"Well, I knew you got Tessa pregnant before she approached you about potentially carrying your baby," Grandma says. "I was looking to see if you'd ever have a child. Was expecting adoption if so, not surrogacy. It was quite the surprise. And I even know who the twins get with. They appear to be a package deal. A person either dates both or neither."
"Yes," I say as Grandma examines the lantern. "They've mentioned it to me. That's one of the lanterns. Chance said he's mentioned them to you?"
"Yes," Grandma says. "Is this one which needs a mana crystal to work?"
"Yeah," I show her how to open the top. "Chance isn't sure how much Mana will be in the air everywhere you're going, so wanted to make sure it had a way to recharge. Back home, there's enough that we don't really need to worry about it. There are some smaller versions in the pack, which emit fainter lights. I assume mana crystals won't be a problem?"
"Not since we can charge them," she confirms. "How have you been doing, Carter? There's only so much which can be conveyed through letters."
"Doing well," I answer. "Adjusting to things up there was fairly easy. Koda, Lucas, Wyatt, and I are planning on taking on that Dungeon in a few days, to give us a little bit more time to prepare. Koda, Tessa, and I encountered a mana slime at the lake yesterday, and we managed to take it down with our teamwork. The amount of slime goo we got from that was enough that we'll be able to make mana potions for awhile."
Grandma brews up some tea as we talk, using a mixture of [Water Mastery] and [Fire Mastery] to do so.
I tell Grandma about some of the stuff that's gone up north, including smaller and less-important details, like the time Wyatt accidentally blasted himself in the face with one of his potion attempts, or how Lucas fusses any time one of us gets even a scratch. As I talk, she asks questions about some of the things I say, leading us into some truly random discussions.
She doesn't let me be the only one to talk about what's going on. Some of what I say leads into stories about up here. Grandma tells about events like encountering a pack of small dogs that mutated from the Mana Flood and turned into ice-breathing hounds with ice-like armor on their joints, or how they came across a group of about a hundred who were building themselves homes and decided to join the much bigger group yesterday, resulting in them reaching nearly a thousand members.
It's quite the massive group to travel around and I'm honestly surprised they're managing to have as few problems as they do… even if they do have a lot.
"The magic-blooded here help a lot," she says. "Most people are fine with obeying the rules as long as it keeps them protected from the monsters. Once we reach somewhere suitable, we'll construct defenses and set up proper training for those who wish to learn how to fight. It should improve the normies' ability to handle themselves without us."
"How long before you abandon them?" I ask. "Your letters make it clear you're frustrated. I don't get why you're staying. Guilt?"
"To help them," she answers. "Ensuring that they can make it to safety makes me feel good. It's not something I expect of everyone, but it's something I want to do. Once we reach the suitable location and their town is set up, I'll come back up and rejoin you, if you don't mind."
"I don't," I answer. "But you'll really put up with a lot of crap for people who aren't grateful?"
"Many are," she tells me. "As I said, most prefer the safety of the group and don't mind the rules. Such a large group does present its own problems, which is part of why it's taking so long to travel."
"How much further do you have to go?" I ask. "You're already almost sixty miles away."
That really is such a snail's pace. A hiker in good condition can do between ten and twenty miles in a day, according to Todd. When excluding the ten-ish days that the group wasn't actually traveling, they're traveling at less than half that speed. I'd have probably gotten impatient at not arriving by now and I'm sure more than a few people in the group are.
"If the estimation I did using my powers this morning are accurate," Grandma says. "We should arrive at a lake in about a week's worth of travel, provided no delays or rests like this one. How long after that before I join you up north is less clear. And if you want answers about our family's past, you'll have to wait until then."
"Seriously?"
"Yes," she answers. "There's too much for just today. But I will say this: our bloodline has everything magic-related in it. Every type of magic, every type of magical crafting. That's why you're able to learn magic so well, and why Chance is good at enchanting, and why Collin can handle monsters easily. You all have those traits, so it's a matter of what interests you."
I did almost go enchanting both out of necessity and out of interest. The only reason I ended up not was because there's not really a need for me to be an enchanter as well. Even me being an alchemist isn't fully needed.
Despite that, I still like doing alchemy and am still interested in learning enchanting. However, it's actual spell weaving that interests me the most.
"Lucas and his mother come from several lines related to nature magics, alchemy, and holy magics," Grandma says. "Including a line of some of the oldest druids. The original druids – from another world, not the ones of this one – were wielders of plant and animal magics, elemental magics, holy magics, and alchemists. Kyle, Logan, and Dakota come from lineages of magic martial artists, though I believe Logan may also have some proper mage in there as well as well as some enchanting and alchemy. I'm not sure about Trent, but Grace's family comes from magic jewelers, and Patrick and Teresa, well, I'm sure you can guess."
"Yeah," I respond. "So the reason our family is basically the strongest is because of how many magical bloodlines are in it? You mentioned that your father was the one who opened the passage here to Earth."
"Yes," she nods. "We have some of the first mages in the universe in our ancestry. And as for my father… yes, he was the one who opened the passage to allow them to come over here."
"Why?" I frown. "Why did they come here, and also keep magic a secret?"
"You know how you have little desire to enter into the conflicts of others?" Grandma asks. "Or the politics of others?"
"I just want to live my own life," I shrug. "As any decent person would. Being someone else's slave isn't really in my interests."
"That's true for nearly every magic-blooded person," she tells me. "The reason those of us who were already know in the know call us 'magic-blooded' isn't because we have magical bloodlines. It's because our magical bloodlines are so strong, we are barely able to be considered human."
She taps her head.
"Our brains are physically different," she tells me. "As is our biology. If we were born on our proper world, we would have been born with an immense amount of power from the start. And when you're that high up… you have zero interest in being a part of the drama of lesser beings. Those of us with stronger connections to our ancestry from another world are less likely to create drama and conflict and be more likely to get along. It's a fundamental part of our nature."
What I'm hearing makes it sound like we're similar to gods, but not quite there.
"It sounds like we were given a nerf here?" I ask. "By the gods, I presume? You'd mentioned that your father had spoken to them."
"A little bit of a nerf," she nods, then takes a sip of her tea. "It was necessary, in order to prevent us from disturbing Earth's already-damaged mana veins. And our ancestors were coming to Earth in order to escape magic and the drama and politics of their world. That's why we don't teach our descendants until they turn twenty-one. It lessens how much of an impact it has and allows for us to know how mature someone will be with their new powers."
"Mom and Dad?"
"Both knew of magic," she says. "But rejected it after hearing about what our ancestors went through before coming here. They've accepted it again now that the world has turned to one of magic. Before then, they were just glad that the only magic you and your brothers ever used stopped after you were around nine or ten."
"We… used magic?" I ask as Grandma takes another sip of her tea. "Were you erasing our memories or something?"
"It was subconscious," she tells me. "And none of you ever saw the spell circles. If you did, you probably forgot. It was always the one for telekinesis, except for when you were born."
Something tells me the telekinesis was a subconscious attempt to get cookies or something when we weren't allowed.
"When I was born?"
"Yes," she smiles. "Within thirty seconds of your births, each of you used [Water Mastery] to clean yourselves off. Even as babies, your magical instincts were strong!"