It didn’t take long for the group to arrive at the village where the mages disappeared, but that’s where things got more difficult. Even with Denmac the diviner there, tracking down agents wasn’t an easy task.

“Is it working? Or are we lost? Seems like we’re just walking around like a bunch of headless chickens.” James asked and sighed out of boredom. He’d rather be stabbed by an agent than follow unseen trails for hours.

At first, he was all tense, ready to attack at any potential threat. But they had been walking around and outside the village for more than three hours, and he was bored out of his mind.

“Yep. I know it’s boring, I feel you.” Lunaris replied. “The first time I went out on a tracking mission, I found it as unbearable as you do. I was bored within minutes, and it took five entire days till we found the blasted necromancer! And the damn bastard was hanging out under the graveyard the whole time, obfuscating his tracks with energy he was leeching from the dead.”

“Wait, I thought necromancy and all schools of magic are accepted and researched at Hedonia? Why were you hunting down a necromancer?” James asked.

“They are accepted. But not when you go around reviving peoples’ grandpas and adding them to your army.”

This was obviously a sore spot for Lunaris, so James put his hand on her shoulder and offered her some tea. Dipping a cookie in tea always made him feel better, and munching on some cookies even made him forget about the boredom for a while.

Denmac was floating besides them, and James was sure he had fallen asleep this time.

“Guys, I think he’s asleep for real.”

“No, no, no, it’s just his skill, I’m sure of it. Isn’t that right, Denmac?” Helios asked with an awkward smile.

Denmac didn’t respond, but after a few seconds a loud snore could be heard.

Helios went pale, but a few seconds later Denmac laughed.

“Got you! That one never gets old.”

“Yeah, yeah, you got me.” Helios laughed, relieved. For a second there he thought they really had been walking around like headless chickens. “Is looking like you’re about to fall asleep a necessary part of your skill?”

“Well, the more I concentrate, the more it looks like I’m asleep. It’s a deep focus, to the point that I can’t even spare thought to walking, that’s why I need this sleeping bag for transport. You should see me during a battle, half the time they think I’m dead.” Denmac chuckled. “A lot of the time the monsters don’t even bother attacking me, and I just support my teammates however I can from afar. If I spend some mana concealing my presence, the monsters think I’m dead. Though that only works on stupid ones. Definitely won’t work on agents.”

After the short explanation, Denmac went back to seemingly being in a deep sleep.

“I don’t think we’ll have any luck in this village after all.” A while later, Denmac finished scouting. “Apparently, these neophyte agents start their training with stealth or something, cause they covered their tracks really well. Indistinguishable from the skills of a real agent. I couldn’t even find any hint of the Darkness in the village. And I was extra thorough, I examined every square inch of this place. You saw how I seemed dead asleep. That means my divining and searching skills were working at full blast.”

“So what do we do now?” Lunaris asked.

“I don’t think we have any other choice. We have to go… inside.” Denmac answered.

“I have to ask you again, are you sure you’re willing to risk that?” Helios asked.

“Hey, I’ve told you when you first contacted me. I don’t mind danger.” Denmac replied. “I have a bunch of skills to keep me safe. And I don’t even need to use them most of the time, cause I’m just a diviner and scout, way down the priority list in battle. Although I doubt the agents would be so dumb as to completely ignore me.”

Denmac carefully looked at the three and continued. “You’re the ones who would be in real danger, so if your mind is made up, let’s go and don’t worry about me. You seem like good people, I want to help you out. With my help, hopefully that place won’t be as dangerous, at least until we battle the agents. It’s part of the reason why I’m here, isn’t it?”

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“What are you guys talking about? The lands of Darkness? We’re actually going inside?” James asked.

“We sure are. It’s dangerous, but at the very least it’s going to be fantastic xp for you.” Helios answered.

James’s eyes shone for a second, but he quickly remembered the danger. If not for the risk it brought to his friends, he’d have been absolutely ecstatic.

“More importantly, lives are at stake.” Helios continued. “They’ve already claimed who knows how many lives. If we let these agents mature, they’re going to claim a lot more. The armies of the world have their plate full already, even if the war is at more or less a standstill. It’s up to people like us to fight these bastards and make the world a better place, one dead agent at a time.”

As excited as James was about levels, the idea of helping people was something that truly started a fire in him.

Back on Earth, he was very selfish. He had the vague desire to be good and help others, but he didn’t actually do anything. Even as he blamed himself and felt guilty for not doing anything for others, he continued in his usual ways.

There were many reasons for that, a lot of them legitimately good reasons. He was chronically lazy to the point he sabotaged his own life in so many different ways. He barely ever left the house. He was too introverted and antisocial to even have friends or hang out with anybody. He had even become a shut-in after college was over.

But those always felt like excuses to him. As he was thinking about these conflicting and contradictory aspects of his personality, he felt the stirring of chaos magic inside him. A familiar but still overwhelming presence that wanted to shoot out. But as much as he himself wanted to use it, he knew he still couldn’t handle it.

Still, this was a new life, and his circumstances were very different this time around. He could actually stop being a selfish piece of shit and do things for others. He had power, he had two very good friends, and there were ample opportunities to help people. He had the chance to make up for a lifetime of selfishness.

A strange, mixed feeling of bloodthirst and a will to save people swept over him. He wanted to rip those agents limb from limb. Not only did a lot of innocent people suffer at their hands, but agents had done him plenty of harm before. Worse yet, they put his friends in danger too.

James felt could feel his blood pumping, his neck was pulsating. He had completely forgotten his previous boredom. Now that they were about to enter those dreaded lands, he could feel even an unexpected excitement taking over him.

The village was as close as a settlement could survive near the lands of the Darkness, but no village could survive right next to them. The group had to carefully travel for an entire hour before they finally saw the Darkness.

James couldn’t believe his eyes. They were still quite a distance away, but the boundary between the lands of Darkness and untainted lands was perfectly clear. It was like an actual, physical line dividing the lands. On one side there were green grasslands in the middle of the day, lit up by the bright sun, and on the other side it was nothing but gloom and Darkness.

There was barely any sunlight getting through. Even the air seemed dark, an ambiguous haze wafting throughout the lands. Even the ground was lathered with a dark, tar-like substance.

“So that’s what it looks like, huh?” James said. “It would be scary if not for how cliché it looks. Though I should probably summon some an ounce of fright, it would probably help keep us alive.”

“That’s right. Brave means stupid when it comes to dealing with the Darkness. We need to keep quiet and be alert at all times.” Lunaris stated.

“But we suck at stealth.” James replied. “And those guys are experts at it. Won’t they see us coming long before we see them?”

“That’s what I’m here for, remember? Well, part of the reason.” Denmac intervened. “I’m not only good at divining and searching. I said I’m a support, remember? Not much of a healer, but support takes many forms. One of the reasons Helios brought him along was my ability to keep us under stealth.”

James was pleasantly surprised. That was pretty good news indeed. He just wasn’t sure what exactly it meant.

“You can keep us hidden? How?” James asked.

“I’m completely useless in combat.” Denmac answered. “I mean it, other than supporting others, I probably can barely beat a lowly goblin. I suppose this is yet another reason why people don’t really need my services, and I was so available to come with you guys. But I make up for it with my other abilities. Among them is my ability to keep our entire group in stealth. But that’s only useful in a group that actually has the firepower to make up for non-combatant members.”

When they were close to the lands of Darkness, Denmac cast his stealth on the entire group.

It felt like a heavy, invisible blanket was covering them. It was a weird feeling, James kept waving his hands over his head, trying to touch it.

“It’s not an actual, physical blanket, you know.” Lunaris said with a gentle smile. Helios and Denmac couldn’t prevent themselves from laughing.

Even as they were about to enter into a dangerous area, James’s antics kept the mood light.

But they also knew they had to get serious.

“All right, now that we’ve got stealth covered, we still need to remain silent and aware of our surroundings.” Helios announced. “Even though Denmac will be divining, the rest of us will use our eyes and ears to look for clues. And remember, defense is our topmost priority. If an enemy we can’t handle pops up, we should retreat. As long as we’re alive, we can always return and try again.”

The group finally walked into the lands of the Darkness. James could immediately feel an oppressive, yet familiar aura. It felt like something deep inside his soul was calling to him, while another part of him was telling him to stay strong and vigilant.

Their mission was dangerous and daunting, but if they succeeded, they will have saved countless lives. The nerve-racking part was that they had no clue where they were going yet, in a treacherous, oppressive land where death could be waiting at every corner. They had barely stepped inside, and they could already hear the howls of demons.