Maybe she should find some kind of contact lens to wear in the future?

Mithra was already toying with the idea, wondering which color might suit her best.

But… did this world even have contact lenses?

Together, she and Safin finished processing the bear’s corpse and took it back to the cave for burial. The familiar campfire flickered between them as they sat, the firelight casting long shadows while Mithra recounted her encounter.

“Beast miracle…” Safin echoed, after hearing her story. His expression was thoughtful but not surprised.

“Feels like a taming tool. Convenient,” Mithra said, flipping through her textbook.

“It’s no mere tool. In the Sanctuary’s cities, beast intelligence miracles are strictly forbidden for individual use. If one is ever necessary, it’s subject to exhaustive investigation.”

“But here it is, just out in this poor, rural place.”

“You’re right…” Safin rubbed his forehead. “Beast miracles can be dangerous for humans. Sure, they visibly enhance strength, but they’re notorious for slipping out of control.”

“Are the side effects worse than with regular miracles?”

“They’re a different kind of strength, rooted in animal nature. There’s a deep psychology involved I don’t fully understand. But if you reach the Sanctuary, you’ll have a chance to explore it,” he replied.

Through her time with Safin, Mithra had learned what the Sanctuary was: a place born during the time of the Forty-Four Pillars by those who had stolen miracles, serving as the earliest academy for miracle studies. Through hardship, it endured and grew into Dreamland’s most renowned place of learning, its fortress offering refuge to many wanderers. Amid all the world’s chaos, the Sanctuary remained fiercely independent, a bastion of education and discovery, from which talented people constantly emerged.

“Opportunities will come later,” Mithra said, turning another page in her book. “We can’t see the future anyway.”

Almost done with the book, she felt like a schoolchild again, just given new textbooks—eager, ready to dive in.

“If you can take down a beast-intelligence bear, you could leave this place anytime,” Safin said slowly. “Just be careful.”

Mithra looked up and held his gaze a moment, then replied, “I’m planning to stay a bit longer.”

“There’s nothing worth staying for in this mountain range,” he said.

“I haven’t eaten bear paw yet.”

“…”

“Just kidding. I haven’t finished learning yet. There’s so much still to understand. I’m not used to this life, and I really need to absorb all sorts of knowledge,” Mithra said, glancing down at the textbook in her hand.

Safin chuckled dryly, though Mithra didn’t respond.

She had looked out at the sky earlier, but with the thick cloud cover, it was hard to tell the time. All she knew was that it was daytime—though here, she still had no idea exactly when or where.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

But dinner would be bear paw, and after eating, she’d return to her studies.

Recently, she’d mastered a magma miracle called “Accumulate Dust.”

["Accumulate Dust": In ancient times, it was called “Stone Fragment.” One of the most basic magma miracles. It gathers dust and small stones to form hardened rock, durable for a short time.]

[—Hardness is strength.]

Mithra could now handle a few intermediaries with ease.

She had also acquired the old hunter’s bracelet, which now rested on her wrist. The beast tooth set within it marked it as a beast-type intermediary—Safin had confirmed it.

Yet Safin’s teachings were running thin. When it came to beast miracles, he knew very little. Even without restrictions, he wouldn’t have been able to teach her.

Similarly, Mithra possessed another, subtler sense: Ki.

Ki sense, like Self, was inherent to all humans, but it remained shrouded in mystery. Knowledge of it was scarce, and related miracles were even rarer.

“If you want to study Ki systematically, aside from the luck of meeting the right believer, there are two places I can recommend,” Safin offered.

“One is the Sanctuary’s Ki Academy. It’s one of the most mysterious branches. At first, the academy even refused to include Ki miracles in their textbooks. I don’t know why, but after much debate, the Sanctuary finally agreed. Those scholars have deep knowledge of Ki.”

Mithra nodded. “And the other place?”

Safin continued, “In the east of Dreamland lies the Mysterious Kingdom, behind an unbroken mountain range. People say they hold the oldest, largest legacy of Ki miracles.”

“There’s really such a place?” Mithra’s curiosity flared.

“To most, it’s just legend. Very few have crossed the First Mountain Range—considered the world’s edge—to reach it. But Sanctuary records confirm its existence.”

“So you’re saying it’s hard to get there?”

“That’s right.”

“Okay,” Mithra nodded, then added, “Since there’s so little known about them, let’s discuss what lies beyond.”

She hadn’t been too concerned with exploring the tunnels or unraveling the mysteries of Gross Town; her focus was still on grasping the basics. Yet questions lingered—questions she couldn’t ignore forever. Why had the tunnels become graveyards? What were the people of this strange town up to? And who exactly was that ominous believer?

She remembered the old hunter with the eye tattoo on his forehead—the one who could wield beast miracles with unsettling ease.

Eyes.

There was always something uncanny when it came to mentions of eyes. Every instance seemed to carry a hidden weight.

“You should tell me what’s really happening here and why you’re stuck in this place. I’ll probably be joining in soon enough,” Mithra said, her tone light but her gaze steady.

Safin didn’t respond right away, a heavy pause settling between them.

“What?” she pressed.

“Ugh.” Safin sighed, casting her a wary glance. “You realize, if you’re going to help, you might be walking into dangers beyond what you’re ready for.”

Mithra frowned in mild confusion. “I already agreed, didn’t I?”

Safin eyed her, then nodded, as if seeing her resolve anew. “Deep within Gross Town’s tunnels lies a relic—an ancient artifact of a Wandering God. Gross Town was built on the minerals extracted here, minerals that could be refined into intermediaries. But this digging, this intrusion, woke something that should’ve been left buried.”

“Wandering God?” Mithra echoed, narrowing her eyes at the term.

Her night eyes hadn’t translated it with perfect clarity. She received fragments of meaning, as though multiple voices whispered simultaneously in her mind, offering different interpretations: “God of Wandering,” “God of Travel,” “God of Drifting.” She landed on the simplest term—Wandering God—feeling its strange resonance.

“Unclaimed miracles, once awakened, gather into powerful conduits,” Safin explained. “They come in many forms, often ancient and otherworldly, and act as focal points for miracles beyond those bound by common sense.”

Mithra recalled the main types of senses: Self, Nature, Ki, Beast, and lastly, Godly.

“Godly miracles?”

“That’s right,” Safin replied. “Though Godly miracles are a broad category in the academic world, Wandering God miracles almost stand apart. They have peculiar traits, similarities to other miracles, but also significant differences.”

“So… basically, they’re extraordinarily powerful, right?” she asked, her voice flat.

Safin’s mouth twisted into a wry smile. “Your courage is commendable. I hope those eyes of yours never falter.”

Mithra rolled her eyes, unimpressed. “So, there’s really one of those buried under Gross Town?”

“Exactly. Before the Sanctuary ever found it, a group of believers picked up the signs. They settled here and took control of the town, leading its people into their rituals—all of it aimed at releasing this Wandering God and seizing its miracles.”