"You're so strong… I don't think I can live without you now.""You're heading north, right? Can I come with you?""I know my strength isn't great, but I'm useful—I can help you, especially at night…"
The warmth of the moment should have been pleasant, but there was one flaw: ever since the woman beside him had woken up, she'd been chattering nonstop in Kai's ear. Her name was Mary, a mid-level female apprentice.
With her half-mask removed, Mary was reasonably good-looking. Thanks to regular grooming and cosmetics, she appeared far younger than her actual age—but even so, she couldn't hold a candle to either Kai's girlfriend Lena or his senior apprentice sister Phil.
Mary was nothing more than a passing stranger in Kai's life. To be blunt, if he hadn't been pent-up for so long—his body acting against his better judgment—he might not have even looked twice at her.
Taking Mary north was out of the question. Kai had no interest in dragging along dead weight; their night together had been no more than a transaction.
When Kai remained silent, a flicker of disappointment crossed Mary's face.
"Here's your payment." Kai fished a Mid-Level Energy Crystal from his clothes beside the bed and handed it to her.
For Mary, a Mid-Level Energy Crystal was a rare treasure. Given the poverty of the region, her entire net worth barely amounted to two or three such crystals. As soon as she took the crystal from Kai, her disappointment melted into delight.
He really was a generous, mysterious senior apprentice. Mary leaned in and kissed Kai's cheek, leaving a faint red mark.
Their transaction was technically over, but Mary still dreamed of the prosperity and splendor of the south—a dream shared by many mid-level apprentices like her.
On his last night in Pete City, Baron Pete held a lavish farewell feast for Kai. Touched by the portly lord's warmth, Kai hesitated for a moment before secretly giving him a Light Ring as thanks for the days of hospitality.
The ring was made of ugly black iron, a stark contrast to the gem-encrusted jewelry on the baron's fingers—but it was an invaluable low-level magical item, one Kai had crafted casually during his travels after leaving the Underdark.
Overwhelmed by the gift, the baron pulled Kai into a tight hug and pressed a chest of gold coins into his hands—two thousand in total. He'd even offered a carriage and two servants, but Kai politely declined. He preferred traveling alone, and the journey north would be rough; beyond the main roads near cities, a carriage would be more trouble than it was worth.
"Hehe, young people have such stamina—Mary still hasn't woken up?" During the feast, Frank wandered over to Kai, a glass of red wine in hand.
Kai's cheeks flushed slightly. "No, she's still asleep. She said she didn't want to join the feast."
Frank smacked his lips, as if about to tease him further, then shook his head and got down to business. "That guide to local creatures you asked for—I stayed up a day and night to put it together. It's a bit rough, given the time, but I hope you'll forgive that. The content should be mostly accurate, though." He waved a maid over, who handed Kai a thick leather-bound book.
"It's fine." Kai set down his wine glass, ignoring the ongoing feast, and flipped through the book immediately. It was clear Frank hadn't made it entirely by hand—some illustrations were torn from other books—but Kai didn't mind. As long as it was useful, that was all that mattered. Each illustration had notes beneath it, some written in Frank's own handwriting.
"Here's your payment." Kai pressed a Mid-Level Energy Crystal into Frank's palm, his eyes still on the book.
When Kai left Pete City, he didn't linger. After traveling north for a few more days, the smooth main roads gradually gave way to narrow mountain trails. Villages and signs of human life grew scarcer.
Thankfully, before leaving, Kai had stocked up on supplies in Pete City—enough to last him several months. He stuck to a strict routine: traveling by day, resting by night.
That evening, Kai released Qi from the spatial flute. A beam of holy white magic light shot from the badge in Kai's hand and sank into Qi's body.
"The Light Restoration spell works wonders. It looks like two more treatments and you'll be fully recovered," Kai said, smiling as he watched Qi's condition improve.
"Goo… That's a spell only a Tier 1 Light Mage can cast," Qi replied. "Midichi didn't seem like an alchemist, but if he could make a badge like this, he must be a truly knowledgeable and powerful Holy Tower Mage."
"You don't need to feel guilty about me not joining the Dawn Holy Tower. Besides your role in it, it was mostly my choice," Kai shook his head. "In a way, the Dawn Holy Tower indirectly led to my mentor's death—and tore me apart from my senior brother, senior sister, and Lena. Why would I ever join them?"
Qi let out a soft "goo" in response.
Since they were in a remote, uninhabited area, Qi decided not to return to the spatial flute. As a flying magical beast, the sky was its true home. It soon shrank to a tiny dot in the distance, soaring off to explore the heights and the depths of the forest.
Kai glanced in Qi's direction, unconcerned. A quasi-tier magical beast like Qi could handle itself. He pulled a tent from his spatial ring, lit a campfire, and began preparing dinner.
Knowledge was a spellcaster's greatest strength—and as Modesto had once praised, Kai was a eager learner. He tossed spices and chunks of meat into an iron pot hanging over the fire, then picked up Frank'sGuide to Local Creaturesand flipped through it.
"I'm running out of low-level magical materials from the Underdark—even the ingredients for Nutrition Potions are almost gone," he muttered. "But I'm not an alchemist. I can't afford to waste time figuring out which surface materials can replace the Underdark ones. I should have learned more about alchemy from Mary back then."
Alchemy was just as profound as the alchemy Kai practiced. Mastering heat control, the order and quantity of ingredients, and timing—all required deep expertise. He'd only mastered Nutrition Potions because they were so low-tier. Now that his supplies were dwindling, he couldn't afford to experiment blindly. He'd rather spend that time studying the magical books Modesto had left him. After all, Nutrition Potions were trivial—hardly worth his effort.
"Once I reach the north, I should try contacting those magic organizations… or maybe join the Green Source Holy Tower?" he thought. "Whether it's acquiring alchemical knowledge or other resources, I can't keep isolating myself."
At his current apprentice level, even if he locked himself in a lab for decades, he'd never make real progress. The mid- and senior apprentices around Pete City were living proof of that. Only by joining a Holy Tower or an organization with formal mages could he gain the platform to grow. He hadn't forgotten his obsession with advancing to Tier 1 and traveling to the Western Islands—both to fulfill Modesto's last wish and to find Lena.
As dinner neared completion and the pot filled the air with the aroma of stew, Qi's "goo" echoed from the sky. It was back—and this time, it hadn't returned empty-handed.
Besides three stalks of glowing blue grass, Qi carried two red berries in its beak. Kai recognized the berries immediately: Bloodfire Berries, the first item traded at the small fair a few days earlier. The grass, he realized after a moment, was Azure Weed—a low-tier but valuable magical material.
According to Frank's guide, Azure Weed could be held in the mouth to boost meditation efficiency—though unfortunately, it only worked for mid-level apprentices with mental power below 50 points. It was useless to Kai.
"Holding it in your mouth is a primitive, inefficient method," Kai said, taking the grass. "If we use it as an ingredient in a magical potion, it could work even for senior apprentices like me."
Finding the Azure Weed only deepened his desire to learn alchemy. He tucked the three stalks into his spatial ring, then noticed Qi's wings were ruffled—stained with a faint blue blood.
"Were you in a fight?" Kai asked, surprised.
"Yes. When I picked these berries, a snake tried to stop me. I with it for a while," Qi replied, preening its feathers.
The area had no powerful magical beasts, so the snake was probably low-tier. The blue blood on Qi's wings was likely the snake's—but Kai wondered if Qi had killed it.
As if reading his mind, Qi added, "I ate its magic core, but it was too big to carry back."
Kai couldn't help but sigh. "Next time, even if it's big, bring back the valuable parts. Don't forget—I'm an alchemist."
"Goo… Should I go get it now?" Qi asked.
"No, let's eat first. You look tired," Kai shook his head.
Though Qi was a magical beast, it had grown accustomed to eating warm meals with Kai. After the fight, it had only eaten the mid-tier beast's core, not its flesh.
"Snake meat is actually quite good. Next time, bring back some beast meat too," Kai reminded it as they ate.
"Goo," Qi chirped in agreement.
"By the way, my mentor left two Regen Fruits in his legacy. You said they'd help you—why haven't you eaten them?" Kai asked suddenly, sipping his soup.
"I said they'd help because they speed up wound recovery," Qi replied. "But now that we have the Holy Light Badge, there's no need to waste them. The real purpose of Regen Fruits is to help quasi-tier magical beasts refine their bloodlines, to prepare for advancing to Tier 1. I'm still far from Tier 1—eating them now would be a waste."
"What if we use the Regen Fruits as the main ingredient to make a beast potion? Would that boost your chances of advancing to Tier 1 even more?" Kai asked.
"Maybe," Qi answered.
Qi was far smarter and more eager to learn than Kai had expected. Frank'sGuide to Local Creatureshad taken Kai about a week to memorize; Qi had needed a week and a half. Once it had learned about magical materials, it began venturing out more often—sometimes even during the day—using its ability to fly to scout ahead for Kai.
As a result, Kai's stock of low-tier magical materials grew steadily. Some he didn't even recognize—materials not mentioned in Frank's guide—but Qi had sensed faint elemental energy in them and brought them back anyway.
"It's so convenient to have a magical beast helper," Kai mused. "I read in one of my mentor's books that some formal mages choose promising magical beasts as their soul familiars."
He didn't see Qi as a pet, though—more like a friend. Impressed by Qi's intelligence, he'd even considered teaching it magic. Even if magic proved too difficult, Qi could still be his lab assistant. Its Wind Chains alone would be enough to hold down many experimental subjects.
That night, the Scream Branch outside the tent let out a shrill wail. Kai, a light sleeper, woke instantly—but Qi, ever alert at night, reacted even faster. A dark blur streaked through the darkness, followed by screams and cries of agony.
To most humans—even apprentice mages like Kai—a quasi-tier magical beast like Qi was overwhelmingly powerful. And at night? It was Qi's domain.
"Bandits again? This is the second group in three days. There must be a large human city nearby," Kai muttered, sitting up in his tent.
By the time he stepped outside, the fight was nearly over. Qi had already taken down the ordinary bandits; only two men with battle qi remained, struggling to hold their ground. One of them was surprisingly strong—close to a low-tier knight squire.
"More experimental subjects. Qi, try not to hurt them too much," Kai said to Qi using Voice Transmission—a cantrip he'd fully mastered shortly after leaving Pete City.
Qi's "goo" was a comfort to Kai, but to the two bandits still fighting, it sounded like a death knell.
By dawn, the surrounding forest looked mostly unchanged—save for a pile of blackened campfire ashes, marking where a traveler had spent the night. Not far from the ashes, however, two naked, muscular male bodies lay in the bushes. One was still breathing; the other had gone cold.
Kai had been more interested in the low-tier knight squire, and had been a little too rough during the capture—accidentally killing him. The countless cuts and incisions on their bodies weren't the work of a sadist, but of a scholar just starting down the path of truth, humbly exploring the mysteries of the human body.
Since ancient times, creatures from other planes had called the Wizarding World's spellcasters "madmen." From their perspective, the label was justified—but those ignorant, foolish beings could never understand the unyielding resolve with which the Wizarding World's mages pursued truth.
Was the Wizarding World's true strength in the elemental power of mages or the battle qi of knights? No. Its greatest strength lay in the spirit and will of its spellcasters—the madness that dared to challenge gods, even dissect them; the unrelenting drive to uncover the secrets of truth.
Half a year later, in Clark City.
It had been over half a year since Kai left Menzoberranzan in the Underdark—and today, he finally reached Clark City, the largest city in northern Underdark. The city was even marked on the magical map Modesto had given him. Beyond Clark City, a half-month's journey north would take him out of the Underdark entirely, into a new region.
As a key hub connecting northern Underdark to other areas, Clark City was massive—its permanent population was said to exceed a million, not counting the smaller cities, towns, and villages scattered around its borders.
Yet when Kai arrived, his first thought was:Its walls aren't as grand as Menzoberranzan's.
It was his first time in a city of this size. After months of traveling, he needed to rest, resupply, and gather information.
"So the region north of Clark City is called the 'Green Fields'?" he murmured, sitting alone in a corner of an inn's dining hall, picking at his food. "It's even larger than the Underdark. I haven't found any news about magic organizations or the Green Source Holy Tower yet, but I did learn there are three human kingdoms in the Green Fields."
This was what he'd gleaned since entering Clark City. Three human kingdoms meant the north was far more unified than the Underdark, where cities acted independently. There were no dark mages causing trouble, and the power structure was simpler—with the Green Source Holy Tower seemingly dominant. The overall magical and academic atmosphere was far better than in the Underdark, if not quite as vibrant as the southern coast of the Wizarding World, where Holy Towers dotted the landscape.
Besides the Green Source Holy Tower, there were other magic organizations—including one with connections to Tier 2 Mage Midichi. It couldn't be a small group.
"The Bloodline Tracking Magic my mentor taught me still hasn't reacted, which means I'm definitely not from the Underdark. My family must be further north," Kai thought, frowning. "But which of the three kingdoms are they in?"
Just then, loud, raucous laughter erupted from a nearby table. Seven or eight burly men were gathered there, drinking. Their noise and the stench of sweat made Kai's brow furrow.
This was the best inn he could find. Conditions here were decent compared to the rowdier taverns or cheap inns, which were even more chaotic. All the men had battle qi—and the strongest among them was close to a mid-tier knight squire. They seemed to be part of the same mercenary group.
It was in Clark City that Kai first encountered a special institution unique to the city: the Mercenary Guild.