Chapter 56

Chapter 56

The group of [Soldiers] and Mages spent a few hours travelling through the woods before they found the swarm of vinebears. In that time, Alice mostly chatted with the other Mages, though a few of the [Guards] travelling with the group also ended up joining into the conversation sometimes. Apart from the occasional swish of [Archers] dispatching overly adventurous spidercrab packs, the group marched in relative peace.

Alice was happy to talk with people from this world who she already knew and could get along with. Even though she wasn’t really a ‘people’ person back at home, she found the way this world’s culture had developed to be fascinating. The [Guards], for example, considered the Sun Knight, the most famous Immortal of Illvaria, to be something like Superman back on Earth. If Superman could be met in real life, at least. Alice was starting to theorize that even though it was well known that Immortals didn’t have the ability to overturn armies and fight kingdoms by themselves, they probably played a hell of a big role in boosting morale. Fighting alongside someone you spend your childhood hearing bedtime stories about was probably like fighting with your idol, if Lady Vallenta’s excitement was anything to go by.

The effect an Immortal could have on morale seemed to be something Allira was keenly aware of. As the group marched forward, Allira would continuously bounce between groups, talking a bit with one group for a while, spending a bit of time cheering up those who felt nervous and preparing people. Something else Alice noticed was that Allira had left Illa in charge of the hunting party, even though she probably could have taken command of the whole thing with little difficulty. Was it because Allira wanted Illa to gain levels in some sort of [General] – related class? Was she just more confident in Illa’s commanding abilities, compared to her own? Alice didn’t know. Either way, however, despite how intimidating the woman’s status as an Immortal was, she seemed surprisingly easy to get along with. She occasionally drifted over to tease or talk with Illa, chatted with the soldiers, and worked to boost morale. If Alice couldn’t see the massive, solidified chunks of mana fractals replacing every bit of flesh and blood in the woman’s body, or the woman’s inhuman, ‘too perfect’ beauty, she would have had a hard time believing that Allira was someone with an extraordinary status.

Which might have been because Immortals didn’t necessarily come from distinguished lineages. A [Farmer] was almost as likely to reach Immortality as a [King], if they worked for it and got the right Achievements. If anything, [Nobles] and [Kings] tended to be less likely to take the kind of loony, insane risks one usually needed to take to get good Achievements and reach Immortality – though they also had access to better [Teachers] and educational resources. Alice didn’t know what background Allira came from, but she made a mental note that she should ask around about it later on, when she wasn’t near the woman. She suddenly found herself increasingly curious to know why the Immortal of Song and Shadow had such a huge flinch reaction towards the Sigmusi Colonia and Sigmusi Imperia, and who she had been before she became an Immortal.

As the group followed the marks left behind by the [Spies] under Immortal Allira’s command, Lady Vallenta glanced at Immortal Allira no less than twenty-three times over the course of half an hour. Alice couldn’t help but feel a little amused by the woman’s focus on the Immortal.

“Anxious?” Asked Alice, giving the older woman a grin.

“Ah!” Lady Vallenta flinched, before she looked back at Alice.

“If you want to talk to her, just do it. I don’t think she’s the type to make a big fuss over that sort of thing. You already mentioned you want to talk to her, right?” Said Alice, giving Lady Vallenta a mirthful look. Even though Lady Vallenta was in her early twenties physical, and probably a fair bit older than that, right now Lady Vallenta seemed more like a kid. Since she had a good personality and wouldn’t mind, Alice suddenly found teasing her to be unexpectedly fun.

“Ah... I just... She does a lot for the kingdom, and as I grew up, I heard a lot about her, so I’m just a little curious... I don’t know if I want to interrupt her...” Vallenta shook her head a little. “Even if she’s the youngest Immortal in Illvaria, meeting her is still really amazing, you know?”

“You know her age?” Asked Alice, unconsciously dropping her voice.

Lady Vallenta twitched a bit, before she looked at Allira again. Then, Alice saw the rainbow mana fractals in the air spin a bit, and a strange bubble formed around the two of them. Sound from outside of the bubble became muted.

“Most people in the kingdom do, actually. Knowledge about Immortals isn’t particularly secret, since any proper organization can usually dig it out. She was originally a [Bard] that lived in Southern Illvaria, before it was razed to the ground by the Sigmusi. She was present during the war with the Sigmusi several decades ago, actually – it was when she became an Immortal. I hear that her home city was besieged by the Sigmusi and over half of the town died from stray debris thrown at the walls by [Kinetic Mages] or starved to death. She managed to survive... unlike most of her neighbors and friends. She levelled up [Bard] by trying to bring hope to the dying citizens of the city... and when she started combining Perks, she somehow managed to make [Bard] into an offensive class with shadow manipulation abilities. She’s around eighty or eighty five right now, I believe.”

Huh. Only seventy, huh. Even if she wasn’t an Immortal, she could quite plausibly still be alive, even back on Earth. Compared to Immortals like the Sun Knight, who are several centuries old, she really is quite young.

Alice shrugged, but dropped the matter. Immortal Allira would probably drop by the group sooner or later anyway. She could ask more if the Immortal felt like chatting – which she seemed to be inclined to do.

It took another fifteen minutes before Allira finally worked her way over to their group as she was making her rounds.

“So how are all of you doing?” Asked Allira. Her voice was faintly musical, almost as if she was playing an instrument instead of simply speaking. Curiously enough, the rainbow mana in Alice’s surroundings also seemed to faintly quiver as Allira spoke. The more normal mana, however, seemed to totally ignore her.

“We are doing well, Lady Allira,” said Lady Vallenta, giving a slight, but visible, deferential bow.

“Are you nervous?”

“Not terribly so, Honored Immortal,” said Vallenta.

“It’s okay to be a little nervous. Monsters actually becoming alphas is pretty rare up North, since Mage Academies deal with mana clusters whenever they form. There is no shame in being nervous, so long as it does not influence your ability to your job.”

“My thanks to Honored Immortal. I will keep your words in my heart and never forget them,” said Vallenta, practically oozing eagerness. Alice, who was starting more than a little secondhand embarrassment, gave Allira a respectful nod.

“What about you? I recall... ah, yes, you were the one who closed your eyes during our first meeting a few weeks ago. I notice you now have your eyes open,” said Allira, giving Alice a smile wider than a Cheshire cat’s. Alice suppressed an involuntary twitch. That was what stood out the most from the first time she had seen an Immortal?

On second thought, she did recall being unable to concentrate whenever she looked at Allira. Now, the rainbow fractals embedded inside of Allira’s body and the world around her were so distracting that Alice had an easier time concentrating. After all, there was just so much moving every second in Alice’s mana vision that it was already easy to get distracted. Still, Alice couldn’t help but wince a little bit. She had rather hoped to either make less of an impression, or a different one.

Seeing Alice’s discomfort, Allira actually laughed. It wasn’t a disdainful or mocking laugh, but one that sounded good natured. Even though she could tell Allira was amused, it felt like she was laughing with Alice, rather than at her.

“It happens sometimes, actually. I remember previous king once tried really hard to convince me to wear really ugly, shapeless dresses by claiming they were the ‘new fashion’ when he was a young lad. He was quite an interesting child,” she said, her lips twisting into a nostalgic smile for a moment. “It was a shame when he died of an assassin’s arrow, but such is nature of life, I suppose.” The nostalgic smile on her lips twisted into a grimace for a moment, and then disappeared entirely.

“Illa said that you are a newly baptized Mage, yes? Do you have any experience in combat from before then? You don’t seem to have any Perks that boost your marching speed or discipline, so I doubt you have a [Soldier] class or anything of the sort. That’s usually the first thing most [Soldiers] take if they don’t want to get yelled at for bad marching posture.”

“No. I’ve had a few smaller encounters with monsters, and I was part of the expedition that scouted out the broken mana zone. However, I can’t really say that I have too much fighting experience overall,” said Alice. “Illa has been helping me boost my combat Skills, at least, so I don’t think it’ll be too bad.”

Allira gave Alice a sympathetic look. “Don’t worry about it. This kind of thing isn’t really that scary, honestly. I’ll be doing a fair bit of the work, and the [Archers] will be doing a lot more of the work. You guys are here to make sure that a huge mass of Vinebears don’t start roaming the countryside and terrorizing farmers or less well-prepared towns, but it shouldn’t be very dangerous. Just mow down the Vinebears where you can, listen to the person leading your team when we break into groups later on, and prioritize your safety first. The [Organic Mages], as well as the Illa and the people around you will keep you safe.”

Alice nodded. Even though she knew Allira was working to improve the morale of everyone, she still couldn’t help but feel more relaxed about everything after the Immortal personally took some time to reassure her. Perhaps it was the woman’s high [Charisma], but Alice couldn’t help but feel like this really wouldn’t be a huge deal after listening to Allira talk about it.

After that, Allira continued chatting with the Mages and [Guards] as they continued walking. Lady Vallenta seemed about ready to burst with excitement, and Alice felt the urge to let out a few chuckles as she watched the rest of the group interact with the Immortal.

Then, another piece of rubble fell from the sky.

This one did not miss. It smashed directly into the center of the Vinebear group – and the alpha, along with several of the Vinebears, were crushed under its weight and immediately died.

The previous patience and careful analysis of the vinebear group collapsed instantly. The vinebears seemed to jolt in surprise. Then, with a start, they began looking in totally random directions. Before, the group had been cautiously eying every one of the groups, as if they were trying to find the weakest point to attack and escape. Now, they were just like wild animals – there was no semblance of coordination or intelligence in their actions anymore.

A few of them immediately charged towards random groups, totally ignoring their surroundings. Most of the vinebears just targeted whatever group was closest to them. A few of them even began trying to chew on the buildings in the illusion, completely ignoring the humans in favor of the mana fractals inside of the buildings.

Alice tentatively pushed a mana tendril into a fist-sized chunk of stone that had passed through her a few moments ago. To her surprise even though the object had passed through her like a trick of light, when she touched it with her mana it felt the same as any other stone.

Alice picked it up with her mana before firing the fist-sized stone chunk towards one of the vinebears. It made no attempt whatsoever to dodge as the chunk of stone crashed into its skull, killing it instantly. The other [Guards] with bows began shooting into the scattered and disorganized pack as well.

What followed was neither difficult nor suspenseful. It was akin to harvesting wheat. There was no danger or difficulty at all. The vinebears were slaughtered mercilessly. Debris kept falling from the sky, launched by the group of Sigmusi Mages outside of the walls. Even though most of the debris missed completely, the debris passed through the humans while crushing any vinebears it landed on. The ‘fight’ wasn’t even really a fight. It was just an organized group of overly prepared [Guards] and Mages mopping up a disorganized group of hungry wild animals. It took less than ten minutes for the last vinebears to be dispatched, including the few who were still insistently gnawing on illusory buildings.

After the vinebears were all dead, out of Curiosity, Alice tried plugging her ears with her fingers.

Immediately, the illusory buildings in the area became fainter. If before they were only slightly translucent, once Alice couldn’t hear Allira’s singing, the buildings became far closer to transparent. Alice tried touching one again, and found that she could now stick her feet and elbows inside of the illusory buildings. There was a faint feeling of resistance, but it was nothing like touching a real object. Alice nodded to herself, unplugged her ears, and waited.

Allira stopped singing, and the illusory world faded away. Alice immediately lost visibility of the other four groups, because she could no longer see through the trees in her surroundings. Mana started rolling in from the area around her.

You have leveled up!

Survivor: 40 -> 41

(Student) of Kinetic Magic: 23->25 (MAX LEVEL)

Exporer of Magic: 41-> 42

Through Training, you have increased an attribute!

Magic 123 -> 125

Through training, you have increased a skill!

Kinetic Manipulation 48 -> 49, Mana Control 33-> 34, Mana control 31->33, Kinetic Force 29 -> 30, Sigmusi (language proficiency) 1 -> 7

Alice dismissed the System notifications. She would deal with her new Perk when she got back to town.

The [Scout] began leading them towards the dead vinebear. As they did so, Alice couldn’t help but reflect on the ‘fight.’

First and foremost, Alice was surprised by both the massive strength and massive weaknesses of Allira. Vinebears were a species of monster that was considered a pretty big threat to most of the inhabitants of this world. Dealing with one usually required a squad of [Guards] or [Soldiers], because the species tended to stick to areas where their plant control could shine. They were considered a big threat to [Farmers] if they were caught off-guard, and could kill low level combat classes if they didn’t work together. In wooded areas, they were a massive problem.

And Allira just literally changed the topography of the entire area. Instead of standing in the middle of a heavily wooded region, suddenly the entire fight was taking place in the middle of a town. With a single action, she had totally nullified the biggest advantage the species had. This sort of reality-altering ability was nothing short of miraculous.

At the same time, just by plugging her ears, Alice managed to remove a huge chunk of this illusion. There were definitely still some remnants of Allira’s illusory world, and Alice was sure the woman had far more than just this ability up her sleeve. Still, it gave Alice a better perspective on why Immortals didn’t rule this world. Even though Allira had a massive, overpowering advantage, as long as an army or nation was prepared for it, they could directly counter her abilities as well. Even though Allira certainly had other Perks up her sleeve, there could just as easily be other counters to those Perks as well.

The higher someone’s level was, the slower their levelling speed. Nations would learn the Perks of Immortals from neighboring nations every time that Immortal took action. Unless they were just unable to counter an ability, they would definitely develop ways to counter the Immortals of other nations every time they learned of a new ability. Countering someone like the Sun Knight, who was reported to be a powerful all around commander and fighter, was probably several times harder than someone like Allira, who had basically forced a noncombat class into a combat role. The massive stone debris lobbed into the city by the ‘mages of the Sigmusi Empire’ who had destroyed the nostalgic, dream-like city at the beginning of the song also weren’t aimed well. Even though each missile was still aimed sort of close to the Vinebears, there were plenty of times that they missed completely. In a smaller fight, especially, this ability had a reasonable chance of just missing over and over again. Allira might be a more espionage focused Immortal, based on her absurdly high [Charisma] and the fact that her title was the Immortal of Song and Shadow. Still, it gave Alice a good perspective on how much an Immortal could change a battlefield – they were both incredibly good at doing so, and likely incredibly ineffective the moment a counter was developed.

Apart from that, however, Alice had another thought. One that, at least to her, was far more interesting.

After her mana-vision trip, she had already been starting to think about the nature of mana more closely. What exactly was a mage? A class? A Perk?

Today gave her even more food for thought.

Because after speaking with lady Valenta for an extended period of time, Alice knew for a fact that Allira was not known to be a Mage. However, despite that fact, Allira was able to do a lot of things that... well, seemed pretty Mage-like. Manifesting a song from what Alice assumed was her memory as reality, darkening the sky, creating an illusion that was almost real... and lobbing around giant chunks of stone. All of those things were remarkably similar to what a Mage could do. In fact, since Allira had constructed a bunch of fake, illusory Sigmusi Mages proficient in Kinetic magic... in a weird, convoluted way, Allira was sort a [Kinetic Mage]. Alice had no clue whether she could influence objects that weren’t created from her illusions. However, the fact remained that she could create a somewhat similar effect, even though she was well known to not be a Mage at all.

As the groups met up and the [Scouts] began to harvest the corpses of the Vinebears, Alice sank further and further into her thoughts.

This matter... required further testing.