Chapter 423

The familiar outline of Lionfang rose from the horizon, stone walls, watchtowers, the gate, smoke drifting from forges and kitchens. Life. Order. Home. But the real surprise wasn’t Lionfang. It was how they got there.

For five straight days, the earthen flight platform cut across forests, plains, and hills like a drifting fortress. They stopped only when Ludger’s mana ran dry or for meals or the nature’s call..

Kaela still couldn’t believe it. She stretched her arms overhead with a grunt as they descended, wind whipping her hair.

“Five days. Five! Luds kept us in the air almost the whole time.”

Renvar slapped Ludger’s back, lightly, because last time he nearly made them fall from the earth platform.

“Kid’s a monster. Three extra bodies on his mana lines and he didn’t nose-dive even once.”

Maurien, who never praised lightly, nodded.

“Most full mages can’t maintain stable flight with passengers for more than an hour. You kept altitude through storms.”

But Ludger? He wasn’t surprised. He wasn’t proud. He was calculating.

As the platform dipped toward the northern gate, his eyes were half-lidded, focused inward, on mana pathways, earth-density scaling, where his limits had been pushed. They weren’t limits anymore.

He’d figured out how to channel Overdrive into

precision

instead of brute force. He’d learned to weave wind stabilization into earth platforms. He’d grown stronger, not through a single breakthrough, but endless hours of combat and survival.

Ludger let out a slow breath, the platform humming beneath his boots.

“My mana output’s stabilizing,” he murmured to himself.

“If I refine the channels… maybe I can push density and lift even more weight.

Maybe shape something bigger. Faster.”

What was next? Advanced earth-shaping? Training rage-flow control until he could use Overdrive without snapping bones? Focusing on flight stabilization until he could fight midair properly?

There were so many possibilities, and each one felt like a door slightly cracked open.

The others assumed he was exhausted. He wasn’t. He was planning.

He rarely allowed himself the time to think about progress, but now, with Lionfang in sight and Coria behind him…

His mind raced ahead.

What next? What power? What skill? What edge would he carve into himself? Because the world was growing darker. Enemies were adapting. Corruption ran deeper than they thought. Ludger wasn’t scared. He was preparing.

As Lionfang’s gates opened and familiar faces lifted their heads in surprise at the descending earth platform, Ludger straightened. Another arc ended. Another began. And he was already thinking how to break his limits again.

Name: Ludger

Level: 101 (2,450 / 10,100)

Current Job: Cook (Lv 35 – 620 / 3,500)

Current Class: Geomancer (Lv 119 – 1,300 / 11,900)

Health: 3.360 / 3.360

Mana: 19.300 / 19.300

Stamina: 4.150 / 4.150

Strength: 453

Dexterity: 615

Intelligence: 1399

Vitality: 336

Wisdom: 1903

Endurance: 415

Luck: 253

Classes & Skills

Sage Lv 99 (+2 INT, +4 WIS / level)

Skills:

[Mana Bolt Lv 25]

[Mana Wall Lv 06]

[Spiritual Core Lv Max]

[Meditation Lv 71]

[Mana Armor Lv 01]

[Mana Arrow Lv 01]

[Arcane Arrow Lv 01]

[Mana Spear Lv 01]

[Arcane Focus Lv 01]

[Astral Veil Lv 01]

[Mana Sword Lv 01]

[Mana Cyclone Lv 01]

[Mana Fang Lv 01]

[Mana Channeling Lv 01]

[Overcast Lv 01]

[Mana Discharge Lv 01]

[Magic Elemental Field Lv 01]

[Mana Blessing Lv 01]

[Mana Agony Lv 01] - You can sacrifice health overtime to increase your mana regeneration. Restores ten points of mana per health point used, increased levels grant you more mana, but the rate continue the same.

[Mana Magnet Lv 01] - Improves your mana regeneration by ten percent per level even when not using Meditation.

Geomancer Lv 119 (+12 INT, +6 WIS / level)

Skills:

[Earth Manipulation Lv 100]

[Stone Grip Lv 100]

[Quicksand Lv 14]

[Seismic Sense Lv 34]

[Mineral Skin Lv 01]

[Terra Burst Lv 01]

[Gaia’s Grasp Lv 01]

[Rock Spike Lv 01]

[Continental Shield Lv 11]

[Earthen Surge Lv 01]

[Dust Curtain Lv 01]

[Tectonic Pulse Lv 11]

[Stoneflow Lv 01]

[Earthen Ward Lv 01]

[Landslide Break Lv 01]

[Geo Resonance Lv 01]

[Earth Pulse Lv 01]

[Earth Attunement Lv 41]

[Stone Surfing Lv 31]

[Earth Creation Lv 31]

[Geomancer’s Hand Lv 41]

Rune Crafter Lv. 16 (+4 INT, +4 WIS, +4 DEX.)

Skills: [Mana Inscription Lv. 11]

[Mana Conduction Lv. 16]

[Speed Writing Lv. 11] - Allow yous to control mana more easily when shaping your runes.

[Magic Intensity Lv. 11] - Increases the power output of any rune you write, improving potency, range, durability, and stability.

The platform descended like a drifting boulder, stirred by controlled wind currents and guided by Ludger’s tired but precise mana threads. Below, Lionfang was already buzzing, people running, pointing, shouting.

A flying slab of earth carrying Maurien, Kaela, Renvar, and a very exhausted Ludger tended to cause that kind of reaction. He let out a slow breath.

The mission had lasted far longer than expected. Weeks of infiltration, fighting, politics, survival, healing, flying… But at least he’d used his time well.

His gaze flicked inward, toward the new Sage skills blooming at the edge of his mana core.

Mana Agony — painful to practice, but the internal mana recovery improved his channels.

Mana Magnet — improved mana circulation dramatically.

Most importantly: His mana reserves recovered even faster now. Something he confirmed painfully during the five-day flight, when he had to cast Mana Agony on himself to force recovery cycles and keep the platform airborne.

A stupid training method. But it worked. Suffering for efficiency. Acceptable trade. The moment the stone slab touched down outside the Lionsguard guildhall, the courtyard erupted.

Shouts, cheers, a few panicked squawks from the new recruits.

And then—

“V-Vice Guildmaster!?”

“You were flying! Flying!”

“Teach us! Teach me next! I wanna fly too!”

“I thought geomancers could only jump really high!”

A wave of trainees barreled toward him like happy wolves. Half amazed, half terrified, all far too energetic.

Renn, Marie, Bramm, Jorin, Tali, all the kids from the southern expeditions, surrounded him instantly, eyes shimmering like he’d descended from heaven.

“Ludger teach us flight!”

“How did you do it??”

“Is it a spell or a technique?”

“Can normal mages do that too?!”

He blinked once.

“…I’m tired.”

Didn’t matter. They kept pestering him like excited ducklings. Kaela stepped off the platform with a spring in her step and a grin wider than the gate. Arms crossed, she smirked.

“Look at that, Luds. You leave for a month and suddenly you’re more popular than me with the kids.”

Ludger deadpanned.

“…I am not.”

The kids immediately shouted:

“Vice Guildmaster IS! He’s the coolest!”

“Kaela’s cool but Ludger’s in the sky!”

“Yeah Kaela, he didn’t even use wings!”

Kaela froze. Slowly turned.

“…I WHAT?”

She stared at the children like they had stabbed her pride directly in the chest. Ludger sighed with the patience of a saint.

“If you don’t shut your mouth,” he said calmly,

“I will commission statues of you in

every

city we visit next.”

Kaela blinked. The threat hit harder than any technique.

“Withdrawn.”

Maurien snorted. Renvar laughed so loud people inside the guild heard it. Ludger stepped down from the platform, the courtyard erupting in more chatter, questions, praises, and relief.

He ignored the noise. He ignored the praise. His eyes simply lifted toward the guild’s upper windows, familiar shadows, familiar memories. Home. Finally.

The courtyard was getting louder by the second—voices piling on voices, recruits crowding closer, seniors whispering, rumors spreading like wildfire now that the Vice Guildmaster had literally flown home.

Before the chaos swallowed Ludger whole, Maurien stepped forward, staff tapping lightly against the stone to gather attention. His wind-woven cloak fluttered just enough to silence the nearest cluster of trainees.

He looked at Ludger with calm eyes.

“Go home first.”

Ludger blinked. Maurien never phrased things as requests.

He clarified, tone steady as ever:

“I’ll report to Arslan in your place.”

Kaela raised a brow. Renvar looked amused. Even Harkun tilted his head.

Maurien continued, dead serious:

“It’s better if you reach your house before your mother hears you have returned.”

Ludger frowned slightly. Maurien sighed, the long-suffering kind that said he had firsthand experience with Elaine’s maternal rage.

“If she comes here first,” Maurien said, looking the recruits dead in the eyes,

“she will interrogate

all of us

about why we didn’t help you enough to return after one week instead of nearly

two months

.”

Kaela almost hid behind Renvar for cover. Ludger considered this with the cold logic of someone choosing between a dragon and a politically motivated tribunal. He nodded.

“…Fair point.”

Maurien gave him the faintest smile, a battle mentor approval.

“Go. Before more people arrive and trap you with a thousand questions.”

And he was right. Already, townsfolk and trainees were streaming into the courtyard, drawn by rumors of a flying earth platform and the sudden return of Lionfang’s prodigy. If Ludger stayed any longer, he’d be answering:

“How did you fly!?”

“Did you fight a dragon?”

“Why were explosions seen in the east?”

“Teach me Stone Surfing!!”

“Is it true you punched a commander into the sky?”

…for the next ten hours.

So Ludger quietly lifted his hood, slipped between two distracted recruits, and nodded to his team.

“See you later.”

Kaela saluted him with two fingers. Renvar grinned like a proud older brother. Maurien simply said:

“Good luck.”

Lucky indeed.

Ludger disappeared down the street, leaving the rising chaos behind him—before the crowd noticed he’d escaped and stormed after him demanding stories, autographs, techniques, and probably his blood type.

Home awaited. And a mother who hadn’t seen him in sixty days. He was not prepared.but he was going anyway.

Plates floated through the air like obedient birds, wrapped in spirals of wind and water mana. They dipped into soapy basins, spun clean, rinsed themselves, then drifted onto drying racks in neat, perfect rows.

Ludger stood in the kitchen with the focus of someone performing high-level surgery.

Because he was. This was punishment.

Elaine, arms crossed, expression halfway between disappointment and exasperated affection, watched him from the doorway.

She sighed. For the fifth time in the last minute.

On the floor, two tiny forces of nature known as Elle and Arash wobbled around Ludger’s ankles, pushing him from one side to the other.

Not gently. Not slowly. With all the enthusiasm of toddlers who had discovered their favorite toy had returned from a two-month disappearance.

Ludger’s legs kept shifting left, then right, then left again, like a drunk penguin trying to maintain dignity. He didn’t complain. He was used to golems, explosions, and collapsing ruins. Two babies? Manageable. Barely.

Elaine sighed again. Louder.

“So let me confirm,” she said, voice calm in the way only very angry people achieve.

Ludger glanced over his shoulder, expression flat, soap bubble drifting onto his cheek.

“...Okay.”

She pinched the bridge of her nose.

“You disappeared for two months.”

“Yes.”

“Did not send a single letter home.”

Ludger hesitated. A plate wobbled in the air.

“…Yes.”

“Caused chaos in

another country

.”

“Uh. Yes.”

“Again.”

He paused the dish rotation.

“…Yes.”

“And,” she continued, voice tightening,

“after all that, you proceeded to act as an unauthorized diplomat with the most notoriously isolationist beastman tribes on the continent?”

Ludger cleared his throat.

“Pretty much.”

A long, heavy silence. Elle bumped into him again. Arash tugged on his pants. The plates circled anxiously overhead. Elaine lifted her face to the ceiling, whispering something to the gods that sounded suspiciously like:

“Why do you test me, universe?”

Then she exhaled, stepped forward, and poked Ludger sharply in the forehead.

“You’re grounded.”

“I’m twelve. I have the excuse to be in my rebellious phase.”

“No way..”

He sighed. She sighed louder. The babies giggled.

Outside, Lionfang carried on. Inside, the Graves household resumed its usual balance of love, chaos, and supernatural responsibility.

And Ludger quietly accepted that defeating armored commanders and explosive conspiracies was easier than facing his mother’s punishment shift.

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