Chapter 326: The strongest fiend

“And you said its name was Percy?” Doh – the Green-born asked.

After they were done burying the dead and packing their supplies, he had allowed his men to take a short break for about an hour, before ordering them to set off. As tired as everyone was, it appeared they needed to get moving again. Only then did he pull Sol aside, clearly still trying to wrap his head around last night’s events.

She nodded, sparking some interest in his eyes.

“First time I’m hearing of it.” he said. “I kinda wish I didn’t already have a trait – I would have loved a shot at getting

that one.

”

Percy rolled his eyes, no longer bothering to correct these people. He decided to leave the explaining to his host, paying attention to their conversation.

Sol shook her head.

“Sir, you don’t actually

need

my trait. It simply allows me to call my fiend back to Melodia more easily. He says that anybody can learn that spell we used. And he’s even given me permission to teach everyone.”

The fiend in question had already figured out some things about this world – some by asking Sol, others by piecing together random bits of information from here and there.

Apparently, the enemies threatening their country weren’t from an opposing faction of sapients like he’d originally assumed. They were beasts. And not any organized force of them – just lots of individuals and packs of various sizes, much like the one they’d faced the night before.

People living in lesser and greater springs didn’t consider beasts to be a major threat. The sapients there had the means to advance at a much more sustainable – albeit slightly slower – rate, so they didn’t have much trouble culling the ever-climbing population of beasts. If anything, the creatures were seen as a valuable resource to be taken advantage of, in all sorts of ways.

But barren worlds like Melodia were a different story.

Here, the beasts were no weaker than the people. Disorganized as they may be, their numbers far exceeded the sapients, making it extremely difficult for the latter to hold their ground. The problem was further exacerbated by the fact that there was only a single landmass on the planet, so Sol’s people had no choice but to share it with the wildlife. Their ancestors had barely managed to seize some land by the corner of the continent, carving a tiny country for themselves. One that they constantly had to defend from the invading fauna.

It wasn’t all bad though.

At least, the beast population regulated itself – to an extent. Whenever it neared the breaking point, the creatures razed their own habitants to the ground before migrating en masse, in search of food. No matter what they did, they’d inevitably run out, causing countless species to go extinct, leaving a few of the luckier ones to repopulate the continent.

This created cycles of abundance and scarcity on the planet. Currently, Sol’s people were facing one of the nastier beast tides in history. One that threatened to wipe them all out if they failed to last until the end.

“How quickly can it teach us?” Doh asked.

“The preparation alone will easily take a month or two for most people.” Sol said. “And that’s only because our souls are already strong enough to bear the technique. Still, you’ll all need some time to clear and temper your remaining channels…”

The Green nodded, his expression grim, likely aware it would be hard. The hunters had to keep moving and fighting against the beasts. At the same time, this was their best chance to make it.

“What about the spell itself? I imagine circulating the mana in that fancy pattern isn’t a breeze either.”

She sighed.

“Normally, mastering that takes some time too, but it should become trivial once we reach the Mirror Lake. At least, it’ll make the return trip easier.”

Getting to that place was the very goal of the expedition. According to Sol, the soul mana in the air was even richer there than the rest of Melodia. Even more importantly, something about it allowed people who trained in its vicinity to make rapid progress with their soul magic. It gave them endless inspiration, letting them overcome most roadblocks with ease.

In a way, it could be considered a kind of holy land for soul affinity users.

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“Why didn’t you guys build your country around the Mirror Lake in the first place?” Percy suddenly asked, jumping into the conversation. “It sounds like the most valuable location on the whole planet.”

Doh frowned for a moment, before realizing who had spoken.

“You must be the so-called Percy… First of all, let me personally thank you for saving my people. We would have probably still made it through the night without you, but we’d have lost many more hunters in the process. And every last life might make the difference in the end.”

The so-called Percy

’s eyelid twitched, but

it

didn’t say anything, allowing the man to answer

it

.

“Our ancestors did attempt to do that in the past. They took advantage of a low tide, building a settlement next to the lake. Sadly, it’s impossible to defend. The area is incredibly rich in both mana and natural resources. Even if we destroy everything, it just grows back again. It didn’t take long for the emerging beasts to attack. They flooded the settlement before their population even approached the tipping point, wiping our people out.”

Percy nodded.

So that’s why they resorted to sending small expeditions there, and only whenever things grew truly desperate.

“But will this even help?” he asked, looking at the few remaining survivors.

There were barely fifty or sixty people left. Even assuming that

some

of them made it to the Mirror Lake, he struggled to imagine what they could learn there in just a couple of months. It would have to be something crazy, to turn the whole situation around. Weren’t they better off just joining the force defending their cities?

Doh smiled bitterly, probably guessing his thoughts.

“That’s a common concern among our people. This is why we didn’t send a team to the lake earlier, when the situation wasn’t as dire. As you may imagine, few of these expeditions yield anything valuable. The last time was thousands of years ago, and we’ve failed countless times since. But it’s not like we have a choice. The way things are going, we’re going to get wiped out by the end of the decade, unless something changes drastically.”

Percy couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow, finally realizing why everyone in the camp looked so distraught. It wasn’t just their personal safety they were concerned with, but all of their loved ones’ too.

Though Doh wasn’t done, offering a more optimistic outlook.

“Ah, but things aren’t

that

hopeless! The fact is, we

do

find something valuable every now and then. The method to absorb spectral fiends actually came from the Mirror Lake! Some of our ancestors got really lucky once. It’s the main reason we’ve even lasted this long.”

Percy nodded, sinking back to his own thoughts.

He now knew why Sol and her people wanted to reach that place so badly. Though he harboured some guesses of his own about the topic, not being the ignorant kid he’d once been. He strongly suspected the Mirror Lake was an Elemental Source.

This was something he’d learned about back on Felmara, in one of Mrs. Lia’s Cosmic Studies classes. Elemental Sources were even rarer than greater springs, since there could only be one in the whole universe for each mana type. They passively converted ambient mana into the corresponding affinity, almost like gigantic mana cores embedded in the very surface of the planet they found themselves on.

They were considered strategic resources that major factions fought over, but not all of their locations were known.

If he was right, the Mirror Lake was the reason all of Sol’s people were blessed with a soul affinity. It was a little like the lotus in that sense, though the latter was just a temporary object capable of changing the affinity of a few people. Meanwhile, Elemental Sources were permanent, and could influence an entire world, forcing everyone to develop mana cores of the corresponding type from birth.

‘Not sure if these people would consider it a blessing though...’

Granted, soul affinities were normally rare and powerful, but not necessarily worth losing access to every other mana type. A specialist was only useful if he was

special

, after all. In this case, it simply narrowed the scope of their magic needlessly, which was likely part of the reason their situation was so bad.

Even worse, these people were completely oblivious to the enormous threat looming over their heads. If a major faction learned about this, the beasts would be the least of their worries. Most likely, Melodia would suffer the same fate as Huehue.

‘Actually, does Huehue possess an Elemental Source too?’

All of Micky’s people were stuck with a pure affinity, though that might be a coincidence. Percy didn’t know if there were any concepts associated with it like the other mana types, so it might just be some defect they were born with.

In any case, Sol spent a few minutes addressing the growing crowd beside her, explaining how they were supposed to temper their channels, before letting them work on that by themselves. It would be a race against time to grow strong enough to make the round trip.

At least, Percy’s existence had removed the element of uncertainty from the expedition. Now, they’d no longer have to rely on luck to discover something useful at the Mirror Lake. They already had a most promising spell to master, so it was just a question of time and effort.

In theory, it might have been safer for them to turn around and abandon the expedition entirely. It would take them a little longer to learn Circulation without the lake’s help, but they could do that behind the relative safety of their walls. Unfortunately, they had already travelled most of the distance, so they were closer to the Mirror Lake than their country. Right now, it was probably safer for them to press onward, mastering the boosting art as soon as possible.

Of course, Percy wasn’t helping them solely out of kindness.

Sure, he felt bad about these people, so he wanted to help his host. But that wasn’t his only motive. He was quite interested in the Elemental Source too. His main body was still working on the pure component of the Dance. He was close to registering it, but he hadn’t had the time to even attempt the soul part yet. It was looking increasingly unlikely that he’d get there in time to use it against Acton.

‘But this changes everything! I might be able to figure it out ahead of time if we make it to the lake!’