Next morning found the most interesting buddy-cop duo in a thousand-mile staring headfirst at the cheerful goddess.

On the table were dishes of Ravine Snapper Steak served with nan.

“Sorry guys but this is the best I whip up,” the goddess cheekily cheered while washing her pan. “Oh, and that nan is our last portion of flour, so I hope you can cope with an all-meat diet for a while.”

Cy’s grin suddenly turned playful.

“Not that it matters,” Cy said with a grin. “I guarantee you will love my food for all eternity after this plate.”

The goddess laughed to herself.

Luxinna and Rem shared a glance.

“She put something in the food,” Rem stated.

“Obviously,” Luxinna agreed. “But let be honest, we will eat it anyway.”

Scathach strolled toward the table. She yawned, her unkempt brown-hair swayed back and forth in the pendulum motion. The respected master propped down, looked at the food and sighed.

“Dammit,” Scathach’s eyes were that of a dead fish, and her voice was opposite of cheerful. “Ravine Snapper Steak. Infamous for its chewy texture, toughness, and stinks. Seriously, I wouldn’t accept Artio’s request if I learn this would be my dinner for weeks.”

Luxinna didn’t like the Cytortia’s reaction. Only fiends holding every metric had such smiles. Her friends Eva made that smile so often it became traumatising.

Scathach detected the strange atmosphere. She suspiciously checked her food. After her spell found no weird drug in the meat, she threw a confused stare at Luxinna and Rem before grudgingly bit into that steak.

To her surprises, the meat missed its dreadful infamous stink. Instead of unforgiving stiffness, Scathach discovered a heavenly firm and tender fibre. Notorious wild stench blended with several sweet medicinal herbs in its own unique aroma. Flavors sang a beautiful piece of spices merging with the steak in tapestry Scathach never encountered. This plate was a providence of divinities. Scathach bet her leg Cytortia used alchemy to play with the mixing process, but not even alchemy extracted all the substance from the meat to such caliber.

Witnessing Scathach transformed into an ecstatic child, Luxinna bit into the steak. The elf chewed the tender flesh, absorbed its juice, and fawned in the world’s loveliest smile. Her eyes rolled back to her head as she fainted from happiness.

Rem stared and gently sampled his cut.

“Perfectly well done,” he commented, wiping his mouth with napkins as he analyzed the flavor. “You are, without a doubt, a better cook than my mother given your excellence in seasonings and spices, but it is too good. Simple cooking utensils in the back of a van isn’t enough to soften this meat. I kill it, so I know. Glad to see you enjoy your True Magic.”

“Wow, are you perpetually joyless or do you want to be mean?”

“The former,” Rem stalely answered. “But to think upgrading flavors is your True Magic?”

Cytortia face stuck between trying to laugh and cry at the same time.

“No way! Improving food is only an aftereffect. My True Magic increases Natural Hierarchy.”

“Natural what?” Luxinna woke back from her trip to heaven.

Cytortia looked around uncomfortably.

“It’s honestly hard to explain,” Cytortia said. “Here, let put it like this.”

She started writing on the paper.

STR
WIS
END
DEX
MAG

“This is the five stats,” she explained. “Everyone has these value on their Status ID. But do you ever question why there are only five values? Yesterday Satholia came to me and started explaining.”

Suddenly, everyone was paying attention.

“These five values represent our magical and physical parameter,” Cytortia explained. “True Magic either amplify or use these numbers. Lux’s [Static Glass] creates glass, which transduce her MAG into electrical current and force. Rem, your augmentation doubled or tripled his END, DEX, and STR.”

“Wait a minute,” Scathach realized something. “You are telling me that True Magic is a multiplier, but...”

“Most spells and techniques scale around 45% of your magic,” Cytortia explained. “This make True Magic even more terrifying.”

“I don’t get it!?” Lux yelled. “How does the scaling work?”

“Ditto,” Rem nodded. “Can you explain this mathematically?”

“Okay,” Cytortia said grabbing a piece of paper and write the formula. “Let us assume the formula for the power of an advance lightning spell is P=400+0.5(MAG), while Luxinna’s [Static Glass]’s power output is P=2(MAG) +200.”

“Numbers...” Luxinna groaned. “Too many numbers.”

“Relax this is simple Algebra,” Cytortia said. “Let us say your MAG is 300, according to the formula normal lightning spell will produce the power of 550.”

“Meanwhile, Luxinna will produce the power of 800,” Rem said. “And as the stat goes up, the power gap will increase. According to these formulas, normal spell-casting will beat True Magic when MAG is less than 130.”

“Yep, that is our weaknesses,” Cytortia said. “Compare to the top-dog using top of the line spell, our Magic will lose in power, but after our stats surpassed a certain threshold, no spell in the world will compare against True Magic.”

“Start of weaker and become overpower late game, huh,” Luxinna concluded. “But how does this explain your cooking?”

“Because my magic directly manipulate the hidden stats,” Cytortia explained. “In exchange for almost no offensive ability, the Blessing-type True Magic can alter attribute outside of the five of stats It alters factors like luck, morale or intelligence.”

Cytortia filled a jug with water. For a second, the water in the container glowed green before returning to normal.

“My magic, [Sage Force], controls two of these hidden stats: Natural Absorbance and Natural Hierarchy.” She poured each of them a cup.

“Here, take a drink.”

All of them took a sip. The drink was water, but the taste was abnormal. It was like someone had condensed all the acute purity of nature into the liquid.

Rem felt his accumulated fatigued melting away. Scathach and Luxinna looked at the water that completely energized them in awe.

“This isn’t water anymore,” Scathach hardly believed what she was seeing. “This qualifies as a recovery potion.”

“That’s right,” Cytortia leaned back to stretch. “Everything in nature has hierarchy. Some plant lives longer. Tiger is higher than the cat on the food chain. [Sage Force] throw that rule out of the window and shift the hierarchy level upward.”

It was the power birthed for a goddess who only wished to help others.

“Whether the object is alive, as long as it is on that natural ladder, I can move it upward. With this power, margarine can rival the highest quality butter. A common herb can reach the height comparable to the plant of the Forbidden Zone. An eighty-year-old man can recover faster than someone in their prime. The only thing I need to do is condense a [Sage Force] inside the object and unleashes its power. If it doesn’t have a stamina requirement, this magic would stand on the border of wish-granting.”

“So Natural Hierarchy allowed you to alter objected properties,” Scathach said. “What about Natural Absorbance?”

Cytortia smirked and walked to the back of the van. She returned later with a herb, a sugar-pill and a bowl of water.

“I pump Natural Absorbance of the water upward, while [Sage Force] on the herb.” Cytortia threw the glowing herb into the water.

The herb landed in the water. At that moment, the green pigment leached into the water at the speed that made Scathach’s jaw dropped open for the tenth time this month.

Cytortia waved her hand over the water and caused the herb to instantaneously withered into a thin soggy branch.

Scathach’s eyes nearly popped out of her skull.

“Okay,” Luxinna said, glancing at the twig. The piece of branches was all that remained from rush-green herbs. “That is both impressive and scary.”

“It’s physically impossible,” Scathach muttered. “You extracted 99.998% of all the natural content of the branch with no Mana. Not even your master can do this.”

“Yes,” Cytortia nodded. “I don’t know how it works, but True Magic is just absurd. A power that’s too unique to classify except in the loosest of terminology. All the while completely defying conventional rules to reflect the user’s identity and specialization.”

Cytortia picked up a sugar-pill and tossed it into the emerald water. Instead of dissolving, the sugar-pill absorbed the green coloring while turning the water transparent again.

Cytortia fished out the sugar-pill and threw it at Scathach.

“I lift the Natural Absorbance of that pill to the Max,” Cytortia said. “No refining, no additive, and no refinement. Just a normal Health-leaves‘ essence absorbed into the pill.”

Scathach checked the sugar-pill and nearly dropped it.

“This qualifies medium-grade recovery-pill,” Scathach exclaimed. “If you sold this in the market, you will probably make over five-hundred percent profit.”

Luxinna’s eyes glittered.

“Hey, does this mean we can escape poverty!? Yeah!”

Meanwhile, Rem was writing a list.

“Hey, Cy,” Rem showed what he wrote to her. “I can’t think of a better time to ask this, but I think your magic arrive at the perfect timing.”

Cytortia and Scathach looked at the list and winced.

...

A few weeks later, the Black Mercy’s common room saw a major Tech upgrade.

The development team on its last legged the extra gear on the coffee table.

Cytortia pressed a button, detonating a red pellet inside a vacuum chamber.

“Finally,” she managed. A bag of exhaustion was visible under her eyes. “Tear gas extracted from several spices and irritant agent. All the ingredients improved by [Sage Force], improving its effectiveness. Anyone inside this gas will try to crawl their eyes out.”

“The blinding agent gas also worked effectively,” Scathach yelled from the bathroom.

“Yep, I can’t see a thing,” Rem said nonchalantly.

Luxinna entered the room with a tray of water. She glared accusingly into the bathroom.

“Seriously, why do you suggest this idiotic idea?” She asked the boy who sat blindly in the bathroom.

“Because we can’t afford to enter Millian unprepared,” Rem answered. “What happened in Lightwell was a disaster of epic proportion? We have to step up the game.”

Rem and Scathach walked out of the bathroom shivering.

“Okay, did the filter worked?” Rem asked, equally affected by the sleep deprivation.

Cytortia sighed.

“Yep, the filters worked,” Cytortia confirmed. “Scathach and I bent over backward trying to find the right composition. Why do you want a visor that can perceive light in the Infra-red spectrum under stress?”

“Simple,” Rem said. “People play dead all the time and don’t let me started on the ambushing. However, I am sure that 99% of what we are up against don’t fake their body temperature.”

“Paranoid much?” Luxinna said, handing Rem a glass of water.

The boy took a long drink.

“We must be paranoid” Rem explained. “If you want to succeed, prepare for the worst-case scenario. And Scathach, please revise the gear we created during these two weeks.”

“Okay,” Scathach presented us with the gear. “Here are your new toys.”

Scathach slammed a metal tube on the table.

“A healing tablet made from 9:1 extracted of 99.998% Healthleaf and Cold-seed, pelletized into with an experimental scaffold.” Scathach looked admiringly at Cytortia. “Seriously, several Alchemists will kill for a tool like that.”

“It’s only usable because I can hasten the scaffold’s absorption rate with [Sage Force],” Cytortia commented sadly, but she couldn’t help but smile proudly. “But yeah, it makes the pill-forming process easier.”

“Anyway,” Scathach directed the conversation back into the tube. “Each of this tube contains twenty tablets. Popped these into your mouth and it will function like a medium-high-grade healing potion. While it couldn’t regrow limbs or organ, it will clear any cut and bruised and stabilized critical injuries. We only have about 160 tablets available, discounting 20 that we will sell, please keep that in mind.”

Scathach presented us with a black-ball.

“Smoke bomb made from grounded Northpole Fern and CNT mixture.”

“What is a CNT mixture?” Luxinna asked.

“A mixture of Charcoal, Nyx Obsidian, and Tharima Ore in 5:4:1 ratio respectively,” Cytortia explained. “Nyx Obsidian and Charcoal blocked the visible light while Tharima Ore was an excellent detonation source.”

“Forgot, I asked anything,” the elf implored.

“This act as a smokescreen that also lower the room temperature,” Scathach presented them a mask. “Which will help enhanced the target body temp so you can spot them right through thermal imaging.”

The badger held up the blank white mask and began explaining.

“We augmented the visor with an infrared filter,” Scathach explained. “This mask is capable of thermal imaging. The Aluminium-Mithril composite which made the mask body can stop the sword blow. It also has oxygen breather equipped in.”

Scathach produce a red-smoke bomb.

“Finally, the tear gas,” Scathach said. “We mixed at least twenty kinds of spices enhanced by Cytortia’s [Sage Force]. The scent and the irritant in this thing will send anything in C-rank falling in pain and will even get a poorly equipped B-class, and if you are lucky, it will send A-rank sprawling. Do not use it unless you have your mask on.”

…

The morning saw the van finally coming to rest at the refueling station.

Luxinna stepped off the van to the sunlight. For the first time since she was born, the girls experienced the cultures outside of her forest. The girl stared in awe and fascination at the activities in front of her.

The station doubled as a commercial center was full of people. Some wore armor while many wore suits. Several children were playing in front of a fountain in the center of the station. Three beautiful sculptures of an elven woman, a mage in wizardly robe and a knight stood around the altar spewing out waters.

Luxinna walked on a white ceramic road leading to a massive building featuring an elliptical design roof and oval floors.

She gulped.

“You look like a country girl on her first visit to a city,” Rem said. “Feeling overwhelmed?”

“Yeah,” Luxinna muttered.

“Relax,” Cytortia walked up behind them. “What can go wrong?”

It was without a doubt that Cytortia was a pro at planting flags.