[Knight] Arin looked at Alice with a bit of confusion, giving her a sideways glance as he took in the sight of the partially ruined street around him. Alice also took a look at her surroundings, wincing a bit as she took in the aftermath of the fight. Cobblestones were missing left and right from the street, chunks of house and roof tile had been ripped away and used as ammunition, and one of the nearby houses had partially collapsed after the Society Mage had hurled a cobblestone through its wall. She hadn’t taken the time to look around after speaking with the previous [Guard], but now that she took a close look at the scene, it looked like a minor disaster had passed through the area.

After a moment, Arin turned and greeted Alice with a nod. “It is a pleasure to see you again, Lady Alice. Although the circumstances are quite… something. This street has certainly seen better days, though I’m glad to see you look quite healthy.”

Alice winced again, before she decided to simply nod and not say anything. [Knight] Arin quickly moved on from the topic.

“First, I’ve been told that you had an encounter with a member of the Society? Tell me what happened.”

Alice quickly recounted the day so far to [Knight] Arin again, summarizing her experiences in learning that her classmate was ill, before discussing why she had decided to come to Samantha’s house and check up on the girl. [Knight] Arin nodded along to Alice’s story, also calling the [Guard] over from time to time to confirm Alice’s statements and verify that the details of her previous and current story matched up. Alice didn’t mention her ability to see magic seeds yet, since she wanted to first get a better idea what [Knight] Arin’s current stance towards her was and make sure nothing felt ‘off’. Therefore, she provided the information she had given to the [Guard] earlier, without any revelations about Samantha’s messed up magic seed.

“Have Samantha’s family members woken up yet?” Asked [Arin]. “Also, you say that the Mage’s face suddenly changed after you started the fight?”

“Yes, his face changed after the fight started, probably indicating some sort of shapeshifting Perk. Samantha’s family hasn’t woken up yet.”

Arin nodded. “In that case, I’ll need to ask them some questions once they wake up, but we can wait for that. There are a few Perks I know of where trying to wake up someone placed in an unnatural sleep can cause major harm to the sleeping person, usually used by [Assassins] to silence information about them if they get discovered partway through a job. Besides, I don’t have any tracking abilities, and we still have another thirty minutes or so before the [Tracking Specialist] I know comes to help.” Alice nodded, relieved that Arin had mentioned a [Tracking Specialist]. Calling over Arin really had made it much easier to get people needed for the job in a timely manner. Then, as Alice shuffled nervously, trying to think of how to broach the topic of magic seeds, Arin turned towards her, and paused for a moment, as if falling into thought. Then, he gave her a reassuring smile.

“You seem nervous. Is there something you want to talk about?”

Alice nodded. “I wish to speak with you about a few things that I have not mentioned before. Previously, I had felt that by pretending to have no interesting abilities, the Society would ignore me and I could grow and experiment in peace, but after their actions today I have realized that even being average isn’t a guarantee that I won’t be targeted anymore, if they targeted Samantha randomly and not as part of a targeted attack. So I want to instead talk about some things I’m researching, and see if the Crown has any interest in helping or protecting me during my research. I would love more resources, as well as some protection against possible Society attacks while I grow and do experiments. Are you able to help me with that?”

Arin frowned “Kind of. I know almost nothing about research and academic topics. However, I do recall you mentioning a rather unique ability last time I saw you, which was the ability to detect Mages easily. Is this related to that abilty? If so, while I may not be able to directly get you in touch with research related resources, I can still provide some form of protection if you’re willing to work under me. Being able to see Mages in advance would make it much easier to find Society [Infiltrators], assuming they use the front gates and don’t climb the city walls or something.”

Alice nodded. “Is there a way to keep our conversation private? Just in case a Society [Spy] is nearby or something.”

Arin frowned for a moment, before he beckoned to the [Guard] who had spoken with Alice earlier.

“Do you have any Perks that can help us have a private conversation?”

The [Guard] nodded, and a bubble of rainbow mana fizzed into existence around Alice and Arin. The [Guard] retreated to the sides again, keeping an eye on the area, as Alice began to speak again.

“Let me be blunt. My ability to see who is or is not a Mage is an extension of a much different ability. That is the ability to see inside of a Mage core, and understand some of what’s going on inside of them. This ability can be applied in a very wide field of research, including but not limited to the study of Mage biology itself, the nature of mana, and the study of how to make Mana baptisms safer and more successful. Since magic seeds are located inside of a mage core, my ability to identify Mages and what kind of magic seed they possess is just the logical extension of this ability. Given my lack of resources, it’s pretty hard for me to pursue some of those research topics in great detail right now, since some of the Perks I rely on while studying my favored topics of research take some time to cool down. However, Perks are starting to be only one of the many limiting factors I’m working with, and I’m also getting a bit more worried about the Society attacking me. In short, I want protection against Society attacks and resources to keep pursuing my research in an ethical fashion. Can you help me with this?”

[Knight] Arin’s eyes widened, as he looked at Alice. For a few moments, he simply stared at her, before he closed his jaw. “The ability to see inside of a Mage core?” [Knight] Arin’s eyes twitched as he seemed to imagine something, before turning back to her. “No wonder you didn’t want to say anything. If it’s just sensing who’s a Mage and who isn’t, or even if you can see their specific magic seeds, that sounds like some sort of weird Achievement-based ability a [Guard] might get. The Society might find you annoying, but since you’re part of a magic academy and have a schedule, and you can only be in one place at a time, I doubt the Society would really care about your presence at all. You wouldn’t be worth specifically targeting, whether they wanted revenge against you or to kidnap you. But being able to look inside of a Mage Core and see how it works is such a unique and critical ability for magic research that the Society would absolutely target you if they learned about it. Because as long as they can make you tell the truth and report what you see, just sticking you in a room with some of their experiments and making you watch would tell them a lot.”

Arin shook his head, before sighing.

“You mentioned earlier that you were fairly high level for your age? I can see why now. The Achievement that you got for starting to unravel the secrets behind Mage biology must have at least rarity eight, if not nine or ten. You must be getting a huge experience bonus from it, too… and it’s probably also easier to pick up other weird Achievements get new abilities as well. Someone opening up the field for research would be able to rake in levels and Achievements at an unbelievable rate. As long as you don’t slack off, even reaching Immortality might be possible.” Arin nodded. “I need to rethink my plans a little. I don’t want you working under me to find Society spies anymore. That would be such a massive waste of your potential that it’s not even funny. Even as a non-Mage, I know how important your research could be if you succeed.” Arin turned towards her. “I probably shouldn’t say this as a loyal servant of the Crown, but if you make this information known to the Crown they will probably pressure you to research how to make mana baptisms safer and more successful. Any hope of making mana baptisms safer could put Illvaria into a golden age that might allow us to finally get some payback against the Sigmusi Colonia for the war several decades ago. It might even let us kick the Sigmusi off the continent entirely, if things went really well. If you have me pass on this information to some of the people who can do something with it, you’re going to face a lot of pressure afterwards if you don’t research the topics. I’m willing to pretend I didn’t hear anything today if that’s not a price you’re willing to pay. This is probably your last chance to reconsider.”

Alice spent a few moments thinking about it, making sure to give her decision the weight of thought it deserved. Then, she smiled at Arin.

“I’m more than happy to work with the crown in making safer mana baptisms, as long as some conditions are met. I want to stay safe, keep my friends safe, and keep learning about the nature of this world. As far as I can tell, with the Society escalating their actions in Illvaria by the day, this is the best way to do that.”

Arin nodded thoughtfully. “In that case, I’ll see what I can do. Someone will hopefully get in touch with you within a few days. In the meantime, you can leave. The [Tracker] will probably take a day or two to track down the Society member, and I have no clue when Samantha’s family members will wake up. You don’t need to be here anymore.”

Alice nodded. “Thank you again for coming over to help me even though we have only met once before. I really appreciate it, and thank you for working to help Samantha as well. Even though I got to know her because she’s relevant to my research, I don’t want anything bad to happen to her. Keep me updated and let me know if there’s anything else I can do to help find her and keep her safe.”

Arin nodded and smiled at her.

“No problem.”

* * *

One day later, a [Messenger] from the [Guard] station came to pick Alice up the moment she finished working with Ezrien’s team, before she even had time to get through her classes for the day. Alice immediately realized this [Messenger] was quite a bit higher in level than most people she had met. This [Messenger] was probably at least level 80 or 90, and seemed to be in his late fifties. Even though he probably wouldn’t reach Immortality before dying of old age, his level was quite impressive compared to most people she had met in this world.

“Lady Alice?” Said the [Messenger].

“Yes?”

“I’m taking you to see someone important. I bear no hostile intentions towards you, and don’t expect that to change in the future. Is now a good time?”

“Yes, now works,” said Alice. Would this be the [Messenger] Arin warned her to keep an eye out for?

“Please come with me.” Rainbow mana surged out of the [Messenger’s] body, and quickly began working its way into Alice’s body, as well as the surrounding area. Suddenly, Alice felt that the every step she took was much lighter, and she covered more distance with every single movement than before. Having already seen a similar Perk used during the hunting trip last month, Alice quickly adapted to the Perk and began moving along with the [Messenger] to head to the [Guard] station.

When they arrived, Alice saw a few of the [Guards] she recognized from other visits to the station give her respectful nods, before she was ushered into a room by the side.

Inside of it was the strongest Mage Alice had ever seen. He was well above the level 80 or 90 [Messenger], and had seven Magic seeds in his body. The two strongest ones were a Kinetic and an Organic seed, both of which were packed with several times the amount of mana Alice’s seeds had. After that, he had one electromagnetic and one thermal magic seed as the second largest seeds in his body, and the three remaining seeds appeared to be one dimensional magic seed and two unknown seeds, one red and one bright yellow.

“Are you Lady Alice?” Asked the man, giving her a friendly smile. His face was abnormally handsome, well beyond what a regular person’s was, and his movements were graceful and much faster than a Mage would usually accomplish. As Alice observed the mana density, magic seeds, and incredibly high attributes of this man, she started to form a suspicion about the identity of the person in front of her.

“Yes, it’s a pleasure to meet you, Sir Mage.”

“You can call me Ethan. I’m the Immortal of Spells and Seeds,” he said, giving her a friendly wink.

Alice’s suspicions were confirmed. The man sitting in front of her was the second Immortal she had seen since coming to this world.

“I’m told that you can see inside Mage Cores?” said Ethan.

“Yes.”

“What Magic Seeds do I have? Ah, I should have asked, are there any prerequisites for your ability to work? Do you need physical contact or something?” Ethan reached out his hand towards her, as if to let her touch his wrist if she needed to.

“I just need to use my eyes to look at someone’s mage core. So I can’t use Perks that extend my vision in weird ways. Inside of you, I can see a total of seven magic seeds. The two biggest ones are kinetic and organic, followed by electromagnetic and thermal. Then there’s one dimensional seed and two that I can’t identify.”

The man gave her a much more interested look, his eyes nearly boring through her.

“Fascinating. May I ask how you acquired that ability? Is it a Perk or an Achievement?”

“Achievement. I… did a few experiments that went really well, and got the ability to see inside of Mage cores afterwards. I got some other bonuses too, like class levelling speed, and a few combat related ones I’m not willing to talk about.”

“Sensible.” The Immortal stuck out his hand for a handshake this time, and after a moment of hesitation, Alice shook his hand.

“Now, I’m told that you’re willing to work with the crown for the sake of research, and to put your ability to use? And that you wish for some things in exchange?”

“Yes,” said Alice. “I’m willing to put my ability and research to work to learn how to make safer mana baptisms, since that links directly to a few other areas of interest for me. However, I also want to get resources to research those other topics, even if they aren’t quite as directly useful to the country as that. Specifically, I would like to have access to people with malfunctioning or broken magic seeds, so that I can try to learn more about their condition and treat them…”

“That can certainly be arranged. Most people who enjoy research have a few pet projects they like to work on, after all. The exact resources might be a bit more hit or miss, and I won’t help you with any immoral research – even if your ability is quite valuable, an ethical bottom line still needs to be observed. But anything that isn’t morally unjustifiable will probably be fine. Now, what do you mean when you say there are people with broken or malfunctioning magic seeds?”

Alice frowned. “One of the other reasons I’m willing to talk about my ability to see magic seeds is because of Samantha. Are you familiar with her kidnapping?”

Ethan nodded. “I read through Arin’s report, so I’m familiar with some of the basics of the case. The Society is truly going crazy recently. It is most baffling.”

“You see, I’ve been looking into magic seeds and how they work for a long time.” Ethan nodded.

“The problem is that Samantha’s magic seed which she formed recently seemed… broken. I noticed it last week, when I was coming into class and saw that she had a new seed that seemed really weird. I started talking to her because I wanted to get a better idea of what was going on, and maybe see if I could figure out if it was harmful or not, and if it was harmful, how to fix it. But she started to get more and more sick as time passed, and so I was planning on trying to find a way to help heal her, since I have a few Achievement-related abilities I’ve used on myself multiple times while experimenting with the nature of magic seeds. But right as her illness was reaching a critical mass and I was setting up a way to heal Samantha without drawing Society attention, Samantha got kidnapped.”

Ethan frowned as well, before looking around. “Do you think the Society noticed the same thing, and that’s why they kidnapped Samantha? How easy is it to notice Samantha’s unusual seed with your Achievement?”

“I’m not sure if they noticed, but I could tell within a few seconds of looking at her. They might have targeted her because they noticed something weird about her seed, or they might have just targeted her because they wanted to experiment on a Mage and she was easy to target. I don’t know.”

Ethan nodded. “Recently, the Society has been willing to take much bigger risks than before. I have been wondering why their behavior has changed for a while now. If the Society has also noticed something weird about magic seeds recently, it might explain why they’re willing to take such huge risks. But there could be other reasons behind their actions. I’ll tell the [Guards] to keep an eye out and we’ll re-evaluate their behavior when we have more information. Do you have any other requests or conditions you need in exchange for working on research with me?”

Alice thought about her current living conditions, her friends, her hopes, and all of her current circumstances, before she decided on a few other conditions she would want.

“I’d really like it if Samantha could be found as quickly as possible, and I’d like high level people to help out wherever possible with the search. Would it be possible to up the level of the [Tracker] and other participants in this conflict a little bit?” Ethan thought for a moment, before nodding.

“I have a few tier 2 class Mages that are my [Students]. Even if they’re barely over level 100, and most of them are pretty old and won’t make it to Immortality, I can still get them to help out if it comes to a fight. As for the tracking itself… I’ll see what I can do. I can probably put together something good.”

Alice frowned, before realizing she had good way to raise the value of ‘rescuing Samantha’ in Ethan’s eyes. “Actually, Samantha is one of the only people I’ve seen with an incredibly weird mana seed, and it seems almost like it partially succeeded in being formed and partially failed. I’ve been looking into cases like these, and while I’m not 100% sure if it’s related to mana baptisms, I think I could probably get some valuable insight into how mana and magic seeds work in general from helping Samantha recover and learning more about how she formed such a messed up seed. She’s pretty valuable for research, so rescuing her might improve my study of mana baptisms?”

Ethan cracked a grin as he heard Alice’s out of the box reasoning for rescuing her friend, before he nodded. “I’ll make extra sure to pay attention to this matter when we’re done talking. Anything else?”

Alice thought for a moment longer. “I’d like to talk with one of my other friends a little more first, but if the Society starts attaching more importance to me, do you think they would target my friends and acquaintances?”

Ethan thought for a moment. “It’s possible? Your friends might get attacked, or might not, but there is no harm in taking precautions in advance. Who do you have in mind that might need protecting?”

“A friend of my named Cecilia…” Alice described Cecilia in a bit more detail.

Ethan nodded. “It shouldn’t be too hard to at least get a few level 75’s to protect her if you can demonstrate some value to the crown. I can get a few people I know to protect her for a while until then, to give you a chance to prove yourself. Anything else?”

“Funds and resources?”

“Given your ability to potentially improve mana baptisms, the crown will practically shove those down your throat, especially if you can produce any results at all. You probably don’t even need to request them. If you stand a good chance of making safer baptisms, the Crown will cram resources into your lab until the door explodes. As for your personal pay… you don’t need to worry about that either. If you succeed in your research you’ll probably be rewarded with more gold than you can plausibly spend in a century, and during your research I’ll make sure you get enough money to live comfortably on. You can work out specific numbers with my [Assisstant] later.”

“Hmm…” Alice frowned for a moment, before she remembered something. “Umm… would it be possible to get a permit for researching dimensional magic?”

Ethan frowned and gave her a much more measured and cautious look. “That one… might be a tough sell. After the Tragedy of Allenheim, most countries are still pretty wary of dimensional mana experimentation. I mean, there is a process for getting a permit to study Dimensional Magic, but it’s a major pain to get ahold of. Getting a permit issued requires a majority vote from the representatives of the Mage estate, approval from a high ranking member of the Crown AND noble estate, and the Immortal estate has the ability to veto any grant of a dimensional study permit if any of Illvaria’s six Immortals think that you’re likely to cause a serious problem with dimensional mana. It’s pretty dangerous stuff, after all. I could personally promise not to offer a veto, and I can swing over a noble and crown estate member, but while I have good relations with the other Immortals of Illvaria I don’t know if I could convince all of them not to veto you. And the same goes for the Mage estate vote – I have a fair amount of influence in that estate, obviously, but there are different factions in the Mage estate and I might struggle to get a majority vote. So it might work out, but don’t hold your breath.”

 “How many people in the country actually have a dimensional research permit?”

“Just me, right now.”

 Alice frowned. “It would make me happy if I can get a permit for it.”

“If you really find a way to make mana baptisms safer, your request would probably be looked pretty favorably upon. Other Mages would look at your reputation for getting things done and think that you stood a reasonable chance of finally creating safe dimensional travel, and that would give you a level of influence you wouldn’t otherwise have. Otherwise, it’ll probably be a tough sell.”

Alice sighed, but nodded. It wasn’t exactly what she wanted, but it was better than nothing.

“What’s expected of me in this agreement?”

“Well, first thing’s first, you’ll be working under me. In other words, I’ll be your direct superior, and you’ll be seeing me pretty often.” Ethan treated her to another cheerful smile. “I’ll expect you to check in with me about your research once a week, and I would frankly prefer it if you did more important experiments with me watching as well. You’re now valuable enough that you can’t accidentally die in a random experiment if you mess up, so you need to pay attention to your safety as another expectation.” Alice felt one of her eyelids twitch, and wondered if using herself as a lab rat for her strange System-related experiments counted as ‘paying attention to her safety.’ She had {Moderate Tissue Regeneration} and used {Safety Analysis} before her experiments, so it was fine, right?

“Apart from that, I’d like to get to know you a little better as well. I think it’s important for us to know each other if we’re going to be spending a lot of time together, after all. And I would also like to get a fair amount of information about your actual progress in understanding mana baptisms, so that I can understand your experiments. If we’re lucky, maybe I’ll have ideas to improve them or solve problems you face, but even if I’m useless I still need to make sure you’re spending resources in the right places and making progress. So I would expect you to spend a certain extra amount of time with me, observing my experiments, socializing, and otherwise interacting with my social circle. This will be beneficial to you as well, since even as an Immortal I can’t get access to every resource in the country. You’ll need to develop some of your own connections and contacts as time passes, and I will introduce you to some potential avenues of resources. Of course, what you do with those opportunities will be up to you. I’ll give you more details when you’re a bit more ready though, so you won’t need to think about interacting with others for a while.”

“Meeting once a week makes sense, but squeezing it into my schedule is a little difficult,” said Alice, frowning. “I guess I could cut enchanting out of my schedule, but it would stop me from levelling two of my Classes, which I don’t really like…”

“What does your schedule look like?”

“Well, during the weekdays, I start out by working with Ezrien’s team to fix the problems with the Kinetic Plates they are trying to make. Then I eat lunch, go to the library, then go to class. Then I return home, eat dinner, work on enchantments, and then pass out for the night. On weekends, my Perks come off cooldown, so I usually mess with those, check up on Boris, work on more detailed enchantments, and on Saturdays I also play board games with my friends for a few hours. The people participating changes each week, but Cecilia at least is pretty consistent…”

Ethan’s eyes twitched as he listened to Alice talk.

“Are you a workaholic? Actually, how many sleep reduction Perks do you have?”

“I only have {Lesser Reduced Sleep Requirement} from the Scholar Class. Why?”

“I have a new demand for you. Take a day off sometime this week. If you crack from stress and pressure you won’t be discovering much of anything. Do you have… any way to free up a little bit more of your schedule? If not, I’m going to force you to cut something out of your schedule, because this just sounds impossible to balance if you try to add new obligations to your time.”

“Ezrien’s team is getting close to finished with their project, which means that I might be done working with them after that? Theoretically I’m supposed to help them for a year, according to the contract we signed, but I’m not sure what they’re planning on doing after they finish the kinetic plates. I probably need to ask…”

“After working under me, you’re going to have plenty of money. If you need to you can pay for breaking the contract fees with them. Though, honestly, if you tell them you’re working on a project for the Crown and working directly with me to get it finished, they should be pretty forgiving about you needing more time. I’ll personally show up to their research lab and let them know if need be. You need to free up some time so that you can meet with me a few times a week without cutting sleep out of your schedule, and then you need to schedule more than two hours a week of break time. If you really want to you can see through the end of whatever project you’re working on with them, but after that you need to have a less ridiculous schedule. Understood?”

“Understood,” said Alice, resisting the urge to flinch.

Ethan smiled at her again, the sternness fading from his voice. “Good. Now, I hope we have a pleasant time working together. I’ll get someone to start trailing you to keep you safe from the background, just in case the Society is somehow already aware of your existence. I’ll see you again on… Sunday? You can bring me up to date on what you’ve observed regarding magic seeds and baptisms then, and hopefully by then we’ll have found your friend.” Ethan nodded at her before gesturing towards the door, and Alice took that as her cue to leave. As she walked back towards her inn, she couldn’t help but think about how interesting life was sometimes. From what Ethan had said to her, and the way he had treated her, if he was only planning on seeing through her research on magic he had no specific need to introduce her to resource channels and introduce her to other important people. In a sense, Alice almost felt like Ethan was treating her like an apprentice.

It felt strange, but it also wasn’t a bad feeling. Being apprentice to an Immortal was an excellent position to have in society, and Alice had come out of the negotiation with most of the things she wanted. She even had a chance at getting a dimensional research permit now or in the future, even if the odds weren’t great. She wasn’t sure if it would lead to anything, but now that she had finally made up her mind and decided to confront the danger of the Society of Starry Eyes, her steps felt lighter than before. She was no longer forced to worry about each of her actions, trying to calculate how much attention this would bring her or how to escape the notice of the Society. She could openly help people she wanted to help, work on her projects with adequate resources and funding, and she even had a someone to help her along the way. It was a decision that felt nerve wracking, and forced her to face more danger than she had ever previously faced on this world, but…

It also felt like she was standing up for herself and her dreams a little more. And psychologically, that was worth a lot to her.