The next few hours were spent in a strange mixture of tension and boredom. Nobody quite knew where the villagers had gone, and nobody really had a good way to find out, either. Which meant that the group was stuck in a place with unknown dangers possibly lurking nearby.

However, it was difficult to remain tense and ready for an unknown danger to appear for hours on end, especially when nothing happened during that time period. While a few of the [Guards] appeared to be using some sort of Perk that kept their boredom at bay, most people began to slowly simmer down. It was becoming obvious that whatever problems existed in this area, the group was unlikely to run into it in the near future.

Finally, the two [Organic Mages] got to work at removing chunks of broken mana. Alice noticed, with some interest, that a few smaller spidercrabs that crept into the area and started slurping away at the mana cloud were ignored instead of being instantly exterminated, as long as they didn’t get too close to the group. The spidercrabs seemed more than content to simply gnaw away at the cloud of broken mana, and the Mages seemed to welcome the unintentional help in cleaning up the area.

Alice decided to help out, since she was one of the five Mages in the group and had nothing better to do with her time. While she could hold her own in a fight, she felt it was better to reduce the workload on the other Mages now so that they could help if an actual problem came up. However, the people in the area really didn’t have a job right now besides looking out for the Society or other enemies in the area. Ethan and elder Sujia acknowledged the work Alice and the other two Mages were putting in to clearing out the area, but opted to remain with the [Guards] in case a new threat materialized.

However, Alice and the [Organic Mages] found themselves bored as well. Cleaning out huge clouds of broken mana was neither dangerous nor particularly mentally taxing, especially since all of the Mages here were immune to broken mana poisoning. The only real benefit Alice got out of the cleaning session was a couple points in the {Broken Mana Purification} Skill, bringing her from 24 to 28 in the Skill. Which was… better than nothing, but not a very exciting or useful upgrade.

Finally, after hours of mind-numbing repetition, the group finished cleaning up for the day, wiped out the spidercrabs in the area, and settled down to rest for the night. The cloud of broken mana was noticeably smaller than it had been when Alice and the two [Organic Mages] had started cleaning up, but it would probably take a few days to finish purifying the area, especially if they didn’t have any more Mages to help out.

Alice settled down to rest for the night, but her thoughts raced as she laid down to rest. The idea that a human from home might have been here, even if Alice couldn’t figure out where they had gone, made it nearly impossible to rest now that she didn’t have to worry about cleaning up Broken Mana.

Hesitantly, Alice took the tub of ice cream out of her storage Perk, and then took a spoon out as well and began eating. If she were still at home, she would have properly gotten a bowl out first, and perhaps added a few extras to her ice cream. She had personally been a fan of chocolate syrup on top of her ice cream, although she sometimes added other things to change the flavor.

The food reminded her of home. As Alice stuck another spoonful of ice cream into her mouth, Alice felt the strangest mixture of excitement, again. She had spent the longest time thinking that she was alone on this planet, and that she would never see another person from home unless she found a way to return to Earth. And even though she didn’t know what had happened to the other {Outworlder}, if there were two people from Earth on this planet, that was a good indicator that there might be more.

Then, Alice’s hopes started to dim.

No matter what had happened to the other {Outworlder}, she probably wouldn’t be able to meet the one that had arrived here in the ruined car.

If they had been kidnapped by the Society, they were probably being subjected to experiments that may or may not leave them dead or insane afterwards.

If they had teleported back to Earth, Alice obviously wouldn’t be able to talk to them.

If they had been eaten by a monster, there was no way Alice knew of to resurrect them in this world. Even Immortals couldn’t return from the dead if their brain was destroyed, much less a random civilian from Earth.

And Alice couldn’t think of any other reason the car owner, along with all of the villagers here, could have vanished.

Alice angrily shoved another spoonful of ice cream into her mouth, before she started to feel full and stuffed the ice cream back into {Sample Collection}. Then, unable to keep her thoughts from wandering in depressed circles, she got out of her tent and decided to be a little productive. Since she couldn’t sleep, she might as well gather new information about her experiments.

Alice decided to continue some leftovers from her previous experiment. Before Ethan had dragged her over to this village to observe the nonexistent villagers of this area, she had been experimenting with how classes and magic seeds worked. Now that she had the opportunity, Alice had a follow-up experiment she had meant to do concerning how deleted classes worked. Thus, Alice started preparing to fish.

In her previous experiment, she had tried deleting her [Fisherwoman] secondary class seed, because she had been curious to know what would happen if she deleted a seed. And now, Alice was trying to reform it, because she was curious to know what happened if she reformed a class seed that had been deleted.

Alice made use of the nearby trees and quickly shaved a couple of wooden tree branches into wooden spears using her kinetic magic. Then, Alice quickly moved to the nearby river, giving the [Guard] a quick wave to let him know she was doing a bit of fishing and that he didn’t need to sound the alarm.

The [Guard] seemed more than slightly baffled by the fact that she had started randomly fishing in the middle of the night, but after confirming her identity, the [Guard] simply went back to his patrol while muttering something about eccentric Mages.

Alice pointedly ignored him.

Half an hour later, Alice had successfully speared a few more fish using her kinetic magic and her wooden spears. They would be welcome additions to the camp’s rations, but that wasn’t Alice’s focus right now.

After her second fish she had caught, Alice got her first relevant System notification.

Up to that point, things had worked fairly similarly to the way Alice had expected they would work. She had regained the Class, but only after catching a couple fish on her own. Alice did notice, with some interest, that [Fisherwoman] mana built up inside of her body before she actually regained the [Fisherwoman] class. In other words, the [Fisherwoman] mana that the System used to create a class seed existed before the Class actually formed.

Alice was glad to see that this observation matched up with her theory that the System used Classes to keep control of dangerous mana. There was still a lot of detail that she didn’t understand yet, but she was getting very useful information for future experiments.

Now that Alice knew to look out for it, she could also, just barely, catch glimpses of mana rushing towards her body and turning into a {Fisherwoman} magic seed inside of her flesh. Once she caught the second fish, her body seemed to go through a tipping point in the amount of mana she had stored, and then a class seed was created a few moments later, as the System organized all of the mana she had collected up to this point and rebuilt it into a coherent Class seed.

The Class started out at level 1, as if she had never possessed the class before. Combined with Alice repeatedly spamming {Safety Analysis} to a frankly ridiculous extent, Alice was at least reasonably certain that there was nothing going wrong with her body, although, considering Ethan’s warning about how such Perks may overlook more minor problems, Alice did decide to ask Ethan to have an [Organic Mage] start giving her a regular checkup later. It didn’t seem like a bad idea to have a trained healer examine her health every month or two, since Alice often used herself as a test subject for her experiments.

Then Alice returned to fishing.

It was upon catching the third fish that more interesting things started happening.

The mana in the air surrounding her turned into [Fisherwoman] mana, before rushing into her body, but Alice realized after a moment that the quantity seemed far too high for only catching one fish. The System notification that she gained a few moments later reinforced this idea.

You have leveled up!

Fisherman: 1 -> 3, Explorer of Magic 72 -> 73

There was no way Alice had gotten three levels in {Fisherwoman] from catching one fish. Even if it was a primary class, that would have been a bit of a stretch, and {Fisherwoman} was a secondary class.

Alice was extremely happy with the results of this experiment.

First of all, she had discovered that the System, or whatever mechanics of mana the System used to function, ‘remembered’ her previous level to some extent, even after she had removed her {Fisherwoman} class seed.

Alice thought back to one of her earlier experiments, where she had discovered that if she was enclosed in a manaless room, she wouldn’t level up, and would only start gaining levels once she exposed herself to mana again. When doing this experiment, Alice had gained levels for the experiments she had performed in the manaless room.

The {Fisherwoman} experiment result seemed to complement the findings from the manaless room experiment, confirming that mana or the System ‘remembered’ her actions in some way.

Of course, Alice wasn’t quite sure why this was the case. However, it was abundantly clear that even if she didn’t understand the mechanics behind it, it was true. Alice wondered whether this ‘memory’ of her previous actions was tied to the nature of mana itself, or whether it was tied to the System. Sadly, she had no way to figure out which was the case right now.

However, this meant that Classes would never be truly ‘lost.’ Even if they were deleted, once one gathered more mana of the relevant type, the System would help set up the correct class seed again. Alice absently wondered what would happen if she deleted her [Fisherwoman] Class again, and then gained a bunch of fisherwoman mana without access to the System. Would she end up with a problem similar to Boris’s issues?

She suspected she would, although Alice couldn’t confirm her idea. This was because {Safety Analysis} informed her in no uncertain terms that this experiment was a terrible idea.

Luckily, the knowledge that the experiment would harm her made her hypothesis seem even more likely, even though Alice had no way to test it. While there were other reasons an experiment like that could harm her, Alice still suspected that she was on the right track when she assumed that Boris was a prime example of the System not interfering enough with class acquisition and broken mana.

With some of her energy worked out, and with a few new tidbits of interesting data gathered, Alice finally went to sleep for the night, leaving behind a confused [Guard].

* * *

When the camp arose the next day, it was to a spike of flurried activity.

It started relatively simply.

One of the [Guards] found a trail of nearly-invisible footprints, about three quarters of an hour away from the camp. With the aid of some decent Perks and a higher than average [Perception] Stat, that was a reasonable distance to see the group’s camp from, which meant that someone had possibly spied on their camp in the middle of the night.

This trail of footprints raised some eyebrows among the older mages of the camp, especially since it was impossible for most lower-level Perks to pick out the footprints at all. This meant that a rather high-level Perk had been used to hide them.

A civilian of some sort passing near the village wouldn’t have been too unusual; after all, [Hunters] and [Messengers] sometimes passed by villages as they journeyed from one town to the next. Travel in this world wasn’t rare, and some people without specialized Perks might need to stop by in one town or another to figure out where they were or buy some goods and a room for the night during their travels. However, a person wandering near their camp, avoiding the gaze of the [Guards], and using a high-level Perk that disguised their footprints … was quite a bit more suspicious.

This was why, even though the [Guards] who had left to get reinforcements had yet to return, Alice found herself sitting in the middle of a debate.

“I personally think chasing after the footprints would be prudent,” said Elder Sujia. “If it’s a regular [Messenger] or a civilian with some sort of specialized Perk set or something, we can simply question them and then release them. However, if it’s truly a member of the Society of Starry Eyes, we can figure out where they took the villagers.”

“It’s not a certainty that the Society took the villagers away,” noted one of the two [Organic Mages] who had come with the group. “Not to mention, if it’s actually a member of the Society, there’s no way we would be able to take on a base of them with only these numbers. Even with Honored Immortal by our side, the Society is a group comprised entirely of Mages, and due to their research on unethical magic, they tend to be higher leveled than an Illvarian mage of the same age. We only have five mages with us right now, and even if one of them is an Honored Immortal, and two of them are his apprentices, trying to fight the Society with our current group seems foolhardy.

“This could also be a trap. Honored Immortal attacked a Society base and razed it to the ground recently. While the Society isn’t generally prone to revenge, honored Immortal is certainly an obstruction to their future plans, which could be reason for them to prepare a trap to kill him. If there was any time to kill a combat-oriented Immortal, doing so near an isolated area, while they are separated from the rest of his [Guards] and the other Immortals is certainly the time to do so. Killing an Immortal is difficult, but far from impossible, especially if our enemy is willing to throw enough lives at it.”

Ethan simply nodded thoughtfully at the [Organic Mage]’s words. Elder Sujia, however, didn’t seem persuaded.

“I don’t think we should be so afraid of the Society that it cripples us, either. If we miss this opportunity to get information, we might not get another one. After all, if the set of footprints truly belongs to a member of the Society, they will surely erase their trail once they realize a lower level member of their organization may have alerted us. This means that we’ll be going on a wild goose chase later on. And if the Society wanted to lead us into a trap, wouldn’t they make the footprints easier to spot? There is only one [Guard] among us who can even track the footprints, and only by a very slim margin. A little less [Perception], or a slightly different Perk, and he would probably be as blind as the rest of us. It seems ridiculous to assume that the Society could have such detailed information on the Stats and Perks of our group. After all, even military leaders don’t have access to all of the knowledge about combat perks their [Soldiers] possess; they usually only have rough ideas. The Society knowing more about Illvarian troops than the Illvarian government seems quite far fetched.”

The [Organic Mage] seemed to consider Elder Sujia’s words, before he finally nodded.

“That’s a good point. In that case, this is unlikely to be a trap from the Society, unless the [Guard] is a [Spy]. However, even if this isn’t a deliberate trap, we truly don’t have the numbers to fight a Society Base right now.” He paused, and seemed to consider something. “Actually, Honored Immortal, how many Society Mages do you think you would be able to fight in a full-blown confrontation? I admit, I’m not sure how strong an Immortal actually is, so if you can fight an entire base by yourself, this argument may be rather pointless…”

Ethan paused, lost in thought for a moment. “It depends on the average level of the Society members in question. At the very least, several dozen, but probably less than a hundred, due to the fact that the Society Members are all Mages. If there are less than a fifty enemies, I could probably fight them by myself and win, although it would be close, and it would depend on how powerful their stronger members were. However, if there are more than fifty enemies, I would struggle to win against them on my own. I brought a large, well-trained group of [Soldiers] with me when I attacked the previous society base, and we had the element of surprise on our side. This group… is not built to fight a base by itself. Lady Sujia is an excellent combatant, of course, and Lady Alice is also a reasonably competent fighter, despite her young age. However, the [Guards] we have with us are inferior to [Soldiers] at attacking a fortified position, since their Perks go in a very different direction, and you two aren’t exactly known for your combat prowess either,” said Ethan, giving the two [Organic Mages] a nod. “Which means that any fight would be potentially winnable, but risky, depending on what’s waiting for us,” said Ethan, grimacing.

Elder Sujia and the two [Organic Mages] who were arguing considered Ethan’s words.

“Do you have a suggestion, Honored Immortal? Should we pursue the tracks, or should we remain cautious and wait for reinforcements?” asked the [Organic Mage]. Despite how vehemently he had been arguing against pursuing the footprints just a few moments ago, he seemed more than willing to listen to Ethan’s input on the matter.

Ethan was staring at the forest, giving it a hard look as he seemed to ponder the decision.

The Mages who had been arguing stopped speaking, waiting for Ethan’s input.

Ethan seemed to think for a few more moments… before his eyes lit up. Then, he turned to Alice and gave her a grin.

“What do you think we should do, Lady Alice?” He said. “Give me reasons that you can think of both for and against pursuing the potential enemy.” Based on the way Ethan was grinning, Alice quickly realized that this was another of Ethan’s tests. He had already made a decision, and now he was trying to get her to think about the situation critically as well. Alice doubted anything she said here would change their course of action; it was just to let Ethan understand how she thought in more detail, and help her correct any problems if he found any.

 “I would say… wait for reinforcements?” Said Alice, feeling a wave of uncertainty at her answer. This time, Ethan’s test was much harder than usual.

“If the Society is scouting out our area… that means they don’t know what happened here either, right? If they don’t know what happened here either, that means that they probably didn’t abduct the villagers. And if the Society didn’t abduct these villagers, that means that we probably can’t save the villagers even if we attack their base. We would be rushing into a potentially dangerous fight for no reason. Right?” Alice asked. Then, she began doubting her own answer. “Wait, but the Society has probably kidnapped people from other villages, even if they haven’t kidnapped this particular set of villagers. They might also have more information on the dimensional floods, and information is something we desperately need right now. Especially since we know that the Society has an interest in dimensional floods. It’s highly likely that they would have more information than before, since they’ve probably been studying dimensional floods and would have naturally collected more data than the first base we raided. Even if the Society members here aren’t directly relevant to the current situation, they’re still likely to have useful information for us. But the lack of knowledge about our enemy is also very dangerous…” Alice felt her thinking start to spin in circles, and began to feel frustrated. After a few moments, she sighed.

 “I suppose long term, letting this opportunity slip away is a bad decision. It’ll probably take another half a day for reinforcements to arrive for us, but in that time, the Society, if those tracks truly belong to a Society member, would likely clean up their tracks, and quite possibly lay an ambush for us. Worse, the ‘reinforcements’ we sent for are based on the idea that we would need some specific, specialized Perks. That means they’re unlikely to bring a large enough military force to seriously bolster our combat abilities. With that in mind, I guess we should probably pursue the tracks.”

Ethan chuckled. “You seem unhappy about it?”

Alice nodded.

“Good. Being afraid to fight an enemy might seem cowardly to you, but humans are afraid of things for a reason. Cowardly people live longer. Not everyone is equipped to lead armies into battle again and again and live to tell the tale, and being able to recognize your strengths and weaknesses is an important ability. However, in this case, it’s also important to recognize when a risk is worth taking, even if you’re afraid. Decisiveness is just as important as caution.” Ethan’s grin turned a little more gentle. “Your reasoning was solid, and even if you’re afraid, you came to the same conclusion I did, after some consideration. Be proud of that. I’m also a little nervous. Pre-battle jitters and all that,” Ethan said, although Alice found it hard to imagine Ethan having pre-battle jitters.

Ethan turned to the other Mages and [Guards]. “We will follow the set of tracks. However, I want the [Guards] with decent tracking Perks in front, and we will be cautious in our approach. Even if it’s unlikely, there are still probably ways that someone could set up a trap for me, and we need to be cautious of any unexpected surprises. But we will at least examine the footprints and scout ahead, to see if we’ve stumbled across a winnable fight,” said Ethan.

The other Mages and [Guards] seemed to feel the weight of a potential upcoming fight press down on them, and their postures became heavier and more solemn. They nodded, and moved to begin packing up the camp.