Measurement Complete
Reed stood upon a boundless expanse of earth.
It was an endless plain he had grown well accustomed to, yet the view before him was vastly different from before. Where once sparse weeds had clung to barren wasteland, vibrant trees and blossoms he had never seen now bloomed in abundance.
He lowered his gaze to find a lovely purple summer flower nestled in the soil. Reaching down, he gently stroked its petals, but with a sharp snap, the stem broke, and the blossom tumbled to the dirt.
"Ah."
As flustered Reed moved to press the fallen blossom back against its stalk, the voice of Ur echoed through the wind.
"Some blossoms wither and fall before they can ever bear seed. Such is the cruel irony of this world. Yet the earth never forgets the petals that have faded into its embrace."
"Lady Ur."
Reed bowed his head toward the primordial titan. Upon the great tortoise's ancient visage rested an expression tinged with sorrow.
"I have lived through ages beyond count, watching the rise and fall of unnumbered lives. Among them, far too many children fell blind to avarice, found themselves cornered by circumstance, or merely suffered foul fortune, and were led to embrace vile power."
"You mean... the demon worshippers."
"How lamentable it is that a single misguided choice should leave a soul mocked and desecrated, its very existence stained. Every last one of those children carried the potential to bloom into a splendid blossom."
Reed recalled Raphal. Whether an unscrupulous slave merchant could ever be likened to a 'splendid blossom' was certainly open to debate, but there was no denying that his end had been utterly wretched.
"Reed. My child. You have done splendidly. It was you who delivered those suffering souls."
"Well, as for me... I was just doing what I had to do to survive."
"Should you encounter such pitiable wretches in the days to come, I pray you grant them salvation as well."
Reed looked distinctly unenthusiastic. Frankly speaking, if he had any say in the matter, he never wanted to cross paths with a demon worshipper ever again. The grotesque might of dark entities was so harrowing it made his skin crawl.
"Ah, yes, well... If the opportunity presents itself..."
"Those who partake of wicked power inevitably lust after the souls of others. As such, they possess immense value as offerings."
"To think such abominable vermin are brazenly strutting across this fair earth—it cannot be forgiven! Leave it to me, Lady Ur! I shall hunt down and crush every last demon worshipper myself!"
You should've led with that!
At Reed's instant, shameless reversal, Ur could only rumble with deep, booming laughter.
"Sacrifices must be met with just recompense. This time, I shall bestow upon you three clay tablets."
"Thank you, Lady Ur!"
"The gratitude is mine, my child."
Thud!
Ur's massive foreleg tapped the ground, and from the shifting loam beneath, stone slabs rose into the air.
[ Earth Control ]
[ Earth Grasp ]
[ Property Change — Hardening ]
[ Property Change — Crystallization ]
Four tablets hovered before him. The most notable addition was [Property Change — Crystallization], which had never appeared before.
She said I can choose three this time, right?
Having three selections was a blessing, but with the roster expanded, it demanded careful deliberation. After pondering in pleasant agony for a while, Reed finally extended his hand toward [Earth Control].
Earth Control is the foundation of everything I do. Investing in the bedrock can never go wrong.
It was the safest, most textbook choice. Yet just as his fingertips were about to graze the surface of the tablet—
Crack!
With a sharp fracture, the clay tablet snapped clean in two.
"!"
Earth swirled around the two halves, rapidly remolding each piece into an independent, whole tablet. One bore the familiar runes of [Earth Control] as before, but the other presented an engraving he had never seen.
Are those... eyes and ears carved into the clay?
Etched into the newly formed tablet were the unmistakable contours of human eyes and ears. A brand-new spell had manifested!
Reed looked up at Ur in bewilderment. "Um, Lady Ur? The tablet suddenly split in half and a new spell appeared..."
"Just as a boulder shatters into stones, there is nothing strange about magic that has reached a certain threshold giving birth to a new art. Nor can one claim a boulder is inherently superior to a stone, for a stone possesses lightness and sharpness that a great rock can never hold."
It was a cryptic explanation, but Reed pieced it together. In other words, this new spell isolates and refines a specific trait that was sleeping inside [Earth Control]?
He likened it to how the broad discipline of natural science branched off into physics and chemistry. A specialized divergence, so to speak.
Emboldened, Reed pressed for more. "Could you perhaps tell me what kind of magic this is? Or maybe just a tiny hint... heheh?"
"Hahaha! Were it permissible, I would impart all the wisdom of the world unto you, child. Yet knowledge demands an offering. Even I cannot bypass such unyielding laws. If gods could freely project their will onto the mortal plane, the earth would have dissolved into utter ruin long ago. Besides... where would be the joy if I spoiled everything beforehand?"
"Ugh. Guess that's a no."
He had taken a shot on the off chance it might work, but the divine mother wouldn't budge an inch. Smacking his lips in mild disappointment, Reed weighed his remaining options.
Well, a new spell has appeared, so taking it is a no-brainer.
Whenever a novel magic presented itself, test it out immediately. That was a personal rule Reed had forged, and following it had never led him astray.
Next is [Earth Control].
That decision was equally simple. Fundamentals could never be over-invested in. Barring any extraordinary circumstances, Reed intended to pour power into [Earth Control] continuously.
With two chosen, only one tablet remained. After turning the tactical possibilities over in his head, Reed made his pick.
"I choose this one as my final tablet."
His finger pointed to [Property Change — Hardening].
Having recently acquired the Explosion Rune, the firepower of his composite [Crystal Bomb]—which fused three spells together—was already devastating beyond question. Considering Sir Arivalt was the only soul to date who had survived a direct hit, no ordinary foe would ever endure a single blast.
I have plenty of destructive power. Now I need defense.
Balance was paramount in all things. A mage adept in both offense and defense—that was the combatant Reed aspired to become.
"A wise choice."
Reed placed his hands against the three chosen tablets. At his touch, the clay dissolved into fine, glowing dust, surging into his body in radiant streams.
Vast knowledge flooded his consciousness—arcane, profound truths that human language could never properly articulate. Reed closed his eyes, savoring the intoxicating rush of enlightenment.
"March ever onward, my child! Until the day you seize all that your heart desires, let your footsteps never falter!"
I will, Reed murmured softly under his breath, and his consciousness floated back to the waking world.
Reed returned to reality, his body feeling thoroughly refreshed. But as he sat up in bed, he flinched. A pair of luminous yellow eyes was staring straight at him through the darkness.
"...Shaka. Aren't you asleep?"
"Slept already."
"I-Is that so?" Scratching the back of his neck, Reed said, "You went through a lot yesterday. If I'd been alone, I never would've had the courage to fight."
Sir Arivalt had been terrifyingly formidable. Reed hadn't unloaded all his high-tier magic from the opening second for nothing. Had he been by himself, standing his ground against such a monster of a swordsman would have been unthinkable. Though, in the end, it had all turned out to be an absurd misunderstanding.
It's a strange feeling.
A battle he never would have dared to face alone had felt manageable simply because he had a comrade by his side. It struck Reed anew just how deeply he had come to rely on Shaka.
Shaka has saved my life more times than I can count.
No matter what crisis descended, the lizardman had remained faithfully at his side to the bitter end, even when he could easily have slipped away to save his own skin. For that, Reed felt profound gratitude.
Acknowledging Reed's thanks, Shaka merely nodded with his usual vacant, placid expression. Then, like a whip cracking, his long tongue snapped out and vanished back into his maw.
Did a fly just disappear into thin air, or was Reed's vision playing tricks on him?
Reed let out a dry chuckle. "As you know, Raphal is dead. That means there's no guarantor left to enforce our slave contract. If you decided to run away right now, I'd have no legal way to stop you. But... I want you to stay and keep guarding me, Shaka."
"Reed fed me full. So I keep promise."
Reed rubbed his temples at the lizardman's blunt, matter-of-fact tone. This was a monumental conversation—was the guy actually grasping the weight of it?
A parchment contract could no longer bind Shaka. Leaving this unresolved was a recipe for future trouble; it needed to be settled clearly and honestly right here.
Reed tried again. "If you stay to help me, I'll help you in return. There has to be something you want, right? A goal, a dream, anything..."
"Full belly, every day. That is enough."
"Come on, there must be something more—"
"That is enough."
Shaka's tone was unwavering. In those usually dull, reptilian eyes burned absolute sincerity. As long as he was fed to his heart's content, nothing else in the world mattered to him.
In the end, Reed could only concede.
Right. I suppose people like him exist too.
To Reed, who spent every waking hour frantically clawing his way toward security and ambition, such a mindset was hard to fathom, but it was a valid way to live nonetheless.
Reed pulled the slave deed from the desk drawer and held it over the candle flame. For a brief second his fingers hesitated, but he thrust the parchment into the fire without looking back.
Whoosh!
Hungry flames devoured the parchment in an instant, scattering charred gray flakes into the air.
With that, the bond of servitude between Reed and Shaka was extinguished. Master and slave were no more. In the empty space left behind by the burnt contract, genuine trust between comrades took root.
Heart lighter and fortified with resolve, Reed headed straight to the Stonemasons' Union building and stepped out into the backyard training grounds. Having integrated the clay tablets, it was time to verify how his magic had evolved.
First, Earth Control.
Reed focused his mind. At the subtle flick of his fingers, the dirt and gravel scattered across the yard rose smoothly into the air. The volume was incomparably greater than before.
If I dumped all this at once, I could bury an adult man up to his waist in a second flat.
Yet what truly impressed him was the velocity. Previously, his telekinetic control over earth had felt somewhat sluggish. He had been forced to anticipate his opponent's movements half the time, which frequently resulted in near-misses.
Now, it was entirely different. So long as the volume remained reasonable, the soil moved with remarkable swiftness—fast enough to easily match Reed at a full sprint!
That alone was a massive leap forward.
Next was [Property Change — Hardening].
Invoking the transmutation spell on the loose earth beneath his feet, the soil snapped into a slab as dense and rigid as granite. Reed knelt and rapped on the hardened earth. Both its structural integrity and its duration had noticeably increased.
"Shaka. Hit it with your hammer as hard as you can."
"Understood."
Clang! Clang!
"So it can endure about one heavy blow, maybe two if I'm lucky..."
Another thoroughly satisfying result. Synergizing this durability with the heightened mobility of [Earth Control] would allow him to react far more flexibly on the battlefield.
"Phew."
Now, only the crowning jewel remained: the new spell. Reed took a brief breath, lightly slapped his cheeks to focus, and drew upon his inner core. The arcane matrices of the magic were already deeply engraved in his mind; all he had to do was call them forth.
Mana surged violently around his chest before rushing down his legs and rippling out from the soles of his feet in all directions.
Instantly, the boundaries of Reed's perception expanded dramatically.
I can see it.
Insects crawling through the undergrowth. The microscopic tremors generated by footsteps passing along the main thoroughfare. Even the subtle shifting of topsoil carried by the breeze—everything registered with crystal clarity.
⟨ Earth Sense ⟩
It was a spell hyper-specialized in the sensory faculties of [Earth Control]. It felt as though the ground itself were whispering directly into his ear, revealing who stood where, what lay hidden, and which direction they moved. From this day forth, no enemy walking upon the earth could ever evade his notice.
Yet [Earth Sense] possessed another extraordinary property.
Wait... it reveals the mana dwelling within the soil too?!
Mana existed everywhere in the world—in the atmosphere, in the earth, and circulating through living bodies. Reed had always vaguely sensed this truth, even if he couldn't see it with his naked eyes. But through [Earth Sense], a brand-new revelation opened to him.
Living beings constantly absorbed mana through respiration, and a portion of that energy was naturally excreted through their skin. Naturally, the greater an individual's mana pool, the more residue they leaked into their surroundings.
That expelled mana seeped into the soil beneath their boots. And through [Earth Sense], Reed could distinctly measure the minute traces of mana lingering in the ground.
The conclusion was startling.
With this spell, I can deduce an opponent's total mana capacity!
Reed marched briskly inside the guild hall to observe the stonemasons. Even among craftsmen who had never undergone formal training, there were natural variations in individual mana pools. Activating [Earth Sense], Reed scanned the patch of floor beneath Loty's feet.
"What? What is it? Why are you staring at me like that again?"
"Thank you, Senior."
"What the hell for now?!"
Reed decided to use Loty as his universal baseline unit. The reason was simple: Loty possessed an utterly pathetic, rock-bottom amount of mana.
Let's define Senior Loty's mana capacity as exactly 1 Rt—one Robert.
An average civilian typically held about 2 Rt. Someone with a slightly sturdy constitution hovered around 3 Rt. Scanning random mercenaries passing by on the streets revealed a spread between 6 and 12 Rt. Shaka registered at 10 Rt, which was higher than anticipated, while Guildmaster Darahalt sat at the top with a commanding 20 Rt.
Of course, raw mana capacity wasn't an absolute metric of combat strength. Mana was merely fuel; how effectively one burned that fuel depended entirely on individual skill. Nevertheless, it was impossible to deny that those with higher mana were generally vastly more dangerous.
Looking at it through this scale really drives home how completely absurd my own reserves are.
By measuring the mana seeping into the ground beneath his own boots, Reed could now objectively compare his pool to others. His own mana was difficult to quantify in ordinary numbers; it was like trying to measure an ocean, a massive lake, or a mountain range.
Just how much divine power had Ur showered upon him?
Does she really give out this much just for a few sacrifices? Was the offering I provided really worth that much?
He couldn't help but question Ur's accounting methods, not that he had any intention of complaining. Yet this realization also brought an acute, sobering pang of inadequacy.
"I really don't know a damn thing about magic, do I?"
He hadn't even known the elementary fact that living bodies constantly shed mana into their environment. His profound ignorance of basic magical theory stared him right in the face. Having successfully severed his ties with the Black Blade Syndicate, Reed's daily life had finally stabilized.
Maybe now is the time to start studying magic for real.
His past had been cleared away; wasn't it time to build a proper foundation for his future? Wasn't it time to hit the books?
While Reed was lost in thought, Loty bustled over. "Hey, Reed. The Meister told us to fetch some slaked lime powder. Move it!"
Seizing the chance, Reed asked, "Senior, are books on magic really expensive? Just basic introductory texts or foundational primers, I mean."
"Huh? Those usually start at four gold coins, don't they?"
"...Even the basic primers?"
"If they sold them any cheaper, the wizards would throw a fit."
Magic was a craft that granted its practitioners immense social privilege. Naturally, if the number of new mages increased, the exclusive rights enjoyed by established wizards would erode. To prevent that, mages deliberately capped the production of grimoires and textbooks, driving prices sky-high.
A petty, calculated move to kick away the ladder behind them.
Four gold coins is way too steep...
Thanks to the guildmaster's favor, Reed earned far more than a standard apprentice. While it wasn't a meager sum, scraping together four gold coins through daily wages alone would take an excruciatingly long time—unless he struck gold again by slaying another Crystal Kobold or unearthing ancient relics from the sewers.
It always comes down to money. I need gold. Can't a brick of solid gold just fall from the sky?
Indulging in such ridiculous wishful thinking, Reed trailed behind Loty, who walked backward while blabbering as usual.
"Why? Thinking of getting your hands on a spellbook?"
"Yes, but they're far pricier than I expected. By the way, Senior, you should look where you're walking."
"Relax, relax! If money's the issue... well, there's this investment I've been looking into lately. I could let you in on—oof!"
Bump!
Walking backward, Loty slammed squarely into someone striding toward the Stonemasons' Union building. Reed had seen it coming the moment Loty started clowning around. The man was hopelessly clumsy.
Still, as a junior colleague and comrade, Reed stepped forward to apologize alongside him, but before either could utter a word—
Smack!
The stranger shoved Loty back with furious force. Caught off balance, Loty went sprawling onto his backside.
"Ow!"
"You filthy peasant! Where do you keep your damn eyes?!"
"Ah, I-I'm so sorr—"
"Do you have any idea how much this robe costs?! Ugh, damn it! Look at this dirt!"
"Uh, wait, that was already dir—"
"What's with that stiff neck?! If you're sorry, you should be on your knees begging for mercy!"
The screaming young man wore an ornate, lustrous blue robe and held an elegant staff topped with a glowing red gem. A textbook ensemble that practically screamed, Look at me, I'm a wizard. Flanking him, several burly bodyguards stood with arms crossed, smirking arrogantly.
It seemed Loty had run headfirst into absolute disaster today. Naturally timid, the apprentice rubbed his aching backside with a tearful, panicked expression, stammering helplessly.
"Oh? Still not kneeling? You want to test me? Do you even know what noble house I belong to?!"
"A-Ah, w-well, you see..."
As the young nobleman bellowed, passersby and guild craftsmen began crowding around to watch the commotion.
"What's going on?"
"Tsk, looks like some young noble brat is picking on a poor commoner."
"Poor bastard."
Though the onlookers murmured pity, not a single soul stepped forward to intervene. Instead, their eyes sparkled with avid curiosity. If Loty fell to his knees here, he would become the laughingstock of the district for months to come. The spectators would gleefully recount the gossip over pints at the tavern tonight.
'Man, that apprentice got cornered by a noble, it was pathetic! But the coward couldn't even stand up for himself! Didn't have the balls! Hahaha!'
Torn between humiliation and dread, Loty remained frozen in an awkward, half-crouched posture, trembling from head to toe.
"Hey! Didn't I tell you to get on your knees, you pig?!"
"I-I really am sorry, but..."
"Tsk tsk, poor guy."
While the mage, his retainers, and the crowd all stared fixated on Loty's knees, Reed stood quietly, scrutinizing the belligerent wizard.
This insolent young mage dressed exceptionally well, exuding the distinct air of high nobility. Which meant... his pockets were bound to be bursting with coin.
That was an immensely important tactical consideration.
Subtly, Reed channeled [Earth Sense]. Reading the subterranean vibrations and measuring the mana residue seeping from the earth beneath the nobleman's boots, he calculated the numbers with clinical precision. A result surfaced in his mind.
Measurement complete. 13 Rt.
The moment he confirmed the opponent's exact level, an intense, righteous fire abruptly erupted from the deepest recesses of Reed's soul. The name of this holy flame was wrath.
How dare this wretch mistreat his beloved, deeply respected Senior Loty?!
It was utterly intolerable. Drawing in a lungful of air, Reed unleashed a thunderous, righteous roar at the tyrannical mage.
"You son of a bitch! How dare you lay a hand on my senior?!"
Reed—a man who could endure any hardship, but could never, ever tolerate injustice.