“Rest!” Kel cast a slashing spell, and the monster collapsed at his feet.

  “Eat well!” He cut the second monster apart.

  “Just a coincidence!” Two more monsters lost their lives.

  Kel didn’t know what to do, and that made him angry.

  Fine. For now, he would gather the ingredients for a restorative potion. But what then? Loving parents were giving their children every potion they could find, and it barely helped.

  “Four of them have already died.”

  Right now, he was lacking… everything.

  Elga from the hero party. She could handle any illness.

  The respect Aigon commanded– for him, every healer and herbalist in the city would have worked day and night.

  And especially – that damned inventory, with all those promissory notes hidden inside.

  Yes, he was worried about Kiana. She was the only family he had left in this world.

  Kel bent down and picked up the stone the monster had dropped.

  Not the right one again.

  The potion required the heart of a green morn, but out of spite, only red and blue ones kept dropping.

  This was starting to get annoying.

  Kel rose into the air, up beneath the high vault of the cavern where he was hunting morns. At this point, only fifteen of them remained. He raised his hand, forming a vortex that dragged the monsters together from opposite ends of the cave.

  A torrent of invisible blades crashed down on them, and Kel moved in to collect the loot.

  This time, he was lucky – he found two of the stones he needed. Everything else he gathered and stashed in his bag for later sale. This haul was far more valuable than magical ore.

  The potion he brewed was of the highest quality. Maybe not as good as the ones hidden in his inventory, but he didn’t have the time to let it mature in an alchemical crucible for weeks. Still, it was leagues better than the cheap, useless brews Kelmir usually carried.

  Kel returned to the modest inn where he’d rented a room for two days. He had Kiana drink the potion, checked her condition, and then hurried off again to take care of business.

  He desperately wanted to sleep. Magic kept his body going, but it couldn’t ease mental exhaustion. Fine. That was a minor problem.

  Morns lived far to the south, and Kel was certain their hearts were rare this far north. All that remained was to figure out who to sell them to–without attracting unnecessary questions.

  Preferably legally. His experience dealing with smugglers had left a bad taste.

  If he ruled out the Guild, there was only one person in this city he could turn to.

  ***

  “Hi.”

  The healer’s assistant flinched in surprise.

  “H-hello. What an unexpected meeting.”

  “Unexpected, right?” Kel thought, with a faint trace of irony. He’d been the one who set this up.

  From the outside, everything looked perfectly natural. He was strolling through the local market and just happened to run into a recent acquaintance.

  Finding the right person wasn’t difficult. With a strand of hair, a clipping of nails, a drop of blood – anything like that – even a mid-level mage could track someone down.

  Of course, that was only true if the target wasn’t protected by special wards.

  A high-level mage could locate someone with nothing more than a portrait – or even just a clear memory of their face.

  Kel had found the healer’s assistant easily and arranged this “chance encounter.”

  “How is your sister?” the boy asked once they’d moved away from the stalls.

  Kel shrugged. It was the only answer he had.

  Even though he wasn’t a healer, he had checked everything he could and found no sign of a curse or a focus of disease. And yet, something was still gnawing away at Kiana from the inside.

  “You left so quickly back then that I didn’t even get a chance to ask your name.”

  Color rushed to the boy’s pale cheeks.

  “I’m sorry. I’m Neimar. My mentor doesn’t allow me to leave during working hours, so I had to run back before he noticed.”

  Kel decided to start from afar.

  “I wanted to thank you. It’s good that we ran into each other again.”

  Neimar blushed even harder. With his pale skin and light hair, it was hard to miss.

  “You know your way around healing, don’t you?” Kel continued.

  “I’d like to think so. But I’m still learning. And I’m just waiting for an invitation from the Tower. For now, I’m more of a theorist than a practitioner.”

  Kel understood immediately. Limited mana meant you couldn’t go far on your own resources.

  “A theorist is exactly what I need right now. See, I just returned from the Wastelands and brought back a small souvenir. Maybe you can tell me who could buy it?”

  Kel pulled out one of the stones.

  “That’s a morn heart,” Neimar identified immediately. “But they live far to the south, not in the Wastelands.”

  Kel was ready with an answer.

  “I never said I got them in battle. With my Copper rank, that would be impossible. But among the adventurers heading to the castle were some high-stakes players. I got lucky and won a few valuable items.”

  Neimar seemed to believe him.

  “I’d suggest going to the mentor, but he just ordered a big batch of goods. He paid a hefty sum, so there’s no free money left. And this is an expensive ingredient. But I know where all the healers in this city work. We can visit them. Someone will definitely buy it.”

  “Together?” Kel repeated, incredulous.

  “Yeah. That’ll be much easier than explaining who’s where. I have the day off anyway.”

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  They didn’t have to walk far. The first healer they visited agreed to buy all five of the stones Kel had brought. Kel didn’t risk giving more than that at once.

  “Tell me, young man,” the healer said, holding the stone up to the light. “What other remarkable things have you won?”

  “What exactly are you interested in? I’ll try to remember.”

  “Elefnor tusks, for example.”

  “Got them,” Kel nodded, making a mental note.

  “Crystal feathers?”

  “Those too.”

  “Ashen heart?”

  Kel hesitated. He could easily kill an Ashen Guardian himself, but how strong was his invented adventurer? Definitely not that strong.

  “I’m afraid I don’t have that one.”

  The healer smirked.

  “A pity. I was about to think you’d bested one of the Tower’s magisters in cards.”

  Well done, Kel praised himself silently. It was tricky not to forget about scaling his powers – but he was trying very hard.

  “I can bring the ingredients by evening. Will that work for you?”

  “I’ll be waiting eagerly,” the healer replied.

  Neimar was thrilled by the successful deal, like a child. As if he’d just earned a small fortune himself.

  “It’s lucky that Mr. Ingis bought everything. Oh, you don’t know who that is. Mr. Ingis used to be the royal healer. Then he decided he was tired of the duties and moved to the provinces. He’s the best healer – not just in this city, but in the entire region. All our aristocrats go to him, and he pays without haggling.”

  What a naive kid, Kel thought. A royal healer just… gave up his post? Walked away from power and influence? Yeah, right. Most likely, he’d been exiled here.

  Still, Kel kept it casual.

  “I’m glad I could make the deal with him. And thanks to you for helping out. Here – take this.”

  He held out one of the gold coins he’d earned from the healer for the stones.

  Neimar yanked his hand back and flushed bright red. This time, it wasn’t embarrassment – it was offense.

  “I wanted to help, not for money. Have a good day, Kelmir.”

  And with that, he spun on his heel and bolted.

  Kel let out a long sigh.

  “Yep… just like a child,” he muttered, shaking his head. A tiny part of him couldn’t help but smile.

  ***

  Kel gasped for air and wiped a thin stream of blood from his nose.

  In his memory were incredible amounts of knowledge.

  He had access to an unlimited source of mana.

  His core allowed him to cast grand, world-shaking spells.

  The problem was his body. It simply couldn’t handle the strain.

  Scalding drops fell nearby, burning straight through the stones on the ground. Kel leapt aside, lifted a dozen boulders into the air, and hurled them at the Wailer.

  “The bloody monster just wouldn’t switch phases.”

  The blazing bird let out a deafening cry and spread its wings, sending a wave of fire in every direction. The stones melted before his eyes. The air was so hot that Kel could feel it even through his magical shield. Without the shield, he’d have turned to ash long ago.

  (SYSTEM ALERT: LEAVE THE BATTLE ZONE! HIGH DANGER!)

  The System’s disbelief in his abilities was almost… irritating.

  Too bad. Kel wouldn’t have time to study its mechanics closely anytime soon.

  During the fights with trolls and morns, the System hadn’t made itself known at all. But the moment he stepped out of the portal in the valley where the Wailer Bird lived, the System woke up–and it hadn’t stopped bombarding Kel with messages since.

  Maybe the System was gauging danger based on his overall stats. One of his parameters was too low for a boss, and Kel had a pretty good guess which one. At least it was clear: the System wanted him alive and unharmed. Now if only he knew why.

  The Wailer hovered above the ground, then vanished. In its place, a dozen fiery vortices spun in the air.

  Kel needed crystal feathers, obtainable only by killing the boss in its second phase. That meant he couldn’t just one-shot the Wailer – he had to survive through all the stages of the fight, channeling more and more mana through an unprepared body.

  Kel refreshed his shield and charged toward one of the whirling fires. They all looked nearly identical, and only his magical sight allowed him to discern which one was the boss’s core. He felt the shield begin to melt under the heat of the flames and whispered,

  “Compression.”

  If it weren’t for his protective spells, Kel would have gone deaf from the scream of the dying Wailer. All the vortices surged toward its core, trying to shield it. The core’s crimson flames turned blinding white, and then–exploded.

  Phase Two had begun.

  Now, the boss’s body was made of ice crystals.

  (IMMEDIATELY LEAVE THE BATTLE ZONE! HIGH DANGER!)

  Thanks, System, as if I hadn’t noticed.

  Phase One had been considered easy because the Wailer only dealt a variety of fire damage. Now, the boss reflected attacking spells, and its aura slowed every movement. Froze them. Hilarious.

  Ice blades formed from the air and crashed down where Kel had been standing a moment ago. He squinted and realized they weren’t blades at all–they were enormous, razor-sharp feathers.

  The aura sapped about 20% of Kel’s movement speed. Another chunk was lost to his tired, untrained body.

  He decided to skip the flashy moves.

  Attacking with fire or slashing spells was pointless. Crushing, compressing, shattering the Wailer’s icy armor could be done almost endlessly–with no effect.

  Kel dodged the feathers again while closing in on the boss. The Wailer opened its maw, ready to unleash its icy breath.

  “Now.”

  He was right in front of the monster’s open mouth. The cold was bone-chilling. His exhausted shield wouldn’t withstand a direct hit–but there was no time to refresh it. The key was to act fast.

  Direct sight of the target area was a strict requirement for this spell. He traced a rune in the air, and the same rune glowed inside the monster’s maw.

  “Disintegration.”

  The Wailer’s head shattered into pieces.

  Kel dropped to the ground, leaning against a stone that had survived the fight. By his knee lay a bleached skull. The Wailer had been a gourmand, spitting out the heads of its victims.

  His hair, frozen into icicles, sent an unpleasant chill across his skin. His hands trembled slightly from exhaustion.

  “90 level. Just the ninetieth, and you’re already falling apart. Pathetic.” Kel’s inner voice showed no mercy. It didn’t care that most mages wouldn’t have dared face the Wailer at all.

  A half-joking thought crossed his mind: maybe this was why the Archmage had hidden away for ten years. No, he hadn’t been gathering allies, nor working on crafting more terrifying spells. Apparently, all that time he’d been training a new body to handle his magic.

  Long ago, even before the Era of the Ascended, some scholars–including elves–claimed that humans weren’t made for magic. That they had broken the laws of this world by giving themselves the ability to store and wield mana. And one day, it would lead the world to ruin. Therefore, mages should abandon their spells.

  The theory hadn’t gained popularity. Its proponents were burned, and everyone quickly forgot. Who in their right mind would give up such power?

  Watching how his body reacted to mana, Kel almost began to believe it. Even in his own world, Kel had read that some rulers had once feared poisoning. Not without reason, of course. So they would take the poison themselves–starting with tiny doses and gradually increasing them, allowing their bodies to adapt and survive a real poisoning.

  A similar situation applied to mages. Even after gaining access to the Tower’s source, they trained relentlessly. It wasn’t enough to simply have mana–you had to know how to shape it into spells. And the stronger the spell, the more effort it demanded. Gradually increasing the mana received by the core, while remembering that headaches from overexertion were far from the worst consequence.

  Once he solved Kiana’s problem, Kel would immediately turn to training as well. If he had gained such power, he had to be able to use it to its fullest… without harming himself.

  Using a spell, he collected the Wailer’s translucent flight feathers.

  It was time to head back.

  The healer’s mansion was a luxurious affair, surrounded by equally lavish homes. Clearly, only the very wealthy lived in this neighborhood. A far cry from the district where Kel had rented his room. No matter; now they could move into a slightly nicer inn.The guard at the gate let Kel in without a word as soon as he mentioned his name. It seemed his visit had been announced in advance.

  “I’m very glad you came.” Healer Ingis radiated good-natured calm. “Let’s start with some tea.”

  At first, Kel was about to mention that he was in a hurry–but he changed his mind. And rightly so. The tea was exquisite. And the pastries served alongside it… Kel hadn’t noticed himself devouring four of them. After all, he hadn’t eaten since morning and had spent a lot of energy.

  “Eat, don’t be shy,” the healer said, noticing his awkwardness. “If they run out, I’ll have the servants bring more. Kelmir, you really did return from the Wastelands?”

  The healer asked his question casually, but Kel tensed.

  “Yes. We only arrived in the town yesterday.”

  “What does this old man want from me? Not exactly here to discuss my life…”

  “Did you see the Archmage killed?”

  Kel shook his head.

  “No. That’s a hero’s business. I’m just a simple adventurer.”

  “Such modesty. Today alone, a dozen adventurers have already come through the town claiming they witnessed the Archmage’s death with their own eyes. Two of them even provided invaluable aid to Hero Aigon.”

  Kel smiled. Familiar situation. Last time had been exactly the same. In every city across all nine kingdoms, there was always some adventurer who personally handed Aigon the enchanted sword. Funny enough, they did everything they could to avoid actually meeting the hero.

  “Fast work,” Kel said. “The Archmage was only killed the day before yesterday, and they’re already here?”

  “Well, you managed somehow,” Ingis replied.

  Kel nearly choked on his tea.

  “I didn’t wait for the assault. Took my winnings and decided to head back. I was lucky enough already. Why risk my life any more than I have to?”

  Ingis didn’t take his eyes off him.

  “Strange. Today I received from the outpost lists of everyone who left the Wastelands. I love reading them–consider it old man’s amusement. Anyway, it says here that Adventurer Kelmir and his sister Kiana passed the outpost yesterday. At three in the afternoon. And by evening, you were already meeting with Neimar's mentor. Quite the speed, don’t you think?”

  Indeed. Escaping paranoid Almas, Magister Targis, and the magical threads – and yet the exiled healer figured him out. Kel had to admit, it was almost funny.