A Budding Scientist in a Fantasy World

The march through the forest was slow, and a large part of that was due to the inefficiency of the [Mercenaries]. Alice had never before appreciated just how much of a difference training made on travel speed. The Illvarian army that she and Ethan had traveled with last time had moved at a ground-eating pace, travelling across well-paved roads while [Scouts] and [Commanders] constantly buffed the soldiers and found the most optimal route.

The [Mercenaries] didn’t have that advantage. They didn’t move slowly, but they didn’t move quickly, either. Alice guessed that they were probably moving at half the speed the Illvarian [Soldiers] had moved at - and the [Mercenaries] also had a strong tendency to get slightly lost. If it weren’t for Allira’s shadows helping the group find their way, Alice suspected the group might spend hours wandering around the forest, trying to find their target.

The second thing that Alice noticed was that the [Mercenary] band was loud. Every single footfall echoed through the forest like the beat of a drum, which made Alice wince. If the Society had any competent [Scouts], they would definitely know that the [Mercenaries] were coming. There was no plausible way that they would miss the loud, clumsy tramping of the small army through the forest. Admittedly, even during the previous base raid, Alice had noticed that the Society lacked the kind of efficient command structure a military had. However, she still didn’t think the group would have surprise on their side when they arrived.

The only thing that slightly reassured Alice was Allira. The Immortal was capable of filling in for several of the logistical roles that the [Mercenaries] were missing. After seeing the hopelessly slow and loud march, Allira started humming at the makeshift army. After that, Alice saw little flecks of rainbow mana crawl out of her shadow, before swarming the [Mercenaries] and covering up their feet. With each note, the [Mercenaries] became faster. Their feet would subconsciously start to dodge little branches and rocks, becoming surer and less easily disturbed.

Of course, singing wasn’t exactly a quiet activity. Thus, even though Allira could help with the group’s movement speed, there was nothing she could do to fix the sound problem.

After nearly four hours of walking, Alice was starting to grow increasingly nervous. The Society hadn’t responded to the group’s approach at all. And Alice couldn’t figure out why. Was the Society preparing an ambush? After she thought of all of the traps and dangers a Mage could create, Alice started to constantly sweep their surroundings with her Perks. She kept imagining something out of a movie from home – perhaps a scene where a soldier steps onto a landmine, killing him and his companions. She could certainly imagine ways to create similar weapons using magic.

However, none of Alice’s scans with mana turned up anything. Far from making Alice feel relieved, this made her feel even more tense. The Society should have a response prepared. If she didn’t see one, that meant she was missing it. Ethan and Allira seemed to share her anxiety. Allira’s shadows got more and more restless as the group approached the base, and Ethan constantly emitted flashes of rainbow mana as he searched the area for any threats that they had missed.

“There is no way the Society would be this careless,” Allira finally hissed, as the group entered the final stretch of forest. “We’re less than a kilometer away. We spent days trying to find a [Mercenary] group. The Society must have some contacts with the surrounding population. That’s just how they operate. They should already know that we’re coming, and this is the perfect spot to set up an ambush, and we’ve passed several other spots where they could have at least set up a few magic traps to slow us down. Why does this area seem so empty?”

Ethan also frowned. “My father used to say that if an enemy is behaving oddly, or a situation is going too well, it’s because the enemy has you right where they want you. I’m inclined to agree with him,” said Ethan. “Something is wrong here.”

Cecilia, who stood just to the left of Alice, shivered. “Maybe they’re just hard-hit by the impact of class-mana poisoning? That would explain at least some of their odd behavior,” said Cecilia. “Even more normal people are starting to fall into madness as a result of their class mana overwhelming them. The Society is comprised of people who, to put it bluntly, have weaker [Willpower], a Stat we know directly assists people in resisting the corrosion of Class mana. It’s not unimaginable that their command structure is paralyzed.”

“Maybe,” said Ethan. “But even if the Society has lower average [Willpower], their response shouldn’t be this lackluster. Logistical issues and societal problems haven’t reached critical mass in regular cities yet, and I don’t think the Society is likely to be at that stage either yet. This just seems too… ineffective compared to my previous alterations with the Society.”

“I see,” said Cecilia, sounding thoughtful. Alice felt her heart tighten further, as though a giant had reached into her chest and started squeezing on her nerves. So she wasn’t the only one that thought the current situation was off. If even two Immortals thought the current situation was weird, something was definitely wrong.

“Alice, do you see anything?” asked Ethan. “Your eyesight is way better than everyone else’s.”

Alice shook her head. “I’ve been looking, but I don’t see anything at all. The area is just... empty. I haven’t even see basic monsters like spidercrabs.”

Ethan grimaced.

The group continued creeping closer, until finally, they reached the outskirts of the Society base. There, Alice frowned again.

The previous Society base that she had attacked with Ethan had been hidden by an enchantment. The enchantment had a variety of abilities, all of which made it very hard to find the base unless someone already knew where it was. However, as far as she could tell, this Society base didn’t have any similar enchantment surrounding it. That was... baffling. Why hadn’t the Society put up an enchantment to keep the base hidden?

Alice wondered if maybe the enchantment had somehow been incompatible with... whatever the Society was doing in this base. Or maybe the Society simply hadn’t installed the same enchantment here? Neither of those explanations felt right to Alice, but she didn’t know what to think.

Heedless of Alice’s fears, the group continued marching forward. After several more minutes of marching, the group finally reached their destination. There, the group halted, while Allira’s shadows scouted ahead. Alice also took a few moments to examine their surroundings.

The area directly adjacent to the base had been cleared of trees, greenery, and other things. In normal circumstances, this would have turned the area into a perfect killing field. [Kinetic Mages] and [Archers] could have poured ammunition into would-be attackers, followed by a charge of [Organic Mages] to break up the battered attackers. If the Society was clever, they could have also buried various magical traps beneath the soil, making it even more difficult and dangerous to charge forward.

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Instead, the clearing was empty. The only notable ‘magic object’ in the clearing was the base itself. The walls were reinforced with a variety of enchantments, some of which Alice didn’t recognize, but the clearing was safe.

Alice started to feel a different suspicion swirl around in her mind.

Had... the Society fled already? What if they attacked the base, and nothing was inside? If that was the case, it would be hard to rescue the kidnapped [Scholar]. It would also be difficult to get anything out of this raid. Alice had been hoping to steal some research documents from the Society - especially ones related to the current anomaly, or related to the System somehow. If the base had already been evacuated, this whole exercise would turn into a major waste of time. However, there was still a massive void of mana in their surroundings, which eased Alice’s fears somewhat. Even if she still wasn’t sure how the Society had drained the mana from their surroundings, the mana void was centered right around the base. There was clearly something here worth studying.

Finally, Allira frowned.

“My shadows didn’t locate any enemies or traps outside of the base. However, they do report life inside of the base. It’s hard to get more useful information, though.” She turned towards the [Mercenaries]. “Proceed,” she said.

Alice relaxed. So the base hadn’t been evacuated. Allira had seem researchers inside.

But if that was the case, why was the Society so passive towards their approach?

The small army of [Mercenaries], Mages, and Immortals stepped through the clearing. They moved cautiously, as if trying to avoid alerting the Society to their presence. Alice thought that was probably already a lost cause, but she didn’t say anything.

About halfway through the advance, the group was finally exposed. Alice saw a flash of mana from the roof of the Society’s base, and realized that there was an [Organic Magic], looking at their group with shock. A moment later, he dashed back inside the base, and yelled something in a language Alice didn’t recognize.

It seemed like the Mage was surprised?

Alice felt her deep-rooted suspicions start to waver. Was the Society of Starry Eyes really unaware of their approach? Even though Allira and Ethan had spent several days finding a [Mercenary] group to carry out this raid? Even though the group had made such a huge racket while traversing the forest? It seemed unlikely… but maybe Cecilia’s theory was correct? It wasn’t impossible for their group to be unnoticed. If that was the case, this might be an unexpectedly easy raid. If the group could get what they wanted, without any major upheavals or problems, that would be the best outcome.

The Society Mage’s yell seemed to finally alert the base to their presence. Their response was slow. It was a far cry from the pandemonium Alice had witnessed the first time they raided a Society base.

A moment later, a few more Society members reached the rooftop, before they also started yelling. A few shadowy maws tore out of the shadows, before ripping out the throats of two of them. The third managed to deflect Allira’s attack and duck back into the building.

No more Society members went to the roof. With their position exposed, the [Mercenaries] stopped tiptoeing towards the base, and started sprinting towards it at full speed. No attacks poured down on them as they easily advanced forward, unopposed by the Society in any way.

Alice felt her unease grow stronger. The Society she had feared wasn’t this incompetent. Even if many members would have been blasted to madness by the influence of their Class mana, there was no way the Society would fall like this.

But that was exactly what she was seeing. After nearly half a minute, the Society finally started peppering the advancing [Mercenaries] with projectiles from smaller slits in the building. However, their attacks were ineffective at best. Alice didn’t know how many [Kinetic Mages] the base had, but it seemed like less than ten were attacking the [Mercenaries]. The few projectiles that did hit the [Mercenary] charge were deflected by various Perks, and before the Society could inflict any real damage, the [Mercenaries] kicked down the door and leapt inside. Alice and the others were right on their tail. Alice frowned as they rushed into the building.

Alice wasn’t sure why the Society was so much less effective than it usually was. This didn’t seem like the level of damage that just Class mana could do – it seemed more like the entire command structure of the Society had dropped dead or something. Even more odd, this base didn’t have most of the defenses that the first base Alice had seen had. There was no giant ditch surrounding the Society base, even though it wouldn’t have been very hard to dig one out, and it would have made the lives of the [Mercenaries] far more difficult. There weren’t any odd magical traps outside of the base. Something was very wrong here.

When Alice got her first look inside of the building, she finally saw the first sign of real defenses.

Just behind the doorway was a massive, caved in section of the floor. It was about fifty meters long, and ten meters deep. Alice could still see bits of stone and dust swirling around the air, making it look like a Society Mage had used some kind of magic or Perk to destroy the hallway only moments earlier.

Standing on the other side of the gap were twenty [Organic Mages] and a handful of [Kinetic Mages]. The [Organic Mages] were wearing hastily put together enchanted items and weapons, and the [Kinetic Mages] looked nervous as they eyed Alice, Ethan, and Allira. Clearly, they had figured out that they were fighting powerful enemies, even if they weren’t aware that Ethan and Allira were combat-oriented Immortals.

A moment passed, as the Society Mages looked at the [Mercenaries], and the [Mercenaries] stared at the huge pit in front of the door. The [Mercenaries] whipped out bows and started firing at the Society Mages, who immediately started deflecting their arrows with Kinetic magic and returning fire. As projectiles started whizzing over the massive hallway pit, Ethan finally started to intervene, tilting the projectile war decisively in their favor. An Immortal might not be able to defeat an entire army, but they could certainly crush five mid-level Mages. Allira didn’t even need to intervene, and thus spread her shadows into the surroundings to watch out for other nasty surprises.

“Alice. Fix the floor,” said Ethan. “I want to keep my eyes open for other traps. Something doesn’t feel right about this.”

Alice nodded. Repairing a floor was something she could do. She started using her senses to scan for other materials… before realizing that she didn’t know very much about architecture. Now probably wasn’t the time for trial and error. Alice winced, and decided to solve the problem a different way. She used her dimensional mana to open a large portal, wide enough for about three people to walk through at a time. She devoted a few more mana tendrils to clearing up some of the broken mana flying around the area as a result of all the Mages in the vicinity, and then gestured towards the [Mercenaries].

“Jump through the portal. I’m dealing with the broken mana!” yelled Alice.

A few of the [Mercenaries] looked uneasy, but as they glanced at the collapsing Society defensive line, they relaxed. Ethan had already crushed most of the resisting Society Mages. Then, they hopped through the portal. Although a few of the remaining [Organic Mages] turned around to meet them, Ethan’s projectiles had already devastated their position. Nearly half of the defenders were dead, and another quarter of them were seriously injured. As dozens of [Mercenaries] poured through the portal, the remaining defenders quickly fell into disarray, and started to retreat further into the base. However, at that moment, another set of shadow maws snapped up several of the remaining defenders, and the [Mercenaries] made short work of the final remaining few. In less than a minute, the two Immortals and the hired [Mercenaries] had bulldozed the defensive line of the Society’s base.

Alice frowned.

The entire operation still felt... too easy to her. She still felt that something was wrong, but the exact cause of that wrongness was still unidentified. It felt like Alice was jumping at shadows, searching for a problem that might not exist. She hated this, but she also didn’t know how to fix it.

“Let’s just go,” she said. Ethan, Allira, and Jonathan all moved closer as the group rejoined the other [Mercenaries]. Cecilia frowned as she checked the walls of the base, before she shook her head.

“The base’s wall enchantments don’t seem dangerous to me. Whatever the Society is planning, it’s not related to that,” she said.

Ethan and Allira nodded, and continued giving their surroundings wary glances.

Uneasily, the large group made their way past the entrance hallway of the base, and started making their way deeper inside. Even though something still felt wrong, Alice wasn’t sure how to resolve the issue. So, barring an idea of what the problem was or if it actually existed, she decided to see what else was inside. She just hoped she wouldn’t miss the real threat before it was too late.

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