The Village of Smoke and Stone
The cold morning air carried the smell of ash and mist as Lencar walked along the muddy trail. He had been following faint mana signatures for an hour, tracing the residual disturbance from the Eye of the Midnight Sun. The further he went, the heavier the air felt.
A thick, silver mist hung over the valley below — Sosshi Village.
It wasn't natural.
Lencar crouched near a tree and ran a finger through the soil. The mana flow beneath was chaotic — something had been condensed here unnaturally, forming a static layer of compressed moisture.
> "Mist magic to block vision… and the ground feels distorted. At least two casters," he muttered.
He stepped into the fog. The sound of footsteps was muffled, and every few meters, he caught glimpses of collapsed houses. It wasn't just destruction; it was targeted. He recognized precision in the mana residue — these weren't wild attacks.
Then came a voice, faint but steady.
> "Please, help! Over here!"
He rushed toward it, breaking through the mist to find a young man — burnt along one arm — trying to carry an elderly villager. Lencar set them down safely and used Chain Magic to pull debris off another wounded child. The villager gasped.
> "They came from the north… one with smoke magic… and the other turned the ground itself against us. The chief tried to hold them off…"
The name chief made Lencar's chest tighten.
He remembered what this place meant to Magna Swing — the man who once looked up to this village leader. He knew what would happen in the original flow of events, and though he wasn't part of that story, he refused to let it repeat exactly.
He turned east, where the mana signatures flared again.
The mist parted as Lencar arrived at the square.
Two mages stood there — both bearing the Eye of the Midnight Sun insignia.
The first, a thin man with black veins across his arms, manipulated Smoke Magic to create choking barriers.
The second, a larger figure with brown armor-like skin, stomped the ground and raised jagged Earth spikes around them.
> "Another pest in our hunt?" the smoke mage sneered, his voice distorted by the haze.
"You're in our way, stranger."
Lencar smiled faintly.
> "You two have grimoires… that means you're just the kind I was looking for."
He lifted his hand. Chains of red mana coiled around his arm — his Chain Magic, replicated from an earlier devoured grimoire. They slithered outward, tracing through the mist like serpents.
The Smoke Mage countered instantly, condensing black clouds into solid form to block the chains, while the Earth Mage slammed the ground, forming a wall. But Lencar didn't attack directly — instead, he walked forward slowly, analyzing their mana structures.
Thick mana condensation… earth attribute with high density — perfect for absorption test.
He toggled his Heretic Mode.
The air darkened.
His mana turned blackish-red, vibrating unnaturally. His eyes dimmed — his irises glowing faint silver. Heretic Mode tore open his natural mana channels, releasing corrupted energy that interacted with their constructs violently.
The Earth Mage's wall cracked — not from physical force, but because the mana sustaining it became unstable in Lencar's presence.
> "What the hell—!?"
Lencar flicked his wrist, and a wave of distorted air spread around him, pulling the Smoke Mage's barrier inward. The smoke condensed, suffocating its own caster. The Earth Mage tried to retaliate by turning the ground into quicksand, but Lencar stepped onto it — and it solidified instantly.
> "Stop struggling," he said quietly. "You won't understand this magic."
Chains burst upward from beneath, wrapping around both mages. He reached out, touching the grimoires floating beside them.
> "I'll take those."
As the chains glowed, his mana expanded, and both grimoires began to disintegrate into streams of colored light — brown and gray, dissolving into his own grimoire's cover. He felt their spells integrate, forming new rune patterns across his inner pages.
He nearly lost balance.
Two new elemental sequences — Earth and Smoke — began adjusting to his core replication formula. He breathed heavily as Heretic Mode flickered.
> "Too unstable… I can't absorb more at once."
He released the chains, and both enemies collapsed — alive but unconscious.
He deactivated Heretic Mode and looked at the faintly glowing runes on his left arm. His mana had expanded slightly — he could feel the structure of solidified mana better now, the concept of forming matter from mana, not just controlling it.
> "So… Earth Magic focuses on crystallization and stability. Good. That'll balance my Fire and Chain sequences."
By the time the mist dispersed, villagers were emerging cautiously. Lencar helped repair some collapsed houses with the newly replicated Earth Magic, forming compact blocks and reinforcing walls.
The village chief's daughter bowed deeply.
> "Thank you… we thought we'd all die here."
He smiled faintly and looked at the morning light.
> "You won't. The worst has already passed."
Before leaving, he left a small mana crystal behind — a minor protective formation using his Chain and Earth combination. Then he walked eastward again, his cloak fluttering behind him.
The page of his grimoire shimmered briefly — two new spells recorded:
"Petrify Chain" – binds target and gradually hardens the area around them.
"Mist Seal Field" – disperses visual and mana traces within a limited radius.
He smirked slightly.
> "Now… I just need to find somewhere quiet to live before the next mess begins."
His path led toward Nairn village — and the red-haired girl who'd soon change his quiet days into something far more complicated.