Chapter 1186 — Traces

"Yes, it is confirmed. We have no way to directly 'test' that human mage for the moment, but the battlefield cleanup team responsible for the aftermath can state with certainty that it was at least a legendary mage's full-power assault," the draconic warrior replied earnestly. "And even among legendary powerhouses, that mage's strength should rank in the upper tier."

"This is too bizarre," An Qian said with a frown, turning to look at Hragor beside him. "A legendary powerhouse—and a mage of extremely high standing in the human world at that—why would he come to an adventurers' camp? And I hear he signed up at the harbor and boarded the ship just like any other ordinary adventurer. Until today, he had been doing the same work as everyone else in the camp—leveling terrain, erecting town shields, and the like... Have you ever seen such a thing?"

"Like you, I have had little contact with the human peoples of this era's civilization. My data all comes from the 'patrol records' collected in the Omega Network," Hragor said with a shake of his head. "But whatever one might say, this certainly does not look like the behavior pattern of a normal legendary powerhouse... Could this be some kind of 'quirk' of that mage's?"

"If it is a quirk, then anything is possible in explanation—humans are an incredible people; nothing an individual among them does should surprise us," An Qian said with an odd shake of his head. "But that mage claims he signed on with this group of adventurers out of a passion for adventure. I am... somewhat doubtful of that. These days Talongarde has more than one way to enter the country—would it not be more comfortable to spend a little extra on travel expenses and come as a visiting scholar than to do manual labor in an adventurers' camp?"

"We should find a chance to make contact with that human mage and see what his purpose really is," Hragor nodded. "A caster as mighty as he is ought not to be obscure in human society; his name should appear in the old Mithril Vault archives. A pity our databases are all destroyed now, and the vast majority of dragons know little of the affairs of the Loren Continent..."

"Let us observe for a few days first. We must be prepared before we approach him. He is a legend, after all—by the standards of the human race, a powerhouse who deserves respect, and in present-day Talongarde he counts as an exceedingly valuable upper-tier fighting force," An Qian mused for a moment, then said slowly, "This matter can be set aside for now. What concerns me more at this moment... are these crystals."

His gaze fell on the small boxes on the table. Within the metal containers, the fine crystals gave off a faint radiance like some kind of gemstone. Even after cooling for so long and being placed in metal vessels with magic-suppressing properties, the elemental power contained within them still leaked out from time to time, registering in the senses of An Qian and Hragor.

"These are the 'spoils' sent up from the Adventurer Management Center, taken from that defeated elemental lord and the destroyed elemental rift," An Qian said. "Elemental condensates of the highest quality—pure and stable. Even in old Talongarde they would have counted as a valuable industrial raw material... But that is not the point. The point is the lingering magical aura within these condensates. Do you sense it, Hragor?"

"Yes—very faint, but it is there. A transmutation produced by magical corrosion... No such transmutation should occur in the pure Elemental Plane," Hragor said with a slight nod, his expression turning serious as well. "And this is not the first time we have found such traces... Three days ago, a combat squad in the north brought back a small number of condensates after sealing a suddenly appearing elemental rift, and those condensates bore similar traces of transmutation."

"So this cannot be the effect of that legendary mage's magic," An Qian said in a low, grave voice, reaching into the container and drawing out an elemental condensate barely the size of a fingernail. The dark red, translucent crystal came alive in his hand; illusory flames and a faint, uncertain heat began to rise from its surface—but as the old Speaker channeled magic into it, the restless power within quieted at once, and after a few flickers it turned entirely into a pitch-black stone. "The change was carried out from the other side of the rift, from the Elemental Plane side... As you said, no such magical corrosion should appear there."

"The Elemental Plane..." Hragor said thoughtfully. "And it is not only these condensates—the frequency of elemental rifts has actually been increasing lately..."

An Qian did not speak for a moment. He was deep in thought, pondering what the residual magical traces in these condensates meant, and only after half a minute did he suddenly say: "Hragor, do you not feel that the aura carried in this magical corrosion is just a little... familiar?"

A flicker of gravity passed through Hragor's eyes: "So you sensed it too. At first I thought it was merely my imagination—after all, it is so very faint..."

"It is the Deep Blue Well—the kind peculiar to the shallow branches and the second through sixth layer conduit networks," An Qian said slowly. "I am... familiar with such things. As you know, before Talongarde was completely sealed off, I spent a long period obsessed with tracing the flow of the Deep Blue Well deep within this planet, and observed it within its conduit networks on various layers for several centuries."

Hragor's voice was low: "What do you think it means?"

"...I cannot be certain," An Qian said with a shake of his head. "The pulse-currents of the Deep Blue Well run through the entire planet, piercing even the multiple realms from the material world to the Shadow Realm and on to the Gloom Realm; projections of the Deep Blue Well flow even along the borders of the Elemental World and the divine realms. Its scale far exceeds our imagining. The dragons once studied the Deep Blue Well, but until the Final Defiance occurred one million eight hundred and seventy thousand years ago, we never managed to fully map its conduit network model... So I do not know what lies at the very depths of this vast system of magical currents, nor do I know its complete operating rules.

"But one thing I do know: under normal circumstances, the pulse-currents of the Deep Blue Well all flow in orderly fashion. As part of this planet's primal structure, it never arbitrarily changes its 'path,' still less suddenly springs a leak and leaves so many traces of corrosion in elemental lords and elemental rifts... At least in the past one million eight hundred and seventy thousand years, that has never changed."

"It has changed before, though," Hragor reminded him from the side. "According to intelligence we recently obtained from the Theocratic Council, seven hundred years ago a certain deity who sheltered the Loren Continent acted to detonate the Deep Blue Well's 'exit' in the material world in order to withstand the magical tide. The great explosion altered the manner in which the Deep Blue Well flows through the material world—that should count as the only change in the past million-odd years."

An Qian nodded slightly, his gaze resting for a long while on the fine elemental condensates in the containers.

"...It is not going to blow again, is it?"