Chương 40: Chapter 39 - A Sudden Realization

Three months. It had been three months to the day since Victor had noticed the last strange fluctuation in the energy readings he got from Shian Yountal. It had happened once during the trip north with the traveling merchant caravan. They had stopped at a city, Shian had rented a room at an inn, and when she returned, she had felt different. Now it had happened again. And Victor knew it was exactly three months, because he was keeping track.

Honestly, he was keeping track of everything notable that Miss Yountal was doing. She had that Dustin fellow spinning up new businesses left and right, both in Easton and in other cities in the vicinity. They were small, sure, but the pure scope of the operation he was managing was somewhat mind-boggling to Victor. In and of himself, Dustin was a very interesting character. The simple fact that he worked for Miss Yountal just added weight to the mystique surrounding her. What kind of arrangement did they have?

What did she have that he wanted? The caravan trip had made it clear enough that they were newly acquainted, they hadn't grown up together, or anything like that. Maybe she had some dirt on him, and was holding it over his head? That didn't feel right though, they seemed to get along too well for that. Maybe he was interested in her romantically? If that was the case, then he sure had a funny way of showing it. He paid more attention to the estate and the business operations than he did to her.

Then again, Victor wasn't an expert on romance. His own romantic history was somewhat… complicated, to say the least. Victor was a researcher at heart. He enjoyed learning, and studied anything and everything that caught his interest. And Shian Yountal caught his interest. His magical sense was developed enough that he could sense any life form within 100 feet with perfect clarity. He could tell how powerful another mage was, what tier they were, even what concepts they had mastered.

It had become so second nature to him that it operated in the back of his mind as a constant stream of information. His brain filtered through it almost subconsciously, only alerting him when something unusual came up. That was how he had first noticed Shian. The readings she gave off weren't like anything else he had ever come across. He was so intrigued, that he had left his artifact shop and travelled 500 miles north, to Portish.

He had split from the other two there, as continuing to follow them any further would have been suspicious, probably. He had followed from a distance though, flying high in the sky and using his extraordinary perception to keep track of where they were. And they had settled in Easton. A three day horse ride from Portish, Easton lay roughly 50 or 60 miles to the east. That was a distance that Victor could cover in under an hour by foot, even less when flying.

Flying that whole way nearly drained his core of mana though, so after that first trip he had gone by foot every subsequent time. He didn't track Shian's every move, but he made it a point to check in at least once per day. He had come all this way north, after all, and he intended to learn what he could! Not that she needed to know he was watching her. He had bought a modest home in Portish, and set up a new, small magical enchanting shop in the city, mainly as a way to pass the time.

Once per day, he would run to Easton to see what House Yountal was up to. It had started off rather small, almost like they were simply settling in a new area. Then a few businesses had sprung up in Easton, nothing too out of the ordinary for a wealthy house. Then it had turned rather interesting. One day, when Victor had come to observe House Yountal from afar, he had seen something he thought was impossible. Footsteps appearing in the mud.

Not too unusual by itself, any low tier illusion spell could bend light and trick the eyes. What was harder to fool, however, was Victor's magical sense. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. He himself was using powerful illusion magic to avoid detection while he observed the house, and so he had gone in for a closer inspection. Once he got within 100 feet of whoever was making those footsteps, he should have been able to sense their presence.

He had watched the footsteps continue to walk through the mud, but had been unable to sense anyone there. He was certain it had been Shian. Whatever tier she was, her control of magic was clearly a cut above anyone he had ever met, at least in the illusion department. Which might also help explain the odd readings she gave off when he could sense her. Victor had interacted with more of the tier 6 mages in Eshela than he cared to admit, and from what he knew, none of them could duplicate that feat.

He knew from personal experience that it wasn't possible at tier 5. Probably. He knew more about magic than anyone he had ever met, due to his love of research, so the chances of some esoteric branch of magic being available at tier 5 that he hadn't come across was pretty slim. He liked to think the possibility was pretty much 0. If Shian was tier 6, then it explained how she might be able to pull off some of what he had seen and sensed, but even then it would be a stretch.

She would have to be an expert in illusion magic and possibly mind magic, so well-versed that none of the other tier 6 mages he had met could come close to replicating her spells. And if she was a tier 7… Well, Victor honestly didn't know much about that. He had never seen or met a tier 7 in his life, which was saying something. There were a few notable examples throughout history, so they definitely could exist and had existed, but he wasn't sure if there were any alive on Yonu right now.

He had once done a study in Eshela's capital. A large event had been held, and tens of thousands of people had attended from all different walks of life. Victor figured that was a decent sample population to draw conclusions from. He had walked around, keeping track of how many mages from each tier he had sensed. He had repeated the experiment in different cities throughout The Central Kingdom, with similar results. It seemed that only one in every ten tier 3 mages ever made it to tier 4.

Only one in every ten or fifteen tier 4 mages ever made it to tier 5. He figured only one in every twenty tier 5s ever made it to tier 6. That last part of his experiment had admittedly taken a bit of guesswork. It was hard to spot a tier 6 mage out in public, as they were rare and could mask their power level if they wished, but Victor had a pretty good idea of how many there were in Eshela.

His best guess was there were less than two hundred on the entire planet, and only fifteen or twenty of them lived in Eshela. All of that being said, the assumption then, would be that at most only one in every twenty tier 6 mages ever reached tier 7, probably less. So the math supported the possibility that there were a few tier 7 mages on the planet, but none of them were publicly known.

Either way, whoever had been making those footprints in the mud was almost certainly more powerful than Victor himself, which meant they would have seen through his own invisibility magic like one saw through a thin piece of glass. They hadn't seemed to pay him any mind though, which meant they probably didn't care that he was there. That meant they didn't see him as any kind of threat, whatsoever. Victor wasn't a fighter, but he was, quite objectively, one of the most powerful people in Eshela.

Not dangerous in disposition, but powerful in his raw magical ability and capacity. The fact that Shian didn't even consider him a threat, if it was indeed Shian who had been making those footprints, spoke volumes. Three months. He couldn't get that number out of his head. He wasn't sure why, but something about it was nagging at him in the back of his mind. What was so special about three months? He was currently standing outside Handel's Sword Academy, where Shian spent an absurd amount of her time.

He hadn't ever followed her inside, since the academy had an extensive ward system in place that would prevent him from entering with his invisibility magic active. He had, however, followed her here, pondering on the changes in the readings she gave off to his magical sense. Like before, when he focused on her, she gave off the reading of a non magic user. When he only viewed her from his magical sense peripheral though, she gave off the reading of a tier 2. It had started as a tier 0, then tier 1, now tier 2.

What was she playing at? A sudden realization hit him. If she indeed was a tier 6 or 7 mage, she might be toying with him. If that was the case, then she obviously knew he was following her and observing her periodically, and was messing with his head. If the readings she gave off were intentional, that would explain a lot… but would also mean that he had essentially wasted the last three months of his life following her. Just in case though, he would stick around for a bit longer still.

He didn't have quite enough evidence yet to definitively say that she was a powerful mage who enjoyed toying with his mind. Something else could be at play, which was all the more intriguing. That possibility was an itch that he couldn't ignore. He would continue to observe.