Chương 515: The Way Forward

The next morning, the settlement held another large meeting between the adults. To no one's surprise, the focus was on the people who had gone out to hunt a fog bank for the first time. However, to my surprise, there weren't just adults attending the meeting this time. A few of the older children were also pulled into the meeting, especially those who were above the age of twelve.

Before the invasion of the universal tree, clans had different standards for when someone was an adult, but most clans put 'adulthood' somewhere between the ages of 15 and 18. By those standards, people who were older than 12 really weren't that far away from becoming proper adults. I frowned at the sight. Why were proper children being included in this meeting? Perhaps it was to show them how the village was being run, so that they had some context for when they were making decisions in the future?

Then, I realized with a start that I wasn't quite an adult yet, either - at least, as far as the people of this dimension knew. Perhaps the four of us constantly helping the clan, as well as our roles in keeping everyone alive during the invasion of the Universal Tree, had created some kind of shift in the settlement's culture? I saw a few other adults eye the children here with confusion, but most simply took it in stride. I shrugged.

If the settlement wanted to include kids in the decision making process, I wasn't going to object. It genuinely wasn't a bad idea for them to learn how the settlement was governed, and there was always a chance that another tragedy would wipe out the remaining adults in the settlement, however unlikely it seemed. The war between our dimensional cluster and the Universal Tree seemed to have reached some kind of ceasefire… at least for now.

The first part of the meeting was simple - Veritum recounted the process of the battle, at least from his perspective. He occasionally asked me to clarify a few details, as well as the other hunters that had played more notable roles during the fight - but it was still essentially just a retelling of the battle from start to finish. I saw a few of the adults, and one of the children who had come to the meeting, shudder at the mention of the now-dead scout. That made me wonder if they had known him personally.

Perhaps that was one of the other reasons children had attended this meeting. After that, Veritum started leading the village towards the actual conclusions from the fight.

"In short, we found that while fire is somewhat effective against the mist monsters, it is far from the devastating weapon we were hoping for," said Veritum.

"All of our attacks with fire still inflicted noticeable damage - but several of our mages practically exhausted their mana reserves just to kill one of the fog banks. Six of them fought us at once, and the other four managed to drive us back quite handily. That means that fire is not a reliable weapon against them, especially if they are more prone to hunting together and working together than we anticipated."

I saw a few of the other adults in the meeting frown in thought at Veritum's words, but one of the craftsmen, who I vaguely recognized, instead perked upright at Veritum's words.

"So, Miria's attack was unusually effective against the mist monster?" he asked. Instead of looking at Veritum, he gazed directly at me as he spoke.

"Doesn't that mean we already have a solution to these damn mist monsters wandering around the outskirts of town and attacking people doing their jobs? I shook my head.

"My extinguish ability was effective against the mist monster, but the problem is that attack is a result of one my Gift. Since Gifts are randomly assigned at birth, and there is no way to control them or guarantee their presence, it's not a very reliable long term solution. What if something happens to me, or what if I just die of old age one day? How are the children of this settlement and their future descendants going to handle the mist monsters?

We can't just think about the present - we need to be cognizant of the future, too."

"That's true, but we might be able to learn something from your attack, even if we can't reliably get future Mages who have the exact same ability. What kind of attack is your 'Extinguish', specifically? What principles does it operate off of?" I paused for a moment. I wasn't opposed to sharing details about my spells, if they would help the people of this settlement improve. However, the problem was that Extinguish ran off of alteration essence.

That meant that I had a much easier time forcing a loose interpretation of reality to work as an activation for my spell - whereas in this dimensional cluster, mana was comprised strictly of binding essence and manifestation essence. If I tried to explain my original thinking when I created the spell, there was a very high chance it would lead people astray, which was the exact opposite of what I wanted to do.

I was hoping to genuinely help these people learn from my spell, not send them into a pit of total madness as they tried to map a totally alien magic system to their own understanding of the world. Finally, I decided to go for a slightly simplified interpretation of what I was actually doing. It wouldn't be perfect, but hopefully it would be close enough that they could both learn from my spell, and wouldn't get caught up in the minutia of how little sense my spell actually made by this world's standards.

"My spell works by attacking the connection between the mind and soul of whatever I'm targeting. In my understanding, I'm essentially ripping away at a sort of… fuel source that keeps the soul and body of any creature I encounter welded together. It's sort of like if you have two objects tied together with string, and you cut the string, I suppose?" I said.

I had originally been about to compare my spell to using a dissolving agent to remove glue - only to realize that I had not seen glue since reincarnating here, and there was a good chance glue didn't exist. Fortunately, I caught myself in time. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. The craftsman rubbed his magnificent beard thoughtfully as he looked at me.

"So things that separate the soul from the body might be unusually effective against these creatures?"

"I hope so," I said.

"We'd have to test it, but it sounds plausible. I don't know of any way to naturally get access to that kind of attack, though. Unless someone knows of some kind of easily accessible compound spark we can start getting kids to use, which I happen to be unaware of? I know for sure that we don't have any basic Sparks that can do that - I already checked the list of Sparks we got from the city of plant people."

"At the very least, it seems like a better bet than fire-based attacks," the craftsman said.

"But you're right, we have no easy way to access that particular kind of attack." He turned towards Veritum.

"Unless you have any ideas?" Veritum paused, and rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"I can't think of any magic types I know of that do that… but I suspect we can make some items that do the same?" His eyes flickered directly towards… Felix.

"What do you think? Is it possible?" <Do you know how to build a weapon that mimics my extinguish spell? > I asked. <I'll be honest - I've never thought about it before. I didn't see a need to introduce that kind of redundancy into our skill sets, and your Extinguish has never been the most essence-efficient attack, even if it's quite devastating when it hits. I could give it a shot, > he said, before he shrugged.

"I've never tried making a weapon that mimic's Miria's magic, but I think it's possible. I could give it a few test runs and get back to you within a few days?" said Felix.

"I would be happier if other craftsmen worked with me, though. As you know, I also have a Gift that helps me with crafting endeavors, and so we need to make sure that other people of the settlement can replicate any weapons I create. Otherwise, we'll end up with the same problem as we would if Miria tried to fight off the fog banks on her own." Veritum glanced at the other craftsmen, and I did the same. I realized that rather than looking daunted, most of them seemed quite eager at Felix's words.

There weren't very many craftsmen left in the village after our migration away from the Universal Tree… but it seemed like the ones who had remained were quite eager to prove themselves. I saw four in particular move to the side, and start murmuring amongst themselves. After a minute or so, one of the other craftsmen, a tall woman with glowing red eyes, made her way over to me.

"You said that your ability lets you mimic some kind of attack that attacks the connection between souls and bodies, right? Can you use a very small, weak attack on me? Will it have any permanent effects?" I blinked in surprise. That was not a request I had been prepared for. It wasn't a bad idea, though. If I could use small, controlled attacks on the other craftsmen here, just enough to give them a feel for what I was doing, perhaps it could give them some kind of inspiration.

"I can definitely use a weak extinguish on you," I said.

"As for long term effects… I'll be honest, most things I've hit with extinguish have died pretty shortly afterwards, because either I or my friends finish it off. I have no idea what kind of long term consequences there might be - although I am at least mostly confident I could heal whatever aftereffects it might leave behind," I said, as I thought of my healing and my soul clamp spell.

"I'm not one hundred percent confident though." The craftsmen hesitated for a few seconds, before she gritted her teeth.

"We aren't exactly spoiled for choice. I want the people I care about to be safe. Besides, realistically, you aren't strong enough to defend our entire village on your own, are you? If push comes to shove?"

"I am not," I said.

"I could kill a few of the fog banks, but my mana reserves just aren't big enough to fend off a proper invasion from the fog banks, if they ever team up and try to wipe us out."

"Then I'll risk it. Hit me with a low level extinguish." I nodded, and then hit her with the absolute weakest extinguish I thought she would still be able to feel. After the extinguish hit her skin, she winced, as if she had just stuck her hand in a fire and only noticed a moment later. I healed her a moment later, and she gave me an appreciative nod.

"Hmm… let me think for a few minutes and chat with my colleagues." The woman retreated back to the group of other craftsmen, where they discussed things for several more minutes. I noticed, with some amusement, that Felix hovered near the edge of the group of craftsmen, but didn't interject. He was slightly squirming the whole time, almost like a kid who knew the answer and was waiting for a teacher to call on him in class. <Not going to say anything?

> I said, as I did my best to project a teasing tone in the communication bracelet. <If I give them information on how your spell works, I might mislead them. But the craftswoman's explanation for how you're accomplishing this using mana is… odd, > said Felix. <So even though I think she's potential finding an answer that works with the local System, it feels a bit weird to hear someone discuss your abilities like this. > I paused, and then nodded.

In any case, what mattered the most was finding an answer compatible with this dimension's System. However they arrived at their final product, as long as they found a way for our settlement to survive long term, I would be happy with the result. Finally, after a few more minutes of discussion, the craftswoman who had asked me to hit her with a weak extinguish stepped forward.

"I think we have a chance to make it work," she said.