Chương 70: Heading Home

Given that the other teams were now under suspicion of not fully reporting their findings, the mission to transport the dungeon to Saung was delayed until the Adventurer Association could complete their investigation. This meant Damion and Ethan had to either sit around and wait or head back to Saung on their own. Not wanting to wait, Damion and Ethan headed out not long after leaving Fletcher's office, both wanting to be able to return to Saung before nightfall.

On the way Ethan kept giving Damion curious looks until Damion finally spoke up.

"There isn't a guarantee that I will become a mage when my seal lifts," Damion lied. As far as everyone else knew it was the truth, but Damion knew the Magic System was going to grant him a magic affinity.

"But there is a high probability?"

"Yes. Ms. Teft thinks so because I have a very high amount of mana, even for a mage. And I grow pretty fast. Ms. Teft told me that knights can't be mages because their magic core is flawed, or something like that, but mages with poor talent or worthless affinities can still be knights, because they have a lot of mana and can use artifacts."

"You are saying that I'm flawed?" Ethan scoffed.

"Not your fault, just bad luck I guess. I don't know. It's just what she said. Besides, what I'm trying to say is, even if I do have a magic affinity, I might still not be able to be a mage. I could have lousy talent or an affinity that is no good."

"I get it now. You didn't want to show off that you are a mage, until you were sure you could actually be a good mage."

"I guess you could put it that way," Damion said with a small smile, glad that his friend was understanding. Although, in truth, Damion had not mentioned it because he was afraid a lot of people would want to try and study him, which would risk exposing the Magic System. While Damion and Ethan were on their way back to Saung. Arica was sitting down with her master reviewing the data the Adventurer Association had just sent over.

Arica was busy cross referencing the information with the various magical zones while Fletcher was pondering why the data was inconsistent.

"I've finished collating the data Master," Arica said when she finished notating the last entry on her tablet.

"Once we exclude beast waves that were known not to be the result of Realm Breaches the data points to a direct relationship between dungeon breaks and the growth of magical zones." Fletcher took Arica's tablet and began looking through the data himself. The mage remained quiet as he read through the long list of events and reports of magical zone measurements, before and after the discovering of the dungeons.

"Yes, you are quite right," Fletcher said absently.

"But I don't understand why Unstable and Semi-Stable Breaches don't produce the same effect."

"Perhaps the amount of ambient mana they throw out with their Demonic Beasts is not enough to cause substantial growth." Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Possibly, or we are missing some other key element. If it is just due to the increased magic produced by a Stable Breach, then why aren't cities becoming magical zones."

"Wouldn't it be because a dungeon has to breach, fail to be cleared resulting in all the Demonic Beasts inside being sent into our realm that causes the growth. I thought the data supports that conclusion?"

"It does," Fletcher said handing the tablet back to her after making a few notations.

"It also points to the dungeons not needing to breach. The data shows that even without a Dungeon Breach happening, the presence of a dungeon in the wild still increases the growth rate of magical zones."

"And with cities typically having multiple dungeons, you don't see why they aren't creating magical zones around or in the city."

"Precisely," Fletcher said before going silent again as he pondered the question. While her master brooded, Arica went back over the data trying to find an answer to the question. Why did cities not become magical zones? Was it because the dungeons were contained in the hearts of cities, just in case of a breach? But that did not make sense. The containment areas did not stop the ambient mana from flowing out to the rest of the city. The mana just flowed out into the environment… Environment.

That was what was different. In a magical zone, the ambient mana flowed out into the wild, feeding the magical zone. But in a city the mana flowed out and fed the people of the city. That has to be it.

"Master! It's the environment!" Arica shouted when she figured it out.

"The environment?"

"Yes. In the wild, the ambient mana from dungeons and Dungeon Breaches, feed the magical zone, but in a city…"

"In a city the ambient mana is consumed by the people and all the activity of the city's people. Artificers, alchemists, people training, even the enchantments throughout a city, they all make use of the extra mana. With all the people in any given city the excess mana in the air would go unnoticed because it gets used up as quickly as it gets spewed out. Excellent work. Now let's get working on our thesis to submit to the council."

Arica and her master worked throughout the night on their paper to submit to the Mage Council. Once the council members reviewed their report and, hopefully, agreed with their findings, the council would determine the next course of action, though they would heavily rely on the researcher who made the discovery.

If the Mage Council saw fit, they could grant Fletcher more resources, more funding to hire other researchers, or even commission a new department within the Mage Association to address the issue and have Fletcher be the head. While her master was engrossed in his fantasies of the rewards the Mage Council was likely to provide, Arica was wondering how Damion was doing. She had only known the boy for a short time, but his growth seemed even more outlandish than the growth of the magical zones.

Despite barely knowing him, Arica found herself wishing he was a few years older, or she a few years younger, so they could have gone to school together. After Damion and Ethan reached Saung, they returned the ground car they'd rented and headed for their respective homes. Damion's mother fawned over him when he walked in the door. Seeing Damion with pants ripped worried her, but after she found no hint of an injury, she calmed down and prepared Damion's dinner.

The next day, Damion set out on a mission, but not one from the Adventurer Association. This mission was one of his own making. With more than 600 gold in his pocket, Damion decided to make himself a proper adventurer survival kit. The first stop was Leland's Artifacts. As much as Damion wanted, he did not need better armor or a better weapon at the moment, but he did need other items for his kit, one of which was more durable clothing.

On missions, Damion had quickly realized that wearing ordinary clothing, even if it is beneath his armor, was not smart. Normal pants and a shirt were not sufficient to protect him from attacks and they tended to get quite dirty and he did not have an easy way to clean them. Ethan's clothes on the other hand, almost always seemed clean. Even after Ethan had been covered in the Stone Bear's blood, Ethan's clothes, somehow, had managed to get clean all on their own.