Alena, however, had never been one to act impulsively. Long years as a healer had taught her that it was exactly in the middle of a crisis that she needed to be the calmest. Decisions made out of panic rarely led to good outcomes. As such, despite the strong urge to run, she didnât in the end. A sober decision because, after the fear had ebbed and she was able to think more clearly, a simple truth made her realize that escape was a pointless endeavor. This simple truth was that there was no way the entity that had been in this room hadnât been aware of her presence in the same building. If it had any intention to cause her harm, then there was nothing stopping it from acting on this desire. Worse still, a being of that kind of power could easily mark her magical signature and track her down through it. Even if she moved to another continent, she would still be within its sights. If she was still unharmed, it was because whatever that entity had been, it had no interest in harming her.
But while the futility of trying to escape was part of the reason why she was still here, it wasnât the entire reason. As a seventh-tier mage, back before she was betrayed and injured to the degree that she had been, she had on occasion gotten the chance to meet and interact with two of the currently living ninth-tier mages. Their overbearing aura and the way the world around them responded to their very existence, wasnât something that she would forget any time soon. Alenaâs heart couldnât help but grow cold with dread every time she remembered that these ninth-tier powerhouses paled in comparison to whatever it was that she had sensed inside this room.
The question of whether the ninth tier was the end of the road for magic was one that had been debated endlessly in both the academies and circles of tier seven and above mages. While the camp of those that insisted that there was something beyond the ninth tier wasnât small, the fact remained that no one had ever crossed this threshold. Whether among the humans or other races, no one, had ever even touched upon, however briefly, whatever it was that lay beyond the ninth tier. And yet, in some remote corner of the world, in a town without even a first-tier mage. A place where the people could barely even read, she had encountered an existence that was clearly above the ninth tier! To say that she was shocked and intensely curious was almost to say nothing. As someone who was not only gifted in magic but also fascinated by it to damn near obsession, Alena simply couldnât pass up on the chance to come into contact with something that, perhaps not even the ninth-tier mages had.
When she walked into the room this morning, she had been unsure how to interact with the boy now that she knew that he was somehow connected to such a powerful entity. But after observing him for a while, Alena couldnât find any notable changes in his behavior. He had been a bit cross with his mother when she spoke of marrying his uncle. But from what she could gather, it was more out of care and pride than anything else. Other than that, nothing else seemed to have changed. At first, Alena had been tempted to think that the boy was just a good actor and was pretending that nothing had happened. But then, a shocking, almost unbelievable, possibility entered her mind.
Alena could remember clearly that, just before the entity appeared the night before, the boy had passed out. First, he had gone completely pale with a look of pure agony on his face. And soon thereafter, he had sunk into unconsciousness. The entity stayed in the boyâs room for at most two minutes before it once again vanished. The little round balls that she used to maintain surveillance on the room had been destroyed. As such, she had no way of knowing how long he had been passed out. There was, however, a very real possibility that the boy didnât even know what had happened in his room.
In one way, this made sense. The boy had no magic, and no relation to any prominent magical families or clans. How would he even be able to know about such entities, let alone interact with them? Even at tier seven, a mage's aura can be very oppressive to a mundane person if they donât very strongly rein it in. At tier eight it's even worse and at tier nine it's pointless. No amount of reining oneâs aura in will allow a mundane person to last longer than a second in the presence of a ninth-tier entity. The boy before him was just such a person, with no ounce of magic within him, thereâs simply no way they could summon let alone interact with such an entity. The appearance of that entity had to be of their own volition and not because of anything to do with the boy.
But again, in another way, it made absolutely no sense. Why would a being of such power be interested in a mundane no-name boy from a no-name town in the middle of nowhere? Having been in this town for the past six years, Alena would have known if there was anything magical going on in this town that would draw the attention of that kind of being., There, however, hadnât been any signs, no build-up of events that could have led to something like this. Like a bolt from the blue, a being that was more powerful than a ninth-tier mage had just dropped in on an injured boy! And if that wasnât enough of a mystery, from the nervous look that the boy had had before it happened, it seems like the boy had known that something was going to happen right before the entity appeared. Which then begs the question, how much does the boy really know? Even if he had been passed out while the entity was present, had he known before that the entity would be visiting?
All these questions and more had been swirling in Alenaâs head all during the morning visit to the boyâs room with his mother. Sheâd been trying to figure out a way she could find out what the boy actually knew, so she was all too happy to comply when the boy asked her to stay behind.
***
âWhat is it?â The healer asked calmly once the door closed after his motherâs exit.
Greg didnât speak directly. Instead, he looked down at his lap, as if he wasnât sure how to answer the healer. Greg was nervous. To have grown to the heights that she had, the healer couldnât have been an idiot. If he wasnât careful, he ran the risk of losing all the goodwill he may have earned with her. After a whole night of thinking and talking with Olivia, however, this was the best plan that he could come up with. Greg needed the million magic points required to buy the awakening potion. He wouldnât need it for at least two years. Greg, however, wasnât willing to gamble. If nothing else, all that had so far happened had taught him just how unpredictable this world was. Whoâs to say if he would still have the healer around by the time he was ready to buy the potion? And what excuse would he use then? Rather than simply hope that everything would work itself out, Greg would rather get the points heâd need now and not use them until the time was right.
But even more than that, he needed a way to get the healer to take him in as her student of magic. This small move was the first step in achieving those two objectives. If all went well, heâd be able to easily achieve his first goal with this move. The second goal, however, would require more patience and finesse in order to achieve. In the end, Greg spoke in a voice that bore slight trepidation and shame. âC⌠can I get a mirror,â He stated.
There was a look of surprise on the healerâs face. Almost as if this isnât what sheâd expected him to want from her. After the initial look of surprise, however, some pity appeared in the womanâs eyes as she quietly started to weave a new rune in the air that Greg hadnât seen thus far. When she was done, she waved it forward. Greg had expected the rune to come to a stop before him and create a mirror. The rune, however, didnât stop. Instead, it collided with Gregâs forehead and disappeared there. Before Greg could ask the healer what was going on, he found his vision changing. All of a sudden, he was no longer seated on the bed, instead, it was almost like he was standing a small distance away from the bed looking at himself. It took a bit of time before he realized that he was now looking at himself through the healerâs eyes.
A shocked gasp left his body on the bed even as Greg looked at himself through the healerâs eyes. Even though he hadnât been in this body long enough to be attached to his looks, even he had to gasp in shock at the extensive damage that had been done to his face. Half of his face had its skin clinging to his skull as if the flesh on that side of the face had been burned away. The other side of his face had four deep scars running parallel to each other each about an inch apart. From the look of things, the snow bear that had attacked him must have swiped at his face with its claws. Two of the claws had shredded his right ear, leaving his right earlobe in three parts. The two topmost claw marks just barely missed his right eye, with the top one cutting just above his eye and the second one just below. If the bears in this world were anywhere near as strong as the ones in his former world, Greg didnât know how the thing hand just slapped his head clean off. But then again, most of the things heâd encountered since coming into this world didnât make sense. As such Greg didnât dwell too much on why his head was still attached to his head. Instead, he moved on to the next part of his act.