As far as sorry-for-nearly-killing-you apologies went, I thought Riala’s option was pretty good. Evija was pretty interested in magic even if she didn’t seem to have any ‘talent’, so once she got over the initial hurdle she seemed to very much appreciate being taught telekinetic magic. I was a bit confused as Evija had actually asked for information on the curse, but maybe Riala realized that wasn’t her personal desire. She seemed too insightful for that. But we still had no signs of malicious intent, so we were just going to have to accept things.

  I had the most official capability with magic as well as the most actual experience with learned magic, so I spent a lot of time teaching the kids. They were probably past the point where they would be a danger to people around them if they were back on Earth right now, but I couldn’t help but want to help people who wanted to learn more. And they all did, even if their subjects of interest were different.

  I couldn’t help Ramen much with his javelin tossing, but I could help him train in melee combat. Malaliel too, but she was more specialized in the sword. The risks were much bigger for her, but as long as I didn’t knock him in the head he would be fine. Obviously that was with my staff that didn’t have energy enchantments.

  Speaking of enchantments, I was finding that my enchantments needed some refreshing. Obviously it needed to draw in mana to keep functioning, but that was well covered- especially in this world. No, it just didn’t last forever. Hopefully the research we’d done for the Celmothian embassy and the materials would make things more durable. Plus more practice.

  Ultimately, most of what Ramen needed was real targets for target practice. He could pretty much hit anything stationary at a significant distance. I could help with Telekinetic Hand holding some target and swinging it around… but so could Meter. So their training overlapped there. Even if Mile didn’t have a specific talent for such things, he liked telekinesis. I had to admit I very much liked Mage’s Reach, so a slightly weaker version would certainly have been appealing.

  Meter was soaking up magic in general and spatial magic in particular. It was great that we got Dimensional Smuggling, as it had quite a few interesting things. It wasn’t just creating alternative Storage that was difficult to detect, but also short range teleports and various methods to alter spells. None of it was meant for combat, but I could see value in certain range extending manipulations. Relatedly, Meter did have talent for adding additional twists to spells on the fly. His main weakness was that his level was still low, and thus his maximum mana and his fatigue limit.

  The teens might not be strictly limited by fatigue limit like the magic I was used to, but I knew it was wise to stick to it so we didn’t push it. It would be kind of pointless to use a style with great stability and then just… give that up for a bit more power.

  Graciana had a tome on alchemy now, one of the ten books Riala copied for us. She wasn’t able to practice on the road very much- we were lacking both equipment and ingredients, and she obviously couldn’t do much in a wagon during the day. However, she was able to study information we didn’t previously have proper access to.

  She had recognized various things by the road and was constantly jumping out and picking things, then mixing them as well as she could. Her experiments… only caused trouble for herself. Malaliel was worried, but Graciana explained that she was more resistant to side effects of such things. Something to do with her secondary affinity, apparently. She had learned to make a simple elixir that helped purge anything problematic, so that was nice. She also learned a bit of magic- like the local version Storage, so she could hold fragile elixirs somewhere people couldn’t break them.

  Everyone could benefit from Storage and similar magic, actually. Ramen was still going through the basics, but at some point he could keep some javelins there for emergencies. And he was also learning to recall his weapons- it was a battle between telekinesis and simple teleportation. The latter was more mana intensive but faster. It didn’t really work if someone had grabbed the javelin, though. Then again, his telekinesis wouldn’t be strong enough to wrestle something out of another person’s grip for a long time, if he ever got to that rank of magic.

  Ayat was practicing some techniques from Dimensional Smuggling that would let her disappear anything she snagged in combat. Generally, she had to completely remove something to toss it into Storage, so she couldn’t just grab a belt and make it disappear. Then again, a weirdly loose belt could be worse than none at all. She did some experiments involving messing with boot laces, but even with her Fast Hands boost it was far too obvious and inefficient for her to bend so low- the exception being if someone tried to kick her. Very situational.

  At some point I was going to try to teach her Mage’s Reach. Telekinetic Hand didn’t use her own dexterity, but Mage’s Reach worked based off of the user’s capabilities. If she could keep the spell unnoticed, she could grab a lot of things. Undoing buckles on armor or messing with belts or snagging elixirs or material components- not that they used many material components in this world- all were valuable. On Earth, she might be able to swap safeties on guns or eject magazines, though people were generally aware of things happening around their hands. It was supernatural though, so she might still manage it.

  Everyone was learning nicely, but they were still at the point I could just beat them up with a stick. I had two years of active Power Brigade work under my belt, so even if they had some basic magic it didn’t matter. Though I might not always win without my perception for magic.

  -----

  Riala looked defenseless as she slept. I wondered if that was true. It was possible she simply trusted us, but the alternative was that she put on an exaggerated performance with her snoring. She probably wasn’t actually defenseless because she slept in her enchanted clothing and the tent seemed to have some wards. She would probably notice if I cast a spell big enough to smash through that. Maybe not Meteor Swarm from a distance, though. Or not fast enough.

  But we weren’t killing her. Malaliel and Inasyah were still convinced she was legit. I thought so too, but they were the ones that would be harder to convince.

  “What do you think her goal is?” I asked.

  Midnight had a theory. “She might just be having fun shirking her real responsibilities, whatever they are. She doesn’t seem… super responsible. I can’t tell if she knows though.”

  Obviously our discussion was taking place on the far side of the camp. Even if she had good hearing, I would notice if she supernaturally enhanced it somehow so we were quite safe. Plus, she’d also have to have some form of Translation and I didn’t think that was among her active spells. It was obviously somewhat risky to speak another language, but that would just arouse suspicion compared to her certainly overhearing things we didn’t want her to.

  Malaliel shook her head. What didn’t she agree with? “She’s not irresponsible. I do believe she’s natively the carefree sort, but she’s serious about bringing us along to fulfill her promise. The only question is what else she wants to do.” She looked at me. “She might believe you have an actual chance of helping resolve the curse in some manner. To counter the heroes.”

  “... Should I?” That was a question that we absolutely needed to answer. “I know we’ve only interacted with two out of seven countries, but I’m definitely leaning towards the locals here.”

  “You should do whatever allows us to safely return our people to New Bay.” Malaliel paused, “Within reason.”

  “Worst case, we just have to kill the ‘demon king’,” I said. “Except, uh… we don’t actually know if the curse would let them go after that.”

  Together we’d gone over the volumes we had. There was a lot of information, including various observations over the many times The Six had summoned heroes. Apparently the early policy had been to kill all of them, but that just made the cycles come more frequently. And heroes were frequently trouble with a relatively short amount of training.

  Midnight tilted his head. “I feel like that’s not true this cycle. Given what we’ve seen. The ones out there aren’t bad, of course, but they’re not liable to be a significant military force in the near future.”

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  “Maybe it’s a gambling game until top end talents appear,” Inasyah suggested. “Which would be why the de- Those of the Many-Colored Skin started drawing things out.” She gestured to me. “If advanced talent means relatively quickly learning up to the same level as your advanced mastery, that’s worrying but not world shaping. But if they could easily learn things like Gate and Meteor Swarm…” she shook her head.

  Had she actually seen Meteor Swarm? I was pretty sure she hadn’t. Though, I had described it accurately enough for her to get a good impression.

  “They’d be more effective,” Midnight added, “If The Six all acted simultaneously. Instead of competing for… prestige?”

  “... How do they still exist?” I asked. “I mean, if the ‘demon king’ is so strong… why not wipe them out? Unless they’re only sending the heroes as sacrificial forces and conserving their own power. At some point they’d lose their best people due to age and be weak enough to target, though.”

  “They’re probably strong enough to survive together,” Malaliel said. “The population here isn’t particularly high, as you can see.” She gestured broadly at the surroundings. We hadn’t seen a city since the border fort, and it had been days. A well populated country would have cities along every main road appearing every day- or half a day. “I doubt one man can take down a country.”

  “Could crush their main castle, though.” I could, specifically. I could position with Teleport- maybe Fly also- Meteor Swarm a couple times, Teleport out. Zuresh’s castle would be… not quite rubble, but the important bits would be ruined. I didn’t have the area to destroy the whole castle even with multiple castings. “Though that might just provoke them into actually attacking.”

  “Or…” Inasyah said. “He doesn’t want to.” Malaliel raised an eyebrow. “You’re already thinking it, aren’t you? They seem decent. Maybe I’m not quite right, but surely the king has better things to do than topple castles. This place seems dangerous enough.”

  “We haven’t even run into any monsters though,” I said.

  -----

  Some might say that calling out things like that was bad luck, but they would be wrong. Because I wanted to see monsters. So either we avoided threats- which people would prefer- or I got to fight monsters. There really wasn’t a ‘bad luck’ in that situation.

  Anyway, the next day we got monsters. And also a city.

  “Damn,” Riala said. “Shimmer City is under attack.”

  “... Forces Drawn from Afar?” I repeated the name. I wasn’t sure how the language packed so much information into it. It seemed like picking any random name would include meanings you didn’t intend. It must be difficult to learn. I scanned the horizon. “I don’t really see anything.”

  “Look higher,” she pointed.

  Ah. I’d thought those were distant birds, but it turned out they were very distant birds. Or some sort of winged, flying creature. I couldn’t see them that well, but they didn’t quite fit birds.

  Riala turned around, spotting more approaching from vaguely our direction. “Why don’t you handle those?” she gestured. “I’ll head towards the city itself. And don’t worry, Shimmer City will absolutely pay for your services.”

  She didn’t even wait for a response, instead instantly shooting forward. All of a sudden spears were floating around her as she almost flew towards the city. She basically performed large hops that seemed to be aided by telekinetic magic. Not something like Spatial Step? Well, maybe her talent didn’t lie in that direction.

  “This is good for us,” I commented. “We can shoot them down.”

  Unfortunately, we probably still shouldn’t have Malaliel and Inasyah flying about. They might see that from the walls of the city. As for the guns? Maybe Riala thought they were weird wands or something. Or perhaps she was ignoring them on purpose. I still found it hard to believe how long she’d held off while getting peppered by them. It was hard to believe she was conscious today, let alone shortly after that.

  Once we spread the words, we had mixed reactions. “Finally!” Ramen said. “Something I’m good for!”

  Well, that depended on if he could hit something flying. But I’d give him the benefit of the doubt.

  Graciana was less pleased. After all, she couldn’t toss her acid vials far and… wasn’t enthusiastic about using them on things with flesh. Meter just wasn’t much of a fighter to begin with, and nothing had changed about that even if he knew a basic lightning spell or two.

  Ayat looked up into the sky. “... I don’t know if I can reach those.”

  “I can help with that,” I said. Midnight and I were preparing people with Stoneskin and such. We didn’t want any deaths here, not among the teens nor among the Extra agents. “I’ll cast Fly on you. I’d appreciate you keeping close to the ground, though. Try to stay among the trees so you have something to perform footwork on.”

  She had about a minute to practice flying before the not-birds got close. She made the decision to mostly stick to the ground, though she could leap around in trees if necessary.

  The creatures were brightly colored, but they didn’t really have feathers. Or at least, not the sort birds had. A more detailed analysis could be done after combat. At the moment they were trying to kill us with-

  “Wind magic!” I warned. I didn’t know much more than that immediately, and it turned out they were doing various different things. The flying creatures had triangular shaped heads with long beaks and wide wings that were more batlike than something a bird would have. Those very wings were turned upon us, some releasing slashing gusts of wind and others stirring up the skies in different fashions.

  Certain birds flew swiftly, while others created some sort of blurry barrier. I wasn’t sure what the latter was until Ramen tossed a javelin and it was blown wildly off target. Something like Wind Wall, then. How unfortunate for him… but he swiftly recovered, pulling another javelin and trying to find a different target. I didn’t know if he could actually sense where the wind wall was because of magic, or if he could vaguely pick it out with his eyes or other senses.

  The slashing gusts were only barely visible, but fortunately people were protected with Stoneskin. Extra agents returned fire… and the gusting winds didn’t have much effect on their shots. They still had physical components, but the stunning energy was fast enough that they weren’t terribly hampered. Though clearly there was some effect or the flying creatures were durable, as they took more than a few hits to bring down. Once one did fall though? Well, they weren’t very graceful as they faceplanted into the ground.

  A few dove towards the easiest targets. The smaller individuals, which were mostly the teens. That was what I had been waiting for, and I used Chain Lightning to take out some of the foolish individuals from the flock. Or whatever you called a group of these things.

  Guns were good. Flying creatures were generally more vulnerable because they didn’t expect things to be able to reach them. It appeared these were a bit more durable, perhaps because ranged magic had always been a thing. Obviously bows existed too, but Wind Wall generally helped with that.

  Everyone got to fight some… whether they really wanted to or not.

  Graciana did deploy some sort of poison held inside a primitive clay blob that was probably less damaging than her acid vials- but the results were more tolerable. Less melting flesh and all that. The flying creature really didn’t like the results, and Graciana smacked it with a club she held. We didn’t leave anyone unarmed even if they theoretically had other attack options.

  Meter hit one right in the eye with a bit of lightning. A very small bit, and he might not have been aiming there as he frantically tried to get out of the way, but it still counted. The creature reeled in pain, and Ramen took it out with a javelin. A bit of blood was far less concerning than melted faces.

  It wasn’t long before the last of them were flying off. We took down a few, but since they weren’t heading for the city we didn’t see any reason to try to chase them down. Speaking of the city…

  “We’ll stay with the horses,” Malaliel said, referencing herself, Inasyah, and a couple others. “You go on ahead.”

  It was a good thing we’d had time to plan our assault. The horses had also been attacked, and while they had been brave enough not to bolt- I had to praise the knights for their training- they really did need the Stoneskin I’d provided. We obviously did our best to protect them, but there had been many attackers.

  Malaliel’s implication was that they would try to make the corpses more presentable. Maybe a bit of flaming sword here and there, and more visible wounds than the stun weapons would provide. They were also less capable of attacking more of the creatures even if we did get to the city.

  By the time we arrive at Shimmer City, Riala was flying over the city walls, hurling her spears into enemies. I wasn’t sure why she couldn’t do that from the ground, but maybe she had an easier time keeping the spears around her. A shorter path for her attacks was probably good.

  Sadly, most of the enemies were dead. I only got a couple very-normal lightning spells off. Spells I knew how to properly do in the local system, so that the various guards wouldn’t notice anything was off. And Ramen took down a couple as I advised him on where the wind walls were- or took down the ones maintaining them.

  I got enough experience to reach level 46, which was nice. After a few real battles, it wasn’t that surprising. Real stakes always brought more experience, with things trying to kill me and me killing them. Maybe some day I would turn into someone else’s experience, but I would do my best not to.