The flickering desk lamp illuminated most of his room as the dense cave fog rolled across the old metropolis outside his window. Soren sat plainly before the wooden desk, eyeing the pages and scrolls before him—his eyes drooping with exhaustion.

"How tiring…"

Two days have passed since his initial scouting mission. The silence across the city was rather palpable. Aside from the production district to the South which continued their work, there were no other major activities across the Safe Zone. Most of the merchants were closed, except for a few who sold amenities to the remaining civilians. The total population of this town without the noisy explorers was around four hundred, and many of them logically remained at their inns, awaiting the news that will come back a week from now…

In a way, the only really busy person in the Safe Zone at the moment was Soren himself. After mapping the entire ruined city, he was able to lay out most of the wards across the city without ever being detected. Aside from a few close calls, no one even came close to suspecting something was wrong.

The same applied to the guards and staff within the estate. Mesmerize… It was an extremely powerful spell. Although it required close contact with the target, its ability to create a mind haze that not only puts the person to sleep, but also messes with their memories temporarily was hard to argue with…

Although, it did have one major flaw. Its effects were entirely random.

While most of the weaker staff within the estate fell for the spell completely, some of the more experienced guards who have the ability to manipulate their own anima were able to slightly resist its effects… to varying degrees.

Fortunately, Soren had already counted for such factors beforehand—each casting of Mesmerize was perfectly attuned to account for any major resistances, in case, one of the guards awoke sooner than intended.

"But what use is all of that in actual combat…" His sigh this time was deeper than most. And for good reason. As he currently stands, Soren was a glass cannon without any cannon balls. Aside from Mesmerize which requires him to physically touch the target, Soren had no clear way of attacking someone from a distance. He had no basic offensive spells.

Myrin had stated that most affinities usually obtain offensive capabilities around the 2nd to 3rd Circle. But that was easier said than done. It took him an extremely long time just to reach the 1st Circle and even a portion of his own sanity was sacrificed in the process...

Not to mention, for him to reach the 2nd Circle, he would need a spell that holds at least five or more axioms. All of the spells in his repertoire at the moment only required three. Which means, if he wanted to successfully reach the next circle, he would need to do a lot more runology… Something he did not have a lot of time to conduct.

There's also my Consciousness Training… The method I used last time might have been effective, but it is certainly not something I can continuously repeat…

Fortunately, he did have one solution in mind. Though, achieving it was also extremely daunting.

Scattered across the desk were papers outlining one of his most useful spellforms: Fairy Barrier.

This was a spell he had created through combining the ward material runes he had scoured from the Voidstar Voyager Ship schematics, as well as his very own Mesmerism affinity runes. The combination of which was able to create a magecraft spell that could withstand the forces of the Rift itself, allowing him to travel between Yarian and [The Faerie Court] fairly easily.

Though, what was important to note about this spell was its distinct form compared to his others. Unlike Mesmerize, Fairy Bind or Violet Mirage which operate on the mind realm itself, Fairy Barrier holds physical properties as well.

Its ability to manifest a physical bubble around him that will protect him from most attacks was extremely interesting. His Mesmerism affinity alone should not have been able to create anything similar to that, and yet, he was able to witness its effects first hand.

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In part, this was due to the properties of the material runes he obtained from the Vynasian ship. The ward magecraft spell it originally belonged to was observed being able to crystalize anima itself to manifest the barrier.

In a similar way, Fairy Barrier utilized the anima of not only himself, but those around him. In a way, its strength came from the illusion of its own power. When those around him observe the barrier, whatever power they believe it holds will usually manifest as its actual strength. This was the twist added by his own affinity to the original spell.

Obviously, this made it weaker against most living beings. If his enemy simply believed or assumed the barrier to be weak, then its capabilities would instantly shrink to match the expectation. Luckily, his own mind was also factored into this equation. Soren's own belief in his own spell was the only counterbalance against this inherent weakness.

Of course, it did also bring a lot of benefits. For one, he could control the barrier through his belief to filter out exactly what needs to be filtered out, and keep what needs to stay inside from leaving. This means that allies could enter and leave the barrier as they like—even their own attacks were not obstructed by its defences.

But that was the basis of his idea. Since the spell had its weaknesses in defence, would the same be true if it was repurposed for offense?

It was a rather simple concept: reshape the barrier into projectiles or weapons to use its physicality as a way of attack, rather than a shield of protection.

If he were to do that, then it wouldn't matter whether the enemy perceived it as weak or not. In fact, the latter would be more likely. Humans, psychologically, have a hard time underestimating things that are aimed to harm them. Even when you know an attack was coming and that it may be relatively harmless, just the perceived threat would be enough to cause most to flinch instantly. It was an uncontrollable reflex.

More skilled fighters might be able to guage the effectiveness of his attacks much better than most, but that still does not completely ward off their own natural defence mechanisms.

And it was exactly that which will help this spell become much more powerful. Unlike Fairy Barrier which aims to protect him from the attacks of others, this new spell which he will call 'Fairy Blades' will use its physicality in the shape of bladed weapons to attack enemies. And that physicality will only cause these blades to become sharper the more successful they are at harming the enemy.

The more enemies start to believe in the lethality of the blades, the stronger they will become…

I can even equip them with other effects in the future… Maybe I can combine them with Mesmerize so that the harm done isn't just physical, but mental as well…

The only issue was finding the material runes necessary to manifest the spell in such a shape.

At the moment, Fairy Barrier utilizes an axiom which can only create small hexagonal cells that attach to each other perfectly, forming the barrier around him and his allies. But if he wants to repurpose this spell into one for offense, that axiom would also need to be changed…

"From my estimates, Rodrick and the others will be gone for another week or two… I will need to figure out a solution before the time runs out."

Suddenly, he heard a knock on his door. Frowning, he turned his head towards it:

"Come in."

The door opened slowly. Appearing through the crack was a woman of a rather old age in a maid outfit. This was the head maid of the estate.

"Sir Andersen. I have retrieved that which you requested."

"Good," he nodded. "Hand it to me."

The maid bowed with her skirt after handing him a rather large leather-bound book, then stepped back out of the room. Soren glanced at it for a moment then sighed. The title read, "The City of Caelivora." This was the ancient name of the Safe Zone…

Soren's excuse for remaining behind while the rest returned to the Hall of Death was twofold. Firstly, he told Rodrick that he needed to do some research regarding his magecraft. The second was that he wanted to study the ancient ruins and their history. Both of these goals were truthful—it was only his third goal of stealing the Blood Amulet that remained hidden.

To assist him, Rodrick ordered his staff to give Soren access to the estate's library, which still contains books originally found there. Because of the Avalon Ruin's contention of being in both the Staterra and Aellora kingdom's influence, the Safe Zone was ordered to become neutral ground for both nations. This meant that relics found inside the ruined city could not be taken out without the permission of both kingdoms.

Most of the historical records found within the ruins—including this estate—remain preserved for any researcher to request access to them, regardless of their allegiances. Although it was under the rule of Rodrick, he was simply the maintainer and nothing more.

All of this, ironically, was to the benefit of Soren. With his [Eyes of the Fairy], neutrality or the politics of nations didn't matter—any and all information within his grasp will forever be so.

"I wonder if it will have any information on what Hurion spoke of…"

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