"Sir Aile? Is something wrong?"

"No, I thought I heard something for a moment, so I just checked. It seems I was mistaken."

"A sound? What kind of sound do you mean?"

Yuder paused briefly, detached his gaze from the depths of the forest he had glanced back at, and turned to look at Lorna. They were again on the move today, exploring the ancient site of the Magic Spring. The two other mages who usually accompanied them had decided not to join, preferring to prioritize the final stages of reinforcing their outpost's protective magic circles. Despite their absence, Lorna insisted on inspecting the magic circle control point around the Magic Spring and the surrounding warehouses, even if she had to do it alone. Such was her passion, and from Yuder's perspective, who had decided to revisit the amplification circle, it was a welcome development.

However, passion and fear were separate emotions. Every time Yuder paused and surveyed the surroundings, Lorna failed to completely hide her anxious expression. To reassure her, Yuder responded calmly.

"I thought I heard something like a human voice. It definitely wasn't a monster."

"I see."

Relieved, Lorna loosened her grip on the magic tool she had been holding tightly.

"The dense forest of the Great Sarain Forest doesn't absorb sounds but reflects them. It's been two days since the last monster incident, so it's possible that brave traders or mercenaries are passing nearby. Or... perhaps you heard the sound made by the deserters."

"There are deserters here too?"

Yesterday it was rumors of human trafficking, today it was deserters. There seemed to be quite a bit of peculiar information that only those who had spent a long time in the Great Sarain Forest would know.

"They show up from time to time. Most of them are escapees from the Western countries who sneak into the Great Sarain Forest. As you may know, the political situation over there has been unstable for quite some time and the hand of pursuit doesn't reach properly here."

Lorna replied casually, then slightly furrowed her brows a moment later.

"But the power of the Great Sarain Forest is hard for ordinary people to endure. I've heard that they usually don't survive for long."

Yuder recalled information from his past life, where the political situation among the Western countries had been quite unstable until King Ejain established his rule. Even after Ejain's coronation, countries like Durban had been noisy due to internal strife, so it was understandable that people who had prepared for death would choose to escape to the Great Sarain Forest to survive.

"I see. Before coming here, I thought there would hardly be any people in the Great Sarain Forest... But it seems there are more than I thought."

"There aren't many people who stay here continuously like us, but until the anomalies began, we would often see mercenaries and traders passing by from a distance."

After saying this, Lorna began telling him about a deserter she had vaguely seen from a distance several months ago while passing this path. It was an account of a sighting, a woman holding a young boy's hand, heading deep into the jungle.

"Perhaps there's someone in the Great Sarain Forest who has actually built a village, and we just don't know about it yet. There are such rumors, after all. Of course, I don't mean that I believe them. Even we have only been able to create this outpost over a span of several years. How could ordinary people who can't use magic do such a thing?"

By that point, the warehouse had appeared, so Lorna stopped talking. Following her, Yuder started meticulously examining the magic circles surrounding the warehouse as they walked.

"It seems a monster roamed the vicinity last night. I can see tracks drawn along the protection circle on the ground. First, we should go to the central control circle and rectify the position of the magic stones."

The site of the central control circle was, not unlike yesterday, left half destroyed and neglected. Lorna began to reposition the magic stones scattered haphazardly around the rocks, trees, and ground surrounding the magic circle, but realizing the task would not be swiftly finished on her own, she asked for Yuder's help.

"Could you lend a hand? It's simple, we should be done quickly."

"Understood. What should I do?"

"First and foremost, we need to restore this control cicrcle, which is linked to the amplification circle within the Magic Spring. Just move the materials as I direct you..."

As directed by Lorna, Yuder used the power of wind and earth to move the magic stones and set them back in place. As the work progressed much faster than when Lorna had done it alone by hand, she appeared thankful yet fleetingly tinged with bitterness.

"You're doing wonderfully. Can you see the magic circle rising back into its proper form?"

"Yes, I can see it."

Yuder gazed up at the vast, increasingly vivid blue magic circle before him. It looked as if three magic circles had been combined in a crisscross pattern, and Lorna had told him the one on top was the amplification circle.

The pattern on the slowly revolving amplification circle, like the wheel of a carriage, undeniably resembled what Yuder had seen in his dream the previous night.

'So Micalin was right after all.'

Throughout the process of moving the magic stones, Yuder's gaze never left the amplification circle. After he had stared long enough to memorize the pattern, he spoke to Lorna, who was still busy with the task at hand.

"I've heard that this amplification magic circle was developed by the Western Mage Union, but how is it different from others?"

"It's all about efficiency. It has a protective effect that prevents the amplified power from dispersing indiscriminately. Considering the risk of the magic power inside the Magic Spring continuously amplifying until it explodes or leaks out, we developed it ourselves with that in mind."

Lorna's gaze turned to the amplification circle.

"We've worked really hard on it. But once we finished the development and installation, changes started to occur in the Magic Spring immediately. It made all our efforts worthwhile. Of course, its condition isn't great now due to the damage... but we must fix it soon."

She seemed quite proud of the amplification circle. However, after listening to her detailed explanation, Yuder felt even more uncomfortable than before. He couldn't put it into words, but he had a feeling that something very awkward was coming.

'In order to accelerate the stalled research and for efficiency, they added a protective power to the amplification circle... If it's true that cracks began to appear around the same time the circle was installed, would restoring this circle really be a good thing?'

The Magic Spring was originally a place where thick magic power gathered.

If Lorna was right and the Magic Spring had existed since a thousand years ago, then it may have been part of the history of this Great Sarain Forest from the very beginning.

Over nearly a thousand years, the forest that was once not so large expanded its territory gradually, consuming the borders of four countries and becoming an immense green land untouched by anyone. The historical records of the countries clearly confirmed that the forest had been expanding over time.

The Great Sarain Forest, known for its inexhaustible vitality that could not be quelled, no matter how much one attempted, and the last place where the deep and pure magic power had gathered, a power that was believed to have disappeared long ago. Had the Western Mage Union ever once pondered the possible connection between the two?

He wanted to ask, but he could not. Yuder quietly scrutinized Lorna as she began to restore the magic circle, lost in his own thoughts.

'If there is a correlation, forcing an increase in the magic power concentrated in the spring and containing it might have influenced the Great Sarain Forest and caused the crack to begin appearing here.'

But even if that were true, it was doubtful whether the mages of the Western Mage Alliance would be willing to dismantle the amplification circle they had worked so hard to develop and abandon their research.

"Sir Aile, could you please move that blue magic stone over here?"

Yuder halted his thoughts as he reflexively applied his strength in response to Lorna's request. Seeing the passionate gleam in the mage's eyes, who would not hesitate to give her life to restore the circle, it seemed that she had no interest in what Yuder might be thinking.

"When do you suppose we will be done with this?"

"We're almost there. It's difficult to restore everything, but once we adjust the position of those magic stones over there, we'll head into the Magic Spring to examine it. You must be bored, having come to see the spring and only doing this. Oh, are you very tired?"

"No, I'm not tired. It's just that the circle has been damaged for a few days now, and I'm wondering if the spring will be okay."

"It'll be fine. The amplified magic power might have spread a bit, but in its pure state, it won't harm humans."

Yuder, looking at Lorna's smiling face, cautiously drew a breath.

'Maybe I should prod a little.'

"If it does not harm humans what about other things?"

"Other things?"

The smile on Lorna's face faded slightly.

"Are you suggesting... Ah, you mean that strange crack? But that..."

"No, I mean, for instance, what would happen if a monster that absorbs magic power accidentally appears nearby? I recalled hearing from Micalin that such monsters exist."

At Yuder's words, Lorna's eyes narrowed.

"There are such monsters, but they're extremely rare. Imagining one of those rare creatures coming all the way here to absorb the spreading magic power or the magic circle is quite pessimistic."

Pessimistic, was it really?

Just as Yuder was about to respond, Lorna suddenly turned her head.

"Did you hear that?"

"Pardon?"

"It sounded like there was a noise."