Calder did not go to Jang City the next day.
Instead, he went back to the forest. The investigators had left that morning — filed their report, packed their equipment, climbed into their transport. "Unidentified Grand Magus, likely transient. No resident activity above Tier 3 detected." Case closed. For now.
Which gave him a window.
The Greenwall Forest ran north for sixty miles before hitting the Ashvein range. The deeper sections had higher magical concentration — Tier 3 and Tier 4 Spell Fields, unmarked on official maps because nobody from Greenvale ventured that far. The beasts there were stronger, the wild spells richer, and the dungeons more frequent.
Calder spent three days in the deep forest.
He didn't bring Fen. This wasn't research anymore — this was power farming at a scale that would give his Healer friend a heart attack. Calder moved fast, slept in trees, ate field rations, and let the void do what it was built to do.
Day one: twelve wild spells absorbed. Fire variants up to Tier 5. Wind filled out with utility spells — Air Walk (levitation), Tailwind (speed boost), Wind Barrier (defense). He hit Level 20 farming Tier 3 beasts in a ravine system and felt his core stabilize at a new threshold.
Day two: found a Tier 4 Spell Field. A pocket of concentrated fire magic in a volcanic vent, steaming through the rocks. Wild spells grew here like weeds — Tier 4 fire spells blooming in the heat, their red-gold orbs visible from a hundred yards. He absorbed them all. Infernal Devastation, Pyroclasm, Molten Core Shield. His fire arsenal was becoming military-grade.
Day three was when things went wrong.
He was testing Thousand Gale Surge — the Tier 7 wind spell — in a clearing deep enough that the sound wouldn't carry. The spell required intent, direction, and a significant mana investment. He planted his feet, channeled wind energy into his right arm, and released.
The tornado materialized instantly. Twenty feet wide, a hundred feet tall, screaming with concentrated wind magic that turned loose rocks into bullets and stripped bark from trees in a fifty-yard radius. The clearing was devastated in three seconds. The tornado persisted for five more before Calder cut the mana feed and let it dissipate.
He stood in the wreckage, breathing hard. The clearing was gone. In its place was a crater of flattened earth, surrounded by a ring of stripped, broken trees.
Tier 7. The power of an Archon-level mage. The kind of destructive output that nations deployed strategically and counted among their greatest military assets.
He'd used it casually, to test it.
Calder sat on a demolished tree trunk and thought about the scale of what he was becoming. Two weeks ago he'd been worried about spell-grain harvest schedules. Now he was destroying clearings with Archon-level wind magic and his biggest concern was whether anyone had heard it.
The void didn't care about scale. It was still hungry. Still pulling toward the nearest magical signature, still generating Essence, still pushing every spell in his core toward the next tier. It had no opinion about appropriate power levels or responsible usage. It just grew.
He needed to test the fire side too. Skyflame Dragon's Breath sat at the top of his fire arsenal — Tier 7, unlocked two days ago when his fire progression crossed the threshold. He hadn't cast it yet. The spell description that lived in his core's awareness told him it was a "massive single-target attack" with a fire projection in the shape of a dragon's exhalation.
Late afternoon. Deep forest. No settlements for miles. About as safe as he was going to get.
Calder pointed his palm at the sky and cast Skyflame Dragon's Breath.
The fire didn't come from his hand. It came from everywhere — gathering from the air, the ground, the ambient heat of the forest into a concentrated point above his head. The point expanded into a shape. A head. Jaws. A dragon's mouth made of white-blue fire, opening wide enough to swallow a house.
The breath weapon fired skyward. A column of concentrated Tier 7 fire magic lanced into the clouds, punching through the overcast sky and illuminating the forest canopy in a flash of light that turned night into noon for exactly one second.
The shockwave knocked Calder back a step. The heat scorched his skin even through Stone Skin's protection. Leaves ignited for a hundred yards in every direction. The air itself seemed to burn.
Then it was over. The dragon's head dissolved. The fire died. The forest was dark again, except for a few dozen burning leaves drifting down through the canopy like orange snow.
"Maybe underground from now on," Calder said to nobody.
---
The column of fire was visible from Jang City.
Elder Chi was having tea when his assistant burst in with the news. An energy spike. Seventh-tier magic. Originating from the Greenwall Forest, roughly forty miles north of Greenvale. Fire element. Massive output. The Professional Association's monitoring array had flagged it automatically.
Chi set down his teacup. He was a small man — wiry, white-bearded, with bright eyes that made people underestimate him. He'd been doing this work for forty years and had killed more Abyss creatures than most armies. Very few things surprised him.
"Seventh-tier fire magic," he repeated.
"Yes, Elder. The signature matches the forest fire incidents from last week. Same source, higher output."
"The 'transient Grand Magus.'"
"It appears they're still in the area."
Chi stood and walked to his window. From the Association's regional headquarters on the seventh floor, he could see the Greenwall Mountains on the clear days. Today was overcast, but he didn't need to see them. He was thinking about what he knew.
One week ago: Tier 6 fire signatures in the Greenwall Forest. Attributed to an unknown Reaper. Two days ago: a dungeon collapse reported in the northern Greenwall — pocket dimension fully spent, indicating a complete clear by a single combatant. Today: Tier 7 fire magic fired into the sky like a signal flare.
Someone was in that forest. Someone powerful, reckless, and either very confident or very stupid.
"Prepare a transport," Chi said. "I'm going to Greenwall personally."
"Elder, is that necessary for—"
"Someone just fired a seventh-tier spell forty miles from a civilian population center. Yes, it's necessary."
---
Calder didn't know about Elder Chi. He knew about the light, though.
He'd seen it himself — the column of fire punching through the clouds, visible for miles. Visible for anyone looking north from Jang City or the surrounding towns. Visible for anyone with mana-detection equipment or even decent eyesight.
He'd done something very, very stupid.
The realization hit him like a physical blow while he stood in the scorched clearing, watching ash drift down. The investigators had just left. The report was filed. The "transient Grand Magus" was supposed to be gone. And he'd just proven otherwise in the most spectacular way possible.
Calder broke camp and moved south immediately. He traveled through the night, using Gale Step for speed, covering ground that would have taken two days on foot in six hours. By dawn he was back at the Greenwall's southern edge, within sight of Greenvale's spell-grain fields.
He stashed his field gear in the storage shed, washed at the basin, and walked into the kitchen in time for breakfast. His mother was making porridge. His father was attempting to stand without wincing.
"Morning," Calder said. Casual. Normal. Just a farm boy who'd slept in his own bed.
"You were out late," his mother said.
"Fen and I were studying."
"At three in the morning?"
"He has a lot of theories."
His mother gave him the look. The one that said she knew he was lying and was choosing not to push. He met her eyes and felt the guilt like a bruise.
He spent the morning harvesting the new spell-grain crop — the second planting of the season, just starting to sprout. Normal work. His hands knew the motions. His body knew the rhythm. But his mind was running calculations.
The Tier 7 fire display would attract real attention. Not investigators — Archons. People like Elder Chi who could sense magic at a distance and had the authority to pursue anomalies. The "transient Grand Magus" story wouldn't hold if the Association detected a seventh-tier Reaper operating in Greenvale's backyard.
He needed to leave. Not next week. Not after the sale in Jang City. Soon.
Fen arrived at noon, breathless. "Elder Chi is coming."
Calder's hands stopped moving. "What?"
"The Association office in Jang City scrambled a response team this morning. Elder Chi — Tier 7 Archon, regional director of the Professional Association — is personally leading it. They detected your fire spell last night."
"How do you know this?"
"The clinic got an advisory. 'High-level magical activity detected, civilians advised to remain clear of the Greenwall Forest.' Cal, they're sending an Archon. To investigate you."
The spell-grain swayed around them, amber and innocent.
"How long?"
"He'll be in Greenvale by tonight. Maybe sooner."
Calder looked at his hands. Dirt under the nails. Calluses on calluses. The hands of a farm boy who'd just put a Tier 7 fire column into the sky.
"I need to sell the ore in Jang City," he said. "Today. Now. Before Chi arrives."
"You can't go to Jang City. Chi is COMING from Jang City. You'll pass him on the road."
"Then I'll fly."
Fen stared at him. "You can fly?"
Calder held up his hand. Wind gathered around his palm. Air Walk — a Tier 3 levitation spell. He hadn't mentioned it.
"Of course you can fly," Fen muttered. "Why wouldn't you be able to fly. You've been awake for two weeks and you can fly."
"I'll go high. Above the cloud line. Sell the ore, come straight back. I'll be in Jang City in an hour and back before dark."
"And if Chi scans the area while you're gone and finds nothing?"
"Then he finds nothing. A 'transient Grand Magus' who moved on. His report matches the first investigators'."
Fen chewed his lip. "This is getting out of control, Cal."
"I know."
"You said you'd be careful."
"I know."
Fen looked at the sky. Overcast. Good — cloud cover would hide the approach to Jang City. "Go. Sell the ore. Don't use any spells inside the city. And for the love of everything, don't test any more Tier 7 magic pointed at the SKY."
Calder almost smiled. "Deal."
He waited until Fen left, checked that no one was watching, and cast Air Walk. The spell lifted him off the ground — gently at first, then faster as he poured wind magic into the ascent. Within thirty seconds he was above the treeline. Within sixty he was in the clouds, the world below him reduced to gray smudges.
He pointed himself south toward Jang City and poured on speed.
Below and behind him, invisible from this height, a transport vehicle bearing the crest of the Professional Association rolled down the Greenvale road, carrying an old man with bright eyes who missed very little.
