Chapter 443: Krygon Province (III) (Bonus)
Both Bernadette and Valerie widened their eyes slightly.
Pan noticed their reactions and smiled. "Yes, I am sure you have already begun thinking of different possibilities. If the world is filled with mana, then perhaps you could cast spells without ever having to worry about running out of your own."
He paused.
"However, there is something you need to understand. Although natural mana exists throughout the world, it is not evenly distributed. Some places possess tremendous amounts of it, while others have very little."
Pan glanced around the room. "This continent is a good example."
He raised his hand slightly, looking at it as he continued.
"The Demon Continent has barely any natural mana in its surroundings. In fact, it sometimes feels as though natural mana itself is afraid to come here."
He lowered his hand.
"So you should not expect your spells to become stronger simply because you are using True Magic while you’re here. If anything, relying entirely on True Magic in a place like this could put you at a serious disadvantage."
Valerie raised her hand slightly. "Why?"
Pan looked toward her. "The runes essentially serve as autonomous commands. You are giving the natural mana around you instructions to carry out the spell on its own. That is why none of your personal mana is required to power the spell."
He paused before continuing.
"So if there isn’t enough natural mana in the environment, then there isn’t enough power available to properly execute the spell. The result could actually be weaker than the same spell would have been if you had simply used your own mana."
Pan then raised one finger.
"But if you are in the right environment, somewhere saturated with natural mana, then things become very different."
Bernadette nodded slowly as she considered what he was saying. "How strong can True Magic actually make a spell?"
Pan became thoughtful for a moment.
"There is no simple answer to that. I cannot give you a fixed number and tell you that a spell will become twice as strong or three times as strong...."
"But i can tell you that your talent level would no longer be a limitation. The strength of the spell would depend on amount of natural mana that can be infused into it, which also depends entirely on the environment."
He glanced toward the runes.
"In a place overflowing with natural mana, there is truly no telling how powerful a spell could become."
Pan’s expression became slightly more serious.
"However, that does not mean your body can handle an unlimited amount of power. The greater the spell becomes, the greater the strain placed upon you. You still need enough stamina to withstand the weight of the spell you are casting."
"I have never taught a human how to use True Magic before, so I cannot tell you exactly how much stronger a natural magic spell could become in your hands. That is something we will have to discover through practice."
Bernadette nodded thoughtfully. "I see."
"Shall we begin then?" He asked.
Both women nodded afterwards.
——
Meanwhile, somewhere within Krygon Province...
Eduardo was walking through the Lower City, also known as Lower Krygon.
Unlike the others, he had already reached the pinnacle of what could be achieved by a werewolf and vampire hybrid. There was no obvious realm beyond his current strength that he could suddenly unlock through training, nor was there some untapped potential waiting to be discovered.
So instead, Eduardo did one of the things he was good at; observing.
For the past week, he had been taking the opportunity to study the province whenever he could.
At different times throughout the day, once he was certain that Young Master Ethan had gone off to focus on his training, Eduardo would leave their quarters and spend several hours exploring the surrounding areas.
Earlier in the week, he had explored most of the Upper City, the part of Krygon where the nobles lived and where Lord Krygon’s ruling palace was located.
Today, however, he had decided to explore the Lower City.
The difference was very much apparent.
The Lower City was where some of the poorest and most neglected inhabitants of the province lived.
The condition of the buildings was terrible, with many of the houses appearing as though they had been left to deteriorate for years. The streets were crowded, and the people who lived there represented an unusual mixture of races.
There were half-elves with obvious demonic traits, goblin-like beings bearing horns, orcs with demonic features, and countless other combinations of races that would have been unusual to see elsewhere.
Anyone who possessed demon blood could find themselves living here.
Eduardo had noticed that there was very little of what he would have considered a middle class.
The society here seemed to exist largely between two extremes: the nobles who possessed wealth and influence, and everyone else.
Krygon Province itself was divided into roughly twenty major domains, each functioning as its own territory within the larger province. Every domain was governed by a ruling lord who answered directly to Lord Krygon, giving him authority over the entire province while allowing each territory to maintain its own administration.
Most of the lords who governed the various domains of Krygon Province came from powerful and well-known noble families. Their positions were often tied to the influence those families had accumulated over generations.
The four lords who governed Lower Krygon were different.
Rather than belonging to the most prominent noble houses, these four had risen to their positions largely because of their standing within the Lower City.
Each was either highly respected by the people living in their territory or powerful enough that few were willing to challenge their authority.
Eduardo had already encountered a few of the less intelligent inhabitants of the Lower City during his explorations.
There had been occasions when some troublemakers noticed a foreigner dressed in clothing that belonged to someone of higher status and decided they might be able to take advantage of him.
However, whenever someone attempted to approach Eduardo aggressively, he would simply disappear from where he stood, moving at a speed that none of them could properly perceive.
And by the time they realized what had happened, Eduardo would already be several meters away.
Even when an attack actually reached him, the result was the same.
His body would blur out of the way before the attacker could touch him.
It wasn’t that Eduardo lacked the strength to deal with them. If he wanted to, killing most of the people who had tried to attack him would have been effortless.
He simply had no reason to.
The last thing he wanted was to create unnecessary trouble during their stay here, especially since they were supposed to be foreign expatriates brought into the Demon Continent by Lord Krygon.
As far as most of the noble houses were concerned, Ethan and his companions had been brought from the Western Continent because Lord Krygon wanted to encourage further development within his province.
The story told was that Ethan and his people were one of the few persons from the west who had no particular hostility toward demons and were willing to bring their knowledge, technology, and other forms of development to Krygon.
Lord Krygon, who had his own reasons for wanting that development within his province, had therefore invited them into his territory.
Whether the nobles believed the story or not ultimately made little difference. Lord Krygon’s position within his own province was firmly established for their suspicions to affect his authority.