After telling father to organize the people, I flew over to the corner where Fiara’s been doing her research. Of course I want to know if she’s made Magic Tools for teleportation yet, but I also want to take out a loan and chat with Adelai.

“Yo, Fiara,” I waved my hand and landed, trying to stir up as little dust as possible.

“Chief!” Some dust still spread, so Fiara was forced to close her eyes and wave it away. “Are you getting used to flying?”

“Mm, it’s pretty enjoyable lately. How about you? Any progress on those teleporters?”

“Well, I have a working prototype. The thing is--!” Her speech suddenly cut off when she opened her eyes again, seeing the magnificent architecture behind me that she had been too busy researching to notice before.

Since I didn't feel like being scolded for not telling her sooner, I wrote out the details for the most recent spells I'd learned and handed them over to Fiara. “That stuff over there popped up after a test run of the fourth level spell.”

“F-fourth level?! Haah, I still don't know any third level spells. Have I really been spending too much time just researching?”

“Hm, well you can use those details to help you make some progress. More importantly, does she know anything about fourth level spells or Law? Something strange happened when I used that spell.”

“Something strange? I haven't seen it up close, but it looks amazing from here.”

“Yeah, it’s amazing. I couldn't be happier. The thing is, the spell didn't do what I told it to do. Sure it did other stuff that was even better, but it’s a fact that I wasn't able to control it.”

Fiara held her chin and thought for a moment. “Sorry, Gila. Could you take a break? The chief and I would like to have a private conversation.”

“T-take as long as you need!” the High Orc shouted out, springing to her feet as if it was a reflex and bounding off with energetic steps. When she was out of hearing range, Fiara turned back to me.

“Adelai says that you shouldn't use Law for casual things.”

“Eh? Um, you're going to explain it better than that, right?”

Fiara looked up like she was thinking about something. Of course, she was really just listening to Adelai. “She says you will be able to learn to control it, since the Lord Spirit is fused with your Soul, but the nature of a person’s Law won't ever change. The most even Gods can do is draw out certain characteristics that were already present in the original Law. If you can't even do that, you'll be giving up control of your own spells.”

So, no matter what I wanted to build with , it would become a living structure?

“Okay, but can she explain more clearly what exactly this Law stuff is? I mean, it’s not something like a finite resource, right?”

“She says it’s like Magic Power in that it might sometimes need to go dormant and recharge. In the context of earth magic, instead of changing superficial things about the earth, Law can change what the earth is and how it behaves. A fourth level magic caster with the earth attribute and appropriate Law could make it so that solid stone acts like water or soil produces light, while keeping all of their other properties the same. Incidentally, chief, what effect did your Law have?”

Smiling awkwardly, I asked an important question that was on my mind. “Uh, before I answer that, is a person’s innate Law supposed to say something about what kind of person they are?”

“Of course. Law is a power that sleeps in the very center of the Soul, she says.”

I scratched the back of my head, turning my eyes to the city behind me and using .

the Law of the structures here has been changed so that they can heal any damage they receive, with the same efficiency as their creator. They possess their own Magic Power supplies which fuel this ability, and which will recharge in the presence of breathing people. If enough energy is gathered by the existing structures, they are able to expand their influence in order to better suit their purpose. However, normal people would not consider what this city has to be an ego. Creator: Vyra. Current Lord: Vyra. Population: 289.

“Well,” I faked a cough, “they're stones, soils, metals, and crystals that have their own rechargeable Magic Power supplies, can heal their wounds, and will slowly grow as time passes. Mmm, from your perspectives, they're closer to plants than minerals. Or perhaps minerals that have become Magic Beasts? According to , the city’s name has changed from to .”

“Um, chief, didn’t you turn the city into a Magic Beast? Is that fine?”

Ahaha, I certainly seem to have done that, didn't I?

“It should be fine. It just means it will strive to be the best city it can, I think. More importantly, you said you had a working prototype for a teleportation Magic Tool?”

Fiara shrugged at the subject change and pulled two tablets up off of a pelt. Using a ten fet ruler, she placed them a certain distance apart and set a rock on one of the tablets. After channeling some Magic Power, the intricate CSPs on both lit up, and then the rock had moved to the other tablet.

“It’s fine even if we put something in between them. We tested on a few insects, and it seems to be safe. The problem is that I have to know exactly how far apart the two CSPs are. If it’s off by a little, it might come through after a minute or so, and if it’s off by a lot, it usually just misfires, but there was one case where the distances weren't calculated correctly and the stone just disappeared. Also, linking more than two of these is still a bit beyond me.”

“What if you used the same trick as with the tablets? Let the user pick from a list of places to teleport to.” I offered.

“Well, it’s not that I can't. It’s just that there are a lot of things that have to be measured.”

“Ah, are you having trouble calculating distances? There are some convenient math formulas for that.”

So I spent some time teaching Fiara the distance formula and a few useful things from geometry and trigonometry. After that, I borrowed the Magic Power from a few dozen magic cores. They're useless if they're empty, so I'll come back to refill them later, but for now, I need them in order to alter the rest of the city.

During the time that I was teaching Fiara modern math formulas, all the stuff that was in the temporary houses was moved to the new residential district. Apparently, they found some communal housing areas which were sized appropriately for Goblins and Fomors, so the temporary housing for them was emptied as well. So, it should be fine to transform this region, right?

But before that…

“Are you serious, Lord?”

“I'm sorry.”

It’s necessary to remove the temporary fields from the ground. Just after I ordered something unpleasant be done to them too. But I can't leave them here. It wouldn't be funny if our handful of healthy crops ended up petrified in quartz crystals.

At least I was able to make the process easier by using and to place the entirety of each of the three fields onto wheeled platforms. Now they can simply be pushed elsewhere.

“Put them near your new housing for now. The fields are all the way over by the east wall; I won't make you put them in the ground there until we have working teleporters.”

Now then, let’s do to the walls and the outer region of the city what I did to the center. I am nervous about using a spell I can't control, but since it’s based on my innate Law, which is based on my personality, things that I can't accept shouldn't pop out.

I started constructing the Spell Formation for . As far as the sphere of influence, I tried to shape it more like a ring of influence, encompassing the wall and outer region of the city. By leaving out the region of the east district where the fields will be, I was able to cover everything else--just barely.

By the way, is it safe to use up all my Magic Power and Law at once like this?

Well, fourth level spells are already too powerful for me to be able to stop in the middle of things. The Spell Formation I made would shatter, and a third of the Magic Power I funneled into it would run rampant. I would be able to manage if the spirits helped me control it, but that would require extra Magic Power that I don't have.

It’s something that I think is worth charging boldly for, so it’s fine.

Just like last time, I supplied as much information as I could think of consciously, then I opened up my Mind for the spell to retrieve the Law it required--and whatever else came with that. While enduring the nauseating feeling of my Mind being rummaged through, I looked forward to having a complete city with a recovery ability as good as my own.

Because if I was honestly pressed to answer which I value more: the lives of “people” or the “lives” of objects, I would have to say that they're equal in my eyes.

Suddenly, I felt the Spell Formation convulse and shudder, and something like thick ink spread over my consciousness.

***

I wish you would stop saying rude things about the chief, Fiara thought, waving over a droopy-eared Gila now that breaktime was over.

“They are objective assessments,” came the voice that only Fiara could hear. “Perhaps because of her memories from her previous life and the influence from that son of Yogg, she achieved the fourth level sooner than you. She will destroy herself at this pace, or the Gods will do it for her.”

Fiara made an unpleasant expression while examining a teleportation CSP. You could explain your reasoning to me instead of making grim prophecies.

“I looked inside her memories. Did you know there is a concept in her old world that “the force of progress is unstoppable”?”

You're an Indigo Mind seed, Adelai. Surely you're not going to tell me that you think too much progress is bad?

“I'm not that shameless. But she clearly ignored my warning about using her power of Law excessively. Before much longer, I'm sure she will--”

Without warning, the ground shook, causing Fiara to drop the tablet she’d been holding.

“... Self destruct.” Adelai finished with some hesitation.

Like some kind of living thing, crystals spread across the ground and walls sprouted up. As if they were an irritation to the earth, a platform rose up beneath the pelts Fiara and Gila were working on, tossing them into the air, before sinking back down and being overtaken by the strange substances and structures.

Fiara propped herself up with one arm and used the other to swipe her braids out of her face. She stared at the scene with bewildered eyes.

This wasn't how AoE spells worked. Normally, the intended effect would be reached within the casting area simultaneously. Something like what she was witnessing, with the effects gradually spreading out from the point of origin, was distinctly unusual. Considering the tremors that had appeared, which had been absent when the center of the city was constructed, the first thing that came to mind was that the chief’s spell was running wild.

“Ch-chief! I have to check on my sister!”

Fiara stood up and ran toward the churning earth. Near the edge where changes were still occurring, the rising structures fought against her to prevent her interference. Several purple bruises appeared on her blue skin during this challenge. Once she was past the active area, the parts that had already settled didn't bother her. And for someone like Fiara, who had been performing difficult calculations for the past several days in order to create balanced CSPs, determining the epicenter of one wild spell wasn't difficult.

After running for a minute or so, a voluptuous body with tan skin, big, tannish-white wings, and striking red hair could be seen sprawled on the ground. Fiara sprinted toward her fallen chief, who had a mysterious magic circle floating just above her body. Because Fiara possessed the passive state skill, it was clearly visible to her, and to Adelai.

“Do not touch her!”

Reluctantly, Fiara stopped her feet just a few steps from her fallen kin.

Why not?! she demanded.

“Look closely. She is breathing, and her heart is beating. Her life is not in immediate danger. She seems to have run out of Law power, so the spell is on standby.”

Standby? What does that mean?

It was fairly common knowledge that if one tried to cast a spell without having enough Magic Power, the Spell Formation would crumble, returning about two thirds of the devoted resources to the caster, and scattering the rest. Spells that were high level enough to require both Magic Power and Law were rare enough that most didn't know their requirements.

“She seems to have had enough Magic Power, since the Spell Formation has properly stabilized. However, the spell cannot complete itself until enough Law power is offered. Since she has run out of Law, the spell is completing as much as it can while waiting for more to be supplied.”

Some of the tension faded from Fiara’s body.

So what you're saying is that the chief will stay like this until her Law power recovers. And it won't do her any harm?

The yellow eyes in Fiara’s subconscious seemed to nod. “However, waking her could have serious consequences. Look closely, since I'm able to see it with these eyes of yours. Can you see that the spell is currently connected with her Mind? Completing the spell properly will let her Mind close peacefully. I cannot guess what will happen if the spell is interrupted; the Indigos at that level were never rash enough to end up in this kind of situation to begin with.”

And how long will it take her Law to recharge? This was the thing Fiara was currently the most worried about.

“The Lord Spirit is something that was created after my time. I do not know how much Law power was afforded to her by it. The more she had originally, the faster she will recover.”

***

After Orc Lord Vyra went into a magic-induced coma, Fiara had urged everybody not to move her, and to allow the spell to complete naturally. Thus, most activities which required people to leave the village were put on hold.

There was no pressing need to continue battling the Fomors. In fact, when Irsha, Durghan, and Varoon had returned after a hard-won battle, only to find their Lord in a deep slumber, that was the last thing they wanted. If it was about food, Vyra had been steadily filling a food storage building with extra meat and vegetables, so they would be fine for up to a week and a half with proper rationing. Also, the crops that the Goblins were tending had started bearing considerably more fruit.

The group of people who held the most authority after Vyra gathered to discuss what would be done in the meantime. It was decided that Fiara would continue her research; Irsha and Varoon would begin martial and magical training for the troops in earnest, in part to wash away the bad taste of having lost so many of their own; and Durghan would lead a small group to help the War Orcs migrate to the city in seven days, as promised.

Oolga and Rigdam, Vyra’s parents, and two of the most competent warriors in the city, would guard her at all hours so she wouldn't be disturbed. Not even when Vyra was conceived had they spent so much time with each other, but it seemed they were willing to cooperate in this case.

Meanwhile, a certain non-combatant seemed to have been forgotten about entirely.

“Just when I was going to swallow my pride and acknowledge your skill...”

Balig stood before a wall of polished Neofite: a remarkably lightweight black stone, known for becoming heavy and hard in the presence of Magic Power. Despite the rarity of such a substance--often called Adamantium’s fickle stone cousin--this wide wall was a bafflingly pure sample. That was obvious, since it had been conjured by high level earth magic. He ran one of his symmetrical, two-thumbed hands over the graceful etchings carved into that surface, which possessed a level of precision that seemed out of reach for typical mortals.

Neofite was a difficult stone to come across, even for Dwarves. It, along with other substances that reacted strangely to Magic Power (such as Herite, Angelite, Orihalcom, Mithril, and Adamantium), couldn't be created with low level earth magic. The precise reason for such a thing wasn't something a mere student like Balig would have been allowed to learn, of course. However, the Lord of the city in which Balig was currently residing was able to create it.

This one wall was not alone either. As far as his eyes could see, there was not a single structure which was not a work of art. The Coldsteel pillars arranged alongside the roads were particularly fresh to look at, since most Dwarven forges weren't equipped to handle the metal typically treated with ice dragon flames. If heated by normal forge fires, it would quickly become a liquid impossible to work with, but until reaching that high heat, it would remain cold and slick like ice. Considering it wasn't able to particularly outperform other metals despite being so difficult to work with, only the most dedicated smiths trained to work with it.

Yes, all of this--which had been created in merely an instant--Balig wanted to praise the city’s Lord for it. He went looking for her, only to find that she had apparently fallen into a coma trying to cast the same spell a second time.

Balig sighed and pulled his hand back to stroke his chin, which was starting to grow sparse hairs. Living in a place with so many sudden surprises like this was probably causing him to age faster, otherwise he was two or three years too soon to be growing a beard.

“I'll acknowledge your skill, but it's wasted on a hot-headed boor like you.” The Dwarf stuck his hands in his pockets and walked down the strange crystal road. “Idiot.”

~End of Arc 1~