Chapter 24 ( Part A )

As Raul walked alongside Herring, the barren wasteland stretched out endlessly before them, his mind drifted back to everything he had left behind.

Marcus and Faith... He pictured his father’s commanding presence and his mother’s calm precision with magic. They would’ve made it out in time, he reassured himself. His father was a seasoned warrior, and his mother’s magic was skilled. But where could they have gone? He clenched his fists. When the opportunity came, he’d find out.

His thoughts shifted to Reshia who had been heading to the capital when he last saw her. She’s probably safe there, he reasoned, remembering her sharp wit. Still, he couldn’t help but wonder. My disappearance... would it have caused her trouble?

She had been the last person to see him before he vanished. Would people blame her? He tried to push the thought away. No, it’s more likely they’d think the monsters got me. That would make more sense to everyone. Yet, the idea of her worrying about him gnawed at his chest. Did she look for me? Does anyone think I’m still alive?

He glanced over at Herring, curious about her story.

She was walking slightly ahead, her red hair catching the dim light, her expression distant. She looked as lost in thought as he was.

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For a moment, Raul considered breaking the silence to ask her more about herself or what she was thinking. But then he decided against it. She’s probably got enough on her mind.

Instead, he focused on the road ahead—or what passed for one in the wastelands.

He brought up his Console screen, the faint gray shimmer of its interface appearing before his eyes.

He quickly navigated to the spell coding interface, pulling up the code for Chiming Winds, the rudimentary spell that would give him 30 level up points if he made a wind attack spell out of it.

The problem last time was direction control, he recalled, scrolling through the spell’s code blocks. He began editing, adding new logic to guide the wind’s force.

As he worked, he noticed something new—a tab labeled Magic Libraries. Curious, he opened it, finding a wealth of pre-constructed code snippets and documentation. Each entry seemed to break down different magical phenomena: wind vectors, elemental affinity, kinetic force calculations, and even targeting algorithms.

Raul’s curiosity deepened. I can use this, he thought, diving into the documentation for wind spells. He cross-referenced the entries with his own code, integrating components from the library to refine Chiming Winds.

He was so engrossed in his work that he barely noticed the shift in the environment until the dry wastelands gave way to the looming trees of the forest. Shadows enveloped them, the air cooler but thick with tension.

“Stop,” Herring’s voice cut through his concentration as she raised a hand.