In the chill of December, the three o'clock afternoon bells chimed across Ikerite Academy.
Frey's dormitory had the unmistakable air of a detective's office.
Upon the dark brown walls hung newspaper clippings of cases he had solved alongside vintage maps. His desk was cluttered with messy stacks of documents and memo pads, flanked by a microscope, several vials of alchemical reagents, and an open geography magazine.
On a low, floor-standing shelving unit beside the desk sat newspapers, manuscripts, a magnifying glass, fingerprint powder, and magical items of unknown purpose.
Two leather sofas rested quietly beside the fireplace for visitors or Frey himself.
Amid the resonant clanging echoing from the ancient clock tower, both Lanqi and Frey gazed out the window.
Thanks to the prestige he had built up in the student council over the past few months, Frey's obscure detective agency now occasionally received commissions.
However, Frey's methods differed vastly from ordinary detectives. Hiring him carried the risk of things turning out quite contrary to one's desires, and his fees were directly proportional to his capabilities, so unless there was no other choice, people rarely asked him for help lightly.
Now that break had started, the detective agency was completely closed for business.
On the low table before Frey sat a newspaper and two cups of black tea.
Yet this was not a meeting on business, but a temporary farewell to Lanqi.
Ever since Hyperion began staying at Boss Cat Restaurant, the two of them often hung out together. Lanqi was not only Frey's legal counsel, but at times an invaluable right-hand man in Frey's investigations.
"Lanqi, your level is forty-six."
Frey held up a dark gray crystal, glancing at Lanqi through its luminous glow.
"Is that so?"
Lanqi thought that sounded reasonable. After advancing from Tier 3 to Tier 4 following the last Shadow World, he hadn't felt like a newcomer to Tier 4, nor did Tier 5 feel particularly far off.
"What about you, Frey?"
"Fifty-four," Frey replied.
Over the past few months, sparked by the level theory Lanqi had offhandedly brought up in casual conversation, the Level Appraisal Spell jointly developed by Ikerite Academy's School of Alchemy and School of Magic Engineering had begun spreading rapidly across the Southern Continent.
Because the magical structure itself was simple—being mostly a theoretical model that required effort mainly in measuring, defining, and converting numerical values—it spread with great ease. Incantation versions, magic card versions, and magic tool versions of the Level Appraisal Spell were already available, and word of it had even reached the Northern Continent through interactions among Shadow World challengers.
An explosive surge in popularity would likely follow in the coming months.
In their papers, the research team noted that the person who first proposed the hypothesis was Lanqi Wilford. If the study achieved notable success over the next year or two, even without Lanqi lifting a finger, he stood to gain considerable academic prestige.
Granted, this appraisal spell was useless against true powerhouses in their normal state.
Powerhouses typically concealed their presence. Dean Loren, for instance, appeared Tier 1 or even Tier 0 no matter how one looked at him, yet in reality he was Tier 8.
"Though according to what I heard from the School of Alchemy, Dean Loren's level was measured at eighty-seven during development when he assisted with the research."
"No wonder he's absurdly strong."
At Lanqi and Frey's levels, a gap of several levels might still be bridged through innate talent, special mechanics, or elemental advantages. But toward the end of Tier 6—starting from level sixty-nine—calculations showed that each subsequent level brought enormous stat growth. The attribute gap created by levels became increasingly impossible to compensate for through other factors.
Across the Southern and Northern Continents combined, Tier 9 powerhouses numbered in the single digits. Loren wasn't hailed as the supreme guardian of the Hutton Kingdom for nothing.
The two chatted idly.
With the break underway, the campus had quieted down significantly, and free of student council business, they surprisingly felt as if they were retired with nothing to do.
"What a shame I can't go to the Northern Continent with you this time," Frey sighed, leaning back against the sofa.
He had heard that the underground casinos in the Protos Empire were quite something.
For the next three months, he would be kept under Dean Sphintos's watchful eye, with zero chance of escaping the royal capital of Ikerite.
Or rather, if he actually had the skill to slip out of Ikerite right under Dean Sphintos's nose, his training could already be deemed complete.
"Frey, we might return quite late on this trip. If you get the chance to tackle a Shadow World on your own over the break, don't wait for us. We probably won't be back until next semester," Lanqi said with certainty after pondering over the calendar.
It was now mid-December; they might not return until April or May of next year.
Frey had reached Silver rank as well, allowing him to challenge real Shadow Worlds solo without needing a party.
For a stat monster like Frey, his own level was especially vital; every tier advancement brought a qualitative leap in combat power.
In the first node of the Blood Moon Cataclysm, a Blood Clan Baron had appeared, while the second node featured Blood Clan Viscounts and even a Blood Clan Count. Thus, the next Blood Moon Cataclysm Shadow World would in all likelihood feature a Blood Clan Marquis.
Even after their cooldowns reset, the three of them couldn't easily challenge it together just yet. Each of them needed to grow stronger first.
When the power gap was too vast, no strategy could help; even executing mechanics flawlessly would still result in a total wipeout.
"No problem. But if you and Hyperion head north these days, be mindful of the Bishop War within the Resurrection Church. I hear the path along which the Bishop of Destruction is hunting the Cardinal of Dimensions is gradually shifting northward," Frey warned, glancing down at the international column on the front page of the newspaper on the table.
Those were two roving natural disasters, wielding wrath no mortal body could withstand.
"Don't worry. Hyperion and I will head south first to create the illusion that we're going south. Along the way, we'll assume entirely new disguised identities before heading north. No one will recognize us then."
Lanqi's Polymorph: Demon was the technological culmination of the ancient Horning Empire's testing grounds after its final refinements, written in Human Magic Script. Meanwhile, Polymorph: Human was reverse-engineered by demons of that era using Polymorph: Demon as a blueprint. Both could bypass the vast majority of modern disguise-detection spells.
Talia had already modified targeted polymorph cards for Lanqi and Hyperion that allowed them to disguise themselves directly as humans resembling their current features without fear of discovery.
"More importantly, this spell makes things much more convenient in the Northern Continent."
In the Protos Empire where they would first make landfall, human identity was also the least likely to get entangled in racial disputes.
"Yeah." Frey nodded. He had heard Lanqi recount Dean Loren's words about Northern Continent culture. "Still, there is one thing... I can be fairly sure of."
"What's that?"
"If the Northern Continent has people like me who underwent atavistic awakening of their Wolf Clan bloodline, they shouldn't pose any danger to you."
"Why?"
This time, even Lanqi couldn't quite fathom the reasoning behind Frey's conclusion.
"It's hard to explain. Just as the Blood Clan are naturally born to fear you, the Wolf Clan, by contrast, are probably born to feel an instinctive fondness for you." Frey crossed his arms, describing his intuition with a hint of perplexity.
"Fair enough. If I run into anyone from the Wolf Clan in trouble, I'll try treating them as friends first and lend a hand where I can."
Lanqi glanced at the clock and stood up. Picking up his coat by the door and draping it over himself, he waved goodbye.
It was about time.
Once he met up with Hyperion at Boss Cat Restaurant, they could set off.
Chapter 235