Information gathering.

The moment he thought about the tasks at hand John knew exactly where he needed to go. There was someone in particular he needed to talk to and that could give him almost all of the information he needed. If she would help, at least. Bass followed him out of principle, she insisted on it. Ember tagged along without asking as soon as she heard who he planned to visit.

It wasn’t very long before they had reached Ingrid’s office, and with it the Council chamber. Knocking on the door quickly, John heard Ingrid answer almost immediately.

“Yes, you may come in, John. But you alone,” she said, her voice authoritative but somehow less cold than before.

His determination guiding him, John opened the door, behind it was still the same office he had seen before. The strangely carved chairs and table still left their impression on him, and the various bookshelves had become more disorganized since he was last there. It was obvious somebody had been poring over the books regularly.

“Have a seat John,” Ingrid told him as soon as he entered, and he followed her instruction, trying to get comfortable, “so, to what am I owed this visit?” she asked, her tone polite.

“I had a few questions for you, most of them to do with the expedition. We needed information about the schedules and the most logical person to go to was you,” John started, trying to keep his tone serious and calm, “I also have some questions of my own to ask you about magic, but I assume you’d like me to ask them during one of our lessons. In which case I’d like to schedule one as soon as possible, if I can.”

“Go ahead then, I’ll answer what questions I think are appropriate. And if you wish we can have a lesson immediately after this talk ends,” she looked at him, just a bit more kindly than before.

“Well, first, I’d like to know what the exact schedule for the teachers are?”

“That’s simple, our schedule is the same as it was the last three days. In other words your morning class today was personal magics, the class you missed that day, your noon class would be stealth, and your afternoon would be close quarters combat training. Exactly like it was the first day you got here, I think you’ll be able to figure it out from there,” she informed him quickly.

“Yeah, that should be enough information for me to figure out the schedule, and I would like to have a lesson soon, but can that wait until I catch up with the other half of my team?” he asked, hoping her answer would be yes.

’That would make my life a lot easier, we need to work out what they’ll do for now too,’

“Yes, of course, come back here when you are ready John,” Ingrid said, her voice fairly warm now.

“Alright, thank you for your help, Ingrid,” John said, quickly getting up and leaving the room swiftly.

As soon as he stepped outside Bass asked him, “What’d Ingrid tell you?” her voice showed her clear curiosity.

“She told me our schedule would be the same as has been the previous three days. We’re all up for a personal magics class now, if we want to attend.”

“I suspect that will be a good use of all of your time,” Ember said, staring directly at John.

“I tend to agree with Ember, boss, developing our own skills is important. You know, in case we find something completely unexpected,” her tone was serious but she looked at him with a warm expression.

“You’re probably right, but for now let’s meet up with the others,”

“Well, we’re not sure yet, Lieutenant, but we want to know what this warehouse has on hand,” Matthew responded immediately.

“We have everything you guys could possibly need. From magical space suits and other such equipment to mundane survival supplies. Just give me a list and I’ll tell you where to find it and how much work you’ll need to do,” the older man continued kindly.

“What kind of work would that be Lieutenant?” the ice mage said in the most respectful tone Yan had ever heard from him.

“Mainly two things. We need more workers in carrying goods in and out of this place, you’ll help a bit with that. I’ll also ask you to run me some missions in the second Plane for some more exotic materials, if you have the time. That should get you some nice gifts from the R&D department if you do, but no promises as to what they will be right now.”

“Manual labor, of course…” Matthew mumbled under his breath angrily

“Either way, thank you for the information Lieutenant. We’ll come back here once we meet up with the rest of the team,” Yan said, trying to remain somewhat professional.

’That’ll be enough information for now,’ she thought to himself, wanting to end the situation if possible.

“Then shouldn’t we get back to John and Bass?” Charlotte said quietly.

“Yeah, you’re right Charlotte,” the shapeshifter agreed, hurrying Matthew and Charlotte along as they stepped back towards the hallway.

“In summary, the quartermaster told us to get back to him with a list,” Yan explained calmly, along with what he wanted in return for the items, once they had all sat back down in the classroom.

“The schedule is going to be the same as has been the last three days. That means right now we should have personal magics, I think we should all attend that as a first step,” John followed up, hoping the others would think so too. It would benefit him directly and Ember and Bass both agreed.

"Then there's no use standing around here. We shall discuss what to do next afterwards," the ice mage stated decisively.

"For once I agree with you wholeheartedly, Matthew,” John said, and it wasn’t long afterwards that they had all split off, leaving the classroom individually to find their teachers. All except John who Ember had apparently decided to escort.

“I’d like to talk to you after your lesson, John, so it seems the most efficient,” she told him just as they entered the hallway.

“Sure, I don’t mind,” he responded kindly.

’I’m sure I can still trust her, and if she finally tells me what her reason was last time that would be great,’ John thought hopefully.

A few moments later he found Ingrid standing in front of her office, and after a short exchange they headed for the training room for the third time that week.

“You said you had some questions about magic?” she said as they entered, her tone regaining the familiar sense of regality.

“Mainly just one, I want to understand how to hide my Mana and by extension Observe. If you and Graham could detect it so easily I assume others could too, so that would be helpful. I also want to understand how to detect Mana in that same way, if that’s possible?” John asked, his tone curious, while trying to stay polite.

“That’s quite complicated to explain, but I will teach you,” she stopped for a moment and readjusted a stance, “what you need to understand is that whether you see Mana depends on how concentrated it is. You will always be able to see your own Mana, but only some abilities, like your Mana bolts or the Mana structures you created are dense enough to be seen by the naked eye of even a mundane. In other words, if you simply spread out the Mana over a larger surface area or use less of it, you can make similar abilities that can’t be seen by a normal eye,” she moved her hands around in what seemed like a trained form and then continued, “step forward, you’ll see exactly what I mean.”

The moment John did as she said he struck a wall and was knocked back, it was quite similar to his Arcane Barrier but clearly stronger and once he touched it he could see the outline of the box it made around him.

“Try to break it.”

John started with a few punches. The first one just hurt his hand as it recoiled off the invisible and shimmering wall. The second, however, broke through and the shimmer from that area disappeared alongside it.

“Do you see now? That is how you can make your Mana invisible. Using the same method in reverse you can make it visible,” she moved her hands again and the box around him appeared clearly, shining in bluish shades of purple. It was quite a thick layer of color standing and shimmering in the air, “try to break it again, you’ll see what I mean.”

So he did, but a repeat of the last punch did nothing to the wall of Mana, only hurting his own hand further.

“In other words, you can trade the potency of or the space taken up by your Mana for the ability to hide it.

“I suppose that makes sense…” John mumbled to himself, “like a spell modifier of sorts that depends on the shape and density of the Mana you use.”

“Exactly, now you shall try it. Pick which ability you would like to start with.”

“I think I’ll try to use this with my Observe first, that’s why I asked about this after all,” Ingrid nodded in response and so John began.

He first tried to focus on the Observe as an extension of his Mana. Using it on Ingrid, he tried to understand how it worked exactly. It took him a few moments to search for the Mana he was moving around his body. Eventually, that was clear, part of his Mana was being channeled to his eyes and specifically to the image of Ingrid there. That was the activation of the ability. Once he identified it, he tried the exact course she had described, spreading the Mana across the surface of his eyes and pulling what he could away. It wasn’t exactly clear if anything happened, but then his teacher spoke up.

“Did you stop the spell?” she asked, clearly confused in an almost uncharacteristic manner.

“No, it’s still there, but I tried what you told me.”

“Congratulations then, John, you mastered that much quicker than anybody I have seen,” John could almost see a smile crop up on her face, “be aware, however, that with those types of abilities changing the density of Mana might change the operation itself. Which I suspect in this case that will be somewhat useful,” she moved her arms around again, and John saw the box reform around him, but the walls were somewhat thinner this time, and far more purple than blue.

“Huh? Why are you making the visible box again?” John asked, himself confused.

“I didn’t remake the visible version, no” she retorted casually.

“But I can see it!” John responded, trying to grasp how that had happened.

“Then you have successfully learned what I was trying to teach you John!” Ingrid congratulated John, her tone much warmer than usual.

A moment later a popup appeared as well, along with another screen.

New system unlocked: Spell Modifiers

Along with the Stealth Enhancement he had presumably just gotten, the screen also had two other enchantments he wasn’t sure about the nature of, but understanding those would have to wait for later.

“Thank you Ingrid, I think that’s all I had to ask…” John said, not sure how to continue.