Chapter 452 - 452 - Turning Passive into Active

The whole floor should have been rolling heat waves, air bent and shimmering, yellow sand as far as the eye could see.

But now, in the valley below one of the dunes, a frost-blue light burst out, and snow began to fall from the sky in thick flakes.

One flake, two, three...

The snow came down thicker and thicker, and the temperature kept dropping. Within a few breaths, the entire stretch of sand lay under a layer of snow.

The desert plunged into a deep freeze with a steady crackling of ice. The air no longer shimmered. Instead a frost-white cold mist gathered. As the temperature crashed and the power of deep winter wrapped inside the Blizzard spread, the desert monsters hiding beneath the yellow sand couldn't hold out any longer and came bursting up out of it.

Sandstorm Wraiths, Sandstorm Venom Scorpions, Sandstorm Giant Lizards, Sand Jackals, Desert Worms, all these monsters unique to the Sand Land let out furious screeching under the bite of the Blizzard.

Leon held his right hand high, five fingers hooked like claws, a sphere of ice-blue frost mist wrapped around it as the magic kept running. His left hand gripped the Scholar's Staff, as tall as he was, and blue magic light turned in his eyes. Winter wind and desert heat wove together around him, snapping the wide Undine Cloth cloak.

"Heh..."

"That wasn't easy. I finally found a way to deal with you."

He grinned, showing white teeth, drove the staff down hard into the sand, and with a low shout the magic circle under his feet expanded outward again. A surging flood of Magic poured from his body into the circle, and the churning power lit it up like a fire catching, its glow flaring bright.

Under the group's astonished stares, the Blizzard's coverage spread outward fast enough to watch, and in moments it had the entire dune inside it. Its reach was wide enough to cover a whole city block.

"Leon, stay here and don't move. We'll go deal with them!"

Jeanne, Rose, Persephone, and Kureha didn't hesitate, throwing themselves down the dune.

Leon felt out the range of this Blizzard of his, raised an eyebrow in satisfaction, then pulled his gaze back and turned to the other women, who all had delighted looks on their faces.

"Iri, Margaret, Laurier, Aura, you four come over and stand inside my magic circle. Inside the circle I can sense anything that stirs instantly, so I can protect you better."

"You know how it is, this is just a common little trick in magic practice."

Aura's eye twitched, and she said helplessly,

"Using a magic circle for spherical sensing... I've read descriptions of that technique in magic books. But I have to point out, that is not some common little trick. It's a high-difficulty detection technique only those Great Mages can use with any skill."

The rest of them, carrying or hauling their Wonder Packs, hurried into the range of Leon's magic circle. They kept an eye on the fierce fight between Jeanne's group and the monsters below while chatting curiously.

"Great Mages?"

Aura felt Leon's surging Magic in the circle beneath her feet and explained softly, with longing in her voice:

"Great Mage is a title only ever bestowed on Mages who are Lv.5 or above, or who have accomplished some Great Feat that shook the world and the gods, leaving their name in history."

"Bestowed?"

Iri's eyes lit up, as though something had occurred to her, and she raised a slender finger.

"I know, I know!"

She clapped her hands together and said excitedly:

"A Great Mage, in the words of my homeland, means Grand-class, right?"

Aura nodded thoughtfully.

"Close in meaning. Every Great Mage is a household name in the world. The Sage from eight hundred years ago who created the Philosopher's Stone, for instance. Or the Witch of Silence, the ace of Hera Familia, who eight years ago successfully completed two of the world's Three Great Quests, the King of the Land and the Tyrant of the Sea. More recently, there's the pride of us elves, Lady Riveria, the Nine Hell, and Hedin Selland, the Hildrsleif."

"Oh, right, I hear there's a Lv.5 Mage over in the Magic Nation too, said to be Lord Odin's right hand. But not much concrete information about her gets out. Hardly anyone knows anything."

"In any case, Great Mage is an extremely prestigious title."

She looked at Leon, her tone serious.

"The way I see it, with Mr. Leon's current strength and grounding, you'd fully deserve to be called Great Mage, sir."

Leon, still keeping the spell and the circle running, couldn't help grimacing.

"Please don't say that. Have you all forgotten? The public level I registered with the Guild is only Lv.2, Shadow of Sorcery. We still have to get by in Orario going forward, and I'd rather not have the Guild showing up at my door to cause trouble. The moment I'm famous, countless people are putting me under a magnifying glass all day, studying me. That doesn't suit my low-key, steady, slightly mysterious style at all."

"Besides, the moment it comes out that we've been hiding our real levels, the Guild's fines alone plus the management fees they'd claw back would be more than enough to give us a hard time..."

He blinked, his tone half joking.

"None of you want your allowance going back to where it was a year ago, right?"

"Just think about it. Back to those days of pinching pennies over buying a piece of clothing you liked, and having to wait for a discount day to buy daily necessities at the Free Market. Days like that..."

"No!"

At the refusal that came in unison, the corner of Leon's mouth curled up.

Sure enough, going from thrift to luxury is easy, going from luxury back to thrift is hard. That truth held in any world.

...

The fight below the dune was already winding down, blades still ringing.

Seen from the top of the dune, the winter realm below, dyed all white, was scattered with the remains of every kind of monster, sprawled every which way. Some were missing arms or legs, some had their heads or bodies simply cut in two, like the Desert Worms and Sand Jackals.

Pools of green blood had frozen into ice, mixed in among the frost-covered corpses, like a scene out of an ice-and-snow apocalypse.

"Whew..."