Chapter 298

Chapter 298: Chapter 298

"Y-You can see me?"

Zera took a small step backward and asked the question in a timid voice.

Unfortunately, Marshall couldn’t hear her.

From his perspective, all that had happened was that the strange Life Point floating beside Mavis had suddenly moved backward.

His eyes widened in astonishment.

’Wait a second. This thing can actually move on its own?!’

This was the first time Marshall had encountered a Life Point that existed without any apparent physical or spiritual vessel.

Under ordinary circumstances, a person’s Life Point was essentially their First Origin, a fundamental part of their existence that was inseparably connected to their physical body.

Of course, Marshall had already encountered several exceptions to that rule.

There was Simon, for example.

Simon’s Life Point had been split into two separate portions, with one remaining inside his body while the other existed independently outside it.

That abnormal separation was precisely what had prevented Marshall from properly reuniting Simon’s body and soul.

Then there was Brian.

Brian was already dead, and the Life Point associated with his physical body had disappeared—or, more accurately, shattered along with his death.

Nevertheless, a remnant of his Life Point still existed within the soul Marshall had preserved.

These experiments had taught Marshall that Life Points weren’t necessarily restricted to the physical body.

They could exist within either the body or the soul, and their nature was far more complicated than he’d originally believed.

In fact, the concept extended beyond humans altogether.

Flowers, grasses, trees, and countless other living organisms possessed their own Life Points.

As long as something could genuinely be considered alive, there was a corresponding fundamental point anchoring its existence.

But the thing floating beside Mavis was different from anything Marshall had studied before.

It had no physical body.

It apparently had no soul either.

Yet its Life Point was simply hovering in the air, existing independently without any visible medium to sustain it.

The sight reminded Marshall of something.

’Isn’t this almost exactly like the enormous number of Life Points absorbed into my body by the Curse of Ankhseram?’

The curse could extract Life Points from living creatures and store them within his First Origin, sustaining his immortality through their accumulated vitality.

Those extracted Life Points no longer possessed their original bodies or souls, yet they continued to exist.

And now, right in front of him, Marshall was looking at something remarkably similar.

"Marshall, why do you keep staring at Zera?"

Mavis suddenly stepped forward, placing herself protectively between Marshall and the seemingly empty space beside her.

She looked at him with an expression of unmistakable suspicion.

"Zera is really timid, and she gets embarrassed easily! You’re not allowed to bully her!"

"..."

Marshall glanced at Mavis, then at the peculiar Life Point hovering behind her.

He was beginning to understand the situation.

As far as Mavis was concerned, she’d been living on this island with a close friend who had accompanied her through years of isolation.

She could apparently see Zera, speak to her, and interact with her as naturally as she would with any other person.

But in reality, there was nobody standing beside her.

If Marshall hadn’t possessed the ability to perceive Life Points, he would almost certainly have assumed that Mavis had developed some kind of psychological problem after living alone on Tenrou Island for five years.

Perhaps she’d been so lonely that she’d created an imaginary companion to keep herself company.

Unfortunately, the truth didn’t appear to be quite that simple.

The mysterious Life Point was real.

And it had just moved independently.

Marshall was increasingly convinced that Mavis’s Magic had something to do with the phenomenon.

He could already sense that the little girl’s magical reserves were unusually impressive.

Despite appearing only eleven or twelve years old, she possessed approximately 7,000 Magic Power.

For someone her age, that was an extraordinary amount.

Judging purely by her natural talent at this stage of life, she might even surpass Erza.

Marshall looked at her thoughtfully.

"Mavis, can you use Magic?"

"Of course!"

Mavis immediately brightened, apparently delighted to have an opportunity to demonstrate her abilities.

"I know some really amazing Magic! Here, watch this!"

She raised one hand and pointed behind Marshall.

"Summon Giant!"

An enormous figure suddenly appeared in the forest behind him.

It was a terrifying giant towering hundreds of meters into the sky, its immense body radiating an oppressive presence that made it look almost indistinguishable from a genuine living creature.

The illusion was remarkably convincing.

Marshall glanced over his shoulder.

"Oh? An illusion?"

"Huh?!"

Mavis stared at him in disbelief.

"How did you figure that out so quickly? I thought I made it look really realistic..."

The little tuft of hair on top of her head drooped visibly, and her expression became thoroughly dejected.

"This is the Magic I awakened. Illusion Magic. I can create images of things that don’t actually exist, but..."

She looked toward the enormous giant.

"They don’t have any real offensive power."

"Illusion Magic, huh?"

Marshall studied the construct for a moment before shaking his head.

"Not exactly. This is fundamentally an application of Light Magic."

He snapped his fingers.

Immediately, another giant appeared.

This one was formed entirely from brilliant light, and it towered over Mavis’s creation by an entire order of magnitude, standing roughly ten times taller than her original illusion.

Creating enormous luminous figures to intimidate people was practically one of Marshall’s specialties.

He had plenty of experience using Light Magic for precisely that sort of dramatic display.

Mavis stared upward with her mouth hanging open.

"Y-You can use Illusion Magic too?"

"A little."

Marshall answered with an extremely modest expression that was completely at odds with the ridiculous giant he’d just created.

"W-Wait a second!"

Mavis suddenly noticed something strange.

"Why can your illusion actually be touched?!"

Unlike her own creation, Marshall’s giant had a tangible structure. It wasn’t merely a visual image floating in the air.

"Oh, that’s because I added a little Molding Magic."

Mavis blinked.

"Huh? Light can have a physical form? You can shape light into something solid?"

"Why wouldn’t you be able to?"

Marshall looked at her as though the answer should have been obvious.

"Magic isn’t nearly that limited."

Mavis fell silent, staring at the enormous luminous giant with an expression of intense curiosity.

Marshall, meanwhile, had already formed a rough assessment of her abilities.

Mavis possessed remarkable natural magical talent, but her actual understanding of Magic was still fairly shallow.

She had never received proper instruction, and almost everything she knew had apparently been developed through her own experimentation.

She had plenty of Magic Power, but she didn’t know how to apply Molding Magic to give her illusions substance.

Without that additional component, her Illusion Magic could only produce visual phenomena.

Such spells might frighten ordinary people, but they had no direct offensive power, and a reasonably experienced Mage could identify them without much difficulty.

For someone with her magical potential, that was an enormous waste.

Of course, Marshall’s interest wasn’t limited to teaching her how to create better illusions.

His attention returned to the space beside Mavis.

’So that’s probably what’s happening with Zera...’

Mavis had likely used her Illusion Magic unconsciously to create the appearance of a girl named Zera, constructing an illusion that only she herself could perceive.

In other words, the real Zera had probably died years ago.

But something of her remained.

Her Life Point wasn’t attached to a physical body, nor did it seem to reside within a surviving soul. Instead, it appeared to be sustained directly within the magical phenomenon created by Mavis.

That was an astonishing possibility.

’Interesting...’

Marshall’s expression gradually changed.

’Does that mean Mavis can actually manipulate Life Points?’

Was it some unusual magical talent?

Or had her Illusion Magic unconsciously achieved something far beyond what its ordinary principles should have allowed?

Marshall didn’t yet understand the mechanism, but the implications were enormous.

After all, wasn’t this exactly the kind of problem he’d been struggling with?

The reason he couldn’t control the Curse of Ankhseram was that he had no direct control over the tremendous number of Life Points stored within his First Origin.

He could perceive their existence and understand some of their effects, but he still couldn’t freely manipulate the process through which the curse extracted and replenished them.

Yet Mavis appeared to have created a stable environment in which a Life Point could exist independently of both body and soul.

If she really possessed that kind of ability, then studying her Magic might provide the breakthrough Marshall desperately needed.

’Could the secret to controlling my curse actually be connected to Mavis?’

His interest immediately intensified.

Of all the problems Marshall wanted to solve during the fourteen years available to him, gaining complete control over the Curse of Ankhseram was unquestionably his highest priority.

As long as he could control its activation, he would finally be able to live around other people without constantly worrying about accidentally killing them.

Even if he accomplished absolutely nothing else during these fourteen years, solving that one problem would make the entire journey worthwhile.

And now, shortly after arriving in the past, he seemed to have stumbled upon a potentially invaluable research opportunity.

’Looks like I really do need to stay on this island.’

Marshall was increasingly convinced that coming here might prove to be an extraordinary stroke of luck.

He promptly abandoned his earlier plan to find an entirely uninhabited island where he could spend fourteen years in isolation.

Instead, he smiled at the two girls—or rather, at Mavis and the empty space occupied by Zera’s Life Point.

"As you can see, Mavis, Zera, I’m currently a wandering Mage with nowhere else to go."

He gestured toward the surrounding island.

"Would you mind if I stayed here and became your neighbor? I promise I won’t interfere with your lives."

"Of course—"

Mavis had barely begun answering when Zera hurriedly pulled her aside.

"Mavis, this person is dangerous! Don’t let him stay here!"

Mavis looked confused.

"Why? Marshall seems like a good person."

"He isn’t!"

Zera’s expression became anxious.

"He was actually pretending that he could see—"

She abruptly stopped herself and cleared her throat.

"Ahem! Anyway, I don’t think this person is trustworthy. We should tell him to leave!"

"But... but..."

Mavis hesitated.

"We haven’t seen another living person on this island for five years. We finally have a visitor, and he’s even willing to stay here. Wouldn’t it be terrible to drive him away immediately?"

Zera stared at her helplessly.

"Honestly, Mavis, you really are..."

The two girls began discussing the matter with considerable enthusiasm.

At least, that was what was happening from their perspective.

From Marshall’s point of view, however, Mavis was standing by herself, speaking toward an empty patch of air while occasionally nodding, shaking her head, and making various expressions as though someone were arguing with her.

Even knowing that Zera’s Life Point existed there, the sight was undeniably bizarre.

Eventually, Mavis managed to persuade her friend, and the two apparently reached an agreement.

"All right!"

Mavis turned back toward Marshall with a bright smile.

"Zera and I both agree that you can stay here. But you’ll have to live on the other side of Tenrou Island, away from where we stay. Is that okay?"

"Not a problem."

Marshall readily agreed.

"Hehe! Then starting today, we’re friends!"

Mavis looked extremely pleased with herself.

Marshall raised an eyebrow.

"Hm? I thought we were just going to be neighbors."

"Ugh..."

Mavis’s smile immediately faltered.

"Marshall... you don’t want to be friends with me?"

Seeing her disappointed expression, Marshall couldn’t help laughing.

"Hahaha! I’m joking. Of course we’re friends!"

Mavis brightened again.

And just like that, Marshall officially settled down on Tenrou Island—one hundred years in the past.

...

Marshall selected a location near the coastline and built himself a small, exquisitely designed house.

For someone with his extensive experience in construction and magical engineering, putting together a comfortable residence was hardly worth mentioning.

He had spent years designing, constructing, and modifying far more complicated structures, including an entire artificial island.

Building a little coastal cottage was something he could practically do on the side.

Mavis, however, was completely astonished.

She watched the process with such fascination that her assessment of Marshall underwent another significant improvement.

Previously, she had considered him a mysterious Mage.

Now, he had been promoted to a very powerful mysterious Mage.

Marshall found the distinction rather amusing, but he had much more important things to think about.

Once his new residence was ready, he finally sat down and began seriously planning how to spend the fourteen years ahead of him.

He had several major objectives, each of which would require a tremendous amount of time and effort.

First, he needed to gain complete control over the Curse of Ankhseram.

This was the most urgent matter because until he solved it, he would remain a danger to everyone around him.

Second, he intended to increase his Magic Power beyond the one-million threshold.

His current reserves were still far too small to contend with the strongest opponents in the world, and although natural growth would take years, he now had fourteen of them available.

Third, he wanted to master at least one LV5 skill entirely through his own efforts, without relying on the system to raise its level for him.

His experience with Life Magic had demonstrated just how enormous the difference between LV4 and LV5 could be, and he wanted to understand how to cross that boundary naturally.

Fourth, he planned to improve his Time Magic as much as possible and eventually decipher the Heart of Time.

If he could understand its mechanism thoroughly enough, perhaps he would find a way to control the duration of his journey or even return to his original timeline ahead of schedule.

Finally, there was the most daunting objective of all.

He needed to discover a reliable method of defeating Acnologia once and for all.

The Black Dragon was simply too powerful to confront with his present abilities, and Marshall had no intention of returning home after fourteen years only to discover that the gap between them remained just as hopeless as before.

Those were his five major goals.

Achieving any one of them would mean that this journey through time hadn’t been wasted.

If he somehow accomplished all five, naturally, that would be even better.

As for Mavis?

What about her?

Why would the First Master have anything to do with his long-term objectives?

Marshall certainly wasn’t going to include chasing girls on his list of research goals.

He didn’t have the time or mental energy to concern himself with romance right now.

Besides, Mavis was still a tiny little girl, several years younger than him.

There was nothing particularly interesting about that.

If he hadn’t discovered something so unusual about her Magic, Marshall would probably have treated her as an ordinary passerby and devoted all his attention to training.

In fact, compared with Mavis herself, he was currently much more interested in the mysterious existence she called Zera.

A Life Point existing independently inside an illusion was something he’d never encountered before, and investigating it might lead to entirely new possibilities for his Life Magic.

Still, plans were one thing, and reality was another.

Things rarely developed exactly as Marshall intended.

And so, his fourteen-year adventure on an isolated island began.

Marshall’s Lonely Island Survival Diary had officially started.