Huben was sailing across the vast desert, riding a giant sled with a sail. It was powered by sand, earth, and air controllers, working in tandem.

  The sand controllers cleared dunes in front of the sleds, smoothing out the path. Gusts of wind were constantly being summoned to push the sails forward. Meanwhile, earth controllers propelled the vessel forward by pushing stones embedded in the sleds.

  Most forms of faster transportation moved this way. Many people drove horseless carriages by remotely spinning an element attached to the wheels, or having the wheels entirely made of the element they could control.

  They could move many times faster than a standard carriage, but the distance they could travel heavily depended on their mana pool. If they could afford it, the drivers would drink mana potions, or even have multiple drivers on hand to swap out when their mana bottomed out.

  There was also the issue of having well-maintained roads. Major cities maintained large roads to other cities, but once you went off the beaten path, traveling faster than a horse-drawn carriage could prove deadly.

  Lastly, there was a hidden, dreaded threat for adventurers. If you were frequently the one pushing the carriages, and you had to drive one during an emergency, you could obtain a carriage-related skill during a tier up!

  That could be a fast track for many to consider changing their careers in adventuring.

  Fortunately, this was a very uncommon occurrence, but the few times that it had happened made all fear the possibility. Instead of being efficient and learning to drive a carriage, many of these adventurers hire those who dedicate themselves to the profession.

  Damian was now witnessing another strange skill in the vision. One of Hu-Juren's soldiers was sitting on a horse while they rode through the desert.

  Whenever they mentioned her name, Damian blocked it out. He was pretty sure it was the headless horseman they had killed near the healing center.

  Damian was sure at the time that the wraith took on a unique shape simply because wraiths were weird and strange. Now he was second-guessing himself.

  The soldier had a very unique skill. She could empower horses with mana, turning them into killing machines.

  Normal animals can't use mana. When checked, there isn't a source generating mana within them like people. The only thing keeping them moving is their own bodies.

  You won't find any animal with greater-than-normal strength or speed. So no bunny rabbits that could tear your throat out. Unless it's one of the dungeon monster variants or a wraith's true form.

  But this soldier had a skill that changed that. When she empowered her steed, it became much faster than a running expert of the same tier. It held terrible strength that could trample someone. Everything scary about horses for a tier 1 or 2 becomes scary again at higher tiers.

  Damian also noticed someone rolling lightning off their arm, but looked away whenever the vision got close-up. He didn't want to connect a face with his new armor and sword.

  His companions were doing the same. Frey had found a particular stone on the floor to be mighty interesting, while Alex had doubled her efforts to consume the snacks.

  But to Damian's surprise, Donna and Fergus were burning the lightning user's face into their eyes and likely etching his name in their ears. A part of Damian found this inspiring and considered doing the same.

  His eyes rolled up a bit, taking in the giant man's humongous form, but his eyes stopped short of his face. Damian really didn't want to see the man whose skin he may or may not be wearing. Quickly, his eyes diverted to stare at Frey, appreciating that stone on the floor. Yes, this is much better.

  Staring at Frey, Damian's mind wandered back to the idea of using a wraith's materials for his own gain.

  Would I want to be known to a stranger who used my wraith for equipment? Maybe? No... It was all around a weird thought to have, which he promptly shoved into the corner of his mind that ignored such things.

  This was going to be a continuous battle for him that he couldn't completely ignore—a slight against the dead to preserve the living.

  'sigh'

  Huben made his way across the desert with a small army and relatively few issues.

  Typically, Hu-Juren would be commanding a force of at least 10,000 soldiers, usually more for a General. But instead, he was leading a small elite army of only 500. No soldier in their battalion was below tier 5. Truly a formidable force to be reckoned with. Quality vs Quantity.

  Their mission would be to strike the wizard towers from behind while their main force confronted the Earthen Union troops from the front.

  The small army was traveling so far from civilization that their communicators couldn't reach their allied forces. Instead, Hu-Juren was in contact with one of the Empire's few tier 7s who held a long-range communication skill.

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  Most long-range communication skills are aligned directly with the individual's tier. You'd have to be tier 7 to have one that spanned the distance they were traveling. The skills that reached further were either one-way communications or a specialized communication tied to a single person, similar to Fergus's own specialized buff.

  There was also another requirement they needed from their only source of contact. The communication skill holder needed to have obfuscation as a part of their skill. Messages from standard communication tools could be intercepted by people looking for them.

  Skills, however, worked slightly differently. Some could be tracked, while others could not. Those who held obfuscation and were of a high tier could only be counted on two hands. These were highly sought-after and protected assets.

  For this mission, the person they were in communication with was stationed at the edge of the desert. The skill worked in both directions, allowing them to provide constant updates to the front lines. All continued to proceed as planned.

  ***

  It was the night before they were going to start the attack. All was quiet; none of the soldiers of the small elite force dared draw attention. There could be any number of skill users out patrolling with heightened hearing.

  They had some people in their force who could dampen sound, but no one would risk being found in enemy territory.

  Other than obfuscation skills, no one used their own. With each skill used, the mana density in the area would increase. It's unlikely they'd be found because of this, but who would take that chance?

  Most couldn't detect these finer moments of mana, but those who could were wizards, or had the talent to become one.

  There were also several other setbacks in fighting in an area with high mana density.

  First of all, it becomes harder to control your mana remotely at a distance. It'd be like the difference between moving on land and water. The former, you could move freely in, and the latter, you have to work harder.

  You could still summon your skills just the same and shoot them in a straight line with no problems, but any finer control would become increasingly difficult.

  A positive side effect is that tools that can collect ambient mana on their own can do so much faster. They wouldn't have to scrounge up everything in their area, but freely let it flow into the runes. So in the midst of large battles, mage staves reigned supreme.

  Like the smoke bombs Damian used earlier, mana density would clear with time. Soaking into the surroundings or simply moving to someplace else.

  Actually, some areas in the world naturally collect ambient mana. It would condense it all into a new form that's highly sought after: The Mana Crystal.

  Mana crystals are, simply enough, condensed mana. They are the natural gathering of a specific mana type. You could find fire or lava mana crystals in a volcano, or discover a plant mana crystal deep in a forest.

  Those who find one become rich overnight. Any wizards or crafters would jump at the chance to have one. Paying ludicrous sums.

  What makes mana crystals so valuable is not only that they are a highly condensed form of mana, but they also freely gather mana on their own.

  Sure, some runes gather mana, but those are child's play in front of a mana crystal. Mana crystals can only gather mana of their own type, but they can collect it from much further distances. The larger the crystal, the larger the radius it can gather from.

  Simply put, as long as you don't completely use up a mana crystal, it will continue to grow if placed in the right environment.

  And don't try to be greedy and split one! That'd be a fast track to not only destroying your newfound wealth but getting yourself killed. Not that you'd be able to destroy one easily in the first place.

  'sigh'

  *BOOM!* The vision turned stark white as if replaced with one of Fergus's lights. Nothing could be seen other than the blinding light.

  Huh? Oh. I missed what happened. How did it happen?

  Eventually, the light cleared, and the watchers from the future could see that all the soldiers were in a panic, trying to save what remained of their sand sleds.

  They had gone up in glorious balls of fire. One of which was many times larger than the others. It was like a giant mushroom made of flame. Damian had never seen such a sight.

  Fortunately, or maybe suspiciously, none of the soldiers were near the sleds when they went up in flames. There were also no enemies around who you'd identify as the culprit.

  An inside job. But who? And why?

  The audience gathered in the church was still munching on the snacks that Seconds Matter had brought. Some of them even gasped at the sudden twist. Alex was shaking her fist at the vision as if she could change the past.

  "Remote detonator, I'd say. Likely one of the people in their group."

  A familiar voice came from behind Damian. Turning around, he found Elaina.

  Quickly, Damian looked at the front door. His sword was still sealing it. Another quick head swivel, and he could see that the door to the healing center was still locked shut.

  Looking back at Elaina, she pointed up. One last head movement, and Damian couldn't see anything but some glass windows overhead.

  "I already tied them shut. No worries about anyone else getting in, but let this be a lesson for you."

  "Ah, thank you... I'm glad you're safe."

  Elaina didn't have anything else to say. She, too, had her eyes focused on the vision now, watching Huben's plight.

  Not even looking, Frey raised one of her hands, holding an offering of food to her big sister. As if it were the most natural reaction, Elaina's hand reached down to pluck the little slice of heaven, and she proceeded to snack with the rest of the group.

  Hmm... If we could capture the lives of amazing people and condense their lives into visions, we could make a killing. It's like one of those play performers. Or we could capture plays into visions... But how?

  There was something that already existed, similar to the vision they were all watching: a performance by a play-performer.

  By trade, play-performers were illusionists who used their skills to create one-person plays. Lower-tier individuals would showcase plays on the scale of puppet shows, while higher-tier individuals could fill an entire stage.

  The one difference between play-performers and the vision they were all watching was that the vision would be the same every time.

  Play-performers would have to construct their plays from scratch each time, leading to slight differences from one session to the next.

  Sometimes the difference would be the characters' clothes, or their voices, or even the sword fights that played out.

  Every play was unique, unless of course, the play-performer in question had a skill to make everything consistent.

  Damian had actually heard of tools that could mimic a play-performer's performance, but only the extremely rich could afford them. They were apparently used to show wealth rather than for entertainment.

  Why create a tool for a play when you could hire one of the best play-performers in the country?

  'sigh'

  *KABOOM*

  Ah, missed what happened again...