"How many times do I have to tell you?! You can't just use a retrograde wall rune near a spontaneous fountain rune!"
"It works, doesn't it?"
"Yeah, sure, but you have to come up with a completely new diagram every time you want to make a new one if you keep randomly throwing things together!"
"So what? Then, I'll do just that. It's not like I haven't been doing that until now!"
Two men and a woman were sitting inside a deep and dark cave. A Peak Ancestral Beast looking like a centipede was just a couple of kilometers deeper in the cave, but it didn't attack them.
The cave was filled with thick Darkness Mana, but the three people sitting in the cave weren't paying the Darkness Mana nor the beast much attention.
They were far more focused on criticizing one guy's Spells.
The woman kept looking at one of the men with a raised eyebrow filled with concern and confusion. She had one icy blue eye and one red eye. Her hair and her robes were violet. Judging by her features and the Mana around her, she had a rare Temperature Affinity.
Another guy was looking at the same man with a ridiculing smirk. He had white eyes but wore grey robes. His hair was grey, but it had white tips. Judging by his features and the Mana around him, he had a Dual Affinity. Light and Time.
The last guy was looking at the two of them with an annoyed expression. He had black and blue eyes and hair. Similar to the woman, he wore purple robes but with a different shade. Based on his features and the Mana around him, he had a Dual Affinity for Darkness and Water, which also granted him an Affinity for Poison.
All three of these people had Affinities that would shock the world, but in the Hibye, they were just like everyone else.
All three of them were Peak Archmages.
They had been talking about the purple man's method for creating Spells for a while, wanting to convince him to follow a standardized pattern, but he kept refusing.
Suddenly, all three of them stopped talking and looked with annoyance toward the west.
Someone had just looked at them with their Spirit Sense, annoying them.
The three of them looked back, but they were a bit confused when they saw the guy that looked at them.
He wore torn white robes and had black hair. Yet, he had no eyes, and even more, his Aura was very confusing.
The three of them could feel that the Aura of this person was just as bright as theirs, which meant that he was also an outstanding genius, but at the same time, this guy only had a mind at the level of an Early Archmage.
And to top it all off, he also felt a bit dangerous to them.
Yet, how could someone like that feel dangerous to them? This guy was three levels below them!
"Hey, can you see through his disguise Spell?" the purple man asked, thinking that Shang was hiding his true level.
"No," the other two answered.
"Quite impressive," the purple man said again. "I'm surprised that someone can fool all three of us."
"Hey, do you think he looked at us on purpose to test his disguise Spell?" the woman asked.
"Maybe," the white-grey man answered.
"Hey, wait a second!" the woman transmitted to Shang before shooting out of the cave.
The other two followed her.
Shang stopped flying forward and kept hovering in the air.
A couple of seconds later, the three of them arrived in front of Shang, looking with interest at him.
Crazy, even at such a close distance, they couldn't feel any sign of Shang having a mind at the Peak Archmage Realm.
"How does that Spell work? What kind of Elements does it use?" the purple woman asked Shang with interest.
"Which one?" Shang asked evenly.
"Duh, your disguise Spell," she answered. "You know, the thing that makes you appear like an Early Archmage. I'm willing to pay quite a bit for it."
The other nodded in agreement.
A Spell that could fool the three of them was very valuable and could prove to be incredibly effective in the next Wilderness Hunt. During the Wilderness Hunt, people of a higher level were not allowed to attack someone of a lower level unless they were attacked first.
If the three of them could look like Late Archmages, dangerous Peak Archmages wouldn't challenge them, and if a Late Archmage challenged them, they would earn some easy money.
It was an amazingly useful Spell.
"What makes you think I'm not an Early Archmage?" Shang asked.
The purple man snorted in annoyance. "Oh please. We can feel that you pose some danger to us. It's impossible for an Early Archmage to be that powerful. You would need to have the ability to jump three levels against people with a fourfold Spirit Sense. I don't think that's possible. Therefore, you're using a Spell to hide the power of your mind."
Shang remained silent for a couple of seconds, eliciting some raised eyebrows from the three people.
"I'm not using a Spell to hide the power of my mind," Shang answered. "I genuinely have a mind at the Early Archmage Realm."
The three of them furrowed their brows in disbelieving expressions. "You know, I kind of feel insulted that you think I would fall for that," the purple man said.
"I'm not lying," Shang said. "The reason why I feel dangerous to you isn't related to my mind. While my mind is at the Early Archmage Realm, my being is at the Peak Fifth Realm."
"I'm not a Mage."
This took the three of them by surprise.
Not a Mage?
When was the last time any of them had seen a human that wasn't a Mage?
They looked closer at Shang, and sure enough, now that Shang had said so, they could feel the pressure Shang's body was putting on the space around him.
They hadn't noticed that earlier since they were used to only looking at someone's mind. Bodies only became important when it came to beasts.
For a bit, they were not certain what they should make of this.
