On the planet Pagna, the land was large and vast in the different parts of the continents. The areas of the Light Faction, Dark Faction, Demonic Faction, and even the unknown fourth continent were all different.
Even within them, the landmass was extremely different as well. There were large soaring mountain tops, areas filled with green plains, and other areas filled with purple or dark-colored plants.
There were areas that had even been changed as portal breaks had occurred. At times, a portal break was so strong that the clans in the local area had been wiped out. With the beasts having entered the world, part of the landmass had changed to accommodate them.
There was an even stranger occurrence that had occurred, and that was the land itself. There was a reason why people in their heads thought of three continents rather than four, and it wasn't because each continent was mostly dominated by a faction.
It was because at one point, all of the continents had been split by a sea of water. However, the fourth continent was much further away compared to the rest. Despite this, the landmass on the continents had continued to grow.
The eruptions, earthquakes, the sea levels lowering, were also revealing more landmass, and these three separate continents were turning out to be more linked than they had originally thought.
In a way, the new lands were new territory, and not only were the Pagna warriors involved in disputes over who owned what or which land, but the local governments, kingdoms, and empires were as well.
To the people, it felt like they were in the middle of constant battles and wars, whether they were with the Pagna or not, at least those on the border. In the center of all this, as the sea level lowered, a large mountain's canyon had been discovered.
It was strange because before, not even the tips of the mountains could be seen, and now a large giant canyon in the middle of the mountains that littered the fields could be seen. If one were to stand at the tip, they weren't even able to see the bottom of where one started.
Without any sort of guidance, if a person was to be dropped in the middle, they might never be able to find a way out or an exit.
In this labyrinth of mountains and tall canyons, there was a large round object that looked somewhat like a giant mushroom from above. Apart from the fact that it was covered in greenery, plant vines, and more.
Inside this large canyon of plants and trees, two individuals were walking through it. One wearing a large brown trench coat, and the other in simpler clothing but wearing a beret hat that covered her orange hair.
"Ah, my feet hurt. Can Alter give us some standard uniforms that make us feel like we're walking on air?" Charlotte complained.
"Ah yes, more things for us to lose or get found out and cover up!" Himmy commented back, as he looked down in his hand. He had a device that reminded him of a compass that he had from his world.
Rather than pointing toward north, south, east, and west, this compass was still round, but had a glowing arrow that lit up on the device and would charge by the sun, although Himmy couldn't see anything like a solar panel that he knew of on the device.
Either way, the main difference was, this special compass given to them by Alter, it pointed only in one direction, and it would always lead them to a particular place.
"Come on, when was the last time you heard of one of the agents getting in trouble for something like that?" Charlotte asked as she continued to trek over a large root coming from one of the trees.
She could barely get her foot over it, and when lifting the second half of her foot, her toes just hit the edge. Her front half tilted forward, but before she face planted the ground, Himmy had managed to catch her, holding her steady with just one hand, and holding her forehead.
"Erghh, you can let go, you know," Charlotte replied back, feeling a little pathetic that her whole body weight could be held up by just one hand.
After balancing herself, Himmy let go, and he continued straight ahead. They had just exited out of the deep forest, and now they were in between an area with four giant mountains. They weren't wide in size, and the center of them was quite hollow as the middle had an opening, but that wasn't what he was looking at.
He was looking at the large mushroom-like object that stemmed from the ground and connected to these four large mountains. Leading up to it, there was almost the appearance of fresh-cut green grass.
"To answer your question, how would we know?" Himmy replied. "We haven't had an update from Alter, only been told to go here and there. To be honest, I was getting a bit sick and tired of being sent everywhere, and I'm low on funds and ammo."
"Ah right, you used most of it in that town with the Red Brigade." Charlotte commented. "Well, you will be able to stock up more this time, and hopefully you won't be able to use it."
Walking across the fresh grass, Charlotte was getting a little nervous because soon she would have to keep a seal on her lips, careful about what she had spoken. Speaking about the past reminded her of something she needed to ask now.
"About the kid, are you going to tell them about him?" Charlotte asked.
"What, that I made him into a full squad member. That's up to my discretion as squad leader anyway. I'll just go ahead and send a report."
Charlotte was a little nervous because that wasn't what she was getting at; it was something else.
"Not that, that there is an otherworlder that can use both Pagna skills and magic at the same time," Charlotte said, almost looking over her shoulder. She couldn't shake off a strange feeling, like there were a pair of invisible eyes on her.
"Ah, now I understand," Himmy replied. "Like you said, otherworlders who come here. Nearly all of them struggle to learn Pagna martial arts, as they are unable to create Qi in their body. It was the same for both me and you when we arrived here.
"However, some from Alterian had succeeded in learning the Pagna martial arts."
"Well, a fake version of it," Charlotte commented.
"Right." Himmy tapped the side of his head. "Remind me why you call it fake again."
"Because those that do learn can't gather Qi in their dantian," Charlotte explained. "Mages use Mana to produce their spells, and the Pagna skills require Qi in the dantian. In order for a mage to learn skills, though, they can use their mana to supplement their dantian instead of Qi.
"Although we call it fake, it's still very effective since just like other warriors, the dantian can still grow stronger, allowing for more mana to be put into it. And since it's just the gathering of Mana in a certain place, one doesn't even need to be a high mage to fill their dantian.
"In fact, some lower star mages might even have more success as a warrior because they can just constantly fill in their dantian with Mana rather than Qi, allowing them to produce almost an unlimited amount of skills."
Himmy felt like it was a shame that his world didn't seem to have anything spectacular like that of magic and martial arts, but sometimes he was thankful. If he was more useful in fighting, he thought that would just give them more reason to send him on dangerous missions.
"Right, so mages that chose to change into the arts of Pagna are actually even more powerful than Pagna warriors, and they can even still use spells."
"Correct," Charlotte said. "But there is one thing, because the Qi being used is technically mana and is being put into the dantian. A mage is unable to use Qi techniques and magic at the same time.
"Think of it as a ball of energy that they control, for techniques it either has to be in the stomach, for magic it needs to be outside of the body or in the magic core, the heart. Yet somehow, Raze was able to use Qi and Magic at the same time."
"Then can I ask you something?" Himmy said. "I understand your point about those from Atlerian not being able to form Qi in their body. It might be because their bodies are just different, or the timing of things, but what about the other way round?
"Can a Pagna warrior learn magic then?" Himmy asked.
"I… read some of the reports," Charlotte answered. "They tried a couple of times. Although things like enchanted items and creations are fine for a Pagna warrior to use, when trying to teach a Pagna warrior magic, their Qi ended up exploding and killing the user. So they decided to stop running tests due to a lack of volunteers."
It was a scary thought to have, and no wonder no warrior complained about learning magic if that was the result.
Himmy thought about the question he asked from before for a while, and eventually, they had reached the giant mushroom-like structure. In front of them, there seemed to be nothing, that was until he placed the compass-like device in the center.
Steam started to appear from the center, and part of the giant structure started to split apart.
"For now, let's keep it to ourselves. We might be making a big deal out of this for no reason," Himmy said. "Let's keep quiet anyway; we're here now, we're back at Alter."