Genius Mage in a Cultivation World

"I think we reached the first checkpoint," Markus muttered silently under his nose. He then raised his head and looked at Layn. "What do you think, brother?" 

The entire expedition had extremely limited and most likely outdated information. The majority of what they knew about the terrain further away from the camp came from Sitra's and Layn's records of their return from the Slavian lands. And given how they traveled in a relatively straight lane, adding an overall complete lack of maps of the area, finding a correct path to any of their destinations proved to be a task far more challenging than initially expected. 

"I think I recall this place," Layn said, looking around patiently. 

Right now, there was no need for hurry whatsoever. They could save a few minutes that Layn needed to think by rushing everyone ahead without a care in the world. But in the grand scheme of things, unless they would be perfectly on the spot or just lucky, they stood to waste far more time required for the latter corrections of their course. 

"We are on the right track," Layn said after a few moments' worth of scurrying his memories. "Unless we are in a place almost perfectly the same as the one I recall, we should just follow straight west to reach the Slavian border," he said, pointing his hand in the direction where he felt they should head towards. 

"Good," Markus said, raising back on his feet. Then, with a single wave of his hand, he alerted the entire group before pushing them back on the move. 

"Still, I'm amazed you can recall such fine details," Markus said after a few moments, once the group regained its previous momentum. "If that was me, I wouldn't be able to pay attention to any of them, not to even speak about actually remembering them for later," he said, shaking his head in awe. 

"We are in the steppe. Our journey back then took quite a while, so with nothing to busy my thoughts with, saving the path we took in my memory was just a way to kill some time," Layn replied in a humble manner. 

But this time, it wasn't just an attempt to downplay his achievements, but actual truth. Back when he was returning from the Slavian's country, he had yet to come up with any plan involving them. 

It wasn't some kind of mishap on his part or lack of ability to foresee the potential conflict. 'I guess I was too shaken by the revelation that they actually existed to pay much mind to the fine details,' Layn thought, blaming himself for this mistake of his. 

"Still, I wonder what Sitra will think when she realizes what all those questions were for," Markus said, slightly changing the topic as soon as he realized how uncomfortable Layn was with the previous one. 

"She might be mad or just understand the need of what we set out to do," Layn replied, not paying much mind to the possible reaction of the girl. 

With the death of Castor, the importance of the girl was greatly diminished. As she lost her position as a delegate of the friendly Slavian faction, she became nothing else but a refugee in the camp. And while no one in there treated her as such, that was her general position and importance in the grand scheme of things. 

"Aren't you worried she will try to sabotage the camp in some sort of ill-conceived revenge?" Markus asked. Between the two of them, or rather, between Layn and everyone else in the camp, it was the archmage that spent the most time with that girl, making him the best person to ask about her potential reactions.

"She is a soldier, not some kind of spec-ops member," Layn replied, shaking his shoulders while swallowing a gulp of saliva that formed in his mouth at the same time. Just a mention of that legendary unit was enough to make a chill travel down his spine. 

"How about her magic, then?" Markus asked before his face suddenly lit up. "Right, I never asked about it. How is the Slavian magic different from what we know?" Layn's friend asked.

"In the first place, to discuss Slavian magic, you need to understand the difference between what we consider magic and what this world considers magic," Layn replied with a smile. 

"We are using the magic energy to invoke various phenomena. While our current level allows us to treat it as just another element of the world's physics, that's the origin of the magic we know," Markus replied with the official formula of magic that every graduate of every magic academy had to remember by heart. "On the contrary, the locals of this time use magic to reinforce their bodies and ingrain what we would call a spell structure into their own flesh. This is what allows them to use various techniques that closely resemble our own," Markus explained his own take on the magical reality of the current world. 

"While not fully true, that's the general gist of it." Layn nodded his head, agreeing with his friend. "But for now, this will be enough. Now, you already said that there are similarities between cultivation and the magic we know. And this is the most crucial point to understand why I was so awed with the Slavian magic," Layn said before releasing a deep sigh. 

"Is it that bad?" Markus asked as his face tensed slightly. Not knowing the weapons of their potential enemies was the worst kind of worry that any kind of leader heading off to the battlefield could be bothered with. 

"In terms of understanding what they are capable of," Layn started off a high note, only to drop his head low the next moment. "We have no understanding," he said as a hint of anxiety momentarily appeared on his face. "But what's actually interesting is that I observed no similarities of their magic to what we know," he said before turning silent. 

"And what do you think that means?" Markus asked once he got bored of waiting for his friend to reveal it himself. 

"I'm worried that their magic is a completely new system. Something that we never tried or never figured out before," the archmage said before raising his eyes towards the line of the horizon. "And while this is just a random guess of mine, I believe their entire magic system has a fully separate origin to ours," he said before squinting and then closing his eyes. 

"And that would mean..." Markus attempted to say something, only to stop his tongue from running wild a moment later. In the end, this wasn't the topic that could be so freely discussed with a huge group of surrounding them from all sides. 

"Yes," Layn nodded his head. "There are only two possible explanations for that," he said before opening his eyes and looking at his friend again. "Either their civilization was completely separated from ours throughout the times, or the other guess you had is actually correct," he said before moving his eyes back to the state they were in before. 

'In other words,' Layn thought, tightening his hands into fists, 'this magic is the first clue pointing at the possibility that Slavians do not belong to this world at all."