Today I was heading to the Empire with Alice and Lua. That is because Hiro had called me and asked me to investigate an area of the Empire that was suffering from a massive heatwave.

And while heatwaves in the Empire aren’t rare, they happen in some areas every year, this one was happening in September. … okay, it is actually the ninth of the thirteen months in this world’s calendar, but that doesn’t change anything. Late in the ninth month is still technically September in terms of Earth’s calendar.

Also, the heatwaves in the Empire generally only last 10 to 15 days. This one had been going on for almost a month, having began during the qualifiers of my tournament, and it has caused some issues. Like the fact that no water monsters are appearing in the area and thus no more water attributed monster cores have been collected. So no new water attributed magic stones.

And with the existing water magic stones being overtaxed to produce drinking water, irrigation water, cleaning water, and just all water needed, they’ve begun to crack and might break. 

Sure the Empire has sent more stones to the area from other areas that aren’t under a heatwave, but that in itself is slow and expensive. So Hiro wanted me to both act as a superfast transport for some stones, and also investigate the area in case there was something wrong.

Because I did actually tell Hiro the truth behind the dimensional fissures. He is an otherworlder like me, so I feel like he deserves to know the truth. Because I’d want to know if something like this was going on and some other otherworlder did know. 

So maybe because of that, Hiro assumed that maybe the extended heatwave had something to do with the dimensional barriers. Like maybe somehow specifically fire attributed mana was leaking through in that area and that was heating up the place.

The transportation part of the job was no problem. B.E.S. ships and Storage make transportation as simple as it could be. And since we were working with the Crystalline Family, we had all the people we would need. Mainly well known government workers, like a few nobles.

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As we approached the area that was the most affected by the heatwave, I was admittedly taken by the temperature. We weren’t even in the worst area yet and the outside temp was already over 40°C (104°F) and it kept rising.

And I don’t think I need to tell you that temperatures that high for a long period are not good for anyone. Sure the Empire has a lot more lizard-folk, and other reptile based beast-folk. They can take high temperatures better than humans and the more furry beast-folk, but even still this is a lot.

We stopped in a few towns and villages, dropping them new water magic stones for their water production. In return we got some bad news. 

Because of the lack of rain, and them having to save water in the heatwave, some of the crops of the third harvest of the year might fail or at most it will produce very few crops. And while I didn’t care much for the regular crops, those are nothing special, this area also produces both coffee and tea. And I happen to like those things. Well, tea moreso, but coffee is sometimes good. Besides, we extract caffeine from the coffee beans and the tea leaves, so without them, no caffeine. And some drinks that need it.

Because of that, and because I can do so and it is free, I decided to activate a Rain of Mercy in each town and village. Just one would get the ground some help and the healing effect would heal any minor sun burns and other similar problems people might have.

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And Lua would heal anyone more badly burnt. That is why I wanted her to come along.

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When we reached the area most affected by the heatwave, the temperature had risen to over 50°C [122°F]. With a long prolonged exposure, that is deadly to anyone without a skill of some kind. I have Thermal Fluctuation Resistance, but something like Fire Resistance would also work. 

The crops in the area had withered to the fields, the forests looked like they were just barely holding onto life and the people were hiding in holes they dug into the ground.

Sadly not everyone was still alive, as the heatwave was especially brutal to young people and the elderly. The locals had managed to keep the kids alive with Water Magic, as well as the water magic stones, but some of the elderly had already succumbed to the heat.

I got to work helping them as well as I could. So Rain of Mercy for everyone, some Prism-Ice Magic to cool everyone down, and Lua to heal any sunburns or other injuries.

I also brought out food from Storage, as food was a small issue. Not as big as water, but still an issue. The adventurers haven’t really been able to hunt monsters because of the heat, and cooking causes even more heat and takes water so they can’t cook much of the grain they do have.

But I have a ton of stuff in Storage. Ever since HomeBase became fully self-sufficient in terms of food, I’ve been collecting cook food into Storage. It never goes bad so I can keep it there. My goal was to have at least a year's worth of food for everyone on HomeBase in a situation where no new food could be acquired, even if a situation like that was basically impossible because of Mystik Wok.

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While we were taking care of the people, Alice had a different job. I asked her to try and figure out the reason for the heat, and try to use the environmental control HomeBase has to maybe cool down the area. Sadly that spell is designed to be used in enclosed areas, so it might not work. 

And yes, HomeBase is enclosed by its barrier so it can be used there.

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By the time we were done with the emergency first aid to the people in the area, it was already long into the night. And both of the girls had received a System Mission regarding the situation, asking for them to either heal people, or search for a solution.

Proves how well the System is actually taking care of us. Now that we are here they get the mission, but before that, nope. Not their issue apparently.

We didn’t yet know the cause of the heatwave, but we had a few clues. Firstly, the temperature barely went down even during the night. It dropped from over 50°C to just below 40°C, which feels great, but it should drop way more. There are no clouds in the sky or anything else keeping the heat tethered to the ground, so things should cool down.

The second hint was actually something Alice noticed while trying to control the temperature. To do that she flew quite high in the air before casting the spell. And while doing that, she noticed that the temperature didn’t go down at all, despite the fact that it theoretically should. So Alice flew even higher, and still no drop in temperature, even at heights where the lack of air pressure should cause the temperature to plummet.

That means that this heatwave is anything but natural. Though we kind of knew that already.

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The next day was largely the same. Lua was healing people, I was cooling them down and causing rains while Alice continued her attempts at climate control.

After I was done with my part of helping the people, I moved to the skies with Alice to help her. I still let her take the lead on it, as the mission to deal with it was given to her, not me.

So I was mainly acting as mana seeing eyes. Alice can imitate the skill with her unique skill, but she hasn’t gotten it yet.

While Alice focused on the temperature, I began to notice some strange things with the flow of mana. Firstly, the natural mana in the air moved … unnaturally. Secondly, the mana had its attribute balance all wrong. Because it actually had attributes. 

Normally the ‘loose mana’ in the air doesn’t have an attribute. It technically is made of all of them, but at the same time none of them. It only takes on an attribute after interacting with a person's soul.  

And the attribute of the mana in this area was naturally fire. There was some light and wind also mixed in, but a lot of it had taken on the fire attribute. And that by extension had raised the temperature of the area.

But for something to influence the mana on this large of scale, it must have a very powerful soul. Even Janina would probably struggle doing something like this. … actually, she probably wouldn’t, she just wouldn’t do it because it would be pointless.

Still, at least we had a cause for the heatwave. Sure we don’t know how or why, but the heatwave is caused by someone or something with a massively powerful soul turning the natural mana in the air into fire attributed mana.

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The search for that something was actually easier than I first expected. But again, it really is Alice’s job so I let her take over. Now if I were to do it, I’d probably just use Mana Vision and follow the ‘winds’ of strong fire mana to their source, hopefully finding something.

But Alice had a different, yet also similar idea. She used her unique skill to make a new spell, a spell that would produce an arrow that would point to the hottest place in a certain range. She then just began following that arrow.

Sure it got her to a few false hits, just locations that had warmer temperatures than the surrounding areas, but eventually it led to something we were probably after.

A small lake, more of a pond really, of magma, or would this count as lava since it is on the surface. It was letting off an enormous amount of fire attributed mana, as well as heat. I was luckily fine with my skill, but Alice had to use magic to protect herself from the heat.

Now the problem is that while we found the source, neither of us really understands the source. I mean, a lava pond is hot, but it isn’t ‘I cause a local heatwave’ hot. And lava doesn’t produce fire attributed mana.

“Brian. Could you take the lava into Storage?” Alice asked. “I think there is something in it causing all of this.”

I did as asked, carefully taking the lava in. Yes, I can take in liquids. And lava is a very dense liquid at that, so it is really easy. In fact, I can even take air into Storage and use Storage’s disassembly to break it into its components if I want to. Well, Storage can’t actually break chemical bonds in molecules, but it can separate the oxygen from the nitrogen.

“Brian?” Alice asked as I paused because I ran into a small issue. “Why did you stop?”

“... I can’t take it in.” I responded. “It doesn’t want to go into Storage.”

“Why?” She asked.

“That is what I’m trying to figure out.” I said. “It feels like the magma is … living.” As I said that, I realized the answer. Well, at least parts of it. The magma is somehow living. And a powerful soul would be needed to turn that much mana into fire attributed mana. 

That means…

As I thought that, a massive wall of heat hit Alice and I in our backs, as if all the heat that had been spread across this entire region had begun to gather back into one spot. 

And that heat melted the ground from below our feet so Alice and I had no choice but to take off and fly so we wouldn’t sink into the lava. And yes, I tried to take the new lava into Storage, but it failed. It must be part of whatever this thing is.

I used Soul Search on the lava and found a soul in there. A soul that felt familiar to just one being I knew. 

In the Monster World, I ran into a Soul of the Ocean. Here, we must have come across the Soul of the Mantle.