His ability to detect the tracker's position wasn't as accurate as he wished it could be. It was more like a broad compass than an exact location. He could sense the little blimp of mana but couldn't calculate the distance from the target.
However, as far as he could tell, Grace hadn't moved yet, which made sense since she usually stayed at the library until class started anyway.
He felt a little bit like a detective as he did this, which made it twice as exciting after that realization. In the spirit of things, he created a smoking pipe out of mana. It even had a little bit of smoke coming out of it.
Weirdly the smoke was the hardest part of the whole thing. Magical fire unlike real fire didn't use wood as a fuel, it used pure fire mana. Therefore, that ant that normal magic fire didn't release smoke unless it was used to burn sothing else.
In Julius's case, he tried many things to achieve a nice puff of smoke. What was the point of creating a pipe if nothing was smoking out of it? That was just an unlit pipe, sothing much less cool than what he had envisioned.
He even tried to use the moisture within the air to create steam, but that didn't exactly work out very well. He just ended up making the air hot.
Eventually he had to admit defeat and used a couple of pieces of old paper. He just stuffed them inside the pipe and lit them on fire. He could figure out how to make smoke another day.
Just you wait Mr. Smoke, I'm coming for you, he swore to himself.
"What are you doing?" He heard a confused voice call out.
"Sorry?" He asked.
Aubrey sat down next to him, placing her tray on the table. "Why are you pretending to smoke a pipe? Don't you know those things are bad for your health?"
"I got healing magic," Julius said as if that made the problem moot.
Aubrey gave him a silent stare and then she turned to the person who had just arrived after her. "Lily, Julius is smoking."
"What?!" The blonde-haired girl who still had one eye closed from sleep, jolted awake. "What's doing who?" She asked mixing up the words to her question.
Aubrey just pointed at him.
"Tattletale," he muttered to Aubrey. Who just gave him a smug smile in return.
Oh, just you wait, he promised Aubrey.
Lily examined what Julius was doing with a critical glare. "You are way too young to be smoking. Don't you know what that can do to your lungs?"
"Like I told Aubrey, I have a healing skill," he pointed out.
"That doesn't work like that. You could also say that you cut your arm off and it doesn't matter because you have a healing skill," Lily argued.
Eh, that's a little close to the mark there, Lily, Julius thought to himself as he rembered himself doing exactly that. However, since he was very intelligent he didn't choose to ntion this to Lily or Aubrey. He didn't have a skill with the word sage in it for no reason.
"Point taken. But I am not even smoking the thing," he told them. He turned the pipe around to show that it was just filled with paper. "Look, I can't even pull any smoke from it," he said bringing to his lips and demonstrating for them. There was a hole at the end of it that he could suck on, but it wasn't attached to the bowl.
Lily sighed in relief when she saw him as if he had just avoided a catastrophe. With that being said, she still had a question for him. "Why would you want to do that?"
He shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know. It seed fun," he said.
"Let try," Aubrey said and before asking for permission reached out and plucked it from his hands. She brought it to her own lips, doing what he had been doing, not at all caring that the pipe had been in his mouth.
"Oh, you might be on to sothing, Julius. I feel so much smarter all of a sudden," Aubrey said in awe, continuing to suck on the fake pipe with enthusiasm.
"Really? Did he manage to put so type of enchantnt on it?" Lily asked excitedly.
"Nope! It's completely normal, but for so reason, I feel wise when I have it in my mouth," Aubrey told her.
"Wait, so it's just a fake pipe? Why does it do that then?" Lily asked curiously.
"I don't know, but here. Try it," Aubrey told her and passed it over for Lily to try.
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Julius watched as his stolen construct was passed around without his say-so. Lily took it between her lips and gave an experintal puff.
Her face went from distrusting skepticism to wide-eyed with astonishnt. "You're right. I totally feel smarter. Almost like so enlightened sage," Lily said with an expression like that of an old hermit pondering on the mysteries of the universe.
"That's great and all. But can I have it back?" Julius asked impatiently.
"Don't be like that," Aubrey slapped him on the back. "You can always make another one right?"
She had a point. It wasn't like he couldn't just create a second one. Which was exactly what he ended up doing. However, when Aubrey saw him making another one, she reached out her hand expectantly.
"What is that for?" He asked purposefully naive.
"Well, you might as well make one for too, right?" Aubrey asked him blandly.
"I could. But you guys can also share with each other," he said while sucking on his new pipe.
She gave him a sad pout but he didn't budge. He was made of sterner stuff than that. He would not cave to sothing as weak as puppy eyes.
Lily was still pretending to suck on her pipe as she spoke up. "Can you please make another one? I don't want to share mine," she asked him kindly.
With a soft nod, he created another pipe within several seconds and handed it off to Aubrey.
"How co you did it when she asked but not when I asked?" Aubrey asked in an offended tone.
"Because she said please," he told her bluntly.
"What? So if I said 'please' you would have done it?" Aubrey asked with a frown.
"Nope."
"What?!"
Julius gave her a teasing smile. "I just like her more than you."
When he said that, he saw Lily hide the grin that popped up on her face, making sure that Aubrey didn't see it.
Aubrey on the other hand didn't seem to find it as amusing. "What'd you say?! How could you say sothing like that? I am so nice to you," she managed to say with a straight face which was honestly impressive.
He showed his opinion on the validity of that statent with the blank stare he gave her while puffing on the pipe.
"Whatever," she muttered angrily while also puffing on her pipe.
When the guys arrived, they saw the three of them all smoking on their pipes.
"What are you guys doing?" Derek asked confused.
Aubrey gave him a brief glance. "Being smarter." That was all she said, she didn't expand on anything else. What was more surprising was that the guys didn't even question it. They just shrugged their shoulders and dug into their breakfasts like normal.
***
He kept an eye on the little tracking device he placed on Grace. He was able to determine the general direction for around an hour before it dissipated. It was much shorter than the several test runs he did beforehand, but it was also the first ti he used it on another person.
Perhaps there were other factors that influenced how long it lasted. He would have to try again another day.
But on the bright side, it kind of worked. He might be able to use it for hunting purposes or if there is a scenario where he needs to keep track of soone or sothing. It was a niche technique but one that might find so use.
Plus, it was also a fun way to experint with various mana applications. He did admittedly feel a little bad about using Grace and basically invading her privacy. However, in his defense, he had already caught Alia stalking him on several occasions. There were even so tis when she thought he didn't notice, but he did. So in his mind, this was not as bad. At least he wasn't actually following her with his two legs like Alia did.
Did that really make it better though?
That being said, he was very curious about what Grace was hiding. It wasn't like he hadn't asked her about it either. He had dropped so very noticeable hints about him knowing she was hiding sothing.
He was of the opinion that everyone deserved so privacy and their secrets, but at so point, it was too obvious. Considering that Grace hadn't even shared what classes she had or even what kind of affinity she had, said a lot in itself.
He didn't want to say that he distrusted her, but… he just didn't feel comfortable with not knowing what he was getting himself involved with. If she was being targeted by soone else, he would like to be aware before he got surprised out of the blue.
And the way Alia was so protective of her spoke of soone who was genuinely worried for her safety. It wasn't the actions of soone who was just going through the motions. It was possible that Grace's life had already been threatened, and that was the reason why Alia was the way she was.
***
Reinera POV
She didn't know how she felt at the mont. After Julius left the library she had gone back to her reading. However, just as she was about to leave, she felt sothing itching on her back.
What the hell is that?
She extended out her senses and found what had caught her attention. It was a small bundle of fire mana but with one small twist. There was a familiar signature, one she was familiar with.
What is Julius's mana doing on ? I do rember that I touched him, but this seed a little concentrated to be just so remnants.
She would have thought that it was so tracking skill, but she had specific skills that prevented those kinds of skills from even attaching themselves to her. It was the sa skill that weakened all debuff effects that tried to latch onto her. Therefore, she was pretty confident that it wasn't a malicious application of mana.
It was also Julius's mana, so she was certain that he didn't an any harm. With that being said, she didn't know what this was. She hadn't experienced anything like it. It wasn't like any tracking spell she had seen but it certainly had similarities to one.
She was about to ask Alia about it before thinking otherwise. If she told Alia, the woman would just assu the worst. It didn't matter that Alia had been comfortable with Julius, she would imdiately prepare for the worst-case scenario.
That was just the type of person she was. And Grace could not even argue that it didn't have its benefits. Because of that attitude, Alia had saved her life a couple of years ago, so Reinera wouldn't be so critical.
Still, it was better to stay quiet until she figured out what was going on.
It might be ti to confront Julius and maybe reveal so of her secrets. She winced as she thought about what Alia might say if she shared her thoughts.
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