After signing the contract, Perseus accepted the mission.
The raven clearly noticed this as well, and so it opened its beak again, spitting out a small crystal-like orb.
The orb was not large, about the size of a human eye, but Perseus instantly realized this was no ordinary thing.
The dreamlike radiance it gave off and the overwhelming magical aura it exuded were already enough, but what truly revealed its refinement were the countless minute runes, arranged neatly within the crystalline surface.
Just what was this?
Driven by curiosity, Perseus activated Arcane Sight.
This was a spell that allowed one to observe magical auras, often used by wizards who lacked the sensitivity to feel magic directly.
The moment he did, Perseus immediately snapped his eyes shut.
It felt as though he had nearly blinded himself.
Never before had he seen magical light so intense, so blinding.
It wasn't that this object was simply of too high a grade, though from its glow he could indeed tell it was a powerful artifact.
No, such an overwhelming brilliance meant something else entirely: this orb contained an immense reserve of magic.
Perseus couldn't even think of words strong enough to describe the energy packed within this orb. If he had come from the future, he would have likened it to a nuclear reactor.
Yes, the energy inside this crystal orb was at least on that level.
But then, why would such a vast source of magic need to be buried within a leyline, a magic source in its own right?
Perseus puzzled over it until his mind hurt, and still he could not understand.
So, he chose not to.
His task was simply to bury it in the leyline and then collect his reward. That was enough.
The Academy's word was always reliable.
After breakfast, he set out quickly.
Ordinary people would never know the location of Mycenae's leylines; even the royal family had no record of them.
But wizards were different.
For them, the spell to detect leylines was mandatory study.
Having lived in Mycenae for so many years, Perseus naturally knew where they lay.
The nearest one was beneath a street by the royal palace.
Incidentally, his senior brother, who worked at the palace, lived on that very street.
So Perseus snuck there quietly.
It was morning, and the street bustled with passersby.
He knew burying the orb required secrecy, but he dared not use a warding spell to drive people away, lest his brother notice.
If that brother discovered him working with the leylines, he might demand a share of the Academy's benefits, and that would be troublesome.
So, Perseus cast Invisibility upon himself.
This was a second-circle spell. Back when he first learned it, it wasn't for the "protection and escape" his professors preached, but for far less noble purposes.
In his youth, he had used Invisibility more than once for petty mischief.
But now, older, with wife and children, such tricks no longer tempted him.
Smiling at the memory, he slipped into an unnoticed corner and vanished from sight.
No one seemed to notice that a man had disappeared in broad daylight.
Crouching down, Perseus dug a small pit with his bare hands and carefully lowered the orb into it, burying it beneath the earth.
Since he lacked the proper earth-shaping spells, manual work was his only option.
Once the orb was buried, nothing unusual happened.
But Perseus was unconcerned. His mission was complete, and now all that remained was to wait for the Academy's reward.
With that thought, he turned toward home.
In the distance, faint shouts drifted on the air, talk of "the undying," "monsters." But that had nothing to do with him.
The truth was, ever since Sisyphus had imprisoned Death, throwing the mortal world into chaos, countless ravens from Mistral Academy had flown across all of Greece.
Many wizards, graduates who still depended on the Academy, had received similar tasks. They were more than willing to oblige.
Thus, the same thing was happening everywhere: Athens, Thebes, Knossos, Pylos, Corinth, Sicily…
Some leylines lay near cities, but most were hidden deep in wilderness, within mountains and rivers. Humanity had not yet spread as far as it would in future ages.
Much of nature remained untouched by man.
But this hardly deterred wizards.
Those eager to win the Academy's favor did not hesitate to journey over mountains and across seas to complete their assignments.
Of course, some leylines were guarded by dangerous beings, Cyclopes, dragons, hydras, and worse.
In those cases, it was the Academy's own mages who took the field.
Unlike ordinary wizards of the outside world, who were usually between the third and fifth circle, those who remained in the Academy were elites, typically of the sixth circle or higher.
And burying a magical artifact was hardly the same as battling such beasts; for them, it was effortless.
Thus, within three days, countless identical orbs were planted into ninety-nine percent of Greece's leylines.
This covered all the major and developed leylines; the few untouched were scattered, insignificant places.
And yet, no one noticed.
The city-states, kingdoms, nobles, and priests of the gods, all of them were too distracted by the sudden plague of the undying.
For during this time, all who died became unkillable revenants. In smaller villages, one or two could be bound and contained.
But on battlefields, it was a nightmare.
Take Thebes, for instance, where war had raged. Death was thick there, and so the corpses rose in droves.
At first, each army mistook them for frenzied warriors, until the truth became clear. By then, the number of undead was so great they could not be stopped.
Amid such horrors, who could spare a thought for the quiet movements of a few wizards?
As for the gods themselves…
Had they been capable of noticing the Academy's schemes, surely they would have already noticed the hordes of the undying walking the earth.
And so, not until three days later, after the wizards had long since completed their work, each leyline seeded with a crystal orb, did the slow-to-react gods finally stir to awareness of what was unfolding below.
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