"Sea Successor White Whale... hmm, found it!"
In the library of the Divine Magic Academy, Hilia was flipping through a book called "Comprehensive Monster Guide" at top speed, and finally found what she was searching for.
"Sea Successor White Whale, pure white all over, lives in the Endless Sea, is an extremely powerful demon, likes to devour creatures with strong spiritual power... It was once summoned by the Deep Sea Mutual Aid Association, causing a medium-sized town to be wiped out. It took two red-robed bishops to deal with it... Is it really that terrifying?"
Hilia didn't have much concept of what Rose meant by Tier Four or Tier Six. She knew those were powerful, but didn't know how powerful exactly.
She knew that most of the school instructors were Tier Four Mages, the professors were Tier Five Mages, and it was rumored that the principal had Tier Six strength. But as someone who had just barely become a Tier One Mage, she had no way of distinguishing what exactly made those teachers so strong.
She hadn't ever seen a mage of such power actually take action before.
"To destroy a medium-sized town, that falls into the Tier Four or Tier Five range. If it's done in a single attack, then that's Tier Six territory."
Rose was also studying later researchers' records about the Sea Successor White Whale.
By looking at the documented cases, he made a preliminary judgment about that white whale.
"What tier are your red-robed bishops?" Rose asked.
Hilia shook her head and said cautiously: "I don't know, I just know that the red-robed bishops are the strongest mages of the Holy Court."
You can't just blurt out things like this!
Hilia felt a little relieved—she genuinely didn't know the tier of the red-robed bishops; otherwise, she wouldn't know if she should reveal it.
"Let's just assume they're all Tier Six."
Rose didn't get hung up on this question.
"The Sea Successor White Whale might be terrifying for you, but that's only if you face it head-on. If you can calm down and actually research the whale, you'll discover there are plenty of ways to weaken its power—so much so that even someone like you, a magic apprentice, could kill it easily."
So far, Rose hadn't said anything that seemed like a lie—but facing a demon that could wipe out a medium-sized town so easily... No matter how you looked at it, it just didn't seem believable.
And there was another problem.
Hilia raised her hand: "Lord God, you said the whale's fin is a super supplement—that eating a little can save months of meditation time. Is that true?"
"Of course it's true."
"But isn't it a demon from the abyss? Can you really eat it?"
Hilia was thinking that maybe these demons were indeed nourishing for the Evil God and his followers—but as someone from the Holy Court, eating demons... Wouldn't she end up becoming an evil existence like those heretics?
No one in the Holy Court had ever eaten abyssal demons. Not only do they not eat them, they even portray them as extremely evil—touching them would pollute your magic power and the corruption would never go away.
"Ordinarily, of course you can't eat it, because there's abyssal pollution. But, no matter how poisonous something is, as long as you prove you can eat it, there must be a way to eat it. Abyssal pollution? Can be broken easily."
Wouldn't you still get polluted, though?!
Hilia's mind was filled with refusal.
"That whale fin—no thanks, I can't afford to eat it. If the Deep Sea Mutual Aid Association really plans to summon the white whale, I want to get this information to the school."
"Up to you. But how are you going to tell the school that you know about the Deep Sea Mutual Aid Association's plan to summon the white whale?"
Hilia froze.
Right, I actually don't have any evidence—it's all just what Lord Evil God said.
"Before you tell the school, you need to find some evidence first."
"Excuse me, Lord God, how should I look for evidence?"
Hilia adopted a posture of asking for guidance.
"You'll have to leave the campus—you won't find it inside. Look for the white whale's summoning point. You need to find a suitable area for the summoning, and within that area, locate related traces and record them."
"Will they summon it near the school?"
"No, there isn't any suitable area near the school. Even if there is, it'd be at least two kilometers away."
Rose shook his head as he spoke. "But, you go to class every day and only have two days off on weekends. Two days probably isn't enough. You'll need at least five days."
"Don't worry about that—school has a rule: once students have their magic puppets, that means they've finished basic studies and are allowed to take school and Holy Court commissions, or go to the Mercenary Guild outside and take commissions. As long as they show proof, they can leave school for a while to go carry out the commission."
"Oh? School's not worried about you falling behind in courses?"
"There's another rule for leaving campus... You must keep up with your studies. After finishing the commission, you'll have to take a test to see if you've kept up. I've already learned all the theory for the first academic year, so I can go out anytime."
"Mm, go check the school and Holy Court commissions tomorrow. I'll tell you what abnormal signs to look for when the white whale's summoning array is being set up."
...
The next day, Hilia, who had obtained permission to leave the campus, arrived at the commission hall where school commissions were posted, carefully searching through the many listings.
"The Sea Successor White Whale Summoning Array can only be arranged in areas with water element—like lakes, rivers, seas. There are five stages to setting up the array. In Stage One, affected by the summoning array, aquatic creatures in the area become more active, ordinary fish undergo mutations and advance into Tier One magical beasts.
"This stage is hard to spot, because newly advanced fish don't have strong combat power or magic. Anyone can handle them. At worst, people just think the fish are bigger and stronger.
"From Stages Two and Three, mutated fish appear in the water, their bodies get larger, gradually taking on the shape of a white whale. Their highest combat power reaches Tier Two Mage level—they're magical beasts normal people can't deal with.
"Last two stages, all fish in the area take on the appearance of the white whale, and the strongest can become Tier Three magical beasts. At this point, you can't stop the summoning anymore. But don't worry, before Stage Three comes, there'll be a long period of magic power accumulation—it takes at least a month.
"Your goal is to look for commissions about abnormal water element occurrences. If there aren't any, just pick a random commission and go look around for a large enough water element area nearby, and investigate around those waters."
That's the full briefing Rose gave Hilia.
So many words—it sounded like there's a high chance it's true.
So she was especially thorough as she searched.
"Come to think of it, if the abnormal signs caused by the summoning array are so obvious, why don't the school and Holy Court investigate?" Hilia wondered aloud.
Rose smiled. "How do you know they haven't investigated already?"
"Oh, that's true..."
That kind of thing—the Holy Court must have investigated already.
Hilia felt she was overthinking it.
Now only one problem remained.
Among all the school's commissions, there were none relating to water system anomalies.