Leaving the guild, Natsu rubbed his head, his face beaming with excitement.
Happy flew beside Natsu, constantly playing and bickering with him.
"I really admire this guy's endless energy," Statiw and Gray, walking behind, watched their antics, Gray commenting with a sigh.
"Alright, don't be like an old man, you're not that age yet," Statiw rolled his eyes at his words.
"I just said that guy's energy far exceeds ordinary people, how does that make me an old man?" Gray immediately retorted.
"Hey, Statiw, stinky ice cube, we're here!" In the distance, Natsu and Happy had stopped at the edge of a small hill, waving to them.
"What stinky ice cube? Can't you speak like a normal person?" Gray, extremely displeased with the address, quickly ran up to him and complained.
"Who called me 'stinky fire' first back at the Guild?" Natsu, picking his nose, looked at Gray with a tilted head and squinted eyes.
"You're still remembering that?" Gray was speechless for a moment, "I really don't understand what's going on with your memory. Sometimes it's worse than a fish, and other times it's incredibly good."
"Fish?" Happy, who had landed on the ground after reaching their destination, instantly sprouted a pair of small wings behind him upon hearing the word 'fish', and floated excitedly to Natsu's head, staring at Gray with shining eyes.
Looking at the cat whose thought process rivaled Natsu's, Gray had no choice but to explain, "I was just using a metaphor, there isn't actually any fish."
"But Gray just said 'fish'," Happy insisted, not giving up, "So stingy, you secretly hid the fish and won't share any with us."
"Exactly, Gray is so stingy, he has fish but won't give any to Happy," Natsu, still picking his nose, chimed in.
"I ask you, which eye saw me holding fish?" Ignoring his teasing, Gray continued to explain to the cat in front of him, his voice unconsciously getting louder.
"What's going on?" Statiw, who was almost at their side, suddenly heard Gray's voice get louder and frowned, "Keep your voice down, we've arrived at our destination. What if those bandits discover something is wrong and escape?"
"Ah, sorry," reminded by him, Gray lowered his voice again.
"Statiw, Gray clearly has fish, but he's secretly hiding it..." Seeing him approach, Happy immediately flew in front of him to complain.
"Oh, so that's what it is," Statiw immediately understood the situation and said to Happy, "That's simple. After this mission is over, I'll have Natsu catch you ten, no, a hundred fish. You can roll around in them if you want."
"Yay!" Happy looked delighted after hearing his words.
Natsu, on the other hand, looked confused: What's going on? Weren't we talking about Gray? How did it suddenly become about me?
Statiw ignored his confused expression and went directly up the small hill, setting up his easel and beginning to paint.
By this time, his Pict Magic was already very good; in less than an hour, he had painted the scene in front of him.
After using his magic, he quickly found the hiding place of the group of bandits.
"So it's here. No wonder the town's sheriff said he couldn't find these guys' hideout," Gray said, suddenly enlightened, after looking at the bandit hideout's location marked on the painting.
"Can we attack the bandits now?" Natsu, seeing that the group of bandits had been located, immediately rubbed his hands together.
"Wait a moment," Statiw looked at Gray, Natsu, and Happy, and said, "I need to prepare."
With that, he found a large rock nearby, then took out several previously painted character portraits.
He materialized the characters from the portraits one by one.
Because Statiw's materialization was not formed by magic power, but rather by decomposing and reconstructing matter from the real world, as the characters from the portraits materialized, a large hole gradually decomposed in the middle of the giant rock in front of him, large enough for him to hide inside.
"What is he doing?" At this moment, watching his series of actions, Gray suddenly understood, while Natsu and Happy were full of question marks.
"Because these materialized people need to be controlled by my own consciousness. While controlling them, I am in a state without any protection, so I must find a safe place to hide to prevent myself from being in danger," Statiw explained the purpose of his actions to Natsu and Happy, seeing that Gray had already understood.
"Oh, I see," After hearing his explanation, they finally understood, and then Happy complained, "Statiw's Magic is so useless, it requires so much preparation."
"Is that so? Then the next fish I catch won't be for you," Statiw said leisurely as he entered the large decomposed hole.
"I was wrong," Happy, the unprincipled cat, immediately prostrated himself on the ground and admitted his mistake upon hearing 'fish'.
After adjusting the shape of the surrounding rock wall, Statiw withdrew the materialized people, leaving only one outside.
Then he set up his easel again, and with a few strokes, the remnants of matter after the materialized person returned and the original large hole in the giant rock wriggled and merged into one, leaving only a few small ventilation holes on it.
With everything ready, his consciousness instantly controlled the body of the remaining materialized character, and while moving, he explained to Gray, Natsu, and Happy, "This character is named Might Guy. His physical abilities are very strong, and simply by relying on his own physical abilities, he can be equivalent to a B-Class Mage."
"Really?" Natsu's eyes lit up, "Then draw a dragon, that way you can have the power of a dragon, right?"
"Idiot, it's not that simple," Gray immediately rolled his eyes, "If it really were possible, Statiw would have already done it. And while not many people use Pict Magic, it's not a small number either, and I've never heard of anyone being able to materialize a truly powerful Dragon."
"What? So it's not possible?" Natsu looked disappointed after hearing his words.
"It's not entirely impossible," Statiw said with a smile, "The materialized character is linked to my understanding of that character and the power they possess. If I had the power of a Dragon and a thorough understanding of them, I could materialize one."
"Really? Then you must work hard, Statiw!" Natsu's eyes lit up, and he immediately encouraged him.
"How can a human possibly have the same power as a Dragon? I think it's better not to have too high expectations," Seeing his excitement, Gray couldn't help but pour cold water on his enthusiasm.
"Alright, let's complete the mission first," Noticing that Natsu and Gray were about to start arguing again, Statiw immediately changed the subject, "Remember not to kill these bandits, otherwise, the Magic Council might cause trouble for us. We might even have our mage qualifications revoked, and then we'd only be able to become Dark Mages..."