I walked out of the guild once the lesson was over - about twenty percent of that lesson had been worthwhile in the sense that it was something I'd forgotten or was new to me, so at least I could say that I had gotten something out of it.

Also, I had to admonish myself a little. I had looked down at the others in that class for not knowing some basics and harboring beliefs about Liberomancy that were untrue earlier - but it turned out that the same could be said about me.

I had thought that you could use [Diarrhea] on someone to give them diarrhea as a possible offensive option - I did not know the spell myself, but I had heard of it and naturally assumed that was a possibility. But no, it was actually considered a healing spell whose purpose was to try to expel poisons that might have been swallowed by someone. It was rather weak in its effect, but what could you expect from a Rank One spell?

However, because it was a healing spell, it meant that the target had to accept it for it to work, much like a buff. You can reject healing magic or buffing magic whosoever you are - even if your Resistance is low. Offensive magic, of course, could also be negated via either skills, spells, or stats, but [Diarrhea] was useless unless the target consented. If someone was unconscious, healing magic could still be cast on them thankfully, but something like [Diarrhea] would stop before it caused say, life-threatening dehydration or the like. It was not really possible to use it to hurt someone.

As such, any fears I had earlier of someone randomly approaching me on the street and casting a spell causing me to suddenly lose my bowel control were in fact, completely baseless.

It was a gentle reminder that even though people considered me to be a hotshot now, I still had a very limited understanding and experience of this world. I couldn't afford to let the flattery and attention get to me. Because I was not a native to this world, there were many things that were considered 'obvious' that I did not know. It wasn't right of me - and outright dangerous as a matter of fact, to look down on anyone else then.

And clearly, Zhen Liu was right about what he had said when he had walked in. You can always keep on learning.

The guild was located near the docks, and I turned my attention there for a moment when the salt-laden breeze washed over me.

The sea… it had made so very little sense to me that the people of Arconia utilized the sea very little when I had first come here. Even now, they said that escaping via the sea would be a last resort.

But, I had dug deeper into the issue out of curiosity. Libraria in the past, even though I found it kind of hard to believe, was an even more dangerous place to live than it is right now. Many of the ballads of the Goddess Serragnin involved her fighting creatures of immense power - granted, you could write that off as just being myth, but there were more well-documented recent examples.

Such as the Ruler of the Astral Winds - whenever he conquered a region, he would order the extermination of any monsters that were considered a threat to his subjects. There were some that he, a Rank Five Liberomancer - was forced to deal with himself. Some of these threats would make the incoming dryad horde seem harmless by comparison.

It wasn't just him though, throughout history, whenever there was a strong monster that killed the common folk, Liberomancers would usually gather and not only slaughter that monster but all of its descendants and relatives until there were none left. Creatures like the Elephant Frog who were mostly harmless might be left alone or simply chased off, but those who actively wished to hurt people? They would quickly go the way of the dodo.

Of course, threats were still present in modern times, but to a far smaller degree than before.

The dryad hordes were an issue as Hitutsa did not have the manpower to completely take over the region they inhabited currently, otherwise they would have found their entire forests burned to the ground if the Ruler of the Astral Winds was still alive today and that region were still under his management.

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Things were very different when it came to the sea.

It was hard for Liberomancers to fight sea monsters given that most of them could quickly retreat to the depths and that the sea was extremely wide and difficult to explore properly. Taming the sea in the same way that the land was tamed would be at least ten times more difficult - and there was no one like the Goddess Serragnin or the Ruler of the Astral Winds in these times to help with it. There was a reason after all as to why although dragons were extinct, their aquatic counterparts, the sea dragons still thrived.

The story I had heard while traveling to that lizardmen village cemented this idea in my mind. And so, it was deemed easier to simply leave the sea alone. Yes, the oceans were dangerous, but you didn't have to sail too far out, did you? The powerful sea monsters did not venture onto land (the few who did were attacked), so just stay out of the deep waters! Sea dragons were dangerous, yes, but they could not fly, so leave them be! They do not venture into shallow water near the shore, so coastal fishing is fine, but don't stray too far!

There might actually be many places in this world, like islands and maybe even other continents, that were separated from this main continent but that no one knew about just because of how dangerous it was to try to cross the ocean to reach them.

The ocean, in other words, was just as dangerous as it had always been, while the land had been made safer over time.

Of course, if push came to shove, as a last resort people would take their chances and flee by ship, but that was only if the walls fell and the enemy couldn't be stopped.

The coastal side of Arconia was also a potential weak point as the wall didn't completely cover that side of the city - so fortifications were frantically being made to stop the dryads from possibly circling around the city and attacking from that direction.

They couldn't deal with salt water, but it wasn't clear if that just annoyed them or actually harmed them, so the idea of them stepping into the sea wasn't entirely too far-fetched.

It was odd just how livelier things seemed to have become in a matter of around three hours. So many people running everywhere…

...they really had no clue how to deal with this, did they? I felt that the underlying cause of most of the panic was just that. This was something new - something they hadn't dealt with before. It it had been a storm, or a famine, at least they would have had some grasp on what actions they should take. But Arconia was not like the capital which was always prepared for a siege or war, it was a center of commerce and a source of food for the more militaristically-inclined capital.

Even the oldest of Arconia's citizens couldn't remember when the last siege had happened. I saw multiple groups of young men - non-Liberomancers, who had been drafted and were practicing keeping in formation with shields and spears. Hopefully they would not have to fight, but if push came to shove, they would be the front-liners who would hold off the enemy while Liberomancers rained spells from over their heads.

I saw some people trying to hastily make something approaching some form of shelter for the influx of refugees - mostly these were just glorified tents with straw at their bases, and even if they were crowded to the point you couldn't move your elbow without hitting someone next to you inside they were far from sufficient. I couldn't say that the city wasn't trying, but their efforts were clearly not enough.

Alongside these large public kitchens had been set up to try to ration out food to those who didn't have money; mostly the refugees, some of whom had to rush to the city empty-handed. These lines were already beginning to wrap around street corners.

Men were out and about, offering to do any kind of work for pay. By the time I had reached back to Granny Qi's house, I had nearly emptied what change I was carrying in my pockets. There were a lot of people out on the streets begging - and I couldn't find it in my heart to refuse most them. I had been a lot like them when I had started out after all.

"Oh? Is something the matter?"

Two guards were posted near the entrance of her house. Did something else happen that they needed clarification with? Interestingly enough both of them were lizardmen - they usually sent human guards to human houses just to keep things smooth and avoid any unnecessary confusion that might arise from a misunderstanding that could occur between the two different species.

There was also a carriage near the house with the governor's coat of arms on it, meaning that it seemed that someone important had come with them. "Ah, well met, Master Stefan Dawson," one of the guards said after lowering his head. "Sir Zeke wished to meet with you and is awaiting you inside."

"Ah, what is this about?"

"I'm sorry, but I do not know. It does seem to be rather urgent, however."

"Got it," I said, with a sinking feeling in my stomach telling me this was nothing good. I gently opened the front door and entered Granny Qi's house.

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