Chapter 438: Iris Dawncaster

For nearly two weeks, Iris Dawncaster had been hearing increasingly ridiculous stories about the Mana Cultivation Tower.

One Mage claimed the mana density increased with every floor. Another insisted the Tower somehow recognized how much pressure each person could endure and stopped them before serious harm occurred.

A third swore that cultivating inside it for several hours had accomplished more than three days inside his family’s private mana chamber. Iris had dismissed the first story as exaggeration, the second as misunderstanding, and the third as the usual nonsense Warriors produced whenever they encountered something new.

Then she visited three separate Mage circles, questioned eleven people who had personally entered the Tower, compared their accounts, and discovered the irritating problem that their stories mostly agreed.

That was why the twenty-nine-year-old Mage arrived at the Grand Complex shortly after sunrise carrying notebooks and measuring instruments, and absolutely no intention of becoming an Adventurer.

The registration clerk learned this within moments. Iris stood before the counter in a brown robe beneath a travelling cloak, her black hair tied carelessly behind her head.

Nothing about her clothing suggested wealth or status, but the mana surrounding her was controlled enough that the clerk quickly realized she wasn’t an ordinary visitor. When he politely asked whether she wished to register, Iris shook her head and explained that she was there for the Tower.

More specifically, she wanted to know its mana concentration by floor, whether the increase was constant or variable, how the internal formations prevented mana turbulence, whether elemental affinity affected cultivation efficiency, and whether anyone had measured the difference between Knights and Mages using identical floors.

The clerk stared at her before carefully saying, "You may need to speak with Master Oren."

"Excellent. Where is he?" Iris immediately asked.

Oren Thales met Iris twenty minutes later and regretted it within five.

He answered her first questions easily enough. Yes, mana density increased as users climbed. Yes, the Tower’s protections prevented people from advancing beyond what they could safely withstand.

No, he didn’t know the exact principles behind every formation operating inside the structure. That final answer caused Iris to stop writing and stare at him as though he had confessed to keeping a dragon in his kitchen.

Oren attempted to explain that the Guild had received the Tower as part of the Headquarters construction and that even its own Mages were still studying many of its properties. Iris immediately asked who had designed it.

Oren hesitated. "You would have to ask the Guildmaster."

"Good. Where is he?" She asked.

Sage met Iris before noon.

He had been reviewing mission reports when Oren entered his office wearing the exhausted expression of a man requesting reinforcements. Iris followed directly behind him and introduced herself before Sage could ask what was wrong.

"Iris Dawncaster. 4-Star Master Mage. Water and Earth affinities. My research concerns mana environments, elemental interaction, mineral mana retention, and cultivation conditions. Your Tower makes no sense."

Sage slowly put down his report.

Oren looked relieved to no longer be responsible for the conversation.

Iris opened one notebook and told Sage she had measured the mana concentration. The increase wasn’t behaving like any ordinary mana-gathering formation she knew.

Sage listened until she finally paused. "I don’t know."

Iris blinked. "Which part?"

"Most of it."

For several seconds she seemed personally offended by the answer. She then asked who did know, and Sage told her that if she found that person, she should introduce them. The Tower worked, its safety measures had been tested repeatedly, and the Guild understood how to operate it, but Sage couldn’t explain every principle behind its construction.

Instead of discouraging her, this made Iris visibly more interested.

She spent the next two hours inside the Tower.

She might have remained there until evening if Oren hadn’t mentioned during conversation that the Guild maintained records from previously discovered dungeons. Iris stopped halfway through adjusting a measuring crystal and turned toward him so quickly that he nearly stepped backward.

Ten minutes later, she was inside the Grand Guild Library asking Lucien Marrow where the dungeon records were kept.

Lucien initially showed her the public collection: reports concerning known dungeon types, recorded monsters, mana environments, recovered materials, and observations submitted by Adventurers.

Iris moved through them with increasing speed until she discovered references to the first dungeon Sage’s group had explored near Evergreen.

Then she found the words Mana Liquid.

Iris appeared in Sage’s office again before sunset.

She entered carrying three open books balanced against her chest and asked, "You found naturally condensed Mana Liquid inside a dungeon?"

Sage looked up from his desk and recognized immediately that his peaceful afternoon was finished. He confirmed that they had recovered Mana Liquid during an early dungeon expedition near Evergreen.

"How much?" Iris quickly asked.

Sage shrugged. "Enough."

She looked at Sage and said with a disapproving face."That’s not a measurement."

"It’s the measurement you’re getting." Sage glance at her and said.

Iris narrowed her eyes, but Sage could see curiosity overwhelming annoyance. She wanted to know what conditions produced it, whether the dungeon’s mana density had been measured before extraction, whether the liquid regenerated, what kind of container had preserved it, and whether samples still existed. Sage could answer some questions.

Others had never occurred to him when he first entered that dungeon.

When he admitted that the Guild still possessed bottles, Iris went silent.

Sage didn’t trust the silence.

"You want one."

"I want to study one."

"That’s the same thing with extra words."

Iris argued that Mana Liquid could reveal how extreme mana environments crossed the boundary between ambient energy and stable physical concentration.

Sage countered that it was also valuable enough that Knights would happily empty their savings for a bottle. Iris replied that drinking rare research material without studying it first was exactly why Warriors shouldn’t be trusted with important discoveries.

Sage laughed despite himself.

He eventually agreed to let her examine a tiny controlled sample inside the Guild rather than handing over an entire bottle. That should have satisfied her. Instead, it led to another question: what else had the Guild recovered from dungeons?

That question ruined the remainder of Sage’s evening.

Iris discovered the monster records next. The Guild had accumulated information from missions across Evergreen and its branches: habitats, mana cores, physical characteristics, valuable materials, known abilities, weaknesses, seasonal behavior, and reports from Adventurers who had survived unusual encounters.

Much of it remained incomplete, which Iris found even more exciting because incomplete records meant unanswered questions.

Then Lucien showed her the growing collection of cultivation texts, bestiaries, expedition journals, maps, and Mage notes being gathered for the Grand Guild Library.

By nightfall, Iris had stopped studying the Mana Tower.

She was studying the Guild.

The next morning she returned before Sage finished breakfast.

This time she carried four notebooks.

Sage saw her approaching through the dining hall and considered leaving through another door. Unfortunately, Iris noticed him first. She sat across from him without invitation and immediately asked why Adventurer Ranks were the same regardless of whether someone was a Knight or Mage.

Sage explained that Adventurer Rank measured accomplishments within the Guild rather than personal strength. Iris wrote that down and asked who had designed the Rank structure.

Sage paused. "I did."

That was technically close enough to the truth for public consumption.

Iris then wanted to know why the Guild recorded monster encounters in a standardized format, why branches shared mission information, how the Exchange intended to maintain consistent appraisal standards across different Regions, and whether dungeon discoveries would eventually be distributed between branches.

Sage answered what he could, but every answer produced two more questions.

Eventually he lowered his spoon. "Do you ever stop?"

Iris looked genuinely confused by the question. "When I’m sleeping."

"That explains a lot."

She ignored him and continued writing.

Over the following days, Iris became a familiar presence throughout the Headquarters. She measured mana inside the Tower, argued with Lucien over classification methods, questioned Oren about cultivation behavior, bothered Exchange appraisers for monster samples, and repeatedly appeared near Sage whenever she discovered another feature of the Guild that didn’t fit existing practice. Half the Guild’s impossible facilities existed because of the System, and explaining that was out of the question.

Iris interpreted every unanswered question as another research problem. Her questions were exhausting, but Sage couldn’t deny their value. Iris noticed gaps that Adventurers ignored, especially in records the Guild had created simply because they were useful. More than once, one irritating question exposed something worth improving.

By the end of the week, she finally registered as an Adventurer, not because she suddenly dreamed of fame or missions, but because registration gave her easier access to Guild records, facilities, and future dungeon expeditions.

Sage watched her receive her Bronze badge and realized the Guild had gained something potentially useful and unquestionably troublesome.

Iris Dawncaster had arrived to study the Mana Tower.

Instead, she had discovered an entire organization she couldn’t explain.