Chapter 72
Makarov had gotten drunk again.
Perched on the guild counter, he stretched out one arm and repeatedly patted Marshall on the head, already far too pleased with himself.
"You really do have incredible luck, Marshall~ Juvia is an exceptionally rare talent!"
He laughed loudly.
"And that village of hers was inside Phantom Lord’s territory. If no one had intervened, she probably would’ve joined them eventually. You did excellent work this time!"
"Try drinking a little less, old man. You’re far too old to behave like this."
"Hahaha! I don’t care! I’m celebrating!"
Makarov continued ruffling his hair.
"When you’re wandering around outside, remember to bring back any other talented youngsters you happen to find! Fairy Tail can afford to raise them all! Ahahaha~"
Even Laxus, who was in the middle of his rebellious phase, surprisingly agreed with his grandfather for once.
"The people you’ve brought into the guild lately have been impressive, Marshall. Mira, Juvia... Only people with talents like theirs are truly suited to Fairy Tail."
"Hey, Laxus!" Makarov snapped. "We don’t judge our companions by their talent!"
"You’re clearly delighted about it yourself."
"Of course I’m happy that our companions are talented! But a person’s value can’t be measured by talent alone!"
"Tch. Whatever."
Laxus turned and walked away.
Already emotional from the alcohol, Makarov became angrier the more he thought about it.
Before long, the old man had practically drunk himself into tears and started complaining to Marshall.
"Marshall! Look at Laxus! Why can’t that idiot be as sensible as you?!"
"...Please leave me out of whatever strange emotional game you and your grandson are playing."
...
Several days had passed since Juvia successfully joined Fairy Tail.
Beautiful, powerful, and wonderfully strange, she fit into the guild almost immediately.
Fairy Tail might have lacked many things, but eccentric people certainly weren’t among them.
Since Juvia only became truly peculiar whenever Marshall was involved, she almost qualified as normal by guild standards.
She could frequently be seen acting as an unconventional disciplinary officer, scolding the others throughout the guildhall.
"Natsu! Stop destroying the guild! What if Marshall learns from you?!"
"Wakaba! Don’t smoke in front of the children! What if Marshall learns from you?!"
"Gray! Put your clothes back on! What if Marshall learns from you?!"
Everyone soon began teasing Marshall for bringing home a new mother.
Strangely, Juvia only behaved like this while Marshall was present.
The moment he left the guildhall, she stopped caring what anyone else did.
Instead, she hid alone in a dark corner and muttered mysterious things such as:
"Four years really isn’t that much..."
"Juvia only needs to wait..."
"In a few more years, the timing will be perfect..."
Marshall knew exactly what she was thinking.
As long as a girl genuinely understood that he was male, he had never objected to being liked.
The more affection directed his way, the better.
He wouldn’t actively encourage anything inappropriate, but he saw no reason to reject harmless admiration either.
His policy was simple: remain passive, accept the goodwill, and spread love equally.
Juvia might have been obsessed with romance, but her sense of right and wrong was surprisingly normal.
She wasn’t nearly as dangerously imaginative as Levy.
Since she couldn’t properly express her feelings toward Marshall yet, she decided to become an enthusiastic "Brocon" who doted on him instead.
However, after only a few days in Fairy Tail, Juvia made a disturbing discovery.
Did Marshall perhaps have slightly too many self-proclaimed big sisters?
Her romantic danger senses immediately activated!
She decided to observe the guild quietly for a while, understand every relationship surrounding Marshall, then infiltrate the enemy ranks and prepare for future operations.
Marshall paid no attention to Juvia’s secret campaign.
Because he had spent the past few days studying magic with her, Juvia had remained in an excellent mood.
Ever since arriving at Fairy Tail, the "Rain Woman" phenomenon had never appeared again.
That proved Juvia could indeed control her abilities.
The key seemed to be her emotional state.
Her emotions influenced her control over magic power and triggered the release of Rain Magic.
That’s right—Rain Magic.
The constant rainfall surrounding Juvia wasn’t merely an accidental side effect.
It was a specialized form of Water Magic.
It also seemed extremely difficult to learn.
Marshall had failed to reproduce it with Water Magic LV1. He suspected the spell required at least Level Three, perhaps even Level Four.
It was an exceptionally rare field spell, yet Juvia had been using it unconsciously as a passive ability.
She hadn’t even realized it was a distinct spell.
Juvia had absolutely no idea how powerful she truly was.
After several days of research, Marshall had developed a fairly thorough understanding of her abilities.
He was now almost certain that Juvia’s Water Magic deserved to be rated at Level Five.
She possessed what ’stupid cultivation’ novels might call an innate Water Spirit Constitution.
Or, more simply, she was a natural Water Mage.
Juvia didn’t merely possess extraordinary talent for Water Magic. She could voluntarily transform her body—and even objects she touched—into water.
She also held a superior degree of authority over water elements within a certain area, allowing her control to override ordinary Water Magic.
Marshall had begun to suspect that every Level Five spell touched upon the power of concepts and authority.
That would represent a qualitative difference from the first four levels, not merely a greater amount of power.
Juvia’s actual combat strength, however, didn’t seem worthy of such advanced Water Magic.
Part of the problem was that her total magic power wasn’t especially high.
Water Magic also lacked naturally overwhelming offensive power.
And, of course, Juvia’s limited imagination had prevented her from fully developing her abilities.
Marshall didn’t criticize her.
He simply handed Juvia a copy of the Naruto manga and told her to study the Water Release techniques.
If she developed something resembling the Hidden Mist Jutsu, her combat ability could multiply several times over.
And if she reproduced the Water Severing Wave, there might be only a handful of people in Fairy Tail capable of defeating her.
Still, Juvia’s magical development wasn’t what interested Marshall most.
A far greater question had appeared in his mind.
If Level Five existed...
Was there also a Level Six?
And what kind of power would that represent?
In Marshall’s understanding, anyone who completely mastered the authority of a particular concept could probably call themselves a god.
Could the gods said to have existed in this world’s distant past have been connected to that higher level?
Since a human like Juvia could awaken with Level Five magic from birth, then perhaps in ancient times there had been beings born with Level Six abilities.
Beings people called... Gods.
Once Marshall reached that thought, his imagination exploded.
Suppose the ancient gods had been a race of naturally powerful beings who possessed Level Six skills.
How had entities that strong fallen?
History appeared to contain an answer.
The dragons had dragged the gods down from their thrones.
If so, dragons were probably creatures who each possessed at least one ability at Level Five or higher.
The existence of Dragon Seeds supported that theory.
A Dragon Seed carried an extremely powerful conceptual nature of its own.
Natsu’s Fire Dragon Seed allowed him to consume flames.
Wendy’s Sky Dragon Seed allowed her to consume positive energy from the atmosphere.
Marshall’s Space-Time Dragon Seed allowed him to consume space-time power.
Perhaps the overall power level of the world had been declining throughout history.
In the current era, a human possessing even a Level Four ability could already be considered extraordinarily powerful.
As far as Marshall knew, Makarov possessed an absurd amount of magic power, yet he didn’t truly have any Level Five skills.
The Guild Master’s Light Magic was Level Four at most.
Marshall could already perceive the limits of his abilities.
A high skill level didn’t automatically make someone invincible. Juvia herself wasn’t overwhelmingly strong yet.
However, without sufficiently advanced skills, it was impossible to climb toward a higher realm at all.
In that respect, Juvia—who had been born with Level Five Water Magic—was already walking ahead of nearly everyone else.
Marshall had no special reason for considering all this.
He merely wanted to point out one simple fact.
He possessed a System capable of raising skill levels by spending Inspiration.
Judging from the System’s established pattern, advancing a skill from Level Four to Level Five would require ten million Inspiration.
Then Level Five to Level Six would probably demand around one hundred million.
One hundred million...
At Marshall’s current average rate of saving six hundred thousand Inspiration per year, gathering that amount would require roughly one hundred and sixty years.
That number was admittedly somewhat despairing.
But what if it truly represented a shortcut to becoming a god?
Reaching divinity after only a little over a century of training?
Even dragons without Systems would weep with envy.
Marshall’s future had never looked brighter!
Surely everyone could understand how incredible this was!
Marshall was completely fired up!
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