“So, why are you here? What are you looking for here?” when the fight outside of the cave quieted down, Josphine Wong came out with Jianmen asking: “I would assume that a former god like yourself would either stay in a secret place to heal and to recover your power, or you would seek out something that would help you restore your power. And the chaotic energy fields tell me that you are not here to rest.”
“Well, first of all - I would appreciate it if you don’t mention the former god thing to other people.” Jianmen found a long and straight tree branch nearby. He then swung the branch in the air a few times while paying attention to the sound it made when it cut through the air: “Secondly, I am actually looking for a lot of things here, something like that dirt is one of them - but hopefully in greater quantities and in crystal or rock form. They make for pretty good energy absorption material. Good for building my kind of altars.”
The entire area outside of the cave was a mess - a lot of the trees were broken and torn down, the rocks and boulders that used to provide shade were smashed into pieces and scattered around with green, blue and brown slime smeared all over them.
The air was also filled with a hint of bad smell, it was a combination of the smell of blood, the smell of monster drool, and the smell of rotten flesh. It seemed to be the case that at least one of the monsters that fought outside left some body parts laying around.
“I think we’ve hit a jackpot here.” Jianmen smelled in the air and got a bit excited: “There’s a dead monster nearby. We can try to salvage some useful parts.”
“So the sword you were so heartbroken over, is it something you salvaged from a monster?” Josephine Wong followed Jianmen.
“Yeah. I carved it from a gallbladder stone from a dead ape.” Jianmen said: “By the time I got there, it was already almost completely cleaned up by scavengers. So I took its spine to build the concealing array for the cave, and I cut off its fur to put on the bed, and I found the stone and fashioned it into a sword.”
“Will there be anything that could help me recover? I am really worried about my friends.“ Josephine Wong sighed and said, she was still quite weak, though she no longer needed a walking stick: “You’ve been here longer than I’ve been here, so I could use some more knowledge and experience dealing with the creatures here.”
“Okay.” Jianmen looked back and smiled: “How about this - I tell you about what I’ve learned here, and you tell me a bit about the magical world here. How’s that sound? Like that Academy you mentioned.”
“Sure. I don’t see why not, as long as you don’t ask for information that I am not at liberty to reveal.” Josephine Wong also picked up a long tree branch that was lying on the ground, then she sharpened one end of it using her dagger to make it a wooden spear: “So, let me go first, did you recognize either of the monsters from before?”
“I recognized the lizard with two spikes on its back. I am not sure it was the same one I saw before. But it was one of the beings here that may have a chance at becoming the alpha of this small place - well at least on the surface.” Jianmen nodded: “So if I was to place a bet on who won that fight, I would put all of my chips on the lizard with a spikey back.”
“But you may have just lost you chips.” Josephine Wong pointed at somewhere up high on their right: “Look at that.”
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Jianmen looked at the direction in which Josephine Wong pointed, and he saw that it was a broken spike on a tree that was still dripping blue blood from the broken end, its main body impaled the trunk of the tree, and with the sharp end pointing upwards.
“This doesn’t change anything.” Jianmen rubbed his jaw with his right forearm because he did not have a right hand and said: “But let’s find out. Was that answer good for you?”
“Yeah, sure. What do you wanna know about the magical world?”
“Okay, so first, how many powered individuals are there in this world?” Jianmen continued his search forward and asked.
“Well, that’s kind of a tough question to answer.” Josephine Wong scratched her head: “We don’t have censuses like the civilian world, because of technical difficulties - a lot of the powered individuals in this world prefer lives of solitude or small communities and away from society.”
“Okay, how about a rough number? Like in the millions? Also it doesn’t have to include ALL powered individuals, like mages and witches like you.”
“That’s easier, for us magic wielders, rough numbers wise that would be somewhere around ten million of us all over the world.” Josephine Wong looked up at the broken spike in the tree and answered: “Most magic wielders prefer to live somewhere that was adjacent to the civilian world but not too close. Every year there are around seventy thousand to a hundred thousand magic wielders born in the civilian world, and we also have a much smaller but non-negligible number of people that have supernatural powers that are not of a magical nature. But we don’t have concise numbers of those people either. So there you have it.”
“Thank you, that’s a detailed answer. I’ll try my best to give you that.” Jianmen looked to the side and found that a big crater appeared at a distance, and inside of the crater he could see the giant lizard monster lying in there, with both spikes on its back broken: “There - I think you’ve won, looks like the lizard lost. We have another powerful contender for the alpha here.”
“Okay, here’s a tough one for you.” Josephine Wong thought for a while and asked: “Did you know about the dragon here?”
Jianmen was a bit shocked by the question: “I’m sorry - a dragon?”
“Yeah. And it’s that dragon that caused the explosion.” Josephine Wong followed Jianmen’s footsteps down the slope on the side towards the crater: “It basically - well it basically dropped a giant ball lightning on the ground.”