Jet's and Droy's suffering lasts for a few months. Alex drags them to his jobs very often and he doesn't bring them to easy jobs, but S-Class jobs. He also brings Levy sometimes so she can take a break from her translating job.
But Jet and Droy suffer the most because the jobs are just too difficult and dangerous for them. They seem to lose some years of their lifespan every time they return from the jobs with Alex and they seem like they are being dragged into hell every time Alex brings them for a job.
They sure look pitiful, but they really have gotten much stronger compared to a few months ago. Their bodies look more toned because Alex often trains their physiques as physical strength is very important for Mages and both of them really lack that.
Stronger physiques also help them to have more magic power. Their spells are also stronger and their battle skills are better now. After all, they've experienced fighting opponents much stronger than them.
Not even once have they ever won against the opponents in the jobs that they do with Alex. S-Class opponents are just too strong for them, after all. But Alex keeps making them fight those powerful opponents to their limits, which makes them improve even if they don't want to.
They are happy that they get stronger, but the pain they feel is just too much for them. That's why they are very happy when Levy finally finishes translating all the records because it means they don't need to work with Alex again and can just work with their team.
Levy has written everything she translated in a book. It took her months to finish because she needed to sort their orders correctly as they were very disheveled. Some parts even lost from many records, so she needed to fill them with some predictions.
Her work is so good that Alex wants to pay her more. But he can't because the Guild has decided to buy the records, so it will be the Guild that pays Levy and Alex will also get money as the discoverer. Cana, Wendy, Carla, and even Meteor will also get some money because they also contributed in finding the records.
The reason why Makarov wants to buy the record from them is because the contents are both beneficial and dangerous. There are parts that can help the Guild members get stronger, but there are also dangerous parts that can threaten people's lives if used wrongly.
It's not that Makarov doesn't believe Alex to keep the records. He knows that Alex can keep it well protected. But it's much safer to keep it in the Guild's library. Also, he wants to use the parts that can strengthen the Guild members to help them get stronger and Alex agrees with that.
So before they put the book in the library, they sort the contents. They put just the good parts in a different book and put that book in the open library. While the real book that contains all the records is kept in a safe.
Alex obviously has access to the full version as the discoverer. But even he isn't allowed to copy it because there's always a risk of the copy being lost and found by irresponsible people. So he can only read the book in the safe room.
The record actually contains some historical information like about the Nirvit tribe and some historical events at that time. It also contains the method to build Nirvana, which is the most dangerous part.
But there are some useful parts in there. They can learn some good manufacturing methods from Nirvana's construction, and the method to absorb magic power from the land is also very useful. Alex especially wants to learn this method, that's his reason to take all those records.
There are also some Ancient Spells that the Nirvit Tribe used. Some of them are not complete, but they still can be used as references to help the Mages improve their Magic.
These things can benefit the whole Guild, that's why Alex agrees to sell the records to the Guild instead of using it alone. He only needs the magic power absorption method anyway, so the other parts are not useful for him, but they will be useful for his Guild mates.
The problem is, Alex isn't smart enough to learn the method by himself. Besides, this method is for machines, not Mages. So he needs to convert the absorption method to be usable by humans, which he can't do with his low capacity brain.
Fortunately, he has someone with a good brain to help him all the time. As usual, it's Matatabi who actually learns everything for Alex. Then she'll teach it to him like teaching a 3 year old.
So Alex doesn't actually need to learn and solve the problem. He can just leave it to Matatabi while he does his usual activities. It's the advantage of having a great team that always stays with him.
Still, learning the method and making it usable for humans isn't easy even for Matatabi. She isn't exactly a Magic Researcher nor an expert who learns many types of Magic. Actually, Magic is still a rather foreign object for her even if it's rather similar to chakra and jutsu.
Fortunately, she and the Tailed Beasts have a chakra absorption method that now becomes a magic power absorption method. So what she needs to do is add the concepts of Nirvana's magic absorption method to their method to increase its effect.
Slowly, Alex's magic power absorption skill gets more effective and efficient. The increase in effect isn't significant in the beginning, but just getting a bit more is already great because the accumulation will still be higher than usual.
Matatabi says there are still parts she can't apply on their method right away. She needs more time to integrate those parts and once she succeeds, the effect will be much greater. She just needs time to understand more and it's not a problem for Alex.
Anyway, a big event happens this year. Gildarts finally takes the 100 Years Quest. Originally, he should have taken it last year at X781, but he was worried about Cana because he knew the quest might take years to finish.
Then when Cana gets promoted to S-Class, his worries are gone. She is strong enough to not make him worry about her. But he still needs to make sure about that, so he follows her as she takes S-Class jobs and trains her again for a few months.
Now that he's really sure she will be fine, Gildarts finally takes the 100 Years Quest. Everyone in the Guild wishes him luck before he leaves for the job. Alex knows it will be a very dangerous job even for Gildarts, so he tells the old man to return alive no matter what.
"Remember what you always told us, old man. Don't let your pride get ahead of you and get you killed. We'd rather have you back alive and depressed than dead. Better be alive than dead if you end up failing anyway, right?" Alex reminds Gildarts before he leaves.
"You say as if I will surely fail, kid."
"Well, no one succeeds after more than a century. So I'll say your chance is slim too, and being alone will surely make it much harder. A quest that still goes on even after more than a century. That means the opponent is still there even after a century. It can be one or some long-living monsters that maybe are at the levels of Dragons to make the job this difficult, or maybe it's a Nation or a powerful organization that still stands strong even after more than a century. Either way, I don't believe there's only 1 opponent and they are not opponents that can be defeated alone no matter how strong we are. That's why I say your priority here is just staying alive. At the very least, we'll know more about this quest and prepare to clear it in the future after we get stronger."
Alex is very serious about this because things have changed with his interruptions on many things. So he isn't sure if Gildarts will still return alive from this quest and the only thing he can do to increase Gildarts' survival chance is by telling what he just says.
"He is right, Gildarts. No one has ever returned alive from this job. So even just returning alive will already prove that you can do better than them. Also, as Alex says, failing but alive is better than failing but dead." Makarov really agrees with Alex.
".... Isn't that obvious, Master? Shouldn't you say it's better than succeeding but dead?"
"What kind of success is that? Can you even call that a success if you are dead? How do you even know that you succeed if you are dead? You can only know the result if you are alive to witness it."
Alex tilts his head because he thinks that it's an obvious thing. Sacrificing oneself to protect their loved ones is something that even Alex will do, but he won't call it a success.
The real success is when they can do it without dying. After all, there is always a chance that something worse happens after their death and they won't be there to do anything about it, so it will just be another failure.
"Fair point. Alright, I'll stay alive no matter what. I still want to see my daughter's face too."
"If you don't return alive, then I'll marry Macao." Cana says it teasingly.
"I'll definitely return alive to make sure that won't happen." Gildarts looks at Macao menacingly with a murderous gaze.
"I DON'T EVEN PLAN TO DO THAT." Macao shivers in fear as he hides behind Wakaba.
Anyway, Gildarts finally leaves to do the 100 Years Quest after promising he'll return alive. This is such a big event this year, but there's another event that Alex has been waiting for longer than this, Lisanna's "death".
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Ch. 139. Old and New Enemies