Chapter 538 - 538: Why Does It Feel Like I Never Get the Good Stuff, Only the Annoying Chores?

Finding someone who could remember specific events from over 80 years ago meant finding someone well over 80 years old. There simply weren't many elders of that age in Magnolia and the surrounding regions, so Makarov concluded his inquiries rather quickly.

Unfortunately, abandoned children were tragically common in any era. Magnolia still had an active orphanage filled with abandoned kids, which Noah regularly funded. Over 80 years ago, the situation had been much worse. The chaos and lingering devastation following the Second Trade War meant that countless children had been left behind.

Even though Makarov could specify the exact year they were looking for, how could any surviving elder possibly remember the precise age of one specific abandoned baby amidst all that chaos? Without any distinguishing physical characteristics to go on, Makarov hit a dead end.

Hearing the news, Mavis wasn't too disappointed. She had already anticipated this outcome; she knew they would ultimately have to rely on magic to find her child.

Having compiled all surviving historical records of bloodline-tracking magic, Noah and Mavis began analyzing the theoretical frameworks to understand how the spells verified genetic connections.

Conveniently, Fairy Tail had several groups of blood relatives they could use as test subjects. Noah gathered Laxus, Ur and Ultear, Gildarts and Cana, the Strauss siblings, Sorano and Yukino, and Simon and Kagura. He then cast the two or three intact ancient tracking spells on them.

When the first spell activated, the targets with blood ties began to glow. The closer the genetic relation, the brighter the light. The other spells yielded similar results: they all generated highly visible physical phenomena on the targets to confirm the bond and indicate the degree of kinship.

After dismissing Laxus and the others, Noah and Mavis began deconstructing these spells to forge a custom version that met their specific needs.

The ancient spells were useless for their current objective. They relied on visual confirmation, meaning the caster and the target had to be in the same room. What Noah and Mavis needed was a massive, continent-spanning radar that would provide directional feedback to the caster regarding the target's location.

Furthermore, they had to completely eliminate the physical phenomena side-effect. They had absolutely no idea what kind of situation Mavis's 88-year-old child was currently in. If he was suddenly engulfed in a blinding magical glow, it could startle him, expose him to enemies, or put him in danger.

They also didn't need pinpoint accuracy right away. The primary goal was to maximize the search radius—the wider, the better. Ishgar was a massive continent; if the spell's range was too small, sweeping the entire landmass would take years.

By deliberately sacrificing pinpoint accuracy, they could exponentially expand the spell's scanning radius. And, as Noah designed it, once a general direction was confirmed, the caster could throttle the range down to increase accuracy and slowly zero in on the target.

After several days of intense magical engineering, Noah and Mavis finalized a prototype that roughly met their requirements. They called Makarov and Laxus over for the first field test.

Given his decades of magical experience, Makarov mastered the casting process almost immediately. Noah grabbed Laxus by the collar and shot into the sky, flying rapidly away from the island.

Makarov stayed behind, maintaining the spell and tracking Laxus's position.

When Noah was roughly fifty kilometers away, Makarov sent a telepathic signal that the connection had dropped. Noah immediately grabbed Laxus and teleported back to Tenrou Island.

"The moment I signaled you, the resonance completely vanished," Makarov reported. "Also, the magic consumption for this spell is incredibly high. The First Master might struggle to keep this active continuously."

"I could feel the magic probing me when we were close, but the sensation faded as we got further away," Laxus added, noting his subjective experience as the target.

"I kept an eye on you, and there were no physical glowing effects. So, no visual phenomena, and a maximum effective radius of fifty kilometers. That's a solid start," Noah smiled, running the calculations in his head.

A fifty-kilometer radius obviously wasn't enough, and Mavis couldn't afford to run it 24/7 due to the massive mana drain. Plus, even with her immortality, she still needed to sleep.

The prototype had three flaws: targets could sense it at close range, it guzzled magic, and the radius was too small. With the parameters set, Noah and Mavis dove back into refining the spell.

Every few days, they pushed out a new "update" and dragged Makarov and Laxus back out to test it.

After the fifth or sixth test, Laxus finally threw his hands up, looking utterly exasperated.

"Why does it always have to be me and Grandpa? Go use Cana or Ultear for once!" Laxus complained.

"Gildarts and Aunt Ur are highly specialized in their respective fields; learning a complex new tracking spell would take them too long. Grandpa picks it up instantly. Since we need to rapidly test and iterate, and the spell requires a massive mana pool to sustain, Grandpa is the best caster. And since you're his grandson, you're the designated target," Noah explained with a casual shrug.

"Why does it feel like I never get the good stuff, only the annoying chores?" Laxus grumbled, glaring sideways at Noah. "Also, can you stop literally carrying me by the collar when we fly? You can cast flight magic on me, you know."

"Because carrying you is easier and saves me effort. I only have to cast the aerodynamic shielding on myself," Noah smiled innocently. "You could always fly yourself. But you can't use your Lightning Body, because transforming into pure energy disrupts the spell's tracking signature."

Laxus rolled his eyes so hard it hurt.

He knew Noah was full of it. "Saves effort"? For a monster with Noah's absurd magical reserves, casting a simple flight spell on a second person was like a drop in the ocean. Noah didn't care about efficiency; he just enjoyed dangling Laxus in the air like a sack of potatoes because he found it amusing.

It was the exact same dynamic they had shared since childhood. If the roles were reversed, Laxus would absolutely do the exact same thing to Noah. It was just that Noah was vastly stronger, meaning he got to do the teasing far more often.

Laxus scowled and stomped off to rest. During the last test, Noah had completely neglected to expand the aerodynamic shield, meaning Laxus had just been blasted in the face by freezing, 100km/h sea winds. Even with his durable Dragon Slayer body, he needed a minute to thaw out.

Noah chuckled softly and turned back to Mavis, tweaking the runic equations based on the latest telemetry.

By this point, the spell was virtually undetectable to the target even at point-blank range, the mana consumption had been optimized, and the search radius had expanded to 100 kilometers.

But it still wasn't enough. However, pushing the range past 100 kilometers caused the complexity of the spell to scale exponentially. Developing the next version would take significantly more time, meaning the frequency of the field tests dropped drastically.

Laxus was more than happy with this development. He vastly preferred doing manual labor on the airship over being used as Noah's personal windsock.

While Noah and Mavis were locked in their research, the airship retrofit was proceeding smoothly.

Under the strict supervision of Noah's Thought Projections, there were no major accidents or chaotic brawls. Any minor squabbles over who got to use the power tools were swiftly and ruthlessly crushed by the clones.

Thanks to everyone's combined efforts, the airship's core infrastructure was essentially complete. The new power grids were active, the specialized rooms were functional, and the ship was fundamentally flight-ready.

All that remained was the interior detailing, furnishing, and aesthetic decorating. Naturally, this required a more delicate touch.

Noah's clones inspected every single renovated room to verify structural integrity and magical safety. He wasn't about to let the guild's hard work go up in flames because someone wired a light fixture directly into an Ethernano conduit.

Once a room passed inspection, it was immediately handed over to Ultear and the girls, who had taken absolute control of the interior design committee.

Among the girls, Lucy's opinions were treated as absolute gospel.

Everyone knew Lucy was the heiress of the Heartfilia Conglomerate. Having been raised in a world of absolute luxury and elite education, her aesthetic sensibilities and understanding of high-end design were second to none. If they wanted the airship to look like a flying luxury resort rather than a chaotic pirate ship, Lucy was the one to guide them.

~~~

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