About three years ago, when I was in Sheffield, Morgana released a new book called Laws of the Lost, and made it a mandatory subject to be taught to the students of Hogwarts. She also seriously recommended other academies do the same, and asked for all adults to read it too.

  It's an informational, and also a warning about Fairy and the Fae. Apparently, due to the rising levels of mana within the lay lines, some ancient magical phenomena that used to exist on Earth are coming back. She didn't explain how one might stumble into Fairy, which in hindsight is a smart move, as there's no lack of idiots who would try something regardless of the warnings—like me.

  The information in the book, while fascinating, wasn’t the most important thing, but rather what came off of it. With the additional information, I managed to put back some other info, and a specific experiment from my time in Morgana's lab.

  Before finding a way to seal her body, one of the avenues of Morgana's research was immortality through activating her fae side of her bloodline. She even managed to design a new ritual that would help her do it, but in the end, it turned out it can only be done before magical maturity, which is around sixteen to nineteen depending on the person.

  Magic, unlike the body that basically starts dying at around 25, never stops becoming stronger. The rate at which it improves, however, will significantly slow down.

  Based on some books and hypotheses I've read, there are basically several multipliers for magical growth. The first one is based on age, which makes it so that the younger you are, the faster your magic grows, with two milestones: at around 11 and somewhere between 16 to 19.

  The second multiplier is usage. The longer you use your magic continuously, the higher the multiplier goes until it plateaus. How fast the practice multiplier grows, or where it stops growing, depends on the person's talent.

  The third and last known multiplier is knowledge and memories. As long as you're making new memories, the multiplier works, but the more actual, useful knowledge you gain, the higher it goes. Though I'm not really sure what's considered useful knowledge, it's safe to assume magical knowledge counts.

  Now, the important bit about the three is that they are . That means that if at any point any of them becomes zero, magical growth stops—for example, during sleep, which is why I've been using my dreamscape ever since I learned this. As for magic usage unlike some xianxia stories I've read wizards produce their own mana, which I believe keeps the multiplier at a one, if a bit more.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  The important bit for me is that I've yet to hit my first milestone. That means if I can complete the ritual that Morgana created, I can, by virtue of my fae bloodline, keep my first-grade multiplier forever. This is even better than what actual fae have as their own growth multipliers are supposedly even worse than our post second milestone ones.

  The downside to this is that, one, I'm not totally sure if there are going to be any side effects, though I'm fairly certain it'll be safe. And second, ever since meeting with the goblins, something seems to have happened. I'm guessing goblins are somehow related to the fae, as I'm pretty sure this is a quirk of my bloodline. I am unable to lie, and anyone that agrees with me on anything is bound to their words whether they do it on purpose or not, unless I specifically let them go. This also explains the goblin's weird behavior after he perfunctorily agreed to my demand.

  Based on current clues, this ability will weaken at 11 and disappear after my second milestone, but if I go through with the ritual, it'll become permanent.

  In the end, though, I think the benefits are too high not to trade my ability to lie for.

  With all things said and my astral ward... Let's just call it Dream Catcher for now. Each time I call it astral ward, I get the compulsion to sit down and not move until I make a real one.

  Ok, with my Dream Catcher complete, I can go onto the next step. To perform the ritual, I only need two things. First is blood from a fae—any fae works—though there's the problem that not all fae necessarily have blood, but I'll get there when I get there. The second is, the ritual needs to take place in Fairy.

  With a snap of my fingers, I disappeared, teleporting to the middle of the forest above. Despite trying to, I couldn't make teleportation seamless like I'd wanted. It's better than Apparition, but there's still a twist in my stomach whenever I use it. It also can't handle long distance, unlike Apparition.

  The forest was black and white, as far as the eye could see. The blizzard was quite heavy last night, and the snow is pretty deep right now, but thankfully I can just walk on it instead of through.

  Against the blindingly white and sparkling backdrop of the snow, the barks of the evergreens and what little of their leaves are visible look entirely black, though the scenery had a kind of charm to it.

  Morgana didn't include this in her recent book, but according to her ramblings, there are ways into Fairy, and the most common one is through a genius loci.

  Genius loci are a type of fae that are simultaneously also a place. They could be called land spirits but that's not totally correct. They don't inhabit a place they are the place. There's basically a complex spatial phenomenon that allows them to grow in a place with it distorting the land outside, sort of like a spatial expansion charm.

  In short, a consistent environment devoid of sapient settlers or regular sapient visitors and passersby, can give birth to a genius loci. A desert, an ocean, even an abandoned city or town, or... in this case, a forest. In either the most central location, or a location of magical significance that's also sufficiently deep into the environment, a genius loci will form. The higher the levels of mana, the less stringent the requirements are for its formation.

  Right now, there are around 300 people living on the entire island, and with the rising levels of mana, it should be enough for a genius loci to form. That just leaves finding it.