Genius Mage in a Cultivation World

"I can see it," Layn announced an hour barely after his party reached the shore. While it came mostly to the luck for them to find the place so quickly, the archmage still couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. 

"Isn't that place a little... deserted?" Sitra asked, turning her eyes towards the leader of the group. 

"Huh?" Layn shrugged before moving his eyes on the girl. "What do you mean?" he asked before moving his eyes back at the few buildings visible in the distance. 

For some reason, though, despite his body being constructed anew after he used the gran arcana, his eyesight was far from the likes of Sitra or Irea... Or literally anyone else of the current time. 

"While I can't see the details, something you appear to believe I could, there is no smoke coming out from those buildings," Sitra explained. "No smoke, no dust. There are no signs of the area being inhabited at all," she added in an explanatory voice as if she was some kind of teacher at the academy. 

"Oh," Layn sighed, finally understanding just how everyone around him appeared to have way better eyesight. "For a moment, I was worried I was slowly going blind," he added in hopes of masking the real reason for his worry. 

"But you still didn't respond to my observation from before," Sitra noticed before pointing it out. "Come on, are the people you left there so weak they could be wiped out in just a few..." she clearly attempted to say something smart, yet before she could finish her words, the hateful look of Layn made her lips stop moving. 

"I don't know what happened to them ever since that big fight concluded. But I doubt they could be wiped out that easily," Layn said in a serious tone, unwilling to even let such a possibility into his mind as an option. 

"Well, no point arguing over it now," Stira said as she shook her head. "While it only looks as if it was close by, it will actually be easier to spend some time and get there. Who knows, maybe they just went off somewhere?" she suggested before turning silent. 

From then on, the party once again turned silent. For the same reasons as before, Layn had no other choice but to limit the expenditure of his mana in any manner possible. Yet, as the group continued to approach the camp, he couldn't help but get his focus shaken by the worry. 

'If the camp is really empty... Just what could've happened to all of them?' he thought, sending anxious glances towards the buildings in the distance. 

Even though the camp itself was small, thanks to being located not only by the coast but also on an extremely flat plain, they could stop it from far away. But as great as it was for finding the correct direction to follow, the wait necessary for their horses to bring them to that place was akin to torture. 

"HELLO!" After roughly two more hours, something that Layn could only judge by the distance the sun covered on the skydome, the group finally reached the shouting distance away from the camp. And as soon as they did, Sitra was the first to shout.

Yet, there was no response whatsoever. 

"Just like I..." Sitra said, only to purse her lips mid-sentence. Just a single glance at Layn's face was enough for the girl to understand that it wasn't the best time to act superior over her guess coming true. 

"Give me a moment," Layn ignored her attempt at the rude and victorious remark, jumping down the horse instead. With his body now in good shape, he ran the remaining distance to the buildings.

"They really are gone," Layn muttered when he came between the buildings. While all of them were closed down, just the fact that no one was working in the open indicated that the place was really empty. 

That, or his people somehow decided to ignore his lessons and just slack away. 

Yet, even after checking every single building in the camp, the number of which increased by quite a few when compared to how he left the camp a few days ago, Layn didn't find a single soul.

That, or literally everyone was waiting in the kitchen he constructed in an attempt to give him a hearty surprise.

"What are you going to do now?" Sitra asked, ignoring the fact of how troubled Layn was.  "While this place is good enough for a few people to settle, it won't work as a base of operation for any bigger group," she added, clearly thinking about the future potential of this location. 

"This was the best place that we found within the limitations of our supplies," Layn explained as he approached the only building that didn't have a perfect geometrical shape. "Well, nothing good will come from just waiting around," he muttered before pushing the doors open. 

And as expected, there was not a living soul inside. Yet, that didn't mean the place was completely devoid of clues. 

Layn entered the building and moved towards the counter, where Irea would prepare the meals in the few days the kitchen was operating before the disaster struck. And just like he hoped, there was a small note left there. 

"Dear Layn, if you are reading this, there are few things I need you to know."

Layn felt a tear brim in his eye. Even though he didn't spend that much time in this timeline, he already grew quite attached to that cheeky girlfriend of his. 

"First off, it seems like your friends, named Yelna and Markus, came here looking for you. While they stayed a few days, they already decided to return to get more supplies and people. They claimed this place would stagnate without more manpower. Also, there was a man going by the name Al with them."

The first real portion of the letter was already enough to make Layn weak on his knees. This was a revelation he didn't expect at all. 

'Yelna? Markus? The hell are they doing here?' he could only ask this question to himself before shaking his head. 'No, it's obvious they would come looking for me if they appeared in this timeline as well. The true question is, just how did they move through time as well? It took me nearly a third of the entire gran arcana to ensure I would actually reappear in the past,' Layn analyzed the situation for a moment before moving to the nest part of the letter. 

"As for Al, he appeared to come from even different time than those friends of yours. While I'm unsure why both of them seemed to treat him with a lot of respect, as if he was someone insanely important to them. I think they called him an architect of your civilization? I think you will be quite happy to meet him in person, so I will leave it at that."

Layn tightened his fist. Irea wrote the letter as if she had plotted to make him gasp for air with each part of it. 'Does she know me that well, or are those news just so fucking groundbreaking?' Layn asked himself, shaken to the core. 

'Well, leaving that Al guy aside, it's good that some people came here. While the more, the merrier is a load of bullshit, this place would really use some more manpower,' Layn thought before moving his eyes to the following part of the letter. 

"One more thing about those friends and the Al guy. Since we couldn't come to an agreement on how this place would look once people would start flocking into it, we created a sort of agreement. While your friends will be outsourcing more supplies, they promised to get in touch with the rest of Al's clan, which on the side note is called Genar or something, and bring his people here. Would you believe it? He claims nearly his entire tribe got transported to this world and time along with him!"

Layn's entire body shook powerfully. This time, the letter didn't manage to stick in his hands, falling directly to the floor. 

"Al from the Genar clan?" He muttered, too shocked to even notice the letter leaving his hands. "Al Genar? Al Gener? Or maybe a fucking Gener Al?" he spoke to himself, feeling as if the entire world started to shake around him.

For Layn, the legendary General was a figure that pushed him in the direction that he developed his life. It was the exploits of this nearly-mythical figure that made Layn who he truly was. And right now, it appeared as if the legendary General also made its appearance both in this world and in this timeline!

"No, I need to read the rest," Layn scolded himself before leaning down and picking the letter up. 

"The last thing, don't be too worried if you didn't find anyone here. We actually found a lead to some strange place, not touched by a human hand. It is lush enough to sustain a single pack of wolves that we encountered while scouting, so I believe we could find a much better place to settle out there. Just to make sure we will be safe, I took everyone with me on the scouting mission. Just follow the bricky-sticks in the ground to find us."

Layn couldn't shake anymore. He couldn't because his entire body was already shaking from the excitement and worry. 

'A lush plain? A fertile area? Pack of wolves?' Those words appeared in his mind. Yet, before making any judgment, he looked at the letter once again to make sure he didn't miss anything. 

"I hope to see you soon. Despite what everyone is saying, I will never believe that you fell in that fight. May our path cross again!" 

The rest of the letter was just the closing lines. Yet, Layn didn't calm down. 

"For a fertile plain to be somewhere near...." his hands tightened in his fist, making Layn unknowingly put cracks on the wooden piece that the letter was written on. "It can only mean it's an area of another Overlord of Origin!"