Frequent appearances

The chaos subsided as quickly as it had erupted, leaving behind a scene of destruction and bewilderment. The woman who had initially confronted the creatures struggled to her feet, her mind racing with questions. She stared at the young man who had appeared out of nowhere and dispatched the monsters with such ease.

"Did you see that?" the man beside her asked, his voice tinged with awe and confusion.

"Yeah," the woman replied, her eyes never leaving the mysterious figure.

Gathering his courage, the man called out, "Young man, what the hell was that?"

Jasper turned to face them, his expression impassive. Without a word, he walked past them towards the cracks from which the creatures had emerged, seemingly oblivious to their questions.

The woman and man exchanged bewildered glances. "Who the hell is he?" the man muttered.

As Jasper stood silently, observing the fissures in the ground, the woman approached him cautiously. "Who are you?" she asked sternly.

In response, Jasper reached into his coat and produced a letter, handing it to her without a word.

The woman recognized the official seal of the superintendent immediately. Her eyes widened as she quickly scanned its contents.

"Seriously?!" she exclaimed, her voice filled with disbelief. "You're the new recruit?"

The man snatched the paper from her hands, reading it for himself. Their surprise was palpable, but Jasper paid them no mind. He crouched down, examining the cracks intently.

To the untrained eye, there was nothing remarkable about the fissures. But Jasper's heightened magical senses detected something others couldn't perceive: faint traces of blue magical energy lingering in the air. These ethereal strands seemed to stretch off in a specific direction, far beyond the immediate area.

"Someone had sent them," Jasper stated matter-of-factly, rising to his feet. "Controlled these creatures."

The woman looked at him skeptically. "How could you tell?"

To which Jasper replied, "There are traces of mana strands."

She then said, "I've thought about that possibility before, but for one's magic to work, they should be around the beasts they've tamed; And it would take an enormous amount of magical power to control them. I don't think anyone is capable of such a feat."

"Every time they attacked, we couldn't pin point where they were coming from, and we scoured the entire area around the appearance. But we didn't find anyone suspcious."

Her words confirmed what Jasper had suspected – this wasn't an isolated incident. These creatures had attacked before, leaving the local magical authorities baffled.

Jasper remained silent, his mind working through the implications of what he'd observed. The magical traces he'd seen suggested a level of control and power far beyond what the woman believed was possible. It was clear that whoever was behind these attacks possessed abilities that defied conventional understandings of magic in this world.

The woman studied Jasper closely, still trying to reconcile the extraordinary display of magic she'd witnessed with the young man standing before her. The fact that he had conjured a sword of fire without uttering a single incantation was unprecedented in her experience.

"How did you do that?" she finally asked. "The fire sword—I've never seen anything like it. And you didn't chant any incantations."

Jasper met her gaze, his expression unreadable. "There's more to magic than what's commonly known," he replied cryptically.