Rhodes was assigned by Erza to search for Warren's whereabouts. Mira was to stay behind and, once the situation became clear, would be responsible for calming the nearby residents and, in the worst-case scenario, guiding civilians to evacuate.
With Erza's command, the guild members quickly took up their respective duties, each doing their best to contribute.
This was Rhodes' first time seeing the guild operate at full speed.
A guild that argued and fought every day actually had such strong cohesion.
"Answer my call, Shadow Wolves!" Inspired by the atmosphere, Rhodes summoned six wolves in one go.
In the Summoner's Valley, Shadow Wolves had two packs, a total of six.
"Erza, they have a keen sense of smell. If there's something Warren has used, they should be able to track him down quickly.
If anyone needs to move fast, I still have the Swift Crab."
Nab said, "I know where Warren's home is. Let a few follow me!"
Mira also said, "There may be some things Warren left in the guild. I'll go and look."
"You're a big help. I thought with Natsu gone, we wouldn't be able to track by scent." Erza said, "Alright then, let's split up."
"Okay." Rhodes divided one pack of Shadow Wolves to follow Nab and left another pack to assist Mira in searching the guild.
"It's so high, it's so scary—help me!"
The search team paused and narrowed the search area to places that were elevated.
Rhodes was worried about Warren's safety but also felt a sense of relief that he could be of use.
That sense of relief only lasted a few minutes before it completely vanished.
Other guildmates also dropped their concern, some even wanting to beat Warren up.
Because...
"I'm saved! Finally off that damned suspension bridge. I'm never going somewhere that high for a date again!"
"Oh no! Was my 'thought projection' active the whole time…?"
Warren's voice cut off abruptly.
Both inside and outside the guild, everyone broke into curses.
"Warren!"
"You idiot, are you messing with us?"
"We won't let you off!"
"Fairy Tail mages again? What are they up to this time?"
"I thought they'd been quiet for a while!"
"Isn't it too much to pull a prank across the entire city?"
Voices of all sorts echoed across Magnolia, with complaints on the streets loud enough to be heard even inside the guild.
Erza put a hand on her forehead, feeling embarrassed after having just led everyone so heroically, only to end up like this.
Mira stopped rummaging for Warren's belongings and instead smiled again, "Oh my, oh my… We've gone and stirred up trouble again."
Rhodes felt conflicted, "So this was all because Warren was on a date on a suspension bridge, then panicked, causing his magic to lose control, and made his voice heard throughout the entire city?"
Erza nodded, "Yes, he seems to have a severe fear of heights."
"…" The absurdity of the situation left Rhodes in disbelief. "Since this affected the entire city, do you think the residents will tear down our guild?"
"They won't, they won't." Mira waved her hand dismissively, "Stuff like this isn't all that uncommon. There's a more over-the-top uncle in our guild—if he comes back, the whole city turns upside down."
"But we still have to properly apologize and seek everyone's forgiveness. I'll go find him right now." Erza's eyes became sharp. "Rhodes, the Swift Crab."
"Uh, right." Rhodes summoned the River Crab. "It's similar to riding a horse—use the antennae as reins."
"Got it." Erza leapt onto the crab's back, snapped the "reins," and the crab sped off through the guild doors.
Rhodes thought about Erza's intimidating look just now, "You think Warren won't get chopped down by her, right?"
Mira said, "He probably won't be killed."
So, he'd still get chopped? Rhodes realized his common language had improved enough that he could easily catch the implied meaning in Mira's words.
Besides, after something like this, even if he wasn't physically cut down, he'd be socially dead, wouldn't he?
Rhodes imagined himself crying out for help across the entire city because of a fear of heights…
How mortifying! How could he ever show his face again?
Out of concern, Rhodes decided to connect to the River Crab's vision to check on Warren's situation.
The crab's perspective entered his mind—the scenery in "front" of him was rapidly moving backward, clearly indicating Erza was pushing the crab to move at full speed.
After just one second, Rhodes voluntarily disconnected from the vision.
The crab's field of vision was pretty wide. Not having realized this earlier was one thing, but watching any longer… felt impolite.
Good luck, Warren.
...
The "city-wide prank" incident had a pretty negative impact.
On the day it happened, Erza and Mira went out with Warren to explain and apologize to many of the citizens, and when the master returned, he personally went to the city hall.
But whether it was the mayor or the citizens, everyone was very forgiving about the incident.
"It was just shouting into everyone's minds—it's not like he wrecked the entire city."
According to a rumor spread by someone other than Mira, the mayor said this to the master when he met him.
The citizens complained for a few days, but soon enough, it became just a funny story.
"Did you hear? A Fairy Tail mage…"
The citizens now had more gossip for their tea-time conversations, adding yet another incident to Fairy Tail's history of mischief.
Even Brother Goodman couldn't resist asking Rhodes what kind of magic it was that day and what kind of person Warren was.
At this point, the situation was more or less resolved.
But ever since then, Warren hadn't shown up at the guild for quite some time.
When he ran out of money and had no choice but to take on missions, he'd hide in some corner outside the guild and use "Thought Projection" to communicate quietly with Mira.
Mira would carefully select a suitable mission for Warren and then figure out how to send him the mission sheet.
Yes, Mira told Rhodes this.
Because the one delivering the mission sheets was none other than Rhodes' Shadow Wolves.
A few days ago, the "high speed" feature of the River Crab had been used by Erza to catch Warren.
Now, the Shadow Wolves' "excellent stealth" and "keen sense of smell" abilities were being used to find Warren and secretly deliver mission sheets to him.
"I originally intended for them to help rescue Warren, but now look at this," Rhodes shook his head slightly, "Anyway, they're being put to use."
...
Since Rhodes had made significant progress in his goal of shortening magic incantations, he now had more time to read the Encyclopedia of Magic.
He was looking for suitable magic to "minor" in.
Of course, to be on the safe side, he still needed to consult the master before starting his training to see if there were any risks.
"As long as you follow the steps in learning most magic, and there is no issue with 'affinity,' there won't be any danger," the master said.
The concept of affinity was straightforward—it referred to having a natural talent for a certain type of magic. It often determined one's entry-level ability and the height one could reach in the future.
As for how to determine affinity, generally speaking, magic that one could awaken on their own was the most suitable.
For example, Erza had suddenly gained control over magic as a child during a time of crisis.
If one couldn't awaken it independently, then one could only choose a magic they found interesting and try to quickly get started with it.
Rhodes had already chosen a few targets of interest.
Warren's incident wasn't depicted in the main storyline, but there was a mention of it in the background information—likely something that even most hardcore Fairy Tail fans wouldn't know.