Chapter 2
The first week after the barrier fell was relatively simple. The only problem that I encountered was a pack of wolves that tried to ambush me. But once I used a few strong vines to strangle the biggest of them to death the others lost their courage and ran away. While the fight itself was pathetic, I managed to gain some experience in using my magic in combat. I was able to discover that to deepen my mana pool I had to fight. Deepening my mana pool made my spells more potent. While cultivating not only increased the size of my mana pool, it was also an excellent tool to increase my control.
Two weeks after the barrier fell I was woken up early by a commotion outside my home. The wolves were back and they were harassing a panther as big as a pick-up truck. With the difference in size I imagined the panther would have little problems running away or fighting the comparatively small wolves but soon I understood what was happening. The panther was stuck fighting defensively because she had to protect her baby. As soon as I saw the kitten I launched my spells, six blades of wind, and six headless wolves. But it was already too late for the mother and only a single kitten of the litter still lived.
With the wolves dead and her only remaining kitten safe for now she fell on her side and simply looked at me. She stared as if she could see my soul before taking one last look at her baby and releasing one last breath. she closed her eyes and went still as only the dead can.
After burying the bodies of all the dead I tried to find what to do with the kitten.my first inclination was to let it go on its own. But each time I would try to leave, it would mew pitifully and I would see the eye of her mother as she lay dying on the ground. That night I slept in my hut with a baby panther on my chest.
Having a pet, I discovered, was a lot of work. Thankfully she was weaned so the only thing I had to do was feed her meat or fish. I had decided before the barrier fell that I would not step a foot in the forest until I was ready to explore the world. This meant fishing. Of course; I cheated; I used mana sensing to find fishes and I constricted the water around them with elemental manipulation to keep them from moving and then I extract them from the water. Little Talia, as I decided to name her, seemed to like it in any case. It was also a good exercise of my control.
While I didn’t care for an animal companion on my journey. I would have to wait for Talia to grow up and also perhaps to train her a little bit in mana usage, just in case she is a magical beast, so that she could survive on her own if we decided to part ways. She should be big enough to take care of herself in a month or so. meanwhile I continued my preparations (having fun with my magic) for another month and then I would leave.
Because of my procrastination It’s been three months now… Talia is bigger than some cars and my constant cultivation of mana has made my reserves big enough in my eyes. We’re ready to brave the dangers of the world. I am so excited that I am shaking in my new boots. I made the boots and a cloak big enough to completely cover me with the wolves I had slain when they tried to make a meal of Talia and I. That reminded me that as soon as I found anything resembling civilization I would buy myself some clothes. The ones I was wearing are so ragged I looked like a vagrant.
Deciding which direction to go to was important to me. So I used my wind manipulation to levitate myself far above my little hill; to the north is nothing but forest as far as I can see, same to the east and west. So we went south. Even though the only thing of interest there was a ruined structure of some kind. I took advantage of the travel there to test some of my ideas on the local wildlife. I avoided using fire for obvious reason, and only used lightning once so that I could cackle and shout about ULTIMATE POWER. Nothing particularly interesting happened until we were about halfway there. We heard voices, Talia wanted to hide and ambush these people but I hadn’t had a true conversation for 5 months! I still wasn’t born yesterday so I still kept both a bubble shield of swirling wind blades and a formfitting invisible layer of solid air around me while making obvious noises so that I didn’t startle them too much.
I arrived at the clearing where the people were just as a man with a gruff voice said “admit it lass you’re lost”. when I noticed them in the middle of an argument over an opened map of what I assumed was our current location. Seeing that even with all the noise I made in order to deliberately notify them of my presence, they still didn’t seem to notice me. I decided to observe them a little before announcing myself.
The first thing I noticed was that these two people were not human at all. The male was a dwarf, a fantasy dwarf, who stood maybe a little under 1, 40 meter in height. He was garbed in a suit of full plate armor with chainmail underneath. A helmet was in his right hand, a mace hanging on his belt next to a coin purse and a heavy looking shield nearly as big as him sat on the ground at his feet. His face was 90 percent beard and we could barely see brown eyes under his thick eyebrows.
The second person was a fox beastkin, about my height of 1, 80 meter. she wore a mostly leather armor with a few plates, to better protect her vital organs I assumed. And a hood that was currently down letting two fox ears be seen between which red hair flowed down until it met a bushy tail; rusty red at its base and white at its end. Her back was towards me which is why I saw the bow slung across her back with its accompanying quiver full of arrows.
At about 5 meters from them I finally tired of being ignored so I loudly cleared my throat. They jumped, clearly surprised but reacted with a speed that was commendable; the shield was kicked up in the dwarf’s hand as he took a full step towards me in order to be between me and the ranger who in the meantime had bounded at least 5 meters away from me. It was quite obvious that these two were quite experienced to have reacted and acted so swiftly. Even if their situational awareness was shit.
To avoid any unfortunate incident, killing animals was fine with me but it would have been different, I think, to have the blood of a fellow sentient creature on my hands I approached slowly with my hands in plain view and introduced myself “hello” I said “my name is Adam, I mean you no harm.” well let’s hope Allspeak works all right.
As I finished talking the dwarf shared a glance with the foxgirl who nodded once slightly. Immediately the two relaxed themselves and the dwarf introduced both of them “hello to you too. My name is Magnus, the lass here is Elena it’s nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you too” was my response after lowering my hands and approaching a little closer “may I ask what you are looking for?”
After a long stare, the foxgirl huffed and turned her head away Magnus responded “well lad we are a bit lost. We are looking for a ruined castle that some oracles are saying has become a dungeon.” After thinking a bit I made my decision:”I know where you have to go but I would also like to receive a little help myself. I was transported, about 4 months ago, from my home world and I would appreciate some information about the lands, its people etcetera.” I responded. Feeling in this case honesty was the best policy. Considering that the girl relaxed after I finished talking she probably has an ability to discern truth from lie that Magnus trusted enough to let a stranger so close to him.” we have a deal then” said the dwarf. “Okay then follows me and you can explain what you think I should know.” I responded and led them on their way to the ruins I saw from the sky before leaving my house. There was a little bit of a scare when Talia showed herself but there were no injuries and soon we continued our journey until nightfall when we were forced to stop or navigate in the dark.
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Magnus for his part was true to his word and taught me all he thought I should know about. Geography, history, the different species, the tensions between some species and much more. With my augmented intellect and memory retention, that my cultivation brought me, I absorbed the knowledge like a sponge always thirsty for more. Elena didn’t utter a single word throughout the day but she was on her guard and she made a great team with Talia. Killing every dangerous critters in front of us without Magnus or I having to do anything. In exchange I decided that evening to build a burrow, a sort of miniature of my previous home on the hill. The two adventurers were very grateful. We shared a meal. Once the meal was finished I closed the burrow except the air hole and we went to sleep.
The next morning my companions and I continued our journey and I started asking Magnus about dungeons. What I learned was a surprise. Magnus told me that dungeons were there to purify the mana surrounding it when it was out of balance. The dungeon would suck up all of the surplus mana that caused a disturbance in the first place to create its core (generally a gem about as big as a pebble) once this task was accomplished it did what every living creature does… survive and try to thrive.to do that it would grant rewards as bait so that people would come, and it would feed on the mana the adventurers released either passively or in its entirety, hence: death traps and monsters.
Generally dungeons were a precious resource that could contain many treasures and they helped the country they were in greatly, Of course there were the corrupted dungeons that were the stuff of nightmares; Corrupted dungeons could send the monsters they created outside the boundaries of their entrances. These were dungeons that were enslaved by men or demons and that were transformed into monster making factories. Once a dungeon was corrupted the only choices was to destroy the core of the dungeon, killing it.
Once we arrived at the site of the ruin the two experienced adventurers could indeed confirm that it was a dungeon. Even I could have told something was different. The mana that was released by the ruins was completely untainted, as if it was just born into this world. It was an amazing thing to feel even though it wasn’t long before this purest of mana encountered something that would taint it a little, and make it feel no different than the mana I sensed since I got the skill.
Once it was confirmed that we were indeed in front of a dungeon they had a few options on what to do: They could go in, assess what level it was at right now, determine at which danger class it belonged to from E- to S+ and see what kind of monsters were inside. Or they could go back to the guild to report that there indeed was a dungeon here, at which point they would most likely get sent back here to assess the dungeon anyway. Plus it was easy money; generally newly spawned dungeons weren’t really dangerous. The assessment was just a way to determine what type of environment and enemies adventurers should expect to meet before the dungeon could become truly dangerous.
I decided to accompany them but to make Talia wait outside, making sure to stay a few paces behind them to not be a bother but close enough still see what happened. I even got to be useful a little: I conjured a ball of light that hovered above our heads. As soon as I took a step into the dungeon itself I got quite the surprise. I could no longer sense anything that was not inside the dungeon. Magnus noticed me stumble and explained “we are no longer on Altera right now; dungeons exist in their own dimensions separated from the real world. The entrance is just a point to affix the portal to so that it can lure people and animals in and feed itself.”
“Thank you for explaining all of this to me Magnus, but I can’t help but be intrigued by the lack of surprise when I told you of where I came from.” I inquired. “That’s because your story is not the only one of its kind, some people even believe that the first people on Altera arrived in the same way you did.” Magnus replied without taking his concentration away from the front, ready to interpose his shield between himself and both his companions. Nothing attacked us in the first room; we just had a few pitfall traps that made my ball of light on the ceiling a breeze to avoid. The second room though had little green humanoid creatures armed with what could generously be called spears “Goblins!!” Magnus spat before charging in the middle of the group of eight goblins. Before he event swung his mace once Elena had already launched an arrow that struck one of them in the throat. After Magnus killed another with his mace I made my attack… spikes of stone grew behind the goblins that remained and impaled them right where the heart would be on a human. After this little scuffle the goblins bodies disappeared and were replaced by a few bronze coins. The rest of the dungeon was more of the same, a few goblins that I killed either with spikes of stone or blades of wind. Before long we found ourselves in front of the boss room. here Magnus asked me not to interfere, when I asked why he responded ”we have to assess the dungeon and while all goblins are more or less the same killing them quick was acceptable, but every boss is different so we actually need to assess this one.” And so when we entered the room and except leaving the ball of light above our head I didn’t interfere. The fight was not really difficult, except for being larger, stronger, and faster than the previous ones this goblins only real quality was that he could spawn two wolves to fight with him.
Once the loot, 1 silver coin and a necklace that would be appraised back at the guild, we found the room with the core in it. Magnus explained that it was forbidden by the guild to enter a core, room except for the corrupted one that had to be smashed.it was also a custom to leave an offering once upon leaving with no deaths so I decided to leave the last of the fruit that I had left in the boss room. Magnus left a wooden sculpture of some kind and Elena left a dead bird that she killed outside the before entering the dungeon.
Once we had made the offerings we got out of the dungeon. It was already twilight so we made camp in front of the entrance and I gathered my courage for a few minutes before asking “could I become an adventurer like you?” “Sure lad, your magic is mighty impressive and you didn’t freeze once in there.” He said.
At this moment I was extatic, being an adventurer meant true freedom for me….i wouldn’t have to live like a savage in the wilderness all alone but I would not be forced to stay cooped up in a city with too many people around. I was also excited about traveling all around the world, meeting interesting people, killing powerful monsters. Delving into the dungeons earlier, even if it was extremely easy, made me feel alive like never before; the tension of waiting for an ambush or a trap to be sprung, the adrenaline of a fight (as short as they were). I wanted more of it. “How could I become a part of the adventurer’s guild?” I asked. “Normally you would have to go through a test to determine if you are good enough for the guild but in your case I’ll be able to assure the higher ups that you’re good enough and this kind of reference should be enough to waive the tests.” Magnus explained to me, and then he started to explain how the guild functioned; basically people who wanted stuff done posted requests at the guild. From vermin extermination to the escort of wealthy merchants or caravans. The guild is also the go to organization when it comes to monster extermination or dungeon monitoring, explaining why I had met them here.
While Magnus and I had been talking it seems Elena and Talia had taken it upon themselves to hunt for our dinner. After we were done eating I stood and found myself face to face with Elena, she had a very determined look on her face and kept looking between me and Talia. “Lass wants to bond with the cat.” Said Magnus on the other side of the fire from me.” “Bond?” was my reply. “Yeah rangers like the lass here always form bonds between themselves and a magical beast. Elena here must have taken a real liking to the cat to want to bond with her.” After hearing this information from Magnus I thought for a moment before saying “I don’t have a problem with Elena and Talia forming this bond as long as Talia agrees” after agreeing as Elena produced a knife from her sleeve and made the tiniest of wound to herself before doing the same to Talia. After that they both sucked the droplets of each other’s wounds and that was it; no lightshow.
After nearly 5 months of hard work I finally managed to reproduce the S.E.P field that protected me for the first month of my stay here so tonight we would be able to sleep soundly without danger without a night guard.
Plus I was cheating a little, channeling certain kind of mana produced different results for example if I was channeling earth mana through my organs, blood and bones I could artificially increase my strength and durability. Different elements had provided different buffs so by bettering my magic I was also increasing my other abilities. After all I was always subconsciously channeling mana through my body.
After the fights I could already feel the difference both in the potency of my mana and a how much more control I had over it. Already I could see myself as a great wizard who could create tornadoes with a snap of their fingers or make the earth tremble. It was with thoughts of power and freedom that I went to sleep that night.