Chapter 3
‘Waking up to the sound of these birds is going to get old really fast’ was the first coherent thought of my day. But there was no denying the fact that I was now wide awake. Rising from the patch of soft moss that I grew just right to feel extra confortable at night. I looked around to spot my companions still emerging; Magnus appeared to be wrestling with his sleeping bag and mumbling about having bird for breakfast, and Elena was lounging on Talia, eyes opened but having no desire to get up whatsoever. As for Talia she just huffed and closed her eyes again.
I spent the time my companions needed to wake up to think about my current situation. I believe myself versatile enough to become what Magnus referred to as a solo adventurer who, like me had acquired the abilities needed to work alone. But while I lacked this experience I had enough skills, I think, to compensate for this gap. Deciding to wait for Magnus to wake up fully to ask my questions, I got up and used my magical ability to wash myself.
Deciding to spend the time before asking my question I took a meditation pose and played around with my mana a little bit without any real purpose to it when I detected something alarming.With my better control of my mana came a greater control of my skills. One of my skills; mana sensing, allowed me to sense my own body to a greater extent than before, and I discovered that some of my mana channels were atrophied, nearly completely calcified. I was horrified and tried to think of something to remedy the problem at once.
Remembering my various experiments during my four months of isolation I recalled that nature and light mana had healing properties when added to water mana. So I very carefully filtered what mana was allowed inside my body while grabbing every spec of the three types I needed to me. Once I had a good enough amount under my control I created a cycle inside my body to those areas where mana was not flowing strongly enough most of these atrophied areas were in my legs. When I thought about it I nearly facepalmed; I never cycled my mana through my legs only my torso, head and arms. Well only a fool doesn’t learn from his mistakes and I am not a fool. So I spent the next two hours cycling mana carefully through the atrophied sections until they were good as new.
During this time Elena and Magnus were just finishing their morning rituals. We were just about ready to go. When I asked how long the journey would be. Magnus told me it would take a little over a day if we walked but if I felt up to running through that we could be there in 3 to 4 hours. I thought the run could be a good exercise for my multitasking ability to see if I could run, channel mana to my body and keep taking mana into myself from my surroundings.
An so we ran, and while dividing my focus between everything that needed my attention something good happened: Due to your effort and perseverance you have created the skill Multitasking
This skill lightened the strain that keeping up with the others put on me until now a lot. Indeed now with 1 thought process dedicated to my intake of mana, another that dealt with my usage of mana and a third to observe my surroundings. It was this part of my mind that saw the three arrows that were about to kill us. My ability, allowing me to see the arrows in advance, made me react fast enough to create a wind shield around us while I tried to look through the trees to spot our attackers while the wind shield stopped the arrows I prepared my magic to deal with our attackers, my two companions also reacted swiftly, Magnus readying his shield and moving in a better position from which to protect us and himself. Elena for her part swiftly notched an arrow to her bow while searching the trees around us. She, for the first time in my presence spoke. It was a simple question “put the shield down when I say so” after overcoming my shock at hearing her talk I responded “no need. It’s a one way shield we can still fire from the inside” a nod from her was my response before she fired her arrow, a second later a shriek of pain resounded from the area where Elena had shot. At this moment a dozen goblins emerged from the brush and charged us. I replied with a bolt of lightning that from this day forward became known as chain lightning… While the smell of burning flesh made my companions quite unhappy with me, this last series of kill pushed me over the threshold of my first breakthrough I was excited to see what kind of skill I was going to get.
Congratulations you have reached your first milestone you are now a High Sorcerer. Before there were runes, symbols, totems, foci. When there was only nature before men, before beastkins before elves or dwarf. There was magic and this magic was sorcery was Sorcery. As a sorcerer it is only possible to create spells by yourself. Gain skill Spell creation.
When I announced that I had reached the first breakthrough and gained a class Magnus cheered for me, I got a spit filled lick from Talia and even a barely heard “congratulation” from Elena.
When I tried to use my new skill I got a blue window in front of me, after half an hour of trying I finally managed to create a spell it was the same spell I used to light the dungeon earlier. I thought the spell would be useless to me except that as soon as I finished designing the light ball I could feel it in a sort of list in my mind. A simple thought and a light ball appeared. While for little spells like the light ball the skill creation was useless; the more complicated spells were nearly impossible to cast in combat. Up until now I relied primarily on raw elemental manipulation except for the wind shield and chain lightning.
After the fight we searched the goblins for anything of value and apart for some coins that they let me keep there was nothing of value on any of them. This little bit of excitement completely ruined the rhythm of our running and we were barely an hour’s walk away from the town so while we walked I used my new skills to design my spells, spells to fight, to heal, to transport me or allies. I designed dozens of spells and feeling them in the back of my mind waiting for just a thought and a little mana to make my wishes come true; it was pure bliss.
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After about an hour and a half of walking we finally arrived at the small town named “Everwoods”. It was one of the few outposts that existed in the central forest of the Terraria continent. I realized quickly that if I hadn’t had the chance to meet Magnus and Elena I would never have been able to find the town on my own. Every building in the town was carved from the massive trees that were everywhere in this forest making it impossible to spot them from the air and even from the ground I had trouble seeing some of the carved entrances.
Magnus, seeing the awe on my face, told me “the druids created most of this by channeling mana into seeds that were planted in the ground and fed mana until it became what you see today. It took about a month of work.” “What about a wall isn’t it exposed if monsters attack the town?” I asked. ”the walls have to be made by hand so it takes a lot longer, in the meantime there are regular patrols every day and night.” Magnus responded promptly.
I followed Magnus to the tallest tree in town. The shield with a sword and staff crossed in the middle of said shield was carved above the entrance to the building. I was right in assuming that the building was the adventurers’ guild and the symbol carved above the entrance was surely the guild’s emblem. Upon entering the building I noticed that the atmosphere of the first floor was quite jovial. This fact was explained as I saw that it was a bar, probably intended to let the adventurers relax and share stories of their adventures with their fellows. For now we apparently did not have time to take part in the festivities because Magnus led me to the stairs leading to the second floor. Apparently Elena was not needed for this next part because she did not even bother entering the building and stayed outside with Talia.
Once on the second floor Magnus led me to the only other person on this floor; a rather pretty young woman with brown hair tied in a bun and green eyes that sat behind a desk. She appeared highly concentrated on what she was reading and motioned us to wait a moment before she said “Hello Magnus, who is that with you? You were supposed to come back here with Elena and…” Magnus was patient, waiting until she had exhausted her list of question before introducing me “Ashley, this is Adam a young adventurer with a lot of potential and raw talent.” Then turning to me he said “Adam, meet Ashley, she’s the boss around here. She assigns some mission, deals with the recruiting and a million other tasks I don’t know nor care about.” turning back toward Ashley he started to relate what happened and what they found in the ruins.
Ashley took the hint and began to write a letter to her superiors in the guild for instruction about the dungeon. Once done, she turned to me and said “Even with Magnus’ recommendation I will send you on a quest to deal with a cave full of goblins, you will be monitored by one of our scrying bowl, depending on your performance during this trial you may be rewarded by a higher rank in the guild than you would’ve had with only his recommendation. Do you accept this quest?” she asked. My answer was straightforward:” Of course I accept. Where is this cave?” she then showed me a little rocky hill on the map just next to the place where I was transferred to.
After placing my hand on a bowl, filled with a strange liquid that I assumed was the scrying bowl, I went out the door. Once outside I took a deep breath and used one of the utility spell that I had managed to create successfully. My feet left the ground, and I was flying! This spell was a refined version of the little levitation I did to look around my surroundings before leaving my hill. This time with a proper spell, I couldn’t just levitate, I could fly. And quite fast too as not even 5 minutes after my feet left the ground, I was forced to stop to examine the cave from above. I could spot the few sentries meant to warn the rest of the goblins of any threat. People just never look above them. Dealing with the sentries was just a matter of sending bullet shaped projectiles of wind into their head, from the air. After that I decided that subtlety was useless and landed atop the little cave, verifying that there were no hostages with Mana sensing, I used my earth manipulation to make the little cave collapse on them while sealing the entrance. After spending a few more minutes making sure no goblin was hiding anywhere, I went flying back to Everwood’s adventurer’s building.
When I opened the door I was greeted by silence this time. That and the fact that everyone was looking at me with looks of awe. I was trying to understand why the attention when I saw Elena pointing at the back wall. On this wall I could see myself seeing myself infinitely until the image blanked out.
Shrugging off the looks and whispered conversations about me I went to the second floor. I asked “Why was my trial viewable by anyone?” My tone was quite hostile. Ashley responded quickly “I Know Magnus and he wouldn’t have recommended you if you were not at least a B-rank in the guild but I couldn’t just hand out a B-rank to a newbie without dealing with a riot in the bar so I set it up to show everyone that you deserved the A-rank I am now giving you” She said while giving me a badge, with the symbol of the guild on one side and the letter A on the other, and a bag attached to a belt. Before I even thought to ask she told me “Magnus told me that you were a Transferee. in there is everything that you might need, the bag is a Bag of Holding with infinite storage, there is also your pay for the extermination job. To bind the bag to you, just put a little blood on it” and just like that my anger evaporated. “I’m sorry I was so hostile just now, it’s just that I don’t like the attention much.” “Don’t worry about it, I was expecting it, I should have warned you in advance.” After an awkward silence, I asked for a place to sleep, she gave me the keys to a room, located on the third floor.
I was so grateful to see a true bed for the first time in 5 months that I nearly wept. I sat on the comfortable mattress and looked at the content of the Bag of Holding that Ashley gave me; Except for some readings about the region, its inhabitants and other, uninteresting but important to know, the only things that were in there were 1 gold coin, and some clothes that finally allowed me to get out of the rags that made me look like a hobo, if it weren’t for the full cape made of wolf skin that I wore proudly, over my shoulders. Getting out of my clothes, I profited of the occasion to use one of my more foolish spells called shower. It worked as designed and once underneath the cover of my S.E.P field I crashed on the bed. I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.