“Master I’m done”
“Kid you really make me feel like my last three hundred years have been wasted, and people consider ME a genius.” The old man couldn’t help but sigh as he looked at his student with a complicated look.
“But master, aren’t these just the basics? You told me this stage wasn’t hard.” I reminded.
“Maybe but by not hard I meant with a few hours, not a few minutes. Anyway so you’ve sensed them all?” He sounded resigned but it perked up again with excitement at the end.
“Yes” I agreed as I handed over my guild card.
[Status Card]
Name: Jean Paradox
Rank: Apprentice
Age: 17
Affinity(s): Chaos (100%), Blood (75%), Mana (6%), Wind (38%), Fire (3%), Spatial (2%), Lunar (5%), Crystal (8%), Life (14%), Cloud (3%), Rose (40%).
Mutated Affinity(s): Rose - Devine White (100%), Cloud - Purple Void (100%), Lunar - Blood Eclipse (100%), Crystal - Life Shard (100%).
Special: Void Connection.
Teacher: Dean Patios.
Other: Origin Guild Leader, Valued Talent.
“Well the good news is there are similar one’s to this so I can explain them but the bad is that purple void is a poison mutation and as such you won’t be able to train in it until your vitality gets up a lot higher and cloud has a high enough mastery not to hit yourself with your own poison. It’s simply too dangerous to train in for now. Well I’m not going to teach you how to use that today anyway, I just wanted you to sense what they where so I could make plans. For now I’ll help you out with some simple mana control exercises.” Instead of being disappointed I was actually excited. Although I can’t use it now a poison technique is perfect for me who wants to go up again numerous opponents.
“How do I train in that? As far as I know my mana controls already pretty good and I can’t think of any ways to improve it…” I wasn’t trying to sound arrogant but rather I simply couldn’t understand what could be done to improve it other than improve my affinity and perfect it through battle.
“Well it’s a little hard but guide a flame through this pipe without touching the pipe itself at all with your mana alone.” My eyes unfocused slightly at the monstrosity he pulled from nowhere.
“Master please have mercy, that’s crazy” I gulped.
“That’s the point. High stress situations will help you improve.”
A ten metre cube construct of glass pipes weaving in every direction imaginable to the point where there was no left over space. Completely random and without pattern, this maze was the most intimidating thing I have faced in the apocalypse so far, and it’s not even alive!
“Ugh… master, I promised to go do quests today for the guild. This is going to take hours…” I whined.
“No no, please stop being so absurd for a while and take a full day or my life really would have been worthless.” I suddenly decided to try my hardest as a petty form of revenge.
Stretching my mana out like I was taught, I sensed the entire layout of the structure before pulling it back and guiding a small flame through the entrance. It would negate the purpose of the activity if I left my mana covering everything.
“Your mana is too violent. Calm it down.”, “Don’t rush it until your familiar with how to move it properly”, “You little brat, slow down already. It hasn’t even been half an hour and your half way though”, “Okay you brat, just as punishment for showing off do it with a white flame while keeping the glass from melting”
Suddenly I regretted trying to get revenge.
“Master… you’re a sadist” I groaned as I tried to get over the headache mana drain and intense concentration caused.
“Maybe.” Not even denying it?
“Now to connect to the void. Inside your head you should be able to feel a doorway. From what I’m told it’s pretty easy to open but it has around ten doors and only the first is easy. Each level allows you a higher recovery rate and better insights while from the fifth level onwards unique abilities will be unlocked. Don’t expect to get far even with your talent without a hell of a lot of time though. The highest recorded talent in the sixty two million years my guild has been active only managed to open six before she fell in battle.” I instantly sobered up (although I wasn’t drunk) and felt my mind clear slightly.
Following the instructions he gave me to help find the door I sat down and began to meditate.
How long passed, I’m not sure but at some stage I found it. A feeling of pressure that I had never experienced before descended and the knowledge that the power behind this door could annihilate me with ease appeared as if it where natural. I felt like there should be some great barrier here but for some reason there wasn’t, instead a weak and fragile door in it’s place. Does that mean everyone has these doors but for others it’s impossible to open or even find?
Pushing it open absolutely nothing happened and made me frown.
How did I open this thing? Master said it was supposed to be easy but he didn’t know the process so easy depends on how you do it.
Maybe I would be able to force my way in but something told me that was wrong, like the door would disapprove of me if I did. Hesitating I tried asking even though I felt stupid.
“Can you please open?”
For several moments I was left standing in this mental realm like a complete idiot before a feeling of approval appeared and the door crumbled to dust.
“May I enter?” Again I felt stupid but the feeling appeared again and I walked in.
Knowledge flooded me about this place and I felt overwhelmed at what I learned. This was literally a void, devoid of any and all physical matter. All that remained was energy of a purity that left me in awe. I didn’t even know energy had a purity before that and yet the sheer purity of it was visible to the eyes.
“What do you want me to do here?” I tried asking. Nothing.
“Am I allowed to know what this place is?” I tried changing my question.
Approval and then a flood of weirdly pieced memories.
----
“I cannot speak nor do I have form. In some form I posses sentience but it is not in a way you will be able to understand. Right now, I am communicating through the memories of words spoken from those before you as I have no voice of my own. Why did you ask permission? You are the first in many years to do so.” I was stunned but quickly regained myself.
“I felt like I could force my way in but you wouldn’t approve. I don’t really understand myself but I knew I should ask for permission instead.” I answered honestly.
“Hmm… ah, there it is. What interesting eyes you have. It has been a long while since I have seen those eyes. Yes, I suppose that would explain it. And a permanent connection with me? My, it’s been even longer since one of those have appeared. For both of them to appear together… what a lucky child. I give you my approval to use this realm in this lifetime. For the future doors it will take your own power to force your way through. You will learn the benefits with time. Goodbye, child. I’m afraid I cannot say your name as it is not within my memories of people talking. If you win the game we will meet again and I will tell you the truth of this realm.”
----
I opened my eyes. Before I had even realised it I had been ejected back into the real world with dozens of questions that could not be answered. Sighing I looked up to my master.
“The first door is open.”
“You only just closed your eyes, how could it be open?” He looked disbelieving and condescending.
“At the minimum I was in there for several minutes before returning, how could I have just closed my eyes?” I mean it even felt longer than that, like hours had gone by.
He put his hand on my forehead.
“Well it’s true. The gate is definitely open or your mana wouldn’t have recovered so fast.” He sighed as he looked at me with a complicated expression.
“Let’s move on” He said eventually.
“The biggest danger you face is not from direct threats but the subtle ones. Some races like the succubi do it both consciously or unconsciously while others have one or the other and it can also be learned but manipulating the mind and emotions are the biggest threat you will ever face and as such we need to develop countermeasures early on. There are many methods for this and I’ll be getting you to use two of them, a mana shield inside your conscious realm to block off attacks at the cost of mana and a longer to but much better in the long run version where your mind sets up a small shield which will be threaded with your mental strength and mana over the course of many years to make a permanent shield that doesn’t need mana to operate.
Right now you have enough mana and recovery that the mana shield will have practically no cost being at maybe one of two mana a minute but if attacked it will take mana depending on how hard it was hit. I doubt anything will be able to take it out easily as it will cost them more mana to attack then it will for you to defend but nevertheless always be careful. I’ll teach you how to make both and also how to nourish the permanent shield.”
I didn’t even consider that. How scary, if I didn’t know, how easy would it be to become a puppet?
“Master is there any way to speed up the process?” I asked hopefully.
“Many. From now on when you come back show me any treasures or materials you find before selling or using them and I’ll tell you if it can be of use. Also, other than time some insights and certain techniques can improve it but your rank is too low right now for me to give you one. No more questions.”
The mana shield didn’t feel like much but the permanent shield was like a protective shell being added to my mind. It was… weird. I can’t really describe it beyond that but it feels as if I gained a new body part but since it’s in my mind it feels a lot weirder. Meditation is the best way to improve it apparently, well atleast without the technique and materials. I don’t quite understand it.
If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
“Now there’s only two more problems left. You need to be able to carry more without using stupid things like backpacks which are plain ineffective and we need to up your combat ability in both defence and attacks. Spatial magic can do this but it’s a little tricky for your current level so instead you’re going to do a little experiment for me. Nature magic can make little worlds inside of people where they can store items and living beings unlike spatial magic but you have a rose affinity. Technically, the principle should still be the same but I’m honestly not sure if it will work. If not then I’ll have to help you brute force through nature magic for a few weeks until you can do it since spatial is still harder than that.” That’s like an ultimate teaser. Here, have a convenient inventory! Oh wait it might not work so if not wait a few weeks.
“Is there no other alternatives besides those options?” I asked.
“Well you could use items but honestly that’s just stupid. Easy to lose, break, get stolen and they are expensive and small. The amount of times I’ve seen someone lose some precious resource because they had it in an item like an idiot is uncountable. If the items break the contents are erased and the resources and masteries needed to make them is stupidly high. Better to use nature magic especially since living beings can go inside.” My hopes where dashed.
“That’s… inconvenient.”
“Yeah.” He agreed.
“This too will be in your mental realm though it’s a little different. You have to use the nature, or in this case rose, magic to grow a physical realm inside your mental one. At first it will be small but it is separate from the other realms and impossible to forcefully access unless your mind is fried. The growth itself will also help your shields development though not to a large extent. It’s just like an initial boost and then with time it will get stronger than it would in the same amount of time without it.” That doesn’t sound so bad.
“So how do I grow a realm inside my mind? It seems a little advanced for a beginner.” He smiled.
“Simple. You replace a realm that already exists. There are many weak realms within this primary realm and the best example is the mental realm. Find a random monster and use it as a catalyst to grow a new realm, having the roses take it over. Once you feel it succeeded you bring it into yourself. Usually I can’t help you through the process since I’m confined to the guild but that’s why I had you bring that little guy here instead, so I could.”
I looked over to the little cage the monster was sleeping in. I spent four hours last night looking for that thing and I almost died as I had to go to the third ring in the city to find it. Monsters have been digging tunnels into the ground expanding downwards and growing or making their own structures to live in. In the first ring there are atleast tens of millions of monsters who get stronger the further out you go. This little guy… jeez. So much effort just for him.
“What’s so special about that guy that I had to go so far for him?” I asked now that we where finally on the topic. It’s been bugging me since he told me to get it.
“This is a nearly extinct race now that you only have access to because a dungeon spawned them. They are called Flower Children. While they are not very strong they are born with a connection to nature and an affinity of 80% or higher. The reason they are so sought after is precisely because when you initially form a pocket dimension through nature and another creatures mental realm it starts off small. Like a few centimetres small. These creatures however bring it up to a few metres from the get go and it has a much faster growth rate than without it. Naturally there are alternatives and even better options but there’s no way you’ll be able to access them anytime in the next few thousand years and by then there’s absolutely no advantage they will hold over you. It only takes a few months to bridge the gap after all.”
“Won’t it hurt it though? He came with me willingly without a fight after seeing me so it feels wrong to do this to it.” Master frowned a bit.
“If it really bothers you then we’ll ask him. I’ve never heard of them not fighting before so it bothers me. He’ll talk in images so prepare yourself since it will feel weird.” He can talk?
“His race talks through their nature affinity as a language with images. I have a nature affinity so I can connect him to us pretty easily but you’ll learn how to do it even without affinities in the future as well.” He didn’t allow me to ask anymore questions.
I felt mana flood the room though it wasn’t something I could recognise. I guess this was nature, I’ll remember it.
The little flower faced creature that was made of leaves woke up and looked at us for a while before I felt a mana fluctuation from it and saw the images I was told about.
----
I watched him die. Old with browning leaves and drooping, shrivelled petals he watched peacefully as his children played in the field and his life force drained away. He lived in seclusion and survived the fate many of his kind fell to and his wife had passed merely a week earlier. When he died his spirit floated nearby watching as a tree grew from his body rapidly and his children came over to cry.
He felt sad for seeing that but also happy that his death created life just like all of his kind.
But then something foul happened.
An unknown entity dragged his spirit away violently and bound it to itself. Death was impossible for as long as the entity lived and it would never return to it’s tree again, nor create a new one as it never really dies.
But in the midst of despair this peaceful creature found salvation. Merely a few days after it was bound, a person appeared. He knew what beings like this did to his people, they took the mental realms and used it for themselves. Usually he would dread such a thing but he had already lived a full life and died peacefully. He never had any hate for such people when they never hurt him or the one’s he cared for so it was of no consequence especially when he no longer needed it. So he came peacefully. If his mental realm is destroyed the entity will lose his spirit and he will once again be free. Although he won’t be able to return to his tree and family, his death will create a new tree and he will have helped nature once again.
Compared to the despair he felt earlier, now he is happy and peaceful once again. Life and death… they hold no meaning to this flower child as with both it will help nature. What happens to him afterwards will be up to the people he has decided to look at as his benefactors.
----
“That was unexpected.” The old man mused to himself thoughtfully.
Dispelling the cage with a sweep of his hand, he stepped forward and sat down in front of the flowerchild. Reaching his hand forward I felt the nature mana he was using enter the flowerchild as the old man touched it’s head. He looked surprised but smiled gratefully at the old man though I had no idea what he did.
“I just gave him a gift as repayment for his kindness. Come. We’ll start now.” Once again I’m reminded that although he is my teacher I know nothing other than his status as the future guild leader. Who is this old man really?
After strict instructions, I eased the mental realm out as comfortably as possible. Once it was free a bright smile appeared on the little plants face and it bowed.
The old man helped me and the plant didn’t resist so it was easy to do. The rest however… was up to me and luck.
----
I groggily sat up and looked around.
After following master’s instructions on how to do it I passed out. The process was a success though I’m not sure how I knew but I feel like the little guy helped me when I was about to fail and I don’t understand how.
My surrounding showed that I was inside my new realm, the rose inventory… rose realm? That sounds better.
I was in a dome made by interlapping red rose petals and in the middle, floating and slowly rotating was a single, massive white rose.
As a test I pulled a coin I had outside before hand inside and it appeared on top of the petals. The realm worked, though it’s different than I expected.
From what I was told nature makes a real mini world inside while this is a rotating rose. It’s also bigger than it should have been at around fifty metres. I’ll have to ask master why that happened but I have a suspicion. Well, two suspicions actually. For one, the flower child and master helped and two my rose realm was formed purely by roses rather than what nature forms with earth, water and nature. Naturally it is smaller if it takes something not of the affinity to create it but mine is bigger because it’s purely from my rose affinity.
Opening my real eyes and feeling the connection with the rose realm fade into a small connection where I could transport items freely, I was greeted with the flower child standing on my face and looking at my eyes intently. Gently lifting him up I put him down and stretched a little while looking for master.
“The only thing you don’t finish excessively fast is sleeping apparently.” The old man laughed as he appeared behind me.
“How long was I out? And what’s with this little guy?” I asked with a frown.
“Two hours. He’s been looking at you like a god that entire time after he saw your rose affinity and he even pledged allegiance to you while you where out. Your rose affinity should grow a lot faster with him around so it’s good for you.” I wasn’t sure how to feel about that. He’s cute and I like cute things but being worshipped feels… awkward? Well since he’s the size of Tiny he’ll fit fine on my other shoulder.
“Then I’ll name him Mini.” I relaxed. I was only worried about how long I was out and not that so now that I know it’s only around mid-day I’m fine.
“You accepted that rather easily?” He asked curiously.
“He’s cute.” The old man stiffened a bit and put on a strained smile.
“I won’t question your preferences.” My palm miraculously found it’s way to my face in a grand way.
“I like cute things, not whatever your thinking old man. When you see a kitten don’t you want to cuddle and pet it? They are cute. This little guy is cute and he fits on my shoulder so like Tiny he’ll be Mini and will be my shoulder pet.” His face completely changed.
“Bahaha sorry sorry I just really wanted to mess with you a bit. Of course I’m not such an idiot to make a mistake like that. Still it’s unusual to see a guy openly displaying their love for cute things. Usually stupid reasons like pride or embarrassment stop them even if they love cute things in the first place so it’s amusing.” I think that’s the first time I saw him laugh, like really laugh.
“Here, this is a picture of Tiny. She’s one of the smallest cats in the world, well atleast was before the apocalypse. Now I have no clue.” Why did I have a picture of Tiny on me you may ask? Because I could.
“You’ll have to bring her next time.” Was all he said about it.
After some small talk about various topics, I spent the next two hours training again. The old man helped me learn various bits and pieces about mana theory and use while instructing me how to use mana to enhance my body with a better method then the textbook version and find a balance to use in combat. I’m not using any attacks with my affinities yet since my understanding isn’t high enough for that but the basic mana attacks work fine like fancy streaks of mana coming off my sword to bisect the surroundings or mana shields, arrows, bombs and platforms to jump off. This is enough to bring my power up a lot but after almost dying yesterday when I went to find Mini I’m not stupid enough to think myself invincible. It wasn’t that I was strong… it was just that others where weak. That’s what I learned from my trip.
Master gave me a list of all the basic materials he thinks I can acquire that are useful but he also said to take anything unknown or that my eyes react to as well. For example if I where to fight a creature that had a glowing horn and used magic then I would take the horn although I don’t know what it does. Apparently they also drop cores that have some value so I’ll have to collect a few. If nothing else I can sell them to the NPC’s for more money then they would drop if they just turned to dust. That’s selective though as many do and don’t drop them so it depends on what I’m hunting.
“Lea asked me to tell you it’s time.” A random NPC delivered a message for her.
“Tch. Bye master, I’ll come back tomorrow with some interesting stuff. Thanks for teaching me today. Do you mind looking after Mini? I can’t talk to him yet so it’d be too hard to explain what’s going on.” I sighed as I petted the sleeping plant.
“Sure, it’ll be interesting anyway since it’s rare to find a Flower Child willing to talk like this one is. Remember to look for a Trifling Ashen Eagle.” He reminded.
“I know. Thanks.” I left.
----
“Ally, Leo, I’ll be going ahead. Don’t go further than you think you can handle and if anything feels wrong retreat immediately.” I reminded as we reached the first barrier leading out from the centre area.
The dungeon works in rings and because the entrance is so big the first ring is fifty kilometres and also the area we have to watch out for in the next raid. For every ring we expand into we’ll be raided by it’s monsters once a month but normal dungeon diving is fine. I knew they could look after themselves in the first ring and the second with some difficulty and caution but they will improve more without me. For now I’m stronger which means their battles wouldn’t hold any danger and thus, less improvements. It’s a dangerous improvement method but all three of us are doing it willingly. From what I know the other rings are all ten kilometres but master said that they’ll expand every ten rings to double their size and right now there should be around 101 rings including the entrance one as long as the dungeon hasn’t formed more yet.
The dungeon will keep getting more rings as it expands and stronger monsters by extension. When you add it up it’s really damn big and it will grow a lot bigger.
“I didn’t spend all day training magic to enhance my senses to fall into a trap Jean” Ally answered dryly.
“I know but am I not allowed to atleast show my worry this way? I almost died at the start of the third ring yesterday so I’m worried.”
“If you keep acting so out of character I swear I will start vomiting. It’s gross.” The way Leo said that makes me believe him… what the hell man?
“Your gross.” Ally replied immediately to her brother.
“Maybe but it makes me feel like a heroine to be treated like this by an obvious main protagonist or antagonist. It really makes me sick.” Ally rolled her eyes but didn’t refute it which left me feeling rather helpless.
“You read too many stories now stop fantasising about being my heroine, it’s disgusting. I’m not even a main character, anti-social remember?” Leo got ready to start a big rant before Ally covered both out mouths.
“Jean there are any-social protagonists and Leo I really don’t give a fuck about how much you want a dick up your ass. Can we just go already?” Pfft, Leo’s face right now is priceless.
Ally seems a little pissed off today but I don’t know why and asking will just get me into trouble.
“Bye” I disappeared before Leo could try to deny it. Much funnier this way.
“Which way do you want to go Glitch?” I asked at the barrier before the third ring to make things more interesting.
{To the left two kilometres and then forwards is an annoying place so avoid it because I’d rather not see you naked after your clothes melt off but the rest I don’t mind. Just explore a little of everything.}
“What the hell is over there to melt my clothes off?”
{Slime den. It’d probably hurt you a hell of a lot as well but you’d recover pretty soon. Problem is the clothes don’t recover with you.}
I thought back to when my sleave was burned off and agreed that it was for the best to avoid that place.
“Hmm… then I guess we’ll go… that way” I pointed towards an interesting place I picked up in my area sense.
{Nice choice.}
“Thanks.” I grinned as I started to slip over there while drawing the least attention I could.
I didn’t even have time to curse as I dropped to the ground to avoid a small projectile thrown at my neck with extreme precision and speed.
Focusing on what threw it I could see a monkey the size of my palm that had started fleeing before the projectile even arrived.
“Cautious little bugger. Too bad it would attract attention to chase it, the thing had an interesting weapon.” I muttered to glitch as I looked over what the monkey threw at me.
A small sharpened metal circle about the size of a finger nail was embedded in my mana shield. Although I dropped to the ground to avoid it, my mana shield is higher than me and as such it still hit the shield. Master told me how some weapons and attacks can pierce through the shields so I’m being cautious. My skills aren’t high enough to stop such attacks after they made it through as it is now but a balancer to that is they are generally enchanted to pierce through mana and the physical damage/ force isn’t as high in compensation so my bone gloves might stop attacks like that. I don’t want to bet my life on that though.
{They are actually pretty decent pets. Focused on dexterity they can take out large numbers of enemies as long as they aren’t hit. If they are it’s pretty much a one shot since they have crap vitality but they make amazing snipers.}
“I’m sure they do. That thing was atleast two km’s away when it threw the disk.” Though it was five when I looked. If my dexterity and intelligence hadn’t gone up so much to increase my area sense range I wouldn’t have been able to ‘see’ it.
Continuing I took out some monsters along the way as I made my journey. It took around an hour to arrive with the kills I had been getting and the fact I was keeping a low profile but eventually I reached the place I wanted to be.
‘Glitch I’ll have to talk to you like this from now on, sorry for anything that get’s lost in transit’
Recently I realised I can talk to him like when I mentally command for status menu or something but it’s awkward to keep up and I unconsciously lose words during it. It’s a ‘breach of privacy’ to mind read in his opinion but at the same times there are situations where people can’t talk and as such it’s like any loud thoughts directed at him that he picks up but the thinkers of such thoughts often make mistakes and miss a word during conversations.
{Glad to be loved *emotional crying*}
‘I really don’t get you’
{I know. Get to level ten thousand and I’ll explain the entire apocalypse and it’s true meanings as well as my mysterious identity.}
‘Your standards are way too high. That’ll take ages’ I mentally sighed.
{Well then you better hurry up and get back to killing. The monsters aren’t going to kill themselves you know- oh, that was really bad timing.}
I mentally snickered at what I was seeing with my area sense. One of them literally just jumped down it’s leaders throat of it’s own free will just as he said it.
‘I always wanted to battle some fantasy creatures I knew of since this started. Giants… how fun’ I smiled widely as I entered the nest.
They had built a crude sort of colosseum out of some sort of grey stone or hard mucus around a cleared out area devoid of skyscrapers or nature. There where only around twenty of them and fifty lesser giants who served them like gods (a lesser giant became food btw) so while it’s not easy it shouldn’t be too hard to clear out. I’ll make sure to treasure this fight in my memories after they become piles of dust. It’s not every day you get to fight the stuff of legends after all.
Should I bring a head home for Leo? I remember he used to be scared of giants after watching movies about how they ate people. Yeah, I’ll slip it into his room after we get back. This is revenge for making me have the scarring thought of you being my heroine Leo. I hope you like my present…