Chapter Six
Before approaching the pedestal, he threw his dagger toward it. The dagger bounced off the pedestal and landed on the ashy ground. He waited several seconds, expecting something to happen, but nothing did.
Despite his instincts screaming at him that something was wrong, he had to admit defeat. If there was a trap, he couldn’t find it. That didn’t mean he would walk up to the pedestal.
Instead, he circled around to the back, then shuffled forward, using his bare feet to feel for any traps. Suddenly, he froze as his toes felt a slight ridge. Curious, he crouched and investigated. With his hand, he brushed away the ash to find a barely perceptible line in the stone below the ash.
Arden waddled while brushing the ash away, revealing the line circled around the pedestal, creating a five-meter diameter ring.
He stood up and stared at the circle with his arms crossed. How was he supposed to retrieve his card? He threw the only throwable item he had. If he took a running start, he could jump, but what if they trapped the pedestal? All of this for a card he received from Ortus. He should have put it in his deck the moment he received it.
In vain hope, he scanned his surroundings, looking for anything that could help him, but other than the massive burned stump, there was nothing. If only he could use his Wood Manipulation card. Not that he could carve away wood from the tree without his knife.
Even if he had his knife, without ambient nature mana, he couldn’t use his cards until he reached grade one. Actually, without ambient nature mana, he wouldn’t reach grade one anytime soon.
Curious, he scanned his surroundings with his mana sense, but there was nothing. As in, no mana. That discovery sent a chill down his spine. Based on the environment, there should at least be earth mana, but there was simply nothing as if it was a void.
Left with no other option, he backed to the edge of the clearing, then took off in a sprint. He cleared the distance in a moment, leaping just before the circle. His legs cycled through the air as he reached his hand down, plucking the card off the pedestal. With the card clutched in his hand, he tucked into a roll just past the circle less than a meter from crashing into the stump.
Arden spun toward the pedestal, expecting something to happen, but nothing did, causing him to frown. He would rather something happen. At least then it would justify his paranoia.
As if summoned, several explosions went off. Then the ground below him shifted. He dove away, but was far too slow. A second ring revealed itself hidden under the ash and, unfortunately, he was near the center. The new circle plummeted downward, unwilling passenger in tow.
Any panic vanished a moment later, replaced with incredulity. Really? They tried that hard to beat him? What lesson could such an absurd test teach? They probably rigged it to fail from the beginning. It wouldn’t surprise him if they hid several more circles under the ash in case he landed somewhere else.
Several seconds passed as his rock platform plummeted with him along for the ride. The ride wasn’t as terrifying as one would think. Something kept the platform level, though that didn’t mean it was comfortable as it was dropping at near freefall speeds.
If it weren’t for his many years dealing with his parents’ method of travel, he would have puked his guts out but as it was, he could bear with it. He tilted his head back and stared upward to find the light above was now a dot, driving home just how far he fell.
His eyes caught something falling toward him, causing him to roll out of the way. That something turned out to be his knife, which landed unnaturally softly on the platform right in front of him.
Suddenly, his world lit up in green light as the platform broke through into a cavern, causing his head to snap back down. His eyes widened as he stared out at the expansive cavern filled with greenery. Trees that looked suspiciously like the stone trees though alive towered to near the top of the cavern. Green crystals embedded in the cavern’s ceiling provided light, tinting everything in a warm green.
In the next moment, waves of mana flooded into his body, lighting up his bracelets like beacons. He gasped but his training kicked in, prompting him to latch on to the mana gushing in through his bracelets.
Unbeknownst to him, the platform slowed, then landed softly on a ledge overlooking the cavern below.
Internally he struggled against the potent mana, trying its best to overwhelm him, but he refused to let it win. Though something had to give and to ensure it wasn’t his bracelets, he let a trickle through, relieving some of the pressure. The trickle soon turned into a steady stream, but he held it at that.
Fortunately, after the stream cycled through his veins and pumped into his mana core, his body equalized with his new environment. That didn’t mean the mana didn’t want to flood in, but with each passing second, the pressure decreased.
Soon he didn’t have to suppress the flow as it reached a point where his bracelets could handle moderating how much entered his body.
Still, he continued to watch the mana pump into his body at a steady rate, pushing his core ever closer to the next stage of development. Here he was worried he would lag behind others in core development after they caught up to his head start.
At this rate, he would reach the peak of the integration phase within a matter of hours.
Satisfied he wouldn’t explode, he shifted his attention outward, eyes scanning the nature filled paradise with wonder. This was the first time he saw a living tree or any living foliage in large quantities. No wonder the place had such rich nature affinity mana.
Suddenly he stiffened as he realized what the paradise meant. How did no one notice this place? Going by the corpse of the charred stump above, he wasn’t the first person to discover it. Obviously, his parents knew of this paradise, so others had to have known.
Something wasn’t right. There had to be a reason no one swarmed this place. Even if one didn’t have the nature affinity, the resources available in the cavern had to be absurd.
His eyes focused in on the dense forest below with a critical eye, but nothing stood out to him beyond the beauty of the place.
At least at first. Movement caught his eye off into the distance. He stared at the zipping shapes, mouth dropping open as they flew close enough for him to see what they were, but never past the tree line.
A book he read years ago on myths came to mind as wonder filled his eyes. Fairies? They existed? If he remembered right, they were a magical race of tiny winged humanoids. As far as he knew, they disappeared before Ortus arrived, though history that far back was spotty and he wasn’t an expert, being from a small village.
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His parents provided him with as much learning material as they could, though. Not that he had anyone his age to compare to. Maybe an average city dweller blew him out of the water on knowledge.
Mesmerized, he watched the fairies zip around, each of them glowing different colors. Maybe they didn’t disappear, but hid. They could be the reason no one touched this place. What little he knew painted quite a devastating picture. They may be tiny and weak, but they had power in numbers.
Suddenly, his arrival didn’t feel like a boon. He really didn’t want to find out what would happen if they discovered him. Still, he couldn’t stay where he was forever. The potent mana wasn’t enough to sustain him. He needed to find a source of food soon and an escape.
Of course, if he could find a safe place to stay, he would prefer to remain down in this paradise for as long as he could. It was probably the only place nearby with such potent nature mana after all.
Greed flashed through his eyes. At the rate the mana flooded into his body, he might even break through the bottleneck at the Communion phase and reach grade one. That might take weeks, but if he left, it could take years. He just had to avoid the attention of possibly murderous little fairies. At least he hoped that was the only potentially hostile creature down in the forest.
From what he could tell, as long as he stayed on the ledge, he should be safe, maybe because he wasn’t in their territory yet. For all he knew, the moment he stepped foot into the forest, they would swarm him.
Too many unknowns for him to take the risk for now. He would stay on the ledge until the situation changed. His parents forced him down here so it couldn’t be immediately lethal, or maybe it was, and they thought the rewards outweighed the risk.
He tore his eyes away from the beautiful fairies and surveyed his immediate surroundings. The platform landed on a grassy ledge spotted with patches of flowers. Just this ledge, no bigger than the courtyard back home, had more greenery than he had seen in his entire life.
An idea sparked as he eyed the greenery. He may as well make the most of his time trapped on the ledge. Nurturing his core was only part of the path to power. His cards needed exercise as well. But first he needed to create his first hand, not that he had enough cards yet for it to matter.
Arden focused his attention on his bracelets, which were still shining. He hoped this wouldn’t disrupt their control of the inflow of mana. Worst case, he would grasp control of the mana. Fortunately, plenty of mana flooded the bracelets, he just had to make use of some of it.
There was a reason most didn’t consider someone a mage until after the third phase bottleneck, reaching grade one. Before that, one couldn’t use their own mana from their core, leaving outside mana as the only option to use their cards.
Fortunately, he spent an almost unhealthy amount of time learning how to control mana, even if it wasn’t his own yet, until it assimilated into his core.
Before opening his Ortus interface, he tapped his Accelerated Growth card still in his hand, causing it to turn into particles and enter his bracelets.
Next, as his parents taught him, he diverted a stream meant for his core, then looped it back to his bracelets at the specific spot to pull up his Ortus interface.
A hologram only visible to him manifested above his left bracelet. Displaying his basic information and deck.
Name: Arden
Age: 25
Affinity: Nature
Current Attunements: Wood, Poison, Plant, Fungi
Attunement Balance: 14/100
Wood: 4
Poison: 4
Plant: 4
Fungi: 2
Deck:
Wood Manipulation (Rare) Level 1
Poison Resistance (Rare) Level 1
Convert Seed (Uncommon) Level 1
Dispense Spore (Uncommon) Level 1
Accelerated Growth (Common) Level 1
Vine Extension (Common) Level 1
If it wasn’t for the fungi card, he would have balanced attunements. Even with it, his balance was pretty solid. If it became a problem, he could remove the Disperse Spore card until he found more fungi attuned cards.
For now, he had plenty of room until he hit the card limit. Unless he found dozens of cards lying around, he doubted he would touch the limit. That wasn’t a problem for anyone but the pampered city scions who got force fed cards.
Since his parents showed him the interface from their bracelets, nothing surprised him, as he used his right hand to navigate his deck menu. One thing he noticed was his interface appeared much simpler than his parents. He knew one reason was because he didn’t have a class card, which meant he couldn’t see his attributes bonuses.
Suddenly, he froze as he realized one important detail he somehow missed. What if his class card quest sent him somewhere else? There was no way he could escape the cavern in time to complete his quest in the week timeframe everyone received.
Was he doomed? Did his parents force him to trade a class card for cultivating his core in a nature mana rich environment? That didn’t make sense. Why would he have to choose one? They could have taken him down to this cavern after his class card quest. There had to be a reason they lured him down to the cavern when they did.
Filled with nervous energy, Arden stood up and paced as he absentmindedly flipped through his baby deck. After several minutes, he released a long sigh. He couldn’t change what happened. All he could do was make the most of his opportunities. That meant focusing on improving his current deck and allow the mana to nourish his core.
The sooner he reached past the third phase, the better. Even if he missed out on his class card quest. It wasn’t the end of the world. Though it was close.
What was worse? A class card or an underdeveloped core stunted by his environment. Sure, he could move to an area with higher nature mana, but the most important time to nourish one’s core was before one completed their class card quest.
Determination filled him as he refocused on his Ortus bracelet interface. With a few rapid flicks of his right hand, he drilled down to the hand creation menu. Curious if he could pull up both the hand menu and his deck menu simultaneously, he poked the icon for his deck. With a flick to the right, a second window formed in front of him.
Without enough cards to even fill out one hand, he dragged over his Accelerated Growth, Convert Seed, Vine Extension, Dispense Spore and Wood Manipulation cards into his active hand. Another swipe sent his Poison resistance card into his passive hand, probably permanently. He didn’t see a reason he would ever switch out such a valuable card. While he doubted anyone would poison him, poison attacks and traps were quite common. Especially so in an environment like the one he found himself in.
Active Hand: 5/10
Wood Manipulation (Rare) Level 1
Convert Seed (Uncommon) Level 1
Dispense Spore (Uncommon) Level 1
Accelerated Growth (Common) Level 1
Vine Extension (Common) Level 1
Passive Hand: 1/5
Poison Resistance (Rare) Level 1
Done with his Ortus interface, he dismissed it with a wave of his hand. The moment he did, a wave of power and knowledge filled his mind, causing him to stumble in surprise. His eyes gravitated toward the grass and flowers a few meters away, instantly knowing how to improve their growth rate. Though as they were level 1, there were several gaps in his knowledge.
At least for his Accelerated Growth card, the only knowledge the card imparted was how to pump mana into the plants to brute force their growth. Even before the card gave him the knowledge, he doubted it would be hard to figure out such a simple method.
The other cards were just as basic in their imparted knowledge, though from his ledge he couldn’t use any of them aside from Accelerated Growth.
Of course, he knew the cards wouldn’t hold his hand. They gave him the capability to use the magic, but he had to work to improve on his own. Fortunately for him, he didn’t lack ambient nature affinity mana to practice with. Until he reached the third phase, that would be the only option available to him.
Unable to resist any longer, he crouched at the edge of the stone platform and stared down at the grass. He directed his hand toward a patch of grass, then sent a stream of nature mana through his bracelet, causing it to glow slightly brighter.
Once the mana reached outside his body, it attempted to disperse, forcing him to clamp down on it. Like a slippery eel, his mental fingers struggled to hold on. Half of the mana dispersed back into the environment before it crossed the short distance between his hand and the patch of grass.
By the time it reached the grass seconds later, only a small fraction remained, but he pushed it on, hoping it was enough. The effect was immediate but also underwhelming. If he wasn’t staring at the patch of grass, he wouldn’t have even noticed the difference. Nourished by the influx of mana, the grass grew a few millimeters.
A few seconds after he cut his mana supply, the tips browned as the ambient mana failed to support the fresh growth.
Instead of being discouraged, a smile formed as he stared down at the brown tipped patch of grass.
This was only the beginning.