I started walking up the stairs at a regular cadence at first, but I slowly started realizing that these stairs were much longer than I initially anticipated. I started speeding up, and eventually, my speed got so fast that my feet would leave inch deep footprints in the solid stone and sometimes even cracked the stairs. Even at this pace, it took me a considerable amount of time before I turned yet another twist on the stairs and saw rays of sunlight lying upon the last flight of stairs.

Upon exiting the archway, I was surrounded by gigantic trees whose trunks seemed broad enough to build a whole house into and tall enough to brush against the clouds. Shocked at the size of these trees, I couldn't resist climbing one of them to see just how far this abnormal forest spread. When I reached the top of the tree, all I could see for tens of miles, even with my enhanced vision, were waves of green undulating with the wind. Making it seem like I was trying to look across a vast green ocean in all directions.

It was at this moment that I realized that maybe I should have asked to get a scale for the map! If I could just make it out of the forest, I should be right at my destination. The only problem was I had absolutely no survival skills, and it seemed like it would take a few days to make it out of this forest. Well, I suppose I can just hope there are some kinds of animals I can hunt since it would be pretty easy with all my new abilities.

Suddenly, I heard a noise from behind. I flipped around so fast that it kicked up a wall of dust and leaves. A barely visible shape burst through the wall of debris causing me to instinctively kick up at it. My foot connected to brain and blood matter scattering it everywhere. I froze in shock for a second as the new headless body toppled to the ground.

Reminding me once again, that now the capabilities of my body after all my training were well beyond an average human. I went gingerly over to the animal corpse to determine what I had harmed. It was some kind of large cat, and when I say massive, I mean massive. This thing was probably twice as tall as me when standing on all fours. When I looked at the path it took as it pounced on me, I noticed it had hit a tree while making its' way through the middle of the debris I had kicked up. It had torn a man-sized chunk out of the tree without slowing down.

It seems like this forest might have more dangers than just thirst and hunger. Although hunger seemed to be solved at the moment since I now had this giant pile of meat lying next to me.

I was once again at an impasse. I had no idea what my next step should be. For a while, I tried rubbing together rocks to get a fire going like I thought I remembered how it was done. Considering my memories were not reliable, I wasn't very successful. It took me an hour of banging the rocks together like an idiot before I realized maybe the lightning I could shoot from my hand might help a little.

So, I tried urging the elements to jump from my hand to the pile of sticks I had gathered in my previous attempts. When the lightning hit the sticks, it did light them on fire successfully, but it also scattered them in every direction. I ran around only being somewhat successful in stopping all of the sticks from burning down half the forest but after I recovered everything I had a nice mostly controlled fire going.

I started cooking whatever animal it was I just killed. When I took the first bite, it melted in my mouth and sent a surge of liquid happiness shooting through my body just by how good it was compared to what I had been eating. I sat there for a while just washed in the sensations. Finally being thoroughly stuffed, I started following the map towards where the city was located.

I traveled this direction for two more days and got attacked twice more by the same strangely over-sized animals both of which I disposed of in a similar manner as the first one. In fact, I even got good enough at controlling the lightning, there was only a small chance of setting the whole forest on fire.

It was on the third night of traveling that I noticed a flickering light in the distance. I headed towards it hoping that I would be able to find some people that knew how to get to the city that was my destination. I got closer to the light, and it was a campfire. I approached it quickly and was about to yell something to them when something must have alerted them to my presence because they jumped up and drew their weapons.

One of them was a female who was clad in a full plate of armor with lion head pauldrons and a two-handed weapon etched with a unique pattern that might have meant something to her but just looked cool to me. She gave me a kind of up and down assessment before a little bit of shock appeared on her face as she questioned me saying,

"What the hell are you doing in the Giant's forest by yourself and unarmed?"

I tried to quickly think of a proper response because it was true if I had only the strength of a normal human being in this forest alone, it would have been a death sentence. Before I could finish deciding whether to tell the truth or to make up some fictitious story, another person in the group stepped up. He was dressed in a drab brown robe and had a sort of weasel-like appearance. His eyes constantly darted around like he was suspicious of everything. He gave a small yank on the female's elbow and whispered to her,

"Careful, I think he might be a core master, I could sense some fluctuations."

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Upon hearing this, the woman stiffened up and looked at me with added wariness. Deciding to introduce myself might ease the tension, I gave a small wave before saying,

"Hello, I am currently trying to find my way here,"

I said while pointing to the city on my map.

"My name is Azur. Why are you guys staying in this forest?"

I asked. I looked up after giving this introduction to see them all give me looks of either shock or amazement. The woman seemingly the spokesperson for the group addressed me again with a bit of nervousness entering her voice,

"What is an honored core master doing so far out of the mainland?"

I looked at her confused before voicing my questions,

"What do you mean by mainland and why are you calling me a core master and how do you know that I am one?"

She seemed kind of thrown off by my response but quickly recovered replying,

"You don't know where the mainland is and didn't you come from there? As for how we knew you were a core master, the map you showed us is incredibly rare and only someone at the level of core master should have the ability to acquire one."

She thinks I'm from what they call the mainland. I wonder why that is. Either way, it seems the map the Master gave me is extremely rare making them think I'm a core master. Though now that I think about it. Core master could refer to me having a lightening core. So with my newly somewhat mastered control of my lightning, I was able to clad my hand in lightening without it all dissipating. Doing this, I held my hand with lightning sparking off of it and asked,

"Is this what you mean by a core master?"

No one answered for a while just staring at my hand in amazement when one in the group who had not yet spoken and was wearing light leather armor and carrying a longbow walked over towards me. He looked at me with a kind of reverence you'd expect to see on someone's face when they met their hero. He barely managed to stutter out,

"Are you an elemental core master?"

Getting a little annoyed that these people kept asking me questions instead of answering mine, I answered him with some annoyance creeping into my voice,

"If having a condensed core of lightening elements is being an elemental core master, then, yes I am. But maybe you should explain what your definition of a core master and this mainland is me."

They seemed to finally realize that they haven't answered any of my questions. The woman stepped up again, gave a small bow and said in a somewhat apologetic tone,

"What you described would definitely make you a core master. Core masters are anyone who has a condensed core of elements though most of the time the core isn't made of one specific element which makes them weaker. That is why we were so surprised when you had an elemental core. As for the mainland, it's a continent right next to this one, and almost all core masters come from there. In fact, there is only one sect that isn't based in the mainland, and that sect is isolated on an island as a protest against the constant warfare on the mainland."

All this information seemingly answered my questions, but it also raised more. It this land wasn't even considered the mainland and yet it was already this huge, how big was this whole world? This gave me a little bit of desire to someday explore this vast world, but for now, I had to complete my mission and try to find the city on my map. On that note, I turned around and asked them,

"Can any of you guys tell me how to get to the city right outside the forest? Also, who are you guys and what are you doing in this forest. I mean it doesn't exactly seem like the most habitable of places."

The woman looked almost relieved now that I was asking more normal questions. She once again stepped up to answer my questions,

"We are part of the mercenary group, the Flaming Lance. I am one of the squad leaders, Claudia. The other members of my squad are Russel, as she says this she points towards the man in the drab robe before continuing, he is our group's elemental manipulator. The last member with the bow who doesn't talk much is Thomas. We are out for the same reason everyone goes to this forest, hunting. As for getting to the city, why not come with us? We're heading back right now."

When she finished, I was a little surprised that she had answered everything so easily. I was going to let her know I agreed to her proposal when I noticed a movement in the background. Next thing I knew, a creature jumped into the clearing with the campfire kicking up an enormous dust cloud. For a second, all was silent.

Then the dust started to clear, and I got my first good view of the creature. It was huge as was typical of this forest, but from there it differed substantially from the other animals. Its base form most closely resembled a dog, but instead of fur, it had scales that hugged its body like well-made plate amour of ours. With every breath, a small amount of drool would come out of its mouth burning small pits in the ground with every drop. It also had four teeth that extended from its mouth and shined with venom.

For a second while I was taking in the strange looking creature, it gave all us a look like it was daring us to run from it. Then it jumped at our group. I dodged to the side and used my typical kick to the head that had worked so far. It attempted to evade but was not quick enough. My foot hit it with a solid thud that threw it backward into a tree cracking the tree in half with a thunderous boom. It quickly got back to its' feet, surprising me that didn't appear to be hurt. Both of now looked at the other with added wariness realizing we were underestimating each other. We stared each other down for a bit until finally, it lunged at me.

I dodged to the side again but mid-lunge it had spit out a glob of something that intercepted my dodge spattering onto my shoulder, instantly burning off my clothing and starting to burn my shoulder. So, I activated my core to clad my whole body in lightening just barely being able to maintain control of the elements. I jumped forward and hammered the strongest blow I could manage into its' front leg sending it backward nearly fifty feet and shattering the scales on its' leg.

Blood started to seep out of its' leg. It looked back at me as if realizing that it might need to run. But before it could run away, I pushed myself and concentrated all of the elements in my core onto my hand forming a sort of lightening blade on my hand. Before it could disperse, I struck the creature in the forehead frying its' brain. It collapsed with a soft thump as I actually gasped a breath since the last technique I used caused a considerable strain on me.

As I stood there recovering, my brand new companions walked up to me with an equal measure of shock and awe written upon their faces. Claudia stepped up stammering,

"You, you actually killed a Demon Hound! Just how strong of a core master are you?"

I kind of gave her a questioning look,

"Do you really think that thing was that strong? It was too slow to be much of a threat and even then just barely managed to injure me."

As I said this, I pointed to my shoulder which even now was rapidly healing. Upon seeing my shoulder so quickly healing, it seemed that something suddenly dawned on her. She looked back at me saying,

"Well, it doesn't matter now that it's dead. But if you still want to go to the city, we can lead you there. In fact, we can also help you carry the scales and teeth of the Demon Hound. They are worth a fortune at auction."

I agreed wholeheartedly for this was precisely what I wanted, and with a chance to get some extra money, that was just an added bonus. With my agreement, they started dismantling the Demon Hound. They did this with precision and efficiency that only someone with tons of experience could manage. This made me wonder just how many beasts must they have killed to have gotten so good at this process. Slowly, a small hill of scales was formed with four large fangs sitting on top. We all grabbed as much as our packs could hold and when we were finished, there was still half of the pile left. We then started heading towards the city.