Chapter 12 - Billy the E-boy

Billy sat across from his new mentor with rapt attention. Farmer Tim was dutifully pointing a stick at a diagram on a board, explaining the ins and outs of mana theory and how it impacted an adventurer’s development.

Billy raised his hand on cue. “So, fill my mana pool until it almost kills me, then condense it into a core? Got it.”

At Tim’s frustrated expression, Billy frowned. “Don’t got it?”

“No, no, ya got the gist of the thing,” Farmer Tim replied, rubbing his forehead. “Don’t think yer’ takin’ it super seriously, but ya got it, I guess.”

Billy nodded sagely. He sat cross legged on the ground and closed his eyes, beginning to meditate. At a questioning sound from the farmer, he explained.

“Pretty sure if I take in any more mana, I’m going to literally explode into gorey chunks. Better get it over with.”

“Wait!” Farmer Tim was in front of him in a flash, grabbing Billy by the shoulders. “If you’re really at that point…” He hesitated. When Billy opened one eye and looked up at him skeptically, he explained. “If yer’ really ready to condense yer’ core, ya have two options. One: condense it right here, right now. Two: do something batshit first, then condense it.”

They shared wicked grins, rubbing their hands together greedily like a gang of grubby merchants planning their next con.

The budding adventurer followed the old man into the forest, towards a part that Billy had never gone since it was so overgrown that it was basically impossible to traverse. New location unlocked! The old farmer used his Gift to clear a neat path straight towards their destination, the forest parting before his will.

Eventually, Farmer Tim stopped walking. Billy looked around in confusion. Wasn’t the climax of their adventure supposed to look super cool? Where were the stone pillars? The ancient ruins? A temple? A temple IN ruins? There were just… trees. And mud. Lots of mud. There should, at the very least, be some sign that something major was about to happen to change the course of Billy’s life forever.

Just when he was about to ask the old farmer what they were waiting for, Farmer Tim raised his arm out in front of him, clearly concentrating. Mana rolled off of the old guy in waves. Tree roots wriggled and moved, forming a kind of bowl in the ground. Then, branches grew to crowd atop the bowl, forming an empty egg of sorts. Ok, a swing for hippies?

Farmer Tim then stuck his arm into the egg-like structure. Mana was drawn in from what felt like the entire forest, funneling into the egg. The old man cackled wildly as he forced more and more mana into the mold that he had created. Trees creaked and branches whipped around wildly, displaced by the onrush of mana. He had to yell in order to be heard over the whooshing of the mana storm. “Portals are formed from an excess of ambient mana. At my level, forcing the amount necessary is child’s play.” He beamed as the entire forest around him seemed to be tossed around in a hurricane.

“Is it safe?” Billy yelled back. “This seems a little excessive.” He had to step to the side to avoid being crushed by a falling tree. Wind and leaves whipped at his face, forcing him to shield it with his arm.

“Excessive? Of course! That’s why we can’t do it often. Really messes with the ecosystem.” A bead of sweat slowly made its way down the old perv’s face. “Get ready, boy! It’ll only be open a few seconds.” With this, he seemed to force even more mana into his cage. Then, everything stopped. Branches fell to the ground, trees sprang back up, leaves drifted slowly downwards. The storm had passed. It had happened so suddenly that even the silence seemed loud. Suuuuper deep.

Farmer Tim, for his part, was visibly straining now, trying to keep the mana contained in his net of vines. He gestured for Billy to approach. Inside the cage, mana swirled like a whirlpool inside of a thunderstorm. A monsoon? A tornado? Yeah, a tornado. In a thunderstorm. But, the tornado ripped through a warehouse full of pastel paint cans, which exploded in flashes of colorful light.

Then, just as Billy was starting to lose himself in the beautiful display, it all went white. The roiling mana storm had turned into a portal. He had done it. The old geezer had actually created a functional, honest to goodness portal. He opened a hole in the cage and threw Billy into it. Just before the newly budding adventurer hit the portal, however, Billy saw the portal flash green. And then, he was through.

As he landed on hard stone, Billy quickly looked around. He was at the rocky base of a mountain. The air was cool and crips, like a late autumn day. He hurriedly pressed his back against a large rock as he adjusted his shield on his right arm and his wand in his left hand. He triggered his Gift, but got nothing from it.

Seeing the lack of response from his gift, he quickly raised his shield above his head. Momma didn’t raise no fool. Well, actually… Nevermind, more on that later. CLANG! Something had pounced on him from atop the rock behind him. As it landed, he saw that it was a large, gray wolf. Ok, game on, puppy.

Keeping his shield above his head, he pointed his wand and shot three small bolts of fire at the wolf. It dodged the first two, but took the third on its front paw. The oversized doggo let out a yelp of pain as the fire singed its fur.

New rule! Monsters aren’t allowed to be cute.

Just then, two more wolves came out of the treeline at the base of the mountain, spreading out to encircle him. These were gods-awfully ugly. Barely described as wolves, even. They were piles of uncuteness slinking in on all fours. They were like dog-shaped hairless mole rats. Yeah, much easier to burn to a crisp.

Starting to panic, Billy shot a tiny cone of fire to the left side of the lead wolf, then channeled a thinner, focused beam of fire to its right. As the wolf tried to dodge the first attack, the second scored a hit straight to its face. It tumbled backwards and down the mountain.

Billy brought his shield in front of himself and charged the ugly wolf-thing that was circling to his right, focusing on building up mana in his wand hand. When he was almost upon it, he shot a massive fire blast directly behind himself, catching the wolf that had tried sneaking up on him right in the chest. It crashed to the ground in a twitching heap. He tried turning to finish the beast, but the rightmost wolf pressed in on him, snapping and clawing, trying to bypass his shield.

Billy tried circling the wolf, trying to put it between himself and the two others. The wolf also tried keeping him between itself and its allies, resulting in an odd strafing battle that rimmed the base of the mountain. Billy knew that he could win as long as he kept the number of enemies low. Ain’t no way he was winning against all three at once. Seeing one of the earlier wolves approaching, he decided that he needed to take a chance. He needed to take some out now.

The young adventurer pushed mana into his boots and rocketed forwards, catching his opponent by surprise. He smashed his shield into its face, then shoved his wand right into the beast’s nose. It entered with a squelch and a bit of scraping, but it made it in. A blast of fire, directly channeled into the wolf through its nose, was more than it could handle. It exploded into thousands of tiny light particles. One down. One or two more to go.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Shifting rocks behind Billy warned him of an impending attack. As he spun, he swung his shield in a backhand, catching the wolf midair. The entire portal subspace seemed to freeze for a moment as he made contact, the entire world glowing white for an instant. Action shot. Aaaand resume! Time came rushing back, and so did the pain. The impact slammed the wolf aside, but jarred Billy’s arm. It felt like it had almost torn off despite the shield’s enchantment. Not wasting time on his hurt shield arm, he bathed his downed foe in flames until it dissipated.

He gingerly made his way back to where he started. The first wolf that had attacked him was lying in a crumpled heap, but was still alive. Billy made quick work of it with a charged fire bolt. He looked around the mountainside, trying to find the treasure chest. Did all portals have them? He thought they did, but maybe this one was different because it was forced open. Not wasting any more time, he quickly dipped a finger into his jar of beetle jam and shoved it into his mouth. Ugh. Yup, definitely the taste of punishment.

All of the hairs on Billy’s body stood on end. Had the-- nope. Not a gastrointestinal issue. This was danger. He turned towards the treeline. A massive, fire wreathed dire wolf was slowly making its way out of the forest. With every step it took, it left fiery paw prints in its wake. It had blazing red-orange eyes. No, literally eyes made of crackling fire. It was still far away, but Billy had no doubt that it would tower over him if it had the chance to get close.

Billy slowly backed up, climbing the mountain to create some distance. He still had a little over half of his mana pool. The expanded size was really nice, he had to admit. He wanted it to regenerate a little more as he formulated a plan to not be the beast’s lunch. Hell, by the size of it, he was probably only an appetizer. The problem was that his best weapon, his fire wand, probably wasn’t effective against the monstrosity. His second best weapon, his shield, didn’t seem too useful, either. It’s not like he would survive long in close range. Trees that were too close to the wolf caught fire as it passed. Rocks popped and shattered just from the heat. He could throw his shield, but then what? He didn’t have much confidence in killing it in a single throw.

And then it happened. Billy’s back smacked against a boulder. Seeing its opportunity, the dire wolf raced up the mountain with staggering speed. Billy scrambled around the boulder, but it was already almost upon him. Loose rocks slid underneath him and he almost fell. As he was pushing himself upright, he had an idea. He had to use his third best weapon: his keen mind.

Not really. He was gonna use his boots. He let himself fall back to the ground, channeling mana as he went. He pressed both feet against the boulder. He dumped as much mana as he could into his boots in the scant few seconds that he had. Placing his shield behind his head for protection, he shoved.

He was slammed into the mountain as he, well, jumped into it. He wasn’t the only one to move, however. The boulder went rocketing down the mountain and smashed into the bounding, flame-wreathed dire wolf. The beast was obliterated. Squished. Smashed like a bowl of fiery eggs (looking at you, Barrett). Grounded and pounded. Seismically tossed into the afterlife.

The moment Billy was waiting for came. As he felt the energy of the portal dimension converge into him, he forced his mana pool to condense. He heaved and hoed, scrinched and scrunched. He leveraged the pressure from the influx of mana into helping him crush his mana pool into a tiny, red-tinged, gray dotted marble. Probably red from the continuous use of fire mana and gray from the enhancement or durability mana, for the slow ones out there. It expanded quickly, so he forced it down again. And again. Every time it tried springing back to a larger size, he forced it back as small as possible.

Billy didn’t know how long he sat there, half buried in the mountain, condensing his mana pool into a mana core. He lost count of how many times he had to recondense it, as the mana from the portal just kept funneling into him. Eventually, the portal just shunted him out and into the forest again. This time, it was more violent than the last as he skipped off the mossy ground twice before plunging into a puddle of mud covered moss.

He groaned, finally opening his eyes, to see Farmer Tim looming above him. “My boy! Ya survived!” The farmer beamed. “I was pretty sure I saw a flash of green, there, but I guess not..” He trailed off as he looked Billy over with concern. “You ok, buddy?”

Billy, for his part, just groaned as he sat up. When he wiped his face, he saw blood mixed in with the mud. He reached beneath him for the rock that was poking into him. It wasn’t just any rock. It was an ability stone!

“Woah!” Farmer Tim exclaimed. “F-ranked portals don’t give those. But then…” He just looked at Billy with a raised eyebrow.

“Yep,” Billy croaked. “It sure was more dangerous than the last one. Three wolves and a fire-attributed dire wolf.” He looked down at the ability stone. It emanated a strong aura of violence. He held it up to the old man. “Do I use it now, or?” When the farmer shook his head, he put it in his bag. He was a little disappointed that he wouldn’t get to see what it did right yet.

“Check yer’ status first, boy. Look at yer’ Gift.” Farmer Tim urged. “We can sort that stone out after.”

Billy nodded, then focused inwards, on his Gift.

* Guide: E-rank. Help others find their way. Increased System rewards for guiding others through perils.

Billy furrowed his brow, then relayed the update to the farmer, who perked up.

“It mentions the System directly?” Farmer Tim seemed intensely interested. At Billy’s nod, he mumbled to himself. “Prompts rarely mention the System… To have a Gift that interacts directly with the System…”

Billy let him ramble, mulling over the implications of his new upgrade. It probably meant he got extra rewards if he went into a dungeon or a portal with a group. Maybe, if he was lucky, he didn’t have to brave any of those. There were perils everywhere, to be honest.

After pondering his new E-rank upgrade and the potential of his ability stone, Billy stood up. Naturally, he regretted his decision. His body stiffly protested the movement. After a bit of stretching, he could, at least, put a bit of pep in his step. There wasn’t any point in sitting around and guessing when he could just test things out. “Ok, old man. We’re going back to your place. Follow me.”

Farmer Tim dazedly followed behind Billy, understanding the kid’s plan, but still mulling over his Gift’s interactions with what it called the System.

Billy channeled his Gift with the intent to get back to the farmstead. He immediately noticed that his total mana drained much faster. He had lost quite a bit of maximum mana. Really, at this rate, he wasn’t sure if he could hurl more than a couple of fireballs. On the flip side, his mana regeneration had vastly improved due to his gamble in the portal. His mana core, having been compressed over and over, would produce mana of a higher quality and at a faster pace. He could now drain his entire mana core in minutes and regenerate it fully within half an hour instead of the couple of hours from before. Right now, he was at a disadvantage compared to before he ranked up. However, he would vastly eclipse his old power as his mana core grew in size.

As Billy led the way back to the farmhouse, he experimented with his Gift. It seemed to give more precise directions than before. He also got a better sense of how he should guide Farmer Tim as he focused on the old man. With that in mind, he took a few detours, collecting a few magical plants on the way. The man really didn’t seem to mind, or notice, as he was caught up in his apparently very interesting mumblings.

When they got to the farm, Billy took out a pot and started boiling some of the plants that he had picked up. Then, he poured the concoction into a bowl and handed it to Tim. “Drink up, old man,” he said with a nod towards the bowl. “It says that’s what you need.” Billy shrugged, not knowing exactly why, but having his suspicions.

Farmer Tim, for his part, sniffed the bowl as he finally noticed he was holding it. His ears burned red hot as he realized what he was holding. “What? I don’t… I didn’t… I’m not…” He sputtered in indignation.

“System says you do,” Billy said with another shrug, trying to suppress a smirk.

“Well, she said she had seen a healer for that,” he grumped, then downed the bowl’s contents in one go.

Billy felt something, then. His core seemed to grow by juuuuust a smidge. But he hadn’t been fighting. He hadn’t conquered a portal or vanquished a foe. His smile stretched from ear to ear as he realized what had happened. “I just got rewarded for helping you to… avoid peril?” He ended his statement as a question as he pondered the implications.

“Hmph,” Farmer Tim grumped. “If this cured what I think it cured, it sure saved me from the wrath of half the town. So, that’s how it works, eh? Help someone out, get rewards. Ok. Ok. Then you best be gettin’ where there’s help to be had.” Billy really didn’t like the smile on the old man’s face.