Chapter 13: First adventure, second life
“CygnasDammit!”
I froze as the curse reached my ears. I could have sworn that was English, but that language should not exist here.
I suppressed my mana as much as possible as I estimated the distance that the shout came from. Right now I was in a sparely wooded area that would allow the sound to carry farther than it normally would so it took a moment.
Taking out one of the few iron knives I had managed to collect over the last 2 years, I rushed towards where I thought the sound originated from. Although, since I had been using my internal energy, I had actually been quite far away from the clearing where I thought the curse came from.
Internal energy, after being cultivated and stored in the human body, could boost any individual sense to its maximum or increase the body’s overall power. It also increased reaction time based on the amount of energy used. Oddly enough, the caloric increase was only a fraction of what it should have been for me to use all of the power that my internal energy gave me. For example, if a mage was helping a blacksmith and used a hammer both with and without internal energy, the caloric usage only differed by about 3-5% of what it should, depending on skill.
As I reached the clearing where I thought that the curse originated from, I found nothing. Quietly moving around and checking for tracks or traces I, again, found nothing. Then I resorted to magic and found a few different versions from normal spells before I tried a custom made one. Specifically, this last spell was one I designed just after I met the Nalks, while I was flying through a void with nothing else to do except study the energy they used to throw me away.
This spell did not find that specific energy, but since I had been unable to use mana in that void, my spell was general enough to catch the remains of a different kind of energy. All the strange energy was gathered around a single point in the clearing, into what was once might have been a door, but that was now rapidly dissolving and the energy dispersing.
As far as I could tell the energy was not mana, or at least not any type of mana that I recognized, but it did not seem like the Nalk’s doing either. Odd.
I moved away from the clearing and set up in a more secluded area with a good line of sight into the clearing. I also tried to ignore the extra fat that I had built up just prior to my journey here and the giggling from inside my head.
Yesterday morning my family, including Mother, left for Entrials and the Lord’s party, thinking that I would leave a little later to run errands for Loco. My Mother did not seem to like the idea of leaving me, but she seem resolute on something. Bella thought that she wanted to warn off John, but I was not sure. Still, even if she went and did something like announce that I was barren, it could only serve to ward off male attention and give me a reasonable justification to avoid others.
Since they asked their neighbors to watch over the livestock and since the harvest had just come in, they thought that the house was safe to leave alone with only a lock on the pantry… Really, it was almost endearing, but that was what happened got when you lived with little to no bandits in the area, complacency.
Not that it was a bad thing, just remarkably innocent, from my point of view.
In any case, it made it all the easier for me to grab a small sack of avotatos and spend the rest of the day preparing. Of course, when any mage prepares for an expedition or adventure, it is a disgusting sight, sometimes even to people long used to it.
The reason is simple, to use magic, you need to use calories along with your mana. If you run low on either it is dangerous, but your mana can recharge on its own. Running low on calories, running low on fat, had always been the single biggest weakness for powerful mages. So, before a big fight or a long adventure, it was customary to binge eat and sleep without using mana to gain fat.
Of course, binge eating also means processing the food and getting rid of it to eat more… I was once spying a noble who had 12 circles of magic and I saw him eat dozens of plates full of food, enough to fill me up 4 times, in preparation for a battle. The stench from the piled up contents of his chamber pots was almost terror inducing. (Naturally, I ended up poisoning his food)
I spent the whole day alternately between eating, walking to the outhouse, and practicing my newest sleep spells. As dusk started to close in, I absorbed a few more avotatos with the ‘mana root’ spell that Bella helped me discover a while back, leaving only a half dozen left for the my little trip. The spell worked much better on dead animals and meat than it did on vegetables… or whatever the avotato was – it grew underground, but each had a large seed in the center, making it a fruit botanically speaking (part of my nutritional intake lessons, curtesy of Anton)…
Leaving such musing to later though, I discovered that Bella had played a little prank on me. Somehow, maybe by interacting with my subconscious when we were sleeping, she had managed to concentrate a great deal of the fat I built up in our breasts.
Seriously?
Teehee
This will throw our balance off you know.
Sure, that is the problem you have, our balance.
I was about to retort when Bella sent me a grand mental painting. It held a mighty city in the background that was burning, while men wrapped in iron paraded prisoners in front of a lone figure on a nearby hill. The figure was monumentous, at least 2 meters tall, subtly bulging with muscles that showed even with the intricately crafted, gold inlayed, iron armor, a cold, yet earthy aura surrounding him. His hair cut short, you could clearly see the hard edged handsome face of my previous life. At his feet were several beautiful naked women, trying to attract his attention by any and all means possible.
It would have been a magnificent painting if not for the fact that is did not actually exist and the figure in the painting – who was so not me, regardless of his face – had breasts larger than any of the women at his feet!
Despite it all I was actually impressed, it was a very impressive picture, even if it was just in my head.
When did you do that?
When you were sleeping of course.
Hum. Are the women based off my previous life’s slaves?
Partly, I did some work on them though.
Very nicely done, minus those ridiculous things on the focal character’s chest. Were you trying to mix the past and the present or do you actually think I am going to go down that path again?
…I know how much of a burden you thought being the king was, but-
Thought? Now I wonder why being King would be bothersome. Besides sleeping with both eyes open every night, listening to complaints day in and day out, and having to deal with the fact that even breathing wrong will make new enemies, being King was fun.
-but do you really think that you would be comfortable under anyone else? Under the command of some noble? You might not like the idea, but you were an effective King and I cannot help wondering if you– if we –are going to be one again someday.
…
The point was that I stored up some calories, took some rations, and moved out just after sunset to prevent anyone from noticing me and asking questions. Between my naturally sharp eyesight and some selective magical modifications, I could see by the moonlight fairly easily. When I was sure that even the night owls were asleep I also started using my internal energy reserves, which helped me both move faster and see even better.
When I heard the foreign curse the sun was just starting to rise and I had made it all the way to area less than a half day’s walk south of the river that was my final destination.
I spent around half the morning in hiding, watching the area where the strange energy had originally gathered, but it was no good. I would have actually stalked the location longer, but after the 4th rabbit decided that I was a good human to sleep next to, I gave up.
Fortunately one of the rabbits was a test rabbit that I had modified before, so at least I was able to get some test results from the whole affair. Although results might be overstating it, I already stopped experimenting on rabbits for the most part. They were useful to test genetic modification spells, but any and all serious investigations into how I could make the genetic improvements would need to be on creatures genetically closer to humans.
Resulting in today’s adventure. The legends stated that there were large, humanoid, creatures, covered in fur that lived on the other side of the oh-so-creepy river. Ever since hearing about the legend I thought that I might be able to find some type of ape or at the least a creature with a closer genetic base to humans than a dog or cat.
Drawing on my internal energy again I sprinted off towards the river and took the opportunity to really test the limits of my bodily control.
Singing, dancing, and embroidery were good methods to practice non-mana based control of individual muscles, but I still needed to exercise control over my body as a whole to keep myself at least somewhat dangerous. Even if I used my new and improved muscles to the maximum, my currently tiny size somewhat limited me. Although the unexpected success last phase in making my bones 8 times more dense without effecting their functions would be a wonderful aid.
I sprinted faster than a horse could run and I only gained speed as the area grew more wooded. I twisted my body, kicked and destroyed the ground underneath me, and ran through the forest for a few minutes. Towards the end of my spontaneous bout of exercise, after I nearly died via running into a few trees, I slowed down to a less foolish standard.
I did not stop until I felt the dark premonitions of fear flow into my mind. It was not strong at first, a mere bad feeling that made me want to turn back, but the feeling quickly grew into an unnerving feeling of being watched. I stopped at that point and controlled my breathing.
Someone, one of my female slaves probably, had once carved fear and paranoia runes into both my bed and makeshift throne. They were much less strong than this feeling, but they were more subtle and played on my already justified paranoia, making them much more dangerous. The feeling I currently had though was simply one that screamed danger.
Walking forward as carefully as I could, I concentrated on listening and easily heard the sounds of water. Although it seemed a bit further away than what I heard from other people who had traveled the area previously.
It is odd that the fear runes affected me out here though, I thought to myself. I still cannot see the river, which means the runes might be failing at other parts. I pushed through several small bushes and found a river that suddenly boomed to life in the unnatural silence likely caused by fear runes…
Are you sure it was just the fear runes? This river sounded much farther away.
You are probably right, but stop whispering, no one else can hear our thought and even the Nalks would probably have trouble, if they cared at all.
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Obvious fear runes combined with subtle runes of a different sort that messed with the senses. No wonder no one had explored the area before now, even trained mages with runes tattooed onto their skin would have problems staying in the area long enough to find the fear runes.
They got under your skin, it was what they did, especially ones this strong.
Both fortunately and unfortunately, I had suffered worse at the hands of the Guilt.
It was something most people did not appreciate, if you get hurt every time you stick your hands too close to the fire, eventually you either learn not to go near fires or how far away to keep your hands. For myself, I learned how to minimize the pain of the Guilt, however, I still killed and I still had to deal with the Guilt after I took a life. So, I decided to embrace the Guilt as best I could, hence my so called ‘Bandit’s Creed.’
I once asked… someone else what they would do in my situation and they told me that they would have join some distant, peaceful, priesthood. That was not my way though, so I resolved to endure my suffering without hurting myself, or lashing out at others who tried to help me in those times. Very few people understood how much willpower that took in and of itself.
Shaking my head and forcing myself to concentrate, I tapped my stored energy and tried to estimate the river’s width. It was harder than normal with the hidden runes affecting my senses. I wanted to take extra care not to fall into the river though, for two important reasons. First, the fear runes would make swimming much more dangerous and second, mountain bandits tended not to swim well.
In the end, I jumped farther than I needed to on purpose so the river was not a problem. The trees and thorn bushes on the other side of the river, however, were an annoyance afterwards. If it was not Bella’s body too, she probably would have laughed, instead we just concentrated on moving through the rune affected area.
As we walked, carefully, I noticed that the feelings of dread only grew. It got so bad that I was actually worried about traumatizing Bella somehow. It was an idea which suddenly transformed into a large, shadowy specter waiting in the back of my head. Eventually however, the feeling started to reverse and instead of walking into the fear runes, I was walking away from them.
It was a welcome relief and the feeling of fear rapidly receded and I started to hear animal noises for the first time in quite a while. I had not even realized they were gone until I realized how quite it was near the river, so hearing the occasional birdcall was surprisingly relaxing.
Not even animals would want to be near those runes I thought grimly. Who made them anyway? Was this really former Elven land?
Although it did not matter for my purposes, I started feeling curious and kept an eye out for any old structures while searching for tracks. If there was another source of water away from the river, which would probably be the best place to look.
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Hours later I finally found a stream as the day started to end. Mentally marking the location I took my canteen off my belt and filled it up while also pulling a pair of avotato from my traveling pack. As I absorbed them with magic, I walked upstream, figuring that I would be less likely to attract animals if I was closer to the fear runes. Assuming that the stream was an offshoot of the river that is.
So I moved upstream at a fast jog and to my surprise it did not lead me back to the river of fear runes, but instead to an odd clearing. The source of the stream seemed to be an old weathered stone. The water was gently pouring out of a horizontal cut mid-way up the stone. Perhaps it used to be an underground aqueduct of some sort?
Walking around I also saw that there were signs of previous buildings that had stood a very long time ago. The foundations were usually all that remained, with a few odd walls here and there. Still, from what I could tell the buildings were placing in some sort of odd pattern. Not that I was an ancient hunter, I was a bandit, but it still seemed strange.
Looking around I decided that this would be as good a place as any to stop. Especially since it was shaping up to be a cloudy night and even my eyes would have trouble seeing soon enough.
Setting up alarm and small burn wards, I made sure that no animal was likely to approach me and set up camp.
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The next morning, I woke up well rested and decided to take a look around the ruins again before I went back to tracking down my newest test subjects.
Looking around, I found a tree that offered a good view of the ruins and half climbed, half jumped, to the top. Looking down I tried to figure out what the design of these buildings was supposed to be. After a few minutes however, it was not me, but Bella who figured it out.
She did not say a word to me, but instead sent me a mental picture of a rune. ‘Obey’
I swallowed and quickly climbed down to move my camp to outside to ruins.
Okay, so thankfully the rune is not still active, we would have felt something from that obvious of a rune. The question seems to have become ‘what have the Elves left us?’ rather than ‘were the Elves here?’
Are you sure it was not humans that built this?
Oh I am sure humans built it. The stonework marks are from old methods of carving – with other stones. Can you see my old capital from my memories? It was very much similar in age and design. Plus, according to the legends, Elves did not like working or living on stone.
It is harder for me to see some memories… Anyway you said earlier that you were no ancient hunter and yet now you are an expert. More importantly, we only came here because of stories and legends so tell me: why are you so eager to chase legends.
Legends all have some basis. That was how I found my capital, hidden away in a land populated by cut throats… Anyway judging by the age of the foundations and the fact that this place is surrounded by extremely creepy woods, I think Elves are a safe bet – if safe is the right word – besides, those self-righteous mercenaries and Jalon found the cursed dagger not more than a few days travel from here.
There is something else too.
…Yeah, the shear horrid feeling of living by that rune would cause anyone to leave… unless something scarier is near-by and forcing the occupants to stay.
Getting to higher ground again I found something interesting, in the center of the ruins a stone had been turned sideways. That was the reason the rune was no longer active. Someone got smart, I thought grimly, thanks, whoever you were.
Looking around I did not notice anything of major interest, but there was one odd thing. Outside the creepy ruins was a small hill. I would not have noticed, but the hill had an area that had obviously been dug up recently. I thought about ignoring it, but considering I slept in the middle of a giant rune and did not know it, I had a feeling that being a little extra cautious and checking it out would be a better idea.
When I got to the area Bella pointed out that, based on our experience killing fireweed, this looked a few months old, which meant that someone or something had buried something here recently. I would like to say someone is more likely though because of the rectangular nature of the dig marks.
Just in case, I set up alarm wards and took out my ever present former bone supply. Although I could technically call it a big ball of calcium when it was not wrapped around my torso. Reshaping it into a spade, I started digging.
It was not the most exciting job in the world and regrettably I do not know any digging spells. Those that existed tended to be closely guarded… so closely guarded that they were almost a legend onto themselves.
After a few minutes of digging, I hit something hard and I used a spell to blow off some of the dirt. It looked like bones, but it was hard to tell. I wondered what type of animal would bury most of its food, but as long as my wards were up (and I double checked at this point) there was no animal that was going to sneak up on me. After a few more scoops of dirt I stood back and used my spell again, only to find something I never expected.
Who in the bloody stoning ovals would be insane enough to bury a human corpse!?
The human bones were fairly decayed, but between the fact that the tissues were still decaying and fact that the dig site was relatively new, I now knew that there were other humans in the area.
DeMorte.
Bella did not have to finish, I read her thoughts just as she tried to get my attention. There was a dim outline of a rough rectangle next to where I was digging. Then another and another. If there were more I could not tell, the outlines were hard to distinguish.
I forgot the other thing that terrorized people thousands of years ago, Soul Mages.
* * *
A place not far from DeMorte
Leo the player of the Nalks had been a subtly, thorough, and terrifying player, but Leo the architect had been as thorough as the player had been., taking into account all the numerous ripple effects of each backer’s proposed course of action and evaluating even the smallest changes.
The only thing that had, thus far, managed to surprise him was DeMore’s increased interaction with Bella and that darn world key.
DeMorte had obviously memorized the energy associated with it too, which made Leo’s job all the harder.
The worst part was how that darn golem seemed so eager to annoy someone. He thought to himself. There was no point in getting upset over that type of person, they enjoyed the attention too much.
Still, the fact that this game had so many players from different dimensions annoyed him. Leo had spent centuries redirecting and influencing this world to make sure that everything was the perfect balance of predictable events and chance to allow for an enjoyable Game and still the others wanted people from different worlds.
The summonings were reasonable at least because he had allowed for a few, but calling in people who needed ‘game mechanics’ was just annoying.
Not to mention that DeMorte had managed to find one of the optimal paths to make him stronger, leaving Leo to make sure that the others recognized that even spell resistance would not make him a guaranteed win, not with all the new discovered spells, technologies, and weapons that the other players were slowly amassing.
Still, if DeMorte was prepared for them, there were few opponents who could ever hope to face him and win. He was just that experienced when it came to identifying how to win.
Leo made the energy equivalent of a sigh and got back to work, it was a labor of love for him, but once the Game actually began, there was nothing else like it in the multiverse.