CHAPTER 3
While Alisdair was admiring his new body, Medeina called out to him from the middle of the clearing where she was sitting on a rock
“What are you looking at? Hurry up and get over here!”
“I’m coming, I’m coming”
‘What’s her problem? Is she still mad about me calling her rabbit?’ (Alisdair)
As Alisdair was sitting down Medeina started explaining how to use magic.
“First you need to find yourself a comfortable position, now, close your eyes and try to focus your mind inwards. Try to feel the flow of mana going through you, see where it converges and accumulates that is your mana pool until you can draw upon it and materialize it we won’t go any further.”
Alisdair did as he was told and sat with his legs crossed and tried to feel the mana going through him. At first he couldn’t feel anything no matter how hard he tried, he started to give up until he heard the nearby stream of water flowing and used the image of a river to find the mana flow, and he did, at first it was a small trickle tangled in a never-ending web of other flows just as small but they never touched or connected. Eventually the stream that he was following grew from a trickle to a stream, and then from a stream to a river, that lead to an intersection of other rivers of similar size all flowing into a lake of mana ‘this is it, this is my mana pool’ Alisdair thought as he marvelled at the sight of it, but no matter how hard he tried he couldn’t control it, as he was trying again for the umpteenth time he heard a low rumble all around him, Alisdair quickly opened his eyes and scanned his surroundings nervously, the only difference he saw was that the sun had nearly set.
“That was your stomach.” Medeina said when she noticed Alisdairs nervous expression.
“Ah.” Alisdair looked down embarrassed while scratching his cheek, as he was looking down he noticed a pile of fruits and berries on the ground in front of him.
“Did you get these Medeina?” Alisdair asked hopefully
“Of course what kind of teacher can’t give her student the proper nourishment needed?”
‘Teacher huh, I hope I don’t have to call her master.’ (Alisdair)
“And because I am you teacher you shall now call me master!” Medeina exclaimed happily
‘Damn I think I jinxed it.’ (Alisdair)
“Anyway eat up and get some rest we will continue your lessons tomorrow.”
“Yes Master Rabbit.” Alisdair said cheekily.
“…Hey Alisdair, do not, provoke me got it?” Medeina said with a glare that sent shivers down Alisdairs spine.
‘Ah, right she may look like a fuzzy fur ball but she’s still a god, and a scary one at that.’ (Alisdair)
That night Alisdair retired to the cave and slept fitfully with a certain ball of fluff curled up in a ball on his chest.
The next morning Alisdair decided to drag the skeleton out of the cave and bury it at the edge if the clearing which took him till about midday. He then decided to ask Medeina about the world he was now residing in.
“Hey Medeina, can you see an items status in this world?”
“No, the status window is restricted to intelligent beings only.”
“So beasts don’t have one then?”
“They do, they just can’t use it, that’s what I mean by restricted, besides you can only level up by gaining experience from beings with a status window by either killing, subduing, taming et cetera.”
“What about undead? There are undead right?”
“Undead do exist and they also give experience if that answers your question.”
“It does thanks.”
“Good now onto your training!”
Over the course of the next two weeks Alisdair continued his training with Medeina learning how to control his mana pool and how to control small tree roots, eventually gaining the skills mana manipulation and nature magic at level 3 and 5 novice respectively. Currently Alisdair was sitting in the same position with his eyes open controlling two small tree roots with a thickness roughly somewhere between a golf ball and tennis ball and about half a meter long, he was making them spiral around each other the same way one would make a rope, trying to rise his mana manipulation and nature magic, as he was doing this he recalled the conversation he had with Medeina when he gained his first skill, mana manipulation.
“Ah” -Alisdair
“What is it?” -Medeina
“I gained a skill, Mana manipulation.” –Alisdair
“Great now we can start on nature magic.” –Medeina
“Yeah, but I forgot to ask you about skill points the other day.” –Alisdair
“Hmm? Don’t worry about that for now, save them for later you never know when they will come in handy.” –Medeina
As Alisdair was reminiscing he heard the rustle of bushes to his left past the stream, he turned his head and saw a figure of a person aiming a loaded crossbow at him!
‘OH SHIT!’ (Alisdair)
As the figure released the bolt Alisdair jerked his head dodging a fatal wound but he wasn’t unscathed as the cut into his cheek causing him to lose his focus of the vines. The figure, noticing that he missed readied another bolt.
‘As if I’ll let you!’ (Alisdair)
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
While the figure was reloading Alisdair charged towards him but as he reached the stream three other figures appeared, one was a small potbellied man with a scowl on his face, in his hand was what looked to be a lumber axe and he was wearing some sort of fur armour. Another was an averaged sized man with a blank face wielding a rusty iron sword, he was wearing a leather chest piece with a shirt and pants underneath. The last new-comer was a chunky woman with a chubby face while wearing a long sleeve shirt, pants and a robe while holding what looked wooden staff.
“Hold yer’ horses Rick don’t waste yer’ ammo, der’s only one o’ dem we can ‘andle it” – Axe wielding one
“Gotcha boss” – Rick
The one with the crossbow named Rick then put his crossbow down, and walked out of the shadows with a knife. Rick had a rat like face and wore similar attire to the one with the blank face except he wore a fur hat.
“Heeh, its an elf, haven’t seen on o’ those in a long time, what ‘bout you Ken?” – Rick
“Mm” Ken/blank faced one replied with a crooked grin.
“Creepy bastard” – Rick
“Don’t be mean Rick, we are in the presence of a stranger, and first impressions are important you know~. Now mister elf let big sister Sheila take good~ care of you~.”
The woman, Sheila, said while licking her lips with a red face and with desire in her eyes.
“N-no thanks.” – Alisdair
‘Damn! I’m in trouble, but I only need to last until Medeina gets back from getting food… ‘ (Alisdair)
“Now that’s just too bad now isn’t it darling?” –Sheila
“That it is, but too bad for you that weren’t a question. GET ‘IM” –Boss
At their bosses demands the bandits charged towards Alisdair, their order went from left to right, Boss, Rick, Ken, Sheila.
‘Not good, I can’t be surrounded or I’m dead, okay think, the boss is most likely the strongest so do I take him out first? That Rick guy is probably the weakest of the bunch so now or never.” (Alisdair)
As the bandits were about to completely cross the 2 meter stream Alisdair jumped towards the boss and planted his knee into the boss unsuspecting face, with a spurt of blood from his nose the boss fell onto his backside as Alisdair was landing. When Alisdair landed in the knee high body of water downstream of the other bandits he reached out grabbing Ricks shirt and pulled him towards himself causing him to flop face first into the stream. Quickly Alisdair made his way to the opposite bank from where he jumped.
Only when Alisdair made it onto the opposite bank did the bandits fully process what had just happened with varying reactions.
“Aahn~ he’s a fighter, they’re the most fun to break” Sheila said while drooling
“…” Ken had a scary look on his face
“Ahh damn it now my clothes are wet and heavy, this sucks.” Rick said dejectedly
“...I’M GONNA KILL YA YE POINTY EARED BASTARD!” Boss yelled seething with hatred for the elf in front of him
Needless to say the bosses reaction was the most violent.
‘I was hoping to knock at least one out’ Alisdair complained to himself.
“You alright boss?” Rick asked still upset about his clothes.
“NO! THAT BASTARD’S FIST IS LIKE A HAMMER!” The boss replied angrily.
“He can hit me like a hammer anytime.” Sheila interrupted.
“SHUT THE FUCK UP WHORE!” Boss retorted tired of Sheilas antics.
The bandits then made their way towards the bank Alisdair was on as he backed away towards the forest.
‘There’s no way they’ll be able to chase me in the forest, but I can’t run away from my problems forever in this new world I’ll have to face them eventually.’ (Alisdair)
The Bandits made it just past the bank and were encroaching upon Alisdair when he charged again this time towards Sheila.
“Aahn~ faster~” –Sheila
‘I think I’m gonna be sick’ (Alisdair)
When Alisdair was in range of Sheilas staff she swung it horizontally to his left shoulder, which Alisdair quickly dodged by extending his stride and leaning forward which made it go over his head. However her swing didn’t stop and continued towards her allies, Ken was fast enough to duck however Rick wasn’t and the impact knocked him unconscious, it did not reach the boss.
As Sheila was looking in Ricks direction with a shocked looked on her face Alisdair punched her in the temple with a left hook rendering her unconscious also. As she was falling Ken rushed Alisdair aiming for his heart as he thrust his sword. Because of his momentum all Alisdair could do was keep pushing forward. Ken missed his intended target however he did get Alisdairs right shoulder, pushing all the way through his flesh and bone coming out the other side.
“AARGH”
As Alisdair shouted the Boss joined the fray and swung his axe towards Alisdairs left side. Ss it started to crush and cut his ribcage, clenching his teeth Alisdair used his one good arm to stop it from going any further. Ken then mercilessly yanked his sword out of Alisdairs shoulder causing him more agony causing Alisdair to start losing his consciousness. As he was closing his eyes with his final sight being Ken raising his sword for the final blow he heard an incredibly furious yet beautiful voice.
“WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING TO MY STUDENT!”