For the first time in what felt like forever I woke without anything going on around me, midmorning light flooded the entrance to the cave, and only the eerie silence gave lie to the seeming tranquility. I swiftly pocketed my stones of Fire Burst, while it felt like I had fewer of them than yesterday I had not actually kept track of how many I brought, and I was not about to crawl across the ground inspecting stones to see if they were possibly enchanted. That then raised an interesting question, why had I never felt any Mana from the stones of Fire Burst?

I held one up before my eyes, but all I could see or sense was an ordinary stone. Inspecting it brought up the familiar information, but to Sense the Flow it seemed to be just a rock like any other.

Stone of Fire Burst

Will explode with a burst of fire when hitting a target.

Damage: 12

Quality: Average

Was the lack of Mana I could sense due to the way the whole structure had crystallized? Would that then mean it was in fact inert right now and breaking or otherwise disturbing the structure was what made them erupt? That idea did not sit well with me, I felt that if the structure itself was disturbed the enchantment would fail in one fashion or another. I decided that I would at some point do proper experiments and figure all of this out.

I peered out through the cave opening into a bright morning, looking all around did not show either abominations or spirits and so I started my trek.

**

Apparently there was someone out there who felt I should not have a bright and sunny day, after only a short while into my journey a slow drizzle started, accompanied by a heavy fog over the swamp, leaving the area just near the mountainside the only thing I could see clearly. Thankfully the drizzle was light enough that I could still keep track of my direction using the sun, but it still left me soaked. I felt more tired than I should have with the amount of rest I had gotten, and I was truly miserable.

**

I came to a stop as the mountainside turned rather sharply to my left and the ground all but fell away in front of me, making a drop of about two meters. Below was a lushly forested area of a kind with what had been gradually taking the place of the swamp for the past half an hour or so as I walked. Even at a lower elevation, the trees where still high enough that I could not see anything beyond them.

While I had kept direction using the mountain wall and the sun, going down into the forest below would make that more difficult as the trees would obscure the sun. I was starting to get hungry again which lent some urgency to getting out of here, if my memory served me correctly the transition from swamp to forest should mean I was moving towards the plains around Logate.

In short order I got down to the low ground and started to move through this part of the forest. I was soon amazed by the sheer amount of noise; everywhere around me birds were chirping and insects buzzing, this place was alive in a way the swamp and forest along the mountain had not been.

**

While walking through the forest was far more interesting than along the mountain, it worsened the state of my feet, making them feel sore and bruised. Thankfully though it was peaceful and no monsters showed themselves. In only a few hours the forest broke up into a field, and on the far side of it; a road. I could not have claimed to have moved through the forest in a straight line nor swiftly, but I had managed to get out in one piece. While my headache kept up its steady beat, I had at least gotten used to it to some degree. I should not have left the imp behind, could it manage on its own? I felt a bit confused, but as I did not even know where to search, I kept going as I had been.

When I looked around to see if I could spot anything that would give away the direction to the city I noticed five people on horseback on the road. They rode along as I watched, until they reached the edge of the field that was in front of me, then they wheeled around and rode back.

A patrol of some kind, then. Five people seemed a bit much for that, but I had no experience with patrols outside of the city. If things like the abomination or the spirit was more common than I would have thought, then I could see why you would want a larger patrol.

I crouched down and watched them ride to the other edge of the field and into a more wooded area where they disappeared from sight. I had just risen to start moving when they returned, riding back down the road.

Was that what they did, five people riding back and forth along a field? I could understand it if they were poor and it was work that put food on the table, but even at this distance I could see that one of them wore a breastplate and a sword swung at his side. No poor people could afford armor like that, so why would rich people put up with something so silly? I watched and waited.

After their fourth trip back and forth, my patience ran out. If I started moving they would no doubt spot me, but by all appearances they did not seem to have any plans of leaving so there was not much to be done about that.

I rose from my crouch and started moving along the field as I took in what lay before me, which was more fields as the plains opened up in front of me as I walked. While I still had the forest edge on my right, to the front and left as more and more fields came into view the landscape became dotted by people tending them in the afternoon sun. The muddy earth at the edge of the field where I walked felt cool and soothing on my torn feet, though it once more brought up the question of infection or even parasites, though there was not much to be done about that.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

My clothes had mostly dried from the earlier rain, but the walk through the forest had not done any wonders; I looked quite a mess and it was no doubt that I would draw attention from people on the road, hopefully it would not cause me any problems when entering Logate though.

It took me a lot longer than it had taken the riders to reach the point where the field I had started at gave way to another, and I stopped there to scan the horizon for a moment, trying to see if I could spot Logate. I felt like I should be at the correct side of the swamp and forest, otherwise there would not be so many fields, but I acknowledged to myself that my reasoning might be flawed about that.

"Hey you!"

The voice rang loudly, one of the members of the patrol had dismounted and was stumbling along the ditch between the two fields nearest me, while having crossed less than a quarter of the distance separating us, he had apparently had enough and shouted at me.

Having seen that he had gotten my attention he waved at me and shouted,

"Get over here!"

He wore a white robe which bulged up strangely making me suspect that he wore some kind of armor under it. At this distance all I could make out of his appearance was the mop of dark hair on his head and the mud stains on his robe, no doubt from riding on the unpaved road and trudging along the field. He sounded commanding, not threatening per se, but it was hard to be sure without being able to make out expressions.

While it would have been nice to ask for directions, I was not sure it bode well for me to have drawn so much attention. Even the four riders still on the road watched in my direction as the fifth man approached. I was just walking along a field, this amount of interest seemed strange. I stood hesitating as the man moved closer and closer, from the looks of it, he was not appreciating the exercise and no doubt blamed me for it by the scowl I could now make out.

On the other hand, it was very clear that if I wanted to run, there was nothing he could do about it, graceful he was not.

"Get over here!" This was more panted out than truly shouted, and it took effort not to grin in response.

"Why?" I shouted back, and at that he stopped and pulled out something from inside his robes.

"The Temple of the Order commands it!" I wanted to roll my eyes at that. I did not though, upsetting the Temple was even more stupid than upsetting the Guard. Clerics were magic users just like Mages, but what the exact difference was I had never gotten a satisfactory explanation to. The Temple claimed that the Order was more than just a source of, quite often, unhelpful information, and rather something that should be revered and worshiped. Safe to say, the Clerics were not the largest group of people by any stretch, but they did have the only real healers who could use magic to close wounds, cure diseases and remove curses. On the flip side they could also curse others, and so in general people tried to be very polite to them. Though to anyone who met one of the Clerics it was soon clear that they really expected people to obey them at all times, and could get quite testy when that did not happen, often making the aforementioned politeness difficult.

I was just about to run away when a thought struck me and I shouted back at him.

"There is an undead abomination in the swamp!" I could hear a soft chuckling, that sent shivers up my back and I swiftly turned around expecting to see someone behind me, there was no one there, but a soft golden glow rose from my skin.

You have completed a Quest! You have been awarded 808 Experience!

Congratulations! You have advanced to level 7!

You have unallocated Attributes!

This once more made me wonder why the Order did not give this quest to the people who so revered it, directly. From the way the man was now staring straight ahead, I assumed he had gotten a quest himself now. The whole thing seemed just as I had thought of it before; unnecessarily convoluted and complicated. Though I would not complain about the extra experience, now I wanted to get back to Logate.

I started backing up, but apparently I was no longer of any interest as the man turned back to his companions and shouted loudly.

"I have got it, the Order shines upon us!"

The people on the road waved their arms in return, seemingly quite cheerful about that. As the man turned back to me I prepared to run, but he simply fished something out of his robes and threw it to the ground between us before starting back to his companions.

I let him get all the way back there, trying to figure out just what had happened and why it felt like I had both lost and missed something in all of this, until I finally shrugged it off and went to collect whatever he had thrown.

It was a pouch, not much bigger than the one I had lost when the Guard locked me up. What was inside it though, made my eyes widen in surprise. I swiftly counted out five gold coins, 22 silver coins and 64 coppers almost dropping some in my haste, but I managed the feat without mishaps. I held the pouch hard, not quite sure if I dared to tie this fortune to the rope I used as a belt or not. All thoughts of having lost something to the Temple fled at the realization that I could live on this for a long time, even outside of the slums.

With a smile I turned to my Attributes and allocated two to Willpower and one to Wisdom.

Congratulations! You have reached a branch in Willpower! Choose your path!

Will over Mana

Your control over Mana increase as your Willpower shapes it with more finesse.

Effect: Willpower increases your Mana pool by another 40%, you power spell constructs 5% faster.

Mind Fortress

You have been the subject of mind manipulating effects once too often and have learned how to fight their flaws.

Effect: You are immune to mind altering affects of the Second Sphere and below, or equivalent.

This was an actually hard choice, for pure combat purpose and possibly along my earlier fears about Mana, Will over Mana was the obvious choice. But the idea of being immune to even some of the possible mind altering effects that I might encounter was very tempting, you could not fight if you did not know you had an opponent after all. I stood there at the edge of the field for a long time, considering what to do.

In the end I decided to pick Mind Fortress.

You have fought off the effect: Twisting Minds!