5. ЛЮБЭ – Конь [Lyube – Horse]
Congratulations!
You have formed an [Initiate’s Core (G)]
You have unlocked the class [Initiate Mage (G)]
Your class has been set to [Initiate Mage (G)]
I blinked the notification away, trying to come to terms with why my head was pounding. At some point I fell off the cargo bed, unconscious, and landed in a heap, completely destroying any semblance of being well rested. My poor neck felt locked in a vice. The early autumn night left me freezing, and the shivers didn’t help the pain pulsing through my body. I creased out the kinks in my neck, trying to soothe the dull ache as I glanced around the desolate camp illuminated by the midmorning sun.
The stream had gained a streak of blue, the mana seemed thicker along the small banks and it was starting to gather and run parallel with the water. It looked like the churning sea of mana had calmed down, and was finally starting to show its true colors to the world around it. One of the aspens next to the river must have drunk from the charged water, since its pale trunk and originally autumn-colored leaves had taken on a sharper hue of alabaster and indigo. It was the only tree like it in the entire grove.
It’s just one weird thing after another. Was this just the new normal? Would I be in for waking up every morning with a new surprise on the horizon? That sounded fun. Tomorrow I should try for an alien abduction. Or maybe I’ll be summoned by some cultists. That should be a thing now with mana and magic, right?
Because I was a mage now. Haven’t the foggiest what that actually meant, but sure, have at it. Bring on the magic. And while you’re at it, mind telling me how to actually do magic, System? No? Yeah, thought not. After trying my damndest to pull up a class menu or a help guide to no avail, I mentally projected a series of expletives at the hazy connection I felt to it, and received absolutely nothing in return.
…I was a bit bitter about waking up slumped between the bare dirt and the open air. Shaking off the darkly pleasant thoughts of what I’d do to whoever designed the System, I took stock of myself next.
There was a new point of light at my center. It was a small, flickering thing, like a candle struggling not to go out. Almost too naturally, I gathered the mana around me and shoved it in like one might shovel coal into a furnace. The light ignited, burgeoning into a chaotic flame. It was beautiful, but it wasn’t real. It couldn’t be real, with how clearly I could see it in my head despite not actually being able to see it with my eyes. I kept staring at it slowly rotating in the center of my body, as the trails of burning mana glommed together into a sphere.
It didn’t seem to do much. The mana was completely inert, I could move it this way and that fairly easily, but from what I could tell all the core did was serve as a sort of mana storage device. Compared to the amount of mana around me, it was like comparing one of those old Leyden jars to a lightning bolt. All it took was trying to store a smidge of energy before it felt like I couldn’t fit any more into it.
Well, it wasn’t that important. I’d have thought that after going through a small amount of hell to form the core I might turn up with a better ability to move mana around, but it was just as pliable after as it was before. I formed another bubble around myself and felt no difference from the prior night. What a shame. If I had to waste an entire night of practice to form that dang thing it could’ve been more considerate!
Maybe I was ready enough. The mana around me was calm, the truck might not survive another day of surprises, and the bubble of mana was probably just big enough. What was I worried about, traffic? System-made horrors beyond my comprehension, maybe. But I’d be relieved if someone passed me by on the road. It was time to gather my things and finally head out.
But first, I wanted to do a cursory, purely scientific examination of that weird tree. Because it was extremely cool. The first obviously magical thing that wasn’t a giant monster about to squash me. I walked up to the pure white bark of the aspen and marveled at how it was suddenly free of blemishes. All of the other aspens had jagged, pockmarked bark, but here, it had replaced that overnight with a totally smooth surface. I rapped my knuckles against it and it felt firmer, like hitting stone rather than the dull thud from a regular tree. And those leaves… I plucked one off a lower branch, twirling the stem in my hands. It glinted off of the sun with an almost pearl-like blue-yellow luster. I was keeping it. Too pretty not to. Half the reason I was out here was to enjoy nature, and this color would be a crime not to enjoy. It felt full of life, and didn’t crinkle in my hand like another yellowed, fallen leaf might. I had a feeling that this tree wouldn’t go dormant for the winter. It might even be waking back up from its short rest.
I folded the small leaf into my wallet, trying to damage it as little as I could. I was glad. For whatever reason, mana wasn’t actively ruining the environment. It even seemed to be bolstering it. What that meant for us humans, I wasn’t sure. Nature would heal anyways with a few billion less humans around to actively destroy it. That number didn’t feel real just yet. It was easy to pick it apart and make light of it because I wasn’t part of that enormous number. That feeling stirred in my gut for a while as I tried to appreciate the tree for a bit longer, idly feeling at the mana around me. Eventually my expression soured, and the view didn’t look as appealing as it used to.
It was time to go. Otherwise the knot in my stomach would grow larger than I could handle. I packed up what I could from the camp, trying to erase the part of me that I put into it. There wasn’t much left to prove I was there anymore, so why not finish cleaning up. Leave it better than when I arrived. That was something real outdoorsmen did, right?
Eventually, I was as prepared as I would get. The bubble soundlessly solidified around me, and I picked up the spare battery. I hurriedly slotted it in, attached the connectors as best I could, pried open the caved-in door, and got behind the wheel. I forcefully pushed out the bubble just a little bit more to make sure the engine was as covered as it would get. Moment of truth… I pressed the keys into the ignition and turned over the engine, dreading that I would hear nothing in response.
The engine chugged to life with more ferocity than I was expecting. A deep UGUGUGUG resounded from the belly of the beast as thick black smoke belted out of the exhaust pipe.
She lives! I nearly kissed the wheel before I realized I had to keep maintaining the bubble. I gathered myself back to reality, undid the parking brake and started to slowly – painfully slowly – make my way out of the clearing and back onto the road proper. Without the ocean of mana bearing down on me there was far less resistance from the surrounding mana than before. I could maintain the bubble without much problem. Moving it around proved to be a non-issue since it was centered around me, but I was still operating on the idea that my limits were only in the tens of minutes. The hood was slightly propped open, anticipating that I would need to hurriedly run out and disconnect the battery when I needed to rest. I wasn’t holding out hope that it wouldn’t try to explode on me just because the ambient mana wasn’t as chaotic as day one.
As I got more confident juggling focus between the bubble and the road, I started to pick up the pace until I was going at a decent clip, but far below the speed limit. There wasn’t going to be traffic this far into the wilds for a while yet, but the mountainous roads were a danger on their own if you were going too fast on a good day. Post-system, I wasn’t going to take chances. The roads spun and pirouetted along the mountains, curving into the natural rock formations and following the path of least resistance from the base of the valley to the top of the range. Some potholes were freshly dug out, and some railings were torn apart by something very heavy, moving very quickly. It seemed that my campsite wasn’t the only victim of a surprise shower of boulders, and I could only be thankful that entire sections of the road hadn’t collapsed down the face of the mountain. I didn’t know my way around enough to backtrack from there to another major road.
If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
I decided the first break would be at a scenic view rest stop along the road. I still had some time left on my bubble, but playing it safe was the name of the game. I disconnected the battery and settled in, leaning against a short wall of stacked stones bound with cement. The view hadn’t changed much from the glory I had gotten used to. I was expecting streaks of blue to crop up here and there if my special tree was anything to go by, but it just wasn’t meant to be. Maybe that was a good thing, if not everything was mutated by mana. Because of that, the scenery was preserved. For the most part. I counted five other broken peaks along the range. That elemental had gone and made a mess of the place. Eventually that thing had to go. Maybe a nuclear missile would do the trick. Shit, maybe nukes no longer worked the same way anymore. If they still did, I had someone to thank for not creating a radioactive hellscape when the System surprised everyone. Governments have had some itchy trigger fingers before… Or maybe the signal to fire never arrived in the first place.
I shook away the thought and went back to searching for anything that was turning a tell-tale blue. It could be that my tree was a bit more of a rarity, or it could just be an early bloomer. Either way, I was lucky to have seen it. Would’ve been even cooler if I could have watched it transform – It must’ve been a spectacle.
Once I felt fully mentally recharged, break time was over. I got things reconnected and restarted the engine. I had considered trying to break out and take I-70 back, since it was objectively the faster way to the city. But I had the suspicion that it would be completely blocked off with abandoned vehicles at a certain point. Far fewer people took highway 74 into the mountains, most of those wanting to take the scenic route like me. It might not be empty, but it was probably sparse. Decided, I spun the wheel and set out.
I only managed to make it down another 15 minutes of twisting roads before I was stopped in my tracks. This time by a person.
Out of nowhere, someone came bolting out of the surrounding forest, waving their arms around and screaming ‘Stop’ like a madman. I was nearly too focused on the bubble. The truck came to a screeching halt, stopping just short of the obviously panicking woman. I’d never seen someone looked so relieved to nearly get run over. She bent over, resting like she’d just run a marathon. And she looked like it, too. Her faltering stance only lasted a moment until she straightened and called into the forest.
“Hurry! Get over here!” She beckoned into the woods, just in time for four other people to streak out from between the trees. Were they a family? An older guy and three teens. What were they doing all the way out here? And why were they running out from the—
I unlocked the truck and slammed the horn. Get your asses in here right now.
The woman had the luxury of actually being able to get a seat, the rest just piled into the truck bed wherever they could fit while I set the wheels to spinning. The bubble faltered for a moment, but I locked it in place with all the willpower I had. I needed this truck to keep running. Because on our tails was not something I wanted to meet face-to-face. A blur rushed past the vehicle, just missing us as it barreled straight into a tree. I caught another glimpse in the rear-view mirror and felt a shudder pass through me. It was an amalgam thing of loosely arranged body parts, held together by a viscous binding of nondescript flesh. It screamed at me with tens of voices that couldn’t have come from the same source. It was very, very easy to imagine where it got them from. Some of the faces were torn into and nearly sloughing off of the ball they were forcibly attached to.
And I could feel its mana. It was an oily, black tar to my senses, spread throughout its entire body. Keeping it in one cohesive piece, and granting it otherworldly strength. Because that bastard could run. It was gaining on us, and I got the impression that the only reason these four had outran the thing to begin with was because it kept running into every obstacle in its path. It would sometimes lose balance on its borrowed legs and crash into the trees like a cannonball, only to pick itself up and renew the chase with a fervor that chilled the soul.
Battery bomb. That’s what I needed, but like an absolute moron I’d packed the only weapon I knew how to use with the rest of the camp, in the truck bed. I started sweating bullets. If only I could tell them to find one and hand it to me, I could probably—
“Can’t this thing go any faster!” One of the teens, a younger boy fresh out of middle school by the looks of it, pounded on the rear window and called out with some desperation.
Not helping. Not helping at all! Just throw some shit at it! I looked over to the woman in the passenger seat, pleading at her with my eyes alone. She wasn’t paying attention to me in the slightest, but then again why would she? We had a monster nipping at our heels. I floored it with more passion than earlier, but passion won’t help a bucket of rust pick up speed. There was a bend in the road coming up soon, with how clumsy the thing is maybe it’ll careen off the edge. I would’ve shouted at them to hold on, but it wouldn’t have helped much either way. We were all holding on for our lives already.
The truck skidded its way through the turn, burning some rubber as the weight in the back kicked out the rear axle. Several severed hands made a grasping motion at the fender before the monster hit the railing and spun, falling end over end to the other side. I didn’t wait around to find out what happened to it. Moments later the damned thing crawled back over the railing and kept chasing us.
“Fuck, oh fuck! It’s still coming!” I couldn’t catch who said it, I was already running on full throttle and adrenaline. But I agreed with the sentiment.
Alright Will, think dammit. You’re a mage now, right? You can magic out a solution to this! But it was all I could do to keep the bubble in place. It was already starting to deform on the edges, pushed out of the way by the crazy amount of speed I was keeping. I briefly checked the speedometer before deciding that I wouldn’t ever again. Morrison police would have a field day with the amount they could collect from me right now. I pushed daringly into another turn, hoping against hope that the ball of flesh would splatter against the cliff face with the amount of momentum it was building. One of the passengers nearly fell off as one wheel lifted off the ground for a moment, sending my heart into my throat before the older man caught them. The monster just bounced off the stone and somehow ended up closer than before. I lost some gear from that turn, my wooden stool falling and shattering against the still-chasing abomination’s legs, becoming shards of wood that seemed to painfully stick into its many feet. At least, the feet that weren’t still wearing shoes. The other passengers finally seemed to get a hint as they started chucking anything they could at the thing.
Eventually someone found the spare gas can. A girl, the oldest of the three teenagers. She started pouring it into the air, and wasted most of it, but a good amount splattered against the beast, more than enough to cause one of its good legs to slip, buying us enough time to make another turn. Smart girl, just find the batteries next, come on…
The distraction behind me nearly cost me dearly. After the turn, the road gave out. If it weren’t for the woman in the passenger seat yelling at me to stop, we might’ve dashed ourselves against the bottom of a valley. Instead, we ground to a stuttering halt with the monster only moments behind us. I could feel the despair in the air when the other four passengers recovered from the sudden stop, only to see the sheer cliff dropping out in front of us.
I leapt out of the driver’s seat, barely having the presence of mind to yank on the emergency brake before I shoved someone out of the way, trying to get at the small package of highly potent bombs. I couldn’t find them. They had fallen in one of the turns. The monster rounded the corner. I wasn’t ready. What else is there Will. Don’t give up. You told yourself you wouldn’t.
The gasoline. You just need a spark. From where? My firestarter keychain was still in the ignition. No, that was too small. I should’ve brought matches. I’m going to die. The monster was sprinting with everything it had, the stolen flesh breaking as it tore muscles for even an ounce of extra power. It would crush us with its mass alone.
The older man flicked a lighter, then sent it sailing through the air. A dim flame carried all of our hopes as it fell right in the path of the demon. My heart hammered in my chest as I watched it flicker in the wind. It wouldn’t be enough, not on its own. I roused the mana in my core and shot it into the lighter, knowing that it was a big risk. A leap of faith.
After thinking about electricity, nukes, and large numbers, I had a feeling that it wasn’t just electricity that was supercharged from exposure to mana. I was glad I turned out to be right.
The lighter erupted into a fireball that quickly spread to the monster, which let out a hair-raising scream the moment it felt the heat. By a miracle alone, its course shifted and barely missed the truck. It rammed into the face of the mountain before spiraling down the collapsed road. I could smell its flesh cooking. All six of us stared at the immolating flesh writhing down at the base of the valley.
The gentle chime of a system notification was drowned out from the sound of me emptying my guts. If I had to be a mage, I was never going to use fire again.