2. Journey

There were no clouds in the sky and the grass was pine green. For his safety, for his parents safety he had decided to leave. The Undead sympathisers did not seem squeamish about killing, and perhaps they wouldn’t care if he wasn’t around; they were drawn to him, not his parents.

“True glory cannot be won sitting in a country village, true glory can it be won?” He muttered to himself.

There was a road worn into the ground through footprints and carts, but not exactly constructed, on either side there seemed to be small cave like structures. Madakos wandered wondrously into one of the derelict ones and placed his construct. A large amount of Zira, 7200 was invested, but now the income of Zira was 3 a second instead of 2. The cave was damp and creepy and so Madakos left relatively soon. He spotted a bandit camp nearby, avoiding the road, as he was suspicious of their intentions. Wandering through hills he found another cave, a bear sat on its rear guarding the entrance. The trees were all conifers, potentially hiding dangerous men and animals. Traversing through the woodlands, he saw some ruins of what was once a village, while staring at the moss and weed covered structures, derelict and abandoned, he trod and fell into an abandoned well, caught by vines that cushioned his fall; he attempted to clamber up them, but it was too late, he was stuck five metres deep, with no obvious way out.

Only the constructs.

He put one on the floor, sat on it and subsequently meditated while he waited. 24 minutes before he put another one on top, it started raining, the water levels of the cool well began to rise and the temperature began to cool. The sweat cooled and the grime rolled off uncomfortably, meanwhile rain pattered from above. 20 more minutes passed by and he created another, with 6 constructs he could clamber out of the well. He waited another 20 minutes, observing his surroundings for any danger, he did not dare to meditate as he put another construct, then using magic he buried the well and his constructs underneath earth. 7 Zira a second, he could feel the magic pulse into him, having been stripped of mana, the sensation of Zira was so different.

It is unnatural, and that is why it will change everything. I think. Probably. I hope.

He used it to heat himself up and then attempted to locate a village; it took a good five minutes but he found a town. There were watchtowers and guards, and lumber jacks. The sawing and hacking of wood was quite audible, some people had pigs and goats, but most seemed to live off off the wood trade. A priest commanded tax collectors. The town seemed to be well run nonetheless, and moderately prosperous. When Madakos approached a guard they immediately pointed a pike in his direction.

“By the light state your business!” A guard said.

“I am a traveller who wishes to help your adventurers guild, I need coin to traverse the seas.”

The guards both looked at each other than stared at the newcomer. They had goatees and smelled of beer, but were nonetheless vigilant. They tapped their fingers on their linen trousers, one of them fiddling and gripping theirs.

“The adventurers guild has some work, mostly cleaning jobs if you know what I mean,” one of the guards said, “I don’t know what you could do. But it doesn’t hurt to try. Nonetheless we will be vigilant.”

Of you mostly. What does an outsider want here anyway? The guard thought.

“I will not be here long,” Madakos explained.

“Even more reason to be vigilant,” another soldier explained.

A man with a keen blue eyes, hawkish in their stare examined Madakos and nodded reluctantly. They acquiesced, and let him in. The town was chestnut in its colour, brown and green seemed to be the dominant colours in the neighbourhoods, people stared at the newcomer like he was a plague. Eyes not exactly friendly stared him down, and wondered what and who he was. The only outsiders the town seemed comfortable with were merchants and soldiers, soldiers more so than merchants, a man with nothing seemed like trouble and everyone’s anxious looks confirmed as much. Madakos came to the door of the tavern, two saloon swinging doors that had to be pushed to enter or leave. Immediately thirty faces stared at Madakos. There were light mages, others were rangers armed with bows, and others still equipped with throwing knives, some were knights that had less armour, but still had enough on at the moment; the conversation had died down, as Madakos walked slowly to the bar. Heads swivelled, and tutting was heard.

“I hear there are rewards for adventuring, I hear this is where you’re supposed to come?” Madakos said inquisitively.

A ginger haired woman behind the bar, instinctively polished the wood with a cloth, before eyeing the new adventurer.

“You do huh?” She laughed, “well our top quest involves destroying a bandit camp. There’s a good many of them. Alternatively you can kill wolves or bears. There’s some ferrying tasks if you like. But you don’t have a horse do you?”

Madakos nodded. Paper with rewards were put in front of his face.

“What?” He began, he said dazzled by the paper.

The paper was fresh, with a special reward for the bandit captain.

10 gold coins. How cheap is a Human life? Oh well, he is probably scum. Probably. Fuck.

His face scowled. He had no money to spend, and he needed some for living expenses as well as travel costs. Morality was expensive and against his immediate goals.

I wonder how much a boat costs anyway?

He wandered out of the tavern, and out of the town to the confusion of everyone.

“You’re going to take on that task?” A woman armed with knives said, “how?”

I can’t sense any mana. This fool is going to get himself killed.

She let him go as Madakos went into the woods. He felt the Zira accumulate inside of him, he had enough to make 3 constructs but he had no idea where he could place them without arousing suspicion. The town had ramparts and towers so he certainly couldn’t place them near the town, but in the forest it could be destroyed by nature, or worse appropriated by someone else. How Zira worked was still somewhat of a mystery to him. He saw the bandit camp, and he had suspicions that the town might be lying, but almost immediately as that thought entered Madakos’s head, a girl was being stripped by some thugs. Without thinking purple flaming tendrils killed the two responsible, the woman using the opportunity to make a break for it in the confusion. Madakos knew his magic energy was limited but he nonetheless set fire to the camp from afar, the flames killing much of the bandits. Others streamed out to find out where the attacker was. Madakos used Zira to enhance his vision, zooming in on the location before he sent a last few tendrils to kill some bandits. He circled the camp endlessly, hiding in the trees and brush before repeating his attack. It would take a day but the camp was a smouldering heap and the guards and the bandit boss a corpse.

He did it himself. But that’s no ordinary fire magic. He is not an Ilar, he’s not black for one thing. But I’ve seen Ilar do fire magic it is red and occasionally orange, not purple.

The woman he had saved earlier came back with mounted knights who looked at Madakos and reluctantly nodded. One of the Knights piped up:

“Well done lad, you will get your due reward,” the knight said, with a hearty laugh over his bushy moustache.

The woman merely observed the adventurer who had saved her from defilement. They returned to the town, and disbelieving eyes examined him, many a whisper repeated the events. Madakos immediately used his 110 gold coin earnings to go the best inn. He got enough for a bath, a large wooden tub, before eating a large meal of broth with venison as well as various root vegetables, he then proceeded to brush his teeth. He smelt like soap and was sufficiently full. He slept for a full day, the innkeeper had taken the time to wash his clothes, and even gifted him another set. He had overspent, giving her 20 gold coins. The middle aged woman looked with keen interest at the adventurer, short hair done in a pixie cut and was a comfortable weight. Nonetheless Madakos left in the night, amicably saying goodbye to his host.

“I must make my journey now,” he said, “I have a long journey to the coast.”

He left the town, and the guards were a lot more polite now, simply nodding, and some even smiling at him.

“What a strange guy,” a villager said.

“He probably just did it for the money.”

“Still good though.”

The conversations could be all be heard if Madakos bothered to listen, but he had to travel now. His satchel now had relatively heavy bags of golden coins. 100 Iron coins were equal to a silver, and 10 silver were equal to a gold. The bandits had been a particular nuisance so he had been given a fairly large sum; 5 small bags of coins, each with 20 apart from one that had 10, 90 gold coins in total.

If they rattle it might attract bandits. Oh perhaps that might not matter. My goodness death is not something I should get so used to.

He was being stalked by the adventurer woman. Braided brunette with knives in her trousers and extra knives in her jacket. Tamura was an adventurer, but in truth was somewhat of an opportunist, she was curious about who this man was. She saw him seek out caves and crevices which made her glower at him.

Is he a Necromancer? No. Necromancer magic has a dark residue not purple. What the hell is he? I don’t think the Orcs or the Ogres have magic like that either? Perhaps… no I shouldn’t speculate.

Undulating hills, and grasslands gave way to a clearing of sorts. In a suitable cave 2 constructs were placed, giving to a total of 9. He went to another cave to increase his total to 11. 11 Zira a second. Returning to the clearing, he made a rudimentary campfire which initially was a purple flame, that soon blazed into a normal red coloured camp fire, turning around to see Tamura right behind him, and completely losing his balance.

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“For fucks sake!” Madakos said, falling over.

“Wait! I’m not going to hurt you, I saw you lay waste to those bandits and I want to see where you end up.”

“You want to travel with me?” Madakos asked wondering what this woman wanted, “I am going to the Continent of Sand.”

He dusted himself off, and stood back up.

“The shadow lands?” The woman said aghast, “what could you possibly want there?”

“Peace,” Madakos spat.

“There are giant ants and scorpions that could devour you? Peace?”

“If I trust you enough, I’ll divulge exactly what my situation is.”

“I see,” she said.

Another figure with red eyes and who wore a crazed expression, ran at them with an axe, Madakos shot the fellow in the face. The man now smelled of smouldering flesh, twitching muscles spasmed made Madakos not take his eyes off the corpse.

“These Necromancers are crazed,” Madakos whispered, “it’s not the first one I’ve met.”

“They don’t seem too friendly I have to admit,” she said with fear in her eyes.

She had a slim body, muscular to do her job properly. She cut a piece of pocket out, revealing some letters of the Necromancer ally. She tossed it into the fire.

“Who are you?” She asked, “I think we should make our way to town before resting.”

“You think?” Madakos said.

The forest might have had eyes glinting from the bushes. Bushes rustled, and the occasional twig broke, this made Madakos and Tamura get ready to dart away; their muscles tense, their toes crunched up, ready to spring up from the ground to sprint away.

“This does not seem like a good place to sleep after all, what was I thinking. I thought I was just unfortunate before…” Madakos said aloud.

“What?” Tamura demanded.

They continued in relative silence, the sound of stalkers in the distance. She was not that much shorter than him, looking backwards and seeing faces in among the trees, blood on some of their gums, nonetheless they continued ahead. The dirt on the ground was damp enough to get stuck on their boots as they continued fleeing away from the Dina agents.

“That note I burnt,” Tamura said, “it said something about killing ‘the threat.’”

“The threat?” Madakos repeated breathlessly, “let’s just continue.”

So it’s him? He’s a bit too transparent.

Skeletons and Zombies could be heard clashing with knights up ahead. A knight came thundering ahead looking at the two figures.

“For the light!” A knight said, “Die fiend!”

A friend of the Undead threw an axe that took out the knight, the Lin soldiers now thought of Tamura and Madakos as enemies, allies of the Undead. Madakos shot purple fiery tendrils at the Dina agents but it made no difference, they were enemies of both now. The flag of Lin could be seen fluttering, a white flag with a golden sun on the top with golden beaming rays down, a majestic flag befitting of a polity of light; now chasing them with pikes and archers.

“Hahaha! Our kill, their kill!” One friend of the Necromancer’s said.

“Dina will be happy if he is killed. But only when he is killed. The Lich council will not be pleased if he somehow survives,” the Necromancer seethed, “dissolve away from this pointless fight, maybe those fools will do our work for us.”

The last skeletons and Zombies were destroyed before the Dina agents fizzled into the forests beyond. Tamura and Madakos were panting, trying to lose the Lin troops that were now convinced they were in fact Necromancers. Madakos and Tamura entered other forests, in desperate panic before falling down on one forest floor panting and sweating.

“I don’t know if my lungs can keep up with this,” Tamura panted breathlessly, “everyone wants to fucking kill you!” She said huffing at him.

“Why would that be?” A Drake said.

The dragon like being, snarled in delight, it did not look friendly and Madakos did not particularly want to find out. It darted for Tamura with its talons before redirecting itself towards Madakos. Madakos eviscerated the creature with a hole through its chest.

“Shit…” Madakos exhaled, “I am sorry, I am a dangerous man to be around.”

“You have to tell me why that is!” She said emphatically.

“I will in due course, but first we have to go the shadow lands, somewhere away from all this mess.”

Her glare could bore a hole through him, her eyes demanded information, and her body language in general was filled with frustration. He clambered around rickety trees finding a small opening to put his 12th construct. Tamura gawked at the thing. All her facial expressions indicated how much she wanted an explanation. Finally out of discomfort, he realised he had to explain.

“I’m a Warlock, that’s why we have to get out of here,” he said frantically.

“Warlock? What does that even mean?”

The construct was hidden from most buried in the sand near dense undergrowth and near hills. She stared to bore eyes through him, close to hitting him as she gesticulated aggressively. The Drake smouldered, its flesh burnt into cinders, the ash palpable.

“It’s how I get my magic, now we have to hurry, there is no time,” he said, hurrying her with his hand gestures, and clearly rushing.

They ran through forests, anywhere off of an official road. They were not that far away from the coast.

“Where are they?” Dina agents snarled.

“Come on,” Madakos seethed, “we have to get out of here.”

Her eyes were now staring into his, a furious determination, they leapt through brush, cutting themselves on thorns and snagging vines and scraping through almost all the vegetation. There was sand up ahead.

“We need a boat!” Madakos growled.

His head turned both sides, behind to see if there were any pursuers and to the sides to see if there were civilians. He jangled his satchel in front of the fisherman’s face, putting the bags of coins in his hands. There was a dozy fisherman and two boats in his makeshift harbour, two pinnaces, the man seemed to be quite good with wood, Madakos did not think too much about that, tossing all his gold at him.

“90 gold coins good enough for a boat?” He said, rather impatiently.

The fishermen simply nodded, confused, but intrigued, eyeing the bedraggled strangers with worry, which was soon overcome by greed.

90 gold coins? Ah whatever like I care what someone who gives me that amount of money did it for. He could be a Demon Lord. All he wants is a boat, I’ll give him a boat, he paid for 10.

The man stared at them. Tamura clambered on, her face ripe with anxiety, and a sudden realisation entered her soul.

I really didn’t need to be here, or with him did I?

Madakos clambered on, and the two of them rowed the pinnace away from the shore and into the sea. Madakos created his 13th construct on the ship itself, it was hardly a heavy thing, Tamura stared at it, and she managed to catch a fish, she watched as Madakos created wind to further the speed of the vessel. Any more than two passengers were uncomfortable, especially with this strange box like thing in the middle.

“It creates magic?” She asked.

“Zira, created by the first Warlock,” Madakos explained, “it’s why everyone is trying to kill me.”

She stared at him again, getting a knife out.

“Is there a bounty on your head?” She asked with a most dangerous look, and calm cold voice.

“Are you trying to say something?” He snapped back.

He was nearly ready to shoot her, but she assuaged his fears. Her hands up to catch physical blows, already ready to calm him down.

“I am also wanted remember,” she said, “I have cast my lot with you.”

A massive wave nearly drowned them, he cast Zira to aid in the wind that would pull them along. They mostly avoided it, but were still both drenched in salt water.

“Fuck…” he muttered, spluttering the water off his lips and face.

He could hardly open his eyes, but forced himself to despite the discomfort to see the direction of travel. Tamura killed a bunch of trout, keeping them in a barrel, looking at Madakos, who guided the pinnace. Still, even now, he was paranoid, looking around him. A giant sea monster rumbled beneath them as Madakos attempted to zigzag away from the thing. He did not dare attack it, or the various other sea monsters that lurked in the deep.

My Zira will not be enough to fight said things. And if I fight one, more will surely follow, and this boat is fragile anyway. Madakos thought. No fucking way!

A giant fish like thing hopped out of the water, it was perhaps 100 metres long, terrifyingly large and Madakos stared at it for a long moment, knowing exactly what it would do.

When that thing flops on the surface it could very well sink us. We must be quick.

Quicker than any sailing ship, Madakos manipulated wind and sea to race through the ocean currents, the ship was going dangerously fast, but as it so happened, Madakos probably wasn’t going to reuse the ship, much. Still they sped along at an absurd speed. Tamura holding onto the rigging putting her bodyweight downwards in order to not fall off.

“Oi!” She shouted, “this is absurd.” She muttered, barely audible to him. The sound of air and water overbearing.

Small fish flew past them, even such tiny objects colliding could be deadly, two fast forces could quite possibly kill both or at least stun both. The sea was spraying at them, of course it was, the air was totally full of ocean spray, the large sea monsters splashed the water and caused a massive tidal wave that Madakos only avoided because he was faster than the wave. The pinnace hurtled forwards at astonishing speeds, for two hours Madakos accumulated Zira, 13 Zira a second. Hurtling like a rocket, finally a beach was spotted, and suddenly Madakos stopped putting anything in the currents and the wind, instead breaking. Tamura was nearly flung out, stabbing the deck and hissing at Madakos, something inaudible but likely rude. The ship stabilised, rocking back and forth, before it slowly docked on the open desert beaches. Rocking, bobbing and creaking, Tamura threw a knife at the mast, making it tumble downwards. It creaked and broke in half.

“Fuck! What kind of sailing was that? That was insane! You fucking idiot! We could have died.”

“You are still very much alive,” he said matter of factly.

Tamura glared with much intensity, and a vitriol unmatched by most women.

“You might not be, if you keep talking…” she seethed pointing a knife at him, “but I am as much wanted as you. And we’re stuck on a fucking desert continent!” She seethed clasping her hand in fury, “so without you, I’m pretty much fucked.”

Madakos nodded, which made her even more angry, he went to make 6 constructs near the beach. Looking around to see if anyone was watching. Tamura tried to pick up the 2 in the boat, getting her legs wet as she clambered back onto the boat, it did not budge, and she tried multiple times to move but it did not want to move even a millimetre. Madakos went over wading through the ocean water, getting himself totally drenched, picking up the constructs and put them by the others, Tamura clenched her fist into a ball and started sharpening one knife on another.

It must be only someone with Zira who can lift it up. They both thought.

He realised afterwards he must have said it aloud, because Tamura’s anger seemed to have dissipated.

“Surely a very strong person could though?” She asked, curious more than anything.

Her brown eyes gleamed at him, expecting some kind of answer that he did not have, nonetheless he humoured her with a simple:

“Perhaps?” He said, unsure himself.

19 constructs in total became 20. He had 9 on this island, and as Tamura complained of thirst, small trickles of water were added to her water flask, she asked for more but Madakos asked her to be patient. He added 2 more, making his total 22. Energy flowed through him, but he noted a worse problem. Large Scorpion-Men and ants fought in the distance, then turned their heads at Madakos. The Scorpion-Men were more Human like, with blatant cognition, while the ants seemed to be more instinct driven. Madakos immediately hurled fire at them, killing the cluster that was there, a large ant emerging from the flames to charge them before Tamura stabbed it in the head multiple times, then across the body in a flurry of ruthless blows, before it collapsed and died. Again she stared at him, she smelled of salt water and now increasingly sweat crept into her saltiness, the sun beamed down, easily drying her, but the salt did not mask her fury. Madakos waited a good 5 and half minutes before putting another construct, and again some time later to make 24 constructs. Madakos meditated to make an extra creator of Zira, but Tamura interrupted him too often. She clasped her nose and sat down in the fine thin orange sand.

“Create a flame will you.”

“I’m expanding my magic capabilities, can you…”

Her eyes glared upwards at him. She then wore a put on smile, and said:

“Oh I see, so you don’t want to eat today, oh well. That’s a shame.”

“Fine, get off my case,” he said creating a small grilling flame.

She toasted two fish, nodding triumphantly as Madakos tutted. At the end of it she offered him one of them. It took longer this time to get more constructs, as he was being undermined by her persistent nagging. Nonetheless he ate his fish, picking out bones and spitting them, but enjoying the salty flavour and the grilled texture.

“Thank you,” he said graciously.

Sayings thanks before being demanded to is probably a wise decision. He thought, sighing, a mere moment later.

Madakos created flame and water, keeping Tamura’s thirst at bay as he continually increased his magic. 24 constructs became 26, which soon became 30, which soon became 34, which became 38, by which time it was night. Madakos slept in his own clothes on the fine thin sand; Tamura likewise did the same thing. The din of night was peaceful, the cold of the night was not there, Tamura’s eyes shot open, but she realised Madakos had spent a small bit of his magic fortune on a small open air hearth, heating them and keeping them from freezing in the night