– Era of the Wastes, Cycle 217, Season of the Rising Moon, Day 5 –
“Mana-crazed lunatics, the lot of them.” Terry grumbled to himself while walking away from the entourage from the Icy Dew Mountain.
“Hold it right there!” reverberated a shout in a familiar voice.
“What?!” roared Terry. He turned around with an ill temper. He knew that this was another cultivator from the Icy Dew Mountain because he had already sensed the man’s mana signature.
Terry glared at the man. This person in blue robes had not been part of the earlier group. “What in the bloody Wastes is it now? Did I breathe the wrong way? Did I blink too much? What is it? What could it possibly be this time? What—?” Terry stopped himself.
Looking at the person more closely, he seemed indeed vaguely familiar.
Come to think of it, that voice? Wasn’t that the asshat that attacked me when I was about to enter the inner sanctum? I guess he got his arm healed again.
Good for him, added Terry sarcastically.
To Terry’s surprise, the man wasn’t alone and was instead accompanied by two additional people: a man and a woman. Contrary to the Icy Dew Mountain martialist, these two evidently had a way to hide their mana signatures.
I should get into the habit of emitting detection pulses again, or better yet, use my mana touch scouting to maintain an active detection field at all times. Terry reminded himself. The mana cost isn’t that high anymore.
Terry thanked the discovery of his mana touch sensation and his improved sensitivity that significantly reduced the required mana density. The fact that he was getting increasingly good at naturalizing mana at a distance helped as well.
Their hidden mana signatures meant that Terry was not able to detect their cultivation styles. However, given their outfits, that would have been superfluous. To Terry’s immense chagrin, he recognized the shimmering combat robes. A large sun and a small golden crow were stitched into the chest areas. A symbol that Terry had seen many times and never had anything good come from seeing it.
“Ugh…” Terry groaned and rolled his eyes in annoyance.
“Heh.” The woman from the Blazing Sun Sect chortled at Terry’s reaction.
“He’s the one that killed the scions and—” The martialist from the Icy Dew Mountain pointed at Terry.
“Is it true?” The man from the Blazing Sun Sect demanded from Terry. “Did you kill members of our Blazing Sun Sect?”
Terry’s brain reflexively fell into his habit during the Thanatos escape – trying to come up with a misleading truth…
Screw it.
Terry was too damned tired of it all. “Yes, I did.” His tone was oozing with irritation and annoyance. “The first of the lunatics was refusing to yield and was literally asking to be killed. It kind of went downhill from there.” He shrugged. “I’ve lost count at some point.”
The man from the Icy Dew Mountain laughed gleefully. “Now you’re dead, Terry!” He turned to the Blazing Sun Sect members. “I told you I could lead you to him. Should I lend a hand or—” Before he could finish his sentence, he had already been punched with a rapid fire-fist technique by the woman from the Blazing Sun Sect.
“Scram before I forget myself, worm,” growled the woman.
“Wh—?” The man spat a mouthful of blood. “Why? I didn’t lie, I swear!”
“Didn’t you hear her telling you to scram?!” The man from the Blazing Sun Sect growled at the man. “Did you believe that we would do your dirty work for you? Do you believe we would let it slide that you tried to use us to settle your own grudges?”
The other man paled. “No, no, of course not! My apologies. I just—”
“Scram!” The woman placed a kick into the whimpering man’s chest.
The battered man suppressed his fury and hurriedly bolted away as quickly as his legs took him.
Terry remained on the side with an expression that shifted between incredulity and amusement. He felt the gaze of the two martialists on him. “And? What now?”
The pair in shimmering combat robes glanced at each other. Their eyes betrayed their own amusement.
“You seem awfully calm,” remarked the man.
Terry shrugged without comment. The nonchalant reaction caused the woman to snicker.
“Now, we can go our separate ways,” said the male martialist calmly. “We just wanted to see your face with our own eyes, so that we can remember it.”
Terry furrowed his brow and blurted out: “Well, that’s new.”
“Which scions did you kill?” interjected the woman.
“No idea,” replied Terry with another shrug. “The first one I met didn’t give me a name or number, only the scion title and something about his grandpa. The other one was apparently the Third Scion, friends with a vampire."
Terry creased his brows and tilted his head. "I don’t remember killing any more scions, but hard to say, because the others from your sect didn’t exactly introduce themselves properly. They mostly greeted me by demanding my death and such pleasantries. Come to think of it…
“Why don’t you?” asked Terry curiously. “This is already among the longest exchanges I’ve had with one of your sect ever since the first lunatic.”
“Could have been the Ninth Scion,” said the woman to the man.
“The scions are simply wastrels leeching off the sect,” said the man to Terry. “They’re a waste of resources. If any decently talented inner sect member had access to the kind of resources they had, they would be much further in their cultivation.”
“Don’t oversell it, brother,” chided the woman. “We shouldn’t tarnish our sect in front of outsiders.”
“You should remember that my gratitude for liberating the sect from these useless parasites is offset by the fact that you have killed our sect members,” added the man for Terry. “The next time we’ll meet may be a lot less friendly.”
“Alrighty then,” replied Terry and puffed his cheeks. “Can I go now?” He didn’t wait for a reply and started walking into the sky. He had about enough from being approached by these people consecutively.
How did they all find me so quickly?
Terry’s expression darkened while stepping further up on layers of divine mana.
My equipment is cloaked. My mana is cloaked. The ambient mana is unaspected, so my oscillating mana should not stand out. Even if I’m not wearing the concealment necklace at the moment, they shouldn’t be able to detect me based on my mana signature.
“Wait, did the little pest beetle call me by name before?” Terry stopped abruptly. “How? I’ve never introduced myself to him…” Terry’s eyes narrowed with suspicion. “And how did he know that I have some history with the Blazing Sun Sect…?”
Terry was glowering and the more he thought about it, the more he tensed up. Eventually, he did what he had hesitated to do the past few days. He retrieved the paper communication talisman from Rafael.
[Why?] Terry sent a thought transmission.
He received no reply.
It’s possible that Rafael isn’t in this area or that he’s occupied with something. Terry thought about possible excuses for Rafael. Wishful thinking again.
“Okay, screw it.” Terry continued his ascendance into the sky to get more distance from the battle-toddlers throwing tantrums on the ground.
While walking, he continued muttering to himself. “I know that Rafael had a way to track the entrance ticket. It’s not out of the question that he had a way to track the communication talisman he gave me as well. I hate this shit.” Terry glowered at the strange sky above. “I miss being around people I can trust.”
I miss my family and friends.
Focus.
Terry began to focus on his breathing and stepped further up into the air. Eventually, he noticed that his steps became distorted through some unknown space magic again. He was walking without moving.
“Alright, time to settle down.” Terry retrieved a tertium slab and transfixed it as seating for himself. He sat at the edge and let his feet dangle down.
Terry observed what was going on below with mana-filled eyes. He didn’t know if he should laugh or cry. In every corner of the area, there were fights going on. Terry’s mana sight took in all the different mana resonance and cultivation signatures.
Unintentionally, Terry became absorbed in his mana sight, engrossed in classifying all the different mana structures he sensed in the cultivators as well as examining the various mana resonance techniques.
Terry didn’t even pause to note how far his mana sense and mana sight had improved compared to the past. The whole area was spanning more than ten kilometers in all directions and his sense was covering the majority of it.
At this point, the bigger limitation for Terry were not his senses, but his inability to efficiently filter through what he was sensing. Naturally, it was easier to pick out the stronger mana signatures and the more intense resonances.
By contrast, the signatures that were more common stood out less. Both in terms of strength as well as of mana composition. Terry could sense many groups of cultivators with similar mana structures – sects and other martialist factions, presumably.
Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.
Whenever something unfamiliar popped up, Terry first noticed it subconsciously. There was a delay until something like that surfaced in his conscious awareness and then an additional delay until he could focus his senses to pinpoint the signature.
Terry tilted his head. He had sensed a mana signature disappear completely. He circled more mana into his eyes and finally saw a group of martialists with two people in the middle. One of them was lying on the ground.
“Dead…” muttered Terry flatly.
He felt curiosity welling up in himself.
Then he was wondering if this was the appropriate reaction to seeing someone being ganged up on and killed.
Not like I know their characters or histories.
No idea who was at fault or who started it or what for.
How am I supposed to know what to feel then?
“At least there was some semblance of fairness in the Proving Grounds,” grumbled Terry. “Not always, but generally.” He groaned with annoyance. “Why do I feel like I’ve jumped from bad to worse?”
He waited for a few minutes in silence.
“Who knows?” Terry still saw the corpse lying on the ground. “I don’t know what I expected.”
Yes, I do.
I expected the body to disappear.
Why though?
Because of that discoloration that might or might not have been a dungeon mark?
Because of the discrepancy in my mana harvesting speed?
“Don’t know,” replied Terry to himself.
Perhaps I’m developing some weird dungeon paranoia?
Abduct me once, shame on me. Abduct me twice… nevermind.
Terry felt himself once more captivated by all the mana resonance techniques and spent several minutes like this.
“Oh right,” exclaimed Terry suddenly. He retrieved his concealment necklace and put it on. The magic item instantly began sucking Terry’s mana in order to mimic the ambient mana in the vicinity.
I just want to watch. I’d rather not get any more attention.
Terry began dumping some of his mana into the surroundings and spreading it out. He made sure not to increase the mana density near him too much. He had no intention of going to sleep and relying on the necklace for his training at this time. Instead, he wanted to practice his grasp on his mana.
Terry pushed his dumped mana away from himself until he had reached the end of his range in all directions. Then, he began pulling and circling his mana outside himself – always having to reclaim and naturalize it in order to not lose control of it.
Terry had discovered that this process of moving and maintaining control of his mana was a lot more difficult if his mana was spread thin. The denser he packed his mana, the easier it became, which is why he wanted to train with low density.
The hours ticked by while Terry was training this way in the sky with closed eyes.
[Rafael? Can you hear me?] Terry sent thought transmissions every now and then.
He never received a reply.
“Hmph.” Terry’s expressions darkened increasingly whenever some mana signatures moved towards his direction or even right underneath his location.
By Terry’s guess, at least some of these people were specifically looking for him. The suspicion forced itself on Terry because there were too many from the Blazing Sun Sect, and by now, even from the Thunderous Palm Sect for it to be a coincidence.
Terry had walked a long distance away from his last interaction with one of the martialists, which meant that if they were looking for him and still getting close, then they had some way to track him.
However, from the fact that they weren’t able to locate him accurately in his sky shelter, Terry guessed that they relied on a rough pointer.
As if someone was pointing them towards me without them actually being able to sense me…
Terry clicked his tongue and scowled at the communication talisman. [Rafael? We have to talk.]
No reply.
Terry let his consciousness wash over the input from his mana sense again.
“No wonder, Devon was a bit off the whole time,” mumbled Terry. “I can’t imagine what it’s like to have his range. It’s a miracle he was still able to accurately pick out familiar mana signatures. It would be an even bigger miracle if he wasn’t distracted by weird signatures all the time.”
Terry recalled how Devon had immediately reacted as soon as unfamiliar mana signatures had entered the Chara Settlement. Back then, Terry had mostly been impressed by the fact that Devon had memorized all the mana signatures in the settlement and instantly picked out the arriving looneys.
The rest of Terry’s attention had been eaten up by how bonkers the looney abyss worshippers had been.
Now, Terry had to appreciate how impressive the instant reaction to the new signatures had been. These signatures weren’t all that different from other people in the settlement, which meant that for Terry right now, they would go under in the vast sea of similar signatures.
Terry tried to focus his attention on each individual person he could sense… but it was a futile effort.
Too many people. Even more than at the entrance to the inner sanctum. All of them were moving around. It was like counting the members in a colony of ants. Before you knew it, you would have counted the same ant half a dozen times and missed another completely.
Not a problem of my mana sense per se, is it?
Terry wasn’t sure yet how he might resolve this problem. He wasn’t even sure if there was a good solution. As far as he could see, this was less a challenge of skill or conscious thought and more a challenge of subconscious instinct.
He already had the mana sensitivity, but he still required practice, or rather experience, with filtering and prioritizing his perceptions.
“Hard to focus if everywhere around there are huge mana resonances to distract my attention.” Terry sharply exhaled some air.
Still, I have to find Rafael.
I have to figure out if he is intentionally ignoring my transmissions.
A complicated glint entered Terry’s eyes.
Maybe I’m… I don’t know. But I would at least get some… confirmation or something.
Terry spent his days and nights up in the sky, trying to keep his distance from the martialists.
From what he could make out, there was currently no exit and more and more martialists were piling in. Terry guessed that at some point, the trials would continue, but not yet. For what the secret realm mechanism was waiting, he did not know.
Terry was happy to see that the items the Icy Dew Mountain people had given him included some reference books for materials and martialist classifications.
For consumables, Terry did not want to rely entirely on the books and proceeded to examine a few of the bottled liquids personally. He was watching the area until his gaze was drawn to one ongoing fight between a group of martialists.
Terry was expecting to see an impressive orange phoenix made of fire, which he had seen many times before during the past days. It was always an interesting sight, which is why his attention had been drawn to the spot.
Only there was no phoenix.
“Huh?” Terry squinted. A moment later, he saw a martialist dash right into the spot that Terry observed. An orange mana resonance of a blazing phoenix was surrounding the woman the moment she arrived.
“What…” Terry was stunned. It was one thing to detect a mana resonance when it was building, but this had been something else.
Perhaps the lizan food is turning me into the next prophet?
“Not funny,” muttered Terry pensively.
He closed his eyes and tried to make out a similar sensation another time. Once again, he spotted an area before a martialist appeared with a resonance.
“Uhm…” Terry stared blankly.
His mind was trying hard to come up with possible explanations that wouldn’t invoke precognition or future sight. He didn’t even know the spell structure for those, how would he possibly get something like that?
Looney lizard food, perhaps? Next thing you know, you might be baiting innocent mages to fight giant wyverns and so forth.
“Nope, not entertaining that idea,” hissed Terry. Eventually, he clicked his tongue. “Aiming?”
In spellwork, many spells had to be aimed or targeted. The same was true for mana-crafted items.
“And yet…” Terry bit his lip. Something seems different.
Some of the resonances I’m familiar with I still never detect before they appear.
“No separate aiming in the mana realm required?” surmised Terry.
Some of the resonances I detect in advance. I only detect them for some of the martialists. If I had to point out a notable difference between the martialists where I can detect it and not…
“The stronger they are, the less I detect in advance,” mumbled Terry. He tried to recall his fights with mana martialists relying on mana resonance techniques.
There were a few, where I thought it stupid that they followed through with their attack.
Terry scratched his head and then crossed his arms in front of himself.
Was it stupid? Or were they unable to stop the technique?
With spell targeting, it’s a matter of skill that determines how quickly and accurately the targeting goes.
Are some of these resonance techniques like spells that cannot be readjusted once ignited? Or like the charge from the juggernaut champion in the dungeon where I met the lizan?
Fast perhaps, but not agile? Strict. Rigid. Inflexible.
“Not just the techniques,” muttered Terry. “Might also depend on the skill of the person using it.”
***
Terry whipped his head around and stared. At the location where he had sensed a mana distortion before, he now saw a large altar rise up.
The first of many.
“Choose your trial. If you miss the chance today, you will have to wait for the next round.” A voluminous voice droned from far up high – even higher than Terry was. “You will have to defend your altar until the light extinguishes to reach the next stage.”
Terry could see the first cultivator climbing onto the platforms in front of the altars and then the battles broke out one by one.
Terry’s attention, however, was drawn to something else. To one of the first mana signatures to appear next to an altar whose back was against a large rock structure. It was the altar furthest from Terry.
“You little pus weasel,” growled Terry. [Rafael. I know you are here. Answer me! Why?]
No reply.
[Why did you not tell me that I wouldn’t be able to leave this secret realm?] Terry continued firing his thought transmissions. [I know you’re in range of the talisman. Speak!]
[Rafael.] Terry clenched his fists. [Explain yourself. I want to hear your reasons.]
Subconsciously, he had already stood up on his transfixed tertium slab.
It’s possible that he lost his belt and doesn’t receive messages from the talisman anymore…
“There is a difference between possible and probable.” Terry told himself. “I’ll see when I’m there.”
Terry collected his tertium slab and then dashed towards Rafael and the altar. He relied on his divine hammer inscription to remain in the sky and keep his distance from the fighting mana martialists.
***
“Damn these bastards,” grumbled a man in blue robes. “These cowards from my own sect. These pricks from the Blazing Sun. This Terry—”
“What did you say?” an eerie voice rang from everywhere at once.
The man whipped his head around and changed into a fighting posture. He was currently alone in a valley slightly hidden from the rest of the area. He had wanted to be alone after being humiliated several times in public and chose this spot because it was secluded.
“Who is there?!” demanded the man.
“That name you mentioned, repeat it!”
“Who do you think you are, to—” The man broke out coughing. To his horror, he saw a sludge of black blood escape from his own mouth.
“Repeat it!”
“What did you do to me?!” The man tried circulating his mana to recover.
“Heeheehee, I wouldn’t do that if I were you. Quicker blood flow means quicker breathing.”
The man suddenly collapsed to his knees. “P-poison?”
“There is no antidote for what you have been inhaling, heeheehee.”
The man in blue-robes mustered his last bits of strength and tried to run away, only to find his feet trapped by some black liquid, viscous and sticky.
“That name,” insisted the eerie voice.
“You mean Terry?!” A faint hope sprang up in the weakened man. “I, I can bring you to him, I know where to find him, I— Hurhg!” Black liquid flew up from the ground and trapped the man completely. The man struggled, unable to breathe and slowly decomposing in his liquid cocoon.
“Not necessary.” Black liquid rose to form the shape of a person. “I can find the hag’s brat myself. He won’t get away here.”
Vicious walked closer to observe the death throes from the martial cultivator, just like he had watched the others before him.
When the man died, there was a slight flicker of light rushing through the liquid cocoon.
“The Pond is truly smiling upon me.” Eric grinned viciously. “So much easy prey, and on top of it all, two grudges to resolve for the trip of one. Heeheehee…”
***