MONSTER SLAYER

“Those fools don’t understand the power of the elements they grew up with.”

Says Meno as a ball of fire coalesces above my upturned palm. The red flames become sharper and turn blue as I infuse a current of wind mana into it. I take a stick from the ground and insert the tip into that blue flame. It is thoroughly scorched in an instant. A minute later and the intense heat radiated by the fire is replaced by a black aura. As I insert the tip this time the stick turns directly to ashes without the intermediary step of burning first.

Yes. Darkness is the thing from which even the light can’t escape. It’s conceptual form is “that which devours all.” On it’s own it’s rather weak, as there is nothing to do with the ‘devoured’ substance. But if I infuse it with fire, it becomes a flame that turns things to ashes without releasing heat. Furthermore it will destroy a wet log as easily as a dry one. If I infuse it with lightning and that black lightning hits a creature, it should act as if the creature’s very bones were made of metal. As we speak, I am currently searching the night-covered castle walls for an easy way to slip into the forest. If we succeed, then I’ll be able to test that tonight. unfortunately, if I use wind magic for flight, I don’t know if there will be enough mana left to fight anything once I get to the forest, and I don’t yet have enough proficiency in earth magic to move underground.

“So, how do you like a lesson in magc from a REAL master?” Said Meno, bobbing along with me as I walk the perimeter of the well-maintained gardens.

“Aww, is someone jealous?” I say out loud, having confirmed no one is near me.

“Jealous? Hmph. Please do not lower me so, my Ego. I merely have standards.”

I let out an unrestrained sigh and stare up at the castle walls.

I can’t describe today’s ‘lesson’ as anything other than a disappointment. Not only did my so-called tutor spend the whole lesson asking me to do simple tasks and then gawk at me when I succeed, but he broke his promise and ran off without teaching me a single bit about information magic. Compared to that I’m learning much more on my own… counting Meno.

For instance I realized that strength training can raise my strength stat, playing tag can raise agility, endurance training can raise vitality -which is tied to my HP-, mediatating can raise my willpower, and reading lots of books can raise intelligence -which is tied to my MP-. Nonetheless, it would be far more efficient to hunt down monsters and directly raise my level. And not just a little – if I can hunt efficiently, then I could raise my stats in a few days what it would take years to do in ordinary training. That’s how these kinds of worlds work. For a moment, I stare up at those high walls and imagine that I am a convict looking to the wall of his prison and longing for freedom.

“Yes.” Meno said as he bobbed next to me. “That is a much better attitude to have.”

A light bobbing up and down signals two guards approaching on the wall. I hide in the nearest shadow, letting the darkness element further cloak me, as the pair moves on with their patrol. I look on the lantern they carry with smug satisfaction. I could see in midnight as easily as noon; that too is a blessing from darkness magic. Had either of them known darkness magic, they would have been difficult to notice, and I might have been caught.

“I still don’t understand why you want me to have such a bad attitude.”

Suddenly the black wisp was right in front of my face. I could see past him, but it wasn’t the kind of transparency that comes from looking through a material, rather, it was the the same kind of transparency your nose has when you look at it with both eyes open — one eye just seemed to be seeing past it.

“Ego— Master” Meno prompted with a look of concern. “From your past lives, how much do you remember about what we’re fighting?”

I paused for a moment to consider his question.

“I remember being chased, by Angels or some other sort of divine being. Both lives were comparatively short, and most of them were spent in hiding.” I say.

The look of concern on Meno’s face grew deeper. For a wisp of black mist, he could be quite expressive.o

“Master, do you remember who it was that we’re facing? Or why it was that such beings chased you?”

“I don’t” I confessed. “I only have a handful of confused memories and what you told me.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“My Ego, the people responsible for putting you here are this world’s gods. You are an enemy of gods. You may have to do some… terrible things, in order to get back at them.”

I don’t reply. I can already sense what Meno is trying to say, and I don’t want to bring down the mood— especially when I’m doing experiments in magic.

“So Master, please try not to humanize the people around you too much.”

…

My attention is on the thirty-foot stone walls of my prison when I revisit a question that his been nagging at me since before I got here: what is a magical element anyway?

If you look at the four most common elements: fire, water, earth and air, you will notice that none of these are actually elements. Water is a molecule made by combining hydrogen and oxygen. Earth is a mixture of any number of solid materials. Air is a mixture of any number of gaseous materials (including water vapor), and fire isn’t even a material at all- it’s a fricking process! Could it be that the four main magical elements are more closely related to the four primary states of matter: solid, liquid, gas, and plasma?

I wonder what a magic of Rhydberg matter would look like?

Anyway, of these, fire is by far the most mysterious. Combustion reactions normally require fuel, but so long as I have oxygen and mana I can conjure a fireball. What’s more, heat is expensive. Energetically, I mean with the amount of energy it takes to heat a body of water by 1 degree celsius, I could send it hurtling towards an enemy at a bone-breaking 91 meters per second. In spite of that, strong fire magicians have been able summon fire that will melt rocks and effectively use them in combat. Where does all of that energy come from? Does mana burn?

What if..

I had previously tested blending fire with other magics. I noticed then that if you isolated the light from fire, it could become light magic. You could also isolate the heat from fire, and keep yourself warm.

What if it goes both ways?

Using earth magic, I conjure a stone slab just beneath my feet. I reach down and focus my mana on the heat in the stone. I imagine countless tiny particles bouncing around randomly, then the bluish white energy comes in and rearranges these particles so they all bounce in the same direction. I lock that image in my mind as I utter the words:

“\!”

BANG!

“AAAH! Waaaah!”

For a moment I thought the bones in my legs would crack as I’m shot -as if from a cannon- catapulting in the general direction of the mt. Kilua. I can’t help but scream.

“This was a terrible idea!”

“I’m going to die! I’m going to die!”

I’m screaming so loud I don’t even notice the crash of the stone slab into the ground behind me, even though it hit with the volume of a gunshot.

At this rate I really am going to die. I’ve hit my peak height and begun to fall.

“Bernoulli! Think Bernoulli!”

I stretch my arms and cloak out to my sides and visualize the air around me. I modify the wind resistance to be non-existent as it passes over my back, but increase it slightly beneath me. Having thus turned myself into a human airfoil, I glide my shaking, adrenaline-filled body safely in the direction of mountain.

Hey wright brothers, was your first time this exciting as well?

Sensing the flow of mana from the air, I choose an open patch of land near one of the many monsters scattered throughout the mountain to make my final descent. With the softness of a charging buffalo I tuck and roll into a patch of grass just a few feet away from a mountainous lump of fur. Forcibly ignoring the bruises that will cover my small body tomorrow, I step back and pick up a rock. I ready myself; the lump of fur awakes from its slumber and before me I see a great black bear -roughly one-and-a-half times the size of a grizzly- stand on his (congratulations, he’s a boy!) hind legs.

I focus on the spell I just created, noticing the rock become slightly colder as I imagine all those particles get re-aligned in the direction of the target right in front of me. The bear roars. The stone flies from my with a speed that would make bullets jealous, and blasts a bloody hole in the creature’s shoulder. In a roar of agony the bear drops to all fours and takes a step back.

Drat! That was supposed to hit his head!

I begin moulding mana into a spear of lightning wreathed in darkness, and plunge it toward the beast. It’s roar stops as it collapses to the ground spasmodically. I press the attack, driving more lightning into it’s large frame as the smell of burnt flesh wafts up toward me. Releasing the spell, I stumble forward -my mana almost depleted- as I check to see if it’s really stopped moving. Then, I hear a bell and an announcement in my head that causes me to collapse onto the fuzzy corpse in delight.

This is going to be fun.

* Name: Maximillian Highreich

* Race: Human

* Age: 5 years old

* Title: [Young Master]

* Level: 3

* HP: 80/80

* MP: 130/550

* Attributes:

* Dexterity: 10

* Vitality: 9

* Intelligence: 55

* Strength: 7

* Agility: 9

* Stamina: 9

* Willpower: 53

* Unspent Attribute Points: 7

* Skills:

* Accelerated Magic Power Recovery: 1

* Language, Common: 5

* Magic Power Manipulation: 6

* Magic Power Perception: 5

* Darkness Magic: 5

* Earth Magic: 3

* Fire Magic: 4

* Fire Magic - Redirection of Thermal Momentum: 1

* Light Magic: 2

* Lightning Magic: 2

* Water Magic: 1

* Wind Magic: 2

* Combination Magic (Darkness): 2

* Blessings:

* Standard Reincarnation Package

* Inventory

* Language, Common

* Magic Affinities: Darkness, Earth, Fire, Light, Lightning, Water, and Wind