TEN YEARS LATER.
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-I WON'T LET YOU DESTROY MY WORLD!-.
-DON'T GIVE UP! ONLY YOU CAN FACE IT!-
-HOLD ON! JUST A LITTLE LONGER AND WE'LL BE CLEAN-.
-I SWEAR THAT ONE DAY I WILL FINISH YOU-.
-THIS WILL BE YOUR END ********-.
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The horizon, that imaginary line that divides the sky and the earth, is colored with the clear shades of light. The sun imposed its magnanimous presence, thus subjugating the world of night, trying to take power and crown itself as the absolute ruler of the world of light.
The sun's rays penetrate through the holes in the thick vegetation that make up a beautiful forest full of life and home to plants of different colors. And there, if a person were to raise their gaze and dedicate themselves to appreciating the leafy and colorful trees, they could see a person, who very stealthily observes and studies what appears to be their target.
Christopher Hope has grown up and is now fifteen years old. An age that in Kosmos is considered the beginning of adulthood, he is now a young adult.
Since he is considered a person of legal age, he can make his own decisions and, as a result, assume everything that comes with it.
And now, as an adult, something he had been waiting for, he was able to start the life of an adventurer. He has been greatly influenced by his father's stories, about how in the past he would defeat strong beasts and earn his corresponding amount of gold by completing the quests taken in the guilds.
For several years he has had the dream of living a life of adventure, but not everything was because of the stories he was told, but rather he felt how something inside him ordered and demanded him to become an adventurer. To rise in rank within the hierarchy of adventurers, gaining admiration from others and prestige.
At the moment he belonged to the lowest rank among the ranks, a PORCELAIN rank, but despite being at the very bottom, he was considered one of the strongest PORCELAIN rank adventurers in Gignit.
Every adventurer must start from this rank and from there make his way and that is dictated by the rules and policies of the guilds, which clearly state that every adventurer must go through the different ranks of the hierarchy, without giving preference to anyone.
And obviously, at this moment he is in the middle of a mission which consisted of finishing off a certain enemy that in recent days has caused quite a bit of trouble in the vicinity of Gignit.
The being that must be eliminated has been attacking every person who tried to visit the city, and apparently the aforementioned enemy possessed enough reasoning ability to only attack simple civilians who were unable to defend themselves.
From the safety of the heights, Christopher meticulously analyzed the target of the mission. In fact, he had two missions. One was to finish off the being that walked with relative tranquility, ignoring everything that was happening around him. The other mission did not belong to the domain of the guild, but rather it would be something more personal that was given to him by a certain inhabitant of Gignit.
Analytically he carefully observed the entire integrity of the target of his mission: The skin of that being was of greenish tones, quite resembling the color of dark moss, almost bald head being adorned only by some strands of hair quite disheveled, unkempt and dirty. Pointed and drooping ears, being longer compared to those of an Elf. The same one full of unpleasant holes with some pus flowing out of them.
piercings adorning the lobe and cartilage. Small, black eyes, and a look like someone without much reasoning ability. Big nose, even bigger nostrils and quite disgusting from the snot that kept falling and hitting the floor. It was as if he was currently fighting some flu.
For a moment that individual hovered over the ground.
-HOOO?- apparently some unwary person who had passed by the place and was victim of some beast, and surely dropped some food on the ground. Bending down he picked it up, took a first sniff and then brought it to his mouth tasting whatever he had found. His large lips curved into a smile, thus showing his yellowish and decayed teeth located next to each other, due to the peculiar shape of his teeth, these vaguely resembled the tip of an arrow that, despite seeming to be in such bad condition, still appeared to be quite sharp.
A single bite from this individual could have terrible consequences, even more so with the terrible oral hygiene that this being left in evidence.
From the safety of the heights, Christopher could see the lack of some of those arrow teeth which should be located in both the upper and lower jaw, which made the enemy's appearance more unpleasant.
The creature's muscles were almost clearly visible, due to the creature's thinness. Around its neck hung a bunch of whitish chains, and attached to the chains was a kind of plate, also whitish, with inscriptions on it. The inscriptions were the names of adventurers.
Chains were once owned by adventurers of the PORCELAIN rank which is the lowest rank in the hierarchy. The aforementioned one with the plate is what marks one as an adventurer, depending on their rank they would be given others.
Christopher held his own adventurer badge, also PORCELAIN rank, which hung around his neck.
"I find it unlikely that he finished off all those adventurers on his own, most likely he simply found them," she said in a low voice with some annoyance, referring to the adventurers' identification chains.
This being also had large hands and bare feet with dirty nails. Although its appearance is quite repulsive, it has enough intelligence to perform certain actions. Such as dressing itself: This being is a Goblin.
On both upper limbs were some rather worn and torn bandages that served as wristbands. Luckily, so that looking at the Goblin was not so unpleasant, he wore lower garments. These consisted of a studded belt that almost completely hid the abdomen marked by scars, perhaps some beast tried to devour her on some past occasions.
From the bottom of the aforementioned belt emerges a thick cloth with some embroidery of rectangular figures, the aforementioned cloth serves as a kind of loincloth which luckily covered the Goblin's misery.
The thighs were being covered by more black bandages, although from a distance one could notice that the aforementioned ones were somewhat new, since compared to the loincloth, this one was not as dirty. Above the bandages that covered both thighs, there were two straps. One on each side, the same one dark brown with some studs, a few of which threatened to come off the straps at any moment.
Again on the thighs, on both sides what seemed to be part of an iron armor, the goblin was intelligent enough to know that that part was exactly on the sides of his legs.
Finally, the object that was used for offense, a sword. And this sword was the reason why Christopher was in doubt, debating whether to attack him once and for all or continue waiting for the right moment.
The sword was not completely straight, the blade was slightly curved only at one point. The edge was fearsome because Christopher saw how when the Goblin wielded it against a small bunny, he broke it in two without the slightest hint of effort.
The spike was surrounded by braided wires, apparently the goblin added this from his intelligence.
What worried Christopher, what had him on such a high state of alert, were the strange runes written on the blunt part of the sword: Definitely a magic sword.
-Where did he find that magic sword or who did he steal it from- he thought to himself without taking his eyes off the Goblin, fearing that if he did, he would lose it.
He didn't know what abilities the runic writing could grant to that sword, he would be a real fool if he risked it without knowing the full characteristics of the magical writing, the worst that could happen is to attack him, get hurt and be at the mercy of the disgusting Goblin.
It's true, the goblin isn't very intelligent and relies almost entirely on his instincts. But the magic sword is what makes him hesitate so much. He doesn't know what it does. It could create a protective field, it could have some sort of automatic attack and defense.
Perhaps when attacking him he will be enveloped in electric rays or a rain of fire. He learned very well from all the teachings given by both Alexander and Valentina.
I analyze the situation, observing the behavior of a Goblin. He has not yet noticed Christopher's presence.
He had an idea -the best thing to do would be to attack him from a distance- he saw the need to prove a point -if the sword doesn't show signs of activating automatically I would only have to worry about the attacks made by the Goblin, which I could stop without a problem-.
He jumped down, hiding among the bushes, but not before using sound magic to mask any sound he makes as he walks, such as brushing against the bushes or stepping on a dry twig.
He hid behind a tree which had beautiful violet leaves on its branches, and decided to start throwing magical attacks -some fire arrows I think...- he thought about it once more -no, that would be fatal, it could start a fire-.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
Fire arrows are a pretty powerful magic attack, even more so if the enemy was alone and not at all aware of his surroundings. The problem is that one wrong step and it could start a fire. Valentina and Selestia would never forgive him for that, and he is also very influenced by both of them because he doesn't want to destroy what is probably the home of insects, animals and spirits.
-Water arrows!- he exclaimed with a somewhat loud murmur, he reproached himself because his mission could have been compromised by raising his voice, the Goblin could have heard him.
He extended his left arm forward, opened his palm, cast a spell, and launched the first magic attack-
-Arborean Magic: Root Whip-.
A pair of root whips emerged from the ground, tightly gripping the Goblin's large feet causing him to panic as he did not understand what was happening.
Using the water arrows was not out of the question, he just wanted to make sure the Goblin had no chance of escaping. Now all that was left was to see what the damn sword was capable of.
-Very well, I must keep my distance- he emerged from the bushes, letting himself be seen, the Goblin growled in anger mixed with fear. His instincts screamed at him to get away from that human. Christopher would not let him try anything because when he noticed the Goblin's attempt to brandish the sword, Christopher had already attacked him before his enemy's attack could be executed.
-Water Elemental Magic: Water Arrows-.
He surrounded himself with the magical aura and from the open palm extended forward emerged a total of four arrows whose composition was purely water.
With dizzying speed, each of the arrows went straight for the desperate Goblin. First, two of the arrows hit his greenish body -GUAAAAAGGGG- the groan of pain was quite audible, and in less than a second the missing arrows hit, causing him quite a bit of pain again.
With this, Christopher smiled as a pure sign that his idea had worked.
It consisted of a couple of steps, first, attacking the Goblin's feet in order to immobilize him. That way he couldn't use his feet to escape, the Goblin is fast and it would be a real nuisance if he escaped before attacking him, plus he would fail to complete the mission and that is something his pride would not allow. Even more so because the Goblin has actually hurt and killed a few travelers.
Second, he would fire four water arrows. With a short time interval. So first two would hit the Goblin followed by the other two.
This is where he realized that the magic sword with runic writings did not have defensive magic that activated automatically. Well, without problems the four arrows hit the target, it only remained to see if the Goblin was able to activate the magic impregnated in the sword. For Christopher, the fact that he can activate the magic or not is no longer a major problem, he can kill him without much effort.
Deciding to finish off the Goblin using magic alone, he saw no need for martial arts. But when he was about to eliminate him once and for all, a bunch of greenish vines wrapped around and stretched the goblin, dragging him into the bushes.
-Guhooooggg agg ugggg-.
-But what...?- he muttered with great surprise just at the moment of becoming quite disturbed, listening in great detail as from the other side of the bushes the characteristic sound that beasts make when chewing something or someone was emitted.
(Crunch, crack, truck, fish. Slurp slurp).
Thinking a little about the recent scene, I come to the conclusion that some beast caught the Goblin and at this very moment, behind the bushes, was devouring him very peacefully.
-This is quite unpleasant...- he muttered under his breath, not wanting to draw the attention of whatever was on the other side. Although he sighed somewhat heavily, if a beast was eating the Goblin it would be very difficult for him to prove that he had "got rid" of the threat and that he had completed the mission -and now how do I prove that the Goblin disappeared?-.
He approached towards the bushes, the sword was just lying between the bushes because the Goblin didn't have time to use it when he entered the bushes. It must have gotten stuck on some branch and was now resting in this place.
Just a few steps away from reaching his destination, he stopped, looking at the ground with marked interest, managing to observe certain things. "HA! It can't be," he said with a certain amused tone that denoted a lot of interest.
In the area where the magic sword fell the vegetation was somewhat strange, in fact, it gave the impression of being moss, but somewhat more elongated and blooming a few centimeters from the ground where the moss had invaded a kind of roots, although somewhat strange, looking at them one could say that they were much softer to the point of giving the impression of being pieces of meat.
When he understood what it was about, Christopher slowly backed away, now looking at his feet and fortunately for him, the places he was stepping on had no traces of these strange roots - so there - pointing towards the moss, more precisely towards the moss where it ended and the forest floor began -is where your range ends-.
He looked up into the bushes, in the direction of which he could still very clearly hear that beast feeding on the Goblin.
He already knows what kind of "beast" he was dealing with, if it can be called a beast. He is aware of the risks that would be involved in entering the range of the "beast's" attack.
-Air Elemental Magic: Air Stream-.
Using wind magic, precisely the one that controlled the winds around one, Christopher floated in the air. Although now he could not only float, he reached the point of mastering this magic spell to a very high degree, reaching the point of being able to fly freely through the skies, up to a certain period of time and with a certain range of reach/travel.
He hovered a few meters above the ground level, at least three meters, knowing that at that distance that thing couldn't attack him and if it did, he wouldn't be able to catch him. He moved forward, the sound of the unpleasant bites getting louder.
Standing exactly above the beast I look down laughing nervously at the 'beast'.
-What a horrible way to die- he stated, looking at that thing, revealing a small, amused smile -being eaten by a carnivorous plant-.
Occupying the spot inside a hole at least two meters in diameter was what is known as a fearsome carnivorous plant. It is not difficult to avoid or defend yourself from a carnivorous plant, as long as you are careful of your surroundings. In this case, the strange roots shaped like a mass of flesh located in the ground.
These things serve as a kind of antenna for the plant as they indicate the presence of potential food within its range.
Around and coming out of the hole are a bunch of vines with thorns three to five centimeters long. Large leaves, quite similar to those of a clover, cover the hole so that the inside is not visible.
On the ground more of that moss with the meat-like antennae, Christopher estimated that the total reach of the plant at ground level was at least about three meters. The Goblin was unlucky to be within the plant's range.
Suddenly, the clover-like leaves opened, revealing a set of six other inner leaves, although these were a little smaller. They were shaped like a triangle, greenish on the outside and yellowish on the inside, covered with what looked like tiny tentacles, probably sticky so that prey would not have a chance to escape. At the tip of the leaves was something resembling a rather thick and pointed thorn, at least two of these sharp thorns were piercing small animals with long ears.
They were small winged rabbits, extremely charming and harmless.
In the center of it all was the plant's mouth, which was currently opening and closing as it chewed on the Goblin. Showing that the inside was reddish, highlighting the blackish teeth now soaked in blood and with pieces of meat stuck to them.
It seemed to be taking the last bites out of its prey, swallowing them.
-Not even a trace- he said out loud without taking his eyes off the blessed plant. Looking around the plant he could see that lying to one side was what seemed to be the arm of a human or some semi-human who had surely passed by the place and had the misfortune of not noticing the carnivorous plant.
-It's a real shame- he said, thinking that it really is a horrible way to die, how horrible that person must have been to be devoured by this thing. -In the end you turned out to be very dangerous, leaving you to your own devices would put other people in danger, especially if they don't know how to deal with beings like you-.
He frowned as he looked into the plant's now still jaws, watching as the leaves that held the bunnies moved and introduced the cute little animals into the jaws, beginning once again the process of chewing them and sending them to their stomachs (if they have one), the place where their bodies will be their final resting place.
-I must get rid of you, because any visitor who is not familiar with the ways could have the bitter end of being devoured- and he was quite right, carnivorous plants turn out to be quite dangerous and deadly for the unwary who do not know how to deal with one. This would be the case for people who are not dedicated to combat, also for all those who are not paying attention to the surroundings.
-It is my duty as the person who will become the leader of Gignit-.
A horrible image crossed his mind, that of children walking happily through the place and later being pulled by the vines towards a horrible end from which they would never escape, leaving behind their loved ones crying for their disappearances, not knowing what kind of end the little ones had.
He would get rid of the plant as soon as possible.
-I'm really sorry, but I can't let you devour any more people-.
-Earth Elemental Magic: Earth Wall-.
Around the hole and with the silver in the middle, four earth walls emerged as protection, or at least that's what it seemed.
It seemed as if Christopher would lock the plant in place, but that was not the case. What he made was not a protective wall but a containment wall for what was coming. The carnivorous plant turned out to have enough thinking capacity to be able to sense the danger because as soon as the earth walls were formed it descended towards the safety of the hole, unfortunately the action carried out would be totally in vain.
Extending his arm out in front of him and with his palm open, Christopher pointed at it.
-Fire Elemental Magic: Fireball-.
The magical fireball shot out from the open palm, heading at high speed towards the target and hitting the carnivorous plant which tried to protect itself, but was unsuccessful in its attempt.
Floating, Christopher had to retreat a few meters because the heat resulting from his attack was such that for a moment he felt his face burning excessively, believing that at any moment his entire face would crack.
Once everything stopped, he decided to descend to the ground and for a brief moment he could hear how the carnivorous plant, using its apparently remaining strength, let out something quite similar to a cry of pain, most likely it would writhe for a few more seconds before perishing completely.
-This is for the best- he said after the fire had finally consumed the entire body of the Carnivorous Plant. He used earth magic once more, although this time it was to make the walls disappear and bury the hole. He saw that a part of the leaf in the shape of a triangle which covered the mouth of the plant was saved -it's quite intact, I can probably present it to the guild and get some extra-.
-And most importantly, the sword- he walked a few steps until he picked up the sword. Now that he had it in his hands he realized that it was a short sword, which is mostly used with one hand.
His eyes scanned each of the symbols on the magic writing, drawing his attention in amazement - now that I think about it, the Goblin couldn't use the sword, so I still don't know what kind of magic attack this magic sword is capable of launching.
He thought for a moment, impregnated the sword with some of his magic and it seemed that it was activated. There are many weapons that do not require magical energy to activate, as there are also many others that do. This magic sword was of the second kind, he felt the power in his hands and brandished it towards the sky. A violet cloud like a cutting blade formed and traveled to a certain point where the cloud spread and was then dragged by the wind, getting rid of it.
Pearly beads of sweat fell down Christopher's forehead as he looked at the sword. He carefully tied it to his waist. "I did well not to immobilize him from the start," he said, noticing the writings once again. -He has poison rune writings, he could have poisoned me and later been killed by the Goblin or devoured by the carnivorous plant-.