It took a lot of walking before Azul found anything of interest. He wasn’t really sure how much time had passed since he started, considering he couldn’t tell light from dark with his Mana Sense, but he was sure it had been a while. He had avoided all the enemies he could, pinpointing their general location with his hearing and giving them a wide radius. He did have to fight another scorpion, a monster he found was a common occurrence in the desert, and it raised his level to level 6. He had spent the points in Wisdom, Strength, and Agility, his new passives giving him a better idea of how he wanted to fight. His mana bolt had gained a level, but nothing else happened.
He was trudging through the desert, trying to ignore the heat, when his something he had never felt before entered his sphere. At first he thought it was just another sheer cliff face, something he commonly came upon while wandering aimlessly. However, when a cold draft dark, musty mana entered his perception range, he finally realized something was amiss. Approaching the rock face, he saw there was a cave entrance, about 4 meters wide and 3 tall, positioned about 1 meter off the ground. Moving to the base of the cliff, he searched the inside of the cave. To his surprise, he found several carved, stone structures situated around what looked to be a pile of ashes. HIs temperature sensors told him that the ashes were quite cold, but considering they had not dispersed, they couldn’t have been incredibly old. The draft in the tunnel entrance was quite strong, and he figured all the ashes would blow away by the time 3 days past.
Hauling himself onto the ledge, he entered the cave, paying close attention to his surroundings. The interior of the cave was just slightly bigger than his Mana Sense range, unnerving him a bit. However, a fire and stone chairs meant that some form of sapient life had used this as a resting spot not to long ago. As he approached the circle of chairs, he detected something else on the edge of his range, near the back of the cave. A carved archway over a hole in the wall. Moving closer, he noticed that past the archway the ambient mana in the air increased significantly. Curious but cautious, he approached the archway and stepped through.
You have entered the Dungeon (MESA TUNNELS)
Azul instantly stepped back outside of the archway, his mind working through the situation.
‘I didn’t expect it to be a dungeon, though I guess the increase in ambient mana should have warned me. If people were here to conquer this dungeon they might still be inside. That, or they could have left already after clearing it. Even if the second one is true, dungeons are good sources of loot and experience due to increased monster spawns, so surely they would be back. Either way, I can just wait here in this cave until someone arrives.’
Deciding on the safe course of action, Azul went and sat in one of the stone chairs to wait. He waited. And waited. And waited. Eventually, the increased mana that dungeon was giving off at the edge of his perception began to beckon to him, almost lovingly. Whispering sweet things in his ear, beckoning him to adventure and kill and loot. He tried to resist, instead focusing his mind on manipulating his mana into a circle around his fist. Eventually the constant pull won out over his caution, and he got up to enter the dungeon.
You have entered the Dungeon (MESA TUNNELS)
He walked cautiously into the rocky tunnel that sloped gently downward before him. He moved slowly, listening intently for any movement. Several minutes of silence eventually brought him to a fork in the road tunnel. He could tell that the left tunnel had a pitfall trap, clearly obvious to his Mana Sense. The right side was safer, but his instincts told him the better loot would be to the left. Taking a running start, Azul leapt over the meter wide pitfall trap, landing safely on the other side. A hissing sound soon entered his hearing range, and he slowed his walking pace to a crawl. The tunnel turned slightly ahead of him, blocking what would have been his sight of the three snakes hiding around the corner. Hoping against hope the reptiles weren’t an incredibly high level, he concentrated on forming a mana bolt in front of him. As he looked at the completed magic, then back at the snakes around the corner, a sudden inspiration caused his hands to shift, manipulating the mana bolt. The form of the bolt shifted, changing from a jagged lance shape to a meter wide crescent blade.
Skill Gained: (Magic) Pure Mana Blade (I) lvl 1
A large blade of pure mana, designed to cut down several foes, or damage one large one.
+2% power
Concentrating on holding the blade ready, Azul bent down and picked up a loose rock from the ground. He tossed it in front of him, the sound of stone hitting stone echoing through the tunnel, incredibly loud to his sensitive brain. To his disappointment, only two of the snakes responded, slithering forward around the corner. He waited until the last moment to release his blade, and watched in satisfaction as the unsuspecting snakes lost the raised half of their bodies. Ignoring the notifications, Azul hurriedly prepared another blade. The wide range of the spell, especially in the cramped tunnel, almost ensured he would hit his target. He was wrong. The snake slithered around the corner at speeds belying its legless body. Azul fired his blade randomly at the target, confident the snake wouldn’t be able to react in time. To his horror, the snake flattened itself to the floor, letting the mana blade fly harmlessly over its head before it lunged forward. Azul stumbled backwards, stopping himself just short of the pitfall trap, acutely aware that even his Mana Sense couldn’t see the bottom of the drop. The snake lashed out, its jaws wide as they flew for his throat. Azul, now used to the additional power from his ever present buffs, lunged sideways, the jaws of the monster closing right above his left shoulder. Not giving him time to rest, the snake attacked again, this time aiming for his leg. The jaws closed around his left thigh, and Azul would have screamed if he had a voice.
Status Effect: Minor Poison
-1 hp/sec until poison is cleansed or runs out (300 sec)
Ignoring the notification, he reached down and grabbed the snake around the neck, pouring mana from his hands into the snake’s body as he squeezed as tight as he could. His mana was what killed the snake, not his throttling. He watched as it flowed into the snake, disintegrating its inside bit by bit, destroying nerves and muscle tissue. The body of the snake went limp, no longer able to receive signals from the brain, and the snake released its grip, internal bleeding drowning its brain. Dings rang inside his head, signalling his victory, but Azul ignored them. He slumped against the wall, activating Pure Mana Regeneration, changing his mana into health. Slowly the regeneration won out over the poison and the wound closed itself off, not even leaving a scar. Five minutes later the poison stopped its work as well, leaving him with just over 100 mana to spare. Azul relaxed, his senses picking up nothing else in the vicinity that could threaten him.
‘I never imagined a simple snake could dodge an attack like that, I guess this world is a lot harsher than I thought. But still, I have to admit the battle was kind of exhilarating. Until now I’ve never truly fought anything, just hid behind hills and sniped them to death with Pure Mana Bolt. This though, this was a little….fun.’
He simply couldn’t shake the feeling of enjoyment he had gotten from the exchange. Sure, his life had been in danger, but he had his regeneration, and the thrill of near death excited him. He hauled himself to his feet, starting to question why he hadn’t tried to engage a scorpion head on before. Several reasons including death, poison, dismemberment, and death again popped up, but he chose to ignore them as he adventured deeper into the dungeon, excited at the prospect of fighting again.
The next group of enemies was another set of snakes hiding around another corner. Nodding to himself, he sat down, turned off his buffs, and began to meditate. About 10 minutes later, with his buffs fully active, he repeated the process he had done with the last set. Once more he cut down the first two that moved around the corner. He didn’t even try to hit the next snake with a Pure Mana Blade, instead opting to to rush the snake head on. The snake tried the same attack pattern as the last one, lunging for Azul’s throat as he approached. This time Azul ducked below the attack, his hands reaching out to grasp the snake by its midsection. Once again, he pumped mana into the monster, destroying as section of its insides rather quickly. The snake, having lost the function of half its body, flopped to the ground as Azul stepped back. The snake writhed on the ground, its slitted eyes staring with cold hatred at Azul as it struggled to attack him. Seeing the snake was bleeding to death from the inside, Azul decided to experiment a bit. If simply sending mana into his opponent was enough to kill them, couldn’t he do that from a distance as well? Sadly, the wall of mana he pushed into the snake only blasted it away from him and into the cave wall. On the bright side, the sudden blunt force trauma aggravated the internal injury, finishing the snake off the rest of the way.
‘It seems that the internal destruction requires skin to skin contact for the transmission to work. Against enemies that cannot regenerate their tissue this skill could prove very useful, though not so much against massive foes.’
Happy with his progress, Azul moved on through the tunnel. He killed two more groups of snakes before he sensed an open area around the next corner. While most of the room was out of his range, he could tell there was something quite large inside, judging from the sheer volume of the hiss coming from somewhere inside.
‘I guess I finally found a boss of some sort. Makes sense it would be a snake.’
Creeping as close to the corner as possible, he finally got a slight glimpse at the boss. All he could see on the edge of his perception was a snout, but it was already larger than he was. From what he could guess, the snake was easily taller than him probably many times as long.
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
‘Wow, all those easy snakes and then they push this in my face. Just by the size of it I don’t think I can fight it right now...I think I’ll get my levels and go back to the start of the dungeon, no need to die before I even meet another sapient being.’
Azul backed away from the corner and travelled back through the winding tunnel, careful to avoid the pitfall trap when he reached the fork. He glanced briefly down the other tunnel before continuing toward the entrance, deciding to save it for another time. Back at the cave entrance, he sat on one of the stone chairs and finally read the messages he had ignored for the past hour. The euphoria once again came over him, but he managed to get through it without falling out of the chair.
Victory!
Enemies Defeated: Poisonous Snake (x12)
Experience Gained: 900 (720 * 1.25)
Your level jumped from lvl 6 to lvl 8!
+16 Attribute points (8 * 2.00)
+24 Skill Points (16 * 1.5)
Pure Mana Blade (I) has reached lvl 2!
+4% power
Skill Gained: (Active) Destructive Transfer (I) lvl 1
You channel mana through touch into your opponent, destroying them from the inside.
+2% power
Destructive Transfer (I) has reached lvl 3!
+6% power
Pure Mana Manipulation has reached lvl 2!
+6% control
-6% mana loss
Pure Mana Burn (I) has reached lvl 2!
+12% spell power, -12% mana loss, +10% mana control while active
Cost: 5.1 mana/min
Pure Mana Fusion (I) has reached level 2!
+52% Strength, Constitution, Agility, and Perception while active (does not increase total health or total stamina)
Cost 5.1 mana/min
Pure Mana Regeneration (I) has reached lvl 3!
+ability to convert mana into health at a 2:1.1 ratio
Pure Mana Shield (I) has reached lvl 2!
+26% damage received transferred to mana pool instead of health pool.
Cost: -51 maximum mana on activation, cost of damage transferred
Azul quickly assigned his attribute points, putting 10 into Intelligence, 5 into wisdom, and 1 into agility. Then he turned his attention to the skill list. He figured he would be able to buy several skills with 51 points, but ended up investing in just one, finding the bonuses more than worth it.
50 points:
(Passive) Elemental Sense (X) lvl 1
The world around you is full of elements. These elements infuse themselves with the mana, granting it different properties, and a different color. You can now sense these colors.
+ability to see the elemental type of all mana around you
NOTICE: This skill is a sub skill of Mana Sense (X). Mana Sense (X) must be active for this skill to work.
Upon the purchase of the skill, Azul’s senses exploded with color. The ambient mana in the air around him, usually a dim haze, glowed a light green. The earth and stone around him, usually vague blue outlines, changed to a dark brown. Looking at his own body, he noticed the mana inside of him had changed to a deep purple. Azul simply sat there, stunned as he took in the world around him. While he had not been alive very long, he had grown accustomed to the constant blue tinge everything had. Now, everything was different. If someone ever shot a fireball at him, he would be able to tell it was fire, not just a raging ball of mana. Being able to distinguish between elements at a glance would allow him to better grasp magic beyond that of simple mana manipulation.
Suddenly, a vague hum interrupted his new world. The hum grew louder and louder, coming from somewhere outside of the cave. Azul moved as close as he could to the opening as he could without exposing himself, and watched as several strange objects, each made of a tangled mess of mana strands surrounded by a shell, pulled up in front of the cave. On top of each of the objects sat a person. Well, he wasn’t quite sure if they were people, considering all of them had different structure and mana flow.
‘Different races’ He thought as he watched them approach. One in particular seemed to take the lead, a figure that glowed a brilliant green. The female, he could tell from the lack of extended mana routes in the groin area, seemed to have a pair of wings and clawed feet. Aside from that, thin, green lines of mana extended from the backside of her arms, and the same green strands fell around her face, most likely a form of hair. As the group of 6 people approached the entrance, Azul backed away and moved to the rest area. He could tell, simply from the sheer amount of mana each one was giving off that he had no chance of survival if they attacked him. One in particular, a plant shaped being near the back, gave off such a strong white and brown light that it was hard to look directly at it.
As they approached, a strange mixture of sound waves entered his brain, transmitted from the mouths of the people outside. Slowly, his brain made sense of the noises, forming them into words. A notification told him he had learned the Tiphorian Language, and he listened in on the conversation.
“Why the fuck did you drag me all the way out here Desmond? I was working when you showed up, but you promised me something good if I came.” said the bird woman, stopping just short of the cave entrance.
“Working? You were drinking, not working!” Said a humanoid figure that glowed a bright yellow.
“Drinking is work!”
“Your hopeless, anyway, there’s something on the fifth level of the dungeon that I need a full party for. You’re an expert close combat wind mage and scout, so I figured why not?”
“Whatever it is better be fucking worth it.” The girl replied, pulling a bottle of something out of thin air. Azul saw a brief flash of gray when she did, signifying the use of World magic, probably the spatial variation.
“Trust me, Melphine, it is.” Said the man as he jumped effortlessly into the cave. Azul watched as the man scanned the interior, his eyes finally falling on Azul.
“Holy shit!” The man shouted, a surge of yellow mana condensing in his hand. Just as Azul was about to dive for the dungeon entrance to avoid being incinerated, the girl from before appeared in a burst of green, grasping the mages hand and forcing it down.
“Fuck’s sake Desmond, you see one person you don’t recognize and you immediately try to kill it. Its mana signature isn’t bad, but I can tell from its stamina and health pools that he’s no threat.” She said as she released his hand and approached Azul.
“What’s your name, and the fuck you doing here?” She asked, taking another drink from the bottle.
Azul was stunned into silence for a moment. She obviously had just as much observation skills as he had, if not better. Not only had she read his mana pool, but also his health and stamina pool. That alone was beyond anything he could currently accomplish. Making a mental note not to piss her off, he responded. He mimicked the way vibrations sound waves created in the air with his mana, sending the message directly to her eardrums, ignoring the rest of the group as they filtered in.
“Azul. I’ve been wandering around the desert for some time and happened upon this cave. I figured that people must come here often due to the rest area, so I decided to wait for someone to show.”
“Well, some people just showed up. At least your not some rabid monster.” She said.
“Wait! It responded to you? I didn’t hear anything!” Desmond shouted from the back, waving his burning fists in the air. Melphine simply glanced at him, then turned back to Azul.
“Of course you didn’t hear him dumbass, he just sent soundwaves with his mana directly to my eardrums. An interesting way of communication, but it makes sense considering he has no other way of talking.”
“Wait, it’s a he? How you know?” Desmond asked again, completely ignoring the fact that Azul was standing right in front of him.
“The tone and weight of the mana.” She responded. “Anyway, I think I’m gonna take him back to Tiphor, get him some clothes and introduce him to society.”
“What? You can’t just leave, we haven’t even done the dungeon, and he’s weird and you don’t even know him, and since when do you help random people!” Desmond sputtered, a little anger entering his voice.
“I can can leave whenever I wish, Desmond. Sure the face is a little strange, but we’ve both seen stranger. Also, I never wanted to be here, and he is the perfect excuse to get the fuck out of this sandy shithole.” She said, turning and beckoning Azul to follow before moving towards the entrance to cave. “Besides, you got Osmond here, he could probably finish the fifth floor of the dungeon by himself.” She finished, motioning to a tree like being in the back who glowed an incredibly tense mixture of white and brown.
Not quite sure what was going on, Azul decided to follow the girl. She had saved him from an untimely demise at a far to powerful fire mage and had offered to take him home. Sure, he might just be here excuse to leave, but he really didn’t mind. Any one of the adventurers, judging from the glow of their mana, could kill him as easily as he slaughtered unsuspecting snakes. As he walked past Desmond, he tried to ignore the angry look the man gave him. Upsetting a trigger happy mage was probably not the wisest thing to do, but he really had no control over the situation.
Outside the cave, Melphine led him to one of the strange objects. She climbed on top of it and pressed something. Azul watched in amazement as the cords of mana inside suddenly filled with power and a dim hum filled the air. Curious, he asked Melphine what it was.
“T-35 Sand Cruiser, it's a transportation vehicle used in the desert, great for traversing rough terrain since they float. Pretty old technology, but it gets the job done. Must be really new if you don’t even know what these are” She replied as she motioned for him to climb on behind her. Azul complied with her request, trying to sit without leaning to heavily on her folded wings. Melphine took another swig from her bottle before it disappeared again. She grabbed onto two handles that extended on either side of the body of the Cruiser, and the hum grew louder as it began to move.