Prologue

1594 October 4th

In a room, on the world of Terra, as Cindy faun stared at her child she saw its pale face. it was as if she had given birth to porcelain. More shocking however was the hair of deep blue. The child failed to cry but it was breathing and its heartbeat was strong. She decided to name him Myrrha. She fed Myrrha and then gave him to his father Arcturus. He was curious but could see that his facial features were similar to his and remembering his baby photos he saw an exact image of his childhood in his arms.

Myrrha was then wrapped in a blanket. The blanket was dark red which matched well with his hair. After, he was returned to his mother. she had long blonde hair reaching her shoulders. She was five foot four which made her a petite woman. She was wearing a gown down to her knees and as she held her child she felt the pain from childbirth lessen. This was something she believed to be a maternal bonus she would however soon find out that she was incorrect. The world that Myrrha had been born into was a world that had a system implemented in everyday life. All information About a person is collected in a Blue Screen known as a Status screen. As a person grows the status page will grow with them. The doctor then asked for Cindy’s vitals and Arcturus’s class

Name: Cindy faun

Class: slaymancer level 60 rank 4

Hp: 2000/200000

Level 40 rank 5

Name: Arcturus faun

Class: silentmanamancer level 80 rank 3

The doctor then noted this and used [Healing Hand] a skill which heals another person but has a 3-hour cooldown so it is used for childbirth to restore health to the mother. The doctor class heals health but there are no known classes which can nullify pain. The doctor then told Myrrha’s parents that the likely class will be completely random due to the pure builds that they have adopted. The class of a person is decided at birth but not found out until they reach level 5 usually a child will gain this about age 5 when they are able to speak and read enough to gain experience which is used to level. All actions on Terrah gives experience from breathing to slaying dragons. Each action gives experience proportional to difficulty and ability to absorb mana. If someone with a 100% absorption of mana killed a level one monster will gain 100% of the mana that is released from the monster or breathed in from the air a 50% absorption gives 1 experience point per day from breathing.

Ranks are a collection of 100 levels each rank up of a class gives a class up Cindy started as a warrior classing up meleemancer>swordmancer>blademancer>slaymancer. Arcturus started as a manamancer and went the route of magic which does not require chanting. Growing up, Myrrha was healthy and continued to grow to reach level 4 by the time he had aged to be 3 years old. Quickly he learned to speak and read in record time. When asked to bring up his stats page he read aloud

Name

Myrrha faun

Absorption

**revealed at level 5**

Class

**locked until level 5**

Skills

**locked until a class is acquired**

Hp

100/100

Titles

None

Level

4 rank 0

Affinities

***locked until level 10****

Attributes

** locked until level 5**

He then asked his mother and father for help in learning swordsmanship and mana control and at this, he began on the road to becoming an adventurer

Myrrha pov

I was excited to learn from Mother about wielding a weapon first. We went outside and she told me to turn off notifications until I had learned both what she and father had to teach me. this was because even if I reach level 5 I will need to learn the basics of both mana manipulation and melee combat to use my class in any useful way. Both of my parents were B grade adventurers with F being the lowest and five star S grade being highest. These grades are given by the adventurers guild based on battle strength and a number of quests completed. Only one five-star S rank was alive on the whole of Terrah. He had slain the whole behemoth rainbow dragon family in the Niko mountains singlehandedly. This was thought of as impossible and explained why he was given such a grade.

After turning off the notifications, I was given a wooden sword weighted to be 5 times heavier than a real sword of the same size. Luckily, my mother had such a sword that was proportional to my size, she then showed me katas to progress through. She told me I must perfect the katas before I may attempt to strike the training dummy. I continued doing the katas and she would correct me when I did them wrong. After 3 hours without rest, Mother told me to go collect lunch from our home. It was a small house built from stone. The roof was slated and was medium sized. Mother and father chose to live outside of the city as to have room to train along with the local dungeon being only 3 hours walk from our home. Dungeons had been created by Trois, who my mother explained was a god, as a haven for beasts. However, Mortem, a bad god, had commanded the monsters to infiltrate and release mana to corrupt them and thus dungeons now contain monsters also. After eating for 2 hours and resting my father came into the kitchen and taught me to sense mana. He told me to sit cross-legged and feel the air around me. He then said he was influencing mana around me to make it easier to sense. This was still tricky but took 5 hours of concentration to find even the smallest strand of mana. However, after finding this I felt the difficulties lessen extremely and found the mana swirling around and inside me. Father then told me to go shower and lie down to regain energy ready for the next day.

3rd person Pov

Later that night Arcturus and Cindy are talking in bed about their son’s progress

“Arcturus how well did Myrrha do with the mana manipulation?” (Cindy)

“Amazing I must say I think our child is a prodigy in mana he found the first strand already and then begun to pinpoint the rest within an hour. I sent him to bed due to such a breakthrough I imagine he would be exhausted. How about your teachings dear?” (Arcturus)

“Much the same my love our son mastered the katas give or take a few mishaps with stances. I believe we must refine him until he reaches the age of 5 and not allow him to turn on notifications until he is finished and is on the level of skill of a manamancer and a meleemancer level 10 no matter his class there is a possibility of him achieving this easily. As we know anybody can use any skill. Classes are just a guide on which way your body will best adapt and learn skills.” (Cindy)

In Myrrha’s bedroom, the mana swirling around Myrrha was funnelling into his chest due to the notifications being turned off none of the faun family realized Myrrha had achieved level 5 and from now on he would gain skills, affinities, and titles based on his achievements.

Chapter 1: the party with the party

Over the next 2 years, he would train the same way, growing and getting heavier swords and learning more ways to sense mana, after 2 weeks he was striking the dummy with the bokken, this is the weighted wooden swords, eventually learning two swords style. He began to spar with Cindy daily until he was able to counter his mother twice out of ten times. The progress with Arcturus was very good, He could now sense mana and even managed to use it to track his father as he walked around. It took him a full year to learn to completely manipulate mana around him to stop the disturbance of mana he creates rendering mana sensing useless against him. Myrrha had actually realised the underlying concept of how to use magic without chanting, however, he hid it by still chanting. By the end of the two years, he had learned to attack with mana bullets and creating blades from the mana while using it to fight. On the last week, both his mother and father were waiting for him and he learned to combine both disciplines into one style using the mana to create a sharper edge to the wooden sword to cut into the dummies and using the mana sense to fight his mother blindfolded. He was told that mana sense will work against any creature that does not hide its movements using mana disturbing. In one such training session, his mother and father worked together to show him vital points to strike such as the throat, the heart, and other such lethal strikes. they then moved on to the ability to condense intentions into mana to cause effects. The easiest one being sheer pressure. Explaining that it is like implying to the enemy that they should just fear the very air around them. it didn't take him long to understand and do the technique but the most it did when he used it was raise Cindy's heart rate

His 5th birthday was a large gathering of his family. As of yet,

Myrrha had no friends his age due to him not beginning school or going to the village because of his age. However, his family that attended included his mother and fathers adventuring party they had retired from adventuring until Myrrha begun school which would begin for him in 2 weeks. His father’s brother also attended. He was a guild master for the adventurer’s guild. They had all brought presents for him beginning with his uncle handing him a card and saying that if he injects mana from his body it would register him as an adventurer although he cannot accept quests until he is aged 16, as he injected his mana into the card it showed his name age and level as well as that he was currently an F grade adventurer. Claire and Dave the party members of his parents gave him a dimension bag, it stores items in a separate dimension. Living things will not enter but fresh corpses stay preserved forever. When his mother and fathers turn arrived they presented him with a spell blade. A sword which contained a rare elegem containing mana of 8 elements, fire, air, water, earth, light, dark, death, and life this was when the last lesson from his father commenced, Arcturus turned to Myrrha and explained that using the mana emitted from the elegem you can use simple elemental mana attacks without having to generate the mana yourself. Just manipulate the mana generated by the gem in the same way you would manipulate neutral mana. “thank you everyone for my gifts I am going to treasure them and practise with my spell blade “ I told everyone this and went to practise the katas using my new weapon my parents came over after seeing off the guests. They then told me I may check my stats and allow notifications.

Myrrha point of view

Name

Myrrha faun

Absorption

10%

Class

Monstermancer

Level 1 rank 0

Skill points available

9

Hp

225/225

Mana

1000/1000

HP regeneration

0.2% per second

Mana regen

0.2 % per second

Level

9 rank 0

Titles

None

Attribute points left

9

Strength

40

Intelligence

200

Agility

50

Wisdom

20

Dexterity

70

Luck

5

I selected yes and waded through

Level up x4 you may add 1 stat point to any stat each level

Would you like your blue box to have a personality Y/N?

You have gained free stat points due to hard work

Strength+35

Intelligence+135

Wisdom+11

Agility+45

Dexterity+60

Skills available due to repeated practice

One handed weapon proficiency

Dual wielding proficiency

Mana manipulation

Mana sight

Mana weapons

Mana infusion

Mana stealth

Class skills available

Tame

Command

Creature tongue

Identify

"All skills cost 1 point to gain and upgrading will cost one point after reaching the next rank. The ranks are as follows, novice, beginner, basic, intermediate, advanced, master using one of your skills as an example, at the novice level, a fireball will deal damage at 1*intelligence but at the level of master, it would deal 60*intelligence in specific it also deals its skill level*intelligence as added damage. Monsters have a tier above five star S and require in most cases multiple people to defeat. There was a rumour of a single man defeating a family of S** tier monsters single headedly to gain five star S rank at an adventurers guild. I asked my parents what the notifications meant. They told me that if I focused on wisdom until I had 100 points in it that will allow me to understand what the best course of action in most situations is. "If you focus on the skill names a description will appear. Finally, I recommend giving your blue screen a personality, it will help if you are journeying alone. it is crazy that you would have such high intelligence." usually children would reach intelligence 100 if they are lucky. With this, I began by clicking yes on giving the blue screen a personality and added my nine points to wisdom. The blue screen then asked if I would like to just view all of the skill descriptions to which I replied yes

Unlocked due to repeated activity

One handed weapon mastery: proficiency in using weapons one-handed, increases damage proportional to skill level

Dual wielding mastery: ability in using two weapons at once increases damage proportional to skill level (also able to use one weapon using this skill)

Mana manipulation: manipulate mana for a continuous cost of mana per second (proportional to the amount of mana manipulated) this skill reduces the amount of mana used

Mana sight: eyes develop the ability to see mana strands

Mana weapons: build weapons from mana strands

Mana infusion: add mana to objects to change properties

Mana stealth: use mana manipulation to conceal your presence to mana sensing creatures

Unlocked due to class

Tame: form a bond with creatures to gain (only creatures trusting you or accepting your strength will be tamed successfully as skill level grows higher chance of taming higher tier creatures increases ) a period of time is required to form the bond.

Command: command a tamed creature (requires creature tongue)

Creature tongue: gain the ability to converse with creatures, higher skill level allows conversing with higher tier creatures, some creatures speak human or use telepathy to speak. These creatures are conversable without requiring this skill

Identify: (recommended) check information about an object this includes creatures and equipment

I bought dual wielding all of the mana-based skills tame, identify and creature tongue

After purchasing these skills extra info was added to the skills dual wielding added a value of 5% increase to damage dealt while using a weapon in both hands. The mana skills allowed the use of neutral mana only and the class skills explained the success rates of each tier beginning at 60% and quartering after each tier jump. Each level would increase the percentage boost of each skill by one percent

Hello Myrrha. I am the blue box I recommend raising your skill level in all of the skills except creature tongue and tame these two skills require creatures to use the rest are very basic skills, however, think outside the box of the ways you can use the skills.

With this, I spent the next two weeks in training and gained a level before my parents told me I would begin school.

Chapter 2 first years of school

Myrrha pov

The extra skill point I gained from the level up I used to purchase command to complete my class skills. I was hoping to gain access to a new skill but this didn’t happen. It seems to gain access to a skill I sense a hidden potential of this to gain a skill for free but was yet to find it.

It was my first day of school and my parents had funded my education at a school for gifted students. His Majesties Royal School of Excellence was the name of it. Upon arriving a tall woman with pointier ears than my family was stood upon the steps near the entrance. She was beautiful my father made a comment to mother which was something about an outfit mother wore to bed one night. This received him a rather strong smack from mother. The woman was dressed in a quite formal outfit and wore spectacles her hair was tied up in a bun. As we approached the lady introduced herself as Miss Neesham and she was conducting the school tour and would direct me to where I needed to be

I took this chance to use [identify]

Name

Sheena Neesham

Race

High Elf

Level

Level 3 Rank 2

Higher skill level needed for more information on this creature

I dismissed the box and followed the elf lady into the building. She showed me the training grounds and explained that this is where students train abilities and spar with each other.i could see some students sparring they were impressive but nothing compared to mother. She then showed me to the classrooms and my class was furthest away. Next, I was shown the cafeteria and the assembly hall which was slowly filling. Sheena told me to find my seat it was designated alphabetically from surname and age youngest at the front. I went and took my seat.

A man looking about 80 years of age but with skin looking rough and shiny walked in front of the audience after another 10 minutes and begun speaking “ good morning students and welcome to our school. My name is Mr Draconovich and I am the headmaster of the school. We train the best citizens on the continent but we don’t know what you are best suited to this first year of your schooling will deal with that by putting you through tests in and out of classes soon you will see a blue window open in front of you. It will ask you to accept a title please apply this title while in school and I will explain the importance of the titles”

a first-year student in the royal school of excellence title acquired

Skill learning speed doubled

Damage output halved

Apply title Y/N

I selected yes and listened to the rest of headmaster’s explanation. “there will be competitions between your year group, meaning all the first years will be competing for rewards including places in training courses, until the end of this year you shall all do the same classes to learn the necessary life skills and basics of life on Terrah. Classes begin at 10 am and finish at 4 pm other training is recommended outside of school but otherwise you are free to go please follow Sheena to your first class.”

I, along with 29 other followed Sheena to the class she pointed out earlier and we took our seats. I realized that the classroom had books placed on the desks I immediately began to read the book while other students socialised I noticed several others doing the same until a small man with a long beard walked in and begun to explain to us who he was. “My name is Mr Innerdale a dwarf from the thunder grove mountains tribe and I will inform you of all the knowledge you will need to make no social faux pas beginning with the creation of this world.

We believe that the original god who created the Terrah landscape created 10 minor gods each god was tasked with creating something impressive or useful. The first god Uno was the most pragmatic and created the atmosphere barrier to contain the mana and gasses of the world. Ni the second god we believe to be kind to all she created the plants to recycle the elements of the atmosphere and create food for the creations of her brothers and sisters.

Trois, god of beasts created animals and beast men, saying they will be the most successful creation due to their ability to breed so easily, Vier created the humans saying they are the most adaptive being average in all ways having a life expectancy of 100 years and an average ability with all skills and an extra 50% boost in the areas they are best at. Wu created elves he believed they would be the best due to the life expectancy being over 1000 years with an elf of over 4000 years of age making him the oldest recorded elf in history. Elves have the highest mana pools and usually are born with an affinity with nature of 100% this is offset by the slower rate of skill increases and levelling even an elf with 100% absorption will gain only 1 point every year from breathing.

Very few if any of you will have unlocked affinities once unlocked you will learn to increase them manually. Sia the god of dwarves styled her creations after herself she was very short and had woven a beard for herself from mana strands believing beards to be beautiful thus the dwarves were created to be crafters or holders of knowledge. We dwarves get a bonus to everything underground 50% boost to all stats and experience gains but in the cold, we cannot gain experience. Zeven created the dragons. They had the lowest birth-rate requiring 100 years to lay an egg during this time the dragon is weakened but otherwise, they are the most dangerous creature on Terrah however they are not classed as civilised although descendants exist which are much weaker, the headmaster is, in fact, a draconian the closest civilised dragon descendant. The problem with the dragons is due to the fact they can only level through defeating enemies and again like elves gain experience slowly. Octo created the sea dwellers and the amphibious fish folk these people can be similar to any sea creature but usually are bipedal. Nine was the ninth god he created the blue box system we use to make life easier he believed that it would help gauge the strength of all of these creations of his siblings however the dragons could not use this system unless they have blood diluted by at least three of the other races. We now call a race civilised if it can use the blue boxes.

The last god Mortem created the monsters he said that the monsters would be of varying strengths beginning with the animals that Trois had created mana would gather inside of them and mutate them into more dangerous forms. They could evolve naturally using mana they would level only by defeating one of the civilised races dragons or other monsters and devouring them. The minor gods who had created the sentient races and especially Trois were in an uproar. How dare Mortem's creations have to kill their creations as a purpose? With this, the original god told them that due to them all creating equally potent things none of them won and he would wait to see in time how the races progressed and said he was hibernating until he felt like getting up.

Many of the minor gods blamed Mortem, deciding that they would create an alliance against him thus why we are taught to kill monsters and using our classes from our stats screen we do just that. Due to the other gods creating classes for their creations mortem also created one single class to help his creations thrive. He asked Nine to make classes random and not a choice so that he was equally likely to have help defending his creatures. Nine decided to not upset the majority of the gods he would allow his one class to be a 0.000001% chance of occurring with this the class system was cemented. Because of the upset mortem caused the other gods exiled Mortem to the underworld he resides there and manages the cycle of death when something dies its mana is recycled and a body is generated on Terrah. The 9 remaining gods sent messages to their races and told them to designate prophets these prophets children will be messengers of the gods. They were told to build churches and monuments to their patron god. Uno, Ni and nine were just interested in the entertainment value thus they were fine that they had no prophets.

As the years continued to pass very few of Mortem’s class were born and because of the class belonging to him, they had terrible luck. as a result of the 9 gods, which in this day and age are referred to as the Omnicouncil would purposefully try to hinder them. These gods are the only beings capable of seeing the class of any living thing, however, the class was tolerated.

That was until 1594 years ago. One with the class of mortem rose up. He lay siege to the world. Due to his jealousy of the way the Omnicouncil gave the other classes preferential treatment, he killed over 6 million of each of the races. This apocalyptic person was killed after a war of over 20 years of fighting. Since then if a person is found to be of this class they are sentenced to death by beheading by the church. please shout aloud the classes you are so we can tell if somebody is lying we have a truth spell in place in this room so please do not embarrass yourself by lying. This class he created is monstermancer”

Myrrha, think of a way to get out and not sound suspicious along with not lying about your reason for leaving or you will be executed promptly.

Chapter 3 first day part 2

My first plan was shot down when I tried to think of a way to get out and hide in the forest. I realised that I did not know how to survive on my own. meaning I would need to stay in school long enough to learn that. I need a new plan to deal with the lie detecting technique. I used mana sight to check the way the strands in the room were being used it seemed a strand from all of the students lead to the teacher and each heartbeat seemed to change depending on how nervous someone was. I tried something I probably shouldn’t have but it was a needed sacrifice. I changed the heartbeat of one of the noble boys to be quicker. I did this by knowing that a heartbeat speeds up when under mana pressure. mother showed me the technique to use against weaker enemies but this was an emergency. He failed the lie detector so the teacher questioned him again. Deducing that it used how quick a person’s heartbeat was to decide if someone was lying I had to lie and say I had a class that was similar to monstermancer and so asked blue box if there was a similar class. it replied promptly

there are no similar classes however you could say you are a beastmaster due to you already having a start in that direction you can fake and allow the school to believe you are of that class but eventually they will expect you to have skills you are unable to gain without a huge amount of training. However, for a short time, it will work.

While reading this I listened to the answers and there were many classes that were deviated from the norm including a charmancer who could use seduction based skills to make opponents fight each other or even kill themselves the advanced class of this become powerful very quickly. I heard of a story where a unique class was gained by a charmancer who slept with an incubus and as she felt the mana leaving her body during. she killed him seconds before she was killed and gained a skill that allowed her to steal skills from people. Another boy was a shadowmancer and could control the shadows allowing stealth to be employed easily. The alleged leader of the assassins guild began life as a shadowmancer and ranked up to the point that he gained night time invisibility. As it came to my turn I used mana sense and noticed the speed of my heartbeat without lying. I released as much relaxing mana into my area and moved it so that I had a layer that didn't affect me. I knew that I had to listen to the questions and keep my heartbeat stable. Mr Innerdale asked my name. I replied “Myrrha faun” my heartbeat picked up I knew the next question. Then he asked. “What is your class”? As the words beastmancer left my mouth I bring the layer to surround me and managed to stabilise my heart rate just enough that I passed. I relax and my heart rate returns to normal.

I then begin to look around the room and see that I was the last to answer the questions. Mr Innerdale looked at the class and explained “this is the end of the hour we have together please make your way to the training grounds and take seats in the stands our instructor will be with us soon. On the way, I asked the blue box if there is a way to learn the lie detector skill.

Yes but it requires a lot of practice manipulating other creatures mana and not letting them notice

I decided it was at least something to think about and I shall ask my parents if they know the way to use it. By the time I had finished pondering I had arrived at the training ground and was eagerly looking forward to a practical part of the first day. After 5 minutes a man in leather armour walked through the door leading to the training grounds. He was around 6 foot, carrying three swords. He announced to the group “ I am adventurer Rufus Lortel I am an S rank adventurer and my level is 7 rank 5 I will not tell my class as I don’t believe any of you will have heard of it if you are put into the adventurer classes by being in the top 10% of your year you may find out but for now I must explain what I imagine will be your first quest. it’s on the way now and will directly affect your end of year mark, this mark decides the programme you become enrolled on

Quest

The Competition

Rewards: Vary depending on performance

Description: From now until the end of the school year there will be tests given out such as learning a skill or defeating another student in a duel, further information will be given upon issue.

Success: Survive the year

Failure: Death

Acceptance is forced

A few seconds later another quest appears

The First Test

Rewards: based on performance, (experience, items or a skill book)

Test one is now commencing male and female separation 23 males, 7 females. A sparring match will be issued based on a random assignment.

Your number is randomly assigned as 16

the matchups will now appear below this message

1v2

3v4

5v6….

…16v17…

…21v22

23 gains instant progression with the same system for the girls

The winner of each matchup will then spar the above winner until one overall winner is decided.

It seemed like this course would be fun.

Chapter 4: the tournament round one

Rufus’ point of view

I was the referee of the first test. I both loved and hated this test as it showed the best and worst talents in the school. However, it made the students cocky at age 5. They were only old enough to use the smaller weapons however it allowed the youngsters to understand how hard they must work to succeed in this school. After giving time to read the quest I begun announcing the rules of the sparring matches

“You may use any wooden weapon on the rack or attempt unarmed combat. The first round will be lost by being the first fighter to take 3 hits to any body part. We have healers stationed by the arena to heal injuries. A pardon will be given to all students below level 5 or not having trained in combat before. It will not be a deciding feature in the quest the competition for these students. So who’s lucky 1 and 2 “ two children put up their hands and I asked if they were level 5 or higher and trained at least a little in martial practice. They both said that they had and I showed them to the weapon rack. As one of them picked up a set of nunchucks I asked his name. It turned out his name was Jerry. I did the same to the second boy as he picked up a staff. He replied saying his name was Sam. I lead them to the arena and counted from 3 to 0 before shouting Go

The two boys rushed at each other. They were indeed at least to some extent trained in the weapons they had chosen the shock came after the first 20 seconds. Sam the staff user began using mana infusion in ways that would usually take years to learn that’s why I took this job. These kids are amazing and I know that if they’re taught good habits early they won’t get bad habits later. Sam was using mana infusion on his feet to speed himself up and cover distance quickly. Jerry, however, was keeping up with sheer skill at close combat all of a sudden he flicks up the staff with the nunchuck and kicks out Sam’s knee before attacking his sides twice winning the match.

The next six fights were won by default because students 4,5,7,9 and 12 were either under level 5 or not sufficiently trained, agree the match between 6 and 8 was uneventful though student 6 I believed to be hiding something and taking the loss early for some reason he slinked around and just observed the other jumping in and to the untrained eye it would look like he was just unskilled, 8 was a high noble the truth test in the previous classroom had shown he lied about his name but the next time he was asked he said the same thing and he was shown to be telling the truth. It was odd.

Myrrha Pov

I thought about the premise of the test, I saw it as a way to learn. I turned on mana sight. Watching as the first match begun, the student, whose name I remembered as being Sam, used mana infusion on his feet to increase speed meaning he probably had a lot more mana based skills than combat skills this reminded me to check my stats as it had been a long time since id checked

Name

Myrrha faun

Absorption

10%

Class

Monstermancer

Level 1 rank 0

Skill points available

1

Hp

250/250

Mana

1000/1000

HP regeneration

0.2% per second

Mana regen

0.3 % per second

Level

10 rank 0

Titles

A first-year student in the royal school of excellence

Attribute points left

0

Strength

40

Intelligence

200

Agility

50

Wisdom

30

Dexterity

70

Luck

5

Skill list

Dual handed mastery Novice level 9 (ready to upgrade)

Mana manipulation Novice level 9 (ready to upgrade)

Mana sight Novice level 9

Mana infusion Novice level 6

Mana weapons Novice level 2

Mana stealth Novice level 1

Tame Novice level 1

Command Novice level 1

Creature tongue Novice level 1

Identify Novice level 2

Affinities

Fire1%

Water1%

Earth1%

Air1%

Life5%

Death5%

Light 1%

Darkness 1%

I noticed that my affinities had unlocked and my skill levels had increased. Since I had gone from level 9 to level 10 in the two week period it seems that once I purchase a skill and reuse aspects of it the backlogged experience catches up. Which makes sense as I still have the abilities of before I bought them. However, I did not want to purchase the skill upgrade for mana manipulation yet though. Again unlocking my affinities was a curious thing but I would ask my parents for an explanation of them. As I looked back to the match Sam had been disarmed and Jerry had quickly gained the needed 3 strikes to progress. The next fight the shadowmancer was up to spar number 8, the student who I had caused the truth test to react on. I watched with mana sight as the shadowmancer had started circling the noble boy but he could obviously see that at that time he couldn’t defeat 8 without a surprise attack. He tried just jumping in with the wooden daggers however he was too slow. 8 rounded on him and used 3 quick strikes to the arm and gained the win. It turned out that 6 was called Denare and 8 was called William I was next up and if I won I would be sparring against him. I then descended the stairs when called for giving my name I went to the weapons rack and chose 2 short swords accidentally dropping two more onto the floor when picking up and trying to swing all four using the handles together. I realised it could work but the handles were too big to hold overlapping. Tying them together using mana strands creating a double-ended wooden blade it was still 5x lighter than one of the wooden swords I had been practising with and a notification I did not know could occur showed up and I was ecstatic.

Skill upgrade notice:

Novice Dual wielding mastery has evolved into a beginner skill double bladed dual wielding but mana manipulation has upgraded for free due to the creation of an original skill:

After dual wielding was not enough a human of age 5 has invented this skill to have more angles of offence and defence you now get a 10% boost to damage using a two-bladed weapon in a single hand and 5% extra if dual wielding. This bonus also applies to the second weapon

New skill available: mana threads

Due to mana manipulation being used to bond items you may now solidify these strands into threads which will hold objects easily (prerequisite for mana puppetry)

I decided I would check how strong the next opponent was if I was sure of a victory easily I would test out the new fighting style. I faced my opponent I believe his name was Manju. Using identify due to him being below my level I could see a lot more information on him

Name

Manju Arius

Race

Wood Elf:

An elf which will always have at least 50% affinity with nature and life.

Level

6 rank 0

Relationship to you

Neutral schoolmate

I felt that I would succeed in this fight easily so decided to test out my new weapon. Hearing 'go' shouted I jumped towards Manju and swung for his head. Usually, with only one blade in my hand, the attack would have been easily hitting him. However, the second blade increased the momentum on the blade and the slash cut short. I saw an incoming strike but could not move the larger blade quick enough to block receiving the first point against me. Realising my trouble was coming from not taking into account the torque I tried to slowly curve the attack to continue the movement into a new form of the katas I already knew. With this adaption there was a lot less going wrong I could keep up with Manju using only technique and natural body strength. Lessening the effort I put in my muscles and felt the new weapon flow. Looking at Manju I could see he was enjoying this fight however it was time to end it. [Mana infusion] using what I saw from earlier I used mana on my feet to speed up. Spinning the blades in my hands I struck Manju with both sets of blades gaining 4 points before hearing cease from Rufus. The last 6 fighters of the male fights were average at best from the looks of it however they may have hidden their talents.

At the end of the first round, 12 fighters were to be matched in round 2.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Myrrha POV

Walking back to the weapon rack I remove the mana holding the swords together and replace the swords. A notification opens.

experience points required for next level added to stats page due to the first victory against an adversary

Thinking back, I realised that I, in fact, had never won a spar before due to my mother and father not going easy on me. Sitting waiting for the next fight to begin, The 2 students up next to fight walked to the arena. remembering Jerry from the first fight of the day. He was a nunchuck user who focused on technique. I appreciated this way of thinking, I believe that having strength and speed but no technique will lead to a loss. The second fighter was number 4. He approached the arena empty-handed. I imagined this was going to be an interesting match. The match began with Jerry moving towards number 4. 4 stood there and waited for the attack. All of a sudden he whips out his arm, catching the nunchuck and proceeding to palm strike Jerry in the chest. As he moved away he turned and shouted to the healer. I was stunned Jerry had gone pale and just dropped. The healer required 5 minutes to heal Jerry. After recovering Jerry bows and surrenders as the fighters leave the arena many of the students crowd student 4 and obviously ask him what he did. I chose to ask Jerry.

“Hello” I greeted Jerry. “Hey, do I know you. Shouldn’t you be over with Kingsby trying to be pally with him” asked Jerry I replied “no, you don’t know me, I am Myrrha. I just wanted to know what happened. May I try to read the difference in your mana? Also, what did you feel as he hit you “ “I’m sure you’ll find nothing as just a beastmancer but you may try”. Checking his mana flow by sensing the mana specifically in his body. I had been wanting to try this for a while, I tried to manipulate the strands in his body and tested how far away I could do this from him. It turned out as soon as I remove my hand the ability to do so ceases to exist. I then check my mana and try cutting my finger with a mana blade and noticed a change in the mana in my hand. After adding mana strands to attach the strands back together a notification appeared

New skill accessible:

Mana healing:

Realign mana strands in the body to increase health points MP cost: 5 times the damage needed to be healed

“Sorry Jerry I can’t see what he did to you, he must have given you a paralysis debuff or something.” , “that’s right Myrrha I got slapped with a paralysis debuff and I felt he deserved the win. Now if that is all I want to sit down and by the way it is Lord Jeremy to you.”

This conversation led me to decide he was a nasty boy. He did not deserve my kindness. By the time I had finished talking it was number 10 and number 13 to fight in round two. They were fairly average but quite equally matched, the fight went on for longer than I expected before 13 began to tire. it was only due to that which caused 10 to get the 3 hits in and allowing him to win. I made a reminder to invest time into keeping fit. this proved that the 6 basic stats and peoples skills were not everything in a battle. Arriving at the arena I made sure to check my mana was full. using it earlier when I didn't need to was risky but mana healing will be a useful ability to have. Walking to the weapons rack I decided the speed aspect of the double ended swords was not quick enough. To improve on this I decided to pick up Nodachi shaped swords to increase the swing speed. I arranged it so the second blade pointed away from my arm as to not hurt myself. Taking a few practise swings again. With the new Nodachi swords I was a good amount faster I felt good for thinking of this idea

Due to solving a problem +5 to wisdom attribute

I then stepped into the arena and used [identify] to check him out this time very little was shown

name

Caspian LeBlanc

level 8

rank 0

race

blue draconian

I was not sure I could win against him and his spear but before I could ready myself to tactically advance I heard his voice say to Rufus something that rather upset me. “Sir if I must fight this weakling at least allow me a proper way to fight. I wish for a real battle. One in which surrender or death are the only options”. I felt relieved when Rufus said no but decided I did not like this Caspian fellow. I simply said may we begin. Rufus then began his 3 to 0 countdown. I wait for his movement while observing the movements in mana he creates. Suddenly he jumps at me and I’m not quick enough to dodge his attack. He hits my side, the surprise is that it cuts me. I was paying too much attention to his movements and forgot he could have skills. I turned to Rufus and asked if that was allowed, to cut the opponent as he had, he said yes. I felt it was time to even the playing field. He was obviously mainly a melee user so had no way to stop an attack I had been working on, I was not sure if I could do it in practice. It would definitely use a lot of my mana but I could get 3 hits and show him not to look down on me. Show them all to not look down on me. Mainly I used it because I knew he would be hurting afterwards. Readying my attack I place both arms behind my back and ready for his next charge. Walking forward building mana around every joint. attaching threads to the areas I planned to strike. He attacks. I swing my left front blade enhanced by mana to sever the end of the spear giving him no weapon rotating to strike his shin with the right-hand blade, feeling the bone shatter and kicking the other joined sword. Using a very lightly enhanced edge to strike his spine I realise it is 3 hits but I want to finish the combo. As he falls I rotate the right blade in my hand at his elbow hard enough to stun the arm I have a hunch if I can get 5 points before Rufus calls a halt to my fight I will gain more points in the other quest. I use the thread that was attached to his calf shortening it and covering the tip with a large amount of mana it rips through the calf and he falls to the floor. Crouching down I whisper into his ear “now who is the weakling.” Walking back to the stands I watched as the healer went to fix Caspian. while I went behind the stands and threw up. Although I wanted to hurt him I did not know that it would feel so icky to make him so hurt. I made a decision to try to not cause needless injuries. For defeating Prince Caspian you are awarded 300 experience points

Name

Myrrha faun

Absorption

10%

Class

Monstermancer

Level 1 rank 0

Skill points available

1

Hp

250/250

Mana

1000/1000

HP regeneration

0.2% per second

Mana regen

0.35 % per second

Level

10 rank 0

Titles

A first-year student in the royal school of excellence

Attribute points left

0

Strength

40

Intelligence

200

Agility

50

Wisdom

35

Dexterity

70

Luck

5

Skill list

Double Bladed Dual Wielding mastery beginner level 4

Mana manipulation beginner level 1

Mana sight Novice level 9

Mana infusion Novice level 6

Mana weapons Novice level 2

Mana stealth Novice level 1

Tame Novice level 1

Command Novice level 1

Creature tongue Novice level 1

Identify Novice level 3

Mana Healing novice level 2

Affinities

Fire1%

Water1%

Earth1%

Air1%

Life5%

Death5%

Light 1%

Darkness 1%

Myrrha POV

Watching the next match, I realised that although they were evenly matched they were both much faster than I could keep up with. This led me to decide that until my next turn I would train my skill levels to as high as I could in the time allowed, specifically the double-bladed dual wielding. Along with that boost the experience boost from doing a large amount of training pushed me into level 11 I knew I could just overtrain it to gain the next rank but I wanted to use elemental mana. I could see myself controlling fire and water, shooting wind blades and summoning earth spikes. I would be unstoppable. I realised after actually trying the skill that I was an idiot. No elemental mana was anywhere in sight. I did not understand the reason for this and added it to the list of things to ask my parents when I return home. As it approached my turn I realised I was against number 20 who I was yet to see fighting. Identifying him I seen his name as Damon and his level was a staggering 20 I decided I would attempt to fight him but if I felt overwhelmed I would surrender. He was an unarmed fighter it seemed. Arriving at the arena I could see that the crowd was expecting me to lose. This bothered me but I understood. He was likely to be much better than me in combat I believed him to have been hunting to raise his level. My parents did not want to do this with me as they did not wish to risk my life for early levels. Prepared to try and compete I waited for the countdown.

“3...2...1 GO“ he pounced at me and I blocked his punch but his leg struck out. I felt my leg take the hit and swung my blade at where I believed his leg should be. Of course, his leg was no longer there and he had jumped and delivered a kick to my side and as I felt my body move to the side from the impact his heel hit my chest and I flew backwards. I didn’t even have time to surrender in 3 hits he’d taken 170 HP from me I heard “halt” and a healer came running. I was enveloped in a green light that healed me and could walk back to the stands. Before this, I walk to Damon and bow saying I enjoyed the fight. As I walk away I realise I still underestimated him. He was very good, but still, nothing compared to mother. I should have observed the fights previous to me but my opportunity was taken by asking nasty jerry about his fight. I would learn from this mistake. But now I was out. And looking at the time realised it was only one hour left before it was time to go home. I knew that tomorrow more classes were scheduled but every day the training grounds class would be on the cards. As I left the training area I got a notification

Quest: test one completed

well done you reached round 3 nearly getting you a shot at the final. Due to being in the last 6, we award you 3000 experience points and 3 skill points also, for gaining 2 extra points in a match you will be rewarded in future

Level up x 2

I would save the skill points but I now had 35 wisdom. It turned out, wisdom had very little effect on any of my stats screen. It allowed quicker skill levelling and quicker thinking though. I was happy about that. As I approached the school exit mother was already there to collect me. As we walked back to our home I began to ask my question about affinities and elemental mana. Mother replied to my question about affinities explaining that affinities were increased by cycling mana throughout the body. Using elemental mana would increase the affinity with that element. The difficulty came from acquiring the elemental mana in the first place, which is where the elegem came into play. It releases elemental mana for use by the owner. Mother told me that father would show me the process when I arrived home. Most people would go to natural abundances of the mana fire being a volcano. Water by the sea. Earth deep underground and air mana is most difficult as you must be high in the atmosphere. Other affinities also can be raised in similar ways such as life affinity in a place of healing or birth of children. Death affinity in graveyards. There are stories of affinities such as blood and time but they are legends and very few people believe them to be true. Arriving home I went straight to father who proceeded to explain something mother had not. “You see son, once someone’s affinity reaches a certain level they can emit elemental mana strands purposefully, similar to an elegem. I am lucky to be at that level in fire affinity. If you activate mana sight you will be able to see what I mean.” Doing as I was told I watched as father created red strands of mana. “Using these strands I can create fire spells. The next milestone is being able to create mana strands pure enough to be cycled to increase other people’s affinity for that element. It comes at a cost however the mana released this way permanently reduces the affinity of the user if done incorrectly. So if I did this badly I would lose affinity. Each milestone requires more cycled mana and also larger purity of that element. The strongest spells require the purest mana that is why high levelled elegems are worth a fortune I myself carry a Superior elegem to use my spells. The elegem go up in the ranks, Bad, OK, Average, Good, Excellent, Superior, Pure and Perfect. The one in your sword is an average Rank gem.”

I asked father how elegems were created he explained that it required the mana cores of monsters to be crushed and combined. Once enough mana core powder was put together a spell must be cast on the powder. The stronger the spell used, the stronger the gem will become.

After this explanation, I collected my spell blade and looked at the strands near it. Sure enough, multi-coloured strands were emitted. I saw the red ones which were fire element as seen created by father deep blue I guessed were water. The rest I would cycle and check which affinities grew. Of course, the most important question was how do I cycle the mana. Questioning father he explained I had to wrap the mana strands of my body in the elemental strands that the elegem created then cycle it around my body afterwards I must release the used strand out into the atmosphere it would have lost the elemental glow and otherwise would cause my affinity to increase less quickly after trying this I realised it was not difficult but it took a long time to increase my affinities however before I went to bed for that day I found that a dark grey colour strand was a death strand, green is life, silver is air and brown is earth. White and black connected to light and dark respectively.

Name

Myrrha faun

Absorption

10%

Class

Monstermancer

Level 1 rank 0

Skill points available

2

Hp

250/250

Mana

500/500

HP regeneration

0.2% per second

Mana regen

0.45 % per second

Level

13 rank 0

Titles

First-year student in the royal school of excellence

Attribute points left

0

Strength

40

Intelligence

200

Agility

50

Wisdom

45

Dexterity

70

Luck

5

Skill list

Double Bladed Dual Wielding mastery beginner level 4

Mana manipulation beginner level 1

Mana sight Novice level 9

Mana infusion Novice level 6

Mana weapons Novice level 2

Mana stealth Novice level 1

Tame Novice level 1

Command Novice level 1

Creature tongue Novice level 1

Identify Novice level 3

Mana Healing novice level 2

Affinities

Fire 2%

Water 2%

Earth 2%

Air 2%

Life 6%

Death 6%

Light 2%

Darkness 2%

Chapter 6

Waking up I noticed I had another day of school to deal with. I was upset I couldn’t win yesterday but I was ready to learn to be better. I decided to take my dimension bag with me including my spell blade. Arriving at school I travelled to the classroom we used yesterday and sat down. This time it was a class on how to create spells. The teacher was Mrs Kern. Obviously, there was a gap where affinities were explained during which time I practised my mana weapon manipulation to novice level 5 I felt like some skills raised quicker than others by a large margin.

Eventually, she stopped talking about affinities and told us how to create spells. “Mana can create spells in two ways. Condensing mana strands into a small point can create an effect this is the most brute force method. This is used by melee based fighters to create effects on the weapons or moving the strands into patterns can create more versatile effects. This is used by magic-based combat classes to create a better range of the spells. I will now show you the difference. Please activate mana sight and watch what I do first I will use one of the second types called barrier”. She waited for us to activate mana sight, she then begun to create a crisscross wall of strands with slight holes. “As you can see if you switch between mana sight and normal sight you will see a barrier has been placed where the strands have been placed around me. The tighter the crosses the stronger the barrier, I did this to show you the first type. Please watch with mana sight.” Again watching with mana sight I saw the teacher emit fire mana and condense it into a point moving away from the point and soon an explosion was emitted. “as you can see a more volatile reaction occurred due to this” anyone with an affinity higher than 10 % please head to the training arena otherwise please increase your affinity with a chosen element using elegems from this bag” as she said this she produced a bag. “Anyone with a novice only level of mana sight and manipulation please practice this and anyone with one or none of these skills please report to classroom B to learn these skills”. As people began to filter out to their appointed places I looked in the bag and could not see any colours my elegem did not emit. I needed to check with the teacher on something.

“Mrs Kern I was wondering what grade these elegems are. I only ask due to me having an elegem in a weapon I own and if these gems were lower I would just use my own”. “How many elements does your elegem hold?” I replied 8. “I will inform you that there are over 20 elements in that bag. If your mana sight is only beginner you will only see 10 elements total. Each elemental affinity has a rank similar to skills all are above novice 10 are beginner 20 are basic 40 are intermediate 80 are advanced and the rest are master. I believe there are higher skill levels and affinities but nobody has reached that level anyway I will find a gem that you may keep until you reach a level that you have finished using it.” Giving me a gem that I see no elemental mana emitted from I store it in my bag. “And in answer to your question the gems in the bag are ok rank but I advise you use one of the gems that emit an element your gem does not have.” I rechecked the bag and found that there was a slightly darker green mana emitted from a gem. Taking this gem I sat and cycled the mana when I checked my affinities I had gained nature to 1%. The whole day was devoted to doing this and when I arrived home I used my spell blade to increase my other affinities by one percent and went to sleep. When I awoke I again picked up my dimension bag and went to school. When I arrived I was taken to the training arena and was taught where my swordplay was going wrong. The whole class was given a one on one trainer from the higher year groups, every so often Rufus would give a better set of advice. By the end of the day, I raised 2 levels in my double bladed dual wielding skill. The days continued like this until my affinity reached 5% at that point it took an extreme amount of time to even raise it one point the death and life affinities were significantly easier but I wanted all 9 of my affinities to be equal it was after one month that I tried using my spellblade’s element strands to create a spell. first, as Mrs kern did, I created a barrier and gained the skill for it. The stronger the barrier the more mana required. Next, I tried to condense only fire strands it created the explosion as with Mrs kern albeit a smaller sized one, the skill for this was called explosion. Next, I used 50% water and 50 % fire it created pretty much a smoke bomb but it changed the skill explosion

explosion can now be used with different quantity and types of elements the more different elements used the more mana will be required in total

I then spent a part of my time after school experimenting with different combinations. I wrote them down in a journal

Water + fire=smoke bomb

Element +air= element tornado

Fire + earth= lava eruption

Water + earth = mud bomb

These four were the 4 I found to work the other combinations I feel were either too high levelled or required an extra element. It was 2 months before I was 10% affinity in all 9 of my affinities and could use the elements without using an elegem. I gained skills called manipulation in all of my affinities. After I reached novice level 9 in all 9 they merged and evolved into elemental manipulation, this was a choice which popped up asking if I would invest 4 points to evolve it in this way. It would then allow all affinities that reach 10% to be affected by this skill. There was a skill called spell creation that I gained which allowed spell creation using less mana. My parents were back to working as adventurers during the days. Father also showed me some spells that I could use.

It was after another quarter of a year that test number two was issued. It was the same as the first one but this time only magic was to be used. A barrier would be erected around us. We could create another to protect us but the original barrier served as a point if it was destroyed you lose. I had been training hard enough to level heavily and was now level 23 and used skill points on the upgrades of skills or new skills I felt were important

Most of the students were specialised into one affinity, I had 9 and could manipulate all spells of beginner level. I felt confident

Name

Myrrha faun

Absorption

10%

Class

Monstermancer

Level 1 rank 0

Skill points available

5

Hp

1250/1250

Mana

2300/2300

HP regeneration

0.6% per second

Mana regen

0.47 % per second

Level

23 rank 0

Titles

First-year student in the royal school of excellence

Attribute points left

0

Strength

60

Intelligence

250

Agility

100

Wisdom

60

Dexterity

70

Luck

5

Skill list

Double Bladed Dual Wielding mastery beginner level 9 (upgradable)

Mana manipulation beginner level 9 (upgradable)

Mana sight beginner level 9 (upgradable)

Mana infusion beginner level 6

Mana weapons novice level 9 (upgradable)

Mana stealth Novice level 1

spell creation Beginner level 9 (upgradeable)

elemental manipulation Beginner level 9

Tame Novice level 1

Command Novice level 1

Creature tongue Novice level 1

Identify beginner level 9

Mana Healing novice level 2

Affinities

Fire 10%

Water 10%

Earth 10%

Air 10%

Life 10%

Death 10%

Light 10%

Darkness 10%

Nature 10%

Spells Available: Barrier, elemental barrier, elemental explosion, elemental bullet, smoke bomb, elemental tornado, mud bomb, lava eruption,

Chapter 7

right now I was preparing for the second test .it was explained that it would be only magic allowed to be used or buffing skills the rewards would be similar to the combat class as the contender advances the rewards will be increased exponentially. This time the victory will be the breaking of a shield supplied by advanced students and teachers. breaking one of them would be a victory. they would be breakable by any magic strong enough to reasonably defeat an opponent. both barriers should be enough to stop any accidents

I was sitting waiting for the magic duels to begin. Since my number was 2 so I was first up. This time it was run by Mrs kern so she was the one to shout out that number one and two should please attend the arena. There were only 10 people eligible as you had to of created over 3 spells and have an affinity of over 10% in an element due to it not being strength based battles females were included in this we could dodge but no melee fighting. Due to there being 3 months where students were meant to have time to achieve this but the rest of the students either slacked off or trained in other ways.

My first match was a girl called Esmerelda Identifying her I found she was very weak in levels but she seemed confident. She had a right to be because as soon as the match began she caused an earth spike to shoot from the ground. Using my mana sight I started watching how she was doing the spell and shocked her when I copied it, however, I put a flame tornado behind her and so as she jumped away from the spike she flew into the tornado. the tornado was lifting her up and damaging her with the flames. As her barrier broke I cancelled the spell and caught her out of the air. Landing fine and putting her on the ground.

Returning to my seat, I decided that in the next match I would try using a combo of elements on the spike shape also after watching the other competitors I learned a few more spells but didn’t have a good understanding of the spells to customise them to be more useful. the most impressive was actually the loser of the second match, she had a bad matchup as she used a predominantly water skill set against a lightning based opponent every time she sent an attack it would be used to conduct his attacks faster and inevitably beat the barrier

It was soon my turn again and my matchup was against a guy that I'd seen use mainly fire and a little bit of earth I felt that if he tried to use earth spells I could counter them and the fire I could use my own barriers against. I should be fine so I walk towards the arena and prepare for the match. As the match begins I see my opponent manipulating flame mana and decide to use a water barrier in a dome around his back. Slowly building it around him, until he begins to try and use the spell. At which time I close the barrier around him and the fire spell I believe to be fireball collides with my barrier then using the strands from the barrier I create water bullets to pummel him breaking the barrier around him however this uses a lot of my mana. Less brute force seems the way forward but he is better than I thought he would be hand erects a wall of earth to stop the bullets, throwing more fireballs at me I combated it by throwing waves at the projectiles and eventually overwhelming him.the barrier broke and I was into the finals.

After the fight against the fireball thrower, it was the final fight. I expected the next opponent to be strong. Due to it being the final round it was implied but he did skip a round so I was less worried. I was wrong to dismiss him he was the elf that had 50% affinity with nature. The match started with a roots attack on my ankle I used a flame to burn it and got to work constructing a fire barrier around my legs and working up, however, during the time I was attempting this a spriggan had been sent to attack. A spriggan is a plant creature that can be very strong. Luckily for me, he did not know how to create a very powerful version and I could use explosion on it to destroy it. By the time I had dealt with the spriggan I was ¾ through building my barrier. it was then that he let loose his trump card he sent what must have been his strongest spell. In front of me was a treant, a living moving tree. moving away I sent a lava eruption spell at it. it caught fire but not enough to kill it. Thankfully my flame barrier was finished, it took half of my mana but it was strong. I then tried to control the earth to dig below the ground knowing the treant was strongest above ground I still had to dodge roots but I could shoot out of the ground because of the acceleration I had underground. In midair, using the last of my mana to dig a spike pit beneath my opponent, I filled it with the fire spikes. He did not expect it and fell to the spikes his barrier saved his life but it was my win.

Test 2 complete

Rewards: free upgrade to any magic based skill and one average rank elegem containing 1 basic element

I chose to upgrade mana manipulation as it the most used and I hadn't gotten a breakthrough out of that and mana sight I felt a way to control mana better is the most logical option next I walked back to the entrance and headed home keeping mana sight activated. After seeing my mother I begin walking home with her on the way I pull out my spell blade and begin cycling my elemental mana again. I realised that my main problem was that I could not get skill points fast enough. I decided I needed to figure out how to combine more skills to save on spending. For the next 3 months, I manage to perfect train mana sight. This happens when you continue to use a skill until it naturally upgrades. after I achieved this I did the same to some of my other skills. School life continued during this time but due to everyone now being above 10 % in at least one element, it was just combat training. I, however, I had gained 25% affinity with 9 of the beginner elements and poison which was a basic element. I had bottlenecked here and knew I would require help in reaching higher affinities. After those 3 months, the last test was issued. A full combat tournament

Name

Myrrha faun

Absorption

10%

Class

Monstermancer

Level 1 rank 0

Skill points available

5

Hp

1150/1150

Mana

2300/2300

HP regeneration

0.6% per second

Mana regen

0.6 % per second

Level

23 rank 0

Titles

First-year student in the royal school of excellence

Attribute points left

Strength

60

Intelligence

250

Agility

100

Wisdom

60

Dexterity

70

Luck

5

Skill list

Double Bladed Dual Wielding mastery beginner level 9 (upgradable)

Mana sight basic level 5

Mana infusion beginner level 6

Mana weapons novice level 9 (upgradable)

Mana stealth Novice level 1

spell creation Beginner level 9 (upgradeable)

elemental manipulation basic level 5

Tame Novice level 1

Command Novice level 1

Creature tongue Novice level 1

Identify beginner level 9

Mana Healing novice level 2

Affinities

Fire 25%

Water 25%

Earth 25%

Air 25%

Life 25%

Death 25%

Light 25%

Darkness 25%

Nature 25%

Poison 25%

Spells Available: Barrier, elemental barrier, elemental explosion, elemental bullet, smoke bomb, elemental tornado, mud bomb, lava eruption, earth spike. Pit, Death scythe, healing burst, summon skeleton

Chapter 8

As before the rules were given in a blue box

Test 3:

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Now that you all have the ability to compete, it's time for the last test. The matches along with the comments of your teachers will decide your course in this school. so far it is all to play for. The top 10% of the year group will advance to adventurer classes, and the middle 80% will be placed into a different course. The bottom 10% will be sent to a different school. This test is a bit different the first two combatants will enter the arena the loser will be teleported to the stands and the winner will be recovered to the state they were in at the start of that match. Then the next opponent will be sent to the arena. The number of wins will decide your place based on a system of wins to lose ratio this means the last fighter need only win once to get 100% but he has to be strong enough to win against a very strong person. The skill level of combat will be assessed also so just losing may not condemn you. The match themselves will be barrier based. a strong barrier will be placed over your body. If your barrier breaks it is your loss. After this announcement, your place in the fights will appear to you shortly

you are fighter 28

Working it out it meant I had 3 fights to win before I would get 1st place but I could get last just as easily. I hoped that my affinities would help I had one last skill to upgrade I needed to level it to basic to let me use it to the fullest but up to beginner level 9 would at least help in these fights the rest had evolved naturally by which mana weapons had disappeared to join elemental manipulation as it classed the spikes and such as weapons. the rest that were at novice eventually jumped from use and as I used mana stealth at all times to train it. it had evolved into a skill called imperceptible presence and the cost had become much smaller I was planning on using mainly 3 or 4 of my skills obviously double bladed dual wielding which now that it was at basic was increasing my damage by 20% using just one double blade sword and 35% for using two. The next was mana manipulation which allowed the use of basic and lower elements same with mana infuse this was the skill I was hoping to level infusing mana into my weapon would give beneficial boosts however some elements would, in fact, be useless or too lethal. Death and poison were to overkill as death mana would destroy cells and poison would incur lasting damage. Fire would burn the wooden swords and water would make the wood weak. I had some plans for the others though. Mana manipulation had combined with elemental manipulation but it would be used to combat a magic based fighter or invent spells on the spot to fight. the last skill was mana sight but that had become a constant use skill luckily this morning I had gained a second title luckily titles were possible to toggle on and off when needed

mana sight use for extended time period has created a title :

Mana eyes mutant

Due to extended use of mana sight your eyes have mutated. You may now leave mana sight turned on for no mana cost

While watching the fights continue I infused and dismissed elements from my hand to raise my skill level. the most notable ones were the charmancer who made the opponents surrender but unluckily after 10 fighters the earth spike girl I first fought defeat her charms and won but went on to lose 5 fights later. From then I built a barrier around me using the exact amount of mana that I would regain in time and so I would restart each match with barriers in place due to beginning the tournament in that way. Fighter 21 was Caspian and he continued to win until my turn

My turn began with a fight against Caspian. It went similar to the first. He attacked with his spear and I used air infusion to sever the end of his spear. He tried to blast me with a flame spell but while he formed it I imploded it and stuck him in an earth prison. I don’t understand why he is so high and mighty acting. he underestimates people who are not of noble descent. The next fighter, number 29 was a small boy using just a staff, each swing he would add elemental mana to his staff. He had excellent control.i was unsure how to combat his To the point that I could not manipulate the enhancements. He had made the staff impossible to break with nature magic. Also being an elf with 50% nature affinity gave him the ability to manipulate the staff. I had to block many times before I managed to force him back onto an earth spike that he had not noticed was there. His barrier shattered and he teleported to his seat. The last fighter was a fighter I'd hoped was beaten earlier.

Damon bowed. As did I. as the countdown finishes I infuse my legs with air mana causing mini tornadoes to form. The tornados lifted me from the ground and I could use manipulations to speed me up and glide around the arena. I aim to pierce Damon with the blade. He blocks it with a hand infused with earth mana. As he blocks I infuse a large amount of fire and earth mana into the tip sacrificing the blade to create a lava blade but damaging his hand enough to break his earth infusion I realise I need to invent a new way to use the second double blade. Using mana threads I swing it around then I use mana infusion to infuse the threads with air mana causing the wires to become razor sharp. I watch to make sure no barrier is erected, swinging the new weapon at Damon it wraps him up and his barrier breaks.

Quest complete you came first in test 3 earning you a token to have a weapon of your design crafted by a high-class blacksmith please deliver your design to the headmaster

Quest complete: the competition

The competition of year one is complete and you placed high enough to get access to the adventurer course. This consists of 10 years of survival, combat and magic training. Each year a tournament will be held to showcase talent. You will compete against beasts of increasing difficulty until you lose against a beast at which point a team will enter to save your life. Rewards will be given for each beast defeated but for now, enjoy your summer break

With this, I went home and begun working on my weapon design.

Chapter 9

Walking home I decided to ask my parents for help with the design, I imagined they would know the best types of weapon to match my style. I explained to mother that I felt that I did not need a full new weapon. I would like to use the elegem from my spell blade the metal I would like to be used in some way also.

Mother explained she found it sweet that I would like to keep the sword. she then, however , explained that the weapon that I would get. will most likely be of a much higher quality she had heard that the last weapon made for a winner of a tournament was known to have been used by a man that went on to be known as the cart. he would plough through people and send them swiftly on. if you really want it incorporated we can design that into your weapon. we got my father to help, he offered that I could add the elegem to the handle of a double scythe the metal of the spell blade can be used as the handle. So after an hour or so of conversation, we decided my best option would be a double ended scythe. The elegems would actually go into the scythe heads, the design would make it look like the scythes were watching as it hit the enemy. The metal being black with the metal of the spell blade would now be teeth on the scythe they would be aesthetic only and look like bone teeth. The scythe handles would be the length of a normal scythe but just with two scythe blades attached. I gave the design to the headmaster and he said the metal to create it would require a long time to fund. To get the weapon paid for I must complete the beast killing quests in my second year. This meant that I would receive the weapon in my third year of school. he, however, advised that instead of using scythes I use a blade called a shotel on one side and an urumi on the other side while applying two elegems each into the shotel blades. the idea of using a scythe was not viable practically as it requires a swinging and hooking motion. the shotel, however, would still have the option to curve and attack past a shield but straight enough to allow a chopping ability, the urumi would add versatility allowing for a much more fluid weapon.

Later when I returned home I asked my parents to get two of the heavy wooden weapons they had made for my training before I went to school. instead of just swords however the weapons were modelled as what I had ordered using vines to simulate the urumi on the bottom, however, I didn’t stop there, I asked for weighted clothing. Increasing in weight up to 50Kg extra. The first month of summer I practised the new katas I had invented for the new weapons. The thrusts were adapted to be aimed around obstacles in which to imitate attacking around shields, swings at the legs to immobilise or head swings to decapitate using the shotel or entangle and bleed using the urumi. the beauty of dual wielding is that when using a weapon that has a flaw such as getting caught like the urumi the other one can be used to maintain the offensive. The next months were spent adding weight to both the weapons and the clothing as I sparred with mother. I realised that the katas were not good enough. They were too based on the sword I used to use. I began from scratch in my fighting style I had no time to train mana based skills. Over the second month, a new skill was formed after the double-bladed dual wielding skill hit level 9 basic.

Double Bladed Dual Wielding mastery evolved. Due to your weaponry changing the skill has evolved into a Unique skill called exotic double sided dual wielding.

exotic double-sided dual wielding:

Using a single exotic weapon will boost your damage by 30% a double sided weapon boosts your attack speed by 10% a second exotic weapon boosts your attack speed and damage by 15% if that is also double sided it will boost your attack speed by another 30%

This skill was slow to level but boosted the percentage by 2% of every way of wielding the weapons per level. By the fourth month, I began adapting for four-legged creatures and creatures of different sizes. By the end of month five, I had gained 40 strength and 30 agility, this came from the weighted clothing. While sparring with mother I still don’t manage to hit but I get close. I was also training in dodging spells that father would throw at me. I believed mother to be the strongest but it turned out father was much more adept at offence. Mother could defend easily but father was very strong he was of the opinion of offence is the best defence. During the last week, I sparred both mother and father at the same time.

After that, I spent a month simply reading trying to increase intelligence and especially wisdom then, it was time to return to school.

Chapter 10

The first day of school I was in an assembly that contained children aged 6 to 10. The rest of the class which already had tutors were told to go and see their tutor. we got our tutors assigned to us instead. the teachers lined up and basically chose us similar to a sports team. The purpose of this tutor was to teach the student the ways of surviving being an adventurer, train combat skills, teach herbology, and explain the monsters that the student was likely to encounter. This could be from the quests or in the wilderness. the headmaster did not choose a tutee as he was too busy. mr innerdale chose a few of the more stocky students, obviously favouring the more strength based students who were more suited to the dwarf's teachings. Mrs Kern chose the two elves and the charmancer, I think she was tempted to choose me, but, she wanted the elf who I fought in the last match of the 3rd test. Rufus then chose me with his first pick. I was glad of this due to him being a high-rank adventurer. After meeting him he explained that I would get homework as quests. The first was simply identifying plants.

Quest issued :

Herbology training:

identify the herbs given

He gave me 5 plants and told me those were what I had to identify. I was expected to identify it by trying a small amount, seeing what it did. I thought that was silly. I was going to ask my parents. Next, we went to the training grounds, and he told me that we were to spar and he would give me tips. He knew I used a double blade in both hands so when out of my bag I pulled the new wooden weapons he was surprised. He told me to try my best to land a hit. I swung for his legs. He blocked the swing with his sword. I swung for his head, he stopped my swing before I was passed his hips I tried to swing both shotels at his head and legs at the same time but halt and flick the urumi halves to cause him to have to guard against the fluid weapons, he jumped over the lower swing countered the top swing by stopping the whip based vines and pulling them straight to stop them swinging round to hit him, following this in midair he spun and kicked me in the chest. “This is why you struggle to win without magic, you have no fighting prowess. You are stiff. You are predictable. I will fix that. You use a weapon that is completely new. It should be impossible to predict. You, however, fail the weapon. We will fix that I’m going to tell you the things I'd anticipate, you need to not do those things. Do a different thing. Then you need to anticipate what I’ll anticipate without me telling you. After that, you build on that until you can see the full battle before it starts. There is one man I have met once and only once. He can tell you what is going to happen every single second of the fight. between any two people that are below grade B”

The final thing I had to learn would be magic based. I would have a specific teacher for that. After arriving home that day my parents told me the plants were used in a health and mana potion and eating them is entirely safe. chewing the herbs together gave me the herbology skill. The quest rewards were simply ranking it up to beginner. Looking at the vegetation it was identified. Each time I found something out about the plants it was added to the description. It was 2 months before I had my first beast fight. In those two months, I would spar with Rufus. The first spar he told me his thoughts. every single thing he thought I'd do was what I was going to do. I also had too many giveaways of what I then planned to do.” You give away everything with where your shoulders go and where you look. Here put this on your eyes and sense with your mana. It worked terribly for a week and then I began using my mana to sense everything. This meant I stopped looking where I would swing. The next was learning to feint. I had four weapon options and even my legs that I could attack with even without using mana based weapons.

After that, I could then just watch what Rufus was doing and read where he wanted to block. I learned the movements for what his intentions were during the fight. Then he began to stop telling me and he started to speed up I had to learn to swap intents very quickly but before I could progress very far. my first fight was with a horned rabbit, An F tier creature furry small with a long horn and sharpened teeth. Luckily it was an easy fight and as it jumped at me I skewered it with my shotel in mid-air. Gaining 200 experience and pushing me into level 24 my level speed had slowed down considerably from just training I thought I needed to defeat opponents to begin levelling faster again.

After the two months, I had identified over 50 herbs and my classes begun to incorporate cooking and alchemy giving me skills in those areas also Rufus then explained that every year this would occur the first two months would be plant identification the last 7 months would be all the ways how to use them. The meats would be provided to learn to prepare and cook these meals. As before the training continued. My magic tutor had decided that I was high enough in affinities that just experimenting was all that could help until the next phase. This would begin at age 10, but for now, I should just focus on close ranged combat.so that’s what I did it took 3 months before I figured out that I could use the staff portion of my weapons to vault over Rufus and swing the weapon as I passed overhead it caught him off guard but since I had not practised it went wrong. He told me not to use that technique in a real fight until I was as comfortable in that form as I was standing and fighting. The second monster was a Wolf another F tier creature but it put up a slightly stronger fight. As the wolf pounced I sidestepped and tried to attack. The wooden blade was not strong enough to instantly kill the wolf. It did, however, wind the monster. I took the opportunity to use mana to sharpen the point and collapse the wolf's skull with my blade. This gave me 1000 experience points.

It required until the summer of my second school year to learn how my weapons were meant to work. On my 7th birthday, I got both the weapon from the school and a present from my parents. The present was a similar weapon with opposite colours. I was happy with how quickly the school had created the weapon for me. However, both weapons went away into my bag not to be seen by the public. in my 2 years of knowing about my class being banned, I heard a lot about what would happen if I was found out. I knew that if that happened I would need to go into hiding for as long as I could only returning when I had reached a point of strength that it would require a lot to kill me.

My wisdom over this time had increased to allow my stats to all be over 100. Intelligence was stuck at 260 I felt it would require a breakthrough of some sort before I could naturally increase that. I was extremely happy with being over 100 in all attributes except luck, luck was at 15. Mother said that most children only hit 100 in 2 or 3 statistics at my age.

My school life continued like this. the beasts I had to fight were getting stronger. I started to tell them I was sorry before I beat them this allowed creature tongue to reach basic level. each year my parents would give me a birthday present they had saved up to get me they included things such as an alchemy kit, an automatic gathering knife and an automatic looter. the looter would automatically loot any monster inserted inside the chamber luckily it would shrink down small enough to fit inside my bag. On the year of my 10th birthday, a lot changed, I moved into the second part of adventurer training.

Chapter 11

My first day of the second part of the adventurer classes my stats looked like this

Name

Myrrha faun

Absorption

10%

Class

Monstermancer

Level 2 rank 0

Skill points available

5

Level

level 25 rank 0

Hp

1250/1250

Mana

2500/2500

HP regeneration

1.6% per second

Mana regen

1.1% per second

Level

25 rank 0

Titles

First-year student in the royal school of excellence (in use) mana eyes mutant (in use)

Attribute points left

0

Strength

Strength 160

Intelligence

260

Agility

140

Wisdom

110

Dexterity

110

Luck

15

Skill list

exotic double-sided dual wielding basic level 8

Mana sight basic level 5

Mana infusion basic level

imperceptible Presence level basic level 4

spell creation basic level 7

elemental manipulation basic level 9

Tame Novice level 1

Command Novice level 1

Creature tongue Novice level 1

Identify basic level 7

Mana Healing beginner level 9

herbology Basic level 7

Affinities

Fire 25%

Water 25%

Earth 25%

Air 25%

Life 25%

Death 25%

Light 25%

Darkness 25%

Nature 25%

Poison 25%

Spells Available: Barrier, elemental barrier, elemental explosion, elemental bullet, smoke bomb, elemental tornado, mud bomb, lava eruption, earth spike. Pit, Death scythe, healing burst, summon skeleton, earth prison, poison dart, poison cloud, poison weapon.

The assembly this time directed me to a new tutor the magic tutor from my first 4 years. She was a tall woman called Gemma flinch, she was an elven woman with auburn hair. She looked like a 23-year-old woman, however, I believed her to be over 100 “Ahh it's time for your second set of training. The skills you will learn in the next 5 years will be very powerful when trained. I am a class called auramancer the first skill is a skill called aura manipulation, unless you don’t have meditation yet. It is similar to mana manipulation but it manipulates your aura. Your aura is what some people call killing intent, presence or other such things. It can end a fight in seconds if used correctly and can be used to survey surroundings dependent upon your aura strength. As you use it more your aura will get stronger, and more fluid. This allows for more interesting applications of it. First, do you have meditation”? “no Mrs lynch I do not have meditation” “ it’s actually, miss Lynch, young Myrrha and meditation is quite easy. Calmly relax and feel mana. Draw it into yourself and clear your mind.”

Doing this I gain a skill

Meditation:

Draw mana into the body to increase mana regeneration by 100%. Can only be performed while stationary. Prerequisite for other skill use

Gemma then explained how to sense and manipulate my aura. “your aura is like a 6th sense you just need to learn to use the sense. If you use meditation you should be able to feel your aura around you although due to you having not used it before it will be difficult to find.” It took me 5 hours before I could feel the aura but it gave me a second blue box message. I noticed that aura seemed like a more powerful way to use the presence mother taught me all those years ago. I knew that it had increased in power so hopefully including this aura will help

hidden attribute Aura unlocked. aura will increase the more it is used

Aura manipulation skill available

Aura manipulation:

Use aura to sense or intimidate the world around you.

due to having already used mana to emulate aura this skill is able to evolve when it reaches basic level 9 to incorporate mana to hugely increase the strength

As I stopped meditating Gemma told me I’d done well. She then proceeded to give me a quest to raise my aura attribute above 100. The quest gave me an upgrade to the aura skills to Basic for free. She then sent me home telling me to not return until I had aura at 100.

One hour later I was home and sat training my aura it began at 20. Each Attribute point in Aura gave 1 cm of Aura emitted from the skin. It took a long time to gain more. After one month I had finally reached 100 Aura. My next beast fight was planned for 2 months forward in time. In those two months, I learned to use my aura to sense the world. This was because Gemma gave me a blindfold and told me it would be impossible to take it off until I beat the next beast it also stopped me using mana to sense the world. I thought it would be easy enough. It wasn’t. I walked into everything until I started seeing what my aura was covering. I could only do this while concentrating so as soon as I lost concentration I was blind again. It took until the day of the fight before I could maintain Aura sight subconsciously in the back of my mind. The problem was that I did not know my enemy until I arrived at the arena.

Due to using aura in a way to sense the world and already having the ability to do so using mana as with the aura manipulation skill it will evolve and be enhanced without using a skill point

The words 3,2,1 release the beast was blasted from the crowd. I, of course, knew nothing until the paw hit me in the face. But then I see it. It was a wolf with two heads. One breathed fire and one breathed ice. It jumped back just not out of my Aura Range. The next jump I caught it with the blade of the shotel but only caught the leg of the beast I believed it was a D tier monster called lesser orthos. It was then that I heard it call for “daddy”. I then decided that for the first time I would try and have a conversation with it. I disguised it by trying to send the thoughts through my aura.

“I did not want to fight you human. But how are you communicating”

“I am using my aura to send messages to you. The main thing is we must battle I can try and save you but I will need you to be quick. I will place my staff part of my weapon behind you and throw you out of the arena you must then run back home you must run in that direction”. I point towards the forest

“ ok human I will trust you. I can survive the drop for as high as you can throw me as I can make an ice slide out of my second head. I thank you for sparing me”

It was at this point I hit the orthos and sent it flying out of the arena towards the forest. My blindfold was removed. Gemma told me that I had fought valiantly and deserved my sight back. I was congratulated and from then no more beasts spoke to me in my fights. I continued to train all of my attributes and abilities for the next 5 years. This had not included my affinities. I now had access to more elements but prioritised other areas of advance. In the first year, I learned how to use my aura to mimic all five senses. The second year consisted of learning to change the nature of my aura. I could subdue most of the creatures I was put against using simply my aura after the 3 third year due to learning the way to exert pressure using my Aura. Year 4 contained the last bit of adventurer knowledge. Hiding your aura. It required the opposite of pressure aura and contracting it into your body as much as possible. It was a way to both stealth from monsters that could sense aura and hide your true strength. Year 5 was devoted to planning an adventuring trip. Into the forest, we would either be in a party for it or our tutor would supervise a solo party.

My plan was to collect a monster of each rank between F and C by now my creature tongue reached Basic rank. I had gained extra experience for defeating my beast fight opponents using only my aura. This had pushed my level to 30 and I had increased some of my skills. My attributes reached 200 each. Again intelligence had bottlenecked at 300 after I reached level 25 and begun increasing again after reaching level 30 I decided that my running opinion is that the attribute max was related to my level. Luck still wasn’t doing well I just wrote it off as impossible for me to raise easily. As I went to sleep that night I decided that due to my real plan being to lose the tutor in the forest and begin training in the forest. I would tell my parents my choice of class either they would be appalled and I would have to flee or they would support me and I would have family hopefully when I return. This was my plan because I was still only level 10 in my class level and was strong in enough areas to support myself in the wild. Alas, that was tomorrow’s worries. At the end of my 15 years with the civilised races, my stats were this

Name

Myrrha faun

Absorption

10%

Class

Monstermancer

Level 10 rank 0

Skill points available

2

Level

level 30 rank 0

Hp

1500/1500

Mana

3000/3000

HP regeneration

1.6% per second

Mana regen

1.1% per second

Level

30 rank 0

Titles

First-year student in the royal school of excellence (in use) mana eyes mutant (in use)

Attribute points left

Strength

220

Intelligence

340

Agility

220

Wisdom

200

Dexterity

240

Luck

20

Aura

300

Skill list

exotic double sided dual wielding intermediate level 9

Mana sight intermediate level 8

Mana infusion intermediate level 6

imperceptable Presence level intermediate level 7

spell creation intermediatelevel 7

elemental manipulation intermediate level 9

Tame Novice level 1

Command Novice level 1

Creature tongue basic level 7

Identify basic level 7

Mana Healing beginner level 9

Herbology Basic level 7

mana-enhanced aura manipulation intermediate level 8

Affinities

Fire 25%

Water 25%

Earth 25%

Air 25%

Life 25%

Death 25%

Light 25%

Darkness 25%

Nature 25%

Poison 25%

Spells Available: Barrier, elemental barrier, elemental explosion, elemental bullet, smoke bomb, elemental tornado, mud bomb, lava eruption, earth spike. Pit, Death scythe, healing burst, summon skeleton, earth prison, poison dart, poison cloud, poison weapon.

looking at my stats I realised my stats were high for my age most of the people I was in school with had stats around 200 in 2 or 3 but I was way out in front with all except luck being that high.

Chapter 12

Attending mother and father in the morning. I decided I must tell them quickly and be ready to leave quickly. “Mother, father I have a secret to inform you of but it could put you in a difficult position. My class Is monstermancer. I plan to leave for a long time. I do not plan to be a bad person. Nor will I try and overthrow the government in years to come. If you feel obligated to try and murder me I will understand.”. my parents looked at me and told me this “son we love you we do not think you have a bad bone in your body. The only reason we would hunt you is if you were killing pointlessly.” This relieved me a lot. I explained that I planned to get “lost” in the forest, however, if I see a creature I would like very much to tame I will. Whether Gemma sees it or not. They told me that due to our house being near the forest if needed I could return. They gave me a month’s supply of water and a sewing kit to modify or fix the leather armour that I had gotten for one of the birthday presents. I was taught to tailor very slightly in the short period before I left and then was on my way to school. I had matured in the 5 years. I was 6 foot 2 already my hair had grown to shoulder-length and had flecks of silver. I felt like I had developed a longer length. I realised that nobles were not always actually better than the populace. They just believed they were. Heading to school I thought over the major things I would need to while on my own in the forest. I would have liked to have reached rank 2 or 3 in class and level by the time I returned.

I arrived at school to see Gemma waiting. She had told me I could call her Gemma in the 3rd year of training. Explaining my route through the forest to Gemma she agreed it was a good path to take. The entrance to the forest contained only horned rabbits and I was still only using the wooden weapons but I ploughed through the horned rabbits easily. I then saw a wolf through a bush. I decided now was the best time to test my tame skill knowing it was a tier F monster. I told Gemma I was going to pee and snuck off. I directed my aura at the wolf and released pressure. I then explained I do not wish to hurt it. I then activated tame. Light enveloped the wolf, Five minutes later the wolf shrank into a tattoo before applying itself to my skin. the tattoo was on my lips and looked as if I was a canine baring my fangs and a notification appeared

tame has been used you will now see a list in your status page explaining what creatures you have tamed. Each tamed creature will leave a mark on your skin.

Skill Unlocked:

release:

release a tamed creature

I admired the tattoo and returned to Gemma after using an illusion to change how my lip looked. it was simple enough that it was not noticeable even by Gemma. I proceeded to fight rabbits and taming them when I could get away with it proceeding to release them. This continued until I reached beginner level in tame which allowed the taming of creatures to D tier. it also allowed for the creatures that are stored as tattoos to recover 5% of mana and health per minute At this point, Gemma was slightly curious of why I was disappearing so often.

“I've noticed you taking many toilet breaks I have decided you have 4 hours to finish your hunt or we will leave”

“ I should be able to do that “

I realised I had very little time to "get lost" and continued walking killing tier E creatures. 2 hours later we were deep in the forest and could hear animals that seemed stronger than I could take alone but that is what I needed I needed a fake death. I said I was going to a toilet break again and simply said see you soon. Walking off into the trees I moved towards the noises of the forest creatures speaking to non-hostile creatures in search of a strong creature to fake my death using. Walking for 10 minutes I hid my presence and seeing a defeated Tier B creature called the doombug I placed my wooden scythe beside it as if I had lost it in a fight and continued on my way. I began to realise this forest was very large after the next hour of walking. By now I assumed Gemma had found the wooden scythe. There was a note left with a mana trigger that would destroy the note once read.

Dear Gemma

I have left to journey alone I ask that you do not follow. I will give you the promise that I will return in under 10 years but I must do this. My life has been tailored to be an adventurer I am now going to train and come back a worthy adventurer. I understand this I reckless but it is a necessary evil I leave with you my training weapons please keep it safe as it is sentimental to me. If I perish, please give it to my parents. You may tell the academy I have already died at the hands of a forest creature while I took a bathroom break it was unavoidable and you killed the beast (the beast I left this scythe with).

This note will now be destroyed

I hoped she had listened and not followed but I would not turn back. I was worried about the strength of the creatures around me. I was right to worry. I was pounced upon by a creature from behind. I began to swing my weapon. Stopping as I heard a voice from behind me.

“ we meet again human, and this time the roles are switched.” The only creature I could imagine it to be was the wolf I first tamed. That was until I felt the cold on my neck rather than warm breath.

“orthos from the academy fight?” I asked mainly to myself. “yes it is I and due to your sparing of my life, I will now repay that debt and spare yours. However, these woods are dangerous and if you turn around you will realise I am no longer an orthos I have grown and became a full grown Cerberus. My father is very proud and although he is stronger than me, I refuse to divulge information of his form. He, however, would like to meet you. I could smell you from our home den. When I informed him he commanded me to retrieve you.” I could not be sure if this was luck or misfortune but went along anyway.

Name

Myrrha faun

Absorption

10%

Class

Monstermancer

Level 10 rank 0

Skill points available

2

Hp

1550/1550

Mana

3100/3100

HP regeneration

1.6% per second

Mana regen

1.1% per second

Level

31 rank 0

Titles

First-year student in the royal school of excellence (inactive) mana eyes mutant (in use)

Attribute points left

Strength

220

Intelligence

340

Agility

220

Wisdom

200

Dexterity

240

Luck

20

Aura

300

Skill list

exotic double sided dual wielding intermediate level 9

Mana sight intermediate level 8

Mana infusion intermediate level 6

imperceptable Presence level intermediate level 7

spell creation intermediatelevel 7

elemental manipulation intermediate level 9

Tame beginner level 1

Release

Command Novice level 1

Creature tongue basic level 7

Identify basic level 7

Mana Healing beginner level 9

Herbology Basic level 7

mana-enhanced aura manipulation intermediate level 8

Affinities

Fire 25%

Water 25%

Earth 25%

Air 25%

Life 25%

Death 25%

Light 25%

Darkness 25%

Nature 25%

Poison 25%

Spells Available: Barrier, elemental barrier, elemental explosion, elemental bullet, smoke bomb, elemental tornado, mud bomb, lava eruption, earth spike. Pit, Death scythe, healing burst, summon skeleton, earth prison, poison dart, poison cloud, poison weapon.

===========================================================

Chapter 13

I followed the Cerberus into a den of wolf-shaped creatures of all sizes. Obviously, there was a connection between the base creature and what it may evolve into I used identify on them and they were all over tier B except the pups who were of tier D. During the walk through the den I asked the orthos for his name. He told me that he did not understand what a name was. I felt silly for not realising he would not have a name due to it being a human construction.

“I will give you a name.” I said looking at the orthos, “ you will be called juxta as your elemental abilities are a juxtaposition.” He seemed pleased with this name and sped up towards the centre of the den. I saw more of the same. Wolves, orthos, even a normal dog I thought until it passed wind and shot a flame out its rear. Eventually reaching the pedestal with Juxta’s father residing atop it I understood what kept all the other wolves in place. Using [Identify] I saw the least amount of information I ever had before.

Species Name:demonic canine hydra

Origin:Lesser orthos

Level: ???

Rank: ???

I was worried, to say the least, I had never seen a creature or even heard of one not identifiable. Alas, here I was. To describe the monster I would say imagine the thought of a Cerberus plus 4 heads, it had 7 pairs of multicoloured eyes. Each looked menacing to me I was staring at a creature that I thought had the ability to kill me with a breath. I then spoke

“Hello” this time I spoke in the language of the small orthos hoping that the father would speak the same way

“Hello child, I have sent my child to fetch you so that I may say thank you for allowing him mercy. He was then only a pup and was unlikely to be able to defend himself. Now, however, I would like to ask why you are travelling through our forest.”

At this point, I explained about my class and the history of it. he seemed to become sad when I was explaining the reason his kind are hunted going on to how I had planned this journey from around the age I met Juxta and finishing with my leaving Gemma just hours ago.

“young child I believe you to be of good morals but my task is a large one I will need to test you. You will fight 5 of my subjects, you will be at risk of death, because of this I advise you to offer the same seriousness to your opponents. After you win I will give you your task.

Looking around I saw 5 creatures a normal wolf, a reptile wolf, a winged wolf, a Cerberus and a shadow in the shape of a wolf they had the origin of a normal wolf they were all levels between 13 and 22 but increasing in rank from F to C with shadow wolf being the strongest. I received a notification

quest received:

the alpha has tasked you with defeating five of his pack

Failure: death

Reward: Exp, next quest in the chain

For the first time I pulled out my real weapons due to them being stored in a void dimension for so long the elegems had adapted and gained void elemental mana, however, the first thing I did was use my aura to pacify the normal and reptile wolf, the other three shook off the aura. The winged wolf was my first real opponent reigning my aura inside myself ready to use to mimic senses. I walked over to the wolf and was ready.

The wolf flew at me and I defended with the handle of my weapon. Applying earth mana to the weapon meant it worked like a shield. the wolf tried to fly back up but I conjured an earth wall above. The wolf was ready and kicked off towards me scratching my cheek. I then grasped the wolf and created a cage around us. Letting go I manipulated the earth cage to allow me to leave but keep the wolf trapped. I turned to the alpha and told him I would prefer to not fight the next two as I do not want to kill either of them but I cannot beat them without hurting if not killing them. He informed me that usually at the age they had reached they would have to fight other pack members to the death anyway. Feeling better now that I had heard this I was steeled to fight the Cerberus.

Stepping up to the Cerberus I tried telling it that if it feels beaten if it lies on its back I will accept that it has lost and not fight anymore. It seemed to understand. Stepping back I readied myself. The Cerberus pounced and seemed to be going for a paw slice. I aimed to guard but it breathed ice from its leftmost head, it froze my arm and stopped my guard. the Cerberus then struck me in the chest my hp was down to 80% but I caught on to the way it wanted to fight. I wrapped myself in all affinity barriers I could and used poison on my blades aiming for a paralysis poison. By now he had swung round and was returning for a second attack but I was ready swinging both of the urumi in a storm of blades using wind mana I elongated the wind created and sharpened them into wind blades sending them towards the beast it tried the flame breath and it was like water off a duck’s back but my strikes hit the Cerberus flew through the air and it crashed to the floor. I quickly secured it to the floor using earth poles and had a spike millimeter from its throat and spine. the Cerberus was beaten

Looking at the 5th opponent I could see I would have no chance at beating it with non-lethal force. Then a thought struck me. What if it was just coated in mana. Reactivating the mana sight I saw that the darkness was emitting mana but only enough to be a small amount of it. Understanding this I chose to fight fully until I knew I could pacify it. Beginning the fight I went full offensive. Swinging for its head but missing. There was a moment where it faded and it disappeared. Expanding my aura I sensed the shadow wolf waiting til the last moment I dropped to my back and struck it on its side with the blade of my shotel while below the wolf I absorbed a portion of the dark mana coating the wolf. This was an ability of having both light and dark affinity. the ability to remove existing effects of mana of either type. I could only do very little of this but enough to open a gap in its dark defences. Next time it passed I used the paralysis method and due to it having only a normal wolf's defence in this area it landed in a very similar position to the Cerberus and a gaping wound in its side I walked to it and since the wolf was in a much weaker position when I used tame took only 30 seconds to create the bond. This allowed it to heal as it was drawn into me.

Quest complete:

Bonus: increased relation with alpha due to non-lethal defeats of the opponents

Bonus experience equal to the amount that would have been given for defeat of all 5 creatures

Reward: experience

This pushed me to level 35. After seeing what the shadow wolf had done I tried to do a similar thing with all of the elements I had it gave me a spell called elemental cloak. The effect was protection and a bonus effect element dependent.

And finally, the alpha told me my real task

“ you have proven yourself by defeating the 5, however, I believe you killed one of them, I am…”

“ I have not killed him I nearly did but I used a skill called tame which makes the tamed creature a pet or part of my pack if it helps you visualise, I only did this to heal it quickly I cannot allow him out for another 5 minutes or he will in fact die but I will return the shadow wolf to you after this time.”

“ oh well, that makes my next task much easier to give without worrying. I wish for you to take with you on your journey the pup of the pack member I heard you call juxta I don’t know why you call him this, however, his pup is very important he is in fact of a strong origin his mother was of reptilian descent and he is now a unique variant. Come out child.”

When he said this a creature walked out. It looked like a snake with legs and wings but a canine head. This head had brown horns and reptile eyes as it looked at me it let go of a breath it had been holding. I did not understand what breath attack it could use but out of the breath, I could see golden streaked red mana. Its tail was split into 4 and it was a creature of beauty.

“This is your charge please raise her to be stronger than our pack has ever been I am of rank S I believe she may become of even higher than that. I trust you will treat her well or else I will find you and I will kill you. Also please return the shadow wolf now.“ Doing as I was told I took the shadow wolf out and used release.

“now go and return stronger young child, also Juxta, as you call him, mentally informed me the reason for his title is called a name I too would like one please think on it and return with a suitable one for me and also give the pup one too Farewell young child.

“my name is Myrrha and I know yours already, Typhon, I will return with Azazel when she may live up to that name.”

Quest: Typhon, as you have named him, has tasked you with the training of his grand-daughter you have named her Azazel, return her to the pack when she is at the end of her training

Reward: an increased reputation with Typhos, Experience, Increased reputation with the wolf pack “children of Typhos”

my stats as I begun leaving looked like this

Name

Myrrha faun

Absorption

10%

Class

Monstermancer

Level 10 rank 0

Skill points available

2

Hp

1800/1800

Mana

3500/3500

HP regeneration

1.6% per second

Mana regen

1.1% per second

Level

35 rank 0

Titles

First-year student in the royal school of excellence (inactive) mana eyes mutant (in use)

Attribute points left

Strength

220

Intelligence

340

Agility

220

Wisdom

200

Dexterity

240

Luck

20

Aura

300

Skill list

exotic double sided dual wielding intermediate level 9

Mana sight intermediate level 8

Mana infusion intermediate level 6

imperceptable Presence level intermediate level 7

spell creation intermediatelevel 7

elemental manipulation intermediate level 9

Tame beginner level 1

Release

Command Novice level 1

Creature tongue basic level 7

Identify basic level 7

Mana Healing beginner level 9

Herbology Basic level 7

mana-enhanced aura manipulation intermediate level 8

Affinities

Fire 25%

Water 25%

Earth 25%

Air 25%

Life 25%

Death 25%

Light 25%

Darkness 25%

Nature 25%

Poison 25%

Spells Available: Barrier, elemental barrier, elemental explosion, elemental bullet, elemental cloak, smoke bomb, elemental tornado, mud bomb, lava eruption, earth spike. Pit, Death scythe, healing burst, summon skeleton, earth prison, poison dart, poison cloud, poison weapon.

Chapter 14

I could converse with her because due to her living with the canines she knew their way of speaking and was able to inform me of her abilities she was a level one but a tier C at the moment. She had gained no skills yet but I could tell she would gain them soon. We travelled out of the forest as I was sick of fighting rabbits and found it not nice to ask Azazel to fight her relatives. On the journey, she explained that she was able to fight on par with a low levelled tier F to D creature.

“Do you have any preference of which creatures you would like to fight as I have read about 5 which I will be fighting?” I asked her

She replied “yes I prefer a small creature as it will allow for a quick fight I would like to be done with this training as quickly as possible and be done with your kind as swiftly as I can”

I decided this thing was rude

“ok we will fight the dark rhino as they have near them baby rhino which is weaker I ask that you do not kill them outright as I would like to repeatedly tame and release creatures to train my skill”

The first of these we approached I took on the dark rhino manipulating the earth around the feet of the creature and killing them swiftly. Returning to Azazel quickly she had whittled the rhino to low health for allowing me to use tame and release since it was an E tier it did not give me an immediate level up in the tame skill. After repeating this 10 times I reached beginner level 3 and allowed Azazel to just kill the rhinos while I attempted to level up using the dark rhinos. after an hour I had done so and began thinking about finding an actual tamed pet to begin testing out how the skill worked.

you now have skill:

partner identify

This allows comprehensive information on your tamed creatures

“Blue screen what happens to the creatures I tame, where do they go”

BLUE BOX: oh you remember me now. All alone in the woods and you remember I exist, it’s been 5 years since you last asked me something I would have said something but you never asked how I was. However, I will forgive you as you worked hard. In answer to your question they are turned into pure energy and added to your body in the form of a tattoo. Also, I recommend as your first real tamed creature a wrath rabbit. They are quick and can heal using the damage they have dealt to an enemy. They are C ranked so due to your latest rank up of tame they are able to be tamed. All you will need to do is convince them to be tamed. They live in herds so defeating many of them will be instrumental in taming one, they are known to reside in burrows 2 hours north of here on foot. On the journey, there is a den of earth tortoises they will be good training for you and your … companion. Train there until you reach level 40 or 50. Save the skill points up. Though they wander individually but are Tier B as you know the growth Is exponential and usually a rank 1 party would approach a tier B dungeon. Sadly you cannot tame them at your current level do not try however your earth affinity should allow you to avoid the worst attack of the tortoise. It will shoot a jet of stones at you when it is feeling threatened, beware of it.

“Thank you and I apologise about how little I have contacted you.” “Follow me Azazel we are going to train you to around level 30 I think.”

Heading to the north I found the first earth tortoise. Explaining to Azazel that she should attack the legs when it is weakened then retreat until she reaches level at least 20. We battled earth tortoise for 2 weeks eating the meat. In this time a few more critters tried to ambush us however the first fight was, without a doubt, the hardest due to my inexperience fighting stronger creatures.

Approaching the earth tortoise it seemed to be in the lower end of b ranked but dangerous none the less. My first attack was a leaping swing with both shotels to the head region of the tortoise… it did nothing. Glancing off as I noticed the head was armoured too. But then it was pissed. My main advantage was that I could stay on its side and try using the shotel’s curved blade trying to attack the legs but it would just retreat into its shell and the pop back out every time. I needed a new tactic. I used the only thing I thought may work. I used an explosion of fire and poison near its leg. It went down. Then it cheated. Its shell moved to support its legs revealing a cannon, not one but 5 barrels remembering the screens warning I put up a barrier just in time. An onslaught of rocks was launched straight at me. It seemed that it shot from all 5 at once. By the time I looked back, it was back to having a shell and its leg had healed. Hearing a voice from where I had left Azazel I was infuriated

“You are useless you human. Why did my father send me with you? Any other member of the pack would have killed that earthy creature 10 minutes ago.”

“Busy, you rude shit”, “humph” was the response he gave.

The fight continued like this for 10 minutes and I was beginning to be exhausted and then I saw Azazel run in and bite the leg of the earth tortoise. This was bad he was on the other side of me he had damaged it enough to trigger the cannon attack. Moving quicker than I thought possible I jumped over the turtle, luckily defending the small creature from the rocks which were designed to destroy skin and flesh alike. Not so lucky I failed to erect a barrier seeing my HP in the low double digits. The last thing I did was use a spell I had not tried and fully expected it to drain my mana but it was unavoidable, even then I may have been attacked in the 2 hours it would require recovering from the exhaustion.

Moulding life mana into a stream into my veins and slowly transferring it into a mixture of life and death as it travelled to the tip of the urumi blades until the tip of them were pure death mana. “Azazel I’m sorry for the danger this will put you in but if I do not do this I will certainly die from the bleeding. As I struck the tortoise in the face screaming for it to be removed from this plane of existence, not even its armour could save it from the spell that from then on would be called essence stealing storm. The effect was simply absorbing its life essence due to the creature being using hardened skin on its face as armour rather than an actual elemental armour it had no resistance to the effect. the urumi blades were like a storm attacking the tortoise. The reason it cost my body so much was due to the amount of mana required to combine life and death mana together as it replenished my health however it also transferred all of the creature's memories and destroyed its soul. This was the drawback of using this mixture of mana. Death would kill where life would heal I believed there was a better way to do it using other affinities but this was all I had access to. Defeated, the tortoise went down but so did I.

Two hours later

Waking I saw Azazel guarding my body. This didn’t help with my feeling terrible. The tortoise had a family which unless I went and collected soon would die within 2 months. Until then there was a stockpile of sand snakes and worms which are the diet of these tortoises. I had levelled up to level 38 from that one fight but knew it would taper off as I reached closer to level 50. Turning to Azazel she spoke in a thanking tone “I apologise for misjudging you and your strength. I believed you to be trying to dominate me the way I saw you dominate the shadow wolf from the pack and all of the rhinos from earlier. I felt you were an evil human that will try to take control of me. I also apologise for not listening to you if I had waited I may have been able to attain the gains without you having to block the attack that nearly killed me and for saving my life I thank you, however, I refuse to let you use tame on me unless you have a very good reason to” “I accept your apology and agree to not use my tame skill unless it is life or death.”

Looking at all of the notifications, I had risen again in agility, wisdom, and intelligence. The wisdom came from my creation of the life draining spell and intelligence from my massive overuse of mana. But the massive overuse had taxed my body stealing first from stamina and then from my actual life force. I had lost a week of my vitality I could feel it. Luckily no more monsters had appeared to challenge Azazel. Resting for an hour to regain my composure I realised if I had stopped the cannon from shooting I could have destroyed the tortoises body in seconds I was hesitant to not defend myself too many times if I had dodged rather than taking the time to erect a barrier I could have swung in for a hit with a poison to damage over time. From that hour between me and Azazel, we killed 3 more tortoises but the nagging feeling of the memories of the first tortoise told me to start searching for its family. picking up food for them I deposited enough food and water to last 6 months. Then it was back to training it was 4 days before the first surprise came, an insect longer than I was tall flew towards us luckily it was only f tier and weak to fire but I knew if it had hit me it would have stunned me using a paralytic poison it produced on its mandibles. A fireball put an end to the insect but it showed we had to be careful. The second surprise came on the last day of training Azazel and I had reached levels 30 and 50 respectively a new creature appeared still tier B but a named monster ‘armour Dylan ‘he had earth armour everywhere except his belly obviously an earth tortoise that was stronger than the rest. I had a plan though. I dug an earth trench and filled it with fire mana letting it erupt while Azazel jumped on its back. As the earth shell came to defend and fix the stomach area he bit through its neck gaining a lot of experience next I slashed its back with poison and we hid waiting. This kill gave me the title the hare and Azazel levelled up another 2 times. After the 2 weeks had elapsed we went on a journey to find the wrath rabbit.

Chapter 16

The journey to the wrath rabbit location went without a hitch Azazel had learned a skill which allowed him to wrap himself in an aura based on his affinities. This helped reduce damage received and increase damage dealt based on weaknesses. The current problem was building his affinities he had nature affinity so far and helped with catching fish but not much else. We both hoped there would be special effects dependent on affinity used once he had a handle on the skill. During our journey so far, he had explained his treatment as he grew up.

“ There was very little chance to socialise with the rest of the pack due to my protection implemented by grandfather. However, in the times, I was allowed to interact with the rest of the pack they would insult me about my appearance. I know I look nothing like a dog. That is because I am a dragon, how dare they mock me, I am better, more important, nobler than all of them” while he was speaking I felt his aura spark, it was as if he was already a fully grown creature that was releasing thousands of years of killing aura rather than just the short time he had been alive.

I realised I was guessing the gender of my charge and decided to clear up the confusion at some point soon if it was not cleared up in a natural way. Azazel continued speaking. “From the times that I was with the pack in this situation is the reason I found it difficult to trust that you had my best interests in mind. I needed to be shown you care about my wellbeing. Soon I may, in fact, accept you using your weird ownership taming skill.” I felt that the name of the skill was not exactly how I would like to use it befriend would probably be a better name for it due to how I planned to use it.

skill name change acknowledged due to significant special requirements in your class, your realising of how you should behave with your “tamed” creatures the creator of your class has bestowed a free upgrade to the skill you can now “befriend” a creature of any rank and the rank of the skill will reflect the benefits you both will be given the only limit is that you must both agree that you would treat each other as a true friend current benefits are your speed of increase of class skills will increase by 1% for each befriended creature ( still only usable on creatures of the “non-civilised” races) the befriended creature will gain experience 2x as fast as usual if within 1 kilometre of your position this is in addition to the previous benefits these include the miraculous healing ability you have already discovered. active use of the skill will work the same as the tame skill from before but the extra benefits will be restricted until true friendship occurs

“ Azazel I need you to listen my skill changed due to my opinion of my skill it now is called befriend and will automatically prompt you to be befriended when you class me as a true friend and I you. I apologise in advance but please do accept. I have been given more benefits one of them is a double experience allowance for you and all other befriended creatures. This would allow you a much quicker evolution path.” Azazel looked at me with considering eyes. “ I will attempt to trust you Myrrha and if a chance like that appears I will consider it fully.”,” That means a lot to me Azazel”

Soon after this conversation, we arrived at some dark plains the burrows were nigh impossible to see. A deer was feeding on the dark grass all of a sudden there was a dark streak pass by the deer and its side was missing a small amount of meat. It cried out when a 2nd and 3rd streak struck. Repeatedly parts of its body were torn off of its body it was killed before it hit the ground and a skeleton was all that remained soon after. “ Azazel, stay close do not attempt to attack I am worried about my safety and I am not sure if I can protect you at the same time.” Walking forward I placed a mana shield around Azazel and stood with him beside the leftover skeleton. I see the first streak appear and double take, hurtling towards me is a black bunny. Its whiskers were made from a blade and its teeth were like knives it was wrapped in shadow energy. As it neared me I swung with my urumi in a cross hoping to kill it simply so I can survive. It faded out of existence and was gone. A second one did the same. I repeated this 4 times before I tried coating my blade in light mana and finally, black blood spurted from the creature. Seeing the death of their family all hell broke loose. 8 of these demons were flying at me at any one time I felt my experience points shooting up as I tore them apart but down went my health and my mana. I could see they were not stopping. I felt myself reach 10% health and used a heal raising myself to 30%. I had had enough. Screaming I gripped the creatures from the air and felt for the mana coursing through them and willed the mana to be stolen. Realising it was close to dark mana I absorbed enough to try something less than smart. Screaming I released pure light beams into the burrows hoping to destroy the scourge that had been released upon me. This would have been massively intelligent if it was only these under the plains.

that may not have been the best idea. You probably have enough levels to defeat what I think just woke up, by that I mean YOU woke up. By that, I mean you at full health may have been able to defeat it. Oh well. we will see

I felt a rumble and then the ground erupted.

Queen of dark plains Akasha

The offspring of this creature have been hunting on the dark plains for decades, leaving her slumbering until a large proportion were murdered. Now she has come to seek revenge

She was, in fact, beautiful in a creepy kind of way. a dark aura emanated from her. Measuring up at 4 times the size of the other rabbits but with long slim claws. Protruding from its back were huge black wings with small spikes sticking from the bottom. I was rather scared for my life. Obviously, it took not long for her to scream at me about how I killed her family and she was going to kill me in return. I believed her if I’m honest. I had to try though.

My weapons glowed with the light mana I had left ready to defend against whatever was to come. As the queen sped towards me I swung the shotel releasing a shockwave of the light mana towards the beast. As it made contact nothing happened. I saw my death oncoming and decided I had best take her down with me dropping my weapons while I created a multi-element spike. This used the last of my mana and I felt my self exhausted. Knowing that as I was sent back into the spike hidden behind me as would the incoming fluffball of black death the mixture of mana would surely kill us both the tip was made of lava mana and lower down was ice to allow the victim to slide onto the spikes around the bottom small spikes would pierce the victim with poison. I did not know when but at some point this thing would die from my kamikaze effort. Seconds from my time to die I was thrust to the side by Azazel. From me using the last of my mana the barrier had evaporated and Azazel had saved my life. “ you are repaid for saving my life, however, I feel we are at a stage that we will attempt to continue each other's survival so if you also agree we will make a deal to not allow each other to die.” I was relieved to be alive and simply said yes looking back to Akasha I saw her removing herself from the spike groggily she removed herself healing as she did so. I felt my mana recovering and Azazel seemed to be transferring mana to me. He seemed to gain a new skill allowing him to do that or something. As I had more mana I felt ready to defeat Akasha.

She bounded towards me the poison must have taken effect as she moved slower but her teeth had grown to be sharper and her face had grown to be paler but more human and feminine. However, I swung with the fire mana covered shotel. The stroke damaged her. I was surprised. Repeating the tactic she seemed to get closer and closer death. I felt it was not needed for her today. Speaking to the enemy I told her to halt. I knew she was less than rank C as I understood her shouting. She didn’t stop so I threw up a mana tunnel and trapped her. I was glad she had been stopped but guessed that her vampire looking teeth may lead to her having a vampire based ability so cutting that off was a priority. Activating tame I explained she had this one chance to survive. Declining this would mean her death.

first boss tamed. Bosses tamed will unlock aspects of your monstermancer class more hidden prerequisites are needed for the more beneficial rank ups these will also be revealed when a boss is tamed

current requisites completed:

Acquire befriend option for tame

Tame 1 boss

Perquisites incomplete:

50% affinity in 3 or more options

?????

?????

?????

Option to postpone rank-ups available

The tattoo that Akasha applied to me was the dark black wings I had admired. looking at my stats I was surprised to see my level had raised to 80 but I felt that I should not use any of the points. I was pleased with how today had gone but felt lost I had gained a tamed monster and was close to rank up. Realising that I needed to find 3 boss monsters and boost my affinities to unlock the best options for my rank up. I knew that even reaching level 100 the gained experience while I reached the requisites will be saved until my rank up. reading what the hare does it was simply an increase in speed by 5%

Name

Myrrha faun

Class

Monstermancer

Class Level

50 rank 0

skill points

40

HP

4000/4000

Mana

8000/8000

HP regeneration

3% per second

Mana regen

3.5 % per second

Level

80

rank 0

Skill points available

29

Absorption

10%

Skills

Affinities

double bladed exotic weapon dual wielding

Intermediate level 9 (upgradeable)

Fire

25%

Mana Sight

intermediate level 8

Water

25%

Mana infusion

Intermediate level 9 (upgradeable)

Earth

25%

Air

25%

imperceptable presence

intermediate level 9

Life

25%

Spell creation

Intermediate level 9

Death

25%

elemental manipulation

intermediate level 9 (upgradeable)

Light

25%

Tame

Beginner level 3

Darkness

25%

Release

AUTO MAX

Nature

25%

Command

Novice level 2

Poison

25%

Creature tongue

intermediate level 1

Identify

Intermediate level 9

Meditation

intermediate level 9 (upgradeable)

mana-enhanced aura manipulation

intermediate level 9 (upgradeable)

Herbology

basic level 4

Titles

mana eyes mutant( active ), The Hare (active)

Attributes

Strength

300

Intelligence

480

Wisdom

350

Agility

400

Dexterity

320

Luck

20

Aura

350

Spells Available:

Barrier, elemental barrier, elemental explosion, elemental bullet, smoke bomb, elemental tornado, mud bomb, lava eruption, earth spike. Pit, Death scythe, healing burst, summon skeleton, earth prison, poison dart, poison cloud, poison weapon, essence stealing storm.

Chapter 16

Asking blue screen about bosses in the area it said there was 5 left, one being Typhos, 1 was a challenge above my abilities and the other 3 are the leaders of the floors of a dungeon around a mere 2 days’ travel.

After collecting the wrath rabbit bodies to feed us for the next few days. Also, the pelts to create leather armour when next possible. On the journey, I allowed Akasha out to aid me in gaining affinity but it didn’t raise I thought maybe there was a requirement to pass 25%. Akasha had been born at affinity 30% so had never experienced this problem. Now after trying to help dropping to an affinity of 43 % she had 46% before releasing mana for me to attempt to gain more.

Following the path, I found the dungeon, Its opening was grandeur. A white stone arch wrapped in leaves with creatures such as poisonous snakes carved into the stone. A dark swirling vortex was inside the arch which pulled me in as I walked through it. The other side of the vortex was a field of lush green leading to a forest of thickly packed trees. They made a path that I chose to follow into a patch with 3 directions leading from it. the patch was square and had various roots protruding from the earth. Each of these gave birth to a creature of roots and leaves. The room closed off as the trees grew branches to close me into the room. Luckily, I had confidence that these creatures disliked fire.

Telling Azazel my thoughts he charged in decimating 3 of the creatures. I thought a simple wave of flames would sort out the problem of these creatures. After the mobs were dealt with the room opened. Choosing to stick to the left wall I travelled through the dungeon removing the herbs I would find on the ground, mostly they were just health boosting or mana restoring but would be useful when brewed after I got equipment to do that. differently shaped wood creatures attacked in each room but mostly it was much of the same until a room with only a staircase leading down to a huge tree. As I walked towards the tree it transformed. A light shone and all that was left was a humanoid with a beard of leaves with wood coloured skin. he looked old. It opened its mouth and its voice erupted, “ you have defeated my minions but I will be a more difficult challenge”, I spoke up and explained “ I do not wish to defeat you my class is monstermancer and I wish to tame you, in return I will be taking you out of the dungeon and allowing you to fight stronger creatures. If you refuse outright I will go all out and defeat you. If you chose this option please don’t die I really wish to have you come with me I believe you to be a nice addition as you seem to be wise looking.”

The tree creature looked at me and spoke, my family was trapped here by the dungeon core if you can defeat this dungeon I will happily come with you and persuade my family to also join you do not be fooled I am old and not at my peak but I know a lot about the world and even things of how you humans advance. If you defeat this dungeon you will need to defeat the original dungeon lord. It is not a boss but one step above. It is the humanoid form of a dungeon core and defeated my family I will send a message throughout the dungeon informing my family of your quest we are the 3 bosses of this dungeon upon reaching the fourth floor you will be in the dungeon core room I count on you to return

Quest:

Defeat the dungeon lord of the dungeon

Reward: allowance to tame 3 boss-level creatures of rank C

Failure: death

Description: Defeat the lord of a dungeon which captured a family of boss level creatures the father of the family has given you access to a straight run through the dungeon

Accept?

Y/N

“I accept”. After travelling down the stairs I found immaculately white walls surrounding me walking through the dungeon I saw that everywhere was bright no darkness penetrated the dungeon. Walking into the boss room was blinding as if radiance was all there was. The 3rd floor was surprisingly eroded. it looked as if there was living things here such as snakes, scorpions and other poisonous things I saw a pattern and hoped that the dungeon lord was not as strong as the bosses it had beaten, maybe it was a fluke I thought. It was unlikely. The boss room was just pits of liquids with long paths carved into the ground the walls had etched out of them but I only focused on the stairs to my newly gained enemy.

Descending I looked at Azazel who had been strangely quiet I asked him if he was nervous he replied that a dungeon lord was extremely difficult to beat and any of the creatures classed as monsters defeated by one would become slaves to its will. He was confident in me but was worried none the less. Blue box explained that it believed the dungeon lord here to be weaker than the other bosses here so was curious what had happened.

As we entered the room I identified the creature in front of me it looked like a humanoid crystal

Name: Trois blessed Dungeon core

Description: Trois blessed this dungeon in an effort to increase the capture of monsters in the area to stop them from killing the beasts that were in the forest.

I now understood what happened, Trois had blessed it to make it stronger to capture the family of boss monsters. I had already decided that the gods were wrong to dislike Mortem all he did was create monsters that now we use pieces of to create strong potions and weaponry from. it was now a personal mission to allow mortem freedom from the reputation he had been given. I rushed the core while shouting “this is for mortem. I hereby accept him as my deity!”

Title obtained: noticed by mortem

Description: mortem has taken note of your open loyalty you now have his attention, no bonus just got attention.

Attacking the core with flames I rushed in and attacked with my weapons. Nothing happened except a few small scratches on the crystal. The shotels were not made to defeat rocks. I then got flung into a wall. Attempt one was a fail. The core grew claws like a beast and began walking towards me. I flung ice spikes at the core and again nothing was my reward. Repeating all of the spells I had did nothing I did not use essence stealing storm as I felt it was too much of a waste if it did not work. By now I had been flung into a second wall. In my mind, it spoke “ you will be my next source of experience it seems. I have been a core for over 30 years and grew in power in that time you are no match now that Trois has blessed me.” I had to win, treebeard was counting on me. The only spell which seemed to affect it was earth explosion so I had an idea. Gathering the mana of earth into a blunt hammerhead I flattened the edges into a blade shape heating it up into a liquid I begun manipulating it to form layers of extremely strong structures as I continued the edge became less opaque. More and more were built and then flattened and sharpened. I knew what I was creating and added the effect of the explosion to the middle. I did this all above the core hoping it would not notice more and more of these creations were made soon it was time I had a name for this and It had cost 75% of my mana I had been beaten to a point past 10% hp left and with my last ounce of effort before becoming a pulp as the claws of the beast core ravaged my body I shouted “ Diamond dissection” and swung the blades through the core every one exploding as it cut through the core damaging it more until all that was left was fragments of the core it seemed I had created another spell only available every so often but strangely it also locked off essence stealing storm.

essence stealing storm and diamond dissection are disabled for 1 month and 6 days

Chapter 18

I woke up to the sight of Azazel sat watching I had healed from the battle but still had a few scratches ascending the stairs back to Treebeard I saw him stood in front of an angel and a snake creature I gathered were both his daughters the angel radiated light and the snake dripped with literal venom. The angel was named Uriel she said that she found creativity to be of the utmost importance and with this the light that illuminated her became a cloak before I used tame and she accepted the same with the snake girl named echidna saying that she felt that if I could master poisons she would be impressed and accept me as an actual master until then I was not to bother her but she accepted the tame anyway.

Finally, treebeard moved forward and explained my problem. Affinities are in fact just that. How close to the elements is your personality. To gain 100% affinity you must channel the shadows of darkness or the fury of fire. This can be seen that elves are in tune with nature. I leave you with a way to speed the process. Will an affinity of mana into an orb and watch how it moves then move the mana around yourself in a similar way then add other mana into the ball see how it interacts. Circulate it the same way and as always find places with extremely dense mana to circulate in you will feel the way of each affinity. I will see you when you need me. With that, he accepted the tame prompt and disappeared too

as I saw the tattoos transfer to my body. Echidna appeared on my left arm with Uriel appearing on my right with the tree roots appearing below the wings on my back

Current requisites completed:

Acquire befriend option for tame

Tame 1 boss

Destroy boss core

Gain the attention of mortem

Defeat a creature blessed by a god

Perquisites incomplete:

50% affinity in 3 or more elements

I decided to ask blue box where the nearest high density of mana of a single affinity exists. Given that I was leaving the dungeon it informed me that there was an underground tunnel containing earth mana, a waterfall and returning to a city would allow you to find a cemetery for death mana or a volcano would allow an insane density of fire mana but be extremely dangerous. I chose to go first to the waterfall as I felt that it was safest and most likely easiest to gain the understanding I would need. Azazel decided to try and gain affinity at the same time.

Reaching the waterfall I sat below it and felt the mana around me. I saw it moving in a cycle the mana of the waterfall smashing against the calm mana below. I tried to follow the mana and follow its flowing deeper into the lagoon below. the water being undisturbed by the turbulence above. I felt the serenity in the deep water and begun copying the flow inside of me the water mana vibrating on the edge of my body while swirling into the centre of my body calming as it reaches closer to the middle my core being serene at the bottom of a swirling vortex.

I felt different and looking at my stats I saw I had cracked it my water affinity was at 26% I sat back down and felt the water around me. Water the calmness among the storm. Choosing a different approach to see if it is a quicker increase I built an outline of my mana channels and built it more compact as it became more solid. The mana became opaque and in front of me was an identical water clone of me. Commanding it to walk into me I moulded it into my mana channels and sped up the flow. My movements then became more fluid I felt flexible I could move in different ways and begun creating water claws from my hands. I felt one with the water and realised this was what I needed. My affinity was rising at 1 % per hour it was dark by the time I had finished. I put up a shield and warmed the sphere covering us with earth domes Azazel and I were safe.

During the next week I reached 50% in water but felt like I was still missing something I would need a master of water to reach past that, someone to explain the truth behind waters fluidity. Moving onto the volcano I felt that being inside the volcano I could most likely reach 50% in a short time once more. The trip there was again uneventful. over the other side of the volcano was the elven forests. They would be dangerous for me due to my current class however reaching the volcano I felt the heat and had to store my armour inside my pack I was not even near the peak but sitting down I felt that the fire mana was swirling in an untraceable pattern as if it was completely random and more so as traveling closer to the peak. I felt down here would not allow me to understand the nature of fire mana. I became colder as I travelled up the volcano as I got higher the air became thinner. All that changed at the peak. A wave of heat erupted from the top. And that’s when I felt the balance. I used air to hold me above the volcano and landed upon a floating rock my weight did not drop the rock into the lava and I sat and mimicked what I did with the waterfall. Except this time it was completely insane the mana was a mist of pure randomness. I tried to copy it inside my body but it was still not random. Observing and feeling the flow of the mana was like vibrating. I mimicked this with my mana in my body and felt the randomness increase I controlled one mana particle and sped it up colliding with as much as possible building the amount of controlled particles colliding and then let it go repeating this I felt the heat of the mana moving as if it created friction and felt more attuned but I was still stuck at 25% I tried to find a way to understand the way it worked. It was not possible for me to understand so I just rested and felt I could not do any more today.

I woke up and felt crazy I decided to do something I believed was idiotic but I needed to try it I manipulated the lava. That’s when I grasped the point of why I was struggling. Around me was a whole new affinity not fire but a constituent of fire and earth. However Lava didn’t seem to have an affinity. The fire seemed aggressive trying to seek the attention but moving the lava like it was both the lava moved. Realising this was possible and watching my MP I dived and flipped moving lava and dove until I was in a sphere of lava manipulating the heat with fire mana and guarding my body with earth I tried something I believed would not work but had to try. Earth and fire affinity understanding at once. Lo and behold the 26% showed true but my mp was declining fast. Fire the insanity and Earth the protection. The increase like this took 2 months due to having to control lava as well as train the affinities. By my 16th birthday, I had gained my 3 affinities

Chapter 19

1616 October 4th

On my 16th birthday, I was not happy, I wanted to increase all of my affinities so for 5 years I went in search of as much understanding as possible. each of my tamed creatures helped me understanding their mana type and directed me into an area that not even blue box could find. by the end of my time fighting the mobs I passed and training my affinities I was missing only life and death. Air was similar to fire I flew into the sky and felt the wind the sharpness of the gales while stopping allowed the wind to calmly sweep by Air is ever changing and playful, although life and death were at 25% I knew where I could get them but they felt like they were not ready to advance.

I, however, was. I had defeated enough creatures to level to 100 and my class level from 10 had increased due to my continued talking to the young monsters. I had found in the years I spent outside of civilisation that the longer I spent out here the more the skills increased. naturally the bosses all four had moved into the true friend level and befriend had evolved to give better bonuses a new skill called natural understanding was the main culprit of the increase. Its effects boosted my other stats when I was in nature and if I claimed territory I had better abilities to defend those close to me. Azazel, after he had nearly died while fighting a miniboss solo, was much more focussed on the task of training. After gaining level 100 I had begun solely training him. when he was tamed I saw in her status that her race was genderless so he and she are interchangeable pronouns. After reaching level 100 in my class I knew that it was time to advance. Now that all 6 of us, me, Azazel and the 4 bosses had become close there were two things I had to do. Rank up in both level and class and explain to Typhos that Azazel would not be returning for many years to come.

First I will explain each of the bosses personalities.in the five years soon after the dungeon core fight upon first summoning him I was informed Treebeard was in fact called Sepherot having been much stronger in the years before but withholding all the knowledge he had gained in the past 200 years he had lived. Blue box was good at helping but even it did not have access to all information so he became useful and helped raise my nature affinity this allowed me to control nature in ways such as growing seeds extremely quickly and form tripping roots. He was like a grandfather. His daughters Uriel and echidna showed me how to raise light and poison respectively and each was happy to help. Echidna had began her interactions with me cold I believed it was due to a childhood memory which still had not come to light. I practised tame but the level refused to reach past basic so I could not tame past A rank creatures. I felt bad taming unless a creature needed to be healed so I let the creatures go. Also, I felt that having too many tattoos would shock the people I would be returning to. I had learnt to craft in many ways and created new armour. Currently, I had armour for each kind of fight but was not sure how I would handle fighting humans if it came to it. Akasha had forgiven me for the rabbit massacre when she heard that it was only self-defence. I now melted into shadows whenever it was needed and hiding my presence became second nature. The class up was acquired by accepting the knowledge influx and would be boosted if rank up occurred at the same time and applied a new stat cap on all stats.

The journey back to the earth tortoise was uneventful and it was nice to see the earth turtle population back to normal I recognised the family we had taken care of and quickly found the forest soon after. Returning to Typhos he could see the difference in Azazel and juxta pretty much flattened her happy to see his child after near 2 years. The conversation was better than I thought Typhos saw that Azazel could still grow and agreed that I could keep my new found best friend. I then asked if I could stay in his pack while I activate the Class and Rank up. He accepted and wished me a good advancement. Sitting in the middle of the lake in the forest I felt the world on a new scale. Allowing the knowledge to assault me It had begun

Advancement prerequisites met for all possible advancements.

Hidden requisites evaluated.

Hidden requisites surpassed

Classes available upgraded

Choices optimised by potential future growth

Affinities assessed

Please choose from the following the top choices are least recommended

Tamer: the next level of a monstermancer raises the level of tame past intermediate

Primal: giving way to the animal instincts you will increase the abilities of all of the senses

Shaper: using affinities you shape the world to advance the use of your closest monster friends

Evolver: using mana you can advance monsters into next evolution

zoomorphic evolver. This class is given only to those who can become one with the form of nature the ability to enhance yourself with the traits of your befriended OR tamed creatures as well as increasing the evolution speed. In return for such a large advantage, the status screen will become simplified. You must now use mana like the creatures you are blending with. Spells and skills are now hidden you will now use your affinities to manipulate the world around you and the bonuses from skills will be levelled based on your abilities, not the skill points you have gained, these skill points will now be converted into attribute points and all of your tamed creatures will gain that many into the attribute most useful. Mortem must have noticed your existence for this class to be available.

Hidden benefits and penalties for this class are the risks you must choose to take

Make your choice

I contemplated the last two. the use of my friends’ traits was amazing but the blue screen was useful and it did not say how much I would lose of the stats screen. However, the class mortem had devised had yet to fail me and the last one seemed to be similar to becoming half human half monster. I was more curious why none of the classes had mancer at the end. Alas the time had come to choose “ I choose zoomorphic evolver”

The pain was unbelievable I felt my body burn from the inside out as if the very cells were changing my mana channels changed size I felt them expand and contract I felt my body become stronger and then my bones became thicker. I grew 2 inches at least and my tattoos became thicker and more defined the wings on my back looked like they grew out from me. Echidnas scales seemed to protect my arm and within 10 minutes I was done. I knew I had grown as a force to be reckoned with. There was one last thing to do I injected mana into the guild card and it showed My name as still Myrrha faun level as 1 rank 1 and grade as B I was surprised, to say the least. Checking my stats I was dumbstruck

Name

Myrrha faun

Level

1 rank 1

Class

zoomorphic evolver

Class Level

1 rank 1

HP

7500/7500

Mana

15000/15000

Affinities

Life

25%

Fire

50%

Death

25%

Water

50%

Light

50%

Earth

50%

Darkness

50%

Air

50%

Nature

50%

Poison

50%

Chapter 20

After resting from my advancement, I decided that it was time for my own family reunion but first I had my new class to play with. My first act was experimenting with my own body. I felt the mana flow of Akasha’s body. Her eyes seemed to emit pulses of mana that would collide with light mana in the air and retrieve them returning to the exact point in her eye. Trying to emulate this my eyes changed and I saw everything in more resolution. I could now see the webs in trees from spiders over 200m away. Going through all of my friend's bodies I managed to gain the ability to grow claws like Azazel. 1 black and white wing each improved my control of dark and light mana respectively. my hair took on a tinge of green like leaves. And my teeth and newfound claws could now run poison through them. There were a few more things I discovered such as scales, or fur instead of just skin and quadrupedal movement became possible after shifting my joints to mimic the canines around me. I could not quite grasp how to grow the tails or completely take on a snake lower half like an echidna. However, my next experiment was far more fun.

I began by taming a rabbit that was wandering by. Before I released it I poured pure dark mana into it while imagining how the wrath rabbit looked. Slowly it became more darkened fur with sharper teeth. After 20 minutes it had fully transformed into the wrath rabbit. I then added fire mana to the same rabbit but only to its head while keeping the mana true to itself and randomly colliding with its cells. I left it to nature and after laying down looking warm for a while its head burst into flame and all that was left in its place was a black flame in the shape of a rabbit head as slowly the rest of its fur caught aflame. As I released it from the taming it had burst away into the forest collecting the heat from around it to grow. It reappeared. Nodded its head and said “thank you for the gift of power I will cherish it and protect my horned counterparts from the invaders of the civilised races. “ with that it disappeared into the darkness of the forest devouring the heat and sinking into shadows. The problem I felt was the time it took to implement the changes. Even upon myself, the wings took an hour to retract or extend. I did, however, gain increased flying abilities due to it. I decided to meet my parents as myself just older and then introduce them to my group and ask what they believed I should do next I had not reached rank 2 or three like I had hoped but taming 4 boss monsters and having Azazel by my side I felt confident enough to return.

By the 6th October I had returned and the house looked just like when I left. I was nervous. I unsummoned all my friends and walked up to the door and knocked. My mother opened the door and broke down crying “ I worried no end about you. Come in it is only me and your father home right now.” The house looked exactly the same as it had all those years ago as I walked into the family room I found my father sitting watching for my entrance. It took milliseconds before he had pounced to give me a hug. Mother joined in making it an extremely special moment. We stood there wordlessly for a few moments before I turned and told them I needed to explain my journey. I was glad to know that due to my class I would not need to shave as the fur retraction ability from Azazel meant my hair was how I decided it to be. I was glad I had used the waterfall to bathe before returning also.

Explaining to my parents about the events of my life in the past 7 years took a short period of time until I got to what I had done with my class. At that point, I had to take them outside. The walk there was terrifying for me I had no idea how they would react but it was important to check now. I then summoned all of my friends with myself staying human. “parents these are my friend's courtesy of my class abilities it allowed me to become friends with these amazing creatures.” My parents said nothing but I could see them tense. “ if you attack them you will become my enemy. I have come to terms with the idea that we will not be accepted in town but I believe you would be more understanding”. My mother was the first to reply, “Myrrha I know what these creatures are how are you able to summon them at will these are 4 boss monsters” Azazel climbed onto my head realising he was missed due to the position. The monsters had learned human tongue over the years with me and spoke out themselves every sentence from one of the four bosses cycling. “ your son is a powerful creature in his own right he defeated a dungeon lord alone and we owe him our lives as we were the captured floor bosses. Myrrha strolled into our dungeon and refused to fight me until first trying to pacify me. Luckily for us all, he succeeded. However, we also are, as you say, boss monsters and lending your son our power will be our pleasure please stop worrying. Also, he has something else to show you new as of his class up.” On his cue, I transformed slowly with my parents watching as my appearance changed the wings grew from my back. The scales replaced my skin and the animal eyes morphed. My nails became claws and I tried a new thing. My behind grew from my coccyx into a tail covered in spikes, branches, a rattle on the tip and white rings compounding a thank you to all of my friends for helping me. “mother, father I plan to return to school and inform them that I became lost after being attacked in the forest and would like to reenroll. If this is not possible I will return to the guild and begin life as an adventurer. I believe that most of the things I would learn I have learnt for myself and more so I no longer have as in-depth a status screen so may struggle to explain this but I am now a part monster. I believe myself to in fact be a miniboss if not a full boss of a small dungeon level of power. I challenge you both to a sparring match like when I was a child, father you taught me my magic and sephirot trained me to be able to do this so please be a proud father when I challenge mother using my own created wooden weapon.” Raising my hand a tree appeared and its branches folded and folded until it became as heavy as a half tonne sword. Next, the branch dropped off into my hand splitting in two. It morphed until it resembled the weapons I left with. Next, the second branch followed suit but became a broadsword exactly like my mothers from when I was a child. I imagined it was still the one she used. My father looked speechless. The tree then itself became a shield for mother’s arm. “mother I believe you are accustomed to this weapon set” turning to my father I told him that I would like him to be after mother. I did not know which wooden weapon would be useful so just gave him a stave shaped branch

Bowing to mother I took my battle stance which I developed over the years. “ I will not use magic against you mother. It was useful for all angle fighting but was yet to be severely tested 1 on 1. Father shouted go and mother moved slowly forward unlike how I expected she was not underestimating me but I knew once we began I would be hard pressed to defend against her full strength. I used my speed and swiped at her leg. The hit connected due to my newly found agility but mother went with it and flipped midair swinging her sword in an attempt to strike me. Spinning I blocked with one scythe while I struck towards her torso which struck, this time it hit and she tried a shield bash but I was again ready. She was fighting me as only a human. It was time to go for it as hard and as fast as I could. Using the momentum as a lift I flapped and took off swinging the urumi to coil around the sword I flew by and struck the ground with the left shotel causing an extreme turn and swinging with my right it knocked the broad sword out her hand. mother only having a shield left over and I was on top of her with my clawed hand against her neck. ”I win mother” I was beyond impressed with myself but helped mother up and bowed.

Mother seemed proud and I was happy about this. Next, I bowed to father “father I will use only my magic skills. Please do not underestimate me you most likely are stronger than me but tactics are important. My best attack is magic based so I will use it and see how it goes.” Transforming to my magic specialisation my scales became hardened leaves and I grew roots to absorb mana from the earth “father I am ready “ he immediately began throwing fireballs and changing the earth to become liquid “try harder father” again I flew up and used my newest non-lethal skill, monstrous army shadows became wolf shapes, earth became tortoises the air became living tornadoes and fathers fireballs while he did not control them melded together to form a fire man, like a snowman but made of fireballs. A beam of light targeted father and the elementals swarmed father. He fought back with spikes and flames but the tornadoes nullified the spikes by eroding them and each time the fires reached one of the creatures it became water and doused the flames. As more and more of the monsters were created father struggled more and more until he realised his mistake. Blinking he realised he had been caught by my trap, while the army swarmed him my water prison had closed in and frozen into ice spikes around his body the monsters evaporated into simple mana. Father was also beaten. “ son… “ both my parents were impressed and simply son was all they could say “I would like to say I will be aiming to learn more combat abilities and aiming to upgrade my affinities or even perhaps gain more.“ I wanted to go and purchase elegems containing more rare affinities or find a concentration of the elements itself. a one I would like to gain would be blood but would struggle to find a large deposit of blood mana so I asked father. He replied saying gaining that affinity required venturing into an undead dungeon which contains a vampire lord. Those were s*** bosses and out of my league at the moment so an elegem may be called for. until then I would aim to do quests and raise my guild rank looking at my guild card it showed B in capabilities so it was time to test my abilities at the guild to see what quests I would be allowed to undertake. Before leaving my parents called back to me. “Myrrha we feel we should also come clean to you. We have not been showing our true abilities to you so please try once more in a spar against only your mother.” While father said this mother let 2 bracelets off of her wrists. I simply felt the difference. As father said go I was caught by mother and smashed into the ground. “ son don’t overestimate your abilities that guild card is saying you are A rank because your stats are very high but they are not refined with your reactions and you do not know how to use the stats you have along with not even being able to see the numerical values you can only hope guess what you are best specialising in unless you stay a jack of all trades. This is your choice.”

Leaving my home I was heading back to town

Chapter 21

Heading into town took less time while flying but I had to land outside of the town in a forested area and revert to human appearance. I also wore a cloak covering my face to hide my identity. Arriving at the guild I handed in my guild card, which I had changed my name to Scientia potentia and asked for a quest level assessment. I had learned at the school that the guild card I had would gauge my strength but not how skilled or experienced with combat I was. This assessment would fix that problem by making me fight against a strong opponent ( specifically an S rank or higher ) I knew I stood no chance even if I used my zoo morphing but using only my magic and weaponry I believe I could get at least a c-rank grade. “ right through here Mr potentia.” I was escorted through a corridor and into a waiting room which was filled with applicants.

The waiting room contained many different applicants but I was to be the first applicant tested due to my age compared to the others they were around 18 where I being 21 was significantly older and overdue this test. The tester was a draconian and seemed to be extremely strong “ hello I will be your guild appointed examiner I will raise in seriousness until you cannot handle me at which point I will mark down the rank at which you performed at “ with that, we bowed and I pulled out my weapons. And bowed to the examiner.

We began by slowly circling each other until I dashed in and rocketed myself with a rock pillar towards him. He simply sidestepped and swatted my head from behind. “good try”. He didn’t expect me to use the connection with his hand to figure position and swing for the leg using the force from him to speed me up. Making the hit caused him to recoil his leg in pain not realising how my weapon worked he was caught and I slice his Achilles tendon. He poured healing magic onto the cut and was healed quite quickly. I was impressed. I could tell he was ready for a real fight now. Retreating to safety I readied myself for his attack but I would only use earth affinity in this fight I wanted to keep my abilities extremely secret. I only came back to collect payment for the creatures I had beaten while training and purchase some resources but forgot the thrill of fighting a civilised race. Back to the fight I had formed an earth shield on my arm and began the readiness of the skill I planned to use to get the next hit in. suddenly he rushed me and I dug my arm into the ground pulling up I formed a spike shield and pierced his leg with a stray spike. Again, he healed and got more serious. This repeated until he was about the level of echidna but I could not keep up without using more affinities or zoomorphing and calmly surrendered knowing I was beaten.

He explained that I had fought at a c or b rank and due to my age he was lenient and gave me a rank of B as I walked back into the guild branch the next applicant walked by. Paying her no heed I walked to the job board and picked up the jobs for which I had already the required materials or proof of defeat. Turning them in I lost a few kilos of used materials but gained a large amount of money I would give 20% to my parents but the other 80% would be used to gain materials to build my new weapon it would be much more adaptive to my fighting but the stuff it would be made from was extremely expensive and I only knew of its existence from my time in school. it was available in the guild. Buying enough for what I wanted I had used enough money to buy a reasonably sized mansion but I still had 40% of my money left. 10% again of that went onto using a smithing station to remove the elegem from my previous weapons knowing it was unneeded now that my affinity was so high I crushed it into a powder and added it to the mould next I used the manaore. This was what I had purchased , it was melted and applied on top of the elegem its property was that it could be morphed using mana but it only reacted to a bonded individual. this was done in a less than pleasant way I cut open my hand and drove it into the molten manore I felt it absorb my blood and in turn, the manore entering my bloodstream. Since I used two weapons this had to be done twice once for both sides and then the fun part. Gripping my old weapons the manore ate through the metal of my weapons and found its properties before going back to running around the blood vessels in my forearm and hands but testing out the new equipment I was happy this endeavour had cost me most of my earnings and I had a few more things to purchase before heading off into the rest of the world. There was also the matter of letting Gemma know I was safe. I was not looking forward to that but I felt it was only fair and should there be a problem I would fly away and arrive far from this place before I was attacked. My purchases consisted of a portable craft station containing all of the crafting disciplines needs such as even a forge. Next, I purchased more metals and after leaving the store I absorbed some of each metal into the manore. These would be useful for the properties they had available. Then it was time to return to school. I decided that now that it was night-time I could approach Gemma easily.

Arriving at her window using concealed wings using my cloak to hide them I waited for her to arrive. As she entered the room I gave her a note I had written ready. It explained I am me and had returned to tell her I had survived. She reacted with a quite loud-voiced complaint about how I was an asshole, which since I was 21 was a bit harsh “I thought you were dead and blamed myself. I am glad you are back.” “ yes I now plan to do a large amount of learning to use my new skills but I will send a way for you to contact me if you need me, for now farewell, also don’t think too much about the next bit” jumping from the window I flew towards the forest and landed back with the pack. I had checked the quest board before I had left and picked up the quests which I knew I could complete in the next few weeks. I would begin returning to give my parents updates. But for now I would experiment on the creatures I can find, it is a necessary evil and in the long run, it will lead to them being stronger so my morality decided it was fine. But for now, it was time to sleep after letting out the gang. Azazel explained that where they go when unsummoned is quite nice and for nonboss creatures would be happy inside that place so taming wild monsters was a good thing.

Waking up the next morning I felt my mind was still slightly tired but thought nothing of it. And explained I was going to go on a taming spree and hoped I would be back soon. Leaving the pack where they were I morphed into my optimum form, including the wings and scales. I felt the manore respond and the end of my claws morphed into full shaped and sharpened talons calling out to it I could shape my old weapons back from my arm or swap it to a dagger easily. The first thing I came across was a Scorpoid, a creature that had 4 arms with 2 legs and a stinger but still fights stood like a human. Luckily my new class allowed me to speak all creature tongue but command no longer works. After explaining that it had no chance and exerting aura at it the scorpoid settled down. I then touched the beast and the beast was tamed. It was then that I tried to evolve it adding mana to it nothing worked but using earth affinity mana. I then poured in earth mana and slowly converted it to poison mana until the stinger glowed it began to open outwards and become a cannon shaped orifice. Its shell became metallic and seemed sturdier. “ I name you Scorpio” looking at my status I see that through my evolving creatures I had shot to class level 10. Continuing onwards I found a corpse of a bull filled with a nest of corpse flies they were like normal flies but inside the nest would be a queen again I tamed the swarm but kept them in separate groups adding different mana to all of the groups I found that they grew to be a force to be reckoned with but when unsummoned the tattoo was simply one swarm. The queen had avoided the tame. Being larger I had to force her submission before taming. The next part was the impressive part, I used all of the affinities I had and she grew into a full sized woman looking around 23 upon inspection her species had changed to become insect queen and she was classed as a boss but she was however naked. Upon resummoning the flies they swarmed together to form a dress and set of gauntlets to clothe the queen. Scorpio then walked to the queen and I saw him bow and tell the queen he would give his new found body to her. nudging his head against her dress and a mana thread attached it to Scorpio soon the queen again grew but this time it was in a more interesting way her lower half became scorpion-shaped and the black metal of Scorpio surrounded her skin. she had become an S-rank and ii decided to see what she could do “ I name you queen Suzumi and would like to thank you for becoming a friend on my journey I, however, feel that you have an affinity I am in need of but never realised existed, sound affinity seems to have been gained from the buzzing you can all create please may you lend me the ability to raise myself in that affinity.” “I am new to my abilities and have only now realised sentient thought please allow me time to practice myself before I help you. While I had been busying myself with creating new members of my group the others had been training themselves so we all began hunting for prey I also attached the stinger cannon to my tail deeming it an acceptable addition. Now it was time to begin my quest for power.

That was until I heard a voice “Myrrha, you have gained my attention and also that of Trois you need to find a way to hide from his watch. There is a dungeon 5 days travel north of your position I mortem will hide you from him until you finish that dungeon inside the core room is a chest containing an orb, if you swallow it only deities you allow to know of your presence will be able to monitor you. This does not make you invisible to mortals, however. Make haste, after you complete this task we may talk at lengths about your future”

Chapter 22

Heading north I contemplated what I was likely to find. I gathered it would be a dungeon of quite a high difficulty due to it containing an item of high value. Each of the five days I practised with the new form of weapons and even added the manore to my morphed body when applicable learning to fight with claws and allowing spikes to emerge from my knuckles when shadow boxing. By the time we reached the dungeon, Suzumi was aware of her affinity with death mana due to her insects feeding on detritus. She was at 50% death earth air and poison affinity she now had an “outfit” of greens, black , brown and purple. These signified the insects containing each of the affinities. Sephirot was struggling to gain any new affinities but was leaps and bounds ahead of me in plant and earth affinities I had gained the ability to use plants using mana but the affinity was currently out of my grasp. Sephirot had explained that only by gaining it naturally would I see the true usefulness of plant affinity, I had however gained primal affinity and by evolving creatures with mana I had shot to 25% insanely fast.This affinity was not based on a form of mana but enhanced the senses and other parts of the creatures I had met and tamed, Echidna had realised she would struggle to continue getting stronger unless she had help from me. I explained that I would help if she had a basis in which she would like to evolve. Uriel had been quiet lately she seemed to have been contemplating a lot but upon reaching the dungeon there was a horde of undead awaiting permanent death. I stepped forward to destroy them, however, Uriel was on it, she flew over them and rained down pure light mana, she seemed to have gained a much stronger attunement with it and upon defeating the horde she began to glow. Her legs grew and she began changing into a stronger “monster” she grew feathers from behind her feet and her nails became longer and sharper. she glowed bright but I felt she could be pushed and infused her with life mana. She suddenly grew a second pair of wings on her back and gained two staffs one the pure white of light and one the everchanging white to dark signifying the cycle of life but she was going out of control and needed something else, the death mana was ripped from my control and created an orb on both sides of her life cycle staff. As if they were magnets they joined into one circle that began to wrap around her body. It grew blades formed from the light mana she supplied from the second staff it morphed and soon she held a staff which could become a chakram when she so wished. She had lost some of her angelic looks and had gained a more deific appearance. Azazel had come along the slowest in terms of eye-catching improvements but he had gained control of his mana to a high enough level that he could create elemental shields of any of the four basic affinities. I felt we were ready for the dungeon

The dungeon was a one room per floor kind of dungeon each floor would have a boss. Walking towards the first boss it was simply a skeleton knight, it was easily defeated using an earth cube which I repeatedly shrank to crush its bones. The first floor is always easy. Progressing onwards there were all kinds of creatures getting progressively harder. The 10th floor was where the difficulty ramped up, the 10th floor contained a spider the size of the 10 metres radial floor loomed above us. It still only required a roaring flame to defeat it but it was scary. By this point, I was using my shifting as practice but gaining exp very quickly I did however not know about it due to my mini stats screen. I wished that changing my shape would give me more stats I felt no change in strength just adaptability with the wolf arms, for example, I gained claws for weapons and gained speed in short bursts. Watching my friends fighting I could see how they used their form and worked it to deal damage.

The next ramp in difficulty was at floor 25 at which point the fight lasted much longer going from 30 seconds of each member of the party getting a hit in, this time a creature was not just huge for the sake of it it was a humanoid consisting of 4 arms all holding a different weapon. I rushed in and begun to attack not wanting to use much mana as I had no clue how long this dungeon would be. But he fought me off. I feel that I would have struggled had I not had my party with me. Azazel had discovered an ability to disappear from all detection abilities and used a high amount of stealth to sneak up behind the creature and scored a critical hit severing its spine. This continued until floor 40 where it became a riddle game that when solved wrong summoned a boss from a lower floor each time adding one more until we solved the 9th riddle to get to floor 50, at which point we were fighting 17 bosses at each wrong answer and begun to struggle. The fiftieth floors riddle, however, was a simple question. How do you defeat a god ?. the answer was simply to kill its followers. At these words, a core appeared and below it a chest containing an orb. I swallowed the orb and felt a pressure I did not know was there, As I stood up I sneezed and accidentally swallowed the dungeon core

BB: only accepted deities will have an understanding of where you are. This does not mean that the followers of the god cannot see you.

B: due to swallowing a dungeon core you have been given a time limit of 6 months to begin a dungeon before it will rob you of your mana and health ultimately killing you, to begin the process find an area and will the area to be yours. This will only be possible with a relevant class more info will be given during your class up. However, the next class up will all give the ability to do this.

The dungeon then started to rumble and we were teleported out. Feeling safer I decided to head back to the town where I decided I would keep my friends summoned until we were close and let them be unsummoned once we were close enough to the capital. Returning took 3 weeks due to detours but was worth it as I felt myself at the bridge of a rank up in level but chose to hold off to gain the best effects. My plan failed due to not expecting foul play. 2 or 3 miles from the gates as we left the forest I felt a pain in my shoulders turning round to see Uriel shot down by an arrow. Looking forward I saw a band of men with robes on shouting at me. “ foul creatures, we will destroy you in the name of Trois, your existence is an insult and you are to be killed in his name by us hand yourself over peacefully and your minions can go about their life until a quest calls for their cull if not we will continue to wipe them out until you surrender.” I felt high on power due to the dungeon and charged them. this was a mistake as I felt my friends picked off first sephirot was burned by white flames, I felt the tattoo burn. Echidna was hurt by a wall of arrows and the piercing pain I felt like getting the tattoo a normal way. “STOP, I give up “ the group arrested me and I was taken away to the capital and my friends had to run before they were killed I released them all losing a lot of my strength but they were all safe.

I was thrown in a prison where I was told my execution would commence in 2 months after I am interrogated for information on my class. Then I heard the voice again “Myrhha I have to apologise for how Trois found you. he knew you disappeared and sent his strongest prophets into the forest you would return from in return for my mistake and your willingness to follow my advice I will bestow upon you the class experience to advance to the next class however your next class will rob you of the blue screen you will now only get information directly from me. Also, you will lose your humanity in appearance and get a corresponding race to your class breaking out of here will be your challenge, it will help to know that you are only surrounded by Trois followers and are many miles from innocents so it's fine to demolish the place if you find a way to do so.

Chapter 23

CLASS UP AVAILABLE

Gluttonous mobile Demon dungeon : due to your love of Mortems creations you have been given the ability to house them inside of you however you will at all times have to have a base of operations this will be where your domain will reside.

Welcome to My World: All stats doubled in your domain,

Natural selection is too slow: monsters and animals inside your domain will evolve at 5000%,

Nom nom knowledge: any creature you eat will give you skills depending on how much you eat

Demonic change: you become a demon

Gluttonous mobile Angel dungeon due to your love of Mortems creations you have been given the ability to house them inside of you however you will at all times have to have a base of operations this will be where your domain will reside.

Welcome to My World: All stats doubled in your domain,

Natural selection is too slow: monsters and animals inside your domain will evolve at 5000%,

Nom nom knowledge: any creature you eat will give you skills depending on how much you eat

Angelic ascension: you become angelic

Gluttonous mobile Beast dungeon due to your love of Mortems creations you have been given the ability to house them inside of you however you will at all times have to have a base of operations this will be where your domain will reside.

Welcome to My World: All stats doubled in your domain,

Natural selection is too slow: monsters and animals inside your domain will evolve at 5000%,

Nom nom knowledge: any creature you eat will give you skills depending on how much you eat

Beastly transformation: you become a Beastman

Gluttonous mobile Insect dungeon : due to your love of Mortems creations you have been given the ability to house them inside of you however you will at all times have to have a base of operations this will be where your domain will reside.

Welcome to My World: All stats doubled in your domain,

Natural selection is too slow: monsters and animals inside your domain will evolve at 5000%,

Nom nom knowledge: any creature you eat will give you skills depending on how much you eat

Insicti-fied: you become an insect

Due to your previous class, you will also be a subspecies of a chimaera meaning you will also gain physical traits of those you eat

All of the above will remove your ability from previous classes but will allow for much stronger abilities and the creatures you would have had as tattoos become free-roaming members of your dungeon meaning a percentage of the creatures defeated by them will give you points to unlock more creatures for your dungeon it is a shame you have released your strongest friends.

The choice became not what class to pick but which race to pick it did not explain what I would morph into so beast and insect was out, I did not fancy becoming a dung beetle or a mole or something so narrowed it down to angel or demon, deciding on looking like a good guy rather than a demon thinking that, if I was to spread the word of mortem I prefer people talk to me rather than scream and run away. Accepting the choice of the angelic class I felt excruciating pain as I grew feathered wings from my back luckily I was not wearing a shirt so they sprouted correctly a halo shined above my head and a white gown appeared around my body. The feeling of the material was soft upon my skin

ERROR: due to your morality and weapon proficiency the evolution has taken an unspecified variance, unique evolutionary path unlocked

The feathers of one wing turned black and the robe split revealing dark blue skin the material then turned into blue fabric and leather wrapping itself around me as the robe did to form a jacket with a gap in the back to allow my wings to poke through. The blue material made trousers but I felt a slight breeze. Still displaying my chest. In the centre of my chest, I saw a symbol that I had to imagine was related to the change. A circle with a creature inside this creature had the head of a lion a goat and a reptile although it was a small creature not a fully grown of any of the above it had around it in spirit form a tortoise a rabbit, and many others mostly animals that were low on the food chain barring the wolf that seemed larger, curiously the creature in the middle was sleeping but I could see it breathing. Choosing to hide it I closed my coat and inspected the rest of the changes I had a tail that looked like it was that of a goat but the end looked like the tailfeathers of a dove but it was hidden by the back of the jacket hanging down I swished it and as it swung feathers pierced the ground and dissolved the halo had broken in half and embedded itself into my forehead becoming hornlike but keeping its golden glow. I could feel the manaore still floating in my body but it wanted to be released I felt it grow from my hands to form claws like the shotel I used to use and form into lines down my forearm waiting to become my blades. The rest flowed int my back and seemed like the urumi I used to use would be an extension of my tail I, however, could not feel my heartbeat. Most people will not notice the beat of their heart due to getting used to it but when it stops there is a very clear stopping of that feeling I knew that something was in my hearts place but not what it was.

Mortems voice sounded in my skull. “Myrrha you have become my prophet completely but the addition of the dungeon core was in fact unplanned you now have even more potential to be free than ever planned, no god except me knows what you are right now so if you escape you will not be hunted however the ability to see your skills or stats screen is gone if you have a question search for the answer in books or otherwise I will try and fill you in as much as I can now but after then you will have no access to the blue box system due to the main factor of the process. You are now actually a monster not a human, the monster you currently are will change depending on your actions and maybe a little push from me, the only times I will contact you is when you are close to an evolution or when you have gained a new path currently you are a rare angel variant, specifically the rarest. A fallen angel. You have access to both holy and dark magic at high volume. The main thing is due to how affinities work you still have access to your previous affinities meaning you have the ability to surprise opponents much easier. The bad news is that you are now a level one monster. You were very strong before you are now much weaker but with much more potential. I have given you a drop of my strength to allow your escape but it is not in my nature to help too much.

Also, you have much less time to establish your dungeon if you do not place your hand on a surface and inject your mana into it imagining a symbol of your power, you may choose any symbol but it will be linked to you after that and never be possible to change. This will cause you to construct a domain of which your dungeon will flourish. The feeling in your chest is the dungeon core that has replaced your heart. You are now a mana beast and that was the unexpected increase in potential you are now a mobile dungeon. You can only be killed by the destruction of your core. Your domain will stay rooted in the places you apply your symbol to and establish these domains will cost you half of your mana which will not come back. The size of your domain then increases as it refines and stores it this will then replace your mana with refined mana. Large scale magic requires this and very few identities on this world have access to it humans who destroy and ingest dungeon cores have the ability to gain it however the speed is a snail's pace compared to that of a dungeon. The ambient mana of a location will influence the amount of mana available to create minions of your dungeon. Right now you have no possible minions. You must absorb enough life essence of a species or form a contract to gain access to minions of that species, only one of a boss type monster may be summoned this way and only monsters equal to or less than the tier of your dungeon may be summoned. I hope this is enough info for you to begin life as a fallen angel. The unique path open to you is now open I am excited to see where you go. For now, a guard is coming so use an illusion which part to mask your transformation and as a heads up your tail feathers that shoot out can be magically modified, I’m sure you will figure something out. You have 3 months to start your dungeon”

“Prisoner the time has come to be tortured for information” the guard looked at me and saw what I was before my class up a human of 21 with nothing except underwear. As he moved closer I whipped my tail at him and laced it with sleeping poison I needn’t kill an innocent brainwashed guard. Stealing his clothing and applying an illusion to the sleeping body and letting myself out of the cage I was put into. Not stopping there I took the keys and released all of the prisoners, a riot ensued rather quickly. As I slipped out of the dungeons I came to the rest of the fortress there were guards everywhere but I used the commotion to leave and walk towards the north. I did not know where I was or where I was going but I did know that I had 3 months to find a worthy place to call my domain.

Chapter 24

I was soon hungry and thirsty but found that I could feed off of the mana in the world it was not perfect but I was growing better at controlling it. I could last till I found the best place to start my domain I was sure of it. 3 months was a long time but I could handle it I am weak now and getting weaker but I knew that would happen I was a new form but I would adapt and level up again. The only difference being if I reach rank up I will evolve. That is how monsters work. dungeon monsters work differently and only evolve at the whim of the dungeon masters, that was me now.

I remembered the other part of my class. If I could eat a monster I would gain a portion of its skills I felt that there would be limitations but they would remain to be seen. I thought back on where I had been. All my life I was running or hiding from the civilised world and lost a lot. I had dealt with everything thrown at me and only just now realised the big picture. I wasn’t one of them anymore. I was acting like them, behaving as they would. What if I stopped doing that and concentrated on my own wants. I wanted to not have to hide, never again would I be put in the position where my choice was the deaths of my friends or the death of me. I would need power. I needed to be able to protect myself and those around me. Due to my pseudo-evolution, I was now a much more exciting existence. I understood what Mortem’s goal was in creating the monsters.

They were not the enemy of the other god's creations they were the selection process. They weeded out the weak but were not tactical or selfless. They were predators. Meaning only the strong could defeat them and the population of the world had to teach the next generation as my parents did. However now I was a new factor I had the ability to become stronger than what I ever could have been but I had the ability of profound thought. A dungeon was much the same it created minions to protect its core. I was mobile I could protect my OWN core. Many years ago, I had said I would not remove the king from power and overthrow the kingdom. That was still mainly true the only thing was that I would begin my own kingdom. My domain would be my kingdom and I would slowly but surely take control of the area I cover whether the previous owners liked it or not. I would neither protect people needlessly or kill mercilessly. I had stopped moving and sat to ponder, what if my morals were my own intentions and what were morals I had grown to call my own because it was expected of me. would it not have been better to kill the guards that were weak as to not allow them to explain that I had escaped. I thought and quickly came to realise I found killing innocent people wrong, not because people said it was but because I felt that they had lives to live. People that were causing my life to be troublesome would be closer to being worth killing but only those who set out to hurt me or those I cared about I had one worry but I knew a way to solve the problem.

Using the manaore I cut my hand and allowed myself to bleed forming this blood into an orb I sent it with the ability to find me towards my mother and father it would show them where to find help and allow them to be safe but not show Trios or any of the other gods where I was.

I felt something change inside of me and was not sure what it was, I knew id find out soon enough but that was something I would find out about later. For now, I had creatures on the way I could see the dust of a group of animals running. Taking flight I flew towards them and found them to be a pack of lions. Lionesses to be exact but never the less it was easy to pick them off with magic I had found my meal.

Eating through the lions I felt better and less hungry but moving from one to the other I began to move more fluidly as I could move with more agility. My claws tore through the flesh easier, this must be the collection of skills. I thought it was in a literal sense of skill like my human mind would imagine. In actuality it means I gain the abilities of the creature, sharp claws, graceful agility, I deduced that I would also be able to walk quieter like a predator that can stalk prey silently.

The end of the first day consisted of hiding in a cave and erecting a barrier over the opening. It was the first thing I had came to other than a few fields and some trees now I had found a cave but I did not trust there not to be enemies that may come in to feast on me.

Waking in the morning I saw no danger on the other side of the barrier and thus kept moving I had caught notice of a flow of mana that was stronger than the ambient flow in the vicinity and chose to follow it, the flow would get stronger the longer I followed it and lead me to a forest that started out extremely small in height but as I headed into the forest I found a second mana trail that headed to the deepest part of the forest containing huge fruit trees however what was most impressive was a lake found near the end of the day, I struggled to believe it but in the middle of this lake that looked to be half a mile diameter was an island with a woman sat on the shores holding a sword swinging it like a true master swordswoman. Flying over the lake I hovered above the lady of the lake and begun the conversation

“Fallen are rare creatures these days. how did you find this place?”

“I followed a mana flow that was getting stronger and found this place. I apologise if it is yours but I have decided I would like to use it for my purposes so either agree to leave or I’ll take it by force”

“ha..haha….hahahahahaha I like it. I have not been challenged to a battle of strength in a long time. In fact, the last to visit my lake had very different morals I can see it, you just want to live freely. Ok, I will use say 10% of my strength as a show of faith if you defeat me I will even follow you as a leader. “

“deal,” I said knowing close to nothing of who I was dealing with

Very quickly I realised I was out of my depth. Diving down I allowed my weapons to form but the woman knew what was happening and catapulted herself from the ground and that’s all I remembered until I woke up.

“morning, you were out for a few moments “

“again you shedevil”

“I’m the devil? you have horns. Just because your horns were once a halo makes you no more angelic”

“I seem to have been too hasty in trying to force you to surrender this place but sadly I win”

Moving from my seat beside her I revealed the symbol upon my chest etched into the very earth before i passed out from mana exhaustion turns out the mana in the air was much too dense so I had to use my full pool to make it mine.

Chapter 25

When I woke up I found many floating boxes waiting for me

DUNGEON ESTABLISHED

Due to high mana density please choose 3 immediate traits

Please choose 3 options

?????

?????

?????

?????

?????

?????

?????

?????

?????

I chose the 2nd 5th and 8th option because I felt like it and a page opened

Name: Unselected

Refined mana: 100/100

Ambient mana: 15000/15000

Minions inside domain: 0

Traits:

?????

?????

?????

Dungeon of gluttony : Due to the variant of your rank up the gluttony meant to apply to you transferred to the dungeon. Monsters you eat will apply skills to your minions during their evolution.

Minions available:

Venus man trap: 25

Goldfish: 2

Koi toad: 5

Rabbit: 10

Dog: 25

Imp:10

Wolf: 50

Mole: 10

Draconic honey badger: 99999995

Goat: 1

Snakes: 5

Monkey:5

Small birds: 5

Medium birds:30

Big birds: 50

Lilliebud max 1: 20

Immediately the lilliebud caught my attention as well as snakes, venus man traps and birds. However more pressing matters included the very angry lady with the sword.

“I'm impressed that you got what you want but you did not actually defeat me so I will give you half of what I promised you can use the land and water near the island and on it but I will live here none-the-less also I will teach you real combat skills, not that horseshit you tried to kill me with.” To begin with, she waved her hand and I was blind completely, I could hear, smell and feel but all my mana senses were gone “now we will train you to react to all of the information that the world offers you other than what you see. to begin with, just try and navigate using touch or hearing and when you can go about normal day to day activities we will continue