BACK AT HOME

With this, Gram should be able to at least hang on for some time. And if I can have Stacy craft me a high-level potion once a month, then that can give Gram even more time.

Two years ago, Gram fell into a coma. Stacy told me that it was common for people with this illness to fall into a coma. It was a way their bodies used to slow down mana usage in the body. But in this state, they were unable to eat so they had to drink potions with the necessary nutrients.

“Come on Gram, drink up,” I urge her as I tilt her head slightly and feed her the potion. The bluish veins that were beginning to appear around her neck slowly fade as her complexion returns slightly back to normal.

I then go to my room. There isn’t anything fancy about my room. It is just a small room with a bed, a table and a chair. On top of the table are books on magic and herbs and other things.

In the past week, I pondered about my fight with the orc. If it wasn’t for my quick thinking, I probably would have died. The orc’s attacks were filled with raw power and even when I used my mana as a shield, I couldn’t block all the force that came with that attack. I needed to improve my defence.

I pondered for at least an hour and then it hit me. I can distribute the force evenly throughout my body instead of taking it from one point. But that’ll just make my entire body sore and if the force is even greater, that might shatter every bone in my body. Maybe I shouldn’t focus on blocking the force but instead transfer it to somewhere else.

Like the ground! If I can transfer the force using my mana from the point of contact, let’s say my arms to my legs then my feet, I could theoretically transfer the force towards the ground. Yes, yes that’s perfect and since we are at it, next time I might not have a log to fool my enemy so maybe creating some sort of a mana clone or something. Oh, and I could also-

I spend the night with an absurd number of ideas which I spend the next few months testing out.

And just like that, two years have passed by and I am now nine years old. It is time I take the fight to the orcs’ stronghold, in the deepest part of the forest where no ordinary man has set foot…

You are probably wondering why I am running and panting so heavily. Well, they are chasing me. I can hear them not far behind - a jumble of grunts, snarls and mild growls. I had earlier nosed into their colony made up of about five high orcs and thirty ordinary orcs. With their acute sense of smell, I knew it wouldn’t be long before they caught up with me, and that was what I was counting on.

And then silence. It seems as if even time has come to a halt. Suddenly, roars of orcs echo throughout the forest. They have picked up my scent and are snapping tree branches like twigs as they trudge towards the glade where I await them.

“Man, you guys don’t quit no matter how many of your comrades fall.”

The orcs charge at me, jostling each other out of the way as they plod forward, each one itching to get to me first. The ground quakes as they come. Sigh, I'm so jealous of these guys’ strength.

The first one in line smirks as it pounds the earth towards me and unleashes the first blow, its club taking with it several shrubs and raising a cloud of dust as it careers towards me. The monster seems to think that it has crushed me with that thunderous strike.

As the dust dissipates, its eyes widen in shock when it realises that I have blocked the club with my bare hand. Even with all its strength, it couldn’t even make me budge an inch.

“If it was me from two years ago, I wouldn’t stand a chance against you guys,” I scoff at them. “But the ‘me’ now far surpasses you.”

I have mastered Force Distribution. Using my mana, I am now able to transfer force to the ground effortlessly. Now, I just need to focus the left-over force on my fist and blow this guy off.

I channel the left-over force with my mana to my fist. The orc knows I am about to attack and it lets out a timid yelp. It tries to step back but the club, locked in the curl of my hand, won’t barge.

“Graaaahaaaaha!” it roars to signal its companions to help, but it is already too late. I push its club away and launch myself in the air towards it. With a devastating punch, I clobber its head off. The remaining orcs screech to a halt, and seem rooted to the spot in sheer terror.

“Hehehe, now it’s your turn.”

With fear triggered in them, the monsters know they have to start working as a unit. They cautiously circle me, putting me at the hub of the glade. They thump the ground with their clubs, grunting and snarling, the menacing drumming alone enough to drive fear into any man’s heart. Not me.

At least six charge, two on the left, two on the right and the other two attempting a sneak assault from the rear. I wait, counting them down, and then use my mana to leap high into the air and watch as they collide into each other head-on in a confused heap. Dazed and disoriented, they bludgeon each other with their clubs. As I swoop back to the ground, only two are left for me to finish off with a thrust of the blade into the one orc’s back, and slitting the other’s throat from ear to ear.

The remaining orcs shrink back a pace like trees bent by a gust of strong wind. They stare wide-eyed at each other, terror-stricken and confused. Now, none dare lay siege. They keep nudging each other, the one high orc forcefully jostling the frightened subordinates forward.

It is my turn to play tricks and launch a sneak attack. I spread my arms wide and begin to spin on the spot. Using my mana, I increase the pace, the rotation becoming so fast I am a blur. The tree branches begin to shake as the gust created by the whirling gains momentum, along with it a cloud of dust. I can see the orcs hanging on to each other and shielding their eyes as flying debris of leaves and dust bombards them.

And then comes the earsplitting groans, screams and grunts, gurgling, spurts of green and heavy thumping as one by one, they hit the ground with a series of agonising thuds. When the dust settles, I am standing in the middle of bodies of the orcs, some dead and some still shuddering and groaning in pain.

With the wind and dust as a distraction, I launched my attack, a punching and stabbing frenzy that leaves me panting and covered in the gooey, green fluid that is their blood.

“I can’t believe I actually took down an orc stronghold with thirty ordinary orcs and five high orcs,” I say, catching a breath on top of the dozens of corpses. “I guess my training these past two years hadn’t been in vain.”

I have been scouting this orc colony for the past few months now. I discovered it by accident while I was hunting. Thanks to my mana sense, which allows me to sense any organism’s mana or magic, I was able to detect the five high orcs. They exuded more magic power than the rest, so my plan was to first take care of their command center.

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Killing the high orcs wasn’t going to be easy. Each one was constantly surrounded by the ordinary orcs like a queen bee in a hive. It seemed as if each of the high orcs had its own hand-picked lieutenants, sort of a cabal responsible for the sovereignty of its patch within the colony. Even when the hunting party left to forage in the forest, two or three lieutenants remained behind.

I created a bunch of distractions, amongst them setting fires all over the outskirts of their stronghold, so all the orcs were in a state of confusion. This time around, I was pleasantly surprised when even the lieutenants frantically scurried out to put out the fires ravaging the outskirts of the colony.

In the midst of the chaos, I slipped in and accosted the nearest high orc, which was receding fretfully into a hollow cavern on the east side of the colony. Although I tip-toed lightly, the high orc sensed my presence and turned, inadvertently plunging its broad chest straight into my dagger. It groaned, exhaled heavily and then its body grew limp. I broke its fall with my shoulder, and gently wedged its corpse into the cavern.

The second high orc was prancing about aimlessly nearly five feet away, in the midst of the thick, dark smoke that was now blanketing the colony. It couldn’t see or sense me as I approached, because the smoke was blowing directly towards it. I loomed into view and for a moment it hesitated, thinking it was seeing things. No human had ever ventured into their stronghold.

And then it charged, roaring as it came. At the center of the camp two high orcs turned, distracted by the commotion. They came running and then stopped, as their comrade’s head rolled towards them. They looked up, seeing the orc’s headless body still standing, and then it too tumbled towards them. Fired up, they resumed the charge.

A crude spear, its blade crafted out of solid rock and the handle of wood, lay against a tree. I picked it up - it weighed a ton - definitely not fashioned for human use. As the high orcs came running, I tapped on my mana, channeling strength to my arm. I then tossed the spear, hearing it whistling and vibrating as it cut through the smoke. Both orcs, running in tandem, were gouged clean through, the spear impaling them on the tree two feet behind them.

I narrowed my eyes into the thick smoke, scanning for the remaining high orcs. As they came to view at the farthest part of the camp, heavy gaits thumped the ground. It was about a dozen ordinary orcs returning to camp, and they raised the alarm immediately after spotting me. I darted into the thick smoke and slipped into the thicket, fleeing into the forest. I could hear them smashing trees in hot pursuit as I fled deeper into the forest.

Of course, that was part of my plan, which was to tire them out. I had also laid some traps – several grass-covered pits with sharpened sticks at the bottom facing up. Some of the monsters fell into the pits, and the piercing sticks did the rest. I took out one more high orc after separating it from the pursuing horde, until only one remained, which I eventually slew during the glade battle.

It was a tough battle, one where I almost emptied my entire bag of tricks. I had to fight against the remaining twenty-odd orcs even though I just had a hell of a match with the high orcs. It was a pain in the ass.

And now, on the morning of the second day of my hellish battle, the sun dawns as I sat on the corpses of dozens of orcs.

“Damn, I forgot that I had to extract all the magic cores and materials from these guys alone,” I chastise myself. “I guess I never thought much about this, now did I?”

I then spend two more hours just taking out the magic cores and other materials.

AT THE VILLAGE’S GATE

“Oh, hey Allen,” says Amy with a big smile. “It seems you got a bigger haul today than the day before yesterday.”

“Oh, yeah I did Amy,” I say, trying to put a smile on my weary, pale face.

I haven’t slept in two whole days and the overuse of mana is also taking its toll on my body. Even though I tried to distance myself from Amy, bumping into her is becoming a regular occurrence. I thought she was scared of me but every time I come to the village, she greets me. And just like that, we have become somewhat close.

“I guess you didn’t sleep at all, did you?”

“Yeah… ah by the way, where are you guys going?”

Amy is with three other boys from the village; Light, Kelvin and Luke. They each carried a basket made of grass. The boys are about my age. We aren’t friends because they always distance themselves from me. I guess having the body of a kid and the mind of a grown-up drives a wedge between me and the other kids. I don’t mind it though.

It is only Amy who is able to talk to me. It seems she is more comfortable with me now than two years ago. I guess I am glad I don’t scare her any longer.

“We are going to harvest some herbs. These guys are also going to help out with the hunting.”

“Isn’t hunting the job of the village guards? Why are you guys going?”

“The village guards went to the nearby village,” Amy explains. “It seems that there was an incident there and the village chief asked our chief for help. Since Light’s father is the head of the village guards, he told these guys to go out and learn hunting on their own. They will only be hunting rabbits while I pick some herbs.”

I don’t like the thought of them going near the forest alone, but I don’t think anything would happen to them since I took down all the strong monsters near the outskirt of the forest.

“Well, have a good harvest then.”

I bid them farewell and enter the village.

“Hey Amy, why do you always talk to that weird guy?” Light asks.

“What do you mean weird? It's just that you guys haven’t had the chance to fully understand him. He’s a sweet and caring guy.”

“Oh, I see what’s going on here; you loooove him,” Light croons jokingly.

Amy blushes. “I don’t love him, we are... we are just friends, okay. Just friends, nothing more.”

“But you wish there was something, don’t you?” She punches Light in the head.

“Shut your mouth if you don’t want another one.”

At The Pharmacy

*Jingle*

The doorbell rings as always.

“Hey Stacy, I-”

Before I can finish talking, Stacy pounces on me like a predator attacking its prey. She hugs me tightly.

“Oh, kid I missed your stuff... I mean you, I missed you.”

“I guess you missed my stuff more than you missed me, huh.”

She quickly pulls me in.

“Of course not, it was the slip of the tongue. So, what do you have for me today?”

I take out all the materials out of my bag. She looks like a child receiving sweets. She quickly grabs the high orc core.

“Is… is this a high orc magic core?” she asks, eyes glittering. “How did you even get this, kid?”

“Oh yeah, that. I got it when I laid waste to their stronghold. There were five of them and other thirty ordinary orcs.”

“What?!”

She is shocked. Well, since I still didn’t know the ranking system of this world, I don’t really understand much about why she is always shocked.

To take down a stronghold of orcs alone and come out of it unscathed, not even an A-rank adventurer can do that, she thought. And to even kill five high orcs at that! Just how strong is this kid?

And by feeling the magic in these five magic cores, I can tell that these high orcs have been high orcs for at least five years or more. Their magic core is much more condensed and stable, unlike a newly evolved high orc which would have an unstable magic core.

“It seems common sense doesn't apply to you kid, now does it?” she says after an enormous sigh. “I'll need time to calculate your reward, but it seems like you haven’t slept at all. Why don’t you go to the back and take a rest while I prepare the pay?”

“Thanks, Stacy. I'll take that offer.”

“Oh yeah, since you didn’t come yesterday to take your potions, I placed them behind the counter so don’t forget to take them when you go. You can come tomorrow to take for today’s materials.”

“Got it.”

I then go into the backroom and take a nap as Stacy starts sorting the materials.

This kid is something else, she muses. To take down a stronghold of orcs, alone. An orc is a C-rank monster and a high orc is a B-rank monster. Taking down a stronghold like that will at the most need a party of A-rank adventurers and a dozen B-ranks.

Otherwise, it’s impossible even for a party of A-rank adventurers to take down an orc stronghold alone and with high orcs added to the mix, it’s impossible. But I guess it’s thanks to the kid that I can now avoid having to spend extra money just to purchase materials that have also deteriorated.

Not only do I now get them cheap and fresh, but I'm also able to create medium and high-grade potions more often even though they are Level 1. I then sell to the merchant caravan at an expensive price.

Potions are divided into three grades. Low-grade, mediumgrade, and high-grade. Each grade is divided into three levels. The higher the level of the potion in that grade, the better it is. I can now only make high-grade Level 1 potions in the high potion grade. When it comes to low and medium-grade potions, I can create up to the third level.

With these high orc materials, I can now see if I can increase my rank as a potion alchemist and make a Level 2 high-grade potion. If I can do that, then I bet even ‘they’ would have to accept that I'm not trash as they think I am.