CHAPTER 52 - First contacts

I am woken up by a huge tremor.

I get up panicking as I look around, taken by surprise, only to see Bruma peeking her head out of the entrance in between the vines and leaves I used as cover.

Intrigued, I calm myself as I take a peek outside too, there is no way we are being attacked if she is like that. I do scan the place just in case, but everything is alright.

Peeking my head out of the cave, I see why Bruma is so focused, a huge storm is brewing, and that tremor from before was the first one of the lighting that would soon fall.

Rethinking my options, I either wait for the storm to end while holed up in the cave doing some things and training, or I go out there and use the cover of the storm to keep exploring, even though I can’t map the area with the poor vision that the storm will bring.

The first drops of water start falling outside, and soon enough it can be called a downpour by the sheer amount of water hitting the walls of the mountain.

‘This weather… Those weird ‘rituals’ or artificial storms that I have seen those humanoid guys perform and create must be the reason for this change in climate.’ I can’t help but see some connection between this chaotic weather with the artificial storm fueled by sacrifices.

‘I will get to the bottom of this, someday…’

I eye the forest down below and I come up with an answer to my indecision.

I grab the backpack with the only things I brought and go through them. Inside, there are some things that will prove useful: a map which I have been using till now, a clean and dry set of clothes for me to change into when needed, a bunch of canned food and some water that I brought just in case, and both a lighter and a notebook with a pen to record my experiments.

The notebook is the one I have been using to record everything that I have been experimenting with from the start. It has everything I wrote down from each one of the specimens I dissected and theories that I came up with to test with magic.

The contents of the notebook range from my first questions like “How are the monsters' bodies so tough?” to the newer ones like “Can I create life with magic?” which I even tried recently with some grass as a starting point.

Yeah, quite the upgrade I guess, and quite the controversial sections I got there with the how to create life and dissecting monsters themes.

‘Better not show that notebook to no one.’

To sum up, the backpack is too valuable to be lost right now, so I create a small hole in one of the walls of the cave with magic to stash it there and then seal it again before leaving.

I carefully make my way down, this time will be harder than the last one with all the rain making the surface of the mountain slippery. The first smother section I created, I just skip, with a calculated jump to a close by ledge from where I start my descent.

Once I start descending, I feel Bruma’s claws sink into my shoulder as she hangs to me for dear life. Seeing her having a hard time, I grab her after some resistance and stuff her inside my jacket, where she can relax and enjoy the view. At least that would be the case if we could see further than our noses with all the rain and wind at this altitude.

I take my take to climb down this time, not too keen on slipping to my death. Sometime later, the winds and the rain calm down a bit, after we get down to a lower altitude where we are not so exposed.

Soon after, my feet finally touch green as we arrive at the forest. I am already drenched in water, which was the obvious conclusion, not gonna lie. Safely arriving at the base of the mountain, I punt down Bruma again and we start making our way over to a new section of the forest.

I start scanning the areas we pass by just as before to stay safe, not trusting too much on the cover that the storm gives us.

We push deeper into the forest as we hear the pouring rain hit the canopy of the trees around, creating a loud, constant chain of hitting sounds that cover most of the noises of the trees.

The first thing we find is a small den of some type of rodent I have never seen, remembering my experience with the giant moles of the park. We make a quick turn and avoid entering their territory, and soon enough we bump into one of the lone beasts roaming the forest.

This time, however, I stop Bruma from striking the beast in question on sight. This one is different, it shows some reaction to my scanning magic. I scan it again to make sure, and sure enough, it's one of the beasts who control mana, even though I don’t really get an impressive reading from it.

With no other threats around, it will be my first encounter to try to learn something from a magical beast. I get close and alert it.

The beast ends up being a boar. It doesn’t show any signs of using magic at first sight, but so do I when using mine, so I don’t let it confuse me.

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I show up in front of it, and it instantly panics and charges at me. Thankfully, being a boar, it makes it easy for me to test some things without being too dangerous as his attack is quite predictable.

I observe his movements, but nothing seems out of place. It’s not like when I scan Bruma, when I scan and try to observe her flow of magic, all I get is a mangled mess of mana that swirls all around her in what seems like complete chaos. When I look at the boar though, I can see its mana all gathered into a very small ball in the middle of its body, inside what I assumed is its heart.

I am no expert, but I know quite some things about anatomy now after am my shenanigans, so I am pretty sure that if I were to translate its anatomy to that of a human, it would be situated right on the heart.

I observe the fluctuations of its mana as the beast tries to constantly ram me like a battering ram. I dodge every time as I keep an eye out for any other enemies that may lay in ambush.

That’s when I get an idea to probe the boar to see if it would actively use its mana if needed.

I won’t let it ram me obviously, so I prepare to simulate the next best thing for it to think he needs extra power. Not having any big enough rock at hand, I am forced to get creative. I boost my body with qi and delivered a strong kick to a tree nearby, smashing through it and splitting it in half.

Thankfully the loud noises coming from the storm will avoid dragging any other beasts here while I follow my plan.

I dodge another charge of the boar as I repeat my actions to smash the tree into a smaller section that I can hold with my arms comfortably. Knowing that the tree won't be enough to force the boar to use its mana, I use my own qi to harden the surface of the tree.

I have only done so to some weapons before, and it was a hard stretch at the time. Now, it is a bit easier, but it still takes a huge toll on me to use qi to empower anything else than myself. However, I accomplish the task successfully after burning through part of my qi reserves and enduring a small dizziness sensation.

Once I have the tree part reinforced, I wait for the boar to charge again, this time not moving at all, letting it gather as much strength as it wants. I look fascinated as the boar’s mana starts flowing all around its body, reinforcing every single part of its body used in the attack with a precision and efficacy that far surpasses mine.

When the beast gets too close, I bring the wood I am holding in front of me to block his charge and see just how much stronger does mana makes the boar become.

The boar collides head-on with the bark I use as a shield and splinters start flying. The defense that the tree creates is breached and the wood is destroyed by his strength. Fortunately, I was ready for it and I have more than enough strength to block the remaining momentum of the beast with my own hands.

Once I stop its charge and the beast comes to a halt, I use my mana to imprison it. I make it sink into the ground instead of moving the rocks to cage it, as it is a simpler and more efficient way of using my terraforming ability in this situation.

Fascinated by the huge boost in power that the boar got from such a small amount of mana, I observe it as it tries to break free. It tries every possible thing, unsuccessfully so.

Not caring about its attempts to escape, I focus on its insides, I can’t really pry inside its body, but I can feel the pathways that its mana runs through at my level just by following the energy itself.

‘Interesting, so that’s how it's done…’ Yes, it makes no sense at all, and yet it's so clear to see.

‘This won't do, I need more samples, more magical beasts weaker than me so I can follow their ways of controlling mana from start to finish just like with this guy.’ This wasn’t what I was expecting, I want to deny what this means, but I can’t, so for now I need more information.

Just like that, not knowing what to think of my discoveries, I free the poor boar and embark on my way to search for the next magical beast I encounter.

After a while of running, I bump into another beast with some mana on it. This time, it is a pack of wolves with those shadows surrounding them. After some zaps from Bruma to incapacitate the weaker ones, I focus on their alpha, who is the one keeping the magic up.

Instead of the strong burst of mana from the boar, this one takes a more passive approach, creating that dome of shadows all around him and his pack. Due to its way of handling the mana, I don't even need to force the wolf to see how it works. I can observe it all I want just fine.

I locate the same bundle of mana in the same spot that the boar, and then I focus on following the smaller connections, the ones that flow in and out of the bigger blob of mana.

In the end, I get the same results as with the boar, throwing me off.

‘There is no way, I am sure there is another way. There has to be.’ Frustrated by the awful truth before me, I continue my search. Hoping that by the end of the day, I will at least find one way to make it work or some kind of clue I am missing.

For hours, I repeat the process. I would find an animal with some signs of wielding mana, I would force it to show its way of handling mana for me to scan it and then go to search for the next one.

Meanwhile, I seek answers to my current problem, the storm only gets worse. The wind howls between the trees, sending shivers down my spine as my improved body seems lacking for this harsh weather.

Having no desire to get a fever in the middle of nowhere and surrounded by dangerous beasts, I finally choose to back down on my search, returning to the cave, before the storm gets any worse. I even boost myself with qi to get rid of the cold sensation and hasten my retreat.

‘I need to get back safely and rethink my choices.’ I will need a lot of time to digest this new information.

I reach the base of the mountain in no time, and boosted as much as I can to avoid any slips along the way, I climb the mountain to my small hideout. I use magic, causing some rocks on the smooth surface to rise and protrude from the wall, making my passage possible.

Once in my cave, I get rid of the newly created footholds by fusing the rocks again with the smoothed wall of the mountain and even go as far as to halfway block the entrance with rock spikes, just to be sure.

I undress and retrieve my backpack from the sealed hole in the wall. I sit next to the pile of dried wood that I preventively brought up here when bringing dry things for my bed and light the fire with the lighter.

Even after all the hindrances that I went through today, I managed to get a lot of things done, but in the back of my mind, there is still a huge worry right now.

‘Just how the hell am I supposed to mix my mana with my blood and Cardiovascular system?’ Without blowing into pieces, that’s it.