With the rising sun, Fredrick awoke to the “pleasant” experience of being absolutely battered up.
Frankly he would have preferred sleeping longer, had it not been for the sound of birds in his ear, and sunlight on his eyelid, that made it difficult for him.
His whole body shivered. The temperature was summerly, but barely so. Combine that with sleeping outdoors with nothing but shoes, pants, and a torn t-shirt, and it made for a survivable but unpleasantly cold experience. Thankfully the sun shone through the morning mist, and the canopies greenery, to warm his body up.
Regrettably, the cold wasn’t even close to his only discomfort. Everything hurt and sucked
He had cramps, poor blood circulation from his atrocious choice of bed. His muscles felt sore and overused. His body was bruised, cut, and dirty, a combination that famously never brought other problems. He was hungry, and finally: Very thirsty with a pounding headache as a result.
Aka he felt like day one of that time he had a three day hangover.
The only difference was that he could remember the day prior.
‘F me, yesterday actually happened’
He had nothing to do but get up, and slowly crawl further up the canopy. He was in one of the lowest trees. Random birds and other small wildlife fled from his sudden movement as he slowly started his careful ascend.
The animals reminded him of the wolves, he looked back down to the ground: They were gone.
‘Good riddance, glad those aren’t a problem i have to deal with..yet’
His thirst compelled him to grab random leaves of the tree he was climbing and drink of the dew that had formed on them.
it wasn’t a real solution, but it solved the problem of his dry throat and dirty hands.
Climbing the trees was something of a puzzle, as he had to both find branches willing to hold him, as well as a general route upwards.
It was a puzzle well rewarded, as he soon found himself on a slightly taller tree looking at an absolutely stunning view of an endless, but varied, canopy of trees.
Endless, at least for the miles that he could see through the thin morning mist. Endless, as far as he disregarded the hole in it, created by the lake that he was NOT interested in going to. The Glass Road, as he had decided to call it, also carved out a line in the canopy, if he knew where to find it. Then, in neither direction of the former two “landmarks” there was the looming shadow of a mountain, or perhaps a larger hill, that still had yet to be fully revealed by the mist.
Should he take the road?
His stats had increased since the first time he had attempted climbing the trees, climbing back up the trees would be easier now. As such, going down and following the road wouldn’t carry the same risk, and it would allow him to make better use of his increased speed.
‘Yeah, who am I kidding? Mountain it is’
He had spent almost the entirety of yesterday following the damn road, and it had brought him exactly nowhere interesting, it had all been the same forest all day. To top it off, it had ended with him nearly dying.
Perhaps the last part was an illogical conclusion, but he did not care. He would rather go off-road towards a tangible destination, than keep on the same road towards nowhere.
so his journey began.
The day moved on, the mist had nearly lifted when he felt the buzz of a notification.
Already before he pulled out his phone he knew what had caused it. The subtle pull of his mind, and the faint sensation of moving upstream, was a dead give-away. Yet he looked at it anyway, just to confirm.
The Lotus grows deeper, already a scent is spreading in your spirit, reminding you of a place without a worry.
+1 "Curse of the Lotus". You’ve gained 100 exp!
Curse of the Lotus: 3
Another symptom of the curse was the immediate increased sensation of thirst. He had held it at bay so far by drinking every single handful of dew-on-a-leaf he could get his hands on during his travels. Now another solution had presented itself clearly in his mind: The water from the lake.
‘Of course it would hit me with that, I think it would have a BIT more of success, had it not been for OtherWorld LITERALLY telling me it’s a curse’
It didn’t matter. With his knowledge he wouldn’t fall for weak suggestions like that. For now he would take the free experience, say “thank you” and move on.
On the topic of experience, he had some missed notifications telling him he had gained more:
Bad as it was, rest is better than no rest when recuperating.
You've recuperated your resources! Perhaps next time they'll carry you further
+2 "Mana". +20 exp!
+2 "Adrenalin". +20 exp!
+2 "Stamina". +20 exp!
Resting a worked muscle improves them, and you’ve rested your Agility 'muscle'.
+1 "Agility", +100 exp!
‘Does that mean I would have gained greater benefit with better rest? It was the best place I could find!’
Of course he wasn’t truly complaining, it would be like complaining about getting less free stuff than he could have gotten, free stuff was still free stuff.
He took a leap to the next branch, then pulled up some info he had been reminded about:
Mana 13/13
This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
It could very well be that this mysterious resource had saved him yesterday, how could he use it again?
He jumped to another tree. There was a good place for him to rest.
He closed his eyes, trying to zero in on the feelings. It was hard to tell if there was a difference in his inner world now, compared to what it had been prior to OtherWorld.
Except, of course, the endless and small pull towards the lake: If that was magical, then perhaps his “Personal Sorcery”, as OtherWorld called it, followed a similar logic.
He recalled the sensation. He had wanted to empower the spear and make it deadly, then that had struck the wolf, and it had been deadly.
Was that really it? then why hadn’t it done something the first time he had hit a wolf? Perhaps he should try replicating it.
Frederick quickly found a twig to break, soon he had a miniature “spear” in his hand.
He imagined the trunk to be evil, and that he hated it with all his guts, he clutched his mini ”spear” and struck the trump with all his might!
Nothing.
He figured as much, the feeling had not been there.
He looked further into himself.
‘The other times I was just desperately trying to flee while keeping them off me, whereas when I succeeded….’
It had been about intent. In the moment he had struck the wolf he had no deeper reason than that, there was no idea of saving his power for running away, no deeper context had been on his mind in that moment. His motives aligned perfectly with his actions, and with the result, what were his motives here?
If he was honest, it was to do something flashy and magical, to do something in defiance of the expected. He wanted to summon lightning. To do that he did not need a twig, his bare hands were enough.
He reached out his hand. It was time to summon the arcane.
A sensation of intent flowed through him, a desire for an outcome.
For a moment his fingers crackled with lightning.
‘Woah!’
Mana 12/13
----------------------------------------
Once he had figured out “the trick”, the rest of the experimentation became easy.
After having tried out summoning different common fantasy magic elements, like fire, air, water, and the likes, it became apparent Lightning and Thunder indeed were his only elements.
Lightning AND thunder. The rolling deep crackling sound could be summoned almost entirely separate from his lightning. Almost, he could influence the ratio between the two, but he felt unable to completely separate one from the other.
The amount of lightning he released was in itself nowhere near deadly, at most it could be called an annoyance. At least he presumed so, he did not test it out on any live targets. The problem laid in the timeframe he could release his magic in. It was too slow.
A problem that had not existed when his spear had struck the wolf.
‘Mini-spear, i need you anyway’
It was time to try infusing his magic again.
Mana: 5 → 0
So far, nothing apparent had happened with the twig. Tryingly, he gave it a swing. A soft thunder was heard, and his hair stood on ends from the Ionized air.
It was definitely working! He could even swear the twig had become more rigid from the infusion.
A gust of wind blew through the canopy, some more thunder from the twig could be heard. If a soft wind could do that, what would a direct slap to a tree do?
CRACK-BOOM!
The stick blew apart in a burst of electricity, it even left some charring on the tree it had it.
It was nowhere near the effect of yesterday, but the effect told the same story: Once the mana was imbued into an object there was no apparent limit on how fast it could be released.
‘that is sure as hell good to know, unfortunately...’
Mana: 0
Playtime was over, he had to recharge before he could do so again.
‘I can only hope I'll last longer the next time, hehe’
Truthfully he looked like he would:
You’ve taken the first steps towards mastering your sorcery:
+2 "mana"! +20 exp!
So he continued his journey towards the mountain. With the mist being lighter it was almost as if he could see buildings on the side of it. This only furthered his idea of going near it was a good idea.
Unbeknownst to him, a leaf was swirling around high in the air, carried by the wind. Originally it had belonged to a twig, a twig that had suddenly exploded into lightning and thunder and thrown it high up.
As the currents of winds changed around the leaf, a soft thunder could be heard. It was an too imperceptible low sound for almost anyone to hear.
Almost.
You could see a raven swooping down and catching it between its talons. With curiosity it looked at the leaf, then it looked around, searching for the source.
It squeezed the last bit of thunder out of the leaf, then set off.
The leaf was left torn to shreds.