After hours of walking through the woods, we eventually find a sheer cliff face. Neld was all too happy to explain what we were looking at.
“This is actually the base of the great mountain ring that surrounds our kingdom, the village I live in is actually really close to the border of our southern neighbors. Luckily, we’re not at war with them, they've actually got a strong trade relationship with us, since we cant produce a lot of crops and they have nearly no mining industry. We get most of our minerals inland, but these mountains make our borders, so you'll find most border villages produce crude ore instead of refined tools and armor like ours.”
As Neld rambles on about the kingdom and its border villages, i listen intently, genuinely interested in what he's saying, getting the vague feeling I'm breaking an all too common pattern.
“So your kingdom must have a surplus of ores and equipment, but that leads me to wonder what's stopping them from just overwhelming the kingdom they're at war with.”
We walk along the side of the sheer cliff face until Neld comes across a slight indent in the stone, grabbing the hammer on his hip, the head glowing a soft silver light before it hit the stone, leaving a flat indent big enough to fit the first to joints of his fingers. He makes this abundantly clear as he pulls himself up using it, holding his weight with one arm, he swings up with his other, making another hold in the stone.
“I’m not a military strategist, your guess is as good as mine. Now follow me, if I remember correctly, there's a cave system not too high up”
Seeing him climb up, I step forward and try pulling myself up, my larger frame much more difficult to pull up. Around halfway through I actually lose my grip and begin to fall until a silver sheen coats my body. Looking up, Neld is clearly struggling as he holds his arm out toward me, a thin beam of silver stretching from his palm to me, stopping my fall.
“I cant do this forever man, grab a fucking hold!”
Squirming around in the air, my body slowly turns until I can just barely grab a hold of one of the indents, right after the silver aura disappears, leaving me to swing directly into the stone.
“Shit, that hurt my ribs. Thanks man, you really saved my ass.”
Looking up, I couldn't see Neld, bit what I did see was a ledge, one I presume he went over.
“You better be up there man, I don't know what I'm gonna do otherwise.”
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
Fate seemed to be blowing my way at that moment. Right as I pulled myself onto the hard stone ledge, it opened up into a dark cavern, one that was partially lit up by a small fire with a small man next to it. He was leaning against the cave wall as he took heavy breaths, waving weakly at me.
----------------------------------------
“Now, that silver shit, what's up with that.”
Chomping down on some dried meat, Neld looks over at me, chewing for a minute before answering.
“That's just some crude mana manipulation. I was never strong, but I had an aptitude for magic. I figured out how to extend magic into my body to empower it, if only for a short time. Stretching it out to you to hold you in place was a first, I'd used it to lift small objects before, but nothing living, and no offense, but certainly nothing so big.”
“So magic is real here, I had assumed because of the messages and the whole teleportation and prism thing, but it's nice to get some confirmation. On the topic of magic, I've got 25 unspent stat points. Should I put them into spirit, will that allow me to use magic?”
“Here, send me your stat screen.”
After a couple minutes of him explaining how to share info from the menu, I sent him my stat sheet.
“Wow, okay, so you have no points in spirit, with the most basic values in everything else. The average adult has 100 in everything except spirit, that stat is much more difficult to naturally level. If you have zero in it, you generally speaking have no mana, as it decides how big your soul capacity is. In turn, your willpower determines how much energy your soul is able to naturally draw from your origin. Your origin is the plane your soul draws from, it can change with heavy events in your life, but typically it produces neutral energy until you hit your teenage years, then it resonates with an element. There are legends of some with dual affinities, but there's no solid proof they exist.”
“That's all fascinating, but how do I gain access to all of this all? How do i use magic”
“Well I'm not a teacher, so I can only give you the basics. First, you'll put one point into spirit, with that you'll unlock access to your energies, from here you will need to practice manipulating this energy, try drawing it throughout your body, letting it find its own path through your metaphysical flesh.”
Putting the point into spirit, i go to follow his instructions, looking inward like in the cultivation novels i read to see something right above my naval. A tiny spark of light in a black void. Focusing on the spark, i imagine the energies slowly pulling out of the center, flowing through my torso until it reached my shoulders. From there, I imagine it going down each arm, looking at myself in my mind from a front view. After guiding the lines to the base of my palms, i guide the back long the pathways like a circulating system. Once it reached back where it first started, i let go mentally, opening my eyes to find Neld asleep on the ground in a small blanket a little ways off from a fire.
“Aww, he fell asleep. weakling.”
I say to no one. Focusing back on the task at hand, I try imagining the energies traveling through the channels like blood. I then promptly fell to the floor.