My talk with Genesis had been more helpful than I had anticipated. Despite the fact that I had lived in this world for over 100 years, there were still a few things that were unintuitive to me, one of them being the seasons.
Unlike the Earth, Epidas was flat, which meant that the daily, monthly and yearly cycles functioned differently. For the most part it wasn’t too hard to understand, there were the 4 major seasons Low, Rising, High, and Falling, with 12 different months in a year just like Earth. (Of course this wasn’t the case everywhere in Epidas, but there was no need to consider the edge cases. At least in Waroth this was how it worked.)
However, unlike Earth, the High and Low seasons didn’t necessarily mean hot and cold, and the forest I’m currently in displayed that with its magic withering effects. Currently the effect wasn’t too bad, but it seemed that would soon change with The Rising Dawn when the Low season changed to the Rising season.
I mean, ‘technically’ The Darkest Day is the lowest point, and everything slowly starts to rise from there, but it’s slow, and The Rising Dawn marks when things really start to change. But that doesn’t matter right now, what does matter is the fact that I can’t dilly dally with my escape. I need to get out of this forest as soon as possible after I get my Rank bonus.
Thankfully it wouldn’t be long before all of my Mana Cells Stats reached Tier 12, since I had been tirelessly ‘exercising’ my Mana Cells over the past month. Just like how muscles required exercise to get stronger, I was doing something similar with my Mana Cells, but, instead of exercise, it was referred to as Splitting Mana Cells.
Just like exercising muscles, Splitting Mana Cells was somewhat painful. However it wasn’t that painful, in fact, it felt kind of good, just like exercising muscles would, at least for someone like me who was used to Splitting my Mana Cells.
On this day, just like the others before it, I was Splitting my Mana Cells, and as I completed the process I received a System message.
[A Stat has reached Tier 12. Rank 1 Focus: (Selective Mana Superconductor) will advance to (Selective Mana Superconductor) +1]
It was a welcome message, since it meant that I would hopefully be able to maintain my concealment magic and get out of this forest. However, the System didn’t give exact numbers as to what had improved. Even with my (Mana Cell Enhancement) it didn’t give exact numbers. The only reason I knew the exact numbers for (Mana Cell Enhancement) was because I had done the calculations myself.
However, the exact numbers weren’t as easy to determine for my (Selective Mana Superconductor) as they were for (Mana Cell Enhancement), but in my past life I had eventually come to a conclusion.
If I had to put it into numbers, my (Selective Mana Superconductor) started out something like this.
+100 Selective Mana Resistance against mana at and below current Mana Tier.
+100 Selective Mana Assistance for mana at and below current Mana Tier.
The raw numbers didn’t mean much by themselves though. To put it into context, 100 Resistance would mean complete immunity to anything without bonuses. In this case, 100 Selective Mana Resistance would grant me complete immunity to everything at and below my own Mana Tier. However, if the Mana Tier was greater than mine, then the resistance would become less and less effective until it was basically worthless.
For the Selective Mana Assistance it worked in a similar way. For mana at and below my current Mana Tier it would face no resistance within my body, but if the Mana Tier was greater than mine this non-resistance would eventually become pointless.
With the new +1, (Selective Mana Superconductor) would look something like this.
+200 Selective Mana Resistance against mana at and below current Mana Tier.
+200 Selective Mana Assistance for mana at and below current Mana Tier.
This didn’t really do anything when resisting mana at and below my current Mana Tier, but it did mean that it would fall off slower at higher Mana Tiers. In addition, things that pierced resistances would now have more resistance to go through as well.
For the Selective Mana Assistance, the increase actually did do something besides fall off slower at higher Mana Tiers. Now, instead of not facing any resistance, the Selective Mana Assistance would actually start to assist the effects of mana within my body. It wasn’t a 100% increase or anything, but it did mean that the intended effect would take place with half as much mana as before. For instance, let’s say I spent 1 mana to perform a healing spell, then I would essentially get the effects of 2 healing spells worth 1 mana, not a 1 mana healing spell that’s twice as powerful. It was actually more than this though, since you also had to factor in the fact that there was no resistance in the first place.
So with this new bonus to (Selective Mana Superconductor), I was basically spending 1 mana to achieve something that would’ve taken me 200 mana before I got my [Magical Physique]. Of course that was only for purely internal mana and magic, for external magic it wasn’t any different from when I first got (Selective Mana Superconductor).
When I first got my [Magical Physique] it had allowed me to basically quarter the amount of mana I used for my spells, since I was no longer wasting mana when it was traveling through my body, but the new bonus didn’t somehow increase the amount of mana I was sending through my body. So, in the end, my external magic would be the same as before the bonus.
All this meant that I wanted my mana Stat to be as high as possible, and because of my (Mana Cell Enhancement) I would focus on my Mana Cells rather than my Mana Nebula.
So I had decided to raise my Mana Cells Stats 10 times before I Ranked up again. It was very unorthodox, but for me it was definitely the right choice, since (Mana Cell Enhancement) allowed me to raise my Mana Cell Stats much faster than others.
However I would only be raising my Stats 10 times for my Mana Cell Stats. For my other Stats I wouldn’t be trying to raise them all like I had before. Sure I wouldn’t neglect them, but I certainly wouldn’t be spending as much effort and time raising them like I had before when I couldn't progress my Stats beyond Tier 9.
With my internal musings finished I said out loud, “I should probably get going now.”
I didn’t have to do much before I left. Everything was already in my Internal World, and I had already eaten and taken care of my business not long ago. All I had to do was cast my concealment spells and get out of this cave.
At least, that’s all I needed to do before I could leave, but there was one more area of business that I wanted to take care of first. My appearance.
I had put off using my Personal Talent to change my Skill (Selective Transformation II) for the past month or so. In fact I had done very little with the Talent over the past month. So focused was I on increasing my Stats that I didn’t have time to mess around with my new Talent.
At least, that’s what I told myself. In truth I was a little afraid of spending my precious Collected Potential. On the one hand I knew that obtaining a Skill that could permanently alter and disguise my appearance was something I definitely needed. But on the other hand spending such a valuable resource was like being told to exchange my blood for an equal amount of water. Sure, I knew I could get it back, but it just felt so wrong to me. But the thing was… I really needed that water!
So, with pursed lips and clenched fists, I did what I knew I had to do and changed (Selective Transformation II) into what I needed. I meticulously crafted the changes in my head, just like I had done before, and directed the changes towards my Talent, bringing up a painful System message.
[This change will cost 22,643 points.]
With a pain in my chest I swallowed and accepted the changes. As the changes began I imagined a lonely tear running down a cartoon face.
Suddenly I felt my Talent whir into action, and I felt a twisting sickening feeling all across my body, either from using my Talent or from changing my Skill, I had no idea. Then, just as quick, the feeling changed from sickness to heat. The heat wormed its way into every part of my body, and lasted for about a minute before it felt like something clicked into place, bringing with it another familiar experience. One that I had a bit of a tenuous relationship with; an infusion of knowledge directly into my brain.
It’s not like I hated the idea of learning something very quickly, but my past of being almost a literal mind slave made me a bit jaded about things concerning the mind, to say the least. But, at least in this case, I could tell that the influx of knowledge was caused by my Talent giving me the understanding of how to use the new Skill, which I learned was now called (Deceptive Transformation).
There was no need for me to look at the System’s Skill description after the knowledge infusion I had just received. And I promptly utilized my understanding of the Skill to remake myself into someone completely new, and yet at the same time not so new to me.
I changed my appearance to look similar to how I had looked on Earth, with a few necessary changes to make sure it would actually work as a disguise. For the most part I looked like an average looking American guy, my face wasn’t overly handsome, but it wasn’t ugly either, and my skin was slightly more tan than pale. I was now slightly taller than before, and my Skill did everything it needed to to make sure nobody would be able to find out I was actually Radiant Shadow, things like fingerprints and other things were all taken care of.
The only thing different from my appearance on Earth was my hair and eyes. I wanted to disguise myself as a mage - I wanted to be able to use my magical abilities freely - and to do that I couldn’t hide my [Magical Physique]. Magical Physiques were not something that people were born with, at least not Humans, and represented someone having so much mana in comparison to what their body could handle that their body was magically changed.
Because of this, every Human with a [Magical Physique] was easily distinguished by their magical looking hair and eyes, and depending on the person could even have their skin change as well, at least those were the external changes brought about by a [Magical Physique]. The specific changes were determined by their [Magic Core], both the Color and Characteristic.
For me this meant that my hair looked like white crystal, almost like salt, except that it was a bit clearer and refracted light through it like a diamond. My eyes were very similar to my hair, except for the pupil they looked like white crystal, including the iris. However, the iris would slowly change color depending on how much mana I used.
Of course I could’ve changed these things with my new Skill, but if I wanted to act like a wizard, then I needed to look like one.
As I waited to recover from using the Skill, I looked at the amount of Collected Potential I had left, just over 7,000. My heart once again ached at the loss, but I thought this might be a good opportunity to do another test with a [quest].
My previous attempts had given me the basic information I needed, and now was a good time to try a little bit bigger [quest]. I used 6,000 of my Collected Potential to start up a quest to get out of this forest alive.
I felt the [quest] activate, and just like all the times before nothing really happened after that. The only difference was that my Collected Potential had dropped down to almost 1,000. It was painful, but at the very least it was a good motivator to complete the [quest].
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-Break-
As I walked through the metallic forest, heading towards the North, I made sure that I was as stealthy as possible. I checked my concealment spells regularly to make sure they were in top condition, and thankfully my new advancement had greatly reduced the effects the forest had on me. With it I was able to maintain my spells comfortably beneath my mana regeneration.
I wasn’t sure how far I would have to go before I got out, but considering what I had read in The Archives, it could be anywhere from a few hours to a week, depending on where I was in the forest. Hopefully it was sooner rather than later. There was no way for me to determine my location within the forest though, since the trees blocked my line of sight and prevented me from locating any landmarks.
My journey through the forest was, overall, uneventful. It left me with a lot of time to look back and see how far I had come. I don’t know exactly how amazing everything I’ve accomplished is, since I haven’t had much interaction with society, but I assume that I’m at least better than average, if not absolutely amazing. When I get out of this forest and into a city the first thing I’m going to do is buy myself some candy. I definitely deserve some Dream Shards for my accomplishments.
As I was daydreaming about the mouthwatering sour candy I loved, I came across a small trail, maybe 2 meters wide, running roughly North to South through the forest. Seeing as how I was already heading Northward, I decided to follow the trail off to the side, keeping it in sight but staying far enough away to remain safe from anything that might be traveling on it.
As I followed the trail throughout the day and into the night, I didn’t come across anything wandering on or near it. It was a bit strange, if this was a natural trail then there should be things using it, but it seemed that nothing came anywhere near it the whole day.
After following the trail long into the night, I saw, in the distance, a light shining in the forest, and decided to investigate. When I looked further, I found the reason for the empty trail. Humans, adventurers even. I could only see one guy standing guard outside a small cabin, but I assumed that his companion(s?) were inside. Usually adventurers would have some sort of magical defenses that they would use during the night to help protect them, but it seemed like a cabin had been built since nothing like that would work in this forest.
I debated whether or not to make contact with them and stay the night in the cabin, but there were too many risks for my liking. So I continued on following the trail, hoping to get out of this forest as soon as possible.
-Break-
After traveling all through the night, I was walking through the forest during the sunrise, but noticed that the sunrise wasn't changing to day. This meant that The Rising Dawn had started, and that the forest’s anti-magic effects were going to start rising from here on out.
It was still pretty dark out right now, but it would gradually get brighter and brighter until the next ‘dawn’ when the sun would finally resume its regular cycle. It was a special day in many cultures, but for me it was a bad omen that marked a countdown to get out of this forest before my mana ran out.
By the middle of the day, my mana regen finally couldn’t keep up with my expenditure, and my mind was starting to get a little tired from having to continually refresh and repair all of my various spells.
By the time it would’ve been dark on any other day, I had to give up on maintaining my visual concealment spells to conserve mana. I hadn’t come across anything while I was following the trail, but even if I did it wasn’t like I had a choice. If I didn’t drop some spells I would’ve run out of mana before long.
By the time The Rising Dawn finished, and the sun started to continue its journey through the sky, I had had to drop even my sound concealment spells and had started to walk on the trail to limit any sound I was making. However, thankfully, I came across another cabin in the woods before I would have completely run out of mana.
The cabin was actually locked with a physical combination lock, and it seemed to be there mostly to prevent curious animals from getting inside, while allowing anyone who knew the code to enter. Coming up to the door, it wasn’t hard for me to use the last of my mana to undo the lock and get inside. I wasn’t a master thief or anything, but I had dabbled in things like this to sate my long years of boredom, so I had a few skills that might raise a few eyebrows.
When I got inside the cabin, I locked the door behind me and promptly went to sleep. There wasn’t much I could do with my mana being empty, and I had been awake for over 48 hours now. I was pretty tired.
-Break-
During the middle of my nap I was forcefully woken up by my (Mental Operator). It had sensed something approaching the cabin and wiped away my tiredness in preparation for a fight. I used my new spatial storage bag to pull out a weapon from my Internal World, and started to prepare some spells that I could use to escape. It would be difficult to teleport very far in these woods, but I should be able to at least teleport out of the cabin and make a run for it if worse came to worse.
As my heart started to hammer in my chest I could hear heavy breathing coming from multiple things outside the cabin, and they all seemed to be headed straight for the door. Maybe whatever it was had hunted adventurers here before and knew that they had to use the door of the cabin?
I started to shake a little bit as my imagination ran wild with possibilities. Then I heard the combination lock disengage followed immediately by the door of the cabin coming open. I almost used my teleportation spell out of fright, but I steeled my nerves to try and see what was on the other side of the door.
Surprisingly, instead of a creature, I saw the adventurer I had seen previously. He looked like he had taken a real beating compared to when I had last seen him.
He was with 4 other companions, one of whom looked to be severely wounded and was being carried between two others that didn’t look like they were in that much better of a condition, with the last person looking like the only one that wasn't going to die if they didn’t receive treatment, though his arms didn’t seem to be working.
The man that opened the door froze when he saw me, and I did the same. He looked at my weapon and then my coat before settling on my hair and eyes. His eyes went wide as he observed me, and he said, “I’m sorry sir. We didn’t mean to bother you.”
I slowly lowered my weapon so I didn’t look so threatening and said, “Uhh, well please come inside. There’s no need for formalities, seeing as it looks like some of you are about to die.”
He hesitated for a moment before nodding his head and leading the rest of them inside.
Once they had all entered he closed the door behind them but didn’t lock it. I expected them to start treating their companions, but they all seemed to hesitate in my presence. So I took the initiative and said, “It looks like you’re in need of some help, which I could give, if you’re willing to help me with something in return?” I could’ve just helped them without saying anything, but looking at their actions I decided to lay out an equal exchange to try and lessen their wariness.
The man that opened the door, and who seemed like he was the leader, didn’t have to think long while looking at his team before saying, “Thank you sir. We would be happy to help you in exchange for any help you could provide.” He bowed his head awkwardly in my direction.
I didn’t know what kind of image he had of me to be acting like this, but I could find out later. For now these adventurers were in need of healing.
Everyone was quiet as I healed the person who seemed to be in the worst state, and I felt a bit awkward. So I decided to try and open up a conversation with a question, “So… what happened for everyone to end up looking like this?”
Everyone seemed to wince at the question, either because they didn’t want to think about it or because I was the one asking. In any case, none of them seemed to have the energy to talk except the person I assumed was the leader.
*Sigh* “It’s nothing special really. We were on our way out of the dungeon after The Rising Dawn. But as we were traveling we were ambushed by several Tessagris’. We managed to drive them off, but as you can see we were injured in the process.”
“Tessagris?”
He nodded, “Right? Normally they wouldn’t hunt in a pack, but I guess maybe The Rising Dawn agitated them or something.”
That wasn’t what I was trying to ask, but maybe knowing what a Tessagris is is common knowledge? So I tried to ask the question in another way, “Was there anything strange about them? What did they look like exactly?”
He seemed to ponder for a moment, thinking back to the event, before saying, “No, not really. I think one of them only had three ears rather than four, but other than that they all seemed normal.”
“I see.” Based on the description he was probably referring to something like the four eared cat I had met when I first entered this forest. “It seems you were just unlucky.”
“That’s about all I could say too.” Then we both went quiet after that. Me because I was focusing on healing, and him because he seemed hesitant to speak to me.
After I had stabilized everyone to the point that none of them were in danger of dying, the leader finally gathered the courage to speak, “So, sir, for what reason would a noble like yourself be here in this forest all alone at such a dangerous time?”
Noble? Why would he say that? I thought back through our interaction and tried to think of something that had given him that impression. After my mind raced for a moment, I recalled him looking at my jacket in the beginning. Then I remembered that this jacket actually had a Duke’s house crest on it. Crap, I totally forgot about that!
My lips pursed a little bit as I thought about how to go about resolving this situation. I can’t tell him it’s not mine. Wearing something with a house’s crest is a big no no, and I don’t have a reasonable explanation for wearing one if I’m not a noble. There was no way I could casually brush off wearing a noble’s insignia. I could pretend to be a noble, but impersonating a noble is a serious crime if I’m found out, especially impersonating a Duke’s house.
My mind raced by at extreme speeds as I tried to come up with a way to get out of this situation unscathed. After all, I really didn’t want to have to change my appearance again, that would just be way too inconvenient.
As the seconds stretched on in silence, I finally came up with a plan to not only resolve the situation but also gain their help. And I came up with 5 steps based on my many years of experience deceiving people.
I need to make sure to stay as close to the truth as possible, just in case they have some sort of Skill that helps them detect lies. Step 1: Establish a connection.
“Well, similar to you, I was involved in an ambush myself.”
“You were ambushed by multiple Tessagris’ as well?”
My good sir, even just one of them was enough to scare me… But now he’s at least invested in my story. Step 2: Gain sympathy.
“I wish, but no. It was actually a group of Humans sent to hunt me down.” I sighed, “I was separated from everyone and found myself on the other side of a portal that led into this forest.”
“Assassins were sent to kill you? Why?” He wasn’t immediately sympathetic, but I wasn’t done yet.
I never said they were assassins. They were actually sent to hunt me down because I escaped from a max security prison. But I wouldn’t say that out loud. Instead I said, “I can only assume they were after me because of jealousy. I was too talented and wouldn’t go along with their plans to exploit my abilities. I had intended to run away and be done with it all, but that’s when the ambush happened. I only just barely managed to get away by leaving everyone else behind and ended up here.”
One of the women in the group said, “That’s horrible.”
Seems like they’re buying in. Step 3: Bring them in and include them in the outcome.
“Yeah. Actually I was going to ask for your help with something related to this in exchange for me healing you.” I paused for dramatic effect before continuing.
Step 4: Put yourself down and exaggerate their perceived burden.
“It’s probably too much to ask of you though. Honestly I don’t know if I would be willing to help me out with such a big request if I was in your position.” I paused, letting the tension build up.
I could see them become a bit hesitant when I said that, and the leader asked, “Uh, what were you going to ask exactly?”
Great, onto the last step. Step 5: Ask for something more restrained than they were expecting.
“Well, I want to be done with all of these noble disputes and infighting, and just want to study magic freely. So I was wondering if you would be able to help me get into the city and maybe even help me get a new identity. Of course I would also require that you keep my real identity secret. But I totally understand if it’s too much to ask.”
I could see them think it over in their minds, and I could tell that most of their apprehension towards my request had gone away. The leader looked at each member individually and received a small nod from each of them before turning to me and saying, “Alright, we agree. I just don’t know if what we’re doing is enough to repay you for saving our lives.”
“Worry not.” I said, “If you help me, I'll consider your debt more than paid in full.”
The conversation died down after that, allowing me to finish up my healing and letting everyone get more comfortable in my presence. I didn’t fully trust these people, but at the very least they would help me get into the city without an id of my own, anything else would just be a bonus.
-Break-
After healing everyone as much as I could, they all came together and agreed that it would be best to get out of this forest as soon as possible. Seeing that I didn’t disagree, we all got up and exited the cabin. Beginning our trek down the forest trail.
Considering the fact that we had just left a rest place, I expected the journey to take a while. However, it actually wasn’t that long before we exited the anti-magic forest and came to an open field that quickly dropped off in elevation, allowing me to see into the distance for the first time since I entered the portal.
Needless to say, the horizon was so much farther in the distance than would’ve been possible on Earth, and because of that I was able to see something in the distance that looked truly fantastical.
Asking out loud I said, “Is that the city we’re going to?”
Following my gaze the leader said, “Yes it is. Tri-Heart City definitely looks different from other cities doesn’t it?”
“Yes, yes it does.” And I meant it, even with all the cities I had seen in the past, this one was definitely unique.
The city seemed to float in the center of a sphere of space that seemed hollowed out of the surrounding terrain, and within the hollowed out space there were many different spheres of different colors seemingly anchored in the air. The city itself seemed to use these spheres as a scaffold to hold itself in the air, and there were various buildings seemingly built around these different spheres.
I wasn’t sure what awaited me in such a city, but I would be happy to end my perilous journey in such a fantastical place.
Book 1 End: From Cell To City.