“No! Get back here! What’s this about dragons?! Mirdew!” Nathanial shouted, but Mirdew didn’t reply. Damn it, that’s the last thing I wanted to hear, how are we supposed to survive against fucking dragons?! We can barely deal with goblins and fairies.
“Urmm, Nathanial. About the app?” Leo said, pointing at the app with a simple W and a smaller 3 next to it.
“Ah yes.” Nathanial quickly tapped the icon and a window popped up.
“Welcome to Magic v3. We noticed that you’re a new arrival, would you like to go through the newbie tutorial?” It prompted and Nathanial tapped ‘Yes’. Who’d be dumb enough to say no?!
“Magic v3 is made up of two parts. The magic terminal and the magic tattoo which lets you cast ‘magic’. Magic is a major pain in the ass which makes no sense, you’ll especially realise this later on. Don’t be fooled by how logical it looks early on, things really are a mess. That’s what happens when a bunch of creators with different ideas of what a world should be come together... And I’m not just talking about shorty and the other lunatics…”
Is it talking about Anarak…? And the other kings? Are there other crazy creators running around? Well, like it makes a difference. It’s not like things can get any worse.
“Anyway, in this world, there are countless ‘zones’ with a wide variety of laws, completing the criteria for progression in that area will give you dratons.
These dratons are absorbed by the magic tattoo and are present in tiny quantities in the atmosphere where it is processed by plants into magic wood. Animals also inhale it and over many years evolve into monsters. Defeating monsters will give you some of their points. Don’t ask me how any of this crap makes sense, it simply is.”
I see, so the longer you stay here, the stronger you become, more or less. No wonder the trees reach the sky and even a fucking cat is like a god compared to us, they’ve probably been here forever.
“You can use ‘magic’, yes I mean that sarcastically, by focusing within yourself and ‘dragging’ a faint wisp of energy to your fingers. You won’t be able to do anything vaguely useful with this level of magic, but if you practice over and over, then you’ll eventually be able to draw more wisps, until you cover your entire hand, and then you’ll be able to project a force push.”
A force push? Is that all? Weren’t they chucking fireballs at us?
“The force push is the most basic application of magic, with it, you can push small objects like remote controls or pebbles away without touching them, yes I know, it’s really shitty.
But, as you progress, you’ll get more options, but for those, you will need to feel the sensation of natural phenomena and how the dratons flow through them and try to recreate it. You also need enough dratons to fuel it. All things you lack.”
Enough power to push a fucking pebble? What is this crap? Even if I could push a person away, it wouldn’t stop those fucking fireflies swarming me. Fucking hell, we really are screwed.
“Moving on. As part of the Newbie Care Pack, you will get enough dratons to reach Level 1. Be glad that you’re even getting this, we sometimes drop people in the middle of death-traps just to see what happens.”
It’s almost as if this thing knows what I’m thinking… And what the hell is Level 1? Don’t tell me this world is a video game or some shit? And fucking hell… There are places worse than this?!
“As you accumulate dratons, your body will be infused with dratons making it stronger, and at a certain point, the magic tattoo will expand and take up more room. This is a level up. Once you reach Level 2, you will theoretically have enough dratons to push a person away.
Your current level can be seen in the magic terminal, but you will have to wait for this explanation to conclude first.”
Whooptedoo, I’ll be able to push a person away. Fabulous. I’m bursting with excitement. And my body will be covered in a giant tattoo, wonderful. That’s exactly what I want. What a fabulous gift. Fucking hell, Mirdew.
“Instal- Applying the Newbie Care Pack.”
A surge of energy flooded through his body, and he felt a tiny wisp of energy flow into his feet, up his torso, and into the tattoo on his arm. It throbbed for a moment, and then subsided. What the hell was that?!
“You are now Level 1. Practically worthless, but you’re getting somewhere.” Damned computer.
“As you level up, you’ll get more abilities, possibly even gaining the power to control time, all better than your shitty force push,” What?! I can get the power to control time?!
“As a last word of advice, don’t go into any forests, until you’re at-least Level 5. That’s where all the monsters gather, especially the ones with trees which reach the sky. In fact, even if you’re Level 5, don’t go there unless you’re in a large group, or you will die… Probably.”
That would have been useful to know earlier, we ended up figuring that out the hard way. And don’t change the subject, tell me about controlling time!
After reading through the text twice, Nathanial hit the close option and a strange window appeared in-front of him. It looked gorgeous beyond compare, and yet bizarre, as if the hands of an eccentric genius created it.
At the top was text showing his level and an empty progress bar below it. How many years did Mirdew spend this designing this fucking screen, no wonder releases take forever. And great, a progress bar, I guess I’ll have to fill it up to get my mighty force push, wahoo… Ugh…
Nathanial glanced at the other options, but they were mostly greyed out and no matter how much he tapped them, nothing would happen. What the…? What’s going on? Why can’t I interact with anything? Wasn’t there a playlist?
“The magic terminal is currently in survival mode. You can’t access these features right now.”
Survival mode… What on earth does that mean? Maybe, if we survive against the threats here and grow strong enough to thrive, then it’ll unlock the survival mode and give me access to the other options?
Nathanial sat down and looked at his hand. He concentrated on the tattoo and felt the power bubbling within. He tried to thread it out, but nothing happened. Hm… How do I do this…
His face turned red as he struggled with all his might, but nothing happened. I must be doing something wrong.
He turned and shouted, “Does anyone have any idea how we use the tattoos?”
“I think we need to meditate and become one of the universe. Guide the energies through and the rest will follow.” The bald monk said.
“Okay, the guards will continue the patrols, while we try to get this thing working.” Nathanial announced and the guards frowned. You’ll get a chance to do this later, you too will get the chance to throw pebbles with your mind, ooh mighty. But I really don’t want you meditating when the fairies or the goblins or the dragons come to kill us.
Nathanial sat down, opened the music app on his phone and left some relaxing music playing as he sank deeper and deeper into meditation. Now that I think about it, do I need to charge my phone anymore? I noticed that it stayed at 100% and never went do- No. No thinking. Empty your mind.
Several images fluttered through his head, including a vague image of a pumpkin. Pumpkin… Pumpkin…
It came closer and closer, becoming more and more distinct, until the horrifying face with a sinister grin mere centimetres away from him. Just as it was about to swallow him up, he suddenly opened his eyes and held back the urge to scream. What the hell was that?! What the fuck. Why the hell are pumpkins appear while I’m meditating?! What the hell is going on?!
He grabbed a bottle of water and chugged it down. Ugh, what the hell was that… Will that happen every time? Ugh, what a shithole… Let’s try it again.
-----
“Who are you? Where am I?” the drowsy Jake asked.
“Me? I am Madenne, a member of Sienna’s Vauleron,” Madenne spoke.
“The Vauleron?” he asked.
“Yes, we noticed that our good ‘friend’ Anarak sent another batch over, so we went out to fetch them,” she said.
“Ah I se- Aaaa!!” Jake screamed as a black tattoo descended from the sky and drilled into his arm.
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
“About time.” Gunaf said.
“Hello to all on Planet Zufia, I am Rae Lord Mirdew, you’ve probably encountered me before. I’m here today to announce the release of Magic v3, the latest version of magic using the newest raenologies.”
“Ugh, this guy…” Madenne scowled.
-----
“Well Mirdew, I’m off now.” Anarak said.
“Leaving already?” Mirdew asked.
“Yeah, they need me for something back on Terra Five, we’re getting really busy with the arrival of the Fifth Game and Din won’t tolerate failure, especially not after the disaster during the Fourth Game.”
“The Nillian…” Mirdew thought as an image of a dark angel came to mind.
“Yeah, the Nillian. It took ages before Ragnarok got his arm back after fighting it. That damned coward, if I was there…. That fool never stood a chance.” Anarak said.
A triple haloed god next to Mirdew thought, “A Nillian ripped off Lord Ragnarok’s arm?! That’s...”
“Don’t worry too much about it, that thing won’t attack here, this place is too heavily fortified. Besides, it’s been a hundred cycles, it’s probably off killing Rae Lords somewhere else,” Mirdew sighed.
“Those damned Nillians… What the hell is the Rae Council thinking letting those… Things run around…” Anarak clenched his firsts.
“Who knows… The Rae Council never makes sense…” Mirdew said.
“I know but… Of all the places… This far in… How could they possibly appear here…” Anarak asked.
“I don’t know…” Mirdew sighed.
“I know… Anyway… Good luck here, the great game is coming up soon and… Perhaps, they’ll make another appearance… If it’s just a Nil Lord, then I can handle it but… if it’s the Eye of Destruction…” Anarak sighed and Mirdew shivered.
I hope not, every time those damned Nillians appear, countless worlds vanish. Especially… A Nil Lord… No… A Nullseer. Damn…. Damn! How the fuck did a Nullseer appear here?! What’s the Meta doing about it?!
Anarak waved goodbye and stepped through time and space before arriving on a giant spherical world ship with thousands of worlds within similar to the one Jake and co. were in at the start of the story. Behind it was a vast gelatinous blob stretching out until infinity and constantly shifting. Giant vortices sucked in tremendous amounts of rae and rotating relativistic jets shot out vast amounts of energy. This was none other than the Rae World… Rae Dae.
Surrounding it were millions of rae ships manned by double haloed and even triple haloed gods who confirmed Anarak’s identity and watched as he departed into the depths of the Rae.
-----
“You know… If dratons are just energy you can absorb, why can’t you collect it with the drone?” Jake said as he clutched his arm.
“You can.” She replied.
“What?” He asked.
“But, most of it dissipates as the tattoo has a ‘magnetic’ force. Also, this drone isn’t designed for storing dratons and no one’s going to be using something that precious for a drone. We’d still have to toss a fireball or two to draw it to us, and at that point, we might as-well kill the monsters ourselves.
The drone’s just here to deal with nuisances once we grow tired of them.” She explained and she swung her spear out at him.
“He-” He flinched back.
“This spear. Can store dratons. Watch.” She said and strange lines and letters appeared on it.
“With this spear, I can kill Level 50s. That drone would struggle against Level 20s.” She explained.
“I see,” he said as she dragged him along, “Wait, what.”
“Come. We’re nearly there, let’s grab the others and get the hell out of here before Antoin shows up,” she said before running off with him.
“Antoin? Who the hell is that?”
“A phantom spectre.”
“A phantom spectre?”
“A sort of monster from the Spirit World which tries to hijack your body, it used to be a person like you, but in the end died.”
“Like a ghost.”
“Yes, but worse. Much worse. They can create spaces between here and the Spirit World known as Dreamland Spaces which they can drag sleepers into and try to hijack your body through. If they’re sufficiently powerful, they can even draw out your consciousness while you’re still awake. Like that bastard Antoin,” she said.
“Dreamland Spaces… Phantom spectres…”
“Yes, what is it?” she asked.
“Pumpkin?” He asked.
“Yes, he looks like a… You’ve met him?” She asked.
“Well, we had a strange dream…” He said.
“How the hell did you survive?” She asked.
“I don’t know, but I’m pretty sure I heard Anarak.” He said.
“Wow, he’s actually done something useful for once, he usually fucks off after dropping us in this shithole.” she said. “Antoin is ridiculously strong, even I would die fighting him, but of course, Antoin is nothing more than an insect in-front of a Rae Lord. Anarak could erase him just by wishing it.”
-----
“Ugh, finally. I’ve finally done it.” Nathanial muttered as he sent a grain of dirt flying without touching it. Haha, after four hours, I’ve finally grasped it, it won’t be long before I’m flying and throwing fireballs, the whole world will be at my fingertips, I’ll be akin to a god…
Like hell that’ll happen, it took four whole fucking hours to master this crap. How are we supposed to survive with goddamn dust flingers?! Even a fucking goblin, the creatures without a brain can do better than me!
“Gerry. I really don’t think this is working.” Nathanial said.
“Neither do I. Maybe, we need to kill monsters to get more XP?”
“Dratons.”
“XP.”
“But, what exactly are we going to kill? Mirdew scared away the goblins, but I doubt they’re just going to let us kill them one by one, we’ll get slaughtered.” Nathanial said.
“Maybe, the treant? Do rabbits count?” Gerry asked.
“I have no idea. Probably. But I really don’t want to destroy our food supply, and I’m slightly worried about going after the treant, as the fairy came from over there.” Nathanial sighed.
“Then, there are only two places we can go. The North or the South.” Gerry said.
“The bats came from the north, I really don’t want to run into them, although they’re probably asleep. Still, I don’t want to take chances, and if we can get some distance between us, then it’ll reduce the chances of them taking someone else away. We’ll go south.” Nathanial said.
“Are you really that afraid of a fairy?” He asked.
“I’m afraid of a pack of fairies coming to kill us. Like the army of goblins which came by earlier.” Nathanial said.
“I agree, let’s go south.” Gerry said.
-----
“What are those things?” Jake asked, pointing to the monsters with tentacle hair devouring wolves.
“Tentascallions. They’re mostly harmless. To us at-least.” Madenne said as the drone slaughtered them and Gunaf let off the occasional fire wave. These guys are invincible. What the hell were we doing? We could have just sat back for the day, waited for them to show up, and avoided anyone dying.
“Do you have any advice on how to use magic?” Jake asked.
“This isn’t the time or place for practice, we can do that later.” Madenne said.
“The best advice I can give you is to kill things. A lot of things. You can figure out how to guide the dratons once we’re in a safe place,” Gunaf said.
-----
Nathanial marched forward with the group, occasionally stopping to try to get the feel of the dratons, but failing each time. We probably need to kill more enemies before we have more energy to work with.
He shook his head at the barren fields with the occasional tombstone.
“Nathanial… I have a bad feeling about this… It’s almost as if something’s watching us…” Leo said.
“Everyone, get back!” Nathanial shouted.
“Ihihi, humans. Lots of tasty humans.” A voice sounded out, as little clouds of smoke drifted around, and an arm emerged from the ground.
“Zombies!” A woman shouted as a half-decayed corpse rose up, and then another.
“Haha, this is exactly what we need, a flood of experience.” A man shouted as he waved a baseball bat at one of their heads, and killing it. Little did he know that off in the distance, a vague image of a pumpkin was watching him.
Several spears flew out and Nathanial hit one over the head with a chair.
I’m sorry I have to do this, but if I don’t, then it’ll be me rising from the grave to eat brains next after those fairies or goblins or dragons get to me.
My country also needs me, especially my family, I won’t let this travesty overtake our world.
----
“You’re finally leaving the Spirit World?” a creepy white puppet said to a blurry woman, the same woman who had previously breached the barrier..
“Yes, I got everything I can out of this hellhole… And I’ve finally managed to escape from ‘his’ gaze,” she said.
“Haha, that Osiris, the same as always. Good, good. For a moment I thought you’d miss the great game...” It said.
“Don’t worry… The game is everything.” She said.
“Elaine.” A blurry man with a long beard floated down with several other spirit kings.
“Have you decided yet?” She asked.
“Are you out of your mind? You want us to descend to the lower realms?! How?! Even if we make it through, the laws will suppress us to the point where the wind can dissipate our souls at any moment!” He shouted.
“Or what? You want to train for a billion years until you become a god? Please spare me the bullshit. Do you think I would time on this crap? You think I’d give up on the Fifth Game so easily?! The game is everything to me! I’ll finally have the chance to enter Heaven’s Tower and surpass those so called gods.” Elaine spat at his face.
“What else are we supposed to do? Steal a mortal’s body? Hah, good luck with that, that damned Osiris stacked the cards against us, the best chance we have is a subordinate, but the moment we enter their body, the law’s suppression will vanish and the body will explode from the inside from our power.” He shouted and pointed at Elaine who merely responded with a cackle.
“The laws? That crap? Do you know who I am. Elaine. The Empress of Death. Do you think I’d die that easily? My physical body lives. Half destroyed. But encased in ice and alive. Not that it stopped that damned Osiris from luring my soul over the boundary. When I become a Creator, I’ll kill him.” She shouted and they gasped.
“If you follow me, after I regain my body, I will conjure up a powerful enchantment to protect you from The Rules. His laws might be able to bind us now, but do you think they’d dare encroach upon me once I’ve recovered my strength? I am a Rae Shifter! No law can truly bind me!” She said.
“A Rae Shifter?!” The old man screamed.
“Yes. A Rae Shifter. Just like the Creators, I have seen the secrets behind the world, secrets beyond time and space. Unlike them, I haven’t turned them to power or unearthed the truth of the Rae, but it’s only a matter of time.” Elaine said and the kings trembled.
“I’m not the only shifter here either,” she winked at the puppet.
“Aw, I was hoping to keep a low profile. I’m not helping you, you know. I’m just an observer.” It said.
“Who is that?” A king muttered.
“That is… The Rae Lord Zekkalokt.”