Seventeen years went by.

I spent almost two decades learning everything Mom had to teach me about blacksmithing.

And in the last year, she even taught me the one hundred runes she managed to learn in her life.

Runes are the most magical things I've seen so far in this world. With them, you can make things stronger, move on their own, sharper, denser, and even create fire or wind.

And arrays are even more incredible. They can make literally everything. You just need to use enough runes to leave no imperfections in the design.

And today, as I forged my first five meters long, fire-coated sword. With two arrays on its body, one to increase its durability and sharpness engraved on one side, and the other to make it transform the ki that I inject into it to fire, to keep it covered in flames. Mom came to talk to me with a somber frown on her forehead.

“Ragurr, today you turn into an adult. It is a tradition in our race to make the new generation go through hardship and strife to come out better at the end. Go travel the world. You are not allowed to come back before ten years have passed.

“You are strong, smart, and respectful, so I am sure you will be able to carve your way into adulthood as a proper Durkan!” She says, looking into my eyes, then giving me a tight, long hug.

“This is a small gift for you; take it and remember, you're a Durkan, Ragur, son of Igdra! Be prideful of your name and your origins. For they made who you are.” She placed a ring in my palms.

I remember seeing one of these in an exhibition in a store in the center of the city; it is a spatial ring.

A silvery metal engraved with hundreds of small, spatial runes. Creating a small pocket of space inside, with fifty cubic meters.

“Thank you, Mom, this must have cost you so much. I love you!” I say as I hug her again.

It did not take long to pack my things. I am taking with me only my clothes, my bed, that is only a big mattress, my portable forge and sand belt, and some money that I managed to make during these years of learning with Mom.

Giving one last hug to Mom, I walked away on the main street, towards the exit of the city.

It’s my first time getting out of these gates. The city is in a valley surrounded by mountains, and the main gate is pointed to an intersection on two mountains.

After running for half a day, I see the road collapse into smaller, different roads, to multiple places. Opening the map I bought, I look for the best path towards the black forest, a place known for its abundance of ki and natural resources.

I quickly get captivated by the differences in the flora of this world compared to my previous one. All trees are extremely tall and robust.

I’ve grown to become nine meters tall and 14 long, but still, I am a little ant close to the majority of these trees. Entering the forest to take a look around, I keep walking in the direction of one of the cities between me and the dark forest.

As the sun goes down, I find a small clearing of roots that can fit my mattress; I take it out of the spatial ring. Chopping some wood with my sword, I lay the pile of wood above the sword and send in some ki, turning on the array and enveloping it in fire.

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I love this little array that I created.

Of course, it wasn't first invented by me, but still, I managed to come up with this idea without looking for instructions, just by using my knowledge of runes.

It is composed of five runes, one inside another. In the middle is the Fire rune, that creates the fire, circled by the Converting rune, to convert normal ki into fire, then the Wholeness rune, that defines which part of the object shall be affected by the array, the Exterior rune, that expels the ki to the exterior of the object, that is circled by the Absorption rune, that controls the intake and management of the ki injected.

It works seamlessly; as long as you keep sending ki in, it shall keep burning at around a thousand degrees.

Using its fire to light up the bonfire, I set camp for the night.

Seven years ago I designed a set of dumbbells to train. Even though my body is pretty powerful, it's always good to be the best you can be.

Mom helped me design an array that gets heavier as more ki is injected into it. It's just a simple gravity rune with a converting and absorption rune around it, but it works really well.

After the workout, I took a two meters long leg of some animal called a barg, that I've never seen in person, but mother told me they are ten meters long, largely cultivated animals for his good meat.

Putting some salt, pepper, and garlic on it, I let it cook on the fire. Eat it and go to sleep.

It takes me seven days to arrive at the first town on my journey. I can see its majestic walls from far away, towering even the trees. Every piece of land in its surroundings is being cultivated with a variety of crops. The side that I am facing has no entrance, but I can see a road leading to one side, so I follow it.

Arriving at the gate and waiting for a bit in line, it's my turn to talk to the soldier at the gate.

“Hello, sir, please state your name and reason for coming. The fee for travelers to enter the city is one silver.” He says with a stone face, looking up at me, given that he is only two meters tall.

“Hello, I’m Ragurr, I’ll be staying for just a day or two, then continue on my trip.” I say with a smile, paying the fee.

Entering the city, I am mesmerized by the different shapes of buildings, people, and smells.

The city that I was born in had a huge community of different species, but this one seems way more dominated by one species.

They all have, more or less, the same height, sitting around two meters tall. Their skins are gray, and all of them have little plumes in the place of their hair and beard.

Thanks to their size, almost all the buildings nearby are only three to four meters tall at most. With the two-story ones being somewhere around 7 meters tall.

I’ve never seen this species in my previous city, and apparently, they hadn't seen a Durkan either. Dozens of people keep looking up at me in awe and curiosity. My strong bovine lower part, my beautiful humanoid upper body, the black scales that cover my body, and my height of nine meters tall, towering the nearby buildings, being too much of an oddity to just glaze over.

Letting my nose guide me, I arrive at a food stall that sells grilled meat.

“Hello, I would like the largest portion you can make, please.” I say, lowering my body a little to not be so awkward for the man in the stall.

He was focused on his cooking, so his first reaction was to look forward. Only seeing two pairs of scaled legs,

he follows the shape up, getting out of his stall to see more of me.

“Holy fuck! You're huge!” He almost yells.

“Hehehehe thanks mate.” I laugh. “So, about the food, what is the biggest portion that you can make?”

“I think that if I gather everything that I've already cooked here I can make something for someone of your size.” He says as he goes back to work.

Taking one big bow from the pile of bows, he places all the different cuts of meat he had already grilled and looks at me.

“You know this is gonna cost you some coins, right?” He says as he passes me the food.

“Sure mate, here.” I answer and place a silver coin in his hand. Seeing that he was about to say that it is too much money, I continued. “I'd also like to know if there's any inn in this city where I can sleep.”

Accepting the coin, he points at the center of the city. “There's an inn, in the center square, where the owner is a giantess, she is bigger than you, so I think that's your best bet.”

Following his directions, I walked for a little less than an hour. The closer that I get to the center of the city, the bigger the buildings are, now I tower over very few of them.

As I arrive at the square, it's obvious which one the inn is.

A two floored building where each floor is 17 meters tall, with red and white walls, constructed with almost entirely of metal.

Going inside I see a restaurant with dozens of tables, with varying sizes. And two groups of different species of giants.

A trio of orcs, green, seven meters tall hunks of muscle.

One group of four bear men, that I still don't know the name of the species.

A group of giants that look like regular humans, but ten meters tall.

And, finally, the giantess, behind the counter of the bar. Her hair is red like an apple, her face hard, and her eyes sharp. She looks like someone who spent years in war.

“Hello, little durkan, how can I help you today?” She asks, trying her best to look friendly.

Surprised by her knowledge of my race, I took a better look at her. She is 15 meters tall, muscular and has a seven-meter long ax on her back.

“Hi ma’am, I'd like to know if you have any room for the night.” I say, getting closer to the counter.

“A silver per night, half a silver for food.” She answered.

After booking a room, I went back to the main square, to see if I could find anything interesting.