Day Three: still staring at golden sparkles.

Wow. What is this stuff?

I run a hand through it, ending up with a hand covered in the gold-dust. At first it doesn't react, but now that I focus on the feel of it... AH SHIT, IT BURNS!!!

WHY?

WHY CAN I FEEL PAIN?!!

I fling the arm around but it doesn't remove the dust, which seems to be corroding into me.

More than that, I can't dismiss the arm like the others!

Not knowing what else to do... I try to tear off the arm.

Oh, so I can still bleed. My blood is pink mana. I did not need to know that. It spurts out of the tearing arm. When the limb is fully torn free it stops abruptly as the arm remnants are cancelled.

As I watch the pink blood fades to white, indistinguishable from the ordinary mana. The arm itself just floats there.

Ha... ha... ha... (panting)

I feel weaker...

Like I shaved off a good amount of my life.

I try to form arms, only managing to form two.

I've hurt myself severely.

The infected limb floats there, trapped in the kid's ripple as well. It isn't straying to my side, for which I gladly give thanks.

I scrape together a pile of plain (white) mana and squeeze and compress it. It works out pretty well. It's a bit like clay or snow, malleable.

I take the thin rod of mana and use it to poke the golden arm. Phew. No response. I poke it again, just to be sure. The arm just floats there. The gold stuff doesn't stick to the mana. So it's just me? Or does it have to be alive?

Since the gold stuff isn't an immediate threat I try to learn more about it by studying how it follows the goddess...

Oh... perfect timing. She's washing herself with a moist towel as she crouches on the wooden floorboards. Her actions hidden by a curtain. Which I pass through without problem.

Naturally I'll study the habits of the golden sparkles closely, not the curvy, voluptuous body of the naked woman. That would be morally wrong. I am not here to peep.

It's just a bonus.

They seem to move by themselves, undulating as the woman scrubs her body clean. As she sighs and stands, stretching the golden particles swirl and swarm.

Scary. They're almost alive.

The venom from earlier really is alive, with an intelligence at the level of a bug. This gold dust isn't quite that advanced, virus or bacteria level? It acts without intelligence.

For now, I can only consider it a threat. I suppose if I were to use shaped mana like an insulating suit I could avoid it's effects but I'm feeling pretty lousy. I'd rather not tempt fate and fool around with it more than I have to. I do not want to experience that sensation on my core self. I really think I'll die.

I drift back to check on the kid...

Oh?

OH?!

He's asleep!

He dozed off in a chair.

Okay... carefully does it...

Just a little more...

I scrape up a few armfuls of mana from around the house. Yes, that looks good.

Moulding the mass together I form a vaguely me shaped form. Like a famous archaeologist disarming a pressure trap, I form a scarecrow to be my replacement.

The kid is just being fooled by my weight after all. I am not mana.

I AM NOT MANA.

I refuse to accept that.

It is like calling a bird a feather. A human a cell.

Beyond insulting.

I say to the imitation me.

And so... freedom! Oh, it's glorious.

I slip away. Into the forest environs surrounding the lone cottage.

The woman and child should be okay now. I've done my good deed for the week. I would have said day but I've spent roughly a full day on solving their problems.

Okay, okay... twenty hours tops.

Since I don't want to have to save them again I sweep in a spiral, expanding pattern exploring the forest while still keeping the house in mind if I have a reason to return. It isn't like I have a compass or a direction in mind. A map would be useful.

I settle for visual mapping, using the senses of the handful of animals with ripples to explore.

The forest itself seems quite devoid of magic gathering ripples.

I haven't sensed more than six so far in my ever expanding sweep.

Besides the boy, his mother and the wolf-thing, some kind of boar and a strange plant one more thing appeared. A third human.

His ripples are steady, the area of his mana collection... close to a mile. The boy's only reaches a

few feet.

He's just sitting in a little cave with some weird red bead on his tongue...

I do not understand this.

As soon as I tread on the ripple he was quite animated. At least in thought. Something about windfalls and refining.

But I don't feel like being stuck to this guy, he's a bit ruthless. I mean dear God the guy wants to straight up murder a whole extended family, down to the kids and babies.

So, yeah... not going there.

Or at least that is my intention.

A thin lash of red energy strikes out at me, trying to coil around me like a ring. The source of this energy: the bead. I see it, pulsing like a heart and feel it's malice. Or is that the guy holding it like a gob-stopper?

I dash away, but I've drifted too close investigating. Even if it is only limited by the range of the ripple of it's owner, I'm still not even near the edge.

The red binding energy finally reaches me after several moments and worms around my body's core. To my surprise it's actually quite weak. It rips as I pressure it. Or is it that I'm strong?  

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

No, it's likely the other way around. I just injured myself, after all.

Although just as I start to feel relieved, the energy thread changes to pale blue.

What?

I look at the guy down there. He has wings now. The right one like a bat, the other one made of bones...

What?!

Did he just transform?

DID HE SERIOUSLY JUST TRANSFORM INTO A MONSTER?!!

Oh... I'm in trouble.

Run away!

I grow two arms and haul myself along the manascape, running like a clumsy flightless bird on the tips of my fingers.

As might be expected I don't get very far before the blue coil of energy reaches me, digging into my body tightly and trying to pull me back.

Come on, my glorious... uh... muscles? Bones? No I don't have those... um... mass? Put in some effort!

Hey, I'm still winning. My body feels like cotton candy, but it's results that matter, right?

… I don't understand how it works either...

The blue stuff is fraying.

Just one more push...

(energy band glowing white)

… NO NO NONONONOONONONONONONONONNOONONO!

I scream as I'm dragged at high speed toward the bead and the vicious monster guy's mouth.

I stare at him, seeing a horrible visage; he's gone full beast mode with horns, exposed bones and scales instead of fleshy body parts and worst is the brutal looking fangs I'm being dragged toward.

Over his shoulder I see a shadow, like an old man whispering encouragement into his ear with a wide, creepy smile. He's looking at me like I'm a grilled steak on a plate.

I strain and pull back, latching my arms onto the ground with fingers. I slide a ways, before catching against a rocky outcrop.  

Gah... how monstrously strong is this guy's power?

It's taking all I have just to stay out of his mouth. I can only imagine it's all downhill for me from there on.

Uh... just hang on, me... you don't want to die like this, right? Suddenly I miss the safety of that harmless little guy and his hot mom. At least they aren't trying to use me as fuel... actually now that I think about it...

Oh... one of my fingers slipped...

I'm losing my grip... !

Desperate I pull at the rock but instead of helping... the rock shatters.

Gah! I claw at the air and trees, the soil. A loose rock...

It comes along for the ride, the size of a fist.

But... in those desperate last moments I have to take my final chance. I wind up the pitch...

Okay... only one shot at this or I'm done for...

And then I hurl it as he comes into view.

Like a miraculous vision the rock tumbles and flies straight... oh yeah, I don't have elbows or muscles to influence my throw...

I clock the bastard right in the temple. Not enough to kill the guy, because he's... y'know a demon-like freak... still it does send the bead flying and distract him from the whole meditation of doom thing he had going.

I catch the bead in my hand and he looks quite startled as it floats around. Inside it I see the old man shadow glaring at me cursing at me and trying to generate powers from within the bead itself to attack and consume me.

“Old man, you did this to yourself... You shouldn't have threatened me.” [Me]

I crushed the bead into powder as both the old man and the young puppet wail.

The demonguy's ripple seems substantially smaller and weaker now that he's no longer meditating or using the bead. He seems depressed and enraged at the destruction of the bead.

“Grandpa, I'll avenge you...” [Demonguy]

… great, he's already planning more mass murder.

In the middle of nowhere.

With only the boy and his mother around...

Crap. Landmine.

It was my doing, stop jumping to conclusions...

The bead was one thing, but can I seriously contend with someone who takes a fist sized rock to the face and shakes it off?

But, I can't see anyway the mother or son could possibly fight someone like this...

It's just that it's my fight, it isn't that I like them or anything.

What we learned:

Cultivator! Unknown level (protagonist level... early stages?).

Grandpa: “I want your soooooul!”

Boy waking up: “Oh? It feels like my foundations have improved? My mana isn't moving all over the place...”

Treasure Mountain Monthly (summary of artifact/item true usages and origin):

Heart of the Dark Wyrm Tyrant (bead):

As the name suggests this unassuming crystal is the preserved remains of a god level beast, it's primary usage; a Legendary grade tool to enhance refining techniques.

Why the bead was held in an open mouth... it enables the user to inhale and swallow elemental forces and restrain enemy qi through killing intent, much as it did for the Dark Wyrm Tyrant. It is a priceless object. The original owner, a necromancer tried to use it as a phylactery to make himself near-immortal. He failed in the process as the bead was taken by force in the middle of the ritual by thieves, stripping his soul from his body and into the bead. The bead itself falling from the thief's hands by it's own whims as he traveled.

Later on the bead was discovered by a young cultivator who initially thought it was a rare fruit and tried to eat it... until the soul inside convinced him not to by offering secrets and advice. Due to the necromancer inside of the bead the object also holds an additional power; the user gains the ability to eat the broken souls of others to enhance himself. A profane, rarely used cultivation technique.