Chapter 32: Alone

I rested on my knees for several seconds while breathing heavily. I used a good chunk of my mana with this attack, but there wasn’t any other choice.

I realized that Sacred magic was the same as Primordial magic in this aspect. If you didn’t have a good control over your magic, then you had to use much more mana to achieve the same result.

The waste of mana when using a magic not fully mastered was no joke.

I hadn’t regained a regular breathing, but I stood up nonetheless and began to head toward the east once more. I hurried because I didn’t want to stay in the plains for too long after seeing the huge black holes left by my defeated foe.

Those holes reminded me of what I saw on the hill near the Great Forest.

It was probably this creature that made these giant holes. However, I quickly remembered that the holes I saw before were much larger.

I gulped down as I realized that a monster at least ten times larger was lurking under the ground.

I had my hands full with just one.

If another came then I would die.

As if to mock my fears, the ring of calamity on my thumb began to glow once more.

I felt my heart skip a beat, but this time I didn’t lose any time.

I ran as fast as I could to leave the grassy plain.

After ten minutes of frantic running, I was standing on a rocky hill. A perfect standpoint to see eight other creatures, similar to the one I fought earlier, emerging from the ground while letting furious roars out of their monstrous mouths.

After a couple of seconds, the horde of deviants gathered around the ice coffin trapping their fallen comrades and dragged it under the soil.

I didn’t know if they did this to eat it, bury it, or to help it, but I was dumbfounded after witnessing this scene.

Not wanting to become the next one to be dragged underground, I left the crime scene to resume my journey. 

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After a couple of hours, I crossed a river and finally relaxed. Having enemies able to move underground was now on my list of things I hated the most, just behind being bitten and burned by a monster.

I spent the rest of the day walking and hunting with my earth magic. I could use it whenever I wanted, but my sacred magic was another story. It was incredibly hard to control.

Understanding that I needed to slow the mana around me to create ice was one thing, but actually doing it was another. I used it several times against other animals but each time the magic was difficult to control and consumed a large part of my mana.

Of course, using the four Primordial elements was also difficult, but using ice magic was different.

More than difficult, it was unpredictable. Like a violent beast ready to wreak havoc the second, I released it.

After several attempts during which I almost lost control of my magic, I chose to limit the amount of mana to use with this magic.

Less power but more control.

This was the only solution to avoid losing control once again.

I was sure that if I continued to use this magic I would slowly become better with it and release more of its power, but for now, it was impossible. I couldn’t just spend my time training on animals either because the only times I engaged in a fight was to eat. My earth magic was a better choice for that as I quickly discovered that trapping an animal in a big portion of ice wasn’t exactly the best way to hunt.

I had no other choice but to take things slowly. Getting better at my own pace was enough for the moment because I still hadn’t sent the letter to my parents.

This took priority over everything else.

Even if I couldn’t waste time training, I still felt safer with this magic as my trump card. A strange feeling of power was rising inside me. However, I didn’t dare to be overwhelmed by this because I knew that any mistake could be fatal.

Not because it would make me overconfident, but because I remembered the ice that covered my hands while I tried to free Amanda.

I wasn’t immune to this magic even though I was the one who created it.

Coldness released from my own soul, freezing everything in its path including my own flesh. This was for me, the true nature of this magic.

There was no doubt in my mind.

This magic could be my doom.

I spent the night in a small cave with these thoughts. I didn’t light a fire this night either. I haven’t done it since the attack of the fire deviant. Although it was my choice, I couldn’t help but shiver under the blanket protecting me from the coldness of the night.

The following day was uneventful. I avoided as many lifeforms as I could. I just had to get rid of two little ‘Accaris’ who tried to ambush me. The small purple creatures looked like a lemur, but with hands as large as the head of an adult. Those hands were strong enough to crush my skull, but it didn’t mean a thing if they couldn’t touch me. My two earth bullets didn’t give them any time to do that.

I gathered the little meat I could on their bodies and resumed my journey.

After a couple of hours, I entered the area of a series of hills, making my progress slower and my travel more exhausting. The uneven ground wasn’t to my liking, but I didn’t encounter another deviant trying to kill me, so I endured it silently.

I used wind magic regularly to avoid some obstacles which made my progress faster.

However, despite that, I couldn’t see the end of those hills.

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Two days later, I was still crossing the hills as fast as I could. My journey became tranquil because, since the day I entered the range of those hills, I wasn’t attacked even once.

I should be happy about that but I couldn’t. It was not just that I wasn’t attacked, I didn’t encounter any other animal either. I was more and more worried about this fact because it had been two days since I met any other lifeforms.

I looked around me. Dozens of hills stretched in every direction as if I was in the middle of giant earth waves.

Alone in an ocean of red earth.

The hills were covered with green grass at first, but after a day of walking, the grass disappeared revealing a hard brown and dark soil. This color gradually changed until it wasn’t possible not to notice the new color.

I didn’t know why the earth of the hills became as red as blood, but it was far from the greenish color of life where vegetation and animals were plentiful.

After spending a day without encountering any other lifeform, I became vigilant. However, after noticing the color of the earth I became frantic.

I concentrated and stretched my senses in every direction, trying to sense the mana around me to detect a lifeform.

Yet the result was the same no matter how many times I tried. I could only sense a dense mana swirling around me. The movements I felt weren’t peaceful or graceful like what I felt in a grassy plain full of life.

It was rougher, more brutal.

I didn’t know what the cause was, but I was sure of one thing.

I had to leave this place as soon as possible.

When the sun started to set, I still hadn’t found any shelter for the night. I sighed knowing that I wouldn’t be able to sleep this night either. I simply sat on the red ground to rest.

The ground was unexpectedly soft and quite comfortable even if I would rather sleep in a real bed.

I put my back against a large rock to rest a little. At first, I thought it was a rock but the sensation was different. As the soil under me, it was much softer than what its appearance left me to believe.

I turned my head abruptly, but after a few seconds of careful examination, I concluded that it was indeed just a rock with a large layer of soft red earth making the surface a little softer.

"I thought it was an animal. That scared the shit out of me…" I couldn't help but mutter.

I knew that I was slowly getting paranoid in this place.

It was a natural thing and I was sure that anyone would be the same if they had to spend so much time alone in an environment where almost anything could kill you.

After calming myself, I took out the last fruit Hirillë gave me before my departure and ate it greedily. In this place where vegetation was absent, I didn’t encounter any fruit or prey to renew my stock of food.

After my meager meal, for the first time, I was really without any food.

If I couldn't find something to eat tomorrow either, the situation would quickly become serious. 

I chased these thoughts out of my mind as there was nothing I could do at this moment. It wasn’t as if I could hunt in the dark.

If the situation truly became desperate, I intended to light a fire big enough to attract nearby animals. It wasn’t because I couldn’t see or sense them that this place was totally devoid of life after all. However, as I might attract deviants in the process, I kept this method as my last way of not starving to death. 

With such thoughts, the sky slowly turned dark.

Everything around me was silent. All I could hear was the murmur of the wind passing between the rocks but I couldn’t sleep.

It was just too dangerous, even with the ring. It was the second night I had on these hills without being able to sleep at all. Walking all day without anything to eat and without being able to sleep was just impossible to bear for a human, much less a kid.

However, I found a way to recover my strength without any sleep.

It was to drink the potion Hirillë gave me in the morning.

I didn’t like this method because these vials were far too precious to be used like that, but I knew that I wouldn’t hold on otherwise. Fortunately, recovering my strength when I wasn’t injured only cost me a couple of drops.

Even if I couldn’t sleep, I still closed my eyes in this sitting position with my back against the soft rock. The noise of my stomach didn’t help me relax so I concentrated on the mana around me.

I tried to do this as many times as I could for two reasons.

First, it helped me relax because I was able to sense the lifeforms to a certain extent around me. After being ambushed several times, I no longer trusted my hearing and therefore decided to rely as much as possible on this technique.

The second reason was that I wanted to be able to clearly feel the difference between mana from different elements like Hirillë. I was sure it was the best way to improve my magic because I was certain that Primordial magic was the same as Sacred magic in this aspect.

The understanding of the element was the key to improve and control the magic.

If I didn’t understand the basic knowledge about a Sacred magic then I wouldn’t be able to use it. It wasn’t as absolute with Primordial magic, but I finally understood that I would never be able to master an element if I didn’t understand it first.

Of course, I would still make some progress if I constantly used the same magic, but I was sure that the final result would be far less impressive.

It was just as Hirillë told me, there was no reason to shoot stupidly earthball after earthball if I didn’t try to understand how to improve myself. To understand something I had to observe it first, therefore, I tried to sense the mana coming from the earth.

 However, it wasn’t so simple.

I could feel millions of particles swirling constantly around me. At first, I thought it was incredible, but after a few times, the only impression I had left was a chaotic feeling. Each particle moved at its own speed, colliding with others sometimes and merging with them other times. Each of their movements and trajectories was different. It was mysterious and fascinating at the same time.

Despite all my efforts, I wasn’t able to discern any pattern in these movements. I was only able to sense where these particles gathered, namely in intelligent lifeforms, but that was almost everything.

I felt that I had made some progress as I could now feel them more clearly, but it wasn’t enough to sense the difference between them. I was sure that the particles of mana were different for each element but for my inexperienced senses, they were all the same.

I immersed myself in them trying to attune my mind to the rhythm of their movements. The more time I spent with my consciousness among the mana, the more I became aware of its presence.

It was impossible to obtain results if I looked at the millions of particles at the same time. Therefore, I tried to focus on a small part. I wanted to understand the movements of these particles, to predict where they would go to do the same with my own mana.

Even with poor results, I continued to do the same thing each night. The sensation wasn’t displeasing either so there was no demerit doing that. In fact, I was better rested after the training session. Of course, it couldn’t compare to a full night of sleep, but in my situation, it was better than nothing.

I spent the entire night in this world that was invisible to the eyes.

It was only when the first morning light came to illuminate my face that I opened my eyes. I stretched my sore limbs before taking one of the potions from my backpack next to me. I drank a few drops to recover some strength before leaving.

The sun moved slowly in the sky, bathing the world with its light. I always found the first rays of the morning sun beautiful, but in this red world, I wasn’t at ease.

I ran at a regular rhythm to leave this place as fast as I could.

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Several hours later, the pain of my stomach began to become hardly bearable. I drank as much water as I could to alleviate this feeling, but it wasn’t working well and the taste of the water I had created with magic was as horrible as usual.

I wanted to eat something.

This thought became my only companion on my lonely journey. Therefore, when I arrived in front of a massive cave on my way, I couldn’t help but halt my steps.

It was the largest cave I saw since I began to walk on those red hills.

The entrance was at least thirty feet wide and twenty feet high from top to bottom. I slowly approached the entrance while readying my magic.

I carefully looked inside but it was too dark to discern anything. I stretched my senses as far as I could but I didn’t sense any lifeform inside either.

A mysterious dark cave.

I didn’t forget my encounter with the invincible green monster. I didn’t have my sacred magic to fight back when I encountered this monster, but that didn’t mean that I would be able to put up a fight against it. Therefore, I chose to stay away from this kind of places along my journey.

This place definitely smelled like trouble but I still hesitated. I knew I should continue to walk and not lose time or take any risks here, but I feared something more than the animals possibly lurking inside.

After nearly three days of walking, I still couldn't see the end of those red hills.

The potion could help me regain some strength, but I wasn’t sure of its effect on starvation because, despite drinking some potion in the morning, my empty stomach kept hurting me. I had to find something to eat as soon as possible.

I took a few steps inside the cave and carefully sensed my surroundings.

Once more, I couldn’t sense anything. My ring wasn’t shinning either.

"Maybe there isn’t anything inside." I muttered with a dejected voice.

I tapped my foot three times on the ground to make some noise and stayed on my guard while waiting for a reaction. However, despite repeating the process several times, I couldn’t hear or sense any movement inside.

I created a small flame with my left hand to illuminate my surroundings and finally decided to step inside.

The small flame illuminated a couple of feet around me. It allowed me to see the red walls and the top of the cave covered with strange rocks coming down, just like stalactites.

I supposed that if the place wasn’t so creepy, these red spear-like stones would be quite beautiful but it wasn’t the case in this situation.

Slowly, carefully, I advanced further and further until I saw a massive shape ahead.

I halted my steps because I knew it wasn’t a rock.

My white ring wasn’t shining so it wasn’t a deviant. Moreover, I couldn’t feel the mana gather inside that thing. I slowly approached but, as I was standing only a couple of feet away, I became sure of one thing.

This thing wasn’t alive.

I concentrated more mana into my hand to create a bigger flame.

The form in front of me slowly revealed its secrets under the light of my magic.

A giant dark body with a reddish hue appeared in front of my eyes. The round form had several members joining at the same place on its wide back.

At first, I didn’t know what it was.

I circled around the creature to get a better view.

I discovered that the body was covered with a thick dark fur. I also noticed several other long limbs with sharp points at the end. I counted six limbs reuniting at the same place on the back.

"Then this is!" I suddenly shouted.

I was too shocked to care about the noise I made and unconsciously took a couple of steps back after the name of the dead creature appeared in my mind.

A ‘Durnïel’.

A rare animal living in seclusion except for the time it appears to mate. They were rare because humans gathered several punishing forces to eradicate them.

Normally, the only forces assembled by the Human kingdom were against deviants or violent hordes of animals coming too close to the border, but the Durnïel was one of the rare exceptions.

They were mercilessly killed for one simple reason.

Humans feared them too much.

A vicious creature strong enough to split a boulder in two with one stroke of its ‘legs’ was already quite terrifying and the fact it easily preyed on humans didn’t plead in its favor.

However, it wasn’t for this reason that it was annihilated.

It was because of its unique ability: ‘thousand poisons’.

A poisonous beast was quite dreadful, but if you had some antidotes or a skilled water mage with you, it was possible to survive. This was true against nearly every poisonous creature but not against a Durnïel.

It was impossible to predict what kind of poison the creature would use against you.

Humans feared the unknown more than anything else. Therefore, this animal, no… this monster couldn’t be allowed to live.

There was the classic poison that killed you in an hour or in a few seconds but there were other more vicious types as well.

The book in my house describing the different kinds of poisons wasn’t exhaustive, but I still learned that it could secrete a poison able to paralyze your muscles, put you to sleep or show you dreadful nightmares.

One kind of poison could also show you illusions for several days. This poison was the one that triggered the massive hunt because one day a famous mage fell victim to it.

I didn’t read this story in the book describing the animals of this world.

It was Gandalf who told this story to each child.

One day he came into our classroom with a grave look on his old face before telling us just a few words: ‘It’s time for you to understand this world’.

Almost all children dreamed of adventure, of fights against legendary monsters to get fame and power. I thought this wasn’t a bad thing, but Gandalf told us this story because he wanted to open our young, innocent and naive eyes.

The world wasn’t as kind as children sheltered in a town could imagine.

The name of the mage was Oras. A powerful water mage who was known throughout the country for his good deeds and his exploits.

He was a hero. The kind that little kids admired.

However, one day he decided to hunt down a monster that killed adventurers.

After a long fight, he succeeded and killed the beast. Moreover, he didn’t suffer any serious injury, just a couple of scratches from the sharp members of the beast.

He didn’t feel that something was wrong, but the effects began to show when he returned to his hometown.

The poison he suffered didn’t destroy his body or threaten his life.

It only created illusions mixing with reality.

Nobody knows what he saw that day.

Nobody knows what happened either.

However, when merchants entered the town to sell their goods, they couldn’t find any living soul. Only pools of blood, shredded bodies and lone limbs could be seen.

Every single inhabitant was killed.

Old and young.

Men and women.

Even newborns were massacred by this mage.

When the effect of the poison disappeared, the mage fell on his knees in front of his old house clutching the bodies of his family until the arrival of the army.

He explained everything about the Durnïel, but when one soldier asked him what happened, the mage looked around him one more time.

He just took a single glance at the hell he created and killed himself.

This story was about the fall of a hero.

It was to instill fear in the heart of children so that only the boldest, only those who desired a life full of danger would walk on this path. It was a horrible story to tell the children, but it probably saved countless naive individuals.

I didn’t intend to become an adventurer in the first place, but after this story, I was even more against the idea.

I calmed down a little after remembering that the monster in front of me was dead. I looked one more time at its giant body before a wry smile appeared on my thin lips.

I wanted a quiet and peaceful life but I was standing in front of a monster from tales destined to scare children. Something was seriously wrong with my luck. 

I decided to give up my exploration. I was sure there were no animals that could live with a beast like that. Even if there was one, I was sure I didn’t want to meet it whether it was its roommates or the creature who killed it.

I looked one more time at the corpse which was strangely well preserved.

A huge growling sound suddenly echoed in the quiet cave, but I just quickly hit my own stomach in frustration.

I was hungry but not that much. 

Only a madman would eat a monster feared for its poison.

I turned around and began to head toward the exit of the cave.

*Crissssh*

I only walked a few minutes when a strange sound halted my steps. I felt my heart skip a beat and my face turn livid as I quickly stretched my senses to scan my surroundings. I also created a bigger flame to illuminate a larger space around me.

Holding my breath, I slowly looked around me.

However, there was nothing.

I listened carefully while slowly retreating with my back turned toward the entrance to the cave.

I didn’t know what created this noise but I had a bad feeling. I didn’t think about my stomach anymore, I just wanted to leave this place as fast as I could.

*Criiiiiissssh*

This time there wasn’t any mistake possible.

This noise was made by something alive.

I didn’t have any other chance to stretch my senses when a black figure appeared in front of me.

“Earth bullet!”

I fired my magic but the monster was nimbler than I thought. It avoided the three bullets I sent and disappeared into the darkness.

"You must be kidding me!"

My assailant was around three feet tall with sharp and long legs moving strangely fast.

It was a Durnïel.

However, its size was much smaller than the corpse in the cave.

I didn't know if this baby Durnïel already awakened its poison ability, but I didn’t want to stay here to find out. 

An animal that wasn’t an adult yet wasn’t much of a threat most of the time, but it wasn’t the case for this one. Moreover, something worried me more than its shocking speed.

"Why am I unable to sense it?"

From the moment I found this method, I never imagined that a creature could escape my senses. I wasn’t an expert at detecting mana particles, but an intelligent creature was like a light shining in the dark. I thought it was impossible to miss it if I was close enough, but no matter how many times I tried, I couldn’t detect the presence of this creature.

Without any other option, I put my hands on the ground in front of me.

“Ice Wall”

The ice slowly formed under my hands and slowly spread. I stepped back and anxiously looked at the ice that was beginning to seal the cave.

A few minutes later, the ice wall joined the roof of the cave sealing it completely.

I looked around and heaved a sigh of relief when I saw the monster on the other side of the wall, furiously trying to break it.

The sight of this monster moving its six legs like spears against the wall gave me cold sweats.

I ran toward the exit as fast as I could and even used my wind magic to accelerate.

Less than a minute later, I was outside and welcomed by the sight of red hills all around me. I hated those hills, but it was much better than what I found in this cave.

I didn’t care about my hunger anymore.

I fixed my backpack and left.

“Ouch”

Suddenly, I felt a throbbing pain in the back of my neck. I twisted my body in reflex and turned my head to look behind me. A small rock fell on the ground.

As soon as it touched the ground, the rock began to move revealing its true nature.

A small creature, smaller than a fist, was running toward the cave. I watched dumbfounded as the small creature disappeared into the darkness where it belonged.

With a trembling hand, I touched my neck where I could still feel a throbbing pain. Traces of blood appeared on my shaking hand.

I was bitten.

This horrible truth couldn’t be denied.

I didn’t notice, but a small Durnïel, far smaller than the one who attacked me, stuck to my backpack and bit me.

I quickly let go of my backpack and violently shook my clothes to see if another one was hiding. I couldn’t find any other, but the deed was already done.

I had been poisoned.

I couldn’t feel anything wrong with my body, but I knew this wasn’t going to last. I had little hopes that this young creature had not yet developed its poison. I quickly pulled out a vial of potion and emptied it in one gulp.

I didn’t wait to see if the poison or the potion had any effect.

I quickly ran toward a safe place because if it was a paralysis type of poison, I certainly didn’t want to be close to this cave.

Maybe the potion will work, maybe the poison has already been treated. 

I kept repeating these sentences in my mind while praying to the gods of my old world that I had already forsaken.

One hour later, I sat on the ground while waiting to see if the poison had any effect. I couldn’t resume my journey, not until I was sure that I was safe.

I waited anxiously, attentive to any change in my body.

It’s only when the sun began to set, covering the space around me in a faint darkness that I began to relax. After so much time, the poison would probably never break out.

I breathed a sigh of relief until I remembered one critical fact.

"Why is the night already falling? It should be early in the afternoon." 

I looked around me, but there was no doubt.

The darkness was spreading around me.

I created a small flame in my hand to illuminate my surroundings, but what I found made my heart beat so fast that I began to worry that it would come out of my chest.

The flame didn’t illuminate my surroundings at all.

There was only one explanation.

"The night isn’t falling, it’s… my eyes… I’m losing my sight!" 

I quickly swallowed another vial of potion, but the darkness continued to spread. It was thicker and thicker until it became difficult to discern my surroundings.

I was paralyzed by fear, unable to make a decision or know what to do.

I could only wait powerlessly as my eyes lost their light, transporting me into a world of darkness.