A smooth, black, rope-like construct made entirely out of mana extended from Janet’s middle finger. With a little flick, it arced through the air and – whip!
A loud crack was released when it concluded its path. Then, like an apparition, it dissipated out of existence.
Dissipated was not exactly the right way to put it. If one looked closely, they would have seen the shadow behind Janet become that tiny bit darker.
As for the girl herself, she was on top of the world, a very distinct skip in her every step. Not only had she won her first fight against a beast, she was now a true practitioner of magic! Her [Talent] had come through at last.
Oh, she still wished that there was a voice in her ear whispering things like -
You have learned the magic ability [Mana Constructs - Shadow]
You have slain Leopard, LV 2.
- or something fantastical like that.
Janet had overheard newly-awakened kids talking about a voice inside their heads after they went to the Guild for orientation into the ranks of practitioners, but it looked like she was not so lucky. She had indeed awakened to a [Talent], but her only gains for now were the magic construct she was currently waving about.
But imagine that! A system designed to convey to anyone registered to the Guild any gains from a fight, the exact capabilities of any magic they had learned, how much resources they had left…
Speaking of resources, Janet still recalled Gaia’s comment those couple of days ago about something called Stamina. It was moments after Janet had slain Marius after healing herself from the brink of death multiple times. According to the Goddess, all she had needed to do was “assign some of the resources gained towards Stamina” so she stopped shaking like a twig.
Janet still didn’t know what on earth Gaia had been hinting at, but after the previous day’s altercation she might have stumbled upon a clue.
You see, before she had fallen unconscious after slaying the leopard, Janet had been her usual frail self. She had been gravely injured too, but that was old news.
Coming to concealed in a cocoon of shadows had been a nice surprise, but not one as big as the change she felt within her body. For some unknown reason, her mana core was somehow… bigger. It held more mana than she remembered. Not by much, but enough to notice.
If that was all, Janet would have easily written off the increase in mana as a side effect of her awakening to an elemental [Talent].
Her body felt more energetic than it ever had, her vision was a lot clearer, she could hear better, smell better, even her sense of touch seemed better defined. If she concentrated, Janet could feel the pressure every seam in her shirt applied on her skin. It was a very weird feeling.
And best of all, Janet felt stronger.
It was as though winning that fight had improved all aspects of her body, from her senses to her base constitution. Something very odd was going on.
Anyhow, Janet being a curious cat when it came to everything magical, was keen to test whether the increase in strength was just a figment of her imagination. She had been heavily concussed a short hours prior, after all.
If she were back in town, lifting weights would have easily answered her question. With that option reasonably out of reach, Janet had taken to snapping any pieces of wood she found on her path.
She had started with the thinnest ones, to make sure she had not actually become weaker, with the imagined increase in strength being a simple delusion. That doubt was quickly assuaged. She had not grown weaker.
By the time her strength was insufficient of even bending a dried twig, the wood was thrice as thick as her wrist. She truly had grown stronger!
With a smile bright enough to blind any onlooker, Janet continued her journey eastwards. She kept wondering whether it was prudent to get herself in another fight to test whether all altercations ending in a win would strengthen her similarly, but there were other concerns at the moment.
She needed food. She was still famished. Whatever had strengthened her body had forgotten to smother her hunger, and had in fact amplified the sensation.
Perhaps food was required to fuel the strengthening process? Another question to add to Janet’s pile.
Well, Janet had a plan. As she walked along beast trails and avoided the hunting paths made by people, she collected any dried wood she came across. The sticks she had snapped were also stored in her runic tattoo, in case she came across a root vegetable or the odd hare or rabbit that would make for a filling meal.
She knew how to start a fire without a match – life on the streets was a great teacher of survival knowledge. She also knew how to roast food over an open flame. All Janet required was to find some prey and hopefully manage to kill it, so she could have her first meal in days.
Looking for food in an unfamiliar environment was a challenge she had no idea how to overcome. Around her were hundreds of plant species, more if she counted the trees. Janet knew some herbology, but all her knowledge was theoretical.
She did not want to risk chewing upon an edible-looking leaf, only to die of a poison she’d never even heard of.
Tracking prey also was an art she’d have to learn, but where to start? And how exactly was she to identify edible tubers when all edible material was safely hidden below ground?
Janet footsteps came to a halt. Her heart almost skipped a beat as her excitement bubbled to a boil. The new shadow whip she had been coalescing was let go, and she felt the mana rebound into her core in a sensation she found quite pleasurable, like massaging tension out of a muscle.
What had caught Janet’s eye was a red speck in the distance, almost 200 meters away.
All doubt that Janet’s eyes had improved was let go. What she had spotted past obscuring canopies waving their dense mosaic of leaves around in the wind was a fruit tree. She could not explain how, but for some reason her brain had connected that shade of red with a fruit she had once seen in the market.
Was Janet’s revamped sensory suite how magic practitioners interacted with the world around them? Colors were brighter, sounds crisper, and information collected ages ago seemed right at her fingertips.
It was no wonder everyone had held such contempt for a magicless Janet. She must have looked like a lesser being to their all-seeing eyes.
The most ridiculous thing was that all this was the result of her awakening, which was in truth barely a step into the world of cultivation. What wonders lay ahead if Janet continued to work on improving herself and her magic?
All thoughts aside, a fruit not only would eliminate the need for Janet to get into a potentially perilous hunt, it would fulfil another of her pressing needs – drinking water. Most fruits had juices aplenty, more than enough to keep Janet hydrated.
The fruit tree also looked like it was dotted with red spots. Multiple fruits would mean a supply of food and water to tide Janet over until she was confident enough to hunt.
But that was only if she could get to them.
While 200 meters on open land was an easily traversable distance, in a jungle that was not exactly the case. Fallen trees, thorn-filled bushes, slippery rotten plant matter, and the very real possibility of a hiding predator, all stilled Janet’s enthusiasm.
There was also the fact to consider that a ready source of food in the wild would always, always have beasts that lay claim to it.
Janet heeded the call of her hunger and brushed the concerns aside. That fruit would be hers, a sentiment echoed by her stomach which growled its agreement.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
However, before Janet went jumping over potential beast dens and awoke some predator lying patiently in wait for a foolish human to come pick the fruit, she needed a plan of action.
It was still morning. She had time.
Janet sat down with the fruit tree towards her front. She kept her ears peeled for any unusual sounds.
She also unsheathed her dagger. While she was still a novice in weaponry, she hoped her newly improved strength would help cover for her lack of skill.
Janet took a few practice swings, her eyes easily following the blade’s trajectory. Her bladework was terrible, and even she could tell that it was filled with errors, but it was better than nothing.
The main reason for her sitting down, though, was simple. She needed to replenish her mana. All her playing around had used up quite a bit, and magic being her main offensive and defensive option, Janet needed her reserves of mana back to full tank.
And thus, right there in the open, Janet entered meditation. It took her almost a minute of concentration, but her mind soon left the waking world of leaves rifling in the breeze and birds tweeting among the canopies, and entered another realm where thought reigned supreme and magic radiated from every direction like particles of sand in a sandstorm.
In this realm, too, Janet felt that her mind had grown sharper. Her perception of magic had also improved. She could now discern between the different elements present in the mana that swirled around her.
She could see red motes of fire, the blue water, the ever-present, slow-moving brown earth, and the free-flowing wind mana, a swirling white. There also were other less prevalent elements like shadow, light, life, nature, and dozens of other types that she could not yet identify, all intermingling in a harmonious, stable whole.
It was simply marvelous.
Janet’s could feel her core churning away like a pumping heart at the center of her mana system, drawing into itself mana from all around it to refill itself, and cycling it into her pathways to further purify it.
She made a note to work on the purification of her mana in the coming days. More power awaited her there, and she was keen to tap into it.
The image of the streams of mana was replaced by the landscape of the Realm of Souls. Janet could see that even here she had grown in power, though it remained unclear in what way. The clearest sign, however, was the patch of shadow that represented her shadow [Talent].
The patch had grown in size and now could move along with the motions of her soul, almost as though the awakening had truly made it an integral part of it.
The real reason Janet had opted to enter this realm was soon revealed as her perception shifted from her soul, and to the world beyond it. She was here to scout.
Many beasts, and indeed people, possessed all sorts of stealth techniques that could fool the mundane senses. Janet was even formulating a plan on how to utilize her shadow magic for the same purpose.
What was almost impossible to hide, however, was the soul. Here, in this realm, nothing could hide from her.
Oddly, there was nothing of note.
Janet stretched her ‘sight’ as far as it could reach in every direction, which was quite a distance. All she could see were the ambient streams of energy that made up the realm, and tiny glowing balls that must have been the souls of the tweeting birds. There was not a threatening soul in sight anywhere in her immediate vicinity.
With a content smile on her lips, Janet stood up, her core filled and her mind at ease. The universe really was on her side.
It was time to harvest some fruits.
==========================
“How’s the girl?” Darius asked. He was sitting on a rocking chair at one of the campgrounds Janet avoided like the plague, about a kilometer to the west of her current position.
“She’s spotted the fruit tree.”
“Good. Keep your eye on her,” he demanded of the Cyclopean woman that served as his party’s scout.
The Cyclopean woman blinked her single eye and nodded her head once, but her gaze did not waver from the direction of her target.
The Cyclopean was named Sylthis. Looking at her, one would never come to the conclusion that she was a magic practitioner. Her arms were heavily muscled, and her short hair somehow amplified the image of a martial warrior. She also wore armor, a famed tool of the warrior.
To anyone who knew her, however, she was the one of most skilled scouts to ever walk the planet.
“Say, Sylthis, are you sure the girl will not spot us? The missive we received said her scouting range is monstrous for her level.”
The woman that had just spoken was an elf. She was beautiful beyond belief, a defining quality of her people. As she awaited her answer, she tweaked a spell circle half a meter in diameter floating above her palms. Golden runes were seamlessly interchanged with others lit in a greenish light, and whenever she deemed the configuration to be correct, the greenish tinge disappeared as they too became golden.
A skilled user or creator of runic formations – though there existed a scant few that could claim to eclipse the elf in such matters – would have identified the spell circle as the Third-Circle spell, [Shadow Bind]. Sylvia was attempting to turn the spell into a static formation that could remain deployed and active without the mage’s active attention.
“I know what I’m doing, Sylvia,” the Cyclopean grunted. “Her range grew a bit after last night’s level-up, but she’s still barely into the First Circle.”
“Exactly!” a flamboyantly dressed man exclaimed. His distinctive robes that identified him as a mage were filled with stylized images of flaming phoenixes and fire-breathing dragons. Even the hairpiece that held his hair together was a deep vermillion, and shaped to mimic the shape of a blazing flame.
“What now, Brian?” Sylvia asked. She did not look up from her spell circle.
“She’s a simple First-Circle novice. I know the missive said she was to be handled with care, but do any of you actually think someone freshly awakened to her magic could defeat us? Really?” He looked around at his fellow party members, his arms held out wide in question.
“I say you let me fly there and nab her. In and out in five minutes, mission complete. Any objections?”
There was a beat of silence after the fire mage’s speech, then a heavily scarred man cleared his throat. He wore his scars like a badge of honor, displaying them prominently with an open leather vest.
“Stop being so hot headed, Brian.”
Sylthis and Sylvia chuckled at the oft-repeated refrain.
“The kid somehow killed Marius the Dark,” Pireus continued. “Can you honestly say you could have fought that madman and won, let alone manage to kill him and escape unscathed?”
“She also appears to have become the dagger’s new master,” Sylthis added. “It’s not fully bound to her soul yet, but the process is well underway.”
At the scout’s declaration, even Darius, the leader of the five, looked up from his book. He almost looked surprised.
“I guess that explains the mission, then.”
“I still say we should…” Brian began, only to be interrupted by a golden bolt of crackling lightning. He easily dodged past the projectile. The stink-eye he threw Sylvia’s way was completely ignored as the elf kept her eyes on her formation.
“Our presence should keep the smarter beasts away. We will remain out of sight, watching, testing. Patience is the name of the game.”
Normally, nobody questioned Darius’ commands, since he was usually parroting an order from above. In this particular case though…
“Okay, Darius. I know its not our place to ask, but who the hell is the girl?” Pireus asked. “There’s no way we were teleported here in the dead of night for no reason. Are the Millennium Slayers so dispensable as to be stationed in a jungle in the middle of nowhere?”
“What the old man said, plus this province is so parched of mana, every moment here feels like standing in a Dead Zone,” Brian added. “How did a teleport even manage to connect here? I thought magic of that power required ungodly amounts of mana present at both ends to work.”
“Loath as I am to agree with the oaf, I’d like some clarification on that too, Darius. My calculations deduced that our translocation here was not accomplished by normal means,” Sylvia looked towards the party leader.
Darius shut his book with a clap. A wave of his hand made it disappear, presumably into a storage artifact. By then, all seven eyes were on him. Even the scout had for the moment abandoned her guard duty on Janet.
Darius summoned a piece of parchment from storage. Unlike normal paper, this one radiated mana in thick streams, as though it had been woven from pure mana. What more, every person present could sense the hints of divine power wafting from its depths.
What was odder to the erudite magic practitioners was how if one focused their [Mana Sense], they could detect the paper taking in more mana, like the core of a living being.
“Sylthis, you’re in charge of gathering information. Would you mind reading out loud what the signature at the bottom states?”
The piece of magical paper was levitated towards the scout’s hand. It remained unruffled by the ambient winds on its flight. Five fully deployed [Mana Senses] curiously tracked its trajectory.
Sylvia even let her experiment dissipate! Whoever heard of an elf letting go of a project halfway?
“Holy Spheres! Is this true?” Sylthis’ eye darted around as her hands began to tremble. “What have you gotten us into, Darius?”
“Okay, now I’m curious.” David walked towards Sylthis with a hand stretched out, only to be stopped dead in his path by a plane of light. Darius’ signature barrier magic.
“Come on, man. What gives?”
“Your soul is not strong enough. If you even so much as glance at the text on that piece of parchment, you’ll die.”
There was zero levity in Darius’ voice. All Brian could do was swallow down his fear and take a step back.
“The signature belongs to the High Cardinal of Life.” Sylthis reported.
Pireus glanced around. His left palm closed around the pommel of his sword.
Brian collapsed into a heap. He was hyperventilating.
Sylthis handed back the paper to Darius, whose eyes betrayed a deep exhaustion. It was the first time the scout had ever seen an ounce of emotion on their leader’s face, and it made her core to shiver that what she read there was helplessness.
As for Sylvia, she was back to experimenting with [Shadow Bind]. Most of the runes were glowing a lurid red. Elves rarely made such basic mistakes in their craft.
The scout returned to her task. Her gaze was shaky as it glided past the treetops, over the hills, and across the lakes that marked the jungle’s beast hotspots. She thought her perception picked up a Hellhound’s distinct Hell-marked mana somewhere to the south, but she dismissed it as a mistake. There was no way one of those beasts had found its way to this dump.
Less than a second later, Sylthis’ sight landed on Janet. The girl was leaning against the trunk of a Spiny Pear tree, a spot where just yesterday her sight had picked up a LV 8 Galeblast Owl. It was long gone by now. Beasts with half a brain scattered when stronger players were about.
The little girl was sloppily stuffing her face with the mana-rich pulp of the fruit as above her in the tree’s branches, constructs of shadow plucked fruit after fruit with reckless ease. Before the soft-skinned Spiny Pears impacted the ground, the girl whisked them away into a spatial storage Sylthis had trouble spotting.
Any other First-Circle mage, no matter their pedigree, would have exploded from a single bite of the fruit. The girl seemed absolutely fine. As a matter of fact, her core appeared to be on overdrive, processing the mana and pumping the excess into her flesh and bones.
‘What are you, little girl? And what does Life want with you?’