Chapter 7:
Daniel was honestly and completely off balance at the moment. His emotions had been tugged all over the place today. It started off with annoyance as he realized that he made it harder for himself to get rid of Alfred by letting that one group of goblins through to attack.
Then it had been anger as he remembered everything that Alfred had done and the fact that the man had gotten away originally.
Then it was doubt, as he wondered if things weren’t actually like he’d remembered in the past, and that he was about to kill an innocent person.
Then finally vindication, as Alfred proved himself to be the Monster that he was.
It really should have ended there, but of course, the universe wasn’t done with him yet.
Now he was feeling shocked as hell, as apparently, Sapphire had seen him kill Alfred. When had she started watching? Where’d she get that gun? How had he not noticed? Why was she here at all?
He’d led Alfred quite far away, so it was doubtful that she’d just accidentally wandered into them. But that meant she’d followed him. Which… come to think of it wasn’t impossible. He’d been so focused on Alfred, while his anger had been building and building in his heart. That could have made him careless enough to miss that she’d been following along. It wouldn’t have been that big of an issue if he still had Vision Sense, but of course he didn’t have any of his Rogue skills anymore.
But even so, when had she seen them and why had she followed?
“Well? Do you have anything to say for yourself? Or do you think I’m just gonna go away if you stay quiet?”
Sapphire's annoyed voice brought Daniel back to the present and his situation. It didn’t matter how she got here at the moment. No, what mattered was managing her and not getting shot.
That last part was probably the most important.
“Alright, alright. I’ll explain. I was just shocked, that's all. Didn’t think there was anyone nearby,” Daniel said, as he carefully pulled on his mana. Casting spells was easier with hand gestures and verbal components, but they weren’t strictly necessary. Gestures were mainly for focus and building the magical equivalent of muscle memory. And the verbal components could be called upon with enough mental focus internally.
Of course, this was made harder when the spell you were trying to cast had a costly mental component, like with complex illusions… But considering where his magic was at now, he did not want to try and tank a bullet with a quickly cast shield, nor did he actually want to hurt Sapphire. So complex illusion it was.
“So, how much of that did you see anyway?” Daniel asked, trying to buy himself time. Hopefully, she’d seen more than the end so he wouldn’t look a crazy psycho. “Cause that would help me a lot in knowing how much I need to explain.”
Sapphire raised an eyebrow at that but didn’t say anything. Maybe she was waiting to see what else Daniel would let slip. But he was happy to wait along and give himself time to finish forming his spells.
Finally having had enough, she answered. “I followed you all the way from when you went off on your own, then came back and went after Alfred.”
Daniel's eyes widened at that, taken aback. If that was the case, that meant she’d somehow seen through Minor Invisibility. And while it wasn’t perfect invisibility, with him sticking to the tree line and under the shadows, it shouldn’t have been possible. And from the way she phrased that, she’d been watching him even before he’d used his invisibility.
“Why?” Daniel couldn't help but ask.
But Sapphire wasn’t in the mood to answer more questions. “I think I’m the one that should be asking the questions right now,” she said, wiggling her gun. She still didn’t point it at him though.
“Alright, alright,” Daniel said, even as he finally finished prepping his spells and cast them both at once.
The first created a much more detailed illusion of himself, anchored to where he stood and overlapping with him at the moment. It was controllable to an extent with his thoughts. The other spell turned him invisible again. Quickly and quietly, he started walking backward away from the girl, further into the forest. He made sure to stick exactly behind his illusion for the moment, so she wouldn’t see any shimmers in the air.
He didn’t stop walking backward until he was a decent amount away, and then slipped into some foliage as quiet as he could. He then made sure to move out from behind the illusion, so he would be out of the line of fire if she shot at his illusion.
All the extra precautions were because she’d somehow seen through his invisibility before… Or perhaps… Maybe not seen through it but something else…
An Idea of what might have happened formed in his mind, even as he directed his illusion self to speak.
“So long story short. That guy was a rapist piece of shit and a murderer. If you were watching the whole time you’d know that the first is true, and the second isn’t unlikely either, given his threats. I knew that and knew he couldn’t be trusted, so I decided to get rid of him before he became a problem.”
Daniel couldn’t quite see her expression clearly from where he was hiding, but she was probably giving him an unimpressed look.
“Very informative,” She said sarcastically. “Would you care to provide more details? Like how you knew that. Why did you decide to take things into your own hands like that? And oh… Maybe WHAT THE HELL YOU DID TO POP HIS HEAD LIKE THAT?!”
Daniel winced at her shout. She was obviously not as calm as she was trying to appear. And he needed a way to show his sincerity and get her to believe him…
Which might need to involve him putting her at a disadvantage and then not taking advantage of that. That... sounded pretty bad, even in his own head, but he couldn’t think of a better option. Well, a better option that wouldn’t involve her having a loaded gun out and ready to shoot him at any moment.
“Okay,” Daniel had the illusion say, as he started to move. “I get that this is stressful and confusing for you. I’ll do my best to answer your questions. How I knew that… well… Actually I can't answer that question. I just knew.”
Daniel winced at his own words, but it was the truth. Even if she’d believe him about time travel, he was bound by magic to be unable to say that. He also couldn’t allude to it either. Perhaps he could have tried lying about having known the guy from before, but then that felt like it would require even more explanations.
And then there was the possibility that his lies might get called out, depending on who in their group had known Alfred from before. For some reason, everyone summoned here was brought with at least a couple of people they knew back on Earth. Perhaps they’d just been close together when they’d been summoned, but that was just a guess. No one could remember exactly what had happened before the summoning.
And really… If he really thought about it, this could honestly be seen as an opportunity. The magical cat was already out of the bag. But if he could get Sapphire to understand he was knowledgeable about this world, then it would be a lot easier to get other people to follow along with her on his side. As long as she also believed that he was trying to help everyone.
So he decided to move on quickly, as Sapphire did not look happy hearing that at all. At the same time, he kept moving around towards her in a wide circle. As he did so, he kept a tight leash on his mana, making sure that none of it escaped him. Cause if his theory about why she’d been able to keep track of him, and why she’d been paying attention to him was correct, then letting out any mana might spook her into shooting.
“As for why I took matters into my own hands… Until he did something bad, it would have been my word against his. There wouldn’t have been a point. Even if people believed me, it would have just put him on guard, and he might have disappeared to attack unexpectedly. As for what I did to put a stop to him. Well… It was magic. A blast of pure force straight at his head, with enough strength to destroy his skull. Quick, simple, painless. Better than he deserved.”
“And all I have is your word for that,” Sapphire said, having regained her composure and her voice back to being cold.
“And what you saw and heard with your own eyes,” Daniel said. He was closing in on her now and he raised a hand to prep a spell. Not the force blast of course. Regardless of what happened, he really did not want to harm an innocent person. “You remember when he threaten to rape and cut up someone he’d thought was just some girl being a tease, right?”
“Except, I have no idea if he’d even been in his right mind. You said you killed him with magic, right? But what if you can control people with magic too?”
“Then you’d be screwed,” Daniel said, still through the projection, as he fired his spell.
It struck before she could react and her eyes widened as her body locked up.
Daniel let go of all his other spells, and walked over to her quickly, trying to not notice the panic that was starting to show in her eyes. Even as he grabbed the gun from her hands, and then unloaded it to make it safe.
Well, he tried to unload it… He’d only touched a gun once when his uncle had taken him to the shooting range. He’d had fun, but his mom had been furious and demanded the older man never take Daniel to the place again. He’d also not had another chance to mess around with a modern gun in ten years.
“Don’t panic,” Daniel said, trying to reassure the girl, even as he fiddled with the gun. “I’ll unbind you in a second as a sign of my sincerity that I don’t want to hurt you or anyone else… Ugh… Just as soon as I unload this thing so you don’t try to blow a hole in me through panic… Just one more second… I got this… Yes. There we go.”
Finally, Daniel managed to get the clip out of the gun, and then also pop the round loaded in the chamber out. Pocketing the round and clip, he flipped the safety on, perhaps unnecessarily, then turned to face the girl.
Thankfully, the panic seemed to have subsided, and she was giving him a cold and unimpressed look. Which was quite the feat, given that she could only move her eyes.
Daniel took that as a good sign even as he shrugged. Fear would have made this a lot harder.
“Here,” He said, holding out the unloaded gun back to her, and ended the spell holding her in place at the same time. “Also I am not a gun person. And I was in a bit of a rush. Give me a break.”
Able to move again, Sapphire seemed to take a moment to compose herself, before taking the unloaded gun. Then she reached behind herself and pulled out another clip, but didn’t move to do anything else once Daniel was holding his hand towards her again.
“I don't think I'm feeling all that charitable,” She said, looking at Daniel challengingly, before slowly moving to reload her gun.
Daniel let her do it, knowing he could cast before she could aim and shoot, especially since she didn’t move to turn off the safety. Letting her have a little more of a safety blanket would probably help the conversation.
“You handle that like a fumbling virgin on prom night,” she said with a scoff, even as she pulled back the slide of her gun, loading a fresh round in the chamber. Then, still slowly, she moved to holster the gun in the hidden holster underneath her short coat, before latching it, preventing a quick draw. Given the holster, it seemed this was her gun and she’d just decided not to reveal she’d had one when Clark and Daniel had been talking to everyone. “Now are you gonna keep pointing that thing at me, or are we gonna talk? You said unbinding me was a show of sincerity, right? Kind of hard for me to feel like that’s true with a weapon in my face.”
Daniel let out an exasperated snort at the woman even as he put his hand down. She had guts, that was for sure.
“It’s just my hand,” he said, trying to play it off. “Besides, I’m hardly the only one threatening people with weapons."
“Just your hand, huh? You act like you didn’t pulp that man's head with just your hand,” She said, waving flippantly at the headless dead body. Despite that, he could tell, by really paying attention, that she wasn’t nearly as calm as she portrayed. Yet it was a very good attempt, considering she’d only been on this world a day and presumably, being some kind of internet celebrity back on earth, wouldn’t have been used to such things. “You are also the only one that threatened anything since you pointed 'just your hand' at my face. I, on the other hand, don’t point deadly weapons at things unless I intend to shoot.”
“Fair point,” Daniel conceded. This was a pointless argument and they both knew it, and he didn’t want to extend it further. Obviously, while she hadn’t pointed the gun at him, she had been just moments from raising it and shooting. But pointing that out didn’t help anything. Neither would asking her why she hadn't mentioned that she had a gun when they'd ask. She'd probably had wanted it as a secret weapon, just in case. “Can we start talking again, under the assumption that I am being truthful? And that I don’t want to hurt you, or anyone else in our little group of people?”
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Sapphire crossed her arms and gave Daniel another long hard look. Finally, she let out a small breath and nodded. “I guess I don’t have much of a choice… And I will admit that I’m more likely to believe you after your little display and show of… sincerity.”
Seeing that was probably the best he was gonna get, Daniel decided to take it as a win. Even as he did so, he came down on a decision. He’d honestly been getting sick of sneaking around the group. Yes, sneaking around was kind of his thing, but it was supposed to be around his enemies, and only until he attacked. Not sneaking around, trying to save people while keeping his involvement a secret.
And since that wasn’t much of an option anymore if Sapphire decided not to trust him, he might as well put all the cards he could on the table. Because the only other option to try and keep things as is, if she didn’t believe him, was mind magic. And he wasn’t going to do that for a number of reasons. Morality being one of them, of course.
But the other was even at his best he’d never been good at it. Reading minds was something he picked up, for those times you really needed information out of something or someone. But other aspects? He had neither the aptitude nor the desire to learn it. Too many ways to abuse it and far too few good uses. At least in his line of work.
And with his abilities as diminished as they were now? There was no way he’d risk it and potentially damage her mind.
Besides, it might be good practice for when he has to have the same talk with Nathan. Because if he was gonna reveal everything to Sapphire, then he sure as hell wasn’t going to keep it from his friend.
“Alright. So first off, let me get this out of the way first.” Daniel said, taking a couple of steps back and holding his hands to the side non-threateningly. Best to give her some space and not leave something like physical violence or intimidation on the table. Then again, she was rather tall for a woman and he wasn’t particularly tall for a man… but better safe than sorry. “No, I am not the person who brought us here, nor am I involved with them. Secondly, we are in fact, in another world. Finally, I know many things about this world, about how the classes work, the geography, and the magic, but I can’t explain how I know that. I am, however, happy to answer any questions aside from that. And my main goal at the moment, is getting everyone out of this forest alive and towards civilizations.”
Sapphire listened to all that silently, only reacting and narrowing her eyes when he said he couldn’t explain how he knew everything. Then she finally spoke.
“You really need to work on sounding convincing,” she said, sounding annoyed. “Seriously. You say you're not involved with us being here. But then also say you know everything about this place and you won’t even explain how you know? Like, are you even trying to convince me? Or are you trying to be annoying?”
Daniel just sighed and shrugged. “Look. It’s not won’t. It’s can't. I physically can not tell you how I know about things. But aside from that, I am a fountain of information. Is that suspicious? Yes. I acknowledge that. But it’s the simple truth. Take it or leave it.”
Sapphire's frown deepened at that. “And if I decide to leave it?”
“Then that makes things a lot harder on me,” Daniel said. “And since I can’t stop you from telling people about this, all I can do is try telling the truth to everyone else, and see who's willing to follow. If I had to guess, probably only my friend Nathan will stick with me. But even then, unless you guys all try to drive me away or attack, I’ll try and advise anyone who's trying to listen and at least get you guys out of the wild. If you all don’t even want that, then I’ll take my friend and make a beeline for civilization.”
“That would be rather problematic,” she said neutrally. “If your goal really is just to keep everyone safe and get them out of here. But I can’t help but notice you said you can’t stop me. But we both know that isn’t true. Aside from the obvious, who knows what else you can do with your magic.”
“Look. I get that it’s hard to trust me,” Daniel said, doing his best to not sound exasperated. It only made sense for her to be incredibly wary, despite his assurance and his gesture of good faith. “But we both know it doesn’t really matter what else I might be able to do to try and stop you. Cause if I was as evil or wished you harm, then this discussion would be pointless. But I don’t want to hurt or harm you or anyone else. That being said, in the effort to be as transparent as possible, and avoid future distrust, I will say that mind magics are a thing. I am not good enough at them for this to help me here, and I personally wouldn’t use it on an unwilling innocent person even if I were.”
Another long silence went by as she took that in. At least, it felt like a long time to Daniel as he waited.
Honestly, it’s not like he had to save everyone here. He’d feel bad about it if he didn’t try. But he’d already failed at keeping hidden and if they rejected his help… Well, he tried and would give them as much information as he could before leaving. Helping them wasn’t really slowing his growth, but perhaps only having to look after one person would allow him to do things easier too. Like getting out of the Tarnith Kingdom and rushing to the Kingdom of Auraxas and the Grand Temple there. But then again, while it would be much easier to do that with two people, not leveling up some more first would probably be a bad idea…
“Alright fine,” Sapphire finally said, before she relaxed her stance a bit. “Without any better options, I will trust what you have to say for now. As you said, aside from the murder there,” once again, she gave a casual wave at the headless corpse. Daniel couldn’t help but find that super strange. Just what was her life like back on Earth? “You haven’t really shown any signs that you're untrustworthy. And given the power disparity between us, if you were gonna do something to me, there isn’t really much I can do about it.”
Daniel let out a sigh of relief. At least she was willing to hear him out now. He wouldn’t completely put his guard down, in case she wanted to lull him into a false sense of security… But she was probably thinking something similar. Even if it would make a lot less sense for him to do something like that.
“Alright, that’s great to hear. Then do—”
Daniel started to say, but she held up one finger to interrupt him.
“With that out of the way, I think that if we are going to work together like this, then I think the power disparity should be one of the things corrected.”
“Alright…” Daniel said, warily. “And how would you like to go about that?”
She raised a single, almost imperious, eyebrow. “Obviously, since that power disparity primarily comes from you having magic, then the answer would be for you to teach me how to use that as well… Unless it’s not something you can do? Or perhaps something I can't do?”
Daniel relaxed at that. He hadn’t known what she’d demand, but this was more than fine. After all, he wanted the other people from Earth to be able to defend themselves in the future. So teaching some of them magic was, of course, something he'd be more than happy to do.
“No to both of those,” Daniel said, smiling for the first time since this whole thing happened. “I am both able to and completely willing to teach you magic. And you, and everyone else in our group, are fully able to learn as well. It just takes time, study, effort, and smarts.”
Sapphire was taken aback, just for a second, before she narrowed her eyes. “Wait, so anyone can learn magic in this world? Is it because of the Mage class? And how long would it take for me to learn?”
“I’m glad you're accepting of the whole other world thing now,” Daniel commented. “As for if anyone can become a mage in this world… Technically, yes. But depending on their talent, they might need to develop another class enough so that they start to develop an affinity for magic. Since some active skills you can get from a class are like bottled magic given to you by the system. Using those and getting used to them can help you build a feel for magic. Also, some skills will straight-up increase your magical potential, even as they augment other things like your strength if you level them high enough. But that’s not an issue for us. Everyone summoned that is. Have you taken a look at the title part of your status screen?”
Sapphire frowned and then appeared to be looking at something in front of her. No doubt her status screen. “You're talking about the Otherwolder title, right? The language effect is self-explanatory, so I’m guessing you mean the Integrity of Soul part? That gives us the talent for magic.“
“It does more than that, but yes, that’s one of the main things it does,” Daniel said before a more serious look crossed his face. “Integrity of Soul. It means our souls are not easily corrupted. Or at all, really. It makes it easier for us to get the feel of outside forces without getting changed. That distinction makes it easier for us to get the feel for mana and makes it easier to bring that mana into ourselves and keep it controlled and usable. But most of all, and remember this well, it makes it almost impossible for something to take over or corrupt our souls as long as we resist. A soul is already almost fully inviolable even under normal circumstances. But because of this effect, we are even more so immune to such things. As long as we don’t give in.”
Despite the distance between them, Sapphire leaned back slightly in apprehension as he spoke, before catching herself and returning to a more neutral stance. “You… make it sound like that will be a problem.”
“It will be,” Daniel said, his tone hard. “Both in our immediate future and beyond that as well. Something you have to understand, and I mean really take to heart, is that this isn’t Earth anymore. Magic is real. And beyond that, many things you would never have imagined are real too. Regardless of what your faith might have been on Earth, there are gods in this world. Lowercase g gods, as in they aren’t omnipotent and they didn’t create this world, but they are powerful enough to be called gods. And while I don’t think we really have to worry about them affecting our souls, except in death, besides gods, this world has demons too, and demonic gods. And those, if given the chance, will try and corrupt your soul. Which is why you must remember, that as long as you hold out, regardless of what they do, your soul will always be yours.”
“A-alright,” Sapphire said, the calm having left her again, and a naked worry was visible in her eyes. “I’ll keep that in mind. Are you expecting a demonic attack soon?”
“No,” Daniel said, taking a breath to calm himself too, as he’d gotten a bit worked up about it. It was… a sore subject. “And if I have my way, none of us will face an actual demon for a long time. I just wanted you to know about what that trait means. And perhaps I got a bit carried away talking about it. Sorry about that. Demons are very rare in this world and will be for some time. And even then, normally a demon won’t have an easy time trying to attack your soul and would just be attacking you physically.”
Sapphire took a long breath to steady herself again before she seemed to remember something and reached into her coat pocket. Daniel watched her carefully but didn’t tense as her hands weren’t going near her gun.
She seemed to notice as she gave him an unimpressed look, even as she took out her phone. “Should probably stop wasting batteries recording this,” She said casually, taping away at the phone, before putting it away. “Also we’ve been out here for almost an hour now. And as much as I want to hear more, we should probably get back to camp in case anyone comes looking.”
“You… recorded all that,” Daniel asked, a bit surprised. It had just been quite a while since he’d had access to a phone that he hadn’t thought about it. Not that it really mattered, but he still felt surprised.
“Yes,” she said, crossing her arms. “And I also took a video of what happened with you and Alfred. Is that a problem?”
She said it challengingly, and Daniel had no desire to squabble about it so he just shook his head and waved his hands. Given her leadership position, she really didn’t even need the proof to get people to believe her. And if she wanted another safety blanket, he was fine with giving it to her. “No, not at all. Just didn’t think about that for some reason. Though aren’t you afraid of running out of batteries?”
“I have a spare battery pack on me,” She said, shrugging. “And what else was I gonna use it for anyway? I thought I was getting some proof of something sinister, or perhaps blackmail. Much better use of what battery life I have left than telling the time. Unless of course, with all your knowledge about this world, you have any idea of how to charge them.”
Daniel thought about that for a moment, thinking about how much he could say without alluding to any future knowledge.. “Not right now no. But we aren’t the only ones from Earth brought into this world and I’m sure someone is going to figure something out eventually with magic. If you have important photos or something in your possession, I’d hold onto it and maybe we’ll find a solution in the future.
“Alright then,” She said, before looking back at the corpse. “So before we go back, what are you gonna do about that?”
Daniel looked at it with a frown, then shrugged. “I guess just leave it. People were already kinda getting lax, despite the goblin attack yesterday, so maybe if they find this, it will make them more cautious. Help them stay alive. Cause those goblins aren’t the only Monsters in this forest. And Monsters aren’t just simple wild animals either.”
Sapphire frowned and shook her head. “And if it ever gets out you have magic? And they see you use that force bolt thing on other things and connect the dots? What are you gonna do then?”
Daniel frowned at that but nodded. “Okay, you got a point. I can dispose of the body. I guess clean up the blood too and he’ll just be a disappearance.”
“No,” she said, shaking her head again. “Leave some of the blood for people to find. Enough that it’s obvious he’s dead. Otherwise, that goody goody Clark might convince a bunch of people to waste time looking for him, assuming he’s lost.”
That was another good point. Daniel nodded before he walked over to the corpse. As he did, he called over his shoulder. “You wanted to learn magic, right? While we don’t have time for a lesson now, how about a practical demonstration?”
She didn’t reply, but he could hear her following along. He also couldn’t hear any rusting of cloth or the unclasping of a holster, which was good. Seemed she really was gonna trust him for now. Or was gonna wait until they got into camp to sick everyone on him… That was probably him being paranoid. But he’d watch out for it just in case. He doubted it would be because of the rapist though. Instead, it might be because she didn’t believe him when he said he wasn’t the one who brought them all here.
“So, to cast magic,” Daniel said, kneeling down next to the corpse. “You really only need to be able to control and shape mana, and will your intentions onto the world through it. How to do that we’ll go over when I actually start teaching you. Anyway, that’s a really hard way to cast, and usually mages will only be able to cast like that with spells they are really familiar with. Instead, hand gestures and incantations make things a lot easier.“
Daniel did some gestures and spoke a quick incantation in ancient Draconic as he cast Earth Manipulation. He placed his palm on the ground and an earthen glow spread from his hand to the surrounding area. It was more powerful than the minor variant he’d been using, but wasn’t overly good in terms of speed or subtly with his lack of control. It was, however, good for moving a lot of Earth in a reasonable amount of time.
There was plenty of blood splattered around, so he didn’t bother trying to save any directly under the corpse. Instead, he willed the earth below to pull the corpse and the blood pooling underneath it into the ground. He’d send it at least six feet deep and that would be that. Looking around, he saw some identifiable chunks of brain and skull, which might raise uncomfortable questions. So he willed the ground at those areas to drag them down into the earth as well.
“The hand gestures are a helpful mnemonic for shaping mana, and the incantation in ancient Draconic both create a conceptual connection in your own mind, but also call upon the conceptual memory of the world to help shape the intent of the spell. Any language can technically be used, but Draconic is one of the oldest languages, and thus has a much greater connection to the world.”
Once he’d finished burying everything he’d thought should be hidden, he ended the spell and got up, brushing the bits of dirt off his hand. He then turned to face Sapphire. “And that is how a spell is cast. What do you think?”
Sapphire had been looking at where the corpse had been, a focused look on her face, before she turned to look at him. Her gaze was very focused but unlike before. They weren’t cold. Instead, some other powerful fiery emotion was there. Desire perhaps. Not in a carnal fashion, or a greedy one. Just a strong desire for magic. He could relate, as magic had always fascinated him.
“I think,” she said slowly, holding his gaze and closing the distance. She held out a hand to him. “That if you teach me how to use magic like that as you promised, I’m willing to place a bit more trust in you.”
Since he never had any reasons not to want to teach her, he was, of course, perfectly happy with that. So he took her hand and gave it a quick shake. “That’s good to hear. Then let’s head back, and as soon as we can get some time alone, we can begin your lessons. But since you're placing your trust in me, can you tell what exactly made you pay so much attention to me before you saw all this?”