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Auron's nightmare was just like all the others. He entered the dream in a free fall. Below him was an endless pit of darkness. The darkness was accompanied by a quick drain of heat from his skin. Greedily the continuous empty vacuum leached every ounce of warmth from him. This dream or memory was different than the others though, rather than a continued endless tumble. His fall came to a quick stop as strong, but soft hands grabbed on to his own. The hand gripped on to his in a way that did not hurt, but with a nervous tightness that betrayed its warmth. Auron felt a familiar soothing fire fill his chest. Red walls wrapped around him, and who he assumed was his mother, but this time he understood that the walls were keeping the darkness at bay. His mother was keeping him safe. Three lights blazed into his eyes, and he closed them to cut off the ocular pain caused by the sudden brightness.

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Auron opened his eyes, now back in the jungle, and immediately stripped off his leather cowl, which was sticky with perspiration. The heat of the jungle was sweltering, Auron realized this through the pool of said sweat he woke up in. He sat up and grabbed a mushroom for breakfast as he contemplated how leather and jungle humidity are not the best combination. The sweet fungi left him satiated, but he oddly found himself wishing for a hot meal. Even in this temperature, the feeling of warmth spreading down his gullet would have hit the spot. 

Scrunching his nose in confusion, he tried to remember when he ever had a hot meal without success. In all of his fragmented, possibly fake memories of earth, he could not remember one instance of food. This realization twisted the knife-like feeling in his gut, his grip on his sense of self, and his grasp on reality. 

Recognizing that his mother was in that void with him pushed the metaphorical knife in up to its hilt. 

Auron dismissed his newest memory gap and thought about his dream. The image comforted him as he held on to the hope that his mother was alive. His goals were now simple though complex in their intensity. Destroy the blood magic messing with Zander, and save his mother. Having a few pieces of the puzzle, Auron had a feeling the two missions were connected. 

To his surprise, he looked down at his bare shoulder and saw Zander was still inside his tattoo. This was the first time a night of sleep was not enough time for him to recharge his mana pool. Thrown off by the lack of his familiar’s judging eyes where he woke up, Auron decided he would let it go for now, and just ask for the reason when Zander was back. 

Auron placed his bedroll back into his ring and clumped as many of the mushrooms as he could together and did the same. Luckily the clump only took up one space. 

Slipping on his cowl, he decided to quickly jump into the nearest stream to beat the heat and clean himself. Activating stealth, he promptly navigated his way out of the bed of roots and jogged over toward the sound of a bubbling creek. As his first stealth deactivated, he activated it one more time. The cost of using it while moving seemed to be multiple times the cost otherwise. Auron could see that he could activate it around four times in a row with his current mana pool of 200. Once activated, and moving, he had roughly forty seconds of movement. 

Two activations later, he reached the source of the running water he had detected. Summoning his dagger, Auron marked trees; this way, he could quickly make it back to his temporary safe point within the roots where he slept. 

The small stream flowed through the jungle splitting the trees as it joined several other creeks and widened into a river. Vines hung down from branches at various heights as if the trees needed to reach across the divide and touch one another. The break in the canopy caused by the river led to plenty of light hitting the jungle floor. Wherever the daylight contacted were hundreds of flowers, and so many types of plants, Auron figured it would take his whole life to identify them.

Dismissing the thought, Auron used his skill to identify everything he saw. The information he received was just the species of plant and that surprisingly none were edible. Following the river for a while, Auron came upon an area he thought would be perfect for a swim. The round pool of water almost seemed human-made, a potential walkway of rocks spread out shore to shore in a circular pattern, unable to completely stop the powerful flow of the water, but enough that one could get in and not be swept away. A quick check of his inventory ring allowed him to see the space available. 

Inventory ring: 15/20 1 Emerald shard 1 Amethyst shard 1 Chunk of gold 1 Healing wind grenade 1 Goblin dagger 1 Onyx rod 1 Ogre skin shield (4 slots) 1bedroll 1 Spell Tome 1 Yggdrasil component gamma Bundle of Algae A clump of Fluid oyster shrooms.

After checking, he decided to add his boots, pants, cowl, gloves, and bracers. He was happy to see his armor set only took up a single space. The pants and gloves needed a space each themselves, though. His inventory was now close to full at 18/20, and he was butt naked in the middle of a jungle. Auron held back a nervous chuckle as he waded into the clear water. At its very center, the liquid was only up to his shoulders at its deepest and a few meters wide. The rocks helped break the current, but Auron still had to put some effort into not being forced downstream. Slowly walking upstream, he wrapped his arms around one of the rocks and allowed the current to sweep his feet up.

As Auron enjoyed the feeling of the freshwater running down his body, he heard a twig snap. His eyes thrust to the shore opposite the side he came in on and widened in horror at what he saw.

A human dragon amalgam stood at the short holding a bucket. The creature had the head of a dragon scales running over every inch of it above its neck—sharp fangs set into an elongated jaw, and large amber eyes. It was wearing a yellow sundress below the neck, and its only other draconian features were its left arm and right leg. Rather than matching the pink flesh of its human-looking arm, the other arm was also scaled and ended in wicked claws. She stood at a slight slant as her legs were different heights. One being scaled and large, and the other was smaller and human as Auron's own.

The creature dropped the bucket and began stepping backward as Auron’s investigation activated.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Elameria lvl 5 class:???

Auron began to wade closer, his excitement over his first time seeing someone even closely resembling a human, making him forget his complete nudity. Luckily for his thoughtless mind, the water was not easily traveled through. As he got closer, the water still above his navel, he could have sworn he saw the scales on the cheeks of the being blush as she dropped the bucket and scrambled to put on a kindred mask she pulled out of nowhere. As she gazed at him while wearing the wooden fox mask, he was too stunned to speak. Turning swiftly, she ran into the jungle her dragon looking leg, propelling her at a speed greater than he would have expected. “Wait!” Auron called out as he realized he should have spoken sooner. Swearing and sitting quickly back down into the water, he cursed his lack of thought. Though she did not seem to mind the absence of his shirt for some reason, it seemed she was more embarrassed over her appearance. As if Auron would have cared. He slapped the water, upset over losing contact with the first person he had come across.

Knowing he would never catch the girl, he crawled out of the water dejectedly and directly equipped his gear out of his ring. Auron paused for a moment as he looked down at his armor now set on his body with unnatural precision. As he moved around, he noted it was all on perfectly. Quick equipping clothes was something he may never get used to.

Stretching his arms and legs, he made his way over to the bucket. Surprisingly, when he picked up the bucket, he noticed it was extremely well made. The handle had incredibly thick metal fastened to the sides of the bucket that seemed unnecessarily sturdy. The inside of the metal bucket, lined with black crystal-like stones. The material reminded him of his onyx mana rod. Auron’s mouth opened in shock as his inspection activateed.

Onyx augmented bucket. The properties of the black mana drawn in through the Onyx ore implanted in this bucket allow for it to condense the contents. Warning: The weight will increase as the bucket fills.

Auron was somewhat thrown off by the self-explanatory warning. As he brought the bucket over to the edge of the water, he mused how obvious the statement was. Of course, it would get heavier as it filled up. After another glance back to the treeline he took one more look for the girl. He felt some guilt at considering taking the bucket, but knowing he may need it to survive was enough reason to do it anyway.

Walking away down the shore, he found an area where the water moved faster than in his bathing area. The bucket placed into the water has the result Auron expects initially. The water flowed into the bucket, and it got heavier from the weight of the water, only it did not stop at the rim. When the water-filled and reached the ring of ore set into its lip, it then shrunk down in a flash of black mana. The bucket then appeared as if it only has a trickle of water in the bottom as more rushes from the river to fill the space.

Another flash, and another. The bucket increased its weight substantially as Auron struggled to keep his grip on its handle. Falling to his knees, the flow of the water and the bucket's weight began to drag him slightly along the shore. Risking the loss of his only potential water source on his trip, he began to panic as his knuckles turned white from the desperation of his grip. The weight was too much for him as he used all the strength in his arms and shoulders to heave the bucket out of the water. He could not lose this valuable asset. Auron began to panic. As a last-ditch effort, he released one hand, the decision nearly allowing the bucket to rip his shoulder out of its socket. Summoning his Onyx rod from his ring, he channeled mana from it into his strength rune.

After he used his whole body weight and augmented strength, it still took him a tremendous amount of effort to pull it backward. The momentum of the bucket being pulled out so quickly caused him to fall back. Auron heard something crunch as he landed on his back, and the full weight of the bucket came down on his chest. As fifteen percent of his health bar was taken away, Auron tried to wriggle from under the bucket. “Nonono,” He rambled as it began to tip, and the entire container poured out a torrent of water on his face. As if ten times its own size, the stream of water from the bucket took a chunk of time to deluge its contents over him, up to his nose, and into his lungs.

When the bucket was finally empty, Auron's sputtering coughs rang out alongside a wheezing sound. As he wiped his eyes, a dog-sized green creature entered his view. His familiar had returned and was now rolling on the ground. A crackle of wheezes came from deep in Zander’s chest. “I guess you saw all of that,” Auron said while coughing out the last of the water from his lungs.

[Oh my. My stomach hurts from laughing so hard. Auron, you are like a baby.] This message is all Zander could send before another fit of wheezing took him. His words interspaced with the squeaking laugh that reminded Auron of a creaky door hinge.

Zander sent a puff of healing wind that repaired Auron's cracked ribs as he wiped a tear onto his reptilian shoulder. A grin split Auron’s face as well after he felt his pain melt away.

“Took you long enough to come back, partner,” Auron said playfully as he walked over and sat down next to Zander on the riverside.

As Zander finished laughing, Auron noticed his familiar now has three sets of two nubs protruding out of his back. Feeling it would be rude to mention he lets it go. Who was he to question a magical salamander's physiology?

[Yes. Now that my mana pool is bigger, it will take more time for me to return. You may not have noticed, but while you were sleeping, I took my daily toll from your pool. Do not worry, though. I can stay here for longer now too. I just can not use the magnitude of spell like the one I did while we were flying.] Zander sent his mental message, the last words dripping with self-loathing.

Auron looked familiar in his emerald and gold speckled eyes. “That is enough of being hard on yourself. I would be dead ten times over without you.” He said sternly.

“Oh!” Auron jumped up with the exclamation. “I saw someone just now, they dropped this bucket, and I found the most delicious mushrooms! Wait, do you even eat?”Auron spoke quickly, barely taking a breath. It was clear that he had spent enough time alone, and was overjoyed Zander was back.

[Hmm. We should be on guard then. No, I am content with just mana.] Zander said as he switched to sentry mode. His eyes now swept around at the treeline on edge.

Auron agreed about having their guard up. He activated stealth and placed Zander on his shoulders. Once again, he filled the bucket but quickly picked it up just before it was too heavy for him to lift. With a silent prayer, he stored it into his ring. With a quick check, he is somewhat surprised it took up two spaces, but considering the weight, he was not that alarmed. Walking on the border of rocks, he slowly returned to the shore he started on.

Opting to explore a little more, he reactivated Stealth and the two headed downstream.

“Now that we put some distance, I am going to let my mana recharge,” Auron says to Zander, who offered a grunt in agreement as his eyes swept the treeline. As the two moved forward, parallel with the river, Auron noticed that the other shore was creeping further away as they walked. The air seemed to be even more saturated with moisture, and a thunderous roar of falling water could be heard. Peering forward, he could see the beginnings of a waterfall. The flowing river turned from fast to rapids as they reached the edge of a cliff.

Looking around, Auron made out an oval-shaped indentation in the ground that looked around a mile wide. The waterfall cascaded down far enough that he would have been hesitant to jump. At the base, the stream continued, and Auron traced it with his eyes until he lost it under a bed of thick trees.

Down in the crater, it seemed was an even wilder Jungle. The trees had a variance of colored leaves, and what looked like eyeballs with wings zipped around in and out of the foliage. Auron began to feel a headache as he looked into the area. Zander jumped to a nearby tree as he gave Auron a look. Sitting down on the edge of the cliff, Auron was not surprised to hear the system. *Bing*