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As Auron approached the tower, his hands brushed over his new belt and the four pouches it held.

Holding Belt of many pouches: Passed down from generation to generation, this belt has served various adventurers. 3/4 pouches full.

"Creative name," Auron snickered to Zander.

The first pouch contained 20 more of the objects that the apes were pouring their mana into for their elemental attacks earlier.

Rounded Quartz stones: This stone is naturally porous. A King Baboon collected them. This group of rocks was selected because they are able to act as a temporary receptacle for mana.

Holding one out in front of his face Auron noted the rock seemed fairly brittle. He realized he could most likely use these as a more capable replacement for his wind grenades. While the gemstones worked, they needed a great deal of force to activate, and that may not be realistic in certain situations. Auron visualized having to stab his healing grenade to enable it and suppressed a shudder. Adding that to a mental list of things to look into, he checked the next pouch.

The second pouch had thirty soft yellow fruits.

Lemon: This citrus fruit grows in warm climates. Edible.

As he bit into one of the brightly colored ovals, Auron's face puckered from the sour taste. Winding up his arm, he heaved the fruit into the jungle. Knowing wandering animals would eat likely to eat them, he dumped the rest off of the base of the platform.  After this fiasco, he decided to be warier of his inspect skill. Edible does not necessarily mean it will taste good.

[Why are you always shoving everything you find into your mouth Auron?]

The sarcastic question went ignored as he moved to the next pouch. 

The third pouch had a surprise inside. Reaching his hand in he pulled out a dagger.

Felt-worth family dagger: Engraved dagger belonging to the Felt-worth family. A precious family heirloom that has enormous sentimental value.

As he felt the weight of it in his hand, Auron couldn't help but appreciate the craftsmanship put into the steel blade. A delicate pattern was etched into the fuller of the blade. Its golden crossguard led up into swirling quillions that had similar markings to the center of the steel. With an F-W carved deeply in the pommel, the blade looked almost too expensive to use. It was also much heavier than he would have expected. He verified its sharpness with his thumb, as it bit into his skin with ease, a few points of health fell away from his pool. This blade was so far beyond his goblin kitchen knife he did not ever want to see the thing again. He felt comparing the two would be too much of an insult to his first weapon. 

Auron couldn't suppress the smile that came. Another confirmation of a real civilization being nearby. People would not use a family name unless they were fairly advanced. Maybe they all looked like that dragon girl he saw, but the dress she wore was another indication of civility, and also lead him to believe that she was no mindless beast.

The name also led him to believe the monkey must have stolen this item from a person. This may be his ticket into whatever village or populated area he found. He was sure that someone would be missing such a beautiful piece of equipment. Perhaps he would receive a hero's welcome. Auron daydreamed as he moved forward. 

Storing the dagger in his ring for instant access, Auron began the slow climb back up the ladder. With each small increase in height, his exhaustion grew. He needed to figure out the missing element soon. He had a feeling the problem was related to one of the mana colors he had not run into yet. Yellow, or White.

His mind switched thoughts between that, and his hopes of a hearty welcome wherever he ended up, he climbed. 

As he reached the top, his arms and lungs shared a similar burn. As sweat dripped down his brow and he caught his breath, Auron stood atop the structure. Without the distraction of the monkeys,  and now that he escaped from the sight restricting walls of nature, he was then able to view more towers spaced out all above the jungle treeline like the one he stood on.

To his right, the mountains closest looked as if a god tore them open with a sword. From the tip to what was blocked by the treeline was torn asunder. In the slowly dimming light, he could not see how deep the slice went. Swirling patterns along each side reminded Auron of Zander's magic. The sight of ruined nature drained the blood from Auron's face. The amount of destruction was beyond the scope of anything he could have envisioned. Perhaps some great being had a disagreement with that area. Auron was not sure if he ever wanted to find out, lest he gains the ire of whatever caused such damage. 

Looking along with the circular mountain range that framed the area, he could make out what looked like a city carved into the mountain wall. Far from where he stood, there was something grand, and human-made. It was becoming too dark to see. In the slowly fading light, he spotted what resembled torches being lit along an extensive stone wall. Throwing a fist up in the air Auron looked at his familiar. "We have our destination!" His joy bled into each word as he beamed a smile toward Zander.

[Indeed we have. Do you still want me to save my mana, or should I fly us there?] Zander says his reptilian face seemed lost in a personal reflection.

Auron thought for a minute then stretched his arms behind his back his sore muscles relented in their constant ache slightly. The pain made Auron wonder what he would be feeling without his pain resistance.

"Let's play it safe. I do not want to lose you for any amount of time if that city is not friendly." His face took on a more serious look. "I can just follow the sun. It rises where we came from toward the swamp and seems to set closer to that city." Auron said as he opened the map on his screen and added landmarks. "As long as we keep the mountains to our right and stay somewhat close to them we can get over there in a day or two, and we will completely avoid that dungeon," Auron said while he silently hoped that there would not be any other high-level dungeons in their way. "We can just spend the night up here. You should rest. If you go in voluntarily without needing to, can I call on you, or do we still have to wait for some sort of cool down?" Auron asked as the slightest bit of worry crept into his voice.

[If I go to rest, my pool will begin to be refreshed, and you can call at any time. It is only when I run close to empty that I am forced to wait until I am back at full power. I believe the current wait time is close to ten hours.] Zander answered while standing on his rear legs, peering at the horizon. Auron sagged slightly from the weight shift but didn't mention it. After Zander's head drifted over to the wounded mountain, he disappeared into the tattoo.

With a twitch of his finger and a thought, Auron summoned his bedroll and crossed his legs to sit down on it. For a little while, he spent some moments of taking in the beautiful view of the sun setting over the valley. He snacked on the last of his Fire Algae and drank from his bucket.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Auron sighed contentedly. Belly full and thirst satiated, he moved on to his next goal. Before he could do so, a glint on of the mountain tops caught his eye. Something red and shiny seemed to be wrapped around one of the peaks. Auron pondered it for a moment and shrugged it off. He would not be able to solve the mysteries of this world all at once. As long as it did not move, he did not want to waste time worrying about whatever unknown problem that may be in the future.

Reaching into one of his pouches, he had to take out all twenty of the potential quartz grenades one by one. By comparison, all it took was a thought, and his favorite crafting tool was in his hand. He smiled at the ease of use of his storage ring as he looked at the black mana infused rod that used to be a rat tail. Auron was slightly disappointed in the limit of twenty spots for his ring. Now with his belt to compare it to, it seemed lacking. However, his ring did have the advantage of summoning items directly to him.

Auron was ready to get to work. He clapped his hands together softly and began to channel some of his wind magic into the rod. His mana manipulation, and infusion skills activating as the Onyx lapped up any mana he put near it easily. Lightly touching the rod to the first flat round stone caused a minor explosion. Auron swore softly as he picked the jagged remains of the rock out of the skin on his face.

Dialing the power back, he tried again and changed his focus to have the wind be that of healing quality. *Bing*

Healing wind stone grenade created. When broken, this stone will release healing wind. Heals 5 hp/s for 30 seconds to everything within a 5-meter radius.

Auron frowned deeply at the message holding the now softly glowing green stone in his hand. This was only half as powerful as his gemstone grenade. Using both hands, he crushed it, and true to its name, a vortex of wind exploded out of it. The wind slowly healed the cuts on Auron's face. He knew that even at half the power, it was effortless to activate. The added benefit of using healing without stealing away one of his limited uses was wonderful. He said, his lips turning up in a small smile, thinking of the high cost of Healing gale and Thrust slash.

His frown returned when he realized it would heal enemies as well. If only he could spam his crafting to up the tier of his Artificer class. However, he had no idea what it took. If it was like an ability, it was fifty uses for an upgrade, but the tier system for classes and abilities could be different. Even with all of his battling and application of skills related to his Rogue class, there had been no change there either. Once again, Auron found himself wishing for a teacher. All he could do for now was keep moving forward. 

As he repeated the process of scaling back the amount of mana, Auron infused one of the rocks with wind blast.

-Wind stone grenade. When broken, this will release a storm of wind. Break to activate and deal 100 points of AOE damage.

Auron softly swore. The stone was a third of the power of the same spell put into an empty gemstone. Trying once more, this time increasing the amount of mana, he was rewarded with one of the stones exploding. The blast sent its rocky shrapnel into his face and body. Auron fell back frustrated and only lightly hurt. The blast only stole some of his health, but his disappointment was evident.  

With a healing wind, he was back to full health. With nothing to do other than accept the situation, Auron got to work on the rest of the stones.

Even with the smallest mana concentration that he could push into the stone, he had a success rate of a little over 50% Auron was filled with disappointment and shards of mineral when he finished his tinkering. Another reason he wished his Articifer class would tier up. Games always had crafting bonuses with upgrades; hopefully, this world would too. 

The sun was long gone, and a raging heading matched his flashing empty mana pool as he tried to store the stones in the same pouch, but the belt refused, it spit out one of his healing grenades, which broke upon impact with the ground at his feet. Auron laughed out loud as the whirlwind of wind surrounded him. This was the final straw in his string of failures for the evening. He decided just to let go of the aggravating failure rather than lash out like he desperately wanted to. He was raised to control his emotions and not act like a petulant child. With a calming breath, he returned to his task.

Storing five healing stone grenades on the empty pouch on his left side where those awful fruits once were, and six wind blast ones in the pouch on his right where the King baboon had put his collection of stones. He settled down and laid on his back facing the stars.

The sky, bereft of clouds, gave everything a soft silver glow from the twin moons. Auron felt a pang of worry as he realized he did not even remember what earth's night sky looked like.

His mind, and its slow transmutation into swiss cheese bothered him to his core. Auron found himself wondering who was someone, if not the composite of where they have been, and the memories that made up their life. As he became lost in thought, he slowly slipped into a slump of depressing thoughts. His gaze up at the cosmos left him with the wish that he could fly up there to escape his mind.

After some time swimming in dark thoughts, he found an ounce of courage. That small fragment of light raged against his darkened mind. The only direction he could look was forward. The chance of seeing his mother alive was the cause of his internal spark of the drive. Auron remembered the words that Zander had said, playing them back again and again. If he was never on earth, then maybe his original memories were from here, and there is a spell on him too. The only way to find out was to get rid of the spells hold on Zander and ask him directly.

Auron did not want to believe everything Zander had said, but if it meant he could see his mother again, he did not care where he was from. Falling asleep with that positive thought as his last Auron slept without nightmares.

Waking up to all the sounds a jungle can make Auron stands and stretches in the dim morning light. Making his way down the ladder, he touched his shoulder and called out Zander soon after his feet hit the soil of the ground. With a shared nod, the two are off Zander, placed like a scarf around Auron's neck. To his credit, Auron was getting used to the extra weight.

Their walk through the jungle was uninterrupted. Auron activated stealth, anytime they heard a loud noise and Zander maliciously kept bugs at bay with a light wind, and occasional hardened crescent slicing through them. Auron casually looked for more Oyster shrooms as they traveled. His attempts to get Zander to try one all failed whenever they came across any growing at the base of a tree.

A day past as their journey was much of this. Auron's map updated as they traveled, and his rough marking of where things should be leading them to the next watchtower. The top of this one was pristine; being closer to civilization must have meant it got visitors from time to time. At the top, Auron estimated they had closed the distance by half. The stone metropolis was still another day's walk away at their slow pace.

Now closer to the city, he could see just how large it was. If full, it could be housing tens of thousands of residents. Just as the evening prior, the torches went up as soon as the sun began to dip. Another dreamless sleep, on an empty tower, with Zander resting in his tattoo and them, were off once again. Auron noted most of the wildlife avoided the two. Most likely due to the animals understanding just how powerful the creature draped around his neck was. In one instance, a small boar ran out and immediately turned around at the sight of the two. Their journey remained uninterrupted until halfway through the second day.

In the far distance, Auron could make out a break in the jungle that most likely signaled an opening between it and the city. Excited by the change in the monotony of hiking he had been through, he doubled his pace. *Skuarkkk* *Skuarkkk*

A loud bird call rumbled through the Rain forest. Auron heard the call and stopped quickly, almost stumbling over a large fern as his feet dug into the soft earth. After the call, a creaking noise sounded out, followed by the repeated beating of wings.