Late Afternoon - Late Fall : Strait of Western Elynnor

-What.. the..- As soon as I went to control my aura, I noticed something amazing. -What did that artifact do to me..-

Unlike usual, the slight mental strain I felt when controlling and reading my aura was completely gone.

-What if I..-

*VWWOOOMM*

Completely thinning the walls of my mana reserve, I flooded the area with aura and tried to read as much as I could.

-Wow..- Although the amount I could read and control was the same as before, the mental strain I felt was completely gone. -Its almost like its my calculations for everything that's too slow now..-

It was something I could improve on, unlike before. -To think that artifact broke me past the wall..- Although I called it a wall, it wasn't quite that simple.

With all the practice with magic I had done over the years, I had reached a limit that couldn't be passed with training.

The volume of mana I could control and the volume of aura I could read, had simply hit a dead end.

I tried everything to break it, from training my limit until my head felt like it was splitting apart, to trying extremely risky and experimental magic to speed up processes in my brain, but simply nothing worked.

It eventually got to a point that I had to give up and accept that letting myself age was the only way I could increase the limit. -But now that limit is broken.. at least for now..-

Although this was something incredible since it massively increased the limit on my magic, I still had mixed feelings about the whole situation.

I simply had too many questions without having an inkling of a single answer.

"Woof." Ilios snapped me out of my thoughts as he held his head high with a proud grin.

"Haha, is my mana control what you wanted me to see?" I moved over and lightly rubbed his head.

"Hmph!" He gave an exaggerated nod.

A warm smile crept onto my face. "Thanks buddy.." As I rubbed his head, I cleaned out the questions dwelling on my mind and figured out my current plan. -Right.. I just need to take one step at a time.. Siratha comes first..- "But for now, let's get off the bottom of the ocean."

As Ilios hopped on my back, the bubble we were sitting in collapsed, and we were directly exposed to the crushing water pressure.

-Oof..- Although nothing I couldn't manage, the pressure caught me a bit off guard. I quickly got used to it though. -Well.. let's get going!-

*Rumble*

As I kicked on the thrusters, a deep and satisfying rumble filled the area, but it didn't last too long.

*Splash-FWOOOOSH*

The instant we broke through the surface of the water, we were launched past mach and thrown high into the atmosphere.

"Haah.." I took a deep and refreshing breath as I enjoyed the new found feeling of comfort and freedom within my mind. -To think this is what it's like to not know my own limits anymore... I can finally grow again!-

The next thing I knew, an hour had passed and land came into sight. -Alright.. let's see where we are.-

As I flew along the coast though, I eventually stumbled across a familiar ship sitting just off shore with a familiar face standing by the railing. -Emelia?-

Flying closer, I cloaked and silenced myself so no one could see or hear me.

"Haah.." She took a deep breath with a guilt covered face.

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*Tap*

"Hm?" She casually glanced back after hearing the footstep. As she looked at me, her face lit up for an instant but quickly darkened again. "Why does my mind play tricks on me.."

"Who said your mind is playing tricks?" I tried to give a comforting smile but it was a bit forced.

"V..Vasilias? Y..you're actually alive?!" She looked like she was going to cry as she ran up and hugged me.

-We weren't this close, were we?-

The instant I thought that though, she pushed herself away and looked towards the ground with a flushed face. "I'm sorry! I thought I was still imagining things.."

Although I felt a deep discomfort from the hug, her reaction was quite funny. "Haha, do I not seem real?"

Although I was joking, she gave a shockingly genuine response. "Well.. a bit.."

-Hm?- "What's different about me?" I was genuinely curious since, although the artifact changed me quite a bit, there weren't any visible changes.

"Well.." She fidgeted a bit as she walked back to the railing. "The air you carry around yourself is a bit different and.." She nervously glanced back at me. "Your eyes.. um.."

-What is she..- Quickly using light magic to make myself a little mirror, I quickly realized what she was talking about. -Oh..- My eyes were draconic.

Without much time to think about it, I nonchalantly used illusion magic to make them look as they did before.

Emelias face was a mix of shock and awe.

"How about we keep what you saw as a secret between us?" I gave a slightly threatening smile to drive my point home. -That could've been bad..-

After that, we continued to talk for quite a while.

Once evening rolled around, Adrian and Lynn returned to the ship and we spent a while socializing.

It was nice and relaxing to casually talk, but I still had a lingering sense that I needed to get on the road again, so I wrapped things up early.

"Well, it's been good fun to sit down and chat, but I should get going." I casually swigged the rest of my drink before setting the empty mug on the table.

"Awe, I was hoping to talk a bit more, I won't try and hold you back though." Adrian set his mug down and walked over to me. "Let's meet again in the future!" He reached his hand out for a handshake.

"Well of course! You know where to go." Gripping onto his hand, I gave a firm handshake and turned to the door.

"Vasilias!" Emelia called out right as I stepped into the doorway.

"Yes?" I glanced back to see her with a slightly worried face.

"Be safe.. please.."

Her genuine worry made me want to laugh, but instead, I just gave a light wave.

The instant I stepped outside of the captain's cabin, I picked up Ilios and vanished.

Once a decent ways away from the ship, I changed back to my dragon form and took to the sky. -Next stop.. Siratha!-

Or so I thought..

The next 3 months would be a painstaking mix of me practicing magic while flying and getting incorrect or vague directions from everyone I asked and to top it off, only a select few people even among nobles and royalty had even heard of the nation Siratha.

I ended up bouncing between cities and countries all the way across and around the western continent until I gave up and just started flying around to look at myself.

-Its the same f*cking forest..- I was starting to get genuinely mad. Everyone I got directions from that said they knew about where it was said it was ‘to the west in the Great Forest’.

The issue was that every time I flew to the west, I'd find a pretty big forest bordering a wide strait with an endless desert on the other side, but never find any nations, cities or even villages.

It was a predicament that was steadily driving me insane.

But right as I was about to just launch myself into space to look that way, I saw an elven halfie in the forest. -Perfect!-

Zipping towards the ground, I didn't even bother slowing down.

*BBANNGG*

The forest around where I landed was blown away and the ground shattered.

Standing on the edge of the newly made clearing was the now pale faced halfie.

*Fwoosh*

Appearing right in front of him, I leaned down and looked him in the eyes. "Where is Siratha from here.." I didn't even bother hiding my irritation.

"U...uh..uhm.. to t..the west?" He was clearly terrified but his response didn’t help the situation.

As I lifted up my foot to kill him, I stopped and asked again. "Just point in the direction of Siratha."

With a shaky hand, he pointed straight behind me. "I..its across the s..strait and a..across the B..Banvænn desert.."

His response sounded like heaven's oracle as my anger quickly turned to joy, but it only took a second to notice something off. -Wait..- "Isn't this forest known as the Great Forest though?"

"No.. this is the Gray Forest not the Great Forest.."

His words instantly pinched a nerve. -To think I let that old hag's word override my instinct..- I thought back to an older woman I asked for directions from and felt the need to go and vaporize her, but held myself back. -If I do that now, I'd just be wasting more time..-

“Haah..” -I knew the descriptions of the forest in those books seemed too different..- Slowly lowering my foot to the side, I looked back down at the halfie. "Thanks.."

*Pshhh-FWOOSH*

Blasting my thrusters once again, I disappeared from in front of the halfie and took to the skies again. -Lets just hope and pray I don't have to deal with that bullsh*t again..-