Mid Evening - Late Fall : Northern Sirathan Mountains
-What a beautiful night..- I took a deep breath of the cool night air as I flew to the west.
So far, things were progressing smoothly and from what I could tell, Amara's directions seemed to be extremely good. -Hopefully I should get there pretty soon!-
Just after I thought that, the colossal western mountains finally crested the horizon and I turned to the south.
It was only after a few minutes of flying above the mountain tops that I finally found a massive doorway built into the side of a mountain.
-That must be it!- It was Amara's childhood home. It was a place she said hadn't been touched for nearly 60 years and simply functioned as a place she could use if she ever wanted to.
-It's in a really beautiful spot..- With a glance to my right, I was enraptured by a beautiful view of the ocean and night sky, it was only once I got close to the doors that my attention was pulled elsewhere.
As I landed, I saw the familiar crest of Bahamut and felt a wave of nostalgia wash over me but it didn't last long.
-Didn't she say this place hasn't been used in like 60 years? And didn't she say it was in good condition?-
The door was full of cracks and the colossal metal beam used to keep it locked and closed was crudely moved just enough to allow a humanoid in or out.
But, as if my worries weren’t concrete enough, the instant I went to take a deep breath, my nose was assaulted by the scent of rotting flesh.
-So much for it being an abandoned family home, huh..- Assuming the worst, I set Ilios down and peeked my head inside. My instinct was on edge from the stench, so I was proceeding carefully.
Inside, it had a similar layout to my own childhood home with a single long hallway leading to a large rotunda and, even though it lacked a single light source, I could see clearly.
The walls and floor were all cracked and charred, the old statues were all broken and the light artifacts built into the wall were missing as if they were removed. -Just wha..-
My thoughts were cut off as I looked further down the hallway and saw the rotting corpse of a young halfie (less than 10 meters long) without any scales, teeth or eyes.
It was clearly taken apart for parts but it made me feel an incredibly deep disgust and instinctual anger. -To do that to a mere child..-
As I got closer, I could finally look around the rotunda and noticed a rotting humanoid arm, a set of destroyed armor, a bag of the missing body parts of the halfie and a ripped open satchel scattered around on the ground.
Using my aura to take out the contents of the satchel, I found a few half empty but extremely high grade potions, and a notebook.
Quickly flipping through the pages, I hastily read the contents.
It was a diary belonging to a Cleric Rank adventurer named Yrsa Helvig. Simply put, she was an elven prodigy who grew up with a golden spoon in Siratha’s capital city, Valtivar.
As she grew up she was always the top of her class and was even expected to become a priest, a position sought by everyone in Siratha, including nobility, but fate seemed to have other plans.
Just after she turned 36, she decided to go on a long journey through the mountains to explore areas said to contain ancient runes and formidable monsters, all in the pursuit of strength and knowledge.
It was a journey that she expected to take around 5 years, but around 3 years into the journey, she stumbled across a massive gateway with an insignia she was familiar with on it. She simply referred to it as ‘the insignia of the strong’.
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Driven crazy by curiosity, she forcefully moved the massive lock and entered, but was soon met with a ‘small but mighty dragon’.
Assuming it was the blessing of the gods, she swiftly slaughtered it and took her time taking it apart to stuffing everything she could into her bags.
The next pages in the book were half burnt and covered in blood.
They simply read:
'Why have the great gods forsaken me?
What have I done to incur such wrath?
My arm is gone and my body is charred. Potions have long since lost their effect.
It has been nearly two weeks now. My mind has started to slow and my body is losing to fatigue.
I cannot continue.
This will be where I die unless a true miracle happens, as my screams and prayers will likely continue to go unheard.'
The next several pages were blank before continuing once again with barely legible scribbles.
'I've started to lose track of the days. My memories are fading and my vision is blurring, I barely even remember who my family are.
I will attempt to venture outside again tomorrow if it stays quiet.
It was waiting. The instant I got close to the door, I was met with another facefull of scorching fire.
I can barely write anymore, all of my remaining limbs have gone numb.
It has been quiet for days now. I believe the creature may have finally moved on.
This could be an opportunity.'
The last line of the page was still scribbled but was far more legible.
'Incase these are my final words, whoever reads this, please pray for the mighty gods to forgive me in the afterlife.'
"Tch.." It was a line that only just tossed fuel on the fire burning within me. -You dare ask for forgiveness after mercilessly killing and dissecting a child like an animal?!- At that instant, my mind was full of dreadful thoughts but I quickly quelled my anger.
Turning to the rotting corpse, I decided to at least give the child a proper send off.
Moving it onto a small metal plate with the bag of its harvested remains, I dragged it outside and overlooked the ocean.
"Although you may have been abandoned by your parents and by fate in this lifetime, I wish you luck in your next."
Mixing hydrogen I pulled from the atmosphere with some I made with space mana, I created a colossal and instantaneous hydrogen explosion.
*CRA-BOOOM*
By the time the flash dimmed, the corpse of the halfie was already gone and a massive cloud had formed in front of me.
"I wish you luck on your journey." Lowering my head just slightly, the slight ocean breeze returned and blew the cloud up past me.
It made me feel oddly satisfied seeing the cloud move beyond the mountains, but it didn't last forever.
As I walked back into the cave that used to be a home, I finally started cleaning things up. The last thing I wanted was to be blamed for the damages.
“Haah..” As I cleaned, my thoughts about the incident I read about wandered. I started to wonder what really happened.
In the end though, my thoughts didn't come to any conclusions and my 3 year stay in the mountains had officially started.
Over the next couple weeks, I spent my time repairing the cave and adjusting to my new training regiment with Ilios, but as usual, I got adjusted quickly.
Being able to solely focus on my training and theories made my strength in terms of both physical and magic increase even further, but there were also problems that arose.
Around a year after I first started, I started really noticing changes in my mental state and demeanor. It wasn't a huge change and could simply be attributed to natural changes in maturity, but it seemed to be changing far faster than normal.
-Could it be because I'm constantly thinking of things at full speed, that my brain is perceiving time slower?- In concept it was simple. All the time I spent outside of rest, which was almost never, my mind was throwing around not only calculations but also general thoughts at full speed, so over time, my brain started to mature faster than my body.
This was something that was fine currently since my body's maturity was already a bit beyond my mind’s but it was something I couldn't overdo and needed to fix immediately.
Thankfully though, there was a fairly 'easy' solution. I simply needed to set a subconscious limit to only use the full speed of my thoughts for calculations, with some exceptions of course.
This was much easier said than done but eventually, things worked out. I was able to more freely control the speed of my thoughts without feeling as if my mind was sluggish and, although my thoughts were 'slower', they were mostly more well thought out which in turn made my magic theory training both more enjoyable and relaxing.
I did still make many.. many mistakes though.
"Ilios, if this works I'll-"
*flash* *BOOOOOOOOOMMMMMM*
Needless to say, having an explosive bigger than most nukes go off when I didn't expect wasn't exactly the most fun, but at least it helped increase the size of Ilios and I’s training area! [1]