My mind calmed down slowly, since the transition through the Maw Void had been rather terrible.

Nobody sane should ever arrive into a new life by crossing the Void directly. There are others, more sane methods like reincarnation, rebirth, summoning and so on.

But not for me. Then again, I couldn't actually choose to return to a freezing, airless space capsule that was headed for the Triangulum Galaxy for the next trillion years.

Still flying among the clouds, I peeked down upon the lands below, and clenched my naked, indestructible fist.

I was completely naked too, but that's not the point. It wasn't like my time-locked body would ever feel cold, or heat for that matter.

*New game has started. You have spent 1 Entertainment Medal to obtain a body time-lock upgrade.

-You are now remotely puppetting your body, thus being very safe from Chaos or other methods of mind influence.

-Your body is encased inside a time-lock field, preventing physical or magical damage.

-As a consequence of the time-lock, your body can be accelerated to Mach 30 in any direction, while ignoring simple laws like gravity or inertia.

"Wait...Chaos?" I muttered in slight disbelief.

Although my mind was far away, I still recoiled at the very thought of being anywhere close to something called Chaos.

As my eyes wandered over the vast expanse of forests and mountain peaks, a large bird flew closer and closer to me, until I noticed a half-naked man riding upon the bird. The bird had two heads, but I tried not to mind such minor details.

"I sense the smell of Ghur on you, naked boy." the flying man spoke in a plain voice.

"Ghur? Is it a type of magic?" I deduced rather brilliantly.

The bird, most likely a griffon, shrieked very loudly. "Twinshriek is very amused." the man noted in a mild voice.

I nodded towards the griffon, as politely as a naked man could. "Nice to meet you, Twinshriek. I am called Pef."

"Come down so we can talk properly. My balls are already freezing off." the man demanded in a curt voice, and began to dive towards the forest below.

Soon enough, we entered the man's abode, a cave filled with furs and bones and several leather-bound books.

As the host boiled some tea, he glanced at me from time to time, perhaps not used to someone floating 10 centimeters above the fur rugs of his cave.

"It's almost like a god boiled you alive in a soup of frozen time. Taal perhaps." the weird shaman mused in a thoughtful voice.

"Probably something like that. I believe my body is pretty much invulnerable now..." I admitted in a casual voice, only to be laughed to my face.

Time flexed around the man, and a bone knife flew into my thigh, ignoring my time-lock protection as if it wasn't there at all. "Nothing is invulnerable to Ghur, naked boy." the strange shaman chuckled with amusement.

I drew out the knife, and examined it for a minute. No runes or anything like a fancy enchantment on it.

"It is not the knife itself...do you have time powers?" I concluded rather smartly.

The shaman tasted his tea with a frown. "Amber magic is what I do. As for you, I could use a flying acolyte. Sending messages and such." he muttered in his bone cup.

I could use a teacher that could tame birds and use time magic. Even if he called it amber magic. Amber itself did often contain time-locked insects and such, preserved for millions of years. Much like me right now. It felt oddly appropriate.

"I should learn Amber magic as well. It might be important for my continual survival." I hummed to myself, thinking ahead for once.

"Very well, acolyte. My name is Gregor, Gregor Martak of the Amber Order." the shaman decided with a firm nod.

The griffon shrieked once more, from the mouth of the cave, and this is how I became a wizard. Well, an acolyte to a wizard, to be correct.

Most of the normal acolyte tests and tasks were absolutely trivial to complete though, as capturing beasts and surviving in the wild is quite easy when you are basically Superman.

Learning the lore and plants and entire magic books was much harder. Which is why, 3 months later I was sent to Altdorf, the capital of the Empire and the site where the Imperial College of Magic was located.

I wore a deer-hide cloak and a pair of linen pants, and also a messenger bag made of a hollow bone. Nothing fancy really, not for Amber wizards.

The fire lit as a beacon for an Amber wizard had barely begun to burn when I arrived. Mach 30 is pretty fast, if I may say so myself.

"You called?" I asked with a curious voice, while waving my hand through the beacon fire.

"By Sigmar's beard! Are you actually flying?" the wizard beside the beacon yelled in surprise.

"Amber wizard Martak sent me, since he is busy or perhaps simply sick with the filth of humanity. Altdorf does smell like the arsehole of a Beastman, just like he said." I answered in a calm tone. Like any medieval city, the imperial capital smelled like a thousand corpses had died in the street and were left untended for a decade.

"You do smell like Ghur. Are you an Amber wizard too?" the fire wizard asked with suspicion.

"I am Pef, apprentice to Wizard Martak." I said in a mild voice, while waving my hand a bit faster to extinguish the beacon. I think my action impressed the fancy wizard.

"Well, the Shrine of Taal in the Reikwald is under attack by the wood elves. Our reinforcements were ambushed on the Altdorf-Weismund road." the wizard spoke in quick voice.

I nodded politely, then flew up and away. I have never fought a Drycha before. This should be fun. 

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"The Ox stands!" I shouted in my pitiful version of the mighty Amber spell.

The fleeing men-at-arms of the Empire's heard me even so, and began to regroup around their Lord, while I flew lower to the ground as to reach the damned wood elves before they completely massacred the reinforcement army.

My other known spell was called Hunter's Hide, and was supposed to protect me while in the wild, such as these woods.

However, the elven arrows pierced my fledgling magic with ease, and left dozens of arrowheads embedded in my deer coat. These elves were not Amber wizards, so their weapons had no chance of piercing my skin.

And from some hints of my teacher, most Amber wizards also lacked the power and skill to imbue Amber into their strikes, such as to become a danger to myself. It seemed that the temporal aspects of Amber magic were reserved for the more capable of the Amber Order, as most wild shamans focused mostly on communing with beasts and learning their Aspects.

Because I was far too powerful for these enemies, I allowed them to live, albeit devoid of weapons and intact femurs. In a single minute, I laid down 54 wood elves, collected their bows and arrows and thew them into separate piles. Bodies into one, weapons into another.

"Mighty wizard, can you help heal our wounded...?" their Lord muttered in a shy voice, and gestured towards a dozen of his men dying at the side of the road.

I shrugged and shouted my buff again. "The Ox stands!" . I don't expect it did much, but it did rouse morale, so there's that.

Then I flew away towards the target of the mission, the Shrine of Taal.

Here there was a larger wood elves's army lead by Drycha herself. I could tell, because she was a large tree with bloody fangs, slamming her limbs as to pulverize rock and crush the statue of the god Taal, for some strange reason.

Her army simply stood and watched, not really bothering to help. Not that their spears or bows could crush stone arches and columns anyways.

I cast my Hunter's Hide again and dove towards Drycha, slamming my tibia into her femur with 1 percent of my force.

Her right leg exploded into chips of wood and bone, and while I exulted for an easy mission her wooden arm rotated around and struck me with a fang-like dagger, right under my ribs.

Once again, my perfectly invulnerable body was pierced, while my protection spell was also ignored. This place sucked!

I grunted audibly, as I caught her wooden limb and crushed it with 3 percent of my force. Then I grabbed the dagger's handle and drew it out, before something worse happened.

* Fang of Taalroth obtained.

-This is a Divine rank weapon.

-Secondary ability, block magic spells in a wide area for 15 seconds.

"Give it back!" the wood elves' leader yelled in an outraged voice.

So I stabbed the dagger into the crown of her wooden head, and watched as her body transformed back into a normal elf, if slightly dead now.

Thinking fast, I swiped the dagger at neck level and decapitated Drycha before she could turn into a spirit or something.

Her troops looked at me with horror, or perhaps awe. "What? Do you want my dagger too?" I asked a bit curious while waving the Fang around.

The wood elves turned and ran back to the forest, leaving me with their dead queen at my feet.

It wasn't quite the battle I expected, but I did find another thing that could hurt me. And this weapon I could keep.

I glanced around the site, then picked up the steel weapons from the dead pilgrims, and the coin-filled donation coffer from the Shrine, and flew away, holding the head of Drycha in my bag.

After a short stop at my cabin to deposit my loot, I returned to Altdorf to report on a completed mission.

The same wizard was still there, understandably since I barely left 10 minutes ago. Mach 30 is a very fast speed.

"I'm back." I announced in a curt voice, then threw the blood-filled head-shaped sack at his feet.

"What? Already? Did you find our troops?" he asked in a worried voice.

"Yes, I helped the army through the ambush, then rushed towards the Shrine. Sadly, it was already destroyed. I could only enact revenge on Drycha, while other elves ran away. You should send healers for your troops." I said in a mild voice, then flew up and away.

I still had more spells to learn. Hopefully something more protective than the pitiful Hunter's Hood. And maybe Martak might deign my mission acceptable enough to heal me, as a hand-deep hole in my side wasn't nice to look at.

As I landed at my cabin, I found Martak poking my new dagger with a curious finger.

"I'm not sure if you're lucky or stupid, my young apprentice." the wild shaman mused in a sad voice.

"Well, I was stabbed with a Divine weapon, right here..." I allowed in a sheepish voice, while dropping my arrow-holed deer coat, to proudly show the stab wound.

"And lived, somehow..." the Amber Wizard muttered while poking my wound with a willow branch, glowing in amber-coloured Ghur.

As if by magic, my wound closed by itself, but still left a scar shaped like a downward arrow.

"Wow, my scar looks exactly like.." I noticed with my genial brain.

The man just sighed and turned around. "Rest for a week or so. Taal himself has designs for you. You will need your strength." my teacher said cryptically and returned to his cave to throw bone dice once more.

*You have gained the Mark of Taal, god of the wild.

-Amber magic receives 30% boost to affinity.

-You gain minor regeneration.

-Beasts like you a bit more.

I glanced at my game-like screen and sighed inward.

Twinshriek huffed from the door of my cabin, then eyed me curious with his two heads and four eyes. I know buddy. When a god notices you, the rest won't be far away.