[ Inside the Veinham Barrier
Day 1
Cave 3]
The monster resembling General Ames grinned. He had noticed Jamie’s skittishness—another easy capture.
What is going on!? Why does that one look like the General? Jamie thought.
Despite being shapeshifters, these monsters are easily spotted by a Level 0 mage, also known as a trainee mage, this is because the monster’s mana gives off a different frequency than humans. Unfortunately, not everyone on Mander is gifted with enough mana to qualify as a trainee mage, so they cannot detect this. Left on their own, these monsters can wreak havoc on various populations, especially the human population.
“It doesn’t matter now. Focus!” Jamie’s eye zoned in on the two in front, something is off about these two. I don’t get it. It was never discussed or mentioned that these monsters possess hypnotic abilities. One is about the strength of about 10 men, but obviously, the bigger they are - the stronger they are. That and their shapeshifting magic is scary enough… Yet, when the two in front of me spoke, it was abnormally spell-like. I thought only witches or fairies could possess such magic. Something’s off.
Jamie used her mind’s eye to turn off her ability to hear. Jamie stood ready, bracing herself for one of the monsters to charge first. Except, the three that had her surrounded didn’t move a muscle either.
They’re not moving….let’s see, I’ll go for the General first, the ugly one next, and lastly, the lowest mana one. Jamie clenched her dagger. My dagger won’t dent him… which means…
It was at this moment that the first one, the one that looked like the General, mouthed something that Jamie couldn’t hear. Unbeknownst to her, they were casting a hypnotic spell. Thankfully, she didn’t meet the one condition….
You have to hear the hypnotic spell for it to be effective…
“So tired, time to sleep. So tired, time to sleep. So tired... time to sleep.”
THUMP, the General’s head fell to the floor. The ugly one looked at the fallen head flabbergasted. “How? The witch said this will work!” it thought angrily.
The fallen head turned back into a horned shapeshifter monster with blue blood.
Where is the whore!? The ugly one felt something on his shoulders and looked up to see Jamie wielding her ax high in the air. She let it drop, SWoosh!
Shoot! Jamie bit her bottom lip. The ax only cut halfway through.
“Hmm. That’s the force of 250 tons, 50 tons more than an adult blue whale.”
The ugly one wasn’t listening. It desperately tried to shake her off, swinging first to the right, then to the left, before resorting to grabbing at her with its leathery, muscular gray hands in a frantic frenzy.
“This is my chance to escape!” the lowest mana shapeshifter thought, as it slowly walked backward toward the path to the entrance of the cave.
THUMP. The ugly one’s head also turned into a horned shapeshifter monster.
It took 500 tons to make a clean cut through the bigger ones. Hmm, my mana level is still pretty high even after that. Ugh, I still don’t have a handle on how mana consumption works. Well, at least I know that repairing body parts can take at least 50% of anyone’s mana, no matter how gifted that person is.
Now, the little guy. Jamie turned around the cave. Uh-oh, he’s gone.
An image of Master Edwards furrowing his brows popped into her mind. Jamie smiled, and out of habit, she whispered, “Sorry, Master.”
— Flashback—
[ Day 29 in Mander
Veinham Training Zone ]
In an open dirt space near a forest, Jamie found herself surrounded by four tree-like monsters, each around 7ft tall, had branches for feet and legs, and no face. Each one wore a mushroom-shaped hat with numbers on them, 1, 2, 3, and 4.
“What are these things?”
“Fighter Trees,” Master Edwards said.
Jamie squinted. “It’s like a 14-year-old boy was God and named everything.”
“That’s pretty much what happened. But focus now, today we practice with the swords General Ames gifted you. It’s extremely, extremely expensive and extremely rare.” He held up the swords which looked like regular katanas.
“These were engineered by a very gifted D3 dwarf and his gifted elf Master, there aren’t many in the world. Designed to enhance a fighter's advantage, particularly in situations where you find yourself surrounded and need a surprise attack. Use them for escape, or if that's not possible, take out as many as you can.”
Jamie looked at the two katanas, looks wise, nothing special, except that the handle looked oddly intricate despite no engravings. “Am I just thinking it looks good because Master Edwards told me these are rare?” Jamie thought.
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Then without warning, the sound of rusting branches filled the air, as the Fighter Trees rushed at Jamie, all at once. She somersaulted in the air. Not today, my tree friends!
Tree One’s arm, a clump of small interwoven branches started to grow rapidly, weaving in and out of itself - until it was also in the air with Jamie. It whipped itself in her direction, managed to cling onto her ankle, then rapidly crawled up her leg and stopped mid-thigh. It was then, that it whipped itself backward and using that momentum, swung forward to slam Jamie to the dirt ground with the force of ten wrecking balls.
Master Edwards raised his palm in the direction of Fighter Tree 1 and it stopped. He walked over to Jamie. She was enveloped in a protective barrier, or else, she would’ve been shattered. She lay there shocked. It’s so fast! Was that even a second?
Master Edwards looked down at Jamie. “Never, never take your eyes off uncertainty,” he clapped his hands. “Again, and this time, I just want you to focus on dulling your pain receptors. You want to do it enough where you can still think and move.”
He leaned down to help her up. “If you dull pain to nonexistence, amid a battle with your adrenaline on full blast, you can forget that you’re injured. Which will cost you.” He handed her a water-caterpillar.
“Thank you.” She petted the caterpillar from its head to its butt, it smiled and opened its mouth. She gently held it up with both hands and like one would with a canteen, drank from its mouth.
“Remember Jamie, due to the complexity of human anatomy, it takes a great deal of mana to heal, especially if you’re not naturally a healer. Remind me, what are you?”
“Not a natural healer.”
“Correct. Surprisingly enough, you’re more adept as a warrior than a mage, but your mind’s eye gift suits mages…” He paused.
I don’t like this look, she thought.
“Stand in the middle, I’ll give you a countdown this time,” he said.
Jamie walked over to the middle of the dirt training ground. A gust of wind swirled up some dirt and some of it landed on her. She coughed.
She rubbed one bare foot over another dirt-ridden one, I wish he’d let me wear shoes instead of mana ones. It’s so hard to remember I need to distribute mana over my feet while I’m fending for my life.
“One… two…”
He sure likes to build anticipation, she thought.
“Three.”
The four fighter trees started to circulate her. With each round, their speed increased.
Jamie’s shoulders tensed up. Relax. Feel for their mana frequency.
She heard the sound of rustling tree branches once more, and in a split-second, found herself suspended in the air, each four limp tightly clasped by a Fighter Tree’s arm. The image of them ripping her two arms and two legs off came to mind.
She pleaded with Master Edwards with her eyes.
“I will not be there - should you be captured, Jamie.”
“Dude, give me a break! This is practice. You’re not supposed to torture me, remember!?” Jamie said with no restraint.
He let out a loud sigh. “Okay, I’ll even give you a countdown, brace yourself, just one limb.”
“WAIT!” Jamie shouted.
“One… two…”
I just want to kill him, so bad. Stop it! Focus! There are only four locations they can pull from, my two shoulder girdles and pelvic girdle, which means I need to send mana to these locations and temporarily deactivate my neurotransmitters in these regions.
“Three.”
Instead of a quick pull, Fighter Tree 2 slowly pulled at Jamie’s right arm.
“AHAHAH! I’m FEELING IT! AHAHA” Jamie screamed as she felt her arm slowly getting dislocated and tears involuntarily flowed from her eyes. “Why isn’t it working?!” she thought.
“Only fools continue to do the same thing expecting different results.”
“His little wise-ass quotes are SO ANNOYING RIGHT NOW!”
“Instead of shutting off one zone, turn it all off, Jamie.”
“Oh right!”
Master Edwards picked Jamie’s torn arm up, blood still squirting from it. He handed her, her arm and a blue bracelet with white crosses on it.
“This is a healing enhancement magic item. It was engineered by D2 Elves, there is a set amount of healing mana already condensed into it. One bracelet could mend a limb back. Wrap it around your arm.”
Jamie shoved the bracelet on her torn-off arm.
“Now put it back and activate the bracelet. I’ve set the code to 4-3-2-1.”
Jamie used mana and shot the codes, 4-3-2-1 into the bracelet. The bracelet glowed a turquoise blue. The tissues from her broken arm extended out, like little wiggling worms, they continued to extend until they reached her shoulder. The tissues penetrated her exposed shoulder tissues and Jamie felt a weaving sensation.
“For your assignment today, lock all your bracelets. Benny can help you do that tonight.”
Jamie nodded and looked down at her already-healed arm. The bracelet then shattered and disappeared.
“Why didn’t we use this before?”
“These aren’t exactly cheap, you know.” Master Edwards looked up at another day of clear skies. His stomach curled again. Something loomed, like a treacherous ploy brewing in the thick fog, too dense for him to see. This was the gift of his unique mind's eye — the power of future perception. It was limited, but enough to keep him on edge. “I must start stocking up on mana,” he thought, “another daunting task.”
Jamie looked up at Master Edwards, for the first time in almost a month now, he is the one lost in thought.
“Master?”
“It is about time, you have a quick history lesson on our magic and the technology behind it.”
Master Edwards created a ball of mana, then a few more mana balls resembling planets orbiting around the sun. “Mander is a result of the culmination of many galaxies. This world takes all that is good, all that is wise, to refine it for use. That bracelet was the work of the D2 elves. They somehow combined their secret mana manipulation magic, the one that grants them almost immortality, and with that, decades of magical clinical research on the poor flying rodents to create the evolutionary healing magic you use today.”
Jamie thought the flying rats that Master Edwards seemed to enjoy the company of, being experimented on did seem sad. But that is what it is like in my world, approximately 95% of laboratory animals are mice and rats.
“Besides, you have Lisaria. Since she is unable to attend today’s training, I figured today would be a good time to show you how the healing bracelets work. Now, back to training. This time…” He handed her the katanas.
“I’ll show you your secret weapon.” He grinned.
Jamie jumped up and slapped the dirt off her butt. “Let’s do it.”
----------------------------------------
Present day, in another cave 150 meters away...
[ Inside the Veinham Barrier
Day 1
Cave 2 - Underground]
“Wretched whore, you are here for my shield, aren’t you? Come and get it,” sneered a 15-ft tall, horned Monster as he tossed a fleshy human hand with the #29 tattooed on it, to the side of the cave. The sound of a dropped hand echoed in the gloomy cave.
The woman, cloaked in an emerald green kimono with black and white raven embroidering, took her ruby red eyes off a thick gold-lined book. She slipped the book vertically into herself, and to the trained eye, a storage transportation portal was already imbued within her.
She twirled her light pink hair and then flicked it behind her shoulders. With her lightly plush pink-colored cheeks, delicately pronounced cheekbones, and a little black mole under her mysterious right eye; she is nothing short of exquisite, even in the gloom of the cave. Finally, she looked up at the monster.
He grinned and exploded so finely, he looked like a red paint splat. She looked genuinely confused. “We didn’t even fight yet…” she muttered.
“Navarda, it’s supposed to get harder. This is like a warm-up,” said Fera, a little fairy on her shoulders, occupied with adding the last pink diamond to her pinkie. “There! How pretty,” she thought.