“Ahhh, these stupid bushes. Where are we now? How long have we travelled through the damn jungle?” A humanoid rough looking bald man with...putrid green color skin and protruded teeth wearing leather attire and stout brown boots said as he trudged through the grass to see…a aged entryway etched into a mountain wall, with columns broken and the marble pillars in front of it demolished.

The man was accompanied by a bunch of other men sharing his rough-looking features, dirty, unpleasant gruff dark green face, emerged from the blinding foliage beside him, as they are armed with various weapons, each either having short swords to their waist, maces, mauls or bows and arrows on their backs, or other weapons of preference as they eyed the entryway with curiosity as they wondered what lies within.

“Come on! Get over here, you little trash bags!” One of the men shouted from behind as he held a leash, yanking it hard as he pulled out…a female elf wearing light leather armor with thigh high stockings and high heels with a rope tied to a red collar around her neck, along with other elves with their collars connected together via ropes. One of the elves is a female child, wearing high class silken tunic dress dirtied with dirt and mud walking on her mud stained noble white low heels as her arms are tied together and her face stained with dry tears.

“Filthy Orcs…you will never get away with this!” One of the male elves shouted as then one of the Orcs walked to the elf from his left, drew his axe from his waist and swung it at the elf’s neck, decapitating his head as the head dropped and tumbled across the ground.

“Any other smart mouths want to say something?” The Orc asked threateningly as the elves were silenced from the fear of death, staring at the head of their comrade. The elf behind the small elf child covered her eyes for her with her hands, to protect her mind from the atrocities before her.

The men are Orc Bandits that managed to kill and captured refugees from a recent skirmish between two opposing races, the Elves and Orcs, and they managed to intercept along a rarely used dirt paved highway, since almost no one follows the path.

However, because they do not know that they attacked a escort for a daugher belonging one of the Elven nobles, they were soon hunted down, losing more of their men as they managed to flee using the elf child as a hostage and used the opportunity to obtain more hostages along the way as they fled, and driven away to the edge of the lands through the forest beside said highway road. They then stumble upon the entrance of an ancient ruin after rummaging through the foliage to shirk away their pursuers.  

“Is that a…”

“Ruin? Never saw it before…Not even on the maps we have.”

“How old is it I wonder?”

“Are we...rich?”

The Orcs broke off in a conversation as they gazed at the ruins…processing what they just discovered.

“Oh…we might be rich boys! Hahaha! But first, we must take shelter. Night is falling, and them wolves will be prowling about.” One of them said.

““~“RAHHHHHHHH!!!!””~”

The rest of the Orcs cheered in elation of discovering an untouched ruin in the middle of nowhere.

After that, they then trudged their tired feet across the grass to the Catacomb, unaware of the being lurking inside the ruin, growing in power within the darkness underneath.  

-

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After some time, I left a pile of books around the table where I am reading. I am reading the magic systems, some of the books being two series of books regarding Elemental Magic and Darkness Magic in general. I left to go practice my newfound knowledge, wandering through the wide corridors to find a suitable location to practice my magics.

Wandering through the corridors, I passed through…I have no idea how many stone owl and bipedal jackal statues I see, as I am failing in my search. I did find a Alchemy Room at the corridor to the right of the Library, around ten meters from the Library.

The Alchemy Room holds a very intricately crafted cauldron, a stone table with a certain arcane circle with a hexagon inscribed in the circle, and some kind of chemistry table with tubes and beakers, and more stuff which I have no idea how they work yet.

Besides that, I am wandering around the catacombs again, and soon found a good open space in one of the rooms down the corridor where I can practice my magic, although it is quite far from the Library but nonetheless still suitable. The room is empty and spacious, and with broken pillars on one side of the walls.

Then I practiced my Elemental Magic, preparing the runes needed to cast onto the stone walls.

‘Lightning Stream!’ I thought as I casted the spell and fired a thick stream of purple lightning against the broken chiseled pillar, breaking it down even further as I studied the concept of Elemental Magics, conjuring it via runes.

Spells are made via array and amalgamation of runes, and the effectiveness of such spells depends on one’s talents or should I say, affinity with the spell. I had to learn the rune alphabet first and each individual rune's effects and functions before going over the spells in general. I did practice with the runes in the library as the effects of each rune is harmless (except for that one time I almost sparked a fire that can potentially destroyed the library), feeling each of their effects and capabilities.

The spell system I am learning is kind of direct, feel for all of the runes in the alphabet and connect with them when performing a spell, which I am doing right now as I perform another series of spells.

‘Fireball!’

I fired a ball of fire from my left palm at the wall, leaving a red hot scorch mark on the stone.

‘Flare Burst!’

A flashy stream of flames struck the same spot I struck, melting the rock into orange-hot magma.

‘Water Bullet!’

Firing a quarter sized bullet of water at the same spot, producing smoking steam as a quarter sized hole was punctured into the magma wall.

‘Pressure Stream!’  

A laser-like stream of water was fired at the right of molten hot spot, its trajectory moving from right to left, cutting through the stone wall like a sword and cooled off the magma while leaving a clean trail of destruction in the stone wall.  

I kept on casting spells as I prepared the runes and magic spells one after another, of all the elements, from fire to water to wind and to earth, I can conjure for now. There are more spells, but I am unsure if I can cast them yet as I need to improve myself with the lesser spells first, to get a feel for magic in general before advancing to higher levels.

Whenever I casted spells, I feel some strain through my bones, yet…it feels enrapturing, as if I am feeling my blood circulating through my body. It is almost like exercise or a massage (a painful one), minus the annoying muscle pains and fatigue. Because of this, I feel a childlike excitement to practice my magic even more, excited to test myself in performing the mystic arts.

After that I started casted Darkness Magic spells.

‘Darkness Blast!’ I fired a blast of darkness as the black effigy consumed and corroded the pillar.  

‘Shadowstep!’ I concentrated as I tried to warp away, as I attempted to merge myself through the shadows, and melded my body inside the darkness as I moved a few steps forward as a start. After moving around the shadows, I adapted and understood what it feels to move through shadow as the book said, as I felt nothingness inside, and I feel lighter and more free within the dark as I move around.

After casting the spells, I felt a difference between casting Elemental Magic and Darkness Magic, as if I am more attuned to the latter’s spells. Noticing this, I made a self-note to experiment my affinities with the magic systems later on.

After that, I practiced combination magics, and managed to form at least one spell I took a liking to.

‘Dark Lightning!’ I thought as dark purple streams of lightning demolished the wall, digging a deep head-sized hole in the wall, the marks showing signs of decay and crackling electricity.

Feeling the need to practice more, and excited from the results of my hard work reading the books, I continued practicing my spells for what seems like hours, or days even, my spells growing more powerful and powerful after each use and as I use more spells.

Once I felt satisfied with my progress, I ended my practice session and decided to return to the library through the same corridors I traveled in. However, while traveling down the corridors, I detected something…something like...Hmmm.

‘What the…’

Feeling this for the first time, I tried my best to grasp what the feeling means, detecting some indications of the…I think presences is the best word for the description.

Following my instincts, I tracked the presences moving through the corridors via shadowstep as I saw…  

“Hehehehe, time to have some fun…”

A muscular bipedal humanoid mass of dark green flesh wearing a leather tunic with his...large man jewels displayed naked in front of…

‘Is that an elf?’ I thought as I peek through the shadows. Seeing through the shadows is strange, almost like looking through a translucent circular window through the darkness as I observe the interaction between the two...Intruders seem to be the best word for them.