Part 1 – The trip begins
First of all I need to give you a quest
Ding
Collect the 7 mana fragments for Warlic
Find the 7 mana fragments that has been scattered over the continent and retrieve them all. It is most likely that some creatures have already retrieved the mana fragments and are using it to power themselves. In such cases kill them and recover the mana fragments.
Difficulty Rank: Unknown
Reward: Unknown
You cannot deny this Quest
You have accepted the Quest
Well there goes one of my quest slots.
“Also you'll need this”. Warlic handed over a circular looking thing that looked like a compass but it wasn't pointing north and there are 7 arrows on it as well....don't tell me its...
“Its a mana detector designed to detect a massive amount of mana in an area. I fitted it with the ability to locate the mana fragments to say 10 kilometres in diameter but any closer than that you have to find it manually. And by manually I mean try to find the biggest source of mana.”
“Great...”
“You really thought it would be so easy did you?”
No I didn't. I thought it was going to be a huge pain in the ass to do.
“Anyway you have two choices now. Start your journey from Tellap town or get thrown somewhere random nearby one of the mana fragments.”
Both are pretty horrible in my opinion.
“Now here are two buttons. The one on the right is the one that will take you back to town safely other one on the left is the more dangerous one. Pick.”
Warlic waved his hand over two buttons which I didn't want to press. Man this guy really knows how to screw someone over.....
The buttons located next to Warlic on his table which were the colour red. What a great colour to use. Either way I'm screw for the next couple of months but I still have some things to do before all of that. One is to punish Rag. Everything else comes second. As I reached for the right button thinking of all the possible ways I can torture Rag I heard a beep sound before I pressed the button in front of my hand.
“Eh?”
“Don't you think its more fun to take the fun path~”
I looked to my left....and found Crysero pressing the button rapidly.....
“Crysero...you son of a bi-”
I was teleported before I could finish my sentence. Cursing him I fell down on my face for fourth time in a row.
You have lost 10 mana
Yes I get it! Falling on my face hurts. You don't have to rub it in game. Now where the hell am I? A forest? Well there's trees so I guess I'm in a forest or just surrounded by numerous trees that block my way next to a city.
“Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr”
The sound of a wolf? Ouch!
I hit the thing that was sinking its teeth into me.
You have lost 100 mana.
You are bleeding. You will lose 1 mana per second for the next 80 seconds.
My right arm was bleeding from the bite of the wolf.
“OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO”
The wolf made some sort of cry. I don't know what's its doing but I have a really bad feeling about this. And I was right. Another 10 or so wolves appeared from the trees to attack me.
“You got to be joking.....SCREW YOU GUYS!”
Something clicked inside of me and the weird markings on my hand appeared instead of the snakes. It looks like the outer seal was undone. Wait, Warlic did say it would undo itself whenever I go into battle. So now I'm draining these guys' mana right?
I checked my mana quickly and found that it was increasing rapidly from the remaining 4921 man I had left though I was still bleeding.
“Mana Shield.”
I transparent shell like thing appeared over me. This skill would be my life line so I should use it as often as I can. Now what are wolves weak against? Hmm...anything would do I think. First I should cut off their escape route. I imagined a wall of flames that covered the trees around the battlefield.
“Fire Field.”
My mana decreased by 40 and soon enough the trees that were behind the wolves and myself were caught on fire. The wolves seeing this were stunned a bit but still had a lot of morale due to their advantage in numbers. One of the wolves jumped at me intending to bite me as well but was stopped before it could even touch me. Well it was due to the mana shield.
Mana shield took 42 damage
Wait one attack and almost half of the health of the shield disappeared! Shit! If they all gang up on me at once then I'm screwed. I imagined small fireballs being shot out like a machine gun. I put up my hands in the direction of the wolves.
“Chain Fireball.”
Countless small fireballs were being fire out of my hands. Whenever the small fireball hit something it caught on fire. Although it was a very small fire if you stack it up then it would become bigger! On after the other, the wolves fell before my spell.
BITE
Mana Shield took 58 damage. Shield has been broken.
Damn there was one behind me. I prepared the Earth spike spell in my head.
“Earth Spike.”
5 pillars came up to the ground and pierced the wolf that dared attack me. I didn't hold back. And I had a lot more mana now as well. A mere 100 mana was nothing. Hmm? Wait why do I have 3524 mana left? Was it because of the Chain fireball spell I used?
“Damn I have to be careful. Those kinds of spells drain a lot out of me.” I said to myself, trying to make a mental note of what happened. How many wolves are left? 1..2..3..4..5.......9 of them left. That's more than I expected and it seems their morale disappeared as well. They might jump into the fire to save themselves as well. Time for lightning...not I should blind them first.
I imagined 9 light balls in front of the wolves eyes and giving out a bright light when exploding. Each light ball took only 10 mana each which made it perfect for these kinds of things.
“Light Ball”
The 9 light balls were produced around my body.
“Fly.”
On my command the light balls flew to their targets easily. It seems my skills in magic control are paying off. I should practice more often. The wolves on the other hand should learn not to stay near things they don't understand. They didn't even move when the light balls got near them.
“Explode.”
The light ball produced a brilliant light. The wolves wined in pain as they were blinded. I walked up to one of them and said, “Now what should I do with you?” in a very threatening voice. I needed to vent out my stress from being near Crysero and I bet Warlic did too.
I imagined lightning shocking the body of the wolf in front of me. Such a spell would take up 80 mana due to the characteristics of lightning being more powerful in terms of damage then the other elements. I saw a video of a lightning mage casting lightning storm on an army completely destroying it in a brilliant light show.
“Lightning Shock.”
The body of the wolf glowed from the lightning hitting it. In a couple of seconds its body turned black being cooked. That was kinda disappointing. I was expecting them to last a bit longer. The other 8 wolves were still a bit blinded but regain their sight enough to see what I did to their companion. They tried to escape. I didn't let them go. The image of the wolves being pierced from the bottom by a ice tower in an ice field was clear as day in my mind but I had to prepare two spells for that which was simple to the current me.
“Ice field.”
The ground turned into a blue white colour starting from under my feet. My mana was reduced by 50 mana and was still decreasing with the range of the ice field expanding.
“Ice Tower times 8”
The wolves that were slipping from the icy ground were met with a enormous tower coming out of nowhere. As their body were propelled into the air blood was dripping form their dead body down the ice tower dyeing it red.
“This looks nice.”
My inner sadist was coming out.
I noticed after all the carnage that I was left with only 2346 mana even though I was draining mana form every life form in the 10 metre radius. I counted the number of wolves I killed and found out that there were 17 in total. My experience bar went up by 31%. So I had to do 3 more of this to level up once. Man this game really wants you to grind. But that's fine with me. As long as its interesting and I'm not bored, I'm fine with anything. To think that fighting was so fun.
“I should go to the nearest town of I can. Then find out where I am.” I said. By saying things a loud I can remember them more easily. That's why I often speak to myself in times like this when I'm all alone.
I pulled out the mana detector in my pocket. Speaking of which I should get some near gear. But that comes when I find town....well let's see where the nearest one is. Hmm.....around 70 Kilometres away from here. That's pretty far away but the other ones are more than 100 kilometres away. Apparently the maximum range of this thing is that though Warlic modified it to always give me the general direction of the mana fragments.
“So its to the East right?”
I looked around and found that the forest was still on fire. Its was my fault originally but I don't want any environmentalist to complain to me. Rain should stop this. Using my knowledge I mixed water and wind to make a cloud that would pour water down.
“Rain Cloud.”
50 mana was taken due to the spell. I personally named every spell I used. It was simply what they did and what they looked like but its easy to remember. Ah I forgot to get out before the rain started. Maybe if I blocked it with wind...
“Wind Umbrella”
Another 10 mana was taken from me for the spell. The rain that was falling on me suddenly moved away from me as if something was blocking the way.
“Good now I can travel.”
I started walking East where the first of the 7 mana fragments lied.
Part 2 – Kobold Farming
I am in a awkward situation right now.
“Human Hurt! Human on me!”
I'm sitting on a Kobold right now....how did this happen? I was heading east and found a couple of Kobolds wandering around for no apparent reason. So I killed them for the experience for my level and for my skills. It was a very boring fight. Using light balls to blind them at the start I quickly froze most of them since making a fire in a forest is a very bad idea. Well...one of them managed to dodge my ice spells so I stunned it using lightning and quickly sat on it to prevent it from running away.
“You eat me? You eat me just like that thing?”
Why would I eat you? Kobolds may be the taste for human flesh but don't even think that we humans want to eat your kind. Though I'm not exactly human even though I have the appearance of one besides the tattoos.
“Need to get back to nest”
The kobold under me was trying to pull its body under me. I have no pity for this freak of nature. Maybe I should slowly cook this one. Ah. My inner sadist appeared again. I should try to keep it in check. Don't want people to get a misunderstanding on my personality. Anyway there's a nest you say? And you need to get back there? Good. I have a need for experience right now. I got up from the Kobold.
“Ahahahahahahaha. Human Stupid!”
The Kobold got up and started running in a direction. Trying not to kill the little thing for insulting me. Now to quietly follow this thing without it noticing me.
3 hours later.....
Man this is really tempting me to slowly cook this thing. Are we there yet little thing?
Another 3 hours later.....
Ah I have to eat some food now.
Another 5 minutes.....
“I'm Home!” The kobold cried. It was finally out of danger from when I almost killed it along with its friends. Do Kobolds really have friends? I'm not sure about that part. They seem to abandon their peers pretty easily.
Well its time to check where this nest is. I hope its some sort of dungeon as well. Being the first one to discover it will greatly benefit me. Double exp and loot is one of the dreams of players. Well I can't imagine what could happen forever. I got up from my hiding spot and looked at the place the Kobold went into. It was some sort of hole but it had the feel dungeon all over it. I looked at it for a moment and screamed YES in my head.
Taking no time to spare I jumped into the hole.
“Mana Shield.”
Now I'm almost fully prepared for anything.
Ding
You are the first to discover the Kobold's retreat
Every day for one week, double EXP and double item drops. The rarest items will drop from killing the first monster of each type. Subsequent kills will drop common items.
+100 Fame
Good it was a dungeon. I'll be so angry if it wasn't one.
“Human Here. Human HERE!!!”
What the hell is screaming. Oh a Kobold. Well it is a dungeon I found by following one so I should expect more Kobolds. Well lets start this party. Since we're underground fire is a bad idea. Earth magic might collapse the dungeons if I'm not careful so I should avoid that as well.
Hit
Mana Shield took 32 damage
Oh it started attacking already. Let a guy think about how he's going to kill you will ya. Maybe I should limit myself to wind and lightning this time. I imagined a sharp blade made of wind around my right hand.
“Wind blade.”
A violent wind surrounded my right hand as I intended. But it was a bit small. Did the seal not go undone? Well I have to deal with it for a while then. I moved in quickly using my boosted stats from the basic training and slashed the Kobold. Blood spurted out of its body but it still didn't die in one hit. So the seal reduces by power that much eh. I quickly slashed it several more times killing it.
My experience increased by 1%. Yay killing 60 or so more will level me up. But killing them is a problem if I am handicapped. Now I think of it I didn't use the creation magic skill I have yet. I wonder how it works. I popped up the description of the skill again and read through it. So and so happens....uses imagination in concept. Good. I probably can't make high levelled weapons not that I can even use them so I should still with the basics. An iron sword will do.
“Creation Magic: Iron Sword.”
The iron sword was less then a metre cube so I would use less then 1000 mana. My mana decreased by 342 mana. A blob of light appeared in front of me and shaped itself to an iron sword. It even had the right colour and such. I grabbed the newly made sword and found that it was pretty light. Lets check its stats.
Iron Sword Durability:10/10 Attack: 2-5
Made from creation magic. Immature skills results in incomplete product.
Will last for 10 minutes
Wow this is pretty bad. But it can only get better right? And it can only last for 10 minutes. Man its weak in every aspect I see. Man it huts not to have the identify skill right now. Well now that I have a way not ot use magic in this place I should set a rule where I can't use spells on these guys. No that's stupid. Even if my magic is nerfed currently I shouldn't reduce my battle capabilities.
“I should make another sword just in case. Creation magic: Iron Sword.”
Another 342 mana was taken from me and another iron sword was produced. Now I had an iron sword per hand. But using both of them and breaking them at the same time would be bad. So I placed the second one on my waist strapped onto me. Oh I forgot to see if the Kobold dropped some loot. I walked to the corpse and searched it.
You obtained iron ore.
Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.
You obtained rusted pick
I thought the drops would be the rarest. THIS is the rarest and most useful stuff these guys have. Man I am unlucky.....
“Human!”
“Kill Human!”
Several more Kobolds appeared when I was pissed off at this game. Good...very good....I'm going to slaughter these guys. Without a moment to waste I slashed one of the Kobold's head off.
Critical Hit!
Iron Sword durability reduced by 2
It seems the sword I made not only was lacking in strength but also lacking in hardness. Only one hit and the sword was chipped. Unless my skills increase this is something I have to live with. The other Kobolds tried to hit me several times and my mana shield blocked it before breaking before its barriage.
Mana shield took 23 damage
Mana shield took 31 damage
Mana shield took 34 damage
Mana shield has been broken
“Mana Shield.”
Another shield appeared around me again. I don't have any intentions to be hit directly by these fools. What if I combined swordsmanship and magic to be a spellsword. I imagined a flame covering the iron sword in my hand.
“Flame Sword.”
Flames covered my sword with its intense heat and drain my mana by 2 every second. A Kobold once more tried to hit me with its cruel low quality weapon. I blocked it with my sword instead of using the mana shield. While my flame sword didn't cut through the blade like butter as I hoped, it did burn the Kobold enough to stop its assault on me. I twisted my body around and swung horizontally trying to spread the flames onto the other Kobolds.
“IT BURNS!”
“HELP HUMAN USE FIRE!!!”
“MAGIC MAGIC”
The Kobolds cried in fear as I proceeded to kill them in a very cruel way.
Iron Sword has loss all durability. It has broken.
Ah so the flame sword spell I created reduced its durability as well. No wonder why it broke so easily. It wasn't exactly created in mind to withstand a lot of heat. I drew the second iron sword I created and proceeded to cut down the remaining Kobolds in front of me. They may be outnumbered me but they were weak especially to magic which made them perfect to be my toys. I imagined them being condensed to death by wind.
“Wind Vortex.”
The Kobolds were sucked into some ball made of wind.
“Wind Crush.”
150 mana was consumed and the Kobolds then proceeded to scream out loud as they were squeezed to death by wind. More and more experience came to me! My hands burnt again which the writing appearing instead of the snakes. Ah what a coincidence. Now I can go full force now. With my mana absorption I obtained a bit more mana as the surviving Kobolds not only had their life taken away but also their mana.
“Yes...now to slaughter the rest of them.”
I walked forward after looting the corpses again. I obtained a couple more pieces of iron ore and some more scrap iron. It seems I won't get anything of value but selling these things. No equipment gained, no gems or anything else with value. Great. Now to kill more of them.
5 days later....
I levelled up 8 times and placed all of my points into intelligence which somewhat boosted my spells' power. Creation Magic skill levelled up once as well. So did elemental mastery. Well this was pretty good progress on my part. Now I'm in another awkward position here. I'm in a hole and I can't get out....not that I want to right now.
The dungeon boss appeared and almost killed me. I'm currently regaining my mana via the absorption and mediation. Soon when I have my maximum 5000 mana back I'll attack it again. How did this happen? I have to recount the events.
3 hours ago....
This is boring. There's nothing strong to kill even though I went through most of this dungeon already. It was pretty small compared to what I know a usual dungeon would be. Around half the size of an average one. It gave pretty bad experience as well. The amount of room to fight in was pretty small as well as were the enemies I faced. In the second and third say, Kobolds with armor on appeared. They were enjoyable at first since they could take a hit or two but soon when I levelled up from them, they were boring like all the other ones. And before anyone asks, I did sleep in this place. Also ate food while walking through this mess of a place. From what I can see there are lots of floors but the size of each of them are so small that it doesn't even take a hour to clear one out.
“Human!”
A Kobold screamed at my presence. I should really learn how to block sound off. It would make my life a lot more peaceful. Except that I can't tell if there's a thing trying to attack me from behind. I've been using ice moves more recently as well. I could use it as a foot hold and it blocked the Kobolds path without making a scene.
“Earth Wave.”
The spell I named the consisted of moving the Earth which meant I could make steps for me to walk on. It was very useful to get down or up a place that normally required me to climb. And if one or two Kobolds go on them I can just use another Earth based spell to kill them or shatter the stairs from under them to let them drop to their doom. And it only costed 10 mana per use.
Now I'm on the final floor of this shitty dungeon I think. The double experience bluff was still there but I had no intentions of staying here longer than I have to. There should be a boss monster here....
Boom Boom Boom
That sound...a large creature?
Boom Boom Boom
Its coming over there. Perhaps all hope was not lost after all. I crawled my way over to the source of the sounds to make sure I'm not detected. Well the thing was green...and big....and had a gient sword....and was looking at me.
RRRRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRR
The dungeon vibrated from the roar. This is bad. And I'm rather calm about this. Time to get the height advantage. I ran up the ice stairs I made but the creature behind me was still chasing me just fine. Wait, were those large steps made for this thing?
SWING
BANG
The giant green creature that somewhat resembled the Kobolds I've been killing swung its sword to me. I dodged naturally but the shockwave damaged the mana shield I was using.
Mana shield took 43 damage
Seriously?! Just by being near the swing. If I take a direct hit then I'm.... so dead. I can imagine it now.
“How did you die.”
“Got crushed under a giant sword swung by a giant green creature that I tried to escape.”
No. Just no. That report will be horrible. Sprinting up the stairs I started to cast spells to at least stall this beast for a few seconds from stepping on me. I imagined the walls around the place becoming a wall to block its path.
“Earth Wall.”
As I passed by the, the wall closed behind me. I created 5 layers just in case which reduced my mana by 150 in one go but it was futile....it simply broke through them all.
“What the hell. Why is such a strong monster in this place?” I shouted condemning whoever designed this this into the game.
“Light balls.”
Several light balls I created floated about behind me and moved closer to the beast's eyes.
“Explode.”
They exploded and hopefully it would let me escape as it was blinded.
RRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRR
The thing started to swing randomly and often hit the wall, breaking it apart. Nope. That didn't work. Now I have a higher chance of dying now. Crap. Need to get out of here. But first I need to stun it. I imagined a bolt of lightning coming out of my hands.
“Lightning Bolt”
I single lightning bolt cam out of my hand and shot at the thing. It hit it and I could see the few remaining sparks coming out of its body. Good. Now I have a couple of seconds to hide.
RRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
Wait, what was that roar? Was there another one or did my lightning not affect this thing? I looked back and found the same thing chasing after me again. It wasn't even 3 seconds since it was stunned. What kind of beast is this? A kobold on drugs? As it sprinted towards me I once more saw how big it was. I was a good 1.7 metre tall but this thing was easily 3 metres tall and the place was built for this thing. It swung horizontally at me. Crap. Have to dodge.
Swoooooooooooossssssssshhhhhh
Bang
I ducked down to dodge that swing but the wall next to me....um....exploded from the impact. Was this thing level 200 or something? Well I could get a lot of experience from killing it...but how. Maybe if I spam some spells. I imagined the thing being pushed back from wind.
“Wind Gust.”
15 mana was consumed and was still draining from my body as wind started to gather and made a wall which stopped the thing from going forward but it wasn't being pushed back.....wow. If I add lightning or fire. I imagined several lightning bolts coming out of my hands as well.
“Lightning Bolt times 5”
150 mana was taken and 5 lightning bolts shot out of my hands hitting the target but it still didn't get pushed back....now for fire. I imagined a giant fireball that would consume the thing in front of me.
“Fire ball.”
100 mana was consumed and a gigantic fireball just like I envisioned was created. The wind gust amplified the power of the fireball and it caught on fire. My wind wall push spell was still active so I took the chance to cast another 3 fireballs while I'm at it. This took me down to a mere 1653 mana. This was accumulated during the last couple of hours when I didn't rest to kill all kobolds in sight. Now did this thing die yet?
RRRRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRR
Nope. Its still alive. Time to dig a hole. Imagined the wall behind me disappearing.
“Earth Rip.”
30 mana was consumed and the wall quickly turned into dirt as I moved closer to it. I was also losing mana rapidly as well. Maybe it was a mistake to kill off all the other Kobolds since I can't drain mana from them anymore. Well I need to mediate for a bit. I created a deep hole that prevented me form getting spotted and started mediating to regain mana. And that's how I got in my current situation. Since then I tried to regain as much mana as possible but the thing kept on spotting me after a while even though I was out of sight and each time I escaped while dealing a bit of damage to it.
Back to the present.....
Finally I got 5000 mana to play around with. Now what I could tell with some experimenting on it for the last couple of runs is that fire is effective enough. Lightning, earth and wind are useless against it. Ice might do something but it breaks free to easily and light and dark spells just make it mad.
I quickly jumped out of the hole and started planning out what I should do.....if I trap it then....yeah that's what I'm going to do.
5 minutes later....
Damnit! Its fast! The thing was still chasing me and was running at full speed. That's what I want it to do. I imagined two things. The floor under it being a bit higher than before and earth spikes coming out in front of it.
“Earth Wave. Earth Spike.”
30 mana in total was taken and the Earth in front of it raised a bit and Earth spikes were coming out towards it. Like how my plan worked, the thing tripped on the Earth and fell onto the Earth Spike that I created at that moment. Yes! Now to finish it off. I imgined ice spikes coming out of the ground.”
“Ice Spikes time 6”
Two spikes went through its stomach. The other four each went through one of its limbs. It was cruel but this thing was chasing me for 3 hours you know. Do you know how many times it almost killed me? This is payback.
The thing was still unconscious which was very unfortunate.
“Let's start cooking you.”
I imagined the place under it being consumed by fire.”
“Fire Field.”
BBBBBOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMM
The creature in front of me was being cook alive. Ah the ice was melting. I have to replace them then.
“Earth Spike times 4”
Four Earth spikes pierced the limbs of the creature. This time it was awake. This time it could feel the pain. I was enjoying this.
“Fire ball. Fireball.”
I was spamming my fireballs now. Aiming at its head. This was fun. But I have to cook the limbs as well. I imagined four fire pillars appearing and covering the body of the creature pinned to the ground.
“Fire Pillar times 4”
Four fire pillars appeared each one from the ends of its limbs with the consumption of a total of 120 mana. They moved slowly to the middle of its body. The creature was screaming in pain right now. Really you're not enjoying this? Well let me finish you off painfully. When the fire pillars became one in the centre of its body I casted another spell which was lightning which was ineffective against this thing but it would torment it before it died.
“Lightning Bolt. Lightning Bolt. Lightning Bolt.”
After a while a message appeared ending my fun.
You have cleared the Dungeon “Kobolds' Retreat”
You have gained 100 Fame.
Oh there's nothing left for me to kill here?.....time to leave.
[…...............m..........i..............]
Hmm? What was that? Am I imagining things again? Well its time to collect the loot.
I walked back down to the bottom floor and found a treasure chest. Yes! My luck wasn't the worse. I opened it and found several pieces of gold which was kinda disappointing but there were equipment for me to take. Some gloves and boots I say.
Glove of the Betrayed Durability: 12/20
Unknown
Boots of the Fallen Durability: 15/25
Unknown
Well at least I got the names of these things. When I get to town I have to get them identified as well. Feeling a little bit proud I walked out of the Dungeon and didn't even turn back to look at it one last time.
“Now to head East or find a town to stay at.”
Continue Misfortune?PreviousExitNext
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Author's Notes:
- Word Count 5452
- Remember how I said he will face powerful foes? Yeah he'll meet another one in two chapters. Next chapter is setting that up plus some history.
- Do you really think he'll find town to stay? No? I agree
- The voice! I wonder what it is?
- On another note mana absorption isn't that bad in a party. Just make them stay out of range and MC is a mageish person so its all fine...until a monsters sneaks up on him and kills him from behind....