Excerpt from the Wanderer's Manual

They say in the depths of the Soulless Cliffs, there is a grand beast, Fenrir the God Slayer. Named after an old mythology, they say it pioneered the Manual of Hunger. The beast is one of the few, that can go up against beings from a higher realm. Some say that he devoured an ancient god to get such power, others say he was born with such strength, and others say he accumulated such strength in the higher realms before he acted as one of the cornerstones for our own. Note - Don't cross unless you have significant strength and confidence.

So far everything had been going as Zero hoped. He and Sin had decided to set camp near the ruined maze. They hadn't had any clashes, except over what to eat. Zero wanted to stick to the safer morsels that he knew weren't poisoned, while Sin wanted to eat the berries and fruits they had found, insisting they were safe as he had been living in the forest for quite some time. Deciding to stick to what they each wanted after the small conflict. It had been a week since Zero had first entered the maze, and so far he had mapped out an area which was entirely within the 'safe zone' as he called it. It was before the warnings that told him not to enter further, and in this safe zone he had explored every room he could. Unfortunately he found nothing of interest, beside what he had found at first. He had only found some occasional diagrams. Zero was coming back to camp, when he saw Sin in a meditative position practicing his manual. The mana around him was being sucked in towards him and, unsurprisingly, devoured. Zero approached cautiously before sitting down and waiting for it to finish. As he watched Sin a few things became clearer about his manual. It didn't destroy the mana he used, it used it as a fuel to improve and create his own mana, which he had told Zero, was named devouring mana.

Of course the name of the mana made it clear how at least part of his Manual worked. After an hour of waiting, Sin finished his practicing, and grinned towards Zero, seeing that he had been watching. "You must be curious, seeing as you're clearly not from any prominent area, allow me to explain what you just saw. I'll start with explaining how my mana works. It rapidly consumes the mana around it, and grows, spreading akin to a plague. It changes how the mana it affects works, and makes it a part of its growth. The origin of my mana is currently unknown, although many believe it might stem from Fenrir, the God Slayer. The kind of mana that is created through means that aren't natural are called artificial mana types. Generally these mana types are very different from most natural mana, but the more popular Manuals with artificial mana, are often close to the natural types making it easier to practice, however with far less power than other artificial mana types." Sin said as he shook his head, "I had no idea that anyone but Fenrir could use devouring mana, until I found this Manual. This Manual completely surpassed expectations, and is definitely a treasure. Although from the looks of it, yours isn’t too bad either considering you are around an eighth of the way to iron. My practicing speed only matches yours after I touched the prism you brought me.”

Confused by Sin’s sudden talkative outburst, Zero decided maybe it would be best to let him ramble on about such valuable information more. Seeing Zero’s obvious confusion, Sin clarified, “This is to repay you for helping me obtain the prism.” Before quickly returning to his meditation. Following suit, Zero let his legs take him wherever they wanted, as he wandered aimlessly while practicing his Manual. While he practiced, he decided to attempt to reach out to the devouring mana in the air around sin. Grabbing a strand loosely floating around, he was surprised to see his mana not being harmed by the devouring mana that he was grasping. He slowly converted it to Wanderer’s mana while watching to make sure nothing would go wrong. When he was done he was pleased to see a fully converted strand of Wanderer’s mana, with partial devouring attributes. Testing out his new strand of mana, he noticed its effects were very similar to the effects of Sin's mana. In the area around the strand, mana was slowly moving towards the strand, as if being pulled by a slight gravitational force. However unlike full devouring mana, when the strand touched other mana types, it simply helped convert them into normal Wanderer’s mana. Although he could use his own mana to make more devouring mana strands, he was still disappointed that he wouldn’t be able to rapidly produce more independently. Although Zero knew that would be already too unlikely, he still held onto some hope that it was the case.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

A few days later Sin and Zero had started to move around the forest, looking for a way out. Seeing as Sin had trouble with directions, Zero used his left eye to guide them. The forest was mostly barren, except for a few dens of relatively normal creatures. As they explored, Zero suspicions towards Sin had mostly disappeared, and they spent their time mostly in silence. They were traveling farther East into the forest, as they came across a large cliff. They seemed to be near the bottom. Under further inspection it looked less like a cliff, and more of a natural wall. It continued in both directions as far as one could see. The wall seemed very smooth, with little to no hand holds. It was obvious they wouldn’t be able to get out without the proper tools. Zero looked to Sin and gestured to him, asking if he knew about the wall. Sin shook his head, before saying, “No, I haven’t seen this before, not that I explored that much. We could try finding the end of the wall, and getting out of the forest that way, or we could try to get or make the tools we need to climb up this. That would take a long time though so I’d say we stick to trying to find the end. We can come back if we haven’t found anything after a few days.”

Nodding in response to his suggestion, Zero decided to head back and grab some supplies before they continued their exploration. Grabbing some food, he headed back with Sin to continue his exploration. As they started he walked along the wall looking out into the forest, making sure nothing could sneak up on them. He also studied the wall as they walked, however it was the same pretty much the whole way he had come so far. He was hoping that he would be able to find the exit along the wall, otherwise he would have to be lucky enough to awaken a spirit that would help him climb, or go through rather rigorous training, in addition to figuring out a way to make climbing picks, and well made ones at that, seeing as he would have to make handholds, or slots for him to grab and step on himself. This was because otherwise he wouldn’t have anything to hold on to, as the wall was rather smooth. However if he found a way to exit along the wall, he could continue his exploration rather fast, and Sin would also be free to go back to wherever he was before he entered the forest. Seeing how much information he had, it was likely he had some sort of way to get information. If Zero was able to use that, he would find it far easier to explore safely.

As they walked Zero began to think about some of the things he had wanted to achieve, thinking back to his time with SBF. He held some hope in seeing One and Four, maybe even letting them know that he was in the facility as well. After all they felt akin to family, although they didn’t even know of Zero’s existence. He hoped to introduce himself if they ever met, although they most likely wouldn’t believe him. He didn’t need revenge on the members of SBF, although he found it rather sad that they killed their own director. Zero owed the man a great debt for keeping him alive, and giving him his Manual. After his reminiscing of the past, he looked to the future, in hopes of being able to stand at the top, never having to feel as helpless as he did, stuck in his containment center back in his younger years. He was glad he was free. Looking back to the wall he noticed small scratches along the wall. It seemed as though it might have come from a spider like creature, seeing as there were a multitude of them. However a spider no matter how big, walks gracefully, not like the scratches on the wall. It seemed as if Zero and Sin weren’t the only ones to want to get out of the forest. He made sure to keep one eye on the forest at all times, as the creature likely resided in the forest. Behind him Sin walked. Zero rarely communicated with Sin, so although Sin had told Zero some things about him, Zero had made sure not to say anything about himself, even his name. Deciding maybe it was overdue, Zero stopped Sin and wrote down quickly on a piece of paper, ‘Do you want to know my name?’ Surprised Sin looked at Zero with an odd look, before saying, “Why now of all times? Not exactly the safest place.” He chuckled before nodding his head. Turning to him, Zero wrote, ‘Call me Zero.’ As they continued in silence, the sun set quickly. As the sky darkened, they started to slow and moved to the forest to set up camp. Taking shifts to watch as the other slept, Zero decided to continue his practicing. When his shift was over, he headed to sleep after waking up Sin. He left the concerns of tomorrow for tomorrow.