Chapter four A.

With the abomination I had created on me, I felt more secure, if not more comfortable. But comfort is not a prerequisite to adventuring or falling through a crack; in reality, to swim in a sea of chaos and to wind up in the desolate wilds of an alien planet. I decided I needed to get a better vantage to try and find which way I needed to travel.

The overhang that I had awoken in; turned out to be on a rocky hill; that I subsequently climbed to the top of. The view was impressive as far as hilltop views went. I got my bearings in this new world.

Using the sun as a guide, rise in the east, set in the west. To the north were mountains and as the general direction of my shadow indicated. More substantial forests were in that direction as well. The overhang was on the south side of the hill. It appeared that the river that now ran into the forest to the south had once run along the hill. Now the river came from the northeast and curved southwest into the woods.

The direction I thought was north looked like it would rise in elevation and thus get colder. There might be people or civilization in that direction, but the strong bet was south following the river.

The woods and hill that I had appeared on seemed to be in the beginnings of the larger forest that stretched into the north; sprawling in every direction.

"Well good idea of the area but no clear sign of people. Not that I particularly want to find people but… should I try flying, no too risky right now. Don't want a giant bird, dragon or something else to snatch me from the sky. Not to mention falling." I said out loud, pondering my options.

"Well, the river it is then." I said as I adjusted the top part of my onesie.

I made my way down the hill and toward the river I was going to try and follow. The walk was uneventful. The suit of woven metal, however, was providing small torture continually in my new existence. The hairs on my arms, legs, and everywhere else slipped between the weave and would pull every few seconds. The small twinging pains every few seconds soon had my mood falling. I had to find a way soon to line the inside of this abomination of armor.

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One hour of small disgruntling torture later, I finally found the answer to my chafing and hair-pulling nightmare. I had moved a small distance away from the river following a game trail. The trial ended in a clearing that was lush with grass and flowers. In that beautiful meadow was fifty or so fluffy white deer. Instead of the coarse brown hair of earth deer, these deer had what looked to be fluffy wool. I call them deer due to the males having majestic silver antlers and the females having small multi-colored ones.

They were beautiful, and the meadow had an extra air of peace and serenity about it. It was a shame I was going to have to kill some of these. I was hungry and needed something to help with my suit, but did I have to kill them. No, no, I didn't.

Moving to the edge of the clearing, I prepared a new spell. I focused on blocking the major muscular nerves in the animal's bodies while leaving the rest of the autonomic nerves functioning. I cast the spell on the entire herd. I received two notifications.

[You have learned the spell: Paralysis: Base cost: 3.75 mana per 10 seconds. Level 1.]

[You have learned the spell: Mass Paralysis: Base cost: 7.5 mana per 10 seconds; area a 10-yard radius. Level 1.

The amount of mana regeneration I had was overkill for the area. With my mana regenerating at 11.5 per second, I could hold the fuzzy deer easily. I walked into the open and moved closer to the herd of frozen deer, a few had been outside the area of effect, and they bounded off into the woods. I could sense the fear building in the animals, and I felt sorry for them. I would have to be quick.

I linked a small thread of mana to each of the adult deer. I formed a new spell that would use a razor-sharp blade of air to cut away all of the wool along their body, without so much as nicking the skin. As I cast the spell, the voice notified me.

[you have learned the spell: Shearing: Base cost: .1 mana per second, per target. Level 1.]

The wool from the 35 deer gently floated down to the ground. With a wave of air mana, I gathered all the wool around me. My prize all secured. I cast a [mass healing] on the animals and watched as the wool quickly regrew as if nothing had happened. That done, I released the deer from the paralyses.

They all bolted in different directions into the woods. I Reviewed my prize; I realized though it was a soft fluffy white, but it was slightly dirty though, time for a new spell.

I focused my mana, pushing it out and told it, guided it to remove all of the dirt and debris from the wool. [You have learned the spell: Clean: Base cost: 10 mana per square foot. Level 1.] Then I focused on purging any small microbes or other things from the wool. [You have learned the spell: Purify: Base cost: 5.1 mana per square inch. Level 1.] The voice said.

"I wish I had a way to analyze the items I had." I said. It turned out after trying to create a spell that would analyze an object and having it fail multiple times; that I figured anything like analyze would be an ability and not a spell. The most I could get was a general sense of the objects and materials but not its true value or how it interacted with the world