Hello! Useless author here! I'm currently trying to rewrite everything, meaning that all the content in the chapters will soon* be completely changed, my desire to bang my head against a wall will increase and the synopsis will certainly get a little face-lift aswel. So if you had previously read the chapters or about to do it, just forget. Thanks for the attention.

*take note that the meaning of the word 'soon' is extremely relative, could be a month, three months, half a year...Dependent on my ability to write something of acceptable quality which is extremely uncertain.

Chapter 5: Administrative work to its finest, Pyrotechnics and Forced labor

-Country of Oppalk, Ifeaf City-

Hundreds of kilometers away, in a big but simply furnished study overflowing with documents, scrolls and bookshelves filled on the verge of crumbling was an elderly man reading through a pile of papers.

That man was the definition of the veteran warrior long past his date. He possessed an old yet muscular body, harsh features like the ones who saw enough hopeless situation for five life times, piercing gray eyes which certainly were used to staring contest with death, a manly square jaw decorated by a clumsily sculpted white beard as white as his pure white short hair. That was the look of the man intently mumbling over the reports invading his desk.

*Knock* *Knock* "Director Malrialdis?"

"..."

Focused on his task he didn't reacted at the genderless voice calling him from the wooden door at the other end of the room and continued his tedious task. If one was paying close attention to his face, they would see that his expression turned grimmier with each page he read through, no need to be a genius to understand that the content of those page weren't good news.

*KNOCK* *KNOCK* "HEY OLD FART OPEN UP!!!"

Five minutes after the first knock another one, more violent, resounded from the heavy wooden door reinforced with metal frames followed by another voice calling him, a more strong willed and especially impatient voice belonging to a woman. But the old man didn't minded it and left the persons behind the door, waiting.

"No you can't do that!"

"YOU WANT HIM TO MAKE US WAIT LONGER?!"

"No, i have my matter to attend as well but you still can't act like that!"

Apparently the impatient one didn't received well the fact of being ignored by the man and was arguing with the calm one about what they should do. For minutes they made a ruckus on the other side of the door with the violent one voicing her discontent while the genderless one kept on repeating that she couldn't act like she wanted to, until...

"HELL I CAN! LOOK!" *BLAM*

Impatient finally lost her last glimpse of patience and kicked the door open. However the kick possessed too much strength thus the innocent and especially heavy door left its frame en flew across the room to fall at the feet of the old man's desk with a loud *dong!* causing him to slowly raise his face from his work and emotionlessly assess the situation like if it was a daily occurence.

"See? it worked wonder. Hello old man!"

The first person to enter was wearing with a satisfied smile. That person was ofcourse the owner of the foot which destroyed the door.

She was a rather tall young woman with a height of one meter ninety, tanned skin, dark hair falling on her shoulders and wearing light clothes like the ones of the belly dancer from middle east, exposing most of her skin. With her well develloped breast and neat features she could be called feminine if not for her overly muscular body.

"*Sigh* Good morning director Malrialdis, we came to give you our report."

Following behind the woman was the owner of the genderless voice who entered the room after bowing respectfully.

In total contrast to his comrade, this person was wearing a full plate armor richly decorated with a knight helmet completely enclosing his face as well as his body, hiding his features and inducing the strange sounding of his voice. The only things he had in common with the woman was his height.

After sighing in front of the lost of another door, the fifth in half a month, Director Malrialdis calmly joined his hands over his reading material before greeting them "Good morning to both of you too. I can see that you are impatient to finish this shore of a report then let's not waste anymore time, I'm listening."

Nodding while hitting his armored chest the knight begin to report without waiting.

"*KLANG* As you wish!

The subjugation of the goblin nest threatening the village of Lemis was a success. Like our information told us, they were at a staggering number of one hundred fifty two however we still were able to prevent any citisen casualities. The only lost were some crops field destroyed before our venue. They had a surprisingly well organised structure despite their low intellect, raising the difficulty of the mission but we still overpowered them by sheer force before freeing their prisoners and now their nest as well as their lives are no more. Over"

"Good, I'm relieved that you didn't ran into any singularity but why is there only Leila accompanying you, El? Where are Melody and Demyhl?"

After that the names of their two teammates were pronouced Leila begun to chuckle while putting her hand on her mouth as to not make it too loud and even El, if one was to pay close attention to his shaking shoulders, would understand that he had a hard time suppressing his laughter as well. It's only after some second necessary to calm down that El responded while Leila was already half crouched, holding her exposed belly and emitting unlady like groaning.

"Ahem sorry about our behaviors....Melody must be in her bed sleeping like because she used a lot of mana to destroy the whole structure as for Demyhl...kuhkuhkuh...my apologies it escaped my throat, hum. Demyhl must be in her bath most probably trying to get rid of the stench sticking to her since that goblin burst open after being hit by one of Melody's spell, covering her with its guts"

"YAHAHAHAHA! My side! I still remember her face at that time Hahahaha! It's killing me! Make it stop hahaha!"

Not able to hold it any longer Leila finally fell on the floor with her face filled with tears and laughing like crazy. Even the shaking of the calm El somewhat increased upon remembrance of the scene.

"Mmyes it's funny. I'm sorry to kill your mood but you will soon have to get them out of their quarters and head for another mission"

Hearing this El and Leila both stopped laughing and stared at the old man before voicing their opposition.

"What?!" "But sir we just came from a tediou-"

Malrialdis knew that it wouldn't please them so he made a calming gesture with his hands and said

"Sshh, calm yourself i know that it wasn't an easy task and that you need rest but you are the only team capable enough to succeed this mission"

Not really pleased to be in a 'capable' team or even calmed by the serious face of the director, Leila directly rebuked him

"What about our post-mission days off?!"

"This is too urgent to be delayed but i'm willing to give you one whole week of holiday upon completion of this mission"

The proposition was somewhat attractive for El as they didn't get more than one or two days of rest between their missions but it still wasn't enough for Leila.

"One whole week isn't enough! *SLAM*"

Once again playing the impatient, she neared the old man's desk and slammed both her fist on the poor furniture, bending it slightly.

Malrialdis heaved a exagerated sigh of exasperation before finally asking her price.

"*sigh* what do you want then?"

Locking her redish brown eyes with his own cold gray, she responded in one go and without any hesitation.

"Two weeks"

"Impossible, your team can't be out of service this long! ten days"

Only to be rebuked by the old man.

But unyeilding, Leila exherced more strength on the poor desk making scrinch in despair under her inhuman strength before continuing the haggling.

"Twelves days"

Feeling that it was the right time as she wouldn't let go without fighting, Malrialdis played his trump card.

"Ten days and a reservation for four at Emilio's high grade restaurant, i won't go higher"

Hearing the name 'Emilio', El literally jumped from where he stood and ruthlessly pushed Leila to take her place in front of Malrialdis before asking in a deeply interested tone, so interested that his eyes shined through the little holes of his armor to the point the old man had to blink to keep eye contact.

"The whole service?"

He nodded

"The whole service"

Hearing the proposal even Leila was surprised.

"The whole services?!"

"Adjuged! What, why and where?"

The huge pression from the exchange suddenly disapeared when El agreed, letting the old man release a relieved sigh.

"Strange monster activity, find the cause of these activity, if possible get rid of the cause and external part of the Hexas forest. All the additional details you would need are in this file. Good luck."

He finished his last sentenced after handing a one centimeter thick file to the armored person who directly pushed it through a slid of their armor before beginning to drag Leila who was already voicing some sort of complaints

"We will depart tonight"

Was the last thing El said before they both left, one being dragged by the other. Leaving the old man alone in his study with a destroyed door and his bend desk.

Knowing he wouldn't be bothered in a while now, he fished the book with a rose cover titled 'the fire of love' seating on his lap before gently placing it on his desk and resuming his reading with a concerned expression.

------

-Back to the Hexas forest-

After making sure that there was only one projectile, i looked at the place where i stood just three seconds ago and wow!

The log was so heavily projected that it tore through the earth and the trees on its way before finishing its course on a rock chilling there. In a way it could have turned uglier if it wasn't for Moss call there would be a mashed body added to the picture.

I should get him something as a thanks latter on.

I got up and made my way toward the thing that nearly killed me because even if I'm sure that it's made of wood its shape looked strange to me.

And my gut feeling was right.

There was a mistake on the merchandise...

It wasn't a big log but a huge treant five meters high!!!

Well it should have been five meter high because right now it was so much beated down that it lost its head, an arm and one of his leg plus a part of another one.

Damn. What kind of nature's error could do something like that to a treant this big... and the huge gash on its torso! It must have been a hell of a claw to inflict such clean and long injury, so clean it looked like it was made by a well sharpened long bladed weapon wielded by the someone possessing the strength of ten men.

...

It's impossible that it was Moss doing, right?

"Hey Zell! Are you alright?"

Speaking of the devil...i mean bear. Carrying a bit of worry in his voice Moss quickly joined me near the body.

"Yeah but it was a close call, one second later and i would have become a redberry mash. But let's not talk about it here it's dangerous" i pointed at the state of the treant

"There is a monster able to beat the living light out of a treant like that lurking around we should-"

But he cut me in the middle of my sentence with his trademark laugh.

"GAHAHAHA! Don't worry lad. GAHAHAHAHA! You have the monster in front of you and it don't bite. GAHAHAHA"

...

He did that?! What's wrong with this man's strength?! Is that normal to be able to trash this easily something like that?! Beside he nearly killed me ! No gift for you then!

"How?!"

At my incredulous question he responded in a tone implying 'i did nothing special' with a simple shrug of his shoulders.

"I just attacked until it died"

YOU DON'T SAY?

Why the fuck did i bothered myself keeping them whole when you can just destroy them like that?!

"Why?! You just had to cut the head!"

He once again shrugged and responded on the same tone as before while pointing at the dead body at our feet

"Why, you ask? That's why, look"

*Krakaclack* "GRRRRRROOOOOOOO!"

"Holy shit... what the fuck is that?!"

It's regrowing! The dead treant is regrowing its limbs while convulsing! Even the head is growing back!

Cheat! A monster is cheating here!

"Don't know, i kept cutting the head but it would regrow back in seconds. After the tenth time i lost my cool and just tried to inflict the most damage possible but even that didn't work. What a bother.*chop*"

And on these word he swung his axe toward the monster's head, Cleanly cutting it off and making the body stop its disgusting convulsions.

"See?"

He said with a complete poker face when he turned back toward me.

Dude! don't kill something before looking at me emotionlessly like that, it's scary as hell! you look like a psycho!

"What are you dazing off about?"

"Ah eh? Nothing, nothing. So how do we kill this thing?"

"Don't know, dismembering don't work, decapitation either and even if you smash it like that it would keep healing back. the only solution i can think of would be to burn it but i didn't took the necessary with me."

It sound like a waste to destroy it as it is literally a enchanted wood factory but letting something this big alive without anyway to restrain it sound more dangerous than productive.

"If it only is burning something this size, i can help."

At my response Moss squinted his eyes while looking at me.

"You have something able to set fire to a five meters treant on you? You are well prepared"

"No need for tools when you can use magic"

Wow! Stop squinting your eyes like that they will pop out! What did i say which could make him react like that?

"You? A mage?"

Eh? you are surprised at me being a mage when you sent a treant flying out of a fit of anger?

"Surprising?"

"Well yeah, mages tend to forget a bit too much about forging their bodies afterall and seeing how you held your sword, the way you dodged and how well you stand after being punched by a treant, i have all the right to think that you aren't physically weak, right?"

Put like that... it's true that i have a more melee fighter body type but look can deceive, you know? Beside if you want to be a good mage you need to have a well toned body for the simple reason that you body condition have a strong influence on your magic effectiveness, don't we say 'Mens sana in corpore sano', literally a healthy mind in a healthy body?

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"Those mage didn't really understood how magic works, that's all"

"So what's your grade ~oh powerful mage understanding the secret of the arcanes"

"Arcanes aren't that interesting to study but to answer you i should be something like adept grade? Meh, don't know because it have been a long time since i used any magic afterall"

Who in a world like Earth would purposely show off that he could make a whole building explode by though? i would get arrested and dissected the same day. Nearly happened to me...BRRR i shiver just at the thought. Well after that tragic event i tried to keep low profile thus i didn't practiced much.

"So young and already this advanced in magic, it's not surprising that Elik like that with you, like her you must some kind of ge-"

"GRRRROOOOO" *Krackaclack*

Cutting him in the middle of his question, the treant's head once again grew back with this disgusting convulsing an clacking

"Wait a second *chop* *thud* Here we can talk again"

Because the head cut him in his sentence, Moss literally cut it as pay back and now two wooden heads where kissing each others on the floor.

Drop the 'i'm just cutting the weed' expression already! it spooks me!

"i wouldn't call myself a genius, let's just say that i fell on good 'teachers'."

In a way, considering Gabriel, Michael an Valdar as my teachers isn't wrong.

"Do you come from an academy?"

"An academy?"

Like the school for young nobles in the human Empire, Argarth? Do i look like a noble?

"Yeah, you know those prestigious organisations scouting talented young ones to train and educate them."

Oh that's new. Okay, maybe not that new but i only know things from before the end of the great war some hundred years ago so it's normal that my informations on governemental and institutional matters is lacking. Should go to a library one day.

"No never heard of something like that, it was more a kind of 'house teaching' than something else but we will talk about my dark past later, it's already growing back."

"It really is bothersome, huh?"

"That's why i'm gonna burn it, stand back a bit more, would be a shame if you also got cremated"

I'm not joking here, if i can make a whole building crumble with my best spell on Earth, a place with hardly any mana left, i don't know how a normal spell would react in a place filled with mana like this forest, it's to the limit of suffocating here compared to Earth.

"GAHAHAHA! you would have to explain yourself to Mya and Elik and believe me when i say that you don't want to see them angry at you"

He said it jokingly at first before becoming more and more serious until his tone became dreadful.

I already saw one taking her revenge while using the other's desire for sweet things and nearly shat my pants, no way that i could possibly anger them willingly.

"Thanks for the advice. Nothing else to add? No then let's begin gently, 'firebolt'!"

In the magic categorisation we have seven grades

Apprentice

Novice

Adept

Expert

Master

King

And motherfucking Emperor

Just so you know about the level disparities, an apprentice can create a fireball the size a baby fist as for a emperor... remember the dinosaurs? See the comet which squached them like mere insects? Yep that one. That's basically the power of an emperor magic however that's not something anyone can do, heck even master magics need atleast ten experts, pretty much the roof top rank for normal humans, to be unleashed.

It raise the question: "why the fuck is there the rank over expert?"

Well Billy, it's simple. Everybody and everything isn't necessarely human.

Some races, intelligent races like monster races, have a better magic affinity than the rest. Thus they can use powerfuler magic and reach higher peaks than humans. Beside this fact, they use this ranking for monsters and dangerous organisations too, explaining the existence of the empreror rank equivalent to a world class threat, even if right now there isn't anything of this level roaming around now, in the past there was.

Another question? "Why did he react like that?"

Well, when you take into account that magic's aptitude appears in an individual at twelve, that they need on average three years of training before being able to learn how to formulate an apprentice spell without exploding themself and that you will have train your capacity to manipulate mana if you want to produce more powerful spells, you will quickly understand that most people arriving at expert rank are already reaching the forties. Thus i can admit that being adept at eighteen might be a bit surprising but what can i say? I had good 'teachers'.

Coming back at the improvised cremation. After my short chant, a fireball the size of tennis ball circled around my left hand that i extended toward the opened stomach of the beast. Producing an explosion upon impact with one or two fire tongue escaping from the hole. The apprentice spell only dryed the inside of the treant and slightly charred it where the fire tongues passed.

It looks weak and all but it's still a simple way to test out how my magic was influenced by this change of environment..... And it was much powerful than it should have been!

First, what about this size?! it was supposed to be a baby fist! Not a baby ogre fist!

Second, the fuck with this explosion!? Not any apprentice spell should explode! it only begin to explode when you arrive into the novice section! and i insist on the 'begin' because it will only be a little *bang* like the cheap firecracker you get at christmas or new year eve! the only spell worthy of being said to produce an explosion in novice rank should be the 'fireball' spell, just a mightier version of firebolt but it's much more costy to cast one!

Third, it fucking charred the inside?! It should be used to kill small rodents or birds without damaging them too much, used on something bigger it will more likely do damages because it's a projectile not because it's hot! It's too powerful!

"So that's the power of the novice level 'fireball'? it looks pretty dangerous to be on the other end of this spell without a good protection."

My inner rambling being unknown to Moss, he still voiced his admiration in front of this display of magic.

"No.... It was a simple apprentice firebolt..."

"What?!"

Let's calm down and see the good point, now that it's dry it won't be that hard to burn it, yeah, i should just use a as simple spell as firebolt to finish. Yeah no reason to freak out because my magic is boosted to this extend...

"Next 'wisp'!"

If firebolt is a magic used to kill small things, wisp is more on the utilitary side of the strength. it's just a cute little ember used to light fire in your fireplace, oven, etc. But with the boost it look more like a 'normal' firebolt...

I should continue to light fire the old way, without magic.

Flying while lightly zigzaging toward the treant, the wisp gently landed inside the hole i previously dried up and begun its pyromaniacal work by setting all its surrounding in fire.

It only took some seconds for the well fed fire to grow healthily and increase in size until it was as big as the breach without stopping its work of destruction

Pfiou~ i though it would explode again but it's not the case! i will be able to use ovens and light fire without worrying!

"GRRROOOOOO!" *Kriiishhhhh*

But as to kill the mood a darkish aura surrounded the dead treant and quickly smothered the fire.

...

What with this murky black disgusting aura?!

But more importantly... i can't slowly burn it down?!

Maybe with something more powerful?

"...'fireball'..."

Half-certain of the results, i still threw a good old fashioned fireball OF DOOM SEVENTY CENTIMETER WIDE !!!

But as if it felt the huge, i don't really know the value but something this big should possess an obscene power level, quantity of mana coming its way, the black thing once again showed itself and forming a disgusting black tentacle, it slapped upward the fireball, completely redirecting its trajectory.

...

*BOOOM*

...

sigh

Looks like i will have to burn it the hard way...

Resigning myself, i clenched the sword in my right hand and advanced toward the monster sprawled over the rock, climbing on its massive leg as to be the closer possible of the center of its huge torso, i then stabbed the sword deep inside of it until i felt the hard surface of the rock, so deeply that only the tip of the hilt was still in contact with the outside.

No reaction? No? Okay then it should do the trick.

Grabbing the hilt with both hand i turned toward Moss before saying

"Take one or two step back, I don't know how powerful it will be"

"O-okay."

He simply nodded and went next the treant i mounted earlier some twenty meters away.

Should be safe but just to be sure.

"'Ignifugate'!"

A thin white layer suddenly appeared and encased my whole body, leaving me with an oily appearence and a gross cold sensation spreading on my body.

Disgusting but necessary

"Here is the main course! Eat this 'fire pillar'!"

Pushing more and more mana into the sword, flames begin to form an condense around the blade, spinning like mini fire tornado and eating away everything around them but it was only the preparation phase...

I quickly took some distance as the sword was dangerously pulsating while the murky aura was beginning to appear, attracted by the close magic signature and once i arrived next to Moss who looked at me interrogatively, i simply shouted "'release'!" after facing toward the hilt.

The keyword formulated, all the mana i previously gathered in the sword was released in one go. Creating a violent torrent of fire going upward. From here i couldn't really say how high it went but i'm sure that it easily exceeded the ten meters. With a heat of this intensity as well as such raging flames going crazy on everything it could, the extremities of the treant's body quickly turned into ashes.

"GRRRROOOO!"

But that's without counting the murky black aura trying to counter my flames by regrowing what was turned into ash and shielding the rest of the body however...

It's useless! You only slow down the unavoidable!

No matter how many fire tongues born from the sword the dark aura extiguished, three other would appear to eat the wooden body and the dark aura covering it the next second.

Unable to regrow as quickly as it was consumed, the dark thing understood that if it continued to protect something this big it would soon be completely annihilated thus it crawled in a point of the body around the left shoulder, focusing its defence against the fire there and transforming the piece of wood into its last citadel.

Quickly burning down the treant's wood rich in mana, adding more fuel to the spell and strenghtening it, it didn't took long to the flames, completely buffed, to assault the dark citadel in an all out siege.

The clash between the two energies wasn't tender and little explosions were produced at each swipe of a flame thongue on the dark rempart however the dark aura, showing that it wasn't a push over, extended its tentacles in counter attack against the consuming of the fire pillar, eating the flames as to regain what it was losing but it was all futile. Because of the increase in surface due to the extensions of the dark tentacles, the fire had more place to burn at thus increasing the destruction rate of the dark citadel's defences.

Noticing that its defence had only few seconds left, the black thingy tried to flee upward from the little piece of wood, sole remain of the once huge treant.

Once again it was a poor decision. Certainly not knowing the heat distribution in a flame, the little gathering of black smoke flew higher in the column now nearing the twelve meters.

The more it advanced toward the sky the quicklier it was being consumed and when it reached around the four fifth of the fire pillar's height, the smoke completely disappeared in a weak *pshhh...*.

Having nothing else to burn, the fire pillar slowly disappeared into the nothingness it came from leaving a completely black charred surface seven meter wide around the pile of ash that was the treant.

That was awesome!

"Looks like it worked~"

I said with a content tone, the spell wasn't overbuffed like the low leveled one thus there wasn't any problem of hazardous explosion or ignition of the whole forest so, yeah, i can be content.

However Moss wasn't in the same mood as me, he looked like he periodically passed through a mix of fear, stupor, surprise and amazement while glaring at me

"Is there something on my face?"

I nonchalantly asked.

"What was that?!"

"adept rank 'fire pillar' why?"

"Something like that? Adept rank? Are you sure that it isn't a higher ranked one?"

"No it's definitely adept rank, if it was the expert rank counterpart of 'fire pillar', 'Hellish column' we would be dead"

"Is that so? Pretty impressive...."

"Yeah i know but it was just enough to overpower this strange dark aura. speaking of which what do you usually do when you encounter a monster with a troublesome ability like that?"

If there are more of those things, the people crossing the forest might be in danger as not everybody can produce a fire pillar out of sheer will.

"Usually you give a report to the city with some proofs to give weigh to your words."

"In this case our proofs just went up in smoke so we can't give any sort of report."

"Yep, but i have another way to warn the autority, don't worry."

Pausing a moment he looked at the sun, probably guessing the time we spent ''timbering''

"Hum...enough chatting, it's late and we still have four treant's corpse to get back to my cabin."

"What?! you want me to drag those things on two hundreds meters?!"

"See another way to retrieve them?"

"Can't you rent a malboon carrier?"

"the carriage won't be able to advance through the forest"

It's......undeniable

"...Okay you win"

"Happy that you understand. I will take those two, they are the farthest. you take the two others."

And like that he led the way while dragging the two lifeless bodies by their rooted feet, leaving trail of upturned dirt on his wake

I won't comment the fact that he is pulling a weigh of five thousand kilograms through a root filled forest with a slight slope.

"Aye aye sir..."

Body strenghtening is so broken.

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