《Sovereign of Divinity》 Chapter 1: The end and a new beginning "Huh... what... What happened? Wait... Why can''t I speak? Why can¡¯t I see?" Akio was startled, until he realised...
It was late in the morning, and Shima Akio had just woken up, and was preparing to enter his VR capsule. Akio''s perspective: "Akio, I have to go to work... you better not be playing games just because it''s the summer holidays. Make breakfast for yourself and your sister. I have to go now and I''ll be back before dinner, so make some food for us by then. Bye" That was my mom, and she always dumps all the chores on me, because she needs to work. *Sigh "Ever since dad passed away, it''s always been like this-" "Don''t say that Akio, dad has just gone for a business trip abroad... a really long and tiring one..." That is my little sister, and she has been in denial since father''s funeral. She even locked herself in the room for 2 days, refusing to eat anything, until we broke into her room from the window and dragged her out with the help of the police department. "Ah, yes I meant ''ever since he left for his trip. Don''t worry, he''ll be back soon. Come, I''ll make breakfast, go down and wait, I''ll make something special today." "Yay, I''ll be there in a minute" *Sigh, I don''t know what I should do for her. It feels like I am making her live a lie, a lie so delicate that one wrong step could shatter her already fragile world... I am sorry little sister, all I can currently do is keep up this illusionary world, and hope you come to terms with reality soon. I''ll have to tell you by the end of summer, before school begins, or it won''t be good for her social life. Let''s just hope it doesn''t have to be that way. Anyways, let''s go make breakfast quickly, then I can continue my campaign against all Tyr''s followers (God of Justice). It is regrettable that I am currently on the path of evil, after all the months of planning the most efficient way to become the strongest player in Yggdrasil. I initially planned onbecoming a follower of Brut (God of strength and valour), while maintaining good relations with the other Primas (Gods formed from the remains of the Original Spirit; Primagine). However, that shitty NPC; Klyde Malum, just had to ruin it for me. His personality was the worst in the entire game! and in order to become a follower of Brut, you need to follow him around for a whole month, while doing infuriating quests, like fetching water from his ''favourite'' river, 6 towns from Inceptor (the beginner''s town), and make an Osseusboar (skeleton boar) out of the bones you get from killing wild boars (and you only get a maximum of one bone, with only a 10% drop rate for every wild boar killed). He also has a disgusting attitude, of holding disdain for all players, until they become a follower of Brut.Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. Once, while I was on my last chain quest, to escort Klyde to Luxta Mare, a coastal town, popular for its seafood and salt trade, we found a player on the verge of death. The a**hole had a scornful look on his face and said. "You blasphemous b*stards! How dare you live! How dare you challenge the cycle of life and death, which the lord''s maker had created! You deserve to die!" He scorned as he pulled out a long-sword, preparing to stab the player. I had to step in obviously, not because of some inner justice, but because that player was my childhood friend; Jin Toshi. I didn''t have time to activate external magic spells, so I launched myself, while activating ''Lesser speed'' and ''Lesser strength'', with my sword in front of me , directly at Klyde''s sword, which was racing towards Toshi. Unfortunately, because of some miscalculation, I not only deflected his sword away from Toshi, but I also accidentally grazed his thumb with my sword, causing him 1 damage. This was where it all changed! Yggdrasil is a VRMMORPG known for its excessive freedom as an in game experience. They even went to the extent that no object, place, or character in invincible. However, this may create problems like players killing high level NPCs instead of monsters to level up, as NPCs are easier to kill. Therefore, some rules were put in place, like any player dealing damage to an NPC, will become the enemy of the entire faction that said NPC belongs to. Therefore, I was forced to leave behind the almost complete chain quest, and join the opposing faction; Chaosas ( The Gods born of the Chaos afterPrimagine''s death), and had to become a follower of Necros ( God of the undead). There was where my journey as a white knight came to an end, and my journey as a necromancer began. Anyway, we went on a tangent there. Back to the present, I am done with breakfast. "Akio, is the food ready yet? I''ve been waiting for you to finish murmuring to yourself for 10 minutes! Quickly tell me... What did you make?" "Ahahahaha, its ''Egg & Cheese Souffl¨¦ '', with your favourite ''Orange juice''!" "Yay! ?Orang-e juice-a? ?Orang-e juice-a? ?Today I''ll have-e, the king of fruits-a? ?Orang-e juice-a? ?Orang-e juice-a? "Tch, she never acknowledges my cooking. All she cares about is her ''Orange-e juice-a''! " Anyway, I''m now done with cooking, and I can finally enter Yggdrasil! "Alright, let''s go!" Now, I just wait for the game to load- "Aha, you will have an important burden to bear little one..." whispered an aged voice "Who is there - "
...And that is the last thing I remember. Okay, wait. Let''s first understand the situation I am in, before taking any action. Okay. Okay. Okay. Calm down first. Phew. Now, let''s see; I can''t see because I can''t open my eyes, I can''t move, because there are some sort of cloth restraints all over my body, and all I can do is hear and smell. Alright, now smelling won¡¯t provide me much information, but hearing will, so I will try that... "$%$^&!" Huh? I can''t understand anything? what language is that? Chapter 2: The World of Gods It''s been seven years since the incident, and I have learnt a lot in my time here. I am not known as Akio anymore, but the name I was given is Jon. I don''t have a surname because I am an orphan in this world; I was supposedly dropped off at the orphanage in the town of Taberna. "Jon, Head mistress is calling you, get your a** out of bed and get ready!" boomed a loud voice, right next to my ear. I quickly got up, and went straight to Sylvia''s room, while applying some healing magic to my ear. Oh yes, there is magic in this world! I took me a long time to understand my situation from when I first awoken, but I gradually understood that I, Shima Akio, had either been reincarnated, or my soul took over the body of the new-born human; Jon. Those restraints around me was in reality simply a towel that was wrapped around me to keep me warm. The language in this world is very peculiar, with separate characters for each word, and no alphabet. It took me almost 2 and a half years to learn most of the useful alphabet and how to write them. Over the course of time, besides learning how to control my bladder and not pee myself, I also learned more important things like magic. I clearly remember my first lesson with mom on magic after I saw her using it to wash her face. What a waste of magic if I do say so myself.
2 years ago... After begg... Ahem, convincing mom to teach me about magic for almost 2 weeks, she finally agreed to have 2 lessons per week on magic. Lesson 1# "Magic can be divided into 6 main categories; Elemental, Spiritual, Summoning, Necromancy, Status, and Alchemy. Every great magician has been specialised in one of these categories. Elemental magic is the process of harnessing different elements and using them for an action. These elements range from basic; like wind, water, etc, intermediate; like lightening, healing, etc, advanced; like space and time, as well as ultimate elements; like order, chaos, unity, life, death, etc. Spiritual magic is relatively easier than elemental magic, where one can form contracts with spirits, and provide them mana, in exchange for spells of their element and calibre. These spirits range from new-born, mature, high, elder, saint, demi-god, god, and original. Currently, the last remaining original spirit as stope existing; Primagine. the higher the level of the spirit, the stronger, faster or more complex magic they can make." "And we can only have up to 2 spirits contracted in our lifetimes right?" I interjected, using some of my game knowledge. "No, don''t interrupt me next time! And no, there is no limit, as long as your soul can handle it, and you have enough mana to keep them and yourself alive. I would say, a level 1 mage can only handle up to 1 spirit, and an archmage can handle up to 12 spirits, maybe even 13 if they put all their mana into spirits." "Huh..." I guess most of my in game knowledge isn''t very useful currently. I guess so, since many limitations were placed on players to prevent them from becoming too strong by using only one method, but this is a real world, where game developers don''t exist... or do they? Well whatever, I just want to know how to use magic. These categories of magic are all the same as the ones that NPCs and specialised characters use, but each one of them has some flaw. Therefore, before the Klyde incident, I had made a plan to create an all-rounded player in all categories, and in order to do that, you must first create a ''unique category'' and write a paper about it in the unique magic quest line, and submit said paper to the college of Descite. If the paper is acknowledged as your work and is accepted by at least two of the seven department heads, then you can master your very own magic category. I guess I''ll have to find another way to create my unique magic category...This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. "Anyways" she carried on, "Summoning magic is done when you make a contract with a magical beast/ spirit, and they agree to live in your soul dimension; which is a personal space in an alternate dimension, created, and only accessible through one''s soul. Your soul can only fit a certain number/ grade of creatures, and having a higher grade soul from birth means that you can hold better/ more creatures. You can then summon them from the soul dimension, utilise them in a battle, or improve their strength. You should also note that in the soul dimension, non-living things cannot exist, and living creatures do not experience ageing." "And that is why high-level mages use space magic for storing things, and not their soul dimensions." "Yes. Now, Necromancy is the art of controlling inanimate corps, by either injecting a soul, or through carvings on the bones. The quality of the finished skeleton depends on the strength of the original animal, and either the strength of the injected soul, or the complexity of the carvings. Status magic on the other hand is the usage of status ailments like poison, reduce strength, etc on oneself or another. It also consists of Fortification magic like lesser strength, greater speed, etc, and Status magic contains healing to some extent, without the use of the light element. Last is Alchemy, but it is too difficult for you now, so I''ll tell you about it next time-" "Wait wait wait. I have understood everything you have said so far, just finish this last category as well please?" "Ha! No way. Finish explaining all categories so you can then just laze around afterwards? Not gonna happen while I''m alive, and let me tell you, I''m only 273 years young!" "Hmph! Fine, but complete it next time! bye!"
Present... "Hi, you wanted to see me, mom?" "Yes, Today will be your last lesson, before we go to the King''s tournament at Oppidumpeladus, the capital. That''s why, today I won''t be teaching you magic, but instead will teach you about this world. The world we live in was created as a by-product of the war between the Primas and the Chaosas" Yep, that''s the same as the game so far. In fact, if my memory serves me right, the introduction was these exact words. "The Primas were formed from the death of the Original Spirit; Primagine, while the Chaosas were formed after the chaos that followed these events. While the two factions were entangled in the ever-worsening web of war, many god spirits fell from divinity and became mortals. These fallen gods formed what we call the civilised populous; including humans, elves, high elves, dark elves, dwarves, mountain dwarves, and beast-kin. It is true that we live in a world of gods, where miracles occur, but these gods are not as almighty as they are shown to be. Even Original spirits perish, how measly are god spirits to them?" And so we finished my last class before the trip to the capital, 2 weeks later. Now, I have time to waste and energy on my hands, what should I do next? "Joooooooon... Oooooh Jooooooon? Where are you?" I suddenly heard something dreadful! Chapter 3: Family, friends and more "Jooooon, Ooooooh Jooooon, where are yooooou?" I suddenly heard something absolutely terrifying. Well, you see, this goes back to how I was raised...
The Past... Ever since my ''reincarnation'', all I''ve done is sleep, eat ''sloppy paste'' as food, piss my pants, and cry. I can''t even stay awake for more than a few hours before my thinking begins to fade and I faaaaaaaaal ashleeeeeep... A few Hours Later... Haa... Haa...Ha, finally awake. See, that is what I was talking about, it is very hard to keep your thoughts in order while taking 4 hour naps every 4 hours! Anyway, currently I can understand a few words like food, and peepee, from the woman who is taking care of me, ''Sylvia''. I know her name because she keeps begging me to say her name, but I can''t speak. Get a clue lady, seriously! What does she look like? She''s a beauty, an elf... high elf if i was to guess. Normal elves are allowed to roam the world freely, while high elves are considered royalty, and so are kept safe from outside influence on their island nation; Dryadalis. These elves must stay near Yggdrasil (the World Tree), which makes up most of the island, else they form the mark of a tree on their body after 3 months of being away. Which means, if a high elf leaves Dryadalis, they form the mark, and a permanent brand on their body, blatantly stating that they belong to Yggdrasil. Or so the lore says on the forums... and it mostly is true, because I saw the mark on my ''mother''. It is a small one, about the size of an xphone i (just reverse the I and x if u don''t get it), and it is on the back of the neck, which she mostly covers with her long, straight, brown hair? Yes she has brown hair, but I''m willing to bet she use some sort of status magic to change the colour (I''ve learnt British English, sorry) of her hair from golden-yellow to brown to avoid unnecessary attention. My guess is she is hiding from someone, or something. Well, judging by the small size of her mark, she must be born of some consort in the royal palace and ran away to here, and now is hiding from the royal guard pursuing her. Hmm, now that I think about it, there was one very famous archmage in the game as well, who was born of the 5th consort to his Royalty; Magnitudo. Yes, it is weird how elves call their royals ''high elf'', and their ruler '' his royalty''. Anyway, this high elf is supposed to have become the newly appointed head-master of the college of Descite, when the game starts in the year 20,001. Years work differently in this world, apparently 1 year on that planet is about 2.5 years on Earth... something to do with magic is what the forum said. What was his name again... aha he was called Sylma Valhassel. Anyways, there was also another person who would take ''care'' of me, and she would sneak into my room right after Sylcia would go somewhere. She is one hulk of a woman, who looks like a 15 year old girl, who is ripped! All she does, is to sneak into my room, and then hug me so tightly that I can physically feel my HP bar dropping to 1, and just before I pass out, she throws me in the air like a juggler would to a ball, and somehow I always land in the centre of my bed. Her name? Emily Kerkstan! the devil in human form. Just hearing her name makes my skin crawl...
The Present... As soon as those words were heard in the orphanage, all the children around me ran away as fast as they could. Even Krog and Shem ran away. Who are they? They are popular NPCs in Divinity, as Krog, the first NPC you meet when you start playing, a well-built blacksmith, with a special ability which gets revealed in a secret quest, to be able to use any weapon as though he trained with it for a lifetime. And Shem is the NPC who gives the most lucrative quests in the entire game, because she is the owner of the largest merchant group in all of Divinity. However, it turns out that they were just normal children, and also my best friends through my seven years of this new life. They were so normal, in fact, that Krog was intending to become a travelling merchant, while Shem wanted to become one of the royal guards. Now that would have been a sight to see, but another time. Since they were only 5 when they were discussing this, I decided to intervene slightly, and show Krog the way of the blacksmith by asking him to follow around Bjord, the head smith of the local blacksmith, and helped Shem to choose the path of the money hungry capitalist. Frankly speaking, all I did for her was to whisper to her "Being a royal guard, the maximum salary you can get is about 10 Gold each month. But if you become a merchant, there is no limit... you could even be making 100 Gold each day!" And after that day, their professions were decided by fate, more of my help, but also fate.This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. Anyway, they all abandoned me upon hearing the words from her mouth. She was coming, and I needed a way out! I could see figures swaying in the shadows. I tried to sense her presence using detection magic, but failed. I know I couldn¡¯t outrun her, so my only options were to stay and fight, which would be suicide, or to preserve my life to the best of my abilities, without caring about face or honour. And so it was decided, I gathered all my will-power to suppress my growing fear, and let out a deafening battle-cry... "MOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMM, Emily is bullying me again!!!!!!!!!" As soon as I said this, the shadows stopped dancing and a figure dressed in tight leather clothes, a black hood, a white bandana covering most of her face, two sheathed daggers, and a pair of blood-thirsty eye that were glaring at me, came out of the shadows unwillingly. Along with her, another humanoid figure with pointed ears appeared, distorting space behind her. It was MOM! She came to my rescue! "Emily, why didn''t you meet me first when you came back? What are you doing here? Why are you wearing that mask indoors? How was the mission? Come to my room NOW!" After a long lecture in mother''s room, a disheartened Emily left the head mistresses room. I quietly opened the door to try and see what was mom reading. "What are you doing outside, come in Jon..." she said with a soothing voice. "Umm, nothing mom, its just that I wanted to know what Emily had returned for. She is always on missions from the guild, so..." "You see, this was a private mission. I did not go through the adventurers'' guild for this mission as it is something very personal. I told her to retrieve a letter for me from the new headmaster of the college of Descite-" ''Wait, why do you have a letter from the headmaster of Descite? Isn''t he an Archmage? How do you know him?'' where all questions that where wreaking havoc in my mind. "Oh, I haven''t told you yet? My name full name is Sylvia Valhassel." "Wait, you, wait Valhassel? you mean Sylma Valhassel is you father?!!!" "Nooooo, you idiot! He''s my brother! a very unwanted one at that! It''s because of his constant nagging that I fled the college and now am the head mistress at this orphanage. Anyway, it seems some important matters have come up at the college, so I''ll have to leave now. I''ll meet you at Oppidumpeladus in 3 weeks¡¯ time. Don''t forget, you have to depart from here in 2 weeks, else you will be late for the tournament. Be careful my little sugar plum..." She said before vanishing into a tear in space. And there she goes, teleporting before finishing her words. She is as carefree as always. Wait a minute, now that I think about it, teleport is space magic, which can only be used by advanced elementalists, doesn''t that make her an Archmage? Hmmm, but there was no Archmage called Sylvia in the college as far as I can remember... I guess that''s the real world for you. Anyway, I better start preparing for the 1 week long journey... Chapter 4.1: The Journey "Alright, is everyone ready?" yelled the coachman, "then let''s head out!" And off we were on our 1 week long journey to Oppidumpeladus... But are you wondering what happened during the past 2 weeks...?
During the past 2 weeks, Krog, Shem and I decided to go shopping in the market for supplies we may require on our trip, as well as personal items. "Alright, mother has given each of us 1000 silver coins (= 10 gold coins), for our own stuff as a gift, and has given me 5000 more silver for our food, and living expenses along the way. So, for today, we will only explore the market for anything that interests you and you can buy it with your own money. Remember to count all the change correctly, many shop keepers will try and swindle you of your money, and if that happens, mom will get Angry and she may even $@#!$%^&* us! So remember to buy whatever you want, count the correct change, and we''ll meet up back at the market''s entrance at in five bell''s time." Yes time is counted in bells, where each town has a person stationed who will ring the bell every hourglass. "Ha, counting money is my speciality! Leave it up to me!" exclaimed Shem confidentially "Hmph, if they try to cheat me I''ll just beat them up!" Harrumphed Krog. If they were normal people, I would have believed them, but they are merely 7 year olds! What are they supposed to do if someone forcefully takes their money? But no need to fear, I had been developing an artefact since I began learning about magic. I have even kept it a secret from mom! It is called, well I haven''t decided its name yet. But its functions are simple:
  1. Monitor threats to the user, using status magic, and alert me about them
  2. Use a compressed wind elemental barrier to protect the user from immediate threats
And it is all powered by the soul gem of a troll! Soul gems are containers mined, and cut into spheres, from Mana-crystals. The purer the crystal, better the cut, smoother the shape, the higher the grade of souls they can store. But, in order to make a soul gem, you need to kill an animal and extract its soul using soul extraction and trap it in the soul gem. This can then be used for all kinds of things, from necromancy to alchemy. What is alchemy you ask? It isn''t as simple as you might speculate it to be, it is not just simple potion making. Hell no, Alchemy is the art of utilising soul gems for a process of creating an item. This item could range from simple potions, to legendary artefacts! Legends say that the ancient Dwargon race were able to create life itself using alchemy. They were the true descendants of Dragons, having all the knowledge from the Dragons, and being able to use it for alchemy was beyond the mortal comprehension. However, as time went along, traditions faded and skills were lost, and the once proud Dwargon race, who stood second to only the Dragon race, now has devolved to the dwarf race, losing even their true ancestry to time. Back to the artefact I created, I made two of them, especially for Krog and Shem before we head out on the journey... "Here," handing them each a ring, I said "This is an artefact I''ve been creating since we were small. It is very important and can save you when the need arises. It can also notify of threats to you and your location. You don''t need to do anything, just make sure you never remove it. Got it? "What about you? where is your ring?" Shem foolishly questioned "You think I need a ring to protect me? I''m a level 1 mage certified, which means I can use the basic of at least one category of magic!" However, in reality, I could be considered a level 2 mage, because I can not only use all basic elements of Elementary magic to a certain ectent, I also know about summoning, not that any creature has made a contract with me, and I could say the same for spirit magic, and I haven''t tried necromancy on humans, but I''ve tried it on all kinds of other animals, from rats, to deer. I even tried it on a cockroach, but sadly it didn''t work. Must be because they don''t have bones on the inside? I can also use simple status magic like recovery, search, lesser speed, lesser strength, enhanced senses I and II, as well as poison. However, for poison to work, not only do I need the target to have an open wound, but I also need to understand how its body works, and then come up with a poison type suitable for the target. That is why it takes too long and isn''t very useful in battle. And you have seen my almighty skills in alchemy! Muhahahaha, call me the king of this world and bow down to my awesomeness...Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. "n... Jon... Jon!" "Huh, what, what happened?" "Oh thank god you came back to Nezreal! You were making such disgusting faces in you daydream that Shem was about to punch you out of disgust!" Krog exclaimed. "Ah, yes sorry..." It happens sometimes. Anyway, the reason I keep my strength a secret from everyone, is that one should always keep their hidden trump cards a secret for as long as possible. And right now, my only trump card is my strength and my incredibly large mana. For some reason, my mana can rival that of level 3 mages! Which is an incredible feet, because the level of the mage is defined by a number of factors including mana. Which means, all I need to do to become a level 3 mage is to master a level 3 spell. However, that is where things get difficult. You see, I am not following a single category in magic, I am walking my own path, despite mom''s repeated warning of the limitations of not specialising in an already proven category. However, I have already chosen my path, the path of mana; the path of understanding and manipulating mana. Most of the level one spells were easy, Instead of following the complicated structures of spells, I just tried to control my mana, and moulding it to what I wanted. For example, if it was a fireball spell, then all I did was to first find my mana-pool. I then extracted a small drop from it, and sent the drop to my palm. just before it exited from my skin, I changed its properties to that of fire, by removing all other properties and sending them back to the environment. This left me with pure fire mana exiting my skin. Then I pulled and pushed at the mana using my fingers, to form a revolving vortex of fire mana, before using my other hand to close off the top, and compress the shape into that of a sphere. And there you have it, a mana ball all ready! I use the same principle for Krog and Shem''s artefacts to create the wind wall and search spells. Anyway, back to reality we go, "Okay then, lets go!" I said, before realising that both Shem and Krog were gone! Those a**holes left me here! Hmph, I''ll let them have it once we reach home! Just as I finished sorting out my thoughts, I spotted Krog, running towards me with great speed, and carrying a huge bag in the distance. "Jon! I wanted to show you something. My hard work, and determination finally bore its fruits! I finished creating them. Hahahahahahahaha... hahahahahaha" "Uhm, are you done?" "Yes, yes, here" Krog said as he handed me the sword. A rather well-crafted sword I should add. The length was about 1.5 times the length of my arm, and it was light. By light I mean about as light as wood! "H- How did they make it so light?!" I stuttered, as I was getting a feel of the balance of the sword, and giving it a couple of swings. "Haha, not they, ME! I made the sword. Haha! You like it? I asked Uncle Bjord to teach me how to make a light and strong weapon. So he told me to make the iron hotter, focus, and make the iron stronger. Then I''d have to use less iron for the sword. Haha, easy ain''t it?" Hmm, making the iron hotter? Wait focus? did he focus on where to hit? No, he just focussed on making the iron stronger! Wait, did he infuse the iron with his mana!? Is that even possible? I haven''t heard of anyone in game being able to do that! "So, Krog, did you feel tired, or drained of energy while of after you were ''focussing''?" "Oh yes yes, I fainted in fact! Haha, when I woke up, the sword was already made! Haha, I made the sword while I was unconscious, I''m a genius am I not? Haha" Now this makes more sense. He made the iron hotter so that it could withstand some mana. And since Korg was a child, his mana was pathetically low, and so he could keep a steady stream of his low quantity mana into the hot iron making it infused, but he used up all his mana to do this and so he fainted. Then uncle Bjord must have completed it for him. If an adult tried to do this, he wouldn''t be able to control his mana to the extent that he could release 1/100ths of it in a steady stream, he would be forced to send it in bursts, which would create fractures in the metal! That is why no one has done this before, but maybe if a skilled magician were to try, they might be able to pull it off. "Hmm, but what else is in the bag?" I questioned as my thoughts became more clear. "Oh that, that just my shield. Remember you told me I would make a great, what was it again...?" "Why are you asking me?" "Hmm" saying this, Krog sat down in his place, with one hand on his chin and the other on his thigh, as though he was... I can''t believe this! The great Krog is using his brains! Wait does he have brains? Oh of course he does, what am I thinking. I need to keep quiet, I want him so succeed in his first thought since birth, he may actually use more of it in the future! ... ... ... 20 minutes later... "Nope, can''t remember. Hey Jon, just use some of your magic to make me remember!" Yep, he''s back. Anyway, I said ''you would make a great...'' what? Blacksmith? No, he is already one. Now what would he need a shield for? Hmmm... was it "tanker?" "Yes, Yes, Tanker. That¡¯s why I asked Bjorn how to make wood stronger, and he told me to use his special saw, and while cutting, I should focus on strength. And so I did that. By the time I finished cutting the wood, I fainted again. And when I woke up, I had once again proven my mettle. Haha" "Do you even know what that word means?" "Not a clue" "Pftt, hahahahaha, and that''s why I like you brother." "Aww, I like you t-" "Wait" I exclaimed! "Hey! what¡¯s the matter, why do you always cut me off, you could have said it a second later? We were having a moment there!" Simple, because it looks cooler! Anyway, "Shem''s in danger, we need to get to her fast!" Chapter 4.2: Shem! "We have to get to her fast!" I exclaimed, while running towards the signal as fast as I could, all while completing the process of mana extraction from my mana pool, and then splitting the drop into fine particles and sending them in equal parts to my muscles , to be able to move faster and to make them stronger for the upcoming battle, and to my bones, so they can withstand the excess force what will be produced by my mana reinforced muscle. This is my Mana magic equivalent of lesser strength, and lesser speed combined. I was running as fast as an arrow, leaving a trail on wind and dust behind me, where I would see Krog lagging behind while carrying his shield, clearly ready for battle. His speed was slower and his steps were heavier that what I would have wanted it to be, but we can fix that later. Right now, I have to get to Shem as fast as possible. As time passed, I gave up on running along the streets, as I realised I was closing in on her location, and pulled some mana away from my upper body, towards my legs, and jumped.
A few minutes ago, Shem''s point of view... Hmmm, what should I buy. hehe, should I just begin the trade here right now between the shops, or should I buy things that may be useful in the capital. Wait, before anything, what I need the most is information. I need to know that market prices here and in the capital for everything, and only one way to find that out, exploration! "Alright, let''s go!" Narrator''s point of view... ... At this point, there were random flashes of pink in every store and stall in the market street... "Wow, there was soooooo much more than usual today! It took me almost a minute to go through them all!! Wow! Anyway, now that I know everything, I should -" *Bumb* "Hey watch it, I''m walking here!" Shem said while getting back up and wiping her clothes from dust. "Hehe, hey boss, how is she? Will she do for tonight?" the shrieking voice of an unimaginably thin man rang in her ears. She shot her head up, only to find 2 men, about 15 years old, but with characteristics of thugs. The one who spoke was Insid, a follower of Dious, the son of the City Lord of Taberna. And behind him, was standing a slightly shorter man, of about 5 ft; Dious in flesh! Both Insid, and Dious formed an insidious pair of arrogant fellows, with postures that overkilled the very terms of lewd and arrogant, respectively.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. She knew she was in trouble, because Dious had been pursuing her since 2 years. He had asked her nicely to become his consort, but she declined him every-time. Once he even went to the extent of trying to kidnap her. Thankfully, Sylvia was around and was able to supress the thugs with just glare. After that, Sylvia stormed into the City Lord mansion, and threatened to flatten the town, and kill every living relative of the lord, ''If even a hair on her head is damaged... Do ... You Understand...?'' was what she said. And Shem had a quiet life without Dious for almost a year. But now she bumps into him in the market, while Sylvia is out somewhere! her luck must have run out. Now was the time to run! And that is what she did, but her arm was suddenly held, and then she was dragged back to her original place. After seeing that Insid was the one holding her, she thought of a last ditch effort to run, ''let¡¯s see how you try to look at me like that again after THIS!'' She swung her right leg in an elegant arch, upwards toward his groin, and *crunch*, the sound of a marble being crushed could be audibly heard. Insid, instantly fainted from the shock, and Dious was left speechless. This was it, her chance to escape! she turned around and began to run away from Dious, whose expression morphed from disbeleif to hatred as he shouted, "Get her, Alive or Dead!" Instantly, 7 figures, initially hidden in the crowd began to swiftly follow after Shem as she squeezed her way through the crowd. One of the figures threw a dagger at Shem, but just before it could touch her, her ring started glowing a faint white, and then a gust of wind exploded from it, bypassing Shem, and went straight to the dagger, at which point the dagger stopped in its tracks. The ring then died down to a shade darker than it was initially, however, Shem did not stop to look, she just kept running, and thanking Jon in her mind, for his timely gift.
Jon''s point of view... As I was in the air, I extracted a drop of mana, and split it in two, and inserted each droplet into each of my eyes, trying my best to imagine the eye of an eagle from my previous school biology textbook. After about 0.3 seconds, it was a success. I know it was because my eyes didn''t blow-up. Yes, magic is very dangerous! Anyway, from up here, and with my eagle eyes, I was able to spot Shen, and the danger she was in. As I was landing, I was already preparing for another jump, but with a more accurate trajectory as compared to straight up. Upon landing, I bent my right knee, and pushed onto the ground with the other, launching myself to the right, parallel to the road. Looking down the path I was taking, I spotted Shem, and I think she saw me, because she was now running even faster towards me, with some signs of relief on her face. But just as she was about to reach me, her expression suddenly changed... Chapter 4.3: Confrontation Her expression suddenly changed, as she began to lose speed, and began to stumble towards me. I quickly reached out and grabbed her hand, and upon seeing her back, my face instantly darkened. Thinking for about a second, I formed a plan, on what I should do... I quickly placed her on the ground, face down, and tore open the back of her pink shirt, exposing a nearly fatal wound in her back. I had to work quickly here and time was precious. First, I converted some mana into pure ice mana, and injected it directly into the flesh of and around her wound, without letting it take form as ice. This would freeze her wound, giving me a few extra minutes of time. Just as I finished doing this, 7 people appeared around me, with faces of delight. Then an 8th figure walked out from in the crowd. *clap* *clap* *clap* "Thank you for saving her, now hand her over to me, Jon..." "Dious! you b*stard. How dare you do this. And you even have the gall to order me to ''hand her over'' ? What is she a, prize?" "Hah, don''t make me laugh, boy. Give her to me, and nobody gets hurt, or else..." "Or else what?" "Nothing. You know, besides the fact that there is a whole orphanage full of children, ripe for the picking. It would be truly regretful if something were to happen to them. Maybe a slight nudge while exploring the mountains, or accidentally falling into a well and drowning. You know, accidents, they can happen to anybody. Hehehe hahaha." "Are you threatening me?" as I was formulating the best strategy to get out of this encirclement, without harming Shem any further. " Oh... Yessss.. hehe" giggled Dious. "I was waiting for you to say that!" Saying this, I threw my flash-bang in the air. What is a flash-bang? Well, it is a personally designed mana magic. It is formed on a simple understanding, Opposite elements, cancel each other out. If you take fire and water, even though they are meant to cancel each other out, one will always overpowers the other. In this case, water would remove fire completely. Similarly, the ground removes electricity completely. If we apply the same logic to light and dark mana, the light mana should remove the dark mana. However, If you change things up, by taking a large ball of light mana, and cover it with a thin but rigid film of dark mana, then the light will continue to build pressure of the dark barrier, until it explodes with a loud sound, revealing the even brighter light mana inside, thus creating a flashbang. While it was still being activated, I quickly closed my ears and looked down, and began my charge towards Dious. As soon as I noticed the floor brighten up, I looked straight at Dious, who has his eyed closed and ears ringing, like the other seven members. ''Good, the plan worked, but I need to finish this quickly, I only have between 1 minute to a minute and a half before those 7 begin to come to their senses.'' While making my way towards Dious, I extracted another drop, and converted it to lightening mana. By the time it reach my skin, I had reached Dious, and had twisted my body, to get the maximum force from this swing, and kicked Dious at the side of his knee, making it cave in and his foot was now bent the wrong way. While this was happening, The lightening, mana tried to escape, but I controlled it to for a single strike at the person who seemed to pose the largest threat to me. He was instantly knocked out. Next I blasted myself into the air with some mana reinforcement, while producing a fireball in each hand, along with sending more mana into my muscles and bones, so that my attacks are even stronger, enough to kill a grown man. Now, I have to finish this before the effects of the flashbang wear off. So I launch both the fireballs at the man to the left of Dious, while transferring some more mana to my hands. The fireballs nearly burnt off his skin, but he was still alive. In incredible pain, but very much alive. I need to reduce their numbers fast, and in a way that would take a healer very long to fix, preventing them from gaining back their numbers. I unsheathed my brand Death Saber, and stabbed him right in the heart, while twisting my body for a round house kick to the head, His leather armour cut like paper, as the Death Saber went in deeper. When the kick landed, his body flew out of the Death Saber and to the left. However, at this point, one of the men took out a stick and pointed it at the sun-like orb, while chanting. I knew something was going to go wrong, So I bolted towards him, with Death Saber in my right hand, and a fireball spell in my left. I was also sending out a tendril of pure mana into the air. Just before I could reach him, or throw my fireball at him, a jet-black arrow formed in front of his staff, and sped towards the flash-bang, since the bang was already over. Just as that happened, the mage jumped and hid behind one of the other men, who were all now looking at me with bloodshot eyes. This was it, do or die! I feinted an attack towards the swordsman in front of the mage, as I threw my fireball backwards, to the one in assassin gear behind me. Being an assassin, the person didn''t have any armour, except a thin black shirt and pants, along with two daggers and their holders. Taking the attack directly, the assassin was thrown back several meters, with both his hands burnt to a crisp, and a gaping hole in his chest.Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. ''Haha, how do you like my overloaded fireball! I increased the mana in it, while continuously compressing it, leading to a fireball with 2.5 times the power of a regular one'' 4 down, 4 to go. I was about to run into them, guns, I mean magic blazing and all, but I suddenly changed my mind. I decided to stall for time. Putting Death Saber back in its sheath, I created an ice mana ball, an ice ball, and a fireball on the other. As soon as they were ready, I launched them on converging paths towards the man in front of me. He easily dodged it, but that was exactly what I wanted. The fire and water collided, creating a massive explosion of steam, acting as a smoke screen. Next I quickly sent some more mana into the mana tendril that I had initially created, and while doing this, I sent ice mana into my left eye and fire mana into my right eye. This way, my left eye would see everything that is cold, and my right eye would see everything that is hot, effectively creating thermal vision. Using this, I could see the magician invoking a spell, mostly a wind one to move the mist away. with this, I can see that he is at least a level 2 mage. Hmmm, fighting him head on would be a problem. Let¡¯s defeat some of the warriors first. Deciding on my plan, I moved towards one of the visible humanoid heat signatures and launched my blade into the centre. However, now that the effects of the flashbang are gone, although their coordination is ruined, their skills are still very much there, and so he dodged it. Not completely though, Death Saber is now imbedded deep into his arm. with this, I switched holding Death Saber from my right to my left hand, which had a lightening spell ready. Using my sword as a conductor, I fried the insides of the man to medium rare. Pulling Death Saber out, I could see another figure rushing towards me, mostly after hearing the screams of his teammate. I quietly took a few steps back, allowing him to run right past me in the mist. Just as he was about to pass me, I threw my sword at his leg, lodging it deep into his calf, as he fell from the severe pain. What he saw next was terrifying, a brat, about the age of seven, was wielding lightening magic in one hand and fire magic in the other, while leaping into the air, ready to blast him to oblivion! And that is exactly what I did, I stunned him with lightening magic, and then set him of fire. Alright, 2 to go. Just as I was preparing to attack, a strong gust of wind blew away the mist, revealing everyone. The two remaining men were now enrage beyond words. The swordsman madly charged at me while the mage began preparing another spell, but I was not about to let him. I threw Death Saber at the mage with all my strength, as I dodged the attack from the swordsman. Unsurprisingly, the mage dodged my throw, but his level 2 spell was cancelled, and he should be suffering from the backlash... When a spell is cancelled by the user in a rush, there is backlash to the body, which becomes slower, and use of mana becomes harder for about 1 minutes, I would say for a level-2 spell. This cannot be explained through conventional methods, and even mother does not know why it happens. Well, the reason is simple, as provided in the game manual, there is a time penalty for cancelling a spell yourself, because the mana, which was not in the complete form of a spell, is sent back to the mana pool. If someone else dispels your magic, it means that they extract the mana from the spell structure and disperse it in the air. Therefore there is no penalty when this is done. Anyway, I sensed danger coming from behind me and so I jumped backwards, dodging the attack from the first swordsman, only to find that another swordsman, he one who I had only electrocuted and left there had recovered almost fully, and was charging at me. I needed to dodge this, but I was mid-air, and invoking a spell would take too long. While I was in despair, I suddenly heard a clang sound, instead of feeling the cold blade of a sword cutting me in half! It was Krog, he had finally appeared. That son of a b*tch, always waiting for a cool entrance! [SM: I''m pretty sure that your thing dude] "Haha ha, I made it! Why do you run so fast Jon?" "Forget that, let¡¯s get this a**hole, he stabbed Shem in the back, I need to get to her quickly!" "WHAT!!! THIS F*CKER DID WHAT!!!!!" Yes, Krog has a crush on Shem. I think any boy my age would. She is a red haired beauty. Well, any boy besides me. I feel like we have some other connection, something I can feel innately. A bond stronger than love or hate... Anyway, Krog just went crazy on the dud, I now feel sorry for him. Describing his state now would put me on the list for ''gory'' imagery, so let¡¯s just leave it at ''A fate worse than death, a fate so bad, they cannot have a funeral, because his body was no longer a body'' I quickly turned to Shem, and ran to her, checking her pulse. *lub-dub* *lub-dub* *lub-dub* *lub-dub* "Phew, its faint but she is alive." I quickly got to work, injecting light magic into her body, starting from her heart, allowing her circulatory system to do the rest. I carefully removes the dagger, and a few shared of broken bone and steel using my detect magic, and then I gradually defrosted her would, allowing the light mana infused blood to heal he body in the way I imagine it. Unexpectedly, I was extremely proficient in healing magic. This was due to all the diagrams of the human body from biology class. While all of this was happening, and Krog was continuing his relentless shield bashed on the already mutilated body, I hear a hysterical laughter. Quickly turning around, I spotted the mage, pointing a staff at me, with a fire lance on it. If I dodged, Shem would be killed, and if I didn''t we both would die. Carrying her with me would take too long, and he would have launched the spell at us by then. But I had prepared for this. After receiving the backlash, the mage went into hiding, using concealment spells to the best of his ability, preventing me from spotting him. So, I had to use this risky method to lure him out. By now Krog had realised the situation and was charging at the magician, and the magician was getting ready to launch his spell, "DIE" he exclaimed. But just as he was throwing the spell, 5 ice spikes went into, and through his head, instantly dispelling the spell he had cast, and killing him on the spot. "Phew, that was scary!" Saying this, I sent some more mana into the tendril, and a ''thanks for helping'' along with it. Krog reached the mage and shoved him way with his shield, and sat down beside Shem. Seeing the wound heal with his eyes, he breathed a sigh of relief. Suddenly, we heard f\multiple footsteps around us, and many shouts could be heard as well. I enhanced my hearing with mana and hear them, "Master Dious told us that there would be a man and an injured woman, but there are two here. Are these the correct people?" "Just arrest them, we''ll leave to rest to the city lord!" another voice said. A smirk crept up on my face, but Krog''s face was as clueless as ever. "Don''t move! You are under arrest! You have no rights! come with us or die!" shouted a man who looked like the captain. Chapter 4.4: Accusations "Don''t move! You are under arrest! You have no rights! come with us or die!" shouted a man who looked like the captain. "Okay!" I said as I put my hands in the air and told Krog to do the same. "But I need a bed for her, she has been injured and could die at any second!" I said pointing at the unconscious Shem, who was by now completely healed by me, and was just lacking blood and energy, both of which can be recovered with sleep. "Hmm, we''ll see about that when we get there. Come with us for now." "Ok!" said, while telling Krog to pick up Shem, and follow behind. But he stood next to Shem, motionlessly staring at the void behind me. ''Oh yes, of course! I should have known! Since he likes Shem, to the point of beating others to ''human paste'' for her, wouldn¡¯t it be very awkward to hold her...'' "Alright, then I''ll pick her up" Sarcasm filling my mind as I said those words. Waiting for the correct reaction from Krog, I began to slowly move to pick her up, but Krog stopped me and said with an embarrassed face, "Wait, I''ll do it." Saying that, we began our walk to the city lord''s mansion, and when we arrived, Dious was waiting there on a wheelchair, as two healers were using all kinds of level 1 spells to heal him. He sat there, with the arrogant expression plastered on his face, making me want to punch his face in. But I kept those expressions hidden under a smile. Krog was not the same, after I told him what happened as we were coming to the mansion, his anger began increasing, but I was able to convince him to calm down after telling him that I would make Dious pay for what he did. But now, that suppressed anger was about to erupt once more, as took a step forward, but I stopped him and shook my head. Dious took this opportunity and tried to mock us, "Haha, you should know your place you brat. And you," he continued as he pointed at me, "Don''t think you will get away with what you have done." "Yes, we''ll see each other in an hour in the city court!" I said mockingly. we were shown to our cells in the dungeon. A rather horrible place, even for prisoners. Floor covered in mud, rats and cockroaches swarming the ground and walls, no light, except for the torches, and a tiny window, about 15 by 20 centimetres large. After an hour, two guards came to take my, another two to take Krog, and one was stationed to take care of Shem. I was a little afraid he was paid by Dious, and so I sent out about 4 drops of my mana, and attached it to his neck, with one focus in mind, to materialised and tighten if he come into contact with the ring. It should be known that this is a personalised sort of alchemy, where the source of power is my own mana, and so it is only temporary. With the 4 drops I supplied, It should last about a day. It should also be known that the rings I gave Krog and Shem cannot be removed by anyone other than themselves, besides chopping their finger off.Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. With that, I was assured. But to take extra preclusions, I used the same method on all the guards in the dungeon. After this, my nearly replenished mana had become half of the maximum. Within two minutes of walking, we reached the court, with all the bystanders of the incident, acting as witnesses, and the city lord acting as the judge. We were taken to a seat next to the witnesses, yet lightly separated, since we were the defendants. "The court will now proceed with the accusers presenting their entire case with all the evidence, after which the defendants will present their case." said an announcer in a formal tone. I could already guess what was to come. "Ahem," said the tall and skinny man, standing with a sly smile on his face and thin glasses. " My client, Mr. Dious, wants to report the murder of his dear friend Insid, as well as all his 7 guards for no reason by the defendants there." The city lord was nodding his head, clearly approving this accusation. "This is our accusation. To support it, I would like to present the heads of those who died at the scene. Although we have recovered 7 heads, one of the guards was brutally crushed by that brute next to the accused." He said as his henchmen presented 7 cloth bags with the heads of the 6 I killed, and Insid. Apparently, Krog had come across an unconscious Insid while running to me, and beheaded him, before continuing his pursuit. He mostly did this from anger of his past lewd actions towards Shem. "We also have eye witnesses supporting these claims. May I present Mr. Rand" as he said that, a middle-aged man with a bartender''s outfit stood up. "Y- Yes my lord. You s-see, while I was cleaning the bar at the mansion-" "Ahem" interjected the sly lawyer-man. "Ah! I mean the bar in the town, I heard that child over there," as he pointed at one of the witnesses, the lawyer-man intervened once more, "I think you mean the brat over there" he said in a frustrated voice while pointing at me. "Ah yes, the child over there, I heard him threatening Mr. Dious for money in exchange for his friends life. But before Mr. Dious could remove the money, The child killed Insid, as well as all the loyal guards of Mr. Dious for no reason!" He said. We also have more witnesses... After 20 minutes of non-sense, unprepared, actors, with no acting skills, or knowledge of the actual incident were presented, the accuser''s side quieted down. Dious ended everything with, "I told you I''ll make you pay for your insults!" He had hardened his heart to kill Krog and I, and destroy Shem today. "Now that the accusers have presented their case, the defendants will now be given time to present their defence" stated the announcer All eyes turned to me and Krog, who was shivering in his place with anger. Chapter 4.5: A Trial All eyes turned to me and Krog, who was shivering in his place with anger. To prevent him from going berserk, I stood up and looked straight into the city lord''s eyes and said coolly, " City Lord, let me introduce myself again, My name is Jon, and this here if Krog," There was no reaction from anyone when I said these words, bit nevertheless I continued, "from the orphanage." As soon as I said that, the city lord''s complexion grew a few shaded paler, along with any servant or other personnel who were present the day mom barged into the mansion and threatened to flatten the town and kill all the city lord''s relatives! I was laughing uncontrollably at their reaction, in my mind of course. On my face was a smile that assured one of victory, even in the harshest conditions. I continued, " I was not present for the confrontation between that insolent brat Dious and my friend Shem, but I will show you the incidents of what happened after." Hearing the word ''Shem'', the city lord seemed to have aged a few years in a matter of seconds! I continued, by transferring some mana, to my eyes, focussing on reversing its properties, from collecting light and transferring it as electrical signals to my brain, to transferring electrical signals from my brain into light, and reflecting that outside my eyes. I stared at a blank wall, and then a projection began playing out, of from where I cut Krog, by saying "Shem is in danger" and then running at full speed. Seeing the feet of projecting scenes from one''s eyes was shocking as it is, but the following scenes were even more flabbergasting for the audience. A 7 year old wielding unknown magic, killing off 7 grown men, all experienced warriors, and one was even a magician! then, the same child healed Shem''s fatal wounds so easily. Even the level 1 mages present were astonished. But the city lord was even more astonished upon seeing the girl''s face. It was the girl than mom had warned him not to mess with! Adding salt on open wounds, I added, "Also, city lord, let me add this as well, mum likes me way more than Shem." Leaving the rest to his imagination, I began walking towards Dious. All the guards raised their weapons at me, to protect their young master, and Dious'' previously terrified expression turned into one of mocking ridicule, "I would also like to add to the list of his crims; murder, attempted murder of the heir to the seat of city lord, conspiracy to take over the position of city lord, lying in court, using magic to make lies convincing, and blatantly disobeying the order of the court. Ha, Jon, you will die today-" but he was cut off by his father who said, "Let him be! And master Jon, please spare his life, he is my only son." After hearing his begging, the guards instantly understood I was not someone to mess with, and so they stood to the side, making room for me to go straight to Dious, whose mocking expression morphed into one of utter despair!If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. I nodded at the city lord and proceeded to Dious, who had already fallen on his back and was now crawling backwards on all fours yelling "Don¡¯t touch me, I will give you money!" but I didn¡¯t stop. Seeing this his face hardened, "If you don''t stop now, I will have your friend killed in the dungeon, before you can reach her. I paid all the guards there to take care of her unless I tell them to stop!" "HAHAHAHAHAHAHA, are you threatening me?!" Krog, who was about to kill the Dious himself, suddenly stopped and sat back down. Remembering a past memory, where he threatened Jon to leave the orphanage so that Shem would be all his, or else He would burn Jon''s magic diary. The next thing he remembered was the world spinning and then going dark. When he woke up, Shem explained to him that He had been passed out for 3 days, and Jon got a 2 hour long firing for using his abilities on family. Anyways, I was triggered to the max. So I rushed towards him and held his left hand with one and his shoulder with the other, before using mana to strengthen my hands and puuuuuullllll! *RIP* *Crack* The sound of flesh tearing and a few bones cracking echoed in the court. I quickly stopped the bleeding, but didn''t heal the wound. Instead, I said, "This is for stalking Shem for 2 years!" while burning the left-over hand in my hand. [SM: Idk why, but it just came out funny] I repeated the same for his other arm, leg and other leg, saying, "This is for the dagger in her back!", "This is for trying to kill me and my best friend!", and "This is for sending people to mess with her while she was unconscious" in the coolest way I could. "And lastly..." I paused as I held his head with both my hands, injecting light magic into his neck, to reshape and replace the organs in it as I slowly twisted. *CREAK* The sound of bones grinding against each other was unnerving for most of the faint of heart. "This...Is...For...Threatening...ME!!!" As I completed those words, his head was facing 180 degrees to the other direction, but he was still alive, without any limbs! I also took the extra privilege of crushing both his balls, you know for future safety. I turned around and said to the city lord, "I will be taking my leave now" whose eyes were bloodshot with anger and helplessness. "As promised, I have not killed him. Just leave us alone. " Before storming out, I said, "Oh, and those guards in the dungeon ordered to r*pe Shem, should be dead by now" without looking back at the astonished faces of everyone present. I took the still unconscious Shem, told Krog to carry her, who was as jolly as a man could possibly be, and we made our way back to the orphanage. Chapter 4.6: The Journey begins Present Day... "Are we all ready? Let''s go!" I said as the carriage departed from Taberna, on a week long journey to Oppidumpeladus, the capital. "I wonder how long Shem''s sleep will last..." said Krog as he stares of into the distance. I has been nearly 2 weeks since the incident, and Shem still hasn''t woken up and although I don''t show it, to keep Krog calm, even I am getting worried about her recovery. Her state is what one could compare to a coma. She is in the state between life and death! Checking up on her periodically, I have learned one thing, is that nothing is wrong with her physical body. Even her mana is filled to capacity. The only thing out of place, is the fact that all her mana is completely still. As thought the one commanding it is missing. From this I learned that there is definitely something controlling our mana subconsciously, to move around our bodies in a slow rhythmic flow, similar to the flow of blood. Anyway, this is all I can do with my current abilities, so I must improve my strength. Currently, we are on a carriage, headed to Auexit, the town of mercenaries and adventurers. I is located about 2 days from Taberna, and 4 days away from the capital. "So," I asked the coachman, "what happens when we reach Auexit?" "Nothing much, we just need to refill our supplies, and then join up with the rest of the caravan, before departing for the capital." Slipping him two silver coins, I asked him further, "Is there anything we should know about Auexit or the caravan?" "Ah, yes of course there is my dear customer. Everything has a price after all. The town has a rule that forbids any sort of fighting within the wall. So make sure not to make any trouble, else We will be stuck there for up to a week, just to get you out! Also, the rule does not apply underground, so beware of people trying to take you underground. And that is it about the town. Also, you can register as an adventurer at the age of seven at the capital, if you are seven that is, my customer."This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it "Yes" I said unhurriedly "About the tavern, you should be fine as long as you remain in this carriage, and don''t speak with anybody. But if you must, then beware of the ''Scavenge Hunters''. A ruthless bunch of phsychos, who can go to any lengths to complete a mission, even sacrificing their own! That bunch gives me the creeps! It''s best to stay away from them... Ah! I also heard that a powerful magician will be joining us during the trip from Auexit to the capital! That would be one relaxing trip! Hehe." "Hmm, worth the money." "Thank you customer! I also have to add, for legal reasons that your safety cannot be guaranteed through any of the trips or stops by me. Please take care of yourself!" "Ha, don''t worry about that! my brother here killed a level 2 mage back in Taberna. He was supposed to be a guard of - mmphmm" I gaged his mouth before he could say anymore, and slipped another silver coin to the carriage driver "Could you kindly forget what just happened?" "Ah, what are you talking about. Nobody said anything!" He nodded as he turned back to the road, and we continued our journey. The ''Scavenge hunters'' he said? I remember adding those troublesome fools to my army, during my dark campaign. But I had to have them killed, because those idiots were sending my men on suicide missions in order to complete the missions I gave their team. Sometimes, they would use my men as bait to lure beasts out into the open, or to infiltrate the enemy bases and plant bombs, as a distraction for assassination missions. Let''s just stay away from them. ... After two day of travelling at first light and setting up camp during night, we finally reached Auexit. Along the way, we did encounter some wild dogs, and the odd goblin group, but nothing too serious. I didn''t know what would sell well in Auexit, so I took everything that wouldn''t rot, while cooking the food using flame mana, without letting it manifest as flames. This way, only heat would be released as heat and not flames ,thus not burning sown the carriage along the way. Mr Carriage driver was also surprised by my skills in cooking, I am after all a 9 year old child! What he doesn''t know is that I have been cooking food at home since I was 10, till the time I died, about 9 years later. [SM: wolves in Nezreal are called wild dogs, because what they call wolves are 3 meter tall and 5 meter long abominations of wolves!] Anyways, we were here, at Auexit, finally! Chapter 5: Auexit Anyways, we were here, at Auexit, finally! "Dear, cutomer, we are required to either present valid identification, like a guild card, or badge, or we have to pay a fine of 15 coppers. I don''t suppose you have any identification, so it would be wiser to keep the fine ready." said the carriage driver "Okay" and so we got into the line. After nearly 20 minutes of waiting, out turn finally came, and the driver asked as we were paying our fees, "So, why is the line so big and why are you''ll taking so much time today? "Well, the caravan to the capital is leaving tomorrow, so we have to keep safety our top priority!" sighed the guard. And we were in. I also realised that having a guild card, or nobility''s badge is very important while travelling, else we will have to pay a lot more money just entering towns, than we would to stay at the inns in town. "Dear customer, there is a good inn, run by my brother, straight ahead, and it also has a restaurant inside it, with a bar as well. Please rest up and enjoy yourselves, because we will leave by at the second bell in the morning." Saying his piece, the driver dropped us off and went his way. Since we had no other plans, we decided to go and spend the rest of the day at the inn, if it was good enough. But before we could enter, two well-built guards stopped us at the entrance, "Hey you! no beggars allowed here! Ge-" Before he could finish what he was saying, I interrupted, "We are paying customers you see?" I said while jiggling a pouch of coins in my hand. "Ah, please come in, apologies for the misunderstanding customer!" The men saluted and opened the door for us. I is somewhat understandable that they took us for beggars, since we are three 7 year olds, with one of us asleep and without any parental supervision. 3 figure were leisurely talking with each other in the College of Descite... "The boy of fate has grown! And unexpectedly fast at that, two days ago my scouts sent me a report regarding the insidious event with Incid and Dious. Jon single handedly defeated 6 level 1 warriors, and a level 2 mage! He did have some help from the other brat, and a spirit! The scout told me that the mage had sneaked up on the boy while he was healing his friend, and just as the scout was about to jump in to kill the mage, multiple ice spikes drilled into the mage''s head! using a detection scroll, the scout saw that after the killing of the mage, the brat was sending mana through a thin thread of mana, linking him and a being of mana! It is undoubtedly a spirit-" "Unless it was a god''s divine re-creation!" "Pfftttt, don''t make me laugh! You think the brat has received the protection of a god, which we old monsters have yet to receive?! Bhahahahaha!" "Anyways, I have sent ''her'' on the caravan, just in case, but told her not to intervene unless they are about to die!"A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. "But still, when I first found him, his mother was on death''s door, and she entrusted him to me, before using a teleportation scroll along with a concealment scroll. Both of which were at least archmage class, because even I couldn''t break it! I knew he was special, but didn''t know how special. I was going back to the orphanage, when a voice entered my head, ''CHECK HIS FAAAATE, YOU WILL SEE JUST HOW SPECIAL HE IS! HE IS AFTER ALL MY SUCCESSOR!'' Then I checked his fate string, and it was as thick as 3 trees put together!! I don''t think such fate exists in this world. And the most terrifying thing is that his fate grows stronger as he grows stronger! By the time he could use level 1 spells, his fate string had expanded to the size of the orphanage itself, which is about 2000 times larger than any of ours!" "Hold up there girl! You never told us about the voice in your head?" "Yes, it was a terrifying voice. My mana began to rage and the elements where all surrounding me and the brat, and although the voice was monotone throughout, when it said the words ''MY SUCCESSOR!'', there was a hint of excitement, causing a lightening storm, an earthquake, tsunami, hurricane... basically is caused the calamity of the year 19,900! Almost the entire world shook, and some called it the calling from the gods! Basically, he was the cause of the temporary halt in the war between the dark races and the other races of this world!" "Wait, causing calamities throughout the world... That way not even be at the level of demi-gods! ...Could it be?" The next morning, after a night''s sleep, the two were eating a hardy breakfast, while Jon was multitasking on enjoying his food, and supplying light mana to keep Shem in good condition. "So Jon, what do we do now?" Krog questioned like the fool he is. "We eat, and then we pack up and wait for the driver to come pick us up." "Oh, then we should eat quickly!" "HAHA, yes my foolish brother, let us feast!!!" ... After nearly an hour of non-stop eating, I was too stuffed to even move, and so was Krog. So i used mana to increase my digestion and metabolism, and in return I unexpectedly got an increase in my mana production! Now that will be very useful. "Hey not fair! Using magic to become unstuffed! ...Dear brother, will use it on little old me also please?" "Ugh, just do that concentration thing on becoming better! I won''t let you faint, so don''t worry." As soon as I said that, I sent some of my mana into his mana streams, just after filtering them to match that of the surroundings! "Huff, I feel as good as new now!! Haha, am I not a genius!" But he was a genius! He use mana incredibly smoothly! However, I noticed that his mana stream; the channels of mana in the body that flow to and from the mana pool, were being damaged as I was sending in mana. So I did a full mana scan on him, and it turns out that his mana pool seems to have grown around 1.5 times bigger than what it was before, about the same as that of a grown man! Those mana streams should heal naturally after a few days of rest, but shouldn''t that work on me as well? Maybe the amount of intake was too great for his pool. I should experiment more before telling him to do this again. I''ll just try it in the carriage. While I was getting my new ideas in order, I sensed the familiar mana signature of the driver! As far as I know, every living being has a unique mana signature, the wavelength of mana if you must, similar to a fingerprint. And one can sense it as long as one has a higher amount of mana in their mana pool and an incredible level of mana manipulation and sensitivity. I have been able to remember most mana signature around me. This is excluding mom''s and Shem. Mother''s mana is simply too large for me to over-power right now, and Shem has some sort of unknown barrier protecting her signature. Every time I try to break it, all my mana is frozen and I cannot use it for the next day as well! So I gave up on that, time will unravel all mysteries, but unravelling them at the right time is what you must do, is a saying a follow since my childhood back on Earth. A sort of ''Go with the flow until the time is right'' kind of motto. "Come on dear customers, we only have two bell''s time to register ourselves for the caravan!" Chapter 6: Journey to the Capital "Come on dear customers, we only have two bell''s time to register ourselves for the caravan!" And so we went back to our rooms to prepare the our luggage, but a man stopped us, "Are you the ones who took room 06? Your payment was for the night and not the day today, and we paid for the room for today. It is legally ours, so please f*ck off." said the bold man with a malicious grin on his face. It was clear that he was trying to steal all our luggage. "You-" before Krog could do anything stupid, I gaged him once more and pulled his to the carriage along with Shem. "Take care of her, I have something to take care of-" saying that, I went back to the man in the bar. Looking at the innkeeper, I tossed him 10 silver coins, "For the damage." I then turned to the man with an even more evil grin on my face. "Call out all your friends now!" while I was speaking, I was actually sending my mana into the ground, in two places. Around the man in front of me, and our room. The mana in the room covered the floor under our luggage and morphed the ground around it, as though it was a stone sinking in water, and directed it to the carriage. Everyone was nervously watching 15 men stand against one 7 year old brat. "Now that everyone is here, who the f*ck are you?" "Haha, haven''t you heard of us, we are the scavenge hunters!" all 15 of them lifted their left sleeve to show the stylish tattoo of a hyena. "Ah, so that is it. And who allowed you to cause trouble for me?" "Why would we need someone''s permission to get some extra cash?" "Oh is that so? I wonder what extra cash you are talking about? I don''t have any luggage with me!" At the same time, another slightly smaller man, maybe a boy of about 10 years old ran out from my room, exclaiming, that there was no loot! "What? How can this be? You, what did you do? He told us you would have a lot of money!" "Who told you?" I questioned "Hmph!" "Fine then, I''ll get it out from you the hard way." I was now certain that someone had put these fools to trouble me! That means I can''t kill them! But I can torture them, just not at ground level. I do have quite a bit of experience when it comes to killing and torturing. Joining the Dark side, most of my missions where like that. The first time I had to kill someone, I was so scared that the game force logged me out, for the my safety, as my heart rate had exceeded the safety limit. And the first time I tortured someone, my physical body reacted violently, and the VR chamber smelled like puke for nearly a month!This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. Back to the thought of torturing these pests, I activated my mana present under them and the ground under them gave way, to form a deep hole, about 50 meters deep. I jumped in after them, with my grin now covering my entire face. Krog''s point of view... Jon stopped me from retaliating and dragged me back to the carriage, telling me to take care of Shem. He then turned around while saying he had some business to take care of, leaving me and the driver completely clueless. We could hear everything, but as the conversation moved along, I slowly couldn''t understand what was going on, but looking at the driver''s reaction, I knew things weren''t going well for Jon. I quickly picked up Shem and walked into the bar, where a huge hole had just formed and Jon was jumping into it. Seeing the devilish grin on his face, I breathed a sigh of relief. Wait what is a sigh of relief? Anyway, the hole was deep! I couldn''t even see the bottom! But, I could hear terrified screams coming from down there. It seemed Jon had something planned, so I waited. The screams continued and many people left from fright! Soon, even the guards arrived, and I thought we would have to fight them, but they just stood there. Seems like Jon had planned for this as well. The leader of the guards went up to the hole, looked down and screamed, "Could you keep the volume down, this is a bar and inn after all!" "Oh, of course," Said Jon''s echoing voice. Suddenly the ground began to shake and the hole was covered by a wall of dirt! This was definitely Jon''s magic! The volume had reduced, but the screams continued for another 30 mins, until finally hey stopped. An eerie silence took over the place... Jon''s point of view... After almost 30 minutes of continuous torture, one of the 16 people involved finally broke and told me who sent them- "It was Dious¡¯ father; Avarum, the city lord of taberna!" That lowly scum, just wait till I meet mom, I''ll have her destroy his lineage! Anyway, we don''t have much time, so I should get going. As soon as I got out, I noticed that everyone was staring at me with fear plastered on their faces. Most humans have an innate sense of fear towards magic, because the human race was nearly wiped out in the Blood-Moon incident, which has been passed down, as tales or fallen heroes, bedtime stories, or even as mythical legends, never to be forgotten for nearly a thousand years! Suddenly, I had an idea! "Hahahaha, remember this, anyone who dares to mess with me, or threaten me will meet a fate worse than death, like those sorry excuses for humans. They are now dead, and can no longer be buried. The name is Jon, Jon The Reaper. If you threaten me or my friends, I WILL KILL YOU, VERY SLOWLY and PAINFULLY!" Haha, now that was truly cringeworthy dialogue, but it seems to have gotten the message across. The normal folk seen to be terrified of me, and my strength, while the younger ones seem to have their ambition sparked! Good! "Alright Krog, let''s head for the caravan, or we''ll miss it! Mr Driver, let''s go!" "Yes yes, you are just in time, we must leave now!" said the driver as he was sweating muckets, mostly due to my declaration earlier "Alright, let''s go quickly!" Chapter 6.1: Cultivation technique! The caravan is essentially what the name said it is, a group of carriages, travelling to a similar location in a group, in order to improve safety and chances of survival. It also allows trades to occur during the trip, just in case people have forgotten essential supplies. Anyways, the registration of this caravan is at the northern gate of the town, while we entered the town from the western gate. We need to register our goods we are carrying, as well as the number of people travelling, with the guild, since they will be the ones in charge or guarding us. On that note, when they say ''guarding us'' they only mean keeping watch during the nights for monster, and nothing else. The actual guarding of one must be done by one''s self! So they just take money and go on night scout duty? What a rip off! Anyway, that was all I heard from the driver on our way to the caravan. He also told me his name was Ainz, and he has a granddaughter who was the fianc¨¦ of a city lord''s son, but due to some accident, the heir to the position of city lord was lost. And the one responsible for making her a widow, took her has his bride as compensation, and now she is married to a knight of justice, under the king Erigor of the Krothgaurd kingdom. ... "We are here to register ourselves for the caravan!" exclaimed Ainz, as he passed the fees to the spectacled man at the desk "Ah, you are just in time, we were about to pack up and leave. Ok so are you carrying any goods?" "No, just my customers" said Ainz as he pointed at us. "Alright, then 4 people, including one unconscious and one carriage driver. Ok, you can go on in and join the rest of the caravan. Currently, there are about 17 carriages, most of which are merchant carriages. 2 of them are passenger carriages including yours, and one of them is for the adventurers accompanying you. Good luck on you journey, and may Kain bless you all." Apparently, most of the people in the Krothgaurd Kingdom, and its allied forces worship the god of the sky, Kain. Legend has it that initially, Thy all worshipped the god of strength and valour, Brut. But since the empire took over, they forced the general public to follow the Kain. Rumours say that some secret communities are still worshipping Brut, going against the entire empire! And we were off, on a 4 day long journey, to the capital. ... It has already been an entire day, and now we have set up camp for the night, a little while off the main road. I have learned a lot of things while experimenting. Firstly, I tried to force some of the surrounding mana into my mana pool, but that almost caused my mana pool to break! I tried my best to heal the crack, which were fixed, after forcing my mana to condense into a single spot, at the crack, sealing it permanently, one crack at a time. Once I finished that, I realised that Krog was also using mana at the time. And so I spent some mana in the form of a healing spell meant for stamina, on the entire caravan. That depleted almost 1/2 of my mana! Anyway, then I absorbed as much surrounding mana as I could, and my mana streams were damaged, just like Krog''s. That was terribly bad! While I was trying the same process of healing on my mana streams, it hurt like crazy. Each time I concentrated my mana, my hand at first went numb, but a second later it felt like something within every cell of every bone and every muscle in that area was being crushed, and then reformed, over and over again! I had no continue this process for nearly an hour, and Krog began to worry.If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. "Jon, are you alright? You are sweating like a morse!" For those who don''t know, a morse is a 4 meter large pig, whole meat is considered a delicacy in Taberna. "No, I''m fine. I will be meditating for a while, just keep a lookout on things for me and Shem." "Leave that to me!" With this, I tried to do the same process, but with a few changes. I tried to, during the first attempt, reduce the amount of mana I remove from my mana pool. During the second attempt, I tried to reduce the mana I sucked in from the surroundings. Two thing happened during these attempts. Firstly, both the attempts did indeed reduce the amount of damage my mana streams received, I mean mana channels. I like this term better, it reminds me of those cultivation novel that I loved so much. They were my go to option when I was bored of work and Divinity. Anyways, the second thing was that, although the pain was there, the time it took to complete the repairs to my channels was far lesser now. I finished 2 cycles of this crude cultivation method within another hour! It was now lunch time, but none of the carriages stopped. All the carriages had packed lunched, and so did we. While enjoying the food from the inn, preserved in ice magic, I noticed something odd. One of the carriages were giving off a large amount of mana, a lot of which was moving towards me. However, it was soon retracted, possible after seeing that I noticed I was being spied upon. That was probably the level 3 mage Ainz was talking about. Anyway, It is not like he would want to harm me, right? Just in case, I spent some mana on a detection and ward spell, which will tell me is some unknown object, being or force, like mana enters it. It will also keep unwanted surveillance magic out, and block their vision. Handy isn''t it? There was one last thing I wanted to try. What would happen if I completely empty my mana, and then replace all of it? And so I tried it, keeping some of my mana in its original form just in case of emergencies during this process, or any unforeseen circumstances. I then spent all the rest on lowering the blistering heat of the afternoon sun, by calling on some clouds to block the sky, and creating a light breeze both inside and outside my carriage, both frightening most people, and alleviating some of their tiredness from the long journey. But I had only spent half of my mana, So I spent the other half on random buffs on the horses on all the carriages, as well as friction reduction on the wheel and axels of the carriages. Then I quickly absorbed all the mana in a 500 meter radius! Then, something unimaginable happened. A muffled thud came from my body, before I could feel it. Another centre of something illusive being formed above my mana pool. It was not quick solidified just yet, but it was present none the less. This process also didn''t require me to fix my channels! After a full body check-up using my mana sense, I figured out two things. Firstly, my mana had grown to an insane degree within an hour''s time! When I cultivated the first three times, the combined effort resulted in my mana increasing by 1% of what it initially was. I seems that the more mana you have, the less effective the mana is. However, now that I seem to have formed that illusive pool, my mana has skyrocketed to about 2 times what it initially was. Which means I should have enough mana to rival that of a level 4 mage! My mana seems to have also developed to be more potent, not by a lot, but enough to make a difference in battle. Lastly, my channels seem to have improved greatly, and now I can call upon my mana, filter it and release it more easily and quickly. This means that I can effectively spam level one spells like candy on Halloween, endlessly. Well, not exactly, but you get the point. I can overwhelm opponents of my level with just sheer volume of spells. The other thing I discovered is that my physical body has improved. greatly! It has improved to the point that instead of needing mana to jump 3 meters, I can do it with raw muscle power, and instead of infusing mana into my bones to support mana strengthening, they have become strong enough to support themselves for regular level one enhancements. My speed and reflexes, along with the speed at which my mind works has also greatly improved. Well anyway, I now have a very unstable cultivation method!! I just need to experiment some more before I can give it to Krog and Shem. The reason for this, because I want them to live as long, if not longer than I do! ... "Anyway, I have the rest of the trip ahead me, I''d better get some rest!" I said as I went to sleep ... The next morning, a loud bang wake up every one! Chapter 7: Jon the Reaper *Bang* *Bang* *Bang* "Alright everyone, wake up! We need to move out now! Our scouts have spotted a large group of monster charging towards us as we speak! Prepare to move out, and hope that we can make it past the fast encroaching beast wave!" "Huh, what? Who the f*ck is it this early in the morning!?" Exclaimed Krog as he got up. "Huh, monster? Beast wave? Wait!" Understanding what was happening, I woke up Ainz and told him to get ready quickly, while sending a few drops of my mana to search the surrounding area. And just like the man screaming the announcement said, there was a cluster a mana pools to the south-western direction, about a kilometre out. Now that my mana has sky-rocketed, Just using 4 drops of my newly upgraded mana has allowed me to scan almost 2 km in any direction as a simple ''radar'', and If is concentrate hard enough inside a 1 km radius, I can spot the size and strength of any living creature, as long as they aren''t using a concealment of a higher level than my now level 2 scan. With this, I can now be considered officially a level 2 mage. But, i still need to test out my offensive and tactical spells, which may or may not have reached level 2. But, the perfect opportunity has presented itself! a hoard of about 50 monsters is headed our way, and I can finally get a good stretch! "Alright, let''s go!" Saying this, all the carriages began to move faster than the usual pace, towards the capital. At this speed, someone''s wheel could break, leading to an enormous blockage, which could prove disastrous for everyone! So I used 1 drop of mana per carriage to cast a sort of strengthening of the wheels. How does that spell work on non-living objects? It doesn''t! This is another one of my unique spells created by me, where it re arranged the atoms in the cell walls of the cells in the wood of the wheels, in a closer lattice arrangement to boost the material''s strength. I can do this for objects like steel as well, but is mana efficient to improves the cell walls of the cells instead of everything. Imagine bubble wrap. If I was to strengthen all of it, It would become stronger, but would also waste a lot of mana. Now if I only strengthen the walls of each bubble, and leave the inside empty, it would be weaker, but a lot more mana efficient! Anyways, I kept up the supply to the strengthening and the scan, and at the current expenditure, I could continue to these spells for about 2 days before running out of mana. Haha, let''s see, at our current pace, the monsters should catch up within 10-15 minutes? That should be plenty of time to prepare. "Krog! There are about 50 monsters 450 meters in that direction. I will be spamming spells at them, once they come into view. That will kill most of them, since they are all mobs- I mean weak monsters like goblins. However, about 10-15 monsters will escape, and I won''t have enough mana to kill them. That is where you come in. You need to protect the carriage as well as the people inside. Can you do it?" I asked.Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. "Haha, leave it to me!" ... Krog''s point of view... "Alright, come onto the carriage roof with me Krog." Saying this, Jon jumped out of the carriage and used some sort of wind magic to change directions mid-air, and land on the roof of the carriage. I also followed after him, but I just climbed up the back and then onto the roof. "Alright Krog, get ready, and here, take the Death Saber." said Jon as he tossed my his sword. I smiled and told him to cast his magic and then leave the rest to me. Jon nodded and then closed his eyes, while balancing on the incredibly wobbly carriage. ... Ainz''s point of view... I heard noises on top of the carriage, while we were fleeing, and thought it was the monsters. Cursing my luck, I turned around only to find Jon, and Krog, was his name? Yes, The two youngling were standing on a running carriage! I was about to scream at them to quickly get back into the carriage, I notices the Krog chap preparing for battle, and when I looked closer, I could see Jon trying to concentrate! And then I remembered that her was a mage! Were they planning to face the monsters alone? "Customers! It''s dangerous up there, please get back into the carriage!" I screamed at them. But was completely ignored! Within a moment of my words of sincere advice, the Jon kid suddenly opened his eyes, and at the same time the monsters came into view. Was this kid capable of using detection magic? That means he is at least a level 1 certified mage! With a devilish grin on his face, Jon raised his hands in the air, and after a ten seconds of continuously emitting heat, 35 fireballs appeared all at once! Everyone was frozen, the humans, monsters and even the horses! It was almost as though time had stopped! Everyone except Krog, who didn''t understand enough about magic to be shocked. So he was busy preparing for the escaped monsters. Jon then widened his smile even more and created 15 more fireballs, and added them to his initial batch, before throwing all of them towards the monsters. Some missed as the monsters dodged, while some completely obliterated the corpses of the monsters! I couldn¡¯t believe my eyes! I kid killed nearly 45 goblins in one attack! That was incredible! "Remember my name, for I am Death, Jon the Reaper!" the kid yelled as he sat down in the now still carriage and closed his eyes. What happened next was just as fascinating. The Krog fellow took the sword in one, and his shield in the other hand and charged the remaining 5 goblins. He cut off one''s head while shoving the other into the air with his shield. He then swung his shield in an arch, obliterating yet another goblin''s head, while stabbing the helpless goblin, still falling towards the ground! The last goblin was crushed to death by his shield, after which Krog just walked away, and came back to carriage. "That was insane!" were the words that escaped my mouth, before a sudden uproar began amongst the travellers... Chapter 8: Astral body "Cool" were the words that escaped my mouth, before a sudden uproar began amongst the travellers... "Jon, Jon, Jon, Jon, Jon, Jon, Jon..." the crowd was ecstatic. The hero had come and saved their goods from being damaged by the pesky goblins! Not that they would get hurt anywhere. The only reason the caravan decided to run was because goblins are known to be mischievous trouble makers, who ruin goods, like wheat, pottery, etc. ... Jon''s point of view... Haha! This is the perfect time to complete another round of cultivation! I spent all my mana on those fireballs, and now I can try and absorb as much external mana as possible. What I have realised so far in my cultivation attempts, is that completely emptying my mana pool gives the best results, while directly absorbing the external mana into my mana pool and then converting it to my internal mana does the least damage. If I absorb external mana through my channels, it damages them. Furthermore, I also need to send all of my newly internalised mana to each and every channel, allowing them to become accustomed to the newly enhanced mana. When I first broke through, I could feel the mana flow becoming faster at the palm of my right hand. The breakthrough must have something to do with that. Alright, time to absorb! ... I could feel someone picking me up and putting me into the carriage from the roof. Must be Krog, doing it out of worry. Anyway, I continued to absorb the external mana, convert it and then hold it in my mana pool. this time, the cultivation took longer than usual, but I was able to complete it within 2 hours. this must be because of the increased mana limit in my mama pool. But sadly I had no breakthrough. When I opened my eyes, I could see it was already lunch time and so I began to eat, after which I checked up on Shem and supplied her with some healing mana. And then we were back on track for the journey. In fact, because we were rushing to get away from the goblins, we saved about half a day''s worth of time. This was great news, and all the merchants, travellers and adventurers were beyond joyful upon hearing the news. This means that we only have to spend one more night in the wilderness! Great, I can finally take a long bath, and rest for some time. Since we will be arriving early, we could even go and explore the capital a little! We might even find something useful. "Alright then, Krog, be prepared to go all out once we reach the capital. The first thing we will do is have a big feast!" "Aaaalrighttta!!! Hahaha, I can''t wait. Jon, use some of your magic to make us reach there faster! Like how mother can do!" "Uhm, she is and archmage and I am- you know what, nevermind! You won''t understand anyway. Let¡¯s just say she is too strong compared to me."This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. "So you can''t even use the magic you are sooooo proud of huh?" "YOU!" "Hahaha, I''m just kidding!" ... and so went our entire day, in chatting with each other on the most useless of topics... In the night, before dinner... Me and Krog were laying on the ground, staring at the night sky, a river of gems, brilliance that could never be seen back on Earth. "Hey Jon?" "Yes?" "Uhm, how long will it take for Shem to wake up? I mean it¡¯s been almost 3 weeks since the incident, and she still hasn''t woken up?" "." "Are you even sure that she will get up? Huh! Jon! Answer Me!" "Krog. Let me tell you a story. It is the story about a beauty, as fair as snow. It is the story about Snow White..." ... "So, in order to what up Shem, I need to give her a kiss?" Krog questioned as his face began changing shades "No! You Bakka!" "Huh, what id Bakka?" "Nothing! Listen, just like snow white, Shem is in deep sleep. What they were both waiting for is the right catalyst. In simple terms, there is something that needs to happen, and I doubt it has to do with us. Currently all we can do is wait, and hope for the catalyst to appear quickly. It is all up to fate now!" I said with a deep voice, already regretting explaining it to Krog, after seeing his expression change from one of shame to one of despair. "So... All...I...Can...Do...Is...Wait?" He sounded as though he had lost his meaning in life, and was about to kill himself. It was as though his soul was giving up! "Wait!" Soul! His soul. Do soul exist in this world? how are they related to ourselves. are they mana? No, it cannot be, then it wouldn¡¯t exist as external mana! Then is it part of our physical body? That is also a no. Could it be the gaseous form above my mana pool? Maybe not. I remember seeing ghost shoes where they explain what things like poltergeists, and how they are formed. I clearly remember them saying that the soul of every being exists, but it exists in the ''astral plane'', which does not exist in the real world, but can control one''s body. What... ''Control''... isn''t mana also controlled by something. Our will! It means that our soul is our will, and exists in the astral plane. Shouldn''t the soul be called the astral body then? And this astral body controls our mana right? "Then the area on my right palm where controlling mana is easier, could it be because I have opened some sort of connection with my astral body? This means that Shem''s Astral body has been separated from her body, and that is why her mana has completely stopped, because there is nothing controlling it to move subconsciously! But wait, what happens if I force her to breakthrough? would her soul be connected to her body? Can than -" Suddenly, as I was thinking my thoughts out loud and Krog was getting more confused, the atmosphere in the carriage changed. It looked perfectly fine from the outside, but on the inside, an eerie sensation was in the air. Krog and I both instantly tensed up and he took out his shield while I took out my Death Saber, as well as preparing a fireball spell. However, what happened next was beyond what could be explained with words... Extra 1: Lore Long before time itself, was nothing. An empty void with nothing, nothing but a singular existence. This existence was unique, and had no other. With no name or understanding about itself, it existed in solitude. However, it realised on thing, its existence was coming to an inevitable end. Without any reason for existing, or comprehension in why and how its existence began, it grew more restless, and it began to question its existence. As its end grew ever closer, it had an idea. What if it did not have to be alone? What if there were more existences like it? What if it wasn¡¯t alone? Why not? And so it created two beings, different and yet completely the same as each other and the existence. However, as these beings formed, the existence was being unformed, and its inevitable doom had finally come. As the two beings finally gained consciousness, the existence was preparing to end its existence. Just before it stopped, it left the two beings with a few word, ¡°Never be alone! Create if you must, Destroy if you must. But never be alone!¡± Saying this, it completely vanished, and would be forever remembered as the Existence of Beginning and End. The two beings took the word of their creator, and decided to create, since there wasn¡¯t anything to destroy. They decided to name one another, for remembrance, before they part ways to create, in their own isolated segments of the endless void that is nothing. One was named Primigenus, the original, and the other was named Anotatos, the supreme being.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. The one named Anotatos, wanted to honour the name it was given, and become the supreme it its creation. Therefore, it created what people call the laws. These laws were created in order to limit the growth of the beings in its creation, to a point where it can rule over them until its existence ends. These laws would limit the growth of the beings, and therefore allow it to create multiple worlds, and chains of worlds, forming an ultimate creation, second to none, and equal to the creation of Primigenus. When Anotatos completed its plan, it began to take action, and it all started with a big bang! The one named Primigenus went to its segment to create a world that honours its own name, as the original. Its vision was a world where beings can exist, and can grow. A world where they can grow with greater understanding and time, and attain a power similar to itself. However, in this endeavour, it gave up its life to create what is now known as mana, an ever growing presence of energy, which can support, create as well as destroy! Primigenus also spent the last of its existence on creating life on the singular world it created, hoping for them to attain power similar to itself. While its existence was coming to an end, it sent its own conscience into the world it created, forming the world will. When its existence finally extinguished, many beings were instantly formed. Primigenus¡¯ remains gave rise to the Primas. These Primas were beings of incredible power, beings formed as the will of order. However, where there is light, there is dark, and where there is order, there is chaos. The death of Primigenus created chaos, which lead to the formation of the Chaosas; beings born from, and to create chaos. These beings created from and for order and chaos where later known as Gods, while Primigenus¡¯ name was forgotten, and was replaced by the Original Spirit, Primagine. However, there were problems with the plans for both worlds! Chapter 9: An unexpected encounter "Mortal!" A voice exclaimed inside my head. Both Krog and I instantly turned around to see an unimaginable sight; Shem was awake and standing up! However there was something wrong with her! Her eyes were glowing white, and an incredible aura was coming forth from her body. "How dare''st thee try and pull her soul back before tis time! This child is under my protection, and will always be. Do not meddle in mine affairs, else you shall pay the price!¡± Hmm, is that a higher being, a demi-god? A god? I need to ask this voice something, but how. I have already tried to speak, but I can¡¯t move my mouth, even when I try to use mana to enhance my mouth muscles! Wait, if most gods are comparable to spirits, then I think communication through mana is the best course of action! And that is exactly what I did. ¡°Uhm, excuse my rudeness, but can this mortal know who you are?¡± ¡°You!¡± said the voice filled with rage, and hints of curiosity. ¡°How can you converse with a higher being like myself?!?¡± ¡°Uhm, I am using mana¡­ like how I communicate with spirits.¡± ¡°Oho, so you are a spiritualist, specialising in communication through mana I see.¡± ¡°Not exactly, but yes.¡± I was about to tell the now noticeably more feminine and gentler voice that she was wrong, but I had a feeling that I would have been killed if I did that. ¡°Anyway, you still haven¡¯t answered my question¡­?¡± I asked ¡°Hmph, since you are a friend of this child I will tell you. I am Ploutos, the goddess of wealth! And this child you call Shem, shall be my champion, bringing great riches to herself and those around her! Her fate is strong, and she was born of one my children. Do not disturb her slumber with your blasphemous acts! She is currently absorbing some of my wisdom, and will awake when the time is right! That is all!¡±Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. Saying this, I could feel a presence leaving Shem¡¯s body and her eyes began to dim, and come back to normal. I leaped ahead and held her collapsing body, before she hit the carriage floor, and then slowly lowered her body onto the floor. I quickly did a mana search on her, but it seemed like Ploutos did not harm her in any way. The only thing that has changed is that her mana is incredibly low! It seems that when a god takes over a mortal¡¯s body, it uses up an insane amount of mana! Even the external mana has been completely sucked dry. I¡¯ll have to wait till we leave the area until I can cultivate again. My guess is that she left in such a hurry because if she stayed any longer, Shem could have died from mana depletion! ¡°Uhm Jon, what just happened?¡± Krog questioned. It seems like he couldn¡¯t hear anything, and had turned around after feeling a terrifying existence behind him. But when he found out it was Shem, he blanked out. ¡°Nothing much. I just figure out why Shem isn¡¯t waking up!¡± ¡°WHAT!!! Tell me, Quickly!!¡± ¡°It seems that Ploutos, the goddess of wealth has chosen Shem as her champion, and is under her protection.¡± ¡°Oh! I think that is good?¡± ¡°Of course it is. Ploutos is a Prima, which means she is a goddess of order, and will try and keep the balance. The reason Shem is sleeping is because the goddess of wealth has given her some understandings, which she needs to understand herself, or else there might be consequences on either her body, her mana, or her soul! That is how much I have understood. Ploutos also said that Shem will make up ¡®When the time is right¡¯, so all we can do now is wait and hope for the best.¡± ¡°OHO, That means she is actually fine, but is just spending some time with the goddess! And she will send her when time is right!¡± ¡°Haha¡­ I guess that sums it up. Anyway, I think we should get some sleep. Its already dark and everyone is already sleeping. Here, have some of this, it¡¯s the sandwich I made for breakfast. It¡¯ll be our dinner tonight. Itadekimasu!¡± ¡°Hmph, why is it so less! You better make a whole lot for lunch tomorrow!!¡± ¡°Haha, Ok!¡± Saying this we both enjoyed a light dinner and went to sleep in our carriage. Extra 2: Lore However, nothing remains perfect, and there were imperfections in every aspect of what is and has been created. In Primigenus¡¯ world, currently known as Primagine, the beings of order and chaos called gods were the imperfections. In the world of Nezreal, these gods became greedy for power. The managed to leave the world¡¯s confines and create their own miniature worlds, their realms. These realms existed only for themselves and those they give permission to. Using these realms, which exist at the boundary between the void and Nezreal, the gods gave power to the intelligent life forms. However, this power was a double edged sword. Although it gave unimaginable power in a very short time, it completely ruined the possibility of growth, as the lower life forms would grow increasingly dependent of on this new power, and forget the path of mana, which Primagine had given its life up to create, and allow others to grow as strong as itself. This is how the gods prevented others from growing, and were too afraid to grow themselves, thereby stagnating the growth in the world of Nezreal. In Anotatos¡¯ creation, there were many sentient races, but none of them were close to strong enough to even understand the concept of its existence. All they could do was rely on their minds to grow more technically advances, which also had its limitations. These limitation were known as the laws, an called any different thing throughout the millions of civilisations in Anotatos¡¯ creation. However, there was one race that was very threatening to Anotatos, that was the race originating from the blue planet, the natives call Earth. On earth lived a single dominant race, very technologically advanced, and constantly at war with each other. This race categorized the laws in a very unique way; they called them as the laws of physics, the laws of biology, etc. And they were constantly learning new things about the laws created by Anotatos. However, what was really threatening wasn¡¯t the race itself, or their understanding of its laws, but it was their beliefs. The population on the planet was incredibly large, the largest in its creation, with over 400 billion people as of the year 3700. They have colonised many planets and taken over many races, forcing them to worship their pantheon of ¡®gods¡¯. Anotatos knew that such a pantheon didn¡¯t exist, however, things were changing. The sheer strength in belief, as well as the incredible number of worshipers, led to the creation of these gods. Currently, they were still illusory, and could only talk with certain individuals, but over time, they would grow stronger, until they could threaten to overthrow Anotatos itself!If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Chapter 10: The capital The next morning was a peaceful one. Everyone was up by the time the sun had reached 2 fingers into the sky. We all had a quick breakfast and we were off. Along the way, I chatted with Ainz some more, and gained a lot more information about the capital, as well as the tournament. Mother had left me in charge of the three of us, and so I need to ensure that Krog and I are registered for the tournament. And after the tournament, we have to register ourselves with the adventurer''s guild, and Shem needs to register herself with the Guild of commerce. I assume there will be complications for that, since she is unconscious, but I think we can figure out a way. Anyway, firstly, we need to find a place to stay, and Ainz has recommended a ''nice place,'' however I feel like trouble will be finding us there. But it¡¯s not like I know of any other pace, so I told him we would be staying there. Ainz has been acting somewhat suspiciously when it came to being open about one''s life. Therefore, I never fully trusted him, and so I would prefer it if he doesn''t know what our plans are. I actually don''t wish to go to that place to stay, but I also want to see what the shitty lord has planned for me. I also want to know how he was able to find out where we were staying last time. So I''ll change my plans this time. There is also that thing mom told me about, that those without identity proof, travelling on carriages are considered and branded as slaves at the entrance of the capital itself, by the guards. Just as the caravan was about enter the city, everyone stopped, and the people in one of the carriages began to climb off. Out of curiosity of not being informed by Ainz, I asked him, "Why is everyone getting off?" "Oh, it¡¯s nothing customer, it¡¯s just that they were tire from travelling on the long journey and decided to get off and stretch out for a bit. Nothing more." Now, I was sure, that this f*cker is trying to make us slaves! I knew something was up. The way he addressed two 7 year olds as ¡®dear customer¡¯ was just too extreme, and I doubt that even fancy restaurants in Taberna do not call children dear customers, unless they are nobility of course! Therefore, I decided to take action. ¡°Ainz, we¡¯ll be getting off here as well. Here is the rest of your payment.¡± I could see that he was beginning to sweat, and his heart rate was rapidly rising. These things were simple to observe, since my initial breakthrough. I can observe most things and noises within a 10 meter radius. ¡°Also, we¡¯ll be going straight to the inn you told us about, and take a room there first thing and rest for the day. We¡¯ll then go to apply for the tournament tomorrow. Bye!¡± Saying this, I told Krog to pick up Shem and we got off, and stretched our limbs out. I could still hear his heartbeat, and it had returned back to normal. It seems he has already though of a plan, and I¡¯m confident of what it is. So when we entered the city, I asked the guard if we could enter without identity proofs.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. ¡°Of course my young lad, that would be 5 silver for each one of you, and it will last a day. Staying inside the city for longer will be a crime punishable by death.¡± Of course, I know about this, because there was an NPC who fell prey to a scheme similar to the one Ainz is cooking up for me. The NPC was Hein Battleborn, an incredible character who the player has to rescue from slavery from the hands of an evil baron. You know, the typical quest, except it is a guy, who later joins the player¡¯s party, as a fixed character, who cannot be replaced by a real player, because many hidden quests happen due to his presence. When you recue him, he begins his story, from the year 19,907, when he enters the capital, the same way we did, and overstays his welcome. The city pass is only for a day, and he is prevented from leaving the city, until the third bell rings, at which point he is taken to the court to be trialled. But a slave merchant begs the judge to lower his punishment to slavery instead, and that is how he is made a slave. The story was so heart wrenching, and the way he told it was even more saddening, so much so that it was the top trending back-story in the entire game for 2 years! Anyways, I also intend on preventing him from suffering through this fate. Why? Because he was the only NPC party member who stayed with me after the Klyde incident. All the rest betrayed me, some even tried to kill me! Therefore, I will change his fate right here. But in order to do that, I must protect myself first. As soon as we entered the city, the first thing I did was to go straight to the adventurers guild. I know where it is, because the capital is exactly the same as the game. Taberna may have differed slightly, because 100 years could change a lot, but the capital is built inside a thick wall, making hard for change to take place. Some building had different paint etc, but the layout is still the same. Without wasting anytime, the three of us went straight to the guild to register Krog and I. After about an hour, we were handed our copper badges, adventurer identification cards and official documents. Next we went to the guild of commerce, to register Shem as a merchant, and as expected there were problems with the member in question being unconscious. However, a dignified looking lady, in pure white came to our rescue. While she was speaking with the guild manager, I noticed the symbol on her headgear, and it was of a golden crown sitting atop a mountain of gold coins. I could recognise that symbol from a mile away, it was the symbol of the goddess of wealth. That is when everything fell into place. After 5 minutes, we were handed her documents and merchant card. That was some special VIP treatment we got there! The even had a magician make ice for our orange juice! Anyway, after we finished that, we went to register for the kings tournament, just as the 6th bell after midmorning rang. [SM: Just after the 6 pm bell rang] And that was where I saw him, Hein Battleborn! Chapter 11: Hein Battleborn And that was where I saw him, Hein Battleborn! He was waiting in the line to register for the Tournament. It seems I must do something. I told Krog follow behind me, and walked up to Hein. ¡°You seem to be a lone participant. Would you mind coming over here for a second?¡± ¡°Hmm, sure!¡± ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll be frank. Would you be willing to join my group for the tournament? Only the group matched if you don¡¯t want to be dragged down by us during the single duels.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t like the way you just randomly asked a stranger to join your team.¡± ¡°Well, you see, my team has a tanker and a magician, but my damage dealer has fallen unconscious due to some circumstances. And you were the only one who had a large sword, good build, and seemed to be alone. The rest of the people are mostly already in a team.¡± I said as I pointed to Shem. ¡°Hmm, okay. But if you think about double-crossing me, I will kill you!¡± ¡°Haha, then it¡¯s a deal! Let¡¯s go sign up! By the way, I¡¯m Jon, and this here is Krog. The one he is carrying is Shem, a newly appointed merchant, and you are?¡± ¡°Hein.¡± As expected, even though this is almost a hundred years ago, Hein is still the same, cold-blooded and cold. But that personality doesn¡¯t suit a seven/ eight year old kid. It suited him much more in the game, when he was a hundred year old monster, who had long white hair, a body full of scars, and a most manly of faces, while dealing incredible dps with each swing of his great sword! ¡­ After signing up, we were told that the tournament would occur within 2 day¡¯s time. This means that Hein, Krog and I have the whole day tomorrow to fix our fighting strategy and improve on our skills as a team and individually. But before we get to that point: ¡°Hein, do you have identification proof with you?¡± I began the topic of warning him without exposing the truth of me knowing the future. ¡°No why?¡± ¡°Then get moving! If they find you without either a city pass, or identity proof, you will be either killed, or sold to slavery!¡± Hearing the words slavery, Hein flinched for a second, but regained his cold look. Ah, now I remember, his father was killed, and his mother was sold off to slavery when they were attacked by a group of thugs on their way home from the capital. He was 4 years old back then and couldn¡¯t do anything. He had to survive on his own, off the food on the streets, through the harsh winters and unrelenting summers. But one day, he met a man named Kaisen; a master swordsman. He taught Hein for a month, while he was off duty, and Hein honed those simple skills taught to him to the point of perfection for 2 years after Kaisen had to return. Now he has come to the capital, to perform in the king¡¯s tournament, and spread his name, so that he can find his mother, or his teacher.Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. ¡°Come over here, I want to tell you a story.¡± I said as I walked away from Krog and Shem. ¡°I once saved a fellow from slavery back in Taberna. Do you know how he got there? What happened was¡­¡± I retold his own story to Hein ¡°Hah, how dare they! They wanted to trick me?! Never! So, Jon my friend, what should I do?¡± Haha, success. I not only saved him from a life of suffering, but also gained more of his trust. Hehe, I got promoted from Jon to Jon my friend! ¡°I think you should register yourself with the guild. Maybe we can even form a long-term party for adventuring!¡± ¡°That sounds good! What about you Krog?¡± ¡°I¡¯m in if Jon is in!¡± He stated proudly ¡°Alright, then let¡¯s go register under the same name as the one we will be using for the tournament!¡± ¡­ We were finally done after completing all the necessary work, we walked straight to the place Ainz recommended. Along the way, I told the story about the trouble we got into back at Taberna, and how it followed us to Auexit. I also told him about Ainz¡¯s plan to enslave us at the entrance itself, and how Krog and I were going to hi recommendation only to see what he had in store for us. Hearing that we hadn¡¯t found a place to stay yet, Hein decided to follow us and stay at the same place. ¡°Here we are, the Sunshine inn¡± ¡°What a terrible name!¡± stated Hein bluntly ¡°Haha, you must be Jo- I mean a customer! Please come in!¡± said the man at the door. I knew it! He knew that I would be coming to this inn. He was waiting outside from the thought that I might not turn up. That Ainz definitely has a hand in this, and most likely even in the last incident. I suspect that he is a man of the f*cking lord, I mean city lord. We entered the inn, and told Hein to come to my room when everyone else has gone to sleep. And when he finally, came, I told him my masterplan to lure out the ones behind this, if they are somewhere in the city. ¡­ ¡°Hahahahaha, I can¡¯t wait for tomorrow!¡± exclaimed both Krog and Hein simultaneously.
Meanwhile at the college¡­ ¡°Hmm¡­¡± ¡°What is it?¡± ¡°She just sent a message through the communicator at the capital¡± ¡°And?¡± ¡°It seems that the boy is growing at a horrifying pace!¡± ¡°What, even more than before?¡± ¡°Yes, it seems her used his original fireball spell again.¡± ¡°What is so terrifying in that¡± ¡°Well, that spell is comparable to a level 2 spell that has been supercharged! But he used 50 of them at once, and killed off 45 goblins with than one attack. It also seems that he was casting some sort of detection spell and another spell on the wheels of the carriages. None of these spells were categorised¡­ They were all unique, and overflowing with wastage of mana!¡± ¡°That means his mana has more than doubled since he started the journey! Sylvia, what king of monster did you raise?¡± ¡°That my boy!¡± As it turns out, the three shadows discussing quietly in college were none other than Sylvia, and two other elves. ¡°It also seems he was doing some pretty weird spell casting. She has informed us that while they were on the move, the boy would waste a lot of mana on restoring stamina to everyone, and then he would cast a spell that blocks all external mana from being used by anyone!¡± ¡°Hmm, that seems like quite the spell huh? Something Like a spell form of a magic lock?¡± ¡°No, she could still cast spells, but their efficiency was halved, and the strain on her own mana increased 5 times, since there was no support of external mana.¡± ¡°Hmmm¡± ¡°Hmm¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine, just tell her to make sure that Jon, Krog and Shem are safe¡± ¡°Oh yes, she also reported sensing a higher being in the carriage¡± ¡°What, has Jon already gotten a blessing?¡± ¡°No, she says it was inside the girl.¡± ¡°The girls?¡± ¡°Yes the girl. I think there is only one, unless Jon is also a girl?¡± ¡°No! So Shem has received a blessing as well huh? Before any of us as well. It seems like the young ones will overtake us soon¡­¡± Chapter 12: The conflict The next morning¡­ When the second bell rang, the three of us began our plan. We decided to act lazy and go to the bar below to eat some good breakfast. Krog and I were tired of eating the same packed food. We sat down and ordered everything on the menu. And oh boy! Was it a feast fit for kings! ¡°Itadekimasu¡± ¡°What the fug was that?¡± ¡°Nothing, just force of habit, I would say.¡± ¡°Oh, okay. Let¡¯s dig in!¡± ¡­ While eating, I noticed that some people were positioning themselves between us and the door of the bar, and many more outside. It was clear the enemy was making their move, so I told Krog to bring Shem, and that we would be leaving soon. After paying 2 silver coins for the food, we got up. Just as we did, two men approached us, seemingly the waiter and the bar owner. ¡°Dear customers, why not try some of these¡± he said as he passed on a tray full of assorted desserts! ¡°These are made specially for people who are below the age of 10 and buy a lot of stuff at our humble bar. Complements of the chef!¡± A round of applause suddenly started, before he even gave us the desserts, clearly started by the enemy to stall for time. ¡°Ok then, come lets sit down and eat some more¡± I said ¡°But brother, if we don¡¯t leave now, our city pass will expire!¡± said Krog. I told him to say these words for two reasons, to make out which idiots are our enemy, and to also calm their nerves after I say ¡°No worries Krog, even if we are late, what is the worst that could happen? We will just pay some extra money and get a new one!¡± At this point I could see the mocking looks on the enemy¡¯s faces, thinking ¡®Haha, thankfully our target this time was a fool!¡¯ ¡­ After wasting like 3 hours at the bar, the 5th bell rang [11 am], and our city passes were now considered expired, and without any ID proof, we would either be killed, or enslaved. *Bam*Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. A sly looking man in the city-guard uniform barged into the tavern and yelled out, ¡°All those without ID proof and expired city-passes are considered illegal immigrant, and will be sent to trial immediately!¡± ¡°Hmmm, he seems familiar¡­¡± I mumbled to myself The man instantly looked at us with a wide grin on his face, just after he completed his announcement. It seemed he is the one that will take us to the judge, and then sell us to slavery. ¡°You there, he pointed at the table we were sitting at. Show me your city pass!¡± ¡°Okay?¡± said Krog as he was removing his city pass. But then I suddenly remembered who this fox-like man was! He was Evil B*stard Brook. They even made a tune on him; ? Evil B*stard Brook ? ? All he is, is a crook ? ? Oh that B*stard Brook ? Brook is a most cunning and ruthless man, whose evilness exceeds even the devil himself! His job? Most definitely not a city guard! He is a conn-man! ¡°No Krog, put your pass back in, and don¡¯t remove it!¡± ¡°What do you think you are doing huh! Show me your pass or else I¡¯ll send you to the court!¡± Brook was yelling his lungs out at this point, flaunting his so called authority. Well, it seems like he became more cunning as the years passed, and being a 20- something year old right now, his experience is greatly limited. It seems like being a 123 year old grandpa back in the future¡­ ? past¡­? Ugh- back in the game made him a lot more evil and prudent with his tricks. Right now, he is simply a young man trying his best to earn money, any way possible. ¡°Hmm, are you a city guard?¡± ¡°Uhm, Of course I am!¡± ¡°Really now, do you know? According to the rules of the capital, anyone caught impersonating a city official would be tortured to death for being a threat to national security!¡± ¡°Wha- I mean, so what! I am a city guard and will always be one.¡± ¡°Alright, then show me proof.¡± ¡°What proof?¡± ¡°You know a badge, or some identification papers of being a city guard?¡± ¡°Wh- Why would I need to carry proof. My word is law here!¡± ¡°Oho, is that so? According to the capital¡¯s law, any guard not carrying proof of their own identity as a guard cannot be considered as on duty. Any such guard caught completing their duties in such a manner would be imprisoned for life! Now, what do you chose? Mister Brook the conn-man ?¡± ¡°You, what, how did you know my name? Who are you?¡± Saying this he began to turn around and make his way to the exit. For precaution, I put one of my special tracking spells on him, which will keep sending out pulses of mana for a day and a half, tuned to a resonance which can only be felt by high level magicians. The same one I put on all of the other idiots who tried to stop us from leaving the tavern in the morning. Brook was reaching the door, and Krog was about to get up to stop him. ¡°Krog, just leave it to me. For now just focus on your food and taking care of Shem.¡± Hearing the words food and Shem, Krog quietly sat back down and began to do just as I told him. ¡°Your friend Krog reminds me of my dog, back when I was with my master¡± stated Hein. ¡®Hein you fool, don¡¯t say suck things to Krog, even though, Krog looks just like a cute little German Shepherd, obediently following orders. But don¡¯t tell him that! What if he heard you! But thankfully, Hein¡¯s voice was incredibly low, and Krog seemed too busy doing his tasks. ¡­ Another 15 minutes passed, and the door was swung open. A group of dignified looking guards came in. Just by the air of said guards alone, one could say they were the real guards. They looked at me and said, ¡°Are you Jon?¡± Chapter 13: City lord ¡°Yes, can I see your papers first?¡± ¡°Ah, of course. Here¡± he said as he handed me his documents. As I was skimming through them, to make sure they were authentic, I said, ¡°I hope I¡¯m not too much of a bother sir guard. It¡¯s just that there was a conn¡ªman who tried to steal my city-pass, dressed as a guard and flaunting his authority. And when I asked him for his papers, he fled the scene¡± ¡°Oh! Where is he? I will catch him now!¡± ¡°Oh don¡¯t worry about that right now. I will personally lead you to him later. Right now, I suppose you have come here to arrest illegal immigrants?¡± ¡°Yes, we got a tip off from a trusted source, saying that there were four kids who had overstayed their welcome. Therefore, can you show us your city passes?¡± ¡°Of course¡± I said as I returned the authentic papers, and told the rest to remove their city passes. ¡­ ¡°Hmm, I can see that you know the rules of the city well enough to be able to ward off a conn-man. But why do you seem so relaxed? You do know these passes are expired right? I¡¯m afraid I will have to arrest you on the charges that you and your friends are illegal immigrants.¡± Just at this second another voice came from behind the guard. A rather familiar voice. ¡°Haha Jon, I will make sure you go to the death rows for the crimes you committed in Taberna, and the violence you did on my poor boy! I will have my revenge today!!¡± It was Aplistia, the city lord of Taberna! ¡°Is this your trusted source?¡± ¡°Yes! We cannot ignore the tips from a city lord!¡± You must be wondering why the guard is answering all my questions. The answer is also in the capital¡¯s laws; No guard is allowed to lye, or dodge questions from citizens of the Kingdom while on duty, unless ordered to do so from the royal family! And why do I know all these rules? Because another one of my followers in the game was Stich, a rather young fellow, and also a newly instated city guard of the capital. He was so enthusiastic about the laws, that he would drive players mad with his continuous ramblings! But thankfully he left me after the Klyde incident! ¡°Alright, well then I must enact rule 34 of the capital¡¯s laws on rights of the citizen. Any allegations on a citizen of the kingdom by the city lord of another city, in the capital, without any incriminating evidence will be punishable by either death, or transfer of the city lord¡¯s title. Here is my and my friends¡¯ identity proof. Now I will kill this man right now!¡± Saying this, I started invoking a converse-fireball, which is a level-3 unique spell I have been working on after the battle with the goblins. The way their bodies were twisted as the firball went through them gave me this inspiration. It is basically two fireball spells, circling in different directions, while one is inside the other. Imagine a baseball being thrown. As it leaves your hand, it spins while travelling forward. Now imagine a smaller baseball spinning the opposite way, and put it inside the first baseball. Lastly, convert the balls to fire balls, and there you go! Creating such a spell alone uses about 10 drops of mana, because I am using 3 spells at once, to keep this level 3 spell active!The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Aplistia saw my spell and activated the defence artefact around his neck in a panic. Seeing him do this I scorned, ¡°Futile Resistence!¡± Saying this, I launched my converse-fireball at him, but the guard screamed ¡°STOP!¡± as he jumped at my right hand, which was casting the spell. He knew it was too late to stop me, so he just shoved my hand slightly downwards. This changed the path the fireball was going to take. It moved swiftly, but went towards the city-lord¡¯s feet instead, straight into the protection barrier. The barrier instantly crumbled, since it was a level 1 wind barrier. And although wind beats fire element-wise, my level 3 was just too overpowered, in the sense that it can go through almost any other level 2 spell like butter. It can do this only because The outer layer is just like a protection barrier for the one inside, which is about two times more deadly than the one outside. When the fireball collided with the barrier, a loud crash was heard, and both the barrier, and the outer spell cancelled each other out. The inner one kept its path and hit the city lord¡¯s right foot and blasted it apart! ¡°Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!¡± yelled out the city lord as he was in incredible pain, pain that he had never experienced before. Pain that would make him not want to be born. ¡°The city lord has not chosen death, and therefore you had no right to attack a government official in the capital! You will be imprisoned for an audience with the king, and a trial by the king himself, along with this city lord!¡± said the guard as he told his men to tend to the city lord. ¡°Okay,¡± I said. ¡°Krog and Hein, wait in your rooms and rest up while taking care of Shem, I¡¯ll be back by dinner. Also, get all of these people to the castle as soon as possible. Here are their names and current locations¡± I said as I passed them a slip of paper. Both of them were astonished at how calm I was. Although it wasn¡¯t all according to my plan. But anyways, I will get my revenge on this f*cker today! And will return back, no matter what! Plus, I even have mom, who can come and save me if my life was in real danger. I know she has people keeping an eye on me since she left. I could sense that scout hiding near us when we were fighting back at Taberna, and the mage during the caravan. I¡¯m sure she has someone ready for me¡­
At the college, a few hours later¡­ ¡°What do you mean you left them alone? I sent you, my only legacy disciple to take care of my children, and you left them alone after entering the city? What if he was turned into a slave? Or worse, if they tried to kill him and that mysterious being came to protect him? His fate would be revealed!!¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry master. But you told me the mission was to ensure their safety until the capital. So I used the teleportation gate from the royal palace to return as quickly as possible.¡± ¡°Yes, sister, she is right. You told this adorable brother of yours to keep your children safe till the capital. But now you are screaming at your own student for doing the job you requested to do?¡± ¡°Agh, never mind! I¡¯m going there myself!¡± Chapter 14: A Royal meeting Current time, at the royal palace¡­ They had quickly taken us to the royal palace, and then we waited, and waited. Now, I have been waiting for nearly an hour! In the game, the player just waltzes into the throne room and gets one quest from him, which was very underwhelming. But now that I¡¯m waiting in the waiting room with a couple of royal guards, who are all warriors with the ability to release aura! And the idiot shitty lord is hear as well, with one foot lost to my spell, to the extent that even the healing mages, nor the priests present in the palace could heal him. Good for him! Anyway, he keeps glaring at me with such ferocity! Oh my, so scary! Pftt, hahahah, how could I even think like that with a straight face, hahaha! ¡°His majesty is awaiting the trail in the throne room!¡± said an announcer as he signalled the guards to follow his, as we moved in hand and leg cuffs to the throne room. The door itself was grand enough for most, much better than the game! It was a metal door, reinforced with mana on the inside, and gold plating and jewels on the outside. The intricacy of the mana spell on the inside was marvellous, although most couldn¡¯t see it, I could using my mana sense. ¡°A rather well made door!¡± I couldn¡¯t help but exclaim ¡°Hmph, what do you know? All you are mesmerised by is the gold and jewels!¡± A cold voice snorted from behind me. I turned around and saw it was a dwarf, a real life dwarf! Just like in LOTRs!! ¡°On the inside that is¡­¡± I added using some mana to make sure he heard that last remark of mine, over his muttering on how the younger generation¡­Seeing the astonished look on his face, I couldn¡¯t help but put on an evil grin on my face. ¡°You may enter¡± said the announcer as the door opened. With the grin still on my face, I cast a last glance at the dwarf, and made my way into the throne room. I looked around and nodded to myself, remembering how similar the throne room was to the game, except the fact that the number of people inside was astounding. There were currently around 200 people waiting in the room, some nobles, some commoners, some guards, and some royals. However, the king I remember was not the one sitting on the throne. I remember his face clearly, because he was the one NPC I needed to kill at the end of my evil campaign. His face resembled the in game king, but it was far too old. But then, my eyes drifted to the left of the king, and I saw a young boy, about my age, sitting on a smaller throne. Perhaps the heir to the throne? Wait, could he be the king a hundred years from now? The current king looks like he is in his last decade or so. It must be so. This young prince takes over the throne after his father¡¯s death, and become the new king of Krothgaurd, Erigor II. Which means the one sitting on the throne is,This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. ¡°Behold, Erigor I, Contractor of the Elder spirit, Salamder, and High King of Krothguard!¡± announced someone near the king. It seems like people address the king as High King. I¡¯ll have to do the same as well from now on, I guess. ¡°You insolent, how dare you not kneel in front of the high king?¡± a guard exclaimed from behind. That is when I realised that everyone else was bowing, except me and the prince. I was shocked, but quickly recovered and began to kneel, but was stopped by the king¡¯s next words. ¡°It¡¯s fine. Child what is your name?¡± he questioned ¡°Ah, it is Jon, your highness¡± I said as I gave a slight bow. ¡°Your full name you slandering idiot!¡± exclaimed the guards from before. This guy was seriously getting on my nerves! ¡°It is Jon, I don¡¯t have a full name since I was an orphan! Happy now Mr. Over-enthusiastically Annoying Guard!¡± There, I said it, and it lifted a lot of tension from my heart. The guard¡¯s face turned bright red from a mix of shame and anger. ¡°Haha, Jon, he is my personal guard, and tends to make some mistakes. Do forgive him.¡± ¡°Of course, your highness. I said as I gave him another bow.¡± It¡¯s not like I lose anything from making myself lower that this guy. At this point, a messenger came and spoke something into the king¡¯s ear. I couldn¡¯t hear it for some reason! Maybe he was using some magic to block interceptions! Now that is interesting. ¡°Hmmm, Jon, it seems like you saw something in the door of the throne room? Tell me, what is it that you saw?¡± The high king asked with great curiosity hidden deep within his voice. ¡°Nothing much, but the door is pretty well made. Although the decorations outside are great and all, but the mana-inscriptions on the inside are a work of art! Why would you ruin it with all that gold and jewellery?¡± *Gasp* A lot of gasp of shock were heard from the crowd. ¡°And how did you see the inscriptions?¡± the king continued, seemingly more interested in me ¡°Hmm, how should I say this? I could be considered a half-step level three mage you see. Although I haven¡¯t registered with the mage¡¯s guild yet, I will later.¡± The king and most of the audience¡¯s eyes almost popped out. They were in shock that a seven year old was a would consider himself a half-step level 3 mage! ¡°Ahem, I think we should get back to the matter at hand.¡± Said the king, the first one to recover from the shock. ¡°Yes, your highness. Jon, has been accused of assaulting the city lord of Taberna in the capital, Do you plead guilty or not¡± ¡°I plead not guilty!¡± I exclaimed. Chapter 15: Mother! ¡°I plead not guilty!¡± I exclaimed, ¡°According to the capital¡¯s laws, I should be allowed to explain myself for a time period of 4 hours at the maximum.¡± I continued. ¡°You may speak¡± said the high king. ¡°Thank you. Firstly, I would like to file a complaint of harassment, sexual harassment, attempted murder, abuse of power, bullying the citizens, and false accusation on citizens of the kingdom, on Incid, and the now deceased Dious. For those who don¡¯t know, Incid is the son of this shitty¡­ I mean city lord hear, and also the one on whom most of the accusations are being put on. I will now show you what I have experiences using magic.¡± Using the same magic I used back at the city lord¡¯s trial, I showed all the heinous accusations and horrifying things Incid and his group had done, as well as how they almost killed Shem. I continued to show how I killed them all, and finally showed them the trial. ¡°Now, I would like to say, that what follows this is revenge plotted by the city lord on me and my family.¡± I continued to show how the thugs at Auexit tried to steal our stuff, and how I got them to say that the city lord had sent them. I then moved on to the suspicious actions of Ainz, and how he tried to take us into the city as slaves! ¡°An therefore, my first witness, is Mr Ainz, who is outside the palace, along with all my other witnesses, brought by my friends. I would like his majesty to allow them entrance.¡± ¡°They will be searched, and all weapons will be temporarily confiscated, to be returned upon leaving the palace.¡± ¡°Of course you highness.¡± ¡­ A few minutes later, Ainz entered the room. ¡°I would like to ensure that Mr. Ainz here says the truth and nothing but the truth, and so I would like to ask the mage standing behind the king to ensure he isn¡¯t lying, using detection magic to check his vitals while he speaks.¡± The kings eyes turned round, and the guards closest to him were shocked. The man behind them was a level 8 mage! Nobody could detect him if he wanted to, and the king has given him order to be right behind him, while trying his best to hide. The man started to chuckle as he came out of the shadows. He was an old human man, nearing his end, just like the king. Maybe the two were friends when they were younger. However, the way he spoke made him seem about 50 years older than the king, who was already nearing the limits of the human body. He walked up to Ainz and said, ¡°If you say even one thing wrong, I will detect it, and I¡¯m pretty sure that brat will too. I¡¯m sure he will handle you with care once the trial is over if you lie.¡± Saying this, the mage stepped aside for me to interrogate Ainz. ¡°Mr. Ainz, I¡¯m not sure why you did it, but who told/ instructed/ put you up to this?¡±This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. ¡°¡­¡± ¡°If you don¡¯t answer, it will be considered as lying in the court, which is a criminal offense punishable by death!¡± I said, just before the mage was about to say something similar ¡°Ah wait. I¡¯ll say it, but you have to protect my family back at Taberna!¡± I looked at the king, and he nodded, signalling to one of his men to go to Taberna using the teleportation gate. ¡°It will be done¡± he said. ¡°Thank you! Uhm, it was the city lord. After your mother told me to take care of you all and then teleported away, that man kidnapped my family and threatened to kill them if I didn¡¯t follow his instructions. His first order was to make you stay at the inn, back at Taberna, and to distract you the next morning while the Scavenger Hunters took your stuff. His next order was to make you slaves at the city gate! I failed that, and was never contacted again. I was on my way back to Taberna to rescue my family, when you friend got me and dragged me to the palace. That is it, I swear!¡± I nodded and looked at the king, ¡°I¡¯m sure Mr mage has already told you that none of that was a lie. So, I will bring my next witness up, the man who tried to conn me and my friends of their city passes and identities, just after our city passes expired. He pretended to be a city guard and then tried to force us to give up our city passes, so that the next phase of the shitty, I mean city lord¡¯s plan would go even more smoothly. His name is Evil Ba- I mean Brook the crook!¡± And there he was, right on time. Evil B*satard Brook! ¡°Now, tell me, who told you to do this nonsense? Was it the city lord?¡± ¡°No, it was the Mac Leeran!¡± ¡°Mc Leeran? The chief of the black market gang Werewolves?¡± said a worried voice in the crowd. ¡°Yes, that is correct.¡± Said Brook. ¡°Hmph¡± The shitty lord was clearly mocking me for not being able to find the path that leads to his involvement. With a cold snort, I said ¡°Alright, then we bring him in as well!¡± The note had the words ¡®Find Brook, and bring him in, after beating out the whereabouts of the people who told him to conn us. Then find and bring in those fools, any means necessary. Also find Ainz, and some of these people within 2 hours, and bring them all to the palace. I trust you all. If the need arises, Krog, move near Hein, and then activate the ring of protection. It should be able to protect you from most ordinary attacks, and most level 1 spells.¡¯ ¡­ Mc Leeren was brought in, and everyone was shocked. He was an infamous thug in the slums of the capital, and had networks and connections throughout the capital. Even the king himself would need to spend quite a bit of effort to catch him. But these 7 year olds had done it? ¡°Mr Mc Leeren, who was it that told you to tell Brook here to cause trouble for me?¡± ¡°I was the lord. He was like a father to me until he told me to leave taberna and create a group of thugs in the capital. He had never contacted me once ever since. But yesterday I got a letter from him saying I had to cause trouble for you and-¡± He stopped in the middle of his words, as there was a dagger inches away from his forehead, floating there. Both me and the other magician casted differing spells to stop the dagger from hitting the man. Tracing the trajectory back to its owners, we could see that lord, covered in sweat! ¡°Hmph, I will now enlist all the crimes the man has committed towards me, my friends, the citizens of the kingdom, the court, and to the king himself!¡± I announced. ¡°This man, Alpistia, the city lord of Taberna, has committed the following crimes: rape several times, murder several times, attempted murder several times, conspiration with illegal forces, attempted force slavery several times, treason, carrying concealed weapons into the court, attacking someone in the presence of the king¡­ At this point in time, space tore and a female figure entered the court and announced, ¡°Add to that the crime of irritating, conspiring against, and actually hurting my children! You will die today you f*cking Alpistia! DIE¡± Saying this, the figure moved her index finger, and the shitty lord¡¯s shitty head came tumbling down from his shoulders. ¡°MOM!!¡± Krog and I exclaimed simultaneously. Chapter 16: The territory of Wintershire ¡°Ah, Jon my boy, is your mother, by any change Lady Sylvia?¡± asked the king with politeness never before seen! ¡°Yes he is my son Erigor, his name is Jon, and he isn''t your ''boy'' ¡± said mom with a cold voice. What was with this attitude? Was mother in a position to look down on the high king? ¡­ After a brief pause, the king¡¯s emotionless face morphed into one of happiness and joy. What was this? Why is the king acting to courteously with mother? Could it be because she is an archmage? Or because she is part of the college? Wait, now that I think about it, the human mage next to the king is only level 8! And as far as I remember, that is how strong NPC humans could get. However, other races, like elves could continue to become archmages. This had to do with their lifespans. A human could live up to 150 years, and some mages could go a little further, to about 200 years. However, elves can generally live upwards of 400 years. Some royals can even live for 600 years! In general, the lifespan of the denizens of this world is far greater than on earth. Maybe it has something to do with the gods, or maybe something to do with mana? Anyway, it seems like the longer you live, the more complex spells you are able to learn, and the higher your level. As far as I can remember in the lore of Divinity, The only human to live past 200 was the hero Arechimis, who was also a level 10 mage and lived up till he was 400 years old. And so, the limit for humans, who can live at a stretch, to 200 years, can become up to level 8 mages. Aha, so she should be one of the strongest individuals in the kingdom, and belongs to an organisation where the most powerful mages reside, and were created, the college of Descite! Wait, then does that mean that I could have just told my relation with mom, and the whole thing would have been breezed over? ¡°Jon my boy, there seems to have been a misunderstanding.¡± Said the king after having a brief chat with mother. ¡°You seem to have suffered a lot, and so for compensation, I would like to provide you with a the title of Baro-¡± ¡°Ahem, his age?¡± intervened mom, clearly ordering the king to do this correctly.This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. ¡°Hmm, I would like to, however, since you are not yet of age, this title will be permanently reserved for you, when you turn 15. At that point in time, you can chose to either accept or revoke this title. Again, I am sorry for the unfortunate events you had to go through, and the city lord¡¯s title will be given to someone capable, so you don¡¯t need to worry about that.¡± ¡°Hmm, thank you high king.¡± I said unconsciously, trying to understand what exactly my mother told him that he gave me such a large title. The title of baron is second to only the royal family, which includes the king¡¯s personal family, as well as the dukes. In the game there was on duke to the in-game king, which means that there shouldn¡¯t be any dukes currently. Therefore, it means I would be only inferior to the king and his family. Now that is interesting. Plus, I get to rule over the territory of around 1/10th of the land in Krothgaurd. This means I would rule over several city lord, and could speak to the king as one close to his level, since he also owns 1/10 of Krothgaurd, and leaves the rest to us Barons and Dukes. ¡°You will also need a territory to rule over, hmm, which territory should I give?¡± ¡°If I may, your majesty?¡± I asked ¡°Hmm? Go ahead.¡± Said the king with a hint of interest. ¡°I would like to rule over the territory of Wintershire in the south.¡± I said, with an evil smile on my face. This territory was unowned by any Baron or Duke in the game. It was only until the third update in the game, that a newly appointed Baron was forced to take over that region, since all other regions were taken over. While excavating, he found two important things. One is that he found out the what lay under most of his region was a soul crystal mine, as the entire region was at the centre between two large soul veins; one from Dryadalis, and one from Zarmentos. The other thing he found was that the soil could itself held a peculiar quality to absorb mana. This mad it excellent for anti-mana weapons, and mana dampeners, both of which could effectively render mages useless, and the sole reason why the class of mage slowly died out. It is also the reason I am not only training mana, but also my body, to be able to wield sword and protect myself in such situation. If I can get my hands on that territory, then I could effectively control the sale of such materials! ¡°Wintershire, the frozen wasteland? Why would you want to go there?¡± questioned the king, with looks of confusion, along with everyone in the room who knew what and where Wintershire was. Even mother was confused, and was about to tell me to change my decision, when someone in the crowd said, ¡°Wintershire? That would be a perfect fit for someone like you! Just like your bloodline, Wintershire is a barren place with no noble origins! Haha¡± exclaimed the man. Chapter 17: The kings tournament ¡°Hmm!¡± my mother exclaimed as she turned her head from staring out the window, straight towards the man. It was Baron Sake, the current head of the oldest aristocratic families in existence. He has a stuck-up and arrogant attitude, who is hell-bent on bullying the newer aristocrats like Jon. Calling them out for being ¡®newly converted¡¯ peasants, he singles other aristocrats, from city lords to other barons, anyone whose family has not been aristocrats since or just after the forming of the kingdom is susceptible to his prejudiced actions. ¡°Oh mister noble with a stick up his a**. You think you are too high and mighty? You have the guts to try and shame my son? MY SON? Let¡¯s see where that attitude of yours goes when I slaughter your family!¡± said mother while releasing some of her mana, making the entire room as cold as her words. It was clear the Sake didn¡¯t know whose son I was, and had made a grave enemy as of this day. I needed to fix the mood, or else mother would go on a rampage today! I sent a tenth of a drop of electricity mana to the king¡¯s right leg, to awaken him of his stupor. With this, not only did the king regain his sense, but also that old mage, who was glaring at me with visible killing intent for harming the king. However, the king waved him off and nodded at me, clearing understanding my reasoning. ¡°Ahem, let¡¯s calm down for a minute hear ladies and gentlemen.¡± He said, trying to dissolve the situation. ¡°So are you saying that women aren¡¯t gentle?¡± said mom, driving her anger away from Sake, towards the king. I knew what was about to follow¡­ The verbal throw down of the high-king of Krothguard, a kingdom covering 1/5th of the known world! ¡°Uhm¡­ I meant gentleladies and gentlemen, please calm down for a second.¡± Repeated the king, with a hint of irritation in his voice. ¡°¡­It is over now¡± ¡°What is?¡± asked the kingEnjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. ¡°One second of course, now I can kill his family!¡± replied mom, with less anger, and more mischievousness. ¡°Hmph, I mean just calm down and listen to me lady!¡± ¡°I don¡¯t like you attitude.¡± Said mom with so much sass that the king almost puked blood. ¡°Uhm, mom, I think it¡¯s fine now. I only wanted the territory, nothing else. I don¡¯t care about what snobbish little nobles think or say. All they can do is bark, with nothing to show for it but their puny little egos being fulfilled, and no benefits. Their actions only further taint their ¡®Oh so mighty¡¯ house¡¯s name, and brings them down to a level below that of sewer rats. Not that I care.¡± I said while I stared down to Sake from beside the king, with a scornful look. His face suddenly turning red, veins bulging, from the raging anger unleashed upon him by my carefully selected words. While mother was destroying the king in their verbal man-slaughter, I was deciding what to say, in order to target Sake without actually doing so. This form of action must have greatly satisfied mom, because she let out s cold snort, and turned back to the window, where I could a glimpse of a smile. The king too was relieved, for mother not killing off one of the founding families of the kingdom overnight. He too let out a long sigh and said, ¡°Ah, Jon my boy, you still haven¡¯t answered my question. Why Wintershire?¡± ¡°Simple, I like the place! I once saw a map of the kingdom [1], and I liked its geographic security from other notions and invading forces. Therefore I want that place.¡± In fact, this is also one of the reasons I want to take Wintershire as my territory. During my Dark campaign, which becomes a compulsory quest for all those associated with the Chaosas, The territory and the capital were the hardest places to take over in the entire kingdom of Krothgaurd. But all that happens almost 27 updates from the beginning of the game timeline, in 20,001. Seeing that I have almost 100 years for even the game timeline to begins ( 94 years to be exact), I can do a lot better with that territory than just create a resistance to the dark forces. ¡°Hmm, good answer!¡± said mother The king was speechless at my nonchalant attitude towards life-changing decisions, and my mother¡¯s approval of it. ¡­ An hour later, at the inn¡­ ¡°So, Krog, and Hein, tomorrow is the king¡¯s tournament, and we need to discuss our plan for the group matches!¡± [1] Has been provided on discord, link is in the pre-chapter notes. Extra 3: Giveaway and announcement Go to Discord > Lore, to see the map of Nezreal. Link is in Pre-chapter author notes
Hey guys, Today is my birthday, and also the day I will be taking a break. I have uploaded some information on the discord server, do check it out. I will be taking a break now and will restart within a week or so. Thank you for reading this notice. HAPPY BIRTHDAY ME (sad in quarantine!)This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
If you can read this, then you have found the secret of this chapter. Good job, Copy this and post it on the general channel of my discord server. The first person to this wil become a demi god spirit supporter on the server, and will enjoy those benefits.These benefits include snippets of chapters to be released, and shout outs for requested chapters. Copy and past the following on the general channel in the Sovereign of Divinity category on the discord server: Code: 001 link: https://discord.gg/QRjCBgy Chapter 18: Round 1 The next morning¡­ ¡°Come one, wake up Krog. We have to go for the tournament! Wake up you big oaf, if we get late, they will disqualify us!!¡± Me and Hein were screaming at Krog, while dishing out some water magic on him. ¡°Uhm, 5 more minutes mother. Please!¡± saying this, he went back to sleep ¡°Ugh! We can¡¯t waste any time here. I¡¯ll carry him, Heim, you carry our weapons and food, for Krog. He hasn¡¯t had breakfast yet.¡± ¡°Ok, let¡¯s go!¡± said Hein as he was scurrying around to room to gate all our weapons. Ok, let¡¯s do this. I put in some mana into all of my body, strengthening it and improving its endurance. Next I picked up the sleeping Krog and we were off. Before trying to wake up Krog, we decided to make sure that Shem is safe. So, Hein and I spent an hour to set up both physical, and magical traps. He planned out where the traps and sensors should go, and he also made the physical traps. I also strengthened the door and windows, along with the walls and ceiling with my mana, which would slowly run out over the course of two days. Securing food for Krog, our weapons, and Shem¡¯s safety we were off. At the capital arena¡­ ¡°Come one, come all, To the king¡¯s tournament, Where one shall rise and the rest fall. Come one, come all, For the greatest event, Only for you all. We shall see at the end of the round, Who shall stand tall and proud. Without further ado, I present the ruler of Krothgaurd, High King Erigor!¡± said the bard ¡°My dear subjects, following the tradition founded alongside the kingdom of Krothgaurd itself, I, Erigor shall hereby declare the king¡¯s tournament open!¡± said the king in a rather ambitious tone. [SM: and may the odds be ever in your favour!] The tournament was created initially to provide a stage to the youths of unknown or uninfluential backgrounds, to showcase their talents in battles. But as time progressed, it devolved into wat it is today; a stage for the powerful to showcase their power on the weaker individuals, as well as their own competitors. However, this time they will be highly mistaken if they can just win the tournament as if it is nothing. The prize for first place is a mana potion, and a mid-tier lower grade artefact. For reference, The ring of protection which I gave Shem and Krog, is a low-tier high grade artefact, and the shitty lord¡¯s artefact is low-tier mid-grade. In order to make a mid-tier weapon, one needs to be at least a level 6 mage. However, such limitations do not concern me. I could craft the high grade artefact without being a level 3 mage. All I need is mana equivalent to that level, and the corresponding level of materials.This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. ¡°Hello everyone, I am Nicholas, and I will be the announcer for this tournament. Firstly, the rules of round 1
  1. No offensive magic artefacts. Possession of such artefacts is not prohibited, but usage is.
  2. For any status magic, the caster should have a counter spell prepared to the judges
  3. No usage of poisons
  4. Entry permitted only to those of between 7 and 10 years
¡­
  1. Usage of any other form of drugs on opponents will result in immediate disqualification
Now, for how round 1 will play out. Round one is an elimination based single person round, where 2 individuals will battle it out on the stage. There will be 5 matches going on simultaneously on the 5 stages in this arena. The only way to win is to either knock out, have your opponent surrender, or remove them from the stage. Killing is prohibited and will result in immediate disqualification as well as being imprisoned for up to 20 years pending an investigation between you and the victim. The winners will earn points based on their position at the end of round one. The one who comes first will receive 100 points, and each position lower will receive 4 points lesser. Since every contestant has entered the tournament using teams of 3, each individuals¡¯ points will be added into the total team score at the end of round 1. The same will apply for the other rounds of the tournament. With that let Round 1 begin!¡± said the man in luxurious clothes. Not quite noble clothes, but a rich merchant¡¯s clothes. ¡°The match-ups have been provided on the board over there¡± said Nicholas as he pointed to a large wooden board with a sheet of paper nailed to it, reading: Jon v/s Maleceth Kendel v/s Robin Krog v/s Raymond Suprem v/s Bob Ferb v/s Phineas Tom v/s Jerry Kid v/s Cat Sorce v/s Hein ¡­ ¡°Okay Krog, remember what we talked about yesterday. Don¡¯t use that focus thing, and don¡¯t let anyone know that I am a magician until I say so. Same for you Hein, don¡¯t show them your true strength until they arrive.¡± ¡°Okay¡± ¡°Okay¡± ¡°Alright, good luck.¡± I said ¡­ ¡°Jon and Maleceth, come to stage 3!¡± exclaimed the judge of stage 3 As I made my way through the crowd around the stages, I could see another boy, around the same age as me, making his way to the same stage. I assumed it was Maleceth and tried to observe him. As soon as I did that, his gave turned straight to me with a ferocious look. Was he able to sense my use of mana to enhance my vision? Or is he just sensitive to spells? Anyways, I can¡¯t have him knowing I am a magician. His gaze was soon replace my a wicked grin, and an arrogant gesture. In the crowd around me, I could here whispers, as I walked past the people. ¡°Isn¡¯t that the runner up for last year¡¯s tournament? Yes, yes, Maleceth the brutal. He always leaves his opponents in a ruined state, and by not killing them and continuously healing them to maintain conscienceless, he doesn¡¯t go against any rules and has his time to torture his opponents!¡± ¡°I feel bad for the poor soul going against him in the first round¡± ¡°Yes, he might as well just give-up without entering the ring¡± ¡°You know, Maleceth is an excellent swordsman, but can¡¯t even learn the basic everyday magic! He just dodges any spell from magicians and overpowers them with brute strength!¡± So it seems like he is one of those thugs! I think that him looking at me was a coincidence. But to be safe, let¡¯s try something else. I sent a tendril of mana into the air, hoping to see his reaction. But he didn¡¯t respond. I them collected a little bit more mana and aimed it at him. He suddenly started looking around, as if something had frightened him. Oh! So that is it. He uses mana in a very unusual way. Most of his mana is continuously leaking out of him, forming a sea of extremely diluted mana within a 10 meter range. When a large enough force enter that field, he can sense it, but he can only feel that something is there. The direction is not easily found, and he has to concentrate on that. That is why he looked at me after 4 seconds of me activating my eyesight magic. Now that that has been discovered, I can disturb that field very easily. ¡­ ¡°Are the both of you ready? I am sure You both already know the rules, and I hope none of you will break any of them. We have a level 3 mage waiting on every stage to make sure no one breaks any rules. If caught breaking any rules, you will be immediately disqualified!¡± ¡°Yes¡± ¡°Sure¡± said Maleceth ¡°Alright begin¡± Chapter 19: New spell! ¡°Alright, begin!¡± As soon as the judge said that, we both drew our weapons; Him with his war hammer, and me with my Death Saber. Both were scaled-down versions of the real weapons used by adults, mainly due to the size issues with those swords for children like us. It seems like Maleceth has a war hammer and so has a greater reach and power of every swing than me. I doubt I can take on his hammer head on, unless I use mana, which I don¡¯t wish to disclose to anyone yet. So I need to use superior speed and agility to defeat him. However, that sense field of his is slightly difficult to deal with without the use of mana. But there is a way. I just need to be faster than his reactions! Thinking through the plan, I began to follow it. I kept within his field of attack and sense, while dodging all his attacks and accumulation small cuts all over the un-plated parts of his body, resulting in him falling unconscious due to severe blood loss. He should take about a day or two to regain his full body movement. ¡°Winner of battle 43, stage 3, Jon! Total time, 24 minutes!¡± said the judge as he walked to me and gave me a token. ¡°This is an extra point for completing the battle within 30 minutes. Keep it safe, and don¡¯t let anyone take it from you or else they will get the token.¡± Wait, doesn¡¯t that mean that everyone who heard my announcement will be after this token? I mean one point could mean the difference between 1st place and 2nd place. I¡¯ll have to finish this round 1 quickly and return home. ¡­ After defeating everyone I was put against, in under 30 minutes, I collected around 6 tokens, which makes me at a 6 point advantage. It was at this point that I that Hein had completed his match, but Krog was still fighting. ¡°You see that kid with the shield? Who is his opponent?¡± I asked an observer ¡°He is fighting with the two-time tournament champion, Robin. Robin is such an inspiration for the younger generation, in the fact that he always wins in the most graceful and honest way possible! He even gives a few secret words of encouragement before he begins his fight! Isn¡¯t he just one hell of a hero?¡± Said a middle aged lady, who was watching the match.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. Hmm, something is off about this Robin. I can feel it in my gut, and my gut never lies. He seems perfect! So perfect that it makes me question whether that is even his true self! Something is wrong with his fight as well. Every time Krog is going in for an attack, he hesitates for a brief moment, and that is when Robin makes his move. Why is Krog hesitating? What is happening? While I was contemplating on what is happening, Krog surrendered, completely unharmed. However, I saw it! Just an instant before Krog admitted defeat, There was an extremely minute change in the mana fluctuations. So minute that even I barely noticed! It must have something to do with Krog¡¯s surrender! I also noticed that along with the mana fluctuation, Krog¡¯s brows also flinched for a second, which means that the magic affected Krog! I need to check him! ¡°Winner of battle 50, stage 1, Robin! Total time 29 minutes!¡± said the judge of stage 1 I jumped onto the stage as soon as he was done, and went to check up on Krog. ¡°Just wait for a few minutes, I just need to do a few checks. Relax Krog.¡± I said ¡­ Ok, so that is it! That f*cker used mana on Krog¡¯s mind. By seeing how dilutes the foreign mana is, I can see how long ago it was injected. First, I need to extract it, or else Krog will get mana poisoning, and will never be able to use mana in his life! However, although mana poisoning can have such severe consequences, the amount Robin injected is very little. So little that it would be about 1/4th of a drop of my compressed mana. However, for Krog, It is about 1/4th of his total mana pool! That could even lead to damage to the Astral Body! ¡­ ¡°Phew! It¡¯s all good!¡± I said as I told Krog to get back up. ¡°So Jon, do you know what was wrong with me? It felt like my whole body was malfunctioning at some points, and then I suddenly got the urge to surrender!¡± said Krog as he got up and we walked towards the now approaching Hein. ¡°I seems like Robin first sent a lot of dormant mana, meaning mana that remains in its position for a period of time. This was most of the mana sent into you, and was placed inside and around your thalamus. This was to remain Dormant for some time, before forcing your mind to urge you to surrender. But during this time of waiting, he also sent some mana to your cerebellum to act like a glitch switch, just before you attacked. What an interestingly cunning strategy!¡± I said. ¡°Uhm Jon, you are mumbling in some nonesense language again! Speak clearly and simply!¡± exclaimed Hein ¡°Ah, it means he used mind control on Krog¡± I replied But that strategy is very narrow and specific to one target. It also has limitations like the fact that it will never work on people with greater amount, or quality of mana than the caster. And it is too much of a waste to use it on a single individual with lesser mana than you, because you could have just killed him off using spells. But this can be used by me for multiple people at once. Like an area of effect mind control spell! And, it would most definitely be a level 3 status magic spell! Chapter 20: Disqualified ¡°Semi-finals!! Stage 1 has Jon and Robin, while Stage 2 has Hein and Joester! This will be an exciting evening, with the semi-finals, and the finals happening pre and post dinner break respectively. Don¡¯t miss anything, and keep your eyes peeled!¡± said Nicholas ¡°You got this Hein. You better win!¡± ¡°You too you son of a b*tch Jon!¡± ¡­ I was against that mind-bending f*cker. I will pay him back for the nonsense he pulled on Krog. ¡°Hi, My name is Robin¡± he said as he approached me from the other side of the stage. Officially the match had already begun, but this guy was trying to play the cool dude. Fine then. Let me ruin your fake personality as you punishment. ¡°Hmm, you don¡¯t seem to understand that the match has already begun!¡± I scorned ¡°Hoho, don¡¯t be like that!¡± he said. By this point he was close enough that we could whisper to each other without the judge hearing. The mage was another thing in itself. ¡°Hand over you tokens you got from the previous matches after this match ends! Also surrender right now!¡± he whispered ¡°Nope! That sad excuse for hypnoses would never work on someone with superior magic like me!¡± I whispered back with 3 times more arrogance than his previous remark. He jumped back in fright, but soon steadied himself and approached me once more. Do everything I just told you or I will make your friend kill himself. He is still under my control, for your information!¡± he said. ¡°Are you threatening me?¡± ¡°No, I wouldn¡¯t call it that, but yes!¡± the little sh*t said. ¡°Oho, no weapons for you. You will leave here broken!¡± I said as I formed a fight plan for him¡­ First, distract target with a smokescreen spell. Then block his blind jab. Counter with cross to left cheek. Discombobulate¡­ Dazed, he''ll attempt wild haymaker. Employ elbow-block. And body shot. Block feral left. Weaken right jaw¡­ Now fracture. Break cracked ribs. Traumatize, solar-plexus. Dislocate jaw, entirely... Heel-kick to diaphragm. In summary; Ears ringing, jaw fractured, 6 ribs cracked, 14 broken, diaphragm haemorrhaging, lung collapse, aorta rupture, 17 concussions, disintegrated ego, permanent traumatic memories of bare-handed attacks. Physical recovery: 2 months with healing magic. Full psychological recovery: never. Capacity to threaten family or friends... Neutralized. ¡°Also, I already cleared your influence on Krog before we even began the match. So you can forget about revenge any time soon.¡± I said with my back faced towards him, walking towards Krog.The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. ¡°Winner of battle 51, stage 1, Jon! Total time 9 minutes!¡± said the judge of stage 1 It was at that moment that something caught my eye. Hein. It was Hein, who was about to begin his battle with Joester. I quickly enhanced my vision and smell, and noticed it. It was poison. F*CKING POISON! Joester was using poison tipped weapons, All of Em! I needed to stop their match somehow. So I roared at the judge and mage of Stage 2, ¡°STOOOOOOOOOOOOOP!!!¡± ¡­ After a brief pause, all eyes turned to me. My voice was exceptionally louder than the average yells from the crowd since I enforced it with some mana as well. ¡°I looked at Joester and said, he¡¯s using poison in his weapons!¡± As soon as I said that, a smile crept up on Joester¡¯s face, as he removed his weapons according to the judge¡¯s instructions. I knew something was wrong, but was not expecting what happened next! ¡°Nope. No poison here! I¡¯ll cut myself with the weapon if you want¡± Said the judge of stage 1 as he continued to cut himself in the right arm. After a few minutes of nothing happening, the jusge concluded, ¡°There is no poison in these weapons. However, since you stopped a match under false pretences, you will be disqualified!¡± said the judge As I was contemplating what happened to the poison, I noticed a similar smile on Baron Sake¡¯s face, who was sitting inside the noble¡¯s section. ¡°Ahem, I don¡¯t think we can just disqualify such a promising individual for preventing possible injuries during the match. I think it would be better if we simply remove one of his extra tokens as punishment¡± said the king. ¡°The high king has given his order!¡± said another man, standing beside the king. While I was forced to give up one of my tokens, I knew something was wrong. I could still see and smell the poison on those blades, and I could also see that it had entered the judge¡¯s body. However, within a second, it was nullified inside his body! ¡°Wait¡± I said. ¡°Let him test the weapon on somebody other than the judge.¡± ¡°What! Why¡± said Joester ¡°No need. My word is final in this stage. And I said that there is no poison in these weapons!¡± exclaimed the judge, clearly in fury. But I could see cold drops of sweat forming on his forehead. I knew he was lying now, and that either the poison takes time to take effect, or that he had already had the antidote. ¡°Hmm, Baron Sake, I think that you are sponsoring Joester right? Wold you mind summing here and checking his weapons for yourself? Or are you too scared to be cut by a knife¡± As soon as I said that, the Baron was put into an extremely tough spot. Either poison from one of his sponsored competitors would be revealed, or he would be labelled as a coward. Hehehe. Let¡¯s see how you respond to that! I know that it was all your plan to poison Krog or disqualify him. Oh how the turn tides! Thirds person point of view¡­ All the colour drained from his face, and what was supposed to be a one-sided beat-down of a brat and his friends, turned into a full-blown attack on his own safety and ego! He needed to do something, but what? At this point, his attendant slipped him a syringe of a silver substance. Realising what it was, the Baron immediately struck his calf with the antidote to the poison he had personally prepared, while acting to tie his laces, under the parapet of the noble¡¯s seating area. ¡°Haha, you want to challenge me? Fine then, I¡¯ll be right there!¡± saying this he jumped off the 2 story high balcony and landed in the centre of the arena. ¡°Give me that¡± is what the Baron said before he snatched the knife from the judges¡¯ hands and created a deep enough cut on his arm, that is would be visible to any of the audience members, with the sheer amount of blood leaving that wound. Chapter 21: Poison! Cheers from the crowd erupted as the Baron held up his reputation. But I knew exactly what was going on. While everyone was focussed on Sake, I whispered to Hein, ¡°Give up the second he is about to cut you with any blade. Everything he has is poison!¡± ¡°But-¡± ¡°But what? Is your life more important or having a chance at victory?¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°Ok, good luck¡± I said, looking back at the Baron with visible murderous intent. After the healer healed the Baron from his wound, he turned around to go back to his seat. While doing so, he turned his head slightly, just enough for me to see half his face, and he gave the most hideous smile I have seen so far! ¡®Good job f*cker. You are now on my kill list! I will be there when you die, and make sure you die slowly and painfully, you f*cking pile of sh*t.¡¯ was what I wanted to say, but bottled it up deep inside my mind, and locked the bottle away. ¡°Alright, now that the garbage claims have been cleared, we can continue the tournament.¡± said the announcer, ¡°Alright, begin the fight now!¡± he continued. As soon as the words left his mouth, both contestants sprang into action. Joester displayed his irrefutably complex and swift attacks using his poison tipped hidden weapons. Like throwing daggers. Hein, on the other hand was fully showcasing his mastery of the simple sword skills, not only deflecting all attacks from his opponent, but also completely rebounding some to return fire at his foe. Now that was finesse at its best! A true work of art.Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. However, halfway through the battle, Joester began to get a malicious smile on his face, and it was getting under my skin that he knew something I didn¡¯t. I quickly spent some more mana on enhancing my sense, and vision to focus on Hein, but I notice nothing except him getting more tired as time passes. Sake¡¯s point of view¡­ Haha! Little brat! After all that you put me through, I will show you real despair. You will watch you friend die in front of you if you don¡¯t do anything. If you try to save him by stopping the battle, not only will you be disqualified from the competition, but will still see him die, because that poison is a proprietary formula from my family, which infects the very mana of a person! Haha. I might be able to turn things around to frame you for the murder of your own friend and sentenced to death! Hehehe! Let¡¯s put Samuel in charge of that. Signalling to my butler, I said ¡°Find some charges and make evidence for the fact that Jon will kill his friend now using special poison.¡± Jon¡¯s point of view¡­ I knew something had happened, but I didn¡¯t know what it was. Sake was busy grinning and cooking up some schemes for me and Hein, maybe even Krog. But he can be dealt with later, if nothing I can just tell on him to mom. But the problem is Hien. I can visible notice his swiftness and elegance drop. Was he already poisoned? But when? It was then that I noticed an fine needle, about 1 cm into his forearm! That¡¯s it. Joester must have thrown that before the match even began, and the effects took some time to become apparent. So he was stalling until this time. Since cheering and giving advice to the person in battle is allowed, I screamed, ¡°Give up now Hein!!!!! You have been poisoned! He will kill you if you don¡¯t stop now!¡± Hearing my words, Hein begins to strain his parched throat to give up. But as he was trying to do this, Joester rushed towards him and launched one punch after another, and I can see that he has poison tipped spikes on his gloves. He wouldn¡¯t give Hein the chance to give up. And with every passing second, the effects of the poison were getting worse! Chapter 22: Shadow Mana! Noticing something wrong with the fight, Krog asked, ¡°What is wrong with Hein? Why is he so tired? Did he not sleep properly yesterday?¡± ¡°No you big ape! He is poisoned! He might die if the fight continues!¡± I exclaimed ¡°¡­Then stop the fight! Simple.¡± He said in an innocently stupid way. ¡°You- Wait! That might actually work!¡± I turned away from the stage and faced the king. Then I ran full speed towards him as I activated my speed enhancing spells; lesser speed, and wind magic. What I discovered in my attempt to be faster than Hein¡¯s sword during our training yesterday was the wind magic is the most useful type in order to go faster. But the spell to do that is very complicated! First you have to create the absence of air particles behind your body. In order to do this, you can shape the mana in your body to form vortexes that suck away the molecules of air into a very compressed layer of high pressure wind around your body, or part of your body. It also turns out that wind magic is one that is the simplest to learn from all other elements, since it does not have a specific mana type. It¡¯s just plain-old mana from your pool. Simple! Anyways, after compression, there is a vacuum formed behind you, which will cause the air in front of you to be pulled behind you before it comes into full contact with your body! Before more air collapses into the new vacuum formed by the air in front of you moving behind you, you must use mana perception, and find biggest lumps of mana in the air. Lastly, you have to release the compressed air in shots, targeting these mana lumps, causing the mana-dense air to become lighter, and therefore easier to shape when it reached behind you. This is reduces the air resistance from about 20 times that of Earth to about the same! Isn¡¯t that cool? Anyway! I reach the king¡¯s balcony on the arena¡¯s upper floors within 4 seconds! Now, I AM SPEED! I asked to meet with the king from below, and was immediately granted. ¡­ After explaining the entire story to him in short, that the match needed to be stopped, or else Hein could die, he agreed. ¡°Stop this match at once!¡± The king demanded and all excited voices instantly calmed down, including the sound of battle. Hein was now on his knees, gasping for air, while the shitface Joester was just standing, waiting for Sake¡¯s approval to restart the beatdown. ¡°This match will continue after half an hour! You may begin your break!¡± continued the king as he sat back down, in an awe-inspiring show of dominance and his complete demand for respect attitude! Hein sagged onto the stage and Joester was speechless at the turn of events. With a few signs of relief on my face, I quickly make my was to Hein. On my way, I could see Sake, who was all smiles? Something was wrong, and I needed to fix it!Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. Reaching Hein, I first changed my vision to only see between 30 petahertz to 30 exahertz (x-ray vision. It is what I use for a lot of medical information, and to spy on others!). Fortunately most of his injuries were flesh wounds and none of his bones were damaged. That would take a lot longer to heal. Next, I controlled the natural mana in the air to slowly enter his body and come 0out before being sucked into his mana pool. This way, I could use them as ultra-sound using mana super-enhanced mana sense. It seemed like some of his organs were slightly damaged, but some healing mana could fix it. So that is what I did. However, his complexion was growing worse the more healing mana entered his body! I knew it. This is why that Sake was so confident. His poison must be able to grow stringer form healing magic! Wait! Mana! Something that can use mana must be mana or have mana! The poison must be mana poison! But that hasn¡¯t even been developed yet! Why is it here? It has to be something else! I was supposed to be developed in 19, 921, when the princess of the Krothgaurd had died from this very poison. However, it was not even developed until 3 years later, when another assassination attempt on the second prince was thwarted and a bottle of the poison was recovered from the assassin. It was later discovered that someone within the nobles of the kingdom was developing said poison, and almost all the existing nobles were removed from power, and replaced. The poison itself was banned throughout the kingdom, and anyone found in possession of it would be killed on the spot, without exception! Wait a minute! Could it be that the poison was developed this long ago, and the assassinations were planned out slowly for this long? Could it all be from Sake¡¯s family, the Som household? That must be it. If so, then I can¡¯t reveal the existence of the poison to the world, or else the future may change, and I wouldn¡¯t be able to predict a lot of the future events. But first, I need to fix Hein¡¯s deteriorating condition. I quickly collected some external mana (Ambient mana in the air), and then extracted all of Hein¡¯s remaining mana, instantly replacing it with the little mana I collected from the air. That would suffice in keeping Hein alive while I deal with the poison in my left hand. Now with all my focus, I scour through Hein¡¯s mana in my left hand, until I find a fleeting shadow of an unknown mana type. This is it! Shadow mana, not to be mistaken with dark mana. It erodes away at most other mana types, and grows stronger from light mana. That is why is has its formidable reputation of killing its victim no matter the level of healing magic used, because the more magic used, the stronger it gets. The only way to cure the poison was discovered by a shadow specialised mage, who received a 1000 reputation for the task. The way to cure the poison is to keep the shadow mana as your mana perception focus, and slowly extract the normal mana furthest away from it, and collect it in another hand. Following this method, I was able to collect 80 % of Hein¡¯s mana, because the rest had already become shadow mana. The amount of poison entering his body was so less, and yet the effect was so brutal. I see to have underestimated the severity of the poison! Anyway, I replace the external mana keeping him alive with the recovered mana, and colour returned to his face within seconds! Taking a sigh of relief, I looked at the shadow mana, trying to escape the prison of condensed mana I created. It looks like a slippery mass of black, with distorted lines between when it ends and my mana barrier begins. Now how do I deal with it? Chapter 23: Erebus Taking a sigh of relief, I looked at the shadow mana, trying to escape the prison of condensed mana I created. It looks like a slippery mass of black, with distorted lines between when it ends and my mana barrier begins. Now how do I deal with it? But before that, I could see Hein waking up slowly. I whispered to him, ¡°It¡¯s me Jon. Hein, don¡¯t get up. Just act to be unconscious. Sake is planning something and I want to see what. Ok?¡± ¡°Ugh, uhm sure?¡± he replied Good, now, how to deal with this ball of shadow? Should I just dispose of it? No, that might infect someone else and convert them into the shadow beings! Now that would be a real pandemic! Should I hand it over to mother? No! She will definitely experiment with it! Something could go terribly wrong! We might even have a shadow archmage!! Terrifying thought!! As far as I know, shadow mana is something that does not belong to this world. It is created by some evil gods, who use quite a bit of their strength to compress the void around Nezreal into biological plants, containing a complex form of mana. When this mana is extracted, it turns semi-conscient. Some people use this to program things like erode mana into it. In the game, everyone who was able to cure this poison, would get this backstory, and then the shadow mana would disappear. But this is real life, and mana doesn¡¯t just disappear. Should I convert it into my own mana? No, that might result in me being mana poisoned. Wait! Why don¡¯t I try to imprint my mana signature onto it, since it is semi conscient! I could try to make it into my summon creature. Would that work? Well, what is the harm in trying? It will definitely escape if I don¡¯t do anything. So let¡¯s do it! First, took about 20 drops of mana from my mana pool, and held it in my right hand, while the shadow mana was in my left. Next, I extracted mana from the ball of 20 drops in a steady stream. Compressing it even further as it moved, I aimed the stream towards the ball of shadow mana. By the time it reached the ball, it was so compressed that 1 drop of this mana would be able to cover 2 of my converse fireball! Using it as a drill, I entered the mana container I created, and then sent straight into the ball of shadow. After almost completing half of the extracted mana, some ripples began to form on the ball. ¡­ After finishing all the extracted mana, the ripples only became stronger, and its movements became slower. I knew I needed more mana, so I extracted another 50 drops of mana, which almost drained 85% of my left over mana. Repeating the same process again, the ripples only got larger and larger!If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. Until it stopped. Everything stopped. The ball was no longer moving or rippling. It just stopped. Shaking the container, I found that it was not moving. Was it done? After spending 30 of my extracted 50 drops, did I finally make it my summoned pet? *Crack* Hearing cracks from the container, I quickly looked at it with mana sense, and found that the ball was actually trying to slowly crack the container, blocking its attempts with its own body. Now that was clever. But you are facing the wrong opponent. I spent 2 drops on further solidifying the container, before continuing my endeavour to tame the creature. ¡­ After nearly spending all my extracted mana, I could suddenly feel the existence that is the ball of shadow inside my mana pool. Not my soul dimension, but my mana pool!? It wasn¡¯t in the pool, but sort of hovering over it. Looking down at the container, it wasn¡¯t there anymore. What is this? Why isn¡¯t it in my soul dimension like mother said? In the game, you summon would sort of appear when you called it. No extra feature, and nobody asked why s well. But in the real world, things are different and I was never actually able to try it since mother always said it was very dangerous! Doesn¡¯t that mean that this ball of shadow could actually be dangerous? I need to get it out of my mana pool! NOW! Thinking about this, the shadow ball suddenly disappeared from my mana pool and appeared in my right hand, greedily devouring the left over mana in my hand. Wait! No! STOP! I thought. Suddenly the mass of shadow stopped halfway from eating everything. What is this? Is it listening to me? How is that possible? I am not connected to it with any sort of mana, so it cannot be a summoned creature. ¡®What are you¡¯ I tried to communicate with it using some of my left over mana. ¡®¡­¡¯ Although it said nothing, I could feel its mental shrug directly inside my mana pool, not through the mana tendril I extended towards it. ¡®Can you hear me?¡¯ I questioned directly into my mana pool because of the emotions I felt there. The ball started nodding! Or at least I think it is a nod. Hmm, do I have full control over it? Yes. Is it in the space in my mana pool? Yes. Is it only visible using mana sense? Yes. Could it be? ¡®Hey ball, are you some sort of mutated mana?¡¯ I asked ¡®¡­¡¯ but got no reply. Makes sense. I don¡¯t think it even knows what mana is. But I know that it is now completely sentient. Which means that the inserting mana process I conducted on the shadow mana changed it fundamentally into a completely sentient being, that seems to feed on mana to grow stronger? Maybe I can keep it as a summoned pet, because it behave like that as well. But I need a name for it. ¡®U do need a name! I can¡¯t call you a blob forever can I?¡¯ ¡®¡­¡¯ ¡®It just feels bad, u know right?¡¯ ¡®¡­¡¯ And now I¡¯m thinking to myself. Anyway, I decided to name it Erebus, the Greek god of chaos and darkness, because that is what it looks like; ball of chaos and darkness. Chapter 24: Fine While I was creating a new pet for myself, rumours were being escalated into truths thanks to Sake continuously adding fuel to the fire. He had positioned many men inside the audience, spreading rumours about my background and how I would love to kill Hein. However, I wasn¡¯t paying attention, and was too busy establishing my authority over Erebus. Or Ere for short. ¡­ Within a few minutes, these rumours had reached the captain of the imperial guards, who is also the one in charge of the safety of the participants. He quickly took action and sent guards over to where Hein was laying down, with me next to him. ¡°Hey you!¡± Said one of the more straightforward guards. ¡°Huh, what?¡± I exclaimed. Being awaken from deep musing and constant trial and error for communication, I was completely startled. A sudden shock to my soul, which almost made me lose control of all the mana I had extracted! ¡°Jon, is it? We have come here to confirm the health of participant Hein, and ensure no malpractices have been used on said participant. Move aside.¡± ¡°Ah, sure. Go right ahead.¡± I said Walking straight up to Hein, the guard noticed that Hein wasn¡¯t waking up and quickly called for the doctor, who was waiting around us for quite some time. He gave a cursory glance at Hein, and gave his statement. ¡°This poor boy has been poisoned with something that does not exist within the understandings of the doctors in the kingdom today.¡± With this, my suspicions were confirmed. This doctor is part of Sake¡¯s whole plot. Had he been a real doctor, or had he actually checked up on Hein, he would have deduced that Hein was perfectly fine. As worried gasps were coming from the crowd, I noticed two things. One was that Sake was making his way to the stage, and that another figure was making their way to the stage, through the crowd. Looking at the other figure, I recognised her instantly and told her to wait.This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. Back to Sake, he had almost reached the stage, where the guard was preparing to arrest me for fatal poisoning. However, by this time, I had already formulated a plan to completely ruin Sake. I can¡¯t kill him, but I sure as hell can ruin him and shame his family! As a wide grin formed on my face, I sent some of my remaining mana to the seated Joester, and dragged him to the stage. Sake¡¯s Point of view¡­ That f*cking mother and son have insulted me enough! Last time she was threatening the king directly and so I could not do anything. However, all my sources point to the fact that she has returned to Descite. Now, I can finally have my revenge. I will kill both the brats, and their little friend is already on death¡¯s door. Saying this, I unsheathed my sword from its sheath. Pointing it towards that stupid brat, I said, ¡°Jon, with the power vested in me by the high king of Krothguard, as a Baron of the Kingdom of Krothguard, I hereby declare that you are a criminal awaiting the punishment of death by my sword, for the crime of conspiring to kill a fellow contestant!¡± Leaping towards him I swung my sword to cleanly behead him. However, before I could reach him, my sword was blocked by a shield, behind which was another brat! How infuriating. I jumped backwards to gain my bearing, before leaping back into the attack. Jon¡¯s point of view¡­ With that, Krog and Sake entered into a battle of attrition with a flurry of attacks from the baron, while Krog was strategically deflecting all the attacks. I actually cannot believe that he has enough brains to pull off something like that. It must be his instincts! That guy can just naturally fight in the most efficient way possible! My mana was nearly exhausted, and I had barely a few drops of mana left with me. Deciding to risk it, I used 2 of those drops to boost my voice, and then shouted. ¡°What proof do you have that I tried to kill someone? Are you trying to slander me? Look here, Hein is perfectly fine! I was just helping him recover from his injuries. Nothing more, nothing less.¡± Hearing this, Hein opened his eyes and got up, much to the surprise of everyone, including Sake and the doctor. Walking up to the doctor, I announced using the little mana I had left, ¡°Get this man out of here and strip him of his post! He was not conducting his duties correctly and didn¡¯t even bother to check Hein¡¯s state using any magic! He cannot be allowed to slander others like this.¡± Next I looked at Sake, ¡°You! How dare you attack commoners using the power given to you! Although you title protects you from death penalties or slavery from such acts, I can ask the king to give your family a very nice and sweet fine. You can send that over to me anytime. I¡¯ll be waiting.¡± Saying this I looked at the king and he nodded, shocking a few of those ministers around him. Chapter 25: Final battle ¡°Alright my dear subjects, we will now commence the final battle of round 1. To the winner goes the spoils!¡± said the king. Not much happened yesterday. After the poisoning, I told Hein to give up, and the king decided to postpone the final match for today. After which there would be a 2 hour break, until the group matches begin. After the announcement, we went back to the inn, and I took a short rest. Of course I was actually practicing my cultivation to replenish my mana. One thing I noticed is that when you have exhausted mana and then absorb the surrounding mana, the time it takes to replenish is the same as before. Meaning, that not only does the amount of mana and its density and purity increase, but even the rate of absorption increases, resulting in no change in time to replenish mana. Of course, the time it took was still significant, taking almost 4 hours to fully replenish. Once that was done, I moved on to completely check Hein for any remaining poison, healing the small scratched Krog got from fighting Sake, and supplying some healing mana to Shem. I need to wait, she said. Wait for the right time. But it¡¯s just taking too long! How much longer! I¡¯m sure Krog is suffering even more on the inside. Ugh, that b*tch! I¡¯ll make her pay one day for putting her into a coma for so long! I also did not get much sleep, since I was busy experimenting my control over Erebus. Anyway, after the king gave his speech, Joester jumped onto the stage and started riling up the crowd while secretly threatening me using his poison covered needles. Ha! The guts of this a*shole is beyond the mortal understanding! I will push this f*cker until the edge of death! Since the cultivation session yesterday, my mana has increased a little; to about 10 % more than before. Activating some of the mana, I reinforced my skin, muscles, immune system, bones, blood flow, and mana channels themselves. These were spells I came up with yesterday in order to reduce the chance of Joester¡¯s weapons entering my body, and to reduce the damage caused by the poison. The reinforcement of my physical body is just a more specialised version of lesser strength, targeted towards resisting foreign elements. I have decided to name it lesser skin strengthening and lesser poison resistance. The reinforcement of my mana channels is strengthening the thickness of the walls of the channels, in order to prevent foreign mana from entering my mana channels, and thereby preventing them from entering my mana pool. This also has the extra effect of enhancing the amount of mana and the speed of the mana I can transfer from my mana pool to the external world. Which in theory should reduce the time it takes to cast magic. Let¡¯s call it channel strengthening.Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. Anyway, I jumped onto the stage for the finals, and unsheathed my sword. ¡°Begin!¡± exclaimed Nicholas, marking the beginning of the fight. Narrator¡¯s Point of view¡­ Jon took his stance and so did Joester. However, neither of them moved an inch. Joester was waiting for Jon¡¯s attack in order to sneakily poison him, however, Jon was aware of this and did not move, to throw off Joester¡¯s plan. Realising this, Joester employed a different plan. He began charging towards Jon while swinging his sword randomly from a distance, as he made his way to me. Suddenly, Jon noticed what he was doing. There were almost 20 needles hurtling towards him, and more were being thrown with every swing of Joester¡¯s sword! However, everything was according to plan! While Joester was busy barraging Jon with his needle attack, Jon was expertly positioning is body and limbs in order to deflect most of the force away from piercing, and allowing his strengthened skin to do the rest and prevent the needle from entering his body. He was doing this while also extracting mana. A very laborious task when actively moving your body, so all he could do was to extract it little by little and collect enough for a spell before Joester decided to change strategies. ¡­ After almost two minutes of continuous firing of needles, Joester finally runs out and the two of them are now left facing each other, planning their next moves. After a brief moment of awkward silence, Joester springs into action! Chapter 26: Final Battle (2) After a brief moment of awkward silence, Joester springs into action! He runs straight towards Jon, with his poison soaked bastard sword. Jon suddenly smiles as he releases a level 2 water spell. It¡¯s another one of his unique spells, since most of the common spells are too complicated to reproduce using his form of magic. An incredible amount of mana is released from his hands, converting into water and coagulating in front of him into a gigantic ball of mana infused water. As his sword lay on the ground, Jon suddenly transformed into a mage, shocking everyone except a few of the guards, and a few ministers of the king, who had witnessed his magic first-hand. Being shocked, Joester hesitated for a moment, which was masterfully used by Jon to allow the spell to reach him. The ball completely engulfed Joester inside the ball of water. Strong and continuous water currents inside the ball prevented Joester from swimming out and kept him inside the ball. Slowly, Joester began losing consciousness from the lack of oxygen, at which point Jon releases his spell. This causes the now unconscious Joester to fall onto the ground like a ragdoll. However, that wasn¡¯t enough for Jon¡¯s revenge. While Joester was inside his level 2 spell; Water cage, he manipulated some of the water near Joester to surround the sword and dissolve its poison into the water. He next controlled the water to compress itself into a blade, and increase the velocity to a speed high enough to cut skin. Using that, he cut Joester¡¯s skin and allowed a small amount of poison to enter his body, which should be unnoticeable by even a level 6 mage. He should just slowly die of from mana poisoning. Anyway, back to the present.You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. ¡°Winner of Round 1, Jon!¡± announced Nicholas A round of cheers followed the announcement of Nicholas, while he went back to his station under the king¡¯s parapet, to tally up the scores. ¡°Ha¡­ Haa..¡± Jon was panting after an extremely fast paced battle, which could have had his mana poisoned if his spell was a second too late. ¡°Hey! Jon!¡± Screamed Hein and Krog as they ran towards Jon. ¡°Haha! I did it guys! I actually did it!¡± ¡°Haha! But Like an idiot you displayed your magic. Now everyone is wary of Jon the Battlemage. Hehe¡± said Hein ¡°Hmm. Let¡¯s not worry about that. Round 1 is over, and now all that is left is the group battles for which I will be the mage. So it was only a matter of time before they got to know.¡± Replied Jon. ¡°True¡± said Hein, ¡°Anyways, you got first place at least. Our team should be first or second at least!¡± ¡°Huh? We will be second? But I thought that since I got eliminated early on, we would be fourth or something. I thought I was dragging us down.¡± said Krog like a dejected puppy. ¡°You big idiot! Listen to me! We are here not to win, but to improve our skills!¡± said Jon ¡°But I thought you said mother would kill us if we don¡¯t win?¡± ¡°That is not the point here! Try to understand! We have improved a lot. We know that we need to improve you resistance to mind magic, and Hein¡¯s resistance to poisons. Well, we¡¯ll just improve everything while we are at it¡± said Jon. ¡°Alright everyone, I will now declare the results¡± Nicholas interjected. Soon the crowd began to quiet down. ¡°In first place, we have ¡®The Sovereigns¡¯ led by Jon who placed 1st, Hein who placed 4th, and Krog who placed 7th. In second place we have ¡®Triple Threat¡¯ led by Joester in 2nd place, Samuel in 8th, and George in 10th. In third place we have ¡®The Mind Freaks¡¯ led by Robin in 3rd place, Obelix in 6th, and Asterix in 11th place. In fourth place¡­¡± continued Nicholas ¡°Alright guys, Once he finished announcing the ranking, Nicholas will most likely give us the rules for round 2, so pay attention¡± said Jon Chapter 27: In the shadows In the seats for spectators¡­ ¡°Hmm¡± ¡°What is it my lady?¡± ¡°Nothing much. Its just that the person who is screaming and running around like mad is actually saying the truth.¡± ¡°You mean-¡± ¡°Yes, he is not lying about the poison. Even I cannot see this supposed poison, but I can see that he is not lying.¡± ¡°Which means that there is something that even my lady cannot see?¡± ¡°Yes, and that boy can see it. Tell me, who is he?¡± ¡°Jon, my lady.¡± ¡°Jon you say? Find out about his background.¡± ¡°Of course my lady¡± said the white-haired man in a crisp butler¡¯s uniform, as he turned around and walked away. If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. In another section of seats¡­ ¡°So¡­ Has he been poisoned or not?¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry baron. I threw a lot of hidden weapons at him, but he must have had some sort of barrier around him. All of them were deflected away from him!¡± ¡°And then there was that spell of his. Hey Sasoom, how strong is he as a mage?¡± ¡°Hmm¡­ That water elemental spell he used had enough mana for a level 2 spell.¡± ¡°So he is a level 2 spell.¡± ¡°No. that is where the problems begin. That spell was a level 2 spell, however there currently does not exist a similar spell to that in human knowledge. So either he stole someone¡¯s original spells, or he is an original mage.¡± ¡°And what does that mean?¡± ¡°It means that he could grow as powerful as other original mages, maybe even reaching level 8!¡± ¡°You mean the epitome of human limits?¡± ¡°Yes. But that is not where the problems stop. He was also able to either cure or remove the poison. Either of which is bad, because he might already know about the poison, or will eventually research it and figure it out.¡± ¡°So he might already, or will soon know about my family¡¯s greatest research endeavours in its history?!!¡± ¡°I¡¯m afraid so, baron.¡± ¡°Hmm, Sasake, take this 200 gold, and give it to them to manage this situation.¡± ¡°Of course, baron.¡± Said Sasake, the baron¡¯s butler. In the king¡¯s balcony¡­ ¡°Hmm, you handled this rather well, Erigor.¡± ¡°Haha. Would you still say that if the boy had died?¡± ¡°Hmmm¡­ No.¡± replied the female figure standing guard over Jon and company in the shadows. These were the undercurrents in the arena and the kingdom, people moving in the shadws out of interest, fear or worry for Jon and company. All while they trained for the rest of the day in their rooms and planned for the group battles. Chapter 28: Erebus! Jon¡¯s Point of view¡­ After the rankings, Nicholas had told us that there would be a two day break before the Round 2 group battles. So after a long and exhausting day, the three of us returned to the inn. ¡°Alright everyone, we will meet at the tavern below for dinner by the 9th bell after mid-day. Make sure to not be very late or else I will start to eat myself and there may not be a lot left for you then¡± Hearing this, both Krog and Hein straightened their postures into one resembling a salute performed by the knights at the royal palace. Haha, they remind me of perfectly trained German Shepherd puppies! So cute! Hahaha. ¡­ Back in my room, I took out Erebus. ¡®So you can finally hear me?¡¯ ¡®..¡¯ Although there was no response, I knew it could. During the final battle, although I tried, I couldn¡¯t stop all the needles. However, just before they reached my skin, they would slow down for a millisecond, enough for me to reposition myself to better deflect them. Noticing this phenomenon, I invoked mana vision and the I saw it. Erebus was covering my entire body, and when the needle got close, it would concentrate more of its mass there, effectively increasing the mana density in front of the needle, causing it to slow down, ever-so slightly. ¡®So you will protect me? Or is it that you want this¡¯Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Thinking this, I removed one of the needles I had stolen from the stage. Erebus instantly reacted by leaping towards to needles. After a second, it jumped off the needle, back onto my shoulder, leaving a poison-less needle. I also noticed that it had grown slightly larger. With this, I know that it can eat mana poison and grow, it can also eat light mana and grow more in density. However, I need to test out one last thing. Holding out my hand, I collected some of my mana in one and a needle in the other. This time, Erebus seemed a little confused and hesitated for almost 5 minutes before deciding to go for my mana. I then did some more experiments with it like collecting the external mana and my mana, etc. My findings were that Erebus can eat almost all forms of mana, along with almost all forms of mana related materials, and all forms of poison. It prefers my mana the most, and the mana poison right after that. Then follows mana related materials and lastly follows external mana. It hates normal poisons, but it can use it to grow. I told it to eat some of the poison from the goblins¡¯ spears, in exchange for 2 drops of my mana, and it gladly accommodated. I also learned that it can change form into something visible to the naked eye! Imagine the things I can do with that. Anyway, it was about 7 pm, and it would take another 2 hours before dinner. So I decided to put all my efforts into forming my new spell. This one will definitely break the barrier of level-2! ¡­ After an hour of gruelling trial and error for the spell, I think I have got the final outcome! With this, some very irritating opponents can be dealt with! I took Erebus with be and went to Krog¡¯s room, followed by Hein, who were both delighted to hear that we would be having an early dinner. After checking on Shem once more, we went down for a hearty dinner! ¡°Dinner!!¡± screamed Krog ¡°Bwa Bwa! Bwo poulb fry pfum off bish Bon!¡± muttered Hein with a mouth full of deliciously juicy and tender medium rare chicken breast. [SM: Praise the almighty Mister Chef] ¡­ While we were sitting on the table, trying to digest the exorbitant amount of food we inhaled, Krog spotted something under the table, roaming around my legs. ¡°He Jon¡­What is that?¡± ¡°Oh this? This is Erebus.¡± I said as I lifted up Erebus in his new form, an all-black Rottweiler, ¡°He¡¯ll be going along with us on our adventures!¡± Chapter 29: Trouble When my eyes opened, I was inside a large plastic container with a comfortable seat inside. Wait, a plastic container? I looked around and it reminded me of something that was deeply engraved into my memory. It was the Divinity capsule! Why am I here? What is going on? ¡°Akio! You forgot my breakfast again and went into that stupid game! Just wait for dad to return, then he¡¯ll show you!¡± said an incredibly familiar voice. It was Hakimi, my little sister from back on Earth. Wait! Back on Earth? Where else would I be? Right here of course. ¡°Right, I¡¯ll be right there¡± Feeling a little disoriented, I lazily climbed out of the capsule and made my way to the kitchen. My entire body feels drained of energy, like I just woke up from a very long dream. *Yawnnnn* ¡°Stop yawning and start cooking Akio, I¡¯m very hungry!¡± ¡°Yes, yes. Anything for my little sister.¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°Why aren¡¯t you talking Hakimi? What happened? Was I being too cringy?¡± [SM: Ah yes, a truly cringeworthy dialogue of cringiness] Turning around, I saw Hakimi sitting in her seat, with her head tilted down, and her straight black hair covering her face like a curtain. Reminded me of¡­ Just as I was remembering what it reminded me of, her head began to rise in an oddly slow pace. When her head was almost upright, I would see her nose sticking out of her hair. However, something was wrong! It was pale, paler that what a human¡¯s skin should be. Was she scared? No that can¡¯t be. Thinking about her skin, she suddenly twitched, and some of her hair shifted, thinning out the curtain of hair enough for me to barely make out her face. She seemed normal, beside the fact that her skin was white, and her eyes where closed. Trying to get a closer look, I moved closer. As soon as I took a step, her eyes opened. Seeing such eyes that I¡¯ve never seen before, I retreated back two steps, hitting the table behind me where I was making pancakes. Those eyes that were beyond comprehension, pure golden eyes, which seemed to almost glow. Almost as if it were releasing something to capture your soul.Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. What was it releasing? Gold? Sparkles? Energy?! ¡°Wa¡­¡± Was it some form of energy? But no such energy is known to man in this world! But wait. What if it is not? What if it is something else? ¡°Wait here¡± ¡°..ke Up¡­¡± Saying this I ran straight towards my room and swung the door open. There it was. My divinity capsule. Reading the slogan I wrote on it when I first began my gaming in the capsule I remembered. ¡°Let the mana be with you¡± Mana! That¡¯s it! She was releasing mana! Not from this world, but from Nezreal. Then this can¡¯t be real. I have to break free! ¡°¡­Jon!¡±
A few minutes ago¡­ ¡°Are you sure it is in this inn boss?¡± ¡°You stupid fool, it is. Sa- I mean the boss told us to get rid of the three kids participating in the tournament¡± ¡°And that is why we hired master Gucci right?¡± ¡°Yes, master Gucci is a level 4 status mage, specialising in illusion magic. He is the best of the best.¡± Moving closer to master Gucci, the person in question whispered, ¡°Uhm master?¡± ¡°What is it Som?¡± ¡°We were just wondering about the master¡¯s awesomeness.¡± ¡°And?¡± ¡°And is it possible to let us know the awesome spell you would be using this time?¡± ¡°Hmm. Since you are all dying to know, let this enlightened one tell you. I will be using my latest masterpiece. After a year of hard work, I was finally able to learn this spell with a success ratio of 20 %. Although it uses 1/4th of my mana, it has a very useful property, being that it will not wear off, unless the target is of a higher mana level than me. What the spell does is that it traps the target of my spell in a dream world of their own making, one from which they will never wake up. Once my spell is active, all you have to do is go in there and stab the targets. Simple. Do you understand?¡± ¡°Yes yes¡­ mostly.¡± ¡°Then get your commoner asses to work! And let me concentrate on my spell¡± ¡­ After a while, Gucci finally spoke the spell¡¯s chant after constructing the mana structure; ¡°Gang¡­Spend ten racks on a new chain¡­My b*tch love do cocaine, ooh¡­I f*ck a bitch, I forgot her name¡­I can''t buy a b*tch no wedding ring¡­Rather go and buy Balmains¡± With this, the spell was activated and the assassins entered Jon, Krog and Hein¡¯s rooms through their windows. Although Jon had anticipated something similar and put up an alarm spell for when a mana signature gets close enough, it did not ring. It turned out that assassins are trained to emit little to no mana while on missions. Else they would not be able to enter the assassin¡¯s guild in the first place. When the blade was an inch away from Jon¡¯s neck, something changed. The air itself began vibrating in patterns. Almost as if it was breathing. This left the assassin motionless from the tremendous shock. Suddenly, Jon¡¯s body began to emit a soft golden glow, as he began to be hoisted into the air. A voice rang out inside the room, followed by successive thunder and lightning. ¡°This boy shall not be harmed by you this day!¡± said an elderly voice, with an overbearing presence, demanding respect from all mortals around. This was followed by a blinding light. The next thing the assassin saw was Jon standing on his bed, with a fireball in his hand, aimed at him. Chapter 30 Sneak peak I''m stopping to write here. Please visit https://www.webnovel.com/book/16918441306891805/Sovereign-of-Divinity I will be continuing the novel here, with more or less the same rules. Please do visit and begin reading there. Here is a snippet of chapter 30... Also, the new chapters are still being uploaded on the new site, so wait for some time, before chapter 30 comes out: After realising it was some sort of dream or illusion spell, Hakimi suddenly appeared in front of me and told me,Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. ¡°Wake up Jon! This origina¡­ will not¡­ you¡­ killed today¡­Wake ¡­¡± I couldn¡¯t hear it properly, but it said something like that. I felt like I heard that voice before. But before I had any time to ponder, there was a bright light, and suddenly I was back at the inn, standing on my bed, with Erebus in its shadow mana ball form in my right hand, a fireball spell in my left, and a strange man with negligible mana signature and assassin gear in front of me. Since he had his dagger unsheathed, I did what any normal person would do, I fired everything I had at him. But he dodged. So it continued my firing. While barraging him with fireballs, I accidentally threw Erebus at the man as well. For a minute I panicked, but then something frightening happened.