《The tale of Toast》 Prologue - A lecture on magic. Tim looked at his clock with a disappointed expression before clicking his fingers and standing up sharply. "Welcome to the beginning of your first academic year, here at the university!" He proclaimed, in a raised voice. In front of him were banked rows of desks, mostly filled. A few students that had suddenly appeared in the front row looked around in confusion before staring at him wide eyed in a mix of wonder and fear. "I''m so glad you were all so punctual!" This time his gaze was very pointed, the students at the front were solidly leaning towards fear now. Tim continued, "what I just demonstrated was evocation magic, this is the most malleable, but also comes at the greatest cost, mana is how your body stores magical energy, and evocation directly consumes it to influence the world around you. Magical energy is tied to your life force, your very soul, all of you have likely overspent mana and felt the effects. The issue with evocation, is while it is near enough instant, and very flexible, it is massively inefficient, and better effects can be granted from other schools of magic. I will not dwell on this too long, as you will all be familiar with the basics of evocation, to many that is all they know of magic." Tim now gestured to the clock on his desk "This is an example of glyphic magic, runes shape the mana into the desired effect, in this case a very slow trickle of magical energy is released from a reservoir, and converted into kinetic, to keep the pendulum swinging. Your lesson tomorrow will be to make one of these yourself, as I did when I was an acolyte." Tim drew a short dagger from his robe and pricked himself on the finger, letting a drop of oddly blue blood fall onto one of the runes on the clock. The sigil glowed briefly, before returning to the dull etching it was before, Tim explained: "These clocks, and most sigils, are powered by blood, you can use certain mana porous crystals or metals, but blood is the easiest method, the efficiency of these clocks mean that at your level they will need about a drop of blood a week, and at mine, barely a drop of blood each year. This demonstration for new acolytes is in fact is the only time I refill it." "The last of the three main types of magic, alongside evocation and glyphic is self manipulating magic. This is the least practiced of the three, but is also my area of specialty, and if you wish to study it in your second or third years at the university, I am the one that leads those classes." Tim''s appearance flickered, and his complexion changed, his skin previously looked aged, but otherwise blemish free, suddenly became a mess of strangely coloured tattoos, overlaying each other covering every inch of him. Even his eyes seemed to be tattooed in this way.You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. "These tattoos are a form of self manipulation, as is my blood which has been modified to store far more mana than would usually be possible, my skeleton is also covered in similar tattoos, and isn''t even made from bone any more." He grinned and his teeth gleamed a pale purple. "The disfigurement, and the pain that comes with the changes, are the main reason people steer clear of this type of magic, but as my appearance would suggest, I feel like that cost is worth it." Tim then opened up the floor to questions. The students questioned him on many things, such as alchemy, which while not considered a school of magic in its own right, was still taught at the university due to its close links with self manipulation magic, however instead of exploiting and enhancing your body''s magical effects, you exploited that of plants or dead animals. Students asked him about how he kept his manipulations hidden, which in itself was a manipulation, one of the tattoos was a sigil that when fed energy would hide all his tattoos. He always thought that one was a bit ironic. He explained the difference between the glyphs in the clock and the gigantic glyphs that made teleportation arrays or barrier arrays, as they had to contain magnitudes more magical energy the easiest way to manage that was simply to scale up the whole structure. Eventually one student eagerly asked: "What about the rogue mages?" Tim paused at this, thinking about how best to explain them. "Rogue magicians use magic far more like monsters do, they have overflowing latent magic, but didn''t have any guidance on using it, with that amount of mana they develop magical effects that differ from any of the three schools. As they grow so too does their mana generation and capacity, and so their rogue magic becomes stronger and more refined. Unfortunately you will all have to choose one of the three schools to specialise in, as developing rogue magic artificially is impossible, many have tried." Some of the students that had excited faces deflated at this, "In addition, they can''t learn evocation either, their bodies and mana become so specialised that even the simplest spell doesn''t work, and while they can learn runecraft, their blood will not power it." The time for the lecture was almost over, so Tim began the more mundane task of explaining the curriculum for the first year, their timetables, and the preliminary evocation exam that would be coming at the end of the week. He unceremoniously dismissed his students before activating thousands of tiny sigils spread across and within his body, and teleporting back to his residence. Chapter 1 - an incident on the road They thought it was just a wildfire at first, the plume of smoke rising from the woods approaching them. The elven lands to the north, ruled by queen Hyrrie was always looking for an opportunity to invade, and the thought of a wildfire burning a path through the forest of Alm excited her. Luckily for the kingdom of Volst the fire didn''t spread, and their barrier forest remained, unfortunately for a trading caravan that happened to be on the road at the time, it wasn''t a wildfire, instead it was a fire demon burning it¡¯s way through the trees. The demon would later leave the woods and level three villages before finally being subjugated while it made its way to the nearby city. This story however follows the lone survivor of the trading caravan on that fateful day. ------------- Tost woke to the stench of smoke, he poked his head out of the wagon. ¡°Wake up pa, wake up, there¡¯s fire in the east¡± Tost said, shaking his father awake. Lars woke in confusion, but the reek of smoke confirmed what his son was saying and he stumbled outside. He looked to see the pillar of smoke rising far into the sky, illuminated by the sunrise it gave the sky a blood red hue. ¡°Hitch up the horses, I¡¯ll wake the others.¡± He rushed to the other wagons, there were 5 in total, including his own. The horses were spooked but compliant enough when they realised that Tost was hitching them up to get on the move soon, they seemed eager to leave and began pulling the cart over to the road. Tost held their reigns tightly and called to his pa ¡°The horses want away pa, we should hurry, the smoke is getting close.¡± That was strange, he thought, the smoke was close, really close. The other traders had woken and hitched up their horses, wheeling their carts back onto the road. Tost was staring into the dense trees and could swear he could make out a pair of eyes as his pa jumped on the wagon and got the horses moving. The horses took off at a blistering pace as a rumbling could be heard behind them.Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Tost jumped into the wagon to make sure all the crates were secure, the wagon had basic leaf springs but wasn¡¯t built to make a journey at this pace comfortable. They had piled a few crates to make room for their bedrolls and now one of those crates came crashing down, the sound of broken glass came from inside. They were transporting low grade magic stones from the elven kingdom, as they shattered they gave off a strange glow which seeped out of the gaps in the wood, it was a colour that Tost truly didn¡¯t know how to describe, a colour he had never seen before. His thoughts were taken away from the strange light as a scream came from behind them, he peered through the back of the wagon and finally saw the cause for the smoke. A Giant burning crab. Giant barely summed it up, it¡¯s gargantuan right claw was the size of their wagon, as a whole, it was the size of an average house. It was moving fast enough to keep up with the horses, fast enough to gain on them. It¡¯s claw was held forward, jaws pointing towards the rearmost wagon, it snapped shut and a ball of flame shot out, consuming the cart, horses, and rider in an instant. The wagon lurched as the horses somehow pushed themselves even harder, the crab demon saw its prey escaping and launched another fireball high into the sky, it arked over the traders and landed before them, turning the road ahead into a burning hellscape. The demon closed the distance near instantly and opened it¡¯s maw towards the carts. That same strange coloured light began flooding from the crates to the crab. Even more worryingly it was draining from the other traders and horses too, life leaving their eyes as it was taken. Lars unhitched the horses, grabbed Tost and threw him on one while jumping on the other, his eyes were wide with fear but he almost calmly said to Tost and the horses ¡°ride through the fire, it¡¯s our only chance¡± and kicked hard into the flank of his horse. Tost followed suit, hunching down as the horse made it to the flames, he heard the screams of his father to his side but he didn¡¯t open his eyes, the flames burned hotter than he could have believed, and he felt it as his clothes caught fire, the horse was staggering and eventually fell. Tost found himself on the burning ground, his hands and knees hurt where he hit the ground but the fire wasn¡¯t burning him, he looked over to his father, facedown and likely already dead. The demon approached, it began to drain that strange light from his dad as well. Tost closed his eyes. Behind his eyes he saw that strange light again, a ball of it, inside him. He knew that was what the crab demon was after so pushed it away, pushed it out. Through his eyelids the world went white, and then black as he lost consciousness. Chapter 2 - Burning dirt. Tost woke to the morning sun. The ground around him burned. It wasn''t grass, or brush, not even that strange burning mud from the swamps, peat, it was bare earth, and yet it burned. He didn''t know how many hours had passed, they had woken in the night but at what hour he didn''t know, but the fires around him had been going all that time. They didn''t hurt him, they didn''t hurt him back then either, he remembered the feeling of his clothes burning off his skin, he was sat naked now, and his skin was unblemished, if covered in ash. He grabbed a patch of burning dirt, flinching as his hands met the flame out of habit, but the pain didn''t come. The soil was sand and gravel, but in it he saw flickers of light, once again in a colour he couldn''t describe. He had heard of magic, of course he had, Lars could even do some basic evocations, start a fire, or provide light, but matches were just as easy, and lanterns more convenient for long term use. It dawned on him what the strange light was, octarine they called it, the colour of magic, though even among mages the ability to see it was considered rare. The octarine light glinted in the dirt, and flames leapt up from those sparks. He let the dirt fall from his palm, it was a peculiar sight, a burning stream of gravel. He remembered what his pa had said about it. "This earth is barren, there wasn''t even a forest here, thousands of years ago, nothing could grow. Ok, not quite nothing, but only the hardiest of plants, and so a wasteland stretched a hundred miles, dividing the human and elf lands, as the forest does now." Tost felt his mind drifting, but he welcomed it, closing his eyes and letting the memory take him back. "Ironwood trees didn''t grow on this continent before, but they were brought here from Igrar, they make better fortifications than stone if you have the tools to chop them, though it takes an adamantite or enchanted steel axe to make a dent in these trees. So nobles bought them and grew them, and they spread. They grow slowly, and rarely beat out other plants for resources, so they only grew where there was nothing else. And here where only the hardiest of plants can grow, well, ironwood trees are nothing if not hardy. "The forest wasn''t a problem for a hundred years and a hundred more, but slowly it spread and the plains of Alm became the forest of Alm. The elves were on good terms with humans then, so both sides made an enchanted corridor to keep a trade route open. It''s what we''re walking on now. Imagine it though, imagine enchanting soil like this to be even more lifeless.This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. His pa reached down and scooped up some of the dirt, pouring it into Tost''s hands. Tost returned to the present. He looked down the road, the demon had carried on south, it''s legs leaving deep pits in the dirt, and the canopy above was scorched. He wouldn''t follow it, not for a few days at least. He tried to remember how long it would normally take for a demon to be stopped, days usually, but sometimes over a week. He stood and strode back to the wagons, averting his eyes from a charred shape by a fallen horse as he walked back the way they had come. Of the 5 wagons only 2 remained mostly undamaged, the canvas had burned away but some of the crates inside were intact. The mana stones were cold and lifeless now, they didn''t glow with the octarine light they had before, but that wasn''t what he was after. He broke open boxes of tools, replacement horseshoes and rope, before finally finding what he was after. It was old man Tommen''s ration box. The blonde hard tack biscuits and pale brown pemmican was something he would normally dread having to eat, most traders carried these rations for emergencies, a broken axel or a lame horse could leave you stranded for days at a time, but now they were a welcome sight, easily enough to feed him for more than a month if it came to it, Tommen had stored rations for 4 after all. If he had water that was. He sat back on the ground and looked up at the sky, but it was clear and blue, and the sun was almost taunting him. There had been water in the wagon of course, a whole barrel full of it, but while looking for the rations he''d found it had poured out onto the ground when the wagon toppled over. As for the other wagon he could see the water barrel from where he sat, it had rolled away from the wagon, and then been skewered by the demon''s leg. He got back to searching and 15 minutes later he was sat back down with 3 waterskins, mostly full. A month''s worth of food, and less than a week''s worth of water. There was a river running parallel to the road, but it was about 3 miles to the east, an hour if it was flat ground, but this was the great border forest of Alm. It would likely take him the whole day, if he didn''t die to one of the animals of the forest before he made it. He decided he would camp near here for 3 days, then start the trek south, if he rationed the water he could make it last the whole week, and he should make it to edge of the forest by then if he started walking on the 4th day, he could only hope that the demon had been dealt with by then.
40 miles to the south a demon had passed the treeline and rampaged towards the northernmost city in Volst, Corridor (full name Corridor''s End), Grown through trade with the elves it was a bustling walled city of over 20,000 residents. The walls proved to be a liability though, the alarm was raised the moment the demon was sighted, they didn''t try to hold the walls, they simply evacuated, or tried to. There were only 3 gates in the walls in and out of Corridor, and the rush of bodies to escape overwhelmed them, people died in the stampede before the demon even arrived, some elected to jump off the battlements to mixed success. But the real nail in the coffin for the residents of Corridor, was the hellfire that the demon began raining from the sky. Of the over 20,000 residents of the city, less than 100 survived.