《Altera: Dreams do come true》 prologue PROLOGUE I looked at the sky from the rooftop of my building, lounging on a blanket with a pillow under my head. I waited. I waited, like I had been waiting since I was a teenager, for the end to come. At the time I didn¡¯t think that my end was going to be The End. It still didn¡¯t change the fact that a planet-killing asteroid is coming right at us. The various governments of the world tried to do something but there was no time. Apparently this was one stealthy giant rock because no one saw it coming before it was already too late to do anything about it. Everybody got the message. Humanity died tonight. As soon as it was officially declared everything became Chaos. There were riots in the streets. Looters, killers, rapists¡­ every kind of troublemakers decided to ruin the last day of life on Earth. I decided that today was going to be a good day for me, and so here I was lying on the roof looking at the Doom of Mankind. I could already see the various trails of fire that were circling the giant ball of molten rock. It looked Magical. No matter the end I was happy to have witnessed such a beautiful moment.If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. I didn¡¯t notice the change. One moment I am lying down looking at the sky. The next I am standing up in a completely white room. While I try not to fall, after this sudden and completely unnatural change in position from lying down to standing up, I take notice of the fact that I am not alone, but I am the only human being in this room. Describing the being would have been impossible, he existed in more than three dimensions, my head started to ache as soon as I put my eyes on it. ¡°Greetings Adam, you can call me Agent and I am here today to explain your new situation.¡± The entity said voice completely devoid of any feeling. I was speechless for a long time; I think anyways. There was nothing in the room to measure time with. After however long it took to reorient myself I asked my first question: ¡°Why?¡± after a few seconds of my question echoing in this empty room the entity responded still with its dead voice ¡°Your planet and most of its life forms have been destroyed except for a hundred member of each species that will be transported on the world of Altera. Altera is a world full of magic and of the numerous specimens that will be transported very few will be able to survive the transfer. The reason for this is because Nature abhors a vacuum and everything that is being transferred is completely void of magic. If however you survive the transfer and the rush of magic you will gain a reward. Now prepare yourself 10¡­9¡­8¡­7¡­¡± chapter 1 Chapter 1 As soon as I got a vague idea of what happened, and what was going to follow. I sat my ass back on the ground immediately, and tried to enter a meditative state. By the time the entity had finished its countdown, I was as ready as I could ever be. It wasn¡¯t nearly enough to deal with what seemed like an ocean of water trying to stuff itself inside my body. To avoid exploding like an overfilled balloon, I took hold of as much of this stuff, which I assumed was mana, and threw it back everywhere that was not my body: the ground, the wind, the trees and grass, the water in the stream on my left. Finally after the rushing ocean became just a trickle, and I learned to channel the mana subconsciously I allowed myself to pass out. I woke up and the first thing I felt was pain. I was sore like I ran three marathons; I had a headache; my stomach was killing me and my bladder was full. Actually that last fact meant that I didn¡¯t soil myself when the mana rushed into my body, so that¡¯s a positive at least. After some time waiting for the pain to go away, with little success, I opened my eyes. The view was magnificent. I was on a little hill, to my left was a little stream that flowed downhill to get lost inside a gigantic forest that spread as far as the eye could see. On the hill beside the water stream, there was only grass and an enormous tree with branches thicker than my body. Before I could even get up from my prone position on the ground something that I could only interpret as a notification appeared in my mind: Due to your actions during a mana overload you have learned the skill: mana cultivation For surviving intact and beating the odds, you have been gifted with the skill: elemental manipulation. It was extremely disconcerting, having all this information rushing through my mind at once from seemingly nowhere. But it was undeniable that I now knew how to take mana from my surroundings and channel it through my body and back in the environment again. I also knew that channeling mana through my body allowed my mana reserves to increase, that it could reinforce my organs, bones, muscles and that I could use it to replenish my reserves. While Elemental manipulation made me understand exactly how to use my mana to bend the environment to my will. After processing this new information for a few seconds, I took the time to focus, and like I expected this appeared in my mind: Traits World traveler: you have walked on many worlds; gain skill allspeak. Mana vacuum: you have no limit on how fast you can take mana into your body. Skills Allspeak: understand and speak every language written or spoken as if it were your mother tongue. Mana cultivation: ability to cycle mana within and without your body to increase your mana pool. Elemental manipulation: ability to move and control the elements in your surroundings. After I examined the information that the notification gave me, I decided to do what all the instructions videos that I ever watched on the internet tell us to do: look for water, shelter and food. Water was already taken care of; even if the water was not good to drink I could boil it with my skill. I should also be able to use the skill to dig myself a little burrow in the ground of the hill.so food was the most immediate of my concerns¡­there were fruits on the tree that was on the hill and berries in a few bushed at its base but I had no way to know if they were edible or poisonous. After several minutes of deliberations I decided not to touch any of them. Thanks to a few application of wind manipulation and a few bowls made of earth that I had created with earth manipulation I had five bowls full of what might be food or poisons. Sitting there in front of these bowls thinking of a solution I take a moment to appreciate the cycling of mana in and out of my body. This moment of reflection make me aware of the fact that each little mote of mana that comes into my body carries with it an impression of where it was before. This little detail is what led me to sit with the five bowls in front of me. I carefully channeled some mana into the fruit of this bowl and take the mana back. It worked! The first two gave very little impression but I clearly picked up the poisonous feelings of the third and I could feel the pure life that was contained in the fruit. After this little experiment I tried to eat the three types of berries that did not seem poisonous to my senses but while I could feel them nourishing my body they tasted bland. The fruit on the other hand tasted heavenly, and I could feel with certitude that all the damage that was done to my body yesterday because of the mana overload was completely healed. But the mana of the fruit itself carried a note of finality to it and I knew without knowing how that the fruit would not heal me anymore even though I knew they would always feed me.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. Fed and hydrated I was ready to start the construction of my shelter. I first had to decide how I was going to do it and where and from what materials¡­ these decisions were made trivial by my ability to mold earth as I wished. Even the bowls that I used to separate the different berries were quite solid even though they were made from dirt. I decided I would dig into the hill while making sure not to damage the tree or collapse the entire thing on me. To start I spread my mana in the ground under my feet to try and feel where the roots were so as to avoid digging there. as soon as I succeeded I knew thanks to the helpful interface dinging inside my mind along with the associated notification that I gained a new skill: mana sensing: sense everything your mana touches. While the information that this new skill was overwhelming I adapted to it quickly enough to use it to analyze my surrounding both outside and inside the ground around me .right now the information that my mind could process was limited, but I suspect that deeper cultivation would increase my skills¡¯ potencies. When I knew where to dig I sat myself in the lotus position and channeled as much mana as my body could take and pushed it in the earth with a very detailed and clear picture in mind. I stayed in that state the whole night. Exiting my meditative state made me very aware of the fact that staying immobile through an entire night is extremely painful. But even with the soreness my attention rested solely on the hole in the ground. It was exactly as I imagined it: one room, a bed along one wall, a table in the middle, a few air holes connected to a chimney and a space to cook on the wall opposite the bed. Now that all my needs were taken care of it was time to rest and experiment with my magic. But first I planned on going to sleep then. I took my first steps into my new home. A simple thought made the doorway close behind me. The only light that could get in were those of the air holes. But the lack of light did not bother me. I just received mana sensing a few hours ago but I could already use it to replace all my senses with very little concentration. I went to bed with a full stomach and a giddiness that was completely inappropriate considering Earth didn¡¯t exist anymore. Even the gloomy and depressing thoughts are quickly drowned by the fact that I can do magic! ¡®This is going to be awesome¡¯ was my last thought before my head hit the rock-pillow and I knocked myself unconscious. I woke up a few hours later with a bump on my head, and a gigantic dose of embarrassment. The most important thing to do today was to see if I could control only the four primary elements: earth, water, air and fire or if my ability allowed me to control other things.as it turns out; yes I could control other things. Once I discovered that I could control plants just like any of the four elements, I went a little crazy and put plant everywhere inside my little burrow. At the end of today I finally had the essentials to live by myself in this forest. Food; check, water; check shelter; check. Now that I had access to the fundamentals of my survival, I decided that tomorrow I would focus on my new passion: Magic. I woke up, ate one of the apple-like fruit that grows on the tree and readied myself. I sat myself in the lotus position, something I could not have done before starting my cultivation, and after a deep breath I focused the entirety of my attention on the pool of mana that I could feel in the center of my being; where my heart should be. In fact once my concentration was great enough I could feel a little pulse of mana that escaped my body with each heartbeat. After simply feeling my mana and heartbeat in unison I went deeper to try to see my manapool from the inside. Once inside the pool I could feel that the deeper I went the denser the mana became, and while the channeling exercises served to widen the pool, Nothing I tried deepened it. After a few hours spent looking and poking at my mana in its pure state to see how it reacted to certain stimuli. I decided to try and view the mana in the world round me. After taking a few motes of mana and sending them to my eyes I was able to see all the shapes and colors of the world around me. It was only after several hours of staring around me at this awe inspiring spectacle that my stomach growled and that I realized that I had become so lost in my new magic that I completely forgot to take care of myself. After eating, drinking and relieving I decided to approach my learning with a little bit more caution. But even now without mana in my eyes I could still see and feel the magic in everything around us. After thinking for a few minutes I realized that the more experienced I got at anything would slowly deepen my mana pool. I also realized that the deeper my mana pool was the more potent my spell, and the sharper my thoughts. While closing my eyes I tried to reach to the mana that I could feel around me. I was met with success. Each time I reached for the mana with my mind I got some impressions about where the mana came from, what it was doing but most importantly what it could do. And each new usage that I learned of I would practice obsessively. After a week of doing that I started to wonder about the lack of predator animals in my surroundings, this led me to the magical barrier that would make any animal bigger than a rabbit avoid my little hill. After discovering the barrier I spent an entire week just focusing all my attention to learning it, after all a S.E.P field is always useful, unfortunately while learning the pattern of the spell I would not be able to cast it until my mana density doubled or tripled. It was still useful after a few days of tinkering so that the various insects in my surroundings left me alone. I also discovered that the entity that sent me here set the barrier to fall approximately a month after my arrival. Learning this motivated me even more to learn all I could about the elements that I could bend to my will. This was how my next week of protection behind the barrier went: I would eat a fruit from the tree on the hill and spend the rest of the first half of the day cultivating my mana to increase the size my manapool. The second half of the day, after another fruit, was spent improving my ability to manipulate my environment to deal with any beasts that will surely attack me once the barrier dissipates. The last week I reserved solely for meditation; I needed to deal with the grief and sorrow that the death of my home world caused in me. While I had always been apathetic I still loved my family and my only friend. To know that I would most probably never see them again made me cry myself to sleep every night. So I spent the last week inside the S.E.P meditating without any distraction; I didn¡¯t experiment with my mana I didn¡¯t cultivate my mana¡­ I just meditated and thought of everything that I loved about my old world that I was going to miss and let them go one by one. After this last week I dealt with enough of my grief that I was feeling at peace with myself and with my new situation. on the last day, feeling the barrier starting to dissolve itself. I felt myself ready to leave my little home but¡­ something was missing. Deciding to trust my instincts I decided to wait another month at most. chapter 2 Chapter 2 The first week after the barrier fell was relatively simple. The only problem that I encountered was a pack of wolves that tried to ambush me. But once I used a few strong vines to strangle the biggest of them to death the others lost their courage and ran away. While the fight itself was pathetic, I managed to gain some experience in using my magic in combat. I was able to discover that to deepen my mana pool I had to fight. Deepening my mana pool made my spells more potent. While cultivating not only increased the size of my mana pool, it was also an excellent tool to increase my control. Two weeks after the barrier fell I was woken up early by a commotion outside my home. The wolves were back and they were harassing a panther as big as a pick-up truck. With the difference in size I imagined the panther would have little problems running away or fighting the comparatively small wolves but soon I understood what was happening. The panther was stuck fighting defensively because she had to protect her baby. As soon as I saw the kitten I launched my spells, six blades of wind, and six headless wolves. But it was already too late for the mother and only a single kitten of the litter still lived. With the wolves dead and her only remaining kitten safe for now she fell on her side and simply looked at me. She stared as if she could see my soul before taking one last look at her baby and releasing one last breath. she closed her eyes and went still as only the dead can. After burying the bodies of all the dead I tried to find what to do with the kitten.my first inclination was to let it go on its own. But each time I would try to leave, it would mew pitifully and I would see the eye of her mother as she lay dying on the ground. That night I slept in my hut with a baby panther on my chest. Having a pet, I discovered, was a lot of work. Thankfully she was weaned so the only thing I had to do was feed her meat or fish. I had decided before the barrier fell that I would not step a foot in the forest until I was ready to explore the world. This meant fishing. Of course; I cheated; I used mana sensing to find fishes and I constricted the water around them with elemental manipulation to keep them from moving and then I extract them from the water. Little Talia, as I decided to name her, seemed to like it in any case. It was also a good exercise of my control. While I didn¡¯t care for an animal companion on my journey. I would have to wait for Talia to grow up and also perhaps to train her a little bit in mana usage, just in case she is a magical beast, so that she could survive on her own if we decided to part ways. She should be big enough to take care of herself in a month or so. meanwhile I continued my preparations (having fun with my magic) for another month and then I would leave. Because of my procrastination It¡¯s been three months now¡­ Talia is bigger than some cars and my constant cultivation of mana has made my reserves big enough in my eyes. We¡¯re ready to brave the dangers of the world. I am so excited that I am shaking in my new boots. I made the boots and a cloak big enough to completely cover me with the wolves I had slain when they tried to make a meal of Talia and I. That reminded me that as soon as I found anything resembling civilization I would buy myself some clothes. The ones I was wearing are so ragged I looked like a vagrant. Deciding which direction to go to was important to me. So I used my wind manipulation to levitate myself far above my little hill; to the north is nothing but forest as far as I can see, same to the east and west. So we went south. Even though the only thing of interest there was a ruined structure of some kind. I took advantage of the travel there to test some of my ideas on the local wildlife. I avoided using fire for obvious reason, and only used lightning once so that I could cackle and shout about ULTIMATE POWER. Nothing particularly interesting happened until we were about halfway there. We heard voices, Talia wanted to hide and ambush these people but I hadn¡¯t had a true conversation for 5 months! I still wasn¡¯t born yesterday so I still kept both a bubble shield of swirling wind blades and a formfitting invisible layer of solid air around me while making obvious noises so that I didn¡¯t startle them too much. I arrived at the clearing where the people were just as a man with a gruff voice said ¡°admit it lass you¡¯re lost¡±. when I noticed them in the middle of an argument over an opened map of what I assumed was our current location. Seeing that even with all the noise I made in order to deliberately notify them of my presence, they still didn¡¯t seem to notice me. I decided to observe them a little before announcing myself. The first thing I noticed was that these two people were not human at all. The male was a dwarf, a fantasy dwarf, who stood maybe a little under 1, 40 meter in height. He was garbed in a suit of full plate armor with chainmail underneath. A helmet was in his right hand, a mace hanging on his belt next to a coin purse and a heavy looking shield nearly as big as him sat on the ground at his feet. His face was 90 percent beard and we could barely see brown eyes under his thick eyebrows. The second person was a fox beastkin, about my height of 1, 80 meter. she wore a mostly leather armor with a few plates, to better protect her vital organs I assumed. And a hood that was currently down letting two fox ears be seen between which red hair flowed down until it met a bushy tail; rusty red at its base and white at its end. Her back was towards me which is why I saw the bow slung across her back with its accompanying quiver full of arrows. At about 5 meters from them I finally tired of being ignored so I loudly cleared my throat. They jumped, clearly surprised but reacted with a speed that was commendable; the shield was kicked up in the dwarf¡¯s hand as he took a full step towards me in order to be between me and the ranger who in the meantime had bounded at least 5 meters away from me. It was quite obvious that these two were quite experienced to have reacted and acted so swiftly. Even if their situational awareness was shit. To avoid any unfortunate incident, killing animals was fine with me but it would have been different, I think, to have the blood of a fellow sentient creature on my hands I approached slowly with my hands in plain view and introduced myself ¡°hello¡± I said ¡°my name is Adam, I mean you no harm.¡± well let¡¯s hope Allspeak works all right. As I finished talking the dwarf shared a glance with the foxgirl who nodded once slightly. Immediately the two relaxed themselves and the dwarf introduced both of them ¡°hello to you too. My name is Magnus, the lass here is Elena it¡¯s nice to meet you.¡± ¡°Nice to meet you too¡± was my response after lowering my hands and approaching a little closer ¡°may I ask what you are looking for?¡± After a long stare, the foxgirl huffed and turned her head away Magnus responded ¡°well lad we are a bit lost. We are looking for a ruined castle that some oracles are saying has become a dungeon.¡± After thinking a bit I made my decision:¡±I know where you have to go but I would also like to receive a little help myself. I was transported, about 4 months ago, from my home world and I would appreciate some information about the lands, its people etcetera.¡± I responded. Feeling in this case honesty was the best policy. Considering that the girl relaxed after I finished talking she probably has an ability to discern truth from lie that Magnus trusted enough to let a stranger so close to him.¡± we have a deal then¡± said the dwarf. ¡°Okay then follows me and you can explain what you think I should know.¡± I responded and led them on their way to the ruins I saw from the sky before leaving my house. There was a little bit of a scare when Talia showed herself but there were no injuries and soon we continued our journey until nightfall when we were forced to stop or navigate in the dark.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Magnus for his part was true to his word and taught me all he thought I should know about. Geography, history, the different species, the tensions between some species and much more. With my augmented intellect and memory retention, that my cultivation brought me, I absorbed the knowledge like a sponge always thirsty for more. Elena didn¡¯t utter a single word throughout the day but she was on her guard and she made a great team with Talia. Killing every dangerous critters in front of us without Magnus or I having to do anything. In exchange I decided that evening to build a burrow, a sort of miniature of my previous home on the hill. The two adventurers were very grateful. We shared a meal. Once the meal was finished I closed the burrow except the air hole and we went to sleep. The next morning my companions and I continued our journey and I started asking Magnus about dungeons. What I learned was a surprise. Magnus told me that dungeons were there to purify the mana surrounding it when it was out of balance. The dungeon would suck up all of the surplus mana that caused a disturbance in the first place to create its core (generally a gem about as big as a pebble) once this task was accomplished it did what every living creature does¡­ survive and try to thrive.to do that it would grant rewards as bait so that people would come, and it would feed on the mana the adventurers released either passively or in its entirety, hence: death traps and monsters. Generally dungeons were a precious resource that could contain many treasures and they helped the country they were in greatly, Of course there were the corrupted dungeons that were the stuff of nightmares; Corrupted dungeons could send the monsters they created outside the boundaries of their entrances. These were dungeons that were enslaved by men or demons and that were transformed into monster making factories. Once a dungeon was corrupted the only choices was to destroy the core of the dungeon, killing it. Once we arrived at the site of the ruin the two experienced adventurers could indeed confirm that it was a dungeon. Even I could have told something was different. The mana that was released by the ruins was completely untainted, as if it was just born into this world. It was an amazing thing to feel even though it wasn¡¯t long before this purest of mana encountered something that would taint it a little, and make it feel no different than the mana I sensed since I got the skill. Once it was confirmed that we were indeed in front of a dungeon they had a few options on what to do: They could go in, assess what level it was at right now, determine at which danger class it belonged to from E- to S+ and see what kind of monsters were inside. Or they could go back to the guild to report that there indeed was a dungeon here, at which point they would most likely get sent back here to assess the dungeon anyway. Plus it was easy money; generally newly spawned dungeons weren¡¯t really dangerous. The assessment was just a way to determine what type of environment and enemies adventurers should expect to meet before the dungeon could become truly dangerous. I decided to accompany them but to make Talia wait outside, making sure to stay a few paces behind them to not be a bother but close enough still see what happened. I even got to be useful a little: I conjured a ball of light that hovered above our heads. As soon as I took a step into the dungeon itself I got quite the surprise. I could no longer sense anything that was not inside the dungeon. Magnus noticed me stumble and explained ¡°we are no longer on Altera right now; dungeons exist in their own dimensions separated from the real world. The entrance is just a point to affix the portal to so that it can lure people and animals in and feed itself.¡± ¡°Thank you for explaining all of this to me Magnus, but I can¡¯t help but be intrigued by the lack of surprise when I told you of where I came from.¡± I inquired. ¡°That¡¯s because your story is not the only one of its kind, some people even believe that the first people on Altera arrived in the same way you did.¡± Magnus replied without taking his concentration away from the front, ready to interpose his shield between himself and both his companions. Nothing attacked us in the first room; we just had a few pitfall traps that made my ball of light on the ceiling a breeze to avoid. The second room though had little green humanoid creatures armed with what could generously be called spears ¡°Goblins!!¡± Magnus spat before charging in the middle of the group of eight goblins. Before he event swung his mace once Elena had already launched an arrow that struck one of them in the throat. After Magnus killed another with his mace I made my attack¡­ spikes of stone grew behind the goblins that remained and impaled them right where the heart would be on a human. After this little scuffle the goblins bodies disappeared and were replaced by a few bronze coins. The rest of the dungeon was more of the same, a few goblins that I killed either with spikes of stone or blades of wind. Before long we found ourselves in front of the boss room. here Magnus asked me not to interfere, when I asked why he responded ¡±we have to assess the dungeon and while all goblins are more or less the same killing them quick was acceptable, but every boss is different so we actually need to assess this one.¡± And so when we entered the room and except leaving the ball of light above our head I didn¡¯t interfere. The fight was not really difficult, except for being larger, stronger, and faster than the previous ones this goblins only real quality was that he could spawn two wolves to fight with him. Once the loot, 1 silver coin and a necklace that would be appraised back at the guild, we found the room with the core in it. Magnus explained that it was forbidden by the guild to enter a core, room except for the corrupted one that had to be smashed.it was also a custom to leave an offering once upon leaving with no deaths so I decided to leave the last of the fruit that I had left in the boss room. Magnus left a wooden sculpture of some kind and Elena left a dead bird that she killed outside the before entering the dungeon. Once we had made the offerings we got out of the dungeon. It was already twilight so we made camp in front of the entrance and I gathered my courage for a few minutes before asking ¡°could I become an adventurer like you?¡± ¡°Sure lad, your magic is mighty impressive and you didn¡¯t freeze once in there.¡± He said. At this moment I was extatic, being an adventurer meant true freedom for me¡­.i wouldn¡¯t have to live like a savage in the wilderness all alone but I would not be forced to stay cooped up in a city with too many people around. I was also excited about traveling all around the world, meeting interesting people, killing powerful monsters. Delving into the dungeons earlier, even if it was extremely easy, made me feel alive like never before; the tension of waiting for an ambush or a trap to be sprung, the adrenaline of a fight (as short as they were). I wanted more of it. ¡°How could I become a part of the adventurer¡¯s guild?¡± I asked. ¡°Normally you would have to go through a test to determine if you are good enough for the guild but in your case I¡¯ll be able to assure the higher ups that you¡¯re good enough and this kind of reference should be enough to waive the tests.¡± Magnus explained to me, and then he started to explain how the guild functioned; basically people who wanted stuff done posted requests at the guild. From vermin extermination to the escort of wealthy merchants or caravans. The guild is also the go to organization when it comes to monster extermination or dungeon monitoring, explaining why I had met them here. While Magnus and I had been talking it seems Elena and Talia had taken it upon themselves to hunt for our dinner. After we were done eating I stood and found myself face to face with Elena, she had a very determined look on her face and kept looking between me and Talia. ¡°Lass wants to bond with the cat.¡± Said Magnus on the other side of the fire from me.¡± ¡°Bond?¡± was my reply. ¡°Yeah rangers like the lass here always form bonds between themselves and a magical beast. Elena here must have taken a real liking to the cat to want to bond with her.¡± After hearing this information from Magnus I thought for a moment before saying ¡°I don¡¯t have a problem with Elena and Talia forming this bond as long as Talia agrees¡± after agreeing as Elena produced a knife from her sleeve and made the tiniest of wound to herself before doing the same to Talia. After that they both sucked the droplets of each other¡¯s wounds and that was it; no lightshow. After nearly 5 months of hard work I finally managed to reproduce the S.E.P field that protected me for the first month of my stay here so tonight we would be able to sleep soundly without danger without a night guard. Plus I was cheating a little, channeling certain kind of mana produced different results for example if I was channeling earth mana through my organs, blood and bones I could artificially increase my strength and durability. Different elements had provided different buffs so by bettering my magic I was also increasing my other abilities. After all I was always subconsciously channeling mana through my body. After the fights I could already feel the difference both in the potency of my mana and a how much more control I had over it. Already I could see myself as a great wizard who could create tornadoes with a snap of their fingers or make the earth tremble. It was with thoughts of power and freedom that I went to sleep that night. chapter 3 Chapter 3 ¡®Waking up to the sound of these birds is going to get old really fast¡¯ was the first coherent thought of my day. But there was no denying the fact that I was now wide awake. Rising from the patch of soft moss that I grew just right to feel extra confortable at night. I looked around to spot my companions still emerging; Magnus appeared to be wrestling with his sleeping bag and mumbling about having bird for breakfast, and Elena was lounging on Talia, eyes opened but having no desire to get up whatsoever. As for Talia she just huffed and closed her eyes again. I spent the time my companions needed to wake up to think about my current situation. I believe myself versatile enough to become what Magnus referred to as a solo adventurer who, like me had acquired the abilities needed to work alone. But while I lacked this experience I had enough skills, I think, to compensate for this gap. Deciding to wait for Magnus to wake up fully to ask my questions, I got up and used my magical ability to wash myself. Deciding to spend the time before asking my question I took a meditation pose and played around with my mana a little bit without any real purpose to it when I detected something alarming.With my better control of my mana came a greater control of my skills. One of my skills; mana sensing, allowed me to sense my own body to a greater extent than before, and I discovered that some of my mana channels were atrophied, nearly completely calcified. I was horrified and tried to think of something to remedy the problem at once. Remembering my various experiments during my four months of isolation I recalled that nature and light mana had healing properties when added to water mana. So I very carefully filtered what mana was allowed inside my body while grabbing every spec of the three types I needed to me. Once I had a good enough amount under my control I created a cycle inside my body to those areas where mana was not flowing strongly enough most of these atrophied areas were in my legs. When I thought about it I nearly facepalmed; I never cycled my mana through my legs only my torso, head and arms. Well only a fool doesn¡¯t learn from his mistakes and I am not a fool. So I spent the next two hours cycling mana carefully through the atrophied sections until they were good as new. During this time Elena and Magnus were just finishing their morning rituals. We were just about ready to go. When I asked how long the journey would be. Magnus told me it would take a little over a day if we walked but if I felt up to running through that we could be there in 3 to 4 hours. I thought the run could be a good exercise for my multitasking ability to see if I could run, channel mana to my body and keep taking mana into myself from my surroundings. An so we ran, and while dividing my focus between everything that needed my attention something good happened: Due to your effort and perseverance you have created the skill Multitasking This skill lightened the strain that keeping up with the others put on me until now a lot. Indeed now with 1 thought process dedicated to my intake of mana, another that dealt with my usage of mana and a third to observe my surroundings. It was this part of my mind that saw the three arrows that were about to kill us. My ability, allowing me to see the arrows in advance, made me react fast enough to create a wind shield around us while I tried to look through the trees to spot our attackers while the wind shield stopped the arrows I prepared my magic to deal with our attackers, my two companions also reacted swiftly, Magnus readying his shield and moving in a better position from which to protect us and himself. Elena for her part swiftly notched an arrow to her bow while searching the trees around us. She, for the first time in my presence spoke. It was a simple question ¡°put the shield down when I say so¡± after overcoming my shock at hearing her talk I responded ¡°no need. It¡¯s a one way shield we can still fire from the inside¡± a nod from her was my response before she fired her arrow, a second later a shriek of pain resounded from the area where Elena had shot. At this moment a dozen goblins emerged from the brush and charged us. I replied with a bolt of lightning that from this day forward became known as chain lightning¡­ While the smell of burning flesh made my companions quite unhappy with me, this last series of kill pushed me over the threshold of my first breakthrough I was excited to see what kind of skill I was going to get. Congratulations you have reached your first milestone you are now a High Sorcerer. Before there were runes, symbols, totems, foci. When there was only nature before men, before beastkins before elves or dwarf. There was magic and this magic was sorcery was Sorcery. As a sorcerer it is only possible to create spells by yourself. Gain skill Spell creation. When I announced that I had reached the first breakthrough and gained a class Magnus cheered for me, I got a spit filled lick from Talia and even a barely heard ¡°congratulation¡± from Elena. When I tried to use my new skill I got a blue window in front of me, after half an hour of trying I finally managed to create a spell it was the same spell I used to light the dungeon earlier. I thought the spell would be useless to me except that as soon as I finished designing the light ball I could feel it in a sort of list in my mind. A simple thought and a light ball appeared. While for little spells like the light ball the skill creation was useless; the more complicated spells were nearly impossible to cast in combat. Up until now I relied primarily on raw elemental manipulation except for the wind shield and chain lightning. After the fight we searched the goblins for anything of value and apart for some coins that they let me keep there was nothing of value on any of them. This little bit of excitement completely ruined the rhythm of our running and we were barely an hour¡¯s walk away from the town so while we walked I used my new skills to design my spells, spells to fight, to heal, to transport me or allies. I designed dozens of spells and feeling them in the back of my mind waiting for just a thought and a little mana to make my wishes come true; it was pure bliss.This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. After about an hour and a half of walking we finally arrived at the small town named ¡°Everwoods¡±. It was one of the few outposts that existed in the central forest of the Terraria continent. I realized quickly that if I hadn¡¯t had the chance to meet Magnus and Elena I would never have been able to find the town on my own. Every building in the town was carved from the massive trees that were everywhere in this forest making it impossible to spot them from the air and even from the ground I had trouble seeing some of the carved entrances. Magnus, seeing the awe on my face, told me ¡°the druids created most of this by channeling mana into seeds that were planted in the ground and fed mana until it became what you see today. It took about a month of work.¡± ¡°What about a wall isn¡¯t it exposed if monsters attack the town?¡± I asked. ¡±the walls have to be made by hand so it takes a lot longer, in the meantime there are regular patrols every day and night.¡± Magnus responded promptly. I followed Magnus to the tallest tree in town. The shield with a sword and staff crossed in the middle of said shield was carved above the entrance to the building. I was right in assuming that the building was the adventurers¡¯ guild and the symbol carved above the entrance was surely the guild¡¯s emblem. Upon entering the building I noticed that the atmosphere of the first floor was quite jovial. This fact was explained as I saw that it was a bar, probably intended to let the adventurers relax and share stories of their adventures with their fellows. For now we apparently did not have time to take part in the festivities because Magnus led me to the stairs leading to the second floor. Apparently Elena was not needed for this next part because she did not even bother entering the building and stayed outside with Talia. Once on the second floor Magnus led me to the only other person on this floor; a rather pretty young woman with brown hair tied in a bun and green eyes that sat behind a desk. She appeared highly concentrated on what she was reading and motioned us to wait a moment before she said ¡°Hello Magnus, who is that with you? You were supposed to come back here with Elena and¡­¡± Magnus was patient, waiting until she had exhausted her list of question before introducing me ¡°Ashley, this is Adam a young adventurer with a lot of potential and raw talent.¡± Then turning to me he said ¡°Adam, meet Ashley, she¡¯s the boss around here. She assigns some mission, deals with the recruiting and a million other tasks I don¡¯t know nor care about.¡± turning back toward Ashley he started to relate what happened and what they found in the ruins. Ashley took the hint and began to write a letter to her superiors in the guild for instruction about the dungeon. Once done, she turned to me and said ¡°Even with Magnus¡¯ recommendation I will send you on a quest to deal with a cave full of goblins, you will be monitored by one of our scrying bowl, depending on your performance during this trial you may be rewarded by a higher rank in the guild than you would¡¯ve had with only his recommendation. Do you accept this quest?¡± she asked. My answer was straightforward:¡± Of course I accept. Where is this cave?¡± she then showed me a little rocky hill on the map just next to the place where I was transferred to. After placing my hand on a bowl, filled with a strange liquid that I assumed was the scrying bowl, I went out the door. Once outside I took a deep breath and used one of the utility spell that I had managed to create successfully. My feet left the ground, and I was flying! This spell was a refined version of the little levitation I did to look around my surroundings before leaving my hill. This time with a proper spell, I couldn¡¯t just levitate, I could fly. And quite fast too as not even 5 minutes after my feet left the ground, I was forced to stop to examine the cave from above. I could spot the few sentries meant to warn the rest of the goblins of any threat. People just never look above them. Dealing with the sentries was just a matter of sending bullet shaped projectiles of wind into their head, from the air. After that I decided that subtlety was useless and landed atop the little cave, verifying that there were no hostages with Mana sensing, I used my earth manipulation to make the little cave collapse on them while sealing the entrance. After spending a few more minutes making sure no goblin was hiding anywhere, I went flying back to Everwood¡¯s adventurer¡¯s building. When I opened the door I was greeted by silence this time. That and the fact that everyone was looking at me with looks of awe. I was trying to understand why the attention when I saw Elena pointing at the back wall. On this wall I could see myself seeing myself infinitely until the image blanked out. Shrugging off the looks and whispered conversations about me I went to the second floor. I asked ¡°Why was my trial viewable by anyone?¡± My tone was quite hostile. Ashley responded quickly ¡°I Know Magnus and he wouldn¡¯t have recommended you if you were not at least a B-rank in the guild but I couldn¡¯t just hand out a B-rank to a newbie without dealing with a riot in the bar so I set it up to show everyone that you deserved the A-rank I am now giving you¡± She said while giving me a badge, with the symbol of the guild on one side and the letter A on the other, and a bag attached to a belt. Before I even thought to ask she told me ¡°Magnus told me that you were a Transferee. in there is everything that you might need, the bag is a Bag of Holding with infinite storage, there is also your pay for the extermination job. To bind the bag to you, just put a little blood on it¡± and just like that my anger evaporated. ¡°I¡¯m sorry I was so hostile just now, it¡¯s just that I don¡¯t like the attention much.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it, I was expecting it, I should have warned you in advance.¡± After an awkward silence, I asked for a place to sleep, she gave me the keys to a room, located on the third floor. I was so grateful to see a true bed for the first time in 5 months that I nearly wept. I sat on the comfortable mattress and looked at the content of the Bag of Holding that Ashley gave me; Except for some readings about the region, its inhabitants and other, uninteresting but important to know, the only things that were in there were 1 gold coin, and some clothes that finally allowed me to get out of the rags that made me look like a hobo, if it weren¡¯t for the full cape made of wolf skin that I wore proudly, over my shoulders. Getting out of my clothes, I profited of the occasion to use one of my more foolish spells called shower. It worked as designed and once underneath the cover of my S.E.P field I crashed on the bed. I was asleep before my head hit the pillow. Chapter 4 Chapter 4 I woke up to the sound of blessed silence. For the first time in 5 months I didn¡¯t hear any bird singing in the trees over me, which is weird, because I was literally sleeping in a tree. Getting curious about this lack of singing I extended my mana sense to discover that the room I was in was weaved with strong silencing magic. Examining this net of magic woven through the walls allowed me to improve upon my S.E.P field a great deal. That plus the lack of noise upon my waking put me in a great mood to start the day. Washing myself, I tried on for the first time the clothes that Ashley got for me. They fit me like a glove; she must have a keen eye. After donning the outfit I used the badge that Ashley gave me yesterday as a clip to tie my wolf skin cloak. I must admit with the new clothes and my cloak on I looked quite dashing. Finished with my preparations I took the stair back to the first floor in order to see if they could give me some breakfast. The room was empty right now except for a barmaid I went over to the bar and asked ¡°do you serve breakfast here please?¡± ¡°Yes sir what would you like?¡± she responded with a practiced smile ¡°some bacon and scrambled eggs if you have that.¡± ¡°Yes sir we do please take a seat.Your order will be ready shortly.¡± I decided to take the seat furthest away from the stairs in the corner in order to look at how the adventurers handled each other in the morning. It wasn¡¯t long before the first patron came into the room, some come from outside the guild but most of them come from the third and fourth floors of the building they all sit at a table, nobody seemed to have noticed me when me breakfast arrived. I try to eat fast because the crowd is starting to make me anxious when Magnus comes to sit in front of me with a serious expression. His expression makes me stop shoveling food in my mouth and with a heavy swallow I ask ¡°what¡¯s wrong? ¡° He replies by asking a question of his own ¡°what are you planning to do now?¡± I reply with an honest ¡°I don¡¯t know; travel the world, see interesting places, meet interesting people, kill monsters ¡­. You know just be free. Why?¡± he answer by asking another question ¡°alone?¡± It is at this moment that I understand what he was asking: if I wanted to join him and Elena on their adventures. ¡±the truth is Magnus that I am not good with people¡­. I prefer to meet people in small doses and on my own terms. I consider you a friend but I do not want company all day everyday like would happen if I joined your adventurer team. I think that i am versatile enough to compensate my being a solo adventurer. I¡¯m sorry that I couldn¡¯t accept your generous offer¡± ¡°don¡¯t worry about it lad¡± he replied while clapping my shoulder ¡°I had a feeling you were going to say that. Still good luck out there on your own it¡¯s a dangerous world.¡± ¡± I will and thank you for everything¡± I replied before he went out of earshot with Magnus¡¯s question about what to do with myself in my mind I finish my meal, got up from the table paid the bill and headed to the board where I can see some quests that needed to be done. While I would like nothing more than to fly around all day doing nothing but look at the world from on high I still need spending money and while the one gold from my initiation quest is a lot for common folks for adventurers it¡¯s a different story¡­ each time they leave a town they have to buy supplies, repair their weapons and armor and a dozen other things that make it so they have to be extremely careful with money.Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. I on the other hand had less worries to have except for clothes I can make do with my Elemental manipulation; I could heat or cool myself depending of the temperature I had taken quite a few branches so that I too could live in a treehouse. This morning before my conversation with Magnus I saw what I think was a mage of some sort. He carried a staff with a beautiful crystal on its top. This made me think of something that every sorcerer or magician needs¡­ a focus to channel their power through. This led me back to my point of arrival all those months ago. If I concentrated really hard and extended my senses I could nearly sense the spacial fracture that my arrival caused. Anyway I did not come here to reminisce I came here because I wanted a badass staff that I created myself. After sitting in front of the tree that had helped me with its fruits and that I helped by feeding it my excess mana every time I cultivated beneath its branches this time I used my Elemental manipulation to gently separate the branch that I had taken the first fruit from without damaging anything. Once the branch was separated I hollowed it out and cut myself to fill the hollow piece of wood with my blood, I did that while stimulating my body to create more and more blood so that I didn¡¯t die like an idiot. Once the wood was filled to the brim I put it in a basin that I filled with yet more of my blood so that my future staff was completely submerged in blood. Once that was done I stopped bleeding myself and closed the cut. After letting the staff submerged in my blood for the night I went to bed to rest while preparing myself as much as possible for what I would do the next night. There are three states that matter can be in, liquid, like water solid, like ice and gaseous, like steam. What I was trying to do was compress all the blood in the basin to create a true blood gem. After what seemed like an eternity I stood tall with a round crystal in my right hand and a staff that stood at 1, 40 meter tall in my left hand. Both items were the same color which was blood red and the gem produced a little light that was difficult to see in the light of the sun. Once both those items had been inspected and found to be without any obvious flaws I put the blood gem on top of the staff and manipulated the blood soaked wood to wrap and affix the gem atop the staff. Once the gem was fully embedded in the Staff a small energy pulse traveled from the staff and into my body. While the staff was mostly for show and as a test for future equipment the fact that it allowed me more control of my spells was welcomed. But I wasn¡¯t really here just to create my staff and reminisce the goblins were apparently not the only vermin that were starting to cause problems in the area. While I had exterminated the goblins that were living to the west of my starting point, eastwards some scouts had spotted what looked like a Kobold warren. Kobolds are small bipedal creatures with scales that were a nuisance because they like to dig beneath the ground and if left alone long enough they started to create sinkholes that could be dangerous. To deal with them I took control of the stream that came from my little hill and simply flooded the warrens. The kobolds that didn¡¯t drown were forced to emerge from their little hole where I waited for them with an air blade. I got so distracted by how boring this turned out to be that I let one of their shamans send an earth spike my way, if I didn¡¯t reflexively cast my wind shield at the last moment I would have died! After verifying that I had killed every one of them and burned the corpses to ash to avoid having to bury them, I retreated to my little home on my little hill and thought. I castigated myself heavily. I had been treated this new world like a game but this was life, my life and life is not a game. I realized that from now on this was my life, not a game. And my life was precious! this realization led to my decision to spend another month in this little burrow on my hill¡­ here I had all the essentials and I could fly in five minutes to Everwoods if I needed to. I would spend the next few months to change my mindset, create true spells instead of the various funny spells from before and try to find out more about magic through meditation. chapter 5 Chapter 5 I spent the next year like that, One month of meditation to become more in tune and cultivate my mana with brief interludes to imagine and design spells. At the end of the month I would go to the guild and look for an extermination request that would allow me to test my spells in combat. Once I completed the quest, I got my money and left to go back to my hill and spend the next month just like I had spent the last one. For a year I worked like a machine to improve myself. And it showed; my thoughts felt sharp, my senses worked overtime and I could maintain a skintight and invisible air shield between the world and myself permanently, even while sleeping. I even tried to see how I would do as a fighter instead of a caster; I channeled my mana into my muscles, tendon, ligaments and bones and manage to kill an entire cave full of goblins with just the power of my body¡­.I didn¡¯t like it at all. It left me covered in gore and took two hours for something that I could have done with magic in 5 minutes. It made me really grateful for the gift that I received upon entering this world. Today would be the last time that I would finish a quest in this guild hall. This time it had been humans that needed to be dealt with. I was shocked the first time I was handed an extermination quest to kill bandits that had raided a caravan. After I took the quest I was afraid that I would not be able to bring myself to kill another person. I was wrong; as soon as I saw what the bandits had done to the women captured, they became as insignificant to me as any other vermin I cut off their throats and while they bled to death I went to tend to the women. As soon as the women were clothed and a little less shocked I guided them to the road where the rest of the caravan waited. Before they could start thanking me for doing my job I returned to the bandits¡¯ camp and I spent the night hanging their corpses from trees along the road. The warning had worked. Until today that is, this time the bandits didn¡¯t even have the chance to raid anything. I was talking to Ashley when the scout came with a report of bandits just a few kilometers south of Everwoods. I took the quest immediately seeing as I wanted to perfect my chain lightning spell and it works better on people with swords to conduct the current. After my test and a few wind blades to the throat to be thorough I came back and here I was. The year had passed in the blink of an eye but now, finally I would begin my exploration of this new world. After a heartfelt goodbye to Ashley, Magnus and Elena, I decided to start my exploration by seeing how the dungeon that Magnus, Elena and I had discovered had developed. I heard a few stories and descriptions when I went to the guild for my monthly quest but I wanted to experience it firsthand. From what I heard the dungeon had gotten a second floor about 4 month ago so I flew to the site; some newbie adventurers were already queuing to enter. Being an A rank adventurer I could enter without waiting as long as I reigned in my aura. These thoughts about aura made memories of a conversation with Ashley about this very subject ¡°your aura is the mana that is expelled naturally out of your body, you should probably train yourself in suppressing it, in some cultures not reigning in our aura could be considered a challenge¡± I asked the guard at the entrance why I should suppress my aura and he responded with what I expected: a powerful aura like mine in a newborn dungeon like this one could cause it to lash out and become too aggressive, which could increase the number of deaths in the dungeon. So I took a firm grip on my mana and squeezed all of it in my body behind a barrier that I created in my skin it wasn¡¯t exactly comfortable but I could see the use of it. For example with slight tweaks here and there I could become invisible and with my suppressed mana would be difficult to sense. After I reigned in my aura I finally entered the dungeon, what I found on the first floor was little more than an advanced and more labyrinthine version of what we found the first time so I rushed myself a little to find the boss which had changed from what I had remembered, this boss was a goblin shaman that really liked his fireballs. After testing what the goblin could do for a minute or so I took its head off with a wind blade. After killing the boss and earning a silver coin and a wand able to cast the spell fireball 5 times I headed to the second floor. While the loot was trash to me, you could pay yourself a decent meal with a silver coin. It was just useless to me because I am completely self-sufficient¡­. I just need a seed, that are kept in stasis, and mana to grow myself my own food directly.If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. While I was thinking of the loot, my feet led me down the stairs to the second floor. It was a veritable jungle. It was moments like these that reminded me that I was literally no longer on Altera, but in a pocket dimension. Anyway after a moment to look around, and see what kind of threats I might encounter, I continued to follow the trail that was barely visible through the thick foliage. I was ambushed by snakes and other small venomous animals all the way to the clearing where the boss was waiting for me: It was a panther, the same kind Talia is. I let the boss get a glancing blow on me once or twice because I didn¡¯t want to completely spit on its pride but even these few blows never got past my skintight barrier. After pretending to struggle for 5 minutes or so I killed the boss and got the loot, this time it was a claw-shaped dagger and 3 silver coins. Before leaving I extracted the carcass of a massive grizzly bear that I killed for a mission a month ago from my Bag of Holding. I seriously loved Ashley for giving it to me; everything that was put in it was held in stasis until you took it out again and to put anything inside of it all you had to do was place your hand on the item and thinking on it going into your bag, there were only 2 restrictions that I could find after a few tests the first one was the size of what you wanted to put in; you couldn¡¯t put an entire house inside for example, the second was that you could not put any animal or human inside as long as they were alive. My offering to the dungeon made I proceeded to leave. It had taken about an hour but there was plenty of daylight left. I decided that I would travel to the Wild lands first. west of the central forest on the Terrarian continent. Leaving from the dungeon directly west should put me in the Wild lands close to the borders of the beastkin kingdom of Karabor. According to legends in the distant past the Wild lands was a flat land full of tall grass where all people could enjoy an idyllic life, when I was told this part of the story I was skeptical but the second part interested me much more; it is said that there was a group of evil mages that tried to open a portal to allow demons to invade Altera but that a group of heroes managed to interrupt the ritual that would have opened the portal. The destabilization of a ritual with enough power to reach another world and tear through space was so cataclysmic that it left the lands where the ritual took place a place of perpetual chaos. It is also said that only the greatest of mages can survive in the Wild lands all other die due to the harsh environment or the great beasts that were mutated by all the energy released when the ritual was broken. I should have probably chosen a less dangerous and unpredictable area of this new world first but no matter how much this year and a half changed me it didn¡¯t change the fact that I didn¡¯t like interacting with strangers. The only reason I made friends with Magnus in the first place was because I was lost alone in the wilderness and I needed a guide, even then I kept a wind barrier between me and them at all time these first few days and Ashley became a friend only because Magnus introduced us and I was forced to speak to her to take quests for the guild. Don¡¯t get me wrong I was, I think, a good friend and I would help my friends with anything they asked of me but someone had to do something to earn my trust like Magnus and Ashley had done for me. So, after a last look from the air at Everwoods and my little hill with the great trees that had grown even bigger as I fed it my mana during my cultivation sessions I took off in the direction of my first true adventure. I flew through the day, spent my night securely behind magical barriers that were every bit as strong as the one that protected my little hill on the first month if not stronger, I also added an alarm that would wake me up should anything managed to cross this barrier. The flight from Everwoods to the Wild lands took just short of 4 days but I knew immediately that this was going to be truly dangerous. Patches of the ground were frozen solid, tornadoes stopped and started on dime lakes of lava would suddenly appear without warning, it looked hellish. I pondered turning back and heading south to Karabor; the beastkin kingdom. But I found my courage and took the first step towards the unknown. chapter 6 Chapter 6 The first few days in the Wild lands were hell. I was forced to constantly adjust my barrier to keep from breathing in the various noxious fumes, to keep from freezing to death or to spontaneously combust¡­ the only way I managed to stay alive in this hellish landscape was my ability to cultivate. Cultivating mana was the art of taking mana from the environment, cycle the mana in your body and then return it to the environment. After a few hours during which i had to create a thick barrier to ward of the unnatural occurrences and maintain a breathable atmosphere in the barrier. I was starting to feel my mana reserves dwindle to nearly nothing, so I sat down and cultivated, that is when I discovered the secret to survive here. because as soon as I started to take in the chaotic mana into my body the environment outside normalized a little and put less strain on my barrier but on the inside the taking in of chaotic mana nearly made me explode. That is how I spent the next day; while one of my minds was taking mana into my body the other three would work as fast as possible to stabilize the chaotic mana that threatened to kill me from the inside. Without multitasking I would have died as soon as I started to cultivate. This chaotic mana was the reason for the harshness of the environment. Once I had found a way to calm down the chaotic mana in my body I tried to replicate the feat on the outside of my body. While the task was much harder, the reward was an instant return of the natural world around me, instead of the previous unpredictable state things were in before. Of course this calm was just a temporary state, already I could see the chaotic mana trying to claim back this land that I protected. These various discoveries led me to use my class skill spell creation to create a barrier that would automatically calm down the mana in region of space of a few feet from me, while the chaotic mana would try to dismantle my barrier, each time it came in contact with it, it would return to its normal state and stop attacking the barrier the creation of this ward plus my S.E.P field allowed me to fall asleep after a truly exhausting day. I was woken up from my restful sleep by the alarm that I had tied to my S.E.P that was supposed to go off if anything crossed the boundary. I was instantly on my feet with a ball of light behind my head to not get blinded. What I saw was a mutated spider the size of a bear, venom dripping from its fangs ready to pounce on me. I sent fire at it, a veritable flamethrower came out of my arm when I saw it keep moving I use wind from my other arm to increase the intensity of the blast. Once I was sure the thing was cooked thoroughly I approached to see what kind of thing managed to get past my wards. What I saw was an amalgam of creatures that was completely unnatural. I should have expected this really, the chaotic mana in the atmosphere didn¡¯t only cause unnatural weather phenomenon, it also mutated the wildlife. I would bet my life on the fact that this thing that I killed was so mutated that it didn¡¯t even have a proper mind¡­ my ward¡¯s purpose was to take your mind off the area after all, for something with no mind, just basic instincts the S.E.P field was useless¡­. I was going to have to rework my ward if something that dangerous managed to get in. The next day saw me walking through the thoroughly devastated landscape. Behind the same ward that allowed me to survive yesterday designing another ward that I would use to sleep tonight to avoid the same kind of incident. I was slowly piecing together what needed to be where to fool an animal¡¯s instincts. My efforts were not helped by the fact that today for whatever reason all kinds of mutated creatures were trying to eat me, nothing truly dangerous, that could not be dealt with by a wind blade or a lightning blast, yet. Which added to the pressure to finish this ward fast before something truly dangerous finds me. Finally after long hours of walking and killing abomination I managed to come up with a ward that should be able to make me invisible to these monsters. I also think that I managed to figure out why they kept attacking me; they needed this chaotic mana to live off of, and I was basically calming the mana in the zone around me. Even if this calm state was only temporary they didn¡¯t have enough intellect to just wait it out. My new ward was the same as always but I added a thin outer layer of what looks like chaotic mana, this new layer is not only going to keep the chaotic mana outside my bubble from trying to get in it is also layered with a shocking ward that would give the creature that touches it a small shock; like what a farmer would have done to keep his cows in their field. This ward would also be connected to an alarm in case shocking it wasn¡¯t enough and I had to deal with this matter myself with more firepower. I wandered the Wild Lands for months, looking at beautiful vistas, battling for my life against monsters that could have swallowed bears in one bite.in one word; freedom, and it was fantastic. While I mainly stuck to the Wild Land sometimes I craved a little civilization in which case I would go back to Everwoods to talk to Ashley and Magnus when he was around. Or like this day I would go into one of the kingdoms today I was simply window shopping in one of Karabor¡¯s cities¡¯ market when I heard a man cursing in English, ¡±you speak English?!¡± I asked, shocked, in the same language. The man as shocked as i was replied ¡±yeah! Are you from Earth too? ¡°He asked me with a look of wonder on his face that I was pretty sure was present on my own face; leaving to find a better place for a private conversation. We rented a private booth in a restaurant down the road from where we met.The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. After ensuring our privacy with a little bit of magic. After we were seated I started us off with a quick ¡°I¡¯m Adam White. What¡¯s your name?¡± ¡°Jordan, Jordan Erikson¡± after this somewhat awkward introduction we found ourselves sharing our stories and while Jordan was amazed that I managed to cultivate my mana so swiftly he shared his own experience with me. While I had reacted fast enough that I had a little time to prepare myself, Jordan on the other hand was completely unprepared when the mana rushed into his body. This had basically crippled him: the local healer, who had seen to him after a member of the village carried Jordan to her, did all she could but she was still amazed that Jordan had survived at all; according to the old woman, he had what she called a mana rush. It was something she had only seen once before and the person who this had happened to simply disintegrated into dust. The old healer had been able to keep him alive and his body sore but healthy but he had been completely locked out of his mana pool. But in this world everyone uses mana, from the farmer to make his fields healthier to the delivery man who ran faster thanks to the mana in his legs. But Jordan, instead of bemoaning his fate and wait to die had gotten to work, the mana rush had left his body healthy but in dire need of exercise and with a trait that allowed him to increase his body without limit through effort he made a very swift recovery. Once recovered, he insisted on helping the village for lodging and feeding him. The fact that he was getting stronger while helping those who had helped him was just a bonus in his mind. It was at this moment that Jordan created a routine for himself; He would get up, make a 100 push-up, and go around the village and help where he could then he would go back to his temporary home. An old couple had died earlier this year and that house was the only one available that was close enough to come when called but far enough away that his constantly escalating would not make them worry or take pity on him. In fact he; like Adam, yearned for adventure but would not leave the village until he had repaid what he owed the villagers: his llife. This opportunity came faster than he could have anticipated. One night while he was finishing helping Fred tend to his fields he saw twenty men rush the village while he was wondering what was happening someone in the village enlightened him by yelling ¡°BANDITS!¡± at the top of his voice. Realizing what was about to happen Jordan took the scythe from Fred and ran toward the bandits. The bandits never made it even halfway to the village. Because Jordan even without mana had spent months training to fight people like this. He would be a Hero this he vowed. After looting what appeared to be a good two-handed sword from one of the better equipped bandit. Having repaid his debt to the villagers Jordan decided to leave and see this new and amazing world¡­ well that was the plan until he encountered a priest of Terra who gave him a quest. Apparently Terra, the primary goddess of the world, had sensed that the barriers that held the chaos that existed in the Wild lands from flooding the continent of Terraria were starting to weaken. That was why she had charged one of her priest to find one of the of the people that were transported from Earth and give him a Bag of Holding containing twenty crystals that would transform into dungeon cores once buried in the earth. The priest then promptly left before Jordan could demand anything of the priest. Jordan was completely willing, thrilled even to have received such a quest from a goddess that would determine the fate of an entire continent. He just knew that he was not capable of accomplishing this quest on his own, he would need a powerful mage to help him on his quest but none had been willing to even consider travelling into the Wild lands. That was what he had been doing for six months up to the moment he met Adam. Adam for his part had no desire to get tangled up in the affairs of gods and goddesses, but he, too had noticed that the barrier that kept the chaotic mana in the Wild lands was on the brink of collapse. So with little choice in the matter Adam joined Jordan and they prepared themselves to brave the wild lands for months at a time. After all dungeons require time to grow and they would need to feed them once they formed. To be more efficient they each went to their own tasks; Jordan would look for a general supplies store for health potion and healing salves and other necessities when staying away from civilization for some time, while he did that Adam bought dozens of empty small mana crystals that he would fill in order to feed the dungeon mana. He could have fed it without he medium of the crystals but he had heard somewhere that dungeon grew faster when absorbing neutral mana, probably because of the purification process that was a dungeon¡¯s primary purpose. Once the two companions found themselves together again they verified that they had everything they needed and once they confirmed it they departed swiftly, Adam flying as was customary followed by a bubble of air with Jordan inside in fetal position and who kept repeating to himself ¡°don¡¯t look down, don¡¯t look down¡­¡± over and over again. After twenty minutes of flight Adam landed them just outside the boundary that kept the chaotic mana hemmed in and stood analyzing the barrier while his companion kissed the ground after recovering from his traumatic first experience with flying. Jordan made to go in but was kept from doing so by Adam ¡°What are you doing? We need to go in there, and fast or the entire continent will die!¡± Adam responded to this shouting by calmly replying ¡°I haven¡¯t had the chance to enchant the amulet that will keep you from dying in like a second dumbass.¡± Adam replied with scorn. He continued with a less hostile tone ¡°Plus we will have to travel far from the boundary before we plant the first dungeon or we risk destabilizing the entire barrier and there¡¯s no way to do that in half a day. I¡¯ll start working on making the amulet after I erect my wards and it should be finished tomorrow when we wake up¡± Jordan, feeling foolish for getting angry so unjustly apologized and started to set up his camp when he started to try and organize turns to keep watch Adam explained about the wards he raised every night before sleeping. Taking his sleeping bag and waiting for the sun to set, Jordan watched as Adam took an entire bed and mattress out of his Bag of Holding and kicked himself for not thinking of doing the same. After that, Adam sat on his bed and started to fill the empty mana crystals that he bought earlier. Once the few dozen crystals were filled they both went to sleep hoping to get some rest before they could truly start the task that the goddess gave them.