ã€ŠAshes of the Primordialã€‹


 Prologue: Ashes to ashes, dust to dust

    With the upcoming shutdown of the servers for Ragnarok Games¡¯ deep dive VRMMO, ¡®Ashes of the Primordial¡¯, the player log of those online for the final night was depressingly empty-looking. The game was revolutionary in its brutal realism. Realistic pain levels, base starting stats and abilities, reward systems that allowed players to advance leaps and bounds ahead of their peers and more were parts of what made the game stand alone as both a product idolised and reviled for its inequality between players. The company defended their actions saying that, among other reasons, not everyone was born equally, and the real-life skills and condition of their players is something they wanted to be rewarded and reflected within their game, at least at the start of character creation. That was part of the balancing between players, not everyone might be equal at the start, but luck was the great equaliser and hard work and chance encounters could elevate even the most dismal status into that of a god. Some players even found difficulty once their status got too high-levelled in trying to handle keeping up with their own abilities and speed in combat.

    The reason that the game was shutting down despite arguably still being in the prime of its business is another of the quirks of the company running the game. The final world boss of the game, Sutr of Primordial Fire, had been beaten, and they had maintained from the start that that was the be all and end all of their world. Six months after the boss was finally felled, so that the fellers could have the chance to revel in their sweet loots, the servers would be shut down and the company would begin work on something else.

    Those six months had finally passed, and the night of closure was upon the players. The vast, vast majority had already called it quits months ago, seeing no real point in six months of effort that would only be a waste of time. Some few tried to spend six months spending every copper bit they made in their play time on half a year of legendary celebrations. Fewer still were those who tried to maximise their grinding to reach the highest level they possibly could, just for the challenge of it. That summed up the actions of the entire remaining player base save one individual. In fact, that individual was something of a legend and a mystery almost as much as those lore-infused tales provided by the game itself.

    He was the one who had effectively single-handedly ended the game by soloing the final boss. A feat believed to be impossible had been handily achieved by Ammanas, Guild master and sole member of the Ashen Verdict. Curious already to outsiders in that he was part of a guild with no other members, he was legendary for his silence and mystique. No player had ever heard his voice, had a conversation or partied up with him. He ran the entire game solo, save for the minions he summoned as an extension of his class. And with only 5 minutes until server shutdown, he finally stepped out of a portal within the boss room of Sutr after a gruelling six months of non-stop battle. The funny thing was, that was actually the reward for defeating Sutr. An opportunity to gain unheard of power, an apparent kick in the guts for those who would gain it for they would have no chance of using it. It was a sort of arena gauntlet featuring waves of ever more powerful and difficult opponents and the chance for betting on the outcome. Realistically, the developers would only expect the raid team that bested Sutr to last maximum 100 waves.

    In the interest of not hampering the rewards and potential of the encounter by assigning their own preconceived ideas of how good a team could possibly be, they assigned an AI as overseer for the battle and rewards, giving it free reign to design increasingly difficult waves and therefore increasingly greater rewards. 100 waves, depending on the number of breaks utilised, longer breaks being allowed every 10 waves with only a half-minute between individual waves, would take a maximum of a day for a raid team capable of defeating Sutr. Strange then that Ammanas would only complete the encounter six months to the day of finishing the World Boss fight. He almost drove the AI mad in its task to find increasing jumps in difficulty, with the fights towards the end practically being a war between Gods.

    Ammanas was the product of a perfect combination of base stats, hard work and chance encounters. There was no one on the planet more gifted than him when it came to reaction time, intelligence, tactical planning, speed and so on. With a work ethos that even an 80hr a week worker would admire, and unbelievable luck in finding hidden areas and quests, chance encounters with NPCs combined with the benefit of not having to share rewards with party or guild members, he snowballed his way into the top position on most conceivable leader boards the game cared to come up with.Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

    He actually started the 8-year career of playing the game as a beta tester for Ragnarok Games, helping them test the most hardcore aspects of the game in development. As reward and thanks for testing so extensively for them he was given certain advantages that lasted him until the end. Bottomless storage, an evolving mount from the start and all tiers of riding skills as well as a custom skill of his own design within reason. He chose to bargain the skill for the ability to train any and all companions of his with combat AI¡¯s that were adaptable and could evolve and level with him. This gave his summons and pets and even his mounts the abilities to improve through combat or training he gave them, albeit they started at level 1 once they contracted with him. This also gave his companions unique personalities that grew along with him too, something quite useful for spicing up the life of someone who plays solo. Another boon he received that worked in the favour of everyone is that he asked the developers not to put a limit on the number of crafting trades a single character could develop at any one time, as long as they were willing to spend the time and effort, and often stacks of gold, required to max any and all professions, they were welcome to it.

    He spent an entire year of his AotP career in maxing every trade and learning every recipe. Many of the players didn¡¯t realise that some of the best gear in the game came from dismantling corpses of bosses and then making the armour yourself, with a suitable level of profession of course. His entire gear set was self-made using template recipes and substituting boss materials in the place of standard ones. He still had the materials from Sutr sitting in his storage on top of the item drops from killing the boss. He was lacking the spare time for making anything with them, spending all his online time of the last 6 months in gruelling combat, much more challenging than even the boss fight with Sutr once it got to the higher-level waves. He lost track of the wave counter and the AI overseer found it funny to withhold the information from him, even until the end, but his estimates placed it close to ten thousand. It was worth it.

    Titles are rewards for achieving feats of strength, acquiring lucky fortunes and being the first individual to complete a given task. They also came with tangible benefits, awarding bonus stats, unique abilities or even legendary items associated with the story that provided the title. Killing Sutr gave him two different titles. One was called ¡®Slayer of Primordia¡¯ and allowed him to absorb power from defeated enemies much the same way a Primordial did, born as they were from chaos and beings of pure energy given form. That power was different from foe to foe, sometimes stat points, sometimes unique skills, sometimes health and mana to add to his total pool. The other title was called ¡®Unbounded¡¯ and removed his level cap. A strange reward some would think considering after Sutr there weren¡¯t too many challenging enemies to give suitable experience. However, taking into consideration an arena gauntlet with ever more powerful and higher levelled enemies it was actually quite the opportunity.

    An opportunity embraced with open arms by Ammanas. The level cap for Ashes of the Primordial was 250 for players and NPCs and 255 for raid bosses. A homage to the octet integer value utilised by most games of the 20<sup>th</sup>and 21<sup>st</sup>Century with character levels. His current level, however, was 1001. Most stats came from the equipped gear of a player and titles, however just from the base stat increase from being such a high level, his stats were nearly 25 times the standard of high-level players total stats including equipped gear prior to Ammanas actually equipping any gear or stat boosting titles. He actually asked the AI overseer to enable him to limit his stats with a toggled ability, to which it complied on the basis that such a valiant effort was deserving of an extra reward especially when the desired request was actually reducing his power, albeit on a toggle.

    With the ability to rest for the next few minutes, Ammanas once again began to work his way through the rewards, both items and the less tangible kind, as well as his status and latest attributes to distribute. In this manner, the countdown passed leisurely along until the final 30 seconds. Server announcements came blaring across thanking players for the patronage of the game, and for their loyalty in staying until the very end. With well wishes and the promise of an even grander adventure waiting in Ragnarok¡¯s next game, the announcement heralded the last moments of virtual light the realm of Ashes of the Primordial was going to see. All the remaining players across the various realms, planets, continents, cities and within their own player and guild housing, looked up to the sky as the countdown hit 10 seconds. And as one their voices rang out to accompany those final flashing digits as they hit 0 and it all faded to black, the players being forcefully ejected from the servers and returned to the start-up hub of their dive pods.

    However, the waiting white light of the hub never greeted Ammanas¡¯ eyes. Instead his consciousness too faded to black along with the server, only to awaken to unfamiliar sights when his all-too-realistic, tired eyelids cracked open.

 Chapter 1: Sorry Cave, it was an accident..

    A gentle breeze whistled past the mouth of the cave, not having the strength to move the stagnant air sitting inside. Along with that air, sat a figure bundled in heavy brown and black robes. Woven from an unknown material, with a glowing green trim of runes flowing up the legs and hugging the hem that bespoke an unholy source of power. Strange for a robe wearer, a mixture of hardened leather and a dark metal were sitting atop the shoulders in the form of pauldron similarly lit with nefarious green energy. From between the layered spikes atop the pauldron oozed tangible shadow tinged with a poisonous dark green flame. Bone spurs poked out from the back of the robe and pierced partially through the back of the pauldrons, fusing the two pieces together. The tips of these spikes of bone were currently scraping the rock from the wall in time with the rise and fall of the unconscious wearer¡¯s chest.

    A hood covered the head and a mask covered the face, hiding all features from the world. In fact, the entire body was covered; where the hands exited the voluminous sleeves, gloves covered hand and wrist. Where feet poked out from beneath the hem, sturdy slippers coated exposed skin. Despite the covering nature of the outfit, where not even eyes could be seen behind the green tinted visor that sat within the lining of the mask, no obvious injuries were present to speak to the unconscious state of the figure. The breadth of shoulder and back, the flat of the chest and the impressions of corded thews from within the folds of the robes hinted that the figure was male.

    Despite the vulnerability of the figure, clearly unconscious against the visible wall of the cave¡¯s mouth, any beasts that approached out of the forest that started twenty metres beyond quickly turned tail and fled. If any person was present they would not blame the beasts, the weight of danger and death pressing down upon any in the vicinity.

    With a flare of that aura of promised violence, the different types of birds that called the trees their home took to the skies in a cacophonous screeching. The beat of wings in terrified flight as natural enemies flocked together in their escape, toflee that flare of danger. A flaring that coincided with the cracking open of the figure¡¯s tired eyelids. With the fluttering of the eyes beneath the mask, and the surging return of clarity to an unconscious mind, that aura swiftly withdrew into the figure with an almost audible SNAP. A groan accompanied stretching of stiff muscles, something that usually accompanied exiting the dive rig after a longer session of play time. With the pop of joints and the stiffness thoroughly stretched out, the figure finally froze in place before glancing sharply at the surrounding scenery. The realisation that something was wrong came first from being in a sitting position despite supposedly just exiting a dive, and the distinct lack of the pod that would normally encase the person exiting.

    ¡®What the shit¡¯, Liam slowly thought. Swiftly standing up and smoothing out the robes that were the armour he had crafted, and subsequently worn, out of a variety of materials from some of the highest-level bosses in the game, ones not well known to the wider player base as they were within a hidden rift that was a doorway to an area called Helheim. Now he knew something was wrong. You could always tell you were within the game, the constantly visible and not able to be disabled HUD at all times let you know that very fact to prevent players from confusing virtual with reality and losing track of their actual lives.

    Strange, then, that the familiar armour and body of his virtual avatar would be present where the HUD was not. Not only was the HUD not the only hint but certain senses were removed from the game in order to assist with keeping reality sickness to a minimum. Temperature was unable to be felt as it normally would, the only idea given on if it was too hot or cold was the sensation of pain and the context of the environment to figure out which one it was. But the surprising heat of the inside of the robes, not to the level of sweating though, told of reality and not virtual despite the armours presence. A strangely familiar yet completely foreign body was also what Liam found himself in, and he knew both from the familiarity of the feeling and the armour he had draped over him that he was in his Ashes avatar, Ammanas.

    Once that realisation that something had gone very wrong with the server shutdown fully settled in, Liam quickly checked his surroundings for threats before trying to activate his HUD. What greeted him was not a burst of relief upon the return of his HUD. Instead, blinding white pain surged through his mind, a searing pain with a pressure that was building dangerously. Liam grunted, all the action possible before he was totally paralysed from the abject agony, before pitching forward and smacking into the ground in a heap, trying to clutch at his head with his useless arms. The pressure kept building and Liam was positive there was about to be a messy, cranial-themed splash art along the cave¡¯s walls. Upon reaching a torturous crescendo, a loud ~ding~ rang within his mind before the pressure just dropped away.The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

    With it, a gasp sounded in the cave as the pain slowly faded, until he could roll onto his back and finally clutch at his head. He tried to remove the hood and mask, now claustrophobic in the wake of his suffering, but the heavy material absolutely refused to be removed. Now frantically tearing at his head, he scrabbled with the lip of the mask but despite prying his fingers just barely under it, it would not lift no matter how much force he applied.

    ¡°GET OFF ME¡±, he finally yelled out. The sound of his voice an echo that thundered through the cave. The yell also echoed within his mind as he fell into panic. As the last word was thought, as if it were never there at all, the mask dropped off his face and disappeared. Liam heaved a deep breath, finally free of the face hugger. Scrabbling his feet to push his back against the wall, the floor of the cave was carved out in furrows wherever he pushed his foot and his back slammed against the cave wall. Instead of pain, there was only the surprise and the sensation that the wall was touching his back even as disturbed dust and small rocks fell from the roof. The panic clouded his mind, making him momentarily forget that currently he was not Liam Rowe the 24-year-old from Melbourne, Australia. He was Ammanas, Master Warlock and True Ancestor Vampire, an immortal being with the created body of a 20-year-old Drow male.

    Drow was the race he chose to begin with, but one of the mechanics of the game was being able to be infected with vampirism or lycanthropy should the respective being bite you and you survive it but don¡¯t seek a cure. He actually sought out vampirism because the advantages meshed well with his playstyle. The changes came with both advantages and disadvantages and even had their own skills and upgrades to the racial tree. The biggest disadvantage, a painful weakness to sunlight, he nullified with covering his skin with clothing of a magical make, doubling as cover to keep his appearance hidden from other players. He became a True Ancestor vampire as a reward from a hidden questline which eliminated almost all disadvantages to the race, other than the weakness to silver though that was slightly reduced too. He was the only player that he knew of with the race and he spent a great deal of time and effort, as well as a generous helping of blood, sweat and the occasional watery eye in maxing out the skill trees that came with it. It could be noted that the majority of the blood generously though unwillingly came from other people.

    Sitting contemplatively within the furrows carved out of the ground, Liam settled his attention upon the cause of the ~ding~ that saved him from a messy and explosive end. His HUD was back, though not visibly. He could sense all of the information that it normally gave him as a sort of sixth sense. The menus were there, and he was now aware at all times of the status of his health and mana pools, though the numbers were so mindbogglingly high that it was a moot point. His inventory apparently still functioned, since the focus and mental command he yelled out freeing himself of his mask was what unequipped it into his storage and with some mental focus he found his entire collection within his inventory still pristine and accounted for. With a thought, he could pull anything out of it or put what he owned into it.

    The shock came when he thought about the menu options that would take him to the log out button, a button and option that was glaringly absent from his mental list. Apparently, he was stuck, stuck in whatever crazy place this cave happened to be. To prevent the onset of panic, he figured it was time to orient himself in this world to properly get a grasp of the situation and for that he needed to embrace his adventurous alter-ego. No longer thinking of himself as Liam, he fully stepped into his role as Ammanas and decided that the first thing he would have to test is if his magic still worked. Second on his list was trying to summon one of his contracted demons, then a mount and a pet. Then he figured some exploration would be in order, hopefully meeting some form of life to check the relative strength of the realm, and then onwards to civilisation! If it existed that is.

    Well, no time like the presentAmmanas thought, bounding to his feet. He looked further into the cave and decided to start small with his magic. There was a pillar of rock further in that joined floor and ceiling together, and he set that as his target. With a thought and a point of his finger, a shadow coalesced on its end. The darkness rapidly expanded and condensed into an almost solid form before hurling itself at the pillar. The resulting BOOM that blasted shredded rock and a wall of air out of the mouth of the cave was certainly unexpected though it did nothing to damage or even move him slightly. Any normal being in the vicinity would have been shredded into unrecognisable pulp by the shrapnel before being picked up and thrown several meters back. The ceiling of the cave above what used to be a pillar had caved in, and rubble and clouds of dust replaced what used to be the back of the cave.

    He realised that despite shadow bolt being one of the weakest spells in the game, with his stats it was comparable to some high tier spells of other players. Despite the destruction that was caused, it showed him that his magic still worked just the same as it did and that the environment he was in was very fragile compared to the high-level areas in the game world. There was the option of shortening power by reducing the mana put into a spell down to tier 1, or the starting level of a spell, so he figured that any recreational magic use in the near future would be scaled down unless he wanted to do some serious remodelling. A success was a success, looks like it was time to summon a demon.

 Chapter 2: Hello Orobas my old friend

    With a thought, and a small wave of his hand, a circle of Solomon appeared on the ground before him. Even with this step he knew it would work, but the Demon he would call upon would be useful beyond proving whether or not he could summon it. Once the runes that encompassed the border of the circle finished burning themselves into the ground, a tear in space appeared within the circle¡¯s confines with a POP. Inky shadow began to leak from the tear, and with an increase of his mana powering it, the leak became a deluge. It spilled out with gusto, crashing upon the circle¡¯s borders but not able to move past and once it had filled the circle into a pillar of shadow that touched the ceiling, it folded in upon itself, condensing into a humanoid shape. The shape was tall, standing roughly 6¡¯5¡± and it was immediately apparent it was not human. Before even revealing itself, the triangular ears atop it and the long snout growing out implied lycanthropic features, an implication made real when the shadow faded and in its place stood something that could be mistaken for a werewolf.

    The gangly body would have been skeletally thin if not for the corded muscles that clothed it. From the neck down it looked human, other than the grey-blue skin, and its fingers that were unnaturally long, tipped with metallic claws seemingly sharp enough to poke a hole in you from the mere act of looking at them. The wolfish head was true to its appearance, ferocious and snarly, displaying an impressive accoutrement of large fangs that almost looked too big to fit. The eyes were mismatched in colour, one filled with black and rimmed with what looked like blood, the other was the milky white of the blind, save for the golden rim in place of the blood of its fellow. Leathery wings sprouted from its back but were folded neatly behind and its skin was bare of clothes save the leather leggings that ended mid shin. It grinned savagely at Ammanas as it stepped out of the circle that he had just waved away. The growl of its voice came forth in an amused tone. ¡°Master¡±.

    ¡°Orobas¡±, Ammanas greeted with a slight nod of his head.

    ¡°You¡¯re finally in need of a sneak?¡± Orobas replied with an even wider grin.

    ¡°Of a sort. You¡¯ll be scouting the area for me; it appears we¡¯ve found ourselves in an entirely different world.¡± Ammanas didn¡¯t really have much need for Orobas once he got to the higher levelled areas and became familiar with them. This strange demon was known as a Baikou demon. Its type was well known for their superior abilities in all manner of shadowy activities, sneaking and spying, assassinations and espionage and so on. They were frail in a straight up fight compared to others of their level but their overwhelming speed, wickedly sharp claws and a wide range of abilities allowing for escape from tight spots meant they were hard to kill even in an ambush. Implying, of course, you managed to catch one in the first place. Whilst the softness of the ground and cave he was in told him he was in an area of low danger, the fact that he was not in fact within the game also informed him that that idea might not carry across in the same way that his avatar seems to have. It was prudent to play at caution until he had a general understanding of the power of the local lifeforms.

    The unnaturally wide grin seemed to return to more normal proportions when he heard there wouldn¡¯t be any action beyond some sightseeing and cartography on his master¡¯s behalf. A chance to stretch his long legs didn¡¯t come too often, though, so it was not an opportunity to miss or complain about too hard. With an underwhelmed grunt of understanding, he turned and loped to the outside before stretching out his leathery wings and snapping them down. The whoomph of displaced air announced his departure. Ammanas didn¡¯t spare him a glance however, as he was already working on calling forth one of his pets. He also wouldn¡¯t have seen him anyway, for as soon as Orobas took off he had already thrown the notorious invisibility of the Baikou about himself.

    Instead, he was debating on whether to call forth an animal companion, an elemental or one of his lesser familiars. He decided to go with a mix between two and opened a portal into the realm his pets were kept in. Out of the purply void flew a large, black bird. The raven circled around the cave as much as able before turning back and landing upon its usual perch. Its usual perch was a staff that Ammanas had removed from his inventory, a gnarled and slightly warped branch from an unusual silver wooded tree that had an offshoot towards the top. The almost perpendicular offshoot served well as a resting place for Edgar, one of his familiars. He always enjoyed raven¡¯s as pets, especially with the unique nature of the companions he could call forth and train, as they just suited his look as a warlock and mage of the darker arts in addition to their quite impressive intellect and personalities. He leaned the silvery wooden staff towards him and reached to scratch the back of the raven¡¯s head. Edgar nuzzled into his hand before cawing at him softly, his form of a greeting. Ammanas smiled at him, revealing surprisingly regular teeth.

    The vampire teeth were actually a full second set that snapped down in front of the normal ones at will. The front four were more like hollow needles that had an outlet for the blood to flow through when puncturing prey. The rest were very solid and sharp, more for tearing and ripping than chewing. Not that he really needed to bite or drink from anybody anymore, once he got his race upgrade, he could essentially suck the blood essence out in a beam of blood red mist similar to some of the drain spells of his warlock class. But they were another weapon at his disposal and they didn¡¯t get in the way, so he was actually quite happy with the setup. With his demon, pet and magic systems all working perfectly he had a pretty strong inkling that his mount system would work as it should too, as it was essentially an extension of the pet system. However, any big and flashy mounts, especially flying mounts would be awfully eye-catching and although he was confident in his ability to take on pretty much anything, pride goeth before the fall after all, so caution was advisable.

    Deciding to put a hold on any mounted movements for now, especially since he could move much faster on his own through a forest than on any ground mount, he headed finally to the exit of the cave and into open air for the first time. Before crossing the threshold, he withdrew another mask from his inventory and equipped it. This one was for changing appearance, in case the locals didn¡¯t take kindly to other races, however without any knowledge on what the locals were, he left it blank.

    The mask was based on a doppelganger¡¯s appearance and so the default look was of a doppelgangers appearance. His normal dark blue skin, high cheekbones and handsome jawline as well as the rest of his quite attractive face melted away. In its place, pasty, chalk white skin that looked bled of any and all colour covered a round, smooth face with black holes in place of eyes and an absence of any other features. Two thin lines crossed each other in the middle of the face, what would be an actual doppelgangers lips for their entire face opened out to form the mouth. Not being an actual doppelganger, these lines were merely decoration.This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    He decided not to tone down the armour however, despite its frightening appearance. It was of exceptional high quality and gave ridiculously high stat bonuses and boosts to spell power and his mastery of chaotic and dark energies. Perhaps the slightly unholy and frankly demonic appearance would help him intimidate his way into some information. He just hoped the local life was sapient and humanoid.

    Walking with the help of his staff, Edgar still perched atop it quietly, he stepped outside and beheld the world stretched out before him. It was trees. Trees as far as he could see from horizon to horizon, though the trees did get taller and denser further in so maybe something was hidden beyond his sight. Orobas would let him know once he found something however, so he walked further out into the clearing between the cave and the tree line and turned to look at his present shelter. The cave was formed within the base of what looked to be a volcano. It was possibly a lava chute that had met surface air and the inside had been eroded or dug out further. He couldn¡¯t see any smoke coming from the peak, figuring the cave would be warmer if lava was still flowing within the mountain, so he took it to be dormant.

    A rustling and creak of trees in the forest snagged his attention away from the volcano and cave, turning towards the sound to see an absolutely massive boar. It looked to be 7 feet at the shoulder, though for boars that was pretty much head height too, and tusks the length of his arm sprouted from its lower jaw. He tried to appraise it with the game system, but nothing happened. Edgar, too, looked intensely at it momentarily before losing interest, perhaps thinking this was still the game. How the AI governing his personality still functioned outside of the game baffled him but the snorting and huffing of the boar as its piggish eyes locked onto him brought him back to the situation at hand.

    It charged at him, the ground shaking with its stride, but compared to his reaction speed it was practically running in slow motion. He was slightly disappointed at the lack of threat and was preparing to dispatch it with a shadow bolt of a much weaker level than his previous when it exploded. His vision was disrupted as its head turned into mist an instant before a cloud of dust exploded from the ground and spread through the area. Ammanas watched expectantly, already having an idea of what happened. An idea that was confirmed a moment later as the dust cleared and in place of the headless boar, whose body was slightly driven into the ground, stood Orobas who stared down at his kill with amusement. Apparently, he had finished scouting and decided to dive bomb the poor beast with invisibility active as it charged at his master. The sense Ammanas had of Orobas had told him he was nearby moments before the boar was killed though he wasn¡¯t really focused on the sensation.

    ¡°Report¡±, he commanded as he stared at his summon. Despite his frankness so far with the demon, he actually got on quite well with him, with all of his summons and companions actually, a result of his ability to evolve the AI that governed them and as an extension to develop their personalities too.

    Orobas grinned at him again then spoke in his growly voice. ¡°You¡¯ll be interested to know that the forest basically doesn¡¯t end within the short time I had to fly it. Except to the right of your magnificent home here which faces south, so you¡¯ll be wanting to head west for 10km.¡±

    ¡°Anything of interest beyond or within the forest?¡± Ammanas couldn¡¯t be sure that there wasn¡¯t sapient life living within the forest, such as a stereotypical elven or fae community, so it was possibly a good idea to head further into the forest instead.

    Orobas nodded. ¡°A couple of villages are relatively close to the edge, with a town I could see probably 10km north-west of one of the villages. Humans from what I could see in the ones I flew over. I stayed away from the town for now ¡®cause I wasn¡¯t sure how good they are at detection or if it was warded. It seems to be a major town.¡±

    Ammanas tilted his head down and touched his chin with one hand. ¡°So it was fortified then?¡±

    A grunt of assent followed that question. ¡°I¡¯m thinking there¡¯s something that threatens them in the forest, but all the beasties I saw were steering well clear of you, so I¡¯d say you¡¯ve let your aura slip and it was more than enough for these lambs.¡±

    ¡°Yes, I was unconscious for a while it seems, I wouldn¡¯t have had control over it then. Well, might as well hit one of the villages first to get a clue before heading to town. I¡¯m getting a medieval feeling from what you¡¯ve suggested so far, so if they have minor settlements near the forest then there should be a city further west, and hopefully a library. Let¡¯s head out whilst the sun is still rising. would you prefer to stay invisible or do you want to glamour yourself?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll glamour myself, I haven¡¯t interacted with any fresh meat in a while.¡± The grin went back to its sickeningly wide proportions again, before his demonic face changed into that of a human. A tall and handsome human, with suntanned, leathery skin. His face was angular and sharp, with an aquiline nose and a smattering of sandy hair atop his head. Smile creases formed crow¡¯s feet next to his eyes, which were similar to the eyes of his natural self. One milky white, one with a dark, almost black iris but they lacked the colourful rims.

    He was suitably toned, like he¡¯d been working a field all of his life and looked to be somewhere in his 40s. Dark leather clothes of a fine make materialised about him, shoes, pants and a vest with a white, cloth, short sleeved shirt beneath. The glamour was complete. If Ammanas wanted to, he could focus his eyes slightly to see beyond most illusions, his high willpower preventing others making him see what he didn¡¯t want to when he willed it but he was content with interacting with a human face for now. It made him feel slightly less lonely, despite not interacting much with others anyway back home on Earth. At least he had the option then. Ammanas set his own mask to a human appearance that made him look like Orobas¡¯ son with the same hair and similarly sharp features. He figured if Orobas chose this look then it was likely that the locals were fair haired and fair skinned when they weren¡¯t tanned from hard work in the sun all day.

    Ammanas then indicated for Orobas to lead the way and hitched his robes slightly to keep the dirt off them, despite it being unnecessary. They kept themselves pristine through the magic of their making. With long strides from their tall frames, and the help of his staff with the quiet and watchful Edgar perched upon it, they strode away from the cave and turned right to head west into the forest, the sun shining now on their backs as it rose. With a slight turn back, Ammanas flicked his finger and a green spark flew away from him to land on the headless corpse of the boar that still sat there. No need to give animals reason to come skulking about his cave.

    The spark landed on the bristles of the boars hide and immediately brought forth a blaze of green fire. The immolate quickly melted the entire corpse into ash within the small crater of Orobas¡¯ landing. Satisfied, he nodded his head before facing forward again and following after his demonic servant who had not even paused for the commotion. So it was that he began his short walk to civilisation.

 Chapter 3: People are so bloody contrary

    The trees were packed close enough so that their canopies dimmed the light, but not too closely that vision was completely obstructed within 100m of Ammanas. The canopies were reasonably high up, the shorter trees being about 30m tall whilst the elder ones ranged from 50-60m. Definitely taller than the average forest trees of Earth from Ammanas¡¯ memories of bushwalking with friends. The ground was uneven and covered in leaves, with the occasional rock or root exposed. The two walked with natural grace and seemed to glide forward with their long stride, never once losing balance and making not a sound despite the carpet of leaves and twigs waiting to be crunched.

    Not a soul could be sighted in their vicinity, nor was there noises that hinted at life. Ammanas had his aura withdrawn as he always did when conscious, but Orobas stalked with the natural air of a predator and a very dangerous one at that. Activating detect blood, one of his vampire abilities, he saw the nearest animal was almost a kilometre away. With the bubble of clear space that Orobas provided them, it was a calm walk through the forest towards its edge.

    No creatures disturbed them but, after about 30 minutes of walking, he saw that one of the glowing outlines in his vision from detect blood (something he had been ignoring for a while from the lack of anything new) actually resembled a person who was on all fours and belly crawling towards what looked like a deer.

    He activated a mental link with Orobas, so that they could share their thoughts and vision with each other, and showed him the glow. He nodded in understanding before turning slightly left towards the human hunter. It looked like they were about 2km away and in their 30 minutes of walking had already travelled about 6km. That meant the human had come in roughly 2km on their own which meant they either knew the terrain and how to check for threats or they were an idiot. Their long strides meant they walked at almost twice the speed of a regular person even when strolling leisurely.

    The glowing outline grew clearer with the closing distance and it started to be able to make out features when they were almost a kilometre away. It seems it was an adolescent male, so it remains to be seen whether they knew what they were doing, or this was the foolhardiness of youth. Just when they had closed in within range for an unobstructed shot with the bow they carried, they had moved very slowly in their belly crawl position, Ammanas and Orobas came within range of the deer so that it could pick up the combination of scent and sense of overwhelming danger that a high-level, predatorial demon gave off. The deer immediately bolted, and the razor-sharp perception of the two picked up what sounded like a curse from the adolescent boy.

    The foreign sounding word reminded Ammanas of language barriers. A problem that was actually present within the game as well with all the different races and NPCs. Where there was a problem in the game, there was naturally a solution and Ammanas quickly withdrew a small silver earring from his inventory before piercing it quickly into the lobe of his ear. It would translate all incoming words into his most proficient language whilst translating all of his outgoing words into the most proficient language of listeners. Not something to use when trying to maintain secrecy by speaking around others in a foreign language, but if he needed to discuss with Orobas then he had the mind link.

    The young male was standing now and looking forlornly in the direction that the deer had fled in. He seemed to be muttering to himself, quietly enough that the two who were still several hundred metres away could only hear a few words here and there. Something about dinner bounding away. He kicked absently at a rock before turning and heading back towards the edge of the forest. Ammanas and Orobas continued walking towards him, still steadily gaining with their comparatively larger steps. It only took a few minutes to catch up, the boy moving steadily but cautiously and making hardly a sound. Maybe he did know what he was doing after all. Not enough to recognise the two strangers standing 10m behind him though.

    With a clearing of his throat Ammanas stopped, Orobas slightly behind and to the right of him. With a startled yelp, the boy whipped around to face them, already in the process of drawing a firing an arrow, one that he swiftly completed to send a shaft rocketing at Ammanas¡¯ face. A shaft that was subsequently snatched out of the air by a gloved hand that then lifted it closer to his face for inspection. Iron-tipped and relatively straight, with clean fletching. Pretty good quality for a medieval world. SNAP went the arrow in his hand once he was done inspecting it, letting it drop to the forest floor. The sound woke the boy out of his stunned awe, a result of seeing someone snatch an arrow cleanly out of the air like it was nothing. He didn¡¯t even see this strangely robed man¡¯s arm move. Ammanas spoke up. ¡°Is that how you react to all strangers then, boy?¡±

    The boy looked at the two standing before him in fear. They looked downright nefarious, what with the sickly flames and shadows leaking out from around that robed man and the freaky white eye of the taller one. He decided to summon all his courage and give a bit of false bravado. ¡°No, and I¡¯m not a boy either. It IS how I react to people who sneak up on me in the forest though.¡±

    Orobas chuckled, the growling tone making it sound more like a cough. He liked the ones with a bit of spine. Though the kid was only facing two humans as far as he knew. The kid was tall for his age, coming up to the shoulders of the two taller humanoids. They judged that he was about 14-15 summers. He had blonde hair that reached his shoulders, with the front of it separated into two braids that were tucked behind either ear. He had angular looks that were definitely standardly attractive, though his rough and dirty look covered that up a bit. He was tanned and looked like he¡¯d already been started on farm work from the condition of him. Overall, a relatively fit young specimen who seemed right handy with a bow considering the first shot he pulled off in surprise.He¡¯s got you there, Master. We could have just followed him to his village and gotten some adults to talk with.

    Shut it, Orobas.Ammanas thought in reply through the mind link. ¡°Well,boy, if I wanted to kill you, I wouldn¡¯t have tried getting your attention first.¡±

    That seemed reasonable to the boy, who shrugged in reply. ¡°What do you want then? And the name isn¡¯t boy, it¡¯s Harken.¡±

    This is why I hate people -so bloody contrary,he grumbled to Orobas. ¡°Fine, Harken, if you would be so kind as to tell us if you know of any mages in the area? You do know what a mage is, yes?¡±

    ¡°What are you, an idiot? There¡¯re no mages round these parts, the last one died an age ago, everyone and his dog knows that. Most you¡¯ll find anywhere in the country is that Archwizard in the city that heads the academy.¡± Harken reflected to himself that calling the frightening duo idiots was perhaps not the brightest idea he¡¯d had in a while. It was their fault for asking such a stupid question though.Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

    ¡°Idiot? No. Impatient? Why yes, I could be described as that. You do know of any magic users in the area, then?¡± The scathing tone reinforced Harken¡¯s idea that calling him an idiot was abadmove.

    ¡°Uhh, sorry. Yeah, I guess, there¡¯s a witch in our village that helps make potions and cure the animals that get sick, I haven¡¯t seen her use any, but the rumours say she can use spells. She¡¯s probably the closest person you¡¯ll find. What were you doing in the Wildlands, anyways?¡±

    Finally, some progress,Ammanas sighed to himself and Orobas. ¡°I live here. Well then, take us to your witch.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure that¡¯s the best idea. We don¡¯t get many strangers in the village, especially not ones that look so scary.¡± Harken nodded at the pauldrons that were still leaking their flame and shadow. ¡°Nor anyone that comes from within the forest. Not really sure I want you scaring the other villagers, and how do I know you¡¯re not gonna eat her or something?¡±

    ¡°Yes, well, my scary looks seem to have worked a treat on you, haven¡¯t they?¡± Another sigh let itself escape from Ammanas. He was beginning to think that Orobas was right and they should have just gone straight for the village. ¡°And not to worry, we¡¯ve already had lunch.¡±

    After some more convincing, and actually giving their names, they finally got underway with Harken leading. He kept asking a lot of questions after they spent some small effort convincing him that they weren¡¯t going to eat his witch. He decided that perhaps getting information would go a lot faster if not everyone was going to be as contrary as this admittedly very brave, but even more na?ve young boy walking with him. Who just brings nefarious looking strangers back with them to their village? Especially when they just pop up in the middle of the forest that Harken had calledThe Wildlands. For countryside villagers, Wildlands was only a step up from Badlands. Following that line of logic to its endpoint, he quickly equipped a plain brown, thick robe and removed the rest of his more exotic armour in place of plainer travelling wear. With the hood removed, his face was no longer cast in deep shadow, and his features that were eerily similar to Orobas¡¯ glamour save for the light blue eyes he had affected over the usual crimson of his vampiric heritage.

    Harken hadn¡¯t noticed the wardrobe change of his temporary companion. He was facing forwards and asking endless questions of Orobas who walked next to him. Orobas didn¡¯t answer many of them, but he did find Harken to be amusing and asked him questions in turn which this chatty boy seemed a bit too happy to answer considering that he knew next to nothing about the people walking with him and therefore what their motives were. When Harken next turned round to ask Ammanas something, he saw the different outfit and another outbreak of exclamations and repeated questions began flowing from him. Most of it revolved around where the original armour went. Repeated because his only answer from Ammanas and Orobas were ¡®What armour?¡¯ which was not a satisfactory one.

    Like this, they made their merry way out of the forest and onto an expanse of rolling green fields. There were no roads in sight, just what looked like a game trail trodden into the grass presumably from where the village hunters made their way from village to forest and back again. A trail that the trio followed to the village which soon came within sight, atop a slight rise in the field. The sun was now steadily progressing towards noon, putting the time roughly late morning. It shone down upon a village of reasonable size. Farms spread out behind and to the side of some of the wooden houses, either growing crops or keeping cows and horses within paddocks. It looked peaceful. There were people working those fields and walking about down the main street that connected most of the buildings in a line.

    Harken wanted to go to see his parents first and explain that he didn¡¯t catch anything whilst hunting. The other two weren¡¯t so keen on meeting his parents and so told him that he could do as he wished so long as he first pointed them in the direction of the witch¡¯s house. Not really happy with not getting to do the introductions that way, but the pressing need to inform his parents that there wasn¡¯t any meat for dinner from his end came first, and so he directed them to a small wooden cottage towards the other end of the village than the forest and they parted ways. Ammanas and Orobas continued on towards the cottage, receiving stares from the villagers that ranged from surprised, curious and cautious to outright hostile. Stares which were summarily ignored by the duo who only cared about the information they were looking for.

    Arriving before the fence that surrounded the cottage and the garden out the front of it, they saw a surprisingly young woman tending to some herbs. She was faced away from the fence, but her profile suggested someone in their 20s and the cottage looked only equipped for sleeping one occupant, suggesting that this young lady was in fact the witch they were looking for. She had quite pale skin in comparison to the rest of the tanned villagers they¡¯d seen so far, and long auburn hair fell down her back quite gracefully. She was in a red dress of simple make, with an apron tied in front to protect the knees whilst she knelt in the garden. Clearing his throat, Ammanas tried to gather her attention. ¡°Hello, miss? Are you the witch of this village?¡±

    ¡°Adeline is my name, but I suppose witch works well enough, yes.¡± Came the reply without even turning to look at her visitors. ¡°What can I help you with then, stranger?¡±

    ¡°Information, if you would be so kind. We come from¡­ far¡­ and would like to get an idea of where we are. I¡¯ve found that talking to magic users is the quickest way to find what I¡¯m looking for.¡±

    With the mention of a ¡®we¡¯, Adeline finally turned to face her visitors. They looked plain enough, though reasonably attractive. The similarities of their faces were quite eerie, with the younger man¡¯s blue eyes quite sharp and focused, trained solely on her. Looking at the taller and older man, she had to repress a shiver. He lookedhungryin a predatorial way, though his relaxed body language hinted at someone completely at ease. He hadn¡¯t spoken but he gave off a palpable sense of danger to those with a trained eye, and it was starting to make her back tingle with the beginnings of a nervous sweat. She got the feeling that his blind eye wasn¡¯t all that blind at all. It was clear the younger was in charge though, the older looked more like a protector. She turned back to the younger man, sighed, and stood up from her gardening. ¡°Well, I suppose I might have some information that could help you then. Follow me inside and shut the gate behind you.¡±

    Adeline strode to her front door without looking back at the two and went inside her cottage, untying her apron and hanging it on a peg by the door. She sat at the large table used for eating dinner at and waited for her visitors to enter. If she wasn¡¯t watching the front door, she wouldn¡¯t have even known they¡¯d entered. So quietly and gracefully did they move that it took her a moment to realise they¡¯d stepped through the doorway and she was, in fact, staring at them. Blinking her way clear of her inner surprise at their seemingly abrupt appearance in her doorway, she gestured them to a seat at the table.

    Entering Adeline¡¯s cottage, Ammanas noticed that it was almost spartanly bare of any decorations. There were only necessities in this cottage, a small kitchen, the table for eating at, a bookshelf with a small collection of reading material and a desk against a wall with what looked like alchemical equipment and components lined upon it. Yes, it looked like he¡¯d be able to get some helpful information from her. If she was trained in, or a member of, any kind of guild then they¡¯d probably have a library. If all it required to join was being able to do some magic, then he was more than a little confident he¡¯d be getting in. He sat facing Adeline at the table, Orobas standing behind his chair protectively. Time to start the gathering of information.

 Chapter 4: On: Common Sense - A Lecture by Adeline Rothwood, Witch of Sulas

    ¡°So, what would you like to know and what do I get for it?¡± Adeline started off the conversation, hoping to get it over with so she could get back to gardening. Not to mention the pressing need she felt to get the older man out of her home. Nervous sweat indeed.

    ¡°We can discuss remuneration afterwards, depending on how helpful you are. Let¡¯s start off with the basics then. Where are we?¡± Ammanas figured he could work his way up from the basics.

    ¡°Wow, that IS pretty basic. You¡¯re in the village of Sulas, part of the territory of the city-state of Ferrent, west of the Wildlands and westernmost nation on the continent. Does that ring any bells?¡±

    ¡°No. But that¡¯s a start. Okay, what¡¯s the local currency?¡±

    She gave him a weird look. ¡°Boy you are from far away. It¡¯s the same as everywhere else on the continent, genius. 100 copper makes a silver, 100 silver makes a gold, then platinum.¡±

    Ammanas had to thank any higher power that was listening. The same monetary system as Ashes and he was probably one of the richest players in the game so that covered him for any expenses if he could convert his coins over. The different stamping on the face may make that difficult if it¡¯s one they don¡¯t recognise, though. ¡°Who¡¯s in charge of Ferrent?¡±

    ¡°The city lord and his council rule the city and the city rules the territory. Probably the only ruling council of a nation comprised of almost entirely warriors too. Though, the city lord being a rank 9 with a council of rank 8 warriors probably helps with that.¡±

    Oh great, another ranking system to understand.Ammanas was more interested in magic users than warriors though. ¡°Is there a library I can access in the city?¡±

    ¡°The magic academy manages the city¡¯s library, so you¡¯ll have to be a member or an alumnus of one of the city¡¯s academies to use it. Oh, you probably don¡¯t know about the academies either. There¡¯s a magic academy that trains any and all magic users, though they really only have the capability of teaching witches and wizards. Then there¡¯s the warrior¡¯s academy that takes care of those with an aptitude for weapons or aura. Lots of nobles from surrounding kingdoms send their scions to the academies for outrageous fees because the education is so good and Ferrent has a pact of neutrality with almost every surrounding nation so there¡¯s no risk of conflict. If you¡¯re caught carrying out grievances on your nation¡¯s behalf, you¡¯re liable to get your nation banned from entering the territory.

    ¡°They also recruit commoners from the surrounding towns and villages in the territory for scholarships if they have the aptitude or the skill for it. They send a warrior and a wizard round in pairs to the towns to supervise tournaments every half a year, so they can scout potential students. There¡¯s actually going to be one in Runas soon, which is the town closest to us. About half a day¡¯s walk North-west. I think that Harken Ward boy is going to try out, he¡¯s pretty good with a bow from what I hear.¡±

    Ammanas sat quietly for a few moments, absently petting Edgar who was now on his shoulder, to digest what he heard and figure out what to do with the information. No library access without joining an academy meant he either joined an academy or just snuck in and stole what he needed. The academy was probably more useful than just library access and would also give him an opportunity to learn the magic structure of this world. He was also interested in learning about this Aura that Adeline mentioned warriors using. The disguise he was using from his doppelganger mask made him look like a local of Ferrent, based on what he¡¯d seen of the villagers so far.

    He could probably pass himself off as a villager and join the tournament, using his stat limiter to make sure he didn¡¯t overdo it and kill everyone in the town on accident. He was actually exceedingly good at using a staff in combat, something he was interested in and with his avatar¡¯s speed and strength it was something worth learning too, so he¡¯d be able to join the warrior¡¯s academy too and learn about Aura if he wanted to. It sounded to him like the Qi referred to in Chinese medicine and martial arts. Adeline sat patiently whilst he worked through his decisions, staring at the still silent raven perched upon his shoulder. It stared back at her, before tilting his head down and cawing at the young man. He looked up at the raven before nodding his head.

    Edgar, as a familiar, could send his vision, emotions and ideas to his master similar to the mind link Ammanas had with his greater demons but permanently in place. He had just recommended going with the academy idea, as working at the information from the inside was going to be a lot less disruptive than the potential conflict he¡¯d get into from stealing it if, god forbid, he did get caught. Ammanas always appreciated Edgar¡¯s input, for it was usually quite insightful and he only spoke when he had something he felt was worthwhile saying. With his heading decided for the meantime, he decided to try and get any information he could about magic in this world from Adeline whilst he had her attention. He returned his own attention to Adeline, who now stared at him instead. ¡°Harken was actually the one who led us to the village. He mentioned you knew some spells, if you wouldn¡¯t mind performing some of them for me, I¡¯d be happy to compensate you generously for your time and effort.¡±

    Adeline looked at him quizzically, wondering why he would need to see her use magic. His scholarly airs and the sense of danger coming from his companion implied someone both highly educated and worldly, someone who had definitely seen magic before. However, he did mention compensation and the divines know the money she made in the village was a pittance of what her services were worth. Her mate rates qualified her as the greatest mate anyone would ever have the fortune of befriending. She was also planning on heading to Ferrent sometime in the near future for supplies she couldn¡¯t get in the village and wasn¡¯t brave enough to look for in the forest but due to being strapped for cash the trip kept getting postponed. Her deliberations over, resolved decisively by the need for money, she acquiesced to his strange request and stood up from the table before moving to a more open section of the house.Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

    Ammanas and Orobas remained at the table and turned to watch her. She proceeded to condense this world¡¯s version of mana into her body before running it through her body and out of her hand, turning it into a magelight orb that floated above her hand. Blue tendrils snaked between the light and her hand for a moment before the light stabilised fully.

    ¡°Happy?¡±

    Ammanas hadn¡¯t sensed the casting of a spell that his sensitivity, skill and a slew of passives allowed him, but they worked on the basis of Ashes mana being used. He sat contemplatively in silence whilst staring at the magelight, ignoring Adeline¡¯s question. Ashes mana was something generated by the body itself and levelling and stat bonuses increased capacity and generation rates.

    What Adeline had just done clearly came from without. It seemed that the world generated mana for its people to use if what she just did was the standard process. He was immediately excited by the prospect of learning to use it too, if he could. It would effectively double his mana pool if you could store it after condensing it differently to the storage of Ashes mana instead of immediately using it in a spell. It probably wouldn¡¯t work for his Ashes spells due to conflicting origins, but he was a man who thoroughly enjoyed learning new things and a whole new world of magic and spells to learn had him positively giddy.

    He had an ability he¡¯d stolen from one of the bosses he killed in the final arena, a dragon known for its fondness for seeking out and absorbing any form of power or energy it could get its greedy foreclaws on. In order to seek it had to be able to sense. Prismatic Vision let him identify different forms of energy and power such as mana or even the rage that some berserkers used in Ashes. He activated it, and were it not for the doppelganger mask, Adeline would have definitely seen the whites of his eyes turn completely silver, whilst his iris divided up into a rainbow of colours similar to the buffering cursor on a mac.

    As it was, he just looked to be deep in thought as he stared at the magelight. The long, contemplative silence was sort of uncomfortable for Adeline, but she figured since he was paying, he was a customer and the customer was always right, so she let it carry on. Carry on it did, Ammanas fell into a daze as he stared at the wisps of blue light that snaked around and through the white of the mage light, a thin tendril of blue connecting the light to Adeline¡¯s palm and flowing up through her palm and into her head. He was able to see into her body in a way that wasn¡¯t x-ray vision but more just moving through obstructing objects.

    Clearly the control point was in her brain. It¡¯d been a fair while since he¡¯d seen a scan of a brain, but he was pretty sure there were no unusual bits that made it different than what he assumed his brain looked like. That was exceedingly good news, different organs likely meant he wouldn¡¯t be able to learn this type of magic since he wouldn¡¯t be able to control it. Instead it looked like it was fed control through the imagination and subconscious. That made it relatively structured and combined with the existence of academies looked like it was largely a process learnt through education rather than feeling your way through it.

    ¡°Excellent, excellent.¡± Ammanas stood up from his chair, startling Edgar into a flapping fit to gain balance. ¡°Your help has been invaluable, feel free to name a price you feel is reasonable.¡±

    She got to name her own price? Adeline was startled by this statement. She first thought to overcharge him and then immediately discarded that idea when she remembered the danger and hunger she felt from Orobas. Besides, she didn¡¯t actually do that much for him other than fill in what was common sense and perform what was possibly the most basic of basic spells. ¡°Well I have to say I haven¡¯t had to provide this kind of service before, most people that come to me already know where they are and all that¡­ how about a silver?¡±

    She was right to think that lying to Ammanas about the price was an exceptionally bad idea. Not because Ammanas would have anything to say about it, or even care, more because if Orobas had sensed a lie, the culprit would not have a happy ending from trying to cheat his master. As it was, he had no knowledge of what a reasonable price was, neither did Ammanas in fact hence allowing Adeline to name her own price, and so didn¡¯t particularly care at this time. A silver seemed sort of underwhelming considering how helpful the information was to Ammanas, despite being common sense in these parts. Ammanas had the same line of thought and frowned slightly, which gave the wrong impression to Adeline. She hurriedly rectified her perceived mistake. ¡°Or if that¡¯s too much then even 50 coppers would do fine.¡±

    ¡°What? No, no, no. I was thinking it was too little, the information was truly helpful.¡± Ammanas quickly waved his hands to clear up the misunderstanding. He reached inside his robe and activated his inventory before pulling out a small bag filled with a few gold coins and plenty of silver. This sort of spare change was practically inconsequential to him. He handed it to her and the weight and clinks of coins coming from it startled her. Opening it up and a daze of gold and silver light from within led her off on her own thoughts. Ammanas spoke up to interrupt her daydreaming. ¡°I hope those coins are alright, I¡¯m not sure if you guys stamp yours.¡±

    Ashes had multiple currencies technically because there were a few factions who hated each other and didn¡¯t want any of their wealth going to or coming from their enemies. So, they all ended up stamping their coins with a particular design and refused to accept any with the design belonging to their enemies. It was all very petty, really. The main currency, though, was just plain gold cut into coins and used most everywhere else. Adeline had no knowledge of the process of minting coins and thus was thoroughly confused by the idea of stepping forcefully on them. However, the coins in the bag were blank and matched the coins used everywhere else on this continent so she just put it down to one of the quirks of this strange customer. She was much too happy with this sudden fortune to mind much else. ¡°Its fine, its fine. You are much too generous, but I¡¯m glad I was able to help answer your questions. If you¡¯re ever in need of potions or more common sense, feel free to pop by again!¡±

    She smiled at Ammanas with a look of adoration and awe that made him seem like the pope more than a traveller. Maybe he gave her too much? Oh well, it wasn¡¯t anything to worry about. Instead, it was time to find that Harken boy and organise participating in this scholarship tournament for the academies.

 Chapter 5: The Abode of the Wodes

    They didn¡¯t leave immediately, though. He had definitely overpaid her for her services, at least from her perspective, so to take advantage of that goodwill, Ammanas stayed a small while longer in the cottage. He asked questions to subtly grasp at the hierarchy of power, politically, magically and martially speaking. He vaguely took the approach that where he came from might have labelled things differently, which was true, and he told her he was going to seek out those more at the top of the food chain for learning. Adeline had taken him for some kind of young erudite scholar of a wealthy background.

    Perhaps unethically, he had also been lifting knowledge from the surface thoughts that came up in response to his inquiries and the following discussion. Mind magic was something vampires were relatively adept in, though he didn¡¯t want to dabble in it too much because it was a slippery slope to paranoia and distrust. She was also being very open and helpful already, though some of the thoughts he scanned implied she thought he was asking some pretty dumb questions for someone clearly well educated. So, he really didn¡¯t want to infringe on her privacy, but those exact thoughts told him it¡¯d be a bit weird to ask some of what he wished to know.

    He gained some clues from her responses when he implied the types and direction of those he was interested in seeking, especially from comparing her own might in his perspective to her own perspective of where she stood. She gave many replies that told him it was flat out impossible to meet a Hierarch of the druids, for example, which he found out was the nature equivalent of an Archmagis. She wasn¡¯t even sure if there was one alive right now.

    The duo left the witch¡¯s cottage in a pondering silence, trio with Edgar sitting steadily on his shoulder, reflecting on the new information and the potential goals he would set as Ammanas came to know more. Before Harken had left, Orobas had already left a unique scent detectable to Baikou demons on the boy¡¯s skin and used it to guide his Master towards their next destination of Harken¡¯s home. With a thought, he asked Edgar to take to the skies and continue the scouting that Orobas had briefly started before. The flapping of wings accompanied a squawk of acknowledgement as the large bird leapt forth and rapidly ascended to circle in the air, before choosing the north-west and departing to check out the town of Runas. As they slowly strode along, Orobas would walk slightly behind and to the right, though subtle tilting of his head would indicate direction to Ammanas, who could clearly sense the movements despite not looking at him. Ignoring the same looks of surrounding villagers as they got earlier, Ammanas began to ponder, reflecting both from the perspective as Ammanas as well as Liam.

    Did he want to go home? He wasn¡¯t so sure. Most of his joy in life came from playing Ashes of the Primordial and exploring the unknown with his summons and pets that he¡¯d come to call family, as well as challenging his limits and learning ancient knowledge in magic and martial might. His current situation seemed to represent an unparalleled opportunity to do just that all over again, learning new systems of magic and that aura he¡¯d heard about from Adeline. He could also tell from her tenuous grasp over the mana and what she¡¯d said about the levels of strength that he was probably just as peerless in might here as he was in the game. Witches were equivalent to wizards and were both at the lower end of the power scale of mana users, Archwizards in the middle with Archmagi at the high end being comparable, though slightly lesser in power, to gods. Multiple factions had their own system of power, including Mana, Aura, Faith, Nature, as well as Celestial and Infernal.

    There were apparently deities that weren¡¯t just worshiped on faith but had a very real presence in guiding their following. Visible and flashy miracles, the descent of avatars and gifting of power during battle were not unheard-of occurrences both as rewards to worshipers and in a constant struggle with other gods to try and expand their influence. He wasn¡¯t too concerned with the threat posed by these divine beings, as he¡¯d slain his fair share of the equivalent within the game. He would definitely keep a low profile if possible but if provoked he would respond accordingly. He also had an available pool of manpower to spread his influence and inquisition of knowledge in the form of his summons, who seemed like they would likely also be at the top of the food chain, especially those that had fought with him through that final arena to the higher waves.

    He decided that perhaps it wasn¡¯t him that should attend the academy to pilfer through their library. Instead he could just send one of his followers, guised as a talented commoner. He already had the perfect candidate too, another demon skilled in illusions, though an altogether different species to Orobas. He would have to send Lilith as a warrior though, as he was sure that whatever talent test they did for mana would be complicated enough to trick to not be worth the hassle. Aura could be trained by anyone with a strong body and no competency was expected yet from the commoners. You just had to be a talent at fighting. Fighting was something Lilith could do very well, despite her skillset lying much more towards magic and manipulation. She was Ammanas¡¯ very own prot¨¦g¨¦, as he taught her everything he could about fighting with a staff as well as small blades.

    His reflection and planning were disrupted as they had followed a dirt path up to a small building made from a mixture of mud, rock and wood. The base third of the house¡¯s walls were a stacking of rocks caked together with mud in place of cement. Wooden logs were hammered into the ground at the corners of the walls as well as either side of the entrance doorway, and rough planks were then inserted into cut-outs in the logs and presumably fastened with nails or something similar. The door actually was hinged on and seemed surprisingly solid. Ammanas and Orobas could already smell some herbal stew from the house a distance before and could clearly hear bustling about in the home as well as occasional conversation from Harken and a pair of older male and female voices. They were presumably making some sort of lunch, as the sun was high overhead in the clear sky.

    The smell was pretty good, though neither Master nor follower were hungry, sustained by pure energy whilst physically eating was only a pleasurable pastime or done to gain buffs.

    Before knocking on the door, Ammanas turned to Orobas. ¡°I have some ideas of what I want to do in the short term and only the most general direction for long term. I¡¯ll discuss with you once we¡¯ve learnt a bit more, especially about the tournament, and gone back to the cave. I¡¯ll also summon some of your brothers and sisters and give them some jobs to do.¡±

    Orobas smiled slightly and nodded in understanding. He spoke in his rumbling growl, smoothed out by the glamour. ¡°They no doubt look forward to being in your presence once again, Master. We shall follow your orders to the letter.¡±

    Ammanas smiled slightly back at him, before turning to the door to rap it. Before he could, Orobas stepped forward to lightly knock in his place, though he apparently also wasn¡¯t used to the flimsy strength of the environment as despite his best efforts at restraint, the door was thumped heavily and rattled in its frame, the knocks closer to booms. They heard the older male voice curse from being startled, before Harken exclaimed loudly. ¡°It¡¯s probably those two weirdos I met in the forest! They must be done with Miss Adeline.¡±This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

    There was a scrambling from inside before the door was swung open with gusto. Recognition glinted in his eyes as he stared at the two of them, looking slightly up to their faces with a smirk. Orobas stepped back behind as Ammanas stepped forward with a smirk of his own. ¡°Hello Harken, us two weirdos thought we¡¯d drop in for a chat.¡± The smirk became a small polite smile when he saw a middle-aged man and woman step out of another doorway through which the smell of stew was coming at the back end of the house. Harken¡¯s face dropped a bit, looking chagrined that his comment was heard, recalling the freaky nature of his guests, who snuck up on him in a forest and caught an arrow out of the air with ease.

    Practice in mana and aura was well known to increase the perception of senses and he reasoned they were quite accomplished in one or the other. Then his face went back to normal as he looked back to his parents with a questioning look. The woman saw this and moved forward to the entrance with a sunny smile on her face. She was quite charming, with a lighter tone than both her husband and son, lacking the tan of the other two. The shortest of those here, though probably tall for a woman, she was thin and wispy looking. Her mousy blonde hair swept up into a bun on top, with some piercing blue-grey eyes crinkled with crows¡¯ feet in the corner, probably from smiling like she was now. A button nose sat above thin lips, the cheekbones were angular and slightly pronounced. She wore a faded-green woollen tunic, coming down to her lower shin like a dress, belted in with fabric with the front covered in a homespun apron with some splashes and dried stains of liquids and food from heavy use. She wore some soft looking slippers of multilayered leather with a thick sole.

    Despite her small stature in front of those present, she had a strong, bright presence and moved with purpose. Now standing next to Harken at the door, she too looked up slightly to the faces of her guests and, still with a sunny disposition, introduced herself.

    ¡°Welcome to our home, Harken had just told us he made some new friends in the forest and that you would probably be visiting later,¡± her voice was light and charming. She gestured to herself, then the middle-aged man behind. ¡°My name is Celine Wode, mother of Harken and wife of Grendel, the grumpy man behind me and also the resident ranger of Sulas.¡±

    ¡°A pleasure,¡± Ammanas still gave a polite but charming smile and inclined his head forward. ¡°I see where Harken gets his good looks from, as well as his skill with a bow.¡± He smiled first at Celine who beamed back at him before also nodding to her husband, Grendel, who stared back at the pair by the door with a guarded curiosity.

    He continued, ¡°I was wondering if I could ask Harken some questions, I heard he¡¯ll be competing in a tournament for scholarship with one of the academies in Ferrent which sounds intriguing.¡±

    Celine nodded her head in assent, turning aside and gesturing them in. ¡°Well do come on in then, we were just about to have lunch. There¡¯s not much, just a small stew with bread but you are welcome to join us to eat whilst you talk to Harken.¡±

    ¡°That would be lovely, thank you.¡± Ammanas and Orobas moved inside, Orobas¡¯ height meant having to duck slightly under the doorway, despite being shorter than his true form when under a glamour. Celine bustled back towards the kitchen, as they and Harken trailed behind her. Grendel stayed standing where he was within the open living room space that took up the majority of the house. Harken was the spitting image of him, though Grendel had a bit less of an angular look to him. He had some flecks of grey that ran through his shoulder-length hair, which he wore tied back with a leather thong. He was taller than his son by half a head, just a half head shorter himself than Ammanas.

    He looked worn and rough in his leathery skin, clearly an outdoorsman of considerable experience. He was very trim and wiry, with broad shoulders, narrow waist and long limbs of ropy muscle instead of bulk. He wore mostly leather from the waist down, a similar green tunic top to what his wife wore, though his shirt stopped at the waist. The clothes were of a seemingly higher quality compared to what Ammanas saw other villagers wearing, but Ammanas could tell they were homemade. The Wode family of Rangers seemed quite well off here.

    The room contained a fireplace dug into the wall on the left, with a thick rug from a skinned bear of some sort splayed out in front of the fire. Two wooden rocking chairs faced the fire with the bear skin rug between them. A round table sat on the right side in front of a window shuttered with wood, accompanying stools made of thick logs that had been smoothed out to a flat angle apparently served as the dining table.

    A small collection of tools, weapons and odds and ends sat on the wall and floor at the front of the house on the right facing in. To the left of the entrance was a wooden wall that cut away from the small entryway and led to what seemed like a small bedroom, probably Harken¡¯s. Opposite side of the fire was another doorway on the far left that probably led to his parent¡¯s room, whilst the doorway further along to the right clearly led into the kitchen, through which Celine just passed and Grendel stood near.

    Harken led them to the dining table and pulled two of the log seats out for them to sit on before he went to the opposite side of the table and found his own. They all sat down, Grendel still standing quietly by the kitchen entrance and staring at the two sitting opposite his son. He felt a quiet unease from the taller one, almost like he was looking at some predator he¡¯d find in the Wildlands. He gave the impression of a wolf, an alpha in his own right though he clearly deferred to the youth beside him. His gaze spoke of one who just saw your weaknesses, where he could strike, a predatorial stare of hunger instead of looking at you like you were human.

    This was something Orobas could easily fix, were he trying to blend in or infiltrate a group of some sort, something requiring adept social skills and a non-threatening presence. However, right now he was just posing as the protector and elder of his Master, so he kept up a toned-down version of the intimidating presence of his natural state. His milky white eye was exactly for what Grendel was feeling. It was an eye of prescience and was exceptionally useful for spotting weaknesses, magic in use, traps and also gave slight hints of the possibilities of the future. Were he to cover it up in a glamour, he would lose those abilities until the eye was revealed once again. It was currently not worth it.

    Orobas and Ammanas both noticed the uncomfortable state of Grendel, but both decided not to do anything about it. Harken and Celine didn¡¯t care, though likely because they weren¡¯t as perceptive as Grendel and Adeline, and Harken was the one who would give them the information they sought, whilst Celine seemed like she was the one who wore the pants in this household.

    With the bustling Celine in the kitchen, preparing the final touches on the stew, and the silent and guarded Grendel staring at them, Ammanas focused on Harken in front of them. He leaned forwards with a friendly smile at the youth, ¡°I heard from Adeline that you were being tested in the tournament in Runas soon, will you be competing with your bow?¡±

    Harken was unguarded before the two ¡®weirdos¡¯ and was quite happy to chat with these interesting people who came out of the Wildlands. He grinned, ¡°Sure will, there¡¯s no one who¡¯s my match in Archery within the surrounding villages other than the dedicated Rangers. Besides, I learned everything from my Pa, the best Ranger of the bunch so I¡¯m sure I¡¯ll overtake the other Rangers soon, too.¡±

    Grendel coughed behind them, before glaring at his son, whose grin dropped a bit from the eye contact. Harken also coughed a bit in embarrassment, his cheeks briefly turning red. ¡°Well... maybe not soon, but I¡¯m confident in front of any my age when it comes to archery!¡±

    Grendel still gave him a disapproving stare, not liking the arrogance he felt from that and the previous statement. He spoke his first words in their presence, a gruff and deep voice. ¡°Try bringing back some dinner first before you try impressing anyone.¡±