ã€ŠDisciple of the Dark Artsã€‹


 Prologue: A Small Talk

    Damien¡¯s entire body was burning: the searing, white-hot pain was oppressive on his mind. Damien thought the pain lasted millennia, intensifying further and further. Eventually, it reached a crescendo, before slowly, dreadfully so, petering off.

    After having felt such a mind-numbing sensation, he was apprehensive to do anything, fearing its return. Damien lied there for what felt like ages, waiting for some stimuli to finally motivate him to act. Nothing happened.

    Soon, his curiosity won out as he opened his eyes. The first thing he noticed was his lack of body. The second was the tall, lithe woman sitting across from him.

    Taking in his surroundings, Damien finally noticed the desaturated nature of his surroundings. It was as if someone had sucked the hue out of a minimalistic room. The two exceptions to this pattern were the woman and her chair.

    The chair was unnaturally purple, reminding Damien of Vantablack or the Pinkest Pink, no other instance of the color he has seen before has truly compared. The woman stationed in it held a gentle smile, one that has persisted since he woke up the courage to open his eyes. While Damien wished to demand answers and accusations, years of practiced patient silence won out.

    ¡°Your type has become far more common recently,¡± the lady mused, ¡°still extremely rare, but increasingly common.¡±

    Her resuming silence indicated to Damien it was his turn to speak, he had a large variety of questions, so he started with the most obvious and immediately useful.

    ¡°Where am I?¡±

    ¡°My Domain.¡± the woman answered succinctly, contrary to Damien¡¯s hopes. Next question then.

    ¡°Okay then, why am I here?¡± It never hurt to humor someone for information, whether he was hallucinating, kidnapped by a crazy organization, or in front of a deity, he needed to gather what he could from this person before making any real decisions.You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

    ¡°I guess I could say you are one of today¡¯s lucky 10,000,¡± the woman giggled and rapidly set Damien on edge. A reference to a something he was a fan of, while it is possible she was familiar with it for other reasons, it would be safer to assume she said this specifically because of him. ¡°You have an interesting choice ahead of you, are you interested in traveling to a different plane?¡±

    That wasn¡¯t what Damien expected. Rolling with the waves, Damien nodded in the affirmative.

    ¡°You are one of the lucky ones who is allowed to travel to the realm of Isidirel, I am you have read fantasy before?¡± That wasn¡¯t exactly what Damien expected, and this only caused further questions, but there was something else that pressed upon his mind.

    ¡°What was that pain earlier?¡±

    ¡°The reforging of your soul, mortals from your realm aren¡¯t capable of producing ki, mana, nor psionic energy. Modifications to sections of your soul were needed if you were to be able to survive in this world.¡± Damien¡¯s brow raised without his notice. Why exactly would he need any of those, he didn¡¯t see why someone born in a village or city would need these powers unless they were part of a police or guard force. He decided to inquire.

    ¡°Why would I need any of those?¡¯

    ¡°Well, everyone on this plane has a small amount that acts as a defense against invasive attacks. Think of it as an energy skin, without it the simplest application could maim or kill.¡± This intrigued Damien.

    ¡°So to reiterate, I¡¯ll be reincarnated?¡± he asked.

    ¡°In a sense,¡± she began, ¡°You will retain your memory, but unlike most, you will start off in a new body.¡± ¡®Unlike most?¡¯ Damien thought, ¡®That was an interesting choice of words, it sounds like it quite a few have gone through this and retained their bodies.¡¯

    ¡°Why me?¡±

    ¡°Why not?,¡± The lady, who Damien began to assume to be some sort of deity, responded with a couple grin. This mildly irritated him but expressing that would do no good.

    ¡°Anything else I should know?¡± He sighed. He started rubbing the bridge of his nose out of habit.

    ¡°Hmm, nothing you can''t learn for yourself.¡± The presumed goddess said mirthfully. ¡°Goodbye for now.¡±

    ¡°Wai-¡± Damien started, but before his thought could finish his world went black.

 Chapter 1: Formative Years

    Damien was reborn in a tiny village. His eyes were a piercing silver with a spark of intellect deep within.His mother, Elian, adored him.He was one of the few elves with an abnormal hair color; He was graced with silken raven black hair instead of the standard brunette or golden shades typical for elves.

    Unique colors of hair indicated a strong magic infinity. Cyan was an arcane affinity with deeper blues being a stronger affinity. Elves with purple hair were almost always master arcanist as infants. They were also so rare that they may as well not exist. The more extreme oddities were silver and red hair. Silver was a holy affinity, which indicated the natural ability to produce holy magic. This was something impossible for many races, the notable exception being the gnomes who very frequently held this ability. Elian thanked the gods her child didn''t have red hair. Infernal affinity would make one... less than popular and would often lead to a shorter lifespan. There was no color for fae as all Elves had a rudimentary ability with far magic. Allof this only made it stranger that his hair was black, and she wasn''t sure if it was for better or worse.

    Elian had not named her child, for his name was one provided by her god. Many children of those dedicated to a good would have their parent''s deity provide the name. Young Damien happened to be one of those. This act deepens the bond between the faithful and their idols of worship.

    As he grew, Elian noticed he was an extremely sharp child. He walked only a few months after birth, though this wasn''t too rare for elves as they had an inborn grace and dexterity that came with their every movement. What was surprising is the fact he started to talk only a month later.

    Damien found his new life extremely comfortable. After he ¡°woke up,¡± he noticed he was in the body of a baby at least a few weeks old. His mind felt sharper than ever, gathering and retaining information better than he had before. His infantile body had coordination that he was unfamiliar with. He was still clumsy, he was a baby after all, but he felt that he would have greater command over his body than he ever did on Earth once he was older.

    Damien was quite fond of his new mother. While the idea felt odd as he remembered another mother, his new mom''s kindness and affection quickly endeared her to him.

    As he grew into a young child, he noticed was that he had a few differences between him and the other townspeople. His hair was black and unlike the others. His mother explained to him why when he asked.

    He would later learn that he was a half-elf. His mother would lovely ramble on about his absent father. She described him as a roguish High Human with brilliant silver eyes and sleek black hair that he frequently slicked back with thick gel. Damien wished to meet him, simply to see how much of his heritage he had taken from him.The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    Damien trekked around the village frequently. Every breath was far more invigorating than any on Earth. Damien wasn''t sure if it was his elven body or the new ambient energies that constantly swirled around him.

    Damien spent a lot of time enjoying his second chance at childhood. The village wasn''t extremely large, with a dozen or so buildings spread in the nearby area. He soon became familiar with everyone in town.

    He frequently played with the kids in the village Saria, Lance, My¡¯til, and Kera. He tried not to spend too much time with them, he was still an adult mentally, but he did like to humor them and played many games with them.

    ''Elves are stupidly good at hide and seek.'' Damien mentally complained. He chased after Lance who weaved around his hand everytime he thought he had the boy. It was like catching a fly with chopsticks, Lance moved more like willow than man. He couldn''t even get close to Kera, Every time it thought about it she stopped being a child and became as fleeting as the wind, dashing out of sight. Realizing that he wouldn''t catch either of them he searched for Saria instead. wasn¡¯t sure what wizardry it was but he searched for hours, just for her to appear next to him when he finally gave up. ¡°How in the world do you do that?¡± Damien asked in resignation.

    ¡°I use magic.¡± Saria gleefully responded. Damien almost made a snarky retort, before his brain reminded him magic was a part of his reality now.

    ¡°Can you teach me?¡± He asked hopefully. Despite having been in this world for about six years now, Damien had mostly ignored magic excluding watching his mother''s magic. Saria looked at him with a puzzled look. The ability came so naturally to her she didn''t quite know how to phrase it. A child''s vocabulary didn''t help either.

    ¡°You just feel it around you and step inside it,¡± Saria said as her brow scrunched up. This was not helpful he felt that he had an inkling of what she was talking about. He always felt this¡­ the energy surrounding him, he tried to ¡°go inside¡± it, he tried to do something anything with it, but the power was slippery, fleeting, constantly escaping his control. After struggling futility for several more minutes attempting to hide in plain sight at Saria''s blatant amusement, he eventually gave up.

    ¡°Whatever, I don''t need to use magic to win.¡± He proclaimed obstinately puffing his chest out. This evoked yet another giggle for Saria, who greatly enjoyed his theatrics.

    As Damien went home for the day, hereflected on Saria''s proficiency with magic. He was talentless in comparison. This world had magic, and he had no skill in it. He immediately rushed to Elian and asked her to teach him magic. He had seen her use some of it occasionally as she made small potions and such which she sold to the other villagers.

    Elian''s elation was evident he asked the question. Elian was not mage herself, but she knew a handful of basic spells and had okay raw shaping skills for fae magic. She promised Damien she would teach him, but she had some shopping to do and had to gather herbs for tomorrow. Damien was ecstatic to address this weakness and could hardly go to sleep. He was going to learn magic.

 Chapter 2: The Magic of Nature

    Damien immediately sprung out of bed, mind racing and heart pumping. His excitement slowly boiled up through the night preventing him decent rest. He was learning magic! His small feet glided down the wooden staircase, then waited for his mother to return from her morning shopping. Barely keeping still, the cool detachment that was typically overlayed his personality was nowhere in sight. As he waited he calmed himself to suppress his jitters.

    Elian finally returned, and Damien suppressed the urge to pester her. as she refilled the pantry and prepared breakfast, Damien''s virtuous patience wore thin. After he finished eating, she finally asked Damien if he was ready to begin.

    Elian grabbed a variety of herbs and items and ground them up before setting them alight. An aromatic scent slowly filled the air intensifying. The smell amplified as she used magic on the incense. Suddenly, Damien found it hard to breathe. He was reminded of one of his old co-workers and the gallons of perfume she wore. As he struggled to avoid choking on the scent, Elian calmly gave her first instruction.

    ¡°You need to calm down, " she started, "I want you to sense the magic around you.¡± Damien followed her instructions and it felt like he was seeing for the first time. Before, sensing fae magic was a vague sense of otherness that he could just barely perceive. Like something jumping around your peripheral vision. Now he could clearly sense the fae energies settled around him, Feeling it resonate within him. He could clearly picture the incensefuming off the energy causing a build up inside of the room. His brain interpreted it as a monochromatic static. The more energy there was to more frantic and compact near Elian; there was a thin line that was going between her and the incense as she powered the effect.The sheer amount of new information was overwhelming.

    The next few minutes were spent allowing Damien to adjust. What he didn¡¯t know is that the method Elian used was generally despised for all sensations he just dealt with. This alchemical incense would temporarily improve detection of fae energies, making it useless for creatures and races that couldn¡¯t naturally or manipulation them. Thankfully it was overall a harmless experience, albeit still very unpleasant.

    ¡°Spend the next few minutes adjusting to sensing the natura around you.¡± Elian finally continued. As Damien continued to slowly adapt to sensing them and became absorbed in the process, feeling the dancing and swaying power flowing nearby, he noticed that he could feel when Elian was, like feeling where his arm was near him. Even as his intimate connection began to fade, he could still roughly feel where Elian was while she watched over him. His senses also felt slightly sharper, though he also recognized that may be a placebo. He opened his eyes and smiled.

    After a breather, a small snack, and a water break, his practice continued. Next, the two family members hiked out to the nearby forest east of the village and sat in a small clearing.

    ¡°You have gained awareness of natura now you should try to wield it.¡± Eliansagely explained, ¡°There are swathes of wildlife near us, though mostly small animals and insects but many animals in the forest have some affinity with natura. You should be able to focus and detect them with effort.¡± Damien tried just that. It was extremely mentally taxing, like straining to see something without your glasses. Eventually though, within a few inches of him, he felt a small creature. Opening his eyes, he dug ever so slightly into the ground and found a small worm. Now, try to probe it with natura, if you do it right it should react.

    Damien diligently followed her directions; he felt a bit of energy leaving a source of power inside of him that he was unaware of. It flowed out of him leaving that power source feeling energy but this change had a haunting of familiarity, of his body back on Earth. But the action worked, the worm seemed to start making its way underground the moment Damien''s probe hit him.The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    ¡°Good job!¡± Elian said smiling softly, she was proficient at detecting signatures with fae energy to the point she could even tell the differences between different creatures and plants that were natura-attuned. This meant the being in question needed fae energy so it was situationally useful, but she hoped Damien could learn it as it may be useful. She could even feel him slowly learning his way around this ability, feeling the small ripples of natura radiating from him as he searched around. His method was fundamentally different from hers. While her''s was more like sight, he used something closer to echolocation.

    His probe was fairly standard. fae magic strongly reacts to intent so once he got a feel for it, simple effects were extremely easy to accomplish.

    Elian wasn''t sure if she had any spells she could teach Damien. Fae magic wasn''t geared towards structured spells in the same way arcane was. The weakest "spell" she had was one that regenerated damage and that was closer to raw manipulation. This was of middling use for elves as they already have a strong natural generation that improved by simply being in an area of strong natura. ''It could help in an emergency,¡¯ is what convinced her. Even an elve couldn''t walk off more extreme damage without directed magic use.

    Damien had spent the last few minutes recovering. The training was extremely taxing mentally, so he had lied down in the grass after putting the worm down. He didn''t disturb Elian as she was busy pondering something.

    ¡°Damien, this is the final thing we''ll be doing today.¡± Elian finally replied, snapping back to reality. Damien quickly bounced into an upright position snapping to attention. ¡°Alright, so first you need to practice moving natura. Focus, then try pulling it towards you.¡± Elian instructed. Damien began his attempt. With the growing familiarity, he has gained over the past two days moving the fae magic around him felt relatively easy. Sure it still felt like swimming through molasses, but at least now he could move it, unlike when he attempted Saria''s hiding technique. It occurred to him he should retry it now that he can actually interact with fae magic.

    He suddenly lost control of the energy as his focused slipped, luckily wild fae energy was extremely harmless so he only suffered damage to his pride. Mustering his focus once more, he tried once again to move the natura near him even closer. It slowly coalesced into a shell around him.

    Elian was watching in silence as Damien practiced. She noted he had difficulty control fae energy. It was unfortunate as most elves had an easier time, but that can be improved greatly with practice. Though this balanced the scales, as he seemed to have a fairly strong perception of fae magic. He hadn''t exactly interpreted her instructions correctly, she had wanted him to pull the energy inside him but he made it surround him. This could be useful as a magic shield against holy or infernal energy. She decided to act like this was her intention all along and explained how this could be used. Next, she instructed for him to pull it inside him.

    As Damien followed her next instruction, he suddenly felt energized. Though the feeling was fleeting. As he burned through the energy that adhered to him, he couldn''t pull more to him fast enough to keep up his consumption. Elian smiled.

    Despite his relatively weak ability with the far Damien showed extreme focus and determination Elian had seen in very few children. She had cracked open a book on herbs and reagents as he dedicated himself to refining his newfound abilities. She finally glanced back up as she realized the sun was setting. Had time passed that quickly? She quickly gathered her materials and snapped Damien out of his focus.

    ¡°Damien sweetheart, it is time to head home.¡±

    ¡°Alright.¡± Damien dejectedly responded. He felt like he was reaching some sort of breakthrough but he could always continue tomorrow. He glanced over and noticed the alchemical tools she was placed into her bag. Maybe he could convince her to teach him how to do that too? A thought for another day, he decided as fatigue hit him. One of the problems of being a child again was how hard it was to deal with exhaustion. He nearly dozed off on the walk back before Elian picked him and carried him. He would soon gently nod off as Leian placed him into his bed, a smile forming on her face.

 Chapter 3: Is That a Rabbit?

    Damien¡¯s training had been going excellently. While he still had extreme issues with control,he progressively becamebetter over the past two years. He also got to finally experience the regeneration effects of what he had dubbed the invigoration spell. Damien made quite a few observations on his elven physiology as well. It seemed that all elves passively benefitted from fae energy. The thick passive fae energy felt throughout the village was being generated somewhere deep within the forest, so when Damien had wandered further towards the plains one day where he felt particularly adventurous, he noticed he felt a tad slower and less energized. It wasn¡¯t enough to cause any noticeable problems, but it was something to keep in mind.

    On the same little expedition, he also realized that elves naturally generated some fae energy as he felt it thickenaround him a short while afterward. This revelation meant that he could use his sonar ability anywhere. That quelled a fear in him about being left helpless that he hadn¡¯t been aware of, but that had existed nonetheless.

    The usefulness ofhis detection ability quickly became apparent a few months after he first started his training. When playing with the kids in the town, he had been searching for Saria. When he was about to give up, there was a fairly obvious mote of energy glowing up in the tree next to him. After climbing up, he saw nothing. With a flash of inspiration, he poked the spot and Saria nearly fell out of the tree in her surprise. For the next few months, he remained the only one who could find her in their little games. That was until she had done something that obscured her to his new sense as well.

    ¡®Can¡¯t win ¡®em all,¡¯ Damien thought,snapping out of his reminiscing. Elian had started becoming looser with rules as Damien aged and his competenceinspired confidence, which is why Damien was currently deep in the forest alone. Excluding the red ox-like creature that served as a laboring animal and some insects, Damien barely saw any wildlife in this new world. So he was searching for some animals. Damien wasn¡¯t stupid and recognized the fact that he may run into something dangerous during this trip but was confident in his ability to run away from anything that threatened him.

    After wandering for a few hours a putrid smell him like a truck. He had to force the bile coming up his throat back down. After taking a second to ground himself, he decided to find out what it was. He was somewhat optimistically hoping to come across something harmless but instead, he found a corpse of what appeared to be a wolf from what he could see at this distance, or at least from what remains of one. The animal''s insides were splayed out and the insides seemed to be moving as the skin stretched and moved.

    ¡®This can''t be good,¡¯ Damien thought, as he started to leg it in the other direction. As he dashed off, he heard a snap behind him and suddenly his fae sense indicated something behind him rapidly approaching.

    Damien jumped to the side crashing down on top of his arm. Ignoring the pain, he glanced over to the spot where he was just at and saw a small rabbit. The rabbit soon turned in his direction and started bouncing towards him.

    ¡®Is that a Jackalope? though the horn is wrong.¡¯ Damien thought, noting a unicorn¡¯s horn on the red rabbit that was rapidly closing in. Damien had already forced himself up as the thought finished and started running again. If it wasn¡¯t for his sonar ability he very well may have died already; thankfully the rabbit seemed to charge energy before dedicating itself to an attack each time. He didn¡¯t want to know what would happen if it hit. Though the effects of his haphazardous dodging were becoming evident. Since he had very little time between noticing an attack and dodging he mostly flung himself out of the way of the lightning fast creature. He could feel tender spots dotting his arms and less from several poor landings and was quickly becoming winded. The only reason that he was even able to outrun the jackalope was that it would jump roughly stomach height each time allowing him to gain a bit of distance before it was finished landing and reorienting itself.If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

    Damien had tried several times to gather enough fae energy to create the armor he had been practicing as he had a hunch it would at least stop whatever effects the magic gathering in the rabbit''s horn may have on contact. But it took him roughly twenty seconds to accomplish that and he little time or thought that wasn¡¯t dedicated to running or dodging.

    He was starting to reach exhaustion, He had been in a full out sprint the entire time and the rabbit was better at that. This wasn¡¯t working. Damien was forced to think up a plan. Glancing around he saw little in the way of tools or obstacles. There were plenty of trees and underbrush but not much else. Eventually, Damien spotted a hand-sized rock and his idea and solidified.

    Damien had spent the next few minutes running in large circles near the rock trying to get the timing right. He would need to do so soon because even his elven endurance was being pushed beyond its limits. His mind was clouding with fatigue, his lungs burning, and his legs were starting to weaken from the constant strain on them. It was all or nothing.

    Soon his opportunity arose. He felt the energy build behind him and spotted the rock several feet ahead of him. Instead of diving to the slide like usual, he slid. Damien watched as the rabbit blurred over him in an extreme burst of speed. Damien frantically searched for the rock he noticed earlier.

    Spotting it, he grabbed the stone before rushing towards the rabbit whom just landed. Dashing towards it, he smashed down on top of it. The rabbit dodged his hasty attack by running between his legs.

    ¡®Fuck,¡¯ Damien thought, as terror started to grip him. He spun on his heels just in time to see the rabbit dash back towards him. Damien started to throw himself to the side but in his shock was slower than usual. The rabbit¡¯s horn stabbed through his side spinning him as he landed on his back. As a reward for his quick reflexes, he wasn¡¯t gored.

    ¡®Gotta look at the bright side.¡¯ he thought attempting to force himself to his feet. His body wasn¡¯t having any of it as he collapsed back down. He attempted again before he was reminded of the horned creature hunting him. It had once again started charging him but had slowed down from its previous attempts. Damien took advantage of this and pitched the rock right in its path with all the strength he could muster. The rabbit was caught off guard by this and the rock glanced off its head knocking the rabbit to its side. Damien realized he needed to press this advantage. Mustering himself one final time he shakily got to his feet as the rabbit started to snap from its daze. Damien stomped hard on the rabbit¡¯s body, feeling a crack as something gave way. He stomped down several more times as the creature squealed and whined before collapsing next to the dying animal.

    Damien felt extremely dizzy and noticed his wound was still bleeding. Realizing the new danger he was in, he focused on channeling fae energy through him. Soon after he started the process the wound stopped bleeding but was stubbornly refusing to heal. His dizziness and fatigue forced him to remain splayed on the forest ground. He was burnt out but refused to stop his healing as his death was all but guaranteed if he did. After several minutes his wound started to close finally.

    ¡®The rabbit¡¯s attack inhibits healing, huh¡¯ Damien postulated, as that was the only explanation he had for his currently sorry state. His other wounds and bruise were somewhat slow to heal but had all healed minutes before this one did. As Damien¡¯s body finished regenerating, he blankly stared at the thick canopy above, hoping he could soon return home.

 Chapter 4: Lost in the Woods

    Damien woke up and promptly realized how stupid falling asleep in the middle of this forest was. It seemed he was asleep for several hours at least as there was an orange glow piercing throwing the leaves above. As he got up he realized he may not have healed as well as he thought because where the rabbit had stabbed him was still quite sore and tender. Being careful, he gently moved over to inspect the rabbit. Its body was sagging in the middle where he had focused his final assault. This was when he realized that the red on the creature was dried blood, not its fur. It was also caked in the stuff. Damien truly comprehended the danger of this forest as such a small creature nearly killed him. Damien needed a weapon. The rock he used before likely wouldn¡¯t work, the only reason it affected this creature was due to the small size and even then it had only stunned it.

    After searching a bit Damien realized his stupidity; he went over to the rabbit, grabbed the horn near its base with his hands, and pushed his foot down on the animal''s skull. The sickening crunch that accompanied every renewed effort didn¡¯t deter him, though did bring a wave of nausea. Eventually, the horn cracked at the base, giving him a small dagger that was useful for stabbing and not much else.

    Damien sat down wiping away the sweat that formed on his brow and caught his breath. His muscles were still sore, having been put under heavy exertion multiple times with only a few hours of rest. Damien replayed the chase with the rabbit in his head once more. Despite having felt like forever it had only lasted several minutes. And Damien remembered the wound it inflicted as it gently throbbed reminding him of its presence. All and all, Damien was just glad he was alive and avoided being gored like the wolf he had seen earlier. Though this did give him an idea. Damien knew his body naturally produced some natura energy and that the rabbit had used its horn to channel it. Could he do the same?

    This immediately started Damien¡¯s attempts at reproducing the feat. He had no idea where he was in the forest and was both hungry and thirsty. Push come to shove he would need to find a river and food to eat. Damien wasn¡¯t very familiar with the plant life and what was edible so he deemed it safer to try to hunt a small animal, lest he finds himself spasming on the ground after eating an odd berry. All this meant that having a weapon that would inhibit healing would allow him to perform an endurance hunting despite his weakened state. If he could sneak up on an animal and get good hit in he would just have to deal with it until it succumbed to its wounds.

    The process was far more difficult than he thought. He was just forcing power out in every direction not really into the horn. After taking a short breather to prevent mental fatigue, he continued his attempts. This time instead of trying to direct it he tried a new method. Having recalled the bright concentrated glow of the rabbit, he tried to pull the surrounding energy inside of it instead of pushing it. He was using a similar idea to how his fae cladding and regeneration techniques worked. This was what bore fruit and Damien made a note to himself to start with such methods first next time. While it wasn¡¯t as bright as the rabbits, Damien noticed that he did manage to infuse magic inside of it. With more time he could probably accomplish the full effects, but daylight refused to wait for him and he would prefer to hunt in the day.

    Getting up and focusing on his senses he realized that elven senses were not to be underestimated. He could hear a rustling in some bushes nearly one hundred yards away when he truly focused. He slowly made his way over, being extremely careful not to make a sound. Having spotted his target, his heart nearly dropped realizing it was another one of those rabbits. Steeling himself, he readied to strike it and executed. He barely caught its flank as it heard him step into his blow. This managed to cripple the animal as it tried to hobble away. Damien not wishing to take any chances chased after the creature and finished it off by stabbing it in its back.

    Damien honestly would prefer not to eat these rabbits as he doubted the nutrition that one would provide, but it was push come to shove. He wouldn¡¯t use the other rabbit as he had no idea how long he had left it sitting there and what insects gathered access to it. He knew he wasn¡¯t going to be able to do a very good job field dressing it as he was inexperienced and the horn he had didn¡¯t work very for the job he was going to assign it. Damien did his best job to preserve as much meat as possible but the amount was minuscule. He soon realized that he didn¡¯t have a fire and started to gather materials for that.

    Fire preparation he was familiar with having gone camping many times in his previous life. He found kindling and some sticks and dug a small pit with his hands. He would have made a pump drill but didn¡¯t want to break his distraction rock nor create a primitive piece of string, so he sat down, poked a hole in the side of one stick, placed his kindling around it, starting spinning the second one in the groove.

    Once it started smoking he picked up the kindling and gently blew on it to encourage the flame to grow. Soon a small fire was started and he used the horn of the second rabbit he murdered as a skewer for the meat. He was surprised by how alluring the scent was and soon bit off some. Despite his initial weariness, he found the taste quite pleasant.

    Having gotten rest earlier, and being leery of the night time Damien stayed awake through the night, practicing his energy channeling and maintaining his fire to make sure he didn''t fall asleep from letting his mind idle too long. Every crack and woosh started him, reminding him of his vulnerable state.The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    Feeling tired but still alert, Damien finally noticed the rising glow through the trees indicating sunrise. Standing up and Stretching, Damien decided to look around and see if anything could assist his body. Today he hoped he could take it easy and wait for rescue, as his underdeveloped body truly started to hinder him as the foreign stressing he subjected it to started to take its toll.

    ¡®I hope I don''t stunt my growth,¡¯ He idly thought as he decided to try to make a wooden spear out of a nearby tree branch. Damien then searched for a sharp rock to chip away at it with. Having found one several minutes later he sat down and worked at his new project.

    These projects were excellent at subduing the constantly rising panic he felt welling up inside him. He had gotten lost camping before, but he was an adult when that happened and in twenty-first century Earth, benefitting from all the technology that came with that status. Now he was an eight, nearly nine-year-old child that was in the equivalent of a fantasy post-classical Europe from what he gathered. At least when he was in the village he had soap. Damien had noticed he was caked in blood and his clothes were torn, he looked like a savage.

    His idle observations came to an end as he roughly finished his spear project. It was both horribly fragile and extremely small as he didn''t have the muscle mass to wield a particularly long spear, but any encounter he didn''t run from would likely end in one or two hits, whether it was in his favor or not.

    Next, Damien was curious if he could use the same anti-healing technique on his spear. Calling it a spell was a bit of a reach in his mind, but that wasn''t too important right now. As he attempted to channel natura into the wood he realized it was extremely difficult. If channeling into the horn was lick sucking through a thin straw, this was like doing the same thing with a piece of paper shoved inside, sure there was progress but it was painfully slow and tiring for the effort.

    Damien realized something about the horn made it great at taking in fae energy.

    ¡®The benefits of evolution.¡¯ Damien thought with a disheartened sigh. At least he had two of the horns, though the second has started to blacken a bit from the constant fire exposure. Though Damien didn''t think his bones would have fared nearly as well in the fire so he counted his blessings. He needed something to store his horns in he realized, then searched for any plant that was particularly flexible. Having found something akin to a large but sturdy blade of grass he started to cut it free.

    ¡°Next time bring a backpack,¡± he grumbled aloud, having to poke eight more holes into his pants, four on each side to be able to tie the horns to his legs. He took his time, being careful not to stab himself, and then threaded the thick grass through his pants typing and knowing it on the inside, making a makeshift holster.

    It moved in and out when the horns weren''t forcing it in place, and he was confident it wouldn''t last more than a day or two, but he hoped it was all he would need. If he was particularly lucky, or unlucky depending on perspective, the horns make act as some sort of thigh guard and protect him from damage.

    Forcing down a giggle at the absurdity of one of those rabbits attacked being deflected by the horns of it''s slain brethren he decided to relight the fire. His goal was to create smoke that someone might notice so he could be saved. But before that he needed water. His throat and mouth felt dry, and it would be nice to clean up a bit as his skin felt sticky and mouth couldn''t even wipe himself without spreading filth around his body.

    Damien decided it would be prudent to make sure he could return to his meds he called a base so as he started to walk away he marked every tree on his left-hand side so he could find his way back. Finally, after what was roughly twenty minutes of searching, he heard the gentle flow of water somewhere nearby. He followed the sound and eventually found a small stream.

    Ecstatic, he quickly swished some water in his mouth the wash out any remaining aftertaste and food, before spitting next to him then taking a drink. Next, he washed his face for a bit but was careful not to let his guard down. Damien didn''t want to come across a predator who was thirsty then die because he was negligent. Not washing his body as that would waste a lot of time and leave him very defenseless, he trudged back towards his campsite.

    Roughly fifteen minutes later he returned, the trip was shorter as he knew where he was going. Damien sat back down near the fire to warm himself, as the water was quite chilly, though that had only made it more refreshing.

    Damien had noted he had been missing for at least a full day, so someone was very likely searching for him.

    ¡°I wonder if I should expand my fire,¡± Damien thought aloud, ¡°It would increase the chances of me being spotted, but then I might start a forest fire.¡± Damien decided against it, as he realized something.

    ¡®Maybe if I follow the water I''ll be able to head back to the village.¡¯ Damien pondered for a few moments. Damien had both methods that first came to mind for finding the village blocked off. First, he couldn''t use the sun as the canopy was thick and he couldn¡¯t remember if it rose from the east or the west. And at this point, the natura around him was so thick that it would at least an hour of walking to tell if it was getting thicker or thinner. But he wasn''t quite sure the stream was even the same waterway, which deflated his hopes somewhat but he had decided. If rescue didn''t show up by the next morning he would try a combination of the three to try to find his way out.

    Damien decided he needed to rest to keep watch during the night. Despite having only run into enemies in the day, he thought it safer to sleep in the day and risk ambush than getting attacked while suffering from sleep deprivation or ambushed at night where his perception was reduced. Elves had better night vision, but it wasn''t perfect. Laying against a tree a few yards from his fire, Damien soon dozed off in preparation for the night ahead.

 Chapter 5: Theres No Place Like Home

    Damien awoke completely still. He had entered a light sleep, and it had saved him. He could hear a fairly loud rustling nearing him, something was coming. Silently getting up and grabbing his spear he started off to hide behind the tree he was just laying on. With bated breath, he waited. He soon peaked around the thick trunk, being careful not to expose himself more than necessary. He saw a large wolf, roughly the size of a small bear.

    ¡®Is that a fucking dire wolf?¡¯ He mentally exclaimed. He doubted he shitty spear could take this monstrosity out. The wolf started to sniff around his campsite. Damien wasn¡¯t sure how scent tracking worked, but he wasn¡¯t too keen on figuring it out. Fighting it was a death sentence. He wasn¡¯t sure running was a much better option either. Hiding seemed to only delay dealing with the very large problem. So he had three shitty cards and needed either luck or ingenuity to survive.

    ¡®Wasn¡¯t fire and smoke supposed to keep animals away?¡¯ he thought in frustration but soon noticed that it seemed his fire had gone out while he slept. He knew you could intimidate a black bear, would that work on a dire wolf? ¡®That¡¯s an idiotic plan.¡¯ he realized noting he was a small child. There were no good options.

    He remained absolutely still so the wolf didn¡¯t hear him, but it seemed to be meandering over in his direction. He had to make a choice fast. He glanced around and took note of all the tools on him. He had his makeshift spear, both rabbit horns, his sharp rock, hand-sized rock, and the clothes on his back. The only things nearby were his campsite and the trees around him. There were a few trees nearby but that didn¡¯t seem useful. ¡®Wait, wolves aren¡¯t great climbers.¡¯ He thought as his epiphany gave him a plan.

    It was time to put the idea into motion. First, he gathered fae energy around him, then started absorbing it inside him. He tossed his large rock high aiming for the other side of the clearing, it hit a tree startling the beast. Damien made a break for it. The closest tree that he knew he could climb was about one hundred feet to his left so he ran in that direction. He had a head start and was extremely fast due to his adrenaline, elven nature, and natura physical boost. But he was still racing a wolf, an extremely large one at that. Damien was halfway to his destination and heard the wolf chasing behind him as its predatory instincts activated. He could hear it gaining on him, fear gripping his heart and drawing further speed out of his body that he didn¡¯t know he had. It still wasn¡¯t enough.

    He could tell the wolf was right behind him now. He felt like it was breathing down his neck.he quickly grabbed the sharp stone behind him. This bought him a bit more time but not much. Salvation was a scant few meters away. The wolf had caught back up after his distraction. He made a gambit. Whipping around, he stabbed back with his spear, catching part of the wolf but doing no real damage. He managed to startle the wolf and it halted its chase. He then slowly backed up, and the wolf seemed to size him up. He soon felt the tree on his pack, and then scrambled up it as the wolf renewed its charge.

    It caught his leg, teeth ripping into flesh causing him agonizing pain, but he managed to escape. Thankfully the wolf didn''t have magic teeth like the rabbits¡¯ horn, so he focused on his regeneration. His efficiently and control was improving leaps and bounds from the extreme amounts of usage he was getting out of it. It also invigorated him and reduced pain so he managed to avoid fainting from the bite.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

    His leg wound wasn''t completely healed but he took a breather as he was exhausted and couldn''t muster the focus for anymore. The wolf was growling and wolfing at him from the base of the tree, flesh and blood still painting its maw forming a grim visage.

    ¡°Fucker,¡± Damien exclaimed as he spat down towards the wolf. Taking petty revenge for his leg injury, ''Now what do I do?¡¯ He was trapped in a tree with a better, but still injured leg and a monstrous wolf hounding him below.

    Having spent the better part of an hour, the wolf soon started to slink off. That''s how it appeared at first but Damien heard it stop not too far away but still out of his sight. The bastard was smart. Damien had already finished healing his bum leg but the injury was severe enough for it to still be tender and extremely sore. He knew it wasn''t smart to put a lot of weight on it but to maneuver in the tree he would have to.

    He gently stood up and started to crawl over to one of the branches. He hoped to monkey through the trees to get away from the wolf. His enhanced dexterity served him greatly and even in his debilitated state, he managed to nimbly move through several trees. He looked around to spot his campfire to reorient himself; it hadn''t been as long as he hoped but the forest was too dangerous to continue waiting like a damsel. He managed to spot it ahead of him slightly to his right and saw the tree he had laid on to the right of it as he crawled through the trees. That meant that the stream was in front of him if he moved forward. He had lost track of the wolf and was worried about being ambushed by the lurking monstrosity. He continued in the trees as far as he could then rested for a while.

    Nearly an hour later, he mustered the courage and will to move, urged by his cramping muscles and the stiffness that started to plague him. He slowly lowered himself, and as he touched down he was careful to put his weight on his good leg to avoid a flaring of pain. Reappropriating his slightly cracked spear as a walking stick, he hobbled in the direction of the stream.

    God''s he missed the village. He hoped he could roughly guess the direction after finding water. He eventually made his return to the stream and looked around. It was starting to darken, but this was perfect. He spotted a golden glow of light towards his right. That means east and west were to his sides. He knew the forest was east of the village and that the fae energy strengthened the deeper in the forest you go. What else could he use?

    Damien finally recalled that to the west of the village were a series of mountains from which the river next to it flowed from. Assuming that this stream was from the village''s river, then he needed to head to his right, as that is where the water flowed from.

    Smiling to himself Damien started trekking in that direction, enduring the pain of his leg. He also noted that the sun must set in the east. He wasn''t sure if this was the same as Earth but either way, it was useful to remember to prevent this from happening again.

    Soon Damien''s guess was confirmed, as he had noticed the natura around him was significantly thinner after a few hours of travel as well as the tree density. the river wasn''t straight increasing travel time, and he would probably be fine to head straight but he didn''t want to take any chances.

    As he finally exited the forest, he spotted his village only a few hundred feet away. He was home.

 Chapter 6: Finding a Routine

    Damien¡¯s return caused a temporary upheaval in the village. His mom wasn¡¯t home; her the village shaman, and several others had gone searching for him in the forest. One of his neighbors let him stay over until she returned.

    He was mentally exhausted, and never got to truly relax while he was lost. He had passed out and didn¡¯t wake up until noon the next day when the search and rescue party finally returned. Elian was hysterical and was a mess even after finding out he was okay. After several hours of extreme coddling and injury treatment, she finally began calming down.

    A few rules were changed after the Damien Incident. None of the kids were allowed in the forest without supervision, which Damien had to apologize for. His leash was also tightened and he couldn¡¯t wander as far anymore. This wasn¡¯t a concern for him, the mildly traumatic injuries quelled his wanderlust a lot. Besides he also realized he needed to get into shape if he wanted to avoid death while in dangerous areas. Due to this one of the things Damien picked up was an exercise regime.

    He ran around the village as many times as possible a day and did things like practice climbing on buildings and such to train his muscles. He also renewed his natura channeling truly taking it seriously. When he was lost that ability was the difference between life and death. He also managed to convince his mother to let him keep the horns under the flimsy pretext of study, and then switched the topic to learning alchemy.

    He knew that his mom occasionally helped sick villagers and such with alchemy, but didn¡¯t inquire beforehand. He realized the foolishness and sought to mend that knowledge gap. First, he needed to learn to read.

    Damien had neglected to learn to read and it wasn¡¯t something that the village bothered to teach. Most people learned to read apparently, but elves typically wouldn¡¯t learn this early unless they were going to a school in a city. The next few months were focused on this effort.

    The language was extremely similar to English in grammar and sentence structure. These similarities were extremely helpful in learning to read and write.

    The next several months were spent with a lot of studying and training. The repetitive nature caused the time to fly by. But he would finally get a bit of reprieve. He had constantly been looking through his mother''s alchemy books trying to gauge how close he was to possessing the ability to read it. A lot of the language was specialized so it took quite a bit longer than he expected but he finally was able to read enough of the book to intuit the words he didn''t know.

    The first book he started to read was for the foundations of herbal alchemy.

    Alchemy seemed to consist of subschools, based on the ingredients used. He saw some books based on other schools too. He wasn''t sure if this was based on an incompatibility or common practice between the different schools but it didn''t make too much a difference for him currently.

    There seemed to be two types of components referred to as the reactant, the catalyst, modifiers. The reactant is what would undergo the change. The catalyst could speed up the rate of the change. Modifiers would modify the effect. This struck Damien as odd, from what he recalled in chemistry both modifiers and catalyst would fall under the group of a catalyst, but he assumed the definition was slightly different. The book''s information was extremely jumbled, jumping back and forth between topics and the definitions made less and less sense to him as he powered on.

    One example of this is how one recipe for a potion of fatigue, which caused one to sleep required two reactants and nothing else. Wouldn¡¯t one just have functioned as a modifier in this case? Damien decided to try to build his own system the moment he had enough information to do so.

    After another hour of frustrating reading, he decided, for now, he was just going to memorize some recipes, test them out, and extrapolate any new information from there. One immediately stuck out to him. One would create a minute pearl, one with the diameter of roughly a dime, that held concentrated fae energy. It required a small object that was ¡°attuned¡± to the energy. Damien wasn¡¯t quite sure what that meant until he remembered the horn stored under his bed up in his room. It had extreme ease absorbing natura so that may be what he needed. He also needed a bottle of fairy''s breath, which after some flipping through the book he realized was basically fae holy water. All he needed for this was water and a binding agent. He had the perfect one in mind. He immediately grabbed his waterskin, he then took one of the few glass containers he has seen in his house he poured his water inside. Then after running upstairs and grabbing one of the horns, he poked his finger with it. Letting his blood drip into the water he then picked up the glass and swirled it, making the two liquids intermingle.Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

    He now had¡­ bloody water. He couldn''t see anything special about it. Going back to the book he didn''t see any steps. What went wrong? He went over the ingredients and this recipe provided no steps. It was supposed to be a liquid that was imbued with fae energy.

    ¡®Wait, imbued!¡¯ Damien thought with an epiphany. There was a small amount of passive fae energy in the area but what if the liquid needed more? He started channeling the fae energy nearby into the jar and noticed the change. With his sense for natura which had only grown stronger, he could easily feel the concentration of energy inside of the jar. The liquid visibly cleared, though still retaining a hint of red from its origin.

    Damien felt this¡­ draw to the liquid. He dipped his finger inside and pulled and the natura into and found it extremely easy to do so. It felt like circulating it through his body.

    But this wasn''t his end goal. Making sure not to drain too much of the energy drain from within the jar, he spent a few minutes breaking off a piece of the surprisingly hard horn. Taking the fragment he dropped it in the liquid. The change was immediate. The liquid started to subtly glow as the fragment disappeared. In the center of the jar, a small smooth sphere slowly appeared, expanding outward. As the liquid slowly darkened, which Damien believed was it returning to water and blood, the ball slowly floated downwards hitting the bottom of the glass. Damien reached in and grabbed the orb out. It was oddly smooth and to his fae senses, it was like a flashlight pointed at him. Damien smiled feeling accomplished.

    After taking a drink and relaxing for a while Damien returned and tried to absorb the energy in the pearl and the pearl shrunk as the energy rushed into him. Recently he noticed instead of all the power radiating off of him he noticed it was starting to be stored into him. A lot of it was still given off but the amount was being reduced. He also noticed something similar in the other kids. They weren''t glowing as brightly to him anymore, and Saria was completely invisible to his extra sense. He knew something was changing as they aged but wasn''t quite sure what.

    A lot of the energy would have dissipated if he didn''t absorb it into his body giving him a moment of clarity and energy. Spending a moment to revel in his success, Damien stretched. These could useful by storing energy for an emergency until his body could handle more.

    His mom had him help others with her work since he could now understand it healing to him learning a bunch of healing and restorative items and herbs. All of the potions utilized fae energy. This made Damien realize that all of his mother''s books were not just for nature and herb focused alchemy, but also for elves. Thinking about this Damien also wondered why he didn''t see anyone practicing arcane magic. Holy magic wasn''t something that could be done for most races without a God and infernal magic was generally frowned upon so no one knowing these two made sense, but what about arcane magic?

    Damien brought these curiosities to his mom, the most magically inclined of the village, excluding the shaman whom Damien has rarely seen. His mom started to explain some of the differences between the two types of magic in question. Apparently Fae magic was far more intuitive than arcane magic and easier to wield. Arcana required a lot of practice to build up energy for most species, where those of fae descent would accrue natura naturally. Arcane also required the practitioner to be more learned. While basic effects like a fireball were easy in theory, to build up the energy for one of a significant size required large amounts of training and learning different techniques. Damien was enamoured with the pseudo lecture, as Elian then talked about the advantages of Arcana. it was better for rituals and enchantments. First, she had his curiosity, now she had his attention.

    Damien Immediately asked he could learn it. Elian had an inscrutable look on her face. She rain checked that conversation saying she needed to look into something.

    Damien was up late that night thinking about his new life. So far he didn''t have many complaints. Sanitation could be better, but his mother knew all sorts of cleaning concoctions and was the reason the village had soap. His old life wasn''t better, just different. He had stopped missing most of his friends and such years ago, though still tried not to think too hard about it. Overall Damien was relatively happy. He had magic which made up for the loss of technology, though he did miss the wealth of knowledge provided by the internet. As he drifted to sleep he was excited to see what the world had in store.

 Chapter 7: Here be Goblins

    Elian hadn''t brought arcane training back up yet. Damien was patient, she wasn''t the type to just ignore his request without explanation, so he waited. Waiting wasn''t difficult with the relative excitement going around lately. Two major events coincided with each other soon after he had expressed an interest in learning arcane magic. First, a new family moved into the village and then a group of slimes had taken up residence in the northern plains.

    The new family was a small family of goblins who moved it. The father was a stout man, no more than three and a half feet if Damien was to guess. His head was wide. It was almost as wide as it was tall. He walked with a hunch whenever Damien had seen him which Damien believed was from the farm labor he was seen doing. He was scrawny but did have some visible muscle mass most notably extremely large biceps and calves. Despite his odd anatomy, Damien didn¡¯t think of him as ugly, his appearance was somewhat endearing, though Damien may just have an odd sense of aesthetic. Unlike the father who was similar to the stereotypical idea of goblins that Damien held, the rest of the family was surprisingly human looking.

    The mother was taller than her lover, having several inches on him. She was graced with a slim angular face that complimented her lean physique. While she was slim, her body was closer to an athlete than malnourished. She had large blue eyes and had short mousy hair cut into a bob. The two children both took more from their mother than their father. They both had similar faces to the mom, but both were noticeably plumper than their parents. The siblings were graced with pudgy cheeks and didn¡¯t have the same hardness on their arms as their parents. The daughter was taller than the son, and both children had their mother''s mousy hair. The daughter was longer and flowed down her back having no kinks or curls. The son¡¯s head was messily styled, intertangled with itself like he just got out of bed. Both kids had rapidly assimilated with the group of elves and dominated the children games they played.

    <hr>

    ¡°Are they tracking me via smell? Are you fucking kidding?¡± Damien exclaimed as he pumped fae energy through his body to keep running. Goblins were a tracking race and had extremely acute senses and the duo was exploiting this advantage. With new players, the group switched to playing tag with two people being it, and it was the goblin siblings turn.

    When he had tried to be tricky and hide close by, he saw the brother sniff the air and then beeline in his direction. Damien had dashed off but the two were dedicated chasers and both rushed him down for quite a while before the brother noticed Lance in a nearby tree and followed him instead.

    ¡®It¡¯s like I''m being hunted,¡¯ Damien mused, forcing the burning of his lungs out of his mind as he gulped down more air. He was using fae energy to rejuvenate himself, but his supply of internal energy was running low and had been sprinting for a long time. He couldn¡¯t pull more to him without time to focus and he wasn¡¯t graced with an opportunity. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

    The elder sister was chasing him and he could hear her in the distance as grass crunched under her feet. He was hoping to break off from her so he could catch his breath and recuperate. Unfortunately for Damien, her pace was fast she was moving at the same speed he was and made it look like a jog. He had distanced himself with a few tricky movements as they ran through the forest but hadn¡¯t gained any more distance in a while.

    ¡®I need to outsmart her,¡¯ Damien conceded to himself after trying to beat her in physicality. It hurt his pride that he was being caught up to by a child, but nothing could fix that right now. Despite playing a game, everyone was fiercely competitive and giving it their all.

    Damien analyzed his surroundings, searching for something to make a difference. He saw a thick tree with low hanging branches and an idea sprang to mind. Damien turned fast, keeping up his pace and rushed towards the tree. He jumped as he reached the tree¡¯s base, hands reaching out towards the first branch and yanked himself up rapidly. Kicking off that branch, he caught the next as he progressed up the tree. He slowly pulled himself up. As he glanced downward, he saw Selka clawing her way up quite literally. Her nails were burrowed into the tree¡¯s trunk and defying all logic, supported her body. Both of the siblings had removed their shoes back when they first started and she just revealed why as both her hands and feet dug into the tree. She was already halfway up to Damien¡¯s position and he was winded. Damien stubbornly forced himself onto his feet and prepared to jump to a tree nearby. He wasn¡¯t about to lose.

    Or so he thought. As he leaped, hands vying to grab the branch in front of him. He hooked his hands around it, but the momentum was too much for him and he fell several dozen feet, still moving forward as his body retained most of its momentum.

    He crashed into the ground, legs barely slowing him before they flailed forward causing him to land on his rear. The fall had hurt. His feet were aching and his knee felt weak. His tailbone pulsed in pain as his eyes welled up with tears. Blinking them back, Damien resigned himself to his loss as he saw as Selka slowly made her way down the tree and skipped towards him.

    <hr>

    After the game, Damien found out that only Saria had avoided capture. Lance was caught trying to make his way down the tree he was spotted in earlier, Kera was chased for the better part of an hour before finally collapsing out of exhaustion, and My¡¯til was caught trying to hide in some bushes. A new tag hierarchy was established that formed a deep rivalry between the old guard and the new talent.

    While Damien amused himself with the dramatization of their tag game, Lance had helped him walk back home as his legs still weren¡¯t all the way there. He tried to heal it with his usual method but he was drained of magic and in a bit too much pain to focus on pulling natura from his environment. Fae energy was a lot harder to control when he in pain if it wasn¡¯t generated by his body.

    When he eventually got back to his house his mom gave him an ointment for the pain and swelling and sent him on his way. She was focused on devising something to deal with the slimes and hadn¡¯t had much time to focus on him.

    The slimes had migrated deeper into the plains moving away from the forest. They were also quite a bit closer to the village. Thankfully none had headed into town yet, but defenses were being mounted as a precaution. Damien spent the next few hours in bed resting and practicing with fae energies before eventually lulling off to sleep.

 Chapter 8: April Showers bring...

    Damien awoke to the soothing sound of rain. The downpour outside could be heard pattering down onto the hard surfaces in the village. The atmospheric noise was relaxing to wake up to and as Damien was rolling out of bed he felt extremely at ease.

    Damien was at an impasse at what to do today, though he would likely wait for the storm to die down before deciding. Glancing out the window in his room, Damien saw the thick rolling clouds extend out to the skyline. The village itself was a ghost town, having no protection against the elements excluding the roofs of the various buildings and houses. Absorbed in the ambiance, Damien was finally inspired to spend the day studying and doing research. He had several books stacked on the floor next to the minimalist desk that he had used to learn writing a few months back. Most of the books were focused on alchemy but many were supplemental materials, with a bestiary, several books on botany, herbology books, and a survival book splayed around. Damien swore he had more books but realized it was likely his mom had taken a few booksback for her current project.

    After spending several hours studying the magical effects of various objects, Damien decided he was going to head out. The downpour had not ceased, but he had a cloak which was dangling from the back of his doorknob, though it was a flimsy material. What convinced him this was a good idea was that he found several herbs in one of the books that he spotted in the nearby forest which related to water. He wanted to try to create a hydrophobic solution that he could coat the cloak in. He was first going to search for a hydros flower, which looked like a hydrangea with a deep royal blue color, and a burst blossom. Both of these were known for their water attracting properties. The hydros roots pulled a large amount of water causing mud to form underneath the flower while the burst blossom pulled water into its round petals which filled like balloons before they popped spilling a small torrent of water and seeds. When the petals and roots combined, the ensuing paste was known for its drying properties as it absorbed water and then could be rolled off like clay. The best part was that the sludge could be squeezed and heated dry to be reused. He had previously seen the two flowers near the outer portion of the forest so that was where he was heading.

    Damien was also going to search for a siccus flower. This flower actually repelled water, the only reason it could survive was its dependence on fae energy. He had previously seen both the hydros and burst bloom near the edge of the forest, but if the siccus was in the forest it would be deeper due to the amount of fae energy needed to sustain it.

    Damien was unsure how deep he was willing to head into the forest. It had been quite some time since the incident and no one had seen any dangerous wildlife since, and most animals would have been further from the village due to the slimes having taken up residence in the plains further north. Damien decided to be on the cautious side, recognizing the rash nature of his decision and was not planning on making many more. He reached under his bed and grabbed the two horns he had stashed under there oh so long ago. He then grabbed the satchel on the floor next to his door, donned his cloak, and headed out.Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    <hr>

    Damien quickly regretted his decision. As he approached the forest, his clothes slowly became damp, rain seeping through the fairly thin cloak. He became drenched and was extremely irritated. Although he wanted to turn back, Damien stubbornly persisted, believing it to be a net negative if he turned back now.

    After exploring the outskirts of the forest for a few minutes, he spotted a burst blossom. It was quite easy to see considering the voluminous shape the petals were in. Damien quickly approached it, and using one of the horns, poked a small hole to let the water drain from the five petals he managed to gather. The dull dark purple color of the leaves held a certain majesty that deeply appealed to Damien.

    He then searched for the hydros flower. The search was fairly long and dull, only made bearable due to the trees above blocking a large amount of the rain. When Damien finally spotted the flower he impatiently rushed over and didn''t realize his mistake until he sunk knee-deep in mud. The attracted water from the heavy rainfall caused the dirt to turn into a thick liquid. He glumly reached out for the flower, staying relatively focused on his goal. He carefully scooped the mud out from under the flower, being careful to avoid damaging the roots. He then let most the mud slip between his fingers allowing him to wipe off what remained. He then stored the whole flower inside his satchel alongside the petals from the burst blossom and headed deeper into the forest.

    As Damien headed deeper into the forest he became anxious. He could hear the blood pumping in his ears despite the loud rainfall surrounding him. As he continued forward his legs became weak and shaky, causing him to slip and land on his hand and knees. Damien¡¯s mind flashed back to the goring he experienced facing the small horned rabbit. Then he remembered being hunted by the wolf and escaping by the skin of his teeth. Minutes passed as Damien sat on the ground trembling, paralyzed by fear. He tried to will himself to do something, anything, but his body refused to obey him.

    He felt exhausted and scared, the shivering was physically tiring, he was soaked, and he couldn''t escape the idea that animals may be waiting to attack him. His will fought his fear. He wouldn''t succumb, he refused.

    ¡®I won''t let fear control me¡¯ Damien promised himself. He resisted his fear. His mind pushed and pushed. Finally, something gave.

    Damien immediately stood. He was still scared and shaken, barely resisting the urge to huddle up, but some part of his fear was gone, a presence left him. Something about his fear before was unnatural. This terrified Damien. Something out here was messing with his mind, and he didn¡¯t wanna find out what it was.

 Chapter 9: The Sway of Emotions

    Damien found himself running for his life extremely frequently. He was quickly making his way out of the forest after his encounter with whatever mind-warping happened to him. That was before hearing the giggling.

    A sweet soothing giggle erupted from nearby. Giggling wasn''t something many animals did as far as Damien knew, meaning he was being fucked with by something intelligent. Thinking about this was doing no good, so Damien shelved the thought for faster panicked sprinting.

    Damien kept running faster and faster, pushing himself to escape. His efforts felt useless, the voice was still giggling in his ear. Damien redoubled his efforts and kept pushing harder.

    Nothing was really working, he was still in this damned forest- ¡®Wait what?¡¯ Damien¡¯s frantic mind skidded to a halt as he slowed down. He remembered avoiding traveling too deep into the forest so he didn¡¯t get lost.

    ¡®Why am I still stuck here?¡¯ Damien thought as the gears started turning in his head. He finally took some time to look around. As he glanced around he saw¡­ forest, forest, and more forest. There were no distinct characteristics around that could distinguish one area from another. He couldn¡¯t even see any traces of his frantic running as he looked behind him. Something was off. Damien continued to hear the occasional giggling right in his ear, but it wasn¡¯t driving him nearly as mad as before.

    He continued moving through the forest, and something about how the forest moved around him was off. Several moments later it clicked. He was still under the magic from before. The bone-chilling, primal fear from when it first hit him was long gone, but there was still a constant feeling of anxiety that plagued him. Not only that, but his perception was being warped as well. His mind and senses were being influenced and he didn¡¯t know what to do.

    Taking deep breaths to calm himself, Damien started investigating. He inhaled through his nose, taking in the smell of rain. He needed to figure out how his mind was being influenced if he hoped to get out. Two theories formed in his head. He was either experiencing a minor illusion or something greater. If it was a minor illusion there would be errors, such as feeling things he didn¡¯t see or vice versa: that would be something he could deal with. Damien immediately started testing by grabbing at a nearby bush.

    As he grabbed the shrub, disappointment welled up within him. He continued to search but found no discrepancies and felt panic start to overwhelm him. He was having trouble thinking with the cloud of fear in his head tainting his every thought and the dashing of his hopes added despair into a mix.

    He struggled frantically, scratching, punching, and biting himself in hopes of freeing himself but nothing was working. He continued his fruitless struggle for minutes, before becoming too exhausted to continued and collapsing on the ground. Damien felt the anxiety grip him once more but this time he didn¡¯t fight it. The fear of the spell melded together with Damien¡¯s natural fear and despair. As he continued to slump facing the ground he felt heat slowly rise to the center of his face. Tears started streaming down his face.This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    Damien sat there silently sobbed as the rain droned around him. His small body was shaking from both the cold and the quite hics from his crying. He sat there until his body could produce no more tears. The cumulative exhaustion from straining his body and then crying caused him to drift off the moment his weeping ended.

    A cacophony of laughter is what Damien had the pleasure to awaken to. Bleary-eyed and overwhelmed from the noise, Damien shakily sat up, attempting to ignore the stiffness and pain in his back. He took a moment to register his surroundings before paranoia grabbed him again. He felt his eyes start to water again at the thought of being trapped still before he felt a wave of calm wash over him. Caught off guard by his rapid mood swing, Damien finally noticed them.

    Around him were densely concentrated motes of natura energy. Damien tried to manipulate one of the balls of energy and found it completely immune to his influence. Damien found this startling before he noticed one of the motes rapidly dancing around his head. This mote that was circling him vibrated as another giggle entered his head.

    These motes were sentient, no, sapient. Damien felt a fire ignite in his stomach as rage gripped his mind. How dare they torture him like that. His face warped into a snarl. But as fast as the feeling came, it went. No, it was suppressed.

    As Damien realized what was happening his anger continued to flare and was continuously suppressed. His mind eventually balanced out as mildly irritated. His absolute disdain at having his mind perverted like this was strong, but not strong enough to nullify the effect. So he forced himself to stop worrying about this problem and focus on the next.

    Damien started preparing to head home. As he forced the moving blips out of his head, he fully absorbed the setting he found himself in. His bag was on the ground next to him, and as he sat up he grabbed it. Time to set off.

    ¡®That incessant fucking giggling!¡¯ The mote continued to follow Damien as he made his way out of the forest. His frustration was building with the constant intrusions into his mind, but¡ª ¡®What the hell?¡¯ Damien¡¯s musings were interrupted as disgust, horror, recognition, all hit him at once. His stomach dropped as he saw the town blacksmith assaulting Kera. She was horribly bruised and sobbing.

    Damien didn¡¯t have time to think before he rushed horn in hand in a blind rage. His fae energy vibrated with his emotion propelling him forward at breakneck speeds. He stabbed the scum in the back, horn empowered with fae energy ripping into the man. Damien felt his side smashed into, causing him to crash wildly into the ground.

    Pain flared in his left arm and Damien realized it was broken. The pulsing pain from his sides and his mangled arm was a splash of water that brought him back to reality. Rushing the blacksmith down like that was a terrible idea. The man was built like a brick shit house from his years of manual labor. Damien probably would have been noticed and not have been able to do anything if the man wasn¡¯t beating a fucking chi¡ª Damien forced himself to calm down.

    As Damien was struggling to control his flaring emotions, he felt them become suppressed again. Damien was reminded again of the dancing light surrounding him. He felt appreciation well up as the fae energy continued bouncing around before he focused on the task of hand. Damien shakily stood up as the blacksmith glared back at him with a hint of confusion and pain. Damien reached around to his satchel with his right hand grabbing the second horn from his pouch as he braced himself.

 Chapter 10: Loss of Innocence

    Damien stood and stared at the blacksmith. His head being relatively clear now, he realized that his chances of actually winning were abysmal. His left arm was most likely broken and pulsing with pain. His sides were both bruised from the hit and the landing. There was also the fact he was still a child and the blacksmith was a grown man who was in fairly good shape.

    ¡®So what is in my favor¡¯, Damien thought quickly assessing the situation as the blacksmith stood up. The blacksmith wasn¡¯t uninjured Damien noted as the man pulled the horn out of his back. That was a bad idea as it would only increase the bleeding. The wound wouldn¡¯t heal anytime soon as he pushed fae energy through the makeshift blade when he stabbed him. Damien needed help.

    ¡°HELP!¡± He shouted at the top of his lungs. His voice rasped near the end of the word as he strained his throat. The moment he shouted the blacksmith rushed him down, hoping to silence him. Damien prayed someone heard them as they were in the outskirts of the forest and there wasn¡¯t too much distance between the forest and the town.

    Damien scrambled off to the side hoping to gain some distance, but the blacksmith easily caught up to him. Being tackled to the ground, Damien felt his eyes tear as a sharp pain shot up his arm. The man was shouting at him but he was too busy trying to focus to pay much attention. As the smith¡¯s arm came up to swing Damien quickly elbowed at his face in hopes of disorienting him.

    The blacksmith didn¡¯t expect the blow as Damien¡¯s elbow smashed into his nose. As the man recoiled, Damien frantically struggled to crawl from underneath him before he was stuck again. Next thing he knew his world was dark and painfully as his head was smashed into the dirt. Damien sobbed from the pain as his thoughts became more and more panicked. He tried to turn around but a fist slammed into his cheek for his efforts. Realizing the futility of his actions, Damien used his good arm to cover the back of his head in an attempt to cover himself. As he did this he received several more punches to his arm for his effort.

    Fear gripped Damien as he felt the blacksmith start to wrestle the horn out of his hand. Pain be damned, Damien forced himself to kick and struggle. As the back of his foot his something soft, he felt the grip release. Rolling over he saw the man clutching his groin in pain. Damien saw an opportunity and took it. He stabbed at the blacksmith aiming for the neck. As the point met its mark, a strangled gargle emitted from the blacksmith before the man went limp. Damien stabbed several more times in a frenzy before collapsing. As he calmed down the pain hit him in its full magnitude and Damien started to cry in earnest. As he sobbed rapid footsteps sprinted towards him. Damien was picked up and carried away as he cried harder from the jostling aggravating his injury. This nightmare was finally over.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

    <hr>

    Several days after his fight with the blacksmith Damien finally recovered enough to leave the house. His mom had done extensive treatment on him and Kera using a variety of salves, potions, and magic in their healing process. As he left he immediately sprinted to the forest and searched the area for his horn. During the past few days, he felt extremely uneasy without his weapons and needed them back.

    Damien spent a half an hour before he found one of the horns but there was no sign of the other. In all likelihood, someone from the village had taken it. Damien tried not to think too hard about the events that occurred, he was still shaken. Having his weapon again, a sense of safety washed over him that he hadn''t felt since before he had to kill the smith to save Kera. This horn had saved his life along with a child''s. He never found out what occurred but at this point, he was positive he didn''t want the full story. Damien quickly rushed back home, having no intentions of spending more time than necessary in this cursed forest. Damien was glad to be able to retreat to the safety of his home.

    As Damien entered his house, Kera''s mother, Lameria, was eating with his mother. She got up as he entered the house and walked over hugging him.

    ¡°Thank you,¡± she whispered as she smiled sadly before leaving the house. A somber mood overtaking him, Damien felt many emotions manifest as he battled to keep it down. Damien walked upstairs, as he let the storm inside him settle.

    The next few days Damien stayed in his room reflecting on his life so far. All the problems so far he could have fixed if he was just a bit better. Slightly fast, a bit stronger, a tad more clever, or he was smarter. He started slacking off from his daily ¡°training,¡± and had not really pushed himself as far as he could while he was doing it consistently. He needed to be all these things now, lest another Kera incident occur that this time he isn¡¯t able to stop. Remembering the incident in its entirety made Damien cringe, and he popped up grabbing some books head to his desk to distract himself.

    Damien had never felt so scared before in his entire lives. He had felt extreme levels of fear against the animals he fought, and during the illusion but there was always a disconnect. While fighting the blacksmith he wasn¡¯t just scared for his life but Kera¡¯s also. He had died once, the memories were fuzzy but he accepted death was something that would happen again. Was he looking forward to it? No. But he knows it will come eventually. But he hadn¡¯t really considered the fact that things can happen to those around him. He had refused to process it until now. He could not accept that. He wanted to protect them from that, but as it is he is still a prepubescent child who is only alive due to a lucky shot to the groin.

    As his thoughts aggressively bounced around Damien felt nervous energy build up inside him. He hopped up to take a walk through the town. He needed some fresh air.

 Chapter 11: Who doesnt love school?

    Damien¡¯s training was going excellently. Ever since that helplessness, he felt a couple of years ago he started training. Constantly sprinting, bodyweight exercises, and training the control of his magic just so he wouldn¡¯t have to rely on luck to provide opportunities for him. His body became leaner, no very muscular due to his elven nature and young age, but he definitely had more definition than before. The constant mental and physical strain he placed upon himself revealed self-discipline that was unseen before in either of his lives.

    He by no means enjoyed the constant exertion, the never-ending studying, and constant cardio and strength training. Every time he thought of taking a break though, flashes of that day would resurface and torment him.

    ¡°It will happen again,¡± his mind would whisper. These echoes of his subconscious caused him to push himself. The one part of his training that was lacking was actual fighting. He did get some basic sword fighting and close combat lessons from the of the ex-mercenaries and guards in the town, but many refused to ¡°indulge his trauma.¡±

    This routine would become uprooted soon enough. As his age encroached on 13, he was informed that he and the rest of the children would be attending a school in the capital. Him Kera, Lance, Sera, and My¡¯til were all to prepare to leave within a few months, right at the end of harvest season. This put Damien in quite a bind. He wanted to protect the children he grew up with, but now instead of his small village, he had to do it in one of the biggest cities on the continent, Geldun, the capital of the Aldi nation.

    The Aldi nation was the nation in which the village was located. They were far from the center, located near the border of the Farlen nation, a predominately Elven country. Nearly the entire village was from Farlen or had ancestry that led back there. Due to their location, it would take several months to reach the capital which is why they needed to leave soon in order to get there at the start of the semester.

    This preparation also had supplemental lessons held by Damien¡¯s mother in order to get all the kids up to par for the education they were going to receive. All of the kids could do basic arithmetic alongside writing. Saria and My¡¯til could both do more involved mathematics, likely taught to them by their parents, showing competency for lower level algebra. Lance and Kera weren¡¯t as talented in maths but still could keep up, if only barely.

    Damien found himself drifting off in his thoughts whenever they weren¡¯t doing lessons related to writing or magic. Damien had finished his education up to basic Calculus, although he did find it hard to recall not having used it in over a decade. C¡¯est la vie.Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!

    This intruded upon his training but there was nothing to be done. His mother wouldn¡¯t stand him skipping the lessons as it was noticeably important to her that he did well at the school. The good thing was that these lessons had them learn the basics of arcane magic.

    Arcane energy had a multiple of ways to influence it, mainly consisting of spell formations and casting. Spell formations were usually used for spells where stability is the utmost importance. Summoning, contracts, etc. or for mass production. Casting was typically used in most other. Elian had no alchemical mixture for increasing sensitivity to arcana so they had to do this the hard way. That meant hours upon hours of meditating and focus. This was not an easy task for a bunch of children, no matter how prodigious some of them were.

    The magic prodigy, Saria, was the first of them to managed something. They were all attempting to conjure light, which required one to focus on the arcana around them and will it to emit light. Saria was the first to finally sense it and the first to command it. The rest followed over the next week or so with Lance being the last to finally control it.

    At this point, they were transferring to combat training led by some of the ex-mercenaries. This training was focused on self-defense, in case they needed to deal with some vagrants. Each of them was granted a dulled wooden knife and taught basic knifeplay. They were also taught to avoid a knife fight if at all possible. It was common knowledge that the loser bled out on the ground and the winner bled out waiting for a healer. This wasn¡¯t as true for elves due to their healing aptitude, but still a factor nonetheless. Damien was far happier with this knowledge, he was finally getting formal training and the dagger techniques could be used for his horn he uses as a weapon.

    They practiced for weeks, and when they weren¡¯t practicing they were studying. Until the day of departure arrived. The children would be accompanied by a few of their parents and the ex-mercs. The mercs would be guarding the caravan that they were going to join up with and the parents would reside in the city near the campus. As Damien gathered his few possessions a quiet bit of wistfulness welled up within him. Despite the few traumas acquired, Damien had a relatively peaceful life due to this village and was sad to see it disappear into the distance.

    As the carriage they were in trekked along the bumpy path, the villagers quietly talked into the night. Damien felt himself dozing off, only staying awake due to the jostling of his body from the uneven road. He once again found himself reflecting upon his new life. This was something he found himself doing a lot lately. He was still fascinated by so much and didn¡¯t truly appreciate it often. He was an elve, a being with thousands of years ahead of him if he played his cards right. It was so incredible the different opportunities offered by this. He was going to capitalize.

    As sleep took him, Damien stared into the sky, watching the stars.

 Chapter 12: A Red Lit Night

    ¡°Pathetic,¡± He mumbled as he layed in an alley battered, soiled, bruised. Attempting to stand, pain electrified his body denying him that right. He was still but a child in all fairness, no one could expect him to have won, but all his effort had left his expectations high. He could have done better, yet still he was left broken and exhausted as his body surged with the energy of the fae, slowly undoing his failure.

    Damien realized he may lay in this spot for hours as his supply of natura magic ran dry once again. Damien had recalled back in the village realizing that the further from the forest he strayed the thinner natura ran in the air. Here in the city was the epitome of that idea: There was nearly no passive natura meaning he was reliant on what miniscule amounts his body generated.

    It was nearing dusk, and he was near some of the seedier elements in the city. He prayed no one found him as at best he would be ignored and he had no inclination to find out what they would do to a small elven boy in the worst case. Maybe he was being prejudiced, though; despite having broken several bones, those men did nothing particularly vile. It was his fault for not having been better.

    Halting his thoughts, Damien noticed that his arms felt mostly fine ignoring some throbbing pain and his ribs probably mended their cracks. Confident he regained some mobility with his upper body, he eased himself over to one of the adjacent walls and propped himself into a sitting position.

    City life had not been very kind to the elven families. This country was majority human and no one bothered mentioning to the children that there was pretty deep-seated discrimination and fear towards elves in these parts. Apparently, the humans and elves went to a war a while back and a large amount of them were slaughtered in the arising conflict by elven soldiers.

    Whispers of ¡°unearthly endurance,¡± and ¡°monsters,¡± were heard by him and the others throughout the two months they¡¯ve lived here. Maybe if there were more whispers of ¡°really good fucking ears,¡± the small elven community wouldn¡¯t have been as subjected to hearing the disdain held by this city¡¯s entire damned population. Damien realized his temper was flaring again. ¡°Calm,¡± he whispered to himself, ¡°Anger solves nothing.¡±

    Darkness draped over the landscape, and a chill swept through the streets. Then the city woke up. Chatter gradually became louder as Damien lay dazed. His mind flowed thought to thought unfocused and- Damien felt a chill shoot through him. Damien looked around in a panic. But saw no one. It felt like cold water was dumped on him, was his paranoia getting that bad? The preternatural unease left as soon as it came, but the hauntings of the feeling caused him to force himself up. Pain shot through his left leg, his knee still had not repaired from where it was stomped, but Damien didn¡¯t wish to remain here any longer.

    Having lied in that alley for hours, it was a welcome change of scenery as he made his way through a red light district, acquiring some queer looks due to his obvious childish nature.

    He really regretted having picked the fight with those two men earlier. But he was glad that the guy they were following got away. If a human received half the damage he had it¡¯d be magic if they weren¡¯t crippled for life, literally.

    Another chill swept through him, something that froze him in his tracks. It felt like he was being peered through, someone or something watching. Damien couldn¡¯t pinpoint what was the root of this sensation whether it be instinct or paranoia, but he didn¡¯t want to find out.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

    Damien was fairly confident he was safe as long as he stayed here in the red light district. As it was lit with lanterns, both magic and mundane, nothing would start trouble with the brimming nightlife here.

    Then Damien recalled how racist some people were, meaning weren''t as many people here that would hop in to protect him as he was hoping.

    He hobbled faster.

    This feeling, this fear, it swept over him several more times as he made his way through the red light district to the slums.

    Would it be considered slums or a ghetto? Damien wasn''t sure having lived in an impoverished area before, was there a difference?

    The elven tenement he lived in was on the other side of the slums, in what was considered the merchant''s district in the center of the city. This area was also noticeably darker, though his enhanced sight meant that he could see easily enough.

    As he continues his walk, he heard something off to his right side. He heard something. In the darkness of the alley, there was a gangly disheveled person who was quietly looming over a fallen man. Damien stepped off to the side and focused on listening not wanting to draw any ire. Damien peeked in and took in more information now that he was actively paying attention. The one still erect was pale, with limp, oily hair draped down to his shoulders. The person, no corpse Damien realized as he saw the dark glimmer of blood reflect off the moonlight. The man seemed to inspect the body, crouching down and caking his hands in something as he handled the body before standing up and moving around to the other side. Damien pulled from the corner, as the man would see him from the new angle. There was silence, followed by footfall.

    Alarmed as the sound approached his direction, Damien fled. What in god¡¯s name was that? Glancing over his shoulder he saw the spindly man walk out from the alley and shuffle his way forward. Damien slowed remaining as inconspicuous as possible. He felt the need to do something, a compulsion. He needed to intervene.

    Damien froze, he why would he want to insert himself into that? The dude looked straight out a slasher film and it was the epitome of stupidity to get close to him. But the urge got stronger, it hounded at him. Damien could feel himself breaking into a cold sweat, his mind becoming fuzzy as he forced his body to stumble away. It felt like wading through molasses. His legs refused to obey him. Damien¡¯s will cracked against the pressure of this death wish of an instinct. He spun on his heels immediately analyzing the situation behind him. The thin male was walking away from him and the body, heading down the path that eventually led to the red light district. Damien crept his way into the alley, desperate not to draw attention to himself. His stomach lurched as the body¡¯s smell hit him. The compulsion from earlier reimposed itself demanding he confront the man but it was weaker at the moment. As morbid curiosity overcame him, Damien looked to see what the murderer did while looking over the body. Kicking the body over as he pinched his nose, Damien saw the man''s face. This man was also pale, whether due to his current state or not having enough sun in life Damien was unsure, he didn¡¯t know enough about bodies.

    As moments passed he felt that urge flare again before disappearing. Was he feeling guilty? That didn¡¯t fit his mental image of himself though, he had never been this righteous before his second life. Was part of being an elf, having some sort of stronger opposition to doing wrong? Damien¡¯s mind flashed to the event in the woods with the blacksmith and that threw a shade of doubt on that theory.

    Damien¡¯s musings slowed as he noted a rectangularly shaped indent in the front of the guy''s shirt. Curiosity gaining the better of him once more, he invasively raided the man¡¯s cooling corpse and grabbed the object. He pulled out a relatively dry book. The bottom corner of its pages was damp. Under the moonlight, Damien noticed the leather cover was tinted red as he flipped it to glance inside.

    It reminded him of one of those pocket bibles, his father had kept one on him nearly every day until he died. Shaking the decades¡¯ old nostalgia, confusion arose as he glanced inside. Diagrams and a cryptic cipher was illuminated by the dim moonlight. Nowthis was interesting.