《The Phoenix Aspect》


 C0001: Beginning of the End

    ?? 23rd Dimension, Arvia, Acica Kingdom, Lower Realm, Doha.


    ?? Year 9,938 after the last Zartonesh invasion.


    ???


    The rays of the midday sun trickled through the sun-drenched leaves creating flickering shadows on the foliole covered ground. Small animals scampered across the half-buried animal trails as they scrounged around for fallen nuts and berries. Fat-bellied insects burrowed in the moss-covered trunks of the thick majestic trees that rose from the ground reaching the cerulean blue sky above.


    The sounds of birds calling to one another, the chittering of animals and the hum of insects filled the air. Unexpectantly the sound of desperate panting disturbed this tranquil scene as the small girl stumbled and crashed into one of the moss-covered trunks, small animals darted for their burrows, the birds fell silent, and the animals stopped chittering, the sound of heavy breathing sounded in the sudden quietness of the forest.


    Jayde Freehold scrambled off the ground. Her legs trembled from fatigue. Reaching out with her left arm she braced herself against the moss-covered truck, her head bowed. Her sticky black hair hung limply covering her face as she gulped in air greedily.


    A couple of minutes later Jayde lifted her head. Her eyes were filled with desperation and despair as she looked around her, barely noticing the natural beauty of the scene around her.


    Putting as much distance between her and those hunting her was all that mattered to her.


    Her small teeth gnawed on her dry, cracked lips drawing small beads of blood as she threw a desperate look over her shoulder. Pushing herself off the tree truck, Jayde picked up her pace as she started running soon she was sprinting through the small forest.


    Jayde''s heart raced as her fever-bright eyes darted around as she jumped over fallen logs and broken branches. Her hand covered the right side of her abdomen that was aching terribly. A river of sweat streamed down her pale face. Thorny branches had scraped against Jayde skin leaving numerous small red cuts, her muscles burned, but no matter how exhausted she was, Jayde didn''t stop running.


    Jayde knew that if the party hunting her caught her, she would face a terrible ordeal. Picturing what her second uncle would do to her spurred Jayde to hurry.


    As chorus howls, interspersed with barks, growls, and whines reached Jayde''s ears, she stumbled and fell to the ground. Small sharp stones bit into her hands and knees. Jayde did not register the burning pain as she scrambled to her feet.


    By the gods, she thought with despair, the seeker hounds have picked up my scent.


    Maniac energy filled Jayde as she grabbed fistsful of her hair, her eyes darted around frantically. Jayde''s scalp stung as she pulled out small clumps of hair. Jayde''s mind filled with a strange buzz as panic stole all rational thought, swinging around she raced off.


    Her breath came in small spurts, hot and nervous. At her sides, her scar-riddled fingers curled into dainty sweaty fists, swinging forward as if it would make her run faster. Behind her, she could hear the excited howls, yips, and barks of the seeker hounds.


    By the gods, please let me live, she prayed silently, as she threw herself forward with even greater abandon. Jayde''s lungs burned as her heart raced. She felt as though the air didn''t seem to be enough as she sprinted forward, her tired limbs trembled with fatigue and panic.


    For the umpteenth time, she cursed her fate. Born in a world where everyone could weave spells, she alone had been cursed with a weak body and no magic. Considered a waste by everyone, for thirteen years she had been told that she should be grateful that she hadn''t been drowned at birth.


    Many didn''t even consider her a human; she was a freak without magic.


    In her frantic panic, Jayde ran blindly, her caution thrown to the wind, as she tried to increase the distance between her and the hunting party behind her. Throwing desperate looks over her shoulder, she didn''t notice a small animal burrow in front of her, as her right foot fell in the deep hole, Jayde tumbled to the ground.


    Sprawled face down in the rotting vegetation, Jayde raised her dirt covered face and tried to lift herself to up. Shooting, stabbing pain in her right ankle made her cry out. Realizing that her ankle couldn''t support her, dread filled her as she crawled to her hands and knees, the fear of what lay behind her spurred her on, as she crawled like a baby over the mushy vegetation on the ground.


    ???


    An hour later, Jayde''s fingers and hands were raw and bleeding, her legs and arms trembled with fatigue and her the sides of her abdomen ached terribly. She barely had any strength left. Lifting her head she tried to gauge the distance to the Dark Forest, it still looked too far away for her to reach safely, the seeker hounds were closing in on her.


    Tears slowly leaked from her eyes. Despair and hopelessness grew within her heart and soul. She knew she wouldn''t make it to the Dark Forest. Utterly wretched Jayde resigned herself to the dreadful fate waiting for her she rested her back against a broken tree trunk.


    With her back leaning against the dark wooden trunk, Jayde stared unseeing up at the blue sky above her; small tears leaked from the corner of her eyes. Jayde knew returning alive to the Freehold Estate would only lead to a slow and torturous ending. Her thoughts darted disjointedly around in her mind as she tried to figure a way to avoid the pain she knew she was going to face.


    If only I had a dagger, she thought wistfully, then at least I could slit my own throat or even plunged it into my heart.


    As that wishful thought crossed her mind, Jayde let out a short bitter bark of a laugh. Ah, who was she kidding she never had the courage before to take her own life. In the past, she had considered ending her life many times, but every time she chickened out.


    Cursing herself for being such a weak coward, she tried to think of some plan to reduce the suffering that she knew was about to come. After discarding numerous strategies and ideas, the only feasible plan that she could think of was to make her second uncle angry. He loathed her, and he was notorious in the family for having the shortest temper. If she could rile him up enough, he would lose his temper and being Silver Fire Sentinel Knight of the 10th Class he would forget that with his strength he could squash her like an ant, he would kill her instantly.If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    Jayde hugged her drawn up her knees. Bowing her head, she thought back to earlier in the day to the events that had led up to her current disaster.


    ???


    ??6 hours earlier.


    Jayde day had started like any typical day, rising before the sun rose, she had left her tiny shack to bath in the small lake in the Freehold Estate. After putting on a clean robe, she hurried over to the main family wing and entered the large family kitchen, happy it was Restday.


    Every Restday she was assigned to work in the main kitchen as most of the slaves were given the day off. Jayde preferred working in the kitchens; it was better than workdays when she was sent to the pits.


    The large kitchen had stone floors, with multiple racks with various size pots and cooking pans dangling from them. Multiple counters were set up around the kitchen against the wall for the preparation of the numerous dishes the kitchen staff had to prepare. Every window ledge was filled with pots of growing herbs.


    As Jayde strolled into the kitchen, she could hear the sound of sizzling dire-boar, the quiet chattering of the slaves as they toiled over the hot stoves, and the noise of knives hitting wooden chopping boards. Jayde''s mouth couldn''t help watering smelling the delicious smells that hit her as she entered. It was a mixture of cooking meat, baking bread with the unmistakable aroma of herbs.


    Working in the kitchens was the best day of the week for Jayde, not only was the work light compared to what she usually had to do, but Jayde had the opportunity to ''liberate'' some food. Restday was the only day during the week when she wouldn''t have to fight the beasts and other slaves in the estate for rotten leftover food.


    For three hours Jayde slaved away in the kitchen helping the kitchen staff prepare breakfast for the leading family. After the servants had fetched all the dishes and delivered breakfast to the various family wings, Mama Dee the head of the kitchen sent her off to rest, ordering Jayde to return within an hour to help prepare lunch for the Freehold family.


    With her apron pockets bulging with ''liberated'' food, Jayde cheerfully waved goodbye to Mama Dee. Mama Dee had been in an excellent mood that morning and had rewarded all the servants and slaves for their hard work. Mama Dee had handed a fresh scone to Jayde, she could feel the slight warmth from the scone against her leg through her dress.


    Feeling the weight of her apron, Jayde was happy with her harvest this morning. If I am careful then these overripe fruits and pieces of bread will be enough food for me for three or four days, she thought, humming a happy tune under her breath.


    Jayde snuck through a rarely used small courtyard. She was looking for a quiet spot where she could eat her scone. If any of the other slaves or servants saw her eating the scone, they would immediately beat her and steal her food.


    Jayde was small for her age, and although she had just turned thirteen years old, due to malnutrition, she looked as though she was only nine or ten years old. While she looked frail and weak, she was physically strong for a magic-free human.


    Jayde had built up a lot of physical strength doing manual hard labor around the estate. The chores assigned to Jayde were tasks most adults would have found exhausting. While strong compared to a human without magic, on Doha, she was weak and fragile. The lowest rank magic user could crush her like an ant.


    On Restday, most of the maids and servant left the estate to either visit the shopping district or one of the numerous temples erected for the citizens to worship. Slaves were resting in their quarters, and the estate guards were patrolling outside.


    Entering the small secluded garden in the courtyard, which was hidden from view, Jayde sat on a small stone bench. Taking out the precious scone from her apron, she slowly nibbled on it. Enjoying every single bite ¡ª she was trying to make the scone last as long as possible.


    At that moment in time, while Jayde was sitting on the stone bench, eating her scone, Jayde experienced a moment of happiness.


    For the first time in a long time, her stomach wasn''t crying out in hunger. Mama Dee had only smacked her once this morning for being too slow, and no one else had beaten or kicked her. For Jayde, today was one of her better days.


    After dusting the crumbs off her hands, Jayde prepared to leave the small garden. She calculated she had just enough time to run back to her shack and hide the rest of the food she had ''liberated'', leaving her enough time to return to the kitchen to start preparing lunch.


    If I am quick I might be able to steal even more food, maybe even some meat, Jayde thought, her mouth filled with saliva just thinking of tasting some meat, Jayde got to her feet and left the garden.


    Following the stone path which led to the slave pits, Jayde rounded the corner and entered one of the formal gardens that the family used for entertaining. Since the garden was only used when there were guests, it was usually deserted, and Jayde would often use it as a shortcut.


    She had just entered the garden when she heard voices. Recognizing the voices Jayde cringed, it was her third sister Saphira and her younger cousin Edvard. Saphira was fourteen years old and was considered one of the most talented youngsters from this generation, she was a Fire Sentinel, Silver Ranked Knight of the 4th class, while Edvard who was the same age as Jayde was a Water Enchanter, Silver Ranked Knight of the 3rd class.


    On Doha, every person was born with the ability to manipulate the magical energies around them. The difference between Sentinels and Enchanters was how they were trained from young. Sentinels concentrated on improving their physical bodies while Enchanters trained their minds.


    Since everyone could perform even the most basic of magic, your position in society on Doha was based on how strong your magic ability was. From first class to four class you were designated a slave, while from fifth to twelfth class you were classified as a servant. It was only once you broke through to the thirteenth class that you were considered a mage, and earned your first title, Knight of the 1st class.


    Jayde should have been a powerful mage just like her third sister, but life sometimes likes to play cruel jokes, and Jayde was one of those unfortunate jokes.


    Jayde father Za''thul was the clan leader of the Freehold Clan, which was one of the four great clans in the Lower Realm, their clan size number in the hundreds and if one were to include their branch clans, then the Freehold clan numbered in the thousands.


    The Freehold clan controlled the city of Arvia, located in the northern kingdom of Acica with the Freehold branch clans controlling the surrounding towns ¡ª Sochilov and Mogomel.


    Jayde mother Shyenho was the eldest daughter of the clan leader of the Starglaze Clan another one of the great four clans in the Lower Realm. All in all, Jayde should have led a pampered life, being the first born princess of Freehold and Starglaze Clans, her bloodlines were impeccable, her father was the clan leader, her mother the daughter of the main wife of clan leader of the Starglaze Clan.


    Za''thul and Shyenho were both Silver ranked mages, with Za''thul being a Fire Sentinel Knight of the 11th class and Shyenho a dual Wood and Fire Enchanter Knight of the 12th class.


    Shyenho broke tradition when she wed Za''thul ¡ª she married for love, she had been betrothed to the Gold ranked second son of a mid-ranked clan from the Mid Realm. Rumor had it that the Starglaze Clan had to pay out an excessive fine to break the betrothal, but Shyenho had insisted that she would only ever marry Za''thul.


    Shyenho gave up her dreams to further her studies in the Mid Realm and settled for being the clan leader''s main wife.


    Shyenho was close to breaking through to Bishop of the 1st class. She would have been one of the few Bishop class mages in the Lower Realm. Few Bishop mages would remain in the Lower Realms, staying meant curtailing your cultivation as spiritual Qi in the Lower Realm was sparse compared to the Mid Realm.


    ???


    ? 2019 DJ Rogue. All rights reserved

 C0002: Shes a Null

    Za''thul and Shyenho had high expectations for their first born child, with both of them being Silver ranks they naturally assumed that their first child would be the same. When Jayde was born she was treated as a precious treasure ¡ª the newest Freehold Clan princess ¡ª the whole clan celebrated for days.


    Many high-ranked officials and clan leaders visited the Freehold Estate laden with valuable gifts for the latest addition to the Freehold clan they aimed to try to negotiate to betroth their sons to the Freehold''s new heiress. Even clan leaders from some of the lesser noble houses in the Mid-Realm lowered themselves to send representatives to the Freehold Estate to snap up the newly born Freehold princess.


    Matchmakers were rubbing their greedy hands in glee, they were making a small fortune with the number of fathers and clan leaders of eligible young sons of high ranked clans queuing up to engage their services. Marriages were big business in Doha, with professional matchmakers being very wealthy individuals with numerous influential contacts which led to most children in Doha betrothed before the age of five. Due to the expense of providing a dowry for daughters and grooms having to pay a bride price the majority of people only had one partner, with clan leaders being the exception, most clan leaders had the main wife with two to three concubines.


    Za''thul being the cunning leader that he was, had decided to wait for Jayde''s official magical reading which was carried out on children when they were three years old before betrothing his daughter. He believed that with his and Shyenho talents his daughter would be a genius, a peer among peers and he was looking to tie the Freehold clan to one of the more powerful Mid Realm clans.


    Za''thul had engaged the services of the High Mage of the Mages Guild to do Jayde''s reading. One Doha a child''s Reading Day was the most important event for any person living in Doha. A high-level mage could determine a person''s rank as well as which element affinity a child had. A child''s rank determined their whole future. People on Doha were ranked according to the size of the dantian or Qi Pool. The dantian was a small area located just below the belly button which stored magic also known as Qi. The size of your dantian was an indication of your potential as a mage, the bigger your dantian was, the more powerful you could become.


    Ranks were broken down into seven categories namely: Stone, Copper, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Etherium. A mage''s dantian increased in size as they advanced through the ranks, but the potential that a mage''s dantian could grow was determined at birth. There were legends that there were ways to improve the quality of a mage''s dantian, but no one in the Lower Realm knew how this was done, and so they had written this off as a myth.


    A Stone ranked person''s dantian could only grow to allow a person to reach class four. Once they broke through to class four, their dantian couldn''t physically increase in size, which meant that they had no way to store more Qi to break through to the fifth class. Copper rank had the potential to reach 12th class, while a Bronze ranked person was able to break through to become a Knight, but they would never break through to Bishop class.


    Silver rank mages could reach Bishop of the 12th Class. Gold rank bodies could become a King of the 12th Class, and Platinum ranks an Emperor of the 12th Class. It was rumored that Etherium ranked mages after advancing to Emperor of the 13th Class ¡ª would transfer to one of the god realms as an immortal, not much as known in the Lower Realms about this. An Etherium Qi Pool or dantian was considered a legend


    One''s whole future was determined on their Reading Day.


    After a child''s reading the High Mage would then create their Life Disk, a Life Disk was a round disk worn around a person''s neck, the chain was magical that would adjust as you grew older and couldn''t be removed. A person''s Life Disk shattered upon their death, and the disk was manufactured out of the material according to their rank.


    One the front side of the disk a person''s clan totem was engraved as well as their elemental types and at the back of the disk ¡ª a person''s bloodlines were magically recorded.


    Many important guests were invited to attend Jayde''s Reading Day, which was rare in the Lower Realm as most families kept their children''s Reading Day private, mostly this to prevent embarrassing a noble family should their child potential turn out to be mediocre.


    For the common folk the reason they kept their child''s Readin Day was for a different reason. Should their child ended up having the potential of being a powerful mage, their child would end up being targeted by kidnappers.This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.


    It was not uncommon for high potential children to be kidnapped and raised to be used for breeding purposes. Small families were often preyed upon in the Lower Realm, as it was only by having strong mages in your clan that you could ensure your clan''s future and security.


    All the children of slaves were tested by their owners, should a slave couple be ''blessed'' with a child with a high-quality rank which was above their own stone rank, their child would immediately be taken away from their parents and forbidden from interacting with their blood families. A slave couple at least had the comfort of knowing that their child was raised within the clan, and they would be able to see them.


    All signs pointed to an auspicious reading on young Jayde''s Reading Day. There were hundreds of guest all dressed up, even the Emperor and Empress of the Acica Kingdom were present. The Freehold Clan members were brimming with excitement, the chance of Jayde being tied to a high ranking noble family from the Mid Realm was high, such a betrothal would propel the Freehold clan to First Ranked Clan of the Lower Realm. As a First Ranked Clan, even the Emperor of Acica would have to treat them with the utmost respect.


    High Mage Saunders was adorned in his official royal navy blue robes. The silver thread glyphs decorating his robe designated his position as High Mage.


    His silver Life Disk around his neck was displayed prominently. One the surface of the disk one could make out, the red flame for fire, a blue water drop for water and a yellow three knot for metal ¡ª these three symbols showcased his rare triple faceted magic.


    Straightening out his robes and flickering off some invisible dust of his shoulders, he climbed the stairs of the Pavilion that had been built specially for Jayde''s Reading Day.


    Standing in front of this prominent crowd, High Mage Saunders was enjoying himself ¡ª performing such an auspicious reading for the Freehold clan ¡ª the awe and respect the people were showing him fed his inflated ego.


    Standing in front of him young Jayde was dressed in a newly made silver dress made out of rare spidersilk. The dress was embroidered with lilies made out a gold-dust thread.


    With her shiny long black hair curled into beautiful ringlets. Rosy cheeks, pink lips, pale ivory skin, her amber eyes shining bright with joy, she was an adorable sight.


    All the guests could see that she would grow up to be an absolutely stunning young lady ¡ª not that there was any doubt as both her mother and father were renowned for their good looks. Jayde''s mother was considered the number one beauty in Lower-Realm and Jayde was showing signs that she would definitely take after her mother, her father''s amber eyes added a touch of etherealness to her face.


    Amber eyes were rare in all the realms, the Freehold Clan boasted that they had dragon blood running through their veins, and it was rumored that those family members who had amber eyes had stronger dragon blood. Amber eyes in the Freehold Clan was considered a sign of strength, and barring any unforeseen circumstances, if a male child had amber eyes, he was automatically declared the future clan leader.


    Jayde and her father were the only known members of the Freehold clan alive who had amber eyes. It had been generations since amber eyes had shown up in the Freehold Clan. Jayde eyes were slightly different from her father''s as her eyes were circled with a dark line around the iris, making her amber eyes all the more striking.


    Welcoming the guests to Jayde''s Reading Day, High Mage Saunders gave a small speech, before he started the reading. Holding a magical crystal globe in front of the young Jayde, he directed her to place her small hands onto the crystal, he then injected his own spiritual Qi into the glass globe.


    Once his Qi was injected into the magic crystal globe, the globe would reveal Jayde''s potential and elemental affinity, but to his consternation no matter how much Qi he pumped, the crystal refused to change color.


    Slightly embarrassed he called for another crystal. High Mage Saunders assumed the crystal he had been giving was faulty, but even after changing crystals the new crystal still did not change.


    High Mage Saunders stared at Jayde with disbelieving eyes, never would he have imagined in his life that something like this could have happened. With cold sweat dripping down his back he was distressed that he would be the one announcing Jayde''s Reading.


    What upset him the most was that after he made his announcement, he would forever be tied to this aberrant, everyone would overlook all his achievements because of this child. He really regretted that he had taken on this task, but no medicine in the world can cure regret.


    If he had been one of the crowd, then what he was about to announce would have filled him with glee, after his announcement the Freehold clan wouldn''t be able to hold their heads up again in public.


    High Mage Saunders had quite a sadistic streak, and he enjoyed nothing more than bringing pain and embarrassment to those around him, but now due to this freak, he was going to be one of those embarrassed.


    Looking at the crowd in front of him, High Mage Saunders cleared his throat.


    "She''s a Null!" he announced loudly.


    ???


    ? 2019 DJ Rogue. All rights reserved.

 C0003: A Despicable Family

    After High Mage Saunders announcement, pure pandemonium broke out. Most people had never heard of a null before, the guests were confused, while those in the know such as Jayde''s parents were horrified.


    How could they, being so outstanding produce something as aberrant as a null. Nulls were people without any magic. In Doha even the lowest slave had magic. The only creatures in Doha that were magic-free were the lowly beasts.


    "Y...y-ou must be mistaken," Za''thul shouted out, stuttering for the first time in his life. High Mage Saunder announcement was a disaster. If High Mage Saunders was correct, this would be the most embarrassing event in the Freehold clan''s history.


    How could their daughter be lower than a slave, a beast, could you even consider her to be a human? Who had ever heard of a magic-free human?


    "Clan Leader Za''thul, I have confirmed it twice, you saw that I even used multiple crystals, there is no mistake, your daughter is a null," said High Mage Saunders coldly.


    High Mage Saunders then went on to clarify: "Your daughter has no magic ability whatsoever, she is the first magic-free ?human? born since ancient times," High Mage Saunders stressed human, as though he doubted Jayde was human.


    The guests were shocked; then everyone started whispering, the ladies snickering behind their hands, while some of the men were smirking, delighted with the catastrophe befalling the Freehold Clan.


    Elder Ebi, Za''thul''s third uncle realized that Freehold Clan needed to act quickly. Apologizing he sent all guests home. After everything had quietened down, the elders called an urgent meeting with Za''thul.


    After hours of heated debate, the elders decided that Za''thul would discard Shyenho as his main wife, she would be found guilty of adultery. Unfortunately, Jayde being a null had been made public, and the news would have spread far and wide that getting rid of the child quietly was no longer an option for the clan. They needed to come up with a solution that would remove any taint of this aberration.


    To explain away the color of Jayde''s eyes, they would tell everyone that Shyenho had weaved a spell on Jayde when she was born changing her eye color to hide her adultery and that Za''thul had discovered this after investigating the matter. Za''thul would rather live with the humiliation of everyone knowing that his wife had cheated on him, than having an abomination like Jayde as his daughter.


    Shyenho was quickly tried and found guilty; even the Starglaze Clan refused to interfere, they did not want to be associated with an aberrant like Jayde. After being found guilty, the Freehold Clan followed family law. Shyenho was sentenced to death by public stoning.


    To lay this matter to rest as quickly as possible, on the third day after Jayde''s Reading Day, Shyenho was dragged through the streets of Arvia, where she was beaten and stoned to death. Her name, as well as Jayde''s, was removed from both the Freehold and Starglaze Clan ancestral records.


    Up until the day of her mother''s execution, Jayde had no idea what was going on. She had been dragged away after High Mage Saunders announcement and locked up in her room. No matter how loud she screamed and cried, no one tendered to her.This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it


    On the day of her mother''s execution, Jayde was made to watch as her mother was stoned to death. Her father had already arranged for one of the elders to cast a spell on her to change her beautiful amber eyes to black, as well as to make slight changes to her face to remove any similarity to him. Her beautiful clothes were confiscated, and she was dressed in the rough tunic uniform of the Freehold Clan''s slaves.


    Shocked and confused Jayde tried to call out to her father, she was desperately seeking comfort from her parent. As she ran up to her father, he brutally beat her, shouting at her to get away, calling her a bastard, and many other words that she did not understand.


    After being kicked and punched a number times, her small body was filled with pain, blood dripped from her mouth, and she had numerous cuts on her body. One of the maids roughly pulled her away and told her to stay away from the family members, that she was a slave and should be obedient.


    Her small body trembled as she watched her beautiful mother dragged through the streets of Arvia, while the crowd jeered and threw rotten vegetables and stones at her. Jayde struggled to break free of the slave who was holding her.


    Finally, Jayde managing to escape and ran up to mother, not understanding what was going on. All she wanted was for her mother to hug her like she did in the past, and tell her that everything was going to alright, but instead of embracing her, her mother''s eyes were filled with bone-chilling hatred, it was like she was looking at a monster.


    "Get away from me, you ugly monster, you are an abomination, you are not my child!" her mother screamed.


    With her hands tied, all Shyenho could do was try to kick her daughter.


    "Give me back my daughter you bitch!" Shyenho howled.


    Struggling hard against the ropes, Shyenho tried her hardest to get to Jayde, her greatest desire at that moment was to strangle this child, tear her to pieces, eat her flesh and drink her blood.


    In the time that she was imprisoned Shyenho had come to the conclusion that Jayde was a changeling, that someone must have swapped out her real daughter with this demon child.


    Exhausted and with her strength and magic suppressed, Shyenho collapsed, still muttering all the time for Jayde to give her daughter back. The guards dragging Shyenho through the streets had lost patience watching the drama and pulled her away.


    In a final burst of strength, Shyenho shouted at Jayde.


    "You have killed me, you murderous bitch!! You have killed me."


    That was the last time Jayde ever saw her mother, but her last words were branded onto her mind, and for years to come, they would replay in her dreams.


    After Shyenho execution, Jayde was thrown into the slave pits. The slave pits of the Freehold clan were the worst place in the Freehold Estates to be assigned too. Only people who had betrayed the family, murderers, and rapists were assigned to the Slave pits ¡ª it was considered hell. It was said that is was better to die than to be thrown to the pits.


    It was here, in these slave pits that Jayde was to spend the next ten years of her miserable life. Beaten and starved Jayde slaved away from sunrise to sunset, if it weren''t for Old Man Zhek, Jayde would have perished within a couple of days of arriving.


    Old Man Zhek, took Jayde under his wing and tried his best to protect her. He taught her how to survive, where to steal the best food, how to hide from the guards and fellow slaves.


    For eight years Old Man Zhek guarded Jayde, but life was hard in the pits, and when Jayde was eleven years old, Old Man Zhek passed away, leaving Jayde all alone. For two years Jayde struggled to survive on her own.


    But fate was a fickle bitch, and she had one last joke to play on Jayde.


    ???


    ? 2019 DJ Rogue. All rights reserved.

 C0004: Fate’s Last Joke

    Running into her third sister Saphira and her cousin Edvard did not bode well for Jayde, every time she came across them, they took great pleasure in tormenting her. The whole Freehold Clan hated her, they blamed her for all the snide remarks the people of Arvia said behind their backs.


    Some of the clan members believed Jayde was a calamity waiting to happen. It was said she would bring a disaster to the family if she were allowed to stay, many pushed for her to be expelled from the Freehold Estate while others demanded that she be killed before a calamity befell the clan.


    Za''thul refused to allow Jayde to be driven from the clan, by no mistake was it due to any soft feelings he had for his daughter, he was worried that should Jayde not be under the clan''s control that someone would be able to perform a blood rite spell and it would be discovered she was actually his daughter.


    Never mind the embarrassment such a truth would bring to the clan, but he would be charged with falsely accusing his wife and would face murder charges.


    The only reason he had not killed her yet was that legend said that if you killed your child or parent, you would face harsh judgment from the gods. Whether that was true or not, Za''thul did not know, but there were many horror stories told of about heir''s killing their fathers or their bastard children to hide their affairs and disasters befalling them, with those tales around Za''thul did not dare to find out if the legend was true or not.


    With his hands tied he prayed that Jayde would die of natural causes in the pits. But like a weed, she stubbornly hung onto life, even after he arranged for Old Man Zhek death.


    Saphira and Edvard were standing together in the middle of the garden, anyone looking at them would think there were brother and sister since they resembled each other so much. Both were tall and lanky, with long coal-black hair.


    Saphira hair was braided and hung down the middle of her back like a thick black rope. She had a dramatic widow''s peak, and her attractive angular black eyebrows framed her deep blue eyes. With her high cheeks, short, perky nose with full pink lips she would have been beautiful if not for the continuous look of discontentment on her face.


    Edvard had similar features to Saphira, although his eyes were lighter, and his cleft chin added a masculine look his otherwise pretty features. Edvard''s long hair was tied up in a single ponytail. On Doha is was considered a sign of wealth and power for men to have long hair, male slaves were shaven, while male servants had short hair.


    Seeing Saphira and Edvard, Jayde tried to backtrack her steps, but fate wasn''t on her side.


    Pointing at Jayde, Edvard said: "Hey, it''s that disgusting bastard."


    Turning to look where Edvard was pointing to, Saphira nose wrinkled in disgust. "Filthy bitch," Saphira sneered.


    "Oi, you bloody bastard get your stinking ass over here," Edvard shouted.


    Jayde had no choice but to walk over to the two. Disobeying one''s ''owners'' could lead to a slave losing a layer of skin.


    Bowing down Jayde quietly greeted them.


    "Young Master, Young Mistress, how may I be of service?" asked Jayde subserviently.


    Ignoring Jayde, Saphira and Edvard leaned closer together, after a whispered discussion, Saphira and Edvard came up with their diabolical plan. With a sinister glint in his eyes, Edvard smiled evilly at Jayde.


    "The ancestor''s library is filthy, go and clean it up," he ordered.


    "A...a-ncestors'' library? But no one is allowed to enter without permission," Jayde stuttered. Knowing that her third sister and cousin had come up with a new way to get her into a heap load of trouble.


    "You useless piece of trash, are you refusing to follow your master''s orders?" Saphira asked belligerently.


    "N...n-o," Jayde tried to deny.


    "But Head Housekeeper said that no one w¡ª"


    "Who is more senior, Head Housekeeper or us?" Edvard interrupted.


    Knowing that is was useless to argue, Jayde lowered her head and whispered: "I will see it done, Young Master."


    Either way, I am not getting out of this without a beating, Jayde thought, at least Head Housekeeper will only have her beaten, and it would just take a few days to heal, while Saphira and Edvard would have her lose a couple of layers of skin and break some bones for disobeying them.


    Turning away quickly, Jayde made her way to the library, Saphira and Edvard followed her smirking at each other. There was going to be an excellent show to see, and they didn''t want to miss it.


    After entering the library, Jayde collected the broom from the cleaning room and started to sweep the floor.


    Filthy my arse, she scoffed to herself looking at the spotless library.


    Warily keeping an eye on Saphira and Edvard, Jayde was trying to figure out what they were up too. She was confused why both of them were just lounging around near one of the glass cases that housed one of oldest treasures in the library, she had thought that as soon as she had entered the library, one of them would have run off to call the Head Housekeeper.


    Jayde concentrated on sweeping the clean floor, while sneaking peeks at the two occasionally. Saphira and Edvard seemed to ignore Jayde while discussing the latest gossip in Arvia, but unknowing to Jayde they would glance at her sometimes and smile sinisterly.


    As Jayde neared them, they stepped away from the glass case. Still pretending to ignore Jayde they carried on with their discussion.


    With her back facing the two, Jayde missed the cold, ruthless look in Saphira''s eyes. Controlling her strength Saphira suddenly lunged forward hitting Jayde squarely in the back. Caught off balance and with no way to save herself, Jayde crashed in the glass case, toppling it over.


    Time seemed to have slowed down to a snail pace as Jayde watched the glass case fall and shatter, the gold tome inside falling to the side.


    With the sound of the glass case shattering, time seemed to revert back to normal. Jayde fell on to her hands and knees, one of her hands falling on a couple of pieces of broken glass shards lying on the ground. The glass shards cut deep into her flesh and blood started to seep from the numerous deep cuts.


    I''m dead was all that was going through Jayde''s mind at that moment. The elders will never pardon her for the crime of breaking the glass case, even if the tome was undamaged. The tome was the oldest, most precious treasure of the Freehold clan.


    It was rumored the founding clan leader had been entrusted with guarding this tome and should any damage come to this book, the whole clan would be exterminated, but as long as the tome was safe ¡ª the Freehold clan would enjoy success and grow strong. No-one really remembered why or how the golden book came to the Freehold clan, but it had been guarded zealously for several generations.


    One would have thought that considering how vital this tome was to the family, it would have been locked away in the family treasure vault, but the founding clan leader had left strict instructions it was to be placed in the clan''s library, the reason for this was lost through time.


    "Oh you useless piece of garbage, look at what you have done," Edvard screamed. "Cousin, quickly go and call the elders."


    Unable to hide her grin, Saphira quickly ran out of the library. She raced to the clan''s meeting hall, her whole body filled with joy. Finally, she could get rid of this thorn in her heart, for years her classmates at the academy had taunted her, whispering behind her back all because of the scandal caused by Jayde and her slutty mother.


    She knew her classmates were envious of her outstanding talent, but every time she achieved something someone would always bring up that abomination and her slut of a mother.


    Meantime, Jayde was trying to stand up, but Edvard kicked the back of her knees harshly, making her fall back down to the ground, her bloody hand accidentally landed on top of the golden tome.


    Jerking her hand away quickly, Jayde did not notice how the eight intertwined leaves engraved on the cover of the tome started to glow softly, her blood disappearing, as though being sucked into the book.


    "Oh you have done it now, you ugly bastard," Edvard taunted softly.


    "They are definitely going to hang you now."


    Jayde hung her head, smiling bitterly to herself. Isn''t that want you wanted, she thought.


    Her whole being filled with despair and helplessness, her limbs trembling with fear ¡ª she didn''t have the strength to even attempt to stand anymore, sitting there among the broken glass, she looked like a broken doll.


    Suddenly the air surrounding Jayde changed, there was a strange feeling prickling her skin, the atmosphere felt electrified.


    The world seemed to have suddenly gone quiet, as though all of a sudden someone had hit the pause button. Edvard looked around warily, he felt something was really wrong. Swiftly he backed away, trying to get as far away from Jayde and the mess around her.


    The pressure around the two increased exponentially, slowing Edvard escape.


    Jayde felt it was becoming difficult to breathe, even trying to lift her head took immense effort.


    The pressure around them kept on increasing. Both Edvard and Jayde felt as though their arms and legs weighed a ton. Edvard strength finally gave out, and he crashed to his knees.


    His eyes darting everywhere he was filled with fear and regret, why did they have to break that specific case, there were other precious scrolls and tomes they could have targeted ¡ª the stories were true, he thought, they had bought a disaster to the clan.


    All of a sudden, like a balloon that had popped, there was a high pitched squeaking noise.


    Then all the energy and pressure released, and there was a blinding light.


    BOOM!!


    The library exploded.


    <hr>


    Saphira had just reached the clan meeting hall when the library exploded. Turning around she looked in the direction of the explosion.


    By the gods! That''s the library, she thought.


    Her face paling in fright, she stared dumbly at the building that was collapsing.


    The legends and rumors of the mysterious golden tome floated through her mind. Disaster. Huge calamity. Family exterminated, these thoughts were continuously repeating through her head.


    ???


    Freehold Clan Meeting Hall.


    The elders were enjoying the luxury banquet set out for them. In the center of the room was a large rectangle table. The table could seat over thirty people, was covered in silver platters overflowing with various exotic dishes. Everything you can think of, and things you have never dreamed of, lay on the silver platters. The amount of food displayed was more than enough food to feed over a hundred people but was prepared for just over fifteen people.


    On one of the silver platters, there were fleshy pink strips of fish, garnished with a dash of green herbs, another contained some sort of shellfish, their black shells lay open, the beige insides spilling out. Huge platters of fowl stuffed with savory fruit and nuts as well as many kinds of cheese, loaves of bread, vegetables, sweets, cakes, and tarts.


    In the middle of the table a full spit-roasted dire boar, its skin a sizzling, mouth-watering golden brown, the jaws of the dire boar prised open around some sort of forest green fruit.


    The elders and Za''thul laughed and chatted in loud voices, their crystal glasses inlaid with precious gems overflowing with expensive wines.


    BOOM!!


    "What the fuck?" one of the elders shouted.


    "Who dares attack the Freehold Clan?" another elder yelled.


    All the elders and clan leader Za''thul jumped up and rushed outside.


    ???


    Prophet Hall, Demon Realm.


    In a large room, filled with dusty stone tablets, a tall stone statue, covered with strange glyphs started to glow softly.


    ???


    Demon Palace, Demon Realm.


    In a sizeable luxurious marble room, empty except for a giant crystal ball in the middle of the room. The crystal ball was balanced on a black stone tripod. Inside the crystal ball was filled with a strange mist, that had been stagnant for thousands of years.


    All of a sudden the mist began to move ever so slowly.


    ???


    Strange Mountain, Unknown Realm.


    An old man sitting in a lotus position opened his eyes.


    "Finally, it''s about to begin," he whispered and with a gentle smile, he closed his eyes, returning to his mediation.


    ???


    The Skies Above Doha.


    A small red star, unseen to the naked eye appeared.


    ???


    Overlord''s Palace, Zartonesh Planet.


    In a dark room, a large stagnant pool of blood began to gently boil.


    ???


    All over Doha, small and strange things started to move - very slightly, with such a small movement no-one noticed.


    ???


    Outside The Freehold Clan Meeting Hall.


    Saphira was still standing there staring dumbly at the destroyed library when the elders and Za''thul ran outside.


    "What the hell happened?" Za''thul demanded.


    Shaken, Saphira turned to gaze at Clan Leader Za''thul.


    "I don''t know," she said shaking her head.


    The plan to frame Jayde was thrown aside, there was no way she could be implicated in this matter. The clan would have her head for this disaster. Hopefully, Edvard and the trash were dead. Saphira couldn''t believe their simple plan had gone so catastrophically wrong.


    If anyone found out, she was the masterminded behind this plan, not only was her life forfeited, but also her mother, her younger brother, and sisters.


    Calling the guards Za''thul and the clan elders rushed to the site of the library.


    Jayde had been knocked unconscious by the explosion, when she came to, she heard the sounds of many people moving the rubble away, looking at the chaos around her she was shocked she had been saved from grievously bodily harm. The area around her was clear all the debris ¡ª everywhere else were piles of rubble, tomes, and scrolls littering the area.The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    Part of the roof had partially collapsed. Part of the roof''s wooden beams had fallen to the ground. Edvard hadn''t fared so well. His legs were trapped beneath some lumber, and he was still unconscious.


    Hearing the clan elders and her father''s voice shouting for more people to help with the clearing of the rubble, Jayde trembled in fear and her eyes filled with tears. She was done for. With this thought running through her mind, she was filled with the desire to flee.


    Like a cornered rat, she looked around frantically. Seeing one of the windows in the rear wall was broken, she carefully made her way to it. Using a piece of broken wood she found lying nearby, she smashed the broken glass still stuck in the window frame so she would not get cut by the sharp pieces as she climbed through the window.


    Once the window frame was clear of all glass, she squeezed her way through the window. It was a tight fit, but she made it through. Thankfully the people clearing the rumble outside were making so much noise, it covered up Jayde escape.


    Lucky for Jayde the library was near a deserted courtyard, and she managed to sneak her way into the yard without anyone seeing her.


    Being Restday, most of the slaves and servants had already left the Freehold Estate to enjoy their day off, and those that were still in the Estate had been called to help with clearing the debris away at the library.


    With a clear path, Jayde made her were way back to the slave pits. Knowing if she stayed at the Freehold Estate she would face certain death, Jayde hurried into her small shack and quickly packed up the stolen food she had hidden away.


    Years ago Jayde had discovered a small fox hole, hidden behind some bushes in a secluded area, she often snuck out as the area located in the northern part of the Freehold Estate bordered a small forest.


    She would sneak into the forest to forage for food. There were many bushes filled with berries, nut trees, and root vegetables that she was could harvest. It was the only way that she had survived up until now.


    If she could make it through the small forest, she had a clear shot to the mountains, which lead directly to the Dark Forest. While the Dark Forest was considered one of the most dangerous places in the Lower Realm, at least in the Dark Forest, she would have some slim chance of surviving.


    With an escape plan in mind, Jayde made her way to the fox hole. Squeezing her tiny body into the hole, Jayde wiggled her way through. Exiting from the fox hole Jayde didn''t wait around she immediately started running north ¨C her only goal to reach the Dark Forest.


    Unknown to Jayde while she was running through the small forest, the people gathered to clear rubble had made their way to Edvard. Edvard father Kato, Za''thul younger brother and Jayde''s second uncle was distressed at the condition of his beloved son, after making certain his injuries weren''t life-threatening, he sent Edvard off to the medical hall for the clan doctors to heal.


    Kato did not accompany his son to the medical hall as he had a more pressing issue to worry about, why was his son in the library and what did he have to do with the explosion. With the elders demanding to know what had happened and seeing the furious look on the face of his eldest brother, Kato was anxious and quickly walk up to his eldest brother.


    "Clan Leader, Edvard has been sent to the medical hall, once he wakes up we will be able to find out what happened," he said nervously.


    "Mmm," Za''thul acknowledged, then he turned around and pointed to one of the guards.


    "Go to the medical hall, call me when my nephew is awake."


    The guard turned away and hurried to the medical hall, just then one of the servants let out a loud gasp attracting Za''thul attention.


    "What?" he growled.


    "M...m-y Lord, the golden tome case has been smashed," the servant stammered.


    Flashing to the servant''s side, Za''thul looked down and immediately he saw the broken glass, a small pool of blood, and the broken case ¡ª scanning around him he did not see the golden tome.


    "Where is the Divine tome?" he howled.


    Za''thul shout drew the attention of all the elders, and they rushed to his side. Everyone began looking around, meanwhile, Kato knowing that this was a much bigger disaster than he was expecting, quickly ran off to the medical hall. He had to speak to his son first.


    What the hell happened, he thought, that spoilt little brat ¡ª has he any idea just what a catastrophe he had involved the whole family in.


    <hr>


    While the elders, servants, and guards were combing through the debris, Kato arrived at the medical hall.


    "Healer Kuse, how is my son?" he asked the attending healer.


    "Nothing serious Master Kato, some cuts and bruises. He also broke both of his legs, but not to worry we have given him an advanced bone-mending pill, right now his bones are healing, after a day of rest, he will be as good as new," Healer Kuse explained.


    "Um, I would like to see him alone," Kato said indicating for Healer Kuse to leave.


    "Of course Master Kato¡ª just don''t tire him out, he needs to rest," cautioned Healer Kuse, closing the door softly behind him.


    Swiftly walking to the medical bed his son was lying on, Kato sternly asked him.


    "Edvard what the hell happened?¡ª and don''t fucking lie to me brat, this is bloody serious."


    Looking at his father''s serious face, Edvard decided to come clean, he described all the events leading up to the explosion. He knew his father would protect him, this incident was too severe and would implicate the whole second branch of the family.


    "Of all the most stupid¡ª" Kato exploded, he was flabbergasted at his son''s stupidity. Breathing heavily he tried to calm down, they quickly needed to come up with a plan to explain his son''s appearance in the library.


    "You saw that slut sneaking into the ancestor''s library¡ª and you followed her," Kato commanded.


    "You saw her break the case for the divine tome and you tried to stop her."


    Looking sternly at Edvard, Kato demanded: "Got it Edvard?"


    "Got it, Father," Edvard nodded his head. "But Saphira¡ª"


    "Don''t worry about Saphira," Kato interrupted. "She will keep her mouth shut if she knows what is good for her."


    Kato left the medical hall and rushed back to the library to inform Za''thul that his son had awakened. Wiping the cold sweat off his forehead he cursed and swore at his son in his mind, he couldn''t believe he had done something so stupid.


    I must definitely discipline that unruly child when this is all over, he thought. Kato wasn''t too worried about Saphira, as he knew she was a clever girl, and she would follow the script he and Edvard had come up with.


    Kato arrived just as the guard sent to the medical hall had finished speak to Za''thul. Walking up to his eldest brother Kato informed Za''thul.


    "Edvard is awake Clan Leader."


    "Mm I know, the guard just informed me ¡ª the divine tome is missing," Za''thul informed Kato.


    "W..w-hat?" Kato stuttered.


    "The. Divine. Tome. Is. Missing," Za''thul slowly stressed.


    "Are you sure?" Kato asked timidly.


    "Of course I am fucking sure!" Za''thul bellowed.


    "Well Edvard awake, let''s go and ask him what the hell happened," Kato suggested.


    "Kato even though you are my brother. I am warning you now if your son had anything to do with this, don''t expect me to be merciful ¡ª blood or not ¡ª I will finish your family!"


    With that Za''thul turned around at stalked off to the medical hall, all the time shouting orders to the guards to close down the Freehold Estate, and not to allow anyone to leave.


    With the clan leaders orders, hundreds of guards surrounded the Freehold Estate, making sure not even a fly could escape.


    While the Freehold Estate was being locked down, Jayde was struggling through the small forest, running for her life. Breathing heavily she leaned against a tree trying to catch her breath, unaware the final nail was about to be hammered into her coffin.


    When Za''thul arrived at the medical hall, he sent all the medical doctors away, then he and Zato entered the room were Edvard was resting. After interrogating Edvard and finding out what happened. Za''thul exploded. He roared angrily at the guard stationed just outside Edvard room.


    "Find that bitch ¡ª Jayde ¡ª and bring her to me."


    "Calm down Brother," Kato tried to placate Za''thul. "Being angry is not good for your body."


    "I should have killed the bitch when I had the chance," Za''thul roared.


    "How could you have known she would have turned out to be a wolf th¡ª" Kato injected quickly.


    "A wolf in sheep''s clothing which turned to bite the hand that fed her," Za''thul injected sourly.


    If Jayde had overheard the comment about them feeding her, she would have laughed bitterly, a bowl of boiled water with a few grains of rice and rotten vegetables, isthatwhat they considered feeding her?


    "But Brother now is your chance to finally get rid of her, and no one will blame you," Kato went on to say, trying to placate his brother.


    Taking deep breaths to calm down his fury, Za''Thul nodded, Kato was right he finally had a chance to get rid of this threat that had been hanging over his head. He was always uneasy about someone finding out she was his daughter.


    If he wasn''t so jittery about the gods punishing him for killing his own child, he would have gotten rid of her along time ago, but now being able to use family law to kill her, he would finally be free from worry about anyone finding out his secret.


    Seeing his brother was calming down, Kato quietly breathed a sigh of relief. Kato and Edvard were relieved that Za''thul had bought their story.


    "Edvard you must rest well and get better soon," Za''thul said affectionately. "Once you have healed I promise I will reward you handsomely."


    The stone weighing on Edvard heart lifted, and he smiled joyfully at his uncle.


    "Thank you, Uncle... ah, I mean Clan Lead¡ª"


    "Call me Uncle in private," interrupted Za''thul.


    Nodding his head, Edvard was delighted ¡ª finally, he had impressed his uncle, even his father looked pleased.


    "Good son you got there, little brother," Za''thul said patting Kato on his shoulder.


    "Ah don''t exaggerate big brother," Kato replied acting modestly.


    Za''thul and Kato left the medical hall and joined the elders in the clan meeting hall to wait for the guards to bring Jayde. Her death had already been decided, the elders had decreed that she was to be drawn and quartered?.


    First, she was to be interrogated as to the reason why she stole the Divine tome. Za''thul had already concluded she must have been approached by one of the clan''s enemies and he was hell-bent on finding out which family was making a move on the Freehold clan.


    Just then one of the senior guards entered the meeting hall. Saluting the elders he solemnly declared.


    "The slave Jayde is nowhere to be found, it looks like she has escaped Master," the guard then went on to describe how one of the other slaves in the slave pit had seen Jayde leaving with a small bag in her hands.


    "The seeker hounds found a small fox hole, and her scent leads to the forest outside the estate," he went on to clarify.


    "Hunt her down, I don''t care what it takes, gather all the guards and bring that bitch back to me¡ªalive¡ªdo you hear me!" Za''thul roared.


    His face red with anger, Za''thul felt faint. Black spots danced in front of his eyes as fury filled his body. With bloodthirsty eyes, he glared at the guard.


    "What the fuck are you still standing there for," he thundered. "Get the fuck out of here and find the bitch!"


    "Y..y-es Master," the guard stammered, totally flustered he had never seen the clan master this angry before, turning around he quickly fled.


    Kato rushed to his brother''s side "Calm down Clan Leader," he begged.


    "Calm down, you want me to calm down¡ªare you out of your fucking mind, do you have any idea the ramifications of this matter?" Za''thul spat out, his words firing off like a machine gun.


    "Our Freehold clan has guarded that Divine Tome for thousands of years¡ªand that... and that¡ª" Za''thul spluttered to angry to even carry on.


    "I understand, Clan Leader," Kato placated. "I will personally lead the hunting party."


    "I will bring her back¡ªalive¡ªso that you may have the pleasure of ripping her to pieces yourself," Kato vowed.


    With that Kato straightened his robe, spun on his heel and stormed out of the meeting hall.


    Inside the meeting hall, Za''thul could hear his brother calling for his elite guards, telling them to round up the seeker hounds and to get his Fire-Tailed Stallion.


    Feeling relieved Kato was taking over the hunt, Za''thul weakly collapsed onto his chair, lifting his hand to cradle his head, he could feel a mighty headache coming.


    <hr>


    ???


    ?? Note: Finally caught up to chapter 1. In case you have forgotten, we left off with Jayde resting and thinking back to how everything happened and what lead up to her been hunted and running for her life.


    ???


    Hearing the seeker hounds howling in the distance, Jayde lifted her head tiredly staring bleakly in front of her. She had resigned herself to her fate ¡ª today would be her last day. While she was terrified of dying ¡ª there was a small part of her that was happy. Finally, her endless struggle to survive would be over.


    The past ten years of her life had been soul-draining, it had exhausted all her strength just to make it through every day. As the yips, screams, and howls of the excited seeker hounds drew closer, Jayde climbed to her feet wearily.


    The seeker hounds raced into the small clearing where Jayde was located, surrounding her they lowered their heads and growled at her, warning her not to move. Jayde straightened her shoulders and stood up straight, waiting for her second uncle and his elite guards.


    She had caught glimpses of her second uncle on his Fire-Tailed Stallion as he raced up the mountain path hunting her. Even from a distance, she could feel his murderous aura.


    A couple of minutes later her second uncle galloped into the clearing.


    "Whoa boy," he yelled pulling his Fire-Tailed Stallion to a stop.


    Even though Jayde was scared, she couldn''t help but admire the Fire-Tailed Stallion, standing over two meters tall is had a beautiful flame-colored short coat, its long mane flickered with small flames, and its long tail was made out of pure golden and red flames. The Fire-Tailed Stallion was built for speed and endurance, you could see this by the lean, hard muscle on its chest and thighs.


    Jayde was really tempted, to pet the Fire-Tailed Stallion. She couldn''t help but take a step forward. The seeker hounds seeing she moved growled even louder, bearing their long ivory fangs at her ¡ª the spine chilling growls brought her back to her predicament.


    Kato jumped off his spirit beast yelling: "Don''t you dare move," as he lumbered his way towards Jayde.


    "I might have to bring you back alive¡ªbut no-one said you still needed your legs attached," he threatened.


    Kato''s threat stop Jayde cold. She believed her second uncle would have no problems carrying out his threat.


    "Where''s the Divine Tome?" Kato demanded.


    "W...w-hat Tome?" Jayde stammered confusedly.


    "Don''t you dare play games with me, little girl, you are centuries too young," Kato roared. "Now where is the fucking Divine Tome?"


    Jayde was really confused, was he talking about the golden book in the glass case, she thought.


    "The gold book?" she asked timidly.


    "Of course, the gold book you stupid bitch," answered Kato glaring at Jayde.


    "I don''t have it, I didn''t take it¡ªit''s still there in the library," Jayde said helplessly, lifting her hands to show she had nothing to hide.


    "Don''t lie to me, you little shit," snarled Kato.


    Did this little bitch really think that he would buy her story that she didn''t take the book, he thought. He had to find that damn book, if he came back empty-handed, suspicion might fall on to his son, and that was something he couldn''t afford.


    Turning to his guards, he ordered: "Grab her!".


    Kato could not return to the Freehold Estate without the Divine Tome, he was worried if he did then this debacle would land squarely on his shoulders. The elders were already looking for someone to blame, and knowing clan politics the way he did, he knew if he returned empty-handed they would find a way to make him a scapegoat.


    He had grabbed this mission to gain quick glory, thinking just how easy it would be to catch a thirteen-year-old teen, and if the gods were on his side, he would finally outshine his brother. He knew from Edvard there was no enemy clan involved.


    He thought Jayde had stolen the Tome for revenge, so while he would be the hero who caught the little thief and returned the Divine Tome to the clan, Za''thul would end up bearing the shame of having a daughter who bought calamity to the family.


    The elders were already unhappy with Za''thul because his child was a null. They still hadn''t recovered from the embarrassment of her Reading Day. Many of the elders were already maneuvering in the dark to remove him from power.


    While Kato wasn''t as talented as his brother, he did have a flair of sucking up to the elders and was popular with them. He was quite sure if they removed Za''thul as Clan Leader then he would be the one chosen to succeed Za''thul as the next clan leader.


    The guards grabbed Jayde and dragged her to Kato.


    "Search her," he ordered.


    Rough hands tore at Jayde clothing, patting her all over. No matter how much she struggled to avoid those horrible hands, she was too weak to get away. Utterly humiliated all Jayde could do was bear with this awful experience.


    "Nothing Master," one of the elite guards told Kato.


    Kato''s eyes widen in surprise, the book must be here.


    "Search the surrounding area," he ordered the guards.


    Pointing to one of his elite guards he ordered: "Guard her if she escapes I will have yours and everyone in your family heads strung up outside the estate walls."


    While the guards searched the surrounding area, Kato kept on questioning Jayde where the Tome was, but each time she gave the same answer that she didn''t know where it was.


    Finally losing his temper, Kato grabbed Jayde by the throat.


    "Last time you pathetic little bitch, where is the fucking tome?" he roared, his spittle hitting her face.


    "E..e-dvard¡ªhe must have taken it," Jayde choked out.


    Clenching his fist, pure wrath filled Kato body, she dared, she actually threatened to frame his son. If the guards reported this back to the elders, it would raise their suspicions. The repercussions of this would exterminate his whole branch.


    Kato knew Edvard would never hold up under interrogation and if the elders and Za''thul found out everything was due to Edvard and Saphira instigations, the backlash would be unimaginable.


    Without a thought Kato backhanded Jayde across the face, forgetting at that moment how weak she was. That one fist shattered Jayde cheek and jaw, the pain was beyond comprehension. Tears streamed from Jayde''s eyes, dark spots danced in front of her eyes as she barely managed to stay conscious.


    Feeling the weight of the guards'' stares, Kato was filled with dread he had to find that damn tome, no matter what.


    "Master, she might have already handed the tome over," Oki his second in command said softly.


    "Mmm," agreed Kato.


    Then grabbing his short dagger, Kato had the guards tie Jayde to a nearby tree, he ordered most of his elite guards to backtrack their way to the Freehold Estate. They were to search for any tracks that might indicate that Jayde had hidden the tome away or handed it off to someone.


    Once the guards left, Kato stalked up to Jayde tied to the tree, she was barely conscious. The pain from her shattered cheek and jaw was overwhelming.


    "Ah little girl, you should have told me where you hid the Divine Tome, you are now in for a world of pain," Kata said menacingly.


    Jayde tried to speak, but with her jaw shattered all she could do was make small grunting sounds.


    Jayde''s nightmare had just begun. Her second uncle showed no mercy as he started to flay her alive. With his sharp dagger, he slowly began to peel the skin away from one of her legs. After Jayde fainted the first time, her second uncle fed her a pill that would ensure that she could not faint again.


    With her jaw shattered she couldn''t even scream. The blood-replenishing pills her uncle kept on stuffing into her mouth made sure that she couldn''t die from blood loss.


    After removing all the skin from both her legs and arms, her second uncle then proceeded to break all her bones. By this time Jayde was nearly mad from the pain. She prayed and begged to the gods for death, but her pleas went unanswered. Jayde could feel her sanity slipping away.


    Just then some of the guards returned, they were very excited. They explained to Kato they had found tracks a while back, the tracks were about four hours old, six demon scaled horses according to the tracker.


    Demon scale horses were scarce in the Lower Realm, they were the fastest breed of spirit beast one could have. Only one of the elite families in the Lower Realm could afford them.


    Shocked that Jayde had handed over the Divine Tome to some mysterious group, Kato rushed to his Fire-Tailed Stallion, the group they were chasing had a four hour lead on them, he had to catch up to them, no matter what.


    In his haste to retrieve the Divine Tome, Kato forgot all about the broken girl lying in a large pool of blood on the ground, pieces of her flesh discarded around her.


    As Kato and his group of elite galloped out of the clearing, Jayde eyes started to blur, she could feel death finally approaching. As the sound of horse hooves faded, Jayde finally closed her eyes as death embraced her.


    With a grateful smile on her small face, she left her miserable life behind.


    Free. She was finally free!


    ???


    ? 2019 DJ Rogue. All rights reserved.

 C0005: Fighting Back

    ??Hidden Rebel Base on planet Deshan H24C,Centaurus Nebula


    ?? Year 3209


    ???


    "Commander SN1098, report to the medical bay immediately."


    SN1098 aka Commander Jayde of Centauri heard her name being called over the loudspeaker. Standing up from her chair she left the mess hall and made her way to the medical bay.


    Entering the pristine medical bay, she looked around for Doctor Shishido Eba. Seeing the small Asian woman she stalked up to her.


    "Damn it doc, how many times have I told you not to call us by our designations," Jayde stated coldly.


    "You know how much we hate it, we are no longer slaves to the human corporations."


    "Er, sorry about that Jayde," Doctor Shishido Eba said sheepishly.


    Doctor Shishido Eba was pissed she had forgotten, she had only recently joined the rebel cause after being rescuedfrom being a test subject from a highly classified black ops base in the Delta Quadrant. As one of them, she understood why the people at the station hated to be reminded of their slave status, they have even gone as far as to rename their species to Centauri rather than homo sapiens.


    Doctor Shishido Eba was again struck by the commanding presence of the nearly six-foot athletic woman standing in front of her, her ebony hair styled in a sleek bob that framed her heart-shaped face, she had attractive angular eyebrows that framed her bright, intelligent green eyes.


    Even though Jayde''s eyes were glaring at her Doctor Shishido Eba didn''t feel intimated. Those eyes were the first thing she had seen when she was rescued from the isolation chamber that she had been stuck in for refusing to carry out illegal human experiments.


    Cold, naked, she had been desperately trying to hold on to her sanity in that cold metal cage locked beneath the earth when the escape hatch above her had opened.


    To this day she will never forget looking up and seeing those green eyes looking down at her, filled with compassion and then an arm had reached down, and a musical voice had said four words that had pulled her from the brink of insanity: "You are safe now."


    Within days of her rescue, Doctor Shishido Eba and her fellow scientists were safely escorted to the hidden rebel base. One of the first things Commander Jayde has insisted on after they had been treated for their various injuries ¡ª was for all of them to choose their own names.


    Having their barcoded tattoo, which designated them as property, removed from their face and choosing their own names was just the first step in reclaiming their dignity and freedom. Every single person rescued had joined the rebel cause after that, each swearing to follow this charismatic woman to hell if need be.


    Jayde and all the rebels were genetically engineered humans, many were warriors, otherwise known as GESS ¡ª Genetically Engineered Super Soldiers. They had been designed and breed specifically to fight in wars waged between large Earth-based corporations.


    Soldiers were not the only engineered humans, the corporations breed different breeds depending on their requirements.


    Earthlings no longer fought wars due to race, religion or countries anymore, now everything was controlled by large corporations and wars were fought to control the rare resources available in the known universe.


    Due to the fact, genetically engineered humans were explicitly designed, and breed in especially nutritional vats and the exorbitant costs involved in upbringing and training them, the corporations had fought for them to be designated as properly belonging to a corporation.


    Most humans were quite happy with this arrangement, as a GESS was superior in all ways to a normal human. They were faster, stronger, more agile, highly intelligent with superior senses and healing ability.


    A normal human could never compete with a GESS one and one, so they didn''t argue when corporations mandated that a GESS was designated as a product.


    Besides which human would want to go off to some dingy corner in the universe, just to fight in some awful alien environment against either other, a GESS or strange aliens for resources. They would rather stay in the comfort of their own homes, safely on their planets and reap the rewards.


    "So what''s up doc?" Jayde asked facetiously, knowing that Doctor Shishido Eba had found some old earth children programs that she was watching ¡ª something called cartoons.


    Blushing slightly at the reminder, Doctor Shishido Eba replied: "He''s awake."


    "Finally," Jayde said as she turned and walked over to an adjacent room.


    Entering the medical ward, Jayde walked over to the only occupied bed. Lying in the occupied bed was a tall, handsome man, with blond hair, and bright blue eyes. Looking at him you would estimate him to be in his mid-thirties, but like Jayde, he was an advanced GESS who was over sixty-years-old.


    "Lawrence, how are you feeling?" Jayde asked softly, her eyes filled with concern. If anyone else had seen their leader at that moment, they would have been shocked. Jayde was known to be cold and ruthless. Many of the recruits stated that she was colder and harder than a robot.


    Lawrence''s lips curled into a small smile. "Sorry to have you worried, Commander," Lawrence replied his voice slightly husky from not being used for some time.


    Lawrence came from the same batch as Jayde, they had gone through training together, and out of the thousand babies ''born'' in their batch, only Lawrence and Jayde remained. For sixty years they have fought alongside each other, they had gone through thick and thin. When Jayde finally rebelled against the corporations and started the rebellion, Lawrence was the first person who joined her.


    He had disappeared two years ago during a daring raid on one of Xi Corporations hidden facilities, and Jayde was convinced that the Xi Corporation had killed him. Her rage-filled grief had spurred her, and for two years she had waged a bloody war against the Xi Corporation. Freeing thousands of GESS from their clutches, until a couple of weeks ago, Jayde received intel Lawrence was alive, and the Xi Corporation was moving him to a new prison.


    Desperate to rescue her brother, Jayde quickly put together an elite rescue team, and in a daring raid, they recovered Lawrence from a high-security cell aboard one of the Xi Corporation transport ships.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.


    Devastated to find that Lawrence had been beaten and bearing marks of torture in a small cell aboard the transport ship, Jayde nevertheless was ecstatic that her brother was still alive.


    To save Lawrence the pain of being moved, Jayde has immediately sedated him and had him transferred to a stasis chamber and transported back Deshan H24C, and placed under Doctor Shishido Eba care.


    <hr>


    After visiting Lawrence, and seeing that he was doing okay and was on the mend. Jayde had a quick chat with Doctor Shishido Eba about Lawrence''s recovery. Doctor Shishido Eba informed Jayde, Lawrence would recover fully within a couple of days.


    Medical science had made a vast improvement over the past couple of thousand years, and unless a patient was brain dead, medical science had a way of helping a patient recover fully.


    Knowing Lawrence was in good hands, and on the road to a full recovery, Jayde finally had the peace of mind to follow up with the rest of her plans.


    It was time to free the rest of the GESS people still enslaved by the Xi Corporation.


    Xi Corporation was one of the largest corporations in the Earth Federation and was responsible for the most heinous crimes. From human experimentation to the extermination of indigenous races on alien planets ¡ªXi Corporation was guilty of all these crimes.


    Jayde''s people had come across secret intelligence. They had been informed that the Xi Corporation was busy installing kill switches into their GESS ''products''.


    From what they had been able to find out the rebellion of hundreds of genetically engineered soldiers had made the board member of the Xi Corporation nervous, and they were determined to prevent their remaining ''products'' from joining the rebellion.


    With the information gathered by Jayde''s subordinates, they had determined that the Xi Corporation had built a secret base on the planet Crypso 3Q3U. It was on this planet Xi Corporation''s supercomputers would control the kill switches for all Xi Corporation assets. Due to the top secret nature of these kill switches and the exorbitant costs involved in setting up the operation, currently, only Crypso 3Q3U had the ability to activate the kill switches. Jayde and her team needed to move swiftly before the Xi Corporation had time to develop a backup system.


    After analyzing the situation, Jayde and her team had determined it was only by destroying the entire base would they ensure the enslaved genetically engineered soldiers could be freed safely. Jayde and her people were committed to this accomplishing this goal ¡ª no matter the cost.


    Knowing that after this mission there would be severe repercussions, not only from the Xi Corporation also by the entire Federation, Jayde was busy relocating the people at Deshan H24C to a newly discovered planet in a nearby system.


    It was with this discovery that the Centauri were hoping to start a new life.


    With the genetically engineered scientists already freed, Centauri technology was already ahead of the Earth Federation. These freed scientistswere once the most intelligent resourcefor the corporations, they had been specifically designed to be highly intelligent, and were trained from young in specialized fields. Each scientistwas equivalent to a supercomputer.


    While the Centauri was a rebel force, Jayde had ensured that they were well organized. Right from the beginning, she had organized separate task forces. One of the task teams sole duty was to locate andmine valuable resources for the Centauri to generate income and use for their own manufacturing. Jayde had also set up numerous valuable trade agreement with various alien planets as well as a small pirate force to hijack valuable cargo from corporations. The Centauri produced and manufactured all their own products, and any resource that they couldn''t mine, they were able to trade for with various different alien races. This allowed the Centauri had allocated a tremendous amount of resources to ensure that their new home was safe. The planet defenses were state of the art.


    Jayde found it ironic that it was the genetically enhanced scientist that the Xi Corporation had created to exploit their intelligence, those who they had enslaved to research and create new technology for them, would be the ones who finally would allow the Centauri to be free.


    While the enhanced scientist and doctors were weaker than the soldiers, they too had been rebelling, in their own way, delaying and hiding their research. It was only once they were free that the Centauri found out just how much technology these researchers and scientists had hidden away, giving the Centauri a leading edge to the war.


    It took Jayde and her subordinates a couple of weeks to relocate all the Centauri to their new home planet. They had named the new world Eden, with the hope and desire that they would finally have their own place, it was a home that every Centauri would die to protect.


    Visiting Eden to oversee the final transport ship, the ice encasing Jayde''s heart ever since she was nine years old cracked and a small feeling of warmth invaded her. She was slightly overwhelmed seeing young Centauri children running about. One of the cruelest procedures of the Xi Corporation was to sterilize all of their ''products'', this was to emphasize the difference between genetically engineered people and normal humans.


    Only humans could reproduce naturally. Genetically engineered ''products'' were produced in vats¡ªthe corporations spent billions of credits on marketing thisconcept to humans, emphasizing that the Centauri weren''t human beings, that they were a little better from the commercial robots available.


    One of the first research projects Jayde ordered was for Centauri scientist and medical staff to research and find a way to reverse the sterilization of the Centauri. It took them a while, but in the end, it was worth it. Now seeing these young children running around Jayde had to hope for the future of the Centauri. It filled her with a strong desire to protect and free the rest of her people.


    After ensuring that everything was running smoothly, Jayde and her elite team returned to Deshan H24C, they were there to pick up Lawrence and some final supplies for their mission to Crypso 3Q3U.


    Jayde and Lawrence stood next to a transport ship in the landing bay, watching as supplies were loaded into the cargo bay of the starship. They were discussing the current mission.


    Lawrence had been filled with curiosity with regards to where Jayde had disappeared to while he had been recovering. Once he left medbay, he had been shocked to find most of the base deserted, with only small crews left behind to dismantle whatever they could reuse.


    "So Jayde, tell me where have you hidden the rest of the Centauri?" Lawrence asked curiously.


    Smiling mysteriously Jayde answered: "After the mission, you will see. Lawrence, you will love it, it is everything that we dreamed of."


    Startled Lawrence glanced over at Jayde. "Oh come on you really going to keep me in suspense the whole time?" he whined.


    Chuckling Jayde just threw him a smile as she walked over to the loading crew to see how far along they were.


    Jayde wanted to surprise Lawrence. It was only years after Jayde and Lawrence had left the compound where they grew up that theystarted to realize that they the way they had been raised was wrong. Many of the undercover missions that they had been assigned had exposed them to how humans were raised. It had taken years for Jayde to realize that there was something wrong with the way she had been raised and she had started to question why human were the given so many freedoms and privileges, while the Centauri were treated as slaves.


    What had started as a tiny seed of doubt had grown over the years, until Jayde was filled with the desire to be free, and as her own desire for freedom grew, she started toseek out other Centauri who had the same burning desire. Often Jayde andLawrence would chat quietly about what it would be like if the Centauri were free ¡ª if they had their own home. Lawrence would encourage Jayde''s dream, many times they would discuss what type of home they would build. Jayde was excited about showing this dream home to Lawrence ¡ª after they destroyed the supercomputers on Crypso 3Q3U.


    Once the last container had been loaded, Jayde walked over to her team. "Lock and load, Ladies¡ªtime to move out!" she ordered her troops.


    After everyone boarded the spaceship transport, the transport ship left the planet Deshan H24C for Crypso 3Q3U.


    As the ship broke orbit, Jayde looked down at the planet surface. She could faintly make out the explosions taking place on the surface as the hidden base was blown to smithereens. A small crew had been left behind to ensure that after everything was destroyed, they would check and make sure that all traces of the Centauri was wiped clean from the planet. No evidence they have ever been on Deshan H24C would exist.


    ???


    ? 2019 DJ Rogue. All rights reserved.

 C0006: Betrayal

    ?? 2 weeks later.


    After entering the systems undetected where planet Crypso 3Q3U was located Jayde, and her troops were transported to the planet surface near the Xi Corporation''s secret base.


    The planet Crypso 3Q3U was a terrestrial planet in a vast solar system filled with fifteen other planets. Crypso was about half the size Earth, but due to its strange core, its gravity was about three times that of Earth.


    While life will never be possible on this planet, it did offer a unique sight in the night sky of nearby planets. Its colors and distance to the planets around it occasionally made the night quite magical on those planets, especially those with an atmosphere.


    The surface of Crypso 3Q3U reminded Jayde of Mars, with its blood-red sand, and rocky outcrops.


    Eight members of Jayde''s elite team transported down with Jayde and Lawrence. Since they had detailed plans of the base, Jayde''s squad knew precisely what they were supposed to do. The team members separated to carry out their individual missions, while Lawrence and Jayde infiltrated the main base. Their purpose was to locate the central hub where the power core was located and place a miniature antimatter bomb to blow the place up.


    After entering the central hub Jayde was feeling slightly uneasy, the mission was going a little bit too smoothly for her taste.


    Turning to Lawrence, she asked: "Bro, seriously don''t you think this is a bit too easy?"


    Grinning at her Lawrence shook his head. "Shit Jayde, why can''t you just be happy that we are lucky for a change, instead of landing in our usual shitstorm?"


    Sticking her tongue out at Lawrence, Jayde walked onto the platform and looked around.


    The central hub was a sizeable dome-shaped room. The room itself was hollow, from floor to ceiling, it had to be over 100 meters. The power core was located at the bottom of the room. Small screens were located all around the walls, some of the screens displayed maps of the Earth Federation, with red dots on them. Those red dots must be chipped GESS people, Jayde thought.


    The most surprising thing was that other screens showed real-time scenes, it looked as though the scenes were from a personal point of view.


    "Yo Lawrence, check this out!" Jade called.


    Lawrence walked over to Jayde and had a look at the screens she was pointing too.


    "It this was I think it is?" Jayde asked Lawrence.


    "Fuck these bastards," Lawrence swore. "Yeah I think you are right Sis, it looks as those kill chips, aren''t just dead man switches, it looks like they monitoring the poor bastards too."


    Shaking her head, Jayde replied: "Just when I figured Xi Corp couldn''t get any lower."


    "Ah what a pleasant surprise SN1098 and SN1055, long time no see."


    Hearing a voice that she hadn''t heard for over a decade, Jade swirled around and faced the man who had just spoken.


    "Vice President Xi, what a pleasant surprise," she replied sarcastically.


    Vice President Xi was a tall, handsome man with an athletic build, his brown hair was expensively styled, and he had brown eyes which were staring at Jayde and Lawrence coldly, his thin lips were curled into a small smirk. A dozen or so bodyguards stood around him.At a glance, Jayde could tell that the bodyguards were normal humans.


    As Jayde made a slight movement to grab her blaster on her hip, he smiled.


    "Uh-uh, SN1098," wagging his right index finger.


    Lifting her hands in surrender, Jayde frantically tried to think of ways to reverse the situation. While she and Lawrence were outnumbered, she wasn''t too worried about the bodyguards, with her and Lawrence''s superior physiques no human could match them, add their physiques with their training and experience, these bodyguards were fish on the cutting board, just waiting to be slaughtered.


    Jayde didn''t think that Vice President Xi would make such a stupid mistake just bring normal humans. He must have the base surrounded by GESS warriors, she thought. Guess he doesn''t want those GESS warriors to know about his dirty little secret which why he only bought humans with him here to the core.


    Stupid bastard, he has totally underestimated me, Jayde thought. The most important thing to Jayde at the moment was too take down Xi Corporation''s supercomputers, no matter what it took, even if the price demanded was her life, Jayde was more than willing to pay. This base had to be destroyed. Vice President Xi would never have taken into account that Jayde was willing to sacrifice her life just to ensure that this base was destroyed.


    From the secret intelligence that the Centauri has obtained, not only did the computers at the base control the kill switches of thousands of GESS people but it also had all of Xi Corporations latest research on weapons, genetics as well as the newest research in starship technology. Bringing this base down would set back Xi Corporation for decades.


    Jayde knew according to her intel that she only had a small window of opportunity to strike a devastating blow to Xi Corporation. The core below Jayde was the most advanced cybernetic computer in the Federation. Xi Corporation had pumped trillions of credits and over two decades developing the system. The core controlled every single computer in the Xi Corporation, every scrap of information was contained just below Jayde feet.


    Xi Corporation backup cybernetic system was nearly complete and would go online within a couple of days. Xi Corporation had planned to have both systems operating at the same time, it was only due to Jayde''s team hijacking a shipment of rare synthetic gel packs that had delayed the backup system, and since Xi Corporation had already started the process ofbringing the system online, they couldn''t stop the process.


    The decades it would take for the Xi Corporation to recover from this loss would buy the Centauri time to dominate the sector they were in and ensure with their current advancement in technology they would continue to be safe and free from human enslavement.


    Thinking of the children running free on Eden, and just imagining what the Xi Corporation would do to them if they ever found Eden, Jayde decided to act.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    Trusting Lawrence to have her back, Jayde lunged to her left, grabbing her blaster, she started firing rapidly.


    <hr>


    Pure blue energy bolts from her blaster flew in the directions of the bodyguards. With Jayde''s super-enhanced reflexes combined with her sharpshooter abilities, four of the bodyguards were taken down instantly. Rolling and coming up onto her one of her knees she continued firing.


    Another three bodyguards died.


    Suddenly a sharp pain in her back distracted Jayde. Spinning around Jayde raised her blaster to shoot the assassin. She was confused about how an assassin had come up behind her.


    Synapsis firing in her brain, Jayde mind was filled with different scenarios. She figured the assassins must have been hidden waiting for her team.


    Fuck knew it was too damn easy, it is a fucking ambush, she thought.


    They had a leak. A fucking shit eating mole rat who had betrayed the Centauri, Jayde thought, furious at being betrayed by one of her own.


    Pure shocked drilled through Jayde body, instead of seeing an assassin, the man holding the blaster who had just shot her, was wearing the face of her beloved brother.


    "L..L-awrence?" Jayde questioned shocked.


    Another shot penetrated Jayde right shoulder, disabling her arm, the blaster dropped from her hand.


    Not even wasting a millisecond, ignoring the burning pain of the blaster shot, Jayde tried to pick up the blaster with her left hand, when the third shot pierced her left shoulder.


    "Enough Jayde!" Lawrence shouted, lifting his blaster to point it her head.


    "Well done, SN1055," said Vice President Xi, clapping his hands. "But you should have been faster, the fucking bitch nearly shot me."


    Looking at the two of them, Jayde was confused, she wasn''t stupid she had already figured out that Lawrence had betrayed her, what she couldn''t understand was why.


    "Why Lawrence?" she asked. "Why the fuck have you betrayed the Centauri?"


    "I betrayed?" Lawrence laughed scornfully. "You are the betrayer SN1098, you are the one that turned on your creators."


    When Lawrence called her SN1098, Jayde felt a stabbing pain through her heart. From the time that Lawrence gave her the name Jayde, for her striking emerald green eyes, she had always treasured her name, and since that day when she was sixteen years old, Lawrence always had in private called her by her name and not by her designation.


    "What the fuck did you do to him?" she screamed at Vice President Xi, she would never believe that Lawrence would betray her of his own free will, they must have done something to him over the past two years.


    She was a fool, she thought. She should have suspected that after two years under Xi Corporation''s ''tender care'' that Lawrence could have broken, she couldn''t believe that she had made such an such an amateurmistake. As the leader of the rebellion, she should never have allowed her personal feelings to cloud her judgment.


    Flicking a nonexistent piece of lint off his dark suit, Vice President Xi smiled coyly. "Ah my dear SN1098, we did nothing to him," Vice President Xi answered mockingly. "SN1055 has always been loyal to the corporation."


    Jayde''s blood froze for a millisecond before her mind screamed in denial.


    "Don''t lie to me."


    "Ah SN1098, what a naive bitch you are," Vice President Xi laughed.


    "Your precious Lawrence," Vice President Xi said raising his hands he used his fingers to quote gesture the word precious. "Has spent years watching you, reporting everything you have done," Vice President Xi went on to explain.


    As Vice President Xi''s words sunk him, Jayde''s body swayed, blinking rapidly, Jayde could feel the blood draining from her face, as her stomach clenched.


    "No, impossible!" Jayde denied, shaking her head vehemently.


    Letting out a giant belly laugh, Vice President Xi shook his head at Jayde. Then walking up to her, he viciously kicked her in the stomach, as Jayde torso bent forward after that vicious kick, Vice President Xi reached out to grab her chin, pinching her chin with his fingers, he lifted Jayde head and stared into her eyes.


    His reptilian brown eyes stared at Jayde indifferently, as his lips curled into a harsh sneer. "Do you honestly believe that the rebellion was YOUR idea?" he asked mockingly.


    "We needed you to rebel, those fucking bleeding heart liberals back on Earth were starting to question the morality of us owning genetically enhanced humans."


    With great relish, Vice President Xi went on to describe how the Xi Corporation came up with the idea to have their enhanced people rebel, which would make the Federation nervous. This would then give Xi Corporation the opportunity to install the kill chips, what the Federation didn''t know was the chips also allowed the corporation to monitor everything that the GESS people saw and heard. The added bonus of their plan would shut up the liberal movement back home trying to gain human rights for genetically enhanced humans.


    Vice President Xi boasted how Lawrence had always been one of their top operators, and he had left Jayde two years ago to go undercover for the Xi Corporation as the spy ¡ª the very same spy who had ''leaked'' the intelligence to the Centauri.


    "Haha, talk about killing four birds with one stone, we got those liberals off our backs, rooted out those with rebel tendencies, implemented our monitoring agenda and once we find your Eden we will get back all our research," Vice President Xi gloated.


    Pinching her chin hard Vice President Xi asked: "So now my dear SN1098, where is your precious Eden?"


    Her eyes steely and filled with determination, Jayde tried to shake her head, glaring at Vice President Xi she declared: "I will never tell you."


    "Pfft never? Oh, I am so going to enjoy breaking you!" Vice President Xi said gleefully while smiling sinisterly.


    As Jayde came to terms with Lawrence''s betrayal, she felt her heart shattering, she had always known humans were despicable, but she had held onto the belief the Centauri were different. They were united. They would never betray each other.


    Having this belief crushed was heartbreaking, but having it done by her brother ¡ª a man she had spent sixty years with left a scar of her soul.


    The only consolation Jayde had was she had been so busy with the relocation of the Centauri people to Eden she hadn''t spent much time with Lawrence, so he had little information on the advances of the technology of her people, and thankfully she had decided to surprise Lawrence and hadn''t told him the location of Eden.


    At least her people were safe ¡ª for now.


    Jayde knew that she couldn''t allow herself to fall into the hands of the Xi Corporation, even though she was confident she wouldn''t break under torture.


    As a child, she had been trained to withstand the best torture methods that anyone could come with, but there were other ways to access the information in her head. Data mind mining was illegal, but she didn''t think that would stop the Xi Corporation.


    Determined to keep her people safe, and the secrets in her mind out of the Xi Corporation hands, Jayde activated the microchip embedded in her brain, detonating the mini antimatter bomb in her backpack.


    With a brief flash of pain, Jayde and everything around her disintegrated.


    With that one heroic action, Jayde saved the Centauri and thousands of other genetically enhanced humans throughout the Federation.


    Due to the microchip, the staff left of the starship were aware of everything happening on the planet below them, after Jayde destroyed the base they returned to Eden. They showed the video of Jayde last stand, and her heroic sacrifice.


    Jayde sacrifice united the Centauri as never before, it lit a fire deep within their hearts, and they swore to see Jayde dream come true, that she hadn''t sacrificed her life for them in vain.


    United they pushed back the humans, rescuing thousands of their people from enslavement. They further went on to protect thousands of planets from the greedy corporations, ensuring that the indigenous aliens on those vulnerable planets were protected.


    Years later, Jayde was revered throughout the Centauri empire as their savior and founder. Each planet had a stature of Jayde in the main cities, made out of rare moonrock that glowed faintly giving off a pious aura and engraved at the bottom of each statue was the mantra that Jayde had lived her life by.


    I WOULD RATHER DIE STANDING THAN TO LIVE ON MY KNEES


    ???


    ? 2019 DJ Rogue. All rights reserved.

 C0007: Hijacked

    ?? Arvia, Acica Kingdom, Lower Realm, Doha.


    A cold indistinct voice sounded through Jayde consciousness.


    "Soul transfer complete."


    "Contract with Proteus Artifact activated."


    "Contractor''s body severely damaged, insufficient energy to heal fully. Starting emergency healing procedure."


    What the fuck! Jayde thought, groggy and confused she tried to move, but severe pain instantly flooded her body making her freeze.


    "Contractor please lie still while the healing procedure is in progress."


    Soul transfer ... Divine System ... repair, Jayde tried to focus, confused about what was happening.


    Didn''t I just die, she thought. The bomb detonated, she remembered feeling the pain of her body disintegrating.


    Soul transfer... Wait didn''t the voice say something about soul transfer? With her mind running around in circles Jade tried to make sense of what was happening, she had an ominous feeling especially about that soul transfer thing.


    "Contractor emergency healing has been completed," the unemotional voice sounded again.


    "Who the hell are you?" Jayde demanded, wait that isn''t her voice! Shocked Jayde eyes flew open.


    "I am the guide for the Doha Proteus Artifact," the unknown voice said.


    Looking around her, Jayde couldn''t see anyone, more shocking than seeing no one around was the small clearing she was in.


    Crypso 3Q3U was a barren planet, but surrounding Jayde was a lush scene, with tall trees with emerald green leaves, how the hell did she land up here?


    "Please wait while the memories of the previous host are integrated," the Proteus system said.


    "W..w-hat? Wait!" Jayde stammered.


    What fucking memories, what the fuck is going on, Jayde thought frantically.


    The next thing blinding pain assaulted Jayde''s mind and thousands of memories that didn''t belong to her were stuffed into her head.


    Gritting her teeth, Jayde bore through the pain, trying to understand all the new memories that were suddenly available.


    "Oh, so this body''s previous host was Jayde Freehold, thirteen years old," Jayde mumbled to herself.


    "Wait ¡ª WHAT THE FUCK? THIRTEEN!" she exclaimed.


    Jumping up, Jayde looked down at herself, FUCK she really was in a child''s body. Jayde found herself standing in a pool of blood, with pieces of flesh lying all around her.


    Seeing the piece of flesh, a memory flashed through Jayde mind as she quickly recalled the last couple of memories of Jayde Freehold, where her uncle had flayed her alive.


    Holding her arms out, Jayde inspected her tiny arms, seeing jade white skin covering her arms, she quickly looked down at her legs, although horribly underdeveloped they were also covered in a new layer of skin.


    Lifting her right hand, Jayde rubbed her forehead, she could feel a headache coming on, as her thoughts scrambled to try to understand what was going on.


    "Yo Proteus artifact guide or whatever, where the hell are you?" Jayde called out.


    She needed to chat with this person, and find out what the hell was happening. If this was the afterlife, then she had been screwed ¡ª royally.


    "Contractor, please limit your movements, I have managed to heal the most serious of your wounds, but you will require rest to complete the healing," the Proteus artifact said.


    Spinning around Jayde still saw no-one was around.


    "Enough games, show yourself," she snarled.


    "Contractor that is impossible, I am current in the Proteus artifact, which is contracted to your soul."


    "Stop calling me contractor, call me Jayde," Jayde mumbled, trying to understand what the artifact just said, while each word was understandable, she felt that it was talking another language, as everything it said was so confusing.


    "Explain to me exactly what the hell is going on? What contract? How did I get here? Why am I in this body? Who the hell are you? and more importantly, WHY AM I NOT DEAD!" Jayde spat out the question rapidly.


    "Jayde if I may suggest ¡ª it would be better for you to relocate to a safer environment before we discuss anything further. The blood on the ground is going to attract spirit beast very soon, and in your current condition you are in no position to defend yourself."


    The moment Jayde heard spirit beast, data flooded her mind about spirit beasts. Alarmed Jayde quickly looked around. The system was right, this was not the place to talk, and the strange creatures in her memory seemed quite daunting.


    Thinking about the plan of the previous Jayde Freehold, Jayde decided to follow through with it and head to the Dark Forest, although she wouldn''t actually enter the Dark Forest itself, as this body was too weak to defend itself, but Jayde needed to find a safe place to rest, gather information and digest the memories in her head.


    Turning towards the Dark Forest, Jayde tripped over something on the ground. Looking down she saw a beautiful sharp dagger, bending down she picked it up. After examining the knife she realized that it looked familiar to her, after thinking about it, she realized that this is the dagger that horrible second uncle of this body had used to flay the skin off.


    He must have dropped it when he left, she thought, oh well, finders keepers, and with that, she looked around for something to hold the dagger. Finding a bunch of rags a little further on, Jayde searched through the ragged bag, inside the bag Jayde found some food, a gourd of water, a flint, a small jar of oil, as well as an old blanket.


    At least she had some supplies, making a makeshift carry bag she loaded all the supplies into it and secured it onto her back, then using a piece of cloth she made herself a belt and fastened the dagger to her waist.


    Feeling more secure now that she had supplies and a weapon Jayde set off towards the Dark Forest.


    <hr>


    Trying to adjust to her new body was frustrating for Jayde. It was weak. The legs were too damn short. After a lot of stumbling and tripping, Jayde eventually got the hang of maneuvering her new body.


    Jayde was busy cursing her luck that she couldn''t even die properly, as she picked her way carefully over the rocks and exposed roots when her thoughts were interrupted by that disembodied voice again.


    "Jayde I am sensing a small cave to the north-east of you."


    Sensing?


    What was this thing that it could sense the environment around me, she thought. Is it some type of computer?


    "Um Proteus artifact, are you a computer?" she asked out loud.


    "Computer?"


    Jayde could hear the question in the tone of the Proteus system.


    "Yes a computer its a machine, a man-made device," Jayde tried to explain.


    "No, I am a divine artifact, created to help cultivators like you to reach your full potential," the Proteus System answered carefully.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.


    Divine Artifact? Cultivators?


    Jayde was even more confused. As soon as she heard the word cultivators a whole lot of information assaulted her mind, but she was too weary to even think about it, and just pushed the data to the back of her mind, once she was safe she would analyze the memories stored in her head and interrogate this so-called divine artifact.


    Moving north-east, the landscape was utterly alien yet familiar in some way. Jayde could hear the birds and smell the freshness in the air. The green grass beneath her feet gave way to a rocky landscape.


    Looking ahead Jayde could see a mountain. The mountain rose into the deep blue sky, the steep craggy face seemed familiar, but Jayde couldn''t think of what it reminded her off.


    As Jayde gazed at the mountain in front of her, she could make out a rocky mountain path, Jayde followed it. After a couple of hours, the trail seemed to snake around the side of a mountain with a sheer drop to the right. A few trees twisted out of the side of the mountain with strange thorns. The alien purplish leaves underlined that Jayde was in an unknown environment.


    The mountain path Jayde was following suddenly ended. Loose stones were scattered on the path causing her to trip as she got closer to the rock face. Exhausted, thirsty and sweaty Jayde was feeling irritated, she was pissed that she had wasted so much time and energy just to come to a dead end.


    "Yo Proteus System, there is no cave here."


    "The cave entrance is right in front of you," replied the Proteus system.


    Looking carefully Jayde finally saw the cave, the entrance was so tiny she almost missed it. The cave was built into the grey rock of the mountain, the greyish stone guarding the entrance to the cave was jagged and uneven and was arranged in such a way, it would be nearly impossible for anyone to spot.


    "Ahem, Proteus System can you scan for life signs?"


    "Scan? ¡ª If you are asking if there are animals or people in the cave, there are some dingbats, but they pose no danger to you" answered the Proteus System.


    Wrapping one of the rags around a sturdy stick that she had picked up earlier, Jayde took out the flint as well as the small jar of oil in her handmade carry bag. Pouring the oil over the rags, Jayde then used the flint to set the cloth alight. Holding the torch in her left hand, Jayde entered the cave cautiously. The inside of the cave was dank, and the only sound was dripping water.


    The cave''s general shape was ovoid, it was about 15 meters in diameter, the walls smoothly curved to the floor, the walls above arched about 30 feet up. As Jayde explored further into the cave, she came across a frigid pool of water. Water ran down the fissures, feeding the pool, while dingbats flew above like small shadows.


    Seeing a strange heap near the rear of the cave, Jayde curiously walked up to investigate.


    Once she got closer, Jayde saw a skeleton, examining the remains Jayde could see no visible signs of death, from the bone structure Jayde could tell that the person was male, quite old, whoever he was he had lived a hard life, as Jayde could see numerous old breaks in his bones. It seemed like he had lived and died here quite some time ago.


    Looking around Jayde was pleasantly surprised with the number of items piled up around the rear edge of the cave, everything was covered in dust, but Jayde could make out that there was a stone campfire, cooking utensils, bedding, a large stack of wood which was covered with a waterproof tarp, and oil lamps. There were also several chests and boxes that she didn''t open, there would be enough time later to investigate what was in them.


    Moving closer to the wall, Jayde noticed an old desk and chair and above the desk were shelves packed full of books.


    Too tired to explore further Jayde carried some of the wood to the campfire and using her torch which was about to expire, lit the wood. Since the wood was dry, it caught fire quickly. The heat from the campfire soon sucked the frigid air around Jayde, and she started to warm up.


    The fire crackled, projecting long shadows on the surrounding walls. The light cast by the flames lit up Jayde tired and dusty face.


    Removing the gourdof water from her makeshift carry bag, Jayde drank some water to quench her thirst. After placing the gourd back into her carry bag, Jayde stared into the flames, mesmerized, without meaning to she soon drifted off to sleep, her small body exhausted.


    <hr>


    A couple of hours later Jayde woke up, sitting up she rubbed the sleep from her eyes, she was upset with herself that she had fallen asleep so carelessly.


    Standing up, she stretched to get all the kinks out of this new body from falling asleep on the hard floor. Noticing the fire had died down, and there were only a few burning coals left, she carried some more wood from the stockpile and fed it to the fire.


    Soon a new fire was blazing away. After drinking some water from the gourd and eating some of the rations stored in her makeshift carry bag, Jayde examined the memories from the owner of this body.


    The previous inhabitant of this body had really lived a miserable life, she thought seems like the people on this planet were just as cruel and heartless as those from her previous life.


    All the knowledge about magic and cultivation was very confusing to Jayde, it was totally unscientific, there was no logic to it at all, and what really depressed Jayde was this body she had ended up in was useless, it couldn''t cultivate magic.


    How was she going to survive in this world? From the look of things, she could be crushed as easy as an ant. It took Jayde quite some time to accept this fact.


    It was really a difficult concept for Jayde to accept, especially since her previous body was genetically enhanced. She never had to worry about being weak as her previous body had increased strength, speed, agility and healing ability.


    For someone who used to be at the top of the food chain to now finding herself right at the bottom ¡ª it was really depressing.


    Suddenly remembering the Proteus Artifact had said something about contracting with her to help her cultivate to becoming the strongest in Doha. Jayde figured it was best to find out what it was all about, the previous owner of this body had no knowledge of divine artifacts in her memory.


    "Hey Proteus System, you still there?" she called out nervously.


    "...."


    Where would I go, the guide of the Proteus artifact thought, I am contracted to your soul.


    The Proteus Divine Artifact decided to explain this small detail to Jayde.


    "I am contracted to your soul unless you break the contract and pay the penalty, I will always be with you," the Proteus System explained.


    "Oh¡ªer¡ªdo you have a name?" she asked "Calling you Proteus System is quite a mouthful."


    "My creator called me Isha-uah-ankh-antef-munkh ?," the Proteus Guide answered.


    "..."


    Sheesh that is even more of a mouthful than Proteus System, thought Jayde.


    "Okay, how about I just call you Isha," said Jayde


    Not happy with the way that Jayde had shortened his divine name, the Guide of the Proteus Artifact nevertheless agreed as Jayde was his contractor.


    "Great! Okay, Isha give me the run down, what is the gig here, why is my soul here when I know I died and how can you make me stronger when this body can''t cultivate?" Jayde demanded, firing off her questions rapidly.


    "..."


    Gig? Run down? Confused about the words his new contractor was uttering, Isha figured that she wanted to know what had happened.


    "Firstly your soul did not belong to System 516 Dimension, and when you died, I was able to ¡ª at great expense to myself I might say ¡ª transport your soul back to your body before you entered the reincarnation cycle."


    For a couple of seconds, Jayde mind blanked out with that piece of thunderous news. In the Federation Jayde was considered brilliant, she was the top student from her batch, so it did not take long for the gears in her mind to start spinning.


    "Okay let me get this straight, one there are over 500 different dimensions, and for some reason, my soul which should have been in this dimension ended up in another dimension. Two the theory that souls can reincarnate is actually true ¡ª whoa, hold a second if I was meant to be here then does that mean the previous soul inhabiting this body was meant to be in my old dimension, and if that is so, then how did our souls switch?" Jayde asked heatedly her speech getting quicker by the second.


    Isha was quite surprised that Jayde was taking everything so well, and impressed that she had made the logical leap to the gist of how her soul ended up in Doha.


    "There are thousands of dimensions, and yes your soul was never meant to end up in System 516, and you are correct that the previous soul inhabiting your body rightly belonged to System 516. Before you ask, I have no idea how your souls were switched," Isha decided to quickly clarify that before Jayde asked.


    "But what I can tell you is that it would have taken a tremendous amount of power to switch souls between dimensions, and it is not done lightly, there are heavy penalties to pay for that type of spell. To my knowledge, only a god ranked mage could have the power to perform such a complex spell, and as to the reason why I am sorry to say I have no idea," Isha explained further.


    Jayde sat quietly digesting the information that Isha had just given her. The ramifications were quite mind-boggling. Some mysterious person, with unimaginable power, hijacked her soul and switched it. For what possible reason would someone do something like that?


    According to what Isha said whoever did would have been punished for doing it, was it to save or destroy her? Jayde needed a final piece of information before deciding whether she had a powerful ally or enemy.


    "Isha when did you contract with me?"


    "A partial contract was initiated when your blood spilled onto the Divine Tome," he answered, "The soul contract was only fully initiated when I sensed your soul after your death."


    Recalling the memories of the previous soul, Jayde realized that the partial contract must have formed when the previous Jayde cut her hand and bled onto the golden tome, that made her curious why did Isha not initiate a full contract with the previous soul.


    Reading her thoughts, Isha answered, "Because her soul was too weak, and it did not belong to this body, only this body with your soul has the strength to contract the Proteus Divine System," he clarified.


    Well then that cleared it up, she had a powerful enemy, Jayde thought. Someone had gone to a lot of trouble to ensure that her soul did not end up in this dimension. It was not a comforting thought, but there wasn''t anything she could do about it now.


    Jayde was a realist, she knew that stressing over the matter right now wouldn''t help, the best she could do currently was to learn as much as she could about this strange new world she had ended up in.


    Looks like it is time to get serious and figure out a way to make this body powerful, and learn all I can about magic, Jayde thought with determination filling her body.


    ???


    ? 2019 DJ Rogue. All rights reserved.

 C0008: The Path to Cultivation

    "Isha you said that your purpose is to guide your contractor in becoming strong, but this body can''t cultivate, so just how are you going to help me to become stronger?" Jayde asked she was really curious just what Isha could do.


    "Of course you can cultivate," Isha replied matter-of-factly, as though Jayde should have already known this.


    He further went on to clarify "It''s just that all your magic has been sealed away by a seven elemental weave blood-curse ward."


    "Seal? Seven Elemental Ward, explain further," demanded Jayde, shifting into a more comfortable position, her buttocks were becoming numb from sitting on such a hard surface.


    Need to get some soft cushions, she thought, thankfully Isha didn''t hear that private thought, as he would have been quite irate with Jayde, worrying about your buttocks during such a serious discussion would have lowered his opinion of his new contractor.


    "A seven elemental weave ward means that seven wards are sealing your magic, each layer being a different element, it would require someone at least of Emperor of the 6th class to place this ward," Isha explained patiently.


    "Hmm, Isha does that mean that the person who hijacked my soul also sealed this body as well?"


    "Not necessary, the seven elemental wards is a blood-curse, meaning only someone sharing a direct blood relationship with you could have placed it," Isha explained.


    Isha explanation confused Jayde even further, from the previous soul''s memories Jayde parents were shocked and disgusted she was a null so they couldn''t have placed the blood-curse on her, and thinking about the other members of the Freehold clan, no-one was that powerful, which only left two alternatives. One there was an unknown member of the Freehold clan or two she wasn''t related to the Freehold clan.


    Either way, there was nothing she could do about it now, but it was something to investigate later. Quickly bringing her mind back to the current issue at hand.


    "Alrighty, so how do we go about lifting this curse?" she asked.


    Isha explained to Jayde lifting the first layer wouldn''t be too difficult, but due to the amount of energy he had spent transferring her soul and healing the terrible injuries on her body, he would need some time to recuperate.


    Jayde wanted to find out more about Isha and the Divine Proteus artifact, but Isha requested to be excused telling her that he needed to rest. Hearing the exhaustion in his voice, Jayde decided to let things go for now, and speak to Isha later once he had recovered his strength.


    With Isha resting, Jayde explored her cave, it looked like she would be staying here for a while.


    Taking one of the oil lamps, she shook it gently to check if there was still oil left, happy to hear the sloshing of liquid, she took a small twig to the campfire, once the twig was lit, she then lit the wick.


    Smelling a strange fragrance, Jayde eyebrows knitted in confusion, there was a memory of this scent, examining the memory from the previous soul, she recalled that this oil was from the Fragrant Katydid.


    A rare bug found deep in the Dark Forest. The oil from the Katydid was a luxury item, which was highly sort-after. Besides producing a pleasant fragrance when burnt, the oil lasted over 100 times longer than regular oils.


    Happy with the discovery, Jayde as least knew she didn''t have to worry about light for a while, the oil left in the lamp would last a couple of weeks.


    Opening up the chests, Jayde was pleased to discover they held some treasures and a lot of items she sorely needed. There were heating crystals, a number of flasks with Katydid oil, jars of spices, cleaning materials, towels, tunics, and robes.


    In one chest she found some weapons ¡ª a bow with a quiver full of arrows, a short katana shaped sword and a couple of daggers.


    Jayde was curious why these items were in such good condition, as the dampness in the cave should have eroded them. She wondered if there wasn''t some sort of protection spell on the chest that had protected these items. She made a mental note to ask Isha about it when he awoke.


    Looking at these ancient weapons, Jayde really missed her blaster. Thank goodness she had some training in swordsmanship, although that was decades ago and her skills were really rusty. Looks like I will have to brush up on those old skills, she thought.


    Another chest was filled with bottles of potions, and small porcelain jars of pills. Having no idea what she was looking at, Jayde made a note to speak to Isha about it; hopefully, he had some clue about what was in the chest.


    From the memories, she inherited she knew that potions and pills were precious in the Lower Realm and that they could be beneficial to cultivators. She was also very curious about the healing potions and pills that the previous host had in her memories.


    Jayde found it fascinating that one could just drink something and your injuries could heal. She could understand why near-instant healing happened in the Federation as they had the technology to inject nanobots which repaired the damage, but her mind boggled just trying to think of how some magical potion could have the same effect.


    Jayde was finding it difficult to come to grasp with all this magic, the dagger that she had picked up in the forest could self-sharpen, chests that could keep everything in stasis, people being able to shoot fireballs from their fingers, everything was just too unbelievable.


    Jayde felt like she had landed in an upsidedown world, where the standard rules of the universe didn''t exist anymore. It was like the universe was playing a prank on her ¡ª either that or she really was dead, and this was some sort strange last minute dream she was having. The last firing of her dying synapses.


    Her left arm was covered in tiny bruises from the number of times she had pinched herself, trying to prove to herself that she was awake and experiences this mad world.


    <hr>


    During her exploration of the cave, Jayde had found piles of beast skins, strange stones, and metals. In a corner, Jayde found a cauldron and furnace of some sort. All of these items made Jayde curious about the old guy who used to live in the cave.


    Walking over to his skeleton, she looked at him carefully, then bowing down she paid her respects. It was thanks to him that she had gained so many things, and everything would come in handy, helping her to survive in this strange new world, she shuddered to think of just what sort of situation she would be in now if she hadn''t stumbled upon this cave.


    Straightening up, Jayde saw something glittering on the ground near his hands. Bending down she had a closer look, it seemed like some sort of ring. Picking up the ring Jayde examined it. The ring was intricately carved, and it had a beautiful amber stone embedded in the center, it was made out of some strange metal, that had a slight blue sheen to it. Placing the ring on her thumb, she would ask Isha if he knew what the strange glyphs meant that were carved into the ring.


    Noticing a small satchel just to the side, Jayde picked it up and had a look inside, taking out one of leaf covered items, Jayde had a closer look. Her eyes widened as her lips curved into a small, tentative smile, she knew what this was ¡ª it was elven wafer bread.


    The only reason why she knew about it was due to the previous host''s memories. Za''thul liked to show off the one he had received years ago. He had received it as a gift from some son visiting the Lower Realm from a noble family from the Mid Realm, elven wafer bread was a luxury ration only available in the Mid Realm, and according to Za''thul, it was quite rare there too.Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.


    Only the most affluent clans could afford it. Jayde was not sure why it was called elven wafer bread, as it was not made by Elves, but the story went that the recipe came from the Elves. Jayde wasn''t quite sure if she believed that Elves even existed, her inherited memories contained no actual sighting of Elves all the information available in the Lower Realm was from legends and fairytales.


    Elven wafer bread was said to last forever, never to rot and was suppose to always be fresh, it was rumored to taste delicious, and a person only needed to eat half a wafer a day. According to the conversation the previous host had overhead, Za''thul had boasted that if a mage ate an elven wafer bread every day their body''s constitution would improve.


    Well if the rumors were true that would mean that this elven wafer bread was very nutritious and was beneficial to one''s health, Jayde thought.


    Eagerly taking out the rest of the wafers, Jayde counted the leafy packages, and she was happy to note that she had over thirty wafer pieces of bread. If what they said was true, then she had enough food for two months. That was more than enough time for her to train this body so that she could enter the Dark Forest and hunt her own food.


    Removing one of the leaf covered, elven wafer bread Jayde took a cautious bite.


    Yummy! They weren''t lying about it being delicious, it had a sweet fruity taste. It tasted similar to Zirconina peaches Jayde had once eaten when visiting Xi Corporation headquarters. Zirconina peaches were one of the most expensive luxury products available in the Federation and cost thousands of credits each.


    Feeling quite pleased with her discovery, Jayde quickly ate half of the wafer and was surprised to find that she was feeling pleasantly full. Wrapping up the leftover wafer, she put it back in the satchel.


    Walking to the desk, Jayde had a look at all the books available on the shelves above the desk. Opening one, she couldn''t understand a word written. The previous Jayde had never been educated, so Jayde had no memory of learning to read or write.


    Looks like it another thing to add to the list to ask Isha, thought Jayde. Her list was growing quite long as Jayde was feeling a bit impatient, she couldn''t wake for Isha to wake up as she had so many things to discuss with him.


    Taking one the cooking pots, Jayde gave it a good scrub with the cleaning soap she found. Then she filled the pot with water from the deep pool and placed the pot on the fire to boil. Once the water had boiled for at least 5 minutes, she removed it from the fire to cool down. At least now she had safe drinking water.


    Standing up she looked around her cave, she was really quite lucky she had found a safe haven to live in for a while, she had food, water, and a roof over her head. Really not bad ¡ª not bad at all, she thought.


    Finding a broom, she gave the cave an excellent clean, taking the bedding outside and using a wooden stick she beat the bedding to remove the dirt and dust from it, then she made up a new bed for herself. Once the whole place had been cleaned, Jayde looked down at herself and found she was filthy.


    Pulling the wooden tub she had found closer to the pool, she used a bucket to fill the tub up with water, then she dropped one of the heating crystals into the water. She waited for the water to heat up. Once the water was hot enough, she removed the crystal, undressed and jumped into the tub.


    Leaning back against the tub, Jayde let out a deep sigh, she was mentally, physically and emotionally exhausted ¡ª it had been a grueling couple of days for her.


    It had only been two days, but Jayde felt like she had lived a couple of lifetimes. Jayde summed up all that she had gone through over the past two days. She had been in a fight for her life, been shot multiple times, betrayed by her brother, died, resurrected in a strange body on a strange planet, smiling bitterly Jayde thought, it really feels like I am living one of those weird dramas that humans liked to watch.


    Giving herself a good scrub, and washing her long hair, Jayde climbed out of the tub. Drying herself off she then put on one of the tunics that she found as well as a pair of trousers. Both were too large for her tiny frame, and she had to find some rope to tighten the pants.


    After dragging the tub outside to empty it down the deep ravine Jayde returned to the cave, by this stage Jayde was too tired to even think, staggering to the newly made bed, she climbed in, after covering herself with the blanket she instantly fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.


    <hr>


    Waking up the next morning, Jayde felt refreshed. While this new body of hers was weak according to Jayde''s standards at least, it was physically fit. The previous Jayde had been a slave, so she was accustomed to doing hard physical labor.


    Which was a good thing in Jayde opinion, if she could eat enough, and with proper exercise and training it should not take her too long to get this body fighting fit.


    Feeling motivated, Jayde jumped out of bed. Stretching like a cat, she rubbed her face, then quickly leaving the cave she found a private place to relieve her bladder, after returning to the cave, she washed her faced and ate the other half of the wafer bread. Drinking some water Jayde yearned for some kaffee, but from her inherited memories, she couldn''t find anything similar to the kaffee that she used to drink on this strange new world.


    Kaffee was a synthetic caffeinated drink available in the Federation, it was based on ancient earth coffee and chocolate, both of these plants had died out a long time ago due to an environmental catastrophe that happened on old Earth. Stupid humans couldn''t even look after their own planet thought Jayde, thinking back to the history books she had read.


    After making the bed, Jayde looked around there was not much she could do, so she decided to start training this new body. After training for half an hour, Jayde was fed up, the clothes she was wearing were too big, and she kept on tripping and getting herself tangled up.


    Adding synsuits to her list of items that she dearly missed from her previous life ¡ª if this carried on she would have to train naked, while Jayde wasn''t a prude, but training naked was really taking it a bit too far as far as she was concerned.


    Jayde had a mental picture of her training naked and then being attacked by some creature and having to run around butt naked, shaking her head to dislodge the disturbing image. Jayde decided to have a look around to see if there was anything that she could use to make clothes that fit for herself.


    Seeing the beast skins, Jayde eyes lit up. Walking over to the skins she picked up one of them, feeling it, it felt like synleather, a material available in the Federation.The leather had been properly cured and was soft and supple.


    This will do, she thought, she could make herself some pants and shirts from this leather. Her dagger would be sharp enough to cut the leather, but how was she going to sew these pieces together.


    After looking through all the chests and boxes, Jayde couldn''t find anything to use as a needle. Sitting down and scratching her head she tried to think up some sort of plan. Without thinking she picked an old animal bone which she fiddled with while eyeing the items piled up.


    Suddenly she felt a sharp pain on her right index finger, looking down she saw a drop of blood.


    Confused she had a look to see what was in her hand that had pricked her, seeing the small bone, her eyes brightened, if she whittled this bone, and drilled a small hole into it, it would make a great needle.


    Opening the chest that contained the weapons that she found the day before, she took out one of the old daggers. She didn''t want to use the sharp dagger that she had picked up that used to belong to her second uncle, it was a really well-made dagger, and even though it was a self-sharpening blade, Jayde had no idea how long the spell would last, and she would need it when she entered the Dark Forest.


    After a couple of hours of whittling and shaping the small bone, Jayde finally had a decent needle. Taking some of the smaller pieces of leather, she cut them into thin strips to use as a thread to sew the pieces of leather together.


    Feeling hungry again, Jayde ate the leftover rations that she had bought with her, she didn''t want to waste food, and she would rather eat it all now before it went off.


    After lunch, Jayde went back to making herself a new set of clothing. It took her a while to figure out how to measure herself for her new pants, but she finally had the pieces of leather marked, using the old dagger to cut the leather she ended up with cut leather pieces.


    Using the bone needle and leather strips, she sewed the pieces of leather together, it took her some time as the leather was really tough and even though the bone needle was sharp, it still took quite a bit of effort to puncture the leather pieces.


    Finally, Jayde had finished sewing her leather pants, trying them on Jayde was satisfied that they were comfortable and fit her small frame nicely. After she shadow fought for a while, Jayde was really pleased with her new pants.


    After dinner, Jayde tackled making her shirt, since she didn''t have anything that she could use as buttons she used leather strips so that she could tie the front of her shirt together.


    Putting on her new outfit, she was really delighted with her hard work, it had been worth the effort.


    Thankfully this body hasn''t started to develop yet, so I don''t have to worry about things like a bra, she thought.


    Feeling tired but satisfied with what she had accomplished, Jayde had a quick bath and climbed into bed.


    ???


    ? 2019 DJ Rogue. All rights reserved.

 C0009: Isha Wakes Up

    For the next couple of days, Jayde would train in the mornings and in the afternoons she spent her time making herself a second set of clothing. She estimated that she had enough leather to make at least seven or eight sets of leather clothes for herself. She also made herself a backpack as well as a scabbard and belt for her dagger.


    It was on her fifth day that Jayde ran into quite a dilemma. She wanted to practice using the bow she had found, but she did not have a straw dummy to use for target practice. Looking around she couldn''t find anything that she could use to make a dummy.


    She needed something sturdy enough to stand upright, but soft enough not to break her arrows, as Jayde had no way to replace any of the broken arrowheads.


    Staring at the wall of the cave, while trying to think of a solution, Jayde noticed something weird about the shadows reflected on the wall.


    Picking up the oil lamp, Jayde walked closer to the wall to inspect it. Looking closer Jayde could make out that a portion of the wall was slightly different from the rest. Carefully reaching out she touched the wall.


    Suddenly her hand disappeared into the wall. Shocked Jayde leaped backward. Flustered Jayde looking down at her hand. Thank god my hand is still there,Jayde thought. What the fuck, thisis unscientific, a person body part is not supposed to disappear inside a solid wall.


    Starring at the wall for a full minute, Jayde was brimming with curiosity. Approaching the weird wall again, Jayde gingerly poked the wall with her finger, which disappeared, quickly withdrawing her finger, Jayde inspect her hand to make sure her finger was still there.


    After assuring herself that everything was fine, Jayde poked the wall a couple of times, each time her finger disappeared and reappeared when she withdrew it.


    Feeling a bit more confident Jayde then put her left hand into the wall (she was still a bit dubious about the wall, so she didn''t want to risk her right hand), after having her hand reappear, she did this again a couple of times.


    What the hell is up with this wall, she thought.


    Taking a step back, Jayde contemplated whether she should try to step into the wall, she was really curious about what was on the other side.


    "But what happens if I get stuck in the wall," she mumbled to herself, just as she was about to give up on the whole idea, as the thought of being trapped inside the wall was really disturbing.


    "It''s a ward", Isha said telepathically communicating with Jayde.


    "Isha you finally awake," Jayde cried happily.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.


    "Hmm," Isha confirmed.


    "Have you recovered? And what do you mean by it''s a ward?" Jayde asked.


    Feeling a strange warm feeling, upon hearing his contractor questioned him about his recovery, Isha answered happily.


    "I have recovered about eighty percent of my energy ¡ª a ward is a defensive spell, it prevents people, spells or beasts from entering the protected area."


    "Oh!"


    Jayde thought about the ward for a couple of seconds. It was similar to shields and holographic technology from the Federation she thought, but the Federation was still trying to combine the two techniques. What a marvel, she thought shaking her while admiring the ingenious wall.


    "Then why can I enter?" she asked.


    "You must have an item on you that opens the ward, that is the reason you were able to move your hand through the ward," replied Isha.


    Thinking about the information that Isha had just given her, looking down Jayde inspected the items on her, Jayde tried to think about what she on her that could open the ward, noticing the ring of her thumb, she raised her hand and looked at it carefully.


    "It must be this ring, that I found by the old man," she said.


    "Ring?"


    Although Isha couldn''t see per se, he could sense things through Jayde.


    "That is a spatial ring, and it should be linked to the ward," he informed Jayde.


    Jayde raised her eyebrow and asked "Spatial ring?"


    There was no information on spatial rings in Jayde memory.


    Isha was really surprised about how ignorant Jayde was about Doha, even though he realized that she didn''t grow up on Doha, but surely the previous host should have had some knowledge.


    Grumbling to himself about how much knowledge had been lost over the thousands of years that he had been locked away, he explained to Jayde that spatial rings were artifacts from the Upper Realm and that each spatial ring had a separate dimension space available, which could be used to store items.


    He further went on to explain that spatial rings were separated into common, rare and divine artifacts. A common spatial ring could have anything from a couple of cubic meters square to hundreds of cubic meters square of storage space, it could only stockpile inanimate items. On the other hand, rare spatial rings could store simple living things such as plants, but not animals ¡ª animal bodies were too complex to be stored and lastly, divine spatial rings which were, in essence, a small world.


    Jayde tried to imagine a ring the size on her thumb having a whole world in it, but it was inconceivable to her. Really this new world was amazing, sometimes she really wondered if she wasn''t just dreaming, the contrast of this world was incredible. On the one hand, their technology was primitive, but on the other hand, they could create separate dimensional spaces that the Federation could only theorize about.


    "So how do I access this spatial ring," she inquired.


    "You can''t at the moment, it takes magic to bind the ring to you," Isha replied.


    "And I still need to recover more energy before lifting the first layer of your seal, but you can walk through the ward and have a look what it on the other side."


    Disappointed that she couldn''t access the ring yet, Jayde nevertheless was quite happy to explore what was behind the ward, being stuck in this cave for nearly a week had started to get to her, she was sick and tired of just looking at the flat rock walls all day.


    Walking up to the ward, Jayde took a deep breath and without hesitating stepped through the ward.


    ???


    ? 2019 DJ Rogue. All rights reserved

 C0010: Behind the Ward

    After walking through the ward, Jayde was surprised to see that she had stepped in a carved out tunnel. The carved out path wasn''t big, it was about one meter wide and two meters high. More than enough space for her to walk comfortably.


    Looking behind her, she could see that her cave had ''disappeared'', with the oil lamp in her left hand, and her right hand near the dagger on her hip, Jayde followed the tunnel that had been carved into the mountain.


    Jayde wondered if the old man who had lived in her cave before had carved out this tunnel or if it was something he had found ¡ª either way it was impressive that someone had spent so much time carving out this tunnel.


    After walking for about 45 minutes, Jayde finally saw a small light flickering in the distance, Jayde sped up, impatient to see what was at the end of this passage.


    Within minutes the half moon of brightness at the end of the tunnel had widened, and she walked out into the daylight.


    Surprised Jayde had entered what looked like a forest. The forest was ancient. The trees were thick and very old, the ground was covered with roots that were gnarled and twisted, but Jayde could make out a small path. The forest canopy above was so dense that Jayde could only see the occasional streak of sunlight that rarely touched the forest floor.


    Leaves from the tall ancient trees lay scattered on the forest floor. The drone of insects humming and buzzing filled the air which was rich with the fragrance of leaves and loam. Occasionally the scream of some beast pieced the air.


    This must be the Dark Forest, Jayde thought. The scene in front of her matched the descriptions that were in her inherited memories.


    Wary that some beast would attack her, Jayde chose only to explore the area close to the entrance of the tunnel. From the little bit of the area that she had investigated she discovered that the Dark Forest was abundant with plant and animal life.


    Surrounded by nature''s abundance, Jayde was able to put down the one thing that she had been worrying about, which was that she would lose her safe haven when she entered the Dark Forest, but now she had a direct route to it and best of all she would be able to replenish her supplies easily.


    With this direct route to the Dark Forest, Jayde changed her plans, she was now prepared to stay a couple of years in her cave, while she was impatient to get revenge for the previous soul that inhabited this body, Jayde knew that she had to be patient. She needed time to build up her strength and magic.Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.


    Jayde also realized that she would need to hide until she was strong enough, with what Isha had told her, she had come to understand when Isha partially contracted with this body, that the Divine Tome had disappeared, and with its disappearance the Freehold clan would hunt her down if they found out that she was still alive.


    She needed to be a lot more powerful before she could take them on, anyway ten years is not too late for a gentleman''s revenge, she thought. She also had another reason to return to the Freehold clan, she had to find out who had placed the seven elemental weave seal on her body.


    It was dangerous enough that she had a powerful enemy out there, who had gone to the trouble to switch her soul, but she had to find out if she had another enemy, one who was related to her by blood, were they two separate camps, or were they working together.


    At least for now, she had solved the earlier dilemma of her target practice dummy.


    For the rest of the day, Jayde lugged wood, straw, and dead leaves into her cave. She also cut vines and young branches to make some traps.


    As the sun was setting, Jayde returned to her cave. Looking over her haul, she was satisfied with her efforts. Starved she ate her meal and had a bath.


    While she was tired, it was still a bit early to go to sleep. Remembering the books that she couldn''t read, Jayde asked Isha if he could read them. Isha was really surprised that the previous host was so poorly educated, but was happy to spend the evening teaching Jayde to read.


    The next day Jayde setup two practice dummies, one for archery and the other for sword work. She then diligently trained every day.


    For the next five days, Jayde''s days fell into a comfortable routine, she would do strength and endurance training in the early morning, later on, she would practice with the bow and after lunch was another two hours training with her dagger and sword.


    With Isha observing and pointing out her faults and helping her with her training, Jayde skills improved drastically. Her skills with the bow were especially impressive, Jayde was able to integrate her sharpshooter skills with the bow, and she could now fire an arrow with 100% accuracy. Isha was really impressed with how dedicated Jayde was to her training.


    In the afternoons she would enter the Dark Forest to collect some firewood and explore the area around her. She never ventured far as she was still cautious running into a spirit beast, with her current strength she had no way to defeat even a level one spirit beast.


    After sunset, she would eat and have a bath, and then Isha would spend hours teaching her to read. With her intelligence and photographic memory, Jayde quickly picked up the Doha language and by the fourth day, would only occasionally need to ask for Isha help.


    The old man''s library was impressive, his collection included books on alchemy, medicine, poisons, potion making, blacksmithing, weaponsmithing as well as books on plants, herbs and spirit beasts. Jayde was really curious about the history of the old man, she was genuinely grateful to him, and in her heart, she took him as her sensei.


    While Jayde was really curious to learn skills like alchemy, potion making, and weaponsmithing without magic it would be useless so she spent most of her time learning about the plants, herbs and spirit beasts in Doha.


    ???


    ? 2019 DJ Rogue. All rights reserved

 C0011: First Layer of Seal

    It had been nearly two weeks since Jayde had died and woken up on Doha. During this time her weak body had undergone some drastic changes. With the daily consumption of the magical elven wafer bread, her malnourished body had blossomed. Her cheeks were her rosy, her hair had a healthy shine, and she had grown nearly five centimeters, and with her daily workouts, her body had grown a lot stronger.


    It was the sixth day since Isha had woken up.


    After Jayde woke up, Isha informed Jayde that he had recovered fully and would now be able to unlock the first layer of her seal.


    Jumping out of bed, Jayde quickly did her morning ablutions; Isha had informed Jayde not to eat as the lifting of the seal was going to be a harrowing experience. Sitting cross-legged on her bed, Jayde mentally prepared herself; she couldn''t help feeling excited, today was the day that she would finally be able to cultivate, taking a deep breath to calm herself down Jayde informed Isha that she was ready.


    At first, Jayde only felt a warm tingling feeling, then a slight itch in her bones, the itch started to become painful, but it was nothing compared to the pain that Jayde had gone through as a child during the torturous training of the Xi Corporation training camps.


    The area below her belly button began to heat up; the area kept on getting hotter, soon it felt like that she has swallowed molten lava. Every part of Jayde''s body was in excruciating pain; even her skin was burning.


    Jayde had thought that the training she had endured as a child had prepared her, but she was wrong. The pain that Jayde was currently going through was unimaginable, gritting her teeth and clenching her fists, Jayde tried her hardest to bear with it, but the pain just kept on increasing, rolling over her in giant waves. Black dots were dancing in front of her eyes. It felt as though every single nerve ending in her body was suddenly exposed; the slightest movement was like ten thousand knives cutting her.


    The itch in her bones was maddening, Jayde was filled with a strong desire to dig through her skin and scratch, the veins and tendons on her neck were standing out from just how hard she was clenching her teeth. Even the most terrible torture that she had gone through as a child couldn''t compare to the amount of agony she was in now.


    Even her hair ached, blood had started to drip from her clenched fists as her nails dug into her flesh.


    Jayde tried not making a sound, but the agony she was in defeated her indomitable willpower, and she couldn''t help letting out a small whimper.


    Jayde started to feel faint; every second felt like an hour. "Oh God, please let it end," she prayed.


    Just as her mind was about to shut down due to the extreme pain, the whole cave lit up, and Jayde was covered in a blinding light. The golden glow covered her entire body, and a warm, tender feeling penetrated every part of Jayde''s body.


    A tremendous sense of well being filled Jayde and her body felt feather light.


    Soon the golden glow dissipated.


    Looking down Jayde inspected her body. The robe she was wearing was soaking wet, and her body was covered in a black lacquer-like substance.


    "What the fuck!" Jayde exclaimed loudly, really shocked at this black stuff all over her body.


    Sensing Jayde panic, Isha quickly informed Jayde the black substance was toxins that had been stored in her body.


    "Frigging hell, it stinks," Jayde yelled in disgust.


    Not wasting another second, Jayde jumped up and fetched her wooden tub. She desperately wanted to scrub herself clean. It took three baths before she was satisfied that she no longer stank.


    Standing naked in front of a mirror that she had found in the old man''s possessions, Jayde inspected her body. Her skin was slightly pink from being scrubbed so hard, but as Jayde examined it, she noticed that her skin had a slight luminous look to it.Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.


    The biggest shock was the changes to her face. The lifting of the first layer of the seal had reversed the face changing spell that the elder from the Freehold clan had placed on her body. Jayde''s eyes had reverted to her original amber color, but the color was more profound, and her eyes were brighter.


    Jayde loved the color of her eyes; it reminded her of a holographic image she had seen of a panther when she was in the Federation.


    Her hair was still raven black but had a slight navy blue tinge to it. With jade white skin and soft pink lips, Jayde thought that the face in the mirror was adorable. Examining the delicate bone structure, Jayde could see that her face showed hints that when she was older, she would be attractive. All the scars from her torturous childhood had disappeared. The only strange thing that Jayde noticed was that on her back, there seemed to be a very slight pinkish mark, after inspecting it closer it resembled a pair of wings, but it was quite faint and barely noticeable.


    After getting dressed, Jayde tested out her body; she was elated to find out that she was a lot stronger and faster than before. With her cat-like agility, she was able to do somersaults and twist and turns that she had battled to do previously.


    Comparing herself to her old body, Jayde estimated that she had gained about sixty percent of her previously enhanced abilities.


    "Jayde, enough playing around," Isha said seriously, interrupting Jayde thoughts.


    "We need a serious talk, with your magic unsealed, you have now activated the Divine Training system, and you don''t have much time left," Isha declared.


    ???


    Jayde was unaware of the changes that were happening across Doha when the first layer of her seal was lifted. While she was busy checking out her new body, events and people were starting to move.


    ???


    Prophet Hall, Demon Realm.


    In a deserted stone hall deep within a temple, inside this hall there were numerous stone statues that lined the wall, each statue contained a prophecy, in the middle of the room, stood a tall stone statue, covered with strange glyphs which started to hum softly, it glyphs glowing with a luminous blue light.


    Thousands of years ago, this temple had been filled with acolytes, who guarded these ancient statues, reporting any changes to the head of the sect.


    But now after thousands of years of neglect, these stone statues were covered in dust, there was only one prophet reader left, but he was too old and tired to watch over these ancient texts.


    And with this, the warning that an ancient prophecy was about to begin, went unnoticed.


    ???


    Demon Palace, Demon Realm.


    In a large luxurious marble room which was empty except for a giant crystal ball in the middle of the room, which was balanced on a black stone tripod. The crystal ball was filled with a strange mist; the mist slowly parted revealing a face.


    If Jayde had been there, she would have been astonished at the face which was revealed as it was her face.


    After half an hour, without anyone seeing the face revealed in the mists ¡ª the mists slowly covered the face.


    ---


    In a tower attached to the palace, overlooking the sprawling city below, a man awoke.


    His skin was jade white and faintly luminescent, his long raven-black hair hung straight down his back. His face was terrible in its perfection of stunning male beauty, his purple eyes glowed fever-bright, as his nostrils quivered as if he was an animal scenting prey in the air ¡ª he was in a high state of agitation, his fierce power glowing brightly around him.


    His long, elegant hands clenched and unclenched. He was angry and frustrated.


    He had dreamed of her again, her beautiful amber eyes, reproaching him, full of sadness, her soul filled with hatred and vengeance ¡ª his only one, his true-mate.


    Why after ten thousand years could he not find her, his heart, body, and soul yearned for her. Only with her by his side could he find peace.


    Only she could save him, and by saving him ¡ª save his people.


    ???


    Strange Mountain, Unknown Realm.


    An old man sitting in a lotus position opened his eyes.


    "She is awakening" he whispered, and with a beautiful smile, he closed his eyes, returning to his mediation.


    ???


    The Skies Above Doha.


    A small red star that was unseen grew brighter and more distinct.


    ???


    Overlord''s Palace, Zartonesh Planet.


    One of the devil imps, cleaning the dungeon, entered a small dark room, where a large pool of blood was gently boiling.


    Shocked he stared at the boiling pool of blood for a couple of minutes, then dropping his cleaning tools, he ran swiftly to the overseer to report.


    ???


    ? 2019 DJ Rogue. All rights reserved.

 C0012: Divine Training System

    "Divine Training System? Isha what the hell is the Divine Training System and what do you mean by ''I don''t have much time left''?" Jayde demanded.


    Jayde suddenly had an ominous feeling.


    "Jayde the Proteus Artifact was created to guide certain individuals on Doha to reach their full potential, to stand on top of this world," Isha stated.


    Isha then explained to Jayde that the Proteus were an ancient race that had seeded numerous planets, across multiple dimensions, before they left the known universe they left artifacts on many worlds that would guide worthy individuals. These artifacts were created using a combination of their best technology and their most potent magic.


    Through her contract with the Proteus Divine Artifact System, Jayde had now gained access to a small pocket of space, which she could teleport to. When her magic was still sealed only a tiny portion of the Proteus Artifact had been activated, but now that her magic had been unsealed, the whole system had activated, and Jayde would soon be drawn into this small dimension.


    Jayde was still trying to wrap her mind around the whole concept of a race of beings being so powerful that they could create their own dimensional space when she felt a vast force bearing down on her, then a large sucking force squeezed and pulled her.


    Although the feeling was not pleasant, it wasn''t painful. Next thing Jayde knew she was standing in a white room. Standing in the center of the room was a tall, distinguished looking man.


    While he looked somewhat human, he features had a feline cast to it. His pupils were elongated, his eyes were emerald green, and his hair had various shades of browns interlaced with creamy white and grey. His ears tapered into a point.


    "Hello, Jayde, nice to finally meet you face to face," Isha smiled as he cupped his hands and bowed.


    Jayde''s jaw slackened as she stared at the man in front her with a slightly dazed look on her face.


    "Isha?" Jayde asked slightly hesitantly.


    "Hmm" Isha nodded.


    Jayde was really surprised to see his appearance, she had always assumed that Isha would be human, so his appearance was quite a shock.


    "Welcome to the Doha Divine Proteus Artifact World."


    "Er... your appearance?" Jayde wasn''t quite sure how to ask him about his looks.


    Isha chuckled softly at Jayde incredulous look.


    "My looks are based on my creators," he said gently.Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!


    "If you find them disturbing I can change them."


    "Ah.. no..no it''s fine, I mean you look great," Jayde said, a bit embarrassed.


    "I am used to aliens looking different, it .. well it was just that I wasn''t expecting it ...umm not that you an alien."


    Face-palming herself, she mumbled, "Oh God, this is so embarrassing."


    Isha burst out laughing, quite delighted with Jayde''s reaction.


    Glaring at Isha having so much fun at her expense Jayde decided to pretend that nothing had happened.


    "Okay so give me the run-down, where am I, and what is up with this room?"


    "This is your space" Isha clarified "Right now, it is just a simple room, we call it the Proteus Pavilion, but as you grow and gain more power and rewards you will be able to manipulate this space, you will also be able to enlarge your space as you gain more power."


    "Rewards?" Jayde asked.


    "Yes, you will be able to earn points for completing designated training, doing missions and reaching goals there are also others ways to earn points, but you will need to figure that out on your own. I must also warn you that the system will also punish you for any failures."


    "Punish me, what sort of punishment are we talking about here," Jayde asked apprehensively.


    "It will depend on the failure," Isha answered.


    Cocking his head, Isha seemed to be listening to something "We still have a couple of minutes before your trainer arrives," he announced.


    Walking to one side of the room, Isha waved his hand, and a screen appeared.


    "This is the reward exchange interface, as you can see you have already accumulated five points, these points were awarded to you for lifting the first layer of your seal," Isha said point to the top right-hand corner.


    Walking up to the screen Jayde saw a large 5 in the top right-hand corner that Isha was pointing too. Under the large 5, there werethree menu tabs. Skills, Dimension Upgrades, and Market.


    Jayde was really curious to see exactly what each of these tabs offered, but Isha was already walking to the other side of the room.


    "Here is your mission board," he said, activating another screen.


    Quickly walking over to the new screen, Jayde noticed that there were small cards on display, but each card was greyed out.


    Looking at Isha and raising her eyebrow in query, she pointed to the screen.


    Smiling gently Isha answered her unasked question.


    "There are no available missions at the moment. Currently, your skill level is too low, once you have grown stronger, you will be able to complete available missions."


    "Ah ok, so where do these missions come from?" Jayde asked curiously.


    "From all the different Proteus systems scattered throughout the universe and across multiple dimensions, think about it like an inter-dimensional mercenary board," Isha replied.


    "But a word of caution, be careful when choosing a mission, the penalties for failure are quite severe."


    DING!!


    "Ah that''s White, your first trainer," Isha announced.


    "White specializes in martial arts, which should be right up your alley ?."


    ???


    ? 2019 DJ Rogue. All rights reserved.

 C0013: The Sadistic Mr. White

    Just then a tall, lean man appeared in front of Jayde, he had striking silver hair with pale blue eyes, the attractiveness of his face was marred by his sneer.


    "So this is our new contractor," the man said, his eyes showing disgust. "Really Number One, the contractors of Doha are getting worse each time, you really scraped the bottom of the barrel for this one."


    "White!" Isha said reproachfully.


    "Oh please Number One, look at her, shit look at those puny little arms, does she even have the strength to lift a sword, and you expect her to save ¡ª"


    Isha threw a warning look at White as he spat out: "White, enough!" Interrupting whatever White was about to say.


    Jayde''s eyes narrowed as she listened to the exchange between the two men. Tilting her head to the side as she watched the interactions between the two, Jayde analyzed their facial expressions and body posture. Observing the two made Jayde realize that she had made a serious mistake, she had been treating Isha like one of the AI computers back in the Federation, which was a severe miscalculation on her part.


    From the little bit of the conversation that she had overheard, and from the way Isha interrupted White speech as well as the warning look he was currently directing at White, Jayde came to the conclusion that this artifact seemed to have its own agenda. She was no longer in the Federation, but in another dimension which had its own rules, and she needed to adjust her mindset, she couldn''t expect things to be the same as it would in the Federation.


    Jayde wondered what sort of being Isha was, up until now she had assumed he was an artificially created construct, but now that she had met him face to face, she had an overpowering feeling that he a flesh and blood person. White also gave Jayde the sense of being a flesh and blood humanoid, but different from Isha. Jayde wasn''t sure why she was confident that the two men in front of her were ''real'', but she was convinced that she was right.


    And if she was right, then what the hell was this artifact? While it might seem strange but Jayde was more comfortable dealing with an artificially intelligent being, at least then she knew that it had rules and parameters built in, but a ''real'' person ¡ª that was a whole different ball game.


    Just then Isha took a deep calming breath, before turning to Jayde.


    "Jayde this is White ¡ª"


    "Mr. White," White interrupted.


    "This is Mr. White your new martial arts trainer," Isha continued.


    "I haven''t agreed to take her as my student," White said disdainfully. "She needs to pass my assessment first, only then will she be worthy of becoming my student."


    "White," Isha growled softly. "I never agreed to any assessment."


    "Hmph. Well Number One, you also know that it is up to each trainer''s own discretion to take on a contractor as a student," cocking an eyebrow as he stared at Isha he challenged: "Are you going to try and force me?"Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.


    "Of course not," Isha said. "But the student also has a choice to accept YOU as a trainer," and with that statement, he turned to look at Jayde.


    "Well Jayde, are you willing to undergo White''s ''assessment'' test?"


    Jayde looked at White, trying to gauge the man''s character. From the surly look on his face, Jayde could blatantly see that he looked down on her, and more importantly, she could feel his animosity towards her, which confused her as she had never interacted with the man, so why did he despise her so much?


    Just how difficult could this assessment be, Jayde thought. With that thought, she nodded her agreement to undertake White''s assessment.


    Seeing Jayde nodding her head in agreement, White waved his hand, and Jayde found herself sucked into a new place.


    Looking around she found that she was in an open prairie. The area in front of her was as flat as a pancake and as vast as an ocean, there were no mountains, no hills, nothing to block the view to the horizon, huge fields of tall yellow grass gently swayed in the breeze, as far as the eye can see.


    Really the power that these entities have is was quite disconcerting, she thought.


    Just then Jayde heard White''s disembodied voice: "The assessment test is simple. You just need to survive until the end of the test."


    Jayde doubted that the test was as simple as White said, he did not strike her as a simple character, and he came across quite disgusted about having her as a student. Jayde was convinced that whatever this ''assessment test'' was, he had set it up for her to fail, but then he didn''t know just how stubborn Jayde could be, nor what she endured in the Federation.


    Just then, as to confirm Jayde judgment of White, multiple howls pieced through the air.


    A pack of beasts appeared on the horizon, taking out her sword, Jayde analyzed the creatures approaching.


    The beasts, although bipedal, seemed to be an expert on all fours. Their heads resembled wolves from old Earth history, but their eyes glowed a deep ruby red. Their bodies were muscular and covered in coarse black fur, while their hands and feet were tipped with serrated claws. Jayde could see just by looking at them these creatures were apex predators, designed to rip and shred their prey ¡ª and that she was their current prey.


    One of the beasts lifted its head and howled, it seemed to be communicating with its packmates.


    The pack split, surrounding Jayde. In that frozen split second between standoff and fighting Jayde could see their ruby red eyes glowing with hunger and battle frenzy madness. Not giving them a second to respond Jayde leaped into the air, her sword swinging, the sun reflecting off the metal, expertly slicing the jugular of the beast nearest to her.


    Not waiting to see the beast fall, Jayde immediately charged the next creature.


    The beasts howled in fury when they saw one of their packmates fall, viciously they attacked Jayde. With her sword swinging back and forth Jayde desperately tried to defend herself, her agile body arching and swaying as she avoided those deadly claws. Her sword was ruthlessly harvesting the life of any creature that got too close.


    Soon the yellow grass was darkly stained with blood as the creature''s corpses began to pile up.


    A sudden burst of pain jolted through Jayde chest. Looking down with disbelief, Jayde saw one of the beasts arm''s sticking out of her chest. It had snuck up on her, and punch through her back, penetrating her chest.


    Her chest ached terribly, her arms lost strength, and her legs began to weaken. Her tongue was soaked in the taste of blood, as her mouth filled with blood. With her lips coated in blood, Jayde''s eyes began to darken.


    Falling ever so slowly, the terrible ache that filled her chest had faded away to an icy numbness. Blackness started to fill the edges of Jayde''s vision, and the only thing she could hear was the slowing down of her own heartbeat.


    Fuck! Jayde thought as her fragile human heart ¡ª beat one last time.


    ???


    ? 2019 DJ Rogue. All rights reserved.

 C0014: Failure

    "You failed," a cold, disdainful voice penetrated Jayde consciousness.


    Groggily Jayde woke up, trying to make sense of the words she just heard, suddenly recalling that she had just died, she jolted awake.


    Jayde found herself lying on the floor in a small white room. Quickly sitting up and she looked down at her chest.


    Jayde did a double take as she found that her chest was just fine, there was no gaping hole in it, even her clothes were in perfect condition. All the cuts and bruises she had received during her life and death struggle had disappeared. Running her hands through her hair, Jayde eyebrows furrowed as she tried to make sense of what was happening.


    Jayde wondered if she had transmigrated again. Just as Jayde started to feel a bit depressed thinking that she might have moved to another world or dimension again, she heard White''s voice.


    "You have a choice, accept punishment and try again or quit and break your contract with the Proteus Divine System," White stated coldly.


    Relieved to know that she hadn''t transmigrated again, Jayde was really angry with White''s so-called assessment. While she had misgivings about the whole Proteus system, Jayde also realized that she couldn''t break the contract yet, Jayde needed its help, she had little knowledge about how magic worked on this world, and she no one to turn to for help, she had enough self-knowledge to know that she was too weak to survive on Doha alone.


    Nevermind she really couldn''t stand how this guy looked down on her. There was no way in hell she was going to quit. Filled with steely determination Jayde responded.


    "Fuck you, White, there is no way in hell I am going to quit. Fine I will retake your fucking test," Jayde snarled, baring her teeth in a bitter smile.


    "Very well, prepare for level one punishment."


    Without a moment of delay, intense pain flooded Jayde''s body. The pain seared through her body, it felt like a branding iron. Without meaning to Jayde''s body curled into a fetal position, all she could do was grit her teeth, holding back her screams.


    The pain increased in waves, with small breaks giving Jayde the false hope that it had ended. Each peak of the burning pain robbed her of the ability to speak, even breathing had become difficult. It felt to Jayde as though her very blood had become acid, intent on destroying her from the inside out.Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.


    After what felt like eons, the ''punishment'' was finally over. Jayde was coated in cold sweat, panting she stood up, her legs felt like jelly.


    And that was only a level one punishment, she thought, she didn''t think she could survive a level two punishment. Jayde made a mental note to avoid anything above level one.


    "You have ten minutes to prepare for retaking the test," White''s voice sounded through the room, and with that, a small partition appeared in the wall in front of Jayde.


    Walking through the partition, Jayde found herself in a small bathroom. Quickly stripping she took a quick shower. After her shower, Jayde picked up her old clothes, with her nose wrinkled in disgust she put them back on, then she returned to the original room that she woke up in.


    She sat down cross-legged on the floor and began to meditate, preparing herself mentally for the test. Using a couple of minutes that she had available Jayde analyzed the fight with the monster wolves, trying to figure out their strengths and weaknesses.


    "Time''s up," and with White''s abrupt announcement, Jayde found herself back in the prairie.


    Jayde lost track of the number of times she ''died'', each time she avoided one way of dying the monster wolves would change tactics and kill her in another gruesome manner. She felt like she been fighting this pack for years.


    Each time she ''died'' she would wake up in the same small room, that she had originally woken up in, accept her ''punishment'', shower then analyze the fight. With this, she came up with many strategies and tactics to take on these beasts.


    Finally, after much bloodshed, Jayde defeated the pack. Leaning heavily on her sword, her body coated in sweat and blood, her eyes glowing with pleasure.


    Finally, I have beaten that sadistic bastards test, she thought.


    But Jayde had underestimated White sadistic streak, just then she heard a strange clicking sound, looking up sharply, she saw black shapes moving on the horizon.


    "You got to be fucking kidding me!" she yelled.


    "Prepare for the second wave," White''s disembodied voice sounded through the landscape.


    The monsters pack resembled something like ancient dinosaurs, they were extraordinarily robust and had powerfully built jaws with powerful forelimbs, their forelimbs came equipped with retractable claws.


    The first digits on each paw were semi-opposable with an enlarged ten-inch serrated claw, and the digit was double jointed, meaning that this claw could be rotated in any direction. Their hind feet had four functional toes with sharp claws that Jayde could see were meant for rendering flesh from the bones. These creatures stood three and a half meters from head to tail and weighed on averaged around two to three hundred kilograms.


    Looking at these monsters, Jayde was flabbergasted. These beasts made the previous monster wolves look like puppies.


    Sighing deeply, Jayde lifted her sword and prepared for battle.


    ???


    ? 2019 DJ Rogue. All rights reserved.

 C0015: Perseverance

    Jayde life had come down to only one thing ¡ª killing ¡ª she had become a harvester of life. Minute by minute, day by day, she reaped the lives of thousands of beasts.


    With an expert twist of her sword, the giant horned beast in front of her fell, it''s jugular split, warm blood sprayed, covering her, but the warmth did not penetrate the deep chill that encased Jayde. Standing on top of a mountain of corpses, her small face was pale, expressionless, her icy eyes assessed the surrounding area.


    Jayde had lost track of time, she had no idea how long she had been stuck in this area. She had experienced every sort of death that she had ever imagined, and some that she hadn''t dreamed off.


    She had been ripped to shreds, disemboweled, beheaded, flayed, burned alive, poisoned, crushed and one time even melted into a gooey puddle by acid. She was now immune to death, she had gorged on death, becoming intimate with it, death had become her friend, her closest ally. No longer did she fear death.


    "Congratulations, you have passed the test," White''s voice rang out.


    Not a shadow of emotion passed through Jayde eyes, a while back she would have been proud to have passed White''s ''assessment'', but with the experience that she had just gone through, Jayde had changed.


    Her training through the Xi Corporation had honed her into a blade, this ''assessment'' had hammered away the brittleness, whittling away her weaknesses, forging her into the sharpest blade on Doha.


    With White''s announcement, Jayde disappeared from the prairie and reappeared in the original room where she first met Isha.


    When Jayde appeared, Isha was distressed at the changes he could see in her. He knew that White could be a bit of a hard arse, but he hadn''t realized how much he had changed over the eons.


    He now regretted that he had not insisted on watching White assessment test, Isha now knew why White had barred him from watching, as White must have known that Isha would have interfered, he would never have tolerated the brutal experience that Jayde must have endured ¡ª to have changed to such a degree.


    "What the hell did you do, White," Isha asked White telepathically, his mind voice betraying the distress that he was feeling.


    "Stop being such a wuss Number one, she passed my particular test."


    "You IMBECILE, you broke her, you know just how important she is to the survival of this world," Isha mind voice vibrated with fury.


    "Of course, I do, why do you think I wanted to make sure that she was worth the effort, now look at her, she now has the strength to handle to obstacles that are coming her way," White mind voice said emotionless.


    "I am looking at her, you idiot, and when the time comes to make a choice, with the way she is now how is she going to choose the right path, you have turned her in a bloody psychopath!"


    "Bullshit! I have fixed her. You and the rest of the trainers are too damn soft, you can''t see the problem even if it is staring at you straight in front of your eyes," White responded harshly.


    "What problem? She was fine before your fucking test."Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.


    "You Idiot! She wasn''t fine. If you had been paying attention, you would have seen how soul weary she was off fighting. She had become overcautious, every time she left the cave, she barely moved away from her comfort zone, she practiced just enough to become familiar with her weapons but didn''t push herself to excel. For fuck sake, she was thinking of staying in that cave for YEARS!" White roared.


    Isha was taken aback by White''s thunderous roar, but as he pondered over his words, he realized that White had a point.


    "But still, did you have to go so hard on her?" Isha grumbled.


    "You don''t understand," White said tiredly, "Where she comes from, her style of fighting it''s clean, surgical, there is nothing personal about it. Firing a blaster or a laser from a starship, it''s different than slicing your enemies jugular and having its blood spray you in the face, to see them die in front you. Not only that but you forget she has died before, no matter how strong you are, that sort of trauma it''s going to leave a shadow upon you. Now she is ready to face what is coming, that lingering fear she had of dying again is gone, and she won''t hesitate to kill."


    Isha was struck mute by White speech, in the thousands of years that they had been together, he couldn''t remember when he had ever heard White say so much.


    A brief look of sadness and anger flashed through White''s eyes.


    "If you and the rest of the trainers hadn''t babied that woman last time, this world wouldn''t have ended up in the mess it is today, we wouldn''t be facing annihilation now. It''s your damn softness that has put Doha and countless of worlds at risk, this time I will not make the same mistakes as I did in the past," at with that final statement ringing in Isha''s head, White disappeared.


    Jayde could feel the tension rising between White and Isha, as they glared at each other silently, she wondered if they were talking to each other telepathically. The next moment the color drained from Isha face, as White disappeared.


    Jayde felt a slight stirring of curiosity about what White had said to Isha for his face to show a devastated look, but she was more interested in how long she had been in that prairie.


    "How long have I been gone?" she asked.


    "It''s been two days since you entered the testing area," Isha said.


    "Only two days?"


    Two days ¡ª Jayde was surprised at that fact, it had felt like she had been gone for a couple of years.


    "Well two days here, how long you were in that pocket of space I have no idea, each of the trainers personal pocket space has a different time distortion, for all I know it might have been years for you, but it was only two days for me," Isha explained hearing the faint disbelief in Jayde voice.


    Oh, well that explains it, Jayde thought.


    "Well Jayde, congratulations for passing White''s test, you have earned an extra ten points, would you like to use the exchange system now?" Isha asked with forced cheer.


    "Hmm," nodding her head in agreement, Jayde walked up to the exchange screen.


    Ignoring Isha, Jayde started to browse through the available items.


    Seeing the distant look in Jayde''s eyes, Isha found it disconcerting dealing with her. For everything to work out, Jayde had to trust him, but Isha could see the distant look in her eyes, and he knew that whatever trust she had before was gone. It was going to be a long hard road for him to regain her trust.


    Sighing deeply, he knew what White had said was right, but damn it, he wasn''t the one who had to guide this woman in a girl body to follow the correct path that would save Doha and them. While looking helplessly at Jayde, Isha wondered how did White know what Jayde was going through. The way he had sounded, especially about the difference in killing like how Jayde had in her previous life to upfront and personal like she would have to now, it was like he was talking from personal experience.


    It wasn''t the first time Isha wondered about the past of the people he shared the artifact with, and it wouldn''t be the last. All the trainers here had their own secrets, and most of them kept to themselves, there was an unspoken rule that one did not pry into another''s past. It looks like this was going to be another puzzle that he wasn''t going to solve.


    ???


    ? 2019 DJ Rogue. All rights reserved.

 C0016: Market Exchange

    Jaydetapped on skills menu with her finger, the display screen faded and a new submenu opened up. The menu items displayed on the screen were acumen, agility, charisma, coordination, intellect, magic, and physique.


    Jayde selected the first menu item acumen. A new submenu opened displaying:


    Artist:Making works of art, like paintings, music compositions, musical instrument, and dancing.


    Basic Skills:Utilitarian skills such as sewing, farming, and cooking.


    Crafting:Creating, fixing, or modifying equipment, weapons, armor, potions, pill refining, rune crafting, enchantments, woodworking, blacksmithing, constructing buildings, and the like.


    Disguise:Altering features or clothing to be unrecognizable or to look like someone else.


    Gambling:Playing and cheating at games of strategy and luck.


    Hiding:Concealing objects, both on oneself and using camouflage.


    Searching:Spotting hidden objects or people, reconnoitering, lipreading, or eavesdropping on or watching another person.


    Survival:Surviving in wilderness environments, including the ability to identify plants, animals, and their nutritional and medicinal uses.


    Tracking:Following the trail of another person, animal, or creature, or keeping after a moving target without being noticed.


    Jayde was surprised at the different items available, curious about what sort of items were offered under these menu items, she selected crafting. Reading through the long list of various crafts available, Jayde randomly selected potion making. A new display screen opened up.


    Basic Potion Making:Purchase one hundred hours training with trainer Violet ... 5000 points.


    Intermediate Potion Making: Purchase three hundredhours training with trainer Violet ... 15,000 points (Basic requirements not met.)


    Advanced Potion Making: Purchase five hundred hours training with trainer Violet ... 25,000 points (Basic requirements not met.)


    Master Potion Making: Purchase one thousand hours training with trainer Violet ... 50,000 points (Basic requirements not met.)


    On the screen, the intermediate, advanced, and master potion making menu items were greyed out. Jayde concluded that she had to complete the basic course first before she would be allowed to purchase more advanced training. Jayde was surprised at how mundane the whole crafting section was. Up until now everything in the Proteus artifact had been so over the top, that she was taken aback at how normal this section appeared. In a way, she had been expecting that the knowledge would have been instantly transferred to her. Shaking her head at her bizarre thoughts, Jayde returned to theacumen submenu and quickly browsed through the rest of the submenu items. All the items listed were for training with different trainers.


    Returning to the main skills submenu Jayde selected agility.


    Acrobatics:Performing feats of gymnastics, extraordinary balance, and dance, as well as breaking falls.


    Fighting:Competence in unarmed combat.


    Climbing:Scaling various surfaces.


    Contortion:Escaping from otherwise secure physical bonds by twisting, writhing, and contorting the body.


    Dodging:Slipping out of danger¡¯s way, whether avoiding an attack or a sprung booby trap.


    Flying:Maneuvering flying mounts and flying artifacts such as swords.


    Jumping:Leaping over obstacles.


    Meleecombat:Wielding hand-to-hand weapons.


    Riding:Controlling and riding domesticated mounts.


    Stealth:Moving silently and avoiding detection, whether through shadows or crowds.


    Like acumen, the agility items was for purchasing training hours with trainers.


    Charisma covered items like animal training, bluffing, charm, commanding, intimidation, mettle, andpersuasion. But these items were different, instead of training these were skills that you could purchase. Jayde was confused by this, so she asked Isha what the system meant by purchasing these skills. Isha explained that these were skills that would be given to a contractor. Jayde couldn''t wrap her mind around the whole concept of giving someone more charm, it was just a bizarre concept to her.


    Coordination had training skills such as lockpicking,marksmanship, and throwing with one of the trainers.


    Intellect you could purchase different languages, reading, writing, map navigation, knowledge of different cultures, and trading. These skills were similar to charisma where the knowledge would be downloaded into a contractor''s brain.


    Magic was broken into the eight different elements, and each element had hundreds of different spells. Under this tab, you could purchase a scroll containing the spell, which you would then have to learn.


    Physique was the last item listed under skills and was the one that attracted Jayde''s attention. Under physique, Jayde could purchase upgrades to her physical body.Jayde eye''s widened, and her heart rate increased as she took note of the numerous different body modifications available. This is more like it, Jayde thought, as she started to read through the list of body modifications items available.


    There were so many modifications she was interested in. A level one healing ability would increase her body''s natural healing ability by twenty-five percent, while a level one speed enhancement, would increase her speed by fifteen percent, there were body strengthening modifications, meridians widening, skin hardening, while most were pretty easy to understand. There were some really disturbing modifications like dragon claws, hammer fists, and shark skin.


    While Jayde was quite happy to upgrade her body, she didn''t want to end up looking like some kind of freak. Browsing further through the body modifications, she also noticed that there were some pretty useless modifications, they were purely for physical beauty, from changing one''s hair and eye color to increasing one''s breast size, there were even modifications that would let your body give off different fragrances.According to Isha the skills purchased here changed the DNA of a contractor.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    From all the menu items that Jayde had perused, she had noticed that skills were broken down into different levels and cost anything from three points tothousands of points. When Isha have informed Jayde that she had earned ten points from completing White''s test, she had assumed that she had a lot of points, but now she realized that if she wanted to purchase something really valuable she would need a lot more points.


    Coming to the realization of how precious her points were, Jayde decided that if she purchased anything, it would have to be something that she really needed. While she found some skills under the combat skills section that she was interested in, her experience on the prairie had given her the confidence that the skills she currently possessed were sufficient for her to survival ¡ª for now ¡ª at least until she had earned more points.


    While debating with herself what to buy, Jayde realizedthat she had no idea what her elemental affinity was.


    Turning to Isha, Jayde asked: "Isha, now that my seal has been lifted, how do I find out about my elemental affinity and Qi pool?"


    Slipping one of his hands into his pocket, Isha cleared his throat, his eyebrows furrowed as he responded.


    "Ahem... Jayde, I meant to talk to you about that earlier. The first layer of the seal locked away your fire abilities, so right now you only have access to the fire element, as to your Qi pool, with your blo... er I mean .. body your potential should have been limitless, but with your magic being locked way, your dantian was damaged."


    "Damaged?" Jayde interrupted, "How was it damaged, and how bad is it?"


    "Well, from the moment a child is born on Doha, even though they can''t cultivate, they still slowly absorb the Qi around them, which helps to nourish their dantian. But as your dantian was sealed away at birth, you were denied this opportunity, so your dantian has shrunk, think of it as if your dantian has been starved for the past thirteen years," Isha explained while looking distressed by this fact.


    "But not to worry, it''s not permanent, there are ways to fix it," he said hurriedly to reassure Jayde.


    Jayde frowned, she had picked up Isha quick correction. Looks like Isha is hiding something about my body, she thought, this only underlined to Jayde that this Protoss artifact couldn''t be trusted.


    "So as I unlock more layers, I will gain more elemental abilities?" she probed.


    "Uh huh," Isha nodded.


    After a moment''s reflection, Jayde said: "So when will you be able to unlock the rest of my layers?"


    "I can''t," Isha rubbed the back of his neck. "That is only something you can do," he stated.


    "Only I can do?"


    "Hmm, I have already bent the rules as far as I can, by releasing the first layer of your seal. I am only meant to guide you, not interfere with your destiny, but I had a little leeway as someone had already interfered by hijacking your soul and locking away your magic, but from now onwards, it is up to you to unlock the rest of your seal."


    Jayde was quite surprised at Isha speech. "So can you at least tell me how do I go about releasing my seal and what I need to do to fix my dantian?"


    Isha was quite happy that he could at least answer this question.


    "Oh yes," smiling brightly Isha continued.


    "For your seal, you will need to find pure elemental pearls. Only by absorbing the pure elemental Qi stored within the pearl, will you harness enough elemental power to break through the seal ¡ª there are other ways to unlock your seal, but you will have to discover those methods on your own."


    Isha further went on to explain to Jayde that pure elemental pearls were created by emperor level spirit beasts, and it could only be formed by a spirit beast who was about to ascend to god level ¡ª a state that a majority of spirit beast yearned for as only by entering god level could they gain their human form.


    Elemental pearls were formed when a spirit beast compressed all the Qi in their dantians.


    Oh great, Jayde thought sarcastically, not only do I need to find one of these mythical beasts, I then have to somehow survive running into it (this was due to most spirit beasts hating humans, and they had a tendency to kill first and ask questions later). And then somehow convince it to give up all its cultivation to create one of these elemental pearls for me, putting it back thousands of years from gaining its human form.


    Giving up on the idea of gaining more elemental abilities ¡ª at least for now, Jayde decided to concentrate on healing her dantian.


    "Well then, what do I need to heal my dantian?" she asked Isha.


    Producing a piece of parchment from thin air, Isha started writing down a list of items that Jayde needed to gather for him to help repair her dantian. Once finished he handed over the list to her.


    Look through the list that Isha had written down, Jayde eyebrows shot up.


    "I need to acquire all these items?" she asked dismayed at the long list of items that Isha had produced.


    "Hmm," Isha confirmed. "But it not too serious."


    "Most of these are common herbs and plants," he said pointing to a quite a few of the items written.


    "And as for these spirit stones, it shouldn''t be too difficult for you to find, as most of those beasts are in the Dark Forest."


    Turning the parchment over he pointed to a small list, "but these are going to be difficult."


    Jayde read the list out loud: "Mermaid''s Tear, Dragon Scale, Branch from Tree of Life, Medusan Venom, Dwarven Black Gold and Blood of the Phoenix."


    "Ah I forgot, you don''t need the blood of the Phoenix, since ... well, we luckily have some on hand," Isha said hurriedly grabbing the parchment he looked quite flustered as he produced a piece of charcoal, then he scratched off Blood of the Phoenix of the list.


    "..." Jayde''s eyes narrowed as she looked at Isha, suspicious why he was so flustered.


    "You have some blood of a phoenix available?" Jayde asked suspiciously.


    "Uh huh," Isha said, nodding his head, looking at the parchment in his hand.


    "Really, and just how did you manage to get your hands on some phoenix blood?"


    Isha head jerked up, he could hear the suspicion in Jayde voice.


    "Well, this artifact has been around for eons Jayde, there are many secrets locked away, which you will discover in due time."


    Although not happy with Isha evasion, Jayde let the matter drop.


    "I need ALL of these items to repair my dantian?" Jayde clarified as she pointed to the list in Isha hands.


    "Well not all in one go," Isha stated.


    "Right now, your Qi pool is at the stone level, I will need these items to create a potion to repair your dantian so that you can advance to the copper stage."


    Marking some of the herbs, as well as the low-level spirit stones with a small cross mark, Isha handed back the parchment to Jayde.


    Noticing the distressed look on Jayde''s face, Isha tried to think of a way to cheer her up.


    "Not all those items are difficult to find," he said, smiling sympathetically. "Dwarven black gold, shouldn''t be that hard to acquire, you should be able to find at the auction house in Arvia."


    Taking back the parchment, he then made a different mark against a list of herbs and spirit stones.


    "These are the items that I will need for you to upgrade your Qi pool to the bronze stage."


    "Although these high-grade spirit stones will be harder to get," he mumbled, tapping his nose, Isha pondered on how to help Jayde with this dilemma when he suddenly remembered something.


    "Ah, I just remembered, in the cave, there was a pile of spirit stones."


    Jayde cheered up recalling the pile of spirit stones, and there was that strange pile of metals as well, that she hadn''t shown to Isha yet, maybe there was a piece of dwarven dark gold in there as well, she thought. Jayde had no desire to return to Arvia, not at her present strength. She couldn''t afford for the Freehold clan to find her yet.


    Although not happy that she had a long way to go, Jayde was at least satisfied that she had a plan to move forward, taking the parchment from Isha, Jayde turned back to the screen to continue browsing when she realized that she had no idea on how to cultivate.


    ???


    ? 2019 DJ Rogue. All rights reserved.

 C0017: First Purchase

    "Isha, now that I can access my magic, how do I cultivate? Do I need to buy a cultivation method and what about fire spells will I need to be purchased those as well?"


    Jayde could feel a headache coming on, her fifteen points might just be enough to purchase a suitable cultivation method, but after buying a cultivation method, she would only have a couple of points left, which according to the prices she had seen, would just give her one low-level fire spell.


    I have to find a way to earn more points, she thought.


    Jayde was finding it difficult to adjust to being so ''poor'', in the Federation she never lacked credits, so this was the first time in her life that she was having to ''budget,'' and she was finding this new experience unpleasant.


    "Ah damn, I forgot," Isha said slapping his own forehead, then producing two scrolls out of thin air, he gave them to Jayde.


    "This one is a cultivation method that is perfect for your constitution," he said tapping one of the scrolls with his finger, then pointing to the other scroll, "and this one contains basic fire spells."


    Giving Jayde a severe look, he cautioned: "These are the only scrolls that I can give you, you will have to unlock the library through the exchange system to obtain more basic skills."


    Jayde took the two scrolls from Isha. ¡°Thank you,¡± she said politely.


    Isha smiled at Jayde, but he was unhappy with how formal she was acting with him. Sighing he again cursed White silently.


    Satisfied that she didn''t have to waste her precious points on fire skills or a cultivation method, Jayde turned back to the exchange system screen, and tapped on dimension upgrades, she was curious just many points she would need to unlock the library.


    Scrolling through the list of available upgrades, Jayde again was astonished at the items available.


    "Herb garden 500 points, Courtyard 1000 points, Alchemy Room 1000 points, Forge 1000 points, Iron mine 1000 points, Aura stone mine 5000 points, Kitchen 100 points, Farm 1500 points, Library 1000 points, Treasury room 250 points, Storage room 150 points."


    The list went on and on, everything was listed from adding trees from 1 point to basic furniture which ranged from a single point to luxurious d¨¦cor with needed thousands of points to redeem, even items like beasts, birds, insects, fish, seeds, and farm animals were available.


    Each of the additional rooms would increase the size of Jayde dimension space, but there were also other options for her to increase the size of her area. From the look of everything available, it really looked as through Jayde had the opportunity to create her own little world ¡ª that is, if she had enough points available to exchange for these products.


    Seeing the library was out of her league at the moment, Jayde returned to the main menu and tapped on the market tab.


    Different from all the other screens, the market was split into two sections ¡ª buying ¡ª selling, really curious about this Jayde clicked on the first option ¡ª buying.


    A list of options came up, Herbs, Spirit Stones, Aura Stones, Weapons, Skills, Materials, Pills, Potions, Poisons, plus many more categories were listed. Tapping on the herb button, the screen changed, and then a list of herbs was displayed on the screen.


    Scrolling through the list, Jayde recognized many of them from the books that she had read from the old man library. Seeing one of the herbs that she knew as she had seen in growing in the Dark Forest, and curious about why it was listed on the exchange system, Jayde tapped it.


    The screen went blank for a second, then six small cards were displayed on the screen, Jayde selected the first card.


    [Looking for 10 Red Blossom Lotus ¡ª will exchange for 5 Qi Gathering pills. Mimix, Dimension 211]


    Jayde stared at the card being displayed on the screen. Confused she reread the card, she really hadn¡¯t made a mistake. The card was from someone in a whole different dimension.


    Rubbing her eyes, Jayde mind buzzed trying to sort her thoughts out. Turning to Isha, she pointed to the screen.


    ¡°Isha this post is asking for Red Blossom Lotuses, but the person says they are in dimension 211, how it is possible for someone to sell them goods?¡±


    Chuckling at Jayde¡¯s slightly dazed look, at least she is showing some sort expression, Isha thought.


    ¡°This is one of the powers of the Proteus system,¡± Isha said proudly. ¡°All the different Proteus artifacts seeded through all the different dimensions can communicate in a limited way. This market exchange is set up for contractors to exchange items with each other.¡±


    Jayde blinked owlishly at Isha, before blurting out: ¡°But how is that possible?¡±


    Scratching his head, Isha shrugged as he said helplessly: ¡°From a technology point of view, I have no idea how it works, only that it does.¡±


    Pointing to a slot next to the exchange screen, Isha went on to say: ¡°Once you accept an exchange, you put the item in there. The Proteus system will then transfer the item to the buyer if it''s an exchange, the buyer has to store his items in the system when he or she registers the exchange, once they accept your goods, the system will automatically transfer the items to you. Some buyers just pay points for their goods.¡±Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.


    Jyade was blown away by what Isha had just said, just trying to think of what sort of technology was involved in exchanging items between different dimensions, the energy requirements alone must be astronomical, she thought.


    Fascinated by the whole thing, Jayde spent a couple of hours investigating the inter-dimensional market exchange.


    After a while, Jayde was pleased to discover that there was another for her to earn points. There were numerous people exchanging points for items, and by doing multiple trades, Jayde could trade herbs and spirit stones with contractors for products and then using these products that she earned trading herbs and spirit stones, she could then trade the items received for points.


    There seemed to be quite a demand for essential herbs that was readily available on Doha, and most of the people looking to buy these herbs were willing to exchange pills and potions for these herbs.


    And from what Jayde had observed, besides the alchemists who were looking for herbs and plants, there was a high demand for pills and potions, it seemed as though alchemists were rare on numerous worlds. With the pills and potions that she could exchange for herbs, Jayde would then be able to trade them for points.


    Calculating in her head, Jayde quickly figured out that she could make at least a hundred points quite easily using the inter-dimensional exchange system.


    This would have to do until the inter-dimensional mercenary board became available, she thought, as she was still barred from accessing it as her current level was too low.


    Feeling more secure about spending her points ¡ª now that she had a way to make additional points, Jayde went back to the body modification section and purchased the level one speed upgrade for ten points.


    After confirming that she wanted to make the exchange, the system then asked her if she wanted to install the upgrade. Although nervous about how this upgrade was going to be installed, Jayde confirmed that she wanted to install it immediately.


    As soon as she tapped yes on the screen, Jayde heard a slight swoosh sound, looking around she noticed that a new partition in the wall opened up a couple of feet to the right of her.


    Jayde asked Isha if she must enter the room for her upgrade after Isha confirmed that she correct, she strolled over to the room.


    Walking into the new room, Jayde was pleasantly surprised at the familiar looking medical bay. Seeing the tube-like medical healing pod, Jayde figured that she was supposed to climb into the medical pod, while slightly apprehensive about the whole thing, Jayde comforted herself with the thought that up until now this Proteus systems had done nothing to harm her physically.


    Even during White¡¯s sadistic assessment, while she had felt pain every time she had been injured, those injuries had miraculously disappeared each time she had awoken in that small room, nothing she had experienced had left any permanent damage to her.


    Thinking about that experience, Jayde climbed into the medical bay tube. After lying down the glass top closed, encasing Jayde in the medical pod. A faint mist was released by the medical bed, smelling the familiar scent of the anesthetic, Jayde felt her heart rate increase as the palms of her hand started to sweat, but before she could panic, her mind blanked out as she lost consciousness.


    It was just as well that Jayde had passed out, and didn''t see all the strange medical tools that activated when she was knocked out, as she would definitely have freaked out seeing these highly advanced pieces of machinery.


    After a strange substance was injected into Jayde''s body, one of the tools began to scan her body from top to body. A blue glow emitted from the scanning device as it moved over her body.


    "Initiating DNA sequence modification," a disembodied female voice echoed through the room.


    "DNA modification activated."


    "25% completed."


    "50% completed."


    "75% completed."


    "100% completed."


    "DNA sequence modification completed."


    "Integration of modification 100% successful."


    After the machine had finished, a pinkish mist was released, which woke Jayde up. Once the glass cover retracted, Jayde sat up feeling refreshed. She quickly jumped off the bed, and inspected her body, she couldn¡¯t feel anything strange or different about herself. Deciding to test out if the upgrade had actually work, she did some shadow boxing, to check out her new speed.


    Jayde could feel a definite improvement in her speed. With her new speed coupled with the experience she had gained during White''s ''test'' Jayde was confident that she could now enter the perimeter of the Dark Forest.


    From what she had read in the old man''s notes, the Dark Forest was broken up into sections. The sections were ring-like, and according to the records left behind there were five known sections, although the old man did mention that he suspected that there were more sections, but he had only managed to make his way through to the fifth section, where he almost lost his life, so he didn''t dare investigate further.


    The outer ring, known as the perimeter contained only rank one and two spirit beasts. The next section housed spirit beasts up to rank five, whereas the third section had creatures up to level eight. The fourth ring contained Knight class spirit beasts and the fifth ring held Bishop class spirit beasts.


    The old man also noted that some sort of ward kept the beast in their correct sections, but this ward did not affect humans. He seemed really interested in who could have set up such a complicated ward, he theorized that it had to have been someone from the Upper Realm as no one in the Lower or Mid Realm had that sort of power. The old man also speculated that The Dark Forest could have some sort of training ground from ancient times before the cataclysm that had split Doha into the different realms.


    Returning to the main room, Jayde asked Isha how to return to her cave, she was impatient to start cultivating.


    "All you need to do is just visualize your cave, and you will return, the same goes if you want to return to the Proteus Pavilion," Isha asked.


    ¡°Oh, so I can return here whenever I want?¡± Jayde asked.


    ¡°Of course, this is your space.¡±


    Bidding Isha farewell, Jayde pictured her cave in her mind. As the mental image of her cave appeared in her mind, Jayde disappeared from the Proteus Pavilion and reappeared in her cave.


    ???


    ? 2019 DJ Rogue. All rights reserved.

 C0018: Returning Home

    After Jayde materialized in her cave, she looked around nostalgically, even though Isha assured her she had only been gone for two days, Jayde left like it had been a lifetime ago since she had been forcibly ported to the Proteus Pavillion.


    Just then a strange growl rumbled through the air. Startled Jayde looked around before she realized that it was her stomach growling. After realizing that she had not eaten for two days, it was no wonder that she was starved.


    Jayde walked over to her stored supplies and pulled out the small satchel that contained the elven wafer bread. Opening the bag, Jayde removed one of the leaf covered wafers. Removing the leaf, Jayde quickly polished off a whole wafer bread.


    Wiping crumbs off her face, she looked about for her water gourd. Finally seeing it amongst her bedding, she took a long drink of the stale water.


    Once her stomach was happy, Jayde sat down on her bed and pulled out the two scrolls Isha had given her. Opening up the cultivation scroll, Jayde was startled to note that the scroll was not made out of parchment, but out of some strange metallic substance.


    Surprising the cultivation method was called {Celestial Phoenix Cultivation}. While reading the scroll, the words automatically scrolled across the external surface. The technique given was very detailed and explained the Celestial Phoenix Cultivation method in a way that was easy to understand.


    After reading through the scroll a couple of times, and ensuring that she had memorized everything, Jayde decided to give the method a test.


    Shifting herself into the described lotus position, Jayde rested her hands on her knees, palms facing up.


    She then began to run the exercises detailed in the scroll, to open up her magic senses so that she could sense the Qi around her. Unfortunately for Jayde, this wasn''t some sort of fantasy story, where the female protagonist was some overpowered superhero that could instantly sense the Qi, this was the real world, and it took her three full days of repeatedly running the exercises before she could finally sense the Qi around her.


    Once her magic senses opened, the world around Jayde changed. The air felt thicker, and there was a faint fragrance that she could pick up, it took Jayde a while to identify the scent she was smelling, it was lavender.


    Opening her eyes, Jayde could faintly make out that the air around her had a soft silver glow, and within it, faint particles were floating around, they were different colors ¡ª red, blue, green, indigo, brown, yellow, orange, and black.


    Jayde''s eyes softened ever so slightly, the sight before her was beautiful. Looking up she saw that the dingbats flying to and fro seemed to be surrounded by a slightly green tinge. From what she had read that green tint indicated that the dingbats had a wood affinity.


    Jayde debated with herself, should she now try to absorb the Qi, or go to the Dark Forest. She really wanted to collect the herbs and plants that she needed for Isha to repair her dantian as well as for the inter-dimensional market, and if she was honest with herself, she wanted to see the world with this new vision of hers.


    But ... on the other hand, she really needed to start cultivating Qi, it was only once she had stored Qi in her dantian that she could officially start learning fire magic.


    After arguing with herself for a while, Jayde finally decided that learning magic was more critical. Since it had taken so long just to open up her magic senses, she was worried about how much time it would take for her to increase in rank.


    It was a well-known fact that people with only a single elemental affinity upgraded slower than those with more than one, and with the rest of her elements being locked away, Jayde could only rely upon her fire magic. The other distressing fact was that Jayde was already ten years behind everyone else her own age.


    Children in Doha began to actively cultivate when they were three years old, just after they have had their Reading Day, training was arranged to ensure that children were given the opportunity to reach their full potential.


    With these thoughts running through Jayde head, she closed her eyes, regulated her breathing and entered a meditative state. Then deep within her mind, she opened her magic perception. Concentrating on the red glowing specks, she tried to pull them towards her just like how the Celestial Phoenix Cultivation scroll explained, but no matter how much she tried to attract them, they stubbornly stayed floating the same place.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    After hours of failure, Jayde was feeling frustrated. Jayde pulled out the Celestial Phoenix Cultivation scroll, and re-read it, to see if there was something she had missed.


    Getting to the passage that covered the absorption of Qi, Jayde was slightly confused, the scroll said to absorb the Qi specks around you, but it didn''t mention anything about only absorbing the Qi specks that you had an affinity too.


    What Jayde didn''t know was that she was unique, there had never been a case like hers in the history of Doha, people could only see the Qi energy that they had an affinity to, so while Jayde just had access to her fire abilities, she did have the affinity to all the elements.


    Pondering over her dilemma, Jayde decided to try again, but this time instead of just concentrating on the fire specks, she tried to absorb all the particulars. This time she succeeded, all the different color specks moved towards Jayde.


    Very surprised at this outcome, Jayde quickly started to run the exercises stated in the Celestial Phoenix Cultivation scroll to purify and convert the Qi specks to Qi energy. According to the scroll she had to absorb the Qi energy, then slowly move it through her meridians, and direct it to her dantian.


    It was the first time that Jayde had seen her dantian, and she was surprised at how it looked, it was small in size about the size of a tiny child fist, the edges of it looked like a raisin, dried and shriveled only it was grey like dead flesh. Just by looking at it, you could see that her dantian was severely damaged ¡ª Isha was right it did seemed starved, thought Jayde.


    Viewing all of this in her mind, Jayde noticed that once the pure Qi energy reached her dantian, it converted into a golden liquid, and slowly a drop formed at the top of her dantian and dripped down.


    As the first drop landed, it set off quite a reaction within Jayde''s body. Heat flooded her dantian, and her belly started cramping, while it wasn''t painful, it was very uncomfortable. Watching her dantian Jayde noticed that the small drop of gold substance had disappeared, this carried on for quite some time, each time the purified Qi entered her dantian it would disappear.


    Jayde was starting to worry that something was seriously wrong, as according to the scroll, this liquid was supposed to pool in her dantian, it mentioned nothing about it disappearing. She was about to stop absorbing the Qi around her and contact Isha to find out what was wrong when she noticed the uncomfortable heat and cramps she had been experiencing were fading away. Re-examining her dantian, she observed that her dantian didn''t look as shriveled as it had before and that horrible dead fish grey color had faded somewhat.


    Still worried that she might be doing something wrong, Jayde contacted Isha. After explaining the whole situation, Isha examined Jayde dantian and confirmed that her dantian was being slowly repaired.


    The current repairs happening to her dantian wouldn''t be enough to upgrade her dantian, but Isha speculated that this rebuilding of her dantian would be extremely beneficially to Jayde in the long run. As the healing that her dantian was currently undergoing, was making her dantian more supple, giving it extra elasticity and strengthen the walls.


    This would only benefit her in the future, no mage in Doha had ever been given a chance to rebuild their dantian like Jayde. She would still need to collect the items for Isha to create the required potions to upgrade her Qi pool, which would increase the size of her dantian, but Isha predicated that her dantian would be larger than normal due to the reconstruction of her dantian.


    Pleased and reassured to know that everything was okay, Jayde continued to absorb the Qi energy in her cave.


    After spending four days mediating and running the Celestial Phoenix Cultivation exercises, Jayde''s Qi pool was finally full, and she could feel that no matter how much she tried to absorb the Qi energy around her, she just couldn''t absorb any more power.


    According to the Celestial Phoenix Cultivation method, this indicated that Jayde was ready to break through to the next class.


    Advancing in class was risky as a mage could not be disturbed during this process, interrupting a breakthrough could have severe repercussions and could lead to the scrapping of one''s cultivation, and it was known to even destroy a mages'' dantian, preventing them from ever using magic again.


    Most people would set up protection wards, or have their family set them up to protect them during their breakthroughs. Unfortunately, Jayde had no magic yet, so she had no way to set up a ward. She was just about to break through for the first time ¡ª and it was only after this initial breakthrough that she would have access to her magic.


    Jayde contacted Isha for suggestions, after listening to Jayde''s concerns, Isha suggested that Jayde transfer to the Proteus Pavilion to attempt her breakthrough there.


    After teleporting to the Pavilion, Isha opened a small room for Jayde to begin her breakthrough.


    After six hours of trying to punch through the invisible barrier, Jayde finally smashed the boundary, as soon as the barrier broke a massive amount of Qi energy rushed towards Jayde forming a vortex around her. Using the Qi around her, Jayde used this energy to promote to level one, during her promotion a soft golden glow surrounded her body.


    Finally, I am a magician, thought Jayde, no longer was she a freak who had no magic.


    ???


    ? 2019 DJ Rogue. All rights reserved.

 C0019: Preparation

    Feeling more confident now that she could weave spells, Jayde left the small room and found Isha waiting for her.


    "Congratulations on your breakthrough," Isha said with a broad smile on his face.


    Jayde smiled slightly in response.


    "Isha, now that I have broken through, this ring of the old man, can I now contract it?" she asked pointing to the ring on her thumb. Ever since Isha has told her about spatial rings, she had been eaten up with curiosity about the ring on her thumb.


    "Hmm, there should be no problem now with contracting the ring, just drop a single drop of your blood onto the stone of the ring, and then inject your magic into the ring, this will form a contract the ring. The old man''s imprint would have faded after he died."


    "How do I form a contract with the ring?"


    "It will automatically form once you inject your magic into the ring."


    "It''s that simple? Does that mean that anyone can just form a contract with a spatial ring?" Jayde asked appalled, the method that Isha described seemed really insecure.


    "No, while a mage is still alive no one else can form a contract with an artifact that has been bound. It is only once a mage is dead, that their magic that bounds the artifact slowly fades and the artifact is once free to form a new contract."


    "Oh! Okay, that makes more sense." Jayde said.


    Bidding Isha farewell Jayde left the Pavilion and returned to her cave.


    Upon returning to her cave, the first thing Jayde did was prick her finger with her dagger, and drop a drop of her blood on the amber stone on the ring. Then injecting her magic into the ring, she formed a contract with it.


    Once the ring was infused with her magic, she was able to enter her continuousness into the ring. The space storage wasn''t that big, but Jayde was delighted to find out that the ring she had inherited was one of the rare spatial rings available in Doha, and she could store living items in it.


    While the old man''s ring wasn''t filled with treasures, it did have quite a few rare plants in clay pots, as well as dozens of other essential herbs, spirit stones, and metal ores. The ring had about fifteen cubic meters of storage space available, and Jayde was overjoyed to find another satchel filled with elven wafer bread.


    She was really curious how the old man had acquired so much elven wafer bread, she was starting to suspect that he wasn''t from the Lower Realm but was someone from one of the noble families from the Mid Realm.


    After seeing the metal ores, Jayde was reminded of the comment Isha made about maybe there was dwarven dark gold in the old man things. Removing all the metal ores from the ring and placing them with the pile of ores in the cave, she contacted Isha to see if he could identify if there was any dwarven dark gold in the ore pile.


    Unfortunately, there was no dwarven dark gold, but Isha did point out some valuable metal ores such as storm iron, humming titanium, enchanted dust, and doom copper. Placing these precious ores back in her spatial ring for safe keeping, Jayde pulled out the basic fire spell scroll and started to teach herself some basic fire spells.This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    After a week of practicing her fire spells, Jayde was satisfied with her firebolt, fireball and fire shield spell, she could also infuse her dagger and arrows with fire attributes so that her blade and bow now had fire damage. With these spells, her offensive abilities had increased quite substantially, and Jayde was now confident she could handle whatever the Dark Forest could throw at her.


    Jayde decided to port to the Pavilion to inform Isha of her decision to enter the Dark Forest. Hearing that Jayde intended to enter the Dark Forest shortly, Isha cautioned her that she would need to be careful and not be overconfident about her fire magic.


    "Isha, I am pretty sure that I will be fine. I did pass White''s assessment, and I am sure that whatever beasts are in the perimeter is nothing compared to what he threw at me."


    Isha gazed at Jayde, opening his mouth as though to say something, he then closed it, he paused as though he was collecting his thoughts.


    "Um Jayde, you should be aware that the creatures you faced during your assessment had no magic. That test was based purely on your physical skills." Isha said his tone serious.


    Jayde''s eyebrows furrowed, she wasn''t quite sure what Isha was trying to say.


    "Yes and how is that relevant?" she asked cautiously.


    Isha sighed, it was as he suspected, Jayde didn''t realize the difference between normal creatures and spirit beasts.


    "Even a level one spirit beast is stronger than the beasts you faced during your test. They are tougher, faster, have greater strength and agility, and most of them can weave spells," he explained.


    Isha explanation brought to mind the previous soul''s experience with her uncle in the small glade, and how his fist had shattered her cheek. Jayde realized that she had been overconfident, she had underestimated just how different this world was. Thank the gods, I spoke to Isha before entering the forest, she thought.


    It had just been over a month since Jayde had arrived on Doha, and all she had done since arriving is practice, but she knew that she needed actual combat experience. Jayde decided to follow through her original plan and enter the Dark Forest, but she would only stick to the perimeter and besides if anything really went wrong she could always teleport directly to the Pavilion.


    ???


    Waking up early the next morning Jayde decided to prepare to enter the Dark Forest the following day. Jayde spent the morning preparing her weapons, food, and water. She also packed some extra clothing, healing potions and pills as well as some firewood and her flint.


    While rummaging through the goods stored in her "inherited" spatial ring she had found ward stones, glow stones, an old tent and sleeping bag that the old man must have used while adventuring in the Dark Forest.


    Confident that she was prepared for every eventuality, Jayde spent the afternoon going through the old man''s notes and reading up on his experiences in the Dark Forest.


    His notes were detailed, giving Jayde a good understanding of what sort of spirit beast she could encounter even going so far as to list the beast''s weakness and strengths. Jayde took special note of each beasts description as well as their strengths and weakness.


    He must have been a scholar at one time in his life, she thought, after reading the vast amount of data contained in his diaries.


    It was just before sunset when Jayde came across something strange in the diary that she was reading. Noticing that the page she was reading was a lot thicker than the rest, Jayde looked at it carefully and saw that it seemed like the pages were glued together.


    Taking her dagger out, she carefully inserted the blade in-between the two pages stuck together and separated the pages. It took some time, but after reading what the pages contained Jayde was delighted that she had taken the time to separate the glued pages.


    ???


    ? 2019 DJ Rogue. All rights reserved.

 C0020: The Dark Forest

    The pages in the old man''s diary that had been glued together contained information about a small cave the old man had discovered. According to the journal, it was on his last trip into the Dark Forest that the old man had stumbled across the small cave. Just after entering the small cave he had heard the sounds of people close by, not wanting to share his newly found treasure he quickly left the cave, upon leaving he erected a powerful ward to prevent anyone else from discovering the cave.


    Unfortunately for the old fellow, he ran into a group of unsavory mercenaries, who upon seeing that he was all alone, attempted to rob him. Fighting his way through their ranks, he was severely injured.


    Looking at the last pages, Jayde could see that the brown substance that had glued the pages together was old blood. These pages must have been his last entry, thought Jayde, but once again the old man had come through for Jayde, not only did he leave a map to the cave, but he also mentioned that he had found a small stash of dwarven dark gold.


    In his diary he also mentioned that he sensed something extraordinary in the cave, he theorized it was some sort of divine treasure or artifact. Jayde was really excited that she had a lead to the dwarven dark gold that she needed as well as some kind of treasure.


    Jayde was especially pumped up about her new adventure into the Dark Forest, not only was she going to collect the herbs that she so desperately needed to advance to the copper stage, but she would also be gathering the herbs required to earn points, and now she was only going treasure hunting.


    Early the next morning Jayde set off for the Dark Forest, after exiting the tunnel, she followed the overgrown path, and soon entered an area that she hadn''t explored before.


    Moving cautiously, but with a modest speed Jayde made significant progress, she was headed to the cave that the old man had left a map too, but it wasn''t long before she encountered danger.


    Facing her was a taurussoos, it was a large bull type creature, with massive horns on the side of its head, it''s skin was three times thicker than an earth rhinoceros, it had four large ivory teeth sticking out of its mouth, and worst of all it was notoriously bad-tempered. The only good thing according to the old man''s notes was while it was quite vicious it was slow moving.


    The taurussoos attacked, it lowered its head and rushed towards Jayde trying to impale her. Jayde reacted immediately, swiftly leaping away. Jayde spun into a low crouch, withdrawing her sword, she waited, tense, watching for the taurussoos to spin around.


    Jayde channeled her fire magic through her body, as her fire magic flared her body was surrounded in dancing flames. Channeling her magic into her sword, Jayde''s sword was soon encased in a fiery orange aura.


    The taurussoos eyed Jayde warily. Jayde feinted to the left, the taurussoos charged. Jayde burst into action, Jayde knew that the taurussoos'' head was too hard, keeping low her sword flashed in the sunlight, as Jayde aimed for the taurussoos'' front right hock?.


    Scarlet blood arched in the air, as Jayde''s swords slashed across the taurussoos''s ankles aiming for its tendons. The taurussoos'' bellow filled the air.


    Leaping away from the taurussoos, Jayde hit the hard ground shoulder-first, she rolled ¡ª and flipped to her feet. Fuck, I missed, Jayde thought as she saw the taurussoos spin around to face her. Moving incredibly quickly the taurussoos charged her. Jayde leaped and hit the ground on her right side, then using one hand she flung herself up. She landed skidding on the dirt ground on her feet. Shit, Jayde thought, didn''t that old man diary say these things were slow. If this is what the old man thought as slow, then she didn''t want to run into something he thought was fast.


    While Jayde was moving quickly, she, however, wasn''t fast enough, and the taurussoos crashed into her side. The mighty blow tossed her across the small clearing, and she crashed into a trunk of a large tree. Jayde heard the sound of a crack ¡ªfrom the tree, thank the gods, it was not her bones¡ªand she slumped to the ground, her magical shield faded.


    If this had happened before awakening her magic, she would be dead. Her magic-strengthened body, however, was more robust now. She gasped for breath, forcing herself up to her feet, and called her magic, raising her fire shield again.


    Her fire magic enhanced her senses¡ªincluding her sense of pain¡ªthe sudden shock cleared her mind. Jayde''s side throbbed where she¡¯d been struck. But she couldn¡¯t stop. Not with a taurussoos charging her again.


    She flashed to the side, ignoring her pain, desperately Jayde leaped onto it back, condensing all her fire magic into her sword, and using all her strength she plunged the sword down into the back of the taurussoos.


    Absolutely furious that some puny human had hurt it, the taurussoos went mad, bucking and smashing into trees, Jayde tried to hold on, but was finally dislodged from the taurussoos back.


    Landing hard on the ground, Jayde was winded but had no time to catch her breath, quickly rolling away from the deadly hooves that were about to smash her head, Jayde backflipped onto her feet. Turning to face the raging taurussoos, Jayde brace her legs slightly apart, eyes narrowed in steely determination, wiping the blood dripping from her mouth with the back of her hand, she prepared herself to face the beast.


    The taurussoos eyes were shaded red, swirling with madness. Steam billowing from its nostrils as it charged towards Jayde. Without a moment''s hesitation Jayde stepped forward to meet it attacks, gracefully dancing out of the way, she stabbed her sword forward, directly penetrating the taurussoos eye, using all her strength, she pushed the sword through the eye socket directly into the brain.


    Quickly flashing away, Jayde watched the taurussoos as its front legs collapsed, then the rest of the body fell to the ground with a mighty crash.


    Seeing that the taurussoos was finally dead, leaning slightly over Jayde braced her hands on her bent knees and tried to catch her breath. The fight was a lot closer than she expected, these spirit beasts were really tough. This taurussoos was only a level two ranked beast, Jayde was now starting to understand why most people avoided the Dark Forest.


    Jayde by now was disheveled, her clothes were covered in dust and grass as well as small splatters of blood, blood splattered her face, but Jayde was satisfied with her accomplishment. Wearily Jayde sank to the ground, retrieving a healing potion from for spatial ring, Jayde lifted the bottle to her lips and gulped the bitter-tasting medicine. Almost immediately the throbbing pain in her side started to subside.


    After catching her breath, Jayde walked up to the taurussoos, taking out her sharp dagger she skinned it, then dug out its spirit stone. After spending a couple of hours butchering its meat, she then stored everything in her spatial ring.


    Taking out one of the gourds filled with water, Jayde washed the blood off her hands and face, looking up Jayde tried to gauge how much daylight she still had before sunset. Seeing that she still had a couple of hours Jayde decided to get a move on, she really didn''t relish camping near the carcass of thetaurussoos. Just before sunset, Jayde found a decent place to make camp.


    With the old man ward stones, Jayde was able to set up a simple ward that would protect her from the beast in the outer perimeter. After getting a campfire going, Jayde took out some of the taurussoos meat, adding some spices and salt, Jayde used a sharp stick to skewer the meat, she then placed the meat over the fire to barbecue.


    After a month of just eating elven wafer bread, Jayde was sick and tired of it, so she thoroughly enjoyed her hard-earned barbecue.


    Tired from her first day in the Dark Forest, Jayde made her way into her tent and fell asleep.The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    <hr>


    For the next ten days, Jayde continuously moved in the direction of the small cave, collecting herbs that she needed. When Jayde came across any herb listed on the inter-dimensional market, she would carefully dig it out the whole plant, being careful not to damage the roots, and then replant them into pots she had whittled out of wood.


    She had a plan ¡ª that as soon as she could afford to ¡ª she would purchase the herb garden upgrade available in the Pavilion and then replant these herbs. Exchanging herb on the inter-dimensional market was a sure-fire way for her to earn points, at least until she could start to take on missions through the inter-dimensional mercenary board.


    Thankfully from the old guy''s notes on herbology, she had picked up quite a bit of knowledge about taking care of herbs, and to her delight, she had found that she had quite the green thumb when it came to growing things. Jayde also found a strange sense of peace in dealing with her plants, in the federation she had never had the opportunity to garden as she discovered that tending and caring for these plants soothed her soul.


    At the last river she had camped at, Jayde was lucky to have found over five dozen lily pods. Lily pods were one of the treasures of the Dark Forest, they were a type of plant, that grew in the rivers and lakes of the Dark Forest, no-one knew where they came from, but legend says that a visitor from the Upper Realm brought it with him when he visited the Lower Realm.


    Lily pods were shaped like a gourd, with a plug at the top of the lily pod, which you could open and close. The liquid contained inside the lily pod was filled with spiritual water, not only was this spiritual water great for replenishing a person''s qi, but it also had a mild healing effect and could help with one''s cultivation. Jayde had discovered by accident though that the most exciting benefit of the lily pod, was that if one were to place a cutting of a plant within the pod, the plant would quickly start to produce roots.


    Jayde had spent two days at the river edge, making herself a couple of shelves from trees that she cut down, then opening fifty of the lily pods, she had decided to keep ten lily pods for herself to use, she made cuttings of all the herbs listed on the inter-dimensional market. Since she had read in the old man''s herbology book that the ''plug'' of the lily pods was in actual fact the seed of the plant, and if returned to water it would reproduce, Jayde threw all the plug lids back into the river.


    When not busy with tending to her plants, and building shelves Jayde spent her time quietly sitting on the river bank fishing. In the evenings she would grill some fish over her campfire while watching the spectacular sunsets.


    ???


    During the next ten days besides from picking herbs, Jayde ran into quite a number spirit beasts. At the beginning of her adventure, the creatures were quite challenging to kill, and each battle was drawn out, with Jayde sustaining quite many injuries.


    Through her daily battles, Jayde''s fighting prowess was increasing, and she was also becoming more familiar with her fire magic. It had been difficult initially for Jayde to rely on using magic during combat, as it was something she was really unfamiliar with, but now she had started to trust in her magic, and combined with her martial skills she was finding that she longer struggled with the spirit beasts. With her daily usage of her fire magic, her cultivation was growing in leaps and bounds, and Jayde could feel that she was approaching the threshold of the barrier to the second rank.


    That evening after Jayde had made camp, Jayde contacted Isha. She was worried that she would have to delay her cultivation as she was still two weeks away from the cave. Jayde asked Isha if she could use the Pavilion to breakthrough again. Getting his confirmation that it would fine and that she wouldn''t be breaking the rules, Jayde set her mind at ease and went all out in the next two days to reach the barrier.


    It was on the night of the twelfth day that Jayde felt that she could finally make her breakthrough. Teleporting directly to the Pavilion, Isha opened up the small initial room that she had used previously for her to enter. This time her breakthrough was easier and quicker. After advancing to the second rank, Jayde exited the small room.


    Walking over to Isha, Jayde then retrieved all herbs and spirit stones that Isha required for making the potion to heal her dantian from her spatial ring. After handing the items, Isha left to concoct the potion needed. Jayde then walked over to the screen on the wall and activated the inter-dimensional market. Selecting the herb section, Jayde managed to make over twenty trades with the herbs she had available.


    While waiting for her trade goods to arrive via the exchange system, Jayde spent that time transplanting her seedlings in the lily pods to the newly vacated wooden pots. Using some of the spirit water she watered her new plants, as according to the herbology book she had read this would speed up the growth of her plants.


    After she spent some time sorting out her spatial ring, the inter-dimensional market pinged her that her goods were ready. Collecting just over a hundred Qi gathering pills, Jayde immediately traded these for points. Jayde also managed to sell some of the skins, beast blood and spirit stones that she collected.


    As alchemists were rare in many dimensions, Jayde was able to earn a considerable number of points, and while spirit stones were not that valuable, the beast skins and beast blood were pretty valuable as they were used to create magical rune scrolls.


    Once Jayde had completed all her trades she was pleasantly surprised to have found that she had earned herself two hundred and twenty-five points, and including her five points saved she now had two hundred and thirty points.


    <hr>


    Since Isha still had not returned with the potion to repair her dantian, Jayde decided to purchase more body modifications, looking through the list available, she chose the healing upgrade for fifteen points, the bone strengthening upgrade for ten points, the body strength modification for fifteen points and finally the skin toughening for ten points. While a bit expensive Jayde thought it was fifty points well spent.


    Selecting to have the upgrades installed immediately, Jayde walked into the medical bay and climbed into the medical pod. Two hours later all the DNA modifications Jayde had purchased were completed successfully, and Jayde started to fell a bit more like her old self.


    With her new modifications, Jayde''s body natural healing ability had increased by twenty-five percent, her bone strength by fifteen percent, her physical strength by twenty-five percent and her skin had toughened by twenty percent.


    Jayde was happy to find out that her skin was still soft and supple after the skin strengthening, it was just a lot tougher making it more difficult to cut. After testing out her new body, Jayde was thrilled with her new physique, and with the increase in her magical abilities due to her breakthrough, her fire spells were twice as powerful as before. Jayde also noticed that she could maintain her fire shield for much longer now as well, and she could release nearly triple the number of fireballs.


    After leaving the medical bay, Jayde found Isha waiting for her hold a glass flask containing a bright green liquid.


    Giving Jayde a once over, Isha smiled slightly. "Ah I see you have been busy," he said handing over the flask to Jayde. He had noticed how much Jayde physique had changed and was startled that she had managed to accumulate so many points so swiftly.


    "Take this potion quickly, as the effect will fade soon, but be prepared it will be painful when your Qi pool expands," he said cautiously.


    Holding the flask in her hand, Jayde took a deep breath, then lifting the bottle to her lips she quickly drank it all. To say that it tasted vile would be an understatement. It was the most disgusting thing that Jayde had ever had in her entire life ¡ª and that was saying something as once when she was stranded on a planet during a mission ¡ª she had eaten raw voles ¡ª a small stinky ratlike creature.


    Isha had not been lying about it being a painful experience, as soon as the concoction was absorbed, massive cramps hit Jayde dantian, the pain became so intense that Jayde felt like throwing up. A sudden weakness overcame Jayde, losing all her strength in her legs, she had no choice but to lie down on the floor, while Isha looked on sympathetically.


    Gritting her teeth and holding back the bile bubbling up into her throat, Jayde tried to breath her way through the pain assaulting her.


    Cold sweat dripped down her pale face, the muscles and tendons on her neck stood out sharply as Jayde gritted her teeth to stop herself from screaming. Lost in the throes of pain, Jayde lost track of time, as she tried to just make it through the next wave of pain. Since Jayde had her eyes closed just concentrating on getting through the pain without screaming, she didn''t realize that vast amounts of Qi energy flowed and danced around her, slowly sinking into her skin without her being aware of it.


    After what felt like an eternity, just as Jayde thought that the pain would never end a massive tremor hit her dantian, then suddenly.


    Boom!


    As just like that all the pain vanished. Still feeling too weak to stand, Jayde rolled onto her back and just lay on the floor ¡ªpanting ¡ª trying to gather her strength. While lying on the floor, Jayde was curious about what changes had happened to her dantian. Concentrating she let her consciousness enter her body, and directing her mind to her dantian she had a peep at what changes had occurred.


    Her dantian was no longer the size of a small child''s fist, it had nearly doubled in size, and the color had changed from that awful grey color, it was now a soft shimmery gold, what really amazed Jayde was that her dantian was almost three-quarters full with pure Qi energy golden liquid.


    Not only had that dreadful potion of Isha''s upgraded her dantian to the copper stage, but it had also absorbed and converted the Qi around her. While the price she had paid for what she had just gone through was awful, Jayde was really satisfied with the results.


    After fifteen minutes, Jayde had recovered enough to return to the Dark Forest, after bidding Isha goodbye, she returned to her camp just as the sun was rising.


    It had been a long but fruitful night.


    ???


    ? 2019 DJ Rogue. All rights reserved.

 C0021: The Small Cave

    The next morning Jayde continued on her way to the small cave, collecting more herbs along the way. With her new body modifications and the upgrading of her magical skills, Jayde had no problems dealing with the spirit beasts that she ran into along the way, dispatching them quickly.


    With her continuous battles during the day and her cultivating of Qi in the evenings, Jayde quickly advanced in rank again. Impatient to reach the small cave system, Jayde didn''t waste time trading but immediately left the Pavilion once she had advanced to Third Class, and carried on with her journey to the small cave.


    Making good time, Jayde made it to the area where the small cave was located within ten days.


    Scouting around the area, Jayde saw no tracks of any people nearby, but what she did notice is that area seemed eerily quiet. There were no indications of any creatures nearby, even the insects were quiet.


    Feeling uneasy about this abnormal situation, Jayde expanded her magical senses and tried to sense anything unusual around her, but no matter how far she sent out her magical senses, she found nothing strange.


    Although still feeling uneasy, Jayde decided to enter the small cave, removing a glow stone from her spatial ring, she walked up to the ward, her hands moved gracefully as she outlined the glyphs needed to unlocked the ward.


    Wards could be set up either by using ward stones, which one just needed to remove one the of ward stones to unlock or by tieing the ward to a specific location, with the key to unlocking the ward being tied to a particular item, like the ward to the entrance to her cave, being linked to her spatial ring.


    The most formidable ward was one which was tied to runes, only by knowing the exact pattern to unlock the ward could one open such a ward, these wards often had curses written into the ward, so the penalty for failing to unlock the ward would be severe ¡ª even deadly. To open a rune ward, one had to reverse the runes in the exact pattern as the rune ward was set.


    Jayde unlocked the ward to the small cave by following the old man''s complicated glyphs that he had written in his diary, once she opened the ward, she entered the small cave cautiously, her magical sense open and her fire shield raised just in case.


    The first thing that Jayde noticed upon entering the cave was the intense heat, within moments Jayde was covered in sweat. Looking around Jayde observed that the cave walls, floors, and ceiling were unusually smooth ¡ª it appeared like the stone had been polished.


    According to the notes, she had read the small cave system was made up of interconnecting rooms. In front of her, Jayde could see a small opening in the cave wall, Jayde moved through the hole in the stone wall and found that the new room she entered was a lot bigger than the entrance room. Looking around Jayde noticed that there were glow stones embedded into the cave walls, lighting up the room, and on the opposite side to the entrance into the room, was another half moon opening.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.


    In the corner of the room was a sizeable worn furnace, covered in dust. With the amount of dust covering the furnace, you could see that it hadn''t be used for a long. A desk covered with scrolls was alongside the furnace.


    Walking over to the desk, Jayde unrolled some of the scrolls, upon examining them, Jayde noticed that most of the scrolls contained detailed guides on how to smelt different ores, as well as instructions to mix different ores to create metals to craft weapons.


    Looking at the remaining scrolls, Jayde found detailed drawings of different types of weapons. This cave must have been inhabited by a weaponsmith, thought Jayde.


    Storing the scrolls in her spatial ring, Jayde wandered around the room, she found the pile of metal ores that the old man had written about. There was quite a variety of ores, some common, but most were rare ores that were difficult to locate in the Lower Realm.


    Seeing a small pile of black ores that glittered with gold specks, Jayde contacted Isha to confirm if these ores were dwarven dark gold.


    "Yes that it!" Isha confirmed excitedly.


    Jayde was excited to have the final item needed for the potion needed to upgrade her dantian to the bronze stage. When Isha was initially given her the list of things required she had suspected it was going to take her a long time to gather all the items needed and she was delighted that she had managed to collect the required items so quickly.


    Jayde felt like finally, luck was on her side, and that fate was giving her a helping hand.


    After collecting and storing everything valuable in the room in her spatial ring, Jayde decided to hunt for the treasure that the old man sensed when he had entered the cave. Exiting the room through half-moon doorway, Jayde found herself in a long passage, following the passage for about ten minutes Jayde came upon another half-moon doorway.


    Entering the small room, Jayde could sense a small fluctuation in the aura in the surrounding air. Looking around Jayde could see nothing out of the ordinary in the room, except for some stones scattered on the floor the room was empty.


    Jayde debated whether she should continue exploring the cave. After an intense debate with herself, she decided to call it a day, as night was approaching. Jayde was physically tired, it had been a busy day, and the blistering heat of the cave was making thing worse ¡ª Jayde was tired, sweaty, and hungry ¡ª while the temperature wasn''t debilitating to Jayde as her fire abilities protected her from most of the heat, it nevertheless was draining her of her energy.


    Jayde setup a small camp with the room, just to be safe, she set up her stone ward for protection. While impatient to find the treasure, Isha had advised her that most treasures were guarded by guardian spirits, not wanting to confront this creature while tired, she determined it would best to rest up for the night and continue her treasure hunting the next day.


    Making a campfire, Jayde made herself a delicious dinner. After dinner Jayde cultivating for a couple of hours to restore her Qi. Removing her sleeping bag from her spatial ring, she lay it down near the campfire. Using a damp rag she wiped herself down before lying on top of the sleeping bag, it was too hot to climb into the sleeping bag. Closing her eyes, Jayde soon drifted off to sleep.


    ???


    ? 2019 DJ Rogue. All rights reserved.

 C0022: Treasure Hunting

    The next morning Jayde woke up bright and early, even though she was inside a cave system, the glowstones embedded into the walls dimly lit up the chamber she was in. Standing Jayde stretched like a lazy cat, working the kinks out of her body, before finding a discreet place to relieve her full bladder.


    Remove a small wooden pail filled with water from her spatial ring, Jayde wet a cloth and wiped herself clean, after her morning ablutions, she ate a hasty breakfast, then packing and cleaning up her small camp, she set off to find the treasure the old man had written about in his journal.


    After exiting the small room, Jayde entered another passageway, the passageway was narrower than the previous one, the ceiling was lower just a couple of inches above Jayde''s head, if she had been any taller, she would have had to crawl her way through.


    Thankfully Jayde wasn''t claustrophobic, or else she would have been in a real dilemma now. The passage started to descend, it pathway winding like a snake, cutting deep into the earth.


    The passageway went on for miles, Jayde found that as she descended the temperature around her rose. The heat was unbearable, Jayde''s skin was flushed, her mouth was parched, she had already polished off four of the lily pods, Jayde had to use the lily pod water to replenish her Qi as she was quickly using her Qi to keep her fire shield up to protect her from the intense heat and alleviate her thirst.


    Squinting her eyes Jayde could faintly make out a reddish glow in front of her, feeling more motivated now that she could see an end to the dark tunnel that she had been walking in for the past five or six hours, Jayde sped up, eager to get out on this dark, narrow tunnel.


    In a short time, Jayde arrived at a small doorway, pausing to take out her sword, she entered a vast cavern, as soon as Jayde entered the cavern she was blasted by an intense wave of heat. The heat was so fierce that Jayde that had not activated her fire shield to protect herself, she would have been severely burnt upon entering the cavern. Although Jayde''s fire shield was activated, she still received some minor burns from the intense heat.


    The vast cavern was created eons ago, it had to be over sixty to seventy meters squared. The stone ceiling was more than ten meters above Jayde head. Due to some tectonic incident a long time ago massive stalagmites, stalactites, and pillars had been created.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.


    Inside the cavern, there was a large lava lake, the bubbling lava lit up the cavern giving the whole area a bright red glow. Upon seeing the lava lake, Jayde realized why the cavern was so hot.


    With her sword in one hand, Jayde carefully explored the whole cavern. The lithomatic d¨¦cor of massive stalagmites, stalactites, and pillars had divided the cavern into chambers. The crystals of the calcium carbonate embedded into the rock reflected the light from the lava pool, making the lithomatic d¨¦cor glitter.


    Jayde was disappointed, after a couple of hours of exploration she had found no sign of any treasure, nor any spirit guardian beast. The only entrance into the cavern was the one she had used to enter. The valuable item that Jayde had discovered were firestones embedded into the wall. Firestones were used by fire mages to enhance their fire abilities, but the firestones were so deeply rooted into the stone walls, it would quite some time for Jayde to dig them out, and Jayde was burning through her Qi at an alarming rate due to having her keep up her fire shield.


    After putting away her sword, Jayde studied at the firestones embedded in the cavern walls and was busy calculating whether it was worth using her remaining lily pods to replenish her Qi to dig out the fire stones when Isha interrupted her mental calculations.


    "Jayde," he yelled out excitedly. "I am sensing a fire spirit near you, it is still very young, only five or six thousand years old."


    "..."


    Five or six thousand years old is young? Then what does that make her, Jayde pondered in amazement.


    "Er...umm, okay," Jayde replied, confused why Isha was so excited.


    Hearing Jayde unenthusiastic reply, Isha realized that Jayde didn''t understand the ramifications of her incredible discovery.


    "Jayde with the fire spirit being so young, it means that you can integrate it, once you incorporate it into yourself, not only will your fire magic increase exponentially, but your fire will be much purer than average, giving you a significant advantage over other fire mages. In essence, you will be able to battle against a stronger opponent. You have no idea just how lucky you are, have you any idea just how many fire mages would kill for such a find," he explained to her, his mental voice trembling with excitement.


    "Newly formed fire spirits may only occur once every hundred thousand years after a fire spirit reaches maturity they are impossible to absorb, even getting near one could cost an emperor class mage their life," he explained further.


    With Isha lengthy explanation, Jayde finally understood why Isha was so excited, Jayde immediately asked how to go about absorbing this fire spirit. Having run across such an incredible lucky win-fall, Jayde was excited to get started. Thanking the old man in her heart, he really was a lucky star she mused to herself.


    ???


    ? 2019 DJ Rogue. All rights reserved.

 C0023: Capturing the Fire Spirit

    Isha carefully explained the procedure of how to absorb the fire spirit in detail. After listening to Isha careful explanation on how to assimilate the fire spirit and integrate it into her fire magic, Jayde sat down on the stone floor. Taking a couple of deep breaths, Jayde closed her eyes and settled her mind.


    From Isha detailed explanation Jayde realized that what she was about to attempt was dangerous, but the benefits outweighed the dangers. Reaching for her magic, Jayde opened up her magical senses, she then delicately extended her magical sight, scanning for the fire spirit. Due to its young age, it was hidden from standard view, and according to Isha could only be "seen" using magic.


    After five minutes, Jayde finally found the fire spirit. It was diving in and out of the lava, to her magical eyes it looked like a small dancing flame. The outer edges of the fire spirit glowed azure, and in the heart of the flame, there was a small tawny flame that twinkled. It really was a striking sight to behold.


    Following Isha explanations, Jayde extended her magical power discreetly, she did not want to alarm the fire spirit, if it escaped and hid deep in the lava, it would be nearly impossible for Jayde to capture it, she needed to trap it.


    Inch by inch, her magical tendrils slowly surrounded the fire spirit, Jayde was extremely patient, as she "hunted" her prey. Only once she confirmed that her magical power totally enclosed the fire spirit and that it had no avenue to escape, did she relax her tense muscles.


    To strengthen the magical cage surrounding the fire spirit, Jayde slowly fed most of her magic to the shield encasing the fire spirit. Using her magical senses Jayde accessed her magical cage, only once she confirmed that her magical shield was strong, did she activate her carefully laid trap. Swifty Jayde reduced the size of the magical cage trapping the fire spirit ¡ª and by reducing the size of the magical shield, the strength of her spirit cage increased drastically.


    Alarmed the fire spirit tried to flee but found itself caught in Jayde''s sturdy spirit cage. Smashing itself against the walls of its enclosure, it tried its best to break through, but no matter how hard it battered at Jayde shield walls it couldn''t break through. Stubbornly the fire spirit didn''t give up. The fight had now become a battle of wills between itself and Jayde, whoever exhausted themselves first would end up the loser.


    As the fire spirit continued to struggle to escape, Jayde continued to reduce the size of her cage, until the fire spirit could barely move. Jayde now had to hold on until fire spirit surrendered, only once it yielded could she successfully integrate it into her magic.If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    Sipping on spirit water from the lily pods to replenish her Qi, Jayde waited patiently for the fire spirit to tire itself out, after a grueling five hours, the fire spirit finally collapsed.


    Noticing the fire spirit lying limping against her spirit cage, Jayde started to pull her magical cage closer to her, as if sensing Jayde intention, the fire spirit put up a last final struggle, Jayde had to pour all of her remaining Qi into powering the cage, as the fire spirit battled desperately against the walls of her magical trap.


    While this last battle only lasted a couple of minutes the toll on both the fire spirit and Jayde was intense, sweat poured down Jayde white face, her lips were bleeding from having bitten them during this final battle, but finally, the fire spirit had surrendered its will to her.


    Exhausted Jayde drank the remaining lily pod water in the pod she held in her hand. With her Qi replenished and feeling more energized, Jayde drew the fire spirit into her body, with her magical shield still surrounding the defeated fire spirit, she directed her spiritual cage to her dantian.


    Only once the fire spirit was safely within her dantian did Jayde breathe a sigh of relief, then releasing her spiritual cage she started the arduous task of integrating the fire spirit into her fire magic.


    Now was the most dangerous part of the whole process, Jayde had to successfully integrate the fire spirit ¡ª failure would entail the flames of the fire spirit burning her alive. Once Jayde started the integration process she would not be able to stop, it was now, do or die.


    With her mind totally focused on this vital task, Jayde gently started to absorb the flames of the fire spirit, directing the magical firey flames of the fire spirit into her fire magic.


    As Jayde began to absorb the flames, the Qi energy from the fire being consumed began to fill her dantian. In no time at all Jayde quickly reached the threshold of the fourth rank, all the Qi energy in the surrounded area, began to flow around her body, due to the intense energy of the lava lake, there was an abnormal amount of fire Qi in the air, a massive vortex of Qi began to appear around Jayde.


    This Qi started to sink into Jayde''s body, unaware of this dangerous situation, Jayde continued to absorb the energy of the fire spirit.


    Very quickly Jayde broke through to fourth class, but she was now in a dangerous situation, as not only was she absorbing the Qi energy from the fire spirit, which was vast in itself, but the Qi energy around her was increasing drastically, and forcing its way into her body, which only filled up her dantian even quicker.


    With both of these energies now entering her body, Jayde started to break through the ranks at an alarming rate, and with each increase in class, more and more Qi energy was drawn towards her, forcing its way into her body, which only increased the rate of her breakthroughs.


    Jayde was now in a very dangerous cycle.


    Fifth Class...


    Sixth Class...


    Seventh Class...


    Eight Class...


    Ninth Class...


    Tenth Class...


    ???


    ? 2019 DJ Rogue. All rights reserved.

 C0024: Danger!

    ?? Presently, Proteus Pavilion


    While Jayde was busy integrating the fire spirit, Isha was anxiously observing Jayde from his small room in the Pavilion to ensure that nothing went awry.


    The white around Isha''s iris showed as his eyes widened, his fists clenched and unclenched, as his face flushed red as he noticed the dangerous situation developing in the cavern,


    Isha knew that he couldn''t interrupt Jayde during the process to absorb the fire spirit as this would lead to a severe backlash and would indeed lead to the flames of the fire spirit turning on Jayde and incinerating her and leaving behind nothing but ash.


    But neither could he allow her to carry on advancing, either she would breached twelfth level, and her dantian would explode, as she still hadn''t upgraded it to bronze stage yet. At Jayde''s current stage her dantian couldn''t handle the amount of energy she was absorbing, the Qi energy would soon start to accumulate within her body, and she would explode, either way, the result would be the same ¡ª Jayde would die.


    Isha needed to act, and he needed to move quickly, time was running out. Isha immediately sent out a ''Code Red'' alert. A ''Code Red'' alert would instantly summon the nine of the trainers designated to the Doha Proteus Divine Artifact, teleporting them directly to Isha position. Once all nine trainers appeared in front of him, Isha wasted no time and quickly outlined the dangerous situation their contractor was in.


    Stunned that their little contractor had found herself in such a precarious situation, the trainers started squabbling about what was to be done, and who was to blame. Isha raised his hand to rub his forehead, he could feel a headache beginning, this was the reason why he despised bringing all the trainers together, they always started arguing like a group of children the moment they got together, and it would take ages for them to calm down and come up with a solution.


    If he didn''t need them all for the decision that he had already made, he wouldn''t have summoned them. Standing up he promptly ordered them to shut up.


    "Quarreling is not going to sort out the situation," he stated sternly.


    "Jayde is already approaching critical, and we have to intervene," he went on to add.


    "Number One, you know the penalties of intervening, we are meant to guide our contractors, not interfere with their destiny," a young woman warned.


    "Do you really want to lose her?" Isha retorted. "You know how long we have waited for her, she could be the last of her kind for all we know, and as you are all well aware of ¡ª Hell''s Gate is going to be unsealed soon, do you want to be responsible for what is going to happen then?"


    "Number One is right ¡ª she is our only chance now ¡ª heaven forbid if she dies now what will happen to this dimension if she is not around when that blasted Hell''s Gate opens again," stated White, his eyes flashing with barely concealed impatience.


    "... but the penalty for interfering, who is going to pay it?" an old man asked softly.


    "I will!" Isha announced.


    "NO!" White interrupted, looking at the trainers around him, his gaze was firm and resolute. "If we do this, then ALL of us will pay the penalty."


    Surprised that White was protecting him, Isha lips curled into a small, grateful smile.


    "So are we all in agreement, we are going to summon HIM?" Isha asked all the trainers.


    All of the trainers looked at each other, while some of the trainers'' faces were pale with fright, they realized that they had no choice, nodding they agreed with Isha decision.


    With all ten of them agreeing, the trainers and Isha had voted to summon the Overseer. It was only by combining their powers that the Oversee could be summoned. The Overseer was only to summoned under the direst of circumstances.


    Isha and the trainers of the Doha Proteus Divine Artifact had only ever summoned the Overseer once before, in their hundreds of thousands of years of existence, and they still shuddered about the repercussions of that situation.


    Standing in a circle, the trainers called their magic, directing their magic to Isha. As Isha body filled with their power, he weaved the energy into a powerful spell, gathering the spell together he then directed it to the furthest part of the universe, summoning the nightmare of the Proteus artifacts ¡ª the Overseer.


    ???


    ?? Small Cave


    While Isha and the rest of the trainers were combining their powers to summon the Overseer. Jayde was still busy integrating the flames into her fire magic. She had just advanced to the eleventh rank when she sensed that something was seriously wrong.


    Since she couldn''t stop with the integration, nor could she divert her attention away from subduing and absorbing the flames, Jayde chose to slow down her integration. Her sixth sense was screaming at her that she was in mortal danger, and it has never been wrong before. Each time this tingling feeling came over her, her life had in danger, and it was only by listening to it that she had evaded death countless times before.


    ???


    ?? Proteus Pavilion


    Moments after the summons went out, the Pavilion was lit up as numerous purple lightning bolts shattered the serene sky over the trainers, the light of these thunderbolts, blinded the trainers waiting for the Overseer.


    The trainers and Isha raised their hands and covered their eyes, waiting nervously for the deadly lightning to stop.


    Once everything quietened down, they saw the Overseer standing in the middle of their circle. He was a strikingly handsome man, over eight feet tall, his skin tone was like warm honey, and with his long, pure silver hair that hung straight down his back, it made an arresting contrast. His most eye-catching feature was his eyes, they were a light faceted silver, giving the illusion that his eyes were made out of diamonds.


    Looking at Isha "Why have you summoned me?" he asked smoothly, the baritone of his voice reverberating through the trainers. The low rumble of his voice was so comforting to listen to, it sounded as if his voice alone had the power that could fix everything wrong in the universe.Stolen novel; please report.


    Shaking himself out of the daze, that the Overseer''s voice had put him in, Isha bowed down low, greeting the Overseer. Then he swiftly explained the situation of Jayde.


    "Hmm, I see," the Overseer said with graceful simplicity.


    His silvery eyes gazed into the distance, looking at a scene that only he could see, he frowned, then turning to Isha he asked: "So what is your solution?"


    Isha replied courteously: "I want to seal the excess Qi, until such time that she is ready to absorb it, this way she can still integrate the fire spirit."


    His solemn gaze caught Isha eyes, "and the penalty, who will pay?" the Overseer asked gently.


    "Umm, all of us will" White answered reverently, while most times White come off abrasively to everyone, even he couldn''t help but be in awe in front of the Overseer. A person couldn''t help but want to kneel down and worship the Overseer when they found themselves in his presence.


    "Really?" the Overseer was surprised, he looked at each of the trainers his gaze penetrating as he confirmed that they would share the penalty. All the trainers nodded in agreement, although a couple of them did bob their heads hesitantly.


    "Alright then, since you are all in agreement, you may go ahead, after you have finished, the Punisher will summon you to carry out the penalty."


    And with that last statement, the Overseer disappeared.


    Once the Overseer disappeared, Isha let out the breath that he had been holding, sagging down in relief he looked at the trainers around him.


    Most of them were in worse state than him. Some had collapsed onto the ground; their legs had been shaking too much to hold up their weight.


    Turning to look at Isha White said: "You know this is not the only problem, even if you seal the excess Qi, she has advanced to quickly, her foundation is going to be very unstable ¡ª if a solution is not found it will have a serious impact on her future growth."


    Isha looked up. ¡°You¡¯re right, of course,¡± he said. ¡°Do you have any suggestions?¡±


    White looked back at the trainers around him. He stood silently for a moment. "Throw her to Green, after intensive training by Green, her foundation should stabilize."


    Isha nodded. "Hmm ¡ª good suggestion," and with that Isha hurried back to the main room in the Pavilion to carry out his primary task to save Jayde life ¡ª the sealing the excess Qi.


    ???


    ?? Small Cave


    While Isha and the trainers were busy with the Overseer, Jayde had run into a crisis, she had broken through to the twelfth level, and was now approaching the threshold of the barrier to Knight first rank.


    Since her dantian couldn''t hold any more Qi, the excess energy was starting to build up, when her dantian had begun to heat up, Jayde realized the danger she was in. Desperate to save herself, she began to drain the excess energy in her dantian, but she was absorbing the vortex Qi energy in the surrounding area faster than she could discard it.


    The Qi energy in her dantian started to leak, flooding her veins and meridian, even her cells. Her body began to expand from the excess energy, and her skin began to split.


    With her concentration now split between trying to control the excess energy and the integration of the fire spirit, Jayde lost control of the flames from the fire spirit in her dantian, intense pain engulfed Jayde''s body, she felt like she was being burnt alive.


    The extreme pain drove Jayde onto her back, her very thoughts shattered, Jayde became muddled as the burning pain combined with the pain of her ever-expanding body overwhelmed her. The pain was the worst that Jayde had ever experienced in her two lifespans, she felt as though her very soul was being consumed by the flames.


    Tears flowed from her eyes, as she sobbed at her own the suffering, she didn''t even have the breath to scream. Right now she wanted to die, she welcomed death with open arms, all she wanted to do was to run away from this extraordinary pain.


    As her thoughts became incoherent, Jayde felt as though the pain was eating away at her sanity. She could feel darkness slowly overcoming her mind, and with it came some clarity she knew if she succumbed to the darkness, she would die. While a large part of her wanted to die to escape the tremendous pain she was in, Jayde was a born fighter, and she refused to allow this pain to defeat her.


    Summoning every scrap of willpower she had she fought against the pain, she had too much to do, she had a blood debt to pay for the previous Jayde. She wouldn''t rest until the Freehold paid for the suffering they had put the previous Jayde through, then there was that unknown bastard who had created the whole fucking mess, to begin with, who had set both her and the previous Jayde on this torturous path.


    Jayde started to list all the reason why she couldn''t die, each time she repeated the list over and over in her head, it helped her steel her willpower, to clear her mind.


    No she WILL not die, she wanted to live, Jayde desperately wanted to find out if her people in the Federation were happy, she wanted to know what it was to be happy. She wanted a family, this was her darkest, most profound and most hidden desire, but more than ever she wanted to stand on top of this world, and never to be ruled by someone else''s power again.


    Reaching deep inside her, she grabbed the runaway flames and wrapped it in her magical power, then forcing her will upon it, she made it submit to her. Her mind running on pure instinct to survive, she pushed the azure fame into every organ, every cell, her veins, and meridians.


    A bright azure flame with specks of tawny surrounded Jayde body, and at the same time, her body started to go through significant changes.


    The fire spirit flame started to reshape Jayde body, making her bones, muscles, skin, and veins stronger, her meridians expanded and became stronger and more flexible, it burned away all the toxins and impurities in Jayde''s body.


    From the smallest cell to the hair on her head, every part of Jayde''s body was remade, stronger, better, and more agile.


    But even with her using so much of the fire spirit''s energy to reshape her body, it still wasn''t enough.


    Jayde knew that she was going to fail, there was just too much energy, despair started to creep into her heart, the taste of bitter defeat filled her mouth.


    She was ready to give up and let go.


    "Jayde, quickly direct the energy to the seal I have placed within your dantian," Isha voice sounded in her mind.


    Grasping onto this lifeline, Jayde quickly gathered all the energy she could, and started to direct it to a small sealed off space within her dantian. She wasn''t sure what or how Isha had done it, but this sealed off area took all the excess energy that Jayde directed into it.


    Finally, the profound pain that Jayde was in dissipated, and the vortex of Qi energy slowly dispersed. Lying on the hard stone floor, Jayde stared unseeing up at the cavern ceiling above her. Her mind shocked that she had survived this disaster.


    Lying there, she just breathed in deeply, happy to be alive. Her mind was blank as she just relished the feeling of her lungs filling up with air, then breathing out.


    For the first time in her two lifespans, Jayde was grateful to be alive. In those final moments, she had come to the powerful realization the death was not an answer, it was the last curtain call, the end. There were no do-overs, she had been incredibly lucky to be given a chance to resurrect in her body.


    Up until now, she had been so focused on how shitty her life was, that she had missed the bigger picture that life was meant to be lived, and lived to the fullest ¡ª and she had squandered it away just focusing on surviving.


    For the first time in her life, she felt genuinely grateful to someone, and her heart grieved for a small, lonely, unloved thirteen-year-old girl, who had died so unjustly, but by giving up her life, had allowed Jayde to be reborn.


    Her heart aching, she started to weep, her tears falling silently, and the more she remembered the previous young girl, the more her heart ached, until finally, she was bawling like a baby, Jayde wept for the unloved girl, and she cried for herself.


    After a while Jayde calmed down, she felt light and free, as though she had lanced the poison in her heart.


    "Little Jayde, I never met you, but I pray for your soul, I wish with all my heart that in your next life that you will only know happiness and love, know that no matter what you are my sister," Jayde whispered, her voice hoarse from all her crying.


    And with that, she started to sing the song of mourning. To grieve to the little sister that she never met, but who gave up her life so that she could live again.


    After she finished, Jayde vowed that she would live a life as bright as a shining star, she would live for both her and the thirteen-years-old little girl that never got the chance to grow up.


    ???


    ? 2019 DJ Rogue. All rights reserved.

 C0025: Second Ring

    Using her hand to lift herself off the hard stone floor, Jayde climbed to her feet. Looking down at herself she noticed that she was in a very sorry state. Her clothing was shredded, but luckily due to the blue flame that had surrounded her while reshaping her body, the oily black substance that has leaked from her pores, as well as the blood from her split skin, had been burnt away.


    Removing a clean set of clothing from her storage ring, Jayde peeled off her shredded clothes. Standing naked in the warm cave Jayde used a damp cloth to wipe the fine layer sweat, that covered her. Pulling on a new pair of rust-colored leather pants, she then picked up a similar colored shirt. Putting the shirt on, she then laced it closed. Even her leather boots where damaged, retrieving a new pair that she made, Jayde pulled off her old, then tugging on the new pair of leather boots she tied the laces.


    Finger combing her hair she scratched around her spatial ring for a piece of leather thong, finally finding a discarded leather string she tied her hair into a ponytail. Clean and neatly dressed Jayde felt human again, picking up the torn clothing, Jayde strolled over lava lake and threw the discard clothes in.


    With her drastic increase in ranks, Jayde barely felt the heat in the cavern, eyeing the precious firestones embedded cavern walls, Jayde decided to take the time to remove them. With her increased strength the previously nearly impossible task was simple.


    While busy removing the fire stones, she chatted with Isha.


    "Isha, thank you for help, I wouldn''t have made it without your intervention," Jayde said with sincere gratitude.


    "You are welcome. Now Jayde, we need to talk about the repercussions of what just happened."


    "Repercussions?" Jayde''s stomach clenched, shit what the fuck was wrong now, she thought.


    "Uh-huh. You increased too fast, which has destabilized the foundation to your magic."


    "Oh," Jayde didn''t really understand what Isha was talking about.


    Isha explained to Jayde how mages need time after each increase to consolidate their magic, and this was usually done by practicing and using their magic for some time between each in rank, it was also one of the reasons why a mage increased in sub-ranks before leveling up to the next class.


    "Sub-rank?" Jayde asked curiously.


    "Hmm, each class has four sub-ranks," Isha said. "Beginner, Mid-level, Advanced, and Peak."


    "But Isha, I didn''t increase in sub-ranks before I absorbed the fire spirit."


    "Jayde, you actually did, it was just that you were so weak that you didn''t notice it."


    "Ah okay," Jayde said thoughtfully, so then according to Isha she had not just jumped eight classes, but thirty-two. No wonder her foundation was so unstable.


    "So what must I do now to stabilize my magic?" Jayde asked.


    "For now, just practice your magic, when I return later you will need to undergo intense training, to stabilize your foundation," Isha advised her.


    "Return?" Jyde asked confused. Where the hell was Isha going to? Jayde thought. I didn''t know that he could leave the artifact.


    "Yes, I have something that I have to do. Also, you won''t be able to access the Proteus Pavillion while I not here."


    "Umm, okay. How long will you be gone?" Jayde asked. She had been counting on being able to teleport to the Pavilion should she run into any life-threatening danger.


    "Not too long, a couple of days at most."


    Jayde didn''t ask any more question she knew that Isha had secrets. What Jayde didn''t know was during this period Isha and the trainers would be receiving their "punishment" and would be in no condition to see her. Isha hid the fact that he and the rest of the trainers had to pay a hefty penalty to save her life.


    "Isha, how long will I need to train to stabilize my foundation?"


    "I''m not sure, Green will be able to tell you once she has accessed you."


    Green? Jayde was happy to hear that her trainer would someone else, but she was curious about how many trainers there were in the Proteus artifact. When she asked Isha, he informed her that there were nine of them, but she would only meet the other trainers when she reached the requirements.


    When Jayde tried to find out more about the training requirements, Isha informed Jayde that this was something she would need to figure out on her own. The Proteus artifact was created to help contractors on their chosen path, it was not allowed to influence a contractors destiny, and even something as insignificant as telling a contractor which training was available could influence their decisions.Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    "While I am away, I think you should explore the second ring of the Dark Forest, it will help you with your foundation," Isha advised.


    "Hmm, Isha when you get back can you make the potion to upgrade my qi pool?"


    "Jayde now is not the time ¡ª once your foundation is stable then we can go ahead, right now you have to concentrate on stabilizing your foundation."


    "Okay, then I will follow your advice," Jayde agreed quickly.


    "Also you need to be careful, I won''t be here to help you if something goes wrong," Isha said, his voice betraying his concern.


    "Isha, I will be fine, stopping nagging, I have been on my own for over sixty years, I do have some common sense, you know," Jayde responded, smiling slightly at Isha worried tone.


    "Okay, okay, but still if you run into a spirit beast you can''t handle you will run away, promise me?" Isha went on, really worried about Jayde stubbornness.


    "Isha!" Jayde exclaimed


    "I mean it Jayde, you need to look after yourself."


    "I promise, besides I now have something to live for, so don''t stress so much okay?" Jayde promised.


    Still anxious about Jayde being on her own, Isha made Jayde swear again to look after herself, to eat well, and always put up her wards during the night. Isha could hear from Jayde voice that she was becoming impatient with his nagging, so he decided to stop before she really lost it.


    Knowing that the Punisher would be arriving soon, Isha bid Jayde farewell, and promised to contact her as soon as he ''returned''.


    After saying goodbye to Isha, Jayde continued to remove all the fire stones in the cavern wall. Once she had collected them all, she left the large cavern and returned to the small room she had made camp in previously.


    After setting up camp for the night, Jayde was too tired to cook, so after eating one of the elven wafer pieces of bread, she fell asleep.


    The next day she left the small cave, but instead of returning to her cave, she turned North and headed for the second ring, following Isha advise.


    ???


    It took two days for Jayde to reach the barrier to the second ring. The spirit beasts within the perimeter sensed that Jayde was more powerful than them, and steered clear of her, besides stopping to collect some herbs that she needed to trade, or to make camp, Jayde traveled non stop to the second ring of the Dark Forest.


    When she finally came across the barrier between the outer perimeter, it was just as the old man had described in his notes. In front of her she could see a slight shimmery barrier, walking cautiously up to the boundary, she lifted her hand and tried to touch it, but her hand passed through the barrier, just as though it didn''t exist.


    "Hmm, just as the old man said, the ward only works on spirit beasts," she mumbled quietly to herself, and with that, she walked through the shimmery barrier.


    As Jayde headed deeper into the Dark Forest, it wasn''t long before she ran into a level five fire lizard, these large reptilian creatures were dangerous, besides breathing fire, their skin was hard, and they had a long, agile tail, that was powerful enough to split a person in two. They were very fast, although their eyesight was poor, their sense of smell was highly developed. The only had one weakness which was their underbelly, which the fire lizard was notoriously known for protecting.


    Jayde was quite happy to run into this beast, this was the perfect opponent for her to test out her new abilities. Activating her fire shield, Jayde withdrew her sword, then racing forward she meet the fire lizard head on.


    The fight was long and brutal, the fire lizard was a strong opponent. Finally, the fire lizard made a mistake, lifting itself on its hind legs, there was a slight opening, Jayde immediately took advantage of, sliding through on her side, she raised her sword and sliced open it''s belly, then quickly rolling out of the way of the falling beast, she backed away.


    Covered in multiple cuts, bruises, and burns, Jayde rested against a tree to recover her strength, it had taken over three hours of intense fighting to bring the fire lizard down, and while her foundation had stabilized a bit, she had come to realize that her magic skills were really lacking. If it weren''t for her swordsmanship, she would have lost this battle.


    After collecting the fire lizard''s spirit stone and scales, Jayde carried on her journey. For the next six days, she continuously hunted strong opponents to battle against. Each fight was long and arduous, with Jayde ending up with multiple cuts and abrasions, but she could feel herself improving after each battle.


    She was becoming more familiar with this new body of hers, but she could feel that her fire spells were lacking, having just two fire spells was really limiting, next time she had access to the Pavilion she would need to buy some more fire spells.


    It had been seven days since Jayde entered the second rim and she was feeling icky. Deciding to forgo hunting spirit beasts to battle, she wanted to find a place where she could have a decent bath, looking at the old man''s maps, Jayde estimated that she was about half a days walk from a lake shown on the map.


    Looking up to gauge the direction of the sun, then rechecking the map, she turned east and headed off to find the lake mentioned and have a well-deserved bath.


    Just before noon, Jayde was about an hour away from her destination, when she ran into a scene of devastation. The ground had been upturned, and many trees were uprooted. Scorch marks marred the land. Just by looking at the scene you could see that a significant battle had taken place.


    Crouching down, Jayde waited dead-still, she had a feeling that whatever had caused the damage to the surrounding area was something she couldn''t handle. Scanning her immediate surroundings she couldn''t pick-up anything unusual, but just to be safe, she stayed still for a couple of more minutes.


    Seeing and hearing no movement, she cautiously moved out, keeping low she stealthy made her way across the devastated land. Looking around at the tracks on the ground, she could not pick up any human tracks, but by the paw and claw marks on the ground, she deduced that it must have been two beasts fighting.


    Unfortunately, Jayde was still quite a novice when it came to the beasts of Doha so she could not discern what sort of creatures had been fighting, but from the amount of damage done, there was no way they were low-level beasts.


    This made Jayde very uneasy as according to the old man''s journals the barrier between the rings should have kept out stronger beasts, so how could two such powerful creatures end up in the second ring?


    ???


    ? 2019 DJ Rogue. All rights reserved.