《Deus ex Aliis Mundi》 Chapter 1 (The crossing) The void. That''s all it was, black emptiness as far as the eye can see. Wait no there are... dots? Floating around in the distance almost invisable in the inky black background. WELCOME TO YOUR NEW LIFE.A powerful voicereverberatedfrom all around me. Someone likes their surround sound. Before you crossover to your new home i will explain some basics to you. You are all from earth ruled by the god terra, who has grown bored of your little world. They were going to destroy it and start anew when i offered to take it off their hands. No need to thank me your love and devotion is more than enough. As for what I¡¯m going to do with you all, I¡¯ve chosen to bring you all over to my world. Now for the rules of your new world. The laws of physics are the same ones you knew but they can be altered and bent ever so slightly. I won¡¯t spoil that surprise for you guys.Lastly every significant achievement you make will be awarded with points, these can be used to acquire things from me, your new GOD. You can buy just about anything you can think of as long as they obey the rules of the shop. You¡¯ll all learn those rules when you gain access to the shop Now let''s begin shall we. Okkkkkkkkkkk¡­ then that¡¯ssomething, so I¡¯m either crazy or I¡¯m about to be transported to a new world. Loving my options here. First time I¡¯ve heard of a god managing an item shop though¡­ ha Owwwwwwww.
ahhh god damn it my head feels like it''s going to explode. "Fuck my eyes", "I can''t see", "what the fuck was that", a series of agonised grunts sound out from around me. Already aware of the pain to come I slowlyallow my eyes to open before the light hits my eyes and all thoughts of delicacy fades from my mind. ¡°MOTHER FUCKING CUNT, WHORE¡±. Fuck it feels like I just poured gasoline all over my face and lit the fucker on fire. ¡°Oh my fucking god this is horrible how could anyone bare this¡±. Damn it was I turned into a vampire or some shit. This is a load of ball crap. I¡¯ve never had a hangover this bad. Is this because I made that item shop comment? Fuck you too then God!
No I did not cause your headache little man. You''re just bad at dimensional travel and tolerating pain apparently.
A blue screen just popped up in front of me. Wait hang on my eyes are closed how can I even see it. I guess it''s in my head? ahh this isn''t important right now I got to get up. I pry my eyes open, and the scenery comes flooding in. My hands are resting in the cold, damp dirt, and my head lays against the hard roots of a nearby tree. I tilt my head back, the sunlight streams between the green leaves and it temporarily blinds me. I bring my hand to my face, attempting to shelter my eyes from the sun when I suddenly hear a rustling noise nearby. Right the voices from earlier. A few meters away are 7 other people 3 males and 4 females. So a group of 8, I guess everyone was split up into groups to help us survive. Problem is I don''t recognize any of them, in fact if this is real where the hell is my family! Okay stay focused one thing at a time let''s work out what¡¯s going on. I force myself to my feet slowly and almost collapse again as the blood rushes from my brain, causing me to drop down to my knees. I place my hand on my stomach and try to keep my breakfast, wait did I even have breakfast? ahhhstupid stray thought, with an effort of pure willpower I force myself to my feet and retain the contents of my stomach. Whatever they may be. I take a quick look around but don''t really know what I¡¯m looking at it. Just looks like a bunch of trees in every direction almost all of them are covered in some sort of moss. I have no idea what type of tree they are, I¡¯ve certainly never seem them before. They''re tall with few branches like a pine but thick like an oak. That''s about the extent of my supreme knowledge of Dendrology. Ignoring the trees for now I take a look at the group of people nearby, looks like I¡¯m the last one to get up and everyone is talking to each other. I approach the group nervously and call out, "Hey guy''s, I don''t suppose you kn...¡±.This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. "Black void, message from some god about a new world and a killer headache, no we know as much as you do". Interrupts a short balding man with a grumpy look on his face. "Oh figures I suppose, I¡¯m Tommie, or Tom for short." I reply. Thinking maybe an introduction will get the overweight Grinch to calm down. A tallbrunette steps forward and offers her hand to me, "I''m Kat don''t worry about him, we''re all a bit scared at the moment". With a sigh the bald man steps forward offering his hand, "Sorry, I¡¯mCrawford". Followed shortly by everyone else stepping forward and volley of names coming at me. Todd, emory marisa,cassandra no cassie ahh too many names. I''ve forgotten the names already. I return a polite smile to everyone and jump right to it, "Hi everyone, so I don''t know about you guys but I¡¯ve got family and friends I¡¯d like to find, so have we got any sort of plan for exploring this forest"? "Wow you don''t beat around the bush do you" Responds a tallmasculinelooking blond man. You wouldn''t think for a moment this man had any problem getting ladies. "We''ve only been talking for about five minutes and barely introduced each other; you''re going to have to slow down". ContinuesTodd? That was Todd wasn''t it? If I was going to get transported to a new world why couldn¡¯t it just be me and a super model. Looking around I realise there¡¯s someone from about every age group, a girl and a boy who look to be in their late teens, myself and the brunette in their mid-20s, a couple in their 30s and finally the baldy and a woman who looks to be in their early 40s. Although I¡¯m assuming everyone here is in the same boat as me and knows no one here. "Yeah sorryyou''re right. I guess if we¡¯re stranded in the middle of nowhere, alternate world or not we should start by finding a way to survive. Can¡¯t really say I have any skills that might be useful in the middle of a forest what about the rest of you guys?¡± I inquire. I¡¯m a newly graduated University student the extent of my skills is cramming and drinking too much. Oh did I mention procrastination I scored 100 in that exam. After a slight pause, the blone man from earlier steps forward. Taking a moment to study him i realise he''s the most stereotypical hero type character you could come across. Blonde hair, with muscles on his muscles. ¡°I used to go camping with my father and he had this stupid rule where you could only eat what you could catch. So I know how to hunt small birds using a sling, setup traps to catch small game like rabbits and skin them. He was paranoid about the government you know? Was always saying you had to be able to survive with nothing but your own two hands¡±. Wow just wow, what is that bullshit. At least I know who the hero of this story is. ¡°Oh yeah and I also know how to fish barehanded in small creeks and rivers¡±. Continued the golden boy. Fucking cunt must swim through the mountain of pussy thrown his way. After a moment of pause the 4th guy who¡¯s mostly stayed quiet until now speaks up, ¡°Well I don¡¯t think anyone can compete with that¡±. "I guess if there''s nothing anyone else wants to talk about can we start talking about moving out to try and find other groups. Strength in numbers and all that you know". I replykeeping my tone as neutral as possible. ¡°What about that ¡­ place with the voice, did anyone else see those things in the distance¡± inquired the blond woman of the group, with the assets to go with the stereotype. If I¡¯m right about those age brackets too it means the golden boy is one lucky bastard alright. ¡°You mean the other people¡±? Replies the eldest woman of the group, Jenni was her name same name as my sister. ¡°At least I think they were other people, there was one near me a little girl that couldn¡¯t have been older than 5. I hope she¡¯s alright¡±. Damn all those things in the void were people wow I know there¡¯s a lot of people on earth but it¡¯s hard to really comprehend the real size of a number as large as billions. ¡°Wow ok that¡¯s ¡­ odd, I¡¯m not really sure what we¡¯re going to achieve by continuing this discussion though. We¡¯re just going to create more questions than answers. Why don¡¯t we work out a plan or formation and head out like Tommie suggested¡±. Says Todd the golden boy. Everyone looks around and shrugs, "We don''t have anything besides the clothes on our back, so I can''t imagine there is much to talk about as far as plans go" replies the balding man. After a slight pause he continues on, "I guess we could just pick a direction and start walking I mean it''s not like we can get lost when we don''t have any idea where we are". After a couple of half-hearted mumbled agreement from everyone, the blondie with the muscles takes the lead and starts heading out. We all fall in behind him and start traveling in silence.
About five minutes after heading out one of the girls starts screeching out, "Hey anyone out here", "HELLLLLLLLLLLO". What the hell I think to myself. "Hey stop that we have no idea what''s out here" calls out the brunette from earlier. "What else are we supposed to do? We''re stomping through some forest with no idea what we''re doing. Besides animals are scared of loud noises". Replies the blondie with assets, probably the only assets she has judging by the way this conversation is going. "Who said anything about animals? We''re on another world, at least according to that voice in the void. We don''t know what rules apply here". I butt in. "Tom''s right, we have no idea what this world is like and we should be careful until we have at least some idea" Says Todd.Before anyone else can say anything a roar filled with rage seems to come from all angles. The ground itself shakes. "RUN"! Then the chaos begins, everyone starts screaming for a moment before bolting. The quiet guy of the group pushes me to the ground in his mad rush to get away. I fall face first into a pile of mud and barely have time to glimpse everyone bolting in random directions. That didn''t last long, every man and woman for themselves I guess. I take a quick look around and spot a small crevice in the ground that¡¯s barely wide enough to allow me to crawl in. With a desperation spawned from fear I crawl toward the crevice getting myself caked in mud and dirt. Reaching my destination I turn myself so that my legs are facing the crevice. Then with a few grunts of pain I squeeze myself into the hole feet first and duck my head inside as trees in the distance start collapsing. Then something cold touches my left leg and the shock of being bitten spreads throughout my body. Fuck please don''t be venomous. Then my whole body rapidly grows cold and I pass out. I barely have enough time to think ¡°fuck I hate this world already¡±. Chapter 2 (a little magic) Ahhh what where who what is that, what is happening. Ahh my barely conscious thoughts bounce around my mind. Then I feel something moving around my legs and I quickly wake up. At least I try to, I can¡¯t seem to move crap oh crap, I don¡¯t want to be eaten alive please just not that. I open my eyes to darkness or did I open my eyes I can¡¯t tell. I can barely feel anything, ok I can¡¯t panic I¡¯ve been paralysed by some bug living in a hole in the earth and it¡¯s just crawling around my legs doing something. Why would I need to panic, actually what if it¡¯s eating me, what if I¡¯m not feeling it move around but it¡¯s eating my flesh. Fuck, fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck. Why the fuck did I think it was a good idea to crawl into a dark hole on some alien world. Actually I did see trees collapsing just before I was bitten and the ground was shaking something awful. I was probably screwed either way. Why does that make me feel better? I was screwed no matter what, that should horrify me but it doesn¡¯t. Ok ignoring that for now I need to think what do I have. I¡¯m on an alien world where monsters are real and I¡¯m stuck in a hole with some bug that wants to eat me. What did that voice say in the void, ¡®the laws of physics can be altered and bent¡¯? That has to mean magic right, I guess I can¡¯t really move or do anything with my body so I might as well try to do some magic. What do characters in the books always do, mediate right well I can¡¯t really do that with the position I¡¯m in not that I really know how to meditate. It¡¯s not as easy as people think it is anyways. I guess I need to look inside myself, Ok concentrate, ignore that weird feeling in my legs. Clearing my head of thoughts of my inevitable doom, I shift my focus to my mind and feel nothing but blackness and that relaxing feeling just before you fall asleep. Wait no I can see? No feel? Something a light glow, I feel my mental focus float towards the light, until it¡¯s everywhere and I see nothing else. It¡¯s enormous there¡¯s so much and it feels so nice, I could just float here forever. Wait no impending danger, I can¡¯t lose focus. I grab a bit of the glowing stuff and bring myself back to the physical world. Keeping the glowing stuff, let¡¯s call it mana it¡¯s always called mana assuming this is magic and I¡¯m not just hallucinating. I pull the mana slowly so it¡¯s right in front of my face trying to be aware of what I¡¯m doing while not losing my grip on the ball. Then think with all my might light, I force my mental desires on the mana and release to the physical world and ¡­. Nothing. I felt it move around in some weird seemingly random shapes before simply fading. Ok let¡¯s try again, after a few minutes of concertation I¡¯m able to grab another ball of mana a bigger one this time, almost a quarter of the stuff inside me. Again I move it so it¡¯s just in front of my face and think LIGHT. There¡¯s a flash of light and for a moment I can see around the cave. I also glimpse the creature that¡¯s down by my legs. IT¡¯S A GIANT OVERGROWN SPIDER-SCOPRION HYBRID. What the fuck, and it¡¯s wrapping my legs with webbing. It seems to be struggling though I guess it¡¯s not used to catching prey this big, I mean it¡¯s enormous for a spider-scorpion thing, but that only makes it the size of a small Chihuahua. If I wasn¡¯t paralysed I could crush the bastard easily. After a few minutes of frantic panic I get myself under control enough to think. Just can¡¯t think of that thing down by my legs. Clearing my head I pull out half my mana, it seems to all be back again I guess it regenerated while I was busy panicking, that¡¯s good it¡¯s not slow to recover. Again I try to create a light except this time I create two balls with my mana a smallish one and another containing the rest. I imagine a link forming between the two so the bigger one slowly feeds the smaller one, and then I force the small ball to form a light. A dim glow appears, about the power of a small led and the mana in the air rapidly shrinks. Wasting no time I cast my eyes around the space I find myself in, ignoring the monster below me. I can¡¯t see much because I can¡¯t move anything besides my eyes but I can see that I¡¯ve fallen or been dragged deeper into the crevice about a meter in. Just off to my left I can see what looks like my hosts previous victim. Appears to be a ball of silk but it¡¯s wriggling around, most likely it¡¯s inhabitant trying to get free. It¡¯s about twicethe size of my friendly host and there are what appear to be two puncture holes in the sac where the green skin of its inhabitant is just showing. So great this thing feeds just like a spider, no thanks Idon''t want to be digested slowly in a sac of silk. I know that myth about spiders drinking blood is false but i also know they digest their food externally. The ball of light fades slowly and I¡¯m cast back into a world of darkness, ok so I can create magic lights by thinking about light. So maybe I can heal myself by thinking about healing? Worth a shot, taking a quarter of my mana I spread it out thinly across my body and think with all my might heal and release it. Nothing happens. It just floats there and slowly starts to fade into the background. I quickly grab control of the mana before it can finish fading but only about half of its original volume is left. Ok healing is probably a lot harder than making a light. In fact now that I think about it, I¡¯m not sure thinking about light did anything. It was probably the weird movement the mana was doing. Using the remaining ball of mana I try to move the mana around in the strange shapes I saw it create earlier. It resists, like I¡¯m trying to push it through a thick sludge but slowly and eventually I overcome the resistance and some of the mana starts fading away as I push. Light just like before appears before me but it¡¯s not taking anywhere near as much mana. After about 20 seconds the ball of mana finally evaporates. When I had used half my mana and tried to sustain the light it hadn¡¯t lasted for even 10 seconds but using an 1/8th of my total mana supply I was able to create a light for 20 seconds by controlling the flow of mana myself. So control matters also probably means, creating that light earlier had nothing to do with me thinking about light and is simply what mana generates naturally when it¡¯s released into the world. So crap I have magic but all I can do is make fancy lights. Might as well practice it maybe something will come to me. I try to pull the remaining mana in my body out, about a 1/3 of my total mana capacity and if I wasn¡¯t paralysed I would have screamed. Unbelievable pain wracks my body, it¡¯s far worse than the pain I felt when I first arrived in this world. That was like a cheap Chinese fire cracker then and this right now felt like a small nuke had gone off. I can feel some strange heat that seems to be burning me radiating out from my centre where my mana came from. Trying to grab control of this strange heat just like I did with my mana earlier I try and will it to go back into my core. Slowly the heat seems to stop radiating but it still feels like I just got roasted alive.
Congratulations you are the first human from earth to refine excess hawking radiation into mana. 250 points awarded For using the radiation to clear toxins from your body 50 point bonus.
What! Hawking radiation like from a black hole? What the hell does that mean? Is this core thing in me a black hole? That doesn¡¯t make any sense. Wait cleared the toxins from my body. Fuck I can feel things now. Shit this is uncomfortable, so can I move then? Slowly I wiggle my fingers around, it worked oh my god this is amazing. Maybe I won¡¯t die here after all. Calming myself, I keep myself still as I wait for my mana to recover, no point tipping my hand to that monster before I have to. Surprised it never noticed any of the light I made though, is it blind?Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. My mana seems to be regenerating significantly faster, after what feels like 20 minutes my mana is fully restored; the spider is now up to my knees in its efforts to wrap me up in silk. Luckily it seems to be having trouble producing enough silk for the job and has to take constant breaks. Hopefully it will never get the chance to finish. Forming two balls of mana again, carefully using two thirds of my mana, I push the mana so it¡¯s just in front of the spider. Forming the connection between the bigger and smaller blobs of mana just like earlier, I release my control of the smaller ball and act. The moment I¡¯m able to see I push up with my legs grinding the monsters body against the ceiling of the cave. The thing lets out an ear piercing screech that echoes throughout the small space and tries to bite down on my leg but now its effort to entangle me is working against it. The awkward angle prevents it from biting down through the silk into my leg. I grab a small rock by my head and start bashing the creature below its 6 ugly beady eyes. Hoping to smash its little arachnid brain in. It may not be able to bite me in its current position but it manages to scratch me several times with its legs in a frantic effort to escape my grasp.
After a minute of frantic movement the bastard finally stops moving and I let it fall to the ground and quickly push it¡¯s corpse off me. Damn that was intense. I¡¯m bleeding from several cuts all over my arms where the creature scratched me with its legs. Hmm the first monster I¡¯ve slayed in this new world, I should give it a proper name instead of just bastard. Little Fucker, yep I like that from now on you shall be known as Little Fucker you fucker. Try to eat me will you, I don¡¯t think so.
For killing one Webbing Scorpion, five points.
With a tired sigh I just lie there for a few minutes before making my wiggle of triumph to the surface. There was only a single grunt of pain when I scrapped my thigh against a rock on my way out of the hole. Progress! Problem is I¡¯m still tied up from my knees down. Actually taking a look around me, there is more than one problem here. It looks like a bulldozer came flying through the area. Trees are knocked over lying on their sides with the roots sticking up into the sky. Few trees still stand, it¡¯s like someone waged a war on all tree kind. Right I was running from another monster before, one a fair bit bigger than Mr Little Fucker. Actually I don¡¯t remember it being this dark. Taking a quick look at the sky I realise there¡¯s only a few hours of daylight left. Somewhere between 3-4 pm if I was to guess. Actually wait this is a new world are there 24 hours in a day? I guess I¡¯ll have to work that one out later. I¡¯m no expert here but most predator animals come out at night time, I probably don¡¯t want to be out in the open when night comes. I could crawl back into the little cave system below but that isn¡¯t exactly an ideal location to sleep. In fact I haven¡¯t being paying attention what with being about to be eaten and all but I¡¯m starving. Maybe it¡¯s time I become the predator else I suppose I could try eating Mr little, but somehow I don¡¯t think he¡¯s going to be very tasty. I should try and find the rest of the group, the muscle man can probably cook us up some food. Before I head off I grab a stick to wedge between the spider silk and start untangling myself. It¡¯s made a lot harder by the stickiness of the web. Keeps getting caught on my skin and pulling my hair out. Finally after almost half an hour of precious daylight I¡¯m mostly free of the spider silk besides a few strands. Picking the direction I think the golden boy was running to I head off. I hope he didn¡¯t bite the bullet, he may be an asshole (even if he¡¯s done nothing wrong since I got here, stupid pretty boy) but I doubt he deserves to be monster food.
Yep he¡¯s monster food. Along with at least 3 of the others, nothing but pools of blood and a few intestine tracts. I guess intestines don¡¯t taste very nice? Strange I thought they were meant to be nutritious, seems odd for a monster to be picky. Well I guess I¡¯m sleeping in the cave if you can call it that. Crawling back down through the crevice until I reach the cave system Mr Little called home. I summon a light and take another quick look around. Mr Little¡¯s cave is right ahead but there are several other branches none of them are big enough for me to fit in though so I guess he¡¯s having company tonight. Ahh right I wasn¡¯t the only one on Mr Little¡¯s menu. Summoning another light I study the wriggling silk bundle and wonder if maybe what¡¯s inside might make a decent meal. Before I can make a decision I suddenly remember there¡¯s a store of some sort right, surely I can buy food from our resident God.
Name: Tommie dolph Gore Points: 305
Welcome to the Xegliea store page. Your options are limited only by your limitation to view an option simply think of the corresponding category.
Wow ok, that¡¯s useful. Rations I mentally project at the floating screen.
Ration category Focus on an item to view a description
Item name Cost
One days rations 20
Two days rations 39
Three days rations 55
One weeks rations 100
One month''s rations 350
Wow based on the fact that killing that so called ¡®Webbing Scorpion¡¯ netted me five points, this stuff is crazy expensive. Also I guess this world is called Xegliea. Useful knowledge. Well ignoring that for now I continue on my way into the cave and pass Mr Little and his buddy. Secure in the knowledge I have a source of food that doesn¡¯t involve spider meat. Past where I was held I find myself in a little opening in the cave not big enough to stand up in, but I can sit down comfortably on my arse without hitting the roof. There are no other entrances besides the one I came from so I don¡¯t have to worry about being surprised although it¡¯s still pitch black down here and I can only maintain a light for a few seconds. Actually thinking about it, it¡¯s a bit strange I haven¡¯t seen any bugs in here, are all the bugs super-sized or was Mr Little killing them all. The ground is made of rock so I guess maybe it¡¯s just not very hospitable for them if they can¡¯t dig through the dirt. Well time to try out these rations then. A few mental commands later and a box appears in front of me. I immediately realise the problem of actually trying to eat in this dark cave. I can only create a light for a few seconds and the more efficient way of producing light requires constant effort. No time like the present then to do a bit of practice. Pulling out some mana I begin practicing manually generating the light rather than simply allowing the mana to form light as it evaporates. After about 5 cycles of this I¡¯m finally able to do it without it requiring my entire focus. Splitting my attention carefully between the two tasks I open the crate and find nothing¡­ What the hell is this? I paid a hundred points for an empty crate. Wait let¡¯s take a look at the description in the store.
One week''s rations
One crate containing 7 sets of meals. Each set consists of a dinner, breakfast and lunch. To retrieve your meals simply think of which meal you desire and then open the crate.
Ok then, closing the crate I think of dinner and open the crate again. The contents aren¡¯t empty this time, I find a bottle of water, and a plate of roast pork, potatoes with gravy, corn, diced carrots and a slice of pumpkin. It looks like heaven. Five minutes later I¡¯m stuffed and satisfied. Not only that I seem to have worked out how to split my focus evenly between my physical tasks and my magic. Hunger really does work wonders. With a content sigh I lie down on my nice rocky bed and fall asleep in seconds. Chapter 3 (new) Argh my back, damn everything is so stiff. Am I ever going to wake up in this world and not be in pain or face imminent death? With a bit of mental effort I summon a small light and take a look around, yep still a dark damp cave. Wait damp? It was dry before. I guess it rained while I was asleep. ¡°ahh¡± I grunt in pain as I stretch as much as I can in the cramped space. Damn damp pants as well, I¡¯ve got all the luck. At least I¡¯m only a bit wet; I could have woken up in a flooded cave. Got to be a glass half full kind of guy in this world. I just sit there for a while until my joints recovers from the unnatural position my body was in last night. Dismissing the light to save my mana, I start massaging my legs to try and get some life back into them. With a sight I start planning my day, I suppose I could just sit here and practice my new found magical abilities but sitting in a cramped dark cave for an entire day doesn¡¯t really appeal to me. First things first, I need my breakfast, got to get your brain food. With a few blind grasps I find my crate and order up my breakfast. Summoning another light I take a look inside the crate. Inside the crate I find a bottle of water, a half sized bottle of orange juice, bacon, two eggs, a sausage and a piece of hard crusty bread. Heaven on earth, I mean heaven on Xegliea? Quick as a fly I start stuffing my face with food to get as much in me as possible before my mana runs out. ¡°Burrrp, oh pardon me¡± hitting my chest a few times I clear my lungs. I only managed to get half the food down so while I wait for my mana to recover a bit I decide to look through the store some more. Well considering my current mana problem what about a larger mana pool?
Store page [Physical Modifications (Core)]
Item name Cost
20% Increase to Mana capacity 50,000
Increased Mana growth 500,000
Increased Mana regen 100,000
Increased Mana density 100,000
Increased Radiation processing(level 2) 1,000,000
Mana tracker 5,000
LOCKED LOCKED
Holy cow so I can buy more than just items from the shop, but actually modify my own body! Also what does it mean by locked? Do I have to do something to unlock more options? There¡¯s no way for me to find out at the moment so let¡¯s try looking at something else. I wonder if body modifications are any cheaper.
Store page [Physical Modifications (General body)]
Item name Cost
General increase to muscle density 100,000
Increased muscle elasticity 1,000,000
Increased bone density 300,000
Improved Bone marrow efficiency 5,000,000
...
Ok wow there¡¯s no way I can afford any of these and the list just goes on and on. Well I can afford some of the more cosmetic ones like tattoos for as little as 200 points each. None of the options that would help me survive are offered for less than 50,000 points so I guess that¡¯s out. Taking a break from my window shopping for a moment I take a quick meal break. I¡¯ve recovered enough mana to create a light for about 30 seconds. Ready, set, gooooooooo! Off to the races I go shoving as much food into my mouth as quickly as I can. Ok so modifying my body is expensive but what about some more items like my crate of rations. Let¡¯s take a look at what firearms are available.
Name: Tommie dolph Gore Points: 205
Sorry the firearm section is not available on this world. Please see below for the reason. If you guys want to use your old earth tech on my world you¡¯re going to have to make it yourself. I¡¯m not giving you guys any cheat weapons, I expect you to fight with tooth and nail to survive here, no softies.
Well that sucks, I have no idea how to make a gun and even if I do I¡¯ve got no materials or tools to make them. I guess I could buy it from the shop but there¡¯s no way I¡¯ve got enough points for that right now, maybe later when I find some people. Ok so I won¡¯t be shooting the badies any time soon, I suppose there¡¯s always a melee weapon? Not that I¡¯m exactly the best physical specimen, I mean c¡¯mon who has time to go to the gym when you¡¯ve got so many late night dungeon raids planned. Disregarding my lack of willpower for a moment I open up the shop menu and think about melee weapons.
Store page [Melee weapons]
Item name Cost
Rock 1
Big rock 2
Really big rock 3
Table lamp 10
Stuffed animal 20
Paper sword 100
¡­
I think someone is having a laugh at my expensive here. Ok that¡¯s my bad I guess melee weapons isn¡¯t very specific. I¡¯m not exactly a big weapons nut so I don¡¯t know what to think about swords I guess?
Store page [Swords I Guess]
Item name Cost
Gladius (iron) 2000
Gladius (copper) 2500
Gladius (plastic) 220
Butterfly sword (Steel) 1200
¡­
Ok that¡¯s enough window shopping for me I think. With a sigh I summon another light and finish the remainder of my meal. It doesn¡¯t look like I can afford any half way decent weapon from the store so I guess I¡¯m back to my original problem, deciding what to do. I guess I should try and find some more people. I mean from the sounds of things everyone on earth is now located on this planet, actually no he said world that¡¯s a bit vague. He could have meant world as in the entire universe or the planet. Assuming for the time being that there¡¯s at least some other people on this planet I think I should try and find them. With a bit of shuffling around I get myself in a position where I can both carry my ration box and climb out of the cave. With a few grunts as I scrape my elbows against the rocky walls I find myself back in the spot where Mr Little tried to eat me. Taking a quick peek around using one of my lights I spot the monster victim still stuck in his silk cage. He¡¯s not wriggling around anymore so I might as well see what it is, I mean why would I pass up on free information. Setting my crate down I grab a rock and tear open the silk sac enough to see the face of the creature. It¡¯s a goblin. Yep Mr Little Fucker caught a goblin, at least what looks like a goblin. It¡¯s got green skin, long pointed ears, a humanoid facial structure and looks to be about the right height for a stereotypical goblin. Are goblins hostile like in the stories or are they just this world¡¯s version of intelligent inhabitants? I can¡¯t make assumptions here and if they¡¯re friendly they might know some magic. I check his neck for a pulse but there isn¡¯t one, I feel pretty bad about letting him die now. I thought it was a bug or something because of the green colouration, I didn¡¯t realise it was an intelligent creature. Nothing I can do for him now though, so I grab my crate and prepare to continue on my way out of this dirty hole. Actually wait really? I didn¡¯t feel anything when I found the remains of those poor people yesterday and yet again here I am walking away from the remains of some poor soul as if it¡¯s nothing. Is this normal to just not care about others¡¯ lives? I mean I pretty much caused this guy¡¯s death by refusing to help him escape his bonds when I freed myself. I never really cared much when I heard about all those people dying on the news, I mean it¡¯s not like I knew them and here I am seeing people die and I still don¡¯t care. Admittedly I don¡¯t actually know them either but it should be different, I¡¯ve actually seen them. I suppose this is an advantage anyways, emotions only slow you down. Once I get out of the cave and take a proper stretch, I take a look around. It¡¯s more or less the same as yesterday except muddier not that it wasn¡¯t muddy before. If I remember correctly I saw the trees first start collapsing in that direction, pointing in a particular direction that looks the same as any other. So I probably want to go the other way, hmm seems like as good a plan as any.
While traveling, I practice summoning and controlling my magical lights and with a bit of experimentation I find I can actually power a spell directly from my core rather than pulling out each strand of mana individually. Now I¡¯m able to create one of my trademark lights in a snap, I think while snapping my fingers and summoning a miniature ball of light above my finger. I¡¯m still only able to keep one normal size ball around for roughly 2 minutes before my core starts heating up. My mana must insulate me from the radiation somehow. Hmm, I wonder if I could purposely create this radiation and focus it somehow as a weapon. Before I could continue that thought any further I hear a shout to my right. ¡°Argh, you idiot it saw you! Now what are we going to eat¡±. An aggravated feminine voice echoes through out the forest. Quickly dropping to the ground the moment I stay perfectly still, just listening. Picking the direction I think the voices came from I start creeping forward through the underbrush, until I see a group of three adolescents arguing with each other. A girl and two males all of them look to be around 16. ¡°If I¡¯m such an idiot why don¡¯t you try and catch some food then, you spoilt bitch¡±! ¡°Screw you! Mr my dad¡¯s the mayor of don¡¯t fucking exist anymore vile¡±. This seems to set him off and he grabs the girl ¡°Don¡¯t even think about bad mouthing my dad¡±, ¡°I will give you the black eyes to match your black soul¡±. Whelp I think I¡¯m going to pass on this particular group. Slowly creeping backwards, while the sounds of the groups argument grow louder, echoing throughout the forest. ¡°You guys need to stop this¡± interrupts the third person in the group who had been watching the other two argue until now. ¡°We killed people, you hear me warm blooded, REAL people! Just so we could get some so called points that we can¡¯t do anything with until we find one of these so called stores! Look around, do you think you can survive here alone. If you continue arguing over stupid things like this you¡¯ll just end up stabbing each other in the back and throw away any hope of surviving this madness.¡± Shit did he just say they murdered the members of their group. That¡¯s intense, thinking about it though it makes sense. The whole ¡®Points¡¯ for items system must be designed to encourage fighting; normally you get nothing but regrets and pain after a fight. In this world however you get rewarded for killing things, sort of like an RPG except instead of experience points you get plain old ¡®Points¡¯. In other words it¡¯s a monetary reward for killing anything and everything. I definitely don¡¯t want to introduce myself to these people. After I¡¯ve put enough distance between myself and the murderous trio I get back up and continue my search for people. Preferably one¡¯s who won¡¯t stab me in the back.
About an hour after my encounter with the fearsome threesome I spot some wildlife, the type that doesn¡¯t (hopefully) eat people. Rabbits. There¡¯s quite a few of them in the middle of a small clearing, it¡¯s a bit hard to count exactly how many there are because they constantly hop between patches of grass. I¡¯m a bit surprised I got this close to them without alerting them all but I¡¯ll take what I can get. Carefully placing my crate on the ground so I can pick up a thick stick lying on the ground I start moving around the edge of the clearing. Moving with as much stealth as I can muster. Every stick I step on makes me want to jump out of my skin but the rabbits don¡¯t seem to so much as bat an eye. Are these things deaf? Making my way to my destination with no fewer than 8 broken twigs, 12 crunchy leaves and almost tripping over an exposed root, I find myself standing behind my prey. A rabbit sitting by the edge of the clearing with his back turned to the trees. Readying my weapon of choice I jump forward and bring down my makeshift weapon on the Rabbits face. Splat.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
For killing one Fluffed Rabbit 1 point awarded.
¡°DIRECT HIT! OH YEAH, who¡¯s the master of stealth?¡± I yell into the air, celebrating my brutal killing. Then I notice something strange, the rest of the rabbits haven¡¯t run off like I expected but they¡¯re just sitting there staring at me. It¡¯s as if they¡¯re unable to process the idea that someone would actually attack them. Then as if a secret signal just went off they all scatter into the background. That was weird. Why do I think like something really bad is about to happen. I should really get out of here. Picking up my kill I rush back to my crate and dump the body inside and run like my life depends on it. It almost certainly does. Five minutes later and one out of breathe Tommie; I finally slow to a walk and hope that I managed to evade whatever danger was lurking back there. Assuming I was even in danger, for all I know there are just no animals that hunt cute, defenceless, oblivious rabbits. Yeahhhhhhhh fat chance of that one, there must be a reason they were so shocked I would dare attack them. So what am I going to do with my kill? I did watch a few instructional videos on youtube about how to gut animals, (I was curious don¡¯t judge) but seeing and doing are two completely different things. Oh well while I catch my breath I decide to take a proper look at my catch but I don¡¯t stop instead just peek inside the crate while I keep walking. I¡¯m no marathon runner, I probably only cleared a kilometre or two when I made my mad dash out of there. It looks like a fat Rabbit, it has really soft fur but other than that just seems like a normal rabbit. I guess this world has a lot more similarities with earth than you would think, considering it¡¯s a completely alien world. Of course Earth never had magic or a magical store where you could spend points you earned by doing certain things Well I haven¡¯t heard anything chasing me yet so I¡¯m going to assume I¡¯m safe and just continue walking around this forest. I had kind of hoped I would have found someone by now, well someone who wouldn¡¯t kill me.
¡° Ahhhh¡­ why¡­ does ¡­ this ¡­ always ¡­ happen ¡­ to ¡­ me¡± I breathlessly say in between each desperate drag of air. There¡¯s something hunting me that much is certain, I was just setting down in preparation to start a fire and cook the rabbit I caught when a blood curdling scream alerted me to my hunter. I was already paranoid after those rabbits weird reaction to me killing their friend but when I heard that noise I didn¡¯t even think. I threw everything back into my crate and legged it. I didn¡¯t think, I didn¡¯t look, I just ran. Hidding behind one of the trees in the forest I grasp the crate to my chest and just keep pulling in breath after breath. I need a weapon. Opening the shop I think of the only thing I might be able to afford. KNIFES, I project mentally.
Store page [Knifes]
Item name Cost
Set of plastic knifes 10
Steel butter knife 80
Stainless steel butter knife 100
Steel Hunting knife 160
¡­
STEEL HUNTING KNIFE! A Knife appears in the dirt in front of me, one side is blunt while the other is wicked sharp coming to a point just above the blunted side of the knife. Dropping my crate I desperately scramble in the dirt to grab the weapon and put my back to the tree again. Taking a moment to calm my breathing I listen to my surroundings again. Whatever is hunting me is making a wailing noise as if it¡¯s distressed the direction the sound is coming from is constantly changing as the thing circles me at a distance. Stepping away from my crate I move towards another tree and peek around the edge. All I see is more trees and bushes, then movement in the distance as something large disturbs an overgrown bush, I quickly jump back behind my cover. Slowly I back away keeping the tree between me and where I saw bushes moving. Quickly I put myself behind another tree further away from the thing and wait. I don¡¯t have to wait long; I soon hear the cracking sound of low hanging branches being ripped from their supporting trees. Then it stops. Why did it stop? ¡°EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH¡± A distressed sound comes from the monsters direction. Taking a deep breath I force myself to take a peek around the tree. Standing there is a giant rabbit. No a giant Fluffed Rabbit. The creature has the same characteristics of the rabbit I killed earlier and it¡¯s standing over the body of said rabbit right now. My crate is lying on its side with the lid knocked off; my empty water bottles are lying in the dirt a short distance away while the monster mourns for its dead. It seems to be distracted at the moment but soon it¡¯s going to start looking for its kin¡¯s murderer. Problem is I¡¯m the one who killed it. I have to take advantage of its moment of weakness now! Creeping forward while its back is turned to me I hold my knife out in my right hand. The thing has at least two feet on me in terms of height so when I¡¯m close enough that I can reach out and touch it; I bend my knees and jump. Wrapping my left arm around its neck as I reach the apex of my jump. Quickly and with all the force I can bring to bear I slam my knife down and plunge it into the creature¡¯s chest just below its left shoulder until the knife stops as it strikes bone with a dull thud. With an ear splitting scream of agony the creature starts thrashing about in an effort to remove me from its back. Using the knife as leverage I hold on for dear life as it jumps backwards and forwards on the spot before it quickly changes direction and charges at the nearest tree. Not good with the way this things jump it¡¯s going to end up crushing me between it and the tree. Tightening my grip on its neck I pull on the knife until it comes lose. The creature lets out a scream but continues its charge towards the tree. Just as it¡¯s about to begin its jump I push myself off just in time to see the creature head butting the tree. Pieces of bark go flying in every direction as the tree cracks under the force of the impact and the giant Rabbit monster is left stunned. Before the creature can recover I jump, onto its back again and bring my knife down on it. This time I aim for something that¡¯s going to give this thing something to scream about alright, its eye. I wouldn¡¯t have been able to hit it before while it was moving all over the place but now that it¡¯s stunned I have no trouble hitting my target. With a sickening squelch sound my knife barrel right through the monsters eye until the hilt gets stuck in narrowing eye socket. The creature¡¯s makes no noise this time and simple collapses to the ground taking me with it.
For killing one Fluffed Rabbit Guardian 100 point awarded. For your first monster kill, bonus 500 points.
Dropping down to the ground I just take a moment to breathe. ¡°God damn that was intense.¡± I almost got eaten by a Rabbit of all things. Also what did that blue box mean by my first monster kill? How did Mr Little not count as my first kill! Is this glowing blue box trying to say that a giant spider-scorpion hybrid isn¡¯t considered a monster? Look Mr mysterious God like entity I don¡¯t know where you get your information from but I have to insist that you¡¯re wrong in this instance. Oh what does it matter how the thing is classified, all I need to know is it wants to kill me and that¡¯s more than enough reason to put it on my big bad list. What am I even going to do with the body of this oversized rabbit? While it¡¯s tempting to try and cut it up I don¡¯t think it¡¯s the best idea. The smell of blood is probably going to attract all sorts of predators and there¡¯s no way I can carry that thing around with me. Collecting the bottles and the normal sized rabbit that fell out of the crate in the guardian¡¯s rampage I dump them back in the crate and seal it. Quickly and without taking a moment to think about it, I start heading off through the forest again.
The sun has almost set and there¡¯s no obvious path to follow. So with nothing else to do and nowhere to hide, I start gathering sticks and dead wood in preparation for making a fire. After a few minutes of gathering I¡¯ve collected enough wood to make a decent fire. I start cutting fine strips off one of the sticks using my hunting knife, in a vain attempt to make tinder. I¡¯m met with limited success. Turns out it¡¯s a lot harder to make decent tinder then you would think. After 30 minutes of fruitless effort using two sticks to make a fire, I finally make the connection I should have made right away. What¡¯s a common way for kids to starts fires? Magnifying glass. I don¡¯t need a magnifying glass to focus light I¡¯m a glorified light wizard. Summoning a ball of light I try and focus the light onto a single point on my pile of wood and instantly realise the problem. How do I focus the light? All I¡¯ve done so far is move some mana around in a predefined shape to create a ball of light. Once the mana reaches the end of the swirly mess of a spell it just vanishes and become light, there¡¯s no control over the actual light. Okay so a preset pattern of swirls creates a ball of light so maybe if I change the pattern ever so slightly I can change what form the light takes. Where though, there are at least 28 bends in the thing and it doesn¡¯t appear to contain any repeating segments. Well I guess I can just try experimenting a little bit. I try removing a bend and just feel my mana swirl around in a meaningless shape, ok what about an extra shape let¡¯s try putting a square at the end. As the mana reaches the end instead of a ball of light, a square plane barely 5cm by 5cm appears in front of me. Ok this is something the first original pattern must determine the type of spell I¡¯m casting and anything extra changes its function. This time I create the normal light ball pattern but surround it with a cone coming to a point away from the centre of the spell. With the formation complete the mana vanishes almost instantly as a rainbow of colours pour out from my new spell. Not quite what I was looking for, let¡¯s try reversing it; nope that just reverses the pattern of the rainbow. Ok maybe I gave up on removing parts of the spell too early, why does the light come out as a point of light rather than a beam in the first place. I summon a ball of light and this time I study the formation while it¡¯s working. Focusing on it and moving some excess mana around the formation, trying to see if I can feel anything from it. Oh I wasn¡¯t even close with my ideas on how magic works, there are more layers! I can see my mana reaching the end of the spell formation I¡¯ve come to know as my light spell and dropping through to another layer. At least that¡¯s the closest I can come to describing what happens, almost like there¡¯s more space there then there should be. In the secondary layer the mana is pulled along by random strings of mana? No it¡¯s not mana I¡¯m not sure what it is but it¡¯s different. The strings pull the light in random direction creating what appears to be a point of light radiating in all directions equally. It¡¯s not really equal just random enough that it appears to be. So the question is can I change these lines? With a mental effort I try picturing the lines moving but nothing happens. Didn¡¯t expect that to work next I try creating a thread of mana and pushing it into this layer. It resists like it doesn¡¯t want to pass over but eventually I have a thread of mana in this new found layer. Taking my thread I wrap it around the lines, let¡¯s call them ¡®Vortel¡¯ lines for now and create a clear area where only one ¡®Vortel¡¯ lines passes through. Making sure the Vortel line heads in the direction of my prepared firewood, I create my light spell so it ends on the vortel line I want and no others. I wait maintaining the spell for as long as I can, my chest starts tingling but I hold it for longer and then a piece of my tinder starts glowing. FIRE! Yes took a lot longer for it to start then I expected but I created fire using magic! This is progress soon I¡¯ll be shooting laser beams out my eyes like superman. Ok maybe not but it¡¯s something. Taking a look around I realise one of the trees behind me has a glowing piece of bark. Wait no of course! The Vortel line travels in two directions only half the light was traveling towards my fire wood. I¡¯m glad I wasn¡¯t standing in the path of the beam, I could have set my clothes on fire. Now time to try and make my own food. I don¡¯t really have a clue how I¡¯m going to gut this rabbit, I know that I want to avoid cutting open the guts and remove them from the body whole. The question is how am I going to do that.
My god that was horrible after cutting the skin and removing the insides I¡¯m left with a rabbit carcass roasting over the fire. I managed to keep most of the fur intact and I understand now why it was called a Fluffed Vleog, its almost all fur. I probably did a lot of things wrong and wasted a decent amount of usable meat but it¡¯s something. Only enough meat for a few bites but it means I can get food without resorting to using my points. Assuming I¡¯m even going to be able to force myself to eat meat after that experience. I tried to find a book on how to butcher animals in the system shop but all I was met with was this annoying message.
Name: Tommie dolph Gore Points: 645
Sorry the book section is not available on this world. Please see below for the reason. No can do buddy I can¡¯t be giving out books containing valuable information. I know all you book worms believe in sharing information and all that nonsense but if you want to share my knowledge you¡¯re going to have to do it in your own time.
After I finished butchering the thing I was hoping I would get an achievement but I guess skinning and gutting an animal isn¡¯t worthy of notice. It may even become a daily chore; I hope I can find a clean source of water before that happens though. At the moment I¡¯m just hoping if I cook the meat enough I won¡¯t have to worry about it being dirty because I didn¡¯t have anything to wash the carcass with. Half an hour later, after forcing myself to eat the rabbit meat I¡¯m left tired and sore after a long day¡¯s journey. Carefully I start removing my shoes from my blister filled feet and toss them to the side. I guess I¡¯m going to need to buy new shoes in the morning with some points I got from killing the big fluff ball. Now how am I going to survive night fall without dying in my sleep? Can I buy some magical protection from the store? I got nothing else to try.
Store page [Area protection]
Item name Cost
Minor circle of protection 2500
Minor circle of repulsion 500
Minor circle of mending 10,000
Minor circle of strength 10,000
¡­
Minor circle of repulsion
A magical circle of repulsion that makes living creatures less likely to notice occupants and feel repulsed by the idea of stepping into the circle. The ring comes pre-charged with 12 hours¡¯ worth of use and its location and size is determined by the user¡¯s projection at the time of purchase. Restrictions: minimum size 3 metre radius, Maximum size 5 metre radius. Warning: Carvings in dirt are unlikely to be effective and will likely be damaged, recommended source material, wood, stone or hard metal.
Damn it more work to do, I just want to go to sleep. With an effort I start collecting large branches and cutting them down the middle using my hunting knife to create flat pieces of wood. It takes almost two hours and I have to add some more wood to my fire at the end of it, but I¡¯m left with a 3 metre circle of wood made up of several individual pieces of wood. Purchasing the circle of repulsion I focus on my makeshift circle and watch as the wood starts to merge together and glowing symbols appear in the wood. Taking a closer looks at the symbols, I notice they look a bit like hieroglyphics of some sort but with lines connecting each individual symbol. I¡¯m going to have to copy this all down somehow when I wake up. Finally at last I lay down by my fire and quickly drift off to a deep sleep.
¡°Turn the light off I¡¯m trying to sleep!¡± I yell into the clearing before realising where I am and the light I want turned off is the sun. I¡¯m not quite that good at magic¡­ Yet. At least I¡¯m not in pain this time. With a light stretch I open my magical crate and have my breakfast. It¡¯s the same as last time but still just as amazing. So what have I got left in my box of wonders, six dinners, seven lunches and five breakfasts. If I continue only having two meals a day I can spread this out enough to last 10 days. I¡¯m tempted to continue playing around with magic after my latest success but I don¡¯t think that¡¯s such a great idea until I can find somewhere safe or a group of people; preferably both. I can add the ability to create a camp fire to my short list of magical abilities but I¡¯m still clueless as to how to make a spell that would be useful in battle. It takes all my energies just to create a simple ball of light for 2 minutes, although I think I can last a little longer now but it¡¯s hard to tell without a more precise method of timing than, one thousand, two thousand¡­ I guess I should start copying down that circle, first I need something to write on. I can¡¯t buy books but what about paper?
Store page [Paper]
Item name Cost
A0 pack of paper 10
A1 pack of paper 8
A2 pack of paper 5
A3 pack of paper 3
A4 pack of paper 2
¡­
Ok that seems strange I can purchase paper but not books themselves? Wait no I can¡¯t purchase books with writing in them! Making another quick request from the store I¡¯m presented with some more enticing options for a wannabe wizard.
Store page [Blank books]
Item name Cost
A4 notebook 200 pages (leather binding) 10
A4 gridded notebook 200 pages (leather binding) 10
A4 notebook 300 pages (leather binding) 12
A4 gridded notebook 300 pages (leather binding) 12
A4 notebook 200 pages (cardboard binding) 8
A4 gridded notebook 200 pages (cardboard binding) 8
A4 notebook 300 pages (cardboard binding) 10
A4 gridded notebook 300 pages (cardboard binding) 10
Purchasing a 300 page notebook with leather binding (I can afford the luxury) I start copying down the runes in my circle of hiding. It¡¯s difficult and slow going and I¡¯m not sure I¡¯ll ever be able to recreate this circle using just my notes but it¡¯s better than nothing. The thing did cost me a whopping 500 points, so I¡¯m going to get as much out of it as I can. Now with that taken of care let¡¯s think about how to find people. If I made a campfire then other people probably did the same so if I can find some high ground I can probably locate a camp by following the smoke. Quickly purchasing a pair of boots for 50 points, I take a look around and start heading west which appears to have a slight incline to it.
30 minutes later I¡¯m standing in a clearing overlooking a forest that seems to go on forever. I count at least 5 campfires that are still smoking. So progress I don¡¯t know why I didn¡¯t try this first, it seems obvious in retrospect. Maybe I wouldn¡¯t have had to fight a giant rabbit if I wasn¡¯t so oblivious. The negative of this little trip is the forest; I really do mean it seems to go on forever. My view doesn¡¯t end with mountains like you always see in those nature photos, but the horizon as the distance is so great the curvature of the planet is blocking my view. I¡¯ve seen forests before but never one this large then again I didn¡¯t travel that much when I was on earth. Either way I guess it¡¯s time to pick one of those smoke trails, first though I¡¯m going to stop off at a creek I can see between me and the camp and refill my empty water bottles. I¡¯ve been keeping my empty bottles from my ration crate meals because I doubt I¡¯m going to find something as handy as a water bottle for carrying around liquids.
The creek is barely deep enough to come up my waist but taking advantage of the chance to finally take a bath I quickly strip and jump in. The water is surprisingly warm, not enough to avoid shivering but warmer than you would expect for the early hours of the morning. As I splash around trying to get all the caked dirt and mud off my skin I realise my chest is red, not a light sun burn red. No it looks like I¡¯ve been stranded in a desert for a month, when did this happen. Was this cause by that incident in the cave, when I ran out of mana? I can¡¯t verify it for sure but I don¡¯t remember any other occurrences that could cause this. I thought it was some sort of spiritual or mental burn, I didn¡¯t realise it was actually burning me. Running out of mana may be more dangerous then I realised, I¡¯m not a cancer expert but being exposed to high energy radiation seems like a great way to get cancer. I may need that healing magic more than I realised. Chapter 4 (new) Taking a moment to truly think. I¡¯ve been ignoring a lot of my concerns about this whole magically transported to another world thing. I have no idea where my family is and if the casualty rate is as high as I think it is there¡¯s a good chance they¡¯re dead already. I may not like it but it¡¯s a pretty likely occurrence. Then there¡¯s this¡­ self-inflicted wound I gave myself when I was paralysed and used up all my mana. It¡¯s possible I¡¯ve already killed myself and I just don¡¯t know it yet, meaning I¡¯m running on borrowed time. I don¡¯t know what to think about that, it¡¯s hard to truly comprehend your own mortality when you can¡¯t even see the threat. If I¡¯m dying what do I even do differently other than just keep on moving, I can¡¯t really see any other options. If my family are dead, what can I do besides keep on living? I could give up and end it but I don¡¯t think I¡¯m ready for that yet while there¡¯s still hope. Both of these problems are purely hypothetical as well, I have no way of knowing if my family is alive or dead and this burn on my chest could be just that, a burn. Actually there might be a way to check. With a mental command I summon the shop menu and think medical category.
Name: Tommie dolph Gore Points: 84
Sorry the medical section of the store is locked to you until you acquire the required amount of achievement points. Required points remaining: 49094
Well crap that seems like a lot. I may be new to this whole fantasy world thing but I can¡¯t imagine getting 50,000 points is something you can do in an afternoon. I suppose killing a dragon might do it but I don¡¯t rate my chances too high on that front. Assuming dragons are even real. Ok like I said earlier, doesn¡¯t really matter I still only have two options; keep moving or give up and die. Time to start moving.
The underbrush is growing thicker and the clearance between trees shrinks as I make my way to the campfire I saw from the hill. It seems like this part of the forest is particularly thick, which suggests it¡¯s older. Hopefully means there are no tree destroying, people eating monsters around here. Haha who am I kidding everything here would probably eat a human if it was given half a chance. I¡¯m surprised I didn¡¯t wake up to monsters nibbling on my sleep while I slept by my campfire, magic circle or not. A few rabbits jump out of the bush I¡¯m pushing aside and scatter into the distance as I force my way through. Damn if I was paying attention I could have caught myself some lunch. A yell interrupts my thoughts ¡°YOU THERE STOP AND IDENTIFY YOURSELF¡±. Instantly I come to a stop and start looking around trying to find the source of the voice. Damn that was stupid; I should have been paying attention to my surroundings. Where is he though I still don¡¯t see anyone, as I start to look up into the trees the voice yells at again, ¡°I SAID IDENTIFY YOURSELF NOW¡±! ¡°Calm down captain I mean you no harm, my names Tommie and I come in peace¡±. I reply back into the empty forest while giving the Vulcan salute in the general directions of the voice. ¡°You think you¡¯re funny boy? What¡¯s to stop me shooting you right now¡±? Shoot me? He has a gun? ¡°You have a gun? All I came here with was some clothes¡±. So unfair. ¡°No I don¡¯t have a gun boy; I¡¯ve got the next best thing in this new world¡±. The man says menacingly as he drops down from a tree about 20 meters in front of me. If I hadn¡¯t seen him drop down I wouldn¡¯t have been able to see him through the thick foliage. Now¡¯s my chance I could run while his view of me is blocked or I could hope that he¡¯s friendly. Both options stink something truly but I can¡¯t assume he¡¯s alone if he¡¯s dropping down now maybe that means he¡¯s got friends who have moved to surround me. A tall man with a thick handle bar moustache and a recently shaved head steps through the bush. He¡¯s carrying a large bow pointed in my direction with an arrow notched at the string but not pulled back. It¡¯s only the third day in this new world and someone¡¯s already worked out how to make their own weapons unless of course he simply bought it from the store. ¡°So Tom, what are you doing out here and why are you all alone¡±? Inquires the bowman with a carefully controlled tone. ¡°I was looking for people and saw the smoke from your fire. As for why I¡¯m alone ¡­ well my group all died. Eaten by some sort of monster.¡± After a pause and the man makes no move to continue the conversation other than drawing the string on his bow back ever so slightly I continue my story. ¡°I never saw it, but it was big enough to make the ground shake and in the mad rush to get away, one of the others pushed me to the ground. It ended up being what saved me as I spotted a small opening in the ground and managed to squeeze myself into the hole and wait it out¡±. I purposefully omit my encounter with Mr Little; the hungry, hungry spider and the big fluffy rabbit. ¡°After that I tried finding everyone again but all I found was some bloody remains. I spent two nights out in the open with nothing but a campfire for protection and now I¡¯m here¡±. I finish at last. ¡°So you¡¯re the only survivor from your group?¡±, ¡°How many people were in your group?¡± He Probes. ¡°Eight including myself.¡± I reply back without hesitation. With a sigh the man finally lowers his bow, ¡°Fine I guess we can trust you for now, I can¡¯t imagine you can do much damage by yourself anyways; follow me then¡±. He starts moving through the forest back in the direction he came from and I quickly fall in behind him. ¡°So how many people are in your group¡±? I prod. ¡°No idea at least a few hundred¡± replies my ex-interrogator. Hundreds? That¡¯s a bit different to what I woke up to.
After emerging through the last of the trees I find myself faced with utter chaos. People everywhere with rubbish just throw about the place without any apparent care. Looks like a few people tried making leant-tos using nothing but sticks and branches. Some of the lean-tos aren¡¯t half bad but most of them look like they¡¯ll collapse if you looked at them too hard. There are several fires dotted around the clearing and judging by the efforts in the background the clearing wasn¡¯t entirely natural. A group of men are busy bashing and pulling at a tree in the distance and a few trees lay nearby on their side. A testimony to the workers abilities. ¡°Yeah it¡¯s not much but it¡¯s all we have right now, just don¡¯t cause any trouble ok¡± Says my guide before fading back the way we came before I can thank him. Well that was strange; now what do I do, I know no one here. I guess first thing first I should do is try and fix that, let¡¯s see if there are any familiar faces here.
After almost an hour of wondering around and trying to spot anyone I knew from earth in the crowd I decide to admit defeat and look for somewhere to set down. Moving to the edge of the forest and hiding behind a tree so no one can see what I¡¯m doing, I open my crate and pull out my first lunch from the magical crate. I know I can make my supplies last longer if I keep to two meals a day but, considering I may be dying I think I¡¯ll take the time to enjoy some luxury. Pulling out the plate of food from the crate I find myself face to face with a truly Australian meal, minus the greenery of course. A pair of fish deep fried fish battered to perfection, a small salad with assorted vegetables a roll of bread and a small serving of hot chips. I don¡¯t know what I¡¯m going to do when I finish all the food in this crate. I must be one of the few people with enough luck to be eating earth food in our new reality. Considering what I went through to get it though I think I deserve it. There¡¯s no water bottle with my lunch though which seems strange considering how salty the meal is but I make do finishing off two of the three bottles I filled up earlier from the creek. The creek continued for a while and is probably only a half hour walk from this camp, so I should be fine for water. Now I suppose this camp is the closest I¡¯ll come to a safe harbour the question is do I reveal the fact that I can do magic or try and keep it a secret. I have no idea if it¡¯s common knowledge here or not. That is until I see a woman juggling three balls of fire without touching them as if it¡¯s the most natural thing in the world. Ok so they know magic is real and damn is that so much more impressive than my lights. What¡¯s strange though is I can¡¯t feel anything from them, whenever I create my little lights I can feel in my head exactly where they are. Is that because I¡¯m the one controlling them or is it something else? I decide to move closer to the fire juggling woman; I¡¯m not quite willing to ask for help with magic assuming she would even want to help me, but I can probably learn a thing or too if I can just see what she¡¯s doing. I approach the group with the fire mage as if I¡¯m meant to be here, internally though I¡¯m worried out of my mind; how will she react if she senses that I can do magic? Will she alert the other¡¯s and force me to reveal everything I know about magic, turn me into a magical battery to help others cast spells? I haven¡¯t seen anything to suggest these people are aggressive to others but she¡¯s the only person I¡¯ve seen actively using magic, I can¡¯t imagine it¡¯s very common. Finding myself standing before the group staring at the girl twirling fireballs around I realise I¡¯ve been standing there staring at her for a while now. She just gives me a look and raises an eyebrow but otherwise ignores me without any comment. Quckly looking away I take a look at the rest of people in the mages group, a few of them are looking at me with half smiles while the rest just seem to be sitting down with closed eyes as if they¡¯re concentrating. Maybe they¡¯re all mages and are practicing their mana control? Reaching into my core where my mana is I pull a thin thread out and lay it out around the area like fishing net and suddenly I can feel what¡¯s going on in the mystical realm. I can see the fire mage¡¯s mana streaming out from her core to the balls of the fire at a truly prodigious rate; in a few seconds she¡¯s used enough mana to run my core dry several times over. Damn I may not be as capable a mage as I first thought if that¡¯s the kind of power this woman has. She¡¯s being maintaining those fireballs for at least a few minutes since I noticed. How much mana does the woman have? She seems to notice my mana net and looks over at me giving me a knowing smile but otherwise keeps her silence. Looking at what the others in the group are doing I see a few of the others are moving their mana around their body but none have brought it outside themselves. I don¡¯t know what they¡¯re doing but it¡¯s nowhere near as interesting as the fire lady. Deciding to be a little bold I take a seat by the group and focus on what the woman is doing making my mana thicker around where she works. I can really feel her mana now it has a slimy feel to it, almost alien. Mana is pouring out from her core and tracing a simple shape in the air. It¡¯s a closed loop and looks like a 2d version of a fire if a child was given the task of drawing fire. Most of the mana is actually just floating away from the formation rather than following the pattern, but with her reservoirs I guess it doesn¡¯t matter. Compressing my detection net even further around the powerful woman I can begin to see what¡¯s happening down in the second layer. She¡¯s got a circle of mana around each of the balls preventing any of Vortel lines from touching the area where she¡¯s keeping her fire spell. If there are no Vortel lines touching her spell to determine its direction of effect, does that mean she has complete control over its action or does that just keep spell effects contained in her ball of mana? Moving my hand a little closer to the fire balls I can feel the heat radiating off of them. Pulling the mana from my detection net back into myself I try replicating the fire mages spell, I start moving my mana in the same shape as the woman. The mana doesn¡¯t resist like when I create my light balls, finishing the pattern I circulate the mana several times waiting for something to happen. But nothing happens it¡¯s just a fancy shape with no meaning, argh doesn¡¯t matter anyways I don¡¯t have mana supplies as large as that that woman does for a spell like that to be useful. Instead I try to replicate her method of manipulating the second layer, I should give the layer itself a name, ¡®Control Layer¡¯ sounds alright. Pushing all the Vortel lines away I create a clear bubble of space containing nothing but my mana. Then I form my light spell ending inside the clear bubble and wait and see what happens. Instead of a ball of light forming the mana just floods into the control layer and start collecting inside the bubble I made, unable to escape the container of mana. This mana however is not like my normal mana and it seems to take a lot of effort to impart any sort of change on it. Trying to get a feel for it I realise it¡¯s not pure anymore; it has an elemental feel attached to it. Light! Mana can take the aspect of different elements, which means the fire lady must be creating fire mana somehow. At least that¡¯s what I think is happening. Forcing my will upon the light mana I try moving it around my little bubble and after getting it swirling around a little bit I finally try pushing it back to the first layer where my pure mana comes from. There¡¯s a moment of resistance and then with a surge and a flash of light the mana is gone. Interesting so when I forced the attuned mana to jump back up a layer it released its stored element into the physical world. ¡°Woah who made that flash of light¡±? Asks a startled man, who until this point looked like he had been dozing ¡°The new guy over there did it, he was trying to copy my little trick with fire I think¡± Replies the fire mage. She¡¯s finally stopped juggling her balls of fire and is just looking at me now. ¡°Yeah sorry¡­ I was just wondering what would happen¡±. I reply ¡°It¡¯s a good trick, could make a decent flashbang if you put some more power into it¡± says another man. ¡°I can¡¯t say I¡¯ve ever seen you before did you just join our little magic circus?¡± Asks another man, as the whole group starts to come back to the physical world and looks my way. ¡°No I only just found this place and saw that lady¡±, I point to the fire mage ¡°Juggling fireballs. So I decided to come over and see how she was doing it.¡±If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. ¡°Haha good luck with that one, so far she¡¯s the only person able to create and manipulate fire like that. I mean a few of us have had some minor success making things hot enough, that they start to burn but no one can conjure fireballs.¡± Replies the same man who made the flashbang comment. Another man steps forward and introduces himself ¡°Come on guys let¡¯s at least introduce ourselves to this young lad and potential recruit. I¡¯m Corey my speciality is telekinesis¡± He says while offering his hand. Grasping his hand I reply ¡°Tommie or just Tom and what do you mean by speciality?¡± ¡°Well that¡¯s a long story but it seems like everyone can do at least one thing with magic without really trying. It¡¯s normally something simple like making your footsteps quieter or being able to repel insects. ¡± Explains Corey. ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s a bit more complicated than that, you need to have at least some basic control of your magical energy and some of the more complicated abilities requires some idea of what you¡¯re doing.¡± Interrupts another man, ¡°Anyways I¡¯m Mason and my talent lies in strengthening my body, at the moment all I can do is make myself a bit stronger but I think I¡¯m close to working out how to make my body more durable too.¡± A woman steps forward this time ¡°Hi I¡¯m Hannah and my special talents lies in physical senses. Yes I know that¡¯s a bit vague but basically means I can feel my surroundings using magic, I know anyone can do that but it¡¯s the same story for all of our abilities I¡¯m just a bit better at it then everyone else.¡± Hannah was gorgeous; there was no other way of explaining it. She had red hair, a stunning physique with curves in all the right places and a cute button nose. Everything about her screamed sex appeal. ¡°Rey, that¡¯s my name that is. As for my ability I can make my energy form physical items, useful for forming impromptu weapons.¡± Says a skinny man with long black hair reaching halfway down his back. He looks like he would fit in perfectly at a Goth convention back on earth. ¡°Saving the best for last I see¡± Says another man with a wink ¡°I¡¯m Max, I can project my thoughts into people¡¯s mind! Pretty cool ha?¡± Says a short man who looks to be about five foot four and ready to burst with all the energy he has bottled up. ¡°Yeah wow all you guys can do pretty cool stuff, I uhh¡­ I can make well ¡­ I can make light¡± I stammer out. ¡°It sounds pretty lame now compared to what you guys can do.¡± ¡°Non-sense we can all learn what comes natural to others if we study it enough, the most important thing seems to be mastering control of your magical energies and that¡¯s what you¡¯ve done. Besides I wouldn¡¯t exactly call manipulating light a lame ability, you could blind your enemies and provide illumination where others can¡¯t.¡± Says Corey. ¡°Maybe even create laser beam or something ha?¡± He says while raising his eyebrow with a small grin on his face. ¡°Yeah you¡¯re right just would have been pretty cool if my natural ability had been something a bit cooler. What about her though what¡¯s her name and ability?¡± I say while pointing at the fire lady. Looking at her she didn¡¯t look like much; a short woman who could be anywhere between the age of 14 and 30 but after seeing what she could do with her magic I doubt she¡¯s someone you can take lightly. ¡°HER! Name is Kensley and if you haven¡¯t already realised by now I can manipulate fire. Any other questions of great importance you want to ask me? I suppose you want me to teach you to create fire like I do, well I don¡¯t know how and I frankly don¡¯t care.¡± The words are flying out of her mouth full of contempt and scorn. After she¡¯s certain she made her point she lets out a ¡°Humph¡± and starts juggling balls of fire again. Wow that seemed like a total reversal, where did that anger come from. ¡°Yeah she¡¯s a bit like, her mood changes at the drop of a pin, its best just to ignore that¡± Says an emotionless and toneless voice. Looking around for the source of the voice I spot Max smiling at me. With a quiet whisper I respond ¡°Did you just talk to me¡±. With a growing smile he just nods and winks at me. ¡°Alright well welcome to the group Tom but I guess we should all keep practicing our magic, we really have no idea when we might need to fight off some monsters. I don¡¯t know if you¡¯ve heard but a few of the groups that arrived here have come bearing stories of creatures big enough to topple trees with ease¡±. Says Corey who at this point I¡¯ve come to think of as the impromptu leader of this small group of mages just based on the way he acts. ¡°Yeah I heard.¡± I reply as everyone gets back into their spots and continues doing whatever it was they were doing. ¡°At the moment we¡¯re all practicing our general control of mana but later we¡¯ll be doing some more practical magic, you¡¯re more than welcome to watch us as we work and see if you can work out how to replicate what we do¡±. With that they all settle down and their mana starts to fill the air again. Well this isn¡¯t so bad if I can learn a few of these peoples abilities I¡¯ll be able to finally expand my reservoir of spells. Why does it feel like something is wrong though, this is exactly what I was after. With the support of these people I can become strong enough to look for my family or if I¡¯m lucky I might hear news of other groups similar to this one. Well enough of that I should do what Corey said and start practicing my magic. First thing I want to try is replicating that beam of light I created last night but I don¡¯t think it would be a good idea to try that here around other people. I could blind someone by accident if I hit their eye or maybe even something worse. With a sigh I pick up my crate and head back to the tree I was eating behind earlier. Grabbing a stick lying on the ground nearby, I start to create a clear space in the control layer using my mana again, this time instead of creating a solid bubble of mana I leave a small opening roughly facing the stick in my hand. It¡¯s a lot harder to work out where something is located in the control layer than it is in the first layer so I can only hope it works. Once I¡¯m comfortable with my setup I start pumping light mana into the thing and watch as some escapes through the opening but instead of turning into light the mana simply travels until it hits a Vortel line. Resulting in a lacklustre light show as it seems to flicker in and out of existence. Well that was pretty disappointing but I suppose it made sense, there was nothing forcing the light mana to take on a physical form just because it left the bubble I had made with my mana. At the same time it does make something a bit more obvious about what exactly the Vortel lines are. They must be tears, or holes in the control layer that allow mana to directly enter the physical world. So if these opening occur naturally maybe I can create an artificial opening into the physical realm and control which direction the light goes. It takes almost an hour of experimentation to create what I want but eventually I¡¯m left with a pin prick tear in the control layer placed just outside a bubble of my own mana containing as much light mana as I can create without losing control of the whole thing. Slowly I open a hole in my bubble and push my light mana down to the tear as fast as I can, hoping that the direction my mana is traveling when it enters the physical world will determine which way the light it produces travels. With an audible pop the stick I¡¯m using as a target starts sizzling and a small burn mark appears exactly where I was aiming. It worked! ¡°YESSSSSSS¡± I yell. ¡°Are you alright?¡± Inquires a voice from behind me. ¡°Yeah sorry I¡¯m fine it¡¯s just I¡¯ve been trying to do something for quite a while now and have only just gotten it working.¡± I reply as I turn around to face the man. It¡¯s him the man with the bow, who found me while I was trying to get close to this place. ¡°Ha figured it might be you, so I hear you can do magic then. Wonder why you never told me that when I first found you hmm?¡± He asks. I just stare blankly in response. ¡°Relax you¡¯re not in any trouble I don¡¯t blame you for keeping it a secret I just came here because I heard you can make light, is this correct?¡± he continues. ¡° Ahhh well yes, it¡¯s a bit uhhh you know, doesn¡¯t last that long¡± I mumble out. He just stares blankly at me and shakes his head and sighs. ¡°Look I never properly introduced myself before but my names Mayson, I suppose you¡¯ve been hearing a lot of names lately so I don¡¯t blame you if you forget it. I know this whole other world thing is a lot to take in but we all need to work together if we¡¯re going to survive here, don¡¯t you agree?¡± ¡°Yes, of course that¡¯s why I was looking for other people. I¡¯m not an idiot I knew my chances of surviving by myself were close to zilch; especially after what happened to my group.¡± ¡°Good, look I came here looking for someone possessing some talent with this magic stuff. I know it might seem like a lot to ask but eventually we¡¯re going to have to incorporate some magic users with our hunters and I was hoping someone from that group back there would be willing to join us. Problem is they all want to sit around and practice their craft, but they¡¯re more than happy to take advantage of the food we bring in. Bunch of useless fools if you ask me but I can see how people might be warry to put themselves in danger with nothing but a few tricks they¡¯ve learnt in the few days we¡¯ve been here.¡± ¡°Oh I see, you know all I can do is create light right¡±? Producing a ball of light to show him, rather than a disappointed look like I expected, a small grin starts creeping across his face. ¡°That¡¯s actually a lot more useful then you might think. Yesterday we found the entrance to a cave but it was too dark to explore any further so we came back. We did however manage to kill one of the monsters at the entrance. It¡¯s some sort of spider-scorpion hybrid its venom won¡¯t kill you but it¡¯ll put you to sleep right fast and leave you paralysed for a while after waking up.¡± I have no words, I can¡¯t believe it he wants me to help hunt Mr Little¡¯s family. He seems to take my silence as consideration and continues on. ¡°Yeah you might think why don¡¯t we just create some makeshift torches from branches and use that to the light the way and we have thought about it. The problem is they don¡¯t produce as much light as you would expect and seem to create shadows everywhere which these crafty buggers black bodies are perfect at hiding in. You don¡¯t have to fight but if you could just provide some light for us to fight in, it would make all the difference.¡± ¡°Why do you even want to kill them anyways? Are you planning on eating them?¡± I ask. ¡°No, no, no, you can¡¯t eat them! Their meat is disgusting and probably poisonous in large enough quantities. No we want to hunt them because they¡¯re worth five points each, enough to buy a week¡¯s worth of rations for a single person from the store that voice in the void told us about. The rations aren¡¯t very tasty and you need access to hot water to cook them but they¡¯re filling and our best source of food at the moment.¡± What? Five points buys a weeks¡¯ worth of rations? I spent 100 points but mine didn¡¯t require any hot water to cook, it was already prepared. Did I waste my points on the luxury version of rations¡­? GOD damn it. Oh well I can¡¯t say I was disappointed at the very least, a little bit of luxury isn¡¯t the worst thing. As for going with this man to hunt those bugs, what am I going to do? I can¡¯t say the idea fills me with joy but it could be useful to get some more experience fighting the monsters from this world. Besides I¡¯ll be in a group and if we¡¯re only fighting those bugs it should be easy. ¡°Alright I¡¯ll help.¡± I mumble. He seems a bit shocked; I don¡¯t think he actually expected me to go with him. I would feel a little insulted but if I hadn¡¯t already fought one of these guys before and known how weak they were without the element of surprise I probably would have said no. So I can¡¯t really blame him for being surprised. ¡°That¡¯s great! Come on then let¡¯s go I¡¯ll introduce you to the rest of the group¡±.
Twenty minutes after agreeing to come along I have a spear or more like a sharpened stick to be honest, shoved in my hands and we¡¯re off running through the forest. I barely had time to give my stuff to the group of mages to look after. There are ten of us and apart from Mayson who was the first person I had the displeasure of meeting in this place I don¡¯t know any of the others. Everyone¡¯s carrying the same weapon except for two of the bigger looking guys who are carrying wooden clubs with rocks attached to the end for added weight. Then of course there¡¯s Mayson with his bow and arrow. I doubt anyone in this group is a stranger to the gym and they have no trouble keeping up a pace that leaves me breathless. I don¡¯t know why they¡¯re in such a rush there¡¯s still at least 4 or 5 hours left in the day before darkness hits and the cave is meant to be nearby. It takes nearly 10 minutes of physical torture before we finally reach the cave and I almost collapse when we finally stop. I think I¡¯ve made the mistake of assuming my best tool in this new world is my new found magical powers. My body needs just as much love and attention as my magic does if I¡¯m going to survive here. Running away from things that are stronger than you is a particular favourite of most people that like living. ¡°Ok everyone start preparing your torches, Samuel start collecting some tinder so we can start a fire¡± Says Mayson with a commanding voice. ¡°I can start a fire for you if you want¡± I point out as everyone starts pulling out makeshifts torches they were carrying slung over their back. Everyone turns and looks at me who until this point had probably thought I was just the useless idiot who can¡¯t run nearly two kilometres without making a fool of themselves. ¡°Really? I thought you could only make light?¡± Inquires Mayson. ¡°Yeah but what happens if you focus a magnifying glass under the sun on something flammable.¡± I point out. ¡°See this is why I wanted a mage in our group, we won¡¯t know what they¡¯re capable of unless we work together!¡± Mayson seems excited by this and is trying to make the rest of the group see it. They all mumble something in response but otherwise do nothing. One of the others passes me his torch and says ¡°Here do your thing¡±. I can¡¯t say I like the way I¡¯m being treated but taking the offered torch I start the process of creating my little laser beam. Actually I suppose it¡¯s just a beam of light, seeing that there¡¯s no amplification involved. It takes almost two minutes before I¡¯m finally done and the others look like they¡¯re about ready to give up when I finally finish as a small fire on the torch starts up and quickly spreads over the whole thing. ¡°Good work I was hoping for something a little more impressive but it will do. Why did it take so long?¡± Asks Mayson. ¡°Well I only just managed to do it for the first time using this method when you came up to me, it was why I was yelling¡±. I reply. ¡°Hmm¡±, is the only thing he gives in response. I hand back the torch to the man who gave it to me and watch as they all use it to light their torches. ¡°You¡¯re probably going to want to wait a bit before we go in; I can only produce my light for a few minutes and I just used about a third of my mana then¡±. ¡°Your mana?¡± asks one of the others. ¡°It¡¯s what I call my magical energies¡± I reply. This seems to surprise Mayson more than anything. ¡°Really I¡¯ve seen some of the things the others can do and just assumed your magic would work the same as theirs. From what I¡¯ve heard it takes almost an entire day for their reservoirs to refill. How long exactly are you expecting us to wait?¡± ¡°Oh wow no, it should only take me 10 minutes at most; I guess that¡¯s one advantage to having a small mana capacity.¡± ¡°Good, good, that¡¯s doable our torches here will only last about 30 minutes I don¡¯t want to wait too long. We¡¯ll wait for 10 minutes or when you¡¯re ready and then head in.¡± States Mayson before motioning for the others to follow him. They setup a perimeter around the small cave opening and wait.
The moment I feel my mana capacity reach its maximum we start heading in. ¡°Don¡¯t do any magic until I tell you to, we¡¯ll keep it in reserve considering your limited ability.¡± Mayson commands. I really need to train more, I¡¯m not certain but I¡¯m pretty sure my mana capacity has been growing the more I use it and right now I can¡¯t do much. I¡¯m going to have to start using my magic whenever it¡¯s fully charged so I can get stronger faster. I could always purchase some upgrades from the store if I got enough points but the increase was multiplicative meaning, that using it on a small mana base is just a waste. Passing the entrance the mood of the group instantly changes, everyone stiffens up and become alert. Eyes start darting in every direction for hidden danger. There¡¯s barely enough room for two people to walk side by side, so there aren¡¯t too many spaces to hide in the cave. A Short while later we encounter our first unsuspecting victim. ¡°There¡± Yells one of the men as he waves his torch towards the roof. With a sound of creaking wood Mayson draws his bow and releases. With a thunk and a screech the thing falls to the ground where one of the giants walks forward and puts an end to it with a casual swing of his club. This pattern continues for about 10 more minutes with 5 more kills before the cave opens up into a wider area and I¡¯m finally given my first real task. ¡°Ok now¡¯s your time to shine Tom, create some light¡± With an ease born of almost three days¡¯ worth of practice with the simple spell, I summon a ball of light. The cave lights up. Silence, no one makes a noise. In front of us is a wide cavern that stretches at least 20 meters to the left and right with a 15 meter high ceiling. Our view of the end of the cave is blocked by what appears to be a giant spider; there are no scorpion elements to this particular monster. The thing takes up almost the entire width of the cave and just barely avoids scraping the roof by a few meters. Dotted throughout the room are more scorpion-spider hybrids lying in wait for anyone stupid enough to challenge them. Without any verbal communication we all start backing out the way we came, while the thing just sits there staring at us. Once the room is no longer in sight it becomes a mad rush to get out the way we entered. There are a few injuries as people stumble but everyone manages to keep their feet under them. ¡°Haha well that went well didn¡¯t it!¡± Yells Mayson. ¡°Thirty points that¡¯ll help round out our food supply along with the wild game we caught today.¡± What that¡¯s considered a good outcome? I suppose no one was hurt but that¡¯s because there was no way that thing could have come after us through the tight tunnels. ¡°Not to mention we now have a monster hunt to plan!¡± The others just laugh and shake their heads before snuffing out their torches and walking in the direction of camp. Chapter 5 Crack, crunch, crack. The sounds of human¡¯s invasion into this untouched land continue off into the distance as they march back to camp. ¡°So if you don¡¯t mind me asking how are you planning on providing enough food for everyone back at camp? I mean you said you were hunters right?¡± I ask to the group of men. ¡°What do you mean planning? I think we¡¯re doing a fine job, no one¡¯s gone hungry yet although it¡¯s only the third day.¡± Replies one of the nameless men. ¡°Yeah, I don¡¯t think that¡¯s really answering his question.¡± Says answer another man, with a sigh he continues. ¡±Ok listen up kid because I¡¯m only going to explain this once, on the first day we arrived there was a whole bunch of shouting and general panic. Then not even 10 minutes after we arrived that freak with the fire shot a ball of fire into the air and demanded silence. So everyone shut up right quick and paid attention all right, especially after one idiot told her to fuck off and got his eyebrows burned off in response. Alright so the freak has everyone attention and then just walks away and a short Asian man steps forward, you¡¯ll be meeting him soon in fact. Well to keep a long story short he went around and got everyone to give a quick description of themselves and using this information he put everyone useful in specialised groups. We¡¯re one of the four hunting groups each group consists of 10 people except for the last group which has 12 members. Then there are the mages, anyone who can do magic is free to join that group and they¡¯re just meant to be learning how magic works and if possible work out a way to teach others. Last of all we have the leader¡¯s, there¡¯s five of them including the Asian man¡± ¡°Gan, his name is Gan stop calling him the Asian man!¡± Interrupts one of the others. ¡°Yeah whatever sorry. There are five leaders including Gan! And they¡¯re all responsible for managing what resources the hunters bring back and distributing food around equally. Namely they choose what we spend our points on, two of them aren¡¯t really leaders but they used to be butchers on earth so it¡¯s their job to take care of the wild game we catch.¡± ¡°Ok, wow so you guys are pretty organised then?¡± I ask ¡°Yeah I guess.¡± The man mumbles. ¡°Quick question though how do they decide how you spend your points?¡± ¡°Oh that¡¯s easy we just give them all the points we earn at the end of the day and they decide what to spend them on. There¡¯s nothing stopping us from keeping some of it for ourselves but what¡¯s the point. I mean I earned 38 points on the day we arrived, 42 yesterday and 27 today although there¡¯s still plenty of time left in the day to kill some critters. So if I¡¯m lucky I earn 40 points a day and I¡¯m one of the better hunters! Have you looked at the store? There¡¯s nothing of worth less than 100 points, although Mayson killed a few of those giant rabbits a while back and scored enough to buy himself a bow and arrow.¡± Interesting it¡¯s possible to give your Points to other people. ¡°Oh ok thanks for letting me know, that was really helpful.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t mention it.¡±
¡°Ok you, you¡¯re the mage right how many points did you earn?¡± Asks a short Chinese man in a business suit who looks to be in his 50s, Gan I¡¯m guessing. ¡°I didn¡¯t kill anything I just sat at the back and provided light when I was asked.¡± I reply. ¡°Pfft, go on then. You! How many points did you earn?¡± The man continues to question everyone from the group, while I head back to the group of mages to get my crate of rations. I find the group of mages gathered around Corey and a poor defenceless floating crate. My crate! Taking a quick peak with my mana I can see the air is laden with everyone¡¯s mana. They must be studying Corey¡¯s telekinesis spell, I guess I should join in too although I don¡¯t really like how they¡¯re using my crate. Taking a seat I begin to pour my mana into the air and try to follow along as closely as possible. A few hours later I¡¯m standing in line waiting for my meal. The food is severed on plates of wood, which are simply pieces of logs that have been cut up to form flat round pieces of semi clean wood. The food comes out of plastic packages containing what looks like the stuff you would find in those cheap cans of soup back on earth except instead of liquid there¡¯s a greyish powder. Once they mix it with some water it just looks like some sort of gruel, along with the gruel we get bits of cooked rabbit meat. It hardly looks appetising but I¡¯ve already eaten two meals from my magical crate today and I don¡¯t want to waste them when there¡¯s free food being provided here. Taking my meal back to the others I employ my new ability on one of the beans in my meal and float it up to my mouth. Pop. The beans fall back onto the plate as my mana runs dry. That was almost a whole second that time. Telekinesis wasn¡¯t as hard to learn as creating fire or my little beams of light. All I had to do was push my mana up a few layers until it was almost physical, wrap it around the object I want to move and bam! One levitating bean. The only problem I¡¯m having at the moment is that moving even the smallest of objects drains my mana dry almost instantly. Giving up on that for the moment I eat my meal in silence while the others chat about Earths last reality TV show. Gahh what garbage, can¡¯t believe people actually watched reality TV that¡¯s one thing I won¡¯t miss. After dinner I go for a quick jog around the camp, it¡¯s time to get serious about training. Whenever my mana fills up I¡¯m going to practice telekinesis with a focus on efficiency. Most of my mana burns up traveling between layers so I need to work out a more efficient method for pushing my mana through multiple layers. For my physical training I¡¯ll alternate between jogging and strength building exercises every day. Ignoring that for now I decide to explore the shop using what the others told me. Turns out that while you can¡¯t buy books you can buy information which is placed directly into your mind, the logic being you can¡¯t share what¡¯s in your mind without a great deal of effort. At least according to Mason, the body enhancing mage. Doesn¡¯t really make sense to me, I mean what¡¯s to stop you from just turning around and writing it down in a book. Anyways what would be useful information, I suppose some more information about magic would be great.
Store page [Information ¨C General Magic]
Item name Cost
Multidimensional Magic and You (Vol 1) 10,000
Energy to Matter conversions for Beginners 10,000
Electromagnetic Radiation Manipulation Intermediates 10,000
Liquid Manipulation for Beginners 10,000
Thermal Manipulation for Beginners 10,000
Fireballs for Beginners 10,000
Runes for Beginners 10,000
¡­
Ok looks like every option there cost 10,000 points, not a totally unreasonable amount for knowledge on something as abstract as magic but its still out of my price range of a measly 84 points. Let¡¯s try something more reasonable, what about an explanation on why giant spider-scorpion hybrids aren¡¯t considered monsters but a giant rabbit is.
Store page [Information ¨C Monsters]
Item name Cost
Monsters and You 100
Monsters and their uses (Vol 1) 2,000
Monster encyclopedia (Vol 1) 2,000
Monsters and their weaknesses (Vol 1) 2,000
Finally a list that doesn¡¯t go on forever! Why do these options even have volume numbers if they aren¡¯t books? Seems a bit inconsistent to me. The Monsters and You option looks good but I¡¯m still short 16 points and I don¡¯t know of any way to earn points besides killing things. I suppose I could try to find some more of those Fluffed Rabbits tomorrow. For now though I¡¯m going to go to bed it¡¯s been a long day and the blisters on my feet are killing me after that jog around the camp. I don¡¯t know what I was thinking there, I should cancel my plans for jogging until my blisters heal.
Morning, the devils favourite time of day where he gets to torture billions of innocent people until they wake up; his favourite tool, this so called Sun. I wonder what this stars called, actually thinking about astronomy why haven¡¯t I been checking the night time sky. I don¡¯t even know how many moons there are on this planet if it even has a moon. Oh well another task to add to the mental task lists. First order of the day use up all of my mana, well not all of my mana I have to leave enough so I don¡¯t hurt myself. Another serving of gruel and rabbit meat out of the way and I¡¯m left with some spare time. It only takes me a moment to drain my mana whenever it fills up and I¡¯ve only just come to the realisation that I have no idea how to do strength training without any actual weights. I did a few pushups managing an amazing 12 and then tried to do crunches but my form was terrible so I¡¯ve given up on that for now. Slipping my feet out of my new boots and carefully peeling back my socks I take a peek at what my poor feet are going through. They don¡¯t look as bad as they did two days ago despite the punishment I¡¯ve put them through recently but they¡¯re still got a bit of healing to do before I¡¯m willing to go trekking through the forest. Leaving my shoes off for now I lay down in the soft forest floor at the edge of the camp and prepare for my first laid back day in this new world. Slowly I drift off to sleep. Waking up to the sun blaring directly down onto my face I slowly stretch out all my muscles and start getting up after my little nap. I pull out my water bottles to take a drink but find them empty, damn I forgot to refill them. I could use a bath anyways time for a little walk to the creek. After putting my socks and shoes back on I head off in the direction of the creek.You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. Along the way I spot another group heading in that direction and start walking at the back of their group, I don¡¯t bother introducing myself to any of them. To be frank I don¡¯t really care about making friends at the moment, while I¡¯m sure it would be helpful to have someone fight by your side I just don¡¯t feel like talking to people. I make sure I¡¯m far enough behind the group that no one gets the smart idea to talk to me. I just want to enjoy what¡¯s left of my relaxing day without having to deal with anyone or anything. Once we arrive I move far enough up stream that I can¡¯t hear the others and starts filling up my drink bottles. Dropping to the ground into a cross legged position I take the chance to test out an idea of mine. My mana is almost full so it¡¯s a good, reaching out I pull a thin thread of mana and push it ¡®up¡¯ layer after layer until I can almost fill it in the air then I try scooping up a tiny drop of water. It works and for a moment I¡¯m able to move it around, until my mana runs dry. So Corey¡¯s telekinesis tricks works on water too, so why was there an option in the store to purchase knowledge on liquid manipulation. What the difference between moving water around and manipulating it? It¡¯s not like you can change the state of it, I mean it wouldn¡¯t really be liquid manipulation if you turned it into a gas. So there has to be more to it, maybe it¡¯s the way you move it around. Why am I even thinking about this it¡¯s my day off no complex thoughts allowed. Actually when did this become my day off, I was just taking a break from physical training until my blisters healed. Whatever it¡¯s my day off now. ¡°Hey you there by the water.¡± God damn it. Turning around I give my best please go away look. It¡¯s a short kid with brown hair no older than 12. ¡°Sorry to interrupt you, but I was wondering where you got those water bottles from¡±. Continues the voice of Satan himself, without the slightest sign my glare had any effect. ¡°I bought them from the store.¡± I say to the annoying kid before turning around to continue staring at the water. ¡°Wow so that must mean you killed something right? I¡¯ve only ever heard of people earning points to spend in the store from killing stuff. Are you a hunter¡± The kid let¡¯s out in a rush of air. ¡°Look no I¡¯m not a hunter; I only joined your camp yesterday after the people I started with got themselves killed. Now can you leave me alone?¡± ¡°Oh¡­ alright sorry for bothering you.¡± His footsteps quickly retreat through the muddy ground, making sucking noises as he leaves. Strange I never heard him approach. Suddenly getting an idea I turn around and yell out to the boy. ¡°Hey kid, wait up for a second.¡± I quickly jump to my feet and run after the young boy. He stops and turns around, looking at me without understanding. Catching up to him I continue. ¡°Did you just use magic back there?¡± ¡°Yeah I guess, it¡¯s nothing compared to what that lady with the fire can do though¡±. Seems everyone here is comparing themselves to that crazy woman, myself included. ¡°Don¡¯t be so quick to discount what you can do! Can you cancel out the sounds of your footsteps or something?¡± ¡°Nahhh it¡¯s nothing like that. I just worked out a way to make a platform with my magic that I can walk on. It works on water even but I have to make the platform pretty big otherwise I¡¯ll just get wet and that means they won¡¯t last very long.¡± ¡°Really wow you realise that means you can create physical barriers. Like force fields and stuff, could you ahh maybe show me?¡± I ask. Suddenly the kid seems a bit too happy. ¡°I don¡¯t know mister, it takes a while for my magic to come back and my mum was pretty interested in those waters bottles of yours.¡± ¡°Yeah, yeah I get the idea.¡± Chucking him one of my recently filled water bottles I motion for him to continue. I watch as he starts manipulating his mana, quickly getting out my notebook with the drawings of the strange runes. Turning to a new page I start writing down what the kid does, trying my best to replicate the 3d structure of his spell onto a 2d piece of paper. It seems he¡¯s doing what I discovered earlier where a spells result can be modified by adding something to the end of the structure. Although I suspect that only works for certain types of spells. Thanking him I continue walking back to camp with dreams of walking through a field of fire protected by a shimmering force field.
The rest of the day was just as eventful as the morning and I¡¯m quickly waking up to my mortal enemy presence again, the sun. My fifth day in a new world. Taking a quick look at my feet I find my blisters all but gone, there¡¯s no excuse for being a lazy lay about today. With a sigh I head off for an early jog around the camp while breakfast is prepared. At the food line any hope for developing a pattern is quickly dashed, Mayson is there. The moment he spots me, he¡¯s moving. ¡°Hey Tom, I¡¯ll make this quick we¡¯re heading off to another cave today and I was hoping you would come with us.¡± ¡°Same cave or different one and if it¡¯s different what can we expect?¡± I fire back. ¡°Different cave, different enemy. Can¡¯t say much more than that because the only thing we¡¯ve been able to work out is they like to do a lot of roaring. ¡°Says Mayson with an almost bored voice. ¡°Really you don¡¯t even know what you¡¯re fighting and you want me to help you?¡± ¡°We have to do it, what makes you any different. Do you really expect us to just provide food for you forever? I don¡¯t know if you haven¡¯t noticed but everyone that¡¯s not hunting or doing something else of important is being given jobs. We¡¯re trying to make something here it¡¯s too early to see it but we need everyone to work or we¡¯re not going to get anywhere.¡± Corey says with more conviction then I would have expected. ¡°Fine I¡¯ll help. Come get me before you leave, I¡¯ll be in the same place you found me last time.¡± I say before returning to my slow shuffle forward in the food line.
Just as the sun reached its highest point Mayson showed up. I¡¯d already left my crate of rations with the group of magic wielders earlier so I had nothing to do besides follow him. Finding myself surrounded by the same men earlier I¡¯m handed the same sharpened sticks I got last time. ¡°Here keep it this time.¡± Says the man who told me about the camps story as he hands me the spear. ¡°Thanks, sorry if you told me before but I don¡¯t think I ever caught your name.¡± I ask. ¡°David, now come on let¡¯s go.¡± With a quick burst of speed he catches up to the rest of the group as they start moving. Mimicking him as best I can, I follow along behind the group. They seem to be in as much of a rush as they were last time. This time around though the cave is a lot further away and we have to slow to a walk twice so I can catch my breath. The rest of the group didn¡¯t seem too thrilled about this, claiming they were wasting daylight. Arriving at the entrance to a dark cave, after traveling almost 8 kilometres I drop onto a nearby rock to catch my breath. This cave is a lot different to the last one, it blends smoothly with the nearby forest and if it hadn¡¯t been pointed out to me I could have easily missed it. The entrance is hidden almost directly below one of the trees and it looks like a steep climb down. ¡°Hey light globe dude, here do your little fire trick with light¡± Says one of the men as he hands me a torch. As he does I notice the weapon strapped to his side, a god damn sword. It¡¯s probably only the length of a ruler and looks comically small on the giant of a man. ¡°Hey is that a sword and how did you get it!¡± I exclaim before I can stop myself. ¡°This baby? I just got it today, managed to kill a pair of those giant rabbits and combined with the points I had saved up I was able to purchase it. Cost me a whopping 1000 points but I¡¯m thinking with this new weapon killing those overgrown rabbits will be easy.¡± The giant gloats. ¡°Yeah right, the thing is too small by the time you¡¯re close enough the thing will knock your teeth out.¡± ¡°The first time you try that thing on one of those rabbits I can guarantee you¡¯ll be the next Geoffrey.¡± The men respond to the giants gloating. Ignoring the general bicker in the background for now I focus on my task at hand and light the torch. I¡¯m considerably quicker this time and it doesn¡¯t drain nearly as much mana but it¡¯s still a noticeable amount. ¡°Here guys I¡¯m done, if you¡¯re all done bickering over the length of your pencils.¡± ¡°Ha, buddy if anyone¡¯s packing a pencil it¡¯s you little man.¡± Responds the giant who handed me the torch in the first place as he takes it from my offered hand. ¡°Alright guys I¡¯m sure you¡¯re all packing heating now can we get on with this rodeo or do you want to rest again tom?¡± Interrupts Mayson. ¡°Just for a few minutes, I¡¯m a bit better at controlling my mana now so I don¡¯t need as long to recover.¡± I reply. ¡°Good well come on guys, you know the drill, setup a perimeter around the opening and get ready to go in¡±
Taking my place at the back of the group I follow the others down into the cave. Past the opening it opens up into a wide dark tunnel that¡¯s big enough for almost five men to fit side by side. As we make our way down we reach our first branching tunnel, the main path continues on but this new side path offers a few problems. It¡¯s not as wide as the main tunnel and it would be a struggle to fit more than one person at a time. ¡°Alright we don¡¯t want some wild animals to surprise us from behind so we¡¯re going to explore this offshoot before continuing on. Josh you have the lead, peter you get behind everyone else wait here.¡± With that the two men including the giant with the sword head down the path along with Mayson following up behind them. This is exactly what you¡¯re not meant to do in a horror movie. Whenever people start splitting up the monster comes out and kills everyone one by one. Do these people not watch horror movies! While nervously waiting for the others to return I summon a ball of light every now and then just to take a quick look around the area. I don¡¯t let them last long enough to drain much of my mana and I leave enough time between each cast to restore the little bit of mana I spend. During one of these periods the light reflects off something that wasn¡¯t there before. Cat eyes. Big cat eyes. Narrowed to a slit and glaring with the same viciousness as your typical alley cat. They¡¯re staying just out of range of the torch light but the moment I spot those eyes I pump more mana into my light and it glows brighter revealing the owner of those eyes. Mountain Lions or this world¡¯s version of the creatures at least. The moment my light brightens the others take notice of our new visitors too and yells echo around the cave for a moment before calm returns. ¡°Company, everyone eyes front.¡± Yells one of the men at the front. Our motion and noise isn¡¯t ignored by the denizens of this land and they make their move. Without so much as a snarl or growl the animals attack hitting the people in the front line who barely had time to prepare. The quiet is soon broken by cries of pain from both sides as spear and claw meets flesh. The first wave of attackers is defeated in their opening attacks as the overgrown cats throw themselves onto the front lines prepared spears. The next wave is not taken care of as easily reaching past their fallen brethren to cut at the now weapon less hunters. Without hesitation the second line of hunters move forward and stab at the attacking creatures but there aren¡¯t enough hunters. There are only 2 people men left in the back line after the party split up so seeing that my assistance is required I move forward or jab my spear into the nearest creature. My spear tip barely grazes the things face, drawing a faint line of blood across its cheek. The shock is enough to push it back though and the men in front take the opportunity to release their holds of the now useless spears stuck in the dying creatures flesh. The moment they¡¯re up all but one pull out knifes from their pockets that look just like mine and prepare for the next attack. Two of the men have taken cuts to the forehead and eyes and are unable to see past the blood and injuries to take further part in the battle. So I¡¯m pushed up to front as one of only three men with still intact spears. At least 6 more of the cats are still out there walking at the edge of my light so I slow the flow of mana to try and encourage them to move closer to our group. Thinking they have the advantage in the low torch light the creatures oblige my desire and make a running attack. ¡°Be mindful of the light it¡¯s going to get very bright in here soon.¡± I say to the others. The moment I think they¡¯re too close I pump my mana into back into my ball of light as fast as I can, creating a blinding flash of light. The creatures are stunned temporarily and stop their charge just shy of spear range. ¡°NOW!¡± Quickly moving forward with a burst of speed, I shove my spear down the maw of one creature that was just letting out a cry at its newfound blindness. I soon give it something more important to worry about. Releasing my hold on the spear I let the creature thrash about on the ground worsening the injury in its own vain efforts to remove the spear. The men quickly rush past me and finish off the other 5 now defenceless and panicking animals. Taking a moment to calm my beating heart I move back to check on the two men who were injured. The cuts look pretty deep but it doesn¡¯t look like anyone is going to lose an eye, ripping off shreds of my slowly deteriorating shirt I bind one of the men¡¯s injuries while someone else takes care of the other injured.
For killing one Dark Leeuw 15 points awarded.
Seriously what the hell is a Leeuw? The name doesn¡¯t mean anything to me; at least the other creature¡¯s had names similar to earth creatures. Stupid alien world, even the names make no sense. Roughly 20 minutes after the hunters had recovered as many of the spears as possible the group that had gone to explore the side path came back dragging corpses. Leeuw corpses. Each man was carrying one each, covered head to toe in blood and guts. ¡°I see we weren¡¯t the only one to meet our friendly hosts.¡± Says Mayson with a shit eating crin on his face. ¡°Oh fuck off would you! One of those cat bastards cut me bad, if this gets infected I don¡¯t know how we¡¯re going to treat it.¡± Replies one of the injured men. Mayson quickly get serious. ¡°Of course sorry you¡¯re right we need to get anyone with an injury out of here now so it can be cleaned up properly. Are any of you too injured to walk?¡± ¡°No¡±, ¡°I can manage¡±, ¡°Nah¡± sounds off a trio of voices. ¡°Ok good you three head back to camp and get yourself cleaned up and tell them to bring 20 strong men up to us to carry these bodies back to camp. As for the rest of you we need to get these bodies out of here, we¡¯ve got another four corpses down the tunnel we came from. We¡¯re going to stay together from now on; half of you guys are going to stay on watch while the other half carries the corpses. One more thing, these things hunt humans. We found the remains of one of the missing people from camp. Now move!¡± I¡¯m stuck with lookout duty because I can barely drag the Leeuws corpses. Not that I¡¯m complaining, staring into the dark beats hauling dead bodies. It takes 5 trips to get all the corpses out of the cave, by then some people from camp have gathered at the entrance. Most of the corpses are covered in dirt from being dragged along the cave floor but a bit of a wash and they¡¯ll probably provide a few days¡¯ worth of meat. Could last longer if we had some way of storing them I guess it¡¯s going to be meat everything for the next few days. ¡°Ok you lot.¡± Mayson says pointing at the group of people waiting outside. ¡°We need you to haul these corpses back to camp, just try not to ruin the pelts¡± ¡°As for everyone else we¡¯re heading back into the cave, we got to make sure there are no more of those things down there. These creatures are too dangerous to let them live so close to our camp. Now let¡¯s go this shouldn¡¯t take long we must have killed most of them already.¡± With that he turned around and marched back into the cave. This guy is trying to jinx us.
It¡¯s slow going exploring the rest of the cave system. At each branching path we stop and the same group as before goes down the branching tunnel while the rest of us wait in the main tunnel. There are only 5 of this time to guard the main tunnel but we¡¯re all carrying a spear with a pile of 10 backup spears lying behind us. So far we haven¡¯t found any more of those cat creatures and our torches are running low so hopefully we¡¯re near the end. ¡°Another empty passage!¡± Yells Mayson as he regroups with us. Everyone just nods and starts moving further down the main tunnel while I gather the pile of spears. With a brief jog to catch up to the rest I follow along trying to keep a lookout for any dangers. I¡¯ve developed a habit of creating a light briefly to illuminate the area just ahead of us I don¡¯t know if it¡¯s actually helping us that much, it¡¯s probably just destroying out night vision but I can¡¯t help it anymore. Surprisingly the tunnel appears to be getting brighter, then like someone just opened the curtains we¡¯re surrounded by lush forest. The cave had another exit. ¡°Shit! If any of those Leeuws got away, they¡¯ll cause us nothing but trouble. Sigh nothing for it, let¡¯s go home boys.¡±