《The Opportunist》


 The Summoning

    Inside the luxurious carriage, sat two women. One wearing maid clothing while the other wearing an expensive gown.


    "Are you sure of this, Your Highness?" Mariah asked me


    Though she asked in a worried tone. We both were aware that it needed to be done.


    "You know better than most that this is something I cannot avoid" I answered back.


    The seers foretold a catastrophic event that will hit humanity leading to its demise. Our only hope will be to summon something, anything to stop it.


    "Surely we can find someone else to cast such magic. Especially one so extreme"


    Going through ancient scriptures it spoke of runes that would allow us to summon an entity from beyond. Since the original writer did not specify on how it is casted I have to resort to primal means to cast it: Life force.


    "We can''t find someone with enough life force to augment such magic. Those with enough are either too crazy or too powerful.  We are only left with those of royal bloodlines." (Clara)


    "Surely, the Young Prince or His Highness could do it." (Mariah)


    "My brother is too young to expend such life force and my father too old. I am the only one who can do so with minimum damage" (Clara)


    "I would not call 20 years one''s life ''minimum damage''" (Mariah)


    "Nobody want to lose such large amounts of years but it is necessary if humanity is to have a..." (Clara) The carriage came to a screeching halt cutting me off.


    "We are here...." (Mariah)


    "So we are. Lets go. The faster we do this the better" (Clara)


    We both stepped out the carriage and were greeted with twelve kneeling knights. The twelve strongest knights of the kingdom and the members of the Crimson Sentinels, who are tasked to serve and protect the royal family of the Harth Kingdom. They are adorned in crimson armor which are brightly lit so they can be seen from a distance. On each armor on the left breastplate a sign signifying the royal family; two crimson feathers. They were all hailed champions of the kingdom. Hopefully, they are strong to deal with anything that comes out the summoning if it goes wrong.


    "Rise" (Clara)


    "We reached the center of the forest, Your Highness" (Head Knight)


    "Very well. Set up a perimeter make sure nothing goes in or out and tell the Royal Magicians that they can begin setting up the formation" (Clara)


    ""Yes! Your Highness"" (Guards)


    Mana is something that is in every living being. In order to cast this summoning magic my father chose this forest where life force and mana are abundant to relieve the amount of life force I have to use. The forest itself is very luscious green forest teeming with various arrangements of plants, trees, insects and various animals.


    ''Hopefully some of it will remain after we are done with this''


    I walked over to the Royal Magicians who were just about to finish setting up the magical formation for the summoning.


    "Any implications I should be aware of?" (Clara)


    "None, as far as I can see. His Highness did pick quite a spot for the summoning" One of the Royal magicians who finished setting up the formation responded.


    "Very well. Let us begin" (Clara)


    We all moved to our spots with me being directly in front of the summoning circle. I recalled as much as I could from the scriptures and recited the spell.


    "Heavens hear my cry. Let a being cross the great divide. The light that will merge by the holy power of the Gods. Become the gateway that will let a being across"


    The formation lit up with a bright white light and it began to search my body for something. As if it could not find what it was looking for it began to tug on my life force. I could feel it. Part of me being taken slowly yet forcefully. The formation lit even brighter. ''Dam this is not supposed to happen! I could feel my life force being sucked into a vortex in a rapidly growing pace. ''This was not written in the dam thing! This is taking far more than just 20 years!'' the formation lit even brighter and began to absorb the life force from the surrounding plants, trees. It kept absorbing like an endless abyss that could never be satisfied. My whole body is covered in cold sweat and I could sense my consciouss slowly slipping away from me. ''Dam it! Gotta keep going. I am not about to let that amount of life force go to waste!''.


    "Somethings'' is going wrong with the formation! It is taking up too much life force" The head of magiians said gritting his teeth while his body paled more and more till he lost consciousness.


    ''That bastard says something now. I swear if I will not have his head if I live through this!'' The formation began to absorb everything around that had even a trace of life force around it including the guards and the Royal Magicians . ''What in the actual hell are we summoning for it to cost so much life force!''. My whole body felt weak and there were faint traces of blood coming out of my mouth. Everybody around me already seemed to have fainted from the amount of life force taken from this. ''Shit. What ever thing that comes out of there better be good''


    The center of the formation began to form a bright white light and as I looked up I could make out a faint trace of a person inside it. It was far too bright for me to see any features.


    As the formation slowly dimmed down I could make out some of the features. The being looked akin to a young male. Black hair, black eyes with an odd shirt and equally odd blue pants. He looked confused and looked around. I tried to speak up.


    "Welc...." I tried to say but


    I lost consciousness.


    _______________________________________________________________________________________________________


    I am having the weirdest dream of my life.


    I am currently in a completely blank white space that seems to be endless in every direction. ''Is this what lucid dreaming is like?'' I tried to imagine a giant dinosaur but nothing shows up.


    ''Worth a shot anyway''


    I began to aimlessly wander around but it leads nowhere. Every step just takes me closer to nothing.


    ''What it this even supposed to me. Is part of my brain that lonely and wants me to take a hint..''


    My thought was cut short by a feminine giggle.


    "Shit. Who''s there!?" I panciked and looked around me


    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    "...." Another giggle followed.


    "I swear if two twins pop out claiming ''Come play with us''...." I said in a low voice trying to find the source of the noise.


    "Aren''t thou an interesting one" I perked up as I saw a faint glowing light in front of me.


    Suddenly a figure came into view in front of. It was a beautiful woman. One unlike any I have seen in real life. One with glowing blonde hair and crimson like eyes that burned bright. I subconsciously gave my brain a thumbs up. ''If this is a dream .. brain .. I owe you one...''


    "Welcome to thine''s place. Thou may refer to thee as Goddess" She said in a high class tone which would normally be really odd but the way she said it sounded nearly perfect.


    I was taken back by her sudden proclamation. ''Okay, bit of a narcissistic but I am sure I can gloss over that part''


    "You may be wondering why thou were so abruptly called upon thine''s humble abode... ah fuck it. This is not even fun anymore. Listen kid. You are being summoned to another world" She quipped with an abrupt chang in her tone of voice.


    ''What?'' I sat there with a quizzical look on my face. ''Is this some sort of weird roleplay thing my brain is trying to get me into?''


    "This isn''t a dream ya half-wit" As she said that she launched herself at me punching me square in the stomach. Massive pain searing through me as I knelled on the floor clutching my stomach. ''Alright not a dream...geez''


    "Dam it..what was that for" Clutching my stomach I compalied.


    "To get your dam mind out of the gutter. anyway back to the summoning. Some minor world needs your help.. bla.. blaa.. and some fuck-wit decided the way the best way to solve their dam problems was to get you involved. Understand?" She said impatiently.


    Someone was summoning me? Why me of all people and what kind of problem could they have to require to summon someone from another world. I had far too many questions and not enough answers.


    "Listen kid. You got about 5 minutes before the summoning completes. It should normally be done in a minute or two but those imbeciles can''t even draw a basic summoning circle right. You will be summoned and there will most likely be someone who will tell you the details or lie and detain you to make you a slave" (Goddess)


    "You said you are a Goddess right? Can''t you stop it?"If she is the Goddess why does not just stop it herself?


    She pondered for a moment before speaking. She floated into the air and with a straight face looked at my eyes and told me "I could. But why would I want to?"


    Dam. I wonder if begging would work but by the look on her face I could tell she would not listen to me.


    "Can you at least tell me where I am being sent off to?" I asked her hoping for a more decent response than the last one.


    "Fine..." She waved her hand and suddenly a small scale model of a planet showed up. It look akin to earth except the continents were much closer to one another.


    "The inhabitants call their world ''Anima''. I know stupid right? Any who. This world is quite large with the continents drawn closer to one another. The world itself technology and knowledge wise around 1000 AD in your world. Oh right there is magic there too"


    ''wait magic?" "Hold up magic?? There is magic in this world?"


    ''Magic...so like casting fireballs, controlling the elements and summoning to undead?. Awesome''


    "Yea. It is one of the minor worlds that posses mana which allow its living entities to cast magic. However this world is a bit special. This planet was created by the God of Knowledge, Peritia. His sole creation. He wanted the inhibition to pursue knowledge rather than war. Lets just say he underestimated their thirst for blood and that plan completely backfired.He altered this world so the amount of mana you posses in proportional to your knowledge." She told me with a serious yet somewhat playful tone in her voice.


    "Knowledge?" I asked back not fully understand what she meant.


    "Yes. You can cast magic through spells but only if you have knowledge of it and the more you know of it the better, faster and smoother it will cast. Watch" (Goddess)


    She put her palm in front of me and said [Fire is created through heat] suddenly a small red flame arose from her hand. [For fire to exist it needs air] the flame grew even brighter. [Fire is a chemical reaction between oxygen in the air and fuel] the flame suddenly jumped to towering heights and turned white.


    "See. The more you know the stronger it is"


    "Is there any limitation? Like can I create things like giant meteors?"I asked excited at the premise of being able to summon meteors.


    "As long as you follow the rules of Physics and remember you are only changing the form of your mana and as long as you know the composition of meteors you can ''create'' them. Be warned. The more complex it is the more taxing it is on your body"


    "What happens if there is no knowledge when you are casting the spells?"


    "He did not want his creations to be unable to use magic simply because they were ignorant so he changed the rules a bit. If your mana cannot come out to cast the spell your body will use your own life force to augment it" She said while sighing.


    "Wait life force? How much?" I was a bit worried at the tone she she said it in.


    "Life force is what keeps a being alive. Losing life force will make you a bit weaker and make your life span shorter and the amount depends on the complexity of the spell. Those on the planet are rather ignorant so they frequently use up parts of their life force even when casting basic levels of magic but even those who use it a regularly might only see a loss of 4-5 years of their life span" (Goddess)


    "Hm.. fair enough. What kind of people are summo.." Trying to ask my final question but she cut off me.


    "Hoo... looks like your times up. Good luck kid. Don''t fuck things up too badly. Also word of advice: You might want to seal your emotions as soon as you can figure out how to control your magic and remember don''t trust anyone too much in that world."


    ''Wait seal my emotions..?'' Suddenly the room grew whiter and the Goddess disappeared. ''Well...let''s see how this goes''

 The Meeting

    Goddess POV


    "You owe me one, Peritia" I asked the old man sitting next to me.


    "That I do...That I do" Peritia responded with a heavy voice.


    Peering into a fountain that shows the world of ''Anima'' there sat Peritia and I sat there with with a serious look on our faces. Peritia looks like a feebly old man who can barley move without the aid of a stick the reason being that the Gods require faith of living creatures to live. The more faith there is the more powerful we become. I myself control a couple of major worlds of inhabitants who worship me but Peritia only controls one planet who have long forsaken him.


    ''Can''t believe the almighty God who once ruled this pantheon has gotten so weak. I even had to aid those dimwits by using my own divine energy. Do they think that small amount of life force is enough to break a whole in the space time rift?'' I thought. Peritia used to be the strongest God in this sector of the multi verse but after his sole planet stopped worshiping him he grew weak. He could easily grow stronger but he refuses to create another planet.


    "You really think that he is enough to stop what the seers saw?" I asked him.


    "We can hope..we can only hope.."


    ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


    Gareth POV


    After the white flash of light the scenery around me changed into a dead forest. Glancing around, I found there to be nothing but dead tress and dead grass.


    ''Geez. What a welcoming party. Could not even pick a decent spot to summon me'' as I looked around I saw bodies everywhere. Most of which seemed to wearing red armor and four of them with odd clothing. Directly in front me was an unconscious women who had a pale white skin and blondish hair. She resembled the Goddess quite a bit though not as beautiful as she was.


    I walked over trying to get her to wake up. I shook her but it only caused me to hear a groan come out of her mouth.


    ''Right water magic...now..how the fuck do I actually use it?..'' Though I realized I could wake her up with water I had not the faintest clue of how to do so.


    ''According to the Goddess I just had to have knowledge of it so..


    [Water is a liquid]. Water slowly began to form on my hands they were size of droplets but enough. I gathered up the droplets and dropped it on the woman''s face..


    "ugg..."


    "Oi, wake up"


    "Quis es?"


    "What?"


    "Tu es qui vocavit?"


    I realized that i had no idea what this women was saying. ''Shit. That Goddess could at least have gave me something so I can understand the language here''. The women seemed to have realized that I could not understand her. She slowly reached out her pale white hand and placed it on my forehead. I could suddenly feel something going in and pain searing through my head. I let go of her and clutched my head in pain.


    "AAHHHHHHHH!"


    As the pain subsided the women slowly stood up and looked me dead in the eyes asked me.


    "Can you understand me?"


    "Ah yes...thanks for that I guess" I responded.


    "You are welcome" She said with a forced cheerful look on her face. "Are you the one who was summoned?"


    "I would guess so. So where are we and whats with the dead bodies around us?" I asked her back.


    "We are currently in the middle of the Forest of Coldspring well...we used to anyway.. and they are not dead just unconscious.. or I hope so."


    She walked around in almost slipping in every step checking up on the various armored men and the old men in weird clothing.


    "So alive?" I asked.


    "Barley" She whispered with a desolate look on her face.


    "So who are you and why was I brought here?" I asked in a hurried manner. ''Please don''t make fight a demon lord..not a demon lord.. anything but a demon lord.'' I thought to myself.


    "Ah right. The seers foretold a calamity that will strike humanity and we are placing our hopes on you" She told me in a straight manner. It did not seem like a lie.


    "Wait. So you summoned me simply because some people ''saw'' a calamity? Did they mention what type of calamity it was?" If that was the case and there ends up being nothing I would be brought to this world for no reason.


    "They have rarely been wrong before so we have to take their word for it and they only mentioned that what ever calamity that is coming with be the destruction of humanity" As soon as she said that her eyes widened and turned around. ''Guess she was not supposed to tell me that information''


    Anyway, part of me hoped there would be a calamity so at least I was summoned for a reason. In my previous world, I lived alone with no one really close to me so I doubt anyone would have missed me there anyway.


    "No need to talk about this here. We need to get you back to the Royal Capital so we can discuss that there" She seemed worried after blurting that out. Guess she does not trust me yet. Recalling the final words of the Goddess I should really not be so trusting of her either. She seemed saddened by the bodies around us and began to walk around aimlessly.


    I let her be. So I walked to a secluded place so I can practice my magic.


    Few hours later>


    After a few hours of practice. I managed to get the fundamentals of water, ice, fire and earth down. I can create enough water to fill up a small pond without overtaxing my body and could easily freeze and unfreeze it. I could make fire burn bluish white which is extremely hot in temperature. Which caused me to almost burn this forest down luckily the air was humid enough to not let it spread and I could make earth rise from the ground. One more step and I could be called Avatar.


    Stolen story; please report.


    The guards and the magicians seemed to have woken up and are getting ready to leave so I walked over. The guards stopped me before I could reach the woman.


    "Halt!"


    "I need to talk to her" I responded angrily.


    "Let him pass. He is the one who was summoned." She saw me coming over but did not bother to order her guards until they stopped me. ''Guess she is trying to make a haughty appearance in front of me''


    "Pardon. But if you dare lay a hand on Her Highness we will not hesitate to draw our swords" The guard who seemed to be like the head responded throwing out a large amount of blood lust. ''Are they all that loyal or was this all scripted? Guess I will find out sooner or later''


    The Princess walked up to me. She seemed to have recovered from before and her skin is no longer as pale as it was.


    "Excuse my guards they are rather protective of me. We should go back to the Kingdom so you can meet my father"


    As she said that she walked into towards a fancy looking carriage. So I followed her but before I could walk in after her a guard stopped me with his spear.


    "This carriage is for the Royal Highness only. You have to go to the other carriages"


    ''Oh I see this is a power play...hmph'' I mused myself. I didn''t want to argue with a man holding a spear me so I walked over to the other carriages and got on. I ended up in a carriage with four buff looking guards who were glaring at me like I just asked their daughter on a date.


    The carriages moved forward towards the capital.


    ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


    Princess P.O.V


    "Was it really alright to not let him ride with us? He might see it as you looking down on him" my head maid, Mariah, asked me in a worried tone.


    "He is young. If I let him ride with us it might give him an idea that we are equals. Especially since he saw me such a weak state and had to wake me up" I flat out told her.


    "He is the summoned one so would it not make sense for him to ride with us?" She asked again in a concerned tone.


    "Like I said, he is young we need to make sure he knows of his position otherwise if he gets too arrogant from the treatment he may refuse to help or ask for exorbitant prices. Best for him to not realize his worth. We need to make sure he is ignorant of the country''s conditions are we are only summoning him for a minor matter. " though I already ended up telling him that information accidentally. ''That stupid formation put me under too much stress...''


    I even ended up ordering the guards to not answer any question relating to the Kingdom itself.


    "As you say, Your Highness" She did not seem content with my idea but she as my subordinate would not voice it.


    "How long do you think befor-"


    I was thrown off my seat and landed right into Mariah and I heard a crashing noise. ''What the hell is going on''


    A carriage drive turned back with guilt on his face "Sorry your Highness but a tree just fell in front of our path"


    "Hmph.. Call the guards and tell them to get rid of it. We need to get back to the Kingdom as fast as possible" I told the driver in an impatient manner.


    ''Ugg..already lost more than 20 years of my life, stuck with a weak looking hero and then the path is blocked. This whole thing was a waste''  I mused myself.


    "Why would the tree even fall so suddenly anyway?" Mariah asked me. It did seem suspicious for it fall in such a manner but lot of weird things have happened today.


    "Must be from the summoning taking away its life force. Most likely could not hold itself any more" I answered back.


    Hearing the whipping of horses the carriage strode forward. Looks like the guards did their job.


    _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


    Gareth POV


    ''Shit. My aim was off. Was really hoping to the tree would crash into the carriage of the Princess. I wonder if the carriage can burn'' Thinking of the prospect I shook my head ''Nah too dangerous''


    The tree falling was due to my earth magic weakening the roots. Seems like the guards are rather ignorant when it comes to magic. They could not even sense the mana coming out of my body. Guess the whole unconscious thing had a toll on their body.


    "So what is the Kingdom like?" I asked to avoid getting bored.


    "..." No response.


    ''Hmph.. God might as well be talking to four brick walls''


    I kept myself entertained by the various prospects of magic I could cast. The Goddess did tell me there are practically no limitations other than how much I know. I guess knowing what gravity is finally come to be useful. I wondered if I should share the information on Biology, Chemistry and Physics that I know of to this world but eventually came to the conclusion that I should not to avoid being used only for the information I have. ''They need me for something and if I end up giving them the knowledge they might just throw me away once they use it to strength themselves''


    The carriage stopped and guards quickly ran out.


    "Guess we are here. Time to meet the King"

 The Discovery

    Sorry bout the lateness. Had to go somewhere and thought of many plot details on the way so I guess it was a win.


    Anyway, another chapter.


    I plan to use actual physics equations and various psychological/biological concepts so I might need to start adding definitions either at the bottom or along the words itself to make it easier to understand. I want to know if anyone would be bothered by that.


    ________________________________________________________________________________________________


    Gareth POV


    We landed directly in front of the castle and I turned around to get the full view of the entire city. Just as I expected from a medieval era. The housing districts where separated into three very distinct areas. The closer the homes got to the castle the fancier they got.


    I unconsciously let out a whistle which I saw laid my eyes on the castle which caused the bystanders to glare at me.


    Following directly behind the Princess as we progressed through the halls that led to the front of a massive door which looks like as if it was bejeweled by a hyperactive 8 year old.


    ''I guess tax money is wasted no matter where you go'' I thought to myself as the Princess''s guards slowly pushed the door open.


    We were met with a room full of people glaring at us. Each male wearing highly fancy looking suits which were suited the color red and gold which perfectly matched the room, the carpet, the walls, and everything else in between. In the very far end the room on the throne sat a man who was also dressed in red and gold styled with various jewels, necklaces and a crown with bright jewels on top. ''Ah a whole show for little ol'' me'' I was very touched by the amount of planning to make the King seem important and powerful. I almost would have believed that the King did not even need me to solve the calamity if the Princess had not blurted it out to me.


    The Princess walked forward by herself as the guards went to stand on the side lines. She bowed lightly and spoke loud enough so the whole room can hear her


    "I present the summoned one..." she stopped as soon as she realized that she did not even bother asking for my name. With an embarrassed face she glared at me.


    "Gareth Owen. Pleased to meet ya" I said while trying to hold my laughter.


    "Welcome Gareth to the Harth Kingdom and the world of Anima. You shall be provided a room in the castle until we need you to solve the matter that may be coming"


    ''Oh ho ho, a calamity that is supposed to ruin all of humanity is an afterthought here'' I mused as I watched the King''s blatant attempts to downplay the summoning.


    "But before this ceremony comes to an end. We need to gauge your power" He said as he waved his hands which prompted the maids at the sidelines to shift around till one came forward with a crystal looking ball.


    "Simply put your hand on the ball and pour as much mana as you can into it" I could feel the stares of everyone in the room. Guess this was a rather important ceremony.


    I walked up the ball and placed my hands and willed as much mana as I can. The ball quickly shifted colors from red to yellow to white to blue. I watched for the reactions and as soon as the ball reached the color blue the King''s and the people around eyes widened to the point where I thought their eyeballs were going to pop out any moment. The ball glowed once more into a bright violet color which caused the room to gasp until the crystal ball shattered and flew everywhere.


    "Um.. was that supposed to happen?" I asked but the room stayed silent.


    *cough* The King quickly regained his composure and told the room "Hm.. a common occurrence. You simply lost control of your mana while pouring it in." emphasizing the ''common occurrence'' part. "Luckily we have an item that allows the wearer to gain better control of their mana" he continued while another maid brought forward a ring with a massive jewel on top of it. I eyed it suspiciously while thinking ''They just had a ring laying around here just in case the summoned hero lost control of their mana? Ha fat chance'' though I could tell what was wrong with the ring itself I knew it will not end well for me if I wore it.


    "My thanks." I said while I grasped the ring and put in my pocket.


    The King looked at me suspiciously so I came up with a quick lie "Oh. In my world putting on a ring in public means you are marrying the person who gave it to you. Which is probably not your intention. Unless..." I said in a seductive manner before throwing a wink towards the king. The suspicion on the King''s face was replaced with a pale white face as if he just saw a ghost.


    *cough* "Hm.. That''s alright... just be sure to wear it when you can or it might cause some unfortunate accidents" He responded quickly while waving his hands.


    "If I may request something, Your Highness"


    "Speak"


    "Do you perhaps have a library at this castle. I know nothing of this world and would like to spend some time studying it" while in reality I hoped I could find out what''s in this ring.


    "Granted" He looked towards one of the maid "Lead him to the Royal library. Grant him red level access". The maid quickly looked towards me beckoning me to follow.


    ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


    King POV


    With the sound of the table being slammed by the Prime Minister, the council meeting began.


    "What in the actual hell was that! I have never been heard or seen of violet level mana let alone someone wielding it" He yelled at the room. "That kid will grow to be a threat. We are better off torturing that kid for information and killing him off afterwards than let him walk around with such absurd level of power. Seriously the Royal Magicians put together would not be able to crack that crystal ball let alone shatter it"


    "We cannot do that. Though his mana stability was not the entire cause of the shattering but it is one of the main aspects. That kid has more mana than he can play around with. If we try to force him into anything it will end as a disaster. I would not want to be that poor sap that tries to capture him" The Royal Advisor spoke to the room as he tried to calm the minister down.


    They both fell into a heated argument on what the kid''s fate will be. I had to stop it after the Prime Minister tried to beat the Advisor with his chair rest. Irritated, I bellowed out


    "Silence! This is a non-issue. The Royal Magicians imbued the ring with a special formation. As long as the kid wears it his power will be under the Kingdom''s control"


    Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    "Wait but he is heading to the royal library. What if he cracks the formation?" The minister asked.


    "His power likely comes from knowledge of the other world. I do not think that it is possible for that kid to crack the formation invented by one of the greatest magicians of this continent and fortified by our own Royal Magicians"


    They both backed down after they heard my explanation though they still seem a bit dissatisfied.


    "The meeting is adjourned until a later date" I spoke while dismissing them.


    Whether or not a calamity comes I can surely use the kids power to consolidate my rule and perhaps spread my domain towards the other Kingdoms. I laughed at the various scenarios I could do with that kid''s power.


    __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


    Gareth POV


    The maid led to me to a Royal Library and as soon as I entered the room she dashed away. ''Wow was the whole crystal ball shattering thing that bad?''


    As I walked in I saw that the library was separated into many floors and the floor to the second floor was guarded by guards. The whole room was littered with books of various books and shelfs and even had it''s own librarian; except it was a rough looking man with hateful rather than a sweet old lady. As I tried to walk up to the second floor the guards stopped me while stating "You only have red level access. You need a yellow pass to access the second floor"


    ''Seriously? The King really wants me to see that I am not that important doesn''t he. Good thing I don''t have much self-esteem issues or I might be testing out if I can summon bleach'' I thought as I walked backed away and began to look at the books on the first floor.


    "Man they seriously have a lot of books here" I marveled as I looked at the various titles of the book.


    [History of Anima] ''skip''


    [Economy of the Harth kingdom] ''skip''


    [The Beauty and the Bindings] ''skip''


    [History of the Harth Kingdom] ''skip''


    [Charlotte''s Webster Dictionary] ''skip''


    [How to increase your mana in just three easy steps!] ''skip''


    [Basic of Formations and Runes]


    "Ah there it is" I exclaimed as I pulled the book out of the shelf and laid it down on the table to read along with the ring out of my pocket.


    [Formations in essence are pre-written spells allowing the wearer to use them quickly without having to think of the spells. They can be used for offense, defense, traps and even utility. Formations are generally weaker than their spells counter parts and it is not recommended for one to fully rely on them in combat.


    There are three main types of formations with various other types branching off them.


    The first type is Mana Formation: This formation can only be activated when the wearer wills their mana (or life force equivalent) into it. This formation takes the shape of a Circle.


    The second type is Sustained Formation: This formation is active at all times as long as their is mana in the user''s surrounding. This type of formation is generally the weakest and is typically only used for defensive purposes where the user does not have to be on constant alert to stop an attack.  This formation takes the shape of a Hexagon.


    The last type is Dissociate Formation: This formation requires two separate formations to be created and connected to one another. One of which will be receiver while the other is the sender. The formation on the sender''s side will only activated when the receiver sends mana. This type of formation is as strong as the formation itself and the amount of mana the receiver sends. This type of formation is typically used to create traps. This formation takes the shape of a Diamond]


    *flip*


    [Analyzing or breaking formations:


    In order to either analyze or break a formation. The user needs to posses more knowledge than the formation itself otherwise it will result in a massive backlash.


    One has to spread their mana throughout the formation till it covers the entire formation itself and as soon as the formation acknowledges the user''s knowledge it will present itself to the user. In rarer cases the creator of the formation may choose to not lock their formation allowing anyone to be granted access to them. As soon as the process is complete the information behind the formation is shown to the user.


    If the user wants to keep the formation they have to state "Custodi" as they pour mana into it. If they wish to break the formation the user has to state "Solvite" and if they wish to change the formation the user has to state "Recensere" ]


    ''Well here goes nothing''


    I looked towards the ring and willed my mana through it.


    Suddenly after a flash of light one circle formation and one diamond formation came before me. As my mana coursed through the two formations words began to come out of them.


    I read the circle one first.


    [Mana formation is in the user''s brain which spreads through out the body and the flow of mana is controlled by the heart and stomach]


    "Hmm. Guess this one is supposed to help me control my mana. Custodi!" I stated decided to keep it. I stopped willing my mana into the formation resulting it in going back into the ring.


    I glanced at the other formation''s writings.


    [By sending mana towards the top of the brain it allows the sender to control the wearer''s basic movement]


    ''Hohoho.. Jackpot. Looks like this formation attacks the motor cortex of the brain to control the movements. Though this knowledge is rather basic it looks like it is enough for basic commands. Hmph. No wonder the King looks so satisfied when I told him I would wear the ring'' I was angry at the thought that I was almost reduced to the level of a dog.


    ''But this is a interesting find. So as long as you have knowledge of the brian you can directly mess with it''


    "Hahhahahaha" I laughed louldy way while rubbling my hands while thinking with the prospects of the things I could do with this thing. I had to quickly stop as the librarian glared me as if I just insulted his mother.


    I just found myself something to play around with.


    ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 The Testing

    A bit of a power and gearing up along with a bit of context of the MC''s power. Next chapter will include actual fighting and use of powers.


    Enjoy!


    ________________________________________________________________________________________


    Gareth POV


    After discovering the formations in the ring I decided to modify it a bit.


    "Recensere" I whispered in order to not cause any suspicions from the librarian.


    I completely removed the original spell and insert a new one in its place. [Pain is discomfort from a stimuli] which is supposed to send a small amount of pain on my finger so I am aware of when the King activates the formation. I do not want to reveal that I know of the Kingdom''s intentions with me until I know of my true purpose in this world.


    As for the meantime, I decided to learn a bit more about formations.


    Turning the page on the book it revealed a chapter [Creating formations]


    [In order to create a formation. The user must draw the shape corresponding to the type of formation (Circle, Hexagon or Diamond) with the user''s mana  and place the knowledge required for the spell to be cast directly in the center.


    This will cause the formation to take place and if the user wishes to place the formation in a specific object the user must will their mana to pass through the formation and touch the object of desire.


    The user must be adept with the spell they are placing in the formation or the formation will take the user''s life force as its cost. You can put as many formations as you want on an object but formations themselves can break due to overuse.


    There are many cultures that place formations on their own body but it is not recommended to place more than one formation on your body.


    You cannot place two similar spell types in the same object as the mana flow will attempt to cast both spells at once causing internal damage on the formations.


    Created Formations are invisible to the naked eye until it is activated]


    Before I actually try putting spells in the formations I need to test the extent of my powers itself. Though the powers in this world are theoretically infinite as long as you posses the knowledge but I do not posses infinite knowledge. Since there are no books pertaining to spells on the first floor I am left with no choice but to test it myself.


    I got up from my seat and returned the book to where it was and walked up the counter.


    "Um can I borrow something to write with?" I asked the man on the counter.


    He glaced at me and started looking for something as he mumbled something under his breath. He placed a book, quill and a bottle of ink in my hand and shooed me off.


    With the items in hand I walked out of the library I needed to find my room but I have no clue where it is


    I looked around and saw a maid who was busy cleaning the floor of the hallway so I came up behind her and asked.


    "Do you happen to know where my room is?"


    She was startled so she jumped up and fell forward.


    She got up and bowed with a flustered face as she stammered out


    "Ah sorry! I did not see you coming"


    "Ah it''s alright. Would you happen to know where my room is? The King mentioned that he had a room open for me"


    "Ah you are the summoned one!" She said with her eyes opened like a child''s when they see a new toy. "As yes! I know where it is follow me!"


    She turned around and I followed. She was a rather talkative partner asking me lots of questioning about me. I made to answer as little about myself as possible in order to avoid any unnecessary information about me floating around.


    "Are you going to help the Kingdom?" She asked with a titled head as we walked.


    "Sure" I couldn''t exactly tell her that I lost interest in saving this Kingdom the moment they tried to enslave me.


    She beamed a smile towards me and walked forward. "Your room would be right down this hallway. If you ever need anything feel free to ask one of the maids! I must return to the cleaning before the head maid yells at me!" She said quickly before rushing off.


    I entertained a thought in my head before shaking it off completely. ''Nope, still not saving this Kingdom''


    ''Yep. Definitely not saving this Kingdom'' I thought so as I looked towards where my room was. They literary put it in the same section as the servant quarters evident by the amount of butlers and maids rushing out of the rooms. ''Better than nothing I guess'' I said as I opened my room and walked in.


    It was a rather simple room. It had a bed and a table with a chair.  ''Wasn''t really expecting to marry a princess or anything but at least a mirror would have been nice'' I thought as I slumped down on the chair and placed the boom and quill on the table.


    Alright. Let''s begin.


    [Ice is water frozen till it reaches a solid state] which created an icicle on my hand which I used to cut the palm of my hand. As the blood dripped I stated [Healing is the process of restoration of injured parts] which slowly brought out a red light which healed my palm.


    ''Alright bit slow but seems manageable. This should be something that even people in the medieval era can think of.'' Getting ready for the next part I grit my teeth and stabbed the icicle into my hand. I dropped the icicle and used that hand to cover my hand to stop myself from screaming.


    ''Worst IDEA of my LIFE!'' I yelled in my head from the pain. [Healing is done by the regeneration of cells which replaces the damaged area with new tissues] I quickly stammered out which brought out a bright violet light healing the injury from my hand.


    The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    Panting from the pain and relieved at the thought that it worked. I moved my palm around to find that it had left no markings nor did it hurt anymore. "Violet- High. Red- Low" I wrote down on the book. I decided that this would be one of the spells I would place on the ring.


    Alright this next test might end up either going really great or really bad.


    I got up from my seat and looked around for an empty spot. Which wasn''t that hard to be honest. I willed my mana to be a circle around the floor and said [Gravity is the attraction between two masses] the mana lit up in a orange color. ''Alright let''s test this'' Which holding the spell I threw the pen forward and as soon and as soon as it hit the range of the circle it quickly fell to the ground.


    "Orange- low-mid. Gravity''s strength increased by a small amount" I wrote on the book after I picked up the pen.


    I willed more mana into the circle and said [Attractive force is proportional to the product of the masses of the two objects divided by the distance of the masses squared]. The circle glowed in a bright blue color and the floor was crushed under it''s own weight. ''Whew. Good thing I did not use that on myself'' I was relieved at the thought.


    "Blue mid-high. Gravity increased considerably" I wrote. "Hm looks like I don''t know enough for it to reach violet stage but this is more than enough to crush someone under their own weight" I laughed a bit thinking of a situation of knights falling under the weight of their armor. Definitely adding this to the ring.


    Last but not least.


    I willed my mana at a different spot and said [Time is relative to the observer] the spot glowed in a white light as I threw the pen. As soon as the pen hit the circle it began to slow down at a considerable pace.


    Picking up the pen I wrote "White- medium. Time slowed down by roughly 40%". I realized I knew close to nothing about time so this was the furthest I could go. I wanted to try out if I could cast a black hole but went against that idea realizing the sheer complexity might drain my entire life force. Oh and also it might damage the kingdom. There is that too.


    I spent a few more hours testing out the three major spells I plan to use. I ended up accidentally discovering that I do not posses infinite mana and it hurts like hell to over drain the mana on your body.


    [Notes on spells]


    [High Healing- Can effectively heal any and all flesh wounds including any internal bleeding. Can it regenerate limbs? (To be tested)


    High Gravity - Increases gravity by eight fold on the given location. The more the target weighs the stronger it becomes. Enough to ground any flying object.]


    I sat on the floor and took out the ring. I was contemplating to use time offensively or defensive in the ring formation so I decided to place the offensive one on my body while keeping the defensive on my the ring.


    First I placed a Mana Formation [High Healing] onto the ring, followed by another Mana Formation of [High Gravity]. For the final piece I placed a Sustained Formation of [Medium Time] in the ring. Due to it being a Sustained Formation it only slows down time at roughly 20% around me.


    Now the ring posses four various formations:


    [Low-Mid Mana Control: None]


    [High Healing: ~20% mana per cast]


    [High Gravity: ~20% mana cost per second of use]


    [Medium Time: None]


    I began drawing a Mana Formation of [Medium Time] on my right palm. This allows me to slow down time at 40% at any place I point at a considerable mana cost.


    I was quite happy with the results but I realized one small failure on my part. I have no combat training so I needed to go out and begin doing fighting outside otherwise all these spells would be useless.


    _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


    (???) POV


    I sat at the table looking across at the man who brought forth information regarding the new summoned hero from the Harth Kingdom.


    "Speak" I spoke in a cold tone.


    The man began sweating at the sound of my voice.


    "Um....the hero.... is young....black hair... black eyes.....the nobles noted that he had vio...let...mana...." My eyes widened at the thought of a person with an unheard color of mana before "The nobles... also ..s tated... that he is ... a bit ...naive..willing to ... believe the lie....the King told him...about the result .... of his test" he finished.


    I sat there with finger on the bridge on my nose contemplating what to do with this information.


    "Send word to the spies in the capital to keep an eye on this person. Become friendly if they want to but under no circumstances are they to harm him" I told the attendant.


    As I finished saying he quickly ran out that door. I picked up the report he placed and began reading through.


    "Hm...ugg.. what is that bastard doing using his own daughter''s life force to summon an unknown entity. Could be planning to dominate the continent?" I shook my head thinking harder "Not probable..is there a disaster heading our way? but what..." an idea flashed into my head leading me to get walk out the door.


    I walked into a room full of men in black clothing sorting through various papers. I bellowed "Night and Shadow, head to the Southern Isle and talk to the seer there and see if she saw any ominous foretelling. If she refuses tell her that she owes me" I walked back to the room and slumped into the chair. "I really hope its that bastard king going mad with power"

 The Exploring

    Finally some combat. There will be more fighting scenes but I wanted to establish the world, the MC''s gear etc, before I went into it.


    Enjoy.


    ____________________________________________________________________________________________________


    After finishing up my thoughts I put the ring in my pocket and left to have a word with the King. As I opened the door I was met with another maid whose eyes widened and she dropped the tools she was holding after she saw the state of my room.


    I scratched my head saying "Ah..sorry about that..."


    No response.


    I waved my hands in front of her but she seemed frozen solid after witnessing the state of the room.


    So I did what any sensible man would do and ran away as fast as possible. Later, I find out she quit being a maid.


    As I was walking down the hallway I was met with some overly suspicious nobles who were rather friendly with me. I simply returned their greeting and strode forward.


    I saw the King walking about along with his guards passing various commands. I quickly slipped on the ring and walked towards him which of course prompted the guard to give their line.


    "Halt"


    The King waved his hands dismissing the guards and spoke "What is that you need?"


    "I request that I need to leave the castle" I asked.


    He eyed me suspiciously raising him eyebrows. "I need combat training so I would find it best if I could leave the castle to do so" I spoke in a stern tone.


    He was about to refuse my request until his eye went above my finger where he saw the ring. His eyes lit up and the suspicion went away from his face.


    "Excellent. Visit the Adventure Guild and take on some quests." He placed his hands into his coat and pulled out a bag of coins then tossed it to me. "That should be enough for any gear you wish to purchase". He said as he turned around to leave.


    I opened the pouch and it had ten gold coins in it. ''He could have at least told me how much its worth. Hoping its enough'' I thought as I stepped outside the castle.


    ''First, clothing then some weapons'' I walked around aimlessly in the town until I came across a tailor. It was rather empty. I stepped in and talked to the attendant who was a rather old lady. "What you need kid" she wheezed out.


    "Um. Could I get something like a cloak and some clothing that is easy to move around in" I asked


    "Um...check that area over there" She said while poiting to a corner.


    I walked over and picked up black cloak and a redish shirt that looked rather comfortable. I walked over to the counter and asked "I would like these two"


    "That would be 56 silver."


    She said as she put her hand out. ''Shit...how much is silver''


    I pulled out a gold coin and placed it on her hand. She glanced at it and pulled out 44 silvers and placed them in my hand exchange for the gold. ''I guess one gold is 100 silver. Good to know''


    I put the clothes on and walked out to find somewhere I can buy weapons. I soon came across the sound of metal wringing ''Well. That was rather easy''. Walking in front of the store I walked in while trying to keep my lungs from having a fallout from the amount of smoke coming here.


    "Ah welcome lad! What ya need. We got everything from pointy to bashy things. We got super pointy things if you want to stab something or big things if you want to crush something"  I was greeted by a tall gruff looking man who seemed like the happiest person I have ever met.


    "Um..I will take the pointy thing then" I asked.


    "Sure thing kid. Follow me" He gestured towards the wall filled with swords. After glancing around I found the perfect sword for me. It had just the right length and the hilt was comfortable. As as I went to grasp it the Blacksmith bellowed "Kid watch it. That thing is not a child''s play thing!"


    As I tried to pull it I realized it was rather heavy. I thought of an idea and I chanted [High Gravity] magic on it which resulted it in it weighing 8 times as less allowing me to easily pick it up and wave it around.


    The Blacksmith''s eyes widened as he stammered "What the hell brat! I have seen grown men barley swing it and here you are waving it around. Hahaha" He said while slapping his knee. "It''s alright kid I get lonely at night too"


    I didn''t understand the last part so I let it go. "How much for this sword"


    "For that beauty it would be 89 silver. I will throw in a a sheath and hilt for free"


    I tossed a gold coin over to him and he left and returned with 11 silver.


    "Please doing business kid. Come again"


    As soon as I left the building I decided to quickly lay a sustained formation of [High Gravity] It is weaker than the real thing but enough to reduce it weight by 3 fold so it is still enough for me to carry and swing around.


    "Alright. Time to hit the adventure guild"


    ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


    Receptionist POV


    Usually the days go by rather simple day with the same adventures coming in and out. However, today an conspicuous person walked in covered in a black cloth with over its eyes. It would be a normal sight for any adventure not wanting to really seen or trying to be mysterious but rarely does one walk in with such small staure. I made the mysterious person to be around a 17 year old.  The room turned their attention to the boy before returning to their prior conversations.


    ''Hm. Another kid wanting their shot at adventuring...'' I mused weakly.


    He walked towards me and requested "I would like to register as an adventurer"


    "Very well" I handed him the registration form and watched him look at it in a confused manner. "Can''t write?" I asked while prompted him to nod.


    "Alright. Just tell me your information. Name?"


    "Garoth"


    "Place of birth?"


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon."You can leave that blank". Guess he must be from somewhere far.


    "Age?"


    "18"


    "Alright that''s all we need. Give me a few seconds to create a card" I told him as I pulled out a basic adventure card and placed his information on there.


    "Do you wish to take a test to determine your rank?" I asked.


    "No thanks" I raised my eyebrow not understanding why someone would refuse to take the test. ''Is he afraid of being shown that he is weak?'' I thought before finaling his card.


    "Do you wish for information on he adventuring guild?" I asked.


    "Yes please."


    "Basically, the Adventure Guild was created to solve problems and run quests that the normal populace cannot do. You will be doing everything from fighting monsters to exploring ruins for information. Anyone can put up a request at the Guild provided that they grant a sufficient reward." pointing at the board across the room I said "That is where you can pick up quests. You can only do quests of the same rank as you or below by one rank. The Rankings go from Red, Orange, Yellow, White, Blue and finally Violet. Since you are not taking the test you will be placed in the Red ranking allowing you to take only Red ranked quests. Do you have any other questions?"


    "None"


    I handed him the card and said. "Feel free to go take a quest and we will appraise the items or information your bring to give you a suitable reward"


    He then walked over the board glanced around and picked out a quest. I was rather confused. ''He can read but can''t write? Or did he just pick out a random quest?''


    Picking up the quest he brought it to me. I read over it.


    [Help Requested: Exploring new found Dungeon.


    Thought to be infested with Goblins at the higher floors but the creatures on the bottom floors are unknown. Looking for any and all information related to it. Do not progress towards the lower levels unless you posses sufficient strength


    Difficulty: High Red - White.


    Reward: Varies based upon information.


    Penalty: None.


    ]


    ''Hm..usually rookies don''t take such tasks..'' I groaned before approving the task and giving it back to the kid.


    Hope this was does not end up dying.


    _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


    Gareth POV


    I walked towards to location directed by the quest marking. I laughed a bit at the thought of tiny green men running at me with poorly made sticks. The last time that happened I was in Ireland.


    Reaching at the entrance of the cave I made my way in trying to block the horrid stench coming from there. [Light is an electromagnetic radiation from a specturm] I casted which created a bright violet light that illuminated the entire cave. I saw many marking on the wall and corposes of various goblins spread across the room. They looked exactly as I thought they would be, green and hideous. There were adventures that came before me into this area evident by corpses of various people. Trying not to vomit I quickly strode forward to reach to the second floor.


    [Sound is the vibration of air molecules] I willed the mana into my ear allowing me to hear things from a distance. I heard the various pitter patter of tiny feet along with rough breathing.


    ''Guess the adventures did not want to go here'' I thought carefully eying my surroundings.


    I walked forward with my sword and mana ready to go for the ambush.


    Eight goblins popped out of the walls and rush towards me. [Ice is a condensed form of water] I willed as I created various sizes of icicles in the air raining it down on the goblins.


    The icicles impaled four the goblins.


    Seeing their comrades die the goblins got more aggressive and pushed forward in a rapid pace. I quickly spun my sword hitting one causing it to be sliced in half.


    Seeing another goblin die the three remaining goblins showed fear in their eyes and tried to run. ''Like hell you will!'' I used the formation on my palm slowing down the running Goblins allowing me to quickly run forward and kill the three that were running away.


    I slumped down from exhaustion. ''Phew...more fun than I thought it would be'' while high on adrenaline I did not realize that I got blood all over me. Upon realization I ended up vomiting everything that I had on my stomach. Trying to stand up and pointing at my stomach I said [Nausea is the sense of discomfort in the upper stomach] while pouring mana to stop the nausea.


    "HELP! IS SOMEONE THERE! HELP!" My ears perked up from the noise coming from the floor below. ''Dam..should I go or not?.'' I contemplated but the guy down there could not even let me think with all the screaming. Asshole.


    Finally, I decided to check it out and I walked down to the third floor. I was met with a door and from beyond I could hear a guy who could give most horror movies scream a run for their money. With all my strength I managed to push the door open and saw the guy who turned around due to the noise and rushed straight at me.


    "Thank you! Thank you....please help...all of them.... are d.ea..d.." he stammered while trying to catch his breath.


    ''What in the hell is this dude running from--''


    My thought was caught off by a thumping sound as it walked closer towards us. The guy got even more crazy as soon as he heard the sound. He immediately pushed be away from the door and ran right out closing it behind me.


    ''What the hell. Did he just leave me here--''


    My thoughts were cut off again as I heard a rough, loud breathing noise right behind me. ''Fuck me''


    I slowly turned around and was met by a large figure which looked like a tree. If that tree was 8 feet high and had a giant club on its hand. The beats eyes were bloodshot red and his body littered in wounds evident of the fighting it did. It picked up its club and swung it right at me.

 The Conflict

    Receptionist POV


    The guild is in a bit of a turmoil due to a horrifying report coming from the new Dungeon. The high orange rank team was decimated with only living member left by an ogre in the third floor of the dungeon and the reports state that there are many more floors.


    I was worried about the newbie who just entered the dungeon and hoped he came out after venturing to the first floor.


    When the person who saw the ogre was interrogated about the state of Garoth. He simply turned and refused to answer. I feared for the worst as that Ogre was enough to wipe an orange ranked team.


    We ended up sending a renowned Yellow e ranked team to solve the issue and hopefully save anyone in danger.


    ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


    Gareth''s POV


    Thanks to the [Medium Time] formation on my ring the club slowed down just enough for me to dodge it . I quickly back away as far as possible to prime more spells. I placed my hand on to the ground and willed my mana forming ice on to the floor.


    As the ogre tried to chase after me it resulted in it began to slip and fell into the floor. As it tried to get up I activated the [High Gravity] formation on my ring right on top of him which ended up cracking the entire floor surrounding it. As the ogre struggled it let out a giant roar.


    My eyes widened as I realized what the roar meant. I heard large amounts of feet running towards me; It was a massive goblin horde. With the horde almost catching up to me I ended up casting [Medium Time] on myself to speed up my body. The whole world slowed down allowing me to run much faster.


    I was completely surrounded by at least a hundred Goblins. I quickly released as much mana as I could and thought [High Fire] spell which led to the entire room being surrounded in a blazing white inferno engulfing all the goblins and the ogre resulting into them all being turned into ash.


    I breathed loudly trying to catch my brain. The combination of spells completely drained me of my mana. Limping, I made it to the entrance and made my way out of the dungeon. Before heading back to the guild I needed to recuperate so I decided to find a tree and rest alongside it.


    All this happened because I decided to save one guy. From hence forth I decided to take real heed to the warnings of the Goddess of not trusting anyone in this world. Wait does that mean I should not trust the Goddess either? If that''s the case does that mean I trust everyone in this world? Wait. I am in this world does this mean I can''t trust myself either?


    While going to a panic crisis like a fly in a windowsill. I slapped myself to regain composure. ''Guess mana drain really hits me hard..''


    __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


    Jack''s POV (Leader of the Yellow Ranked Team)


    As soon as we got the order from the Guild we rushed to the dungeon so we may deal with the ogre and save anyone still stuck in there. But what we saw was completely unexpected.


    The entire third floor room was scorched and we could still feel the remnant heat coming off the walls.


    The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.


    "What in the hell could have caused this? I mean look all this! All of the goblins and even the ogre completly turned into ashes" One of the members exclaimed.


    "White rank. A very high one at that. Half-a-step into blue even." The magician of our team stated.


    White ranked adventures are rather rare and would not be called to go into such a dungeon like this one.


    "Any survivors?" I asked fearing for the worst.


    "Dude. Look at this place. Even a fucking cockroach won''t make it out of here alive. Let alone an adventurer. Let''s hope that kid made it out before the white mage decided to have his own fire show here"


    "Yea..hope for the best here" I sighned.


    "Yo man check this out." I walked towards the voice as our rouge cleared the ash of the Ogre and it revealed a massive crack on the flooring.


    What? Did the ogre fall over? But that still would not be enough to crack the floor to this degree. Did the white mage also happen to carry around a giant hammer that he bashed the ogre with?


    "Don''t know what the hell caused that man. We can''t even check the bodies to find out what other damage it had on them. Let''s return and report this to the guild" I told the group as we proceeded to leave the dungeon.


    _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


    Gareth''s POV


    After healing up from my injuries. I returned back to the guild only to be greeted with a large commotion. Which prompted me to be pulled into the office by various people asking me questions about the dungeon. I simply shrugged and lied through my teeth not wanting to deal with such a thing at the time.


    As I was being questions there was another commotion outside. Three large knights wearing crimson armor strode in and proclaimed


    "The King is preparing for a war of the neighboring Kingdom. Any adventures that wish to join the army may do so at the stall before the Royal Castle." and they turned around and promptly left.


    A war? Even the Guild Master was confused about this situation.


    "Do you perhaps know why the King would declare war on the neighboring Kingdom? Did they perhaps attack us?"


    He shook his head "No. The Kingdom of Rheig have always been on peaceful terms with us and it is not likely for them to attack us. It is most likely a war being started on our side. But why?" He mumbled the last part under his breath.


    "Are we lacking resourses that they have?" I asked again.


    "No..we are on good trade terms as well. My only guess is that the Kingdom wishes to expand and the King wants to put his name in history by conquering another Kingdom. But our fighting force is evenly matched with the other Kingdom. Either the King has gone mad or he has found something to tip the war to our side"


    My eyes widened at the revelation. ''That bastard intends to use me a war piece to conquer another Kingdom? While there is a calamity approaching?'' A vein popped in my head. ''If that bastard wants conflict so bad. I will give one to him''.

 The Improvement

    Hope you guys don''t mind the change in style. Only one POV in this chapter though


    ____________________________________________________________________________________________________


    Gareth''s POV


    Rushing back to the Castle Walls as fast as I could with the aid of Gravitational Magic of course. As I entered the entire castle was rather calm. Like it was not even bothered that it was going to war in the first place. Running around the place I saw that the King had a rather jubilant mood like a kid in a candy store.


    As I approached him with the ring in my hand his smile even grew wider. Internalizing my anger, I managed to keep up a calm facade so the King does not suspect that I am not under his control.


    I feel a small prick on my finger from the ring and a message in my head ''Come forward'' signaling that the King activated his formation. I did as it told me and went before the King.


    "Go back to your room and prepare. In a few days you will ride towards the neighboring Kingdom and aid them in the combat efforts." He commanded me.


    "Why are we in sudden war with the neighboring Kingdom?" I inquired back.


    "That''s none of your concern. Even if you knew it would not matter." Feeling another prick on my finger and a message ''Go to your room''. I could only grit my teeth before leaving to not arouse any suspicion.


    If this bastard thinks he can play around with my brain then I can do the same. Feeling various devious plans coming to me I head back to my room to get ready for what is about to come. Slumping down on my new chair that they placed in my room but the room itself was still as tattered as before. I could even see a bit of moonlight striking through the ceiling.


    I began to think about the things I could do. I had various knowledge of the human anatomy system and its brain so it would not be hard to place this entire castle under some form of control. However, part of my conscious would just scream that is not the correct thing to do and the anger in my head wants to be burn the whole place down.


    Holding my face I decided to do something absolutely crazy and do what the Goddess told me.


    [Amygdala of the brain is the control center of emotions] [Emotion is a affective state of consciousness] [...] I dumped every information I had about emotions into a spell till it turned into a bright violet color and made it directly enter my brain.


    As I closed my eyes I was met with a white room similar to when I met the Goddess except this room was filled to the brim with various orbs with varying colors. My emotions. Each of them represented an emotion. The most prevalent where a giant red orb and a giant white orb. Placing my hand on the red orb I could feel the anger pulsing throughout my body, all that rage, misery and the desire to destroy. Placing another hand on the white orb I felt sympathy, desire to help, desire to protect.


    Willing my mana into another spell of emotions I shrunk them. Shrunk them into a small orb which could barley be seen. I could feel both the anger and sympathatic reactions in my body subsiding.


    I walked around placing my hand on various orbs making certain emotions stronger while making a lot of which smaller. I did not want to completely remove them as I did not want to turn into a life less doll. So I simply shrunk them to the point where I could feel them but not be controlled by them. Namely the ones I reduced were guilt, remorse, sorrow, pity, horror. The ones I made stronger were passion, confidence, and those who would help me in this world.


    Shutting off the mana supply and slowly opening my eyes. I did not feel much different but I was willing to come up with a plan to give the King the conflict he desired.


    Before doing anything I needed to begin confirming thing. Willing my mana around me [Medium Light] I made it so all light that came to me would not leave and just absorb it instead. I became something akin to a black hole where one would not even be able to make out my figure all they would see is a giant humanoid shadow like creature and it was black enough so as long as I stuck to shadows I could not be seen. Wanting to be sure to not get caught I casted a [Medium Sound] spell around me to not arouse any noise when I walked.


    As I roamed the hallways walking across the shadows like a Thief game. I made to the Guards building where the guards stayed. Looking around I saw that some guards possessed the same rings I did while the others did not.  That ruled out trying to change the formations of the rings not to mention that would take a large amount of effort.


    I walked around the castle confirming the locations and where everything was placed to make sure my plan can come to fruition without any complications. In the end I walked back to my room to come up with various ideas.


    Coming with the ideas themselves was rather easy but the results would be horrendous.


    [Killing the King in his sleep] would not work as the whole Kingdom would fall if the monarchy was destroyed without proper replacement.


    [Putting the entire castle under my control] sounds efficient but I did not posses enough mana to do so.


    ..


    Most of the plans I came up with were either trashed as it would just end in turmoil or required too much mana for to me do so. So I came with a final plan.


    Make the King afraid of a mysterious entity so he does not step out of line but even that plan would not suffice as he had large amount of guards stationed everywhere even I cannot take them all at once. So the only solution left for that problem is for me to somehow distract or control the guards so they do not get in my way. Which is quite easy with simply taking control of their motor cortex..Wait.. how is the King capable of controlling such mass number of Guards? Even I do not posses enough mana and I am at violet stage.


    I came to a strict realization that I had no knowledge of mana. In a world where everything is possible due to mana I only know a bit of information about it and that was from the Goddess and the formation in the ring. There has to be a better way to control mana or at least increase it and I know exactly the place where I could get it from.


    Grabbing a pen I created a Diamond on it (Dissociate Formation) which will act as the sender for another formation. Getting up from my seat I walked to the library. I was of course stopped by the guards standing in front like it is the only happiness they can find in their lives.


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    "Halt. What business do you have here?" One of them asked.


    "I need some information to get ready for the war that is coming up" as soon as the word ''War'' left my mouth their face changed and allowed me access. I figured the King ordered them to help me as long as it connects to the war effort somehow.


    As I entered I casted a [Medium Sound] on the door to make sure no noise goes out.


    Walking into the library I casually picked up a random book casted the receiving end of the Dissociate Formation on it. Willing my mana through the formation [Sleep is a state


    of mind with reduced sensory awareness, almost none voluntary movements and reduced interactions with the surroundings] with a bright white light the formation was set.


    I went to the librarian who was stationed there and looked around to make sure the guards who were at the entrance of the second floor could not see me. I passed him the book asking


    "Do you know where I can find books like this here?"


    He glanced at me while mumbling and he touched the book to look at it closely. He then pulled out a book labeled [Directory] and began to look through it. Bingo. Doing a final look around I poured mana into the pen activating the formation on the book making the librarian fall asleep I caught his head to avoid it hitting the desk so it would not make any noise. I waled up to the counter and laid him back while taking both books out of his hands.


    I looked through the Directory to find the location where books about mana may be located. After searching through I found out it was in the second floor. I was irritated at the thought that I had to go through the guards as well.


    I placed the Directory back where he got it from and pretended to roam about the library just as I came close to the two guards who were standing before the entrance to the second floor.


    The both guards had a very close eye on so I could not cast sleeping magic.


    I came up to the one closer to me, while pulling out the book on one hand and a pen in another I opened the book to a random page and asked one of the guards.


    "Could you tell me what this word means here?"


    "Why don''t you ask the librarian?" He responded, clearly not wanting to help me.


    "He seemed busy so I decided to come to you." I heard him click his tongue and grabbed the book from the hands and began looking at it.


    "This simply means --" He didn''t get to finish before I activated the formation and before the other guard had a chance to react I took the book from the first guard''s hand just as he fell and threw it to the second one who caught it on reflex. I activated the formation once more and both guards fell to the floor. I let the guards fall which created a large bang sound. Luckily there was no one else in the library. Awake that is.


    I quickly ran upstairs as I was unsure of how long the sleep magic would even last. Rummaging through the section of where the mana book should be I finally found it.


    [Advanced Topic of Mana and Magic]


    [Basics: Mana is thought to be created from the knowledge one wields. We are not sure of the specifics but simply how it can be used. The mana is proven to created by the brain as and it is directly transferred to the hearth and stomach. Mana travels across the body through the blood pumped out by the heart and is refined into the various aspects and colors in the stomach. Mana is everywhere. As long as their is life force in an entity it can produce mana as well. Even creatures that are thought to not have any sense of self]


    [Controlling: To control the mana in your body more fluidly. It is best if one imagines a flow of water or the blood in your body. Treat the mana source as a different body part of your body that is under your control and through continuous use it will become more refined, more fluid and more powerful]


    [Negative Effects: If an user overuses Mana and Life Force in conjunction with an another it will lead to an mutation resulting in corroding the brain. This is how mana beats are formed. Being whose mind are corroded will devolve back to primal instincts only wanting to hunt, feed and reproduce]


    [...]


    After an hour of reading or so I began testing out the various theories in the book and letting the knowledge sink in. After a while my mana control vastly improved and I could cast spells in a much more fluid mana and release them in a more consistent manner without wasting it.


    Closing the book I placed it back where it was and walked back downstairs to be greeted with the unconscious guards.


    As long as they are here I wanted to try something ever since the Princess transferred the language of this world directly to me. You can give someone else your memories or knowledge. If you can give someone memories you should also be able to take it away. I can only assume that the King did not do that me is due to them not being able to understand where the memory itself is located to destroy it but know that it is stored somewhere in the brain.


    Placing my hand on one of the guards head. I willed [The memory center of the brain is the hippocampus which consolidates both long-term and short term memory] as I did so I entered into another white room but this one was filled with various memories of the guards. Walking up the recent ones I saw some interesting memories.


    ''Ho ho ho. This guard is boning the head maid...Hahaha....I wonder what the Princess would think of her own maid doing this. Dang this guy even has a wife .. sucks to be her..''


    Walking forward I came to the memory of him meeting me and I directly removed it. I exited his conscious and began to do the same thing with the other guard and the librarian.


    I walked out the library and greeted the guards standing in front with a smile pretending as if nothing happened in there.


    Now with improved mana control I could do so much more. It is a dream for me but a nightmare to the inhabitants of this castle.

 The Threat

    Gareth''s POV


    With the improvements ready I needed to prepare for the final plan.


    It was still night time, meaning most of the castle was still asleep. This gave me the perfect opportunity to progress my plans. I did not want to kill the King but rather scare him to the point where he would become so paranoid he would have to watch out for his own shadow. Or mine in this case.


    Using the [Mid Light] and [Mid Sound] spell I shrouded myself in darkness and silence once more and moved towards where the guards were situated. There were guards coming in and out most likely due to them switching shifts. They did those in 4 hour intervals giving me enough time to do what I needed to.


    As soon as the shift changed I went into the quarters quickly to make sure no one suspected anything. I found any guards with the ring on them and quickly altered their Dissociate Formation to link to my pen rather than being linked to the Royal Family''s rings. I even upgraded them so I could easily control their actions in a much quicker and effective way than the King ever could. For the guards who did not have rings on them. Lets just say they all got matching formations on their feet.


    I could just fight or somehow use the pressure to make them immobile but with the formation directly attacking their motor cortex they will move regardless if they are conscious or not.


    I waited in the room till the shift changed until every single guard in this castle was somehow linked directly to me.


    I finally figured out why the King only gives some of his guards rings. It is highly taxing to control so many guards. I can only give them 4 or 5 commands before I am drained of mana. All in all that is more than enough to complete this plan.


    Since the threat of the guards are gone, I needed to set the stage. What better way to threaten the King than in the throne room. Making my way to throne room making sure no one saw me I began putting [Mid Light] formations all around the room and one directly in front of the throne where I will be standing. I could manipulate the absorption of light so it looked as though various shadow tentacles where coming out of the ground for the formations on the ground I added in another [Mid Sleep] formation so if the shadow tentacles were to touch anyone they would instantly fall asleep.


    Placing one around every light source I could make the room go pitch black with a single push.


    Again another very taxing spell.


    For the final touch I placed a massive [High Gravity] formation in the entire room. I don''t plan to crush everyone there but rather just make it strong enough to put some pressure on them.


    With the preparations complete I went back to room to come up with some designs I could turn myself into with the [Mid Light] spell. In the end I decided with something that was looked close to a demon.


    __________________________________________________________________________________________________


    <Next Day> King''s POV


    The war with Rhieg is getting ready to unfold in the next few days. We have recruited enough soldiers and knights to be ready to mobilized when I give the command. Normally we would not go to war with Rhieg as they have an equal military strength to us. But this time we have a trump card. A violet level mage.


    We got a report about a sudden appearance of a peak White ranked mage appearing in the nearby dungeon and there is no White Ranked mage who could have caused that much destruction with just Fire magic and that Gareth boy was just there before the ''mysterious'' mage was there.


    Anyone who witnessed him burst the crystal ball would be able to draw the connection. This boy''s fire magic is extremely powerful. He managed to wipe out an entire floor and an Ogre with a white ranked spell. I cannot imagine the destruction he could pull off on the opposing army with a Violet ranked one. Not to mention the state he left his room at. The walls and the floors were completely cracked. Even a siege weapon could not do the damage this kid did accidentally.


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    I am currently in the throne room discussion with the various guards and generals about the mobilization of the army.


    "We can place that kid in the mage battalion. He can do the most damage there"  The Leader of the Mage battalion spoke.


    The rest of the generals mummered in agreement.


    "Hm.. Done. We can start mobilization the regular infantry first while setting up a pincer formation with the mage battalion an---" I stopped when the room when completely pick black.


    "What the hell is happening!"


    "Did something happen to the sun!?"


    The room fell into turmoil. You could hear the clanking noise of armor and swords being drawn ready to strike at any moment.


    When the light came back something stood at the center of the room.. a terrifying being from nightmares...it was large...dark everywhere you could not make any features...two dark horn shapes ...a tail... and two large wings coming out of its back.....with glowing red eyes..


    (Basically this</a>)


    None of us could move. Sweat pouring through the holes of every one in this room. All the maids and butlers in the room fell down unconscious and the rest were barley standing. There was a heavy pressure weighing down on all of us.


    The Mage General snapped out of it and began trying to form a spell. Seeing him do so I activated the formation on my ring ''Defend me!'' willing the guards in the room. However none of them moved. Were they so afraid that the formation had no effect on them?


    The Mage General''s attempt was cut short the Shadow fiend glared at him with his eye glowing a brighter shade of red and a shadow like arm arising from the ground that surrounded him. He immediately fell down...


    What in the hell is that thing...is this what the calamity was speaking off? I was scared. I was close to unconsiciousness but I remember that if that field is from the calmaity then that boy can save me..Yes! that boy.. as I was getting ready to activate the formation on the boy the shadow spoke.


    "Do not bother. There is nothing in this Kingdom that can save you if I willed it. Try anything foolish and this room will turn into a brighter shade of red" The voice was loud and deep resounding across the room and echoing across the hallways. Gulping I removed any thought of escape...


    "Whoo.... are you??? Why did ... you come...." I stammered out with just a hope for survival..


    "Who I am does not matter. What matters is Him. I was merely commanded to stop this petty conflict" Another set of resounding words spread across the room.


    "Who is Him?" What kind of being could command this monster? If this being is not the calamity is then is it the one commanding it? Just this one fiend is enough to make the whole room quiver in terror what kind of being would his master me?


    "Who is his does not matter. All that matters is his command. Heed his words King. For this warning will be your last" With those parting words the whole room became pitch black once more and the being disappeared. I slumped back into my chair and the entire room fell onto its knees from the relieved pressure.


    "Order....the dismantle of the battalions...call off the war...." I barked at the Generals and the the guards and they all rushed to do so not wanting to see the fiend again.

 The Negotiation

    Gareth POV


    Panting I ran out of the room and at the same time laughing at the havoc I caused. That went much better than I expected it to. The maids are about to have a real fun time cleaning the throne room floors.


    I opened my palm to reveal a form of black powder which was formerly the pen with a large amount of formations stuffed inside it. Due to the overuse the pen turned into dust which caused me to run my plan a little shorter than I should have, but it still ended up working. I blew the powder out as a memorial for the King''s balls as it will certainly be missing after that scare.


    Walking back to my room with a grin on my face. With me not getting a chance to sleep yesterday due to the planning I needed some rest before I malfunctioned.


    While sleeping I entered another white room. However, this was the same as the first time I was here. Empty.


    I heard a faint giggle.


    Ah fuck its her again.


    "Are you Gods that bad with coming up with something original?" I asked the empty white space.


    "You are no fun, You know that? You could have at least pretended to be scared" She spoke as she appeared before me.


    "Yea yea. So whats with the surprise visit for?" I asked impatiently.


    "Just wanted ya to meet someone." As she said so another figure came into view.


    "What? Wanted me to meet your sugar daddy. Or in this case sugar grandpa?" I asked while laughing as the man was rather old whose face was covered in wrinkles. Not to mention he walked around with a cane.


    I could see a vein popping out of her head but she did not say anything about it.


    "He would be Peritia, the God of Knowledge and the creator of Anima" She said while introducing him.


    interesting. This old man created such a world. Can''t really judge a book by its cover these days.


    "You did not interfere with my dreams just so I can meet him did ya?"


    "Hm.. who knows" She responded while tilting her head. Guess she was mad about the whole sugar grandpa thing.


    "If thats all then I am leaving" I turned around but realized that I could not leave. Well I could walk away..


    "Leave where, little one? Into that white area or that white area?" She laughed while pointing at random directions.


    "*cough*" We were brought back by the old man coughing. Which is probably the most normal thing about this place.


    "So what is that you brought me here for" I asked again this time directing the questions at the old man.


    "The calamity is coming. The first wave will be at the south nearing the [Elsewood] forest. We need you to go there to contain it or force it back"  The Goddess answered.


    "I could but why would I want to?" I said with a grin. She is not the only one who can hold a grudge.


    Now that got the Goddess mad but before she could try to harm me the old man blocked her.


    "Now now. We can work something out here."


    Clicking her tongue "Fine...what do you want in return?"


    This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.


    "Information about space magic" This world has to have some information about space as the Princess used it to rip a hole through it to summon me. I never bothered learning much about space itself in my previous world but it would undoubtedly be useful in this one.


    "We can only give you up to yellow stage"


    Ha. They are the ones who need me but still want to give me a lowball?


    "White. I won''t back down from this" I quipped.


    (Author''s Note: Red < Orange <  Yellow < White <  Blue < Violet)


    "Peak Yellow" She responded clearly unused to being in a negotiation. However she and the old man needed me to go to the forest but I did not need the knowledge.


    "White. Final offer"


    "Yell--" She wanted to say before the old man cut her off.


    "Done" The old man gave in.


    Sweet. The old man stretched his hand forward and placed his hand on my forehead. Knowledge of space flowed into my brain. At least it did not hurt like the time the Princess did it. Now due to this new found knowledge my arsenal has expanded quite a bit.


    "So back to the whole calamity thing. What exactly is there?"


    "Due to Peritia''s way of creating the world. We cannot interfere with it. The whole world is entirely disconnected from the God''s realm and the only one who can reconnect it is the original owner. But he cannot do that anymore since the world forsake him as their God so he lacks the power to do so. The result is that  we can only see a little bit more than the seers of your world. But there is something ominous stirring up there and you need to go there before it fucks up the world." The Goddess explained quickly.


    "But how was I sent into that world" I asked her


    "We cannot interfere with that world but that does not mean the residents of the world cannot interfere beyond it. Since you were being summoned by them all I had to do was provide power for the summoning as it connected to your world" The Goddess answered back.


    "Enough talk. We gave you what you wanted so finish the mission or I will really start haunting you" Saying that she pushed me back leading me to fall into the white void. I woke up panting for breath and sweating but had a smile on my face.


    Chuckling I went back to sleep. I had to go a trip very soon.


    _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


    Goddess POV


    "Think he will be able to solve it?" I asked Peritia.


    "He should be able to but why the facade? You wouldn''t normally be swindled, especially not by a small human child" He asked back confused at my actions.


    "I was going to give him the power anyway. It just made it more fun for him to fight for it"


    He just shook is head at my actions. Hopefully the kid makes good use of that magic.

 The Plan

    Gerath POV


    The light came through the cracks in the ceiling. I decided to get ready to travel to where the forest is. However, If I wanted to travel I need funds and I could only hope the King was feeling more generous after the scare he was given yesterday.


    Walking down the hallway I realized something was wrong. There are way too many guards there. Nearly triple. Out in the distance I spotted the King but this time he had six guards with him rather than the usual two.


    Walking up to him, I prepared to be greeted by the overly protective guards once more.


    "Halt"


    "I need to talk to the King about something important." I asked as politely as I could.


    "Spea..k" The King commanded though he seemed much more timid than usual. Wonder why.


    "I need funds to travel to the [Elsewood] Forest"


    "[Elsewood] Forest? Why?" The King asked.


    "I suspect the first wave of calamity is going to appear there" I responded though I see the flash of fear in the King''s eyes as he heard the world ''calamity''.


    "What makes you say that? Even ours seers do not suspect such a thing." The King glare piercing me as if I was telling a lie.


    "The Gods themselves messaged me" I quickly answered.


    He was taken back for a second before him and the guards fell into laughter.


    "Hahaha. There are no Gods kid. Even if they were they have long forsaken us" He responded wiping the bit of tear in his eyes.


    He was not technically wrong in that aspect but the only reason the Gods ''forsake'' this world is because this world gave up on them first.


    "Forget it. You must have hit your head and began seeing hallucinations. I need you to go to meet up with the general" He commanded me.


    "Why so?" I asked.


    "Those bastards at Rhieg actually dared to refuse the peace treaty I proposed..You just need to cast a few fire spells along with the mage battalion outside their castle walls to make them reconsider"


    No shit. You tried to attack them just yesterday. Even an idiot would not sign a peace treaty with an idiot like you. I kept the thoughts to myself however.


    "So another war?" I asked with a confused look on my face. Did he not learn anything from yesterday?


    "No. Nothing more than a skirmish. The only ones fighting will be you along with the mage battalion and hired mercenaries. Now go report to the general."


    After stating his command the King just walked away with his entourage.


    Didn''t know what I was expecting out of him. Guess I have to use another plan.


    Walking across the hallways once more I passed by a highly guarded door with four guards. The door itself had more jewelry stuck to it than the throne room. What I needed is right across that room but it would be near impossible to get in without alerting the guards. Didn''t think the King would be that scared of the shadow fiend to up the amount of guards by that much.


    Wait. Shadow fiend. Coming up an idea I ran outside. Look around for the perfect spot as far as I could from the castle I created a [Sustained Formation] and imbued it with [Mid Light]. Backing off and letting the formation activate the figure similar to the shadow fiend sprouted out of the ground. No wonder the King was terrified it looked rather horrifying from someone else''s perspective.


    Willing my mana near my mouth I casted [Mid Sound] and bellowed out "SHADOW FIEND!". The scream was loud enough to be heard by every single person in the castle. I could hear the clanking of armor and guards withdrawing their swords rushing to where I was.


    "Over there!"


    "I see it!"


    "Overwhelm it!


    "Don''t let it harm the King!"


    Quickly taking advantage of the commotion I ran back inside avoiding the guards. Running across the hallway I saw four guards running towards me.


    Just before they saw me I quickly turned around and stumbled backwards. While pointing towards the outside of the castle I screamed "It''s over there! Its coming to get me!" with tears in my eyes.


    The guards looked at me with pure disdain in the eyes. One of them muttered under his breath "Dam coward.." and they choose to ignore and walk to where the commotion was happening.


    As soon as I saw that they left, a smile left from my face. "Way too easy" I laughed while running back towards the treasury. As I was walking to the treasury I spotted a figure in front of the door.


    Dammit. There is actually a guy stationed right in front of it. Clicking my tongue I decided to go with a risky idea. I casted [Mid Light] on my entire arm making it covered similar to the shadow fiend and used [Low Water] spell near by eyes. With the best impression I could I stumbled and fell right in front of him.


    He glared and me and his expression turned into a shocked one once he saw my arm.


    "Dammit it kid what the hell is wrong with your arm?" He asked with concern written on his face.


    "I don''t.. know... the fiend just attacked me.....I am scared....I wanna go back home... I don''t want .... here." I pretended to cry while holding on to my knees in the floor in front of him.


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    "Come on kid. Get up. I will get you to someone who can fix your arm" He stretched out his hand to grab mine.


    However, as he reached for my arm that was not covered with the [Mid Light] spell, I withdrew my sword and swing it right at his neck.


    His body slumped down and his head rolling tossed into the air Thick liquid spurting everywhere from the nape of his neck where his head used to be. You could see the shock in his eyes. He was such a nice gu thaty I almost felt bad. Almost. Though I did feel a bit of remorse for the poor maid who would have to clean this up. I put a [Sustained Formation] on his bloodied neck with the [Mid Light] spell so it looked like the he was attacked by the fiend.


    Searching his body I found the key I needed to unlock the treasury with. Placing the bloodied key in the hole for the door I opened it. I was met with a room filled to the brim with gold and jewelry. There were various ornamental swords and other weaponry lying around each stuffed with various jewels at the hilt. This collection would almost rival the Cave of Wonders. (Author''s Note: Aladdin)


    Time to test out the new spell. Willing my mana right next to me I spoke [Space is a boundless three-dimenionsal space where objects have a relative direction and position]. The area around the mana grew white and a small hole formed. Increasing the amount of mana in the spell the space grew bigger and bigger. I stopped the mana flow when I sensed that it could not grow anymore. until I could see what was inside of it.


    Another white room. Shocker.


    However this room had a rather limited space. It seemed around 40 by 40 room. Looked rather spacious but definitely not big enough to fit all these treasures in the room. So I only took as much as I can. The amount I took should not be enough to collapse the economy of the Kingdom. Though I highly doubt he was going to spend any of it to help the common populace anyway and just keep it in storae.


    Closing the space and I reopened to make sure the items were still there. With the doubt cleared I made my way out of the treasury. By this time the guards should have realized what was happening.


    Time for the final act. Using [Mid Space] I opened the plane once more and looked for something that could hold liquid. As I found one, I poured the blood from the dead guard into it till it was full. Not like he was going to use it anytime soon.


    Walking to throne room, I casted [Mid Fire] so it charred nearly everything in the room and let the blood pour to where I was standing. As I deemed the blood to be enough I walked forward dropping small amount of blood on the floor as I did so.


    With that final act done and before the guards came back, I ran out the castle.


    _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


    King''s POV


    An illusion. The entire castle ran into an uproar due to a illusion. Anger at the incompetence of the guards I rushed back inside only to be met with a horrific site. One of my best guards, who was tasked to guard the treasury was dead. His head cut off and with dark shadowy mass coming out his neck. I could only shake my head and look at him with pity.


    Looking at the door that was opened with the key still stuck in the keyhole. I realized the purpose of the illusion.


    So that''s where the fiend went. The entire damn thing was a set up so that monster can rob the treasury. But how much can that monster take from here? Walking into the room I was shocked. Half the treasures were missing. Completely vanished.


    Dammit! Now we can''t pay for the mercenaries.


    "Your Highness! You need to come see this!" One of the soldiers came into the room panting.


    I gestured at him to lead while me and a group a guards followed him.


    We reached the throne room and it left me even more shocked. The entire room was charred no doubt the work of that boy. However that was not what shocked me. There was blood directly in the center of the room slowly leading to outside.


    A fight. There was a bloody fight in this room and the boy lost.


    "Look around the castle perimeter. See if you can find that boy injured or worse dead" I commanded all the soliders and guards in the room.


    If that boy dies we lose our most powerful weapon against the coming calamity.


    After an hour or so from all the soliders and guards I heard the same report: Nothing. They found no traces of the boy. The fiend must have taken that boy with him. The fiend''s master must have saw the boy as a threat...but why not just kill him here?


    Did the fiend''s master intend to use the boy against us somehow?


    "Bring the General of the Mage battalion to me and cancel the recruitment for the mercenaries." I called out once more.


    We needed to prepare for the worst.

 The Partners

    Gareth POV


    I walked out the castle doors leaving the King to find the remains of the ''battle''. The King will likely be busying upgrading the castle''s defenses once more in case of another attack. I needed a way to get to the [Elsewood] forest but I did not have the slightest clue of where it was. Walking across the streets of the city I began asking questions to where I can buy maps and most of them pointed towards the public library.


    Finding the library was easier than I thought. There were mass amount of people walking in and out of it. Walked into it I went to the the girl sitting by the counter with a forced smile on her and asked


    "Do you happen to sell maps here?"


    "Ah yes! What would you like? Dungeon maps, map of the city?"


    "Do you happen to have map of the world?"


    "We do, but" looking at what I was wearing she sneered "it is rather expensive"


    "It''s alright, wealth is not an issue here. Just bring it out as fast as you can" I shot back.


    "Alright give me a minute" She walked in the door that was behind her while mumbling hateful remarks under her breath.


    As she was she talking her time I strolled around the librarby trying to find anything noteworthy. After a white, I noticed nothing of intreset here. All the books here dealt with simple things like [How to kill a Goblin], [Adventure Guide Vol 2] [Mana? Work of the Devil] The value of the books in this room would not even amount to 1% of that of the Royal library. No wonder the royalty managed to stay in power for so long. The commoners can barley perform magic due to the lack of knowledge they have.


    I saw that the women returned with a rolled up piece of paper. She quickly let out her hand and asked "This will be 25 gold" sneering at me thinking I did not have enough.


    I placed my hand into my pocked while using [Mid Space] and pulled out a handful of coins and placing it on the counter.


    I took the paper from her hand and walked off leaving her blankly staring at the amount which far exceeded 25 gold.


    Looking at the map trying to find [Elsewood] forest. It seemed to place near the Kingdom of Rhieg. Interestingly enough the two Kingdoms seemed to placed near the southern border of the continent and were rather isolated from the various other Kingdoms.


    So all I need is someone to take me to the Rhief Kingdom and I can travel to the forest from there. I could make a request to the Adventure''s Guild but the King is already aware of my fake adventurer name so I couldn''t really go there.


    I needed some other way. There was only one other place where I could get information. A tavern. As I was trying to find one I came across an old man selling face masks. After thinking about it I decided to buy one.


    Walking into it was exactly like I expected it to be, large burly men chugging down more beer than their own body weight with waitresses running around trying to refill them.


    You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.Walking up the bartender I asked "Happen to know a quick way to Rhieg?"


    No response.


    Pulling out a gold coin I wished it towards him asking once more.


    This time, he simply took the coin and glanced behind me to a table. There sat three men and one woman who were obviously adventures by the way they were dressed.


    Pulling up a chair and sitting right beside them which caused them all stare at me. I asked "Wouldn''t be travelling to Rhieg would ya?"


    This time they were even more confused then before. "I need to go there for a mission and I happen to a competent magician"


    The look on their face was full of doubt due to my small stature. One of them managed to snap and grabbed me by the edge of my shirt and pulled me up.


    "Listen brat, we got better things to do than help you with your stupid mis--" before he could complete his sentence I grabbed a nearby glass and hit him hard in the face shattering the cup. The noise got the attention of everyone as the burly man was growling in pain.


    The other three adventures stood up were ready to pull out their swords and strike me but they stopped while still holding on to the hilt when I began casting magic. I willed my mana to the huge man''s face and casted [Mid Healing] seeing the white light caused their eyes to widen along with everyone else''s in the room.


    "White level..."


    "and a mage..."


    "no..not a mage..he is a healer!"


    The whole room went silent as the healing magic worked on the man''s face completely removing all traces of the wounds inflicted.


    Leaving the bewildered man on the floor I turned to the other three. "How about now?"


    Once I asked the question the three snapped out of their bewilderment, and the one I supposed to be leader glanced back at the burly man then back at me.


    "What the hell man? Could you not have just asked?" He quipped


    "Wouldn''t have been as fun if I did that now" Which caused a part of the room to laugh.


    "Fine. Whatever man. Someone who can heal would be a great help." He responded while helping the burly man get up.


    "I am Jack, this big man you trashed is Walter, the one over there is Joan and this lady is---"


    "Single and also why do you wear a mask?" She cut him of while putting out her hand forward for a handshake Which caused me to chuckle a bit.


    "Ignore her. She is Elva. Just meet us in the nearby inn tomorrow" He said while glaring at Elva''s comment.


    "I am Clyde and as for why I wear the mask" I simply shrugged.


    "See ya all tomorrow" Saying that I left the tavern to get ready for the trip.


    This was going to be a fun trip.

 The Cat

    Thanks for voting guys! Overwhelming magic won but stealth came at a close second. So I will be going towards both routes (He will use them when the situation calls for it).


    Get to see Gareth in a bit of action. Longer chapter than usual cause I got a bit carried away.


    I want to consider changing the names of spells around to make it flow a bit better but keeping in terms of ranks makes it easier to understand (Plus I don''t have to name stuff). If you are voting for the actual names feel free to pass on some names for the spells you want me to use. Cause I suck at naming.


    (Fun Fact: Almost every single name including the forest, kingdom, characters were created through a random name generator)


    ___________________________________________________________________________________________________


    Gareth''s POV


    Next morning, I headed out to the nearby inn to meet up with my new found companions. When I walked into the inn they were all rather jubilant to see me. Well almost everyone.


    "Ah good. You are here! Let''s head out, if we travel fast we can reach Rhieg in three days" Jack came up greeting me.


    I simply nodded and let them lead the way. We made our way to large carriage, which shined with various colors, primary with red and gold. It was extremely well made with even the stocks being colored. Right outside the carriage stood two guards wielding spears. This is what we are going to be riding?


    Seeing me staring at the carriage, Jack came up behind me slapping me in the back.


    "Haha. It''s not what ya think. Our mission is to escort this carriage the person inside it to Rhieg. We will simply be following behind them."


    Ah, that made more sense. Come to think of it.


    "Who are we escorting?" I asked.


    "Dunno. All the contractors said was she was the daughter of a famous merchant and wanted to send his daughter to Rhieg to set up some business" He responded while getting on a wagon nearby "Come on we aint got all day!"


    Joan, Walter and Eva were already on the wagon and waiting for me to get on.


    After the group and the escorted party was ready we were set off.


    Staring at the wagon, I thought what kind of merchant would send his daughter to another Kingdom? Was he trying to set her up as the new head of the family and give her some experience. Growing suspicious I asked.


    "Yo, Jack. Have you seen the one we are supposed to be escorting?"


    "Don''t think so. The guards wouldn''t even let us get close to her" He responded.


    My suspicion and curiosity grew larger but didn''t think too much of it. Turning around, I find Walter glaring at me.


    "What got something on my face?" At that question, I saw large veins popping out of Walter''s forhead.


    "Oy oy. Cut it out you two. He fixed your face didn''t he Walter? He is our companion for now so let you go" Elva jumped in before Walter could lunge at me.


    Walter snorted and looked away still refusing to speak. I simply shrugged and took a look around the scenery.


    The area we were traveling in was a large open plain and if you squint hard enough you would be able to see a sizeable forest in the distance. The route seemed to lead through the forest so hopefully we do not run into any trouble. The faster I can get to Rhieg the faster I can hold my promise.


    As I was examning the wonderful I could feel a sharp glare directed at me. Turning around it was none other than Elva scrutinizing my face as if trying to see through my mask.


    In response to that I simply chopped the top of the her leading her to hold the top of her in pain. Though she was a terrible actor and I could see that she that was she just playing.


    "Ouch! Geez I was just trying to see if that mask would fall off" She complained returning back to her former self. "Come on we are road buddies now! At least let us see your face" at that response everybody turned their heads towards me expecting an answer.


    I simply leaned back and said "If you wanna see it that bad it''s going to cost ya"


    "Oh really? How much?" She responded interested in the offer.


    "50"


    "50 what? Silver I have some right here" she said while pulling out a bag of silver coins.


    I put one finger up signaling her to stop and said in a serious tone "Gold"


    With that she turned dumbfounded while Jack and Walter fell into laughter.


    "Haha. For 50 gold, you better be the dammed king behind that mask!" Jack said slapping my back once more. After he stopped laughing he glared at Elva stating "Come on Elvie let it go. If he aint wanna be seen then let him be or you know you could pay the 50 gold. I can lend ya some silvers" The male trio fell into laughter once more.


    "Hmph. Don''t call me Elvie! Nothing wrong with being too curious ya know!" She pouted.


    "Not exactly. Curiosity did kill the cat" I said to her. While saying that expression everyone looked at me with a befuddled look on their faces.


    "What? Why a cat? Why would curiosity kill it?" Walter spoke up this time. Right, forgot that expressions from Earth don''t quite work here.


    "It''s a saying where I come from" I quickly responded.


    While saying that Elva perked u and began questioning me "So you are not from the Harth kingdom? Where you are from? Ooh is it somewhere up north? I always wanted to go up there!" with a bright glimmer in eyes she went off in her own delusions.


    I eyed the other three guys asking for help but they all turned their eyes away with the atmosphere stating ''She is all yours''


    Traitors


    Talking amongst ourselves, well mostly Elva asking questions and me ignoring them, we made it to the edge of the forest. The contracters decided to stay at the edge of the forest as they did not want to enter at night time so we set up an encampment.


    Setting up our various tents. We all went to sleep.


    <Few Hours Later>


    I felt a presence in my tent and a hand reaching near my face. I quickly grabbed the hand was preparing to fire a spell at the unexpected intruder only to find it being Elva.


    If she really keeps this habit up she will end up dead.


    "The hell are you doing here?" I asked her as I was clearly miffed about her sneaking up to my tent.


    "Ahh,.. I just came to ask you something and wanted to see what you looked behind that mask." She responded back in a panicked manner hoping I would not get too mad.


    I was about to hit with an with an ice spell by willing mana in my hand.


    "I am sorry! Okay! I just need your help with something!"


    "What is it?" I asked stopping the spell.


    "I heard some strange growing coming from the forest and I want to go check it out!" I said in a serious tone. What? This girl is getting out of hand with her curiosity.


    "Why not ask the others?"


    "They wouldn''t come up with me even if I asked. Please!" She asked me with a pleading look in her eyes.


    "No." I told her and tried to get back to sleep. She left the tent with an annoyed look on her.


    A few minutes later I was debating whether or not to follow her.


    I know that she was about to go by herself. I had a very bad feeling about this. Judging that it would be trouble to explain to the party members tomorrow if she were to disappear, I decided to follow her.


    Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.___________________________________________________________________________________________________


    Elva''s POV


    Can''t believe Clyde refused me. I knew that the other three men were were going to refuse, I at least thought he would help me out with this. With no one to accompany me I went towards the source of the noise. It was a rather deep growl that I heard that did not sound like the noise normal wolves would.


    Walking into the forest and keeping my ears out for any noise. Looking around in the dark I could barley make out small foot prints on the ground resembling that of direwolves. (Author''s Note: Game of Thrones. Imagine a wolf but much bigger).


    Following the path, it lead to cave. Slowly creeping up to it I decided to look inside and found it to be empty except from some skeleton of various animals. Disappointed at my findings, I turned around and left the cave only to be met by various growling noises coming from all around me. Shit. I was surrounded.


    A direwolf jumped up out from the top of the cave and tried to land on top of me. Quickly reacting I rolled out the way and I saw the wolf red eyes glaring at me. Breathing heavily the wolf getting ready in a pouncing stance right in front me. Various other sized wolves came into view surrounding me but the one in center was the largest. I realized that it was not a normal direwolf. It was a corrupted beast. A manabeast. Gulping loudly, I pulled out my sword ready to parry anything would come to strike me.


    One of the wolves surrounding me lunged straight at me. Moving back I stabbed my sword downward straight into its neck. Thick blood flowling everywhere, I killed it.


    Well, one down. Dozen more to go.


    Suddenly enraged at the sight of one of its brothers dying two wolves lunged at me. While trying to fend off one, the other scratched straight into my hip letting the blood flow in the ground. A lot of it. Slowly losing focus and grasping the bleeding hole with one and a sword in the other, I stared into the wolves eyes.


    The large manabeast lunged into the air trying to come down on top of me.


    I was about to die. I shouldn''t have came here, but the beast never came on top of me. Opening my eyes, I saw the beast laying on the ground not being able to get up as if a mysterious force was weighing him down. While I was confused a massive fireball came directly in contact with the beast burning it while it howled in pain.


    Who was this? Was one of the guards of the merchant''s daughter a powerful mage?


    I found out my answer. A figure wearing a black cloak and a mask came forward at a speed I could not even see. Clyde.


    Standing directly in front of me unfazed by the various confused and angered wolves. He turned around looking at me "Told you. Curiosity killed the cat" he said while chuckling.


    Bastard! How can he laugh at a time like this.


    "Run what are you doing here! There is too many here! Go get help!" I yelled at him. Completely forgetting that he was the one who casted that magic.


    He simply ignored me and turned back to the wolves as if challenging them he stated "Come on wolfies. Lets recreate Old Yeller" I was about to say something until I saw something come out of his hand. Mana. But that''s not want surprised me. It was the color. It was violet. Violet mana. The level of mana that no mage in the history of this continent has achieved. Yet here a young man was capable of it. I first thought it was only a delusion due to the blood loss. But it was there. It glowed brighter and brighter until I could not help but acknowledge it. Who was this person!?


    The violet mana revolve around the wolves who were almost as confused as I was. It was the same scene as the manabeast. They all fell down to their knees. I could hear the cracking of bones and the beasts howling loudly in pain. What was this strange magic?He mumbled something else under his breath and another burst of mana came out. This time it was blue. The air turned very cold. Cold enough for my teeth and wolves to be chattering suddenly all the wolves froze. Just like that. It looked like a wonderful gallery you would see at a high noble''s birthday with the various artists coming around to create sculptures made of ice. It was beautiful even though the beats frozen in those sculptures tried to kill me a minute ago.


    "It''s beautifu--" I wanted to say but the ice sculptures began to crack as he used the violet mana spell once more. They all were destroyed. Ferocious beasts that could easily hunt and ravage a strong adventure team turned into nothing more than a  bunch of ice cubes by a single man.


    He turned around seemingly having no reaction to his power and walked towards to me.


    "Who are yo--" I was about to say till he put his finger in front of mask making a ''Shh'' sound. He willed more mana into his arm creating a bright white color and let it come around me. It quickly healed the would around my waist. I had so many questions to ask him but as I tried to get up he placed his arm on top of my head. Another set of white light came out of his arm and I felt extremely sleepy. As if I wanted to do nothing but sleep at this moment. Trying to fight it but losing. I fell into slumber.


    Panting and sweating I woke up in my tent. Looking around I realized it was nothing more than a dream. A nightmare. I was suddenly attacked by a pack of wolves and the last thing I remember was seeing Clyde, the wolves howling in pain and sculptures made of ice. It made no sense. I felt that were should have been more but as I tried to remember the details, I just felt a sharp pain my head as if it was trying to search for something that was no longer there.


    Walking out of my tent I was greeted with Jack, Joan and Walter sitting around a campfire cooking breakfast. Walking up and grabbing a plate I realized that Clyde was not here.


    Jack guessing the question I was about to ask "He is still sleeping. Quite a heavy one. Wanna go try and take of his mask?" He said while playfully winking at me while the other two trying to stiffle their laughter.


    Suddenly as if just remembering Walter said "You all heard the weird ass howling at night? Did one of the guards go out hunting or something?" that caused my eyes to widen. That wasn''t a dream. I was attacked by wolves and Clyde saved me somehow and defeated the wolves.


    Getting up and putting down and wanting to go to the forest to check if it was true I stated "Give me a sec guys. Nature calls" which caused them to put on an understanding look on their face and resume eating.


    Walking down to the forest I was met with a bizarre scene. The one just like my dream. Various ice cubes containing the parks of the wolves that attacked me and one pile of ash in the middle but why could I not remember the details? How did Clyde save me? I wanted to go up there and ask him but if he did not tell me then he likely wanted it to be a secret. One thing was for sure. He was strong and he saved me so I could not exactly begin questioning him.


    Walking out the forest and glancing back I repeated the words he said twice to me "Curiosity might just kill the cat". I laughed finally coming to understand what those words meant.

 The Comfort

    Just displaying a bit of the MC''s playful side.


    Reaching 100 followers soon. Didn''t really think it would make it that far. So would love some reviews/ratings so I could know what I could improve on and on what aspects people like so I can keep using those.


    ___________________________________________________________________________


    Gareth''s POV


    Waking up from my sleep, I walked outside yawning due to Elva''s whole escapade. Though it did have some benefits, I found out that I can only erase about 1-2 minutes of memory from someone and trying erase more would just cause me a lot of pain. I also found out that you can''t erase details that could be considered traumatizing as it seemed to be imbedded too far into the memory to erase.  However, I could remove any memory she had about the [High Gravity] [Mid Fire] and the violet mana. Which was the most important part. All she should remember of is that I saved her from wolves and brought her back. I did put her to sleep and placed her back in bed so she might just see it as a bad dream. So as long as she does not mention it, I will keep quiet.


    Walking up the quartet eating breakfast, I walked up to them. I did feel Elva glare at me more than usual. Most likely still confused about her ''dream''. I grabbed a helping and returned back to my tent without saying a word to eat as I did not want to remove my mask in front of them. They are simply travel buddies that will help me reach the Rhieg Kingdom, no use in letting them know what I look like and spreading unnecessary rumors. Finishing eating and walking out I greeted them with a smile under my mask though they would not see it.


    "Morning, Clyde We are about to leave in ten minutes or so, so pack your things up unless you wanna lose it" Jack told me as I sat down to speak.


    Alright, at this rate we will be there in about two days. Hearing Jack''s word I began to pack my belonging still feeling Elva''s glare on me. I simply shook it off wanting her to believe it was nothing more than a dream by not questioning her about it.


    We packed up on the wagon trailing through the forest. However, I noticed Elva staring at the area where she went to last night. DId she realize that it was not a dream? She shouldn''t considering I wiped part of her memories.


    Derailing what ever she was thinking about I asked the group "Any special reason you are all going to Rhieg for?"


    "The King''s gone a bit mad I say, starting a war for no reaso then stopping it and after that suddenly recruiting mercenaries then disbanding them the next day. It''s like he can''t make up his damn mind and I feel the Kingdom is bout to go a dark route" Jack said


    "Yea man, plus I heard some freaky things going on in the castle. One of my ol drinking buddies who got a job as a guard told me some freaky black monster attacked the Royal Palace. I don''t need to be involved in none of that ya see?" Walter followed after him oblivious to the real culprit sitting right in front of them. Jack leaning back continued "Plus the pay for this escort is pretty good so might as well."


    "If they can pay us so well why do we got this crappy wagon. My ass hurts from sitting on this" I heard Joan talk for the first time. I thought he was a mute or just some really shy.


    "Yea. Nothing we can do bout it though. I did see some fine cushions in that lady''s carriage though. Maybe if we are nice bout it she can lend us some" Walter said.


    "Doubt it. Plus if we ask for them they have a reason to dock our pay. I would rather have more money than sit comfortably" Elva finally joined in escaping the trance like look she can giving the forest.


    All we could do was sigh as the carriage and the wagon trudged forward. Asking Jack to not let Elva touch my mask, I drifted off to sleep due to the lack of sleep I got last night. I was shook by the abrupt halting of the wagon as one of the guards bellowed "Bandits! Men get into formation!"


    There was about six men on the other side while we had eight so we held a numerical advantage. I had no reason to step into the fight as I was the ''healer''. The guards were more trained coupled with the adventures our side was easily dominating the other. As the bandits number dwindled down to nothing and as I healed the guards that got injured, a high pitched scream left near the carriage with someone yelling "Let me go you brute!" I felt like I remember that voice from somewhere. With the scream the guards eyes suddenly lit up they all rushed towards the scream. With the guards in tow our team also followed them.


    There was a large bandit holding a knife to a young lady who was wearing an expensive dress. I realized where I heard that voice before. The Princess. The Princess that summoned me.


    The guards surrounded the single bandit while wielding their swords emitting large amounts of blood lust ready to strike at any moment. The adventures did not feel much empathy towards the girl but since she was the one paying them they pulled out their swords as well.


    Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.


    Me? I just stood there smiling under the mask.


    With such large amounts of enemies surrounding the bandit he began to sweat but he still had a firm grip on the knife and the Princesses''s neck like he was holding his ownly lifeline. He wasn''t wrong though. As soon as he let go of the Princess the guards would turn the bandit into a brand new meat product. We can call it ''bandi shish kebab'' but it probably won''t sell very well. Or it could. The people in this world could be cannibals for all I know.


    "Stop put down your weapons! Or she dies" The bandit screamed. Cliche line dude. If you hurt her you are dead and if you let her go you are dead. He could make a run for it but with his figure and him carrying a girl he could only go so far.


    The guards slowly began to put down their weapons while glaring at the bandit like a snake ready to pounce the moment he lets her go. You could even hear the audible gulp the bandit made. With the guards weapons down he backed up, lowered his blade and stabbed the Princess in the stomach while making a run for it.


    And


    5


    4


    3


    2


    Ooh he died by a Joan pulling out a dagger and hitting him square in the neck. Nice shot. I was sure the guards would get him first. I gave him a thumbs up though no one bothered to look as they went to help the Princess. The Princess was bleeding rather heavily but not something that would kill her easily.


    All of them turned and glared at me. Why would they? Then it suddenly dawned on me. I am the healer. Right, forgot about that.


    The head guard turned towards me and yelled "You! You are a white ranked healer arn''t you? Heal her! If she dies it will be on you!"


    Technically, it will be on that bandit but since he is dead so I guess I can take the blame.


    I put my hand in air asking "I have a request first"


    The guards confused at my response got even more angry "Bastard if you want more gold you can have it just save her!"


    "Cushions"


    "What?" This time he was even more confused.


    "I want some cushions. My ass hurts from sitting on a hard piece of wood today and yesterday" Now it was the turn of all the guards and even my party members to glare at me confused.


    The guards emitted a large amount of blood lust and the head snapped at me "BASTARD! Did you just equal Her Highnesses'' live to mere cushions" However it did not faze me so I quipped back  "No no no, not the cushions but how comfortable my ass is. That''s worth at least one Princess''s life. Right?"


    This pushed the head guard to the edge as he gripped my colors "You scoundrel! Save her life or else!"


    "Or else what? I am the only one who can save her. Cushions or all you will have is two dead bodies in your hand" I responded back. I wasn''t really scared of the guards here and could wipe all of them here with magic but they have not really wronged me so I had no reason to. Plus I just got this new cloak and don''t want too much blood on it.


    The guards dawning on that realization lowered their bloodlust towards me. The head guard still enraged gritted his teeth and let me down "Fine you can have your damn cushions but if she dies I will personally oversee your execution"


    "Hmph. Thanks" I willed [Mid Healing] towards the Princesses''s would and after it healed the outer part I stopped.


    "There. Her external wound is gone so at least she won''t die"


    "What about the would inside!" The head head guard screamed at me.


    "Don''t worry. I will heal it tomorrow. Now if you excuse me I have some cushions I need to take" I walked off leaving the guards enraged and my team dumbfounded.


    I didn''t fully heal the Princess''s wound because they would definitely kill me the moment I did so. So I had to use the classic carrot on a stick technique so they wouldn''t dare to harm me.


    Taking the cushions out of the carriage I went back to the wagon and placed them down. The guards laid the Princess in the carriage with the leftover cushions and stood by to protect her


    Back at the wagon, my companions just glared at me, completely confused my actions. With the awkward silence permeating the air, Joan spoke up.


    "You know dude. When I asked for the cushion I wasn''t being that serious bout it"


    His words caused me to shrug and then Elva groaned "Great now they have a solid reason to not pay us"


    "Don''t worry bout. I can just pay you guys what ever they owed"


    My words caused them to look at me "You can do that? If you had that much money why join us on this escort?" Jack asked.


    "I didn''t do it for the gold, I just needed to get to Rhieg." I told them and they came to a realization.


    "You sure you can give that much? We were getting paid 20 gold per person." Elvie asked trying to confirm.


    "Yea it''s not a problem. I can pay you guys double if you all want it" With that said the group sat comfortable on the newly found cushions and being relieved about the money issue as we continued our way to the Rhieg Kingdom.

 The Arrival

    Aaand the plot thickens.


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    Gareth''s POV


    After we reached the edge of the forest once more, we decided to make another encampment to rest for the night. We will reach the Rhieg Kingdom at noon tomorrow if nothing else stops our way.


    As the encampment was being set up, I was met with various guards pleading to finish healing the Princess. I refused of course, which infuriated them but they seemed to calm down when I told them I just ran out of mana. It''s quite amazing that they are that loyal to the Royal Family even if they forcefully control their guards.


    I saw the guards and my companions using magic but they were only at red level so at the best they could be only used for utility.


    Walking up to Jack, wanting to ask a question.


    "So Jack, what''s the deal with magic in this world?" I asked him


    "Hmm? What? Aren''t you a magician yourself?" He responded confused by my wording.


    "I come from a rather far place so I am not sure how magic works here"


    "Ah. Right. Magic comes from knowledge so usually only high class nobility could learn higher forms of them. But most commoners can usually use red and orange level magic. Quite useless in battle though that''s why we opt for swords" He said while pointing at the sword at his waist.


    That''s what I suspected. So, magic is very closely guarded here so it might be just the Harth''s Royal Family in this world that has mind-control magic while other Royal Family have their own unique form of magic. Wonder what the Rhieg''s Royalty magic would be.


    _________________________________________________________________________________________________


    Princess''s POV


    Waking up with a sharp pain in my stomach, I found out that the wound that was there was gone. The last I remembered was being stabbed by that brute and falling unconscious after losing a large amount of blood. Since the wound itself is non-existent, it must have been the the new healer''s handiwork.


    Ugg, my life has been going downhill since that summoning. I was sent my father to go to Rhieg to set up another diplomatic peace treaty which broke due to him suddenly declaring war on them. When asked why he did so all he said was he ''had a trump card'' but that was all before the shadow fiend threatened him and he fell too paranoid to even do anything. I tried to sit in a more comfortable position but I realized that some cushions were missing from the carriage. Did I get blood on them so they had to clean it?


    Hearing me move about one of the guards opened the carriage door with concern on his face and said "Your Highness, you are all right? You should not be moving about, your internal wounds are not healed yet." Not healed yet?


    Seeing the confusion on my face the guards said "The healer refused to heal you completely due to his lack of mana" That made no sense. There is no way a White level healer can run out of mana that quickly.


    I ordered the guard "Bring him to me!" That bastard purposely did not finish healing me!


    After a few minutes came back empty handed leaving me more confused "Where is he?" I asked in an impatient tone.


    "Um.." The guard clearly intimated by my presence "He said you are the one who needs him so you should go to him instead"


    "Does he know who I am!?" I was very angry at the insolence of him. Just because he is a white ranked did not give him right to make light of me.


    "Um yes...but he mentioned that he did not care and if we were to force him he would refuse to heal you"


    Dammit. "Bring me to him!" I asked him as he lead the way to him.


    He was just as I saw him the first time, small stature, black eyes with a white mask on his face. He felt rather familiar but I could not place my finger on where I saw him before.


    Trying to sound as nice as possible, I straighted up and looked in the eyes.


    "Hello young adventurer, if you would be so kind to fully heal me" I asked him politely with a smile on my face.


    He simply looked up and shook his head and said in a low voice "Can''t do that. Low on mana, my mana will be fully recovered once we reach Rhieg", Scoundrel! By the time we reach Rhieg you will be long gone! As much as I detest it I cannot cause trouble in Rhieg if Father wants a diplomatic treaty with them.


    If I did not have to take the countless lessons in behavior as a Princess I would be holding him by the neck. I at least need to look at what he looks like so I could plaster his face all over Harth.


    "If you do not mind, it is rather odd to talk to a person wearing a mask. Mind removing it? Please?" I asked him once more.


    "Sure, I will remove my mask if you remove yours" He quipped back. What?


    The guards around me were ready to launch themselves at him, but I stopped them by waving my hand but hurting or killing him is more trouble then it''s actually worth. A white ranked healer especially one so young can''t pop out of nowhere. He has to be a child of nobility and likely the next family head to be taught that much about healing. As for why he wears a mask and travels like this... I had no idea. Many of those in nobility have weird hobbies and children of nobility especially like to sneak out and play hero.


    He clearly is not going to remove his mask nor heal me. Left with nothing better, I left while the guards kept glaring back at him.


    ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


    Gareth''s POV


    I swear her personality changes every time we meet. Wonder if there are psychological disorders in this world. I went back to the wagon and the Princess back to her carriage, and we rode off into the sunset. Kidding, it was towards Rhieg.


    Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.<Few Hours Later>


    We reached the outskirts of the Kingdom. It was quite similar to the Harth Kingdom with high stone walls surrounding the Kingdom and the Royal palace being visible from afar. The carriage stopped right in front of the [Adventure''s Guild] and our group came out to finish up their contracts. I stayed behind because the guards would not exactly let me leave without healing their Princess. But we were in public now so unless the guards wanted a murder on their hands on a foreign soil they would have to bear with me.


    Walking towards the carriage, the guards nearby opened the doors. The Princess and the guards glared at me in an expectant manner with a thinly veiled killing intent. I simply willed my mana and performed [Mid Healing] on to her and walked off when I confirmed the wound was gone I simply walked off. Leaving the Princess and the guards to their own devices.


    I went inside the guild I met up with Jack and the rest.


    "So did you all get the money?"  I asked him


    "We did, but they cut it by 70% because the bitch got hurt. How was that our fault? Are we supposed to keep a eye on her at all times even when she would not even show herself?" Elva complained.


    "It''s quite alright" I said while casting [Mid Space] and pulling out a handful of gold coins, jewelery, and items proceeding to laying it on the table.


    "That should cover it right?" I continued chuckling a bit at  the wide eyes they gave the coins, even the adventures in the room were staring at the amount in envy.


    "Um. Dude what did you do rob the dammed King?" Walter asked.


    "Nah, nothing of the sorts. Healing is a profitable business ya know" I lied through my teeth. I assumed that healing made a lot of money as I did not see many around.


    "Ah..alright don''t mind if I do" Elva said while trying to stuff as much as he can in a bag, seeing that the rest of the group decided to follow her lead.


    While they were doing that, I walked up the gawking receptionist who was also staring in envy at the amount.


    "Do you have any information on the [Elsewood] forest?" I asked her. I was not about to step into a place the Gods marked as the first wave of the calamity without information.


    "Um! Yes! Give me a second" She said while rummaging through the various items at her desk. She finally pulled out a white sheet with a map of the forest.


    "The forest has nothing much other than a few dungeons and a village at the center of it, they are known as the [Elsewood Village] and a isolated lumber village who quite frequently trade the wood with the Rhieg Kingdom"


    The calamity has definitely something to do with this village. What would it be though? Vampires? Werewolves?


    "Are there any weird reports coming out of the forest?" I asked the receptionist.


    "According to some adventures who ventured in some have reported that there is a sickness going around making the villagers look rather paler and weaker then they used to be" She said.


    Vampires? lack of blood perhaps?


    "Any reported disappearances?"


    "None other than the usual wolves attacks but all the bodies have been found"


    Interesting. No reported disappearances so likely not vampires searching for food. If they were to exist they would likely be living the city where they can access blood more easily. Is the calamity just the spread of a disease?


    "What are the reports on the so called disease?"


    "All it says that it makes the person weaker and looked paler. We have not sent official doctors to confirm but many adventures reported the same thing"


    Alright, it likely is not something like the Black Plague, but I still needed to go there myself to confirm what''s happening.


    "Can I take this map?" I asked her.


    "Um..it will be 20 gold" I simply pulled out a handful and gave it to her and went to the forest.


    ___________________________________________________________________________


    (???)


    "Are you sure of this report?" I asked my servant who was kneeling in front of me.


    "Yes, my lord. It was confirmed that the individual was performing White ranked healing in public"


    A very interesting report came my way. A masked individual performing such a high class healing spell. Even those fully trained of my family could barley perform at white level and here this person was casually using it? Did someone from my family defect and taught him our magic? Not likely, even if the highest ranked ones leaked out our knowledge it would not be enough to teach someone so young about it..


    This was troubling, if we let this kid run around our family''s power will decline in the Kingdom. Especially if he gets invited to the Royal Family. We have to either get him to join us and share his knowledge or end him..


    "Keep an eye on him and see if you can invite him to our family" I told the kneeling figure.


    "Yes sir, but he seems to have left for [Elsewood] forest and asked extensively about the village there" He responded.


    An altruist perhaps? Wanting to help out those sickly barbarians? Inviting him to our family might be easier than I thought. All we might need to do is promise him that we will use his knowledge to heal people..


    "He will likely return here, so let me know when he does" I closed the report and sat down on my chair smiling at the new found treasure.


    _____________________________________________________________________________________________


    Who is the mysterious man? What is the calamity? Are they vampires?


    Find out next time!


    Also would like to take this time to thank you all for letting this story reach 100 followers!

 The Calamity (One)

    Gareth''s POV


    The forest itself was rather easy to navigate through, as I made my way to the [Elsewood] village. The village itself was guarded by giant fences surrounding the entire area, with various guards patrolling the perimeter likely for beast attacks. As I strode forward, I was stopped by two guards. I could definitely see the effects of the sickness, they looked rather pale as if they have not been feed for a long period of time.


    "Welcome traveller, what business do you have here?" They asked politely. Wow. That''s a first.


    "I am a healer and I want to help investigate the cause for the ''sickness'' of this village" After I said that, their eyes widened and they looked at each other.


    "Really? Can you truly help us?" They asked with an expectant look on their faces.


    "Not sure, but I can try" I told them as they opened the gates to let me in.


    I was met with a rather large village, houses made of wood and various people, mostly children roaming about. They all turned to me as I was still wearing my mask which caused them to be rather confused. None of them seemed to ask me anything though.


    As I roamed around, I found some villagers especially the old ones to be extremely pale and you could see even see the bones of their face. There was something really off about this village and all of it points toward this mysterious disease. There was one extremely odd thing about this disease, it affected plants and trees alike. It was roughly spring time in this world but yet the leaves of the trees were dying. You could see various dead plants on the ground, trees with barley any leaves on them, crops dying and rotting extremely fast. It could be a mass famine but why would it affect humans? It was not like the villagers did not have enough to eat. They traded rather frequently with the Kingdom so they had a steady supply of food coming in.


    My healing spells had nearly no effect on the villagers. It was a [Mid Healing] spell that could heal almost any wound. Would I need to use a violet one to resolve this crisis? I did not exactly want to expose that I had that much power. I could only imagine the amount of people who would want to hunt me for the things I knew if word got out. As I strolled around, I came across the center of the village. There was a massive tree in the center and various people roaming around it worshipping it. There were also various plants growing around it. The only problem was: it was healthy. There were no dead leaves around it or any sign of plants rotting.


    I walked to one of the people worshipping the tree and asking him a question


    "Might I ask, what does this tree mean?" I asked him


    "Ah! This is the holy tree. The tree of life. The undying tree. It is said that it was personally planted by the Goddess of Fertility, and said to be the center of the world" He responded in near fanatical worship.


    "So the Goddess of Fertility created this world?" I asked once more wanting to confirm.


    "Yes" If the world had the confidence of this guy..


    Hmm. Seems like there are people in this world who still believes in God, albeit the wrong one. Since I knew the original creator of this world and he did not mention any planting of a tree to me. This is shady as fuck. How can this tree stay healthy while every other tree in this village is dying? Not to mention the people are growing more and more sick as the day goes. That really leaves one explanation: this tree is absorbing the life force of everything around it. But why now? This tree is rather old and large so it should not just suddenly start siphoning life force.


    "Do you not find it odd that this tree is the only healthy one in this village?" I asked him


    He looked appalled as if I just insulted his great ancestors "Of course not! This was the tree that the great Goddess herself planted? How it could be compared to those trees in the village!" He shouted at me.


    Alright, guess this is going to lead nowhere. Unless there is a third God I am not aware of this tree is the root of all the problems in this village. But I doubt something as simple as a tree absorbing life force could be considered a ''calmaity'' especially consider this tree''s range is only around the perimeter of this village. I was stumped. I could''t really check out the tree under the eyes of all these people so I went to an inn and decided to wait till night.


    <Night>


    Sneaking out of my inn while casting [Mid Light] on myself. I went to check out the tree and it was still the same as before: healthy. Wanting to try something new I willed my mana and placed my hand on the tree [Trees are a plant with a trunk, stem and leaves in most species] the mana glowed bright red color. It was nothing more a simple observational knowledge so it could only amount to [Low Tree]. I could make the tree grow out more branches and leaves but other than that I could do almost nothing. I willed my mana along with the [Low Tree] spell trying to find any oddity in it. A large portion of the absorbed life forced seemed to go to the roots while the rest is spread across the tree itself.


    The roots..


    Usually it should be the other way around, the nutrients should travel up the roots but for this it''s a backward process. Is there an insect of sorts living in the roots?


    Willing more mana into the tree. The roots was not in soil it felt open. A cave..the roots lead to a cave like structure.


    With my findings, I went back back to the inn and slept for the day to come.


    <Dawn>


    Waking up, I walked downstairs and left the inn. I went around and began to ask people questions concerning the cave the root is growing into. The results of the answer were that there was a small dungeon south of the village. There seemed to be a large number of arachnida (Spiders) dwelling in the dungeon. Gross.


    I made my way to the dungeon. Didn''t look much different than the goblin ones though it did have a large number of dead bodies hanging from the ceilings. Not wanting to deal with spiders I just casted [Mid Light] to see in the dungeon and simply burned any spiders I saw.


    The dungeon eventually lead to opening to a cave which was very well lit. With torches. Why the fuck does this cave have torches in it. As far as I am aware nobody in this village made it this far into the dungeon to begin with.


    Walking across the unusually lit cave I heard some odd chanting. Quickly going to the sides of the cave and slowly walking along the walls I peered in to find a man with a large stature with a black cloak on with various red coloring in it. If there was any gold on there I was about to think the Harth Kingdom was into some shady things..


    Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.He seemed to trying to draw a formation. It felt very familiar yet different It was the same as the one I was summoned with but the various characters written in it were a bit different. It was definitely a summoning formation.


    Casting [High Gravity] on my body which allowed me to run a lot faster than usual and preparing my [High Healing] ring. I jumped in and quickly threw a [Mid Fire] at him. The cloaked figure quickly caught on and stopped the fireball with his own.


    "Who are you infidel to dare disrupt the summoning?" He asked in a low, deep voice.


    Didn''t give me much of a chance to answer though as he quickly threw ice lances at me. I simply blew them back with fire spells of my own.


    As I was trying to fight the various ice lances coming at me I saw something very troubling. He was willing mana. White mana. This could not end well for me. Before he could complete his spell I quickly chanted off [High Gravity] so he fell to his knees. I quickly pulled out my sword running at him. He completed the spell and I ended up ramming into an ice wall. My sword pierce through the wall and it was stuck... Grasping my head I quickly casted [High Time] on myself my increase the time around by ~40%. I could react to things much faster as the world grew slower. However from his perspective all he should be seeing is me going faster.


    He willed more mana into his this time it was a blue color. Dammit there should be no way this guy has this much knowledge..unless...he is using the life force as compensation..! The tree was the damn catalyst for his summoning.


    He had an entire village worth of life force to spare to use against me.


    His spell was completed and I saw a large electric current coming straight at me. I barley managed to avoid it as it nicked my arm and caused it spasm. Luckily the [High Healing] on my ring activated and healed the neurons on my harm. He was preparing


    I can''t fight this guy as long as this steady form of life force. Leaving with no other choice I chanted [Fire is hot due to the conversion of weak oxygen bonds] this time my mana became a bright blue color and threw a massive fireball right at him. He had rather fast reflexes as well so he quickly dodged it. However, I was not aiming for him. He seemed to realized too as it was too late. The fire hit the roots of the tree and the source of his life force. He quickly tried to chant an ice spell to put it out however I was not going to give him that chance so I chanted [High Gravity] to make him fall to his knees once more.


    "Bastard! Do you not know what you are stopping here! You are stopping the Great One from aw--!" He bellowed out. I didn''t really care for the cliche Villain line so I punched him the face but due to the increased gravity around him it caused my arm to increase weight increasing the force his face was struck with. Whoops. Forgot about that. Screaming out in and clutching my nearly broken hand I quickly casted [High Healing] on it letting it slowly repair.. As for the guy who was actually hit he was knocked unconscious possible with a cracked skull.


    Putting my hand on his head, I began to shift through his memories. Most of it was extremely hazy as I likely just gave him a form of amnesia..but from what I could tell he was part of a very small cult hell bent on summoning something.. though the scriptures he used was extremely vague so they likely had to utilize a large amount of life force so they choose this village to do it. I did find something interesting in his body though a book sloppily written by someone. It was nothing more than a collection of various outdated inventions that would not work or had no use. However, the part that interested me was the research done in Life Force written down.


    [Life Force is a form of energy that travels through all beings that have life. It flows similarly to mana and even travels side by side. However life force travels around the body and never leaks out unless it is forcefully extracted by the casting of a spell or extracted by an external source.


    Life Force cannot be created nor destroyed and could only be transferred from various food we eat to our body. Life force is used frequently to supplement mana and can be transformed in similar ways mana can but extracting life force will make the body weaker and more susceptible to diseases. Extracting life force from the body seems to take from the blood and make it a thinner color.]


    Using basic biology I could fill in the information that it lacked..the life force likely is associated with ATP.. though they were not quite the same, it also likely took away energy from the cells of the body..


    With this information I could cast [Mid Life] magic and with me filling in the information I could turn it into [High-Mid Life]. There was nothing I could do with it other than extract life force from someone or give life force to people. I could build an amulet of sorts that stores large quantities of life force to use when my mana runs out. Since I can extract life force from trees and animals I could easily create a rather large source. The only problem would be that life force can only exist in a living being so finding an amulet which can store it would hard and pulling such large amounts of life force to myself would make me turn into a human-mana beast hybrid..it was likely why the crazed worshipper used the tree as a middle man.. I could make an amulet out of wood...no but then it would dead... carry a plant around? No..would not be able to store much life force. I would eventually think of some use for this magic other than to kill people slowly.


    I looked at the formation drawn at the ground and could not make much sense of it more less read it as I had no idea how summoning magic worked to begin with. Might need to ask the Gods the next time they call me. I made sure the roots of the trees burnt the tree should stop sucking in life force and the village life should return to normal.


    With the mission given by the Gods completed. I made my way to the surface.


    ____________________________________________________________________________________


    The Goddess are going to call once more next chapter and since the MC does not do things for free.. I am looking for things he could ask for.

 The Pleasure

    New magics! Just not the ones you were all expecting.


    _____________________________________________________________________________________


    Gareth''s POV


    I made my way out of the cave with my sword once I pulled it outside the ice wall while making sure that no one else will ever enter there by burning it into oblivion. If anyone went to take a look all they would find are ashes. A shame I had to destroy the summoning formation as well.


    I made my way out of the cave and heard some screaming and panicking among the populace.


    "We are doomed! The Great Tree is dying!" I heard one of the villagers yell.


    Oh damn. Right burning the roots of a tree would likely kill it and the only thing that was sustaining the tree was life force since nobody bothered to water that thing. Now that the tree cease to be the catalyst it will definitely die soon. Guess they need to find the proper God to worship next time. Preferably the right one. I already completed this mission so this already ceased to be my problem.


    I made my way out of the village and when questioned by the guards about the state of the disease I told them "It''s a temporary one. It will disappear soon and the village will return back to health in a few weeks" which was the truth in some ways. If what I read about life force is true then the tree can create their own and once the villagers start eating once more they will gain some more back in their body. With the guards thanking me for the information I made my way out of the village.


    Took me a while to return to Rhieg, so I decided to go the nearest inn and take a rest there. It was rather expensive but wealth is the least of the issue for me. As I was resting and trying to think of the possible new uses for the life force magic in my room, I heard a knock on the door.


    Placing my mask on my face and opening the door, I was met with a person wearing a high class suit that was black and white color with a bow tie on his neck. I half expected for him to introduce himself as ''Sebastian''.


    "Hello, this humble servant is the servant of the Rose Family and my lord would like for you to attend a banquet he is hosting for his daughter''s birthday" I was taken a bit back the amount of information that was sent to me. A banquet? an invite?


    "He is the Grand Duke of Rhieg of the Rose Family" Grand Duke? This has suspicion written all over it. I have only been in Rhieg for a couple of hours and the Duke is inviting me to a banquet? The only thing they should know about me is my healing magic. Is it that rare that the Duke is inviting me?


    "Where would it be held?"


    As I asked the question he held out an envelope "All the information is right here" I took the card out of the envelope and began reading it. The banquet will be held in two days in the honor of the Duke''s daughter''s birthday.


    "I will consider it" I told him and closed the door but before I could he held it and said "Be sure to wear something fancy. The Lord takes his daughter''s birthday rather seriously" He then proceeded to hand me a pouch "This should be enough to buy some". I simply told him "No need" and closed the door. There was no use in owing favors to the family just yet.


    Now, should I go or not? I might be walking straight into a trap but there is no reason for there to be a trap for me. It might just be an invite because they saw my healing powers. I needed to investigate this a little bit more. So I headed to the beacon of knowledge, gossip and rumors. The place where a man can find solace and happiness. A tavern.


    Walking in and avoiding the crowd of drunken messes. I went to the bartender placing a gold coin on the counter stating "Surprise me with a drink and tell me what you know about the Rose family"


    He glanced at me while he was slowly cleaning the glass in his hand. He reached out from under his desk a drink and poured it in the cup and giving it straight to me. He then glanced at a person at the corner table by himself. I nodded at him and walked towards him.


    "You know you are pretty suspicious sitting in a corner of a tavern by yourself" I said while sitting down with him.


    "Yea says the guy with a mask on his face. What ya wanna know kid? I got you covered from libraries to brothels" He responded back to me. He seemed quite drunk though so I am not sure if I could fully trust this man...


    "What do you know about the Rose family?" I asked him.


    "Oooh the Rose? What they do steal your girl? Hahahah" He stopped when when I glared at him "My bad my bad. Losen up will ya this is a tavern after all"


    "Just continue with what you know about them will you?" I asked him in a serious tone.


    "Alright..geez what a buzz kill. The Rose are the Grand Duke-athing, very serious family.. lots of money, ya know. Ooh the daughter is mighty fine too *cough* anyway..their wealth is almost the same as the Kings. Their whole family is made up of mages and are the only family in the entire darn Kingdom that know them healing magic..I seen them do it in public but they charge ya know? Selfish bastards..they are pretty dam expensive too. Once had a broken leg and they told me to fuck off when I could not pay 80 gold to fix it....but other nobles who get hurt pay them just fine so it gives them mighty large amount of power too plus everyone and their mother owe them favours.including my own..yea sad day she ended up stabbing herself when cooking dinner so had to eat blood soaked meat. didn''t taste that bad to be honest *cough* back to the Rosy family they got a pretty strong army.. like what soldier would not want to be a part of their family? so they got one of the biggest armies in the whole place. Second to the royal family though they aint strong enough to take over.."


    Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.Interesting. So they see me as a threat to their so called business and want to rope me in... they are a rather powerful family so it will not end well for me in this Kingdom if I deny them.


    "How strong are they in terms of their healing magic?" I asked the drunk man.


    "Heard the head of family hit white stage in healing a few years back though it''s very dim and still has hints of yellow in it" I cursed myself after that. I overestimated the strength of healing magic in this world and I casted a peak white stage healing spell in public too. No wonder my companions did not question me much about the power or the gold.. they must have thought I was from the Rose family..and why the Princess did not just capture me.


    But there is one thing of concern here hitting white stage healing requires some knowledge of cells which I know this world should not know about.. or has some part of this world developed that far in? So many questions. I need to question the Goddess the next time I see her..


    "Many thanks" I told the drunk man and walked off. He was rather helpful despite his ramblings.


    "Anytime ! Buy me a drink next time" He said while waving me off.


    I went back into my room in the inn to consildate the information I got. It seems I needed to attend the banquet or I would not be able to live peacefully in this Kingdom. I didn''t have much of an intention staying here but there were only two Kingdom''s in the south. It seems like I will have to go there.


    Since I could not wear a mask to the banquet to avoid being seen as rude I was preparing to do the most dangerous thing I have done yet. I went into the bathroom and sat down before I actually did that I needed to set something up.


    Willing mana around my face I chanted [Endorphins are neurotransmitter in the brain that is responsible for pleasure and pain relief] It produced a bright blue light and holy fucking shit it felt good. I could feel the massive amount of endorphins flowing into my face creating large amounts of pleasure. Calm down ..I can''t get addicted to this.. willing my mana I chanted [High Emotion] and lowered the amount of arousal and pleasure I felt and let the pain relief stay. Chanting another piece of magic on top of that [Bones are a strong organ in the part of a vertebral skeleton] producing a white light and holy hell the amount of pain I would feel if not for the massive amount of endorphin flowing through me. You could easily hear the bone cracking and meddling. I was changing the bone structure of my face. Looking into the mirror and changing various parts of my face I managed to get to an optimal level which would make me unrecognizable to anyone who knew me before. Going completely overboard, most likely due to the high I am on. Even I don''t recognize myself anymore. The figure in the mirror had large cheekbones with a straight jaw line that could be used to deflect a sword blow. All around perfection where it not for the skin being in a completely different place.  All I needed to do is let the skin and muscle in my face to adapt to the changes and hopefully it will be done in 3 days.


    This endorphin magic is straight up amazing.. I wonder if I could start putting formations in drugs and start selling them..that would spawn a calamity by itself hahaha. not to mention the public would turn into nothing more than pleasure addicted zombies.. if this whole hero thing does not work out I could make a sweet living selling drugs or hell I could make a killing doing facial reconstruction surgery. I already got the shady background, the black cloak and a mask covered . Laughing at the premise and trying to stop myself from flooding more endorphin into my system, I went to sleep.

 The Banquet

    Longest chapter I have ever written. Enjoy! Also hit a 150 followers. Thanks for the support!


    ______________________________________________________________________________________________


    Gareth''s POV


    As I woke up, I found out that my skin and had readjusted in my face so I no longer looked like Godzilla. I needed to prepare for the banquet. I did not have to go since I found this new disguise but it would be better if I could get some close connections with the Grand Duke and I could possibly gain an upper hand if he tries to rope me into his family.


    First things first I needed to get some form of formal clothing so I went outside and asked around till I reached the tailor. A rather expensive one.


    I walk in and the store itself was rather empty. Guess not many people come here often. Even the seamstress that should be at the counter was missing. Walking in further, you could hear snipping of scissors and some talk.


    "You look great, My Lady. You will be the complete focus of everyone at your party"


    "Make sure the clothing is very bright. I want to be seen from a mile away"


    Seems like a noble''s daughter is getting some clothes for a party. Wait ..a noble''s daughter.. dresses..party...It''s the duke''s daughter!. I could hear them getting ready to leave so I ran to the counter to not get mixed up in some cliche misunderstood scenario. Pretending to be waiting at the counter, I glanced at her. Seemed like a normal girl around the age of 9 or 10 with bright red and bright red hair, but my track record with nobility has not been the best.


    She glanced at me then looked away as if uninterested until she saw the ring on my finger. Her eyes lit up and walked over to me.


    "Hello. I am Charlotte Rose" she said while doing a curtsy.


    "Um. Pleasure. I am Clyde..um Clyde Stone" I completely forgot to create a fake last name..so I went with the first thing that came into my mind.  Good thing, I looked outside or else she would have the pleasure of meeting Clyde Counter.


    "Where did you get that ring from? The workmanship is from the Harth Kingdom correct?" She asked me. She seemed rather knowledgeable about jewelry, perhaps was a collector of sorts?


    "Um yes. It was given to me by a friend" I told her.


    "Might I see it?" She asked. I handed it to her. The formations should be invisible to anyone who does not posses enough knowledge about it.


    "Very interesting. very shiny and gold too!.. made by Harth family...has their insignia in it too...did you get it from them?"


    "Not exactly. It was given to me by a guard that used to work there" I lied to her, even I did not know how believable that lie was.


    "You are really lucky! The Harth family never gives out these and... there is said to a mana formation in here too..our formation expert would love to see this! How much?"


    "It''s not for sale, Madam" I tried telling her. If the formations in the ring is discovered accidently it would greatly power the Rose family than it already is (Author''s Note: Has [High Gravity] [High Healing] and [Medium Time])


    "Come on everything has a price!. 2000 gold?"


    "No." I flat out told her and grabbed the ring back before she could pull it back.


    As I reached out to her, and luckily I was fast enough for her to notice the [Medium Time] formation in there. If she was holding on to it should should have been seeing everything in the world moving 20% slower.


    "Please! Please! Even when my father asked the Princess she would not give one of those rings up! 5000 gold for it!" She begged screaming like a child and causing a bit of commotion. Luckily no one aside from the seamstress was in the shop at time.


    "I really really really want one! It''s very very rare you know! The Harth King said there were only 30 in existence!"


    "No!" I told her placing the ring on my finger. I need to make sure no one else gets their hand on this ring and possibly switch the formations to a cheaper looking one.


    She started pouting and there were tears coming out of her eyes. Not wanting to deal with that, I turned to the seamstress and asked "Do you happen to have a formal attire that would fit me?"


    The seamstress was startled and said "Oh yes! Right this way we need take measurements first"


    I followed her ignoring the pouting girl in the front of the counter. I really have a bad track record with nobility.


    The seamstress taking me into the room began taking measurements when finnaly done she told me the cost


    "That will be 20 gold. You have to pay 10 now and when I have it done you can pay the rest"


    Taking out the sufficient amount, I handed it to her. She gave me a card of my purchase and told me it would be done. By the time I walked out Charlotte already left with visible tear stains on the floor. I walked back to the room at the inn and fell asleep.


    As I opened my eyes I was back in the white room with by two best friends. Old man and the unnamed Goddess.


    "Yo. Nice job on the killing that lunatic. Really thought you would get your ass handed to you in that one" The Goddess said as she laughed.


    Ignoring her I asked "Why call me so late?"


    The Goddess decided to answer "Gods have a messed up time sense. You are lucky, Peritia did not take a nap or else you would be talking to him in the next decade. One of the odd things after you hit a bill--"


    "A bill? what"


    "Nothing" She said while waving her hands. Guess even as a God, women won''t reveal their ages.


    "I have some quick questions before we begin this."


    "Ask away" Peritia responded.


    "What''s the deal with the Rose family?"


    "Hmm.. this world is based upon knowledge equalling power. This world could not wait for lucky breaks like Issac Newton, Darwin or Einstein of your world to be born so I hid various scriptures containing knowledge about various thing deep in tombs or dungeons. None of them go higher than blue stage though" He explained.


    That makes more sense..


    "So there are families in this world that have power that should not exist in this time period" I asked him to make sure.


    "That is correct" He told me calmly.


    "Anywhooo. Another calamity is coming. Seems like the cultists are trying to summon the ''Great one'' even we have no idea of who the fuck that is. But it sounds bad though"


    "Already?" I just solved one of them two days ago.


    "Yea..luckilyyyy for you it seems to be near Rhieg Kingdom. There humans there call it the ''Ancient Dungeon'' and thats where we suspect the next wave is going to hit. This one is going to be much harder so might want to get some help! So get to it partner!" She started waving at me.


    "Come on. Don''t try to pull a fast one on me" I told her while smirking.


    "Ah shucks. Really thought that would work. Fineee.. What do you want this time?" She asked me irritated.


    We ended up in a heated argument over my request and eventually Peritia forced her to give in.


    ___________________________________________________________________________________________


    Duke''s POV


    "He has a Harth ring you say?" I asked the servant who brought in another report.


    "Yes. We saw him leave his room without his mask and he went to the tailor so he is likely going to attend the banquet. In the shop he met with Miss Rose and she noticed he had a Harth ring on. She seemed rather upset that the boy did not give the ring to her" The servant concluded. Hmph that bastard dares to refuse my daughter? Who does he think he is! No matter..he would soon join us anyway.


    "Hmm. That King is rather stingy with those rings and would not give it to anyone easily..why does this boy have one?"


    "The reports state that he was travelling with the Princess and ultimately was the one who healed her. Perhaps he caught her fancy"


    "Since the boy did not sell the ring he likely knows its value. It''s a shame that the Harth Kingdom got their hands on the mana scriptures coupled with their control magic... I am sure we can somehow get the boy to hand the ring over.." I talked to myself for a bit while writing stuff down on a piece of paper "Go to the Royal Palace and ask one of the magicians to forge up a contract with these details" I handed him piece of paper that had various terms and conditions written on it. "Make sure you add the ring into it too" I commented.


    As the servant got ready to leave I asked him one last question "What family did he say he was from"


    "Stone, my lord. I searched through the records and could only find one family with that name but they seemed to have disappeared a long time ago"


    "Likely a false name. If that''s the case than Clyde is likely a false one too. If the boy is to serve our family I need to make sure he has no strong connections to Harth. Find someone to draw him and send some people over there to find any evidence of his past"


    With that said the servant left to carry out the orders.


    The banquet was much more than just a simple birthday party for my beloved daughter. It would serve to be a place of meeting with that boy and the King. The King is still rather adamant of not starting a war with Harth and wants to keep peace with them. A very noble cause of course except it was done in blatant attempt to weaken our family. If there are no wars than the soldiers under our rule are worthless plus wars are an excellent place to build up support and sentiment. How many soldiers would be under our thumb if their lives were saved by us?


    I needed a way to make sure this war happens when their is a conflict to be exploited and the Princess coming over for a diplomatic case is not helpful. I sat down on my chair to begin thinking of plans..I can''t even take over this damned Kingdom due to the promise my Grandfather made with the old King.


    _________________________________________________________________________________________________


    Gareth''s POV


    The day of the banquet is here. It was nearing evening and was nearing the time the invitation said. I already picked up my formal attire it was a tunic like dress that was black and gold the symbol for Rhieg''s Royalty. Sensing a pattern with gold here. I had already moved the 3 main formations into another ring and destroyed the ones on the one the King gave to me. I wanted to place more formations on there but remembering the incident with the pen I opted not to. (Author''s Note: The pen turned to ash due to overuse of formations). I also needed to get a gift, I was not much of a fan of the Rose family so I went with a cup I found in the treasury of the King. It was filled with jewels and gold which I was sure Charlotte will love. However tha cup had a formation of [Mid Endorphin] in it. Does not matter if its wine or piss. Once the formation activates and the content is drank the drinker will begin to feel addiction to it. It''s like instant pleasure in a cup. Buy one for 99.99$ with four easy installments of 9.99$! It was also a [Dissociate Formation] so only I could activate it.  If things go haywire in that party, I can still hold the daughter hostage. Since Charlotte is the only daughter of the Rose family, I am sure the Duke would care for her wellbeing. Part of my conscious did not want to hold a innocent girl hostage but a family does not get to be Arch Duke''s status by being nice and if their terms are too underhanded I might have to refuse.


    I strode to the location described in the location. It was a massive mansion, with various floors the outside decorated with many statues of fighters of horses and even had one of an old man. Walking up the statues the old man''s statue read [Varaeth Rose the founder of the Rose Family. God of Healing]. Seems like titles are easy to get in this place.


    After looking around the place, I decided to join in the entrance where the guards stopped me.


    "Invitation only" the guards told me in a strict manner.


    I pulled out the invitation card I got. The guards looked at it making sure it was not a fraud, checked me for any weapons then let me in. After following the various people walking in, I made my way to to ballroom. It was massive with chandeliers lighting up the whole room. Their were many tables set up with black cloth on top of it. There was a massive amount of food here with everything from chicken to bears.


    The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    "Ladies and Gents, I present to you the honorary personnel of this party, Lady Charlotte Rose" a loud voice said out followed by claps, cheers and even some whistle arose from the crowd as Charlotte walked down from the stairs. You could see her eyes flittering about from the amount of gifts people have gotten her. Guess the whole Kingdom knows her obsession with shiny things.


    The first thing she did was run towards the gift while the other members of the party came to her and congratulated her on her birthday. My gift was not a part of the stack as I wanted to make sure she drank it before I met with the Duke. She looked around the gift stack and had a disappointed look on her face but it brightened up when she saw me. She ran to me as she ignored the guests who were trying to talk to her. She glanced around my hand and saw the Harth ring and impatiently asked "You are giving it to me for my birthday aren''t you?!" Seems like she really wanted the ring.


    "No not exactly" She seemed disheartened by response but perked up when I said "But I have something even better" I pulled out the cup and handed it to her.


    She looked at it and seemed excited about it but dimmed down and said "How it this better?" in a low voice..


    "The cup is said to be used by the very Gods themselves. No matter what you put in there it will taste amazing" I said like coaxing a child. Well, I technically was.


    "Gods? Like Great Grandfather?" She asked.


    "Um sure. Yea" I responded hesitantly. The people in this world don''t take the Gods seriously at all. My condolences, Peritia.


    She poured some water into the cup while I acvaited the formation. As she drank her eyes grew wider and wider as she chugged down the drink. Wiping off her face while panting "This..is really....gooood!". Well looks like that worked. She ran off with the cup to fill it with various liquids and I made sure to keep a steady supply of mana going through the formation.


    As she was doing that, the same servant who gave me the invitation came up to me and whispered "The Duke would like to meet you personally in his quarters" I nodded back and followed him keeping an eye on Charlotte.


    He lead to me to a door and opened it and inside there were three men one sitting down while the other two standing up. One of the them was clearly the duke and the other two guards. Something tells me this is going to go well. Before I entered I casted [Mid Sound] into my ears.


    I walked in and the servant closed the door behind me and sat down in front of him.


    "Let me introduce myself, I am Vareth Rose the Third. The Arch Duke of the Rose family. Perhaps you would like to hear a bit of our family before we continue this chat?" He said as he poured wine into two glasses. Yea, definitely not drinking that. I politely refused the drink while nodding.


    "My grandfather was Vareth Rose the First a upright man and an excellent adventurer. He became an adventurer to help save the world and protect its resident from harm. He eventually ventured into a dungeon and discovered lost knowledge of the ancients. Healing magic. With that magic he saved thousands upon  thousands and taught his children the knowledge required to do so. He once healed the King''s wife when she was sick so the King granted him a title of nobility. With the magic running through our family we together saved thousands and thousands of lives..and so we rose to power to Arch Duke so we may spread more and more healing to the populace. Now for all my life I thought my father was the only one with such power except you posses the same power. Find it interesting no?"


    Excellent speech and history. I would have stood up and applauded if I was a dumbass. I did not know much about the Grandfather and he might have saved thousands and the Rose family likely saved many too except they were not as noble as they sounded. They heavily charged anyone who wanted healing essentially extorting them for magic that could be performed for free. They could have easily spread the knowledge and help millions but they chose to keep it.  I can''t talk too much as I would have likely done the same thing.


    "Yes, it is rather interesting" I told him with a smile on my face.


    "Would you mind telling me your story?" He asked me with one of the worst smiles I have seen in my life.


    "I am not at the mercy to say, I am afraid" I responded to his query.


    "No matter, no matter. Your history is your own" He waved his hand and one of the guards rolled out a large piece of paper in front of me. The paper seemed ordinary except it was teeming with mana large amounts of it. As if someone found a river of it and soaked the paper in.


    "I would like to formally invite you to become a part of our family so we may make use of our wondrous magic to help many more. It comes with many benefits to you as well" He told me like con-artist would.


    I picked up the parchment and began reading it. I laughed inside of how horrible the terms were for who ever signed it. ''I will assist the signer in achieving a rank of nobility'' ''Assist'' implying there was not any indication that it would actually succeed. Not to mention ''You shall have access to the treasury of the Rose family'' implying that I could likely go in but never be able to take anything out as for the things I would have to give up. ''You must share all knowledge you posses with the Rose family and no one else'' that was all it took for me to deny this entire thing except it gets much worse. ''You shall work and follow the lead of the Duke for 10 years'' which would turn me into nothing more than a slave for them. What did they think I was? Some guy who you can tell a nice backstory, promise wealth and riches to and get you to sign off?


    Keeping up my professionalism I said "I cannot accept these terms"


    He seemed disheartened and almost shocked that someone would refuse these wonderful terms.


    "Now now Mr. Stone, you should not look a gift horse in the mouth" He said while sipping on his wine.


    "You cannot buy a racehorse for the price of a donkey, Mr. Rose" I quipped back


    "Its an ill wind that blows nobody any good" He kept on his facade.


    "A good thing is soon snatched up. Mr Rose, I am sure there are better terms for me" I been in too many English classes to lose this.


    "No man is the worse for knowing the worst of himself. It would be best if you joined us Mr. Stone" He said with a hint of threat in his words not willing to budge.


    "If you lie down with dogs, you will end up with fleas" I responded back to him.


    "I think it''s best if we let sleeping dogs lie. Mr Stone" He said while the guards slowly put their hands on their hilt.


    "Fortune favors the brave. Mr Rose"


    "Pleasures are transient, honors are immortal. Think of the people you could help" He glared at me almost ready to bellow out a command.


    (Author''s Note:  Check bottom if you want to know what is being said)


    Ignoring the danger present as I heard something interesting coming near this room. Timing my next words as I leaned in closer and whispered "There is no honor among thieves". He looked enraged at my statement but before he could order his guards there was banging on the door with a child like scream outside "Father! Father! Is Clyde in there?!". Vareth''s blood lust completely dissipated once he heard Charlotte''s voice. The guards also backed down sensing their Lord''s wrath going away.


    "Come in, dear" she burst through the door as the servant tried to hold her back "I am sorry. My Lord, but she is adamant about meeting Mr. Stone"


    I smirked at Vareth as I went to Charlotte "What''s wrong?" I said clearly knowing her answer. The reason I was not scared to be in this room is because I shut off the formation in the cup as soon as I read the terms of the parchment which essentially cut off the flow of endorphin in the cup giving her withdrawal symptoms. Since her only clue to the cup itself was me she had no other choice but to look for me and come here. Luckily, I grasped her childish personality correctly or else this would have ended up in a bloodbath. Not for me though.


    "The cuppp! It''s not working!!!" She was crying. I almost felt bad but considering I was almost seconds away from being in a fight it passes.


    "Come. I know a special way to make it work" She stopped crying after I said that.


    "Rwelly?" She asked with up pleading eyes. I nodded and walked out the room.


    "Also one last thing, Mr Vereth. The chain is as strong as the weakest link" I told him as Charlotte followed after grasping my hand wanting to make sure that I made the cup work.


    "Bastard if you hurt her!" He yelled at me in agner. I simply glanced back "Don''t worry, I wouldn''t dare hurt her" I left with that threat in tow. I really would not harm the little girl as long as Vareth kept his distance and he understood that too. All he could do was grit his teeth.


    I took her to the balcony where no one could see me and since Vareth did not want his daughter hurt he would not let anyone enter either. I poured some water into the cup with [Low Water] activated the formation to let her drink. As she did so I placed my hand on her head casting [Mid Memory] erasing any memory I could find relating the pleasure of the cup. I stopped the formation and looked at Charlotte.


    "Huh? Why am I here?" She looked around and asked me.


    "Don''t you remember? You wanted to have a drink while looking at the stars."


    "I did?" She looked confused. She eventually saw the cup in her hand and believed it. Little naive. Guess the Duke wanted to keep his daughter innocent.


    "Thanks for drinking with me. I guess even though I can''t remember it." As she said that she ran off back into the party.


    Smiling at the little child. I casted [High Gravity] on myself reducing my weight and jumped off the balcony to head to the where the second calamity should be. I wanted to heed the Goddess words about finding companions for it but I wanted to see at least see a glimpse of it first.


    _________________________________________________________________________________________________________


    "Now now Mr. Stone, you should not look a gift horse in the mouth" He said while sipping on his wine.


    (This contract should be a gift for you. Don''t look for faults in it)


    "You cannot buy a racehorse for the price of a donkey, Mr. Rose" I quipped back


    (This is too cheap to buy me)


    "Its an ill wind that blows nobody any good" He kept on his facade.


    (Something that does no one good is a bad thing)


    "A good thing is soon snatched up. Mr Rose, I am sure there are better terms for me" I been in too many English classes to lose this.


    (If this was a good thing you would not even have to tell me)


    "No man is the worse for knowing the worst of himself. It would be best if you joined us Mr. Stone" He said with a hint of threat in his words not willing to budge.


    (Understand the situation and have some self awareness it would be good for you)


    "If you lie down with dogs, you will end up with fleas" I responded back to him.


    (If I join you it will just hurt me)


    "I think it''s best if we let sleeping dogs lie. Mr Stone" He said while the guards slowly put their hands on their hilt.


    (Don''t cause trouble)


    "Fortune favors the brave. Mr Rose"


    (You can have good luck/wealth if you are brave)


    "Pleasures are transient, honors are immortal. Think of the people you could help" He glared at me almost ready to bellow out a command.


    (If you don''t want the money/title. Think of the honor you can get by saving people)


    Ignoring the danger present as I heard something interesting coming near this room. Timing my next words as I leaned in closer and whispered "There is no honor among thieves"


    (We are both thieves and will try to harm each other given the chance)


    "Also one last thing, Mr Vereth. The chain is as strong as the weakest link"


    (You cannot be strong if you have your daughter as a weakness)

 The Dungeon

    __________________________________________________________


    Vareth''s POV


    I sat in my room disappointed at how the meeting went. If only my daughter did not barge into the room, we could have forced him to sign the contract and he would part of our family until his uses run out. Why did my daughter suddenly barge in anyway?


    Charlotte has almost never disobeyed me let alone barge into a meeting unexpectedly. I called in one of the servants who was tasked with watching her and questioned him.


    According to him Charlotte was happily chugging down water until she suddenly stopped and began shaking. Afterwards, she darted around the room pouring anything she could into the cup, then she ran into this room looking for Clyde.


    The cup seems extremely suspicious.


    "Who gave her that cup? I don''t remember her owning one" I asked the servant who was kneeling down in front of me.


    "She said it was a present Mr. Stone gave her, my Lord" He responded.


    His gift huh..


    "Bring the cup to me" I barked an order.


    The servant ran outside and after a while I heard some yelling and whining from outside coming from my daughter. The servant walked in with a solemn look on his face and was visibly sweating. I glanced at his hands and noticed a shiny cup filled with jewels in it.


    "Here you are, my liege" He said while handing the cup to me.


    I looked around the cup and did not notice anything special than it being a cup created by an absolute idiot. Who in the right mind puts this many jewels into a single cup? Everything about this cup screamed pretentious.


    I know my daughter loves shiny things but this still is not enough to make her disobey me.


    "Anything of noteworthy about this cup?" I inquired once more.


    "From what I observed anything you pour into the cup makes it taste great which is likely why the young lady was so adamant about drinking from it over and over again" His response got me thinking. I reached out the flask of water near me and poured it into the cup then drank it. Nothing. It tasted normal.


    Going to a last ditch resort I willed my mana through it and noticed something peculiar. It had a formation in it. However, I could not tell what is was or what''s in it. Being the Arch Duke I had many resources and information. The amount of knowledge I have attained over the years can rival any royal family yet I could not read a single bit of information from this formation.


    "Take this cup to the formation expert. I want him to get as much information he can out of this cup" I told another order. The servant grabbed the cup and dashed out of the room.


    I sat back into my chair and began mulling over the new found information. Clyde knows much more than just healing magic..or he has someone very powerful behind him that can lend out such formations that even I could not crack.. ugg.. that only made him much more precious. I suddenly remembered the report that came back about him from the Harth kingdom when we sent over men to investigate his past. They mentioned that they left it on my desk.


    I looked around, finally finding it and opening it. Results? Nothing. No past. No family. No one has even heard or seen him. The only note worthy report is that a merchant selling a mask exactly like the one Clyde wore, but he sold it to an individual who looked nothing like Clyde. They tried to find the person who bought the mask but he seems to have vanished from the Kingdom. so no clue there. Who is this Clyde?. mysterious background, mysterious abilities... I might have wrapped myself into something bigger than I expected to..


    Few Hours Later>


    I heard a knock on the door and in entered a balding old man who hobbled inside with the aid of his cane. The Rose family''s formation expert.


    I looked at him quizzically "So?"


    He signed and tossed the cup back to me "I managed to  crack a part of the formation" He did? My eyes widened at the revelation but before I could get to ask anything about it he raised his hand and said "Don''t get too excited. I said I managed to crack the formation. I still have no idea what it is says. Whoever wrote that formation used a language that is currently unknown. I searched through all the books regarding languages of this world and nothing. Either this language is from some backwater place or is written in code. Without more information about the language I cannot even come close to decoding it" my excitement died down pretty fast after his explanation.


    I groaned in annoyance.."Send me the report of anything else you find" I knew it would not yield much but it may get something.


    "It shall be done" He said with a bow then left me in the meeting room.


    __________________________________________________


    Gareth''s POV


    Before I headed into an unknown location, I went to get some information. Since the dungeon itself was close to the Rhieg Kingdom their guild will likely have some information in it. Walking into the guild at the dead of the night it was a little empty with a sleepy receptionist trying her best not to fall asleep.


    I strode forward and she jolted up as soon as she saw me putting on a smile stating "How may I help you?"


    "Do you have any information about the [Ancient Dungeon]? Maps? Reports? Rumors?" I asked her


    "Um..yes we do..just a second" she responded whilst trying to locate some items around her desk. In the end she pulled out a map and a small stack of papers.


    "The [Ancient Dungeon] has not been fully explored as anyone who has made it to the 3rd floor has never made it back. So we only know the layout of the first two floors"


    "Never made it back from the third floor? Any rumors about it?" A disappearance in the 3rd floor is likely linked to the calamity.. or is guarding it.


    "According to some eyewitnesses, they state that there is a door right before the third floor and if you open it it''s pitch black inside and is said to be empty. However, anyone who goes down the stairs have never came back. There have been many theories as to why but they were never confirmed. There was recently a dispatch of royal knights to check but we have not heard from them" she responded with a solelm look on her face. Guess a lot of adventurers have been lost there.


    "Intresting...how much for the map?" I asked.


    "You are not planning to go in are you!?" She stood up glaring at me with a look of worry in her eyes.


    "Don''t worry, I just need to get something off the 2nd floor" I stated lying to her. No use in having someone panic.


    "Alright then..just don''t go to the third floor..I have seen many strong and brave adventurers never return after heading down there. It will be 30 gold" She hesitated as she passed the map on to me unsure if I would actually go in or not. I paid the price and left.


    In the end, I purchased the map and assured the receptionist that I would not go to the 3rd floor.


    I made my way to to the [Ancient Dungeon] as I followed the map. It was right outside the kingdom and would require little time to get there. The 3rd floor disappearances seemed really odd. Where there monsters too strong for the adventurers to handle? If there was then there should have been noises that would be heard or at least one person should be able to make it outside. Perhaps it leads to a pit? Even then there should be some screaming noise that should come out of there but according to the reports there were no such noises. People go in and not a trace of them come out. It seems like I am heading somewhere I should not be.


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.Making it way to the entrance of the dungeon which was simply a giant cave with a opening. It was pitch black inside so I used [Mid Light] to light up the surroundings. I heard patter of feet slowly trying to surround me. Goblins. Large in numbers and extremely stupid. I sighed and simply used [Mid Fire] and burned the goblins into ashes.


    I walked downstairs to reach to the second floor. I heard large amounts of creaking and chattering of metal and bones as I made my across the second floor and came across an interesting opponent. A knight. Not any knight; a skeletal one. It was fully dressed in knight''s armor but through it''s helmet I could see it was missing eyes. It was empty. It hobbled and creaked and raised it''s sword against me. As it did so I heard more and more clattering around me. Soon I was surrounded by various skeletons some with knight armor some with simply leather ones. They all raised their weapons against me. My solution? [Mid Gravity] all around me. The bones of the skeletons were far too weak to sustain the increasing weight of the armor and they all collapsed. However, they still were trying to move but could not under all the pressure. I slowly increased my mana flow to the surroundings until the magic reached violet stage and the armor crushed the bones. I walked up the nearest one and removed the armor on top. I could still see some parts twitching as if trying to move. I reached out to the skeletal hand that was still on its weapons and tried to lift it. The arm tried to move around and grasp my throat but I held it back before it could do anything.


    This was an interesting find but the most interesting part is that the reports stated nothing of skeletons on the second floor meaning these were new. They were freshly put here or were freshly created. There were no formations on the skeletons itself but it was covered in mana and life force. Large quantities of it. I used [Mid Life] and sucked the life force out of the trashing skeletal hand. It stopped moving. It seems like it is forcefully using remaments of life force and mana to move itself. If that were the case then the graveyards should be flooded with rising monsters along with dungeons but there is no mention of that as far as I was aware. Someone or something is creating them..I pulled out my notebook and wrote:


    [Necromancy: Using life force and mana on undead to force them to move.


    Strengths: Ability to produce in mass numbers, cheap, untraceable to the user. Weakness: Control (Pending), fairly weak, too many unknowns]


    With the information I have I could cast [Low Necromancy] but it was only enough to make an undead body twitch around. Useful for scaring someone or a prank but useless in combat.. the second wave of the calamity might be related to this..


    Putting the hand back where it was, I walked downstairs to the 3rd floor. I was met with a door. A seemingly normal iron door. However what''s past it is unknown. I opened it and I could make out a faint trace of stairs that lead down. I casted [Mid Light] through it guiding my mana through the floor. It was empty. I casted [Mid Sound] around the room to amplify any sound made and chucked a small rock in there. The rock''s noises resounded throughout the room but that was it. Nothing moved, nothing aside from the rock made a sound. I clicked my tongue and went into the room slowly. I glanced around with the room checking every inch with my sword pulled out ready to strike anything that may jump out. Gulping, I descended down the stairs reaching to the most bottom step. As soon as I stepped off the stair case a bright blinding white light spread across the entire room. I shut my eyes in reflex and the light died down.


    As I opened my eyes, I was met with something else entirely. A forest. A large luscious forest filled with copious amount of trees and vegetation. The hard cold ground, I steppe on a few seconds ago were now tall green grass. Why is there a forest underground in a dungeon no less?. A forest.. underground. I turned around to where the stair case and door should but they were gone. Instead it was replaced by the same scenery as around me. Teleportation magic perhaps? Does stepping into this place teleport you to an unknown location? I thought that all previous adventurers landed here but there is no sign of it. No footprint, no markings on the trees..Did it send you to a random place every time?


    Groaning, I walked forward trying to see if I was anywhere near civilization. After a bit of walking around, I seemed to have ended up in the same spot I was. I walked up to the nearest tree and casted [Low Tree] on the nearest tree and nothing. My mana refused to go through the tree itself. Did I perhaps need a higher level spell to work on this tree? I tried many other trees but the same result. I pulled out my sword and carved my initials into the tree itself and then walked forward. I ended up the same spot as before but the markings on the tree were not there. I tried to go to different paths, but as I walked I always ended up in the starting position. I could hear a small stream of water nearby and I went over to it to clear my head and try to think this through. As I placed my hand in the water, I noticed something peculiar. My hand did not get wet. I could pick the water up in the palm of my hand. I even splashed some in my face but simply bounced off no leaving any traces of wetness behind.. this was getting weirder and weirder..


    No traces of anyone, repeating scenery, can''t cast [Low Tree] and the water behaves in an odd manner. This place is either an illusion or some other universe The former made more sense. Illusions... I could see and feel the objects around me so perhaps it was messing with the various cortexes of my brain at once? or was it simply a large amount of hallucinogens.. if it were the latter, I should be seeing much more than just a forest..


    I willed my mana around me and released a large amount of mana from the body resulting it in creating a large violet torrent of mana around me. As the mana revolve around me I could see the surroundings slowly distorting and I willed more mana into the floors and walls trying to find any trace of formations. It seems like I knew more information than he formations resulting it in slowly cracking.. until it shattered. The room''s scenery starting cracking until it collapsed leading me to be in a plain dungeon room.


    This room had a total of five formations. Each of which that targeted your main senses.. clever.. no wonder people never made it out...I looked around and saw various corpses here all of which looked heavily malnutrition.. likely due to the lack of food or water..


    I carefully checked around the room to see if I could find more formations but could not find any more. Was this it? A room full of illusions. It was certainly strong but not enough to be labeled a calamity. It was likely something that was guarding the calamity walked around the room and found something interesting behind the staircase. Another staircase. Shocker, I know right. So this was likely what the illusions were guarding..I carefully stepped into it descending downwards to the 4th floor.


    _____________________________________________________________________


    Back in action, expect a chapter regularly unless I get writers block or something happens to me.


    Since the Harth Royalty  has muscle control magic and mana control magic. Brownie points to whoever that can find out what the Rhieg Royal family''s magic is and what it does.


    (There are hints in this chapter and the previous ones)

 The Siege

    (???)


    _________________________________________


    It was another boring night aiding the Kingdom patrolling the border of the capital. There are various guards tasked with guarding the wall that surrounds the capital incase of an invasion. However, the Kingdom has not been invaded in decades and the Harth Kingdom backed out of their war preparations then ended up sending a peace diplomat. I glanced outside from the wall to see nothing but darkness and various spots illuminated by the moon. You could see little travelers and merchants trying to get in and out of the Kingdom and nothing more. I signed at how boring my job had become. It has a decent wage but I would prefer patrolling the streets, catching criminals, getting promoted. I breathed out a large amount of air and walked around the wall till I reached another person on patrol. One of my good friends, Frank.


    "Did ya get the promotion?" He asked me hinting at the capture of some spies yesterday when they were trying to climb up the wall.


    "Fuck off" I responded back to him. The credit of the capture was given to the head guard who assigns the various patrols. Even heard that the got promoted. Me? I got nothing except a pat on the back and a "Good Job!"


    "Don''t feel too down now, it would have been the same for anyone else. We both at the bottom nothin'' much we can complain bout" Frank tried to console me.


    "Yea yea. I am over it" I responded back.


    "Yea that''s the spirit! Up for a drink once we ge--" He suddenly stopped halfway through and his ears perked up.


    "Something wrong, Fra-" Before I could finish he put his finger on my lips and said "Shhh, listen you hear that?" I focused my ears and I could make out a faint chattering noise. It was coming from all directions. Our eyes widened and we made it to the front of the walls and looked across. We both tried to focus on where the noise was coming from but it was rather faint and due to the clouds blocking the moon we could not see anything.


    "What you think that was? Some beast hoard?" I asked Frank as we both were trying to spot something. I looked around and could see other patrols going near the wall to check. They heard it too.


    "No... beasts don''t make that kind of noise. We should be hearing some howls if the beasts were coming" He said with a serious look on his face.


    The sounds got louder and louder. The noises were beginning to enter the capital itself now. You could see the whole city slowly begin to light up one by one as were woken up by the noise.


    The noise were getting closer and closer to the capital walls and yet we could not see a thing. The tension was high in the air, Frank who was beside with was breathing heavily and sweating. I could see the other guards gripping on to the edge of the walls trying to see what was making all the noise. One guard decided to chuck his lantern out into the midnight darkness. We all were watching it fall into the ground and it did. We were horrified. Some guards screamed, some ran to alert the others, some stood there staring.


    "Yo..Frank... you are seeing that too right..right?" I asked Frank while smacking his arm without looking away from the sight. He was simply staring at it with wide eyes "Undead..the undead.." He was a lost cause..he was simply mumbling the same thing over and over under his breath.


    Some guard managed to ring the bell that resounded in the whole city, allowing everyone to hear it. The city lit up once more and began to panic. I once again peered out the city walls at the spot where the lantern was. There were skeletons, ghouls...not just that of humans but of beasts that resided in the forest nearby. The undead got closer and closer to the wall and began to claw at it. Due to their fingers being bones you would only hear a loud scratching noise. The undead began to run into the wall and slowly began piling on top of each other.


    I grasped onto Frank''s arm and dragged him away from the mess while he was still busy mumbling under his breath. The entire city was on high alert with various guards being dispatched.


    The army was getting ready to fight off the invaders though I was not sure if we would be able to. Luckily, the undead were not intelligent and the most they were doing were clawing at the wall. I made it down from the wall and placed Frank in someplace safe so he can regain his composure.


    "Guards! Report to city''s north entrance!" I heard various yellings requesting all guards to rendezvous at the north point. I ran as quickly as I could towards the northern entrance. When I got there, there were already a lot of guards, even some adventurers were there. The Adventurer''s guild is an independent entity that stays clear of any politics or wars between Kingdoms but they are required to assist in case of crisis. We were told to wait by the higher ups until more soldiers came. Soon the Royal Guards, Royal Magicians and various mercenaries groups came to assist.


    "There are undead out there. We are unclear of why or how but what we know is that they are attacking and we need to repel them. So men lets return those fuckers to where they came from!" The leader of the attack spoke loudly as he wielded his sword up. Soon after everyone followed bellowing various lines of insult towards the undead. The gate slowly opened and we were met with various assortments of undead. All the way from beasts to ghouls.


    "ATTACK!" everyone screamed as they pulled out their swords and charged outward. The magicians began to use their magic, pushing the undead back.


    The undead had no sense of direction or intelligence. The ones with vocal chords merely growled while the rest simply lunged at anything living. I charged forward along with the temporary battalion in assistance. I was not a great sword fighter but could hold my own against these undead. We pushed the undead back as much as we could but there seemed to be too many of them. Take one down and three more takes its place. If it was simply human skeletons it would have been easier but there those of goblins, giant beasts, even rats.


    _______________________________________________________________________________


    Vareth''s POV


    The city plunged into chaos with various people claiming to see the undead. Some theories. Some conspiracies. For me? Just profit. The attack could not have come at a better time, though I lost Clyde''s support in my family. The undead may provide enough injured soldiers and populace that will come seek my family''s aid, strengthening the favours and power of my family.  The King made a royal proclamation stating that every family had to send soldiers and support to aid against the siege or be labeled as traitors to the Kingdom.


    No one knows why this attack has happened. There have been no confirmed sightings of undead rising before, though there were a few legends of armies of undead coming back in vengeance but those legends sprouted from other continents and have no proof of actually happening.


    I began to gear up in my best uniform to join the battle upfront. Everybody loves a war hero, imagine the rallying support I could get when people find out that I fought in the front lines. The bards would sing my tales, the painters would draw my heroic figure and the Kingdom will be further under my thumb.


    This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.I placed the sword of my grandfather from his adventurer''s days into my hilt, wore the uniform with a bright insignia of the Rose family and left the building with our family''s best fighters and healers in tow.


    We made our way to the northern entrance to witness a standstill between the two opposing sides. The Kingdom''s half seemed to be winning in terms of fighting ability but they could only old off so many undead. Now that my healers are there, they would be able to take care of any wounded soldiers allowing them to return to the battlefield.


    Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the Prince of Rhieg, Jarvis Rhieg. Young lad about the age of 17, handsome, strong mage but a coward through and through. Outside of the knowledge he was been fed since he was a child he would not be able to hurt a goblin. Wonder why he is in the front lines. Perhaps the King wants him to render some merits before ascending to the throne.  I scoffed at the thought of this child wielding an entire Kingdom. It would be far better in the hands of my family. Due to the deal my Grandfather made with the Royal Family we cannot perform outright treacherous acts against the Kingdom but that only applied until his grandchild''s reign his over, the current King. As soon as the current King dies, our family will perform our counter attack to take back the Kingdom into more proper hands.


    I made my way to him while directing my forces to aid those in battle.


    "Young Prince, here to assist with the siege?" I shouted at him from afar.


    He was spooked a bit by my voice as he nearly fell off the lege he was looking from. "Yes. My father directed me here to assume control of the situation" He responded with composure in his voice but even a fool would be able to sense the hint of fear in them. The only control this could get is if someone tied up all the undead and gave it to him in a silver patter.


    I simply nodded at him and walked off. Looks like my guess was correct. I needed to make sure this kid does not end up doing anything too great otherwise the takeover will be much harder.


    I watched off the edge to witness the massive hoard of undead storming in. I estimated nearly 50,000 in number compared to the 20,000 forces we had. The undead forces were quickly dwindling down from the relentless attack of mages and swordsmen. Luckily, the undead were slow and behaved like a drunkard or else we would have a massacres on my hands. I choose an edge that would allow everyone to see me and casted various spells ranging from [Mid Fire] and [Mid Ice]. Though our family focuses on healing we have gotten our hands into various spells either through favours or threats.


    It was going really well as many people stared at awe at the Rose family''s generosity and power. But suddenly, the undead stopped moving. They did not fall down, they just stood where they were staring. The soldiers were confused but they continued to hack through the now still moving undead.


    "They are not moving attack now!" Seems like the undead could only move for a certain period of time before they stop. This was much easier than I expected it to be. I went off the edge and went out the north entrance to aid with the killing of the unmoving undead. Since it had no threat to my life, mind as well render some merits. The Prince must have had the same thought as he suddenly managed to muster of courage to fight back. We managed to dwindle down the enemy hoard to 25,000 undead while we only lost about 2000 men.


    Though the good times did not last as the eyes of the undead began glowing a bright blue colour which alarmed all the fighters. A large vortex of pitch black light mixed with blue rose from the corner of my eye. Shit. That can''t be a good sign. Suddenly, I was slashed at by a skeleton at an alarming pace, far faster than before. I deflected the skeleton''s sword with my own and quickly swung my sword. The sharpness and the tip of edge is useless against skeletons but if you use the flat side it does wonders. It caused its head to fly off into their and I kept swinging until all of its limbs were down on the ground. I could see the various parts squrming around trying to reach back to its main body but before it could I grabbed it and chucked it as far as I could. I signed for relief and I began to back off. The battle turned completely one sided now, the undead were much faster than before and almost rivaled our army in terms of skill. This was very very bad. If they push back too much, we will be doomed.


    "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! Get it off me!!"


    "Watch o--"


    You could hear the screamings of the guards who were being picked off one by one by the hoard.


    I ran back to the northern entrance in fear of my life. Why does it matter if I run? My life is too precious to be lost here. I looked at the area the vortex of light is coming from. That was the cause of this. If only that light did not show up. I could be parading through the streets adorned in medals if not for that damned thing! The Prince was not faring too well either, he ran too except he was scratched and clawed in various locations. The robe he wore was completely torn, he had a pale face and looked like a beggar who had not gotten the chance to eat anything good for months.


    The undead kept pushing more and more until the front lines were completely shattered. They quickly closed the front gates but we could still hear the loud clawing and slashing. We were in luck that siege weapons were not reanimated or else it would be much worse. We only had 10,000 force remaning and they were all staioned behind the gate as no captain was brave enough to issue an order for an assault. You could see the sense of dread in the eyes of survivors and even the adventures who never had to face such things before.


    The clawing grew stronger and stronger at the gate till we begin to see cracks in it. The soldiers brave enough wielding their swords to strike at anything that may come through. The weaker ones stood here with hands on their knees and some even began praying to the Gods that have forsaken us.


    The gateway suddenly banged and a massive skeletal arm came through it, blowing everyone back from the impact. The arm was massive unlike any monster or human. The arm was very crude as if a child glued various sticks together to make one. The arm began to pull back to strike back once more but the second blow never came. There was nothing but a looming silence descending upon everyone here.


    "Is..is it gone?" I heard the Prince whisper out. One of the braver guards peered through the hole and slowly turned around. All eyes were on him expecting looks in them.


    "They all stopped moving" He said out loud. This caused us to feel more fear as the last time they stopped moving they grew stronger..


    "I don''t think it''s like the last time..all the bones of the skeletons fell to the ground, the ghouls have also collapsed" He continued.


    Taking the chance, I bellowed out "Charge forward! We need to dwindle down their numbers should they rise again! Break the skeletons! Burn the ghouls!"


    The army seemed to gain courage at my words and strode forward striking back at the undead with hateful vengeance in their eyes.


    I looked up to see that the vortex of light was also gone. This should be the end of it...

 New Fiction

    The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.


    Sorry for not updating the story. Lost my vibe, I didn''t set a clear ending for the story itself and could not bring myself to progress it forward without a clear ending in mind.


    Trying out a different story, 90% of the plot has already been thought along with the ending. So it should come out much cleaner. My writing style has also imrpvoed a bit too.