《Re:Chances》 Prologue - Death My life had never been easy, especially not in recent times. War broke out in many parts of the world and cultists have been running rampant. Sadly, the country I lived in was not an exception. The economy came to a standstill, which caused many people to starve, more and more religious fanatics were starting to pop up and I lost my job. The putrid smell of corpses filled the air and I could see beggars everywhere. I was in one of the seedier parts of what could have once been called a town. Before the bombs fell, the city was a bustling metropolis, but that is a part of the past now. In the beginning, before the war reached us, we thought that it was just another war in the distance. Something we didn¡¯t have to worry about. But then the flames of war consumed the whole world and young men all over the country were drafted into the army, fighting with outdated weapons and little to no training against highly trained and well equipped professionals. The result was a massacre. Our troops were slaughtered and the surrounding nations tore through our defenses as if they weren''t even there. Now, two months later, our once flourishing country was on the brink of defeat. I had to pay a lot of things to avoid being forcefully drafted into the army. All of my belongings to be exact. After defeat was eminent and I realized that I had no way of fleeing the country I was just roaming the streets, searching for something to eat. My whole outfit stunk and I didn''t look that different compared to those beggars. I don¡¯t have any delusions about how the war will soon end. I know that, sooner or later, they will bomb us to oblivion. Looking around I can see that my feet had carried me to a trashbin. It was immediately obvious that it had been rummaged through before but I had to try to find anything. My stomach was still hurting from that half rotten piece of meat and I was starving. Unfortunately, the only things that I found were some rotten pieces of trash. I may be hungry, but I know what was edible and what not so I left them alone. Just as I was about to continue my search the loud roar of engines could be heard in the distance. FUCK! This is the third time this week that this happened! Immediately I ran towards the bomb shelter. On my way I could see some other people but I ignored them. That was until I saw an older lady trip and fall onto the ground. ''IGNORE HER! JUST IGNORE HER!'' I repeated this dozens of times in my head. In times like these compassion can be fatal. If I try to help her I will risk dying with her! I continued running until we were just one meter apart. Hearing my footsteps, she turned her head around and looks at me. Her eyes show hope and resignation at the same time. I realized that I would not be the first person to run past her. What have I become? Ignoring another person just because it would risk my life a little bit? When did I start to think like this? Stopping right at her side, I heaved her body onto my back and continued running. An explosion could be heard in the distance. ''Dammit! I don''t have much time left!'' I looked at the entrance of the closest bomb shelter which was just 30 meters away. Okay, I can do this! Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. Gathering all of my strength I ran towards the entrance as if my life depended on it because, well, it really did. 20 meters away I heard that the explosions were coming closer. The sound of screaming and buildings breaking apart was omnipresent. The remaining people that hadn¡¯t reached the shelter yet became desperate and shoved each other out of the way. After another 5 meters I felt that I will probably not make it. The bombs were coming closer faster than I was running and the doors were quickly closing. Not giving up, I continued regardless of that. Just ten meters away a bomb detonates a few feet away from me. An enormous shockwave and dozens of shrapnels hit me and everything goes dark. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ''What happ- Ah, I remember now. I was carrying an older lady towards the bomb shelter when a bomb killed me. Well, fuck, I knew it would turn out like this but to die just 10 meters away from safety is depressing.'' After I spent some time pitying myself I paid attention to something more important: Where the hell am I? I try to look around but the first thing I noticed is that I can''t seem to feel anything. I can feel neither my body nor move around. The second thing I noticed was that everything I could see is darkness. ''So I guess I am a...soul now? Strange. I never believed in an afterlife but it seems those religious nutjobs were right.'' ''But why am I not in hell? If the bible or any other ancient monotheistic script could be believed I should be burning in hell right now since I didn''t believe in God. Maybe this is a sort of hell? I doubt that. Not feeling anything is strange but it isn''t painful. Then I guess some other religion was right? Or maybe none of them? I don¡¯t know, I was never really interested in religions since the concept of an omnipotent being seemed ridiculous to me.'' I spent a lot of time in that darkness and as more and more time passed I became sure that I was in some sort of hell. The boredom was killing me! By now I had run out of things to do and just did nothing. Thinking nothing, not trying anything, just wasting away. After another indeterminable amount of time passed doing nothing started to become comfortable. It was a refreshing feeling to do nothing. Just drifting about in this ocean of energy, it¡¯s as if I were a newborn in the embrace of its mother. ''Wait, what! Ocean of energy? I broke out of that extremely comfortable state and realized that I could faintly feel an all-encompassing energy around me. What the hell is this?'' When I was about to try to interact with that energy a blinding flash of light illuminated the darkness. I could feel myself being pulled into its direction and oddly enough I didn''t panic. It just felt...right. As if I had always belonged there. As I got closer to the source of that light I could hear a chorus of voices: "Welcome back, our beloved child" Authors note: As I am pretty new to writing I would like to hear your opinions and if possible point out any mistakes! I hope you enjoy this prologue! Chapter 1- Goodbye AN: If you haven''t read the Prologue yet, you should. Without it the beginning of this chapter will leave you confused. As I opened my eyes I could see wooden walls. I didn¡¯t care about how I suddenly had a body, I didn¡¯t care about how I was suddenly transported to another location. I just wanted to remember that voice at all costs. It sounded oddly familiar and made me feel as if nothing in the world but that voice mattered. At the same time, it had a motherly feeling to it, like a mother welcoming its child after a long journey. After that feeling finally faded I realized that everything seemed far bigger than I remembered it to be. The walls were gigantic and the roof seemed to be dozens of meters high. Unbelieving I started to walk around, surveying the area. The sound of my bare feet touching the floor were the only thing that I heard as I looked around. Is this a dream? I had to be sure so I pinched myself as hard as I could. After a horrible pain confirmed that this wasn¡¯t a dream I walked back to where I ¡®woke up¡¯. As I maneuvered past gigantic chairs I heard loud footsteps coming closer. Out of nowhere I was grabbed and lifted up by a giant¡­child? ¡°There you are!¡± He said. He started to run towards the door which I had previously overlooked while holding onto me. After opening it we passed some other doors as we quickly approached something that looked like a big hole in the wall. ¡°WHAT THE HELL IS TAKING YOU SO LONG! Hurry the fuck up!¡± An impatient voice shouted. The giant child was startled and ran even faster until we went past the hole, stepping outside. Farmlands filled my vision, the golden grain was nearly glowing and a light breeze caused it to gently sway. A cloudless blue sky covered the heavens and I could feel the warm rays of the sun. The only thing I did was stare after seeing this scene which seemed to have come out of an ancient painting. This is definitely not the world I came from. Scenes like this have ceased to exist after the 23st century, after earth was abandoned due to heavy pollution and destruction of most ecosystems which caused the oxygen in the atmosphere to slowly vanish. The humans of that time tried everything they could to keep the earth habitable but the destruction they had caused was too heavy. The remaining colonies favored efficiency over aesthetics and genuine nature became something that only the rich could afford. ¡°Why are you stopping? I said hurry up!¡± The same impatient voice told at us. Immediately my attention was drawn to a powerfully built middle aged man who was combing through the fields with a sword in hand. Are we still in the middle ages for him to have a sword? Maybe it is a fake. Yeah, it has to be a fake. As we stepped out of the hole he noticed us and gestured for us to come to him. Now that I look closer I think this man is also a giant! No, that would be impossible, they look like normal humans. I think the other giant carrying me is just a kid, which would mean that I am most likely a toddler. The kid that was carrying me sprinted to the middle aged man until he was right at his side. Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. ¡°I got him! Why did you tell me to bring him here?¡± the kid asked. The man sighed as he ordered him to put me down. After that he took one of the sickles that hung on a nearby rack and started to cut the grain down. Taking one of the cut off stalks he started talking. ¡°Son, do you know what this is? This is our lifeblood, the fruit of a whole year filled with labor. The father of your father already planted the same seeds, cut the same wheat for a single reason. Do you know what it is?¡± As his surprisingly deep voice said that he looked deeply into the eyes of that kid. Kid: ¡°Yes, to feed the citizens and warriors of Frumentum so our glorious city can continue to exist!¡± The confused looking kid replied. The man sighed once again and said: ¡°Yes, it is. Normally you would have continued my work but it seems that you have talent in cultivating. As a dutiful citizen of Frumentum I have to send you to the Academy in order for you to grow up to be a strong warrior capable of defending our lands from those wretched beasts.¡± In the last few seconds his eyes became slightly moist. I wonder why, though. Shouldn¡¯t he be proud if his son is going to protect us from danger? And what is this academy he speaks of? After understanding finally dawned on the kids face it shouted: ¡°No! I want to stay here and tend to these lands just like you!¡± Though the man looked sad, he shouted: ¡°ENOUGH, you ARE GOING TO attend the Academy, do you understand? Now follow these gentlemen. They will bring you safely to the place where they will train you.¡± As soon as he ended his sentence two men appeared from the fields. Their bodies were, in contrast to the middle aged man, lithe, but contained explosive power that waited to be unleashed. Both of them had brown hair and rough faces. One carried a big warhammer on his back whilst the other one carried a greatsword. Their weapons seemed far too heavy for them but they moved as if they weighed nothing. The thing that intrigued me though was that none of them wore any armor. While I was still confused they walked up to the kid, whose face was now full of tears, and gestured for him to follow them. Though he seemed unwilling at first he followed them reluctantly. I watched them as they walked down a primitive road that wasn¡¯t even paved. After they couldn¡¯t be seen anymore the middle aged man, whom I suspected to be my father, looked at me and I swear I could see moistness in his eyes. ¡°Now that your brother is gone you have to take over his position, ok? It¡¯s just you and me now, John. Just you *hic* and me.¡± His nose seemed to have become stuffy as he started to sniff. He nearly started to cry, but seemed to calm down before he could do so. Picking me up, he carried me back into the room I was in when I came to my senses and plopped onto a wooden bed without a mattress. He quickly stripped down to his undergarments and laid himself on it. In the end he wept himself to sleep with me in his arms. When sleep finally settled in he just repeatedly whispered a name: George Chapter 2 - Awakening The next four years went by in a blur. Besides getting to know that I was about 3 years old when my brother was taken away, I spent most of the time playing in the fields with other kids who came from the farms in the surrounding area, but I never really befriended them because our mental age was just too far apart. It is really taxing to act like a child and the others can be quite annoying if they throw one of their childish tantrums. It seems that in this world the beasts rule and humanity barely managed to establish 3 cities: Ardens, Cyma and Frumentum. I live in the area Frumentum, the city with the greatest food reserves and best enchanters, rules. The surroundings of this city are famous for their giant farms. I also learned what the Academy was: It is the institution where all talented children in Frumentum are sent to in order to become warriors. Every four years¡¯ men are sent to locate talented children who will then be sent to the Academy. Now that four years have passed it is time for them to move out again. They will most likely arrive in the next few weeks so father is lecturing me about how I should behave in front of the ¡®inspectors¡¯ as they are called in these parts. ¡°¡­. to behave and- Hey, are you listening?¡± Realizing that I wasn¡¯t really listening he shook my shoulder. ¡°Uh, yes father!¡± I replied, not really being mentally present as I said that. My father looked at me and sighed, something he did a lot in the last four years. He knew that this would be the nth time that he repeats this lecture so he let it be. I know he is nervous because he doesn¡¯t want me to be taken away. If a child is accepted into the Academy, it will be trained until it is 16 years old. After that it is free to decide what it wants to do. Most join the military since they were trained most of their life to fight the beasts but some decide to become adventurers: People who earn their living by killing beasts and selling their parts to merchants or the military. Before he could say anything else though we were interrupted by a few men stepping through the hole in the wall that we called entrance. It should have been replaced with a proper door long ago but father insisted that it should stay like this. I suspect it has something to do with my mother that I have never seen. I fear that it would hurt him so I never asked but I think she either went missing or had died. Judging by my father¡¯s abnormal hate against beasts I think it is the latter. The man that looked the most imposing stepped forward and said: ¡°We are here to test your child.¡± My father, seeing that they were far quicker than expected, became silent and allowed the inspectors to approach me. Though someone who didn¡¯t know him would have overlooked it, I saw him faintly moving his foot slowly up and down. His brows furrowed gently and his body tensed up. These things signified that he was nervous, something that I have rarely seen before. The last time I did was when a rat with golden fur attacked me and the other children and he could only watch as the parents of some kid battled it. The inspector, seeing that I was clearly nervous, squatted to be on the same height as me and said: ¡°Okay boy, you don¡¯t have to be afraid. Every kid has to go through this and none have died because of it, do you understand?¡± I nodded and he rummaged through his pockets until he took a stone tablet out. ¡°*Ahem* Just follow my instructions and see if you can do what I say. I will then evaluate your results. Sit down in a comfortable position and close your eyes. Try to concentrate on yourself and look inside your body, the head to be exact. You will then faintly feel something around you. Take as much of that as you can and guide it to your head. Suck all of the gathered mana up and create a rock. Oh, before I forget it: Never, NEVER guide mana of the outside world into your core after that again, okay? It will drive you mad. Don`t worry if you are confused. You will understand if you have talent. If not, then you don¡¯t have to worry about it since you will become a farmer like your father.¡± Mana? Core? What the hell is he talking about? Well, he already said that I will understand if I am talented so I will try to follow his instructions. Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.I sat down with my legs stretched while my arms were supporting my body. Then I did just as he said: After a few seconds passed I could indeed feel something around me. It seemed to be everywhere, but extremely concentrated in the areas the inspectors occupied, whilst the area around myself and my father had far more of it than the surroundings it came nowhere close to that of the inspectors. I guess this is what he called mana. I concentrated and managed to move a chunk that was as big as my body to my head. To my surprise I discovered that something round was inside my brain which sucked all of the gathered mana and my consciousness into it. The first thing I saw was a darkness. Though it may sound confusing the darkness inside what I presume to be my core was not the same darkness I spent so much time in before I was transported here. It was different in one way or another that I just can¡¯t explain. After that I noticed the mana floating around me. However, it seemed to be confined in a barrier of sorts. I had no other way to explain why it just seemed to not be able to exist further than a few dozen meters away from me. Remembering the inspectors¡¯ words, I thought about how I should create a rock. After I pondered that for a while I felt that I should will it into existence. I don¡¯t know why that thought ran through my head but it felt like the right thing to do so I did just that. To my surprise most of the mana rushed into the spot I was staring at and formed an ordinary rock you could find just about everywhere about the size of my head. It started to produce mana that slowly filled this space inside my core. A light went up in my head when I realized that mana was produced by the rock. What the hell is mana? Some kind of energy? Because I became distracted I was promptly kicked out of that strange space and found the inspectors staring at me. ¡°So, what did you experience?¡± he asked me in a serious tone, the stone tablet raised to write something on it. I recounted what happened and he nodded. After that he scribbled something on the stone tablet using the¡­tip of his finger? Seeing my confused look, he told me ¡°Don¡¯t worry, as it seems that you have talent you will know soon enough. We will come to pick you up in a few days so prepare yourself in that time, ok?¡± Before I could respond my father shoved the inspectors roughly out of the house, shouting: ¡°Get out of my house, I need to talk with my son!¡± A surprisingly calm inspector replied ¡°We understand, please use your time wisely.¡± and disappeared with the other inspectors into the fields, most likely visiting another family. After he couldn¡¯t see them anymore my father began shaking. I know it was a hard blow to lose my brother but he always had me. Now that I will soon be gone too I don¡¯t know how he will cope with it. My father is normally quite an indifferent person but whenever family came into play he became an overprotective father that won¡¯t let you out of his eyes. ¡°John, do you remember what I told your brother that day?¡± He asked with a shaking voice. Continuing before I could answer he said ¡°I forgot to tell him something. Something very important actually. I will say this to you and if you meet your brother I would like you to repeat it to him: Stay safe and don¡¯t get into danger. If you don¡¯t want to be a warrior anymore you and your brother can always come home to tend to the fields. You two will *sob* be welcomed home with open arms no *sob*matter what happens. Do you *sob* understand *sob*? ¡° Now both of us were in tears and I stared deep into his hazel eyes before nodding. Though I had only known him for four years he was a far better father to me than the father that raised me in my past life. I knew that his feelings were genuine so I grew to love him. I understand now why my father cried at that time. He worries about us to an extreme extent and doesn¡¯t want us to be hurt but he knows it will be unavoidable in the Academy. He knows that we will feel horrendous pain that the training will inflict on us and that pains him. Fuck, I will miss him. I will miss this house. I will miss the hole in the wall. I¡­ I will miss everything here! That night, both my father and I cried ourselves to sleep. Chapter 3 - Travelling As I wouldn¡¯t see him in the years to come I spent as much time with my father as possible. I helped my father tending to the fields by doing some light chores, chatted with him whenever we rested and spent some typical father son time together. My life until now one of the most peaceful times I had ever experienced, but that made it even more difficult to say goodbye when the time came. Just like that time when my brother was taken away they suddenly popped up from the fields after we said our parting words. The inspectors stayed quiet, most likely due to them respecting our privacy, and motioned for me to follow them. I did so and after a silent walk we reached some kind of gathering spot where I could see dozens of quite big carriages. In the middle of it was a giant mass of children with varying expressions on their faces. It was quite interesting actually how much they differed. Some had a big smile plastered onto their faces while others seemed sad to the point of being suicidal. But most were like me, having a sad expression but accepting the fate that awaited us. I had to wait for a long time in order for the other inspectors to arrive but it didn¡¯t feel like that because I spent most of it chatting with the other recruits, which was the term that the inspectors used to called us. I found myself spending a lot of time with a group that seemed quite different from the others. They just seemed¡­special and I was drawn to them like a moth to fire. Of course I wasn¡¯t burned by their presence but I learned the reason they were special after asking them about it: Their parents, being retired warriors, had trained them since they were four years old, hoping that they would one day surpass them and bring glory to their household. If they made some major accomplishments, they would be given a noble title and receive a last name from the king himself. ¡°I really hope the ride won¡¯t be too bumpy, my delicate body wouldn¡¯t be able to stand that kind of abuse for too long¡± a boy with short brown hair and blue eyes whose name was Owen said. Standing at about one meter he was as tall as me, being quite small for his age in this world. ¡°Don¡¯t start with this topic again! We already know that you can¡¯t stand bumpy rides, you don¡¯t have to repeat it a million times!¡± another boy called Frank said. Even though he was only seven years old one could already see that he would grow up to be a womanizer in the future. His straw blonde hair shone the the coating of all kinds of grime on it and his childish face already had some sharp edges. Furthermore, he was already 1.1 meters tall, standing half a head higher than me and Owen. I think I forgot to say it but in this world it is normal to wash yourself about once a month on the countryside. It was very hard to adapt to in the beginning, especially the smell, but luckily the people in the city bath once every day. As the Academy is located in the city the students there will naturally adopt the same custom which is will be the only aspect of the Academy that I am looking forward to. Until then however I have to bear with the horrible odor that people who haven¡¯t washed for quite some time normally emit. ¡°Calm down Frank, you don¡¯t have to get angry every time Owen says something stupid. You should learn to ignore him if he is in complaining mode, that way you will have a much easier time.¡± I said. I had pretty average looks and inherited my father¡¯s brown hairs and brown eyes, in contrast to my brother who I remember to have blond hair and brown eyes. I think the hair color of my brother comes from my mother who I still know nothing about. ¡°Yeah John is right don¡¯t listen to Owen, I¡¯ve known him for a looong time and learned to ignore him when he is being annoying.¡± The last member in our little group, who also happened to be a girl, Greta, said. She was about as tall as me and Owen, which hurt our manly egos quite a bit even though I knew that boys and girls would be quite similar in physical aspects before puberty. With shoulder length dark brown hair and blue eyes, she would grow up to be quite beautiful, though I expect Frank to become even more handsome than she beautiful. ¡°OK KIDS, WE HAVE WAITED LONG ENOUGH. YOU WILL NOW FOLLOW THE MAN THAT APPROACHES YOU TO YOUR CARRIAGE. DON¡¯T BITCH AROUND; WE HAVE ALREADY WASTED ENOUGH TIME!¡± an incredibly loud voice that made my ears ring shouted. I think everything in a radius of ten miles heard him clearly but in order to avoid more shouting most of the children obediently followed the approaching inspectors into the carriages. As I was standing quite close to the others in our group we were taken to the same carriage. What I didn¡¯t expect though was that it would be brimming with children. Due to us being the last group to arrive we were barely able to find a seat in the middle but fortunately we sat opposite of each other. As Frank sat next to me we chatted some time but then switched to the others because Greta clearly began to doze off with Owen constantly complaining. The ride was indeed very bumpy because of the unpaved roads that looked like glorified hunting trails to me. Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. A lot of complaining, time and some swallowed aggression later the carriage finally came to a stop as we had arrived at the Academy, which was located in the heart of Frumentum. Due to the carriages only having two windows that were located on each side of the carriage our group couldn¡¯t see what Frumentum looked like so as we stepped out our jaws quickly hit the ground. In front of us was a giant building that seemed to have been carved out of a giant boulder which was surrounded by a very big wall I estimate to be at least 30 meters high. Towers which were even higher were placed at regular intervals and we could see some youths lazing around in them. Off in the distance even higher walls could be seen which seriously amazed me. What kind of manpower was needed to make wall this big and thick? I¡¯m sure it had taken ages before it could be completed, even with the mythical powers warriors were rumored to possess. The area we stood in was full of training fields where children at various ages either trained or were lectured by teachers. Most of the trainees were clearly exhausted but continued regardless and the students were clearly paying attention, which surprised me to no end. Is this institution really that good enough for the other recruits to behave like this? The grass seemed greener than normal and one could nearly feel the abundance of life force in the air. Trees were placed everywhere and I could see a small forest in the edge of my vision. When I look closer I discover that certain trees which were surrounded by a faint glow were placed in a certain pattern. I think that this is the result of an enchanter laying some formations over the whole place. ¡°Pick your jaws up from the ground kids, you are not here to sightsee.¡± The inspector who escorted us said and started to walk towards the entrance of the Academy. Most of the other kids who were similarly awestruck regained their composure and followed him. As we walked towards the building I could take a closer look at it. The whole building was obviously not made to look good, it was made for being practical. This meant thick walls and small windows that looked like slits from which one could safely shoot projectiles at incoming enemies without having to worry about being attacked themselves. The building itself was flat and if one looked closely it could be seen that the grey walls were slightly glowing, most likely another enchantment. It didn¡¯t take long to arrive at the heavily fortified entrance of the Academy which was guarded by some men in full plate armor which glistened in the sunlight. They had their big spears with long, kite shaped spearheads resting on the ground and looked quite relaxed as they watched us. We passed through the gates and proceeded to walk down a long corridor until we were inside of a big hall. Wooden chairs, which were mostly occupied by other recruits, took up most of the space in it and I found myself wondering where we would sit. The inspector, who was, just like most of the other ones I have seen, quite a stoic man, noticed my questioning gaze and pointed towards an unoccupied row of wooden chairs that were located in the front. ¡°You will sit here. Don¡¯t cause a commotion or you will be punished.¡± He briefly explained and left. Wow, I am quite impressed by their way of dealing with children. ¡®Do what we say or you will be punished.¡¯ It was a quite brutal but common strategy to treat children in ancient times but I didn¡¯t expect it to be applied here. After we sat down next to each other we started to spend the time by chatting again but were soon interrupted by a booming voice that came from the direction of the stage which was located about 20 meters in front of us. ¡°I welcome you to the Academy! I will keep myself short as I don¡¯t believe in long speeches so listen up! All of you are talented young children who are fated to become protectors of our great city, Frumentum. But even our glorious founders had to train in order to get power akin to GODS! I won¡¯t expect something unrealistic like reaching the same heights as them from you because that would be impossible, but I expect you to make the best out of your potential! Maybe some of you will become nobles, some will certainly become officers, but all of you will become warriors. That, I guarantee as the principal of the Academy! I would wish you a good time here but I don¡¯t think believe it myself. ¡°he briefly laughed like a madman ¡°I said enough. Next week you will be tested so we will know which path you are most suited to take. This test will decide whether you are fated to fail as trash or become a general! You can¡¯t do anything to influence it as it tests your soul. Until then I wish you a good time!¡± after the principal finished his speech he walked down from the stage. Some other important looking people also held speeches but I ignored them as the words of the principal caught my interest. Power akin to the gods, huh? This world could be far more interesting than I had thought. Chapter 4 - The Academy After the entrance ceremony ended they split the boys and girls into two groups and walked into opposite ends of the of the building. They told us to do whatever we wanted for the rest of the day after we properly settled in. The rooms were quite frugal, only having three wooden beds with no mattress and three drawers where people could store their clothes. In total there were three rooms: A bedroom where we would sleep, a lounge and a bathroom. A room was normally occupied by 3 people and fortunately Owen, Frank and I were in the same room. I don¡¯t think this is a coincidence. Maybe three is a lucky number in these parts? We had just finished putting our clothes into the drawers when Owen proposed that we should find Greta as she would surely be quite lonely without us. Is Owen just that nice or does he feel some kind of puppy love for her? We passed the entrance of the boys¡¯ dorm which was guarded by a skinny man in white we arrived at the entrance of the female section. Unexpectedly it was guarded by a tall and muscular woman. ¡°Stop here. You are not allowed to go into this part of the dorms. What do you want to do there anyway?¡± she said in a bland tone. It was clearly visible that this was not the first time she had said that today. ¡°Well, we wanted to see our friend. I guess you can¡¯t make an exception for us?¡± Owen said in a childish tone. He used the full might of his puppy eyes but it seems the woman was quite resistant to it. Well, it would have been too easy if she would have let us through with just this much. The woman sighed. It seems that she understood Owens confusion but couldn¡¯t allow him to pass. If she had let us in I would have been quite surprised. Well, I guess we had bad luck. Hopefully we will meet Greta tomorrow. I quickly dragged Owen away before he could cause a commotion and whispered into his ear that I would explain everything later. I really will, but not now, or in the near future. After that Frank and Owen went to play with the other kids while I went to sleep. I knew that I wouldn¡¯t enjoy playing with those kids. Frank, Owen and Greta are different though. If they want to they could be far more mature than their age would suggest and because of that I get along with them quite well. As I closed my eyes I thought about my future life in the Academy, the horrible training I would most likely be put through and also the power I would hopefully obtain once I became a full-fledged warrior. Cold water splashed onto my face and I woke up with a scream. When I looked around I realized that my friends didn¡¯t fare much better than me: All of us were completely drenched. ¡°HA! No better way to wake kids up than some cold water! Now quickly dry yourselves and go to the courtyard in front of the school. A lecturer is awaiting you there.¡± The skinny man who guarded the entrance to boys¡¯ dorm said and walked out of the room. Strangely enough I didn¡¯t see anything he could have used to carry the water he splashed onto us. Maybe he used something akin to magic. In this world ruled by insanely strong beasts I wouldn¡¯t be surprised. As I would most likely find out in the following days I put that thought aside and after we were completely dry again we headed out. A big mass of children was standing in front of an elderly man with already white hair. As soon as he saw us he smiled a little but otherwise ignored us as we tried to find Greta. When we finally reunited I proposed that we should squeeze ourselves to the front as we could certainly hear that old man better than if we were at the back. We did so and a few angry glares, some rude comments and a lot of pushing later we arrived at the front. We patiently sat down and waited for the lecture to start. It didn¡¯t take long until the old man started to talk and I sucked his word up like a sponge. ¡°Silence.¡± He started with a single word. After the crowd was more or less silent he finally began: ¡°I am Greg, a teacher at the Academy. You will carefully listen to what I say, understood?¡± He said and looked around to be sure that everyone had heard him. I don¡¯t think that would be a problem though. He used the same trick as the principal and everyone could hear him clearly. After seeing that everyone was listening attentively, he continued: ¡°I am going to teach you the principles of cultivation. I will teach you how to cultivate, how to manipulate mana and how to fight against both humans and beasts! But we¡¯ll first start with the basics: Mana, as we call it, is the power generated by everything. For example, you can use it to empower yourself and manipulate your environment. Let me show you what mana enhancement can do.¡± He walked to a thick pillar made of metal and punched it with a speed too fast for us to see. The sound of metal being ripped apart filled the air and we could see that the pillar was cleanly punched through with his hand sticking out on the other side of it. As soon as he removed his hand however the pillar started to repair itself. ¡°What I showed you is a mere fraction of the true power of mana enhancement. If you train hard enough, you will be able to lift mountains and kill hordes of beasts in a single punch! You will be immortal! But in order to do these things you need mana. But where does the mana one uses for mana enhancement come from? There is a simple answer to that question but I think that it would be easier to understand if you looked into yourselves than if I were to explain it to you. After you enter the core I want you to enlarge the rock and create some wood next to it. Then imagine a spark flying onto that wood and let it burn. If you have some mana left create some crystal clear water that you should keep as far away from the fire as possible. When you are done just think about leaving the core space and you will exit it. You can start now.¡± I followed his instructions and looked into myself again. Like last time I was sucked into the core and I could immediately feel that something was different. Last time there was a small amount of mana that was sparsely spread through the area. Now however the mana was so condensed that it was impossible to ignore it. The previously dark area was now colored in a milky white and I felt powerful, as if I were a god. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Shaking my head at this stupid thought I willed the rock to become larger, about the same size as me. When I checked the remaining mana there was still a lot of it left so I created a big pile of dry wood which I then set ablaze. After observing it I realized that the wood was burning at an incredibly slow pace even though there was no oxygen in the air. How is that even possible? Wait, I don¡¯t even breathe in this space so are there any gaseous substances that are not mana present in this space? Though I was curious I first created a blob of water that was about as big as the rock to make sure that I would be able to experiment without having failed the assignment. After that I willed oxygen into existence right in front of the fire. Doing so was really difficult as oxygen is an abstract atom. You can¡¯t see it, smell it or perceive it with any other of your senses. The fire greedily consumed it and burned at a far higher temperature than before. The pile of wood however was still burning slowly though and the fire continued to burn as bright as before even after some time passed. The oxygen should have run out so why has the fire still the fire the same? Maybe this is some peculiarity of the core space. I continued to observe the fire when I realized that all of the things I had created emitted a monstrous amount of mana. But if more mana is produced as I create things here wouldn¡¯t that mean the growth of mana production is exponential? That would be truly terrifying as even a few days could make a monstrous difference. Since the core space is limited however that would stop at a certain point. Maybe I can enlarge it if I use mana. I willed the core space to expand a little and I felt the mana rapidly vanishing. The amount that was consumed was monstrous! It took more than a third of the mana I had to expand this space a meter in all directions! If the expansion costs are tied to the increased volume, then I guess that days of generated mana wouldn¡¯t make that much of a difference. Tearing my attention away from this I inspected the fire again and thought about how the fire continued burning at the same temperature even after consuming the oxygen. Maybe mana is the cause? I closely looked at the fire which consumed about as much mana as the other objects to create and dispersed the wood which then turned into mana. After there was none left the fire continued to burn but the mana it emitted was smaller than before. So if I take the burning material away it just uses mana to sustain itself? Most interesting. But what exactly is mana? The teacher said that it is generated everything, so I guess matter generates it, especially living beings if I am right. Why does it have the power to create things? How is the mana in the core able to make the body do inhuman things? Why do living beings emanate so much of it? Maybe I should ask the teacher. He hopefully has the answers to my questions. Before I left my core I inspected the amount of mana I still had left. Surprisingly I still had a fifth of the initial amount left even after the expansion and experimentation. I this normal? The teacher implied in his instructions that not every person has the same amount of mana in his core. Is this due to the time difference of our awakenings as I like to call the test of the inspectors or simply talent? As I opened my eyes I saw that the rest of recruits were already finished and most were staring at me. I tried to ignore them but ended up blushing slightly. ¡°Now that everyone is finished¡± he looked at me with a strange expression on his face ¡°I hope you understand where the mana comes from. If not, then you are clearly either extremely untalented or just plain stupid! Oh, and don¡¯t think I will answer any questions you have. My job is to teach you the basics, if you want to know things I don¡¯t teach you then figure them out yourself! Someone who can¡¯t even answer his own questions isn¡¯t fit to be a warrior!¡± Well, it seems that I will have to rely on myself to answer those unanswered questions I have. ¡°Now that you know how mana is generated I will teach you how to strengthen yourself with mana: First you have to concentrate on your body. Observe your muscles as they make miniscule movements and strongly think about mana flowing into them. They will flow into your mana veins and you have to slowly expand that flow until all of your veins are filled to the brim with mana. Then you have to will the circulating mana into your whole body. It will slowly seep out of them and the lost mana will be replenished by the core. Do that until there is no mana coming from the core anymore. I will reward the ones who hold out the longest with some merit points. What merit points are will be explained to you at a later date, just know that they are something valuable.¡± I did as he said and could feel a stream of mana emerging from my head. It flowed into my previously empty mana veins and left a comfortable sensation wherever it passed through. I could feel it going around my whole body where it was absorbed until a miniscule amount of the initial stream returned to the core. Gaining confidence, I expanded the stream until the channels felt bloated and let it seep into my body. The result was me feeling as if I were in a HeavenCapsule. Though they were horribly expensive the feeling they gave me was worth every credit. It felt nearly as good as drugs but not addicting. I remember that I used to relax in one whenever I felt like it and only now did I realize how much I missed that feeling. After some time passed I realized that my mana veins were slowly drying up until only a trickle was left. I realized that no matter how much time passed there would always be some mana present in my mana veins. I opened my eyes at the same time as my friends and saw the teacher staring at us as if we were monsters. Chapter 5 - Training His face suddenly got redder as he realized that he was blatantly staring at us. ¡°Well, I guess we have a really talented batch of recruits this year. We will speak after this lesson is over.¡± He said after he regained his composure. Continuing as if the previous incident never happened he said: ¡°How did it feel? Fantastic, right? We call this practice meditation. Note that as you increase your mana regeneration you will be able to keep training for a longer time. Cultivators at my level are able to meditate at maximum capacity for months!¡± Months? If they spend months on cultivating, then there may have been a hint of truth in his words when he said immortality. Now that I think about it, how old is he? ¡°Now that you know how to meditate I will teach you how to make yourself even stronger during combat. This technique becomes more powerful as your base strength increases so don¡¯t neglect meditation! Not as if anyone would willingly do that. It is very simple actually. You have to repeat the process of meditation but instead of letting the mana seep into your body you have to force it into it! The power you receive depends on the amount of mana you injected. If you fight against beasts, you have to be carefully balance power and endurance! If you inject too much mana you will quickly run out of mana and if you don¡¯t inject enough, you will be eaten! Remember kids: Balance is important. Everyone has to find his or her own balance and constantly adjust it depending on the current situation and strength. We call this technique mana empowerment. THIS is what gives us an edge over the beasts. It is the main reason we are able to protect our lands from the beasts since these dumb monsters are not able to do this. In the beginning your body will feel uncomfortable so when you feel that you can¡¯t take any more reduce the influx of mana. Don¡¯t worry, you will soon get used to it. You can practice finding your balance on these metal dummies.¡± He said and I looked around in confusion since there was only the metal pillar he used present. Suddenly dozens of metal dummies with a form similar to that of a human appeared about a meter above the ground and slammed into it, sinking into it. What the hell!? How did these appear? ¡°Don¡¯t be surprised, I conjured them. Maybe I will teach you how to do that later so concentrate on practicing mana empowerment for now.¡± He laughed when he saw our awestruck faces. I will learn how to do that? YES! It has always been one of my greatest fantasies back on New Pandora to conjure magic! But first I have to punch some dummies to find my balance? I hope it will be worth it. I began to inject mana into my muscles and immediately noticed how a weird feeling came over me. Sure, I felt more powerful but this felt as if my body was exploding. I immediately reduced the amount I injected and the feeling reduced until I only felt bloated. I looked towards my friends and found them staring at me in turn. ¡°Well, I guess we should find our balance or whatever he meant with that.¡± Greta said cheerfully. ¡°Wow Greta, good advice. Very good advice. Do you have any other wise words you have to add, great master of, uh, wisdom!¡± Frank retorted in an annoyed tone. ¡°Can we start training now? Look, the teacher is already looking at us!¡± I interrupted them. Had they continued, we would never have started training. This was not the first time they had bickered like this. They did this all the time in the second half of the ride. Noticing watchful gaze of the teacher they hurriedly positioned themselves in front of the nearest dummies. Looks of concentration could be seen on their faces as they prepared to strike. I should probably start too. What would be a proper balance? I don¡¯t know how long the training will last but I can feel the mana filling up my core rapidly due to the newly created matter in my core. I guess I should start with the same amount I generate. That way I can go on indefinitely. Doing just that I could feel an incredible rush of power come over me. I felt lighter and more powerful than ever before. Clenching my fists, I took a deep breath to calm myself down. Then I struck the dummy with all my power in the torso. My fist was unbelievably fast and reached its target, causing the dummy to slightly vibrate. I could feel the skin between my fingers ripping and my knuckles were hurting like hell! OUCH, why didn¡¯t he tell us that this would happen!? I could hear slight groaning around me and the kids around me were all holding their swelling hands. ¡°You have just learned one of the most basic principles of mana injection: Reinforce EVERY single part of your body or you will injure yourself! This is a lesson that is best learned by practical experience. Being injured by your own punch is one of the least worries you will have when facing a beast whilst leaving some parts unprotected! Continue, but this time don¡¯t leave anything out!¡± He might be an asshole for not telling us beforehand but he is right. Every small mistake can lead to death against the beasts. The large amount of warriors that die every day are testament to that. Continuing with new motivation I strike the dummy with my fists again and again. Even after what seemed to be an eternity of continuous strikes with all of my power behind them the dummy didn¡¯t have a single dent on it. As I directed a big chunk of the mana into my arms I was thankfully unhurt too. After realizing that I could focus on specific regions of my body I experimented on which areas would cause the dummy to vibrate the most. Unfortunately, the result was me being mentally too exhausted before I could accomplish anything substantial. Directing mana into specific regions put a huge strain on my mind as I had to have complete control of the rapidly flowing mana and concentrate on some mana veins more than others. It took some time to find out how to differentiate them at all and even then it was extremely hard to not let my concentration slip. As I sat on the ground to recover from my fatigue I noticed that everyone else was still striking the dummies. The sounds Owen produced with his punches were especially loud and I could already see a small, almost unnoticeable dent forming. He had an extremely concentrated expression on his face and didn¡¯t show even a hint of exhaustion. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Well, that is unexpected. I really didn¡¯t expect him to be so talented at physical activities. I guess I shouldn¡¯t belittle just because he can be annoying as hell. Frank and Greta weren¡¯t that much worse than him though. Their strikes unceasingly hit the dummy in front of them and together those three produced something akin to a melody of vibrating metal. I guess this is the benefit of being reared by retired warriors, huh? Not wanting to be outdone I stopped my futile tries at finding out which areas were the most effective ones when striking against the metal dummy and just hit it in a frequency that augmented the melody my friends were making. Not focusing on specific regions was far easier and I nearly enjoyed the training session. Nearly. The mental fatigue was still present and I could feel my exhaustion growing with every second that ticked by. Suddenly I ran out of mana and I barely stopped my fist from hitting the dummy. It seems that I had unconsciously increased the mana flow. At the very least the dummy had a few small dents in the places I had hit it repeatedly. Plopping onto the ground I lazily observed the whole training site and realized that about a third of the children present were also laying on the ground. Some had even closed eyes and didn¡¯t seem to be awake. It couldn¡¯t have been this exhausting, right? Though I am tired it is nowhere near passing out. Maybe their mana output was too strong so they fell unconscious? With every passing moment here I get more and more questions. Maybe I should try asking him. I know he said that he wouldn¡¯t answer any but it can¡¯t hurt to try, right? I heaved myself off the ground and went towards the teacher. Noticing me, he threw me a curious glance which I answered with a stare. Arriving at his side I began the conversation with my sweetest and most childish voice:¡± Um, hello Mr. Teacher. I know you said that you wouldn¡¯t answer any questions but can you make an exce-¡° ¡°No, I won¡¯t! I stand to my word so fuck off and go hit the dummies!¡± At first he was still surprised but when he realized what I was talking about he screamed at me and kicked me back to where I came from. Even though he hit me with an enormous force which should have broken all of the bones in my rear area I just felt a lot of pain from the kick and flew face first into Owen. I hit him in his stomach and he doubled over from pain. As we regained our bearings on the ground I felt a stinging sensation every time I moved my head and my ass hurt so much that I probably shouldn¡¯t sit for some time whilst Owen was puking on himself. Why did he react so excessively? I mean all I did was ask a question, right? By now everyone had stopped training and looked at us and the teacher. Owens current state obviously terrified them and the angry expression of the teacher didn¡¯t help. ¡°LISTEN UP YOU BRATS! NO ONE QUESTIONS MY WORD OR DISOBEYS ME, OR ELSE THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS TO YOU! MY WORD IS ABSOLUTE!¡± He shouted in a loud voice. His face was contorted into a frown and he stared each of us down. What followed was quite understandable, really: The children started to cry. When one started it caused a chain reaction and it didn¡¯t take long until everyone, including me, was in tears. The teacher was visibly disturbed by this, he was most likely used to more mature pupils and didn¡¯t expect us to react like that. ¡°Hey, STOP CRYING!¡± His words made some of us cry even harder, ¡°Wait, wait, I didn¡¯t mean it like this. Kids, don¡¯t fucking cry!¡± Wow, I didn¡¯t expect him to be that bad with children. Well, he deserves it for hurting me and Owen. But really, can he blame us for crying? We were brought away from home not too long ago and thrown into a completely new environment while the only explanation we got was that we would be going to the Academy Then a teacher suddenly injures two of his students ¨C meaning that this new environment is not only new, but also hostile and dangerous. Add homesickness to that and you have a lot of crying children. ¡°Greg, what is going on?¡± Hearing the commotion another teacher, a sturdy middle aged man, came over. Far behind him a significantly older group of children curiously looked over at us. ¡°Well, they are just crying because they are new to my way of teaching students. It is nothing to worry about, in a few weeks they will be used to it. Now, if you don¡¯t mind I would like to continue my lesson.¡± The asshole said. Really? Excessive violence is your way of teaching children? I have to say we really had bad luck to be taught by such a primitive. The other teacher frowned at his words ¡°This is not the first time we have talked about this, Greg. They may be your students but this doesn¡¯t give you the right to treat them as you wish!¡± He hissed. Why couldn¡¯t we have gotten this teacher? I bet he wouldn¡¯t abuse us like that old man. ¡°I don¡¯t fucking care about your feats in the last horde, your teachings are outdated! Old men like you should just retire and let us do the work. It is quite obvious you have become senile.¡± The middle aged man smiled. ¡°HA! If I let young fools like you take over than I would have truly gone senile. Every single person who studied under my guidance became a great warrior. The same can¡¯t be said about you, Ian.¡± The asshole retorted. Now both of them smiled, though Ian¡¯s smile seemed forced. Their voices were unexpectedly easy to understand despite the sound of crying filling the air, though I think that I am the only one from my group who listened to this conversation. By the time the middle aged teacher came I had already stopped and listened attentively. ¡°Well, at least we aren¡¯t stuck in the time before the last horde like you! Just accept that your generation was foolish!¡± He spat. Ouch, that was mean. His last sentence made Greg furious ¡°YOU DARE, BOY!¡± his booming words were the last I heard before I was embraced by darkness again. Chapter 6 - Regrets Of The Past ¡°Why don¡¯t you come with us? I¡¯m sure that, with your help, we could rise to the top of New Pandora! Fuck these Oligarchs, we will be richer than all of them together!¡± A young adult, around the age of 20, said to me. His face was, just like everything else in the vicinity, shrouded in a layer of grey mist. I shook my head ¡°I won¡¯t, *****. It is far too risky. What if we fail? What would our families do then? Who is going to feed them? I can¡¯t. Understand that.¡± ¡°You coward! Fine then, I will do it myself! Don¡¯t complain when you see me in the news as a hero.¡± He turned around and vanished into grey smoke. The surroundings abruptly changed and I found myself in a small but comfortable apartment. ¡°It¡¯s your fault!¡± a young woman screamed at me, her beautiful face full of anger. ¡°Why didn¡¯t you go with him? We could be FAMOUS and RICH!¡± after saying that she stormed out of the door. I sat down on a chair, feeling empty inside. How could I have known that he would really succeed? What were the odds of that happening? One in a billion maybe, but he managed get it regardless of that. First I missed the chance of my life due to my cowardice and now I lost my girlfriend. It seems that fate really doesn¡¯t mean well with me. This is all my fault, if I had only come with him at that time¡­ -------------- I woke up with tears still wet in my eyes. This was a dream I didn¡¯t have for a long time; why did it return now? I thought I already got over it, but it seems that my regrets follow me even into another life. Ignoring my dream, I tried to move my body and I noticed that the pain in my neck was gone and I felt better than ever before. My limbs were easier to mover and my body felt far lighter. Opening my eyes, I realized that I was in what could be called a temporary infirmary. I laid on a mat in an expansive hall with the other students who were taught by asshole. White crystals on the ceiling illuminated the hall but fortunately they didn¡¯t blind whoever looked at them directly. Aside from the sound of people going around and looking whether any children were awake it was silent. It was a comfortable silence, something which I needed right now. In order to distract myself from reliving old memories I closed my eyes and thought about the event which caused me to pass out. How was asshole able to knock all of us out with only a single shout? Maybe he let a shockwave composed of mana loose when he lost his temper. As I have strong suspicions to the existence of healers I can¡¯t be sure that I wasn¡¯t injured physically so whether the effects of it were purely mental remains unknown. So let¡¯s assume that he lost control of himself and caused a shockwave of mana to spread. How would he be able to that? Maybe an enhanced form of mana injection? What would be more likely though is that he used some skill I am not aware of. I mentally sighed. I just don¡¯t have enough information to make any conclusions. Now that I think about it, I don¡¯t really know anything about this world I have been reincarnated in. I never made any real effort to get more information, being content with knowing that warriors existed and the world was ruled by beasts. What did I do all these years? I helped my father in the fields, harvesting a plant that was very similar to wheat, but since I am not an agricultural expert I don¡¯t really know if there are any significant differences. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. One thing that I found interesting though was that it could be planted all year round without looking any different and, which is quite strange, considering that the optimal conditions for wheat only exist in summer. And how is the soil able to support it? If they were to cultivate the same plant every year on the same fields, then shouldn¡¯t the harvest become smaller and smaller every year? So many questions and not a single answer. Mana is just a too unpredictable variable that may or may not change everything. One thing I am sure is caused by mana are the beasts. They are far too dangerous to have existed naturally in my old universe. They are big and powerful, travelling at speeds which could not possibly be achieved without mana and delivering strikes with tremendous power. Take the aberration of a wolf I once saw for example: At a height of at least 2 meters it was a monstrously. It moved at a speed so quick that I could barely see a blur and every single of its steps left an indent on the ground. Thankfully it was quickly killed by some nearby warriors before it could kill any of the farmers. I think that they have a core similar to that of us humans and somehow absorb and cultivate mana just like us, which would mean that naturally long lived beasts who have nearly no natural enemies would be terrifying. Just thinking about it made me shudder. Why do they become so big though? If mana can enhance their bodies, then they have no reason to grow to such unnatural heights. Evolution would select the most powerful amongst them, which, due to mana, has no relation to size but to mana cultivation talent. Maybe mana has differing effects depending on species? ¡°Hey kid, are you awake?¡± a voice interrupted my thoughts and I opened my eyes to look at the owner of it. It was an old man whose age I would estimate to be about 60. Though he had graying brown shoulder length hair his eyes shone with a youthful glint. A long black robe without any ornaments covered his entire body and he stared at me with a curious expression. ¡°Y-Yes.¡± I managed to stutter. His interruption was quite unexpected and scared me a bit. ¡°Well, since you are healthy enough to speak to me without problems we can go back to your room.¡± He spoke to me in a soothing tone, obviously aware of who knocked me out. ¡°Wait, how much time passed since I passed out?¡± I asked him. It was something that I was quite curious about. ¡°About half a day. Don¡¯t worry, your teacher was already punished.¡± His facial expression didn¡¯t change when he said that. He helped me stand up and escorted me back to my room. I didn¡¯t notice any other children on my way and the halls were illuminated by the sinking sun. The walk was silent as neither I nor the old man who escorted me had any desire to say anything. I was lost in thought and he enjoyed the view. Finally, I opened the wooden door and I noticed that it was the same as I had in memory with the exception of Owen and Frank not being present. As I couldn¡¯t sleep and I didn¡¯t have anything else to do I meditated for a while. When my mana ran out the sun had already vanished behind a mountain range in the distance. Frank and Owen had returned and were already in their beds. Even though I was not sleepy I decided to join them, but as expected it took me a long time until I sank into deep slumber. Chapter 7 - Explanations ¡°WAKE UP!¡± a deep voice shouted so loudly that I felt as if my eardrums were going to burst. When I opened my eyes the skinny guardian was already gone, most likely tormenting other children. I reluctantly left the sorry the excuse of a bed this world has and put my clothes on. Frank and Owen however were already wide awake, waiting for me in an impatient fashion. Oh, right. They were brought up by retired warriors. Of course they would be unfazed by waking up early. After I had shaken the tiredness off we went to the same training field as yesterday. The familiar sight of over a hundred children awaited us and after we found Greta we waited for Asshole to arrive. When he did arrive he unexpectedly brought someone else with him. It was a middle aged man who was about half a meter taller than our teacher. He wore a black robe similar to the one the person who escorted me back had but with a lot ornaments. The sword stuck in the head of what seemed to be a western dragon which was embroidered with fine golden threads in the middle of his chest was the most eye-catching one though. Similar themes could be found in all of other ornaments. Some showed a slain beast whilst others showed various landscapes. Together they formed quite an impressive sight. I wonder if those ornaments have a special meaning? His blue eyes were complemented by his short brown hair and he seemed, unlike most of the people I have seen so far, to be quite frail. Well, back in New Pandora his build would have been quite normal but most men here are quite muscular. ¡°Children, this person here is the headmaster. Be respectful to him!¡± Asshole shouted at us. Unlike yesterday I could hear no real threat in his voice though. ¡°Ahem, aren¡¯t you forgetting something?¡± the headmaster said to him. A grin was rapidly spreading on his face. Well, it looks like someone is enjoying the situation. Asshole grumbled something incomprehensible. Then he looked at us and shouted ¡°I AM TRULY SORRY!¡± He bowed deeply towards us. ¡°It is the duty of a teacher train his students, not injure them without any reason to do so! What happened yesterday was my mistake, I do not expect you to forgive me, but I will do my best to make you into the finest warriors this city has ever seen! As an apology I will teach you everything I know, including techniques I developed myself and secret knowledge I never planned on sharing!¡± he looked as if he had swallowed a lemon whole. Except the few who were reared by warriors all of us were pretty uncaring about his apology. We didn¡¯t really know what he meant. Well, I was at least a bit grateful though. At the very least he would answer my questions now. Seeing that most of us didn¡¯t really care the headmaster spoke up. ¡°You don¡¯t understand what this means, do you? Although this man can be quite violent he survived two hordes as a frontline fighter.¡± I could hear the people around me taking in deep breaths. ¡°His experience will benefit you greatly. The most important thing however is that he will share his techniques with you! He has lived three hundred years now, imagine that! Three hundred years of knowledge! Young ones, I advise you to take this chance. Learn as much from him as you can, and maybe you will become one of the most powerful batches we have ever seen¡± The headmaster explained to us in a fervent tone, obviously trying to persuade us that the benefits were enormous. 300 years?! The old man didn¡¯t lie when he said that we could reach immortality! The dream of every living being could come true! But it obviously won¡¯t be easy. Based on the way the headmaster spoke about his age it must be quite something to survive for such a long time. But I have to say I have truly underestimated this world. If we could live for 300 years, then what else is possible? Assuming that meditation constantly improves our bodies then wouldn¡¯t it be possible to become gods? Seeing our now interested looks the headmaster just laughed. ¡°I will leave the rest to you. I am sure this batch won¡¯t disappoint me¡± As he said that he looked at my group. Then he just slowly walked away from us. Well, I expected a more¡­ flashy departure. He is the headmaster after all. Well, one can¡¯t have everything in life, right? ¡°Ahem!¡± Our teacher cleared his throat loudly, drawing our attention back to him. ¡°Now that we got this out of our way, let¡¯s start with the training.¡± The same dummies that appeared yesterday slammed into the ground again. ¡°You know what to do. I won¡¯t answer questions until you can¡¯t even stand anymore!¡± He said. Well, that was just as expected. Of course he wouldn¡¯t answer our questions that easily. Sighing, I went on my way and began punching the dummies again. ------------------------------------------ I laid on the ground, enjoying its softness. Although I lasted far longer than yesterday due to not experimenting I still reached my limits rather quickly. After I more or less recovered I dragged my tired body to our teacher, who sat on a chair he conjured out of nothing. ¡°Mr. Teacher, would you like to answer my question now?¡± I may not like him but I won¡¯t give him a reason to injure me. I will be careful to not provoke him too much, lest I lie on the ground again. ¡°Of course, ask me whatever you want.¡± He told me in an uninterested tone. Hopefully he will answer my question seriously. I took a deep breath. ¡°How did you make all of that stuff appear? I mean you couldn¡¯t have created all of it out of thin air, could you?¡± He sighed, most likely fed up with being asked the same question over and over again. ¡°Well, you create all kinds of things in your core, right? These dummies and the chair I am sitting on all come from my core space. It is a technique too wasteful for you right now so don¡¯t even think doing it. You will only waste a lot of mana on nothing.¡± This is pretty interesting. So I can bring anything I create in my core into the real world? Surely there must be limitations on that, otherwise how would we still have problems with beasts if we could just drop mountains on them? I repeated my thoughts to him and he looked at me strangely. ¡°Well, you are interesting kid. Not only are you quite talented but you also have an inquisitive mind far above your age. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. To answer your question there are indeed some limitations. The amount of matter you can summon is dependent on the strength of your mana veins. If they are too weak for the amount of matter you summon they will rip apart, turning you into a normal person! Furthermore, the things you wanted to summon will turn into ambient mana.¡± He had a melancholic expression on his face as he said that. The headmaster said that he survived two hordes, right? I heard about them from my father. They are catastrophes that happen roughly every hundred years. The beasts, led by an especially powerful leader, storm into our territories in order to wipe humanity out. It is unknown why they do this though. I wonder if they are just playing around with us. Is something sending every hundred years a force which causes massive causalities but doesn¡¯t kill us, just for the fun of it? I wouldn¡¯t put it past this crazy world with endless possibilities. The last horde was seven years ago, which means it was around the time I was born. My mother most likely died in the beast horde as the civilian causalities are always high due to the farmers not having time to evacuate. ¡°Don¡¯t worry though, you will feel a bloated sensation when that happens. Mana veins naturally strengthen with age but the process mostly depends on meditation. How fast your mana veins improve depends on your talent so having weak mana veins essentially limits your power. Because of that we can¡¯t just drop mountains on them, most warriors wouldn¡¯t be able to handle the strain and their mana veins would rip, making their sacrifice useless.¡± He shook his head; the melancholic expression being replaced by a frown. ¡°Even if the more powerful ones did drop mountains on them, it would only invite a calamity. The bulk of the beast horde is composed of weak beasts; most warrior would be able to easily defeat any of them in a one on one. The problem is that they come in great numbers and their leader is comparable to the head of a powerful noble clan. Beneath the leader there are some strong beasts that need several powerful warriors to defeat. Although the horde may be terrifying, it won¡¯t lead to the downfall of our city. The dropped mountains however would create a massive mana fluctuation and shockwaves, luring some true monsters to our city. Do you understand what that would mean? Imagine a pure blooded dragon attacking our city! We would be wiped out within hours, without any of us having even a miniscule chance of surviving.¡± Both of us visibly shivered at the thought. So it¡¯s not that we can¡¯t do so but that it would be better to just let many warriors die instead of risking a disaster. ¡°What are mana fluctuations?¡± Without wasting too much time I asked him another question. ¡°Curious, aren¡¯t we? Normally a kid would be terrified when speaking to the person who sent it into a coma just the day before but it seems that you don¡¯t have such emotions. Well, it doesn¡¯t really matter, but remember: The fearless ones die young. Too many people have died because of recklessness. We need every warrior we can get, so be careful, okay?¡± What I heard wasn¡¯t the voice of a strict teacher but of an old man who had seen too many people die. I wonder how many things happened during his three hundred years of living in this dangerous world? How many friends, relatives or students died to either age or beasts? What did he experience on the frontline? What did he have to do in order to live until now? I am sure that nobody can live so long as a warrior without being mentally scarred. He most likely suffers from PTSD, which would explain his sudden aggressions. ¡°But I am getting off topic. Mana fluctuations are something you will feel after having meditated long enough. The constant improvement to mana will make you sensitive to it. Mana fluctuations are caused by anything you do. Just by living you emit mana fluctuations and every action you take intensifies them. Your emotion can make the fluctuations vary to a large degree so it is not only dependent on your body but your soul plays a large part too. Together with the fluctuations of everything near you it will create something akin to a melody. If the surroundings are peaceful it will sound calming, wonderful even. If you are in a battlefield however it will sound like a mix of a battle hymn and a sorrowful song. Well, that is how I perceive it. Every person has a different way of perceiving them. Some see them as ripples, others smell them and some even taste them as if they were food! I wonder how you will perceive them? Well, it won¡¯t be that far in the future anyway so I am looking forward to seeing it.¡± He explained to me. His tone became more and more friendly as we talked. I wonder if it is a good thing for a teacher who educates warriors to become emotionally attached to his students? If they die won¡¯t he be depressed? If it were me I would¡­What would I do? Becoming emotionless towards my students would save me from being sad when they die but I don¡¯t think I would be able to do that. I am still human after all. Now that I think about it, how do the teachers feel when they see young warriors they taught themselves fight against beasts and die? I honestly can¡¯t imagine it. Is that why the Academy has such a bad reputation? Because the teachers don¡¯t want their pupils to die so they prepare them as good as they can? ¡°If you have enough energy to ponder these things then I am sure that you are able to hit some dummies, right? Now let me be and do your work!¡± He pushed me back to my dummy. Strangely enough I felt I had enough energy to continue punching it even though I was pretty tired a few minutes before so I did as I was told. Before I could get into a rhythm I noticed some stares burning into the back of my head. I turned around and noticed my friends, especially Owen, staring at me in awe. Authors Note: Can anyone tell me why chapter 6 has more views than the first three chapters combined? I am really curious about that. Thanks for reading and I am, like always, open to suggestions and questions! Chapter 8 - The Beginning Of A Legend ¡°John, did you do what I think you did?¡± Frank stammered. What could be so shocking that his jaw is practically hitting the ground? ¡°Did you just talk to the old monster?¡± He continued. Old monster? What a fitting name. ¡°Well, yeah, I did. Was it that shocking?¡± I said. I understand a certain amount of fear but does he frighten them that much? ¡°YES, WE DO! HE HURT YOU AND DOWEN WITHOUT HESITATION¡± Greta temper flared and she shouted at me. Owen stayed silent throughout the exchange but I could see that he agreed with them. ¡°C¡¯mon guys, it¡¯s not that bad. If you talk to him a bit, he becomes reaaaaally nice. The advice he gives is awesome too! We can learn a lot from him!¡± I tried to persuade them. Their faces showed serious doubt and I sighed. I didn¡¯t like him that much either in the beginning but it doesn¡¯t mean that I won¡¯t even ask him for advice. ¡°C¡¯mon, just try it! Ask him something related to training and I am sure he will answer you.¡± I told them. In the end it is up to them whether they talk to him or not, if they really don¡¯t want to I have no way to force them. They looked at me strangely and huddled together to decide. I let them be, after all who am I to tell them what to do? After a long time of hesitation, we finally went as a group. They insisted that I come with them, after all I was spared so they at least had a scapegoat if everything went wrong. Sometimes I am surprised by the cruelty of children. Well, I had forgotten to ask something anyway so it wasn¡¯t a big deal. When we finally arrived before him they pushed me forwards to be the vanguard. The teacher sent me an amused look as he saw that I was some kind of sacrificial lamb but otherwise ignored our presence. ¡°Well, I forgot to ask something very important Mr. Teacher. Do you know where I can find my brother, George? He was brought away in the last batch and I have to relay something to him from our father.¡± I asked him. ¡°Hmmm, George? There are many children who go by the name of George and I don''t think you remember his appearance so I think it will be quite difficult to find him. What is the name of your father?¡± He answered in a calm tone. Well, at least he doesn¡¯t want my friends to fear him. ¡°Laxeris¡± I said. My father had a pretty odd name. I and my brother had pretty common name in comparison. I often wondered why but my father wouldn¡¯t tell me no matter how many times I asked. The teacher¡¯s eyes lit up for a moment ¡°Well, what an unusual name. I am sure that we can find your brother if we ask around for a bit.¡± After having gotten my answer I turned around and urged my friends to come forth and ask him a question ¨C Any question would do, really. What matters is that they overcome their fear. After a long time of awkward silence Greta finally stepped up. She fidgeted around for a bit but then looked straight into his eyes. Her posture was pretty defensive, almost like that of prey prepared to run away. I didn¡¯t even find this adorable even though I would have in my previous life. Is this the influence of my new body? ¡°M-Mr. Teacher, I have a question I have to ask!¡± she whispered in a voice almost too silent to hear. This didn¡¯t seem to have impeded the teacher though as he looked at her expectantly. ¡°How do I become a strong warrior?¡± He was visibly startled by this. His eyes started to glaze over as he seemed to look at something in the far distance. He quickly snapped out of it however and answered in the tone you would normally use when speaking to a child.¡± Well, what do you think?¡± Now that I think about it, didn¡¯t he use awfully complicated words when speaking to me? Had I been a normal child I wouldn¡¯t have understood half of his words. Maybe it was a sort of test? Greta was taken aback at his unexpected answer but then said in an unsure tone. ¡°Umm, meditation?¡± The teacher laughed. He laughed until tears came out of his eyes as he looked at us, especially Greta. After he finally calmed down he shouted loud enough for the whole field to hear him. ¡°Well said child, well said. If I were still your age I would have said the same, but it is different now. This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. No, it is self-confidence, unwavering will in the face of danger and finally technique!¡± We had the whole attention of the children again. Most of them looked confused at the sudden shouting of the teacher though. ¡°Of what use is physical strength if you are unnecessarily wasting energy because you can¡¯t utilize even half of it! How can you show your true power if you don¡¯t even believe in yourself? How can you hope to kill the beasts if you piss your pants when looking at them?¡± He continued. Well, he does have a point. Sometimes I forget that we live in world where fighting for survival is the only thing that matters. Other factors may cause us to overlook this, but at the end of the day humanity is in constant danger. The conditions may have become safer in recent years but it doesn¡¯t change the fact that a powerful monster could just wipe us out if it wishes so and we couldn¡¯t do anything against it. The only thing we can do is struggle. Struggle for survival. Struggle for power. Struggle for the establishing of an absolute safe haven where we aren¡¯t in danger. I think I have a goal now. I¡¯ve been in this world for four years now and I have to say that I never really had any ambitions. But that changed now. I have the chance to become someone here. I will prove that I have learned from my past. If a chance were to be presented to me I will take it without hesitation. Who cares about living? I already died once, what do I have to fear? If I escaped deaths clutches once why shouldn¡¯t I be able to do it again? ¡°I have decided. You will become the last batch I will teach! Let the historical records say that this is the starting point of a legend! Let me promise you a few things! I promise you that, with my help you will become the most outstanding warriors that have ever walked on this goddamned world! I promise you that if you give it your all I will definitely make you figures to be remembered! I promise you that you that I will spare no effort to make my promises true!¡± He let out a mad laugh. If the people present weren¡¯t children most of them wouldn¡¯t have been swayed so easily. Just moments ago they feared him but now they looked at him with endless hopes in their eyes. Wanting to see whether his words had reached us he looked each of us in the eye. After he was convinced of whatever he wanted to confirm he shouted again. ¡±DO YOU AGREE?¡± It was interesting how simultaneous we acted. ¡°YES, TEACHER!¡± All of us shouted at the top of our lungs in unison. The shout reverberated throughout the whole Academy and many other groups looked over at us. ¡°I CAN¡¯T HEAR YOU!¡± He answered. Hah, what a sly old man. ¡°YES TEACHER, WE AGREE!¡± We shouted again. By now children of different ages were starting to from a crowd around us. ¡°LOUDER!¡± ¡°YES TEACHER!¡± This continued for quite a few times until he finally stopped, obviously satisfied with our resolve. ¡°I see that you have the resolve. Don¡¯t regret this in the future! Your training will be far harsher than that of the others. When the others train six hours you will train 18! Whilst they are still learning the basics you will already be fighting beasts! You promised me that you will do your very best and I take promises seriously. Now let¡¯s start! Hit the dummies with the mana influx at the same level as your regeneration of it! If you are too tired to continue meditate! BEGIN!¡± The children around us made way for us as we rushed towards the dummies. Our invigorated childish bodies did as he told us over and over again until finally night fell. We dragged our exhausted bodies back to our rooms, unaware of the storm we would cause far in the future. It was like this that our legend began. In the millennia to come they would call this event ¡°The Beginning¡± This day would mark the beginning of the rise of humanity to unprecedented heights. Chapter 9 - The Test(Part 1) The next five days were spent training. From the moment we woke up until the sky was completely black we trained like madmen. When teacher said he expected us to do our best he meant it. Punch, pull arm back, punch with the other arm, repeat. When we were too exhausted to continue we sat down or laid on the ground to meditate. It was a seemingly endless circle, sometimes even leading to loss of consciousness, but I already feel better, faster and stronger. Like every morning in the past week, water splashed onto my face and just like every time I fell out of bed screaming. I will never get used to this, no matter how many times he wakes me like this. After clothing myself we headed towards the field again and saw that only the teacher was present. Strange, where are the others? ¡°Ahh, late as always. Today is the day of the test so head to the big hall where the entrance ceremony was held.¡± He shouted to our still distant selves. ¡°Wait, what test?¡± Owen asked us. ¡°The one the principal mentioned. You know, the one that is supposed to determine our future paths?¡± Frank answered in an annoyed tone. ¡°*Sigh* Guys, focus. Let¡¯s just get ourselves tested without any conflicts, okay? I am going to go crazy if you keep this up!¡± I said. Seriously, Franks and Owens childish bickering can really get on my nerves. But it can¡¯t be helped. They ARE children after all. They quickly shut up and followed me. I don¡¯t know how it happened but I have the position of an adult like figure in my group. Well, not that I can complain. When we reached the hall we found the children lined up in 10 queues which started at the stage. A few men and women of various ages sat at tables but I was too far away to see what they were doing. We lined up at the first one we saw and passed the time by chatting about various things. After more than an hour of waiting it was finally Franks turn. He stepped up to the stage where a slender woman greeted him. She also wore what I recognized as the black teacher¡¯s uniform without any ornaments and asked him to sit down. As soon as he sat down we couldn¡¯t hear a single thing from that direction anymore but I wasn¡¯t surprised. Really, after all the things I have seen some kind of magic which stops the voice from exiting a certain space isn¡¯t anything surprising anymore. I could see him holding various items which were spread out on the table and his facial expression changed every few minutes. Getting bored by watching Frank I decided to tease Owen a bit about Greta. My suspicions were confirmed in the last few days: He had a crush on her. Well, as much of a crush that a 7-year-old can have. Before I noticed it, Frank, who came down a few seconds ago, told me that it was my turn. While I climbed up the stairs the woman greeted me. ¡°Hello, my name is Martha. Your name is John, right? Please sit down, before we begin with the test I will explain some things to you. Sit down and listen. After I have finished the test will start.¡± Following her orders, I sat down on the well cushioned chair which was just perfect for my size. She began talking as soon as I was finished adjusting my sitting position. ¡°As you surely know the Academy trains all warriors in the vicinity of Frumentum. But the definition warrior is a person who can cultivate and use mana in various ways. This means that all enchanters and Creators are warriors who specialize in support. They are very talented at their respective fields but their fighting skills are often very poor so they chose not to fight against beasts. That doesn¡¯t mean that they are looked down upon however. Their paths are actually just as respected as that of fighters because they help keeping the cities alive just as much as them. The creators produce excellent weapons which many warriors couldn¡¯t even hope to imitate whilst the enchanters make these weapons durable and powerful enough to last until the wielder is killed. Do you follow?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± I replied in an attentive voice. The information she gave me is quite interesting. I never knew how exactly the powers of creators and enchanters worked but I think I will find out very soon. ¡°Good. Don¡¯t worry, the test will begin soon. Just because most warriors commission their weapons from the professionals that doesn¡¯t mean that you should neglect these skills. They are essential for every warrior because the weapons best suited to you are the ones you created yourself. And who knows the enchantments you need better than you? Also you should know that the most powerful warriors are also experts at creating and enchanting weapons and armors since no one else can meet their standards.¡± She took a deep breath and her brown eyes looked at me expectantly. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. ¡°Let¡¯s begin.¡± She pointed at a small deformed wooden sword which laid right in front of me. It had the form of a double edged western sword with a small ridge in the middle. ¡°You will enchant this sword to the best of your abilities.¡± Seeing the confused look on my face she smiled. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I will explain the basics of enchanting to you. First you have to concentrate on it. Examine every part of it, be careful to remember it. Then you have to imagine a sucking force coming from the mana channels in your palm which directs this little sword into your core. After that enter your core space. Examine the sword again. Note if there are any differences. If there are then restore it to its former state, if not then proceed with enchanting it. I want the sword to become extremely sharp, as much as possible. How you do it is up to you since every enchanter has his own way of doing so but don¡¯t change its form.¡± I picked the sword up and carefully held it in my hands. I noted the round edges which were without any hint of sharpness and wondered how I was supposed to sharpen it. Turning it around I noticed small dents and hills everywhere and a bare hilt without anything to balance the rest of the blade out. As I closed my eyes, imagining a sucking force, her voice interrupted my concentration. ¡°Stop. Don¡¯t close your eyes. Unconsciously doing so every time you suck something in could become a fatal habit. Try again but this time with your eyes open.¡± She is right. Assuming I could use my core space as a portable storage I shouldn¡¯t close my eyes whenever I suck something in or push something out. If I were to do so in a situation where I have to arm myself quickly and I close my eyes I could be killed while I am not paying attention. Repeating my actions while staring at the sword in my hands I imagined a sucking force again. It quickly dissolved into mana which rushed through my channels. It barely fit inside without hurting me and wherever it passed the mana channels would slightly bulge. Finally reaching my core I followed it into it. I was greeted by a now familiar darkness with a slight tinge of white. The sword I absorbed hovered in an empty section of space, waiting to be enchanted. Remembering the words of my examiner I inspected it to find any irregularities but I found none. Now the only question is: How do I sharpen it without changing its physical aspects? I think that sharpness normally comes from a thin edge but I don¡¯t think this swords edge has any resemblance of sharpness. Maybe I can form a hull composed of mana? As I willed it mana started to surround the little sword. Under my instructions it changed from a cylinder into a replica of the object it surrounded. I shrinked it until it was only about a millimeter bigger than the sword and then sharpened its form. If one were to glance at it the thought that it hadn¡¯t changed at all would come to mind but I knew better. As the aura became sharper I needed more and more mana to do so. But I didn¡¯t mind. This is a test after all so I have to give it all that I got! Sharper! Sharper! So sharp that it will effortlessly cut through anything¡­ ---------------------------------- I finally broke out of my trance when I noticed that my mana had run out. Wiping off my imaginary sweat I inspected my work. As I looked at it I couldn¡¯t notice any differences but I knew that all of my mana must have sharpened the hull to a terrifying degree. Pushing the sword out of my core space as I exited it I opened my eyes which I had unknowingly closed. Damn it! I was trying so hard¡­ Shaking my disappointment off I presented the improved sword to the examiner. She shook her head, her curly brown hair swaying around as she did so, when she saw my gesture. ¡°I won¡¯t test it. YOU will.¡± She gave me a block of wood. ¡°Try to cut this with your sword.¡± She instructed me. Taking the unexpectedly heavy object into my left hand while I held my sword in the other I moved my right hand to the block. Although I met some resistance I still pierced a quarter of it without any problems. Then I had to apply more and more force. I laid it on the table and pushed with all my weight but the blade only managed to penetrate another few centimeters. Giving up I pulled it out and looked at the examiner. Her eyes were wide open in what I hope to be astonishment. Feeling unsure I gave the block back to her and she accepted it with shaking hands. After closely inspecting the hole she looked at me. I lost the resulting staring contest and looked away in embarrassment. ¡°Well, it seems you are full of surprises boy.¡± She said after a long pause. Chapter 10 - The Test (Part 2) She flashed her pearly white teeth at me. ¡°I wonder whether you have the same potential in creating.¡± ¡°Well, I¡¯d like to try, but I don¡¯t have any mana left.¡± I replied reluctantly. ¡°Oh, don¡¯t worry about that.¡± She reached her hand out to me and I didn¡¯t resist. If she wants to hurt me I won¡¯t be able to retaliate anyway. As soon as her hand touched my head I felt a steady stream of mana flowing into my core space. The mana channels weren¡¯t being stressed at all. I closed my eyes, enjoying the warm and comfortable feeling that spread out from my forehead. ¡°Snap out of it boy. I just refilled the mana you used so you can try the art of creation. As you already know the basics I won¡¯t waste my time with explaining them to you.¡± She explained. ¡°What do you mean? No one ever taught me how to create.¡± I asked her. ¡°Aren¡¯t you able to will things into existence inside your core space? Don¡¯t you feel your mana rapidly draining whenever you try to do so? Well, this is called creation.¡± She answered. ¡°I don¡¯t see how this can be called an art. If you have enough mana you can will just about everything into existence, right?¡± Her smile stayed unwavering. ¡°Oh, don¡¯t worry about that. Creating is a very profound art that has more to it than the name implies. Let me explain it to you: Do you think that after creating an object you can¡¯t do anything else to it? If you are able to will things into existence, then why shouldn¡¯t you be able to strengthen them too? This, boy, is called creating. It is the art of creating objects that are far stronger than they should be. You can restructure their form, make them heavier, lighter, thinner, thicker, more resilient and so many other things.¡± Well, this is surprising. It never occurred to me that I could manipulate the objects in my core space at will, but now that I think about it this does indeed sound logical. And to do so I will most likely need mana. Mana is a really marvelous thing, capable of creating and manipulating matter at will. But I wonder why I am only able to do so in my core space? How am I able to enter that kind of separate dimension anyway? I put the pondering aside for the moment as I had better things to do right now than to speculate on questions which will most likely stay unanswered for a long time. ¡°I want you to create a weapon of your choice and modify it to become as dangerous as possible.¡± She instructed me. As I entered my core space I thought about what weapon I should create. I really like swords but this isn¡¯t enough of a reason to make my first weapon take this shape. This is a test, so I have to consider that she will record my results. They will most likely include the first weapon I created and how powerful it was so I have to be careful. I have to decide carefully, lest I let a once in a lifetime chance slip by. It doesn¡¯t matter if I can just change my weapon. This will be my very first weapon and I will stick to it. I can just restructure it anytime anyway so I can give it some upgrades anytime I want. Why waste mana and a weapon if I don¡¯t have to? I am a warrior, as such I will have to fight beasts. Mature beasts are almost always taller than adult humans so if I were to choose a sword it will have to be huge. Huge size means a lot of flesh obstructing my way and sharp weapons won¡¯t really help if the hide is too thick. Blunt weapons on the other hand completely focus on raw power. Of course the mastery of the weapon plays a big role in how much damage I can dish out but I am a complete beginner in using any kind of medieval weapon. Wait, when did anyone say that my first weapon had to be a close ranged one? Maybe I could try to replicate the guns from my former universe. Since anything is possible here as long as I have enough mana and imagination it shouldn¡¯t be impossible, right? I immediately went to work, imagining a pistol. After using up nearly half of my mana it was completed: The gun I used to carry around when the war started. Suppressing the bad memories which were starting to come up I commanded it to float into my direction. I stopped it half a meter in front of my face and inspected it. After some tests I was able to ascertain that it was indeed the weapon I wanted to create. This is¡­strange. I don¡¯t even know how it works but I am able to create a perfect replica of it? How is that logical? Not completely believing it I created a bullet and loaded my gun. Using my powers to ensure that I was aiming correctly I shot at the human sized rock I had created a week ago. Instead of a loud bang no sound came out and the gun remained still in my hands. I didn¡¯t feel any recoil and the rock remained unchanged. Well, I knew it was too good to be true. I dissolved the gun into mana again and resumed my previous train of thought. I don¡¯t like being too close to beasts but I fear that I wouldn¡¯t be able to hit them from afar due to their speed. A crossbow would be easy to aim with and the ammo shouldn¡¯t be too expensive. Furthermore, the speed should be fast enough to hit them without problems. As for modifying it with increasing power: I could make certain mechanisms more durable and the string far harder to span. The only problem is the mana needed to make a crossbow out of modern materials. Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. The more advanced a material is the more mana it needs. This is something I noticed when creating the gun. On the other hand, the complexity doesn¡¯t seem to matter as evidenced by the relatively low mana consumption of the gun. If complexity were to play a role I wouldn¡¯t even have been able to create a quarter of a gun. Following this train of thought a modern crossbow which is mostly composed of carbon should currently be impossible to create. Maybe I should start out with a primitive version used in the middle ages and slowly upgrade it. Wait, how would they react if I suddenly created a weapon they had never seen before? I think my talent has already caught their interest but if I really did so they would be suspicious. Hell, if they weren¡¯t they would have to be brain dead! Then maybe I could create it at a later date. Yeah, let¡¯s do that. Well, it seems there really is no way around it. I have to create a close ranged weapon in the end. But which kind is most effective against beasts? Against a scaled beast a mace or a war hammer could be useful but if it only has skin a sword would suffice too. Then couldn¡¯t I just create different weapons for different situations? A longsword for furred ones and a war hammer against ones with natural armor. As creating them from metal is impossible for now I should just make them out of wood. I concentrated on it and my mana evenly split in half to create two wooden weapons. One was a war hammer as big as me and the other a longsword of similar height. as I could easily make them bigger if I wanted to I didn¡¯t need to make them unnecessarily big. Seeing that I still had a lot of mana left I did my best to enhance their hardness. Again I fell into that trance like state and only woke up once my mana ran out. I opened my eyes when I exited the core but I wasn¡¯t bothered by it. If I had left my eyes open for such a long time they would have dried up. I felt my mana veins bulging as I brought my weapons out and laid them on the table, various objects being crushed as they came into contact with them. The sound of wood snapping was awfully loud and seemed to echo endlessly in my eyes. Well, fuck. I didn¡¯t expect them to be so frail. I saw she had a surprised expression on her face. I just hope it is due to me bringing out two weapons at once. ¡°I think I told you to create a single weapon.¡± She stated. Phew, that was close. ¡°Well, I realized that one weapon wouldn¡¯t be effective against all beasts so I created two separate ones I should be able to use in most situations.¡± I said calmly. ¡°It doesn¡¯t change the fact that you couldn¡¯t even fulfill a simple assignment. Furthermore, I don¡¯t see anything particularly dangerous about them. I smell strong mana fluctuations coming from them though so I am sure you modified them in some way. If they are more destructive than they would normally be then you would have fulfilled at least part of your assignment.¡± She told me. ¡°Uhm, well, I suppose they are harder than they would normally be?¡± I stuttered. I can¡¯t believe I forgot her instructions! She sighed, picked up my longsword and smelled it. Is this her method of testing how hard it is? After whiffing for some time she smiled up at me. ¡°Can I assume that both weapons are of the same quality?¡± She inquired. ¡°Yes, I split my mana evenly when creating and enhancing them.¡± I replied. ¡°Good, you pass the test. From now on you should always carry your weapons around. Who knows when you could need them?¡± She told me. The barrier vanished as I heard the loud noise of hundreds of children talking at the same time. Why didn¡¯t I notice this before? I stepped down from the platform and signaled Owen that it was his turn. He gave me a nervous smile. ¡°Is the test hard?¡± He asked me when I passed him. I returned a beaming smile. ¡°No. Don¡¯t worry Owen, you can do this!¡± I reassured him. He didn¡¯t seem convinced. Ignoring that I walked to the place Frank and Greta were already waiting and we exchanged our results. Surprisingly they were both incredibly talented and constantly praised by their examiners. Owen joined us after a half an hour with a skipping gait. I didn¡¯t even need to ask him how the test went to know the results. The rest of the day was free so we went towards the training field to play some games with the others. I didn¡¯t really like playing games with children in the past but today changed my mind. The games we played were more of a competition than anything else and, like any other sane human, I loved winning. Thanks to our talent we dominated the field. Although some came close no one was able to beat any of us either individually or in a team fight. Sure, my pride took a hit or two when I realized that I was happy to be superior to some children but it didn¡¯t matter too much. Because for the first time in a long while I experienced being on the bright side of life. Chapter 11 - Second Awakening AN: Sorry for the delay but the exams kept me from getting any work done. Unfortunately, they will also affect the releases of the rest of the week, I will try my best but there isn¡¯t that much I can do. The next day I stood on the training field again. The only change to yesterday was that all of us had weapons¡­more or less. Whilst some, like my group for example, had actual weapons made of all kinds of materials others only carried frail sticks comparable in quality to the wooden sword I enchanted at the test. Needless to say these fellows sent quite a few jealous glances our way. When the teacher appeared we had already finished warming up, ready for the grueling training he would put us through. What he said next surprised us though. ¡°Now that you did your test and know how to create and enchant we will dedicate a few minutes to an hour to it every day. That way you can also raise the amount of mana available to you, meaning that we can train longer and harder.¡± He smiled in a way that sent shivers down my spine. I may be happy about extra mana but I don¡¯t have a good feeling about the extra training¡­ ¡°You will need the extra time. As you have weapons available now you will have to train with them too. I won¡¯t deduct time from the normal training for that though. From now on the training will take at least one more hour every day! Also don¡¯t forget to meditate every night.¡± He instructed us. What have I gotten myself into? ------------------------------------------------------------ The sun mercilessly shone down on my now substantially bigger body. Sweat poured out from all of my pores and my muscles ached horribly as I raised my longsword for what seemed to be the millionth time today. Shakily holding it above my head I took a deep breath to calm myself down. I swung it down with all the power I could muster, pitiful as it was due to my exhaustion. The wooden longsword hit the dummy with a dull sound in the head and a small dent was left behind. Unfortunately, it quickly repaired itself and it looked as if I hadn¡¯t ever hit it in the first place. The sword slipped off the dummy¡¯s smooth surface and slammed into the ground. Feeling the exhaustion more than ever I sat down to recover my breath. Fuck that old man and his inhuman training methods! Why can¡¯t we use mana whilst training with our weapons? A year had passed and our training regimes were getting longer and longer without an end in sight. It was a disheartening affair, really. Whilst I do have to admit that, according to the headmaster, we improve far faster than any other group in the last century the price we have to pay for that is no free time. If this continues we will spend most of our youth training. That would be such a waste as youth is something precious, especially the earliest years. I mean if you were to reminisce about your childhood but find out that it was spent training wouldn¡¯t it be depressing? I don¡¯t know how the people here think about this. Maybe this is just normal for them. But we can¡¯t really do anything about that anyway. We are warriors, fighting against beasts in order to defend our homes is our destiny and it seems that there is no time for any childish games if the fate of humanity is on the line. If I see it from this perspective, it does seem reasonable. In order to recover faster, I meditated for a few minutes. A stream far thicker than the one I had started out with all these months ago emerged from my core and flowed into my body. With every circulation I could feel my breath become easier and the muscle ache quickly vanished. Thankfully the healing process didn¡¯t revert my body back to the state it had before it was injured, otherwise all the effort would have been for naught. I enjoyed the feeling a bit longer than necessary, relishing in the comfortable warmth that the mana produced. If I could I would do this all day long but unfortunately the best effects are brought forth when coupling meditation with manaless training. Well, at least in the first few years. After that the mana channels normally become strong enough to handle a stream which is more effective enough to surpass the normal training methods. At that point sleep will also become unnecessary as the mana also nourishes the brain and clears the mind. I can feel that I am only a few weeks away from that moment but even if I reach that point I will have to continue training in order to accumulate experience in handling my weapons. The fact that I chose two weapons only worsened the situation and I have to train twice the amount just to keep up with the others. I can¡¯t even abandon one of them as the old bastard doesn¡¯t allow it. ¡°As a warrior you have to stick to your choices! I won¡¯t tolerate wimps in my groups so forget changing weapons, John. You just have to work twice as hard.¡± He told me in a strict tone when I asked him. I can¡¯t help but curse him every time I remember that moment. What does sticking to your choices have to do with being a wimp anyway? Reluctantly standing up again I resumed striking the dummy with my longsword. As it was made out of a thin layer of metal above straw and I wasn¡¯t empowered by mana the dummy quickly repaired itself no matter what I did. It seems that in addition to being an excellent fighter our teacher is also renowned for being a master manacrafter, which is the term used for people who excel at both enchanting and creating. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Self-repairing items are pretty hard to produce due to the enchantment being mana consuming as hell. The next problem is that the repairs also consume a ton of mana during the repairing process, which has to be supplied by the owner since they are usually branded to their mana signature. Once an item is branded only the one it was branded to can use mana to enhance the weapons abilities and store it inside their core space. I don¡¯t know how exactly this is accomplished as I have never done so myself. All I know that it is required to absorb it into your core space and feel it¡¯s resonance, whatever that means. Sometimes I wonder just how much mana that old monster has. To be able to sustain the regeneration of hundreds of dummies at the same time and still have enough left to heal the occasional unconscious student requires mana at a scale I can¡¯t even begin to imagine. I wonder if I will be even more powerful when I become as old as he is now. Shaking my head at the pointless thought I noticed that I had unconsciously stopped striking while pondering. Switching from overhead strikes to horizontal ones I resumed the training. Although the life expectancy of warriors is potentially very high many die young. Very few reach an age that high. Especially not as a frontline fighter. Maybe when I remember my time in the Academy in the distant future I will think of it as something akin to the good old times. HA! As if I will ever remember this hellish training as anything even remotely close to nice! The rest of the day went by in a blur and I found myself meditating before sleeping. I had already been at it for a few hours, the meditation substantially reducing the time I had to sleep. I suddenly saw everything in front of me beginning to glow even though my eyes were closed. For a second I thought I had unconsciously entered my core space as the sight was quite similar with myself being completely surrounded by a gaseous white substance. It seemed to emanate from everywhere -some white specs even appeared out of thin air- and when I looked around I saw two glowing human shaped beings in the beds around me. I opened my eyes to test whether I could see normally again once I did so but it didn¡¯t change anything. It didn¡¯t matter where I looked, everything was a shade of grey. Looking out of what I think was a window I saw blindingly white walls encircling me in every direction. When I looked away from them I saw that the outer walls of our dormitory were glowing even brighter, making me unconsciously close my eyes. Of course this didn¡¯t do anything so after a brief time of confusion I turned around. ¡°Owen, Frank! Wake the fuck up, we have a problem!¡± I shouted at my glowing friends. They didn¡¯t move from their spots so I slapped them lightly on their faces. They quickly woke up and grumpily asked me what was going on. I explained my situation to them and at first they thought I was pranking them. I don¡¯t know how it is possible but I could clearly see their facial expressions even though their whole bodies glowed at approximately the same brightness. They quickly realized that I was serious when I accidentally called Frank Owen. ¡°Let¡¯s go to the teacher, maybe he knows what is going on.¡± Frank said. Owen was silent but I could clearly see the worry on his radiant face. I nodded and after we clothed ourselves we went on our way to the teacher¡¯s part of the male dormitory. We quickly reached his room and proceeded to knock furiously at his door. Fortunately, we didn¡¯t we have to wait long for his frowning face to greet us. Unfortunately, I stumbled back the moment he appeared. He was just too bright, glowing just as intense as the outer walls but far closer. GOD DAMMIT WHY IS EVERYONE SO BRIGHT! I moved my head to look away but it didn¡¯t do anything. I saw his radiance spreading out into every direction. ¡°What do you want?¡± He grumbled, probably ignoring my odd behavior. When Owen explained my situation to him his frown vanished at lightning speed and he ushered us into his apartment. It was far more spacious than ours with at least five rooms I could see on our way. First was a well equipped kitchen and a spacious room with an extremely bright interior. From the mats which covered the ground to the hard tiles on the walls everything was shining nearly as bright as the walls surrounding the Academy grounds, causing me to nearly fall on the ground. Before I could get a closer look at the other rooms however the teacher had already pushed me into another homely looking room. A soft carpet silenced our footsteps as we made or way to a beige couch big enough to easily fit at least 7 people sitting on it. A long wooden table was in front of it and bookshelves hid the walls. ¡°Sit down.¡± He told us. We did as he told us and were surprised when we practically sank into the soft couch, his smile when he saw that we were struggling to properly sit up irking me tremendously. ¡°John, what you are experiencing right now is your ¡®Second Awakening¡¯ as it is called. In short all the white stuff you are seeing is composed of mana or mana fluctuations. I don¡¯t really know right now so you will have to provide some more information to me.¡± He explained to me. What the hell? Wasn¡¯t I supposed to feel them in the far future? And didn¡¯t he say that I would only be able to see mana fluctuations at that time? Just what is going on? Rewrite Due to JumpyAf''s comments I am currently debating whether I should rewrite this story. The poll above won''t be the final decision but it will influence my opinion quite a bit. EDIT: If possible I would like you to state reasons, which would influence my opinion far more than a simple vote. Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. EDIT: I won''t rewrite this fiction. In the end the 1st person is more fitting for this story so I will continue like this. Chapter 12 - Fireworks AN: I fell extremely sick recently. I wasn¡¯t even able to get out of bed for a few days so of course I also wasn¡¯t able to write. The only thing I was barely able to do was answer to the comments, which also took far longer than necessary to lots of concentration slips. Thankfully I am healthy again so chapters will come out normally again! ¡°Sooooo, do I get an explanation why I can sense mana so much sooner than I am supposed to?¡± I asked the teacher as I folded my arms in front of my body. ¡°Well, to be honest¡­I don¡¯t know either. Even geniuses of your caliber take far more time to achieve this stage.¡± He scratched his head. ¡°I mean you and your little group may be rarely seen geniuses but you definitely aren¡¯t on the level of inhuman monsters.¡± He frankly told me. I was stunned when I heard his words. If even teacher doesn¡¯t know it means that I will have to uncover this mystery on my own. ¡®But first I have to get out of this apartment, the constant brightness is giving me a headache!¡¯ ¡°Ok, can I leave now? If I have to endure this freaking lightshow for even longer I will probably go crazy!¡± I said and turned into the direction of the exit, dragging Owen and Frank with me. Our teacher chuckled. ¡°Oh, sorry. I forgot that your mana perception is quite sensible right now.¡± He waved his hand and the previously closed doors in front of us opened. I let go of my friends and ran as quickly as I could out of that glowing hellhole. They quickly caught up though so we walked back in a rather brisk pace. Although the constant brightness annoyed me I was slowly getting used to it. After they were assured that nothing was wrong with me they went back to sleep, their childish bodies probably quite exhausted. On the other hand, I didn¡¯t feel any sleepiness and even if I did I wouldn¡¯t have been able to fall asleep due to my surroundings constantly glowing. With my mana still mostly spent and me being unable to sleep I entered my core space to see whether my newly acquired vision was also being transferred to my spiritual self. When a completely normal sight greeted me I was immensely glad. Thankfully I would be able to see colors the normal way in at least one place. When my spiritual body relaxed I took a careful look at all the changes I had made after a whole year. First of all, the whole space was expanded to many times its previous size, being at a size I estimate to be at least hundreds of meters long. Another great change was that I was now on a big rock which was flat on the upper side (as seen from my current position) and oval under that. The lake that surrounded it gave it the impression of an island but to be honest it would be strange to call it that as both the rock and the lake were floating in the middle of my core space. Sometimes I feel regret that they aren¡¯t far bigger as that would mean more mana for me to use for training but our teacher explained to me that, like so many other things, the amount of mana one can use for meditation is limited by the mana channels. If your mana channels aren¡¯t sturdy enough they won¡¯t be able to handle the strain of meditating for several hours. ¡°Of what use is a monstrous amount of mana if you kill yourself when trying to use a small part of it?¡± Were the exact words he used to answer my impatient questions. I focused my attention on the fire I that I had created when I entered my core space the second time. The flame which was seemingly burning on nothing was, as always, quite an intriguing sight. I had enlarged it quite a bit though. While it wasn¡¯t much bigger than half a meter when I first ignited it its size was comparable to that of a giant bonfire now. Next I looked at the dozens of small boulders which formed a big vertical circle that hovered in the air a few meters away from me. Each of them was about two meters in every direction making them quite an awe inspiring sight. Feeling slightly playful I let the circle slowly turn, giving the whole image a mystical feeling. I enjoyed this spectacle for a few minutes, just relaxing and not thinking about anything. Soon enough that alone wasn¡¯t enough for me anymore so I stopped the rotation and focused my attention on the icy mist that was situated just a few meters away from the boulders. It covered quite a lot of the flat side of the island and was, just like the rotating boulders, quite a sight just by itself. I willed it to form a densely packed white ring and let it rotate around the now moving boulders. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. I gave them the passive instructions to change positions every few seconds and let the fire come into the center of the rotating work of art. It was a spectacle. Something which I would never even have dreamed of in my past life was now playing out in front of me. Whenever I beheld this marvelous sight I would begin to think about all kinds of matters like my uncertain future. My fate is that of a warrior. Someone who slays beasts for a living. Really, I would have preferred to become a farmer like father or a merchant if this world were a peaceful one. But unfortunately this world is far more dangerous than my last one. If you are weak it is very likely for you to die if you don¡¯t live within the city. But in order to move someone into the city you have to be rich or an accomplished warrior. A few decades ago it wasn¡¯t like that but in the last few years Frumentum has been suffering from overpopulation. When I and George, whom I still haven¡¯t found, reunite, we will be easily able to move our father into the city. A man who has two warriors as sons will be able to move into the city even without any fulfilling any of the above stated requirements. To do so however we will have to finish training first, which will take a few years. Until then father will be in constant danger, something that pains me whenever I think about it. I had been able to somewhat suppress the sadness from leaving him alone in the first week but now few days¡¯ pass without me worrying about him. It is really strange how close he is to me. I didn¡¯t have the mental age of a kid when I first arrived in this strange world but I came to love him like a father regardless of that. Maybe it is because he provided me with a caring home, something which I didn¡¯t have in my past life. Speaking of home, I still don¡¯t get why he doesn¡¯t patch that hole in the wall up. I mean, sure, it is quite a¡­unique aspect that I will never forget but there has to be a good reason for that, right? Is it because of mother? I really wonder who she was. It is one of the most pressing questions I have on my mind. Who was she and how did she die? Was it in the last horde? A stray beast invading our home? I shook my imaginary head. Enough of home, if I continue like this I will spend the rest of the time thinking about questions without answers. I left the core space after moving the various objects into the same location I had found them in. When I opened my eyes again the light Owen, who had rolled around a bit and was in front of my fucking face, gave off while sleeping was shining right into my fucking eyes. I suppressed a scream with all my might and averted my gaze as quickly as I could. I decided to just silently meditate for the rest of the night. Hopefully I will get used to this soon, otherwise I¡¯ll just kill myself. A life like this isn¡¯t worth living. Thankfully the mana I gave off while meditating didn¡¯t hurt my eyes, not only that, it even helped tuning the other lights out due to its intensity. The meditation lasted far longer than normally as I regulated the mana output to be just slightly above the regeneration rate so I only stopped once I noticed the sunlight shining onto my face. I quickly noticed that the air was a little brighter than it was yesterday night. Ignoring that I quickly sought cover under my bedsheets before the demon of the boy¡¯s dorms entrance appeared to wake us up. It wasn¡¯t even a second later that he really did come, the icy water he always conjured only hitting my cover. Owens and Franks weren¡¯t so fortunate though and their screams nearly echoed through the room. After the unlucky fellows recovered from their shock and clothed themselves we stepped into the hallways, which were of course looked LIKE FIREWORKS WERE EXPLODING INTO MY EYES. My breathing became more and more ragged as I searched for a spot that wasn¡¯t filled with glowing monstrosities. Unfortunately, I wasn¡¯t able to find one. I fell onto the ground in pain, my willpower and pride the only things that kept me from screaming my lungs out. I faintly felt some hot tears run down my contorted face, but the pain blocked most of the other senses out. It didn¡¯t take long until I couldn¡¯t handle the strain anymore however. I slowly felt my consciousness slip, the lightshow finally darkening at the edges of my vision. I didn¡¯t have a lot of time to appreciate that though as the darkness quickly filled my entire vision. Sidestory: Teachers Love Teacher¡¯s PoV: I reclined in my incredibly comfortable chair. The children were training and I didn¡¯t really have anything to do so I did what I was best at: Relaxing. While I was having the time of my life I noticed a young warrior approaching me. He had shoulder length brown hair that looked like it hadn¡¯t been washed in weeks. A pair of piercing green eyes and caterpillar like eyebrows accentuated his already thick chin. Together with his broad shoulders and muscular body this gave him the impression of a strapping young man full of vitality. Various scars of differing size could be seen on every part of his body that wasn¡¯t covered by his green leather armor. The vest only had an elaborate egg that was filled with cracks stitched onto it, which made him easily identifiable as a warrior who had just recently graduated. When a student graduates from the Academy his or her physical abilities will be tested by a random teacher. Depending on the results the student will receive different ornaments on their graduation gifts that they receive from their teacher. A cracked egg means that his or her results were exceptional. Everything from their skill with their chosen weapon to their fitness was far above the norm. In short they were geniuses. When I heard the distinctive change in the melody around me I immediately recognized him. He was one of my most promising students in my last batch: Bradley! I still remember the time when he was as old as these snotty nosed brats in front of me¡­Good times. ¡°Uhm, Mr. Teacher?¡± His voice interrupted me from reminiscing. ¡°Don¡¯t call me that Bradley. You are a warrior now. Call me Greg, like all other warriors do.¡± I cut him off before he could say anything else. Damn brats and their stupid Mr. Teacher! How comes that they call me that in nearly every damned batch? ¡°Y-YES! Mr. Te- I mean Greg. I have come to you because I am seeking advice. I am in a predicament right now and can¡¯t solve it by myself.¡± He said in an overly respectful way. The founders be damned; I hate recently graduated brats. ¡°Fuck off, Bradley. I am not your damned caretaker and I sure as monstrous hell won¡¯t solve every problem you have for you. You are an adult now, as such you should be able to solve your problems by yourself.¡± I told him off. When he heard my words he had an unbelieving expression on his face. ¡°Please! Mr. Teacher, please listen to my request! I beg you!¡± He shouted as he fell to his knees. He lowered his head until it touched the grassy ground. I sighed. Really, what is it that would cause someone proud like him to humiliate himself so much? ¡°Okay, okay, I will listen to what you have to say. Just stop groveling on the ground like that, okay? This behavior isn¡¯t befitting of a warrior.¡± I urged him. He pushed himself off the ground and bowed deeply to me. ¡°Thank you, Mr. Teacher!¡± He uttered before he straightened his body again. ¡°The gist of my problem is this: There is a girl who I am in love with, but even though my love for her is burning even hotter than the fires of Ardens himself I can¡¯t talk to her properly. Every time we meet I start to blush and I begin to stutter uncontrollably. What can I do against that?¡± He told me. Why does this sound so familiar to me? I lifted my head, looking at the beautiful cloudless sky. Memories were starting to flood me but I forcibly suppressed them. I lowered my head again, my gaze nearly burning a hole into the poor chap¡¯s head. ¡°Do you want to hear a story? My story to be exact. Many, many years ago I was in the same position you are in now. I can¡¯t really give you solid advice but maybe the story will help you.¡± I managed to bring out of my mouth after a long time of silence. He nodded with evident eagerness in his eyes. I conjured a chair right in front of me and told him to sit down. He quickly did so and looked at me with his bright eyes again. ¡°Well, how should I begin? Not like it matters anyway. It was a long time ago, when I was about your age. Frumentum was still young and the people full of vigor at that time. Young warriors like me were only able to hunt in the immediate vicinity of the farms, the more powerful ones maybe in the plentiful forests that still surrounded us before the horde a hundred years ago. I was in a fierce haggling session with a merchant when I first saw my future wife. That damn bastard was as stubborn as a mule could ever hope to be. He later founded a famous dynasty of merchants you surely know. I think he was bestowed the name Drigras due to him improving the streets connecting our cities considerably. But I am getting sidetracked. I was finally getting the better of him after half an hour when I saw a gorgeous woman around my age strolling around various merchant stalls in front of me.¡± I smiled at the memory. Those were glorious times. Back then I had far less worries than I have now. I even thought that if I worked hard enough I could become even stronger than the founders themselves. ¡°I can¡¯t really describe my reaction when I first saw her, but I remember my mind blanking out. I must have stared like an idiot. But it was justified. It really was. No matter what anyone says I have never seen a woman whose beauty could even remotely compare to hers. Her silky black hair was swaying slightly due to a light breeze at that time. I didn¡¯t notice her face at first, no, it was her body that caught my eye.¡± Before I could continue I noticed that Bradley was staring at me strangely. I quickly ended that by glaring at him. ¡°Where was I again? Ah, yes, her body. I won¡¯t go into too much detail but I have to say that she had her curves at the right places. I tell you, it was a sight no other woman could compare with. But the real highlight was her face. Her body may have been eye catching as hell but her face¡­Damn! She had shining blue eyes that pulled your gaze into them. Once you look into them you will never want to look away. They were mesmerizing. Her rosy red lips were moving as she was talking with a merchant. A perfectly symmetrical face and a perky little nose blended in nicely with her thin eyebrows. But you won¡¯t get any more descriptions of her anymore. Words can¡¯t properly describe her beauty anyway, so I won¡¯t bother. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. The bastard I was haggling with noticed my odd behavior and turned around to see what I was looking at. Though he saw her he didn¡¯t really react as intensely as I did. Sure, he did stare a bit but recovered far faster than me. I think he said ¡°Have you never seen a beautiful woman before?¡± or something like that to me. Well, that certainly did wake me up.¡± I blushed slightly as I remembered what happened next. ¡°I will probably never forget the words I said in response: ¡°Of course I have! But can¡¯t you see her? She isn¡¯t just beautiful; she is a GODDESS you blind idiot!¡± I was probably a little too loud as she immediately turned her head in our direction. My finger was pointing at her, making it obvious who I was talking about. You know, at that moment I just wanted to find a hole to hide myself in. When she saw how embarrassed I was she laughed in her uniquely charming way. It was a restraint less, full blown laughter, but it was as beautiful as the rest of her. It kind of...fit her. When I saw her laughing I was even more stunned. The whole scene was just heavenly! Any embarrassment I felt vanished as if it were thin air. To be honest, I don¡¯t really know what went through my head when I did this but I started to laugh alongside her. At that moment the whole world seemed to consist of just the two of us. Our laughter resonated through the whole street, drawing quite a few glanced from the other people in the area. Unfortunately, it was just a moment. After a few minutes had passed and she had stopped laughing there was an awkward silence between us. The embarrassment came back in full force and in my hurry to leave I let myself get ripped off by that bastardly merchant. The asshole managed to get more than 1.5 times more mana stones than he would normally have. I bolted as soon as the money landed in my hands, even going so far as using mana injection.¡± ¡°Did you see her again?¡± Bradley interrupted me. ¡°Yes, I did. You will hear about it soon so be patient. Don¡¯t you know that its rude to interrupt others?¡± I reprimanded him. ¡°After that incident a few days passed. I searched for her everywhere, hoping to see her again. And when I finally caught sight of her figure I was unsure about what to do. You have to understand that it was the first time I was pursuing a girl. I was shy and insecure. Nevertheless, I gathered my courage and went up to her. When she noticed my approach she sent me a smile as radiant as the sun. I have to admit that my knees became as soft as a slime when I saw that. But I pushed through with a furiously blushing face and after walking a few meters I finally stood before her. But my mind was blank! I was literally speechless! We stood on front of each other like that, me staring into her ocean like eyes and she with her smile still directed at me. That very smile slowly became forced however as the silence dragged on. Seconds turned into minutes and I was still silent. I feel ashamed to say this but it wasn¡¯t me who broke the silence. I was far too deep into self-analysis to do that. ¡°Well, wanna do something fun?¡± Were the words that broke the growing glacier between us. It was as if she had laid restraining enchantments on my body. Her voice was just as beautiful as the rest of her body. I must have stared at her like an idiot for quite some time again.¡± I laughed at my former self for a few seconds. I have to admit that these were probably some of the happiest times I ever experienced though. Ahhhhh, youth. How I wish that I could go back in time to relive these old memories of mine. ¡°Fortunately I managed to snap out of it after a while and I managed to stutter a ¡°YES!¡± out. She gestured for me to follow her and I did so. The rest of the day is kind of blurry in my memory to be honest. I remember us exploring the city, but like I said the details are missing. Now, have you learned anything from my story?¡± I finished. He spaced out for a while, most likely unsure about how he should respond. Really, kids these days are just too polite. If they can¡¯t understand something they should just say it, there¡¯s no reason to delay the inevitable like that. ¡°I guess you didn¡¯t. Let me tell you the meaning behind my story then: It is to be brave, to be a man! Even if you shit your pants while doing so, you have to be able to at least talk to her! If she likes you back and realizes that you are too shy, then she will do something about it. If not, then you were unlucky I guess.¡± I explained to him. His eyes lighted up after he heard what I said, but instead of becoming braver the damn brat started to blush! ¡°You know what? I recommend you doing so right now. After all, someone else could be snatching her up right now so you have to hurry. Here, I¡¯ll even help you get there faster¡± I grabbed his ankles far at a speed far above to his reaction time and started spinning him around. ¡°Teacher? WHAT ARE YOU DOING?¡± He screamed at the top of his lungs. I ignored his words and launched him at an incredible speed outside the walls. I just hope he won¡¯t accidentally fall into a building or something similar. A finger suddenly tapped my shoulder. When I turned around I saw a beautiful older woman with completely gray hair. While the rest of her body had aged considerably her sapphire like blue eyes were still the same. Just like me she wore the white robe elders usually wore at the Academy and hers was just as decorated as mine. She wore the same smile I had fallen in love with all these years ago. ¡°What an old story. Who would have thought that you would be such a sentimental old man?¡± Were the words that came out of her mouth. I just laughed while taking her into a hug. She responded in kind and we just stood there for a while, reminiscing the time of our youth. ¡°How about a romantic dinner tonight?¡± I suggested. It had been quite a while since our last one and the story I told Bradley caused me to have a romantic mood. She nodded. ¡°After the trainees have gone to bed, of course.¡± She added. I just smiled and hugged her even tighter. I can¡¯t believe that I still love her this much even after all these years have passed. Chapter 13 - A familiar Voice When I came to my senses the first thing I noticed was that my surroundings were only mildly glowing. Feeling a headache coming I relaxed my body again in defeat. It seems that I will have learn how to cope with everything glowing. ¡°I will teach you how to adjust your mana sense to your surroundings. A situation like this won¡¯t happen again, I can promise you that.¡± Teacher¡¯s voice sounded out from behind me. I didn¡¯t turn my head around. If I did, the amount of mana he emits would only serve to blind me again. Damn mana sense. When I first heard about it I was thrilled but until now it served as nothing but torture. How can the other warriors cope with this? Well, if teacher didn¡¯t lie this will hopefully be a thing of the past. ¡°Is there really a way? Is it possible for me to never experience pain when looking at something full of mana?¡± I said in a hopeful tone. ¡°Yes, there is. Otherwise every warrior would be closer to a cripple than a fighter. It is quite simple actually, but without guidance it is nearly impossible figure these techniques out. Confused? Just listen to my explanation.¡± Teacher voice sounded slightly pitying. I bet he must have been through this phase too. ¡°Look at the wall in front of you, or anything else in this room for that matter. Focus on it as hard as possible. The rest is up to you.¡± He instructed me. Wow, that was¡­extremely unhelpful. Really, how is that supposed to help me? Has staring at a random wall become a profound technique while I was unconscious? I sighed. It¡¯s not like complaining will help me. I sat up and focused on the wooden wall in front of me. As far as I could see the room had no furniture and the ground was covered with smooth wooden planks. Why do warriors like to use wood so much if they can create just about anything anyway? If it were me I would use more exotic materials, or at least something different than wood. With so many aesthetically more pleasing building materials out there it¡¯s a wonder that they didn¡¯t use them for anything. Shit, my focus slipped! I hurriedly focused my gaze again. For quite a while nothing happened. The wall stayed the same, its glow at least not hurting my poor eyes. But then it happened: A small speck of something different than white appeared. If my attention hadn¡¯t been at its peak, I wouldn¡¯t have realized it. I immediately inspected it extensively, but in the end it was just a small green speck in a sea of white. Where did it come from? I am pretty sure that the whole wall was white a second ago. Suddenly a second green speck appeared, startling me immensely. The longer I looked at the wall the more green specks appeared. Eventually specks of different colors started to turn up too but the vast majority stayed green. In the end the whole wall turned into a strange mixture of colors. When I looked around the rest of the walls had a similar appearance. Though they looked similar each of them had a distinct pattern. Well, to call it pattern would be an overstatement though. It was more like they all had some small differences in where which color was placed at. What is this? Could it be that mana can be separated into different types? Are these types represented by colors? What color do I have then? With a start I realized that this would be the first time I had properly looked at myself since I had acquired my mana vision. I was nervous. Which kind of mana was I made of? If I assume that green stands for plants as I can¡¯t really think of anything else is there a specific color for animals? When I looked down at myself I was mesmerized by the mixture of colors I emitted. The main ones were a relatively dark shade of blue and brown though. Though these two dominated my view a strong dark red was also present. These three colors joined up to a constantly changing lightshow. Why do I emit these colors though? What do they stand for? Are these the colors animals emit or is it unique to me? Does teacher emit the same colors I do? I turned around, and what greeted me was completely unexpected. Although he did emit a brown, blue and red they were completely different from mine. Instead of a dark shade they were an extremely light version of the ones coming from my body. Not only that he appeared more like a walking color table than anything else. Every color I have ever seen before and some that I didn¡¯t even know that they existed were forming a harmonious, almost divine picture. I stood there for a while, my jaw almost hitting the ground while doing so. ¡°I see that you have managed to differentiate the different kinds of mana. Now snap out of it, this still isn¡¯t the end.¡± His voice managed to snap me out of my stupor. ¡°How comes that you emit completely different colors when compared to mine?¡± I asked him. This was a question I just couldn¡¯t answer no matter how much I thought about it. I mean although the walls had some differences they were only small details. But I and teacher look completely different. ¡°I don¡¯t know. How should I? I have always heard mana fluctuations so I don¡¯t really know. The way everyone perceives them is, like I already said, unique. You will have to find out by yourself.¡± He answered me. I noticed that it was even harder to look him into the face now. Although I could see his facial expressions the always changing mixture of colors made it far harder than it would normally be. ¡°What comes next is meditation, lots of it. As you meditate more and more the colors you mentioned will eventually become less blinding and, though they stay at the same¡­brightness, right?¡± I nodded in affirmation, urging him to continue. ¡°You will do so until you can properly look at me, after which comes the next step.¡± This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. I immediately sat down and started to circulate the mana through my mana channels. The idea of not feeling pain nearly every time I looked at something was obviously very appealing to me. I don¡¯t really know how much time passed until I awoke from the meditation. I am sure that it took quite a while though, considering that Teacher has left and entered this room multiple times. When I was finished I looked at Teacher, who had entered not too long ago. He was still blindingly bright, almost causing me to flinch at the sudden brightness, but only barely enough to cause me pain. If meditation is really so helpful why did I not feel any change after the session before I fainted? I voiced out this problem to teacher but he only nonchalantly stared at me as if I were an idiot. ¡°Of course it helped you idiot! You were able to look at your friends without pain, right?¡± He shouted. Now that he mentions it, he is right. Why didn¡¯t I notice that? He massaged his temples for a few seconds. ¡°Now comes the second part of the training: Weakening your mana perception. To do so you have to send a strand of mana into your eyes. When you do so just cover them with it permanently. This will weaken your mana sense considerably, so you can still live normally. I recommend you to only activate it when going out to hunt beasts as it will help you find them.¡± He finished. Why should my own mana be able to do that? When I meditate my mana just overshadows the rest of the radiance without hurting my eyes. Mana perception in general seems to be quite strange. Pushing my doubts aside I let the dormant mana in my eyes cover them completely. The result was instantaneous: The colors that occupied my vision dimmed down until they were almost invisible. As my vision returned to normal I noticed that the room was completely dark. Now that I think about it, there wasn¡¯t a light source when I looked around. If it weren¡¯t for the last remnants of my mana vision, I wouldn¡¯t have seen anything. ¡°C¡¯mon, let¡¯s exit this poor excuse of a room. Your friends are already waiting for you outside.¡± Teacher said while standing up. He turned to the door and quickly opened it. The light streaming out from the outside wasn¡¯t as I had expected though. Instead of a bright light a shade of orange filled the room, recoloring its wooden boards. When I stepped out I put a hand above my eyes to shield me from the receding sun. Unexpectedly the room I spent so much time in was in the middle of our training field, making it more of a shack than anything else. My fellow students were looking at me strangely but Frank, Greta and Owen jumped up in joy when they saw me. They pushed their way through the masses and jumped at me. Feeling quite helpless I went with the flow and opened my arms in return. When we finally made contact however Frank punched me in the gut, making me double over in pain. Owen quickly followed up with a kick that hit my shoulder, making me fall onto the ground. ¡°Don¡¯t you dare make us worry like that again John! Do you even know how worried we were? You fucking idiot, we thought you had died!¡± Greta screamed at me. When I looked up I realized that tears were running down their faces. Damn, I have managed to make some pretty good friends. Thankfully they weren¡¯t really serious when they had hit me so the pain only lasted for a short period of time. As soon as I had recovered my breath I hugged them with all the power I could muster. By now my vision had become slightly blurred due to the dust that had gotten into my eyes when I doubled over and they responded in kind. Yes, it was just the dust. I am too mature to cry over something so trivial! The group hug itself was kind of awkward due to the height differences but we didn¡¯t really care. ¡°We¡¯ll stay friends forever, right?¡± Greta whispered. ¡°Of course we will! If you think otherwise, then how are we supposed to stay together? We will always be the bestest friends, forever and ever!¡± Owen whispered back with unexpected intensity. ¡°How about we make an oath?¡± I added. ¡°To what? I don¡¯t want to make one to the founders, that would be too boring.¡± Owen answered. ¡°Let¡¯s swear an oath with the sinking sun as the witness.¡± Frank said, surprising us. I had never expected him to be so poetic, but it kind of fits him. We nodded and discussed the contents of the oath itself. A few minutes passed until we finally came to a conclusion. We untangled our bodies, now standing about one step apart from each other. ¡°¡°I swear that the four people present here will always be friends. May the light of the falling sun punish us if we ever break this oath!¡±¡± We spoke synchronously. What we hadn¡¯t expected however was that the light around us would suddenly intensify. ¡°Thou oath hath been heard.¡± An ethereal voice sounded out. After that the light started to gradually return to normal, but the people present didn¡¯t. All of the people on the field were paralyzed, but me doubly so. Of course I was shocked that the sun had actually responded to our oath, but there was something that bothered me far more than that: The voice sounded familiar. Chapter 14 - Consequences Why? Why the hell did that voice sound familiar? I have never even heard of a sun spirit or something of the sort speaking to a person in my previous life before. What¡¯s more I was a strict atheist in my previous life as there had never been any signs of a being akin to a god existing. So how comes that they exist here? Is mana the reason for that or something entirely different? If the sun has a spirit or even a consciousness, then doesn¡¯t that mean that everything can have one? Could it be that the planet I am standing on has a mind of its own? I looked at the ground, unsure of what to think. Then, could it be that the planet itself would punish us if we were to cause excessive harm to it? Do the most powerful beings on this planet have to be careful to not accidentally provoking the planet? No matter how powerful you are, you can¡¯t beat the planet you are living on. I don¡¯t dare imagine what would happen if someone tries to fight against the planet. But the thought of the sun itself punishing us is even more terrifying. Just imagining it sends shivers down my spine. Even hiding wouldn¡¯t work as the sun and earth would probably work together, resulting in us having no place to hide in the whole solar system. Right, the oath we had sworn. How is it possible to be sure that we will stay friends for our entire lives? Sometimes even best friends just drift apart, none of them noticing it due to the process being so slow. That is life. So how are we supposed to prevent that? If everything goes well all of us will live for hundreds of years. How many things can happen in all these years? Who can say that we will still be friends by then? How does one define ¡®friends¡¯ anyway? Maybe the spirit of the sun has a different concept of friendship than we do, thus resulting in us being punished without even knowing why. Dammit, this matter has become complicated. I looked at Teacher, wanting to see his reaction to this, but his expression alone astonished me. Not a single drop of blood was present on his face, making his already pale skin a deathly white. His face was frozen, constantly expressing a shocked expression. When I looked closer I could faintly see a few beads of sweat running down his face. Fuck! The situation seems to be as bad as I thought. My friends however didn¡¯t seem to affected that much by the oath. After a few seconds had passed they quickly recovered from the shock and adopted and began to smile brilliantly. ¡°Woooooooooow! Did you just see that? Even the sun has acknowledged the sincerity of our oath!¡± Frank briefly laughed. ¡°That must mean that we are awesome!¡± He stood there, obviously proud of himself to have suggested this. The others nodded in agreement, not understanding the potential consequences of our actions today. Fortunately, they didn¡¯t notice my silence and continued to chatter away in their childish innocence. As the other people around us also came over their shock the sound of dozens of children excitedly chatting filled the air. It is in moments like this that I wish that I really was a kid. At least then I could simply ignore the consequences of anything I do, thinking that the grown-ups would handle them. But alas, even if I had the chance to do that, I wouldn¡¯t. For the simple reason that the process of growing up is often awkward and embarrassing. Thinking about my own period of puberty I have to shake my head at some of the stupid things I had done. But I think that it is good to make some mistakes in your youth. Firstly, you are easily forgiven as you are still a ¡®kid¡¯ and secondly these mistakes are often the best memories you will ever make. I don¡¯t really know how it is like in this world but as a warrior I don¡¯t think that my adulthood will be rosy. Well, that is one more reason why I should enjoy this time of peace. As I wasn¡¯t particularly in the mood of pretending to be one of them and the others were far more childish than they normally were I just watched them from the sidelines. As the sky began to darken a high pitched laughter could be heard from every direction. Smiles were on their faces and some ran around, most likely playing some game. Others were just discussing the events that had just transpired. All in all, they were having a lot of fun, obviously enjoying this rare time of pure enjoyment. Damn, I feel old. Sure, I was young when I died back then, but still far older than these kids are now. How comes that I only start to feel old now? Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. After it had become completely dark a loud clap abruptly caused the chattering to cease. ¡°BRATS! TRAINING TIME IS FINISHED! GO BACK TO THE DORMITORY NOW! JOHN, FRANK, GRETA, OWEN, COME MEET ME BEFORE YOU GO BACK!¡± Teacher shouted. As the huge mass of children began to move we forced our way through it, slowly advancing into the direction of Teacher. A lot of pushing, cursing and lost patience later we finally stood in front of him. He carefully sized each of us up whilst giving off an intimidating aura. ¡°Do you know what you have just done?¡± He asked us calmly. Confused at the sudden pressure the others shook their heads. As I was feeling guilty my gaze wandered to every place that was not his face. ¡°At least one of you seems to have realized it. You have just FUCKED UP! WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?¡± Teacher became more and more agitated as he spoke. Seeing that they were still confused he punched the shack he had erected in frustration. It blew apart with an extremely loud noise, the wooden planks shattering into little splinters. Fortunately, they magically stopped after a few meters, floating in midair. I made a mental note to ask Teacher about this phenomenon after he calms down, which, according to his current state, could take quite a lot of time. His shoulders trembled for a few seconds before he finally heaved a sigh. With a snap of his fingers the various pieces of the shack came back together seamlessly. It was as if nothing had ever happened, making it quite a surreal sight. He lightly coughed. ¡°That oath of yours has caused you to become some of the most dangerous people in Frumentum!¡± He paused, waiting for the information to properly sink in. ¡°In ancient records it is stated that, should a powerful entity like the sun accept to become the witness to an oath, it should never, never ever be broken. Otherwise the only fate that awaits the culprits is death. Yours in particular is a very vague one, making it even more dangerous.¡± His expression turned solemn. ¡°The punishment of the sun is a concentrated light beam that destroys a gigantic area. The ancient records weren¡¯t very concise as but if they state gigantic then I don¡¯t dare imagine the consequences.¡± He turned his head, his gaze most likely looking at something beyond them. He sighed again. ¡°You should go back now. Your punishment will be announced tomorrow.¡± He quietly said, his eyes still looking at something in the distance. A light breeze swept through our surroundings, causing his white robes to sway and us to shiver. Without sparing us another glance he proceeded to briskly walk away, but it wasn¡¯t in the direction of either the gate or the dormitory. After a few steps however he simply vanished. One second he was right in front of us and in the next he was simply...not there anymore. Normally I would have been bewildered and curious, but I wasn¡¯t in the mood for that. The threat of a punishment was just too present in my mind. At that moment nothing else mattered. I was sure that it wouldn¡¯t be light. Not for something as dangerous as that. If we pose a danger to the safety of Frumentum itself, the lightest punishment I can think of is being exiled. The worst one would be death. The walk back was deathly silent, the previous enthusiasm and happiness nowhere to be seen. Everyone had their own thoughts about it and needed time for themselves. When the time to part came I saw that Greta had tears running down her face. At some point her hand had found its way to the hem of Owens shirt, holding it as if it were a lifeline. ¡°Nothing serious will happen, right?¡± She asked hopefully, her blue eyes desperately searching for someone to reaffirm her. For a short time, there was just silence. ¡°Of course! We are still children, so I¡¯m sure that they will have mercy on us!¡± Owens voice lightly echoed through the empty hallways. Looking at him I could see that he wasn¡¯t sure himself. His posture and the tone in his voice were all I needed to realize that. I wanted to add something, to reassure them that everything would be alright, but I couldn¡¯t. The words just wouldn¡¯t come out of my mouth, no matter how much I tried. The silence continued, but this time there was no one who interrupted it. Greta reluctantly turned around and walked to her room. Frank, Owen and myself did the same and wordlessly went to sleep. Chapter 15 - Frumentum I woke up with the warming rays of the sun shining in my face. I softly stretched and yawned, wanting to stay in bed for a little longer. It was the best morning I had in a whole year, well, until I realized that I was woken by the sun. No bucket of water, no screaming, just the sun. Fuck. I am so fucking fucked. I shot out of my bed like an arrow, immediately pinching myself to see whether or not this was a dream. Unfortunately, a pang of pain shattered my hopes. Nononononono, this can¡¯t be happening, right? I hurriedly looked around, but I didn¡¯t discover anything unusual about our room. Frank and Owen were sleeping soundly, most likely still enjoying their sleep. I rushed to the window, but the sight of hundreds of children training confirmed my doubts. I felt all of my strength leave me, causing me to nearly fall out of the window. Fortunately, I only slid down the wall right next to it, but I didn¡¯t really register that. Worry and fear, which, at this point, were pretty much the same, took over my mind. I don¡¯t know how long I just sat there, thinking about what this situation could mean. But no matter how much I thought, an answer that seemed correct just wouldn¡¯t come. Every theory I came up with seemed ridiculous and unlikely. In the end, I gave up. I just sat there for a while, not thinking about anything. An indeterminable amount of time passed this way, and the only things that ripped me out of it were the sounds of Owen waking up. My head turned at an incredible speed, wanting to watch how he would react. At first he slowly opened their eyes, only groggily turning away from the sun. Then his eyes suddenly ripped open at lightning speed. He sat up and looked around in the same manner I did. When he spotted me he sent me a questioning look, but I only shook my head. A few seconds passed in a strange silence as he thought about my action. ¡°What do you mean?¡± He finally said. ¡°I have no clue what is going on. If you want to understand just look outside the window¡± I pointed to the window on my right. He slowly stood up and walked towards it. When he saw the others training his face went terribly pale. A trembling hand pointed at them. ¡°Please tell me I am just seeing things.¡± He pleaded. I didn¡¯t say anything, but the silence was everything he needed to understand what I meant. With slow steps he walked around me and sat down. It was oddly comforting to know that I wasn¡¯t the only one who was terrified. The feeling of not being alone in this matter made this whole ordeal a lot easier for both of us. Neither he nor I did say anything. It wasn¡¯t an awkward silence, no, rather than that it was more of a fear of saying something that would terrify the other. The light that illuminated the whole room only served to remind me of the oath we made. To be honest it wasn¡¯t our fault, not at all. If we had known the consequences I am sure that we would never have acted the way we did, but unfortunately we didn¡¯t. As such we were in this predicament. It is really strange. I died in my last life because of a stupid decision and this life will likely end due to the same reason. Is it my destiny to always die like this? I almost laughed at myself for being so ridiculous. Have I stooped so low to even believe in something ridiculous like fate? Even if fate, destiny, gods or whatever else that people out there believe in exist I am firm in my belief that I decide my own life and until I get solid proof that isn¡¯t the case I won¡¯t waver in that point. My choices brought me to this point, and if I have to suffer for them so be it. I won¡¯t regret them; I already did so enough in my past life. With renewed determination I stood up. I ignored Owens questions and strolled up to Franks bed, where I promptly ripped his blanked away. He woke up with a start, but didn¡¯t have much of a reaction otherwise. After all, waking up abruptly has more or less become a part of his morning routine in the last year. When he saw me looking at him with a solemn look however that quickly changed. To avoid unnecessary confusion, I quickly explained the situation to him, which, according to his expression, was as shocking to him as it was to us. Pushing me out of the way he rushed to the window in the fastest speed he could muster. ¡°The founders be damned.¡± He whispered. ¡°Don¡¯t curse the person that will judge you, boy.¡± A deep voice suddenly said. We turned to look at the owner of it, and to our shock we saw Teacher. His normally pristine look was ruined by the uncharacteristic frown on his face and the robe he wore was slightly ruffled, as if he had just run around in them. He looked at our lack of clothing. ¡°If I were you I would wear the best clothes you possess. Frumentum himself will announce your punishment, so do your best to look somewhat presentable.¡± His words were like giant hammers that slammed into our bodies. I couldn¡¯t believe what I had just heard. Frumentum, the founder of this city and one of the most powerful humans to ever exist is involved? ¡°I-is it that Frumentum? The same one who killed an uncountable number of hordes in order to build his palace? The one that ¨C¡° I stammered unbelievingly before I was interrupted by Teacher. ¡°Yes, that one. Now hurry up, it isn¡¯t wise to let someone of his status wait.¡± He impatiently said. After we had clothed ourselves in record time we walked out of the dormitory, where we saw Greta waiting for us at the entrance of the Academy. Judging by her orderly hair and colorful dress I guess that she had been notified quite a lot earlier than us. To my surprise there was a beautiful golden carriage a few meters away from her. The horse like beings that stood in front of it were massive beasts, being at least three meters tall and the driver was a handsome young man in a completely golden outfit that, if I had to be honest, looked horrible. The carriage however was another story. A beautiful scenery composed of expansive fields of ripe wheat coupled with the occasional tree and a cloudless azure sky was painted on it, only to be interrupted by a small window in the middle. If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. I was entranced. The smell unique to our home invaded my nostrils and for a moment I thought I was back on those fields. A slight breeze caused the wheat to sway and bend rhythmically and served to cool my already sweaty body. Tears welled up in my eyes when I realized that I was still in the Academy. I have never missed home like this before, not even when I was forced to leave. I wonder how father is doing? Judging by the rising temperature it should be summer now, almost time for the second harvest. He must be lonely. All alone in that cozy home of ours. Having to harvest the massive amount of crops on those big fields must surely enhance that feeling. Before I could continue with this train of thought I felt teacher push us past the opened door of the carriage, the inside being surprisingly simple with just two opposing rows of cushioned seats and wooden walls surrounding us. He himself however didn¡¯t enter with us. After making sure we were inside he closed the door and sat down right next to the driver. The carriage set into motion as soon as he took his place and I was surprised by the sudden acceleration, making me fall into my comfortable seat. Looking outside I could see my surroundings begin to move faster and faster. When we had reached a speed that would be impossible to maintain once we reached the surely crowded streets we suddenly took off. What? The carriage continued gaining height regardless of my shock until we were above the walls surrounding the Academy, flying right over them. Since when are carriages capable of flying? When I looked at the others our shocked glances met. Well, it seems that they didn¡¯t know it was possible either. When I looked out again I saw something I hadn¡¯t expected to ever see: Colorful houses made of stone gave the landscape an exotic feeling and the countless tiny dots which wandered about on the sides of the spacious streets while carriages, carts and other objects occupied the middle only served to enhance that impression. It was the first time I laid my eyes on the city itself and I wasn¡¯t disappointed in the least. The famed golden wheat of Frumentum could faintly be seen in the distance, reminding me of home again. But I ripped my eyes away from them and watched the city under me. It wouldn¡¯t be good if I were to be distracted in any way while being in Frumentum¡¯s presence. Especially since he can essentially do whatever he wants to do with us. When we finally came to a stop I saw an empty spot of land where we landed. Instead of the slightly yellow material which normally covers the ground of Frumentum a clean white one without any marks on it greeted me. The door opened on both sides of the carriage suddenly opened without any of us doing anything, revealing us to the warm outside. Ignoring that I stepped out and immediately noticed that it was far too quiet for a bustling city. While the pedestrians could faintly be heard the noises of for example the carriages were completely blocked out. Seeing an enormous amount of people curiously staring at you whilst moving their lips with only faint whispers reaching me only intensified that eerie feeling. It didn¡¯t last long though as my attention was quickly captured by the enormous palace behind me. The white tiles continued in a long set of white stairs leading up to gigantic golden gates where a small contingent of soldiers in golden armor and robes stood guard. Smooth golden walls spread out in two directions and groups soldiers standing guard or patrolling could be seen everywhere. I am starting to get sick of all the gold I am seeing. Seriously, why couldn¡¯t the designer of this place have chosen a more pleasant color? Gold may be impressive at first but it gets boring pretty quickly. The carriage driver stepped out of his seat and ushered us up the stairs. The soldiers didn¡¯t react at our appearance, staying completely still. If they have to stay like that their job must be boring as hell. ¡°It¡¯s me, open the gate!¡± The carriage driver shouted. The massive gate in front of us slowly parted, the separate parts sinking into the walls right next to them. A beautiful and expansive garden which was well maintained while still retaining a natural look was revealed to us in the process. The previous trend continued in a white road leading to an impressive needlessly golden palace in the classical European style. We continued to hurry along the way, missing many parts of the scenery that could have been appreciated in the process. Barely a few steps away from the heavily decorated gate of the palace a gust of wind from the inside blew it open, making me stumble. A majestic man strolled through it, a few men and women of varying ages following not far behind. His short hair was more golden than yellow and a pair of piercing golden eyes radiated immense pressure. A magnificent golden armor covered his whole body and some golden fur functioned as his cape. I swear if everything else in this place is fucking golden I will go crazy! If I had to use one word to describe him, it would be majestic. Every single of his actions made me want to submit to him, to pledge my eternal loyalty to that person. He smiled when he saw our group, showing his pearly white teeth. ¡°Greg, is this the group we talked about?¡± His voice caused the very world around him to shake as nearly visible ripples emanated out from his mouth. ¡°Kneel down!¡± Teacher quickly whispered before falling to his knees. We hurriedly followed his order before it was too late. ¡°Your Majesty, this loyal servant confirms your enlightened guess.¡± Teacher said in the most respectful tone I have ever heard coming out of a human mouth. ¡°Good, We guess We should announce the judgement now.¡± He cleared his throat, an action that oddly didn¡¯t fit him. ¡°But We think that doing so out here would be inappropriate. Follow Us.¡± He turned around, his cape fluttering at his sudden motion. I nervously gulped. Hot damn, it seems that I have underestimated both the Founder of Frumentum and the danger we pose to this city. Chapter 16 - Departure We hurriedly stood up and followed him at a respectful distance. Along the way through the disgustingly golden castle a heavy silence hung over our group. A judgement by Frumentum rarely ever means something good for the judged, especially if it involves the safety of the city. It didn¡¯t take long until we reached a lavishly decorated throne room which was of course hideously golden. Everything from the tiles on the ground to the chandeliers which illuminated everything in a gentle light was in that tasteless color. EVERYTHING! If I hadn¡¯t been so scared that I nearly shat in my pants I would have ripped my hair out in frustration. Seriously, how can someone have so much power but such a pitiful sense of fashion? I mean mine isn¡¯t very good either but I¡¯m megaparsecs beyond him. When I looked at my companions to see their reaction at the golden hell we were in I was shocked at the amazement evident on their faces. Greta¡¯s eyes were nearly bursting out from their sockets and I think I saw a faint line of drool beside Owen¡¯s mouth. At least Frank didn¡¯t really react in any way, which, though far better than amazement, worried me. Normally his reaction would be the strongest by far, but he only looked down. Frumentum suddenly vanished from his position and reappeared on the giant throne located at the end of the room, causing a gale to blow against everyone else. Thankfully he seemed to have held himself back as I was only slightly disturbed by it, but Frank was blown back, falling onto his butt after a few meters. Before I could even turn around to help him up the founder¡¯s voice sent shockwaves through my body. ¡°Now that we have arrived here We shouldn¡¯t let you wait any longer.¡± He shifted around a bit, searching for the most comfortable position on his extremely well cushioned seat. ¡°Normally We would sentence you to death for putting the whole city in danger, but the situation¡° He pointed up. ¡°Doesn¡¯t allow for this to happen. The sun would seriously punish everyone involved if We were to kill you, so We had to think about another way. After a long debate We decided to simply banish you into the wilderness, far away from Our farms and settlements.¡± He paused for a second, as if thinking about anything he could have forgotten. His eyes lit up like a miniature sun as he seemed to have remembered something important. ¡°Of course We won¡¯t just leave you there without any support. We have personally erected a small house for you to reside in. As long as you reside in there no beast in the area will be able to even move your hair. Your teacher will also deliver some food for you every week.¡± His expression softened for a moment and he nodded a few times. ¡°You can leave now.¡± He made a dismissive wave with his hand. I was speechless. This was everything? I mean I am happy that we won¡¯t die but exiling us just like this? Is he serious? ¡°Yes, your Highness.¡± Teacher bowed and signaled us to follow. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, whenever I visit to deliver your food I will answer any questions you may have. I recommend you to meditate for the next few months, otherwise I won¡¯t be able to guarantee your safety.¡± As soon as doors to the throne room closed he tried to reassure us. I appreciate his concern but it won¡¯t change the fact that we will have to deal with stray beasts by ourselves, which, while at this point not impossible, would be extremely dangerous. I just hope that the beasts are weak enough for us to kill. After leaving the palace the sight of a giant bird lying on the ground greeted us. Snow white feathers covered its entire body and its tucked in wings were at least thrice as tall as me. A pair of black eyes stared down at us, making me feel quite uncomfortable at the intelligent glint in them. Looking closer I could see a small white hut which perfectly blended in with the feathers. I couldn¡¯t see anything that prevented it from falling off though, causing me quite a bit of confusion as to how it stayed on its back. The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Teacher suddenly spoke up. ¡°This bird will fly you to your destination.¡± He looked at my face and likely interpreted my confusion as fear. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, the carriage was enchanted in a way that lets it stay attached to anything under it.¡± He quickly added with a reassuring smile. There was just a little problem. ¡°How are we supposed to get up there?¡± I asked him. Even though the bird was prone right now the hut we are supposed to ride in is a few meters above the ground. As I couldn¡¯t see any ladders how we should enter it was a mystery. Teacher just smirked at my question. Without saying anything he grabbed us and put us under his armpits, two in each hand. I was still confused at the sudden change in view when I felt an extreme acceleration, nearly causing me to puke the contents of my last meal out. I saw the ground becoming dangerously distant and a sickening feeling of weightlessness came over me. I screamed like a little child. I screamed until there wasn¡¯t any air left in my body and then some more. The others reacted similarly, but our screams were totally ignored by Teacher though and I soon saw a white surface rapidly approaching. Instead of crashing into it however I felt another gust of wind and we slowed down until we landed with a barely audible thud. The hands holding us in place loosened and we fell onto the soft feathers of the bird. I really wanted to just lie down and sleep on them, but a hand dragged me into the cabin. ¡°Take care.¡± Were Teachers parting words. He whistled loudly, causing the bird to take off in huge swings and quickly jumped off before we left the ground. I can¡¯t believe how things changed so quickly. Just yesterday we were still peacefully training and now we are being sent to a dangerous location without any guarantee that we will survive. I sighed and turned around. Thankfully the seats of the carriage were heavily cushioned and I wasn¡¯t able to feel the flaps of the bird, most likely due to another enchantment. I quietly sat down beside Frank, Owen and Greta taking their seats opposite to us. ¡°It could have gone worse.¡± I smiled, or at least tried to. ¡°Yeah, at least we¡¯re still alive.¡± Greta¡¯s face didn¡¯t show any gladness though. She looked just as distraught as I was feeling. ¡°C¡¯mon, it¡¯s not like we¡¯re surely going to die, right? We also have the hut made by the founder himself so I don¡¯t think there¡¯s anything to worry about. We should just focus on quietly training.¡± Owen said with an unconvincing smile on his face. ¡°He¡¯s right, you know? As long as we stay inside the hut we can train until we become strong enough to definitely kill the beasts outside.¡± I added. Frank, who had been silent until now, let out a big sigh. ¡°We seriously fucked up.¡± He leaned back, his back nearly sinking into the cushions. I glanced out of the window and discovered that we were directly above the fields. When I started to search for our homes however I noticed that they looked the same from the height we were in. ¡°Did you find anything interesting?¡± Owen tried to divert from the previous topic. ¡°Nope, all the farms look pretty much the same.¡± I answered. A look of concentration appeared on his and Greta¡¯s face when they tried to confirm whether what I said was true. They somehow fit each other. I put a fist onto my chin, watching them look out of the window. The sun, which had previously been hidden by a cloud, shone on their bodies, washing the previously somber mood away. I didn¡¯t know where that thought came from, but the more I thought about it the surer I became. Frank looked up at the sudden increase in brightness. ¡°Oh, it¡¯s just the sun.¡± He noticed the scene that was unfolding in front of us and sent a confused look at me. ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s just the sun.¡± I closed my eyes and basked in the warmth the being that caused this mess provided, leaving Frank even more confused. Chapter 17 - 5 Years About half an hour later we finally arrived at the thankfully brown hut. It looked more like a small house you would regularly encounter in the city, with the exception of a dimly glowing membrane that spread out in a radius of a hundred meters around it. It was almost astonishing how much mana the hut itself radiated though. I was able discern a faint mixture of a strikingly light gold and red that covered the walls even with my mana vision being switched off. Note to self: NEVER activate mana vision in the house. It was located in a several hundred meters wide clearing, giving us enough space to do pretty much anything we wanted to. Beyond that was a terrifyingly dark forest of gigantic trees that stretched far into the heavens. A dense undergrowth covered the ground in it, making even walking a difficult task. Fortunately, I couldn¡¯t see any beast in the area, most likely due to our feathery companion. ¡°What are you standing around for?¡± Owen asked my unmoving self. I turned my head into the direction of the house, where the others had already opened the heavy looking wooden door. ¡°What are you stressing around for? We have all the time in the world.¡± I replied in a relaxed manner while walking closer to them. ¡°Yeah, sure we have.¡± Was the message that Owens rolling eyes seemed to convey. Ignoring him, I walked past the open door. A cozy looking room with a chimney located at the far end of the room was the first thing I saw. A white pelt of unknown origin covered the ground, accentuating the two brown couches which were arranged around the calmly burning flame. A stairway was leading into the next floor, which I couldn¡¯t clearly see from my current position. ¡°Look! There are loads of food in this room!¡± Greta¡¯s voice came from my right where a door led into what I presume to be the food storage. ¡°Uhh, now that you mention food, do any of you know how to cook?¡± Frank shouted from above. He made an¡­excellent point. How are we supposed to feed ourselves if none of us can cook? ¡°Don¡¯t worry, the food is already prepared.¡± Greta replied. I subtly noted that no one said that they were capable of cooking. I sighed, thinking about the drawbacks of an upbringing centered on becoming a warrior. ¡°So, do any of you want to eat now? I¡¯m pretty hungry now to be honest.¡± I inquired as I walked towards the food storage room. Owens head appeared on the doorframe. ¡°What do you want?¡± He had an orange apple and a loaf of bread in each of his hands. I took the bread from both of his hands. ¡°Is there anything to drink?¡± Owen shrugged his shoulders at my question. ¡°Why don¡¯t you conjure some? It¡¯s not like you are in dire need of mana anyways.¡± Frank, who came down with a white bedroll in his hands, reminded me. Damn, those kids have far better common sense than me. I promptly conjured some water from my lake. This would be the first time I actually tried drinking I created myself, so I carefully sipped at the prone ball of water in the air. When I didn¡¯t notice anything unusual about it I sat down and began eating earnestly. Soon enough the others joined me and we shared our first meal in our new home. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A pinkly glowing deer lowered its head to nibble at one of the many green bushes. The rest of its herd was about a dozen meters away, quietly doing the same. My gloved hands slowly pulled the bow in my hands back. An arrow with three white feathers attached at its back and a broad metallic tip in my hands moving in the same speed as my hands. I let out a long breath, steadying my aim while doing so. *twang* The arrow flew in a straight line, hitting the deer in the throat. Pink colored blood ran down the thick arrow shaft as the deer jumped up at the sudden pain. It didn¡¯t come far though as I quickly shot another arrow at its heart, effectively stopping it for a second. I pulled my greatsword out of the ground and approached the wildly jumping beast. As soon as the deer saw me coming out from the bush I hid in it charged at me, its sharp antlers directed at my comparably small frame. I sidestepped a few times, the heavy metallic sword quickly building up momentum as I swung it horizontally against the nearing deer. The antlers directly coming in contact with the sword were cut apart and it tumbled down in pain as the blade cut deeply into its side. The ground was rumbling due to the rest of the herd fleeing the scene whilst I jumped off the ground. My blade smoothly cut through its neck, decapitated it and causing small fountains of blood to spurt out. I kneeled down and touched the still warm body of the deer, absorbing the small amounts of pink mana escaping into the air. The blood spurts became a slow trickle as its heart stopped beating, but I as I didn¡¯t want my clothes to be dirtied by it I slapped the deer¡¯s neck, causing it to tighten up. When I was finished sucking the last remnants of its mana out I used my hammer to crush it skull, exposing the pink brain in it. The sight was grueling, but my hand penetrated the gross mass regardless of that. After searching around for a bit I finally found it: The deer''s core. My grip around the small round bead-like thing tightened and I promptly ripped it out, causing another small fountain of blood to gush out. I deposited it in a small pouch hanging at my side after washing it with a small ball of water. At the beginning Teacher taught us that all living beings with a certain amount of intelligence possess a core that can store mana and be used to cultivate. Curiously enough the only beings that are known to cultivate are humans, but it didn''t change the fact that there are far more powerful beings than any human out there. Well, even if they can''t use their cores for cultivation there is a certain amount of mana corresponding to its strength in their core, enabling any warrior who manages to absorb it to get a sudden boost in power. They can also be used for emergencies, though that isn''t recommended due to the strain it puts on the mana channels. I would really like to know how beasts are capable of becoming this strong without any conscious strengthening though. I mean humans use the mana produced in the core to enhance their bodies but how do beasts do that? Putting another question I would likely never get an answer to into the back of my mind, I heaved the at least three meters big deer onto my shoulders, my knees slightly bending due to the sudden increase in weight. My feet pushed off the ground in quick frequency as I ran through the thick vegetation whilst a dark blue field shoved anything that was in my way to the side, quickly reaching a big, sun lit clearing. The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. ¡°What took you so long?¡± Frank, who, if you take his height out of the equation, hadn¡¯t changed considerably in the past five years, asked me impatiently. The last five years had passed pretty peacefully. Although homesickness is still a big problem it is not nearly as bad as in the first year. To distract ourselves we spent most of the first three years quietly meditating and playing some games with conjured materials. Of course we didn¡¯t neglect increasing the matter in our cores as we wouldn¡¯t have been able to meditate for a longer period of time otherwise. But that kind of lifestyle got boring pretty fast. After we felt we were ready we finally asked Teacher to teach us how to hunt the surrounding beasts. He didn¡¯t really react very accommodating at first but quickly gave in when he realized how bored out of our mind we were. Our first hunt was¡­disappointing to be honest. Teacher took us out and asked us to activate our mana senses, which had been unlocked after about two years. Owen and Frank had gotten mana hearing whilst Greta developed mana smelling. Our different ways of sensing not only didn¡¯t hinder us, no, it even helped us during that trip. Teacher instructed us to use our senses to find docile, or at least relatively harmless animals, which we were able to do after about twenty minutes of searching. It was a young boar about as tall as we were back then. Naturally it wasn¡¯t exactly the definition of harmless or docile, but as we outnumbered it four to one we weren¡¯t concerned. Thankfully we had already upgraded our weapons at that time and attacked it together. Frank used his spear to repeatedly stab it, effectively diverting its attention while Owen used his double bladed axe to slash its thick and durable hide into pieces. Greta and I teamed up to deal devastating blows, she with her oversized club and me with my warhammer. I don¡¯t think it needs to be said that it died very quickly when we hit its head multiple times with all our might. ¡°Stop standing around and help me skin the deer.¡± Frank interrupted my reminiscing. I sighed and reluctantly moved over to the spread out body of the deer. Frank had already started cutting up some lines that would be crucial to properly skinning it. Skinning the beasts we hunted was a necessary act, one we had to practice a long time until we became somewhat proficient at it. We would then clean and dry the hide to give it to our teacher, who in turn sells it in the city, giving us a somewhat stable source of income. Granted, we didn¡¯t particularly need money out here but the currency in Frumentum, which I had never seen before I was exiled, had a special property that made it very desirable for any warrior: It was a stone made up of pure mana that one can easily absorb without having to go into the core space first. Of course that meant that any warrior could produce them, but they rarely do that due to the high mana costs. The mana stones glowed in a faint grey even without mana vision, another special property that made it quite hard to miss. They are called mana marbles and the most common ones had a small amount of mana stored and are about one centimeters wide and big. It quite resembles the object it was named after and most people carry it around in small pouches. I heard that it is quite bothersome to pay with them as it is easy to mess the counting up or even accidentally lose them. The more valuable ones were just one centimeter bigger versions with each of them being ten times more valuable than the last one. That goes until it reaches the size of five centimeters, where the previously grey material suddenly becomes white. The marble in its name is replaced with pearl and it starts with the size of one centimeter again, repeating the circle until the five centimeter mark, which is the most valuable stone. I really want to know why they had to add mana to each name though. If those names were colloquial I would understand the strange names but they are official. Maybe Frumentum¡¯s naming sense is just as bad as his ability to use multiple colors. After we finished skinning the deer I conjured a small ball of water to remove the blood still clinging to the hide while Frank went to deliver the meat to Owen, who will prepare and cook it. Due to Greta¡¯s absolute lack of cooking talent she is delegated as the dishwasher, which, due to our conjuring skills, is far too easy. The ground started to shake, making me stop in my tracks. I turned around scanned the area for anything that was heavy enough to cause such vibrations, but found nothing. ¡°Guys! Come out, we have a problem!¡± I shouted, quickly summoning my bow out to shoot anything that comes into sight. The door slammed open and the others came out fully armed. The rumbling continued to become stronger but we didn¡¯t find anything despite our full use of all the senses available. *ROAAAR* Even though the owner of that voice seemed far away a roar that loud must mean that the beast is quite powerful. Good, it has been quite some time since a powerful enemy appeared. This will be the perfect opportunity to test myself. Even if it is more powerful than I anticipated I highly doubt that it stands a chance against our combined power. A black blur mowed the trees in front of it down as if they were made out of cotton, approaching us in a frightening speed. Oh my fucking shit, I¡¯ve never seen a beast topple one of the ancient trees before, not to mention carving a path through the forest like this. ¡°Fucking get into the house! We won¡¯t able to fight that thing!¡± I pulled the unmoving figure of Frank with me as I screamed that. We ran into the house with lightning speed, closing the door behind us. Just as we began to feel safe an enormous impact caused us to fall onto the ground. The unknown being roared again, this time shaking us to our very core. The shields that Frumentum laid down abruptly vanished, letting the frightening aura of the beast, no, I think that it¡¯s more appropriate to call it monster, seep into the house. My whole body felt constricted, making any movement, even breathing, an extremely taxing task. As I was in the process of getting up I crashed onto the ground with a bang. My vision slowly darkened at the edges and from the corner of my eye I could see that the Owen wasn¡¯t in a better condition. Another impact threw me around, everything suddenly going black when I felt a painful impact on the back of my head. Chapter 18 - Aftermath Authors Note: Hello, it''s been a long time since I''ve made an authors note, and it isn''t really related to the story to boot, but this is about a matter that is really important to me. If you want to continue reading you should just skip the next part. It is about a role play game in the RRL forum called Plein D''espoir, which has unfortunatelyl been abandoned. In my eyes this is a real pity because first of all it has very detailed worldbuilding and the two factions you can choose from. I have spoken to the mods who have agreed to revive it should I be able to gather enough people, so I am reaching out to you, fellow users and or lurkers! If you are interested here is the link to the Plein D''espoir forum, which contains far more detailed information. ¡°Ughh¡± I groaned. This fucking headache is killing me! Feeling a strange pain in a few regions, I rolled around to find a softer spot of my bed. My cheek hit a cold wall, making me hesitantly look open my eyes. A wooden wall was in front of my eyes, blocking me from seeing anything else. I looked around and saw that I had somehow landed on the stairs, the pain originating from the spots that touched the edges. The bright light coming from upstairs made me squint my eyes in pain, but a few seconds were all they needed to adjust. Greta was lying on the carpet, the area around her fortunately void of blood. Her long brown hair was sprawled around in a chaotic manner and she didn¡¯t seem to be awake. Frank, whose limp body was next to a table, also seemed unharmed. A few strands of his shoulder length blonde hair fell onto his face, making him look as if he were sleeping if it weren¡¯t for the circumstances. Owen¡¯s body however was leaning against a wall, a trail of dried blood running from his temple to the now bloodied carpet under him. I sat up and leaned on the railing. When I touched the back of my head I felt that all the hairs there were clumped together, forming a solid mass that hurt every time I tried to move it. ¡°God dammit, what the hell happened here?¡± I muttered. Then the memories came back. That damned monster! I swear if anything has happened to someone I will personally skin you! I tried to stand up but an intense wave of nausea washed over me, forcing me to sit down again. I conjured some water and a small fire from my core and heated the water until it became a bit hotter than lukewarm. I carefully moved the water to the back of my head, hoping to dissolve some of the blood by doing so. It took quite some time but in the end most of the blood around the actual wound had been washed away, painting the previously clean sphere of water crimson. I touched the ball, depositing it in a special region of my core space where I keep my dirty water until I come around cleaning it. ¡°Guys? Are you-!¡± I weakly shouted but the nausea came in for another round. My eyes started to water as an intense urge to puke overcame me. I tried my best to hold it in but the temptation of instant relief was just too strong. I emptied all of the contents of my stomach onto the stairs. It continued on to the pristinely white carpet like a gross stream of a bits and pieces in yellowish water. I heaved another time, turning the stream into a small river. When a few seconds without any indicators that I will puke another time passed I let out a sigh. The smell of blood that had previously permeated the room had been replaced by that of puke, making me want to cover my nose. I conjured another, far bigger ball of water and let it soak every spot the puke had touched. Then I pulled it and the puke up. I hesitated for a moment since I didn¡¯t really want to have all those remnants of my food mixed in with the rest of the dirty water, but decided that other things were more important right now and deposited it in the end. I put a hand on the railing for support and shakily stood up, the nausea still not completely gone. I neared Owen with wobbly steps, stopping occasionally when my vision began to blur. Tapped him on the shoulder, I asked him whether he was awake or not. He didn¡¯t answer, making me frown. I grabbed his shoulders and slowly dragged him to the middle of the room, the dried blood making a gross noise when his body was removed from the wall. If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. Doing the same to Greta and Frank, I laid them next to Owen. What am I supposed to do now? I have no real way to help them and I doubt that my superficial medical knowledge would do any good. With nothing else to do I laid down in front of them and began meditating. Time passed and I could feel the throbbing headache slowly receding. After a while the nausea also vanished, making me feel nearly fine again. A sharp inhale from my right abruptly woke me up, making me focus my gaze on Greta, who was in the process of sitting up. ¡°Is Owen okay?¡± She asked me with concern evident in her ocean blue eyes. Her hair was still pretty disheveled but there were obviously greater concerns on her mind. ¡°I dunno, but he doesn¡¯t really look that fine to me.¡± My reply didn¡¯t really do anything but make her worry even more. When she wanted to move over to him I stopped her and told her to heal her wounds first. Who knows what kind of injuries she could have gotten. Our conversation seemed to have woken Frank up as he began to stir. ¡°Fuck, my shoulder¡¯s killing me.¡± Were the first words coming out of his mouth, making me chuckle at the similarity of our reaction after waking up. ¡°This is not funny.¡± Greta¡¯s glare turned my chuckle into a full blown laughter. ¡°It¡¯s not what you think it is.¡± I managed to get out after recovering from laughing so hard, a grin still on face. ¡°I¡¯ll never understand just what is going on in that head of yours.¡± She shook her head and raised her hands with a shrug. When I looked over at Frank I saw that his eyes were closed again, most likely for meditation. Seeing that Greta did the same and I followed their example as I could still feel faintly painful throbs every few seconds. Time passed and after the headache completely vanished it was already dark. Activating my mana vision, I saw that Greta and Frank were emanating a far bigger amount of mana than normally, indicating that they were still meditating. Owen was unfortunately still not showing any signs of being awake, worrying me even more. I grabbed his foot, shaking it a bit. He groggily opened his eyes. ¡°Why is it dark?¡± He said with a confused expression on his face. ¡°A lot of time has passed. We¡¯ll speak after you¡¯ve meditated a bit, okay?¡± He nodded, a pained expression coming over his face at the pain that action brought. After making sure he was really meditating I resumed my own meditation, waiting for dawn to arrive. After the mana in the room became slightly redder I stood up. ¡°I¡¯ll check the situation outside. We still don¡¯t know the extent of the destruction but I¡¯m sure that it isn¡¯t small after the impacts that monster caused.¡± I informed them. ¡°John, for the thousandth time, open your eyes when your mana vision is activated. It¡¯s pretty freaky to talk to a person whose eyes are closed but can still see everything in the surroundings.¡± Frank reminded me. It is a habit that I acquired after a few months in this hut. Really, I just don¡¯t see the need to open them to properly see so why should I? Not to mention that I tend to forget to blink when my mana vision is activated. ¡°Yeah yeah, maybe later.¡± I replied. I opened the surprisingly still intact door and stepped out, stopping in my tracks once I looked around. Instead of a sunlit clearing we were in the middle of a plain. A fucking plain. The sun was shining brightly in the sky, illuminating the vast expanses of green grass all around me. Occasionally a brightly glowing tree could be found, indicating that they weren¡¯t normal. In the distance there were some pink masses moving around. Occasionally some pink specks would suddenly accelerate with lightning speed to chase another pink speck. In front of me there was a small mountain of soil, looking like someone had used our house as a shovel. I circled around the hut, quickly spotting the straight line of total destruction our house seemed to have carved through the area. Anything, be it grass, soil or trees was destroyed in a straight line longer than I could see. I even caught sight of a forested area where the road of devastation seemed to have originated, but it was extremely far away. What did that fucking monster do? Chapter 19 - Start Of A Journey AN: I just noticed that I forgot to mention something very important in Chapter 17. It¡¯s that beasts also possess cores that can be taken out, absorbed and used for a variety of things. I already edited it and you should check it out, otherwise the last part of this chapter will confuse you. I sighed and plopped down onto my butt, the action causing some dust to swirl up from the dry ground. How far from home are we? A hundred kilometers? A thousand? Maybe even more. I breathed in deeply and put my hands behind my head while lying down. A lone blue cloud was drifting along the vast black sky, progressing into whatever direction the winds up there drove it into. The sun shone down without mercy, warming the whole area to a degree that could barely be described within the limits of being bearable, toning the air in a faint red. The grass under me was dry and didn¡¯t really feel uncomfortable, completely different from the lush green sort that grew where I came from and the ground wasn¡¯t soft either. As I turned the mana vision off and opened my eyes the previously black sky turned into a beautiful azure. The red tinge in the air vanished, as if it wasn¡¯t even there in the first place, and the strange blue cloud became pristinely white. It is strange how different the world looks when I can only see mana. Ominous even, but I got used to it in the last few years. Deciding that I had lazed around for long enough I stood up and dusted myself off. Walking back to the hut in a far calmer manner I thought about how I should break the news to my friends in a way that wouldn¡¯t cause them to mindlessly rush into the forest. Before I knew it I was already inside the house, the others already awaiting me with expectant eyes. I cleared my throat. ¡°Guys, it seems that the beast somehow transported us into a completely different area.¡± Seeing their dumbfounded expressions, I quickly added ¡°But don¡¯t worry, there is a way home. It¡¯s pretty much a path of destruction that you can¡¯t miss, so I don¡¯t think that we¡¯ll have problems with that.¡± I scratched my head at the awkward silence. This could have been worded¡­slightly better. Suddenly having the sudden urge to examine the fauna and flora in the area I turned around and walked out again. Before I could get very far though a hand grabbed my collar. ¡°What. The. Fuck. Do. You. Mean?¡± Owen growled behind me. Frank and Greta proceeded to stand beside the door, blocking any possible escape routes off. ¡°Well, I, erm, you know, really meant what I said.¡± When I said that the grip tightened and Owen pulled me closer to him, his smelly breath making me frown as if I had bitten into a lemon. Fuck, I forgot that nobody has brushed their teeth today. ¡°Okay man, we¡¯ll look at it together, right? If there is a way home we have to hurry, after all vegetation regrows pretty quickly and we don¡¯t know how long the way home will take, right?¡± Owen said through gritted teeth. ¡°We seriously have to improve your way of saying important stuff John.¡± Franks remark hit right where it hurt. I mean sure, I¡¯m not that good at being subtle or anything like that but it¡¯s part of my charm, right? ¡°C¡¯mon man, you have to admit that it¡¯s one of the things that make me so fucking lovable.¡± I opened my arms wide, inviting them into my embrace. Sadly, they just stood there and stared at me as if I were an idiot. The people in this world really need to get a proper sense of humor. ¡°Anyway, we should go check it out. Maybe John was just making one of his unfunny jokes.¡± Greta turned around and went through the still opened door. A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. We followed her and I felt a satisfied smile crept up my face when I saw their terrified expression. Their reaction at discovering the huge road of destruction was especially funny as their jaws practically smashed into the ground. ¡°Holy motherfucking shit.¡± Frank finally stammered. HA! Serves them right for doubting me like that! I gave them a bit of time to recover. ¡°So, what do we do now? I mean we can hardly leave that house here, right? And I doubt that we would survive the journey back without it.¡± I asked them. ¡°Wait, doesn¡¯t anyone have one of those, what are they called again?¡± Greta thought about it for a while and then continued ¡°Ultraspacy bags or something like that. With it I¡¯m sure that we¡¯ll be able to put it away whenever we need to.¡± She still had a frown on her face, most likely thinking about what the correct name could be. ¡°How are we supposed to have one? Don¡¯t you know that they are extremely hard to produce? I doubt that we would be able to make on even if we were to turn all the stuff in our cores into mana and transfer it to John.¡± Franks words made us go silent. ¡°Erm, maybe there is some special function to carry the hut around? I mean, isn¡¯t there supposed to be one in every high quality residence?¡± Owen reminded us. ¡°Then what are we waiting for?¡± I said and stormed into the house. The others quickly followed me and we turned everything upside down in our search. It took a while but after an hour we finally found a suspicious looking switch under the carpet in the living room. After a bit of hesitation Frank finally flipped it, causing the whole house to briefly shake. ¡°Ejection in five seconds.¡± A monotone male voice came from every direction. What? I turned around and pulled the others with me as I ran out of the house. Unfortunately, I wasn¡¯t fast enough and I saw a blinding white flash that hurled us outside at lightning speed. We flew into the hard, prickling grass outside face first. I quickly got up and looked at the blank spot our residence used to be. In its stead there was just a medium sized hole that was connected to the road of destruction. When I came closer I noticed a miniature version of it in the middle of that hole. If it weren¡¯t for the fact that it was about as big as my palm, I would have believed to be an exact replica of it. I picked it up. ¡°So, who is going to hold onto this?¡± I asked. ¡°¡°You.¡±¡± The others answered at the same time. Shrugging, I tried to absorb it into my core space. The strange thing about absorbing things from the outside world into the core space is that only objects which have no residue mana of its original body left and haven¡¯t been reattached for more than a day can be absorbed. It doesn¡¯t matter whether it is a plant or an animal, this rule pertains to anything except for the artificially created objects. Of course there is also a limit to the amount of mana it should contain, otherwise the mana channels will burst when coming into contact with it. Which is exactly what nearly happened when I felt a searing pain coming from my palm. I hurriedly cut the connection and the pain vanished as quickly as it had appeared. Dammit, I forgot the insane amount of mana the hut contains. I sighed as I stuffed it into the little bag that also held the unused beast cores. ¡°Now that this problem has been solved I think it¡¯s time to go.¡± Frank said as he hopped into the road of destruction, proceeded to walk along it with hurried steps. The rest of us glanced at each other, shrugged and quickly caught up to him. Chapter 20 - Encounter A few hours went by peacefully with no beast assaulting us, unsurprisingly resulting in a tense and cautious atmosphere. This is definitely not normal. Normally we should have encountered at least some herbivores but even with my mana sight on I didn¡¯t even a single hint of one. Now this might have been normal for the first hour, but we have been walking for ages! I have the feeling that there is something off¡­ Frank suddenly turned around and pulled his bow out, notching an arrow in the same motion and firing it off into the direction of a gigantic lion I hadn¡¯t noticed following us. The at least five-meter-tall beast roared as the arrow harmlessly bounced off its tough hide and it pounced at us, the distance of at least ten meters quickly shrinking. Seeing that I didn¡¯t have enough time to fire an arrow I hurriedly equipped my hammer and leather vest, the robe I was wearing quickly vanishing into my core. I started to forcefully pump mana into every part of my body and pulled the hammer back, swinging it at the pink colored blur. I was pushed pushed back at the tremendous force, my arms slightly trembling. The lion however wasn¡¯t as affected as me and swatted me away with its massive paw, smashing me into the sides of the road of destruction. While I was struggling to get out Greta and Owen kept it busy by dodging its paws and slashing or hammering at any part of its body that got close. Frank was at the back, waiting for an opportunity to strike. The lion roared, the sheer intensity of the mana pushed out by it making us flinch for a moment. It used the opportunity to bite at Greta, who was standing directly in front of it. Thankfully it was stopped by Frank who stabbed the spear at its eyes repeatedly, forcing it to pull back. Despite the immense force it hit me with I was mostly unharmed though, so I pushed the dense soil away with a small blast of pure mana, picking my hammer that had fallen to the ground up. I pushed off the ground and hit it in the flank while it was being pushed back by Frank. This time the damned beast flinched when my weapon dug deeply into its unprotected stomach, the temporary loss of concentration enabling Frank to slice a new bloody hole into its cheek. Greta used her whole weight to strike the paw that had somehow gotten stuck in the ground. Owen swung his axe at the other side of it, the two attacks hitting at the same time. A sickening crunch could be heard as its ankle was broken by combined force of the two, causing the monster to roar in pain. A fiery explosion erupted from the spot where Greta¡¯s club was stuck in its flesh, the flames caused by it quickly covering its entire body. Finally remembering that I could also use my core I conjured a few metallic spikes and shot them into the direction of the lion¡¯s pink head. The beast, somehow still sane enough to dodge them even though a big part of its leg body was already set aflame, glared at me with its dark, beady eyes. I stared back fearlessly whilst extracting a big amount of fire from my core and circulating it through my channels. I used some of it by causing a small explosion under my feet that propelled me high into the air, where an extremely hot flame shot out of my left hand at the nearest leg. The beast, already in pain by the flames caused by Greta, wildly hit everything around it. When my attack arrived it was further infuriated by me. Before I could evade it jumped at me, its gigantic maw rapidly coming closer. Fuck, why always me? A gust of air blew me away in the last second a row as a whole slew of projectiles hit it everywhere, especially in the area around its stomach where I had hit it before. Using a few small explosions to stabilize myself in midair, I swapped the hammer with my greatsword. A big explosion in my back that nearly consumed nearly all of the mana currently circulating through my channels propelling me with frightening speed towards its side that was opposite direction the projectiles were coming from. I was lucky as the flames hadn¡¯t reached this part of its body yet as most of them were at its front part, burning their way towards the beast¡¯s head. With the tip of my sword pointing in the front the blade managed to sink in a for about a foot, but got stuck inside the still massive muscles. ¡°Owen! Got a hole!¡± I shouted at the top of my lungs. I twisted and turned the sword a bit until I finally got it out, the beast shaking and turning all the while. I was nearly shaken off a few times, but thankfully the beast¡¯s hair was far longer than that of a normal five-meter big lion, so I was able to hold onto its hairs, remaining hanging next to the newly opened hole but at a distance great enough that I wouldn¡¯t be hit by all the blood that was gushing out. Owen dashed towards my side with a gale that nearly sent me flying. Using his momentum his axe crashed into the wound, widening the hole. Repeating this process a few times with the help of the abundance of wind coming from many parts of his body, he hacked away at it. Its paws couldn¡¯t reach us due to biological reasons, making our current position quite safe. Though its tail was occasionally coming dangerously close it hadn¡¯t reached us yet, making me even gladder that I chose that specific position to poke a hole in. A massive pushed me down, causing me to fall off and Owen, who was in the process of striking to miss. While we stabilized ourselves a massive shadow suddenly fell over us. When I looked up I saw that the lion was falling down at tremendous speed, its massive frame slightly turning as its mouth opened again, a massive roar that nearly stunned us again coming out of it. By now flames were covering its head and the wound we had caused was bleeding profusely. It was a sign that the battle was going well but me and Owen pushed ourselves away at the same time with a small explosion at our backs. Unfortunately, I wasn¡¯t fast enough so the beast managed to hit me with an outstretched paw. I crossed my arms to mitigate the force a bit but it was of no use as I felt the bones in my arm painfully break as I fell down at a terrifying speed. ¡°AAHHH!¡± The horrible pain caused me to scream loudly, but it was cut short as a sudden impact on the ground pushed all the air in my lungs away. My back arched up as I struggled for breath desperately. My lungs wouldn¡¯t work, breathing was simply impossible. I twisted and turned, trying to get some air into my lungs. When I finally managed to draw a most precious breath I noticed that the beast was coming closer. It had managed to shake the others off and was rapidly advancing, most likely intent on crushing me. ¡°¡°JOHN!¡±¡± The voices of the others reverberated through the area. As I rolled over and pushed myself up a massive weight smashed into my back. Dirt was suddenly everywhere and I was extremely happy that my eyes were closed, otherwise they would have lots of dirt in them. Nearly fainting at the intense feeling of pain all over my body, I barely managed to extract all the core fire I could muster without injuring my channels. I sent it all out at the same time in a powerful explosion that formed a small crater around me and pushed the beast away. Using a massive gust of air, I propelled my body away from the beast. Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. ¡°I¡¯m okay!¡± I shouted to alleviate their fears. Pain flared up with every quivering breath I took, indicating that my ribs were really broken. My forearms were a mess of broken bones, making me wonder how I hadn¡¯t passed out until now. Conjuring a small conjured platform of compressed soil for me to sit on, I flew back a bit to prepare for what was going to come. As I closed my eyes and focused I felt a faint connection with the greatsword that was not too far away. This is a skill that I¡¯ve only managed to use recently: Telekinesis. It enables me to control projectiles even after firing them, something that is far harder than it sounds. As the strength of the connection determined how much control I had as well as how much mana is being wasted, the only exception would be objects that were in direct contact with me, as the connections became stronger the closer they were. Pushing mana through the connection, I felt as if the sword were a part of myself, a necessary requirement for telekinesis to work. I moved it around a bit, testing its maneuverability. Its size and weight was both a burden and boon at the same time as, although it would take more mana to move it around, the power behind it would also substantially increase. Waiting until the beast showed its wounded site to me I observed my friends agilely dodging its attacks. It seems that they have become more cautious after seeing me getting trashed like that. Switching their tactic, they were aiming to tire it out now. This tactic was especially effective as they only attacked the side with the broken ankle, making counterattacking extremely awkward and painful for the beast. They moved bit by bit, the beast slowly exposing its wounded side to me. After a few minutes where the beast received another few smaller wounds I was able to shoot my sword with a straight trajectory. Pushing big amount of white mana into the connection into the link, I saw the turn into a blur as it flew into the direction of the gaping wound. The beast, noticing the approaching weapon, tried to turn around, but it was too slow. The sword sunk in so deep that only the hilt was barely visible. I wriggled it around, intent on widening the wound enough to shove the whole sword into it without any problems. While I was doing that the others weren¡¯t idle. They noticed what I was doing and used the opportunity I presented them, mutilating the broken ankle even more. Occasionally a red explosion followed by a booming noise could be heard, with a few blurs of many different colors flying at the beast¡¯s head whenever it paid attention to the sword cutting into its side. The roars never stopped for more than a few seconds as its wound worsened with every second, causing me to be thankful for my reinforced eardrums. A few minutes went by like this until I felt that the sword would be able to slip into its body. Not wasting any time, I transferred a big part of what remained of my mana to the sword, pushing it forward as far as I could. The whole weapon disappeared into its body, carving it way through its internal organs. The beast visibly stiffened for a moment, but it quickly continued as if nothing had ever happened. Sometimes I wonder how beasts can be so resistant to pain. If it were a human, he or she would have fainted long ago with all of their internal organs being shredded like that. Adding the broken pieces of bone that were sticking out of one of its leg right now to that it should have been enough to put almost anything out of commission. Why was it still here anyway? Normally a beast would have already run away after being wounded like that. I mean, sure, lion beasts are supposedly quite proud creatures, but I don¡¯t think that it would fight to the death over food with our mana content. This smells fishy. A sinking sensation ripped me out of my thoughts. I looked around frantically, only to notice that, as every bit of mana that was coming from my core was redirected to the sword, the platform was starting to falling down. Hurriedly redirecting the mana, the descent slowed down until it was nearly unnoticeable. Looking at the ongoing battle I noticed that the beast was quickly slowing down, showing that its fate was already sealed. As I didn¡¯t have enough mana to spare and it wouldn¡¯t be wise to use a mana core in this situation, I simply waited for the beast to succumb to its wounds and cheered my friends on. ¡°C¡¯mon Owen, hack harder! Frank, I know you can do better! Man the hell up and swing that spear of yours as if it were midnight and you think everyone is asleep!¡± I started to laugh like a maniac. Although the situation was more than inappropriate for jokes I did it anyway as our victory was pretty much assured at that point. ¡°Greta, move your whole body when swinging that oversized club of yours!¡± I continued. By now they were clearly annoyed but they didn¡¯t let themselves be distracted, which was unnecessary caution as the beast was running on fumes. Seconds turned into minutes and the roars eventually turned into low moans. The wounds on the beast¡¯s body multiplied and soon all of its legs were broken. It finally collapsed, causing a light tremor to run through the ground. Tension I didn¡¯t know was present left my body. It may have seemed that I was having fun but the chance that it would suddenly retaliate and injure someone else was still present. The pain in my whole body worsened as I cancelled the mana injection. Reaching out to grab the bag of mana cores that was somehow still attached to my shredded clothes I grabbed the brightly glowing miniature house. ¡°Erm, how do return it to its former size?¡± I asked my slowly approaching friends. Frank looked at my current state. ¡°I¡¯ll get my revenge when you have recovered, asshole.¡± He casually said those frightening words., the others nodding in agreement. Seems like I¡¯ve overdone it¡­ Owen ripped the miniature house out of my hands, examining it carefully. He then sent a small burst of mana into it. ¡°WARNING! Return to original size in ten seconds!¡± The same male voice shouted. Owen let it drop onto the ground as we quickly scrambled away from it. Thankfully we had more time so when the house expanded with a bright flash of white light we weren¡¯t in range anymore. Quickly entering the house, I sat down on the ground of the entrance. I grabbed a mana core and popped it into my mouth. The smooth pearl like object quickly dissolved in to pure mana as it poured into all mana channels in my mouth. A warm feeling enveloped me as a sudden burst of mana coursed through the nearly empty channels. It didn¡¯t take long until my entire body was nearly brimming with mana that was wildly coursing through the channels. If I wouldn¡¯t be strictly suppressing it they would rampage through everything in their way, hurting my channels substantially. The pain wasn¡¯t really helping though. I had to be careful in placing my hands, lest an even more intense would overwhelm me and cause the foreign mana to go out of control. When I finally managed to establish a good circulation I started to use it to meditate. I sighed, knowing that it would take a few painful hours until I was completely healed. Chapter 21 - Moving on AN: Well, it seems like this AN comes far sooner than anticipated. I apologize for teh really late chapter, but RL kept me busy. It will probably cause the releases to slow down a bit too, but there''s nothing I can do about that.On another note I would eb seriously thankful if some of you took the time to review my work critically. It would help me improve and maybe give me advice on how to make this story better- *Crack* *Crack* I moved various limbs to confirm that all of my bones had realigned. Nodding in satisfaction after not feeling any pain I stood up, only to quickly stop in my tracks. I sat down from my awkward position. I only noticed it in my last fight, but I have been too careless in the last few months. In my whole life, I¡¯ve rarely been wounded like this before. And all of those times there was a good reason for that. And this time I¡¯ve truly been too reckless. Fighting a beast head on without any prior knowledge about its specific abilities and weaknesses? Rushing at it without any kind of tactic? What has gotten into me? This isn¡¯t a fucking game, dammit. John, you have to get a grip on yourself! I buried my head into my hands and sighed. Next time I¡¯ll be fucking careful. Definitely. This absolutely won¡¯t happen again. I was really close to death a few times. Had the others not been with me¡­I would most likely have died. I shivered when I remembered the pain I had experienced. Thankfully my pain resistance has increased considerably in the last few years and the regular meditation has made my body far tougher than it was before. Otherwise I would have fainted midway, which would have meant my sure death. Nobody could have saved me The grip on my head tightened, trapping my hair within it. It quickly relaxed though as I had no intention to make my head look like a bird¡¯s nest. Checking my core, I felt that a good amount of mana was present. It seems like the core I swallowed was a relatively good one. Most likely from a deer or a similarly string being. I stood up and walked through the already open door. The sight of a massive pink beast lying on the ground radiating a big amount of pink mana greeted me, nearly causing me to narrow my eyes at the sudden brightness. It wasn¡¯t that far away from me, about fifteen meters. Now that I wasn¡¯t occupied with fighting it to the death I got a closer look at it. I first turned my mana vision off to properly spectate it though. Otherwise it would look pretty much the same no matter where I look. The pink beast turned black and golden, the golden being the original color and black the burnt spots. Instead of a proud mane there was just a layer of ash surrounding its head, showing that the flames were very effective against this kind of beast. I made a mental note to just stock up on flames the next time I have the time to as a big amount of mine were used up in this fight. As my gaze continued inspecting it I noticed that its legs were even more horribly mutilated than I remember: Various bone shards were sticking out of them and the dried blood formed a thick crimson layer above everything, coloring the otherwise golden or black legs a dark crimson. A faint burnt smell wafted into my nose, causing me to back away while pinching my nose. I sighed in annoyance. God dammit, do I really have to do this? Regardless of how reluctant I am I won¡¯t be able to retrieve my beloved greatsword unless I cut this beast open and take it out. This may not be the first time I had to do this but that doesn¡¯t make it any better. I slowly stepped towards the not even slightly rotting corpse while holding my nose. Thankfully the only thing I have to endure is a heavily burnt body. If strong monsters didn¡¯t take far longer to begin rotting I would have to deal with a whole lot of other problems. I shivered a bit as I remembered the maggot infested flesh that I had to crawl through once. Finally arriving at the mostly intact body of the great lion I noticed something very suspicious: It had no claws. Now that I think about it I was never once hit by something sharp. Judging by its already ridiculous power I would most likely not be here anymore if it had them, but somewhere in its stomach, together with my friends. I heard that there are all kinds of strange beasts out there but is a species that doesn¡¯t have any other weapon beside its size capable of surviving in such a merciless environment? Is such a beast capable of scaring every beast in such a wide radius away? I don¡¯t think so. Though this beast may have been strong it is definitely not capable of such a feat. Could it be someone is manipulating things from the shadows? But what could be the reason for that? We aren¡¯t really that important in the big picture yet and while we have more than enough talent it would take us at least decades to become really powerful? And who could be stalking us at that, too? How is it possible to hide from our mana senses? I shook my head. Even if someone did there is nothing I can do about that. No need to waste time with thinking about motives and such. Hesitantly prying the wound on its side open I discovered a pretty clean cut with only a few fucktons of clotted blood barring my way. Dammit, I hate it if that happens! Sighing, I conjured a dagger that was enchanted to be far sharper than normally and sliced the wound open again. ---------------------------------------------- I crawled out of the bloody hellhole that the gigantic corpse of the lion was, my beloved greatsword in hand, inhaling a bit of sweet, fresh air that doesn¡¯t have to be supplied by my core. ¡°If you¡¯re already bloody as hell why don¡¯t you get my weapons too?¡± Frank, who suddenly appeared next to me, asked. ¡°Why don¡¯t you get them yourself?¡± I replied, visibly annoyed. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°Awww, is someone irritated?¡± He teased me. I stood up and flicked a bit of blood into his direction, hitting him in the chest. ¡°Calm down man, you¡¯re overreacting.¡± Frank stared at the new bloodspots on his clothes. I took a deep breath. ¡°I guess I am. But that doesn¡¯t really matter, does it? What does matter though is that you get your stuff yourself.¡± I absorbed my weapon back into my core and walked away. ¡°Why didn¡¯t you use telekinesis? It would have been far easier and less¡­¡± he looked at my dirty outfit¡± bloody.¡± He said, causing me to visibly stiffen. Fuck. Why didn¡¯t I think about that? Frank started to snicker when he saw my reaction. I ignored him and continued walking even though my cheeks were burning. I won¡¯t give him that satisfaction. Is it just me or am I acting far more childish than I used to? Nah, it must be my imagination. After all I was an adult in my old life. Regressing in mental age is just too ridiculous, right? I wonder where Greta and Owen are. In recent time they seem to vanish somewhere quite frequently. I wonder if Owen has finally grown some balls and has made some advances on her? It is almost disappointing how childish their relationship stayed in the last few years. They still treat each other the same. I guess it isn¡¯t bad though. With puberty comes a whole lot of changes, some of which can be fatal for a group of friends like ours. When I thought about the complications that love brought me in my last life I just wished to never fall in love. It is better not to do so, both for me and anyone who would want to be with me. It seems that, even though a lot of time has passed, I still haven¡¯t gotten over it, huh? Sometimes I wonder if this is just an elaborate dream. Maybe I¡¯m in a hospital somewhere, lying in a white bed with crappy technology that is barely capable of keeping me alive. I can nearly imagine the scenery: Old fashioned white bed sheets with ugly white walls that should have been repainted a few years ago. A malnourished nurse that is more occupied with their private problems than with that of their patients tending to my immobile body, the screen showing few lifesigns. When I think about how¡­fantastic this world is me being in a coma isn¡¯t that unlikely, really. Mana, beasts that rule the world and a barely surviving humanity and a completely new world/dimension or whatever else the hell this is supposed to be are kind of, I don¡¯t know, unrealistic? Strange? And of course my humble self, blessed with monstrous talent, am in the middle of it, slaughtering monsters with my friends and fighting my way back home through strange lands. Just like in a fairy tale. But as far as I know no one has ever survived a direct by a bomb, especially in a city that is doomed to be destroyed. Even in the unlikely event that I survive the shrapnel and immense heat the collapsing buildings would still kill me. By the time anyone finds my body I would have been dead for quite some time. That wouldn¡¯t explain why it is me that is reincarnated though. Sure, I missed some very important things and maybe played a major role in determining the fate of the whole human race but so did many other people. The only reason I could think of is that damned artifact meddling with reality itself. The object that was capable of throwing all of humanity into a never seen before war. NO! I promised myself to never think about it again. Why did I start now, of all times? Nearly ten fucking years into my new life? After the sun itself has decided to fuck me over and some overpowered bastard decided that we were too dangerous? Why not earlier, like when I first found myself in this new world? A pang of pain coming from my fists interrupted my train of thought. I looked down and saw that my long fingernails were digging deeply into my palms, causing a few trails of blood to flow down from where they had penetrated the skin. I quickly relaxed my arm and carefully pulled my fingernails out of the shallow wounds. I seriously need to move on. This can¡¯t go on forever. Dwelling in the past, constantly regretting mistakes that were made more than ten years ago. Isn¡¯t that just pitiful? But in the end, all of these things don¡¯t really matter, do they? I should enjoy the present and think about the future if I have the time to. The past should stay the past, a memory that reminds me of my mistakes but not to the extent of haunting me even in my sleep. ¡°John, do your part and help us process it!¡± Frank called out. ¡°Hmm?¡± I quietly mumbled. How long have I been out like that? ¡°Yeah John, we can¡¯t be the only ones doing all the work.¡± Greta remarked. It seems like I was quite deep in thought to not even have noticed her arrival. If she is here, then it means that Owen is also present. I turned around and saw that my speculation was true. Greta and Owen stood next to each other directly in front of the gigantic wound. Frank had moved nearer to its paws, most likely having noticed that they didn¡¯t have any claws attached. ¡°Do we really have to do that today? It won¡¯t start to rot for the next few days anyway.¡± I replied. I wasn¡¯t in the mood to do some bloody and tedious work where I have to be careful not to accidentally damage the material. ¡°We¡¯re lucky that nothing has already started feasting on it. We either start now or abandon the corpse altogether.¡± Frank reminded us. I don¡¯t really think that it¡¯s luck though. The mana it leaks combined with the general lack of beasts in the area are probably the main reasons. But as a good friend I¡¯ll let him live with his delusions. ¡°Ok ok, let¡¯s start now.¡± I walked to where they were located, ready but unwilling to do the dirty work. Well, I guess this is still better than wallowing in my own past in a run-down apartment complex, but not by much. Chapter 22 - A Reminder AN: Yes, I am alive and sorry for the massive delay. Real life kept me quite busy. After some of the longest hours in my life went by with the dull work of carefully handling the carcass while at the same time keeping watch in order to avoid being ambushed by some opportunistic beasts, Frank conjured a campfire. This was our traditional meal after a successful hunt. Though it was interrupted last time we would make this time all the more amazing to make up for it. Sometimes I find how much importance we place on such a simple act quite dubious, but like so many other things this is just inexplicably satisfying. With the snap of Frank¡¯s finger, a spark was sent out, igniting the dry firewood. At the same time a waterball slowly descended into the empty pot, filling about three quarters of it. Already knowing what was going to happen next, we carried a cutting board with a lot of finely cut up meat on top of it over, pouring it into the big pot above the quietly burning flame. As soon as the water started to steam Frank went to work with glee, the wooden spoon that suddenly appeared in his hands constantly swirling around. I picked the herbs that we had already prepared beforehand up and threw them in at regular intervals while Owen tended to the fire, making sure it would stay at the perfect temperature. Of course all of this would be far easier if we were to use the full extent of our abilities. Especially the part of tending to the fire. But it just felt wrong to do so after years of manual cooking. Well, with the exception of the herb picking. As we found out a few years ago it is impossible to create any living things in our core spaces, even plants are impossible. This is quite strange considering the products you get from harvesting plants like wood and corn are easily producible, though far costlier in terms of mana consumption. We pondered about this issue quite a bit and tried to find possible solutions, but in the end we couldn¡¯t think of anything that could solve this. When we asked Teacher he answered that he also didn¡¯t know, but he speculated that it was most likely a matter of lacking mana. After all, it was proven time and time again that nothing is impossible to create as long as you have enough mana. His words disappointed us quite a bit though. If even he, a more than 200 years old monster, can¡¯t create living beings then it will be quite difficult for us to even hope to do so in our lives. Especially because of the low life expectancy that most warriors have. I just hope that we will survive long enough for us to create life. When my hand grabbed nothing but air I inspected the result of my work: The previously crystal clear water had now become a light brown that barely let me see a few centimeters into it. A mouthwatering aroma spread through the area, causing me to gulp the accumulating saliva down. ¡°How long until it¡¯s ready?¡± I asked him impatiently. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, it will be ready in a few minutes. Trust me, I¡¯m just as eager to eat this delicious meat as you but good beast meat takes time, you know?¡± He answered without looking up, still stirring with gusto. Greta was a few meters away from us, looking anywhere but in our direction. In the beginning we tried to incorporate her but¡­a lot of accidents happened. Painful accidents that involved burns and cuts. Lots of them. In the end we deemed her unfit and let her wash the dishes, where she wouldn¡¯t be able to accidentally hurt anyone unless she acts really stupidly. We waited wordlessly for our meal to finish, none of us even bothering to hide the hunger that was growing with every second. Frank¡¯s stirring abruptly slowly came to a halt, prompting our bestial gazes to wander to concentrate on him. Owen also stopped his fanning, standing up with a heavily decorated bowl as wide as an adult¡¯s palm in his hands. Seeing his actions, we did the same, bowls of the same size but extremely different decorations appearing in our hands. Frank carefully used his spoon to fill each of our bowls to the brim. Slowly sitting down in order to prevent the soup from spilling out, I took a sip. The deliciously hot soup flowed down my throat, warming my entire being. I let out a quiet moan of satisfaction before resuming drinking it. When the soup was gone I attacked the soft meat, ravishing it until there wasn¡¯t even a speck of it left. I leaned back in contentment, staring up at the night sky. The familiar sight of hundreds of white specks dotting the otherwise dark sky soothed my mind. A big red object looking like an oversized star was plainly visible, taking its usual place in the middle of the night sky. It was too small to be a moon but too big for a star in the distance, coupled with the fact that it only occasionally appeared I concluded that it had to be another star in this solar system. ¡°Frank, seriously now, how the hell do you manage to make this food so fucking delicious?¡± Greta interrupted the peaceful atmosphere. My head resumed its normal position, just in time to see Greta leaning forward, her eyebrows knitted together in a frown that was directed at Frank. ¡°It has something to do with your tools, right? I bet you enchanted them to make the food you make better.¡± She continued with her speculations, her gaze drifting off. ¡°Pfff is this envy I hear?¡± Frank remarked, a mischievous smirk on his face. Greta¡¯s eyes regained their focus and she sent a sharp look at Frank, probably wanting to prove that she was serious. I could understand her sentiment but wasting mana on something like that is just ridiculous, no one right in their mind would do that if it could be used far more efficiently. Owen stood up and walked to the pot, pouring another helping into his bowl. I noticed that the deer intricately carved onto its surface started to glow in a dim yellow that was similar to the color of the soup. ¡°Owen, am I just seeing things or is your bowl glowing?¡± I tried to confirm that I wasn¡¯t hallucinating. He looked at me strangely. ¡°You only noticed that now? It¡¯s been like this for a few weeks, you know?¡± I looked at the bowls of the others, seeing that theirs had a similar glow but in different colors. Greta¡¯s rabbits were a calming white whilst Frank¡¯s birds that were flying through the sky glowed in a ferocious scarlet, resembling small phoenixes. What have I been doing to have missed this fascinating spectacle? I looked down at the plain white snake-like dragons on my bowl, thinking about which color would suit them best. Back in my childhood in New Pandora I was so very fascinated by a whole plethora of things, especially the myths of the region on Earth that we used to call Orient. I still remember spending uncountable hours reading every imaginable bit of information regarding it, all the while having a carefree smile on my face. But all of this information doesn¡¯t really help me in deciding on which color would be the best one. As I couldn¡¯t really decide on the fly I decided to visit my core space for inspiration. Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. The previously lukewarm environment became a comfortable one where the temperature was just perfectly right. It was like being shined on by the sun on a warm summer: Refreshing and calming. I was standing on an elevated platform made stone bricks that was about three hundred meters high, enabling me to see far into the distance, where differently colored hills and valleys spread out in the distance. Every color I could even remotely think of was represented, their vibrancy somewhat making up for the fact that there wasn¡¯t a single shred of life present. No plants, no animals. Nothing. This is another reason I would really like to be able to create life. To hear the melodious songs of small birds that won¡¯t kill you on first sight. To to see a natural environment that doesn¡¯t endanger your life with every passing second. To be able to actually appreciate the scenery instead of having to be on guard against every single fucking thing that would be able to kill you in the blink of an eye. I looked up, seeing an endless expanse of white covering the sky. It was an unnatural color, but it would stay like this until core space becomes big enough to have a complete solar system. Which, considering that the whole area available to me is not even close to being as big as the area humanity inhabits, is at the very least a few centuries away. Not that this says a lot. The territory we are able to defend isn¡¯t even big enough for us to need maps. There are just a few roads to every settlement, with nothing but giant farms and pastures in between. The only reason we are even able to live peacefully is due to the low mana concentration in the air, causing the growth of the beasts to be slower than it would be in other regions. I can¡¯t help but wonder about the strength of the beasts that grow up in these supposedly mana dense areas. If we are already struggling with the relatively weak ones how strong do they have to be? The only word I can think of is absolutely terrifying. Shaking my head, I concentrated on the current situation again. The platform itself was about ten meters wide, more than enough to walk around on. Although I say platform, in reality this is a gigantic tower that is about three hundred meters high. It is made of gray bricks, further enhancing one¡¯s impression of it being a tower. I noted the failed attempt at making a crossbow still lying in a remote corner. Through lots and lots of experimentation I had found out that I had no freaking clue how crossbows are supposed to work. Sure, I had seen some pictures in the Internet before but they didn¡¯t really help me out. It was an eye opener that also made me realize why I couldn¡¯t completely replicate a gun. Yes, I thought that all parts that needed to make it work were present, but what did I know of the many intricacies of a gun? For all I know a bunch of essential things could be missing or configured wrongly. As such I decided to simply use a bow, which at least aren¡¯t really complicated to make and maintain. And they are easily strengthened and enchanted too as I know exactly which part needs to be strengthened in what way. Stepping past the remainder of my shattered dreams, I quickly walked towards the ledge of the tower, where I waited for my means of transport to arrive. Barely a minute passed until a silver blur whizzed through the air, its destination being me. When it came closer it slowed down until it stopped in front of me. It looked like a mixture between a body suit that also included the head and a medieval full body armor with the multitude of ring like plates overlapping each other, giving the armor a slender and smooth look. The bigger plates at the joints provided decent mobility, enabling me to perform nearly every move I would normally be able to. In the places where plates would be awkward like at the armpits a scalemail suit, which was the second layer of defense, could be seen, offering a decent overall protection. The helmet was essentially an oval egg that was similar to the shape of my head with the exception of the metal forming a cone in front of the mouth, protecting my jaw, teeth and nose from blunt attacks. A broad slit allowed me to view the world around me even though that wasn¡¯t really necessary in my core dimension as I was able to feel my surroundings here anyway. It would be quite useful once my channels are strong enough to transport it outside though and another enchantment would hopefully keep any projectiles away. The breast area, legs and arms however were covered by bigger plates that had the same shape as the counterparts they were supposed to protect, just a bit bigger in order to avoid hindering my movements and provide enough place for the others layers. I activated one of its many enchantments, causing it to liquefy. It formed a puddle on the ground, from where the cool liquid began flowing up incorporeal body. A second and a decent bit of mana later the armor had completely reformed, enabling me to enjoy the soft padding on the inside. I tested whether the movement was still as smooth as it was supposed to be and wasn¡¯t disappointed as the multitude of plates seamlessly stacked onto each other. The other enchantments I had painstakingly placed on it would prevent me from being simply crushed by the concussive force of strong hits and also enable me to handle riskier movements in the air without experiencing strong aftereffects from the g-force. Unfortunately, every improvement I made only served to delay the day that I would be able to use this masterpiece of mine even further. Considering that I was nearly killed by that damned lion I should get a decent set of armor soon, my enchanted clothes won¡¯t be able to prevent me from dying should I encounter such a beast again. But that is something for another day. The most important thing right now is giving my beloved bowl a shiny enchantment. I quickly shot off the ground to fly upwards, enabling me to see every landscape I had created. It was a random mess of colors, making it look like something a madman might have dreamed up. After a bit of looking around I found my gaze lingering on the azure sea surrounding this land. Making my way towards it, I wondered if this was the color I had been searching for. I looked down at the bowl in my hands. Well, it¡¯s certainly worth a try. I stopped midair and started do descend until my feet touched the gray ground under my feet. Even though I was just meters away from a gigantic mass of water nothing could be heard. The water was completely still, not even a single ripple could be seen. Silence, why is it that it is sometimes enjoyable and sometimes just lonely? It reminds me of the time when I still possessed that damned artifact, of the time I spent a lot of time on my blue spaceship. It reminds me of the time I was lonely. Yes, blue is a truly fitting color. Let it be a reminder that I have friends again, ones that I won¡¯t lose under any circumstances. So that I may not repeat some of the mistakes of the past. With a smile on my face I initiated the process of enchanting. Chapter 23 - In Hostile Territory I exited my core space, a brilliant smile still plastered on my face. ¡°Did anything good happen?¡± Greta, who was the first one to look up from her bowl, asked. ¡°No, I¡¯m just in a good mood.¡± I replied, making my way to the nearly empty pot. How much time had passed? It¡¯s always so hard to tell when I¡¯m in the core. ¡°Oh, okay.¡± She went back to shoveling the soup into her mouth. ¡°So, what color did you choose?¡± Owen inquired. He was sitting right next to Greta, with Frank a few meters to the right. ¡°Azure.¡± I kept my answer brief as I was more focused on determining whether my enchantment had worked correctly or not. I arrived in front of the pot and proceeded to pour another helping into my bowl. As soon as the delicious liquid touched its surface a brilliant azure began to cover the engraved dragons, even managing to tint the surroundings blue. Nodding in satisfaction, I sat down next to Frank. ¡°Nice.¡± He remarked absentmindedly. ¡°Yeah.¡± I looked at his bowl. ¡°Was there a reason you chose scarlet?¡± I tried to keep the conversation alive. It would be interesting if he had a specific reason to do so, though I don¡¯t really expect much. He¡¯s still quite young after all. Nearly a child. ¡°Not really. It¡¯s just that I always liked that color.¡± He stopped staring at his bowl and directed his gaze at me. ¡°I guess you had one if you are asking me like that.¡± The interest was plainly evident on his face. ¡°Well, you could say so.¡± I looked up, marveling at the beauty of the stars again. Sometimes I wish I had someone I could share my past life with who wouldn¡¯t think I¡¯m crazy. Seeing that I wasn¡¯t going to explain it, he shrugged and resumed eating. The rest of the meal went by in a comfortable silence. After watching Greta washing our dirty bowls and pot with smiles on our faces we finished packing up quickly. I stood up and stretched, activating my mana vision while doing so. The others followed my example, their expressions showing that they didn¡¯t like what was going to happen next. Conjuring my bow and strapping it to my back, we started walking again. I was in the front with Owen and Greta protecting the sides and Frank being the rear guard. Although I say it like that we went in a pretty loose formation due to the omnidirectional nature of the others senses. My mana vision traded that for increased accuracy, so I¡¯m not really bothered by that. ¡°Do we really have to do this?¡± Owen complained. ¡°You know that time is of essence.¡± Frank replied, sending him an annoyed glare. Owen sighed and resigned himself to his fate. *Tap* *Tap* Our feet softly burrowed into the ground with every step we took, the sounds they made nearly unnoticeable due to the crickets around us. Occasionally a fearsome roar could faintly be heard from the direction of the mountains, thankfully meaning that the owners of these voices were very far away. Despite that, the mana fluctuations they emitted were like miniature suns that threatened to blind me. How come that I can see the mana fluctuations of their attacks but not the beings they originated from? Given their monstrous power they should be just as blinding as their attacks. While I was pondering I didn¡¯t forget to regularly look around, inspecting the surroundings for a bright pink light, but the only things I found were a few dimmer ones loitering a few hundred meters away. Aside from that the grass shone with an unusually bright green glow and the trees, which we encountered more frequently as we progressed, were even brighter. Though not to the level of being threatening, I made sure to keep an eye on them whenever we passed them. If even superheated mass of gas can develop a consciousness, who says that a tree can¡¯t? The fact that we were in a ravine where there wasn¡¯t even a speck of grass helped to calm me immensely when the mana levels of the vegetation started to rise the closer we got to the forest. It was certainly not normal, especially since plants tend to have minimal mana levels. At the same time animals became more and more scarce, until the only ones we saw were far away. What the hell is happening? Whatever it is, it¡¯s influence doesn¡¯t extend to the region that humans inhabit. Otherwise it would have been killed long ago. So it is something native to this region? A plant monster perhaps? ¡°Guys, did you notice that there is something seriously wrong with the situation?¡± I asked. In the unlikely case they hadn¡¯t, it should be better to inform them. I turned around to see their expressions and noted that none of them seemed surprised by my words. Greta rubbed her nose ¡°The smell of plants has been becoming stronger and stronger over time, right? And I can¡¯t really smell the presence of animals anymore.¡± She replied with a frown on her face. ¡°And there have been some strange sounds coming from our surroundings.¡± Owen added. I frowned. Strange sounds? Frank nodded at Owen¡¯s words. ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s similar to that of an animal, but at the same time it isn¡¯t.¡± he clarified. If both of them are able to sense it, that would mean that something that we haven¡¯t ever encountered is in the surroundings. ¡°Wait, it is coming closer!¡± Owens shouted and pointed at his right. I looked around, seeing five massive but relatively dim pink lights moving towards our location. They vaguely had the shape of an ant, just far, far bigger than it should be. These ant-like things were at least 2 meter tall. ¡°It looks like a two meter big version of an ant, be careful.¡± I informed them of what I saw. This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. ¡°What is an ant?¡± Owen quietly asked in a confused tone. I wanted to slap myself at this blunder. Of course they don¡¯t know what an ant is! I guess these gigantic beings are this world¡¯s version of ants. Hopefully they aren¡¯t as numerous as their counterparts in my old world, otherwise we are seriously screwed. ¡°It¡¯s an insect, okay?¡± I whispered. The ants were just a few meters away, their antennas constantly probing around. ¡°Let¡¯s slowly move back, maybe they won¡¯t attack us.¡± I suggested. I drew my bow just in case and stepped slowly moved back. I could hear the others footsteps coinciding with mine as I watched the oversized ants move towards us. When they reached the edge of the road of destruction, their antennas began to feel around the ripped out roots of the grass. ¡°I see what you mean now.¡± Frank grimly said. Seeing that they would quickly catch up to us at this rate, I began aiming my bow at their direction. One of the ants promptly climbed down, the others not taking long to follow it. We quickly found ourselves eye to eye with the insects that still had hints of blood covering their pinchers. As soon as they had solid ground under them they launched themselves at us. We responded by firing arrows at them, two of which hit two of the ants in their beady eyes, sinking deep into them. The other two arrows managed to penetrate their tough looking carapaces and one embedded themselves in what I believe to be a shoulder and another inside a leg. Though the ones hit gave high pitches wails from them, they didn¡¯t stop advancing. We moved back with even faster speed, drawing our bows again while doing so. We shot the arrows again, this time they were better aimed due to the insects moving in a straight line. Now, all of them imbedded themselves in their eyes. Unfortunately though that didn¡¯t seem to stop them either, no, rather than that they even became faster. Volley after volley was fired at them, every shit hitting them at spots that should have hurt immensely. It wasn¡¯t until I had shot twelve arrows that the first finally collapsed. The rest quickly followed, the injuries they had sustained were just too severe. After the last one fell, we began to slowly approach its corpse, our close combat weapons ready to kill it another time if necessary. As I deactivated my mana vision to get a better look at it, the first thing that I noticed was its unusual green blood that flowed out from its nearly obliterated eyes. It was an extremely gross sight to look at, especially because it was an insect, causing me to avert my gaze. But when I did so I saw the other corpses, which were just as gruesome. A sigh came out of the deepest recesses of my heart. Let¡¯s get this over with quickly. We went to a corpse each and retrieved the core from its head, being careful to avoid any blood splatters when cracking their skulls open. I nearly gagged when I started to rummage through their mushy brains to retrieve the cores, though I think I was the only one. Greta however handled two, another course of action enforced due to her being unable of doing anything productive while preparing our meals. She did so with a disgusted frown on her face and shot a few hateful glares at us after the deed was done, which I elegantly ignored. Remembering that we were still in the operating range of their colony I shouted ¡°Let¡¯s get out of here quickly!¡± I started sprinting forward, not leaving them any time to reply. They quickly caught up and we ran at a speed that we would be able to hold as a long as our channels would be able to handle the strain. ¡°Why are we running?¡± Owen arrived next to me. ¡°If my assumptions are correct these ants-¡± He gave me that confused stare again. ¡°Insects live in colonies, which would mean that, firstly: We could possibly have hundreds of thousands of those beasts chasing us. And secondly: That we are in their territory.¡± I looked deeply into his eyes, showing him that the situation was dead serious. He gulped in response, his steps unconsciously becoming more powerful and faster. Frank and Greta, who had listened to our brief conversation, also started accelerating. I struggled to breath evenly, the mere thought of a whole nest of those beasts coming after me was enough to cause me to nearly piss my pants. ¡°Then why are going so slowly? We should be doing our best to get out of here as fast as possible!¡± Frank remarked after he had calmed down a bit. He is right, who knows whether these ants can somehow detect that we had killed their brethren. Even if they can¡¯t, I don¡¯t feel safe so deep within their territory. We didn¡¯t talk after that anymore as we were more occupied with finding a balance between mana consumption and our fear of being pursued. Maybe I should have paid more attention to Teachers lessons on balance all those years ago. Minutes passed, but the tension didn¡¯t lessen up one bit. No, if anything it worsened over time as we began to see more and more of those beasts as we advanced. Fortunately, none of them noticed us so we were able to progress without any problems besides our channels slowly beginning to ache from the continuous strain. Suddenly four brightly glowing spots appeared in my vision. When I looked closer, I noticed that they seemed to be even bigger versions of the already gigantic normal ones I had seen until now. And far more powerful too, if I¡¯m not seeing things. We stopped in unison, but seemingly at the same time those brightly glowing ants started to rush into our direction. Shit! How were they able to sense us from this distance? Chapter 24 - Ants Cant Fly, Right? ¡°Prepare for battle, they are coming from the front!¡± I whispered through gritted teeth. ¡°I know that too, we¡¯re not completely senseless, you know?¡± Frank whispered back harshly. ¡°Shut up and focus!¡± Greta waved her club, which she had hastily conjured, around in a threatening manner. I pulled the bowstring back, asking myself whether this would even be effective against these new, more powerful enemies. It didn¡¯t take them long to arrive at the edge of the ravine, but instead of using their antennas to probe around they simply jumped down, continuing their advance. We started to backpedal as fast as we could, but their speed matched ours when we were sprinting, giving us only enough time to fire a single shot. Our arrows turned into blurs, hitting their carapaces in a split second. To our disappointment they didn¡¯t manage to do any harm. They simply bounced off their hard bodies, proving that sharp weapons wouldn¡¯t be very effective against them. Unfortunately, I didn¡¯t have enough time to swap weapons as they were already upon us, their pincers widening. My feet dug deep into the ground as I stopped my backward movement and arched my back in preparation for an overhead swing. ¡°Fuck!¡± I cursed when I saw that the others continued retreating. To add salt to the wound the ants they should have handled didn¡¯t pursue them but turned around to face me. I couldn¡¯t spare any attention to them however. The threatening pinchers of my original foe were already dangerously close. I wanted to gather fire mana to propel myself forward, but when nothing came out I realized that I had forgotten to do so yesterday. Exploiting the brief hesitation in my movements the ant shot at me, its pinchers that were far longer than that of a normal ant suddenly emanating an extremely strong brown light. I didn¡¯t have any time for thinking about the origin of this sudden change in color and brightness however. The ant was far closer than I would have liked, so I did my best to jump up in hope of evading its attack. My posture at made that quite awkward though and I ended up performing some kind of strange backflip. Which, though it looked pretty cool, didn¡¯t help me at all. The pinchers suddenly blurred and in the next moment a shockwave assaulted my ears. Noticing a sinking sensation, I prayed that the shockwave had been the result of its pinchers crashing together, otherwise my survival chances will become even smaller than they already are. Wait! I can fly, can¡¯t I? Gathering as much air as I was able to in that split second, I used it to propel myself upwards. I heaved a sigh when I saw that the ants were still on the ground. What was I worrying about? They can¡¯t follow me up here unless they happen to have wings, and ants have no wings. ¡°Fuck you John! You are seriously too fucking reckless!¡± Frank flew over and punched me lightly in the gut. We were still in mid-combat after all, so he couldn¡¯t just beat me to a pulp. ¡°JOHN!¡± Greta and Owen arrived at the same time, and punched me at the exact same spot Frank did. I doubled over in pain and did my best to concentrate on flying and suppressing the pain at the same time. It didn¡¯t work out as I had planned though and I slowly began to sink down. Fortunately, their hands grabbed my clothes in nearly the same instant, preventing me from falling down and getting into the attacking range of the ants. ¡°What do we-¡° I started to say, but I was interrupted by a strange sound from below. It sounded like the buzzing a mosquito makes, just far louder and more annoying. My eyes widened when I realized what this could mean and when I looked down my worst fears were confirmed: The ants had somehow pushed parts of their carapaces onto the side, revealing the pair of almost transparent wings underneath. ¡°Oh shit.¡± I muttered. Not wasting any more time, I conjured my warhammer. Its familiar weight in my hand calmed me down somewhat, at least enough to think about the next action I should take. I shook the bodies of Greta and Frank with my hands. ¡°Quick! Let¡¯s attack them while they are busy!¡± I shouted at them and Owen, whom I tapped on his head. Frank recovered quicker than the others and proceeded to nod. Owen ruffled his already messy hair in annoyance, mumbling a string nearly inaudible of curses. Greta just deeply breathed in and out, but she at least nodded, signifying that she had understood me. *ZZZZZZ* Whipping my head around, I saw that it was nearly too late. They were already beginning to take off. ¡°NOW!¡± I shouted at the top of my lungs. I reversed the direction of the airstream that previously kept me afloat, accelerating as much as I could as I brought my hammer down on the one below me. The insect¡¯s dangerously glowing pinchers were facing me, but I didn¡¯t care about something as trivial as that. In midair, I had far more freedom than on ground. A gust of air from my back caused my trajectory to change. I sailed past its opened pinchers with a smile on my face, which further widened when my hammer impacted the middle of its back. Its body buckled from the sheer force that was suddenly applied to its back and I watched in glee as that part of its carapace cracked. The world suddenly turned upside down and I felt myself being thrown through the air. I futilely tried to search for something to hold on but the smooth surface of its carapace had no such spots aside from the cracks I had already flown past. I then realized the direction I was flung into. It¡¯s aiming to get me to its head! Even though I tried to expel air into the opposite direction, there was only so much I could do in the extremely short time I had to react. A bright brown object rammed into my side, flinging me away like a ragdoll. Before I could even scream in pain my body dug a hole into the road of destruction. All kinds of dirt and other kinds disgusting things that were in the ground filled my open mouth. In my panic I used a huge burst of air that pushed me a few meters away from the hole. I landed on my back, but I didn¡¯t stay in that position for more than half a second before I flipped myself around and started choking on the things in my mouth. Tears started flowing out of my eyes as the choking became more and more intense. I was close to puking when the silver glint of my hammer, which had landed beside me, caught my eye. Remembering that I was still in combat I did my best to suppress all of my instincts and picked it up. I spat as much dirt out as I could and looked around for any trace of my opponent. Just in time to see Owen¡¯s multicolored body coming dangerously close. He missed me by a few centimeters, but the light gale that followed after him ruffled my hair and sprayed bits of dirt against my face. If he had crashed into me at that speed¡­we would have probably both been taken out of that fight. Even though I wanted to see how Frank and Greta were doing, my and Frank¡¯s ants were already quickly approaching us, leaving me no time for anything else. I turned around and sprinted back while looking for Owen. Seeing him being busy with pulling his axe out of a small hole, I rushed at him and we hurriedly yanked it out with all our strength. He turned around to thank me, but when he saw what was quickly approaching us he went silent. A dangerous glint appeared in his eyes, something I had never seen before. ¡°Let¡¯s fight together.¡± He calmly said. As that was indeed the best option I nodded. ¡°Let¡¯s fight in the air. I¡¯m sure we are more mobile than them.¡± I suggested. He grunted in response. The insects were barely three meters away by now, so we took off at the same time. The insects didn¡¯t take long to follow us though, but that brief amount of time was enough for us to determine that we would attack the one I had injured first. It had a more grievous wound, making it easier to kill. Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. Owen will aim for its antennas while I¡¯ll try to get another hit at the same spot. Everything would depend on whether or not we would be able to hit it. If we didn¡¯t, well, things would get problematic. We exploded into action, me using an extremely wasteful amount of air and Owen his flames to accelerate to the fastest speed possible. The insects, obviously not expecting our sudden burst, took a moment longer to react. We used this single moment to our full advantage, accelerating even more and arriving in that brief time. Due to the speed I was moving in I wasn¡¯t able to exactly determine the direction I was moving in, so I ended up missing my target by a bit. The crater on its back was just barely out of reach, but I didn¡¯t have any time to correct my course. I screamed as I mustered all the force I was able to in midair and swung it at the spot closest to its wound. The following crunch and the ants scream were music in my ears. Especially when I saw that Owen had managed to cut one of its antennas off. Our victim squirmed around in a crazed manner, the pain seeming to affect it more than I had anticipated. It gradually lost control of its wings and fell out of the sky. All the remaining insects emitted painfully high shrieks when they saw what had happened to their comrade. Their whole bodies lighted up in a deep brown and they seemed to have gone berserk, recklessly rushing at my and Owen¡¯s position. The nearest ant, which had been unexpectedly calm until we smashed its comrade out of the sky, was the first one to arrive. Its pinchers weren¡¯t open at all, most likely due to having noticed that it would be hard to hit us with them in the air, but its six appendages were glowing so brightly that I was sure that being hit by them wouldn¡¯t end up well for me. I frantically shot air into numerous directions as I did my best to evade them, all the while waiting for an opportunity to strike. It didn¡¯t come however as its remaining comrades also arrived at the scene. A gust if air pushed me further up in hope of giving me more time, but they were faster. The first thin appendage grazed me at the shoulder, but the sheer power contained in it sent me spinning. Before I could stabilize myself another one hit my right arm, nearly breaking it. I was barraged by hit after hit, every single one more painful than the last. They came from nearly angle with no discernable rhythm. I curled up and let myself fall in hopes of escaping the pain. Thankfully I was quickly smashed out of the sky by a hit and landed on the ground safely. If I had suffered wounds from the fall, I didn¡¯t notice them due to the already omnipresent pain. A pair of warm hands pulled me up, causing even more pain to erupt from every part of my body. I gasped, accidentally swallowing some of the dirt that was still in my mouth in the process. ¡°No time for that John! We got more pressing things to do!¡± Greta hissed. Finally paying attention to my surroundings again, I noticed that Greta was standing right next to me, her originally long hair far shorter at some points than others. Her hand was pointing up, to be precise at the scene of Owen and Frank doing their best to dodge the insects¡¯ attacks. Searching around for my hammer, I noticed that it was somehow still in my hands. I smiled at the unexpected occurrence, but quickly shoved the thought that were coursing through my head into the back of my mind. Let¡¯s hope that this will be the last time we and these fucked up insects clash. I wanted to jump up, but the pain that suddenly intensified in my legs due to that made me fall down instead. Greta had already taken off and joined the others in their hectic fight, moving through the air as if she hadn¡¯t sustained any injuries. I grit my teeth and used my hammer as a support to stand up. Pumping even more mana into my body than I already had, I was finally able to ignore most of the pain. In exchange for that though my channels were near the point of bursting and I knew that I had already strained them more than enough. If I were to continue like this for more than a few minutes my fighting ability will be dramatically decreased. Still, I couldn¡¯t just let them fight while I lie on the ground like a damned deadweight. For fucks sake, I have the strongest body and the highest amount of mana! If there¡¯s anyone who should be fighting up there, it should be me! I took off with a blast, my already injured body groaning under the sudden force. The mana and adrenaline pumping through my body somehow suppressed the pain to the point where I could barely feel a stinging pain with every heartbeat. I saw Frank keeping an insect at bay with his superior range, his spear threatening to stab another hole into it every time it came close. Having determined my first target, I aimed my hammer at its vulnerable looking third segment that didn¡¯t seem to fulfill any real purpose except being a good target. The blow unexpectedly didn¡¯t crack its carapace but completely burst it into pieces, spraying some strange bright pink liquid at my whole body. The insect immediately fell out of the sky and I saw an astonished Frank who was staring at me with wide eyes. I didn¡¯t acknowledge him, immediately rushing towards the nearest one, which happened to give Owen quite a hard time. It¡¯s six appendages weren¡¯t moving particularly fast, but their sheer number was quite hard to defend against. Especially because they could potentially come from every direction. Owen¡¯s axe required him to get close to it, disadvantaging him even further. I shot towards it, fully intent on crushing its vulnerable segment again. What I didn¡¯t expect though was that it would send an appendage at me while the rest of its body was still focused on Owen. I shot a gust to the side, causing it to only rip another hole into my already ruined clothes. Before it could send another appendage at me I smashed my hammer down with the help of air accelerating it. Just like the previous time, it broke into pieces, and the same strange liquid showered my lower body. Owen thanked me and when we wanted to fly towards the last one I noticed that the fight was already over. Frank was standing right next to Greta, his spearhead and a part of its shaft filled with the strange liquid. What is this stuff? It¡¯s definitely not blood, its consistency is far too tough for that. It also clings to my clothes as if it were glue, not even letting go after I sprayed it with a bit of water. Deciding that I had more important things to worry about, I looked around, wanting to confirm that it was truly over. I only saw some ants in the distance. It was strangely calm in our surroundings, and no ants had come here to assist their kin either, which, now that I think about it, was quite strange. All the pain that I had ignored up to this point suddenly hit me like a spaceship. I started to plummet towards the ground. Every shred of control I used to have over my body vanished, and I could only helplessly watch as the ground quickly got closer. Owen caught me before I could impact it, and we slowly descended to the ground, where both of us collapsed. ¡°Fuck! That was far too close¡± I shouted, the never ending pain being a constant reminder that I was too reckless, again. Chapter 25 - Problems Wait, we just fought ants, right? And ants live in colonies. Wouldn¡¯t that mean that there are plenty more of these fuckers? But why didn¡¯t their comrades help them? Ants are supposed to be social creatures that help each other when in need, not some beasts that just ignore their struggling comrades. I sighed, tasting the dirt in my mouth again. Maybe I should have listened more attentively in the biology lessons. Deciding that healing myself was more important than cleaning my mouth, I searched for my core bag. After a few minutes of searching, interrupted by the occasional wince due to moving in a wrong manner, I found it near where I had been pummeled. I wiped the dirt away, discovering that it was fortunately mostly undamaged with only a few loose strings and small holes that weren¡¯t big enough for a core to slip through. A quick count later I confirmed that no cores had been lost. I opened the bag and grabbed two cores, pushing them into my mouth. They dissolved into a torrent of mana that flowed down my injured channels, causing me to hiss at the unexpected pain. I then took the miniature house out and threw it onto a relatively smooth part of the road of destruction, watching its expansion quietly. No matter how strong those insects are, they won¡¯t be able to destroy the barrier of this house. If even that terrifying monster couldn¡¯t then I¡¯m quite sure that nothing in a vast area around the human territory can. I made my way towards the open entrance. ¡°Hold on, what do you think you are doing John?¡± Greta shouted. I was just short of reaching the doorframe, but her words made me turn around. I saw that she was quite busy with cracking the head of an insect open. ¡°Recovering, of course. If we were to be attacked in this state even the core of a founder wouldn¡¯t help us survive.¡± I replied, wasting not a single second in entering the house. ¡°WAIT, you won¡¯t be going in with these clothes!¡± Frank shouted. I looked down on my clothes and discovered that the strange pink liquid was still plastered all over my clothes. If I had entered the house with that stuff clinging onto my clothes I would have been in for a very long cleaning session. With Frank¡¯s abnormal love for cleanliness he would surely have forced me to scrub every single hair on the carpet. And the wooden boards below them. Probably the ground underneath the house too. I scratched my head in annoyance. If I¡¯m already at it, I can clean my mouth too. Storing my clothes in my core space, I conjured a big ball of water that I used to wipe all of the sticky liquids and other gooey stuff that got onto my body during the fight off while carefully avoiding the spots that were cut open. Switching that ball of water with a smaller one, I cleaned every nook and cranny of my mouth with a thorough flood. The others didn¡¯t even bat an eyelid at my nudity. Even though they were normally quite mature they were still children in certain areas. Not to mention that no one had ever told them that being nude around each other was wrong. Which is definitely something that I have to change as soon as puberty hits. My cheeks reddened at the thought of the many¡­unexpected incidents that could happen. Yes, I definitely have to change that in the future. If possible as soon as puberty hits. Frank¡¯s¡­business in the night is already bad enough, and I refuse to endure any more than that. After making sure that I was completely clean, I absorbed the water and stepped past the doorframe. I made my way towards the comfortable looking couch that was covered in furs. I collapsed onto them face first, grunting in pain and comfort at the same time. I started circulating the incredible amount of mana that was coursing through my channels and put my whole focus on recovering as quickly as possible. The pain in my channels slowly faded away, followed by a gradual lessening of the pain that indicated that the healing process was working. The mana from the cores vanished a few hours later. My wounds, however, didn¡¯t. I turned my mana sight off to properly inspect them. Most of the bruises that should have healed by now were still blue and the cuts only became more shallow. This is definitely not what was supposed to happen. With the amount of mana contained in the cores I should have completely healed by now. Stolen story; please report. I popped another core into my mouth, but this time I focused the mana into one of the particularly nasty bruises that still hurt like hell. It healed in the span of half an hour. Far slower than it should have. Checking the mana that was coursing through my channels, I noted that it had also taken more mana than normally. What¡¯s happening? I stopped the circulation and looked around. It only took me a cursory glance to find the others, who were positioned around me in various positions. I tapped Owen, who was sprawled out next to me, on the head until he snapped out of his meditation. ¡°W-what?¡± He shook his head, his mind still clouded from the comfort of meditation. ¡°Check your wounds. Does anything seem unusual?¡± I asked him quickly. He made a confused face, but complied nonetheless. It only took him a second to look up again, this time with a serious expression. ¡°Do you know what is going on?¡± He asked. I sighed, lifting my hands past my shoulders in exasperation. ¡°If I did I would tell you a way to solve it, wouldn¡¯t I?¡± I proceeded to point at the still visible wounds. ¡°You see these? I¡¯m also suffering.¡± His gaze followed my fingers, finally landing on the spots I was pointing at. He compared them with his, which were far fewer and winced on my behalf. ¡°Ouch, these look like they hurt pretty much.¡± He commented, reaching out to touch one of particularly nasty bruises. I swatted his hand away, giving him a glare that told him to not try that again. ¡°Yes, it does. Let¡¯s get back to healing again. Time is precious, so we shouldn¡¯t waste it.¡± Owen rolled his eyes. ¡°John, stop. Seriously, you sound like an old man when you speak like this.¡± He closed his eyes again, not giving me any time to respond. Sighing, I did the same. Another indeterminable period of time passed, but this time I didn¡¯t let my mind drift away like I usually do. No, instead of that I studied the healing process with as much attention as I could, but the only thing I found out was that there seemed to be some kind of strange substance being stuck to the parts that were hit by that strange liquid, which was pretty much everywhere except in the face in my case. The only reason I was able to discern that it was still stuck to me was that it was that it began glowing so brightly once I started healing that I was even able to see it through the mana circulating through my eyes But Owen wasn¡¯t hit by the fluid, so how comes that his wounds also heal slower? Even though I mulled over this issue extensively, the reasons remained elusive. It was as if I had the necessary knowledge, but my mind wasn¡¯t able to convert that knowledge into something that I could understand. ¡°John, it¡¯s time for us to move on.¡± Someone blew a gust of air into my ear, causing me to quickly cover my ear. I sat up to see the perpetrator ¡°You do know that I hate this, right?¡± I responded with a scowl on my face. She shrugged her shoulders. ¡°That¡¯s why I did it. Now hurry up, I don¡¯t feel comfortable staying in such a hostile region for so long.¡± She left the couch and joined Owen and Frank, who were watching with a lot of mirth. Looking down at my body, I noted that the liquid had become nearly unnoticeable again. Not that there was much left anyway, it had mostly vanished while I was healing. I summoned one of the many sets of spare clothes I always kept in reserve directly onto my body, deciding that I was too mature to let myself get caught in their pace. Looking at the frail clothes that only had some weak enchantments as protection, I made a mental note to make a set of decent armor that would be capable of protecting me somewhat. But that will have to wait until I get to a safe location, otherwise I won¡¯t be able to gather enough mana to do so without emptying my reserves. Damned ants, they are destroying every single plan of mine. Once I become strong enough I will come back to this area and annihilate every single of them. And solve the mystery regarding that freaking fluid. If I¡¯m able to live that long, that is. I just hope we won¡¯t encounter something even stronger than these ants. Or else we¡¯d be fucked royally. Chapter 26 - Unexpected Happenings AN: Again, sorry for the extremely late release. School is currently taking up all of my free time, leaving me almost none to write or edit. Aside from that, I''m also guilty of starting a collaboration fic with Donkeymonsterz. I''m going to be honest with you: It''s going to delay the releases, but I''ll try to release chapter normally starting next week. When we exited the house the sun was already rising, causing the cold environment outside to slowly warm up. A few dewdrops were glistening atop the road of destruction, displaying how beautiful nature could be if it¡¯s not trying to kill you. I breathed the fresh morning air in, mentally preparing myself for an exhausting day. A flash illuminated the nearly barren walls of the road of destruction. Owen silently went to the spot the house used to stand on, shoving its miniature form into the little leather pouch hanging at his waist. I sighed, wanting to enjoy the moment, but I knew that doing so would only mean unnecessary danger. We¡¯ve already stayed in the same place for quite a few hours, so I¡¯m pretty sure there are at least some curious ants in the area. No need to let our scent leak out and possibly attract some of them. Do ants even track by their sense of smell? I remember reading that they use their antennas to smell pheromones or something, so this isn¡¯t that unlikely. ¡°What are we standing around for? We should leave as soon as possible.¡± Greta, who seemed to have enjoyed the wait the least, suddenly spoke up. She dashed forward, not leaving us any other choice but to follow her. ¡°Can¡¯t she leave us any time to enjoy ourselves for a while?¡± I muttered, having already caught up to her. No other words were exchanged as we got into formation again and began to closely monitor our surroundings for any ants that were getting too close. ---------------------------------- ¡°Another group coming from the right.¡± Greta whispered. I nodded, proceeding to crouch even lower. ¡°Ready?¡± I asked around, wanting to confirm whether they were truly comfortable with the gamble I was about to make with our lives at the stake. Frank scanned the surroundings, preferring to have his eyes closed as they would only be unnecessary distraction. He sighed, obviously not very reassured by my words earlier. ¡°You sure that you want to try this? If you mess up, we¡¯ll probably die.¡± He fidgeted around a bit. It had been a few hours since we set off and we¡¯ve already gotten quite a bit closer to the forest. Unfortunately, this also meant that the ants have become more and more numerous for some reason. We¡¯re probably nearing their nest or something similar, but I don¡¯t remember Teacher ever warning us about ants. Until now, I wasn¡¯t sure whether or not I should test my theory on their perception being mainly centred around smell, but the situation has forced my hands. If it goes on like this, we¡¯ll probably end up being discovered quite soon. And then attacked by a frightening amount of ants. ¡°I don¡¯t know John, aren¡¯t there any other, preferably safer way to test this theory of yours?¡± Owen asked hesitantly. ¡°Of course there are, but if this works then we won¡¯t have to worry about being discovered any time soon.¡± I reassured him, but he didn¡¯t look very convinced. Neither did the others, for that matter. But at least they trusted me enough to not stop me from doing so from the start. Or maybe it¡¯s just that they know the situation as well as I do and have no other solutions. I exhaled nearly all the breath in my lungs. My palms were already full of sweat and I could faintly start to smell an unpleasant smell coming from my armpits. Calm down John. You can do this. I inhaled, my eyes becoming more focused with every passing second. ¡°Okay, on Greta¡¯s sign.¡± I stated rather than ordered. Everyone present already knew what to do. It was completely silent apart from the sounds that the group of ants nearby caused. I held my breath. Despite all my efforts, I couldn¡¯t calm myself completely. Too much was at risk. ¡°S-¡° Greta seemed to have bit on her tongue, which didn¡¯t serve to make any of our tense selves any calmer. ¡°Concentrate for fucks sake!¡± I hissed, maybe a bit more venomously than I had intended to. She sent a glare filled with killing intent my way, showing that I had gone a bit too far. She laid both of her hands on her still childish chest, showing that puberty hadn¡¯t hit her yet. Breathing in and out a few times, she finally managed to calm herself down a bit. I wish that I could stop being so fucking nervous as easily as her. ¡°Start.¡± She said, this time without any interruption. Air erupted from all my pores, forming into a small bubble of air that enveloped me. The air from the inside cycled to the outside, where it came back with small bits of fresh air. The used air that was expelled also contained my smell, causing me to have to be careful to not spread it in a high concentration. I scattered it around a large, conical area behind me, aiming to leave as few clues that I was ever here as possible. I looked at the others, my mana vision confirming that things were proceeding just as planned and no one had any problems with the technique. Although this could be called a form of telekinesis, it was possible due to the relatively low density of ¡°air¡±. Whatever the hell the mix in this atmosphere contains is still a mystery to me, so I¡¯ll just call it that. But it wasn¡¯t that easy either. Air in high volumes is still quite heavy and as such harder to control, which is made even harder by the distinct lack of discernible form. I had to saturate the air I released with quite a bit of water to even distinguish from the normal air that was surrounding around me. Now that I think about it, it¡¯s a mystery how we¡¯re even able to use such complex manoeuvres. It should be impossible with even my level of expertise, but who am I to complain? I¡¯ll take whichever good thing is thrown my way. I grabbed some of the many dried up roots which started to decorate the walls of the road of destruction at some point and proceeded to carefully pull myself up. Abnormally vibrant green grass covered the ground, interrupted by many even brighter trees. The trend of the grass and trees containing more and more mana hadn¡¯t changed, but since they didn¡¯t pose a threat I have come to ignore it in favour of the ants, who could easily overwhelm and kill us if we aren¡¯t careful. The insects slowly got into view as I crept up to them. They were workers, as I had come to call the most common ones that were smaller and weaker than their stronger counterparts, which I called warriors. There were five of them, every single one seeming to move into some random direction, but by now I knew that it only seemed like that. These beasts never do anything without a purpose, whatever it may be. I crouched down again and sneaked closer until I was barely three meters away from one of them. *Badum* *Badum* *Badumbadumbadum* My heart started accelerating at a furious pace when I saw that it suddenly turned around. We stopped, fearing that it had discovered us. The wiry, black frame of the beast that towered over any of us took an eternity to come closer, its antennae moving around chaotically. Has it noticed us? But why isn¡¯t it attacking us then? It moved so agonizingly slowly that the time between each step took seemed like an eternity. Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. There was just a meter of distance between us and the ant now. *Badumbadumbadumbadumbadum* The blood was already starting to rush into my head. My heart, beating so loudly that I was surprised that no one else was able to hear it, only pumped faster with every step it took. I could see its sharp and long pinchers swaying to the side with every step that took it closer to me. Its beady eyes were completely unreadable. They seemed to be unfocused, but if my theory is true then they just weren¡¯t relying on them a lot. Suddenly its antennas sharply whipped around, sending a slight whistling sound into the air. Shit shit shit shitshitshitshit! It has noticed us! I moved my hands to the side, preparing myself for a fight to break out in this very second. Fortunately though, the antennas were pointing into another direction and the ant itself hadn¡¯t taken any action against our presence. A breath, which seemed to have gotten stuck in my throat at some point, was released as I sighed in relief. God fucking damnit, this was too fucking close. A hand touched my shoulder, causing me to turn around. I saw Frank gesturing for us to turn back. He sent me a relieved look that begged me to never do that again, which I sent back. This wasn¡¯t easy for me either. I¡¯ll never do something like this again if it can be avoided. Greta had resumed sending death glares at me, but they weren¡¯t able to do anything to the good mood I was in. It has worked! Now we finally have a way to escape their notice! Using the same route, we returned to our residence, which was our emergency backup in case the plan failed. ¡°John, you fucking asshole!¡± Greta insulted me with suppressed volume. I gave her an apologetic look. ¡°Look, I was pretty nervous, okay?¡± ¡°Still, it was pretty mean.¡± Owen interjected from the sides. I rolled my eyes at him. Seriously? I thought he was on my side. ¡°Apologize.¡± Greta crossed her arms, not moving a bit from her spot. I sighed. ¡°Sorry, okay? I mean it.¡± Following up with my best puppy eyes, I knew she would forgive me before a full minute had passed. She kept staring at me, but finally wavered after a few seconds under the unceasing onslaught of the purest concentration of cuteness that I could muster. ¡°John, never do that again.¡± Frank said, patting my shoulder and giving me a meaningful look. I raised an eyebrow. ¡°Why? It¡¯s obviously quite effective.¡± ¡°Just,¡± He exhaled loudly, the stench from his mouth threatening to overwhelm me. By the founders, what did he eat when I wasn¡¯t looking? ¡°Don¡¯t do that anymore. This sort of crazy test I mean. Ma always told me that stress is bad for your health, and this is definitely killing me!¡± He finished, proceeding to turn around and fling a loaf of bread into his mouth. *Knock* The sound that came from the front door caused all of us to turn around in surprise. What the hell could be knocking at our door in this place? I tentatively went forward, stopping in front of the closed door. ¡°Erm, is there anyone outside?¡± I asked, a mix of curiosity and fear filling my entire being. ¡°YOU BETTER LET ME IN YOU LITTLE SHITS! BY THE FUCKING SUN IF I DON¡¯T BEAT SOME COMMON SENSE INTO YOUR RETARDED BRAINS I¡¯M GOING TO EXPLODE FROM ANGER!¡± Teacher¡¯s booming voice penetrated the walls, shocking us to the core. My ears were ringing from the unbelievably high volume, but he continued before I could recover. ¡°I KNOW SOMEONE IS IN FRONT OF THE DOOR!¡± A boom could be heard as something smashed against the entrance. ¡°YOU THINK I CAN¡¯T SMASH THIS LITTLE DOOR INTO PIECES IF YOU DON¡¯T OPEN IT?¡± The booms continued on, the door shaking and creaking under the immense strain. The hinges were vibrating every time, looking dangerously close to breaking into pieces by now. ¡°W-wait!¡± I shouted as soon as I recovered from the shock. Rushing to the handle, I carefully opened it a bit. I peered into the outside, discovering that Teacher was standing next to an elderly woman. Her piercing blue were calmly observing me, but I wasn¡¯t able to detect any hint of hostility from her. Despite wearing the same grey robe she was about half a head smaller than him, emitting a peaceful atmosphere. This stood in complete contrast with teacher, whose wrinkled face was flushed from anger. A few veins were visibly pulsating and I could hear his ragged breathing. My face paled when I remembered the few occasions that he had been so furious. The aftermath was anything but nice, especially due to the old principal having to step in to stop him from rampaging through the entire school. She stretched her hand to the side, stopping Teacher¡¯s furious frame from whatever he was about to do to me. ¡°Calm down dear, you¡¯re frightening him¡± She chided. *Gulp* Dear? Could it be that someone with a temper as bad as Teacher¡¯s was actually able to marry someone? Wait, there¡¯s something more important: She is actually able to stop him? Seriously? There is such a person in this world? Teacher¡¯s body relaxed a bit, but I could see that his fury hadn¡¯t subsided a bit. ¡°These brats obviously need to be dealt a lesson they will never forget! To actually venture out on their own and not wait for us to rescue them? Preposterous!¡± He said through gritted teeth, cracking his knuckles while doing so. The woman rolled her eyes. ¡°Of course, but we can get to that later. C¡¯mon, admit it.¡± She smiled widely at him. ¡°You¡¯re pretty proud that they¡¯ve been able to get this far, aren¡¯t you?¡± The teasing tone in her voice was clearly audible, and if I didn¡¯t know better I could have sworn that there was a feint tinge of red in Teacher¡¯s face. He stayed silent, his fury seeming to have vanished into hot air. She then turned to me again, but I didn¡¯t dare to meet her eyes this time. Anyone capable of taming someone like Teacher is someone to be feared. ¡°Would you be so kind to let us in? I promise that the pain you¡¯ll experience will significantly lessen.¡± She asked me so sweetly that, combined with the promise of a reduced amount of pain, I was compelled to do so without any hesitation. Glancing at the damaged hinges and cracks that were running through the door, I knew they would be able to come in regardless of whether I let them in or not. If we¡¯re already fucked then I¡¯ll at least shorten the torture as much as possible. Loud steps could be heard as the others, who had gathered around me, ran away as fast as possible. I ignored the sinking feeling in the depths of my stomach and pushed the door open. ¡°Let¡¯s get to work dear. We have to teach these naughty children how to behave properly.¡± She shouted far louder than necessary. My vision blurred and before I even knew what was going on I was suddenly on top of a hard leg, my limbs barely touching the soft carpet. I tried to move, but discovered that I wasn¡¯t able to. The voice of the woman came from above, seeming unconcerned with my futile attempts to free myself. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I keep my promises.¡± Her voice was eerily calm for someone who was about to dish out a fuckton of pain. She raised her hand, marking the start a session of hellish torture. ¡°¡°AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH¡±¡± Chapter 27 - Moving ¡°See? It wasn¡¯t that bad.¡± The elderly woman said, taking a sip out of her cup. She was sitting on our couch, obviously enjoying our suffering expressions. I rubbed my sore butt. ¡°Yes Ma¡¯am.¡± I replied obediently. I will not ever make the mistake of offending this woman. Remembering the punishment she was capable of dishing out, a shiver ran down my spine. ¡°Pah, what a weakling you are!¡± Teacher walked into my line of sight. The smug grin on his face nearly caused me to lash out at him, but I swallowed the words that threatened to come out. It¡¯s just not worth it. ¡°Take your friend Owen as an example lad. He¡¯s taken punishment for one and a half!¡± Teacher shouted, pointing at Owen, who was lying on his stomach due to not being able to sit or lie normally. ¡°You can¡¯t compare me with a lunatic like him! He¡¯s obviously crazy to take even more punishment.¡± I grumbled, crossing my arms in front of me like an annoyed child would. Suddenly pain exploded from my forehead as the old woman flicked it with impossible speed. ¡°I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll understand when you¡¯re older, lad. In fact, I¡¯m sure it will hit you the hardest.¡± The old woman said, a smile slowly creeping up her wrinkled face. I smiled back at her defiantly, knowing that I¡¯ll be prepared when puberty hits me. Hah! Not with me. Her smile vanished without a trace when she saw that I seemed to know more than I should. ¡°Anyway, now that we¡¯ve found and punished you we¡¯d better return as soon as possible. The sheer number of these insects means nothing good.¡± She said, turning around and walking towards Owen and Greta. Teacher, who was standing behind me, picked me and Owen up and followed the old woman. Rather than the faintly sweaty smell that normally surrounded him, a faint flowery aroma entered my nose. I frowned at the unexpected smell, not expecting for him to smell so strange today, but shrugged it off as unimportant after a few seconds. There are more important things to do right now. Taking the chance, I whispered into Teacher¡¯s ear, ¡°Teacher, who is that old witch?¡± ¡°My wife, so you better watch your tone when speaking to her.¡± He whispered back without any indication of doing so showing on his face. Even though I had already expected it, his words still gave me a huge shock. Never in my whole life had I ever expected that there was someone actually crazy enough to marry Teacher. Nothing against him, but he tends a complete and utter asshole. ¡°You better not think anything rude, boy.¡± He added without turning around. What? How did he know what I was thinking? ¡°How long have you known each other for?¡± Frank interjects. ¡°It¡¯s a long story, maybe I¡¯ll tell you when you¡¯re older.¡± Teacher shook his shoulders whilst walking, causing me and Frank to sway around wildly. ¡°By the way, can you scratch the part under my left shoulder?¡± He added, surprising both me and Owen. ¡°Erm, okay?¡± I slowly answered, reluctantly searching for the spot he meant after seeing that Owen¡¯s short hands couldn¡¯t reach it. I randomly scratched around until my hands met something akin to a huge bump. ¡°Yes, that¡¯s the spot.¡± He moaned out. What. The. Fuck. Am I actually doing this? I sent a pleading look at Owen, but the only thing I saw was a pitying gaze, which didn¡¯t help me at all. I searched for the old woman, but when I realized she was nowhere to be found I fell into even deeper despair. I gulped, having a faint notion that this could eventually evolve into a childhood trauma. Teacher turned his head to glare at me. ¡°Why are you stopping?¡± I suppressed the torrent of disgust inside me and hurriedly continued where I left off, scratching the bump furiously. When we stepped out of the entrance, I was too occupied with thinking of anything but that strange, soft bump that I almost failed to notice small army of soldier ants surrounding our residence. That, by the way, covered absolutely everything in sight. From the walls of the road of destruction to the occasional tree, nothing didn¡¯t have at least one ant on it, not even a speck of the ground was visible. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. Before my jaw could even hit the ground, the insects started to take into the air as if they were a swarm, filling the entire sky with their bodies. Small rocks and leaves whirled past me at incredible speeds whilst the ones that should have hit us were intercepted by Teacher, who simply swatted them away. His wife walked up to us. ¡°Let¡¯s leave here quickly. It won¡¯t be long until they return with reinforcement.¡± She said with a worried face. ¡°Have you taken care of the house?¡± Teacher asked. She nodded, showing its miniature form in her scarred hands. ¡°Okay, close your eyes and hold on as well as possible brats. This isn¡¯t going to be an enjoyable journey.¡± Teacher informed us. What does he mean? Wait, he couldn¡¯t possibly- He stomped forward, causing my stomach to lurch at the sudden acceleration. My hands, which were previously used to get a better grip on Teacher, were forced from their places, crashing into my torso. Suddenly the only thing I could see was the azure sky. A few clouds were randomly strewn about in the vast sly, with some even seeming to depict gargantuan animals. I pushed all the mana my channels were able to handle into my body, forcibly correcting my stance and securing my whole body by curling up as well as possible. Teacher¡¯s arm, which gripped my body like a vice, helped greatly in that regard. Whenever I turned my body around, it would move with me, providing a reliable support. I positioned the back of my head at Teacher¡¯s surprisingly hard stomach and closed my already stinging eyes as quickly as I could. When the wind pressure started to lessen greatly after a few seconds, I finally managed to move my head around. I didn¡¯t bother to ask why it did, simply because I knew that Teacher would only answer me with some ambiguous words like: ¡°You¡¯ll know when you¡¯re older.¡± After a while of testing whether my current position was truly safe, I finally activated my mana vision. In the time I had taken to adjust to the situation, Teacher had unexpectedly managed to get into the territory of the forest. Green blurs that vaguely resembled trees were rapidly flashing by as he advanced on something that looked like a dirt road. ¡°Frank, are you okay?¡± I inquired as soon as I remembered that he must have gone through a similarly shocking experience. ¡°I¡¯m fine, but my neck feels like it¡¯s going to break any time now. Seriously, a few seconds of preparation would have been nice.¡± He replied. ¡°I know, right? It was far too sudden.¡± I looked up at Teacher, but he seemed to pay no mind to us. ¡°Do you know how Owen and Greta are doing? I¡¯m sure they didn¡¯t fare any better than us.¡± Frank asked after a brief period of silence. ¡°They are worse off than you. Thanks to the meddling of my wife their faces are touching each other, but they don¡¯t seem to mind.¡± Teacher finally interjected. And I was already wondering what was occupying his mind. So it was just Owen and Greta being in a position that children their age would probably find strange. Seriously, the last traces of common sense any of us had were erased in the last few years of living in that isolated hut, so them not minding that position came as no surprise to me. ¡°Judging by your expressions, it seems like that isn¡¯t something unusual for you?¡± He added after observing us for a bit. ¡°Why should it? It¡¯s not like their faces touching is something strange, right?¡± Owen answered in his childish naivet¨¦. We nearly crashed into the ground as Teacher stumbled on some random stone on the road, seemingly unwilling to believe what he had just heard. ¡°Fuck, it seems we need to knock some common sense into your heads as soon as the situation stabilizes.¡± He cursed, tightening his grip on our bodies even more. Wait, he just said we. ¡°Yes, you heard right. My wife¡¯s last batch has just graduated, so she will occasionally come on my behalf.¡± He laughed with clear schadenfreude in his voice. ¡°Oh¡± Was the only thing I could get out as shivers started to run down my back at the thought of her future visits. Chapter 28 - World Tree By the time the sun had begun to set, we had already traversed a distance that would normally have taken us weeks, if not even more. The stars were shining in their usual slightly red splendour in my mana vision, and I felt as relaxed as possible when being carried at extremely high speeds, which was surprisingly much. If it weren¡¯t for the cold wind forcing me to use my dwindling mana reserves to keep my body warm I might have truly enjoyed this trip, mostly due to the strange feeling of safety that I felt at Teacher¡¯s side. Teacher didn¡¯t show any signs of stopping, so I guessed that we would continue travelling like this for quite a while. Ignoring the growing stiffness in my body, I did my best to meditate. Unfortunately, the road was far too bumpy and Teacher wasn¡¯t exactly travelling stably, causing my concentration to be broken more times than I could count. In the end, I simply ended up in a half comatose state where I just continued meditating regardless of what happened in my surroundings ¨C something that I would normally avoid at all costs due to the risks involved with something like that becoming a habit. Strangely enough, I felt myself slowly becoming one with nature. It was as if I had fused my surroundings. There was no ¡®me¡¯ anymore. Just ¡®us¡¯. -------------------------------------------------- A slight breeze brushed past me, bringing a sweet fragrance with it. I gently sniffed at the air around me, fully enjoying the inner peace I was feeling. Animals of all sizes played around me, including some truly gargantuan beasts that would have thrown massive shadows if not for the unnatural dimness surrounding us. Any other day they would have scared the shit out of me. Now, however, I didn¡¯t feel anything but an overwhelming closeness with them. They seemed to feel the same as a lion that was a head taller than me strutted over and laid down in front of me. Seeing that it didn¡¯t have any malicious intentions, I couldn¡¯t restrain my urges and reached my hand out to ruffle its incredibly soft mane. This is definitely not normal, but at the same time it feels too natural to be completely fabricated. Why did I suddenly appear in this space anyway? I remember being carried by Teacher whilst meditating, so the possibility of this being a dream is close to zero since I¡¯ve never heard of anyone falling asleep during meditation. Have I fallen victim to some kind of exotic poison? The only thing that could have done that to me was the strange liquid that fell onto me while I fought the ants, but I seriously doubt that their poison would be strong enough to cause such heavy hallucinations. If it were, then they would have used it to simply immobilize me. I wouldn¡¯t be able to even think this anymore as I would have died anyway, so that isn¡¯t an option either. The fluffy feedback that came from my hands further denied that possibility. Wild hallucinations would probably feel completely different. Probably more snippets of my past life. ¡°Are you enjoying your stay in my little paradise?¡± Said a voice that could have belonged to either gender from behind me. I turned around as fast as I could, only to see a wooden wall in front of me. When I looked closer, I realized that this wasn¡¯t a wooden wall. No, this was the trunk of a fucking gigantic tree! Gigantic enough for the trunk alone to take up the entirety of my frontal vision from a metre away. As my vision wandered up, I happened to se some of its low hanging branches which were extending close to where I was standing, each greenly glowing leaf seeming big enough to nearly wrap around me. Its branches, if I could even call something that was most likely thicker than I was tall that, covered the entire sky above me, only occasionally letting a few glimpses of light through the dense green canopy. By now my neck wasn¡¯t capable of bending any further, yet I wasn¡¯t able to see this tree in its entirety. Judging by the staggering heights the trunk reached to, this tree was at least as tall as the city walls of Frumentum, if not even higher. If there was anything that ever fit the description of World Tree, then it would probably be this. Compared to it, I would probably not even amount to an freaking ant! ¡°Snap out of it, little monkey.¡± The voice interrupted my train of thought. I slowly turned my head around, searching my surroundings for the owner of that voice. The only things that I saw, however, were the animals and that massive tree in front of me. There isn¡¯t anything that could possibly speak the human language here, so where the hell is the person that called me little monkey? Suddenly one of its massive branches appeared in front of me, gently nudging me. Flabbergasted, I fell on the surprisingly hard ground butt first. No, this can¡¯t be, right? There is no fucking way that a tree this massive could be sentient. ¡°Surprised? You ¡®sentient¡¯ races are always so ignorant when it comes to the true forces of nature, foolishly believing yourself to be unique and special.¡± The branch in front of me wrapped a cold, smooth leaf around me, elevating me to dizzying heights at a speed faster than even that of Teacher. When I glimpsed at the ground below, I felt like I was back in the carriage on top of that bird again, the only difference being that I could fall down anytime now. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. What surprised me, however, was that this space stretched out for as far as I could see, with thousands of extremely tiny looking animals and some beasts that I could clearly see from here wandering about. A few lakes were randomly strewn about in the otherwise green landscape and in the distance mountains were faintly visible. In a way, this reminded me of the view I had from the plains, even though I never saw any indications of lakes being present there. I slowly came to a stop near the place where the trunk ended and hundreds of branches started to extent into the sky. Now that I was closer to it, the canopy was even more impressive than it was below. Every single movement my head made shifted the fascinating play between light and leaves, creating a completely different breath-taking sight to stare at. It was like looking into a natural kaleidoscope. A soft sigh echoed from everywhere around me. ¡°You are still a child, so I won¡¯t take your rude actions as an offence. Be happy that I¡¯m so lenient with you little monkey. Most of my comrades would have ripped you into pieces after noticing you staring at them like that.¡± The tree stated, making the gravity of the situation I was in painfully clear to me. How the hell does it know human tongue anyway? It couldn¡¯t possibly have come into contact with humans before, right? I¡¯m sure it didn¡¯t, since they would have started worshipping it. In fact, if I weren¡¯t a person who came from another world I would have done the same. The other world¡­I wonder how much has changed since I came here? I¡¯m about thirteen years old now, so almost ten years have passed since my death. I¡¯m sure the rebels of New Pandora have lost the war, but I¡¯d still like to know how my home planet fared. Well, considering some the massacres committed by that damned artefact I¡¯m not sure if I want to know now that I think about it. ¡°I¡¯d pay attention to my surroundings if I were you!¡± The tree shouted, causing my entire vision to wildly shake around as it moved the branch that held me up and down. Uh oh focus on the present John! Angering a titanic tree probably isn¡¯t a good idea. ¡°Uh, yes, of course.¡± I replied, trying to sound as obedient as possible. The leaf tightened painfully around me, preventing me from making even the smallest movement. ¡°I don¡¯t like unnecessary words, so let¡¯s get to the point: Who are you and why do you have a trace of that wretched monster on your soul?¡± The tree yelled, causing massive vibrations to pass through my entire body. ¡°TELL ME!¡± It yelled again, but this time my eardrums felt like they were going to rupture any second. What the fuck is he talking about? Traces on my soul? Monsters? Gritting my teeth, I managed to yell, ¡°I DON¡¯T FUCKING KNOW!¡± with all my strength. Despite that, however, my voice was still drowned out in the endless cacophony that was produces by hundreds of oversized branches rustling at the same time. Everything abruptly returned to silence. The whole world around me seemed to dim considerably, reducing the previously impressive sight into a scary one. ¡°You don¡¯t know?¡± The tree mumbled barely loud enough for me to understand. *Gulp* Whatever the hell this tree is thinking about, I hope it doesn¡¯t involve killing or maiming me in any way. ¡°Of course you don¡¯t know. It certainly wouldn¡¯t find this interesting.¡± The world returned to its previous colour, and I finally began to relax a little after not hearing any words declaring my imminent death. ¡°Well, since you have no further use for me you shall leave this place.¡± The branch holding me loosened, sending me into a free fall towards the ground. ¡°AAAAAAAAAAAAH¡± I screamed, trying to grab onto some of the leaves. My hand missed them by mere centimetres, causing me to spiral whilst falling. My vision began to uncontrollably blur, veiling everything around me in a bright white. Taking over more and more of my vision, I was soon unable to see anything other than it. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Something slapped my cheek. Hard. ¡°John, are you alright?¡± Frank¡¯s voice came from the front. Wait, what? Just what the fuck is going on today? First Teacher and his wife coming knocking at our door with the intent of picking us up and now Frank is slapping my freaking cheek after a strange encounter with an oversized tree! ¡°Let me try.¡± Teacher said, causing an uneasy feeling to appear in me. He couldn¡¯t possibly do something dangerous, right? Before I could move or indicate in any way that I was awake, a strong stream of water splashed onto my face. The water invaded every part of my mouth and nose, parts of it even getting into my lungs before I managed to roll away. ¡°See? I knew he was still alive.¡± I hesitantly opened my eyes, discovering the familiar cloudless sea of stars above me. I was in quite a large clearing with no trees being visible. I didn¡¯t spend my time marvelling at the impressive sight though as I coughed and spat all the remaining water out. ¡°John, could you tell us just what happened to you.¡± The old woman gently said, but the dangerous glint in her icy eyes didn¡¯t do anything to reassure me. Chapter 29 - Ominous News I opened my mouth, wanting to ask what she meant. I closed it just as quickly though as I realized that this hadn¡¯t been a really elaborate dream. ¡°Sweetheart, maybe we should first tell him our version. He seems pretty confused.¡± Teacher reprimanded her. ¡°Before we do that, can you tell me if there are any legends of a divine tree?¡± I stammered. ¡°It may help me understand just what is going on right now.¡± She raised her eyebrows, but fell into silence as she searched her memory. ¡°No, not really. But if it¡¯s very important we can just ask some historians when we get back.¡± She said offhandedly. ¡°Anyway, you just¡­vanished. Or at least this is what your Teacher told me. One second you were in his arms and in the next you were gone.¡± She made a popping gesture with her hands. ¡°Like a bubble that popped out of existence. Fortunately, he managed to detect your mana signature again after a few minutes passed. Now tell us your version of your story.¡± I actually vanished from his arms? How did that fucking tree¡­wait, let¡¯s just not think about it John. This is surely one of these questions that are going to torture you for years to come. I already have far too many of those, so for now I should focus on trying to explain what I saw. I briefly narrated my encounter with the oversized tree, gleefully watching the eyes of every single person present becoming wider and wider with every word I spoke. When I was done, Teacher and his wife had begun to intertwine their hands. Owen was dazedly looking off into the distance whilst Frank was staring at me like a worried mother. Greta was scratching her head, seeming as if she didn¡¯t know what to think of this. All in all, this was quite different from what I had expected. Instead of completely dumbstruck and awed they seem rather confused. Teacher came to my side and picked me up as if nothing had happened. ¡°Well, let¡¯s get going again. We have a lot of things to do, so I suggest shoving this matter to the back of your heads. I¡¯ll try asking Frumentum later, maybe he knows more about this.¡± His wife gave him a long stare. ¡°Yeah, we have to meet with him anyway.¡± He silently nodded. --------------------------------------------------- ¡°We¡¯ve arrived.¡± Teacher stated, ripping me out of my contemplation. The sun was burning as brightly as ever in the azure sky, bringing an uncountable number of rays that caused us to be bathed in a sweltering heat. The droning that was produced by hundreds of people talking at the same time invaded my ears as I looked around curiously. I had almost forgotten how noisy a big crowd could be. A few years of isolation and an upbringing in the countryside didn¡¯t help with that either. Strangely enough, the sight of an elderly couple carrying four children seemed to barely attract any attention from the surrounding people. They merely glanced at us before looking away. A man pushing a wagon filled with golden corn pushed past us, drawing my eyes to the front. We were standing in front of the towering mud yellow walls of Frumentum that, now that I was in front of them instead of looking at them from above, seemed far less massive in comparison to that oversized tree. The bricks that it was made of were as big as an average sized man and at least thrice as wide. Moss, vines and hundreds of other plants I didn¡¯t bother to identify were growing in the sparse cracks in between, causing me to wonder just how old it truly was. If the hearsay is true, then they were erected at the same time as the first buildings in Frumentum, but considering the amount of time that must have passed between then and now and the numerous beast hordes that probably crashed against it times this seems quite unlikely. Even after I inspected it as closely as possible I wasn¡¯t able to find any significant damage. Not even a single scratch. They looked as if they had been erected just hours ago. Teacher and his wife didn¡¯t show any indications to let us down even after we arrived and I wasn¡¯t about to step onto dirty and dusty ground, so I was always able to get a good view at everything around me. We slowly moved forward with the endless stream of people around us, finally arriving at a small gate that was barely big enough to fit seven people standing side by side. This might sound surprisingly big but in reality it was far from enough for the massive amount of people that wanted to get in. I wonder what would happen in the event of a beast horde? Wouldn¡¯t the entrance be hopelessly clogged then? How are the farmers supposed to get in then? Don¡¯t tell me that they are left to die? I shook my head, soliciting a strange look from Teacher. If this were the case, then who would willingly become a farmer? We passed the pitiful guards in golden armour who had to carefully perform the usual procedures in the blazing heat without any problems and entered the passage. The temperature dropped to an acceptable grade, staying that way even after we stepped out into the open again. I heaved a relieved sigh. Any longer and I would have died from the stench that was permeating my surroundings. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. We passed the stalls with shouting merchants and people who were calling out to us to visit their shops, all the while advancing on the main street that seemed to split the whole city in two. Eventually a disgustingly golden palace came into sight, the hill it was built upon and its colour elevating far above the rest of the city. I turned my head around so that it faced Teacher. ¡°Don¡¯t tell me we¡¯re going to have a meeting Frumentum?!¡± He didn¡¯t turn his head around. ¡°Well guessed. Don¡¯t worry though, you¡¯ll only be required to talk about your experience with the insects. Oh, and did I mention the good news yet?¡± He said, but upon seeing my confused look he quickly continued. ¡°It seems I didn¡¯t. Force of habit hahah-¡° His wife interrupted him by flicking his forehead. ¡°You never learn, do you? Don¡¯t take it to heart kids, he never liked explaining the things that are going on, even when I just met him.¡± She smiled at us embarrassedly. ¡­That would actually explain a lot. Frank¡¯s and my eyes met, both of us seeing that we had the same thought. We nodded at the same time and I noted to always ask his wife first if something occurred. Judging from his pondering expression, I guess he did the same. I looked over at Owen and Greta, and we came to a mutual agreement even without words. Time passed, and we soon arrived at the gates of the massive palace, which we entered without obstruction. An old man in golden robes noticed us once we were inside the palace itself and hurried over. ¡°I¡¯m sorry Greg, but you¡¯ll have to wait for a bit. His Majesty has an important meeting with Grodak.¡± Teacher nodded impatiently. ¡°How long will it take? I have very important news from the forest.¡± He stopped, looking for any eavesdroppers. Despite not finding any, he still lowered his voice. ¡°The insects are on the move, Hendel. Do you understand what that means?¡± He finished with a serious face. Hendel¡¯s face seemed to have turned into stone as soon as he heard the word ¡®insect¡¯. ¡°Fuck!¡± His gaze briefly landed on us, but it settled on Teacher again. He sighed, sitting down on a chair that was conjured out of nowhere. ¡°At least it didn¡¯t happen in sixty or seventy years. A beast horde coupled with a war against aggressive insects would be enough to destroy Frumentum.¡± What did I just hear? Would these insects really be capable of destroying the whole city? How? Even the warrior ants I fought were just about as strong as I was. Even if they had thousands of them a small group of people comparable to Teacher would be enough to completely annihilate them. Does this mean that they have far more powerful specimen than the warriors I encountered? Ones capable of threatening even Teacher and his wife, who are some of the most powerful people in Frumentum? The massive doors suddenly opened, revealing a hulking man in his prime who strode out with a grim look on his face. His whole body was a mass of muscle and scars, and the way he held himself proved that he was a very confident and aggressive man. The heavily decorated vest only accentuated the fact that he was a powerful warrior, most likely one that has is almost on par with the likes of Teacher. He briefly gave an acknowledging nod towards our group that was probably directed at Teacher, proceeding to pace past us with surprising speed. Hendel stood up from his chair and quickly shooed us inside the still lavishly decorated throne room, where we kneeled in front of a serious looking Frumentum. ¡°Greg, tell me the reason you have come here for. We don¡¯t have a lot of time, so We would appreciate it if you were to hurry.¡± Frumentum said in a normal voice that was neither booming nor intimidating. Was he just acting the last time we met? If he did, what reason would he have to do so? ¡°Your Majesty, the ants are on the move. These children-¡°He gestured at us. ¡°Can attest to that. John, if you¡¯d be so kind?¡± ¡°Uh, yeah.¡± I replied, startled by the sudden mention of my name. Hesitantly lifting my head, I looked Frumentum in the eye and told him everything I knew about the ants. At some point of time he had started to lean forward, a hint of anger invading his gaze. ¡°That¡¯s enough. I¡¯ve heard more than necessary.¡± He cut me off, turning his gaze towards Teacher. ¡°Their punishment has been lifted in consideration of their services to humanity as a whole. Bring them back to the Academy and prepare them for what is to come.¡± Teacher kneeled so deep that his forehead touched the ground. ¡°Thank you for your generosity, your Majesty.¡± He then turned around and led us back into the crowded streets of the capital, but this time I didn¡¯t pay any attention to anything at all, not even that he forgot to ask about my encounter with the tree. The uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach that wouldn¡¯t go away no matter what I did, just like an ominous omen if I believed in things like that, prevented me from thinking about anything but the ants and the implications of the things I heard today. Chapter 30 - Advice Owen, who hadn¡¯t been picked up after the audience with Frumentum, tugged at Teacher¡¯s sleeve. ¡°Teacher, is this the good news you mentioned?¡± He asked with a hopeful face. Teacher clicked his tongue. ¡°You¡¯re too greedy lad. Be happy that you¡¯re even allowed into Frumentum again. This took no small amount of effort on my part. If it hadn¡¯t been for the special circumstances-¡° The ominous feeling in the pit of my stomach reappeared. Just what could be dangerous enough to let us walk around in Frumentum? ¡°You wouldn¡¯t have been let anywhere near the Academy. In fact, I was instructed to keep an eye on you at all times.¡± I swallowed the lump in my throat and turned towards Teacher¡¯s wife. ¡°Miss, what are the special circumstances Teacher talks about?¡± ¡°I guess you¡¯d find out anyway, so there shouldn¡¯t be a problem with telling you now.¡± The old woman took a deep breath. ¡°The ants, yes, the ones you fought, are known for being extremely aggressive and territorial. They attack anything in a range of hundreds of kilometres and kill every single entity that opposes them. In the far past, they¡¯ve destroyed an uncountable number of tribes. Thankfully, they disappeared after that.¡± She sighed, scratching her head. ¡°Until now, that is. They¡¯re on the move, and I fear that a great war is coming. You¡¯re to be prepared as soldiers in the future clashes against them.¡± ¡°That¡¯s why you are going to the Academy. Your whole batch is going to become a single unit. It¡¯s standard procedure before any great threat to the city¡¯s safety, really. And you¡¯re probably only going to be sent to fight against the weakest of their troops, anyway, so there¡¯s no real reason to worry.¡± Teacher added. A shiver ran down my spine. We¡¯re going to become soldiers? ¡°Do you even fucking know what a war is like? It¡¯s HELL! To you, it may be just some battlefield on a faraway planet, the soldiers a random assortment of numbers, but you know what? WE¡¯RE NOT NUMBERS! Every single fucking soldier who lets his life there does it for his home, their family and their important ones! Every single one has a history, someone waiting at them back at home, can you understand that? Fuck, why am I even talking about this with you? Of course cowards like you won¡¯t be able to.¡± A hand shook my shoulder. ¡°John, are you alright?¡± Frank said. I blinked my eyes. ¡°Uh, yeah. Yeah I am. I was just thinking about some stuff.¡± Owen looked at me with doubt clearly visible on his face. ¡°You sure?¡± Rolling my eyes, I replied, ¡°Of course I am.¡± ¡°Anyway.¡± Teacher spoke up. ¡°We have a few things to discuss before you can properly return to your group.¡± He pointed a finger into the air. ¡°First of all, they barely remember you. That means that you¡¯ll have to integrate yourself into the group again. C¡¯mon, don¡¯t give me that look. I know just as well as you do that you have serious problems with talking to other kids around your age.¡± He gave us a smug smile. ¡°You think I didn¡¯t see that you rejected everyone who wanted to join your little group?¡± I looked down, shifting the weight from my left onto my right leg. ¡°We didn¡¯t reject them. It was them who couldn¡¯t fit in.¡± Owen murmured. Teacher laughed. ¡°Of course they did. Anyway, this time you¡¯ll have to seriously integrate yourselves. If not¡­¡± He shook his head. ¡°You don¡¯t know how you¡¯ll have died. Everything is possible on the battlefield.¡± The second finger went up. ¡°Secondly, don¡¯t and I mean it, don¡¯t pick fights with the upper class men.¡± Frank opened his mouth, but Teacher shot him a glare that shut him up. ¡°No matter how strong you are for your age, they¡¯re most likely stronger. Just think about how much stronger you¡¯ve gotten in the past year.¡± The third finger. ¡°Lastly, remember that every single warrior is incomparably precious. Even if you are hating someone to the bone, DON¡¯T kill them.¡± ¡°That would be all. Let¡¯s go.¡± Teacher said and continued walking as if nothing had happened. He seriously thinks we¡¯re capable of killing another human being? I looked down on my hands. Scars and calluses were covering them, giving them a rough appearance. I have used them to kill countless beasts, the feelings of disgust welling up only the first few times. Am I? Despite my knowledge that humans are just animals, I can¡¯t imagine ever killing one over a feud. A hand nudged me. ¡°He can¡¯t be serious, right?¡± Owen asked. I shook my head. ¡°I¡­don¡¯t know.¡± Owen¡¯s eyes widened. ¡°No way. I couldn¡¯t possibly kill a human.¡± He looked down, stretching his pair of trembling arms out. ¡°Right?¡± Frank slapped the back of his head. ¡°Of course not. Teacher¡¯s just joking. Didn¡¯t you notice how fast he turned around? I¡¯m sure that was only to hide his smile. In fact, I bet he¡¯s giggling about how na?ve we are right now!¡± From the corner of my vision I could see Greta nodding. ¡°Frank¡¯s right, you know? I mean none of us are bad people, and only the really evil ones kill humans.¡± Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.If they only knew¡­ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I sighed, suddenly feeling strange at the sight of a huge amount of former acquaintances standing in orderly rows. They were staring at us with curious looks, probably not recognizing us one bit. It can¡¯t be helped though; five years are a hell of a period of time. I myself am barely able to recognize one or two. Teacher held his hand into the air, causing the noise to gradually die down. ¡°Do you still remember them? They used to be your comrades, but a series of unfortunate circumstances forced them to undergo special training.¡± What an interesting excuse they made up. I just hope that it¡¯ll hold once we start comparing our strengths. ¡°Now, however, has the time come for them to return. I expect you to treat them like you would your other comrades, nothing more and nothing less.¡± His eyes that had begun to squint due to the sunlight turned into slits. ¡°Understood?¡± They almost simultaneously straightened up. ¡°Yes Teacher!¡± I rubbed my eyes. Is this really the same unorderly mob of children from 5 years ago? Teacher smirked at us. ¡°Hey, I didn¡¯t slack off in training them. In contrast to a certain group of children who just ran off when their home was relocated¡­¡± I could literally feel the curious gazes of the surrounding children drill into my back as soon as they heard what Teacher said. Before I could retort, I heard heavy footsteps approaching us, forcing me to turn into the direction they came from. A burly boy with unkempt black hair was walking towards us with a confident stride, a small group of other children following him with the exact same rhythm. He stopped two meters in front of us, examining us with a curious gaze before he finally looked me in the eyes. ¡°Hello. My name is Frederick and I¡¯m the leader of this batch.¡± He turned to the side, waving one lanky but tall and another, far more average one, over. ¡°These guys are Bosh and Larry, my best friends and co-leaders.¡± Bosh, the lanky one, punched Frederick on the sides. ¡°You never learn, huh? Never stopping with your leader this leader that. Gimme a break.¡± Frederick, who had buckled over from the sudden impact, was about to reply when Larry¡¯s arm wrapped around his neck in a headlock. ¡°Who are your co-leaders? Didn¡¯t we agree that we were equal?¡± He balled his hand into fist and rubbed it on Frederick¡¯s head furiously, causing Frederick to beg for mercy. No matter how hard I tried to remember, I couldn''t seem to find a single trace of them in my memory. It looks like a lot happened in the time we were gone. ¡°Pffffff¡± Owen burst out into a hearty laugh. He nudged me, saying, ¡°It seems like we won¡¯t have too many problems, right?¡± I raised an eyebrow at their antics, but decided that it was actually better this way. At least they weren¡¯t some arrogant bastards who wanted to put us into our supposed rightful place. Frank let out a sigh, slapping Owen on the back. ¡°Yeah, I think so too. But you¡¯re pretty carefree, huh? Have you already forgotten Teacher¡¯s warnings?¡± He whispered so quietly that only us could barely hear it over the commotion the three in front were causing. Frederick finally managed to free himself, stumbling towards us as soon as he did so. ¡°Anyway, we named our batch the Sun Legion in honour of your achievements! Cool, right?¡± He sent a beaming smile towards us that I couldn¡¯t help but return in kind. Really, why should I be suspicious towards some kids? If anything it should be the other way ¡®round. ¡°Hey, we aren¡¯t done yet mate!¡± Larry shouted and punched Frederick, launching him towards us at an incredible speed. ¡°What the-¡° I managed to get out before I had to jump out of the way, barely avoiding Frederick¡¯s body. When I looked back, I saw that he had ploughed deep into the ground, coating his whole outfit with a dark brown layer of mud and grass. ¡°YOU BASTARD!¡± He shouted, grabbing a pile of mud from his pants and throwing it at Larry. It hit him squarely in the face, slowly sliding off it. ¡°You fucktard!¡± Larry retaliated, but Frederick managed to dodge it. The mudball hit someone behind him, who proceeded to return the favour. What should have been a friendly greeting became a mudslinging fight within a matter of seconds as more and more people started to join in, in the end even my companions joined the fray. Soon, the whole field was engulfed in chaos, only three people having not been hit: Me, Teacher and his wife. The only reason I managed to stay clean was due to me quickly dodging every single speck of dust thrown at me, but it was slowly getting harder as more people joined in. I looked over at Teacher, but when I saw the smiles on his face I realized that this was a normal scene. Looks like the next months are going to be interesting. Chapter 31 - Rewards ¡°GO DOWN DAMMIT¡± Frederick screamed, turning his body to perform a wide swing. A smile crept up my face. I ducked under his attack, clenched my bandaged fists as tightly as I could and punched his chin with all the power my body could muster. Sweat showered my face as his head was wildly thrown back from the tremendous force. I immediately followed up with another punch that hit him in the pit of his stomach, catapulting him away from me. He hit the sandy ground with a dull thud, rolling a few times before coming to a halt. It only took a moment for his sweat covered body to be covered in a layer of sand, but judging by the tears that were coming out of his eyes, he had other matters occupying his mind. ¡°You okay?¡± I asked, crouching down next to him. He shot me a resentful look. I sighed, patting his sandy and sweaty back. ¡°C¡¯mon, it¡¯s not that bad, right?¡± The sun was mercilessly trying to burn us to bits, and if it weren¡¯t for our inhuman constitution it would probably have succeeded in doing so. Frederick pushed me away and slowly stood up. ¡°You do realise that this was jus-¡° he hissed, rubbing the slowly reddening spot where I had hit him. ¡°Just a sparring match, do you?¡± I straightened my clothes and wiped the sweat on my face away with a conjured towel. ¡°Yeah, but that doesn¡¯t change the fact that I¡¯ll go all out.¡± I pointed towards some of the many bruises that were caused by him. ¡°It¡¯s not like you hold back either, so I guess it¡¯s fair game.¡± ¡°Is this the whining of cowards that I hear?¡± Owen said, striding into the training field with bandaged fists. I patted the last remnants of sand that were still clinging to my skin off. ¡°Up for a fight? We¡¯ll see who the coward is then.¡± A grin spread on my face. ¡°Errr I¡¯ll pass,¡± he waved his hands with a large, silly grin on his face. ¡°I don¡¯t want to hurt you after all.¡± Rolling my eyes, I unwrapped the partially ripped bandages from my hands. Fuck, this is already the 5th pair that I destroyed since the reunion. A few weeks had passed since we arrived at the Academy and Frederick and his friends turned out to be surprisingly mature and reliable, resulting in us slowly becoming friends. After a few small fights, it became a custom to spar in the morning in order to improve their seriously lacking fighting experience. Even before we left, sparring was an extremely rare occurrence due to the injuries that take lots of mana to heal. Which, considering that every single speck of mana is essentially invaluable for your growth in the beginning, is quite understandable, really. Still, if a warrior doesn¡¯t know how to deal with dangerous situations then the only outcome will be his eventual demise. The only thing that continued to worry me was that the situation seemed to worsen by the day. Every day, more and more warriors arrive in Frumentum, slowly forming an awe-inspiring army. Every time my mana vision looked into the direction of their training grounds, a multi-coloured firework greeted me. It was like looking at a small sun that occasionally flared up when a few of them sparred against each other. It was nothing compared to the sight of Pandora¡¯s stellar fleet though. I¡¯ll never forget the sight of it setting off into the stars, only to come back with barely half of their troops a few weeks later. It was probably one of the turning points after the artefact suddenly stopped working, but at the same time it marked the end of the revolutionaries. Will I end up like those veterans? Am I destined to have the fate? ¡°John, just what is going on with you? You¡¯ve been quite absentminded recently.¡± Frank asked. He was standing in front of me, the concern quite apparent on his face. ¡°I¡¯m okay, just a little worried.¡± I told him, forcing a little smile out. He frowned. ¡°The war?¡± ¡°Do you even need to ask?¡± ¡°What are you even worried about? The probability of us having to fight is extremely low. Plus, even if we do have to fight, it¡¯s not like we¡¯ll be used as sacrificial lambs. We¡¯re far too valuable for that.¡± Frank shrugged. ¡°At least that¡¯s what I think. What¡¯s the worst that could happen?¡± I sighed. He had a point, even though many of his assumptions were quite na?ve. ¡°Anyway, are there any news about the extra resources every warrior in Frumentum is supposed to get?¡± Frank shook his head. ¡°I do.¡± Larry spoke up, ¡°one of the teachers said that it¡¯ll come in form of small mana pearls, their size depending on the power and talent of the warrior.¡± ¡°Wait, are you sure that it wasn¡¯t mana marbles they were speaking about?¡± Fred interrupted Larry. ¡°I doubt that they would seriously hand a sizable number of mana pearls to every single warrior in Frumentum. That¡¯d be just ridiculous. I mean, who would be rich or powerful enough to do that?¡± This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Larry looked at Fred as if he were stupid. ¡°Frumentum and his advisors himself of course. Who else could possibly have the required amount of mana to do that?¡± ¡°¡°¡­¡±¡± ¡°What are you gathered around like that for? Hurry up guys! Training¡¯s about to begin.¡± Greta shouted from behind us. We hurriedly packed out things and followed Greta to another training field. As we approached it, I could already see that most of the others had already arrived. Thankfully, Teacher was still absent, so we were able to smoothly push ourselves to the first row. It didn¡¯t to take long for us to be able to catch a glimpse at Teacher¡¯s familiar figure slowly approaching us under the sweltering heat. He had a massive cart trailing behind him which he examined every few seconds with undisguised glee. When he saw us watching his every move, however, he instantly straightened. ¡°Good news kids!¡± His voice thundered through the whole field in its usual volume. ¡°You¡¯ve been provided with plenty of resources in order to enhance your survival chances in the case of you having to fight.¡± He took a list out of one of the uncountable folds in his robe and began to call one after another out. --------------------------------------------------------- ¡°John!¡± It was finally my turn. If it had taken any longer I would have become insane from watching all these gleeful faces around me. He rummaged through the half-empty cart and pulled a big bag out of it, handing it over to me. I received the surprisingly heavy object and went back to my place, where I immediately activated my mana vision and opened the bag. Numerous extremely mana rich pearl like objects emanated a simply massive amount of mana that pleased my eyes to no end. I nervously gulped before sneaking a peek at the other¡¯s bags, only to discover the same incredible amount in theirs. I¡¯ll be damned. This isn¡¯t even ridiculous anymore. Just how much mana would it need to provide such an amount for every single warrior in the Academy alone? ¡°That would be all for today. Go back to your rooms and cultivate diligently! If I see even one of you playing around, I¡¯ll make sure that he won¡¯t be able to sit for the next few months!¡± Teacher sternly shouted and sprinted away with the cart in tow. Seems like he also got plenty of mana pearls, huh? I shook my head, clearing it of unnecessary thoughts and sprinted back to my room. Once there, I opened the door without looking back and laid onto my bed. I threw a mana pearl into mouth, which quickly dissolved into countless warm tendrils that streamed through my body. Incredible¡­Who would have thought that a single mana pearl would have even more mana than a warrior ants core? My very being seemed to warm up as the warm mana streams continued to spread incessantly, soon reaching some strange area that I wasn¡¯t even aware of. Unfortunately, it vanished as quickly as it had appeared and I was left with the streams that had combined into hot currents. Unfortunately, the current soon dried up, prompting me to pop another one into my mouth as if it were a candy. During that time, the mysterious feeling appeared multiple times, but I was never able to get a concrete grasp on it despite my best efforts. It was like a word on the tip of my tongue that continued to elude me. After an unknown amount of time passed in this state, my hand finally grabbed nothing but air. I opened my eyes and found a gaping void where a precious stash of mana pearls used to be. Even turning the bag inside out and shaking it a bit didn¡¯t change this, causing me to sigh in resignation. I knew that I had wasted about a tenth of the total mana by meditating at the same time, but it was definitely worth it. A chance like this wouldn¡¯t come around often. Who knows how long it would take for me to accumulate this much mana again? Well, now that there are no mana pearls left to absorb I guess I should put it to good use. I closed my eyes again and entered my core space. AN: As you can see I''ve made some changes. They were recommended to me by Stenduring, one of the people who recently reviewed this fic. I''d like to know what you think of them, so feel free to comment and propose things that are on your mind! Chapter 32 - Ugly Mountains A radiant white fog was covering everything in sight, but it still failed to conceal anything from my all-seeing eyes. How long has it been since the last time I had enough mana to actually cause white fog to appear? Ages, surely. I tentatively turned around, marvelling at the physical manifestation of mana that surrounded me. I reached out and grabbed a handful of air, but there was no sensation coming from it. The air was as stale as ever, not like it would have been like if what surrounded me was real fog. Is there a stage after this? Could mana perhaps liquefy, or even become solid? If it did, what would it look like? Like regular ice, only glowing? I let my hand fall to my side. There are more important things right now. Like putting all of this mana to use. I flew into the air, carefully inspecting all of the landscapes I had made whilst evading the massive ball of dirty water hovering above the tower. Soon, I was so far up that I could easily see the whole word, including the round sea surrounding my little island. The patchwork rug of colours under me needed some remodelling anyway. It wasn¡¯t¡­varied enough. At least that¡¯s what my sense of beauty told me. Not that it had ever been reliable, but there was no one else to assist me right in this little world of mine. With but a thought, a massive grey stone blocked my vision completely. What the- I stumbled away from it. This isn¡¯t how it¡¯s supposed to be. Something of this size should have taken far more time to appear. Putting my hand on its rough surface, I noticed that the mana concentration hadn¡¯t sunken as much as I had expected it to. I flew back a bit in order to be able to view it in its entirety. It was miniature mountain made of a uniform piece of grey stone, its rough edges causing it to look like it had been broken off by some force. It gradually became smaller towards its top, ending in a sharp peak. I rotated it a bit, but no matter how much I did so, the quasi-mountain stayed the same. But no matter how I turned it, it left a strange feeling of being incomplete. Mountains aren¡¯t supposed to be perfectly symmetric. They should be¡­how exactly is a mountain supposed to look like? There are so many types of them, all of different colours and different vegetation¡­which I can¡¯t imitate. I sighed. This inability to create life seriously got in the way of many attempts to reproduce environments. I guess some barren rocks will have to do then. After literally kneading the rock by using my close to omnipotent powers, I finally managed to make it resemble a mountain. Sure, it was quite deformed and sort of ugly but I could remodel it whenever I wanted to, which was anytime but then. Looking around for a bit, I finally dropped the mountain onto a grey area. The ground started quaking, but with a thought it instantly settled down. With the original mountain in mind, I quickly created a few replicas and covered the grey ground with them until there was almost nothing left. Sadly, the ¡°mountain range¡± that I created looked more like a serious eyesore of a hilly landscape. I scratched my head. Okay, this isn¡¯t supposed how it¡¯s supposed to look like. In the future, I seriously need to study mountain ranges, or spend some time remembering how the hell they look like. I live in the vicinity of one anyway, so I guess I¡¯ll pay it a visit once I¡¯m strong enough. Off in the distance, the sea was wildly surging; some waves even managing to come close to where I was flying. In fact, the whole island I had created was slightly wobbling from side to side. I could feel a smile spreading on my face. Snipping my fingers, the mountains flew into the air and fell down again, the impact of them landing at the same time visibly heaving one end of the island into the air. I should do this more often. Noticing the lack of visible mana in the air, I decided to put playing with my world on hold. I should probably focus on being productive, not playing around like this. With that in mind, I refilled the fires I had depleted and left after making sure they wouldn¡¯t be implicated by the raging sea. When I opened my eyes again, the sight of an empty room greeted me. There was a faint wooden smell in the air, mixing itself with the stink of the sweat on my body. The sun was still in its zenith, and the air was so humid it was stifling. Owen and Frank had probably already left to spar or something similar since they usually didn¡¯t take too much when doing something in their core spaces. It wasn¡¯t the first time, since I tend to get immersed in the strangest things when I¡¯m visiting my world. Though it was still quite hot outside, the constant wind swirling around the Academy grounds during summer served to reduce the heat by a lot. I¡¯ve been told that they only added it recently, but the reason for the delay continued to elude my mind. ¡°Late as usual, huh?¡± Frank said from behind me. I swirled around, breaking into a grin as soon as I saw the undisguised excitement in his eyes. ¡°I guess you want to have a little spar?¡± He grunted, proceeding to walk next to me. ¡°If I were you I¡¯d be careful, you were barely able to beat me even before our power up, and that was only due to your stronger body.¡± He raised his fist, clenching it in front of his chest. ¡°Now that the gap has become non-existent,¡± His head shot up, a pair of ferocious blue eyes staring at me. ¡°I¡¯ll pay you back hundredfold for your little beatdowns.¡± Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. ¡°Oooh, seems like someone¡¯s pretty motivated? Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll beat that out of you before you can count to ten,¡± I replied, staring back with an even greater intensity. ¡°Hey hey, did I just witness an official challenge?¡± Owen, who had at some point of time appeared between us and wrapped his arms around our necks, said ¡°Guys, John and Frank are going to duke it out!¡± Some spectators in the training field, which was still a few dozen meters away, instantly stopped what they were doing and started exchanging mana cores with others, probably betting on the outcome of our battle. Shouldn¡¯t they be discussing something like this before making bets? I glanced at a smiling Owen. Did he already anticipate that me and Frank are going to fight? I took a roll of bandages out and started wrapping them around my fists, taking care to add some extra layers around the knuckles and the middle of my palms. Then, drawing from my core, I started circulating as much mana as I could through my body before leaping into the training grounds. The thing that I didn¡¯t anticipate though was that I wouldn¡¯t really sink into the sandy grounds, which turned as hard as rock after a few centimetres. Not so soft after all. I stumbled a few steps from the unexpected resistance, but managed to gracefully balance myself again. Behind me, I could hear Frank¡¯s feet digging into the yellow sand. ¡°Why do you always choose this rotten excuse of a sparring ground? It¡¯s pretty damn hard to move around in here without falling onto your face, you know?¡± I breathed in and out in a controlled manner, rapidly shifting my weight from foot to foot while punching into the empty air. ¡°It¡¯s a challenge, that¡¯s why I like it.¡± Stopping for a moment, I watched him doing his own warmup routine. ¡°And we wouldn¡¯t want to have your pretty face hit a stony surface, would we?¡± He gave me a toothy grin. ¡°Yeah yeah, very funny. Let¡¯s get down to business, will you?¡± Owen stepped between us, blocking Frank from my sight. ¡°The usual?¡± he asked, continuing after a nod from both of us, ¡°Okay then, the first one to hit the ground with his head loses. You are only allowed to use your core for support, direct attacks with them are forbidden!¡± He jumped away, leaving me and Frank alone. Without wasting any time, I sprinted forward with my hands raised in front of my face. Frank sidestepped, throwing a quick jab at my still rapidly moving self. Stomping my foot into the ground, I used a gust of wind to blow myself away and shoot some sand into his face. He didn¡¯t seem to be fazed by that, however, as he continued his relentless assault with another punch aimed at my face. I used another gust to turn my jump into a summersault, but I suddenly felt a fist hammer down on my stomach. I spat out a bit of spit, but managed to focus enough to turn around a little bit in order to land on my hands and feet. Jumping up again, I managed to get away even further despite losing some dearly needed time. Just in time it turned out as Frank¡¯s next strike, a hook, was already dangerously close to my face. Time for a gamble. Gritting my teeth in case this failed, I Stepped closer and elbowed him in the rips before his attack could connect. Not leaving him any time to recover, I hit him in the pit of his stomach for good measure and wrapped my arms around his ribcage. ¡°Gotcha!¡± I shouted, sweeping his legs under him and falling down with him in front. ¡°Nope!¡± Frank shouted back. Wha- Before I could even finish thinking, the world had started spinning rapidly. A sudden impact later, I was staring at the spotlessly white clouds above. ¡°Whelp, so much for beating the crap out of me,¡± he said with a smug smile on his face that made me want to bash his face into the next rock. He turned around, facing Owen who looked as if he had just swallowed a lemon. ¡°Owen, I think you owe me an ant core.¡± I sighed, closing my eyes and letting my head sink into the sand. How the hell did he do that? There was no way, unless¡­Unless he used something to rotate himself. Like a few well-placed gusts of air. Fuck, how could I not expect something like that? I reached my hand out to him, which he grabbed and used to hoist me to my feet. Brushing the sand off my clothes, I said, ¡°Good job. I didn¡¯t expect that.¡± Frank, who was gleefully accepting a few dozen smaller cores, nodded at my words. ¡°To be honest, I also thought that it was over. You can thank my brain for being so damn intelligent for that.¡± I rolled my eyes. Can¡¯t that bastard be humble for once? I quickly discarded that ridiculous thought. It¡¯s Frank, so he probably wouldn¡¯t change that particular trait of his even if the sky came down on our heads. Dammit, I didn¡¯t even get to properly warm up. Hopefully the next fight will be a bit longer. Cracking my knuckles, I turned to face the biggest mass of spectators I could find. ¡°So, who¡¯s next?¡± Announcement First of all, I am REALLY sorry that I couldn''t publish anyn chapters in the ?ast few weeks and that my pace has crawled to a crawl. It wasn''t intentional, not really, and I was in a location where I could neither write nor focus on doing so. To the people who complained about the filler chapter: You''ll thank me for not writing a cliffhanger after I''m done. And yes, to the people who''ve already guessed this: I am rewriting my fiction. Now, before you run away with tears in your eyes whilst thinking that this promising story is done for, I have to remind you that I''m part of the group WriTE, whose goal is to complete their fictions, so I won''t be able to quit even if I wanted to. There are many reasons for doing so, but the main one would be that I''m not entirely happy with it. There are huge differences between the me from back then and the me now. I''ve hopefully improved, and seen some flaws in my story that I can''t ignore anymore. As many of you already know, I''ve put this decision off for quite a while. Months, to be honest. I don''t really know how long it''ll take, but I will continue this fic. You have my word, and the threats of lots of people are going to throw at me. Anyway, to the ones still present, here is my first draft for my prologue: ¡°C¡¯mon ****, this is an opportunity! With this strange item of yours everything we¡¯ll ever plan and so much more is going to be a piece of cake.¡± A young man in his early twenties said, his black military uniform gleaming under the bright sun. ¡°Look, this is far too risky! What if we simply die trying, or worse, are publically executed?¡± Another young man in front of him shouted. He pointed his arm towards a small group of people picnicking in grassy fields. ¡°What then? Think about your sister! Your mother! Your freaking wife! What are they going to do once we die?¡± He grabbed the uniform of the man in front of him, pulling him closer so that their faces nearly touched. ¡°TELL ME!¡± After not getting an answer, he sighed and let go of him. ¡°Fuck, you know what? Take it!¡± He paused for a bit, completely ignoring the excited expression on his friend¡¯s face. ¡°Should you ever fail - don¡¯t give me that look, we both know that this is highly possible - then know that I¡¯ll welcome you with open arms. If your stupid actions haven¡¯t killed me until then, that is.¡± An old man in rags hiccupped, the fading memories being replaced by blurry people walking past him. He rubbed his tired eyes, stretching himself on the busy street he sat on. A small coin fell into the plastic cup in front of him, shaking it for a few seconds. He turned his glassy eyes towards it, reaching out to gather it with his free hand. His unkempt beard dragged over the concrete under his feet as he shuffled the credit into the only pocked without holes left. His dark, sun burnt and dirty skin was exposed in many places and a foul odour was spreading through his vicinity, causing most of the people who walked past him to frown. ¡°Thanks,¡± he mumbled, his dazed expression remaining unchanged. The sky above that particular district of the city of New Pandora was an isle of azure in the endless sea of ominous dark clouds promising rain and thunder. As if aware of that fact, the sun shone with an intensity that let the people below feel as if they were about to melt. Beads of sweat ran down the old beggar¡¯s rough face as the alcohol within his body caused it to heat up even further, but he was already too drunk to notice things like that. ¡°Guess who the new emperor of New Pandora is?¡± The young man whose military uniform had been replaced by a magnificent robe. He had grown older, a few wrinkles having appeared on his otherwise youthful face. ¡°Right, me!¡± ¡°So? Am I supposed to be astonished? Remember who lent you his marble?¡± The other young man from the picnic remarked. In stark contrast to his friend, he hadn¡¯t changed at all. ¡°Seriously, I still think that it was a stupid idea. What about the Alliance? They won¡¯t let us off like that. The former king was a trusted ally of theirs.¡± He looked off into the distance, where hundreds of thousands of people were celebrating. Sighing for what was probably the hundredth time that day, he said, ¡°The whole galaxy will probably curse me in its future history books for this, but you know what? Just keep that damned thing. You¡¯ll probably need it more than I ever will.¡± The newly crowned king¡¯s eyes went wide. ¡°Seriously? I mean, isn¡¯t it extremely important to you? I don¡¯t want to sound ungrateful or anything like that, but why not simply continue lending it to me¡± The other young man waved his hands lazily. ¡°Because it¡¯s not like I¡¯ll ever do something significant with it anyway. Such a marvellous object would be wasted in my hands, so why not change the fate of the whole human civilization by gifting it to my best friend?¡± The crowd around him suddenly became far noisier, causing him to look up. All of the people, even the children, were staring upwards with open mouths. In the increasingly darkening sky, one could faintly see the silhouettes of dozens of massive ships hovering in the air. As time passed, their figures became larger and larger, until one could finally see some of the varying insignias scratched onto their hulls. Seeing that, the old man rummaged through his pocket, pulling a small object out. It was a marble, so dark that it seemed to devour the very light around it. He stared at it with a blank look on his face. Then, as if it would shatter at the slightest sudden movement, he gently brought it in front of his face. He slowly closed his eyes, whispering, ¡°This is the very last time I shall request something of you, so I hope that you¡¯ll be more lenient this time.¡± ¡°Oh? And there I was hoping for another few years of productive cooperation. Well, there¡¯s nothing that can be done about that, I guess,¡± an eerie voice that came from the mana marble said. The very air seemed to fluctuate with every word it said, but no one aside from the old beggar noticed that. ¡°Anyway, what do you want?¡± The old man sighed. He looked at the chaotic mass of people around him, all the while rolling the marble between his hands, then into the sky, where the last remnants of azure were being swallowed by dark clouds. ¡°What would it cost me to eradicate the allied forces of the Alliance?¡± For a brief amount of time, the voice didn¡¯t answer. But before the old beggar could even ask about its answer, a booming laughter filled his surroundings. ¡°I would never have thought that such words would come out of your mouths. Why didn¡¯t you say them before your friend went to war? If you did, he would still be alive, wouldn¡¯t he?¡± The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Ignoring the odd looks that were being directed at him, the old man stood up and smashed the marble onto the wall behind him. ¡°Shut your fucking mouth! I asked you whether or not you¡¯d fulfil my wish, not why I didn¡¯t do so earlier!¡± He combed his messy hair back with his hands whilst breathing heavily, turning around to face a curious crowd of onlookers. ¡°What do you think you¡¯re doing? Fuck off, all of you!¡± The marble appeared inside his hands again, having vanished from the dusty ground. ¡°Well, I could, but are you sure you want to do this? The price you¡¯ll have to pay won¡¯t be small.¡± Seeing that the crowd had started to turn its attention to the sky again, the old beggar smiled. ¡°I don¡¯t care. Take the rest of my lifespan and, if something like that even exists, my very soul if you deem it necessary.¡± ¡°Are you sure? This isn¡¯t something reversible. Once you agree, there won¡¯t be a way back.¡± The marble in his hands vibrated gently, the fluctuations in the air having vanished. ¡°Yes, now hurry up!¡± the old man shouted. At that moment, a blinding white light that even the people surrounding him could see erupted from the marble in his hand. It slowly spread through his body, until nothing but a blinding white light could be seen. A blinding pillar of light shot forth, scattering the gathered clouds and reaching the height where most of the hostile ships were orbiting around New Pandora, splitting up into many smaller beams that each targeted a single ship. Soon, massive explosions coloured the sky in a fiery red. Many blazing hot parts of destroyed spaceships trailed through the air, leaving trails of destruction wherever they landed. People all over New Pandora were shocked at that sight. Just what could have caused something on this scale? To actually destroy such a massive fleet, and one that was reputed for their invincibility no less, was no small feat. It would require something on the level of divine intervention. But their shock soon turned into horror as the remnants of the ships started raining down on them, causing them to scatter and hide wherever they could. All of this, however, didn¡¯t concern the old beggar. His figure had already vanished from that once busy street, along with the black marble that used to be in his hands. ********** In a certain place that was infinitely far away and yet extremely close to where the old man had vanished, a small white cloud appeared in a space of vast darkness. It was like a small candle in a dark night, yet it never seemed to go out. Suddenly, it moved. Huh? Where the hell am I? The cloud lightly pulsated, as if reacting to that thought. What is this? Am I not supposed to be dead? Didn¡¯t that damned marble take my life? This doesn¡¯t make sense! The pulsating became stronger and stronger, until the cloud rhythmically expanded and contracted. Wait, could this be some sort of afterlife? If so, then what will happen to me? I¡¯ve never been religious, so I guess that means I¡¯m in hell? Or an equivalent of it? Wait, how can I even sense that this is darkness? I can¡¯t seem to move my body, yet I¡¯m still capable of ¡®seeing¡¯ that is dark? Am I in a coma? Have I become one of those patients that are unable to communicate with their surroundings, yet retain their consciousness? The cloud continued like that for a long time, until the realization that there was no one to welcome it to a hellish place, no one to introduce it to a heaven on earth sunk in. It was all alone in that vast darkness, and that scared it. Yet, even that feeling was replaced by the sheer boredom of such a place. Even a confused soul only had so many things to think about, and, in many ways, the boredom was far worse than the previous fear of the unknown. Even the pulsing had eventually been reduced to an occasional throb, and the cloud seemed slightly lifeless. If this is how I¡¯m supposed to spend the rest of an eternity, then this place certainly is hell. Now that I think about it, what happened to that marble? Did it simply switch owners? Wait, could it be the reason for this situation But that wouldn¡¯t make sense at all. What reason would it have to do so? I even offered my soul to it, and, judging by my very existence in this strange space, I guess that it took it. Then is this the place where devoured souls reside in? But I don¡¯t see any others in here. Could it be that they were digested? Used up as a sort of battery? Before the cloud could continue that train of thought, however, it was interrupted by the sudden appearance of a multi-coloured white light that came from seemingly far away. As time passed, the radiance grew stronger and stronger, coming closer with every second that passed. Soon, everything that the cloud could sense was enveloped in it. Though it would have been scared had it been any other time, the fact that it wasn¡¯t alone in that all-encompassing darkness relieved the cloud immensely. The thought of spending an eternity all alone, with no one else to talk to was far more terrifying than anything those multi-coloured lights could do. If worse came to worst, it¡¯d simply eradicate the cloud, solving all of its problems at the same time. But as the multi-coloured light drew nearer, a strange feeling started welling up inside it. It was strangely soothing and calming, as if it were a baby inside the warm embrace of its mother. Though the time of it needing mental support had long since passed, the cloud would never pass up on another topic to think about in that boring hell. It briefly wondered about the reason that it came from the multi-coloured lights, but dismissed it just as quickly as it came to its mind. This was probably something to think about once all of this had passed, since the lights seemed to aim for it. Before it could continue with any sort of thought, its assumptions proved to be on spot as the lights drew nearer and nearer, until they close enough to literally feel the light radiating off the sources of those lights. Well, close by the perception of the cloud, since it wasn¡¯t able to estimate distances in the darkness, but it did feel close so it judged it as such. ¡°We finally found you, beloved child of ours,¡± a chorus of melodic voices shouted. The cloud¡¯s vision went dark, along with its consciousness. Rewrite finally out! The rewrite has now officially begun! For those of you who are asking themselves why it has taken so long: I''ve decided to write myself a sizable buffer in order to deal with most problems that are surely going to come my way and to ensure that the schedule will be kept for quite some time.Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. I''m hoping to return to my old schedule, which was 2-3 chapters a week, and to this time keep it for as long as possible. Anyway, enough of my rambling; the link to the new fiction ishere!