《Journey of a Mage》


 Prologue - In memory of you

    "It always has to bloody raining, why can''t I ever end up in a nice place for a change." But no matter how much I openly complained about my problems, it always leads to the same thing. Mainly me having to open up another portal as another one of Sophie''s Earth Golem attempts to dive-bomb me from the cliffs above me.


    Thankfully, I only have to endure another dozen attempts from Sophie''s acrobatic Golem''s as the cliffs begin to fall away. However, {That''s one long fall.} The other half of my brain pipes in as I stare down into the abyss of this world''s plane.


    Out of luck again. I have to come up with a plan, preferably before the horde of Golem''s regroup and gang up on me.


    Now then. What to do, what to do. I''ve already checked every corner of this blasted plane for an exit, and there''s no going up to break through the planes barrier either, and there''s defiantly no going down into the void and try to break the magic seal.


    At least I haven''t seen the Cornelio unit yet since I''d rather avoid needless violence and bloodshed if possible.


    Speaking of avoiding things, here comes the horde of waist length Golems. I''ll give Sophie some credit for her creations, the little bastards don''t run out of energy anyway as quickly as most other Golems.


    Setting the standard runaway plan in motion, the other me pipes in with his ideas as I begin to set off a teleportation formation. {Why not make a defensive formation, they can''t attack, and you''ll be free to have a pleasant stroll around the place.}


    [Good idea, though you seemed to have forgotten; once again, that my speciality is in void magic and not fortification spells. Having a shield that''ll keep the munchkin''s from biting my ankles and Cornelio''s unit away will have me drained before I''m back out the canyon.]


    {I never said to produce a shield. Instead, why don''t you...} But before he could finish that sentence my mind wanders back to reality as I have to portal one of the Golems away as it jumped at me. With no time left, I activate the teleportation formation and direct it to the flat and desolate plains on the other side of the island.


    Arriving in a flash of blinding light, immediately two things popped up in my mind. Number one was that I had forgotten to leave a bomb back at the cliff face to incinerate some Golems. And the second thought was, who has the knowledge to diverged my formations while in mid-transit.


    {It''s probably a trap.} Again other me pipes in with some useless info. Since considering, I was meant to be on the other side of the island by now, and not in it''s blasted centre. Anyone with half a brain could figure that out. {Funny you should mention that.}


    Ignoring the remarks of the inferior me. {I heard that.} I prepare a movement spell and aim toward the desolate tundra, since being three hundred meters from the canyon containing the small waist length horde is a place I''d rather not be near.


    But alas, I didn''t even get the chance to move a millimetre before a trap triggered underneath me. Celestial light filled my immediate surroundings and blinded me. A few seconds later, and not only was my magic restrained, but a ten by ten dome of light had me trapped. {Yeah this is definably a trap.}


    [Nice to see that your observation skills are still functioning Caption Obvious. Now do me a favour and figure out a way to undo this spell before the cavalry arrives.]


    {Alright, calm down Captain Serious. Keep and eye out for enemies while I begin to unravel this spell, shouldn''t take too long for someone of my expertise.}


    Ignoring his remarks, I start to look for any clues of my assailants. But other than the desolate plains and sporadic hills that make up the island''s centre, it was empty. Not even a single one of Sophie''s scout Golem''s were visible. [This can''t be good, the Cornelio unit has to be up to something.]


    {Nice observational skills.}


    [Less of the sass. Have you figured out what type of spell I''ve triggered?]


    In a sombre tone, that I though an ethereal voice could produce answered my question. {Yes I do, and I do believe we''re going to meet the culprits very soon.} I wanted to ask more information about the cryptic answer he just gave me. However, portals opening up all around me ruined that chance, and men with black armour streaming out of them.


    Well if the Council''s insists on sending these many people to capture me, the least I can do is greet them with a smile. "Well if it isn''t my old ''friend''s''. How have you been doing? I see you''ve recruited a few more members since I last saw you." But the only reply given to me is silence. Hmm, oh in the back there''s someone I know. "Ashley how long has it been since we last met. It seems you''ve even gotten a promotion or two, have the Council run out of competent people already."


    To my last remark, even the calm and composed Ashley can''t help but reveal her true bitchy nature. "Shut it, William. You know perfectly well how we''ve been you bastard." Some people never change, she''s still the same: blonde hair, gorgeous figure, lovely face and a stuck up attitude that''ll drive men mad, though it does seem that she''s gone for a flamy red dress instead of her regular revealing clothes.


    But ignoring someone''s fashion sense, I nonchalantly reply to her rather rude remark. "To be fair, I did warn you not to touch the device I was experimenting on. It''s not my fault that you were too idiotic to listen to some simple advice."


    Though all my words did was to fuel her fire of hate. "Don''t give me that bullshit, I..." But; praise be to Sol, another one of my old friends jumps into the conversation at this point.


    "Will you calm down and focus Ashley, you and William can have your petty marital dispute later. Remember what we came here for and don''t get sidetracked." The new more gentle voice says as it does it job to berate Ashley whenever she does something silly.


    Though the soft voice doesn''t suit the brawny six foot four man, whose shaggy brown hair is the epitome of not caring, and whose face only a mother could love, and; for our amusement, it was all wrapped up in a fashion sense that was even worse than a corpse''s. The very image of Stephany. Of course, I had to greet this friend. "Steph''s, it so lovely to see you, how''s the wife and kids doing. Does little Stephany Junior miss his old Uncle, William."


    "Stop your ramblings, William, your talking won''t give you extra time to escape this time." Just you wait, other me''s probably already cracked your stupid trap. "Your other half won''t be able to break this trap."


    {Wanna bet.} Other me really does like to take bets with people. Especially when it proves them wrong.


    "Hand over the artefact William. If you cooperate with us then this chase can end today, and I promise the council won''t harm you. You have my word, William." Even if the gentle voice sounds firm, I can see the exhaustion in his eyes. We''ve all reached or limit. However...


    I shake my head to the proposal he''s given me countless times, and I give him the same answer I gave numerous times. "You know why I need this artefact Steph, why can''t you just leave me alone to do my research. You of all people should be aware how much trouble I''ve gone, though." My reply falls flat, however, as the natural firmness isn''t there like it used to be. This chase has been too exhausted and a big time waster.


    Though wallowing in self-pity seems to be detrimental at this point, since Ashley''s mouth still seems to want revenge. "Just let you go. You''ve little research project has caused enough damage already. Remember the incident in Florence, four thousand lives were lost and for what cause. That''s right, all for your project." Re-opening old wounds I see.


    ¡°I remember that day perfectly well." The usual flair in my voice is gone. I never have the energy to discuss this subject. "What I remember is you and your minions damaging a stable and safe project. I remember you lot digging through all the machinery in search of its core." Meeting her glare head on, I continue the story. "But what I remember most of all, is spending ten years in a collapse sub-space due to the core''s collapse. You think you had it bad in there, at least you weren''t being chased daily by the same people who also got stuck in there, oh and let''s not forget about the monster''s that were inhabiting the plane. Wouldn''t want to leave those guys out."Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.


    However, Ashley''s ego couldn''t take the blame I was saying and used the same justification she gave to me, and to the Emperor. "Our fault William. Look at yourself first, before you blame others. Who of us here was the one tinkering with old machinery? You said it was stable, but would a stable machine begin to collapse after a few things were taken out." Yes, it would, mainly because the machine was still bloody running. But even if I berate her it won''t lead to anywhere; she never was the smartest person.


    However, blaming the collapse on my tinkering wasn''t enough for her justification. "Its collapse was the perfect example of the devastation it could have caused if it was left in your hands any longer. You try to play the victim by saying we caused its collapse, but all we DID was stop a potential cataclysm that could have claimed more lives than the four thousand mortals who became trapped due to your research failing."


    ¡°Oh Ashley, you always think your right, don''t you." Mimicking her voice. I start on my little rant. "The core is collapsing, is it because we''ve torn out parts of it, no, must be because it''s a dangerous machine, quick take more stuff out." It seems I''ve ruffled her feathers a bit. Let''s see what else I can do. "You were always so full of yourself Ashley is that the reason Victor loves you so much, well before he escaped the collapse without you that is."


    The last remark of mine hit her deepest wound and regret. Though seeing the menagerie of colour, her face went through as she tried to keep herself under control was amusing in itself. Eventually, though her face settles on a scarlet red colour and her direct threat echoed that. "Enough with the bravado William. Now hand other the artefact before you learn the turn reason of why they call me the Nefarious Flame Witch."


    However, my attention was on the angry Ashley, but on Stephany, who currently had his head in his hands. Eventually, Ashley''s stupidity was too much, and Steph''s finally decided to intervene. "God damn it Ashley! Stop antagonising him! And stop getting angered by him as well! By Zeraf''s light, which idiotic Demon Lord thought it''d be a good idea to bring you along." Seeing Ashley squirm under Steph''s gaze will always be fun to see, but it''s not long before he turns said gaze towards me.


    "Look, William we can still work this out, Ashley''s the only one blaming you for the disaster, and we both know she''s taking her frustration out on you because of Victor and the five years she spent in there." I still fail to see why I should shoulder the bulk of her frustration.


    "But now, we''re here to help. I mean look at yourself, your even worse off than us." He''s right, I''ve lost too much weight, my beard and have overgrown and my clothes are in tatters; only help in place by an improvised spell and any material I can get my hands on the to stitch things back together.


    But, "I can''t stop now."


    "Sure you can." Stephany, replies back in a more cheerful voice. He was always the voice of reason in our group, even if he had the worst fashion sense of us all.


    But to his enthusiasm, I can only shake my head. "No, I really can''t.¡± Then directing my gaze upward I call out to our other guest. ¡°Isn''t that right Bradly?" As I look up to the sky, I see the same glowing silhouette that''s haunted me throughout the years. The shape of the Council''s chief enforcer, my best friend and the only person in recent years to have dual affinities with both Light and Celestial magic.


    "Still observant as ever aren''t you, seems the years haven''t dulled your senses at all, my friend." His booming voice says as his body of light descends to us.


    Even as the chief pursuer himself joins the fray, I can''t help but echo out some words he told me years ago. "Even when meeting with an old friend you only bring out a superficial avatar to greet them. Weren''t you the one who said it was disrespectful to meet people without your main body."


    But the buzz kill Lord himself gives a justified reason for why a simple avatar of light is his replacement. "My main body is needed elsewhere, every since you killed a view of the council elders I''ve had to fill in for them. Besides we can meet face to face later, so my avatar is sufficient enough to bring you back."


    "Yes, peace though dive-bombing Golems, just another one of the many ways the Council''s enforcer enforces his peace. Where have I heard that one before?"


    "Save your delusions, William. We both know Sophie''s Golems can''t hurt you even if there were thousands of them, they were meant to exhaust you. Besides, even that strategy failed in the end with your teleportation skills. But now with your entrapment, you should know you cannot escape." Stretching out a blob of light from himself he continues. "Give me the artefact William, with the position I''m currently in I can get the council to help you with your research again. They can help you find Euphemia''s soul. Just not with that artefact."


    Euphemia.


    That names come up less and less these years. It seems Bradly''s one of the only people who still remembers the reason this all started, even after all these years. But, "This artefact took her soul, it''s my only link to finding her. You know how vast the void is Bradly, without some sort connection there''s no another way of finding her." The once resolute voice I had while antagonising Ashley is gone. What remains is the weak voice that has replied to Bradly on more than one occasion.


    "William for the love of Sol stop resisting. At the rate you''re going your going to do more irreparable harm to yourself, why can''t you see that the artefact you''re claiming to be your salvation is nothing more than a ticking time bomb."


    "Bradly, do you think I don''t know the risks I''m taking. If I had any other way I would take it, but I still run. Why? Because I don''t have any other options left to me."


    "It''s different now. The Council can help. The research diversion that you were in charge of has figured a way to traverse the void safely, without the need to tinker with old artefacts. That''s how much we care for you. That''s how much we want you back."


    But even with all his care towards me, the real nature of Bradly shows itself after he finished trying to persuade me. ¡°Don''t make us use force to subjugate you, I''ve given you enough chances already, the Council won''t let me let you go anymore. There won''t be another night at the Cradle club like the last time I found you."


    [He always did think his double affinity made him special. But I can''t win if I fight everyone here. I''ve only got one option left.]


    {Does this mean?}


    [Yes. Bring up the data we''ve gathered and begun preparation to cast the formation.]


    {This is going to end badly. Why is the other half of me so bloody suicidal sometimes.} I ignore my other half''s worries. Instead, I pull out the artefact Euphemia left behind.


    It''s quite the simple object when you look at it. A grey cylinder spotted with sporadic holes. Quite the misleading thing; give one glance at it, and you''ll probably leave it alone.


    But the truth lies in the symbols sketched on the outside and the ancient writing scrawled on its inside. Twenty years ago Euphemia figured out what the words on the cylinder were if only I were more resolute in stopping her. Then maybe she wouldn''t have cast the spell which stole her soul and flung it into the void.


    Seeing me pull out the artefact and in a sombre mood, Bradly had become ecstatic about my change of heart. "You''ve made the right choice William. Soon this whole ordeal will be over. Ashley, lower the trap and let him out."


    However, Ashley, disobedient as ever, took offence to this idea. "Let him go! This is the first time we''ve caught him in a decade, and you want to let this bastard go?! You''ve must of gone as mad as he has!"


    "Just do as I say Ashley and don''t ruin my mood! Besides he''s harmless now that I''ve finally managed to persuade his rational side." Well, he''s half right, he''s persuaded me to do the experiment I dare not to do casually.


    "This is still a bad idea in my opinion Bradly." Even though she says this Ashley still, begrudgingly, lowers the trap and I, With the spell preparing I, begin walking to Bradly.


    Though I do give my other half a warning as I proceed. [Make sure he doesn''t detect the spell or it''s the end of us.] No response. Good, it''s too busy focusing on its task to deal with me.


    As I walk closer and closer sweat begins to form on my brow. "You''re doing the right thing. You''ll see, the Council''s resources will easily find your darling''s soul." I wince at his words. Even to this day, I''m still the only one able to see his lies.


    I doubt the Council were able to do something that not even I could do in the decade since I''ve been gone.


    Thankfully, my arrogant friend still doesn''t seem to have noticed my formation, that or he just doesn''t think the spell I gathered can harm him.


    Nearing the outstretched light tendril not only do I put the cylinder in it which the blob shakes at, but I also activate the formation I prepared. Both of us light up and even without a face the blob looks surprised. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" He screams as Celestial power is gathered to force me out. But it''s useless.


    As the cylinder starts to glow, the weird marking starts emitting an eerily light as the formation grows bigger and engulfs us both as answer Bradly with a smile. "I''m using the council''s resources as you so gracefully offered and since your their lapdog I''ll use your body to try out a new experiment I''ve been working on." Its do or die now.


    I begin chanting the word''s that I deciphered from the artefact, and I use the formation I''ve set up to force more and more of my own power into it and syphon more of Bradly''s power into the cylinder.


    It only took a few seconds. But I can sense that Stephany has moved; seems he''s the only capable one that came along. But it''s too late. My power has almost been sucked dry, and Bradly''s avatar has been reduced to the size of my palm just as the incantation finished.


    The device began to glow and begins to spread up my arm. Whereas Bradly''s avatar started to expand, but unlike a normal expansion of mana, this avatar just balloons out, until it''s only kept together by some unseen force stretching the leftover mana out. Coinciding with my body being covered in the devices strange glow the avatar pops with one big bang and the entire area is covered in an extreme force of light.


    Many of the weaker people have collapsed due to the sound, while everyone else was momentarily blinded, even Steph was forced back. Meanwhile, I begin to black out, not because of the proximity of the spell, but due to my soul and body being forcibly dragged through the void and forced together into one being.

 Chapter 1 - Optimism is your best friend...

    ¡°Oh Sol, the pain, why is it so painful?¡± I mutter to myself after the void finally flung me out. Those things should come with straps to hold you down; I''m still feeling nauseated from the spinning. But, speaking of trans-dimensional travel, where the hell did I end up.


    Looking all around me, as far as my eyes can see, are trees, lots of them, so many that it''s safe to say that I''m in a forest and not someone''s garden, hopefully. Though looking at the tree''s there at least triple the height of the trees back home, should be decent enough to climb and survey the area.


    Continuing to gaze around in the hope of finding something else that might be useful, though unfortunately, my sight was mostly blocked by all the trees. So with little else to do, I decided it was time to check up on my body and hope everything was still there, still in the right place and in a good enough condition from what I had left it in. Because I don''t want to climb a tree and realise half-way up my legs are still on the ground.


    So casting a protective dome formation around me, I was in for my first surprise of the day.


    As the dome formed out normally, it''s usual transparent shell begun to thicken as it encountered the native mana. What was also interesting was that it turned a translucent purple for some reason, however, I glossed over the new colour it had, since the feedback I was getting seemed to indicate that it''s defensive capabilities had almost doubled in strength.


    Though this was just a hunch I was going off of how much mana I could sense was going into it, so it''s safe to say that I''m going to have to test it''s capabilities in the near future.


    However, that wasn''t the big surprise. Because on my end, when viewing my natural mana intake to see if any problems had occurred there. I found that the mana I was taking in was vastly superior to my old world''s mana: with not only the quality being much purer, but the speed at which I was taking in mana was almost doubled. It was like I had landed in a planet-sized mana spring.


    Though even with this delightful discovery, I did notice that there was something strange going on. Since normally, the human body will have some resistance to the intake of mana: due to the skin, bone and organ''s either deflecting the mana back into the world or absorbing it themselves before it was able to get to a mage''s manapool.


    Now this had me slightly worried, since from the memory of back home the only creature''s that were able to take mana in effortlessly were either wandering souls or spirits.


    Now since I haven''t technically died yet and void travel did drag both my body and soul through, I''m starting to suspect that my soul and body may have merged into one as I was crushed and flung around the void. So my natural instinct told me to inspect myself.


    Frantically I delved into my body as I attempted to figure out what the hell had happened to my body, and if there was cause for me to be more worried about the current situation I was in.


    So doing what came naturally I decided to check to see if all my organs were still intake. Thankfully there were still there, so my merging theory was going strong. Though unlike ordinary souls and spirits whose bodily function were none existent, my organs were in existence, though they currently weren''t functional or materialised.


    Which means that I''m using spirit/soul logic and living off of the surrounding mana, not so bad in itself. But, if I am using spirit logic then delving into my manapool to check it out is making me slightly worried, since any changes to the body were sure to have occurred there and can potentially be the most damaging.


    So upon arrival, everything seemed calm and stable. Mana was coming in, swirling around and then either settling into the manapool or being sent out to the rest of my body.


    However, what worried me was the rate at which mana was being absorbed, since if it kept going at its current rate then once the pool becomes bloated in say a day or two then I will no longer be almost dead I will be dead. Exploding into thousand of tiny pieces and all because I can''t do the regular spirit thing and just excrete unnecessary mana.


    Then again the second biggest problem was my own doing since I never learned any high-level meditation techniques and instead just plastered myself in self-absorption runes, and with my body merging with my soul this meant that my body was in a perpetual state of constantly absorbing mana with no way of turning it off.


    Which means that I need to either find a host to possess or start spamming magic all day. But even that will still eventually lead to my death, since mana fatigue and exhaustion is a bitch, once either of those two put me under I''ll explode while having a sweet dream.


    So in layman''s term, I was royally screwed. But who I am if not optimistic, so time to enacted Operation: find me a host to possess so I don''t blow up. As long as the body I acquire is vaguely human, it should allow my body time to not only adjust to this planet''s mana, but it should also mean that the excess man can eject by using the host own bodily function to serve me.


    That and hopefully take control of a good minion who I can use to help me search for suitable bodybuilding material.


    So goals in mind and body in check, I eye up the nearest tree in front of me, and with the aid of a movement formation to get up, I begin my search for civilisation.


    But even so, it would seem that this forest is exceptionally large; sprawling out into the horizon on all sides. Searching in a place like this may be a bit tricky.


    After a few hours of spinning in a circle above a tree casting eye enhancement magic every few second, I finally spot something in the distance. Smoke, which usually indicates a progressive civilisation.


    Or a forest fire. Eh, best to keep my hope''s up.


    So with a location in mind, I cast a levitation formation and began to float towards the smoke-filled horizon and settle myself in for a travel time of a few hours.


    Though I do have the strangest feeling that I''m forgetting about something, ah, can''t be too important if I''ve easily forgotten about it, if it''s important enough George will fill me in later.The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    Observing my surroundings as I float on by I begin to document the strange creature''s that I see. Ranging from strange moving stones, most being the size of my head, but there''s the occasional big fellow who was the size of a boulder. Looking closely at their movement''s does seem to indicate that there are herbivores because where ever one of them passed the grass would be visible shorter than before the rock creature was there. With these traits in mind, I shall name them Rock Turtles.


    While observing said Rock Turtle''s, I chanced upon seeing their natural predator. Safe to say I was less impress to see a Tiger in this world. Though it was considerably larger than any from my world with it easily dwarfing the biggest boulder Rock Turtle, though it''s next action did manage to grab my attention again as it shot out a fireball from its mouth. Safe to say I was a bit flabbergasted by this act, especially so when the fireball itself was pure mana, but I couldn''t detect any spell activation.


    To this, I begun to imagine what type of evolution it must have undergone, since being able to shoot out a fireball the size of my head and produce it at a high enough temperature and to melt through stone easily is impressive enough for a creature of its level, but without activating some sort of spell? If I ever get the chance, I must congratulate the person, or people, who managed to create a species such as this, since Lentunto was defiantly not involved in its creation. Thus I filed the creature under experiment on later and memorised the general location I had spotted the beast at.


    Continuing on my journey, I eventually spotted some flying creatures and safe to say the excitement of seeing a fire-breathing Tiger was dampened by seeing a group of Swallow like creature''s gliding through the air.


    I''m in an entirely new world, give me some interesting creature''s to see.


    But wallowing in self-pity for the simplicity of this new world''s biology won''t get me anywhere. Might as well take a closer look at the Swallows in the case that like the Tiger they too had special abilities as well. Passing by them, I happened to notice that they never flapped once. Instead, they bent the air around them so as to allow them to move around at whatever speed they wished to use. I''m not detecting any spells, so I wonder if they have some latent magic abilities that allow them to bend the mana around themselves.


    With that thought in mind, I stopped my trip for a few seconds and delved into the body of a nearby Swallow. But, what I found wasn''t what I was expecting. The creatures body was similar in build to normal birds. However, the mana pool which I hypothesised the birds were using were none existent. Instead, it was replaced by some innate energy modifier that allowed the bird to naturally gathered energy and then spread it around the body through tube-like vessels that encompassed the arteries.


    Looking back, this may be similar to the Fire-breathing Tiger as well. I may need to investigate this further once I find a suitable host. If I''m lucky, these people may even know what is going on with the local wildlife.


    Exiting the now visibly distressed bird, I activated a flying formation and began to hurtle my way through the sky, while I hope to find a suitable vessel faster in hopes of understanding this world.


    [One hour later]


    Finally, I''ve reached the smoke cloud and from the looks of things it hadn''t travelled that far either. Lucky me, the source of smoke should be somewhat close by. Re-casting the levitation spell for better manoeuvrability I begin to have a look about.


    It only took me a few minutes, but I can conclude that the place is deserted in almost every direction, which should make it easier to detected any movement. Right, no more getting side-tracked, of I go toward the primary source of the smoke, shouldn''t take more than a few minutes to reach it.


    Moving gradually towards the origin of the smoke, I set up some protective formations around myself just in case I discover whatever started the smoke and said smoke-starter can detect and attack me. Though that line of thought sent a shudder down my spine, since any creature which I know that can sense spirit''s and souls are usually strong and have an appetite for said beings.


    Plus, I doubt I have the confidence to fend one of in my current state. Thus I slow down slightly and begin to advance carefully.


    As I start to close in on the smokes origin the density grown thicker and thicker, as I approach the source the smoke is so thick that my normal vision can''t see jack shit. So forming a wind formation, I blow away the annoying smoke.


    But what I see is not too my liking. The source seemed to occur from a battle, and the fuel used was human bodies. The amount of corpse''s on the pyres compared to the very few graves tells me that no battle took place here, but a massacre.


    The clearing isn''t all that big either. Only one mile wide, though it''s clear that this clearing is manned made with stumps of trees visible on the battlefields edge. Though what''s curious about this battlefield is that the ground is completely blackened, as if someone had burnt the entire area indiscriminately.


    I scan the area looking for any survivors that may have been missed, But all that I find are areas were certain parts of the human army were massacred and the equipment on those people must have used: steel swords, plate and mail armour and the occasional musket, have mostly been smashed, burned, corroded or just discarded as people fled. The corrosion in certain parts makes me think that mages were involved, but then, why would mages massacre non-mages?


    My mind flashes to one of my history classes were we were told about the Magi ancient era and how non-mages were treated like cattle. Sol forbid that this world''s mages are like that, if so then there no better than the Highland barbarians and rouge mages back home.


    But even so, if mages did fight here, who are buried in those graves. Thinking the worst, I teleport over to the simple wooden crosses and send my mana into the ground underneath, nothing. Thank Sol. Though these simple wooden crosses seem to bear armour in a similar fashion to the ones the Chinese traditionally use on closer inspection, though these look much flashier, Emperor Hung would be drooling right now if he saw these pieces of armour. Minus the ones with bullet holes in them, which is most of them.


    Thinking about it, what in Tenfu''s name happened here exactly?


    The set-up is too abnormal. If the gravestones belong to the enemy army, then there must have been a battle here. Even if the massacred army was surrounded, with the amount of muskets they had, they should have killed more than a handful, even if the mages intervened right at the start missed bullets would''ve hit other soldiers.


    This place is too mysterious, something else must have changed the balance. There''s limb haphazardly laying around, so maybe the enemy used some genetically mutated beast: like the Tiger or Swallow I''ve previously seen.


    Well, I''m never going to figure it out this way, I need to find a survivor. Now let''s see, this spell should still work since there human, or at least to my eye''s they are. With but a thought an invisible bubble form''s around me and begins to spread out.


    Ten meters. Nothing.


    One hundred meters. Nothing.


    Five hundred meters. Nothing.


    One thousand meters. Nothing.


    Getting impatient I expand the search to enclose two miles. I instantaneously detect three presences all at the same spot, most likely survivors who managed to run away quickly enough. Teleporting to the forest''s edge, I begin to weave myself through the woods while following the trail left by the spell and in no time at all, I reach the area.


    Though it would seem that my idea of them being three survivors was wrong, looks more like an execution to me. Two of the people were standing in front of the third kneeling man. Out of the two standing one was wearing very feminine plate armour, though her hair was styled in that of a man''s, the other wore a pale blue dress that showed of defined her femininity. The thirds person on the other hand: leather and some iron pieces, I can guess which one of them ran away. Now then let''s see how this plays out and which body I should occupy, if I''m guessing then it''s going to be the tied up third guy, the guy''s lifeless face is perfect for me to make a new minion.


    See William all good things come in the end when one stays optimistic. I could fell a very broad smile beginning to form on my face.

 Chapter 2 - 鈥?ut pessimism is a good bride too

    Trees, trees and more bloody trees, the endless forest sure does live up to its name. But with only the sound of thousands of boots marching and the forests silence to keep me company, I became incredibly bored.


    So with my boredom in mind, I decided this was the perfect opportunity to ask the big burly man dress in mail armour some more questions. ¡°Serjeant, I''ve got some more question that I want to ask?¡±


    ¡°Be quite Henry I''ve had enough of your questions every since we came through the portal.¡± Without even turning to look at me his usual grating droning voice answers my question almost immediately.


    ¡°Look I know I may have been a bit annoying for the past few miles, but I can''t help but wonder why we came into the forest in the first place, with an army of ten thousand men nonetheless? I mean why not fight in the plains near our border? It''s much closer to home and only a short march away. It''s a much more sensible plan in my opinion.¡±


    The Serjeant hearing my multitude of questions finally turns around to face me. ¡°Be quiet recruit. No one cares about your opinion, I for one certainly don''t. We are grunts, and we have our orders, and we will follow them through. So shut up and keep marching!¡± Screaming the last the last part he spins back around and continues the march. After he had walked away, I noticed I was gaining an every increasing number of pitying stares from the other conscripts, but I could also hear the obnoxious laughter from the real soldiers as well.


    Heaving a great sigh, all I could do was give up any attempt to try and pry some information from the bootleg mercenary army officer, maybe I should try bribing next time. Still, I do think my plan is better since whatever plan old General Cuthbert has it''s most likely suicidal. It''ll probably be a massed charge at whatever enemy we find. Or if my suspicions are correct, a massed charge after the enemy has ambushed us in this bloody forest.


    Stop. Stop being so pessimistic Henry you''ve got to stay positive. Now come on, sure I never wanted to be in this damn war in the first place. Sure, I was forcibly recruited by being tied me up while I was at the tavern. Sure, they forced me into this dulled brown leather uniform. Sure they didn''t even give me any training on how to use the musket and sword that they threw at me. But you what? It''s a big army, theirs got to be at least one competent person in the command staff, so it can''t end as badly as I''ve imagined, right?


    Ah, who am I kidding. It doesn''t take a genius to figure out that General Cuthbert''s current campaign is going to end up in an ambush, or worse. Seriously, who in their right mind marches their army into the Endless Forest, and without a clue as to where or who the enemies are, and aim for a battle.


    While lamenting on my potential death, I fail to see the approaching tree root, and in one of my more embarrassing moment, I manage to trip over said root and begin to roll down the nearby hill.


    A few feet of rolling later and it''s safe to save only the only part of me injured is my dignity, and what''s left of the said dignity crumbles as the obnoxious laughter from my fellow soldiers reaches my ears as they show off their flawless mobility. But there''s nothing I really can do but mumbling a curse towards them.


    Picking myself up, I begin to inspect the damage the roll caused to my equipment: my leather clothes are still more or less intact, though they still looked baggy on my skinny frame. The musket I''ve been issued with doesn''t look broken, though it''s still more likely self-explode and kill me. My sword, on the other hand, has managed to bent ninety degrees. How? Wait, silly question Henry, your country''s obviously corrupt so of course we conscript''s get the equipment made from less than average materials.


    Heaving another great sigh, I do the only thing I can only do in this situation, dust myself off as best as I can and try to make sure that I don''t fall behind too much.


    [Hours later]


    Drenched in sweat from a non-stop five-mile march and the sun setting, General Cuthbert deemed it an appropriate time to set up camp. Though with the actual tents belonging to the ''professional soldiers'' us conscripts could only find rest were every we deemed it appropriate. Myself was dragging my exhausted body to the nearest and comfiest looking tree.


    Snuggling into my thin blanket, I had hoped I could get a good night''s sleep. Unfortunately, my view was quite literally brightened up by some jackass with an oil lamp. Though said jackass just so happens to be my newest drinking acquaintance, oh and also the person I''m pretty sure more or less sold me into the army. Since an unofficial army rule grants a reward for its professional soldiers who bring in new men; legally or not.


    Just ignore him and pretend to sleep, pretend to sleep. He hasn''t noticed me. I''m completely invisible. There''s no way... ¡°Henry, my friend.¡± Bollocks. ¡°I''ve been looking everywhere for you!¡± Cherry arsed bastard. You kidnapped me, don''t go about pretending that you''re on good terms with me.


    Safe to say inside I was fuming, but I couldn''t let him know. So giving a fake groan, I greet the bastard. ¡°Oh hey there, long time no see Phyllis. I was beginning to worry that someone kidnapped you after our drinking session ended and I couldn''t find you anywhere.¡±


    I notice that his eye twitched when I got his name wrong, plus there was a hint of anger in his otherwise gentle voice as he replied to me. ¡°The names Philip, Henry.¡±


    ¡°Sorry Penelope, I''ll try to remember it for next time.¡± I also flashed the most innocent smile I could accomplish in the hopes of forcing him away sooner.


    Whether that worked or not, I couldn''t tell. Since Princess here brought his face very close to my own, but his faced sported a creepy and disturbing smile as he replied back to me. ¡°Don''t worry Henry, since this campaign will take awhile we''ll have enough time to learn, together.¡± At this point major alarm bells were going off, a shiver had gone up my spine and I was ready to shout ''Stranger danger!'' if so much as twitched.


    Thankfully, to all the various gods, I didn''t just end up like a deer in a forest fire and somehow managed to keep up a relatively calm surface as I replied back to him. ¡°That''s good to hear Pamela. I do hope we get along during this long and arduous campaign that we are facing.¡± I this to him with sincerity in my voice and utter contempt in my heart, and topped off with a lovely smile on my face.


    Though our Princess doesn''t seem to overly care, even his eyed stopped twitching when gave him a female''s name; maybe he''s used to this kind of thing. I mean looking at the man: his face and voice are overly effeminate, give him one glance, and you''d be mistaken he was even male. Even his body structure borders on the edge of female territory. One can even say he''s beautiful; you could get lost in those hazel brown eyes of his. Wait. What was I thinking about again?


    But while I was slightly dazed staring at our Princess, he gave a scoff and rolled his eyes as he pulled away. It seems he must have finished his check up on me, though considering that were in the endless dark forest and the portal we came through has been shut down, means we wouldn''t be able to run even if we wanted to. Unless we somehow got an activation key from one of the nobles, that is.


    But I have to put those suicidal ideas out of my mind for now since with night already here I prepare myself for some well-earned sleep.


    [The next morning]


    Ah, the great outdoors. You know, I was a bit too pessimistic yesterday when an unending tree line greeted our little expedition. But today, coupled with the beautifully rising sun breaking through the canopy, and the magically empowered singing birds. Today will be a good day...


    ...Or that''s what I would have said, if not for the last four hours I was on forced sentry duty. All thanks to most of the ''professional soldiers'' wanted more napping time, which means that my beauty sleep was rudely interrupted, so right now, I''m cranky.


    Even the morning breakfast considering of gruel(?) I believe, seems to have better ethics than those twats. At least it knows it''s horrible and it doesn''t even try to hide it. I salute you awful gruel and pray to the gods you don''t kill me for many per-determined reasons.


    So with breakfast down the hatch and my bowels considerably loosened. I began my own preparation for today''s march, mainly, acquiring as much drinkable water as possible. Probably, one of the few things that the army provides which isn''t made from the cheapest materials available. Maybe they care for their fodder after all.


    Never the less, keeping hydrated is priority number one because after all it''s summer and the forest is bloody well warm after all. That and the Army only provides us poor conscript enough so that we don''t die on the march; there goes the sentimental value the water once held for me then.


    Now then, time to enact the plan I had thought up on sentry duty. First I take an extra empty bag from my backpack and began to fill it up with some nearby soil, though I do make sure only to take it from the shaded ground around the tree; this way people won''t see too much of a difference if they were to pass over the, plus a few leaves scattered around will help to make it look more authentic. A few minute later; and my bent sword even dirtier, the bag was full, and I began my trip to the depot.


    Thankfully it wasn''t very far either since it would seem that my random tree picking resulted in me camping closish to the depot. The journey only took me ten odd minutes, to weave through sleeping men and various little camps, before I reached the depots centre.


    Upon entering the centre, I could only stare in amazement, almost entirely deserted depot save for a few sleeping bodies here and there. Moving closer to one of the scattered bodies, the heavy scent of alcohol can clearly be smelled and tasted, the man''s groaning seems to indicate what had happened here last night perfectly.


    Looking upon the various prone people, my mind can''t help but wonder where Patricia is in all of this mess; I do hope no barbarians or ruffians stole him away in the middle of this alcoholic party. A smile began to form from that thought of mind, and I couldn''t help but merrily stroll towards the water supply area.This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.


    Approaching the supply tent, I can''t help but notice that once again there is a suspicious lack of people around. I mean surely there must have been some sober people, right? The armies discipline can''t be that bad. Can it? Nevertheless, shaking my head, I gathered my courage and stepped inside the tent was I was at least glad to see someone guarding the water, though his current state couldn''t be described as the best.


    Slumped in his wooden chair and spilt out across his desk, I could see that he may have been a tad hungover from last night''s party. Plus a lot of glass bottles were scattered about the place, evidence enough that this place was a focal point for the evening''s drinking event. Approaching his shaggy mop head man, I give him a little shake and ask him as quietly as possible. ¡°Hey, wake up. I''m here for the water supply.¡±


    Thankfully I don''t startle him awake. Instead, the quartermaster just groans a bit before saying. ¡°Unlucky bastard, guess you were forced to stay sober to collect everything. Ha ha ah.¡± Holding his head with one hand, the other points to a stack of bags as he mumbles through the desk. ¡°There''s your squad''s water supply over there, take it and get the fuck out.¡± You, sir, are a true party hero, your deeds shall not go unrewarded. I give him a silent salute before I turn and approach the bags. Though I do make sure to look in one first, and I''m overjoyed to see it brimming with water flasks.


    Though it does make my soil bag slightly useless, nevertheless I can still use to hide water. Pulling out some water canteens from different bags; while making sure not to disturb out quartermaster beauty sleep. Each one I pick, I then dig to the bottom of the bag. Which is much harder with it being packed so tightly, but a bit of squirming allows me to jam a few of the canteens in.


    Pleased with the work I just accomplished, I quickly stroll out of the tent, but this is where I run into a slight complication with my plans since it would seem that Pauline wasn''t kidnapped last night as I had quite hoped for.


    He was instead staggering his way towards the quartermaster''s office, seemingly not noticing the fact I was right in front of him, taking this as a good sign I decided it was the perfect time to get the hell out of the depot and begun walking the other way.


    Unfortunately, the sound of my hastening boots seemed to have caught his attention. I could almost feel his head snapping to my direction and locking onto me like I was a prey the early morning predator had just noticed. The phrase ''Keep walking and don''t look back'' was repeated throughout my mind as I hastened my steps and by some miracle, he either didn''t care enough to call out to me, or he just didn''t care who I was. Hopefully the latter, otherwise I might be in trouble.


    Either way, right now I was off scot-free, and with a few extra bottles to my name, my marching should be considerably better. So weaving into the awakening crowd of people, I went to my sleeping spot and begun the process of swapping the canteens out of the dirtbag and into my backpack. I also made sure to clean the bag as much as possible since there''s the possibility I may need to use it again.


    Now then, all I need to do is wait for the morning march, shouldn''t be more than an hour or so away.


    [Midday. Six hours later.]


    Well, that''s a large army, this was my first though as we in the open field as we exited the forest. Since we had plenty of muskets at our disposal, I was one of the few people sent out to mark out our shooting distances. Though in all fairness, putting the long piece of wood in the ground at exactly three hundred and fifty meters was something that all of us found difficult. However, with many of us spread across around five hundred meters, we all more or less settle on the same relative place.


    The same continues for three hundred meters, two hundred and fifty, two hundred, etc. By the time I finished the last fifty meters I was incredibly bored. The only thing keeping me interested was the strange formation that the enemy had taken. I''m no expert, but even half a mile away, I could see that they only had a small number of their troop''s lines up on the forests edge with the rest mingling in with the trees. How peculiar.


    Even with this new found interest, I couldn''t help but feel that something bad was going to happen. So taking a page out of the good general''s book, I positioned myself at the extreme left of our formation, though even if I was on the far left my company was still on the front lines so no matter how far back I went I was still in the armies centre. Still, if I bolt early enough the enemy shouldn''t catch me, and I might even be able to use the same trick mother uses when she goes to battle and switch sides.


    Even with the added distraction, the enemy wasn''t coming anytime soon, and so in the act of mercy, the good General allowed us conscripts to rest alongside the ''professionals''. With the midday sun beating down on us the extra water I scavenge is a much-needed resource.


    Unfortunately for my break, thirty minutes in and the enemy had begun to advance. Slowly. Really slowly. So slowly in fact that they had only managed to cover six hundred meters in about two hours. If there aim had been to kill us via boredom and agitation, then they''re going to claim they first victim soon.


    However, once they did hit six hundred meters I noticed that some of their men were beginning to split off from the advancing army, and they were advancing at a much quicker pace than the rest of them. I did a rough estimate as they marched forward and I managed to counted about forty-five figures.


    My first thought upon seeing these people was that they were some army officers and that they were moving forward in an attempt to inspire their men to pick up the pace. But, unlike regular officers like my commanding Serjeant, theses ones were giving off some unknown presence that was even affecting me. Plus, having a quick look around, I noticed that a majority of the people seemed affected as well.


    The next thirty minutes was soul crushingly horrifying. Men around me prayed, puked, peed themselves or a variation of the three, and it all came from that oppressive presence that was slowly advancing towards us, that was coming our way. As they crossed another two hundred meters and neared the first firing posts, the oppressive presence began to become thicker and thicker. I was honestly surprised no one near me had tried to run away.


    A few meters away from the first post I was finally able to make out the details of our approaching enemies. To say the least, what caught my attention were the shady individuals advancing before the army, they were a bit different, to say the least. Even from this distance, I could make out various eccentric colours and patterns that belong to the enemy. Some of which consisted of colours I''ve never seen, though I doubt I''ll get the chance to inspect their garments personally.


    As soon as the enemy hit three hundred and fifty meters time seemed to move slowly, those officers in front surprised us all. Within seconds of our front line raising their muskets those strange individuals themselves had crossed two hundred meters. Impossible was a word me and many other people had.


    It wasn''t until these individuals had reached point blank range that the of musket fire started, and like lemmings, the rest of the army followed. Well almost everyone, myself was ready to make a run for it from the first jump these monsters took.


    But that was only the beginning of the many strange things that would occur today. With only a few feet distance between them and us, our brave Serjeant had held his shot to the last second and fired point blank into the nearest person head. However, said person was most unimpressed from our Serjeants action, the muskets iron ball had merely bounced off of his skin. With this, the man then proceeded to place the offending weapon into the man''s own skull.


    Nearby, a woman with some of the palest skin I''ve every seen had jumped high into the sky and landed among our soldiers. I couldn''t see the close quarters, but from the various men and body part flying through the air, barbequed and raw. I theorised that things were going badly for them.


    So with extremely dangerous and terrifying people in front of me I exited stage left and bolted for the nearby forest. To my dismay, my little escape had been noticed, fortunately for me it was just Penny who had the same idea as me, though he was also trying to order me to slow down and be bait if the monster indulging in slaughter decided they want to hunt running prey instead.


    But fuck that. I didn''t even turn to acknowledge the threats and orders he was giving. Instead, I began to sprint a bit faster while thanking Polly for not only being in heavy armour but also for being my sacrifice if need be. Pricilla on his part turned quiet after being ignored for a few minutes, he himself began to run as fast as possible, though quite a bit louder due to all the extra jingling noise the armour made, though I could barely hear it in due to the background of screaming men.


    Just over ten minutes later and with the adrenaline wearing off, I had successfully left the battlefield well behind. In victory, I sloped down the nearest tree and begun to fumble about my backpack for a water flask which I proceeded to drink to my heart''s content.


    Downing a canteen in mere seconds I began to regain some of my lesser senses, and one of the first things I noticed was that fleeing figure of General Cuthbert along with his knights and the actually trained part of the army, all unscathed as well I see. Anger began to swell up inside of me, and I swore that General Cuthbert''s career would end once I returned to the kingdom because no one sends a Durant to die and lives to see a peaceful death.


    Though it''ll be my mother, who''s most likely to avenge me, though that itself depends on if I can get back through the portal or not. I also finally notice that Piper seems to have gone missing and that brightens my mood a bit. ¡°Your sacrifice won''t be forgotten.¡± I think it''s only right to send him off, so I give the air in front of me a quick salute.


    Musket within hand I begun to enter the forest and earnestly start to work my way along the edge of the forest and hope to Saint Alona that I meet up with the General, because even if I want him dead, he''s currently the only chance of getting home straight away.


    But even the most brilliant and well thought out plans will often fail. Since not even a few meters into the forest, I chanced upon another clearing; this time much more naturally made. If I had a choice I would have avoided the clearing, but an unknown force had pulled me into the clearing, and after I had stopped rolling I came face-to-face with Phoebe and some strange but fancily dressed young woman.


    The pessimist in me begun to overwhelm me at this point, especially with the creepily smiling Philistine. No! Stay positive Henry, don''t give into the pessimism, getting up I gave my best smile as I greeted my potential doom. ¡°Philip, thank the God''s your safe. You don''t know how worried I was when I discovered you weren''t behind me. I was worried that you had been captured by the enemy while we were escaping.¡± Surprisingly it wasn''t all a lie either since I was worried that I might have been next if you had only perished recently.


    But keeping my inner monologue to myself, I addressed the young lady next. ¡°And if I am correct, you must have been the one who saved my friend. I cannot thank you enough for what you''ve done for me today.¡±


    Unexpectedly, she seemed rather unimpressed. Turning to Peppa, she said in a heavenly voice, ¡°So this is the thief and deserter you were talking about. He doesn''t live up to the expectation you built him up to be Philip.¡± You son of a Velorian Spice whore.


    ¡°My lady need not worry for every word I said was true, in front of you stands the scoundrel and thief that I was pursuing while our brave men fought your glorious army.¡± The soft voice he used seemed even more sinister and arrogant than usual.


    Also, who''s the scoundrel and thief here, I''ve done nothing wrong.


    The young women also seemed unimpressed from Philips statement as well. ¡°Why did I even bother to intervene in such a small matter.¡± Though while she said this, I had already begun to run away in hopes that she wouldn''t care.


    Unfortunately, even as I turned around, I was immediately kicked several feet back, landing flat on my arse and having my gun embedded into a nearby tree. ¡°Please don''t run. I don''t know the exact court customs of your country, but with me, you''ll be judged equally with Philip here.¡± That angelic voice rang out towards me.


    But at this point, I was beginning to slip in and out of a rather severe and splitting headache. It took me awhile even to notice that I was being dragged towards the centre of this opening. To my dismay, I found that my hands had been tied already, which meant that they were no way for me to escape anymore. Forgetting what the women had just said to me, I began to give into the despair of hopelessness.


    As I begun to give in, a peculiar thing occurred. The trinket my mother gave to me as a child started to emit a fierce white glow which accompanied a sharp pain that begun to enter my mind.

 Chapter 3 - A slime?

    ...What is that girl doing? I might not know what''s she''s saying, but it''s been hours. I know I wanted to wait and see which person would be the one I chose, but watching someone talk non-stop is a bit too much.


    Well, it doesn''t matter too much. The kneeling guy having his ear talked off will be the perfect candidate for me to jump into since he looks pretty much defeated at this point.


    But, the first thing I need to do is to trap the two girls so that they don''t interfere with the body snatching.


    Now then what to use? A simple trap formation maybe? No, they''ll still be able to talk while trapped, and their useless chatter might disturb me. Why not a simply sleeping formation then? I might not get the chance to interrogate the women once I''ve finished the process, but I should have enough time to search the boy''s memory and find either the route out of this place or where the boy came from.


    Right, now that that''s sorted time to initiate the plan.


    Immediately the two women''s surroundings lit up as the formation''s set about their work, and as expected the armoured girl collapsed like a sack of potatoes, however, the Oriental dressed lass actual managed to jump away from it the initial formation. Well, she attempted to at least, but the formation was already locked onto her as soon as it was cast, so she was only delaying the inevitable, and as I had already begun walking towards the boy I caught her body falling out of the sky from the corner of my eye.


    Reaching the man, I immediately initiated the process of injecting myself into him by gathering some mana from the surrounding area and using that to open up a way to his soul.


    After that''s done, I take some of my own mana and begin injecting it into his soul, thus allowing me to model a space for me to occupy once the once the procedure is complete.


    However, being so pre-occupied with the mana process, I decided to ignore the suspicious glowing coming from the man since I had more pressing matters to attend to.


    It wasn''t until the mana that I had already injected into him was dissolved and absorbed by some unknown entity, that I was shaken out of the trance like state my concentration had put me in.


    Surprised by this sudden interruption, I immediately scanned the surrounding area for any hostiles, but other than the two sleeping beauties and some slight mana distortion from the man they were no other mana signatures anywhere else. Thus my mind arrived at the natural conclusion of the offender already being inside the guy''s body; well time for someone to get evicted.


    For such a simple task, one lightning formation was all I used since the offender will show himself once sufficiently threatened. Well, I hope at least since it wouldn''t be much of an eviction if the bastard didn''t fight back.


    Though the plan seemed too effective, because once the small lightning formation formed the energy distortion on the man blew up like an inquisitional bonfire and my surroundings were drowned in a blinding light.


    In a fact, I was so focused on the light show that the lightning formation disintegrating in the palm of my hand barely registered with me.


    Though using your own mama to set off a temporary dead zone is quite intriguing, this is the first time I''ve seen someone forcibly expel they mana to agitate the wild mana and create a zone where mana vision is worthless.


    It does unfotunatly mean that I won''t be able to pursue him unless he sticks around but the chances are unlikely. So with that thought in mind, I was ready to pat myself on the back for a job well done, no casualties and a now vacant body for me to occupy.


    But my celebrations were cut short when out of the light emerged some sort of floating grey ball of slime, safe to say I was more stunned at the head sized slime than I was shocked.


    But what did shock me was that the slime was using the dissolved lightning formation''s mana to feed itself. The worst part was that the slime was beginning to glow brighter and brighter.


    Seeing that it was rather docile towards eating, I weighed up my options, and decided that killing the slime then experimenting on it was worth the amount of time I would waste killing such an anomaly.


    Though just in case something goes wrong I cast a teleportation formation on the boy; who had apparently fallen unconscious at some point, and moved him a few meters away.


    Now then, time to die slime.


    With the slime currently distracted by the every decreasing lightning mana, I quickly construct a void portal formation which I then proceeded to fire it at the slime, who neither bothered to dodge or eat the formation.


    Slightly bemused by its actions, I drew my conclusions at it being newly born, and since it wasn''t putting up a fight, I aimed to knock it out in one blow. For this, I directed the formation to the area where the slime''s core should be, activate it, and...


    ...Nothing. Even though I activated the formation, there was no mana discharge, and my connection was immediately broken as soon as it was activated.


    Agitated over my formation failure, I spent the next minute or so flinging void portals at it in various numbers and frequencies.


    But none of it worked, what the hell was going on?! The current situation was currently pissing me off. Never in my years has a mana beast been so difficult in killing, even if it''s a magically eating slime there are always limits to what they can eat.


    Coming up with a solution is easy, so checking the man''s distance I conclude that he is far enough away for the feast that I''m about to give the slime. Though I do teleport the two women away as well, wouldn''t want to remember them after the slime has begun feeding.


    Distractions out the way. I spend about half an hour collecting the surrounding mana and condensing it between my two palms. As the seconds past the condensed mana begun to take on an indigo colour as it''s size expanded from a small pebble to the size of a rock, then the size of a boulder and finally so big that my person was blocked from sight.


    This process was quite taxing on my body however, as I had to continuously feed the mana ball''s outer shell with my own mana so that it wouldn''t collapse in on itself as soon as I let it go.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    The size was also a problem as well since it was currently too big to push, so I had to also regularly cast formations inside and out to crush the mana further together.


    Eventually, after a few more additional hours of work the entire ball of mana been crushed to the size of my head, though it now leaked out an incredibly dangerous aura. That and the mana distortions that it was causing all around me.


    With the process over I move the orb to situate directly in front of the slime, the space around being distorted as I moved it. Even then, the most dangerous part was the several lightning tendrils that flickered from it every so often, most likely caused by some residue lightning mana from the slime''s snack.


    Positioning it a few meters away from the slime I quickly release it, and with the orb''s stability out of my hands now, it quickly reached its target while it left a ripple distortion in its path.


    However, Instead of being instantly incinerated by the pure mana racing towards it the slime instead took the challenge head on, literally.


    The slime and orb met for but a brief second, and it showed that the orb was ineffective. The slime ate or should I say absorbed the orb into itself.


    Consuming the orb seemed to cause the slime to gain size rapidly, and for some bizarre reason it even started to glow brighter, taking this as a sign from Sol I decided that it was in my best interests to leave and not bother the atomic-like slime and his man pet anymore.


    But like so many of my plans today, the slime that was lighting up like a religious festival suddenly blew up and coated the surrounding area in the plain in a blinding light.


    This blinding light was not only blinding to my normal sense, but my over detection skills weren''t usable either. Everything I used gave me the same indication of me being stuck in nothing but perpetual whiteness. Even the teleportation formation I had hoped to set up was useless as the mana wouldn''t even come out of my body to construct it, the light of mana was that domineering.


    While I began to panic slightly, the more scientific side of me thought of something new. This ''slime'' that I had just encountered may be some new species, one that had the ability to consume magical power and then use that power to fuel its own growth.


    That or I had done a Darwins and created a new miniature sun that fed upon the world''s mana.


    My bet was on the latter option though, since at least with a new sun being made this whole venture wouldn''t have been a complete waste of time.


    Though thinking about it more carefully, if the slime was still alive, somehow, then that means that I''ve lost the chance to have a new body, which is upsetting since I''d rather not become soul giblets.


    But after what seemed like an eternity, the dense mana surrounding me begun to dissipate. In this situation, I should have been elated, but I felt a disturbance in the air.


    To my dismay, the mana wasn''t dissipated into the surroundings as I had hoped. Instead, that fiendish slime was guzzling it all up, and I could sense it had already eaten the mana surrounding it.


    Not waiting to see if my new creation would call me father or not. I took the only option that was left to me, use a teleportation formation and flee like a coward.


    Even if I''m abandoning the man and his two female companions in the face of death, I would rather live and find a different host, rather than incur more wrath from the magically absorbing slime.


    The slime, however, had plans of its own and almost instantaneously squashed that idea, since as soon as I put down the formation, I detected an uncountable number of distortions beginning to surround me and my formation.


    Everything was a blur as the distortions revealed themselves to be the slime''s tentacles which now resembled the distortions that the orb had left behind.


    But instead of flickering randomly, theses tentacles wasted no time as they immediately attacked my formation and completely stripped it of any mana. Seeing this was bringing me to my wit''s end, and I started throwing magic formations at it in hopes that I could distract the thing.


    Oh, how I wished that plan would have worked at least. Instead, the distorted tentacles seemed to be controlled by an intelligent being as only one or two went after each of the formation I sent out, the rest advanced unmercifully on me.


    As they begun to wrap around me, I used the most drastic method I knew and simply bled the mana from my body in a deranged hope of having the slime think I had no mana on me to eat. But I was naive to think that method would work. Instead, the tentacles bound my entire body much more quickly and brought me closer towards its main body.


    They have been very few times in my life where the prospect of dying was likely, and this thing was one of the most dangerous situations I''ve ever found myself in. But even when I was in front of the slime and begun feeling that my life was about to perish, nothing happened.


    The slime dangled me in front of its now boulder-sized body and simply stared.


    Seeing the slime stare at me this was the first time that I every even considered that it had intelligence and was acting on its thoughts and not on some simply gluttonous desire for mana.


    Thinking about that idea for a moment, I realised I would have preferred the unintelligent glutton to of captured me. At least then I could vaguely know what it was about to do.


    But while I pondered another unexpected thing happened, the slime brought me towards the unconscious man I had initially aimed for. Slowly coming face to face with him, it was at this point something grey and cylinder caught my attention for the first time.


    If one were to take just one glance at it, then one would never notice it. But if you were to look long enough at it then you would see that it was spotted with holes in various places and covered in weird sketched symbols on it''s outside. Even taking a glance at the holes could reveal a strange writing that was written in a strange language that was almost impossible to understand, never mind trying to speak or translate the word inside it.


    It''s quite funny really, the one in front of me looked almost identical to the one I had back home, even the sketches seemed to all be in the same places. Quite the coincidence that I should meet another, maybe they both act as portals to each other''s location.


    Finding that path of thought funny I take a look at its surroundings and I notice that there''s a small stream of mana connecting it to the slime. Was the slime some sort of safety mechanism? No, it can''t be, with them, being so similar in design wouldn''t something like this happened when I was in trouble.


    Running with this line of though I began to create some hypotheses on what the slime is and how it''s connected to the cylinders, but it would seem that the slime wouldn''t let me debate any of them with myself.


    It seems like the slimes finished now, did he only wanted to gloat about keeping the body that I originally wanted to have for myself.


    As quick as I had been captured, the slime began to encase me in its mana empowered body.


    I''ve never been encased in a mana body before so I wouldn''t know what to expect, but feeling like thousand of needles were pricking my soul wouldn''t have been my first option pick; must be the feeling of how slimes dissolve their prey.


    At this point, I could only give off a feeble attempt at resistance in the form of squirming.


    But as quickly as I was encased and was feeling the prickling sensation, I didn''t feel my soul dissolving. A shiver went up to my non-existent shine as I begun to have a foreboding feeling, what was worse was that a small stream of mana began to connect the man and me together.


    The slime couldn''t be intending for me to be fuel for this man, even if I''m going to die soon I refuse to be someone else refined mana dinner. I have to think of a plan before I''m refined, dammit none of my formations are forming. Don''t tell me I''m going to have to shatter my soul.


    Best case scenario there is is that in a few thousand years I can reform my soul somewhere in the void. Though I will most likely be extremely damaged and possibly even amnesiatic.


    However, against my better expectations of being turned into refined mana fuel, instead, the foreboding feeling I had earlier seemed to indicate something much worse.


    Since as soon as the connection between the man and me was stabilised I felt that my soul had become tethered to the man''s own soul, this slime had somehow done the impossible and performed a soul anchorage.


    As I was dragged inside his body, the slime took this chance to dissipate back inside the cylinder as well; but not before it drew in the remaining doom orb''s mana.


    It didn''t take me long to realise that the slimes plan all along was to have someone more active be the guardian for the man, in short, the slime had unceremoniously thrust upon me the position of babysitter.


    How in Sol''s name am I supposed to be optimistic in this pessimistic situation?

 Chapter 4 - Beware of trap

    You know for my new prison it''s quite the empty place in here, makes me wonder if this is what most non-mages bodies feel like.


    But at least for me, there''s something new and shiny for me to explore and learn about; well maybe not so shiny and more dimly lit surrounded by bone, organs, flesh and skin. Though there does seem to be some sort of light source around the abdomen area, should be an interesting first stop.


    However, upon arrival instead of seeing a normal abdomen, I''m instead met with a swirling vortex of mana that I''m guessing is the guy''s power source. I take it mana shards don''t exist in this world for all the non-mages then. Still, it''s not very large it only just hits the twenty-meter roof and if I stretch I could almost hug the swirling vortex.


    Other than the magical lamplight there''s not much else in this cavern(?). The only other things of mysterious interest are the various doors dotted around the base of the man''s cavern like abdomen. Unfortunately, every single one of the doors is closed, and I would try to open them, but I''ve got more pressing matters to take care of first before I go door busting.


    Same thing applies to the closed off holes on the walls, plus I almost defiantly know what they are already since I meet the same structures in the Swallows from early today. Plus, given the apparent strangeness of this world, I wouldn''t be too surprised if those tunnels were what allowed the inhabitants of this world to access and control mana, though in a more crude and unwieldy manner compared to me.


    Nevertheless, same as the doors before I haven''t got the liberty to go excavating right this second.


    Now then, next on the list to visit is the brain, might as well take a gander and make sure that it''s still intact and properly functioning. I''ll have a quick check on the other organs as I go by as well, who knows? I might find a secret.


    Moving on up and I can see that all the normal organs; except the appendage, are present and accounted for. Except that there''s nothing special about them which kind of ruins the mood since the appendage was so unique. One solace for my trouble was that they were a lot more of these tunnelled structures around the place, and they all had one thing in common, and that was they all lead back to the appendage, so it''s most likely that the closed holes in the wall belong to them.


    Further up the body, I discover my first anomaly with those tunnel-like structures near the lungs, and from my observations, I observed that the vessels often split off into new tributary like tunnels which would become either thinner or thicker depending on if they went further from the heart, as the latter suggested, or closer to it, as the former seemed to do.


    Though to my surprise I discovered that the vessel was, in fact, an immaterial object when I viewed them with my mana vision. I''m beginning to find some strange things on my little tour.


    Never the less, with my checklist growing and things becoming stranger I decided to pick up the pace towards the brain in the hope that I would find something interesting up there as well. However, the answer was disappointing since there was absolutely nothing there.


    Well expect for the brain of course, and thankfully it was still intact and functioning as I had hoped, so my original mission was accomplished. Yeah.


    Alright, so I may be a tad disappointed over there being no new secrets embedded within this guys skull. But can''t give up. I''ll most likely have to come back later for a better and more extensive look around, and if I''m lucky I might even find myself some secrets.


    So let''s make a hypothesis on this guy''s strange body and how all of this works in conjunction with the mana supply in his body.


    Now from viewing the tunnel-like vessel, I can almost undoubtedly predict that they are used in some form or another to take mana from one point like his abdomen to any point that they are connected to. Other than that I''m certain in my view that comparing my manapool to his ''manapool'' shows some significant differences, the main one being that although both are in an immaterial form my manapool is stretched across my body allowing me to gather mana outside my body much easier, whereas his ''manapool'' most likely uses those tunnel-like structures to bring mana to specific points across his body: hands, feet, fingers for example.


    But why is there neither no mana shard present or any other method to allow oneself to start on their path to magehood? Hmm, maybe those two girls could...


    ...Wait a second. I''ve completely forgotten about the two sleeping beauties. How long have I been in here for? This could be bad if those two are up and about and potentially planning something nefarious against me and my new charge.


    Projecting my consciousness, I''m greeted by the very sight I didn''t want to see right now...


    ...Man...


    ...Or to be more precise, the Oriental dressed girl I knocked out is now wandering around the clearing we''re in, most likely inspecting it for the intruder who had in her mind most shamelessly put her to sleep in a sneak attack.


    On the other hand, the male warrior(?) not the weirdest thing I''ve seen today, though the view from his back is very misleading though that might explain why his butt looked so flat. Moving on, the warrior had also managed to stumble his way on up, though compared to the Oriental dressed girl he was a bit more wobbly, though he too was most likely wondering which dastardly person took advantage of him.


    But neither of them are being overtly aggressive towards my new host, so I think I''ll leave them alone for now and hope that they thank their lucky stars and leave. Or better yet have the Oriental dressed girl take this boy with her since I know jack-shit about this place and I''d rather not invade this guy''s mind.


    Or so had hoped, since almost as soon as I had finished my thought the next thing I know is that the Oriental dressed girl is giving off a significant amount of mana radiation that I never detected on her previously, how bad can my luck today. Spinning myself in her general direction, I notice that trying to move more than a few feet is almost impossible due to the tightness of the soul anchor and I have to exert a considerable amount of pressure just to stretch the bonds another inch.


    While lamenting the new restrictions I was discovering in my new prison, the mana output from the Oriental dressed girl begun to hit its peak and I got front row seat to observe this world magic techniques. However, even that''s ruined since all I see is their equivalent of messaging. I could attempt to bring it down, but since it''s most likely some sort of SOS signal racing through the sky, I''m much better off saving my mana.This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.


    Speaking of my mana, I should check to see how that''s doing and how long it''ll take to refuel. Taking a moment to see how the mana intake is doing I discover, to my horror, that my mana replenishment has been significantly slowed down. Why? Who knows, but I''m defiantly blaming the slime for this since it was the thing that most likely damaged my self-absorbing runes when it forcibly tethered me to the guy''s soul.


    Thinking about it carefully, since my mana supply is damaged like this, then it would be better to run away and repair it instead. Since no amount of kicking and screaming will save this guy from mind torture if enough people show up to overwhelm us. So all I''ve got to do is stay quiet until I''ve replenished enough for a long range teleportation formation.


    Or that was supposed to be the plan, but like everything else that''s happened today my plans are inevitably ruined by things out of my control, and since I''ve lived a long life in these kinds of dangerous environment, I''ve managed to cultivate one of the best sixth senses that people have seen. And like many times in the past, all of its flags were being tripped.


    Immediately my gaze turns towards the Oriental dressed girl since my first thought of danger would be her, but no, she was just staring into the distance where that communication SOS had disappeared off into. Seeing my error, I immediately spun around to see the effeminate man staggering towards my unconscious charge with a longsword in his hand.


    Taking into consideration that the Oriental dressed girl was busy I deemed it ok for me to frighten this armoured trap away, even then, it''ll have to be one of my weakest formation since I''d rather not waste too much of my limited supply of mana on him, and in case he can''t take the pressure off me using higher tier formations.


    Thus I settled on one of my old favourite formations, a simple one time cast lightning formation, and for this situation, I opted for the single bolt formation as I''m only here to scare away the annoyance and not potentially kill it.


    Casting the small formation underneath the man I honestly began to wonder how I had gotten into this kind of situation where I was being forced to use a level one formation to scare away the peasantry. My professor would undoubtedly be shocked at the situation that I''m in right now.


    Continuing the cycle of regret I had caught myself in, I almost missed the rapid mana fluctuation coming from behind me. As I turned to stare at the now possible hostile Oriental dressed girl, this time I got a proper look at this world magic.


    And I must say it is spectacular.


    Back home each Mage would pick and chose how they could cast their spells. Most would pick a side and only use that type of casting, and they would either opt for chanted incantations; or wordlessly if they were really good, which would shape the surrounding mana into the spell they wanted by using their own mana as a holding force to gather more.


    Others opted for the use of magical formations which had the spell already etched into it which helped to bypass the somewhat long chants. Though inexperienced formation users would face a greater drain in their mana reserve as they had to build the formation from scratch within themselves which mean that they couldn''t supplement some of the cost with ''wild mana''.


    There was also those who could directly mould the mana with the essence of the magic they use. Void and Space magicians get the most out of this than anyone else.


    That aside, at a glance the Oriental dressed girl seemed to belong to the chanting branch of magic due to her outstretched arm, mana gathering around the arms and also because of what she said, in a soft but monotone voice. ¡°Lament of the Pale Dragon.¡±


    The Pale Blue Dragon, which resembled an ancient Chinese dragon, that flew forth from her fingertips was strange, especially its inner workings which were revolutionary. The Dragon itself was simple, and a quick glance revealed various micro formations working together in unison to keep the beast''s shape going. But what was interesting was not the operation itself but the fact that I couldn''t separate the formations from each other, because each one was working in tangent with multiple others and they easily swapped places with each other as the beast drew near.


    Still, I needed to remove the spell, and since the formations were all working together in tangent, I thought that placing a controlling formation at its head in an attempt to control the subordinate formations would undo the creature. As the Pale Blue Dragon raced by and coming near the boy, I worked up a take-over formation and threw it at the Pale Blue Dragon.


    Which then proceeded to simple bounce of the damn thing.


    My expectation wasn''t that high. I had little mana and a hegemony of formations working together was nothing new to me and would they usual had tougher resistance towards this kind of thing. But the sheer fact that I neither put a temporary halt to the inner working or even managed to take over a tiny portion of it astonished me.


    But gawking at the new dangerous toy would have to wait. Because as soon as the control formation had bounced off of it, the construct had arrived at, erm, did it just fly straight past us? Blinking for a second at the luck that I had now gained I finally realised that the constructs intended destination was the trapped trap.


    The trap at this moment had heard the sound of lightning descending and was suitable looking up in awe while having his knees fold out from under him. Thankfully for him, The Pale Blue Dragon had arrived by the time the lightning was a few feet above him, so with lightning dropping, the Dragon stopping and the trap also dropping, all seemed to add up to the expected ''shooing off the nuisance'' being aborted.


    Thankfully, it appeared that the pale Dragon wasn''t a high-level spell since both forces were quickly breaking under each others pressure. The lightning''s hit had the Pale Dragon''s micro formation working to dissipate the lightning effect. However, the formations themselves were cracking every millisecond from the pressure that they were taking. Both the lightning and Dragon construct began looking weaker by the second.


    And after a few seconds, in which the trap happily took as a way to escape into the forest. But more importantly the lightning had fizzled out at this point, and the Dragon was visible scared and burnt from the engagement, plus its own mana essence was beginning to run out as it started collapsing since many of its principal formation had been destroyed during the confrontation.


    However, and quite hauntingly, the Dragon began to roar a roar that could put the best town criers out of business as it started to dissolve out of existence. Me thinks that there something else going on behind the spells that have being used here since construct should not be capable of doing that.


    Ignoring the weird construct thing for now, I took another quick peek at the Oriental dressed girl, and to my surprise, she''s still there, though looking a bit more anxious now. Seems whoever she called for is running late, which is better for me. Yeah.


    Now then what else needs doing. Well, this guy hasn''t woken up yet so better see why the man hasn''t woken up yet. I can''t keep waiting around here to teleport away if even more dangerous people show up in my weakened state.


    Delving back into the man I quickly check around for any visible signs of damage, but there was simply nothing. He could potentially be passed out from shock and exhaustion, but I doubt he wouldn''t have been woken up by that Dragon''s torturous song.


    So thinking a bit more on the magical side I checked up on the boy''s soul and if exhaustion and shock were a problem before this could be the deciding factor, a damaged soul. Cracks were all over the damn thing with pure and wild mana entering through those cracks which undoubtedly were causing a lot of devastating damage to it.


    But I neither have the time or mana to do a full heal of his soul, hopefully by coating his soul in my own mana that should eliminate any wild mana from getting inside and causing more trouble. But that solution won''t last forever since the wild mana already inside will eventually cause more cracks to appear, and once there too many a soul breakage occurs, and when that happens you bet I can kiss my ass goodbye.


    Checking my reserves, I estimate that after coating the guy''s soul, it should take about an hour or so before I can teleport us somewhere else where I can then focus on healing this brat. I could do it quicker here but sucking up most of this area''s mana supply in some doomsday orb, then having the rest of my mana sucked out by an intelligent gluttonous slime, has left myself ever so slightly parched.


    Checking on the girl again I see that she''s gathered more mana in her arm and is probably prepared to cast another spell at any given moment, but it seems as if the lightning formation has caused a temporary truce of some description, and with the trap bravely running away I should be safe.


    For now at least.

 Chapter 5 - Lost in translation

    Fifty minutes. I''ve almost managed to last the entire hour.


    Ten minutes left. Ten minutes before I have enough power to activate the formation, and the only thing that''s changed is that the once dimly lit SOS signal has now started to grow brighter. Whatever it is it''s getting too close for comfort.


    And what of the sender? Still doing the same thing as before it seems, staring unemotionally into the night sky. Crack a smile why don''t you, or at least display some sort of emotion you look way too foreboding with that stare.


    Then again, her pale white skin is creepy enough as it is, giving her some emotions may just make the whole situation even more disturbing, especially since she''s already giving me the feeling of a vampire or demonic entity which is going to turn around any second now spouting some mumbo jumbo.


    Other than that, she seems beautiful enough. I''m guessing a horde of adolescence teens and grown adults have already fallen to her beauty, due to that striking figure and; thought emotionless, beautiful face with strangely enough purple eyes, very exotic.


    Well enough worrying about the potential vampire, or would it be Jiangshi with the whole Oriental feel coming off of her. Anyway, let''s ignore her for now and instead worry about the boy who''s life I''ve been attempting to save for the past hour instead. Why oh why did his soul become damaged, normal people tend only to get one of those.


    However, other than continuously checking up on his soul there''s nothing I can do at the moment, other than to wait for the soul to heal naturally. Well, once I get around to removing the wild mana currently inside of him and then sealing the cracks properly by forcing his own mana to seal the cracks, instead of me just plastering it up with my own mana.


    Now then, all I need to do is wait some more and then I''ll be...


    ...Why does it feel like I''m sweating? Can spectral apparitions even sweat? Why is my luck so shit today? Calm down William, and be at peace. All you''ve got to do is stay inside and pretend you''re not home, that way whatever coming to us will only see a man who looks like he''s dead.


    So there''s no need to go outside and investigate.


    None at all.


    ...Sol be damned, I need to know what''s happening outside, I can''t just cower inside this guy and wait until whatever is coming either kills us, capture''s us or does both.


    Projecting my conscious outside, I''m meet with the domineering sound of drums, lot''s of drums in fact, and that noise is drawing closer and closer towards us.


    Equally terrifying for me, is the fact that the once slightly increasing glow on the horizon has gotten much brighter while I was momentarily inspecting this man, and along with the sound of drums it''s closing in fast. How the hell is it so fast? Who knows, who cares. Not me right now. Instead, I think it''s time to escape.


    Even if the long range teleportation formation isn''t ready to be used yet, all that truly means is that I''m going to have to use a much shorter teleportation formation and then cloak us. I might not get the miles away as I wanted but a couple of hundred meters is good enough for the current situation.


    Unfortunately, while setting up the formation, I quickly discover that I have yet more issues to deal with. Because either due to the fatigue of having my mana forcibly sucked out or since my soul was slightly damaged during the tethering process, the speed at which I construct my more advanced formation had been servile lengthened.


    But I can still do this. So what if I''m temporarily slower, I''ll escape this place and get my vengeance on that slime for the predicament it''s put me in. Or my name isn''t William Nixon.


    Though once an annoying slime always an annoying slime. Since due to some unknown goal it had, or it just simply wanted to piss me off, instead of allowing all three of us to escape whatever was coming towards us it instead destroyed the formation before I could start charging it up with mana.


    Our situation was dire.


    Moving my gaze from the man back to the girl, the gaze that she was giving us seemed to indicate that she might of finally figure out that there was something suspicious going on back here. Though rather than be cautious towards this potentially unknown threat, instead she merely grins.


    Now me a few minutes ago would be happy that this unemotional girl was displaying some other emotion than perpetually neutral. But the me of now can''t help but feel that this grin is perhaps even scarier than the otherwise downright creepy indifferent vampiric impersonation.


    It might also be due to the fact that the slight smile she''s carrying now is making me feel angry, since she''s blatantly taunting me right now as if to say ''See I was the one who won''.


    Well, we''ll see about that little miss.


    Though my thoughts were mainly bravado, since I still have the desire to be somehow else at this moment in time and preferably unhassled and uncaptured by whatever is arriving.


    Speaking of which, 3,2,1...


    ''BOOM'' With an ear deafening explosion the golden glow and its army of drummers finally arrived in an explosive fashion right between the girl and us.Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.


    And boy is the new golden glow guy scary, unlike his mob of undistinguishable retainers that were circling the young lady. I would care more about them, but other than being dressed up in the same armour I had found earlier the only notable thing about them seemed to be the fierce aura that was leaking out from them.


    Nevertheless, what did catch my full attention was the one-man army standing in the front, silhouetted by the dust created from the crater he made.


    Peering through the quickly dissipating dust cloud, I could see the man had begun to climb out of his self-made crater, and seeing his rising figure I can only fathom to be a good eight to nine feet high, this colossus of a man had all the imposing presence from one as well.


    Emerging from the dust, that giant of a man''s Crimson armour glinted in the night''s sky; which appeared to be a crossed between Oriental ceremonial armours style and the thickness associated with heavy plate armour.


    Farther up, his face was mostly cover up by his fully enclosed steel helmet which had a Crimson dragon curling around the head until it rested on top. The eyeholes contained piercing red eyes which were gazing at us, giving off the feeling of hostility and blood-lust.


    Now this is the look of a warrior who was extremely versed in battle, what a nice way to die. Once again lamenting my doom, I almost fail to notice how easily the Crimson man covered the few meters between us in a few seconds, a more pessimistic person would feel that his time was at an end, and, well, I was also under that assumption.


    However, contrary to my expectation instead of either capturing us or killing us the Crimson man instead stares at the unconscious guy I''m inhabiting, and after a tense couple of seconds under his gaze, he begins conversing with the girl behind him in a clear and dignified voice that effortlessly travels throughout the air.


    Though speculating who the mysterious guy was; and how we were still alive, I finally realise something from the conversation the two people were having with each other...


    ¡­and that was that I didn''t understand a single word they were saying. Who''d of though landing on an alien world I wouldn''t be able to comprehend this world''s words? Preposterous.


    Nevertheless, I must obtain the language from somewhere in the vain hope that negotiations are possible with these people, and wouldn''t you know it there''s a buffet of knowledge right near me?


    Sorry kiddo, but be warned that with my damaged self right now I might accidentally peer into something I shouldn''t look at, but it should be okay since you''ll never find out.


    Now then its time to dive in.


    [Ten minutes of ''searching'' later.]


    God''s above, I''m going to have to shower after that experience. Never again am I stepping inside that boy''s mind. I''ll have to purge most of my memories later, but for now, I just need to communicate and hopefully get away.


    Thankfully my little reading spree wasn''t noticed by anyone since those two are still talking. Well, mainly it''s the girl talking to the Crimsoned armoured man while he mostly either grunts or glares at us.


    Either way, I still can''t understand what there saying but hopefully at least one of them knows this kid''s language. Plus, the fact that the Crimsoned man isn''t glaring as much seems to indicate that he isn''t suspicious of the unconscious guy anymore. Marvelous.


    Amplifying my voice with my limited mana. I give the speech that I used while dealing with the unknown. "Be awed mortals for I am the Great Mage William Nixon. For generations, I have lain dormant..."


    But, before I could even get halfway through my speech, that dignified and composed Crimsoned man interrupted me. "Never heard of a mage before, what does it mean?"


    Is he serious? Gathering my thoughts, I reply back to him in the same voice. "It was my title when..."


    "How long ago?" He interrupts almost immediately as I finished.


    "At least thousands of years ago, probably more. I haven''t been keeping count." The hell am I saying, where''d the script go. I''m finally losing control, aren''t I.


    Seemingly satisfied with my answer he turned around and ignored me again as he talked to the girl. "So you called me out here to deal with an ancient spirit that''s awoken and appears to be mentally insane. Where''s the dangerous situation you were talking about."


    To this, the girl rolled her eyes as she answered her questioner. "I never said it was a dangerous situation Uncle, all I said was that I needed someone to be the middle man during the first contact. Now let me handle the actual negotiations before you cause another diplomatic incident."


    With that statement, the once grinning girl who was now beaming quite happily, she took a run, hop and a skip and easily cleared the distance between us, while her uncle took a few steps back as she landed a few feet near us.


    Stopping still, she arched her back, put on a dignified pose and in gentle yet authoritative voice spoke to me. ¡°Greetings Senior, my name is Bai Lihua, and from what my Uncle told me was that you are an ancient spirit from an even more ancient era, so exciting.¡± I''m not that old. Though I don''t have the heart to tell that to the starry-eyed girl. "Now then, as you may have heard, I was having a passionate debate with my dear Uncle over there, and we finally came to an agreement that if you wish, then you can join our Rising Lotus Sect as a guest Elder." To this, her Uncle shakes his head as she mentions the passionate debate I mostly missed.


    ¡°If Senior accepts my request then not only can you rest and recuperate from your deep slumber, but you''ll also be able to obtain benefits if you earnestly prove your yourself.¡± Prove myself? What is this girl up to? ¡°Some of these benefits you can receive can be of great use to you and your ''host'' down there since they can help to increase your potential, or...¡± Pausing to stare at the space above the boy. ¡°...You can get material to re-build a body for yourself. Since many martial artists who train their souls can still live on after losing their bodies and need to re-build a new home to live in. Though I doubt I need to remind Senior about such minor details.¡±


    ¡­Hook, line and sinker.


    Buuuuuuut, I don''t trust these people a single bit, who knows what nefarious plans they have in mind for me. "''Ahem'' Your offer is greatly appreciated to this person. However..."


    "Great!"


    "Erm, wait a second."


    "Oh, Senior doesn''t need to worry about being given a bad deal. I''m one of the best diplomats in the known world at my young age." ... "Plus, I''ve dealt with many spirits like you before, and they were all content with me swearing and oath to the heavens."


    "Miss Bai, you really need to let me..."


    Unfortunately, she seemed to of been carried off into her own world as I begun to speak again. Not losing her dignified pose she begins speaking some unknown language that lights up the area around her as a ray of celestial light descends upon her.


    While the light show was short but I could sense a considerable disturbance in the surrounding mana. I would care more about this new thing, but I can''t help but wonder what the hell I had gotten myself into.


    As the various minions at the clearings back begin moving, I can''t help but think over and over again that I''ve finally lost control of the situation.


    [Meanwhile back at the original landing.]


    "Oh William, Oh William. You really should have read the exact wording of the spell I gave you. Since now we''ve got to compete and decide which of us is the better half."

 Chapter 6 - Its a long long road... (Unedited)

    ¡°Oh God just kill me now.¡± The boy moaned half in despair and sheer reluctance to serve his captives. He didn''t seem to take the news well, especially since I only told him half an hour ago when he woke up in the carriage. I would pity him if it wasn''t his fault that I was also stuck in the same situation as well because of that blob.


    The boy himself wasn''t that impressive either. Skinny features, no muscles, short trimmed brown hair. Though perhaps the only saving grace; one he probably used quite often, was that he was relatively handsome. Well probably back home anyway, compared to some of the warriors I saw he might as well as look like a baby.


    Though most interestingly are that the boy''s eyes are a pure grey color. People with different eye color seemed to be special in this world; from what I''ve seen, though comparing him to the Purple eyed girl and Crimson Granddad, I can''t help but feel I drew the short straw.


    Speaking of my new ''friends'' there didn''t even tell me what their names were, Purple girl bowed after the agreement then flew away while the Crimson Granddad ordered some soldiers to bundle the boy into a carriage they brought from an interspacial ring. Well, I say interspacial ring since it acted very similar to the ones back home.


    ¡°Why did this happen to me?¡± Oh seems he finished his temper tantrum.


    ¡°Why? Because I had no other choice. If you want to blame someone for our current employment then blame whoever gave you that grey cylinder you wear around your neck.¡± And just to make absolutely sure he doesn''t start resenting me. ¡°Besides. I was the one who saved you from your impromptu executes at the hand of the effeminate guy in armor.¡± Silence. Though he still does have that defeatist look, meh he''s probably thinking about something.


    After an uncomfortable amount of time pass with neither of us making a sound. Eventually, I hear an exhausted sigh come from the boy. ¡°Who are you anyway? Since your know living inside me now. Aren''t you.¡±


    Quite the deduction. Giving a soft chuckle I answered the boy. ¡°Oh, I''m just an eccentric adventuring soul. Just looking for some fun. Oh and I''m your ancestor as well. Just in case they asked you how I''m doing.¡± Look at his face, he probably thought it couldn''t get any weirder today.


    ¡°Fine. Don''t tell me. Be mysterious, see if I care. Just tell me one thing and be honest.¡± No promises. ¡°Why are you inside my body and not floating about being oblivious to the world.¡±


    ¡°I already told you. Blame that grey cylinder around your neck.¡±


    Rolling his eyes at me he answered back, ¡°Look I''m just asking a simple question. If you don''t want to say don''t say. Don''t just try to make up an answer on the fly. Especially when you make the targeted option a useless trinket that my mother left me before she left to gallivant around with her mercenary company.¡± Well someone has some mommy issues.


    ¡°Well if you don''t believe me, don''t'' believe me. But, and listen carefully boy, on this trip and wherever we end up. You will listen to me. Okay¡±


    ¡°My name is Henry.¡± He said anger rising on his face. ¡°And why should I listen to you when you are the reason I''m in this mess.¡±


    ¡°Even though I saved you.¡±


    ¡°And straight into the employment of supercharged monsters. If you saved me from certain death, you could have got us away from them as well.¡± Ungrateful brat. If you want to be resentful do it to the people we working for now.


    Huh, what am I expecting, he just woke up and obviously angry at his treatment. Maybe I should try a more peaceful approach. ¡°I''m not going to debate with you. Just know this. When you calm down and think about our new circumstance think about the possibilities we now have and what I had to do to stop is being imprisoned instead of having this opportunity.¡± Silence again. Why am I getting angry at an eighteen-year-old. Huh. This past day''s been too stressful.


    Eventually, Henry pipes up again, ¡°So.¡± Pausing to think of what to say. ¡°What''s going to happen now. I''m guessing I''m not going back to the Dralgan Kingdom anytime soon to get my stuff back.¡±


    ¡°If you''ll look under your chair you''ll find some stuff that our new employers had provided me. To at least give you the basics before we get to our destination.¡± I wait for him to bring out the three books underneath him. ¡°Now. The blue book your holding is the meditation technique you''re meant to be practicing, but won''t be since it''s useless for what I''m going to teach you. The purple one is for training your spirit. You''re on your own for that one since it emphasizes one own fundamental understanding of oneself. And finally, the black book is an attack that looks very low-tier so you should be able to use it once trained of course.¡±


    ¡°So are you going to be like my teacher then.¡± Quite an optimistic person you are. But I have other plans for you. And they don''t involve the easy way.


    ¡°Think of me less of a mentor and more as your science teacher.¡± That''s gone and confused Henry. Better elaborate just to make sure they''re no misconceptions. ¡°For you see. While you were asleep I was digging around your body. And if you turn to page two of the blue book you''ll notice two words. The Dantian and Meridians.¡± Henry on his part quickly skims the book for the relative information and after grasping the definition I continue. ¡°Now in your body your Qi or as I''ll be calling it mana is pitiful. Nothing was coming in and you weren''t able to use any of it.¡±


    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    I make sure to scan his face to see how he reacts to his current status, and he seems quite fine, though he does cringe a bit at having been called pitiful. ¡°In the book, it mentions that to bring mana in you have to absorb it through the heavens and into your body where it will then travel through your Meridians and into your Dantian.¡± Henry nods along as I monologue. ¡°Now this is bollocks and I will tell you why. Because the mana isn''t given from the heavens since it''s already in the air and is integrating into everyday life alongside oxygen and carbon dioxide.¡±


    Henry''s face is just blank. Eventually, he snaps out of it and asks a non-important question. ¡°What''s Oxygen and Carbon Dioxide?¡±


    ¡°Ignore that for now and focus on the important stuff. Now back where I come from mana was a building block of life. Without it, we would have died. But coming over to this place mana is more of a supporting role since it is evident that humans here are sufficient enough to live with the mana they were born with and have no need to constantly bring new mana into they body to replace the exhausted mana.¡±


    ¡°Now your none Qi or mana practitioner would replace the life-sustaining mana automatically. However, to actually use mana as a tool or weapon you had to train and expand your pool so as to allow more mana to flow in which wouldn''t be used by the body to sustain itself. Understand so far?¡±


    ¡°Yes. But where does this come into my training exactly?¡± Henry asks being rightly bemused at the foreign subject.


    ¡°Well, it''s the reason for telling you to ditch the meditation book, because instead of training you to not only sense and take in the mana which will take god knows how long with your aptitude. So instead I''m going to etched runes onto your soul which will automatically draw the mana in for you.¡±


    ¡°E-etch into my soul?¡± He sounds a bit frightened, goodness knows why I''m experienced with this kind of stuff. He should be glad it''s the me of now and not either the old me or my mentor doing the etching process.


    Better calm him down before he attempts to run away or something. ¡°Don''t worry Henry. The process will only hurt slightly and in return, you can gain an immense amount of power without having to sit all day meditating. Besides it''s not like I''ll being etching all one thousand five hundred and seventy-two rune''s now. I''ve only opened a couple of your meridians so at most I''ll be able to etch five to ten rune''s on you now.¡± Otherwise, you''d explode from having too much mana in you.


    He pales slightly at the number of runes mentioned but still manages to ask a fairly sensible question. ¡°Opened my meridians. The book states that only the owner of the body can open new passages when they are ready.¡±


    ¡°Don''t believe everything you see in books kids. Opening those meridians was a simple process of pushing my own mana through them until they fully opened. Though it did seem that the meridians have their own numbering system, so finding the right one to open was a bit off a hassle but didn''t take that long since I just stole some of the pitiful mana that you have and started throwing it at every tunnel until it had a slight reaction.¡±


    What''s with that face, did you think I discovered it by playing detective, a hands-on approach is always the best option when it comes to experiments. Nevertheless, still reeling from the shock Henry, this time, asks a fairly silly question. ¡°Isn''t there a less harmful way.¡± I think for a moment though since there are less harmful ways but, with this unknown situation there too much at stake just to allow Henry here some temporary comfort.


    ¡°There is.¡± Wow, look at the change in his expression. Well, not my problem. ¡°But I''m not going to do it. This way is better and easier for me.¡±


    ¡°B-but it''s MY body you can''t just do what you want with it.¡± Putting up some resistance I see. Well, that''ll help in the future to have a backbone. But for now, nothing is getting in my way.


    Casting a formation to lock him in place I look him dead in the eye and tell him my answer. ¡°Like I said before Henry. What I say goes. And right now this method will be much better for the future.¡±


    ¡°But...¡± I quickly silence him before he starts again.


    ¡°Look, Henry, you''ll thank me one day for this since be much more powerful than with simple runes. Besides it better to start the runes younger and with less power since it''ll allow your power to rise more exponentially due to the Dantian bloating and expanding.¡± Well, that''s what happens with a mage''s manapool anyway. The Dantian should have the same effect.


    Looking at him there still a hint of resistance in his eyes. But he looks to be beginning to accept his future now. ¡°Well, now that you have stopped struggling I can begin. Word of warning you''re going to be awake for the operation. I''m casting a numbing formation. Buuuuuut, since it''s your soul I''m operation on your going to feel some slight comfort.¡± Before he can even get the first hmmmm out I jump straight into his body and to his soul.


    Thankfully his soul has healed somewhat. It''s no longer on the verge of collapsing and the cracks have begun to heal. If I had more time or information I''d wait a month until I could heal it fully up. But need must, I''ll just make sure to stay away from the cracks while etching the runes.


    Though to be safe I''ll apply another dose of my mana onto his cracks just to make sure there aren''t any unnecessary problems while working.

 Chapter 7 - ...so lets take a break (Unedited)

    What a beautiful day outside. The birds are singing, flowers are blooming, and look carnivorous predators doing mother natures work. What a time to be alive. ¡°Help! For the love of Saint Alona help, please!¡± Nothing like a mid-afternoon nap to waste the day away. ¡°They''re going to kill me!¡± Well, it would be if it wasn''t for Henry complaining every other second over his potential death.


    Picking myself up I locate the walking talking experiment and his entourage of fifteen wolves. Honestly, he can''t even take care of a few wolves. Back in my day we acolytes were stripped, teleported, and forced to survive in the wilderness. He''s also lucky to have some wolves to play with and not genetically bred goblins and orcs to fight against.


    Kids these days are just too privileged.


    Summoning some lightning formation I sent them to the various wolves surrounding Henry and once they fire, the wolfs decide that lightning prone prey is not the best to chase after. Thus they scurry off back to the forest that we had just exited.


    Speaking of prey, our ward-escort seemed to still be dozing off at the seat of the carriage. Honestly, you''d think he''d be a bit more perceptive. Even though there''s just open plain ahead of us now you never know what we''ll encounter.


    But I digress. The fully armed and armored soldier may be more powerful than I imagine, especially since the only physical thing we''ve seen of him is his glowing blue eyes, even his speak is distorted. Couldn''t ask for a more mysterious escort if I asked for one.


    ¡°Why? Why?¡± Oh, Henry''s back. A bit more smokey than usual. Pretty sure I directed the formations away from him unless he ran towards one thinking he''ll be safer there than with the puppies.


    ¡°Well, how else are you going to master that attack our employers gave us. Practice all day in some weird montage. I. Think. Not.¡±


    ¡°What!¡± I should really stop using language, not in the boy''s dictionary, I might over-fry his brain one of these days. ¡°How can you expect me to face a pack of wolves after I just learned the damn thing. I can only use it once or twice before my energy is depleted. And that''s at the lowest level. How can you be so irresponsible.¡±


    Nag nag nag. These are tried and tested techniques, why''s this country bumpkin lecturing me. ¡°Look Henry. This training method is one of the best for developing your internal energy and helping to improve your physique. It''s not my fault you can''t deal with the creatures we meet.¡±


    ¡°Oh. Even the so called easy to take care of Honeybadger.¡± Oh boy, here we go. ¡°As I recall, only a day after I learned the technique you spotted the creature and told me to kill it. What happens? My attack doesn''t even hit its skin, it''s fur stopped it in its track. You tell me was it easy?¡±


    ¡°Calm down Henry.¡±


    ¡°No, I will not. These past few days it''s been attack this, attack that and every time I refuse you just throw me towards them. It''s like your trying to get me killed.¡± Finished? ¡°I mean at this point I''d rather be a captive than your apprentice.¡±


    ¡°Look, Henry. Being in battles that are out of your league are one of the necessities for improving oneself. If not then you''ll grow complacent and be killed by someone who had to actually fight for their might. Besides, I''m always making sure you''re completely safe from harm. Well other than when you run into the things protecting you.¡±


    But instead of appreciating my advice he decides that this argument needs to go on longer than it needs to be. ¡°You don''t understand!¡±


    But suddenly a distant distort voice begins to voice its own opinions. ¡°By the Gods you two are annoying. Especially you old man, aren''t you from a time long ago, how can you defend yourself when you''ve put your pupil under this amount of direct danger, and don''t tell me it''s okay because your watching because that''s the last thing any of us here needs. A stupid arrogant and egotistical teacher.¡±


    ¡°Look here Ramaze. Mock me all you want." Since I can''t get rid of you without getting lost or worse. ¡°But these training methods have been tried and tested while I was still alive, so I see no reason for me not to use them when we''re in a situation right now with weak enemies being found daily. And besides, I am more than capable of protecting the boy from harm.¡±


    ¡°Says the guy who just cooked me.¡± Henry unhelpfully mumbled.


    ¡°And there you go old man. Times change, methods change. We''re no longer in an era of total war were recruits are sent out daily to fight and learn on the battlefield. These days we take the time to teach the youngsters the fundamentals and basics of their techniques and then pit them against foes that are suitable for their level.¡±


    What an annoying guy. However, he does have a point, these past few days have indicated a certain flaw in regards to the trainee. Since it seems that energy output from my and their attack methods are completely different. Their normal attacks have multiple layers which becoming increasingly devastating as the user grows in power and understanding.


    Whereas my spells and formation only become more damaging by increasing the output of the spell, and unlike what the scroll said for Henry''s technique, my spell''s don''t have the chance of undergoing some sort of mutation at the higher levels gaining new forms, abilities or elemental changes.


    Remember the scroll with Henry''s techniques on it, I get the vague memory it was called ''Talons though the void'' or something. But other than the name what caught my attention was the structure of its leveling system. Since it seemed to indicate once the user gained a certain level of ''Qi'' then the technique would naturally grow stronger.


    Well as long as the user understood the core value of the technique itself. And this is where I think the Ramaze has me cornered since spells and formation; other than learning the incantations or imprinted structure are much easier to learn and generally causes more damage at the lower level.


    Which makes me wonder how I''ll face off against some of the most powerful things in this world.


    ''Ahem'' ¡°Old man. Would you kindly rejoin the discussion we were just in and temporarily suspend whatever paradise your old mind had created to escape from this mortal world.¡± Annnnnd concentration broken. Thanks distorted voice really helped me this time. But I digress, I''ll need Ramaze''s help if I''m going to get a better understanding of this world''s human body. And since my techniques aren''t working what better way is there than by going native.


    ¡°Well then what would you suggest Ramaze. Since if my training methods are now obsolete, I won''t have the time to create an entirely new training method since most of my time''s taken up by my tinkering in the boy''s body.¡±


    ¡°Well if you stop trying to kill your disciple.¡± Heh, one time was one time. ¡°Then I think I can arrange something where I give him some pointers on my down time and help in part to oversee some of his more, downright awful technique.¡±


    A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.


    ¡°And in return?¡±


    ¡°In return? Well, I was doing this out of the good of my heart.¡± And I''m the Duke of Espal. ¡°But if you insist. Then I''ll simply request to be allowed to spar with young Henry here. First, it''ll help him understand his martial arts better. And secondly, it''ll help me unwind slightly from this boring trip.¡±


    ¡°Obviously, you''ll limit your power so you don''t just flatten my poor exper-apprentice.¡± Really got to draw a line on how I view this boy. Otherwise, it might cause me some dilemma down the not so distant future ahead of me.


    ¡°Obviously.¡± Well, he at least seems genuine in his desire to not see Henry eaten by the local wildlife when he''s playing about.


    Speaking of the walking buffet, he seems awfully quite for someone who''s entire training program is being decided for them. Though looking at his anger ridden face and his shaken fists, he seems to have taken some offense to this. ¡°Do I not get a say in this!¡±


    ¡°No.¡±¡°No.¡± Unanimous call. But the boy only seems to be shaken, the wars not over yet for our dear Henry.


    ¡°I''ve got enough to deal with in the form of a sadist specter who almost always seems overjoyed whenever I''m in pain.¡± Oh come on, that being a bit dramatic. I only glee in delight when my experiments work, your inability to shrug off pain isn''t my problem. ¡°And you Ramaze I don''t see wh...¡±


    Though before my very eyes, the boy was silence from his unending moaning. On the other hand, fuck did Ramaze speed up. Henry and Ramaze were at least a good dozen yards apart. I didn''t even see a shadow, that kind of speed takes some skill.


    However, Henry probably doesn''t appreciate the speed run as much as I do, since being choked by a fully armored man who; for the first time seeing him fully stood up, actually seems to be only around five foot six, I thought he''d be bigger. Though the fully black color does give him a slightly menacing presence.


    ¡°Now listen here, Henry.¡± I think he''s choking. ¡°Since your Master has agreed to let me handle the more hand''s on training, you have to learn my rules.¡± He''s defiantly turning blue. ¡°And the first rule is if you''ve got time to complain you''ve got time to train.¡± ''Bam!'' Ouch. He''s a tad more brutal than I was. ¡°Now then, since you''re a bit fatigued I''m going to study your posture and movement of your technique and don''t worry, I''ll be sure to point out and help correct any mistakes I find.¡±


    ¡°Teacher help.¡± Man, he''s making puppy eyes. But it what I have to do, sometimes it''s hard being a teacher. Well good luck Henry I''ll check on you in an hour or so. Hope your still in one piece.


    Delving back inside his body, I''m hit by a sudden realization. I have nothing to do. Most of the stuff I want to check is either locked shut or simply doesn''t exist.


    So I''m left here pondering when I realize some of the boy''s Qi moving out to his Meridians. And it hits me, I don''t actually know how the energy navigates the Meridians. Science would dictate that it easily flows, though, but in this world, I''m prepared to be more wrong than I''m right on my scientific knowledge.


    So following the flow of the Qi as I had initially thought, there is nothing out of the ordinary. Well other than some bumps in the tunnels, which might have formed from my forceful opening, so I''ve got to go back and straighten each of them out so as to allow an easy flow.


    Other than inner-body highway maintenance no other anomalies occur. Until I reach the focal point, his fingers. Seems that when the energy is gathered to produce one of this world''s techniques the energy is stored in the area where the attack is to take place; rather than simply forming the attack up outside.


    Now I don''t have to wait long before Henry initiates his attack and the execution startles me. Since from what I can perceive from in here, the energy is simply forced out into the attack. No waiting or forming required. The attack simple charges up and activates.


    However, thinking logically this may be just what the low-level techniques use, brawn over precision. Especially since the attack Henry is using is called ''Talons though the void'', which indicates a brutish method to it, especially if its is forcibly ripping through the fabric of space and time. Well at the extreme level at least, currently he''s just borrowing his ''inner Qi'' to most likely forcibly stimulate the surrounding pure mana into a more devastating attack.


    Continuing my investigation I peak back out into the world to see the attack in full swing. However, to keep concentration up and distraction down, I shut off most of my senses so that I can only sense the mana that Henry is discharging and any mana distortion that may form from the ensuring practice currently underway.


    So waiting a few minutes the only thing I notice is the faint outline from what I can assume is Ramaze ''teaching'' Henry on how to use his technique.


    After the outlines stop, I begin to feel another bout of Qi coming from the boy. As before the mana is stored up in Henry fingers, though I''m guessing from him holding his pose it''s less about charging up and more Ramaze teaching the proper footwork and posture to effectively use the technique.


    After a few seconds, Henry finally releases his attack. Now I will admit I never paid attention before to Henry''s practice. But seeing the move now makes me feel kind of bad for now noticing early.


    With Henry using a clawed hand, he uses the momentum from his own downward force to then activate the technique. As the technique begins the energy stored in his fingertips explodes out and initial it only speed up his hands decent, with it going from head height to lower head height in milliseconds.


    After the initial explosion of energy happens the most exciting bit happens. The surrounding Qi begin to interact and combine with the surrounding mana around Henry finger''s and hand. Then as the decent reacts the beginning of the neck, the surrounding mana is supercharged and alongside the hands decent it gives the fingertips quite the explosive power.


    As the technique finishes the supercharged mana naturally calm down and shake off the oppressive feeling from either Henry Qi or the force of the other mana supercharging. And I will say that this world techniques do have a lot to other me in ways of experience.


    But I''ll hold my verdict on if this world''s techniques are truly powerful until I meet the old master and lost genius this world has to offer me.


    Speaking of offerings. I might as well offer the boy some assistance in clearing up his Meridians. It''ll probably save him in the long run, and if we''ve both quick enough it''ll probably save him from further torment.

 Chapter 8 - The good, the bad and the Gnome (Unedited)

    Who knew watching the entire Hamilton musical would lead to so much procrastinating. But hey as they say the show must go on...


    ...well story in this case.


    ..........................................................................................................................................................................................................


    Another day goes by and it''s another day in which I''ve been forgotten by the training duo over there. I know Ramaze said he wanted to relieve his boredom but come on it''s been three days and ever since he''s taken to personally train Henry we haven''t even moved an inch.


    Huh. It''s even worse when they are ignoring me as well. Not even one ''help me'' or ''what''s this'', no it''s just sparring, exercising and technique training. Honestly, what''s a mage got to do to be useful around here?


    Hrmmm. Maybe. That''s an idea, Henry was getting faster whenever he was being chased, although he wasn''t doing any offensive damage he was always one step ahead of his pursuers; well minus the Honey Badger. If I take that into account I may actually have the perfect training partner for Henry to spar against, plus Ramaze won''t be able to nag for safety as well.


    It''ll just depend if George actually managed to repair it from the damage it sustained a few years ago. That and I better check and see if George is still alive in there, it''s been a few months and some of the stuff I have locked in there can be potentially dangerous for a guy his size.


    Drowning out my surroundings I begin to concentrate on the connection I have with my sub-pocket, once I''ve stabilized the connection and checked to see if there are any interference I send my conscious into the sub-pocket.


    Materializing in the sub-pocket, I find to my surprise that I''m not a spectral figure and that an actually have a body. Seems my conscious took the likeness of my old body for its form, should be useful for some of the stuff in here to more easily recognize me.


    Putting aside my new body for a second I concentrate on the surroundings to see if George is there.


    Passing over the very small area I had designated as the ''lobby'' other than the absent Gnome the place has changed quite a bit. Recalling my last visit this area only had a simple wooden chair to give it any distinctiveness of being a lobby. Now though it would seem that George has been redecorating.


    Gone was the wooden chair and in its place was two Burgundian armchairs side by side with a similar colored sofa opposite it. In between then was an oak table, and it was a very plain looking one at that. The only side edge I could see had nothing on it so I can only presume that the rest is as bland as the side I''m looking at. Though there is some sort of book on it so I''ll look into that in a bit.


    Otherwise, every else was bland, there weren''t any carpet''s laid out, even though I''m pretty sure I''ve collected some in the passed, but no the tables and chairs just seemed to be floating in the dimly lit void it stood upon. And speaking of light''s, I''m surprised I never noticed this when I first arrived, but it would seem George got busy with somehow installing mana stones in the air above the lounge to give the place some light.


    I''d have to say I''m rather impressed by the little guy''s work. Too bad only me and him will ever see this since I don''t plan on having guest around anytime soon.


    But enough of that, let''s look at that book and we''ll see if George turn''s up before I''ve finished. With that, I closed the few feet between me and the table and picked up the surprisingly plain brown book. Looking over the cover and back I''m shocked as I have no recollection of every getting this book.


    Before I had realized I was already sitting on the sofa turning the strange book over and over again in an attempt to kick-start the memory I had of when I first got it. ¡°You know master if you want to read the book the usual first step is to open it.¡± A familiar droning voice rings out awakening me in the process.


    Looking up I see the familiar sight of George, all three feet of him dressed up in a butler suit, which I will admit was quite hard to get a hold of. Though the butler image is in my opinion ruined by his full beard, but he refuses to indulge in my requests to get rid of it.


    ¡°So you''ve gotten the spatial doors to work again. I''m sure I blew those up after the Minderk incident.¡± That was a fun afternoon.


    ¡°You did master, and it was very bothersome to get them working again. Especially since I had to reorganize some rooms that had also been blown up and had they contents evacuated onto the lounge floor.¡± Well, he seems to of been busy. Though his lack of any emotion still freaks me out slightly.


    ¡°Well, as long as the sub-pocket still works I don''t really care. Now tell me, George, what''s this book about then.¡±


    ¡°That book is an entire catalogue of everything in this place.¡± Everything? The books a bit small then, I''m pretty sure there more stuff here than what''s written on I assume a hundred pages. ¡°The book is shortened to save space Master. Most of the things you have never used have been put in the misc space. Only things that you''ve used have been written down in more detail.¡±


    ¡°You could have written more than one book you know.¡±


    ¡°I could of, but no.¡± What, not even an argument, you''ve changed since I first got you. ¡°Besides, I doubt you''ll read the whole book when all you do is just ask me where the things are anyway.¡± Someone''s upset, angry that I didn''t visit you? I''m not your husband you know. ¡°Please refrain from thinking stupid thoughts, Master.¡±


    ¡°How?¡±


    ¡°Your facial expression are giving it away.¡± I want a new Gnome.


    ¡°Well since the books useless.¡± ''Bang'' the impact from slamming it seems to have caused the table to wobble slightly. Oh well. ¡°Then tell me. Which room is the Prodigium machine in? And is it fully functional?¡±


    ¡°The machine is in room 157. But...¡± That can''t be good then, George never pauses. ¡°...the accelerator is only partially functional.¡±


    ¡°Is that all?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± Phew. Nothing to worry about then. A fully functional accelerator isn''t needed for the plan I have in mind. ¡°Do you want to to the room or do you want me to bring it here to us.¡±


    ¡°Better to go to it for now. I''ll need to oversee the initial start-up so as to ensure nothing fucks up on our end.¡± Strolling towards George I lightly pat him on the shoulder before I continue on. ¡°Besides, watching the initial trials is always fun when using the machine.¡±


    ¡­.......................................................................................................................................................................................................


    The pain! Oh God the pain! I can''t feel my arms, why does Ramaze insist on correcting my posture and attack flow by whacking me whenever I deviate from his ideal form.


    Well, at least I can''t complain about the improvement from my techniques. These past few days Ramaze has almost been beaten it into me on how to perform my first Qi movement throughout my bloodstream. Though he refuses to help me complete it, something about needing to understand myself before the blood will allow the Qi to flow with it.


    ¡°Henrrry!¡± My thoughts are however untimely interrupted as Ramaze shouts for me. Buuuuut I want to rest more, better quickly roll under the carriage he''ll never find me there. However, my expectations were wasted on such trivial matters. Because as soon as roll onto my face Ramaze was onto of me and feeling the sweet embrace of the earth leaving me and my neck hurting slightly from him pulling on my shirt.


    Thankfully, however, the annoyance of lack of air soon comes to an end as he rather helpfully props me back on my feet. But before I can reach I''m spun around and am face to face with his closed helm. ¡°Me thinks your mind is still not in the right place to advance since you obviously still lack the commitment to learn.¡±


    ¡°No, no. I''m committed. It''s just I need a few more minutes so that my arms still feel attached to my body.¡±


    However, I feel as the bluff hasn''t worked since instead of telling me to train he instead grabs both of my shoulders and slowly says, ¡°Good, good. I like it when people are committed to learning. But don''t worry about your tired arms since they won''t affect the next training.¡± Help. ¡°I want you to run around the carriage for about five miles. Yes, five miles that should easy enough for a new learner like you.¡± Teacher where are you!


    ¡°Henry good news.¡± Thank the Gods I''m saved. I''m almost in tears hearing his over the top voice, ¡°I''ve been contemplating on how I was being selfish with making you attack random wild animals.¡± No. ¡°So I decided to grow a beast that would be tailored more towards your level so you could have a better fighting experience.¡± Before I can react I hear a loud ''Ahhhahh'' and a floating humanoid green thing where I presume teacher is. Now he said it was tailored towards me but I can''t help but feel the four-foot monstrosity with talon-like nails and savagery in its eye would ever be suitable for me to fight.


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    ¡°Ramaze, make sure to shout whenever I hit a mile.¡± Thus I begin to my jog hoping teacher will get bored and find a safer plan to help me.


    ¡­.......................................................................................................................................................................................................


    He ran away. You bastard. ¡°So.¡± Ramaze helpfully wakes me up from Henry escape. ¡°Training partner? I don''t know how this thing can be a good training partner for anybody.¡±


    ¡°Don''t be so skeptical it''ll work. And he not a thing he''s called George the second he''s a Goblin.¡± I proudly announce to Ramaze who otherwise seems uninterested. ¡°Well if you want specifics I mulled over your argument for training the boy''s foundation and since you''ve been training and correcting his mistakes I thought I''d whip up a subject who''s only danger is its nails. Otherwise it downright bestial intelligence and savagery will give Henry a fight that''ll ensure he gets his stance and techniques right to take down his opponent. Plus to please you''ll I''ll even slap on a body enhancement so if he does get hit he won''t actually get hurt. Though he''ll still feel the pain, can''t give him everything for free. He needs to learn not to be hit in the first place.¡± Say no to that Ramaze.


    However, even after a few minutes have passed Ramaze is still quite. Has he shut down? Was I meant to re-charge him every night? Thought thankfully those glowing blue eyes eventually jerk up after a few extra minutes and he gives his decree. ¡°Fine. But I''ll dictate how the fights go and only under my direct supervision will he every face more than one opponent.¡± Fair terms but I''m beginning to think that you may be trying to steal Henry away from me.


    Well, who cares, as long as he gets stronger, in the end, I don''t care to what lengths he has to go to achieve this.


    ¡­..................................................................................................................................................................


    Pain. Oh God the pain. Maybe I should have fought the green monstrosity that teacher wanted me to fight.


    I''ve only managed two miles but my legs are on fire. What I wouldn''t give for rest right now. Thankfully it would seem that my prayers had been answered as Ramaze''s distorted voice echoed out in the plains. ¡°Henry stop and circulate your Qi. I''ve got a better training session than you aimlessly running around.¡± If I''m allowed to rest I''ll willing to fight that green thing.


    For the moment thought I put all thoughts out of my mind and sit down ready to circulate my Qi. Now for the past few days, I''ve been stuck integrating my Qi with my blood in order for it to more easily access more body. As usual, I reach out to my Qi and begin to roam through my blood vessels. However, when it reaches my heart it''s unable to pass through. Ramaze mentioned that I had to fully integrate my body with my Qi but whenever I try to join my blood and Qi together it always fails. With this time not being any different.


    Though I do still regain a bit of my stamina since even if I can''t complete a full movement, the Qi does still help to replenish me. That I''m thankful for since I doubt I would be able to keep up with Ramaze otherwise.


    What I don''t notice is that after yet another failure, opening my eyes I come face to face with the floating green monstrosity, which snarls and even try''s to bite me despite being restrained. Though even if I know it''s restrained I still can''t help but back off. It''s just too weird.


    I hear a faint chuckling noise coming from the things direction, so I can only assume it was him who brought me other. Getting up Ramaze approaches from behind me and begins to brief me on my next training session. ¡°I and William have agreed on your new training schedule.¡± Bugger. ¡°From now on you''re going to be fighting with those things that William is holding.¡±


    Nope. ¡°Ramaze doesn''t it seem like I''m getting too much training. What if I break down.¡±


    But Ramaze is truly a tyrant. ¡°Don''t worry I''ve got Qi replenishment pills so you don''t break from exhaustion and William has promised to heal any injuries you sustain.¡± It just keeps on getting better, and better doesn''t it? ¡°Besides. You won''t be fighting one of those Goblins every day. So don''t worry on that front.¡± Well, at least something good has come out of today. Though I never heard of a Goblin before.


    Teacher, however, doesn''t give me much time to mull over the new word as the Goblin he had been holding is dropped. At first, it seemed dazed and confused about what to do, but after checking over the entity that held it and the armored warrior, when it set it''s eyes on me it gave a bestial growl and charged over. Arms outstretched and screeching.


    I''ll profess that I was shocked by how it charged in such an aggressive manner, but thankfully the ''sparring'' with Ramaze had given my body instinctual reflex to avoid things and even while I was still shocked my body naturally moved out of the Goblins charge.


    Seeing the Goblin rush past me helped to snap me out of my daze and without further help I automatically assumed the stance that Ramaze had drilled into me so as to effectively carry out Talons through the Void. The Goblin also realized that it had missed the golden opportunity to hit me and swinging around it charged again hoping to put me off.


    Even though I had gotten into my stance and was ready to strike, I was still scared. I had never done something like this before. Even though Mother was a mercenary captain she never deemed it necessary to train me, she thought I''d make it big being an adviser or scholar.


    I wasn''t at the stage of panic. But my mind was all over the place thinking what to do, what will happen and what if that occurred?


    With my mind in shambles, the few pieces that are fully functional and focusing on the battle manage to get the attack off. To my disappointment, the attack only scratches the Goblin''s chest while it manages to piece through my trousers and it felt like it embedded it''s nail into my skin. The sharp pain helps to bring my mind back into focus and I create some distance by jumping backwards with Qi enhancing the jump.


    I manage a few feet but the Goblin isn''t confused or awed by the impressive jump. It gives another bestial roar and charges again.


    I control my breathing and get my mind in order. I again set my posture up but this time I''m aiming to kill the Goblin in one hit.


    As it closes in I fight the urge to attack as soon as it''s in range and only as it''s a few centimeter from me do I strike.


    There''s nothing grand about the strike. My hand quickly drops and strikes the beast on its head. Due to the practice, my fingers easily pass through the creature skull and hit it''s brain. It''s finger on my trouser again, but instead off it attacking it instead spasms as it feels it''s brains getting wracked by my fingers.


    A few moments pass and instead of putting it out of its misery I''m also frozen. Far from killing a man or anything truly dangerous, but with the adrenaline wearing off I feel uncomfortable for some reason.


    Before I realized it Ramaze had already killed the poor creature. ¡°Circulate your Qi and reflect on what you have experienced.¡± He said to me as walked on by patting my shoulder.


    I didn''t acknowledge him but I still did the same movement and posture as normal, I even ignored the creature green blood that was dripping from my fingers as I circulated my Qi and for the first time.


    I felt something.


    ¡­.................................................................................................................................................................................


    Well, that was unexpected.


    But I can''t help but to begin to feel I''m the bad guy and Ramaze is the good in this situation. It''s not even my fault, George was the one who fixed the machine blame him.


    Huh. At least he killed the Goblin, hopefully, he comes out alright from his contemplation since I feel like interfering may have changed the boy ever so slightly.

 Chapter 9 - The purge (Unedited)

    I''ve never been one for violence.


    Mother dearest would always explain to me that the best way to deal with violence was to either not get in trouble or talk your way out. And in a nice peaceful Kingdom that would be the perfect parental raising plan.


    Unfortunately, the Verworfen Kingdom was never a kingdom of peace. Stuck on the frontier of civilisation with no; previously, other power to keep them in check and coupled with a corrupt and decadent system, I''m honestly surprised that the monarchy hasn''t been overthrown at this point.


    But that''s beside the point right now.


    Before I started reminiscing and the adrenaline stopped, I had observed how my Qi was naturally combining with my blood. I don''t know the full implication of what it did to my body. But I''m guessing that from my ''fight'' it was a natural reaction to get my body into better shape for the fight and possible make it easier for me to call upon my Qi.


    After the fight and I had begun to circulate my Qi, I could even feel that I had become a bit more powerful due to my blood and Qi combining. Though I''ll admit I wasn''t paying the utmost attention to what else was happening to my body since I was a bit fixated on the whole blood and Qi combination.


    However, towards the end of my adrenaline trip cool down, I was lucky enough to observe some alteration to my body. Though I''m doubtful if there good or bad alterations. Since after I tore my eyes away from my blood and begun looking around the rest of my body I happened to notice a peculiar situation arising from my bones. At first, the most eye-catching thing was my bones and how they had become that much whiter.


    Though looking at my bones I''m beginning to notice a lot of black specs coming off the bone and floating away to my skin. Whatever those things were I do hope it was beneficial, since random black specs inside your body is not a usual occurrence one might see.


    Though I''ll admit I never paid attention to most of my anatomy before when I first delved inside my body, but I can make an assumption that the black specs and whiter bones weren''t here before the Qi-blood combination; seriously even looking at those bones for too long is hurting my eyes.


    Blinding aside other than body alteration I can feel a certain but faint aura coming off from my body now, and before the fight that aura wasn''t there. Now it isn''t on any level like those monster that decimated the army back in the endless forest. But, feeling it now it''s filling me with confidence and an urge to get even stronger, especially since it came after I had fought that weird green monster.


    But, at that moment I begin to think back and I can''t help but wonder if this is the reason why mother always told me to stay out of trouble. Mother may of know what battling did to a person and being so closely related she must of know I would go through this and wanted a better life for me. One not on the battlefield, following in her steps as a mercenary captain. But feeling it now I''m both eager and afraid.


    I''m afraid since the opponents from now on are only going to get stronger, both from Ramaze and that mysterious man and I''m not too enthusiastic on a potentially early death. But I''m equally eager since I want to know how far I can go, I want to know if I can leave my name in the history books, I also want to know how many...


    ¡°Henry!¡± Indulging in my fantasies for a mere second that ghostly voice from Ramaze surfaces again, and from the sharp pain in my back and the sky in my eyes, I''m guessing my position wasn''t very stable when Ramaze gave me the surprise of my life.


    Feeling quite uncomfortable now with my back to the grass and legs still crossed, I involuntarily open my eyes and after picking myself up I notice two things.


    One is the rather obvious armored coach, whose crossed armed posture either means I''m going to get a lecture or a new round of hell''s training. I''m hoping for the latter since it seems like I''ve been in that state for quite some time, around noon I''d guess.


    The other begin the horrid smell and extreme dampness that I''m feeling from my clothes. Now a normal person would be composed in a situation like this and think of ways this has happened while also looking for alternative clothing that didn''t involve cheap cloth and old leather armor. Unfortunately, begin raised with a slight silver spoon, I''m not one of those people. ¡°Oh God, what is this smell, why am I wet? Ew ew ew ew!¡± Can''t say this is one of my better moments but dear god is this an awful feeling.


    ¡­.................................................................................................................................................................................


    Currently, I''m shocked. This dancing monkey in front of me is the only student I''ve every had to start running around after they manage to cleanse some of the waste from their body. Sure I can be partially blamed for not telling the boy what happens after you succeed in your first rotation. But then again what idiot runs around in drenched clothing flinging the shit attached to them as they go.


    Thankfully watching this ordeal of a dance is put to an end quickly once a great orb of water materializes out of nowhere above Henry and drenches him. Seems the old man isn''t a fan of Henry rain dance either. So ignoring Henry and his protests for a moment, I turn my attention to the rapidly fading formation above Henry.


    And still, I''m bemused. I simply can''t fathom how this type of martial arts came to be. The only arts that are similar are the ones used by the puppeteers and alchemists, but neither of them can summon the elements from a simple formation; they either spend huge resources on one construct at a time or spend huge resources making new resources.


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    But what''s most curious is how these skills take little Qi to use and are practically undetectable in the smaller and lesser condensed arts. The only time I can truly say I''ve detected it before seeing it was with the wolf pack and how he sent multiple formations out at once. Even then, though, I barely noticed it.


    However, even with this bizarre arts, I doubt the story of him being an ancient warrior from aeons ago, it just doesn''t make sense for someone from the legends era to appear in this continent, since it would mean that he and his kin managed to find the portal to this place thousands of years ago. They would have surely managed to conquer this back-water place with relative ease.


    But I do suspect that whatever managed to kill his main body is powerful, since a man wielding power like that, being both strange and undetectable, can''t mean he lead a normal life and surely must have been trained to the limits of life and death.


    Well, in the end, it doesn''t really matter anyway. It''s not like I''m being paid to do this job, as long as he doesn''t turn on me, he can continue with his little experiments he often goes on about. Besides if anything, I''m having a great time with my own little experiment on Henry.


    Since I want to know how far he can go, especially for someone past the ideal age of improvement, yet still somehow breaking through his limits on his first rotation.


    I do hope William won''t mind sharing Henry for a while.


    ¡­.................................................................................................................................................................................


    That boy really needs to learn etiquette. Flinging water and random shit around the place. We''re not animals you know Henry. Geez, I even had to bath the little monster, we''re not going to see any game around here for the next few days with the stench Henry just released unto the world.


    But I do wonder what that black stuff is.


    My first guess would be some sort of defect inside the body, which when trained is gradually released so as to allow the person to become that much stronger. Though I''ll have to monitor the black release again to get more accurate readings. Thought the whitening of t he bones and the expanding of the meridians should be all the evidence I need.


    But if that''s the case I may have to make another trip to see if I can spot these anomalies in Henry''s body, because the last time I went to his body none of these black stuff were visible or detectable. Which can either mean that they only surfaced due to Henry training? Or the body has changed to accommodate Henry new power, certain aspects of the body are deemed undesirable and therefore must be purged in order to perfect the body.


    If it''s the latter option I wonder if I''ll be able to preemptively purge the black stuff from Henry''s system in an effort to further boost his growth. But I''ll have to be careful since I don''t know if my own mana will be able to replace the mana from Henry''s own body that dug out the black stuff and strengthened his body.


    But if my own mana can replace Henry''s own mana then that''ll mean that I can augment Henry''s strength that much quicker, meaning gaining a body for myself will also be that much faster.


    Thought if the black stuff comes from the former then that''ll mean I''ll have to think off a new solution. Which may just be me simply smoothing out the results to help Henry get an advantage in fights that in the same strength category.


    Even if it''s not the latter option I still have to keep my hopes up. One way being that when I do get my new body, I''ll need to see if it''s changed to my own bodily specifics and not to this current world''s specifics. Which means that the black stuff that I managed to capture while looking in Henry''s body will need to be tested to see if I can improve my body the same way by purging any undesirable material.


    I''ll have to get George to do the testing, though, I never did finish my 101 Alchemistic tests. Should be fine, though, George hasn''t let me down yet.


    I''ll also need to figure out how this world evolved this way as well. Since when I make my new body I need to make it as similar as to my old world''s body, in the case of any defects that might appear due to a Dantian and mana pool sharing the same space.


    Fortunately, however, I do have a nice guinea pig to test and see if my magic formations are usable to this world''s population.


    Besides, I''m sure Ramaze won''t mind me stealing Henry back for a few lessons. I''ll even go as far as to say that Ramaze would also love to get a little show and tell on how my formation''s work and how they are formed. Though I''ll have to be a little careful to not show off the inner workings of the formation''s since I can''t really trust my warden from the Rising Lotus sect.


    I wouldn''t be surprised if this was a set-up to try and steal my magic techniques by either viewing and replicating them, or by the good old method of brute forcing your way to information. Since the latter option is my favorite method, I''m sure as hell not going to fall into some trap on our way to our destination.


    Though that being said I can''t fully count on Henry to be reliable and not get in trouble, plus if Ramaze does turn out to be a traitor and manages to isolate Henry while I''m away, then not only can that be troublesome, it can potentially lead to my doom.


    Huh, when am I ever going to get a break, I really need a vacation.

 Chapter 10 - The experiment must go on (Unedited)

    Sunset. Nature''s way of telling us it''s about time we headed home. Coincidentally, this was also the time Henry and Ramaze''s training montage seems to have finally ended. Though a seven-hour training session seems a little excessive in my books, double since it was only after the first two hours did he let the boy change out of the filth and water clogged clothes.


    But who am I to judge, since, for all I know this could be some sort of training exercise to help the trainees fight better in water clogged situations.


    Well enough pondering on that subject for the day, since Henry and Ramaze are rapidly approaching the coach from the desolate area that they had created one mile out. Plus, I say Henry and Ramaze but it''s more Ramaze pulling Henry along like a disobedient child; though in this case there''s more screaming involved.


    A few seconds later and Ramaze drops of the sweaty scarred looking Henry, now complete with Chinese white robe. And the ever stoical armoured man himself dropping wood onto the floor, though this time, it seems that due to the lack of pre-planned firewood he seems to of located it from a different. Most likely an interspacial device, but were said device is located, I haven''t the faintness clue.


    Henry, on the other hand, doesn''t seem to really care from what sources the firewood has appeared. Only seeming to care about his dinner, which incidentally, due to the shortage of animals via gassing, is a week old boar I barbequed. For research obviously.


    Ramaze meanwhile was getting comfortable in his favourite spot in the coach''s driving seat while Henry stacked the dozen or so wood together. I believe that this is the perfect time to begin the experiment.


    So, gliding over to the boy I begun to state my intentions to him. ¡°Henry! Since you''ve been doing so well with Ramaze''s training lately, I was thinking it was about time we continued our training as well.¡± His response, however, annoyed me since the indifferent expression seemed as if he didn''t care in the slightest.


    Turning back to his growing pile of wood he answered my question in an equally indifferent tone. ¡°Teacher, I have had a long day with Ramaze. So whatever new monster that you''ve managed to concoct since the battle with the green thing, can we please save it for a later date as I am starving.¡±


    Ah, he thinks I''m offering him the chance to kill monstrous beasts. Well, better give him the good news then. ¡°Don''t worry about the Goblins, for now, Henry. Instead, I''m going to continue what we started about a week ago.¡± Mentioning the date seemed to have given Henry some clarification. Though wide-eyed surprise isn''t what I expected.


    ¡°Teach, listen. For the love of Saint Alona! I have had a really long day. Can we not leave the torture exercises for another day.¡± He finished with an almost pleading look on his face. Honestly, this kid really knows how to misunderstands things.


    ¡°Henry. Neither your mental or physical state of being is in danger, and neither do I intend to go delving in your body today.¡± That brings some relief to his eyes, Thank Sol. Otherwise, at the rate this is going, he''s going to think I''m evil or something. ¡°Let''s get started then I''d like to finish before it gets too late.¡±


    While I direct Henry to finish building the campfire; minus the fire, I began to get the relative information I needed, which I would then transfer to Henry. Since talking about it loudly around Ramaze was probably a bad idea. Nevertheless, the formation spell I settle on is the common fireball, and there''s a good target to practice on as well. Which Henry so kindly built.


    ¡°Now what?¡±


    ¡°Now you need to empty your mind so I can transfer the information to you. Oh, don''t look at me like that, transferring data and delving are two different things.¡± The brat''s lucky I don''t use my teacher''s training method. We ended up going through a lot of rope and forest that day.


    While I remembered my old training days Henry had managed to calm down and collect himself. Seeing this I took it as a sign to proceed with the transferring of information over bit by bit. Although this method does take longer, it''s got a better guarantee that Henry''s head doesn''t explode. Plus seeing his face going through a variety of emotion as he digests each segment does give me a better estimate on how easier he''ll understand it.


    And seeing mostly scrunched up face doesn''t give me the best impression.


    A few minutes later and the transfer gives leaves me with a bemused and pondering subject. Great. Though I better bring him back to reality or we''ll be here all night. ¡°Listen up Henry! You probably have no idea about what you just been given or how it works, but after I demonstrate to you how the technique works, then it should become real easy for yourself to grasp.¡±


    Opening his eyes and resuming an indifferent expression his replies back to me. ¡°Actually teacher, I''ve already got a pretty good understanding of how the formation works.¡± What? ¡°The problem is that when I use my own hand technique, the Qi I use is all chaotic since it wishes to get out of my body, thus allowing me to deliver the attack.¡± ¡­ Hasn''t he only been learning about this stuff for a week? When did he create this hypothesis? ¡°But looking through the information you''ve given me, this technique requires me to ''tame'' the Qi in my body and forcibly stuff it into a formation, where it will then stay with the other ''tame'' Qi and once released into the wild stay together in a unit and not only help each other but also not escape the formation entirely.¡±


    ¡°Ok.¡± I''m not sure what to say. I''m quite stunned actually. Chaotic mana? I''d call him a fool if I was back home, but seeing one of the resident practitioners describe their mana as chaotic is too weird. Especially since back home the mana was perfectly fine. The most bemusing part is the fact that I can''t feel any sort of this chaotic feeling from the mana, for me, it''s just the same old peaceful mana. Anything thing to add to my investigation list since chaotic mana is just too weird.


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    However, if this is the case then, that''ll mean that the techniques I possess shouldn''t be able to be used by anyone in this world. Unless they either possess a unique relationship with the actual mana itself or are at a high enough level that they can suppress they own mana and simultaneous the outside mana as well. It''s a shame that I never collected or studied low-level chants since I would of like to see how the wild outside mana interacts with the formation of a forming spell.


    Still, though, science needs its experiments one way or another. ¡°Can you still try to emulate the formation at least. Or will the untamed mana be too much pressure?¡±


    ¡°There''s no need to worry, Ramaze has trained me enough so that I can dissipate the Qi I amass into the surrounding area in case this whole thing doesn''t work out.¡± Come on Henry at least give this experiment some optimism, otherwise, we''ve already failed before we''ve begun.


    Even with my mental badgering Henry still wields and indifferent attitude towards the whole thing. Deciding to get this over as fast as possible I summon the fireball formation in front of Henry and have it hover in front of him. Henry takes this opportunity to look at every inch and angle of the formation, making sure he doesn''t miss out on any important details.


    After a few minutes, he returns to his seated positions and nods for me to continue. Since I''ve picked a small formation I''m able to control how the overall formation acts. So I slow down the whole thing, making sure to linger on the important aspects during the activation sequence. I especially make sure to let Henry look around the entire point at which the formation launches the fireball, so as to give him a better chance of understanding how the mana works in conjunction with each other to complete and release the spell embedded within it.


    This last bit take''s Henry another ten minutes. So at least he''s taking this seriously, even if not in the best of faith. After he''s thoughtlessly worked his way through all the nooks and crannies, he once again nods and I activates the formation sending a head''s sized fireball into the air, where I safely detonate it in the sky; since I don''t want the plain''s to turn into a raging inferno.


    Allowing Henry time to digest the information he''s received from the formation, I begin to start focusing on Henry''s internal mana supply. Ready to catch what may happen.


    Half an hour later and with darkness already upon us Henry finally opens his eyes and begins to move his mana. The start seems promising since the mana in Henry all congregate towards his hand which he has most likely deemed to be his central focus point. However, for this experiment, the movement of his mana seems to of been the only successful part.


    As soon as Henry attempted to form the mana into a resemblance of a formation the mana at the central point begun to act up. problem number one was that the mana he had herded towards each other would fragment as soon as he gave his attention towards another group elsewhere in the central point. So Henry attempted to subjugate the mana with pressure to make it easier to rope them together.


    Once again, however, this just seemed to agitate the mana inside Henry, which attempted to escape Henry''s central point by either charging at his body to escape, or for a minority, which was attempting to escape back inside Henry''s body.


    This was a bit of a problem and seeing the mana getting progressively out of control and Henry struggling to contain the mana which was attempting to invade back inside his body, I was becoming doubtful of his ability to dissipate the unruly mana and was about to step in.


    Just as I was about to bring my vision back to the real world, I noticed a faint strand out mana emitting from Ramaze''s direction which surrounded Henry''s hand and actual started to pacify the mana into submission. Strangely enough, the mana attempting to break though Henry body, upon feeling the new mana outside seemed to be visible scared and cowed back, almost as if they were actually fearful of this new interloper. Further analysis showed the mana further back seemed to also cower back as well, not because of Ramaze''s mana, but due to seeing how the other mana was reacting.


    However, while I was looking at the mana Henry took this opportunity to dissipate the uncontrollable mana from his body. Although this was sudden I still managed to look at the new found free mana and how once free they quickly become peaceful but also begun to migrate as far from Ramaze mana source.


    Strange indeed. But let''s see how Henry''s doing. Coming out of my focus Henry''s face is looking as if he''s just down a heavy exercise, very red face and sweat running all over his body. Seems as if the unruly mana was more dangerous than I had first imagined. Henry on his part seemed to feel my stare and without waiting for me begun the conversation. ¡°So the mana was a bit more dangerous than I had first anticipated. I honestly though the worst thing they''d do would be to try and escape. Never had I anticipated that they''d try to re-enter my body. But thankfully I got some assistance.¡± At least he seems fine now, he''s even looking a bit relieved as well.


    ¡°As long as your fine that''s the most important part. Besides after that test you''ve got to be hungry for that Boar right now.¡± This produces a tired grin from the boy. Seems today''s training with me and Ramaze has really taken its toll on him. Ending with those thoughts I light the campfire with a fireball spell while the Boar is thrown to Henry''s side, curtsy of Ramaze.


    As Henry starts setting about cooking the Boar, he turns to my general direction and says, ¡°After I''ve cooked this Boar teach there''s a story I want to tell you. It''s an old one as well. One I''ve just only remembered because of that strange technique you used on me.¡± To this world most of my techniques would be strange. But a story based upon one, this can''t just be a coincidence.

 Chapter 11 - Ghosts of the past (Unedited)

    ... What kind of training was Ramaze doing with Henry? I''ve never seen someone strip the meat from a boar so fast before, does Ramaze''s training involve starvation or something? I''ve got to observe their next training session for Henry''s sake, or well, just to satisfy my own curiosity of this world''s training methods.


    ¡°Mmmm, that hit the spot. Nothing better than a large meal after a hard day of training.¡± Henry''s announcement snapped me out of my state of thought. Equally distracting was Henry''s personal bone throwing contest, and I do believe the furthest went a good mile out.


    However, before I could estimate the distance of the other bones thrown, Henry began to speak again, ¡°Now, I did say I would tell you a story.¡± Please, Henry, don''t word it like that, you''re making me feel like a child getting a bedtime story. ¡°Now it''s been quite some time since I''ve last heard it, so some details may be skipped or skimmed over.¡±


    Ramaze at this moment called out to us, informing us of how he currently felt about the situation, ¡°Your an inspiration to storytellers everywhere.¡± And I couldn''t agree more, but that''s neither here or there. He could be making the entire story up as he went along, but as long as he told me the important information, then I couldn''t give two shits.


    Ahem, ¡°As I was saying before I was rudely interrupted, the story I''m about to tell you is called the Witch and the Pauper.¡± What a terrible name. ¡°Our as the upper classes calls it, the desolation of the Malum Imperium.¡±


    Changing with to a more sombre one he started his story, ¡°Our story is set five hundred years ago. In an era of constant war and strife.¡± Nothing''s really changed there then. ¡°The current frontier borders were non-existent. The budding nations state that spear-fronted the expansion at this point were either subject''s or were suzerainty to the even now ancient empires far to the east.¡±


    ¡°One such empire was more domineering than the rest. Backed by a mythical group of people who were able to bend the very world to their beck and call, surrounding nations dared not to draw the ire of this colossus nation.¡± Great, seems the martial artists have their fingers in everyone''s pies way before we''ve been contracted by the Rising Lotus sect.


    ¡°This nation of greed, debauchery and corruption ruled for nigh on a millennium. However, that all changed when they came.¡±


    ¡°From within the ancient woods, the first pioneers would discover the portals to the endless forest, from here the witch and her knightly lover appeared in a whirlwind of fire and death. Though the exact date of their invasion is unknown, but the event which started the whole thing was to be known as, the fall of the Tear king.¡± Well, I''ve heard worse nicknames before, specifically the orangutan of confetti. Huh, I miss that guy.


    ¡°After their appearance the Witch and her lover had spent some time helping the outermost provinces of the empire, giving hope where none was before. At first, they were left alone, thought of as nothing more than ants which given time could help to squeeze even more money out of there already destitute people.¡±


    ¡°However, what worried the governor most was reports off not only these peasants training under the witch''s knightly lover but that reports of the witch''s mythical power which the peasants were telling were much greater than the empire''s guardians combined.¡±


    ¡°The Tear king; who governed this area with an iron fist, would not stand for this. So being the arrogant and proud man he was, he could not let someone who is rumoured to be better than he was live. He would put down these people and show the world it''s true place in front of him.¡± Pride cometh before the fall, never an apt description as right now I suppose.


    ¡°The Tear king rode out the next day, ahead of a massive army and surrounded by his personal disciples. On the way, they pillage any village which even dared to mutter the witch''s name. Thus it was only time till the witch herself set off to stop this despicable man, backed by only by the few hundred militiamen the knight had trained.¡±


    ¡°For days the witch''s force marched eastward, gaining more followers as she went. By the time both forces met, the witches force had swelled to equal the Tear kings size, but both leaders knew which army would win.¡± You never know, miracles often happen in most massive battles.


    ¡°Being so confident in victory, the Tear king first sent his very own disciples; protected by his very own elite bodyguards, to harass and demoralise the witches force. Seeing the inevitable rout of their army the witches knightly lover took up his sword and shield, mounted his warhorse and charged.¡±


    ¡°The knight killed every last disciple and bodyguard. Swords bounced off his armour and projectiles deflected off his shield. And when they surrounded him, his sword lit up the sky in a violent wave of fire and lightning, which decimated his erstwhile foes.¡± Well, that escalated quickly.


    ¡°The Tear king was beyond furious, he howled to the sky for vengeance on that lone knight and without backup from his army, he charged. The witch seeing her lover in danger was said to call upon the very winds themselves to propel her across the battlefield near instantaneously. And thus the witch and the Tear king engaged in a death battle.¡±This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.


    ¡°For many hours they battled each other, the Tear king''s attacks would often envelop the witch whole, but to the continued surprise of many, she always came out safe. The witch, on the other hand, chanted strange words and brought out a strange formation that would continue damage to the Tear king.¡±


    ¡°But the Tear king often shrugged off such attacks, letting his magical armour absorb the blows. What the arrogant man didn''t know was that each attacked chipped away at his armour, bit by bit.¡±


    ¡°Many hours later when the sun roared overhead, the Tear king fuming with rage at how this witch stilled live, begone to turn his eyes to the women''s lover and prepared to take him as a hostage to neutralise her.¡±


    ¡°This plan was his undoing, for the split second he was distracted the witch called upon the very powers of the sun and with one final attack, bore a fiery whole straight through the Tear kings chest. Made only possible by the broken armour she caused with her constant attacks.¡±


    ¡°With his death the Tear king...¡±


    ¡°Okay, that''s nice and all, but so far this story doesn''t seem very relevant to me at all.¡± Well over than the witch''s power, since it seems awfully close to the chanters techniques back home. ¡°Can you at least tell me the witch''s and knights name, since that might be a bit more useful.¡± Nevermind it being less annoying constantly calling them the witch or knight.


    ¡°Well, it''s hard to recall since it''s been a while, but, ah!¡± Strange. What''s caused Henry to suddenly cradle his head like that? But before I can ask, he raises his head and says, ¡°The Witches name was lost to history, however, the Loronlia Empire shall remain a part of her, and her one true love. The Grand Marshall of Loronlia, Slayer of the God King and Emperor of Loronlia, Maximilian Morolia.¡±


    ¡°That''s impossible!¡±


    ¡°What?¡± Henry fell back slightly from my outburst and I could fell Ramaze stirring in the background as well.


    Seeing my emotions get the better of me I begone to quickly think of a way to escape, ¡°Ahem, never mind that. Would you look at the time, it''s time for you to sleep I think. Well, see you in the morning.¡±


    ¡°What in the...¡± Before he could finish I retreated into my sub-pocket, the name Maximilian Morolia troubling my mind. Since I had know this boy back at the academy. Training to be a magic swordsmen and at the time he had no second name, no nothing.


    How Max managed to catch the eye of Catherine Von Lorhenestalea, Duchess of Morolia and heir to the Lorhenestalea Dominion, I will never know.


    But their strange love story can be put on hold again for know. Since what''s more important is the fact that supposedly five hundred years have passed since she came here. Which can''t be right, at most there should have arrived in this place about one hundred years ago since they disappeared eighty years before Euphemia got her soul sucked out by that damn cylinder.


    Honestly, the potential time different has got me more worried than how the two got here in the first place. But if I had to guess, then their transport might be down to the experimental teleportation spell Catherine was working on. Since up till now I never knew what happened to those two after the Lorhenestalea Dominion decreed that they were not to each other and soon came to apprehend them when they begone to resisted.


    I can only hope Catherine is still alive since she did manage to undergo her first body re-building before her escape. Max on the other hand, well I''ve been surprised before but with this world''s mana, he should be safe. Hopefully.


    I need to go to where the empire was. I need to find clues to they whereabouts. And hopefully, it''ll lead me to Euphemia in the end.


    I wish you were still here.


    Euphy.


    ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................


    ¡°... world?¡± I''m shocked. Not because teach got angry, but more so because this eccentric man could actually muster up such emotions from just an old fairy tale. That and I somehow remembered an old fairy tale I haven''t heard for at least a decade.


    ¡°Don''t let it bother you, Henry.¡± Ramaze''s voice wakes me up from my stupor. ¡°A man like him has many secrets young one, and sometimes those secrets may leak out at the worst possible moments. You yourself haven''t upset at all. But something inside remembered something, something that he either wanted to forget or was looking to remember all along.¡±


    Ramaze''s voice drifts off with those parting words. I''m thankful that Ramaze is trying to help, but the I know I haven''t upset teacher. What I''m worried about is the strange feeling of remembering the story, Since it felt like I was being fed information on how to proceed when I ended up at a point I no longer remembered.


    Surprisingly this has been the weirdest moment of this trip. Even weirder than the trick teach was trying to teach me. Truly peculiar, though I wouldn''t be surprised if the sensation wasn''t another one of teacher technique''s, helping me to remember by having my brain dig up the relevant information from deep within my memories.


    Huh, I need a vacation.


    Though Ramaze is properly going to up my training tomorrow. Especially since I could feel him glaring at me doing the whole Qi taming. If my hunch is correct, then other than trying to do my second circulation, Ramaze will most likely have me to try and tame my Qi in order to help circulate it around my body easier.


    Huh.


    Where are you mother when I need you? Come save me from these mad men, I don''t think I''ll last more than a week before either I die of fatigue, or to one of teachs increasingly dangerous test. Oh how I was stupid to go drinking that day, I promise I''ll take any punishment, just pick me up as soon as possible.


    Failing that, at least knock some sense into these two maniacs with utmost urgency.


    And say hello, since I miss you, mother.


    It''s going to be a long day tomorrow.

 Chapter 12 - The Bai Clan (Unedited)

    Well, the boy''s determined at least. He may not be the best student I''ve every had the opportunity to teach, mainly due to his consistent whining; which could really do with a fix. But at least he learns well, speaking of which, "How many times have I told you, Henry, keep your legs apart and back straight while on the move, doing anything less than what I''ve shown to you will completely throw off your form whenever you use basic techniques! " I yell to Henry from atop the carriage, who was currently running around the place, attempting to keep a perfect balance and not fall over whenever I call for him to execute a technique.


    The results so far haven''t been very good. But, it''s only been a few hours since the sun has risen, so there''s still some time left in the day for potential improvement.


    Otherwise, ¡°Talon!¡± It''s just a matter of time till he improves. Case in point, looking at him now, it would seem that his body has more or less got the basic movements carved into itself. Now all he needs to do is gradually correct any little mistakes that his body naturally finds since every person''s stance is slightly different to each other; since the body naturally finds any adjustment it needs to make which then make the stance more comfortable and easier to use. ''Thud'' Though it seems he still needs to learn how much power is acceptable to put into his attacks since, as of this moment he''s just going to keep getting dirtier and dirtier.


    With attempt number twenty finished, it''s about time for him to meditate on his training so far. Normal I''d wait a few more hours, but it seems that his body is ready to beginning adjusting the stance to fit Henry''s movement. That and to see if he can figure out how much power he should be putting into each of his attacks. It''s a long shot but I''ve seen crazier things these past few days.


    So, after directing Henry to meditate inside the carriage, I bring up the carriages activation tool and set the speed to the highest. Not long after the carriages speedily departure, I could feel the familiar movement of Henry''s Qi, which I''ve been monitoring every since I took duel ownership of Henry''s training time.


    His situation''s not as bad, or weird, as when I first observed that chaotic Qi that was marauding throughout his body. Thankfully, I got to train him before all his Qi managed to escape his Dantian and enjoy it''s new found freedom inside Henry''s body. I can''t imagine what would have happened. Especially for a person having so much Qi in them before they had even attempted the body circulation phase.


    Which brings me back to thinking about William. What a peculiar person. I have no doubt that William kick started Henry''s path to martial arts, but the way he did so, is absurd. I mean what kind of person forces the Qi into a developing trainees body and not even fully help them to contain and release any excess Qi they gather. I guess it''s a relief that Henry''s Dantain developed as quick as it did, despite the massive age gap that he has; compared to most other kids who begin their training around the age of ten.


    But his growth does concern me, since whatever William used to kick-start Henry''s training is probably still in him, and this has the potential to cause irreparable damage to Henry''s future.


    Huh, I''m beginning to believe more and more about my theory on William possible origins. Since compared to the ancient spirits that most of the notable clans and sects back home have, it seems more plausible that William came from a secluded organisation. An organisation with whom other people had problems with due to the experiments that they were doing. If that''s the case I can only hope Henry doesn''t get drawn into Williams mess.


    While I was lamenting Henry''s potential future loss, I, unfortunately, didn''t detect Williams approach, ¡°Ramaze!¡± he shouted in my ear. I have to be thankful to whoever created this armour. Since it effectively stopped that bastard from seeing me jump in surprise.


    Though it''s my own fault really, think of the mogwai too much and the mogwai will find you. Hopefully, he doesn''t want or need much. Might as well bite the sword and see what he wants. But first, ¡°If you haven''t noticed William, I''m extremely busy operating this carriage,¡± and supervising Henry''s improvement as well. But as if you care about those types of things. ¡°So whatever it is you want can you leave it for later, especially if it means I have to stop the carriage.¡±


    But alas, William''s cheery response spells doom for my peace and quite, ¡°Well good thing this won''t affect your work then. Especially since talking doesn''t stop the carriages device from working once it''s set in place, right?¡±


    Huh, this is going to be a long day isn''t it, ¡°Well what is it you wanted to talk about then?¡± Hopefully, I can get rid of you quickly since I really don''t feel safe being around you.


    Still using his cherry persona, he starts by asking a surprising question, ¡°Can the Rising Lotus Sect be trusted?¡± I''ll admit I''m not sure myself, however, William won''t be able to know this piece of information.If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    So I can only answer him to the best of my abilities, in my normal indifferent tone of voice. ¡°There one of the most, if not the most, trusted sects in the entire land. It''s pupils and elders travel the land far and wide, discovering ancient secrets/techniques and formulas. They bring peace to many mortal nations, still fighting in barbaric ways for bits of land that''ll only give them some comfort to the coming darkness.¡± All the while stealing the profits of Qi stones mined from the subservient nations and crippling any chance they have of raising their own martial artists.


    But there''s nothing I can do. I hate this script speech I''m forced to spew every time the bloody Lotus sect is brought up. Hopefully, William doesn''t believe that bullshit, since it''s defiantly a stretch to call any of them good. Hell, even Jituan conglomerate is more trustworthy than them.


    But raging in my head won''t get me anywhere, especially since my attention is brought back by another of William''s question. Though this time in a slightly less cheerful tone. ¡°What can you tell me about the place that I and Henry will be attending? Anything useful that you know of it?¡±


    Hmm, ¡°Not much. All I can tell you,¡± And can, ¡°Is that it''s on the border of multiple kingdoms. The one we''re currently in is the Verworfen Kingdom; Henry''s home country. The portal we used was directly linked to the one in the Royal forest, some hundred miles out from the capital city. Your placement is another four hundred miles out to said borders. I even heard it being called a place of serene landscape, far away from civilisation.¡± Oh, how you''ll love it there for the first few months.


    ¡°Ha ha ha ha ha.¡± Unexpectedly, this seemed to bring out a laughter from William. ¡°Oh, Ramaze. Serene landscape and far away from civilisation. This sounds like the ideal place for me to stay with Henry, while I solve the whole forced conscription issue.¡± Okay. Note to self, avoid William once we get to our destination, I think he may be a bit insane.


    ¡°Oh, tell me about that girl who forc-offered us our new positions and her crimson uncle.¡± Well, I''m surprised it took you this long to ask me. Then again, should I really be surprised coming from this maniac, I''ve seen a number of weird things theses past days maybe it''s just another one of his elaborate plans?


    ¡°That girl is called Bai Lihua and her uncle is called Bai Gang. Both come from the influential Bai family and many of their members often enter the Rising Lotus Sect with one of their elders holding a senior elder seat. Bai Gang himself only holds a senior inner court elder status, but he''s expected to move up in rank as soon as one becomes available.¡± Willingly or not. ¡°He''s also very protective of his niece. As you''ve noticed she was sent here to subjugate the kingdoms surrounding the portal. Even with the more than sufficient people she had been given, Bai Gong decided that wasn''t enough to explore this new world, and brought along a lot of mercenaries, himself and his personal guard.¡±


    But, before I can move onto Bai Lihua, William interrupts me with another question. ¡°His age?¡±


    Caught unaware, I fumble a bit to try and remember Bai Gang''s age. Thankfully, it only took a few moments before I answered him, ¡°If my memory serves me correct, then Bai Gang should of just past his fortify birthday.¡± But just as I''m about to get back to Bai Lihua, I feel as if I should elaborate on Bai Gang for some reason. ¡°He''s also one of the youngest inner court elders on the continent, especially surprising since most men around his age will still be travelling the world improving themselves.¡± Why did I add that on, I''ve got to finish this conversation quickly since things are becoming weirder and weirder.


    ¡°Anyway, back to Bai Lihua.¡± Wait a few seconds to see if he interrupts, no, good. ¡°Bai Lihua is the eldest daughter of the current head''s son and just becoming sixteen a few months back. What''s special about her is not only her prodigal skills and influential allies in her clan and sect. But it''s her relation to both of them. For you see when she was a child she had come under a deadly illness, no one knows what it was, except for her father and her eventual teacher. The Rising Lotus''s Medical Saint Mengyao.¡±


    ¡°Age?¡± Another interruption just for his age?


    Getting my tongue tied up, I try to answer him to the best of my knowledge. ¡°Well, nobody really knows how old he is. Some say one hundred, others two. All we really know is that he appeared sixteen years ago to save Bai Lihua and then took a position within Rising Lotus to train her.¡± He''s not the most secretive or weirdest character to be living there, believe me.


    ¡°Getting back on track. Bai Lihua is special because not only is she valued by both parties, but because she actively works against her own family when it comes to matters of the sect. For example fours years ago she tried to block one of her distant relatives from claiming the sect treasurer position, stating that ''Too many Bai''s, will lead to the sect''s downfall.'' Obviously, this caused a storm at her home and at the sect.¡±


    However, before I begin the next part I take a moment to think of how to phrase my next sentence since this does contain the most relevant to date information. So I have to be careful with what I say. In a calm voice I tell William, ¡°And yet, she still managed to strive her way through all of the negative information about her, and still bring fortune to her house, by locating an expansive Qi stone mine to help them. She seems to care both for her sect and family home, wishing to have them both as equals so that they can both flourish and help each other in times of need.¡±


    ¡°Every year she gains more and more trust from each place, resulting in her gaining more power and influence. It''s expected that by her twentieth birthday, she''ll already be a first inner court elder and wield enough influence to control the entirety of the Bai clan.¡± That should suffice his desire for information.


    After a few minutes have passed and I have yet to heard a word from William, I began to think that was all. However, William quickly dispelled that thought when he left a rather ominous farewell. ¡°Ramaze, you''ve given me plenty to think on. Hopefully, the information you''ve given me can help me, settle my debts with the young miss sooner rather than later.¡± With his word in my mind, all I can really hope for is that he leaves Henry out of whatever plans he has. Since that boy really does deserve better.

 Chapter 13 - Fun little gift (Unedited)

    So this is it then? The destination of my first hurdle, it''s quite lacklustre in all honesty. I was imagining some sort of intimidating fortress poking out of the canopy''s, but no, it''s just a forest. Did you know our destination was just a plain forest Ramaze? Probably not, considering you seem to be stuck inside that armour of yours. It makes me think that your just one of your leader''s many dispensable pawns.


    Speaking of which, how many people have they sent to welcome us? Ten? Twenty? It matters not. Especially since their using such pathetic concealment techniques. Seriously, even Henry could discover those brain dead idiots if I forced him to concentrate hard enough. Could be a good test while Ramaze drives us to them.


    But nevertheless, I let him take us to them. Since I do want to know what their intentions are. Are they peaceful or do their words ooze with nefarious ambitions? Who knows? But it''ll be great to see what the game that the Bai and Rising Lotus sect create. Maybe it''ll even be great enough that I won''t be able to fully control it. That would be entertaining.


    Though I do wonder what Ramaze''s thoughts are on the whole situation. How loyal is he? Can I truly control him or is his own ambitions out of my reach for now. Hmm, perhaps I''m being too paranoid about the whole situation. But then again, I''ll be damned if I''m the one whose going to be lead around again, especially since this is the closest I''ve gotten to Euphemia in the past decade.


    I will not let anyone ruin this for me. Perhaps this is where you come into play Henry? I do wonder where you''ll fit into this whole game. Will you be of immense assistance? Or will you only slow me down? Time will tell, but that time is beginning to run out.


    Henry.


    ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................


    ¡°Ahh! What the hell was that? Why do I feel like some sort of cosmic entities got it out for me all of a sudden.¡± I voiced this concern to no one in particular, but when I frightened out of a deep sleep and start sweating like it''s a party in the Denlo Deserts, then I don''t really mind if people think I''ve gone crazy.


    Even then I doubt I''m as crazy as teach, well I say that but I haven''t actually seen any massive crazy moments from him. Though I can''t help shake the feeling that there''s something off about the guy. Maybe I''m being too cynical, but mother didn''t teach me to be a loving saint like Saint Alona.


    But, while I''m debating against myself, my vision is suddenly attack and blinded by a sudden streak of light that came hurtling though the moving carriage. Thankfully it only lasted a few moments, but after I regained my vision after a vigorous blinking session, I decided it was a good idea to see what was the cause of said light; since it''s probably daytime and last I checked we were still in an open, endless plain of boredom. And wasn''t I pleasantly surprised? ¡°This is new. When did we enter a forest? I don''t even recall there being a forest on the horizon when I went to meditate last night.¡±


    Though questioning the logical side of things in this new world I''ve gotten myself into may not benefit my mental health in the long run. Especial with teach around. So quickly moving onto a new activity; which will save my physical health in the short run, I begin to do my morning meditations and hope Ramaze didn''t notice me getting distracted.


    Sitting cross-legged between the carriage''s seats, I delve inside my body and begin the process of circulating the QI around my body.


    As usual, I begin by moving the Qi in line with my blood, at first, I don''t meld the two instead I wait for the two to move in sync, once in sync I begin the first rotation of the body. Moving blood and Qi throughout my entire bloodstream. Once that''s done and I begin the harder second rotation, which involves me syphoning the Qi out of my blood as it circulates my body and then it''ll infuse the Qi into my organs. In terms or learning and doing it''s not the hardest challenge. What is difficult is the fact that I run out of Qi about halfway through the trip.


    It''s a tough life. It''s especially testing when the only advice you''re given from the so called martial artists is ''to expand your mind and body beyond your limitations'', which is about as useful to me, as a how to book showing you what the finished product will look like and then be told that you have to ''expand your mind and figure out where the lines begin''. I really wish he''d just give me detailed instructions.


    Though compared to teach he at least gives me some form of direction. All teach does is perform some sort of mumbo jumbo magic every other day; sometimes without even telling me. But, even with the actual lack of teaching, compared to Ramaze''s training I can actually feel improvement from teach''s help. Even if said improvements are small in power and implemented randomly throughout the day.


    However, my inner debate is stopped by the ever ghostly voice and reminds me that once again I had drifted away from my meditation. ¡°Henry! Come out of the carriage, it''s time for your special training today.¡± That can only mean he''s got something truly terrible concocted in his mind to train me with. I shudder to think what it is.


    Even with the impending doom, I can''t afford to meander about going to my fate; in case the training is made even more ''special''. So swinging the carriage door open and anticipating the carriage stopping, I;m surprised to instead find myself being dragged into the air and levitated towards the spot next to Ramaze.


    Just as I''m dropped onto the seat, I begin to open my mouth to ask a question but Ramaze cuts me off before the words are even formed. ¡°Now Henry, unlike the training we''ve usually had, we''re instead going to be training your etiquette.¡± I wanted to ask why and for whom, but Ramaze quickly resumes his conversation. ¡°Now were going to be arriving at our destination in a few hours time, so eve if I say training etiquette, think of it more as a crash course of the do''s and don''t of meeting important clan and sect officials. Since compared to your local nobility, some of these guys can get much more easily offended.¡±The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    But just as soon as Ramaze had gone through his little speech, teach butted in with a borderline mocking tone of speech. ¡°Yes, time to teach Henry how to be a good little captive and how much he should bend over when it''s time to bow down before them.¡±


    While I mull over teachs words, Ramaze bites back, ¡°What do you think your doing! Saying such things will only give Henry the worst impression possible.¡± Well, I never really had the best impression of them in all fairness.


    Teach on the other hand doesn''t give up annoying Ramaze it seems, as his tone changes to one of smugness, ¡°I''m only saying such things in order to give Henry all the information available to him.¡± After teach spoke those words I briefly noticed Ramaze''s eye''s blaze out of his helmets eye-holes for a second.


    However, it only lasts for a second as he seemingly calms himself down, only speaking to teach after a good minute. ¡°But your wording makes it seem like he''s been literally enslaved. When in actual fact, you''ve been granted an enormous gesture of friendship from both the Rising Lotus Sect and the Bai Clan, not many people are able to get this sort of opportunity, and giving Henry even a little bit of practice in our etiquette shows that this gesture was not wasted.¡± Well, that does sound better, though I''m still not fully forgiving of them either, that kind of trauma is unforgivable!


    Meanwhile, teach continues his annoyance of Ramaze. ¡°A gesture of friendship you say. Oh, how lovely of them, I bet they also understand that by giving us this ''gesture'' we''re then obligated to help them as much as they want or need off us. Presuming we love them so much now. I presume of course.¡± Something tells me that teach isn''t at all happy about these arrangements.


    Ramaze isn''t happy about the accusation that teach is making, and nearly deafens me with his rebuttal. ¡°Do not presume then! The Bai Clan and Rising Lotus Sect do not make light of such gestures, only people they value highly ever get such treatment. Even important officials of other sects and countries ever see what such gestures mean.¡± If that''s the case then it might be similar to how mother is treated by all the neighbouring countries.


    This seems to lighten teachs mood a little, though I''m not sure if that''s a good thing.¡°Ah there it is, they think of us very highly it seems. You better not slack from your training young Henry. Maybe I should prepare my own gesture of appreciation. Mmmm, a little gift of my own would more than please them I think.¡± Well, at least he''s not totally against it. ¡°Yes a little gift, hahahahaha, this will be fun.¡± Or maybe he''ll just turn crazy.


    Ramaze doesn''t seem to like this either as he continues with his deafening speech ¡°William!¡± The yell was enough to blow me back as I edge ever closer to the carriages side. Though I''m surprised at my forgetfulness when I hear teachs name, since thinking back I''m sure I''ve heard that name somewhere. Well, at least I can stop calling him teach, and put a name to the disembodied voice in the air or mind/body.


    But while I was remembering teaches name, William replied back to Ramaze''s shout in his usual cheerful tone. ¡°Remember to only teach him the basics Ramaze, I''d rather not have to teach the boy out of servitude again.¡± Though I do wish he didn''t say something like that, however.


    Ramaze on the other hand, ¡°The arrogance in him! Who does he think he is!¡± Better to let the armoured martial artists stew for a little while, lest he turns his gaze unto me. ¡°Henry!¡± Me and my imaginary mouth. ¡°You better listen carefully boy, since I want no mistakes from you today. And don''t think I didn''t notice you slacking off when you first woke up.¡±


    William save me!


    Four hours later and I''m thoroughly exhausted. Who new learning manners could be such exhausting, or that a teacher could think of such exhausting manners to stimulate a student''s learning capabilities; I still can''t feel my feet.


    Thankfully, however, William turned up a few minutes ago and informed us of our impending arrival. When questioned by Ramaze on how he knew, he only replied with, ¡°I went for a walk along the road.¡± Which fair enough, but what he said next scared me and seemed to put Ramaze on guard. ¡°Just a warning for you two, my gift is ready, so don''t be surprised when I do something stranger.¡± Ramaze just scoffed at this, seemingly giving up on William


    I myself was still worried, but I was equally curious to what it was he had prepared as a gift, hopefully, he isn''t planning to give one of those green things to them. I think that would rather sour relations a bit.


    However, the wait to get to our destination is very quite, since it would seem Ramaze it a tad bit still upset with William. But the awkward silence doesn''t last too long. Since soon enough we turn the corner of the ''road'' we''ve been using, and with the midday sun beating down on us we spot out destination. A rather modest mansion of some description; though there''s a lot more wood in this one compared to some of the elaborate ones back home.


    Due to the corner road leading directly onto the mansions pathway, and said pathway being only a dozen or so meters away from the mansion entrance. A lot of things are clearly visible.


    One of those being the very beautiful girl sitting on the mansion''s front door steps. I''d hold my breath due to the girl, but there a different reason I''ll hold my breath.


    It''s her, the girl who almost killed me back in the endless forest.


    Thankfully, William appears at this pint to take my mind away from her. As the carriage stops a few meters in front of her, I''m forcibly pushed to the carriages edge as a space form''s between me and Ramaze. Soon enough a figure materialises in the now occupied space.


    And, he''s rather young, compared to what I had imaged this spectre would look like. Then again could just be a fact from. Nevertheless, the form he''s picked is rather impressive, he quite tall that much I can guess since he dwarfs me even when I''m sitting down.


    Otherwise, his short hair and beard sit on a rather plain face, though even that is weird since I can''t quite seem to concentrate on any one spot. At least his clothes can be seen with ease, though it does look like he''s some kind of adventurer: thick brown boots, accompanied by brown leather trousers, long-sleeved brown top and brown leather gloves. The only thing that isn''t brown is the steel greaves and vambraces he has on him.


    William not caring much for the inspection we were giving him, was looking at that girl with the kind of mischievous smile I imaged him to have, and in the same tone, he constantly used with me and Ramaze he addresses her. ¡°It''s lovely to see you again Miss Lihua. Especially so soon after our last encounter together.¡±

 Chapter 14 - Painting a blue lotus red (Unedited)

    Lihua seemingly undeterred by my greetings greets me back in the same gentle voice she used when we first met. ¡°Yes, it is good to see you again Elder William, though I do hope in better circumstances this time. Which is why I felt the need to meet you here and apologise for the action I took against you and you descendant . It was impulsive of me to do so, to say the least.¡± How boring, coming out all this way to apologise. If it weren''t for the twenty odd people currently hiding I might actually believe her. Though it''s probably a ploy by that Uncle of her''s, since he didn''t seem that impressed by the whole oath thing. Well, whatever.


    Though unknowing of my thoughts and seemingly ignoring Henry violent shaking she presses on. ¡°However, it is good to see the both of you safe and sound, especially Henry over there. It would seem that having one of my uncle''s subordinates escort you on your journey was the right call.¡± Sure it was. Though do wonder how much your Uncle trust you in regards to picking the perfect warden.


    Before she speaks again I stop her by raising my hand, and in a much more assertive tone I ask here, ¡°Miss Lihua what is the real reason for your visit. Checking up on the comfort and well-doing of people you''ve meet once doesn''t seem like the thing someone of your stature would normal do.¡± Since I don''t have time for games right now, it''s better to not beat around the bush.


    However, my direct questioning seemed to have left Lihua rather flustered, even causing her to have trouble starting here sentences. But before Lihua could regain her composure I instead continued my offensive. ¡°If that''s not direct enough then let me phrase it like this, why are you checking up on someone that you not only attempted to kill but also forcibly conscripted them.¡±


    ¡°William!¡± Ramaze shouted at me, but I don''t care about what he thinks right now. Besides, Henry seems to be getting more and more agitated while in the presence of little miss precious over there.


    But before I can think about the two people besides me, Miss Lihua really needs to snap out of her daze. ¡°Fine then, let me be blunter. Why are you really here, Bai Lihua?¡±


    ¡°I-I¡± But before Lihua could speak, she was interrupted by an old man wearing a blue robe, who after stepping out from behind her, proceeded to then walk straight in front of Lihua and begun to speak in one of the most arrogant voices I''ve ever heard.


    ¡°So this is how ancient spirits act upon their resurrection? Seeing your verbal bullying of the young mistress I can only feel anger and contempt for someone like you. Now before my anger takes hold and breaks any of my restraints, forcing me to do something that I may regret, then I suggest you get on kowtow before our mistress and beg for her forgiveness.¡±


    ¡°Elder Chu, please your only making things worse.¡± And she''s right of course. Not since my first examination with my professor, has a speak annoyed me so much. Well, at least this time I can vent out my vexation on the speaker at least.


    ¡°Young miss, I do hope you will understand the importance of this in the future. But as of now I can not let this man off so easily, or other people will start to think that the Rising Lotus''s name is so easily dragged through the mud.¡± Pompous people.


    However, she wouldn''t him off, and started using a more dignified tone to speak with the elder. ¡°Elder Chu, I am commanding you to stop this at once. This entire conversation has become one big misunderstanding.¡± Taking her eyes of the so-called Elder Chu, she turned her gaze towards me. ¡°Yes Elder William, I am aware that the person sitting on your left is someone I tried to kill, and I will admit from the time I''ve spent here every person I''ve met has been nothing but evil, so my actions were easily influenced by my own bias and someone''s silver tongue. But I''m ready to face my wrongdoings and fix what I have broken¡± Well that was unexpected.


    ¡°Young miss!¡± However, any surprise about a potential and genuine good little miss is quickly destroyed by that annoying Elder Chu.


    But the little miss completely ignores the Elder and continues on. ¡°And one of these fixes was to make you a guest Elder. This way, my overprotecting Uncle wouldn''t be able to do something so stupid as try to and get revenge for you simply protecting yourself. Where once again I was in the wrong as I was more worried about destroying a potential threat and protecting my own life, I never stopped to think about whether or not the thing in question was truly evil or not.¡± Good grief, can we please bring back the arrogant and pompous Elder Chu please, any more of this righteousness and I''m going to puke.


    My inner turmoil aside, Henry was noticeably a lot calmer and was even sticking to every single word of hers. ¡°So that is my reason for being here Elder William. I''m here to try and fix the mistake''s I''ve caused and defuse any bad feelings that may have occurred between our groups.¡± This evidently caused mix reactions in the groups, with the two most extreme being Henry almost jumping out of his seat to exclaim that he never really blamed her, to begin with, and Elder Chu who looked like he was having a hard time not shouting abuse at us.


    Seemingly swallowing his anger, he turns and tells his young master some new news. ¡°Young miss, while your devotion and feelings are an example to us all, your reason for being here is solely for yourself.¡± This time, it''s Bai Lihua''s turn to be surprised. ¡°On the order''s of the Grand Elder Zhou, one William Nixon, formally named Guest Elder of the Lost Forest by Elder Gang. Is hereby ordered to give up their unique martial arts for the continuing glory of the Sect.¡± His proclamation about surrendering my so-called ''martial arts'' is faster than I anticipated, but it does give me an opportunity.


    Jumping down from the carriage I begin to walk closer and closer towards the main Sect due. All the time having everybody''s attention on me: Henry wondering what I''ll do, Ramaze prepared to stop me creating any serious trouble, Lihua was worrying over my action, while Chu and his cronies readying themselves for a fight they''ve prepared for in advance. Stopping meter away from the bottom step where ElderChu had taken up residence, I slowly pronounce my intention to them. ¡°And what if I decide refuse the Grand Elder''s orders, Elder Chu?¡±


    The smile on Elder Chu''s face couldn''t get any bigger, but he seemed able to restrain himself somewhat, though his arrogance was seeping out of him at this point. ¡°Elder William, there''s no need to refuse, although the message I''ve given is a decree sent by the Grand Elder, it isn''t all I''ve been sent with. The Grand Elder understand the compliance of your martial techniques so of course you will be given a suitable title and position within the main sect to teach your technique to the next generation. Not only securing a safe place for you to regain your body and your descendant over they to fully immerse themselves in an environment better suited to bring out their full potential, much better than training in this dump of course.¡± Such generosity, if only I believed that for a second that I wouldn''t be stabbed in the back the second I stepped through your sect''s gates.If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    Though going by Chu''s actions of having his minions move closer. Even if I accepted, I''d properly not even reach the portal onto their continent. But even if that was the case, ¡°I will still have to refuse Elder Chu. This technique of mine can only be passed down by members of my family, so teaching it to outsiders would not only be sacrileges to my dead ancestors, but also an impossibility for my conscious to undertake.¡±


    Without dropping his arrogant smile, he attempts to act sombre when he answered my declaration. ¡°Then that is truly regrettable, William.¡± He said as he raised his hand. ¡°But it seems that I will have to go with the Grand Elder''s original plan and simply drain the information from your mind.¡± As his arm reach the zenith of its height towards the sky and his actual intent was known the surrounding atmosphere darkened and using the warm summer day I dropped the temperature to allow me to use my spells more freely.


    Meanwhile, my companions were shocked at how quick the situation had devolved, I could sense that Ramaze was ready to jump into the fray and try to calm us down, while Henry was rooted to the bench in surprise. Similar, Lihua was rooted to her spot at the mansion entrance in surprise as well, though in her case her face showed an equal amount of fear as well.


    After a few seconds of complete silence, not only had I managed to drop the temperature around me to a level that allowed for me to manual form clouds in the sky, but Chu''s henchmen had also reached the outskirts of the mansion pathway.


    Whoosh, the hand fell and twenty-three men jump at me from either side. From a glance, I couldn''t tell single one of them apart. But why should I? A single glance was all I needed anyway. Since as soon as I finished looking at the most extreme right, my formations fell and a symphony of lightning and screams erupted throughout the courtyard.


    All but four of them survived, but not untouched as their clothes were singed and blackened as there had been hit by the following bolt. But they wouldn''t survive the next one, especially if they were to regroup with the Elder Chu.


    However, that little power taste seemed to have fried the nerves of one of the shorter men in; an even blacker robe, who''s face and eyes seem to be even more in shock compared to his surviving companions. ¡°Im-impossible, how were they killed so easily. That man mustn''t be human.¡± The accusation of being non-human hurt a little, but Chu''s once prideful face slowly turning in one of extreme anger was completely worth it.


    ¡°You idiots! What did I tell you! When you attack with the tenth circulation garbage, make sure to do so in a formation attack! Now look at the mess you''ve left me with, you''d think four ascending stage men can''t take care of a single damaged spirit.¡± Even while angered to such a degree, he still manages to show off his arrogance as he steps forward to come in front of his surviving men. ¡°If you four are that useless then I guess this Heaven stage Elder will need to step in and fix your problems. Now assume the formation!¡± Idiots.


    While you pranced around, did you think I''d stay nice and still while you stated up your next attack plan? It''s pathetic. Now you morons will be the first to taste one of my level two spells. Hopefully, you can be kind enough to allow me to test how much pressure it''ll take to break you.


    Just as the five begun to move they suddenly came under an unknown pressure that rooted them to the ground. The four lackeys at this point were beyond fearful, the pressure had forced three of them to the ground while one of them only barely managed to stay upright. Elder Chu, although slowed down still managed to move forward, though each step left a deep imprint in the pathway.


    Grinding his teeth, Chu began to spit out more words of abuse. ¡°Treachery. You''re using treachery William. Even when the young miss was kind enough to take a mongrel like you in, it seems you''ve ended up resorting to treachery. Who is it? The Zheng Empire? The Wallowing Pit? Or are you craven enough to accept help from the Dark Guild? Huh, answer me!¡± What a pathetic old man. While he shouted out his accusation I began to activate the formation.


    Under each man, a black pit opened up. This was my second speciality, Vortex magic. As I relieved the spell that bound them. The many many,level one lightning bolt spells begun to activate within each one. Over the course of the next ten minutes, Elder Chu and his men would be subjected to the hundreds of spells that were stored within the vortexes.


    I don''t know when the four men stopped screaming, but I only noticed when the young miss seemed to almost faint at the sight of the barbequed men. Elder Chu, on the other hand, seemed to be fairing much better, so not wanting to waste mana, I moved the now useless vortexes to be positioned all around Elder Chu and let him experience my not so subtle wrath.


    Half an hour later and the old goat was still breathing. Though considerably more barbequed than he started, but he won''t be able to take much more, swallow breathing, unfocused gaze and bleeding profusely from all over his body from projectiles I had thought into the mix. He was a sorry sight for sure.


    Best to put him out of his misery. But as I begun to advance, the ever annoying Bai Lihua, stepped in front of the unstable man and even paler than here already considerable pale skin, she seemed to want to defy me. ¡°S-Sir William, even though Elder Chu has done you a grave misdeed I can only beg for you to forgive him.¡± The shaking in her voice wasn''t helping her case, but before I could rebut her, she pressed on. ¡°Although, Elder Chu may be overly arrogant, but his father is one of the leading members of the Rising Lotus Sect and if he were to die today, not even I could stop him from mobilising half the sect to hunt you down.¡± Is she still trying to help me?


    ¡°Why Miss Lihua. Isn''t it better to kill a man like him, wouldn''t it be better for your sect overall if I did you this favour and rid you of someone like him?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± ¡°I need him and his father alive. I still need their arrogance so that when I make my move I can clean the Rising Lotus Sect completely and bring it back to its former glory. So I beg you, please leave him alive.¡± Why is she so adamant on this?


    ¡°Take the opportunity William.¡± While I ponder the strange urgency Lihua had in her request I never noticed Ramaze come up to me. ¡°You and Henry were never meant for a place like this it better if you two flee while you still can.¡±


    But Ramaze''s words are made redundant when Lihua speaks after him.¡°I don''t know who you are, but since you were with Sir William when Elder Chu attack it would safer for you to leave with them.¡± Even with the armour on I can almost feel his expression fall. ¡°So that you can get away quicker I''ll make sure to erase the tracking beacon on the carriage, and for you, I simply make your life a bit easier by removing the mark that my Uncle left on you.¡±


    ¡°Young Miss.¡± Almost emotionless he calls out towards Lihua. Turning around I look toward Henry who although isn''t shocked anymore but is rather casting pity toward Bai Lihua.


    I would argue more, but it would seem that I''ve managed to exhaust the limited amount of mana I''ve managed to collect and the form I''ve chosen is beginning to flicker.


    It''s truly pathetic. Both mine and the Rising Lotus''s situation.

 Chapter 15 - Complicated feelings (Unedited)

    Almost there, just a bit further, I can almost...


    ...Nope. Dried up again. The light cascading through the carriages curtains informs me that the sun had finally risen to its zenith. Great, I haven''t official slept for these past two days.


    This whole training thing can be quite tedious sometimes, but who am I to complain. William and Ramaze are doing the majority of that for themselves these past two days. ¡°Henry! Don''t start spacing out once you''ve finished circulating your Qi, remember you need to start replenishing your Qi without my help from now on.¡± Hearing Ramaze''s magically enhanced shout, projected inside the carriage, I begin to recall how Ramaze has been in a rather bad mood these past two days, though it hasn''t decreased either the amount or quality of training he''s given me. In some cases, it''s actually even worse.


    ¡°Huh¡± Signing sharply to my daily torments, I can''t help but turn my attention to the other complainer, William, who''s current brooding is; in comparison to Ramaze''s, at least building up a sizable meat supply. Though even with the increasing supply of meat, I am beginning to worry about the complete and utter lack of any other types of food. Hopefully, we''ll hit some sort of town soon, preferable one from the Flain Theocracy since we''ve been heading east these past two days.


    Which reminds me. I wonder how the old man''s doing, it''s been a while since I last heard if anyone was trying to oust him from power. Hope''s he''s doing well, hell, he might even know where my mother and her band of mercenaries are...


    ... ¡°Henry!¡± Once again, Ramaze''s deafening voice echoes throughout the carriage, causing an unnecessary headache to almost form as well. Seriously, what''s wrong with him. Even if being distracted isn''t the best thing to do while training. He should of at least realised by now that I''m not even needed to gather my own Qi. William took care of that in our very first meeting; I still shudder at the though at what he did to me. Well no use in pissing him of any further, I might as well use the opportunity to try and increase my ability to sense the Qi around, hell. I might even be able to do some simple manipulation of the Qi that around me. Wouldn''t that be wonderful?


    .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................


    I swear that kid''s going to be the death of me. Maybe I should have him hunt his own dinner after he''s finished his second circulation, though that would have to involve William not killing of all creatures we encounter in the plains.


    William, who''s now what''s he''s doing. Currently, he''s off gallivanting into the wilderness, either electrocuting varmints to death or dragging them into his void things, alive. It wouldn''t be so bad if he actually said what he was doing half the time. It''s especially daunting when all he''s said is go east. Why? Who knows? Maybe it''s another one of his eccentric antics? Oh how fun.


    Still, even with the utter lack of communication on his part, he could at least do something about all the noise he makes. Would that be too considerate of him? Probably. I should start doing it myself more permanently, otherwise, it could affect Henry''s training.


    Hell, numerous times I''ve wanted to shout at him and tell him they''re better ways of dealing with your broodiness. But, then I remembered the situation I''m in, and I start to hope that some sort of spirit demon had somehow managed to cross into this realm. At least then William would finally find the perfect test subject.


    ¡°Err!¡± Remembering the situation I''m in, I can''t help but groan in dissatisfaction. But I was so close, so fucking close. ''Bang'' in my frustration I don''t even notice that I''ve started to beat the carriages seat. But that doesn''t matter right now. Because it''s all thanks to that lunatic''s antics. Because now I''m branded as an enemy of the Grand Elder, at least Bai Lihua is somewhat on my side, if only because of William turning Rising Lotus Sect on its head. What a perfect life I''m living.


    ¡°Huh.¡± Calm down, calm down. Breath in, breath out. Don''t let William get to you. Focus on Henry''s training, for now, make him strong enough to survive on his own and then we''ll go from there. If I''m lucky he''ll even be strong enough to help me.


    Yes, that''s the plan. That is unless William somehow manages to fuck this plan up as well.


    ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................


    There, their badger, it''s okay, you''re going to go on and do great things. Calming and capturing the badger was way to easy, plus it''s the only big mammal I''ve actually managed to capture, thank Sol that I actually bothered to learn this sleep spell during my academic years; it makes the capturing process much more peaceful.


    Internal monologuing aside, I and my new assistant appear within my sub-space within mere moments of its eternal slumber. Though for once I didn''t get a chance to see if George had done any redecorating while I was gone, since for once he was already waiting for me in the ''lounge''. Something good must of happened. But first things first, ¡°Good news George, you''re pining for a larger test subject has been approved. I do hope you like the present I got you.¡±


    At first George didn''t answer me, instead, he waltzed over to the badger and begun to inspect it. After what seemed like an eternity of him checking every inch of the badger, he eventually seemed to remember that I''m here and answered in his dronish voice. ¡°Well, I would have preferred something more bipedal, but this should suffice for now.¡±


    Straight to the point as always I suppose. While George begins teleporting the badger to the lab I settle down on the ''lounges'' Burgundian sofa; which I''ll admit is more comfortable to what I had set out previously. However, just as I sat down I heard the familiar ''fwoosh'' sound and knew it was time to get back to business ¡°Tell me George other than wanting actually bipedal subjects, how''s the current project going. I do hope well since after only two days I''ve managed to almost completely eradicate any small grassland critters I''ve managed to come across. Any more and I''m going to be going further afield. Plus I doubt, being in a bit of a mood will suffice as a good excuse to the talking tin can for much longer.¡±This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    Seemingly ignoring my little conundrum concerning the little critters, he begins his report as he walks to where I''m seated. ¡°Well, I''ve got good news for you then Master. From the surviving specimens I have: four rabbits, twelve foxes and a squirrel. I''ve managed to completely re-write their genetic genome to be more inclined with or world''s standards.¡±


    That was quick, though time does flow slightly different here; especially in some parts of the sub-space. But even with the impressive speed, I need to know the downsides or potential problems. ¡°What happened to the ones that didn''t survive. And has there been any visible downside''s yet.¡±


    ¡°Well, concerning the dead test subjects, the first lot either popped when I injected too much mana into them, the Dantian couldn''t take the excess mana as it being stretched and dematerialized to form the mana pool in the creatures body.¡± Not too extreme then, most things non-magelike pop when you fill them with too much mana that they can''t dissipate from normal means. ¡°Other dead test subjects died via not enough mana being injected into them, though in this case the Dantian managed to absorb the overflowing mana, however, as the Dantian was being stretched out at this point, as soon as the mana entered the Dantian underwent structural collapse, thus the mana instead begun to rest in the subjects bones and organs once they were free due to the existing mana in them. The end result was the compleat and utter disintegration of the animals body.¡± A tad concerning, I''ll have to make sure George studies a bit more about this before I get my body back.


    But there''s one flaw I can''t help but think George is overlooking, however, ¡°Tell me, George, how did you manage to circumnavigate the fact that this world doesn''t have anything resembling a mana shard in any of the animals or people I''ve met?¡±


    ¡°I didn''t. Don''t give me that look, master, even though I haven''t managed to replicate something like the mana shard in the creatures body, they are still are to hold mana in themselves and survive. It''s amazing really.¡±


    Seeing George''s amazing face is a sight to behold since barely makes him happy. Might as well pry the secrets out of him, otherwise, he might rush back of to his lab before explaining things to me. ¡°And?¡±


    Even though it was only a small question the little gnome seemed both surprised and embarrassed at the same time.¡°Oh Right, ''ahem'' as I was saying, there are able to hold the mana that s needed to revivalist them, due to their meridians. It''s so much more sophisticated than our world''s mana pool network. Oh, the possibilities.¡± Here we go. ¡°For example, if say a normal man were to become disable, in our that would be it for the man, unless he was near a healing mage would could repair his body, and that all because the mana pool no longer has access to the man disabled part and thus it cannot use the man''s inborn mana to repair him. However, Meridians are completely different, since they act like blood vessel and can still deliver the mana to different parts of the body; as long as there aren''t damaged as well. Allowing the man to use his own mana supply to repair himself. It''s revolutionary.¡±


    I better calm him down before he gets too excited about potential future prospects. ¡°George, you do know that a non-magicians inborn mana supply also indicates how long they have left to live, rich people would rather pay for a healer than risk shortening their lives for an easier recovery time.¡± Georges'' face stiffens at this point, but I gave to erase any ideas George has, or it could be detrimental to my long-term goals. ¡°Now I''m not saying it''s revolutionary, since it is, people in military or labour professions will love the chance not to permanently lose limbs. But if a man''s leg is crushed, or a soldier loses an arm in a war, then I highly doubt that they would be able to utilise the new Meridians that they have.¡±


    ¡°B-but.¡±


    His attempts to reason with fall on deft ears since I need him focusing on this world and not our old world. ¡°Don''t fret George. Your tests have not only been eye opening but they''ve also given me quite a lot of ideas as well. But first, I want you to try and figure out a way to remove the meridians and implant a mana shard inside their body. After you''ve managed to successful modify and bred the animals of this world, I''ll begin thinking about human experimentation or human-like experimentation.¡±


    He looks dejected, but it should be fine, he can worry about all the profits he can make later, but in the meantime, there''s much more important such to research first. ¡°As you will Master this one shall obey.¡±


    However, just as I was beginning to settle down and wondering what wine I should have, George moves closer towards the sofa and suddenly asked me a question, ¡°Master, since my experiments will need time to grow themselves, why don''t you allow me to go outside and find all the test subjects in your stead.¡± For a while I was stumped I never though George would bring this line of thought up, but while I was organising my thoughts George continued onwards. ¡°While you are trapped inside young Henry, wouldn''t it make much more sense for me to travel the world and collect things instead, that way you can regain your mana that much quicker.¡±


    After his speech, Georges manoeuvres behind me. I wouldn''t have noticed if his footsteps weren''t so loud. But even there eventually died out and for what seemed like forever, I eventually answered the ageing Gnome. ¡°Your correct George that would be easier. But I''m going to have to reject your suggestion.¡± I can feel his body freeze at my rejects. But I have to reject since, ¡°Your the only person I have left George and until I regain my body I won''t permit you to leave.¡±


    ¡°But Master.¡± He tries to object, but I raise my hand to stop him before he can carry on.


    Honestly, compared to most servants he''s much more forceful and full of himself. His greed now''s no bound and the number of times we''ve gotten each other in trouble is outstanding. However, ¡°I want no more objections from you George. Unlike the previous world, we don''t know if Gnomes exist here if they don''t then you may get capture I won''t be able to help you since the soul anchor attaching me and Henry barely lets me travel a mile before it feels like I''ve hit some sort of invisible wall. So wait a little longer, George. Wait until I''ve cast off the shackles that bind me to Henry.¡± Turning towards the little Gnome, who seems so much smaller compared to the years when we first partnered together. I can''t help but comfort him. ¡°Then and only then will I let you out. Since even if you want top help me out now, isn''t your end goal the same as mine, to your master, Euphemia.¡±


    Even as the words died out and the lounge descended into silence, neither of us spoke for a long time. Both of us immersed in memory long gone. But now instead of being hunted down we were so close to finishing. This time I''ll succeed no matter the cost.

 Chapter 16 - An aggressive investigation (Unedited)

    ¡°What a repulsive city,¡± I mumble these words only to myself, but being atop the castle''s battlements does give me the perfect view to see each new fire that pop''s up in the noble''s district, each one indication of another nobleman''s foolish folly to impede my men''s search. ¡°It would be much easier if they did the same trick they do when other countries invade and simply lay down dead. At least then I wouldn''t have to continue this farce.¡±


    Thankfully, though, the sound of my scribe Richard huffing and puffing as he ran towards took me was enough to momentarily take my attention of the increasingly burning city. ¡°Ma''am.¡± Eventually climbing the battlements stairs he managed a salute and squeezed out a greeting before he went back to breathing.


    From a glance, it would seem the exercise''s with Roding will need to be increased especially if he''s this tired already, though the fact he''s still wearing his chainmail armour means there was at least some improvement from the youth who joined a year ago, who couldn''t even stand upright in chainmail.


    I think he''s grown and inch or two as well, though he''s still half a head shorter than me. Even while taking in air, those green eyes of still show a type of intelligence that made me take him as my scribe.


    But I digress young Richard seems to have taken care of his lack of air and with a slightly less red face, begins his report anew. ¡°Commander, with the help of the flying squadron, we were able to break through the castles blockade and enter the library, once in I found and deciphered the documents that you requested and have forwarded them to your tent fro your own reading.¡±


    Efficient as always, I may not make a warrior out of him but at least my workload is reduced. Putting on the same stern military voice I use during all of our operations, I begin to question Richard on the current state of affairs my company was currently in. ¡°Has the royal family been rounded up yet? And have all the Generals been seized yet?¡±


    ¡°Almost Commander, we''re just flushing out some of the minor royalty from their hiding holes, Princess Augusta has been an instrumental help during our search.¡± Of course, she has. ¡°Other than General Hauges; who is currently campaigning in the Ersnt Duchy, we''ve caught everyone else. Some attempted to flee the city once they learned that our company had arrived, but both Sir Jeremy and Sir Harold caught them as they fled through the east and west gates.¡± No doubt they both made the capture into some sort of competition.


    Though they probably complaining right now about how bad the royal army was, and how they didn''t even put up any resistance to save their royal family. Though I don''t blame them, there not the first people to abandon their superiors when I turn up, and I doubt they''ll be the last either.


    Moving on, I ask about the object I would of like to acquire, but could do without. ¡°And the man? Has he been found yet?¡±


    ¡°He''s under the direct care of Captain Bruce. After his family stopped resisting, Captain Bruce was able to take the man, and now that resistance in the castle has ceased, he''s bringing the man up with his detachment to the royal court.¡± Heavy-handed as always Bruce, I hope he''s still able to talk otherwise it would have been a wasted effort.


    Now then, ¡°Time to meet with the Verworfen royal family then. Have them all gathered into the royal court and tell Beatrice to wait for me outside. If she''s going to be helping us I might as well grant her wish while I''m at it.¡± She can''t do any worse than the current king.


    ¡°Right away Commander.¡± After Richard''s salute, he begins his journey once more. At least this time he can regain his breath on any of the comfy furniture he chooses. As I too begin to move I look once more across the Verworfen''s repulsive capital city and can''t help but wonder if razing the city would be better, I''d properly get the support of the poor as well, since who doesn''t want to go around pillaging their better houses. Hmm, I should really leave that kind of thinking to the likes of Jaime and his marauding cronies, anyway, it wouldn''t do my name justice if I started to destroy cities.


    Moving away from the battlement I began to descend the same stairs Richard has been running up and down for the past hour. While wandering down the stairs and into the castle''s outer courtyard, my eye''s wander to the massive white stone walls and the scar''s it now carries from the recent beating it took from Emma and her siege team. She can be over-zealous sometimes in her work; as a note a few burning trees and flower arrangements, but for the most part she acts in restraint.


    More of her work can be seen as I round the corner to the castle''s entrance, two smouldering carriages and a tree that hasn''t quite been put out yet. I don''t linger on such thoughts, however, since even with the large open area that makes up the inner courtyard, I quickly reach the castle''s massive oak doors, faithfully held open by some of Duncan''s armoured swordsmen. A quick ''Ma''am'' from them and I enter the luxuriously furnished hallway.


    A purple carpet that stretches on for the entire corridor was the first thing to greet me, followed swiftly by a young woman in her early twenties. Princess Augusta. I don''t recall the last time I meet the princess, but for a member of royalty, she had ''acquired'' the assets of her mother, though in her case she seemed to still be in shape compared to the rest of her family; her father especially.


    As she slowly walked towards me I almost unintentionally shouted for her to hurry up as she had already spent a good minute walking towards me. But, better to keep decorum, it''s not every day you unintentional help to topple a regime, besides these types of people make the best employers. Though that line of thinking will have to wait.


    Quickly stepping towards the princess to end this farce I draw up to her in a matter of seconds. Her body a head shorter than my own height of five foot ten. This forces her to look up to me, however, her blue eyes neither showed anticipation or nervousness within them. I don''t linger for long of this unexpected surprise, since as soon as I stopped in front of her she grabs the hem of her dress, and with a trained expertise makes a quick bow to me, and then greets me in the delicate and gentle voice one would expect to of been trained with a royal upbringing. ¡°Queen Augusta Marie Luise of the Verworfen Kingdom greets Commander Eleonore of the White Rose company, and I must say it is a pleasure to finally meet you.¡±Stolen novel; please report.


    Well, I''ll give her credit, she at least a more makes a better first impression than her father had. ¡°Has the rest of the royal family been moved to royal court?¡± She gives a curtsy nod in response. Good. ¡°Walk with me, it''s time to talk business.¡±


    Taking the lead in front of me she also takes the initiative to begin the conversation. ¡°What kind of business did you have in mind? It should be quite easy for me to arrange whatever you desire.¡±


    ¡°The location of my son. Why else would I bother to invade this place?¡±


    ¡°You son has gone missing?¡± The blank look on her face as she turns around to ask me, quickly reminds me that not everyone was privy to this knowledge.


    Therefore I decided that I need to explain everything a bit more in detail. ¡°Yes, ''ahem'', my son has gone missing. The information that my men in the city gathered, was that one Philip Trant had gotten him drunk at his favourite tavern and proceed to dragged him off to the military once he was sufficiently intoxicated. So of course once we''ve arrived, a quick search located him and I had my men drag up here. Which reminds me, I''m going to be using the the royal dungeons for a few hours, I''m afraid we left the majority of our own equipment and staff with the rest of the company.¡±


    To my demand, Augusta gave a simple response, ¡°Of course you can.¡± But instead of leaving her question at that, she decided it was worth her time to dig deeper. ¡°I may sound rude, but how do you know that Philip knows what''s going on. What if this was just a simple fault when many people were being conscripted?¡± For normal people, yes, but I and the king have quite the arrangement in place.


    Speaking of which, I should tell the new queeny the old king''s deal, wouldn''t want to give her a misunderstanding now. ¡°It wasn''t. The king and all his little army officers know that my son is off limits, and the deal was that my army wouldn''t invade or help invaders as long as my son resided inside the royal capital.¡±


    ¡°But, that was some years ago, in that time there''ve been quite a few new Generals, what if this was caused by one of the new Generals simply not getting the message.¡±


    ¡°It wasn''t. General Cuthbert, was the commanding the army. And if I recall, he getting on in years now isn''t he? Plus, the man is known to go over every single one of his soldier''s name. In short, to make sure nobody who isn''t supposed to be there is there, some nobleman''s child for example.¡±


    After explaining it to her, she seemed to understand why my son was conscripted on purpose. And in all hope I wanted her to stop asking these stupid question. But unfortunately, the new queen was a curious person.¡°Right. But that makes me wonder if you didn''t want this to happen then why...¡±


    Raising my voice a bit louder than I usual do, I stop the queen from finishing her sentence and rebuke her for what''s she''s trying to do.¡°Queen Augusta, please don''t ask any more silly questions. You''re a ruler now and rulers need to know when some questions are best left unsaid.¡±


    After being told off she stopped asking questions. Seemingly embarrassed about being told off. Thus our journey to the royal court was nice and quiet. Though the ten minutes of wandering passed over decorated columns, statues and portraits slightly killed the mood, as on more than one occasion I was muttering to myself about ''how much tat there was in the royal castle''.


    Thankfully on my arrival, the ten foot tall, and Plate armoured clad Captain Bruce was waiting for me, minus a helmet as well seems even he wants to be formal sometimes. Though, this does give me to see the man outside of his armour for once; if only a little, and he''s the same as also, bald, not even eyebrows. Square jaw, no fat to be seen, a slightly bent, given by some unknown foe, plenty of scars and his trademark scary brown eyes.


    Strangely enough, there was an undernourished and underdeveloped women standing beside him. I know for a fact I asked for a guy called Philip, had he escaped. Or did Bruce save this poor woman? Wouldn''t be the first time. ¡°We''re here.¡± While I was pondering this Augusta quite unhelpfully pointed out the obvious as we arrived at the courts overly decorated doors.


    Ignoring the royal court, for now, I turned to Bruce and begun asking him some questions. ¡°Has Sir Jeremy and Sir Harold arrived yet?¡± He gives his usual deep grunt to express that they have arrived. ¡°Are they waiting in the hall?¡± The same grunt indicates that the two competitors have at least keep to the schedule. ¡°Where''s Philip? And who is that next to you?¡±


    At this question, he points to the women beside him and squeezes out two words in the same deep tone, ¡°Is... Philip...¡± Even as I look towards the supposed Philip, a bit of guilt hits me for making Bruce speak. Even though he survived having an arrow lodged in his throat and somehow keep his voice book, the fact talking is difficult for him makes me guilty whenever he does. Good thing Henry hasn''t seen him again, the poor boy loved the guy and his stories when he was younger.


    Shaking my head, I get rid of those thoughts and focus on the ''man'' in front of me, who also draws back under my gaze. Augusta watching the ''man'' draws further and further back from my gaze jumps in, ¡°Commander Eleonore, that is Philip Trant, he famous in the capital; and among ladies, for being anonymously handsome. Many of the nobles daughters have expressed their desire to have such an exotic husband.¡±


    After Augusta confirmed it was Philip, I ignore the rest of her prattle and instead asked him a simple question. ¡°Where is my son?¡±


    ¡°I-I don''t know the exact details...¡± Even as he said those word he quickly noticed my gaze and begun to think faster. ¡°B-but, I overheard General Cuthbert talking about a new boy and his master taking up residence in the forbidden forest up north. He said that that delegation ''princess'' had taken a liking to the boy. Or something along those line''s.¡±


    ¡°...Con...venient...¡± Bruce piped in as Philip finished his story.


    ¡°It is, isn''t it. But it''s our only lead. Cuthbert''s in the dungeons isn''t he?¡± Bruce nods at this. ¡°In that case get Charles to ask him some questions related to what Philip said. Oh! And have Richard go through his study, there''s probably some evidence there as well. Meanwhile, I''m going to have a nice and lovely conversation with the ex-king, while Augusta addresses her new subjects. I need to have a word with the king and find out what deal he made.¡±


    Bruce still doesn''t look convinced about this, however, but there''s not much else can do. ¡°Those are your orders Bruce, get Charles and Richard to do their part, this is the only solid lead we have., and I''m not going to let it slip away.¡±


    Especially if the old man''s involved in this.

 Chapter 17 - Meeting the locals (Unedited)

    ¡°Civilisation, Isn''t it marvellous.¡± After finally reaching a proper city I didn''t even register that I had unintentionally leaked out my own thoughts. But who cares, we''ve finally made it to the Flain Theocracy outermost city, Fieldden. Aptly named for the absurd amount of fields the city has, even now the farmland is still expanding, so much so that while we''re still a good mile from the farm''s actually boundary, the city in front of us is just a hazy blur, the only building standing out is the church and only because of its height.


    But, while I was gawking at the city, I began to feel the carriage slow down slightly to the point where we were competing for speed with normal carriages. So I turned to Ramaze to ask him why? But he beat me to the punch. ¡°If we''re going to enter the city, we''ll to need to disguise the carriage we have. Otherwise, we''ll draw too much attention to ourselves and that might give the Grand Elder information we would otherwise like to keep secret.¡±


    Suddenly, the mocking voice that has barely been around these past few days, appears within moments of Ramaze finishing. ¡°Well, that''s all and good, but there''s one giant flaw in your plan Ramaze.¡±


    ¡°And what would that be William?¡± Ramaze, on the other hand, was still seemingly angry at William as he only grinds his way through saying his name. Ever single meeting between those two was like this know, obviously, I was waiting to see what would happen, since I''ve personally learned these past few days that''s it''s best not to get between those two.


    ¡°We do need the item called money to procure stuff.¡±


    ¡°Tch, don''t patronise William, I''ve already come up with a solution to that problem.¡± Though luck betrays me as Ramaze immediately moves to bring me into the conversation after finishing his chat with William; as far as Ramaze was concerned at least. ¡°Henry,since you were eye-struck upon seeing this city I can assume you been here before? And if so, what is the best place to rest at, which also provides decent privacy?¡±


    Er, think Henry. It''s only been twelve years since you''ve been here but you should be able to remember something, right? ¡°Er, um, let me think for a second. There''s the uh, no no not that place. Erm, what about, no no no, that place is long gone. Um, ah, I''ve got it, we can use the Golden Claw, it''s the onlyinn that the cities resident nobles and well off people use, and since the church is present it has a great deal of secrecy and privacy to protect it''s patrons.¡± Phew, how did I almost forget about the Golden Claw, it''s the place that my mum''s subordinates took me too when we were passing through here all those years ago.


    Unexpectedly, it was William, not Ramaze who chimed in first. ¡°Oh, a noble''s pleasure palace, I haven''t been to one of those in years. Heh Ramaze we really should go there, though I doubt we''ll be able to get in without the coin.¡±


    ¡°Shut it, William. Henry, does the place come with fully equip personal baths as well?¡± Ramaze on the other hand still doesn''t seem that concerned about our money situation. Caring more to berate William and finding out about the different facilities available.


    ¡°Well, the more expensive rooms do. Starting with your simple bath tub, then going all the way up to massive bath houses for the few top floor rooms.¡± Those things were great to swim around in when I was a child, even if some of the men and women were anxious for me to go to bed already.


    ¡°Good, then we have a place for you to clean yourself once you''ve done your second circulation.¡± However, Ramaze next words caught me off guard. Even if I heard him through my imagination, I couldn''t be sure if what I heard was real or not.


    So with anticipation in my voice, I ask Ramaze, ¡°So you mean that I.¡±


    ¡°Yes, for the past few days I''ve begun to feel your Qi bloat up inside of you, so in anything from today to a few days time you''ll be able to pass the barrier of the second circulation.¡± Yes, all my hard work paid off. Finally, I can become even stronger.


    Hearing that I would soon gain some new unrivalled power, I let my imagination run free, and it was only until the carriage suddenly stopped and I was unceremoniously thrown from the driver''s seat and into the awaiting dirt road, that I was reminded of where we were. Though Williams laughter and Ramazes shaking head did little to help my now wounded pride.


    ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................


    You know that''s the second funniest thing I''ve seen so far. It only barely beats out the Rising Lotus Sect goons by a very short margin. Speaking of goons that once belonged to the Rising Lotus Sect, Ramaze has been in an awful mood with me lately. I though he''d be happy that his oppressors are now gone.


    Well, nevermind. I''ll ponder on this subject later. First things first, though. ¡°We''re here Ramaze. So what''s the ingenious plan you thought of to disguise the carriage with.¡±


    ¡°Easy, we''ll indefinitely borrow some of the farmer''s horses.¡± The plan, however, was something that I wasn''t expecting.


    So much so that I had to ask him if that was it since there should at least be more to this plan. ¡°That''s it.¡±


    ¡°Yes, what else were you expecting.¡±


    Defeated I could only voice my true opinions on the whole situation.¡°Something less theify for example.¡±


    However, Ramaze to an offence to this opinion and begun to rant on about us not having any money. ¡°What else are meant to do, we''ve got no money to buy the horse and I doubt the local peasantry will be able to comprehend any of the things I could barter with them.¡±Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.


    Obviously, I ignored the ranting moron and instead told Henry to get his embarrassed head out of the dirt. ¡°All right then, Henry pick yourself out of the dirt already, you''re going to be playing my attendant, and Ramaze you''re regulated to the carriage guard role, you already fit the part.¡±


    ¡°Hey, you can''t just...¡±


    Ramaze attempted to complain but as he was doing to me lately, I quickly shut him down. ¡°Shush you. Honestly, it''s been ten years since I last spoke to a peasant and yet I know that the best way to barter is to use gold. That get us our horses, hell he''ll properly offer up his daughters as concubines and servants for enough of the damn thing.¡±


    Floating of the carriage I begin to material my body. Though this time I completely change my outfit, gone was all the leather and armour, minus the leather riding boots since there was always my favourite. In its stead, I wore the uniform that I wore during my governing duties: pitch black trouser with gold inlaid at the bottom and a doublet dyed in black as well though it came with white sleeves. The only other thing I added, was a white cape for my left shoulder, even if it only ran the length of said shoulder it was out of habit to include it in my dress code since the white cape helps my family coat of arms: a golden dragon slithering around a black sword.


    At least Henry was impression with my attire, though Ramaze was still sulking on the carriages driving seat. ¡°Come along Henry, the farm''s entrance only a little ways away so it shouldn''t take us that long to reach. So, Ramaze, be a good boy and guard the carriage while were away.¡± Instead of responding to that he just gives me a deep glare, well I''ll take what I can get when I''m poking the sulking tin can.


    But since Henry''s dusted himself off, we set off for our little trip, and in no time at all, we cover the fifty odd meters that separated the carriage and the entrance and once inside I began to tell Henry the what he needs to do. As we approach the farmhouse about two hundred meters away. ¡°Now then Henry, this is how the barter is going to go down. Once we arrived at the farmhouse you''re going to knock on the door or yell it''s up to you and get the farmers attention. Once that''s done you''ll introduce me at the Duke of Ostilia and inform him that he has the pleasure of selling horses to is excellence. If he asks why show these gold coins to him and...¡± As I was waving around the gold coins I materialised Henry seemed to be entranced by their sudden introduction. Obviously, this was detrimental to the planning session, so hitting him over the head I snapped him out of his stupor. ¡°Oh, pay attention. ''Ahem'' as I was saying. Show the gold to him and tell him we simply require two horses for our carriage.¡±


    However, Henry rubbing his head held some doubts about the plan I had come up with. ¡°But, isn''t these gold coins a bit much for two horses. At most they''d go for a papal coin each, pure gold coins seems a bit excessive¡± Though in truth he was just nit-picking at this point.


    But it''s better to put his mind at ease, so he can play his part better. ¡°Of course it is, but until we get to a jeweller or a high-end goods merchant we won''t be able to get the actual currency for this country. Plus, this way we might even get to see the higher ups if rumours of a wealthy foreign noble start to spread about.¡±


    However, it seemed to have the opposite as he again found another point to nit-pick over. ¡°Well true, but we might also bring about the attention of the wrong type of people as well.¡±


    You''d think after seeing me fight he''d have a bit more faith in me. But alas. ¡°Stop worrying about your safety, Henry. Not only am I attached to you which means I can feel if you''re in danger or not, but Ramaze will be there as well and he''s covered in full plate armour, and I doubt any criminal will be able to take him out of action easily.¡±


    ¡°I''m not worried about that, what I''m worried about is...¡±


    Though Henry had attempted to say something else, I instead rudely cut him off since we were almost at out target. So I had to quickly shut him up.¡°Shush now Henry we''ve arrived at our destination, now take these coins and put your best act on so we can get out of here quickly.¡± Thankfully, he didn''t try to pursue what he wanted to say so it shouldn''t be that important.


    Now then, while I stopped a good ten feet away from the surprisingly non-wooden farmhouse which mixed various stones as it''s base and walls, and with the only wooden thing being its roof. Farming can''t be that profitable around here? Though the extensive pasture full of a menagerie of farm animals and fields of crops as far as the eye can see may be the reason why the house isn''t one hundred percent wood.


    ''Knock, Knock, Knock'' Henry''s loud banging brings me back to the current situation as he stands before the farm''s door hands behind his back and standing tall. It would have been quite the sight to see, s he never acts imposing. Though the effect was ruined slightly by the seven-foot muscle bound monster that answered the door. Even dressed in a simple linen shirt and pants his rippling muscles hugged the tight clothes. Even ignoring the various scars across his body, the balding head and that imposing face and the thing I can only think to myself was that Sophie would love to be here right now.


    But while I was thinking of my old friend''s type, Henry himself was doing a good job of not backing down. Even if his first sentence didn''t leave the best of impressions. ¡°Farmer as the attendant of his excellency the Duke of Ostilia, I have come to er...¡± It started off so well, but a single glare from him had left him speechless. At this rate, I''m going to need to step in.


    However, thanks to Sol, Henry seemed to regain his composure after a few seconds of swimming in that man''s glare, with a simple ''ahem'' he restarted the negotiations. ¡°I have come on the orders of his excellency to engage in a trade with you for two of your finest horses, and these gold coins should be more than enough,¡± Henry said the last part as he waved the two gold coins around. The man on the over hand took the two coins in a single swipe and proceed to take a bite out of both of them. Not only leaving teeth marks but also bending it ninety degrees.


    This act made Henry flabbergasted, he couldn''t even ask for the coins or what he was doing. But before Henry could snap out of his state or I could have told him to wake up. The stone wall of a farmer spoke first in a deep and menacing voice. ¡°It''s real.¡± After saying that he turn his attention to me and in the same voice and glare he gave Henry, he spoke to me. ¡°Fine, you can have two of my best horses your excellency, but if I hear even a whisper of them being treated badly. You will come to regret it.¡± And without further ado, he shut the door to his home and with big strides to his step, begun the trek to his horses.


    On our side, after waking to bring Henry back to his senses we hurried after him. Though Henry once ago decided it was time to bring up a fault in our plan. So whispering to me he said, ¡°William do you actually know how to attach the horse to the carriage? Since looking at the front there was an obvious lack of horse attaching devices.¡±


    To that, I can only grin and pull out some more gold coin. ¡°I think we''re going to become this man friend very easily today. Don''t you think so Henry.¡± To that Henry can only pull a face of horror as he begun to think about spending more time with the man built like a stone wall.

 Chapter 18 - Medieval traffic jams (Unedited)

    ¡°What a charming fellow, don''t you agree with me, Henry? I personally think you and David hit it off big time.¡± To my comment, Henry chose to ignore me and instead walked slightly faster with the two mares David had given us: both had an average height of about six feet, while one was chestnut brown from back to front and the other being pitch black in colour, nothing interesting really. But from a glance, one could tell both had a strong physique like David had promised.


    However, after my little comment, Henry wouldn''t give another response to any of my comments. Thus the event back to the carriage was pretty much uneventful, the two mares were tame enough that they didn''t try to bolt to freedom as soon as we exited David''s farm.


    Surprisingly enough, once the carriage came into view I could see Ramaze attaching various shafts of wood to each other, while various other pieces lay scattered around him. Being intrigued I quickly teleported to the side of Ramaze leaving Henry behind with the two horses. On closer inspection, I couldn''t but ask what he was doing, ¡°So what''s with all the crazy contraptions Ramaze. If my memory serves correctly aren''t carriage yokes less of a jigsaw usually.¡±


    ¡°Considering the carriage doesn''t need horses usually, the best method we could come up with for going incognito is to have the piece''s separated into smaller parts. Obviously, there wasn''t much need to write a manual since we weren''t expecting this to happen. So if you don''t mind, either help or go sit in the carriage ''your excellency''.¡±


    ¡°It''s probably better for us to keep up appearances, just in case David decides to check up on us and see how were doing. Besides, even spirits need to nap once in awhile.¡± Just as I was entering the carriage I gave one finally shout to Henry on what he should be doing. ¡°Henry! Once you''ve tethered the horses somewhere make sure that their calm wouldn''t want them to bolt while you''re helping Ramaze.¡± Sure telling him is slightly redundant since Ramaze will sort it out, but its best to get him thinking of something else then sulking over the intimidating giant.


    [A few hours later]


    Compared to the bumpless experience I had with the non-horse drawn carriage, I''m beginning to feel symphony for those two to have completely change the carriage to allow the horses to move it instead. But even if for me the problem was the sound of constant dirt bumps, after another rather big bump in the dirt road, my gaze fell upon the sleeping Henry who was groaning about the discomfort in his sleep.


    How that boy manages to sleep so deep I''ll never know.


    However, this does give me an opportunity I''ve been neglecting lately, since we were still a few hours away from the city and Henry was sleeping like a log, I''ve decided it''s the perfect time to check on Henry''s progress.


    Though instead of projecting my entire conscious into his body like I usual do, this time I left a mental image of myself seemingly napping. Since it was just forming an image using the surrounding mana it didn''t take long to shape, plus it meant that when I came back I already had an image to jump into.


    Entering the dark, dark body, my sight is simply assaulted by the unnaturally white bones. This bodes well for the rest of the visit. But not to be dismayed I quickly switch my vision to mana and get a pleasant surprise. A surprise in the form of mana beginning to collect inside his bones.


    Upon close inspection I could see that the mana wasn''t equally spread throughout the bone, various areas were blocked off and in some cases, the mana looked closer to little ponds surround by bigger landmasses. If this is the case, does his future training involve purging more of the filth, or does he have to get rid of it with other means?


    I really can''t wait to see.


    On the other hand, the various mana sources poking out of his organs can''t be ignored. Skipping around the body, my analysis showed that all of his organs were emitting this mana like a light. Though what was disturbing was that upon further investigation all of the organs also had almost invisible black light emitting from them as well.


    Of course, my first reaction to this was to shout either ''demonic infestation'' or ''the curse of death''. Thankfully, it only took me a few short moment; and my body hitting his skin, to regain my composure since those two things don''t exist in this place.


    Well not to the standard I know of anyway.


    But I digress. Moving back to the wall of black and white, I begin a closer analysis of the situation. Though in truth I was stumped, what in Sol''s name was this phenomenon? My mind quickly came up with a few of its own hypothesis.


    The first one was that due to my void travel and arriving in a new and exotic world, I had unintentionally brought with it a virus. Mainly, the demonic infestation, since due to my various battles with demonic beings my body had been tainted on more than one occasion and even with healing and light magic driving the most dangerous parts away, some small parts may have lurked inside my body.


    And as my soul/manapool was now attached to Henry, some of that taint may have come over and affected Henry. Resulting in the current phenomenon I see before me. The ''white'' mana battling the ''dark'' infestation for control.


    However, even if Henry magic circulation training was keeping the demonic infestation inside of him, his outer appearance and personality would have already shown itself, due to the absolute corruption that comes along with the infestation over a period of time.This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.


    My second hypothesis is that Henry''s mana is undergoing some sort of mutation. Since, compared to my own calm and controlled mana, the mana of this world is chaotic and unpredictable. Which would directly correlate with the white and dark light being symbols of calm and chaotic mana.


    Though the problem for that is the situation I''m seeing is only occurring in his organs. Plus the bones are already pure white and I can sense the chaotic mana resting in them. Plus, this would mean that mana can ''change'' from being in contact with mana of a different nature, and I''ve seen nothing to support this theory, since all the mana around me is calm, but soon return to its original nature once I move away.


    So this brings me to my final hypothesis. It''s the white mana battling with the black filth. Though battling may be a subjective term, because long the same lines as the bones whitening due to the mana seeping into it, and the black filth being expelled, the organs could be undergoing this same situation. And the final catalyst will be when Henry can push enough mana into the organs to expel the filth and put his mana in their permanently.


    But, without test subjects, I''m both unable to test these hypotheses, which also means that I''m unable to see what can occur if the first two options are the ones manifesting themselves.


    [Even more hours later]


    After the rather taxing dip into Henry''s body, I was spending the remaining hours watching the rolling fields of wheat passed by. ¡°Urgh.¡± Well until Henry woke up at least ¡°Even if having a magically moving carriage get''s us caught, I''d prefer capture to the rough treatment I was getting during my sleep.¡± Says the person who slept like a log.


    Calm. Instead of shouting that at him, I decided to take a different approach to. ¡°If being bumped around is too much of a problem for you, then I''ve got good news for you.¡± Henry perked up at this and even perked closer to me on his seat. ¡°Open the window and have a good look outside.¡± This drew a little bit of confusing to Henry but he soon did what he was told.


    And once the window opened, Henry jumped back at the loud noise that had come, though. The confusing and embarrassment on his face was funny to see at first, though it''s surprising Henry never put to and two together and figured out the windows were sound proof since the complete silence should have given that away.


    But Henry wouldn''t be deterred. Sticking his head back out the window Henry begun yelling back to me what he was seeing. ¡°It''s a big queue outside! Even if it''s late afternoon there shouldn''t be one this big!¡± Though to me, the voice was kind of muffled due to the background noise but I got the gist of what he was saying. Then after he came back inside and shut the window he said the thing that I was thinking about, ¡°Something big must be going on.¡± Though to his credit Henry seemed to have more to say about this, ¡°I''ve never seen such an influx of pilgrims before, especially for such a small town like this one.¡±


    ¡°Pilgrims?¡±


    ¡°Yes. As you''ve probably guessed the Flain Theocracy is a religious state, that split off from the main church of Ecclesia over a hundred years ago and with the Supreme Cardinal and the Santorum Pontufex always at each other throats. But I won''t go into too much detail about these two since we''ll be here all day with me trying to remember everything.¡±


    ¡°Don''t worry about it.¡± I''ll make sure to go over it later while you''re sleeping. But it''s kind of strange since I can''t recall most of the memory I screened through all those weeks ago, maybe I''m getting too old.


    ¡°Anyway, the reason I''m surprised that such a small town has such an influx is because of the practices the Flain Theocracy uses. Mainly, using the wandering and overzealous pilgrims to do all the heavy lifting and not even having to pay them fully either.¡± Religion at it''s finest I see. ¡°But the problem is, that this only occurs in major cities where the religion is dominant our expanding. The minor places never get such results due to the fact that their either out the way or the place isn''t seen as holy compared to the big cities worth churches and cathedrals that reach the sky.¡±


    ¡°And that means?¡±


    ¡°That the local Bishop is either up to something, or something worse is happening in the city.¡± Well, maybe this trip won''t be so boring after all. But while I was about to image what might be happening, Henry continues on with his thoughts. ¡°But what I don''t understand is how any of this could happen. The old Bishop wasn''t all that zealous. He got on with the nobles and merchants and this allowed the place to expand quite a bit, mass pilgrims wasn''t really his style as I recall,even mother said he was the least crazy priest she every worked with. I''m worried about what this means if he''s not in control anymore.¡±


    Hmm, whatever happening must be big, especially if Henry''s getting anxious over this. I do hope this trip doesn''t take a turn for the worse, I doubt my heart could take any more problems.


    [Eventually]


    ¡°It''s been half a day since we joined this queue.¡± Even if the setting sun was a sight to behold, being stuck in traffic wasn''t. ¡°Maybe I should set the city walls on fire, that should speed up the process a bit.¡± My insensate mumbling was overheard by Henry, however.


    Who attempted to bring me back to reality. ¡°Please don''t do that. That...¡±


    ¡°...It''s only wooden walls, they can easily replace them.¡± Unfortunately, I was too bored to take reason to heart.


    Even when Henry was giving me good advice. ¡°William I know you''re agitated. But calm down. If you want to go into the city so bad, why don''t you use your normal form.¡± Usual, this would have been a great idea. However, there was one flaw in this otherwise genius plan.


    And that was because it would have been, ¡°Boring! Look Henry strolling around town when your not meant to be there can be fun sometimes, but the only times I do that is when I''m behind enemy lines. Otherwise, I''m just skipping a queue, and that''s not fun at all.¡±


    Henry was looking to make another argument, but Ramaze ghostly voice cut us off before he could. ¡°Pipe down you two. The city guards have just finished processing the rabble in front of us so it''s our turn. I wouldn''t want our performances to be ruined by an immature noble.¡±


    Finally, ¡°Henry get out on top and stand in for Ramaze. I don''t know about you, but ghostly eyed and eerily spoken don''t go well in a town of religious fanatics.¡± Sighing in both defeat and happiness, Henry quickly makes his way out, but just before he leaves I shout further instruction to him. ¡°Also keep the window open, I''d like to hear what they say.¡±


    With the window open I could hear the approach of about half a dozen armoured men coming from the left. Stopping a few feet away, one guard separates off and in a clear feminine voice calls out to the two up front. ¡°Identification papers please.¡±


    Henry responded to the question almost instantaneously, ¡°Oh, er we don''t have any, his er, excellence isn''t from around here.¡± Though his speech did sound a little weird from how he usually speaks.


    The guard captain doesn''t in comparison and as if reading from a list, gives us our next instructions. ¡°Well, then I''m going to have to ask his ''excellency'' to step out for inspection then.¡±


    Well, guess we''re going to start with some fun first then.