《Chronicles of Creation - Tale of the Elder Witch》 Prologue - Useless Shady Back Alley World Maker Prologue - Useless Shady Back Alley World Maker You might be wondering who I am, but it¡¯s not like you need to know. My name isn¡¯t really important, especially now that I¡¯m dead, what? You¡¯re wondering how I died? It was really stupid, in a lot of ways. My day started as usual, being a NEET, I woke up around 2pm on a Tuesday, yeah I know a lot of detail all of a sudden, right? But, bear with me. Anyway, I sat at my computer after getting out of bed and using the toilet, pressed in the power button to start it up and was electrocuted. I know I didn¡¯t expect that either, don¡¯t computers have fail safes to prevent these things? I guess you could call it my fault I did spill some cola on it the day before, trying to turn it on even after spilling cola on it, a guy can hope it¡¯ll still work, y¡¯know. The end result was that I died from a heart attack, really should have exercised more, maybe I would have survived getting a few hundred volts sent through my body then. I mean people survive getting struck by lightning, I should have been able to survive getting a little jolt, no. No matter what I say or how I reason it, the facts don¡¯t change that I died like an idiot. Now, how do I know I¡¯m dead? I¡¯m looking at my corpse right now, is how. I¡¯m just going to say right now that I am an Atheist, I believe I just disappear or stop functioning when I die, like a flame being blown out or a machine that was broken beyond repair or something. The thing is that I¡¯m not disappearing, I¡¯m transparent and floating and obviously I am a ghost. I¡¯m both surprised and disappointed and I¡¯m staring at my corpse, seriously I should have exercised¡­ My ¡®wide¡¯ corpse is currently hunched over my tiny desk and on my keyboard, at least my computer still works, that¡¯s a relief. Wait, since I¡¯m a ghost shouldn''t I be ¡®passing on¡¯ or something? I don¡¯t think I have any strong regrets or anything? Looking around the room didn¡¯t get me anything, just my clothes left on the ground from the day before, now I¡¯m not saying I keep my room clean, but rather that there really isn¡¯t much in it, my tiny desk that I barely fit under (to be honest it¡¯s not actually tiny I¡¯m just really big, 7 feet tall in addition to being¡­. ¡®wide¡¯. I bet you¡¯re surprised I¡¯m 7 feet tall (2.13m for those using the metric system), I¡¯m ? Fijian my great grandfather was 7 feet 8 inches tall (2.33m), a giant of a man, I never got to meet him though since he died when he was 40 from a heart attack, apparently being really tall is hazardous to the heart, or it¡¯s just a family thing to die from heart attacks, I¡¯m not confident in my medical knowledge so I don¡¯t really know, my computer, my clothes drawer and my bed, that¡¯s all there is in my room, other than a thick layer of dust that blankets over everything because I never clean my room, sometimes I vacuum and change the sheets on my bed, but other than that¡­ Okay, maybe my room is a mess. ¡­. I¡¯m just going to say it now, I won¡¯t be attending my funeral, since I don¡¯t feel like I need to experience that. I spent a day staring at my corpse, my parents knocked on my door 2 or 3 times, probably leaving meals for me, they¡¯ll probably notice when I start to smell. I brought that on myself for secluding myself in my room for the last 4 years, oh well. I made my way to the front of the house from my room, never mind the doors I just passed through the walls, when I got outside the first thing that caught my attention was that there seemed to be two suns, but when I took a few moments to look at them properly, I noticed that one was definitely the sun, the other was a bunch of circular symbols in the sky that gave off a blinding light, the other thing I noticed was that there were a lot of ghosts around, well there wasn¡¯t a lot, but there was 3, a lot compared to the empty street I was expecting. The other ghosts seemed to be just sitting around happily talking away to one another, it seemed like they each died in gruesome ways, it was a little hard to look at, but I went over to them. ¡°Oh? You new chubby?¡± One of them said to me as I came close to them, I wasn¡¯t really used to this because 4 years ago before I locked myself away in my house, I was actually a very sporty person, I was fit and had some decent muscles, of course none of that mattered to me after all I¡¯m not even upset that I died or that my beliefs were not true. ¡±Yeah¡­ I just died¡­¡± I really wasn¡¯t offended, at least I didn¡¯t know how to feel at the moment, really. ¡±Serves you right you pig, now get out of here I''m sick of looking at your disgusting flab.¡± One of the other two pushed me down after he said that, bunch of childish ingrates, if this was 4 years ago I¡¯d beat up the lot of them, but after everything that¡¯s happened I really just don¡¯t care. ¡±Whatever.¡± And I got up and left, they shouted insults at me like hateful idiots as I walked away, now I actually do want to attack them, but they¡¯d probably just beat me down, because I''m weak. I decided to pretend I never ran into those nightmare creature class, bloody abominations of people that those guys were. Okay maybe I was really angry, but I decided to set all that aside and venture towards the weird symbols in the sky, I felt somehow drawn to it like I should go there, it took a while to learn how to fly, but I eventually got the hang of it after twirling in the air for a while As I got close to the mass of circular symbols that annoying blinding light died down or I got used to how bright it was and I could see it clearly, it was like multiple magic circles made out of light over lapping each other with a hole through the middle. I suddenly felt like I was being drawn to the middle as I got closer, so I went to the middle and everything disappeared, it all just blinked out and was replaced with endless whiteness. A message box appeared.
Congratulations on graduating Universal Academy, Gaia branch!
You had been selected for early graduation, once again, Congratulations!
¡°The fuck?¡±
You qualify as a Rank:G Creator
Your Creator finances journal and your Creator Support guidebook have been placed in your personal space, please review them as soon as possible.
You graduated. The Personal Management Menu has been unlocked.
You were selected for early graduation. The IMPORT option has been unlocked.
You weren¡¯t greedy. You have received 1000 matter pieces (MaP).
You were lazy. You have received the passive skill ¡®sleepy¡¯
You neglected your friends and family. You have received the passive skill ¡®Lonely¡¯
You were hated. You have received the passive skill ¡®Easily hated¡¯
You have a quick temper. You have received the passive skill ¡®Hot temper¡¯
Your left shoulder was permanently damaged. You have received the passive skill ¡®Bad shoulder¡¯
You were impotent. You have received the personal title ¡®Useless¡¯
You were younger than 80 years old when you died. You have received the personal title ¡®Unfortunate¡¯
You were younger than 60 years old when you died. You have received the personal title ¡®Unlucky¡¯
You were younger than 40 years old when you died. You have received the personal title ¡®Depressing¡¯
You were younger than 20 years old when you died. You have received the personal title ¡®Stupid¡¯
You didn¡¯t die at birth. You have received the personal title ¡®Unfortunately Born¡¯
Few people saw you when you were alive and those that did, didn¡¯t trust you. You have received the secondary title ¡®Shady¡¯
You are a Rank G Creator. You have received the rank specific title ¡®Back Alley World maker¡¯
You had fought with your life on the line using strength beyond your body¡¯s normal capabilities. You have re-unlocked the skill ¡®Pass the Limit¡¯
You taught yourself how to fight. You have created a Rank:E martial arts ¡®Slap-slap-palm Arts¡¯
You are the grandmaster of the Rank E Martial arts ¡®Slap-slap-palm Arts¡¯
You have been granted access to your personal space, you may travel there at any time.
You are the lowest rank of Creator
Your current title is: ¡®Useless Shady Back Alley World Maker¡¯
You can retrain skills in your personal space at the cost of ¡®MaP¡¯.
Before I could voice any more complaints a bunch more message boxes popped up one after another like that. I decided to let all the insulting messages pass, no point getting angry about a message flinging insults at me. ¡°How do I access my ¡®Personal Management Menu¡¯?¡± A¡­ A menu instantly popped up as I asked that¡­ The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
Name: Anier | Creator : Rank G Title: Useless Shady Back Alley World Maker Inventory Stats Skills Remote World Management (RWM) Options Extras Communications
After looking at my menu for some time, I found that in my inventory I had nothing but 1000 MaP, my stats are blank, along with my level and race, looking at my hands I found that they¡¯re just none descriptive grey hands with no details or anything of note other than that there is nothing of note, it was a bit depressing. Attempting to look at my ¡®RWM¡¯ gave me a massage,
World not yet created, you can create a world for 1000MaP from your personal space
Needless to say I¡¯m not going to spend all my money without reading the guide book. Options allows me to customize the menu and message boxes, Extras has the ¡®IMPORT¡¯ option, but it was blanked out, I have no idea what it does. Communications was essentially a friends list, I assume it lets me speak with people on my Contacts list without them needing to be close by, everything in that was blanked out except for ¡®Add Contact¡¯. Lastly I open my skills menu, I glossed over all the passive skills, they explained themselves or at the very least I just didn¡¯t care to read them. ¡®Pass the Limit¡¯ apparently allows me to double a single stat for a short while, currently not having any stats, I obviously couldn¡¯t use it. My martial arts came with multiple combos, it was essentially just stuff I¡¯d done in the past, selecting them a video would display of when I¡¯d used them in the past, they¡¯re essentially all palm strike''s on the fridge, because I did that whenever I got food out of the fridge... because I was bored, every day for 9 years¡­ some of them were of fights I had with classmates. Needless to say all the combos were of just randomly made up stuff, mostly useless and ineffective. After that I decided to try going to my personal space. ¡°Personal space¡± I called out experimentally, I felt motion and then the area around me seemed to dim and a message popped up.
Welcome to your personal space
I looked around to realize I was in a tiny room that looked a whole lot like my room I¡¯d lived in for the last 19 years of my life, except everything was grey and my bed looked like a slab of plastic and my new computer wasn¡¯t any model of computer I recognize. My clothes drawer couldn¡¯t open and was apparently just for looks. With some weariness I turned on my computer, the screen lit up and without any logo¡¯s or sign in screen simply displayed ¡®Personal Space¡¯ before changing to the desktop, on the desktop there were 6 icons. A blue circle that read ¡®My world¡¯ under it, A blue person that read ¡®My people¡¯ under it, A blue light bulb that read ¡®Idea cloud¡¯ under it, A grey person that read ''Myself'' under it, A blue square that read ¡®Personal Storage¡¯ under it, And lastly a blue window that read ¡®Extra-Net¡¯ under it, which I assume was something like the internet. I opened my ¡®Personal storage¡¯, inside I found the Creator finances journal and Creator Support guidebook, selection the creator finances journal, a window opened on the computer screen which showed how much ¡®MaP¡¯ I had and how much I¡¯d earned or lost for the month, I¡¯d gained 1000MaP during my early ¡®graduation¡¯ for not being greedy and so I had 1000MaP. I then changed back over to the previous window and opened my Creator Support guidebook, it went over a lot of things, but I¡¯ll sum it up: Firstly it seems Earth was just a series of test to see what we¡¯d be good for once we ¡®Graduate¡¯ as they put it. Second our subconscious is what words the messages and grades us and grants your abilities and titles, though you can also learn skills and be granted titles by others normally, so if you¡¯re getting some pretty hateful update messages, you can blame your own self-hating for that, apparently mine are very tame compared to other people. I can earn money by working for other creators, if I have a world I gain a monthly income based on my rank as a creator, apparently as a G rank creator I¡¯d gain 100MaP per month, which is essentially very, very little, I can¡¯t even buy food for that amount, not that I run the risk of dying if I don¡¯t eat, but eating is better than not eating. To gain rank you earn Rank points (RP) by working for another creator, however you also earn rank points by having your world function as a world, of course you gain more if your world is in order and working properly under a system, but you can also earn a lot by having your world in complete chaos, the best way is to balance chaos and order. As an F rank Creator you can travel to your world as a child and live a life there, it¡¯s generally good for killing time while waiting for you ¡®MaP¡¯ to build up. When you reach rank E you¡¯re able to travel to and leave your own world as much as you like, however when on that world you are as powerful as a normal person of that world, if you die in your world or another Creator''s world you return to your personal room. After reaching rank D you can allocate Heroes in your world and you can hire other creators as heroes, Heroes earn a lot of ¡®MaP¡¯ and ¡®RP¡¯. You can also open your world to other creators once you reach Rank C, this allows you to spend less of your ¡®MaP¡¯ on the world and also give your more chances to earn more ¡®MaP¡¯, but you have less control over what happens in your world, because it¡¯s not just your world anymore. You can join another person¡¯s world regardless of your rank. As a rank B creator you can order your people to do things, like ¡®kill these people¡¯ and ¡®Make giant statues of me everywhere¡¯ these kinds of things. As a rank A creator you can create a false god as a threat for your world to fight, you can also allocate yourself as a hero, though whether anyone believe you¡¯re their creator or not is for them to decide. As a rank S creator you can create multiple worlds, essentially you become able to make a universe, a truly god tier being, not to mention the ridiculous amounts of ¡®MaP¡¯ you¡¯d probably get each month. There¡¯s also a lot of other benefits to ranking up but they aren¡¯t that important at the moment. The ¡®Idea cloud¡¯ is essentially a place where you sell the idea of your creations to other Creators for ¡®MaP¡¯, anyone can make something that looks the same, but making it exactly the same is impossible unless they have your ¡®Idea¡¯. As I¡¯d thought the ¡®Extra-net¡¯ is essentially the internet, there you can visit many different Extra-sites (websites), it¡¯s also where you can connect to other worlds and get in contact with other Creators and find jobs and such. ''Myself'' is where I can customize my ''form'' and replace and retrain skills, eventually I''ll retrain my negative passive skills into useful ones, but for now I''m not going to use my money on that. There is a world open to all creators called ¡®The Market world¡¯ which is a world filled with shops that sell items and equipment for ¡®MaP¡¯, generally the Creators that like to focus on adventuring and finding work as heroes can be found there. Creating anything on your world costs ¡®MaP¡¯, also altering the terrain costs ¡®MaP¡¯, a lot of ¡®MaP¡¯, understanding this I find that it¡¯d be most ideal to look for work with another Creator. But first I¡¯ll start my world so that I can gain a ¡®form¡¯ I don¡¯t mind continuing to be a mysterious grey thing for a while longer, but I¡¯d rather gain a ''form'' as soon as possible so I can start working as a hero and raise my rank. I spent my 1000 MaP and created my world, naming it Verus, I was required to choose some starting options, I selected grasslands as the default terrain, random landmasses, with randomly generated elevation and random weather, I ended up with a pretty okay looking randomly generated world covered with grasslands, of course nothing lived there yet. I gained my form, apparently your subconscious selects your default ¡®form¡¯ for you, my ¡®form¡¯ was of a character I played as in a game, she was a powerful wizard that was ? fairy, so I suppose I¡¯ll be living as a woman from now on, of course it¡¯s possible to manually change your form, but that costs ¡®MaP¡¯ which I don''t have any of and I don¡¯t mind living as a character I played as for 4 years. Though I will admit suddenly turning into a 5 foot 4 inches tall, half-elf looking woman with smooth yet sharp facial features, B-cup breasts, bob-cut Red hair and slightly glowing green eyes was a big shock, I didn¡¯t expect it, it was almost as shocking as when I died. Okay, that wasn¡¯t funny, I apologize. I scratched my head realizing I didn¡¯t have money to buy clothes, so I decided to ignore that and sat at my desk, which was now a lot more comfortable to sit at because I was much smaller, there was a world of difference from before, though it still feels wrong, I can¡¯t change what I can¡¯t change. I went to the job board on the Extra-net and looked around for a job, eventually I found a job to work as an assistant to a person of importance in someone¡¯s world, and the creator of that world went by the name ¡®Metra¡¯ I first need to visit them and we¡¯ll organize for me to make contact with that important person in their world. I sent Metra a message through the Job board that I would be interested in their job and we organized to meet tomorrow in Metra¡¯s guest room. Obviously, I don¡¯t have a guest room yet, my space only consists of my ¡®personal space¡¯ and ¡®My World¡¯, once I have a guest room and money, I can hire people to do jobs for me. Laying on my bed, which was actually surprisingly soft, I fell asleep. <--/-/-/--> The next day I went on my computer and activated the transfer to Metra¡¯s Guest room, it took a minute and a few bouts with motion sickness as I moved at high speed through a field of white and then an incredible decorative room with book shelves and soft looking couches organized in a semi-circle appeared around me, sitting on one side of the couch was a small girl with a cute face, green hair and yellow eyes that had stars in them, she was wearing a sturdy looking brown-green dress and sturdy brown boots. I was of course still naked, seeing this Metra frowned and pulled a grey piece of cloth from nothing and threw it at me. ¡°What the hell, did you just start yesterday or something?¡± ¡°I actually did, yes.¡± I put on the grey dress she threw at me while she sighed at my response. ¡°Well new or not, you should be able to handle my request, it¡¯ll take a few years, but you¡¯ll at least earn enough ¡®MaP¡¯ to start your own world.¡± ¡°100MaP a month was the deal right?¡± ¡°With bonuses for addition activities, the person I¡¯m going to have you assisting will be my world¡¯s next hero, you¡¯ll be their support more or less.¡± Metra shrugs and she motioned for me to approach and sit across from her on the semicircle of the couch, when I sat she continued. ¡°If they die then no big deal, but there will be a penalty of 2000MaP for failing the job.¡± ¡°So much.¡± I despaired. ¡°That¡¯s why, don¡¯t let them die until they¡¯ve fulfilled their purpose. You¡¯ll know when the Hero has fulfilled its purpose because I¡¯ll message you.¡± Metra did some strange motions with her hands and then a message popped up,
Metra has added you to their contacts
I added her in return and then she continues again. ¡°Now since you¡¯re a G rank creator, you can¡¯t enter the world forcefully so we¡¯ll have to use a more organic method, you¡¯ll be reborn in the same town as the hero, to replicate your current appearance, your parents will be elves from my world, the only way out will be dying, so just live a full life and earn a lot of bonuses for yourself.¡± Metra smiled and took out a contract and pen, I read it over and then write my name on the contract, Metra then wrote hers on it, the contract then split into two copies and she handed one to me. ¡°With that the contract is complete from your personal space you should be able to activate the contract.¡± I nodded. ¡°Thanks for the job Metra, I¡¯ll try my best.¡±
Author Notes: Hi I am Arukorstza. I don''t really think of myself as very good when it comes to writing but I like writing, so I apologize if my story is/gets boring, but I hope you enjoy it, I''ll be posting at least 1 chapter a week, probably 4 times longer than this prologue is. Editor Notes: Zeratul here, I added tables for the titles/abilities/skills gained as well as message pop-ups. I also fixed any grammar mistakes that I found in the chapter as well.
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Chapter 1 - Knife of Life and Death Chapter 1 ¨C Knife of Life and Death Metra explained a number of thing to me about her world before I left, mostly about how she shares her world with another creator and that lately they¡¯ve had disagreements on how to manage their world. Metra wants to balance order and chaos and focus on gaining ¡®MaP¡¯ while the world adjusts to their newest creations, while the other creator ¡®Oulosc¡¯ wants to continue to add new things regardless of how much chaos it causes¡­ Oulosc is a Rank D Creator who always wants to make something new, he makes a lot of ¡®MaP¡¯ selling ideas, which is part of why Metra invited him to work on her world. Sharing worlds is good for when you¡¯re having trouble coming up with ideas, the amount of income you receive also increases and you can pool your funds with other creators that are a part of your world to make big projects. For example if you wanted to make a magic system in your world, it¡¯s really expensive and requires a lot of work, in some cases creator end up changing their entire world just to accommodate a magic system, a badly made magic system can restrict your access to the world and in some cases you can even be kept out, in some of the worst cases a badly made magic system can explode, destroying your world. These kinds of mistakes are common when trying to make magic systems for your world. It takes a lot of MaP to make a good magic system, needless to say a good magic system is anything that doesn¡¯t won¡¯t come back to bite you, for example if you leave any loop holes, people from your world can invade your personal space and kill you. You won¡¯t actually die, but you will be incapacitated for a few days. The bigger issue is all the stuff they steal. Needless to say, while useful, magic can be dangerous to both you and your world and once a magic system is set and can be very difficult to change it. So it¡¯s just a good idea to work together with another creator when making a magic system. ¡°Thanks, I¡¯ll be careful about whether or not I should be adding magic when my world become more developed.¡± I thanked Metra for the advice and the clothes before activating the transfer back to my personal space. ¡°Personal space.¡± Again I felt myself moving through the still alien field of endless white as I was taken back to my ¡®Personal Space¡¯. Arriving back at my ¡®Personal Space¡¯ I sighed. ¡°Haahhh~~¡± I was always an introvert and bad at speaking with people I hadn¡¯t met before. I should have gotten to know Metra a bit more before signing the contract¡­ She seems like a nice person, I think? I can¡¯t really say for sure. Thinking about whether or not I made a mistake I sat at my computer and leaned back in my seat. I eventually decided it didn¡¯t really matter, work is work, besides I¡¯ve never had a job before, so I was still a little excited, not to mention that I get to experience a different world. Isn¡¯t it generally a life time dream to be summoned to another world as a hero? Though I¡¯m not a hero or being summoned, it still has that sort of feel to it. I moved my mouse to get rid of the screensaver and went to Metra¡¯s Extra-site, from there I could activate the contract and get transferred to Metra¡¯s world. Metra¡¯s Extra-site had loads of info about her world and the things she and Oulosc have made, but I didn¡¯t read any of it, not like its important, I can just learn about the world as I live in it, so clicked on the link to my contract and confirmed the details once more, nodding to myself I activated the contract and the room went dark.
Contract ¨C Hero¡¯s Assistant activated, beginning transfer of G rank Creator Anier¡¯s Personal System Settings.
D Rank Creator Oulosc has disabled your stats from transferring
D Rank Creator Oulosc has altered the details of the contract
D Rank Creator Oulosc has blessed you with the curse ¡®Blind¡¯
B Rank Creator Metra has disabled D Rank Creator Oulosc¡¯s access to G Rank Creator Anier.
These messages popped up during the transfer of my Personal System Settings, which is essentially my information. A message from Metra showed up shortly after that,
Metra: ¡°I can¡¯t believe Oulosc did that, I didn¡¯t think he¡¯d resort to doing something this petty. I¡¯m sorry you got caught up in our fight, you weren¡¯t supposed to have to deal with this.¡±
Before I could reply the transfer finished and my consciousness slipped away. < --/-/-/-- > I regained awareness of my surrounding, but only to realize I was suffocating and surrounded and pressed upon by an incredible pressure from all around me like I was being crushed and when I felt that pressure release me from its grip and felt the air enter my lungs, my skin flared up in pain all over my body like I¡¯d been thrown into a fire, I couldn¡¯t help but scream out in pain. Screaming I heard the high pitched screaming cry of a baby and realized I¡¯d just been born, glad I didn¡¯t remember that the first time around. I was placed in someone¡¯s hands, I wasn¡¯t sure, and everything was still black, I was blind from birth curtesy of Oulosc, I don¡¯t know them, but I hate them now. Two voices were speaking softly while the top of my head was being patted by someone¡¯s ginormous yet soft hand, a message popped up from Metra.
Metra: ¡°To make up for this I¡¯ll help you out a bit more then I would of, I¡¯d help more but I have a lot of things to do, Oulosc has started causing trouble, I guess he took my hiring you as a confirmation of hostilities towards him. I was actually hiring you so we could go with what he wanted, but he¡¯s fucked that up, I¡¯ll talk with him and try to get him to lift the curse, but until then have these.¡±
B Rank Creator Metra has granted you the skill ¡®Mana Sight¡¯
B Rank Creator Metra has granted you the skill ¡®Contact Reading¡¯
B Rank Creator Metra has granted you the skill ¡®Understand Speech¡¯
I waved my hands through my Personal Management Menu which I could see perfectly despite being blind and messaged Metra back.
Anier: ¡°Thanks, it would have been a lot harder to fulfil my contract while being completely blind.¡±
I was suddenly picked up from the arms of whoever was holding me. ¡°Enough of that, you¡¯ve said your goodbyes.¡± I deep grimy voice came from the person carrying me, I opened my eyes and looked up at the man, it was a strange not seeing colours or light, but I could see the depth and the lines and edges of the man¡¯s face, an ugly man, he might have been a good looking man if not for the pox scars covering his cheeks and forehead and the ageing and sagging of his skin. ¡°No, please, she¡¯s only just been born you can¡¯t sell her!¡± My mother fell over as she reached towards me, she had a voice like bells, and it was nice to listen to. ¡°I¡¯m not taking care of your child you stupid bitch, I¡¯ve a client that¡¯s been asking to by a baby for some time, 200 Iron sticks he¡¯s offering I could leave carefree for years off that.¡± ¡°No, no, please, I¡¯ll get you your money tomorrow, please just don¡¯t take my child.¡± The man scoffed at this. ¡°No you won¡¯t, your husband sold you to me and ran off, and you¡¯re going to be sold with the rest of the slaves in Dorendu.¡± My mother just broke down crying while the man turned and walked away with me in his arms. It seems we were in a barn, the man opened to door of the barn, just outside the barn were 5 caged carriages and a number of men wearing various kind of clothes, some wore armour made from leather, but everyone of them carried weapons. A smallish man approached us and began to speak to the ugly man carrying me. ¡°That elven women whelped her brat then I see?¡± The ugly man noded. ¡°What ah, do we do with it?¡± ¡°I know someone in the area that¡¯ll buy it for 200 iron sticks, I¡¯ll go sell it to him and then we can go on our way to Dorendu.¡± The smallish man nodded quickly before walking back and speaking with the other men. The ugly man carried me through multiple streets until we reached a small back alley where he knocked on a door that was there. ¡°I¡¯m here Bog-gobi.¡± *THUD* *Papers rustling* The door clicked multiple times and then swung open revealing a small green goblin that only just reached the ugly man¡¯s hip. ¡°Karago Stal, what¡¯re you doing here?¡± The ugly man ¡®Karago¡¯ spat on the ground. ¡°I¡¯m here with your ¡®request¡¯ I don¡¯t care what you do with it, just pay up.¡± The goblin Bog-gobi smiled and trembled slightly. ¡°Ah! So you changed your mind? Good, good, come in I¡¯ll get your Iron.¡± Karago took a few steps inside and stood by the door watching the goblin was he scurried about picking up sticks of iron the length of my arms from here and there, we were waiting for some time but the goblin eventually returned from one of the back rooms with a large cloth sack, he threw it at the ground by Karaho¡¯s feet. ¡°It¡¯s all there, feel free to count it, now gimme the child.¡± The goblin stretched his arms to reach me and Karago let it take me from his arms before picking up the bag. ¡°I¡¯ll count it latter, I don¡¯t think you¡¯d want to die so I¡¯ll assume it¡¯s all there Bog-gobi.¡± Karago stepped out the door and closed it after him, leaving me with the goblin. The goblin put me down in a chair and locked the door with multiple locks each of a different size, before returning to me, picking me up again and walking into one of the back room. The back wall of this room was a stone entrance to a cave that seemed to reach far underground, we walked down through the cave for some time before reaching a goblin with armour and a spear, as we approached the goblin in armour waved at us. ¡°It¡¯s a bit early for your next report isn¡¯t it Bog-gobi?¡± ¡°I got a daughter so I¡¯m going to take some time off, tell Gab-Bagi to fill in for me, he¡¯s better at mixing in with the above people anyway.¡± The Goblin in armour sighed and walked off further into the cave tunnel. Bog-gobi started walking again after pinching my cheek, it hurt a lot and I pushed away its hand weakly, that made it laugh, part of me wished it was going to eat me. We reached a part in the tunnel and took the right path, I felt like making a joke about it being the ¡®right path¡¯ but my vocal cords didn¡¯t work properly yet, so Bog-gobi continued to walk in silence. We walked past a door carved into the side of the tunnel, I managed to get a glimpse, inside were multiple goblin in armour and a tall man with pale skin, blue hair and also wearing armour in the same style as the goblins. We continued walking, the tunnel kept going further and further down, the further down we got the wider and taller the tunnel got until it eventually opened up into a larger cavern that I couldn¡¯t see the roof or the other side of. Walking further we walked alone a stone wall guarded by more goblins, but there were also some people that looked like how I imagined elves would look as well as a few short stocky people that were obviously dwarves. This, other than being blind, seems like it¡¯ll be good, a complete fantasy setting, no doubt with magic and countless different kinds of monsters, though I find it strange that a goblin is apparently adopting me, I see no point complaining. We reaches a large stone gate in the wall, Bog-gobi entered the guard post there. ¡°Hey Boss I¡¯m back.¡± He waved to an elven women with purple skin, she looked like she was happy to see Bog-gobi. ¡°Do you bring important news from the surface?¡± Bog-gobi frowned and shook his head. ¡°No¡­ I, ugh¡­ came to ask for some time off.¡± The elven women became confused. ¡°What? Why? You never take time off, are you getting old?¡± ¡°No, I found a daughter, I¡¯m going to look after her myself.¡± ¡°Really?¡± The women came over. ¡°Looks like a surface elf, where¡¯d you get her? I assume she¡¯s not yours.¡± ¡°A surface man sold her to me for some iron.¡± The women scratch her head. ¡°I see¡­ well instead of taking time off you could leave her with me, besides you don¡¯t know how to look after a surface elf and Gab-Bagi is busy with work from the council.¡± Bog-Gobi¡¯s face drops into a frown and he looks like he¡¯s going to cry. ¡°But I is going to look after her, I can¡¯t do it from the surface.¡± ¡°Bog-gobi, we need the those market trade prices from the surface so that we can get a fair price for our ores, look, you keep up with your work until Gab-bagi is done with his work and then you can work in the city as a guard and being a happy family with you daughter, okay?¡± ¡°But¡­ I¡­ Okay¡­.¡± Bog-gobi slumps over slightly. The women gives him a light punch on the shoulder. ¡°Come on, you this is no time to abandon your job, besides she¡¯ll be fine, I¡¯ll leave her with my sister in town.¡± Bog-gobi, seemed to give in and just nodded, before patting me on the head and then walking out of the guard post, leaving me with the Dark elf women who was looking down at me and smiling. After sitting and filling out numerous papers for what felt like 2 hours, the women, who¡¯s name still escapes me, picked me back up and left the guard post through the door in the back that I didn¡¯t come in through. The door opened up to a bustling street, to be honest I couldn¡¯t ¡®see¡¯ any more than that since it seemed that my ¡®sight¡¯ only reached just barely around a meter from myself. My ¡®sight¡¯ from what I can tell is in a kind of cone shape that come from the direction my head is facing, I don¡¯t know how it works, but I can see through walls with it, which is even stranger for me since regardless of how many things there are I ¡®see¡¯ everything I look at like I was looking at it with a magnify glass and rather than seeing colours, I feel them. I feel kind of grossed out by my new sight, it feels like I¡¯m molesting everyone because if I look directly at them I can see through their clothes and into their bodies and even through them if I focus on them hard enough. I decided it¡¯s best to not look directly at people, simply because it would be rude to peek at their everything. We stopped at a small house after world down the busy street for some time, the dark elf women knocked on the door, a dark elf women inside the room picked up a child form her lap and placed it somewhere I couldn¡¯t see and came to the door. ¡°Hey there sis!¡± The women holding me said. ¡°Go away.¡± The other women was closing the door but then stopped after looking at me. ¡°Did you steal that child?¡± ¡°What? No-¡° The women holding me was intercepted by the other women who now looked shocked, ¡°Then it¡¯s yours?¡± The women holding me sighed deeply. ¡°No, it¡¯s not mine, Bog-gobi adopted it, it was being sold on the surface.¡± ¡°Oh¡­ They sell children?¡± ¡°Seems so, I don¡¯t understand surface people.¡± The other women nodded and then the women holding got to the point. ¡°You have a child, could you look after this one as well until Bog-gobi finishes his current assignment?¡± The other women squinted her eyes, I guess that cute expression means she¡¯s glaring. ¡°I suppose I¡¯ll have to, you¡¯ll push it on my anyway and guilt trip me if I don¡¯t take care of it and it dies.¡± The women holding me smiles deviously. ¡°You know me so well sis, though you are the only one I can rely on for this, here take her.¡± I was handed over to the other women. ¡°What¡¯s its name?¡± The women that brought me here frowned and then thought for a moment while looking at me and eventually nodding. ¡°Her names Knife, if Bog-gobi doesn¡¯t like it, then he can fight me for the right to rename her.¡± The other women that was not holding me sighed and then slammed the door in her sister¡¯s face. I¡¯ll spare you the details, but I was fed and I slept. Over the next few months I learned that this women¡¯s name was Hipria and her son¡¯s name was Shushen and the same age as me, Hipria¡¯s sister was called Rixal, apparently Hipria and Rixal¡¯s job involved carrying weapons around and patrolling as well as other work that I didn¡¯t really know what it was about, anything other than that I didn¡¯t learn until much later. Some more time passed and nothing really happened, just being so bored that I resorted to playing with Shushen to alleviate me of some boredom, getting fed, going to sleep, waking up, rinse and repeat. We were cleaned and changed out of dirty cloths each day, I had no control over my bowels so I soiled myself as often as Shushen, I didn¡¯t enjoy that. Years passed by, I became strong enough to crawl, despite the fact that I turned 3 my sense of balance still wasn¡¯t good enough to walk and I¡¯d barely grown any larger, Shushen had been walking for a while. Hipria began wondering if I was simple, that was a bit harsh. My new body finally became strong enough for me to walk with when I turned 7, Shushen had already been running around and playing with the other kids in the street since a few years ago. Bog-gobi had been visiting every few weeks and talked with Hipria as well as played with me for a bit, I stopped caring about being treated like a child some time ago, because I was one at the moment. It seems that Bog-gobi finishes his assessment¡¯s as fast as possible so he can come visit and so because of that he get given more and more work, I don¡¯t really mind, but it seems to trouble him greatly to not be raising me himself like he wanted, Hipria tries to make him feel better by saying I¡¯ll probably need someone to look after me my entire life... thanks, I know things look bad, but I¡¯ll become awesome at some point, just wait. When I took my first steps at the age of nine, I was content but also grumpy about it, it had taken far too long to grown strong enough to walk, I had the body of a 5 year old and I could still only make nonsense noise with my voice, but I could move around however I wanted now. Since I started being able to walk Hipria started taking me to market with her, Shushen had been going for a while. Shushen had for some reason gotten attached to me and taken it upon himself to look after me, he¡¯s just copying his mother, but he¡¯s a good kid either way, always well behaved and never get into any fights with the other children. When I turned 10 they finally realized I was blind, they¡¯d thought I was just a shy simple little girl that didn¡¯t like to look at people, by the cloudiness in my green eyes while they had thought was just how my eyes where became more prominent and they took me to a physician that was also a mage, who realized I was blind and because he felt my mana creeping around and wrapping around everything like I had to touch everything to know what it was, but instead of touching it with my hands I do so with my mana. I didn¡¯t care, I know that it was because of the skill Metra gave me ¡®Mana sight¡¯, what I did care about was the confirmation that there was a magic system in this world, maybe I can find a loop hole and attack that bastard Oulosc, I really hope I can, I want that jackass to know that he messed with the wrong person. The mage said that I would have probably been an incredible mage if I wasn¡¯t born blind, I¡¯m more of a physical person so I didn¡¯t mind, but I will still research it, I can hold a grudge pretty well. The mage went one to say that my slow development was normal, not because I was blind, but because I was something known as a ¡®Green Elf¡¯, a Green Elf is apparently just an elf that has such a high affinity with nature that they are more plant then animal, he proved his point my drawing some of my blood, which was a strange thick translucent orange liquid. Hipria looked worried after the mage said I was more plant then animal. ¡°Did we do any permanent damage by keeping her from the sun?¡± The mage paused for a moment starting at Hipria and then shook his head and smiled. ¡°No, it should be fine, she shouldn¡¯t need sun light, just lots of water and food, you should also let her play in the dirt, Green elves feed off power from the ground and use that to grow. She should grow rapidly if you let her eat until full and drink until satisfied every day.¡± Hipria got this look on her face like someone killed he pet dog that she loved a lot and said. ¡°I¡­ I¡¯ve been starving her?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not your fault and you¡¯ve been giving her slightly more than enough to maintain herself, you couldn¡¯t of known what you were doing was wrong.¡± The mage forced a smile and Hipria broke down crying, Shushen comforted his mother saying ¡°it¡¯s okay¡± and that ¡°Knife will get better¡± and that ¡°mama isn¡¯t bad¡± as well as many other things. I couldn¡¯t help but feel bad about her feeling so responsible for something she didn¡¯t know, I didn¡¯t know either, so I got up off the ground and pat her on the head. Honestly I never even realized I was still hungry, before I died I simply out of habit, I couldn¡¯t remember what being hungry felt like, I know that¡¯s pretty stupid, but that how it was. I had nothing to worry about and thought that it wouldn¡¯t matter if I did anything because I wasn¡¯t needed, I gave up on myself to easily, but with this life I¡¯ll do my best to never give up and if I do then at the very least I¡¯ll protect the Hero. ¡°I¡­ t¡¯s ¡­.. fi¡­. ne.¡± I managed to squeeze out these words with much difficulty and it hurt quite a bit, she lifted her head up sharply and stared at me wide eyed, I just smiled at her shocked face and pat her on the head again. That night I ate enough for 3 adults and drank all the water in the house, I still felt like I needed more, but I decided that could wait for tomorrow and slept. Hipria cried all night, nothing I could do about that. The next day I¡¯ve visibly grown 10cm in high and I felt like I could fly, not literally, but I felt incredible. This surprised Hipria a great deal, the mage said I¡¯d grow rapidly, but none of us knew exactly how rapidly he meant. I started talking regularly, asking about anything I could think of, I wanted to learn as much as I could and I was just happy I could finally talk after so long. I learned that there was indeed magic, everyone was capable of learning magic, it was just having the patience for it that mattered. Literacy wasn¡¯t wide spread, in fact most people thought reading was a waste of time, generally the only people that learned to read where nobles, mages and priests. I¡¯m blind¡­ sort of and have no intention of learning to read this worlds languages, I just need to protect the hero, I should get around to asking Metra who it is since I¡¯m 10 now, I should probably work on befriending them since we should both be around the same ago if Metra was telling the truth. I also learned that we are currently living in the ¡®undercity¡¯ ¡®Nis Fae Halfinane¡¯, the City is apparently named after a person with the same name. The Kingdom this city is a part of is called ¡®The Under-Kingdom¡¯, the kingdom was formed when the sentient underground species formed an alliance to fight the surface threat. The Under and the surface people have been fighting since before recorded history, for the surface people the attacked the Under people out of fear for the unknown, but for the Under people, it was purely personal hatred for the surface people. The surface people where split into multiple kingdom, each separate and uncooperative towards other kingdoms, however over time the Under-Kingdom that spanned the entirety of the continent was able to befriend each kingdom by having merchants and other individual act as separate tribes. Through using this method of isolated experiments while each pretended like a separate group the Under-Kingdom was able to test defences, market strength and political strengths and weaknesses, as well as understanding the situation of surfaces citizens. The Under people are known throughout the land as mysterious tribes of merchants and warriors, however what they don¡¯t know is that they think exactly what the Under-Kingdom wants them to think, ¡°if they think we are no threat, then they will let down their guard¡± is what the Dwarven King ¡®Berithor the Stone Worshiped¡¯ had famously said the day he signed the unification contract that sore the beginning of the Under-Kingdom of today. The Under-Kingdom is run by a council, one for each race, one for each of the Kingdoms that unified to form the Under-Kingdom and one to speak for each region of the Under-Kingdom, for a total of 209 Council members I don¡¯t know how the Council is run, but I assume it¡¯s a lot of long boring debates. Essentially the Under-Kingdom ruled that faults of a kingdom didn¡¯t lay on the fault of its citizens but on its government and began planning. There were a number of other questions, but I either didn¡¯t get an actual answer, or she didn¡¯t know. Within the next few days I continued to grow rapidly until I was slightly shorter than Shushen at which point I started to grow at a normal rate. Shushen would force me to go out and play with the other kids, his friends that he played with where a group of 7 other children that lived on our street and where around the same ago, when Shushen introduced them to me at first they looked at me like I was some kind of strange animal, I looked like a Dark elf, but with white skin, red hair and green eyes, added on to that I was known as the ¡®simple child¡¯ they picked on me at first, but that made Shushen angry and he go into a fight that ended up resorting to fists, which I stopped before they could strike each other. ¡°Friends shouldn¡¯t fight, don¡¯t be stupid, I am different so being picked on is normal Shushen, I just have to prove that I¡¯m like everyone else.¡± It became well known that I was blind after the mage figured it out, since then I¡¯d met him a number of other times, but he always seemed uncomfortable, apparently because he was a mage and had some sensitivity to mana, when my mana would crawl through the air like a mass of flying worms and wrap around him, he said it ¡°felt unnerving¡± and ¡°uncomfortable¡±. He didn¡¯t blame me for it because it was how I looked at things, but it didn¡¯t change how it felt like there where millions of worms wriggling around, on and under his skin. With that kind of explanation I can see how it would feel disgusting. When Shushen¡¯s friend where picking on me, I noticed 2 dark elven girls that appeared to be twins that would clutch themselves and look like they were going to cry whenever I looked in their direction, they were probably sensitive to mana, I felt kind of bad so I tried my best not to look anywhere in their direction. Shushen complained when I told him to not be angry with his friends. ¡°But they shouldn¡¯t pick on you because you¡¯re different!¡± He kept yelling at me angrily, it was cute seeing him angry for the first time, but I shook my head. ¡°Sushen, it doesn¡¯t bother me.¡± Shushen looked down at the ground and just stood there angrily for a while, I was at the very least above the teasing of children, but other than that I just found them all so cute and silly, I was grossing myself out a bit, but I always likes looking after children, ah I should of done something with that instead of wasting my life in my room¡­ That in the past now, I can¡¯t do anything about it anymore. The other children, except for the two twins approached me and Shushen and apologized, to Shushen for picking on his ¡®sister¡¯ (Which I wasn¡¯t, but oh well) and to me for being mean, I didn¡¯t look at them but said that ¡°I accept their apology¡± they didn¡¯t mind that I didn¡¯t look at them since they thought it was because I was blind. The other forced the dark elf twins towards us to apologize, they put up a struggle, but apologized to Shushen in the same way and then they walked up to me willingly, I looked at the ground at glancing at them by mistake. ¡°Why does my skin crawl whenever you look at me? You¡¯re gross!¡± One of them said immediately after I glanced at them, some of the other children voiced complaints and were telling them off, however I told them to ¡±Shut up¡± and then looked directly at the twins, which made them clutch themselves and fall on the ground with tears I their eyes. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, it¡¯s how I see, your only feeling it because your magically sensitive, you should ask you parents to let you learn magic, you¡¯ll probably become powerful, maybe¡­¡± Then I looked away after seeing them get a confused look on their face. ¡°You can see?¡± I nodded. ¡°With my mana, since my eyes don¡¯t work. That why you get the feeling like something is crawling all over you, because something is.¡± I couldn¡¯t see them, but it sounded like they got up off the ground. ¡°It feels gross.¡± I smiled and nodded. ¡°I know, I¡¯ve been told that by the physician down the road a few times.¡± Strangely from that day me and the two dark elf twins became good friends, apparently their father took them to see a mage who said they should begin their training as mages as soon as possible, apparently they possess a mana pool that is almost twice the size of most trained Mages, I guess if I could look at their stats it¡¯d all me stacked on intelligence or mind. I learned that the two were called Meize and Niera, they were both still uncomfortable whenever I looked in their direction, but they wouldn''t fall over clutching themselves and looking like they wanted to cry or like they had been molested anymore, though in a way I suppose I was molesting everyone I looked at. After class they¡¯d teach me some of the magic they learned that day, I was interested in learning magic, but I¡¯d given up since it would have required me having the capability to read. Magic was surprisingly easy to learn, but it was probably because there were low class spells that anyone should be able to cast with ease if they know the short chant, after repeating the chant a few times for me and making around a buckets worth of clean water, they told me to try. ¡°I desire the water of the earth, [Water Spring]¡± Water formed in my hand and then overflowed onto the ground, it was slightly more water than I could hold in both my hands, but after looking at it in amazement and a smile, I drank it, and it was slightly sweet, like spring water. The two congratulated me since I made more than 4 times the amount of water they could in one go. Chanting is strange, it¡¯s in a language that no one understands, no one has any idea what the chants means, they only know that something happens after saying it, according to Meize, their teacher said that no one knows the language and so no new chants can be made using the ancient elemental magic¡¯s, however there are newer forms of magic that magical research is progressing normally with, however this newer forms of magic aren¡¯t anywhere near as strong as the ancient magic¡¯s and are much more complicated, so the ancient magic¡¯s are still used more often than the newer forms of magic. My curiosity for magic was sated with the few spells the twins taught me each day. I convinced the blacksmith on my street to let me used his Iron rods that he wasn¡¯t using yet, I would swing them within sight of the blacksmith so that he didn¡¯t think I ran off with it. I was only 10, but I knew that it was better to acquaint yourself with a physical activity from a young age, if I start swinging continuously now, by the time I¡¯m actually old enough to be taught sword forms I¡¯ll already be able to swing naturally, but I honestly know nothing about swords, so at the very least I want it to at least feel natural to hold one. The blacksmith was happy because for some reason my presence attracted customers, he started calling me ¡®Good fortune¡¯. The next day I opened my Personal Management menu, I hadn¡¯t yet looked at it since I messaged Metra, I forgot about it¡­ I can¡¯t help it, this kind of game like menu is easily forgettable like a dream that was like a bad joke... I suppose part of me is still denying reality, but I can only deny it for so long¡­ I opened my stat window for the first time since I activated the contract,
Rank G | Creator
Useless Shady Back-Alley World Maker
NAMEKnife (Aneir)
RACEGreen Elf
Level1
Health130
Mana270
Strength6Intelligence21
Agility10Mind15
Endurance7Luck11
Charisma10
SKILLS
Sleepy (Passive)
Lonely (Passive)
Easily Hated (Passive)
Hot Temper (Passive)
Bad Shoulder (Passive)
Slap-Slap-Palm Arts (Martial)
Pass the Limit
Blind (Oulosc)(Curse)
Mana Sight (Metra)
Contact Reading (Metra)
Understand Speech (Metra)
I was completely a Mage-like character¡­. WHYYY!? Part of myself crumpled up inside and started throwing a tantrum like a cockroach during its death throes after having pesticide sprayed on it. So I¡¯m a blind mage character that can¡¯t learn or use complex spells because I can¡¯t do any of the studying of the many diagrams, pictographs and magic circles, I can have someone use the spell in front of me a few times and attempt to copy them, while satisfying, that can¡¯t be used on higher class spells that require understanding of long drawn out mathematical formulas that you have to memorise and work through while casting the spell in order to maintain proper control of the spell, as well as creation of magic circles and other annoying things that I can¡¯t do because my eyes don¡¯t work! Bullshit! This is Bullshit, I¡¯m going to kill that Oulosc bastard, I don¡¯t even care that he won¡¯t die, I just want the satisfaction of beating him down! As I got more and more angry I got into a habit that I used to have when I was younger during my previous life¡­ I started hitting and breaking things, adolescence is so nice, it takes all my anger management and throws it to the side, sometimes at the worst times. The main issue is that I completely lost control and can¡¯t stop until either I hurt myself or someone hurts me, once that happens I quickly cool of and instantly regret everything that just happened, I remember a great many youth filled scene during primary school in which I attacked my best friends while I¡¯d lost control and then broke down crying afterwards, ah, thinking about this is much better then thinking about what I¡¯m doing right now. I was continually hitting a stone bench with the blacksmiths Iron rod that he let me keep because of all the business I brought him, while screaming profanities in human and explaining exactly how I¡¯d torture Oulosc before eventually killing him, at which point his heal and wake up and then I¡¯d kill him again a few more time until he begged me to stop killing him. I think it would of looked pretty comical, a 10 year only girl screaming at the top of lung about how she was going to horribly torture and kill someone, but then I was the one saying that and I¡¯ve never really been right in the head. Though every time I hit the bench my left shoulder dislocated and then instantly relocated itself rather painful, which was what happened all the time in my previous life, I can¡¯t wait to get rid of that¡­ Eventually Bog-gobi who was in town for the next 2 weeks, found me sitting on the bench I was still hitting until moment before, by then I¡¯d lost my voice and was too tired to continue hitting the bench that I only managed to kick up some dust from with my attacks. ¡°H, Hey there Knifey, I heard you were screaming profanities and attacking a poor defenceless bench that was minding its own business.¡± I was still grumpy, so I grunted and suddenly found some people buying mushrooms incredibly interesting. ¡°Now Knifey, I know I haven¡¯t been able to be around much, but I¡¯m your father, I¡¯ll be there when you need me.¡± You really shouldn¡¯t say that you¡¯ll be there when they need you to a child, they might take you seriously¡­ I kept that to myself, What do you care I¡¯m just adopted! I decided would just be stupid and childish, even if I am a child right now. I thought about ignoring him, but I¡¯d learned in the past that sometimes ignoring someone is worse than doing something stupid. I sighed and looked vaguely in Bog-gobi¡¯s direction, only enough so that I could see him. ¡°I know¡­ Bog.¡± I never called him father, I tried once, but it just felt wrong since the father I knew was Hotel manager and worked late every night and sometimes wouldn¡¯t come home until 2am, he always smelled of sweat and dust, a man faithful to my mother no matter what she said or thought, he worked over time every day and sometimes only slept 4 hours and always looked exhausted. All so we could live happily and have everything we wanted while he worked himself to death. He always came home with a smile on his face, he was doing what made him happy, which was making his family happy, I wanted to hate him, I wanted to think he was cheating on my mother like my mother did, I didn¡¯t want to think that my father loved me because he was never around. But I couldn¡¯t, whenever my father was home he brightened up the room, he made everything awesome and great and made everyone worries disappear, he was my father, the happy man that made everything better just by being there. Bog-gobi was too similar to my original father, it wasn¡¯t fair being tormented in this way, constantly reminded of something I threw away but still did everything they could for me, I think it will take me a long while to get past that shame, but I won¡¯t let it be the same with my current father, even if adopted, he was my father and I would respect him, I will never let myself just fade away and then eventually die in some stupid way again. Bog-gobi smiled and pat me on the back and then took on a serious expression. ¡°Now why don¡¯t you tell me what¡¯s wrong, I¡¯ll be happy to listen to any of your problems, Knifey.¡± I decided to tell a half truth, but just thinking about Oulosc made my face twist in anger. ¡°I have so much talent as a Mage, but I can¡¯t be one because I¡¯m blind.¡± Bog-gobi¡¯s eyes opened wide for a moment before returning to his previous kind look. ¡°I¡¯m sure I could find a mage that would be willing to try teaching you magic verbally.¡± He said scratching the stubble on his green goblin chin. I shook my head. ¡°It¡¯s no good, I can¡¯t make magic circles, or read, I could try doing maths in my head but I would need someone to repeat the equation to me over and over again and even though I might not remember it properly, I can use basic Chant magic, but other than that is almost impossible, I might be able to memorise a single High class spell Chant and equation, but anything more than that¡­¡± I looked down at the ground and found that tears were falling from my eyes, I was always mentally weak, and nothing has changed. ¡°I¡¯ll learn how to use a sword with a few easy chants that I can use in a pinch, which should be enough.¡± ¡°Okay¡­ I¡¯m glad you want to learn how to protect yourself¡­ I¡¯m sorry you can¡¯t become a mage.¡± I shook my head and he hugged me and pat the back of my head a few times before pushing me away and forcing me to stand up. ¡°Say, lets go find you a sword instructor who¡¯s willing to teach a blind student and also a mage, you¡¯ll learn as much as you can of both.¡± He was smiling from ear to ear, he was way to happy that I wanted to learn how to fight, I guess he just wants me to be happy¡­ He walked me home, when we got back he told Hipria about what I wanted to do, Shushen overheard us and came over with light sparkling in his eyes and jumping around excitedly saying that he wanted to do it to. Hipria gave in after 2 hours of Shushen saying that he wanted to do it as well and asked Bog-gobi to convince the people he find for the job to let Shushen learn as well. Bog-gobi smiles widely and said that he would go ask for some favours from some old friends and left, I didn¡¯t see him for the rest of the week. When Bog-gobi returned, he brought a single well-dressed Human Male, with short well groomed grey hair, I started at him for a while and then looked at my father, who had giant smile on his stupid goblin face. ¡°Dad?¡± I said before thinking. The human man nodded with a bow like he just finished a performance. ¡°I am Gren Halehill, I serve Viscount Crodem Trastlefortem, the Viscount has heard from your father that you Miss Knifelim Blindsight and the young master Shushen Drakridge wish to enrol in the royal academy of Atitria, the Viscount has accepted with your father¡¯s request to sponsor both of your enrolments there.¡± The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. On the surface? I looked right at my father with my eye brows completely raised, how the hell did he manage that? Who is my father? My father nodded at me with his satisfied grin, I guess he wanted to surprise me and he did. I looked back in the vague direction of Gren. ¡°It¡¯s fine that I¡¯m blind?¡± He seemed to be looking at me for a moment, not exactly staring but looking around me and then at my face and then around me again, then he look straight at me without looking away. ¡°It¡¯s fine that you¡¯re blind.¡± I really wanted to go¡­ but shouldn¡¯t I be finding the Hero? I decided to message Metra. ¡°Give me a moment I need to¡­ think.¡± After leaving them with those words I ran off without listening to anything else, I ran to a secluded place I found near the city wall between 2 buildings.
Anier: Is this okay?
For a while I got no reply, she must have been busy, but eventually she replied.
Metra: It should be fine, just don¡¯t let Shushen die.
Anier: Of course I wouldn¡¯t let that happen, he¡¯s like a brother to me.
It felt wrong to leave without the hero I was supposed to be protecting¡­ With Metra¡¯s¡­ well I suppose I¡¯ll call it approval, I went back home, but there was a carriage waiting in from of the house, inside the carriage was all of my and Shushen¡¯s belongings. Seeing that I suppose I¡¯m going whether I want to or not, I went inside the house and found my father, Gren, Hipria and her sister Rixal who¡¯d only come visit every now and then if my father was around. ¡°Knifey, welcome back, settled down?¡± I father said to me when he noticed me by the door, I nodded. ¡°Good, I know it¡¯s a bit sudden and a really big surprise, but we¡¯ll be leaving today with Shushen, Gren and Rixal. I¡¯ve been stationed in Atitria permanently to act as our new ally, Viscount Trastlefortem¡¯s advisor.¡± He smiled while taking a sip of the fucking tea they were drinking, the entire scene pissed me off. ¡°Oh, I see, then let¡¯s hurry up and go.¡± I said deeply and spin around and walked out of the house. After waiting another hour, they finally came out of the house, Hipria was codling her son and doing the average, ¡°Make sure you comb your hair.¡± ¡°Remember to bathe.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t let people bully you.¡± ¡°Stay healthy.¡± ¡°Eat well.¡± ¡°Take care of Knife.¡± and so on. Seeing that I just sighed and continued digging at the earth with my Iron rod¡­ After some time Hipria let go of her son who was getting annoyed because she started repeating herself, the five of us all got on the carriage and were pulled along by the two horse strapped to the front of the carriage. According to Bog-gobi or rather my father¡­ we¡¯re going to take a tunnel road that exits near the Viscout¡¯s estate, the trip will take us 3 months if we ride until we¡¯re tired each day, which reminds me, in the Under-Kingdom there isn¡¯t a sense of day or night, we just always refer to it as day time and people continue working until they¡¯re tired, at which point they go home and sleep or just sleep somewhere comfortable, some Under people are lazy like that. One week after we¡¯d begun travelling my farther turned to me and Shushen. ¡°We¡¯ll be getting into some dangerous territory for the rest of our trip, so the two of you need to listen closely to anything I say, if I tell you to run, run to the carriage and hide, animals won¡¯t be able to smell you over our supplies and you¡¯ll be safe until I¡¯ve dealt with them, okay?¡± We both nodded, but Shushen looked like he¡¯d jump out of his seat and start bouncing around, I on the other hand was on high alert, I¡¯d never been in a situation like this before, traveling where there could be danger at any moment, I had my Iron rod resting on my lap and during the week my father was gone before we''d left, I¡¯d convinced the Twins to teach me an offensive spell, the spell was ¡®Flame Retire¡¯ it was technically still a low class spell, but it could kill and that¡¯s what mattered. Of course if I tried to fight I¡¯d most likely die, but if it came down to it I could at the very least attempt to protect my or Shushen¡¯s life. ¡°Rixel, why are you coming with us?¡± I Shushen asked, it seems he¡¯d finally calmed down enough to get curious. ¡°Well¡­ A wife should be with her husband shouldn¡¯t she?¡± I froze. Then I jerked my head in her direction, she was looking right at me while smiling, like a cat that had caught its prey. ¡°You-¡° She cut me off. ¡°I¡¯ve been married to your father for 30 years now.¡± She had a glint in her eye, or well I suppose I imagined that since I couldn¡¯t see light. Needless to say I was speechless, I was wondering why her sister was willing to do so much for me, but now I get it, we¡¯re family, well I hope that they make their first born soon and don¡¯t fuss over me. Rixel just continued to smile at me for a while and then decided the get close to my father¡­ who is half her size. Remembering my previous life, I feel sad knowing that a women like Rixel with a minimal body fat, was considerably muscular without it seeming gross and a well rounded body that was plum in all the right places, in addition to a face that belonged on a marble statue with beautiful beyond belief, was with a short, ugly, green, goblin¡­ to each their own I suppose? Rixel turned to Bog-gobi and spoke with anger in her voice. ¡°You didn¡¯t tell her?¡± My father had a guilty expression¡­ ¡°There was never a good time to tell her¡­¡± Rixel responded to his answer by slapping him so hard he almost fell off the carriage. He shut up, that was the right choice if you ask me, it seemed like anything he said at that moment would just make things worse for him, it¡¯s him own fault. I can¡¯t believe I thought my mother was just ¡®That strange women that comes over every now and then¡¯ I¡¯m a bit angry at my father as well. ¡°So all this time you where my mother, I just thought you liked Bog. I¡¯m sorry I didn¡¯t realize Rixel¡­¡± ¡°I do, just a lot more then you thought.¡± She smiled at me and I couldn¡¯t help but feel a little awkward and I felt tired, so I nodded to Rixel, said, ¡°Goodnight¡± and went to sleep. < --/-/-- > I was sleeping soundly, a dreamless sleep that suddenly became a dream of flying through nothingness, as I flew a barrier blocked my path and I smashed into it head first, I tasted my blood in my mouth which was strangely sweet like tree sap, the shock sent tingles down my spine and across my shoulders, I was disorientated, confused and dizzy, pain shooting all throughout my body. I tried to get up, but only succeeded in rolling onto my back, I wasn¡¯t dreaming. I could hear the clashing of iron and the cries of battle, but why? Bandits? I was having trouble thinking, it seems I took quite a hard hit to the head. Someone ran to me and shook me, when they came into my view I could see that it was Shushen. ¡°Shushen, what are you doing? You should hide.¡± I groaned out and pushed myself up to a sitting position, I was too far away to see the battle, but I could hear Rixel, Gren and my father yelling as they fought. ¡°How many are there?¡± I asked Shushen who looked like he was in shock, I shook him weekly and repeated my question, he just continue to stare at me like he didn¡¯t know what to do or say, I slapped his useless face with all my strength and placed my face right in front of his and fueled with my rage of being hurt when I wasn¡¯t paying attention and added to my Shushen''s refusal to respond, I shouted as loud as I could at his face. ¡°TELL ME HOW MANY THERE ARE SHUSHEN!!!¡± Of course I was being stupid and blinded with my own rage, it didn¡¯t matter how many there are, I wouldn¡¯t be able to do anything. But I wanted blood, I wanted to hear them cower and grovel, I wanted them to pay for attacking us and I didn¡¯t care that I was weak. Shushen¡¯s eyes widened, I must have been making quite the expression on my face. ¡°18¡± He said in half a whisper. ¡°They aren¡¯t wearing armour, but they are quick and have swords.¡± No shit they have swords, hah~¡­.. ¡°Which direction?¡± He pointed to his right and I forced myself onto my feet with difficulty, taking a step I almost fell over, I still hadn¡¯t recover from my dizziness, but I kept walking in the direction until I reached the carriage, inside I could see a goblin that wasn¡¯t my father, there was no one else immediately around me, I could hear that Gren, Rixel and my father had attempted to draw them all away, most likely a large portion of the bandits them went after them while the rest stayed to look the carriage, at least that was my guess. I walked around to the back of the carriage so I was behind the goblin, he was taking a snack, eating our food, his bag was full of a number of our things, but then I heard someone approach from behind me, I turned to face him. It was a Dark Elf male, like all elves he was good looking, he has a short sword drawn. ¡°Shouldn¡¯t you¡¯a run little girl?¡± He was acting cocky and resting his short sword on his shoulder as he approached me, I¡¯d seen and heard enough. ¡°I ask the flames of rest to guard the night, ¡®Flame Retire¡¯¡± The flames from all the torches within as far as I could see and further gathered in front of my out stretched hand, creating a magically enhanced ball of fire that was twice as big as my head. The Dark Elf bandit¡¯s eyes opened wide and he sputtered, I stared at him without moving. Flame retire is a ward spell that will active when someone you didn¡¯t designate as an ally while casting it takes a hostile action, how it can tell what¡¯s a hostile action I don¡¯t know, when activated it will shoot out at whoever activated it, though potentially powerful, the spell requires actually flames in order to be activated and can only be made slightly more powerful with mana than the amount of flames used in the casting. The size of my ¡®Flame Retire¡¯ was on the level of a 7th class spell, the lowest being 12th class, the bandit has probably seen magic a few times, so I¡¯m guessing to him I might look like a powerful mage, because as soon as I had finished my chant he stood still and didn¡¯t more, refused to move and provoke the activation of the ward. The other bandit in the carriage had turned to me but also froze when he saw the floating fireball, I climbed into the back of the carriage and stood right in from of him. ¡°Move.¡± He moved out of the way and I grabbed my Iron rod from my bag. Both their eyes were on me, I couldn¡¯t help but smile, it was embarrassing to have my one spell useful in a battle be feared so greatly. I tested the weight of my Iron rod while looking down at it, I hadn¡¯t swung it for a week now, I sighed. Though I¡¯d gotten into fights in my previous life, I¡¯d never killed anyone, or fought with the intent to kill, but my boiling rage had turned to ice, I will kill these men. I looked up from my iron rod and jumping down from the carriage. ¡°Hey now little miss, you won¡¯t kill us, you¡¯re a smart one, just let us go and we won¡¯t bother you, well go take our friends and you¡¯ll never see us again.¡± The goblin said, cold sweat trickly down his brow. ¡°Y, yeah, I¡¯m the leader of this group of bandits, j, just let me go and you¡¯ll never see any of us again.¡± The Dark elf added. ¡°We av gold, look we¡¯s sorry miss, we didn¡¯t think you¡¯d all fight us and we didn¡¯t mean for ya to be thrown from your carriage when we crashed the Bouren into ya.¡± So that¡¯s why I was awoken in such a way¡­ well it doesn¡¯t matter now. I looked to the Dark elf just enough to see through his clothes, don¡¯t get me wrong I didn¡¯t want to get a look, I was checking for the 5 small daggers he keeps on his person, one in each boot, one up each sleave and one in his shirt. ¡°Really?¡± They both smiled when I said this, but I continued. ¡°Then please remove all your weapons.¡± They nodded and dropped the weapons there where holding, nothing more. The goblin was only wearing pants and had nothing but a bag full of our stuff and the sword he was holding, I smiled and walked up to the dark elf bandit. ¡°Thank you.¡±
Pass the Limit Activated
Activating a skill was as simply as wanting it to activate. With my strength doubled I should at least be able to stun him. I stuck his face with my iron rod, it seemed he didn¡¯t expect it so it connected solidly, he fell to the ground and held his face. ¡°Wah, I did what you asked!¡± He yelled looking back up at me. I narrowed my eyes and lowered the eyebrows while looking vaguely in his direction. ¡°You still have 5 daggers strapped to your body, you didn¡¯t do a single thing of what I said.¡± My voice was deeper than normal with a slight growl to it and a strange sound like bark rubbing against bark as I spoke, which I ignored. I struck his head again and then again and again, each time he cried out saying he¡¯ll kill me and all this other obnoxious and arrogant bullshit that I¡¯ll spare you from. I continued to strike his head, his arrogant shouts and attempts to get up stopped and he just huddled up attempting to protect his head and crying, I continued to strike him until he stopped making noise. Noticing that he stopped moving or making noise, I reached into his shirt and drew his dagger there, it was the largest dagger on his person, probably his primary back up weapon. I looked at the blade of the dagger, I didn¡¯t know anything about forging a blade, so it was just something sharp used for killing to me. Part of me knew I would regret what I¡¯d done here when my rage dissipated, I should of just found a place to hide with Shushen, but at the moment I didn¡¯t care, I wanted the world to burn and anyone that denied me to suffer and perish. After looking at the blade for some time I looked at the goblin who still hadn¡¯t moved. ¡°You should have run away.¡± I said coldly while holding the dark elf bandits dagger, the flame ward in between us. ¡°You said you¡¯d let us go if we dropped our weapons!¡± I looked at the dark elf¡¯s body and then at the dagger in my hand. ¡°And you didn¡¯t drop your weapons.¡± I waved the dagger in the air next to my head to insist my point. ¡°Now you have to choose, you can let me beat you to death, or you can attack me and hope that my spell doesn¡¯t kill you.¡± The goblins eyes narrowed when I said this. ¡°That¡¯s not a choice.¡± I nodded to his moment of genius. He stood there in a ready position like he intended to run, but it seems he didn¡¯t think running was a choice, because he jumped towards me from on the carriage, at his sign of hostility the floating ball of fire moved quickly flew through the air in a wobbly flowing motion and struck him square in the chest, he lit up like a light and the only thing that reached me was a corpse with a deep burn in its chest and the smell of charred meat. I kicked his corpse a few times as hard as I could and then called out to Shushen. After some time he eventually approached me, he was crying and shivering like a little puppy. It was pitched black, but he was a Dark Elf, so he could see in the dark and I didn¡¯t use eyes to see, so I was fine as well, I got him into the back of the carriage and then I climbed in as well. We hid there for 4 hours, during which I worried about my father, three people taking on sixteen armed bandits, most likely the bandit leader was there as well, Ir effuse to believe that Dark elf bandit before was their leader. My worries were proved wrong when all three of them returned, they were slightly injured with a few cuts and bruises, but it seems they were far more skilled and far stronger then the bandits. When they returned and saw the corpses the where immediately worried, running to the carriage and checking the inside, I was sitting there holding the crying Shushen and looking at them. ¡°Your back, I¡¯m glad.¡± I didn¡¯t say anything else and just continue to try and get Shushen to calm down. Gren went to inspect the two corpses while Rixel climbed into the carriage and gave both me and Shushen a hug, Bog-gobi ¨C My father, stood guard, remaining alert and keeping watch for any more bandits. When Rixel hugged me and then Shushen, I noticed a large amount of sticky orange translucent fluid in her hair and down the front of her shirt after she hugged me¡­ Oh, that¡¯s what my blood looks like, haha, I forgot for a moment there. Pain returned quickly like a steadily beating drum, the world span and I dropped onto the wooden floor of the carriage, unable to move my body as the pain that had flared up and everything else slowly went to nothing. I opened my eyes, I was dead¡­ I died just like that¡­ cover in my own blood that poured out from a wound in my head, Bog-gobi had rushed over to me when I fell over and was shacking me and yelling, but I couldn¡¯t hear him, all sound was muted as I looked down at them in my ghostly form. This SUCKS. I said to myself silently.
Metra: Good work, you fulfilled your duty this time, but you died doing it¡­ I¡¯m a little disappointed Anier.
Anier:I was asleep, it was unavoidable¡­
I replied dejectedly.
Metra:True, I¡¯d already known this would happen since I hired you, but this isn¡¯t the end of our contract, the hero still lives because you saved them.
Anier What do you mean? The only one I saved was Shushen.
Metra: Shushen the future Hero of the Under-Kingdom, to be exact.
Anier: So that was all you? Everything that happened?
Metra: We are Creators, Anier. Not Gods, I knew where you needed to be, other than that I had no power over anything else, I can¡¯t do any immediate changes to the world without it costing ridiculous amounts of ¡®MaP¡¯ and creating problems.
I remained silent.
Metra:Take a few days off Anier, it¡¯ll take them a few months to reach Atitria, until then get your head on straight and use your brain a bit more. You should be able to rank up and should possess a considerable amount of ¡®MaP¡¯ compared to before, spend it, rank up and then activate the contract again, there is nothing to worry about, things are going how they¡¯re supposed to.
I sighed as I watched my family for the last 10 years cry over my body¡­ dammit, we shouldn¡¯t have gone, fuck. After a few moments I was transferred back to my personal space, there I fell on my bed and just stared at the ceiling¡­ I died a second time, this time¡­ was also stupid, but for a different reason, I was stupid. I should have got them to teach me a healing spell¡­ so stupid, stupid, stupid. This time I cried about dying, I didn¡¯t the first time, but this time around I still had so many things I wanted to do¡­ I slept... < --/-/-- > When I woke up I sat at my computer and pushed in the power button, it started up and I opened up my finances, over the last ten years I¡¯d received a total of 24000MaP, for my time while hired I receive RP equal to 10% of each payment sent to me from my employer, I now have 120 RP, it costs 100RP to rank up from G to F. I selected ¡®Rank up¡¯ from the ¡®Myself¡¯ window.
Your Rank has Upgraded, Congratulations!
You are now a Rank F Creator
As a Rank F Creator it is now possible to Enter a world as a child, instead of being reborn.
You are now able to bring Items from the ¡®Infinity Space¡¯ to worlds created by Creators
I chose to assume that the ¡®Infinity Space¡¯ was where everyone¡¯s personal space was located.
Rank F Skills are now available for purchase from your ¡®Myself¡¯ menu in your personal space
You Have Gained the passive Skill ¡®Dampen Pain¡¯
You Have Gained the Skill ¡®Steadfast¡¯
The passive Skill ¡®Sleepy¡¯ has Evolved to ¡®Well Rested¡¯
The passive Skill ¡®Lonely¡¯ has Evolved to ¡®Strangeness¡¯
The passive Skill ¡®Easily Hated¡¯ has Evolved to ¡®Suspicious¡¯
The passive Skill ¡®Hot Temper¡¯ has Evolved to ¡®Berserker¡¯
The passive Skill ¡®Bad Shoulder¡¯ has Evolved to ¡®Sore Shoulder¡¯
The passive Skill ¡®Mana Sight (Metra)¡¯ has Evolved to ¡®Creeping Feelers¡¯
The evolution of the Skill ¡®Mana Sight (Metra)¡¯ has unlocked the Skill ¡®Creeping tendrils¡¯
The Skill ¡®Pass the Limit¡¯ has split into the passive Skill ¡®Push the Limit¡¯ and the Skill ¡®Transcend the Limit¡¯
You killed without batting an eye, you have received the personal title ¡®Coldblooded¡¯
You killed, you have received the secondary title ¡®Murderer¡¯
You are a Rank F Creator, you have received the Rank F Creator Title ¡®Of Life and Death
You title is now ¡®Useless shady, Of Life and Death¡¯
My mood improved a bit at all the benefits I just gained, though it didn¡¯t change that I died. However knowing that I could return to the world from the place of my corpse as a child made me feel better, I died at the age of 10 and I¡¯ll return with a body that looks like a 10 year old body, it made it easier to deal with losing my family in a way.
Knifelim Blindsight has been added to the Import menu.
¡­ So that¡¯s what the import extra function is for, I opened up my menu and opened my stat screen, it was blank and only displayed the name ¡°Anier¡± and my partially new title. I activated the ¡®Extra menu¡¯ and selected ¡®Import¡¯ and then Knifelim Blindsight. My body lit up and then I found that my computer desk and chair where much bigger, actually I was much smaller. I got out of my chair and found that the short grey dress Metra has given me now went past my ankles and dragged slightly on the ground, it wasn¡¯t so long that I would trip over it however. I opened my stats again.
Rank F | Creator
Useless Shady of Life and Death
NAMEKnifelim Blindsight (Aneir)
RACEGreen Elf
Level2
Health260
Mana490
Strength14Intelligence32
Agility15Mind23
Endurance16Luck17
Charisma15
SKILLS
Well Rested (Passive)
Strangeness (Passive)
Suspicious (Passive)
Berserker (Passive)
Sore Shoulder (Passive)
Slap-Slap-Palm Arts (Martial)
Push the Limit (Passive)
Transcend the Limit
Blind (Oulosc)(Curse)
Creeping Feelers
Creeping Tendrils
Contact Reading (Metra)
Understand Speech (Metra)
Dampen Pain
Steadfast
They had increased by a great deal and I had only gained a single level, reading my skills, I found that ¡®Push the Limit¡¯ increases all my stats by half of their total, so a 10 becomes 15 and so. ¡®Well Rested¡¯ boosts my stats by 2% when I¡¯ve had a good night¡¯s sleep, it wouldn¡¯t really do anything visible to my stats at the moment. ¡®Strangeness¡¯ was self-explanatory. ¡®Berserker¡¯ quadruples my strength when I¡¯m angry, but I cause damage to myself. ¡®Sore Shoulder¡¯ is exactly as it sounds, my shoulder doesn¡¯t dislocate at random times or when I exercise now. ¡®Transcend the Limit¡¯ increases my Stats by 200% for a short amount of time. ¡®Creeping Feelers¡¯ lets me see in a dome around myself in the same way the ¡®Mana Sight (Metra)¡¯ lets me see, but in 360 degrees around myself. ¡®Creeping Tendrils¡¯ Lets me see in the same way as ¡®Mana sight (Metra)¡¯ but I can see up to 10 meters in the direction I¡¯m facing. ¡®Dampen Pain¡¯ reduces all incoming damage by 10% ¡®Steadfast¡¯ was a pretty major skill, it gives me an effect equal to an A rank passive skill ¡®Regeneration¡¯ when I am following an order. So long as I am following an order or believe what I am doing has purpose, I will continually regenerate, this regeneration can even prevent death. I asked Metra about ¡®Steadfast¡¯ and apparently when you rank up you receive 2 unique skills as a prize, she was very impressed that I got so lucky. I also read the description for ¡®Contact reading¡¯, it allows me to see the any words on something in my mind, for example if I wanted to read a book I just need to lay my hands on it and the entire book can be read in my head, it¡¯s how I was able to see the menu and use my personal computer without even noticing any difference from before. I was happy with my current skills, so I won¡¯t be buying any more, instead I¡¯ll buy equipment from the Market World. I went on the Extra-net and clicked the link on my profile to begin the transfer to the Market World Everything around me disappeared for a while, during which time I felt the familiar slight motion sickness from traveling through the ¡®field of whiteness¡¯ as I¡¯ve decided to call it, it felt weird not seeing everything turn white, but I was still blind. I didn¡¯t care that I was blind anymore. When I realized that I thought that, I also realized that my emotions where being dampened by something, maybe they dampen the emotions of Creators so that they can make cold and calculated decisions? No, it would be my sub-conscious that is doing that, I guess I just don¡¯t want to feel at the moment so that I can focus on what¡¯s important. The transfer completed and I found myself standing in a busy street lined with stores.
You have been given access to the Market World Navigation Menu
I opened the navigation menu and entered into the search menu that I wanted to look for the closest weapons store, I was teleported instantly before I realized it, to the front of a store called ¡°Bernith¡¯s Arms and Armour¡± a pretty bad name, but whatever, what mattered was what it sold. ¡°Hello there miss, first time I¡¯ve seen you, but there¡¯re always new people showing up every day.¡± I nodded to him without saying anything and started looking around the room. ¡°Not much for talking huh?¡± He looked at me up and down before sighing and nodding. ¡°You don¡¯t look like a Magician¡­ or a Saint, definitely not a demon¡­ you wouldn¡¯t happen to be a Creator would you miss?¡± Wait there are beings other than Creators? I walked closer to him so that I didn''t seem rude. ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m a Creator, what were those other things you mentioned?¡± The shop keeper seemed to start shivering, he must be sensitive to Mana. ¡°Just that you lack equipment and yet are able to walk around like you don¡¯t have a care in the world.¡± ¡°There are plenty of arrogant people, what surprises me is that I thought there would only be Creator¡¯s here.¡± ¡°Sorry to disappoint you, but the Creators are well respected in their own way they make some nice worlds, their worlds make a lot of merchandise, however not everyone qualifies as a Creator, some become Gods, some become just normal people, some become monsters, others become Hero¡¯s, it all just depends on how they lived their first lives.¡± Crosses his arms. ¡°The endless cycle begins and then continues until they reach here, ¡®The Central Plaza¡¯ or ¡®Market World¡¯ as the Creators call it.¡± ¡°From ¡®The Central Plaza¡¯ you can reach any world, though you lose your memories of this place when you do that, of course you get them back when you return, but you don¡¯t need to worry about that, now do you?¡± ¡°Well then Miss Creator, may I ask what you¡¯ve come to my humble store for?¡± I wanted to ask more questions, but the majority of me didn¡¯t care. ¡°I¡¯m looking for a sword, preferably a short sword.¡± The shopkeeper gets up and walks out from behind the counter. ¡°I¡¯ll assume you intend to pay in ¡®MaP¡¯?¡± I nodded. ¡°Then come right this way, oh great Creator.¡± I frowned, this shopkeeper seemed to dislike Creators either that or he¡¯s just a jackass, and needless to say he might rip me off because I know nothing about swords or the value of currencies. He led me to a corner of the room with various weapons spread about on tables and sticking out of barrels. ¡°I can look for something for you or you can look yourself Miss Creator, either way is fine with me.¡± I shrug, I don¡¯t know how to find a good weapon. ¡°Please recommend something for me, anything would be fine, however I would prefer a short sword.¡± he sighed heavily before walking over and rustling through a few barrels and picking up 2 weapons form the tables, all of them were short swords. ¡°Follow me to the front desk, you can look at them there.¡± We walked back to the front desk and he placed them all carefully on the desk and motioned me to take a look. I glanced at him with my eyes and then picked up a short sword with a plain sheath and drew it, the blade had a line diagonally threw the blade, from the hilt to the end of the blade. ¡°What is this line along the blade?¡± He seemed to be giving off a cold sweat. ¡°Ugh, that¡¯s a part of the design.¡± I narrowed my eyes at the blade, it looks like a crack to me, he seems like he¡¯s trying to sell me some useless shit, the crack went through the entire blade, and I wouldn¡¯t trust this weapon with my life. I sheathed the trash weapon and threw it onto the counter. ¡°Its trash, even I can tell that, are these other short swords like this? Are you trying to slight me simply because you don¡¯t like what I am?¡± ¡°N, not at all Miss Creator, it¡¯s just that I see no point to sell a perfectly good weapon to someone that can just materialize one out of thin air.¡± I stared daggers at him with my eyes. ¡°I can¡¯t create something from nothing.¡± I walked over to the first weapon my eyes laid on and picked it up, I then walked back to the front desk and unsheathed it, it was a longsword, for my current size it was more like a greatsword, the scabbard was red and inlayed with intricate silver patterns, the blade was solid and gave off a faint light, I sheathed it. ¡°How much is this sword?¡± The shopkeeper gave me a look like I asked him how many men his wife sleeps with each day. ¡°20000MaP, now fuck off, if since you think my weapons are trash-¡± He seemed like he¡¯d go on for a while. ¡°Deal.¡± His mouth went slack, that shut him up thankfully. ¡°What?¡± He asked me, his mouth still open slightly. ¡°I said deal, this sword for 20000MaP.¡± ¡°Are you crazy girl?¡± ¡°Are you selling this sword or not?¡± ¡°If you¡¯re serious, then you¡¯re damn right I¡¯m selling that shitty sword.¡± I nodded at him and smiled. ¡°Thank you mister Shopkeeper.¡± I emptied 20000MaP onto his table from my inventory, it took the form of 200 white cubes. I kept the sword in my hands as I payed the shopkeeper. ¡°You Creators really are all crazy like everyone says.¡± The shopkeeper shook his head, I didn¡¯t care even if he had ripped me off, I was sick of his shit and could just easily get more just by sitting around if I really wanted to. ¡°Does this sword have a name?¡± He laughed. ¡°Hahahahaha, a name? It could actually be called ¡®Shitty Ornamental Sword¡¯ for all I care.¡± I nodded to him with a straight face and then put the sword in my inventory.
¡¯Shitty Ornamental Sword¡¯ has been added to your Inventory
I found it funny, so I guess somewhere in my subconscious it was decided that would be the swords name¡­. I only have 4000MaP left, but it was worth it to see his face. I opened the Navigation menu again and searched for a magic store, being too lazy to trudge through the list I chose the closes one and was teleported there and walked in. The Storekeeper greeted me as I walked into the store, I returned the greeting and immediately spotted a bookshelf by the front desk. ¡°What are the books?¡± I asked as I walked to the counter. The man smiled. ¡°These are universal Magic tomes little one, they adjust to whatever world you¡¯re in, you only need one, just specify what category or kind of magic you¡¯re looking for before you open and when you open it there¡¯ll be whatever magic you were looking for.¡± ¡°That is incredibly convenient, what¡¯s the catch?¡± ¡°No catch, they¡¯re just very expensive and you might lose them, if you do, please feel free to come get another one from me.¡± I was still hesitant, but I supposed it¡¯s worth a try. ¡°How much is expensive?¡± The man scratched the back of his head and seemed reluctant. ¡°9000Chips.¡± I don¡¯t know that currency. ¡°How much is that in MaP?¡± The man seemed surprised and seemed to change his attitude. ¡°Oh, that would be 3000MaP, my apologies I didn¡¯t realize. Be sure to come sell any magic items you come across and have no need for to my shop, y¡¯hear?¡± ¡°Sure, I only started recently, so can you tell me why you want magical items from different worlds, wouldn¡¯t they stop working?¡± ¡°It¡¯s possible to convert the magical item into something that will work in all worlds with magic by adding a universal ¡®transmuter symbol¡¯ to the magical formula.¡± ¡°Do you offer a deal for getting just the transmuter symbol added?¡± ¡°Sure do. 50000MaP for the cost of materials and labour.¡± That¡¯s really expensive, so magical items must be worth a lot, I¡¯ll ask him how much one is worth if I have one when I next return. ¡°I see, I¡¯ll just buy the book for now.¡± I placed the 3000MaP on his desk and he went over and retrieved the book for me. ¡°I hope this comes in handy for you miss, I¡¯m guessing since you¡¯re getting this that your currently working as an Adventurer or a Hero?¡± ¡°Yes¡± I said simply to his question waiting for him to continue. ¡°Well¡­ just be careful not to go get any skills that will screw you up.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll keep that in mind.¡± I smiled at him and then waved goodbye and left, once I was out of the store I sighed, ¡°To late¡± I said mid sigh. I decided to go have a meal and then return to my personal space before reactivating the contract. The meal was great, but strange, I found this reasonably sized shop that was covered with vines and ate there, I didn¡¯t recognize the names of any of the meals, so I just ordered at random, what they gave me was a grassy green semi-solid blob of something, I used the spoon they provided to take a scoop, it wasn¡¯t bad, it was sweet like eating pudding, but left a tingly feeling in my mouth and had a grass taste to it which tasted strangely good. The other customers in the restaurant where all either half-animal, elf or mysterious substance looking people. I returned to my personal space, went to sleep, woke up some time later and sat at my computer. Today I¡¯ll be going back, I¡¯ll catch up to them and say that I somehow was resurrected, then I can have my family back¡­ yeah, it¡¯ll be like I never died. I started up my computer. The screen displayed ¡®Personal Space¡¯ like usually before displaying the desktop, I immediately went to Metra''s page on the Extra-net and activated the Contract and began the transfer. I felt the air vibrate for a time before everything disappeared from my ¡®sight¡¯ and was replaced with nothingness.
Author notes, Converting the tables, so painful, took so long, ah.... hahah, I''m just used to using html so it feel weird using this new thing.
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Chapter 2 - Twisting Darkness Chapter 2 ¨C Twisting Darkness I was watching my cute daughter sleep soundly, she had looked so worried since I¡¯d mentioned we were getting into dangerous territory, but I can protect her from anything. Though I¡¯m no more than 3 feet tall, I¡¯m stronger then I look, I¡¯ve always been stronger than normal goblins, better trained, smarter, stronger and luckier, there¡¯s no one who could be a better father than me for my child, it doesn¡¯t matter that we aren¡¯t blood, she¡¯s my daughter and I would do anything for her. When I heard her express how much she wanted to learn magic and the sword, I was impressed and happy beyond belief. Of course my daughter would be as incredible as me, even more so in fact. I know what you¡¯re thinking, ¡¯But no one can be as incredible as Bog-gobi, first born and only surviving son of the 139th Chieftain of the Goblin Kingdom!¡¯ But it¡¯s true, She¡¯s blind and can¡¯t see at least not with her eyes, she ¡®sees¡¯ by wrapping her mana around things, it¡¯s something that Jep the physician down the road from Hipria¡¯s house said was impossible, such complex subconscious manipulation of mana, if someone was capable of that they would be able to become an existence equal to the great heroes of old that slayed the demon Metrath. I could tell Jep was afraid of my daughter and what she might have been capable of becoming if she hadn¡¯t been blind. If only she wasn¡¯t blind, was what I¡¯d thought to myself every night since I learned of my daughters gifts. But I should have known that my daughter wouldn¡¯t simply give up, so after I heard her speak of her resolve I left and went to contact my father, 9th seat of the Council ¨C Gel-gobi. I arranged a meeting, when I arrived on the day of the meeting he smiled weakly, arms wide-spread and hugged me tightly. ¡°Bog my boy, it¡¯s so good to see you, what has it been, nearly 20 years since me last had a chance to talk?¡± ¡°Yes father, it¡¯s been a while¡­¡± I felt ashamed, we both did, we¡¯d been avoiding each other for decades, but my daughter needed me and my father, though he seemed strong and health at that very moment, wouldn¡¯t live for much longer, turning 193 next year, he probably only has 1 or 2 more decades in him¡­ ¡°I feel awkward coming to meet you after so long, but my daughter wants to learn magic and the sword.¡± ¡°Oh? You and your wife finally had a child?¡± ¡°No¡­ we¡¯re still having difficulties, we adopted a young surface elf that was being sold 10 years ago.¡± He seemed to be forcing his smile a bit harder now. ¡°I see¡­ so she wishes to learn magic and the sword?¡± He brought his hand to his chin and scratched it. ¡°If she has the patience for magic, wouldn¡¯t it be better for her to focus on that?¡± ¡°She¡¯s blind.¡± He jolted slightly, it seemed like a shock for him that his granddaughter he only just learned about would be blind. ¡°And she wants to learn magic AND the sword?¡± He looked at me confused, but I just smiled wider and nodded. ¡°Yes, she does and I know she can do it.¡± ¡°But she¡¯s blind, no one would want to teach a blind student that can¡¯t even put it to use.¡± I shook my head. ¡°She can learn it and she can put it to use, she¡¯s a very incredible child, not even being blind can affect her.¡± He sighed dramatically and waved his hands. ¡°Fine, I won¡¯t be able to find a normal teacher for her, it¡¯s rare for someone to learn both magic and swordsmanship unless they¡¯re a noble or royalty¡­ ah! Actually-¡± He walked over to his desk and picked up a piece of parchment there. ¡°I¡¯ve received a request from a powerful ally for us to send him an advisor, this is both an act of good will on our part and a show of trust on theirs.¡± He held the parchment out to me and I walked over and accepted it from him, I began reading it as my father continued. ¡°We could easily send you and your wife as the advisors under the condition that your child received the same education as their own child.¡± Reading the parchment, it was almost too good to be true. ¡°This¡­ if you can do this for me, I don¡¯t know how I would thank you for it.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t thank me for it, your my son and I¡¯ve done nothing for you, so at the very least before I die and the next chieftain is chosen, I can do at least this much.¡± And so we arranged for my daughter and my sister-in-laws son to be given the best possible education, an education that most kings outside of Atitria the Kingdom of Magic never receive. Now I watch my cute Knifey sleep as we slowly make our way to Atitria, my wife has been so excited since she heard that we were going to finally be able to spend time together, it¡¯s been 30 years since we got married and 30 years since we started working for the council, we haven¡¯t had time to be together, not for more than a few hours and me usually spent that time catching up with one another. I think Knifey was unhappy with going to the surface, but she quickly changed her attitude when we started leaving, I was glad she got over it and seemed to harden her resolve for learning. As I day dreamed about how great and power she might become in the future, the carriage was rammed from the side by a bouren, a subterranean creature that looks like a giant dung beetle, it¡¯s often used in place of horses in the Under-Kingdom. The carriage almost tipped over onto its side, but came crashing back down on the side that was hit, shortly after we heard the war cries of a thief clan I¡¯d read reports of, ¡®Darmonies¡¯ they claim to be remnants of those that rebelled against the unification of the Under-Kingdom, but that¡¯s a load of shit, they¡¯re just thieves and bandits that plague the tunnels and roads like rodents. Torches where lit from atop the ridges on either side of the tunnel and 18 men can running at us, swords in hands. I instantly drew my daggers and dashed towards the man at the head of the pack, Rixel drew her long sword from behind a barrel in a fluid motion and Gren¡¯s muscles bulged as he ran forwards with me, no weapons in his hands. I roared out as I jumped onto the man at the front of their charge, he screamed as I thrust my dagger into his neck and dragged it across and down into his chest, I jumped off his corpse that had fallen to the ground during his death, just in time to dodge an attack from another goblin, I parried his next attack and stabbed his stomach with the dagger in my other hand. I ran to kill a woman that was coming up on my wife from behind, she screamed with a hellish gurgle when I my dagger slit her throat. I didn¡¯t notice a man that had gotten behind me while distracted with protecting my wife, he jumped at me and tackled me to the ground before attempting to stab me, I deflected it and stabbed his thigh which made his eyes bulge. Before he could attempt to attack me again, his head went toppled through the air away from his body, Gren, who had gotten at sword at some point pushed off the man¡¯s corpse and helped me up, my wife keeping back the bandits as we did so. More bandits were coming down from the ridges on the sides of the tunnel, there must be over 50 of them. ¡°Take the fight to them, draw them away from Shushen and Knife!¡± I said to them once I realized the severity of our situation, part of something shattered inside of me, I can¡¯t protect my daughter against this many, not here. We ran straight towards the bandit¡¯s reinforcements as they charged us, the three of use took a formation in the shape of a triangle so that no one could sneak up behind us without someone being able to quickly take care of them. Gren cleaved through multiple bandits with each swing and continually cast healing magic on the three of us, while my wife, Rixel, flowed like water with her sword killing bandits before they even realize they¡¯d been killed. I wasn¡¯t as strong as them, but I was just as skilled, I parried a blade here, disabled a bandit there, killed another here, I trained in the goblin kingdom¡¯s army for 20 years, if any goblin was a better fighter then me, they¡¯d have to be blessed by Fia-fifalie, the Goddess of War and Resurrection. The fighting continued for an hour until suddenly all the torches, as far as the eye could see, wavered and then flew through the air towards where we left the carriage, THEY HAD A MAGE!? Why by the carriage? But before I could become afraid I noticed that the bandits had stopped and where terrified, and then the flamed finished gathering on that singled point by the carriage and a light so bright that it blinded me, erupted from there, it was like looking directly at the sun, I had to avert my gaze, when I did I saw that the bandits where all dropping their weapons and running, whoever this mage was, they didn¡¯t work for the bandits, what are they doing? Who are they? Not all the bandits ran, most noticed how worried we seemed as well and they continue fighting us, but there was only 9 of them left, they seemed like their best fighters since they¡¯d noticed our hesitation when that spell was cast. Shortly after we started fighting the bandits again, the light disappeared without making a sound and no more spell were cast. The 9 were taken care of after some difficulty, it would of bad if they¡¯d been fighting us with the rest of the 30 or so bandits that ran away. We quickly made our way back to the carriage, there we found a dead Dark elf and a small corpse charred beyond recognition, Rixel and I ran to look in the back of the carriage, there we found my daughter and Shushen huddled together. ¡°Your back, I¡¯m glad.¡± My daughter said to me, it was dark and although goblin could see in the dark the same as Dark elves, we couldn¡¯t see quite as well since we mostly lived both above and underground, she was there, seemed pale and her skin was discoloured slightly was all I could make out, but I left her to Rixel as I watched the ridge to keep watch in the chance that the bandits decided to come back for the carriage. I heard a light thud. ¡°Knife?¡± I turned back to them, Rixel was by Knife, shaking her slightly. ¡°Knife!¡± I should have known something was wrong, but I didn¡¯t want to believe it. Rixel was holding Knife in her arms shaking her and calling her name. Gren pushed me out of the way and I fell out of the carriage and onto the ground, a soft blue light came from inside the carriage. ¡°What¡¯s her species, how old is she, has she had any major illnesses?¡± Gren was firing off question at Rixel, she answered them the best she could from what she¡¯d heard from her sister. ¡°She¡¯s a Green Elf, she¡¯s 10 years old, she¡¯s never gotten sick-¡± Gren jumped out of the carriage with Knife in his arms and placed her on the ground, he then kneel before Knife leaning over the top her with his hand together. ¡°The goddess of resurrection blesses the fallen warrior who falls on the field of battle, the ever twisting vines and ever growing roots of the elder tree bless the earth with its majesty, the family of the fallen and the witnesses of power pray to the old kings, the heroes of old who blessed this earth with a future, the demon Metrath who cursed this earth with death, the god-king Celisticen who blessed this earth with life, the goddess Fia-fifalie that granted us power and took pity on the fallen, let this fallen body that wishes to return to life return, let the family of the fallen be with their beloved once more. To die, is the course of nature, we beg to it that it let go of this lost soul, we beg that it allows the soul to return to its fallen body, do not hold this fallen warrior blessed by nature, let her return from the womb of the earth and be allowed to be whole with her fallen body once more, we beg this of you, do not let her return to the cycle of life and death or turn to oblivion, bring her here to her fallen body, so that she may return from death to life once more. Goddess. Please. Take pity on us, take pity on the fallen of nature. Please put aside your differences with nature and take pity on us. We have received the blessings as you require. Those that slayed the fallen have been slain or scattered, please take pity and refuse this death as the fallen refuses death always.¡± Gren began a long chant and then repeated it 10 or so times, I was in a daze, so she really died? My beloved daughter died¡­ I still refused to believe it, but reality left me unable to move. As Gren chanted, a soft cyan light radiated from my daughter¡¯s body, when he begged that nature not hold her soul, my daughter¡¯s body was wrapped in vines that burst from the ground and wrapped around her until I couldn¡¯t see her anymore, as he continued to beg the vines slackened and let off an orange light the same colour as my daughters blood. Eventually the vines withdrew into the ground, however my Knife¡¯s corpse was gone, they¡¯d taken her¡­ Tear flowed from my eyes as I realized she was gone, Rixel had started crying some time ago and Shushen was still crying. By the 5th recitation of the chant the vines returned and grew large and towered high above us, a fruit began growing from one of the thick vines, it grew larger each time the chant was recited, by the 10th recitation the fruit had grown larger than me and the skin of the fruit had become transparent, inside was Knife, my cute little daughter, curled up into a ball and sleeping. Gren stopped chanting soon after and was panting, sweat pouring from his forehead. ¡°Something has a strong grip on her soul, but it is only temporary, she will return to us.¡± He finally said after catching his breath, his voice haggard like he¡¯d ages 20 years within the last few moments. ¡°Thank you Gren, this is incredible, I can¡¯t thank you enough-¡° I thanked him profusely, but he brushed me off. ¡°No Bog-gobi, there is no need to thank me, this is part of my purpose in working for Viscount Trastlefortem, the death of the daughter of the Viscount¡¯s Advisor would not only damage our relation with the Under-Kingdom, but would also damage the reputation of the Viscount, there is no need to thank me.¡± I nodded seriously, I am still thankful, but I can tell that he does not want my thanks, so I will thank the Viscount instead, for sending such a dutiful and reliable young man. The fruit burst open, gallons of sticky translucent orange fluid splattered on the ground and Knife fell, I ran and caught her, getting drenched in the fluid that looked the same as my daughter¡¯s blood. She was unconscious, but Gren insisted that she would wake up within a few days, he also insisted that we lay her on the ground for a few hours each day, so we would lay her on the ground and guard her until Gren said it was okay for us to start moving again. And then after 6 weeks, she opened her eyes which now gave off a faint cyan light that she didn¡¯t have before and her iris was light blue in parts like paint peeling off. < --/-/-- > I materialized as a ghost floating over my corpse that my family was keeping with them as they traveled¡­ shit, I don¡¯t want to see this! I tried to leave but something took hold of me.
Soul of the Fallen, I have found you, return to this fallen body
¡°What the fuck!?¡± I yelled while freaking out before I was dragged into my corpse and blacked out. I had a dream of laying on dry barren and cracked dirt, however as I laid there half way between sleep and being awake, the ground softened and became moist, then grass stems poked out from below the ground and grew tall reaching towards the sun and I reached towards it as well, it was like laying in a hot bath, relaxing and warm. It rained, some water got in my mouth and it tasted like liquid sugar, but it wasn¡¯t unpleasant. I don¡¯t know how long I was laying there, but it was relaxing, I didn¡¯t sleep, but I didn¡¯t feel tired, night, day, night again, day again. I realized someone was sitting next to me, I looked at them and realize my eyes where working. ¡°So I¡¯m dreaming?¡± The person nodded to me, for some reason I couldn¡¯t see them properly, but they looked like they were made from bark. ¡°What¡¯s happening?¡± It felt like they smiled. ¡°I am keeping you company while we wait.¡± The person said, their voice sounded like leaves blowing. ¡°I see¡­ what are we waiting for?¡± The person place its hand on my head and covered my eyes. ¡°For you to open your eyes.¡± Everything went black and was replaced by the familiar lines, sense of depth and feeling of colours. I breathed in deeply and breathed out slowly, I was laying in the carriage, I felt something hot against my face, but couldn¡¯t see what it was. Gren was driving the carriage like usual, Rixel was sitting by my side with her hand stroking my head, Shushen was huddled up sitting at the far end on the carriage near the back looking unhappy, Bog-gobi ¨C my father, was sharpening a dagger while sitting in the front seat talking to Gren about something, but I didn¡¯t care about what they were saying. I should have materialized in a child form where I designated, why did I appear as a ghost? Was that something designated in the contract? More than that, why am I alive right now? I died, I wouldn¡¯t have been able to return to my personal space if my body in this world was still alive, my rank isn¡¯t high enough to manage something like that. I gave up trying to understand what happened, I was just happy to be back. I sat up and smiled, however I lost balance and tipped slightly to the side and had to prop myself up on my elbow. ¡°I¡¯m back.¡± Rixel seemed shocked but also incredibly happy and my father had a week smile on his face, Shushen instant ran at me and jumped on me giving me a hug, which made me fall onto my back again. ¡°You¡¯re alive! I¡¯m sorry, I couldn¡¯t do anything Knife.¡± I smiled and thought to try push Shushen off me, but I was still so tired and I chose to just let myself be hugged, my father and Rixel joined in as well, it was heavy¡­. Really heavy. ¡°Get off me!¡± I pushed myself out from under them, for a moment I thought I would need to use ¡®Transcend the Limit¡¯ but it didn¡¯t come to that thank fully. ¡°Geez, are you trying to kill me?¡± I said forcing myself into a sitting position against the inside of the carriage. They each then got pained looks in their eyes, damn, I made them feel bad. ¡°I, I¡¯m kidding, but how am I alive?¡± ¡°I used an ancient spell that asked the Goddess to take pity and bring you back to us, it changes depending on race and age and whether or not you¡¯ve had any life threatening illnesses, but it all has the same effect, you beg for the life of the recently deceased to be returned and sometimes when you get lucky you get an answered.¡± ¡°Ugh¡­ I see, thanks?¡± I didn¡¯t really know how to reply when he acted like it wasn¡¯t that big of a deal and just continued to face forwards, Gren, you¡¯re a strange one¡­ I simply nodded once to my thanks and continued focusing on the road ahead, my parents and Shushen where sitting quietly just staring at me, I turned to them. ¡°What?¡± I father stepped forwards and hugged me. ¡°I¡¯m just so happy you¡¯re alive.¡± I couldn¡¯t help but chuckle, I would have showed up latter even if you¡¯d buried me anyway, you went through the trouble for nothing, but I appreciate the sentiment. They explained to me that I¡¯d been unconscious for the last 6 weeks since my resurrection and that we¡¯d made it out of the tunnel 9 days ago, the reason why my skin felt hot, was because of the sun shining down on us. We arrived in a city a few days later, it was a large human city called Dorendu, the name sounded familiar, but this city was the centre for trade in Atitria and its capital, so I most likely heard it from some traders in Nis Fae Halfinane. Upon reaching the city gates 200 soldier came out to greet us, a man in full plate and had a silly feather coming out of the top of his helmet approached us. ¡°I am Robed Knight of the Elder Woods, Merah Vuntissus.¡± A woman¡¯s voice came from the person that approached, I was surprised, I thought it was a man because of how tall and how broad her shoulder where. ¡°I have been sent by the Viscount to guard you as you pass through the city, I hope you don-¡° Part of me was still doubtful the knight was a woman, but after peaking I confirmed it was so, however when I did so she stopped talking and grabbed her sword, drew it and began looking around as if searching for something, all the other soldier drew their swords as well and started looking around restlessly without moving. ¡°Sorry!¡± I called out from the back of the carriage before climbing over our luggage and supplies to get to the front and showing myself, I looked at her again and he head snapped towards my direction and she was staring daggers at me right in the eyes. I smiled nervously. ¡°Sorry, ugh¡­ there¡¯s nothing to worry about¡­ that-¡° ¡°What are you doing that¡¯s giving off such an aura?¡± She interrupted me, serious this ¡®sight¡¯ thing though good in a lot of ways, is also very troublesome, especially since I¡¯ll be going to a school where everyone should be magically sensitive¡­ ¡°I¡¯m looking at you.¡± I said after sighing loudly. She seemed confused. Sigh, I don¡¯t mind explaining this every time, but oh well, all I have to do is get famous or something an then people will know that Knifelim Blindsight molests people with her eyes in order to see... well they probably would say it like that, but that¡¯s essentially what it means. ¡°I¡¯m blind, but I can recognize my surroundings by wrapping my mana around things, it¡¯s just how I am, I¡¯m sorry it feels disgusting.¡± Oh her face I could see through her armour, I could see that she was unsure about whether or not to believe me, it sounds like a lie, but I have no reason to lie about something like that. ¡°I see¡­ then you are Knifelim Blindsight, I had heard of this, but I did not think it would feel so¡­ frightening.¡± ¡°It got stronger recently.¡± Gren said to the female knight, she looked scared when he said that. ¡°It¡¯s gotten that bad?¡± I asked Gren, who shrugged. ¡°You get used to it, now it just feels like worms wriggling under my skin, between my muscles and in my stomach, not as bad as before.¡± What!? That sounds horrible! And it¡¯s not as bad as before? I need to gain some kind of control over these abilities, if it gets any stronger am I just going to be shooting laser beam from my eyes? I resolved to try to take control of the skills ¡®Creeping Feelers¡¯ and ¡®Creeping Tendrils¡¯ they¡¯re pretty troublesome for the people around me. I apologize a few more times and then we were guided through the city gates and let through the city like we were part of some kind of parade, shining armour, funny feather helmets and even a hero, well a future hero, he¡¯s not nothing at the moment. We walked through the streets, there were plenty of large houses and merchant stalls lines the street everywhere, eventually we stopped in front of a large ornamental metal gate and where let through, once we¡¯d entered the soldiers walked off, leaving only The female knight Merah with us. Gren brought the carriage to a large building, which I realized was a barn when we got there. We got off the carriage, Merah was close enough for me to see her, she felt my gaze on her and her head snapped in my direction again, I wasn¡¯t looking at her, but she was in range of ¡®Creeping feelers¡¯ I can¡¯t look away with that unfortunately. ¡°Sorry¡­¡± I said looking at the ground. She sighed and led us to an even larger building that looked like a castle, It had been too far away for me to see until now, but it was so large that I couldn¡¯t see where it ended in either direction, inside the building there was a number of people in what a assume was formal ware, they all stopped what they were doing and started looking around with shocked expressions before they all gathered together and went to somewhere I couldn¡¯t see, oops¡­ We approached the front door, there behind the door a large number of men and women all in expensive clothing, a man very large muscular man stood at the front of the group with a sheathed sword in his right hand, where walking quickly to the front door, he stopped and kicked the door open from the inside. ¡°Who dares come onto my estate and threaten my staff and family!?¡± Before him, stood me, slightly behind me on the left was my cousin Shushen, then was my parents, off to the side stood Merah and behind her was Gren who was smiling. The Muscular man seemed to lose some of the rage and ferocity he had a moment ago and looks right at me. You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. ¡°Why are you doing that little girl?¡± Is it really that bad? I feel really bad now, it¡¯s a skill though, so I suppose I¡¯ve just been letting it run out of control until now, I could probably make it less¡­ this, I don¡¯t really know how it feels, but I assume it¡¯s not pleasant, this could cause some serious problems, actually this has caused problems since before I died for the second time, being blind sucks arse. Seeing I wasn¡¯t saying anything and was just staring at the Muscle man, my father came up and pat my back. ¡°I apologize for my daughters actions Viscount Trastlefortem, she is blind, but somehow manages to see her surrounding by wrapping her mana around everything.¡± The Viscount seemed confused. ¡°But my servants thought they felt this in the servant¡¯s quarters¡­¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry, since I died and was resurrected during the trip here, my ¡®sight¡¯ has become stronger, I am still getting used to it.¡± I spoke up and told another half-truth. The Viscount looked the Gren who nodded. The Viscount frowned and narrowed his eyes while looking at me, he seemed angry, sad and a number of other things all at once. ¡°Then I must apologize that you lost your life on the way here, in return I will forgive you for your ¡®sight¡¯ and tolerate it.¡± Dickhead¡­ ugh I mean ¨C ¡°Thank you.¡± I bowed, I refuse to curtsy, fuck that, I¡¯d rather die again I don¡¯t care that I¡¯m a girl at the moment, I¡¯ll give up on most things, but the small things like this? I¡¯m holding onto them like a wounded animal backed into a corner. I resolved to learn to control my ¡®sight¡¯ better, I¡¯m sick of this kind of reaction from people that are sensitive to mana, which is basically every person trained as a mage and in a city full of mages, no thanks. The Viscount ¨C Crodem¡¯s eyes lingered on me as I bowed, before he laughed heartily as he said, ¡°Bowing Like a true Magister! Hahahaha, you¡¯ve an impressive daughter Mister Gobi!¡± He then turned to his staff that still seemed unnerved. ¡°Back to work everyone, it¡¯s just our new guest who will be living here from now on.¡± He turned to Merah. ¡°Thank you Merah, you¡¯ve been very helpful.¡± She bowed in her armour, which must be very uncomfortable because she was making a dissatisfied face behind her helmet as she bowed. ¡°It¡¯s nothing sir, I am just doing my duty.¡± Crodem smiled and welcomed us in, he led us to a large room with many seats positioned at a table, is this the dining room? I have no idea, but it could be. ¡°Come back here once you have all cleaned up from your long travel, I have no doubt the recently revived young lady, would be in much need of a good cleaning.¡± Crodem said before we were rushed back the way we came, I was given my own room for some reason, but I guess we must have all been given our own room. In my room the female servants brought out a large porcelain tub, which must have been incredibly heavy, but they carried it without any problem and filled it with water from metal jugs, they then proceeded to stripped me of my blood stained clothes that I¡¯d been wearing for the last few months without saying a word like it was the most natural thing ever, they ignored my protests. I was forced into the tub and cleaned with a rough brush that felt like my skin was being ripped off, it really wasn¡¯t pleasant. After being scrubbed thoroughly they picked me up and plonked me on my feet, patted me off with towels and they began dressing me, I didn¡¯t have to do a thing and I hated it, even children can dress themselves dammit! And then they were done¡­ I was dressed in a long sleaved blue flowing dress that went slightly past my ankles and almost touched the ground, they put ornaments in my hair, which I pulled out a few times, but they simply said nothing and put them back in my hair so I gave up. They were golden leaves, apparently the surface people have an obsession with trees or something¡­ Once they finished dressing me I was led back to the dining hall and upon entering I found my father sitting at the large dining table in a neat grey outfit with a silly hat with an even sillier feather coming out of it, sucks to be him and it seems he felt the same, because he looked very fed up and unhappy with whatever just happened. Shushen was also there, similarly dressed, but with an expensive looking blue jacket with golden buttons and without the stupid hat. I was seated two seats down from the Viscount, he was already seated and within range of my ¡®Creeping Feelers¡¯ skill, he seemed to glance at me when he got in range, but he saw I wasn¡¯t looking at him, so he continued speaking with a servant and my father about different foods and what under people might like. Rixel walked in after a few minutes in pants and a shirt, both looked expensive, but it seemed she ¡®convinced¡¯ them to not touch her, the female servant that were following behind her all looked bruised and shaken, well no does mean no, so they got what they deserved if you ask me. The Viscount looked up at Rixel when she walked in and seemed to see his battered servants. ¡°I would appreciate it if you didn¡¯t beat my servants, I do not condone such actions under my roof.¡± Rixel scoffed. ¡°I told them to leave the room or I¡¯d hit them, they should of listened.¡± In the Under-Kingdom it is seen as incredibly rude to watch someone while they clean, it is also seen as morally questionable and an affront to the God that most people of the Under-Kingdom follow, which is the God ¡®Dissedere¡¯, only family member are allowed to wash together, honestly that she hadn¡¯t killed them is already being lenient. Crodem sighed and Rixel sat next to Bog-gobi, I couldn¡¯t help but smile, which made Crodem¡¯s eye twitch, it seems he doesn¡¯t like me, probably because of what happened just an hour ago. After some time food was brought out to us, if this was a restaurant the wait would make most people leave, we sat there for 3 hours talking, and it was hell for me. When the food was finally brought out I could help but be relieved, we were given mostly meat, I was never a vegetarian, but I disliked eating large amounts of meats on their own, what I would of liked was moist baked sliced potatoes with onions, cheese and bacon bits mixed in, lettuce and chicken torn into chunks with mayonnaise mixed through on top of that and then on top of that to have curry rice with fruit bits mixed in, now that would have been a fantastic meal, but what we got was a thick slab of slightly pink and bloody meat on a plate. I¡¯m just going to say this now, I can¡¯t eat moist meat, it disgusts me, I¡¯ve never known why, but I feel like I want to throw up whenever I eat moist or soggy meat, I need my meat well done, dry, stringy, tough, something that¡¯ll rip apart with difficulty, meat is all about texture for me¡­ this I can¡¯t eat, not unless I want to throw up while chewing on this soggy pigs intestines sponge feeling uncooked meat. I frowned while looking at it and didn¡¯t touch it, my parents began eating slowly while Shushen tore into it like a rabid animal, Crodem ate slowly and with what I assume is proper manners. I turned to Crodem who froze for a moment when I did¡­ ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I¡¯ve already eaten and am not hungry¡­¡± He nodded to a servant and the food in front of me was taken away, I was trying to make an excuse not to eat and to leave the room, but apparently for them it was code for ¡®This tastes like shit, get me something else.¡¯ Because the servant brought me more food, the serving was smaller, but it was some kind of stew with plenty of meat¡­ I sighed, I hope they over cooked the stew¡­ I put a fork full in my mouth, the meat was flaky and moist from the stew, but I could ignore that because it was a stew, though I was still unhappy with it and showed it visibly without hiding it as I ate. ¡°Is the food not to your liking Knifelim?¡± Crodem asked me, pausing from eating his food. ¡°Sorry for being picky, but I like my meat over cooked and with texture, I also like there to be slight taste of charcoal to my meat¡± ¡°You have strange tastes for a young girl, is it because that¡¯s how your mother cooked it for you?¡± ¡°No, it just tastes better and has an enjoyable texture to it, it is very satisfying to eat.¡± ¡°Is that why you liked our traveling rations so much, Knifey?¡± Bog-gobi ¨C My father added on, I nodded. ¡°Tough, charred and good tasting, the only thing better would be eating leaves coated in a weak sweet sauce and with fruit bits and small well cooked meat chunks mixed in.¡± I realize it probably doesn¡¯t sound very appetising to them and like I¡¯m joking. The Viscount looked at me like I¡¯d just taken his for a ride on a roller-coaster of lies. ¡°I¡¯m being serious, I realize my taste in food sounds strange to you.¡± Crodem just ignored me for the rest of the meal. I can understand why, before I died the first time I was raised with a ¡®Eat what your given¡¯ attitude to meal times, I only became picking after I¡¯d left school and stopping caring about being good to my parents. Also I just wanted to be difficult to the Viscount, I¡¯ve always had problems with authority. Once we finished we were taken back to our rooms and allowed to rest since it was night time, I fell asleep almost instantly as soon as I fell onto my bed after the female servants had, had their way with me again. I fucking hate nobility and their stupid servants, I¡¯ve decided this. Regardless, going back a bit, right after we finished our meals, my father and mother went off somewhere with the Viscount ¨C Crodem. Shushen decided he wanted to look around and asked me if I wanted to come along, I reluctantly gave in, he¡¯d just keep asking me if I refused. We looked around, servants followed us about like they belonged there hanging off our arses like fish droppings, when it got dark we were escorted to our rooms and told that on the surface people sleep when it gets dark, this was new to Shushen, I already knew but pretended to be amazed, it was very convincing¡­ Not really, maybe they just don¡¯t care? We spent the next month doing a lot of nothing while my father and the Viscount organized various things together, including our enrolment into the Royal Academy. It¡¯s funny but apparently you need to be a ¡®noble¡¯ to be able to enrol there, so they were having issues until my father mentioned he was the son of the goblin chieftain, which is essentially the goblin emperor. Goblin chieftain has only been a title since the 10th Goblin Chieftain was over thrown by the Goblin King and now they are both only titles, though usually those that own the titles are or become very rich as a result of having them and they are only ever inherited by the closest relative, be that a child, a brother or a cousin. As a result, though I¡¯m only adopted, I am next in line after my father, who will be the next Chieftain after his father dies. As the Goblin Chieftain, you represent all of the goblin race on the council, whereas the Goblin King represents the Goblin Kingdom ¡®Ultal¡¯ which accounts for a large portion of the Under-Kingdom, however Goblin specialize as merchants and traders, they also work closely with dwarves in mining operations and have long included Orcs, Ogres and Giants as a citizens of their kingdom. So all in all, there was no problem with either Shushen or I enrolling in the Royal Academy. During the month I¡¯d spend most of my spare time in the Viscounts Library, he still didn¡¯t like me, I almost began to wonder why, but then I remembered that I was supposed to be practicing restraining my ¡®sight¡¯, which I practiced every few day whenever I remembered, I got it to the level where they only felt grossed out by it, which was a great improvement from whatever it was before, I still don¡¯t really know because whenever I ask they seem to be unable to explain it in words¡­ it¡¯s that bad I suppose. Needless to say I learned a few interesting things, let me tell you the short version. Atitria has long known of the Under-Kingdom and has been close allies with them since before the ¡®Expedition War and Fall of Olphitis¡¯ not sure about the naming sense they have with their wars, but it is very self-explanatory. The largest Upper-Kingdom of the time, ¡®Olphitis¡¯, had organized an expedition into the Under-Kingdom, which they call ¡®The Abyss¡¯. They¡¯d known of the great dangers in ¡®The Abyss¡¯, millions of goblins like an unending army, hundreds of thousands of the foul and twisted Dark Elves, the sickly and stunted beings called Dwarves and their putrid spawn, the Stone Golems, as well as countless other beasts and creatures, the likes of which Olphitis has never seen. And so to quell their fears of the ¡®inevitable¡¯ invasion from what lurks in the deep tunnels of the earth, they gathered their expedition, 40000 infantry, armed with the greatest of bronze swords and armour forged by master craftsmen. 190000 archers, their 80000 arrows tipped with the finest iron blessed by priests of the sacred Elder Tree. 6000 of the kingdoms finest Magicians capable of casting 9th class spells and led by the Archemage ¡®Metraw¡¯ that I suspect was Metra¡­ Anyway, they were really up themselves, already beginning to write the great epic that they were calling ¡®Repelling the Dark¡¯, they went into ¡®The Abyss¡¯ as they called it, honestly they were just being over dramatic. They killed anything they came across, be it animal, man, woman, small child or baby, they were really just a pack of monsters. This continued for many years without much resistance, however one day they captured a goblin scout that looked battle hardened and well weathered in battle, he was captured by the command of the Archemage Metraw, the General that was leading the expedition over looked this because the Archemage was a well-respected mage and had a great deal of experience in war, in fact the Archemage had more experience in war than the General and everyone knew it. The Archemage spoke with the goblin scout before offing him, no one know what words were spoken between the two. Weeks past, still without any resistance, the expedition killed and slaughtered hundreds of thousands of citizens of the Under-Kingdom, until one day, the Archemage Metraw betrayed the expedition, the Archemage cast a spell go grand and powerful that half the expedition was wiped out in a single spell, shortly after millions of abominable twisted creatures of the Abyss attacked, pouring out from the walls and from deeper within the Abyss, the book says that the Archemage Metraw was actually the Demon Metrath that had taken over the body of the Archemage, though it was actually her from the start and she probably intended to do this from the start. Honestly I think Metra is just bad at making up names¡­ I mean I¡¯m kind of getting that feeling a little bit that she wasn¡¯t joking when she said she didn¡¯t have that want idea¡¯s, I thought she just meant in things to make, I¡¯m starting to think she¡¯s a very simple person that always takes the most direct route¡­ She must of stayed up for days before coming up with the idea to hire someone to come up with ideas for her and then latter deciding to hire me so I could be the piece the ensures that the hero can ¡®fix¡¯ all her problems. Sigh¡­ End result the Under-Kingdoms army had taken 1 month to gather because they¡¯d never been attacked in such a scale before, they had learned about the ¡®Demon¡¯ Metrath from their scout that the ¡®demon¡¯ had released and that it intended to turn on its human masters. The expedition was destroyed, every last one was killed and the Under-Kingdom, in its rage, marched for Olphitis, the ¡®Demon¡¯ Metrath marched at the front of the millions of soldiers that made up the Under-Kingdom¡¯s army, after 4 years, the Kingdom of Olphitis ceased to exist and all learned to fear the ¡®Abyss¡¯ and for the next 300 years to today, no surface kingdom has ever attempted another expedition into the Under-Kingdom. Atitria has seen great wealth for the last 800 years since it signed a pact with the Under-Kingdom, legally Atitria is a region in the Under-Kingdom, in truth it is an independent trade centre, gaining much of its wealth through its own merits and talented citizens. The King of Atitria is technically a member of the council, the 210th member, however he rarely attends, the Under-Kingdoms government rarely impacts on Atitria and having the trip to the Antechamber of the Council every 4 months to make a regular appearance on the council would impact on his own rulership over his own kingdom and so the King of Atitria is only ever called upon during times or war, which has only happened twice Essentially in Atitria the existence of the Under-Kingdom is well known, however it is rare that anyone from outside the kingdom believes them, their reasoning being that the creatures of the Abyss are mere beasts incapable or anything more than killing and eating and very rarely you find one barely intelligent enough to not attempt to kill it¡¯s betters and instead attempt to trade, though the creatures of the Abyss are known to either rip you off or be incredibly generous, not a decent merchant among them¡­ Of course that¡¯s a load of shit and they¡¯re doing that on purpose because they¡¯re military operation, they are intended to do this very thing, make them believe we are incapable of anything, apparently it¡¯s very effective, especially on most nobles and their stupid sense of superiority. I read a few legends, just general things, like Dragon slayings and demon culling¡¯s as well as witch hunts and a number of other things and then one day the Viscount came by the library and noticed me reading a very interesting book about a magical creature that kidnaped a great many women from around the Kingdom of Atitria, it told about the adventure of the Hero and his companions that had been tasked with killing the horrid beast by the king. I was just up to the part when the Hero and his companions entered the den of the beast when the Viscount walked up to me and nudged my shoulder, I looked at him. ¡°Do you like holding that book?¡± He asked me, giving me a strange look. ¡°I can read it, I just have to touch it more closely with my mana, you can see it or whatever with your eyes can¡¯t you?¡± He scratched his head. ¡°I don¡¯t know how you found out, but yes I can see mana, most people can¡¯t.¡± He pauses for a moment, maybe waiting for me to explain, but I was waiting for his to answer me, or I wouldn¡¯t continue the conversation, he eventually continued. ¡°It just looks like you¡¯ve channelled mana into, nothing else, I guess you could be doing something else, but I don¡¯t really know.¡± I smiled weakly and shrugged. ¡°Well I can read by doing this, so what do you want?¡± He nodded awkwardly and scratched his head. ¡°Ugh¡­ well since you can read¡­ I see you like history.¡± He asked me, I wondered why he was asking me about history for a moment before nodding, he nodded back to me awkwardly. ¡°I see¡­ but maybe you should leave that one for when you¡¯re older.¡± He pointed at the book in my hands, I was confused for a moment, this book is a work of fiction, right? ¡°This¡­ the things in these book, they actually happened?¡± He nodded awkwardly again. My mouth hung open¡­ if from where this book was going then¡­ I flicked forwards a few pages and then immediately closed it, holy fucking shit no, no, no, no! A tentacle beast¡­ it does what you think it does with the women it kidnaps¡­ I threw the book onto the table, my face drained of blood. ¡°I, these¡­ Are all of these books history books?¡± I eventually asked after staring at the book for a long while, horrified. He nodded again. ¡°Pretty much all of them are either history, journels or bestiaries, expect for the few that are to assist in the learning of language and magic¡­¡± I slowly sat back down, I learned of the beast of this world and I didn¡¯t like what I read¡­ I need to get strong, really strong if I¡¯m going to help Shushen be a hero. I need to be careful¡­ or I¡¯ll lose a lot more than my life and I don¡¯t just mean what you¡¯re thinking, I need to be careful of everything, I need to research everything, I need to know what I¡¯m expected to face and what I need to expect from them, so that I can beat them, I didn¡¯t expect creatures that had advantages over elements or physical attacks and although I think I should of, I didn¡¯t expect magical beasts that had advantages over certain genders. I ignored Crodem and began pulling out book after book on the creatures of this world so that I could better prepare myself, Crodem only smiled weakly and then left, he was obviously still not happy about how my sight made him feel, but I stopped really caring about that after I reduced the unpleasant feeling it gave off, I could work on lessening that further, but for now this is more important. And so I spent most of the month reading about monsters and learning all I can about them and how to defeat them! Then the day came, it had been decided we would be living in lodging provided by the school based off our heritage. My parents sent us off, The Viscount Crodem also waved goodbye to us, before we¡¯d left he asked that I greet and become good friends with his daughter since we are the same age. The Viscount ¨C Crodem has three children, daughter ¡®Lilia¡¯ the youngest and the same age as Shushen and I. His second son ¡®Matious¡¯ he¡¯s 3 years our senior and should be finishing the general education given to those below 14 next month, he¡¯s 13 years old, once he turns 14 he can specialize, think of it as choosing what he wants to do in the future, become a mage, or a swordsmen, or he could chose to do both, but that would mean he would have to do twice as much work and it¡¯s very rare for someone to do that unless their parents were forcing them, mine aren¡¯t but it might seem that way when I start doing that very thing. And the First son ¡®Toriam¡¯ he¡¯s in the advanced specialization classes, which is essentially university, and turns 23 sometime this year. His eldest son already seems to be very capable and could probably inherit his father position and maintain it without much issue. The Second son is a lazy misfit, a good for nothing as he might have been called in my first life, however he¡¯s very active and a very capable Swordsmen, he has shown interest in the military and his instructors have said that he could possibly flourish in a military environment and have a very strong career as a military officer. The youngest, his daughter, it¡¯s still too early to say, but for now but she¡¯s spoilt like you¡¯d expect from a rich little girl that¡¯s pampered by her father, her studies aren¡¯t going well and at the current rate she doesn¡¯t have a very bright future, she¡¯ll probably end up being married off by her brother for political gain. Needless to say, I¡¯m going to greet her like Crodem asked and I¡¯ll attempt to befriend her, she¡¯s still young and impressionable, so if I can befriend her, I could get her to work hard and get her to help Shushen when he¡¯s older and hopefully a hero. We were taken through the city and out the city gate, travelled along a stone road for a short while before I large fort like structure appeared on the horizon¡­ Royal Academy, the largest centre of learning in all the continent, it¡¯s so large that its grounds are declared as neutral territory, it is self-run and sustained, becoming a student at the Academy requires that you sign a magically binding contract of brotherhood, to be a student at Royal Academy means that while there you have no power over others and your fellow student are your equals, you are there to learn, nothing more, if they who so ever breaks the contract, they who have broken the contract are given an appropriate punishment regardless of their social standing or title. Any and all are welcome to enroll, I found out, it seems what the Viscount said was a load of crap, you don¡¯t need a title, but I suppose it looks good for him if we had one? We arrived at the massive stone gates of the academy, numerous soldiers in iron plate armour, all magically trained walked the top of the tall wall, large towers where located at regular intervals, from what Shushen said there where huge buildings and castle like structures that towered over the tops of the walls behind the gate, I look forwards to learning a lot from this place, but I need to be ready at any time, I have no idea when Shushen will suddenly get the hero itch and suddenly become dependable. I resolve to learn all I can about the sword and about magic as soon as possible, as the huge stone gates open and we slowly make our way in.
Author note''s, Thank goodness I didn''t go crazy with windows.
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Chapter 3 - General Education Pro Chapter 3 ¨C General Education Pro We entered the gate, there was a man waiting for us, he led us to the general education sector and to the main office, apparently they¡¯d seen us coming and sent the man to wait for us near the main gate. The office building was a giant stone building with ornamental statues and carvings, it was really over the top, but almost all the buildings of importance that we passes by on the way here seemed to be like this. Once we entered the office we were led to a room where we were told to wait, they have to test us to see our level of education and then to have us sign the contract, the contract is a very old sort of tradition that protects students from meeting their end before they complete their training, it is binding in that you are monitored at all times through it, but also a form of protection spell, while on the Academy grounds a student that has signed the contract cannot harm and cannot be harmed, they can still use magic or a sword, but any attack dealt by them is rendered harmless by some form of magic coving the school, also for any attack dealt to them is also rendered useless. A well-dressed human man walked into the room holding a pile of papers, he placed the pile in front of Shushen. ¡°Shushen, ugh, I¡¯m sorry I can¡¯t remember your title, what was it?¡± The man thought for a moment. A descendant of the Chieftain holds no titles until the day they become the next chieftain and even then, they could be deemed either too young or unfit for the title, at which point it would be given to someone more fitting, so being given titles isn¡¯t right. None the less it seems there is some sort of misunderstanding? ¡°Ah, yes, Prince Shushen, I apologize, it¡¯s just that I had never heard of you until Viscount Trastlefortem mentioned that he would be sending a close friends children to enrol here.¡± He shrugged at the unmoving Shushen, I could tell he was nervous and couldn¡¯t tell he¡¯d just been insulted, if we actually a prince I think he¡¯d probably be pretty angry right now. ¡°Never the less, just fill out the questions on those papers as many as you can and we¡¯ll decide where you should start learning based off that, if you need someone to write for you we can send for someone.¡± ¡°Ugh¡­ I need someone to write for me, yes.¡± Shushen said slowly and the man smirked and nodded. The man turned to me, his eyes narrowed slightly, he seemed wary of me. ¡°So this is what he meant when he said being around you was unsettling Pri-¡° I cut him off forcefully, I feel like I¡¯d probably try to attack him if he called me that, also I was tired of him having his fun and games with Shushen and refused to let him try to do the same with me. ¡°Knife, call me Knife and him Shushen, and nothing else.¡± I let my go of my control over my ¡®sight¡¯ to see how he would react. He jerked backwards and fell over, his face becoming pale and his mouth hanging open slightly. It was really that bad? I still have trouble believing it. ¡°Y-y-Yes Pri- ugh, Knife.¡± He forced out while looking horrified. Really? That has to be an overreaction¡­ I took control of it again, learning to control it was difficult, but it only took me a month, while restrained I only see the surface on things around me, it feels weird not seeing through walls as Knife for the first time since being born as Knife. He calmed and eventually stood once I¡¯d taken control of my ¡®sight¡¯, I smiled at him, Shushen didn¡¯t seem to notice, but was fidgeting in his seat. The man seemed reluctant to continue, probably embarrassed or something. ¡°Please continue.¡± I prompted him to continue and he did. ¡°Ah, yes, well¡­ Knife, you will be given a verbal test by the heads of each subject in the next room.¡± He approached me and offered me his hand, probably because I¡¯m blind, I guess no one told him that I walked in here unaided¡­ none the less I took his arm to play to blind act, I don¡¯t think of myself as blind since I¡¯m cheating with my ¡®sight¡¯ but I should play it up for them since they were told they¡¯d be teaching a blind student. We left the room and approached the front desk. ¡°Pri- Master Shushen requires someone to assist him with read and writing on his test.¡± I dug my nails into his hand, I just wanted to be difficult, and I knew he was just trying not to seem disrespectful in the eyes of others. He shook my hand off when I did. ¡°Ouch, Knifelim, please don¡¯t do that.¡± I shrugged. Fine, I¡¯ll just pretend I don¡¯t hear people when they call me or Shushen those kinds of things. ¡°Fine, whatever.¡± I put my hand out again waiting for him to take it. He took it and slowly led me to a large room with an equally large desk and sat me down at one side, across from me was 9 people. ¡°It is nice to meet you Princess Knifelim Blindsight, 2nd in line to the Goblin Emperor.¡± The humanone in the middle spoke, I cringed when he said it, somewhere they got the wrong idea. ¡°It¡¯s nice to meet you.¡± I replied back and the man in the middle nodded. ¡°Then, before we begin the verbal test, let us introduce ourselves, I am Magister of Magic, June Shaleshack.¡± A Human woman on his right spoke next. ¡°I am Magister of Mathematics, Palue Ulparoot.¡± On her right was an elven woman, a surface elf. ¡°I am Magister of Language, Yule-lula of the Elderwoods.¡± On her right was a short man on a big chair, not as stocky or as naturally muscly as a dwarf, he just looked like a really short person, so probably not a dwarf, I have no idea what his race is, but he spoke up next. ¡°I am Magister of History, Wentworth Matilda Lukastil Mulak Shental Spencer of the Tree People.¡± That¡¯s a really long name for a really short person¡­ also Tree people, is that his race? The last person on the right spoke up, it was the man that led me here, he had taken a seat while the others introduced themselves. ¡°I am Magister of Social studies, Gildanc Minteinn.¡± Next the person on the left of the June ¨C the man in the middle, spoke, everyone on the left was human, or at least appeared to be. ¡°I am Magister of Beastology, the study of magical beasts, animals and other things. You may call me Qieu.¡± ¡°I am Magister of Tactics, Dreth Derenore.¡± ¡°I am Magister of Training, I represent all those that teach the ways and forms of fighting, I go by Shim, but my name is Ferhin of Simmer-Sail.¡± ¡°I am Magister of Jobs, I represent all those that teach the simpler ways of life, I am Terrich Ashfield.¡± June spoke up again. ¡°Now we would like to begin the test.¡± They each took turns asking me question, starting with June, I answered what little I could, and though it was very little he seemed satisfied. Next was Palue, I might be bragging but I was always good at mathematics and after I left school that was what I did in order to try and keep my mind sharp, I even made a bit of money solving mathematic equations online, I answered her every question flawlessly, she seemed a bit surprised that a 10 year old girl knew almost as much as her, I took a bit of pride in that. Next was Yule-Lula, she asked me her questions in different languages, asking me about the spelling of words, the proper translations of things from one language to another, so on and so forth until she¡¯s gone through around 8 different languages, it wasn¡¯t difficult for me, I understood every language and could reply in the same language after hearing it, I has the skill ¡®Understand speech¡¯ which strangely it even worked on written words, which I¡¯d confirmed in the Viscounts library, truly a cheat ability, thought it didn¡¯t explain that it also has all these other benefits, like being able to speak any language you¡¯ve heard before. Yule-Lula gave up after the 8th language, we¡¯d been sitting there for 2 hours. We went through the rest of them a lot quicker, I think I did pretty poorly for all of them except for the when the Magister of Jobs - Terrich asked me if I wanted to work as a linguist with a smile on his face, that earned him a reprimanding stare from Gildanc. ¡°Then now that the test is completed, please wait here while we talk about what we have learned about the extent of your knowledge.¡± June said before standing and motioning the other 8 to leave the room with him. They all left. I wonder how long they will be gone. I sat there for an hour patiently before a Gildanc entered. ¡°Congratulation, you¡¯re a genius.¡± He sighed and walked closer to me and takes out a piece of paper. ¡°Please sign this, I know you cannot see, but we only really need you to mark it, I will guide your hand to the paper.¡± He places the paper on the desk and grabs my hand, pulling it to the paper before putting an exaggerated feather in my hand, I can¡¯t remember what they¡¯re called, a quill? He started moving my hand down, but I shook him off. ¡°I don¡¯t need you help for this.¡± I placed one hand on the paper so I could read it, everything was in order, so I signed with my signature from my first life, the long flowing strokes and jagged points of my over the top signature now present on the paper, I was satisfied. ¡°I can at least sign a signature, but thank you for your ¡®consideration¡¯, also I ask that you not be rough with me ever again.¡± He nodded with a resigned expression. ¡°Now for the Binding spell, if you¡¯ll repeat after me please. ¡®I future witness of power pledge to the Old king that from this day forth until such a time that I am no longer a student of Royal Academy, do so pledge that I shall hold no power over others, that I shall not harm my peers or any citizen of the remnants of the ancient Azuren Kingdom and that I shall not be harmed so long as I walk on the ground blessed by the Ashes of the Elder Woods, ¡®Oath of the Student¡¯.¡± I repeated the oath word for word as he said it, once the Oath was completed I seemed to glow slightly for a moment before the glow disappeared. He clapped his hands after I stopped glowing. ¡°I am to take you to the female dorm, it had been decided that Yule-lula would take you, but she is distraught at the moment, how many languages do you know? How did you learn them all at such a young age, if you don¡¯t mind me asking?¡± ¡°I learned, does it matter?¡± Cheating, understand speech does a lot more than that, it lets me understand and learn any language I hear instantly, even if it¡¯s just a single word, the entire language just suddenly sounds like English, even written words look like it¡¯s written in English after ¡®learning¡¯ the language after hearing it. He made a serious face. ¡°I suppose not.¡± I was led to the General Education female dorm by him, he met with the dorm head and handed me off to her without a word. The dorm was a large 4 floored building from what I could see, tiled roof, intricate carving on the wooden front door, a lush garden out the front and a fence around the perimeter. The dorm head took my arm. ¡°It¡¯s nice to meet you Knifelim, you may call me Sephia I enforce the rules in the dorm, but feel free to come to me if you need help or advice.¡± She smiled, I shrugged and then was dragged into the dorm. All the girls seemed to be busied unpacking on the first floor, I didn¡¯t have time to look around because I was quickly taken to the second floor, then to the third, and the fourth, on the fourth floor it seemed everything was unpacked for them before they arrived. From the fourth floor we walked to the end of the hall. ¡°This is your room, I think it was Nemun that was chosen to be your care assistant, please get along with her.¡± I groaned inwardly, another well-wisher and do-gooder, just what I needed. ¡°Nemun is comes back from the school break for student tomorrow, she turns 13 this year, but you will be in the same classes as her since it has been decided that you will be graduating from the General Section this year and you only just arrive too.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± I nodded and smiled bashfully, this is the first time I¡¯ve gotten anything for being smart. In my first life people generally thought I was an idiot, I don¡¯t blame them because I wanted to be an idiot, which is why I never studied. ¡°Then, Knifelim, your room has already been fully furnished and your belonging packed away, it¡¯s late so get some sleep, the general section is having an assembly early tomorrow to welcome the new students, be sure you¡¯re not late.¡± She smiled awkwardly and then walked away. Hey¡­. Hey, isn¡¯t that bad? Aren¡¯t I blind? Shouldn¡¯t you be helping me? Meh, I don¡¯t care really it¡¯s annoying when they try to be helpful, just a bit surprised that she suddenly left without being annoying. I went into my room and closed the door before sighing loudly, it was a large expansive room, intricately decorated, a bed large enough for 5 people, draws cupboards, a few couches and small tables, a large table with a single seat in front of it, presumably a work station or rather ¡®study desk¡¯. It was basically the room of a rich high tier noble, there was even doors on the other side on the room from the entrance that led to a large bath that was far too big for one person, another room with a toilet that looked almost modern, I¡¯m surprised that they have plumbing. After looking around I took a bath, it seemed the bath was always full and just replaced the water over time and seemed to clean itself with some kind of magic, basically the bath was a magic item. After my bath I dried myself off, crawled into my bed and fell asleep. < --/-/-- > *bang* *Bang* *BANG* I woke up to someone knocking on my door, very loudly knocking on my door actually. I threw back the covers, which also seemed to be magical items from the faint glow they seemed to give off in my ¡®sight¡¯, and got dressed, I wasn¡¯t really paying attention because I¡¯d been restricting my ¡®sight¡¯ in order to eliminate the bad feeling¡¯s people get when I look at them, it works but I can only see 3 meters in front of me and I can¡¯t see through anything, I never realised how used to seeing through things I¡¯d gotten. I opened the door after putting on my underwear and a long sleeved dress. What was waiting for me on the other side of the door was a wolf standing on its hind legs twice my size, or rather what looked like canine that walked on two legs and had hands that was twice my size, a furry? They looked kind of cool to be honest. I just stood there looking at them, lost for words and it was needless to say that I was surprised, because I most definitely was, though I didn¡¯t show it on my face, I suppose it just looked like I froze after feeling that someone was there. The furry bowed to me. ¡°Knifelim Blindsight, it is my pleasure to meet you, I am will be assisting you in your daily life from today onwards while you stay at the academy.¡± ¡°You¡¯re Nemun then?¡± They nodded and then stared at me for a moment before saying, ¡°Yes¡± ¡°I see, then I look forward to enjoying my school life with you.¡± I walked out of my room, I turned around and started acting like I was searching for the door handle. ¡°Oh I¡¯ll get that for you.¡± Nemun closed the door for me, I think this is going to be kind of fun messing with her and having her to things for me. ¡°Thanks Nemun.¡± I smiled at her. Nemun led me to the assembly and we sat with the 13 year olds, which was Class P of year 4 or Class P ¨C 4, I skipped ahead 4 years. The 4th years were seated at the back, the Magisters or rather the heads of each subject of learning in the academy each took turns introducing themselves and each made a short speech that went for 8 ¨C 9 minutes. Then the student Representative along with what are apparently called ¡®the perfects¡¯, stood on the stage, the student representative made a short speech as well as introducing ¡®the perfects¡¯ and himself. ¡°Hello New and old students, I am this year Student representative, En Drendri of the Elder forest. It¡¯s my pleasure to welcome the new and old student back to Royal Academy for a new School year. In our school of magic and martial, it is the hope of all of us that we become proficient in each of our fields of study, it is my hope that this year, like every other year that the new and the old student share this same hope with me, the student representative, The men and women that stand behind me, with the bright red arm band are here to protect you and enforce the school rules, if you have any problems do not hesitate to approach them and if they ask for your help it is your responsibility to help them in any way you can.¡± The Student Representative was an elf, a normal elf with below average looks compared to most dark elves. After his short speech he left the stage followed by the perfects. The assembly continue on for another hour or so, I¡¯m not really sure, as the teachers for the General sector introduced themselves, each with their very own short speeches. I suppose I would have been fine with sitting through it all, if only I was sitting, no we all had to stand, for an hour while listening to them all, I eventually stopped paying attention and just stared at the ceiling wishing it would hurry up and end. I don¡¯t how much time passed, mostly because I wasn¡¯t paying attention, but eventually we were allowed to leave, being directed out of the assembly hall by our homeroom teachers, luckily there was still 3 days before school started. Nemun stuck close to me the entire day, I had her ¡®help¡¯ me by doing everything for me, I figured I should have fun messing with her before the secret got out, though I will admit I was just trying to look at it another way so it didn¡¯t get annoying. When I ate in the cafeteria I had her read the menu to me. When the food arrived I had her feed it to me. When we walked I had her hold my hand. When I had her take me to the library I had her read to me. And on and on, it was just so long as I took the disposition of doing things to annoy her, though that was hard because she seemed to want to do everything I had her do, hah~ We went on like this for the 3 days before school started, Shushen would come and annoy me to every now and then, but I amused him since I had to get along with him. Shushen assumed Nemun and I were playing a punishment game where the other had to do everything the other said if they lost, I went along with that and told him that she always loses, which is kind of true looking at it in a twisted way. I had a lot more fun then I should of, I think the emotion dampening has been turned off for now thankfully. The day school started Nemun was at my door knocking away and waiting like usual, honestly I need to tell her to just walk in. I swing the door open after getting changed. ¡°Just walk in, the knocking is annoying, geez.¡± I said to her not hiding my anger. She shrugged with her massive wolf body. ¡°I thought it would be rude.¡± I face palm, you do realize that- no of course you don¡¯t¡­ ¡°Its fine, don¡¯t worry about being rude.¡± She nods and then after a while remember that I can¡¯t see, at least as far as she knows. ¡°Okay.¡± I nod to her. ¡°Then good, I am looking forwards to starting my first day of school today, please continue to look after me.¡± I smile my most innocent smile, which seems effective because from what Rixel said I¡¯m good looking, even for an elf. I do think that might just be an opinion warped by being my parent though. For all I know I could be a hideous atrocity, that one of the bad things about my ¡®sight¡¯ I can¡¯t see myself, I mostly just go by touch, though that has it¡¯s limits. For example my hair, the only reason it¡¯s not a mess seems to be some kind of natural side-effect of my creeping tendrils, apparently it acts as some kind of automatic cleaner, back at the manor the staff never had anything to do in my room. We went to school after gathering our books, quills and ink wells, someone should invent the ballpoint pen already, though I won¡¯t say I wasn¡¯t interested in calligraphy. We had homeroom and then where quickly sent off to other rooms where our teacher for each subject waited, I had issues with all the classes except mathematics, languages and beastology, I spent a lot of time reading beastology books in the library, learning habitats, physical traits, abilities, resiliencies, mating habits, so on and so forth, to be honest a great any of the things I learned about magical beasts and creatures only enforces my fear of them and my need to learn more about them so I can avoid or defeat them easily. I came to learn that my level had raised without me noticing one day, I am now level 5, I¡¯ve gone up 3 levels without noticing. This confused me because I assumed I needed to kill things in order to level up, however I haven¡¯t killed anything. I wasn¡¯t sure how to test it since I didn¡¯t have any indication of how many experience points I had, but for now I¡¯ll assume I gain experience from learning new things, which in a way makes sense as the term ¡®experience¡¯ is inherently ambiguous and not restricted to combat experience. I opened my stats screen, Nemun gave me a funny look when I started waving my hands in the air, I couldn¡¯t help my smile, which made her cock an eyebrow and then continue reading to me.
Rank F | Creator
Useless Shady of Life and Death
NAMEKnifelim Blindsight (Aneir)
RACEGreen Elf
Level5
Health634
Mana1072
Strength18 (12)Intelligence48 (32)
Agility17 (11)Mind36 (24)
Endurance20 (13)Luck26 (17)
Charisma17 (11)
SKILLS
Well Rested (Passive)
Strangeness (Passive)
Suspicious (Passive)
Berserker (Passive)
Sore Shoulder (Passive)
Slap-Slap-Palm Arts (Martial)
Push the Limit (Passive)
Transcend the Limit
Blind (Oulosc)(Curse)
Creeping Feelers
Creeping Tendrils
Contact Reading (Metra)
Understand Speech (Metra)
Dampen Pain
Steadfast
I stared at my stats for a while, they seem to be growing steadily, though I suspect they would grow even faster if I was killing monster, 3 levels in 6 months isn¡¯t very time efficient. I closed my stats window and continued listening to Nemun reads about how slimes mark their territory and create vast nests that produce more than a hundred slimes in a week, though they are often quickly eaten within the few our after they¡¯re born, apparently they have a pack mentality, but are rarely successful in hunting and killing anything because they use the ¡®quantity over quality¡¯ mentality to the extreme. Not to say slimes are never successful, there are stories of slime packs becoming incredibly difficult to deal with if they have good leadership, but usually the only ones that live for more than the first day are the either the strangely smart ones or the loner¡¯s that survive by feasting on bugs, which in a way could indicate that they are more intelligent than the normal slimes. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Very interesting, but enough with that. I spent my afternoons after school swinging my Iron rod, Nemun was there of course, she didn¡¯t understand why I bothered, my reply was to just touch my nose and make a stern face, I couldn¡¯t help but laugh whenever I did it, I think I¡¯m slightly broken in the head since I died the second time. Each day went by peacefully, a long calm before the storm of things to come is all I can see it as, I keep expecting to hear the tremors before the wave hits, but I never hear anything, it might because there isn¡¯t really a set news service in this world yet and words only get around as rumour, the only rumours I heard about where things about bandits on the roads and monsters attacking people which was just things there where normal and people came to accept as a part of life. Which reminds me, I¡¯d gone out to town a few times since Bog-gobi and Rixel have been sending Shushen and I spending money, in Atitria they have the oldest currencies and have gone the longest without changing the designs for each coin. The Emerald Ferorin, a thin cylinder made from Emerald that¡¯s as long as my finger, so around 2cm in length, it is the most valuable coin in Atitria. The Gold Mark, a thick rectangular shaped coin that¡¯s made from solid Gold, which was the same length as an Emerald Ferorin, the second most valuable coin. An Emerald Ferorin is worth 5 Gold Marks. The Silver Taper, half the size of a Golden Mark, the third most valuable, or you could call it the third least valuable, however you want to call it. A Golden Mark is worth 12 Silver Tapers. The Iron stick, half the size of a Golden mark, the second least valuable. A Silver Taper is worth 8 Iron sticks. The Bronze Jot, half the length of a Golden mark, but the same thickness, the least valuable. An Iron stick is worth 5 Bronze jots. As reference, a loaf of bread costs 1 Bronze Jot, so with a single Iron stick you could eat for 5 days. Needless to say none of them are in a coin shape despite being called coins. Shushen would often want to come with Nemun and I but I refused, I wouldn¡¯t be able to continue to mess with Nemun if he came along. Also it seems Shushen was being treated like a normal student, starting at the bottom and working his way up. We¡¯d been attending school at royal academy for a month when I first decided to go into one of the market districts. ¡°What are we looking to buy Lady Blindsight?¡± Yes she is actually calling me that, I guess it can¡¯t be helped since this world seems to only be in the late medieval period, though I can¡¯t really tell since this is a fantasy setting. ¡°Just looking around, be a good set of eyes and point out anything good for me Nemun.¡± She nodded and then after a while remembered to say it, she really has a hard time with that huh? ¡°Yes.¡± We began looking through various stores, there were a few trinkets and items that looked like the glowed, with my ¡®sight¡¯ I¡¯d come to find that almost everything that seemed to glow was magical in some way. However my attempts to wonder over and take a look at them where spoiled by Nemun. ¡°Please don¡¯t wonder off lady Blindsight.¡± She would tell me every time¡­ this is getting annoying again, I¡¯m getting tired of playing with her like this. While we were walking to another store I decided to ditch her for now and take a look at stores peacefully, however as to not raise suspicions I came up with an effective plan, childish and slightly silly though it is. ¡°Nemun I¡¯m hungry.¡± I acted like I was exhausted and sat on the ground by the side of the street, the street was lined with food stalls so she should be fine with looking away for a few seconds. She seemed worried when I said I was hungry and looked around at the stalls. ¡°I¡¯ll be right back, there are stall right here, just wait there.¡± She turned away and went to the nearest stall. When she looked away I stood up and dashed through the crowd for a back alley and hid in a barrel there, I adjusted my sight so that I could see through the wood if I brought my face close and I had a clear view of where I was sitting before so I sat in the barrel and watched. When she turned back around I wasn¡¯t there, she began to panic and actually looked surprisingly vicious as she snarled and showed her teeth, probably thinking I was kidnapped from right under her nose, I¡¯ll have to apologise to her later or she might rip my throat out. Nemun threw the food to the ground before quickly getting down in a slight couching position before she shot off on four legs like a bullet out of a barrel at a speed I don¡¯t think would ever be possible for a human to achieve unless there where in a car driving at tops speeds. Let¡¯s never get into a situation where I need to run from a furry, I don¡¯t care if they¡¯re fluffy and soft, I¡¯ll die. I was never really into furries anyway, not my kind of thing truly, needless to say I¡¯m glad I lost her so easily. I got out of the barrel and checked I still had my coin satchel on my belt, it was still there so I approached the main street from the back alley and then went to find a blacksmith which I found relatively quickly after asking a man wearing full-plate armour that was talking to a 3 other people that were wearing equally impressive equipment, it seemed they were the classic ¡®adventures¡¯ that are often found in fantasy settings, I don¡¯t blame them, even I want to go traveling around this world to see the sights and try my hand at killing monsters. I arrived at the blacksmith that was pointed out to me, it was a weapons and armour store, as to be expected from an adventurer. I walked in. ¡°Welcome- oh what are you doing here little one?¡± Ugh¡­ I guess I¡¯ll play along. ¡°Hey mister, I came to buy a stuff, I have money.¡± I said with forced excitement and running up to the counter and jumping around, I should have been an actor¡­ no that probably wouldn¡¯t of gone well. The blacksmith smiles. ¡°Oh, well then what has the little one come to buy?¡± I look him straight in the eye and say. ¡°A weapon.¡± I smirked slightly, oh I dropped out of character¡­ ¡°I mean A STABBY thing!¡± I said with over the top enthusiasm and energy, nice recovery¡­ no now I¡¯m just kidding myself. He seems to buy it¡­ ¡°Ooooh you want to buy a knife, sure if you have the money little one, go pick one, if I find you trying to steal anything I¡¯ll make you work it off for the next year.¡± He pointed me to a weapons rack near the counter, various knives are hanging from it. I smiled to the man and start trying my luck, maybe I can find a magical knife. Sadly there weren¡¯t any, this guy either knows his stuff or he only sells the weapons he makes. I eventually chose a knife with a blade that had a red tint to it, since the colour red is and always will be the ultimate colour and origin of all things¡­. Sorry that was my obsession with the colour red going crazy, it¡¯s just been so long since I¡¯ve had or seen anything with the colour red, I think this is the first time in this world. At this rate I might end up starting a cult for the colour red, I just don¡¯t know what wrong with me and the colour red¡­ I grabbed the knife with the red tinted blade and placed it on the counter. ¡°How much is this?¡± I said with the overly excited act still going on, although maybe I am actually excited to find something red, I¡¯m not sure, all I know is that my hands and voice are shaking in right now and I think I¡¯m going to vomit or pass out. Raised his eyebrows at me. ¡°You have good eyes little one, this is a crimson blade crafted by the elves of the Elder forest, these blade are rarely seen outside of the Elven lands, it was sold to me by an adventurer that needed money just yesterday.¡± He nodded to himself. ¡°I¡¯ll give you a discount since this must be your first blade, though this knife is still very expensive, are you sure you want to buy this one?¡± Well it¡¯s actually not the first knife I¡¯d held or used, but I suppose it¡¯ll be the first one I own, not even during my first life did I own a knife, not even a kitchen knife. ¡°I¡¯m sure.¡± I said in reply. ¡°I see, but say that after you are sure you can afford it, the price is 1 Silver Taper, 3 Iron sticks and 4 bronze jots.¡± I nod and reach into my coin satchel, I fish out 1 Silver Taper and 4 iron sticks. I have 4 silver tappers and 20 iron sticks from the money my parents have sent me, so I¡¯m pretty loaded with money for a child. The blacksmith seemed surprised I could afford it and gave me the 1 bronze jot change properly, I put it in my satchel with the rest of my money. I spend a little over a sixth of my money of this knife, but I feel like it was worth it, if for nothing other than the fact that it¡¯s tinted red. Looking at it, it looks like how you¡¯d expect an elven knife to look like from middle earth, also a plus in my opinion since it looked cool, I realize I¡¯m taking the fact that this is a weapon lightly, but it¡¯s not just a weapon, it¡¯s also a multiple purpose tool, the medieval equivalent to a Swiss army knife. Okay maybe I was over exaggerating, but it¡¯ll come in handy. I take the knife. ¡°AH just a moment I have a sheath for you here.¡± The blacksmith ducks beneath the counter and takes out a small leather sheath, I take it and sheath the knife, it¡¯s a bit loose but fits well enough in the sheath so I put it in my satchel with my money since its big enough. I thanked the blacksmith and left the store, as I stepped into the busy street I sore large wolf men and women in heavy looking metal armour and with weapons hanging to their back run past each other on the street in opposite directions at incredible speed, the people on the street make way for them. Yeah, it¡¯s probably better not to pass them off as just furries, Beastmen then, yeah that sounds good, at least until I find out what they¡¯re actually called¡­ I should buy something for Nemun as an apology before I go back, I don¡¯t want to get on her bad side¡­ While I¡¯m here though I¡¯ll buy some clothes, the stuff I have from home and the stuff the Viscount gave me are good and all, but I¡¯d rather get my own clothes. I look around and eventually stop that Adventurer is full-plate that directed me to the weapon shop, so I go over to thank him. ¡°Hey.¡± I say to get his attention, he looks over at me. ¡°Are you still having trouble finding a blacksmith?¡± I shook my head. ¡°No I found it, thanks for the directions, I was just wondering if you knew where I could buy clothes, you seem pretty familiar with this district.¡± He nodded. ¡°Yes I come here quite often to sell materials I find and to buy equipment¡­ sadly I don¡¯t know any clothes shops, I¡¯ll ask someone.¡± He turns towards a person at another table and calls out to them. ¡°Kallik, you¡¯re a mage, could you show this young one where they could buy some clothes?¡± The young man called Kallik gets annoyed. ¡°Brent I¡¯m at work right now, please don¡¯t talk to me.¡± The man in full-plate that is apparently called Brent shrugs. ¡°Sorry he gets testy when he¡¯s trying to earn money for a new staff.¡± Brent scratched his head. ¡°He should be finished soon which is why I¡¯m waiting here, if you want you can wait with me.¡± I suppose it couldn¡¯t hurt? I sat in a seat at the same table. We¡¯re at a restaurant so I order some food, I get a meaty stew since everything they had was meat of some kind. I eat some and it¡¯s surprisingly good, I was pleasantly surprised, perfectly over cooked and a slight burnt flavour that had spread through the entire stew, perfection. ¡°So what¡¯s a young child doing out by herself? Or could you be a Malipi? You don¡¯t have the right eyes or ears for it though.¡± What the hell is a Malipi? ¡°What¡¯s a Malipi?¡± ¡°The little people, y¡¯know the short ones that are good at hiding and magic.¡± Oh so that¡¯s what they¡¯re called. ¡°Nope, I¡¯m an elf, just taking some time off from school to go buy things.¡± He nods as if he understand something now. ¡°SO that¡¯s why you¡¯re buying weapons and clothes.¡± ¡°I graduate from the general education sector this year, I¡¯m going to study both magic and the sword.¡± I mention, don¡¯t get me wrong it¡¯s not that I trust anyone that helps me, I¡¯m just trying to make conversation. He squints his eyes a bit and then his eyes go slightly wide. ¡°I see, then keep up the good work.¡± ¡°Hah~ so it¡¯s a junior from the General education section, I¡¯m in the intermediate magic sector of the district.¡± The man called Kallik says from behind me. ¡°Have you finished for the day?¡± Brent said while standing up. ¡°Yeah, you wanted me to show someone to a good clothes store or something earlier?¡± ¡°Oh, this young lady wants to know, the junior as you were saying.¡± Kallik looks at me for a moment. ¡°Hmm, you give off a strange feeling?¡± He seems to ask himself before continuing ¡°You can call me Kallik, as I said I¡¯m currently studying in the intermediate Magic sector.¡± ¡°Hello, I¡¯m Knife, I¡¯ll be graduating from the general education sector this year.¡± We shake hands. ¡°Could you show we that shop?¡± ¡°Sure, it¡¯s close by, I¡¯m surprised you didn¡¯t find it yourself in the time it took me to get finished.¡± ¡°I was hungry so I decided to wait.¡± ¡°Then it¡¯s nice to meet you.¡± ¡°Yes, it¡¯s nice to meet you as well.¡± ¡°Okay, now that you¡¯re done with introductions lets hurry up and point her to the shop so that me and kallik can go hunting already, I¡¯ve already gone and accepted an ogre subjugation request from the guild.¡± So they also have adventurer guilds in this world, well I kind of lost for words, there¡¯s even a place where you accept quests, or rather requests. Though I suppose you could call any task you¡¯re given a quest?
Quest menu has been unlocked
Somehow I unlocked a new menu. I open my menu and find that there is a new ¡®Quest¡¯ option, I select it.
Quests:[/p] Assist the Hero! - Eat Breakfast (Daily) - Complete Eat Lunch (Daily) - Complete Eat Dinner (Daily) - Complete Graduate from the General Education Sector - Study (Daily) - Complete Tell Nemun the truth - Find the missing Pillow - Avoid getting caught - Buy Nemun a gift - Complete Purchase a weapon - Complete Purchase clothes - Purchase a Magical item at less than half the price -
You have completed the Quest ¡®Eat Breakfast¡¯ +1MaP +1Exp
You have completed the Quest ¡®Eat Lunch¡¯ +1MaP +1Exp
You have completed the Quest ¡®Eat Dinner¡¯¡¯ +1MaP +1Exp
You have completed the Quest ¡®Study¡¯ +2MaP +2Exp
You have completed the Quest ¡®But Nemun a gift¡¯ +200MaP +100Exp
You have completed the Quest ¡®Purchase a weapon¡¯ +5MaP +20Exp
I was a tad surprised that I actually have a quest menu now, this is really starting to become too much like a game. ¡°Knife are you okay?¡± Brent asks me, I close the Quest menu. ¡°Ugh- nothing, sorry so about the shop?¡± They took me to the shop and then left me standing out front of it because they had things to do. I ended up buying this incredible red Cloak that was to big for me at the moment, but I¡¯ll grow into it and when I do¡­ hehehe- Okay maybe I was going a bit over board with my red obsession, but I can¡¯t help it. On my way back I noticed a lot more beastmen running around in their heavy looking armour and with a weapon on their back, which reminded me that I need to buy something for Nemun. I entered what seemed like a antique store, but it seemed it was just a magical item store. ¡°Hey there¡± ¡°Welcome little girl, what can I do for you?¡± He welcomed me in exaggeratedly. ¡°I came to get a gift for a friend, would you have anything that would make a good gift?¡± The shopkeeper thought for a moment before seeming to remember something and walking out from behind the counter. He took something off a shelf and showed it to me. ¡°This bless produced light when you chime it.¡± He shows me, it makes a soft ¡®ping¡¯ noise and begins glowing and illuminating the room further, not that I can see it, but I can feel the room becoming brighter. ¡°That could come in handy, do you have another one?¡± He took another off the shelf. ¡°Great, how much will it cost me?¡± I started going through my coin satchel. ¡°Since you¡¯re buying two I¡¯ll sell them for¡­ how does 5 Silver Tapers sound?¡± I stop for a moment before sighing. ¡°I¡¯ll just get one, how much for that?¡± ¡°3 Silver Tapers.¡± Damn, I figured magical items where expensive, but that¡¯s pretty much everything I have¡­ If I buy two that¡¯ll be all the money I have, mmmh- ¡°Fine I¡¯ll get two for 5 Silver Tapers, thanks for the discount.¡± I handed him the money and he handed me the two bells. After that I returned to the school. The way back was relatively uneventful, I didn¡¯t see any more of those beastmen running about at ridiculous speeds. When I reached the iron gates of the Dorm, Nemun was waiting there. ¡°Why didn¡¯t you tell me?¡± ¡°Tell you what?¡± ¡°That you can see.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t see.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t lie to me!¡± She seemed angry, it¡¯s understandable, I have been working her like a slave. ¡°Well, it¡¯s not a lie that I¡¯m blind and my eyes don¡¯t work, but I suppose I can see?¡± ¡°You suppose?¡± I shrugged. ¡°I bought you a present as an apology, it¡¯s a bell that lights up when you chime it, it¡¯s pretty cool.¡± Nemun was angry at me for months after that, apparently those beastmen in the heavy looking armour with the weapon strapped across their backs were looking for me.
You have completed the Quest ¡®Avoid getting caught¡¯ +500MaP +200Exp
Was the notice I got after she told me about that. The year passed almost too quickly, I didn¡¯t really make any friends except Nemun, though I did become acquainted with a small group that intends to become adventurers when the graduate. It seen being an adventurer is treated like a well-paying part-time job, but there¡¯s always the possibility of losing your life as an Adventurer. I found that by the end of the year Nemun and I had the best grades, probably because I was always in the Library. Needless to say Nemun didn¡¯t do everything for me anymore, I still had her read to me because I¡¯m selfish like that and I was forcing her to study as well, though I found everything interesting, she found everything boring. I also spent time studying the Universal Magic Book, I focused mostly on learning spells that could be used in combat. I learned the class 7 spell ¡®Bluntoph¡¯, the class 9 spell ¡®Sear¡¯ and the class 9 spell ¡®Manipulate¡¯. Bluntoph is the strongest spell of the modern spells, it doesn¡¯t possess an element like most modern spells and consumes a large amount of mana, I can only cast it twice with full mana. I haven¡¯t used it yet, but from what it says when explaining the spell it is like a mini dust storm of some substance called ¡®Non¡¯ that eats away at the things it comes in contact with. Sear was one of the ancient spells, causes pretty severe burns to the target, but the range is really short. Manipulate is a spell that allows me to alter the shape of non-living matter, it seemed like it could come in handy so I spent time learning it. I was only able to learn 3 spells, it took me all year to memorise them to a point in which I would be able to use them. Not to mention that to even be able to use them I had to learn something called ¡®Positional targeting mathematics¡¯ which wasn¡¯t anything like I thought it would be and used a lot of symbol that there wasn¡¯t an English equivalent to, I had to learn that on my own since they don¡¯t teach magic in the General Education Sector, needless to say I managed. I thought about attempting to make a gun, but then I realise, although it seems simple, that¡¯s only in principle and I¡¯d be more likely to kill myself then actually successfully make one, so I gave up without trying. That how I spent my first and last year in the General Education sector. They had a graduation ceremony where they gave out documents proving you graduated from the Royal Academy General Education District. Once again I mostly phased it out, though I did look over the student when I received my documents on the stage. I also had to make a speech because I was the student with the highest grades, I didn¡¯t really say much, but I¡¯ll repeat it. ¡°Get good.¡± Was all I said, which confused everyone, damn noobs¡­
Author''s notes, I release a chapter once a week, I had an issue with my previous computer which caused it to melt, so I haven''t been able to write for 2 weeks, I guess I could of wrote on some paper, but yeah... Anyway, I realize I forgot about a character this chapter so I''ll be releasing a 3.5 chapter within the next day or so, which will at least attempt to clear that up as well as connect to the next chapter, since I''m skipping 6 year forwards for the next chapter. As much as I''d love to spend 20+ chapters in a school setting, I''d actually rather not, not my favorite genre, school and stuff. Regardless I''m sorry if you wanted to read about Knifes school life in the Beginner Magic & Martial training sector, but hey at least I intend to do a little bit of that, right?
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Chapter 3.5 – No longer a Child Chapter 3.5 ¨C No longer a Child Shortly after graduating I realized that I¡¯d forgotten to greet and befriend the Viscounts children, I¡¯d just been so focused on study and messing with Nemun for the last year that it slipped my mind. Better late than never I suppose? We still had a few weeks before we were to move into the Beginners Magic & Martial dorm in the Beginner Education sector, so I decided that now would be my chance at befriending the Viscounts daughter Lilia. At the time when I came to this realization I was eating lunch with Nemun and Shushen in the cafeteria. My many plates of food were taking up more than half the table, which was big enough for 12 people to sit and eat at. My meals became the kind of thing other students looked upon in horror. Where do I fit it all? I have no idea. When I remembered about Lilia, I froze just as I was about to take another bite of this incredible potato salad. I put down my fork. ¡°Shushen I can¡¯t believe I forgot to say hello to Lilia and her brother.¡± ¡°Lilia, who¡¯s that?¡± Shushen asked me confused. ¡°Lilia the Viscounts daughter, that Lilia¡­ what was her brother¡¯s name again? Macross or something?¡± ¡°His name is Matious Lady Blindsight.¡± ¡°Ah that was it, thanks Nemun¡± Nemun sighs. Shushen looks like he¡¯s trying to remember but can¡¯t manage it, so I silently decide to go greet Lilia after I finish eating. I manage to eat all the food before it gets cold, that¡¯s my goal every meal, though food that has gone cold has its own merits, just thinking about it makes me want a nice cool pasty with lots of well-cooked mincemeat and vegetables. But enough about my food fantasies. After eating and clearing away the plates I immediately returned to the dorm, there I asked Sephia for help, since I¡¯m lazy when it comes to looking for things. I walked into her office, it seemed she was dealing with a dispute between two different groups of girls. There were pretty loud I could hear them from the dorm main entrance. ¡°I¡¯M RIGHT AND YOU¡¯RE WRONG!!!¡± ¡°DON¡¯T SPOUT NONCENSE PEASANT, YOU SHOULD BEG FOR FORGINESS!!!!!!!!¡± ¡°YOU¡¯RE DELUTIONAL IF YOU THINK I¡¯LL DO THAT YOU BRAT!!!¡± ¡°YOU- HOW DARE YOU, IT¡¯S MINE IF I WANT IT!!!!!!!!!!¡± And so on and so forth, getting nowhere they sounded like they were just getting angrier and angrier at one another. I peeked through the door in the back of Sephia¡¯s office that led to the counselling room. The one that where screaming at one another were two young girls, both were dressed in what appeared to be very expensive cloths made from fine fabrics, they also had various expensive looking ornaments in their hair. I can¡¯t help but feel a bit grossed out when I see two girls around 10 years old dressed up in such a way. When I open the door the two girls stop yelling and look at me, I see that Sephia is standing between them keeping them apart and stopping them from tearing one another¡¯s hair out, though the ¡®Students Oath¡¯ probably would have stopped them from doing that. ¡°I¡¯ll come another time¡­¡± I said awkwardly and slowly begin closing the door. ¡°No don¡¯t worry about it I¡¯m leaving.¡± One of the girls said and leaves, I open the door wide for them. The one left behind still looks angry but also walks out. ¡°You saved me Knifelim.¡± Sephia say before flopping onto the couch in the room. ¡°Who were they?¡± ¡°Lilia Vermillion Trastlefortem and Palpu Balge¡­. Ugh Palpu¡­ Balgelda Stroua¡­ Mendali Casto Rundia of the Tree people¡­ Why do they need such long names?¡± Sephia seems fed up with the two, but so one of them was Lilia huh? I wonder what they were arguing about. ¡°What where they arguing about?¡± ¡°A brush¡­ the two share a room and have been at odds ever since, Lilia assumes everything is hers, that girl is just so much trouble¡­¡± Sephia sighs before sitting up straight and swishing back her hair. ¡°So what do you need Knifelim?¡± ¡°Oh¡­ ugh well I was just wondering what room Lilia lived in, I promised her father I¡¯d try to become friends with her but I¡¯d forgotten about it until now.¡± She laughs weakly and then tells me the floor Lilia''s room is on and its number. I thanked her and left, she seemed worn out by those two, but seriously they were making that big of a fuss over a brush? Lilia was on the first floor with the other first years, it seems her father had specifically told the school not to give her special treatment. I knocked 3 times on her door. The door swung open. ¡°What do you want?¡± Lilia asked me, she was clearly angry. She¡¯d make a good thug with an expression like that. ¡°Hello Lilia, I¡¯m Knife, I¡¯d meant to greet you earlier but I¡¯d been so busy it slipped my mind.¡± ¡°Knife? You¡¯re that genius then?¡± ¡°I guess you could say that.¡± She starts closing the door. ¡°Hey wait!¡± She stops closing the door. ¡°What now?¡± ¡°Well I was wondering if we could be friends.¡± ¡°In your dreams stupid, go away.¡± ¡°But I promised your-¡° ¡°GO AWAY!!!!!¡± She starts throwing tantrum¡­ fine. ¡°Well sorry you¡¯re not feeling well, bye.¡± I walked away but she kept yelling various things at me, I¡¯m sure she¡¯s very nice once you get to know her, but she¡¯s too much trouble for me and it¡¯s not even a quest. Either way I continue to try and befriend her, however she refused to have any of it and just spat nasty and hateful words at me like I was her mortal enemy or a telemarketer. I put off befriending her for now. I realized lately that I¡¯ve put a lot of importance into completing quests, maybe too much importance. Every day I over hear people in the dorm and during class talking about something and a quest just shows up on its own, ¡®Find the lost pet¡¯, ¡®Search the space under the Dorm¡¯, ¡®Climb a building¡¯, ¡®Run a lap around the school through each District¡¯, ¡®Play a game¡¯, ¡®Learn a new spell¡¯, various different quests most of which had me doing strange things, the other students found me strange, but the teachers found me very active and energetic as well as being strange. Part of me wanted to believe people where finding me strange because of the passive skill ¡®Strangeness¡¯. I remember Matious from the graduation ceremony, he tripped on the stairs, so it was easy to find him around the school because he was a Perfect. I asked around if anyone knew where he was and found him in the library. ¡°Matious right?¡± I said as I sat down opposite him. ¡°Yes, that would be me, if I might say it¡¯s nice to finally meet you Knifelim, took you long enough.¡± This¡¯ll make things easier, he must have gotten word from his father? ¡°Sorry about that, but better late than never right?¡± ¡°Yes, but still I always knew you¡¯d approach me, geniuses always do come together and form an unstoppable team.¡± ¡°Ugh¡­¡± ¡°With my genius with the sword and your mind well suited to magic, we will become the ultimate team and enter the Kings tournament together when we¡¯re old enough.¡± ¡°Um¡­¡± ¡°Yes, I know it¡¯s a fantastic idea, no need to thank me, be sure to properly practice magic until we finish our studies at the Beginner Magic and Martial education Sector.¡± He nods to himself like the conversation is over and then gets up and leaves, not listening to my attempts to speak to him. I¡¯d heard about the Kings tournament, it¡¯s held in Dorendu, the king and hundreds of fans come to watch it every year, a lot a money is thrown around during it, your grades are given out to the public and the odds are decided based on that, however they¡¯re just grades so there are always a lot of upsets. Participating in the tournament becomes possible because after finishing the Beginner training the ¡®Oath of the Student¡¯ becomes voided and any further education is considered optional. It¡¯s possible to compete in the Kings tournament either solo or in a team of two, you often see solo fighter going up against pairs during the tournament. Teaming up is often encouraged, but usually if you do that you would essentially need to win the tournament in order to receive any sort of recognition from the king. Needless to say I intend to enter it, but that''s 6 years from now so I don¡¯t really have to worry about it at the moment. I definitely intend to do it solo, so I¡¯m sorry Matious, but your delusions of a super teams will never come to be. Needless to say I tried to befriend Lilia numerous times over the next few weeks, but I eventually decided I wanted nothing to do with her. When I¡¯d thought we were becoming friends she started demanding things and when I didn¡¯t do as she demanded she sicked her minions on me, they destroyed my cool bell thing that lights up when you ring it, I was pretty angry about that, they also stole and destroy many of my other belongings¡­ So as pay back I used manipulate on Lilia''s room while she was in it and made it so that not even air could get in or out as a- ugh prank. Unfortunately she didn¡¯t suffocate, she smashed down the wall of her room before then and wouldn¡¯t shut up for weeks, screaming about how someone tried to kill her and such. We continued like this for many months after that, She picks on me using her minions and I attempt to kill her without her realizing it¡¯s me, luckily the ¡®Oath of the student¡¯ doesn¡¯t apply to indirect attacks. I tried to talk with Matious whenever I saw him, but he always talked over me about his delusions of becoming an honoured knight and serving the king. Things just didn¡¯t work out like I¡¯d expected with the two of them. Shushen became good friends with Matious, Matious eventually became one of the few people that sat with us during meals, even then when I tried to speak to him he started having delusions again¡­ And that¡¯s how things went on for a while, of course my various quests resulted in me making all different kinds of friends and our group grew larger until our entire table was packed with so much food you couldn¡¯t see the table anymore, it probably didn¡¯t help that I¡¯d began eating even more. 6 years passed relatively peacefully like this, I¡¯ll skim over them for you since not much happened. 1st year of Beginner training, I turned 12. As I said Shushen became friends with Matious, they made a lot of noise joking around with one another and just being normal kids, though Matious was 3 years older it didn¡¯t really seem to matter. Matious began sitting at our table during meals, I didn¡¯t really mind, but he still acted like a delusional idiot whenever I tried to speak to him, it was incredibly annoying so I stopped trying, however instead he started just talking to me without me saying anything, I wish Shushen never became friends with him. Also the cafeteria is a larger building in the middle of the School district, it provided food for all the students, it¡¯s a really big building to the extent that I can¡¯t see all of it even when I push my ¡®sight¡¯ to the limits, on a side note when I tried that it made everyone around me pass out, that could be useful. But oh shit I need to make sure they¡¯re okay. I attempted to kill Lilia twice, they both failed, she¡¯s surprisingly strong. I learned the class 8 spell ¡®Urea¡¯ a new-type spell, yes that¡¯s what I¡¯m going to be calling the non-ancient spells. ¡®Urea¡¯ essentially makes something that looks like an AT-field around me, it¡¯s made to deflect magic and projectiles, but it can also stop a blade long enough for you to move out of the way. ¡®Urea¡¯ was the only spell I managed to memorise this year because I spent so much of my time completing quests. I reached level 15 by the time this year ended, the higher my level the hard it seems to be to level, as expected of a levelling system it had something annoying. 2nd year of beginner training, I turned 13 and experienced something I never wanted to, I had my first period¡­ I feel like I lost something important, also I was avoiding about thinking about how I had to go through puberty again, but this time as a girl, I can confirm that both are equally shitty. I decided to meditate in an attempt to control my emotions, I know that during my first life my emotions were out of control and I would attack anyone for any reason, sometimes purely because I thought it was fun, yeah I was just a brute. So I wanted to avoid anything like that happening again, it seemed to work because my urge to punch people lessened slightly. Nemun introduces one of her friends from her home town to me, Milat, we become relatively good friends I think. Milat and I often talk about magic and magical items, it seems Milat wants to make magic items, good for her. I got the top grades in magic this year, I impressed even myself, if only my martial training grade where even half as good as this, well it¡¯s to be expected, I am a mage character after all and only a 13 year old when I should be 15 while doing this stuff. Someone called Blanch Chekerplain was the person that managed to get top grades in his physical fitness and proficiency with weapons. One day En Drendri approached me, it seemed he was impressed with my magical capabilities, he began sitting at our table during meals as well, now there¡¯s 5 of us. Though I was surprised that En who was the student representative when we were still in the General education sector was talking to me and even more then that seemed to respect me, even more so because I trained with both magic and weapons. The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. I attempted to kill Lilia again, but by this point I¡¯d realized that I¡¯m not going to succeed so I decided to give up and just pretend she didn¡¯t exist, of course she continued to send people to harass me, how long can she hold a grudge? Apparently a long time¡­ I can¡¯t even remember what I did wrong anymore, disregarding the attempts at killing her, she shouldn¡¯t know about that. I managed to memorise the Class 9 Ancient spell ¡®Water Globe¡¯ and the Class 11 New-type spell ¡®Kewla¡¯ this year. Water Globe made water form around a target and attempt to drown them, they water globe would stick to them like it was glue there. I found it was also possible for me to compact the spell in my hand adding a simple equation and throw it at the target, on contact it would expand with enough force to create a small crater in the ground, no drowning though, just an explosion. Kewla formed a shield made from mana in a pentagram sort of shape, it blocks magic, weapons, and projectiles and so on, but I need to constantly feed it mana and each thing I use it to guard against causes a spike in consumption, though I can see it coming in handy, I would make a joke about it being handy but I¡¯m being serious right now. Levelling just by doing simple easy quests has become slow, I only managed to reach level 17 this year. 3rd year of beginner training, As is the norm I aged again, yes I know a big surprise, I never realized how annoying having beasts would be¡­ though I suppose I was morbidly obese at the time of my first death, but by that point I was no longer functioning properly as a human being and can barely remember anything from then. I¡¯m feeling hungrier lately so I¡¯ve been eating even more than usual. Some of Shushen friends from his classes began sitting with us during lunch, Soa and Zalxie, apparently I¡¯ve become well known for my eating habits. I also met Kallik and Brent a few times when I went shopping for various things, I¡¯d learned to only buy things I could carry on myself so that I wouldn¡¯t come back to my room and find that they¡¯d been destroyed like the rest of the things I¡¯d cherished, they even destroyed the red cloak I¡¯d bought and I thought I¡¯d hidden it so well. I swear I¡¯ll ruin that bitch and her stupid fucking minions. I also began locking my room by fusing the door to the frame, it was relatively effective, they had to break the door to get in and they did just that which had them paying for repairs. I began plotting Lilia¡¯s demise in earnest once more and then quickly stopped because of overwhelming failure, she really is physically strong isn¡¯t she? To smash a boulder¡­ I decided it¡¯d be best not to anger her and just accept that there¡¯s nothing I can do, I¡¯ll carry anything important I suppose. My training with the sword is making some proper progress, now instead of getting a horrible grade far below average, I¡¯m now average. As usual my magical studies continue to be incredible, I¡¯ve also continued studying magical Beasts and creatures, it¡¯s important to know weaknesses or so my excuse goes, mostly I now just find it a useful way to pass the time. I managed to learn 4 spells this year, it seems I just find learning ancient spells easier. I learned the class 6 ancient spell ¡®Lighting Javelin¡¯, the class 9 ancient spell ¡®Earth Rise¡¯, the class 9 ancient spell ¡®Wind Dance¡¯ and the class 7 ancient spell ¡®Steel body¡¯. ¡®Lighting Javelin¡¯ was just as it sounded, basically a spear of electricity shoots out of my hand. ¡®Earth Rise¡¯ essentially acts like a mine, I just designate an area and the spell activates if anything enters that area, causing something close to an explosion with lots of stone projectiles. ¡®Wind Dance¡¯ is an enchantment, it heightens the targets physical capabilities, allowing them to move with increased speed and dexterity for so long as you channel mana for the spell. ¡®Steel body¡¯ is also an enchantment, it increases strength and makes your skin as strong as steel so long as you channel mana for the spell. Unfortunately I didn¡¯t manage to level up this year I think I¡¯m close though. 4th year of beginner training, I turned 15, but you can count. Shushen graduated from general education and began his Beginner training focusing on the Glaive, he also chose to study magic as well since I was doing both and he wanted to do it as well. My grades remained about the same, though I did become more skilled at using the sword which is to be expected when you train every day while receiving advice from an experienced instructor. As usual people are mesmerized with my magical capabilities, they¡¯re calling me the star of the Beginner Sector. Lately a lot a flies have been buzzing around me trying to get my attention, I ignored them with perfect precision, I am here to assist the future hero, not play around in my new body, besides, although my view have been altered by the female hormones coursing through my veins and the fluffy life style I¡¯ve lived for the last few years, I¡¯m not disinclined to get involved in such a way with the male population. It¡¯s really unfortunate that we can¡¯t spar because of the Oath of the student, I can¡¯t wait for it to be dispelled and to be allowed to hit things, I realize it sounds bad when I put it like that, but there are quite a number of people I wish I could hit, that bitch in heat Lilia is one person, Shushen is the other, playing around happily while his grades plummet, it just pisses me off. I¡¯m always the one that ends up setting Shushen straight lately, that good for nothing. Nemun has been my closest friend of late, but lately the table we sit at during meals seems to always be full, I haven¡¯t bothered to remember everyone¡¯s name, but they¡¯re a good distraction during a meal. I only managed to memorize one spell this year, I spent most of my time completing miscellaneous quests in an attempt to level up. I learned the class 7 ancient spell ¡®Water Torrent¡¯, it shoots a jet of water at my target, I found it was possible to track targets and even split the stream and follow multiple target with it. I managed to level up once, reaching level 18, it seems at this point these easy quests are relatively pointless, though I do get MaP for completing them. 5th year of Beginner training, I turned 16, I just realized that means that including my first life, my mental age should be around 35 years old if I remember correctly, it¡¯s funny if you think about it, at least I think it is. I¡¯m starting to look a lot like how my body in my personal space looks, the one without the stats, everything¡¯s growing nicely, I don¡¯t mean to sound strange when I say this, but I have come to very much like my body, or at least how it looks, I¡¯m still not sure how I should feel about the rest of it. I and all the others from the table went out to the shopping district to but various things. I ended buying a red robe with a hood, there were also these cool designs in golden thread along the seams and at the hem, I always wanted something like this. I now wear the robe whenever I go out. I thought about buying a sword but I have ¡®Shitty Ornamental Sword¡¯ so I don¡¯t need another sword. I gave up on questing for now and spent most of the year trying to memorize the Class 6 Ancient Spell ¡®Void Tempest¡¯. ¡®Void Tempest¡¯ was a Void element spell that filled the surrounding area around the caster with ¡®Non¡¯ particles, essentially it creates a cloud of Void and eats away at anyone within the effect, the caster is able to direct the cloud away from themselves and freely move it around, but it begins centred on the caster, however it doesn¡¯t cause as much immediate damage as ¡®Bluntoph¡¯. I didn¡¯t level up this year as expected. 6th and final year of Beginner training, I began to realize that I stopped caring about gender and began feeling that love wins over all, no, this is probably some sort of dampening with my emotions or something, I¡¯m getting screwed up, I don¡¯t know how I feel anymore¡­ I turned 17. Shushen hardly even spent time with me anymore, but I still have Nemun? No she¡¯s busy spending time with her boyfriend. Matious hasn¡¯t shown himself lately, it seems he¡¯s doubling his training efforts. Despite sitting at a table packed full of people I feel alone, I wonder why? I have plenty of friends, I don¡¯t need them, I don¡¯t need Shushen, no, I have to protect him, and so I need to get stronger, far stronger. In the last few years my magic grades had dropped, I continued practicing the sword though. I decided to prove my strength like Matious is, I¡¯ll fight in the tournament. I had a set of plate mail made for myself, it cost me 2 gold marks, but it is a necessary bit of equipment. It took 2 weeks for the plate mail to be properly sized and fitted, during the process I helped with its construction my lacing the metal with magic as it was made, the enchantment I was aiming for was ¡®Iron Fury¡¯, thankfully it succeeded. I learned how to apply basic enchants on armour and weapons in class, it was essentially easy if you had the correct spell, I used ¡®Steel body¡¯ to create the enchantment ¡®Iron Fury¡¯ which increased the strength of the wearer by 20% as well as reducing incoming damage by 5%, at least that¡¯s what the window that popped up said, though I was aiming for that enchantment I didn¡¯t know the specifics other than that it made the armour stronger. Because of the increased strength it made the armour easier to move in, I spent most of the year getting used to moving and fighting in plate mail. I began practicing using my ¡®Shitty Ornamental Sword¡¯ it was a good blade with good balance, I did good in buying it. One of the instructor saw me practicing with my ¡®Shitty ornamental Sword¡¯, he was impressed and asked me where I got it, I told him I¡¯d had it since before I enrolled here and he dropped the subject, probably assuming it was some expensive blade made just for me since they still have the misunderstanding that I¡¯m some kind of Princess¡­ I didn¡¯t bother trying to learn a new spell, I was too focused on training in my armour. I graduated and today is the day of the tournament.
Rank F | Creator
Useless Shady of Life and Death
NAMEKnifelim Blindsight (Aneir)
RACEGreen Elf
Level18
Health1270
Mana2082
Strength67 (37) +20%Intelligence93 (62)
Agility54 (36)Mind81 (54)
Endurance36 (24)Luck41 (27)
Charisma30 (20)
SKILLS
Well Rested (Passive)
Strangeness (Passive)
Suspicious (Passive)
Berserker (Passive)
Sore Shoulder (Passive)
Slap-Slap-Palm Arts (Martial)
Push the Limit (Passive)
Transcend the Limit
Blind (Oulosc)(Curse)
Creeping Feelers
Creeping Tendrils
Contact Reading (Metra)
Understand Speech (Metra)
Dampen Pain
Steadfast
Author''s notes, Just a short one, not sure how good it is because it''s mostly just a list of events during a very uneventful time. Also for some reason trying to write a spoiled brat gave me a massive headache.
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Chapter 4 - Qualifying Tournament Chapter 4 ¨C Qualifying Tournament Earlier this year I began doubling my already vigorous training, I had my armour and sword delivered from home and it¡¯s all for the King¡¯s Tournament. It¡¯s my life¡¯s dream to become a knight and the King¡¯s Tournament is the fastest way for me to achieve that, if I do well going into the tournament solo then I might be recognized for my talent and gain employment to the royal guard, once you complete their training and become an official royal guard you are also knighted by the king. Originally I¡¯d intended to enter the tournament as a team with Knifelim, but lately she¡¯s been acting strange, I don¡¯t really know what¡¯s wrong but I hope she gets things together. The King¡¯s Tournament was held in three parts, the Beginner league, the Intermediate league and the Advanced league. Each took place a week after the other building up to the big show that was the advanced training fighters fighting it out in what are often some of the greatest fights you¡¯ll ever see anywhere short of the ¡®Stadium¡¯ in ¡®Butangul¡¯. Butangul is a city in the Pantheon Republic east of Atitria. The fastest way there was to pass across the Jagged Mountains, go through the Clinging Spine Forest, and then pass through the Kingdom of Rquia, and the Kingdom of Vanulias. The entire trip there would take one and a half years. Though I dream of being a knight I¡¯m not delusional, I realize how unlikely it is that I¡¯ll become one, only the finest warriors even get the chance to join the Royal Guard and even then only the finest of those that receive the chance will become Royal guards and be knighted. My fall back plan is to become a gladiator in the Stadium, I¡¯m only the second son so my father can¡¯t leave anything to me when he passes on, this is the law in Atitria, so I must make a living for myself, but I also don¡¯t want what I¡¯ve learned to go to waste. The art of Martial Fighting, perfect the motions and perfect the body, a sharp mind makes a sharp fighter, my instructor drilled this into my head as he taught me the sword style ¡®Stongrad¡¯ a style intended to be used while wearing heavy bulky armour, the key to the style is to master controlling your centre of gravity and to use that being able to attack while putting your entire weight behind the attack and still remain in control and ready to receive the new attack. It¡¯s really tiring, but I¡¯m now able to keep at it long enough to gain a decisive victory. The speed of attacks is slow but it¡¯s made up for with the styles overwhelming power. I also found that Nemun intends to participate in the tournament, if I remember correctly she uses her clans signature weapon the ¡®Macuahuitl¡¯, at a glance it appears to be made from just wood and glass, but they are many times harder and more flexible than steel, they¡¯ve refused to share the manufacturing methods for centuries, but readily sell them to anyone willing to pay enough. It¡¯s suspected that they are made from the parts of powerful magical beasts found only in the Ulenci Savage lands where the Zvyar originate from, the region is split up into the territories of each different clan, Nemun¡¯s clan the ¡®Vulk¡¯ or wolf clan, live in the south and own the most territory. The Zvyar have been at peace between the clan ever since the Vulk Leader called for modernization, the other clans not wanting to fall behind did the same and this led to the current peace that has lasted so long that the Ulenci Savage lands are considered to be the kingdom of the Zvyar. I look forwards to seeing Nemun in the tournament, it could only turn out to be a tough match, but I can only do my best. In the tournament deaths are common place, however the Church resurrects the fallen warrior immediately after the match, so if you¡¯re scared of dying you¡¯d might as well forfeit now, I¡¯ve already made my resolve to the Elder tree, and I¡¯ll visit it soon. Someone opens the door of my room and walks in. ¡°Matious.¡± I look up at them from my bed. ¡°Morning Shushen.¡± ¡°Haha, geez you look horrible, what¡¯ve you been doing?¡± ¡°300 sit ups, 180 squats, 1000 practice swings, 10km run followed by 100 push ups to cool off before going to sleep.¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t that double what you normally do?¡± I nod. ¡°It¡¯s normal for those participating in the tournament to double their training until participation day.¡± ¡°You were already doing some ridiculous training, besides does you also have practice during classes? I can barely manage doing that, I shouldn¡¯t have tried to learn magic and the Glaive at the same time¡­. Hah~¡± ¡°I think you¡¯re doing more than well enough considering you¡¯re doing both Shushen.¡± Shushen shrugs. ¡°Still feels like I could do better and Knife¡¯s been giving me a hard time because my grades keep being below average.¡± ¡°I think she¡¯s just stressed out, I¡¯ve seen her training, and I think she¡¯s going to be in the tournament as well.¡± ¡°I really wish I could be in that tournament, I¡¯m so jealous of you guys.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it, you¡¯ll get to participate when you graduate as well.¡± Shushen sighs. I glad Shushen isn¡¯t in the tournament this year, given a few more years I think he¡¯d be a pretty fearsome opponent, but right now? He wouldn¡¯t stand a chance. Though I feel bad that he¡¯ll have to be in the same tournament as my sister¡­ she is truly frighting, I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve ever seen someone with super human strength as incredible as hers, it¡¯s too bad she¡¯s an idiot and worse that she¡¯s an idiot with a rich father, but I think she¡¯d do really well in Butangul. ¡°Well come on Matious, todays the tournament you¡¯ve been waiting for, drink a regeneration potion and get ready.¡± I groan. ¡°But they¡¯re so expensive, 4 Silver tapers for one potion I¡¯d rather gnaw my arm off.¡± He drags me out of bed and onto the floor before going through my bags and taking out one of my potions and handing it to me. ¡°Come on, you¡¯re not going to do any fighting if you¡¯re looking like that.¡± ¡°Fine¡­¡± I sighed before I sat up and drank it obediently, 4 Silver taper down the drain, ugh¡­ I want to cry. ¡°What are you crying for, isn¡¯t you father rich?¡± ¡°That doesn¡¯t mean I¡¯m rich.¡± I cry back, but Shushen just laughs. ¡°Hurry up you need to get ready, oh and try not to get killed instantly today.¡± Shushen says before hastily making his retreat from the room, dodge the pillow I threw at him. The potions started taking effect and the sore muscles and tiredness I was feeling disappeared, I got up and started getting dressed, I¡¯d had my armour delivered to the tournament grounds yesterday so I wouldn¡¯t have to walk through town in it, though I¡¯ve seen a lot of students copying knife and doing nothing but wear their armour every day, they¡¯re a crazy bunch. Oh well they seem to be having fun going on morning runs around the academy with Knife as well as going off and doing other things themselves. Of course not everyone can afford plate mail, it¡¯s generally more cost efficient to buy tough leather clothing and enchant it. Thankfully my father paid for my armour, I never would have been able to afford plate mail, let along be able to enchant it, I only knew a few basic conjuration spells, things like creating water or light. I ended up going with just a simple tough fabric shirt and long pants and some cheap leather shoes I usually wear. Most of the money I earned from doing part time work went towards my sword, 3 Silver Tapers and 6 Iron sticks for a good quality iron sword, it¡¯s basically robbery at those prices¡­ I left my room and was sent off and wished luck by everyone in the dorm before I left to go and travel to the stadium in Dorendu, I should arrive a few hours before the tournament begins which will give me enough time to get ready, no one ever appreciates how long it takes to get into and out of plate mail, I don¡¯t envy anyone that tries or has to be wearing it every day. I arrived at around the same time as the other students that will be participating, some of the normal students will probably skip classes and come to watch, and somehow I expect Shushen and his friends to be doing that. We all went in and got ready, when I finished getting ready there was still 3 hours before the tournament started, well better to be ready early than not be ready when it comes time to fight and end up not wearing half of my armour, was how I reasoned it to myself. Most of the students at gone off to waste time around town, but the students that wore plate mail like me stayed in the waiting room of the stadium, I can understand why, better to stay undercover and avoid heat stroke and being disqualified. I think the one that stood out the most was Knife with her bronze plated plate mail, it looked custom made in addition to being fitted with a precision only a master armour smith could manage no doubt there was also a large number of enchantments. I think I remember hearing something about boosting the number of enchantments your armour could have by coating it with bronze, silver or gold, honestly her armour looked as impressive as the sword hanging from her belt, the hilt inlayed with complex silver engravings. She really looked like royalty, walking around with such expensive looking equipment, beautiful with what seems to be without putting in any effort and how she looked like she was looking down her nose at everyone. I know she isn¡¯t actually like that, but that¡¯s how it must seem to everyone else, she¡¯s just easily troubled when getting attention from others. Also I know that my sister has been causing her trouble for the last few years, there¡¯s nothing I can do about that, my sister is scary. I spoke with some friends I sat with during lunch and we spoke about our strategy during the tournament, a lot of them had decided to pair up and try to win over impressing people, that understandable I would of paired up with Knife if she¡¯d let me. Some of the other student joined in and apparently most of them had been going through hell following Knife during her training schedule, a lot of them doubted she was even an elf and instead where saying she must be a Zvyar with its fur shaved off, though even then she wouldn¡¯t look like one, the anatomy is completely different, but I get their meaning. I wanted to stay focused so I didn¡¯t go and talk to Knife, though I could see her and Nemun comparing notes and probably information on other students, but it doesn¡¯t seem like they¡¯ve teamed up. The tournament will be held over the week, because there are 200 students participating it has to be at least go for this long, 4 qualifying tournaments will be run for the first 3 days followed by the Kings Tournament that will span over 3 days so that people can make quick repairs or replace equipment and then the stadium has a day to get it ready for the Intermediate league tournament. Of course the number of student that graduated this year is around 400, but the tournament isn¡¯t for everyone, there are actually more students participating this year than usually are. Before we realized it the rest of the students that were in town came back to the waiting area and a guard came in and told us to go to our designated preparation area, the tournament was beginning, we split into three groups and went to different area¡¯s to wait for our matches, the students that weren¡¯t coming up next were allowed to sit in the stands and watch the match, my matches would be in the afternoon and it was still the morning so I went to watch the first fight. It was two pairs fighting against one another, one team had a mage and a pikeman, the other was two swordsmen that seemed to focus on speed and precision, the pikeman was slow and clumsy, the mage began chanting a long spell as soon as the match began, they were quickly taken out by the two swordsmen with hardly a fight, it was a bit of a letdown, but the beginner tournament is mostly like this, some genuinely skilled fighters, but other than that they¡¯re like that pikeman and mage pairing just now. I got out of my armour since I only needed to wear it while we were in the waiting and waiting to learn when our matches were. Every now and then there was a good fight on, I spent all day eating various snacks they were selling in the stadium while enjoying the matches, before my match was Nemun¡¯s, I already had my armour on but I had to go wait in the preparation room so I couldn¡¯t watch it. Also I know is that the odds were 1:5 in Nemun¡¯s favour, but that doesn¡¯t really mean much in the beginner league. The odds are based on grades, so they can be at times very different from a person¡¯s actual capabilities. At first while I waited it was quite, but then suddenly a thundering cheer rung through the preparation room, Nemun¡¯s fight must of been a good one for it to get that sort of reaction from the crowd, I can only hope she won. As I wondered if she¡¯d won or not I see priests carrying a decapitated body rush in, the head being carried separately, I rush over hoping it¡¯s not Nemun. Thankfully it wasn¡¯t Nemun, the person was quickly resurrected by the priests, if you wait too long then resurrection becomes impossible and unless you¡¯re using a high class resurrection spell then there is a chance of failure. ¡°Pitlie uhoori zash cuqau cazaouxuoox cuza tsiuhkiri cuqau oozafudu zash cuqau shuhduxumi shuouhsaxezasaxoi, ooliuhsau faoo shsazabe oofashshusaugu cuqau duzaoox zash uh shuduxzashuo shuouhsaxezasa uhmiou casauhmicu faoo cuqaeoo tsizaxmiixia. Pitlizash cuqau Pitlizaduou Pitliriemicaoo shuou uhoori shzasa hzafasa tsiduuooxugu ooza cuqauhcu shuou beuhh sauoofasaxukicu cuqau shuhduxumi shuouhsaxezasaixia. Pitlizash cuqau ouubezami Tugumetrathibuxoi, shuou tsiuca cuqauhcu hzafa mizacu zatsifieuhcuu cuqau shuhduxumi shsazabe saucufasamiugu shsazabe cuqau Pitliuduouusa Pitlicusauxixia. Pitlishuou shuoqaza shuoecumiooxutsi lizashuousa uhoori zash cuqau cazaouxuoox cuza cuuhriu liecuh zami cuqau shuhduxumi uhmiou cuza saucufasami cuqau shuhduxumi shuouhsaxezasa cuza cuqaeoo shuhduxumi tsizaouhixia. Pitlizaqa Pitlicazaouxuoox Tugufia-fifalieibu shuou uhoori cuqaeoo zash hzafa zami cuqaeoo ouuhh zash shuoocuefiecueuooxoi, duucu mizacu cuqau pzah zash cuqau zakixuhooezami tsiu safaemiuou tsih cuqau ouuuhcuqa zash hzafasa kiqazaooumixoi saucufasami cuqaeoo shuhduxumi shuouhsaxezasa cuza faoo ooza cuqauhcu cuqau shuoocuefuecueuoo beuhh kizamicuemifauixia. Pitlicu-¡° They chanted the spell of resurrection granted to us by the goddess Fia-fifalie, the familiar chanting put me at ease, the chant to ask the goddess not allow the festivities to be spoiled and that the fallen warrior be guided back to their body and that the victory be allowed to enjoy his victory without fear of not being about to enjoy that victory with his fellow warrior. I don¡¯t know why but I always find chants soothing, the ancient and lost language just has something strange about it that I find soothing. I sat and listened as they eventually finished and the young woman slowly sat up and then stood, now fully healed like she¡¯d just woken up from a dream. ¡°I didn¡¯t get to see your match, but nice work out there.¡± I congratulated her, she looked at me seeming slightly confused. ¡°Th- thanks¡­¡± She seemed pretty shaken up but I can¡¯t blame her, she just died. The side effect of resurrection is that things like hair colour and eye colour change, you can always tell if someone has been resurrected because they will have flakes of cyan in their eyes that give off a slight glow, when you get resurrected to many times your hair turns white and then you start losing muscle mass and strength each time you¡¯re resurrected, if you don¡¯t build back up that strength again then you¡¯ll eventually degenerate and be unable to ever be resurrected. I watched the priests slowly walk her out after that¡­ that might be me in a few minutes if I don¡¯t win this match. A guard walked into the preparation room. ¡°Matious Trastlefortem? Follow me please.¡± I got up and followed him to a stone tunnel leading out to the stadium¡¯s staging ground. ¡°When your introduced walk out onto the staging round and wait for the go ahead to begin the battle.¡± The guard said to me as he got comfortable wait began waiting, he¡¯s probably there to stop me from walking out to early. I heard the announcements from the stadium being amplified through magic. ¡°This matchup we have the Mage En Drendri of the Elder Forest going up against the Swordsmen Matious Trastlefortem son of Crodem Trastlefortem and brother to the Intermediate league champion Toriam!¡± When my name was mentioned I was given to go ahead to enter the staging area. I ran out onto the stage and readied my weapon, En stood across from me we¡¯ve been friends for a few years now, not close friends but friends none the less, I¡¯ll feel bad about killing him. ¡°We have high hopes for our two new fighters, so let the fight begin!¡± Crackers went off making multiple dull popping sounds marking the beginning of the match, I leapt forwards brandishing my sword before making a low swipe at En¡¯s left leg in an attempt to maim him but he stepped back out of my reach. ¡°Pitlie uhoori zash cuqau shuoemiou cuza ooduekiu cuqaeoo tsiduecaqacuxoi, [Wind Cutter]¡± En quickly chants a class 10 ancient wind spell at me while he walks backwards, the almost invisible blade of wind crashes into me, knocking me back a few feet, he casts the spell again in the time it takes me to recovers but this time I¡¯m expecting it and dispel the attack but swinging at it with my sword. I dash forwards getting in close to attack, En seems to panic messing up his chant, I close in an deal a blow to his left side, blood begins flowing from the wound but En jumps back casting another ¡®Wind Cutter¡¯ before I can deal a finishing blow, the ¡®Wind Cutter smashes against my armour, doing more damage to me than to the armour thankfully. I got thrown off my feet and fell on my back, I rolled to the side just in time to dodge another Wind Cutter, and it seems he¡¯s practiced to be able to cast that spell almost instantly. I managed to bat away a Wind Cutter to give me enough time to find my feet again, I received another Wind Cutter with my sword and then ran forwards again hitting away En¡¯s Wind Cutters as he cast them until I managed to get close enough for another attack, he started running in the other direction casting Wind Cutters as he went. He made a turn when he reached the edge of the stage and I cut deep into his arm, severing it. En fell to the ground and rolled away from me, rolling to his feet with a pained look on his face and obvious shock as well as another Wind Cutter which hit me squarely in the chest tearing loose one of my Pauldrons and knocking the wind out of me, it¡¯s going to take a long time to get that fixed... I swing at En¡¯s head, he leapt back just barely dodging it while he cast another quickly spoken spell. ¡°Pitlia tsiuca cuza cuqau Pitlizaduou Pitliriemicaoo cuza kiduzacu beh tsiduzaxou uhmiou oocuzali cuqau shduzashuo shuoecuqaemi cuza shuoecuqazafacuxoi, [Clot Bleeding]¡± Blood stopped flowing from his arm, but he¡¯d messed up, that spell took longer for him to cast than his specialty Wind Cutter, long enough for me to close in and get a good swing in, I cut deep into his chest, he spasmed blood gushing from his chest and fell to the ground lifeless. We¡¯d been taught how to fight mages, the instructor drilled into our heads the cold hard truth that if you ever let up the attack they¡¯ll cast a devastating spell that would be the end of us, I took that to heart and didn¡¯t let up the attack. After experiencing it first hand, I know that to be probably the most important lesson in my entire life. The crowd started cheering, I think I¡¯m emotionally scarred from taking my first life? Well En will be up and about in a bit, anyway I won, yes! I raised my hands in the air. ¡°AND THE VICTOR IS MATIOUS TRASTLEFORTEM!!!!!!¡± The cheering became louder, I walked back to my preparation room and started taking off my armour, I don¡¯t have any more fights for today. I went to watch one of the other qualifying tournaments being held in the area, only one was held in the Staging Ground Stadium at a time, today my qualifying tournament was held in the stadium, tomorrow we move to the town square qualification stadium where we fight in the streets any damages are covered by the King, however it¡¯s an unspoken rule to minimize the damage as much as possible. The day after we go to the forest qualification stadium, which is just a clearing in the forest and seats cut into the surrounding trees. En approached me when I stepped towards to Stadium exit, he seemed to of made a full recovery, though the evidence of his recent experience with death showed in his eyes like flakes of shining metal. ¡°Are you turning in for the day Matious?¡± I shook my head. ¡°No, I¡¯m going to go watch the Town Square Stadium¡¯s qualifying match, do you want to come with me?¡± ¡°Sh- sure, I to admit though, you got me really good those last few hits.¡± I felt a bit awkward about talking about it on the same day that I killed him. ¡°Yeah¡­ you got a few solid hits on me as well, if it wasn¡¯t for my armour I would of lost almost instantly, you¡¯re crazy fast at chanting you realize that right?¡± He smiled, somehow he seemed to brighten his mood and shrugged. ¡°It¡¯s simple if you know the right breathing techniques, you can also cheat by expelling mana from your throat to replace the breath out and just concentrate on mouth movements rather than breathing techniques, but that consumes a lot of mana. If you get it right you can breathe normally and talk at the same time without needing to stop talking to take a breath, I have a friend that¡¯s really good at it, but don¡¯t ask him about it or he¡¯ll never stop talking.¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t know about that, I was wondering how you were able to keep chanting like that while doing rolls and dodging me, hmm, I can see how that would be vital to a mage.¡± ¡°Yeah, you would of learned about it with you being a martial training major, it really is very vital to a mage, I would have been taken down as fast as those first two in the first match, that mage and pike team, they were really bad I don¡¯t even know what they¡¯d been doing for the last 6 years. Kind of a letdown is the only thing I can say about it, though I will say that I don¡¯t envy whoever will have to fight those two swordsmen tomorrow, they seem genuinely strong.¡± ¡°Yeah¡­¡± Well it seems I opened the flood gates¡­ ¡°Hey, ugh En, let¡¯s get a drink, just to celebrate a good match, either of us would of lost instantly if not for something we learned or gained, I myself only won because I was taught how to fight mages.¡± We went to watch the town square qualification tournament for the rest of the day, large ramps where made so that people could stand on the rooves of the houses around the town square, there were also seats there for people to sit, also the food stalls where just a street away. A pub brought out its stock and was selling drinks to people watching the matches, En payed for a bottle, I would of but after buying my sword I only have a few bronze jots left. En uncorked the bottle and drank a mouthful as we went to the seats on the roof and sat down, we shared the bottles as we watched the matches, this is the first time I¡¯ve had alcohol¡­ it tastes disgusting, but I drank away way because I didn¡¯t want to waste En¡¯s money. And also for all the students including myself, this should be the first time we¡¯ve killed. Even if En was brought back I killed him and I want to forget about that, at least until tomorrow. Just as the sun began to set, the final match was about to begin, the announcer introduced the fighters. ¡°Good Evening, tonight we have to last fight of the day, Princess Knifelim Blindsight 2nd inline to the Goblin Emperor against Tentu Hillshell and Spanto Hillshell a twin brother and sister pairing from Shellic Fields!¡± < --/-/-- > I¡¯m making final preparations for the tournament tomorrow, for a week now I¡¯ve been using ¡®manipulate¡¯ to coat my armour in bronze, I finished yesterday, but now I need to infuse it with the new enchantment. The art of enchanting and yes it is actually an art, is to fold the metal over multiple mana veins to create a magic net or magic grid as then are called and then cast the spell on the object with the chant for enchantment added onto the end. Some used the aid of a short chant to form the mana vein, but it¡¯s relatively easy to form them once you know how, gather your mana to a single point and pulling it out while spinning it like a thread, the issue with mana vein¡¯s is that you need to use them immediately once you¡¯ve formed them or the enchantment will be weakened due to an imbalance in the magic grid. The importance of enchanting is not power, but balance and complexity, to weight the spell equally on the magic grid. To enchant wooden objects, it either needs to be made from specially grown wood that had mana channelled into it since it was a sapling, or wood from a monster, like a Trent or a Forest Sentinel. Monster leather is cheap and considering on how powerful the monster the leather came from, it can hold many times more enchantments than any other material, the best more than likely being dragon leather. I folded more than 1000 mana veins into the bronze coating as I spread it over my armour, basing my mana grid off a spider¡¯s web, this should hold a reasonable powerful enchantment, now for the finishing touches. ¡°The wind that dances, frolics and prances, dashes and hastens, I ask that you join me, come dance with me in battle, to fell my foes and smash their toes, I ask of the wind, to lend me its hand to join me in a dance. [Wind Dance]¡± Looking at it with my ¡®sight¡¯ my armour seems to begin glowing brightly, the magic then began settling in and didn¡¯t seem to be dissipating before finally stabilizing, and it¡¯s a success.
You have successfully completed the enchantment ¡®Wind spirit¡¯
¡®Wind Spirit¡¯ {Intermediate Enchantment} Reduced Weight of armour (40%) Reduced fatigue (10%) Increased Agility (+3)
That turned out well, I suppose I¡¯ll need to use a stronger spell to get a stronger enchantment. ¡°Nemun.¡± Nemun was asleep in a chair in the corner, she¡¯s fallen asleep reading while waiting for me to finish my armour, I¡¯d been up for the last few days working on it, probably not the smartest thing considering the tournament was tomorrow, but I never would have had it finished in time otherwise, I¡¯ll just chug some curative potions, that should keep me going long enough to get through the tournament. Potions are a bit of a pain for me to make because I don¡¯t really have access to fresh herbs, but I manage, the potions are made by refining it with mana and using different herb, mineral and chemical combinations. By passing your mana through the solution, the mana clings to the residual energy in the ingredients used and makes that energy materialise and rise to the surface, that fluid is then collected and placed in a bottle and the rest is discarded. The discarded solution is toxic and highly poisonous after the extraction, a strong healing potion also makes an equally strong poison, so the left over solution should be disposed of properly. The collected fluids are a highly concentrated version of the potion which you should water down for the best cost efficiency, there are multiple different recipes to make the same potions and they each have different variant in colour, taste, smell and effectiveness. Never the less I have a potion lab set up in my room, it¡¯s a lot cheaper to just make my own rather than buy them from others, not to mention that the market bought are usually watered down far more than they should be and they mix dirt in to mask the grimy bitter flavour of them, that usually happens if you don¡¯t extract the potions from the solution properly, a properly made potion should taste sweet. Nemun didn¡¯t wake up when I called her so I walked over and prodded her, she almost jumped out of the seat. ¡°I¡¯m done Nemun, help me into it I¡¯m going to go for a run and make sure nothing¡¯s wrong and that the magic grid doesn¡¯t unravel.¡± Nemun picked up the books she was reading before she fell asleep and put it aside before walking over to my armour. ¡°You really finished in time?¡± I nodded. ¡°I thought I was going to have to go without any armour for a little bit, but look at it, finished and with an entire day to spare.¡± I smile at Nemun who hates making magical items, but I¡¯d convinced her to help me with it, I wouldn¡¯t have been able to finish it in time if not for her help. ¡°Help me into it, I¡¯ll show you it was worth the torture.¡± Nemun helped me into my armour like she usually does, she¡¯s gotten pretty fast at it lately. My armour now strapped and buckled, I stood up, it felt strange how much lighter it was. I moved around my arms, legs waist and neck, testing the joints for any adjustments that need to be made to the fitting, everything seemed good so I walked outside to the training grounds in the school, the students that where currently in class got distracted by me and were looking out their classes window, to test the stability of the magic grid I smashed my Vanbrace against a large rock, the armour wasn¡¯t damaged at all and all I felt was a light tap, the magic grid didn¡¯t unravel or explode, good. Also when I say Vanbrace, I mean the forearm guards connected to the Rerebrace, the Rerebrace is like a cousin of the Pauldron or Spaulders, which are essentially shoulder pads. I took off what I could in an attempt to make the armour lighter, but because of that there are a lot of vulnerable places in my armour. For example I discarded the Faulds and Tassets, Faulds are a piece of plate armour worn below a breastplate to protect the waist and hips, and it¡¯s a bit like a metal shirt. Tassets are bands hanging from faulds or breastplate to protect the upper legs. On my legs I wear Schynbald which provides protection for the shin. I took off the hinged ¡®door¡¯, discarding the lames that protected my calf. Above the Schynbald I wear a Cuisse which protects the thigh. For my chest I wear a Cuirass as is the norm and only the front of my chest is armoured, I think the most armoured parts of my body are my arms and my head, wearing a Bevor which cover the jaw and neck and a Sallet which is a helm that extends out to cover the back of the neck. I also discarded the Sabaton¡¯s, gauntlets and besagew. A Sabaton is essentially a piece of metal that covers the foot, guantlets are self-explanatory and a Besagew is a circular plate that covers the armpit, typically worn with spaulders. I kept the Cowter¡¯s, which provide protection for my elbows and connects the Vanbrace and Rerebrace, and I also kept the Poleyn, which protects the knee and connects the Schynbald and Cuisse. Essentially I got rid of any part of my armour I thought was unnecessary or would get in the way, it also helped that it meant I had less parts I had to coat with bronze. An armour set is called a harness, under the harness I wear a padded form of clothing called a doublet. All in all, the armour gets pretty damn hot, but I bought some crystals that when infused with magic and exposed to heat, lower to temperature to around 18 degrees Celsius before they deactivate on their own, automatically regulating the temperature inside the suit to stay around 18 degrees Celsius. I will be honest, as cool as it would have been to wear gauntlets, they would impede spell casting, so I had to discard them. I went for a run in my armour which was now incredibly light compared to before because of the ¡®Wind Spirit¡¯ enchantment, testing the armour for instabilities. I did this by throwing myself against rocks. As crazy as it sounds this is actually how you¡¯re supposed to test new magical armour. The tests double in importance when you add a coating to increase the enchantments. Because there a chance that the original enchantment or base enchantment could be incompatible or the base magic grid could collapse due to the added pressure. The base magic grid usually only becomes unstable if you don¡¯t make the new magic grid compensate for the base grid. Which generally results in the new magic grids becoming incredibly complex if the base magic grid is very simple. ¡°I who witnessed power asks that the object of my focus move, bent, twist and change shape to my will, [Manipulate].¡± When my armour became dented I repaired it back to pristine condition using manipulate. After spending half the day running around jumping into walls and rocks, falling on the ground, getting up, and just all round testing the durability. By now I was perfectly sure that it was stable. Even the light coming from it that I could see with my ¡®sight¡¯ gave off the impression that it was stable. I returned to my room and took off the armour. It took me a while on my own by I managed, bathed and then went to sleep. Tomorrow is the day of the tournament. < --/-/-- > The sun is setting. I gripped the hilt of the sword while waiting in one of the Town Square preparation rooms. My match is the last one for today. I had to wait all day it was almost unbearable. My armour may have been well cooled, but that didn¡¯t make it comfortable. My match is up next so it won¡¯t be long I suppose. That doesn¡¯t make it more bearable though. The Town Square preparation room was actually a small building behind a tavern close to the town hall. I suspect there¡¯s one on the other side of the town square. At long last a guard walked in with the victor of the previous match, the victor looked pretty banged up and pale. Probably shock or something like that. The guard motioned for me to approach the exit. ¡°Your match will be starting soon. The suns almost down so make it quick I want to go sleep. I never expected standing around all day to be so tiring when I joined the city guard.¡± The guard yawned loudly. ¡°When you hear the introduce you run into the town square. Then wait for the word to start fighting.¡± The guard stood by next to me swaying on his feet slightly. He must really be tired. ¡°Good late AFTERNOON! Tonight we have to last fight of the day, Princess Knifelim Blindsight 2nd inline to the Goblin Emperor, KNIFE! Against Tentu Hillshell and Spanto Hillshell a twin brother and sister pairing from Shellic Fields!¡± Hey isn¡¯t the goblin thing meant to be a secret? And I¡¯m not a princess dammit! A little annoyed I ran out and stopped in the town square as I was told. The brother and sister pair were a both swordsmen. This is a common pairing, two martial students or a martial student and a magic student. I drew my sword and the twins drew theirs as well. The brother and sister pair looked intimidating, even more so because they were Zvyar. ¡°Well we have high hopes for our new fighters, so let the battle begin!¡± I began chanting ¡®Urea¡¯ as I charged forwards, the brother hopped to the side while the sister readied her sword before meeting my charge. She swung at me as she ran past, but I ducked under her blade aimed for the slit in my helmet I see through called the occularium. The brother was right behind her, he leapt forwards and swung upwards at my chin while I was still bent over after dodging his sister¡¯s attack. I leaned my torso backwards. His sword scrapped across the surface of my Cuirass, but overall dealt no damage. As I leaned back I brought my sword up and pushed away his blade. I then turned and met swords with the sister that was coming up behind me, this made her recoil from the force of the impact from our blades meeting and gave me enough time to hook my foot behind the brother and push him back with my out stretched hand causing him to trip over. Before I could move to attack the brother that had fallen over, the sister ran into me and knocked me onto the ground. She got purchase on my hips before I could recover from the fall and rammed her sword into my stomach. My Cuirass dented deeply inwards but stopped the attack from piercing skin. My chant was interrupted. I felt like my stomach had been crush, all the internal organs turned to mush, like I was going to throw them all up. I swallowed down my vomit and punched her in the side of the head which knocked her to the ground beside me, the brother was there and tried to stab his sword through my occularium. I stopped his sword with mine and kicked his feet out from under him before getting up. I was still in the process of getting up when the sister charged at me stabbed with her sword aiming for my armpit where I didn¡¯t have any armour. I shifted my crouching position, twisting my hips and leaned forwards received that attack on my Rerebrace. The sister¡¯s sword bit deep into the armour and got stuck, I stood and turned my body away to steal control of her sword for a moment as I ran my sword along her sword arm, she dropped her sword and clutched her arm. I faced the brother as he brought down a wide arching swing. I brought up my injured arm and caught his sword arm with my hand, with the other I drove my sword through his chest. The brother fell to the ground, blood seeping out from his wound. I was disorientated from the blow to my head, my vision blurred and I almost lost balance. I turned to face the sister who stared in shock at her brother as a pool of red gathered by him. I took this chance to cast Water Globe. ¡°I ask of the water beneath the earth to wash away with terror and still the flow, [Water Globe]¡± I compressed the spell and then threw it to the sister as she snapped out of it and realize what I was doing. The sister struck the compressed ball of water with her sword in an attempt to dispel it and it exploded. There was silence for a time and then the water vapour cleared and revealed the sister on the ground, her right arm and the right side of her chest and face completely gone. I turned back to the brother that was slowly bleeding out on the ground, he had a look of horror while looking at his sister¡¯s corpse. I drove my sword through his skull, wake up when you¡¯re both healthy again. I withdrew my sword from his skull and swung a practice swing to fling the blood and brain matter from the blade before sheathing it. I¡¯ll need to clean and polish the blade before I go to sleep, I don¡¯t want brain gloop rusting it. ¡°AND OUR VICTOR IS THE PRINCESS, KNIFELIM BLINDSIGHT!!!!!!¡± The crowd cheered so loud it just sounded like a deafening roar. I¡¯m going to have some words with that announcer about a few things that are getting on my nerves latter. I left the arena and returned to the preparation room. A group of healer crowded around me and helped me out of my armour so they could look over my wounds. While they were inspecting the various bruises and checking for any broken bones, I spent the time repairing my armour with ¡®Manipulate¡¯, which thankfully didn¡¯t require my hands, only requiring the manipulation of mana. They removed the sister¡¯s sword that was still stuck in my armour and in turn still lodged in my arm, it hurt a lot, but I could still use the arm without any difficulties so they just patched it up with a healing spell after removing the sword. They finished inspecting my injuries before I finished repairing my armour. The blow to my stomach broke 2 ribs, which they healed with difficulty. If I¡¯d had a broken leg then they would have just had to set it before casting healing magic, otherwise it would have healed wrong. Healing magic won¡¯t realign improperly set bones. Healing magic can regrow bones though, so a lost limb can be restored within an hour unless the limb is in the possession of a cursed or evil magical beast or creature. However with broken ribs, they found out where they are and then extract them. I had them wait until after I finished fixing my armour. I put on a shirt and they took me to the healer¡¯s tent that was set up by the Staging Ground Stadium and laid me down on a table. The healers didn¡¯t give me anything and just started cutting into me, I was confused and knocked one of them out before they could restrain me. They cut my chest open and removed the broken ribs before casting a heal spell, which regrew the ribs and healed my chest without leaving a scar. Of course they ignored my struggling and screaming, I passed out before they even extracted the first rib. This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. I should have figured that the medical procedures were messed up since this was a medieval setting in addition to being a fantasy one¡­ I woke up the next day, it was morning and I had to go to the next round of qualifying matches, today my group have been moved to the forest stadium. I say stadium, but it¡¯s really just a clearing in the forest with trees growing taller and taller the further they get from the clearing. If I didn¡¯t have to leave, then I would have made those fucked up excuses for healers heal every bone in their bodies after i broke them. I picked up my armour that was bundled and tied together at the base of the bed they left me in. Put on some cheap looking poor quality clothes they left for me and ran to the forest. If I was in the first match today I would already be disqualified. I ran through the path leading to the clearing, which was lined with colourful wax paper ornaments, and arrived just as a match ended. A guard that was standing by waved to me. It was the same guard as the one in the preparation room for the town square. It seemed he was a guard for my group and not the town square stadium. ¡°Knifelim, you¡¯ve arrived. We feared you weren¡¯t going to be able to make it. We needed to tell you when your match was on¡± I breathed a sigh of relief. ¡°Oh good I didn¡¯t miss my match.¡± ¡°Your match will be the last one for today was well, ¡®saving the best for last¡¯ or so was the reason.¡± ¡°Oh so my match is right when the sun begins the set again?¡± He nodded. ¡°Yep, don¡¯t be late though. I made a lot of money from your last match.¡± The guard says to me before going back to watching the arena as the next two fighter walked out and where introduced. Since I had most of the day off I returned to the healer¡¯s tent to ¡®thank¡¯ them for what they did yesterday. There were however not there, so I left dejectedly. On exiting the tent I noticed Nemun was standing outside the tent. ¡°What are you doing her Nemun?¡± ¡°I have a few hours before my next match, and I heard you were taken to the healer¡¯s tent yesterday so I came to see if you were okay.¡± I shrug. ¡°Yeah, they just removed some ribs and made them grow back. I wanted to thank them with my fist but it seems they knew better then to stick around.¡± Nemun chuckled at that. ¡°Well it has happened before, in the past there have been many incidents, so it seems they¡¯re ready for it now.¡± I smiled bitterly. ¡°I suppose they are¡­¡± I thought for a moment. ¡°How did your match go Nemun?¡± Nemun seemed to frown. ¡°Not good, it was over almost instantly. I wanted a real fight.¡± ¡°As expected as Nemun.¡± Nemun always got top grade in physical fitness and proficient with multiple weapons, she was the top martial student. Nemun and I spent time together until her match started in the Town square stadium. I went and watched, Nemun seemed to have some slight trouble until she tore off the arm of her opponent with her bare hands¡­ after that she won without difficulties. Nemun is a truly terrifying opponent, I sincerely hope I don¡¯t end up fighter her, ever. As I said in the past, I¡¯ll die¡­ Most of the day I spent eating various snacks and enjoying watching the fights with Nemun. I got to see Matious running around in his armour for an hour as he fought another person in equally heavy armour, neither could knock the other down and take the advantage, eventually they both conceded and the match was considered a draw. They were both eliminated from the tournament. Strangely Matious wasn¡¯t as depressed about it as I¡¯d thought he¡¯d be and Shushen and En where hanging around him, though Shushen should be in class at the moment¡­ ¡°HEY!!!¡± I yelled as I walked up, Shushen look over when I shouted and instantly scowled. Damn right, you should be in school you little shit. ¡°Shushen, shouldn¡¯t you be somewhere?¡± I asked him after stopping within a few feet of him. ¡°I am where I should be, helping my friend get through his disappointing defeat.¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t lose!¡± Matious interrupted, but Shushen ignored him. I shook my head. ¡°It¡¯s good that you treasure your friend so much, but you should be at school Shushen.¡± Shushen glared at me and I glared back, just listen to me you idiot. ¡°They aren¡¯t teaching anything I couldn¡¯t learn latter.¡± ¡°Learning it latter would be too late, which is why you¡¯re learning it now.¡± I replied to his feeble attempt at being rebellious. ¡°You can¡¯t act so high and mighty when you¡¯re grade have dropped as well!¡± ¡°My grades are still far above the average and I was focusing on my Martial grades.¡± Shushen huffs at me, he huffed at me. I think someone wants to get hit? I raised my fist, but then lowered it, no now¡¯s not the time to get into a petty fight with Shushen. En got in between us facing me with his hands raised to eye level. ¡°Calm down Knife, just let him enjoy the tournament, most of the students are skipping classes and are here anyway.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t care anymore, do what you want.¡± No matter what he¡¯s going to be a hero regardless of how poor his behaviour might be. All that matters is that I keep him alive until he¡¯s fulfilled his purpose and then I don¡¯t care what he does or whether or not he gets himself killed or turns into a good for nothing. I turn to walk away. ¡°Fine, I¡¯m going. But Shushen¡± ¡°Yes?¡± ¡°Learn what you can, while you can.¡± I went back to the forest Stadium with Nemun. We watched the matches, I was checking my watch after every match getting impatient. An hour before the sun was about to start setting I went to the preparation room to get ready for my match. I say preparation room, but for the forest stadium it¡¯s just a tree near the clearing the you sit under. I put my armour bundle on the ground and after unwrapping it I began strapping it on piece by piece, like this I spent the hour until my match. I remembered that I¡¯d forgotten to clean my sword yesterday, so I took it out and cleaned it off. I was still cleaning it when a guard came and told me to get in position. I reluctantly got up and sheathed my sword before walking over to the centre of the stadium. ¡°Good evening everyone, this evening we have the Princess Knifelim Blindsight, 2nd inline to the goblin Emperor, in her last match against Tentu Hillshell and Spanto Hillshell a twin brother and sister pairing from Shellic Fields. Knifelim fought a desperate battle before eventually coming out on top in what can only be considered the perfect combination of both a skilled swordswoman and a powerful mage in one single person.¡± I raised my arm to let the crowd know that he was talking about me. The crowd cheered a bit, they¡¯ll cheer for anything¡­. ¡°Our other fighter this evening is the one, the only 3rd son of Barron Arimie Ullphes, Emir Ullphes! A crowd favourite yesterday. When he defeated to outstandingly skilled magician Jexi Fenttiller that worked her magic to great effect which enthralled the crowd, but in the end lost out Emir¡¯s unending assault of both magic and sword. Arimie raised his hand in the same way I did to let the crowd know who I was. The crowd went crazy, I think a few women in the front rows started throthing at the mouth before fainting. What the actual fuck? ¡°What we saw from yesterday¡¯s matches, was The Princess Knifelim using the famed Water and Stone sword style ¡®Ice Fang Touch¡¯ which allows the user to flow like water while attacking and stand their ground like a stone wall when defending. This style is well suited to mixing with magical attacks and was last seen in use by the late King Zunanth of the Jarinan Kingdom that was famed for his prowess in battle. We can only hope that this new user of the style can live up to its fame.¡± Um what? I just read about it in a book, it didn¡¯t seem very important. Now that I think of it¡­ for all I know some of the spells I know could be long forgotten or very rare. ¡°As is well known, Emir Ullphes uses the Stone sword style ¡®Stongrad¡¯ intended to be used while wearing heavy bulky armour, the key to the style is to master controlling your centre of gravity and to use that being able to attack while putting your entire weight behind the attack and still remain in control and ready to receive the new attack. We¡¯ve seen Emir using magic in conjunction with this style in his previous match to great effect. The style ¡®Stongrad is a popular style in Atitria amongst nobility for its highly offensive nature that uses the full extent of the protection of the armour of the user.¡± So the same style as Matious but he¡¯s also a magic user. Somehow Emir had slipped my notice, I don¡¯t know how I managed to miss someone like this. Looking at his armour it¡¯s better than mine. The glistening white of the silver coating it is almost blinding and the whole white theme to it and his billowing cape just nauseates me. Why is he even wearing a cape? It¡¯ll just get in the way- no, it must be a magical item, there has to be a reason for him wearing it. It doesn¡¯t seem to glow like magic items normally do with my ¡®sight¡¯. I increased the output of my ¡®sight¡¯ to get a better look at it, nope, it¡¯s just a normal cape¡­ why is he wearing that? Is he an idiot? From the look on his face I could see behind his helmet after increasing my output, he seemed arrogant as fuck. Then let¡¯s put him in his place. ¡°-ome. Let¡¯s get this last fight for today underway and begin!¡± I drew my sword and the Emir drew his as well. He stood there not moving, waiting for me to attack with a smug smirk on his face. I mentally shrugged and began chanting Urea. ¡°I who possess power, twist and bind, bend and bind, stretch and bind, I form my defences. Smash, crash, pierce, my defences can¡¯t be broken. Flame, wind, stone, water, metal, void, my defences out last the elements. Hot, dry, wet, cold, my defences are not weathered. I am they who possess power and I cannot be broken. You who are witness, witness the power of my impenetrable defence, [Urea]¡± After I finish my chant I do the arm movements required my new-type spells, with each wave of my arm a light trails behind it forming a symbol in the air in front of me. Once complete the symbol dispersed into the air and at least to me, it seemed like my body seemed to become encased in light. This spell takes ages to cast. ¡°I ask of the earth that bares the weight of all, to call forth its strength and rise to greater heights, [Earth Rise]¡± The ground by my feet lit up. The entire time Emir just continued to stand there waiting for me to attack with that smug look on his face still, it didn¡¯t seem to change even after I cast the spell, so I¡¯ll assume he can¡¯t see what I see or he¡¯s just not paying attention. With my defensive spell cast I slowly walked up to Emir and stopped just outside his range, he still remained still, so I entered his range. He instantly took a swing at me, which I should have expected, but somehow I let myself believe he was a complete idiot. The swing came at my chest but was stopped about 10cm before it could touch me and the light seemed to fluctuate a bit. Emir¡¯s eyes widened, yeah, now you¡¯re starting to get what happens when you assume you¡¯ve already won you fuck. I raised my free hand and back handed him like the little bitch he was, it just clinked on his armour and I hurt my hand. He started to laugh loudly¡­ ¡°Nothing can get through my armour stupid girl, it¡¯s the finest in all the kingdom.¡± ¡°Do you realize how stupid you sound?¡± I attempted to stab him with my sword, it bounced off. It seems he has a lot of powerful enchantments. I attack him continuously but I do no damage, every now and then he attacks me but it does no damage to me either. I can¡¯t damage him with my sword and when I try to cast a spell he starts attacking and the weaker spells I can cast while defending do no damage to him. Fine, if I can¡¯t attack his body¡­ then I¡¯ll attack his mind. I release my control on my creeping tendrils and creeping feelers, his back and numerous muscles in his body instantly tense and then I push it up to maximum output. As soon as I start pushing it further, I see Goosebumps start showing up all along his arms and back and he shivers and hardens his expression before jumping back and gaining distance on me. But no, I won¡¯t let him run, I focus on creeping tendrils and push it to its limit while looking at Emir . I see his eye partially roll back into his head and he almost loses consciousness before regaining himself. But I don¡¯t let him completely recover, I close the distance and strike hard at his chest, it doesn¡¯t appear to do anything but then I activate ¡®Transcend the Limit¡¯, a glowing white smoke seems to rise from me and I feel instantly multiple times stronger.
¡®Transcend the Limit¡¯ activated
Emir punches my helmet, but ¡®Urea¡¯ ripples again as the punch gets stopped before even touching me. I push away from him and raise my sword high, assuming a ¡®Phoenix¡¯ style stance that focuses on continuous attacks. I start swing my sword continuously with the styles sword swings that almost seem to mimic the chaotic flickering of a flame. Emir strikes back as well, we exchange blows and meet swords, neither receiving even a scratch. However I could see ¡®Urea¡¯ weakening and Emir¡¯s armour was visibly battered, scratched and dented. I could deal a finishing blow. Emir seeing his armour he believed to be impervious, becoming so battered, seemed to be enrage. Suddenly I see magic gather around Emir¡¯s sword as he swings to at me, it smashes through my ¡®Urea¡¯ and cuts deeply into my side. A sword skill¡­ they don¡¯t teach those until intermediate training however. How did he learn that? Oh of course, money gets you anything. Emir tore his sword out, my translucent and sticky orange blood gushed out in large globs that slowly dripped from the open wound. And he stuck me again with that same skill, it bit deep into my bevor and stopped when it stuck my spine. Pain shot through my entire body like my bones were rattling. Emir pulled free his sword again before raising his sword to deal the finishing blow. It funny, I still fear death even though this will be the third time. The only thing that¡¯s changed is that I¡¯m better at lying to myself about my fears. But¡­ even though my consciousness is fading already and I feel weak, and that part of me wants to give up¡­ I already said I was going to win right? I don¡¯t want to turn into a liar as well as a pain in the ass for everyone around me. Emir blade was moving swiftly towards me, I already said I¡¯d put this idiot in his place. I don¡¯t have time to cast anything, I don¡¯t have the strength to turn this blade away. I felt a tug on my mana, I hadn¡¯t noticed it until now, but it was there. It felt as though I could pull on it, so I did. The mana surrounding Emirs sword suddenly exploded outwards violently, throwing me back a few feet and burning my eyes and hands. I raised my hands that sizzled and cracked, burning skin filled my nose. Burns are never pleasant. But I¡¯ve never been burned before this, not even in my first life, so how do I know that? Somehow a memory I don¡¯t remember surfaced, it was of a place I¡¯d never been and I saw people I¡¯d never met before. The people held me down and spread out my hand over a sink before pouring boiling vegetable oil over my hand. My hand sizzled and spat, the pain that seemed to pulsate from my hand like a second heart. ¡°You failed us Allen.¡± They threw me down, my head cracked against the metal sink before falling to the ground with the rest of me. THEY burned me, burned me! on my right hand the burn circled around from the back of my hand to the underside of my wrist, it was a punishment. But I can¡¯t remember who punished me, who did that to me? WHY did I need to be punished? ¡°I¡¯m sorry! I¡¯ll do better next time I promise!¡± I screamed over the pain with tears in my eyes. One of the men pulled up my head by the hair on the back of my neck and angled my head painfully so I was looking at him. He smiled, it was like a sickness had taken control of him it made me feel weak. ¡°There isn¡¯t a next time Allen, you only live once.¡± A loud bang went off and I felt something do through my chest, it became hard to breath. The warm red fluid that sustained my life pooled by my face, I felt weak. Why do I have to suffer, I did nothing wrong. I heard a women screaming in pain and then realized it was me. My hand were still sizzling as I watched them. ¡°Ah, fucking, shit! AH!!¡± I said channelling my mana through my throat to speak since one of my lungs was pretty much destroyed and breathing alone seemed like an impossible task. I sat myself up slowly to so I could look around, my entire body screamed as I moved and I remembered that I have two fatal injuries. I brought my hand up to the deep fissure that was my collarbone a few moments ago. My right side hanging loose, I had no control in it. Blood still poured out of my wounds. Whatever happened to ¡®Steadfast¡¯ shouldn¡¯t it activate and I should be regenerating right now? Fuck! I don¡¯t know. Emir was standing there, his arm completely blown off, he was both confused and shocked about what just happened. At seeing this I make a mental note to never do what I just did ever again. Is his confusion he just stares at his stump, his mouth opening and closing like a hungry fish, before he screams out in a shrill voice. ¡°What¡¯d you just do!?¡± I coughed up blood, it got stuck in my throat a few times before I eventually coughed it up, it rolled down my chin and out the bottom of my bevor. ¡°What¡¯d you do!?¡± Emir screamed again. Ugh¡­ I don¡¯t have time to deal with this, I¡¯ll be dead in a few moments, dead for the third time. ¡°Shut up!¡± I yelled to him, he ignored me and asked again¡­ ¡°Tell me what you just did to me!?¡± He screamed. ¡­¡­ ¡°No seriously shut up for a moment so I can die peacefully.¡± ¡°Wha-¡° ¡°I don¡¯t know any healing spells¡­¡± I really should have learnt some. It was an oversight, I¡¯ll do better next time. I resigned myself to bleeding out and let myself lay back down on the soft grass of the clearing. ¡°Hnrah!¡± Emir roared angrily in what can only be called the gibberish of rage and walked over to my sword and picked it up. He put it to my throat, it clinked against my bevor. ¡°I¡¯ll make sure they never revive you, monster!¡± I smiled though he couldn¡¯t see it. His character is so clich¨¦ I can hardly contain myself, but it¡¯s not good to laugh in this kind of situation, it¡¯ll just hurt a whole lot. ¡°You can try, but I¡¯ll kill you long before then.¡± With those words I began rolling on my side away from him. It must look really comical, but I made it back to wear I began the match. It was here that I left a spell that I think might win me the match, who knows I might even live. I began chanting ¡®Lightning javelin¡¯. He walked after me as if I was only delaying the inevitable. And then he flew up into the air with an explosion of rock chunks. Fucking idiot, what was the line? ¡®You activated my trap card.¡¯ I raised my hand to as part of the spell and finished the chant. ¡°I call upon the will of the Old Kings so that I might strike down the pitiful with the might of light itself! May you who has offended I, the vassal of the Old Kings, know the might that slew the Demon Metrath for yourself! I smite you with the javelin of the God-king! Let all who bear witness know of this fraction of the God-kings power and let all who you care for, know that I, the Vassal of the Old Kings will never be defeated by man, women, monster, demon or God itself, [Lightning Javelin]!¡± As he sailed through the air the ¡®Lightning Javelin¡¯ shot out from my hand and struck him cleanly. Emir fell to the ground hard and sizzled for a time, he didn¡¯t move. ¡°Oh and what a turn around! Emir Ullphes looked like his victory was assured after utilizing a sword skill which is rarely seen in the beginner tournament, but after losing out in a head on battle, the Princess that¡¯s not just looks, won because of her smarts and ingenuity. The victor, Knifelim Blindsight!¡± The crowd roared, what, do they just cheer on command now? I don¡¯t care anymore, I passed out.
Goddess Fia-fifalie has given ¡®Divine Favour¡¯ to F Rank Creator Aneir
Goddess Fia-fifalie has altered the F Rank Creator Aneir
I woke up later that day in the healer¡¯s tent, I was tied to the bed. Probably a precaution against violent patients, I cast ¡®sear¡¯ on them, which weakened them enough for me to break them. ¡°I ask the searing flame to scorch the infidel, [Sear]¡± I snapped the bindings after weakening them with the spells flames and got up, no one was around and it seemed to be night time, I guess they just left me there? Thankfully I didn¡¯t die, so I can only thank the healers. I was never really good at holding a grudge and keeping me alive after receiving such serious wounds. I don¡¯t really have a good reason to cripple them anymore, but better safe than sorry must be their motto, because they want nothing to do with me while I¡¯m awake. I left the tent, it was night time, checking my watch I found it was midnight. I always found it strange how technologically stupid they were despite having watches and clocks. But I suppose I can blame it on the convenience of magic, why make something the produces fire if you can just form fire from nothing and so. I didn¡¯t bother going back to sleep, I only slept 5 hours a day in my first life as well, feeling tired had already long become only a mere annoyance. I feel like I¡¯ve regained some of myself after that fight. But I have a question, one that I probably won¡¯t find someone that can answer, what were those memories? My life wasn¡¯t like that, it didn¡¯t end like that either. My life was peaceful and uneventful, a place where nothing ever happened. It was almost tranquil, though it wasn¡¯t without its problems. It¡¯s hard to think, something feel wrong like tasting something bitter when you¡¯re eating candy. I don¡¯t know what¡¯s wrong, it¡¯s hard to think about this, it hurts. I held my chest as I lost strength in my legs and dropped to the stone pavement of the street I was walking on. I couldn¡¯t see myself as normal, so I didn¡¯t know what was wrong. It¡¯s probably just mental fatigue, a normal thing after coming so close to death. My head grew heavy and my chest began to hurt as if I¡¯d been stabbed, ugh. I threw up. Okay, maybe I should sleep. I went to the room I¡¯d booked in a local inn on the first day, I hadn¡¯t had a chance to sleep in it yet. It was a small room, but it had its own aesthetic. It was practical, a bed, a chest and a shelf. Nothing unnecessary here and the food here was good, of course I tested the food before choosing to stay here. The inn keeper somehow gets that over cooked burnt flavour just right, I¡¯m a little sad that I missed out on it yesterday and the day before. However I skipped the meal today as well, I just didn¡¯t have an appetite and went straight to bed after putting my armour in the chest at the foot of the bed and locked it. When I woke up 3 hours later I took some clothes that weren¡¯t cut up and covered with my blood from my bag and changed into them. Though I suppose I could have just stitched up the cuts and cleaned the clothes, it would have looked bad, but it would have been functional. I instead decided to dispose of them somewhere on the way to the Staging ground stadium where I would be fighting today. I needed to repair my armour anyway. I carried my armour down stairs to the pub area of the inn, this is the inn¡¯s main business apparently. The night shift staff member of the inn gave me a strange look as I took a seat and plonked my armour down on the table. I ordered some stew and set myself at work repairing my armour. The stew was perfect, just the way I like it, though I think it could have used a bit more burnt flavour and it would have been better if the meat was just a little bit dryer, but it was still good. The sun rose by the time I¡¯d finished repairing my armour using manipulate. Since the sun was up, the other customers were waking up and coming out to get their morning meal. They all stared at me, I must of gotten pretty famous because of the tournament and it¡¯s not even over yet, haha. For the sake of it I ordered some alcohol, probably not the best thing to drink before a match. But after yesterday I don¡¯t care right now. My bodies only 16, but I¡¯m 35, so it¡¯s a good enough excuse for me. I drank a mug of it, I don¡¯t really know what these wooden cups are called so, mug it is. It¡¯s funny how little I managed to learn and retain about everyday things. Expansive knowledge about magical beasts and creatures, sure I know that. Expansive knowledge of history and anything else that a normal person would care about, nope. You couldn¡¯t get me to call the name of Atitria¡¯s king even if you tortured me, because I just don¡¯t know it and I don¡¯t care to know it. I can remember Viscount Crodem because my parents work for him, but any other noble? Nope, don¡¯t care. Besides nobility is just an excuse to feel important while doing very little, and have power over someone that doesn¡¯t know any better. Viva la revolution and all that, but rather it¡¯d be better to say Viva la Communism and the fall of the power of the nobility system. Of course I don¡¯t really care enough to change anything, not even the things I don¡¯t like. You see slaves being sold at the market place like common goods enough times and you just stop caring. Of course a part of me feels pained when I see it and another goes berserk when I see children being sold as premium goods. But I contain myself and I can¡¯t do anything about it, I am just a single person and I see no point in trying to change it when it¡¯ll just end with me either being sold as a slave or being killed, where I would latter resurrect on my own. There is a strange sort of security knowing what will happen to me when I die and to even know my purpose, it gives me strength when I stop caring. I didn¡¯t have this in my first life, so I could just give up without feeling any guilt. But now, I feel like giving up is the only thing I can¡¯t do. I wrapped my armour back up in its cloth and got up to leave. An elderly woman approached me, she was one of the people staying here since I saw her come from one of the back room. The elderly woman sat at my table and ordered some food. I was standing ready to leave and just stared at her for a moment, she must have really wanted to sit at this table without me being there. ¡°I¡¯m sorry for taking up the table for so long.¡± I apologized to her. ¡°Oh no worries, just speaking with someone like you is more than enough. I am sorry for keeping you.¡± She smiled, but something in her eyes said that she wanted to say something, so I sat back down. ¡°What do you need?¡± I¡¯d gotten used to accepting quests, though I hadn¡¯t really done many for the last few years. I still had around 4 hours until I had to go to the stadium. After sitting I put my armour on the bench next to me and put my arm over it, theft protection, though as primitive as it was. The elderly women averted her eyes and cover them with her hands while looking down. ¡°Oh, I could not ask anything of you. But if you would, could you share a meal with me?¡±
Quest: Share a meal with the Strange Elderly Women
¡°I see no reason not to share a meal with you, I¡¯m still hungry anyway.¡± I¡¯d already eaten, but it wasn¡¯t anywhere near enough, so I ordered another bowl of that stew. ¡°Oh thank you, thank you.¡± She said, now clutching her hands in front of her and nodding. Weird old lady¡­ The old lady began praying before touching her food, at least I think she was praying. She had a hand over each eye and her head was hanging down facing the ground. She started saying some stuff about thanking someone for their generosity in allowing them to meet and share a meal with a sentient of something or other, I didn¡¯t actually pay attention much after I realized she was praying. I begin eating while giving the old lady a queer look, religious types always weird me out. I¡¯m not much of a conversationalist, so I don¡¯t know if I¡¯m supposed to talk to her or something. In my first life I was taught it was poor manners to speak while sitting to eat a meal. I don¡¯t really know how it is for this culture, though I¡¯ve lived in Atitria for 6 years now, so I just feel weird about this whole thing. I decide to say something. ¡°I¡¯m thankful you asked to share a meal with me today, I haven¡¯t been able to share with anyone for a few days now.¡± I said and smiled at her. Yeah I¡¯ll admit I get lonely easily, ruins my appetite as well. The old lady just stopped eating for a moment and smiled like a child before she continued to woof down her food. ¡°Ugh, what are you doing in Dorendu? Isn¡¯t it dangerous traveling the roads?¡± ¡°I came to meet my grandchildren and oh don¡¯t worry about me, I used to be a priestess of Fia-fifalie, we¡¯re all very strong. I may be old but I¡¯ve still got it.¡± ¡°I¡­ okay¡­¡± I remained silent after that and finished eating a little while after the old lady did, I was eating slowly because I thought she wanted to say something. But I suppose not, I got up and lifted my armour off the bench. The old lady was watching me as I did so. Feeling awkward I decided I should say something before I go.
Quest: Share a meal with the Strange Elderly Women - Complete +2MaP +5Exp
¡°Uhm, I¡¯m fighting in the qualifying tournament today, if you have some spare time please come watch.¡± ¡°Sure, I¡¯ll bring my grandkids.¡± ¡°Are you sure? It gets pretty bloody¡­¡± She looked at me like I was some kind of weirdo, the same look I gave her a few moments ago. ¡°I know that.¡± ¡°Okay¡­¡± I said weakly before leaving. Despite how much I know about magic, which is still very little. There are people that spent their entire lives researching magic in this world. From what I¡¯ve read the only conclusive result from the research so far is that magic exists. I have no time to research it, but I believe if I do it might help me create my own magic system when I get around to working on my world. When I cast spells, it feels like the words spin the mana into a string and that string is then given form by more words becoming a sweater or a scarf or water, or fire and so on. Mana is like a feeling, it¡¯s like feeling full, but different. It¡¯s possible to move it using your mind, the easiest way to focus your mind and reflexively moving the mana is through calculations. For example positional calculation, it is a system that measures space using your current location as the centre point. By those calculation you are the centre of the world and everything revolves around you, this is what the calculations assume because you are the centre of mana for your spells, the ¡®battery¡¯ where mana is built up and stored. Research on how mana is generated varies from ¡®It just happens¡¯ to ¡®We don¡¯t know¡¯. In that sense it¡¯s like asking how gravity works. Gravity ¡®pulls stuff to the centre¡¯, how? ¡®We don¡¯t know it just does¡¯. We can make calculations on how things will act when affected by gravity, but we don¡¯t know how gravity works, we just know what it does and how it is generated. Mana is very much the same, they know how to make calculations that affect mana and how it is generated, but ¡®where does it come from?¡¯ and ¡®how does it work?¡¯, ¡®We don¡¯t know¡¯. I know that the words of a chant have meaning and often form a sentence and either ask a question or make a statement. More advanced spells both ask and make statements and often make assumptions. For some spells, the words are a lie, or untrue. I call upon the will of the Old Kings so that I might strike down the pitiful with the might of light itself! May you who has offended I, the vassal of the Old Kings, know the might that slew the Demon Metrath for yourself! I smite you with the javelin of the God-king! Let all who bear witness know of this fraction of the God-kings power and let all who you care for, know that I, the Vassal of the Old Kings will never be defeated by man, women, monster, demon or God itself, [Lightning Javelin]!¡± I spoke this when I cast ¡®Lightning Javelin¡¯ this spell is speaking a lie in order for the caster to gain power. So it can be said that it is not the truth of the chant, but the words themselves that matter. If I repeat the words ¡®Flame¡¯ and ¡®fire¡¯ 3 or 4 times while speaking with chant, the strings of mana become tangled, but make a tiny flame for a split second. If I speak the words, ¡°Burn everything in front of me, [flames].¡± The stings take a form, however it is unstable and falls apart when I attempt to manipulate the mana through calculation, this results in me bursting into flames. I could attempt to stabilize it by adding more words, however that also makes it far stronger. So testing is out of the question. I remember a friend whose father died trying to make a new spell, he made a mistake and was crushed into a highly compressed pellet from the backlash. He then exploded and killed all the other researchers, so research related to whatever that spell was, was destroyed along with the research facility and over 200 researchers. We only know the fate of my classmates father because of the 3 mages observing that erected a class 2 protective aura around themselves before they begun the test. They refuse to even speak of what they were working on. So ¡®playing¡¯ with and creating spells, is not something you do lightly. I will be ¡®playing¡¯ with the magic of this world so that I can pay back Oulosc for his wonderful gift. It¡¯s better to experiment now while I can resurrect without issue instead of after Shushen has fulfilled his purpose and I only get to die once before I¡¯m kicked right back to my personal space and ¡®maybe¡¯ never let back in. While I was thinking on this I arrive at the Staging Ground Stadium. I asked the guard that was on duty there and he told me my match was in an hour, so I went and watched the fights that were on before mine. Nothing of not really, but people fighting. I don¡¯t take joy in watching people fight life and death battles. Actually I don¡¯t like fighting life and death battles, funny that. I sat next to a couple that was watching the fights with their young child, aw that would be cute if it wasn¡¯t so fucking messed up and wrong. I scowled at them before quickly turning back to the fight. I swear¡­ I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll ever get used to how little people care about other people getting killed for entertainment. When it was my match next I went to the preparation room and put on my armour, just as I tighten the last buckle the guard comes in and we go through the routine of him telling me what he¡¯s there for and what I have to do and me nodding like I¡¯m listening and haven¡¯t heard it multiple times now. I stood in the tunnel leading to the arena and did last minute check on my armour. ¡°Hello and good mourning everyone, next up we have Beyoi Duishive of Tshiveno, a very skilled spear wielder that in his previous matches wowed up with her dexterity and strength when she defeated the duo mages pairing. Henzil Menanth of the demon horned people, the Fremde. And the wonderful Eutsane of Vinebran valley. Beyoi will be up against the intimidating Sword Magician, Princess Knifelim Blindsight, and 2nd inline to the Goblin Emperor. In Knifelim¡¯s last fight she fought against the 3rd son of Barron Arimie Ullphes, Emir Ullphes. It was a hard won battle, but in the end Knifelim won through her far superior magical ability. I quickly finished my last checks and ran out into the arena¡¯s centre and drew my sword. The other person to a battle stance with their spear. ¡°Lets the battle begin!¡± I assumed the stance of ¡®Ice Fang Touch¡¯ and batted away Beyoi¡¯s spear that he thrust at me as soon as the match started. I began casting ¡®Kewla¡¯ and dodged another thrust from Beyoi¡¯s spear, the speed of his attacks was like nothing I expected, I knew spears were fast and could easily over power an opponent using a sword, but this is just silly. ¡°I who possess power, my shield cannot be broken, my shield cannot be bent, my shield cannot be shattered, I am they who possess power and my shield cannot be broken, you who are witness, witness the power of my shield, [Kewla]¡± A pentagram made from light appeared on my right forearm. I used it to stop the next thrust and struck Beyoi¡¯s leg, cutting deep into the ankle. I began chanting ¡®Water globe¡¯, Beyoi attacked me with dizzyingly quickly attacks from his spear, it seemed I just made him angry. His spear skidded off my armour with each attack though and I finished chanting ¡®Water globe¡¯. ¡°I ask of the water beneath the earth to wash away with terror and still the flow, [Water Globe]¡± Water quickly encased Beyoi and he drowned after a few minutes while he tried to get out of the water that surrounded him. The crowd cheered with a thundering roar like they always do when someone dies in a horrible way. ¡°And the victor is the Princess, Kinfelim Blindsight!¡± I left the arena and took off my armour, the healers walked in and healed the few scratches I got during the fight. They seemed scared of me, good, they better be. And that¡¯s how my last match of the Qualifying tournament went, I qualified and will be in the Kings Tournament¡¯s beginner league. I¡¯m starting to think this entire tournament is stupid, but necessary. It gets you used to the idea of fighting with your life on the line. Something I think students like us need to make us realize we¡¯re mortal. Though I suppose I¡¯m not.
Author''s Notes, Yeah! Fighting! This is what I like! I wanted to have the entire tournament in one chapter, but the word count was getting crazy so I decided to end the chapter here. I ate something that really didn''t agree with me on the weekend and it''s still causing me problems. Note to self, check the ''use by'' date before eating food... I spent most of the week throwing up and writing, food poisoning isn''t fun. I''m moving house this weekend, but my internet at the next house should be up by monday or tuesday next week, so no issues. I''ve been thinking of asking someone to do proofreading for me, I''ll probably start looking soon. Also, this entire chapter, nosebleed inducing word porn for me.
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Chapter 4.5 - Qualifier’s Party Chapter 4.5 - Qualifier¡¯s Party I returned to the preparation room, the few hits I had taken only amounted to a few bruises and a deep cut into the upper underarm of my sword arm. I hadn¡¯t even realized I got hit there, a little to the side and it would have pierced straight through my ribs and into my chest. I came very close to losing and didn¡¯t even realize. I can¡¯t help but feel respect for Beyoi when I remember the match, he went easy on me. He let me win. I had trained with Beyoi. He was one of the people that followed me around, he was far more skilled than me and I knew it. So obviously I was confused when I won so easily, but looking over my wounds after the match. He had left cuts on every one of my weak points and every place I left an opening. I have no doubt that he could even use Spear Skills. I¡¯m not exactly happy about it, but I¡¯ll accept this gift Beyoi, you crazy person. I noticed during the match that my armour felt strange, maybe I made a better fit the last time I repaired it? I¡¯m not sure, but it felt easier to move in and a lot more comfortable. They patched me up with a quick healing spell after making sure I didn¡¯t have any broken bones. The combatant for the next match walked in. It was Valencil, one of the people that usually sit at my table during lunch. I think he was one of Nemun¡¯s friends. I had gotten back into my armour, it hadn¡¯t taken any damage that really needs to be repaired. I was able to repair within a few seconds of casting manipulate. ¡°Nice work out there Knife.¡± Valencil said to me hefting the long slab of iron he calls a sword. ¡°Thanks, win and I¡¯ll see you in the King¡¯s Tournament.¡± He laughed weakly. ¡°I won¡¯t look forwards to that, especially after watching your previous matches. To gritty and too much of a drawn out struggle for me. If I fight defensively you¡¯ll overpower me with magic. If I fight aggressively you¡¯ll match me and create an opening for you to finish me with magic. I guess what they say is true. Those who work the hardest, reap the greatest rewards. Though of course you do sometimes get a lucky slacker every so often.¡± ¡°Oh, and I suppose you¡¯re that lucky slacker?¡± ¡°I wouldn¡¯t say that, I work very hard.¡± Valencil says with a wide grin. *Sigh~* Yeah, you work hard. Cats and dogs work hard sleeping all day as well. - ¡°Shushen and the others will probably want to have a party to congratulate you and the others being qualified. We¡¯ll come get you when all of us have finished our matches.¡± I sighed heavily again¡­ This isn¡¯t the time to have a party, we¡¯ve only qualified. We also have matches tomorrow, it would be in everyone¡¯s best interest to get some sleep. I sound like an old man¡­ ¡°Okay sounds good.¡± I replied in defiance to myself. I left shortly after, he had a match he had to go to and I didn¡¯t want to stick around to see who died horribly. At least not this time. I don¡¯t like watching friends die, or anyone actually, but it¡¯s unbearable when it¡¯s someone I know. On my way back to the inn I was staying at. I dumped my tattered clothes from the day before in a small alley between two houses, I don¡¯t mind littering, but I do feel bad about it. That is kind of a contradiction isn¡¯t it? None the less, I dumped my clothes there and went to the market, there were a lot of people moving about as one would expect from a busy market. I say a lot of people, but I mean there are around 10 people that aren¡¯t shop keepers or merchants, within five meters of me at any moment. Not really as crowded as any kind of shopping centre from my first life. Though where I lived there wasn¡¯t really that many people left and not many of them went to the supermarket during the week because of work and school. Rather than buy something, I went to look at the prices of items at different shops and stalls. I could probably make a living running a magic shop, so checking the prices is important. Though I do realize that it¡¯ll have to wait until after Shushen¡¯s eventual adventure that all typical heroes have in literature and historical texts. It¡¯s better to learn my trade now so that I can appreciate my ¡®happily ever after¡¯ when the hero fulfils his task. A nice peaceful retirement is what I can look forwards to and then¡­ back to business after that. At most of the stalls an average quality regeneration potion is on average 3 Silver taper. The average cost of ingredients for the creation of a regeneration potion is 1 Silver Taper and 1 Iron Stick. Meaning there is on average a gain of 1 Silver taper and 7 Iron Sticks. Potions are being sold for more than double the price, this is because there is a far higher demand for potions than can be produced with the few learned apothecaries. With this I can safely say that for now, potions are a very profitable market. I couldn¡¯t find one magical weapon or suit of magical armour anywhere. It seems there are only ever made especially for the person and not mass-produced. This is most likely because of the complexity of the techniques, and needless to say that it looks bad if your magical armour or magical sword explodes on the person you¡¯re making it for. So it seems that production of magical weapons and armour is a rarity. However I did hear that the nobles often sell magical weapons and armour to one another and they even have an auction for magical items. Apparently in the auctions, hundreds of Gold Marks are passed around like grains of sand. So it seems I could live a very pleasant life rolling in money, which actually doesn¡¯t sound too bad. Though having a pleasant life doesn¡¯t necessarily mean it will be a long life. I returned to the Inn when the sun began to set. The Inn is called ¡®Silver Spear¡¯. I¡¯m sure it sounds more fitting in whatever language the inn¡¯s sign is written in. However reading the translations, I can only say that it sounds really lame. When I walked in the Old lady from earlier in the day waved to me while calling me over. I walked over to her. There were two children that appeared to be around 7 years old. ¡°Are these your grandchildren?¡± The old woman smiled before nodding. ¡°Yep, children of my child, my greatest joy and accomplishment.¡± That¡¯s some deep shit she¡¯s saying right there¡­ but I don¡¯t care, I¡¯ve never had children and never plan too. Although I like children, I¡¯d really rather not, especially considering my current constitution, or rather condition, or should I say body. Haah~ I sighed audibly by accident, but the old lady didn¡¯t seem to mind. I took off my helmet which I had been wearing because it¡¯s a pain to carry it around, not to mention I feel strange carrying it around when I¡¯m wearing the rest of my armour. ¡°So I take it the three of you watched my match.¡± I assumed they did because they recognized me in my armour. Actually pretty much everyone in the bar recognized me in my armour, they all visibly seemed respect me to some extent or at the least I could see some kind of recognition is their eyes. ¡°That spear guy was awesome! But you won by making water appear out of nothing!¡± A small girl, one of the children, both of which being female, said excitedly. They make it sound like they were watching a kids show, though I suppose the only real difference is the amount of detail¡­ ¡°I¡¯m glad you enjoyed it.¡± I said flatly without enthusiasm, they didn¡¯t react other than continuing to be happy little beans. ¡°Would you eat with us again?¡± I didn¡¯t have a reason not to. ¡°Sure.¡± I sat down and placed my helmet on the table in front of me before waving to one of the member of the inn¡¯s staff that is in charge of serving the food. He came over and took our orders, I asked for the stew like I always do. Stew is always a safe choice, usually tends to be good. I mean it¡¯s really hard to mess up stew, I¡¯d be surprised if I somehow was unfortunate enough to eat a bad stew. As impossible as an existence that might seem to me. ¡°The stew please.¡± I turned to the old lady and her grandchildren. ¡°What do you want?¡± The old lady smiled and answered for the three of them. ¡°We will have the stew as well.¡± The staff member then walked off to get it, it seems they always have some stew on the simmer. While we waited I stared at the old woman¡¯s vibrantly glowing pale blue eyes. I say I stared, but my head was actually facing towards the direction opposite the table from me, where the children were sitting. They were fidgeting a bit, though I suppose most young children don¡¯t like to sit still. At first I had thought the Old woman¡¯s hair was white from old age. But looking closer, she only appears to be in her mid-thirties. It was only now that I realized that she had this appearance, she had been resurrected an innumerable amount of times. We didn¡¯t talk much after that. The 4 of us simply ate and then I left and went up to my room and slept. However as I got up to leave the old lady grabbed my hand. I turned to her. ¡°Thank you, I will repay you for this honour.¡± Then she released my hand. I was a bit weirded out, only slightly more than I already was by whatever her religion was. But I went along with it. ¡°No problem, it was just sharing a meal.¡± It¡¯s just a meal, no reason to go all weird on me. I forced a smiled and then went to my room. I took off my clothes and laid on my bed, facing the ceiling I just stared at it. Though when I stare at something, I am actually staring at everything around me at the same time and in such detail as it goes down to the microscopic level. But in this instance I mean staring at the ceiling as in point my eyes that way without blinking. *tap* *tap* *tap* I heard a knocking on my window. Oh right, we were going to have a party¡­ I got out of bed, the bed is out of site of the window, but anyone off the bed would be seen clearly from the window. So when I got up, the tapping stopped abruptly. I looked at the window, Shushen was there looking in. I slowly looked down at myself, I was naked and then I looked back at him. Ah this is what they calling being peeped on, I see. I don¡¯t blame you Shushen, I have a certain appreciation for the curvature of a woman¡¯s muscles on their female bone structure as well. I¡¯m kidding, I know that this wasn¡¯t what he intended to do, though I am curious what compelled him to climb onto the roof and knock on the window. Normal people would knock on the door. I always had a suspicion, but I think that perhaps Shushen is a strange one. I think this discrepancy in his upbringing may be the result of my interference, because I am clearly an anomaly that a normal child wouldn¡¯t have to deal with. Normally in a novel this would either be the point in which the heroine would mercilessly beat the hero bloody or she gets annoyingly happy and starts acting gross as the hero freaks out. I see no merit in this, however this is an act normally considered to be wrong and not a morally ambiguous action. Though I have to say that ledge does worry me, it didn¡¯t seem like it should be able to maintain his weight for long. Perhaps it¡¯s made from a stronger type of wood then I¡¯d thought, or it¡¯s been reinforced with magic. Hmm, no that is highly unlikely, I doubt the owner of the inn could afford that. Not that I¡¯m saying the inn looks shabby. This inn just doesn¡¯t seem to get enough business to support big spending from the inn keeper. I wonder if I could make clothes out of mana¡­ that will have to be something I try. Which reminds me, the pigmentation loss in the hair of those that have been resurrected frequently is very interesting. I wonder how it works. No actually, if it was a loss of pigments in the hair, then the hair would become translucent. The hair turns white, so it must be a mutation brought on by continuous resurrections, if I was a scientist I could probably fix that with the assistance of mana. The bread we had with the stew today was annoyingly moist and soft. I should bring my own bread next time so I can make sure it¡¯s dry and hard. What was that equation I was working on to turn lightning javelin into an electric current again? < --/-/-- > While I was very successfully escaping reality like I was on a spaceship heading for Saturn, Shushen continued to stare at me and I continued to stare back. His face was bright red, but he didn¡¯t turn away. You¡¯re supposed to turn away when you look at something you¡¯re not supposed to Shushen. He continued to stare, his eyes wide like he was staring at endless mounds of gold piled up in front of him until the part of the roof he was standing on broke as I had guessed it would. I returned around about that time from my reality vacation, I swear I almost solved the equation that would explain life the universe and everything, but then I realize it was just 42 and got angry. I decided to check what happened to him after I got clothed. This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. I put on some simple clothes, just a shirt and pants, pretty much just what I was wearing all day. I then proceeded to the window and opened it. I stuck my head out the window and looked down at Shushen or rather where he fell. It seems he ran away after falling. That was a pretty good retreat if I do say so myself. He took a good long look and then ran when he got his chance, I didn¡¯t want to do this. But I think someone needed to get hit and that someone was- ¡°SHUUUUSHEEEENNN!!!!!!!!!!¡± I roared into the city night like I was yelling insults at my sworn enemy on the other side of a battle field. ¡°I ask of the earth to grant me the power from the earth. I ask that it gives me strength, a strength beyond simple power. A strength that bends and yet remains strong. I ask for the strength of steel. I am steel, the unbroken, all will bend to my might and none shall pierce my skin, [Steel Body]¡± ¡°The wind that dances, frolics and prances, dashes and hastens, I ask that you join me, come dance with me in battle, to fel my foes and smash their toes, I ask of the wind, to lend me its hand to join me in a dance. [Wind Dance]¡± I strengthened my body and jumped out the window which was too small for me to get through, smashing the window frame and shattering the glass. I dropped to the ground and landed on my feet. I pushed my ¡®creeping tendrils¡¯ to their limit and spotted him running down an alley way. Shushen wasn¡¯t affected by my ¡®sight¡¯ anymore because he¡¯d experienced it all of his life. I was only able to affect him with it again for the first few years after ¡®mana sight¡¯ ungraded to ¡®Creeping tendrils¡¯ and ¡®Creeping feelers¡¯. Spotting him I ran directly towards him, a house was in the way but I jumped and cleared the roof, landing on top of it just barely. ¡°SHUUUUSHEEEEENNNN!!!!!¡± I roared at the night again in an uncontrollable rage. I started running on the roof tops, jumping from roof to roof as I ran after him. Shushen was surprisingly fast for a dead man. I caught up to him after jumping three houses. Shushen noticed me when I landed on the house next to him, the roof tile crunched under the impact of my landing. I opened my inventory and equipped my sword. My ¡®Shitty ornamental sword¡¯ appeared in my hand, I drew it and dropped the scabbard. The scabbard disappeared after falling from the roof. It seems things that are mine from my personal space cease to exist and return to my inventory once they get a certain distance from me. So bringing arrows from there would be pointless, that¡¯s good to know. Shushen panicked and tripped over his own legs. ¡°I I¡¯m sorry, I didn¡¯t mean to-¡° I jumped down from the roof and landed without effort. ¡°Listen Knife, just calm down. I did mean for that to happen, please just-¡° I brought up my sword and swung it at his head, fully intending to decapitate him. He ducked under it and my swing took out most of the wall of the building that he had been leaning against. Shushen scrambled on the ground away from me. ¡°Holy shit!¡± He sputtered as he got up and started running again. ¡°YOU BETTER RUN!!!!!!!!!¡± I yelled as I ran after him, my sword raised. ¡°Knife, please, we¡¯re going to have a party, let¡¯s just let this go-¡° ¡°SHUT UP!!!!¡± ¡°I COMMAND LIGHT, SCORCH THIS BLIGHT!!!!! [SMITE]¡± I used a spell I had been testing, it was based off a shortened version of ¡®wind cutter¡¯. I hadn¡¯t tested this version yet. It went off, but there was a backlash. Shushen was struck by a beam of light from my hand, however I was also enveloped in light and burned. I haven¡¯t yet perfected the equation so that it also target me and most of the power dissipated before it hits the target, I actually got the worst of it. I fell into a roll, but rolled back into standing. My sword at the ready. Shushen was slowly getting up a bit away from me. I ran over to him and swing my sword down at him. He jumped out of the way however. I wasn¡¯t in my right mind so sword techniques had completely seemed unimportant to me. The ground shot up when I struck the ground, creating a small crater. Shushen used this to run away, however it didn¡¯t affect me because I could see through the dirt that was kicked up. I ran straight at him and tried to kick him over, however he moved at the last moment and I kicked in someone¡¯s back door, the wood folding until my kick. We ran into the main street, there were still people walking around at this time, it was only early in the night. All the people stopped at stared at us as I swung my sword at Shushen clumsily. ¡°I¡¯m sorry Knife, please just stop.¡± I swung at him again, he moved away at the last moment, my sword simply swinging through the empty air. ¡°Knife, I¡¯m sorry, please.¡± We continued like this until my enhancement spells ran out and I became tired. Shushen and I were heaving heavily, I was only standing because I was leaning on my sword. I could swing my sword anymore, so all I could do was sling insults. ¡°You fucking shitty fucker, I¡¯ll cut off your fucking head!¡± Shushen frowned. ¡°What the hell? I¡¯m sorry, how many times do I have to apologize?¡± ¡°The fuck? Shut your facial orifice before I fill it with your own excrement and then cut off your fucking shitty fucker head!¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry, just stop already, I¡¯m sorry!¡± ¡°Shut the fuck up Shushen!¡± Shushen groaned and looked down at the ground. He let down his guard which gave me my chance, I struck his head with my fist and he fell to the ground with a dull thud. Shushen passed out right there and then. ¡°HOW THE FUCK DO YOU LIKE THAT YOU LITTLE SHIT????¡± I screamed insult at him until I was satisfied and had calmed down. I then checked if he was alive, thankfully he was. I would have felt bad if I¡¯d been the cause of failing my quest. I grabbed Shushen arm and heaved him onto my shoulder and began carrying him like a sack of flour. I already knew where the others were having a party, they hadn¡¯t told me, but I spotted it while we were running around the city. I walked there, when I eventually showed up they all seemed worried. ¡°What happened, why were you chasing Shushen?¡± I smiled. ¡°Oh he peeped on me changing so I was going to kill him, however I eventually decided I¡¯d just hit his head a few times until he passed out. I¡¯d feel bad if he died, but it would be fine if he turned into a vegetable.¡± They looked at me weirdly. ¡°Why would someone turn into a vegetable?¡± At that I simply smiled and threw Shushen onto a table before saying. ¡°Very easily and tragically and you can¡¯t even make soup from them because it¡¯d be wrong to eat them.¡± They didn¡¯t get what I meant. I knew that, but I just didn¡¯t care. ¡°Well never mind that come on let¡¯s celebrate you and the other qualifying!¡± I sat at the table and enjoyed that party. I had four mugs of whatever this alcohol stuff we were drinking was called and became completely drunk. That was around that part were I no long remembered anything that happened that night. I woke up in my bed back at the inn. I felt like shit, but it doesn¡¯t seem like anything happened. Today is the first day of the kind tournament. From here it¡¯s all for the reputation. I threw back the sheets and got up, my clothes were on the ground, normally I put the clothes I¡¯d worn the previous day in my bag after cleaning them with magic. I shrug and pick them up. I clean them using some basic spells before taking out some new clothes for myself and put them on. After that I drank a regeneration potion and felt refreshed. Feeling refreshed I looked around my room to see if anything else was out of place. The chest was at the foot of the bed, nothing wrong there. The shelf had nothing on it, nothing wrong there either. My bed had nothing on it other than my blankets, just how I like my bed to be in the morning after I wake up. I looked back at the floor. Why is Shushen on my floor? He¡¯s still unconscious and he¡¯s fully clothed, so that¡¯s good. I nod to myself and then leave the room. Nope, nothing wrong there, I must of throw him on the ground after coming back. Too lazy to take him back to the Royal Academy grounds. I had breakfast and then went to the Staging ground stadium. Everything was fine.
Authors notes, Hey, yeah sorry about the short, filler like type chapter. While I was moving I actually ruined the cartilage in my knee while I was moving a dresser. I went to the hospital a few times for that, seems I''m going to have issues with it for the rest of my life since the join is pretty much mostly just bone against bone now or something, though I''m exaggerating slightly because it''s such a massive pain in the arse. The only thing I know is that my knee now swells at random and I have a constant burning sensation in it and it really sucks. Also it just all around hurts to walk on it, but enough of me complaining. I suppose if anything I can just be happy I didn''t ruin my back. This is what I get for trying to save money. Anyway, I hope this half chapter tides you over until I finish chapter 5. This was actually going to be the start of chapter 5, but it''s really more of a side story in my opinion. Thanks to Zeratul for proofreading for me.
Stats Spoiler :
Rank F | Creator
Useless Shady of Life and Death
NAMEKnifelim Blindsight (Aneir)
RACEGreen Elf
Level25
Health2770
Mana4345
Strength79 (44) +20%Intelligence129 (84) +2%
Agility71 (47)Mind98 (65)
Endurance45 (30)Luck47 (31)
Charisma44 (29)
SKILLS
Well Rested (Passive)
Strangeness (Passive)
Suspicious (Passive)
Berserker (Passive)
Sore Shoulder (Passive)
Slap-Slap-Palm Arts (Martial)
Push the Limit (Passive)
Transcend the Limit
Blind (Oulosc)(Curse)
Creeping Feelers
Creeping Tendrils
Contact Reading (Metra)
Understand Speech (Metra)
Dampen Pain
Steadfast
Money:167120MaP | 4 Gold Marks, 5 Silver Tapers, 2 Bronze Jots
Rank Points:11912RP
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Chapter 5 - The King’s Tournament Chapter 05 - The King¡¯s Tournament I met up with Nemun on the way to the stadium. Of course Nemun had qualified as well. When he arrived a guard waved us over and led us to a waiting room. The others that qualified were there as well. On the first day of the King¡¯s Tournament we are to present ourselves to the king. So the first order of business for today was for us to be brought out to the arena, lined up and introduced to the king and the others in the audience that may have missed our matches. This will probably take half the day so I will spare you most of the details. Before that Nemun informed me that the tournament listings were hung on the wall of the waiting area. ¡°Your first match will be against Valencil.¡± ¡°Really? Hmm, I¡¯ll look forward to it then. when is my match with him?¡± ¡°It¡¯s the third match today. Mine is the 9th match and I¡¯m against the 7th son of his royal highness the king, Valt of Atitria.¡± ¡°We had someone like that doing classes with us?¡± ¡°Yes Knife, you were paired with him multiple times in your classes. There was also a rumour that you were engaged, as well as many other rumours though.¡± ¡°What a load of shit! Really? And I never noticed?¡± ¡°Apparently not.¡± ¡°We were even in the same classes?¡± ¡°I just said that didn¡¯t I? He was practicing magic and martial classes the same as you, since he¡¯s royalty it is actually expected of him.¡± I scratched my head, I can¡¯t believe I never even noticed this person existed. ¡°You¡¯re really telling me the truth about him being in the same classes as me?¡± ¡°Please stop making me repeat myself Knife, he is the short skinny one that looked like he¡¯d hurt himself if he ever even lifted a weapon. He would stare at you for most of your classes with googly eyes and hurt himself trying to impress you. Followed you around at school? He¡¯s the one you threw over the district wall because he started trying to court you.¡± Suddenly I remembered an idiot that I could only call a stalker and that I wanted to forget existed, just remembering him made me want to throw up. ¡°THAT discussing puke pile that followed me around and wouldn¡¯t leave me alone until I literally shattered his spine by throwing him over the district wall?¡± Nemun nodded. ¡°I don¡¯t understand how you forgot about him, he still sends you letters.¡± ¡°You mean those scraps of paper I throw in the fire every day?¡± I thought for a moment but, nope. I only remember throwing dirty paper in the fire. ¡°Nope, I only remember throwing away paper with dirt on it.¡± Nemun sighed before laughing weakly. ¡°You know, you can be really mean when you want to be Knife.¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± Nemun just shook her head and I decided to change the subject. ¡°So when do I fight you?¡± ¡°Tomorrow if you don¡¯t lose to Valencil.¡± Thankfully Nemun took the hint and we moved on. ¡°I make no promises, I might lose on purpose so I don¡¯t have to fight you.¡± Nemun punched my arm. ¡°You better not damn you.¡± I rubbed the pain from my arm. ¡°Okay, okay, I won¡¯t lose on purpose.¡± I waved my hand at Nemun as I said this offhandedly. Nemun and I just stood wait waited after that. The others were all talking about how they were going to get to see the king. I didn¡¯t care for him, or any king. The monarchical system was an archaic system that allowed one man or woman to hold a tremendous amount of power. This was never a good thing in the world of my first life. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. The burden of power is too much for one person to carry on their shoulders. Eventually it either destroys them or everyone else around them. Any governing system that is based on the decisions of a single person is a government that should not exist. Needless to say, I do not like royalty. In my first life, the world was governed by a world senate, the representative of each country gathered to make decisions about the world and the lives of everyone. Much like how the Under Kingdom governs itself. The world of my first life prospered. However that changed after the war turned for the worst. Citizens were forcefully conscripted and the manufacturing of weapons, ammunition and space bound military vessels were prioritised. Before I died, more than half the world¡¯s population was employed by the World federation military. But I¡¯m getting off track, what scraps of life I lived before becoming a creator is unimportant. I was nothing. Nemun noticed me frowning and pat my head, I guess that¡¯s her attempt at making me feel better. Before long a guard in ornate armour walked in, it looked very impressive. ¡°I am Wendil of the king¡¯s guard, follow me. You will be presented to the King and the Kingdom¡¯s Nobility during the pre-tournament celebrations.¡± Eight more guards in equally ornate armour walked in. We followed them our into the stadiums arena and were lined up. ¡®¡¯¡¯¡¯¡°Stand tall, the king arrives!¡±¡¯¡¯¡¯ All 9 of the guards in the ornate armour yelled once we were lines up. Around 100 soldiers in incredibly immaculate armour began walking out into the arena, and then an old man in a large deep red cloak and wearing a crown made of iron and bronze, walked out followed by a few more soldiers. The soldiers took up positions before parting in perfect organized unison to reveal the king. The old man slowly but confidently walked towards us, his stride was powerful, but not rushed. The walk of a man that fought to get to where he is and fought to stay where he is and wouldn¡¯t give it up to anyone. I could only say that he seemed very competent and like he deserved to be where he was. It wouldn¡¯t be strange to see him on the battlefield standing side by side with his soldiers. At least that¡¯s the feeling he gave off. The King stopped a few metres before the 30 of us, his guard took up positions on either side of him and took stances with their sword raised in front of their faces before lowing the blade to the ground and resting on it. The crowd was silent as they waited for the king to speak. ¡°I welcome you brave newly trained warriors!¡± He paused for a moment as his voice echoed through the stadium. I had wondered how the announcers were loud enough to be heard over the entire stadium, but now I know that it¡¯s technique similar to using mana to speak. I can tell from the clouds of white glowing mana puffing out of his mouth whenever he speaks. The ceremony went for several hours and I stopped paying attention for most of it. Ceremonies are always so boring. I¡¯ll shorten what I payed attention to. The king talked about how he hoped we would become incredible warriors in the future to further show the superiority of Atitria¡¯s learning system. Which is essentially a ¡®hands off and let the academy do what it wants¡¯ attitude, which I feel is admirable but also maybe a bit questionable. Then the king walked out of the arena and a few minutes later he sat in what looked like a special area set up just for him. Nemun whispered to me that the 2 women and the man other than the king that were standing there was the kings 3rd and last surviving wife Belitha, she was an elven woman that seemed just all around unhappy. Then was the kings first daughter Aerith, and the crowned prince Fenriel, he was surprisingly young for the crowned prince however, only around 14 years old or younger, though I couldn¡¯t really tell from this distance. ¡°Why¡¯s the crowned prince so young?¡± ¡°All the others were either killed or illicit.¡± ¡°What about Valt?¡± ¡°Illicit, but recognized, he is 4th in-line at the moment, though he is by far the oldest.¡± That makes sense I suppose? Then again I really have no idea about anything like this. ¡°Does that mean he killed the others?¡± ¡°No, he¡¯s stupid and useless, but is loved by the people. The others were killed by one another.¡± ¡°Oh so they fucked up and got each other assassinated at the same time, that¡¯s so dumb.¡± Nemun nodded in agreement. One thing of note is that the king has the same appearance as someone that had been resurrected a countless number of times. With that, I wondered why the rest of his children hadn¡¯t been revived. But I suppose the bodies must have been hidden or were taken away. The even the strongest resurrection spells will no longer works if the deceased has not been revived with 24 hours of the death. It is because of this that nobles dread dying alone where no one can see them, because that means that they will not be found before the time limit. So the nobility always make sure to surround themselves with servants and guests at all hours of the day, even while sleeping. After the king sat down a man in fancy clothes and with a stupid hat began reading out our introductions one after another. Dalmic Trilltiller of Calmic Hills, from a long line of bread makers. Blah blah blah something about their family having run their business for 200 years, blah blah. I really don¡¯t care about their and their family¡¯s life stories. He uses a rapier imbued with magic that casts ¡®wind cutter¡¯ when he swings his rapier, that¡¯s actually pretty impressive. In the Qualifying tournament he fought against some random people that I don¡¯t care about and beat them easily. Nemun Vulk of ¡®Ripping Fangs¡¯ Village. From a family of hunters, member of the Vulk clan. Deadly with their clan unique weapon, won her matches without effort. Doesn¡¯t use magic and simply perseveres with the incredible strength and speed commonly associated with her clan. A few other people of note were, Miu Wansimi of Alces. A magician that seems to specialize in ancient water spells. Fenric Farcaster. A Spell Swordsmen from a faraway land called Pou theoi ypokypsei, for some reason that wasn¡¯t translated, even though I just heard it I have trouble pronouncing it when I tried. He came to Atitria for unknown reasons and began learning at the royal academy around four years ago. However he has wowed his teachers and the crowd with his abnormal magics. Julin of the Razor Mountains. A Bowmen from a family of prized hunters. He uses some kind of strange spell that allows him to slide across the ground as if it were a frictionless surface. That must require a pretty impressive sense of balance. And a few others that aren¡¯t really worth mentioning. The rest I didn¡¯t really care for, they were just generic family, family, this, heritage, heritage, that. Nothing actually about anything they achieved. Oh and I¡¯m going omit my own introduction, it¡¯s just the usual princess bullshit and spreading the ¡®SECRET¡¯ about the Under-Kingdom. After another speech about how joyous an occasion it was because it commemorated Atitria¡¯s founding. After the speech was done we all clapped along with everyone else. I stared emptily into the distance as I clapped mechanically, this was really boring. They let us leave at last. My match is one of the first ones today so I went and sat in a special viewing area for the contestants of the tournament. The viewing platform was only a few meters from the king¡¯s. It was literally right at the back of the crowds seats, so I we were really far away. A few of the others, that were waiting, wanted to move closer so they could see better. The guards didn¡¯t see any issue with it so they let them in and out as they wanted. I sighed after watching two swordsmen having an ¡®epic¡¯ duel, running around and meeting swords on numerous occasions. It was dragging out and I didn¡¯t care for fighting, especially not watching it. There were people here that were acting as servants to retrieve food and drink from the chef the king had brought. I asked for them to get me something burnt but edible, they looked at me strangely before lowering themselves and leaving to get me something burnt and edible. I saw them go off behind a wall a start talking with another servant, their looked both confused and angry. They must be confused about what I asked them. I wonder if he¡¯ll get me what I asked for or he¡¯ll think it was some kind of test and just get me something normal, if he does I¡¯m going to be unhappy. Eventually he returned with some meat slices that were moist and cooked medium-rare in some kind of source. I took it from him and frowned while looking at it. I then faced him and placed it on the ground before pushing it towards him with my foot. ¡°Please take it back, I can¡¯t eat this.¡± He frowned. ¡°May I ask what is wrong with it?¡± ¡°I can¡¯t eat it.¡± I stated simply. He frowned further. ¡°I see, what would you like me to get you instead?¡± ¡°Get me something burn but edible like I asked before please.¡± His expression seemed to darken. ¡°Right away...¡± He walked off again and eventually a short pudgy man approached me, he looked really angry. ¡°Do you have an issue with my cooking you commoner bitch!?¡± I was turned away and watching the two from before still having their ¡®epic¡¯ battle, how long do they intend to keep going? At his words I froze and turned slowly to face him. This seems annoying. ¡°I¡¯m sorry is there an issue pleb?¡± His face reddened further. ¡°HOW DARE YOU!!!! I am the master chef Gountue, head chef of the honourable king Zurepalthic Genzzil Atitria! I make the kings meals and it¡¯s not good enough for you? WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE!?¡± This guy needs to settle down, he looks like he¡¯s going to burst a blood vessel if he keeps it up. ¡°I am Knife, I¡¯m fighting in the tournament and no your food sucks and you have horrible taste. Now make me something burned but edible or go away. I swear I don¡¯t know how hard it is to fulfil someone¡¯s simple request.¡± ¡°NHRAAAAAH!!!¡± The short little demon spawn jumped and me and started clawing at my face, the little gremlin holy shit! Not the face! ¡°Get the fuck off me!¡± I yelled as I stood with him clinging around my waist as he tried to claw my eyes out. Seriously what the fuck!? I started trying to shake him around and I moved towards a wall and then slammed him against it. The little gremlin lost his grip and let go, his fingertips were all bloody. I brought my hands up to my face to check for damaged. ¡°You little shit, what the hell?¡± I complained as he slowly got up. ¡°What are you?¡± The short man said as he looked at his bloody hands, the finger nails peeled back. I finished checking my face¡­ there wasn¡¯t any damage? ¡°That was a nice iron skin technique.¡± One of the other contestants commented. Apparently I used a technique, I never learned it so... why? Is it something to do with level? The chef was taken away, I assume to some healers so he could continue doing his job. But not before some parting words. ¡°You watch yourself you monster!¡± Says the crazy guy that just attacked someone because they said the truth. I shook my head as I turned back to the fight. The other contestants began talking with me about various techniques and skills, I participated but they did most of the talking. Eventually my fight with Valencil came up. He gave me a thumbs up as he left to go to his preparation room. I waved my hand at him half-heartedly as an indication of my intent that I will destroy him. In the preparation room we were given quite a lot of time since there were far less matches than the Qualifying tournament. I put my armour on while making sure it fit properly. I took my sword out of my inventory and put the scabbard back into my inventory. Sigh~ I have to kill someone I know¡­ Oh well, I don¡¯t want to die for numerous reason, so please do me a favour and die Valencil. Eventually I was led out to the arena where both Valencil and I were introduced again as well as a brief history on our past fights and our life stories or at least what they know about them. I ignored everything they said and drew and sword. I have to psyche myself up so I can do this, okay, I¡¯m angry, really angry, I want to kill Valencil. It isn¡¯t working but it was worth a try. I¡¯m not sure how I¡¯ll do this, run away and cast spells? I don¡¯t really want to get close to him, that sword in really big and I think my arms might break if I try to block on of his swings. This is a predicament¡­ Maybe I should just los- no Nemun would kill me if I lost of purpose¡­ Sigh~ I sighed as the announcer finished our introduction. ¡°Let the battle begin!¡± Ugh¡­ I cringed as Valencil charge forwards. I turned and ran as I started changing ¡®Urea¡¯. I¡¯m faster than Valencil, so I could probably win like this. I could hear him cursing at me as I turned and ran. ¡°I who possess power, twist and bind, bend and bind, stretch and bind, I form my defences. Smash, crash, pierce, my defences can¡¯t be brok- eeen-¡° My eyes almost popped out of my head as I cut off my chant and jumped to the side in a panic to avoid the sword he threw at me. ¡°YOU¡¯RE CRAZY!!!¡± I yelled at him as I rolled to a sitting position and got up. He ran right into me tackling me to the ground and began bashing my helmet with his fist, it didn¡¯t damage my armour, but it was knocking my head around and disorientating me. Enough of this.
Transcend the Limit Activated
I threw him off me like I was flipping a table and he learned what it felt like to be in a washing machine flying ten feet through the air. ¡°I ask of the water beneath the earth to wash away with terror and still the flow, [Water Globe]¡± I compressed it and threw it at Valencil. I missed completely because I was still disoriented from having my head bounce around as he hit me. The spell sprayed water everywhere and that was about it. Valencil roared as he ran into me again, but this time instead of tackling me to the ground he caught me in a bear hug and lifted me up. It felt like he was trying to squeeze out my insides like a tube of tooth paste. He then spun twice and threw me like a shot-put. I went flying about as far as I threw him but probably further, it was hard to tell because I was busy flying through the air and then meeting the ground with my face. I got up as fast as I could, but I could feel that my teeth were all chipped and broken and the inside of my mouth was cut up¡­ that¡¯s going to be fun for the healers later. I spat out my tooth chunks but the clattered on the inside of the bevor, my neck and face guard. My mouth was full of blood that just kept gushing out of the numerous cuts. Shit he really messed me up. I can¡¯t chant like this. ¡®Transcend the Limit¡¯ is still in effect so I should be able to overpower him if I try. I got up and started running to meet his charge. We clapped together as our charges met. He attempted to wrestle me but I countered him this time and pushed away his attempt until I lifted him and threw him into the ground. He kicked my knee and I fell to the ground, to avoid his grappling I rolled away from him instantly and got up. When I got up he was already charging again, I went to meet his charge again and when we clashed again I punched his helmet using my full strength which was further increased from the speed of my run, I feel like I might have broken my hand. Valencil tackled me to the ground but I created a deep dent in the top of his helmet. We fell to the ground, but Valencil didn¡¯t move. I pushed him off and stood with difficulty. Standing over Valencil I stomped him once to make sure he was dead and then sat back down, but it was more an exhausted collapse. ¡°AND WE HAVE A VICTOR!!!!!¡± The crowd got louder, they¡¯d started to cheer when we¡¯d lost our weapons and resorted to fist fighting. Now they were just going crazy. ¡°The Goblin Princess has once again won after showing us a very entertaining battle, we can only look forward to her next fight. Who will she fight next? The Zvyar of the Vulk, Nemun or Valt of Atitria, beloved son of our beloved king? Only time will tell!¡± With that I awkwardly gut up and walked out of the arena and returned to my Preparation area. The first thing I did as the Healer rushed up to me was take off my bevor, I was choking in my own blood in tooth bits. When I took it off they all just fell out and scattered onto the ground and I also spat out a great deal of them and a large amount of blood. ¡°Geh meh ourt ouf huis ahrmour!¡± Get me out of this armour! I wallowed to them with my swollen mouth, it hurts just to breath. As they took my armour off me a few of them were making comments about my injuries and noting my injuries while feeling up my body. ¡°A broken jaw, multiple teeth fractured and broken, broken collar bone¡­¡± ¡°The left hand is shattered.¡± ¡°Hmm, a fractured skull?¡± One of them said quizzically as they felt up my head. A more senior looking healer came over and felt up my head as well. ¡°The knees are no good either.¡± Someone added before the old senior looking guy said. ¡°A fractured skull, we can assume severe head trauma and brain damage. Just with that this will require a class 4 restoration and mending spell.¡± They all nodded to the old guy, I nodded as well, just going along with them. ¡°I think I¡¯ve found 7 broken ribs.¡± Move people started feeling around my ribs all nodding even now and then and giving acknowledgement that 7 were broken. They continued for a long while using various methods to find broken bones and fractures, asking me multiple times if something hurt after they touched an area. ¡°Edryding hurds¡± Everything hurts was my own reply. Then the true hell started when they carried me off to the healer¡¯s tent, by then I was too weak to even resist. Never again Valencil. I never want to fight you again, this is the worst. Shortly after they began ¡®surgery¡¯ I passed out. And of course they didn¡¯t use anything to dull the pain, or even knock me out. I woke up to find numerous other people in beds around me. I was already in a clean set of clothes, seemed they changed me after they healed me. As usual the healers were all already gone by the time I woke up. I¡¯m just glad I have teeth again, that just feels like nightmare now, though I know it actually happened. The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. I picked up my armour that they left by my bed and left the tent. On the way out I noticed Nemun in one of the beds, she was sleeping pretty soundly so I nudged her to wake her up. ¡°Wah? What? Oh it¡¯s just you Knife.¡± ¡°Just me huh?¡± Nemun laughed weakly. ¡°I hope you¡¯re not going to say you lost Nemun. If you did then I fear fighting Valt and I really didn¡¯t expect it of him.¡± ¡°No, I won. But he hit me with a spell I wasn¡¯t expecting, damn silent chanting.¡± ¡°Oh so he used that kind of gimmick?¡± I shrugged. ¡°Well rest well because today we get to fight it out. Though I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll win.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t sell yourself short Knife, your actually really strong.¡± Nemun paused for a moment. ¡°Just be sure not to get hit by my opening move. I¡¯d hate for you to die instantly, it¡¯d be a disservice to all your efforts so far.¡± I shrugged. ¡°Maybe I should get hit on purpose, make things quick and painless. I don¡¯t even want my teeth shattered ever again.¡± ¡°That actually happened?¡± I became grim and nodded. ¡°It really isn¡¯t something I think I needed to experience.¡± With that Nemun laughed again, it¡¯s not something to laugh at, it was horrible. I narrowed my eyes at her and then left the tent. Lately I¡¯ve noticed I¡¯ve gotten really good at keeping my anger to a cold burn. Good, now I¡¯m at the level of control over my emotions as in my first life before I let my mind decay. I think the only reason I won was because he made me angry when he messed up my teeth and I had ¡®Transcend the Limit¡¯ activated. Strength and other stats were increased by almost 3 times and then my strength was multiplied by 4, resulting in my strength at that moment being 632. I¡¯m surprised I didn¡¯t knock his head off and sent him flying into the horizon. I probably came close, but I hit him into the ground so I just won¡¯t know if he would have become a bird or not. Though I doubt having only 632 strength would result in that kind of comical scene. Not to mention that it¡¯s impossible biologically for something like that to happen. His skin, muscles and bones would all give out before he even got close to being lifted off the ground. It¡¯s be more likely that someone would become like a tomato that you stomped on, rather than that they would fly into the horizon. Honestly ¡®Transcend the Limit¡¯ and ¡®Berserker¡¯ are kind of overpowered, though one only lasts for around 2 minutes and the other has the condition that I must be experiencing high amounts of anger. I get angry pretty easily so ¡®Berserker¡¯ activates constantly without my consent because it¡¯s passive. It doesn¡¯t even notify me when it activates, it¡¯s pretty annoying at times. It¡¯s too bad I missed out on watching Nemun¡¯s match yesterday, but I was really messed up so it can¡¯t be helped. ¡®Steadfast¡¯ still has yet to activate, I think I have a good enough reason to be fighting in this tournament. Why don¡¯t you agree with me sub-conscious? I sighed as I stood in front of the healer¡¯s tent thinking. My last match really didn¡¯t go well, I can¡¯t keep having matches like that. If only for my sanity, I need to stop being so close to death after each match. I made a mistake learning only spells with longer chants and not learning anything I can cast quickly in a pinch like ¡®wind cutter¡¯. I do have the spell I¡¯ve been working on ¡®Smite¡¯ but I¡¯m having difficulties with the equation so I can¡¯t make use of it yet without there being a backlash. I didn¡¯t want to do this, but I think I¡¯m going to have to modify my armour¡¯s ¡®Wind Spirit¡¯ enchantment so that it instead casts the spell ¡®Wind Dance¡¯ with a power word. I haven¡¯t done this before and it might make my armour unstable because the grid I built into my armour wasn¡¯t made for it. However without it I won¡¯t win against Nemun, I know that for sure. Of course I could just attempt to cast it as soon as the match starts but Nemun would definitely take me out before then. ¡®Why didn¡¯t I make it so my armour would allow me to cast a spell instantly with just a word before?¡¯ you ask? Because it¡¯s incredibly difficult. I can make one that will work temporarily, but it¡¯s most likely that the magic grid won¡¯t hold for the rest of the tournament. The semi-finalists tomorrow have to fight it out and then the finalists have the rest of the day to fight and decide the winner of the tournament. If I do this my armour will literally explode before the finals. But if I don¡¯t then I won¡¯t be in the tournament tomorrow. Zvyar like Nemun, a pure-blood Vulk Zvyar, have insane strength, endurance and agility, however they have low magical capabilities and are vulnerable to magical attacks. If I could keep my distance I would be able to buy enough time to cast ¡®Bluntoph¡¯, this spell cannot be dodge as easily as my other spells. ¡®Bluntoph¡¯ lingers and I can move it around using equations, it also helps that Zvyar are weak to the Void element. This is like having a Zaku Tank fight a Zaku II High Mobility Type. Those poor unfortunate Zaku Tank¡¯s that die instantly for the cause. Though they are hard workers I refuse to be a Zaku Tank! I need to upgrade to a Guncannon A, at least then my chances of winning are higher than zero. I have 5 hours before I need to go and check what time my match with Nemun is. I should be able to alter my armour in half of that since I¡¯m not trying to make it stable. I cast manipulate and bent around the mana veins in my armour, as well as adding extra¡¯s. After 3 hours I finished implementing the pattern for the command word ¡®Wind Dance¡¯, as well as the output. Since it was taking longer than I¡¯d though I decided to leave out the pattern for the equation, I¡¯ll do that myself. I found that I could still have the ¡®Wind Spirit¡¯ enchantment take effect while using the armour to cast ¡®Wind Dance¡¯ and it wouldn¡¯t make my armour any more unstable than it was already going to be. I finished it, it won¡¯t explode from impacts but it will eventually explode. Hopefully it doesn¡¯t explode while I¡¯m wearing it. I¡¯ll know when it¡¯s getting close because it will start making creaking sounds, like the metal is bending, that would be the mana veins reaching critical and expanding in an attempt to avoid an explosion. Of course you can leave that fail safe out while weaving the grid, but then any mistake will cause the grid to explode. Because my armours magic grid was based off a spider¡¯s web, the failsafe for overloads was very advanced, because of this my armour should last for 17 hours. It is less than I was hoping for. My armour will explode at midnight tonight. I¡¯ll miss you armour, because without you I¡¯m as good as dead. I did this at the inn I was staying at on the bottom floor where they served food. I had stew as always, I haven¡¯t been eating properly since the start of the Qualifying Tournament. I really need to be eating a lot more than this. From the small amount that is written on Green Elves, I can go for years drinking only water so long as a receive enough sun. There is an account of an adventurer that found a women deep in a forest that hadn¡¯t been explored before, she was standing completely naked while basking in the sun light. They woke the Green elf from what appeared to be her sleeping while standing and asked her what she was doing. ¡°I was waiting for someone but they never arrived, so I decided to continue waiting.¡± After saying these words she turned back to the sunlight and ignored them. After much persuading they convinced her to stop, when they did she asked for their rations and ate them all. What appeared to be he clothes were laying on a rock, however one of the tree roots had grown over it, pinning it to the rock. They couldn¡¯t retrieve the cloths because the root was too thick for any of them to cut through. One good thing came out of my match with Valencil, I came up with a good idea to distract Nemun. I¡¯ll throw knives while I¡¯m chanting and keeping my distance. I haven¡¯t thrown knives before, but I know the principle. Grip the back of the blade, bring your arm back and then bring your army through and while releasing the blade letting it slip from your hand while using your wrist as a lever. The important parts are strength and dexterity, okay maybe I have a very loose understanding of how throwing a knife works. But it¡¯s relatively easy to learn just by trying to do it, it¡¯s possible to learn how to throw within a few minutes. Perfecting it takes years, but for now just hitting my target is good enough. I put on my armour after finishing the alterations and quickly ran down the street, weaving through the crowd. I got stern stares from the guards, but I ignored them, I didn¡¯t have long before I needed to go to the stadium. The Stadium is right by the market, but I need time to look for what I need. I asked different stalls and stores were I could find a place to buy weapons, a few pointed me to some blacksmiths saying, ¡°If you need weapons made this blacksmith I know is pretty skilled¡± And so on. But I did get a few recommendations for stores, most of them were high class expensive weapons stores that would have been a waste of time if all I wanted were throwing knives. Eventually I got someone that actually told me about a good place that sells low-grade iron throwing knives on the cheap. I went there and found that they were only 2 Bronze jots each, so I bought 30 of them and a sack to carry them in. ¡°Thank you for your business lady Knifelim.¡± The store owner said to me as I left. ¡°Not a noble.¡± I mumbled to myself before I closed the door to his store. After that I went to the stadium. The guards took me to the waiting area, my fight against Nemun is in the afternoon. I have nowhere to be so I¡¯ll just stick around on the viewing platform for contestants. I watched a fight with one of the people that I¡¯d found interesting that qualified. Julin of the Razor Mountains, he moving around like he was on ice-skates while shotting his bow. It looked like he was having a lot of fun, kind of makes me envious. He won with ease after a few moments of his opponent trying to run after him while batting away the arrow being shot at him. Yes he was actually hitting the arrows out of the air like he was swatting flies¡­ I feel like I shouldn¡¯t be here. I then watched Miu Wansimi of Alces get defeated by Fenric Farcaster. For most of the match it seemed like Miu was winning by keeping her distance and casting spells, until Fenric¡¯s movements became strange and it almost seemed like he turned into a blur as he appeared beside Miu and cut her in half. ¡°Was that a spell? Or a technique? ¡° I asked the other contestant that were watching the fights with me, they all seemed to have a cold sweat. ¡°That¡­ that was a technique.¡± One of them said weakly, it sounded like they were going to be sick or something. ¡°That was Cloud step, an advanced technique. He- how did he learn that? We shouldn¡¯t have access to advanced techniques yet!¡± Yelled one of the others. All the other students seemed to slump their shoulders. ¡°It seems we know who¡¯s going to win the tournament, this isn¡¯t even funny.¡± ¡°I just have to work hard on looking good in front of the nobles.¡± ¡°Dammit!¡± ¡°This was a waste of time!¡± ¡°I¡¯m withdrawing from the tournament¡­¡± They all started admitting defeat already¡­ That¡¯s just sad guys¡­ but I know I probably can¡¯t beat him either. It doesn¡¯t help that if I win, I won¡¯t have my armour tomorrow. How am I going to fight without my armour? Damn I really fucked up, I should of just taken the chance with Nemun. Why¡¯d I make a stupid decision in the moment and alter my armour. Unfortunately it can¡¯t be undone. I sighed as the others continued to freak out. Then came the guard calling for me to come the preparation area, it¡¯s time for my fight against Nemun, she hadn¡¯t been watching the fights from our viewing platform. But I know she¡¯s here. I went to the preparation area and took out my sword from my inventory, leaving the scabbard in my inventory again. I can¡¯t let myself be distracted when I fight Nemun, she¡¯s like nothing I¡¯ve fought before. I have to be focused. I won¡¯t lose, I¡¯ve already decided it. They started introducing me and I ran out. ¡°Today is a match between the warriors Nemun Vulk of Ripping Fangs Village and The Second in-line to the Goblin Emperor Princess Knifelim Blindsight.¡± ¡°In her last match Nemun Vulk of Ripping Fangs Village was up against the much beloved and formidable 7th son of his royal Highness the King, Valt of Atitria. After a protruded battle, The Prince managed to land a blow against the unstoppable Zvyar Nemun. However much to everyone¡¯s disappointment the prince was delivered a fatal blow, and fell to Nemun Vulk of Ripping Fangs Village,¡± ¡°In the Second in-line to the Goblin Emperor Princess Knifelim Blindsight, the Golbin Princess¡¯s last battle. She fought against Valencia Ulphes of Burntinder. Their battle was a harsh one, both losing their weapons midway through the fight. Valencil resorted to using his fists and his history of wrestling to attempt to gain victory. The battle devolved into a show of strength, the Goblin Princess was thrown through the air and heavily wounded. However in a clashing of bodies the eventual victor was the Goblin Princess. Deforming the helmet of Valencil and killing him instantly with a single blow to the head from her fist.¡± ¡°We can only wait and find out who will be victorious in this battle!¡± It seemed like it was getting close to the battle beginning so I raised my sword and took a low stance my feet spread apart, hands brought up near my ear and the sword pointing out behind me. I rolled my weight from foot to foot. [Ice Fang Touch] ¡°I won¡¯t lose.¡± I said to myself as I gripped my sword tighter. ¡°Let the battle begin!¡± ¡°[Wind Dance]¡± Instantly I used the command words for my armour to begin casting ¡®Wind Dance¡¯ I got the timing perfect, less than half a second after the signal to begin was given. I ran the equation for the spell through my head as the spell cast and then I felt the wind pushing on my back, an indication of the spell working. I didn¡¯t explode, that¡¯s good. I started chanting ¡®Bluntoph¡¯ as Nemun fell low with her clan¡¯s weird glass and wood sword in one hand and then shot towards me like a bullets. I moved at the same time she did, Nemun deflected my sword and then kicked my side before I could even see it and then threw me at the wall. This is complete bull shit! I righted myself mid-air and landed feet first on the vertical wall. My teeth rattled from the impact. I pushed off the wall as Nemun jumped and struck the wall where I was, it crumbled from the impact of her weird sword thing, I think it was called a Macuahuitl? Nemun pushed off the wall with her sword and sent herself into a spin which ended with her Macuahuitl hitting me square in the chest and knocking me back. There wasn¡¯t as much force as there could have been behind it because neither of us were standing on the ground. The blow knocked the wind out of me, however I was able to keep chanting because from the start I¡¯d been channelling my mana into my throat and using it to chant with. This is all or nothing, I¡¯m relying on this one spell to get me the win, I can¡¯t risk it being interrupted. I attempted to get distance after hit the ground and rolled to standing, however Nemun was still much faster than me despite my spell being active. She swept my feet out from under me and while I was falling she grabbed hold of my arm and struck my armpit with her full force using her Macuahuitl and severed everything below my shoulders from everything above it. Nemun brought the top half of my body up to her face as the blood gushed out of me, it¡¯s a sign of respect of the Vulk to look into the eyes of your enemy after killing them. After that Nemun threw the top half of my body away like a use rag and waited for the word that the match was over. My head hit against the ground, my face and the ground splattered with my translucent orange blood. Let these filthy worms return to nothing¡­ ¡°I am of no origin, from all points there is nothing. I am the ruler of destruction and I shall lay waste to your lands, your field, your homes, and your castles. With my omnipotent presence you who hold power are but weak pawns in a game of Creation. I will devour and stagnate, I am void, and I am the end, I am Metrath. Let these filthy worms return to nothing, [Bluntoph]¡± I finished casting the spell, too late, but I can try for a draw. Doing the equation is pretty hard when most of your body is missing and you¡¯re suffering from shock, missing a heart and both lungs. I think the only reason I¡¯m conscious is because of my extra powers as a Creator. Nemun as she was distracted was consumed by the spell, the spell instantly ate the top half of her body and then disappeared because I died. I was floating above my body. Or well, I was above the top half of my body looking down at myself. I think this is the most of my blood I¡¯ve ever seen¡­ Nemun is really scary like I¡¯d thought, she most of been trained form a young age in her Clan. It feels like for most of that she was playing with me. Nemun, you¡¯re so strong I can¡¯t help but laugh. Nemun is supposed to only have a few extra years on me, yet the difference is so large. I didn''t even get to attempt my strategy of using throwing knives... I could try making trinkets and items that cast spells with a single word, however that method consumes more than 10 times the normal amount of mana, I used up half of my current mana just by casting ¡®Wind Dance¡¯ with my altered armour once. I looked over to Nemun¡¯s corpse, it was like the parts or her that came in contact with the spell simply disappeared. That is a horrifying spell and it seems Metra was the one that created it. Metra, I¡¯m not sure about my opinion of you anymore. Are you evil like your world claims? Or is that just how you seem to them as a Creator doing what they need to in order to progress? Will I eventually be seen the same way by the world I create? Is it possible to hate the things I create? I¡¯ve been putting it off developing my own world because I fear the answer to these questions. As I stared at my body and thought about these things everything around me disappeared and I felt the nostalgic feeling of motion. I had returned to my ¡®Personal Space¡¯.
Authors note''s, Hey it''s Arukorstza again, this time in less than a week. I''m attempting to finish two chapters this week because the 9th is the wonderful day when I am classified as being 22 years old. It''s also the day I am officially 1 year closer to dying of old age, oh the unbound wonders of getting older. I will admit that I intended this since a few chapters ago. I was very tempted to have the mc somehow win the tournament, but no. Nemun is too op. I''m not sure how you guys are going to feel about the next chapter mostly because it doesn''t have the mc in it. Though there will be a half chapter after that about the mc doing Creator stuff. Thanks to Zeratul for proofreading. Zeratul has proofread about half the chapter which he read over yesterday, however I read over the second half that I finished today and didn''t notice anything. I know I read over some of the chapter!? Something must be wrong with me.
Stats Spoiler :
Rank F | Creator
Useless Shady of Life and Death
NAMEKnifelim Blindsight (Aneir)
RACEGreen Elf
Level25
Health2770
Mana4345
Strength79 (44) +20%Intelligence129 (84) +2%
Agility71 (47)Mind98 (65)
Endurance45 (30)Luck47 (31)
Charisma44 (29)
SKILLS
Well Rested (Passive)
Strangeness (Passive)
Suspicious (Passive)
Berserker (Passive)
Sore Shoulder (Passive)
Slap-Slap-Palm Arts (Martial)
Push the Limit (Passive)
Transcend the Limit
Blind (Oulosc)(Curse)
Creeping Feelers
Creeping Tendrils
Contact Reading (Metra)
Understand Speech (Metra)
Dampen Pain
Steadfast
Money:167120MaP | 4 Gold Marks, 3 Silver Tapers, 4 Iron Sticks, 2 Bronze Jots
Rank Points:11912RP
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Discussion The reason why I''m Posting a Discussion thread is because I''ll be closing the threads for chapters so that you can''t post there. So Please ask any question here. Also I don''t mind talking with you about anything you feel like. Also a heads up, Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.Chapters will be monthly, possibly longer if have a bad month or I''m not happy with it. The next 13 chapter will be weekly however because I''m already done with them. I just want to do last minute checks and make sure I''m completely happy with them before posting. Arc 1 "Metrath" - Prologue – A Joke called Creation Prologue ¨C A Joke called Creation ¡°Mercer.¡± My eyelids felt heavy as I forced them open. I turned my head about as I tried to clear my head, but felt pain in my neck and the back of my head. ¡°Mercer.¡± I turned my head towards the voice. I couldn¡¯t see anything past a light that was being shone in my eyes. I blinked against it, my eyes attempting to adjust, but adjusting unsuccessfully. ¡°I¡¯ve waited Mercer, I wanted you to be awake for your execution. So that you could look into the eyes of the people who shot you. It¡¯ll be good practice for the young cadets, get them used to killing people. Killing war criminals won¡¯t prepare them completely, but it¡¯s better than nothing. Don¡¯t you agree Mercer?¡± I didn¡¯t give him the pleasure of a reply. I¡¯m no war criminal and I refuse to inadvertently admit to that by replying to him. This bastard, I learned his name was Howard Guldo. This bastard. I¡¯m not a killer, but I¡¯d kill him if I got the chance. I saved humanity from it destruction. The Arruana an alien race we¡¯d picked a fight with. Because of course we would. Was going to destroy us, they had us back into a corner. Uthals 9, was one of the last 19 human colonies on their list. I grew up there, my parents lived in a retirement home there. So when the Arruana came to our system to wipe us from the face of the galaxy, I stuck a deal. I had something they wanted, access to our entire species combined knowledge. I gave them access to our empires information network. They set up a base on the planet and with that they pretty much ensured that they won. What I didn¡¯t expect was that the remnants of the United Republic of Humanity (UROH) would track me down. I¡¯ve been tortured, mentally and physically. They¡¯ve broken me over and over. I¡¯ve told them everything I learned about the Arruana. Anything they shared with me the UROH now know it. You might think me weak for spilling the beans. But when most sickness and injuries can be healed without any consequences. Torture gets even more creative. I struggled uselessly against my bond as I had so many times before. I didn¡¯t even know how long I¡¯d been here, it feels like a long time. It must be a long time. They¡¯re going to kill me. There¡¯s nothing I can do about that. They¡¯re gonna take me out to the firing range and use me for target practice. I¡¯m dead, so dead. I saved our species, but I¡¯m going to die now. Shit. ¡°Take him to the firing grounds.¡± They grabbed me and dragged me to my feet. I was carried through a dark hall and then out into the light. My eyes stung as I blinked against the light, but now my eyes adjusted and I was outside. I didn¡¯t want to go. No I can¡¯t go out there. I can¡¯t die! ¡°No¡­ No, No, No¡­ please¡­ no¡­¡± I begged them, tears blurring my vision. They ignored me and brought me to a pole sticking out of the ground and linked my restraints to it. The two men that dragged me out of my cell walked away. One lagged behind however. ¡°Bark Mercer, call for your pretty alien friends now.¡± Before spitting at the ground by my feet. When they¡¯d cleared the firing range of everyone but me. A man to the side of the firing squad that was already standing in. He began shouting my charges. ¡°Daniel Mercer. To be killed by firing squad for 13 accounts of murder. And Treason against the United Republic of Humanity.¡± ¡°I did what I had to. To save humanity. These people, the Arruana they didn¡¯t want to destroy us. But you forced their hands!¡± I yelled back at him, unable to restrain my anger. ¡°Shut up! We¡¯ve heard enough of your treasonous speech Mercer.¡± One of the men that dragged me to the polls yelled back, spitting on the ground in my direction. After that there was little pause as the commanding officer shouted. ¡°FIRE!¡± Coil rifles fired and my life ended, just like that. My last view was of the Arruana Galaxy ship Berthath. High in the sky as it entered the planets lower atmosphere behind them. In all its colossal planet cracking glory. They didn¡¯t notice and the rifles fired. I¡¯d thought things would fade into blackness, nothingness. But that¡¯s not what happened at all, instead, I was blinded by a light. Most likely the planet exploding. The light blinded me, it drew closer until the only thing visible was white. Symbols flashed through my vision. They flashed by fast I couldn¡¯t make sense of them. When I began to feel I had some understand of them a burning pain spread through my body. I fell on my side and clutched myself. Attempting to brace against the pain but it didn¡¯t help. The pain subsided soon enough. Getting back to my feet I brought my hands up before my face. They had turned grey and insubstantial. It was hard to recognise them as my hands anymore. A jingle played and a transparent screen appeared before my eyes. It flicked for a time before displaying, ¡®Welcome dear soul of the deceived. Please stand by.¡¯ I waited, not that I had a choice. The jingle played again and the screen changed. ¡®Thank you for waiting. The reviewing process has been completed.¡¯ The screen changed again. ¡®Congratulations you have been awarded with the position of ¡®Creator¡¯. Oh good, god wannabe. At least you didn¡¯t become one of those cretin gods. Though it¡¯s not like that¡¯s possible. Besides I hate those¡­ things?¡¯ The screen flickered and changed again. ¡®I¡¯m you by the by. You if you were let in on the big joke we call creation. So I¡¯m kind of not you as well, it¡¯s hard to explain. You can think of me as your manager. I sell you to all creation in the form of quantifying your currently minuscule existence. Doing so in an orderly stats screen so that it¡¯s easy for your tiny brain. As well as the tiny brains of other equally tiny brained people to understand. I¡¯m a pretty cool guy right?¡¯ Not really? I thought to myself, needless to say confused by this entire happening. The screen disappeared for a moment and then reappeared. ¡®Speak the words ¡®Personal Space¡¯. Do so to enter your only personal little plane of existence that¡¯s just for you and no one else.¡¯ Still somewhat over whelmed I just did as it said. ¡°Personal Space¡± As soon as I spoke the words I felt a powerful lurching that made me feel sick. I felt a feeling of motion that didn¡¯t match what I was seeing. As the endless white didn¡¯t give anything away. Then it felt like I stopped and my stomach flip-flopped. Which sent me dry heaving. Around me a room constructed itself from the white like a panel that was flipping over. To reveal that on the other side all along something was actually there. Which I couldn¡¯t tell whether was actually the fact of the matter. Because it¡¯s hard to tell what¡¯s what when everything is a flat white as far as the eye can see. I looked around to find that I was standing in the middle of my room back home on Uthals 9. The planet I grew up on. To be exact it looked exactly like my room in my parent¡¯s house 20 years ago. Back when I was just some adolescent teen that felt he had a bleak future. A future that would mean little to nothing. Funny that I ended up being a wanted criminal for doing business with the enemy. In doing so I somehow convinced them that not all humans should be destroyed. Funny again on top of that how many problems are solved. Just by getting to know someone and speaking the same language always helps. One thing I noticed that was out-of-place for being my room. Was that outside the window there was nothing but whiteness. Great a room with a view, just what I always wanted. ¡®Welcome to your Personal Space dear Creator. I tried to make it feel like home, once again, I¡¯m pretty great.¡¯ The screen popped up in front of my face again and then quickly flickered. Changing the text. ¡®You can access anything you need at your Personal Terminal. Extra-net, Inner/Outer-Channels, My World, Idea¡¯s, Myself, Storage, Skill list, Transit, Options. And so on.¡¯ The screen flicked again and for what seems like the last time. Though I¡¯m not sure. ¡®You can bring up your Options Menu by speaking ¡®Open Menu¡¯. It¡¯s filled with lots of useful things. like your inventory, stats screen, and equipped skills. As well as the Remote World Access Menu or RWAM. I like to call it the RWHAM!!! But that¡¯s just me. There are books in your inventory. Read up, learn about how you¡¯ll need to live, or at least exist from now on. Good luck and don¡¯t you dare thank anyone for all the fish on me. I¡¯ll get angry.¡¯ My mind was a muddled complex of confusion and suspicion. This is all so strange and impossible. There shouldn¡¯t be any species capable of something like what I¡¯ve seen so far. At least not in explored space. I looked around my room from my childhood. It was 1.6 meters wide, 3.9 meters long and the ceiling extended up to 2.1 meters high. Compact, but more spacious than what most people had. Considering that most people¡¯s houses on Uthals 9 where this size. Yet this was only one room of a three bedrooms, one living room, one kitchen, one toilet, family house. So it¡¯s not an exaggeration to say my family was rich. At least compared to 40% of the population on Uthals 9. On the left of the door to my room was my bed, more of a bench really, but it went into the wall a bit. So there was plenty room to lay down, just don¡¯t move around in your sleep. Or find something to strap yourself into the bed with with you roll around in your sleep. At the end of my room in front of the window that took but the whole of the 1.6 meter wide wall. On the other end of my room from the door. The window extended all the way up to the ceiling. But there was a half meter tall kind of fence at the bottom of the window by the ground. So I could lay on the floor and not be seen from the next building over. Then again I don¡¯t need to worry about being seen changing by someone in the building across from mine. Because there just isn¡¯t one now. Just the eerie, unsettling whiteness. Above and below my bed are storage areas, for clothes and other knickknacks. Of course they were empty. Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. The first thing I did was sit down and open my menu, go into my inventory and read those books. I say those books, but actually it was only a single book titled ¡®A joke called Creation¡¯. The first thing it explained was generally ways of earning MaP and what MaP was. MaP or Matter Pieces, was the currency in the boundless space of existence that creators. Pretty much anything that lives there. This boundless space often being called Infinite Space. MaP is not just a currency, it¡¯s also the building blocks of everything according to the book. Not sure I believe it, but it¡¯s essentially a cube made out of god particles on steroids. At least that¡¯s the closest example I can imagine up. Because I have no idea and they don¡¯t go into detail. Almost like I¡¯m supposed to know this already. I flicked through to the part of the book that mentioned various ways of earning MaP. Selling Idea¡¯s was one thing. An idea essentially being the blueprint for something you made. Like a tree, or a rock, or a creature. An idea can be pretty much anything, like gravity. Of course you start with several Idea¡¯s. They are defaults carried over from the world you came from. While reading this section I sat down on my bed and realized my old crummy laptop. From when I was a kid sat at the head of my bed on the pillow. I picked up my computer and turned it on. The words ¡°Personal Space¡± showed up on the screen for a moment before changing to a desktop. My default ideas were things like. Gravity, Soil, Water, Air, Sky, Clouds, Sun, Moon, Stars, Various plants. As well as Various Periodic elements and so on. There were a lot of them. A lot of which I didn¡¯t understand what they were because they were either too abstract or just didn¡¯t elaborate. Most Ideas were labelled ¡°Various things¡±. Without any further explanation of what those various things might be. Another way of earning MaP is to sell produce from your world. Also having sentient creatures on your world will generate MaP. Generally MaP generated by sentient creatures has various spikes in the amount you receive. For example when they gather and create civilizations and big events occur. Like the end of a war, or the invention of something new. There is generally a payout equal to how major that event was to their civilization. It¡¯s also possible to earn MaP by having someone act as your representative. These representatives are called a Creator¡¯s Hero. MaP is earned on how well a Creators subconscious evaluated their Hero¡¯s progress. Things like fulfilling given missions and doing tasks. A side note in the book about Hero¡¯s says that a Hero. While hired and on the job, can ask changes to be made to the world. If the Creator approves this change then the cost will be calculated. The required MaP will be displayed to the Hero for them to agree upon the estimated cost. The Hero must then reimburse the Creator that amount. Working for free until it is payed off. There were some examples of earning MaP. But I skipped them because I didn¡¯t feel I needed to know that at the moment. I could come back to this if I end up having trouble earning income. Reading further I found examples of costs. For making your world and making changes in your world. The creation of a world costs 1000MaP and takes 10million years. There are ways to speed that up, but an example of speeding up the materialization. One I found said, ¡°Creating anything other than gases and light in a short amount of time increases the cost exponentially. Creating one gram of iron in one-hundred and twenty seconds costs 37800000MaP. The cost increases exponentially again each second you further reduce the materialization time by 1294%.¡± It listed the equation for calculation the cost of materializing matter. It was something like, 1 gram = material value x Amount x Speed tax x Universal Fine. So 1 gram of Iron in one-hundred and twenty seconds was, 9 x 0.01 x 10000000 x 42. I thought about writing these number down somewhere because it seemed the cost wasn¡¯t situational. But then decided not to bother. Generally I decided that materializing something instantly was probably a big no. Or at least a bad idea. Since I was curious I used my computers calculator to check how much it would cost to make 1 metric ton of iron instantly. 58695840000000000MaP was my answer, the more you know? I then stumbled on a brief listing of Creator Ranks. Ranks being, G, G+, F-, F, F+, E-, E, E+, D-, D, D+, C-, C, C+, B-, B, B+, A-, A, A+, S-, S, S+, SS-, SS, SS+, SS++, SSS-, SSS, SSS+, SSS++ and SSS+++. Not to mention that the book hinted of further ranks that weren¡¯t listed. The book said that a SSS+++ rank Creator was as powerful as a lesser god. Though I¡¯m not exactly sure what that actually means. After reading through the book. I realized that it spoke about things I could do ¡®latter¡¯. But nothing much I could do now. The book commented on a lot of things that Creators are capable of and their limitations. It also stated with a great deal of contempt. That Creators were abominable creatures that bent the multiverse to their sick will and did as they liked. There was an entire chapter on it. I mostly skipped over that chapter. I opened my menu and took note that I have 1000MaP. I opened the My World program on my computer. I found that with that much I could have the basics of a world created in a "short" period of 10million years. Oh joy. It was good that the book mentioned that the Creators, being higher beings. Are creatures separate from the standard branching paths of time that most creatures are bound to. A Creator has a linear time-line that can move to any point in the standard timeline. So I could begin the world materializing now and just skip forwards. The My World window had a time-line tab that I could bring up and skip to or come back to any point on that time-line. There was also I note that while a Creator has a Hero employed. On their world they lose control of the time-line and can¡¯t skip forwards or go backwards. I clicked the help prompt and it also states that once I Hero¡¯s job is complete. Be it a failure or success, the Creator can no long go back on the time-line to a time before that point. Unless the Hero is a resident of that world. Because of this a Creator will generally push to have their employed Hero be born in the world. As well as stay there until their mortal avatar dies of old age. This Normalizes the World Time-line and keeps it unmolested from a foreign entities time-line. So technically. While working as a Hero it¡¯s possible to run into yourself. But at any other time it¡¯s impossible. I spent the 1000MaP I¡¯d started out with and began materialization of my world. I would have waited but then again that would be stupid. So I skipped ahead 10million years. The overview of my world went from nothing but darkness. To various gases and minerals floating in space to a rough glowing red ball of molten minerals. After a few moments it cooled and water formed on the entire surface. Then everything stopped and the user interface indicated that it was back in real-time. A sea planet, nice. It seems if I want land I¡¯ll have to add that in manually. One thing that concerned me though was that parts of the sea were still boiling. So I guess I have to deal with that manually as well. None the less I couldn¡¯t do anything more with this without more MaP¡­ I guess that means it¡¯s time to look for work.
Authors Notes, Hey it''s Arukorstza. I figured I''d release the prologue early since it''s short and I''m going to need some more time on Chapter one since I changed some things again. But yeah I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Arc 1 "Metrath" - Chapter 1 – The Contract Chapter 1 ¨C The Contract I spent time looking for a well-paying job on the extra-net. Which was essentially the internet. Once I¡¯d found a job I figured was worthwhile I sent the Creator that posted the job offer an email. I received a reply shortly after. Their reply said that they were happy I accepted the job. Their reply also included a ¡°Transfer¡± link. Clicking the link my room fell away. I felt that stomach churning sensation of sudden motion. Then I was there. In a large room, across from me sat a young girl that seemed to be in her teen. She had deep blue eyes that were speckled with what look like stars. Her hair was a golden brown. Her skin pale like chalk, and she wore a light green dress with heavy brown boots. ¡°So good to meet you Anier.¡± I raised an eyebrow, ¡°No my name is Daniel.¡± The girl seemed surprised, ¡°Oh I¡¯m sorry. It¡¯s just that your Creator status has your name as Anier. That¡¯s strange.¡± ¡°Really?¡± I opened my status and sure enough it had my name as ¡°Anier¡±. I narrowed my eyes, ¡°That¡¯s strange. Why does it have that as my name¡­? I guess there¡¯s nothing I can do about that?¡± As Metra shook her head I realized I somehow got screwed by that weird screen that claimed to be me. ¡°Well¡­ It¡¯s nice to meet you, I¡¯m Daniel as I said.¡± The girl stood, ¡°Nice to meet you Daniel, again I¡¯m sorry for my mistake. I¡¯m Metra. Please. Sit down.¡± She motioned to a comfy looking couch across from her. Walking over I took a quick glance around and noted that the room was overly ornate. Filled with finely carved wood furniture. As well as a surprising number of plants, all species of which I¡¯ve never seen before. As I sat, so did Metra. Metra explained many things to me about her world before I left. She spoke about how she shares her world with another creator. Not failing to mention that lately they¡¯ve had disagreements. To be specific, these disagreement have been on how to manage their world. Metra wants to balance order and chaos. So she can focus on gaining MaP as the world adjusts to their newest creations. While the other creator ¡®Oulosc¡¯. Wants to continue to add new things regardless of how much chaos it causes... Oulosc is a Rank D Creator who always wants to make something new, he makes a lot of MaP selling ideas. Which is part of why Metra invited him to work on her world. Sharing worlds is good for when you¡¯re having trouble coming up with ideas. The amount of income you receive also increases. You can also pool your funds with other creators that are a part of your world to make big projects. For example if you wanted to make a magic system in your world. It¡¯s really expensive and requires a lot of work. In some cases creators end up changing their entire world. Purely so they can accommodate a magic system. A badly made magic system can restrict your access to the world. In some cases you can even be kept out. In some of the worst cases a badly made magic system might explode. destroying your world. These kinds of mistakes are common when trying to make magic systems. It takes a lot of MaP to make a good magic system. It should be obvious. A good magic system is anything that doesn¡¯t won¡¯t come back to bite you. For example, If you leave any loop holes you might be visited by people from your world. People that mean you harm. You won¡¯t actually die, but you will be incapacitated for a few days. As that''s the most they can do. The bigger issue is all the stuff they steal. Needless to say. While useful, magic can be dangerous to both you and your world. Once a magic system is set it can be incredibly difficult to change it. So it¡¯s just a good idea to work together with another creator when making a magic system. ¡°I see¡­ a magic system seems like more trouble than it¡¯s worth to be honest.¡± I commented to myself. A smile flickered across Metra¡¯s face, ¡°Only if you try to make it flexible and useful. A magic system is more for making influencing the world easier for the Creator. Though if you mess up you could find yourself completely cut off from your world. Or worse.¡± ¡°So what do you want me to do exactly Metra?¡± ¡°I just need you to assist a VIP. I¡¯ve checked and rechecked my world¡¯s history. A certain someone would be able to act as a linchpin of order. It is unfortunate. But without intervention they die at a young age¡­ I need you to protect them. Prevent their death essentially. Though there is one issue that will make this difficult. I have to assign them as Hero and we can¡¯t just lock them in a room and hope our problems go away. As a result. I unfortunately can¡¯t give you the benefits of a hero. These benefits are things I would normally grant to a Hero under my use. There for you will be acting as what we Creators refer to as an Agent. I only explain this because I assume you¡¯re new. Considering you don¡¯t have a solid form yet.¡± She waved her hand towards me, gesturing to my body. ¡°Yeah¡­ you could say I¡¯m new to all this.¡± I admitted. ¡°It shouldn¡¯t be an issue.¡± Metra said before quickly moving along. ¡°I¡¯ll assign missions to you that I help in enforcing order in. Besides you''re guarding of our VIP. I will tell you now, but our VIP must become a hero recognized by everyone. At that point your role will be served and you can spend the rest of your days how you wish.¡± ¡°The rest of my days?¡± ¡°Yes. Unfortunately I will need you to be reborn in my world. I don¡¯t much want to have the beginning of my world time-line pushed forwards. It¡¯s rare that you¡¯ll find someone that won¡¯t want you to be reborn. With being reborn comes the fact that you will be unable to leave until you die. Most commit suicide after they finish their job. It¡¯s not unheard of for an employee to spend the rest of their days in a Creator''s world. As a kind of holiday after a job well done.¡± ¡°Wait people commit suicide?¡± ¡°Yes. Really it shouldn¡¯t be a surprise. Jobs done and now they can go home and get on with their lives. No reason not too really.¡± ¡°That¡¯s stupid.¡± ¡°Not really Daniel. It starts making sense to the individual.¡± Metra smiled as she said that. A forced smile. I didn¡¯t have anything to say to that, so I stayed silent. Then Metra spoke again. ¡°I¡¯d have you meet Oulosc but he¡¯s not answering my messages. He was supposed to meet you here with me.¡± ¡°What¡¯s wrong? Why would he ignore your messages?¡± Metra sighed heavily, ¡°We had a fight. Burning skies, dragons, armies, and the works. He just refuses to listen to me. Oulosc wants throw our world towards chaos. It lets him create more Ideas and faster. I prefer order because I rely on the civilizations of my world to gain income. So it¡¯s fair to say that we¡¯re at odds. For the longest time we had a balance. But then he started pumping out ideas. This was after realizing that he can churn ideas out faster. If our world is tipped towards chaos. Then things got violent between us after I asked him to stop and now he just ignores me. Not my best moments I admit. We¡¯ve been fighting for far too long already. All I can do now is damage control and hope that Oulosc eventually gets over it.¡± ¡°I¡¯m hired then?¡± I asked getting ready to get up. ¡°Yes, the sooner I have someone on this the better. You¡¯re hired, I¡¯ll send you a message and add you to my contacts. You should also be able to begin the transfer to my world from your Personal Space.¡± ¡°Thanks, then I¡¯ll see you when I¡¯m done I suppose.¡± I said standing. Metra nodded to that. ¡°Personal Space.¡± Metra and her room fell away from me and I felt the sudden pull that gave me a sense of motion. After moments of nothing but whiteness my room came together around me. I sat on my bed and opened my laptop and noticed that the interface indicated I had a new message. There was also a new shortcut called ¡°Metra¡¯s World¡±. I opened my messages by going into the ¡°Myself¡± program. The Window that opened showed myself, a grey silhouette of a person. Beside the rotating image of myself were links to my customization options. Something called a skill workshop and my Inbox. I opened my Inbox. The newest message titled ¡°Employment¡± from Metra. There was also another message titled. ¡°I will Destroy you¡± from Oulosc which I ignored. How did he find my email address? I thought to myself for a moment before moving past it. I opened Metra¡¯s message, ¡°Oulosc isn¡¯t happy, he just messaged me after you left. Too bad you can¡¯t hide the list of employee¡¯s from Creator sharing your world. *Sigh* ¡°Never the less. I look forward to when you start. Just know that Oulosc will do everything in his power to obstruct you. He¡¯s got it into his head that I¡¯m trying to cut off his income¡­ I¡¯m not. I¡¯m trying to stop him from screwing me over. I can¡¯t get anything done if my worlds in this much chaos.¡± ¡°Also there¡¯s some information I have on the magic of my world in its window once you open it. Read up Anier.¡± Under Metra''s short message was a notice. It informed me I should be able to begin transit from the Metra¡¯s world window. I''d already noticed the shortcut, but redundancies are good. Metra seems like a nice person, I think? I can¡¯t really say for sure. Though I question my getting involved. Especially in a dispute between two creatures that form worlds. Then again I suppose I¡¯m the same kind of being as them. Thinking about whether I made a mistake. I sat on my bed with my computer on my lap, leaning against the wall by the door. I eventually decided it didn¡¯t really matter, work is work. I will admit I am a little excited, not to mention that I get to experience a different world. Isn¡¯t it generally a life time dream to be summoned to another world as a hero? Though I¡¯m not a hero or being summoned, it still has that sort of feel to it. I close my ¡°Myself¡± window. being shrunted back to the desktop I stared at the ¡°Metra¡¯s World¡± Shortcut. I continued to stare at it for a time before double clicking it. The room went dark and fell away. Surrounded by sudden darkness. When since my death I¡¯d experienced nothing but perfect lighting. Left me dreading that I had signed away who knows how many years. A screen appeared before me. Providing a faint glowing light. It stung my eyes because of the contrast with the darkness. A display of Metra¡¯s world slowly rotated. Almost completely water. Most of the land masses were covered with trees. The tree''s only parting where mountains reached their peaks. The rare desert in certain parts of the world. On the side of user interface was ¡°Transit¡±, ¡°Contract information¡± and ¡°Info¡±. I clicked info. The screen changed to a brief list descriptor of recent events. I mostly skimmed that as I scrolled down. Then an introduction to the world¡¯s magic with a link to a list of compatibilities. Apparently the magic¡¯s of Metra¡¯s world are all elemental based. Mostly only useful for combat purposes. Though things like earth magic can be used in making housing. As well as other inventive application of the elements. Like starting a camp fire using fire magic. Creating drinking water with water magic and so on. I clicked the compatibilities list. I was curious and the screen changed to a blank one. At the top was ¡°Not compatible with any Worlds you know of.¡± Should have expected that to be honest. I went back to the main display for Metra¡¯s World and clicked contract information. ¡°Contract ¨C Hero¡¯s Agent. Mission classification ¨C Bodyguard. Rank C+. Accepted by Rank D Creator Anier. Difficulty estimated to be high. Agreed upon payment, 100000MaP + Bonus. Contractor Creator Metra.¡± Good, just thought I¡¯d make sure¡­ I returned to the main screen for Metra¡¯s World. For a short while I stared at the transit button and then clicked it. ¡®Contract ¨C Hero¡¯s Agent. Mission classification ¨C Bodyguard. Rank C+. Activated, beginning transfer of G rank Creator Anier¡¯s Personal System Settings.¡¯ ¡®Unauthorized access. Creator Oulosc has disabled statistics percentage carry over¡¯ ¡®Unauthorized access. Creator Oulosc has altered the details of the contract. Species changed.¡¯ ¡®Unauthorized access. Creator Oulosc. You are now afflicted with the ¡°Blind¡± defect.¡¯ ¡®Creator Metra has intercepted further unauthorized access to Creator Anier by Creator Oulosc.¡¯ The screen flickered through each message almost too fast for me to read. To this occurrence I could only think of how much of an asshole Oulosc is. Seriously. Blind? Fuck you. My awareness faded. Kind of like drifting off to sleep. (¨s¡ã¡õ¡ã£©¨s¦à ©ß©¥©ß I regained awareness of my surrounding. Only to realize I was suffocating. Surrounded and pressed upon by an incredible pressure from all around me. It felt like I was being crushed. Then at last I felt that pressure release me from its grip and felt the air enter my lungs. My skin flared up in pain all over my body like it was on fire. I couldn¡¯t help but cry out in pain. I heard the high-pitched screaming cry of a baby and realized I¡¯d just been born. Well wasn¡¯t that an experience. Glad I didn¡¯t remember that the first time around. I felt a now familiar sense of motion. Then realized I¡¯d been placed in someone¡¯s arms. Well at least I guess I was placed in someone¡¯s arms. I couldn¡¯t actually tell since everything was pitch black. Born and I can¡¯t see a thing, two horrible things in one day. Courtesy of Metra and her ¡°friend¡±. The ridiculous part is that I don¡¯t care as much as I should. That doesn¡¯t mean I won¡¯t get back at Oulosc if I get the chance. A feminine voice spoke to me tenderly in a language I don¡¯t understand at all. Sounds like crazy gibberish. Definitely a language though. I¡¯ve heard someone actually spout genuine crazy gibberish. This has too much structure to it. It¡¯s at this point I got a notification of a new message. ¡°Personal Menu¡± The menu opened and I proceeded to my messages. ¡°That Blindness is going to cause issues. I was expecting him to pull something but not this. I expected this to be far too petty for him. Sadly I thought to highly of him. I¡¯ve sent you an advanced payment as compensation. There are skills to work around Blindness. It can be removed though. It just costs far more than a work around. You should be able to access your Skills Workshop now. Use it.¡± ¡®You have received 10000MaP¡¯ I didn¡¯t seem to be going anywhere, at least for now. So I opened my skill list and sure enough. There was the ¡°Skill Workshop¡± right under equip/remove skill. I¡¯m kind of curious why I can still see my menu. It might be either because it¡¯s in my head or it¡¯s just a Creator thing. I have no idea. I selected the skill workshop and a complex looking menu popped up. There was also another ¡°Advanced tab¡± which I decided I wouldn¡¯t touch. At least not for now. Navigating the menu I found that there were three categories. I could make use of these three categories to create a skill. The first is genetics, then magic and finally world. With this I can assume two things. The skills I create on this world will be skills that need a magic system. And also need me to be using this body. Which I came to assume. Because the genetics tab has a lot of things about something called a green elf. A quick check of my stats screen confirmed I was a Green Elf, whatever that was. Oh and that I was female¡­ oh well I used to play some virtual reality games as a female character. No point in getting uncomfortable about it. Never the less in the genetics tab at the top were recommended options. ¡°Lesser eyesight¡± would cost 8000Map. ¡°Normal Eyesight¡± would cost 10000MaP. Below that but still in the recommended area was ¡°Sonar¡± and ¡°Enhanced senses¡±. Sonar required enhanced senses and getting both would cost 39000MaP. So not exactly an option. I switched over to the magic tab. ¡°Mana sight¡± and ¡°Comprehend language¡± were the only two recommended options for magic. I feel like Comprehend language would be something I direly need. I don¡¯t want to learn a new language it¡¯s such a pain. It took me 19 years to learn Arruana. I say 19, but actually it only took 1 year to learn to the point that I could understand and respond. I spent the rest of my life perfecting my understanding of the language. All while I build relations with the Arruana. Getting the both Mana sight and Comprehend language would only cost me 6000MaP. 4000MaP for Comprehend language and 2000MaP for Mana sight. Thinking 2000 was a bit too good to be true, I checked Mana sights descriptor. ¡°Mana sight uses the residual mana given off my all life in worlds with Magic systems. The area within a ten meter radius around the magician is mapped perfectly. Advantages are that Mana sight can be used to see through walls. Anything and everything within range is clearly visible to the magician. Disadvantages are that creature releasing large amounts of mana will disrupt Mana sight. Making it useless against strong opponents.¡± I decided on getting Comprehend languages and Mana sight. ¡®Mana sight has been learned.¡¯ ¡®Comprehend languages has been learned.¡¯ I can get lesser or normal eyesight latter. At the moment Comprehend languages is more important, at least to me. I equipped my new skills. ¡°I¡¯m so, so, sorry my daughter.¡± Said the feminine voice from before, this time I understood it. ¡°Enough of that, you¡¯ve said your goodbyes.¡± I deep grimy voice came from a new set of hands that grabbed me and lifted me away. I opened my eyes and looked up at the man. Shapes burst around me in every direction and took form. It was strange not seeing colours or light, I could feel them, but not see them. I could see the depth and the lines and edges of the man¡¯s face as well as the womens. I stared up at this man, an ugly man. He might have been a good-looking man. If not for the pox scars covering his cheeks and forehead. His aged and sagging skin did help his looks much either. The women had long pointed ears and was laying down. It didn''t seem like she had the strength to stand as she flailed her arms uselessly. Trying to protest against the distance between me and her. ¡°No. Please, she¡¯s only just been born you can¡¯t take her she needs me!¡± My mother fell over as she reached towards me, she had a voice like bells. It was nice to listen to. ¡°I¡¯m not taking care of your child you stupid bitch. I¡¯ve a client that¡¯s been asking to by a baby for some time. Two-hundred Iron sticks he¡¯s offering I could live carefree for years off that.¡± Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°No, no, please, I do anything you want! Please just don¡¯t take my child.¡± She was crying at this point as she pushed herself off the ground. ¡°No you won¡¯t, your husband sold you to me and ran off. You¡¯re going to be sold with the rest of the slaves in Dorendu.¡± The scoffed. My mother just broke down crying while the man turned and walked away with me in his arms. It seems we are in a barn, I took note of the piles of hay and a cart. As we got close to the barn door I took notice that just outside the barn were five caged carriages. Some men where wearing normal kinds of clothing. Some wore armour made from leather, but every one of them carried weapons. Long sword, short swords, maces, one even had a great sword. What no pikes, halberds or spears? They seem like a bunch of uneducated idiots. As I thought this to myself a smallish man approached us. He began to speak to the ugly man carrying me. ¡°That elven women whelped her brat then I see?¡± the smallish man squawked in an annoying tone. The ugly man nodded. ¡°What ah, do we do with it?¡± ¡°I know someone in the area that¡¯ll buy it for 200 iron sticks. I¡¯ll go sell it to him and then we can go on our way to Dorendu. Sell these useless shits and get paid" The smallish man nodded with a great deal of energy. Then walked away and joined with a group made up of some other men where they began talking. The ugly man carried me through many streets. The stone paved streets straight and well proportioned. The buildings being carved stone. Moss and plants showing how old and aged the building are. He walked until we reached the back end of a small back alley. Where he knocked on a wooden door with a simple pattern painted on it. ¡°I¡¯m here Bog-gobi.¡± The ugly man announced, his voice raised. From the other side of the door something thumped and rustled. After a short moment the door clicked many times. Then swung open revealing a small green goblin. The goblin only just reached the ugly man¡¯s hip. ¡°Karago Stal, what¡¯re you doing here?¡± the small goblin, Bog-gobi, asked. Scratching behind his ear as he did. The ugly man ¡°Karago¡± spat on the ground by Bog-gobi. ¡°I¡¯m here with your ¡°request¡±. I don¡¯t care what you do with it, just pay up.¡± Karago shook me gently, indicating me as said request. The goblin, Bog-gobi smiled and trembled with excitement. ¡°Ah! So you changed your mind? Good, good, come in I¡¯ll get your Iron.¡± He clapped his hands. Karago took a few steps inside and stood by the door watching the goblin. The goblin scurried about picking up sticks of iron the length of my arm. He grabbed them from here and there around the room. We waited for some time until the goblin returned. Coming from one of the back rooms with a large cloth sack. He threw it at the ground by Karago¡¯s feet. ¡°It¡¯s all there, feel free to count it, now gimme the child.¡± Bog-gobi laughed his lack of confidence seeming obvious. He stretched his arms to reach me. Karago handed me over to the goblin and retrieved the bag from the ground. ¡°I¡¯ll count it latter. I don¡¯t think you¡¯d want to die¡­ so I¡¯ll assume it¡¯s all there Bog-gobi.¡± Karago narrowed his eyes at Bog-gobi for a time before turning to the door. Karago stepped out the door and closed it behind him. Leaving me with the goblin. The goblin put me down in a chair and locked the door with many locks each of a different size. Before returning to pick me up again. He carried me into one of the back rooms. The back wall of this room was a stone entrance to a cave that seemed to reach far underground. We walked down through the cave for some time. Reaching a goblin with armour and a spear. As we approached the goblin in armour waved at us. ¡°It¡¯s a bit early for your next report isn¡¯t it Bog-gobi?¡± ¡°I got a daughter so I¡¯m going to take some time off. Tell Gab-Bagi to fill in for me. He¡¯s better at mixing in with the above people anyway.¡± Bog-gobi shrugged and continued walking. The Goblin in armour sighed and walked off further into the cave tunnel. Bog-gobi pinched my cheek as we walked. It hurt a lot and I pushed away his hand without success. That made him laugh. We reached a split in the tunnel and took the right path. I felt like making a joke. About it being the ¡°right path¡± but my vocal cords didn¡¯t work yet. And it¡¯d just be weird and out of context. Bog-gobi continued to walk in silence while carrying me. We walked past a door carved into the side of the tunnel. Past the door were many goblins in armour. As well as a tall man with pale skin, blue hair and wearing armour in the same style as the goblins. The tunnel kept going further and further down. The further down we got the wider and taller the tunnel got. After some time I could no longer see the ceiling or the sides of the tunnel. Walking further we reached a stone wall. It was guarded by more goblins that walked along it. There were also some people who looked like how I imagined elves would look. There where also short stocky people who were dwarves. There where also a few other creatures I didn¡¯t recognize. This, other than being blink, seemed like it¡¯ll be a good experience. A complete fantasy setting. That must without a doubt have magic and countless kinds of creatures and monsters. Though I find it strange that a goblin is adopting me for some reason. I see no point complaining. We reached a large stone gate in the wall. Bog-gobi entered a door in the side of a tower attached to that wall that I assumed to be the guard post. ¡°Hey Boss I¡¯m back.¡± Bog-gobi waved to an elven women with purple skin. She looked like she was happy to see Bog-gobi. ¡°Do you bring important news from the surface?¡± The elven women asked, seeming unimpressed with the goblin. Bog-gobi frowned and shook his head. ¡°No¡­ I, ugh¡­ came to ask for some time off.¡± The elven women became confused. ¡°What? Why? You never take time off, are you getting old?¡± ¡°No, no, nothing like that. I found a daughter. Gonna look after her myself.¡± The Elven women dropped her demeanour of professionalism and came to Bog-gobi¡¯s side, ¡°Your being serious?¡± She looked down at me. Studying me for a moment. ¡°Looks like a surface elf, where¡¯d you get her? I assume she¡¯s not yours.¡± ¡°A surface man sold her to me for some iron.¡± The women scratched her head. ¡°I see¡­ well instead of taking time off. You could leave her with me. besides you don¡¯t know how to look after a surface elf. Not to mention Gab-Bagi is busy with work from the council.¡± Bog-Gobi¡¯s face droped into a frown and he looked like he was going to cry. ¡°But I¡¯m gonna look after her¡­ can¡¯t do it from the surface.¡± ¡°Bog-gobi, we need the those market trade prices from the surface. We need them so that we can get a fair price for our ores. Look, you keep up with your work until Gab-bagi is done with his. Then we can work in the city as guards and be a happy family, okay?¡± ¡°But- I- Okay¡­.¡± Bog-gobi slumped forward slightly. The women gave him a light punch on the shoulder. ¡°Come on, you this is no time to abandon your job. Besides she¡¯ll be fine, I¡¯ll leave her with my sister in town.¡± Bog-gobi, seemed to give in and just nodded. He patting me on the head, handed me over to the elven women and walking out of the guard post. The elven women looked down at me and smiling. For the next two hours she sat there filling out papers. She seemed to of forgotten me and held me in her left arm close to her chest as she worked. It''s during those two hours that I realized she was a Dark Elf. Though it should have been obvious because her skin was a sleek purple shade. Not to mention her almost white hair. I realized her hair was tinted blue ever so slightly, almost unnoticeable. She wore well fitted leathers. With some kind of carapace that seemed to serve as armour. The Carapace was a darker shade of purple than her skin. It covered her chest, hips and upper arms. Her eyes somehow shone a pale blue light. I assume the glow from her eyes is what allowed her to see without any sources of light nearby. She was beautiful. Every few minutes she would give me a quick glace and then return to her work. Writing slightly fast after each glance. Until she was done. The Dark elf women let out a long sigh after she finished her paper work. She leaned in her office seat for a time before standing and carrying me out of the room. The door opened up to a bustling street. I could feel all the colours and the many lights in the streets. She carried me past stalls with so many varieties of foods, equipment and items. For the first time the fact that I was in a completely different world hit me. I¡¯d be lying if I didn¡¯t say I felt somewhat homesick. But more than that I felt a sense of adventure flare to life inside of me. Something I thought I¡¯d lost, the wish to know more about the world around me. We stopped at a small stone house with a wooden roof. The Dark elf women knocked on the door. The door swung open, another dark elf women stood inside the door. ¡°Hey there sis!¡± the Dark elf women holding me said. ¡°Go away.¡± Replied the other women her annoyance evident. The other women was about to swing the door shut but stopped once she caught sight of me. ¡°Did you steal that child?¡± ¡°What? No-¡° The women holding me said trying to quickly clear up the misunderstanding. The other women interrupted before she could say anymore. ¡°Then it¡¯s yours?¡± The other women seemed shocked, her jaw hanging open after speaking. The women holding me sighed deeply. ¡°No, it¡¯s not mine, Bog-gobi adopted it. It was being sold on the surface.¡± ¡°Oh¡­ They sell children?¡± ¡°Seems so. I don¡¯t understand surface people.¡± The women holding he shrugged. The other women nodded seeming to accept that. The women holding me spoke up again. ¡°You have a child. Could you look after this one as well until Bog-gobi finishes his current assignment?¡± The other women squinted her eyes. I guess that cute expression means she¡¯s glaring. ¡°I suppose I¡¯ll have to. You¡¯ll push it on my anyway and guilt trip me if I don¡¯t take care of it and it dies.¡± The women holding me smiled deviously. ¡°You know me so well sis. You¡¯re the only one I can rely on for this, here take her.¡± I was handed over to the other women and she took me in her arms with great care. ¡°What¡¯s its name?¡± the other women asked looking at me, now with a gentle expression. The women that brought me here frowned. Then thought for a moment while looking at me and nodding after some thought. ¡°Her names Knife. If Bog-gobi doesn¡¯t like it, then he can fight me for the right to rename her.¡± The other women that was not holding me sighed and then slammed the door in her sister¡¯s face. I¡¯ll spare you the details, but I was fed and I slept. Over the next few months I learned that this women¡¯s name was Hipria. Her son¡¯s name was Shushen and the same age as me. Hipria¡¯s sister was called Rixal. Hipria and Rixal¡¯s job involved carrying weapons around and patrolling. As well as other work that I didn¡¯t entirely understand, maybe military? I didn¡¯t learn much about it. Some more time passed and nothing interesting happened. Just being so bored that I resorted to playing with Shushen to ease me of some boredom. Getting fed, going to sleep, waking up, rinse and repeat. We were cleaned and changed out of dirty cloths each day. I had no control over my bowels so I soiled myself as often as Shushen, I didn¡¯t enjoy that. Years passed by. I became stronger and could walk. Sometimes I did some rolls because it seemed to amuse everyone, Shushen especially. But, yet my voice still didn¡¯t work. When I tried to speak I only made sounds like bark rubbing against bark. I grew slower, actually I grew much slower. Children my age where already twice my height. I overheard Hipiria wondering if I was one of the ¡°little people¡±. I had no idea what that meant All I knew was that I didn¡¯t like it being put that way. I spoke my first words at the age of seven. Shushen had already been speaking for around six years, so I was behind. Hipiria has begun to wonder if I was simple, that was pretty harsh. I actually didn¡¯t mind being treated like a child. It was all a big learning experience. Learning how my new body works. Simple things about the upbringing of this societies children. It also helped that I was in fact a child at this moment. Bog-gobi would often finish his assignments. Then return as fast as possible so he could come visit. But, yet it was never for long as there always seemed to be more work for him to do. I didn¡¯t mind. He cared and I knew that I was taken care of, that¡¯s all that mattered to me. Though I knew that it must be hard for him not being around to raise his little girl himself. Hipria tries to make him feel better by saying I will need someone to look after me my entire life. Thanks Hipria, play the ¡°Your daughters dumb as a rock¡± card. Just you wait, I¡¯ll make you feel silly for doubting me. Hipria started taking me to market with her, Shushen had been going for a while. Shushen had for some reason gotten attached to me and taken it upon himself to look after me. He¡¯s just copying his mother. But he¡¯s a good kid either way. Always well-behaved and never get into any fights with the other children. When I turned 10 they finally realized I was blind. They¡¯d thought I was just a shy simple little girl who didn¡¯t like to look at people. The cloudiness in my green eyes became more prominent. They took me to a physician that was also a mage. The mage was the one who realized I was blind. He felt my influence on the ambient mana in the air. Through which he deduced that I was using my sense of the ambient mana in place of my eyes to see. The mage said that I would have been an incredible mage if I wasn¡¯t born blind. I¡¯m more of a physical person so I didn¡¯t mind. The mage went one to say that my slow development was normal. Not because I was blind but because I was something known as a Green Elf. A Green Elf is the ancestor of all the magical races. The first green elf was born by the Tree of elders. Green elves, the first species of higher thought and mana manipulation in the world. Over time to green elves split into the many races of the land. But, yet green elves being linked with the tree of elders can never truly die. It¡¯s said that most Green elves became trees, though we know not why. There are tales of a Green elf village near the Tree of elders in the Elder Forest. The key characteristic of a Green Elf is their translucent orange blood. But the key characteristic is that they are more plant than animal. Hipria looked worried after the mage said I was more plant then animal. ¡°Did we do any permanent damage by keeping her from the sun?¡± she asked, a pained look in her eye. The mage paused for a moment starting at Hipria and then shook his head and smiled. ¡°No, don¡¯t worry Hipria. Green elves only use sunlight to generate more mana. They are known for being almost unbeatable mages when the sun is at its peak. It should be fine, she shouldn¡¯t need sun light. Just lots of water and food. You should also let her play in the dirt, Green elves feed off power from the ground and use that to grow. She should grow well if you let her eat until full and drink until satisfied every day.¡± Hipria got this look on her face like someone kicked a puppy that she loved a lot. ¡°I¡­ I¡¯ve been starving her?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not your fault. Besides you¡¯ve been giving her more than enough to maintain herself with. Green elves can go decades without eating so long as they have access to water. Just to grow she needs much, much more than what you¡¯ve been giving her.¡± The mage forced a smile and Hipria broke down crying. Shushen comforted his mother saying ¡°it¡¯s okay¡± and that ¡°Knife will get better¡±. I couldn¡¯t help but feel bad about her feeling so responsible. She didn¡¯t know. I didn¡¯t know either. So I got up off the ground and pat her on the head. Honestly I never even realized I was hungry. ¡°I¡­ t¡¯s ¡­.. fi¡­. ne.¡± I managed to squeeze out these words with much difficulty. My voice crackled like snapping branches and it hurt quite a bit. She lifted her head up sharply and stared at me wide eyed. I just smiled at her shocked face and pat her on the head again. That night I ate enough for three adults and drank all the water in the house. I still felt like I needed more, but I decided that could wait for tomorrow and slept. Hipria cried all night, nothing I could do about that. The next day I had visibly grown 10 centimeters. and I felt like I could fly, not really, but I felt incredible. This surprised Hipria a great deal. The mage said I¡¯d grow rapidly, but none of us knew exactly how rapidly he meant. I started talking regularly. Speaking was no longer difficult and no longer hurt. I noticed that when I yelled, or my emotions were high. My voice would rumble, crunch and crack like snapping leaves or crunching bark. I made a point of asking about anything I could think of. I wanted to learn as much as I could and I was just happy I could finally talk after so long. I learned that there was indeed magic and everyone was capable of learning magic. It was just having the patience for it that mattered. Literacy wasn¡¯t wide spread. In fact most people thought reading was a waste of time. Generally the only people who learned to read where nobles, mages and priests. It didn¡¯t really matter to me. I¡¯m blind¡­ sort of and have no intention of learning to read this worlds languages. I just need to protect the hero, whoever that is. I should get around to asking Metra who it is since I¡¯m 10 now after all. I should probably work on befriending them. We should both be around the same age if Metra was telling the truth.
Author''s Notes, Hey it Arukorstza again. Another early one. Ended up splitting the original chapter 1 in two. My rewriting of it got it up to around 16000 words. Not to mention I still need to reword the other half so it makes more sense, haha. Sorry for it being shorter again. I''ll be more strongly enforcing my 8000+ words a chapter quota when I switch to monthly releases after the 14th chapter. Yes it has increased because I had to split this chapter in two. Anyway I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Arc 1 "Metrath" - Chapter 2 – Childhood (Incomplete) Chapter 2 - Childhood ---- Hey. It''s Arukorstza. Just wanted to apologize and explain what happened. In addition to what will be happening. I am very sorry for my sudden absence. At the time I''d failed my game development course because I simply didn''t have a computer capable of using the required software and was very upset. I took time away from most of my online endeavors mostly because I was simply far too depressed. I even stopped playing Dark Souls which is mind blowing for me. I plan to start writing Chronicles of Creation Tale of the Elder Witch again in August of 2016. Though I will be scrapping everything I have so far. I hadn''t spent the necessary time doing world building and building characters during my first rewrite. As a result I''d found myself doing world building mid chapter and simply wasn''t happy with what I''d done. Which is part of why I stopped writing. I unfortunately seem to have a tendency to rush when I''m excited about something and then regret it afterwards. So as an addition apology I am posting what I had completed of chapter 2. It''s not much but, It''s all I can really give you. I have already started on something else which I don''t intend to post until after I''ve started up Tale of the Elder Witch again. The reason for the large wait is because I intend to backlog chapters so that if this even happens again you, my readers, do not suffer much as a result of my problems. The Chronicles of Creation - Tale of the Elder Witch Fiction page will be deleted and re-posted upon the restart of posting as there where complaints last time. ---- When Shushen and I turned eleven Hipria began allowing us to walk around town on our own. But only if we stuck together. ¡°Don¡¯t wonder off with grownups you don¡¯t know okay?¡± She gave each of us a stern glare while waving her finger. ¡°And stick together, I know mum. You¡¯ve told us a whole bunch already!¡± Shushen exclaimed. I¡¯d guess he was fed up with it the fourth time Hipria repeated herself. I also doubted he was paying proper attention. That said, I probably didn¡¯t seem to not be paying attention either. I was busy watching some beetles fight one another next to a puddle by the dirt road of our street. It was only a few feet away, but was distracting. Far more interesting than it should have been. Then again by this point I was ready to with the inadequate child act. Strangely I was already feeling the effects of puberty. I could feel my emotions beginning to boil, it intensifies very slightly but very noticeably with each day. I have little doubt I¡¯ll plunge into the irrationality of teens before long. To some extent I dread every passing day. One of the strange beetles flipped the other over with it horns. It then proceeded to clamp the flipped beetle in its pincers, crack open the shell, rip away the pieces and eat its innards. Horrific, but I¡¯ve noticed that most small bugs here seem to either eat one another or eat the naturally growing fungus. It seems to spread everywhere, and grow over every surface if given enough time to spread its spawn. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Hipria repeated herself again, ¡°I just want to make sure you two are listening. Look after your cousin Shushen. Pay attention to where you are. Don¡¯t get lost, either of you. Remember to respect people and be nice to one another. Don¡¯t wonder off with grownups you don¡¯t know. And remember to stick together. I don¡¯t want either of you getting lost. And if something happens find me. If you can¡¯t find me go find Rixel at the southern gate house by blacksmith Gorduun¡¯s Shop.¡± I nodded to show that I was listening this time. The beetles had stopped fighting so I had no reason to buy time. ¡°We know already mum. Just let us go already, geez!¡± Shushen groaned, stamping his foot to emphasize his point. ¡°Okay, okay. I just wanted to make sure you were both listening and paying attention.¡± Hipria frowned. Hipria turned to me and sighed, ¡°Try to pay attention long enough to stay out of trouble Knife.¡± I nodded mutely. I had to admit I would linger to long when I found something new. Everything was just so interesting and new. When we went to the shops with Hipria I got to see so many things from around the Under Kingdom. I wanted all of it. From the most useless of baubles to foods, armours, weapons, daily luxuries, furniture, trinkets and many other things. I ended up getting myself in in trouble more than a few times over the last year because of that. Once I was even accused of stealing... He was right though so I can¡¯t blame him for getting mad. Thankfully the punishments for thieves aren¡¯t horrible like getting my hands cut off or something. I just had to pay him back, and I did with the money I stole from the other stores. Of course, he didn¡¯t need to know that¡­ ¡°I¡¯ll be good.¡± I replied with the resolve to not get caught. However my duteous and small smile seemed to make her worry even more. ¡°Let¡¯s go!¡± Shushen who was honestly a bit thick suddenly burst out excitedly. He then proceeded to latch onto my arm and drag me away. I gave in quickly and ran with Shushen to the market district of the small border city ¡®Nis Fae Halfinane¡¯. The city was named after some idiot that thought making a city near the surface was a good idea. It really wasn¡¯t. During the War of Light and Darkness in which the creature of the upper world battled those of the underworld. This city was a frontline battlefield and was in face only reclaimed 329 years ago when the Dwarf Halgenstef Nis Hale gathered a mining expedition toward to surface. The intention was to reclaim ancient ore mines the where abandoned during the war. The miner ended up staying and the city was reborn. Or so Hipria explained when I asked her about it. Also apparently Hipria was only a young girl when she came with her father on the mining expedition. Hipria is really old? I bet your thinking. But no, if I were to translate her age to human growth in years then she¡¯s late teens going on twenty both in appearance and how she is treated by other of her race. Generally as a Dark Elf she is still very young but considered an adult.