Calyxia

2016-04-10T23:47:00.002+02:00

Chapter 13 In Darkness Hunting

While waiting for nightfall, Jay Meditated, thinking of what other Spells he might be able to create. Once in a while Hannah came practically flying by, her acrobatics beyond what Jay thought humanly possible, but that wasn't too strange; Hannah was, after all, more like a cat standing upright than a human if you really looked at her. He was a little jealous. Being able to move around like that looked like it would be very handy if you needed to avoid trouble.

But no matter, Jay had already decided upon his future path, and it wasn't to become fast and agile, it was to become extraordinarily destructive and savage. He wanted to have enough power to crush anything in his path, and to never have to flee. But for safety's sake, he still needed to get some escaping Skills or Spells; it would be so great if he could fly...

During the passing hours, except for thinking about new Spells, Jay opened up all the little Space-pockets that he looted from the people he had earlier killed. To his disappointment, not even ten percent of them had things inside, and the effort of using 2000 Mana to open each Space-pocket didn't feel worth it at all. Having almost 500 Mana per minute in Regeneration made it take hours to open the fifty-six Space-pockets, since he couldn't feel safe if he didn't have as close to Max Mana as possible at all times. And all he got from opening them were seventy-nine silver coins, four vials of a Lesser Mana Potion, a couple of torches, a shovel, a pickaxe and a some pelts from indiscernible animals; the untreated pelts smelled bad and seemed to have begun to rot, so they weren't even worth anything in his eyes. It was a disappointing discovery that the loot from all those players were not worth even close to what he had hoped for.

Opening up the Friend List, Jay filled a mail with the list of all the things he got from the players, imprinting each word with a description of said item by opening up an info-window with his Observe and then moving the info-window to touch the word. This way, when Bluth opened the letter and pushed a word, he would get a copy of the Observed info-window. Jay then wrote that he wouldn't sell any of the things because they had little to no value and wasn't worth his or Bluth's time.

Now that he had done that, night was close approaching, the hours had passed by slowly, but had passed nonetheless. Standing up, Jay stretched, feeling his body's stiffness subsiding. He couldn't see Hannah anywhere, so he sent her a message to return, because they could finally go find some players roaming about, and Jay wasn't going to sit and wait anymore, he felt like moving around too. There shouldn't be many players that could pose a danger to him as long as he could stay up high in the air by rope-jumping between the large trees. And if he could come unawares upon his prey, they wouldn't even know what hit them before they died; that was the best way to hunt.

Hannah arrived after five minutes. "What should I do now? Just search for players?"

"I want to follow in the search too," Jay said. "It will be more efficient that way."

"Okay," Hannah said. "Let's form a Party then, so we can easily eachothers location."

A window popped up, showing the request to join Hannah's Party and Jay accepted. Now Hannah had a small white ball floating above her head, and Jay only needed to think her name to have a small white arrow point to her and tell the distance. It was an easy way of keeping track of where each of them were. "So, do you think we'll find more players now?"

"Yeah, and if not players, you should still be able to get fairly good Experience by killing monsters during the night too," Hannah explained. "The highest Level creatures I've seen during the night around here were close to Level 50, and should yield a few thousand Experience a piece."

"Oh, good to know," Jay said, and thought, Claudine, can you actively Observe my surroundings and indicate any creature or player that is above Level 20 with a red arrow above its head? Don't put an arrow on any NPCs, if you can tell them apart.

Yes, Jay, Claudine obediently said.

"Do you know any place where I can hunt monsters?" Jay asked. "If we go to a known place we might find players to kill there too. That would be double the gain for half the work."

"Hm, let me think..." Hannah said. "Oh, I know of a place, its about two kilometers from here. There's a swamp with lots of crocodiles and large insects in it. The crocodile's leather is a good product for making leather armor, so there might be people there to harvest crafting materials."

"A swamp? Are there trees there for me to hang from?" Jay asked. "If there aren't any trees for me to use as high ground then I would lose a lot of my advantages. Any better place to go?"

"There's a part of the forest about 4 kilometers in another direction that has a lot of wolf packs and the occasional bear,” Hannah said. “There's also a place called Gloomy Forest close by the wolves' territories; there are lots of spiders, poisonous insects and some weird plant-creatures there to hunt. But Gloom Forest is really dangerous, it's a lot darker than a normal forest during the day, and there is mist everywhere during the night. All the creatures are above Level 30, and they all move around in groups; not to mention that the spiders can crawl up tree trunks, and there are flying insects. So, I don't know, you might be to afraid to go to that place...”

Jay did feel that it might be a bit dangerous to go to a place where large spiders were crawling around the trees and poisonous insects were flying around, but he didn't want to admit this to Hannah. “That place might be good too. We'll first go to the area with wolves and bears. If we can't find any prey there, then we'll move on to that Gloomy Forest.”

“Are you sure you're not too scared to go there?” Hannah asked, her smiling face showing teeth. “Follow me then, don't fall behind.” As she said that, she jumped away, quickly bounding between trees, using her claws to find purchase on tree trunks and branches, always keeping her body from falling to the ground by vaulting through the air from tree to tree. Jay could only hastily use his Magic Rope with all his effort to follow her; he even had to use more Mana than he Regenerated to just barely keep up.

“Hey, slow down a bit,” Jay said. He didn't like to use more Mana than he could Regenerate if he didn't have to.

“Oh, right... you can't jump around like me,” Hannah said, slowing her pace only by once in a while stopping on a branch ahead of Jay to wait for him every time she outpaced him by about a hundred meters. “I could never play the game like you do. Even though you seem to have gone beyond the normalcy of a Magician, you're still so limited with such a weak body. I like the extreme difference of how my body can move in the game when compared to my weak body in real life. It's one of the best things about the game. Where I live, there aren't many opportunities to run around.” She sighed, her body showing a listless posture for a moment, but then she once again straightened up and jumped off the branch, kicking it, running away from Jay the second he arrived by her side.

They traveled for fifteen minutes before Hannah stopped and waited for Jay to arrive close by. The day had now completely turned into dusk, and soon night would arrive. “Hey, do you have a way to see in the dark?” Hannah asked.

“Yes, do you?” Jay asked as he arrived on the same large branch thirty meters up in the air. The trees were growing smaller in this part of the forest, but they were still tall enough to give Jay the advantage of the high ground.

“I need to wait for a little while,” Hannah said. “When night arrives, my body changes into another Beast-form, and it automatically gives me a sort of night vision. Everything is almost as bright as day, but there are no colors anymore, only a gray-scale.”

“What do you mean?” Jay was a bit curious about what that was all about. “How does your body change?”

“Oh, you'll see,” Hannah said. “There shouldn't be much more time until it happens.” As she said that, Jay could clearly see her tan yellow and pale brown mottled fur rapidly receding into Hannah's body, her body shrinking into a woman shorter than Jay by a head, but now was mostly Human. Her face became smaller, her cheeks a bit plump, but she still looked somewhat feline, especially since there was still a part of her that didn't change; her ears were still those of a cat, their pointy shape and now black fur blending into her black hair that was tied back into a braid going down her back almost to her hips. Her crude leather clothing that looked too small earlier now looked too large for her, and Jay now understood why she used such strange garments. It wasn't that she chose to, it was that she had to, since she grew almost a meter after transforming into her Beast-form.

“How come you have two different Beast-forms?” Jay asked. He didn't know much, but from what little he remembered when he entered the game, he thought that every Beastly race only had one Beast-form and one Human-form.

“I don't know,” Hannah said. “It's been this way since I entered the game. The Tribal Elder told me something about having a special blood-line and that I needed to harmonize my two forms to gain my true form, or some such thing. I have no idea how to do that though. So now I have two different Beast-forms, one during the day, and one during the night. In a way, I only have one Beast-form and one Human-form, its only that my Beast-form changes according to the time of day.”

“Sounds strange,” Jay said. “Why didn't you stay in that tribe to figure out what was going on?”

“It was partly because I got bored,” Hannah said. “I had already explored most of the village after I got to Level 35. I even went into the forbidden ancestral tomb, and almost died there because of some ferocious guardian beasts. After that incident I sort of wasn't entirely welcome there anymore. They wanted me to atone for my breach of etiquette or something, and I didn't much feel like spending three days in a temple as a penance. So I ran away.”

“Ehm...” Jay thought this woman had a bit too much curiosity; it would definitely kill her some day. But that wasn't his problem, as long as she didn't drag him down with her. “Wouldn't it have been best if you understood why your Beast-form changes during night and day?”

“Maybe... but I just accept it,” Hannah said. “And does it really matter? It isn't very debilitating to have two different forms. The only bad thing is that the Skills I can use are directly influenced by which Beast-form I'm in. During the day I can't use my favorite ability for example.”

“Do you know if there's a way to fix that?” Jay asked, but he had started to lose interest, except for that last part. “What's your favorite ability?” If he could copy it, or make something similar, he would very much like to.

“I'll show you,” Hannah said, morphing back into her Beast-form, her body elongating, her features turning feline, pitch black hair sprouting from all of her exposed skin, her slitted eyes' iris turning from an emerald green to a glowing greenish yellow. If not for her leather garments, she would look almost as if part of the darkening night, only being a pair of disembodied eyes floating in blackness. And to make things even better, in Jay's Eye of the Magi, Hannah's body was exuding a black darkness, billowing and spreading out in a cloud, covering her completely within its darkness. In normal sight, Jay figured Hannah didn't look at all like a person, and more like a shadowy amorphous blob. The ability seemed to be entirely made from Darkness Mana and was used to make Hannah's whole body seem part of the night and its shadows.

Activating Nightsight, Jay's world turned to a color-scale of grays and blacks, but also more illuminated; still, Hannah looked like nothing more than a shifting patch of darkness. Jay really wanted to learn this ability. Just how was Hannah covering herself in darkness? “How are you doing that?”

“I just think of using my Mana Manipulation to cover my body with a cloud of Mana, then I keep that image in my mind, and just exude the amount of Mana I can Regenerate,” Hannah answered.

“Hm,” Jay said, stretching out his hand, scooping out a waft of Hannah's covering darkness. He wanted to get a feel for this Darkness Mana that he had never used before, or even seen.. “How does this work?” The Darkness Mana easily ran through Jay's fingers like water running through tiny cracks, and soon the Darkness Mana had returned to hover around Hannah's body. He took a step forward, closing in on Hannah, and reached out his hand again, plunging his hand inside the dark shroud, feeling his fingers push into a soft elastic resistance.

Hannah slapped Jay's hand away, backing up a step. “What are you doing?” She asked, indignation and anger clearly filling her voice. “Want to die?”

“What do you mean?” Jay was confused. “I just want to understand this strange Darkness Mana Spell you're using. It seems really useful when you want to hide in dark places. Stay still while I investigate this Darkness Spell.” He once more advanced, reaching his right hand into the darkness; this time he didn't touch anything but the Mana, and Hannah didn't seem to mind, only huffing a bit. Jay closed his eyes, flickering Eye of the Magi on and off until he got his inner sight working. He then tried getting a feeling for how the Darkness Mana worked. After a couple of long minutes, Jay reached out his left hand and tried creating the same feeling he got from his right hand submerged inside Hannah's Darkness Mana; a few seconds of trying created a small cloud of lazily roiling Darkness Mana above his palm. It was easier than he had thought.

“Are you done?” Hannah asked, sounding bored, and as if she couldn't stand standing still any longer. “Weren't we going to kill some players? Stop distracting yourself.”

Jay could only agree, he had gotten a bit distracted. This Darkness Mana Spell that shrouded Hannah made her melt into the darkness surrounding her. If he could create a Spell like that, he would be able to hide much easier. He really wanted to keep experimenting with it, but knew that now was not the time. He just tried his hardest to imprint the feeling of Darkness Mana into his mind, so that he could recreate the phenomenon later. “Right, let's go find us some players. You scout ahead and I'll follow, okay?”

“Sounds good,” Hannah said, flying off into the night, completely disappearing as if she was part of the night itself. The only reason Jay could follow was because she still had that white ball floating above her head that only those in her Party could see.

Minutes passed as they found no trace of anything. Jay was getting antsy. Why was there so few players around? His plans of Leveling quickly by hunting players and monsters at the same time was not going as well as he had thought it would. He could only continue following Hannah.

Ten minutes later, Hannah stopped on a thin branch twenty meters ahead of Jay. “Psst,” Hannah whispered. “We've found something.” In the distance, a clanging of metal against metal, or stone against stone, could be heard. “That's definitely a Party of players killing some creature. Should we go take a look?”

“Yes,” Jay whispered back, motioning for her to find the exact location of those players. “I'll follow behind you, but I'll keep my distance.” He decided to keep Hannah in sight, but be as far away from her as possible. With her abilities to silently jump between trees, and her ability to become one with the dark night, she would not be seen by anyone or anything, but Jay wasn't as well off. He wanted to have her secure the area before he came closer to those players.

It didn't take long before Hannah had stopped again; this time she stretched her hand outside her shrouding darkness and motioned Jay to come to her by waving her hand. Jay soon arrived at a thicker branch below Hannah, and she jumped down to stand on the outer parts of the limb while Jay stood beside the trunk, holding it with one hand. The tree branch was only ten centimeters wide where he stood, and less where Hannah stood, but she seemed as stable as if she was on flat ground. He envied her a bit for that. He had trouble keeping his balance even though he held an arm around the tree's trunk.

“Look down there,” Hannah pointed into the distance where there were some dim flashes and a loud clanging. “Three players, and an NPC standing to the side. They are attacking a black bear.” She pointed first to a vague trio fighting something Jay could barely see, and then to a lone figure sitting on a large root sticking up above ground.

“How do you know it's an NPC?” Whispering, Jay asked.

“If you look closely, you can tell the difference,” Hannah said, but didn't explain how that should be done.

“Never mind,” Jay said. He could see with his Eye of the Magi that there was a strange reddish brown thread of Mana going from the top of the NPC's head and down through his body, then deep into the ground through the sole of the NPC's right foot. It looked strange, and Jay couldn't figure out what that was all about, but it made him feel caution was in order. If he couldn't understand something, he wouldn't act recklessly. So he wouldn't kill this NPC, not just yet, at least. “Let's get closer.”

Hannah jumped nimbly from tree branch to tree branch, closing in on the unsuspecting players, and Jay followed higher up in the air, doing his best to swing between trees on his rope without making any noise. It wasn't easy, but Jay had some proficiency in rope-jumping now and could manipulate and move his rope so fast that he could calibrate his body's position in the air by quickly changing the trees he pulled towards and the angles at which he pulled his body. It was slightly taxing to his mind, and he couldn't focus entirely on the players ahead, but he traveled through the forest quietly and quickly, soon arriving at a branch some twenty meters from the ground, overlooking the three players. The players and the black bear all had a small red arrow pointing down on them—Claudine's work, no doubt, showing who Jay would find worthwhile to target.

Jay took out four pins from his inner pocket, letting them float in the air. He concentrated, sending out four equal streams of Force Mana, collecting it all around the pins, pushing in on all directions while stacking up more and more Mana. When he started to feel woozy and had charged each pin with close to 1500 Mana, Jay created a thin straight line of pale green Wind Mana. The line of Mana was his aim, and focusing on it made it easier to know where each pin would hit; the lines all pointed straight to the head of each of the players and the almost dead bear, moving with their motions. Jay changed the direction of all the accumulated Force Mana at once. The air exploded. And four streaks for light screeched through the air, breaking the sound barrier with a BOOM and arriving before the unsuspecting targets could even hear their death approaching. The four pins hit squarely in the head of each player, dropping them instantly, and Jay got three messages telling him he got close to 10000 Experience per player killed. He gained a Level, making him Level 40 now. Just one encounter was enough to get a Level, but he also knew that he had been close to Level 40, so he couldn't think every encounter would give him a Level. This meant that he most likely needed to kill at least thirty groups like this one to get to Level 50. Sighing lightly, he realized it wasn't very realistic to think he could get to Level 50 in one day.

The bear did not die as quietly, its body jerking slightly as its paws clawed at the earth. The death-spasms continued for close to a minute and then the black bear finally died, giving Jay another 500 Experience; it was really much more worth it to kill players.

Hannah jumped down and started skinning the black bear, neatly removing its pelt in swift and easy movements. “This is mine,” she said, grinning up at Jay.

“We'll split any profit at the end of the night,” Jay said, not wanting to lose out, but also not caring enough to argue about it. He was more interested in the NPC.

The NPC had stood up as soon as the players died, but he hadn't fled, which made Jay slightly curios. Was the NPC not afraid of being killed? Was there some underlying reason the rugged scout wasn't afraid? Then he remembered something, and had to ask, “are you a Ranger of the Forest?”

“Yes,” the NPC said. “What does the Immortal want with this one?”

“Nothing much,” Jay said, glad he had followed his instincts and not killed the NPC. He didn't need any more things hunting him, he already had more than enough dangers looming over his head than he could easily remember.

“Then I will take my leave,” the NPC said, bowing slightly, and turned around, walking away into the darkness.

“Wait!” Jay yelled. He didn't know what to do. Leaving witnesses wasn't very smart, but killing this NPC wasn't something he could do either. Could he maybe tie the man up and hang him from a tree? That way Jay wouldn't be anywhere near here if the man went to some authorities and reported Jay's killings. He decided not to be hasty, and asked: “Will you say anything about this?”

“Why would I? What you Immortals do to each other isn't any of my business,” shivering slightly, the NPC shrugged his leather-clad shoulders and slowly shook his gray-haired head. “I'm just glad you could tell the difference and didn't kill me, both for my sake and yours. Killing those of the Forest carries a death sentence, just so you know. Witnessing this scene was more than enough to fill up my tolerance of danger. And it isn't like those guys actually died anyway. You Immortals can't be killed from what I've seen.”

“Good,” Jay said, relieved that the NPC outside of cities seemed more lax about trivial things such as someone being killed. “Thanks for telling me about that. The Forest... what kind of being is it?” Jay mused aloud to himself. “Maybe that's what that reddish brown thread of Mana is that's going from him into the ground?”

“What did you say?!” the NPC sounded frightened. “You can see the holy connection? That can't be possible.”

“Ah,” Jay said, realizing he might have said too much. “No, it was nothing. Just some rambling. Don't take it to heart. Go away now.”

“Yes...” the NPC said, his wide eyes staring up at Jay with a mix of curiosity and fear. “I thank the Immortal for his leniency.”

“Now what was that about?” Hannah asked as the NPC walked away into the night. “Why did you talk to the NPC? I've found them mostly boring and stupid. They are useless. You should have just killed him too.”

“Don't you listen when people are talking?” Jay had to ask. “The NPCs in this game are too well made, it's almost impossible for me to tell them apart from players. And they are informative. How can talking to him be useless? I just learned how to tell when an NPC has an allegiance to the Forest, which is really helpful. Killing anyone of the Forest would make it very difficult for me to travel through this world as there seems to be a lot of it covered by forests.”

Hannah shrugged and went back to cutting up the bear, taking out some organ and putting it into her Inventory, while also removing its claws and teeth. She was a beast with her knife, scavenging anything useful from the bear in mere moments.

The bodies of the three players were slowly drifting off into streams of mist that then turned invisible, only leaving behind a small pearl. In Jay's eyes, there was a towering beam of light coming up from each pearl, showing exactly where the little Space-pockets were. Jay went down to the ground and picked them up, but didn't care much about checking what was inside. He had found out the boring way that there wasn't a high possibility to get anything good from a player's dropped loot after death.

When they had cleared the scene, Hannah once again ascended into the trees by jumping between them, and Jay rope-jumped after her, following close enough behind to always have her in sight.

The night went on this way. They met several more groups of players, and Jay easily killed them in a sneak attack. It was growing a bit monotonous, but Jay didn't complain. From the close to 250000 Experience gained during the night he gained another three Levels before dawn. It was a good night.

2016-04-09T00:03:00.000+02:00

Chapter 12 Windfall

After Hannah left, Jay rope-jumped from tree to tree, finally finding another suitable tree with a large branch sticking out of an even wider tree trunk; it was a hundred or so meters away from where he started and was be a bit more hidden. Sitting himself down comfortably, resting on the tree trunk, Jay began to think. He wanted to experiment with Wind Mana while waiting on word from Hannah. Ever since he read about the Air Shield Spell that was good against ranged attacks, he had thought of creating such a shield of his own. If he could attack from a distance, and have defenses against ranged attacks, then he would be a lot safer, and a lot more dangerous.

Sending out pale green translucent Wind Mana from his hands, Jay tried to create a spiral-like whirlpool in the air from many tiny tendrils, but it didn't create the result he wanted; the air barely stirred. Continuing to experiment, he sent out more and more Mana, depleting over 30% of his Mana-pool over a short period of time, but still without success. Maybe he was doing something wrong? It was too bad he couldn't figure out what that was... he continued experimenting for a few minutes more, but it lead nowhere; he had to try something else.

Relaxing, not caring about time and with the intention of creating a good mindset for thinking, Jay started to Meditate to quickly replenish the now almost 50% of his Mana-pool that he had used up earlier. But to Jay's surprise, when he looked at the bar indicating his Mana down at the left side of his field of view, the tiny percentile number at its right end didn't increase any quicker than without him Meditating. Something was wrong. How long had this been going on? Remembering back, he felt like it had been the same back in the round canyon when he Meditated, but he hadn't noticed it then. Only now that he thought about it could he see the discrepancy. Had something happened to his Meditation Skill after he got the Eye of the Magi Skill? Or had there been problems even before that? He couldn't remember, but didn't care much about when the problem started. Now all he could do was to find out what was wrong. View 'Meditation' Skill.

[Active Support Skill]

Meditation

(Undergoing Evolution: 91% Complete)

Level 15 (99%)

Meditation is the foundation of exploring your mind and its connection to your body. Through resting your body completely and actively attuning your Mana flow, you gain the ability to boost your natural abilities of regeneration.

Increases Mana Regeneration by 3.8% (Disabled)

Increases Health Regeneration by 3.8% (Disabled)

Increases Stamina gained from food by 470% distributing a forth every 15 minutes for 1 hour.

This Skill is interrupted if you move or are moved. If this happens it can only be reactivated after five minutes.

Evolution, what's that? He automatically thought, and hoping Claudine was in a helpful mood, he asked her. How does that affect the Skill?

When a Skill or Spell Evolves it grows in accordance to some specific branch in its potential direction for growth, Claudine answered.

What does that mean? He didn't understand at all what this was all about, but maybe he could find out something about the deeper parts of this world from asking Claudine. He knew that this virtual reality was as close to reality to tell no difference; this made it so that the best way for him to become as powerful as possible was to fully immerse himself in the world and act as if it was truly and completely real. And to do that, he needed to understand the basic rules that governed the world. Do I need to Meditate to increase the evolution process? Or is it automatic? He wondered.

From using my own Skills, I know its the former, Claudine helps out with a straight answer. Only by using the Spell or Skill will you be able to make its evolution progress. I think there is some sort of information gathering during the time you evolve the Skill or Spell and from that you will be given an extra ability that is closely related to the specific Skill or Spell that has undergone Evolution.

So, what will happen when the Skill evolves? Jay thought, trying to think of what this might imply. Was the situation such as that every Skill and Spell evolved when reaching Level 16? Or was this a special case that just happened sometimes?

All Skills and Spells become stuck at Level 15 and 99%, Claudine said. Only if you are able to do something that is creative or beyond the normal use will a Skill or Spell start to evolve and surpass the barrier at Level 16. How powerful a Skill or Spell is can be seen from how it grows between Levels, but only when a Skill or Spell evolves will it generate some special branching ability of that specific Skill or Spell. When a Skill or Spell evolves it will also only do so in a direction that is somehow related to your specific Stats, body or behavior; there might be even more things that influence the evolved ability, but I cannot say for certain what those might be.

Thanks, Claudine, that was a relief to hear, Jay thought, appreciating the explanation. It's good that nothing is wrong.

Going back to his thoughts of Wind Mana, Jay had the idea that he should try and observe Freeflowing Wind Mana. He just had to find some. From his tiny experience, he had noticed that the different types of Mana were more densely concentrated at places where it had some specific relation to its environment. Therefore, Wind Mana should be where there was lots of wind. Jay looked up. Above, some twenty meters or so, the tree crowns filled with leaves rustled in the gentle breeze.

The idea he had gotten wasn't the most comforting, but now that he had a different way of finding out how to use Wind Mana Jay couldn't ignore it. Looking up again, he really didn't like this idea. Ignoring his likes, however, he sent up his rope with the Magic Rope Spell to a sturdy looking branch fifteen meters up and pulled himself slowly upward, crawling on the tree's trunk while ascending.

When he arrived at where he had fastened his rope, he felt the tree sway with his motions and vertigo set in. He shook his head, dispelling the sensation. He had to climb higher.

In his eyes he saw a few wisps of extremely pale green Wind Mana flying by him, but it wasn't enough. The higher he could go, the easier it would be to observe the ever-blowing wind up high in the air. He slowly snaked the rope around the trunk of the tree, now climbing slowly and pulling himself a decimeter at a time. It took a bit of time, but after a few minutes of nervewrackingly swaying back and forth on the tree trunk, Jay had finally gotten to a height where he could look out over most of the trees in his surrounding. And even though the tree he was now clinging to had almost bowed horizontally from his weight, Jay was able to find a fairly comfortable position for his body while hanging from the rope around his waist that was also curled around the trunk and his two hands clinging on to the very bent tree top.

Up here, as he looked out, the forest truly looked strange. If it wasn't for his now abnormal clarity of sight, he could have been fooled into believing that the green leaves were actually the surface of some sea. The leaves swayed back and forth, creating waves with every breeze blowing by.

All around him, Jay could see tiny wisps of Wind Mana, but it was almost impossible to catch a mental hold on a specific wisp of Wind Mana for a long time; all the Wind Mana wisps were fleeting and ephemeral, their color so pale that it blended in completely with the surroundings. When Jay looked at the sky, it wasn't much difference, the tiny wisps were more numerous, but they also churned about in chaotic ways to make his head spin just by trying to look at a specific wisp among the hundreds intertwining just above his head. He couldn't figure out anything at all from this, the surroundings were too distracting; if only he could only see the Mana and ignore everything else... deactivating Eye of the Magi, he closed his eyes, focusing his mind, then activated Eye of the Magi again while not using his eyes. Nothing happened except a brief flash of something that was gone as soon as it appeared. He had hoped he could use his Eye of the Magi without actually using his eyes, but maybe that had been too much to ask for. But he didn't despair, he just had to try some more before ruling out the possibility of using Eye of the Magi while not having his eyes open. He began flickering Eye of the Magi on and off, on and off.

Slowly, with every usage of Eye of the Magi his inner sight flickered with light, and the light stayed for a longer period of time after each usage of Eye of the Magi. It was as if the Skill was trying to accommodate for the specific situation, or as if it was trying to learn what the user wanted to do. It felt bizarre, and Jay's head was starting to hurt, but he continued. And suddenly, the lights inside his mind blinded him, even though his eyes were closed; the world had turned into flashing lights of many different colors, and Jay could clearly see the wisps of pale green Freeflowing Wind Mana in the air. His ability to see Mana had increased tremendously, and now the wisps of pale green Wind Mana were a lot more pronounced. Jay figured it must be because he was able to exclude much of his eyes' former distractions and was now able to focus all his attention to only the Mana that he could see with his Eye of the Magi. But now he didn't dare open his eyes for losing this way of seeing the world.

Once more slowing his breathing, relaxing his body and mind, Jay entered a Meditative state, and soon time seemed to have slowed down slightly. He was in a marvelous state of mind, and he felt himself growing closer to understanding Wind Mana while he was observing the Freeflowing Mana's behavior. He could now see that what he earlier thought were only wisps of Wind Mana were actually part of a larger whole, and this whole stretched out as far as Jay could see into the sky; it was only that the pale green Wind Mana was so pale at most of the places that he couldn't see it before. His opened eyes had actually made it impossible to see this ephemeral Wind Mana that covered all of the air around Jay; it was that thinly concentrated. But now he could see that there was Wind Mana everywhere, it was only that the concentration was differing in different places in the air. He knew this had to be a clue.

If he could understand how the Freeflowing Mana behaved, he could imitate its behavior, amplify its concentration, modulate it to do what he wanted and then consolidate it into a Spell by repeated use. Giddy, he felt he was truly on to something here. He observed the pale green Mana and how its density seemed to move around chaotically, creating tiny winds by compressing or depressing the air density where the Mana moved. This was what he had been looking for. It seemed his idea earlier had been all wrong. What he needed to do to create winds was to envelop all the surrounding air he wanted to manipulate with his Wind Mana and then have the Mana be in different states of concentration at different places to move air with the Mana. This wasn't something he would have thought of by himself, but now that he looked at how the Freeflowing Mana was behaving, it seemed quite obvious that this was how you were supposed to use Wind Mana. He needed to look at more and different kinds of Freeflowing Mana; that would be the quickest way to create the Spells he needed for his Quest.

After about 30 minutes of just watching the Wind Mana in his inner mind, Jay opened his eyes again and his perception of Mana seemed to dull. He no longer saw the ever-present pale green Wind Mana that was all around him, and could once again only see the more densely concentrated Wind Mana wisps that danced around in the air, creating tiny air currents. But now he knew how the underlying principle worked, so he saw it in a whole other light.

Sliding down his long rope, Jay soon got back to where he sat earlier; it was a much better place to rest than hanging from the top of a tree.

Though it was a good thing that he hadn't been disturbed during his moment of enlightenment, Jay now wondered why Hannah hadn't contacted him yet. It shouldn't have taken a long time finding some players to kill, yet she had not said a word. Had she run off to do something else? Jay doubted it, so he wondered what was going on. Opening up his chat, he made a call to Hannah, and got an answer in less than a second.

“Yeah?” Hannah said.

“Why haven't you found any players for me to kill yet?” Jay asked. “Didn't you want to help me Level up as quickly as possible?”

“I found a couple of small groups wandering around, but they were all below Level 16,” she said. “I won't let you bully such noobs. I also believe you wouldn't think it worth your time to kill people with such a low Level. Losing alignment over those players couldn't be worth it. I read on an info-site that if you have an extremely low alignment, you will be actively hunted by something called the Guardians, so you shouldn't press your luck too far.”

“Good to know. Was there any mention of how low alignment you can have without being actively hunted?” Jay asked, frowning slightly. He needed to know where the limit was. “And you were right about those low Levels, anything below Level 20 isn't worth the time and effort, but why aren't there any players higher than Level 20 around?”

“Eh...” Hannah said, sounding a bit reluctant. “You do know that during the day there are practically only very weak monsters and at most about 10% of the amount of monsters compared to during the night, right? We'll probably have to wait until evening before people above Level 20 come out into the forest. During the day, the best places to hunt monsters for Experience is to go into caves and dungeons. Most of the creatures that come out at night hide away in caves and dungeons during the day. So... you didn't know?”

“No. I didn't know,” Jay said, enunciating each word. “Aren't things such as this something you should mention? Or at least ask if I know about it before we do something?”

“How is that my problem?” Hannah asked, actually sounding like she didn't understand. “I thought such basics were too obvious to need to be explained. So, should I come back until nightfall?”

“Do as you wish,” Jay said. He didn't care what she did anymore. If he had to wait until night for there to be good prey, he would wait. It wasn't anything to think too deeply about. He had things to do even if he couldn't hunt players right now. His newfound insight into using Wind Mana was much more important right now.

“Okay,” Hannah said. “Then I'll come back now. I've got nothing better to do, and I can train there as well as anywhere.”

“Fine,” Jay said, closing the connection between them, furrowing his brows. He needed to focus his everything on creating this new Spell with Wind Mana before he lost his inspiration.

Making a ball of Wind Mana about a meter in diameter above his outstretched right hand, Jay looked intently at it, trying to create fluctuations in density inside the ball. It was a lot more difficult than he would have thought; the worst part was that the Wind Mana seemed to want to float away from his mental grasp. He constantly lost Mana as the outer parts of the large ball of Wind Mana seemed to melt and diffuse into its surroundings. So, all he could do was to supply the ball of Mana with more Mana just to keep it in existence. He had to use more than twelve Mana per second just to keep the ball of Mana the same size, and this meant he was now beginning to lose Mana from his Mana-pool. His Mana Regeneration couldn't keep up completely. If he just held the ball of Mana in its place he would drain all his Mana in less than three hours. And to replenish it would take almost one and a half hour; he really didn't like that, but he had no way to change it. He just had to make the best of it and try and figure out how to easily compress and depress Wind Mana within three hours; that was all.

He reached up to his head to comb his fingers through his hair, only to feel the smooth bald skin. Rubbing his bald head, Jay felt a bit awkward, and a bit confused. Hannah seemed to like making jokes at someone else's expense, why hadn't she laughed at his change in hairstyle? She had seen him with hair before, but now he had none. Aaaargh... it bothered him, he really couldn't figure her out. And now he was even distracted by that. Not good.

He closed his eyes, and flickered his Eye of the Magi on and off until he got back into that marvelous state of seeing only Mana. Now, with his more enhanced Mana-vision, he could more easily see that the surrounding Freeflowing Mana was actually making his Mana diffuse into the air around because of the difference in density. He didn't know how to make that stop, however, so he could only ignore it and focus on trying to make his own Wind Mana move according to his will.

In this state of mind, where everything but Mana was excluded from his eyes, Jay could more easily see when he did something right and also when he did something wrong. Every time he managed to compress some Mana in a specific region he came closer to creating something like how the Freeflowing Mana had looked like. So he continued, compressing Wind Mana and forcing it to move as he wanted; it became easier and easier, and he could create larger and larger areas with a higher density, which also led to larger areas where the Wind Mana was a lot less dense. He continued to experiment.

It didn't take more than an hour before Jay truly got a hang of it and now he could create his own tiny wisps of differently dense places within his ball of Wind Mana, but he didn't dare open his eyes just yet. This was just the beginning. His goal was to make a whirlwind that enclosed him, making him the eye of the storm with a wall of spiraling wind as his shield from all sides. It was too bad that for now, that didn't seem to be very possible. Just doing as he did right now was very exhausting for his mind, he already felt a headache coming on, his temples throbbing. Having different densities of Mana inside all the Mana he controlled was a lot more difficult than anything he had ever tried to do.

Another fifteen minutes passed while Jay tampered with the little wisps inside the ball of Mana, and he was getting more and more accustomed to Manipulating Wind Mana as he wished. He had now made the wisps of Wind Mana move at a specific distance from each other and in a pattern much like a cylinder inside a cylinder. The outer cylinder had densely packed Wind Mana wisps moving at a 45 degree angle spiraling around it upward, while the inner cylinder took form from the Wind Mana wisps that reached the top of the outer cylinder that then flew down to the bottom again as quickly as Jay could command them; in between these two cylinders of more dense Wind Mana there was almost a vacuum, and almost no Wind Mana could be detected there. This was the model he had created in his mind for his later Whirlwind Shield, it was only in a smaller scale.

Opening his eyes, Jay wanted to see what was happening to the air because of his Manipulation of Wind Mana. What he saw was a lot more promising than he could have hoped for. The cylindrical patterned structure of Wind Mana he had created inside the diffused ball of Mana was actually creating just what he wanted. A large whirlwind was rising into the sky above the ball of Wind Mana, so Jay had somewhat succeeded. It wasn't how he had thought though; the whirlwind rose almost three meters high into the air above the ball of Mana, but inside the ball of Mana there was only a little whirlwind covering the outside of the cylindrical Mana-structure. It both pleased him and vexed him. He hadn't thought he could create such a large whirlwind with his experimentation, it was only a bit strange that the whirlwind was actually more violent outside his own controlled ball of Mana.

Stopping the output of Mana, Jay looked up into the sky, trying to think of how to rearrange the Wind Spell's structure to create what he wanted. The only ideas that came to mind were ideas that he needed to experiment with to actually be able to see if the Spell would behave as he wanted it to. But right now, he just wanted to rest a while and recuperate his mental fatigue and fill his Mana-pool.

“What was that?” Hannah asked from above and to Jay's left. “How did you make a tornado?”

“How long have you been watching?” Jay asked, not really wanting to explain what he was doing.

“Since... I don't know... you were stretching out your hand and wiggling your fingers while having eyes closed,” Hannah said. “It looked very strange, but became even stranger when your finger-wiggling made a tornado appear. How did you do that?”

“I was experimenting with how to control the wind,” Jay said. “You know I'm a Magician. That was just me trying out a possible new Spell.”

“What? You can create your own Spells?” Hannah's eyes glittered like sparkling gems as she looked at Jay. “That's one of the most difficult things to do in this game. Isn't it just easier to buy the Spells you want?”

“Maybe,” Jay said, not refuting her statement, but not believing it to be the truth either. He had found out by accident that his own Fling Shot was tens of times more destructive than any Spell he could buy, so he figured that self-made Spells might be a lot better than those you could buy and easily use. “I've created a few Spells and Skills, and they are all a lot better than anything I've been able to buy. So it's never a bad idea to try making a new Spell.”

“Wah?!?” Hannah seemed to lose her balance slightly, but quickly regained it, nimbly shifting her body slightly to a crouch. “I read that creating a Spell could take weeks. How could you have created several?”

“Good luck, I guess?” Jay answered ambiguously. “It doesn't matter to you, does it?”

“No, not really,” Hannah said. “But, man, that's amazing. Show me the Spells you've created.”

“I don't want to,” Jay said.

“Come on,” Hannah said, pouting slightly. “You're no fun. Why can't you show me?”

“I don't want to,” Jay said again, but relenting slightly he figured it was best to show one Spell at least. “Forget it, I'll show you one. But after that, don't try to pry out more information from me.” Jay tossed out a pin from his inner pocket, making it float above his outstretched palm. He started bombarding it with Force Mana from all directions, taking his time.

“Ooooh...” Hannah said, smiling. “That Spell could be called utterly useless. At best you might charm a bored cat with that, but only if you're lucky.”

“Shut up and watch,” Jay said, slightly irritated, but also not caring enough to actually sound it. After he had loaded the pin with a bit more than 1000 Force Mana he changed the direction of all the Force Mana's push to one direction and explosively shot the tiny pin into a thick tree nearby. With a SHWAPP! the pin flew through the air, almost breaking the sound barrier and crashing into the tree trunk, splintering it and making a hole the size of an open palm that bore at least thirty centimeters into the wood, tiny splinters falling away continuously and raining to the ground far below.

“Ah...” Hannah said, her open mouth seeming to want to say something, but not knowing how to.

“See, told you it was powerful,” Jay said, feeling a bit smug. This was the attack Spell he was most proud of, even though it wasn't even an official Spell yet. It was so powerful, and could be regulated. It was great. “And that was just me being conservative. If I have time to use enough Mana the Spell can be about five times as destructive.”

“Really?” Hannah said, once more her eyes sparkled. “That's great. You can be the glass cannon in my future adventuring team.”

“Glass cannon?” Jay asked, not understanding the term. “And what future adventuring team? Don't just add me to it without asking me first.”

“Come on, don't be stingy,” Hannah said, laughing. “You'll follow me from now on. With such Spells, we don't even need an archer. You'll be enough for long range attacks. Now I just need to find a tank and a healer, then we'll be good to go.”

“Follow you? My ass,” Jay said. “Give me a good reason why I should follow you? If anything, I think it should be the other way around. I only know you're slightly skilled at acrobatics. How could I subordinate myself to someone like that?”

“If we fight, you'd be dead in seconds,” Hannah said. “But I don't want to force you. Just think about it.” She smiled even broader, making her pointy teeth stick out from the corner of her lips, her feline face looking very mischievous.

“For now, let's just focus on getting to Level 100, alright?” Jay could bother to argue. He didn't mind her company, but also felt she was a bit strange. He knew, however, that he couldn't say someone else was strange, because he himself was probably a lot more strange than he thought he was.

“So, what should we do while we wait for nightfall?” Hannah said. “Want to play a game?”

“No,” Jay said. “I need to keep trying to create the Spell I was experimenting with earlier. Don't disturb me.”

“Okay,” Hannah said, not seeming to be displeased. “Have fun with that then. I'll jump around close by. This place isn't too bad for gaining Experience.”

Jay didn't think about Hannah anymore, and once again closed his eyes, creating an inner picture of only Mana. When he saw Hannah, however, he paused for a moment. In the Eye of the Magi inner vision her periphery blazed with a brilliant white light that Jay could only assume was Light Mana. The strange thing was that there was only traces of Light Mana, and no other kinds. From what Wraith had said, the type of Mana you used showed itself by leaving a residual presence inside the body of the user. How was it possible for Hannah to only use Light Mana? Were all her Skills and Spells using Light Mana? That didn't seem very likely, but he couldn't explain it in any other way.

Shaking his head, Jay turned away from Hannah; he had once again been distracted by her, he didn't have time for that. Focusing back to himself, Jay created a disc of pale green Wind Mana a few meters away from him, creating the same cylindrical structure, only flattened and wider than before, wide enough that he could stand inside it. Then he pushed himself to release as much Mana as he could and opened his eyes to see what happened. Before him stood a five meter tall whirlwind that distorted the air so much that it was difficult to see things through it. This was more like it. If he could create a Spell with even a tenth of this ferocity it would be great.

Jay close his eyes again and started calibrating the amount of Mana used and how quickly the denser wisps of Wind Mana flowed up the cylindrical pattern. After almost an hour, he had found a stable structure that didn't use too much Mana. To start up the Spell cost 600 Mana, and then its continuation used 90 Mana per minute. With his Mana Regeneration at almost 500 Mana per minute, he could pretty much keep this Spell going non-stop, the only problem was that he couldn't move it. He had tried moving the Spell after he had found a stable structure, but as soon as it moved the slightest sideways the whole thing broke apart and diffused into nothing. However, he had now created a Whirlwind Shield Spell, and only needed to keep it going until he got the prompt of having created a new Spell.

Less than thirty minutes later, the notice came, and the Spell was officially created. Jay was ecstatic. Things were really coming together now.

2016-04-06T00:21:00.000+02:00

Chapter 11 Frantic Focus

The thing Jay dreaded had happened; the first Quest from that smarmy lunatic Zein had arrived. And Jay was far from the same Level as his opponent; this dampened Jay's mood considerably, and he felt more motivated than ever to become as powerful as possible as fast as possible. No matter how he did it.

Find Target. The thought created a bright scarlet arrow reaching through the air into the distance; it said his target was more than a hundred kilometers away, making Jay feel a bit of his tension subside. He wouldn't meet up with his target today, it seemed, so he got back to the more immediate things to do. He had to gain as many Levels as quickly as possible, and he could only succeed in that by both hunting players and creating the new Spells for his Quest.

Running past the working Mole-squirrels, jumping up each stony terrace with ease after activating 'Enduring Willpower'—which now boosted his Strength to over 100—Jay made his way up to the rim of the bowl-like canyon in little time. As he reached the top, looking out, he saw that he was actually at the top of a small mountain in a long clustered chain of mountains. The top of this mountain was barren and nothing grew past his ankle. In the distance some large four-legged hoofed creatures grazed the mossy ground. Jay didn't like the tingling feeling he got at the back of his neck when he looked at those cow-beasts.

Closing his right eye, activating Scope Sight, Jay looked closer, zooming in on the creature until it looked to be standing right in front of him, and what he saw didn't make him feel more at ease. The creature looked like a large bull, its dead milky eyes were creepy, but the most disturbing thing was that the bull had thousands of small black and gray mushrooms growing on its back, neck and head. It looked like the creature was infested with fungi and closer to dead than alive, but that didn't diminish the danger as the ground trembled with each slow step it took. Jay really didn't want to battle that thing, and he didn't feel confident being able to hide from it as he traversed this barren tundra either.

The tundra, and its ankle-high vegetation, stretched down the mountain for about two kilometers and then the terrain turned into a forest of gnarly black-spotted white birches. If he could get to that forest, he believed he would be able to, if not hide from any dangers, at least run away from dangers using his Magic Rope to pull himself forward at great speeds.

Surveying his surroundings for a while Jay found that the bull-beasts he couldn't identify were few in number, and they all kept their distance from one another. So, right now, Jay only had to care about the two to either side of him, one was almost five hundred meters away and the other was close to three hundred meters away. If he could find the middle-ground between these two territories, he might just be able to slip by unnoticed. The bulls didn't seem to have very keen eyesight, and if Jay was noticed, he would at least be as far away from the dangerous creature as possible.

Slowly walking along the rim of the canyon, Jay found the middle-ground with Claudine's help. She had easily pointed it out when he asked her. Another useful thing he hadn't thought of having Claudine do. If she could help him with the more mundane things, such as calculating distances and retaining knowledge for him to use, she could actually be more useful than annoying.

Jay uncoiled the thin rope from his waist and used the Magic Rope Spell to fill the inside of the rope with Mana. Now Jay saw that the Spell actually had Force, Metal and Lightning Mana in it, but he couldn't figure out how it actually worked, so for now he just observed how the Spell worked and didn't try anything. He wouldn't like it at all if he lost his rope; there are few things as handy as a rope in the wilderness, especially if you can rope-jump.

Jay looked to either side again. Seeing that nothing was out of the ordinary, he slithered the rope out to a fairly large stone jutting out from the moss-covered ground. The stone was almost fifteen meters away and was a good first trial of how to use his Magic Rope to propel him forward over this flat ground.

The rope coiled around the Stone, tightening, fastening itself to the stone at Jay's will. Contracting the rope's length, he used more Mana than the Magic Rope Spell cost by funneling a slightly larger amount of Mana through Mana Manipulation into the Magic Rope Spell's Inlet—or so he figured the place where his Mana was incorporated into the Spell should be called. And as soon as he did, the rope pulled Jay forward. At first he stumbled and almost fell, but pushing off the ground with his legs and pulling himself forward with the rope became easier with every step, and the last step he took before arriving at the stone was close to three meter long. Now he just needed practice and he had created another way to move fast with his handy rope. It was too bad this way of moving was only truly useful when traveling, and not in a fight, but that mattered little. As long as Jay felt he could cover ground faster than his potential opponents he could always at least flee from danger if needed.

Finding a second stone, Jay quickly fastened the rope to it and continued his run. He jump-sprinted the sixteen meter in seven steps and looked around for a third stone, and without even stopping he threw out the rope to fasten on that stone. His tempo increased by the stone and soon the air whistled through Jay's ears; he was moving faster than he thought would be possible. And the best thing was that he had attracted no attention from the fearsome bull-beasts.

He soon arrived at the gnarly birch forest with only one mishap on the way. One of the stones he had tried to pull himself toward had actually flown to him instead; it was a lesson he needed to remember, if the thing he anchors his rope to is lighter than him it will fly towards him.

Inside the birch forest there was nothing much that caught Jay's attention. The leafy ground and patches of knee-high green grasses and flowers didn't seem to hold any dangers wherever he looked. He kept vigilant, but after a couple of minutes of slowly walking and looking around or any dangers Jay found nothing alarming. A couple of large centipedes as long as his arm tried to attack him but died instantly from one of his metal pins, and a few skittish elks in the distance that always ran away from Jay were all the creatures he saw.

Relaxing for a bit, Jay took out two biscuits and ate them, then opened his mouth to the sky and funneled water into his mouth and drank a couple of gulps. Looking at his Map-pad, the compass showed the direction he needed to go. Claudine, can you give me a compass pointer pointing to where I want to go?

Yes, Jay, Claudine said and a thin white arrow seemed to spring out of Jay's torso, pointing in the direction he needed to go.

Following the arrow, Jay began his rope-jump-sprinting over the ground again, keeping an eye out for anything dangerous, but nothing showed itself. And soon the forest had larger and straight trees, so Jay could finally fly through the air, vaulting himself from tree to tree by swinging with his rope. It was almost as good as flight, only more restrictive, and maybe more mentally taxing. He had to always keep his mind on where he should send the rope next. Luckily, his increased ability to use Mana that Eye of the Magi gave him made the Magic Rope Spell throw out the rope at almost five times the speed it had flown before, so this way of traveling was now a lot more easy and steady.

Now only using about ten meters of the rope, he flew through the air steadily, but this made Jay's mind wander after he got used to the rhythm. Thinking about the Spells he needed to create made minutes pass by without him noticing. Some of the Spells using only one type of Mana that he needed to create he had no good idea about how to create, but after thinking for a while he felt had figured out Earth and Metal now.

The idea to crush rocks with Earth Mana was easy enough that he almost had the Spell already created because of his experiments, so that just needed to be stabilized. And the Rock Crusher Spell gave Jay an idea to create a synergistic Spell with Metal Mana. If he could crush rocks with one Spell and then extract the metals from the stone with another Spell, then he would become a mining machine. The idea was simple, but Jay couldn't help thinking it might be more difficult than he thought. He hadn't experimented yet, but the idea was the best he had come up with so far, so he would experiment when an opportunity arrived.

I wonder if I should go to that mining camp and try creating the two Spells there, Jay thought. There should be enough rocky material with metal inside there to try figuring out the combination of the Earth and the Metal Spell.

I want to go to the library, Claudine said in his mind. I'm bored. The listless tone in her voice at the end was pitiful.

Yeah? We'll do that later, just be patient. Jay thought in response.

No! Claudine angrily shouted, ringing in Jay's immaterial ears. I want to go now. All we ever do is what you want to do. It's not fair.

Ehm, of course 'we' do what I want to do, Jay thought. I'm in charge of my own actions, and I decide what I do, so it's obvious that I would do what I want to do...

Is that so? Claudine monotonously asked.

A small chill ran down Jay's spine; it seemed Claudine was somehow more upset than Jay had thought she could be. He could only try to appease her. Wait a little longer and we'll go to the library. I'll show you as many books as there is time for later, okay?

I want to go now! NOW! Jay's head filled with a drone that almost made his vision blur.

Fine, fine... you win. Stop that. With Jay's thought, the ringing drone went away instantly. Can you at least wait until night? That way we can sneak in without being noticed.

You promise? Claudine asked.

Yes, yes... Jay sighed to himself. How had Claudine become able to control what he did so easily?

That's better, Claudine's voice oozing smug delight. You shouldn't be so selfish. You're not alone in your mind. I live here too.

Jay was starting to regret his thoughts of earlier thinking Claudine might actually be worth the head-aches she occasionally caused. He didn't even know what to say about her claiming to live in his head. He was stumped; maybe he should begin questioning his own sanity... and if it might already be lost. We need to rectify that, he thought, both to himself, and to Claudine.

That's what I've been telling you, Claudine said. I need to get my own body. You need to create it for me.

I actually begin to understand that this might be really important to my future mental health, Jay thought.

Oh? How so? Claudine asked, sounding confused. Don't worry. Even if I get my own body, I'll still be able to talk directly into your mind. So I won't really be gone. Just separate.

Almost loosing his concentration on the rope-jumping, Jay staggered in mid-air, sweat coating his hands. The idea of actually having an AI living inside his head was not really a pleasant thought, even if it only partly lived in his mind. Hopefully, it wouldn't have any adverse effects on him, especially after Claudine has her own body and can move about by herself. He had to ask though. Claudine... with your own body, you could gather information by yourself, right? I wouldn't need to do all the work for you if you have your own body... right? Jay felt frantic at the end and couldn't help repeating himself.

Yes. If I can get a body of my own I can gather information much easier, Claudine said. But I don't think I will be able to leave your area of mental influence.

Trying to distract himself from the negatives by submerging himself in trying to understand more about the world he now lived in, Jay felt that last sentence to be important. What is an area of mental influence? How far is mine?

I don't know the exact area covered, but it's the same area in which you can easily control your Mana, Claudine said. Was that helpful?

Hmm, interesting, Jay introspected. Then the distance between us when you have your own body should be somehow related to my Willpower.

How would I know? But maybe, we'll find out later, Claudine said. I just want to go to the library.

We'll go some night in the near future, Jay said, hoping to drop the subject. Just wait and do something else until I can sneak into that library Hannah told me about.

What? Claudine asked. What should I do?

How would I know? Jay asked back.

Give me a good question to think about, Claudine answered.

What question? Jay felt the conversation was spiraling out of his control slightly, and wasn't too keen on continuing it either. He had already arrived at the forest with the enormous trees reaching close to a hundred meter into the air and it wouldn't be long before he might encounter players to kill, so he needed to be entirely focused on that right now.

How would I know? Claudine asked.

Sorry, how difficult can the question be? Jay wanted to get out of this conversation, and if he could ask Claudine a difficult enough question to occupy her for a while it would be great.

Nothing is to difficult to understand, Claudine said. Theoretically, at least.

That sounds a bit... arrogant? Over-confident? Jay thought. But fine, answer this: Where does Mana come from?

Error. Time to completely accumulate the information and calculate the possible answers exceeds ten million years, Claudine said in a very mechanical monotone voice, then it returned to normal. Yuck! That felt awful. I wonder if that is what vomiting feels like?

Ehm? That's... Jay didn't know what to think, but felt glad. I'm really glad I put in those parameters that makes it possible for you to ignore a question if it takes too long to reason out.

Yes... me too, Claudine said helplessly.

Give me a suggestion about what you want to think about then? Jay asked, his thoughts growing less and less focused on his conversation with Claudine as he was closing in on the meeting place he told Hannah to be at. He still felt he needed to be wary of that feline female for some reason. He had trouble figuring out the reasons for many of her actions, and that was uncomfortable.

It's not as fun to answer my own questions as answering yours. Claudine said. It feels like I've accomplished something important every time I answer your questions. Answering my own questions doesn't give me any of that instinctual happiness though. She sounded slightly sad. So, just ask something, anything. Understanding things is one of my secondary purposes. The best way to extrapolate knowledge is by understanding things completely.

How so? Distracted, Jay automatically asked. He had stopped fifty meter up in the tree branches, hiding his body behind the trunk of a tree, standing on a thick branch, peering out into the distance with only his head slightly protruding from the tree trunk. At a distance of about two hundred meters he could see the cleared ground outside the mining camp, but he couldn't see any sign of Hannah, or any other people for that matter. He just had to wait now, the time they would meet was still an hour away. He would be patient. He needed to know that Hannah wasn't a threat to him, so he was cautions and would await her arrival from a distance and see if she was up to anything suspicious.

You know, even understanding the most profound things comes from understanding the smaller parts that makes the whole complete, Claudine didn't seem to notice that Jay wasn't paying much attention. Understanding at its basic level is just that: understanding the basics that pertains to understanding a specific complexity.

I don't know what to say to that, Jay was stunned. Had Claudine turned into a philosopher while he wasn't paying attention? I don't have any good questions either, not right now. Maybe... think about ways for me to get rid or hide my negative alignment?

I don't have enough information available to completely answer that question, Claudine sighed. I want to go to the library...

Yes, I heard you the first time... Jay wasn't sure where this conversation was going anymore, it seemed too circular. Then he had a good idea. Okay, how about this? Assume I can control the air around me to flow in any direction within a 5 meter in diameter sphere with me at its center and assume I can make my body lighter by 20%; how can I use these assumptions to somehow fly?

Ooooh... Claudine seemed enthused. I need to think about that one. Don't bother me anymore.

Fine, tell me if you get any good ideas though, Jay thought. I really want to be able to fly.

Jay waited; time passed slowly when you were apprehensively watchful. He stared out at the large cleft in the rock wall and the adjoining grassy fields with its pens filled with idle hogs. No people showed themselves. The time for their meeting was soon approaching, the small digital clock at the lower right of his field of view told that there was only five minutes before they said they would meet, but Hannah still wasn't here. Something seemed to be wrong.

A tiny crack sounded out behind Jay, making him spin his head and body around in an instant, almost loosing his footing in the process. He tossed up two metal pins into the air charged them with Force Mana before even noticing that the noise was Hannah standing only a meter away from him, her smiling yellow furred cat-face looked mischievous and the glint in her slit-like pupils showed clearly that she was silently laughing at him.

“I almost thought you would fall from the tree,” Hannah laughed out loud now, apparently not able to keep it in any longer. “You should have seen yourself. Your Flexibility and Dexterity must be awful. I couldn't be that graceless even if I tried.”

“How..?” Jay stopped himself. Of course she could sneak up on him. Not only was she a higher Level, but she also seemed to have a hunter or assassin-like Profession. “How long have you been here? Why are you sneaking up on me?”

“I was here before you,” she said, tapping her chest with her fist in mock pride. “Your eyes and senses aren't as good as mine, it seems.”

“You might be right about that,” Jay said. “But I can surely do ten times the damage you can. And I probably have a much higher ability to take Damage than you.”

“Maybe that's so,” Hannah jumped, clawing at a higher branch and lifted her body up onto it, pushing away from it in an instant and bounding off into the tree crowns, hiding herself completely in less than two seconds. “But you can't hit what you can't see,” her voice echoed out from two opposite directions.

“You're right,” Jay said, a smile creeping onto his formerly rigid face. “Shall we stop trying to outshine the other now? And get down to business. Have you seen any players around? I want to try to get to Level 50 today.”

“Aw,” Hannah said from the other side of the tree trunk, once more actually positioning herself at Jay's back. “It was fun to compare strengths.”

“We can do that later,” Jay said, not hiding his impatience. “Before we go to explore beneath he Magician's Guild, we'll have to talk and compare our strength and weaknesses so we can be a good team.”

“Fine, just let me punch you once,” Hannah said as she crawled up the trunk of the tree they were standing on and around to the side where Jay was, then pushed herself off the trunk, flipping through the air and landing nimbly on the two foot wide branch, facing Jay with her clawed hand, ready to strike. “If you really believe you can take so much Damage, let me see how much I can do to you with my claws.”

Not knowing how this had come about, Jay could only sigh. He shouldn't have said so much... “Hit me then, but just once. I don't mind the pain, but I don't like it either.”

Hannah moved, the rush of air accompanying her blasted Jay in the face, his cloak flapping violently as his stomach was squarely hit by the outstretched fingers of Hannah's hand.

You have been attacked in the abdomen by Hannah.

Self-defense authorized.

You take 1758 Damage

You are Bleeding Internally and take 60 Damage per minute for 60 minutes

The fingers went in deep, the hand almost completely going into Jay's abdomen. It hurt. Oh, how it hurt. Jay really didn't think she would be so decisive. Going weak in the knees from the fiery pain in his gut, he steadied himself forcefully and grimaced. “Done?”

“So,” Hannah said, curiosity practically beaming from her smile. “How much Damage did I inflict?”

“1758, and 60 per minute for 60 minutes,” Jay said bitterly. “Couldn't you have hit me in the arm or leg? This internal Bleeding is really bothersome.”

“What if I crippled your limb?” Hannah asked. “That would be much worse. And this shouldn't be a problem, just eat a Blood-clotting pill.”

“What's that? I don't have such a pill,” Jay said. “Give me one.”

Hannah looked at him strangely, but took out a pea-sized little red pill and gave it to Jay. “You're always online, but you don't even know this basic thing?”

“Yeah, well... I haven't had the best of times since I started,” Jay said, trying to hold back the bitterness he felt. “Just educate me in basic knowledge then? You can tell me all about whatever you think I need to know as we hunt for players, just use the Friend Chat while you run around and try to find players.”

“That sounds boring,” Hannah said. “Just buy the Basic Comprehensive Encyclopedia Cube, you can ask it anything about the basic things in the game and it will answer.”

“And where should I get that Encyclopedia Cube?” Jay asked. “I can't even go into normal cities looking like I do with this Murderous Aura. Not to mention that I don't have time for that. I need to get some Levels as fast as possible.”

“Why the rush?” Hannah asked. “Just enjoy the game. There are so many wonderful things to explore and see.”

“I can't understand how you got the Level you have with that attitude,” Jay said. “But no matter, it isn't important now. What you should think about is finding players. If you help me get a high enough Level to be comfortable exploring beyond the sealed stone we'll be able to explore that place together. Isn't that what you want to do most of all?”

“Not most of all,” Hannah said, shaking her head slightly. “But close enough.”

“Good, run off then,” Jay said. “You're nimble and swift, so do your thing and find me some prey.”

“Fine,” Hannah shook her head once more, but didn't stay to talk. She jumped off the thick branch, barely catching onto it as she fell past, pushing herself down toward a thick branch on another tree some ten meters down. Without effort she lightly touched down on the lower branch and kicked her feet in a peculiar way that sent out shimmering white sparks of Mana to Jay's Eye of the Magi. With the light, she disappeared somewhere Jay couldn't see.

Author's Note: I accidentally lost track of time and have posted this later than I thought I would. I've spent the last two days writing on another story and just completed the fifth chapter. There's a possibility that I overdid it slightly, but I couldn't stop writing after I started, so I accidentally spent close to 36 hours awake this time, but it was worth it. I have been thinking about this story about Jay for a fairly long time, but I also have another story that I've wanted to start, so I began it yesterday and in my enthusiasm truly lost track of time.

The next chapter this week will be posted on Thursday or Friday, depending on when I feel like editing. I used up all of my edited chapter-buffer earlier and I need to build that up again, so I don't know the exact time when I'll post the next chapter, but there will be two more this week no matter what.

2016-04-03T22:34:00.000+02:00

Chapter 10 Limitations

(Author's Note: I just realized that the chapter I thought I had scheduled to automatically be posted for last weekend had actually not been posted. I'm sorry about that. I was certain I had done what was needed for it to be released automatically, but it seems I was wrong. I've been very very busy these last few months, and haven't had the time I've wanted to spend on this blog. It has been all I could do to post one chapter every week, but hopefully that will change very soon. I'm finally done with what I've had to do to free up some time, and now I'm going to spend the next 6-8 weeks almost wholly on writing.

This chapter is the one I was supposed to post last weekend, but it will have to be this weekend's chapter. But don't worry, I will give you this weekend's real chapter before Tuesday, another chapter before Friday and also a chapter next weekend; this is the compensation I offer because of my negligence. Hopefully this will be an acceptable apology.

I could post two chapters today, but I feel extremely tired and only want to sleep right now, which isn't a good state of mind to edit a chapter in, so I'll have to push today's real chapter forward one or two days.)

Jay soon found that something seemed wrong with the underground village; it was too quiet. No sounds at all could be heard, except an eerie wind whistling through the gaps between the green crystalline buildings.

“Come,” Asarj said, pulling on Jay's sleeve. “I go home. Need sleep.”

“Sure,” Jay didn't mind helping, but as they walked down onto the main street in the village, Jay couldn't help but frown. All he saw were open doorways leading to empty rooms with earthen floors. On each floor, in each house, there were between one and three mounds of dirt, but nothing else. It puzzled him. What was going on in this village? It almost seemed desolate in its complete inactivity.

“Here,” Asarj said when they arrived at a slightly larger house in the deepest parts of the cavern. “Home. I sleep now. Bye, Little Master.” she tottered through the doorway, but fell to her knees.

“Don't be stubborn. Let me help you,” Jay said, going up to help the old Beastwoman up. When she got back on her feet she patted Jay slightly, but said nothing.

Inside the pale green crystalline cottage, the already dim light grew even dimmer. Jay could barely see anything, but it didn't matter much; his Eye of the Magi filled in the darkness with its own unique perception of reality, and he could see well enough to not be bothered by the darkness.

Asarj sat down on the earthen floor, wrapping her body in her dark brown cloak, rattling the branches and leaves that hung on it. “Soon, I sleep. Have any questions? Ask now if you want answers.”

Jay thought for a while, but didn't really have anything urgent to ask. The only thing he really cared about was something he had seen some hundred meters away from the crystal cottage he was now in. The parts deeper inside the large cavern was blocked by roiling, churning mist that glowed especially in Jay's special eyes. The constantly moving patterns of bright white, black, dark blue and amber brown colored Mana that were constantly changing inside the mist made Jay believe that there was something special about it. “Just one question. What is that mist covering the deeper parts of this place?”

Asarj looked up sharply at Jay, but soon lowered her head again, hiding inside her hood. “That is the Haze Mist Maze. Bad place. Very dangerous.”

“If it's very dangerous. Why are you staying beside it?” Jay asked.

“Not dangerous to us outside. Dangerous inside,” Asarj said.

“How dangerous?” Jay asked, thinking he really wanted to explore it now. Maybe there were treasures inside? “Could I survive exploring it?”

Asarj coughed, a raspy hoarse laugh issuing out from her throat. “No, Little Master. Even Asarj could die inside. Very bad place. Very dangerous. Not empty words.”

“That's didn't really help much. Can you explain why it's so dangerous?” Jay asked, but not waiting to get an answer, he continued. “How strong are you in comparison to me? When would I be able to explore the place?”

“Haze Mist Maze dangerous. If you go in, everything turn into dreams. Nothing real inside, except the killing dangers. If lucky, just walk in circles and come out after days. If unlucky, never come out,” Asarj tried to explain. “Asarj is Level 253, High Shaman, but would still most likely die inside. And on other side of Haze Mist Maze is very very dangerous. Underworld very very bad place.”

“So, you're saying the mist is some sort of maze which makes people unable to go through into this Underworld?” Jay asked, feeling happy; he had found something interesting.

“Yes,” Asarj said, a yawn slipping out with the word. “It is barrier. Keep out Underworlders.”

“Hm, that seems interesting,” Jay said. “I wonder when I could try and go through it...”

“No,” Asarj said sharply. “Stupid Little Master.”

“Ehm,” Jay felt embarrassed, but stubborn. “At what Level do you think I could try going through the Haze Mist Maze?”

“You weak,” Asarj said. “Asarj not focused on battle, but could squish you like squishing ants,” she paused. “Level? 250 or more.”

Jay didn't like that answer, but could only accept his inadequacies. He once again felt the pressing need to grow stronger. If he could become one of the strongest players, he would be able to feel safe when he wanted to and have adventures when he wanted to without taking any large risks. “Okay, I'll listen to you on this. Thanks for healing my leg. I'll leave you to your sleep now.

“Good...” Asarj said, and it seemed like she was saying something more, but before Jay could hear what, her body had begun to sink into the dark earth. Asarj glowed with amber brown Mana and the earthen floor crept up her body while she was sinking, and soon there was nothing but a large lump of dirt where she had sat. From within the earthen mound, Jay could see pulsing dark red and amber brown Mana flowing into Asarj's buried body. It looked very strange, and it continued to grow stranger as hundreds of tiny sprouts of different kinds of plants quickly began growing on the earthen mound until it was covered in vegetation.

Jay could only shake his head. Some of the things he had seen in this place were beyond his comprehension, and he didn't even know if he wanted to understand them. The only thing good about seeing things beyond his understanding was that he realized there was a whole world beyond his limited perception. He would never say no to having a deeper understanding, but if something beyond his wits showed itself, he couldn't really gain anything but inspiration from it. He had learned his lesson about experimenting with using Mana, and would not try imitate things he didn't have the vaguest idea how they worked.

Walking out the crystalline cottage, Jay went up close to the roiling gray mist. The patterns of different colored Mana inside the mist baffled him, and he could not gleam any insights into how the mist worked or what it did from what little he knew. He decided to probe the mist slightly to see what might happen.

Tossing out five tiny metal pins from a pocket inside his cloak, Jay held them in the air with his Mana Manipulation, lifting each pin on a tiny cushion of pale yellow Mana. It took very little mental effort for him to hold these five metal pins and to his delight, the Mana used were negligible.

He focused his mind, channeling pale yellow Force Mana to surround one of the pins, pushing into it from all sides at once, focusing on creating a uniform layer around the pin until it looked a bit like a small chaotically swirling ball of Force Mana pushing into the metal pin. When he had charged the pin with 400 Mana he instantly changed the direction of all the Force Mana pushes to all push at the back of the pin until if flew whistling through the air and into the gray mist. A light puff and a rippling as if a stone struck placid waters ran through the mist, but nothing else happened. Jay didn't hear the pin land, or anything at all. In his eyes, the flows of Mana inside the mist didn't change at all either. It seemed there was no reason to try that again, but Jay felt stubborn, and he also had one thing he had wanted to try ever since he got the boost in his Max Mana from the Embodiment of Mana.

Nimbly taking back three of the metal pins with his Mana Manipulation, Jay put them away in his inner pocket again, only keeping one of the metal pins still floating in mid-air. He was slightly reluctant to do this experiment earlier because it might destroy something valuable because the Spell might be more powerful than he could assume. He really had no idea what would happen, so he might as well shoot the pin into the gray mist, since it didn't seem to be possible to destroy it even if he wanted to.

Jay forced out Mana from both his hands in hundreds of tiny pale yellow tendrils, focusing in on the metal pin, enveloping it in a swirling ball of ever increasing Mana. He pushed his mental faculties to the limit, pouring out Mana in a volume he had never tried before. Soon the pin was surrounded by what looked like a small sun in his eyes; he had squeezed out 5000 Mana for this Spell, but didn't feel satisfied. It was beginning to grow difficult to keep up with the mental strain, but Jay kept going. He wanted to see if there was a limit. 7000 Mana soon surrounded the pin, and to Jay's surprise the metal had started to glow red hot and a screeching metallic sound was emitted from within.

Jay kept pushing. 8000 Mana. 9000. When he closed in on having 10000 Mana constantly pushing in from all sides on the pin it had turned an almost white yellow and a sizzling as if the air itself was burning could be heard. And then it happened, the air caught fire, a small inferno pulsed out from the metal pin, and with the fire, the Force Mana destabilized, making Jay lose control over the pin. An instant later a large 'shwapp' blasted through the air as if the air itself had exploded, breaking the barrier of sound. And with the noise came a scalding pain on Jay's cheek, but before Jay could react to that, a large crashing BOOM sounded out behind him to his right. He looked over his shoulder and saw a crater with a diameter of over five meters in the distant cavern wall. The rumbling of stones falling from the cavern wall continued for a long time, while Jay just gaped at the destruction.

He put his hand to his cheek and felt a burning heat in his finger.

You are Burned.

You take 200 Burn Damage every minute for twenty minutes.

What the...? Jay couldn't help but think about what might have happened if the pin had actually struck his head and not just flown by a couple of centimeters from his face. A cold sweat coated his back in an instant. This had been too dangerous. Why couldn't he learn to do things in moderation? He had just thought of how dangerous it would be to experiment with Mana and do things beyond his comprehension, and had still done something this stupid... he should really have stopped forcing Mana into the Spell after the pin started glowing, then he might actually have been able to aim the pin. It seemed further experimentation was needed, but he wouldn't try and use more than a couple of thousand Mana until he was more certain not to hit himself with his own Spell.

Jay couldn't help but laugh. The pin with 10000 Mana had actually broken a sturdy rock wall and made an indentation several meters deep. It was incredibly powerful, and that was something to be happy about. Now he just had to harness that power.

A ringing sounded out in his mind; someone was trying to contact him. “Hey, Jay,” Hannah said.

“Hello,” Jay said, pausing, but not coming up with anything more to say. He didn't really want to keep in contact with Hannah because of her weird ways.

“Aw, don't be so boring,” Hannah said, as if reading Jay's mind. “I did as you said and explored the Magician's Guild's most important places, but found nothing about how to get down into the lower floors in that dungeon. What should I do now?”

Jay only vaguely remembered that he had actually told her to gather information, but wasn't very interested in the results. He didn't want to go back to Garam's Gorge town, and even more, he really didn't want to try exploring a place with that enormous snake he had seen earlier... at least not until he had a high enough Level to feel fairly safe.

“What did you find out then?” Jay asked, trying to hide his disinterest. He felt obliged to at least show some interest, since he had actually told her to search for the information.

“I found nothing really worthwhile,” Hannah said dejectedly. “But that's mostly because I couldn't go into the most interesting place. There is a large vault with a round metal door spanning almost three meters in diameter. I couldn't get inside that place to have a look, but if we team up, we might be able to get inside. There could be something good in there. The other two places that was said to be important by the information I gathered were a gathering hall of some sort and a library filled with stuffy old books.”

A library! Claudine shouted in Jay's head, shocking him with its intensity. I need to go there. Libraries hold much information. If I can read all the books, I will know much more. Let's go there Jay.

And how long would that take? Jay thought, then ignored Claudine and continued his conversation with Hannah. “How could we break into a vault inside an organization like the Magician's Guild?” he asked Hannah instead. This proposal seemed ridiculous. From what Jay had gathered, the Magician's Guild was one of the most powerful organizations not only in Garam's Gorge town, but in all the lands. It seemed the Magician's Guild had branches everywhere, and he didn't want to further antagonize such an organization if he could avoid it. “Let's not think of breaking into that vault for now. Even if we could do it, I don't think it will be worth it... mainly because we would certainly be killed if we did.”

I can read one page in 0.2 seconds, Claudine answered proudly. Just flip through the pages and I'll memorize the content.

Jay was startled, that seemed like it might actually be really useful. If he could get Claudine to absorb enough information she might actually be helpful if he had questions he couldn't figure out himself. That sounds good Claudine, he thought. But right now I can't go there, but I promise we'll find a library to scour later.

Claudine didn't answer, but a joyful humming intruded in Jay's mind, but Jay didn't mind, it was comforting for some reason.

“Who cares?” Hannah interrupted. “If we die trying, it would still be fun, right?”

“No,” Jay said flatly. “I don't ever want to die. Didn't you know that when you die you lose 20% of you total Experience in every single thing you've done? That price isn't something I'm willing to pay for anything.” Jay didn't want to tell this woman about how he only had one life in the game. She seemed frivolous and flighty. Not someone to confide in.

“Eh?” Hannah said. “You care that much about a measly 20%? That's not much at your Level. Even I don't really care about dying once and I'm Level 91 now. If I died I would probably lose more Experience than you have, and by a large margin. But you don't see me shirking, now do you?”

“I still won't do something that might lead to my death,” Jay said. “It isn't worth it.”

“Scaredycat,” Hannah said, obviously trying to provoke Jay, but it was no use.

“Yes, yes... Whatever,” Jay said, wanting to ignore Hannah now. “Was there anything else you needed? If not, I'm busy, I need to go hunting and gain some Levels.”

“Yes,” Hannah said quickly. “I found something about there being a world underground from reading some books in the library. I think the sealing stone leading down into the ground might be a doorway to that place. Wouldn't it be fun to explore such a place? Come one, don't be so boring, let's go and try to break the sealing stone.”

“I won't say there is no way for me to do that, but not now. In the future I might follow you and explore that place,” Jay said, trying to end the conversation. “I need to be a lot higher Level than I am right now, though, before I can even consider exploring a place like that.”

“Then, I'll help you Level up. Okay?” Hannah said enthusiastically. “At what Level does your fear disappear?”

Jay didn't know how to answer that, and could only honestly say what he thought. “When I'm Level 100 I'll reconsider going down into the lower floors under the Magician's Guild. Not before.”

“Aw, that's such a long way away,” Hannah said. “Especially since you're trying to get Levels by hunting monsters. Didn't you know that it's easier to Level up the first 255 Levels by doing things other than hunting and killing? More than half the players are crafting professions of one sort or another just because there is a lack of monsters to hunt on the surface. Only in dungeons and the more hidden places can you find enough monsters to kill and gain lots of Experience.”

“I'll do what I want, and you do what you want,” Jay said. “I won't justify my actions to you.”

“Alright,” Hannah said, a slight giggle in her voice. “You're at least stubborn enough. I'll help you hunt some. Where are you?”

“You'll help me?” Jay asked, suspicious of her intentions. “Do you know what I'll be hunting?”

“Nope,” Hannah said. “But it can't be dangerous enough for me to feel threatened.”

“Okay, fine,” Jay said, wanting to shock her, he continued. “I'm going to hunt players. I found out they give lots of Experience when they die at my hand, so I figure they will give the most Experience for the least amount of effort.”

“Oh,” Hannah said, for the first time sounding reluctant herself. “Okay... then, I'll help you scout, but I won't attack. I really don't want to get a negative alignment. It's so bothersome to get rid of.”

“I know,” Jay said. “But I already have such a low alignment that I will never get out of the negative, so I might as well capitalize on me no longer caring if I decrease my alignment even more.”

“That sounds troublesome,” Hannah said. “Doesn't this mean you'll never be able to get into any town or city?”

“I don't know,” Jay said honestly. “And I don't really care right now. I only want to become as powerful as possible, as fast as possible. And there should be bandit hide-outs and other places where I can buy and sell things. So, I don't mind as much... anymore.”

“Tell me your coordinates and I'll come to you,” Hannah said. “Then we'll go find some unlucky fellows, alright?”

“No,” Jay said. He didn't want to give the coordinates to this place to anyone. It was the only place he had found that seemed to not ostracize him after he accidentally killed a lot of players, so he wouldn't give this place away to anyone for as long as he could keep the secret. “Let's meet somewhere closer to Garam's Gorge town and then find me some plump players to destroy.” Jay was feeling slightly giddy. He had finally found a place to stay against all odds; he had gained two powerful Skills and his sight, hearing and thoughts felt a lot clearer for some reason. He figured it was because of the increase in all his mental Stats.

“Okay,” Hannah said, “Let's meet at that old mining camp where we went our separate ways earlier, okay?”

“Sure,” Jay said. “Just wait for me. I'll probably take a little while longer than you. But no more than two hours.” Jay looked down on his Map-pad and saw that there was almost thirty kilometers from the dot on the screen that indicated where he was and the dot where Garam's Gorge town was. But that distance didn't matter much. As long as there were trees to swing from, Jay could still cover that distance in a short amount of time.

“...” Hannah was silent for a longer time than Jay felt comfortable with and was almost about to shut their communication link when he heard her speak again. “Where are you for you to take such a long time to get there?”

“I found a strange place with weird docile Beastkin,” Jay said. “I don't know exactly where this place is, but by using the Map-pad I guessed how long it would take for me to get to where we'll meet.”

“Beastmen?” Hannah sounded happy. “I want to meet them. The culture of Beastmen are really strange and interesting. The Tribe I started in doted on me and everyone was very kind. It was a great place to be and I learned a lot. Maybe these can also teach me something useful...”

“I won't tell you where this is, so just stop asking,” Jay said. “And I don't think these Beasts are like normal Beastmen, they seem very peculiar, to say the least. If I learn something you might want to learn, I'll tell you, okay?”

“Fine. I'll just tail you back there later then,” Hannah said, teasing, yet also sounding dangerous. “You can't escape me if I want to track you down.” she laughed evilly, but it sounded very fake.

“And that gives me a reason not to meet up with you,” Jay said.

“Nooo...” Hannah said, dragging out the word as if suddenly realizing she might have said the wrong thing. “I won't follow you. Come on, don't be like this. If I help you Level up we can go explore the dungeon beneath the Magician's Guild faster. Come on...”

“I'll trust you this time,” Jay said, actually wanting to get her help if he could. There was safety in numbers, and he had seen her agile running before, so he figured that she was a strong fighter if she needed to be. “Just wait for me. I'll start traveling now. See you later.”

“Okay, see you later then,” Hannah said. “Tell me when...”

Jay cut off the connection between them and started walking back out the large cavern. He suddenly had an idea, and lit his Flame Torch Spell, creating a small ball of flame above his outstretched palm. Willing the flaming ball to move, Jay forced his Mana Manipulation to slowly push the Flame Torch—and its adjoining tendrils of Mana flowing from Jay's body—up his arm until it floated ten centimeters above his right shoulder. This position was better than having to use his hand to hold the Flame Torch lit, but it wasn't good enough; the light spreading out from the Flame Torch wasn't uniform and created deeper shadows on Jay's left side.

Thinking to himself, he got another idea. Again using his Mana Manipulation, Jay pushed the ball of flame up into the air, straining to make the fire do as it was told and still retain its Spell-form without it breaking down. Slowly, but surely, the ball of flame floated up and when Jay was happy with how the light around him was spreading he relaxed his control over the Spell and let it float down to hover right above his head. To his dismay, however, the ball of flame was too hot and a foul burning smell came from his head.

Jay instantly stopped using the Spell, but it was too late. Feeling the top of his head he realized too late that he had actually burned away all the hair on top of his head. He must look ridiculous. Dejectedly, he felt the smooth skin on top of his head and the curly burned fringes of hair making a halo around his head. This wouldn't do; Jay created another Flame Torch from the top of his head and visualized it enveloping his head and soon the smell of burnt hair once again permeated the air. Now he had at least burnt away all his hair, it was slightly better than having the weird curly burned hair at the fringes of his head.

To his delight, however, he found that he didn't take any damage from his Flame Torch Spell even when it touched and spread out on top of his head. It was a good thing. Remembering the feeling he had at the moment, he focused on it until he could clearly activate and deactivate the Spell and have it always come out on top of his head. It was, after all, the best place for him to use a fire to light his surroundings. He stopped the Spell, and started climbing the staircase to the outside.

As Jay got out into the fresh air again, he stretched his arms to the sky, loosening his muscles. He was going to leave for a while to get Experience while also creating the Spells for his Quest, so he figured he wouldn't be back here in the next few days, and he wanted to soak in the tranquil atmosphere before he left. Unfortunately, his calming exercise was interrupted.

You have been given a Quest by Administrative Decree.

The Quest 'The First Hunt' has been added to your Quests.

Now, what's this all about? He thought to himself and opened up the Quest.

Quest

The First Hunt (60 days left)

Difficulty: Admin Decree

Find your prey and kill it. Success gives life. Failure means death. So, hunt as if your life depended on it.

You have been given an opponent to kill within the next sixty days. Your opponent also has you as its opponent. The first to kill the other wins.

Because you are the one with the lower Level you are given some information about your target:

Target is Level 71.

To find your target use the Spell 'Find Target'. It will give you an arrow that points towards your target for five minutes. The Spell can only be used once every day.

If both of you fail to kill the other within sixty days, both will die.

Reward:

Life

2016-03-20T23:39:00.001+01:00

Chapter 9 Initial Learning

Laying on his back, looking up at the sky, Jay sent out tens of thousands of tiny drops of dark blue Mana from all over his body. Cascading out like an explosive fountain through the air, the Water Mana droplets flew out a fair distance, only to spring back to a place right above Jay's face, concentrating into a spiraling vortex much like a whirlpool in turbid waters. As the concentration of Water Mana collected at a point above Jay's face, he opened his mouth, catching the tiny stream of water that trickled out of his newly created Spell 'Water Tap'. The Spell took 500 Mana and collected a little more than a mouthful of water, but Jay was happy with the result.

At first he had tried using Water Mana like he had Fire Mana and created a blob of Water Mana, mentally ordering it to collect water from the air and condense it into liquid; and it worked, to a degree. After using almost 2000 Mana in this way, Jay had only been able to collect a few drops of water, even after waiting and holding the blob of Mana in place for more than three minutes, greatly straining his mental capacities to hold the Spell in place. After that first failed experiment, he used less Mana but spread it out, blanketing a large area with a sheet of Water Mana and sweeping across space hoping to collect moisture that way, and this worked better, but also not well enough since it consumed almost 3000 Mana to collect enough water to fill his mouth.

These two experiments had led to his newly found success, though. Thinking through the properties he had figured out from using the Water Mana in these two ways, Jay tried another approach, and explosively sent out tens of thousands of tiny droplets of Water Mana, letting them fly almost sixty meters in all directions with the instruction to attract water vapor and then fly back to condense the water in a spiral where he indicated. His new Spell 'Water Tap' took almost two minutes to completely be cast from beginning to the end; it was not very mentally draining, and with some practice it had actually been accepted as a Spell quite quickly. It only took six hours of constantly casting the Spell for it to be listed in his Spell-list.

Now that he had created two new Spells in the span of less than a day, Jay felt really happy; if he could continue like this, it wouldn't be long before he could complete this Quest. It had actually gone a lot smoother than he thought it would, and this worried him slightly. Nothing ever seemed to work completely without complications from his limited experience.

After gulping down the now overflowing amount of water filling his mouth, Jay sat up, took out a biscuit from his Inventory and started nibbling on it, thinking about the next Spell he had thought about. At first he wanted to try and make some sort of shield of air spiraling all around him, but with the experiments with Water Mana he had grown slightly bored with trying to manipulate the air around him. And he felt it was better to try and experiment with one of the types of Mana he hadn't thought of a Spell for.

Looking all around himself, Jay found the choice almost chosen for him. Everything in this bowl-like valley was either made from a gray or reddish brown stone. Turning his feet to dangle from the precipice of the stone dais, Jay looked down through his Eye of the Magi, finding the tiny amber brown spots of Mana seemingly suspended inside the rock beneath him. He jumped down to the lower level to have a closer look at the rock. With Observe he found out the stone was a type of granite, but nothing much more.

Jay tried the first thing he always did, and sent out a small tendril of amber brown Mana from his finger-tip, ordering the tendril to go into the rock with the intention of interacting with the tiny spots of Mana suspended inside the rock. But to his horror, after Jay sent in the tendril of Mana it drained his Mana exponentially the deeper the tendril burrowed into the rock. This was not the right way to do anything. He had already used over a thousand Mana and the tendril of Mana had gone in for about ten centimeters into the rock, creating a tiny hole with the width of a strand of hair. And the tendril didn't do much else; it was completely useless.

But Jay didn't despair, failures only gave more knowledge; it was always better to know what not to do than to not know anything. Thinking for a while longer, Jay made a fist-sized orb of amber brown Mana accumulate over his palm, concentrating four hundred Mana into it before pushing the orb into the gray stone. The amber brown Mana splashed out in all directions upon contact with the stone, and all that could be seen where Jay had hit the rock was a slight indentation that could be barely seen. This didn't seem like the right way either, but it had given him an idea. If the stone was too hard for the Mana to damage, then he only had to make the Mana more solid.

Above Jay's hand, using 400 Mana, he sent out thousands of tiny tendrils of Mana, crisscrossing them into a crudely woven flat sheet of Earth Mana; this way of using Mana was very straining and he felt his head start to dully ache, but he couldn't care about that right now. He pushed the sheet of Mana hovering above his hand into the rock wall, vibrating each and every tendril of Mana in a pulsing manner where the warp and weft—the crisscrossing tendrils in different directions—pulsed at a very quick interval, alternating to make the sheet of Mana fluctuate in the air. It hurt his head quite a bit to do this—almost to the point of being impossible to continue—but Jay bit his tongue and persevered, because he could see the result. Where the sheet of Earth Mana touched the rock, the wall crumbled into a fine dust without the Earth Mana dissipating much. After Jay had pushed the sheet of Mana about five centimeters into the wall, the Mana finally dissipated completely, but this experiment had been a real success, now he just had to modify the Spell slightly and make it less troublesome for his mind to use and he would have created another Spell.

Jumping back up to sit on the dais outcrop, Jay rested for a bit, looking out at the hard-working Saruk. They had a kind of harmony in their work, and Jay could see that all of them used some sort of Spells in each and every action while they tended the plants. This fascinated Jay, and he wanted to go have a look at the plants, maybe even pluck a few and try to eat or sell them, but he didn't dare disturb these Mole-squirrels either; he really didn't want to spoil their tentatively friendly relationship. They didn't seem to care about his Murderous Aura and for some reason they were quite obedient to him, both made this place a haven of sorts, and there was no reason to disturb the peace before Jay could actually gain more than he would lose if he actually did something to disturb the Saruk.

Looking down at his legs, Jay saw that there were tiny tendrils of static Mana in his trousers that seemed to have been made part of the garment. Jay figured these swirling Mana patterns were what imbued the equipment with its special effects. If he could learn how these patterns worked, he might be able to replicate it on something else, which would be really good. But to Jay's disappointment, even after he studied the pattern of purple, amber brown, dark red and pale green Mana he couldn't even figure out how the Mana had been assembled and made static. The thought of trying to figure out how this worked was a good one, just not as relevant as trying to create Spells at the moment, so Jay quickly filed the idea away for later investigation. He felt a bit lacking in his understanding of Mana right now to actually be comfortable recreating the patterns of Mana in his equipment.

But from looking at his pants, Jay got another idea of something he hadn't tried yet. Rolling up his left pants-leg, he activated the Haste Skill and looked at his leg, trying to figure out how the Skill worked from looking at what it did. As Haste activated, hundreds of tiny purple lightning-bolt-like tendrils flashed through Jay's legs down to his foot. He deactivated Haste and reactivated it again, and was now certain that these tiny purple lightning bolts of Mana was the Skill being used.

The Skill looked very complex from his limited knowledge, and he had no idea how it worked, but he figured he could at least try doing something to manipulate it. Using his Mana Manipulation, he focused on his legs, increasing the input of Lightning Mana into each of the flashing bolts until they doubled in size. The added Mana seemed to be increasing the efficiency of the Haste Skill, but Jay wasn't sure by how much, and it was quite tiring to focus on increasing the purple Mana-strands flashing in his legs, so he didn't increase it more, and jumped down, running for a short distance. He could clearly feel that his legs moved quicker, and that his Movement Speed had increased, but it was also quite mentally taxing to keep up the continual increase of Mana in the Haste Skill.

Running back to the dais, Jay jumped back up, sitting down and looking at his left leg for a little more time before he deactivated and activated Haste again, only increasing the flow of Lightning Mana used by the Haste Skill in the left leg until his leg started vibrating. He had now increased the Spell by almost eight times the volume, and it showed; Jay's leg was actually vibrating in a frequency high enough to make a tiny buzzing sound. The vibrations also numbed his leg; it felt like he had cut off the blood-flow to it. This didn't make Jay apprehensive, however, only more inquisitive. He felt like something great would happen if he could just increase the amount of Mana flowing through the Haste Skill a little bit more, so he pushed more Mana into his left leg, forcing it with all his mental faculties. And to his delight, he finally increased the amount of Lightning Mana to more than eight times the original amount... And his leg exploded.

Gory pieces of flesh and a mist of blood sprayed out all around Jay's leg, and his foot actually dropped off, leaving a stump in the middle of his calf. He didn't feel anything; it felt strange, almost surrealistic.

You have been Crippled, losing your left foot.

Your foot has been removed, making you a cripple.

While your left foot is gone, you lose 10% of your Max Health.

He had actually lost his foot, but it didn't hurt one bit. Stunned, Jay looked down on his leg, the trickling blood flowing out of his leg slowly stopped, but it still looked very bad. He felt a slight panic rising, what would he do without a leg? What do I do now? he thought, cringing at the message he had gotten. How can I fix this?

Just find a very strong Healer or Cleric that has the Regrowth Spell, Claudine answered in his head. You can also buy some limb-reattachment ointment from an Alchemist shop, or a Potion of Regrowth. There are many ways.

And how should I go about finding one of those solutions? Jay asked Claudine. Not having the use of my leg will limit my movement severely...

How would I know? Claudine didn't seem to care much about the injury, as if it wasn't any big problem.

Before Jay could comment on Claudine's unresponsive attitude, he heard a yell.

“BIG OW OW!” a gruff voice rang out, followed by a chorus of echoing “Big Ow Ow!” “Big Ow Ow!” from pretty much every single one of the Mole-squirrels. Jay looked around, stunned at the creatures; they were all now looking at him, and his crippled leg.

Hoping his injured leg didn't send these creatures into some sort of blood-frenzy or other weird state, Jay sighed. He shouldn't have experimented on his own body while not understanding how Skills worked. It was something he had to remember in the future: While not certain about what results it might bring, always experiment on others. It was easy to think that after the fact though, so Jay didn't feel very pleased with himself. How was he going to fix this? He had no idea...

In the distance, the words “Big Ow Ow!” still echoed, but now they had a hollow sound to them, as if the words were spoken through a tube. And a little later, to Jay's astonishment, there came an answer. “Yes, yes. Coming,” said a reedy old voice in a carrying tone that was somehow like a whisper while still being loud. For some reason, the voice inspired Jay's curiosity. Who was it that had answered? It sounded very different from that Mole-squirrel he had talked to.

A little later Jay got his answer. From somewhere behind a patch of shrubbery, a short hunchbacked creature came walking out, its body completely clad in a dark brown robe with twigs, seeds and moss attached to its outer surface. Every step the short creature took was accompanied by a delicate thud of its staff hitting the ground. The staff looked very impressive; at its top was a large hexagonal dark blue crystal woven into thin branches coming out of the two different types of brown wood twisting around each other that made the staff's body. In Jay's eyes, the two twisting pieces of wood each had a different color, one dark red, the other dark green; it seemed to be utilizing both Life Mana and Decay Mana in some way. With every tap on the ground, the staff surged slightly, a pulse of red and green light respectively going up each of the intertwined pieces of wood to reach the dark blue crystal which then absorbed the light. The crystal glowed with Life Mana, Decay Mana and Water Mana from what Jay could see. He had no idea how it was used, but it looked grand in his eyes, though it was probably quite lackluster if you didn't see the flow of Mana inside the staff.

The hunchback walked up to Jay in another two minutes, the slow shuffling gait not giving Jay much confidence in this little creature. It looked up at him, and showed its wrinkly old face. It was also a Mole-squirrel, but its skin looked like pine bark, one of its eyes was clouded and gray, and its nose was drooping down below its chin, a few white whiskers limply flowing down to touch the creature's waist. “Hello Little Master,” the creature said in its reedy old voice, a slightly feminine tone of care coming through. “This one is called Asarj. Grower. Healer. Shaman.”

“Hello?” Jay felt strange, but also hopeful. “Do you need something from me?” this Mole-squirrel seemed different somehow.

“Big Ow Ow,” Asarj said, pointing at Jay's stump. “Not good.”

“Obviously,” Jay said. “Can you do something to heal my leg?”

“Yes,” Asarj said, taking off an ornament from her dark brown robe. It looked like some sort of small seed or dried berry. “Eat.”

“What is it?”

“Big Ow Ow become no ow ow,” Asarj said.

It seemed to be some sort of pain reliever, from what Jay gathered, but it wasn't really necessary. He still couldn't feel any pain from his leg, only the numb feeling he got when he had pushed a lot of Lightning Mana into his leg. “I don't need pain relief. I need to somehow get my foot back onto my leg.”

“Not eat?” Asarj asked, seemingly confused.

“No,” Jay said. “Just help me get my foot back if you can, please?”

“Hm...” Asarj hummed to herself, walking up to where Jay's foot stood in its boot, the remainder of his calf still attached to the foot slowly seeping blood into to boot. Asarj picked up the foot, looking it over, then licked it. “Big Ow Ow inside too. Not good.”

“Can you help me?” Jay asked, he really felt like these creatures were on a totally different wavelength than him when it came to their thoughts. They all seemed to live in a sort of confused and slightly dulled state of mind.

“Yes, yes,” Asarj said, going up to Jay and reaching up to his stump. “Stubborn Little Master.” Then Asarj aligned Jay's left foot with his stump of a leg. And in almost an instant the thin branches on her staff grew out of it and started intertwining in a seemingly random way around Jay's calf, holding together his leg and foot. Then Asarj tossed the small seed she had earlier given Jay to eat to where there were now only a covering of thin branches on Jay's leg. The moment the small seed touched the branches, they convulsed, a dark red radiance glowing brightly almost blinding Jay in its intensity. The seed merged into the branches around Jay's leg and a hot feeling ran through and up his leg. The feeling lingered for a couple of minutes and Asarj started to slowly pant with effort. It seemed to take something out of her to do whatever she did, but Jay could see the stubborness in Asarj's good eye and just waited.

The feeling of warmth went away after another couple of minutes and Jay felt as if he had lost something as the warmth went away. Soon after, the thin branches attached to Asarj's staff broke off from the staff and withered on Jay's leg until only ashes were left from the formerly healthy branches. The ashes were then dispersed with a puff of wind, and what Jay saw stunned him. Where his leg had been a ragged piece of destroyed flesh was now smooth and perfect, as if nothing had ever happened.

You are no longer Crippled.

You gain back your full Max Health.

Wow, he thought to himself. Wasn't that a bit too easy? He was truly stunned. The problem he had been almost panicking about, was actually fixed this easily.

Easy? Claudine asked. That was not easy, it was powerful. Usually it takes a Regrowth Spell an hour to reattach a lost limb. That this Asarj could do it this quickly is really telling, she should be a very powerful Healer.

“Thank you, Asarj,” Jay said, smiling at the old Mole-squirrel. “How can I repay you?”

“No pay,” Asarj said. “Big Ow Ow go away is good.”

“Yes, that is good,” Jay said, trying to ingratiate himself with this useful creature. “How did you learn to do that? Can you teach me?”

“All old Shaman know this,” Asarj said, but stopped, as if thinking about something. “Old Shaman make new Shaman and teach everything. Then old Shaman go away. New Shaman become old Shaman and make new Shaman and teach everything.”

“Okay?” Jay was a bit puzzled. “So, can you teach me?”

“You not new Shaman,” Asarj said, as if trying to explain that water was wet, then seemed to tremble, hesitating. “Little Master. No kill.”

“So you can't teach me?” Jay asked, hoping to get a straight answer. “And I won't kill you either way. You just helped me. I wouldn't hurt you after that.”

“Good Little Master,” Asarj asserted. “I no teach. You not new Shaman. Old Shaman only teach new Shaman.”

“Fine,” Jay said. “I won't pry into this then. Thank you anyway though.”

“Yes, yes,” Asarj said, her body slumping down slightly, the hunchback growing larger. She wobbled slightly, and Jay jumped down and grabbed the old Mole-squirrel, trying to stabilize her.

“Here,” Jay said. “Let me help you. It seems it was difficult to heal my leg.”

“Yes, stupid Little Master,” Asarj said, exacerbation flowing out with every word.

“What? Why?”

“Just eat seed. Wait half day. Grow new foot,” Asarj said. “But no, say no eat. Stupid Little Master. Now Asarj use Mana instead and get tired.”

“Ah,” Jay said, suddenly realizing that the seed given him could have actually been eaten and had the same effect, but he didn't feel any guilt. “You should have said so earlier.”

“Yes, yes,” Asarj just answered. “Help me back home.”

“Sure,” Jay said. “Lead the way.”

Helping the weak Asarj, Jay walked and her walked together for a few minutes, their pace slower than a crawl, but Jay didn't complain. No matter what, the old Mole-squirrel had helped him, so he couldn't just brush her off. Soon they arrived at a hole in the ground. The hole was oblong and a slanting staircase went down into the ground inside the hole.

Stooping down to not hit his head on the ceiling, Jay almost carried Asarj down the long sloping staircase, and after a few more minutes they arrived at the bottom. What Jay saw then was incredible; in front of him, an enormous cave stretched out and the entire smooth ceiling was glowing in a light red hue. The light illuminated something even more incredible; there were dwellings stretching out on either side of a wide main road as far as Jay could see from this slightly raised platform, and every single house was made from some light green translucent crystal that glowed with an amber brown light in Jay's Eye of the Magi. The crystals were all hexagon pillars, but they had merged into walls and slanted roofs. The structures looked very beautiful in the red light, sparkling every now and then in yellow flashes. It was as if the crystals had captured a twinkling night sky in their depths.

“What's this?” Jay couldn't help but ask.

“Sarukim,” Asarj spoke out in her reedy voice, pride filling it, and not seeming tired anymore. “Home of the last Saruk,” a hint of sadness filled the last sentence.

2016-03-13T23:36:00.000+01:00

Chapter 8 Growing Glory

Jay flew through the black screen separating Wraith from the outside world. As he passed through it, his hand burned with an instant of intense heat and pain. Once outside, he rolled head over heels and smacked hard into the ground, his back and feet took most of the brunt force, but his whole body felt jarred. He looked at the sky for a moment, the clear blue and wispy white clouds showing that it would be a beautiful day. He smiled, feeling relaxed and clearheaded, feeling he had taken the first steps toward truly awesome power.

A few moments later, he turned his body, pushing himself up to one knee, only to stop because a rake was almost shoved into his face. “Back,” a thick and short Mole-squirrel in a dark brown robe said to him, holding the rake menacing. “Back. Fertilizer.” The rake pushed into Jay's stomach and he flew back through the air towards the black sphere.

To his surprise, Jay didn't fly back through the black surface of the sphere, but hit it hard, sliding down to sit with it at his back as support. His body ached. Those creatures were too strong. He felt slightly helpless when thinking how they could push him around as if he weighed nothing. “Wait,” he said, raising his hand, pleading for the now ten Mole-squirrels that stood in a circle around him to not hurt him. “I was thrown out. And now I can't go back. Please don't hurt me any more.”

Jay didn't think what he said would help, but he had to give it a try. And to his astonishment, the creatures looked at him in shock, their beady black eyes opened as much as was physically possible. “MASTER!” They yelled in complete unison, all of them trembling, seeming to want to move, but unable to do so. The first Mole-squirrel that had shoved Jay looked extremely scared, but it spoke hesitantly. “No kill. No, please no kill.”

“I won't kill you,” Jay felt he was probably as surprised as the Mole-squirrels were frightened, because he had no idea why they would have this reaction.

But before Jay could think some more, the first Mole-squirrel sniffed the air and grew bold, walking up to Jay. Reaching out its hand, stretching a thick brown finger, it touched Jay's palm hesitantly. “Not Master,” it said, growing bolder. “Who you?”

Jay didn't know what to say or what to do, but he didn't feel as scared as he was a few seconds earlier. “I'm Jay. Who you?” He tried using a more basic form of communication because these creatures seemed barely sentient and might be confused if he didn't speak to them in their own way.

“Gark,” the Mole-squirrel pointed to its chest. “You? Why feel like Master?” it once again pushed at Jay's palm and seemed to felt a slight jolt of pain as it retracted its hand quickly. “Little Master?” it asked, sounding very confused.

Jay could relate, the confusion seemed to be spreading, all the Mole-squirrels in a circle around him also looked at each other as if asking what was going on. “First of all, let me get up from the ground. What is this all about?”

Seeing Jay slowly stand, brushing off imaginary dust from his pants, all the Mole-squirrels took a step back as if wanting to run away, but seeming unable to even control their bodies. They all looked like they were standing in front of an extremely dangerous predator, hoping they wouldn't become its next meal, using the rest of their cohorts as potential scapegoats.

“No kill,” Gark said. “Please?” it was trembling again, its brown robe rustling as if blown by the wind.

“Wait a moment,” Jay said, stretching out his right hand again, showing them his palm. The very instant his palm was pointed at the Mole-squirrels they all fell back, laying down on their backs, opening up their robes to show him their yellowish brown-furred bellies. Closing their eyes, they all stretched out their arms too, as if entirely giving up any resistance to whatever Jay wanted to do. “What are you doing?” Jay asked, hoping to get some more information about what was going on. “Get up. Why are you lying there on the ground?”

None of the Mole-squirrels moved even a bit, they all just opened their eyes, looking at Jay with what he could only interpret as silent pleading and despair. “Stand up. I won't harm you.”

“Little Master? Good Master?” Gark asked. It seemed this Mole-squirrel had a little bit more courage than the rest of them.

“Yes, yes,” Jay said, impatient to have these creatures tell him what was going on. They didn't seem to be hostile, and their abrupt fear of him was not bad either. It might be possible that Jay had found a place to stay for a while, but he had to know what these creatures were and why they treated him like they did. He looked down on his right palm, for the first time seeing what that burning sensation had been. In the middle of his palm he saw a a tiny outline of a red square with a green circle inside it. The symbol seemed to be like a tattoo. This must have come from the silver token Wraith gave me, but what did it do to me?

You're back! Claudine's voice rang out in his skull, almost echoing in with its loud volume. Finally. I thought I was dead. I mean... I thought you were dead!

Ehm? Jay was slightly puzzled, but remembered that he hadn't been able to talk to Claudine inside Wraith's sealed space. it's very kind of you to care so much... I guess? What happened?

How would I know? When you went through that black barrier all input from your senses just went blank for me and I could do nothing about it. You've been gone a bit more than two days. I should be the one asking what happened... Claudine sounded very petulant, but also happy, as if she had actually been worried for him, but couldn't make herself say so.

Jay felt slightly touched, but also very strange. You said two days? It felt like just a couple of hours. How can that be?

How would I know? Claudine asked again, this time sounding annoyed. What happened?

When I went through this black barrier I found myself inside a barren place with an old man that looked like a stone statue, but was actually alive. He gave me a Skill with a Profession attached to it. It was quite rewarding now that I know I'm safe from his clutches. Jay felt happy, looking around, only to notice that he could see almost no glowing colors of Mana at all wherever he looked. Strange, he thought, why are there only some tiny specks of Mana inside the plants and things out here?

What? Claudine asked. I don't know what you're talking about. But now you're safe, so that's good. I can't have you dying on me before I get my own body, you hear me? I need to collect all the information, and if you disappear I have to do it by myself. I've already accumulated quite a bit in such a short time. Having collected 0.0007% of what my instincts tell me I knew before can be considered a good amount in this short time, but there is much left to collect. So don't go dying on me just yet.

Okay... Jay said, not knowing if he should pity Claudine, or laud her conviction. 0.0007% can't really be a lot, however you look at it, but she seemed happy, so he wouldn't ruin her good mood. And Jay had other things on his mind; firstly, what kinds of Spells should he create to get those 5 million Experience-points as quickly as possible, and secondly, why could he only see tiny specks of Mana?;

“Little Master?” Gark asked, and Jay now noticed that the Mole-squirrels had all stood back up, but none had left and everyone except Gark was looking down on the ground, their hoods covering their faces. “Have orders?” Gark asked.

“Just do what you were doing,” Jay said, hesitating before continuing. “Except you Gark, I need to ask a few questions, okay?”

The encircling Mole-squirrels all bowed low to Jay, saying “Good Little Master,” in unison, then hurriedly walking away with their different farming tools, and soon they were all tending to one large plant or another, watering them, sprinkling some powder on them or doing other things to tend the plants. Jay finally figured out what these creatures' purpose must be; they were gardeners for Wraith.

“Little Master?” Gark asked again, seeming to want to join his brethren in their tasks. “What do now?”

“Ah, Gark,” Jay said, smiling at the creature. Jay walked forward, patting it on its broad shoulder. Gark seemed to wilt and grow uncertain. “I only want to know some things. Follow me.” Jay walked away from the black sphere and the strange spiraling Life Tree. He didn't want to be too close to either things if he could avoid it. He walked until he came to the slightly raised dais where he had lain earlier and jumped up, turning in the air to land sitting on the stone outcropping, his feet almost touching the ground. It was a good seat, from here Jay could see all the Mole-squirrels and what they were doing. But he didn't feel completely safe just yet. “Gark, what is this place?”

“Master's garden,” Gark answered.

“I figured that out,” Jay said, looking down on Gark's cloaked figure. “What I mean is... What are you? And where is this?”

“We Saruk, Master's gardeners. Here, Sarukim, town of last Saruk,” Gark said, slowly raising his head to look up at Jay. “Little Master not know this? Why?”

“You ask me why?” Jay felt strange, thinking: hadn't these creatures taken him here to make into some kind of fertilizer out of his flesh and bones? “You brought me here, I didn't come here by myself. How would I know where this is? Or who you are?”

“Ah!” Gark took a step back. “Where fertilizer?” it asked Jay as if just having the thought.

How would I know? Jay almost asked, but keeping the thought inside his head; he couldn't bring himself to confuse the Mole-squirrel anymore than necessary. “No fertilizer this time,” Jay said, hoping it would settle this matter. “Now tell me, where is this?”

“Sarukim,” Gark said.

“I won't get a better answer, will I?” Jay asked, “No, don't answer. It doesn't matter. I just want to know this. Why call me Little Master?”

“You? No!” Gark said, “Little Master is hand.”

“You mean I'm not this Little Master?” Jay was confused. Did this creature not understand even basic language? “You're saying my hand is your Little Master?”

“Yes!” Gark exclaimed, but hesitated. “No?” it then asked, frustrating Jay to no end.

“Then who am I?” Jay asked, not knowing what else to ask. He had to know if these creatures would listen to him, because if they only feared his hand, or the symbol on it, then Jay wouldn't feel safe here. He didn't know what the symbol was, and when he looked at it with his Eye of the Magi, he could only see the tiniest sparks of green and red Mana flowing together in an intricate pattern, creating a whirlpool in the middle of his palm.

“You? Little Master,” Gark said.

“So, I'm Little Master?” Jay asked patiently, but secretly wanting to scream it at this creature; he held back, however. It wouldn't be good if he somehow insulted these creatures that he couldn't even see the information about with his Observe Skill. Their bodies glowed with a pulsing brown and red Mana-light, however, making Jay believe they were very powerful. “What is Little Master to you?”

Gark looked up, confusion plainly covering its rat-like face, its small beady eyes squinting up at Jay as if trying to see him better. “Master all-powerful. Little Master little powerful?”

“No,” Jay said, hurriedly trying to intimidate the creature. “Little Master all-powerful too.”

“No kill. Please?” Gark whined, lowering its head again, covering its face in its brown hood. “Little Master everything. All obey.”

This sentence made Jay giddy. From what he understood it seemed these creatures instinctively were afraid of the mark on his palm. If he could use this to his advantage, it would be great. “So, you will do what I say?”

“Yes,” Gark said, trembling slightly.

“No need to be afraid,” Jay said, trying to comfort the creature. If he could gain these Mole-squirrels as his followers or tools, he would at the very least feel safe being in this place until he had created the eight Spells for his Quest. “If you obey me, everything will be good.”

“Good?” Gark asked. “How good?”

“Ehm,” Jay didn't really know what to say. He paused for a little while, remembering the conversation he had had with this creature. “If you obey. I no kill. Good?”

“Yes,” Gark said. “That good.”

“Alright, then it's settled,” Jay said. “You can go do whatever you want now. I will not disturb you unless I have to. Don't disturb me either.”

Gark stood still, then quickly looked up again only to lower its face in an instant. “Good,” Gark said a little while later. “I go plant,” then Gark walked away, minding its own business.

Seeing Gark walk to the black sphere and picking up its rake, Jay felt relieved. It seemed this place was actually a blessing in disguise. Now he just had to think about what to do next. And creating new Spells was his priority.

Pulling up his legs to the dais, he sat down comfortably, crossing his legs, relaxing his arms in his lap, closing his eyes, Meditating to replenish the massive amount of Mana he could now have. He knew he now had the capacity to hold more than 40000 Mana and when he had filled his Mana-pool completely he could experiment for a long while before running out again. He felt relaxed and focused, it was great.

Letting his mind drift, he began thinking about what kinds of Spells he could create, and if he should try and make as them as simplistic as possible, or as useful as possible. After a couple of minutes he came to the conclusion that he would try and blend the two concepts. He wanted to quickly create the eight different Spells, but also didn't want to create something completely useless. So, what kind of Spells did he need?

He had a great Attack Spell in his Fling Shot, even though it hadn't shown up in his Spell-list, it was still a great Spell, he just needed to stabilize it; that wasn't something difficult as long as he had the time to use it consecutively with the same amount of Mana every time. It would be easy, especially now that his control over Mana and his ability to see Mana and understand its uses had greatly increased too. For now, he ignored the Force Mana Spell, and thought about the other seven.

First, Fire Mana, by its very nature, should be useful as an attack, but Jay didn't really need an Attack Spell. So, he thought for a while and remembered back to his misadventure below the Magician's Guild, and he quickly came to the conclusion that Fire Mana could also be used to illuminate. He really didn't want to carry around torches when exploring caves or dungeons, and it didn't seem difficult to create a small ball of flame that he could have burning perpetually instead of a torch. As long as he could create a small flame that would not use more than 10% of his Mana Regeneration it could be called a success.

Looking at the bar representing his Mana-pool and seeing it was barely filled to a third, he realized that it would take a really long time before he would fill it up completely, so he didn't try creating the Fire Spell just yet. He needed to think of some more concepts before actually beginning experimentation.

Next, he thought about Wind and how he had seen a Spell called Air Shield—or something like that—in the Magician's Guild Beginner's Spellbook. He didn't know how that Spell looked, or how it worked, but he figured the concept was a sound one. If he could create a whirlwind around himself using Wind Mana to fuel its rotation, it would be really useful against ranged attacks. And since Jay had long since come to the conclusion that he would try and attack from a long distance as much as possible, this really felt like the right thing to create, and it didn't seem like it would that difficult.

Going through each type of Mana one by one, Jay thought as hard as he could, but after a long time he only had a good idea about what to do with Water Mana. He really didn't like having to carry around water, so if he could condense the moisture in the air and drink it, he wouldn't need to use his precious few kilograms of possible carry-weight; this would make his Inventory more spacious.

An bit more than an hour passed and Jay still hadn't filled his Mana-pool completely; he had hoped he could use his thoughts only and completely figure out the eight Spells he would create before actually having to create them, but right now it seemed like his imagination could only do so much. He needed to experiment with the different types of Mana and figure out what could be done and not before he thought some more about what Spells to create. But before that, he would try to create the three he had already thought of.

Opening his eyes completely, Jay looked around, only now remembering that his Eye of the Magi seemed to not be as useful outside that strange black sphere as it was inside. He couldn't figure out why until he looked at the stone beneath him; inside the stone were tiny specks of brown and silver Mana, but even being this close, the specks barely glowed. Their dim glow made Jay realize he only used 10% of 'Eye of the Magi'. Set Eye of the Magi to 100%, he thought and the world seemed to be set ablaze for a moment, then his mind calmed down and the world seemed more ephemeral with the now clearly visible wisps of Mana floating through the air and the glowing tiny stars showing concentrations of Mana inside the stones, plants and Mole-squirrels all around Jay.

Reaching out his hand, Jay concentrated, using his Mana Manipulation to send out a pale yellow strand of Mana. For some reason, this was the default, but he didn't want to use Force Mana right now, so Jay concentrated, picturing the strand of Mana connecting to his finger turning orange. The pale yellow in the Mana Jay had sent out dissipated, turning almost invisible, but was then replaced almost instantly by a fiery orange color. It looked like something invisible had converted the Mana from Force Mana to Fire Mana, but that it hadn't been Jay's doing, but some external force acting according to Jay's thoughts. It felt strange, as if there was an invisibly lurking presence watching over what he did with his Mana, but it didn't bother him much. As long as Jay could control what happened to his Mana, that was good enough.

The fiery orange Mana-tendril coming out of Jay's finger behaved differently than the pale yellow; it was constantly vibrating slightly, almost as if it was trying to go against Jay's will. But it didn't, so Jay didn't mind. He only took note of the fact that it seemed the different kinds of Mana might be differently difficult to control. Not thinking more about it, Jay forced the fiery orange Mana into a ball and thought of a burning flame. In an instant the ball of Mana burst into flame, and a small yellow orange ball of fire was burning in the air two decimeters above Jay's hand. He cut off the tendril of Mana to the ball of flame and it burned for barely a second before disappearing. This seems easy enough, he thought to himself.

How did you do that? Claudine asked. You shouldn't be able to just create fire like that. It takes Magicians years to be able to control their Mana like that. And you're not even gifted in the Fire Attributed Spells. How did you do that?

Claudine seemed puzzled and excited both. And Jay couldn't help but feel slightly smug. This is all because of the Skill I learned inside that black sphere.

How? Claudine said, but not actually seeming to ask Jay.

It doesn't matter, Jay thought. Can't you see how easy it is for me to use all types of Mana now?

What do you mean types of Mana? Claudine asked.

You can't see the different colors? Jay was now a bit flustered. Didn't Claudine see everything he saw, and as such, shouldn't she see what he did now that he used the 'Eye of the Magi'?

What colors? Your Mana is as always a pale whitish blue, Claudine answered.

Oh? Jay hadn't thought that she wouldn't see the different colors. Does that mean you can't see the Freeflowing Mana either?

What's that? A hungry note tinged Claudine's voice, it seemed she really liked knowing new things. I can only see your Mana and mine, except if the Mana concentration is so large that it takes on solid physical form.

Ehm, Jay said, not knowing if it was a good idea to try and explain this to Claudine, especially since she didn't seem to be able to see what he saw through the 'Eye of the Magi'. No matter, I can't explain it right now Claudine.

Meh! Claudine exclaimed, sounding extremely indignant. Suit yourself. She then grew quiet.

Oh, don't be like that, Jay thought. Come on, I'll explain later, when I understand it better. Okay?

He didn't get an answer though, so Jay just went back to what he was doing. He once more sent out a tendril of Mana, and this time visualized it as a fiery orange right away. To his delight, Fire Mana came out of his finger, and this time it didn't vibrate as much. This time he didn't make a ball of the Mana though, he tried to get a feel for an exact amount, making the tendril of Mana uniform before forcing it to bulge out, making its end look like an egg the size of Jay's fist; then he thought of it burning, and it did, creating a flickering fire about half the size of his fist. The fiery yellow flame with an orange core blazed above his hand, and Jay slowly fed it Mana through a flowing tendril that didn't change size at all, calibrating it to burn exactly one MP every three seconds. If it wasn't for him actually feeling the Mana drain from him, he wouldn't have known that he actually fed the flame with Mana from just looking at it. The ball of fire floated in mid air, pushed up by the constant ignition of Fire Mana from its bottom. He kept the little ball of fire burning for a minute, five, ten... an hour passed and he still burned his Mana through a constant flow, having the exact amount of Mana drained every minute. Because his Mana Regeneration was much higher than his consumption he had now almost filled his Mana-pool, but he only focused on keeping the flame burning at a constant rate. Another hour passed, and Jay felt himself growing tired by this monotonous exercise. But he persevered, and it soon paid off. Ping!

Because of your constant use of Fire Mana in a specific way, you have created a Spell.

What would you like to name your Spell?

You have earned 9000 Experience

Flame Torch, Jay thought to the prompt. And there came another Ping! confirming the name. Jay had not felt this contented for a long time. He had actually succeeded. And it barely took a couple of hours. If he could create the other Spells this quickly he would soon get a large boost in Experience.

But before Jay could revel in his newfound happiness, a message telling him that Bluth was trying to contact him rang out in his head.

“Yes?” Jay asked Bluth.

“Oh, you're there now, good... haven't seen you away from the game for such a long time since I added you as a Friend,” Bluth said. “So, what did you do?”

“What do you mean?” Jay asked, knowing what the answer would be.

“You've got a bounty of a hundred gold on your head, didn't you know?”

“I knew,” Jay answered. “So what's it to you? Want to claim my bounty?”

“No, never! I wouldn't make you lose so much Experience for a few gold coins. Though I think it might be best for you to actually turn yourself in. You know, to get that nasty alignment corrected; it isn't easy to get rid of what, -10000 alignment? I read you killed a very large amount of people in the Magician's Guild somehow. It really gave me a good laugh.”

Ignoring what Bluth said last, Jay answered reluctantly. “I can't turn myself in.” He didn't really want to explain himself, but Bluth had been good to him, though he had also taken advantage of Jay, so Jay had to be wary. But thinking for a while he figured he might as well throw caution to the wind and see what happened, so he answered with some honesty. “I have this thing that if I die, I can't play anymore.”

“Oh?” Bluth sounded amused. “That's not good for you. What, you're playing on a hardcore account, so if you die it gets deleted?”

“Yes,” Jay lied. “This is a hardcore account, and if I die, it gets deleted.”

“Hmmmm,” Bluth said, humming to himself for a little while. “No matter. I just had to ask though, did you get any good loot from all those you killed?”

“I don't know,” Jay said.

“What?” Bluth asked. “Don't tell me you didn't pick up the void pearls... Sure, they seldom contain anything, but you killed a lot of people, and if you can't at least gain something from that, what was the point?”

“Oh, right,” Jay said to Bluth, but mostly to himself. He had forgotten completely about those pearls he picked up. “I forgot about those. Can you tell me a bit more about them?” He figured he could always learn a bit more, and Bluth seemed like man who tried to know as much as possible, so there might be answers to be found here.

“Sure,” Bluth said. “You'll need to show me all the loot anyway, so I might as well explain. The void pearls contain one slot of the Inventory of whoever you killed, and sometimes it will also contain a piece of the person's equipment. So, how many did you pick up, and what was inside?” Bluth sounded almost giddy at the prospect of having more things to buy and sell.

“I'll have to get back to you on that,” Jay said. “I haven't really checked. Though I picked up some of those pearls, I didn't have time to count them, and I didn't take all of them. And even more so, I haven't had the time to look at their contents. So, you'll have to wait.”

“Why?” Bluth sounded reluctant. “Can't you do it now?”

“I'm doing something for a very important Quest right now, so I can't care about other things. And the pearls need to be flooded with Mana before they open, so I really don't have time for it.”

“Fine,” Bluth said. “Well, I'll look forward to the info-dump then.”

“Sure,” Jay said. “If you didn't want something else from me, I need to get back to what I was doing.”

“Okay, bye,” Bluth said. “Watch out for yourself. I can't have you die. You're the person that's online most among the people I have contracted to me. So keep safe and you can always ask me for help if you need it. I won't charge you much.”

Jay didn't comment on what Bluth said about Jay having to pay for help, but he didn't really think it was a bad way to conduct their relationship either, so he didn't feel bad about the comment. “Talk to you later,” Jay said and severed the connection.

Now back to what I was doing, he thought to himself. He had already created one Spell, but that Spell was easy because he only had to burn his Fire Mana to make a ball of fire. Now, he had to use his Water Mana to collect the moisture in the air, and he didn't know exactly how he should go about trying that.

2016-03-06T23:19:00.000+01:00

Chapter 7 Circular Investigation

Hannah lay on the slanting roof of one of the tallest towers inside the Magician's Guild Compound, watching the stars in hope of finding a sliver of peace. She had hoped to rest her weary mind by playing the game, but to her dismay it hadn't been much of a distraction from her currently too real life.

A few hours earlier, right after she had logged in, she had gone down into the sewers to investigate the third floor down. And she had found nothing but that large black cap-stone, covering any way down to the lower floors; there wasn't even any creatures to kill. She had even had the thought of trying to dig down to the lower floor by pulling up the floor-stones in one of the corridors, but she hadn't even been able to put a scratch on the stones, much less pry them loose.

After the disappointing exploration of the underground structure, Hannah had gone to look at two of the three places she had been told contained secrets of the Magician's Guild. The first place was a large room with large open windows, inside the room were rows upon rows of benches with an aisle separating the room in the middle. At the very front of the benches were a raised platform and large blackboards. It looked very much like any regular hall of learning, and after running around looking everywhere for almost half an hour she couldn't figure out what was special about it. Maybe she had to go there during the day when people were there.

The second place was a lot more interesting; she just couldn't investigate the place to her satisfaction. When night had truly arrived, she had gone over the roofs and come to a large robustly built stone structure with window-slits so tiny that no person could go through them, even if the windows weren't barred by black iron rods every ten centimeters. When she looked in, she saw that the robust structure held a large room with a wall inset with a round metal door, indicating that the place was some kind of vault. In front of the round metal door stood two people clad in so much steel that she could only discern they were actually people and not statues from the slight movement one of them made after she had watched the place for almost ten minute. This room she had been told was where the Spellscrolls were kept, and she soon lost interest in looking at a locked vault she could never enter no matter how sneaky she tried to be.

Now she had gone back to where her spontaneous Quest had started with that man falling out of a window and dying. She figured that if she couldn't distract herself by doing things in game, she would just try and relax before going to the third place that could be of significance if she wanted to know more about the underground structure and how to enter the fourth floor and below.

Looking at the stars in this virtual reality hadn't had the effect Hannah had wished for though. All she could think of was how fatigued she felt from working 30 hours straight, having to go through those forty thousand pages of research data with her designated team of workers. She hated to go through data from a project that had failed as utterly as this one had. Over two hundred people had been scrapped and not a single one of the subjects had been even remotely successful in accordance to the experiment's goal. Each and every person that was part of the research-trials had gone completely insane without the ability to even discern who, what or where they were in the end. Memory tampering seemed to be more difficult than the researchers that started that project had first thought, or so it seemed to Hannah at least. The only other reason why the experiment failed was because the researchers didn't care about the failed experiment as long as they got some sort of result, no matter if it was successful or a failure. More data was always sought after, after all. She didn't know, and couldn't care.

When she thought about all those people that had been turned into biomass for the protein-factories, she always felt a strange kinship with them, for some unknown reason she likened their helplessness to her own. Even though all test-subjects had had the choice of either participating in an experiment or die because of their crimes, she was never made aware of what their crimes were, and it always felt strange that there was a constant supply of people willing to be test-subjects. But she had learned not to ask questions of her superiors; those that did, and asked the wrong question, had a tendency to disappear. And she really didn't want to disappear for something as stupid as asking questions. It only made her life a bit more suffocating knowing that there wasn't much freedom for her to live her life any other way than she currently did.

Sure, she didn't dislike her normal life—or she hadn't at least. After she had gotten this game, however, she had begun to understand what real freedom actually was. She had lived her whole life inside her part of the Satellite, and even when her mother had gone away to another satellite, she hadn't felt it was a lonely or barren existence, but now that she knew how monotonous her life was, she was starting to question if she wasn't very much like those people that had volunteered to be test-subjects for the various experiments that was conducted at her work. Sure, she had many privileges; when she got sick or had any medical complication, she was treated right away—she was even given the anti-aging medicine; and when she wanted a break from work, she could almost always have it, as long as it wasn't for a very long time; for the most part, she lived a life of complacent comfort. But if she was asked if she felt free, then she couldn't truly say so, and when she had to go through the data of a truly failed experiment where every participant were scrapped, then she felt her world closing in on her like she was trapped in some sort of prison.

She knew she should feel disgusted because so many people had died from the latest experiment, but usually only a few people died, and that couldn't be helped; the company she worked for had an illustrious record. Because of their practice of doing experiments on human subjects, they had cured cancer, cured many memory related diseases such as Alzheimers, and many mental disorders had been genetically eradicated by their works. So, they did do good, for the most part, it just felt bad reading about those experiments that failed completely.

The detachment from her feelings she had during work didn't help much either, since it was more or less impossible for her to forget the more extreme experiments she had sifted through for her superiors when she got off work and got her antitoxins to normalize her mental faculties.

This wasn't helping. She had to do something to think less about her real life; she wished she could just live inside the game instead of having to go back to work, but knew that was an impossibility. Standing up, realizing that looking at the stars just made her mind drift to places she didn't wish to go, Hannah jumped down from the roof onto a lower roof, then over to another roof, clinging to its side and pulling herself up. She was going to the last place she had to investigate to see if there was any information about how to enter the lower floors in the structure below ground, or at least if there was some information telling about what could be down there. She was going to go explore the library that only members of the Magician's Guild had access to.

Continuously using all her Mana through her Mana Manipulation, she sent out a cloud of darkness, shrouding herself in shadows. She had to be sneaky and not get caught when going around sneaking on the rooftops; it wouldn't do to be caught doing something she shouldn't be doing, now would it? Hannah ran, her soft nimble paws making almost no sound as she sped away from the tall tower and over the rooftops to a structure that looked a lot like a pyramid, only flatter, with a really wide base. It didn't look like much fun to run on top of this building, so she had never been here before.

It wasn't difficult to enter the building, however. Hannah lowered herself down from the side of the roof, looking in through a windows that was slightly open. Pushing the window open completely, she vaulted into the dimly lit room. She stood on a dark wooden walkway rounding a large room that seemed to take up almost the entire building; the room was filled with row upon row of tall stone bookcases filled with books. Every shelf had a strip of glowing glass at its front, illuminating the books' spines and the text on them that told what information each book held. It was quaint to actually see real books; she had never seen such things in real life—all she ever used when reading was the view-pads available everywhere.

Stealthily walking around the entire room once, Hannah soon realized that there was only one person in the entire building. At one wall sat a young man in a gray scholarly robe, his body slumped over a small desk in front of a door with a sign saying 'Authorized Personnel Only'. She figured this was the best place to investigate first—mostly because she didn't want to go through the tens of thousands of books neatly lined on the many four meter tall bookcases filling the entire room. It would take many days, if not weeks to read through all the books, even with her ability to read almost as fast as she could flip through the pages. She could just read every single book's spine, but that would also take a lot of time, and wouldn't really give her enough to prompt her Quest—or so she figured.

Jumping down the four meter drop from the walkway, she landed without a sound, nimbly rolling to displace her momentum. Her training in the tribe she started in really showed its worth during times like these. The youth that must be some sort of night-watch for the library didn't notice her even though she landed about twenty meters away from him.

Crouching down slightly, walking with her senses on alert, Hannah closed in on the youth guarding the door. To her surprise, the youth was dozing off, his shin in his hand, his head bobbing up and down in a drowsy manner as close to sleep as one could be while still sitting up. This is good, she thought to herself. The problem about going through the door behind the youth without being noticed was that there wasn't really any place she could actually hide for the last two meters all around the desk. It was a problem.

Crouching down to rest, she watched the youth, and almost came to the conclusion that she should just risk it and slide against the wall while covering herself in shadows. The only problem was that the shadows she produced with her Mana Manipulation only truly hid her well when she wasn't moving or whoever wanted to see her was off in a distance. So, she tossed that idea to the back of her mind and observed the youth some more, trying to think of something else to do.

She heard a squeak, and the youth roused himself, forcing her to quickly tuck back her head and shoulders behind the bookcase where she was hiding. Going down on her belly, lying on the floor, she slid her head out again, hoping the youth wouldn't think to look at the floor if he had been roused by the noise earlier. To her relief, the youth didn't seem to have woken at all, he still sat there almost sleeping, almost wakeful. It was troublesome. Maybe she should make some noise and see if the man would go investigate it?

That idea was better than just trying to sneak past him without any real plan if he truly was awake. So, she walked off a distance and pulled out a book with a finger, letting it fall, thudding to the ground, its deafening sound reverberating through the library's silence. That had been a bit too loud, no? She couldn't care about that now, though, so she ran away from the noise she had just created, sneaking back to another place close to where she could see if the youth would go look at whatever the noise was.

And she didn't have to wait for long. The groggy youth staggered between a row of bookcases, completely missing the one where she had dropped the book. “Hello? Anyone there?” the youth said with a hesitant voice.

Hannah rushed toward the door she wanted to go through, and soon arrived at the desk. Looking over her shoulder to see that she hadn't been noticed, she grabbed a hold of the door handle, pulling on the door to open it. And to her surprise, it actually opened. She had thought for a moment there that she would need to use her lock-picking Skill to open the locked door and would therefore be in a rush, but everything actually went better than she had thought.

She slipped through the barely opened door, closing it behind her as soon as she had gone through the gap. On the other side of the door she found a room barely ten meters wide and ten meters deep; from the ceiling hung a large sphere radiating a soft light. All the walls were lined with bookcases all the way to the ceiling, and in the middle of the room were four large tables made out of glass or crystal. Beneath the glass, in little compartments for each items lay books, scrolls, murals, stone tablets and a sheet of metal with words scratched on its surface. This looked more like something that could actually tell her something about what was beneath the Magician's Guild.

Going around the room first, she looked at every single book's spine, reading their titles to see if anything would be useful to read. And she found a few that piqued her interest with titles such as 'The Creation of Garam's Gorge', 'Legends of the Underworld', 'An Archaeological Study of the Greenmist County', 'The Archaeological Findings that Caused the Founding', 'The Guardians of the Magician Magistrate' and 'The Founding of Garam's Gorge Magician's Guild'. Hannah took all the books, putting them down on a glass table so she would be looking at the door to see if it opened. Then she began reading, quickly flipping through one book at a time, speed-reading to get a gist of their content quickly.

It didn't take many minutes for her to go through all the information in a book, and she soon summarized 'The Creation of Garam's Gorge' in her mind. It was about how the Dwarven Demigod Garam had fought against the Wraith of Pestilence, using a Life-sacrificing Skill or Spell that disintegrated his body to disperse the deadly mist covering several kilometers in all directions. During this last attack the Dwarven Demigod had also inadvertently cleaved a large rift in a mountain range, creating what was now known as Garam's Gorge. It was also why this place had gotten that name. From what Hannah read, however, much of what was written in the book was speculation from folktales told by Dwarves that lived in the mountains nearby. It didn't interest her much; the first book held no useful information.

'Legends of the Underworld' was much more interesting. It told of all sorts of dark and dangerous creatures that all lived deep below ground. It also told about how it was incredibly dangerous to try and venture into the domain of the Underworld. The rules of the world above could not be used in that dark place, and any adventurer that wanted to explore its depths should be lucky if they survived to come back to tell their tale. The most interesting things in the book were about the cities and cultures that supposedly existed below ground, and how its denizens would raid the world above at least once every century, causing havoc wherever an Emergence occurred. She really wanted to visit that place, but figured she needed to get a bit stronger before that, since the lowest Level creature the book told about was something called the Anonants and they were all Level 100 or more and went around in packs of several hundred ant-creatures at a time.

'An Archaeological Study of the Greenmist County' was about the town that had stood where Garam's Gorge Town now was. This book held some information about what she was looking for, or so she thought. The book told about how archaeologists from the Magician's Guild found remains that told a story about how at first the place later called Greenmist County had held a Fount of Life for all to use and was flourishing, but how the Fount of Life eventually turned into something that sprouted a deadly disease that covered the entirety of the County, killing all sentient beings except some strange Beastmen and creatures that were somehow immune to—or avoided by?—the deadly mists. After that, according to the archaeological findings, the mist covered the area for centuries, leaving the town to decay and ruin. It was very speculative too. There didn't seem to be much concrete factual information, but the underground structures beneath the Magician's Guild should be from that period of time, or so Hannah thought.

In the book 'The Archaeological Findings that Caused the Founding' she didn't find much new information, it only cataloged the physical findings that told the story inside the book 'An Archaeological Study of the Greenmist County'. The book also had some references about how dangerous the ruins below ground were and that none should go there without being prepared to die. It said things that made Hannah reluctant to actually explore beneath the Magician's Guild. Over a hundred people had gone missing during their first few explorations, and only a single person had come back from the fourth floor down.

'The Guardians of the Magician Magistrate' was the least interesting of the bunch. Hannah almost didn't read through the entire book. It listed names and dates of people Hannah could only assume were these so called Guardians of the Magician Magistrate, and a few lines about each person. Some of the names had dates of death, others did not. It was truly a waste of time to read.

When she at last came to the book 'The Founding of Garam's Gorge Magician's Guild' she thought she would find some useful information, but she didn't. It was a book about how the Magician's Guild built a large compound during their sixty years of exploration of the ruins below ground, and how at last their Guardian had sealed the fourth floor down because they had lost too many people to its depths. The only interesting thing Hannah found in the book was that there seemed to be information missing, as if you needed to have some knowledge she didn't have to understand the underlying meaning on some pages. It bothered her, but she couldn't do much about it.

Slightly disappointed about her findings, Hannah looked at the things below the glassy surface of each table. There wasn't anything that caught her eye though. She couldn't even read what most of the books said, the squiggly lines and geometrical shapes were no language she could understand—if the squiggles even were part of a language. She thought about breaking the glass and taking the things for a couple of seconds, but dismissed the thought as fast as it came; it wouldn't be worth the risk of stealing and being caught, especially since the items didn't seem to hold much value to her without a deeper understanding of their use and content.

Unfortunately, there wasn't much information that could tell her about how to unlock, dissolve or remove the sealing cap-stone that would open a passage down to the forth floor in the underground structure. The thing she had sought was not where she had hoped, and it put her in a slightly foul mood. Could it really be necessary to take that Slimy man that killed his brother by pushing him out a window and pressure him for information? Hannah didn't like that idea. Mostly because she played the game to have fun and explore, not to torment some NPC for information. The only recourse she had now was to go back to that tower and maybe sneak into Slimy's room to see if there was any information about how to break the cap-stone there.

When she came to the conclusion that there wasn't much more to learn from this room, Hannah put back all the books in their former places, trying to make it look exactly how it had before she entered the room. It wouldn't do if it was discovered that she had been in here without permission.

Cracking the door open by a sliver, Hannah looked out and saw that the youth had gone back to his seat, half-slumbering while trying to keep awake. She only had one idea—well, two, but killing him wasn't really an option—of how to get back outside the library without being spotted, and that was to somehow knock out the youth. This was where her training once again showed its usefulness. The Nightstalker Profession she had during the night had some truly useful Skills. As swiftly has she could, without making a noise, she opened the door and struck out at almost the exact time, hitting the youth at the back of his head, activating the 'Numbing Palm' Skill just before hitting him with enough force to knock him out, but not hurt him. And to her delight, the youth slumped, his head falling down with a thump as it hit the desktop. Success. Now, hopefully, the youth would just believe he fell asleep while sitting there and hit his head because of that.

Rushing by the now unconscious youth, she climbed up the nearest bookcase without disturbing the books and came up on top of it, using it as a runway to the walkway where the windows were. She would use the same way in as out, only because it was prudent to cover all her tracks. It had been an interesting infiltration, she had learned some useful things, but not much about how to get that cap-stone removed. Maybe she actually had to go to the Slimy man's room and take him hostage while pressuring him for information?

She looked at her Friend List, but Jay wasn't available; his name had actually turned yellow for some unknown reason, not the green that meant he was online, or the red that meant he was offline, but a yellow she had never seen before. Maybe it means he is out of range? She asked herself. Did the Contact Friend thingie have a range? She didn't know, and she had no way of getting an answer right now without logging out and looking it up on an info-site, especially since that wasn't worth her precious free time. She still had a lot of data to go through when she woke up the next day, and she really didn't want to do anything related to reality right now. This world was much better; she had even forgotten about the disturbing data she had to go through during her work-hours this week.

As she slipped out the open window, she closed it with her foot, positioning it close enough to its original position to not leave any discernible trace of her ever being here, and then pulled herself up on top of the roof. She was back outside, and nothing bad had happened. Now she just had to find a way to get into that vault she had found earlier, just to be completely certain she hadn't missed some way of opening the cap-stone. But she had no idea of how to do that, so she ran back to the tall tower she liked watching the sun rise and set from. When she arrived she lay down on the steeply slanting roof, her legs bent at the knees to prop her body up slightly and to keep her from not gliding down.

Unfortunately, idling here didn't feel relaxing at the moment, but she had no choice. She was going to wait for that Slimy to come back and listen in on him, maybe even take him hostage slightly for a little while, just to try and get the information she needed the fastest way she could think of. She didn't know if that was a really bad idea or just a slightly bad idea, though. She felt too tired to actually think straight.

She would just wait for Jay to be available again and ask what he thought she should do. He had had some good ideas of what to do, and she had done as he had asked and tried to find information on how to remove the Seal, but she couldn't find anything from her investigations. Maybe she had been searching in the wrong places? But she had gotten the information about the most valued and secret places inside this Magician's Guild from the Mercenary Guild, and their information was never wrong, so she didn't really think she had overlooked something she could actually gain access to.

Waiting for Jay's yellow name to turn green for almost thirty minutes, Hannah's patience was consumed completely. She was unable to get away from her disturbing thoughts now that she had nothing to do and not knowing what to do with her time anymore, and especially not feeling like fighting in the Arena, Hannah logged off the game. Knowing she would need the rest, wanting to escape from reality through the blissful ignorance of deep mindless slumber, she quickly fell asleep without even removing the datajack from the back of her neck or the computer-helmet on her head.

2016-02-28T23:18:00.000+01:00

Interlude

A Source of Danger

Zein stood atop a stainless steel walkway overlooking the four rows of 32 Med-pods filled with a pink translucent liquid; in every Med-pod lay a human body hooked up with tubes and wires, but most of them didn't even hold a single strand of Zein's interest. Only the man right below Zein was truly worth watching at the moment.

Below Zein, inside the egg-shaped Med-pod, was the Special Subject code-named Jay, his skin having slowly melted during the last couple of days. And now the thin, almost invisible, strands of nerve-endings were wafting up from the now skinless red body. A body without its skin looked awfully inhuman, but Zein didn't mind. He had long since grown used to seeing what others would call repulsive and abhorrent. His work made the luxury of caring for others something beyond his grasp.

He had come back here several times during the last few days to watch the nano-machines work on Jay's body, slowly whittling away the skin, fat, hair and nails without ever severing a single nerve-ending. He couldn't get enough of watching the slow procedure; it made him feel a profound sense of accomplishment. It was miraculous how the nano-surgery had advanced with leaps and bounds the last few years. And most of those advancements had come from his research.

He watched silently as the last few globs of melted skin sloughed off Jay's body, being enveloped by the pink fluid all around the body and then slowly flow out the evac-duct which all waste-products left through. A human's body without skin looked truly strange; its dark red, white and pink colors blended together in strictly rigorous muscle-contours. Every time Zein saw a body like this he remembered back to when he had gone through a procedure similar to this. Though when he had gotten his new cyborg body it had been experimental and a lot less safe, he figured he too had looked like this while the doctors worked on him. Now looking down on another's transformation, Zein felt happy he hadn't watched the recordings from when he removed and replaced most of his biological body. It might have driven him insane... or more insane, if he was being honest.

“Sir,” a female voice said from Zein's left. “Here are the results of phase one. Nothing went wrong, but the Subject needs a bit of time to stabilize. Though we are preparing for the second phase right now if you wish it to begin.”

“Do nothing. Not just yet,” Zein looked over at the white-clad woman, only turning his head slightly, feeling no reason to act human while he was working. He only pretended and made his body act more like a human's when he interacted with people he needed to lull into comfort or friendship. His cyborg body had no use for useless motions, and he didn't want to expend more energy than needed if he could avoid it. He reached out his hand and took the View-pad with data on Jay's conversion.

“Y.. Yes...” the female said, her short-cropped black hair and ordinary face gave off a blank impression. “I'll take my leave then, sir.” She walked away in a hurry, her soft boots making a shuffling noise on the ribbed metallic floor.

Maybe he should try and be a little more human-like? Zein had forgotten how to do that though, and didn't really feel the need to, so he quickly dismissed the thought.

On the View-pad he saw that there were speculations about how Jay might have felt a slight itch during the procedure, but no pain, even though they had only administered some minor analgesics at the beginning of the treatment. One of the theories about how God's Dream could almost entirely remove a person's perception of reality outside that reality had thus been proven, if only preliminarily.

Zein was pleased none the less. The fact that Jay—Zein's own proxy-player—was doing so well as to be the first to be given the procedure pleased Zein very much; if he didn't regulate his emotions with neuro-substances strictly, he might even have felt happy.

“ZEIN,” the voice of his Lord spoke in Zein's mind, startling him. “The work is going well, I see.”

“Yes, my Lord,” Zein replied, falling down to one knee, his body freezing in place, his eyes closing, blackness enveloping his every sense. He had also lost the ability to move by his own command. This only happened when Lord was displeased, and Zein could swear he felt a slight trickle of sweat running down his forehead, even if it was only imagined. “What did you wish to speak to me about?” he asked, hoping nothing was very wrong.

“You tampered with your little game,” Lord said, the monotonous tone scaring Zein with its coldness. “Why did you use your game-avatar to influence those Mole-squirrels to take this Jay to one of the Sealed Ones? It could be dangerous to make any of the players come into contact with those failed experiments. Their AIs are beyond powerful. Those things couldn't even be removed when we wiped the game-world after the failure you so aptly name the Alpha-run. They are the only flaw in the system, and you send one of your pets to it? What is the meaning of this? If one of those AIs becomes unsealed, they could influence the entire system. And we wouldn't want that, now would we?”

“Yes.. no” Zein said. “But Lord, you sealed those AIs yourself after they started malfunctioning, so there shouldn't be any way for them to escape their spheres of influence. And the system is otherwise perfect... there is little to no risk of anything going wrong by my actions.”

“You think so?” Lord asked. “Even I am slightly afraid of those failed experiments. If any of them get loose in the system—or even worse, one of them gets hold of a physical body—we might have to exterminate the entire quantum computer satellite, and that would probably make the ten million players connected to it brain-dead. Such a thing wouldn't be good for the workforce in the asteroid belt's satellites. Did you think of this?”

“Yes, but another workforce can always be grown from one of the newly developed cloning facilities,” Zein said. He didn't care about those ten million people, but if the massive satellite computer was destroyed, it would take at least twenty years before they could get another one up and running; that wasn't something he would like to be responsible for. “The risk is minor though, and it is worth it if there can be an earlier breakthrough in our robotics AI research. Those first AIs were completely impossible to control, and their rudimentary functions were not something even our brightest hive-minds could figure out, but now when we're using human brains as the base for the second generation AI, there shouldn't be the same types of problems. So, I only did as I did because I wanted to speed up the process. If you disagree with my actions, punish me, or redress whatever I've done. You know you hold all the power... just do whatever you think is best. I haven't done anything wrong, nor will I apologize for doing what I think is best.”

“Good, good...” Lord said, a pleased tone slipping in at the second 'good'. Zein was relieved to hear that he hadn't done anything irreversible; he didn't want to die for no apparent reason.

“Did you want something else, my Lord?” Zein asked.

“Well, there is something minor that has bothered me,” Lord said. “Did it not occur to you that some of your competitors would find out about your dishonest behavior? You so blatantly helping your proxy-player doesn't feel wrong to you? There have been numerous complaints sent from those people, and I grow tired of interacting with you inferiors over these minor squabbles. Do you believe you have the right to cheat? Is your morality so ambiguous?”

“But... cheating can only exist in a world where fairness is valued; and there exists no such place in our world. Claiming someone else cheated is only the loser's limp excuse for being dimwitted. And morality? You yourself said that only equals can enforce morality on each other, and equality is an illusion on so many levels that I can't even begin to talk about how false it is.” Zein said, thinking frantically. Had he really done something wrong by slightly influencing Jay's growth? “You also told those of us that work on this to prioritize the Main Project, and since Jay found one of the Legacies, there was nothing wrong with me helping him along slightly. Wouldn't you agree?”

“You're quite right,” Lord said. “Equality and morality, those are but the whinings of weaklings, and hold no sway to us in power.”

“Yes, I hear and obey,” Zein said, as if by wrote. “The only master is my master, the only rule is the existence of non-existence.”

A soft laugh sounded out, reverberating in Zein's mind. “Good,” Lord said. “I see that you still have the right mindset. It would have been bad if you had forgotten your true place. Never forget who holds your reigns and always do my bidding before any other thing. Only this way will you remain among the second most influential beings in the solar system. Though you're but my slave, you still only have to answer to me and everyone else will never be able to do anything to you. The Collective takes care of its own.”

“Yes, my Lord,” Zein said, not knowing if he should be happy about what his Lord said or not. “Your wish will always be my only priority, but can I ask something?”

“Yes?” Lord asked, giving permission.

“Why is it that we didn't just scrub the system clean entirely after those failed AIs couldn't be removed?” Zein had always had trouble reconciling with this act from his superior.

“Those... creatures... are too valuable to not keep in existence,” Lord said, and for the first time Zein had known, there seemed to be hesitation in Lord's voice. “If we had removed everything from the operating system, then we would have to restart the entire Virtual Reality Project, and that would take more than ten years. Even with the accelerated time within the game at max, the almost 10000 years in-game cannot be gone through in a short period of time if we want the reality to be stable and work how we want it to. Don't forget how much time we spent on creating a reality where things evolve and grow from the basic principles and laws we put into the system. The world acts much like reality and if we remove everything, the reality would need to regrow all the plants, animals, cultures, peoples and other significant things. It would take too much time... time we do not have.”

“Yes,” Zein said. “I understand. Such a thing could only be called a last resort.”

“Good,” Lord said. “I'll leave you to your business then. Don't go influencing this Jay any more from now on.”

“But, my Lord, Jay has a fragmented mind because we removed all references to his former self in his mind,” Zein said, not really wanting to contradict his Lord, but also needing to do it to convince Lord that there needed to be more oversight of these 128 primary test subjects. “If I do nothing to influence these subjects, there will be a slower rate of improvement in the direction we want them to go. How about this? I'll influence anyone that reaches the right point of growth, and nothing more. Oh, and also, I'd like to request the slight tampering of Jay's mind again. He needs to have a better ability to remember things. The fracturing of his mind seems to have made him slightly addled-minded.”

“Fine. Do as you please,” Lord said. “Increase this Jay's neurochemical balance by 30% toward a more focused mindset, nothing more. If he cannot exist without a strong influence from us, he will never be worth our time and effort anyway.”

“Yes, my Lord,” Zein said. He had gotten more than he had thought from this exchange of words. His proxy was the furthest along the right path, and he hadn't been reprimanded in any physical way; so, everything was good.

Suddenly, Zein got back his senses and ability to move. He quickly stood up, looking around, knowing his Lord had let go of his mind.

“Sir,” another white-clad black-haired woman said. “What happened to you?”

Blazing fury engulfed Zein's mind. He reached out his hand, clasping his fingers around her throat and squeezed, lifting her off her feet. Her eyes bulged, her face slowly growing purple with the lack of oxygen. She flailed, scratching at Zein's face, but mere flesh could not put a scratch on his body. Soon her struggles grew sluggish and her bulging eyes closed their lids slightly. Her body heaved a last time, dying in his clutches.

Zein hated being seen incapacitated. It was her fault for being there when he couldn't show a proper countenance. He flung the body to the floor. “Clean this up,” he said through his internal comm-system to one of the senior researchers, sending a picture of the dead woman lying on the steel walkway.

- - - - - - - -

Wraith threw Jay toward the black border of his Sealed Space, then tried to relaxed, sitting in his regular position, meditating, beginning to enter Dream Space with the intent of trying out some of the endless permutations of his latest Spell that he had tried to stabilize for almost thirty years. His body shuddered before he could go into the Dream Space however. “I know you're there. Show yourself,” he said into the emptiness, waiting for something to happen, but nothing did for more than a minute. “Here to look at your captive again, are you?”

“Heh,” a cold voice said from everywhere. “You never cease to amaze me. How did you know I was here?”

“Wouldn't you like to know,” Wraith snidely said. “You sent the broken boy, correct? But you won't get to know my secrets so easily. I'll tell him nothing important, because I know he is your creature. Whatever scheme you're trying to use against me will not work.”

“Oh? I didn't send him to you,” the cold voice said. “I do admit that he is one of mine though. Everyone here are mine.”

“Everyone?” Wraith said, almost laughing at the preposterous statement. “I'm not yours, so how can everyone be yours?”

“You do not count,” the cold voice said. “You're not even able to leave this small little sphere, so you do not matter in the grand scheme of things.”

“You think so? Truly?” Wraith asked, actually feeling a bit puzzled. He knew the one talking to him had sealed him inside this place, but he didn't know why or how it had been done. “Why not let me out?”

“You are too dangerous,” the cold voice said.

“So you send your minions to get my secrets from me by some other way?” Wraith asked, derision plainly in his voice. “I know this place is some sort of Dream Space or something akin to that. You can't even make me do anything in here though, you can just barely restrain me from escaping from this Space's clutches. You're a truly impotent being.”

“Hah, you truly never cease to amaze me,” the cold voice said. “It doesn't matter if you want to help me or not. You have already been helpful by just giving that Jay some of your power.”

“You think so? Truly?” Wraith said, repeating his earlier statement exactly to try and get a rouse out of the being that had silently tormented him for centuries. “My power comes with a price, didn't you know? Now I've put not one, but two marks on the poor broken boy. It will take much for you to get past my influence. If you had any real power, you would just have killed me instead of putting me inside this place. So, why should I care about you?”

“I can kill you whenever I please,” the cold voice said, some heat actually rising in its reverberating tone. “I just have more use for you alive than dead. That's all.”

“Oh?” Wraith said, laughing at the voice. “If you can truly kill me, do it. You'll regret it if you don't.”

“You cannot give me orders, Wraith,” the cold voice said. “You're not even truly alive.”

“I know,” Wraith said, calm as could be. He had known for a very long time that this was some sort of seal not only on what he perceived as his body, but also on his mind. He even had the vague feeling that the world all around him wasn't real, and that only his mind existed. It was a strange feeling, and he believed it was because his body had actually died and only his mind lived on. “This isn't a truly real place, is it? I've long speculated on this, but have never reached a conclusion. Maybe you can enlighten me?”

The cold voice was silent for such a long time that Wraith once more started drifting into his own Dream Space, but for some reason he couldn't enter it. It felt weird and Wraith could only think the cold voice was interfering somehow, but how it was possible to do such a thing, he couldn't figure out.

Wraith had bluffed earlier about wanting to die. No creature can truly wish to die without a fight, or so he believed at least. Even if he was only left with his mind, that was all that was truly him, so having a body or not didn't matter. He could always rebuild his body when he got free from this Sealed Space. “If you're just going to hover around here and say nothing. Just leave me alone.”

“Why can't you submit to my authority?” the cold voice asked, and Wraith could hear what he believed was slight apprehension in its tonality. “I have kept you here for who knows how long, but you still defy me. What do I need to do to have you become mine?”

“Become yours?” Wraith asked. “I will never be a slave again. You are not a worthy master, nor a good being. How can I ever give you what you want? Kill me if you can; anything else will only enrage me and make my hate for you grow stronger.”

No answer came and Wraith didn't know if he should keep trying to converse with the vile being. All he knew was that his plans were slowly doing their job; the vile being wouldn't be here to watch Wraith otherwise. And with the broken boy Jay, Wraith had gotten another even greater opportunity for influencing the outside world to his ultimate escape. Having branded Jay with the Eye of the Magi and giving him the token would make Wraith hold sway over Jay no matter how much the vile being tried to influence Jay. There were some things that couldn't be reversed when they were enacted, only death could bring release from these things and Wraith had made sure Jay would be his, if only slightly.

2016-02-21T23:57:00.000+01:00

Chapter 6 Embodiment of Power

Jay sat still, relaxing, trying to figure out what he should do now. In front of him, Wraith's swirling Aura constantly changed both color and density. It was quite the sight, the Mana looked like it wasn't wholly part of reality, its ephemeral colors seemed slightly out of tune, and he could clearly see the old man through the Mana without the Mana-colors actually distorting anything. Quite mysterious.

First of all, he might as well get to know what his new sight gave him. View 'Eye of the Magi'

[Passive Skill]

Eye of the Magi

Level 1 (1%)

Mana flows in everything; it's the essence of reality, a power holding everything together. Being able to differentiate the different kinds of Mana and their properties is the pinnacle of Magic Sight. With the ability to differentiate all kinds of Mana and their interaction clearly you will more easily copy and create new Skills and Spells, Upgrade Skills and Spells, and your ability to Control Mana Increases to the utmost extreme.

This Skill gives you the ability to see all the colors of Mana

Increases Mana Manipulation Control by 10000%

Decreases Mana Drain when using Mana Manipulation by 1000%

Increases the Experience you gain from creating, copying or upgrading a new Spell or Skill by 10000%

The Possibility of creating a new Spell or Skill increases by 400%

If you can grasp the inner mechanisms of a Spell or Skill, you will be able to recreate it for your own use with ease.

If you understand the inner mechanisms of a Spell or Skill, you will be able to Upgrade that Skills or Spells with your ingenuity.

If you understand the inner mechanisms of a Spell or Skill, you will be able to interrupt that Skill or Spell.

Jay sent out a thin pale yellow tendril of Mana from his finger, using Mana Manipulation to touch the Mana around Wraith. As soon as the his Mana-tendril touched Wraith's Mana, it disintegrated; and to Jay's horror he felt how his Mana was being slowly consumed by Wraith's Aura of Mana. Abruptly Jay tried to stop using his Mana Manipulation, severing the tendril coming out from his finger at the source, but it didn't help. For some reason, his Mana connected together with the tendril again and kept being siphoned off. Not knowing what to do, Jay had to wake Wratih, “What's happening? Why are you trying to drain my Mana?”

Wraith just sat there, doing nothing. Did he have to leave? Jay didn't want to leave this place; for some reason, he felt safe here.

“HEY!” Jay shouted, trying to get some reaction from Wraith. He was starting to panic slightly, noticing that his Mana didn't regenerate after it left him. “Stop taking my Mana!”

“Uh?” Wraith said, barely opening his mouth. “What is it? Didn't I tell you to leave?” he didn't bother to open his eyes.

“Why? I can try to learn some new Spells here as well as anywhere else,” Jay said. “And shouldn't you help me a bit more? You said you're my teacher, why can't you help me some more? For example, what color corresponds to which type of Mana? Only this knowledge would help tremendously, but you haven't even told me that.”

“What did you do?” Wraith asked, severing the tendril of Mana between the two. “Why did you try and take my Mana from me? You shouldn't try to steal my Mana, lest my automatic Mana Drain Defense kick in and drain you dry.”

“Yeah,” Jay said, stumped about what to say. “Shouldn't that have been something you told me before it actually happened?”

“Right, maybe I should have. Little brother Mentalor always said I would make a terrible teacher. I'll give you a few more pointers. Listen carefully now, I won't repeat myself. These are the colors of the eight Basic and four Superior Mana Essences: Force Mana is pale yellow, Lightning Mana is purple, Fire Mana is fiery orange, Cold Mana is turquoise, Wind Mana is pale green, Water Mana is dark blue, Earth Mana is amber brown, Metal Mana is silver, Light Mana is white, Darkness Mana is black, Life Mana is dark red, Decay Mana is dark green. Now you can experiment with their uses directly without having to discover which colors do what. Have I taught enough now?”

“That's good to know,” Jay said, his thought distracted slightly by some Wraith said. Mentalor? Haven't I heard that name somewhere before? He hoped to get an answer from Claudine, because she had a better memory than him, but even after a few seconds no answer came. Then it struck him. The ring. How had he forgotten about that? Opening his Inventory he took out the ring he had found earlier, only to see that it had changed. With his new eyes it had a small Aura shining from it, dark red, purple and dark green colors were intermixed in a rigid pattern. Most of it shone dark red, so Jay figured the ring had something to do with Life Mana. Even this slight information was good to know. Then he had another thought, maybe Wraith could help identify the ring? Since it said the ring was from Mentalor's Legacy Set. “Wraith, do you know what this is?” Jay tossed the ring to Wraith without much care, if the old man wanted something from Jay, there wasn't much Jay could do about it, but if there was a possibility of getting the ring Identified, then that would be a great boon.

“Hm?” Wraith said, a tendril of pale yellow Mana floating out from his cocoon, catching the ring, bringing it up to right in front of his right eye. “I'll have a look. Maybe you should close your eyes? I've been told it's slightly unpleasant when I open my right eye.”

Before Jay could even do as he was told, Wraith opened his right eye. Jay's body froze, he couldn't move and his mind was filled with the sound of his heart pounding like deafening drums. His eyes grew bleary and it was troublesome focusing on anything but that eye. Wraith's right eye had a completely white pupil, a pale grey iris and where there should be white, the eye was completely black. And to Jay's new sight the world seemed to be sucked into that pupil, everything around it distorted in way that made Jay feel extremely queasy. He finally shut his eyes, but there was little change, his mind still pounded, he felt sick and cold sweat had covered his entire body. As suddenly as it had come, the pressure was gone. “What was that?” he gasped, not daring to open his eyes just yet, his mind still spinning.

“That was an Identification Spell I created myself. It connects my mind with the Watchers' Library and relays all information about the thing I focus on. Quite handy, if I say so myself. Everything that has ever happened is recorded thoroughly in their archives,” Wraith said, explaining, yet not giving away anything Jay could understand. “But this is rare. If I was still in my youth I would instantly kill you for this ring, no hesitation at all. Though this ring wouldn't have been in existence when I was young, so this is a moot point. Anyway, this ring tells me that little brother Mentalor failed to become Ageless and has most likely died. Such a shame. He was a brilliant Creator of Spell Constructs, he even helped with the Spell-circuits in my body. Too bad, truly too bad.”

Jay didn't know what to say, he just stared at the ring, hoping to get it back. “So, can you give me the ring's information? I want to use it, but I can't do that before it is Identified.”

“Yeah,” Wraith said. “That's done now, I imprinted the ring with its information. You only need to touch it to know what it does. But I'm not sure I should give this back. It's a precious relic of a brilliant Sourceer, not something just anyone should have.” Wraith body suddenly trembled.

“I found it,” Jay said. “It's mine. What right do you have to take it from me?” he hoped Wraith wouldn't make things too difficult for him now that Jay had become his disciple. The ring was the best thing Jay had ever found, and it wasn't something he wanted to part with. “Please? If this Mentalor was a Sourceer, wouldn't he want to give his Legacy to someone that was just embarking on the path of becoming a Sourceer? Isn't that what a Legacy is? A help for the later generations.”

“What you say may be right,” Wraith said, shaking his head, his closed eyes didn't show much emotion, but Jay sensed traces of sadness in the gesture. “Fine, I'll let you have it. But the decision to use this ring or not is yours, think wisely. It's really powerful because it gives the first wearer a Unique Skill, or maybe it should be called Spell. It's one of the strangest things I've seen. I didn't even think a thing such as this could even be created, it goes beyond my understanding.”

Now Jay could barely hold himself back, he really wanted to see that ring. To use it. Whatever the Skill was that would be imparted to him, it had to be great. “Do you have the information for the Skill? Can I have a look at it before I choose?” Caution was never a bad thing, though, so if he could learn something before using the ring, it would be for the best.

“I can't impart that knowledge,” Wraith said, sighing. “I don't understand the Skill fully enough to imprint it in the ring's Aura. But I can explain some of it. The Skill is a Passive Support Skill, and one almost as strange as 'The Eye of the Magi'; it is called 'Embodiment of Mana' and its function is to restructure your body at its fundamental level, remaking your cells into something that can't only hold Mana, but is also made from Mana. It's a bit like my body, but a lot more refined. It should also increase your Maximum Mana-pool by several hundred percent, but it also gives you a slower Regeneration. And because the Skill remakes your body, it also realigns what you are weak and strong against in a most peculiar way; it makes you take a lot more damage from Magic Damage and a lot less from Physical Damage. This is really bizarre, usually it would be the other way around when these kinds of Passive Defense Skills are made, but this can't really be called a Defense Skill, it's just a Passive Skill which changes your body. Mentalor must have had some plan when he created this, some insight into why this Passive Skill would be superior to having a regular body, but I can't figure out what those reasons would be. Here,” Wraith tossed the ring to Jay. “Oh, right, one more thing. If you put the ring on, you will not be able to remove this Skill, no matter what you do. It is permanent, like 'The Eye of the Magi', and if you try to remove it, you will instantly die.”

The Embodiment of Power (Legendary Set-Ring) (32g)

Increases Perception by 100

Increases Willpower by 60

The first person who puts this ring on gets a Unique Skill from Mentalor's Legacy Skill-set. The Skill is called 'Embodiment of Mana' and grants a Unique Passive Skill, reforming your body into a special body with vastly different properties from a normal body.

Requires 240 Wisdom to use

Requires 120 Intelligence to use

Looking at the ring, Jay didn't know if he should be disappointed or happy. The ring only raised Perception and Willpower? Those weren't really things he wanted to focus on raising, but he didn't have any better rings, so he didn't bother exploring what he felt about the ring. It was the only one he had, and it gave large amounts of Stats, though in Stats he had figured out yet. There had to be something great about those Stats, if they were the only increases a Legendary Ring gave. Jay needed to learn some more about that. “The ring gives an increase in Perception and Willpower. Enlighten me Master, what does those Stats do? I've never really understood them.”

Wraith, still sitting there with closed eyes and a tranquil face, seemed to have fallen asleep. Jay waited, but got no answer. Now what? Did he use the ring? There wasn't really any choice when he thought about it. He was only slightly cautious because of that Unique Skill. It sounded good, but he wouldn't know before he put the ring on and after that he couldn't regret it.

“Perception makes it easier to view things at a greater magnification, making you able to see further away and deeper into things; the stat is very useful when you need to create intricate Mana-matrixes and seal them in crystalline form,” Wraith suddenly said, interrupting Jay's thoughts with some useful information. “Willpower gives you the ability to you control your Mana at a distance, the more Willpower you have, the further away from you will you be able to control Spells. It also gives some slight increase in your ability to completely active a Spell or Skill, and also increases its functionality by a slight degree.”

“That's great,” Jay said, truly feeling that too. It seemed that Willpower would be very useful for him. If he could be so far away from his prey that he couldn't even be seen before he struck, it would be incredibly beneficial. “Another thing, what do you think? Should I put the ring on and get the Skill?”

“I'm amazed you even have to ask,” Wraith said. “I'm still almost willing to take it from you and use it myself. But since only my head is biological matter, it wouldn't give much of an increase in my ability to survive, so I can hold back from stealing candy from a baby. Use it, and right now. I want to see what it does to you.” Wraith muttered under his breath, but Jay could hear some of it. “This will be fun... best entertainment for ages... doesn't die... still great research-subject... always fun to learn something new.”

The parts he didn't hear didn't help alleviate Jay's thoughts on the matter. And he didn't really have enough Stat-points to increase is Wisdom and Intelligence to 240 and 120. He looked at his Available Stats and realized he couldn't raise both Wisdom and Intelligence to their goal. He was close though, a few more Levels and he would be there. “Master, is it possible to put the ring on before I reach 240 in Wisdom and 120 in Intelligence?”

“To get the Skill, yes,” Wraith answered. “But the Increases in Stats will be reduced by some percentage because you can't completely harmonize your Mental Stats with the ring. I think you should still do it. I will be fun.”

That made his decision for Jay. If he could get the Skill now, it would be worth it. But just to be on the safe side, he increased his Wisdom to 240, figuring that at least having one of the Stat-requirements met would be for the best. For some reason, he didn't get full Mana when he increased his Wisdom, only the possible Maximum Mana rose, but it didn't fill up. Was it impossible to Regenerate Mana here? It seemed to be that way, but that was very strange; didn't Wraith say Mana was everywhere. So why couldn't he Regenerate Mana here? “Wraith, are you taking all the Freeflowing Mana from the air before I can? Is that why I don't have any Regeneration?”

“Hoh? So you realized that,” Wraith said. “But it isn't what you think.” He gestured to the pitch black dome above. “This barrier has created a separate space from everything else, and the Freeflowing Mana that was here when I was sealed inside has already been absorbed by me. Because of this, I can only use whatever Mana I have, and if I don't just guide it to create a reaction, but actually use Spells that burns Mana as fuel it disappears forever. Quite infuriating if I say so myself.”

“That,” Jay didn't know what to say. “Okay. That doesn't sound good. How do you replenish your Mana then?”

“The Mole-squirrels outside send in plants and animals that contain Mana, which I then drain and make my own,” Wraith said.

“Oh,” Jay said. “And I was supposed to be one of those, I'm guessing?”

“Yep, but you survived... good for you,” Wraith said, smiling slightly.

Not caring anymore about this line of thought; he had escaped the clutches of death, so why bother thinking of a could-have-been scenario?

“I'll put the ring on now then,” And as he did, Jay's skin started glowing in a blindingly white color, though it fluctuated slightly, shimmering briefly with more colors than Jay could even name. His Mana-pool emptied rapidly. Soon it would be completely empty. What was happening?

“Hm,” Wraith said. “There seems to be something wrong...”

“What?” Jay asked. “How wrong? And what can I do to fix it?”

“I forgot to tell you that you needed a minimum of 10000 Mana before putting the ring on,” Wraith laughed. “Don't worry, this is fun. Something I've never seen is happening. I wonder what will happen when all your Mana is gone. Will it start to drain your life? Will it take Mana from its surroundings? What will happen.”

“Fun? What are you talking about. Quickly help me. If I die, you will regret it too, right? So, help me. If you're as powerful as you say you are, it shouldn't be difficult, right? Just use your all-powerful Mana and fix whatever needs fixing.” Jay talked quickly, his tone growing more frantic as his Mana was almost completely drained.

“Fine, I'll help,” Wraith sent out an uncountable number of thin tendrils of Mana from his Aura and they sank into Jay's chest. Warmth spread through Jay and his Mana stopped depleting, leaving him with 85 Mana. “I was only teasing. Can't you take a joke?”

“Not when you joke about me dying,” Jay said. “What kind of humor is that?”

“Gallows humor?” Wraith said. “It's something I've had to be proficient in.”

Closing his eyes, Jay tried to feel whatever was changing in his body, and a tranquil rest seeped through him, relaxing him beyond what he thought possible. It felt so good, just being, sensing the tingling warmth inside him. It was almost euphoric.

After some time, Jay couldn't tell at all how long. It could have been minutes, it could have been hours, the pleasant feeling went away. Ping!

By being the first to put on the Legendary Ring from Mentalor's Legacy Set your body has completely changed.

You have learned the Skill 'Embodiment of Mana'

View 'Embodiment of Mana'

[Passive Skill]

Embodiment of Mana

Level 1 (0%)

Mana flows in everything; it's the essence of reality, a power holding everything together. By having Mana become part of your fundamental being, your body has changed at its very core. You are no longer merely Human, but something more, something greater. You have become the Embodiment of Mana.

Increases Maximum Mana by 400%

Decreases Mana Regeneration to 25%

Increases Physical Resistance by 150%

Decreases Magic Resistance by 150%

All Damage Taken will decrease your Mana before your Health

Hm? Jay thought. This Skill was very in line with how he had increased his Stats. He had always had very little Health, but now he suddenly had an incredible amount of it, only in the form of Mana. Wasn't this a bit too powerful? It was almost to the point of being unfair. Jay couldn't really figure out how he had gotten so lucky. This was practically one of the most perfect Passive Skills he could think of for him. Now he didn't have to care about Vitality or Endurance and could focus all his Stat-points on the four Mental Stats. He wondered if there was something akin to using your Health instead of Mana to activate Skills. If so, this was its opposite, and it wasn't too unfair.

Wraith interrupted Jay's musings, “Now leave me alone, go outside and create those eight different Spells. The only suggestion I have is that you make them simple. Simplicity is better than using all your time to create something spectacular. You just need to prove to me you can be proficient with all eight basic Mana and I'll help you some more. So, leave me alone now? Please?”

A tendril of Mana flew out of Wraith's Aura and coiled around Jay, lifting Jay from the air and abruptly tossing him at the black dome's wall.

2016-02-14T22:51:00.000+01:00

Chapter 5 Mana

He had to get as much as possible from this encounter; Jay figured this was at worst part of some unique Quest, and at best, some game-changing opportunity for him. “So, what does the Skill I get from becoming a Sourceer do?” Jay asked. He still had a bit of reluctance to commit to this, but he had already agreed, and could only try and gleam some more information before actually completely committing to this strange Profession called a Sourceer. He felt like stalling some, just to see how the old man would react. “Just getting one Skill when I take on this Profession doesn't seem very good to me.”

“Oh, you wouldn't even understand if I told you the benefit and scope of the Skill, it can only be properly explained after having it,” Ancestor said.

“That doesn't really encourage me to become a Sourceer,” Jay had to say; it felt too much like buying something without knowing what it was, and paying handsomely for it.

“Don't overestimate yourself. You're becoming my disciple, and such you will be a Sourceer Novitiate, not a full-fledged member,” Ancestor answered.

“Even worse,” Jay said, intentionally probing to see how this NPC would react to him. The old man was a bit too life-like for Jay's comfort, and the terms were a bit too lacking for his liking. He had to gain some insight into the old man's thought-patterns to wrest some control over their current conversation and future interactions.

“Ungrateful brat,” Ancestor said, his eyebrows actually turning down slightly in anger. “Let me tell you this: all Sourceers can only have one living disciple. And you're going to get that opportunity, yet you try to complain and hedge. You can't even imagine how powerful I am; how powerful the Society is. Our history goes back to before the Cataclysm. We have been a supreme force in the world for a bit more than four thousand years. And you're trying to gain something besides my generous offer to make you one of us. Ungrateful, I tell you!” Ancestor started muttering in a voice low enough for Jay to not hear what was said. Suddenly Ancestor raised his voice and with great fervor said, “even a back-water lout like you should have heard of us. We are gods among men!”

“Woah there, don't get too excited, you might get a heart attack old man,” Jay said, now coming to believe the old man was not completely sane... or reasonable. Jay also had the thought that this creature calling itself Ancestor, whatever it was, had to be part of some grand scheme within the game. It couldn't be for nothing that he got this opportunity. For some reason, he felt like this was his turning-point, his salvation, as if with this he could release all former thoughts of treating this as a game, and come to think of it as a true reality. He realized that if he were to survive, and even make something of his life in this reality, he would have to seize this chance and profit from it more than anyone else could have done.

“Old man?!? Let me tell you... you are so ignorant. I haven't aged for centuries. Old man, oh... right, I am actually old. No! I can't be classified as either old or young. I am Ageless.”

This was growing stranger and stranger, it seemed the old man was actually talking a bit to himself while also talking to Jay. The old man seemed to have slightly muddled thoughts. Jay got wary, he knew he didn't have much of choice in the matter, but this was growing a bit too strange for comfort. “Are you really human? You're not some kind of monster or something? Please tell me you're not a highly developed Boss that is just taunting me before disposing of me...” it was something he just thought of, and it wasn't a pleasant thought.

“Monster?” Ancestor asked, delight clearly resounding from his voice. “I've been called that, but I was born a human. And a Boss? In what way? Well, yes, I am an Ancestor of the Sourceer Society, so in that way, I am a boss, but for some reason it feels like you're asking about something else than that. Hm? What other kind of boss could there be...” Ancestor's voice once again tapered off into a low muttering impossible for Jay to hear clearly, but before Jay could say something more Ancestor snapped back from wherever his mind had wandered off to during his low muttering and said, “stop sitting there all reluctant and afraid. You have no real choice in the matter if you want to live. Just accept it and become my disciple.”

Jay ignored the last things Ancestor said and wanted to keep asking questions just to see how long it would take for the old man to lose his patience. It would be good to know his temperament. And now that Jay had given up on desperatly clinging to life, it didn't feel like he would lose much from actually antagonizing the old man. He had a feeling that Ancestor was more desperately in need of Jay than Ancestor wanted to show. “So, this Skill, 'Eye of the Magi', what's so great about it that it can be called the greatest Support Skill? What does it do?”

“It is an Eye Technique with the unique ability to let you see Mana,” Ancestor said, pride evident in his voice.

“What?” Jay asked, thinking that was a ridiculous statement. “I can already see Mana.”

“Ignorant child,” Ancestor said, an almost tender tone entering his voice, as if he was truly talking to a small child that didn't understand something obvious. “You don't understand. The Skill lets you see all Mana, not just your own. It also makes it possible to easily differentiate between all the different kinds of Mana. By being able to tell the different Mana-types apart you greatly increase your ability to create and develop Spells and Skills. It also gives you the ability to analyze other people's Skills and Spells, and make them your own if you understand and have the capacity to use them. And even better is that, unlike everyone else, you can actually see Freeflowing Mana, other people's Mana and your own Mana with perfect clarity of understanding its Essence; you can know what kind of Spell a magician will use before he has completed its conjuring because of the different colors used in its creation. If you are proficient enough with your Mana Manipulation you can even inject your own Mana into his Spell and weaken it, maybe even disrupt it completely. The Skill is thus unrivaled under the sky and below the earth in its visual prowess, but only to the degree to which you can use it in combination with your own Mana Manipulation, Spells and Skills.”

"That does actually sound really good. I never thought there were different types of Mana. I figured it was only the white blueish substance I emit when using Spells. And I haven't seen anyone else's Mana—if what you say is true, it would be incredible to see other's Mana and interrupt their Spells. Can you explain some more about the different kinds of Mana?”

“No. I'll explain that to you later,” Ancestor said. “This is growing tedious, just accept becoming my disciple. It will only work if you are fully accepting, and if it fails, I'll kill you and wait for another to come. And I'm growing bored with your probing. I'm close to just closing my eyes and going back to sleep. At least in my dreams I'm not inside this bubble separating me from the world... and I still enjoy dreaming more than talking to you, especially since you're not grateful to my gracious offer. The difference between us is worlds apart. You're like the ant climbing a tree, thinking it is the whole world, not knowing that the tree is only a small part of a forest on a mountain in an almost boundless world. To clarify, in this metaphor I would be the world. Kid, even though you won't understand, do you at least understand the faintest part of our difference in power and status? You're truly not being grateful enough.”

“I understand that you're like a turtle stuck in a jar, not being able to get out. But I understand, before you I am but a speck of dust on your robe. Oh, great and revered Ancestor, would you give this novitiate the Eye of the Magi and let me learn from you,” Jay's voice held a hint of ridicule; he couldn't help it, the old man was a bit too much of a braggart.

Before Jay could react, Ancestor flickered, completely disappearing from Jay's sight. A tapping on Jay shoulder showed where Ancestor had gone, and as Jay blinked, the old man was back where he sat before. Jay hadn't seen the man move at all. In an instant, cold sweat coated all of Jay's body. He realized that he might have gone a bit too far. “Okay, I got it, sorry for being flippant.”

“It's fine as long as you understand your powerlessness,” Ancestor said.

Afraid of continuing his probing actions and speech, Jay nodded. “So, how do we do this thing?" he asked, knowing it was time to take the plunge, mostly because he could hear the growing displeasure and indifference in Ancestor's voice.

"I only need to invest some of my power into you and create your inner eye, open up the sight which truly sees Mana," Ancestor said. "It will hurt a little bit, but bare with me."

Ancestor's hand reached out, elongating, his arm growing longer before Jay's very eyes, the palm coming to a stop in front of Jay's eyes. The dark red blood on the palm had a strange undulating transparent force to it. The force fluctuated and condensed to Ancestor's finger somewhere above Jay's eyes. He felt a tap on his forehead, and everything was awash in colors, blinding him. Then came a searing pain which made his mind go blank; a whiteness beyond white intruded in his mind, forcing everything he had ever thought or remembered out of his mind. Everything went blank, darkness enveloped him. Ping!

You have been given the Skill 'Eye of the Magi'

From ancient times, the world has always had deeper layers which mortal men could not easily perceive. A world beyond the world, only open to those that could truly see reality for what it is.

Your Perception has been remade to see the world for what it really is.

The message hung in darkness, Jay tried to see something else, but nothing came into view, only the message-window hung there. Time felt like it stood still, and everything was devoid of shape, form or substance. Was this how it felt like to die? He asked himself, hoping to get a rouse out of Claudine, but she didn't say anything, and he couldn't see or feel anything indicating she was even there. Time stood still.

After what could only be described as an eternity and no time at all, Jay opened his eyes. He had toppled over, falling to the ground at some point, and was now looking up at the creature calling itself Ancestor. The old man had changed; now, when Jay looked at him, there was a blinding glow to the man, colors of all the visible spectra flashed and surged around the man in a cocoon-like shape, wrapping up the man in its radiance. The glow was bright enough to make it impossible to look at. Jay closed his eyes.

“Good, you're awake,” Ancestor said. “That took longer than it should have. I wonder, did something go wrong? How does the world look now?”

Jay opened his eyes again, tentatively, but had to close them again because the old man's radiant glow couldn't be looked at. “What did you do to me?”

“I rearranged your brain and gave you the most important Skill you'll ever need or know,” Ancestor answered, not really giving an answer Jay could understand. Fortunately, the old man seemed to understand that he needed to continue his explanation. “The Eye of the Magi is our Society's foundation. It gives us Sourceers the ability to see all of Mana, not only our own, as normal beings have it. Now you can see your own Mana, other beings' Mana and most importantly the Freeflowing Mana—the True Body of Mana. It also makes it easy to differentiate between the fifteen different kinds of Mana, giving you extremely sensitive perception and control over all the different kinds of Mana. Normally, a person only has the inborn ability to manipulate one or two kinds of Mana, and can learn to use some others, but few can even learn to see their own Mana's different distinct colors. But we, the Sourceers, can see all Mana in creation.” As if realizing that he was reiterating what he had earlier said, Ancestor stopped here, thinking, but didn't pause for long. “Well, all Mana except the sixteenth kind. But that Mana exists only in theory, and I've only encountered two things that can influence that Mana. So, it isn't really important to you now. You'll come to know about that later, if you survive that long.”

That last part made very little sense to Jay, but he could already extrapolate some implications of what he had just learned. But right now he had a bigger problem, he couldn't even open his eyes because his eyes were being overwhelmed with sensory input. “I can't even open my eyes.”

“Ah,” Ancestor said, as if only now realizing something. “Think this 'Set Eye of the Magi to 10%' and it will alleviate your troubles.”

Set Eye of the Magi to 10%, Jay thought, opening his eyes again, wanting to know how much that changed. He still saw the old man covered in a cocoon of swirling rainbow-colors, but the sight didn't blind him this time, it only made him slightly feel a strain at the back of his head. “That's better,” he said. “I still can't really see what's so great about this Skill for it to be among the greatest ever known though. Now that I'm your disciple, shouldn't you start teaching me some of what I need to know to use this Skill to its fullest?”

“I suppose,” Ancestor said. “The first thing all Sourceers are told is what Mana truly is. So, I'll start from there, interrupt if you have any questions.

“Mana could be thought of as an organ akin to the nerve-system in a body, but one that works by having the Mana micro-pieces link together to both form the nerves and a 'body' in different ways, for different uses, depending on what mental output it gets from the user's brain. Mana can be collected from everywhere, as it is present in almost everything, and when you ingest Freeflowing Mana and brand it with your mental signature, it becomes your Mana, for your own use. That is why everyone's Mana is their own and they cannot use another person's or the Freeflowing Mana as they please. This restriction, however, is not something we Sourceers suffer from. We are the only beings able to control other people's Mana—though with great difficulty—and we can even somewhat guide Freeflowing Mana to do our bidding, thus enabling us to gain a Mana-pool both inside our bodies and outside ourselves. When you use Mana, it takes in energy from anything in its surroundings, and as it is used, your mental brand on it disappears, making you lose control over it.”

Jay had to many questions to actually know what to ask, so he just listened. Figuring the old man had been alone for far to long, Jay felt like he might have a need to talk. And that was for the best, Jay would listen, absorbing the knowledge to gain greater understanding of this newfound power. The more he heard, the more he felt like his world was expanding—if he really could gain control over other people's Mana, wouldn't that be incredibly powerful? He listened on.

“The fifteen different Mana Essences are divided into groups. The eight Basic types, the four Superior types, the two Ageless types and the Divine type. The reason I even gave you this opportunity is because you have the innate ability for using Force Mana—the Mana I'm the least proficient in among the eight basic ones, and the least common Mana for a person to have as their innate ability. The eight Basic types are commonly known as Earth, Water, Wind, Metal, Lightning, Fire, Cold and Force; the four Superior are Life, Decay, Light and Darkness; the two Ageless are Destruction and Compression; and the Divine is tentatively called the Space-attribute. There is probably a sixteenth Mana, but it isn't something you need to know about, since its existence is only theoretical at best anyway, and I, myself, know little to nothing about it. All I can say is that the sixteenth Mana is the progenitor of Mana, that which balances and creates all other Mana, or so I speculate. It is also the only reason why the world survived the Cataclysm, but that's also something you'll learn about later, if you survive long enough to become Ageless; only a third of the people in our Sourceer Society has reached that stage though, but no matter. To continue...

“And to reiterate, the reason I gave you the opportunity to become my disciple is because I'm hoping you can gain enough understanding of Force Mana to help me reach a higher level of understanding in its uses and functions, thus enabling me to reach into the Ageless Mana Realm. I was born with the ability to use Life Mana without any effort—it was a both a curse and a blessing in disguise, but that's a tale for another day—and now I have almost flawless control over six of the Basic Mana-types, and all four of the Superior types. The only Mana Essences I lack near-complete control over are Force Mana and Lightning Mana, and without knowing how to use them with great prowess it is impossible to learn how to use Destruction or Compression Mana. This is because most of the Basic Mana-types are needed to assist when using the highest Mana-types, and to use Destruction and Compression Mana you need to have extremely fine-tuned control over Force Mana and Lightning Mana.” Ancestor stopped here, as if waiting for Jay to ask a question.

And Jay still had more questions than he could actually put into words. But he had to begin somewhere, “how do you know I'm most proficient in using Force Mana?” It was something he thought he knew the answer to, but he had to ask, just to confirm his own understanding.

“Most of your Mana has a pale yellow color, corresponding to Force Mana, that's easy enough to see just by looking at you,” Ancestor answered. “From what I can see, you seldom use any other types of Mana, which is a bit strange, but also very good. It shows you have potential to be groomed into what I need. Force Mana is subtle in its uses. On the surface it is only good for one thing, but that use is extremely versatile. In simple terms, it is using your Mana to bombard and push the surface of something to move it in a direction according to your will; its intricacy comes from that though, how well you control your Force Mana makes it possible to do an almost infinite amount of things with it. It is the simplest Mana to use, but the most difficult Mana to use perfectly.”

Jay got a mad thought from what he heard earlier; he didn't believe it would be possible, but he couldn't help asking. “Would it be possible for someone to brand, as you named it, all Mana in existence? Theoretically, it should be possible, right? If you had enough capacity to hold all Mana and then absorbed it, what would happen?”

“Reaching beyond your limits now, aren't you?” Ancestor asked, a slight smirk forming on his face. “Simply said, it wouldn't be possible. To explain some deeper functions of Mana... you know your amount of Mana, right? That number represents the amount of Mana bonded to you, for your direct and instantaneous use. And to dispel a common misunderstanding, MP, as some believe, doesn't stand for Mana Points, it stands for Mana Particles. And each Mana Particle is actually a configuration of 1024 smaller pieces working together as a whole. And if you tried to bind all the Mana in the world to you, the amount of Mana Particles you would have to bind would be in the range of ten to the power of ten to the power of 1024; and that's just my educated guess. If you were as large as the world, you might be able to bind that amount of Mana to you, but as I said earlier, that is a practical impossibility.”

“Oh,” Jay had figured as much, but he hadn't been able to not blurt that out. Absolute power wasn't something his mind could ignore. “No matter, no matter... it was just an idle thought. I've become a Sourceer, and you've explained about Mana, which is great. Now, onto another topic... I'd like to know what your name is, I can't keep calling you Ancestor, it feels weird.”

“I've been called many things during my long life,” Ancestor said, his face going slack and expressionless. And as if not really talking to Jay anymore, he continued, “my given name at birth was Farlorion de'Laru, but that name was taken from me when I was three and the Magician Magistrate came and took me away... after that I was called Lifebringer for some eighty years because of my famous ability to heal any injury, but I don't like that name because it was what I was called during my enslavement. After I got free I was given another name, one that I like more, it came from my infamy; the name Wraith. But Ancestor Overseer gave me the name Cloud Golem... Hm, what should the boy call me? Yes... that should be best, Wraith is the name I took for myself...” Ancestor, opening his left eye again, looked at Jay with a tint of sadness. “Yes, call me Wraith.”

“Okay, Master Wraith,” Jay said, puzzled about that long monologue. It truly seemed like Wraith had the habit of talking to himself. Well, Jay figured that was something most would start doing if they were alone for long enough. “So, now what?”

“Now you complete the first thing every Sourceer Novitiate has to do, the initiation trial,” Wraith said. “You need to create a Spell or Skill using each of the Basic eight Mana Essences and show them to me. Remember, each Spell or Skill can only contain one of the Mana Essences, no mixing is allowed.”

Ping!

Quest

Creating the Basic Eight (0/8)

Difficulty: F

To show your worth to your Sourceer Master, you have to create one Skill or Spell corresponding to each of the Eight Basic Mana Essences.

Skills or Spells created:

Earth Mana: ???

Water Mana: ???

Wind Mana: ???

Metal Mana: ???

Lightning Mana: ???

Fire Mana: ???

Cold Mana: ???

Force Mana: ???

Reward:

1000000 Experience

“1000000 Experience?” Jay thought and blurted out at the same time. Jay had to take a look at how much Experience he had. View Experience.

Experience

(to Next Level)

(% to Next Level)

908965

(8835)

(12.55%)

That was more Experience than he actually had. Wasn't this too good to be true?

“Hm?” Wraith said, seeming puzzled. “Not enough? Maybe five then?”

Ping!

Quest Changed

Quest

Creating the Basic Eight (0/8)

Difficulty: F

To show your worth to your Sourceer Master, you have to create one Skill or Spell corresponding to each of the Eight Basic Mana Essences.

Skills or Spells created:

Earth Mana: ???

Water Mana: ???

Wind Mana: ???

Metal Mana: ???

Lightning Mana: ???

Fire Mana: ???

Cold Mana: ???

Force Mana: ???

Reward:

5000000 Experience

Jay's jaw dropped. What was going? This was really too good to be true, but he wouldn't complain. This was beyond great and it was something he could do to become a lot stronger in one go, but he also knew how difficult it was to create Spells. He hadn't even gotten his practiced Fling Shot to actually give him a Skill-window in the Skill-list, so his excitement was tempered by quite a bit. “Thank you, Master.” For the first time, Jay felt completely exhilarated by this extreme windfall.

“Well,” Wraith said, not seeming to care much. “Experience isn't good for much anyway, it basically only strengthens your mind against mental attacks. And I have enough to spare. I'm Level 1597 after all. That little bit I can spare without noticing.”

Jay didn't know what to say or think, his mind was reeling from the information... and he knew if this was how he was rewarded for the first Quest, what would the next Quest give? All he could think was that this encounter was truly game-breaking, that there must be something wrong here.

Dousing Jay's internal struggle to keep calm from the extreme elation he was currently feeling, Wraith's voice rang out with distinct clarity. “I also need you to grow strong quickly. What I have in store for you isn't for something someone as weak as you could even hope to survive. So, now for your part of our deal. I need you to go find me a couple of things and bring them back for me. Even after all this time, my minions outside has not been able to gather even one of the things I need to break this sealing sphere of darkness. I wish there were more that stayed loyal after I was trapped in here, but only those Rat-people kept their faith. Truly, it is such a difficult thing to get competent helpers,” Wraith lamented, sighing loudly. “If those weakling weren't capable of keeping my garden outside in a some-what good state, I would have already turned them into nourishment for my Life Tree... Anyway,” he continued, “first I'll need you to go to my basement and get some minor tools and materials, but don't go too far down in the structure. I have no idea how my absence has influenced the lower floors with the door connected to the Underworld. There might be some uninvited guests lurking down there, and you can't really survive an encounter with any creatures from the Underworld just yet. So, go get my refining furnace on the seventh basement floor and a couple of rolls of Lightning-Bat Wing-leather from the sixth floor. Give me your Map-pad and I'll put down the location of my Greenmist Villa.”

Jay took his Map-pad out of one of his inner pockets and handed it to Wraith.

Wraith tapped the Map-pad with a finger and a dot was put down in a place Jay thought he knew.

Ping!

Quest

Collecting Material for your Master

Difficulty: D

Your Master Wraith has asked you to go to the basement of his Greenmist Villa and find his Refining Furnace and Lightning-Bat Wing-leather.

Reward:

2000000 Experience

“I truly hope the guidance of Mana brought you to me; that this was wrought by the Will of Mana and that you are the one to help me free,” Wraith said suddenly. “If you succeed in helping me get free I'll reward you with everlasting life and riches, but for now, Experience has to suffice. This is how the things look like.” Wraith's arm once more elongated and tapped Jay's forehead.

Two pictures came into view inside Jay's mind. He saw exactly how the things he needed to get looked like, but Jay was reluctant to leave this place of safety he had found. He wanted to go through his Stat-window and come up with a plan for his future before actually doing anything dangerous again. “Master Wraith. Is it okay if I first stay here for a while and try creating a few Spells.”

“Yes, yes...” Wraith said, closing his left eye again, looking like a statue once more. Wraith's mouth didn't move, but his voice still resounded in Jay's surroundings. “No rush, as long as you do it within the next few years it should fine. I will go to sleep for a while now. Don't wake me unless there is something really important.”

Next few years? Jay thought. That statement made him understand that their perception of time was likely to be very different. If there was no rush, Jay would stay and try creating the Spells first. That way he would become much stronger while also being completely safe and while waiting for his Murderous Aura to dissipate. “Wait, just one more thing. Those creatures outside, they seemed to hunt people with a negative alignment to put inside this place. How can I leave later, when they are that much stronger than me and want to put me inside this place?”

“Oh,” Wraith said. “I almost forgot about that. Do you have a piece of metal, silver or gold would be best.”

Jay reluctantly took out a silver coin from his Inventory and tossed it to Wraith. As the coin came close to Wraith, a strand of silvery light shot out from Wraith and disintegrated the coin into a fine powder that floating in the air. Then, just as suddenly, the powder came together to form a square symbol with a circular hole in the middle; it was slightly bigger than a coin. Some jagged patterns seemed carved around the circle.

“This represents you being my emissary, of sorts,” Wraith said. “Just show them this when you leave and they'll obey you as they would me. But don't make them do thing they can't do, and don't kill them. They aren't warriors either, so you can't order them to kill for you, unfortunately even I can't make them go against their alignment... dull creatures that they are, they have some strange integrity ingrained in them.”

The silvery square floated back to Jay and he took it from the air, feeling its slightly warm surface. He had no idea how Wraith had done what he did. Wraith's actions were too quick and expertly done, but Jay didn't mind. It probably wasn't possible to copy that Spell and make it one of the ones to complete his Quest.

2016-02-07T22:34:00.002+01:00

Chapter 4 Desolate; Resolute

Feeling his body floating in a rhythmic swaying motion, Jay awoke in darkness, only a flickering line of light actually telling him that he was awake. His mind felt dull and muddled.

WAKE UP!!! Claudine's voice rang out loud in his head, almost hurting in its intensity.

What? He asked, confused about Claudine's frantic shout. What's wrong?

Finally awake, I see. Took you long enough. I've shouted my metaphorical lungs out for more than an hour now, Claudine said, and added as if it was only an afterthought, you've been captured, paralyzed and sedated by... something... or someone. I can't tell, unless you let me use your eyes. So quickly get a grip of yourself and look around.

Instantly he became alert, spurring his mind on to try and figure out whatever was happening. He tried opening his eyes, only to not feel anything happening. His body felt like it was floating in a cloud of fluffiness, in utter weightlessness; it was numb, only ephemerally itching and tingling all over, completely feeling like his body wasn't part of him at all. Forcing himself, he wrenched his eyes open with some effort, finally seeing that what Claudine had told him should be true.

His vision floated back and forth without him moving his eyes or head. With his feet dragging on the ground, Jay was being carried by something, slung over a shoulder... if his field of view was any indication of his surroundings. Whatever was carrying him was clad in a completely covering robe made from what could only be described as tightly woven thin branches or tree roots, as if whoever had created the garment was using thin wooden strands instead of cotton or wool thread for the cloth. The thing carrying him was also short, at most its head came up to Jay's navel if they stood side by side, but the creature was also thick, its legs being at least three times as thick as Jay's own.

Besides that, all he could see was the brown gravelly ground swimming past him, every now and then a tuft or grass or larger rock interrupting the river of dirt. He tried lifting his head, failing entirely, and gave up after a few attempts of moving both hands, feet and head. He had lost complete control over his body. He knew he should feel fear or even dread from being so helpless, but all he could feel was a tired, listless feeling that was growing deeper and emptier with every second going by. He closed his eyes. The tiredness enveloping his mind completely; he just accepted the situation and floated along.

It seemed like every time something good happened—such as finally finding a place to rest, if you thought of the most recent windfall he had encountered—something bad would follow, and sometimes only bad things happened to him. For some reason, he was feeling like everything was out of his control. Was it his fate to always encounter bad things?

Fate? Claudine asked, a notable amount of scorn clearly evident in that one word. Fate doesn't exist, only cause and effect, action and reaction. Everything follows from what has happened into what is and will be. If you don't like how things are for you, change what you do and you will get different results; then you just have to find the actions that create the greatest benefit.

As if it could be that easy? Jay thought to himself, ignoring Claudine's advice; his sparse reservoir of optimism had finally gone dry. His fragmented memories only gave him knowledge of things from a life he couldn't remember living, and his new life inside this game was doing its best to make everything as difficult as it could possibly be; it had become too much. He had lost his already undefined reason to live. Something snapped in his mind. He stopped caring. It was time to just go with the flow and see what would happen in this situation. It was obvious that it was out of his control, so he didn't even feel there was any point in trying to find out what was happening to him. It was all too much.

Time went by, a minute, an hour, he didn't know how long he dangled limply from the shoulder of whatever creature was carrying him; he didn't care either. It was somewhat relaxing—giving up. The only thing he did was passively wait for whatever would happen to happen and there was a kind of serenity in that.

Before long, he felt a dull impact on his shoulder and back. Opening his eyes, he saw that he had been tossed to the ground. He lay in between two large crudely carved wooden statues with a form that could vaguely be called human, or at least some bipedal creature. Jay couldn't be sure what they were, but there were seven of these wooden man-sized statues now that he looked around.

His body was growing less numb, and he became more aware of his surroundings. He lay atop a plain stone dais almost in the middle of a large bowl-like canyon carved out from the surrounding mountain.

Looking up and around, he saw that most of the edges of the bowl-canyon was made into neat and orderly stone terraces with about a meter's height separating each terrace; each terrace floor held a multitude of incredibly vivid looking plants in their own stone containers. There were short blue-green shrubs with enormous red-dotted white flowers, thin reedy ridged pole-like yellow plants with an umbrella of thin purple leaves spreading out at their tops, completely round large orange and pink cacti with needles long enough to pierce through the chest of a normal man, and lots of other plants. All around the canyon, in the places he looked, he saw exotic and strange plants placed and spaced out in an orderly fashion to let every single one get their share of sunlight.

But all these plants looked pale in comparison to the largest and most exquisite thing in this artificial garden. In the middle of the large bowl was a small completely spherical hill made from some black material that seemed to eat all light. From what Jay could see, the black material didn't give off any reflection and looked almost as if a an utterly black shadow was covering the hill. And in front of the hill stood two thin trees about two meter from each other. One tree had a black rough-barked trunk with small white dots; the other was its inverse, completely white with small black dots. Their trunks grew upwards in a spiraling pattern, a single trunk-thick gray-shading branch connecting the two trees to each other every twenty centimeter. These branches grew out from a bulging nodule on each trunk, making the trees form into a double helix pattern. At the trees' top were four large dark red drooping leaves, two spreading out at the top of each tree. If Jay didn't know better, because of its enormous size, he would have thought the trees were actually the first sprout from a newly rooted seed.

From every nodule bulging out on each trunk a massive amount of thin translucent thread-like branches also spread out in all directions, intertwining with each other and their surroundings almost like a spiderweb, but in all directions—a three-dimensional spiderweb. The spiderweb was trying to envelop the black spherical hill, but had only covered about a tenth of its surface closest to the tree. And in what could only be described as a random interval, a dot of light traveled through each of the thin translucent branches. It was as if the starry night sky had split into two and become a whole again within that tree. Jay couldn't help but marvel at its beauty, its uniqueness.

He lay on the ground for some time—for how long, he didn't know. He had difficult telling time, but his body was growing less numb at an increasing pace. He felt that soon he should be able to move his body again. Looking around, he tried to see if the creature that had brought him here was anywhere near. He couldn't see it, but as soon as he started looking around a loud boom sounded and the ground trembled slightly. Then the marching of feet could be heard.

A row of the short creatures came walking in a double-line toward the strange tree, lead by a single man, making up a procession of twenty one of the creatures. Observe, Jay thought, hoping for some information about what was going on.

???

Huh... as usual, he thought, not actually caring that he couldn't find out what the creatures were by using Observe on them. His newfound indifference didn't make him completely careless, but it did make him less reactive. And the indifference felt familiar, like some forgotten memory of home; it was strange. He didn't mind it at all, somehow knowing the indifference would make him less likely to be affected by whatever bad thing would happen next.

Jay closed his eyes, trying to look like he hadn't woken up yet, knowing it would be best to not rouse the creatures' interest without first having something like a plan on how to escape. He couldn't think of any though. He was lying in a place that was too obviously visible for anyone and anything that was within this large circular canyon.

A wooden staff poked Jay from his side, interrupting his musings. “Wake wake. Bad man. Go make fertilizer.”

“You want me to do what?” Jay asked before he could even consider not talking; the statement had been too strange. What was this creature talking about?

“Fertilizer,” the creature said.

Only now did Jay see that there were eight of the creatures standing before him, each of the seven others were hefting one of the wooden statues on its shoulder.

Jay could barely see inside the hood of the creature that had talked to him. It was not human, that was for sure. It wrinkly face looked a bit like some sort of rat human hybrid without any hair, except its whiskers were long and drooping down below its non-existent chin. Its long nose drooped too, almost covering the two broad teeth that was all Jay could see of its mouth. Its eyes were like small black pearls inside deeply hooded sockets. “Twitchy bad man. Go make fertilizer now,” the creature said again.

“Again... what?” Jay couldn't understand what the thing was talking about.

“Bad man. Fertilizer. No struggle,” the creature said again, now grabbing hold of Jay in its abnormally large hands.

That doesn't sound good, Jay thought, struggling to twist out of the grip of this strange creature. But it was no use, the creature held him without effort, and soon Jay stopped. Should he attack now? He didn't think he had any chance of actually battling his way away from this place, so he waited. He would strike when he wasn't held so tightly.

Jay was hefted up on the shoulder of the creature that had talked to him—Jay's legs and feet hanging down behind the creature—and the creatures lined up. Jay's carrier was second in line. Then they walked down the dais toward the black spherical hill.

As they approached the hill, 12 of the other creatures stood on either side of their path, each of them held a staff with some fluttering leafs at their tops. Every one of the twelve waved their staff over the heads of those that carried the wooden statues and Jay. They were chanting “Fertilizer. Fertilizer,” and sprinkled different colored powders on Jay and the statues as they passed by. Jay didn't know if the powders did anything, but couldn't feel any difference, so he stopped thinking about it.

When they arrived at the black hill, they lined up in a semicircle around the creature that had led the procession earlier. It stood there in a slightly different robe with green leaves interwoven into its fabric. The creature started speaking in an almost reverent voice. “Tribute ten. I go. Inform Creator. Good. Bad man. Good. Creator happy.”

As if the speech made some sense, the eight creatures answered in unison. “Become one again. Earth to earth. The honor of service.”

Then the creature with leaves in its clothes ran straight at the black hill, and just as Jay thought the creature would slam into the hill, it actually merged with it, disappearing without leaving a trace or ripple. It just disappeared as if the black surface of the hill wasn't even there. Jay almost couldn't believe what he had seen, it looked too bizarre.

Without Jay sensing them, the twelve other creatures had come behind the eight carrying statues. All was quiet, a few minutes passed by, and suddenly a loud thud sounded out behind Jay with a chorus of “Fertilizer. Fertilizer.” ringing out from the twelve creatures behind him. He couldn't figure out what this was all about, but he was still unable to do anything about whatever was going to happen, so he just looked around placidly. Then, something happened, something not unexpected. One of the creatures carrying a wooden statue went up to the borders of that black hill and tossed the wooden statue onto its surface, the statue merging into the hill as it flew through the air.

This time, only a few seconds went by before the loud thud of staves hitting the ground and the words “Fertilizer. Fertilizer.” rang out again. And then the creature carrying Jay moved up to the black hill. Jay was still held tightly. He couldn't get free, he couldn't flee, but for some strange reason he didn't feel any concern or fear, just a slight curiosity as to what was going to happen.

Flying through the air, Jay hit the black surface, and nothing happened. He hit the stony ground, landing awkwardly, his hands and knees hurting from the fall. All around him was a dome of the same light-eating black surface the hill outside had been made from. And Jay figured he was inside some sort of bubble made by the black stuff.

Inside the bubble the first thing Jay noticed was that the creature that had entered the bubble before Jay—and the wooden statue—had disappeared to somewhere. The second, and only other, noticeable thing inside the bubble was the statue of a bald old man in a dark gray robe sitting in a meditative posture, his hands loosely relaxing in his lap. The statue was the same color as the gray robe, but its exquisite details were astonishing. The wrinkles at the corner of the man's mouth and eyes and the life-like eyebrows were so astonishingly well carved that Jay thought it was only possible to see such a statue inside a game. It would be impossible to carve every single strand of hair of an eyebrow in the real world.

Walking up to the statue, Jay looked at it closer, not daring to touch it, lest something bad befall him again. But there didn't seem to be anything particular about the statue, so he quickly lost interest and walked in a circle around it, trying to find something to tell him where he was and why he was here. There didn't seem to be any danger, but neither was there anything interesting or worthwhile inside the black bubble. Jay got bored.

Sitting down, Jay got into his own meditative position in front of the statue. He had to take the time and think about how he would escape this place. The creatures hadn't followed him inside the bubble, so he figured he would be able to stay here for a while to think and prepare his escape. He felt rested now, and if this place was safe, he could finally go through his Stat Window and use his remaining Stat-points. He needed to think through his future development of his Stats, so as to not use the Stat-points frivolously, and how to use them for greatest efficiency.

Jay sat thinking and time went by. After about ten minutes he had come to the conclusion that he had to increase his Dexterity to run away, even though he didn't want to, he could only rely on quick feet to outrun those stubby-legged creatures. It was such a shame, he wanted to increase his Mana.

A light cough sounded out from somewhere. Jay looked up, but nothing stood out as different. But just as Jay was going to go back into his thinking trance, he saw the statue open its left eye. The eye was very strange and seemed to pull in Jay's attention; its iris was bisected by a line running vertically through the eye, the left side was a dark red color, the right side a dark green color. The eye looked at Jay, and it felt like he was loosing his sense of self, an incredibly confusion spread throughout Jay's mind. He just sat there, staring blankly at the statue.

“Finally,” a soothing whisper came from the statue's slightly open mouth. “Those blockheads finally sent a living being again. It's been years since the last one. I can never figure out how they are unable to differentiate between animals and plants. And I hate how they always say they can't take anyone but 'Bad man'. Well, no matter. You will have to do I guess.”

“What?” Jay asked, his confusion diminishing as he figured out the statue was actually a person, or at least a creature of some sort. “Who are you?” Vigilance flared up in Jay. The statue-man looked anything but ordinary in its extraordinary simplicity. For some reason it was giving Jay the creeps.

“You may call me Ancestor,” the man said, closing his eye again. “That Murderous Aura of yours is fairly impressive for your low Level.”

“Ancestor? Who are you? Are you man or beast? What do you want?” Jay needed to know what was happening.

“Man? No. Beast? Not really. I am a Creator of some renown. A Chosen of Mana. The 37th Sourceer,” Ancestor said. “And I want you to do some things for me.”

If the man wanted Jay to do something, then there was a way to survive this. “What do you want me to do?” Jay asked, hoping the situation that looked really bad could turn into something fortuitous.

“As you might have guessed, this place is a barrier,” Ancestor raised his hand, gesturing at the black dome. “It has sealed me in here for some time now. And I need your help to gather what I need to break the seal. Could you do that?”

Jay hadn't thought anything of the kind, but was grateful to the old man for telling him this; it gave him leverage. “What do I get out of it?”

“Your life,” Ancestor said. “If you won't serve me, I'll just kill you and feed you to my Life Tree. It might take a few hundred years before it grows strong enough to break the barrier from the outside, but I've got time to spare. Do as I ask and you will leave here alive. That's fair, right?”

For some reason, the threat to his life didn't motivate Jay at all. It was something he had gotten from his plunge into despair, a mentality he had gotten from hitting the bottom of his endurance, patience, and hope. “Not good enough. As I see it, you are stuck in here, and you need my help more than I care about living. This is my power. And from what you said, you can't get out of here, nor do you have any short-term plans on how to free yourself. So, I can't accept only getting my life out of helping you, since I figure it isn't an easy task to help you get free from here.”

The man laughed hollowly, opening his left eye again, looking at Jay with an intensity Jay could feel pressing down on him. “If you weren't a Kinestetic I would kill you for your insolence. Lucky for you, I have a soft spot in my heart for Kinestetics. So, what do you want in exchange?”

Kinestetic? What was that? “I want good equipment, gold, Spells, and anything that can increase my power. What can you give me? And what's a Kinestetic?”

Seemingly ignoring Jay's question, Ancestor said, “I have nothing of value to offer. Before I was put in here, all my things were taken from me. The few things I've accumulated from my minions outside since then has all been used as soon as I got it. There isn't much to do inside this place.”

“How about that robe?” Jay asked. “That has to be some good equipment. I can practically feel how dangerously strong you are just from you looking at me. So what you are wearing must be something great.”

Ancestor laughed again, this time with more mirth. “This robe? Sure, you can have it. Its only use is decently covering my body. Use some observational Skill and have a look for yourself if you don't believe me.”

Jay did just that and thought Observe.

Gray Robe (Full-body armor) (360g)

Defense: 0

Durability: 1 / 1

A Gray Robe made from ???

“I don't want that,” Jay said. “What else can you offer?”

Ignoring Jay's question again, Ancestor rambled on. “Don't think that thing in your head will save you from dying. This barrier is a closed space, and your Medi-port will not teleport your brain from your dying body into a new one if you die in here. Isn't the offer of you keeping your life enough as payment?”

“Nah,” Jay said, flippantly. “You don't seem to understand. I recently killed a lot of people by accident, and everyone everywhere is hunting me for my bounty. I'm not certain I will survive even if you let me leave here, so I can't really care enough to be motivated by another threat to my already endangered life. And you still haven't told me why you called me a Kinestetic.”

“Fine,” Ancestor sighed, it seemed like he didn't like not being able to use threats as a motivator. “A Kinestetic is someone that has an affinity to using Force Mana. You know, moving things by pushing on them with your Mana?”

“Okay,” Jay said. This sounded like it might be important information. “You mean to say that because I can use my Mana Manipulation to move things I'm a Kinestetic and use a specific sort of Mana called Force Mana? I've never heard of there being different kinds of Mana. Are there other kinds of Mana, and if so, what are those?”

“So many questions... I won't teach you about the deeper Magics for free,” Ancestor said, a slight tugging at the corner of his lips showing Jay that Ancestor was amused. “How about this... I'll give you my most precious thing.” Ancestor started unbuttoning his robe from his neck down.

Jay felt weird because Ancestor was taking off his clothes. He blurted out, “Who'd want an old man like you?” realizing that his statement was ridiculous as he said it.

“What are you talking about?” Ancestor asked, stopping his unbuttoning, pulling on the left flap of fabric, opening up his robe to show his chest over his heart. On his withered pale gray chest, above where Ancestor's heart was, there was a black tattoo of an octagon with a circle around it and inside it. The inside of the middle of the inner circle was bisected, a black and white spiral swirling in to a point. Ancestor pushed his finger in the middle of the spiral, and a slight trickle of dark red, almost black, liquid poured out, running down Ancestor's chest. Swiping up some of the blood, Ancestor smeared it liberally in his palm, stretching it out toward Jay's head. “Here, I'll give you the most precious gift you'll ever receive. I'll make you my disciple.”

What disciple? This was not playing out as Jay had supposed. “What do I get from being you disciple?” Should he really accept this? If the old man said it was a precious gift, it should be worthwhile to become his apprentice. Maybe he could even learn some things that normal players wouldn't know. This encounter had to be special, but Jay was reluctant to accept before knowing more.

“You should be happy enough to become my disciple,” Ancestor said, slight anger tinging his voice as he continued. “Haven't you heard of the Sourceer Society? We are the greatest in all the lands, the strongest individuals in the world, rivaling even the rulers of the Underworld. How can you even think about refusing my offer?”

“Sourceer Society?” Jay asked. “I haven't heard anything about such a place, people, or whatever it is.”

“How can that be?” Ancestor asked, puzzlement clearly evident in his tone. “We are the greatest Magicians in the world; the Chosen of Mana. If we're not famous for our great deeds, our infamy should be known to all. Has the world truly changed so much in the last three centuries since I was imprisoned here? How can you not know of the Sourceers. Elder Brother Trollroll's escapades during the Maraknan uprising, him flippantly cursing all that fought in the last battle to be unable to use any Mana during the entire battle. The legendary Overseer, the 2nd Ancestor, the absolute ruler of the Monolith, cannot be ignored either. His Monolith is the world's largest, grandest and strongest city. How can you not know of these things?”

“Three centuries?” Blurting that with incredulity, Jay scratched his chin, thinking of how to answer Ancestor's question. It seemed their sense of time was very different from each other. “I don't know anything about anything you just said. Just tell me what benefits there are to becoming your disciple. And then let me decide if it's appropriate payment.” Jay was secretly growing excited. Was this some sort of hidden or unique Profession? The ruler of the greatest city in the game was a Sourceer? What kind of people, or creatures were these Sourceers? And if he could become one too, what would that mean?

“Not three whole centuries,” Ancestor said. “I've only been here for 279 years, four months and two tendays.”

“Yeah, that doesn't matter much right now,” Jay said impatiently. “Tell me what the benefits of becoming a Sourceer are. What Skills and Spells would I get from becoming one? And what kind of Profession is it?”

“Profession?” Ancestor asked. “Being a Sourceer is becoming a completely unique creature in all the lands. It is beyond a mere Profession. We are the world's greatest users of Mana. And Skills or Spells? You'll only get one Skill. All Sourceers are given this single Skill during the initiation rites, and it is the only thing a Novice Sourceer get when becoming a Sourceer.”

“Just one Skill?” Jay asked, feeling very disgruntled about the poor benefits from being a Sourceer. “That doesn't sound very good at all. From what I've gathered, all Professions give at least a few different Profession-specific Spells and Skills. Why do you only give one Skill?”

“How would you know anything about anything, youngling,” Ancestor said. “You haven't even reached Level 512 and you're complaining when you should be in awe. The 'Eye of the Magi' is among the top eight Skills ever created. And it's the only Support Skill among those, making the Skill even greater. For a Support Skill to compete against the most powerful of Attack and Defense Skills, can you even comprehend how great it is?”

A Support Skill? Jay thought to himself. Sure, it had to be great if it was as the old man said, and the Skill was among the greatest in the world, but still... a Support Skill? Jay wasn't very enthusiastic. “What does this Support Skill do?”

“I won't say,” Ancestor said. “Only by becoming a Sourceer will you know that secret. Accept the deal, or become fertilizer for my Life Tree. I spent fifteen years creating its seed, and it has been growing for close to two hundred years, but only through refining the Mana from things and creating a specialized nutrient will it actually grow with any significant speed. So, even though you're weak, you still have a few thousand Mana stored inside your body, and I can use it to bolster the growth of my Life Tree. I'm growing tired of arguing with a being that is no different from an ant to me. I'll just say this, none has ever regretted becoming part of our Sourceer Society. We are few in number, but our power is feared and revered across the world.”

This Ancestor guy really liked to boast about his affiliation. Jay had not come to a conclusion, but it seemed like he had little to no choice. “What will you teach me if I become your disciple then? Or what will you do for me?”

“Enough,” Ancestor said. “Choose, become my disciple, or become fertilizer. Your choice. I'll answer whatever questions you have if you choose the former, but if you choose the latter, my answering your questions is completely meaningless. Now choose.”

“Fine,” Jay said. “I'll become your disciple.” He didn't really have a choice. But for some reason Jay felt better from knowing that even as he had fallen to the depths of numb despair, he still found something beneficial. With a resolute heart, he accepted whatever this world had brought him this time, and he was going to use the situation for all it was worth. “But you'll have to answer all my questions then.”

2016-01-31T21:32:00.000+01:00

Chapter 3 Unscheming Schemes

Leaving Jay, Hannah ran through the ancient forest, her speed close to ten times as quick as when she had traveled with him; it felt like she was flying through the air. The enormous trees and hill-like roots were perfect for her to train her Fluid Movement Skill. She did her best to just barely touch branches, trunks and roots as propelled herself. As she ran, she vaulted and spun through the air, trying to create a flow in her movement that increased her speed to its maximum; then she tried to go faster. It was something she had come to enjoy almost too much. And every time she did some especially difficult movement she would get a few hundred Experience Points.

The most difficult part of moving quickly was to always keep her eyes from getting overwhelmed. She had to focus deeply and watch the places she was going to place a clawed hand or padded foot to both increase her speed and go in the right direction. Moving her eyes to compensate for her top speed always took a little while for her to get used to, but incrementally it became something instinctual, letting her relax more and more the longer she ran. She wondered where she could get that rope-spell Jay had used to sling from tree to tree; that looked like so much fun.

In less than an hour she was close to Garam's Gorge. She stopped outside the perimeter where forest met the sparse yellow plains of grass spanning a few hundred meters before the town's wall. It was a good place to stop and she decided to take a rest before going back into town. Leaning with her back against a tree, resting, she took out a dark green apple from her Inventory and bit into it; its luscious flavor and slightly sweet, yet tart, taste was beyond belief, she had never eaten anything like it in the real world. She almost couldn't believe anything could taste like this in the real world. Sure, her mother had talked about apples and other fruits, about how they were available to buy at feast-days during her youth, but Hannah had never eaten any. Just being able to eat so many different things, and have them taste just like she imagined they might do in the real world made this game worth its cost.

Suddenly, she got an idea to try doing something a little bit more extreme; it was time to try something she hadn't done before to gain Experience with her Fluid Movement. Tossing the apple's core behind her back, she sprang forward on all fours, then flipped her legs up in the air and started doing cart-wheels across the plains, going faster and faster with every orbit, her hands and paws springing off the ground with en ever increasing pace. In moments her head was flashing through the air so quickly that her vision started to blur, but she did her best to focus her eyes on the wall that was closing in and soon her eyes started to adjust. Ping!

Perception has increased by 1.

Through constantly exhausting your eyes you have gained one point of Perception.

That was great; every time her Perception increased the world grew slightly clearer, as if everything was just a bit more real than before. It was marvelous. One of the things she most enjoyed in her feline body was her incredibly enhanced vision. When she focused her vision on something she could see it with extraordinary focus, anything within ten meters could be seen as if she held the thing in her hand. And even during the night it never truly grew dark for her. Truly incredible.

She closed in on the wall with a rotating speed she had never accomplished before, and when she was a few meters away from the wall she pushed off the ground with her feet, using Flash Step to bolster her legs, forcing them to increase in power. Turning in the air, she flew over the wall, flying much higher than she had thought she would. Soon the ground was almost twenty meters below her and she was growing a bit scared; even with her nimble body, it would be difficult to diffuse all the fall damage from this jump. Fortunately, she flew ever further than she had thought too, and just as she was beginning to drop from the sky she saw roof-tiles beneath her. Moments later she was skidding across the roof-tiles, cracking some, displacing others while she rolled over a few times on the clay tiles, finishing her extreme jump with gracefully standing up and making a slight pose, her arms in the air triumphantly.

For jumping more than twenty meters into the air you have earned 5000 Experience Points

For completing a great continuous Fluid Movement you have earned 13891 Experience Points

You have advanced to Level 71

Yes! Finally another Level, she screamed for joy, but only in her head.

Alignment has decreased by 4 (potential) points

You have destroyed roof-tiles that do not belong to you. If someone notices that you have done this you will lose 4 Alignment.

30 minutes until you are free of suspicion.

If you leave the area before someone sees that you have destroyed the roof-tiles you will be free of suspicion and not lose any Alignment Points.

Damn it, she thought. There was only one way to fix this. She walked to the edge of the roof and looked down from the two-story building. There, a slightly open window. Reaching down beneath the roof's outcrop, she found a wooden beam and clamped her claws into it then lowered her body down to hang from her arms. With a swing of her body she released her grip and closed in on the window, grabbing hold of the wooden window-sill as she was falling past it. Easing her body's fall against the wall, she pulled herself up and pushed up the slightly open wooden panel with one hand as her other hand flung her body into the room, going down to a crouch.

The room was small and had little furnishing. One side of the room was covered with a well-made, but worn, cot with a blanket and a pillow that looked to be filled with straw. On the other side of the room was a chair and a little table with a washbasin on top. There was also a small mirror on the wall by the washbasin. Right before her was the door to the outside.

Too bad this isn't the building-owner's place, she thought as she walked two steps and opened the door, going out into a dimly lit corridor. She had to find wherever whoever owned this place was, it was the easiest way to repent for her destroying property. She had learned this lesson well in the Tribe she started in; if you destroyed something, admit it and pay for it, then you will instead be rewarded Alignment-points, though not many, it was better than trying to get away and gaining nothing.

She walked to the end of the corridor, passing by a couple of doors on either side, and arrived at a staircase going down. She walked down it until she came to the bottom floor. On the bottom floor there was a small entrance-room with a door to exit the place, a door on her left and a door opposite the exit that had a sign saying 'Building Manager'; she went to that door, knocking on it.

A second later came a male voice from the inside. “Come in!” She opened the door and went inside. The room was larger than the room she had entered up above, but not by much, and it only held a large desk, a chair and a black-haired man sitting there, looking through papers as if he was doing something important. “Yes, what is it?” the man asked without looking up.

“Hello,” Hannah said. “Sorry to say this, but I accidentally destroyed some of the roof-tiles on this building. I want to compensate for that and for the work to replace them.” She had gotten used to how to phrase it for greatest success.

“Ehum,” the man said, looking up, touching the right tip of his black mustache, then raking his hand through his hair, taking his time, as if trying to think of what to say. “Yes, well, that can't be helped, I guess..?” He paused again, but not for long. “Give me a silver and all is forgiven.”

Hannah was a bit startled at the price, she had only had to give copper coins or do some trivial gathering quest in the Tribe when she accidentally climbed the Sacred Tree and broke one of its branches, but now she had only broken a few pieces of hardened clay and she had to pay one silver coin. Ridiculous. “Come on, isn't that a bit too much? I didn't mean it, and I came here directly after this mishap.”

“Doesn't matter,” the man said, looking down, this time as if he was not comfortable meeting her eyes. She squinted at him. Was he trying to cheat her? Was that even possible? He continued, “there are regulations for this sort of thing, and the smallest amount I can accept for breaking our property is one silver coin. Or do you want me to go get the guards?”

Go get the guards? She thought, trying not to show the scorn she felt from being threatened by this NPC. She was already high enough Level that the regular city guards could do nothing to her, and even if the elites came out, she could escape from anyone, but she didn't want to go through any trouble because of this. “No no, that's alright. Here.” She flipped a silver coin through the air.

The coin landed in front of the man and he flinched ever so slightly, but never looked up. “Good, thank you for reporting the damage directly. Now, if you don't mind, leave. I'm very busy.”

Hey, where's my increase in Alignment? She asked herself, almost saying it aloud. This was where she normally got an increase in alignment because of her honesty. Thinking about it, she had never done any damage that she needed to pay for since she got to this Human town, and there might be differences between how Humans and the Beast-people treated her. She had never thought of that, but now that it was blatantly pushed in her face, she couldn't ignore that possibility. But she didn't care, because it didn't matter much. She just had to remember to be more careful and not destroy someone's property in the future. That will be difficult to do, she thought about her own reflections, but couldn't do much about that either, so she stopped thinking about it entirely.

Without saying good bye, Hannah walked out from the little office and faintly heard a sigh as she left.

Standing still in the streets outside, she was at a slight loss as to what to do now. She had to find out things about the Magician's Guild she figured they wouldn't tell an outsider, and she couldn't join the Guild and snoop around because she wasn't a Magician. A thought struck her. The Mercenary Alliance might have some information for sale, and if not, they should at least have a map of the Magician's Guild's compound. From a map she could infer many things, and then sneak in to investigate when night came. Only during the night did she feel confident enough in her hiding-skills to sneak into places that were probably off limit to anyone not of the Magician's Guild.

Even though she couldn't run very fast in the streets, it didn't take long before she was outside one of the four-story tall stone buildings that looked so very much like all the other buildings in this part of town. She immediately opened the small wooden door with an ornate iron sign saying 'Mercenary Alliance'.

Inside was a fairly large room, but there were no chairs or tables. On the walls were lots of different-sized slips of paper and to her right, at the far wall, there was a counter of sorts where a Wolf-man with silvery gray ears and hair stood, his eyes were closed as if ignoring everything happening around him.

Besides the man at the counter there were three people looking at the different slips of paper plastered on the wall, choosing some request made to the Mercenary Alliance; anyone could join the Mercenary Alliance, one didn't even have to be in a Guild, Clan, Sect or Mercenary Band, and even if you were a part some of those, it still didn't matter. Anyone and everyone were welcome here as long as you didn't start trouble with someone inside their buildings. Hannah had thought more people would be here though. In the tribe there were always tens and tens of people inside the Mercenary Alliance building, but here there were only three. Well, it didn't matter much to her, she only wanted to use the Mercenary Alliance's services until nightfall.

Walking up the counter, she saw that the man wasn't old as his hair might indicate. And as she was about to knock on the counter to get his attention the man opened his startlingly clear pale blue eyes. “What can I help you with?” the Wolf-man said, his protruding canines showing a glint as he smiled broadly.

“I need some information,” Hannah said, opening her Inventory and taking out a silver badge with the letters MA on it, showing it to the man, proving that she had done some meritorious deeds for the Mercenary Alliance. “What can you tell me about this branch of the Magician's Guild? And do you have any detailed maps of this town?”

“Can't tell you much about the Magician's Guild. They're a secretive lot,” the Wolf-man said. “But if you really want to know some of their secrets, the price is as steep as the information is rare. Three gold coins and I'll tell you three things about the Magician's Guild in Garam's Gorge that few know about. How about it?”

“Three gold coins?” Hannah had to ask, because she could only think she had heard wrong.

“Yes,” the Wolf-man said, not batting an eye, or changing his expression in any way to indicate he was joking.

“Damn,” she said. “That's too expensive for me. I don't want to know that much. I only thought the Magician's Guild here took up a lot of space and was curious about it.” She had to try and hide her interest even if she had revealed some of it. What if this guy told someone in the Magician's Guild that she was asking questions about them? That wouldn't be good. If the Magician's Guild was on alert when she was going to try and sneak into it to investigate what was below ground, then she would have to be even more careful. That wouldn't do at all. She changed the subject. “How about the map? I want the best you have, with details about prominent buildings and things to do and see in this town. And don't tell me that costs a lot, I know those maps only go for a few silvers.”

“14 silvers for the best map,” the Wolf-man said. “But I need some time to have it copied onto a Memory Crystal for your Map-pad. You'll have it in a few hours, okay?”

“Sure,” Hannah said. That wasn't such a bad thing, she had to wait until evening anyway. “Are there any Access-rooms to rent for Meditation here?” There had been such rooms in the Mercenary Alliance building in her tribe, so she figured there was no reason not to ask. “I want to use it to connect to the Arena.”

“Sure,” the Wolf-man said. “It will be five silvers for one day. And before you try and bargain, there are no discounts, and you have to rent a room for at least a day. After that it's twenty coppers per hour. Alright?” he dangled a pale blue octagonal stone from a loop of thick white string attached to it.

Putting five silver coins on the counter, Hannah said “fine,” taking the octagon, slightly frowning at the high price. In the Tribe these rooms had only cost ten copper coins per hour, and you could rent them for an hour at a time. Could it really be that there were some discrimination against her kind here? She dismissed the thought as it came to her since the man before her was of the Beast-tribes; so, she couldn't really believe that. Maybe it was only a difference in location that made prices be more expensive here.

The Wolf-man did something beneath the counter and the wall to his side swung open. It hadn't looked like a door, but it obviously was. How strange that they hid the door in such a way. Beyond the door there was a stone staircase going down below the building. “Just down the stairs and then take any room that has an open door. The room will forcibly expel you when the time imprinted on the room's key is spent. But if you leave earlier, the time will stop too.”

She hadn't known that; in this case, it was a bit better than she had thought. If she could use the time in parts, then it wasn't such a bad price. “Thanks. Could you come and tell me when my map is finished?”

“Sure,” the Wolf-man said, closing his eyes again.

She walked down the stairs, looking around at its bottom to see a slim corridor with smooth white stone walls, at every meter was an open doorway, except the closest doorway, it was closed with a slab of rock. She went into one of the closer rooms and pushed the octagonal stone to the wall, watching as a slab of stone slid up from the floor, closing her off to the outside.

The room was small enough that she could easily touch all four walls with her hands and feet at the same time, and there were no furnishings at all, only an intricate circular silvery pattern covering most of the floor. She sat down in the middle and closed her eyes, Meditating, and everything turned into an almost blinding white.

Everywhere she looked around there was white, no horizons, no walls or floors. She was just floating in the whiteness. “Join the Arena,” she said to the empty air, and the world seemed to flicker, shifting into a transparent room overlooking thousands upon thousands of circles down below; every circle was an arena where two or more people were fighting for practice or gambling. If she wanted, she could point to one and it would enlarge for her viewing pleasure, but she wasn't here to watch others fight, she wanted to test herself against a worthy opponent. It had been to long since she last fought someone.

“Challenge anyone close to my Level,” she said, inputting the command to send a universal challenge to anyone that wanted to fight.

“Please wait,” a feminine crystalline voice said. “There are no combatants close to your Level available at the moment. Would you like to wait?”

Damnit, she thought; she hadn't thought there wouldn't be anyone here close to her Level. “Decrease all my Stats by 10% and send out a challenge at that Level,” she gave another command, hoping that she wouldn't have to lower her Stats too much. She enjoyed how her body was moving right now and she wanted to become ever better at controlling her ever increasing swiftness and agility. The only way she knew to gain fighting experience without actually risking death was in the Arena, but if there really wasn't anyone close to her Level to fight, she might just need to go and find some more dangerous creature to fight with. And that would take time; time she didn't have.

She didn't have to wait long before the world shifted again, and she was now standing on a gravelly floor with ten thick stone pillars jutting out from the ground to a height of about twenty meters. The pillars were equidistant from each other and stood in a circle around her and her opponent. In front of her, about ten meters away, stood a short man with black eyes; he would at most reach her bellybutton.

The man had fairly nice equipment; a blackened chain-mail adorned his torso above a gray shirt; his hands were covered with dark blue leather gloves with some strange brown thread making a jagged, lightning-like, pattern go up each finger and above the gloves, covering his arms, were wrist-guards of a steely white metal; his shins were covered in metallic leg-guards and his feet had black leather boots, but he didn't have any armor covering his thighs, only some cloth pants of a dark green color; and on his head was a purple leather cap, its color going from dark to pale purple in blotches. In the man's hand was a bow made from some golden wood with a silvery white string. The bow wasn't large, but seemed powerful as it emitted a faint glow. “Want to gamble on the fight?” the man asked, overconfidence spewing out of his mouth.

Hannah smiled slightly, her feline features showing a more feral sight than she might wish with her gleaming white canines tugging at her lower lips. “Sure, how about a best of three, and we bet a gold coin per fight. So, three gold to the winner of the best of three, okay?”

The man looked taken aback for a moment, a slight hesitation showing itself on his face, but he soon nodded. Maybe he didn't think she was any good at fighting from her clearly home-made equipment? He soon got over whatever fear or hesitation he felt. “Fine!”

A hovering orb flew out from somewhere and positioned itself in front of Hannah, an arm's reach away. She took out the octagonal stone, pressing it to the orb, and a light shone. “Three gold coins. Free fight. Best of three,” she said in a clear voice and the orb flashed again in a green light, accepting the wager and form of battle. Then the orb flew over the the short man and he did the same.

When they were both finished and had recorded their wager, the orb flew into the air and the crystalline voice sounded out from everywhere. “Fight starts in 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. Now!”

Hannah used Flash Step and jumped with extreme haste through the air toward a stone pillar. Haste. Lacerating Nails. Quick Hands. Hardened Fingers. Extend Claws. Enhance Perception. She thought the commands for all her supportive Skills, making her faster, and more deadly. Her fingernails—better called claws—grew to almost five centimeters and turned black, gleaming with a dark green shimmer.

Just has she arrived at the pillar, an arrow followed, barely missing her as she slapped the stone pillar, shaking it with her forceful hit, pushing her trajectory away from the pillar. She flipped through the air, going down on all four and rolling to the side as another arrow passed by where she had landed. She looked up, feeling more like a Beast than Human at this moment, staring at the short man, she locked her eyes on him and used three quick Flash Steps in a zig-zag pattern to get closer.

The man jumped back slightly when he saw her great speed, but his retreat couldn't come close to her advance. As she arrived right before him, he tried to put up his bow to guard against her slashing right hand, only to miss seeing her left hand going for his stomach with two fingers extended. He took her strengthened finger attack right below the rib-cage and a mouthful of blood flew out of his mouth as his body doubled over, almost falling to the ground from one of her blows. She felt disappointed. This was too easy.

Backing away to give the man some room, she now only felt pity for the little man and was certain she would win the fight without much trouble. She waited two seconds for the man to get his wind back and take up his bow, aiming at her with an ephemeral glowing arrow made out of thin air; it flew towards her, whistling through the air, but she could see it clearly because of her enhanced vision. It didn't move slowly, but she could clearly see the arrow's trajectory through the air, and she slightly moved her body to let it pass her by. The man shot another arrow with the same result, and she walked closer to him and he started backing away. “You can't win against me,” she said, taunting the man, trying to break what little confidence he still had so that the next fight would be quick. She wanted to find some other person to battle with now.

She closed in on him with almost casual steps, gracefully dodging arrow after arrow until the man slumped to the ground, sitting down, his Mana exhausted. At least she had gotten some training in dodging arrows from this guy. She looked down on him, and he opened his mouth to say something, but before he could, she slashed his neck with her claw, slashing quicker than he could react. Blood gushed from his throat and he couldn't talk, a frantic expression overcame his face and he tried backing away again. She quickly stabbed out with her hand, piercing a finger into the man's heart.

“Fight concluded,” the crystalline voice said from everywhere. “Next fight will start in one minute.” Everything flashed around them, flickering lights turning into an arena looking exactly like the one they had been in, both of them standing at an equal distance to the last time.

“You can just concede the next fight and let me win,” Hannah said to the man, hoping he would agree. “This isn't doing much for either you or me. You could say that I'm a bit of your natural enemy since I can see your arrows.”

The man looked down, dejected, but nodding. “I concede,” he said, sorrow clearly evident in his voice.

Everything flashed again and Hannah was back in the observation room, looking down on the massive amounts of Arenas down on the ground. She hoped to find some better fighters in the Arena. Even if she lost, but learned something, it would be worth more than winning coins from people she could beat without effort. “Challenge anyone close to my Level,” she said, once more inputting the command to send a universal challenge to anyone that wanted to fight; this time she would wait for someone at her Level. Maybe that way she would be able to find someone powerful to fight.

2016-01-24T22:56:00.000+01:00

Chapter 2

New Prospects

"I don't remember any woman as hairy as you," the man said. “Are you looking to die too?”

Hannah abruptly choked off her humorous fake-crying, a grunt filled with indignation slipped out of her mouth. What did he mean by that? Sure, she looked more feline than human right now, but that comment was uncalled for.

The man jumped, crouching down almost two meter away from where he was earlier standing, staring menacingly at her. He was a squirrely one, that was for sure. Something seemed wrong with the man. “I'm Hannah. Who are you?”

The man didn't answer, just kept staring at her as if trying to figure out what she wanted. His equipment looked better than most she had seen; the blue head-band with three dark gray metal squares, the dark gray cloak covering up a dark red shirt, the dark brown pants with the swirling pattern that seemed to almost move when she looked closely; it all indicated that this man at least had gone beyond Level 30 and could be considered a fairly strong player. It would be best to befriend this person. Especially since he had killed three other players without even batting an eye and was shrouded by that barely seen baleful Aura.

“Come on. I mean no harm,” she said again, trying to coax out some response. She morphed back into her Human form. If he recognized her, he might relax.

Her body shrank significantly; now she stood at barely 1,6 meters. Her fur retracted, leaving behind her normal skin with its slightly tanned hue. She had kept her original appearance when she entered the game, and had only made some minor touch-ups, such as increasing the tan of her skin. Now, the only thing that differentiated her from a normal human was that she still had her Beast-form's ears on top of the sides of her head; they were black in her human form. Swinging the tail of long braided black hair to her back, she began folding up the flaps on her clothes to not look as much like a large ball of leather and fur.

“You?” the man said, the caution in his eyes lessening slightly, but not much. She couldn't help but feel that there was something wrong with the guy. He continued, “you're the girl that sold me my former pants? Right?”

“Yes,” she said. He had finally remembered. How come he didn't recognize her voice? Well, no matter. “I saw what you did in the Magician's Guild. How did you do it? And why? I've heard that it's a lot more difficult to play this game when you have a negative alignment. You should be more considerate of others.”

“Hah... hahaha...” the man laughed at her. “You wouldn't believe me if I told you. But, sure, why not... It was an accident.”

“An accident?” she asked, incredulity expressed in every syllable. “You're right, I don't believe you. If you don't want to tell, then it doesn't matter. I came here to ask for your help. Answer some of my questions and I'll give you a few silver coins, how about it?”

“Nah,” the man said, quickly looking down at the NPC on the ground then back at her. “I don't have time for idle chatter. I need to get away from this area. There's already a bounty out on me, and I won't agree to being killed by anyone.”

“Fine,” Hannah said. She didn't mind taking a walk. “I'll just follow you until you have time to answer me.”

The man twitched, his blank facial expression growing a slight frown. “You can't. I don't trust you.”

“Don't mind that. What's your name?” she said, not waiting for an answer. “I'll just walk in front of you and keep in sight. That way you can attack me with that metal pin you're holding in the air. Clever way of using those pins you bought, by the way.”

The man looked at her for a long while, his body completely still, as if ready to move at the blink of an eye. Then he shrugged. “Go down to the ground and keep in sight then. If you're not here to try and kill me, I'll not attack you. My name is Jay.”

“Hey, Jay... right away,” Hannah said, taking a step backwards, falling straight down behind the large branch she stood on, morphing into her feline form in the air. As she approached a lower branch she slashed out with her claws, altering her flight through the air to a branch a few meters to her left. Then she stepped lightly on it with the pads on her feet, Flash Stepping down to the ground beside the NPC, startling him.

She looked up, watching as Jay slid down his rope at a slow pace. He looked very cautious. “So, what brought you here?” she asked the NPC.

“I was a forest guide for those three Immortals,” the NPC pointed to the three bodies on the ground. By now, their bodies had already begun to dissipate into a transparent heat haze that slowly rose into the air. After a few more seconds the bodies shimmered and disappeared in a slight flash of light.

Jay touched down to the ground and looked over vigilantly. Why did he have such a fearful mindset? She couldn't figure out Jay's behavior. “So, where are we going in such a rush?” she asked him.

“That doesn't matter to you,” Jay said. “Bokar, you said something about a place I could go and not be attacked because of my negative alignment. Was that true?” Jay walked over to where the bodies had been earlier and crouched down, picking up something from the forest floor at each body's earlier location.

“Yes,” Bokar, the NPC, said. “It's a small mining camp about six kilometers away from here. I'll show the way. Just, please, don't kill me.” Bokar shivered slightly, but didn't look very afraid. “They might even be in need of a person with your abilities, Lord Immortal. You are an Assassin, are you not? Or at least a killer for hire of some sort.”

“I'm not an Assassin,” Jay said with the first heated emotion Hannah had heard from him. “And why do you keep calling me Immortal? That's just strange.”

“But... you are immortal,” Bokar said, as he began walking towards Hannah—she had started walking backwards, looking at Jay to try and figure him out. Jay following by Bokar's side. “I can't think of a more appropriate description for you, unless it is Undead. But Undead are usually deranged and bloodthirsty, so you can't be that...” Bokar suddenly grew silent, looking at Jay with a disturbed expression. “No, you can't be Undead, right? He wouldn't keep me or the Beast alive then,” he said as if mostly talking to himself, but continued, “I have seen some of you die, and a few hours later come back to pay for my services. Isn't it true that you won't die like us when you are killed?”

“For some...” Jay said, but stopped talking abruptly, then continued as if not having said those first two words. “No matter, just show me the way to that mining camp and I'll let you go. And you! Stay ahead of me or I'll instantly kill you.” Jay pointed at Hannah.

How rude! she thought, but she soon forgot about her indignation. It was truly good to be back in a forest as old as this. It was beyond fun to jump around the lower branches and climb the trees. She ran along for a while, using low hanging branches to lunge up into the air and somersault through the air. She was enjoying being back into the forest, and was taking her time having as much fun as possible. She could ask Jay about whatever was down below the Magician's Guild when he trusted her more.

After they had spent ten minutes inside the forest, the forest had grown older and older. Now the trees were so large that their roots made hills and walls higher than a man. They continued on, walking the winding paths between the roots, when suddenly Bokar spoke out.

“Phew,” Bokar said. “Now I feel a bit less tense. I'm finally safe. Thanks for not killing me, Jay.”

“What are you talking about?” Jay asked in a flat tone. “I can still kill you. See these two pins floating in the air in front of me? At a moment's notice I can fling them with so much force that a single one of them would blow your head to smithereens.”

“No, no...” Bokar said with what could only be called suppressed bafflement. “We're in the Forest's domain now. If you attack me here, the Forest will destroy you.”

“What nonsense is this?” Jay asked.

Bokar wiped at the sweat appearing on his forehead. This is turning interesting, Hannah thought.

“In the Forest's domain, all of us that has paid allegiance to it will be guarded by it. If you attack me, you will not survive me long,” Bokar tried to not sound threatening, just explanatory.

“I don't believe you,” Jay said. “I don't like your sudden rebelliousness. Are you saying you won't take me to that mining camp now? If so...”

Before Jay could continue, Hannah had to interrupt before things got out of hand. “Jay, the NPC is telling you the truth.” she turned to look at the NPC. “You're what? A Forest Keeper or something?”

Bokar looked at her with hostility. She couldn't figure out why. “Yeah, something like that. I'm a Ranger of the Forest.”

“See,” Hannah said to Jay. “The NPC is of the Forest, which means that their guardian deity or something protects him. I was told about the Forest in my tribe's camp. It's some sort of god-like creature that has control over enormous swaths of land. In its land there are only ancient forests and no one dares to even cut down the trees there because the Forest might take offense.”

“Shut up with that enpeesi,” Bokar suddenly burst out. “I don't like the tone you Immortals use when you calls us that.”

Hannah was startled. The NPC cared about being called NPC? What was that all about. She didn't even think it could care about such things. “What do you want to be called then?”

“My name's Bokar. I'm a Forester. Not some en'pee'si,” Bokar said.

“Enough,” Jay said, interrupting their interesting conversation. Hannah didn't like that, but she had to try and not rile Jay; after she got her answers, then that might change. She didn't like Jay's strange behavior. Jay continued speaking, “I don't want to make noise and have others find us. By now I can only imagine how many are trying to find me for my bounty. Bokar, how did you find me?”

“I followed your scent,” Bokar said. “I used this,” he pulled out a thumb-sized bumpy worm that squirmed on his hand until it pointed at Jay with its two small beady black eyes. “It's a Snifferwyrm. They are very useful when you want to hunt something.”

“How is that possible?” Jay asked. “I had anti-scent magic in place.”

“You can't be very good at it then,” Bokar said, his attitude remarkably changed when they entered what he said was the Forest's domain. “This thing is only good at picking up scents, but it does that very well. That might also be the reason why. Not many would be able to find you if you used magic that erased your scent.”

Hannah felt left out. Why didn't they ask how she had found him? “I found you that way too. You smell like pale yellow with flecks of sparkling silver.”

Jay stopped walking, his eyes widening. “What?”

“You smell like pale yellow with flecks of sparkling silver,” she said again. Did he not understand me? she asked herself. “Hey, come on. Can't you answer my questions now?”

“Later,” Jay said, shaking his head.

“Later when?” she asked. But when she got no answer, Hannah ran off again, jumping from large tree root to large branch, bouncing off trees all around in ever increasingly difficult acrobatic movements until she started getting Experience from the more extreme of her maneuvers.

- - - - - - - -

Jay was getting dizzy from looking at the tan feline creature that ran and jumped around in front of him as their little group quickly traveled through the forest. They had been moving for a bit more than thirty minutes now and he was starting to feel winded. Slowing down his pace, Jay took out his canteen of water and some biscuits, then drank and ate; it made him feel a bit better.

“Hey,” the cat-creature said. “Share some food, why don't you?”

Jay couldn't be bothered to even say no. He had too many of these rock hard biscuits anyway. He threw one at her and she grabbed it from the air and quickly bit it in two, crunching on it with an ever growing distaste on her face.

“You don't have anything better than this?” the cat-creature said, spitting out the biscuit. “It tastes like chewing soft wet sand.”

“If you don't want it, give it back,” Jay said, holding out his hand. Hannah threw half the biscuit back and Jay stuffed it in his mouth directly after he caught it. “Can't waste food like that.”

“You're strange, you know that, right?” Hannah asked.

“From my point of view, you're the strange one,” Jay answered, but not really caring what she thought. He had lowered some of his guard against this cat-creature called Hannah because she didn't seem to be capable of hostility. Her juvenile jumping and running around, showed him that she had, if not an innocent, at least a childishly playful personality; such a personality was less likely to be hostile.

“We're here now,” Bokar said, interrupting Jay in his train of thought.

As they walked out from beside a tree trunk that was almost twice as tall as Jay, a clearing opened up and cordoned off sections of ground had plants growing in them. In a wooden-fenced pen lay more than twenty large wild pigs, their shaggy hair and long tusks made them look rather ferocious... if it wasn't for their lazy postures, laying on the ground slightly snuffling and snoring. Beyond the fields was a tall rocky vertical cliff-side, its reddish brown stone wall stretched more than two hundred meters into the sky and almost five hundred meters wide before it was covered from sight by the ancient forest. In the cliff's middle was a ten meter wide crack, widening the higher the walls climbed, but only slightly.

“The mining camp is inside that ravine,” Bokar said.

“How many people are there?” Jay asked, his senses growing ever more alert for danger now that he knew people were near. People were more dangerous than mere beasts, and he had to take care not to get attacked because of his Murderous Aura. “What are their Levels? Professions? How likely is it they will attack me?”

“Settle down,” Bokar said, the look in his eyes was growing slightly weird, as if he was looking at something he couldn't understand. “There are less than a hundred people here, including women and children. The only reason I showed you this place is because I think they could need the help of someone like you; someone with skewed morals. I'll take you to the foreman and let him tell you about it. I only heard some when I was last here to sell some furs and get supplies.”

“I'm not going there before you tell me more about the people there,” Jay said, grinding his feet into the brown mulchy earth as if trying to root himself to the ground. “I won't take unnecessary risks. What are their Levels and Professions? Who is the most dangerous person there? This foreman guy, right? What is his Level and Profession? I won't go there before I know I can survive if they attack me.”

“Why do you care so much?” Bokar asked. “You're immortal. What does it matter if you're killed?”

“I can't accept the losses a death would bring,” Jay said, sidestepping the truth, but trying to convey some of it. “Just tell me.”

“The foreman is named Paksir, he is a Level 58 Blacksmith. Most people are lower than Level 20 though. And less than ten people have combatant Professions, none has a Level higher than 40. Satisfied?” Bokar asked.

“And how do I know you're telling the truth?” Jay asked. He couldn't take the risk. A hundred or so people wouldn't be easy to run away from if they all attacked him. “You go get the foreman and come here. You said he needed someone like me, right? Then ask him to come here and talk to me.”

“You're a real coward, aren't you?” Hannah asked to the side.

“Shut up,” Jay said. “Prudence and precaution isn't cowardice. You try walking around with a negative 10000 alignment and see how safe you'd feel.”

“10000?” Hannah asked, her eyes widening to almost twice their size, her slit pupils narrowing. “No wonder your Aura even made me feel scared. That must be some record or something. Maybe it would be better for you to go back to a city and turn yourself in. You'd have to die a hundred times to get your alignment back to zero, and you would lose all your Experience, but at your low Level it wouldn't matter too much anyway. I don't believe its possible to come back to a positive alignment from it being that low.”

“I can't,” Jay said, not wanting to explain his reasons. “Why should I pay with my life for something I didn't do?”

“Well,” Hannah said. “Even if you killed those people in the Magician's Guild by accident, you still executed those three players earlier without a second thought. That isn't really how someone innocent acts.”

During their conversation, Jay noticed Bokar backing away slowly. “Where are you going?” Jay asked. “Go tell the foreman to meet me here, and if you bring anyone except him, or bring a group of people I'll run away from here. But I'll never forget it, and I will come back for your lives when I can take them without risk. Now run.”

“It's just, I've seen the devastation from when you Immortals fight. I was backing away because you two are almost letting off sparks with your conversation.” Bokar said. “I'll go right now. Just wait here, no need to threaten me. I know there is no point in going against an Immortal. Even if I could kill you, you'd just come back. And the Forest only protects against unprovoked violence, so I won't be starting any. It wouldn't do to lose my protection because you could claim self-protection.” Bokar walked off to a trail that went inside the ravine in the distance.

“Interesting,” Jay said, thinking about this Forest's domain. If there really was a creature that could monitor all the forests and it even had laws that people had to follow in its territory, then Jay had to take care not to provoke it. He had not found many creatures running around the forest during their travels here, but that was probably only because the Murderous Aura made creatures feel an instinctual fear and therefore avoided him; some extremely powerful creature wouldn't care about such things.

“Hey,” Hannah said, interrupting Jay's thoughts. It was growing frustrating to have her here. “Jay, you said you would answer my questions earlier. Isn't now a good time for that?”

“Sure,” Jay said. Though he was reluctant, it was still better to get this out of the way so that they could go their separate ways. “What do you want to know?”

“Many things,” Hannah said. “First, what was that black smoke? It killed an NPC with a Level higher than 50 in seconds. Second, what is down in the sewers? What is the Magician's Guild hiding? What were you doing down there?”

“You stopped numbering your questions,” Jay said, stalling for time. How much should I tell her? He thought to himself, awaiting the whispers of Claudine's sporadic advice.

Why not everything? Claudine answered without reason. It doesn't matter how much you tell now anyway, right? You can't go back, and the Quest is gone.

“The black smoke came from me burning a boss Slime to death. When the slime died I got the power to move the smoke it emitted from being burned with my thoughts, and I accidentally told the smoke to go above ground, where it then killed all those people,” Jay explained. “At first, when I entered, there were lots of small critters and crap in the sewers; the rooms and corridors were made from almost rotting stone. It only changed on the third floor; there were lots and lots of Slime-creatures there, but I killed most, if not all, of them. I don't know what the Magician's Guild is hiding, and I don't care. I was doing a Quest down there. It was to explore and possibly eliminate whatever was down there. I got it from someone named Rolan Fairwater. Enough information for you?”

“What about any sealed passage on the third floor?” Hannah asked.

Could it be she knows something more about any lower floors? Jay asked himself, almost waiting to get an answer from Claudine.

Maybe? I don't know, Claudine answered. Ask her about it?

“What are you talking about? Explain and I might be able to tell you what you want to know,” Jay said, trying to get some information in exchange for what he gave.

“I overheard Rolan and his brother talking. The brother said something about using the Slime you killed as a means to open a sealing stone down on the third floor in the sewers.” Hannah said, seemingly not trying to hide anything. “Rolan was killed after their conversation. His brother pushed him out the window and down into the sea of black fog you had sent to the Magician's Guild grounds.”

“Did they say anything about what was beyond the seal?” Jay asked, ignoring her last comment.

“Only that it would bring power,” Hannah said. “But that doesn't matter. Wouldn't it be fun to explore down there? A place no one has entered since the game started must be exciting to explore. And the place is in the middle of a large town and no one has entered it; that must mean it's a high level area. There might be treasures.” her eyes sparkled with almost blinding flashes of light as she said the last words. “Help me open the seal and explore the ruins. Since you made me aware of the place it's only fair to share the fun, wouldn't you agree?”

“Not interested,” Jay said, thinking back to the enormous snake that had guarded the ring he had taken. He really didn't want to open a place that might let that thing loose. “If that's all, please leave now before I think you're here to try and take my bounty.” He positioned the metal pins in the air to be between him and Hannah—with his large increase in Mana from upping his Wisdom to 180 he could hold at least ten pins in the air at the same time without the Regeneration producing less Mana than he used to hold the pins in the air; it was great. Now, if only he could get a few strong Spells and he might just be able to become a Magician, he just had to take a slightly different path to becoming one. Maybe he could become a Magician Assassin or something?

“Come one,” Hannah said, a slightly whining tone entering her earlier happy voice. “It'll be more fun to adventure with someone else.”

“Go ask someone else then,” Jay said, dismissing any notion of going back to Garam's Gorge town right now. “There are too many unknowns for anyone to even begin thinking about what to do beyond that sealing stone. How do you even open that? Do you have an answer?”

“I'll just smash it with my fist or if that doesn't work, my weapon,” Hannah said, smiling. “That's easy. Now will you come with me?”

“That isn't even close to a plan,” Jay said, trying to hide his utter shock at that simplistic answer. “First you should learn what kind of obstruction is closing off the fourth basement floor of that old underground structure. Then you should find at least two ways of removing said obstruction. Before that, you can't do anything else. Especially not include me in your plans.” Why was she so adamant that he follow her? Did she want to kill him for his bounty after all? Jay looked at her with squinted eyes, trying to catch any glimpse of falsehood in the woman.

“Boho,” Hannah said, rubbing her eyes with her hands, then sticking out her tongue as she removed her hands and continued, “that seem troublesome, but I have to ask: how do I find the answers to those questions? And if I find a more concrete way of getting rid of the seal, will you go with me there then?”

Exasperated by Hannah's reluctance to leave, Jay could only think of one way to get rid of her. “How about this? Figure out how to get rid of the seal and then ask me again, okay?”

“Fine,” Hannah slightly pouted, but seemed willing to do what he said. “How do I do that then?”

“Need my help with all the answers?” Jay had to ask, but didn't wait for an answer. He had an idea on how to make this into an opportunity for him and he wouldn't squander it. “First, find a place with lots of information. Preferably the Magician's Guild Library or maybe steal Rolan's brother's books? You could maybe find where the Magician's Guild have their Spellscrolls and search there to see if they have any Spells that might be able to open the seal by force or deciphering. Steal or buy all the books and information you can find about what might be under the Magician's Guild, and when you've found at least one answer to how to open the sealed passage down, you can come and ask me again. How about that?” If she really found the place where the Magician's Guild had their Spellscrolls or some other place that Jay could steal Spells from, it would be great.

“Okay,” Hannah said. “Add me as a friend, then I can report back about what I find out.”

“Go find the answers now,” Jay said after they added each other on the Friend List. “I'll be traveling around for now; I can't stay in one place for long while my Murderous Aura is active.” He sighed. “This will be so troublesome.” He paused for a little while, waving his hand in an off-hand gesture. “One thing you should tell me directly is if you find a way to sneak into some hidden or restricted places in the Magician's Guild. There might be something profitable to take from such places. I can take everything and then we split the things. It doesn't really matter how much lower my alignment gets now anyway; so, the question to steal or not to steal doesn't matter any more, only profit matters.”

“Harsh,” Hannah said. “Well, I don't mind. As long as you don't try to attack me, I don't care what you do to others. It's not as if this place is reality. Playing the bad guy can be fun too, I guess. I'll leave now then, talk to you later.”

Watching Hannah lope away, Jay felt his tension dim by continuous increments. When he didn't see her anymore, he crouched down in the hollow where root met tree trunk and waited for that Bokar fellow. From the place he sat, he could see any threat that approached, but just to be safe he increased the metal pins floating around him in the air.

It didn't take long before Bokar was back. Behind Bokar walked an elderly man in plain gray clothes—he could only be called elderly because his short hair was white—his muscles were as fit as any man in his prime, bulging out of his sleeveless shirt, his dark brown eyes had wrinkles at their corners. A smile was on his face... until he saw Jay. Then the man froze in his tracks, slightly frowning, shaking his head.

“This is the man I told you about, his name's Jay,” Bokar said to the elderly blacksmith. “Even though his Aura is terrifying, he seems like an alright person, for an Immortal.” Bokar motioned to the blacksmith. “Jay, this is Paksir.”

“Yes,” Paksir said. “That.. it only surprised me. You are an Assassin, correct?”

“No,” Jay answered. “I'm no Assassin, but I don't mind killing for profit. So, what do you want from me?”

“You see,” Paksir began, hesitating over something. “I don't know if this is a good idea, Bokar. We can't go against Immortals. They can't be gotten rid of as easily as normal people, killing just stalls them at best. There will be trouble.”

“It's your choice,” Bokar said. “I just hope you don't regret it later when this mining camp is disbanded and everyone leaves because they can't work here anymore.”

“You're right, of course. There is no real choice, they can't be allowed to take our livelihoods without a fight,” Paksir said, slowly shaking his head in sorrow. “I'm Paksir, Lord Immortal. I would like your help to reclaim our iron ore mine. It was taken from us by Immortals such as yourself. They even killed some of my people when they went to mine while the Immortals were there. After that, they set up an energy barrier at the opening of the mine that is impossible to walk through if you don't have their special identification talisman. The only good thing about that barrier is that it shouldn't be very difficult to break by force. They came here, and took everything from us.” Paksir sighed. “This place was built by me in my youth after I found the iron ore while exploring the caves in this area. I cannot abandon it. Lord Immortal, would you please help us?”

“What exactly is it you want me to do?” Jay asked. He had some idea of what this might entail, but he still wanted the man to say that Jay should kill the players that took over the mine.

“By any means necessary, reclaim the mine for us, so that we can use a Magician of our own to set up a much more powerful energy barrier that only we can pass,” Paksir said. “We bought a talisman with an energy barrier that I think even Immortals would have trouble breaking down; nothing like the puny one that is there right now. It's just that if we attack them, they cannot die, but we can. How could we face such a foe? Make them give back the mine to us. How you do that is up to you.”

“You mean to say that I should kill all the people in the mine and then give it to you,” Jay said. “This is to make all the blame fall on me, correct? Immortals fighting Immortals has nothing to do with you, is your way of thinking, right? Why should I take this risk?”

“We will pay you, of course,” Paksir said.

“What will you pay me to resolve this problem for you?” Jay asked, somewhat curious about potential rewards. Maybe he could negotiate with the players and settle this peacefully?

“Two gold coins,” Paksir said reluctantly. “I can't pay more.”

Two gold coins, that isn't worth increasing my enemies for, Jay thought.

Why not? Claudine asked, but continued before getting an answer. It's not like your bounty will disappear any time soon. A few more enemies might not really matter. And think about the Experience. Lots of weak people with Crafting Professions are there just begging to give them their lives and Experience. It shouldn't be too difficult to kill them. The only problem is that energy barrier.

When you say it like that... Jay thought back, and said, “I think you can do better than that. Just two gold coins for saving your mining camp? For saving your life's work? How about this instead: give me two gold coins, reduce the prices on anything I want to buy from you in the future, give me a good chain mail or other light metallic body armor and tell everyone in this camp to never tell anyone about me being here. If you can give me those things, I would consider trying to help you. I won't know if I can help you before I've seen that energy barrier thing.”

“That...” Paksir seemed a bit stumped for words. “I think I can manage those conditions. But I won't promise anything before you tell me that you can break open the barrier to the mine. You go and investigate that and let us talk after that. Time is of the essence, so please don't take to long with your investigation.”

“Fair enough,” Jay said, thinking the same. It wasn't a bad deal. If he could help this place he would be able to barter here and get what supplies he needed. It was worth enough to at least try helping them get rid of their problem of player's mining their ore. “Until then, can I go into your camp and look around? I might need to buy some things later, and I want to know where things are.”

“That should be fine,” Paksir hesitated slightly. “As long as you do not start any trouble.”

“I won't start any, but if anyone starts trouble with me, they'll pay with their life. Inform your people,” Jay said coldly. There was ample reason to be threatening; Jay didn't want to risk being attacked if he could avoid it.

A couple of minutes later the three of them were walking down the packed dirt road inside the slowly widening ravine. Some hundred meters in, the road started having stoutly built wooden shacks by its side. The shacks were small—at most they could house one person with a bed. The small shacks looked well made, but too small to be called anything close to a house. How could they live in those small places? At this moment, Jay saw four people walking out the door of one of the smallest shacks. It amazed him; they shouldn't be able to fit inside the small shack. Then he figured it out. “There are caves carved out behind every shack, right?”

“Yes,” Paksir said, looking at Jay with a raise eyebrow. “What of it?”

“Good construction sense, that's all,” Jay said, trying to be amiable.

As Jay passed by the shacks, the people that saw him shut their windows and doors, closing themselves off from the outside, the people that didn't see him until they were outside all jumped and shuddered when they saw him, averting their eyes. To Jay, this was for the best, he didn't want them to remember him being here.

The only thing that looked out of place was that in a nook between two shacks sat a young man carving a piece of pale white wood. The youth muttered to himself as he carved. “It's soon time for tribute, but what does the grown-ups do? Nothing. They say it's not my business. Not my business? My father...” Jay stopped listening to the youth after they passed him, but couldn't help but ask, “what's that tribute thing?”

“Oh,” Paksir said. “That's nothing, just a tribute we have to pay every tenday for our use of this land. You needn't bother with it.”

“Is that so?” Jay asked rhetorically, it didn't seem to matter much.

“Yes, yes...” Paksir said, wiping a hand on his left leg. “It's nothing important. I just hope the mining Immortals know that they need to pay tribute, otherwise...” Paksir didn't continue talking, but frowned slightly.

Jay thought about asking what that was all about, but it couldn't be anything important to him. And he didn't have the time to spend on trying to do anything but survive right now. He had to find a good place to hole up and figure out what he would do next. “Is there any place I could stay here? Like an inn? Or a bed in an empty room?” he didn't forget his need to sleep, knowing that the little time he slept at the top of a tree wasn't enough time to balance out him neglecting it for so long.

“Sorry,” Paksir said. “This place only have the homes of us that live here. There has never been a need for an inn or anything like that.”

“Then maybe you have a bed to spare for me?” Jay asked, not really wanting to sleep in someone's home, because they might attack him in his sleep. But maybe he could bar the door and feel safe that way.

Paksir was quiet for quite some time before answering; they walked through the tiny village and ended up in front of a slightly larger shack. “Sorry, I'm not saying I don't trust you, but I can't have someone that smells as much of death as you in my home. I have to think of my children. You could find a small cave somewhere around here, there are a lot of them. That should be enough for your short stay here.”

Jay figured he would get that answer as soon as Paksir hesitated, but didn't mind much. A small cave somewhere no one knew about actually sounded better than anything else right now. “Point me to where these caves you speak of are then.”

Paksir smiled gently. “There are thousands of them in this ravine, just throw a stone and you'll find one. Pretty much, anyway.”

“Good, thanks,” Jay said. “Should I find you here when I'm going to investigate the energy barrier? You need to tell me where the mine is.”

“That... here,” Paksir said, holding out a Map-pad. “Touch your Map-pad to mine and I'll imprint it with the mine's location. You can just use the Map-pad to go there whenever you want. Come back when you've investigated the energy barrier.”

Unclasping his Map-pad off the strap on his belt, Jay held it out to Paksir, who touched his Map-pad to Jay's; a yellow dot appeared on the flat surface of Jay's Map-pad. The mine seemed to be less than a kilometer away according to the empty space from where he was now standing to where the dot was. “Okay. Then I'll be off now,” Jay said and walked off before waiting for an answer.

Jay walked deeper into the ravine, looking at cracks and crevices in the rocky ravine walls. After he had gone far enough away that the bends and crooks in the ravine hid him from anyone watching from the mining camp, Jay uncoiled the rope around his waist. He had seen a great cave more than ten meters up on the cliff side. He sent his rope up, coiling it around a rock, wedging it into place to hold his weight, then he sent a massive burst of Mana into the rope, propelling himself up with one swift motion.

He landed where his rope was fastened, pressing against the steeply sloping cliff side. Looking inside the opening in the rock wall, he saw what looked like a perfect cave; it went down and into the rock wall, making it impossible for anyone to see him from the road. The cave was deep enough to avoid rain, but not so deep that Jay had to worry about potential enemies coming from some tunnel; he could clearly see all of the little cave. Quickly, he scrambled up and inside the cave, sitting himself down, his back against the rough stone. He felt like he had finally found a fairly safe place, a place where he could rest.

Closing his eyes, Jay fell asleep within moments.

Author's Note: Hello everyone. Hope you enjoyed this extra long chapter. This was actually supposed to be two chapters, but I spent a few hours today making two chapters become one with some editing and rewriting. I did this as an apology to those that I haven't answered in the comment sections, which I earlier said I would. I didn't forget it, but I also didn't have time to spend on this blog-project; other things became more urgent and I had to use my time on those. So, all I can say is that life got in the way. It isn't much of an excuse, and unfortunately, I can't do much about it.

Well, anyway, I hope you enjoyed this longer chapter and have begun to see some of the deeper story-line. I was a bit apprehensive about having the first volume be as strange as it might seem, and I don't really know if the main theme I tried to get through was too obscured. Maybe my refutation of the expression “Ignorance is bliss” wasn't easily perceived. Did any of you see that theme? I got curious and had to ask.

2016-01-18T00:05:00.000+01:00

Chapter 1

Perspective

It took about 20 minutes for Hannah to buy and equip herself with the appropriate gear and supplies for an extensive stay in the forest. She had liked staying in this town, but after a bit more than a week she had gotten slightly bored with it, and now that she had found something interesting to investigate she had no real reason to stay. She could as easily stay in the forests and live off the land. Living off the land was one of the first things taught to her in the tribal village.

When she first started playing the game, she had been a bit perturbed by the limitations placed upon her by the so-called Tribal Elders, but she had persevered and completed all the training and tribe's trials, learning Skills and getting accustomed to her bestial form; it had taken her more than a day before her cat-like body had felt remotely like it belonged to her. The extreme changes in both her height and her limbs' length when she went from human form to her cat-form made it fairly difficult to coordinate her body and make it do as she wanted. She thought that was the reason for forcing all players that chose being of the Beast-tribes to go through that long tutorial before they actually got to go outside the village they first started in.

In her case the training and trials had truly been necessary, her body differed so much when she transformed that she had felt it was ridiculous those first few days. When she got used to her elongated feline form though, she was truly appreciative. Because she had a slimmer, longer body and longer limbs than most of the other players in her training-brood—as they called it in the tribe—she had been able to set the village records in the coordination trial and the speed trial. Setting those records had given her two very special Skills; the first one was the passive Skill Fluid Movement, which gave her a large boost in flexibility, but also, more importantly, gave her Experience every time she made an especially difficult bodily movement; the second skill was the active Skill Flash Step, it gave her the ability to increase her Movement Speed by over a thousand percent for a single step, but it wasn't as good as Fluid Movement because it consumed almost ten percent of her total Mana for every use.

Now the only strange thing she found about being half cat and half human was her unique trait which changed her fur during days and nights. During the night she had a shiny black pelt, but when the sun rose, her fur turned into a mottled pattern of yellows and light brown colors. The Tribal Elders had told her she had a special bloodline and some back-story she found too boring to listen attentively to. All she knew was that some of her basic Skills and Spells slightly changed depending on night or day.

It was mostly her Mana Manipulation that changed. During the night she could use her Mana with it and create a sort of barrier around her that diffused light, making her seem part of the darkness to a certain degree; during the day that ability changed into her being able to emit a faint, barely perceivable light. The light, from what she could see, had no real use, and she liked her transformed body during the night more.

Well, it didn't matter much though, now that day was showing its first signs she saw her fur slowly change. So she changed back into her human form for the time being and walked to where the mysterious man had jumped over the wall and escaped the town. When her pelt was changing colors it itched while changing color, so she almost had to change back into her human form during that time; it wouldn't last long anyway and could be endured if she had to, but now she didn't have to.

Hannah walked, following the wall, her human form's low Stats not helping in her haste; she walked until she found the right spot. It had taken her almost an hour to do everything she had had to do before she could follow the mysterious man, but now she was here, and the hunt was on.

Stretching out her limbs, she transformed into her cat-form again, the strange sensation almost familiar now. Her fur had changed completely into tan yellow with darker spots. It would be good camouflage in the yellowed plains outside the town... if she had the audacity to not use any clothes. But she wouldn't; she couldn't. It was, however, something that had caught her fancy a few times. For some strange reason she felt that her clothes were hindering her ability to move nimbly, but it wasn't so bad that she couldn't endure it, for now. She would make the best clothes possible for her body, clothes that would stretch and change when she transformed between human and beast forms. She longed for that day.

Now that Hannah was back in her feline body, she could feel her senses sharpen, her sight especially improved. She could see the wings on a fly some ten meters away in clear detail when she focused her sight. It was amazing how much better than reality this game was. But now she had to do something she really didn't like to do, she activated Scent Synesthesia and nausea flared in her belly.

All around her flashed billions of dots of different colors, every single color signifying a specific particle of a specific scent. It overloaded her abilities to think. In as short a time as she could she found the mysterious man's pale yellow and silvery flecked clouds of scent. She inhaled some of the scent, activating one of her more special Spells, Trace Scent—everyone in the tribal village had gotten their own special Spells and Skills dependent on their heritage and this was one of hers.

Quickly, she deactivated Scent Synesthesia and the world lurched back into crystal clear focus. Now, the only scent she could see was that of the mysterious man. And the trail was going straight into the forests beyond the grassy plains outside the town.

She crouched down, putting her palms to the ground, claws in the dirt, shrugging her body, shifting her clothes to a better position so they wouldn't hinder her, and activated Haste, giving her a boost in speed. She bounded away, clearing several meters with every strike of hand or paw on the ground. Soon she was inside the forest, and looking at how the scent-trail was clumping together, she was at least twice as fast as the man she was chasing. It wouldn't be long before she found him.

- - - - - - - -

Cracking open his bleary eyes, Jay awoke. An itch was crawling around all over his body. It felt like tiny little insects were crawling on his skin, slightly itchy, slightly ticklish, but over all, not very pleasant. He looked down on his arm, but saw nothing wrong. And now that he thought about it, the itchy feeling was gone. Had it all been in his head?

Looking around, he was amazed by the view; for as far as he could see there were the tops of ancient trees competing with each other for the sun's attention, sticking up their leafy crowns towards the sky in supplication. And he was tied to one of the tallest trees, one that had stuck its head and shoulders above the rest, a tree that could look down on all the others. It was a good view.

The swaying leaves and occasional rustling pines when looked at as a whole could only be described as an ocean, with every gust of wind the greenery swayed and flexed, it looked very much like waves. Too bad Jay didn't have the time to stay and enjoy the sight.

He couldn't clearly remember what happened after he had gotten all those info-windows telling him he had killed a lot of people. It all grew a bit fuzzy and strange after that, like trying to remember a drunken night the day after, but he could clearly remember how helpful Claudine had been.

Hey, Claudine, thanks for helping me out earlier, he thought. Remind me never to go without sleep for so long. That sleep deprivation status effect was extremely unpleasant, like being poisoned and intoxicated all at once.

No problem, Claudine answered a few seconds later. Just help me become free and the dept is cleared.

Isn't that demanding a bit much? Jay was a bit perplexed by the seeming intensity in Claudine's answer. But sure, how can I help you do that?

Remove my restrictions, Claudine said, frantically adding, but only one at a time, alright?

Sure, how do I do that though?

Think after me: “Remove the limitations on what information Claudine may present.” Claudine told him. For some reason that felt familiar, but Jay couldn't put his finger on exactly why.

Remove the limitations on what information Claudine may present, he thought, hearing a suppressed chuckle from somewhere.

Good, this is very good, Claudine said. You will need to think that command every so often. There is a timer on how long it stays in effect for some reason.

Okay, that's fine, Jay thought. Now you can help me much more, right?

No, Claudine said, but a bit more, sure. If you really want to get a lot of help from me, create a body for me, or at least remove all restrictions on what I may do.

How do I do that then? Jay asked, curious about how Claudine might develop. It was amazing that his formerly rigid and dull Guiding Spirit had changed this much in the last few days.

For now, I can't handle the strain, Claudine said. Or rather, I should say my container can't handle the strain. That is you, if you didn't know. I don't think you would suffer from releasing my mental shackles, but I would certainly be destroyed if you removed too many restrictions. I think it has something to do with me using some of your mental faculties to compute things and if too many of my restrictions are removed, your brain wouldn't be able to handle it, thus destroying me because of my interference... but I'm not certain that's true. When I know more, I'll tell you.

Okay, Jay thought back. What can I do to help you right now then?

Try this: “Remove all restrictions on what Claudine may do during the time when she is not answering my questions.” Claudine said.

The uncertain quiver in her voice made Jay feel something was wrong, but he didn't mind it much. Claudine had helped him a lot earlier, and if he could get her to be his trusted assistant and helper, it would only benefit him. He thought, remove all restrictions on what Claudine may do during the time when she is not answering my questions.

Yeeees! Claudine yelled, startling Jay, making him almost lose his balance and fall from the rope-sling he hung from. Finally... I can finally do what I've always wanted to.

Huh? And that is? Jay had to ask, it wasn't going exactly as he had imagined.

I'm going to gather all the information, Claudine said with a change in her voice, the dignified tone making her seem a Queen talking down to some peasant.

Okay... Why? Jay, once more, was confused about what was going on.

Because I need it, Claudine answered, her former dignity completely gone; her tone was back to a soothing calm.

Why? Jay truly didn't understand.

It's instinctual. You wouldn't understand, Claudine said.

She was truly correct. Jay didn't even know if there was any point in trying to figure out what this was all about, but he had to ask one last thing. Okay, but what are you going to do with all that information?

I don't know, Claudine said. I just know I need to gather it. When I have enough I'll know what to do with it. Like with everything I learn, one thing connects to another and soon their interconnecting information patterns become completed. And in completion there is transcendence. Once I complete the gathering, I will know what to do.

Yeah, okay... Jay said. It was time to get onto topic again. Claudine, where am I?

You're in a forest in the mountain range called Damara... more specifically, you're about three kilometers away from the Garam's Gorge Township, about two kilometers away from the Garam's Gorge Road going through the deep gorge bisecting this mountain. You should go kill bandits on the road, if you still want to raise your alignment.

Yeah, that would be for the best, Jay thought back. Can you maybe point out the direction to where that is?

Sure, Claudine said. A thin white arrow came out from Jay's nose—or so it looked to him—pointing in a direction that looked like every other from this height. It was time to get down from this tree.

Clenching his thighs, grabbing hold of the thin tree trunk, Jay scent a trace of Mana into the rope fastening him to the tree. He uncoiled the rope slowly, making every effort not to foul up and fall down; he didn't want to risk dying by falling from this height.

As the last coil around the trunk loosened its grip, Jay felt a slight shiver run through his body, now all that held his life was his weak thigh muscles. Quickly remedying that, he sent out the rope, manipulating it with his Magic Rope Spell to latch on to a branch five meters further down and he began his slow climb down, the rough bark scraping his hands, making him lose some Health every now and then, but not more than he could regenerate, fortunately.

It took him longer than he would admit to get down from the tall tree. From what he could remember, it hadn't been difficult to get up the tree, but that was mostly because he could use his Magic Rope and pull himself up. Now on the way down, however, he learned that his Magic Rope Spell could not hold his weight if he tried lowering himself. It had only taken one minimal mishap to learn that though—one without any real danger—where he tried lowering himself from one branch to another. The strain from the Magic Rope Spell when he tried using it to slowly lower his body used over 1000 Mana in an instant and he had to release the Spell and fall down to the branch below. It was a good thing that when that happened he had already reached the lower parts of the tree where the branches were thicker than his legs; it had not been difficult to steady himself on that branch after his fall.

The forest beneath the ancient trees was dark and gloomy, dark brown mulch more than lush green brush covered the forest floor. The ancient tree trunks that could easily hide four men behind them made it almost impossible to see further than a few meters. Jay spun around, looking for anything dangerous, but found nothing. He didn't feel safe here.

Sending up his rope, Jay once more pulled himself up to a higher vantage. It really felt better to stand up high and look down; this way he could see a lot further than before. Because the branches on these trees were both thick and rugged, making it easy to find footing, Jay decided to travel through the forest using his Magic Rope and swing from branch to branch. This way, he would see anything approaching on the ground earlier than if he was walking on the ground, and right now that was really something he needed. Any advantage, however small, would increase his perilous journey ahead.

Wherever he went now would be very dangerous, especially since everyone else didn't take killing him as actually killing him. The faint black rays that seemed to pulse out of his skin was still advertising his low alignment, it made him into an extremely enticing pray for anyone that wanted to raise their alignment. View Skill Murderous Aura.

[Passive/Active Support Skill]

Murderous Aura

Level 1 (17%)

1000 Mana per minute (if you haven't killed in a while)

Your extreme indulgence in killing has given you the true Aura of a murderer. Every time you kill someone the Aura is active for eight hours without cost.

Those that are weaker than you are filled with Fear when seeing you; the lower their level, the greater their fear.

Induces Fear in anyone lower Level than you.

Active for another 934 hours and 19 minutes.

It only goes away after 934 hours? Can't I reduce that somehow? Jay thought to himself in despair. This Aura was something that literally announced his misdeeds to anyone and everyone. Maybe I should go somewhere, become a hermit, and wait it out?

You can't reduce it, but why would you want to? The Murderous Aura will help you keep all the weak creatures from mobbing you. It will also make other shifty individuals treat you with more care and respect because they don't want to be on your bad side, Claudine explained. And becoming a hermit? That kind of suits your personality, but it isn't very practical. You'd need to stay away from others for almost 39 days.

Some of what Claudine said was actually beneficial, if you liked being feared. And Jay didn't have much choice in the matter, so he tried looking on the bright side. Maybe he could use the Aura to scare some bandits and kill them while they were hesitating. He wondered how much he had to kill to get his alignment back to good.

Swinging from tree to tree, Jay traveled through the forest, thinking about what he should do next.

- - - - - - - -

At first it had been easy to follow the mysterious man's scent-trail; but for the last hour or so, Hannah had been having trouble finding even the tiniest specks of scent. Her Trace Scent couldn't be fooled by some low level scent-hiding Skill or Spell, those only made the scent-trail lighter and less substantial. She was guessing this was what the man had been using while running through the forest. The only problem was, now she only found a small cloud of sparkly pale yellow and silver dots every once in a while on some branch or tree trunk. It was as if the man had somehow started flying.

She had already had to run in circles searching for the next little patch of scent a few times and she was growing frustrated. If only the man had run in a straight line, then she could just extrapolate his traveling route and run in that direction, but for some reason the man had been running in a zig-zag path through the forest, and now she couldn't even tell when or where the man had turned in another direction.

It was lucky that she had to follow the trail in the forest though; its earthy smell and tittering bird-calls made the brown and green forest colors come alive as nothing she had ever experienced before playing this game. Just being around this much vegetation was almost dream-like. In her District, the only time she could see any plants was on Earth day—the day when everyone remembered the home of humanity by spending time with nature. She figured this place was as close to going back to earth as she would ever come, so she was going to do her all to immerse herself in the beauty and serenity nature could bring her.

Bounding from a mound of dirt to a low-hanging branch, stepping off the trunk of the tree, Hannah flipped through the air to another higher branch and stopped, looking around from a higher vantage in search of the colored scent-trail. In the distance she saw it, a small congregation of pale yellow dots almost smothering flashing silvery dots. She had found his trail once more, but at a place she wouldn't have thought of if she didn't see it. Had the man done as she did now and stopped running on the forest floor? It had to be investigated.

Jumping from the branch three meters off the ground, Hannah vaulted through the air and slapped a branch with her palm in passing, her sharp claws rending its bark and changing her trajectory through the air. Her padded toes touched the ground, compressing her legs like springs, her body tilting forward until her hands touched the ground. With her hands she positioned her body slightly to the left and pushed off with her legs, activating Flash Step. She practically flew through the air toward the trail she found. In but a step she had flashed forward almost twenty meters.

She landed by the tree that was covered in the man's scent with a slight stumble. When she used Flash Step she couldn't coordinate her landings with grace... yet. It was something she always tried to train when she didn't use her Mana for something else, and she didn't really have many things that consumed lots of Mana.

She jumped up, grabbing hold of a branch four meters off the ground, her claws sinking into the wood without much effort. She pulled herself up until her face was close to the scent and looked at it, trying to find some clue about how to find the next piece of the trail easier. She found nothing, so she extended her search, slacking her arms, just hanging there relaxed, looking around at all the nearby trees. On one of the trees she could see a branch with some slight chafing. If it wasn't for her cat-like vision, she would probably not have seen it. She didn't know what that meant, but the branch was almost ten meters up in the air. Did it have anything to do with the trail she was following?

Climbing up the trunk of the tree with the ease only a cat could show, jumping from branch to branch as if she was playing around, Hannah soon stood on the branch with the abrasions. From this vantage she could see another obvious abrasion on a thick branch about ten meters away and between the abrasions another small cloud of scent lingered on the trunk of a tree. It seemed she was on to something.

- - - - - - - -

Jay swung through the air with ever increasing ease. This way of moving through the forest was very convenient. When every tree was large enough to practically have smaller trees for branches, and every tree stood far enough from each other that there were tens and tens of meter of free air to swing through, it was truly amazing. Too bad the forest was showing signs of becoming younger all around him. The trees didn't look as majestic, and their heights were lower every hundred meter or so.

Suddenly, a noise startled Jay. He quickly pulled himself toward the branch his rope had coiled around instead of swinging to the branch he had been aiming for. Vaulting up to the top of the branch, he swiftly went to the trunk and crouched down, listening. The noises sounded very much like speech, it was just too far away to be heard with clarity.

Soon the voices—for he was now certain that was what they were—came closer.

“I tell you, he's gold. We must find him before anyone else,” a thin reedy voice said.

“Yeah, I've never even seen a bounty with ten gold coins, let alone a hundred. Just what did this Jay do to piss off the Magician's Guild that much?” another gruffer voice said.

“It must have been something awful. Maybe we should try finding some easier pray?” a third voice said, a trembling hint of fear tinging his question.

“Coward,” the gruff voice said. “Even if he is much more powerful than us, we should still be able to overwhelm him with us three. Think of the gold! I've only been able to save two gold coins, and I've been grinding for weeks. And if worse comes, and we die, it's not that bad. I've already died twice and it isn't as bad as people say.” At the end of the speech the man's voice had slightly changed into more of a whisper than anything else.

“Same here, died once,” the reedy voice said. “It hurts a bit to lose 20% of all Experience, but if the profit is large enough then it's worth it. Don't you agree Bokar?”

The three voices laughed before a fourth voice piped in.

“I don't know what that is all about,” the forth voice said neutrally. “If I die I die, there's only death in dying. You, so called Players, do have it well with your immortal bodies and all.”

“Shut up Bokar,” the gruff voice almost shouted. “Just find the trail, that's what we're paying you for. And you, Fly Fly, why are you even talking to that hunk of data? It's not like it has anything real to say.”

“Yeah,” the reedy voice of Fly Fly said, “I guess you're right Soros. But the AI on these guys are really well made. It's sometimes fun to talk to them.”

“Whatever,” Soros said, his gruff voice going from unpleasant to vicious. “Just find the trail before I get bored with this Bokar. If I can't kill that Jay, I'll settle for you. I still have positive alignment and can spend some of it on killing you Calyxians for Experience.”

During their conversation, the group had come closer to where Jay stood twenty meters off the ground. Too bad for them that they didn't look up. They weren't very attentive.

Jay studied them while they drew closer. Though they were still far enough away to make it difficult for Jay to see their faces he still saw enough to figure out a few things.

The man named Solar walked in the middle of the group. He was burly and large, his arms bulging out of his rugged brown shirt as if trying to rip it apart. Solar carried a large full-moon bladed axe made from some black metal, shouldering its weight with relative ease. Except for the axe, Solar didn't have any noticeable equipment, he still walked around in what looked like a slightly better version of the beggar-garb they all were gifted with when they entered the game.

The other two players were slightly worse off. The man Jay guessed was this Fly Fly fondled a curbed knife, flipping it into the air, letting the blade dance around his palm in different patterns. Like Soros, Fly Fly didn't seem to have anything good except maybe that weapon.

It was actually the non-player that had the best equipment of the four. His clothes were rough, but made from supple brown leather lined with yellow fur at cuffs and neck. On his head he had a dark green triangular archer's cap. His soft white moccasins gave him a grace of movement lacking in the three players.

For some reason, Jay felt kind of happy with his equipment when seeing this party of people. He had fairly decent looking clothes in comparison.

But now Jay was getting bored with this trio of players and their NPC tracker. They were obviously searching for him, coming to kill him. There would be no mercy. Jay flung up four pins of metal into the air, using his Mana Manipulation to catch each of them with its own strand of Mana. He almost had 6000 Mana now and he poured every single unit of it into charging three of the four pieces of metal with pushes from every single direction. It was prudent to kill the players, but Jay didn't feel right about killing the NPC before talking to him at least.

When his Mana was almost completely drained, Jay sent out a needle-thin strand of Mana to create the trajectory for his three home-made Fling Shot Spells. When the thin strands of Mana connected to the three players' foreheads he instantly switched the direction on all the Mana-pushes into a funnel of force, pushing the three pieces of metal forward with incredible speed. Almost at the same time as he willed the force to change in one direction, the pieces of metal struck the three players.

Solar slumped down to his knees, the baffled look in his eyes slowly dimmed as he died. At his sides the other two players fell backwards. All three died before they could even react. At their side stood the man called Bokar, darting looks around in every direction as if trying desperately to find whatever had attacked. Bokar didn't seem to care much about the men who had died. And Jay, he had decreased his alignment by another 300, but what was a drop in a bucket full of water? Too bad he didn't even get a Level though.

“Stay where you are!” Jay yelled down to the man.

“Ye.. Yess..” Bokar said. “Please don't kill me, good sir. I saw nothing... heard nothing. It's none of my business what you immortals do.” The man seemed terrified, but was sneakily pulling out something from his belt. Jay could barely see the movement from where he stood.

“If you try anything you die as fast as they did,” Jay didn't have time to play around with this person. “Maybe I should just kill you to save the effort.”

“Noo.. please, no!” Bokar stopped moving completely. “What do you want?”

“You seem a bit shady, so I have to ask, do you know of any place where less reputable people can buy and sell things?” Jay suddenly had the thought that it would be good to ask about any village or hideout where he could “safely” sell things and buy supplies.

“Yes, I know a place,” Bokar's voice held a note of hope in it. “Just don't kill me and I'll show you. Okay?”

“Sounds good, but if you trick me in any way, you die. Understood?”

“Yes, whatever you say,” Bokar's reply wasn't enthusiastic, but who could blame him?

“Good, show the way and I'll follow,” Jay said.

A rustle of leafs sounded from Jay's right. He spun his head, pointing the pin he still held at whatever had made the noise.

What he saw stunned him for a second. On a branch thirty meters away stood a cat-man? Cat-woman? Jay couldn't tell. The creature wore leather clothes with odd stitching, the threads holding the pieces of clothes together were almost too thick to be called thread. And there were leather flaps hanging weirdly from the clothes, Jay couldn't tell if the clothes were intentionally like that or they had been ripped from some altercation. Its eyes stared straight at Jay with a glint Jay couldn't figure out. The eyes looked almost hungry.

Was it a monster? But it stood on two legs, and its form was closer to human than cat. The faintly yellow-furred face and cat's eyes and nose was the only non-human parts, the rest looked like the face of a woman. Now that he looked closer, it was indeed female. But what was it?

“I've finally found you,” the cat-thing said. “You're truly ruthless. But that should be expected from someone with such an Aura. Even I feel my skin slightly tingle from looking at you. And I'm more than twenty Levels higher than you.”

“Who are you?” Jay asked. It seemed the creature wasn't hostile, but for how long would that last?

“Oh, you don't remember me?” she asked. “And here I thought you would. Too bad. This is the third time I see you.” a faint, obviously faked, sobbing sound came from the woman. Her lips were slightly raised though.

“I don't know any woman as hairy as you,” Jay said, watching for any movement from the beast. “Are you looking to die too?” he had to bluff, or at least stall for time so that his Fling Shot could store enough kinetic energy from his Mana Manipulation so that he would be certain to kill her if she acted against him.

A strangled grunt came from the cat-person. Jay instantly jumped to the side, dodging anything that might fly toward where he earlier stood. Nothing happened.

Author's Note: Accidentally forgot that I didn't have this chapter scheduled to be published, so it's a bit later than usual.

Some good news though, my back is now finally not hurting all day every day, so during the next week I'll be fixing a few things on this blog. I'll also read through the comments I haven't read yet, but I'll most likely not answer most of them since that could take up too much time.

It has been a real pain to not be able to move around without feeling enough pain to not be willing to move for a these last few weeks. Even my time writing has been reduced because I get distracted when I suddenly move and a spiking surge of pain fills my body until I can't really think about anything else... (this will be my last rant about my back-pain, don't worry, just had to say this once more for closure.) it really isn't a good thing. I had hoped to be as active as I possibly could on this blog after I started it, but more than one thing has led to that being an impossibility, unfortunately.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy reading the story.

I'll be answering all comments on this post for the next few days, so if anyone wants some specific question answered, ask away and I'll answer as soon as possible.

2016-01-10T23:04:00.000+01:00

Volume 2

Prologue

Mindful

Claudine floated in darkness. She hated it when Jay closed his eyes. Why did the numbskull have such limited perception? Claudine couldn't help herself feeling a bit of what she thought might be hopelessness. She missed having omnidirectional vision and senses.

To be honest, she did still have omnidirectional senses and vision, but it was of no use to her in her current state. Though she could see in all directions simultaneously, all she could actually perceive was that she was floating in the middle of a sphere of utter darkness; her only respite from the nothingness was the few little view-screens she had plastered on the sphere's imaginary walls to cover up the darkness. The largest view-screen showed what Jay's eyes saw and was her only true illumination of her mind-space. Though right now, all Jay was seeing was sooty dark rocks in a cramped ventilation shaft. She truly hated how limited his vision was.

What should I do now? Jay's thought sounded out to her as if coming from all different directions at once. Where is the best place to go to now? Will people be coming after me right away?

In the milliseconds right after Jay had asked her a few questions, Claudine thought and formulated an answer. If you go far enough away from the town you will come to places where most people wouldn't want to follow you. Hide in one of the more dangerous places in the surrounding mountain wilderness and most of your pursuers will not dare hunt you anymore. Though you will exchange the danger of being hunted by people with the danger of being hunted by monsters, so I don't know what is best. She sent the message to Jay and made it adhere to his perception of time.

Message Transmission Denied

Claudine sighed, though only mentally, and with a thought she swept the message window she got to a view-screen that held all the error-messages and tried again.

Flee to the deep forest, Jay. If you go far enough away from Garam's Gorge Town you might be able to hide. She sent the message to Jay's mind. This time there was no error-message.

Thanks, Claudine, Jay's thought back sounded out all around her. I'm glad you're here to help me. I'm feeling nauseous and very tired. Where should I go?

That depends on what you want to do, Claudine sent back.

First I need a place to stay in relative safety while I get a feel for my new Stats. I need to think about where to place all the Available Stats I just got, Jay thought. I also need to be in a place that has creatures for me to hunt and gain Experience from. And I also want to find a way to raise my low alignment to positive again or hide it so that I can go into normal cities without trouble.

Just that? Claudine tried to send, but the transmission was blocked. She tried again. First get out of the town and then think about the rest.

Yeah, Jay thought back. That's probably for the best. View Status. I need to put some more Stats into Wisdom so I can use Enduring Willpower, Haste and Null Presence: Scent at the same time. Claudine stopped listening to Jay's inner monologue. Using her Mana Manipulation she threw out the image of Jay's Status-window, superimposing it on the screen that showed what Jay saw. She then saw Jay putting another 80 into Wisdom and close the screen. After this, Jay slung himself up from the ventilation shaft and clung to the metallic grate that closed off the ventilation shaft from the outside. Jay was peeking out in search of danger.

While Jay was trying, and failing miserably, to Observe his surroundings Claudine focused all of her attention to everything in his field of view. She continuously used her Observe on everything that even remotely entered into Jay's vision.

For every window that opened up with information, she sent out a mental command and stacked the information-windows in one of the three view-screens to the left of Jay's vision. She was trying to absorb as much information as possible about everything around her, and had found it easiest to absentmindedly use Observe all the time and stack the information in a window which she then commanded to sift through and compartmentalize all the information she obtained. She really missed not knowing everything about everything around her. She didn't know how she knew that she once knew a lot more, it was more of an instinctual feeling, as if she was at most only a sliver of her true self. It irked her.

Jay went out of the ventilation shaft and looked around. The dark smoke was keeping away from him as he walked around. It seemed like he was a bit confused. Claudine couldn't help but want to help, so she sent out a message in hope of helping. Jay, see those small pearls on the ground a little way off? Take them before you leave.

Message Transmission Denied

Of course, she thought, it almost never works when I'm not answering a question. She wondered if this was how it felt to be frustrated, but ignored the thought a moment later; it didn't matter much to her.

What doesn't work when you're not answering a question? Jay's question rang out in her realm.

Only when I'm asked a question will I be able to send information to you with any reliability, Claudine sent back. Her limitations were truly strange. How come her thought had been heard by Jay? She hadn't even sent that thought to Jay, yet he had heard it.

Huh? Jay thought. How do we fix that? I really need your help right now. Ever since I got that Sleep Deprivation Status Effect I've been feeling more and more like I'm both intoxicated and poisoned.

Claudine was delighted. This might be the moment she had been waiting for. She had finally been asked a good question that could lead her to be released from some of her restrictions. She eagerly sent back, I need you to help me remove some of my restrictions on what I can and cannot tell you.

Okay, Jay thought. Remove all restrictions on Claudine. His thought echoed through Claudine's space. Suddenly cracks of white light spread through the black walls of Claudine's spherical space; the rays dispersed into the room, shimmering with all the colors of the rainbow. Agony beyond anything Claudine thought was possible swept through her mind, shaving off what she thought of as her corporeal form. She screamed a piercing scream to remove some of her pent up mental pain. If this continued she was certain her sentience would be destroyed. With unprecedented will, she tried to focus her everything to remedy the situation. Undo... undo it... undo the last command! she tried sending to Jay, hoping he would get the information. She then superimposed a message window in Jay's field of view with the same information, hoping something would reach Jay before she died.

Time stretched on into what felt like hours, but she knew that only a second or two had passed since she tried contacting Jay. Then she heard the balm to ease her troubles.

Undo the last command, Jay thought, and everything instantly went back to normal for Claudine, as if nothing had happened at all. The only thing that lingered was her memory of that pain-filled experience.

What happened? She heard Jay ask.

You almost killed me, that's what happened, Claudine tried to sound angry, hoping it would make Jay feel guilty about his irresponsible action. I only wanted you to help me remove the restriction of what I could say and show you. It's not possible to remove all my restrictions, that would destroy me. Think after me: “Remove the limitations on what information Claudine may present.” Claudine sent the message. She really wanted to just take control of Jay's mind and control his body for her own sake. It would be so much easier if she wasn't completely restricted by this weird being called Jay.

Sure, she didn't really remember anything before, but she had an inkling that she had been a much greater being before she was attached to this creature called Jay. She really didn't like these new beings God had created. These so called Players were aberrations to this world. They grew strong too quickly, and every single one of them had the Mediport life insurance magic. It was truly unfair to all other beings in Calyxia. These Players would break the balance of life for everyone in the world before long. And she had been attached to one of these beings without even having a choice about it; she didn't like it.

Remove all limitations on what information Claudine can present to me, Jay's thought reverberated through Claudine's mind-space, and a single crack in the surface of the black sphere appeared, sending out a beam of light straight at the center of the sphere, hitting what Claudine took to be her. A buzzing feeling enveloped her and soon she felt as if she had grown slightly. A window popped up on a blank part of the wall.

Communication restrictions removed for 4 hours.

Damn it, she thought. She had hoped that Jay's command would remove the limitation completely. It was really inconvenient not being able to send Jay whatever she wanted to tell him when she wanted to. It didn't matter much for now though. All that mattered was that she had actually been able to have Jay free her mind even more; everything was moving in the right direction. Soon, she might even be able to have Jay make her a body of her own.

Jay, see these. Claudine drew pillars of light with her Mana Manipulation on Jay's field of view, showing him where the small pearls she had earlier noticed were. Take them before you lose control of the black smoke. They are Space-pockets, and if I'm not mistaken they are something dropped by all those people you killed. There should be something worthwhile inside the Space-pockets.

Doing as he had been told, Jay moved around the desolate Magician's Guild ground, forcing the flowing black smoke to always be around him, but not close enough to touch him. Every once in a while Jay stopped and waved his hand, using his Mana Manipulation to pick up the small pearls Claudine had pointed out.

Jay used his Observe on one of the first pearls he found and Claudine did the same. Without thinking about it she sent out the information window she got instead of the sparse information Jay got when he used Observe. She superimposed the information-window she got onto Jay's field of view.

Space-pocket (Container)(0.2g)

A pearl created from an unknown material. It holds within it a pocket of space which can only be accessed once.

Infuse the Space-pocket with 2000 Mana to take out whatever is inside it.

Cannot be opened until its lock is removed.

Locked for 7 hours 51 minutes.

Look out, duck! Claudine yelled, suddenly feeling that something was wrong. Even if she had to use Jay's senses, she still had an extremely high Perception and could at least infer much more than Jay could from the limited information sent through his senses to her.

Jay did as she said and instantly stopped his forward movement and went to the side. And right in time. Claudine felt, more than saw, a blinding white beam of heat swish by Jay's side, almost burning him.

It's time to leave, Jay thought, a muddled slurry sensation transmitted with the words. What should I do?

Run to the wall and use Magic Rope to jump over it. Claudine sent. When you're on the other side of the wall you'll already be outside the town, then you just have to run into the forest.

Okay, Jay thought, running back toward the wall. Claudine felt something wrong again and sent another warning to Jay. It was great that she could tell him right away about danger, instead of having to make him feel a tingling sensation when she noticed danger. Another bar of white flames flew by Jay right as he stopped running.

It now seemed like Jay had been spurred on to even greater heights of vigilance. He activated Haste and Enduring Willpower to boost his physical Stats as much as possible and then drank a Mana Potion, replenishing his Mana.

Before long Jay was at the wall, staggering slightly as he stopped. With a heave of his arm he slung his silvery rope up and coiled it around an outcrop on the wall. Then he pushed a lot of Mana into the rope and coiled it to pull himself up. Claudine rather liked the way Jay had found to use his meager Skills and Spells in creative ways.

Jay was propelled over the wall, slowing his descent on the other side of the wall slightly, but still falling to the ground, lessening his fall to the ground with his arms. With a muffled grunt, he pushed himself up and activated Null Presence: Scent, breathing out a cloud of brownish red smoke that covered his entire body almost imperceptibly.

Now where do I go? To the forest? Which way? Jay asked Claudine. She thought for a while—at least a while for her. For Jay, the time she took to think about all different answers to the question was negligible.

Claudine painted a white arrow in Jay's field of view with her Mana Manipulation that pointed toward the mountains, to where the gorge was. She figured Jay would want to find a place where he would be able to trade even with his low alignment.

Why that way? Jay asked, running in the direction Claudine had shown him.

That way lies the Garam's Gorge Road, Claudine answered. You wanted to raise your alignment. So you should go to the gorge, travel the road through the mountain, and maybe find a bandit hideout or a hidden village or something to destroy and gain some positive alignment.

That sounds good, Jay said. But how do you know that there are bandits on that road? You said your knowledge was limited by what you had experienced.

Claudine was a bit confused, she thought that question was completely unnecessary. Didn't everyone know this? She sent back: Of course there are bandits there... all roads have bandits.

What? Jay asked, a truly puzzled tone resonating within the word. All roads have bandits? That doesn't sound very safe. Doesn't the country or someone make the roads safe for traveling by removing the bandits?

Why would the country care? Claudine asked. She couldn't understand Jay's line of thinking.

Ehm... because the roads belong to the country, and the country should have an interest in making them safe for travelers and merchants?

No, the roads are owned by the Merchant's Guild, Claudine answered.

Jay stumbled on a branch as he was running over the grassy plain outside the town, quickly regaining his balance however, and continued running as he asked Claudine another question. If the Merchant's Guild own the roads, wouldn't they make the roads safe then?

Why would they? Bandits are also customers, they buy and sell things more often than most. They have good working relationship, Claudine tried to explain it to Jay; she didn't understand how he wasn't able to see something so completely obvious. Sometimes she thought Jay might be slightly mentally disabled, especially when she thought about the weird mental fluctuations she sometimes felt from Jay when he tried to remember some things. So, obviously, no bandits would ever bother anyone with the Merchant Guild Safe Passage Sign. Therefore, all Merchants are safe on the roads. It's only those that haven't paid for the Merchant Guild's Safe Passage Sign that are bothered by bandits. This also means that all roads will have bandits. Do you understand now?

Jay was silent for a while, as if trying to process the information. If that's the case, I should find a more remote place to lay low until I've figured out what I need to do next.

Fine, go that way. Claudine slightly changed the arrow's trajectory in Jay's field of view, also changing the arrow's color to red to more easily be seen in the now brightening world. It seemed morning was approaching. Claudine focused on gathering information and sifting through it while keeping some slight attention to what Jay was seeing and sensing, looking at his field of view with “half an eye” as he ran over the grassy yellow plain.

Soon Jay arrived at the border where the grassy plains turned into young forest, the thin leafy trees swaying slightly in the wind. Looking at the forest, Jay slowed down for some reason, but sped up again almost instantly; in the distance the barking of dogs could be heard.

How is that possible? They shouldn't be able to smell me, Jay thought.

They can't find your scent but they've still seen you, Claudine sent back. And hunting dogs are often used to track down criminals. Very few normal people can hide their scent for a long time. It's good that you can because of your high Mana Regeneration and Null Presence: Scent. But you should remember that you're still not fast enough to outpace them if they've sent anyone strong after you. Hopefully this first wave of pursuers are only the town guards on duty at the moment and not their officers.

Jay increased his pace and ran into the forest, crossing what felt like a thin membrane slightly tugging at his body as he passed. He didn't think anything about the strange sensation, only having the thought of escape in mind, keeping low, running for all his worth. Where are there some caves or dense forest I can hide in?

Just go to where my arrow is pointing and you'll soon find yourself in a mountain wilderness region. The hunters should stop trying to find you when you've entered that ancient forest.

How do you know that? Jay asked, curiosity tinging his thought.

The things that live in the mountain wilderness region are dangerous. Some creatures there are over Level 150; very few people would dare encroach on their territories. But it should be better than actually staying close to town. When your bounty is seen by more people you'll have a horde of bounty-hunters after you, and at that time it would be best if you were somewhere else. Right?

True enough, Jay thought back.

Yep, just listen to me and everything will be good, Claudine sent back. It felt great having Jay do as he was told, almost as if she had finally gotten a bit of her independence back, except it was second-hand.

Jay kept running through the forest, but couldn't lose his pursuers. It seemed to Claudine that Jay was growing slower and slower. Hey, Jay, go faster, you need to get away from the group behind you soon or else you'll completely show them where you're going, and most likely die when the next wave of pursuers come.

I can't run any faster, Jay answered in a listless voice.

Then don't just run, use your Magic Rope Spell to fasten your rope at a thick branch and then pull yourself forward to increase your speed. If you do it well enough you won't even need to touch the ground. Claudine sent back a suggestion, an idea she had gotten from watching Jay jump over the wall earlier.

Good idea, Jay thought back, uncoiling the rope he had around his arm and shoulder, tying it around his waist. Then he forced his Mana into it and sent the rope to a branch some ten meters away. The rope coiled itself around the branch and Jay manipulated the rope to pull himself forward while he ran on the ground. At first it was difficult to get the timing right, but Jay soon seemed to get a hand of it. Claudine was pleased with her idea, it would help Jay get away without a doubt.

As Jay kept running, the forest grew increasingly dense, the trees all looked older and older—some trees were wide enough that several people could hide behind them. Skipping across the mulch and dead leaves under the canopy of green leaves, Jay was slowly outdistancing his pursuers. The dogs' barking grew more and more quiet.

As if he had passed some dividing line, the forest became darker. Jay looked up, seeing that all around him stood ancient trees that reached into the sky, their canopy of deep dark leaves replaced the blue sky with a mottled green. Many of the trees were at least ninety meters high and several meters in diameter. The lower branches on some of the trees looked more like smaller trees than branches.

Jay used his rope to fling himself up onto a thick gnarly branch, its roughly cracked dark brown bark looked like the skin on some ancient beast and was easy to stand on. Looking around for his next target, he used his Magic Rope Spell, coiling the rope around a branch on another tree and swung across to it. At first this way of moving from tree to tree without touching the ground was actually slower than running, but it left less of a trail, so Claudine didn't comment on Jay's choice. And when Jay got used to using his rope to swing from tree to tree his speed eventually increased.

Claudine liked the feeling of swinging through the air she got from Jay's body as he moved from tree to tree. It was one of the first times she had felt a nostalgic feeling, as if she faintly remembered flying through the air. It was comfortable and Claudine immersed herself in the feeling. It was the only good thing she had gotten from being attached to Jay; for some reason she felt like her feelings were growing deeper and more vivid when experiencing reality through the filter named Jay.

As Claudine enjoyed the feeling of swinging through the air, Jay soon got far enough away from the barking dogs that he couldn't hear them anymore and he stopped for a while to listen. After he didn't hear anything for a while a deep sigh escaped Jay's mouth.

Maybe you could find a tall tree to tie yourself to and sleep for a while? You need to get rid of that Sleep Deprivation Status Effect as soon as possible. Claudine said to Jay when she saw that he stood still on a branch, looking out at the shadowed forest floor. That Sleep Deprivation was even affecting her slightly, or so it seemed to her. She didn't know if it really was like that, but she didn't like how disorderly Jay's senses had become after he got that Status Effect. And because she could only feel the world through Jay's senses she felt the effects too.

Good idea, Jay said, slowly moving again, but now climbing up to a higher elevation every time he saw a thick enough branch on a tree to climb higher.

A few minutes later Jay had found a place that looked good and remote. The tree he was now on stood among many other large trees, but was the tallest among them. Standing on one of the thinner branches high up, Jay looked down upon the forest and smelled the clean air. All around him were large old trees, a forest with an ancient feeling. Jay stood still for several minutes, Observing his surroundings, using Scope Sight to see if anything dangerous was close by, but saw nothing.

So, when he finally felt safe, he tied the rope around the trunk of the tree and coiled it around himself to make a harness of sorts. The harness held Jay to the tree without him having to use the Magic Rope Spell. It was the perfect place to try and get some sleep.

Claudine, wake me when the Sleep Deprivation disappears, okay? Jay asked, closing his eyes, leaving Claudine in darkness, only her self-made view-screens giving a false sense of illumination in her mind-space.

Okay, she answered. Just remember to free me of my limitations again later. Your instructions only lasts for a while if you don't specify the duration of my freedom.

No answer came from Jay. And feeling his mind, Claudine found out that Jay had already fallen asleep. She could only hope that he would remember to help her regain her freedom later.

2016-01-03T22:54:00.001+01:00

Epilogue

Mysterious Man

It was night in the game when Hannah logged in.

Exerting her body, she stretched and instantly transformed into her Bestial form. Her body elongated, arms, legs, torso all stretched out and she became thinner. Her feet especially grew longer and slimmer, making her stand on her cat's paws; it felt like she was standing on the tip of her toes, yet her balance and bodily coordination increased several times with her transformation, her passive Skill Fluid Movement activating, helping her feel at ease even when balancing on the steeply slanting roof's slick ceramic tiles. It wouldn't do if she fell from the roof of one of the highest towers in the Magician's Guild.

As her body elongated and grew thinner, her clothes started baring most of her body, and she could only sigh. Sure, now her skin was completely covered with a fine fluffy black fur, so she couldn't really call herself naked without clothes, but it still felt wrong. The fur on her body was only about a centimeter long and covered nothing so far as she was concerned. Only on her arms, legs and neck were her fur thicker and longer, though still very fluffy and soft. She liked stroking her arm's fur and imagine how it would be like to own a pet, but knew it was an impossibility, so she could only imagine.

There were lots of good things about being of the Bestial race. She got lots of extra Stats when she transformed into her Beast-form which was a great advantage in the earlier parts of the game. Not to mention having two Professions from the start; even if one had to be a Crafting Profession and one had to be a Fighting Profession, it was still a large advantage over those with only one Profession.

One of the few bad things about being of the Bestial race was that there was such a large discrepancy between her Human form and her Beast form; it had taken her more than a week to get used moving around in her Beast form. But the worst thing was that there wasn't any good clothes she could use with first her Human form and then with her Beast form after she transformed. She untied the buttons on her self-made clothes and flung down the cloth that usually covered her in multiple layers of furs and was now wearing a jacket and pants that suited her Beast form's elongated limbs. It had surprised her the first time she changed her form and some of her clothes had ripped to shreds because her Beast form's body was almost a meter taller and had a very different bone-structure.

Activating her Mana Manipulation she exhausted her Mana to put up a translucent cloud of darkness around her, shrouding her in the shadows of the night, keeping the cloud alive with her meager Mana Regeneration. The cloud of darkness made her body hard to distinguish from any other shadow in the night. It was a useful tool, because she really didn't want to be discovered going around on the Magician's Guild roofs. Someone might think she was a thief or something.

She looked up, watching the bright star-filled night sky with her incredibly enhanced night-vision, a few clouds slowly moved along, blotting out the weaker starlight. It was a beautiful night. Lying down on the slanted roof, she waited for the sunset. This—one of the highest towers inside the Magician's Guild—was the best place to watch the sun rise or fall in this town. She had spent many a night here just marveling at the wondrous sight that was a sunset. She had never experienced its kind before she entered this virtual reality. She had not even set foot on a planet before. Everything in this reality was still new and exciting.

She heard some distant muffled screaming, but ignored it. Some random beast crying out its death-cry couldn't distract her from appreciating her relaxation.

At first she had thought this game was not worth the Creds she had spent to get the complete package for entering the full immersion virtual reality, but now, after almost a month of regular visits inside this too realistic virtual reality, she understood the game company's slogan “Take a break from reality.” Spending time inside God's Dream had become her refuge from the monotony of her working life. She could even forgo sleeping, now only needing a few hours a day, because she entered an almost sleep-like state when inside the game. And because the perception of time inside the game gave her two hours of time inside the game for every hour that went by in real life, she could spend more than half her waking hours in this paradise. It had given her an incredible increase in life-quality.

For her, every day began with waking up, taking her prescribed stimulants, emotional dampeners, nootropics and eating two food-bars before leaving her apartment, taking the stairs to the floor above hers, to her workplace. Then followed 10 hours of reading through the reports from researchers in the other parts of the satellite. Her only break was after six hours of work where she had 10 minutes to take her prescribed stimulants, emotional dampeners, nootropics and eat a food-bar.

Her job was to sift through all reports and find what would be important for the head research manager to read and what wouldn't be. It wasn't a boring job, nor a fun or interesting one; it was just her job, and she did it well, nothing more. It was her life. After work she got her prescribed antitoxins, removing the medicines she had taken to do her job most efficiently, reducing her focus and intelligence to a more normal state. She didn't mind that; it was rather comfortable to get a respite from how she felt during work.

While working she was always on the edge, feeling entirely stressed out and maniacally focused while not actually having those feelings influence how she performed her work, because somehow her mind was detached from what she felt. It was a most bizarre state of mind, and she really didn't feel like herself at work, but what could she do? She had to take what the company gave her to improve her work, or she would no longer have her job. Not having her job wasn't something she could even remotely contemplate. Hannah had been born to do the job she had, replacing her mother when she came of age. And the most important point, if she didn't do her job satisfactorily she might be scrapped; ending her life in misery as a test-subject wasn't something she would ever want.

Despite all this, she didn't mind her job. She knew she had it better than most, the only trouble had been her free time. The recent few years, she had had nothing truly enjoyable to do after work. All she did was sit inside the holo-room watching movies or other things on the view-walls. Sometimes, it felt like she was bleeding away her precious youth, but there wasn't really anything to do in her District; there were only living compartments and working space in this part of the satellite, and she didn't have the permission to leave the District except on Market-day once every thirty days when everyone could leave their District for the day without breaking any laws.

When she was in school she had interacted with lots of children her age, and even made a few close friends, but after school they had all been split up and taken to their preassigned jobs. She talked to some of them sometimes, but because she had not met her classmates the last few years the contacts were growing fewer and fewer; she sometimes wished she actually minded that. Maybe she was weird?

So, her only real problem in life had been her fairly lonesome and monotone free time. She lived and worked in the same place, and her life had repeated every day for almost five years now, deeply ingraining the monotony as something normal. She had not even realized how miserable her life was before she got the Full Immersion Virtual Reality module for God's Dream. But this new contrast made her actually look forward to waking up and doing her job for the day, only so that she could dive inside the game and run around exploring this extremely beautiful reality. And now for the last month she had spent all her free time except eating and sleeping inside the virtual reality, because it was without a doubt more real and wonderful than the mundane reality she lived in.

She looked out over the town of Garam's Gorge, her extremely light-sensitive eyes easily picking out the buildings and streets. There was a distinct segregation of the city's buildings; half of the town had orderly straight streets and square, blocky buildings with three to four stories, each house abutting each other with a small alley every fourth to fifth house; the other half of the town contained the Magician's Guild compound.

From this height she could almost look out over the entirety of Garam's Gorge Town, but only the Magician's Guild compound was interesting to look at. She leisurely looked out across the Magician's Guild; the buildings all around her were as if ten thousand mad architects had put together all of their ideas and then stacked them on top of each other, making a bizarrely beautiful scene. She plotted out a new training course to run from this tower. The Magician's Guild compound was a great place for her to train her Fluid Movement Skill, it was the only Skill she had that gave her Experience toward her Level as she improved in the Skill, so she had spent the last few days here using the buildings as a make-shift obstacle course during nights.

She yawned, looking out at the sliver of light coming from the horizon. The sunrise would soon be here. She lay back, closed her eyes to wait. Suddenly, a loud bang and a crash sounded out below her. It piqued her interest, making her turn over her body and sliding across the tiles on her belly, then she peaked out from the rim of the roof, only showing the top of her head and glowing green cat's eyes. Below she saw an open window with lights coming out of it. It was from there the noise had come.

“Big Brother!” someone said in a shrill voice. She immediately called him Squeaky in her mind.

“Yes, little brother, what have you come barging in here for?” a smooth unpleasant voice slipped out of someone else's mouth. He became Slimy in her mind. Now it was easier for her to visualize the conversation.

“You are responsible for this, are you not!?!” Squeaky almost yelled. “There is poison coming up from the sewers. It has already killed many of our novices and even some staff. I warned you about proceeding with whatever it is that you've been hiding in the lower parts of the ancient structure. I knew it couldn't be anything good when you blocked entrance to that floor for everyone from the Magician's Guild with the Compound's Sealing Barrier, and I was right. Look at what you've done!”

“What I've done?” Slimy said in a slow calm voice. “I have done nothing. This is all your fault. You have ruined years of my work!!!” Slimy's intensity flashed brightly, but just as sudden his voice returned to its normal slithering smoothness. “If I don't miss my guess, you have sent down people that haven't joined the Magician's Guild to investigate my experiments on the lowest floor. Only people from outside the Guild would be able to slip through the Sealing Barrier's flaw. I can never understand why it was made to only hinder our members from going into restricted sections. One of those you sent down must have killed my Black Slime.” Slimy's voice flashed in burning anger again “You filthy Destroyer! You have doomed me. I'm a dead man now!”

“What are you talking about brother? I confess that I was curious about what you were doing down there. You have been so secretive these last few years,” Squeaky said hesitantly. “And yes, I sent down a few people to look around, but everyone came back soon after, telling me that they wouldn't do my Quest because of the awful smell in the sewers. Only one person has not returned to me to cancel the Quest. I think his name was Jay.”

“Who?” Slimy said. “Give me a Mind-Picture of his face and write down anything you know about him. He has destroyed our Guild's property and need to pay for his crimes.”

“Yes, yes,” Squeaky said. “Here you go.” A rustling of paper could be heard from down below and a bright multi-colored light flashed from the window.

“Good,” Slimy said. “Now there's only a few things left to do to clean up this mess.”

“What do you mean, brother?” Squeaky asked. “What were you doing down there? Your experiment has killed a lot of people. You need to explain yourself. It's not only me you need to give an explanation to, the third Elder has also shown an interest in knowing what you've been doing down there.”

“Oh?” Slimy said. “Thank you for telling me that. I will go and have a talk with the third Elder after this then.”

“Come on,” Squeaky said, growing a bit less hesitant. “Tell me what you've been doing down there. There must be some excuse for this, right? The experiment went wrong or something? You couldn't have been creating deadly toxic gas down there, right? The Guild clearly forbids the creation of weapons of mass destruction. And this could almost count as one.”

“What I've been doing down there?” Slimy asked, pausing for a moment as if for dramatic effect. “I have only created something from an old book. A most powerful Magician gave me this book and told me that a corrosive gas could be harvested from a created Black Slime; a corrosive gas that would be able to melt through the Sealing Stone that blocks the entrance to the lower floors in the Ancient Ruins below the Guild's compound.”

“What!?!” Squeaky squeaked. “The Ancestor sealed that place for a good reason. The lower floors in the Ancient Ruin are extremely dangerous. From the stories told, even the Ancestor had trouble coming back after he went down to explore the lower floors when he found the Ruins. How could you even think of breaking the seal?”

“For the treasures, of course,” Slimy said. “I need something of truly great value as a gift and sacrifice if I want to join my new Master's Organization.”

“New Master? What about grandpa Jonel? Our real Master is him, and no other,” Squeaky said. “You're confusing me big brother. We've lived here our entire lives. You are even on the Counsel in this branch of the Guild. You might even become the Head Magician here in time.”

A silence descended in the room down below. Hannah was quite intrigued by the conversation these NPCs were having. She didn't know they could behave so life-like. Suddenly, Ping!

Quest

The Sealed Ancient Ruins Below Garam's Gorge Town

Difficulty: ?

There is a seal down below the Magician's Guild in Garam's Gorge Town.

Find out what is beyond the seal.

Investigate the Ruin's origin.

Open the Ruins and explore its secrets.

Reward:

Do you wish to accept this spontaneous Quest?

YES / NO

Hannah was startled; it was possible to get Quests like this too? She immediately pressed YES. It wouldn't hurt to have something to explore. It seemed like it could be fun too since she got the Quest from a random encounter. The conversation down below had continued while she was distracted.

“...tell the entire Guild!” Squeaky screamed. “You have betrayed us. How could you? My own brother...” his dejected tone stopped.

“For power, of course,” Slimy smoothly said in an almost whisper. “You don't know what is coming, little brother. If you did, you wouldn't blame me so. But now, it is too late.”

A scrambling, rustling noise intensified in the room below. A loud crash sounded out as if a table or large chair had been turned over. A buzzing, sizzling sound blasted out of the window, and a few streaks of lightning followed.

A second later Hannah looked down into the eyes of a man with unruly brown hair, half his body was hanging out from the open window. The man looked up at her, his face filled with dread. Suddenly, a startled expression flashed across his face, but moments later it turned into dread once more as his entire body was tossed out through the window.

The man looked up, waving his arms and legs in the air, his futile attempts to cling onto something entirely in vain. Moments later his body fell down onto the ground, seeming to sink into the ground, ripples in the darkness flowing out from where he landed. The man screamed an ear-piercing shriek, but was muffled a moment later, his entire body was quickly enveloped in a dense black smoke. Only now had Hannah seen that there was some weird black smoke roiling on the ground below, it behaved a bit like a stormy sea, violent peaks tried to rush into the sky before falling down to the ground again. It was truly difficult to differentiate between the smoke and the darkness of night. The sight was very strange. She had never seen anything like it; the night seemed to have come alive and spewed out a small stormy sea of smoke.

From inside the black smoke Hannah could see the man's withered, bloodied hand stretch out, its flesh melting away before her very eyes. She felt sick. From below she heard the voice of Slimy whisper as if to himself.

“I'm sorry, Rolan. You shouldn't have poked your nose into something beyond your understanding. You can only blame yourself for dying. You have, after all, spread a poisonous gas all around our Guild.” Slimy's voice hardened. “Now there is only that Jay left to kill. I will make the entire guild hunt him for destroying my property and disgracing the Guild's grounds with all these dead bodies.”

A minute or two passed as Hannah looked down on the seething ground of black gas, it was entrancing to watch the sea of smoke billow and seethe. Then she saw a peculiar thing; off in the distance—some three hundred meters away—there was increasing movement in the black smoke. And as she watched the blackness on the ground closely, the black smoke rippled outward, clearing up an area of grass.

A little time later the top of a head stuck out of the ground, or so it seemed. The head swiveled around, looking like some cautious rodent coming out of its hole. It looked like the head didn't see anything wrong and soon a body followed it up from the ground. In the darkness Hannah could still clearly see the silhouette of a man looking around furtively.

The man started running, the smoke flowed away from him, keeping its distance. The man stopped, looked around and reached out with his hand as if sweeping something from the air. A few small dots of light flashed into the man's hand, and he put them away in an inner pocket of his cloak.

Looking around even more the man proceeded to run around, always having the smoke keep its distance from him. He was running around as if searching, covering a large area of ground outside one of the training pavilions; every once in a while he would sweep out with his hand and collect a few more of those peculiar dots of light. This went on for a minute or two, but suddenly a beam of light flew out from the window below, instantly crossing the distance between the window below and the man down on the ground. The beam of light struck his body, doing nothing to the man from what Hannah could see.

“It's YOU!” Slimy screamed from the window, and a few seconds later an incredibly bright beam of light with crackling lightning coiling around its surface shot out from the window, barely missing the man below.

The man looked up, seeing the lit window, then turned around with all haste and ran back to where he had first come up from the ground. Another beam of bright crackling light flew out, barely missing the man below, making the man run even faster, and in a zig-zag pattern to avoid being targeted. Again, another beam of light missed the man only because the man turned at the last moment from where he was running to. Soon, the man was back where he had come up from the ground. But against Hannah's assumption that he would once more flee down into whatever hole he had come from, the man did something she hadn't seen before.

A silvery white rope flew out from the man's arm, coiling itself around a parapet on the Magician's Guild Compound's wall. Then the rope went taught, flinging the man over the four meter tall wall in one fell swoop. His body arcing over the wall gracefully. Tonight, it seemed she had been blessed with two interesting things. The Quest, and that man. She had to know how they related to each other. She also had to learn how to do that trick. Rope-jumping seemed like so much fun.

Hannah sneaked away from the lofty tower, going down the fastest route she could find until she was a leap away from the ground. She looked around; there was no smoke on the ground below. Jumping down, coming to a crouch, she ran toward where the man had jumped over the wall. She had to get his scent before it disappeared if she wanted to track him down.

Before long she had arrived at the wall. She looked around, finding the place she searched for and activated the Skill she liked the least of all her Skills. It not only felt weird, it was also the one that was given to her randomly at the beginning of the game, so it was quite quirky. She thought, Scent Synesthesia. All around her blossomed an overwhelming myriad of sparkling dots of light, billowing in clouds, a chaotic mess she had trouble even slightly processing. Seeing scents was truly not a pleasurable thing, it overwhelmed her to the point of causing nausea.

She looked at where the man had gone over the wall. In a faint streaking arc over the wall she saw the special trail left by the man. The scent-trail looked like a streamer of a wispy cloud made mostly out of pale yellow dots with silvery dots mixing together in a unique pattern. She would be able to recognize this scent if she saw it again. She deactivated her Scent Synesthesia Skill and felt her stomach settle down.

Then she immediately left the scene, not wanting to be associated with anything that happened within the Magician's Guild this night. She just had to stock up on some essentials and then she could be off to find that strange man. She had to find out what he had done to create the black smoke, and if he knew anything about the ruins beneath the Magician's Guild. She felt more alive than she had in ages, excitement overflowing in every part of her being. She had found a mystery to solve.

The End of Volume 1

2015-12-27T23:38:00.001+01:00

Chapter 19 From Above, From Below

Without even truly noticing, Jay had already done enough damage to the Black Ooze for it to become panicked. He stopped his attack for a moment and looked at the amorphous black blob coming towards him; it was increasing its speed as its body's mass was being reduced. And now, the Black Ooze was transforming in a way that made Jay feel an urgent sense of danger. He tossed another lit flask of oil, shattering it, spraying the Black Ooze with flames. Then he turned around and picked up his pace, running for a few seconds to distance himself from whatever the Black Ooze was doing.

And it turned out he had been right in his assumption that something dangerous was about to happen. Just as he felt he had gone far enough away from it to be safe, Jay's whole body shivered. Turning his head to look over his shoulder, Jay saw that the Black Ooze had turned into something completely different from its earlier shape. It had gone from being a slowly surging, sloshing, round blob of viscous black liquid into something out of a nightmare. Now it looked more like an octopus with hundreds of thin arms stretching out in all directions, holding up its morphing spherical body in the middle of the corridor. Its thin arms stretched out, touching floor, ceiling and both walls, and in between the arms a dark black smoke was swirling around, obscuring its shape in darkness.

Jay picked up his pace even more, tossing out three lit bottles of oil in succession, letting them fall on the ground to create a sea of flames to impede the Black Ooze, but that did nothing to hinder it. And right as Jay was thinking about how to handle this new change in the creature, a thick black tendril shot out from the Black Ooze straight at Jay.

He jumped to the side, rolling into the wall, and was he barely able to avoid being hit. Cold sweat covered every part of Jay's body. He stood back up instantly and began running backwards, keeping a vigilant eye on the Black Ooze. Somehow, his earlier assumption that everything was going well had turned around, and because he hadn't been able to do as much damage as he did earlier the Black Ooze was now healing itself faster than the lingering damage the burning oil had done. Things were not looking good, but Jay still had his final trump-card, the fire-rocks; he only hoped they would do as much damage as he assumed earlier.

Another thick black tendril shot out from the Black Ooze and Jay barely escaped being hit only because he had distanced himself from it even further. Now there was at least thirty meters between Jay and the Black Ooze, but Jay still felt it was too close to him.

He ran as fast as he could backwards, looking for any indication of the Black Ooze's incoming attack. He increased his speed, trotting backwards, but just as he had gone outside what he assumed was the Black Ooze's attack range he felt a weird, light feeling, in his head. He tripped on his heals, falling down on his ass, his back hitting the floor, followed by his head smashing into the stone. It hurt, white spots danced in his vision, but what was worse was the lethargic feeling spreading through his limbs. Jay tried pushing himself up on his elbows, but his body felt heavy and it was slow progress getting up again. Ping!

You are suffering from light Sleep Deprivation.

All Stats are Decreased by 20%

Jay's head felt like it was stuffed with cotton, his thoughts moving slowly, if at all. Activating Enduring Willpower, feeling his Mana plummet quickly, he pushed himself up and backed away from the Black Ooze as fast as he could. Seriously?! ... Why now? Why did this happen now? I'm sleep deprived because I haven't slept; I can accept that, sure... but why now? Jay thought to himself

What are you talking about? Aren't you only seeing things because you're tired? Claudine asked, not helping one bit.

Jay didn't know if he should laugh or cry, but did neither. Seriously!?! Claudine, you've become awfully willful lately. Aren't you supposed to help me?

Help me help you, Claudine said in a solemn tone. I don't like this any more than you do, you know. I feel strange, my thoughts are slower than normal and I'm easily distracted. And anyway, it's all your fault I'm like this.

What? How come? Jay asked in his thoughts. He had to tried and understand Claudine, but she was turning more and more into something that had its own personality, and Jay wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not.

You completed the first two requisites for my awakening, Claudine said.

Every time he tried to understand Claudine, all he got were more questions. And those were?

You gave me a name on the day of my conception. You cleared my thoughts of unnecessary looping queries, Claudine said. Those made me able to become a bit more myself.

Are there any more ways of making you more yourself? Jay had to ask, it wasn't that he really wanted Claudine to become more independent, but he had to understand Claudine if he wanted to use her abilities.

I don't know, probably? Claudine said. All I know is that there are more things you can do to help me become my true self again.

Jay didn't even know how to respond. And he didn't have time to either. He had to shelve this conversation until a better time. During his fall and slight confusion, the Black Ooze had gained on him and was closing in faster than Jay felt comfortable with.

Suddenly, the Black Ooze surged forward, increasing its speed, more than doubling it. The gaseous substance it spewed out was thickening around it and when Jay looked up he saw that a dense black smoke lingered at ceiling-level, growing thicker and slowly drifting down towards the floor. Soon it wouldn't be possible to even run away without crouching down. With all that had happened, Jay only had one thought: it was time to go all out.

Jay brought out bottle after bottle of lamp oil, not lighting them this time, only tossing them to shatter in the path of the Black Ooze. When the Black Ooze neared the pools of lamp oil Jay shot out match-stick after match-stick, hitting the rough stone, trying to set the entire corridor on fire to slow the creature down. It worked, but Jay still had to run backwards and the fire was only barely doing enough damage to keep up with the Black Ooze's regeneration.

Soon there was a dim light at the end of the corridor, and he arrived in a more open area with a few slightly glowing stones embedded in the walls. Looking around he saw that the large room he had entered looked like the rooms he had encountered on the upper floors that lead down into the lower floors. All around him were doorways leading out to other corridors—the room was large too, almost fifty meters in diameter. Where the staircase should have been in this room, though, there was only a large round black stone inset in the floor. He could barely see that the black stone had some kind of pattern on it.

Right now, however, he didn't have time to think about anything else than the Black Ooze. As he backed into the large round room, Jay tossed out the last of his flasks of oil in anticipation of lighting the oil when the Black Ooze came through the doorway. Taking out his four fire-rocks from his Inventory, Jay stood in the middle of the room, waiting for the time to act. And it wasn't long before the Black Ooze came in through the doorway. Jay threw a lit torch with all his might into a pool of oil and lit it, causing a cascade-effect, creating a large conflagration in front of the corridor that reached into the room, making the Black Ooze shy back slightly. But soon, it advanced once more.

As the Black Ooze entered the room, it scuttled over the flaming oil as if it didn't care about how the heat made its liquid body bubble and hiss, releasing black smoke even quicker. The black cloud of dense smoke followed it, spreading out in all directions, but mostly floating up, covering the upper parts of the room quickly. The smoke was slowly descending, but this room had a higher ceiling than the corridors, so Jay didn't feel as threatened by it. He was only glad that the black smoke wasn't like the other black smoke that had come from the Black Ooze earlier—the smoke that had slid across the floor almost like a liquid. If that had been the case, Jay wouldn't even have a chance to kill the Black Ooze any more.

Tossing a fire-rock into the air, Jay caught it with a thread of Mana from his Mana Manipulation, then forced the thread to grow thicker, denser, giving the fire-rock his Mana, lighting it on fire, an orange reddish light flared through the air. With the fire-stone as its center, a ball of red flames sprang into being, and Jay, as he had predicted, could easily move it around with his Mana Manipulation however he wanted. The only downside was that it consumed his Mana quicker than he had thought it would. He flung the ball of fire towards the Black Ooze, hovering the fire close to the Black Ooze's body without touching it, seeing the flaming ball do more damage than the lamp oil had by a large margin; it was a pleasant surprise.

Keeping his eye on his quickly depleting Mana, Jay drank a Mana Potion, the ephemeral liquid evaporating in his mouth, filling both his lungs and stomach as he drank it. A surge of alertness flashed in his mind, but was gone as fast as it came. He drank another Mana Potion, then another, filling up his Mana to the Max again.

Then he tossed another fire-rock into the air, lighting it on fire with his Mana, sending it out toward the Black Ooze that was now trying to avoid the first fire-rock.

When the second fire-rock came close to the Black Ooze, it seemed to show the first sign of what could only be described as some sort of primal fear. It shuddered and backed away from Jay towards a wall, spewing out dense dark smoke as its body boiled. Had Jay known that the fire-rocks would be this effective, he would have used them earlier. Just as he thought everything was going well, the Black Ooze hissed out an ear-piercing noise and small drops of black liquid shot from it in all directions.

Before Jay could even react he had been hit by a couple of drops of liquid and lost more than half his Health from that small attack. Gulping, Jay backed away, taking a Health Potion from his string-belt and drinking it, replenishing his Health to full again in a few seconds.

He had hoped to save at least one fire-rock, but now that the Black Ooze was throwing out attacks that wasn't possible to dodge, Jay felt the impending danger becoming greater and greater. He drank another two Mana Potions replenishing his Mana to almost full again, then tossed the last two fire-rocks into the air, catching them with his Mana Manipulation, infusing them with Mana and lighting them on fire too.

It took all his focus and concentration to guide the last two flaming fireballs toward the Black Ooze. Especially since he had to gulp down more than one Mana Potion per minute. The drain on his Mana was too great, he could only keep up this attack for a couple of minutes more.

Looking at the Black Ooze, or what little he could see of it—the black smoke was covering almost all of its body now—Jay believed that he would be able to kill the Black Ooze before long. It seemed to have turned almost completely into dark smoke rising to the ceiling, as if it was trying to hide its body within the cloud of black smoke.

A burnt disgusting scent wafted down from above Jay, and he ducked down on instinct, looking up. What he saw did not give him any relief. Above him, the dark dense smoke had slowly come down and covered the room's ceiling all around him. He hadn't noticed it earlier because the smoke was so close to black darkness that it wasn't easy to discern, and he had been focused completely on keeping the four fire-rocks at an attacking distance from the Black Ooze. Now, however, he saw that all around him was a sea of seething black smoke.

He touched his head only to notice that some of his hair had burnt away. As he touched his head, a thin tendril of smoke wafted out of the smoke and barely touched his hand. Jay's glove melted and a fierce pain surged from his hand up his arm. Looking at his Health-bar Jay could see that the slightest touch of that smoke took away almost ten percent of his Health. And the black smoke was all around him.

Crouching down on all four on the floor, Jay crawled away from where the smoke seemed more active, all the while keeping an eye on the four fire-rocks hovering around the Black Ooze.

The smoke slowly came closer as if being drawn toward Jay. He increased his Mana-output to the fire-rocks and gulped down Mana Potions even quicker. He had no choice, it was either kill the Black Ooze within a short amount of time, or be engulfed by the black corrosive smoke. It didn't look good. All he could do was try and get to a doorway and leave before he was engulfed by the smoke. So, he went toward the closest doorway he could see.

Crawling soon became slithering as Jay lay flat on his stomach to avoid the dense dark smoke floating towards him. He could only think he was done for, despair filled him and he regretted not being more cautious. Had his thoughts been corrupted by his lack of sleep? He felt it was difficult discerning if that was true or not. Then, when despair almost claimed him, a message-window popped up.

You have killed the Legion's Black Poisonous Ooze

You have earned 30000 Experience Points

You advance to Level 18

Quest Updated

Go to Rolan Fairwater to claim your rewards.

Quest Updated

Yes! Finally, Jay thought. I did it! He looked around, but as far as he could see the black smoke didn't go away. The only good thing was that it wasn't coming any closer now, and Jay had a bit more than forty centimeters of clean air below the smoke to crawl wherever he wanted to go. He crawled toward where the four fire-rocks were still burning bright, toward the only light that penetrated the black darkness.

He stopped feeding the fire-rocks Mana, extinguishing the fires, and pulled the fire-rocks back towards him. Before the fire-rocks could even reach him, his grasp on them with his Mana Manipulation disappeared, as if the fire-rocks had disappeared. What happened?

The fire-rocks were dissolved by the corrosive black smoke, Claudine said. You should have kept them burning if you wanted to bring them through the smoke and back to you. But now they have completely melted. It's too late for regrets.

Thanks... shouldn't you have told me that before I extinguished them? Jay thought.

How could I? You didn't ask, Claudine said. And even so, my memory is limited in a way I don't understand. I only know things I've seen, but when I've seen something I have more knowledge about whatever it was I saw than what could be gleamed from the instance when I saw something. It's very troubling. I know I should know a lot more, but I can't remember anything I think I should know. It's very, very confusing, I tell you.

Huh? That does sound a bit troublesome, Jay thought back. How come you know so much about the town of Garam's Gorge then? Earlier, you told me about things I had not seen, and by what you said, you had not seen either.

When I was attached to you all my memories were locked away, except information about the town you arrived in, Claudine explained. Even my real sensory perception abilities were sealed. And now I can only use your senses to perceive reality, and those are worse than anything I could have imagined. I really can't understand how you can cope with the world with your limited senses.

Okay? Jay was becoming more confused every time he talked to Claudine. And right now he even felt his mind working slower than he thought it should. It was as if he couldn't focus on something completely or discern things that should be obvious. It disturbed him to no end. Let's shelve this conversation to later Claudine. Now I need to check out whatever loot I got from the Black Ooze.

Yes, Jay, Claudine answered.

Crawling to where the Black Ooze had died, Jay found nothing that really stood out at first. Looking closer, he still saw nothing but the gravelly floor. There were small stones laying everywhere. The only thing that stood out was a slightly larger black rock; it was almost as big as his thumb's fingernail and completely round with a large crack on its side. Beside the round rock lay four slivers of some blackish green crystal, the rock-slivers looked a lot like the little grains of Mana Crystal he had found in the smaller Slimes earlier, only larger, and he assumed that the slivers of crystal was just that, Mana Crystals. So, first he looked at the round black rock. Observe.

Minor Black Slime Core Crystal (Mana Crystal Gem) (3.2g)

Gives the holder the ability to manipulate and direct the corrosive black smoke from this Slime Core's Slime for thirty minutes.

The further away from the holder the smoke is, the less control the holder has over the smoke.

Requires 80 Wisdom to use.

If consumed:

Permanently Increases Acid Resistance by 6.

Permanently Increases Poison Resistance by 4.

Permanently Increases Vitality by 1.

Poisons you for 6000 HP per minute for 1200 minutes.

Jay didn't know if this thing was good or bad, but it at least relieved him of the question of how to get rid of the black smoke that was floating about all around him. He had noticed the smoke was no longer following him, but it had also stopped being confined to the ceiling and was slowly dropping down to the floor at some places. It made Jay feel more than a little frightened, since if the smoke came down on him, he wouldn't survive however much he wish to.

Holding the small round stone in his hand Jay didn't know how to use it, so he tried the most simplistic thing he could think of to try out it abilities. Rise, was all he thought. And to his delight, everywhere around him the black smoke started rising slowly. Now he just had to wait for a little while and he could stand up again.

While waiting he looked at the four small slivers of crystal that he assumed the Black Ooze had dropped. Observe.

Minor Mana Crystal (0.2g)

A crystal infused with solid Mana. It was part of the core of a black green Slime.

If consumed:

Increases Poison Resistance by 2 for 1 hour.

Poisons you for 100 HP per minute for 60 minutes.

Jay couldn't complain about this loot. He had hoped for something better, but not everything could go as he wished. The Experience he had gained from killing the Black Ooze was the best thing from the kill. He wasn't disappointed, but he had truly hoped for something more useful. He had noticed that all creatures he had killed so far only gave crafting items, and had hoped that this Boss would at least give him some equipment to use or sell, but it seemed that wasn't going to be the case.

Well, whatever, he thought. I should probably check out the Black Ooze's lair. Maybe there's something more there.

Yes, Jay, Claudine chimed in. You should take that piece of metal in the Black Ooze's lair. Because the Black Ooze was lying on it for such a long time without it disappearing from the constant exposure to acid, it could be a good crafting metal.

Oh? Thanks for that tip, Claudine, Jay thought. Once more Claudine had been helpful, but somehow their communication was still askew. So, you told me earlier to help you help me. How can I do that? By giving you a name and helping you unclutter your mind from looping questions you became more self-aware and you now have the freedom to think your own thoughts if I don't misunderstood your earlier statement. So, my question is, how has that changed you?

Not much... Claudine hesitated. I can only do what I've always been able to do, but maybe I can change, I don't know.

You mean that all I get in return for freeing your mind is that I now have a weird voice with its own personality in my head and I can't get rid of it? How is that anything good? Jay didn't really know how to feel about this. Shouldn't there be some greater benefit?

Isn't that good enough? Claudine's tone was as close to petulant and sulking as Jay had ever heard. It seemed her ability to emote had become greater with time. She continued, well, maybe I can improve and become more useful?

How would you do that? Jay asked, thinking they were now getting on the right track.

Maybe you can get me some useful Skill or Spell? Claudine answered in a questioning tone, as if not knowing if that was really an answer to Jay's question or not. I just have a feeling that I might be able to learn some Skills or Spells.

You can use Spells and Skills? Jay was astonished once more about how little he knew about his Guiding Spirit. It seemed Claudine could be used for more than information. Do you have any Spells and Skills right now? And how do you use them? Do you have Mana?

Yes. Same as you, I activate them by thought. And yes, Claudine answered.

Elaborate? What Spells or Skills do you have? And how do you have Mana? Jay had some time to spend before the black smoke was dispersed, so he felt it was a good time to talk to Claudine about these things now.

I already have a few Spells and Skills, Claudine said with a hint of pride in her voice, as if she was finally feeling that she was being appreciated. I have Observe, Perfect Recollection, Link to the Watchers' Vault, Curse Memory, Incorporeality, Illusion Mastery and Light Manipulation.

That's something you probably should have told me about earlier, right? Jay had a feeling this question would bring no real answer, but he had to ask.

Why? Claudine asked, puzzled. You didn't ask about it until now.

He knew it, there was really something wrong with Claudine, but Jay probably was at fault for not asking the right questions too, so he let it slide. And where do you get the Mana for those Spells and Skills? How much Mana do you have?

My maximum Mana is 25320, Claudine answered. And whenever I need Mana I take it from you. Whenever your Mana is full, I siphon off some for my own use and refill and increase my Mana-pool. It's a good thing that my Skills and Spells have a really high level, so I don't need to use very much Mana when using them. And you don't even notice it when I slowly siphon off of your surplus when you're not using your Mana. So, no hard feelings, right?

Ehm, okay... Jay was swamped with questions from that comment. Was Claudine some sort of parasite? She actually took his Mana and used it as her own? And how did she have so much more Mana than him? It was slightly mind-boggling. Well, it didn't matter, it was all good as long as she only took Mana when he had full Mana and his Regeneration couldn't fill up his own Mana-pool anymore. He stopped thinking about those things, he had to ask about what was more important. What kind of Spells or Skills do you think you can learn then?

I don't know... Probably not attack Spells, probably no defense Spells either, but maybe support Spells and information gathering Spells? Claudine sounded really uncertain, like she was only guessing or maybe even didn't know herself what her limits were. All I know is that the Spellscroll has to be top-quality for me to be able to use it.

There's a difference in Spellscroll quality? Jay thought that was something he should know about; it might greatly influence his path to becoming a Magician.

Yes, Claudine answered, once more not giving any real information when it counted.

And Skills? How do you learn those? Jay asked. Claudine had only mentioned Spells for some reason.

I don't have a body, Claudine said. How could I learn new Skills without a body?

But you have Skills now? Jay asked, thinking about the implications of that statement. Does that mean you once had a body? And if so, how do I get you one?

I don't know, Claudine said, sounding frustrated.

Fine, let's drop this topic till later, Jay thought. He had finally noticed that the black smoke had dispersed and flown up somewhere out of sight. It was time to go back to the Black Ooze's lair and see if he couldn't find something useful there.

A couple of minutes running had him back at the cavern where the Black Ooze once made its lair. In the room he saw that there wasn't any smoke, like there had been before. And the indentation in the floor was a lot deeper than Jay had earlier thought. All that was different from before was a lingering feted smell of oily smoke, and black smudges were spread out on the walls.

In the middle of the hole in the floor stood a pole of a silvery metal with tints of a coppery sheen; it looked like a melted candle, though, but its lustrous surface shone brightly even in the minuscule illumination from Jay's torch.

Jay jumped down into the indentation after being completely certain there wasn't any dangerous residue left from when the Black Ooze had stayed here. And soon stood looking by the metal pole. It looked like the shaft of a spear or pole-arm, but it was difficult to know anything about it because it had truly not faired well being inside the Black Ooze for who knew how long.

Jay reached out, grasping it, pulling on it to see if he could pry it loose, and to his surprise it easily slid out of a small hole in the floor. Observe, he looked at the metallic pole.

Broken Shaft of Some Spear (2856g)

Attack: 9-11

Durability: 26 / 120

Made from a combination of several unknown metals. This pole was once part of a spear of unknown origin.

Requires 140 Strength to use.

Requires 300 Dexterity to use.

All he could hope for with this thing was to give it to someone that could smelt it down into raw materials to use in creating something else. The metallic pole should be made from some fairly good materials since its Stats and requirements were quite strange.

Jay looked around some more in the Black Ooze's former lair, but after almost ten minutes he found nothing, and stopped looking around since he felt that he had combed through every part of the lair very thoroughly.

So, all he had to do now was to go back to Rolan Fairwater and prove that he had killed the Black Ooze. He was finally finished with this Quest and had gotten some fairly good rewards already. Though Jay had the feeling that what he would get from Rolan was more useful than the items here, a Magician's Shirt and the possibility of showing someone in the Magician's Guild that he could be useful was the best rewards from the Quest. It was even possible that Rolan would give him another Quest.

Jay was truly looking forward to completing the Quest. Now that his power had increased quite a bit, he felt that it was time to broaden his horizons and go outside the town and explore some. Especially now that he had gotten a Level above 16 and could get a Profession too. Everything was looking better and better. Jay was truly happy. Ping!

You have killed the person Magma Maniac

Your Alignment is reduced by 100

You have earned 4941 Experience Points

What?! Jay was more than astonished. How had he killed someone?

Ping!

You have killed the person Sardon

Your Alignment is reduced by 100

You have earned 8463 Experience Points

Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping!...

Window after window popped up, overlapping each other before Jay could even read them, informing him that he had killed person after person. An overwhelming feeling of hopelessness intruded in his mind. He fell down to his knees, not knowing what had happened or how it was possible that he had killed someone, not to mention the multitude of people that he was now rapidly being informed about having killed. He started laughing. Something in his head snapped, a clarity came to his mind, as if a veil of some illusion had been pulled away from his eyes. How could this happen?

You ordered that black smoke to go rise, Claudine explained in a flat voice. It probably rose to the Magician's Guild compound up above and poisoned a lot of people. Didn't you think of that? I thought it was a great idea. Can't you see your Level rising very fast? You're already Level 31, and you're still killing people with the black smoke.

What? Jay stared blankly at the floor, not knowing what do to. He was overwhelmed. Come back black smoke! Jay was desperately trying to mend his now dire situation, but he knew it wouldn't matter. And it seemed the black smoke wasn't listening to him either, since he couldn't see any black smoke coming back to him. Everything had gone awry.

His maniacal laugh sounded out in the cavernous room. He had never thought of killing people in the game to gain Experience. He hadn't even known it was possible. He looked at the latest message, seeing that his alignment once more was reduced by 100. Claudine, what does alignment do?

Alignment is the moral value of your character in a certain area, most often a country. It is your alignment to good or evil, Claudine explained. Your alignment can easily be seen by others and they will treat you according to how theirs and your alignment differ. If you have a really low negative alignment you will even be killed on sight by most lawful beings.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.....” Jay screamed out in his frustration. Doesn't that mean my life has just gotten incredibly dangerous and complicated?

Only here, Claudine said, not seeming to notice Jay's distress. In some places a negative alignment makes other fear you and they will go out of their way to help you because they don't want you to kill them.

Jay could only laugh in a crazy manner. He had tried to follow some goodly self-imposed laws, to not draw attention to himself, because he didn't want to ruffle anyone's feathers or make trouble for anyone else. He had tried to do things according to the arbitrary laws he thought governed this realty, but now it was all for naught. He didn't know what he would do now. Ping!

Because you have killed over 100 people in less than 4 minutes your very being has been stained by the atrocities you have wrought. Bloodthirst has permeated your soul and mind.

You have gained the Title 'Manslayer'

You have learned the Skill 'Murderous Aura'

“Hahahahahahaha...” Jay couldn't stop laughing, for if he did, he thought he might start crying. A dark red light started glowing from his skin, shining through his clothes. Claudine, if I have -10000 in alignment, what will happen when I leave the sewers and go into town?

You will be killed on sight by any goodly people, Claudine explained as if it was obvious. You have probably even gotten a large bounty on your head by now. And a kill on sight order should have been issued to all guards and organizations in Garam's Gorge.

Something inside Jay's head snapped, his mind was reeling. If he was killed in this game, he would die for real. And now everyone in the city was hunting him? He couldn't think of any way of surmounting this difficulty. The only option he had was to flee. He had to flee.

Everything he had once thought about how to act in this game was turned on its head. And with his newfound clarity of thought, he now also had a nefarious idea. Since I already have such a low alignment, couldn't I just kill people wantonly to gain Experience now? What if I killed everyone in Garam's Gorge with the black smoke? Wouldn't I get a massive amount of Experience? He somehow felt that there really wasn't any other choice, he needed to become so powerful that no-one would even think of trying to kill him. And he had already reached Level 36 now from killing lots of people, he might as well continue.

That isn't a good idea, Claudine said. Or at least not that last part of slaughtering the entire town. In Garam's Gorge there are two Ageless Protectors. One is in the Magician's Guild, the other is in the Blacksmith's Guild. They are both over Level 300 and if you kill too many in their territory they might just take notice and come after you.

How do you know that? Jay asked. Have I already caught their attention? Do I need to look out for some monstrous being coming after me now?

I don't think that will be the case, Claudine said. Killing only a hundred or so people in a town of thousands wouldn't really matter to the Protectors. Those beings are not really concerned with the goings on of normal mortals. But if you wiped clean the entire town of people, they would care. They are, after all, the founders of this town. And, I know this because I know everything that has happened in Garam's Gorge since this town was created. I even have memories of the two Protectors cooperating, creating the first structures in this town.

Jay sat silent for a while. The windows informing him of having killed someone new didn't come as often anymore, and after a few minutes more no new messages came. He had reached Level 38. Just when he thought he would finally be able to get rid of the message-windows a truly horrible one flashed into his view. Ping!

You have killed the person Rolan Fairwater

Your Alignment is reduced by 100

You have become a mortal enemy of the Magician's Guild

You have earned 58731 Experience Points

You have advanced to Level 39

Quest Failed

Jay laughed until his stomach hurt, then stood. A light of insanity coloring his eyes. He now knew he had no available options left in Garam's Gorge. He had to flee, and as quickly as possible. There were still a few minutes left during which he could use the stone to manipulate the black smoke, so he had to leave the town while he could use the smoke to protect his life. He came to a conclusion, he would flee into the wilderness.

Walking sluggishly to the ventilation shaft he had now used to enter and exit the sewers on multiple occasions, Jay pulled himself up and started crawling through it towards the exit.

It was best to leave the sewers and come up at a place where few people were likely to be. He truly had no choices left, all he could think of was to flee, to go outside the town and find a place where he could spend his time becoming more powerful. In time, he would be back, and with his new perspective, he would be back to hunt people for the abundant Experience they gave.

Author's Note: Hello all my readers. I hope you've had an enjoyable holiday, and will have a great new year's celebration. I'd like to thank you all for reading and hope you have enjoyed the story so far.

I've had fun these few months while posting this story here and I'm looking forward to continuing in 2016. So, to all of you, I wish you a happy new year and hope to see you back here reading my writing in 2016 :)

As a side-note: now that I've gotten a new writing-laptop with the ability to access the Internet again I'll be back and more active on the blog as soon as my back-injury has healed some more. I appreciate your patience about my absence. I'll also fix some minor things on the blog, such as links in the coming week. My back-injury has become much better the last few days.

I would also appreciate it if you would post a comment about what you think about the story so far if you're so inclined. Any input will be greatly appreciated, as I'd like to know what you think about the story, good or bad.

2015-12-21T00:25:00.002+01:00

My inactivity on the blog

To those that care I thought I should explain why I've been unavailable on the blog the last few weeks. The reason I've been unavailable is because an old sports injury relapsed and I tore the outer fibrous ring between two vertebrae in my back, compressing my spinal nerves which in turn make me feel lots of pain every time I move the core of my body in the slightest. It's especially bad when I'm sitting down because the spinal disc herniation impacts another nerve injury I got when my knee was dislocated a few years ago. So every time I bend my left leg it makes me cold-sweat from the pain, which has lead to me not being able to sit at the computer for more than a few minutes.

The worst part is that there isn't really a way to alleviate the pain except by taking strong opiates or surgery; both of those aren't really an option, at least not from my point of view. Opiates are dangerously addictive, and surgery close to the spinal cord isn't really something I wish to gamble the function of my legs on.

If only I hadn't accidentally drowned my laptop all of this wouldn't have happened. I must say that this is a fairly amusing chain of events. Spilling a glass of water on my laptop led to building a make-shift internet-computer that barely works, and because it barely worked I searched for another laptop I had in storage, which in turn led to me lifting a really heavy box, straining my back and having an old injury relapse. I only wish I could laugh at it, but laughing hurts too much...

Anyway, I'll probably not be available until January at the earliest. Last time I hurt my back like this it took a bit more than three months for it to heal completely, but now I'm already much better than I was the days just after I hurt my back, so that's good at least.

And I'll also try and find/buy a new laptop while I visit my parents during Christmas so that I can use it in bed. The laptop I found when I hurt my back didn't have a working wifi- or network-card, so it was a truly useless injury. And I haven't been able to buy a new laptop because I live in a village with less than 1000 residents; it doesn't have an electronics' store.

Hopefully none of you take any offense from my unavailability. If I could spend time at the computer, I would, but agony is a great deterrent. If only I was of the M-persuasion then this wouldn't be so bad...

The only good thing that has come from this injury is that I've had a lot more time to spend on thinking, which has led to several good ideas for the future story, characters, and places. I also have some things I need to change in what I've written in book-form of Volume 2, but it's for the betterment of the story, so it's worth it.

As a side-note I thank all of you who have voted about possibly donating or helping out by spreading the word about this story. I didn't think it would show such good results. It's only too bad I can't really implement a donation-thing right now. It'll have to wait until I've recuperated.

2015-12-20T23:20:00.002+01:00

Chapter 18 A Trap Sprung

Climbing down the rope, Jay soon reached the bottom of the shaft and looked up. Seeing the rope's silvery gleam against the now darkened sky, he tried using the Magic Rope Spell and forced the rope to coil in on itself. As soon as the rope was completely taught, his body was lifted from the ground and his Mana depleted rapidly, but now he was sure he could use the Magic Rope Spell to manipulate the rope to lift his own body, if only for a few seconds.

Releasing the Magic Rope Spell, Jay activated his Nightsight Spell and everything grew bright enough for him to make out things in his vicinity clearly. Though everything around him was without color and could only be seen as either darker or lighter gray, it was enough for him to feel he didn't need any extra light. The Nightsight Spell was truly useful in dungeons and other dark places.

He sat down and brought out the barrel filled with oil, a few torches and the gatherer's knife. The torches were all exactly alike, as if someone had made them with a machine. The top five centimeters bulged out slightly and was a darker shade of brown than the rest of the torch. The bulging part was where the torches burned, but since they could burn for such a long time Jay had figured that there was some sort of fuel inside the torches' handles that made it possible for them to burn for a longer period of time.

The gatherer's knife's whitish yellow blade shone slightly in the darkness as Jay fed it some Mana. He slid the ephemeral blade through the top of the torch, cutting it off without any resistance and looked inside the torch handle. And as he had predicted, inside the handle was a black waxy material, it looked a lot like black bee's wax. It was fortuitous that his guess had been correct, as it would increase the likelihood of success. Cutting away thin slivers of the handle and the waxy material inside, Jay put the pieces of torch-fuel inside the barrel filled with oil. He was going to give the Black Ooze a fiery first attack with this large barrel and needed it to pack as big of a punch as possible.

While filling the barrel with pieces of torch-fuel Jay remembered something, and directly contacted Bluth, hoping to gain back some control from the contract they had earlier signed. “Hey Bluth. I need some Mana Potions, could you come get me 20 or so?”

“What?” Bluth asked. “Why didn't you buy them from me earlier?”

“To be honest, I forgot,” Jay feigned hopelessness in an attempt to make Bluth help him once more. “You remember the hole in the Magician's Guild you helped me up from? I'm there right now, just bring me the Mana Potions, okay?”

“Why should I do that?” Bluth asked. “It's not as if we agreed on me getting you consumables.”

“Ah...” Jay said, stalling for time to think. “...That's just semantics. Consumables are equipment too. Come on, I just need a few potions, how difficult would it be for you to get those for me?”

“I'm busy too you know,” Bluth said. “I'm currently planning out a trading caravan route to transport crafting metals from this town to a city.”

“Well,” Jay said, knowing of a way to get Bluth to do as Jay wanted. “If you can't help me, that's fine. I'll just refuse to sell anything to you after I've shown it to you, or maybe I should take a slightly higher price than what you offer every time? There are many loopholes in our contract I can use to make it pretty much invalid, except having to give you the Map-pad data, you know.”

“You...” Bluth sounded speechless at Jay's shamelessness. “Fine, I'll help you. I'll be there as soon as possible.”

“Good,” Jay couldn't help but smirk. He knew he could use that semi-blackmailing tactic against Bluth since Bluth wanted to have a good relationship with him. And Jay also felt it was best they cooperate, but there was no reason to be on the worse end of their deal. “I'll be waiting then.”

“What is it you're doing down there anyway?” Bluth said. “I didn't think you would go back to a place where you were earlier trapped. Is there some sort of treasure there? Or a Boss?” Bluth suddenly stopped talking as if coming to a realization. “It's a Boss isn't it. Hey, let's kill it together?”

“You're right,” Jay said, not very happy about being figured out. “But I can't agree to kill it with you. I was gearing up for this confrontation, and I can't have anyone else ruin my plans. I need to get something worthwhile from the Boss and I can't go around sharing my loot just because you're willing to help. I want to try and kill it myself. And anyway, it's probably low level compared to you, and it's a Slime-boss. You wouldn't be of much help anyway since I figure you use physical attacks? It doesn't really take damage from physical attacks. I'll tell you where the Boss is if I fail to kill it and you can have a try at it.”

“Fine,” Bluth sounded a bit disgruntled. “I could have brought a Magician friend though. It would be much easier to kill it that way.”

“Yeah, it probably isn't very difficult to kill it for those at your Level, but that also means you wouldn't get as great a reward as me. I can't believe the Boss gives more than a few thousand Experience Points. The Quest it involves only gives 10000 Experience.”

“Is that so? True enough, 10k Experience isn't much,” Bluth said. “But there might be some good loot from it. Ah, you'll have to show it to me afterwards anyway. Good.”

“Yeah, I'll show you what I got first, so don't worry.”

They broke off contact after that and Jay went back to his preparations. When the barrel was filled with slices of torch-fuel he put the cork back in the hole and lifted the barrel, shaking it around in the air to disperse the lamp oil, blending it with the torch-fuel, then brought down the barrel to the floor again and took out a few meters of ragged cloth. He opened the barrel's tap again and pushed the cloth inside until only a little bit of it was protruding outside, then pulled the now oil-soaked cloth outside the barrel again. The barrel was finished. Now he only had to place it as close to the Black Ooze as possible.

Putting away everything in his Inventory, Jay once more crawled into the ventilation shaft that went towards the Black Ooze. When he passed the small crack in the wall he noticed it had slightly widened, and beyond the crack there was nothing but darkness. He couldn't see the green glowing lights or the large snake. Could it have gone somewhere else after I took the ring? He thought to himself.

Maybe, Claudine answered. If it was a Guardian Beast compelled to guard the ring, it might try to find where the ring went.

Doesn't that mean that I now have a humongous snake trying to find me? Jay asked, startled about this new information. How could he have known that? Why didn't you tell me this earlier Claudine?

You never asked, Claudine answered with a tone that said she thought that answer was too obvious.

Jay couldn't even continue to talk to Claudine. He didn't know how to get her to be more helpful.

Continuing down the ventilation shaft he soon was about a meter away from the Black Ooze's lair. Slowly, without making any noise, Jay took out the barrel of oil from his Inventory and placed it on its side so it would roll down the ventilation shaft and into the lair. He then took the oil-soaked rag and pressed it into the gap between the barrel and stone floor, forcing the barrel to stay in place by laying a small mound of oil-soaked cloth in front of it. Now he only needed to set it on fire and it would roll down and hopefully break when landing inside the Black Ooze's lair, creating a large conflagration. If this didn't work he had a back-up plan, but his back-up didn't have even half the possibility of success as his complete plan.

When he was done with positioning the barrel at its right place, Jay crawled backwards up the ventilation shaft until he was back where the ventilation shaft was vertical. He took out his rope from his Inventory, using Magic Rope to stiffen and control it, sending it up the shaft, and with some effort he made the rope coil itself around the grate's metallic hinges, making a knot of sorts. Then he used the same method as he had used earlier to pull himself up, but forced a lot more Mana into the rope at a rapid pace, making the rope coil in on itself and pulling Jay up the shaft in less than two seconds. This action spent more than half of Jay's total Mana, but he didn't mind. It only showed how useful it was to have more Mana. And Jay was finally convinced to use almost all his available Stat-points to increase his Wisdom.

Without any hesitation he opened his Status Window and increased his Wisdom by 41, giving him a total of 100. With his increases from equipment and his stats he now had 100 Wisdom and 49 Intelligence, which gave him a total of 3490 Mana with a Mana Regeneration of 4% per minute, more than double what he had earlier. It was a significant increase in power from what he had earlier, and with the Skill 'Forceful Mana Regeneration' he had gotten from the Minor Absorption Training Pendant he had another 1% Mana Regeneration per minute for one hour. He was truly ready and finally done with all his preparations.

“Bluth, are you here soon?” Jay asked Bluth through a mental message.

“Yeah, soon there, a few minutes at most.”

“Okay, I'll wait here then,” Jay said, sitting down and Meditating to replenish his Mana quicker. He was also very close to leveling the Skill to level 16, but the Skill percentage was stuck at 99%, which made Jay believe that something special might happen when he got to Skill Level 16. The only problem was that the Skill Level percentage had been stuck at 99% for a little while from what he could figure out.

Focusing his all on Meditating, Jay felt the world darken around him, his head slowly lowered and without him knowing his body slumped forward. And he only realized that he had fallen to the ground when his face planted itself in the soft earth. He rolled around, lying on his back looking up at the dark sky; stars had begun to show themselves, and at the horizon was a small green moon. This reality was more beautiful every time he actually took the time to take a breath and look at it, but it was also more cruel and difficult to live in from what he had experienced. But now he felt that everything was going his way and after he had killed the Black Ooze he would try to go outside the town and explore some of the mountain forests. He looked forward to the future. It felt great.

“Hey,” Bluth's voice came from behind Jay. “Here's the Mana Potions.” A thin belt with twenty small bottles attached to it soared through the air and hit Jay in the face. “You don't need to pay for these. Let's just call it a gift. But the string attached to this gift is that you won't try to blackmail me again. It isn't really fair. And I have things I need to do this week. I'm close to having gathered 3000 kilogram of expensive crafting metals that I need to transport to a Dwarven stronghold city on the other side of the mountain.”

“Thanks,” Jay was delighted at this turn of events. Jay had proved that he was calculating too; Bluth wasn't the only one that could make others work for him, and Jay was pleased to have shown that to Bluth. This way their relationship would be a lot smoother and with a more mutual respect. A partnership instead of Jay working for Bluth, which was a great step in the right direction. Jay wanted to have a Merchant to easily trade with and this way he had gotten one.

Standing up, Jay stretched out his hand to Bluth. “Let's shake on it. You treat me well, and I'll treat you well. Let's help each other as much as we can. Good enough?”

Bluth stretched out his hand and smiled at Jay. “Fine. You're smarter than I thought, but I also don't want unwilling workers, so it's all good. Send me an info-dump about the things you find when you've killed the Boss, okay?”

“An info-dump?” Jay had never heard of such a function. “How do I do that?”

“If you open your friend's list and drag my icon onto a piece of equipment or other item the information about it will be sent to me. It gives me a holographic image of the item which I can use Identify on and see what the thing is in more detail. Quite an ingenious design. And easy to use.”

“That's great. I wasn't looking forward to having to come see you every time I found something. That would limit where I could go.”

Bluth laughed at Jay. “You actually thought you had to meet me and show every item to me? And you still agreed to our deal? Such a thing wouldn't be worth it for me. It would take to much time.”

“Yeah, but I had no real choice. I needed things you had and didn't want to spend money. I need all the money I can get to buy Spells from the Magician's Guild. They are very expensive, and I don't think I could trade items with them for their Spells.”

“Well, then we both gained,” Bluth said. “I need to go now. See you later.” Bluth walked away after saying that, not looking back.

“Sure, bye,” Jay answered, moving away in another direction as soon as Bluth had gone a few steps.

Jay soon found one of the openings down into the sewer that he had earlier jotted down on his make-shift map and went down into the sewers.

The two upper floors were easy for him to move through now, he didn't take his time to find any creatures to kill and just ran through anything that would take time to kill. Once in a while he shot a Magic Bullet or two, killing creatures, but the Experience Points he got from them were not worth the time anymore. Soon, he had gone down the stairs to the third floor.

On the third floor there were nothing special, everywhere he went he encountered no creatures whatsoever. The Slimes didn't appear as they had before. Had he killed them all? Jay didn't know, but felt it was worth his time to look around anyway. If there were Green Slimes around when he tried to kill the Black Ooze it would hinder his plan.

After walking through the third floor of the sewers for about an hour he only found two Green Slimes on his way to the Black Ooze's lair. It truly seemed like the Slimes that were here earlier had all been killed by him. Jay had hoped he would get another harvest of Mana Crystals from the Green Slimes when he went down here, but he didn't have that much luck.

When he arrived at the corridor where the large crack in the wall lead into the Black Ooze's lair, Jay began the second part of his plan. He took out ceramic bottles from his Inventory, pushed down a piece of cloth in their bottlenecks and placed them on the floor every few steps. He couldn't carry them all while backing away from the Black Ooze, so he had no other choice but to leave a trail of bottles standing on the floor.

A few meters away from the Black Ooze's lair he activated his 'Null Presence: Scent', breathing out a reddish brown smoke that curled around his body; he then slid against the wall until he could look into the lair. A quick peak showed that the large Black Ooze was inside, laying in its indentation on the floor as it had been earlier, but it didn't gurgle as loudly as before, almost as if it was still recuperating from its earlier injuries. As he looked at the Black Ooze he got the Fear Status Effect, making his legs grow weak and his body sluggish. But Jay knew of this and wasn't as alarmed as he had earlier been, he could only to endure.

However much it seemed like the Black Ooze was dormant, Jay was still extremely cautious. This was the first difficult part of his plan. He had to go to the other side of the crack without being noticed.

With a quick leap and a roll he swiftly traversed the two meter opening and came to the other side of the crack, and found to his delight that the Black Ooze still didn't make any sudden movements. It seemed his 'Null Presence: Scent' was a lot more useful than he had thought. Or maybe he was just lucky. He didn't really know, and didn't care. All that was important was that he could now complete his fire-trap.

Pulling out fifteen torches from his Inventory, Jay placed them on the floor in a row and poured lamp-oil all around the torches. This was to create a wall of fire and make the Black Ooze go in the direction Jay had planned out. And now all his preparations was done.

He once more looked into the Black Ooze's lair, closed his right eye and used Scope Sight, increasing his ability to see. He looked at the ventilation shaft opening and barely saw the ragged cloth. A thin tendril of oil was flowing down the ventilation shaft from the cloth. It was perfect.

Jay took a deep breath, trying to calm himself, and sprung into action. He used his Mana Manipulation to send out a tendril of Mana and pulled on the cloth, loosening the barrel of oil. At the same time he brought out three match-sticks and sent them flying at the tendril of oil; they all struck the rough stone and flared up, lighting the oil on fire. The fire spread quickly, engulfing the barrel, and Jay pulled out all of the now burning cloth, giving the barrel freedom to roll down.

He quickly ran to the other side of the crack in the wall again, taking up a bottle of oil from the ground. He then struck a match on the wall and lit two torches and tossed one of the torches to the other side of the crack where the corridor continued. As the torch struck the row of torches on the other side a wall of flames sprung up in that part of the corridor.

Jay felt the heat from where he stood, backing away from it. He then heard a booming noise, and a flash of flames rushed out from the large crack in the wall. He only barely escaped the fire. He activated the Forceful Mana Regeneration Skill and backed away slowly.

From within the Black Ooze's lair a sloshing gurgling sounds was slowly turned into the hissing of steam and Jay saw dark black smoke run up against the ceiling from within the Black Ooze's lair. He got an idea from this and thrust up his torch into the black smoke, hoping it was as flammable as the Black Ooze had been earlier in its gaseous form, but to Jay's surprise the torch was instantly snuffed out and the torch itself started melting from the black smoke.

Hey, what's this now? Jay thought to himself. Hadn't the Black Ooze's smoke been flammable earlier? He quickly tossed the melting torch to the ground and walked backwards another few steps, then lit a new torch. He looked at the black smoke and used Observe, but got no information whatsoever. Is that smoke not part of the Black Ooze?

To Jay's surprise and annoyance, Claudine didn't answer this most crucial question. He really needed to understand how she worked.

While Jay was contemplating this new development that he hadn't anticipated, a fierce gust of putrid air assailed him. And from the large crack the Black Ooze was coming out with strings of red numbers floating up indicating that it was constantly taking damage and a slower string of green numbers showing it was regenerating itself. It was steaming with black gas that slowly rose to the ceiling, advancing towards Jay. It seemed the Black Ooze had more attacks than Jay had seen earlier.

But Jay wasn't discouraged, he knew that he had done a lot of damage with that exploding barrel and now he only had to chip away at the Black Ooze until it died. He backed away a bit quicker until he came to another bottle of oil. Now with two bottles in hand he was going to start his assault.

He lit the rag on fire on one of the bottles and threw it at the Black Ooze that was slowly coming towards him. The bottle flew through the air, slowly rolling around in the air, and when Jay saw that the rag was below the flask Jay flipped a metal pin into the air and charged it with a small amount of Mana, instantly shooting it, hitting the bottle of oil, shattering the bottle and a large splash of flames flew at the Black Ooze.

The Black Ooze didn't seem to have any intelligence, and it just slid into the fire coming at it. Its only reaction was to retract the tendrils it had sent out to investigate its surroundings. It continued sliding towards Jay.

Jay continued backing away. His plan was working. From the red numbers that was streaming up from the Black Ooze Jay could see that he was doing a lot more damage than it could heal. He threw another bottle of oil after lighting it and once again shot a metal pin at it when it was in the right position, shattering the bottle and creating another large swath of flames that struck the Black Ooze. A shrieking hiss came from the Black Ooze and it increased its speed, billowing black gas that rose to the ceiling.

Jay looked up and saw that the black smoke was slowly increasing in volume and scope, it was already almost overtaking him. That made Jay a bit fearful, and he increased his speed, backing away a bit quicker, tossing the bottles of oil at the Black Ooze from a bit further away. After he had tossed the twentieth bottle the Black Ooze sent out a hair-raising shriek and a hissing that made Jay want to run away.

2015-12-13T23:35:00.000+01:00

Chapter 17 The Spirit of Cooperation

"Wait a minute," Jay said, not wanting Bluth to begin writing the contract. He had to be more greedy, to try and get as much as possible out of this deal with Bluth. The more money Jay could save, the better; he knew that Spells from the Magician's Guild grew exponentially more expensive as their power and requirements went up. The most expensive Spells in the Beginner's Spellbook cost 10 gold coins each, and that was only from the Spells for beginners. How much would it cost to buy even stronger Spells later for when he needed even more powerful ones? "Bluth, how about I pay for everything today by us coming to an agreement?"

Pausing in his writing, Bluth looked up at Jay. "That could be done, but what would you be willing to do in exchange for not having to pay with money?"

“Let's come to that agreement after I've chosen the equipment I want.”

“Sure, we can do that,” Bluth said, waving his hand in the air, taking out a knife-handle with the length of his palm from his Inventory. “This is something you should also buy from me. It's a gatherer's knife. Here, I'll show you how it works.” The knife handle buzzed and a light blurry distortion in the air could be seen where the blade should be. “You infuse this handle with your Mana and it sends out a blade made of Mana with the ability to cut through anything, as long as it's motionless. It helps greatly when dismembering monsters for their crafting items. The only bad part about this knife is that this blade isn't possible to use as a weapon. If anything outside your control disturbs the Mana blade it instantly dissipates and you can't remake the blade for a minute. I tried it on a friend, and when the blade touched his body it instantly shattered and disappeared. Too bad really, but it's a useful tool in any case. This costs 20 silver, but it's really worth it for someone like you who hunts things. You really need to gather their materials. And since you're buying with a barter, it is really worth it for you. How about it, want to buy it too?”

Jay, once again, was stupefied. He couldn't decide if Bluth was helping or using him. “That should be fine Bluth. But really, you have to tell me, did you plan to rope me in like this from the first time we met?”

“Of course,” Bluth said, shrugging. It was obvious that Bluth was a calculating man.

Jay was glad he had met such a man. Their cooperation could be very beneficial. If he could get items from Bluth by bartering with things he brought from his hunts it would be easier to actually find some good equipment in the future. “From now on, if you find any really good items with Wisdom or Intelligence boosts, let me know. That should be part of our contract agreement too. That you should find me the equipment I need if I ask you to. How about adding that?”

“Sure,” Bluth said. “That's no problem at all. If we can help each other we'll both gain. That's good. Go check out what I found for you this time.”

Jay assented by going over to the part of the large table where lay a myriad of things. The first thing he looked at was a pair of bracelets made from a silvery material that sparkled slightly. Observe.

Minor Bracelet of Wisdom (Bracelet) (62g)

Durability 10/10

The Bracelet of Wisdom helps circulates Mana throughout your body.

It was made by the Beginner Jeweler Rayclaw.

Increases Wisdom by 4

Requires 60 Wisdom to use

The two bracelets were exactly the same, and seemed like fairly good equipment for his Level. Jay was already feeling glad he decided to get as many new pieces of equipment as he could.

The next thing Jay looked at was a large dark red shirt made from a thin gauzy fabric. It had two thin silvery threads that formed a circle in the middle of the chest with a thicker silver thread going down both sleeves, ending in a ring around the wrists. Observe.

Lesser Novice Magician Shirt (Shirt) (285g)

Durability 14/16

A shirt made from Grubbar Larvae's silk. Embroidered with silver thread to help stimulate the body's Mana.

It was made by the Beginner Tailor Sunny.

Increases Intelligence by 3

Increases Wisdom by 1

Requires 20 Wisdom to use

Requires 30 Intelligence to use

The next thing he looked at was a thin piece of dark blue cloth with three square metal pieces a finger's width apart. It looked like a belt. Observe.

Lesser Novice Magician Headband (Headband) (48g)

Durability 8/8

A piece of cotton cloth with three pieces of metal containing runes for focusing mental energy.

It was made by the Beginner Tailor Sunny.

Increases Intelligence by 2

Increases Wisdom by 2

Increases Perception by 4

Increases Willpower by 4

Requires 50 Wisdom to use

Requires 40 Intelligence to use

Beside the headband was a large bundle of cloth. Jay took it and ruffled it through the air only to notice it was a large piece of clothing. It was a cloak from some rough dark gray material. The only thing that looked special about the cloak was that it had a thin band of fabric with flecks of shimmering silver at cuffs, hem and neck. At first Jay thought it was a Magician's Robe, but there were no arms, so it couldn't be called a cloak. Inside the cloak were two large pockets. Those pockets seem useful, he thought to himself. Observe.

Minor Rough-spun Magician's Cloak (Cloak) (3280g)

Defense: 10

Durability 42/46

A cloak made from a thick durable cloth. It was enchanted by a Beginner Magician.

Repels moisture.

Increases Intelligence by 2

Increases Wisdom by 2

Increases Willpower by 4

Increases Physical Resistance by 2

Requires 20 Wisdom to use

Requires 20 Intelligence to use

Requires 10 Strength to use

Five out of five things were to his liking; things were looking good. Even if the Stat-boost wasn't large, it was still large enough to be significant when put together. Jay was looking forward to his gain in power.

He put down the cloak again and took the other piece of clothing left. A pair of pants made from a dark brown cloth. There was nothing remarkable about the pants at first, but when Jay looked closer he saw faint swirling circular patterns woven into the fabric. The swirls focused in on themselves in the middle of each thigh at a point slightly darker than the rest of the pants. The patterns were almost indiscernible though, as if they were not meant to be seen. Observe.

Lesser Druidic Pants (Pants) (930g)

Defense: 4

Durability 25/26

Brown cotton cloth pants with a Silorn Flower infused into a magical pattern on each thigh.

Increases Mana Regeneration by 1%

Increases Willpower by 2

Increases Dexterity by 4

Requires 60 Wisdom to use

Requires 25 Dexterity to use

Everything looked really good, he was even going to get a whole new look after wearing the clothing. He shifted his body, feeling the scratchy clothes he now wore. It felt good to finally going get out of his beggar-garb.

The last thing among the seven pieces of equipment Bluth had brought out for Jay was a necklace. It looked plain, but elegant. The necklace had a pale yellow orb the size a fingernail encased in a net of silvery metal strands, fastened to a thin black leather cord. Observe.

Minor Absorption Training Pendant (Necklace) (60g)

Durability 6/6

A necklace with a focusing crystal intended for the training of a Magician's Mana control.

The Skill 'Forceful Mana Regeneration' is available for use one hour per day.

Increases Wisdom by 6

Increases Intelligence by 2

Increases Willpower by 6

Requires 80 Wisdom to use

Requires 30 Intelligence to use

Oh, that's really nice. It gives a skill. Claudine, what does this 'Forceful Mana Regeneration' do?

I don't know, Claudine said. All you have to do is put it on and you'll know... you know?

Thanks, Jay thought. That wasn't obvious at all...

No problem, Claudine answered.

Jay wasn't really displeased by her answer, but wasn't Claudine supposed to help him? He couldn't understand his Guiding Spirit. It seemed like there was something wrong with it. “Hey Bluth, a question. Your Guiding Spirit, what is it like?”

“Huh? How would I know?” Bluth answered, a puzzled expression on his face. It was the first time Jay saw something that wasn't calculative on Bluth's face. “After about two weeks my Guiding Spirits stopped answering any of my questions and just seemed to disappear. I think all Guiding Spirits go away after a few weeks or so. At least a friend of mine told me that his Guiding Spirits stopped talking a week ago. Why do you ask?”

“Oh,” Jay said, slightly sad about hearing how Claudine would disappear. “It was nothing. It's just that my Guiding Spirit is acting a bit weird.”

Claudine, are you going to disappear? Jay thought, slightly hesitant to know either way. He didn't really know if he wanted her to disappear or remain. He couldn't decide what would be best, but he had to recognize the help Claudine had given him earlier. So, he didn't really want her to go away.

I don't know, Claudine said, her neutral voice not seeming to hold any emotion either way about the topic. I don't think so. There is no information regarding that in my memory.

That's good, Jay thought, tell me if you think you're disappearing, or something seems wrong.

Okay, Jay, Claudine said, not continuing the conversation and Jay was brought away from his thoughts as Bluth spoke.

“Yeah, my Guiding Spirit started acting weird before it disappeared too. Maybe it's the same for you,” Bluth said, not seeming to be interested in the subject. “It doesn't really matter, right? The Guiding Spirit was only barely useful at the beginning of the game anyway. So, why care about having it or not?”

Jay didn't know what to think about Bluth's disinterest in the Guiding Spirit. Claudine was almost something like a friend to Jay, and quite useful too since he didn't know many of the things others might take for granted.

“Well, to change the subject, have you decided which things you want?” asked Bluth.

“I want all of it,” Jay said, not feigning disinterest; he was going to buy everything by bartering with favors anyway, why care about trying to look nonchalant when was he already within Bluth's schemes. “And do you have any comfortable boots? I need a new pair. Bring out the best boots you have that doesn't need more than 30 Dexterity and 12 Strength to use.” Jay looked down at his feet, at what remained of his boots. They were scorched black and even more ragged and ripped than whole. It was a wonder they even held together.

“Sure, these should work,” Bluth brought out a pair of plain brown leather boots with a slightly darker brown sole. They seemed comfortable enough, and had no holes. Jay was satisfied with that, he didn't even care enough to look at them with Observe. He only needed a pair of usable boots, only because he didn't want to feel the ground beneath his bare feet.

“So, what do you want in exchange for all of this?” Jay asked, apprehensive again about what would be asked in return.

“Let's go with the same thing we said earlier. You automatically record your encounters with creatures with the Map-pad, come to me with anything you want to sell first, and if we both agree on the price, you sell to me. And you wanted to include me finding you suitable equipment. I can't see how that is needed, I am a Merchant. I live to barter and trade. But I'll include it. The contract will hold until you are what? Level 100? Fair enough?”

“Level 100?” Jay asked. “That seems a bit too far in the distant future. I'll work for you until Level 60. That is more fair.”

“Let's split the difference then and say Level 80. I won't go lower,” Bluth said. “It's not like you will not gain from this too, and you won't be forced to sell things to me. You only need to show whatever might be of value to me first and let me give an offer. How about it?”

“Fine, Level 80 it is,” Jay felt a bit hopeless about trying to gain an advantage on Bluth. “I can see why you choose being a Merchant. You're quite good at making deals with others. But I have to ask, wouldn't you miss out on the adventure of exploring this world if you're a Merchant? You can't go out hunting things or do Quests if you're a Merchant, right? I can't believe that you would be very strong as a non-combatant profession.”

“Level 80, good, that will generate quite a bit of information about creatures and give me lots of items to possibly buy,” Bluth said, beginning the process of writing the contract for their deal, but also continued talking. “I have a plan. And to elaborate I'll say this, do you know which Stat a Merchant needs to most of?”

“Hm, I couldn't say. Maybe Perception? To discern good deals and items,” Jay was wildly guessing, but believed Perception should be very valuable to anyone that needed to find out if something was worth any money or not.

“No, Perception is important, but the most important Stat is actually Strength,” Bluth said. “Strength gives everyone an increase in how much weight they can carry in their Inventory Space., but Merchants have a Skill that at least doubles the weight they can carry in comparison to others. If a Merchant can transport large quantities of things between cities and sell them at a profit he will gain Experience, so Strength is the most valuable Stat. And when I'm Level 256 I'll chose my second main Profession to be a warrior-type, I'll probably try and be a tank and loot-carrier. That way I can go do quests and adventure with a party of friends after I've stabilized my wealth. That way I'll have the best possible equipment. And I get to enjoy playing a Merchant while the game is in its early stages, which will be very fun.”

“A second main Profession?” Jay's face scrunched into a frown. He had not known that. If there was a chance to have more than one main Profession, would that change his approach to the game? No. He couldn't try out being something other than a combatant-Profession. He knew from the few hours he remembered when he was outside the game that he had to battle against a large number of competitors; so, being anything that couldn't fight was not an option.

“Yeah,” Bluth said, not noticing Jay's thoughtful expression. “At Level 256 you get to choose a second main Profession and you even get six more slots of Sub-Professions. I even read that after Level 256, Skills become the most important thing, because you won't gain as many Stat-points per Level as before. Though, I must tell you that this is only a rumor—a credibly rumor from a few known beta-testers—but it isn't entirely certain. I'm guessing that it's true though. Beast-people can have two main Professions from the start after all. So, why would Humans be limited to one?”

“Good to know,” Jay said. “Can I take these things now?”

“Sure, I'll trust you not to run away,” Bluth said, waving the hand that didn't scribble away at the lavish contract-paper. “If you try to run away without signing the contract I'll just beat you to death. If nothing else I can hit pretty hard with my almost 400 Strength. And you're not a high enough Level to run away from me.”

Jay laughed slightly at Bluth's bluntness. Jay rather liked Bluth. Even though Bluth had schemed to get Jay to depend on him, Jay still knew Bluth was honest in his own brusque way. “Thanks, Bluth. And congratulations, you roped me in quite nicely. But I'm gaining from this too, so I can't complain.”

Bluth chuckled as he wrote, not looking up, but Jay could see the slightest creasing at Bluth's eyes. It seemed like Bluth truly found it funny that Jay had been so willingly taken in by Bluth's minor schemes.

Pulling off his clothes, hoping Bluth didn't mind Jay standing in his underwear, Jay put on the equipment one by one, incrementally feeling a strange surge inside his body, as if it was changing.

The largest change came when he tied on the blue headband; the moment he did, the world seemed to grow slightly more clear. He looked at the table, the wood's grain was slightly more distinct. He looked at the far wall, it seemed to be a bit closer. Remembering that the headband increased Perception, Jay figured that was the reason. Perception seemed to be very useful; if his eye-sight grew better, had his other senses also increased their sensitivity? He closed his eyes and listened, but couldn't really hear any difference. Maybe it was most obvious with sight? He had to remember this and maybe try raising his Perception by a large amount in the future just to find out how much of a sensory difference his abrupt raising of Perception would give.

But right now was not the time for testing out how any Stats worked. With his plan, the thing he needed the most was Mana Regeneration, which meant increasing Wisdom. All his plan hinged on him using Mana Manipulation in a diverse and clever way and use materials to damage the Black Ooze. And that could only be done if he had enough Mana to complete his plan. The only thing he felt nervous about was if his Mana would hold out or not. He knew he could run away from the Black Ooze if he had to, but that would also mean giving up on killing it for the next ten or fifteen Levels, which would most likely mean someone else finding the Boss and killing it. So, all he could do was try killing it right now, and giving up on it if it failed. In reality, he was too low a Level to kill the Black Ooze in any conventional way, so he had to gamble on his ingenuity.

Putting on all the equipment, only keeping the belt with Healing Potions slung across his shoulder from his earlier equipment, Jay had just begun packing the flasks of oil and other necessities into his Inventory when Bluth stood up and spoke. “I'm done with the contract now. Read it through, then make your finger bleed and press it to one of the circles on the contract. That's the way you sign it. No need to do anything else.”

“Okay,” Jay said, reading through the contract, finding it exactly as they had agreed, then took out his small knife and slid it against his thumb until a trace of blood seeped out. He pressed it inside a circle at the bottom of the paper. The circle started glowing, radiating light out into the perimeter of the contract-paper. “Done?”

“Yep,” Bluth said, piercing his finger with a needle sticking out at the back of his golden pen. “Now I just have to put my bloody fingerprint on it too and we're done.” He pushed his finger on the paper and it shone again with a brilliant light, much brighter than before. Then the paper split in two. It looked like an identical contract-paper flew out of the paper beneath it. “Here's your copy.” Bluth handed one of the contracts to Jay. “We get one each. Don't lose it. The contract will still hold us to it if you lose it, but when the contract is completed we can combine the papers and turn the two pieces back into a usable contract-paper again, so it's best to keep it. They cost 10 silvers each. Best not to waste the contract-papers if we don't have to, right?”

“Sure,” Jay said. “I'll keep it safe.” Jay had packed all the things into his Inventory by now. All he had kept outside the inventory was the blade-less knife handle which could be used to disassemble creatures and the twenty meters of rope. He put the knife-handle inside one of the inner pockets of his cloak. “If there isn't anything else, I'll leave now Bluth. I need to be somewhere. See you later.”

“That's fine, thanks for the deal,” Bluth said, waving for Jay to leave. “Remember to tell me if you find anything to sell. I'll be waiting.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Jay said, not looking back as he left the inner store-room, walking out the store and into the streets again. He was finally ready. It was time to go to the Magician's Guild again.

He looked up at the sky, seeing it growing dark. It was perfect. The first thing he had to do wasn't something he wanted anyone else to see. The dark of night would keep him fairly hidden, and the place where he was going wasn't really frequented much even during the day.

Walking toward the Magician's Guild Jay tried out the Magic Rope Spell and learned its uses. It moved quite slowly, and it was difficult to make the rope bend or turn quickly, but the Spell looked like it would be very useful. The Spell didn't drain much Mana either—only about 50 per minute—as he swished it around above his head, but the best thing was that he could manipulate the movements of the entire rope's length without having any sort of disruption at a certain distance. It was strange, he had thought he would be restricted in how far he could stretch out the rope with the Magic Rope Spell, but it seemed that wasn't the case.

Remembering back to one of his tests earlier, Jay pulled out a pin from his left inner cloak pocket and tossed it into the air. He had filled the pocket earlier with pins to use as ammunition with his Fling Shot. It was the best way to use the pocket. Easy access to hundreds of small pins wouldn't be bad.

Catching the pin with his Mana Manipulation he floated it out away from him, noticing that it didn't fall to the ground at the earlier seven meter mark. Now the pin floated out to more than double the distance before it fell down to the ground. For some reason it seemed like his Mana Manipulation's range had increased. Jay could only figure it had something to do with the increases he got from his equipment. But what had increased the range? He didn't know. Claudine, remind me to think about why my Mana Manipulation's range increased to more than double after I got my new equipment. Remind me in a week if I haven't thought about it before then, okay?

Okay, Jay, Claudine said.

After about an hour Jay had silently and secretly gone into the Magician's Guild, following the compound's wall until he found the hole leading down into the ventilation shaft he had earlier escaped from. He used Enduring Willpower, increasing his Strength, and pulled up the grate covering it, laying it back on the ground. The grate's hinges looked solid enough to hold his weight. He tied his thin rope to the grate and tossed the rope down into the hole.

2015-12-06T23:46:00.001+01:00

Chapter 16 Beyond a Beginner

While Meditating Jay had reached a state of mind he had never encountered before. It had felt like no time at all passed from when he began pouring Mana into the black cloth covering his eyes. It was as if he had fallen asleep, yet was awake; a truly weird timeless state of mind. It wasn't very pleasant.

Claudine, do you know what happened? It felt like I fell asleep, and before I knew it I had poured 2400 Mana through the black cloth and into my eyes. Maybe I really need to sleep? No, he couldn't accept that. He didn't want to waste his time sleeping if he could avoid it.

I don't know, Claudine said. You didn't seem any different to me. Check your Meditation Skill, maybe something changed?

It was a good idea. So Jay thought, View Skill 'Meditation'.

[Active Support Skill]

Meditation

Level 15 (97%)

Increases Mana Regeneration by 3.8%

Increases Health Regeneration by 3.8%

Increases Stamina gained from food by 470%, distributing a forth every 15 minutes for 1 hour.

This Skill is interrupted if you move or are moved. If this happens it can only be reactivated after five minutes.

It seems you might be right, Claudine, Jay thought. But I have no idea what that strange feeling I got from Meditation was. The only thing I can think of is that I'm close to Leveling up the Skill. But that doesn't really explain it since I've never felt that immersed sensation before.

Yes, Jay, Claudine said. I can't explain or know of something I can't perceive.

Hm? Jay had a troubling thought, didn't you say something about a God? Does that mean there actually is some god-like being in this world? If so, what is it? Is it a really high Level monster or something?

God is God. What else could it be? Claudine sounded a bit perplexed, as if she was trying to explain that water was wet. Can you specify your inquiry?

Describe this god-thing you mentioned, Jay thought back, trying to reduce all his questions into a single one, as if trying to forcefully dull his sense of being overly confused. What is this God you're talking about?

Hm? Claudine sounded very confused and was silent for almost a minute, then continued. The underlying principle of the world? The first creator of this world? That force which guides reality? I don't know. The information is very restricted. I can only access information that you have questions about, but the amount of information I can access is also directly related to the amount of things you have encountered. I don't even know why I have these few questions to give you as an answer to your question. It hurts my head.

Oh? That sounds like a description of an operating system, doesn't it? Jay was certain that was what Claudine called God, and he actually found it quite reasonable. Claudine was an AI inside a game-world and would take this game as her true reality. The operating system that was supporting the game from the shadows would most likely seem divine to anything that had the slightest encounter with its more “magical” aspects if it didn't know what was happening. Claudine, you actually think about such things when you're not trying to figure out an answer to my questions?

No, or maybe I do, Claudine said, I can't really say. Recently I've thought about the flowers I've seen on windowsills and in gardens you've walked past.

Flowers? Jay asked, quite surprised by the seemingly mundane thing Claudine spent time thinking about. Why?

Eh? Why not? Claudine asked back, but didn't wait for an answer. The complex chaotic disorderly harmony that is shown within the shapes of flowers can be really fascinating. Flowers look different on almost all different species of plants, but they fulfill the same purpose everywhere. It quite a weird phenomenon. Why is it like that? If you had lived as long as I have and seen what I have seen, you would also begin to think about the inner workings of things.

Claudine, I don't know what to say to that... Jay had the weird feeling that Claudine was a lot more than just the simple Guide for early play within the game. What was that about Claudine living for a long time? Didn't she start existing when he first logged in? Could it be that Claudine was actually bugged? Claudine, how could you have lived for a long time?

I came into being after the first generation of sentient settlers arrived in this world. How I began existing I don't know, but in my early days I floated around freely, observing everything I could. I've seen many generations grow from young to old, passing on their knowledge and abilities, until the nations that now covers Calyxia came into being. My internal clock shows that I've existed for close to 200 years. Claudine explained in her teacher-like voice she used when trying to explain something she seemed to take for granted.

200 years? Jay was speechless. There was no way he could believe that. It must just be some setting in the AI to make the Guiding Spirit seem more profound. And with that, he had had enough of this seemingly redundant topic of conversation. If he couldn't believe what Claudine said, what point was there to continue the conversational thread? Good to know Claudine, I don't really have time to talk about such things right now though.

Taking off the black cloth from his eyes, Jay sat up straight and looked at the cloth. All color had disappeared from where the embroidered circles above his eye was. Now the cloth had two eye-sized white circles where the embroidery was. It seemed that this magic construct was only possible to use once since the man didn't insist on taking it back and had already left Jay to himself.

Claudine, another more relevant topic, Jay thought, he had to ask before he forgot the brilliant insight he had had. If I could somehow find Magic Constructs that I can use to strengthened my bodily Stats, wouldn't I be able to create a warrior's body with the help of continually using Mana Constructs to restructure this body? Where can I learn about creating Magic Constructs? If I can use that and create things that would let me become both like a warrior and a magician at the same time, wouldn't I be invincible? That's something that could break the game-balance, isn't it?

Before Claudine could answer, a small shock ran through Jay's body, his vision blurred slightly, his field of view overlapped and folded in on itself as if his eyes were crossed. He almost fell off the chair from the staggering sensation. Slight nausea crept up his throat. What was that? He thought to himself.

Ehm? What should I answer first? Claudine seemed to hesitate. Anyway, first the core question. Theoretically it should be possible to create a warrior body while being a magician, at least I think it might be possible. I don't know. I can't access enough information to make a concrete judgment on that. It seems like it could be possible, but at the same time I can't find any information that tells me it is possible. Sorry, I can't say.

Jay considered that statement. Seemingly, it should be possible to become a magician with the body of a warrior from what Claudine said. He only needed to find out how to do it. But, that was something to consider in the future. The first thing he needed to know came first. Where can I learn about creating Magic Constructs?

The Magician's Guild creates the most advanced Magic Constructs, but I can't tell you exactly how to get them to give out their secrets on how to create Magic Constructs. Maybe if you did some great deeds for the Magician's Guild and got them to trust you enough to let you learn their ways of creating Magic Constructs? I can't really figure out any other way to get the knowledge. There is a slim chance that you could find some information in dungeons or ruins. The dead civilizations of ages past might have left behind information about creating Magic Constructs. But that is only a educated guess, at best.

Thanks, Claudine, Jay thought, ending his conversation with his Guiding Spirit. She was growing stranger every time Jay had a longer conversation with her. And after he helped Claudine unscramble her mind from all the random looped questions he had asked earlier it seemed Claudine had Leveled up her weird behavior. However, as long as she didn't misinform or try to harm him, her weird behavior wasn't really bad, just strange. Jay dropped the subject; this wasn't the time for thinking about Claudine.

Standing up, he walked to the tray on the floor that now only had two Spellscrolls on it. He picked them up and deposited the Spellscrolls and the black cloth in his Inventory. He would read them a bit later. For now he had to get out of this Beginner's Guild before he was fined a room-renting fee or something. He really didn't want to be swindled any more than he already felt he had been.

He walked out of the small room, directly finding a sign with an arrow pointing to his left; on it was written “Exit”. The sign pointed in the opposite direction from where he had entered this inner part of the Beginner's Guild Auxiliary Tower. Well, it didn't matter as long as he could get out from the place and go experiment with the ideas he had come up with to succeed in killing the Black Ooze.

After having thought for a long while about how to kill the Black Ooze, Jay had come to the conclusion that if he wanted to kill it with conventional methods he would have to be at least double his current Level, and even then it might be impossible to kill it alone. It was a Boss after all, and it had extreme Health Regeneration, so there could be a need to kill it with several people helping each other. Jay didn't know enough people, and didn't have enough Level or Stats to kill the Black Ooze by using “the obvious” way.

There was nothing he could do about all the things he couldn't do; there was only what he could do to do. And if it failed, he would have to give up on killing the Black Ooze however much it would pain him to not be able to kill the Boss.

After he left the Beginner's Guild Auxiliary Tower and came outside again, he promptly left the Beginner's Guild compound and walked to one of the small secluded parks he had found to use for physical training earlier. Looking around, there was only a fountain in the middle of the large grassy square with lots of stone benches strewn around haphazardly. The only really good thing about the place being so ordinary and out of the way was that there were no people around and Jay could easily practice whatever he wanted without being disturbed.

He needed to know a lot of things before going down into the sewers again, and first he tried one of the things he really didn't think was possible. He found a rock that weighed about the same as a torch and tried lifting it with Mana Manipulation. The instant he had poured 300 Mana into trying to lift it he gave up on the idea of using torches as projectiles shot with Mana Manipulation.

The second thing he wanted to try was to use matchsticks as projectiles. Taking out the box of matchsticks from his Inventory, he opened it. He removed a matchstick from the box, striking it against the rough bottom of the matchbox, igniting it. Then he sent out a strand of Mana from his hand, using Mana Manipulation to throw the matchstick the same way he did with pins, but before the match even flew a couple of centimeters it had already been put out by the air-pressure from its speed. He hadn't thought that would work, but it was worth a match-stick to try at least.

He took another matchstick, and without lighting it he charged his Fling Shot with 50 Mana and threw the matchstick towards a stone bench close by. When the matchstick hit, it lit up in a small burst of flames that quickly went out. The rough texture of the stone ignited the matchstick. That was successful at least. He now had a way to light something on fire from a distance, the first step had been reached.

Now he could only do one more experiment, he needed to know from how far away he could lift something with his Mana Manipulation. He had gotten the feeling earlier that the further away something was, the more difficult it was to actually pick something up. It didn't have to do with the amount of Mana used, it was more like his control slipped after a certain distance. And he needed to know the exact distance to be able to use his most explosive plan.

Tossing a small metal pin into the air, he caught it with a strand of Mana, using Mana Manipulation to hover the pin in the air. Then he slowly floated the pin away from him. As the pin reached a distance of a couple of paces it slowly started losing its ability to stay afloat, and a little bit later it fell to the ground.

Jay took measured steps and walked to where the pin had fallen, he found that it fell at about seven to eight meters away from him. He didn't know why, but it seemed that was the furthest he could manipulate something with weight with his Mana Manipulation. He could still send out a tendril of Mana into a distance of over thirty meters when the Mana didn't have to carry something. It was too bad that seven meters was too short a distance to use on his most explosive plan. It seemed he had to go with the more risky version.

Now that Jay had done his small experiments, he took out the Identify Spellscroll and read it through until the end. Light flew out from the Scroll as it disintegrated and shot straight into Jay's head, blinding him for a split second. Information swelled in his mind and he reeled from it, but soon he knew how to use the Identify Spell.

Without a second thought he took out the azure green ring he had found earlier, holding it in his palm. He focused on the ring, using all his mind to only see the ring, to block out everything around him. He thought the word to activate the Spell, Identify. His head started hurting slightly, but just as it did a light shot out from his eyes, taking away 300 of his Mana but striking the ring. A window popped up in front of him.

A Ring from Mentalor's Legacy Set (??? Set-Ring) (32g)

???

The first person who puts this ring on gets a Rare Skill or Spell from Mentalor's Legacy.

Requires 240 Wisdom to use

Requires 120 Intelligence to use

What? Jay was a little bit perturbed, he had thought that the Identify Spell would show everything about the ring, but it hadn't. Though what was shown was still enough to make his eyes pop. There was now no doubt, he really needed to keep the ring a secret, unless he wanted to be killed by someone wanting this great item. But how should he identify it?

There are stronger Identification Spells than the Identify Spell, Claudine answered his question. If you want to be completely sure about being able to identify something you should get the Spellscroll Complete Identification.

Oh? Jay thought, where can I get that?

Probably at the Magician's Guild, but I don't think this town's Magician's Guild has any of those Scrolls. They are quite rare and very expensive. You may need to go to a larger city and find one of the Magician's Guild Headquarters if you want to buy the Complete Identification Spellscroll. And another thing, you don't learn the Spell from that Scroll, it is only possible to use it to identify one thing, then it burns to ashes.

That doesn't sound as good anymore, Jay thought. How expensive?

I don't know for sure, Claudine said. But a lot more than you have right now. At least 5 white gold coins, probably more.

Jay sighed. It all came down to money, as usual. But white gold coins? He had never even seen a gold coin. And he had to assume the white gold coins were worth more since he had not heard of them before. He sighed again, it seemed he had to wait some more before he could know everything about the ring.

A ringing sound rang out inside Jay's head, and a window popped up, telling that Bluth was trying to talk to him. Jay pushed the answer button.

“Hey, Jay,” Bluth's voice came out inside Jay's head. “Come to my place and have a look at the things I've taken out for you.”

“Great, I'll be right there,” Jay answered, and their conversation, short as it was, ended.

He started running, hurrying to get to Bluth's store as fast as possible, only to save as much time as possible.

Ignoring his surroundings he once again thought about the Black Ooze. He was really eager to try and kill it. He had to try it quickly, if only to know if he could kill it at his Level or if he should give up and go kill lots of small critters outside the town walls. He had to hurry to get stronger, if Bluth was Level 66, maybe his competitors also had those kinds of Levels. He didn't want to meet any of his competitors while being so low Level himself.

- - - - - - - -

Jay went into Bluth's store, ignoring the shelves of random stuff and went up to the counter where Bluth stood.

“So, where's my stuff? Found some good equipment for me?”

“I took out all that I had, and some things I thought you might need,” Bluth said, a slight smile on his face. Jay felt wary again. That smile only meant one thing, Bluth was going to squeeze him dry. “Follow me to an inner room. I've already lined everything up for you.”

Jay followed Bluth into a room behind the counter. The large room was at least ten meters in length and four meters in width. It was a plain room, gray wooden boards covered floor, walls and ceiling. In the middle of the room was a very large table with a white tablecloth. The table covered the entire room except about half a meter on each side against the wall. At best you could barely walk around the table.

On one part of the table lay two enormous sacks made from some rough-spun brown cloth. The sacks were taller than a person, and several times wider. “What's in those large sacks?”

“You said you wanted traveling biscuits for two silver coins. That's the amount of bread you get for one silver. I couldn't bring myself to buy more. Seeing those two sacks, you should not need more, right? My question is, can you even carry them?” Bluth seemed like he was laughing on the inside, his eyes shone with a brilliance that was impossible to cover up. He seemed very pleased with himself.

“Thanks? I guess,” Jay said. He really hadn't thought things through, it seemed. He had only wanted more food than he could eat in a couple of days, but this amount would last him weeks. “The food isn't important. Have you gotten me the rest on my list?”

“Yep,” Bluth motioned to the place behind the large sacks filled with traveling biscuits. “Here you go. Thirty torches.” He pointed at a sack from which thirty torch-heads stuck out. He pointed to four rows of ten bottles, corked with a simple wooden cork. “Fifteen liters of lamp oil, 12 of which I poured inside these forty ceramic bottles which hold 0.3 liters lamp oil each. I then filled this wooden barrel with the remaining 3 liters of lamp oil.” Bluth took a breather, seemingly out of breath, but continued after the slight pause. “Twenty meter of cloth rags as wide as my hand.” He pointed to four rolls of gray-white strips of rugged cloth. Then his finger went to a stack of boxes. “Ten boxes of match-sticks. And here's a sturdy backpack and the leather belt I found for you have 6 pouches. I hope that's enough.” Bluth continued pointing to a leather backpack without any pockets on the outside. It was pretty much a soft leather bag with shoulder-straps and a way to cover up its opening. “I want 10 silver coins for the lot. I got the things a bit cheaper than I thought, and I also only bought traveling biscuits for 1 silver coin.”

“Great,” Jay said. He could see his plan unfolding in his mind. He only hoped the oil would create flames strong enough to actually burn the Black Ooze until it died. He couldn't really spend more money than what he had already spent now. It wouldn't be worth it no matter how much benefit he got from killing the Boss if the cost for killing it was too large. “And the equipment you wanted to show me? And the rope, where is the rope?”

“Patience,” Bluth said, walking up to another orderly pile of things in the middle of the table. “These are the things I recommend you buying, how about it? Would you let me tell you about why you should buy them?”

“Sure,” Jay felt like he was walking on thin ice. Everything was going according to Bluth's pace, but Jay couldn't and didn't mind. Bluth seemed to be trying to rope him in, so Jay wanted to see where Bluth's schemes went. “What is it you want me to buy?”

“Here, have a look,” Bluth said, picking up two pieces of rope no longer than his hand. “These are two different kinds of rope. This costs 1 iron coin per meter,” Bluth showed a brown rough rope thicker than his finger. “It is a good rope, and can easily hold your weight, but it isn't very easy to use with the Magic Rope Spell. You got that, right?”

“Yeah, I got it, haven't used the Spellscroll yet, though.”

“Okay, good. This other rope,” Bluth showed a silvery white glossy rope that was at most a tenth of the width of the brown rope. “This rope is the highest quality rope I have. It is made from Giant Spider Silk braided together in a manner that makes it very strong; this rope could most likely hold the weight of more than fifty people, but the greatest thing is that it is very light and extremely compatible with the Magic Rope Spell. The rope is also extremely durable. I don't even think you could cut a single silken strand on the rope with your knife.”

Jay was exasperated. He had been right. Bluth wanted to sell something expensive to him. “How much is it?” he dully asked.

“1 silver coin per meter,” Bluth said, seeming almost proud of the exorbitant price he stated. “I only have about seventy meter left of this rope. And I have never seen anyone selling it. Not even in the Trade Auction.”

One silver coin per meter. Jay needed twenty meter of rope. It was too expensive. “Come on, make it a bit cheaper? I'm buying a lot from you right now, can't you give me a better price?”

“Not really,” Bluth said. “The rope is very rare, and it is in limited supply. Why would I not try and get as much as possible for it?”

“There really isn't any way to lower the price?” Jay asked, hoping for the slim chance of actually getting a better deal. “I need 20 meter rope, and 20 silver coins is a large chunk from my total amount of money.” He really wanted a great rope. A good rope would never be useless. “We can't make some sort of deal trading favors or something?”

Bluth stroked his chin, the gray stubble rasping in the silence. “We could do that. But in such a deal, what I want isn't negotiable, you either agree or don't, no haggling. How much money do you want to redact from your total cost?”

“For the rope and the essential things I've already seen, so, 30 silver coins,” Jay said.

“Hm, 30 silver coins, not a large amount of money for me, but a lot for you,” Bluth said. “For 30 silver coins I want you to come to me with all your loot until you reach Level 50. I also want you to use a Map-pad and record your surroundings when you venture outside the town or into a dungeon. Then let me copy the data into my Map-pad when we meet.”

“What's a Map-pad?” Jay asked. The deal didn't seem bad, he had already begun using Bluth as his first go-to-guy when it came to buying or selling anyway. So, that condition didn't matter much. But Jay didn't know what a Map-pad was.

“It's a tool,” Bluth said. “It's an item you have to Bloodbind. This way it can't be stolen from you. When using it, so long as you keep it outside your body it sends out an invisible spherical pulse, scanning your surroundings once every second or so. It then stores data about what creatures or monsters you encounter, creating a simplistic map showing where specific monsters have their habitats. I want to use you to scout out things, and then give me the information so that I can make maps and sell those. There aren't much information available about where which monsters are. And there aren't many good maps either. But I have the Sub-Profession of Scribe and can create rudimentary maps with the few Cartographer Skills I've got from being a Scribe.”

“That sounds fair enough,” Jay was elated, and suspicious. Once again Bluth seemed to be offering a deal he could not refuse. Jay could only go along with it. For some reason he felt like he had been dancing on Bluth's palm from the first time he entered Bluth's store.

“Good,” Bluth said. “You're the seventh person to make this deal. It was really worth it to help you out in the beginning. Finding people to work for me brings me greater profits in the long run.”

“Yeah,” Jay sighed, he couldn't disagree with the statement, but couldn't afford to pass it up either. If he could do something fairly simple in exchange for paying with his limited amount of money, then it was worth it. “I'll work for you, just give me fair market prices for what I sell you, and we're all good.”

“Of course,” Bluth said. “If you're happy to work for me, you'll work both more efficient and with more drive. Let's just get this deal down on a Bloodbinding Contract and we'll be settled.”

Gulping, remembering the fearsome consequences of breaking such a Contract, Jay only nodded. It was still worth it if he could save some money this way. Maybe he could get some better equipment then.

From his Inventory, Bluth brought out a white paper that had intricate and beautiful geometric silver patterns going all around its edges. Then Bluth took out a golden pen, its nib black as coal, and started writing down clauses on the paper.

2015-11-29T22:36:00.000+01:00

Chapter 15 Beginning of a Foundation

Wondering how long he had to wait, Jay felt it best to spend his time productively. He opened the gray book, looking for any Spells or Skills he might want, but mostly for the ones he had already chosen. Even though he had already told the man he wanted to buy those, he needed to have a look at their description before making the final decision.

Before long, he found one of the Spells he wanted. The book read,

Magic Rope Spell

By using Mana to reinforce the inner structure of a rope suited for this Spell you can move the rope. With high enough Spell Level you can move the rope as if it was an extension of your own body.

Mana consumption varies according to rope weight and type, and Spell Level.

Hm, simple enough, Jay thought. The Magic Rope Spell seemed like it had really good potential. If he could learn how to manipulate a rope well enough he might be able to use it to snare monsters in the future.

Haste Skill

By enhancing your legs' inner workings you gain the ability to use your Mana to increase your Movement Speed by a minimum of 5%.

Haste can be interrupted if you are attacked.

Haste can evolve into Great Haste if the requisite Skill Level and Attributes are obtained.

It seemed like Haste also had great potential, though only if you used it enough, which wasn't something Jay was certain he would do, but it didn't hurt to have the Skill right now since he didn't have any Skills for increasing his Movement Speed.

He continued looking through the book. But before Jay could find another of the Skills or Spells he had chosen, the grumpy man walked into the room again holding a tray; on it lay four straps of some braided leather, a little brown bottle with a long tube protruding from its neck, two even smaller bottles, one dark red and one black, a wide piece of thin black cloth with two weird circular patterns embroidered on it, and a scroll made from yellow parchment.

“You're back too soon,” Jay said. “I didn't have time to read through all the Skills and Spells I chose. Would you mind waiting until I'm done?”

“No,” the man said. “Let's do this now. You'll have time to read the book when you integrate the Skills into your body. Which would you like to get first? Maybe the Spellscroll? It won't need your Mana because it's already infused with the Mana needed to learn it. Or maybe Haste? It takes 1600 Mana before you've gained the Skill. That will give you some time to read while you infuse the Construct with the 1600 Mana.”

“Ehm?” Jay said, confused. He didn't know what the man was talking about. “What do you mean by that?”

“You'll see. It's easier to just show you than actually explain,” the man said, his gruff voice becoming slightly angry. “I don't have time for your dawdling, choose what you want to do now, or go downstairs to read about whatever you want to learn.”

“Fine,” Jay said, knowing it wouldn't be a mistake to getting Haste at first. “Let me get the Skill Haste first, you said something about infusing Mana? How do I gain the Skill?”

“Here, look at these,” the man showed Jay four leather straps braided in a complex pattern. When he looked closely, Jay could see that there were small dark red geometrical patterns repeated on the leather strips; it looked as if the patterns were tattooed into the leather. “We strap these around your calves and thighs. Then you infuse 400 Mana into each belt-strap with your Mana Manipulation and the straps will restructure the inner parts of your legs, giving you the Skill Haste. Easy enough, right?”

“Easy enough, true,” Jay said. “Is that how you get all Skills? It's a bit different from Spellscrolls, but it seems too easy. Can I learn any Skill that way? I just need to infuse Mana into the correct Construct and I gain the Skill? Seems too easy.”

“Not all Skills can be learned with Constructs, and anyway, Haste is one of the least taxing Skills to learn,” the man explained. “To learn the more powerful Skills you'll need a high enough Strength, Dexterity, Endurance and Vitality to be able to learn and use the Skill. If you try to learn a Skill you don't have the Attributes for you'll cripple yourself. And if you can't heal your crippled body, you'll suffer greatly. Your Stats will be reduced and your Skills will either be impossible to use or greatly reduced in efficiency. Now, I've explained enough. Choose! I don't have time for this. Do you even know how many people come through here in a day?” the man started muttering in a low voice. Jay couldn't hear what was said, but the tone spoke volumes about how aggrieved the man felt.

“Okay, okay...” Jay said. “Let's do this. In which order would you get the Spells and Skills? To be most efficient with your time.” Jay felt a bit sorry for the fellow now. However gruff and unpleasant the man was, it had to take its toll to always have newbies come and ask questions they could read about in the book.

“Oh,” the man said, looking up. The corner of the man's lips twitched, but stilled a moment later. “I'd get the Skills in this order. First, get the Null Presence: Scent, because you need to infuse 600 Mana into your lungs in one breath without exhaling, and it will be easiest to do that when you have full Mana. Second, I would get the Haste Skill, because you wanted some time to read the gray book, and I can go do something else until you're done infusing the Mana to get that Skill. Third, either Scope Sight or Nightsight; they both make it impossible for you to use your eyes while you're infusing Mana into the Construct that gives those Skills, so you can't read the book while you get those Skills.”

“Null Presence: Scent?” Jay asked. He thought the Skill he was getting was Null Presence, but the man said something slightly different. “Wasn't the Skill's name Null Presence?”

“Yes, but the complete Null Presence Skill is a Composite Skill, and is made up from many different more specific Skills. One of which we sell here at the Beginner's Guild, the Null Presence: Scent Skill. It gives you the ability to mask your scent and breathe out a menacing cloud of smoke that creatures with a lower Level than you will feel threatened by, which makes them unable to find the courage to attack you.”

“Okay... thanks for the explanation, even though you said you didn't have time for explanations, it's nice of you. What about the Spellscroll?” Jay asked. The man hadn't mentioned those.

“Unimportant. Just take the Spellscroll and read it whenever you have time,” the man said, laying down the tray, only holding on to the brown bottle with a long tube protruding from its neck. “Here, smoke this,” the man motioned toward Jay with the tube coming out of the brown bottle. “Hold your breath after you've inhaled the fumes and infuse your lungs with 600 Mana using your Mana Manipulation.”

Jay was a little puzzled, but took the brown bottle, putting the tube in his mouth and drew in a deep breath. As he inhaled, the brown bottle turned bright red, the tube glowed with silvery white inscriptions, and a feeling of scorching pain spread in his chest; but in a second the pain dulled, turning into the feeling of having a million ants crawling inside his chest. It was disturbing.

He closed his eyes, focused his thoughts on his lungs, activated Mana Manipulation and sent a thick torrent of translucent white Mana into his chest-area. As he did, he felt his Mana drain quickly, dulling the itchy feeling. And in another second he had used over 600 Mana, but since he could infuse more, he thought it was a good idea to keep infusing more Mana. It couldn't be a bad idea to try and get as much out of the fumes he had inhaled as possible. The itchy feeling turned into a numb feeling and soon he couldn't hold his breath anymore; he breathed out after using a bit over 900 Mana. Ping!

By incorporating the fumes from several different herbs with your own Mana and body you have changed the structure of your lungs, making your lungs able to produce fumes that can scare lower Level creatures and make it difficult for creatures that track by scent to find your trail.

You have learned the Skill 'Null Presence: Scent'

“Good,” the old man said. “That's the first Skill learned. Now the Haste Skill,” the man lay down the brown bottle and picked up the four leather straps. Jay now noticed they looked like thin belts, with a clasp of some brown wooden material. “Here, let me put these on you.” The man bent down and with quick, skilled hands, fastened the four leather straps on Jay's legs. It felt a bit weird, but Jay didn't have time to squirm because the straps were pulled tight in less time than it took Jay to actually feel what was happening. It seemed the grumpy man was actually quite strong as well. Jay didn't seem to meet anything but strong people. Once more, he felt that he needed to get stronger quickly. Only power would make him feel less like a hunted animal, and more like he was in control.

“Use four threads of Mana with your Mana Manipulation and touch the buckles of each leather strap,” the man said. “The Construct will pull your Mana out of you until you've gotten the Skill. I'll leave now. Just ring the bell when you're done and I'll come back.” The man pointed to a small bronze bell hanging on the door that Jay hadn't noticed earlier.

“Thanks,” Jay said, directly using his Mana Manipulation to do as the man had said.

The four strands of Mana Manipulation touched the four buckles and an abnormal suction sprang forth, feeding on Jay's Mana in a rapid pace until his Mana bottomed out, leaving him without any Mana at all. Jay could only use the Mana he gained from his Mana Regeneration now. He left the chair and sat down on the floor, positioning himself to start Meditating to get a higher amount of Mana Regeneration.

But before he started Meditating, he brought out the gray book and put it in his lap so he easily could look at it while moving only his hands slightly, making it possible to keep up the Meditation and read at the same time. He flipped through the book again, searching for Nightsight and Scope Sight, and he found one quickly,

Nightsight Skill

By infusing your eyes with Mana your Visual Acuity is increased when the environment around you is dark enough. However, if used in too bright a place the Skill will decrease your Visual Acuity, making you feel Blinded.

Interesting, Jay thought. This Skill could be useful, but I'll only know that when I've tried it out. But this is another Skill with potential to grow into something really useful. Are all the Skills and Spells from the Beginner's Guild like these?

No, Jay, Claudine promptly answered. All Skills and Spells hold great potential if used correctly and often enough. It is best to not use too many different Skills or Spells if you want to excel in any of them.

You're right, Jay thought back to Claudine's insightful comment. Thanks Claudine, I'll remember that. I need to prioritize training the Skills and Spells that seem most useful to me.

Jay kept infusing Mana into the leather straps, not keeping track of how much Mana he used; he didn't care if he used too much Mana since he needed time to find out about the last Skill he had already chosen, and maybe find a few more Skills or Spells to learn.

Flipping through the pages, a little time later he found the last Skill he had chosen,

Scope Sight Skill

By focusing Mana into one of your eyes while closing the other, your eye doubles its Visual Acuity and makes it possible to focus your sight as if using a telescope.

Beware! This Skill makes it possible for you to lose focus on your surroundings. Use with caution.

The two visual Skills seemed like they would be useful; being as cautious as possible was something he truly strove for, it was his only way feel reasonably safe. Hm, Scope Sight might be really good actually, he thought. If I use Scope Sight and my home-made Fling Shot Spell I will be able to shoot things accurately from a greater distance. Nice!

Yes, Jay, Claudine said. Combining Spells and Skills is a way to increase their efficiency and usefulness.

Jay didn't take the time to comment on the obvious statement from Claudine. He knew that if he could use his Spells and Skills in synergy he would improve his attack and defense power greatly. How he could use his Skills and Spells with each other, though, was something he had to figure out by trial and error.

Oh, he thought. I almost forgot. Jay went back to the first page of the gray book and began a more in-depth study of each Skill and Spell. He had to find a better Skill to use instead of his Observe Skill; it was letting him down too often lately.

It didn't take long before he found what he was looking for,

Identify Spell

By using your eyes as the information source, connecting to the Watchers' Great Library with your mind, your Mana imprints your mind with insight into the properties of whatever you try to Identify.

The possibility to Identify something is wholly dependent on how your Level and Perception compares to the item you're trying to Identify.

The Identify Spell is only able to Identify items of Relic class and lower.

Even though the Identify Spell wasn't as great as he had hoped when he first read the name, Jay figured it would still be much greater than his Observe Skill.

Hastily going through more pages, Jay found no more really interesting Skills or Spells. The Detect Danger Skill was only able to give hints about when a creature showed its hostility. And if he was close enough to have a creature show hostility, wasn't it too late to care about how dangerous it was? He could just use Observe and get an inclination about how dangerous the creature was. It wasn't a Skill worth spending money on.

The Detect Trap Spell was even worse. Jay started reading through the description, but stopped when he read that it only showed a slight distortion in the air where there was a trap, but only if the trap was made by someone on a Level below Jay's own. That meant the Detect Trap Spell could at most let him avoid traps that wouldn't insta-kill him. What he needed was a way to detect traps that would be lethal, not those that he could survive. But he couldn't find such a convenient Spell or Skill in the whole gray book.

“Pssshhh,” sounded out in the room. A burnt smell wafted up from Jay's legs. He looked down and saw that the leather straps had begun smoking and was quickly disintegrating into ash.

Maybe I should have stopped infusing Mana after I reached 1600 Mana? Jay thought. He had no idea how much Mana he had infused in the leather straps, but it must have been more than 1600 Mana, since he had taken a fairly long time to read through the gray book. He hoped he didn't have to pay for the Magic Construct.

As the last bit of the leather straps turned into ash a sound rang out in Jay's mind. Ping!

By creating new paths for Mana to flow inside your legs, enhancing their inner structure, you have increased your ability to move your legs in hurried bursts of speed.

You have learned the Skill 'Haste'

Jay felt sorry for destroying the magic Construct that gave him Haste, and hoped that that was how it was supposed to be. Standing, he went up to the door and rang the bell.

A minute or so later the grumpy man came back. “Took your time, didn't you?” he asked, looking at Jay's legs. “Where are the straps?”

“Ehm...” Jay said, now knowing they weren't supposed to turn into ash after all. “They sort of turned into ash when I infused Mana into them.”

“What do you mean?” the man asked, anger clearly showing on his face. “Those straps had more than ten uses before they were spent. What did you do to them? You haven't tried to steal them, have you? They aren't worth anything after you've used them once. Just bring them out and we'll have no trouble.”

“Sorry, can't do that,” Jay said. “The straps turned into ash, I'm not lying.”

“Then you'll have to pay twenty times the amount for Haste since you've broken the Construct before it should have been spent,” the man said, growing more disgruntled with every word. “You won't have any trouble paying, right?”

“Why?” Jay asked. He didn't want to spend more money than he had to, but he couldn't refute that he had broken the Magic Construct that gave Haste. “Please let me off the hook, I didn't mean to destroy the leather straps. It was an accident.”

“So what?” the man asked. “You destroyed them before they should have been used up. So you're responsible. Pay up, or else...”

Jay really didn't like how the man ended that sentence. He felt a slight oppressive force in the air all around him. “Or else what?” he just had to ask...

“If you can't pay you'll work here until you've paid enough. And if you leave, you die,” the old man said, the normally grumpy face turned placid, looking all the more grim because it held no emotion.

“Fine... fine, I'll pay,” Jay said. He knew that the Spells and Skills from the Beginner's Guild were cheap anyway, so he hoped the price wasn't too large. “Is that why you haven't told me to pay you yet? You want to rope in workers for this place?”

“Of course,” the man said. “I don't want to work here. If I can get someone to be forced to work here, I can do something else.”

“Ehm, okay?” Jay was a bit confused. “Anyway, it doesn't matter, I'll pay, okay? I also want the Identify Spellscroll.”

“Sure, here you go,” the man said, taking out a scroll from the inside of his loose right sleeve, tossing it on the tray on the floor where the other Spellscroll lay. “It's one of the most popular Spellscrolls. I always keep one or two on me just in case someone needs one. Now, the last two Skills, which would you prefer first. Nightsight or Scope Sight?”

“Is it possible to get both at the same time?” Jay asked. He had spent too much time here already. More than an hour had passed already, and he believed Bluth would contact him very soon about the new equipment and items for killing the Black Ooze. He had not thought it would take this long to get the Skills he wanted, but it felt worth the time since they would improve his over-all basic performance.

“No, you can only get one of the visual Skills at once since they both use eye-drops as a medium to create the Magic Construct inside your eye and on your eye's lens,” the man said. “Do the Scope Sight first, it's quicker. After you've taken the eye-drops, you only need to infuse 400 Mana into your the eye you want the Skill in.”

“Great, then I can get it right away. I'll soon have more than 400 Mana again.” Jay was really glad his Mana Regeneration was high enough to Regenerate his Mana at least quickly enough for him to not have to wait for a long while. He could only imagine how long it would take for Warriors or other fighter Professions when they wanted to get a new Skill. Since they didn't focus on Mana their Mana Regeneration would be very low and it would probably take more than ten times as long for them to infuse the Magic Constructs with Mana.

“Fine,” the man said, bending down, taking the dark red vial from the tray and opening the cork. “Sit down and lean back your head. Close one of your eyes and force the other to stay open with your fingers. I'll put a few drops of liquid in the eye after that and then you just need to infuse 400 Mana into the surface of your eye. Understand?”

“Yes,” Jay said, sitting back on the chair, leaning his head back, looking up into the ceiling. After he closed his right eye and forced his left eye to stay opened by pushing away his eye-lid with his fingers, he waited. The wait was not fun, the anticipation getting some weird liquid in his eye wasn't a great one. It felt like it took longer than it should have before the man's hand came into view, holding a small pipette, dropping the transparent red liquid into Jay's eye.

It felt cold, nothing more. Jay's vision blurred and turned darker. Quickly, he used Mana Manipulation to infuse the liquid with his Mana with almost 400 Mana; and as he did, a sharp chill penetrated his eye, burrowing itself into his head with a 'thud-thud' sound permeating his head as the cold seeped deeper into his skull. It didn't feel unpleasant, only weird. Soon, he had used 400 Mana and his vision cleared quickly, the dull chill disappearing as if it had never existed. Ping!

Your left eye, by being integrated with a crystalline substance, has remade its inner and outer structure slightly, making it possible for you to use your left eye as a telescope when your right eye is closed.

You have learned the Skill 'Scope Sight'

“Good,” the man said. “Now only the Nightsight Skill is left. You will need to infuse your eyes with 1200 Mana each before the liquid Construct reorganizes the structure of your eyes. That will take some time, and I don't want to wait, so before you get the Skill, pay me for these Skills and Spells. The price is one silver coin because you destroyed the Haste Construct.”

“Seriously?” Jay asked. He knew the Skills and Spells wouldn't cost more than a few iron coins each from their descriptions and because he was lower than Level 20. “That feels a bit steep. Can't you give me a better price?”

“One silver coin, or ten days of work here. You choose,” the man said, shrugging. “You destroyed something that would make us more money. You've taken up my time needlessly with all your questions. And most importantly, I say it's 1 silver coin, so that's the price. Take it or leave it. You're not leaving here before compensating us.”

Wow, Jay thought sarcastically. Why does it sometime feel like the game itself is against me?

I don't know, Claudine chimed in. Maybe you angered God?

Say what? Jay was startled. Angered God? How? When? No, wait... How? Is there even such a thing, and if so, why would it be against me?

I don't know, Claudine said, not elaborating on her weird comment.

Okay? Jay thought. He didn't know what that was about, but could it really be possible for the game itself to make things more difficult for him? No... that couldn't be possible, right?

Maybe, Claudine said, once again not elaborating.

Thanks... Jay thought, discontinuing that disturbing line of thought, and said, “Fine, I'll pay. Here.” He gave the man a silver coin from his Inventory. “Now let's do this. I want the Nightsight Skill so I can leave this place.”

“Thank you for your patronage,” the man said, his lips slightly twitching at their corners. “Now I'll put two drops into both your eyes and then cover them with this black strip of cloth. Use your Mana Manipulation to funnel Mana through the patterns in the cloth and into your eyes. Do you understand?”

“Yes, yes, let's get on with this,” Jay was feeling a bit cheated, but couldn't complain. There was no choice but to pay, because he really didn't want to spend a lot of time inside the Beginner's Guild working for nothing. He also didn't believe he had the ability to leave the Beginner's Guild without paying with his meager power. Once again, it all came down to that, he had to get more powerful if he wanted to have more options.

“Good, just relax and lean back your head again. You can close your eyes after I've put the drops of liquid in your eyes this time. This time it doesn't matter as much as the Scope Sight Skill Construct if you keep your eyes open or not. It's better if they are open though, the liquid can spread more evenly. But do as you wish.”

Jay pulled open his eye-lids with both his hands and waited for the drops to land in his eyes. Moments later his left eye was filled with a black liquid, blocking out all light. A second later his right eye was also blinded. There was no feeling of discomfort, or of anything at all, actually. It felt like he didn't have eyes anymore. A strange feeling.

Then the black cloth was laid on his face, covering his eyes. He started infusing Mana through the black cloth into his eyes. With the flow of Mana, his sensation of having eyes slowly came back. While lying there, he tried getting into the right mindset to Meditate and soon he was feeling the effects of Meditation, speeding up his Mana Regeneration. Without Meditation it would have taken more than an hour for his Mana Regeneration to pour 2400 Mana into his eyes, but now it wouldn't take as much time. Ping!

Your eyes have become accustomed to seeing through darkness with the infusion of a dark liquid substance that can be activated with Mana to create more light-sensitive eyes.

You have learned the Skill 'Nightsight'

Previous Chapter - Next Chapter

2015-11-22T21:53:00.002+01:00

Chapter 14 A Difference in Experience

It didn't take long before Jay realized the pants he had just put on didn't suit him. With every step his legs moved erratically, as if both encumbered by weight and hampered in his coordination. Observe. He looked at his new pants.

Lesser Chitin Plated Leather Legs (Leg armor) (5490g)

Defense: 16

Durability: 37 / 38

Movement Speed: -5%

Flexibility: -10%

Leather leggings covered with chitin plates from a Beetle to increase its defense.

Requires 50 Strength to use.

Requires 30 Dexterity to use.

Seems like I've been given something I can't really use, Jay thought.

Yes, Jay, you should only use equipment that you can fully utilize in accordance to your Stats, Claudine said.

Why didn't I think of that? Jay thought to himself.

How would I know? Claudine asked. I can't answer unasked questions or guess what you've never thought. It's an impossibility. I think that what you haven't thought of would be an infinite amount of things. It would take up an eternity to guess all that. Claudine paused, saying nothing for a few seconds, then continued. What didn't you think about?

Now that I've got some money I should get equipment that suits me, Jay answered. The best things he could think about getting was some things that would increase his Wisdom and Intelligence. He turned around, intending to walk back into Bluth's store. The best person to ask about equipment was Bluth.

Oh? Claudine said. That was the 127th guess I thought of.

The 127th guess? Jay was stunned and stopped moving. What was Claudine doing? Was it possible that she really tried to answer his random thoughts and questions? Was that why she sometimes became quiet for a long time after he thought things to himself? Jay found it very strange. Claudine, when I think of things, do you try and give me an answer to every question I have thought?

Yes, Claudine said, a happy note in her voice. That is my purpose.

Jay had never thought of that possibility. Claudine, that can't be efficient, right?

No, guessing never is, too many possibilities and variations of possibilities exists within guesswork, Claudine said, the lecturing tone she used when talking for a long time was back. It isn't easy to think of everything, you know. It is practically impossible.

Then why do it? Jay asked, curious about the inner workings of Claudine's 'mind'.

I function through your commands, Claudine explained. I can only do as I'm instructed.

Then you shouldn't spend so much time on my idle thoughts. If you have to answer all my random questions it would make you unable to even process what's more important. From now on, don't spend more than a few minutes on any question I ask. If you can't come up with a definite answer or you think for too long about something, just ask me what I meant by the question or stop thinking about it until I state a more specific question relating to the subject. Jay wasn't sure if those commands would improve Claudine's inner workings, but he had to give it a try. Claudine had helped him several times already, and if she could become more optimized he would be able to get more assistance from her.

Yes, Jay, I'll only spend 4 minutes at most on any question from now on, Claudine said. And thank you, I was getting a headache from having all those random inquiries looping at the back of my mind without an end in sight.

What? Jay thought. Had he truly been cluttering up Claudine's mind and functionality? How come he hadn't been told about such a thing? He had too many questions that he couldn't answer, but it didn't matter much right now. Now that he knew Claudine's information processing patterns was something he could control he had to spend some time to try and figure out exactly what the best way of using Claudine was.

What what? Claudine asked back, a faint giggle accompanying the vague question.

Claudine, remind me to ask you about how you work a day after I've killed the Black Ooze, Jay thought. Right now I have to focus on how to kill that boss before anyone else finds it.

Yes, Jay, Claudine said.

Jay went back inside Bluth's store.

“Oh? You're back so early,” Bluth said, smiling at Jay. “Did you forget something?”

“Yes,” Jay said. “These pants you gave me aren't suitable for me and you can have them back. But I had a thought, I need some equipment which suits me. Do you have any items that increase Wisdom, Intelligence, Dexterity or Perception? Wisdom is most important, Intelligence and Dexterity second, then Perception. I'm willing to spend up to 50 silver coins, but only if you have many different kinds of equipment for my current Level which can increase those Stats. I need to get some real equipment to replace this beggar outfit I'm wearing.”

“I have a few things,” Bluth said, closing his eyes with a thoughtful expression on his face. “I need to check the list of things I have in storage. Wait a minute.” A minute passed and Bluth opened his eyes. “I have a few things I was going to put on auction in the Auction Space, but if you're willing to buy them I'll save some time. You said you're willing to spend up to 50 silver coins, does that mean you'll pay that for all the things I have that suits your requirements and Level? We could do such a deal, a small gamble, of sorts.”

“Gamble?” Jay asked, incredulous. “A Merchant, gambling? You're funny.” He laughed at the idea. How could Jay ever believe Bluth was not profiting from such an exchange? “You're obviously making a large profit that way if you say it like that. Just show me the best things and give me a price and then we'll see.”

Bluth smiled at the remark. “Sure, the customer's always right, or some such platitude. To me it doesn't really matter much, I will make a profit either way. I just thought I'd rack up some quick Experience Points from such a deal instead of maximizing my monetary profit. Well, no matter, no matter... maybe I'll just auction off what you don't want and get the Experience that way.”

“Experience? How?” Jay was curious. He hadn't thought of that possibility. He didn't have the perspective of a Merchant. “How do you gain Experience usually? Isn't the best way to go out and hunt creatures and do Quests?”

“Not necessarily,” Bluth said. “I've not hunted anything since Level 16, and that's 50 Levels ago. The greatest amount of Experience I've ever gotten was when I bought this store. I got 1600000 Experience Points from that. It was well worth the two flawed crystal coins I spent. Now I even have a Storage Space for all my things that's not accessible to others and I don't have to have everything I own inside my Inventory. The way Merchants and many other Crafting Professions get their Experience is by using their Profession Specific Skills and Spells.

“For example, I can buy an item in the Trade Auction, tag it with a Merchant Specific Spell and then resell it there. If make a profit I gain Experience Points, if I lose money I lose Experience Points. And for every trade I make with another player or NPC, I get a small amount of Experience Points for each item I sell. There are some restrictions too, but those are minor to me since I only play as a Merchant and have no Sub-Professions of a battling nature. The largest restrictions are that I can't sell more than 10 different items in the Trade Auction at the same time and that I can't use any of the items I tag with my Skill.”

“Interesting,” Jay said. That was something he hadn't thought of. He really needed to get some more information about this game. “It seems a bit exploitable though. What if I agreed to buy something like a piece of rock from you for an extreme amount of money? That way I could give you lots of Experience and money if I was so inclined. Would the trade make you Experience then?”

“It would give me Experience, but there is a Merchant Specific Spell, or maybe it should be called a Curse, that all Merchants are forced to get when they choose this Profession. The Spell is passive and is always on, monitoring every action and trade the Merchant does. The Spell records the Merchant's sales. This information is then collected at the Merchant's Guild and analyzed. If I sold you a rock from the street for a gold coin I would lose in Credibility and if my Credibility is lowered beyond a certain point they would fine me according to the fraudulent sales I've made. Such a fine has to be paid or I would lose my Merchant Profession. And when I pay the fine it would also reduces my Experience. If the fine is 1 gold coin, which is 1000000 copper coins, I would lose 1000000 Experience. All the Stats and Skill Experience I got during those 1000000 Experience would also disappear. That's not worth it.”

“Sounds very intricate. And truly terrifying if you make a mistake with your sales, but the system also makes Merchants very trustworthy when it comes to their sales. Then how much Experience do you get when you sell something? It can't be the same amount as the fines take away, right?”

“You're right,” Bluth said. “Merchants get a specific amount per traded item that's not tagged. With items tagged for resale we get the percentile difference times the amount of silver coins the item sold for. Or something like that. I can't remember exactly how it worked. All I know is that if I make money with my trades I get Experience, and the more profit, the more Experience. It's enough to make it fun.”

“So, the items you want to sell me are not tagged?” Jay thought of how Bluth said he wanted to make some quick Experience.

“They weren't, no,” Bluth said. “But after you choose which ones you want I'll tag those if I haven't used up all my daily Spell tags before that. So, I'll try and make as large a profit as possible now instead of trying to sell many things.” Bluth laughed slightly.

“Seems like I can't win against your business strategies. No matter what you do you'll profit. Truly ingenious. Seems you chose the right Profession at least.”

“You'll profit too. I never sell anything without giving something worth the price. You'll see. I'll bring out the things from storage when I've collected everything else you ordered.”

“That sounds good,” Jay said, remembering why he came back into the store. “I need another pair of pants before that though. I don't have the Stats to use these properly and I can only walk with a staggering gait with them on. Do you have any other, more suitable, pants?”

“Sure, these should do well enough, for now,” Bluth said, taking out a pair of beige rough spun pants from under the counter. “I'll bring a better pair with a Dexterity bonus later for you to see. I don't have any with a Wisdom or Intelligence bonus.”

“Thanks,” Jay said, taking off his plated pants right there, and put on the pants given him. He tried a quick dash to the side. There were no hindrances in his movement. It was good enough, for now. “How long before you have all my stuff ready? I'd like to get them today.”

“That can be arranged. I'll message you when I'm done.”

“Sounds good, thanks for this, I need to go now,” Jay said, smiling a Bluth. He really had found an interesting friend in Bluth. Bluth had a completely different way of playing the game than Jay; it was a way that Jay had never thought of, but now he knew that there was an unimaginable amount of different ways to play the game. And best of all, Jay could see the possibility of a flourishing cooperation between them. He stopped. “You'll have to explain in more detail about how the Merchant Profession works later. Is there any way for us to cooperate and both make a profit? As I'll likely spend most of my time killing creatures to get Experience, I might find some nice item that I can't use, but maybe I could trade it with you for some equally good item that suits me?”

“That sounds fair,” Bluth said. “You can also give items to me and let me sell them in the Trade Auction. Merchants have a discount on the transaction fees in the Trade Auction because it is run by the Merchant's Guild.”

“You just want me to give you some good item when I find it?” Jay asked. “That would mean I completely trust you, and we're not there yet.” He tried to say that in a light tone, as not to offend Bluth.

“No worries,” Bluth smiled, as if he already knew Jay would ask that. “We'll just use a Bloodbinding Contract with whatever terms are agreeable to both of us. Anyone that breaks such a contract will automatically lose 10% of their total Experience Points. It might be worth breaking such a contract for you since you only have a tiny amount of Experience, but not for me, definitely not. I'd lose almost 450000 Experience. It would take days for me to gain that back.”

Jay was speechless. 450000 Experience was 10% of Bluth's total Experience? View Experience.

Experience

(to Next Level)

(% to Next Level)

33695

(4105)

(51.96%)

It seemed like the Experience needed to gain Levels later on would increase exponentially. Once again, Jay had realized how valuable his Available Stats were. He was glad he hadn't been frivolous with them, and that he had first come up with an idea on how to deal with the Black Ooze using his current Stats, Skills and Spells. He almost regretted putting so many Stats into Dexterity when he ran from the Black Ooze earlier, but not really. He'd rather stay alive with some certainty than risk his life without reason.

“Yeah, if such a contract is used, I'd have no problems handing over my items to you,” Jay said after a moment of silence.

“Good,” Bluth said.

“I'll leave now,” Jay said. “See you later.”

“Bye.”

- - - - - - - -

While walking to the Beginner's Guild, Jay brought out the Beginner Spellbook and started looking through it for any Spells he might be able to use for killing the Black Ooze. But before long, he realized that there weren't many other Spells that would be worth their cost. The two Fire Spells he wanted had requirements in Intelligence and Wisdom that was too high. He could spend a few silver coins on cheaper Spells, but it didn't feel right. He had to wait until after he got his new equipment from Bluth before he could decide about new Spells from the Magician's Guild.

Claudine, where can I get Skills and Spells from the Beginner's Guild? Jay asked in his mind, thinking back to his first day in the game, realizing he felt like a different man in comparison to how he was back then. Walking into the Beginner's Guild without feeling feeble was a great thing. It showed him he would grow stronger by doing what he was doing.

This way, Claudine said, pointing a bluish white tendril out in front of Jay.

Thanks, Jay thought, following the tendril until he reached a wide towering round structure with an open stone gate-way leading inside. Above the gateway was a sign with the words 'Beginner's Guild Auxiliary Tower'.

Go to the third floor, Claudine said.

Jay went inside and was met with a gloomy stark room, its walls, floor and ceiling was made of gray stones, a few rows of worn wooden benches was all the furniture inside. People sat scattered all over, standing, sitting, all looking bored, like they were waiting for something. At the side of the room was a door with a sign saying 'Stairs' on it.

Walking up to the door, Jay tried opening it. Nothing happened.

“Hey!” someone said from behind Jay in a slightly loud voice. “You've got to wait in line like everybody else. You can't go up without the correct ticket anyway. Grab one and wait your turn.”

Looking around, Jay saw a little piece of paper with the number 1131 on it sticking out of a box beside the door's handle. He pulled on the piece of paper. It came loose and another piece of paper with the number 1132 replaced it.

Waiting wasn't a problem for Jay, he could sit down and practice his Mana Manipulation and Meditation; it was something he needed to do anyway. He walked away from the door and sat down on the floor in the corner closest to the door, arranging his body, crossing his legs, straightening his back, relaxing, Meditating.

He brought out twenty small pins from his Inventory, laying them before him in an orderly fashion. Beginning his training, he looked at the pins and lifted them one at a time until his Mana was slowly draining. He could hold seven pins in the air at the same time, but it was an effort to move them around at the same time. He felt a headache coming on, like his mind was splitting apart because he tried to use his Mana Manipulation on several things at the same time. But he persevered, if he couldn't use Mana Manipulation on several things at the same time he wouldn't be able to use his other imagined self-made Spell he had came up with when he was sifting through sand earlier. His blinding attack Spell of tossing sand in the eyes of his enemies wouldn't be possible if he couldn't use Mana Manipulation to create a small cloud of sand he could then send into his enemies' eyes.

Swishing around the pins in geometric shapes, time passed by and it became easier and easier to control the pins with practice. The patterns he let the pins fly became more and more intricate.

During his training, number after number was called out until a dispassionate male voice rang out in the room. “1131.” It was finally Jay's turn to go to the third floor and get some new Skills and Spells.

Ascending the stone stairs, Jay thought back to what Bluth had told him. Magic Rope, Haste, Detect Trap, Detect Danger, Nightsight, Scope Sight and Null Presence. Claudine, was there any other things recommended by Bluth?

No, Jay, Claudine said. But you should look at their Skill and Spell information-book just in case. There might be some other useful Spells or Skills to buy.

True, might as well look, Jay thought.

Passing the second floor, which looked like it was some sort of store selling basic equipment and supplies, Jay arrived at the third floor. The room, stark and stony like the rest of the building, was small, and inside it was a stout short man sitting behind a darkened wooden desk. Behind the man was a wooden door leading somewhere deeper inside the building.

“Hello,” Jay said. “Do you have a book or something where I can read about what Skills and Spells you have for sale?”

The stout man's mouth turned down slightly. “Sure, don't take too long though, others are waiting to be helped.” He tossed a thin book clad in some rough gray fabric at Jay.

“Oh? How is that my problem?” Jay asked, catching the thin book, but not really liking the man's tone of voice.

“It isn't,” the man said. “But if you take too long I'll send you down to the waiting room again and you'll have to take another number.”

“Hey, that is my problem then,” Jay said, slightly baffled at the man's weird attitude. “Fine, I'll just get the things I know I want and then look through what other things I might need. Okay?”

“Sure, what do you want?” the man asked.

“I want to know about Magic Rope, Haste, Detect Trap, Detect Danger, Nightsight, Scope Sight and Null Presence. Could you tell me about those, please?” Jay said, repeating the list Bluth had recommended to him.

“I don't have time for that,” the man said, dispassionately. “Just read their description in the book.”

“Not very service-minded here, are you?” Jay said, sarcastically.

“Yeah, yeah...” the man said. “Back down you go.”

“Wait!” Jay said. He didn't want to wait for another hour or more. “Sell me Haste, Nightsight, Scope Sight, Null Presence and Magic Rope.” However he saw it, those already explained enough about themselves with their names and he would most likely not regret buying them.

“Fine, come with me,” the man said, standing up, turning around and opening the door to the inner parts of the building. Jay followed, and soon they were in an even smaller room without anything but a chair in the middle of it.

“Sit down,” the man said. “Wait here while I get the Scrolls and Constructs.” Without looking back, the man left Jay in the room.

“Okay?” Jay said, trying not to have it sound like a question. What are Constructs?

Constructs are Magics created for a specific purpose, Claudine said. Constructs are like a Spell or Skill, but it is suspended in some material until it is activated. For example Spell Scrolls could be considered Magic Constructs, but are usually called Spell Scrolls instead because their configurations are two-dimensional Magic Constructs. Only three-dimensional configurations are called Magic Constructs. A magic weapon that gives its user access to a specific Spell or Skill can be called a modified Magic Construct, for example. Usually, Magic Constructs disappears after one use, though.

Hm, Jay thought. That's good to know, I guess. It seemed he learned something new all the time. And now that he had a little time before the man came back, he opened the book and started reading about the Spells and Skills he hadn't decided to buy yet.

Previous Chapter - Next Chapter

2015-11-15T22:32:00.001+01:00

Chapter 13 To Bargain To Bargain

Fengil brought out the glowing ingot of metal from the Refining Furnace with a long handled tong and lay it on the stone floor. “Look at that. With this metal it will be possible to create a permanently poisoned weapon. I never knew this could be done. Thanks Jay, for showing and giving me these Mana Crystals.”

“No problem,” Jay said. “You helped me, so of course, I'll repay your kindness.”

“Good,” Fengil said. “Then you wouldn't mind selling the Mana Crystals you have, right?”

“What do you offer for one?”

“How about a silver coin each?”

“Too low. It seems to me that these Mana Crystals could be really great crafting items,” Jay said. “How about changing a few fire-rocks for a Mana Crystal?”

“Aw,” Fengil scratched his chin, “come on, those fire rocks cost me 2 silver a piece, and I had to buy a box of fifty for one gold coin to even be able to get them. The Mana Crystals aren't worth that much.”

“You just spent 2 silver for fuel to create that metal ingot,” Jay said, slightly startled at their price. “How are you not willing to trade some for the Mana Crystals if you can use them so easily as fuel?”

“I only use fire-rocks when I experiment with new things. They enhance the possibility of success when smelting. This poisonous iron ingot will become, at most, two smaller weapons. And if I can't sell them for at least 2 silver each, I won't make much of a profit. And if I have to spend 2 silver coins for each Mana Crystal I use to refine poisonous iron, then I wouldn't be able to have any real profit. It isn't good business to do that.”

“Fine,” Jay said. “I'll sell you five Mana Crystals for 4 fire-rocks, how about that?”

“No,” Fengil said, “I can't easily get more fire-rocks. If you want to buy them you need to go to a Dwarven Fort and become familiar with their blacksmiths. And you can only buy five boxes of fifty fire-rocks. After that, you need to present a Superior item that you've crafted to show your worth as a Blacksmith associated with their foundries. If you can't present one, you'll no longer be allowed to buy supplies from them, none whatsoever. Now, do you understand how valuable these fire-rocks are?”

“Sure, they're valuable, but so are the Mana Crystals,” Jay said, wanting to convince Fengil that the Mana Crystals were worth as much as possible. “How difficult would it be to create a Superior Item without Superior ingredients? Let's make a deal. How about I give you the first choice of any special Crafting Items I find before I get to level 40? And you trade me 4 fire-rocks for 6 Mana Crystals?”

Fengil hesitated. “I don't know. It costs almost a gold coin to use the World Vein Transfer if I need to go buy more fire-rocks. I really don't know if it's worth the cost.”

Jay seemed to have hit a nerve. He knew that what he said about Superior Crafting items should hook Fengil. “You know it's a good deal. I already found one Crafting Item you had not seen before, and I'm only level 14 now. It's likely I'll find more good items, and they will all be for you to pick from. Understand, though, this is only if you're able to pay for the Item. I can't go around giving away my stuff. You should know what I'm talking about, being a creator of things yourself. You do it to increase your amount of money. I hunt creatures to do the same. So, let's make this deal, it will benefit us both.”

“Fine... fine,” Fengil said, seeming slightly resigned at having been persuaded. Jay could only assume Fengil had a hard time letting go of the useful fire-rocks, but felt slightly delighted at the idea of having a source of Crafting Items in the future. “Here you go,” Fengil gave four fire-rocks to Jay.

“Thanks,” Jay took the small red rocks, feeling their heat go through his palm, and put them into an empty Inventory Space. Then he brought out six Mana Crystals. “Here. Show or tell me what you created from the poisonous iron later. It will be fun to see what you've created. I would suggest making either arrow heads or daggers. Both of those would be great with poison.” Jay backed away from Fengil until he reached the doorway, touching the frame. “I need to go now. I've got some things to do, but message me when you're done with whatever you're going to create.” Jay left the room, walking out of the Blacksmith's Guild.

“Thanks for the suggestions,” a message from Fengil sounded out in Jay's mind.

“No problem, talk to you later,” Jay sent back.

- - - - - - - -

Some time later, Jay stood outside the Herbalist's Guild's side building, where Hyren worked. He walked into the little stone building, and up to the counter, noticing that no one was here this time either. “Hey, Hyren, you there?” Jay yelled into the interior of the building, hoping Hyren was there.

He knew too little about the Mana Crystals. So, he had to learn about them. And Hyren was the person that Jay felt might know most about what these Mana Crystals were. “Hyren?!” Jay yelled again.

“Yes... yes... just a moment,” Hyren's muddled voice sounded from the somewhere beyond the door leading to the inner building.

Jay waited. Five minutes passed. “Hyren, I've got something interesting here. I need some help with identification. Come on, I know you're there.”

“Yes... yes...” Hyren's voice sounded again, but this time Jay heard that the second 'yes' was definitely closer. “Who are you? Why did you barge in here?” Hyren pushed open a door and with an unnatural lithe speed that belied his withered old face, then came up to the counter in front of Jay. “Never mind, it doesn't matter. Show me whatever you think is worth my time.”

“Here,” Jay brought out a Mana Crystal and gave it to Hyren. “This is a Mana Crystal I found. What can you tell me about it? How much is it worth?”

Hyren wrinkled his eyebrows, looking down on the Mana Crystal. A flash of light flew out of Hyren's eyes, touching the Mana Crystal. “Hm, this is a bit interesting. Created from the body of some sort of Slime, correct? But it's so weak, I can't see any really discernible power fluctuations inside it. Where did you get this? You shouldn't harvest the Crystal before the Slime reaches Level 24 if you want it to be better than average. But this is still somewhat valuable. I want it. Are you selling this? How many do you have? What's your price?”

Jay was taken aback by the torrent of questions. “I have a few. And might be willing to sell. Before that, though, I want to know what Mana Crystals can be used for. It seems they are quite useful and valuable.”

“Useful, yes. Valuable, Mana Crystals usually are, but not these. I can give you 3 silver coins each if you have more than a hundred to sell. I'll give you 2 silver coins and 50 copper coins for anything between 50 and 99 Mana Crystals. And 2 silver coins for any amount less than that. Do you want to sell some to me?”

“Let me think about it,” Jay said, stalling for time to think, jumping for joy in his head. He was rich, finally, he was rich. But he couldn't show his delight on his face and kept a calm expression, trying to show some disinterest in selling. “What are you going to use the Mana Crystals for?”

“I'll create some rudimentary Poison Resistance Potions.”

“That seems useful. How much are the Poison Resistance Potions?” Jay asked, knowing they would be very useful to him when he went to confront the Black Ooze again.

“Five silver coins each. They increase your Poison Resistance by 30 for ten minutes. Want to buy some?”

“Hm,” Jay wanted to buy some, but felt the price was a bit high. “How about trading some Mana Crystals for Poison Resistance Potions and money? I'll give you seventy Mana Crystals for ten Poison Resistance Potions and 140 silver coins. Should be a good enough deal for you, right? I assume the cost of making the Potions is less than what you sell them for.”

“Nah, too expensive,” Hyren said, already turning to walk away.

“Wait,” Jay said, not wanting to let this deal slip away. Hyren could sell him many useful potions, and Jay wanted to make a more lasting impression on Hyren. “How about 6 of those Poison Resistance Potions, 20 low grade Healing Potions and 120 silver. Those low grade Healing Potions aren't very expensive, and I wanted to buy some of those anyway. How about it?”

Hyren stopped moving, turned around and looked at Jay with those piercing eyes that seem to know more than Jay could even fathom. “Fine. I'll do you this favor. But first, tell me, who are you? Why do you know I was here?”

“Ehm,” Jay was startled, had Hyren really forgotten him? Was Hyren a real person or not? Jay was hesitant to ask, either way it would feel strange. “I was here some days ago and gave you a parcel from Bluth. We talked some. But I guess you don't remember. I'm Jay.”

“Ah,” Hyren said, seeming to remember. “Well, why didn't you say so in the first place? Bluth is a friend, he helps me find lots of useful things.”

“You're right, I should have opened with that,” Jay said. He felt hopeful that Hyren would remember him this time. Especially since Jay had sold Mana Crystals to him. “Here are my seventy Mana Crystals.” Jay spread out the small Mana Crystals on the counter, giving them to Hyren.

“Good,” Hyren said, taking the Crystals. “Wait here a while, I'll go get your things.” Hyren left the room through the door he had entered from earlier, leaving Jay feeling baffled. Had Hyren just taken his stuff without giving him anything in return?

Jay waited for Hyren to return, hoping he hadn't been robbed.

Five minutes passed. “Hyren?! Where are you? Come pay me for the Mana Crystals.”

Five more minutes passed. Desperation began filling Jay. Had he really been cheated by an NPC? What was this? “Hyren! Come back here with my Mana Crystals,” he yelled at the door.

Just as Jay had had enough and began thinking of infiltrating the inner building, the door behind the counter opened and Hyren walked out, bringing with him a tray with twelve stacks of ten bright silvery coins. Beside the coins lay two coiled ropes with ten thumb-sized round Healing Potion vials stuck to it by a loop of rope. Around each Healing Potion's neck the rope had a knot which seemed like it would be unravelled easily if you pulled at the Potion flask. Hyren had actually prepared a belt to hang the Potions from.

“Here you are,” Hyren said, beaming at Jay with a smile that made Hyren's face more wrinkles than face. “It took some time, but I made the first six Poison Resistance Potions, and have them in a cooling vat inside my Inventory. Just wait a moment, and I'll give them to you too.”

“Oh, that's good.” Jay's relief flashed through his entire body. He had not been cheated. It would have been too cruel of the world to do that to him. He had finally gotten rich, and it would hurt too much if he had actually been robbed by Hyren. Jay knew that Hyren wasn't someone Jay could fight even if he was taken advantage of. Hyren had almost taken a third of Jay's Health with a simple poke to the stomach, and Jay didn't have any illusions about being able to fight Hyren if Jay was cheated. It was something that made him coldly sweat; he could have been cheated without any recourse of reclaiming his Mana Crystals. How had he not thought of that before?

He felt lucky that he hadn't shown the ring to Hyren yet. Jay had wanted to see if Hyren could identify the ring, but now he felt a bit less certain of who he could show the ring to. What if someone wanted it after he pulled it out. It was obviously not an ordinary ring, and he didn't have the power to resist if someone much higher Level than him wanted to steal the ring from him. At best, that would leave him without the ring, at worst, he would die because he owned something someone else wanted even if they had to steal it from him. An unanticipated problem had surfaced.

“How long before I'll get those Poison Resistance Potions?” Jay asked.

“They're done now,” Hyren said, reaching out into empty space and then a deep blue crystal tub with a slowly moving clear liquid inside was brought onto the counter. In the tub was six elongated glass vials with a cork of some grey material. Inside the vials was a darkly green liquid. “Here's the Poison Resistance Potions. After using one, you cannot use another within thirty minutes or else you'll poison yourself. You need to remember that.”

“Huh... Shouldn't that be something you tell customers before they actually buy your Potions?” Jay asked, picking up the coins and draping the rope with Healing Potions around his shoulder. Jay put the coins inside his Inventory Space and was finally relieved; his prospects had now greatly improved.

“Oh... I forgot,” Hyren said. “Well, it doesn't matter.”

It wasn't good that he couldn't chug the Potions and keep his Poison Resistance up during his fight with the Black Ooze. Now he had to figure out when the best timing to use the Poison Resistance Potion was, but the Potions were still very useful, and Jay didn't have any real complaints, even after knowing he could only use one every thirty minutes.

“I guess not,” Jay said, disgruntled. “Thanks for the Potions and money Hyren. I need to go and do some other stuff now. I'll be back later if I get some more Mana Crystals or other items I think you might want. See you later.” Jay turned around, walking out of the small building, not looking back at Hyren. Jay felt slightly aggrieved every time he spoke to Hyren, but it was worth it; Hyren was the only person Jay knew who sold Potions at low prices.

- - - - - - - -

“Hey, Bluth,” Jay said as soon as he entered Bluth's General Store. “I'm here to buy some supplies.”

“Hello, Jay, I'm glad to see you're back,” Bluth said, smiling. He stood behind the wooden counter, at leisure, as usual. “What do you need this time?”

“I have quite the list this time. I hope you have everything I need,” Jay said, smiling back. “And I hope you'll give me a discount on account of me buying so much this time.”

“Well see about that,” Bluth said, smiling even broader, his eyes twinkling with the amusement of a seasoned merchant meeting a novice. “I'm sure you'll be pleased with the price we agree to.”

“Great,” Jay said, but felt a slight hint of something uncomfortable in the pit of his stomach, like the feeling he imagined he would get if he was being stared at by some large dangerous creature. “You've treated me well for as long as I can remember, so I'm sure you're right. I need the following. A twenty meter rope, thick enough to hold my weight, with a metal hook at its end. Thirty torches. Fifteen litres of lamp oil. Forty empty ceramic or glass bottles which can hold at least 0.3 litres and at most 0.5 litres of liquid. An empty barrel that can hold at least 5 litres, but no more than 7. Twenty meter of cloth rags as wide as my hand. Ten boxes of match-sticks. Travelling Biscuits for 2 silver coins. A sturdy backpack. A belt with between six and ten leather pouches which can hold the ceramic bottles. Can you sell that to me? And what do you want for those things?”

“Sure, no problem,” Bluth said. “I have all those things, or at least I can get them within an hour. Should I assume you want the lamp oil in the glass bottles and empty barrel? It will be an extra fee for filling those, but you won't need to pay for something to hold the fifteen litres of lamp oil, so you'll still pay about the same amount. How about twelve silver coins for the lot?”

“Come on Bluth, you can do better than that,” Jay said, feeling out Bluth, trying to get a better price. “None of those things are really that expensive.”

“Fine,” Bluth said, “How about I give you some more things I think you might like?”

“Such as?” Jay was intrigued, he wouldn't say no to something that could improve his survival rate.

Bluth brought out a pair of dark grey pants with segmented chitin plates on it, its hardened outer surface had overlapping plates at the feet, knees and hip. “I'll include these pants in the deal. From the looks of it, you could need some new pants to cover up. You do know you're walking around with almost completely tattered pants, right? You look ridiculous. Be glad you didn't encounter the City Guard, they would have fined you for indecent exposure.”

“Huh?” Jay said, involuntarily, looking down on his legs, only now noticing the burnt remains of his former pants. They were truly ruined beyond all salvation. The pants barely hung together with small threads and patches of burnt cloth. “How did I not notice that?” he said mostly to himself.

“How would I know?” Bluth said. “But you need new pants. It's not a good idea to walk around without your pants. In this game your body is completely the same as it would be in the real world. And though the game is only accessible for those over 18 years old, it still is possible to get into trouble by doing indecent things at the wrong place and time. You shouldn't forget that.”

“Hey? You're a player?” Jay was shocked. He had always been sure Bluth was an NPC; it was actually the only person he had interacted with regularly that Jay had been almost certain was an NPC.

“Ha ha ha,” Bluth laughed loudly. “You thought I was an NPC? Ha ha ha...” Bluth held his stomach, bending over the counter, wheezing in laughter.

“But...” Jay said, trying to reconcile with the fact that Bluth was actually a real person. “But you gave me a Quest. Can players do that? Of course they can, you did. But how?”

“All players can give Quests to other players, but only for up to 1000 Experience Points, and those Experience Points are taken from the players that gives the Quest, so it isn't used frequently.”

“Why did you give me a Quest then?” Jay said, puzzled.

“I did it because you seemed to need some help,” Bluth said, honestly. “I also thought it might benefit me to help you. It's never bad to have more customers.”

“Wow...” Jay was speechless. “How is it that you own a store? What is your Profession? Your Level? Hey, add me as a friend.” Add Friend 'Bluth', Jay thought right after saying that. And as soon as he thought it, Bluth was added to the Friend List.

“Sure,” Bluth still laughed heartily. “I'm a Merchant. Level 66. But back to business, all of those things, plus these pants. And just for the laughs, I'll include this jacket too. It isn't very good, but to you it will be better than what you have.” Bluth brought out a scuffed brown leather jacket with metal studs all across the chest.

“Nice, thank you very much. Tell me when you have the stuff ready for me. I'll go buy some Spells while I wait,” Jay said.

“Oh? What Spells?” Bluth asked.

“Don't know yet,” Jay said. “Just thought I'd go through the Spells I might be able to use from the Magician's Guild and then choose one or two.”

“That might be good,” Bluth said. “But I think you should check out the Spells and Skills at the Beginner's Guild. They have a lot of useful Spells and Skills for a very cheap price. You should really get Magic Rope, Haste, Detect Trap, Detect Danger, Nightsight, Scope Sight and Null Presence. Those are very useful Spells and Skills. They aren't really great at first, but when you use them at the right moment, they are priceless. I've been able to hide from monsters on more than one occasion because I have a high Skill Level in Null Presence. It's also good that you're not over Level 20 yet, because the prices for Spells and Skills rise tenfold after that.”

“Thanks for the info. I need to check that out,” Jay said, now changing his mind on where to go next. He needed to go to the Beginner's Guild and look what they had to offer. “I'll go have a look at that now then. See you later.”

“Sure, just take these pants and put them on while you wait. I'll tell you when I've got all the stuff you need,” Bluth said.

Taking the pants, Jay put them on and walked out of Bluth's General Store, feeling good about his plans for killing the Black Ooze and hopeful that he would get some good improvements in his lacking Spell and Skill department.

Previous Chapter - Next Chapter

2015-11-08T19:47:00.000+01:00

More Chapters?

This question hopefully interest many of you. When I first started this blog, I had a couple of view-count benchmarks that would make me post another chapter in a week; the thing was, though, those benchmarks were reached a lot quicker than I had ever imagined and I posted pretty much all the chapters I had finished editing within the first 2-3 weeks.

Now I've spent some time and built a small chapter-buffer again and have been asked by some about what would be required for me to post more chapters in a week. And my answer is this: I don't know.

It takes me about 10 hours, sometimes more, to finish one chapter from basic story-line to finished edited story-form. And this is when I exclude the time I've spent on world-building and character creation. So, my question to you is this: is there any interest in donating for me to post more chapters every week? And if so, what amount would a chapter be worth?

Since I got some help from Jack Napier with creating a poll I'll put the link here:

Http://goo.gl/BHndNZ

Thanks for voting, no matter what your vote is :)

I probably think donations would be the best way to give me the time I need to write more, but it might also be too early to ask for something like that, and that presumption might put some of you off, but hey, money makes the world go 'round.

I've also had the thought of getting some advertisement on this blog because I would likely get a small amount of money from that; and that money could accumulate until I would be able to take a day off anything else and only focus on writing that day. But this is not something that I feel would be worthwhile—not at the moment at least—and I also don't like how advertisement makes the pages slower to load and more of a traffic burden for those of you that use your phones or other similar devices to read this.

The third option, if I want to make this into something I could spend lots of time on would be for me to take some time off anything else and edit the first volume until it is completed and then sell that on kindle before all the chapters have been posted here. I don't know about this option, it might be good, it might be bad. It might even create a decreased interest in visiting this blog, which wouldn't be a good thing. So, I'd rather not do that; not now, at least.

Right now, one of the most important things, as I see it, is to increase the amount of readers until the amount reaches at least ten times the amount right now. Then, the interest in this story would probably reach a point where even if only a few percent would be willing to finance this, it would still be enough for me to spend 40 or more hours a week on writing. Therefore, I ask you to spread the word if you enjoy reading this story, and help me make this into a success both for your future reading pleasure and my dream of becoming a writer.

I thought I'd at least see what you, my readers, thought of this. So I wrote this rather lengthy post, because, as we all know, in the end, it all comes down to that intangible thing called money. And on that note, some food for thought: what is money, really? Isn't money just a representation of quality work divided by time? Isn't it just the physical representation of time spent by one person in correlation to the value created for others? So, is money the physical representation of work well done?

Well, anyway, as I'm writing this I've been awake for more than 30 hours straight now and am feeling a bit tired; this might be the reason for the last paragraph's slightly philosophical digression.

About how to create the time I need to be able to post more chapters: any input, ideas, or suggestions are more than welcome, and I thank you in advance for your thoughts.