Chapter 52 - Current Events

Before Jiran did any hunting, there was one more very important thing to resolve. With the huge increase in power from his freshly doubled Concentration, he needed to know just how strong his elemental attacks had become. With a layer of Coating on his hand, he created a flame with the smallest amount of mana he could control and his old dumbed-down mental image. A bonfire erupted from his fist, the flames billowing out to nearly triple the size of his body. He immediately cut the flow of mana, glad he had extended his fist and pointed the fire away from his face.

Wooh! Geez, that’s ridiculous. That’s about half of what I could do if I sharpened the image too. And I was even able to use a significantly smaller amount of mana than before I ascended. Which must be due to the boost to Wisdom.

Jiran clicked his tongue then got to work. He spent an entire hour cycling through each of his techniques, blowing through almost five percent of his mana as he familiarized himself with even worse mental images than before. By the end, he was relatively certain he wouldn’t blow himself up with his own magic. Probably.

The worst part about the crappy images is losing almost forty percent mana efficiency. The lengths I have to go through to not kill myself are so lame. I should really work on my defenses so this isn’t an issue. Maybe channeling can help with that!

Let’s see, I remember Micah shooting lightning from a spear. Skandor created wind around himself to move. Channeling is also the skill growers use to grow crops. It seems like a pretty versatile skill, what kind of mental image should I use? Maybe the description will help for once.

Channeling: Project shaped elemental mana from the body

Yeah, didn’t think so. Whatever, I’ll just go with the same fire image I just created.

Unable to restrain his curiosity any longer, Jiran pointed his palm away from his body and activated his new skill for the first time.

“Channeling.”

He felt the skill form the familiar mindlink and connect with his manapool. It pulled a full five percent of his mana from his reserves then shredded it into strings of energy that slithered through small channels in his body.

Where did those come from?!

Jiran watched closely through his aura as his mana flowed through his channels. Along the way, the liquid energy began to rapidly change properties, swelling into a growing heat that didn’t actually burn him. The sensation was similar to taking a sip of hard alcohol. The moment his mana was converted to elemental fire, he lost his usual connection with it—no longer able to divine any sensations as he usually could with a coating on his skin.

Jiran continued to observe through his aura in fascination as his torso began to glow red to match the inner warmth. The mana left his chest and gathered in his arm which shone with the same inner light while his chest returned to normal. Finally, the channels led the fire into his hand where it was released. A tiny ball of flames shot several meters from him to splatter into the grass with a soft sizzle and a hiss of black smoke.

Channeling + 1

Well, that was something. I know I shouldn’t expect much from a level zero skill but that was absolutely pitiful. I could get the same effect from stuffing a bubble of coating with a fire shaping and throwing it. At a significantly lower mana cost to boot! There has to be more I can do with this but I shouldn't waste anymore mana before I find a source of density.

Jiran crouched and put all his strength into his legs. His manabody instinctively responded to his desires by spreading out its pressure across a wide area just before he jumped. His muscles bunched as he pushed them to their new maximum. His feet left the ground with a shout of exertion, and suddenly, the wind was whistling in his ears as he flew thirty meters into the air.

An explosion of laughter erupted from his lungs and a huge grin split his face while he looked down at the tops of the trees far below him.

Incredible! I knew I got stronger but this is amazing!

Reining in his childlike delight, Jiran pushed small puffs of flames from his hands and feet. He spun in a slow circle, looking for food. The glade he woke up in turned out to be a small area surrounded by trees in every direction. The forest spread out for several kilometers before ending abruptly as it ran into grasslands that seemed to stretch on forever.

A perfectly circular forest surrounded by infinite grass? There’s no way that's natural. I don’t see any movement in the forest or grass. Are there no beasts here? I’m not eating those birds if I don’t have to, lower tier meat is disgusting and barely gives any mana, no thanks.

After deciding to check out the unnatural forest’s edge, Jiran dropped back to the ground and jumped repeatedly, enjoying the excuse to test his limits. He crossed the few kilometers of woods in minutes, barely restraining his laughter as he flung his arms through the air currents. Little puffs of air and fire shot from his hands and feet to adjust his long jumps.

Odd, why don’t I fall like a rock the second my manabody is too far from the ground to spread my weight across it? It’s spreading my weight through something in the air, I can almost feel it, what is that?

No matter how hard he tried to ‘see’ what his aura was doing, he failed to discern anything by the time he neared the plains. The closer he got to the beginning of the grassy area, the more he realized something was very wrong with it. The grass didn’t move with the wind like the tree tops were. Every stalk of grass was a perfect duplicate to its neighbor in length and width and his drastically improved eyesight couldn’t spot a single speck of movement from animals or bugs either.

Jiran landed just before the edge of the woods and cautiously approached. The line between trees and grass was even sharper than he first thought, like a perfectly manicured lawn. His aura noticed the invisible wall long before he was able to see it with his eyes.

An illusion?

He ran his palm over the wall. It felt impossibly smooth beneath his fingertips, like finely sanded metal. Jumping high with his hand against the wall, he felt it gradually curving back toward where he woke up. A pervasive feeling of being trapped inside a prison cell crept up his spine as he realized he was within a massive dome.

Some kind of biodome? This place gives me the creeps. Time to get the hell out of here.

Jiran returned to the pedestal with more leaps, each sending him higher than the last as he experimented with Forcing to pull himself upwards as his feet left the ground.

He arrived and placed his palm on the device. He had to push a full five percent of his mana in before it fully activated. Suddenly, a list bloomed in his vision, similar to how Identify showed him the name of the bird earlier. There were only two names on the list.

[Terakouwl Highlands / Meraadom Empire]

Jiran’s breath caught in his throat when he saw the foreign names. While he watched, the name of the Meraadom Empire flickered before it changed to the Finlest Empire. Seeing the familiar name of his home, he released a sigh of relief. A moment later, the Terakouwl highlands changed to the Jeweled Isles.

[Introductory Quest complete!]

[A short trip home: Activate the transference grid.]

[Rewards: A way home.]

I suppose as far as tutorials go, it could have been worse.

[New quest acquired!]

[You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours: Take the transference grid to the Jeweled Isles and reactivate the density absorber node.]

“You know what system, so far all you’ve done is screw with me, manipulate me, and put me in one near-death experience after another. I have absolutely no reason to trust you. Right now, the only thing I’m interested in is finding my friends and family and making sure they’re okay. While I appreciate you giving me a way home, I can’t help but think the only reason you didn’t drop me off back in the desert is because there was a chance I might decide to go running off on some random quest to help you.”

I bet if that place was even remotely safe, I would have been dropped off there to begin with. Could it also have blocked my ability to go home until I restarted its node too? Whatever that means. No, I can’t trust this thing at all.

“I don’t know if you can hear me but I’m going to assume you can. Tell you what, show me that I can trust you, give me some clue, anything, that this mission of yours won’t force me to fight a tier five and restart that timer. Then, and only then, will I consider helping you.”

Jiran waited for thirty seconds and after not receiving any kind of sign or signal, he firmed the selection for the Finlest Empire in his mind.

The pad’s hum increased in pitch at a rapid pace before the sound suddenly vanished as the frequency increased beyond what he could perceive. A line in the air twisted into an oval portal just above the platform. Through it, Jiran could see only darkness.

With one last look over his shoulder, he stepped into the portal and vanished.

Cameron Amyntas

Cameron swiped his hand in front of him in a gesture that looked lazy and uncaring. The offending tree limb that thought it wise to bar his headlong flight through the thick forest exploded in a shower of splinters. He only closed his eyes for a moment as he ran through the airborne splinters before continuing the search for his quarry. For just a moment, he caught the glint of light shining on polished metal and a single lock of golden hair.

“This way!” He shouted as he changed directions slightly.

A dark-haired man appeared beside him and yelled over the rushing wind and sounds of shattered wood. “That girl is a lunatic. She’s going to get us all killed,” The man barked in frustration.

“My apologies, Dordon. We do have protection though, is it really so bad that she’s a bit reckless?” Cameron watched from the corner of his eye as the leader of their party ground his teeth.

“It’s beyond foolish to rely on someone else to save you, no matter what tier they are. That kind of thinking breeds recklessness which will eventually get you, and others, killed.” Dordon snorted before continuing in a more calm tone, easily keeping pace with Cameron. “It was hard enough to convince the others to let your ages slide and bring you both along. This carefree attitude of hers is making me regret my decision, regardless of the deal I made with your father. Whatever it takes, rein her in, please. If the rest of my team gets used to this and grows sloppy, it will get us killed after you two are gone.”

“I’ll do my best.” Cameron sighed heavily before picking up speed while Dordon dropped back to join the others.

Dordon is a great leader, I wish she would learn from him like our parents intended.

Cameron couldn’t help but be a bit disappointed with Olive’s recent recklessness. They needed a full party of five to earn exp toward their next ascension and alienating the only group this far east who would take them in was weighing on his patience.

He caught up to her several minutes later as he burst out of the trees onto the top of a ridge. The forest's edge stretched north and south behind him. The ridge she stood upon looked down on a prairie that spread out before meeting with distant mountains to their east.

“Please stop rushing ahead while we are still in this group. It’s fine to put ourselves in danger, but risking the others is unnecessary and only breeds dissent.”

“I understand,” She spoke so softly he barely heard her over the gentle wind. A moment later, her eyes turned hard as she faced him.

Here we go again. Cameron’s eyes were rolling before she even opened her mouth.

“I understand that the Graymin just destroyed Reinklahld,” Her icy voice was a perfect match for her cold, blue eyes. “I understand that they have taken three forts in the last season!” Her gauntlets creaked from clenched fists. “I understand, that we are weak, cousin,” Suddenly, all the passion left her like a gust of wind had picked it up and carried it away.

Ugh, I know that look. She’s thinking about that inferno-kissed boy again. How was he so damnably powerful?

As he always did when thoughts of that decisive day replayed in his mind, Cameron blinked at his status.

NAME:  Cameron Amyntas

RACE: Human

AGE: 15

WEIGHT: 1879.94 kg

STATUS: Bulwark / Indefatigable / Enhanced Strength / Enhanced Durability / Boosted Regeneration

TIER: 4

EXP: 76/200

GROWTH: 81.72 %

MANA: 8

CONCENTRATION: 8

STRENGTH: 149

AGILITY: 112

ENDURANCE: 137

DURABILITY: 160

WISDOM: 109

INTELLIGENCE: 117

SKILLS:

Molding lvl 12

Shaping lvl 8

Channeling lvl 5

Forming lvl 2

TECHNIQUES:

Forcing lvl 7

Resilience lvl 9

Hellfire’s Brand lvl 12

Howling Gale Force Strike lvl 12

Wall of the Frigid North lvl 12

Depths Embrace lvl 12

Bedrock Bastion lvl 12

A long-buried seed of doubt ached in Cameron’s chest as he reviewed all that he was, all that he had earned through hard work, sweat, blood, and tears.

Have my efforts been enough? Could I beat him if we met now?

It doesn’t matter. I must keep pushing forward. That boy is meaningless compared to the suffering of the empire.

Molding is so close to another level I can taste it. Every time I activate the skill, it gets easier. As soon as it levels, my techniques will too and I’ll be so much stronger. That’s where my focus should be, nothing else. I might not be able to match that phantom memory, but maybe I’ll be able to beat one of these beasts on my own soon.

Cameron couldn't help his flash of jealousy when he remembered Olive beating one on her own a week prior. Even if it had been a near thing and drained her mana for days, a win's a win. Looking at her, he noticed the set of her jaw and her narrowed eyes.

Great. I didn’t get through to her at all.

Cameron almost repeated the same reasoning he had given her a dozen times ‘What good are we in the war if we get ourselves killed out here?’ but stopped himself and chose a new argument instead. “Fahnald is up there watching our backs when he could be at the front lines because you’re too reckless to be trusted without him,” He saw the hurt on her face as the truth of his words registered.

“I… You’re right. This isn’t working. But sending another tier six to the front lines won’t change the course of the war either. We need to find him.”

Cameron’s jaw clenched reflexively before she finished speaking. “Not this again, Olive. He’s dead. Master Filibree could never lie to your father.”

“Master Filibree never said he was dead.” She retorted, causing Cameron to throw his arms in the air.

“Can we please not have this conversation again?” He patted the air as if to shield himself from her ridiculousness.

Olive pressed on, completely ignoring his plea. “I don’t care what you say, the reality remains that if every tier two in the empire could do what that boy did, we would crush the Graymin in a season. How can you not want to know?”

“Of course I want to know! I just can’t stand the idea of wishing for a solution instead of creating one with our own hands, through our own efforts.” Cameron caught himself fingering his scar again and jerked his hand back to his side.

“We don’t need some random boy. We need to come together for a change and push back!” Cameron was surprised by the vehemence in his tone but this had been a trying day.

“Clearly, our efforts are not good enough. We need information, knowledge, and wisdom, not just hard work. What good is a strong arm without a well-crafted spear in its grip?” Olive reasoned, then pushed on before Cameron could respond. “Besides, I know he’s out there and I know he has the knowledge the empire needs. It’s not some fanciful wish.”

“My acclamation tells me this. My acclamation tells me that. You randomly claiming to know things is the most frustrating thing about you! Can we not just have a normal conversation grounded in facts and logic?”

A rustle from the woods alerted Cameron that their other three party members had finally caught up.

Thank the Fathers! Why do I let her get me so riled up?

Olive waved cheerfully as if they had not just been shouting at one another. She then pointed to the prairie and the herd of tier four boefowls that grazed there.

“Another two dozen. Think we can kill them all within a week?” Olive’s suggestion elicited a chorus of groans from the group as Cameron rubbed his temples.