“Group up, everyone!” She yells while climbing out of the pit. “Since what we’re looking for is here, we will stay the rest of the day and night and head back to the expedition camp in the morning.”
I spy Daniel walking over to join me near the entrance to the room. “I think I’m going to practice with my skill for a few hours and then get some rest. It currently takes me too long to shoot a projectile, and I can only do it once with my mana levels.” He says to me.
“Sounds good. I think I’ll join you.” I follow Daniel over to a wall, checking my [System] before sitting down.
[Ray Alder] lvl 10
Race
[Human]
Active Skills
[Space Control] lvl 7
[Mana Shaping] lvl 8
Passive Skills
[Mana Sense] lvl 7
Traits
[Adaptive Affinity]
[Beast mana-heart]
Affinities
[Space]
My lips form a small smile as I notice it's starting to look better. But I wish it would tell me more than that. What is [Adaptive Affinity]? Maybe someone at the camp knows. I should ask later. For now, let’s try a new experiment, one that I think should be doable with my increased mana reserves and regeneration.
I sit down next to Daniel with my back against the cold cave wall and pick up a small stone off the floor once. I hold my hands out in front of me with my palms facing up, the stone sitting in the middle of my left hand. I close my eyes and concentrate on what I want to happen and how I can go about achieving it before taking a deep breath and activating my skills.
I use [Mana Shaping] to feed a steady flow of mana into [Space Control], warping the space around the rock in my left hand and an equal-sized space in my empty palm. I visualize creating a ‘tunnel’ that will connect the two points in space without having to travel the distance in between. [Space Control] greedily drinks up all the mana I throw at it, proving once again that it is a skill that requires a large reserve of mana to use to its fullest extent.
I begin to feel the space around the rock start to collapse in on itself. It feels like something is trying to pull the rock out of my hand, pulling harder and harder with each passing moment. The sensation only lasts for a few seconds until I feel the space give in to my commands, and the stone is sucked away, appearing in my other hand.
[You have leveled up an active skill.]
[Space Control] level 8
Wow, that actually worked the first time. Will I be able to teleport myself too? What else will I be capable of? The rock looks undamaged, but it’s probably a lot sturdier than a human body. Will I be able to open portals? Thanks to some training I had as a kid, I should be able to think well with those.
The rock teleportation trick takes most of the mana I have left after the fights from earlier, so I happily turn my remaining time towards getting another level in [Mana Shaping]. I spend a few more hours trying to get my mana to stay outside of my body, but as soon as it leaves my skin and enters the air, it dissipates into the surroundings, becoming far too difficult to control. While concentrating on this, Elsine walks up to me and Daniel.
She sits down in front of us with her hood pulled down, showing her face, and sets a large square cloth on the floor. She places dried meats, hard cheese, bread, and nuts on it before speaking. Daniel opens his eyes and puts away the bit of black metal he was studying. I lean forward.
“I was hoping I could talk to you guys over a meal.” She says while smiling, “I just finished talking to Morah, and she has a few opportunities she’d like to extend to you two.”
“What about Stella?” I ask, concerned they might try to keep her against her will because of her healing abilities.
“Morah spoke to her earlier, and she will be going to the city of Barad, where the other initiates we have found were sent. She wants to learn how to control her new skills and how to help out people the most, it seems, and Barad is the best place for her to do that. As I’m sure you can guess, House Baradia owns and operates the city of Barad, so she will have access to the best the city can offer. Especially since Morah wants all of you to have a good relationship with House Baradia.” Elsine says, grabbing three goblets and a bottle of wine from her bag and pouring them each a glass.
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That bag is way too small to hold all of this. Bag of holding? That’s another use for space, I think. Maybe I can make one of those eventually.
I took my goblet and gave it a sip, looking at its deep purple color. It’s not good, or rather I do not like wine. Next to me, Daniel drains his cup in one gulp, so I set my cup in front of him, and he also drains it just a few moments later.
“So what are the deals offered to us, then?” I ask as Danel wipes his mouth with a cloth he got from somewhere.
“Same as Stella, after we get to the expedition camp, you have a few choices,” Elsine tells us as she pops some nuts into her mouth. “The first option is you go wherever the hell you want. House Baradia will not force you into anything you do not want to do. The second option is you join Stella on the trip to Barad, joining the other initiates, where you will be given the education and training that all members of House Baradia receive.”
She lets out a heavy sigh before speaking again. “There is also a third option… from Merrick.”
Daniel leans forward, seemingly interested. “What is it? You don’t seem very confident about that last option.”
“He has offered to personally train the both of you, and that is all he told me.” She pauses for a few seconds, looking both of us in the eyes. “House Baradia cannot guarantee your safety if you choose this option, and rest assured, Merrick will try to kill you. But if you do manage to survive, you’ll probably end up far stronger, and fast too. Despite how he acts, he is a once-in-a-lifetime talent when it comes to void and serving Helot in general.”
“What do you think, Daniel?” I ask before taking a bite out of one of the loaves of bread. Wow! It’s still warm. Does that magic bag stop time too? I want one of those. That's badass.
When Daniel doesn’t respond, I look over at him.
He’s looking across the room to Merrick, who is looking back at him. Both have the same maniacal smile on their faces.
It looks like that’s already been decided, and despite what Elsine says, Merrick probably won’t get us killed. Right?
“We’ll spend the night thinking it over and give our answers at the camp.” I get out before Daniel can choose for me.
Elsine walks away after hearing that, telling us good luck in whatever we choose, and leaves the food. We finish eating before talking about the kinds of weapons we want to learn how to use. Daniel says he’s fine with any weapon as long as it is made of metal, as he thinks he will soon be able to use his [Metal Manipulation] skill to modify weapons on the fly. At first, I wanted to keep using the spear, as it has a longer reach than most weapons, but after Daniel said, “You’re a space mage. Won't you be able to just teleport behind them?” I changed my mind, and now I want to learn something cooler, like a sword. A few minutes later, we both have our packs under our heads and are drifting off to sleep after a very eventful day.
***
Nine hours later, according to the [Quest] timer, Daniel wakes me up and hands me some bread and cheese to eat before we leave. It was easily the best night of sleep I have had since arriving on Helot. For the first time, I knew that I probably wouldn't get attacked in the night. We eat our simple breakfast and gather up what little belongings we have in this world. I check that I still have my gem, broken sword, and coin pouch in the bag on my belt, and my backpack only holds the little bit of food and water I have. After everyone is ready, we leave the cave and enter the former goblin camp surrounded by wooden walls. Morah walks up in front of the group and makes an announcement.
“Listen up, everyone, we will be walking back to the expedition camp now. It should take around six hours to get there, and we will not be taking any breaks.” She says as she looks mostly at the new initiates. “With Halon and Elsine scouting the way, we should not run into any trouble. Now let’s move out.”
The journey to the expedition camp is as uneventful and long as Morah promised. All of us are told to keep quiet and make as little noise as possible. She says it’s so the scouts can hear any danger, but really I think she just doesn’t want to listen to Merrick talk for six hours.
I spend my time walking, looking over my new items, while constantly using my mana to cultivate my [Beast mana-heart]. The gem from the shaman just feels like an empty battery or something. I can use it to store mana and pull it back out, but I have to be touching it. It also leaks a small amount of mana almost constantly, making me put it back and save it for later, as I have more than enough mana for now.
Next, I pull out the broken sword. The gem in the pommel feels the same as the shaman’s, just a good bit smaller. It’s probably the source for any mana the weapon uses. Once I push my mana into the gem, I feel it start to flow along channels and some kind of nodes in the hilt. It’s almost like a maze with how many twists and turns there are, but eventually all the mana is dumped out of the broken blade. Examining the sword feels like trying to determine what a computer is capable of by only looking at the circuitry.
Is this how magic items work? They send mana through pathways and nodes to get an effect? I wish I knew what the sword was supposed to do so maybe I could glean a little information from it.
And before I even know it, it’s midday, and we are standing outside of a small tent city, nestled into a valley that has been cleared of trees.
There have to be at least a hundred tents, with dozens of people moving through the camp completing various tasks. I see humans, more of what I think are elves, and a few other species, like a short man with blue scales and a thick tail that’s using a grindstone to sharpen an axe. Is that guy descended from a dragon? It might be rude to ask. I’m sure Merrick knows.
Our group, led by Morah, walks straight into the camp, past the guards and into the biggest tent, right in the middle of it all. The inside is spacious, probably fifty feet to the other side, and has been segmented into different rooms. Only Morah, Merrick, Stella, Daniel, and I enter, as the rest leave the group as we walk through the camp.