CHAPTER 1 - MY FIRST PRANK

I awoke from my daze after admiring the moons for almost 10 minutes and then decided to look around.

I stood up slowly as I observed that I'm in some desert-like area.

There's nothing but sand surrounding me and jeez what's up with the moon.

I can tell it's night time but everything is as bright as day, simply put it's a weird feeling.

Suddenly I felt a cool breeze blow past me that caused me to shiver.

I looked down at my body and just realised the horrible state my clothes are in.

My shirt is almost completely burnt, the only thing keeping it attached to my body is the sleeves leaving my chest and back completely bare.

My trousers didn't take much damage but had burnt patches all over it, taking another glance at myself I must look like a mad man.

Jeez I'm stuck in this vast desert in the middle of the night wearing nothing but rags.

On top of it, those three fellows are nowhere to be seen so I can't even determine where I am, why I'm here and where the nearest shelter is.

I'm completely stranded with no idea what to do.

I looked around for a while and decided that I should try using my ability to see Mana flow to check if I can notice anything.

"Huuuu" I breathe out as I close my eyes trying to concentrate on seeing the mana-flow.

Because I was desperate to survive I actually activated this ability by accident and didn't really take time to really experience how it worked.

I could vaguely remember the feeling of mana flowing throughout my body before reaching my eyes the moment I absorbed it previously.

I can still feel the existence of mana in my body and I can control it, so I guided it steadily to my eyes.

"Woah !!!" I exclaimed as I opened my eyes.

Before me are thousands of particles of white light flooding the atmosphere as far as my eyes can see.

These must be the mana of the atmosphere, there's so many and there wasn't even a single particle of mana on earth.

"Wait something's wrong I no longer have that irresistible urge to absorb the mana this time" I muttered as I started to observe my body.

It seems like my body is now constantly producing mana and I don't need to absorb mana from the atmosphere anymore, which is good news because I was afraid I could only absorb leftover mana from spells.

But there's a slight abnormality. Part of the mana that's generated bit by bit is absorbed into my body.

Is it increasing my physical capabilities? It feels that way, my injuries healed very quickly as well when my body absorbed mana the first time.

Well I guess this means I'll gradually be getting stronger without doing anything, maybe someday I'll be as strong as those people from before.

If it's really enhancing my strength I can't really tell how long it would take but one thing to note is that it feels really good.

"By the way they called themselves demons right. Am I a demon like them?"

"No, that doesn't seem right, they clearly called me an abomination so I guess I'm not like them"

"Then what about what's happening to my body. Is this the <physical enhancement> magic they mentioned before?"

"But that still won't make sense because I can't control what's happening"

"Ahhhh nothing makes sense, there are too many unanswered questions[2]" I said as I ruffled my hair in confusion.

"I'd best focus on finding shelter first because I'll gain nothing from racking my brain to answer these questions with the too little information I have" I said as I gave up on solving those questions for now.

I began to focus on seeing mana-flow while ignoring the mana of the atmosphere which was easier than I imagined.

I realised that if I concentrate the mana in my body into my eyes, my vision gets enhanced further and I'm able to see things at farther distances and more clearly and I can actually see through the mana particles in the air.

As I looked around I noticed various mana-flow of different colours at a particular direction, but as I observed the mana flow I got this eerie feeling from it that gave me goosebumps.

"The people in that area must be soldiers" I concluded.

I'm not sure if you can tell personalities from mana-flow but I have this feeling that the people in that direction are cold blooded, wouldn't hesitate to kill but are also very disciplined.

Well whatever I can't explain it very well but I know for sure that direction is a no-go area, it may lead to a military barrack or something.

I continued to look around and I noticed another cluster of mana-flow, it seems alone more gentle than the previous one but also a larger distance away from me.

"Well it's decided, I'm heading in that direction" I said as I disabled my enhanced vision and started my journey.

***************************************************

In the highest floor of a castle a large distance away from our hero shows a middle aged man with bony stature standing while looking down at three miserable looking men.

The three men are Ryan and the other two demons.

Their clothes are completely burnt, their body is covered in burnt marks and the smell of burnt flesh lingers around them.

The injuries and burns they've sustained look extremely brutal but are clearly not fatal to demons, this just shows that the vitality of demons far surpasses that of humans.

"What did you worms just say!!!" the man shouts in anger as he clenches his fists while looking at Ryan's lot.

"Master it wasn't our fault, the information you got was false, even though the abomination's physical body was weak he could still use magic" one of the men said in an aggrieved tone while shivering from fear.

"That's right master, his level of casting spells far surpasses ours. We couldn't do anything against him" the second man said in frustration while trying to defend himself.

"SILENCE !" their master shouted angrily as he waved his hands.

On his hand, dark mana concentrated and stretched towards the two men standing by the sides of Ryan.

Then a bloody scene occurred as a monster shrouded in darkness with sharp claws and razor sharp teeth leaps out of the men's shadows and attacks them.

"Ahhhhhh!!"

A bloodcurdling scream is heard and then disappears in an instant.

On the floor, the two men are no more, all that's left are chunks of meat scattered everywhere, the monsters then slowly retreat back into the shadows.

Ryan looks at this scene while shaking in fear.

Why won't he be afraid? His two partners have just been killed in a very brutal way by a spell he can't comprehend and he was right in the middle of them meaning he could be killed just as fast.

"Now I want you to tell me in detail what happened when you encountered the abomination" the 'master' said with narrowed eyes, having relieved some of his anger.

Therefore Ryan recounted everything that happened during his journey to the human world to his master.

"Wasn't your mission to assassinate him quickly? Yet you underestimated him too much and he nearly even killed you" the 'master' said, his voice containing a hint of anger.

"No master! I used my full physical strength in the beginning, even though he had the strength of a human he was extremely clever and nimble" Ryan said quickly to defend himself.

"He clearly hadn't been exposed to mana before and he was probably trying to imitate your <fire ball> spell. Does this means that he could cast <fire ball> and even enhance it by only observing it twice?"

"But where did he even get the mana to do that, his mana reserve shouldn't be that large since he lives in the human world" the 'master' muttered while holding his chin in confusion.

"Master I have reported the situation, may I leave" Ryan said nervously.

He is clearly uneasy and doesn't want to stay here any second longer lest he may end up like his partners.

The 'master' once again noticing Ryan's presence frowned in displeasure and said.

"You had a simple mission, to kill the abomination before he becomes a threat to us true demons or the saints but not only did you fail your mission, you also made 'it' stronger and you think you could get away with your life"

"Master please no I'm willing to destroy my magic core and cripple myself or take any other punishment but please don't kill me" Ryan shouted helplessly.

"Ahhhhhh"

Another bloodcurdling scream resounded in the castle followed by silence.

"Come in here and clean this mess up" the 'master' shouted angrily.

A group of servants walked in from a door and started using a combination of water, fire and wind magic to clean the blood stains and dispose of the chunks of meat.

"Ace, go to the saints and report the situation to them, then get them to send their own group of elite assassins to the human world so that we can deal with this problem once and for all" the 'master' said, seeming to not be talking to anyone in particular.

Then a man came out of the shadows behind him dressed in all black.

"Yes master, Ace is at your service" the man said with his head down.

"I can only guess that the abomination's talent in fire magic is all because of that accursed woman's blood"

"If not that the great Devil King values her too much she should have been killed the moment she returned ten years ago"

"Hmph.. if not that this case is severe and we both have a common enemy I would not dare contact those holy bastards" the 'master' harrumphed slightly.

"Yes, master is the rank 10th of the Devil King's knights, you don't need to contact them to get to the human world" Ace says in praise with pride in his tone.

"Although you are young, your father has raised you to be quite knowledgeable, I'm impressed" The 'master' said while nodding his head.

"But even though that's true, the saints are the only ones who can go to the human world freely, if we attempt to do that we would have to pay a price and we might not even succeed to send a person to and fro" the 'master' said while shaking his head in disappointment.

"Leave now and don't disappoint me"

"Yes" Ace said as he disappeared into the shadows.

***************************************************

After waking for a few hours the sun started to rise but there was still no sign of civilization.

Oh God I'm starting to get hungry, I'm surprised I could walk till daybreak and I only feel slightly tired.

After walking for what felt like a few more hours, I can finally see what looks like a huge wall with my enhanced vision.

I observed the wall and frowned slightly.

There are some soldiers dressed in different types of armour and from their mana flow I could guess that each and every one of them are a bit stronger than Ryan's lot but they seem very carefree and not the least vigilant.

I'd rather not try to go into a city so heavily guarded or at least that's what it looks like to me.

The wall seems to have a huge gate that's wide open letting some people and what looks like strange vehicles to leave and enter the city occasionally through a tarred road.

Although the security seems tight to me, the fact that people can enter and leave the city occasionally makes it seem lax but I know better than to just walk in there.

Just by looking at the state of my clothes I already looked suspicious and those demons from before could tell I was the abomination just by looking at me and I'm sure those soldiers can do the same.

I need to find a way to get into the city, if I could get those soldiers to leave the wall for some time I might be able to get in.

I thought for a while and finally smirked.

I've come up with a plan that could help me get into the city without being seen. I'm unusually excited because it feels like I'm about to pull a prank.

I created a ball of flame above my hands and made it move upwards slowly until I could barely see it.

On my way here I've practised fire magic a lot and I can completely control the flames to do just about whatever I want at a particular distance.

From changing the shape, to changing the size, altering the temperature, doing all sorts of things to it that actually made me question if it was actually a fire I made.

Once it is out of range, it seems to turn into leftover mana but I can't absorb it like the way I did before.

One thing I just can't understand is how easy I find fire magic to be although I didn't enter the strange state I was in during my fight with those three demons.

I had to concentrate as I increased the size just now, but back then I not only increased the size, I also controlled the temperature perfectly. It was like being in the zone

Although it's strange, I decided not to think about it too much.

I ran some distance away from the fire ball then I raised my hands and closed my eyes while making sure that I could still feel the fire ball from here.

Now I need the fireball to be larger… just larger so I pumped it with excess Mana while thinking of this image.

"BOOM"

An explosion rang out and the fireball bursts in size and the people from the city walls finally tensed up.

The fireball was now way larger than the wall and just by looking at it you can actually imagine its destructive power and that's the plan.

I looked over to the gate and noticed many of the soldiers running out with fear written over their faces.

I smirked as I pointed at the wall in front of me and shouted

"<MEGA FIREBALL SURPRISE>"

In an instant the fire ball started moving towards the wall from behind me at an amazing speed making it look like some kind of asteroid.

As all the soldiers came out from the gate I started dashing towards it.

I've enhanced my whole body using <physical enhancement> magic that I "learned" the previous night.

I won't exactly say Iearnt it, I merely understood how it worked and can barely put it to practise.

Just like when I controlled mana to enter my eye, <physical enhancement> magic is controlling the mana to flow into my muscles which automatically enhanced my strength.

Although it sounds simple, it's actually more difficult than all the complex things I have been doing with fire magic.

I don't even understand it myself. It's just that if the mana isn't in the form of fire something feels off and it is difficult to control.

When I came near the soldiers I noticed that there were two hundred of them and they were concentrating on the humongous <Mana shield> they casted.

This looks like co-op magic… seems very interesting.

I dashed past the soldiers and they didn't notice me, even if they did they can't lose focus on the giant ball of fire coming their way.

I ran at full speed and when I was about to cross the gate, I noticed my mega fireball was about to hit their mana shield.

"Hahaha here comes the surprise part" I said while laughing as I slowed down and focused on my connection to the fireball.

Immediately after the fireball made contact with the mana shield, it dispersed into millions of flame particles not even the size of a thumb.

I controlled the flame particles and made them spread around and most of them even invaded the city creating a beautiful scenery.

[Author's Notes]

1. Word count - 2713 words.

2. The same thought crossed my mind when I was submitting my paper in the exam hall… there are too many unanswered questions.

3. Not enough space to introduce the MC, cause I don't want to make the chapter too long.