10

"It… what?" I urged Nira to finish. I had a feeling I needed to know what she was going to say.

"It doesn't leave survivors." She whispered. "Once it catches a scent, it never gives up."

A trickle of sweat ran down the side of my face.

"You mean…" I trailed off.

The nightmarish sounds of the Arkos drew near as our hollow shook again. The beast twisted its massive serpentine body around the tree causing it to creak and groan.

From the entrance of the hollow, I could see the shadows shift. The noise tapered into silence and I held my breath, unconsciously tightening my grip on the spear.

There was a crack… and then a crunch. Then hundreds more.

'It's eating the Guardian corpses!' I realized.

I felt a spark of hope.

'Maybe the Arkos was drawn by the Shade Guardians rather than me?' It seemed very possible.

The stench of the Guardian corpses was particularly thick. I had no idea how good the Arkos' sense of smell was, but I certainly couldn't smell myself over their putrid odor.

A couple minutes later, the feast was over. The tree shook once again as the sound of footfalls echoed around our hollow.

The echoes were getting quieter… The Arkos was descending.

I exhaled silently.

Not daring to make a sound, I sat still, listening to the eerie thumps against the forest floor fade away.

"It was lured here by the commotion." Nira finally broke the silence.

"We got lucky." I commented.

"Lucky?" Nira rose to her feet and walked towards the entrance. "No, we got unlucky. Terribly unlucky." I could even hear a little sorrow in her tone.

"Gone…" I heard her mumble.

I stood up and walked towards the entrance as well.

"The Guardian's corpses masked our scent, right?" I paused. "I'd say that was pretty lucky."

Nira sighed, "No. It was unlucky! All those Manarts! Wasted!" She seemed legitimately upset.

'Oh. That's what she meant.' I realized.

I still wasn't sure how helpful they would be to me anyway. If only I could try eating one.

Then I remembered something.

'Right, there is one!' I turned and walked back to where I had fought the smaller Guardian in the hollow. Its glowing green horn was extremely dim now - barely visible lying a few feet away.

Noticing my actions, Nira caught on.

"Let me see your dagger for a minute." She said, and I felt the weight of my dagger disappear from my waist.

Her concept of personal space could use some work…

A few moments later, I heard her crouch down and begin to cut and dig through the corpse. The faint blue glow of a tiny Manart was soon visible as she extracted it from the Guardian. It was much, much smaller than the one from the Tiblafel - about the size of a pea.

"Here. Try it." Nira reached for my hand and placed the small pea into my palm.

"It's a small one, so it won't do me much good. This is a good opportunity to see if you can benefit from them as well." She added.

Staring down at the glowing pea, I studied it with interest for a few moments, then popped it in my mouth. Mimicking Nira's actions from before, I bit down on the Manart and a freezing cold viscous liquid burst from it.

Ding!

[You have consumed a Shade Guardian Manart. Your mana grows stronger.]

'My mana grows stronger?' My eyes widened as I swallowed. It didn't really have a taste. If I had to describe it, I'd say it tasted like… cold. Melted ice also came to mind, but it was different, absent of even that faint taste.

Heart thumping with anticipation, I focused my thoughts and called up my status.

'Status'

[Name: Abel

Race: Human

Level: 4

Health: 112/130

Mana: 13/13

Strength: 16

Dexterity: 13

Intelligence: 13

Vitality: 16

Unallocated Stat Points: 9

EXP: 1095/1500

Mana EXP: 5/150]

"Well?" Nira inquired.

My eyes lingered on the last line of my status interface.

I nodded, "I think it worked."

"..." Nira let out a soft sigh. "Then you should get it now. All those Manarts…" She paused. "One may not have been that big a deal, but between the two of us - even if we split them there would have been enough for a minor evolution each."

'A minor evolution?' I pondered. 'Maybe it's like leveling up for the natives.'

"Can't we just kill some more?" I asked.

"Probably not. The Shade Guardians rotate all over the forest searching for food. The fact that they were nearby and I happened to find a defendable location… was an incredible stroke of luck" She explained.

Rubbing my knee, I wondered if luck was the right word.

'Oh, right!' I suddenly remembered while feeling the injury. 'I can heal myself!' This concept would take some getting used to.

I sat down and extended my leg, holding my palm above the injured knee.

"Min'Hel" I recited the Vir'il.

[Health restored to Self: 18.

Mana -3]

My pain eased and quickly disappeared.

Watching from the side, Nira couldn't help but crouch down and stare, the rings of her glowing eyes loomed unblinking in the darkness.

"How do you do it?" She eventually asked.

"What do you mean?" I replied.

"Mana manipulation. It's gone from the Spell, since the Humans…" She trailed off in a strange tone, then skipped forward, "My mother wouldn't teach me... She didn't want me to be killed by the Darkhearts."

"The Humans… what did they do?" I asked, too curious to let her gloss over it.

She sighed, "As a human, I can't believe you're really asking me that."

"Tell me the truth, Abel. Do you really not know anything about this world?" Nira stared at me, waiting.

I considered replying using the rock excuse again, but decided to change my story a bit, "It's the truth. You can think of me as someone who was born and isolated from all worldly affairs until… very recently."

"I see…" She seemed to accept it.

"So? What happened?" I asked again.

"It's a long story…"

"It's a long night." I retorted.

Nira took a deep breath and gathered her thoughts, "...Well, I'll tell you the short version for now." She paused, "You see, the Humans are responsible for most Spells being lost. Their jealousy and envy towards creatures of Mana led them down a destructive path that eventually led to the Eradication…" She explained in a somber tone, "If the Spell wasn't completely destroyed, they at least made sure to destroy the Mana manipulation method within."

A few seconds passed as I digested her words, then she added "And most importantly, if they find someone who can still use a Spell… Well, let's just say you don't want to be found out."

"Anyway, can you tell me how you do it?"

I furrowed my brows, "Are you sure you really want to know? It sounds like… you might be better off not knowing."

"I want to know." She replied instantly.

'Alright then…' Her persistence was odd, but it wasn't my place to dictate her desires.

I thought for a moment about what I felt when using the Spell.

"Well, I'm not completely sure to be honest. It all feels very natural to me. When I speak the Vir'il, a cool sensation starts in my chest, travels down my arm, and into my palm. From there, it kind of just… happens." I explained.

Nira closed her eyes and started mumbling, "The cool sensation should be Mana being released from your Manart… That part makes sense… But…" She held out her hand and focused in silence. "Min'Hel…" She eventually said.

Nothing happened.

She tried a few more times, then stopped.

I felt a little sorry for her. She was definitely stronger than me and probably possessed more Mana, yet couldn't even use her own Spell.

'Wait… Why do I assume she has more mana than me?' I thought of a certain possibility.

"Nira, do you think… Maybe you just don't have enough Mana?" I carefully asked.

She opened her eyes and looked at me. I could see them tilt as she whispered to herself, "Well… it's true I've barely been able to consume any Manarts in my life so far…" She paused, "Could it really be so simple? But there's still the issue of Mana manipulation…"

"If we keep hunting for Manarts you'll eventually find out, right?" I interjected.

The glowing rings of her eyes moved up and down as she nodded, "That's true. You're right. I can only try that for now."

A minute passed as we both contemplated various parts of our conversation in silence.

Eventually, Nira lay down and closed her eyes.

"I'm going to sleep." she said.

I looked towards the entrance, "Is it safe, should we take turns?"

"It's fine, if anything comes close I'll wake up… Being a light sleeper goes a long way in the Darkheart Stronghold." she replied, then added, "That, and the Arkos was just here, most creatures will get of whiff its scent and stay away."

'Seems reasonable.' I concluded, laying down a few feet away from Nira.

"Alright, let's sleep then."

***

A few hours later.

I woke up to Nira shaking my body.

Thinking there may be danger nearby, my drowsiness instantly vanished, replaced with vigilance. I looked around, but didn't notice anything at all. Not even the dim shadow of the entrance to our burrow.

"What's going on?" I whispered in concern. "Why did you wake me up?"

"It's the Shadow." she replied. "Better to be awake just in case."

'The Shadow?' I wondered.

I could explain away why I didn't know about most things. But this wasn't one of them.

I had to wait and see this time, so I sat up and just listened.

The entire world seemed to hold its breath. The wind stopped, the creatures froze, it was deathly silent.

It lasted for ten long minutes before the dim outline of the hollow entrance revealed itself again.

I exhaled.

"Is… the Shadow… dangerous around here?" I probed.

"Not usually, but you hear stories, you know?" Nira replied.

"Stories…?"

"You know, things like it being an incredibly powerful spell cast on the world itself, cursed for eternity. Stolen souls. Those stories." Nira's tone suggested she didn't believe the stories, but I suspected she wasn't so immune.

'A massive spell cast on the world itself…' I tried to imagine just how much Mana that would take.

I shook my head, that was way beyond me.

I had more immediate issues, like how to survive the Arkos hunting my scent. My quest to retrieve the bow from the fearsome fellow who nearly killed me from a quarter mile away, also loomed on my mind.

Actually, regarding those thoughts… there was something I had been meaning to ask:

"Nira, do you know where we might be able to find… some more Spells?"

"More Spells?" She paused. "Of course I do."

I looked over at her and she was staring at me.

"Any family of renown that participated in the Eradication should have a few. The royal family allowed them to keep a few if they proved they destroyed the Mana manipulation method. They wanted to take them home as battle accolades or some nonsense." She revealed, then added:

"The Darkhearts included, of course."

I sighed.

I should've known it was going to be something like this.

Nira heard my sigh and chuckled, "Actually there is one more place. It's not even that far from here, just a few hundred miles to the south."

"And what sort of deathtrap awaits us there?" I asked sarcastically.

"Oh it's actually not that bad…" She paused for effect. "Just an ancient ruin… that was also a historic battlefield of world shattering implications. Protected by the Soulless who traded their lives to bind their mortal bodies to the ruin itself."

"Or something like that."

"..."

'Really?'

"It's what I heard anyway." Nira relented. "A lot of stories are passed around at Darkheart Stronghold."

"But if that place is real, the story also mentions a powerful Spell inscribed somewhere into the walls of the ruin itself." Nira let a little anticipation leak into her voice. She wanted to go.

'A few hundred miles to the south? Would we even make it that far?' If my first day was any indication, it would be a perilous journey.

If it even existed.

'Fuck it.'

"Let's go."

Nira's eyes disappeared and reappeared as she blinked.

"Let's go?" She questioned. "To the ruin…?"

"Well, maybe when the Sun comes up…"

"Even if it might not exist…?" She pressed.

"Where else will we go?" I reasoned.

Nira shrugged. "I guess… Okay, the ruin then." I heard her lay back down. "First light." She added.