An Interesting Power System
AN: Info dump chapter, you've been warned.
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As I'm riding away from the campsite, I finally have time to consolidate the atrocious amount of information I just got ahold of. First of all, location.
I'm on the continent of Dicathen, more specifically, Elshire Forest. This is where the Elven kingdom resides. Then there is Sapin to the southwest and Darv directly to the south. They are the Human and Dwarven kingdoms respectively. Lastly, there is the Beast Glades to the far east. That is with the many cities in between and whatnot.
Right now, we are headed toward the Beast Glades, the blood hounds want to go there apparently. They said they'll carry me until they are hungry again, but that's about it. They are very simple creatures. We can only communicate with simple words and phrases as I can only speak within the scope of their language. I have no idea what to do from there, but I guess it doesn't matter really.
What I'm more interested in is the power system of the this world. Put simply, it's cultivation with magic or as they call it "mana." There are four simple elements: Wind, Water, Earth, Fire. Someone watched the Avatar before creating this world apparently. There are derivatives of those elements as well, or maybe higher forms would be a better way to explain it?
Wind: Sound
Water: Ice
Earth: Gravity
Fire: Lightning
There are more but I can get into that later. What's really interesting is how people get stronger through the use of said magic. "Mages" form a "Mana Core" by pulling Mana into themselves from the surrounding environment.
That's the information I got from Arthur when I touched his sleeve. He also uses a technique called "Mana Rotation" that is basically pulling Mana towards oneself while moving.
I've always been curious as to what it would feel like to be a cultivator, I'm definitely going to try that later. Aside from that, a few things have been bothering me for awhile now. First of all...
"Hey, look at that little kid riding those nasty looking dogs. Did you hear? He was kidnapped by slave traders and he slit a guys throat! Oh, OH, then there was the other kid that was like "WHOOSH" with his sword and it was super cool." One of the trees said.
"Really? That's AWESOME! I going to tell everyone!" another tree gossiped.
I've been hearing this for awhile now and trying to ignore it but this is getting ridiculous.
"Hey! Can you barky bastards shut it already!? It's hard to think with how loud you're talking!" I said, irritated.
"...." silence.
"He...He can understand us! Nani the fuck?!" one tree said.
"Everyone, THE KID CAN UNDERSTAD US! TELL EVERYONE THE GOOD NEWS!" another yelled.
I then realized I made a mistake, it seemed like every tree in this god-forsaken forest stared having an aneurism. Yelling this and that while poor little me was getting an increasingly larger headache. I really my wish to die was granted, but here we are...
Anyway, there was also another thing bothering me. I could see something...I'm blind, I shouldn't be seeing anything yet here we are. I've never seen anything before so I don't know how to describe it, but at the top of my vision it says, "Streaming?" There is also lines of text on the right that keep on piling up with more messages.
Chat:
Goddess of Entertainment has joined the stream!
God of Chaos has joined the stream!
God of War has joined the stream!
God of Cultivation has joined the stream!
Goddess of Entertainment: Hello everyone! As you can see, we have a rare specimen today! This is Charles, the man who wished for death!
God of Chaos: Interesting, he has already split up with the main character. This one has potential.
God of War: He's a natural at murder as well. I wonder what kind of battles he will show me?
God of Cultivation: He did not take advantage of the young children even knowing their potential. He is but a frog in a well who will never see the heavens!
Chat End-
I don't understand any of this. Did I become a V-Tuber somewhere along the way? That "Goddess of Entertainment" is annoying me in a certain way though, she must be the lady who sent me here. I don't know what language their using but I can still understand it due to my wish. Perhaps it's...the language of the gods?! Heh, as if.
Chat:
God of Cultivation has made a request!
Name- Go Against The Heavens!
Description- Begin your journey as a cultivator! Become a Red Core mage before the day ends!
Reward- Cultivation Pendant: Grants Greater Cultivation Speed.
Consequences- Courting Death?
Goddess of Entertainment: OOOOOOOH! Our first request! What will he do!?
Chat End-
The request was made visible in the center of my "vision." I was actually planning to do that, but since he made a request...I'm not gonna do it now. Maybe he will actually kill me?
"Hey, you idiots do know I can see you talking right? Or have you all gone senile with you countless years of 'experience'?"
Chat:
Goddess of Entertainment: Wait, you can see that? That should be impossible, it is outside the human range of...vision. Oh right, you're blind, this is new.
God of Cultivation: Courting Death, mortal? You dare call me such things!? Bow to me 1,000 times and I might forgive you!
Chat End-
"Hey now, don't threaten me with a good time. Come kill me at any time. Ah, actually, my schedule is a little full. Can we try for next week?" I replied.
Why is a god so easy to anger, I wonder? Is he a child? That would make more sense, maybe I can provoke him enough to kill me? That would make things much easier.
Chat:
God of Chaos: Heh, I knew I liked you for a reason. I'll give you a fun request later.
God of Cultivation: I WILL WIPE OUT 100 GENERATIONS OF YOUR BLOODLINE! YOU WILL WATCH AS I...
God of Cultivation has been temporarily banned from the stream. Request is terminated.
Goddess of Entertainment: What a problem child, we can't have him take away such an entertainer now can we? Would anyone else like to make a request?
God of War has made a request!
Name- Supremacy!
Description- Start your new life off right. Choose violence! Kill a monster of your choice within the next week. D-rank and above.
Reward- A weapon of your choice.
Consequences- Monster Magnet: your scent attracts all the monsters in the area to your location.
Chat End-
"Nah, I'm good, I'll just be sent to another world if I die, so does it really matter? I won't be killing any monsters."
There were no more chats after that. Did they finally get bored? Oh well, I can play around with magic now so there's that I guess? I don't really care about being strong, I just have nothing better to do. How did it go again? Oh right.
First, I close my eyes and search for the feeling of Mana. Arthur can see lights that represent mana, but that probably won't work for me. I concentrate a bit but I don't feel anything; I reopen my eyes and "see" something. I can't quite describe it, is it the lights that Arthur can see?
Just as I start gathering a bit towards me, the blood hound started sprinting. Poor little me that wasn't ready for that, was not ready for that, fell off. I hit the ground with a loud *thunk*.
"Dammit, I guess they were hungry. Oh well, back to cultivation stuff." I say, looking around.
I try to pull all the mana towards me, but it didn't budge. Hmm, what now? I try to pull them individually, but that didn't work either. Then, something strange happened.
Some of the orbs of light started slowly gravitating toward me.
"Hey, can you speed up a bit? I'd rather get this done today you know?" as I said that, they started rushing toward me at a slightly faster pace.
They traveled to me and entered just below my solar plexus, this is where the mana core is. As the first speck entered the black core, which is the base core for everyone in this world.
The core stages are black, red, orange, yellow, silver, and white. Each stage of the mana core colors is split into three shades: dark, solid, and light, except silver which is split into initial, mid and high and white core which does not have stages. In general, the lighter the mana core color, the purer one's mana core was. Therefore there was more power one could have access to. [AN: Source- Beginning after the end wiki.]
More and more of these little orbs of light entered my Mana Core, filling it up at an increasingly fast pace. Soaking it up like a sponge.
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The Scythe-Tailed Wolf is a C-rank monster. It has the ability to form a scythe make of wind on it's tail and fire wind blades that easily cut limbs. Being one of the predators in the forest, it was looking for it's next meal.
It finally caught the scent of a human and two blood hounds. The wolf knew that the blood hounds could smell him from a mile away so he sprinted toward then while supplementing his speed with wind magic. It's speed reached near the broke the sound barrier as he honed in on his prey.
As the clever wolf had thought, the blood hounds rushed away long before he could get to their location, but they left a snack behind, a juicy human child. He didn't lunge at the boy right away as he didn't know how strong he may be, humans are tricky like that. The wolf had his wind scythe at the ready.
His snack for the day sat down by a tree with his eyes closed, it might have been a trap, so he continued to wait. The boy reopened his eyes looked at his surroundings, still not noticing the hidden predator. The wolf waited until just the right moment. Then, he lunged at his prey at breakneck speed. He leaped into the air to catch the boy by surprise, but it was then that he realized...he messed up....
A powerful suction force pulled the wolf toward the boy at a faster pace than he intended. The clever wolf had been outsmarted, all of his caution and preparation was useless. His head slammed against the tree, rattling the brain in his skull. knocking him unconscious.
[Next chapter: Awakening and The Odd Wolf]