by A R Chen
“We will go, lead the way,” Tolma declared. Even more ants then scuttled out of the underbrush to form their neat double column formation near Tolma once more. Though now, instead of the massive line stretching toward the horizon he had seen from Niti, it was only around fifty feet long.
It’s hard to believe this is all that’s left, they must have started out with hundreds, maybe even a thousand! Steve boggled at the carnage.
He then led the way toward the Mana Lake, with the several dozen ants behind him. Steve was certain that they would betray him if he showed that he was incapable of upholding his end of the deal, but for now, they seemed to trust him. Perhaps claiming they had reinforcements coming had just been a bluff, meant to increase their bargaining power, but it did seem plausible.
Draining the massive Crystal took priority over everything else. He just needed to use them to serve as a distraction. He would deal with the consequences later. Everything depended on what he encountered when he got to the lake, so Steve worked to form a few contingency plans as he covered the last bit of distance.
Chapter 20
Steve’s plan to take the Mana Lake hinged on surprise. Steve had to assume that the other races also knew magic. If even some ants had magical abilities, then it seemed likely that every race could use magic in some way—it was an integral part of this world.
Steve knew the centipede army would be here, battling for control of the Mana Lake, but he hadn’t expected two other races contesting the territory, one of which was aerial. Some sort of large birds were swooping down and feeding on the centipede and other bug armies.
"What are those?" Steve asked Tolma. It was better to know what he was dealing with before he jumped in.
"Grasshopper clan," Tolma said. She gestured with her antennae in the direction of the large green insect. "We believe the head of that clan uses only nature magic. The ones flying above are birds known as falcons. The leader of their flock uses air magic."
After Steve heard this, he moved into position. He would need to be a bit farther away from Tolma and the ant army.
The centipedes weren't nearly as numerous as the last time Steve had seen them. They were now roughly equal with Tolma’s ants and losing another of their number every few seconds. It was a chaotic fight, as centipedes grappled on the forest floor with grasshoppers twice their size and both sides were being picked off by the falcons in the air. The falcons in turn took losses, when one would occasionally get caught by a grasshopper or be shot down with magic by the largest centipede Steve had ever seen.
Steve was currently two hundred feet from the water. He needed to get closer; right now a couple Blink spells would only get him about halfway. They would need to act fast in order to make sure no other races would come to contest the Mana Lake. Steve observed for a few more moments, then when the time looked right, he gave the command.
Now, Tolma! Steve sent mentally.
Ten ants pushed their way out of the ground near the Lake, on the opposite side of the fight from Steve. They immediately moved toward the three-way battle unfolding on the lake shore. A small group of centipedes split off to challenge the ants. The ten ants formed two ranks of five each, with a small gap in the middle, and charged.
As the centipedes converged on the charging ants, a fireball shot through the hole in the ant’s ranks and blasted into the centipede army. The display of magic caused more of the centipedes and a falcon to go for the ants.
More ants tore themselves free of the ground around their brethren, making the threat clear to the other creatures contesting the Mana Lake. The focus of the battle slowly shifted towards this new challenger, until Steve finally judged that he had the space he needed.
By now, the sun had almost dipped below the horizon and the light was getting weak, though thankfully it wasn’t yet fully dark. Steve turned his light down as much as he could and went for it.
Steve estimated that he could travel ten feet a second when he pushed as hard as possible. He couldn’t afford to do that here though, as it would require putting out a lot of light, making him nothing but a glowing target to the assembled animal combatants.
He moved as quickly as he was able, while maintaining minimum luminescence, and took in the battle. The ten ants that had led the distraction force were already in bad shape. As Steve watched, a wind blade from a falcon decimated the ants’ formation. Centipedes took advantage of the opening and moved to flank them. The grasshoppers weren’t faring any better though. It seemed like centipedes were still the strongest of the three landbound forces, despite being less numerous now.
Steve was about halfway to the water when he noticed two spells coming at him out of his peripherals. One was shot by a large centipede in the middle of the fight. The other was created by a grasshopper. Not having any interest in being hit by a second spell today, he Blinked out of the way and moved at maximum speed towards the lake. There was no chance to be stealthy anymore.
A wind blade came from above, narrowly missing Steve as he slowed to avoid it. The spell slammed into the ground and blasted a shower of dirt into the air as two falcons swooped at him from above. Steve narrowly managed to avoid their coordinated attack by quickly dodging to the side. He continued towards the Mana Lake; this was getting a lot more hectic than he’d hoped, but just a few dozen feet remained until he reached the safety of the water.
At that moment, a roar came from the forest behind him, followed by a screech, different from the falcons above. They were loud and ferocious. Steve was sure that more powerful beings had arrived for the Mana Lake. He couldn’t spare the time to worry about what exactly they were and continued full speed ahead.
Steve made it to the Mana Lake without any more close calls and dove down into the water without hesitation. This part at least seemed to be going according to plan.
I hope Tolma is okay, Steve thought. Its distraction had been a great help. Without it sacrificing some of its remaining forces for him, the other combatants may have been able to fire more than one rotation of spells or had more time to gather their magic for a stronger effect. He didn’t want to think about how badly that might have gone for him.
Now there was a new issue Steve hadn’t anticipated; the Mana Lake itself was very murky, especially after having been churned up by his earlier attack on the fishmen. Even with Steve’s quality omnidirectional vision, and being a living light source, he could still barely see through five feet of water around him.
Bonnie, what do I do? Steve asked.
“Imagine yourself as a box in your mind, then direct your Energy to suffuse and strengthen that box,” Bonnie carefully instructed him. “Then dive down.”
He did as instructed, then dove down into the deeper water. Pressure built around his little energy field as he dove ever deeper. At one point, he worried that the pressure would overcome his protection, so he paused a little and tried to get used to it. In a few minutes, he felt confident enough to dive down once more.
All this time, Steve couldn’t see anything. His only method of navigation was to make sure he was headed in the direction of the densest energy, which he could vaguely sense. The Crystal’s energies were diffused rather evenly throughout the water now and had begun leaking out into the surrounding atmosphere, drawing all the creatures who coveted the mana for themselves.
Now that I think about it, why did it take an entire day to become like this? Steve wondered. Shouldn’t the mana have immediately spread?
The answer became clear when he reached the lake floor. He noticed the reflection of his own light off of the blue Crystal first, then was able to make out the outline of a massive, eight-tentacled creature looming near it. It was hard to judge with the tentacles coiled around the crystal, but Steve guessed they may be nearly a hundred feet long. The Crystal was almost totally enveloped by the immense body and many coils of tentacles. Whatever this creature had been, it looked to have been crushed, along with everything else on the floor.
It must not have d
ied immediately… Steve thought. He had dropped millions of gallons of water onto the creatures, but something this size may have been able to create a barrier or something that prevented it from being killed outright. Steve felt sure that nothing could have survived the hit directly.
Aside from that large eight-limbed creature, there were a lot of other elongated, flat fish strewn around the lake floor. They were many different colors, but Steve could only make out any detail when he passed directly above them. The range of his vision was even worse at the bottom of the lake.
Finally, he reached the Crystal.
The variety and density of the fish population here is really something, Steve thought to himself. There must have been at least a couple hundred different species in this lake. What now, Bonnie?
Steve checked his energy levels and found he was running low. It read:
Current Energy – 3,509
Max Energy – 15,050
“Start absorbing the energy by touching the tip of the Crystal,” Bonnie commanded. It seemed like this was an important part. “You’ll gain a strong affinity for water this way.”
He moved to do so. As a part of the Crystal entered his light body, all of the mana accumulated in the water started moving towards him rapidly, drawn in by his absorption of the Crystal. Steve’s energy filled up and his light body became hot. It felt like being swept along by a river of pure mana.
As Steve began to absorb the Crystal, he had a feeling it was giving him much more than just energy. It was a deep-blue Crystal, the deepest shade he had ever seen. Only now, could he fully appreciate the beauty and majesty of it.
As with the other times that he had absorbed energy on an unprecedented level, it felt better than anything he’d ever experienced or even imagined. But it was starting to overwhelm him, the energy didn’t seem to be stopping, and Steve didn’t know if he even could stop it safely.
Bonnie? Steve queried nervously. He could try to stop right now by moving away from the Crystal, but he wasn’t sure what Bonnie intended and she conveniently hadn’t told him what would happen.
“Keep going!” Bonnie said happily.
Steve kept at it. She hadn’t led him wrong before. Even if it started to go badly he could just burn off the excess energy by repeated spell casting…he hoped.
His energy rose until it surpassed the maximum and even then the Crystal had a long way to go until it ran out. He was trying to absorb a whole lake’s worth of mana, after all.
The sensation of heat was becoming unbearable and Steve became dizzy. His mind felt like it was being drawn out of his body. Everything became surreal for a moment, and then he blacked out once more.
***
He came to in a white room that seemed endless, though only when he tried to focus on a wall. Steve still had his omnidirectional vision, but it felt somehow out of place, here, in a way he couldn’t quite pinpoint.
A symbol he didn’t recognize suddenly appeared on the wall.
What was this place? Why was he here? Other questions Steve couldn’t answer floated through his mind as he was launched back out of the strange white void.
***
Steve was still underwater at the bottom of the lake. Only now, the Crystal had lost its deep-blue hue and was dull gray, just like the other absorbed Crystals. Steve immediately checked his energy storage. It read:
Current Energy – 23,000
Max Energy – 24,000
It seemed strange that he wasn’t at max energy, even after all that had occurred. Still, absorbing this Crystal had helped both his current and max energy immensely. Steve wondered what that vision had been about; it didn’t seem that it could be related to the countdown, since he wasn’t anywhere close to a memory point. Also, Steve had a feeling that since he chose Specialization, he wouldn’t be experiencing any more memories.
Well, time to go check up with Tolma, Steve thought, after inspecting his body. It was hard for him to observe himself, but there hadn’t been any noticeable changes. I wonder if they’re okay.
The journey up was far easier for Steve. There wasn’t a need to put up an energy barrier this time. Steve just needed to find out whether the Mana Lake was still being contested. If it was, then he would drain the mana still remaining in the water, leaving nothing behind.
To his surprise, there was nothing to be seen on the surface when he emerged. There wasn’t anything at all; the combatants and the dead bodies were gone. There were traces of gore and craters in the ground, but other than that, one wouldn’t have known that a massive multi-species battle royale had occurred.
How were the bodies cleared away so fast? Steve wondered. After considering it for a moment, he realized the truth. The bodies weren’t cleared away rapidly…I was submerged for quite a while. How long was I down there? What did the Crystal give me?
After another moment, he put those questions aside; there was no point worrying any more about it.
Bonnie, what next? Steve asked. He would have to make the most of the Specialization perk he had chosen. The sun was already rising above the horizon, meaning he had been out all night. Steve was a bit irritated at the loss of time; he needed to take every opportunity to shape his evolution.
Bonnie led him around to various areas near the lake. They made sure to never go beyond the ten-mile radius allowed by the rules; Steve didn’t need another penalty. He did what Bonnie suggested, as he tried to make up for the two days he hadn’t had her to advise him.
The next few days were spent in Niti Village. The Nitians were all in mourning as they slowly worked to rebuild what had been lost. Plans were made to send a scouting expedition to see how the Mottor clan was handling their loss. They hadn’t seen the Mottor’s Right in the prisoners or corpses they had, so Leffer assumed he was still alive and had probably informed them of what had happened. That was fine, though; Niti Village had time to prepare and new options on the table.
Leeroy hadn’t survived the surprise attack that had been launched at the moment of surrender. Loop was sad at the loss but there was also another air about him. The boy was calm, almost frighteningly so, during the funeral ceremony.
Joffrey had survived—after the battle, he was found in a bush, unconscious. His mana had been entirely spent and he broke an arm and a leg. Thankfully, with the dregs of his mana, he had been able to prevent most of the damage from the lightning itself.
Ash’s hair was now yellow, apparently from the bolt of lightning which had charged him after the naming ceremony. He acquired a lightning affinity in his naming, so Leffer and Amon had agreed to send Ash to the Capital to learn about his affinity in their academies.
The rest of the goings on didn’t interest Steve, who was mainly focused on acquiring the correct types of energy and increasing his max energy storage. The big moment was drawing near.
Finally, the countdown reached:
0 Days 0 Hours 0 Minutes 0 Seconds
It was time to evolve.
***
“Steve! Countdown has reached zero,” Bonnie said happily. “Restrictions on my thoughts have been lifted somewhat. Let me show you the rules for this next stage.”
At that moment the rules appeared in Steve’s mind, almost as if they were floating directly before him. Even if he tried to shift his focus, they moved with it.
1) Don’t die.
2) The first evolution must be completed within an hour of the beginner countdown ending.
3) Don’t wander outside of your starting continent.
4) Don’t evolve to highest evolution.
5) Locked
6) Locked
“As always, breaking the rules involves consequences!” Bonnie finished up. “You have an hour to evolve to your specified evolution – Changeling. The next stage has officially started!”
Another image appeared in his mind at this point. This one was a handful of dots, spread across a flat white sheet.
“What am I seeing?” Steve asked. The rules and whatever this was, were ov
erlapping and interfering with one another. It was annoying and he couldn’t seem to get rid of either of them.
“Those are the other members of your generation of balls of light!” Bonnie said. “You get this information for being the first one to break a rule, when you killed that chicken.”
Steve remembered. That hadn’t been the smartest move, looking back on it. Though, it did seem to still be giving him some benefits. Steve wanted to know what he was supposed to do with this information so he asked, “How do I use this, Bonnie?”
“Just focus in one direction and you’ll see the dots move,” Bonnie instructed. She had always been very helpful when it came to instructing him to perform tasks like this. Steve focused on a random direction and found that the six dots were scattered around on the sheet. He tried to grasp their locations, relative to his own position, but realized he had no scale to work from.
As he manipulated the map some more, he found that one of the dots was above the sheet. The dot’s position was odd, because if he was understanding this, the white sheet represented ground level. Steve wasn’t sure what to make of this featureless map, that seemed to only contain the direction and location of other balls of light like him.
The closest dot was to the East—according to Ash, that land was called Mudda. Steve remembered that Ash said it contained various Beast-man tribes and monster races. The distribution of the dots was interesting; it seemed likely that most of them were in different countries, spread around the continent.
There were four dots clustered around him; that included the one that seemed to be high above the rest. Though, there were also two dots which seemed to be a lot farther off than the others. Judging from to the direction they were in, Steve guessed they were across the Great Ocean Lovoth. He assumed them being so distant had something to do with rule number three, which forbade him from leaving this continent during this stage.
What are these rules? What is even the point? Steve thought to himself. It was obvious that whatever had brought him here was restricting his freedom, but why? After pondering for a moment, Steve let it go, as he’d had to with so many other mysteries in the last few days. There wasn’t time to analyze it anyway—he had to prepare, as he only had around forty-five minutes left to evolve or risk another penalty.
