by Colin Daumen
Feeling a blush run onto his face, he quickly snapped his focus towards the window. He could make out that they were now travelling through a dense forest pathway, with green being the predominant colour in the vicinity.
[Ding! Host is surrounded by hostile forces. It is suggested to vacate the current area, the host is no match to the enemies]
With a loud thud, Favian’s body was flung forward onto the floor. The sudden notification from the system startled him completely.
‘Shit, how many of them are there in the vicinity? And how strong are they?’ Favian exclaimed in his mind, wanting to get the details as quickly as possible.
[Ding! System approximates there to be between 10 and 20 hostiles in the vicinity. Error! System is not complex enough to show how strong the targets are. Host required to upgrade the game system - Version 1 (10,000 experience required).]
Clearly irritated with the bad news the system had given, Favian cursed at himself. It seemed that a fight was going to break out at any moment, and he had nothing to protect him. No weapons, no magic, nothing.
‘Wait, what am I saying. Master Aria is right here, and she knows magic. I should be safe as long as I stay close to her!’ This train of thought calmed him down, as he looked at the face of his protector.
Almost as if she was a saint sent to save him, Aria opened her eyes, waking up from her meditation. All that she could see was Favian lying on the floor looking upwards at her.
This was definitely not the most attractive of angles as Favian could clearly make out her undergarments from here. Before she could reprimand Favian for his disrespectful behaviour, a loud bang resounded in the air.
BANG BANG BANG
Chapter 5 - Wit and Fire
It only took a single moment to transform the quiet, serene forest into an explosion of chaos. Smoke billowed into the air, wafting through trees and fauna. The oxygen in the air was thinned out to the point that in every breath, smoke would fill his lungs. A raging inferno crept into the vicinity, and all the nearby trees were slowly charring. Screams of panic could be heard from the distance, and all of the wildlife fled from the scene, hoping to stay alive.
‘Holy s**t, what is going on?’ Panic washed over Favian as he stared out of the window. Even though he had worked many long hours at his medical school, and seen many disfigured victims of accidents, he had never himself been placed into a setting which could only be likened to a natural disaster. His mind went blank, and he froze, unable to even lift a finger. Out of the corner of his eyes however, he could barely make out a shadowy figure rushing to a carriage not too far away from his. The smokescreen caused by the forest fire blurred his vision by an amount, and he couldn’t make out exactly where this shadow disappeared to.
“Favian, stay in the carriage. I’ll go check out what’s going on.” Aria was calm, not fazed at all. She looked outside, her gaze the embodiment of tranquillity, however beneath this, it could be noticed that there was an inferno brewing. It truly was the calm before the storm. The would-be recipient of her wrath should run as far away as they could because Aria would be ruthless.
Quickly, Aria left the carriage and proceeded to fly off into the air. Had Favian blinked, then he would have missed her soaring off completely.
[Ding! 1 hostile figure spotted 15 metres to the northeast. New quest available. Would the host like to receive the quest ‘Stealing from thieves’ – 500 experience reward?]
Favian contemplated for a moment before deciding to press ‘Accept’ to receive the quest. Even though there was the danger of this enemy figure being stronger than himself, he didn’t know how many quests his game system would give him, or how else he could currently gather experience. ‘I need to question the system later as to how I can make more experience.’
‘Without risks, there won’t be any rewards’ he thought to himself. If he could see that he won’t be able to steal from this thief, he would immediately run to the safety of the carriage. He wanted to gather some experience, not die.
Favian left the carriage and slowly started walking in the direction given to him by the game system. Smoke obscured his vision, and every time he breathed in, he could feel his insides heating up. After walking very slowly towards the location, making sure to be as quiet and alert as possible, Favian reached what seemed to be a wagon. The wagon was huge, approximately 30 feet in length, 10 feet in width and another 10 feet in height.
Where there should have been horses which accompanied the wagon and carried it on the journey, there was now only empty space and hoof prints. The doors to the wagon were open wide and unhinged to the side, as if they were forcibly opened.
As Favian moved closer to the entrance of the wagon, he could hear scurried footsteps. A man dressed completely in black was made visible to Favian. Favian could make out that the man, whose back was facing him, was wearing a black mask which covered his whole face. He looked like the ninjas which Favian had always seen on T.V. and in video games.
With a frustrated growl, the ninja looking figure exclaimed, “In the name of Eris where is this book? If I had known it would be this much of a hassle, I would’ve just stayed at home!” He seemed agitated, not noticing Favian behind him precisely due to his anger. He kept moving from shelf to shelf, throwing down bottles and tonics of liquids to vent out his frustration. Shattered glass littered the space in front of him.
Favian had no martial arts experience and didn’t know any magical spells. He could only rely on his game system right now to give him the most effective strategy. ‘System, what spells are currently available to me?’ he asked, hoping for some good news.
[Ding! Host can cast innate spell barrier for 10 mana points. Other spells currently unavailable, knowledge on spell casting is lacking]
‘Shit!’ it was exactly as he had thought. Just because he had been reborn with magical talent didn’t mean he suddenly had access to all the spells in the world.
‘I need to think of a plan ASAP. If I can somehow get this person to run away, I’ll probably have enough time to get to whatever this game system wants me to steal,’ he thought to himself.
Favian didn’t have enough time to formulate a good enough plan with a great chance of success. Since the whole forest was on fire, he decided to go with some arson. After picking up a small log of some burning wood from nearby, he proceeded to throw it into the wagon. As soon as he threw it inside, he hid in some foliage that had yet to start burning.
‘F**k it’s getting really hot here. Can you get out of there quickly buddy? I need whatever it is you haven’t found yet.’ Sweat dripped down his forehead as he waited in anticipation for the thief to get out of the wagon.
A whole minute went by without any noise from inside the wagon; the thief still hadn’t left yet. Feeling that something was wrong, and not wanting to wait for the whole wagon to burn down because of his attempt to start a fire, Favian snuck towards its doors again. The sight he was met by left him surprised.
Knocked out unconscious on the floor was the thief. His head was pushed against a cupboard; the burning log lay at his feet, and a small flame crept from it and slithered along the man’s clothes. The flame was still small, however, it would only be a matter of minutes before the whole area inside would become a furnace.
[Ding! Achievement unlocked, Accidental Knockout. 250 experience received. Total experience: 250.]
“What the … What’s up with these weird accomplishments?” Favian couldn’t help but speak out. The achievements he received seemed way too specific and weird. He didn’t have the time to ponder on these things, so he sprinted inside near the unconscious man. After checking to make sure that he really was out, Favian then started rummaging through the items around him.
There were bars of gold, silver and copper. Vials and clothing were strewn on the floor. There was also a shelf filled with different books. Not knowing what he was looking for, he resorted to asking the game system. ‘What is it I’m looking for? Or where can I find it?’
Quickly, he found what he was looking for. A worn-down antique book, which was labelled ‘Darkness and Shadows’.
‘Seems like a cult book or some satanic tome,’ Favian thought. The book was dark black and had various images on its cover depicting some form of a symbol which he couldn’t make out. The book was very thick, however, after flipping through it quickly, he could see that not even half of it was visible. Age had left a mark on it, rubbing out a lot of the contents inside.
The flames inside the wagon had started to flare up into a huge inferno, and the temperature increased suddenly to the point that Favian couldn’t stay any longer with the risks it posed to his health. With a sad look around at all the valuables scattered around, he ran out and back towards Aria’s carriage.
Something Favian hadn’t noticed at first, was her carriage seemed to have some form of immunity to fire, as in a radius of roughly 3 meters no flames could affect any of the trees or foliage. As he jumped inside, a new notification popped up into his mind.
[Ding! Quest completed ‘Stealing from thieves’, 500 experience awarded; User was able to find the treasure which the thieves attempted to steal. Total experience: 750.]
‘Interface can you show me how many hostiles are left in a 500-metre vicinity, and show me the location of Aria.’ He commanded his system. He was hoping to find somewhere to hide this valuable book before she came back.
[Ding! No hostiles in a 500-metre radius. Location of Aria is 2 kilometres to the west] the game system replied, with its usual monotonous AI voice.
Chapter 6 - Learning Magic
Letting none of his time go to waste, Favian searched for a suitable location to hide the book on the carriage. There were some shelves here and there, and under the seats there was also some space, however, these places couldn’t be any further away from concealed and hidden.
Finding nowhere on-board to hide the book at, Favian sighed dejectedly, having given up. He decided that he might as well just try to read as much of the book as possible before it was inevitably taken away by his master. In unclear writing, he could see that there was a table of contents on the first page.
From the table of contents, he navigated himself to one chapter which particularly caught his eye, ‘The unknown magic.' His curiosity had been piqued by the vagueness.
‘What would constitute as unknown magic?’ he asked himself. Would it be some forbidden magic or something really useless like turning chickens into geese, he wondered.
[Ding! Would the user like to scan the book ‘Darkness and Shadows’? Required function Object Scanning 1 – Required experience 250. Allows host to scan objects in the world to find out their properties, contents, and functions. Higher levels allow host to scan objects without the need to touch them.]
‘Huh, that’s interesting. I mean this should allow me to pretty much know all the details about anything in my hand, which will probably come in handy.’ Thinking about it, Favian didn’t hesitate to purchase this new function, as it seemed like it would be a very important tool for his use in the future.
[Ding! Purchase successful, Object Scanning 1 acquired. Total Experience 500.]
As the notification beeped, a huge influx of information entered Favian’s mind. His brain felt like thousands of tiny ants were burrowing through it, leaving it itchy and irritated for almost half a minute afterwards. As the uncomfortable sensation slowly left, all of the available information from the book was very clear in his mind, almost as if he had read through it a hundred times. He could even recite it word for word if he wanted to.
Favian’s eyes widened as he thought to himself, ‘That’s just amazing. I always heard about people who had a photographic memory, it must be similar to what I have just experienced. Well fortunately for me, I don’t even need to open every page of the book, I just need to touch it and my game system will scan everything for me.’
The information of the book was sorted into the different chapters, and the game system even left a brief overview of its contents. Irrelevant information such as repeated info was completely removed, and the data was left in Favian’s mind as concisely as possible. The only issue was that there was certain information the system barred from Favian's mind, stating he needed to increase in level before he could access it.
‘Seems like this book is an introduction to dark and shadow magic. They are two different types of magic; however shadow magic is almost completely unknown. I wonder why?’ he asked himself.
The book described that dark magic was the use of dark energy particles to cast spells. These spells would usually consist of necrotic energy, which was considered nefarious and foul by the larger part of the continent – according to the information given in the book. Thus, usually dark magic was only used for research purposes into the afterlife and the workings of the spirit. Necromancers, witches, and warlocks were all advanced classes based on dark magic, and a person could learn any of these professions if they were sufficiently gifted in the absorption of dark energy particles. Besides the point that these professions were frowned upon in the continent of Ortu Solis, there were also such a rare number of individuals who were gifted in the absorption of the particles required for dark magic.
The book outlined that magicians were divided into different realms of power, namely individuals were ranked based on 1-9, with 1 being the level an apprentice magician would gain after a year of study, and 9 being the highest power level available. Each of these levels was divided into lower, inner, and upper realms, with each advancement of minor realms granting a substantial increase in power. An individual like Favian was not yet a Rank 1 magician, he was only an initiate as he was gifted in talent to be able to learn magic.
Shadow magic was also described in the book, as an intermediate type of magic completely different from the 6 other elements. Shadow magic was noted down as being the fusion of dark and light magic, however, the ability to cast it was independent on talent in either of those magic types.
‘That would make sense I guess,’ Favian thought. ‘For a shadow to be present, light needs to be shining. Without darkness or light, a shadow can’t exist.'
Mages that followed the path of shadow magic had a clear disadvantage. They could not study any other basic magic types except for dark and light magic. This was a pretty big disadvantage as it would mean that flying was out of the picture for Favian were he to study this. Or creating a fire for a campfire. Or conjuring water to quench his thirst. However, the author noted that the power and utility that shadow magic possessed should not be looked down upon.
Favian had a hard choice to make. He could either wait until he got to the academy, and find a suitable element to study in, or he could decide to bolster his power now from the get-go at the cost of other elements. Impulsively he decided that studying shadow magic was the right choice. He had thought to himself that there must be a reason why his game system was asking him to retrieve this treasure in the first place, and it must be valuable enough for him to study. Also, he was still unsure whether there was truly any goodwill between himself and Aria. The events that had just happened left him wanting a means to protect himself quickly. What if another attack happened whilst travelling, and Aria was unable to protect him?
‘System, can you automatically learn all available spells for me at my current level automatically, or do I have to learn them myself?’ he questioned the system.
[Ding! Affirmative. A total of 3 spells are available to you, as you are currently at lower initiate level. Spells available – Necrotic touch, Bend light, and Net of Shadows can be learned. Estimated time to completion, 24hours.]
‘Okay since that is sorted, I’m just going to hand off the book to Aria, and hope for the best since I don’t need it anymore. I’ll tell her everything that happened since I still don’t think lying is the way to go here. I’ll just avoid the part about me burning down the wagon. I might even get a r
eward if I’m lucky,’ he thought to himself. Meticulous planning had always been part of Favian’s routine. He had to juggle the enormous amounts of time at medical school with his love for gaming and sports. If he had more time available during the day whilst back on Earth, he might even have gotten himself a girlfriend.
Only roughly 10 minutes had passed since Favian came back to Aria’s carriage, but he had already been able to completely learn what was made available from the book and plan what his next move was. Most of this was attributed to his personality of always finding the method which would yield the quickest results, and it somehow seemed that after just one cycle of meditation his mind was already working at a quicker pace than usual.
It also goes without saying that the game system gave him a complete advantage that no other person would ever have, at least to his knowledge. Maybe there were other people out there with a similar cheat-code of a system.
After another 15 minutes, the fires outside were snuffed out completely. The chaos seemed to have settled down. Trees in a huge radius of almost half a kilometer were charred to cinders. No wildlife could be seen in the vicinity, which gave the surroundings an eerie quietness. The air smelt sickly sweet, a very confusing aroma after what had just transpired. Many fallen trees blocked the path that was usable for the carriages, and it would take another hour before these could be cleared away with the help of everybody else.
Only a few numbers of actual magicians were at the scene, as they all had a certain pride about themselves that wouldn’t let them take part in menial labor such as clearing out a pathway. Thus, all of the initiates, drivers and merchants put in the work to get everything back into order. After this was cleared away, the halted journey continued.
In the aftermath of the scene, there was a hooded figure hovering about 2 kilometers in the air, looking down at the site. The figure talked into a communication device, which was hung against their collar, in the shape of two back to back half-moon crescents, parted in the middle by a thick line. After spending a short moment examining the location, and casting an unknown spell, the figure darted away towards the location which Favian was also travelling to, having seen everything that transpired.
