The Quantum Wanderer

Next morning, I woke up in a better place. I mean, Andrew was concerned with his friends’ safety, it was not like he was being aggressive. I am just understanding how cruel this world is. Besides the killing of bandits being of no concern, there are apparently much less value to life. People are just kind of used to death, in general. Killing an animal to eat; it was just common place, apparently. Killing monsters and wild animals were not a big deal either. And being killed by those things was not all that out of the ordinary.

When I went down for breakfast, I asked Andrew when he wanted me to leave, and I answered him that I would like to stay just a couple more of days so that I could prepare. He said he didn't mind at all.

He was curious on the preparations, I told him that I would improve on the leather armor the same way I had improved on the sword.

He got some additional presents to me. He gave me a small tent. The tent had monster repellent, so it made sleeping in the wild a little safer. The tent had a gem on the inner part, close to the top. If one injects a little bit of mana, it keeps repelling monsters.

Upon turning my mana eyes on and watching the spell, I noticed that it would create a circle around the caster. That circle would be around 6 feet. After those 6 feet, there would be 1 foot that would not have any mana in it. I would be getting absorbed to maintain the spell, and what was not absorbed would be thrown in to the inner side.

“The stronger the beast, the more mana in the environment it needs. For strong beasts, this is going to be uncomfortable, so they are going to avoid you. Unless they are too hungry, or particularly focused on you. None of those situations should be happening.

“It is not going to protect you against humans, though. For humans, you can use [alarm]. I will teach you. It is going to make you wake up and feel anything that comes closer than 6 feet, just in case. It is an [Air] magic.

“Since you’re going to be in a tent, you should not be target for arrows and the like. Otherwise, they would loose the element of surprise. But you still can wake up surrounded, so choose the places you rest very, very carefully.”

He then tossed me a little leather bag with some coins. I took a look inside, it had 10 silver coins.

“Take it. You can pay me sometime you pass by.”

“How does currency work here?”

“Five small copper make one large copper. 10 large copper make 1 silver. 10 silver make one gold. 50 gold make one platinum. There is something beyond that, but it's not usual currency. That silver should buy you 10 days in most inns. Of course, you can find cheaper inns, and more expensive ones.

“You basically have all your basic needs, you should not need anything else immediately.”

I grabbed everything, and went up my room, it was time to work on the leather armor. I sat on the floor, and started the process.

This time, I already knew what I had to do. The visual wasn't so important. Instead of doing the neutron layer right on top of the leather, I did it halfway through. This would avoid it looking any different than some leather armor. Unless something tried to cut through it, but then I wouldn't be so worried about appearances.

The straps were a huge problem, because they had to be kept flexible and moveable. The crystal made stuff stiff, so it wouldn't work.

I managed to get around it by doing smaller crystals, in the shape of scales. It did make the straps a tad less flexible, but not noticeably so. And now they couldn't be cut. They would could snap if a lot of strengh were put on them, though. Basically, a rope that would lift the same weight, but now could not be cut by a knife or other external agents.

Because of all the different pieces, it took way longer than I expected. When I finished, the sun was already setting.

I went down for dinner with Andrew, and told him about the news. He said that he would like to test it next morning.

That evening, I studied some the gem from the tent. It gave me an idea… What if I could replicate that spell, and capture the mana around me? That would actually help me recover mana faster, because I could be absorbing from a much bigger area than just my body area.

I started looking at it, and activated my mana eyes, the brain to be responsive. I placed almost all of my mana on that, and then activated the jewel. It shined, and shot rays of mana in all directions. Each tiny thin ray had a 6 feet length. At the very end, if had some mana constructs that were really tiny. They looked like some kind of snowflake pattern.

I enhanced my vision again, and saw that the mana would actually be conducted through itself. The environment mana would be caught by those tiny fractals, and because of the fractal shape, it would be sent to the crystal through the tiny wire. And then the the wire would reconstruct itself and the fractal again.

It looked like an animated kaleidoscope. It was a dance of fractals interacting with the environment. It was beautiful.

I tried reproducing the spell, and managed to do it. I could now recover my mana a lot faster, but it created an issue that I would have to suck the mana from the area around me. And I started thinking about the side effects. I made it in such a way that it would only start absorbing mana one foot away from me, and make the mana touching my skin twice as strong.

I tried to channel a flame. The flame I created could only keep the flame within the foot of mana area that I created. This is promising.

Then I noticed how tired I was, and I laid down. I don't remember actually going to sleep.

The next morning, Andrew woke me up. We went outside, and in the forest just a bit. He tied my armor to some tree. I was bringing the armor, he brough a bow and arrows, a couple of lances, and a halberd. I asked him to avoid any test that would destroy it.

“Cool it, kid. If it gets destroyed, I will get you a new one.”

He smiled with malice, and picked the bow. He shot an arrow right in the middle of the chest piece tied to the tree. The thud we heard sounded more like a shot than a thud. The armor shook really bad. The bark of the tree, on the points that the armor touched it were gone.. We got close to take a look. The arrowhead was bent to one of the sides. The arrow was full of cracks. He gave me the arrow. It was a lot heavier than I expected. We took sometime to find the place where it was hit. There was a mark in the leather, but it was only as deep as I had done the crystal.

“This bow is actually special, it was done with my strength in mind. Normal bows are somewhere around 100 pounds. That happens because higher levels actually have some additional strength, so it is a nice pressure.

“As you would expect, my bow was made for my strength, that is kind of off the charts. This thing uses a thousand pounds of pressure. The arrows are specially designed as well, the first ones we tried to use were split that the bow's string.

He picked up another arrow, and shot against a tree. The sound was even lowder, and there was a small crater on the front. The tree, that was about 2 feet and half started to fall towards us. Of course, we sidestepped it.

We got close again to the armor tied to the tree, this time some 15 feet away. Andrew picked the spear, and then exploded. I heard this explosion. I didn't have mana going through my brain, so I was operating at normal time. The tree trunk behind the armor exploded, all the splinter going back. The spear in his hand broke.

I got closer to take a look. It was a mess. The tree, obviously, went down. A 3 feet wide tree came down.

Andrew was holding his former spear. Both pieces. The handle broke, it looked like the break that a bamboo would have. It had all these fibers.

The tip blade was completely bent.

“And this spear had a reinforcement spell on it. I wonder what Hefes would say about this.” And he laughed out loud.

“Why?”

“It was a dwarf that forged this spear. He told me that if I managed to break it, he would shave his beard. And believe me, a dwarf might shave his head, but never his beard.”

We walked along the splints of wood, looking for the armor piece. It had hit a couple of trees, and then was on the ground.

“Just remember, kid, a hammer will still kill you. The tree this was on is still a goner. I am still curious as what is going to happen with you in the future. I mean, you're still level 10. With your tricks, you could probably already match a noble in a fight.”

“Oh, talking about, I have a new trick that I wanted to test with you. Can you help me?”

“Sure.”

We got back to the stump that we used to test my armor. I took a look at the armor, it was as good as new, so I dressed it.

I got close to the stump, and used the spell I had learned last night. But I place a lot more mana than I placed in the jewel. I spent about a third of my mana, but it started to recover immediately. Andrew looked at me, kind of freaked,

“What the fuck?”

“Don't worry, it is just an area of zero mana. Your mana is not going to recover inside it, but other than that, no worries. Now, please, shoot something at this stomp.”

He first shot a fire bolt. There was a flash of fire right after his hand, but the flame died. He tried again, same thing. He concentrated more and tried a bigger fire spell, but other than the flash of fire being bigger, it did not change. On my side, I could feel the input of mana. It was actually charging me.

Then he tried a lightening aimed at the stomp. The electricity stayed on his hand.

“I noticed that when you launch a firebolt or a fireball, you have to get something burning, something that is going to carry the flame to the target. That something is the mana. With the lightning, it is the same thing… You create a path with mana that the electricity can use to get to the target. But this area, this… Sanctuary spell, creates an area of zero mana. If the area is long enough, the mana disperses. It is like shooting in the water.”

I could see that Andrew understood that. Heh, former soldier.

“Can YOU use spells inside it?”

“Well, there are two things at play here. First, I can control the area that has mana, and the area that doesn't. So I could still use another spells, but I would need to create a tunneling for it. I have to practice a lot more to be able to do that. I can work another way as well, though. I can use stuff that is a mix of magic and science, so that I can get some effect without using mana directly.”

“What about reinforcement spells?”

“They are going to work because they are inside you. You will not recover the mana spent easily, though. The thing you mentioned that magic doesn’t work inside other people is kind of true. I am still kind of working on it.”

“For the gods! How strong do you intend on getting, kid? And what do you mean, not using mana directly?”

“Just a second. Shoot the stomp again, with the weakest magic fire you can. Put in the smallest amount of mana that is going to do the trick. You may want a barrier in front of you.”

I removed the sanctuary spell, and did my thing. He shot the stomp with a very weak firebolt. As expected, it exploded. The flames were really hot, but I was behind a shield, and so was he.

The stomp was gone. The place it was in was a scorched crater, about 6 feet. The nearby trees were catching fire.

“What the hells? What did you do?”

“This is what happens if you light fire under pure oxygen. Air is around one fifth oxygen, the rest are some other gases. Basically, it just burned, but really fast. And that’s an explosion: something burning really fast.”

I turned to the trees burning, and removed all the oxygen from the places around the fire. Funny enough, this wasn’t a costly thing in terms of mana, in particular because it was more of a filter thing than bending nature to my will. I just pushed the oxygen to the side, while leaving the other gases. This way, although I had to use mana to counterbalance the osmotic pressure, but it wasn’t really a big deal.

“I’m impressed, kid. I have to say, and don’t get me wrong, you’re a monster. Again, how strong do you intend to get?”

“Well, I don’t know. First is about surviving, and this world is messed up. Then, it is about understanding stuff. That’s what I liked to do on Earth; my goal was to understand what is around us. I think I am going to keep going for a long time. It is fun.”

“Anyway, keep most of that to yourself, you don’t want anyone else to learn about that.”

We got back home, and I got all my stuff. I was wearing my armor, and the rest of stuff would fit a large bag, that I would carry on my back.

“Anyway, what are you going to do now?”

“I am going to do some work for the guild, I guess. Let’s see what comes up.”

“Good luck, kiddo. It was really nice knowing you. As long as you don’t get the village killed, you’re welcome anytime.”

We shook hands, and he pulled me in for a hug. He had saved me. He had taught me. We didn’t know each other for a long time, but we were close at this point.

I turned away, and left for the road. I infused some mana to my leg muscles, and started to jog, all the way to the town. Sometimes I would walk to rest a little, and then repeat the process. The sanctuary spell actually kept itself and gave me additional mana. Keeping the monsters away was a bonus.

I got to the town by sunset, and went to the guild. It had the same look as it had previously.

I went over to the service counter, and shouted “Rose!”

She appeared a minute later,

“Hey, how are you? Marcelus?”

“Marcelo, actually.”

“You have an accent. Where are you from? South?”

“Well, like Andrew mentioned, I am not from around.”

“Sure, hon, how can I help you?”

“I need a room, and some work.”

“The room is going to be 1 silver a night, breakfast and supper included. The quests are on the board. There is an outside bath that you can use, if you want.”

I handed over half my coins, and we went through the same process.

I have to admit that when I was here with Andrew, I didn’t look around as much. Neither had I spoken with a lot of people. I went upstairs, took off the armor, grabbed a change of clothing and came down.

I went ot the outside bath. It was a side construction. Inside it, it had some stools, a manual pump in the middle, and a bucket. I filled the bucket with water, and washed myself. No soap, but at least I got the sweat from running off. Not like people in here smell all that good.

I did a breeze with fire spell, and dried myself mostly, then used the change of clothes.

I went back inside the guild, left the dirty clothes on the floor, and got back down to eat. I ate some stew with some tough bread, and it was kind of good. After that, I went over to the board and started looking for work.

The top paying one was the hunt of a plated rhino. Apparently, it was kind of a recent one. Reward: 5 gold.

This looks promising. That is 50 days of inn, that was the currency I was going by right now. I picked it up, and brought it to service counter. Rose was serving some ale to an adventurer. She saw me, placed the jar on the bar counter, and came over.

She didn’t even go behind the counter. She took a look at the paper, “Are you sure you want to pick that one up?”

“Why?”

“First of all, you don’t look all that strong. This would be a team quest, and that is why it is paying so much. It should be at least 5 people. Hence the 5 gold; one gold for each one. Other than that… Are you that nice a guy?”

“What do you mean?”

“Gods, are you that naïve? Sure hon. Let aunty Rose explain to you, but you owe me a beer. And don’t tell anyone what I am telling you, I am just doing this because of Andrew.

“This plated rhino was sighted kind of far from the village, and this is the first quest regarding it. It should be killed to protect us, but right now the threat is not all that much… Most adventurers would wait for the reward to double before hitting this kind of quest. Here, take a look.”

She pulled out a book from under the counter, and started looking at it. She found the page she was looking for, and turned it over to me.

In the page, there was the plated rhino’s description, and a very detailed picture. It resembled a rhino, sure, but that thing was almost a triceratops! The weird thing was that the nose horn looked broken, while the other ones were intact. Then I read the description.

‘The plated rhino is similar to a rhino, but it has a much stronger skin. His front plate is almost impenetrable. It is known for grabbing land with his mouth, hardening it, and shooting it through his nose horn. His other horns are also dangerous and somewhat sharpWeak points: it’s skin is the thinnest under the belly. In this place, it is almost as easy to pierce as the skin of a rhino. Usable materials: horns, skin, meat. Level to defeat, 5 x 20. . ’

“Are you sure you are up for that, kid? Remember, there is a fifth penalty for failing the quest. Do you even have one gold coin if you go there and give up?”

“Why post it, then?”

“Even dragons sometimes go hungry. It’s just that if someone appears that wants to do some charity and slay it early for cheap, we are good.”

I thought about it. The village did not seem all that rich. I was kind of happy with the 5 gold. I was confident that, with some of my strategies, I wouldn’t have to fight much.

“I will take it!”

Rose looked at me with sadness in her eyes, grabbed the paper and placed under the counter.

“I know I am not your mom, but listen as if I were. Take care. I will let you scout the beast tomorrow, if you decide not to engage it, I will spare you the quest failure fee.”

She grabbed my ear, and pulled me closer. Damn, she was strong. She whispered in my ear.

“If you mention this to anyone, ANY-ONE, I am going to skin you alive. Got it?”

She let go of my ear, I massaged it and stepped back.

I went up to my room to rest, and just fell asleep.

Next day, I woke up and had breakfast. I put the armor on. I grabbed my bag, now empty, and place around my body, so that I could bring back stuff. I got the directions on where to find the plated rhino with Rose. She mentioned that the proof of kill would be a left ear. And reminded me that the leather and horns were valuable as well. Then sighed once, and gave me some gods blessing.

Once I left the village, and started moving towards the plated rhino, I put on the sanctuary spell. Then I ran towards the place where I could find the beast.

As I was told, at one point I got to a clearing in the forest, and there it was. I was huge, the size of a semi, lazily eating some grass. I immediately entered fight mode, where I enhanced my brain and eyes, and everything came to a slower pace. I started to see the points of mana all around.

Once I looked at the monster, I could see that fire at the base of the neck was a lot more convoluted than the ones I had already fought. Hum… I may actually benefit a lot from this.

I started pumping the oxygen around that the clearing out. I have to actually get close to that. It looked around, like it was sensing something was odd, but then got back to eating. Apparently there wasn’t much that could scare it in these parts.

After almost a minute, I created a sphere of normal air around me, as I entered the clearing.

It saw me, and it roared. I roared back. It got really angry, and started charging at me. Then it slowed down. Then it walked two steps, then it fell down. It’s breathing was irregular.

I got close to it, and now it looked at me with fear. I circled around it, so that I did not stand in front of it. I place my hand close to it’s neck and delivered the fatal blow, base of the skull with the sword.

It cried and died. I still can’t shake my earthly emotions completely, but things are what they are. This monster would kill humans, so the had to kill it. Then the experience hit me. The sensation of pure bliss coming over. The energy, everything. I took my sweet time absorbing and enjoying it.

I cut off the ear, the proof for the job. Now, what should I do with this thing? I tried to pull it, but it was too heavy. I could move it, but that wouldn’t work all the way to the village. I had brought the bag to bring back stuff, and it was a large bag, but still…

I looked around, and there were some black birds on the branches where the clearing ended. Well, you guys are going to be luck.

I started the process of cleaning, and managed to retrieve the leather and the horns. It was actually easy, with the sword, but it was still a long time. I also cut some pieces of meat from around its ribs. Funny thing, it wasn’t as much fatty as I though. It was mainly muscles. Underneath the skin, instead of a fat pig, that thing was built more like a tank comprised of muscles.

I packed what I could, cleaned and sheathed my sword. Said to the birds, “It’s all yours now, guys.” Funny enough, I am almost sure they could understand me.

When I got a little away from the carcass, they started flying in, eating small pieces, and looking at me. They looked like crows, in spite of being on the bigger side. I had never seen a crow alive, just in pictures, so I couldn’t really judge, but those were big birds. It looked like their body was three feet across.

I went to the end of the clearing, and sat a down a little to take a little break and kept watching the birds. I set up a sanctuary spell, and relaxed a little.

A hard leather wolf appeared close to the birds, growling. Just for the kicks, I shot a firebolt close to it’s paws. It noticed me. I shot another one, and it went away. It will come back later, let the little guys have a little of food. It’s not like they are going to eat the whole thing.

I just rested a little. One of the birds came to the limit of the sanctuary spell, and landed. It turned its head to look at me sideways. Turned to look at me at the front. Cawed, and flew back to the carcass and kept on eating.

After I had my rest, I picked up my stuff and left. I was rested, my mana was full, I just jogged back to the guild. I actually took a lot less time going back. Probably because of levels I gained. I decided to take a look:

As I looked inside me, I could see that I had a new ability, but not as useful as I would hope. I could shoot rock bullets. The problem is that I had to gather some kind of soil to do that. It didn’t have to be hard soil, apparently earth or sand would do, but then I could shoot it. The speed of the bullet would be controlled by amount of mana. The larger the bullet, the more mana spent, though.

When I finished that, I was at the guild already. I was walking kind of distracted.

I got there, and Rose was at the counter, talking to a party. The party was saying something that I didn’t make out, I just heard Rose say, “There he is”.

She turned to me, and looked me up and down. She made a questioning look and pulled me aside to a corner. She was whispering.

“So, did you give up?”

“No, why do you ask that?”

“Well, you do have a sword, and I see no signs of fight… What happened?”

“Oh… Ah… I managed to ambush it, imagine my luck. I got it asleep, I went straight for the stomach, I got really lucky.”

“Kid, you can piss on my face, but don’t try to tell me that it’s raining. You don’t want to say, fine, but be a better liar next time. Prepare a story in advance… Something like ‘I prepared a trap, I am that good’. HAHAHAHA.”

We came back to the counter, where the party was, and I opened my bag, and gave her the ear, the horns (they were big), and the leather. I kept the gem to myself, I still wanted to take a look at those things.

Rose managed to keep a cool face. It looked something like business as usual.

The party looked at the stuff on the counter, then looked at me. This burly older guy, big as a closet, turned to me and asked:

“What level are you, boya?”

“I thought it is impolite to ask that. I am leveled enough.”

“The last time I saw someone take out a plated rhino alone was a noble, a local knight. And he was level 45. He actually bragged about his level.” He was looking at me in a menacing way.