The Quantum Wanderer

I wake up, and do my personal grooming. Today I am going to go shopping.

There are some improvements that I am needing, that are going to make my life easier…

I get some additional nails, another two dozen spikes.

Then I go to the leather shop, and show the manager my design.

“So, I have to be able to put this in here, but under pressure it has to be able release it, without breaking or ripping. Imagine I am going to pull it this way, I want it to release it. But, if I am not pulling hard, it has to stay that in there.”

I can see that the manager is confused, he scratches his head.

“Ok. I will try a couple of things. A normal one, without this thing, was going to cost you 2 silver. But since this is customer made, specially since you have to approve the design, I am going to charge you a gold coin.”

“Fine, I will want two. I will pay half now, half upon delivery.”

“Ok. Come in tomorrow morning.”

I give him one gold coin, and go about my business.

I gear up, and go to the forest. It is time to try new things. I have over three thousand of mana. It’s time to play with it a little bit.

The first thing I am going to try is to mess with quantum possibilities. Physics describe an electron as a wave equation. That wave equation, when squared, gives you the position of the electron in a specific place. When you measure the electron, then it actually becomes a physical thing that is in a particular place of all the options. That is when an electron equation collapses. But now, I am in a place where the Planck constant is higher, so this makes everything a little more… possible.

I check my surroundings, as always. I am alone, nothing in a wide distance.

I focus my mana on my mind, and then I focus on changing the odds. On being 6 feet to my right. And I trigger the mana. I put in a little, about the same I would use for a firebolt. Nothing. Now I do the process again, increasing the amount of mana.

Once I get to success, I rest a little, with the sanctuary spell, I replenish my mana quite easily. Everything is so much easier now, with my level up. This all feels amazing.

Next step is trying to understand how far, and how expensive it all is. I spend all day on this. Test, test, test, replenish mana, test test test, replenish mana, and then repeat.

I found out that for 6 feet, I spend around 50 mana. For 12 feet, I spend 200 mana. For 20 feet, I spend around 450 mana. So now I have my answer, the mana spent is around the distance ratio, squared. That mean that for 3 feet, I would spend only 50 mana. That’s a couple of firebolts, really. And it can save my skin. I think I am going to call it sidestep.

Look at the time, it is noon already, and I am tired. I go back into the city, and I take the day off. I decide to walk around the food stalls, see the stores, and have just a nice day out and about.

The next morning is the day where I can go to the guild to find out how much I can make on the carcasses I delivered.

When I get into the guild master’s office, all the same…

“Helo-o. How is the hero of Frolk doing? You are such a mean-ny. Poor Cecilia is feeling lonely…”

This guy knows how to make me uncomfortable. He seems to be having fun.

“Hello. Did you guys get to dismantle those things? Do you have the money?”

“Why yes, we did. Andrurin loves you. Then he hates you. Then he loves you again… So fu-un! Anyway, I can give you 80 gold for the Fenrir, 120 for the griffon, and the dragon…”

My mind was spinning. Two hundred gold. Most adventurers did not see that amount of gold in a lifetime. And I still had most of my gold, somewhere around 95 gold.

“The dragon…?”

“We just can’t. You were such brute, bringing in something like that…”

“What?”

“What we can do, if you allow, is sending the dismantled pieces to different capitals, for auction. This is the third dragon slayed in history. There are bigger dragons, but other two were also this size. So, we don’t have something to evaluate it. It’s too unique. But you should get a very high price for it.”

“Go ahead.”

“Oh, by the way… There is a lot of people with eyes on my hero of Frolk! The audacity!” He said, with his two hands over his heart. He then turned me, with a serious tone, and said,

“Nobles and crowns are after you. They don’t know who you are, but you did something that belongs in legends. Thousands of years old of legends. If the adventurer desires, he can get paid anonymously. The guild will never reveal your name. But the thirst for power is never quenched. Be careful not to get entangled.”

“The guild is not part of any country, nor do we fight any wars. We have more power than the countries, so we are protected, and that protection extends to the adventurers that do their job in good faith. But we cannot meddle in a country’s politics. And that includes a bad trial and a good execution.”

“Thanks for the heads up.”

He goes back to his weird act,

“I can think of ways for you to thank me… Any way, here is your money. And also, Andrurin set aside some steaks. These are griffon, these are Fenrir, and these are dragon.”

That’s my cue, I get my money, the steaks and leave. He is probably joking, but now the weird meter just hit red.

I walk around the city a little bit. I am feeling myself the guy. This is a lot of money. One silver and two large copper would pay for a room with meals included in an inn. I had enough for over 2000 days of this.

I go to my room, and I have another project in mind… I realized that if I cover my body with a neutron crystal, I wouldn’t be able to move. But, if cover my body with virus sized neutron crystal scales…

The scales would have some degree of freedom, they would be able to slide a little on top of each other.

I start the experiment with a very small portion of skin on my left pinky finger. Now, with the improved mana control, I can actually do it way faster.

The first question is if it is going to alter my sensibility… Passed.

Now I do on the pieces of skin that cover the joint… Passed.

The second test took a lot less than the first one, since I already figured out the shape the of the scale.

I decide to equip and do the rest in the forest. I am going to need sanctuary spell to replenish my mana, and if I do this here, some mana sensitive people may phreak out.

In the forest, I undress and I start the process of doing that to the whole body. It’s a very detailed process, because everything is so small. Manipulating the neutrons, making the scales… Once I am finished, I dress up and go back to the inn. This is around midnight.

I just go to bed.

I wake up hungry, and I get double the breakfast. I give Alice a large copper.

I go over to the leather shop, to pick up my things.

“Hi there.”

“Hey, how are you? Your stuff is done. Care to take a look?”

He places two hard leather bracers on the counter. I pick one of them, and helps me to put it on, tying to my right arm. This was quality work, actually. They guy designed some motifs in the hard leather, and there is a strip of hard leather, around 2 inches down from the elbow, and another one two inches from the wrist. There is a button thing close to each of them. Each of the strips has a tear instead of hole for the button to go in. But the leather is very hard.

I place a spike it, and put the leather strip against the button. Do that with the strip close to the wrist as well.

I move around, the spike is very secure. I check to see how much strength I have to use to take the spike out, by pulling on it. I have to use some, I am happy.

“Nice job, very good. Here’s your other gold.”

I leave the shop, with the bracers on. Easier than carrying them.

I decide that there is another spell I want to investigate, but I don’t want to be in a place with too many people, there are just too many ears and eyes around.

I close my grab my stuff, and I decide to go to Frolk. Nice, simple people. A small guild there, staying there should be cheap. And I can just pretend I am doing just some basic hunting.

I have to wait for the guild master to distribute the material, place it in the auctions, get all the money, and it is going to take some time. Besides, I want to get stronger before I start seeing the world. I consider myself strong right now, but it pays to be cautious. A village a little farther from the city may be better. Besides, I want to make sure that I get stronger than Andrew. That is going to put me in a safe place.

I grab my stuff, pass by the guild, to let Alice know that I will be in Frolk, and go on my way.

The guild in Frolk only has two guys on a table. Cecilia is sitting behind the counter, kind of playing with her hair as I enter the place.

“Marcelo! How are you? Oh my god! Did something happen? What happened to you? You look… Different.”

“Nope, nothing happened. I think I gained a level or two. Can I have a room?”

“Oh, they you just came back for little me? Sure, I will marry you!”

…

“The room is 8 large copper, with food included… How did you enjoy my food last time? Am I ready to get married?”

Is everyone that works with the guild this crazy? I place 4 silver on the counter, “Let’s make it 5 days.”

She starts writing the book, I mention,

“I have a deal with Leopold, that is going to take some time. Do you guys have a communication that can be used?”

“Not really. Did you tell them you’d be here?”

“Yes.”

“In that case, he will send a letter.”

She hands me the key, and I go up to keep my stuff.

I come down, this is already kind of late afternoon. I go over to the quest board, there is not much there.

I go to the counter, and ask her,

“Cecilia, can you help me with something?”

“Yes?”

“Do you know where I would be able to find strong monsters?”

“How strong?”

“Strong strong.”

“Heh? So my hero wants to be in the legends?”

I roll my eyes, she goes back and show me a map. It is a map of the region, better drawn than the one I had used to get here. It showed this village, a farther village down the road, the city, and the mountain range. She showed me a large lake in it, and said:

“There is a ley line close to this lake. Because of this, the closer you are to this area, the stronger the monsters. I would suggest you to not get too close.”

I take a look at the map, and try to locate the lake that I found the dragon by. It was kind of far.

“What do you know about this lake down here?”

“Well, that area is on a good distance from the ley line, so you might bump into something hard to kill. It might take a high thirties level party to kill. But it is close enough to the ley line that if you get unlucky, you bump into a picture monster.”

“What are we talking about? What would be a picture monster?”

“Well, the monsters there are going to be tough. Plated rhinos are the easy peasy if you compare to a Fenrir, for instance. You wouldn’t go after a Fenrir unless you had a balanced party, everyone on their thirties. But you might also get unlucky, and bump into a griffon. That would take a party in their fourties.”

“What if I bump into a dragon?”

“You die. But, at this distance? You could, but you’d be unlucky.”

“And the picture monster?”

“Sorry, I forgot you’re not from around. Pictures are kind of expensive, right? So the occasion that you might have one drawn, for adventurers, is if you are getting a funeral and your body is gone.”

“There are legends that two dragons were killed in the past, by heroes. They are probably true, because there are some stuff around, generally legendary level, that was made from dragon parts. The sword of the king is said to be one of those, make out of a tooth of a dragon. I have heard that there is this named magic bag that was made out of dragon leather, but that might just be nonsense.”

“Yup… Nonsense…”

I get the map I have, and I take notes on it on the places that Cecilia pointed out. Then I remember that there was something that I needed to check, and since I was here…

“Can I ask you a weird favor?”

“Shoot.”

“I got this skin reinforcement spell… Does the skin on my hand feel any different?”

She grabbed my hand, and passed her fingers through it. The she looked at my expression of ‘are we done now?’ and, instead of stopping, started making these faces…

“You and Leopold… Is this a guild thing or what?”

She laughed, and said that it felt absolutely normal. She pulled out a knife, and asked:

“Can I stab it? You know, just to make sure.”

Why was she looking like that was fun?

“No!”

“Oh, I get it… That was just an excuse… There is no reinforcement spell at all…”

I rolled my eyes, and placed the hand on the counter. Her hand flashed, and she did this stabbing from the top of her head, bum on my hand. If I wasn’t high level already, she would have smashed my hand.

“Hum, that must be nice.”

She looked at the knife, the tip was bent.

“My knife! Do you know how expensive knives are around here? You owe me a gold for my knife.”

This logic was messed up. But… It’s not like it would matter much. I gave her a gold coin. I can see by her face that she didn’t really expect a gold coin. She got embarrassed, picked it up slowly, and pocketed it.

I go over to the forest, and there is another magic that I want to try, preferably before dinner…

So… I understood that the magic bags basically allow to channel into the fourth dimension… But what if I could fold the space, and connect it through the fourth dimension? Like a hole through it.

I start channeling mana and trying to force that, but it is hard. I am trying to connect the position I am in with the point 15 feet away. It feels like the whole thing is not very flexible, like it is hard… I just don’t have the mana for it. Just of the kicks, I first think of Andrew’s house, and I feel where it would be at. So I try to do it just for the kicks… It bends, and now there is a sphere in front of me. But the sphere is Andrew’s living room. It works. I step through, and I get a strong hit in the back of my head. The hit is so strong that I actually roll and fall on my side. The gate is undone. I look up, and I see Andrew, with his sword.

He looks at me, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry …”

Then he shakes his head and continues.

“Wait, I am not sorry. What the fuck is this? How do you still have a head? Could you not fucking do this without a warning?”

I use some water magic and put some ice on my neck. I stand up, and sit on a chair.

“What level are you now?”

“One question at a time, and slow, pls.”

“Ok. What level are you now?”

“63.”

“I don’t really like cursing too much, but fuck. How?”

“Well, you know that trick to get more levels killing the same thing?”

“Yeah”

“It works with big stuff too… So a couple of plated rhinos… A griffon… A dragon… “

“A what?”

“A griffon.”

“Oh.”

“A dragon.”

“You do realize that the crown is going to try to put a leash on you, right? Who knows about this?”

“Just Leopold, from the guild in Orora.”

He shook his head a little, made a face.

“Then you should be fine. Honest as a guild. He is ok. You do realize that I would never dare doing that, right?”

“Yeah, I kind of cheated. I have a couple of new spells.”

“I can see that. Do you have anything else interesting? How come you still have a head?”

“Well, I applied the same material of the sword on my skin. In scales, though.”

“Hum. And what is that brace?”

I showed him the brace, with the spike on it.

“This spike is how I killed the dragon, actually. It is possible to shoot something using magnet instead of powder. This spike is also enhanced.”

“So you used a magneto-gun thingy?”

“Yeah… On Earth it would be called a railgun.”

“You’re probably way stronger than me. Again, from a dragon I only thing I want is distance. Those things are fast, strong, and cruel. And with a lot of magic on top of it.”

“I got lucky. I am also going to train with this one.”

I gestured to where the portal was.

“Well, next time you do that outside. You almost gave me a heart attack, kiddo. Anyway… Do you need a place to stay or something?”

“Nope, this was just an experiment. I am going to go back.”

With this, I go through the same process, and I fold space, create the portal… And I get back to the forest. This time around, I am back to the same place I started, so nothing happens. What I notice is that the space folding actually gets easier with the distance. I don’t know if, at some point, it is just going to get harder again because I am involving more space on the folding, I will just have to see. Another thing I noticed is that I need to know a little bit about the place. I have this feeling about the places I have been, that I don’t have about somewhere new. However, I can actually fold the space and create a portal directly where I want. The being there just helps me anchor it.

I spend a couple of weeks like this. I go out, I exercise the use of my spells, I talk to Cecilia. There is this one chance where she starts this game of chicken, but she gets me on a day that I am kind of tired of her shenanigans. I actually don’t back down, she gets all flustered and hides in the ‘employees only’ section of the guild. It was fun to win at least one.

Some weeks go by with my self training. I eventually kill something that is coming close to the village. I am enjoying this place, so if something gets too close… And now the things that come close to the village are so easy to kill. I could probably punch a plated rhino down.

I am getting really good with the spells, they are demanding a little less effort.

The guild here has been my house. It’s an ok environment, I am not in want of any money. That’s a good thing, because the hunting quests are non-existent. Of course, probably because of me. But villages are already kind of poor anyway, it’s not like I would be needing money anytime soon. Most of the money I spent is on a piece of clothing here and there.

The other thing that is an open secret is that I heal most people that get hurt. I mean, after the goblin incident, people already know I can heal. And everyone is told that the time this comes out, I am gone. No more healing. Specially because I didn’t want to register with the church. They had the monopoly, and I just don’t really trust them.

The weeks turn into a month. It is officially the longest I stayed in a place in this world.

At one point, I come back at noon, and Cecilia gives me a letter… And she is smiling, but that mischievous smile.

“You have an admirer… The letter is even perfumed.”

I grab the letter, it is perfumed. Of course, the guild seal. The letter read “Your metal is here. L.” Nice, my money arrived. I go back to the forest, and create a gate to some part of the forest near the city, and go through it. Good, nothing around. I mean, some horned rabbits, some moles, a couple of crows, but no humans.

I go to the guild, I am not even packing my back pack. I am in full gear, though, since I was in the forest. On a side, it made me feel kind of stupid, but I would feel naked if I went to the forest without my armor.

As I enter the guild master’s room, the same thing.

“Helo-o. How is my favorite brute?”

“I’m fine. How are things?”

He does a gesture, and I can feel that he sound proofed the room. He also does a look around, with his eyes shining.

“Well, you know… Having to suffer all kinds of brutalities from people trying to find my hon-ey.”

“Got it.”

“So, here is your money.”

He places a leather bag in the table. It is closed. It is the size of the money bag that I have on me, but about half as full. I feel kind of disappointed at first, then I open it. The coins are white, and I can feel a mana signature on them.

“Ye-es. Poor me was terrified walking around with all of that. Imagine if someone chose to attack me, and violent my sweet body…” He says, with his right forearm across his forehead.

“Anyway, 157 platinum, 40 gold, 5 silver. Of course, the guild got a little commission, as we had mentioned.”

I took a look another look at the bag. That’s a fortune.

“A noble’s house go for around 25 platinum. So be careful with that. And unless you have an explanation on how you got the money, remember people are not stupid. They might even say that you stole it. That’s why, in that bag, you have a receipt in a metal plaque with the guild’s seal. If you want to exchange the platinum for gold, a good way to do that is a city’s guild. Guilds in villages will not have the cash to do the exchange. Guilds in towns might be, but it is not certain.”

“Thank you… I wanted you opinion on something…”

“Sure, honey…”

“I want to go hunting again, I want to improve my level again.”

“What is you current level?”

I thought if it was something that I could mention to him or not.

“Is this something to be a guild secret?”

“Yes. I am too curious not to oath on it.”

“Right now I am a 63.”

His eyes opened wide. With a normal changed voice, that he only used when he was serious, he asked, “How?!?”

“Well, I have these tricks on me…” And I smiled.

His face went pale, the sudden realization hit him.

“By the gods. You’re the failed hero! I don’t believe it. I thought you were dead. All the information networks went crazy a couple of months ago. The summoning, killing several court mages. The sudden silence. The whispers of the failed hero, that couldn’t even speak the language, weak a child. HOW?!?”

I smiled. Well, the cat was out of the bag, and Andrew vouched for him. I mean, he already knew that I had slayed the dragon and the griffon.

“Ok, but you have to do a guild oath that none of this leaves this room.”

He was in chock for a little bit, and then he took out a ring. It was one of those seal rings, but this one had a gem in the middle, and a lot of mana.

“In the name of the guild, I promise that no other person will learn of what is said here and now from me.”

With my mana vision, I could tell that a piece of mana left the ring, and entered his right hand.

“So, what do you know about the summoning?”

“I know that you sacrifice several mages to get one hero. That hero is going to be more powerful than the mages. He is going to appear at the top of humanoid kind, knowing our language and how to fight. That’s just common knowledge, though.”

“Well, I don’t know about that part. I know about the other part. Basically, there are other planets. Perhaps other universes.

“If there is a summoning in process, and a person dies at that moment, the person is given the choice to go through reincarnation normally or to keep one’s memory and come here as a hero.

“But there is a choice that the person makes. Power or Potential. Either you come as the an already powerful hero, or come with the potential to not have a limit.

“In my particular case, you can say that I used to be a student, in a very enlightened college that studied Nature. In a very advanced civilization.

“Then I added that to magic. What do you know? Things just… work.”

“First be damned! I knew that dragon wasn’t just an accident.”

This is so fun right now… I take off my sword, and show it to him. I grab it by the blade. Now that I have the scales around my skin, this is doable. I handle him the sword, he is shocked.

“Be careful. This sharp. Supernatural sharp. Hold by hilt only, otherwise it *will* cut you.”

He holds the sword, marveled that it looks like a mirror. He goes over to a chair, and lays it down on the chair, with the edge down. The weight of the sword is enough to make it cut the backrest.

He holds it up, and looks at it again.

“How?”

“Well, I would have to explain a lot to help you understand. But that sword was a cheap iron one before I did that to it. It still is an iron sword underneath, actually.”

He handles me the sword, and I grab by the blade.

“Wait! …”

“Yes, I kind of did something like that to my skin, don’t worry.”

I put the sword in the sheath, and he looks at my hands. He infuses mana in his eyes.

“I don’t understand, it looks normal. No mana flowing… How?”

“Neeh, don’t worry too much about the hows.”

He goes to a corner of the room, gets a bottle of a drink, two glasses, and points to the sofas. We sit down. He pours a little dose for me, and a half a glass for himself, and gulps it all up in one shot. He then pours himself another dose, just like the one I have in front of me.

His funny persona is gone. I knew that was only a mask. As I realize that, I smile a little.

“What?”

“You’re not splitting the syllables anymore.”

“Fuck that. We are way past that now.”

I laughed a lot.

“What do you intend to do?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, you are probably the strongest humanoid. What are your plans?”

“So, that’s what I came to talk to you about. I plan on doing some big hunting. You know, I intend on leveling up.”

“And you want to be able to sell the materials later.”

“Yes.”

“Well, that would be a problem. The last stunt you did was a tough nut already, the whole world was kind of crazy with the dragon corpse. I actually had to get in touch with the guild master in the capital to make the receipt on the griffon come from there instead of here, so that we could split the materials. Griffon from there, Fenrir from here, and the dragon I just sent to guild upper management, so that people wouldn’t know where it came from.

“Oh, I almost forgot, there is something I have to hand you.”

He gave me a small wooden box, with several guilds identifications, one in each metal, like the one I carried on me.

“The guild has an adventurer level scale, that is different from personal level. It is granted to parties, generally, but… From lower to higher, we have iron, steel, mithril, adamantite, enchanted adamantite. They are made in different metals because when this was born, it was so that the plaque could be found, even if the body was gone. But the more resistant the metal, the harder it is to work with it, so the more expensive it is. Therefore, only adventurers that went after harder challenges would get more resistant plaques. With time, it became a status, and the guild would use those according to the adventurer’s advancement.

“I am giving them all to you because you’re being granted enchanted adamantite level. I mean, you killed a dragon. That decision came from guild upper management.

“Generally speaking, people go through all the levels before getting to one of them. Everyone starts with iron. But if you get to mithril, that means that you most definitely went through steel. So normally, an adventurer with mithril status is able to actually use a steel plaque if he wants to keep on the down and low.

“But since you are this big exception…”

“What are the perks of each?”

“Well, iron already gives you free entry to cities. Steel gives you a better price in the guild. Mithrill will allow you to go to nobles neighborhoods in the cities. It is comparable to small noblehood. Adamantite will allow you to talk to the king directly, and even mobilize guild forces. I mean, you are not going to have the guild power, but your word on an incoming attack, and helping will be taken very, very seriously. You also have access to services that the guild, in theory, does not provide. Equipment at a huge discount, free stays on any guild house, etc. You got the picture.”

“And the adamantite enchanted?”

“A target on your back, perhaps poison in your wine. Only heroes have them, sometimes not even them. It is not supposed to be granted to anyone, actually. We just had to have something… kind of unobtainable. It helps people to dream.

“Nobody knows that the world has an enchanted adamantite. Legends help people aim higher, right?”

I pick up the plaques, remove them from the box, and pocket them. He looks at me with a questioning look.

“Really, remove from the box like that?”

“Well, not like they are going to get scratched, right?”

He shakes his head. We take a moment, and he sips on the drink in front of him, I do the same.

“Can we go back to the hunting thing?”

“Sure. Like I told, I have no way of receiving another stock without raising flags.”

“What if I delivered that to another guild?”

“I can provide you a letter of introduction, you can take it with you. You would be faster than any carriage. The problem is that the meat would go bad… No, wait, you had a way to get it conserved, right?”

“Right.”

“Well, if you want to spend all that time, go ahead. I can provide you a letter of introduction, we can seal it with both the guild’s seal and your adventurer’s tag. That way, I don’t have to name you in it, and unless you get scried, the guild master is going to trust you without even knowing it is you. You would have to use capital guilds, though. Nothing short of a capital guild is going to be able to work with that.”

We create some letters with that, and he handles me that.

He undoes the silence spell, and sits back on the sofa again.

I get up to leave, he instead just lays down and does a ‘get away’ signal with his hand.

I leave the room.

***

Leopold POV

He is a normal kid. But he is not a kid. He could already be called a demi-god. I had the scriptures that described the battles with dragons. One of them had attacked a city, and basically levelled it. Magic was useless, swords could not penetrate. It was just after the war with the demons, and the hero’s party had come back unscathed. According to literature, the hero was a level 100, and all of the people in his party were over level 50.

They did kill the dragon, but only the hero came back.

And this kid, by himself, killed a dragon. As if it was nothing. And he mentioned that he is going to grow.

I wonder what will happen to the world if it happens to get on the bad side of a… god.