The Quantum Wanderer

I portal over to the forest near Frolk, and go to the guild. I put on my steel tag, I am going to start using that one normally.

Cecilia gets excited…

“Someone has gotten promoted! Hey, do you want a wife? If you reach mithril, I will even go for concubine…”

“What if I become adamantite?”

“I will help manage your harem. And you can stick any-whe-re.”

And she puts her tongue out. I have to say, holding the information in is very hard at this point. If this wasn’t just a joke…

I laugh that aside, and go have my bath and go to my room. I lay on the bed, thinking about all the talk with Leopold. But I already have plans for the following day. Specially now that I am in a good place in terms of level, I think that hunting dragons is going to be a lot easier. I wonder how many levels I can get, and how much money.

I inspect my body, and I come to a conclusion… My skin is tough, by my insides are soft. But perhaps I can solve this problem if I strengthen the bones.

I focus on the bones, in particular in the areas that have calcium on it, and I place filaments of neutron crystals. I don’t have to do a lot of meshing to make the bone indestructible, and I have to keep the blood flowing, the nervous system connected, etc.

I do the same to my skull.

Then I study my regeneration. At this point, the organs in the chest are protected against crushing, the skin cannot be pierced. The only thing that I have to worry about now is poisoning and taking hits that will hurt through an impact. Like a drop from a very high altitude, I can still have a concussion, and those are not fun. I must find a way to try to mitigate that problem. My ‘Knight Rider’ project is on. I want to be as resistant as that car.

My current problem with the regeneration is that it is not automatic. I have to cast it. That means that if I loose conscience, I am done. Of course, my skin will not go back to normal, because now is the new normal. But I could be strangled or beaten to death.

I focus on my left pinky with my internal senses. I remove the scales from it, so that it goes back to normal. I focus on the knowledge of regeneration, and look out for the mana structures that it ends up using, and see the formation.

I draw it on the bone, fixing it with the neuron crystals. It doesn’t have to be big. Matter of fact, it is better to have several tiny ones than a big one. It is more cost effective. Kind of like a firebolt is better in terms of mana cost per damage, while a fire ball will do 3 times the damage, but will cost 9 times more. Normal people cannot shoot 9 firebolts at once, and that’s the reason they use expensive magic.

Now the test. I get a normal knife, and cut my finger.

I sense the little mana consumption, and the tissue is back together. I take a deeper look at it, I didn’t really expect this to work on the first time. I put my senses to the max, and cut it again.

What happened was that my own healing process and immune system activated the spell. I jump for joy.

I calm myself, and cover the finger with the scales again. Then I start the process. I go top to bottom.

When I finish, it is night already. I missed dinner.

I go down, I have no idea on what time it is. I am really hungry.

I take a look behind the bar counter, there is the kitchen. The oven is made of iron, it uses wood. Of course, it is off now. I see the skillets and pans hanging from the wall. Well, why not? Perhaps as long as I don’t make too much sound…

I grab a skillet, and put it on the oven.

I take my magic bag, and take the Fenrir meat out. I cut a large steak, and put it on the skillet. I put the other several pounds back on the bag. Let’s never forget to sterilize it.

I just warm the skillet with fire magic. The sizzling sound. The meat is a little marbled. Looking closely, if I activate my senses, I can see that there is mana in the meat… This should be good.

I am really focused on the steak. I do some fire magic to torch the top of it… The smell coming out is absolutely fantastic.

I feel some movement behind me, “Drop the knives and turn around slowly!”

At this point, there is not much that could hurt me, but I do it anyway.

Cecilia is in a long pajamas, holding a bow, with an arrow cocked, to the limit. She sees it is me, she lowers it down.

Then she smells it.

“Can I lower my arms now? The steak is going to get burnt.”

…

I turn around, and I finish the stake.

“Since you’re here, where are the plates?”

She points to a cabinet, I grab a plate and put the steak on it.

“What is that?” She asks.

“It’s steak. I am hungry. I was doing some magic stuff in my room, and now it’s late.”

“Yeah, I saw that you missed supper. I knocked, but you didn’t answer. I thought you might be doing something pri-va-te.”

She then did that weird face she always did, and continued.

“Steak of what?”

“Fenrir. Where do keep the salt?”

She opened her eyes wide, and made this hungry puppy face.

“Sure, grab a plate.”

She opened a cabinet, handed me the a little pot of salt, picked up a plate, I cut the steak in half, and put half on her plate. She opened another counter, got a pair of mugs, and poured in ale from a barrel.

We sat down on one of the tables of the closed guild.

I started eating. They don’t really have fork here, I just cut piece of meat with my knife and ate.

She kept smelling it. Then she cut it with a knife she brought from the kitchen, and ate it. She looked like a kid, with this face of happiness. After taking her abuse for so long, I just couldn’t resist.

“I wonder if any man will ever be able to make you do that face.”

“Why? Do you want to try?”

Now I was flustered. That didn’t quit work the way I expected.

We chit chatted while I prepared another piece of steak.

When we finished, she was slapping her stomach like a seal.

“Hubby, congratulations. This was wonderful. I didn’t know that my hubby could cook. Don’t tell anyone around what we ate. They don’t see meat like that in their life time.”

“I didn’t really cook, just added the salt.”

The meat was incredibly tender, apparently what makes the stronger monsters tough is the mana. With the monster dead, the meat becomes tender. The mana is still there, I can sense my mana going up as I digest the meat, and that adds to the experience as well.

“You’re full of surprises. What else do you have?”

I put my head down, and do my best James Bond impersonation.

“I could say that, but then I would have to kill you.”

She laughs, and I do to.

This was fun. And I am full.

I wake up the next day feeling really good. Leopold was right, the plated rhino was way worse than the other meats. I can only imagine what the dragon meat is going to taste like. But if Fenrir already threaked Cecilia out a little bit, I am only going to put that out once I know that I cannot be messed with.

I go down for breakfast, today is going to be intense. I think I am going to try to hunt a couple of dragons.

I open a portal to the cave that I have been before. An idea hits me. This is far enough from human population that the portal is not all that expensive.

I use fire and earth magic block the cave and expand it. I make it the top half of a sphere, the size of a football field. I mean, why not?

I create then shelves made of stone all around, this is a good place to keep my stuff. At the ceiling, I place the plated rhino gem, and draw the runes for a light spell.

I look for bacteria in the air, but the only bacteria there are the ones that I brought. That makes sense, no bacteria would be able to survive lava temperatures.

I go to the thinnest wall I have, and do some sensing. The thinnest wall is 20 feet. I sidestep it, coming out the other side. I put on a sanctuary to recover that mana. I start running towards the big lake that I was shown on the map. I don’t know if this was also part of levelling up, but my sense of direction is also better.

I pass by the lake I have been already, the one where I got the dragon and the Fenrir. Not much there. I continue going through the branches of trees, moving forward at a speed that I found comfortable.

Since the area is getting dangerous, I keep myself buffed. The sanctuary spell, ever more efficient since the level up, keeps feeding me the excess mana. Although I am moving almost leisurely, I can see that time is actually slowed down, a lot, around me. I am feeling way heavier than normal, but my new strength and the reinforcement on the muscles can circumvent that easily. Of course, I know that this is just side effects of the brain enhancement.

At that point, I sense something and I look up.

There are three dragons flying. They were not flying at me at first, but then they see me. Even sped up like I was, they were reacting almost as fast as me. It’s a V formation, the one big one in the front. It was almost twice as large as the other two ones. And those two were the size of the one I had killed previously.

Apparently, they saw me as well, as they turn and start coming at my direction.

I put my feet on the trunk of the tree, and jump with all my strength.

When I am getting close to the big one, it opens it’s huge maw, and the fire starts to come.

I sidestep and position myself between the two smaller ones. I am kind of close, and they are huge. I put the soul absorption on all three of them, and then I shoot a spike on the head of each one. The big one stops the fire and turns its head around. I can see the realization.

I then sidestep to his front, but I still have the momentum. I take my sword out, and impale it in the back of the neck. The sword goes all the way in, and my arm as well. And this thing is still turning it’s head. I throw this maser in all directions, and the beast goes limp.

Now we are falling. All four of us.

I try to put the big one in the bag, it doesn’t work. With magic, I drag the smaller ones closer. Now we are this big mass of three dragons around me, falling to the ground. I open a gate to my cave, and we hit the floor there, and slide a little. The portal closes, and I start feeling the pain. Then everything goes black.

I don’t know what time it is. First thing, I sterilize the cave, I don’t want this meat decaying. Now, I take a closer look at the state of the dragons.

I inspect the leather on the wings. The level of resistance in the big one is a lot more than in the smaller ones. I take a look at my bag, and I get thinking… Hum…

The leather is resistant, and doing this is going to take some time. I cut out a piece of the tip of the large dragon’s wing, and start my work. I dry out the leather, and start processing. I had already a template I could use, and when you have access to see the molecules, things are a lot easier.

I make line out of the dragon’s ligaments, and dry it up. I sow it up. I create a place on the bottom and place the parent dragon jewel in it. Funny thing, the gem itself was not that big. It was the size of my hand. But it’s structure… The mana density was unbelievable, and really delicate and beautiful, like a kaleidoscope of mana fractals.

I use the enchantments that I have on my bag, and I add a mana pathway that would allow me to recharge my bag.

When I activate it, I notice that it sucks in a lot of air. Half the air in the cave is gone, I am having some trouble breathing, and then I infuse my lungs with mana.

I open a very small portal the forest close to Andrew’s house, and I can hear the air coming in, until the pressure equalizes.

I sterilize the cave again.

That actually gets me thinking… What if I open a portal to space? To the bottom of the sea? To the center of the sun…?

I place other two spikes on my bracers, and then I look at the big dragon. I stick my arm inside its head, find my sword, and pull it out.

I am bloody, head to toe.

I bag all three dragons in my new bag. I take a look, it is not even half full.

Time to take a look at the stats.

This is good! Some of my numbers are better than Andrew’s. That is a big thing. I am kind of disappointed with my stealth right now, I will think of ways to improve it in the future.

Ok, time to work. First, remove all this blood from myself. I open a portal outside Frolk, and go to the guild to have a bath.

Cecilia, of course, phreaks out with my appearance. She tells me that if I hand her the armor and the clothes that she could wash them. I appreciate that, actually.

I have bath, get cleaned up. I dry my stuff and put it back on.

Once I get to Cecilia again, I try to pay for the service, but she doesn’t accept. She says that it is not a service, it’s a favour. And that she is going to get angry if I insist. I already know how to thank…

I ask her to take a look at the map, and find the two nearest countries.

“Cecilia, do these also speak [common]?”

“Yup. Are you planning on doing some tourism?”

“Something like that.”

“I see… You use me, then you leave me… Poor me, that fell on the honeyed words of a men…” She says, placing her arm on her forehead. I am starting to think that guild crazies is probably a thing.

“Do these capitals also have guild branches?”

“Yes. And, of course, the guilds in the capitals are the big ones.”

I memorize the map.

“Ok, thanks. I will be going now.”

I go into the forest. This is going to take a little experimenting.

Just like I did with the space folding, I unfold the space close to me. Just enough that I remove a lot of the gravity. Cool, I have to be careful not to be sent to outer space now.

Now, I am going try to absorb the air on top of me, and expel it by my feet. Very slowly, I start to go up.

It’s a weird feeling, I feel like a child that is starting to learn to walk. I am definitely have to train this a lot more in the future.

I shoot up, so that I get above the clouds. I enhance my lungs with mana.

I look down, and I can see the curvature of the world. It’s beautiful. I turn around, look at everything. The chain of mountains to one side, Frolk just beneath me, really small, the roads, the baronage capital, so tiny…

I look on the other direction, I can see the kingdom’s capital in the distance, the place where I was summoned.

I look over the horizon, and see the generic area of the empire. I see something that is probably a pretty huge city, larger than the kingdom’s capital. I open a portal at the same height, to that point, and cross it. I am close to being on top of the capital, but people cannot be seen with a normal view.

I start to get down, on a piece of forest close to that city.

I land softly, the forest floor cushioning my descent. As I step out of the shadows of the trees, I am greeted by the sprawling expanse of the empire's capital. The city is alive with motion, a symphony of activity, with its towering structures and bustling streets stretching out as far as my eyes can see.

There is a part of the city that is outside the walls and then this big huge stone wall.

Determined to explore, I make my way towards the heart of the capital, navigating through narrow alleyways and broad avenues, each filled with people and their stories. My senses are heightened, every sound, every scent painting a vivid picture of the empire's vibrant life.

When I come to the wall, there is this big line of people trying to get in. I come close to the guards, and show them my steel guild tag.

They let me in immediately, and go back to doing the customs for the rest of the people. I put my hood up, and enter the city.

The buildings inside the wall are grand and ornate, reflecting the wealth and history of this place. I notice the intricate details carved into the stone facades, the majestic arches and columns that speak of a bygone era. It's a stark contrast to the simpler, humbler structures of the baronage capital.

The guild, as always, is close to the entrance. I go in, and it is buzzing with people. Lots and lots of people here. I go over to a station, and wait in line.

When my time comes, a young girl smiles at me, and looks at the tag that is around my neck, a steel one.

“How can I help you, adventurer?”

“I would like to talk to the guild master.”

And I show her the mithril tag. She disappears behind the counter, and comes out a couple of minutes later, from another place.

“Come with me, please.”

I enter the guild master’s room. This is a large room. The kind of mobilia is the same as Leopold’s, but a lot more spartan, it has this military feel to it.

The guild master is behind the desk.

The girl closes the door and goes away.

The guild master doesn’t stop reading. He looks strong as well, probably stronger than Leopold.

“Yes?”

I place Leopold’s letter and my mithril tag on the table. Now he stops reading the parchment, opens up the letter, and reads it. Then he takes out his guild ring, my tag, and put them over the letter. Apparently that satisfied him.

“Ok. What can I do for you?”

“I came to sell a carcass for dismantling.”

“Talk to the lady downstairs.”

“Not these. Dragon carcass.”

“You? Ok, follow me.”

We go downstairs, the structure is very similar, with also the hidden basement.

I take one of the smaller dragons out of the bag.

“I never thought I would ever see a dragon up close and live to tell. Specially a dead one. Can I see your tag?”

I show him the mithril tag again.

“No, your real tag.”

I take out the enchanted adamantite tag, and show him. He looks at it, and handles it like a kid that is seeing an expensive toy for the first time. He handles it back.

“Thank you.”

He calms down, and recovers his military manners.

He motions me to follow him, and we go back to his office.

He gets a piece of paper, writes something, signs and put the guild crest on it.

“This is your receipt, sir Marcelo. Can I assume you want anonymity?”

“Yes.”

“Ok. You have done this before, so you know how it goes. We are going to have to auction it. Because you recently have sold another one, this is not the big news the previous one was. We should have everything wrapped up in a month or so.”

“Is there a way to let Leopold know it’s done? He could contact me.”

“Yes, no problem.”

“Thank you.”

I was impressed, he was very normal for a guild master.

I do the same for the guild in the Holy Kingdom’s capital.

It’s late already, so I think I am going back to Frolk. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day.