The Quantum Wanderer

“I don’t know about that. I did not take any pleasure on killing those guys, much less Piratress’s husband, that got caught in the crossfire. It leaves a bad taste. If you told me that this clean up would be improving the lives of the citzens, I would probably do it. But that city is so completely corrupt… I don’t know how corrupt the king is, but a lot of the cogs in the system can be tied up to him. And it’s not like they are threatening me.

“Right now I have an impression that I can create a lot of trouble just because of my strength. A problem created by the kingdom, maintained by the kingdom, that I will not solve… Should I really join that mess?”

Leopold places his hand on his chin and thinks for a moment.

“I actually appreciate your restraint.”

“Besides, I would have to do some investigative work, and I am not particularly good at it.”

“What do you mean? We didn’t even know Piratress existed.”

“Just because you didn’t even try to know. I know the guild has eyes everywhere.”

“So… What now? What are your plans?”

“I am not big on plans. Most of this I have just been going with the flow. I don’t have any big prophecy I am trying to fulfill. Or avoid, for that matter. Life is good, I am going to enjoy it with Cecilia and Shonda. What could be better?”

“You could have your own land, or power…?”

I pet Muninn on his chest, he craws.

“Power to do what? I don’t want to force anyone to do anything. Even the whole incident with the Shadows was just because it was threatening me, and I felt I had some leeway because Piratress had a long long list of crimes. I already kind of have everything I want.”

“Your lack of ambition is actually… Refreshing. Not many people are like that.”

I shrug.

We stay and chit-chat for a couple of hours, when the girls come back.

I can see we are all tired, so we leave the city, and portal to Frolk.

The following days go by peacefully. We do tourism during the day, and have fun at night. We grab our garbs from the clothing store in Orora.

It is time to visit the Demons, my leather artificer should be ready. As always, Rajesh seems happy to see me.

“My friend! Good afternoon. My ladies…” And he bows.

“I have the leather maister near, I will let him know that you are here.”

He talks something to the guard.

“Does he know [common]?”

“He doesn’t, but Siratra is coming to serve as translator.”

Shandon touches me shoulder.

“Yes?”

“I can translate, my lord. We do speak all languages, remember? That’s the reason we speak [common] as well.”

“Oh, that works great, thank you.” I turn to Rajesh.

“Now we don’t have to get in the way of Siratra’s work.”

“My friend, talking to you *is* her work. If want to make her happy, just share a bit of your revolutionary ideas. I think she is going to be quite disappointed, actually.” And he did one of those comfortable laughs, something more on making the other person comfortable than actually something funny.

“Ok. Sure.”

Sometimes I wonder if I might be exploiting these guys.

“So, Rajesh, how are things going along in the empire? What’s new?”

“Other than the improvements in the agriculture? Not much really. The war hit a kind of balance. So we haven’t been gaining or loosing ground. In little time I believe that we are going to be able to not have reason to fight anymore, with the change in our part of the continent. Having unending water is a bless that can change our culture. The only thing that is going to keep the fire of war lit is all the hatred, but there is not much I can do about that.

“But this is going to take some time. We have been building some of our water deseaing apparatuses, and once we have water then we will be able to *start* the whole thing. Until them, we are going to be dependent on the elves for food as we have been for a long time.”

“What do you guys produce?”

“We have some mines with gems if layered mana that allows us to trade with the elves and dwarves. The official reason the humans fight us is self preservation, so that they don’t have to give us lands. The hidden one is that they want our mines.”

“How do you know that?”

“The lands we occupied were empty. They were occupied by the forest. We forced the forest to retreat, we fought the monsters, and grabbed a piece of land. Then they came and said that that piece of land was after the hills, that we were invading.

“I am sure they will tell you the opposite if you hear them, though. So you should not hear me. At least on this.”

“What do you know about the leaders of the humans?”

“Are you not in their circles?”

“Not really, I am trying to keep a low status, so that I can be left in peace.”

He laughs wholeheartedly.

“I am sorry, my friend, I didn’t expect that. But I can understand. I will remember my day on the beach forever.”

After some additional chit-chat, the artificer arrives. He bows to the emperor, and he knees in front of me, and says a phrase. I don’t understand, but it sounds like the phrase that people were saying to Siratra when we were walking in town.

The emperor says something to him, and he stands up.

Almost simultaneously, Siratra arrives. She is again in high heels, and she is in a beautiful dress, really tight on her form. Her hair is pulled back, and she has some make-up on her face.

“Hi Siratra.”

“Hello, Great Adventurer.” And she bows. I try not to look, but her cleavage is looking really nice. At least now I am less tense around those things, because of Cecilia and Shandon.

After bowing to me, she bows to the emperor, and says something in their tongue.

“Shandon, can you ask him his name?”

She translates, and the artificer responds.

“Mahendra.”

Siratra’s face show a little surprise and some disappointment. Cecilia is the first one to jump in.

“Don’t worry, Siratra. We can do the translation, you will not be needed.”

I don’t understand why she has to talk like that, it’s a little rude. I will talk to her later. Siratra, nevertheless, sits on a side chair, a little dejected.

I turn to the artificer.

“Did anyone tell you what we are looking for?”

“kya kisee ne aapako bataaya ki main kya karane kee koshish kar raha hoon?”

He shakes his head.

“I intend on riding dragons. I will be riding one, and Cecilia here is going to ride the other one.”

“mera iraada dregan kee savaaree karane ka hai. main ek par savaaree karoonga, aur yahaan sesiliya doosare par savaaree karane ja rahee hai.”

His eyes kind of bulge.

“But we need saddles for this. Two saddles.”

“lekin isake lie hamen kaathee chaahie. do kaathee.”

“One is going to be worn on a dragon with strong scales, so the main goal is comfort and safety for the rider.”

“inamen se ek ko majaboot shalk vaale draigan dvaara pahana jaega, isalie isaka mukhy lakshy savaar ke lie aaraam aur suraksha hai.”

“The other one will be worn on a soft dragon, so it has to be softer on the dragon, but it can be a little harder on the rider.”

“doosara naram draigan par pahana jaega, isalie yah draigan par naram hoga, lekin yah savaar ke lie thoda kathin ho sakata hai.”

“Can you do that?”

“kya aap yah kar sakate hain?”

He nodded.

“paropakaaree Wrax lie kuchh banaana mere jeevan kee sabase badee upalabdhi hogee.”

Siratra translated back to me.

“He said it is going to be the great achievement of his life.”

Mahendra put his index finger up.

“mujhe unhen dekhane aur maap lene kee aavashyakata hogee, mahaamahim.”

“He said that he has to see and measure them.”

“Sure, no time like the present. Do you have the measurement tape with you? What else do you need?”

Shonda translates, and Rajesh sends a guard to fetch some paper and charcoal, so that the artificer can take notes and draw the designs.

I open a portal to Piotr’s cave, and jump in first, so that he doesn’t startle. What I see freezes me.

“All of you, don’t come. Just Shandon. Cecilia, you may come if you want.”

When the two come from the portal, I close it.

Piotr turns his head to me, he is weakened. He is lying down. His right wing is normal, but his left wing is a mess on the ligament in the front. That piece that contains the bones and ligaments that allow him to open and close the wing, that is a very basic part of the structure, was bitten off.

Besides that, he was thin. His ribs were showing. It was the first time I saw a dragon on this state.

Even like this, he tries to stand up, probably to bow. I turn to him.

“Stay as you are. What happened?”

“Thank you, my lord. Malagar came, he wanted to challenge you. Since he couldn’t find you, he left me as a message. And he told me that if you don’t heed to the challenge, he would get rid of all the weak humans until he finds the challenger.

“He said that he is going to start with your clan, my lord.

“I am sorry I could not be of further use, my lord. Can I ask for a painless death?”

For the first time, my blood was really boiling. I might not be that attached to Piotr, but he had been a nice guy. To me at least, I am sure that Igor might disagree. I ignore Piotr’s request, and I turn to Shandon.

“Shandon, what would be the tastiest prey around these areas?”

“That would be a bullgoose, my lord. They have a lot of mana in their bodies. Their defense is that they can petrify anything just by looking at it. Some prey not even we get close, my lord, they are not worth it.”

“Ok. I am going to portal you home. I will be there in a little while.”

I open a portal for the girls, they go back to Frolk. I turn to Piotr.

“I will try to heal you, but I have to take a look at a working wing. Open up the other one.”

I take a look with my senses, and inspect the bones, the blood vessels, the muscles. It was a work of art. The bones were very resistant in a couple if specific directions, and very light. The muscles, although lean, very strong. A lot of mana in the tissue, and a lot of mana veins throughout the whole wing.

I can actually help with the healing, but I need him to eat and digest the food first, he is too malnourished to have an effective healing spell. I get near to the hurt wing, and I can see that he is worried about me touching, because of the pain. I apply some healing magic, just to ease up the nerve terminations, and numb it for right now.

“Piotr, I need you to feed before I can do anything. I will be back.”

“That’s more than I can ask, my lord.”

I open a port to the guild in Frolk. Cecilia and Shandon are worried.

“Cecs, can you show me what a bullgoose looks like?”

“No. I can show you some reports of statues of adventurers because they bumped into a bullgoose.”

“That’s fair… Shandon, what do you know about that Malagar?”

“He was the second strongest in the council, about the match of Hoggar. He was out, mating when the challenge with Hoggar took place. He is said to be rougher than your average dragon with his mates. I don’t know if this is true or not, perhaps it was a ruse to keep me in place, but Hoggar would say that Malagar would have me if he could, and that I should always thank my life to him. Are you going to accept the challenge, my lord?”

“Yes. I am worried that this may not be as easy. He is not going to be as conceited as Hoggar. Hoggar did not know the level of threat. This one does. On the other hand, I am a lot more powerful than when I dealt with Hoggar. But I have to avoid getting conceited myself.”

Cecilia was biting her nails.

“Can’t we just run?”

“Where? He is going to raze everything, and then have the challenge. Don’t worry, my heroine, I am going to be back.”

“Please, PLEASE, take care.”

“My lord, I should go with you.”

“Why?”

“If you win, I can help manage the spoils. If you loose, Malagar is going to look for me. And then he will raze everything, including Cecilia. That is just our fate as females, my lord.”

“I would rather you didn’t, but that is a sound argument indeed. Let me put my gear on, we still have to get Piotr up and running.”

I go up to my room, and I gear up. I come down, Cecilia has this scared look. She never knew what weird stuff I had already done. Shandon had this resolute expression to her.

“Cecilia, it might be a good idea to let Leopold know. Actually, do you think it is a good idea?”

“I don’t know. It’s not like it would make any difference. Whether you win or loose, Malagar would not be coming to this continent, right? So far, those big ones stayed out…”

“Ok, do as you wish.”

We portal to Piotr’s cave.

“Shandon, what does a bullgoose look like?”

“It looks like a water buffalo, but it is bright blue and red.”

It kind of makes sense. It had a very strong defense system, and, by analysis, on Earth, many very poisonous things have very bright colors. Power is not hidden.

“Piotr, where can I find those?”

“NorthWest-West, my lord. Some 200 miles.”

Time to go hunting. I start flying in that direction, looking for that beast. In order to affect something, you generally have to have a medium. Even gravity, since it is a distortion on space-time, has the medium that is space-time itself. Since this is magical, I am just going to place a sanctuary spell on me, with a large area.

As I am flying in that direction, I start seeing statues of monsters. Fenrirs, Griffons. I even spot a status of a dragon. It’s a pity the material is ruined.

I throw my sense around, and I spot it. It shines bright, with that amount of mana imbued in it’s body. I get closer, very slowly. It turns to me. I see that it is starting to irradiate some really messed up mana. I get away, and turn off the sanctuary spell, and I keep myself out of reach. I start healing some of my mana absorption pathways, they are hurting a little. I am still far away. I stay still a little, and think the possibilities. I try to shoot a nail, but I miss. It is really far away, I don’t have this kind of precision. I can’t get closer, nails will not work. Keeping my eyes closed will also not work.

I go back to one of the statues, and analyze it. How does this work? I use my mana eyes on it, and I realize that some mana absorption channels are burned out. And also the petrification is much more intense the closer it gets to where the gem were. I kind of create a theory in my head. This thing can actually disperse a poisoned mana in the air. Any creature that enters the zone absorbs this mana, and then it makes the creature into a stone statue from the inside.

I am really regretting not going for the Fenrir right now. This was a stupid stupid idea. I should have kept my mouth shut.

I try to stop absorbing all environmental mana. I have to do the opposite of a sanctuary spell, actually.

I invert the design, and experiment. My mana starts dropping, but I am absorbing nothing. It is hard to keep the concentration, though.

I take get farther away, recover all my mana, and try again.

It is a little better. It is not something I can really keep doing for a long time, but I think I can hold it enough.

I inspect my body with all the caution possible, to make sure that I am not absorbing mana.

With a lot of care, I start to get near the bullgoose, with my sword in my hand. It looks at me, but I feel… Nothing. I keep going in its direction. It is still looking at me. I keep walking, it doesn’t move! I am just walking towards it, and it bawls at me, but doesn’t move. When I get close enough, I just put my soul absorption and stab it on the head, and it drops dead. That’s weird. But, if you’re that toxic, nothing was ever a danger, probably. Same mistake as Hoggar’s.

I portal to Piotr’s cave, and throw the bullgoose close to his mouth.

“WOW!!! My lord, I don’t deserve it!!”

“Go ahead, it was no big deal.”

“Aren’t you going to have the first byte?”

“You can have that one. I will hunt myself one later.”

Shandon grabs my arm, she is drooling.

“Please, my lord?”

I put my hand on top of her head.

“As long as we don’t get all of them, we can have some.”

I sit on the floor while Piotr eats. He breaths some fire on the carcass. Even his fire feels a little on the weak side.

“How long ago was Malagar’s attack?”

“Chomp chomp About 5 days ago, my lord chomp chomp.”

I gave him some time to digest it a little. Then I stood up, and took another look on the functioning one, to make sure I got the whole thing right. Even if I missed a little, there should not be a lot of trouble, body adapts, and his dna had the record on how it should be like.

“I am going to start now. It is not going to hurt because I already numbed the pain, but I am going to do some weird things, so try not get scared. And be very, very still, ok?”

I went over to the bitten one, and cut the pieces that were torn out. I was going to recuperate, but some of the pieces there would get in the way of the regeneration. I cleaned up the wound as best as I could with water spell, turning the water I was creating into hydrogen peroxide.

Then I started the renegeration, the green light illuminating the cave. I start build… The bones, the ligaments, the muscle tissue, the skin, the nervous system in the area, the blood vessels. I fortify his white blood cell count, to fight any inflammation due to contamination on the big hurt it was.

I can feel that this is also straining his body. He is getting sluggish, and falls asleep. Well, there is still some bullgoose on the ground for when he wakes up.

I open a portal to Drakonia, to the arena that rests at the bottom of The Valley of Elders, as I learned later. I buff myself, senses, strength, sanctuary. I jump in it with Shandon, and I have her move to the outside of the arena.

I put on a lot of mana on a [war cry].

“MALAGAR! I AM HERE FOR THE CHALLENGE! FOR ALL YOU ARE!”

I have buffed my brain with so much mana that it feels like time is almost still. Yet, I can still see when Malagar leaves his cave. He is coming towards me, and starts a fire breath mid-air. Between the sanctuary that is already up and my current fire resistance, it is not going to make any difference.

I place the soul absorption spell, I can’t loose all that experience. I lift my arm up, preparing to do the railgun spell. My arm is raising really slow. Once I put it up, I see that Malagar closed his mouth, and he is now placing his front paws in front of him, and still accelerating.

That gives me an idea. I had already manipulated gravity. I teleport myself to the side, and increase the gravity by a lot. I spend most of my mana. For someone that can manipulate space-time to the point of creating wholes in it, this should be strong.

The effects are amazing.

Malagar accelerates to a speed that is so great that even buffed he become a blur. The air on top of him all comes down, and become liquified and there is this immense heat from the air compression.

After Malagar hits the ground, I release the spell, and the air explodes.

The arena now has a crate, that goes from its center till almost the end of it. Right in the center there is Malagar, limp.

I go behind his head, make a hole with my sword and shoot a railgun in his head, just to be sure.

I look up, and some dragons are starting to put some snouts out to look at the scene.

I look around, to see where Shandon is. She actually turned back into her dragon shape, but is unconscious. I get there, and start applying a healing spell. My body starts to burn, and everything goes black.

I wake up in a cave, Shandon’s tail is around me. She is still in her dragon form. I look and see another female white dragon, I think she is Opal. I see also a blue female dragon and a red female dragon. All of them have some gashes on their shoulders, close to their necks.

My head hurts. Again, I absorbed a huge amount of experience. I take a look at my status.

Interesting, I got… Petrification? Oh, probably from the BullGoose. Leopold is going to phreak out.

I hear the female dragons whispering something, “Der Seelenfresser ist aufgewacht”.

The white dragon gets closer, she is the least scared among them. She go into the submission pose.

“Good afternoon, my lord Soul Eater.”

“Opal?”

I realize that the names are somewhat convenient.

“Why are you three there? Why are you hurt?”

“We are now your mates, my lord.

Oh? Did that information get here?”

“Yes my lord. There was a rumor on that, that came from the nursery. Then, in this fight, the dragons closest to the arena paid attention, and confirmed that Malagar’s soul was not released.”

I keep looking at her gash, I can’t let it stay like that. I get close to her, and start the healing process. First I clean it, then the healing. It is not hard. The gash is ugly, but compared to her body size is not that bad. Way better than what happened to Piotr.

I could walk to Aquamarine and Ruby, but right now I needed to check how tame they were.

“Opal, you can stand up. Please stay by Shandon. Aquamarine, come here.”

The blue dragon came near, very slowly. I could see that she was fearful. When she got close, she entered the submission position. I did the healing process with her too. I put on a sanctuary, to recover my mana faster, I wanted to keep my mana full.

“You can stand up. Ruby, come here.”

The red female dragon came over, but trotting. She didn’t seem afraid at all. She came over, and assumed the submission position as well. I healed her as well.

“Opal, what happened? Why were you hurt? Can you fill me in the details?”

Opal was going to talk, but Shandon interrupted.

“My lord, after you were gone, my mother stayed as a spinster mother to my brother, according to your request. Malagar killed my brother in a challenge, and got everything that you passed to him, including my mother. He added her to his group of mates.

“The hurt that healed was just his mating habit. He enjoyed biting and pinning down. And my mother wasn’t even in heat. Although this isn’t a thing in human form, it is very hurtful when in dragon form.

“I told them how you treat your mates. They don’t want to leave your side.”

“But, you want me to take you mother as a mate?”

“What do you mean, my lord? Don’t you think she is attractive? Sisters, do what I taught you.”

The three of them turn into their human forms. Opal could be Shandon’s sister. They could almost be twins. Aquamarine had deep black hair, and these blue eyes. The red dragon became a red head, with green eyes, with a slit. She also had a nice body, big tits. She put her hands on the floor, and showed her ass and pussy to me.

“Shandon, what is she doing?”

“She is assuming mating position, my lord. They still have to learn human ways, my lord.”

Taking on a pregnant lady of a foe that I had just slaughtered would be really weird.

“Is any of you pregnant of Malagar?”

“No, my lord.”

“So, I am getting Malagar’s council membership and his hunting grounds, right?”

“Yes my lord. My lord, can you come with me to the arena? There is something that you still have to decide.”

I go to the arena, and see half a dozen dragons, all of them the size of adults.

Opal, Aquamarine and Ruby land close to me.

“Shandon, what happened to your other brothers?”

“They were also hunted down by Malagar.”

I get a little sad. Part of what happened could be considered my fault. I think I should be sadder than what I was, though. Perhaps this world is changing me. I have done so much that would have disgusted me on Earth. Even acted like a bandit, actually. And now I don’t know what to do with Malagar’s legacy.

“Opal, what do you want to do with them?”

Opal, Aquamarine and Ruby lower their heads a little, their expression boiling with rage, and they say it at same time.

“PURGE THEM.”