Chapter 35 - LOT - First Draft (Patreon)

Chapter 35 - LOT

Jack looked into the distance at a collection of large mountains, the red haze of the Magma Lands making them blur slightly. He rubbed his blade, Wyrmblight, as he focused, trying to see if he could spot anything.

These were the same mountains he had appeared on when he passed through the damaged Space Gate, years ago. And, where he had learned, a Magmiric Wolf had taken up residence. The devastatingly powerful Gem Beast had only moved their within the past twenty years, and had remained unheard of until recently.

The information Jack found via the Hunter’s Association in the local Hunter’s House had been sparse. Magmiric Wolves were a mix of a legendary King Wolf, and an Ancient Magma Dragon, both types of beasts already incredibly strong in their own right. All three were Gem Beasts listed in the Sacrom Ranking. Magmiric Wolves were ranked 83rd, Ancient Magma Dragons at 57th, and a King Wolf at 11th.

Even the weakest Gem Beast far surpassed the vast majority of regular beasts. He shook his head as he looked down at this blade, thankful for the close escape. He would not be visiting that mountain range again.

“Woah! Woah! Easy there!”

Jack’s thoughts were interrupted as he concentrated back on the present.

He was currently standing on a small rocky outcropping, a few miles out of Roren City, the day after meeting up and planning with Liren. Off to his right, a large caravan was worming its way along one of the rare, man made paths in the Magma Lands. The caravan was unlike those that might be seen in more hospitable lands, each wagon composed of a mixture of red and black rock, dragged forward by large, scaled horses with small flames on their feet.

The Magma Lands were a dangerous, unhospitable land, filled with dangerous beasts. That said, these lands were also seen by many as a treasure trove. Rare beasts and exotic ingredients could be found throughout, and all it took was a single lucky hunt to gain the wealth to last a life time.

That, in addition to large mines of rare metals, made this unhospitable land rather popular with Hunters and merchants, as well as treasure seekers.

“Easy, easy!” Jack smiled as he watched Bale try to calm down a large, brown and white scaled horse. This type of horse was great at long distance travel, similar to the horses dragging the carriages, but known to be stubborn.

Bale eventually lost his patience and just clamped his legs together, forcing the horse into submission. A faint Spirit energy hue could be seen around his legs as he drew upon his Spirit, giving him enough strength to force it still.

“You’ll never make it obey you for longer than a few days by doing that.” Jack said as he jumped off the rock, walking up to his own brown scaled horse. He hopped on it, rubbing the side of the large, nearly two meter tall horse. It neighed quietly, and began moving forward. They were about halfway down the side of the caravan, guarding a short stretch of it.

Bale only grunted, and urged his horse onward, joining up with Evan who was a few meters ahead.

“We just need it for a few days, anyway.”

Jack smiled and shrugged, joining them as they spread out along the left side of the caravan.

They were currently headed towards Idglebar, hired on as guards to help escort one of the traveling caravans through the Magma Lands. Jack, alongside Bale and Evan, had helped transport caravans before, through missions as members of the Hunter Association. This caravan mission was similar, though larger in scale.

The dangerous lands required guarded transport for wealthy or large amounts of goods. The Recruitment Drive and Clan Tournament of the Magma Clan was a massive event, and naturally had huge numbers of people arriving for it. Those people would need food, water, and various goods, and that’s where the large-scale merchants came in.

The caravan itself stretched for easily three miles, one of the largest Jack had ever seen. Each wagon was massive, easily the size of a small house, pulled by the thick scaled horses. Several hundred Hunters, in addition to regular guards and warriors, had been hired on to defend the caravan on its journey.

Liren was nowhere to be seen. He had left earlier than Jack and the rest, traveling with a different, smaller caravan. It was his own idea, in order to keep them as separate as possible, in case other of them should fail, to not implicate the other. A grim idea, but a smart one.

Jack pulled on the reins, directing his horse closer to one of the wagons as they plodded forward, the simmering heat of the Magma Lands drifting through him. He kept himself covered in a very faint layer of Spirit, in part to avoid having to deal with the heat, but also to train himself.

He entered into a state of semi-meditation as he rode. Thanks to his years of practice training his Spirit, Jack was able to focus and visualize his soul while at the same time being aware of his surroundings.

He became aware of a large area, filled with mysterious white fog. His soul landscape.

In it, he saw a large, shimmering blue pool. His Spirit Pool. Just a few days ago, the very edge of the pool still showed faint signs of a Spirit Circle.

As of today, however, he had finally finished forming his Spirit Pool, reaching the culmination of the Second Great Stage of Spirit. He had fully completed the Second Great Stage, and could start making inroads on the Third Great Stage. He smiled, pleased.

Next to the shimmering pool was a large globe of white energy. Time Essence, the strength and powerful Natural Ability of his. He focused on it, feeling it completely. He frowned, frustrated.

For years now he had been stuck at the point of slowing time to 1/5th its natural speed, unable to progress. He could maintain that slowed state for an extremely long time now, but he was unable to slow it any further.

While slowing time to 1/5th its normal speed was a huge asset, the more he could slow time, the stronger he would be, qualitatively.

When in his Slowed State, he was unable to move his body as quickly and powerfully as he could normally. The Time Essence he wrapped his body in limited his movements to the extent that it could move.

With his own strength training, as well as Spirit to aid him, he would eventually reach a point where he could move incredibly quickly just with his own physique, a point where he would be able to move faster than his current speed at 1/5th time.

Like the battle he saw back in Snowbank City between the Swordmaster Jebraim and the Great Elders of the Impact Clan. These fighters moved incredibly quickly, so fast regular people could not physically track them. Even when Jack was using the Time Essence that was stored by his mother, where time was slowed to an incredible one thousandth of its normal speed, he could still see these warriors visibly fighting and moving, while everyone else was moving so slowly as to appear frozen still.

Currently, without using his Slowed State, Jack could run, if he sprinted at his fastest speed using Spirit, around 45 to 50 meters per second.

When using his Slowed State, his movement speed rose to around 180 meters per second. Despite the fact that time was slowed down to one fifth it’s current state, he wasn’t able to move five times faster.

The speed increase was still incredibly strong, and very notable. But the stronger his physique became, the lesser of an effect it would have, unless he found a way to increase it.

Still, he could use the Slowed State to speed up his reaction speed, and it gave him an extremely significant edge in close combat and planning things on the spot. His Natural Ability, even if it never increased, would never be useless.

Jack shivered for a moment, his thoughts interrupted as he looked behind. An odd feeling, as if he was being watched, had landed on him. The feeling had vanished almost instantly.

Several hundred meters away, towards the end of the caravan, Jack could barely make out a shirtless man wearing a set of loose, grey pants looking in his direction from atop one of the armored wagons. A long, black spear was strapped to his back, the only other detail Jack could clearly see. Visibility in the Magma Lands at distances longer than a few hundred meters wasn’t superb due to the red haze that was present, from the ash and heat in the air.

After a moment Jack turned away, shrugging. He focused back on his meditation, trying to think up new ways to see if he could push his Natural Ability past the “Time Wall” he was stuck at.

..

“Hoh, not bad, kid. You felt my presence from that far away, eh?” The man sitting atop the wagon smiled, his white teeth gleaming. He had dark, sun bronzed skin, with several exotic black tattoos covering his skin. He had a hard, weathered appearance, with a strong nose and a solid chin with a clef in it. A long, black spear was strapped to his back, waving slightly in the hot wind.

“Captain?” A figure appeared on the caravan, moving so quickly he seemed to appear out of nowhere. A small, lean man wearing a full set of grey robes covering him. He had dark purple hair, and grinned nervously as he looked at the muscular figure resting atop the stone wagon. A thin rapier could be seen, strapped to his waist.

“What is it, Coroney?” The man turned to look at Coroney, one of his lieutenants.

“I just wanted to remind you what the Commander said. We need to sneak in through the caravan. Captain Jor, Captain Kebeld, and Captain Zaar have already gone ahead with other caravans. This is one of the last caravans that we can easily-”

“Bahahhahah!” The spear wielder burst out laughing, clapping Coroney on the shoulder and interrupting him. The wagon shuddered under the force of his hand, causing the horses that were dragging it to neigh loudly. The purple haired man winced.

“Who of these fools would have even seen me? I doubt any of these landlubbers have even seen the sea, let alone clashed with us.” He smiled as he lifted his hand up, letting go of the purple haired man.

“But alright.” He shrugged, standing up. The smile on his face turned slightly grim as he looked forward, towards their destination far away.

“The Magma Clan will soon learn a bit more about the world.” A very faint glittering aura shimmered around his body.

“The O’Bald pirates are not a group you can attack wantonly.”