Chapter 215 - A Moment To Breathe (Patreon)

This… this… is amazing! 

So I can turn my mana into venom with a multitude of effects. Injecting mana into people is something I’ve done plenty of times, but now I can do it to my enemies. Can’t wait to experiment with that, but I’ll need some beasts first because I’m definitely not trying it on myself! Learned that lesson a few too many times.

Why can’t every skill description-Oh. Because it was tailored specifically to me. Am I really the only Remalon with Mana Venom? I suppose acquiring an aspect before tier five is just as rare as it sounds…

The fact he had an aspect at all and that he acquired it under such extreme circumstances, set off a chain reaction that couldn’t possibly be ignored for another second. As though the anomaly had just punched him in the gut, every delayed emotion from the harrowing series of events over the last few days crashed into Jiran at once. 

First, he had been captured and collared for the second time in his life. He squeezed his eyes shut, still able to feel the bones of the collar burrowing into his chest, which only added fuel to the fire of his emotional outpouring. He had narrowly escaped from that living nightmare, only to wake up after apparently going crazy enough to cover an entire room in his blood. He nearly died several times before even making it into the arena. An arena filled to the brim with a soul-rending blizzard, and beasts just as vicious.

There was another emotion buried inside him that was just as strong as the dread, fear, and exhaustion: Excitement. Excitement to do it all over again, to put his life on the line and revel in the thrill of battle with an opponent so far beyond him that even the challenger arena warned him to run. Granted, his survival against the anomaly had largely been due to the beast being in a weakened, manaless state. Now that he was safe and had time to think, Jiran concluded the beast had been adding to that column of mana in an attempt to either escape the arena or kill itself. Considering the state of it when he first found it, the latter seemed more likely.

To top it all off, he had a Telepathic conversation with an entity powerful enough to melt his brain if she lost control for even a second. Somehow, he had survived it all, and in the process, done something so rare and dangerous that no other Remalon had apparently pulled it off.

Jiran lay on the grass, breathing the air that was empty of both dust and living organisms, all while allowing his Remalonian instincts slowly chipped away at the plethora of emotions demanding release. He cast his attention inward, losing himself in the feeling of each breath. Time passed in a daze, and at some point, he acknowledged how much air he was able to take in due to his thicker chest. It wasn’t only there, every party of him had filled out, growing layers of muscles atop thicker, longer bones.

The thought of his physical growth triggered the realization that he was tier five and would now physically age so slowly that he may as well never change again. He tried using Elemental Castigation to make a mirror but the image was distorted as he used several times more mana than was needed. With an annoyed grumble, Jiran cast aside the last of his unsettled feelings and dove into familiarizing himself with his mana.

Enough moping, Jiran! It wasn’t all bad. Not by a long shot.

In meeting Gheratros, I finally got some real answers to the nature of Madra and the arenas. I gained the exact aspect I wanted and it's much better than I anticipated. I also learned more about the soul and elemental mana. Not to mention the revelations regarding formations after seeing the anomalies bones.

As far as shit situations go, this one turned out incredibly well. And I’ve got several new skills to play with now.

Jiran pulled himself to his feet with his aura, ready to start moving. From past experiences, he knew the best way to grow accustomed to his strength was to simply throw himself around. Despite latching onto the framework to support his weight, the ground caved in when he leaped with all his might.

Air rushed against his skin and he pushed it aside with his aura, sliding through the atmosphere without letting it slow him down. The nearby forest was a carbon copy of the one he found himself in after his last arena. Right down to the endless, illusionary fields of grass beyond the woods and the massive clear dome that separated the two.

He sensed the top of the dome and ground his momentum to a halt before he smashed into it. An expanding ring of dust and debris ravaged the ground far beneath him and he whistled appreciatively at just how much faster he had become. With a flip upside down, he planted his feet on the inside of the top of the dome and launched himself back toward the grass. This time, with a moderated level of strength that matched the distance.

While rocketing downward, Jiran closed one eye to glance over the last section of his status.

OTHER:

Adaptive Translator

Affinity System

Designation: Keynote Prime

Interface Map > Cartography system

Intermediary User Interface

Party System

Sanctuary 100%

UNIQUE: Foresight

Curious, he opened his map and was glad to see it largely the same and functioning again. There was one very noticeable difference, a small section of text in the bottom right: Notable terrain feature detected - Teleportation node - Unknown links

Can it automatically find and note special locations now? Awesome! I wonder what the detection distance is and what it can and can’t find. One more thing to test.

Landing in the same spot he leaped from, Jiran dashed left and right in quick hops, each movement blasting the terrain to smithereens. Elemental Castigation created a tunnel of wind that shot straight up before spreading out like a blanket to push the enormous quantities of dust from the air. Huge furrows and craters pocked the ground around him. Dozens of trees had been toppled and lay in ruins, split apart from the forces created by him moving at full speed.

He stood perfectly still, attempting to balance without his aura as the remaining elemental wind was turned back into mana and absorbed.

I remember Ravenna making a similar mess when she was chasing us to Mortan. This is… a bit more destructive though. Probably because my mana naturally enhances every movement I make, whereas hers was constrained inside her manapool. I would guess that without oneness, I’m around double a human tier seven. Which means the only way I can keep up with a tier eight is by retracting my aura. Tier nines are definitely out of my league at the moment.

With a shrug, Jiran unleashed rapid bursts of each element he was familiar with. After reabsorbing the unspent energy, the cost for each test was less than a thousandth of his total mana. While two of his minds were busy with that, the rest focused on aura resistance stretching. He didn’t stop moving and flinging elemental blasts around until he had burned through an entire percent of his mana, satisfied with both his mental and physical adaptation.

Another percent was used to recreate his armor, again. Though he didn’t fill any of the formations with mana this time. What had cost him nearly six percent of his mana in the arena was now achieved with a mere one. His suit protectively wrapped around him, and Jiran was momentarily overcome by a full-body tingle of fulfillment that was rapidly followed by a second round of realizations. At some point, his priorities had changed.

I think it was when I spoke to the Mother Timberling. Since then, I’ve been making decisions based on everyone else’s well-being instead of my own. Not that I regret that or plan to stop. I feel like it's important to acknowledge that I’m not alone and that I don’t want to be alone. Growing up in Feylon, I always dreamed of exploring Madra and unveiling her secrets. When I gained memories from Earth, those desires only intensified as I discovered just how magical this world is. 

I still want that, but there’s so much more I want to accomplish now. Like creating a place where all the races I meet can come together and share knowledge and ideas in safety. Helping Samris and Lenton with their curses, returning Mayalyn’s people to their island, and empowering the Timberlings so they won’t be taken advantage of again. Each new race I meet adds to what I want to accomplish, and there is something so satisfying in that, that I’m not sure I’ll ever want to stop.

But none of us will have a future if I don’t get strong enough to turn on the nodes. Then there’s the Enders to consider. Can’t forget that numbered bastard and whoever sent him, either. I’ve got a lot of problems to clean up.

Far from being discouraged, Jiran only felt relief knowing he didn’t have to resolve every difficulty on his own. Anticipation to see his friends again boiled within him, especially the two girls that he couldn't wait to talk to. The past trepidation about Olive had vanished. After his experiences in the blizzard and his soul-space, there was no doubt remaining about how he wanted to respond to her feelings.

With a single hop, he arrived atop the teleportation platform. The gem fit snugly in his hand and he graced it with a touch of his mana. The expected prompts appeared in his interface, and as usual, there were only two options. 

[Destinations available: (Ciruventi Highlands) (Sanctuary)]

What he didn't expect was for one of them to be grayed out and focusing on it quickly revealed why: He would need seven hundred percent of his current mana balance to reach Sanctuary.

“Seven hundred percent?!” Jiran’s grip tightened on the gem until his fingers ached, “Just how far did you bring me for this arena?” A memory of the most recent portal he stepped through caused him to cringe, “Or was it because of the element I chose? Would one of the others have left me closer to home? I’m getting ahead of myself. Until I visit this new location, I won’t know for sure if I can make it back with the mana I have.”

Considering the second location required a mere two percent of his mana, he knew his prospects of quickly returning home were unlikely. Focusing on the Ciruventi Highlands, Jiran fed the platform the required mana. A portal opened, revealing a dark space that reminded him of his first trip to the Peoples’ Cavern. Mana Omnis revealed no threats, so Jiran boldly stepped through the portal.

His aura blasted outward to find he was in a small, completely empty room surrounded by brick walls that blocked his senses. He pushed harder against them but they were incredibly resistant to his Manabody. Likewise, Mana Omnis failed to penetrate their protective membranes to see beyond them. Whoever had constructed the walls was clearly a much higher tier than him. Additionally, the fact they had a membrane revealed they were formations.

A tentacle of mana extended from Jiran and pressed against the membrane, finding it malleable enough that he knew he could pierce it but he stopped himself. 

No need to piss off whoever made them if they’re nearby.

The only other notable feature of the room was what looked like the outline of a closed doorway, though it had no obvious way to open it. With no threats present, Jiran turned to the pedestal and a trickle of his mana confirmed his fears. The links to The Jeweled Isles, Finlest Empire, and Forest of Melodies were all grayed out, each requiring in excess of one thousand percent of his mana to access.

That’s annoying. Shouldn’t be too big a deal. Just need to fill up a few formations with mana before heading home. Madra has always sent me to areas with beasts near my tier, hopefully, this time is the same. Since I can’t escape through the portal, I better play nice with the locals. Especially since some of them are powerful enough to make these formations.

I wonder why they sealed the platform. The room has too much dust to be used regularly. So they either sealed it to keep unwanted guests contained, or they don’t know what it's for and don’t want people messing with it.

Approaching the door, Jiran found three holes in its smooth surface. They were close together, as though he was supposed to stick his fingers in them but he wasn’t nearly trusting enough to do that. Instead, he slid some of his aspect into the holes as it held the highest sensitivity among his abilities. He quickly found what appeared to be the release latches for the door. When he triggered them, a tiny panel inside one of the holes slid open and a sharp liquid-tipped needle shot out. Surprisingly, the liquid responded to his aspect, bubbling and frothing while releasing a clogging smoke that Jiran immediately attempted to filter with Mana Confluence.

His eyes shot wide when both the liquid and smoke caused his connection to the mana they touched to turn fuzzy. The energy became nearly impossible to control, as though he were suddenly wrestling with a drunk fisherman three times his size. Jiran leaped back, severing his connection and abandoning the infected mana when he sensed the anesthesia rapidly spreading through the rest of his mana.

Before he had a chance to figure out a countermeasure, the door slid open to reveal a brightly lit room. Inside, five pale humanoids were sitting around a perfectly square table. As one, they turned in his direction and jerked to their feet, sending the stone benches they were sitting on clattering across the hard floor. Spears with glowing, blunt crystals on their ends leaned against the table. The humanoids grabbed them and the crystals emitted a green glow that made their too-white skin look sickly.

Without saying a single word, four of them charged Jiran while the fifth bolted toward another open door at the far end of their room. The second it crossed the threshold, it slammed a three-fingered fist against the outside wall and the door slammed shut, sealing Jiran and four very aggressive warriors inside.