thomasdarkrose
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Vol. 5 - Journey - Chapter 9
🕑 Added 2019-07-05 18:45:24 +0000 UTCThomas sat on the bed in his room inside the inn. Dinner had been respectable but nothing to write home about. He suspected that the inn used normal animal meat as it wasn't nearly as tasty as monster meat. Snowlily was already asleep against his thigh and snoring lightly. He was ready to get some sleep himself, after all it had been a rather long day for him. First that dream world with the creepy voice, then the four people ambushing him, then that demon bear doing the same damned thing, and lastly the confrontation with that woman in the adventurer's guild.
Just remembering her accusing him of kidnapping Snowlily pissed him off all over again. Snowlily was his companion, almost like a daughter to him. To be accused of a heinous crime like kidnapping her?! He would protect her with his life! The little ball of white floof was closer to a daughter to him than anything else. Why a daughter? He just couldn't seem to think of her as a pet. She may not be able to speak but her actions showed she had rather high intelligence and her attitude was just too adorable.
Thomas sighed and lay down on the bed. Tomorrow he would head into the dungeon and rack up some more experience. He desperately wanted to increase his attributes. If he hadn't used Unholy magic on that Demon Bear there was a chance he could have died. He didn't care if he died at all, but he was extremely worried about what might happen to Snowlily. She was his Soul Companion, but would she revive if she died? Would her death be permanent? He had no idea and that made it something he simply couldn't risk. If she could come back to life with him then there was nothing to worry about. However, if she died for good he would never be able to forgive himself. Thomas closed his eyes to get some much-needed sleep.
From outside of the inn a pair of golden eyes flashed in the darkness. It was the woman who had followed and confronted Thomas at the Adventurer's Guild. Her name was Lexiana and she was a member of the wolf beastman tribe. After Thomas had left the guild she had continued to follow him. Back at the guild she hadn't really been afraid of him, she was more ashamed than anything else. When she had confronted him she thought he would make excuses or do something to try and hide his crimes as every other human would.
She had not been the least bit prepared for what had actually happened. When she'd first seen that human man walking around with the pure white Garou in his arms she'd been shocked. Garou were creatures of legend, worshipped as distinguished ancestors or even gods among her people. They had not been seen in many generations yet she saw that small white one and instantly knew it was a legendary Garou. How could a mythical creature such as that be in the hands of a human?! And what's more, she'd even witnessed the human happily feeding the precious Garou street vendor food! If they were not in the city she would have killed the human then and there!
When he made his way into the guild she felt like it was her chance to get the Garou away from him. If she accused him of kidnapping and he attacked her the staff and other adventurers would have to stop him. She could have used that chance to rescue the Garou and bring it somewhere safe. When she accused him though... He did not react like he was supposed to at all! He got angry. No, not just angry. He was emitting a pressure that could only come from righteous fury. That pressure and that glow around him. Anyone seeing that would know she had made a grave mistake in accusing him of kidnapping.
She felt so ashamed at the time that she didn't know what to do anymore. After he left she waited a bit and followed him again. Maybe he didn't kidnap the little Garou but that didn't mean she could just leave it alone with the human! She had to find out more and try to rescue the Garou once again. By force if necessary. He was an otherworlder and they were all weak. So many of them had been interested in trying to 'conquer' her. They all seemed obsessed with wanting to touch her ears or tail. Such perverts! Every time one of them got on her nerves she would challenge them to a duel telling them that if they won she would become theirs. In such a fashion she'd crushed many of them with ease.
She would crush this man too. Tomorrow though. She turned and made her way down the street. Tomorrow she would make sure to wake up really early and watch the inn for when that man and the Garou left. Even if she missed them, she had their scent now and could track them down. Tomorrow she would figure out how to rescue the Garou and punish that despicable man.
The following morning, before breakfast, Thomas decided to get a little practice in while letting Snowlily continue to sleep. He pulled a regular iron ingot out of his inventory and started to use 'Transmutation' on it to reshape a small section of it. About a quarter of the ingot deformed and slowly turned into a small iron ball. Only a very thin thread of iron still connected the ball to the ingot so with a minor bit of strength it was easily snapped off. With just a bit more 'Transmutation', it was turned into a perfectly smooth iron ball. The remains of the ingot were stored back inside of his inventory.
He rolled the iron ball around on the palm of his hand and smiled. There was one particular magic that he wanted to practice. It would be of great help both offensively and defensively as long as he was dealing with something ferromagnetic. Magnetic Magic! In a world where warriors wore swords and armor being able to control magnetism was damn near cheat-like! As long as it was a ferromagnetic material it could be bent to his will. Well, provided he got his Magnetic Magic up to a high enough rank. At rank two he would be shocked if he could control anything bigger than an arrowhead.
Thomas set the iron ball down on the sheet between his legs. He was using his legs like a small makeshift arena to keep the ball from rolling too far away. He pointed with the index finger of each hand and placed them on either side of the ball. Mana started to circulate on his right fingertip. It was quickly converted into magnetic mana. From his fingertip, he guided out a thin beam of directed magnetic energy to the iron ball and it slowly began to roll to his fingertip. After cutting the mana off he did the same thing again with his left hand and rolled the ball in the opposite direction.
Thomas rolled the ball back and forth between his legs by alternating which finger was releasing the magnetic energy to attract it. Once he got the hang of moving it directly in straight lines he decided to experiment. Back in the real world magnetism was a field and would affect any metal caught within the field. Here within AoG he could directly control the magnetism so that it only had an effect on what he wanted. He started by bending the beam of magnetic energy and constantly moving it around. By doing so he could control the direction that the ball rolled in at will. He made the ball roll in circles as it was constantly pulled forward by the stream of magnetic energy while not being able to roll all the way to the source. In essence, it was like a ball on a string!
Thomas lifted his finger and slowly changed the shape of the stream of magnetism controlling the iron ball. Slowly, the iron ball floated off of the bed and into the air. Though to anyone watching from outside this would seem impressive, to Thomas it was really nothing more than having the ball dangling on a string. By arching the string of magnetic energy he was able to have the ball float freely above his palm. As he played with the floating ball of iron, Snowlily watched him intently. She had no idea what he was doing but it looked rather interesting!
Thomas played around for a bit longer before releasing his magic and catching the ball. After storing it away to practice with later he turned to look at Snowlily, "Good morning. Let's get some breakfast and then see about earning some experience in this cities dungeon."
Once Thomas was fully dressed in his gear, they made their way downstairs and had a nice breakfast. Snowlily didn't seem to have any issues with the food as she happily ate it all. To Thomas though, the food just tasted far too plain. Once they finished eating they left the inn and followed the directions given by a guard. The entrance to the dungeon was actually located near the center of the city. When they arrived Thomas was surprised at the scene before him. The entrance to the dungeon was surrounded by four very large churches!
Thomas had meant to check out the request board at the guild yesterday but that woman had pissed him off and he forgot. He'd not been to very many dungeons, only two in fact, but neither of them had been surrounded by churches like this. It was rather odd from his perspective. He looked around at the groups of adventurers nearby and started to listen in on their conversations. It only took him a few minutes to understand how this dungeon was different from the others. Undead.
The floors of this dungeon were filled with classic undead monsters such as skeletons and zombies. With these kinds of 'unholy undead' populating the dungeon it being surrounded by churches made a lot of sense. He also gleaned that the dungeon was more difficult because of the undead nature of the monsters. They were rather difficult to put down. It sounded rather interesting! After waiting in line for a little bit Thomas was finally able to check in with the bureaucrat at the dungeon entrance and make his way inside.
Just stepping inside, Thomas could already tell the difference between this dungeon and the other two. For starters, the walls were made of stone bricks instead of looking like natural cave walls. Every ten meters there would be a column on the wall leading up to a gothic style arch on the ceiling. The place gave off a very 'tomb-like' vibe. Once he was far enough from the entrance for sunlight to not reach there were even torches in sconces along the walls lighting his path down the staircase. The safe-room on the first floor of the dungeon was also lit with torches. Compared to the glowing crystals in the other dungeons, the torches actually provided a bit less light. All of it contributed to the gloomy and dark atmosphere of a dungeon filled with the undead.
Thomas smiled to himself. The place might be dark and gloomy but to him, it didn't matter at all. With just a thought his eyes lit up with a blue glow and the gloomy surroundings were as bright as daytime. He picked a random path leading out of the safe room and started to walk down it with a bit of a spring in his step. He wondered what kind of monster he would be facing first. He was also hoping that they would provide a lot more experience than the monsters in previous dungeons. Back, in the beginning, the experience from the Goblins in Ulvstad had been pretty nice, but now it would take slaughtering huge amounts of them to amount to any meaningful gain.
Just to gain one point in his Power attribute would mean having to slaughter nearly forty goblins. It would be so much more efficient to defeat monsters that provided larger amounts of experience. Speaking of experience, he'd received quite a lot from killing the demon bear and for turning it in. He'd decided to hold off on spending it for the time being. Besides, last night he was just too tired to think about doing much more than getting some sleep. He could spend that experience and the experience he gained today when he went back to the inn for the night.
At the end of the first path he took he arrived in a room that screamed 'tomb', there was even a sarcophagus laying on the ground in the middle of the room. However, that was all. There was no sign of any monsters meaning this room had likely just been cleared not too long ago by a group that entered the dungeon before him. No big deal. He looked around and picked a random path leading to the next room. After a short leisurely walk, Thomas entered another room and was happy to see some monsters waiting to be defeated. An RPG classic! Skeletons!
A/N: Sorry for the delay. I haven't been feeling well and my sleep schedule has been all kinds of bad. I'll make it up to you guys, promise.
Comments
Cody S.
Sorry about that. When I get sick or have trouble sleeping (in this case both) my brains functions drop drastically and I revert to a petulant and whiney 5 year old.
M van Dongen
We dont mind, but a short message wouldve been nice. Its the lack of communication that is troubling to supporters. Another author of mine has been incommunicado for 90 days now. Which is a damn shame since he had one of the best Sci fi stories out there. And nary a word......
Nick B
I hope you feel better soon, you being healthy is all I really want. Have a nice day!
