Chapter 10: Smooth Stone
I kept running and running. I don't know how long I've spent running, but it was enough for me to be exhausted and I should be far away enough to be able to rest without anyone finding me. Or so I thought, but the moment I started to decelerate, something jumped at me from my side. Colliding with me and sending me tumbling through the forest floor. The world spun around me until my body stopped rolling through the ground and I jumped to my paws and looked around, trying to see the thing that attacked me.
A few meters away from me was another wolf, this one was badly injured, even more so than the one I had killed. Though, the injuries weren't ones caused by blades or other sharp objects, but more akin to a fire burn, except it was weird, it looked like the injuries continued to burn, but there were no flames visible.
The wolf shakily raised his head and looked at me. The thing that I noticed first was how bright his eyes were. They had an emerald green color, and looked like the color itself flowed through them, something about them gave me a sense of deja vu. Then, the wolf opened his mouth, almost as if trying to say something, but before anything could happen, he collapsed on the ground.
I stood there stunned, and more so when his body started to turn into a green energy that dissipated after leaving his body. Some of that energy broke off and circled me before being absorbed into my body.
What was that!? I asked [Knowledge Library]
[Information not available] But was answered with nothing.
Soon I was overcome with fatigue, probably from running around that much. Looking around and using [Appraisal] to discover any creature that might be hiding somewhere, I spotted a place where I could rest for the night after confirming there were no creatures besides a few small ones that had at most 1 level more than me. I used a place beneath a stone between two trees as a safe place, using [Spell Planner] to create a dirt wall and open a few ventilation openings so that I wouldn't suffocate inside it, and then, I slept for the rest of the night, while deciding to try to make head and tails of what happened when I wasn't so exhausted.
The sun was high in the sky when I woke up, the light shining through the ventilation holes I had opened. I broke the dirt wall and left the safe place I had found for the night. I stretched and felt my sore muscles cry a little. I hadn't recovered totally yet, but it was way better than what it was yesterday.
Walking a little, I returned to the place where the other wolf disintegrated, but was met with only the marks on the ground where the wolf once was and nothing more. I tried asking [Knowledge Library] about what happened and what was everything, but the only answer I received was.
[Information not available]
Trying to use [Appraisal] on the spot and the surrounding areas gave me no results, just dirt, grass and a bit of stone. I was frustrated, a wolf jumped at me, dissolved into mist and I couldn't even find a clue about what happened? What was this, a poorly written novel?
With a sigh I gave up trying to understand, if even my skills can't help me, then it's above my capacity to do anything about. I then began walking in the opposite direction I heard people yesterday.
After a few minutes of walking, I almost tripped on a tree root that was sticking out of the ground just enough to be a tripping hazard if one is not careful, and to make matters worse, just after it there was an inclination going to a dark cave that gave me an ominous feeling and a sensation that something was calling me there.
"No thanks, I don't want to die" I said to the cave and began walking perpendicular to it. I don't know if I had upset an evil god or what, but the moment I started to walk away, a small earthquake shook everything around, causing me to trip and fall face first to the ground.
After it ended I got up, took a simple glance to the cave again and darted out of there while chanting "nop, nop, nop, nuep". That was such an obvious red flag that I would begin to question my own sanity if I ever thought about investigating it, though, I might start doing exactly that, because a part of me still wanted to enter and investigate.
After a while I reached the base of a waterfall that kept going on a river, it had more than 30 meters in height and a huge volume of water coursing through it. The water on the river looked odd, though, it had a small emerald green shimmer on it, almost imperceptible. I approached the water, and as I got closer, some of the green shimmer broke off and came flying in my direction, almost as if I was attracting it like a magnet. I stopped and stared at the water, seeing my own reflection on it.
I knew I was transformed into a wolf, but now I could see how I had changed, and that is to say, I had nothing more that could indicate I was actually a dragon. Any angle I looked, I could only describe myself as a wolf, but I knew it wasn't actually the case. I had glowing silver fur that seemed to absorb some of the light of the sun, but it had a different feeling than when it was night and I was absorbing moonlight instead of sunlight. One thing I noticed was different from the wolf I killed and the wolf that jumped me before vanishing in smokes were my eyes. My eyes were a bright golden amber color and with the energy breaking off of the water and flowing to me, some sparks of green could be seen on them.
Looking away from the water, I concentrated on the energy itself and activated [Appraisal] together with [Knowledge Library]
[ Temporal energy ]
[ Temporal energy exists in infinitesimal quantities within the world due to its presence within the timestream. Temporal effects, such as paradoxes, can result in a minute fraction of temporal energy from the timestream slipping into reality ]
Temporal energy? Does that mean…
Before I could finish that thought, another earthquake hit, and the whole region shook like a vibrating platform.
A loud snapping sound echoed from all around me. I didn't like that sound was the only thing I could think before the ground gave out and I fell. I was hitting stone as the ground broke in different parts and water came rushing in, covering me and depriving me of air. I don't know how long it kept going, but as my lungs began to burn and I grew desperate, I hit something hard and it made me let go of the air I was holding. Thankfully, the water receded and I was able to breathe again.
If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
I coughed some water that I had inhaled when I hit the ground of a cave, and looked around. I was underground in a large cave. I found a small collapsed tunnel with water flowing between the rocks.
Looks like I can't go back through there, I thought as I continued to observe my surroundings. Even though I was underground, the whole cave was glowing with green energy that flowed through the stones like water, some of it was attracted to me and I was absorbing them like a black hole. There was one thing that didn't really fit with the mystic feel the cave was emitting, a giant stone a few meters in front of me.
The stone had a different texture to the rest of the cave, it looked impossibly smooth, and some even if the cave had cracks all over it because of the earthquake, the giant rock had none.
Why did I have to say that to this cave god? I now angered it and looked at me…
It was too late for me now, I was already inside it, better check it out. I activated [Appraisal] and [Knowledge Library] on the rock in front of me
[ Boronita Ore ]
[ The Boronita ore possesses the most intricate structure ever documented in history. It exhibits a high degree of instability and may spontaneously undergo quantum decay when outside controlled environments. Under no circumstances should any form of magic or skill interact with even a microgram of it, as the resultant decay has the potential to level an entire city ]
The moment my mind registered the information my skills gave me, I saw the Boronita turn white for split second before my entire vision turned white as well
[ Mavi's POV ]
"So you're saying my wolf has been killed by another wolf?" Henry, the youngest son of the Darnas House addressed Mavi, his head attendant in the morning the next day.
When Mavi returned to the camp, Henry was already sleeping and Mavi knew better than to wake up Henry while he was sleeping else his salary would suffer. Mavi hated being head attendant, but his family situation was bad enough that he had to work for one of duke Darnas's children and after the other attendants told him that Henry was the easiest one to work with, he gladly accepted the offer to work as Henry's head attendant. "He actually fell for it, what a loser" the other attendants spoke among themselves after Mavi had already left the Darnas estate.
"Yes, young master. After examining the body we found evidence of lightning magic and wounds that have been confirmed as being from a lunaspectra wolf" Mavi had said while bowing his head to Henry.
"Don't lunaspectra wolves use moonlight magic? It was written in that book, wasn't it" Henry asked Mavi
"...Yes, young master" Mavi answered. "Lunaspectra wolves are well cataloged to use the illusion type of moonlight magic"
"Then why did you tell me my wolf was killed by lightning? Do you think I'm stupid?" Henry spoke.
"Not at all, young master. I am merely stating the facts that we encountered in the scene" Mavi answered.
"It still doesn't excuse the fact that you let my wolf run away and then be killed by this other monster. If it weren't because of your incompetence I would already have my pet and I would be out of this damn forest"
Mavi's patience was drying up, but he knew he couldn't do anything to defy Henry, else he and his family might never see another day. Mavi was trying his hardest to wring a response from his brain, but a voice coming from behind Henry caught his attention.
"But what does two mean?" A female voice said.
Everyone inside Henry's tent, Mavi and Henry's bodyguards, turned to the voice only to see a girl around 13 years old sitting on top of a table looking at a card in her hands. The woman had pale skin, so pale it was almost completely white, long ears that indicated she was an elf and was older than she appeared, cyan hair and her eyes were multicolored with cyan and a shade of gray. No one had felt her entering the tent, and even now no one could feel her presence at all, almost as if she was a ghost.
"Who are you?! What are you doing in my tent?! Guards, kill the intruder!" Henry shouted, but his guards hesitated to move towards the girl, a thing Henry did not like. "Are you listening to me? I'm ordering you to kill the intruder!" he shouted again.
The guards, recovering from the shock, pulled their weapons and began their advance. The girl, in the meantime, got up and started talking.
"First, where am I?" She began sniffing the air. "Forest, okay. But where?" Then she jumped from the table as a guard tried to slash her with his sword, only to suddenly find himself rolling on the ground a few ten meters away from the tent.
The other guards stopped cold when they saw the girl just moving his finger and a man thrice her size being sent flying through the tent with a gush of wind.
"What are you idiots doing? I already told you to kill her" Henry, not reading the room, shouted once more.
"Hey, kid" The girl said, turning to him. "You're so loud I can't hear my own thoughts. Could you please shut the fuck up? Thanks. Where was I? Oh right" She picked some of the dirt off the ground and then began tasting it.
Meanwhile Henry was speechless. Not only this girl was trespassing on the tent of a noble, but told a noble to shut up. Henry, who was used to having his way all his life was never so disrespected before. His face was turning into a bright shade of red as the girl finished tasting the dirt.
"Oh, the Darnas Forest. But why the two?" she said as she looked again at the card in her hands. The card had a bluish green tint to it, as well as various magic circles that glowed a faded green with the number two on one side of it.
She left the tent and looked around and then pouted and started stomping her food on the ground.
"Why does she always speak in enigmas? I hate them, and she knows! This is too hard, I hate it, hate it, hate it" She started throwing a tantrum.
"Guards, I want that intruder executed for the crime of insulting a noble and invading noble property! I want her dead right this instant! You better move your asses before I tell Father to fire all of you!" Henry started shouting, and his guards finally began moving again, but before they could do anything the girl turned straight at him.
"What did I say about not hearing my own thoughts? You need a time out" She moved her hand, and nothing happened. The guards had even moved between her and Henry, but nothing out of the ordinary happened, that is, until Henry tried to speak and no sound could be heard.
"That's better. You get to be on time out for being a bad boy. If you behave I might restore your voice" She said pouting before looking back at the card in her hands. "Now, what does two mean?"
The guards immediately moved to kill her, but before they could get close the girl's head snapped to a direction Mavi had reported the wolf being killed.
"That damn clairvoyant" the girl said as a sudden earthquake hit the camp. The guards fell to the floor, unable to stand upright with the ground shaking so violently.
The girl kept standing and looking at the distance. Soon, a white light exploded from afar and encompassed the entire region, leaving nothing but a crater a kilometer deep and a thousand kilometers wide