2. Journey

  There were no clouds in the sky and the grass was pine green. For his safety, for his parents safety he had decided to leave. The Undead sympathisers did not seem squeamish about killing, and perhaps they wouldn’t care if he wasn’t around; they were drawn to him, not his parents.

  “True glory cannot be won sitting in a country village, true glory can it be won?” He muttered to himself.

  There was a road worn into the ground through footprints and carts, but not exactly constructed, on either side there seemed to be small cave like structures. Madakos wandered wondrously into one of the derelict ones and placed his construct. A large amount of Zira, 7200 was invested, but now the income of Zira was 3 a second instead of 2. The cave was damp and creepy and so Madakos left relatively soon. He spotted a bandit camp nearby, avoiding the road, as he was suspicious of their intentions. Wandering through hills he found another cave, a bear sat on its rear guarding the entrance. The trees were all conifers, potentially hiding dangerous men and animals. Traversing through the woodlands, he saw some ruins of what was once a village, while staring at the moss and weed covered structures, derelict and abandoned, he trod and fell into an abandoned well, caught by vines that cushioned his fall; he attempted to clamber up them, but it was too late, he was stuck five metres deep, with no obvious way out.

  Only the constructs.

  He put one on the floor, sat on it and subsequently meditated while he waited. 24 minutes before he put another one on top, it started raining, the water levels of the cool well began to rise and the temperature began to cool. The sweat cooled and the grime rolled off uncomfortably, meanwhile rain pattered from above. 20 more minutes passed by and he created another, with 6 constructs he could clamber out of the well. He waited another 20 minutes, observing his surroundings for any danger, he did not dare to meditate as he put another construct, then using magic he buried the well and his constructs underneath earth. 7 Zira a second, he could feel the magic pulse into him, having been stripped of mana, the sensation of Zira was so different.

  It is unnatural, and that is why it will change everything. I think. Probably. I hope.

  He used it to heat himself up and then attempted to locate a village; it took a good five minutes but he found a town. There were watchtowers and guards, and lumber jacks. The sawing and hacking of wood was quite audible, some people had pigs and goats, but most seemed to live off off the wood trade. A priest commanded tax collectors. The town seemed to be well run nonetheless, and moderately prosperous. When Madakos approached a guard they immediately pointed a pike in his direction.

  “By the light state your business!” A guard said.

  “I am a traveller who wishes to help your adventurers guild, I need coin to traverse the seas.”

  The guards both looked at each other than stared at the newcomer. They had goatees and smelled of beer, but were nonetheless vigilant. They tapped their fingers on their linen trousers, one of them fiddling and gripping theirs.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  “The adventurers guild has some work, mostly cleaning jobs if you know what I mean,” one of the guards said, “I don’t know what you could do. But it doesn’t hurt to try. Nonetheless we will be vigilant.”

  Of you mostly. What does an outsider want here anyway? The guard thought.

  “I will not be here long,” Madakos explained.

  “Even more reason to be vigilant,” another soldier explained.

  A man with a keen blue eyes, hawkish in their stare examined Madakos and nodded reluctantly. They acquiesced, and let him in. The town was chestnut in its colour, brown and green seemed to be the dominant colours in the neighbourhoods, people stared at the newcomer like he was a plague. Eyes not exactly friendly stared him down, and wondered what and who he was. The only outsiders the town seemed comfortable with were merchants and soldiers, soldiers more so than merchants, a man with nothing seemed like trouble and everyone’s anxious looks confirmed as much. Madakos came to the door of the tavern, two saloon swinging doors that had to be pushed to enter or leave. Immediately thirty faces stared at Madakos. There were light mages, others were rangers armed with bows, and others still equipped with throwing knives, some were knights that had less armour, but still had enough on at the moment; the conversation had died down, as Madakos walked slowly to the bar. Heads swivelled, and tutting was heard.

  “I hear there are rewards for adventuring, I hear this is where you’re supposed to come?” Madakos said inquisitively.

  A ginger haired woman behind the bar, instinctively polished the wood with a cloth, before eyeing the new adventurer.

  “You do huh?” She laughed, “well our top quest involves destroying a bandit camp. There’s a good many of them. Alternatively you can kill wolves or bears. There’s some ferrying tasks if you like. But you don’t have a horse do you?”

  Madakos nodded. Paper with rewards were put in front of his face.

  “What?” He began, he said dazzled by the paper.

  The paper was fresh, with a special reward for the bandit captain.

  10 gold coins. How cheap is a Human life? Oh well, he is probably scum. Probably. Fuck.

  His face scowled. He had no money to spend, and he needed some for living expenses as well as travel costs. Morality was expensive and against his immediate goals.

  I wonder how much a boat costs anyway?

  He wandered out of the tavern, and out of the town to the confusion of everyone.

  “You’re going to take on that task?” A woman armed with knives said, “how?”

  I can’t sense any mana. This fool is going to get himself killed.

  She let him go as Madakos went into the woods. He felt the Zira accumulate inside of him, he had enough to make 3 constructs but he had no idea where he could place them without arousing suspicion. The town had ramparts and towers so he certainly couldn’t place them near the town, but in the forest it could be destroyed by nature, or worse appropriated by someone else. How Zira worked was still somewhat of a mystery to him. He saw the bandit camp, and he had suspicions that the town might be lying, but almost immediately as that thought entered Madakos’s head, a girl was being stripped by some thugs. Without thinking purple flaming tendrils killed the two responsible, the woman using the opportunity to make a break for it in the confusion. Madakos knew his magic energy was limited but he nonetheless set fire to the camp from afar, the flames killing much of the bandits. Others streamed out to find out where the attacker was. Madakos used Zira to enhance his vision, zooming in on the location before he sent a last few tendrils to kill some bandits. He circled the camp endlessly, hiding in the trees and brush before repeating his attack. It would take a day but the camp was a smouldering heap and the guards and the bandit boss a corpse.

  He did it himself. But that’s no ordinary fire magic. He is not an Ilar, he’s not black for one thing. But I’ve seen Ilar do fire magic it is red and occasionally orange, not purple.