The Fairy darted towards the woods, and I followed. I looked over to where we had left Kiszo, but I couldn’t see the large woman anywhere. We ran for a few minutes till we came to a small clearing hidden by thick pine trees at its edge. At the center stood the massive truck of a tree. Looking up, I couldn’t see the tree’s top, but I could see hundreds if not thousands of the fae in all shapes and sizes.

“Zeal, we must ask you to leave. You can’t stay here. We will protect Beema as she is of the land. We thank you for protecting her,” said white and pink.

Beema ran over and hugged me before being led to the tree. A few moments later, she turned around and waved back at me. I turned around, headed towards the edge of the forest, and stepped through the pine-scented trees. I turned around after a few steps to see if I could see the massive tree’s top, but the ring of trees was gone, and no towering tree could be seen.

I turned and began to run towards the sounds of battle in the distance and wondered what kind of magic the Fae had to veil such a tree or move its location. Maybe the trees around the clearing acted as a portal of some kind?

As I cleared the treeline, I could see massive bouts of smoke coming from all over the village. I ran up to the gate and began pounding, but no one answered back. I ran along the wall looking for any openings but found none. I was getting a great idea or a stupid one. It depends on who you ask.

I began to visualize my intent inside a construct of forced air balls. Try after try did nothing until one clicked. I opened my eyes looked up at the top of the palisade, and released the construct. I was immediately propelled into the wall, my body bouncing off and landing on my back, losing my breath.

Getting back up, I visualized the same construct, but on both sides of my body this time. When I released it this time, my body went straight up but not high enough to grab the top of the wall. On my third attempt, I imagined more air being pressed into the balls and released. This time I was propelled up and just over the height of the wall.

I repeated my first attempt’s construct as fast as possible, releasing it just as I came to the top of my ascent. I was pushed past the wall and into the village. I came crashing down before I could try and put together a spell to slow my fall.

I hit the ground hard and rolled, pain shooting through my right leg as my ankle rolled for a second time. I looked around, not seeing anyone or the Gnits. I crawled behind some barrels against the wall. Looking over my right ankle, I could see it was beginning to swell. My chest also burned again, the sign my Stigmata probably grew once more. I will check on it later.

Going back to my mental construct view, I tried to visualize healing power in different configurations, but nothing would click. I was pulled from my mindscape at the sound of something skittering came close. I could see three of the larger warrior ants coming around a house. The one in front had the hands of some humanoid and carried two swords. The one behind it had legs and arms that ended in spikes. I couldn’t see the third one clearly yet. I didn’t wait for them to see me. I created the Tier 1 fireball with normal orange flames and let it rip out of my palm and towards the oncoming ants.

The three ants didn’t get a chance to do anything before they exploded, sending body parts in every direction. A moment later, the body parts over the yard turned into white mist and created three cores where they had stood. I crawled over and picked them up, tossing them into my mouth without a thought, and selected the now Rank 1 Nervous System before heading back to my hiding spot.

[ System Notification ]

Three Rank A Bone Cores has given 24 Energy

14 Energy converted to 140 Mana

Nervous System: 10/200

That was new. Could I refill my body’s mana reserve using cores? That would be a huge advantage. But then, it would slow my progress on leveling. I’d take it. I’d worry about it later. I looked down at my ankle and noticed the swelling slowly going down. I would have to wait here till my body’s healing took care of it. Healing spells were on the top of my list to ask about.

Then I felt like a colossal idiot and removed the Magic Primar book from the sack at my side. Keeping my ears open, I began to leaf through the book and couldn’t find a single mention of healing within its pages.

“Well shit,” I muttered. Putting away the book, I sat behind the barrel. I began to hear shouts and screams in the distance, but I would be no good If I couldn’t run away when the need arises.

Another five minutes, and I was able to stand on the foot again. I slowly walked towards the center of the town, a Tier 1 fireball ready to rip as soon as I saw those multifaceted eyes look my way. The town was beginning to quiet down. I could still hear faint sounds of fighting on the furthest side of town. I peeked around the corner of a building and almost screamed.

Ahead was a massive hole, maybe six to eight meters in diameter. Hundreds of the smaller worker Gnits were dragging what looked like cocooned bodies into and then down the hole. They were taking the villagers as if they were livestock. Knowing I couldn’t do anything with so many villagers around, I went back the way I came and skirted to the other side of town.

The sounds of battle grew as I got closer, and I began to hurry towards the fighting. Looking around a burning building, I found the entire town’s population huddled near the west gate. The guards and archers obliterated every Gnit that came near. Behind, the town’s people were slowly making their way through the smaller gate.

The Gnits were beginning to amass, and I guessed they would soon swarm the villagers with their sheer numbers. I found the nearest ladder, climbed atop the palisade, and ran towards the chaos.

I stopped short of where the archers had made their line in the sand and began to shout to them. “Everyone, get ready to hit the floor!” I could see some of them look at me like I was crazy, but one or two of them recognized me from earlier outside the wall and began shouting to the others to get the hell down. I wasn’t going to yell again.

I closed my eyes and imagined the hottest blue flame and then pushed more of that same flame into a ball, then compressed more into it. I did this twice more, and when the fireball construct clicked into place, I opened my eyes and aimed my palm towards the center of the Gnit mass. I released the construct, and my body immediately rejected the idea.

I mentally pushed the construct past the mental barrier, and a massive blue fireball screamed from my palm as if a high-pitched whistle of doom rushed towards the Gnits. I tried to dive to the palisade floor, but my body began to sway, and then I could see the clear blue sky above me before a massive explosion rocked the world some hundred or more yards away. I felt my body get blown towards the wall before someone caught me, and I lost conscience.

I awoke to a sharp pain on my left cheek and Kiszo looking down at me. “Dogs out of the bag now. No one has seen the like or heard of such treasures even in the books of legend.”

I tried to speak, but I couldn’t draw air into my lungs to do so. With excruciating pain, I sucked in a lung full of air and muttered, “need cores.”

Bless Kiszo for understanding as she barked out a command to someone, then a moment later caught a core before forcing it into my mouth. The sweet taste dissolved on my tongue and gave me another ounce of strength. “More,” I whispered.

Again Kiszo barked out orders to someone unseen, and then and then I could see two guards coming over with hands fulls of white gems. Kiszo began to force them into my mouth one after another.

[ System Notification ]

Nine Rank D Bone Cores has given 18 Energy

Eight Rank C Bone Cores has given 32 Energy

Two Rank B Bone Cores has given 12 Energy

Five Rank A Bone Cores has given 40 Energy

Two Rank S Bone Cores has given 20 Energy

- No Trait acquired

- No Trait acquired

50 Energy converted to 500 Mana

Nervous System: 72/200

I immediately began to feel my full strength return and sat up without the aid of Kiszo. “Much gratitude, I felt like I was on my death bed.”

You were. I have never seen such devastation before. You obliterated that horde of Gnits but took out half of the surrounding houses as well. You saved those that were corralled to the west gate. I’m afraid everyone else is gone,” said Kiszo.

“Not all gone. I saw the Gnits taking people down the tunnel in cocoons,” I croaked out.

“So the children could still be alive?!” shouted a hysterical villager from behind us.

“The children were taken?”

“Yes, they were targeted first. We thought they were just cutting down the young,” responded another.

“We need to go after them, Kiszo,”

“We will, but first, you need to take care of that,” she said as she pointed away from us.

I turned my head to see a large pile of white cores with a couple of greens as well. I stood up and walked over, seeing quite a few weapons lying around the pile. I stopped in front of the pile and looked around at the small number of villagers remaining.

I could see the look in their eyes as they looked at the fortune in front of them. I sat down and began splitting the stack of cores. Pop one in my mouth, then tossed another into another pile. I kept at this for a few minutes until finished.

[ System Notification ]

Twenty Six Rank D Bone Cores has given 52 Energy

Thirteen Rank C Bone Cores has given 52 Energy

Fifteen Rank B Bone Cores has given 12 Energy

Five Rank A Bone Cores has given 90 Energy

Four Rank S Bone Cores has given 40 Energy

- No Trait acquired

- No Trait acquired

- Trait acquired

- No Trait acquired

Nervous System: 200/200

The villagers began yelling amongst themselves. I could hear a couple complain about the number of cores I had just eaten, but no one seemed to want to come near me. I looked back at the box in front of me. It said I had acquired a trait from what I believe was one of the S Ranked Cores. A few moments later, a small box popped up.

[ System Notification ]

Beginning Trait evolution…

Bees!! It felt like thousands of bees were stinging the back of my eyes. When it was over, I felt like it had never happened. Sitting up, I looked at the following box.

[ System Notification ]

Darkvision Trait Gained

I looked around but could not see any change in my vision. It probably had to be dark out for it to work. Reading the box forced it to close, and the typical System’s Status box materialized into view.

[ System’s Status ]

+ Nervous: Rank 2

+ Sensory: Rank 1

+ Cardiovascular: Rank 1

+ Respiratory: Rank 1

+ Muscular: Rank 1

+ Skeletal - Rank 1

+ Epidermis: Rank 1

+ Endocrine - Rank 1

+ Digestive - Rank 1

+ Toxin - Rank 1

I sighed at seeing the next rank for Nervous wasn’t doubled, but only 300 Energy to Rank 3. Keeping my pattern of leveling each a few times, I selected Sensory.

[ Sensory System ]

This system consists of your eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and dermis.

Upgrading this system gives the user a boost to their Survivability.

Rank: 1

System: 0/200

Upgrade: Yes / No

I selected ‘Yes.’

[ Sensory System: 118/200 ]

I looked through the crowd until finding Kiszo. I waved her over. I spoke when she got close. “Would this be enough cores to rebuild the village away from here? If the hive has dug tunnels this far, it’s no longer safe here.”

Kiszo looked through the crowd and pointed to someone. The crowd cleared, and a short elderly goat came limping over. “Chieftain, Zeal would like the village to take the other half of his bounty and give it to the village. Would this be enough to start our lives over away from here?”

“Why would we leave our home? He has defeated the hive. They are no longer a threat,” replied the goat, staring me down.

“I agree with Zeal’s assessment. If the hive has created tunnels beneath our feet, we are no longer safe. They could dig out the entire area under our town, letting it come crashing down,” replied Kiszo.

It took the goat a moment to realize what she meant as he turned around to look a the gaping hole visible within the town’s walls. “Yes, I believe Zeal may be right. If they have grown smart enough or grown in numbers to be able to push their hive this far, our days of prosperity have ended. This gift of cores is more than enough to hire help from the other villages and help us rebuild. What of the villagers taken? Do we leave them to their fate?”

“No, I won’t be leaving the children or the adults to their fate. I’m going as soon as I’m able. Take the cores and weapons here. Have the villagers retrieve their belongings as fast as possible and leave. If they attack again in force, I’ll try and stop them, but it’s best if you get moving.”