Chapter 147: Journey 5

Excerpt from the book “Exploration of the End” By Picard

The End, how mysterious it is. Unexplored until recently, I have been blessed with the opportunity in being one of few pioneers. I hope this book will shed some light on the isolated and unknown world of the End.

Hired by the Dagger family as a squad captain, I worked my way into their good books. Which brought me this unique opportunity.

I will go into further detail later in the story, but on our first expedition, I entered the End with 3 of my closest aids and an expert. I was an expert, but no one is an expert of unexplored land, none the less, I agree with him being the closest thing to an expert we have.

He is in fact, the dragon slayer who gave us access to the End. He was incredibly useful within the dimension and clearly held a lot of power. More details on Aeternum the Slayer later, he has his own chapter.

After spending considerable time resisting the urge to hit Paul, we leave the dining place. He didn’t even offer me an apology, just snickering occasionally. Which brought more waves of the wish to deck him. Having to remind myself he will steamroll me in a none life or death fight.

“Fine, let me get ya some propa food ya humans can eat.” He says.

“Fine, let’s go.”

This time, we walk through alleyways. He seems at home within, gliding through them with seamless ease.

As we are moving through a slightly brighter alley, Paul suddenly stops.

“What’s up, Paul?”

Bringing his hand to his mouth, he mimes being silent. Suddenly he strikes the wall to his side. At first I thought he hit stone, causing me to wonder if he’s gone mad. But suddenly, the stone brick shifts, revealing a purple worm-like creature - Endermites.

“Got ya, ya son of a bitch.” The creature squirms violently, before Paul brings it up to his head.

“Cough it up, or ya sleeping in da void tonight.” It continues to shake.

“Fine, void it is.” He begins walking towards the closest edge. As it comes into view, it stops squirming. “Gonna comply, spit it out!”

It then spits out a white ball of energy. It quickly dissipates into Paul’s hand. He levels his gaze with it, “and the other!” It hesitantly spits out another ball of energy.

He then throws it to the side, “hate mites!” He shouts, walking back towards the alley.

“What was that?”

“An endermite, ya blind?”

“no, what did it do?”

“Give me back ma charges it robbed, damned dimension thief.”

“I see.” Taking a moment to gaze at the mite running for its life. “Why didn’t you kill it in that case?”

“Not worth the effort.”

We weave through the alleys before coming to another wall. I am unsurprised as I watch him push on the wall. It spins, allowing entrance, before closing behind us.

The hidden door lead to a dimly lit staircase heading into the earth. Walking down the endstone carved steps, we come to a hallway. It branches in random directions, yet Paul seems right at home.

“What is this place?” I ask Paul.

“Call em da swift tunnels. Shadow exclusive, love em.”

“Is it alright I am here then?”

“Well, no.” He shrugs. “Eh, it el be fine.”

I just lightly rub the metal over my brow in frustration. “Need me to find a way to morph into an enderman?”

“That ed be cool, do it.”

“I will think on how to do it.”

We move through the identical appearing tunnels rapidly. Passing staircases on occasion, making me ponder on how many secret entrances exist.

As one point, we see another enderman. He walks up to Paul, “how does the abyss look?”

“Through the eyes of ender.” Paul replies without missing a beat.

The enderman nods towards Paul, eyeing me before walking further through the corridor.

Paul suddenly stops, wiping his brows. “Whoo, didn’t expect ta see anyone down ere. He didn’t call ya out, so all good.”

“The way you court trouble impresses me.”

“Thanks, buddy.”

After moving through the winding tunnels for some time, we come to a large door. Made of obsidian, yet relatively light, we head inside. Finding a calm, quiet bar-like establishment. We take a seat on some comfortable velvet seats while Paul hails a waiter.

A relatively short waiter approaches the table, their voice squeaky, slightly youthful. “Here ta cause trouble, Key?”

“You know I hate dat name, Squeek.” He says offhandedly.

“And I hate that name!”

Paul rolls his eyes, telling the enderman his order. “Get tus some of dem meat pies ya always raving bout.”

The shorter enderman seems slightly happy at the order. “Certainly,” he squeaks before running into the kitchen.

“Friend of yours?” I ask Paul.

“Ma half sises, cousins, son; ya know the deal.”

“Seems a lot like you.”

“Babysitted da little sucker. Also taught him how ta back talk his parents. Den they banned ma from babysitting him. No sense sa huma I tell ya.”

“None at all, how cruel.” I giggle.

“By da way, dis phones awesome.”

“Speaking of phones, I have a proposition for you.”

“All ears, ya hear meh.”

“Want to give out these phones to people of da End?”

“For free!” He cries.

“Well, yeah. Tell you what, make it dead cheap, and I will let you sell em.”

“Deal!” He shouts, grappling my arm and yanking it up and down.

Handing him a linked echest, “here you go. You are paying for dinner from now on, given the profits you will be making.”

He winces, “fine, fine.”

Just on cue, the pies appear. Looking very similar to pies from earthen, except a hint of purple in the crust. They are just over a hand length in size, inside a foil-like tin. Placed on the table without concern, given the fire-retardant properties of endstone.

Paul gestures for me to try it. “You not going to poison me?”

“Just eat it!” He says in exhaustion. “Da boys been begging me ta try his new recipe for a month!”

“So I am a gunnie pig?”

“Nah, da customers were.”

Feeling slightly better, I take a hesitant bite. Immediately being blasted with a intense garlic and basil flavor. Honestly, the pie is good, all be it a little strong for the run of the mill pallet.

After my second bite, Paul feels safe enough to try it. Wincing at first as he bites into the powerfully flavored pie. His frown quickly turns upside down, obviously liking the dish.

I can see the young enderman peering through the door to the kitchen. Once the meals are half way to finished, he sneaks over. “How… Was the food?”

“It was good; thank you.” I say in reply.

“Don’t butta me up; give me ay honest thoughts.”

Emphasizing every word; “It! Was! Good!”

“Really!” he jumps up in excitement.

“Yes, good job.”

Ducking his head, he runs back into the kitchen. I hear a few more happy shouts through the door.

Paul massages his brow; “he wont shut up bout dat for the next week.”

“He could use the positive reinforcement.”

Polishing off the rest of the meal, I turn to Paul. “Sorry, but time is getting on. If I am to get any sleep this evening, I must head home.”

“Boring,” Paul complains.

“Yeah, yeah, good night.”

“Good night, Aeternum,” he smiles.

Teleporting back to my temporary home, I go to sleep. Feeling full, happy, and very tired.

And suddenly, I am awoken once more. “Paul, is that you?” I say, still half asleep.

“Who is Paul? It is me, Jengal.” Mind coming into clarity, I realize it is morning.

“Couldn’t let me sleep in, hu?”

“It is 12pm; how long you gonna sleep?”

Hastily, I check my clock. Waiting a moment for my double vision to go away, I see it is clearly 12pm. “12pm, seriously!” Sighing deeply in frustration. Getting up, resisting the urge to close my eyes, I head downstairs. Joining Jengal and his mother for breakfast. She is serving some kind of stuffed bread. I don’t feel hungry, so I only eat a few bites.

“You need to eat more! Otherwise you will get sick.” Jengals mother, mothers me.

“I had a evening snack, don’t worry.”

She creases her brows, but doesn’t comment.

The breakfast was finished quickly, allowing us to head to the carriage. Packing my tower away, I spot the noble couple leaving there abode.

“Good morning!” I shout towards them.

They wave in return, “how wonderful it is to see you this fine morning,” John says. There words causing me to deflate slightly.

“Good morning is fine, “ I say between light laughter.

His wife hits him, “told you.” Causing him to rub his arm.

“I take it, it is time to leave?” I say open-endedly.

The driver responds, “you are correct.”

Getting on board of the carriage, we quickly get comfortable. A few moments later, the two carriages are off.

Pulling out a chessboard, I play chess with Jengal, and quickly his mother, too. It helps to pass the early morning, before I opt to meditate.

Focusing inwards, I look over the spinning balls of energy in my body. The golden ball of energy hasn’t increased in size; I wondor where it comes from?

I haven’t been using my mana, so it generally is the same. The natural energy is a little dirtier, almost as if blue has been mixed in. The black has grown once more; I will need to expel some at this rate.

Focusing closely on my mana, I see waves within the circulating energy. I focus on the currents of energy, finding the source to be a translucent, almost invisible fish, displacing the blue energy. What that means, or how it affects me or the energy, I don’t know.

Checking my other energies, I see they also have fishes within. Trying to channel some mana harmlessly through my hand, I notice it feels more potent. I doubt that is the main effect, but perhaps a side effect of having a symbiotic fish within my body. Well, I sure as hell hope it is symbiotic.

I opt not to use my golden energy, given it is a limited resource. Until I figure out its source, using it frivolously is unwise.

My natural energy seemed to be easier to control, softer. Manipulating the energy is like trying to use a dead hand. You can kind of clench your fingers, but you have very little control on fine motion. It is the closest analogy I can think of.

It is strange to think I have so many different types of energy within my body. Yet, it is useless without an item to focus it. Like electricity, it might have a little use raw, but it truly shines when it runes technology. Nature energy needs rites and rituals, mana foci and direction, potential energy? Eh, even I don’t know. It just seems like a very volatile energy. I suppose you are supposed to sacrifice it to old gods, yet I feel like if they want it, I should keep it.

You know, the whole abyssalcraft is probably a bad idea. I have a semblance of control when involving blood magic. But involving sapient, godlike entities; things can easily go wrong. I already have two gods on my plate, is there any room left? I am beginning to feel like a skyrim protagonist, claimed by every bloody god. At least he had a fundamental claim, akatosh.

My thoughts nearly brought me out of my meditation. The state of stillness a tender equilibrium that can be a nightmare to maintain.

I gently move my mana around my body, circulating it. I do this in hopes of improving my control of the energy. It is the only one I can manipulate and utilize without a medium. As difficult as it might be.