AN:

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After the battle, Marc gathered all the 50 heads that were still in a good condition. The rest of the bodies were thrown beyond the walls of the property. He didn't hesitate to go into the surrounding woods to gather some wood. He was certain that no animals or monsters would have stayed close after his display of power.

He empaled 6 orc heads on sharpened wooden spikes, and placed them at the entrance of his property. The 44 others heads were placed around the wall of the property every 60m. He though it would serve as a good warning for future intruders. And he was certain there would be more.

“Goblins, orcs, ogres... In games and novels, these fantasy creatures usually aren't that far away from inhabited places. There must be regular skirmishes between them and other races like humans, elves and dwarves... At least I hope there are some humans and elves in this world, some pretty elven girls” he told himself as he started to have weird ideas.

“Back to track! Under the assumption that there are humans and/or human-like creature in this world, they would notice any abnormality in the behaviour of their enemies... Or even with the forest. If there are civilised settlements not too far from the goblins, orcs and ogres, then it means they aren't too far from this forest. If they aren't too far from this forest, there must be regular expeditions in the forest since forests are full of organic ressources like animals and plants. And monsters as well.”

Marc sighted in resignation.

“They would probably notice irregularities with the forest. Either on their own through the observation of the forest, or through the goblins, orcs and ogres, they will get a clue about my place. I killed more than 100 of them, and some ran away. There is a chance for them to come back here in the future. A magic spot must be an extremely valuable place in this world... I will not let anyone take my land and my house from me!”

After saying that, he went back into his house to take a shower, a quick snack, and went to bed

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“This is too much!!” said the young man in an irritated tone. “What the fuck is going on here?”

“That's the reason the guildmaster sent us here Sayer. To find answers. Though I have to admit I'm also surprised. The whole forest is more chaotic than usual.”

“No need to be an elven ranger to notice that, Filarion. Scaled panthers, black horned boars, iron deers... Though those were on the weak side, they were still rank 4 monsters. They usually aren't found that close to the border of the forest. Their usual living area should be further inside.”

“It feels like they were pushed back toward the outskirt of the forest by something more powerful than them. Going further will be more dangerous than usual... There may even be the possibility to come across a rank 5 monster. However, we can't go back without any informations. We have to move deeper into the forest.”

“Rank 5? You think just you an I can handle a nightmare-class monsters? Filarion, we are already struggling enough against weak rank 4 monsters. We are just B rank adventurers, Filarion, B rank!!”

“I know! I know... Listen Sayer, let's just continue until we reach the border with the next layer. We won't go further than that. At the first sign of trouble, we will retreat full speed. The situation is just too weird to waste time. The request came from lord Devon himself! It's too important to give up now. Considering what is happening, the lives of many, including our fellows adventurers, may be in danger.”

“My life come first. You know that. Now you want me to go into an area where I will most likely have a very hard time keeping it. Are you saying you can ensure my safety?”

“... No.” the elven man said with a bitter smile, which changed into a teasing one. “But I'm also sure you won't leave me on my own in this dark forest.”

“... At time like these I really want to hit you” he said with a dangerous glare, which softened. “I will trust your skills and your elven intuition for a bit longer. But you can be sure I will get back at you later.”

“... Like always” Filaron replied with a helpless expression on his face.

Like that, the elven ranger and the human swordman continued their investigation of the Darkmoon Forest.

-------

Marc woke up with a headache, as usual. He grumbled as he went down to the kitchen to eat a big breakfast. The little snack he took before going to sleep hadn't been enough to satisfy his hunger after a day of work and a night battle. For the first time since he arrived to the other world, he put some music, loud enough to be heard in the whole house. It was a big playlist of animes and movies songs, 8h long.

After listening to the music for nearly an hour, he went back to studying magic and enchanting.

“... I've learned a lot yesterday... Healing magic, fire magic, ice magic, wind magic, and even some kind of dark magic. The healing magic was an area heal spell, and by analysing it I should be able to uncover the basic ones. The fire magic was different from mine, less powerful, but also consuming less mana. Since I couldn't tell the effect of the dark magic, I shouldn't try it on me.”

“In the end, the way I change mana into fire or lightning is less complex than the way they cast spells, but the mana consumption seems to be triple for the same effect and power. If one isn't as sensitive as me to mana to the point of seeing it, learning magic must be quite complicated. I can feel the transformation of mana, whithout that, if I had to learn from a teacher, it would have probably taken months... And I doubt there are many with such affinitiy and sensitivity to mana as me.”

Marc had noticed that the fire magic used by the monsters ignited a natural fire using mana, then augmented the power of the fire and controled the form using mana again. Ice magic seemed to gather, compress, shape and freeze some of the water in the air using mana. Wind magic seemed to be creating air currents, so adding some movement to the gaz molecules, and compressing them into the desired shape.

Healing magic seemed to force cell divisions by using mana as fuel, not using mana to make new cells. However, Marc wondered if it avoided side effects like cancers or lifespan reduction. From his understanding, cells could only divide a limited nimber of time. He wondered wether or not magic ignored it. And since the regeneration was forced by magic, he wondered if the body could know that the wound was healed and stop the cell division, avoiding unwanted growth of some parts.

“... Maybe, since we can use mana, mana one way or the other can somewhat communicate with the body, or maybe the body is accepting the help of the mana, and ignoring it when there was too much? … Sight, I don't even know if what I said make sense... Let's just practice for now...”

So, Marc spent the rest of the day practicing the fire, ice and wind spells. He also decomposed each spells to try and isolate each steps of the spell's formations. He didn't want to practice the healing spells on himself and decided to wait until he got himself a guinea pig. He regretted not having kept a goblin or an orc alive. He started considering exploring the surrounding of his property.

At the end of day, he learned that a mental image was necessary to cast a spell. Then a particular manipulation of the mana was necessary to “programm” the spell. Select the elemental nature of the mana, shape the mana, input the desired effects, release the spell. Each spell can handle only a limited amount of power, more than that will break the spell.

“Tomorrow I'll properlly compare what I learned today with what I discovered about enchanting, try to see common points between the behaviour of mana on geometric paterns and the behaviour of mana during spell weaving. It should be interesting!”

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AN: No more updates for a while