Northern Woodlands: Three Years Later

All is silent in a certain clearing located in the Northern Woodlands until... suddenly a bright light accompanies a five year old girl.

[Me] “Finally!!! It took me, what, three years to get to this tier!”

Ever since that day I ran from the soldiers I began to cultivate and refine my mana. I am now at tier 5, the peak of the Mana Awareness stage. Now all I need to do is break my bottleneck to get to the next stage. At the end of each stage there is a huge bottleneck that becomes harder and harder to break the more tiers you complete.

Irritation filled me as I try to break my bottleneck again. I know normally completing five tiers in three years would be considered genius among geniuses; however I know I could do better. Hmm… it seems like it’s time to actually practice putting my mana into use.

I begin walking out of my Morning Flower’s protection and start looking for demonic beasts. The first creature I come across is a demonic fire lizard. Its length is twice my height, and it has scales covering its entire body. As its name suggests, it loves to char its prey with its fire breath.

[Me] “So you’re my first stepping stone? Sorry, but you’re going to die now.”

[Lizard] “GRR, RAWR, Grrr Grr…. RAWR!!!!”

[Me] “RAWR to you too!!!”

No, I was not actually speaking to the fire lizard, however I haven’t spoken to anyone for the past three years… it is normal to want to communicate with other living things. I start running and call forth my mana. I instantly make several slices made out of wind. They fly towards the demonic fire lizard and hit.

“RAWRRRRRRRRRRR!”

Hmm? Even though it hit him it seems like the lizard’s scales are tough enough to block the majority of damage that should have been done. This is slightly annoying. I cannot use fire against this opponent, as it is a fire type demonic beast, and it seems like my favored element wind will be weak against its scales. That only leaves two elements…

“Earth Spikes!”

I shout out the name of the move due to the fact that I still haven’t gotten used to the element earth. The more time one spends with an element the more control they have over it… and I have been focusing more on my fire and wind elements rather than earth and water.

Three spikes that were made of the very ground that we are standing on suddenly fly towards the fire lizard. One manages to hit its eye, however the fire lizard blocks the other two with its tail. Then I see a sudden burst of flame shoot at me at deafening speeds. I don’t have time to duck, so instead I bring forth as much water as I can and form a shield. I am pushed back a couple meters and hit a tree, gaining a few scratches on my back. I seem to have managed to avoid most of the flames, with only a few burn marks on my body.

[Me] “Die you pathetic lizard!!!”

I pull up some earth to form a sword, and cover it with wind. Giving a large battle cry, I sliced at the fire lizard. A huge cut appeared across the lizard’s side and it tumbled.

“RAWR!”

Instantly flames surrounded me, however they were no match for my wind. When the wind dispersed of the flames, the lizard had disappeared. I looked around and could not find where it had gone. I was in a perilous situation because fire lizards were not known to retreat, but rather surprise attack their opponent.

“Agh!”

My back was suddenly hit with a 350 degree fire. I could feel my back blistering and the blood start to flow. UGH! I am way to inexperienced, I need to learn and adapt!

I put out the flames with ice-cold water, and shoot ice spikes at the demonic beast. Whether it was pure luck or desperation, something caused one of the ice spikes to hit its brain. With the fire lizard dead, all the adrenaline left my body and my legs gave out. I sat there gathering my breath and notice a huge amount of burnt trees to my left. That must have come from when the fire lizard gave out its surprise attack. Due to one of its eyes gone, it must have been off. I shiver when I realize that the damage it gave could have been more.

I walk over to the dead demonic beast and hop onto its back. I create an earth sword with the little bit of mana I have left and start digging into it. I finally find the demon core that’s located in all demons and take it out. You can use demon cores for speeding up training or even creating magic tools. Something gold and glittering caught my attention out of the corner of my eye. I put my hand back into the demonic beast’s corps and pull out a necklace.

The necklace had a key attached to a silver chain. The key was extravagant, and had many designs covering it that almost looked like old runes. I had no idea how a necklace got into the demonic beast in the first place, however I thought it looked mysterious. Fortunately, or maybe unfortunately, I still had my scholar tendencies, so I could not just throw out this treasure. I decided that it could not cause any harm (probably) so I put it on.

I pick up the demon core and start limping towards my makeshift home in the clearing. Upon arriving I wrap up my back in healing leaves and lay down and rest. When I awaken I will absorb it, however I am too worn out to do so now. Slowly but surely the leaves kick in and I fall asleep.

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Thank you everyone for reading this, and also for pointing out some errors. It's been a great help. ^-^

Thanks a bunch

-The author (-A highschool girl who has too much time on her hands and reads way to too much manga)

[Sincerely- the Editor]