Tobi sat cross legged in the clearing, he scratched the back of his head and let out a defeated noise, “What stats do I do?” he whined. Nick still lay on the ground, his eyes closed, but his chest still rose and fell.

Tobi looked around at his illusions, if he used [Chaos Vision] he could see what they truly were. Each of them were like a storm, the colors inside writhed around. He had tried to make something that wasn’t an illusion, but so far all that happened was sparks would fly out. He would take the Chaos, he would try to form it, and it would just fizzle out. He couldn’t even make illusions reliably.

He didn’t know what stats to level so he set about distracting himself, he took the pouch he had taken from Nick and sorted through it. Inside he found several strange looking bottles, some were red and others were blue, and some others were neither. He drank a couple but didn’t like how they tasted.

He also had a map inside of the pouch, it was basic but gave a general layout of the area he was in. He had no idea how to read maps though, so he stuffed it back into the too-big-pouch. Deciding he wanted to do something, and not knowing where to go, he walked over to an illusion of a lady holding an umbrella. He knew how to absorb the Chaos, and if he just took a little maybe it wouldn’t hurt so badly. The blue boxes had also told him he could hold more energy too.

He reached out his hand and willed the Chaos to enter him, the lady dissolved slowly into streamers of light. They flew towards Tobi and wriggled under his skin, they felt hot and cold at the same time and Tobi sighed contentedly. He could see under his skin the Chaos wriggled like a snake, he reached for it and called it back out. Maybe if he had more control over it he could make it do more interesting things.

He tried to make it flow smoothly through air like a serpent, he tried to shape it like one too. In the end he only managed to form a strange looking tube that wiggled awkwardly in the air. Though it wasn’t what he was going for, he was still proud of his tube snake. He tried to pet it like he would a real snake, but his hand floated through it again. He sighed and made the tube flow back into his body, he then went around to all of the other illusions and absorbed them too.

He had only left them to try and confuse Nick if he woke up, but it didn’t seem like he was going to. Though he had no idea which direction to go, he decided to follow the path that they were on previously. He waved at Nick, “See ya squishy leg! Been a jam dude.” he turned away from the unconscious fellow and started down the path. He tried to block out the thought of all the poor wasted blood lying in a pool around him, he failed, and shuddered.

With all of the Chaos inside of him he felt full, like he had just eaten a huge meal, he assumed he could contain it all because of his new passive. He patted his stomach and rubbed his head as he walked, he knew that helps with multitasking and control, so maybe it could help him learn control with Chaos. Taking it up a notch he also started cycling through different songs he knew, he started with ‘It’s Raining’ and moved on to ‘Jack and Jill’.

Time passed quickly like this and he arrived at the edge of the forest, a swathe of stumps greeted him, along with the sound of birdsong. In front of him was a wide plain, it sprawled out like a vast green sea, small patches of trees stood in random clusters, their leaves whipping in the wind. He could see several settlements scattered around, smoke wafting lazily into the midday sky. The smell of manure and fresh earth was carried towards him on the wind, and the nearest village provided the sounds of laughter and daily life.

Deciding on the nearest village he set off towards it, a slight skip in his step. As he walked merrily along he attempted to summon his Chaos tube-snake again, this time, if you really looked closely, you could tell it had something resembling a head on the front. It’s movements were still awkward and jerky, but there was a marked improvement. This was proven further when he was shown a familiar blue box,

[Chaos Manipulation] Increased!

Beginner II - Beginner III

He smiled, enjoying the feeling of progress. The the funky looking snake circled him as he came up to the village, if he wasn’t mistaken, only high level mages with [Chaos Vision] would even be able to see it. Or he could be completely wrong and get in a whole heap of trouble.

The village he came upon was simple, it had wooden buildings with stone chimneys and several wide patches of farmland. There also seemed to be a well in the center of the village that all the buildings were centered around, the closest one being what looked like a shop. People milled about in their daily lives, carrying buckets of water to and fro while children dashed between their legs, baring wooden sticks as weapons.

He hummed a ditty as he made his way towards the well, still rubbing his stomach and patting his head, he was mighty thirsty and it seemed clean enough. His feet made crunching noises on the hard gravel and dirt pathways that criss crossed randomly in the village, and he ignored the strange looks the villagers gave him. He peered down into the well, but the light cut off before he could see any water, and there was no bucket and winch to lower.

He stepped back from the well and inhaled deeply, before letting out the breath. He caught the faint scent of baking bread, he sniffed at the air again and followed the smell, dropping his hands to his side. It led him to a building that looked the same as the other wooden homes, though this one was three stories tall, and a small sign rocked slowly in the wind. On the sign was a picture of an overflowing mug, “Even I can figure this one out.” he said to himself.

He opened the door and a wave of chatter broke over him like the tide. The scent of fresh cooked bread and meat mingled with the smell of sweaty hardworking farmers and adventurers. Off to the left of the door was a bar, several individuals sat there nursing a tankard. In the common area was a hearth directly in front of Tobi, and scattered about were tables. All of the tables were populated by folk with rough faces and rougher clothes.

The talking died down as the strange looking man came in, he looked around and then made his way over to the bar. The talking didn’t die down for long, as most were used to strange visitors, being one of the closest inns to the Volin Forest, one of the premier adventuring spots in all of the Gazzril Empire.

He sat down in a rickety wooden chair, he placed his right hand on the bar and clenched his pouch in the left. He leaned forward towards the matronly woman standing at attention, “Hello alcohol distribution lady?” he called out to her.

She turned towards him, she had short brown hair and browner eyes set in an unremarkable face, “How can I help ya?” she asked through a false veneer of kindness.

“You got any milk?” he asked.

“Aye. If you got the coin.” she looked suspiciously at his ragged form.

“How much for some pudding, milk, bread, and a room?” he asked, pulling out several silver coins from his pouch, and laying them on the bar with a metallic clatter.

She looked at the coins surprisedly, “That’ll do. Though I don't know what 'pudding' is.” she quickly, and professionally swiped the coins and trundled away towards the back room. She came back with a small cup of milk and half a loaf of rough brown bread. She lay it in front of him, along with a key, “Rooms on the top floor, first on the left. You paid enough for a night.”

He sighed forlornly at the lack of pudding, “You think you can tell me about any job opportunities that involve monster killing?” he asked with an excited lopsided grin, a total 180 from his previous mood at the thought of killing monsters.

She turned around and looked at him strangely, “Obviously being an adventurer would be your first choice.”

“Ah. Yes, obviously. My thanks alcohol distribution lady” he nodded at her.

She rolled her eyes and turning around swiftly she walked towards the next customer. Tobi downed the milk without another word and wolfed down the bread, relishing its warmth. He swiped the key from the bar and went upstairs, the stairs creaked under him as he made his way to the third floor. He followed the inn keeps directions and unlocked the door. Inside was a plain, but comfortable enough room.

Squared away to the right was a cot with a single pillow and woolen blanket, he made his way towards it, and placed his pouch on the nearby nightstand. He sat down on the bed and absorbed the Chaos tube-snake, “Hey puuuuddle buuuuddy! I haaave some quuuuestions for youuu!” he called out in a sing song voice. He needed to learn more about the whole Chaos thing. He had some semblance of an idea of what he wanted to do in this world, and step one was to learn more about his power.

A familiar childish voice appeared in his head, “H-hello?” it asked.

“Yo buddy. I got some questions about this whole Chaos dealio.” he replied.

“Oh, ok.” it paused, “What do you need?”

“In the description of my ability, it says I can use Chaos to make illusions. I did that once, but can’t seem to get it again, it also said something about how Chaos can create nearly anything and also destroy. You got any info?” he asked.

“Oh! That’s all. Um. To make Chaos into illusions you do what you normally do with controlling Chaos, like what you did with the snake.” it paused, “After that you just need to solidify it into a single form, you can make illusions move, but that’s too advanced. It’s pretty simple, try it with the snake.”

“Alrighty.” he said. He pulled the Chaos from inside of himself, he nearly always [Chaos Vision] on, so it was visible as soon as he withdrew it. He sculpted it into the form of a tube-snake, and even went so far as to add eyes and alter its color to green. It hovered there in front of him, shimmering slightly, before he focused it into a static form, it stopped shimmering.

“Did I do it?” he asked his puddle buddy.

“Just de-activate [Chaos Vision]. If you can see it then it worked.” it replied.

“Okey dokey.” he did as instructed, and the almost-snake stayed suspended in mid air. It was a rough facsimile of a snake, it didn’t have any visible scales, and its head was strangely shaped. The eyes were just small divots in the head, but it worked. Tobi smiled at his awkward creation, “I did it!”

“Y-yeah. You did. It’s not too good, but you’ll get there.” puddle buddy responded.

“I got a new skill too!” he nearly shouted in his excitement, ignoring puddle buddy’s response, “It’s called [Chaos Illusion], and it says it’ll be easier to make illusions from now on!”

“That’s helpful. Do you want to move on to other types of creation and destruction?” it asked.

Tobi bounced up and down on his bed, “Yes! This is great!” he cried out.

“Ok. Let’s try it with the snake again, get rid of your illusion.” he did, “Now make the snake again, but don’t solidify it yet.” he created the snake again, but this time, if you really stretched the imagination, one might think it had scales.

“Ok, now make the snake again, and layer it on top of the other one. Make sure it’s lined up as perfectly as possible.” Tobi nodded and summoned another Chaos snake. He wiggled it onto the first one.

“How many times do I gotta layer it?” he asked.

“For now, just do five.” puddle buddy responded. Tobi did as he was told and soon had five snakes lined up near perfectly, though some of the sections didn’t overlap. By now Tobi was running strangely low on Chaos, it seemed that doing this consciously took more energy than when he had made the illusions in the clearing.

“Alright. Now solidify them together like what you did with the illusions, but when you start to do so, infuse more Chaos into it.” the mind puddle instructed.

It was tricky, like trying to fill a glass to the brim without it spilling over. He barely managed it though, and as the snake solidified and he poured more Chaos in, it seemed to click into place. The snake continued to wiggle slightly in the air, but it didn’t shimmer. He stopped pouring in energy and flicked between [Chaos Vision] and normal vision, the snake was visible in both.

The snake looked even more awkward than the illusion, it’s eyes were lopsided, and part of it’s head was dented. Some parts of its body were strangely thin, while others were too fat. If he had seen this creature in the wild he would put it out of its misery. It didn’t even have a mouth!

As awkward looking as it was Tobi felt a sense of pride looking upon its bumbling visage. He reached towards it slowly and with trepidation. His hand met its side, he felt rough scales under his fingers, it was also disgustingly smooth in some spots. It was neither cold nor hot, but something in between, and it wiggled slowly.

As soon as his hand touched it, gravity seemed to realise that something wasn’t right. So it snatched the snake from its precarious perch in midair and sent it falling towards the ground. It hit the floorboards with a slap and whoever was in the room under his knocked heavily upon the wood.

Tobi leaned down and picked up the almost-snake, it was oddly heavy considering it could only wrap around his neck twice. “Wow! You did it on the first try!” puddle buddy congratulated, “It took me four tries before I could make anything that large. Don’t worry about how it looks, you’ll get that down in time.”

“I like him.” Tobi said, caressing its faux scale hide. He heaved the thing onto his shoulder, it sat there perfectly still, it only moved when he commanded it, “Can I make it live? So that it can move on its own.” he asked.

Tobi felt that if mind puddles could nod that his buddy just did, “If you can get someone dum- I mean trusting enough to become the mind for a vessel you created. Or if you just want it to have the mind of a snake. You can, with enough power, make minds forcefully become one with Chaos vessels. Though that can end with a number of problems.”

Tobi nodded happily, imagining a party of funky looking pals to do stuff with, “Ok! On to the last lesson. Try absorbing it. It might be more difficult as that thing is very dense, but you’re going to need the Chaos.”

Tobi complied sadly and murdered his new friend, though it’s up to better minds than his to determine if that thing was truly ‘alive’. He felt a rush of energy as it entered him, and several dings popped up in his mind, he ignored them.

“Alright. For the last lesson you need to understand how magic works. In this world, magic is a combination of Chaos and Order.” puddle buddy the professor paused, “Chaos is used for the power, as it is the primordial power, the makeup of matter. While Order is used to contain it, to shape it, and to control it. Everything has Chaos within it, even if it is so tiny an amount that not even you can see it. What makes mages so powerful is they have Order, this allows them to control the Chaos to some degree.

“Even you use Order to control Chaos, but you do so consciously and work much more closely with Chaos than others. If a mage should lose control of the Chaos any number of things could happen, a rift to another dimension, horrifying disfigurements, or just plain old death. What you’re about to learn is linked much closer to that section of Chaos, to truly destroy something with Chaos you need to let it off the leash. Free it, but still control it. That is what will allow you to obliterate something.”

Tobi smiled at the thought, “So how does it work? How can I free it and still control it?”

“You don’t really control it, not truly, you more guide it towards whatever it is you want to be gone and let it do it’s thing. That is another part of what makes it so dangerous, you need to let it go on it's own, but still be strong enough to stop it or contain it once it starts. If you truly wish to control Chaos you must let it become a part of you intrinsically, or be born as I was. If you are powerful enough, theoretically, you should be able to become one with Chaos, allowing you to control it like another limb. Though I truly have no idea how.”

Tobi was feeling excited at the prospect of more power, “Alright. So I just have to remove the Order from Chaos and let it go free towards something I want destroyed?”

“Yup! Then just absorb it and hope it hasn’t become too strong for you!” puddle buddy sounded excited as well.

“Alrighty! Let’s do it!” he summoned a small amount of raw chaos, it flowed out from his hand and coalesced into a bubble in the air, shining like an oil slick. He remembered he had learnt to see the Chaos before he controlled it, and he needed to get rid of the Order. So maybe he had to see Order as well? Satisfied with that line of thought he tried to opposite of what he did to see Chaos and focused his eyes, he had originally tried this to see Chaos, and nothing happened. But now he really focused at the hovering rainbow ball.

Inside the ball something came into sight, it looked like a pinprick of grey light at the center of the Chaos. He tried reaching out to it and physically moving it but nothing happened, next he tried moving it with his mind like he did with Chaos. The most he could manage was to make it shiver, but that might have been in his head. He sighed, he knew he didn’t have the ability to control Order, but he decided then and there to obtain a way to do so.

In a moment of brilliance, or stupidity, he had an idea. Instead of moving the Order, he would have the Chaos consume it and then try to make it destroy his nightstand! The moment he tried to do so the temperature in his room rose several degrees, “What are you doing!?” he heard a scared puddle buddy say.

“Getting rid of the Order, so it can go free!” he said with glee. The floor boards under him started to rattle, the dust that lay forgotten in the corners rose into the air, and his skin started to crawl.

“Stop! You don’t get rid of the Order! You just move it away, I don’t know what will happen if you do this!” puddle buddy cried out.

“Don’t worry! This is gonna be amazing” he replied, a manic grin plastered onto his sweating face.

The Chaos ball seemed to be being drawn into the center, towards the dot of Order. The grey speck shimmered violently and the air seemed to tremble. A mad laugh flew out of his throat and joined in the maddening cacophony of shaking floorboards and screams from the floors below. The grey dot gave out one last shake, before a high pitched whine signified its end.

Then all hell broke loose.