Marveling at the myriad of lights flowing around him, Akiel slowly stands up and looks around. Trees could be seen retrieving mana from their leaves and the roots and gathering it into a densely concentrated region right before the trunk splits into branches. The ground is almost completely aglow with small plants and flora gathering what sparse mana they can, most concentrate it just below the soil.

Focusing on the moving concentrations of mana he sees small animals, leaping throughout the treetops. All of their mana in the shape of a sphere with what look like branching veins. “This is amazing. This is better than thermal or x-ray vision,” he mutters to himself.

Walking around he continues to marvel at the ambient mana until his vision is abruptly blocked by a surface filled with mana. Stopping to study it, Akiel realizes that the mana particles that should be flowing around are still and although sloppy, structured. Closing his eyes, Akiel focuses on deactivating the ability. Feeling the rush of heat recede from his eyes he opens them.

“Oh. It’s just a tree,” he chuckles as ponders the reason for the sudden concentration of mana. Taking a step back he crouches and lunges forward punching at the tree. Punching straight at the area reinforced with mana he finds his fist stopped completely. “No way. It’s a defensive mechanism, the mana is for fortification!“ he exclaims. The part of the tree he punched was completely fine, the only damage is stress fractures forming on the sides of the tree. “It seems that the force isn’t dispersed but blocked. It's like a shield but the force needs to resisted by the rest of the tree.” he muses.

Infusing his eyes with mana, he once again examines the tree. Small clusters of mana are gathering at the cracks in the tree while the fortified mana is gone. Moving his hand closer to the tree he only gets a weak response. “I guess, I expected too much from a tree. well, I guess I’ll move onto the next one.” Turning the eyes of truth off he wanders around looking around in awe.

Walking through the forest, Akiel experiments with a flat stone. Urging his mana, he tries to transfer it to the stone. At first, there was confusion, the mana surges to his hand and lingers. Not knowing how to get it to leave his hand he imagines a connection between the stone and his hand. Fiddling with the rock, he realizes he can’t tell if the rock received any mana.

Looking around he finds a large boulder sticking out of the side of a tree. Climbing on top, he checks the surroundings before augmenting his eyes again. The rock itself had no mana in it but he could see trace amounts sticking to its surface. Moving his hand over the rock he manages to push it into the rock. Encouraged by the success he urges more mana into the rock, imaging a bridge this time. Watching as a fifth of the stone is filled with mana, he stops filling it and tries to manipulate it.

Pushing the mana towards the surface he tries to form the mana to the stone, imitating the tree. Despite Akiels best efforts the mana only swirls around and spreads out. Sighing he urges the mana back into his hand. Although slow, the mana does eventually return to his body.

Throwing the stone away he takes a look at himself. “Wow, this is probably almost identical to the human skeletal and muscle structure,” he says in amazement. Inside his body are several rods acting like supports. The joints especially resembled those of the human skeleton. Several strands of intricately woven mana lines wrapped around the bones and attached to his outer shell. The only major difference was the area between his bones, There is nothing akin to cartilage, ligaments, synovial fluid or lining. There was no cushion keeping his structural rods from the wear and tear of grinding against each other.

Raising his hand closer her examined the area between his structural rods. Even without any cushion, they stayed a fixed distance away from each other. Taking both hands he pushes his fingers together and watches as the rods slightly decrease the distance between. He stops as his outer shell starts to crack. “It's like a suspension spring,” he muses.

Looking closer he spots the terminal ends of the rods are covered in a sheet of mana. The sheets only differed from the fortification mana structure because of the particles that they emit at each other. “Interesting. It’s more like repulsion, sadly I don’t think I can get mana particles to behave like that yet.”

Taking the guide book out he flips the pages until he finds a section labeled notes. As he flips to the first blank page a pen materializes conveniently. “I love the quality of life features in this,” he chuckles. Picking up the pen gingerly he writes down some notes on mana behaviors before adding future endeavors he should aim for.

Flipping the pages until he found the map tab, he turns to the first page. For the most part, the first page detailed the royal castle as well as a narrow strip of the city where he presumably was carried to the forest. A small area of forest was also entailed but the rest was blank. Presumably, it would only show places he has been.

“Whatever, it shouldn’t be too hard to find someone if I walk straight in a direction. It's not like I need food or water.” he shrugs.

Another quality of life feature is that the cursor on the map pointed in the direction he was facing. Adjusting his heading so he would be heading almost directly away from the kingdom he sets off towards the rising sun.

***

“Huh, so infusing my mana in object reduces my own movements. Makes sense, less mana to power my movements. I guess I should increase my mana limit as well as find something to use my mana on. Something other than primitive projections.” Mumbling to himself he throws a small stone at a nearby tree. Shattering a branch as well as part of a squirrel he smirks. “Heh, finally got one, too bad this isn’t a game world.” suddenly grunting he kicks an unearth root in frustration, “I’m still talking to myself, this isn’t healthy! Why won’t anyone appear, I’ve been walking for almost a whole day!”

Getting more irritated by the minute he starts smacking a tree, “Why. Won’t. Something. Happen.” Grunting with exertion he topples the tree with a kick screaming, “Where is everyone hiding?”

Two things suddenly happened at that moment, a small child screamed and a starving wolf leaps out of its cover for the child. The child that was previously hidden behind the tree was now in plain view just meters from Akiel. On the other hand, the wolf is coming from behind the child.

As the wolf got closer Akiel starts to think, ‘She can be useful. Alive, she can bring me to more people. Alive, she can safely get me into civilization Alive, she can be my hostage.’ As his thought progressed he starts to smile. Slightly at first, but increasing as his head tilts to side until his outer shell makes unsettling sounds.

Using remodel he detaches his finger and grabs it in the same hand. Infusing a negligible amount of mana into the finger, he throws it as the child cowers closer to the ground. Not waiting for the outcome he starts to run towards the child, still smiling just as wildly. The finger smacks onto the wolf's snout, causing it to halt in annoyance before continuing.

Reaching the child, Akiel laughs, “This is the key to the beggining, don’t ruin this for me, please.” Infusing his four-fingered fist he arranges the mana in a simple sheet. With his fist fortified he lunges forward, balancing on one foot he leans forward. His empowered fist descends perfectly in time to nail the wolfs head into the ground. The wolf, motivated by days of hunger and the tantalizing view of Akiel’s head being so close, meets the charge head-on. The wolf snarls, revealing rows of pearly grey, short but broad overlapping teeth. As the wolf’s muzzle is just centimeters away from Akiel, the glow in his eye socket’s dims.

His head, as if a separate entity move disjointly from his body. The wolf, close enough to see various stress fractures on Akiels body desperately makes a final lunge forward, aiming to bite his head off. Akiel’s fist arrives in the next moment, pinning it to the ground. Holding his head in his free hand he frantically repositions himself above the wolf. Clamping his legs onto the wolf side he uses something he discovered earlier.

Removing the mana supplied to his lower body, he remodeled it to become rigid while jamming his head back on and fusing it as is. With his body anchored to the wolfs back, he redistributes the mana to his hands. Structuring the mana to fortify his arms, he bashes on the wolfs vulnerable head. The first punch is rewarded with a whimper and the sound of its skull cracking. The second punch pulverizes the muzzle, earning frantic whimpering screams. The third and fourth punches silence it as the wolfs skull gives in.

Sighing, Akiel leans forward for a moment of respite. Checking on his mana reserves, what he finds worries him. His body has a much lesser amount of mana left. If anything, he could probably only fill his upper body with enough mana to work pristinely. Noticing the wolf had a significant amount of mana still flowing through its body he sticks his hand in. Willing the mana to enter his hand, he finds that only the mana immediately around his hand responds.

Changing his approach he digs around in the wolfs head and retrieves the beast core. Although it’s only the size of a slightly large marble, it was as bright as a star under his mana vision. Willing the mana to enter his hand he finds the mana stopped by a barrier. Sighing he cuts off the mana from one hand and crushes the core, absorbing what mana he could.

Redistributing his mana he shakily stands up, at best his current mana is only about 65% as much as there should normally be. Wearily make his way to the still sobbing girl, he prepares himself. Crouching lower to seem less imposing, he creeps up to the girl while putting up his best smile. “Hey there kid. It’s safe now, the big bad wolf can't hurt you now,” he says to the girl. Looking up the little girl looks at his face, pausing just for a moment before bawling even louder.

“Don’t worry kid. I’m not here to hurt you, I just need a little help getting to the closest village. You think you can do that?” he reassures her. She quietens down slowly coming to a sniffle before looking at him again, “Really? You won’t steal my stuff?” Perplexed, Akiel searches the girl's visible belongings. The little girl, barely ten years old was wearing a worn-out blue frock. No ornaments, no ribbons and no pouch full of money. All she had was a basket full of herbs.

“Of course not little one. I have no knowledge or interest in your plants. You see I don’t even need to eat or drink. Why would I need your stuff? Here, how about this, If you help me to the nearest village I’ll owe you a favor. You can ask me to do anything you want. I can’t help you right away but after a nights rest, I should be back in perfect condition!” Akiel coaxed.

Playing with her fingers she shyly nodded. Getting up, she grunts under the effort of picking the basket up. Turning around she walks a small distance before looking back and cutely signaling him to follow.

Chuckling he tells her to slow down, he could only hobble quickly at the moment. Drawing his mana away from his arms he focused it on his legs. No longer hobbling he quickly caught up to the girl.

***

“Mister, we are here! This is my village.” the little girl exclaims excitedly. Akiel, a little worse for wear sighs, “Good job Alice! Now, if you can take me somewhere I can rest, I’ll be grateful.”

Leading Akiel to the village entrance, Alice asks, “Will you keep your promise, mister? Will you do what I tell you to?” Chuckling Akiel reassures her for the utmost time, “Of course, but it’s only a one time thing. Also, it can’t be impossible.”

As they approach the entrance, two guards step forward. Ignoring Alice they stop and inspect Akiel. “Hey, Uncle John. Hi Uncle Rick. Can you let him through? He owes me a favor,” Alice pleads them.

“Sure, just let us talk with him real quick alright? Just stand over there and let the adults talk real quick.” a guard persuades Alice while ruffling her hair.

As Alice walks into the village both guards stand on either side of Akiel. “That girl already has too much on her plate, we would appreciate it if you leave her alone. State your purpose and where you came from if you still want to enter the town. Any wrong moves and we will skewer you.” one of the guards warned.

Making the best wry smile he could, Akiel appeasingly replies, “I’m just trying to find a dungeon. I was told there was one near here. As for where I am from, I came from the capital. A wolf found your Alice and Alice found me. As you can see sir I’m not in the best condition. All I require is some information and a place to rest.”

Grunting the guard in front of him steps aside, “Fine, just don’t do anything stupid. Remember, we will check up on you and if anything is wrong we will kill you.” He nods in comprehension before passing them.

Feeling exposed without a hostage, Akiel hurriedly walks to the girl, “We’re done Alice, lead on.” With Alice in the lead, they slowly make their way to the center of town. Most of the people ignore them but some stare while others look at them disdainfully. ‘I guess a girl in rags and a poorly constructed doll make even villagers look better,” Akiel thinks to himself. Almost out of the central area, Akiel notices a merchant, in particular, watching them closely. The merchant avoided eye contact when I glanced at him but he continued to look at us and then down at something on his lap. Mentally noting to investigate the merchant he uneasily follows Alice. Taking a few turns, they reach the outskirts of the village as the sunlight wanes.

“Mister Don. This Is my home! You can rest in the attic but remember, you can only stay if you help out. Money doesn’t just appear you know. It’ll be 5 coppers a week, I’ll let you stay today but tomorrow I expect you I work,” Alice says, trying her hardest to sound stern.

Unable to resist, Akiel salutes to her while saying,” Yes Ma'am!” Chuckling, he enters the tiny rundown house. Cobwebs and layers of dust evident in the upper half of the room while the lower half seems to have been regularly cleaned. This was probably the result of Alice being the only one cleaning.

“Don’t be loud from here on, my mama is sleeping and needs her rest. She is in the next room, you can enter the attic through the hole in the roof outside. Just climb the ladder next to the house.” Alice explains.

Shaking his head Akiel replies, ”No need. I can just make do here, I don’t really sleep I just need somewhere to sit.” Slowly lowering himself onto the ground, Akiel leans against the wall. “I’m okay now Alice, just call for me when you need me,” Akiel says before closing his eyes.

Relaxing his body, he turns on his eyes of truth and observes himself. Most of his body was only faintly illuminated with a sparse amount of mana threads. Focusing his sight on mana particles just outside his body he finds lazy mana particles brushing over him. Occasionally a few would enter his body. ‘So I do regain mana unconsciously over time,” He thinks to himself.’

Observing for a few more minutes, he ascertains that it wasn’t a mistake, he did have natural mana absorption. Akiel observed calmly for another hour but grew dissatisfied. Not only is the natural absorption slow, consiously speeding it up requires immense concentration. If he could obtain another brain, he might be able to keep absorbing mana at a fast pace. Currently, he could only increase absorption for a few minutes before he felt mentally taxed. Between sessions of forced mana absorption, he gave himself at least five minutes to recover, increasing as the number of sessions grew.

Several hours later, Akiel stands up. His mana concentration high is enough to be able to work, as long as he avoided extreme physical exertion his mana concentration would remain stable. Getting up without making a sound he peaks into the back room.

It was empty except for a rotting cot and a few medicinal bottles lying on the ground. On the cot lay a woman covered with a torn and ratty blanket. The woman was fast asleep, only an occasional groan could be heard but it seemed like it took all her energy just to manage to make any sound. ‘Shouldn’t be long before she croaks,’ Akiel muses. Exiting the house he looks around for Alice but fails to find her.

Shrugging he walks towards the center of the village With the sun high in the air, Akiel wandered around the edge of the market place. It wasn’t anything special but it was enough. All he needed was a map and the whereabouts of the nearest dungeon if it isn’t on the map. If he could find a stone large enough he could probably also remodel to fix his appearance. Walking around the far side of the market, approaching the village entrance, he spots the suspicious merchant leading two figures into his tent. One of the figures takes off their hoods, revealing a purple haired, dark skinned female. Her mouth seemed much larger than normal and her eyes seemed to have no sclera. Her ears tapper off into small points, pierced with several glowing earrings and studs. Following the first, the second figure also takes her hood off. The second female was a brunette with normal, human body proportions. The only thing peculiar on the brunette was the existence of several disjointed and elaborate lines drawn on her face.

Seeing that no one was paying attention to him, Akiel sneaks around the tent. Crouching down and lifting the tarp, he slides into the storage area. Several crates and packages littered the room. Hiding behind a particularly prominent crate near the center he hears the merchant conversing softly. Moving closer, he creeps between the crates. Getting closer and closer, he stops when he can make out what was being said.

“I’m telling you, it’s here. I saw it, it was a little damaged but it had the same face. The construct is definitely still in the village. I have my men posted at every exit. I even have a few hunters combing the outskirts for him. Unless he jumps off the cliff, he won’t be getting away.” the merchant explains.

“Fine. You better be right, my promotion could be riding on this.” One of the females threatens before leaving with the other. Akiel carefully maneuvers around his cover as they walk by, making his way behind the worried merchant. “I’m right. I’m definately right. Yeah. When this is over I’ll just kill her. I’ll poison her and take the promotion. Then, the administrator will see me. She will notice my worth. From there, I’ll be set for life.” the merchant mumbles while sweating.

Glad for not needing to breathe, Akiel makes it within a few centimeters of the merchant. Slowly reaching out with his hands, he raises them around the merchants head. Noticing shadows stretching above his head the merchant tries to yell but was too late. Akiel’s hands smack into his temples, disorienting him. Not waiting for the merchant to recover, Akiel slams the merchants head into the desk twice. The merchant, suffering from a severe concussion, slumps to the ground unconscious. Relieved, Akiel drags him to the chair and strips him. Sorting through the items with the eyes of truth, he finds two rings an amulet and glossy tablet like item.

Putting the tablet to the side, he crudely examines the rings but finds nothing special. Moving onto the amulet, he finds that it contains a small beast core and various characters etched into its sides. Injecting a bit of mana, a small orb of fire shoots out at the unconscious merchant.

Wearing the amulet, he checks on the merchant. Although still unconscious, the ball of fire managed to burn all of his chest hair as well as a patch of skin raw. Retrieving a rope Akiel hastily ties the merchant up before waking him. Slapping the merchant into waking up, akiel stuffs his fingers into the merchant's mouth. Baffled and afraid the merchant tried to stand up and wrench Akiel’s fingers out of his mouth in vain.

“Listen up, I need some information. You don’t have to die, just answer truthfully and I’ll let you go.” Akiel kindly explains. Seeing the sly look in the merchant's eyes, Akiel takes his free hand and crushes a finger off the merchant's hand. “Now you know what I’ll do if I’m even slightly suspicious of your answer.” Akiel patronizes as the merchant whimpers, grinding his teeth on Akiels stone fingers. Tears streamed down his face as blood oozes out of his gums.

Throwing the finger away, Akiel starts the interrogation, “Let’s start easy. Where is your most accurate map?” Taking his fingers out of the merchant’s mouth, the merchant quickly tells him to check under his desk. Taking a nearby cloth, Akiel stuffs it into the merchant’s mouth before finding the map. Checking it, he find the locations of several landmarks marked for him. Stuffing the map in his mouth he lets it settle somewhere in his abdomen before returning to the merchant.

“Second question, where is the closest dungeon. I prefer a small one over a large one so a relatively new dungeon if possible.” Akiel politely asks. Ripping the cloth out of the merchant’s mouth, Akiel grabbed another finger. “Wait. it’s to the east. It’s east. East. God help me it’s in the east,” the merchant sobs in fear. Satisfied Akiel pushed the cloth back into his mouth.

“Last question, but before that lets remind you why you haven't lied yet.” Akiel says with a lopsided smile as he crushes another finger off. The merchant squeals in pain. His hands chaffed from the rope tying him down. Eyes bulging, threatening to pop out. His mouth, only leak strange muffled blubbering. “What’s your boss’s name pal?” Akiel asks gently.

Gingerly removing the cloth out of the merchant’s mouth Akiel adds, “Tell me this and I’ll leave immediately.” Wheezing in pain and repetitively exhaling heavily he looks up, locking eyes with Akiel. The merchant's eyes redden as tears stream out faster. He scrunches his ugly excuse for a mouth into a repulsive smile. Not long after foam starts spilling from his mouth.

Akiel sighs and turns away. Kicking the chair over, Akiel yells in frustration, “Poison! Of course, it just had to be poison.” Taking a deep breath, Akiel gathers his thoughts. Looking around, he finds an unlit lantern. Smashing the lantern on a crate he sends a little mana to the amulet, setting it on fire. Taking one last look at the dead merchant and the rapidly spreading fire, he swiftly leaves the tent through the back.

***

Sitting next to Alice's mother, Akiel holds her head by her chin. Once, she might have been a beautiful woman, now she’s but a husk of a person. Alice, returning from a part-time job rushes over after seeing Akiel near her mother. “Mister Don! What are you doing to mama?” she angrily yelled. “Don’t blame me little Alice, your mother is in pain. She’s hurting. She’s dying.” he whispers. With watery eyes, Alice shakes Akiel, “No she’s not. She can’t. She took the medicine, she is going to be fine.”

Inwardly laughing, Akiel cradles her while lying, “The medicine was rejected by her body, it’s killing her slowly. It’s cruel keeping her like this.” Shaking the mother, Alice starts breaking down, "Mama! Wake up, mama. Come on Mama, we can live together like always. Please, mama! Please. Please, don't go." Sobbing, Alice pleads, “Do something, please do something.” Beating at his chest she cries,”You owe me. Do something. Save her. She can’t leave me. You owe me!”

Akiel’s eyes give off a malicious gleam as he soothes Alice, “It’s okay. She won’t leave you. In fact, you can be together soon. Do you want to see your mother laughing again? Talking again? Hugging you?” he whispers. Alice, caught in his enticing words, nods while burying her face in his chest.

Smiling, Akiel whispers, “I can help you then. You see I am a hero, summoned by the gods. I can help you save your mother. All you have to do is close your eyes and pray. Pray to the god of life, to the god of death, and to the god of destruction. Pray to anyone that will hear you. Think about your happiest memories and convince them that your mother deserves better. Convince them that you deserve better. I’ll be right here conveying every word, every thought, and every emotion.”

Wiping her eyes, Alice finds her resolve and closes her eyes. In his embrace, she starts to pray. She starts to plead, to beg and to appeal. Tears slowly leak out from the tear ducts. She thinks of her happiest memory. Unknowingly, she starts to speak out loud, “I don’t have many happy memories, but I have one that I will never forget. I was six or seven, I can’t remember and my mama can’t tell me. We were always alone, but plenty of people helped us back then. We were poor but we were together. I was my mama’s pride and she was my joy. We went herb picking together in the mornings, and cleaned the homes of others in the afternoon. One day, my mama’s employer gave her a tip. She took it and bought me a treat. It was a treat worth five whole coppers but she said my smile was worth more. She said it was worth more than the world to her.”

Sobbing Alice pauses before continuing “I told her, I hated her smile. She started to cry and that's when I hugged her. I told her I loved every other part of her. Her smiles always seemed sad. I remember hugging her and telling her that I didn’t want to eat the treat if she wouldn’t share it with me. I just wanted to see her happy too. She held me tight in her arms and told me she wasn’t sad because of me. She told me that I was right and that she should be happy from then on. I didn’t understand then, but I forgot about it soon after. I remember, she took some of the icy treat on a finger and applied it to my nose. Not long after, we both were laughing. I had retaliated and covered her faced with most of the treat. The only part left was a small berry. She picking it up and split it in half. She told me to swear on the mighty god of berries that I would never forget how to smile. I laughed at the berry god joke and told her to promise she will stay happy. We ended, the day on top of the newly constructed wooden walls, watching the sunset. She held me close and I hugged her back tightly. It was the happiest day I have ever had. Not long after mother got sick and couldn’t get up. I never saw her happy after, only regretful and in pain. Her sad smiles came back and I stopped smiling. Please. We deserve to stay together. Please don’t take mana from me.”

Akiel was content looking at Alice. Her face was pathetic, eyes closed, no longer crying. Mouth forming a wide but stiff smile filled with sorrow. Face scrunched up, trying not to cry.

Sometime, between the beginning and end of Alices monologue, her mother's hand caressed her head.

Sighing, he twists his hand. With a unsettling series of pops, the mother’s head lay facing the side, having been twisted to the point where her fragile neck tore. No tears stained her face, no pain showed either. It was a face effused with relief, gratitude and immense pride.

Alice, hearing the peculiar sound, opens her eyes only to see her mother's head facing the wrong way, her neck ripped beyond repair. Tears gush out of her eyes as she supports herself up. Staring hollowly at her mother, she stood there broken. Akiel not wasting any more time grabs her head and snaps her neck, "that really sounds familiar, it's like when you twist the cap off a stubborn juice bottle."

Laughing, Akiel leaves the house, “That was quite the comic relief. What a eerily perfect smile her mother has. On the other hand, dear Alice was just a let down.”