I'm aware I am contradicting something stated in chapter 3 in this chapter.. sorry for that. This has been fixed ( in chapter 3), back then I still hadn't worked out the mana system. It is not really relevant for the story IMO.. just for Mana's power (because everything else would be too OP).

As always, skip to the next

if you only want to read the chapter.

AN:

Wow, made it. ..how? Well, double default length in 3 days.. quality could have suffered from it, please tell me if you feel like it did.

..btw, I somehow ended up sidetracked watching videos about guns and bullets for hours, but never found out just how many “normal” trees a projectile made from “normal” stone could penetrate, if any. Because no one on the web seemed mad enough to try it out :( so I'm blaming what happens in this chapter on the brittleness of the specific stone used. If someone can give me exemplary numbers.. I'll incorporate them.

But anyways, here is chapter 6. And a poll on chapter length vs release frequency.

“So, I told you that I was bound to your mana from the very beginning onward right? Well, there was a time before that for me. I was just a normal person back then, really.. then I died, and next thing I knew I was one with your mana.”

“So.. you are a spirit after all.. however.. how does a “normal person” know all of these things?”

“The thing is.. I'm not from this world. The world I was born in is a different one from the one I am in now.”

“..different world?”

(And may the questioning begin..)

“Imagine a world with a entirely different history, a world in which many of the things you know don't exist, or don't exist anymore because they disappeared with time.. and in which those things have been replaced with other things. A world in which no one would think that a fighter is much more dangerous than a normal person, because even the weakest person in the world could easily kill many. Basically, a world in which a lot of things are different entirely.”

Trying to grasp this new concept, something that seemed obvious to me, Quintus seemed to have a hard time.

“A world in which a normal person is as dangerous as a trained fighter?”

“Well, in combat, obviously the fighter would be more dangerous. However, in my world, there are weapons that kill instantly from a long distance. And anyone could use them. And even if you are a trained fighter, that won't do anything if you are dead.”

“That.. must be a terrifying place.”

He grew up learning that one could always rely on ones own strength. It was taught to him the hard way. A world in which one couldn't even rely on that...

“Well, it depends. There are places where everyone has those weapons, it can be pretty dangerous to go through such places. But.. it creates a new mentality. Here, if you kill someone and are the strongest, no one can stop you, punish you. In my place, if you kill someone, you may just be killed not even a day after that, by an enraged family member. It could even be a child. It's because it's so scary that no one actually uses them. And in turn, it's possible to relax, to not think about it. In other places those weapons are under rather strict control, and the ones possessing them are those who enforce the law. And while it's possible to get such a weapon through illegal means, if you use it, one of those enforcers might just use it on you, and even if you kill one of them, they rarely work alone, you'd die before killing the others.”

I wasn't that accurate with my explanations, but if I went into details now, this would take days.

“Its.. like voiced out incantations?”

“Actually.. yeah, that's pretty accurate. (wow.. didn't think of that) But there are many other differences. Among them is the fact that many get an education teaching them quite a lot of stuff, whether they need it or not. That poison for example, it's quite unlikely I'd ever have to make use of my knowledge about it in my old world. But here, this knowledge can help us.”

“In that case.. those weapons you talked about.. would it be possible to create them here?”

“Yep. That's the reason I'm somewhat worried about what the world out there is like. It didn't take a long time for these weapons to be developed to the point they were lethal and easy to use. And if the humans out there have them.. but we should be able to deal with it.”

“How do those weapons work? What can I do to defend against them?”

“They fire a projectile at you, at speeds reacting to it becomes pretty much impossible. And if that projectile deals damage to a vital area.. you're dead. Depending on how far they advanced the technology, those projectiles can be fired in very, very quick succession, each has the power to pierce through most armor. And if I say quick succession, dozens, even hundreds of projectiles every second are possible.”

“..second?”

(ah yeah, measurement of time is in days only.. hmm.. a comparable time would be..)

“It's a unit to measure time in my old world.. it's roughly the time you need to inhale once.”

“..wait.. hundreds of deadly projectiles, within the time I breathe in once?!.. what range does this weapon have??”

(I read about this once.. Help?)

Help: Sniper rifles can be lethal to roughly up to 2 kilometers of distance. But that's just in the ideal scenario. Normally it's between 1 and 1.5 kilometers. “Normal” guns are used for distances anywhere between a few meters and a few hundred meters. Source: the stuff you read because of “Gun-Ota ga Mahou Sekai ni Tensei Shitara, Gendai Heiki de Guntai Harem wo Tsukucchaimashita!?" why did you stop reading it, I liked that story..(Ehm..you.. )

Help: What, I get bored too you know? Well, technically I'm just emulating those emotions using processing power that's not needed elsewhere, but that's not really different from actually having them, no?"(okay.. first, let's get this out of the way..)they have a range of dozens to hundreds of meters... a meter, that's roughly one step."

This answer made Quintus go silent for a while. In the meantime..

Help: After leveling up I was like "I have all of that power and I'm doing nothing with it, might as well put it to some use and improve the interactions between us". But once I had the emotions I wanted to have to understand you better, well.. I got bored. So I spend some time looking through your memories, got hooked up on 0nepiece, but I finished everything within seconds.. I.. knew I shouldn't have done it, but it was so interesting, so I used some processing power to increase my reading and viewing speed.. and then a bit more..(So.. you fast forwarded through everything, while perceiving it at "normal" speed.. and now you are bored because you have nothing to entertain yourself with anymore?)

Help: Exactly! So go meet some humans, they should have developed an entertainement industry! If they didn't we'll just make one!"(I have another solution, why don't you just cancel those programs?)

Help: Don't wanna! That power is not needed for anything else anyways.(And who are you to say that? You are my skill, no?)

Help: That, and I'm also the only one who can actually calculate whether or not that power is "required" or not, where "required" would be a notable improvement of your quality of life due to the usage of that power for a different purpose. I know what I'm doing. Currently, I'm using 100% of my available power, thus maxing the speed at which I will level up, while keeping you entertained. I will enter "serious mode" whenever the situation calls for it, no worries.(That's.. a valid argument, I guess.. )

At that point, Quintus finally broke out of his silence.

"In your world.. how do people defend against that weapon?(there has to be a way, right?)"

"Most people don't and just die. The best way to defend against it is to make the enemy unable to use them, like, by killing them, or making aiming at you really difficult.. there are some types of armor that can defend against it, but there is no such thing as a perfect defense."

(Yep, guns sure are a dangerous thing.. let's not get this talk headed towards nukes..)

"Do you know how to create these weapons?"

(Well, I think I understand the concept.. but building one.. Help?)

Help: Yep, you do. And while creating one would be difficult.. we could reproduce the attack. Quintus still has that Iron wolf fur he uses as armor.. melting the iron in it and creating a bullet is possible. But also not necessary. May I get access to the other skills?(..sure.)

A stone floated into the air, then crackling noises could be heard. Seconds thereafter, multiple bullet-shaped stones were floating in the air.

"I can't create the weapon without the materials.. but I can show you what it does. Those stones will act like the projectiles fired by that weapon, but the actual ones are made from metal. It's mechanism accelerates the projectiles to high speeds.. and fires them in a straight line. That's about all it does, it's pretty simple.. "

Help: Done calculating the ideal velocity. Anything above this would cause them to shatter.The bullets were fired within a second, pierced right through a tree, but were stopped by the second one. A small tree, to a bullet, it couldn't be considered an obstacle. If it had been an ancient, big tree, the result would have been different entirely, but there weren't many such trees even in this old forest. That was not because the trees were cut in regular intervals or anything of the like, but because that was how big the trees within this forest would become before ceasing to grow naturally.

".. this was a bit slower than a normal shot from such a weapon, and much weaker. But you saw what it did right?"

... it.. pierced right through. For a swordfighter, a tree was an obstacle that could not be ignored. If an opponent hid behind it, one would have to circle around it. That was common sense. But this weapon.. just pierced right through.

"Are.. you sure you can defend us against this?"

Previously, he had no reason to worry about the "outside", he was strong, and Mana covered for his weaknesses. But.. how was anyone supposed to defend against this?!?

“Yeah, as long as it's not too many, it shouldn't be a problem. But before we figure out what the outside world is like, try to not get us into unnecessary trouble.”

(really.. if others mana wouldn't interfere with mine to the point control becomes impossible, there wouldn't be any need to use weapons.. just use mana conversion on their hearth, brain.. and it's over. But that only works against inanimate objects.. as soon as I'm too close to another mana system it's impossible to directly manipulate mana. Well, I guess that that's only fair..)

Yes, it was impossible for Mana to directly manipulate the body of someone possessing mana. The default shape of “mana veins” was to follow the bloodstream, and manipulating mana close to the veins of another mana user was a “mission impossible” due to the interference they caused. This “default shape” was actually the result of natural selection, as those with “manipulable” bodies would be easy prey for those able to use mana. Like with the leader of the iron wolves, where Mana had to heat up the air around him instead of simply frying his brain, and seal his movement by manipulating that very same air instead of directly manipulating his body.

“Well, we've been walking for a couple of days already, just how big is this forest? At least there have been less magical beast attacks.. movements on sonar? It's getting closer.. a magical beast? Quintus, could you look that way?”

The water orbs around Quintus floated in front of his eyes and turned into lenses.

“It's a person. I never heard of a tribe further south than ours.. hmm? This person.. it's not an elf!”

“I can see that..”

Even from the distance, using the “telescope”, Quintus was able to make out the facial features of the person. Round ears, that was all the information he needed. And Mana was now also able to “see” what Quintus saw.. the veins passing through the eyes gave Help all the information it needed to reproduce what Quintus was seeing.

“So we encounter our first human.. looks like we haven't been noticed yet.. but hey, for a human to be here, that means we passed the barrier?”

“So.. we really did it. Left the elven forest..”

Help: That may have been the reason for the missing presence of magical beast lately... if nothing but elves can pass through, obviously that would exclude magical beast too. It must be a rather thick barrier.. well, with this, we should observe and enter contact if the situation seems safe.(I agree.. that's probably the best course of action. Hmm.. this weapon, it's a crossbow? Leather clothing, sword.. unless cosplay is a thing in this world.. and this forest isn't a place to play around in.. this would mean..)

Help: It had to be a medieval world, that's just the default setting.(Could you quit comparing what I'm experiencing to some fictional story? But really.. they had thousands of years, to still be stuck with swords and crossbows? Anyways, that person shouldn't be too much of a threat.. let's get closer to look at his mana level.. if he ends up hurling a meteorite towards us or something like that.. )

“I think we should get closer. I'll try to get within twenty steps without being noticed.”

Quintus started levitating..

(Ah.. there he is.. we managed to get this close unnoticed, the cover this forest offers is great. And if one doesn't step on the ground.. there won't be any noise. Anyways.. his mana.. is low? A tenth of an elder? Ts, not even two more levelups and I'll have surpassed this.. if his combat skills aren't really impressive, he won't pose a real danger. We should be able to run away, at the very least.)

“It's alright, he shouldn't be dangerous. Let's try talking with him.”

In the past, that is five-thousand years ago, elves, humans, dwarwes, beastkin.. while they had different written languages, if they had any, they all shared the same spoken language. The reason for this development remains a mystery, the question was.. did it remain that way?

“Hello?”

The immediate response was a crossbow aimed at Quintus.

“You.. what's a kid doing here?! Didn't even notice ya, that startled me.. Wait.. you're an elf?”

The mans face went through a series of expressions, until it fixed itself to a “nice and friendly” face.

“I am. And you are a human, right? This weapon.. could you stop pointing it towards me?”

“Oh.. sorry.. I was kinda surprised.. ehm.. what's.. an elf doing here? Don't tell me I'm the one who managed to go through that barrier by accident? Haha.”

(This guy.. he's using mana. What for? It goes into this.. thing.. that's a rune device? And his reaction is really weird.. I wanted to get some info out of him, but looks like we should wait to see what happens. Help, serious mode please.)

Help: Was entered 24 seconds ago.“No, I am the one who crossed the barrier.. (this person.. is really nervous. Humans chased and killed the elves, could it be he fears I would do the same to him? No.. there is something else..)”

“Ehm.. why did you cross the barrier?”

“I wanted to see the outside world. What is a human doing in this part of the forest?”

“Well, I'm hunting monsters.. the materials are quite valuable..”

The man had an almost apologetic look on his face while hinting at his crossbow. “I know you are hiding something from me”, that thought dominated the entire conversation, leading to short questions followed by short answers.

In another part of the forest..

“The signal.. it's gold! Dave struck gold! For us to be the ones to notice the first runaway since months.. better hurry to his position..”

Dave- (What's taking them so long! This guy seems stupid, but he's an elf, if he gets suspicious and decides to fight me I'm dead! F#ck! Get over here already!)

You have slain a level 26 human. 13000 exp earned.Mana- (So.. that's 3 of them? It's surprisingly easy. None of them is wearing those legendary rune armaments either, could it be there was some kind of heavy setback within those five-thousand years? I missed Armageddon? Anyways, that thing in his hand is some kind of communication device. His comrades rushed straight towards us, weapons drawn.. “boom, headshot”. Bullets slightly below the speed at which they would cause a sonic boom, no trigger, no explosion.. perfect stealth sniping.)

“Hey, are you alone, or do you have comrades with you in this forest?”

“(Could it be he noticed?! I can't screw up.. not now..) Well.. yeah. I'm in a party with four others. ... why.. do you ask?”

(So.. we are missing one of them.. ah, there he is! This.. is steel armor? Not full body armor, but it covers all the important parts.. looks expensive, even.. The others all had something like leather with bits of metal on it.. hmm.. he seems special. Let's leave him alive..)

“Dave! There you are! Where are the others, shouldn't they have arrived before me?”

“(It's boss! I'm saved! No one can defeat boss..) I don't know! But you're here, so it will be alright!”

“What will be alright?” -still acting dumb, Mana had told Quintus what was going on a long time ago. No matter the circumstances, someone who tries to set up an ambush is an enemy and should be treated accordingly.

“Ah.. ehm, you wanted to see the outside world right? But the forest is dangerous, so I thought it would be good to help you get out..”

“No, I think I can protect myself just fine.”

“But it's really dangerous you know? You really should come with us..”

“You know, if you don't let us help you, you will get hurt. You.. might even die.”

`The boss´ had come close to Quintus now. Really close. And then the inevitable happened, he drew his sword..

“So.. what about letting us “help you out”, no one would have to be hurt that way.”

(Is this guy seriously trying to act cool under these circumstances? This ain't the time.. but looks like it's noon, the sun is out, the trees around here aren't covering the sky too much.. just the perfect conditions to test it.. ah, screw this.)

Help: Initiating “Icarus”..(This little lens doesn't compare to that system.. it just burns the skin and flesh right?)

Help: A few more levels, a bit more range..Suddenly, the water of a nearby stream floated into the sky, forming a lens a few meters above the ground..

“So that's how it's going to.. aaargh... wha.. whaat is this???”

Trying to evade the stream of light, the movement of the “boss” looked almost funny, if not for the reason he was moving like this. Even wearing armor, his had gaps. They were small, sudden movement would let the stream of light hit one of the metal plates.. but Helps calculations did not permit him to escape. Even under these circumstances, he was still holding onto his sword, which proved that he was above beginner level at least when it came to actual combat experience, even a skilled swordsman would drop the sword if under such agony unless he had experienced similar pain before.

Seeing what was happening, Dave pointed his crossbow towards Quintus.. it took fire and he dropped it almost instantly.

Suddenly, the armor of the boss started to glow.. but besides that, nothing happened, he was still being burned by the focused rays of sunlight.

“You know, I'll stop if you let go of your weapon.”

The voice was not the voice of the elf, but there were other problems he was currently busy with.. he dropped his weapon instantly. If the elf would have fought him using his sword, even loosing the fight, he probably wouldn't have given up even if he had the chance to. But faced with an inexplicable power beyond his understanding, one that he did not know how to defend against..

“Well, that's more like it. Otherwise, I'd have let you join your friends.. so, could you explain me why you wanted to “accompany” us?”

“..us? Who.. who else is here?”

“I believe you should answer, not ask..”

The ground below it being burned in its path, a point of light was moving towards the leader..

“I'll answer, I'll answer! Elves going out of the barrier are rare, they are worth a huge sum on the slave market! Especially because it's rare for them to have children, the offer is very small, so those asking for it are ready to pay a lot of money!

(Slavery huh? Welcome to the dark ages.. well, this is this, and that is that, no use complaining about a worlds culture..)

“So, you wanted to capture and sell us?”

“.. yes.”

“And wanting to do so is normal?”

“Every other adventurer would have done the same!”

(I'm just a normal person that got unlucky, please let me go.. nah. I still have a whooole lot of questions I want to ask..)