I stagger towards the swamp, victorious but injured at the same time. I walked towards the raging flames devouring the trees, I summoned water. Again and again, I didn’t let a moment slip for fear of the fire taking over my home, I conjured water without rest, I felt my mana becoming exhausted. But that didn’t stop me, it couldn't stop me.

I managed, somehow. The fires finally ceased and I was left alone, among the charred trees, I collapsed. I had never felt exhaustion before, this was new to me, I tried to use my arm to support myself and stand once again. But it was futile, I sat with my back resting on the remains of a large tree, I don’t wish to go back to the darkness again, not to the place before I was born.

I don’t wish to leave my new home unattended, I can't, I won't.

✣✣✣✣✣✣✣✣✣✣✣✣✣✣✣✣✣✣✣✣✣✣✣✣

“Jaylin”

I bolted up and looked around, my friend Rodi was shaking me awake

“Jaylin, boss wants everyone downstairs, says we’ve got an opportunity.”

I rub my eyes and look at him whilst squinting

“Opportunity?” I ask curiously, Rodi just shrugged and walked out the room.

I decided it wasn’t best to keep the old man waiting so I leapt out of bed and put on my gear, after setting off down the steps leading to the downstairs hall of our humble hut I saw that I was the last one to make it. Everyone was already sitting at a table waiting for me, I’m definitely getting chewed out by the fossil later.

When we were all together our boss, Gale, a 62 year old man who posses a look of immense determination, as long as that determination is to drive his head through a brick wall. Stood up and started talking about the details.

“About a week ago, a group of novice adventurers looking for a handful of swamp charvile flowers spotted an unknown creature, 2 meters tall and made of wood.”

Immediately chatter ensues, we have 5 people in our group, me and Rodi joined just a couple of months ago, we’re considered a D rank party, respectable but far from being renowned outside of our local province.

“How do we know they’re telling the truth?”

One of the other members, Reagan, piped up.

Gale gives him a nod and responds.

“It wouldn’t be trustworthy at all if it was just novices giving their word, chasing thin air isn't something I would look forward to either. But an adventurer who is an old friend of mine, Leo, was accompanying them for the trip.”

The meeting continued for a while, mainly to just iron out the details. The swamp was a 5 day excursion from here, directly south of a village named Deepcrest, nobles pay a not insignificant sum of coin for rare and exotic monsters to fight for entertainment at the capital or as sacrificial soldiers to hold back the hordes near the city of Nightcross so we have a mission, find the monster and capture it alive.

✣✣✣✣✣✣✣✣✣✣✣✣✣✣✣✣✣✣✣✣✣✣✣✣

Dark.

It’s dark once again.

But this time, something is different.

Light, there’s a light, I look around and I see nothing, it’s pitch-black. I look at myself, the light illuminating my body, the burns are gone. My skin is back to how it once was, I look back at the light and inside it I see a tower, not made of stone but of wood.

I open my eyes, the sunrise is what greets me, I look at my body and the burns are truly gone, I remember what I saw in the dream, a tower made of wood. I somehow feel, no, I somehow know, it’s in the swamp, I have much to do.

I stand using the tree as a support, I begin to relax and truly feel the world around me, I stretch out using my mana, tendrils pulsing out of me, I feel the trees, the ground, the water and the animals, both big and small. I reach out further and I look at the swamp’s every detail, still not far enough, I go further and further and that’s when I saw something intriguing, a cave, murky and forgotten.

I begin my arduous journey to the simple but well hidden cave, sometimes wading through long stretches of shallow water, my home is much larger than I first anticipated it to be. After a journey that must have taken hours, I was finally in front of the cave. Vines hung from the entrance hiding it well, past that the water on the cave floor was up to my ankles, lizards and various other creatures also seemed to call this specific cave home.

I pushed past the vines and entered the cave, the entrance was wide enough to fit ten humans side by side and easy tall enough to fit four stacked on top of each other. The walk through the entrance of the cave was decently short, eventually ending up at the final turn, as I saw what the end of the tunnel held I was amazed, the winding cave entrance led towards an entire cave swamp, so large I couldn’t see the walls on either side, with a ceiling spanning the entire swamp, with multiple colossal holes letting in both sun and moonlight depending on the time of day.

I was amazed at this hidden world right in my home, from my point of view this place is a masterpiece, truly worthy of appreciation. My admiring of the cave swamp was rudely cut off by fearful noises of creatures, I turn and look at the cause of the noise and the creatures staring back at me are skinny and green, roughly the same height as humans but slightly shorter due to malnutrition and carrying crude weapons made of wood and stone, I knew what they were, goblins.

The staring continues for a short while, the one that appears to be the leader of these goblins walks slightly ahead of the rest, looking fearful, he drops his small stone spear and kneels on the ground in front of me. The rest soon do exactly the same and soon the goblins numbering around fifteen are all showing submissive stances towards me.

“P-please old Deus, spare us.”

Somehow I’m able to understand the goblins but that isn’t too surprising anymore, I was able to understand the humans I met not long after my birth, Deus, do they think I’m a god?