[The Host has taught himself Mana Channeling (Common).]

~~~~~~~~~~

Name: Daniel

Race: Human

Title: Masochist

System: Crouching Dragon System (Mythical)

Merit Points: 1,100

Life Force: 80/80 (8 years)

Strength: 2

Physique: Conditioned Physique - Lvl.1

Magic: Mana Sense - Lvl.1

Techniques: Mana Channeling (Common - Lvl.0), Draconic Swordsmanship (Rare - Lvl.1), Draconic Thrust (Rare - Lvl.0), Draconic Sense (Epic - Lvl.0)

Active Skills: Blurred Eyes (Epic)

Passive Skills: Dragon Hearted (Epic)

Curse: Unnoticed Potential (Legendary)

~~~~~~~~~~

It’s been two days since I started that meditation routine.

I could now weave the mana all across my body in two minutes. I wasn’t great at holding my breath for long, so I would have to keep practicing until I could complete a circuit in less than a minute.

I was used to pulling all-nighters, so when I wasn’t physically training my body, eating, or sleeping, I’d spend the time practicing to control mana. I probably slept for four to five hours each day. The meditation did help alleviate some of my fatigue though.

‘It should be about time…’

I got up to stretch as my door was shoved open like it always did.

“Morning,” I said with a yawn.

“Morning.”

I still did not refer to the girl by name, but I got used to her existence at least. I think her name was Sam or something like that since that’s what I heard my mother call her. From what I could gather, she was an exotic creature that thrived off of swinging a stick around day-in and day-out. She was obsessed with swords and sparring—both of which could be summarized as violence—and the last time I recalled violence representing women would be in some stupid harem anime with a garbage tsundere. I seriously don’t understand how people could get off to sadistic two-dimensional cartoon characters...

I’ve seriously derailed this conversation now.

Anyway, she’s a sword fanatic that happens to be a childhood friend, neighbor, and general piece of shit for “hard” sparring. I’d rather train to not die than die while training, thank you very much.

“Let’s go.” I wrapped a piece of cloth around my right hand. I made it with a run-down shirt I found in my drawers. It wasn’t too hard to make as all I needed to do was use the kitchen knife when my mother wasn’t around. This goes as a warning for all mothers who kept their weapons of mass destruction at leg height.

After greeting my mother downstairs, we went off to the grass field.

While I knew the path, I still walked beside the girl as I appreciated the houses. The meadows were just outside the village which wasn’t at all hard to navigate.

About the time when we were in sight of the meadows, the girl tapped my shoulder.

“There’s someone there.”

“Where?” I looked in the direction she pointed, but all I could see were the numerous blades of green grass exfoliating dew under the clear skies.

“You sure?”

“Yeah, there’s someone behind that tree.”

‘Tree?’

I looked again, but the only tree there was the rotten one we used to keep our wooden swords. In the first place, it was strange for there to even be a tree in these meadows as it would stick out like a sore thumb regardless if it were lively or dead.

I couldn’t see anything directly, but when I looked along the shadows of the tree, there was a certain figure sticking out which did not fall in line with the shadow.

“Who’s there?” I spoke loudly.

The shadow continued resting against the rotten tree as if it didn’t hear us.

‘Is it an animal?’

We inched forward, minding our steps.

The silhouette behind the tree stayed still to the absolute degree. I was starting to think it wasn’t anyone and the extra shadow behind the tree may have just been something else. Like maybe the rotten tree gave birth to a baby tree. Who knows if trees gave birth like mammals and could produce asexually like bacteria. This place wasn’t Earth so how would anyone in my shoes know the biology of this world.

“A girl?”

The both of us turned around at the same time, except, there wasn’t anyone there.

“Reaction’s a bit slow.”

We turned around again, only to notice the silhouette behind the tree’s shadow had disappeared. The thing that loomed around had vanished completely, making us seem delusional.

“Who’s there!” shouted from beside me.

“A courageous soul too… It really is the girl…”

I quickly took posture and went behind the girl—not to hide, of course. I wasn’t hideous like that. It was only rational to know that people were not owls; we could only see what’s in front of us. If I covered her back, then the both of us together could see from behind and in front. As for our sides, I’ll have to trust that she has good peripheral vision too.

“Interesting.”

I could feel her backing up against me. I wasn’t planning on moving though. In the first place, it was awfully strange how someone could hide from view in such bright sunlight where there were no objects to hide behind. That is, with the exception of the tree.

“Hmm, that works.”

Now that I thought about it, it really didn’t make sense physically. Magic existed, right? Was it invisibility?

“Yes, I’ll train both of you. Heh.” The voice continued murmuring to itself.

When I heard that voice, a sudden thought reminded me.

‘Flying?’

I squatted down as I brought my chin up to observe the clear sky. While there was a chance that voice did come from up high, I couldn’t ignore the possibility that it was tricking us to look up so it could attack from under. If I squatted, I’d at least be able to see a little of what’s in front of me while looking at the sky.

As I searched for an existence within the vast blues, I started breathing in slower and deeper. It was something I often did to calm myself, much like meditating. To be vigilant. To be calm. I must be prepared if it meant grazing past death’s door instead of stumbling into it.

“Oh? A bit crude, but those are mana channels if I’m not mistaken. Yes…” The voice seemed to be a bit… In a sense, “excited.”

“He does look a bit like… Hmm…”

For a moment, all noises ceased to exist. The imaginary birds in my head stopped chirping, the water in the nearby river stopped flowing, and even the grass stopped whispering with the spring breeze.

“What’s your name, hero.”

To that voice, we turned around. A woman was standing in front of the tree, almost misplaced. She had a quality that didn’t make sense to the human eye.

Normally, beauty was a subjective thing; so much so that everyone had their own statements on it. Yet, the one thing in front of us was something that could not be measured by our beloved objectifying standards. Was she ugly? Was she pretty? Such aesthetics were obsolete from the truth.

The rotting tree behind that woman should have accentuated her beauty if she had any. And she would have blended in with the tree had she been ugly. Any shallow person could say she was the epitome of beauty. But that description didn’t sit right with me.

There was a wickedness I could sense in her which I did not doubt. “Somehow!” I’ve gone mad. I somehow knew it. It wasn’t a subpar instinct such as intuition, but a much more familiar nostalgia that told me to run the fuck away. She was a crazy woman and I was just as crazy for recognizing it.

She had long ears that indicated her origins, and the frightening smile exposed her sharp canines.

‘Elf.’

I recognized the creature immediately. It wasn’t like I studied such fantastical things religiously or anything like that. The defining features of an elf was something the media of my old world popularized all too well despite being fictitious. But the example in front of me was the exact opposite of fictitious.

“Can’t you speak, girl?” she said again, with a little more ferocity.

And the strangest thing yet was the g—I ought to refer to her by name now that another “girl” was on the scene.

Simply put, Sam’s reaction was strange.

“H-how did you know?”

“I can smell it.”

“Smell?” Her face started contorting out of confusion.

“So?” The woman continued inquiring.

“Why should I tell you?”

“Why? Hah… Why?”

“I’ll make you the strongest there is, that’s why.” She formed a bigger smile, almost as if she was trying to mask her lunacy. She was holding back laughter…

I think…

“Strongest? And why would I want that?”

“Don’t you know?”

I had a feeling that I should ditch Sam and run away, but I probably shouldn’t in case she was murdered—wait, wrong priorities—I don’t want to be murdered either.

‘Should we run?’

I took a glance at the deranged one and then behind me to gauge the distance. But of course, this effort was futile. If her stealth allowed her to speak without being discovered, I could bet she could run faster than us too, given she was also an adult.

Luckily, she didn’t seem to be much of a pedophile so if we managed to trick her or do as she says, maybe she’d let us—

“How about you, what’s your name?” Her ears perked up. I didn’t know if this body language meant something but it was another phenomenal piece of evidence telling me to turn the other way. Maybe elf ears were like dog ears and they perked up to pick up on sounds. Maybe it was just that and nothing else. Maybe she was listening for people in the surroundings. Maybe she was thinking of something. But that didn’t explain why she didn’t do it when speaking to Sam. Why did she perk her ears? Maybe it was—

“Don’t be scared, what’s your name?”

Ah, right.

‘Let’s play innocent.’

Why hadn’t I thought of it before? I was a fucking kid!

“Daniel…” I mumbled…

‘What?’

That wasn’t quite what I had planned. Was I being too timid? Shit, how do I play innocent like those sociopathic dipshits on the playground?

‘I should have blurted out some other name.’

I realized my mistake moments after saying it.

“Daniel, huh.” Her ears perked up again. It surely meant something.

“See, that wasn’t too hard. There’s nothing to be afraid of.” Or so she said, despite being dressed in all black which did not contrast well with her fair skin.

“So what’s your name, girl,” she said with her eyes still on me. I didn’t think it was possible even with magic, but was she trying to read my mind or something? Surely, the process of thinking is just chemical signals firing off in the brain, so someone could in theory process that and read minds. So was she reading my thoughts? Probably not, but that’s dangerous territory nevertheless…

“So?”

Sam also looked at me as if asking permission, and all I could do was look her in the eyes. If I nodded or did anything excessive, it would appear suspicious since that person had her eyes glued to me. She was definitely suspicious of me for some inexplicable reason.

“Daniel.”

“?” I looked at her again but she hadn’t been addressing me. Her eyes were focused upfront.

“My name is Daniel.” She said with the straightest expression I had ever seen.

‘Daniel?’

Daniel?

‘Did she say my name was hers?’

What?

[Confusion was super effective, The Host is confused.]

‘You shut the fuck up.’

I stared at her unwavering eyes once more to confirm if she really said what I think she said. And her amber eyes told stories I never would have considered.

Did she just achieve nirvana in the art of comedy?

“...”

“Is that a joke?” The woman’s attention finally moved away from me.

But more importantly…

“No.”

“My name is Daniel,” she said with a grin this time. It was as if she were mocking the woman.

And I think I was conjuring some sort of retort in my mind, but I couldn’t really think clearly.

‘You fucker, this ain’t the time to transcend the mortal realm!’

‘The author will be screwed if you die now!’

I never had any problems with thinking before…

“Is that so?”

“Ye—”

I immediately wrapped my arm around her neck to cover her mouth while shouting, “She’s Sam!”

And it was a good thing I did, because what I saw next was the woman who teleported right in front of me. Her hand rested on my hair as if I were a captive pet. A mere property. And her other hand was “resting” around Sam’s neck. With my arm around Sam, it prevented the woman from "gripping."

As everyone froze in place, the only thing moving was the elf’s fingers.

The cold hands ran through my hair slowly, emphasizing each movement. She was playing around.

Literally.

It was a stroke used to calm down bunnies who wanted to escape again.