“Ooooahhh!”

“Huh?” I’m rubbing my eyes, and trying to wake up.

“Where are we?”

[Still in the caves, dimwit]

“Oh, right. Oh, food! Gus! Will you teach me fire magic today?”

[Ah, dammit. Fine. But first we need to settle your mana core a bit. Do your mana circulating exercises ten times, then we’ll practice telekinesis a bit.]

“Okay!”

I think I’m really getting the hang of this mana circulation stuff. Not only has it gotten easier, but I’m actually starting to like it a lot! “Done!”

[Alright. Now make two marks on that rock in front of us. Good, now back up a bit. A bit more. Now hit each of the marks five times in a row. Don’t miss.]

One. Oooh, it missed. “Ah, sorry, sorry!”

[*snort* don’t worry about it. You just aren’t accustomed to this level of mana compression.]

Alright. One—hit! Two—Miss. Aww man, this is hard! I gotta do it though, because I’m hungry! One—hit. Two—hit. Three—miss. Oh well, I think I’m getting the hang of it though.

…

Did it! Five in a row for each!

[Ok, now last test. From here take two stones and hit the marks at the same time two times in a row.]

“Twice in a row?! Just one is—no, no, I’ll do it, sorry! I didn’t mean that!”

[Just get it done.]

“Ok!”

*plink, plink* *plink… plink* *plink plink*

…

*p-plink* “I did it! Twice in a row!” Wow, that took a looong time! I’m so glad it’s over. Now it’s time to learn fire magic!

[Ok. Now, before we start, we need to practice a bit of mana channeling. Move some mana through your arms up to your hands. When I say ‘stop’ quickly pull the mana back to your mana core. This is going to be very important. If you can’t do really well at this, then we won’t be able to practice fire magic.]

“Ok, Gus! I’ll work hard!”

[That’s the spirit. Ok, now start moving mana to your hands. Stop! You were a bit slow. Let’s go again.]

…

We did that for such a long time that I started to get really bored, but I guess I did well enough, because he then taught me how to make fire! Apparently those exercises were so that he could stop me before my magic could go crazy and make me go ‘boom.’ I don’t think going ‘boom’ would be a very good thing…

Nevertheless, I was able to eat! The meat was kind of bitter, but it was still food! I know how to appreciate food, no matter how it tastes. After that, we kept moving forward.

[Time for more combat experience. There are going to be more creatures coming up, so get ready, and kill them all! Hahahaha!]

“All of them? Even the butterflies?”

[They are called bats, you fool! And yes, kill them, too. That’ll be good for target practice.]

“Aww, ok.”

Oh, there’s another creature! It really big!

[Activate your dragon realm]

Kill

[Alright, now this is a spider-type beast. They can spray webs and are very hard to face directly, esp. with a sword, but thankfully they are dumb and you are a dragonkin, so here’s what we’ll do: use telekinesis to secretly make some noise on the other side it. When it is distracted, run up and jump on top of it, where it will not be able to get to you, then stab it!]

“Ok, here goes!”

*plink*

There! It turned away!

I’m jumping! Ah, telekinesis! Made it. Now for the sword. *Shink*

“Ah, my ears!” It’s squealing!

[Hang onto your sword!]

Uh, ok. Woah! It’s running back and fort quickly! “Ahh! Gus! What do I do?” It’s so fast, and the stab didn’t kill it!

[Ah ahaha! The music is glory! Revel in the cries of—]

“Gus! I’m going to fall off!”

[Ah, fine. Just keep hanging onto that sword. Now channel your fire magic into it just like you did to make a fireball, but in the sword instead of making a ball in the air.]

“It’s just moving faster!”

[Put more in! More magic. Good, that’s enough. Stop putting magic it, but leave the sword in, jump off, and hide. Steady yourself! Telekinesis, you moron!]

*Thud* “Oof”

[Alright, nothing broken. But we seriously need to improve your flight skills]

“Why is it still running around even though I jumped off of it?”

[Like I said, they are dumb. The sword is still in its body, so it didn’t even notice you had jumped off. Not to mention how you just boiled its insides or how it’s about to die anyways.]

Oh, it just flopped on the ground

[Good! Grab your sword and the core.]

[And for Heltrina’s sake, retract your damn dragon realm!]

“Ah! Yes sir!”

[Don’t yes sir—ah, forget it. Carry on.]

The spider turned to soup! It’s really gross, but I’m used to it. And besides, I can clean it all off with that cool spell Gust taught me. He always laughs when I use it, though. I wonder why?

Alright, my next core. I’m going to sit down an absorb this.

[Alright, you are are ok with energy absorbing, but we still have a distance to go with compression. How full does your mana core feel?]

“Really full.”

[That’s because you didn’t compress it very much. The smaller the middle piece of your core and the faster it spins, the more compressed it will become. This time, try spinning your energy around the smallest bit of energy you can in the middle.]

*Sigh* Alright, here goes!

[Eh. That’s still an awfully big center sphere, but you spinning speed is at least stable and a bit faster. It’s still pitiful, but I guess we’ll have to make do.]

[Alright, it’s a bit smaller, but your core is still way too big. Do it again, and this time with a smaller center piece. Take your time if you have to, but make sure you separate out the smallest, densest, innermost pice of energy to spin the rest around]

Aww, man! It’s so hard! Don’t cry Chalia, don’t cry! I can do this! But it’s so hard! But I have to. Ok, deep breath. Let’s go!

[Slower than a winter snail, and shakier than wangon with square wheels, but I’ll admit that size is a lot better.]

[Oh, come on, don’t make that face! You did ok. Ah, fine. You did good! Ok? Hop up, lets keep going]

[Let’s fight some more beasts. Huh? Aww, Heltrina! I don’t understand humans! I swear the life you gave me is the only reason I haven’t wiped your dragon race off the face of this mortal plane!]

[Chalz, what’s going on? You can’t fight with a face like that—no power, no ambition—it’s the face of someone as I hold their pitiful bodies, ready to, uh—I mean, its the face of someone who is about die.]

Stop. Stop! I can’t stop these tears!

*sob* “I’m so tired of this all!” “Twenty-Six, I miss you! And Mina, and Gerald, and and… I don’t want to be here! And there’s not color at all, and everything want’s to hurt me, and you’re so mean, and I don’t care if there are ghosts anymore, I’m so sick of it all!”

[…]

[*Sigh* Alright, Chalia. Here’s what’s going to happen. We are two-thirds of the way out of the cavern. Since we are getting close to the end, there will be a few more creatures to kill that we have experienced so far, but with your strength increasing like it has, the rest should be getting a bit easier. We can’t go on right with you like this right now, though, so take a break, cheer up, and we’ll be out of here on no time.]

“Really? Are you sure?”

[I’m akin to a god, alright? Of course, I’m sure!]

“Ok.”

[That’s a little better. Hack off the tips of that spider first, though. You’ll need money to live in a city, and these things can actually sell for a decent price, as far as the weaker mortals are concerned]

“Alright.”

Gus was right. We did get out before too much longer. We killed quite a few beasts, I absorbed them, and we collected a lot of stuff. It was only small things, since my bag was already pretty full, but He says these things will be enough to last for awhile.

I’m also getting a lot better at condensing my mana core. After I could do it better and faster by rotating the outside part, Gus had me condense my core the opposite way—by rotating the center part while keeping the outer part still. It was just as hard as when I started with the other way, but Gus said that this way is usually a lot harder. I think he was lying, though… Anyways, we finally made it out. Yahoo!

“Colors! I see colors again!”

[Alright, Chal…]

“Is that another nickname?”

[Yes, yes it is. But that isn’t important. What we need to do now is to get to the road. It’s not exactly safe, but you aren’t strong enough to go through the forest yet.]

[Head straight North]

“North. North… Uh…”

[Wow. She can’t even… Ah! Never mind, never mind! Just don’t make that face! Maeror’s sakes!]

[Look at the sun and go in that direction. Good. Keep going until we reach a road.]

A road! What a lugjury!

[Don’t breathe easy yet]

“Oh, what was that? I saw something silver.”

[As I said, don’t… Argh. Anyways, those are robbers and they are going to try to kill or kidnap you.]

“Are you sure? What if they are nice people?”

[Killing intent. I can sense—you know what? Never mind. You’ll see when we get there.]

“Ok… I’ll prepare just in case…”

Every once in a while, I sense something glint, but then it disappears. Are there that many bad people? Are shiny things that bad?

[Chalia, Dragon Realm.]

Oh, ok.

Devour

Wooh. It always feels so odd. Oh, I smell something.

[Smell that?]

“Yeah, what is it?”

[Bloodlust. When you’ve felt it enough times, you’ll be able to sense it without the dragon realm and without even scent, but this’ll do for now. What it means is that someone is getting ready to kill. This time their target is you. I’ll sharpen your blade this time since there are quite a few of them, but you need to watch out. Their equipment is garbage, but still good enough to slice you clean in half. Activate your second dragon realm, but keep it there.]

Second realm, second realm…

Ahh! He’s right! They’re coming and there are so many of them! How do I do this?

[KILL THEM!]

Kill

“Desrov, desrove! It’s dragon! Ru—Ah!!”

“What? a dragon? She’s a beastkin, obviously! Just look at… Oh shit. Oh shit! Argh!”

Kill. Devour. My head feels kind of swirly. I’m doing it though. One down, two, three and four…

[Chalia. Chalia]

Destro—

[Chalia!]

“Oh, uh. Is, is it over?”

[Yeah. I broke your realm and a half, so retract the last one.]

“Ok!”

“Ugh!”

[Hold it in. Hold it in! You need to get used to these things if you want to survive.]

“But, I…”

[Ok, let’s put this in other words. If you can’t get used to a little blood now and then, Twenty-Whatever you call her will have roughly zero chance of rescue, and will live and grow old being abused by those sorry excuses for men, and then she’ll be shot in the head and thrown into a dump with everyone else you care about from the slave gang. Understand?]

[Chalia?]

[Dammit, Heltrina.]

[Let’s get you to the city. I don’t know how to deal with children.]

“Twenty-Six.” “Twenty-Six.” “…” “Twenty-Six.”

[Chalz. That also means if you get strong enough you can keep that from happening, ok?]

“Ok.”

[Alright the city is right over… *Tch* Those maggots move quickly]

Woah. There are so many people, and they all are wearing glowy clothes and have glowy knives. And they’re looking at me…

“Well, well, well. Look what we have here. You sure did quite the number on our lab staff, didn’t you? Oh, and that sword? You not only ran away, but you stole our sword too!”

“Gus? Are you ok? Why are you shivering like that?”

[Fine. I’m fine. But I need you to do a few things. One, you need to memorize how to say my longer name. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but you need to get it close]

“I normally don’t make deals with my targets, but seems how you’re just a little girl, I’ll be considerate just this once. Come quietly and I’ll be gentle.”

[Alright, got it?]

“Got it”

“Good, I’m glad you know how to choose the right option.”

“I wasn’t talking to you!”

[Ok, quick now, repeat after me:]

“By decree of Try-byou-laht-eeo eat angu-tia in dee-os key oxy-der-unt, I demand that you let me pass!”

I think it’s working. They aren’t saying anything, at least. Who are these guys, and what do they want with me?

“…”

*Pffft* Ahahaha, you are really hilarious. You mean Tribulatio et Angustia Dios, qui Occidurunt?

[The bastard missed a word. He MISSED A FUCKING WORD]

“Well, sorry to burst your bubble, but even if you know the name of the sword, it’s not going to help you.”

[The hell? He said I was the fucking sword. I. I.]

“Gus? Gus? The sword is shaking really hard. What is going on?

“Alright kitty, game’s up. Come on over.”

[What’s wrong? He want’s to take me wielder and chop her up for experimentation and you ask what’s wrong? He misses a whole friggin’ word of my name, and you ask what’s wrong? I am So. Fucking.] “ANGRY!”