Chapter 5 School Life as a Demihuman

The next couple of years passed by rather quickly, as if I was watching a movie of my life in fast forward and only played during the important parts. When I say this I mean literally, I even asked about it during one of my “regular speed” periods and found out that most demihumans experience this, especially during schooling. This occurs due to our instinct taking over and it also allows us to learn combat training and magical training rather easily since everything we learn during our instinctual phases we still remember when out of this state. At first I thought it was my soul still getting accustomed to my body until I asked Mick about it and he said it’s natural and to ask one of our teachers about it.

The entire theory behind the instinct idea is that since a demihumans’ lifespan is 400 – 800 years our bodies might also do this to help us cope with long periods of doing the same thing every day for extended periods. We will snap out of this instinctual trace state when it is not necessary, but most children experience it during the school period of their lives. Since I basically “matrixed” school and combat training I will just cover the “highlights” or the periods when I learned at regular speed.

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The demihuman race is made up of 6 tribes of similar demihumans. These 6 tribes are the Beast tribe, Reptilian tribe, Aquatic tribe, Insectoid tribe, Avian tribe, and the Demon tribe. Also interesting is the fact that all demihumans are omnivores. Imagine my surprise the first time I saw some rabbit and cow girls eating raw wild wolf steaks. Also since becoming a demihuman I’ve learned that raw magical creature and monster meat is freaking delicious. The most cooked we ever make our meat is rare. Demihumans are also one of the few species that can eat monster meat with no ill effects, in fact we are supposed to eat some meat from our kills since we absorb mana from the meat and it increases our mana pool slightly. This world is also about 5 times bigger than Earth. The demihuman continent is also the biggest of the 3 continents and is twice the size of Pangaea, so imaging all the land of Earth combined, plus a little extra, times 2. The other two continents were connected together but separated by a gigantic mountain range with both continents were each the size of Pangaea. They were the continents of the Mer and Fey.

The Mer continent is populated by human and humanoid species; well at least the sentient races are humanoid. The races of Mer are Human, Light Elves, Dark Elves, Natural Elves, Dwarves and Ravagers. The Mer races were able to cast magic and don’t have to manually manipulate the mana like Demihumans and Fey have to. This comes with a cost since the races of Mer have the smallest mana capacity of three groups. The species with the highest mana capacity and most balanced stats are the Humans, but they have the downside of having to say chants to cast magic, with higher level spells need longer chants.

The three types of elves have the next highest amounts of mana and the only other races of Mer that can use spells. All three races of elves do not need to chant to cast magic, but just quick cast by saying the name of the spell they want to cast then picturing casting the spell. Light elves can use spells from 7 of the 8 affinities and can’t use darkness magic. Light elves have the 2nd most mana of any of the races of Mer, but also have the frailest bodies as well, to compensate for their quick casting and high mana supply. Dark elves have an affinity for darkness, fire, and some body enhancing magic, and are the strongest and heartiest of the elves. Despite their name the only way to distinguish a dark elf from the other two is by their naturally occurring reddish tattoo patterns on their bodies since humans and elves have the same skin colors, and the only way to tell an elf from a human is by their pointy ears. Elves also have all the same skin colors that humans do so seeing a black elf doesn’t make them a dark elf automatically. Natural elves are the “conservationist” group of elves and only have one type of magic, the special nature magic that most of the Fey possess. While they are a bit studier than light elves, they aren’t as tough as dark elves and rely mainly on agility and ranged combat when they fight.

Dwarves and Ravagers share the demihuman ability to use mana manually, or by feel, but still have restrictions to keep them balanced. The gods of this world tend to like balance since for every strength a species has, it also has a weakness to compensate. Demihumans might have massive reserves of mana and long life-spans but we also usually have very short ranges for mana based attacks and everything that lives on our continent can kill you. Since all non-demihuman creatures on the demihuman continent can use mana at birth even a baby rat can kill you if you’re not careful. Of course it helps that they are the size of full grown cats when they are young. Oh yeah, I was talking about dwarves and ravagers when I got distracted. While dwarves can use mana manually, they can only channel it through special glyphs that can be written on weapons to cause magical effects. They are also the shortest and second strongest of the races of Mer with their max height being 5 ft.

The Ravagers are the most interesting of all the races of Mer, and the one demihumans get along best with. They are a race that can only use their manual mana control to strengthen their bodies just like demihumans do and are quite varied as a race. The only common factor between the different tribes of ravagers is that no matter what you are the loser must follow the will of the winner which is very similar to how the demihuman world works. Ravagers are a desert roaming race that is almost considered demihuman due to some of their abilities. They have the ability to sense the general amount of mana monsters and magical creatures have. It is like a sixth sense that demihumans have that will go off if confronted by a creature that is incredibly dangerous. They also use the bones of said high mana creatures as armor, and through some sort of shamanistic ritual absorb some mana for the creature to increase their maximum mana.

The races of Mer, excluding the ravagers, have a ruling class of nobility that is based off of birth rather than by merit and strength that demihumans use. They also use something called “politics” that caused me annoyance and anger when I heard it for some reason, even though I have no idea what it is. Most of the races of Mer fear and hate us and even try to capture demihumans to use as slaves. We were taught to avoid large groups of races of Mer unless they are ravagers, since ravagers don’t get along with the other races of Mer. Ravagers are the only race of Mer that will not lie or try to deceive you about their intentions.

The continent of Fey is populated by many strange species that are collectively called Fey as well. They are mainly physical manifestations of different aspects of nature such as elementals and dryads, but they mainly keep to themselves. Should we encounter one we are to be cautious since they do whatever they want for entertainment and are apparently usually “total dicks” to quote our teacher.

Now enough about the other continents and on to the ruling system and organization of the demihuman continent. While each tribe has many cities all over our massive continent, the capital cities are arranged in a circle surrounding the massive jungle that makes up the center of the continent. In the center of the jungle, which is inhabited by the strongest creatures on the continent, is the Demon Kings Castle. It was built in the center of the 6 capitals to represent the equality of the different demihuman tribes, no matter what tribe they belong to. The first Demon King was a member of the demon tribe and was the demihuman who united all of the tribes during their warring period thousands of years ago. He was the ruler of the demon tribe at the time, and challenged the rulers of the other tribe to fight him 1 vs. 1 and defeated, but didn’t kill, each leader became the first demihuman ruler. Originally the lord of each tribe was called the king of the tribe, but that changed when the races of Mer first stepped foot on our continent during the first Demon King’s reign.

The races of Mer attacked us the moment they saw us, assuming we were monsters, and brutally slaughtered many villages of demihumans. The invasion of the races of Mer caused the unity between the tribes that the first king wanted to instill to become a reality and we banded together to defeat the races of Mer. It was during the first invasion that the Demon King was given that name when he heard some of the invader call him that. Once he adopted the name Demon King, which he thought was quite humorous since he was a member of the demon tribe, he also had the rulers of each tribe called the lord of the tribe. While there are always 6 lords at all times, there doesn’t always need to be a Demon King since there are usually hundreds of years between Demon Kings. The only way to become the Demon King and rule all demihuman tribes is to have followers from each tribe who are strong enough to become the lord of their respective tribe.

We also had to learn the names of all six of the capital cities which are as follows: Beast – Canavar, Avian – Feuer Vogel, Aquatic – Deniz Canavari, Reptilian – Draakon, Insectoid – Schar and the Demon capital Hel.

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Today is the day that we all finish our learning period and are preparing to take our final exam. All seven of us have changed quite a bit since we started this period of our lives. I’m now 6 ft. 2 in. and am covered in well defined, but not bulky, muscles. I’m wearing my usual leather armor and have my long-sword strapped to my back. I think I should mention that all demihumans that learn the ability to manipulate mana are able to “soul-bind” any clothes or equipment we are carrying so that they disappear into us, just like our ID plate, when we change to different forms. I have yet to channel any elemental mana expect my darkness mana so I have yet to transform like the rest of my pack. This doesn’t mean I’m not powerful, rather it means I’ve almost mastered using darkness mana. I think the reason I am having trouble doing a form change is either my “broken soul” or merely the fact I’m reincarnated since I didn’t get the instinct other demihumans have when it come to changing forms. Darkness mana, also known as dark mana, is like a combination of shadow and solidified darkness and can be solidified and launched as attacks as slashes and some other tactical uses. Light and dark are classified as the only mana types demihumans can use that are purely ranged in use. I’ve also become incredibly skilled with demihuman swordsmanship and combat using my new body’s natural weapons with and without using mana to strengthen them both. Oh and today is also my 5th birthday.

Mick is now 5 ft. 11 in. tall and is also well built and has become by best friend and the only other boy that I have had to help survive the ocean of female pheromones the last few years have been. Since Mick and I have been getting trained and taught together with my sisters and the princesses all of our teachers have been female. Since Mick and I are also not quite as muscle heavy as other males of the fox and wolf tribes, this has helped us out since female Beasts are more agile than males and utilize this when fighting thus we could use our naturally more agile builds to full effect. Mick fights using two long knives as his weapon of choice and while he can use all of his forms, his dark mana ability is below mine.

The twins are both the same height at 5 ft. 10 in. tall and have developed in the very pretty women. I don’t see them that way since they are my sisters, but Mick has said that they are very hot and most likely D cups. The main change for them was that the fur on their backs has changed. Originally Jane only had a dark affinity and June only had ice. While practicing mana control with Lily the twins accidentally found out they could partially transfer their affinity to one another and gained the ability “twin soul sharing”. The only way they could enter the dire wolf form was to use the soul sharing to both have dark and ice affinities for a period of time and they have now made the effect permanent so they always have both affinities. Jane now has black fur on her right side and gray fur on her left, while June has gray on her right and black on her left. Their weapons of choice are dual knuckle duster trench knifes and use them to great effect solo and when fighting together.

Lily is also 5 ft. 10 in. just like the twins, but has C cups which make her a little jealous of her sisters. Lily’s personality hasn’t changed a whole lot and she is best friends with the princesses. She has gained lots of skill with using her dire wolf form over the years. The reason the dire wolf form is considered powerful is because it can use both ice and dark mana at the same time. Since all forms only allow you to use the mana affinity it is associated with this is a huge advantage in combat. While the twins are still working on getting hang of their dire wolf forms they can’t use the dark ice yet. This ability lets Lily launch ice spikes that are pitch black and can be used to pierce enemies which improve on darkness’s ability to only cut and ice’s short range. Lily’s best weapon is a basket style griped broad sword.

Sarah and Natasha are now both 6 ft. tall and well built for lioness Beasts and can both be quite scary powerful at times. It might help that their mother is the 2nd strongest Beast and that the current lord bonded with her right after narrowly beating her in the duel to become the current Lord of Beasts. Sarah had become quite skilled at using her fire, lightning and earth affinities. Sarah was the princess that Mick was always supposed to accompany and it looked like she might be fond of him. Natasha on the other hand was the princess I was always supposed to be near. Even though it was my duty to protect her I have been having some strange unknown sensations whenever I’m near her. She also always looked like she was sad whenever we were doing magic practice since I couldn’t change forms yet, while she was getting fairly skilled with her fire, lightning and air affinities. Sarah preferred using a cutlass, while Natasha like using a katana like blade.

In demihuman culture, the “nobles” are the stronger members of society and are trained in combat with their guards, who tend to be around the same age as them. Royal guards do not actually “guard” those they are supposed to, but are actually part of the nobles “pack” or military unit, known to the races of Mer as a “party”. While normally the noble is the pack leader, because I was the better then the rest of my pack during our sparring sessions, I was the pack leader, and I would get to lead us on our graduation mission. The mission we were to undertake was to travel to a known and friendly living dungeon and bring back the crystal from the bottom floor of the dungeon.

Oh I should probably explain about the living dungeons that inhabit this world. No one really knows exactly how they are created, just that they form over mana vents. A mana vent is an area that has mana released in very dangerous amounts, as in enough to mutate any creature that approaches the vent, and that the living dungeons form as a natural way to contain these mana vents. Living dungeons form over these mana vents and form mana crystals that are contained on the bottom floor, which is the main reason to raid them. These mana crystals also attract monsters and magical creatures into the dungeon where the dungeon “devours” them by killing them with traps. The dungeons do this so they can re-summon the creature inside themselves repeatedly and increase their chance of killing adventurers. When a sentient species is killed inside a dungeon, the dungeon absorbs their mana and it allows the dungeon to grow strong, deeper and bigger and causes them to also produce much higher quality mana crystals. Those are the hostile living dungeons, where as the friendly ones will purposefully lower the amount of creatures within them and the strength of the creatures so that the raiders will have a better chance to succeed. These dungeons also quite often don’t summon creatures, but just leave those that have been attracted inside for raiders to kill so that the dungeon doesn’t have to waste mana to kill the creatures.

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Instructor: “Now remember kids, I know you are some of the best we have, but I still want you to be careful during your test. Most kids take this test at age 10, but you have all shown enough ability to succeed at your current age so pack leader, repeat your mission to me.”

Cameron: “We are to go to the living dungeon know as Hearst, greet it upon arrival to check on the status of the dungeon, and if possible clear the dungeon and bring back the mana crystals completely on our own.”

Instructor: “Good, you may now head to the living dungeon. Cameron I would like to tell you something before you go. Everyone else head to the city gates and wait for Cameron.”

The rest of my pack left quickly left the training field to head in the direction of the dungeon while I stayed behind.

Instructor: “Cameron the lord has finally gotten word back about another demihuman with the same broken soul effect as you. They are a Raptor demihuman and apparently they are also a Hero of Chaos. The lords of the Beasts and Reptilians have decided that they want you two to duel each other when you turn 15, since you have the same birthday, to see which of you two will start the path to becoming the next Demon King. Oh and happy birthday.”

I was a little stunned at the turn of events, what did someone else having the same blessing as me mean? Were they also from my world? Did they have something to do with Alex? While I was spaced out I had reached the city gate where I was brought back to reality by Lily. After regaining my composure I made sure everyone was ready and we started on our way to Hearst.

Back to Main Page

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AN: I have updated the picture page with images of what I see the Ravagers like. The next chapter will have action in it, and might take a little bit before it is released.