Chapter 13

When I woke up the next morning I felt quite excited. I was kind of tense, I had never gone on an adventure like this. I mean thousands if not millions of lives were hanging in the balance. If I succeeded I could prevent my home-country from entering a war of which there was no end. But the challenges that lied ahead seemed hard to overcome. It is hard to have confidence when it is unsure what you'll be facing. It is very easy to succumb to fear. But I had made up my mind yesterday. I have to do all I can when I can and right now that involves having a good large breakfast; who knows what I'll get to eat when I arrive in the jungle. I picked a couple things from the kitchen menu and had started eating when Boren and Mys Tara arrived. They had brought some more equipment for me.

'Hey Frank, you're up early.' Mys Tara said as she emptied a bucket full of ice-cold water in the kitchen sink. It was probably meant for me. I had already changed into my Dragoon Rider armor. It was kind of big; especially around the stomach area. I guess those Dragoon Riders have plenty to eat which isn't surprising since they are riding predators. They are quite literally on top of the food-chain. It felt kind of uncomfortable but it did allow the space for my equipment to be hidden.

Boren put a pair of glasses on the table and Mys Tara put down a couple more of the mana shields.

'Here are the final pieces of equipment.' says Boren.

I understood about the mana shields but; 'What are those Goggles for?' I asked.

'Those are the modified mana-sensors, you'll be able to see the thornwolverine and the Tamarin move around even when they're stealthed with that. I've tested it out and it works like a charm.'

Says Boren as he sticks out his chest. I guess he's pretty proud of this.

But I can't disagree with that; its truly amazing to think he'd get the mana sensor to fit inside a pair of glasses let alone have it actually display mana in real time.

Boren was totally waiting for me to praise him or something; thus it felt kinda arbitrary since he's sort of praising himself already with his attitude but I praised him for it anyways.

'Nicely done, couldn't have done it better myself. Thank you for doing this, I am sure that we'll be able to beat the thornwolverine this way.' I said as I tried them on and saw the insides of Boren and Mys Tara which made me quickly take them off.

'What do you mean with 'we'?' said Mys Tara; then turning to Boren: 'Didn't you tell him?'

'Tell me what? I thought you guys would be following me into the jungle.' I said.

'I guess I hadn't yet' says Boren in reply to Mys Tara; then he starts talking to me: 'We won't be joining you; I have to work on figuring out the database and Mys Tara is going to keep an eye on the Dragoon Riders to make sure that they don't do anything stupid like attacking Altara or something.'

I was quiet for a bit, my confidence in completing this quest dropped a bit. My responsibility in this matter just tripled and if anything went wrong I would have nobody to turn to...

So just in case I asked: 'Can we go over the steps in the plan just in case that I forgot something?'

'Sure' says Mys Tara;

'Step 1, you make a campfire in the jungle and wait for the Tamarin to come to you.'

'What if they don't come?'

'Then you just use your new goggles to locate them.' Boren said.

Mys Tara continued: 'Step 2, you tell them your alibi of being of the Huin Seseum. '

'I think I have difficulty just remembering that tribe name...'

Boren laughed, 'They don't really call themselves that though, they tend to just call themselves the traveling merchants.'

'Oh, now that's easier to remember. Good thing to know.'

'May I continue?' Mys Tara says, slightly irritated at being interrupted twice.

I nod so she continues: 'Step 3, you go to the elders to ask for permission to take the trial. This is only as per tradition so don't worry.

Step 4, going through the rite of initiation which is basically eating up as much as possible before you go off into the jungle.

Step 5, find and kill a thornwolverine. You will be watched so no cheating like how we did it.

Step 6, Return with your kill and go through the rite of becoming and adult. We do not know how things work after this but basically it will allow you to have a say in the council meetings which will take place in 3 days and after that every 7 days. So time is of the essence.'

'That was a lot to take in all at once, good thing I recorded it with my bracelet in case I forget.'

I had finished my breakfast and picked up the mana shields and put them in what had become something of a pouch and put on the goggles. I need to get used to wearing this anyways.

'Lets go, I'm ready.' I said as I looked at Boran and Mys Tara. We checked if we had everything one last time and then went to the elevator. Instead of up what I had been expecting the elevator went further down. When we arrived at the bottom floor we went out the elevator and we entered a damp room. 'What is this place?' I asked.

'This is the engine room for the elevator.' Mys Tara answered while Boren kicked open a drainage shaft. It was big enough to crawl through and it was very dirty but that's what Boren did; he crouched and then started crawling into the drainage shaft. Shortly after his legs disappeared into the drainage shaft Mys Tara followed and well... I wasn't asked to follow them into a damp dirty drainage shaft so I just stood where I was fiddling my thumbs. Didn't feel like going into that.

'Hey Frank; why you not following us?' I hear Mys Tara's voice coming out of the drainage shaft.

'Oh you want me to follow you into that dirty dark drainage shaft?' I yell as I crouch to look into the drainage shaft. I was quite surprised by what I saw; Mys Tara wasn't there. Then part of Mys Tara's face appeared. 'Its not a drainage shaft; the real drainage is that pit in the middle of the room; this is a secret room where we've got our transportation pods.' Her face went back into whatever it was she was looking through. 'Oh so that's an invisibility screen or something. That's cool.' I said as I started crawling into the what I previously thought to be a drainage shaft. After a bit I felt that I had reached some type of curtain even though I didn't see anything there besides the continuation of the drainage pipe. So I peeked my head through and saw that right behind this curtain was a set of stairs that went down to a giant hall with tunnels going out of it in all directions. In the center of the room stood a small circle of metal boxes with big white round orbs at the end of every track that went to the tunnels. I then pulled myself through the invisibility curtain and went down the flight of stairs. I had never witnessed such a large room before. All of the walls were gold coated; just like the outside of the tower and the floor was made up of large marble slabs. 'What is this place?' I called out.

'This is our secret pod-room and it is also the very base of this tower; When you build up high into the sky you need to make an even bigger, heavier and deeper foundation. This room is at the center of that foundation with a network of tunnels in all directions to balance the tower. These tunnels are big wide and heavy. They reach to the ends of this continent and can bring us to every corner of these lands. This is also how Mys Tara brought you all the way from the mountain-pass to the tower.

This place is simply amazing; I slowly went down the stairs as I didn't want to fall while I was looking at the ceiling and the walls wondering about all the technology and architectural designs that went into making this place. Boren and Mys Tara were already heading for the center of the room so I quickly followed. Having reached the center Mys Tara started pushing things and pulling handles on one of the metal boxes in the center as Boren went to one of the big white orbs that now seemed to be much bigger up close than they had seemed when I was still heading out of the drainage shaft. As Boren approached one of those white orbs he simply touched it and golden lines went out from where he had touched it and the white orb opened up revealing places where we could sit. 'This way Frank; we'll be taking this pod. Mys Tara is inputting what station we're going to. I will lead you out to the surface from these tunnels when we arrive. Mys Tara will be staying here to wait upon my return.'

I stepped in, waved at Mys Tara who seemed to be way too focused on what she was doing and as Boren was urging me to hurry up I just went in and sat down. Boren sat across of me and before I could say my proper goodbyes the doorway that had previously appeared just as easily disappeared. There was a small opening at the other end of the orb that allowed one to see through it. As I stood up to see what was through there Boren said 'sit down!'.

I quickly sat down and as I did I was strapped in place and the orb suddenly started to move. After a few corners I could see that the lighting of the big room we had been in before was now behind us. We were now in the tunnel that would lead me to the Tamarin Jungle. 'To your destiny' Boren said. It sounds pretty corny but as long as you have a destination I guess you do have a destiny so I couldn't disagree.

'How long till we get there?' I asked.

'What do you mean? We've just arrived' Boren replied. The orb seemed to have stopped. But it only seemed a couple seconds. Boren touched the outside of the orb and we got out of the opening that appeared. Both ways I could see nothing but tunnel. 'It didn't feel like we traveled that fast' I said

'We didn't, it only seemed that way because the time within the orb slows down making long trips seem very short. Its one of the more practical uses of time travel.' Boren replied.

'What! Time travel!?' I had not expected that, let alone Boren saying it as if it was no big deal.

'Yeah, time travel; The Ancients are time travelers from the future here to learn how to build peace.'

Thought you might have wanted to know that. Boren said as he looked back to me. He then touched a part of the tunnel wall and it gave away from the cavity that appeared I could see a stairway going up. 'This is the way up to the jungle. Good luck Frank.'

'Okay' I was still somewhat stunned about the big revelation; sure they had high tech things in their tower but time traveling.. After taking a step onto the staircase I turned to Boren. 'So if I fail this quest you'll still be able to fix it if you travel back in time right?' I ask.

'Haha, if that were so then we'd be able to do it ourselves. Sadly that is not the case. It takes a very long time to gather the appropriate amount of mana to turn back time. Right now our tower is only generating enough mana to support slowing down time in very little amounts in very limited space. We've been gathering mana for a long time now so that we may be ready to travel back to our time once we find out how to build peace. If time traveling had been that easy we could've just gotten peace in our own time by trying it continually and repetitively. The balance of the world isn't so broken to allow that.'

'That's too bad.' I replied as I let down my head.

' You've got one shot so give it all you got. 'Boren said as if he was trying to cheer me up. It only made me feel the responsibility weigh even heavier upon me.

'Go on then' Boren said as he slapped on my back forcing me to take a few more steps up the stairs.

'Goodbye...' I said as I turned around one last time but the opening had already closed off; I was saying goodbye to a wall. The wall then started moving towards me forcing me to go up the stairs so I turned around and kept moving. I guess time is like that wall. It will force you to stay on the move regardless of your doubts and fears regarding the unknown future ahead of me.

After about a minute of going up the stairs it stopped, there was a door above me similar to the door that I initially had fallen through. I tried opening it by activating it with mana and as the doors opened the floor went up carrying me outside. It was pitch dark, I couldn't see a thing. I really needed to get that fire going fast. Made me wonder how it is that the people of the forest can live in this dense jungle without using fire to light their way. As I thought of that I recalled how I could just light things up with some mana. The uses for mana really are quite broad. Lighting, moving stuff, stealthing etc. Don't know how life would turn out if there was no mana; was what I was thinking as I gathered a small orb of mana in front of me. As it started giving more and more light I was able to make out my surroundings. I was under a tree in the tree-trunk. I then turned around looking for a way out and I saw an opening behind me through which I went out into the jungle. My mana light allowed me to see the giant roots left and right of me that came out of the tree that I had come out of. There was not much vegetation around. Probably because the tree had drained the ground from its nutrients and it also blocked out all of the sunlight permitting nothing to grow under its branches.

It seemed like the tree I just came out of is of the Giganticus species. They are known to grow bigger and taller than other trees. Some are known to be more than 3 times as tall as ordinary trees. But here in the jungle they seemed to have grown even larger. This particular one I estimated to be 3 times as tall as the city walls of Altara. As I looked around amazed by the size of the tree-trunk and roots I remembered my quest.

I was to find wood and start an open fire, if possible in an area where people can see me. My Dragoon Rider armor had metal claws on its gauntlet and since the ground was moist I would need to use these claws to climb up the tree and get some firewood. I thought it was a good plan and I kept thinking that but after 10 minutes of non-stop climbing I'm starting to realize that I might have picked a wrong tree to climb. But having gotten as high as I have it is no small feat to head back down. But then I have nearly reached the canopy. The lowest branches of the tree are also its largest each being about the size of a normal tree. After a couple more minutes I finally reached the lowest branch and sat on it trying to catch my breath again. My arms felt numb and getting down wasn't going to be very pleasant if I wasn't going to regain my strength before starting on my descent.

As I was resting I stopped lighting my surroundings with mana.

'I wonder if I can see things if I turn on my goggles.' I said to myself. I then put on my goggles and I could see little streams of mana going through the tree-trunk into its branches and twigs all the way to its leaves. It was a light green colored mana. The world looked quite a bit different. a lot prettier I'd say. I then looked around but because the regular range on the mana detectors is 200 meters I couldn't see anything except parts of the tree that I sat on. Thus I activated the zoom function with which I can focus to things further away but it made my field of vision shrink more and more the further I looked. I tried adjusting the focus but that went way too fast. My vision shrinks considerably and all in the distance where I was looking I see a tree heavily zoomed in on its organic structure. I then looked over the edge down to the base of the tree I was on to see if I could see the mana-lines of the tree-roots but instead I saw a group of thornwolverines.

I couldn't believe my eyes. Thornwolverines the very beings that I had been looking for had found me before I even started looking for them. It seemed like they had noticed my presence; now how am I going to take advantage of this situation? First step in situations like this is taking in all the information and structuring it like I do when I try to figure out solutions while mana-geering.

1St; the pack of thornwolverines has 9 of 'm, 3 of which are right beneath me and the other 6 are sniffing around the roots of this tree. It might be that they saw my mana light; how else could they have found me.

2nd I'm up a couple hundred meters above the ground; they can't get to me but getting to them isn't very easy either.

So the problem to be solved is 9 targets at a long distance. Possible solutions: Either I get close or I use ranged attacks. Getting close would take me another 10 minutes after which I'd be too tired to battle with all 9 of them. Plus they may have already run off if I were to try that. So I would have to figure a way to attack them from range but how do I get all 9 of 'm? I'm afraid that if I don't then they'll just lay in wait for when I get down. I could shoot mana bolts but those are highly visible especially at night so they could easily dodge them. It would also scare the others away. I needed something that could hit all 9 of 'm at the same time.

'Ah!' I had an idea, I started using my mana to burn a hole into the tree. The training I had done with making letters would come in handy, I'm now able to shape things so if I shape a stairway on the inside of the tree I can easily, stealthily and safely get down. I wouldn't go all the way down but getting closer from where I could safely and more accurately hit them with mana seemed like a good option. I did it right above the branch I was currently at so that the light would get blocked and not scare off the thornwolverines. I still checked but after having made sure that they didn't see it I picked up the pace and within 2 minutes I had opened up a hole big enough to step into the tree. But the tree was way tougher than I had previously thought. Plus sometimes the wood-chips would catch fire due to the mana. Sparks+fuel+air= fire thus cutting wood with mana is like playing with fire. I stopped working on the hole, it was too dangerous and it was going to take way too long. At this rate just climbing down would've been a better option.

There remained but one option in my mind. Fire. I was going to go all out. surprising them with a flashy attack might alert them but it could also scare them. My mana shields could hold off their first couple attacks my claws could be reinforced with mana to burn the tree and slow down my descent to a rate at which it wouldn't be dangerous. Reinforcing it with mana would also make it cut through the tree faster. It'd be similar to rappelling I guess.

The couple minutes of burning a hole in the tree had given me enough time to where my arms weren't tired anymore so I went ahead with this Leeroy Jenkins attack on the thornwolverines below. I looked down but I could only see 5 of them now. at least they won't be attacking me all at once. I then reinforced my claws and lodged my right-handed claw into the tree. I had already scanned the surroundings with the zoom in function and knew that nobody was watching so I changed my left-arm to the giant-racial arm. Giants had very tough skin so I was hoping to fend off and defend with my left arm as a shield I had also covered myself with the invisibility liquid so that I could stealth after I landed. Preparations seemed complete so I jumped off the branch slowing down my descent with my reinforced claw I went down at a dazzling speed lighting up the tree-bark that had been cut up by my claw I almost seemed like a shooting star. The loud noise of ripping and burning wood combined with the fire made all the thornwolverines look up in surprise. The mana that I reinforced my claw with also seemed to have activated my stealth-liquids so all the thornwolverines could see was an extending strip of burning wood. They weren't sure what to do; right before I reached the ground I kicked off of the tree-trunk and jumped towards one of the thornwolverines still stealthed. I then formed a sword of mana in my hand with which I slashed down upon the first thornwolverine splitting it right in half without giving it a moment to react. The instincts of these thornwolverines was top notch, they all stealthed the moment they saw my mana-sword through which they had also located me. The closest two already jumped towards me; just like in training I dodged with help of the mana-sensing goggles of course. Switching the mana-sword to my giant-hand and using my claw I retaliated seriously wounding and crippling the initial 2 aggressors. Of the 9 there were now only 2 completely healthy and 4 more should be nearby. The two crippled aggressors shouldn't pose too much of a danger anymore was what I thought as I heard sounds behind me, I looked back and saw the 4 thornwolverines coming out of the trees-base where the door had been approaching me stealthily. They instinctively stealthed and crawled towards me making as little noise as possible but some burnt wood-chips had fallen from above and they made a pretty loud crisp noise when they were stepped on. The thornwolverines had very tough skins so they didn't even notice the burning wood-chips that they walked over.

The best defense is offense I thought to myself as I shot two mana-bolts to the two thornwolverines that had stood by the two wounded thornwolverines while I charged the other 4 that had appeared. I slashed in front of me, 3 of them dodged it entirely but the fourth was a young thornwolverine with no combat experience whatsoever. The two that I had left behind me dodged the mana-arrows and came straight at me with a loud growl; I shielded myself with my giant-hand but fell to the ground due to the weight behind their attacks. I then quickly activated my second mana-shield and rolled away. The thornwolverines attacked again but didn't bite through anything but thin air. Visibly confused they looked around still on guard but my plan now came into practice. I had previously burnt a large portion of the branch that I had stood on so I sent another mana bolt to a vulnerable spot of the tree-branch through which it broke off and fell towards me. I then changed my hand back and ran as fast as I could. The thornwolverines heard the noise above them but due to the darkness they couldn't make out what they had heard fast enough. The tree-branch fell right on top of all 6 of them with a loud thump and cracking of wood leaving only the two crippled thornwolverines. I then shot mana-arrows to the remaining two who were crippled and distracted by the big falling branch leaving them no time to defend themselves.

This just comes to show that a battle is made through preparations and not only through fighting. I had used up one mana-shield which is a very low expense compared to having taken down 9 thornwolverines. Also I didn't need to worry about making a campfire anymore since the trail that I had left on the tree was still burning nicely having a much bigger effect than any single campfire could. I wasn't too worried that it would cause a forestfire though since the tree was way too big for the fire to consume. It could take several days before the tree was consumed by the fire and due to its size and prominence there was no nearby vegetation that could carry on the fire after the tree was finished burning.

I then got out my rations, the climbing and the battle had left me hungry. I needed a campfire to warm my food on, I used the fallen burning wood-chips for that, gathering them and with the assistance of some mana I was able to heat up my sausage on a stick quite nicely. I had never cooked before but not much could go wrong with heating up a sausage. It had already been prepared earlier this morning so it really was just warming it up. Cold sausage is also edible just not as good. Today was the day of firsts. First time getting up this early, first time on a time traveling device, first time cooking and first time encountering and beating real-life thornwolverines. Ah, how could I forget; first time climbing up a giant tree as well. Plus first time in the Tamarin jungle.

My sausage had warmed up enough so I started eating it and as I was eating it I could feel my senses turn on; 'Who are you?' I heard in my head. I turned around and as if I instinctively knew where the voice came from I zoomed in and saw a Tamarin approaching me.

They had come; if I messed it up now there would be no hope of either safely returning let alone preventing a war.