AN: I just noticed that I forgot to mention something very important in Chapter 17. It’s that beasts also possess cores that can be taken out, absorbed and used for a variety of things. I already edited it and you should check it out, otherwise the last part of this chapter will confuse you.

I sighed and plopped down onto my butt, the action causing some dust to swirl up from the dry ground.

How far from home are we? A hundred kilometers? A thousand? Maybe even more.

I breathed in deeply and put my hands behind my head while lying down.

A lone blue cloud was drifting along the vast black sky, progressing into whatever direction the winds up there drove it into. The sun shone down without mercy, warming the whole area to a degree that could barely be described within the limits of being bearable, toning the air in a faint red.

The grass under me was dry and didn’t really feel uncomfortable, completely different from the lush green sort that grew where I came from and the ground wasn’t soft either.

As I turned the mana vision off and opened my eyes the previously black sky turned into a beautiful azure. The red tinge in the air vanished, as if it wasn’t even there in the first place, and the strange blue cloud became pristinely white.

It is strange how different the world looks when I can only see mana. Ominous even, but I got used to it in the last few years.

Deciding that I had lazed around for long enough I stood up and dusted myself off.

Walking back to the hut in a far calmer manner I thought about how I should break the news to my friends in a way that wouldn’t cause them to mindlessly rush into the forest.

Before I knew it I was already inside the house, the others already awaiting me with expectant eyes.

I cleared my throat. “Guys, it seems that the beast somehow transported us into a completely different area.” Seeing their dumbfounded expressions, I quickly added “But don’t worry, there is a way home. It’s pretty much a path of destruction that you can’t miss, so I don’t think that we’ll have problems with that.”

I scratched my head at the awkward silence. This could have been worded…slightly better.

Suddenly having the sudden urge to examine the fauna and flora in the area I turned around and walked out again. Before I could get very far though a hand grabbed my collar.

“What. The. Fuck. Do. You. Mean?” Owen growled behind me.

Frank and Greta proceeded to stand beside the door, blocking any possible escape routes off.

“Well, I, erm, you know, really meant what I said.” When I said that the grip tightened and Owen pulled me closer to him, his smelly breath making me frown as if I had bitten into a lemon.

Fuck, I forgot that nobody has brushed their teeth today.

“Okay man, we’ll look at it together, right? If there is a way home we have to hurry, after all vegetation regrows pretty quickly and we don’t know how long the way home will take, right?” Owen said through gritted teeth.

“We seriously have to improve your way of saying important stuff John.” Franks remark hit right where it hurt.

I mean sure, I’m not that good at being subtle or anything like that but it’s part of my charm, right?

“C’mon man, you have to admit that it’s one of the things that make me so fucking lovable.” I opened my arms wide, inviting them into my embrace.

Sadly, they just stood there and stared at me as if I were an idiot.

The people in this world really need to get a proper sense of humor.

“Anyway, we should go check it out. Maybe John was just making one of his unfunny jokes.” Greta turned around and went through the still opened door.

We followed her and I felt a satisfied smile crept up my face when I saw their terrified expression. Their reaction at discovering the huge road of destruction was especially funny as their jaws practically smashed into the ground.

“Holy motherfucking shit.” Frank finally stammered.

HA! Serves them right for doubting me like that!

I gave them a bit of time to recover. “So, what do we do now? I mean we can hardly leave that house here, right? And I doubt that we would survive the journey back without it.” I asked them.

“Wait, doesn’t anyone have one of those, what are they called again?” Greta thought about it for a while and then continued “Ultraspacy bags or something like that. With it I’m sure that we’ll be able to put it away whenever we need to.” She still had a frown on her face, most likely thinking about what the correct name could be.

“How are we supposed to have one? Don’t you know that they are extremely hard to produce? I doubt that we would be able to make on even if we were to turn all the stuff in our cores into mana and transfer it to John.” Franks words made us go silent.

“Erm, maybe there is some special function to carry the hut around? I mean, isn’t there supposed to be one in every high quality residence?” Owen reminded us.

“Then what are we waiting for?” I said and stormed into the house.

The others quickly followed me and we turned everything upside down in our search. It took a while but after an hour we finally found a suspicious looking switch under the carpet in the living room.

After a bit of hesitation Frank finally flipped it, causing the whole house to briefly shake.

“Ejection in five seconds.” A monotone male voice came from every direction.

What?

I turned around and pulled the others with me as I ran out of the house. Unfortunately, I wasn’t fast enough and I saw a blinding white flash that hurled us outside at lightning speed.

We flew into the hard, prickling grass outside face first.

I quickly got up and looked at the blank spot our residence used to be. In its stead there was just a medium sized hole that was connected to the road of destruction.

When I came closer I noticed a miniature version of it in the middle of that hole. If it weren’t for the fact that it was about as big as my palm, I would have believed to be an exact replica of it.

I picked it up. “So, who is going to hold onto this?” I asked.

““You.”” The others answered at the same time.

Shrugging, I tried to absorb it into my core space.

The strange thing about absorbing things from the outside world into the core space is that only objects which have no residue mana of its original body left and haven’t been reattached for more than a day can be absorbed.

It doesn’t matter whether it is a plant or an animal, this rule pertains to anything except for the artificially created objects. Of course there is also a limit to the amount of mana it should contain, otherwise the mana channels will burst when coming into contact with it.

Which is exactly what nearly happened when I felt a searing pain coming from my palm. I hurriedly cut the connection and the pain vanished as quickly as it had appeared.

Dammit, I forgot the insane amount of mana the hut contains.

I sighed as I stuffed it into the little bag that also held the unused beast cores.

“Now that this problem has been solved I think it’s time to go.” Frank said as he hopped into the road of destruction, proceeded to walk along it with hurried steps.

The rest of us glanced at each other, shrugged and quickly caught up to him.