Content with the results, I finally started exploring further beyond the barrier. After scratching my spellcrafting itch, the other one awakened right after that - curiosity.

I’ve seen a few magical anomalies created without any human input but that was not the case here. After all, I did dispel a very clear indication that someone purposefully made this thing to hide… something.

But what was that “something”?

At first, it looked like nothing. Besides the slight bump in mana density in the area, nothing changed once I started walking further in. The forest looked the same, maybe even more wild than usual. No signs of ruins or anything like that.

But, about two minutes walking later, I finally felt something that I did not expect.

Further in, on the edge of my senses, I felt multiple mana sources. And not just some dim, barely noticeable ones, no. While relatively small, those were healthy and dense, definitely belonging to people. Very lively people in fact, because they were moving around quite a bunch.

I stopped to feel the situation out better. While on the move they were on the edge of my range, after stopping I realized that there were a lot more of them than I initially noticed - about maybe twenty. All of them were more or less the same in strength, besides two. Those were slightly bigger and more pronounced: one was slowly walking from place to place between the smaller ones, I guess a guard or someone like that, while the other one was unmoving in the back middle of all this group. Someone important?

Nevertheless, that was both problematic and encouraging at the same time. Problematic in multiple ways actually.

First thing was, if those were indeed just some villagers, I couldn’t just walk in barging like I owned the place. Besides me being a literal abomination that would scare anyone not expecting to see me, I also was an intruder in a place that was very on purpose hidden from others.

Nevertheless, I had to approach them somehow, so I started slowly walking towards where I felt that the population was most sparse, to check the place out first and confirm my findings.

About half way towards the place I started hearing voices. Quite the lively ones. And young. It kinda was reminding me of a noise you’d hear next to the playground, or a school.

My guess was absolutely on point. To my amazement, the closer I got, the more I was sure of it - I was hearing a bunch of kids playing. While that in itself was intriguing, what caught my attention was something else.

Before, I was estimating that the number of people I was dealing with was around twenty or so, but as I got closer I could tell that I had made a mistake - the mana signatures I felt before were not exclusively the ones belonging to the people, or rather kids, that I was hearing. Most of them actually were just the remnants of different kinds of spells.

When I finally reached the source, still hidden in a bush, I came onto a peculiar scene.

In a large clearing, there were about five kids, I want to say between ten and fifteen years old, each one flinging various spells at each other. All of them were using pretty weak and basic spells - mostly water and light magic. As far as safety goes, I guess they were good on that front, but still, it was magic after all - you have no idea what could happen.

As if to prevent the unexpected, a bit further away, there was an adult sitting under a tree, observing this play-battle. I couldn’t really see their face from afar, but that person was one of the two stronger presences in the area.

Behind, hidden in the trees, was a large house. Or should I say, a mansion. It was made out of some dark wood, and was about as large as the ship I’ve seen in Kruro, the one turned into a tavern. Hell, maybe even larger - I couldn’t really tell how far it was going deeper into the forest. The door was open and I could see a long corridor inside, lit up with a dim light. From the outside the building was half-way covered with either moss or overgrown with ivy.

Amazed, I crouched in a bush on the edge of the clearing. Out of all the things to hide in this place, I have found a… school? Daycare? Orphanage? One of the above.

That reminded me - Jack did mention that he bought out a slave girl from the auction once… I never knew what happened to her, but what if it wasn’t just one time thing? Was it his place as well? If that was true that meant he was a lot better person than I had him for.

Speaking of, was it him that was now overseeing the children?

I squinted, trying to make out the details of the person under a tree on the opposite end of the clearing, but I only saw a black hair and mustache.

Wait a second. That guy actually looked familiar.

A bunch of squinting later I was actually pretty sure - or I have found a new holder for a title of an owner of the stupidest looking mustache - that was the same guy that scammed me out of my money and sold me that weird talisman.

Out of all the places to find the guy, it had to be here, when I was trying to hide. Great. I honestly did not expect to find him ever again. For him to actually be on the island and in such a strange place… If I was not curious before, I would be now. But how the hell could I even approach this situation? It’s not like I could just walk out of hiding and chat him up…

The decision was made for me though. As I was thinking of a way to do this, I got distracted and stopped paying attention to the kids playing, since they were pretty far away. So you can imagine my surprise that I suddenly felt a streak of mana racing right towards me.

I instinctively tried to dodge and duck even lower to the ground, but I was already pretty low and to evade I’d have to lay completely prone on the ground. And so, I got hit. I thought that’s no big deal, it was magic after all, no harm would come to me and it was probably just a stray spell anyway.

Well, I was mostly right. It looked like it was indeed just a kid missing their target. The spell was also pretty weak, so I didn’t even feel much of a mana surge.

What was strange though, when I absorbed the spell, I did not feel the mana empowering me from the outside, like I did every other time. This time, instead, the mana spread from the inside of my chest?

Another weird thing - even the mana amount was miniscule, the light I suddenly flashed with was definitely brighter than it should be.

Luck wanted that the spell that hit me was light based. It was the first time that I’ve been hit with something like this in my new form, so I never expected it, but that kind of magic was apparently my weakness.

Well, sort of. The light I’ve noticed was not from me absorbing the spell - it was the exact opposite. It was just the spell piercing me throughout and basically making me shine like some kind of prism.

While I was glad that it was just a kid that tossed the spell and it was not really meant to do damage, that was not the problem right at that moment. The issue was that the sudden rainbow sprouting from the bush caught the attention of the kids playing. And their overseer.

Yeah, no wonder - I was still shining. Looking down on my own body, I realized that the light from the spell was now bouncing inside me, lighting me up from inside. I focused for a second on the spell itself and successfully absorbed it, but it was too late anyway. The light suddenly appearing and then disappearing definitely was suspicious.

I either had to run now or reveal myself before they arrived. Either would be easily noticeable, so I decided to stop hiding and stood up from my bush.

As expected, my reveal startled every single one of them. The kids, even without the instruction of their caretaker dashed right towards the mansion with unbelievable speed. They guy started shouting something to them, but I didn’t care much what, I instead prepared for the inevitable.

The first spell hit me with full force. I didn’t even bother to dodge, as I recognized what it was - a green, nature magic based spell. I wouldn’t be able to dodge anyway, because, surprisingly, the projectiles did not come from him, instead were launched from the tree behind me.

Even though I got hit, it didn’t do much. The spikes were pretty large, I want to say about as long and thick as an adult human’s arm. I am not sure though, because as soon as they touched me they instantly started vanishing into the gray ash - the crystal was working quickly.

Sighing heavily, I raised my hands in a gesture of surrender, but that did not help. This time, I felt something tripping me and trying to wrap itself around my legs. I was not going to deal with that bullshit again, so before I even hit the ground, I already unwrapped my hands completely and just ripped out the vine that was snaking its way around my body, trying to tie me up, instantly turning it to ash.

-I did not come here to fight… - I started, but the guy was not listening.

He sent another wave of vines towards me, this time not just from the tree, but also from the ground and overall from every single plant that was nearby.

I let him bind me as much as he could, making him for a second regain his composure, just to shift in the binds a bit, ripping through them with my bare hands. No matter how thick or how many of them were there, I was just turning them to dust.

-Can you please calm down?

Nope, of course he couldn’t. Can’t blame him for that, but still, it was getting annoying. It was obvious that he only could use green magic, because even though he couldn’t even scratch me, he was constantly repeating his spells, trying to bind me or knock me out.

I considered retaliating, but decided against it. It was clear that he was no threat to me and I could just wait him out. After all, he had to have a finite supply of mana, while I wasn’t even using any. Bah, he was basically donating his to me.

After a third or fourth wave of plants I already was glowing just as strong as when the light spell was bouncing around inside me. That is also when I finally noticed that he was finally getting tired and starting to backpedal a bit. I did not let him increase the distance, instead I just slowly started following him.

-Okay, I know how this is looking right now, but would you at least listen to me for a second?

No reaction. Well, no matter. Not like I was in any danger, so I just decided to wait him out.

Meanwhile, I was constantly keeping track of the magic signatures of the kids that ran back into the house.

It did not look like they were doing anything though, besides running around. What I was more interested in though was the other presence I felt earlier, the stronger one. By now I sort of expected that they would’ve come out and wanted to assist him, but nope. Instead it seemed that they were doing the opposite. While I was being pestered by this guy, the other one was gathering the children into one group. I guess they wanted to escape together while this one was busy keeping my attention.

Not like that mattered. I didn’t really care. While I was definitely curious about this whole establishment, I was not going to stop them.

It was about a minute later when the other caretaker gathered everyone inside. Meanwhile, the one attacking me was already on the verge of passing out, barely even able to move his vines. Still was trying to bind me though.

I expedited for the people inside to run away or maybe teleport, but to my surprise, they did not. Instead they started going down and together were waiting somewhere below the mansion. A cellar I guess?

-Are you done? - I asked when the guy finally stopped his assault mid spell, short on mana.

-Yrgh…

-I feel that means yes.

-They are already gone. You’re not getting to them - he hissed at me, falling down, breathing heavily.

He was still able to talk. Impressive.

-Them? - I approached him and stopped right at his feet. - The kids?

-Should’ve killed me when you had the chance! Wisfe wowu moho po! - he suddenly yelled, grabbing me by my lower half, trying to tackle me to the ground.

Did he just try using life magic on me?!

I don’t need to say that it did not go well for him. While I did not drain him, since he did touch me through the clothes, I was still pretty heavy. And he was tired.

The spell did go off though, or at least started to.

As he grabbed me, I could feel him suddenly strain and… change color? I swear for a second it looked like that. I can’t really tell what exactly he intended to do, his spell sounded a bit ambiguous, but I felt that where he was grabbing me, something started poking through my clothes, just to stop as soon as it touched my crystal skin. Whatever that was, got drained the same as always.

I noticed a hint of confusion on his face that instantly got replaced by massive strain, just for his eyes to roll back and him to faint at my feet.

-Fucking Christ, can you at least try and not kill yourself please?

Along with that I indeed confirmed that I was not insane - he did change color. He was green, although his fingers where he managed to grab me already were turned back to normal. Mostly that is, because the edge of the fingertips was turning gray.

I shuddered. He was lucky that he fainted. If this was to go even a moment longer, I would’ve drained him like any other plant.

I wrapped myself tightly again and started wondering what the hell I should do with him. I couldn’t just leave him here. Not like I cared what exactly happened to him, but if I was to stay on the island, he’d definitely go after me again. I probably should wait for him to wake up and try talking some sense again. I mean I still had some of those raw mana fruit on me, but was it wise to just give it to him? Probably not. I’d have to at least bind him first, but that would not give me a better image…

Why do I always get hot-tempered people?

There was still the issue, or maybe hope, in the other presence I felt inside - the second caretaker, probably. Maybe they can be reasoned with?

But was that even worth the hassle? I did just put down their friend - not the best first impression, if I ever felt like chatting.

Shrugging, I made up my mind.

I quickly cast a spell - taking inspiration from my recent experiences with green magic - attempting to bind the hands and legs of the guy with vines.

It came out quite nice, I have to say. While the spell did not look very… natural, I did create something akin to a rope, made out of thin, green fibers. Quite a good result, especially considering that I wasn’t really used to this kind of magic. It also looked pretty durable. I guess the excess mana went towards the quality this time, not quantity.

Content with my creation, I left the guy on the ground right where he fell down and started walking towards the building.

I don’t know what I expected, but the building itself was actually quite large. I mean, sure I already saw it, but standing up close made me realize how spacious this thing was.

The door was left wide open, and inside there was a long, wide corridor. It reminded me a bit of those you’d see in a school - especially when paired with sets of doors in regular intervals on both sides, only interrupted by another corridor, splitting the building into four sections.

In the middle, there was a spiral stairway going up, but I couldn’t see any way down. I wasn’t really paying attention to which way the kids went, I only could tell where they were now - and it was below me, not that far away from me.

Following the corridors, I walked towards the direction I felt their presence, just to arrive at an open door, and a large kitchen. It looked well-kept, clean and definitely recently used - utensils were scattered everywhere, like someone dropped them in a hurry while preparing a meal. Well, I mean, that most likely was the case.

And below me, I could tell, there were a bunch of kids huddled together with their caretaker.

I slowly walked in, making the floor creak under the weight of my body, telling me that, if I didn’t know that already, that there was indeed another floor below me. Yet, I couldn’t tell exactly where the entrance to the cellar was. Or if it was in this room to begin with.

Sighing heavily, I sat on one of the counters, pushing aside a bunch of half-peeled potatoes.

-Hello. I know you are in there.

There was no noise, but I noticed that the flames of their mana flinched, meaning they definitely heard me.

-So… I know this is a strange situation we found ourselves with, but let’s start with the basics. I am not here for you, nor anything in particular to be honest. I am just looking for a place to stay and lay low for a while.

No response.

-I mean sure, that’s quite unexpected, I appear here uninvited. How did I even find the place to begin with? - I continued my speech. - How can we believe any word from a creature like you? Right… that’s a lot of issues. I probably wouldn’t believe myself if I was in your shoes. So I am going to give you this straight up. I know this guy - I gestured towards the outside - who attacked me. He most likely doesn’t remember me, but I do not care. I didn’t really expect to find him here STILL, but hey, whatever. That aside, I was looking for a man called Jack, or a way to contact him. Since you live here, you probably know the guy, he’s got a son, owns the inn, or rather the whole town in the forest here. While searching his place I stumbled upon your cozy home…

Of course, there was no reply. I couldn’t really think of any way to continue this monologue. I really, really did not want to resort to destruction and violence, especially in front of kids, but I had a feeling that without at least a little threat I wouldn’t get anywhere.