The choice before him once again brought him down to earth. What good outcome could there be for a man who chose to stick to certain principles while still developing in terms of strength? Face the consequences or do the sensible thing? Open my chakra or continue to wriggle like an eel? Why wasn't there an option to explain everything normally...
I was not the kind of person who would give up on a goal just because I had found a more or less accurate direction. Staring intently at the back of the fleeing man, I heard a disappointed sniffle. The fox looked at me with silent approval, which made me happy — the pacifists were rejoicing because of me. Coming out of the alley, I saw the fleeing resident shouting and pointing in my direction. As Anubis had said, there was no chance that I would get lucky.
"A cruel bandit," they began to gossip among themselves.
The others became afraid. Looking around, still thinking of some way to clear up this misunderstanding, I met the gaze of the merchant. Only one person knew my story and could help!
"...Go away," he said, but his gaze was very heavy. "I will ask the residents not to hand you over to the soldiers of the Earth. You are not a bandit, but you crippled the only mage, right? I don't want to think about what will happen if the soldiers of fire invade again. Now I fear the future even more.
My legs were frozen in concrete.
Could the earth mage have protected this settlement? That coward wouldn't even pick up a stick, but... can I really say that? Only a few people here know how to fight, and now those fighters are broken and definitely won't protect anyone. If similar choices have to be made in the future, I have no idea what I'll do. Always choosing Strength may be too categorical, leading me down the path of a loner. That's no better than my past life.
Accepting the consequences, I slowly looked around. I needed transportation to get out of here, and the only thing available was a strange mixture of a horse and an ostrich standing at a merchant's stall. Obviously a mount.
"Can I take this chocobo?
"Do you have money to pay for it?" The look pierced me through and through. I had to lower my head. My wallet contained only coins for food. "I don't give my supplies to beggars."***
"I am writing this letter in less than ideal circumstances. It turns out that the fate of a Earth Mage is full of obstacles and responsibility; you are forced to answer for your actions, even if you don't want to. A firm stance must be reinforced by the first Chakra, which directly affects magic. It's scary to imagine a person who keeps every word and stands firm in every matter like a rock. Does such a person exist? The research value for your library is as follows: Magic begins to harden along with character, which means that in the dungeons of a cave or in a comfortable dojo, it is impossible to reveal all of one's potential... I will write more if I meet the Guru along the way and ask him about it.
He folded the paper into a scroll, packed it neatly, and handed it to his fox.
"When you give this to Shi Tong, take something to read. Our journey will be longer than I expected," he patted Afka on the head, watched her disappear, and then sat down on his sand scooter. Without an ostrich, a boat, or anything else, he would have to rely on his own strength, but fortunately, he had plenty of that. The breeze blowing in his face meant that he wasn't moving at a snail's pace, so overall, it wasn't too bad. It was terrible that the next stop was an impassable swamp.
The foggy swamp stretched across a huge area to the west of the desert. It was also a place loved by spirits, dangerous and... filled with beetles, so I felt like I would be right at home there. But I still had to get there. The surroundings gradually changed, and grass began to appear on the lifeless ground, which I touched for the first time in fourteen years, and then trees appeared. A forest.
"Real, alive.
I touched the tree trunk in a trance.
These were simple things that I had missed so much. Eating along the trees, I kept looking back and filling my lungs with air. Sometimes this helped me spot the local fauna before it attacked me.
"R-r-raaa! - A strange bear with a duck's beak jumped out of the trees. It had rows of very sharp fangs in its mouth, and its claws must have been poisonous. Standing on its hind legs, it towered three metres high!
"Right... - looking at the animal, I remembered something," - I don't have much food.
There were so many new impressions that by evening I was emotionally exhausted. Finding a more open clearing and firmer ground, I tensed my muscles. With a few passes, I pulled out the solid walls and formed a roof over my individual house with a cone-shaped movement. I made the windows in the form of a lattice, and got inside without a door at all. A Earth Mage doesn't need one.
"Spacious," the earth was the most creative element. If I had had time, I could have built a mansion, but a one-room house was enough for me. Just for fun, I made a table and a stone bed, then gathered some leaves and made it a little softer. I had dried bear meat for lunch on the table. And when Afka returned with a small book in her teeth, I lay down with her on the bed and began to read.
Her soft fur sniffed at my right hand as she looked at the book with me. Perhaps that was what you could call happiness.
***
The wild and vast swamp was surrounded on all sides by cliffs and dense vegetation, and could only be reached through an inconspicuous mountain canyon. I passed through the gorge filled with vines and trees with real delight. Long roots partially blocked the passage, but they were no problem for me. Perhaps this was also the reason why I did not meet a single person on the way — the path I was following led to a terrifying swamp that everyone, without exception, tried to avoid.
After crossing the canyon, I had to look up - the trees here were so tall. There were thickets and swamp water with rare patches of dry land where strange horned toads sat. Croaking and the endless crackling of insects could be heard everywhere, an atmosphere of life... but if before I could still try to find some extra sand somewhere, now I could only rely on what was in my gourd.
"Even a map won't help me," I said, moving myself to the root of a large tree with my sandy lashes and looking around in confusion. "Afka, you lead the way now."
"Fyurk," she made it clear that she felt perfectly fine here. Hiding behind a tree trunk, she appeared on the next one, leading the way along the tangled paths. Without her, I would have gotten lost in a couple of minutes. The foliage grew thicker, the sunlight faded imperceptibly, and the atmosphere began to grow heavier.
I was always on edge when I was in an open but dark place. Especially when there were alarming sounds coming from all sides, making me turn around every time. At one point, as I flew over a river, something jumped out from the bottom and tried to grab my leg. A crocodile with a moustache, resembling a catfish, opened its giant mouth, but flew away after one swing of my long blade. Unfortunately, some of the sand fell into the water and sank.
"Damn you... Afka? - frozen in an attempt to make out my little beast in the impenetrable darkness, I swallowed hard. The rustling of leaves, the croaking of toads, and nothing else. Bad luck again? "Stop mocking me, you're a spirit, you couldn't have lost me!
Z-z-z*
Feeling a buzzing sound on the edge of my hearing, I turned and swung the sand blade with pure reflexes honed over two years. A strange fly the size of a cat that was flying towards me was cut in two. Many larvae fell out of its abdomen and into the water. The aquatic inhabitants of this place pounced on them.
"Af! - I heard behind me.
"Phew, Afka, don't leave me next time..." But when I turned around, I immediately shut up. I saw only a very large shadow darting between the trees. And it was clearly not the same fox that could fit in my arms.
"Choose
1 - Run (There will be a chance to survive)
2 - Stay and fight (The conditions will force you to develop earth magic. Your chances of survival will depend entirely on your combat skills)
3 - Head towards the silhouette (It is blocking the exit from the swamp; if you run away, it will not follow you)"
"Run? Survive? - The hair on my body stood on end from the tension, my pupils instantly contracted. Who did Anubis mean, given the serious warning in his speech? And most importantly... where was Afka?
Shush-shush-shush*
The leaves fluttered from someone's interference. Shadows began to appear not only in front of me, but also on the sides, and shining dots began to appear in the impenetrable darkness. They were looking at me from all sides. Bad luck. Could it be that they had Afka? Hanging over the lake, quickly thinking about what to do, I finally clenched my hands.
Then... I ran away as fast as I could. All I could hear after that was trees breaking and a noise so unnatural it made my head spin. This THING was faster and more cunning, its huge silhouette splitting into many smaller ones and then merging again. My experience told me to tear my muscles, but to keep running.
***
Advanced chapters:
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