"Ugrhhh! I can't take it anymore."
Jasmine's exasperated voice shattered the profound silence that reigned supreme in Gutudia Forest.
She began scratching at her head in a surge of annoyance. Her fingers raked through her raven-black hair with vigor.
However, the next moment, she shook her head in dismay and regret as a heavy sigh escaped her lips, "Huh... Just why the hell did I decide to tail them?"
Her shoulders slumped slightly under the weight of fatigue.
Jasmine stood poised on a sprawling branch of an enormous banyan tree, concealed amid a thick veil of rustling leaves and twisting foliage. Her entire form was enveloped in a sleek black attire that melted into the night. A pristine white mask veiled her face. From beneath its shadow, only her emerald eyes could pierce through.
For the past two months, Jasmine had been following an adventurer's party of three. The group comprised three third-circle mages.
Her purpose was simple. It was to steal all their hard-earned spoils the moment their hunt for mana beasts concluded.
However, this endless hiding in the treetops had worn Jasmine's patience to threads, breeding a suffocating boredom that clawed at her soul.
Never before had she trailed someone for this long. Usually, her pursuits ended within a month, and the longest she had ever shadowed a target was a month and a half. Yet now, even after two whole months, there was still no sign of their hunt's end.
During last week, a flicker of doubt had ignited in Jasmine's mind, urging her to abandon the chase. But then, the intoxicating scent of riches had seeped into her thoughts, clouding her judgment with visions of crisp notes and glittering coins. The allure of wealth was so strong that she had crushed the doubt and pressed on. But now, regret bloomed in Jasmine's chest like a thorny vine.
At last, she made an agonizing decision, "Nah. This can't go on any longer. I will make my move tonight."
Jasmine focused her razor-sharp gaze on those adventurers once more. Right now, they were locked in a fierce combat with a mana beast. Her cold eyes, like that of a vulture's, glinted with focused intensity and a hint of predatory hunger as she observed them with unblinking precision from nearly three hundred meters away, tracking their every move.
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A few minutes later, when Jasmine finally witnessed those adventurers slaying the mana beast and hurrying to harvest mana beast materials from its corpse, a thrill of wicked anticipation surged through her veins.
'Hehe, Finally,' she whispered to herself as her lips curved into a sly smirk behind the mask.
But instantly after, Jasmine's smirk disappeared. Her right hand clenched into a hard fist as she gritted with a silent snarl of resolve. Emotion welled up inside her. She vowed in the depths of her soul, 'I swear, I won't leave even a speck of dust behind!'
Not that she ever did.
Then, Jasmine leaped from the banyan's sprawling branch. Her form glided through the cool night air. Her supple brown leather boots touched the forest floor with feather-light precision, absorbing the impact without so much as a rustle, leaving only the faintest imprint on the dirt.
Jasmine placed her right palm above the small leather pouch strapped to her waist; it was a storage artifact named Space Storage. As soon as she poured her Mana into the Space Storage, a small glass vial appeared in her palm. Inside the vial swirled a scant measure of ink-black liquid. It was an Anesthesia Elixir — capable of making mages unconscious within seconds.
Twisting the cork off, Jasmine poured the entire elixir onto the loamy ground in a deliberate stream. The black liquid hit the soil with a soft hiss, instantly evaporating into wisps of dark smoke that coiled upward like spectral tendrils, only to dissipate into utter invisibility within seconds.
Though unseen by the naked eye, the vapor lingered in the air. This was no novelty to Jasmine. She had used the Anesthesia Elixir countless times before, each one a brushstroke in her canvas of cunning thefts.
Wasting not a heartbeat, she extended her right arm toward the lingering haze.
'[Gentle Breeze]'
In the depths of her mind, Jasmine intoned the words with crystal clarity.
Mana surged from the Mana Circles around her heart, channeling outward through her veins, converging at her palm in a burst of radiant emerald light that briefly illuminated her masked face with an otherworldly glow. From that focal point, a soft, controlled gust stirred to life. It was a wind elemental spell called Gentle Breeze.
That controlled breeze swept the invisible vapor of the Anesthesia Elixir along on its currents, carrying it inexorably toward those adventurers. In mere moments, the air around them thickened with the elixir's unseen mist. However, none of those adventurers noticed anything. They all remained oblivious to the danger forthcoming.
The forest held its breath around Jasmine as she bided her time in the shadows like a predator, leaving the Anesthesia Elixir to do its job.
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Jasmine set forth toward those adventurers' location after a couple of minutes. Upon arrival, her sharp gaze fell on the three unconscious figures sprawled face-down in the dirt. Two of them lay crumpled beside the hulking corpse of a slain mana beast, its lifeblood pooling in dark, viscous puddles that soaked the earth like spilled ink. And another one was a few meters away from them.
Jasmine approached the two beside the mana beast first. And, as she drew near, a revolting stench assaulted her senses. The acrid, putrid reek of the mana beast's blood slammed into her nostrils like a physical blow, reminiscent of a rotten rat decaying for months in the sewers of a filthy slum alley. That heavy and nauseating stench clawed at her throat.
Jasmine's features twisted beneath the mask. 'Ugh!' her lips curled in a peculiar grimace as she muttered under her breath, 'Disgusting.'
Yet, right after, Jasmine pressed on undeterred. Any other ordinary girl of her age, might have vomited violently by now, emptying her stomach in helpless waves of horror. But not Jasmine.
After years of shadowing adventurers and hunting mana beasts herself, Jasmine had built a tolerance to all kinds of horrific odors — suffocating and vile stenches that could choke any normal person. It was an odd side effect of being an adventurer. And due to this odd side effect, Jasmine could conquer the olfactory onslaught of any mana beast's bloodied miasma with barely a second thought.
Jasmine zeroed in on the shorter of the two unconscious adventurers first, a wiry figure clad in weathered cloak now smeared with mud and gore.
Dropping to one knee, her weight balanced on a single boot. Jasmine unbuckled the Space Storage at the shorty's waist with unbelievable swiftness as if it were her second nature.
Then, she put some of her Mana into that shorty's Space Storage to forcibly control it. Next, she emptied its treasures one by one. Sharp fangs and claws that glinted like polished obsidian, meticulously preserved tufts of fur and supple hides, and Mana Cores pulsing with an ethereal glow — she put everything into her own Space Storage by controlling it with her Mana.
Jasmine shook the now-empty Space Storage vigorously, inverting it several times with a determined flick of her wrist. Her eyes scanned for any overlooked speck — a testament to her meticulous nature, for she was not one to leave even the faintest crumb of fortune behind.
Deeming the shorty's Space Storage barren, Jasmine smirked with satisfaction. Then she hurled it over her shoulders with a careless flick and turned her attention to the figure beside that shorty.
It was hard to tell if it was a human or a hippo. However, Jasmine was undaunted as she swiftly emptied his Space Storage with the same ruthless efficiency.
Finally, she advanced on the third adventurer, a middle aged man who seemed older than the other two. His unconscious form remained still a few meters away.
And this time, raiding the third adventurer's Space Storage yielded not only more mana beast materials but also an unexpected windfall.
Money!
Cash money!
Shiny, sparkly and crispy stacks of money!
They caught the moonlight like forbidden treasures.
Jasmine's pulse quickened with raw, unbridled joy. Under the mask, her lips spread so wide that if anyone saw it, they would surely think, this one must have gone mad.
Jasmine's thoughts were also not normal, 'Awww, such precious cuties! Come to mama.' A surge of greedy ecstasy flooded her veins as she lifted the bills to her masked nose, inhaling a loooooong breath.
Ah, the aroma!
It was ambrosia to her soul, greater than the finest perfumes in the universe, a heady fragrance of fresh ink that sent shivers of delight cascading through her body, enchanting her completely. This was the culmination of her months-long tireless pursuit.
This ultimate reward wrapped her in a warm embrace of triumph and vindication, making every ache and weary hour worthwhile.
'Ahh~ never knew money could smell so heavenly. This is making me hope for more long term chasing.'
Greed really was her weakness. Jasmine wished she could pursue some other group of adventurers for this long again as she was totally in love with the sweet reward of her months long theft.
However, little did she know that this was going to be her last theft, for tonight, an astonishing event would change her life completely.
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At long last, with her 'grand work' concluded, Jasmine prepared to melt back into the enveloping shadows of the woods. But in that moment of departure, an uncanny phenomenon seized her attention, freezing her mid-stride.
'Huh?! Why is everything so... bright all of a sudden?'
The world around Jasmine ignited in a blaze of sudden radiance, as if the sun had brazenly risen ahead of its time, flooding the undergrowth with an unnatural brilliance.
Dawn was still hours away, and the moon's gentle luminescence could never muster such luminosity.
Bewilderment knotted in Jasmine's chest. A sharp pang of unease pierced her guarded composure. Unable to pierce the veil of mystery, she tilted her head skyward, her eyes narrowing in instinctive search.
"......."
Jasmine's breath caught in her throat as her gaze lifted skyward. The world around her seemed to fade, leaving only the dazzling sight above — a meteorite tearing through the heavens, wrapped in the blazing fury of the atmosphere.
That fierce flaming celestial sphere, cast from the realm of the stars themselves, blazed with infernal fury, trailing veils of sparks that scattered across the starry sky, igniting the darkness with fleeting but explosive bursts of gold.
However, something about that meteorite was… strange. It was very small. So small that it was supposed to burn away and vanish before it even left the atmosphere. However, it didn't. It kept falling.
Jasmine just stood there frozen, utterly speechless as she beheld the meteorite's inexorable fall. Not everyday one gets to see such a spectacle after all.
Soon, that tiny and blazing meteorite crashed into the earth nearly a kilometer away from where Jasmine stood. The impact reverberated through the entire Gutudia Forest. The wilderness quaked in visceral protest, the ground surging in seismic waves that rippled outward, uprooting saplings.
A ferocious gale erupted in its wake, whipping the air into a maelstrom of dust and debris that devoured the landscape like an unstoppable flood.
And yet, in the face of that all-consuming dust storm, Jasmine remained utterly still. She didn't flinch, didn't seek cover behind a tree or crouch low — as if the raging tempest were nothing more than a child's play to her.
The slain mana beast's enormous corpse also remained where it was.
Meanwhile, the unconscious adventurers sprawled behind her fared less gracefully in the tempest's grip. With no chance to defend themselves, the shorty and the middle aged man were flung like scraps of cotton, slamming hard against the trees nearby.
They were still unconscious, without feeling the pain. But the pain wouldn't have been any issue to them as mages' bodies were way stronger than a normal human's.
The hippo, however, only rolled a few times across the dirt, his hefty frame tumbling like a boulder in a stream, barely fazed.
Indeed… sometimes being fat comes with its own advantages.
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The dust storm didn't last long. It subsided as swiftly as it had risen, its fury spent in a fleeting whirlwind that left the air hanging heavy and still. Within a minute or two the curtain of dust settled down as well, infusing the forest's wet and damp atmosphere with a melancholic haze.
'...Huh? What the hell? A meteorite?!'
Jasmine stood bewildered amid this stunned expanse of nature, her eyes fixed on the spot where the meteorite had struck. The forest around her seemed to hold its breath, stunned into silence. She couldn't fathom why a meteorite had plummeted so abruptly in front of her.
Then, a spark of realization flashed in her mind.
"Aura Stone!" she cried out, her voice trembling with excitement. "Could there be an Aura Stone inside that meteorite?!"
Jasmine finally understood exactly what that meteorite's fall meant.
An Aura Stone.
It's a priceless treasure that can only be found within a meteorite. Although the odds of discovering one were slim, everyone still tried their luck whenever they saw a meteorite. Because an Aura Stone could not only help a mage but also an ordinary person to awaken their Aura.
And Jasmine knew about that too well. After all, she had been searching for that treasure for quite a long time. Though, the reason she was searching for an Aura Stone was a bit different than most people.
And after all these years, she saw hope of finding an Aura Stone right before her eyes.
Though uncertainty gnawed at the edges of her hope — whether she would truly unearth such a rarity — her greedy heart clung to the possibility of finding it.
'Heh heh,' her mind danced with buoyant delight. 'Tailing these fools for the last two months was worth it after all.'
Instantly, Jasmine dashed toward the impact site.
Upon reaching there, Jasmine caught sight of a massive crater. Its depths were completely shrouded in a swirling haze of dust.
'[Mana Sense]'
Jasmine whispered in her mind as she closed her eyes, drawing a steadying breath. Mana circulated from her body and spread all around, weaving through the gray haze.
Soon, an image of the surrounding area within a hundred-meter radius formed in her mind, in which, every detail in the area — the tangled undergrowth of vines and ferns, insects scuttling in frantic retreat, even the subtle quiver of a single droplet on a blade of grass — appeared so vivid to her that it felt as though she were standing right in front of them. It was a basic spell — Mana Sense.
Jasmine had also heard of Aura Stone's brilliance — a luminosity so profound that even if it was stored inside an iron box or buried several meters deep underground, its brightness could be seen with the naked eye.
However, Jasmine couldn't see any such glow. And hench, the use of the Mana Sense spell. Even though she could simply jump inside the crater and search, she didn't. That's because, It was way too convenient to investigate through the thick veil of dust inside the crater with the help of that spell and then go to pick it up. So, why would Jasmine go through all that unnecessary trouble?
It's just common sense. The easier the better.
Soon, Jasmine found that the crater was about twenty meters deep and fifty meters wide.
However, within the crater, she discerned only mundane clumps of dirt and splintered remnants of uprooted trees. It was devoid of any supernatural shimmer.
Disappointment began to curdle in her gut as Jasmine didn't find any Aura Stone.
Jasmine Sighed, placing her palm on her masked temple, 'Hah... Like hell every meteorite will have an Aura Sto—'
But then, abruptly, Jasmine sensed something. Something... very familiar.
'A... human? At the... center?'
Jasmine sensed the presence of a human, coming from the heart of the crater.
'Huh?!' her thoughts raced in a flurry of alarm. 'Why didn't I detect anything until now?'
That person was right there, yet Jasmine hadn't been able to perceive his presence until now.
Moreover, Jasmine could only sense that person's presence. She couldn't perceive his form nor face.
But, in the next moment, astonishment ran through her. 'A... first-circle?!'
Jasmine realized the intruder was a mere first-circle mage.
'Is this bastard using a stealth artifact?!' A puzzle took shape in Jasmine's mind.
Because, Jasmine was a fourth-circle mage. It was impossible for her not to sense the presence of a first-circle mage.
'Hm?! Wait a minute... I'm pretty sure that there is no Aura Stone inside or outside this crater. And... a first-circle bastard is standing at the center. Moreover... that bastard... that bastard hid his presence. Hmm... This means that... that bastard had arrived here before me... Aha, aha. Absolutely.'
Jasmine understood the situation. In such cases, it would be either that first-circle mage had found the Aura Stone and kept it in his Space Storage so that no one could perceive it or there was no Aura Stone in the meteorite to begin with, and that person didn't find it.
But Jasmine's chaotic mind couldn't handle all this thinking. Whatever you call it — Jasmine's thieving instinct or greedy instinct — convinced her that the first scenario must be true.
'You rooky bastard, you have the nerve to steal my Aura Stone right from under my nose!' Jasmine was fuming with anger. 'Just you wait, you bastard. I will show you who's the boss!'
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Jasmine perceived that the first-circle mage remained blissfully ignorant of her intrusion. The reason was her outfit, a stealth artifact. That first-circle mage wasn't the only one using a stealth artifact to conceal their presence.
This was a golden opportunity for Jasmine to catch the first-circle mage off guard. But then, she realized something. She had no more Anesthesia Elixir left. So, the only way for her to seize that first-circle mage was to directly immobilize him and knock him out with brute force.
Not that it mattered much. It was a feat as effortless as breathing for Jasmine. Because, as a fourth-circle mage, she was many times more powerful than that first-circle mage.
'[Mana Telekinesis]'
Jasmine chanted inwardly.
In an instant, her entire form became sheathed in a transparent mantle of Mana, shining with an emerald hue that thrummed through her veins like lightning, infusing every muscle and bone with ethereal vigor. An unseen torrent of force cascaded across her limbs, amplifying her physical prowess to superhuman heights. It was another basic spell, Mana Telekinesis.
Jasmine jumped towards the center of the crater with explosive momentum. In that single, gravity-defying arc, she came above the head of that first-circle mage. His entire figure lingered as a spectral outline, edges blurred into ethereal vagueness behind the veil of dust.
Jasmine locked her gaze on his head. Her fist chambered back with predatory precision before she plummeted earthward in a full-force descent. However, the first-circle mage remained rooted, his posture unchanging. He still didn't notice Jasmine's presence.
Wherever Jasmine's punch landed — his scalp, the nape of his neck, or directly on his face, shattering his nose — Jasmine was certain he would be knocked unconscious. And in the heartbeat that followed, she would snatch that aura stone from his space storage.
'...Huh? W-what... is happening?'
Jasmine was stunned as a mysterious event occurred. Her punch failed to touch the first-circle mage.
It wasn't that Jasmine's attack had missed its target and thus she couldn't hit him. Rather, even before coming into contact, Jasmine got stuck in mid-air, her form locked in the void as if ensnared by invisible manacles.
'Th-this is... Mana Telekinesis!!!' Jasmine realized that an extraneous Mana had bound her as soon as she noticed her entire body was glowing golden instead of emerald.
'Ugh! Whose Mana Telekinesis spell is this?' Jasmine couldn't figure it out. 'There is no one here except for me and…'
Realization struck Jasmine. Her gaze, laced with burgeoning horror, drifted towards the indistinct silhouette of that first-circle mage.
'...Th-this first-circle mage?' Fear and terror began to take root inside her.
Jasmine knew in her soul, it was impossible for a first-circle mage to bind her using the Mana Telekinesis spell. This would only be possible if someone more powerful than her, had cast the Mana Telekinesis spell on her.
'...Is he a fifth-circle? Did he use an artifact to hide his power along with the artifact to conceal his presence?'
Astonishment washed over Jasmine as she grasped the folly: blinded by momentary greed, she had dug her own grave.
'...Shit'
Jasmine feared her death.
But why?
Because... she had witnessed the meteorite's fall. Should word escape her lips, then neither of them would remain unscathed.
Chaos would erupt. A frenzy of mages from every circle would pursue not only Jasmine but also that fake first-circle mage, hunt them down to ends of the earth, even if they were uncertain whether they would get any Aura Stone from them. Because, if by some stroke of sheer luck, someone obtained an Aura Stone, their destiny would change forever, for they could awaken their Aura.
And therefore, to save his own life, the fake first-circle mage had only one way — to silence the sole witness of this incident on the spot.
Though Jasmine had brought this peril upon herself, she refused to yield to fate's cruel jest without a fight. A feral instinct for survival ignited within her. She writhed with desperate vigor, channeling every ounce of her being into countering the fake first-circle mage's Mana Telekinesis with her own.
'...Eh? How strong... is this bastard?'
Jasmine's struggle availed her nothing; she remained inert, a puppet with strings of steel, hovering in mocking stasis as the crater's dust settled in lazy spirals around her frozen form.
But even then, Jasmine refused to give up.
'[Tempest of Destruction]'
Jasmine tried to use her wind elemental spell, Tempest of Destruction.
'...What?!!!'
Jasmine's soul trembled with terror as her spell didn't work. She couldn't channel Mana from the Mana Circles around her heart anymore.
Sweat drenched her forehead.
'No… Not like this…' Behind the veil of her mask, Jasmine gritted her teeth. 'I… won't give up no matter what—!'
All of a sudden, under the influence of that fake first-circle mage's Mana Telekinesis, Jasmine's hovering form suddenly jerked from her aggressive posture to a normal one.
'...Huh?!'
This imposter was far mightier than Jasmine's wildest estimations. His power gave her a feeling of a hidden abyss that dwarfed her own like a mountain.
And then, abruptly, Jasmine's suspended form slowly descended toward the crater floor. She couldn't understand what was happening. Shock ran through her.
The indistinct shadow of that fake first-circle mage began to advance toward Jasmine, each deliberate step echoing softly in the crater's hush. The chilling hands of fear gripped her soul.
'It's over... everything's... over.'
Despair drained the life from her, her eyes dulling to hollow voids as dread wrapped her in its icy embrace, squeezing until her body trembled uncontrollably.
'No...'
Her eyelids fluttered shut in involuntary surrender.
'Please...
F-forgive me...
Father...
Mother...
......'
"Can you tell me where this place is?"
A resonant yet unexpectedly serene voice cleaved through the heavy silence.