Torrin was startled from sleep by a shrill beeping noise. His eyes roved around the walls. His will spread forth from the coffin of stone he'd made to sleep in. The sound receded soon after and he remembered where he was.
The night spent with the wolves tugged at his memory and he groaned before he even moved, ready for agony to greet him from his various wounds and aching muscles. To his surprise, he felt fine as he lowered the walls and stood. He actually felt great, brimming with energy.
"Oh, yeah..." Torrin mumbled, remembering he had taken one of Grams' super healing potions the night before, "Those things truly are amazing."
Torrin took the time to clean the gore from himself and donned new clothing. The supply of clothing Grams had given him was slowly dwindling as time passed. Not only were half of them covered in some sort of viscera, most of them were ripped from various fights. Torrin shuddered slightly at the thought of how many injuries he had avoided from the enchanted clothing.
His mind wandered back to the beeping that had awoken him and he took out the time-keeping amulet the elves had provided. The symbol representing seven shone and Torrin sucked in a sharp breath. Seven months had passed since they entered this pocket dimension and Torrin still needed to visit the three remaining temples.
Coming to a decision, Torrin withdrew a nourishment pill from his ring and downed it. He was planning on pushing himself without rest for the next three days. At this point, it was more likely that the elves had already moved on from the water temple, but he still needed to check.
Torrin spent a few seconds packing everything into his ring. Once he was ready to go, he turned to watch the sun make its glorious presence known, seeing a light fog dissipate from his surroundings as pink and orange rays spread along the horizon.
"Is that thing real?" Torrin wondered aloud. He was still unsure of how pocket dimensions were created, and more curious than ever if the rising sun was some creation of the realm or an actual ball of energy shining from miles away. Another thing to ask Grams when he saw her next.
Thinking this, Torrin took out a loose piece of paper and a book to use as a writing surface. A pen quickly followed, and he added to his growing list of things to ask Grams about.
-How are pocket dimensions created?
-How long is my lifespan?
-Why did you not warn me about kidnapping the fucking Elven Princess?
-Why did you not warn me about brain-splitting headaches when trying to understand complex runes?!
-Statues containing a beast's will?
-Is the sun inside the elve's pocket dimension real?
Nodding in satisfaction, he put everything away. Refocusing on the task ahead, he felt the cool dirt and grass beneath his feet. His toes curled, churning some of the earth loose. His core spun up and mana threads flowed through his bare feet into the ground. A moment later, he began his journey.
Torrin hesitated to call his trip boring, but it was getting close. Two days of constant travel had surely gotten him closer to his goal, but for all he could tell he was still hundreds of miles away.
To pass the time, Torrin had begun regulating the amount of mana he used to shift the earth beneath him. When he first tried the technique, he let instinct guide him and was successful. What he learned through trial and error was that he didn't actually require as much mana as he'd first expected.
Instead of using about fifty mana threads on instinct, he now found himself only requiring around twenty to achieve the same effect. The only down side was that it required his full attention, hence his waning enthusiasm at moving forward.
A shrill screech pulled his attention to the skies and he saw many birds circling above him. From the look of their wide spread wings and long featherless necks, he pegged them as vultures of some sort. These beasts only ever fought people if there was some sort of corpse around they wanted to eat.
Torrin's legs paused and he pushed his mana deep into the ground to lift a pillar of earth under him so he could scan the area. Shielding his eyes from the mid-day sun he swept his gaze across his surroundings. A few desiccated beast corpses lay strewn across the ground some ways away. He moved to investigate.
His brows knit together as he examined the dead bodies. One was a mole, reminding him once again of the lack of their presence since leaving the earth temple. The other three were something altogether different. The damage they'd taken as well as the missing pieces from what he could only assume had been the vultures caused him to be unable to even guess at what they were when they were living, but he was certain from the light cropping of fur on the remains that they weren't moles.
The beast cores had been extricated and no elves were laying around, so he eventually shrugged to himself and moved on. As Torrin's mana core began to show signs of emptying, he took a bottle from his ring as he took a short break. He held the bottle up in the waning light of the day and peered at the contents. Ten pills shook around in the glass bottle, clinking lightly against the sides of it.
Torrin hadn't taken any of the mana regeneration pills that Grams had made for him, but he decided that now was as good a time as any. Keeping his mana threads planted in the earth, he removed one of the pills and popped it into his mouth.
The pill seemed to begin melting as soon as it came into contact with his tongue and the liquid rolled down his throat. The taste was bitter, but the feeling of warmth generated by the pill was nice. It sank into his stomach and soon made its way through his pathways to his core.
To his surprise, his core didn't stop its rotation like it did whenever he activated his rune to absorb mana quickly. Closing his eyes, he focused on his core. Soon he could see what was happening and it surprised him.
His mana threads were still active, but thin streams of ambient mana were also entering his core at the same time. He focused on what was happening inside his core. The solid marble of Saen housed there seemed somehow...Excited?
The small ball inside his core was shifting this way and that, and soon enough it began to spin in the opposite direction of his mana core. Torrin gasped as the flow of ambient mana increased. The small orb was creating a suction force that was drawing in the ambient mana similar to how his mana core reacted when he activated his Absorb rune.
The implications of this were too much for Torrin to process in any reasonable time-frame, so he summoned his writing materials once more and added it to his growing list. Torrin began moving once more.
Torrin felt the warmth of the pill fade around half an hour later, but the small marble of Saen seemed unsatisfied and kept spinning. Its rotation was slower, but it kept absorbing more and more mana toward itself.
'If you're not gonna quit, neither will I,' Torrin thought to the ball as he pushed himself farther ahead. Two hours later Torrin finally had to stop and rest. He had been awake for nearly three full days and his body and mind were too tired to continue any longer. After a short time spent reviewing his various books once more, he slept.
Waking up may have been a chore, had a bird not begun sending attacks at Torrin. After the first missile of water smacked into him, he was wide awake. Torrin reacted swiftly once he was aware of his attacker and he was rewarded with a squawk as the bird fell from the sky. Two more birds followed their friend in death and Torrin examined the mana beasts.
They were all yellow core beasts, so he hadn't expended much effort in taking them out nor taken any damage from them. What surprised him was their affinity for water. A small grin lifted the corner of his lips.
"I must be getting closer," Torrin said aloud.
Another three day stretch of travel and a few more mana beasts marked his arrival at the water temple. Now all he had to do was find the entrance.
Torrin stood at the top of a cliff overlooking a stretch of sand leading to water. The water seemed endless as it stretched to the horizon. Torrin activated his mana sight and saw an extreme amount of water mana burbling to the surface, so he knew he had to be in the right place.
His eyes scanned the beach and eventually landed on a symbol made from various stones piled near each other. Torrin simultaneously grabbed a cushion of wind in front of him and manipulated the cliff below his feet to form a kind of slide down to the beach. The cushion of wind helped him control the speed of his descent and he found that overall the process was relatively easy and the movements smooth.
Torrin finally realized what the symbol was once he really looked at it during his downward approach towards the thing. It was an arrow.
Torrin landed softly. His feet sank slightly, and sand rose between his toes and warmed his bare feet. A few steps brought him to the arrow of stones and he noticed some pages were stuck beneath a few of the rocks. They fluttered in the sea breeze. He gathered up four pages in total and realized the exact same note was scrawled on each one.
'If you read this, Rin, I just wanted to let you know we moved on to the wind temple. If you decide to enter the water temple, be careful. The temple is inside a cave beneath the water. We spent another two months inside since many more elves were able to enter it. We've made an arrow of stones to point you towards the next temple if you decide to follow us. Best wishes -- Dawn.'
The note was simple and to the point. Torrin sighed. He was still behind the elves and now he had a decision to make.
"Do I skip this temple and find the elves?" He wondered aloud, "She didn't mention anyone dying, so it sounds like they're doing fine. Especially since they're heading to another temple."
Torrin paced next to the stone arrow as he tried to come to a decision. After a few moments he chose to at least check out the cave she mentioned before coming to a final decision.
Torrin approached the water slowly. White foam topped the gentle waves as they broke just before the sand he stood on. Water lapped at his toes before being pulled back. Torrin breathed deeply, the air tasting salty with a slight hint of a fishy undertone. The experience was much less pleasant than Torrin had expected. The air seemed to coat his tongue with a weird taste as he breathed it in. Spitting into the sand, Torrin stepped forward.
The water was much colder than he expected and he wasted no time in spinning out a few mana threads to move the water out of his way as he advanced to avoid getting his clothes wet. A wave approached and Torrin tried to avoid being drenched. It was a futile effort and Torrin gave up quickly. He returned to the beach and removed his outer layer of clothing.
His second attempt at entering the water went much smoother as he took a deep breath and swam below the surface. He used his mana to push himself through the water with minimal effort. Fish flitted around him, but didn't attack. His mana sight activated and he followed the trail of dense water mana he assumed led to the cave. He found the entrance a minute later, having gone far deeper than he had expected. He still had a decent amount of air, so he wasn't too worried just yet.
He entered the cave and followed a tunnel that curved upwards. Soon enough, Torrin broke the surface and took in a large gulp of air. He pulled himself to a sandy shore, guided by a small bit of light in the distance. He followed the light. A dim glow suffused the cavern he found himself in and upon further inspection, he realized the glow was from mana crystals. What seemed to be hundreds of the things dotted the walls and Torrin felt it was his duty to relieve them of their imprisonment.
With a silent nod to Grams for her foresight, Torrin approached a cluster of glowing crystals and manipulated the earth directly to release the crystals into his waiting palms. They were slightly warm to the touch and at his best guess were at least mid-tier crystals. The cluster he'd removed contained six such crystals. He stared at the bounty in his hand for a long moment.
"Holy shit..." He mumbled, "Three thousand gold just like that, going by Bolin Town's pricing."
Greedy eyes scanned the cavern again as he stored the crystals away. Forgetting all else, Torrin began circling the large cavern like a cyclone, ripping mana stones from the walls without prejudice. Any and all mana stones were taken. After two hours, Torrin was left with a slight sheen of perspiration, a shit eating grin, and a few hundred mana crystals in his ring. As he placed the last one away, he found himself in darkness once more.
His hand wiped the sweat from his brow. Confusion contorted his face as he felt the moisture return almost instantly. After a few more unsuccessful wipes, he gave up on removing the moisture from his skin. Torrin hadn't noticed the cloying liquid when he was busy pillaging the cavern of mana stones, but now it was at the forefront of his mind and he found it highly annoying.
"Ugh..." he grumbled under his breath.
His hand lifted to form a light orb. Runes shimmered into being as his mana was converted into a small flame. His eyes widened as the gentle flame sputtered out almost instantly. He clicked his tongue, trying once more. The result was the same for the second attempt. A sigh passed his lips as his shoulders sank slightly. In his haste to gather all the crystals, he had not thought about the path forward.
A small inconvenience, but Torrin's lack of attention grated on him. He knew he needed to keep his mind on track, especially in this pocket dimension. He spread his will into the surroundings to get an image of where he needed to go. A shudder passed through him and he withdrew his senses instantly. His breaths came quick as he tried understanding what had just happened.
When his will had spread out, he'd felt another will brush against his. And it felt hungry. Shaking slightly, he held out his hand to find the wall and sat down against it.
'The elves didn't notice this when they came here? And they stayed two whole months?!' Torrin thought in disbelief. He lay his head back against the stone wall of the cavern and took deep breaths to steady his racing heart.
As he continued breathing steadily, curiosity began to outweigh his terror. He stretched his will out again and allowed himself to take in the opposing will that suffused the cavern. Hunger, greed, loneliness, despair, and excitement all rushed over him. He shuddered and withdrew his will once more.
'The remnant at the earth temple seemed to be just a smattering of experiences, but this one feels much more...Alive?' Torrin thought nervously.
After a few moments more spent contemplating his situation, Torrin wanted to smack himself upside the head. A wry grin formed on his face as he withdrew a few mana crystals from his ring that instantly lit up the dark cavern.
He walked along the walls, searching for a way forward. After feeling those emotions, Torrin knew he had to investigate further. Doubt began to rise in him as he worried about the elves, but he pushed those feelings somewhere deep below his consciousness.
Torrin found what he was looking for about halfway around his circuit of the cavern. A door blended into the cavern wall seamlessly. It was made of rough stone and only caught his notice because of the words carved into the area it covered. Wishing Dawn were there to read what it said, he pushed a wave of water mana at the entrance the same way he had in the earth temple.
Understanding the text seemed to not be a requirement for access as something shifted in the wall, causing a grinding noise to echo in the cavern, and the door lowered into the ground. Satisfied, Torrin made his way forward.
'You are unlike the othersss,' A thought that wasn't his own assaulted him as he passed the threshold. Torrin nearly stumbled as the hissing voice entered his mind.
"Hello?" Torrin called out into the looming darkness ahead. No response came after waiting for a few minutes, so he eventually moved on. Slowly.
His steps were tentative and his senses were on high alert. There didn't seem to be anything in the tunnel he was walking down, but he still worried about the voice that had spoken into his mind.
After what seemed like hours of slowly crawling forward, taking tiny steps in the wet squelching sand beneath him that barely covered any distance at all, his skin was drenched in sweat or water or whatever was clinging to it like a film. It dripped from him, causing soft pattering noises as it hit the floor.
A memory rose unbidden in his mind. Blood dripping. A soft sound like the first drops of sprinkling rain warning of a coming storm as it made its way to a puddle below played in his mind. He could almost taste the cloying stench of the room again. He shook his head, trying to clear it of his memory of his last night in his old world.
A rasping laugh invaded his mind, shaking him from his reverie focusing his attention back to the present. A chill ran down his spine as he felt he was being watched--being studied. He held back a shout this time as he continued forward.
Torrin activated his mana sight and was nearly blinded by the swirling water mana of the tunnel. Shutting it off, he wiped more water from his face that was instantly replaced. Annoyance picked at his frayed nerves as he continued his journey. Saen enhanced almost every fiber of his being as his eyes strained in the dim light of the crystals he held.
The ground reflected the light softly, making him realize he was approaching water. He stepped forward into the crystal clear water as he made his way forward. The water deepened the further he went.
As the water lapped at Torrin's shoulders, he finally saw an end to the tunnel. A door stood in his path. Even through the chin high water, the light of the mana crystals in his hand shone on an intricate design imprinted into the door.
A large snake curling around itself was depicted in exquisite detail. Seeing the picture, Torrin shuddered as he remembered the hissing voice that invaded his mind.
'Come on in, little one. I won't bite.' A hissing voice invaded his mind once more. Torrin stared at the door in trepidation. Torrin summoned his sword into his right hand as he reached out to open the door with his left. A hissing laugh could be heard in response to his actions.
Torrin sucked his teeth in annoyance and pushed the door open. A wide cavern greeted him, as the water that had surrounded him crashed to the floor. A gasp escaped him as he took in the terrifying visage of a gigantic snake.
It lay in a wide pool of glowing water, wrapping its lower half around a small central island, upon which sat an altar similar to the one in the tortoise's room. Its upper half lay across the island, its head resting on the altar like a pillow under its chin.
Torrin's body froze as he stared at the snake for a long time, fearing it would attack him at any moment.
'Well? What are you doing ssstaring?' The voice spoke once more, directly inside his head.
"Who are you?" Torrin asked, as that was the only thing he was able to get out in his stunned state. Laughter was the only reply. As Torrin watched intently, he enhanced his vision with mana. Once he did, he realized the serpent wasn't moving the slightest bit.
This just made him more nervous. After staring for a truly long time, he realized that the snake wasn't actually alive. Like the tortoise, it was made of stone, 'Or maybe it had turned into stone...' Torrin mused.
This made Torrin relax slightly and fully enter the room. He shut the door and braced himself to be assaulted by visions. When nothing happened, he approached the giant stone snake with curiosity. As he got closer, he soon regretted letting his guard down.
---
Swimming swiftly through the water, she needed to follow the river up stream to her destination. It called to her and she knew not what it was, but she wanted it. The feeling it gave off was tastier than anything else she had eaten, though she knew not how she could tell from so far away.
---
Torrin gasped, sand flying into his open mouth. His head lay on the floor of the cavern. A rasping laugh echoed in his mind.
'Come.' the voice said. And after a long moment of contemplation, he did. Struggling to his knees, he approached the stone snake warily. He didn't stand fully, sure that the snake wasn't done toying with him just yet.
---
The river gave way to a giant lake. She wriggled and shot forward. The beasts she'd eaten along the way empowered her movements from how tasty they were; the tastiness causing water to push behind her without effort. She wondered what the beast that called to her would taste like. She could feel the tastiness wafting from it, growing stronger the closer she came.
---
The sand felt like a nice pillow, Torrin's mind whirled as it shifted between the overwhelming visions and reality. He'd had a much easier time understanding the turtle's visions than he did now trying to understand this snake. The thing was always so...Hungry. Hunger tinged every thought the thing had.
---
The center of the lake held an island. That was where the tasty beast lay. Getting closer, she could feel there were actually four tasty beasts. One was much tastier than the others, though. As she came into contact with the island, she burst from the water with her jaw unhinged, not losing a single bit of speed.
A strange feeling washed through her the moment she was finally able to take in the tasty beasts. An emotion she didn't recognize was soon overwhelmed by hunger. One beast was some giant lizard with wings. Another was some giant lizard with what seemed to be rocks on its back. One was a big white bird. And the tastiest was a shining...Thing. It had two legs and stood upright, waving its hand toward her.
Her body bunched slightly in mid air, the tastiness inside her preparing to power a strike towards the tastiest one that glowed with golden light. She was far bigger than the less tasty beasts so she knew she had nothing to fear from them. Her vision narrowed on the tastiest one. The thing seemed to be formed purely from tastiness and she couldn't wait to taste it any longer.
---
Torrin's body shook. He craved the power that the tasty thing would provide once he ate it so viscerally that he couldn't stand it. He wanted it. Needed it. A few moments passed as the intense emotions warped his mind. Taking a deep, shuddering breath, he realized he had been taken from the memories. He was himself again.
'What the fuck?' Torrin thought, his grasp on reality still tentative. The emotions shared from the snake were so intense that he was having a hard time adjusting back to being in his own body.
'Your ssspirit isss ssstrong,' the voice hissed in Torrin's mind. The elongated words sent shivers down his spine.
"H-how," Torrin cleared his throat and steadied his shaking voice, before trying again, "How are you stopping the visions? Or even talking to me? Are you alive? Who are you?" Once he started, a torrent of questions poured out. His mind was still reeling from the vision so he was finding it hard to get out a good question.
'And your mind curiousss,' a chuckle, 'My body is dead. Turned to ssstone. We all retired to thisss world when we began to die. We made a pact to leave a part of ourselvesss for future generationsss. I feel that you have visssited the tortoissse already.'
"I've been to his temple already, yeah. But who were you? Who was the being that granted you all power?" Torrin asked, impatience brewing in him at the lack of answers and even more questions bubbling up from the few he'd received.
---
"That was fun, right?" A sound full of cheer rang out, causing her head to pound from the noise of it. The noise was incomprehensible, but the pain gave the sounds meaning. The tastiest one was strong. Stronger than her. Despair crept over her at being defeated, a feeling she hadn't experienced in a very long time. The tastiest one said something else that was lost on her just then.
A tasty smell lapped at her tongue. A tasty taste followed as something warm entered her mouth and spread to the rest of her body. Pain wracked her everything. An assault unlike anything she'd felt before. Skin tore and shed, and bones creaked and cracked. Muscles tore and reformed. It only lasted moments. The feeling was gone as fast as it had arrived and she knew that hadn't been fun.
'Fun?' The thought clarified her senses. 'What is fun?' She thought. As the voice had implied before, fighting was definitely fun. Fun was eating tasty things after they were defeated. Fun was not feeding your defeated tasty opponent a tasty thing that caused it pain. And fun was not receiving the tasty thing after being defeated and experiencing the pain afterward. Her jumbled thoughts barely made sense, but she knew one thing. She had not had fun just now.
Thoughts rushed through her one after the other. She was able to reason and think, unlike the instinctual drive to eat more and more tasty things. Her eyes narrowed at the tastiest one there. When she did, she realized just how tall the tastiest one had gotten. Her eyes shot to the less tasty ones and realized they too were now several times bigger than her.
Fear gripped her and she felt herself grow. The change ripping her body apart as the tasty thing she'd been given fueled a transformation, changing her back to her normal size. The fear left as quickly as it had come and she relaxed, her piercing gaze returning to the tastiest who had beaten her.
"I wondered when you would notice," the tastiest one said in a cheerful voice, "Welcome to our family, little sea serpent." The words seemed to wrap around her, granting a warmth that she'd never felt before. Though the words were unfamiliar, she could understand them. She could understand many things now that she'd never known before. She also realized that for the first time ever, she wasn't hungry. She felt no need to find something tasty.
Her gaze peered at the other beasts on the island. Each chorused the welcome, a display of power given from each in turn, beginning with the stony lizard raising islands from nowhere in the lake after shaking the ground. She felt it was only right to return the welcome, her tail lashing in the water and causing a wave to form. She let the tastiness--energy, she now realized--within her flow from her core into the wave, gathering more and more water until a cyclone surrounded the entire island. She hissed into the sky as the cyclone built higher, before coalescing into a dome that surrounded the entire island.
"Wonderful," She heard, "Just wonderful. Okay, now we need to get going!" The tastiest one said. At his words, she lowered the dome of water back into the lake. She now understood that this being before her was not merely tasty. He was made completely of energy and was much stronger than anything she'd met before. She winced as she remembered the being punching her.
The being waved an arm and energy flowed from him directly into her body. Her core shook as the power seeped into it. A sharp, burning sensation more painful than the being's earlier punch could be felt as it shattered. Her entire being was suffused with the warmth from the being's energy, washing away the pain. Energy from her shattered core and was guided by the energy the being moved through her, directing the remnants of her shattered core to be absorbed in specific areas as the solid pieces of her core dissolved in the being's energy.
Her eyes shot open once the process was finished. Her entire body was thrumming with power. Her gaze fell on the other beasts and they all looked markedly different. The immense power she'd felt from them before also felt more subtle now.
"Time to go," she heard the being of energy say. She snapped her gaze to him just in time to see a golden form take shape in mid air beside him, and watched in amazement as the being who matched the shape's golden color perfectly walked right into it. She was no less amazed as each of the other beasts followed without hesitation. Not wanting to be left behind by her new family, she slipped into the floating, rigid shape of energy behind them.