Chereads / Nexus Convergence (Canceled) / Chapter 13 - Pine Village

Chapter 13 - Pine Village

I sat down inside the pure white space that was my soul space. Lifting my hand up with my palm open towards the front, I started reading through the chant for a basic light spell. It's purpose was to create a sphere of light to illuminate my surroundings.

"Light of the first star,

Vanquisher of all that is dark,

Shine upon my world again

And illuminate my path!"

I could feel my cheeks burning from the embarrassment when I saw there was no change and murmured: "I guess I have no light affinity. Damn, I think I'm going to die of shame before I learn magic."

[Your avatar is compatible with all types of magic. According to my calculations you must first feel the mana inside your body and release it from your core before the chant.]

'Feel the mana inside my body? How do I do that?'

[Your mana will stir slightly every time you chant a spell. Try to repeat the process and concentrate on your body.]

I repeated the chant while paying attention to my body but I still couldn't feel anything so I kept repeating it over and over again. After over 2 000 tries, I was starting to feel tired.

'Why do I feel so tired if I didn't do anything?'

[Each time you chant the spell a small amount of mana will dissipate from your core. In your soul space, spirit is consumed instead of mana.]

'Wait, so I will consume spirit instead of mana? Then what is the point of practicing here?'

[With the amount of mana inside your body you will not be able to chant the spell for more than 50 times.]

'Oh. Too bad I'm nowhere closed to learning magic. Please sent me back now.'

After Ai sent me back to the real world, I closed my eyes and went straight to sleep.

Halfway through my sleep, I suddenly appeared inside my soul space. Looking around in confusion I noticed Ai materializing in front of me. She didn't waste any time as she conjured a mirror in front of me.

I was about to ask Ai what all this was about when I noticed my body being surrounded by some men wearing black cloaks inside the reflection.

"What's happening?"

"A paralyzing smoke was released through the floor of your room. Your resistance parameter is high enough to last for two more minutes so I pulled you here before waking you up so you could come up with a plan."

I nodded with a serious look as I observed the situation outside through the mirror. The four men were preparing to use ropes to tie me up. My spear was right next to the bed and I should have no problem grabbing it. I didn't waste any more time, as getting tied up might pose a problem and asked Ai to wake me up.

My eyes snapped open and I released myself from the men's grasp, grabbed my spear and made some distance between us. The men were startled that I was still awake but soon recovered and pulled some daggers from under their cloaks. I wanted to ask them what all this was about when Ai's voice sounded again in my mind.

[Remember. You only have two minutes before the toxins inside your body will paralyze you.]

Not wasting any words, I brandished my spear and jumped towards the cloaked men. I decapitated the two closest ones in an instant. The reach of the daggers was nothing compared to my spear. Seeing that, the other two tried to throw their daggers at my face, but I ducked under their attack with ease and killed one of them before pinning the other to the ground.

'This was too easy.' I thought to myself. The fight took no less than two seconds. As I placed my spear on the last one's neck a panicked female voice came from under the hood.

"Please, spare me. I had no choice."

Startled by the young voice, I used my spear to lift her hood and noticed that she was a young girl, around 16 years old or so.

"Why did you try to tie me up? Keep it short." I wanted to know what was going on, but I could already feel my fingers tingling slightly.

"Some men came into our village a few days ago and took all the men prisoners. They said we must bring anyone that comes through the village to them or they will kill us all."

"Where are they?"

"The biggest building in the village."

Deciding I had to learn more about this, I lifted my spear from the girl's neck, picked up my black cloak from nearby and started running outside. A timer was in my vision and it was showing I only had a minute and a half. Making my way silently through the night, I started looking for a place to hide. After 30 or so seconds I found a shed full of firewood. Since it was still summer and there was only a small chance someone would come in, I hid inside and closed the door after me. After laying down on the firewood, Ai pulled me back inside my soul space.

"How long until the paralysis is gone?"

"Four hours and 22 minutes. Your soul is tied to your avatar now so you will completely lose consciousness."

I nodded my head and waited for the last few seconds to pass. A few seconds later, darkness engulfed my vision and I passed out, disappearing from my soul space as well.

Waking up, I looked around and noticed that I was still inside the shed.

'Did anything happen while I was out?'

[There were noises outside but stopped around half an hour ago. They must have given up.]

"Guess it's payback time." I knew that it was safer to leave now, but the fact that they tried to kidnap me and even made me kill those young girls irked me the wrong way.

I opened the door and slowly made my way towards the biggest building in the village. Arriving at it's entrance, I noticed two guards placed at the front door. They wore the same type of armor as the soldiers I saw inside the bandit camp.

'They? again?'

While I was hesitating if I should continue or just retreat Ai's voice sounded inside my mind.

[This is unpleasant.]

Surprised by her words, I asked: 'What happened?'

[Nothing.]

Seeing that she didn't want to explain I just focused on the guards again. When I was just about to retreat a new message appeared in my vision.

//Unsolved business - quest//

//Clear out the city lord and his soldiers inside Pine Village//

//Reward 100 points//

'What's with the quest, Ai?'

[Just a suspicion.]

'Erm.. So, do you think I should be able to take care of them on my own?'

[I don't know.]

I let out a sigh and started thinking about a plan. Now that I also got a quest for it from Ai, I really wanted those points.

Circling once around the mansion that probably belonged to the leader of the village, at least before the city lord's arrival, I noticed one guard posted on each side and two more at the back entrance.

I walked as close as possible towards one of the side guards, using the buildings nearby as cover. There were ten more meters between me and the guard, but the issue was that there was no more cover.

'This would be a lot easier if I could use magic.' I thought to myself as I picked up a small pebble from the ground. I threw the pebble towards the wall behind the guard and hardened my grasp around the spear.

As the guard heard the noise behind, he turned around and drew his sword in an instant. Using this chance, I rushed out of my hiding spot and pierced my spear through the side of his neck just as he was about to turn around again.

I laid his body against the walls of the manor and went around killing the one on the other side the same way. After killing the guards on the sides of the mansion, I slowly walked towards the back entrance along the wall. Reaching the corner of the wall, I held my breath and slowly walked closer to one of the guards. Their back was turned towards me so I managed to reach him with ease. I stabbed his neck, right where the helmet connected with body armor. The other guard, startled by the sudden turn of events, turned towards me only to be greeted with a spear in his neck as well. Taking care of the two guards, I started walking towards the door.

I pressed gently on the handle and was happy to notice there was no lock on the door. I slowly opened it and walked inside. The room was completely dark so I had to walk slowly, using my hand to follow the wall and make sure not to stumble upon anything and make too much noise. After walking for a bit, I felt the frame of another door. Opening it slightly, I was happy to see some light coming from inside.

Looking through the small opening, I saw what looked like the main hall of the mansion. The problem was that there were around 20 or so guards inside, with half of them sleeping, but I had no way of dealing with them silently. I left the door cracked slightly and started looking through my room using the light that came from the main hall. I noticed that I was inside the kitchen and a trapdoor near a corner of the kitchen attracted my attention. Curious, I walked up to the trapdoor and slowly lifted it.

Seeing that there was light also coming from bellow, I followed the wooden staircase and made my way downwards as slow as possible. At the end of the stairs, I was greeted by a tunnel carved into the earth with magic crystals placed on the sides. The whole thing reminded me of the golem cave.

I walked forward through the tunnel for 100 or so meters until weak voices could be heard from the front. Crouching down I continued forwards and soon reached the end. Popping my head out of the tunnel I took a look around the room in front and was stunned by what I saw.

Inside, there was an enormous circular room, bigger than a football field from Earth, with people nailed to the walls and a red magic circle on the ground. Blood was falling from the men nailed to the walls into the indentations of the magic circle, slowly filling it up. On the side of the circle, the city lord and his son were discussing something with ugly looks on their faces but they were too far and I couldn't hear what they were saying. There were also cages filled with bound women near them.

'They probably also captured the women inside the village. Ai, do you have any idea what this is?'

[I tried matching the magic circle with all the ones I found in the books you read but there was no result. Also the symbols appear completely different. If I had to guess, this came from the magic knowledge of another race, and considering that it uses blood as a catalyst it should be demon magic.]

'Demon magic? This got a lot more dangerous and complicated. I didn't expect the city lord to have dealings with the demons.'

[Ethan, there is a 70% chance that this is a teleportation magic circle with the purpose of creating a backdoor inside the southern continent.]

'With all the strongest humans at the battlefield up north this will be a tragedy. Fuck, how did I get mixed up in this so soon after arriving in this world? I only wanted to hunt some goblins.'

[…]

'Well, if their plan succeeds, the demons will probably win so I have to do something about this. Any idea, Ai?'

[The city lord also appears to be a magician and judging by the design of his staff it should be identical to his son's. That means both of them are able to cast fireball instantly. If you manage to close the gap while dodging the two fireballs you might have a fighting chance. Their level is higher but they are magicians and not warriors so once you get into close range the fight is already won. Success chances are 63% for the current circumstances.]

There were around 100 meters between me and the two of them. I thought for a moment and said:

'That is possible. The fireball cast by the city lord's son was not that large, but what if they cast any other spell?'

[Casting any other spell will require them to cast the chant, which will take a while and I can also match the chant with the knowledge stored from all the books I copied to warn you about the spell. If there use no magic outside my knowledge or use silent casting your chances will remain the same.]

'Do you know for sure that the city lord can't do silent casting?'

[There is a 20% chance he can do silent casting. If he can use silent casting your chances will decrease to 13%.]

'Too risky.. How long will it take for the magic circle to complete?'

[At this rate, 10 hours and 23 minutes, but the accumulation rate might slow down as they replace the men nailed on the walls with those women in the cages.]

'Hmm.. Is there any beginner magic I can learn to increase my chances?'

[Yes, there is the Wind Cannon spell. Using this spell with increase your chances to 90% regardless if he can do silent casting or not.]

'What does the spell do?'

[Creates a gust of wind behind you, propelling you forward at a really high speed. You will be able to reach them from this distance in only one second.]

'Let's try it. We still have 10 or so hours.' I said as I retreated slightly from the room's entrance into the tunnel and asked Ai to bring me inside my soul space.

[You only have 340 spirit left since you didn't have time to recover it completely after the last practice.]

'That's fine. Please compile all the information you have about sensing the mana inside the body and first steps in using it.'

[That is a lot of information.]

'Doesn't matter. I need some theory before starting to practice. Let me know once four hours pass and continue monitoring the situation around my body in case they decide to leave the cave.'

[Affirmative.]

An entire page, full of writing appeared in my sight. Looking at the bottom right corner, I noticed a 'Page 1/8233' written. Not bothering about it, I started reading through the information as soon as possible. Four hours later, I managed to read 236 pages. Hearing Ai's notice that four hours passed, I asked her to close the pages and started practicing.