Eerie, that is how Alex would describe his destination, he and Nicholas had hid there when running from the wolves, that one secret they had encountered, everything there seemed dead, no chirping of birds or crickets filled it like the rest of the forest, not even a breeze blew through there.
As Alex approached his new training grounds, he began to have an eerie feeling, as if he was going to a place that shouldn't exist.
Checking the map, he had arrived, though Alex didn't really have to check the map, the crunching of leaves under his feet was the only sound he could hear.
The outskirts where best, no need to go further in.
A place to sit was Alex's next priority, and from the looks of it, the ground would have to do.
Resting upon the coarse dirty in a leisurely fashion, Alex began to mess around with the spell components on hand, though he didn't have many, he was still itching to see what he could do.
He started with a simple spell, using rift and projectile, nothing to fancy.
Alex began to activate the spell, power gathering in his finger tip. Imitating Nicholas, he slowly brought his hand down through the air, till all the magic left his finger.
Light purple bolts of magic roiled off of him, dancing along the ground in a chaotic dance, tearing the very air around Alex, or squashing it together again on a whim.
Alex's eyes clouded over with a light purple haze, only that glowing line of condensed power broke through the haze.
Alex instinctively formed his fingers into a gun like shape, and pointed it strait at the line.
"Bang" he muttered quietly under his breath.
The line of condensed magic began to crumple, folding over itself endlessly till it became a small sphere, which shot forward with the speed of a bullet.
Alex watched with anticipation as the orb slammed into the trunk of a solid tree.
Space was rent in two, a rift formed, leaking sparks of chaotic light purple energy, the world seemed to slow as the air was ripped to shreds, still, the rift expanded, greedily devouring more and more space into its fold.
Then, without warning, the rift collapsed, crumpling like burning paper, and normality returned, as if nothing had happened, the only trace that the rift had been there was a singular branch from the tree that had been the victim of Alex's machinations. the branch had been cleanly cut from the tree, a precisely vertical cut, no deviation or error present, completely clean.
Alex was disappointed, but at the same time, what was he expecting, it made a grand entrance, then exited in an anticlimactic fashion abruptly, disappointing, but expected.
Well, onto the next.
But this time, make it more fun.
Alex only made one change to the spell, he switched the core of the spell from spatial to divine.
Alex had done some out of game research on spells, it was one of the only talking points the company didn't heavily restrict in discussion.
Alex found one major factor though, whenever he tried to speak about divine magic, he would be silenced almost immediately, this lead to one explanation, divine magic was something that grand story studios heavily censored, a hidden mechanic.
Alex had been itching to see what secrets the element hid.
Alex began to activate the spell once more, closing his eyes in concentration, a warm golden glow emanated from his fingers, rolling off of his body in gentle waves, the moment the mana touched the ground, it began to gently crumble and break, lumps of unrefined metals spilling out.
These clumps of dirt clad iron slowly melted, breaking down and reforming into miniature tools and weapons of various shapes and sizes, each one unique. But once the spell line was completed, they crumbled back into dirt, and returned the forest floor to its original state.
Alex finished the spell, bright gold mana wrapping around him like a heavenly robe. As the line crumpled into a ball of pure golden energy, Alex opened his closed eyes, a warm golden glow leaking from them, rising to the sky like a golden flame.
Alex raised his hand slowly, and pointed two fingers forward in a leisurely fashion, and uttered a singular word in a deep, commanding voice, completely unlike his own.
"Go"
If Alex had blinked he would have missed it, as if it had teleported to the tree, it hit the tree before Alex even had time to register that the spell had been activated. From there, it was as if the very laws of the world had been torn in two, withing the rift cause by the spell, nothing made sense, it was chaos in its purest form.
Then, it snapped shut, leaving no trace that is had been there.
Alex stared at the spot the spell had hit, trying to find some remnant of the spell he had cast.
As Alex turned, he found that Stephen had awoken and was shaking violently, terror etched into his eyes.
"Hey, buddy" Alex said in a concerned voice, "What's wrong, you having a panic attack or something"
Stephen turned to face Alex, terror still the only emotion displayed on his face.
"What the hell did you do?" he finally chocked out.
"I don't know?" Alex replied honestly, "just trying out a new spell"
Alex stared quizzically at Stephen, who was shacking uncontrollably, why would he have such a reaction.
He began to check the description of all components of the spell, one line in particular catching his eye, 'create a rift in whatever elemental energy is applied', so what would a rift in divinity be?
Would it be a rift in everything, but then there would be a lasting impact on the spell, Alex began to rack his brain, then, like a lightbulb went off in his brain, a though occurred to him.
rummaging through his inventory, Alex found a sword that one of the newbies he killed must have dropped, Alex placed it carefully on the ground and began to activate the spell again, this time, he pointed it at the sword.
After going through the motions of casting, Alex opened his eyes to fire the shot, only to find something truly strange, the sword that he had placed on the ground began to shake violently, as if terrified by something.
Alex ignored it, and shot the bolt of radiant energy at the sword.
A blood curdling scream rang throughout the forest as the blade writhed on the forest floor, the clatter of steel on earth filled Alex's ears, till it almost became unbearable. Then, it stopped.
Alex cautiously stared at the two halves of the broken blade.
He cautiously poke the two halves, jumping back at the slightest clatter the blade made.
After nothing happened for a solid minute, Alex moved over cautiously, and picked up the two severed halves of the sword, checking their description.
[Item name: Corpse of a poorly crafted sword
Description: The remains of an unassuming sword, it has done nothing of worth, the world will not mourn for its passing]
Dead? weapons could die? it made sense if it was an ego weapon, but that was a regular weapon, it wasn't alive to begin with, was it.
Alex pushed these thoughts to the back of his mind, the existential stuff could be left till a later date.
For now, it was back to spells, or, it would be, but those last two spells had almost bottomed out his mana reserves, mostly the second one though, and he didn't want to experience mana deficiency for a second time.
Alex left the place as quickly as possible, it gave him the heebie-jeebies.
As he walked, he began to interrogate Stephen.
"So what the hell was that?" Alex asked quizzically, "you freaking out and all that"
"Well," Stephen began, discomfort filling his voice, "even I'm not to sure, I guess you could call it an instinct, when that spell was cast, it felt like there was a predator hanging over me, drooling all over my back, it was stifling, like if I so much as breathed, my life would end"
"Huh," Alex's intrusive thoughts had begun to surface again, the memory of the sword shaking violently, and that scream, why would that occur.
The more Alex though about it, the more questions he asked, does that mean all weapons are alive? Or for that matter, is everything alive? And how could they feel fear? Was his magic something akin to a natural predator to weapons? Would it affect anything man made? What would happen if he used a component with an adverse affect, like something that healed?
Alex nearly walked into a tree on multiple occasions, so lost in thought he was. Stephen had gotten bored and gone back to sleep, whatever sleep was for him.
Alex soon wandered back to the wolves den, he felt like his brain was about to overheat.
The wolves where still slightly cautious of him, giving him a wide birth, keeping the cubs well away from him.
One little cub, however, did manage to escape the watchful gaze of its mother, and ran towards Alex with reckless abandon, running circle around him and yipping in delight.
Alex watched as the adorable little cub stopped it circling, and sat down, staring up at Alex, as if expecting something.
Slightly puzzled, Alex bent down to pet the little pup, only for it to bound away in glee, inviting Alex to give chase.
Alex obliged, while he could have caught up to the frail pup in a heartbeat, he decide to hang back a bit, letting the pup just escape him every time he got close, prolonging the chase for ten minutes, before Alex finally decided to end it, scooping the pup up in one swift motion.
The pup yipped in frustration and began to writhe in Alex's arms as he was brought back to his mother.
The mother stared daggers at Alex, but made no further threat, it didn't want to die after all.
Once the pup was laid down on the ground, it immediately tried to get back to playing with Alex, but its mother was having none of it, and quickly snatched the pup up by the scruff of its neck, dragging it back to a corner of the den, Alex swore he saw the wolf sigh.
Alex decided it was a good time to check up on his subjects, healthcare was important for a budding kingdom.
Searching through the many menus that made up the games UI, Alex finally found what he was looking for.
[Kingdom command:
Once per week, you may issue an order that all of your subjects will receive, however, they will not necessarily follow the command, this will depend on their loyalty
Would you like to issue a kingdom command]
Alex was tempted, but decided to wait until Nicholas returned, better to get a second opinion.
And looking at the map, Nicholas was on his way back right now.
Would be a few minutes before he arrived from the looks of it though, Alex stared at what little sky poked through the thick canopy, trying and failing to do some casual cloud gazing.
Nicholas arrived shortly after to find Alex splayed on the ground staring at the sky, expression completely blank.
Nicholas came over and lay on the floor next to Alex, adopting the same blank expression. The two simply lay there for ten minutes, not moving at all.
"Have you achieved enlightenment yet" Nicholas whispered out of the corner of his mouth.
"HUH" Alex yelled in surprise, jumping of the floor in surprise, "when the fuck did you get there?"
"Oh, a while ago" Nicholas responded calmly.
"Anyway," Alex quickly interjected, trying to shift the conversation off of its current trajectory, "I was hopping you could help me with something"
"Ask away, I will listen" Nicholas replied with a chuckle, "though whether I can help is an entirely different matter"
"I want to give the wolves a quick medical examination," Alex explained, "you seem to have a better understanding of the game then I do, know anywhere I could get them checked up while keeping it on the downlow"
At these words, Nicholas seemed to light up with glee.
"Well my friend," he replied with a dramatic flourish, "you have come to the right man, vet Nicholas Flammel, at your service"