Its been a week since I destroyed that Kobold dungeon and I still didn't find a town. My luck really is bad. To land in a place like this and get lost in a thick forest. During th epast week I've been attacked by all sorts of creatures with the exception of humans which annoyed me greatly. If they were bandits then I could force one of them to reveal my current location and possibly the location of the nearest town. But no, there's not one trace of humans anywhere.
[…...........listen..............know...............]
And this voice has been here as well trying to communicate with me. The problem is that the voice is completely fragmented to the point that the words have no meaning at all with each other. Though it got better with time. At first I could only hear parts of words and now I can hear the words completely even though they don't connect in a sentence. I sighed at this fact.
"Man I really have nothing to do if I'm listening to a voice that may or may not be there."
I checked the mana detector again. The target was still around 40 kilometres away from me which didn't help. Another thing that didn't help was the the target was moving. That means something picked the mana fragment up. Which also mean I have to face a creature that was overly bluffed by the mana fragment.
Rustle Rustle
Was it time to be attacked by wolves again? Good. I was getting a bit bored all by myself and this voice. 4 white wolves jumped in front of me. It was indeed a foolish idea to let me see you wolves but this was a mere decoy.
Rustle Rustle
There seems to be some more wolves hiding in the bushes aiming to ambush me. Well might was well play into their hands...in case it would be claws right? One of the wolves jumped towards me, intending to take a bite.
"Wow. Mana Shield."
Mana Shield took 86 damage
The wolf instead hit the mana shield which I used frequently. As a result it had levelled up twice during these two weeks and could withstand up to 500 damage now with a cost of 90 mana. Another thing that was nifty was the fact that I could summon more shields now to be more precise up to 3. I also found out that I could manipulate the shield as well as use it on any target I desired. By focusing the shield in one area instead of my body, it would take less damage and would protect my body more easily.
"Mana Shield. Mana Shield."
I covered my right hand in the transparent shield then ran up to the wolf that tried to bite me and punched it in the face.
Critical hit!
Mana Shield took 12 damage in the impact
Mana Shield took 7 damage in the impact
The wolf was thrown back into a tree and was bleeding from the mouth. Even though my character wasn't a melee type I still dealt quite a bit of damage there, even getting a critical hit in.
Mana Shield took 52 damage
Mana Shield took 74 damage
Mana Shield took 83 damage
Ah it seems the other wolves decided to me to help their injured friend. And speaking of friends the other ones hiding came out. What wonderful companionship. Now to kill them all. I imagined a field of fire which the wolves cannot escape from. They will be sucked into the middle of it being burnt to death.
"Fire Field. Wind Vortex."
The ground being a field of fire of course centring around me. The wolves which numbered 13 I believe including the one I punched were forcefully sucked into the middle of it along with the fire. The wolves cried in pain but their fate was sealed. After no more than a minute they all died leaving the pieces of loot they held. Lets see...a couple pieces of meat I can fry and eat later....some fur and some teeth as well. Nothing of too much value but I can still sell these things off at a NPC store or something.
Satisfaction Levels have fallen below 10%
Oh what good timing. I can fry these pieces of meat and eat them now. I went around and gathered some dry twigs into a pile and lit it on fire using my magic. I also collected some dry leaves as well and placed them in the fire as well which increased in size rapidly. Taking out a piece of meat, I stuck it through a long stick and planted it at an angle into the ground so the meat was above the fire. I took several more pieces of meat out and did this as well.
"Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr"
Looks like the smell of meat attracted more wolves. Even though the meat was their comrade's. I should find some rabbits to kill. But there's a lacking of them in this area for some reason and the other creatures usually come out whenever I make a fire to cook some meat.
"Hmm.....I shouldn't attract more attention then I am by cooking meat here."
"Ice Bolt." I said without any concern to what's there.
A bolt made of ice appeared in my hands. I threw it at where I thought the enemy was.
BONG
Eh.....what was that sound? Did I hit metal or something?
"Ah that was close. You almost killed me mage." said a male voice.
That was strange I thought there was the sound of a wolf nearby but I was wrong. From the brushes came a man in his late twenties wearing a worn out outfit and was carrying a metal pot with my ice spear stuck in it.
"Man now I have to replace this." complained the man.
I really have no idea what was happening. This person doesn't seem like a player like me so....he's a NPC. Well NPC or not, the chances of being back stabbed are the same either way.
"Sorry about that. Everytime I made a fire to cook with. Wolves and other creatures came out to kill me so I didn't bother to check." I commented on what happened the last couple of times I tried to light a fire in the forest.
"I see I see. You have that problem as well." The man nodded understanding my situation.
The man looked at the pieces of meat I was cooking over the fire and asked, "Can I have one." with drool slipping down from his mouth.
A bit stunned on how a person can be so hungry I said, "Su-sure."
And so the two of us sat down by the fire waiting for the wolf meat to cook properly even though I didn't have an once of cooking skill. As we waited we chatted for a bit to get to know each other better as fellow humans in a forest without humans civilisation.
"So why are you starved for some cheap meat?" I asked still wondering why someone would starve themselves to such an extent.
"Eh? Oh. It was because every time I tried to cook something in this forest recently, some creature comes out of nowhere and steals it or tries to eat me." said the man while still staring at the meat cooking in front of him.
"Anyway I didn't get your name. Mine's Eden."
"Patrick Danite." said Patrick as he smiled.
3 minutes of awkward silence later...
"The meat seems to be done now. Though a bit burnt." I said prompting Patrick to eat something. Well I was hungry too.
Patrick immediately grabbed two of the 5 sticks I had and started munching down the meat. I took one too and ate it. It didn't taste good since it was wolf's meat but it didn't taste too bad. It was a bit hard to chew on since it was mostly muscle but there was enough fat that it was durable.
Patrick finished the two sticks he had and took another one saving the last one for me to eat. After we were done eating...no when I was done eating. Patrick finished long before me. We got up and started walking East since it was my destination and Patrick was following me.
"So where are we heading?" asked Patrick trying to get a general idea we would end up at.
"East" I answered. Not that I had any other answer than that.
"Umm...where exactly East?" asked Patrick again this time a bit more concern by my blunt answer.
"Until I find what I need to find."
After that Patrick was a bit depressed for the next couple of hours. Then I heard or rather we heard the noise of wolves nearby.
"Get behind me!" I commanded.
Patrick hid behind my back as a group of wolves came out. They had the feeling that they were very hungry. A common trait that I have been encountering wolves recently.
"Mana Shield Mana Shield."
I casted a mana shield for both of us. Patrick was a bit surprised when the mana shield was around him as well.
"Eden what is this?" asked Patrick as he poked the Mana Shield around him.
The wolves whom were surrounding us slowly started their assault. First I need to get rid of some of them. I aimed at the ones in front of me first.
"Fire Field."
The ground under 3 of the wolves suddenly caught on fire and the wolves themselves were burning.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"
I looked behind me to find a frightened Patrick on the floor with a wolf's mouth just a bit away from his head, obviously being blocked by my mana shield. Man this was a efficient and handy skill unlike the magic creation one.
I pointed my hand to the head of the wolf and said, "Ice spear."
An ice spear as produced from my hand and pierced the head of the wolf that was trying to get Patrick. Blood spattered over him and the wolf dropped dead. There's.....4 of them left. Aiming at the one nearest to us I said, "Chain Lightning."
From my fingertips lightning came out and stuck the first wolf and it then jumped and hit the second then third and finally fourth wolf. The wolves dropped dead as well. It looks like I'm strong enough to handle these guys even when I'm completely sealed.
"That...that was intense." shuddered Patrick
"Yeah." I responded emotionlessly.
"What do you mean yeah. You killed so many of them so easily!" exclaimed Patrick.
"True." I started to gather the loot the wolves dropped as Patrick continued to pester me.
As he was complaining about stuff I eventually asked, "Hey, you know why the creatures in this forest seem so hungry?"
Patrick was taken back by my question but after taking a moment to think about it he said, "Most likely a foreign creature came in and started consuming everything in the forest or a group of them did."
That seems plausible but there's only one mana fragment in this forest so I assume its been eating things quickly.
"Is there any chance that it was a creature that originated from this forest?" I asked knowing that it was a high possibly that the mana fragment was involved.
"No unless it has been sleeping for a very very long time. Something like this never happened in the past 400 years as far as I know." answered Patrick.
Ah so this guy has knowledge about this place from 400 years back. Does this mean he knows the way to a town?
"What's the nearest town?" I asked immediately trying to escape this forest in an instance.
"Ponit why?" Patrick had a confused look on his face.
I have no idea where that place is.
"You know how to get there?" I asked again hoping that Patrick would give me some good news for once.
"Only if you asked a month or so back. The place has been a mess ever since then and even I can't find my way around here anymore. So many creatures have moved from their original positions and even the trees aren't in the same place as they were."
I see so you're useless. I started walking East to the target. It was probably big. That's what I know. And it has been eating a lot of stuff in this forest. Maybe some of the creatures as well. That Kobold from before which I killed with delicate handling also complained about being almost eaten. So what kind of creature would be capable of doing so much destruction to such a large forest?