Adui hated the fact that he was stuck in medieval times. And in his journey to the capital, he became aware of many things that he used to take for granted back on Earth. He missed the toilets, he missed the motels and restaurants, he missed the well-made roads, and most of all he missed the global positioning system or GPS.
As it turns out, the people of this world were all idiots. When he started the journey, he was told to go south. And only after seven days worth of travel, would he be able to see the silhouette of the capital. Someone mentioned that he would be able to spot the capital easily as not only it was enormous, it also spewed a ton of smoke so it would be visible easily. Someone also mentioned that he would be able to smell the piss and shit in the air while getting closer to the capital.
On one hand, the fact that these people were telling him that the capital smelled bad was very unsettling. He thought about the living conditions of these people so far, so, only god knows what would he find in the capital.
After going through muddy roads, and an uncountable number of detours, he had completed his journey. Seven days had passed and they got to give it to the villagers, they were right. The view from where he was standing, it was gorgeous. The only problem was that before him was the vast sea, with no sign of city, town, or village. He knows for a fact that the capital is not by the beach, it is located in the middle of the kingdom. So he had no idea, where the hell he was.
Did I do something wrong?
He started thinking back about his journey, and how he came here. This whole time he made sure that he was heading south. All the time he was so worried that he would be off course that he would check his direction at least ten times a day. But in the end, all that turned out to be futile.
Did the villagers fuck up? Because I for one, do not know what the hell did I do wrong.
Adui looked around, he was standing on the hill with a view of the sea. He cannot see any smoke or any sign that anyone has been to this place. So he had two options before him, he could take a random direction and pray to god that he would find a town or something. Or he could go back the way he came, by which he would eventually come across the village that he had crossed two days back.
He never entered it, as he could take a detour around it in order to save time.
Going back makes sense. He decided, and turned around…
That night as he sat by the campfire, he took a mana stone from his bag and started meditating, while holding the stone.
The first time he held the mana stone in his hand, the power of the stone had diminished because of his father. Which is why he didnt feel anything when he absorbed the mana inside the thing. But it was only after he used the mana stone for the first night of his journey that he came to a horrible realization.
From what he had seen so far, his body could take mana that the stone emits and just absorb it and make it his own. He doesn't know why his body does that. So a wild idea was born, where he absorbs mana directly from the stone. And that was when it happened.
When he held the stone on his first night, he felt that he was being electrocuted. But the pain this time felt as though he had touched a live wire. It is painful as hell. The first time he held it, within seconds he had to let go of the stone.
When he realized that he could just hold the stone in his hands, he went to his roots. He put the stone beside him and started absorbing the mana emitted by the stone. And he was able to do that with ease. With the stone so close to him, he was able to absorb mana at a larger rate, whose effect he noticed soon.
It was on his second day he noticed something strange. After the session of absorption, he found a sticky layer of transparent slime-like substance on his body.
The substance was very hard to remove, and as he didnt have any water body near him at the time, all he could do was to use some of Martha's clothes to scrub it off of him. And then he had to throw away her clothes, as the slimy substance smelled bad.
After that, not only his control of his mana increase, but his overall capacity also increased. And as he kept his exercises regular, he was able to see significant changes in his body as well.
He theorized that when mana runs through his body, it hurts him because there are obstructions that are not letting the mana run freely. That is why it hurts like hell, he uses the mana stone directly. It was one of the theories that he came up with and was his favorite. It was clear to him that the slimy substance was something that his body secreted, and if mana was responsible for this, his theory made sense.
During his journey, he kept thinking about his theories and it was on the fourth day when he decided to be a little bit reckless. He decided to touch the mana stone directly. When the mana of the stone is flowing through his body, he tries to control the mana so that he can understand the circuit that the mana flows through. It was a reckless move, but it was not like he cared for his life.
That night he sat down in a meditative position and started visualizing the flow. It hurt like hell when the mana was passing through him, but with grit and determination alone he was able to endure the torture for maybe a minute or so. Then he had to let go of the stone.
When he opened his eyes, his hands were shaking, along with his body. He felt nauseous and felt that some of the mana of the stone was still in his body running rampant. He stored the stone back into the box and fell asleep.
The next morning he woke, he could still feel the effects of his recklessness from yesterday. But he kept moving forward, continued with his training and his journey…
In the present, he was about to repeat the recklessness, as he was able to visualize the circuit that the mana follows. Now that he was feeling fine, and had seen that other than nausea and some weakness, there was no ill effect of his recklessness, he would like to try again.
While in the meditative position, he held the mana stone once again in his hands.
Once again he felt that the current was flowing through his veins. But this time he felt that something was not right, it didnt hurt him as it did the first time. Although the pain was agonizing, it was not as painful as the first time. When eventually he did let go of the stone, he vomited straight away. His hands, legs and even his whole body were shaking crazily.
Not bad.. I was able to map out one-fourth of the mana pathway. I will be able to map it out fully after three or four sessions. Then a term came to his mind. Mana circuit. From today onwards I will call this pathway mana circuit.
But today he felt that something was wrong. He knew most of his mana was concentrated below his belly button, but after today's session, he felt that his mana core was bloated. There was too much mana inside of him. And he didnt know what to do with it.
Calming down, another wild idea came to him. If he could make the mana from the stone act to his will, he could do that to his mana as well. Hell, he had been making his mana move on his wall for ages now.
So he sat down in the meditative position once again and started moving his mana in the Mana Circuit. The total amount of mana in his body had increased to such an extent that he was able to feel the circuit even while he was moving his own mana. This method was not painful at all, and he was able to better visualize the circuit this way.
Opening his eyes after some time, he lay down with exhaustion.
The next day when Adui woke up, his body felt like hell. But now, he had a move forward. He is getting stronger that was the only thing that mattered to him…
Adui when entered the inn of the Hogrash Village, he was greeted with a lot of people. Some of the patrons were dressed well, while others were not so much. It was daytime, and based on the number of people in the place, he realized that maybe this place was the hub for travelers. Most of the village was well made and there were shops beside the inn as well.
Very well, I would be able to get some good information in this place.
There was a bar located in the inn, so he went to the old bartender of the place.
"What can I get you sire?" the old man asked.
"A bed. Some feed and for my horse. Some food and accommodation for today and tomorrow," He figured that he had money, it wouldn't hurt to relax a little bit.
The old man looked him up and down. "That would be 30 bronze coins,"
"30? Are you kidding me.. That is too much,"
The old man smiled smugly, "We have a lot of travelers staying with us. The only room that is left with us is the Deluxe room. And it is on the costly side,"
Adui understood that the old man was probably looking down at him, and he didnt blame the guy. He had not had a proper bath in a while, and his clothes were dirty as well. But he was not short on money. Begrudgingly, he coffed up 30 coins, which surprised the old man.
The stare the old man gave him, made him feel like he judging the fuck out of him, probably thinking where a bum like him got that sort of money.
But in a few seconds, the old man's demeanor changed. He put on a warm smile and said, "Why dont you wait for a second sire, I will get your room ready," Adui nodded and went to sit in the restaurant.
He looked around but found no seat available. But he did spot a hooded figure in the back, having a cup of mead. The figure was sitting alone on a table for four. He went to the figure and asked rather politely, "Ma'am, could you please share this table with me? My room will be prepared in a few minutes, and I will be out your hair,"
The woman didnt speak, but did gesture through her head to sit. He sat down, and soon came a girl, who looked no older than ten at their table, "What would you like to have sire?"
"I will take meat. Anything that you can provide at your earliest convenience," The girl passed him a smile and hurried back.
And within a minute, the girl brought a plate of roasted pork with a tankard of mead. He then turned towards the lady, "Would you like to join me, ma'am?"
The hooded figure shook her head and continued enjoying her mead. He tore into the food and the drink that he got, they were not very great, but considering where he was, he could not complain.
"What do you do for a living?" came a voice from beside him.
"I am a mercenary," he nonchalantly replied.
"Just a mercenary?" the woman asked.
He didnt know what the woman was getting at, "Yup. Mercenary, thug if you want me to be.. A great lover.. Hell, I can read write and do accounting,"
"That is quite a skill that you got there." The woman said, "I am looking for some information and a person that I could trust. I think that you can be useful to me. Would you like to work for me?"
He swallowed hard, "You want me to work for you?" he repeated the unbelievable sentence, "Intriguing preposition, but I have to decline."
"It could be worth your while,"
He passed her a warm smile, "How exactly?"
"I can pay in whatever currency you want. Even mana stones are not off the table… And not to mention, your pay would be so great that you won't have to rely on blood money,"
"Blood money?" he questioned.
"More especially the mana stones that are in your bag," The sentence sent a chill down Adui's spine. For the first time since he came to this world, Adui bloomed a smile. Or maybe it was a monster inside of him smiling at the thrilling opportunity…