The view was amazing. It wasn't beautiful, but simply so strange that it was fascinating.
Small trees on one side, medium-sized ones on another, and large trees, maybe above 1000 meters high, scattered here and there in different colors.
He also realized that the dungeon he was in was at the peak of a mountain so high that the clouds were just a head's length above him.
Dense clouds hovered just above, so close that they could be touched by simply stretching his hand. That's how high it was.
The forest was both amazing and weird. Colorful trees—red, pink, green, even brown, black, and white—spread across the landscape as far as the eye could see.
The height difference was also immense. The smallest trees weren't even visible from here, and the tallest ones were so high that, even when lying down and looking straight up, the tops couldn't be seen.
"Seriously, this is a true fantasy world."
"Hmm. Lord, this is one of the most common forests in the world."
"Common? Really?"
"Yes, it's normal to have five different varieties of trees growing in one place."
"Oh." Rain was amazed.
"Let's leave. But where should we go? Do you know the closest city from here?"
"I've been trapped in this dungeon for a thousand years now, Lord. Even if I knew, I can't be sure if the place still exists."
"Still, let's go there. Some cities don't disappear even after ten thousand years, let alone a thousand year."
"Okay. We need to go straight east. 1000 km from here, there's a small city."
"How… How far did you say?" Rain looked at Diablo in horror.
"1000 km. It's not far."
'It's not far, he says!' Rain was shocked. That was so far!
How many days would it take to get there on foot? Could he even use magic to travel that distance without exhausting his mana?
Oh, right. Diablo's a necromancer—he must have a lot of magic spells.
Wait!
"You know a lot of magic, right?" Rain asked.
"Yes. I have mastered over a thousand magic spells," Diablo answered.
"Cool!" Rain's eyes twinkled. "Teach me."
"Uh?" Diablo tilted his head. "Teach you, my Lord? It's not hard. What kind of spell do you want to learn? I mostly know dark magic spells, but I also know a couple of regular magic spells."
"Let's start with something basic. How about basic spells?"
"I know. You were using magic in a weird way, so I guess you don't know anything about magic."
"No, isn't magic all about visualization? My control may suck, but my visualization is top-notch!" Rain said confidently.
"So… you know nothing." Diablo had a small smile. "Then let me teach you how to draw mana first."
"How to draw mana?"
"Yes. The most basic chant for fire magic is 'Fier.' Now chant with me: 'Fier.'"
"Fier."
It might sound basic, but when the word was spoken, it felt completely different, which was hard to explain.
"Fier." Rain chanted.
It may have sounded simple to speak, but as soon as he said "Fier," his heart thumped.
Mana was drawn automatically. It was completely different from drawing with will—it was as though the mana traveled a special path, not through blood vessels.
The mana gathered in his palm, and a small fire lit up.
"Woah, master! You're a genius! You got it right from the start!"
"Is it supposed to be hard?"
Really, just spelling "Fier"—how is that hard?
"You make it sound simple, but many humans take weeks or even months to cast this simple spell. It's not as easy as it sounds," Diablo said.
"Magic incantations are divine words, which are completely different from native languages. They are languages created by gods that can never be spoken. So when reciting, it's difficult for most people, and even after reciting, it's not guaranteed to succeed."
"Hmm, really? But aren't we speaking in English?"
"Hmm?" This time Diablo was confused. "English? What's that? I've never heard of it."
"Wait…" Rain didn't doubt Diablo, as he looked so perplexed.
"Can you write in the air?" he asked.
"Sure." Diablo stretched his finger. Dark mana concentrated at the tip, and he wrote smoothly in the air.
The symbol was weird. So weird that Rain couldn't understand a word.
The letters were something Rain had never seen in his life.
"What's the name of the language?"
"It's Hyumanese. A language exclusive to humans."
"Oh." Rain stopped speaking. "Let's go." He just jumped down the mountain.
Diablo looked at the back of his Lord and smiled. "He is cute." For a moment, his smile turned a bit cunning, but he immediately hid it and jumped after him.
The air felt nice. Rain's heart was calm. His face didn't change.
Just before he landed, he used his mana to create a strong gust of air that stopped his fall.
"Fier." Rain chanted as he landed.
A fire appeared.
As Diablo landed, Rain immediately asked, "How do I turn this fire into something else, like a fireball or other fire attacks?"
Rain was amazed, as the fire in his palm didn't burn him, unlike the time he cast fire magic with his will and visualization.
"This time you need to visualize the magic and control your mana. The better your control over your mana, the more accurately you can create the magic you visualize."
"Oh." Rain understood.
To understand it more simply, magic was like coding, and each keyword like "Fier" was a library.
The library contains pre-written code for certain functions that can be utilized to create many programs.
So "Fier" was the library, and with its help, he could create any magic he wanted. But to do that, he needed good visualization and control over his mana, just like how you need knowledge and skills in coding.
Rain visualized a ball of fire, a round ball, and moved his mana.
It was smoother than before. He finally had a grasp on the mana—before, it was like trying to hold a string; now it was like holding a solid object.
But the mana was slipperier than a fish. Grasping it tightly was very hard. Before he could make the ball round, it slipped away.
His original way of casting magic and this new method were totally different.
If his previous method of casting magic was like coding in assembly language, then this method was like coding in Python.
One was a long, inefficient, and painful way, while the other was easy, short, and painless.
It was just that mana control in this version was so smooth and slippery, while before it was totally dependent on his brain—like creating a detailed plan in brain and having it happen.
Now, it felt like using an organ. A completely different sensation.
"Hah." Rain let out a sigh as his fire extinguished.
"One more time." As they walked, Rain used magic again and again.
His fire lit up and turned into a circle, but before it could expand into a proper sphere, it would pop.
It wasn't hard to fill it with mana, but continuously channeling mana into the fire while maintaining its shape was the real challenge.
It was the same as keeping your penis inside a woman and not moving.
Finally, after hundreds of attempts, his fireball was ready.
The burning round fire was very cool. Much smoother and brighter than the one he cast last time.
He threw it at a tree and Boom! The explosion was loud and destructive.
The force of the explosion destroyed half of the trunk of the large tree, which was 50 meters tall.
"Lord, it's not good to create forest fires. The inhabitants of this forest may attack you," Diablo warned.
"Sorry. Extinguish that, please."
"Okay, Lord." Diablo snapped his fingers, and water flowed out from above his head, going straight to the tree and extinguishing the fire.
"Cool! How did you do that?" Rain asked.
"If you master a magic spell, then you can perform it too, my Lord."
"Oh." Rain nodded and continued to cast fireballs.
He could only cast it in his palm. He tried to cast it an inch above his palm, but the difficulty skyrocketed, and even simply keeping the fire active became a problem.
It seemed his control limit was just at the surface of his skin.
Sighing, Rain continued to practice, as it was more addictive to cast magic than to have a conversation.
Rain wanted to master some basic fire spells and then learn other chants.
It was best to learn one thing at a time. Multitasking spells doom. You won't learn anything.
As they were walking slowly to their destination, they encountered a child barely ten years old.
"He-Help…woof!"
"A… child? No, a… beast child?" Rain looked at the blood-covered child.
She was bleeding gravely from all over her body.
She had two large ears, a small cute tail, and her hair was indistinguishable, as she was covered in blood, all of it red.
There were a lot of sword injuries on her body, as if someone had slashed and stabbed her multiple times.
"Diablo, heal her," Rain ordered.
Having a servant was comfortable. Just command and the work gets done.
"Yes, Lord." Diablo nodded and touched the child's head.
Black ominous light entered the girl's body.
Rain raised his eyebrows but was soon amazed as the wounds and injuries disappeared.
"Clean." The dark light consumed the child, and as the light cleared, the child was now clean.
Her pure white skin glistened while her black ears and tail stood out due to their color.
Her black hair suited the child, who now had an innocent, cute face.
"Help! Woof! Help! Help!" The girl screamed the moment she opened her eyes.
"Huh?" She tilted her head and looked around. "I- I'm alive?! I'm not dead, woof!" She exclaimed and observed her body.
Her tail wagged as she looked happy.
However, when she saw the two people, her tail stood up, and she jumped.
"Huwaaaa! Hiss!" She stood on four limbs and hissed. "Humans?! No… Right? My kin! I need to help my kin! Woof!" She panicked and began mumbling various words.
"Hey, little girl. We saved your life here. So don't be scared." Rain walked up to the girl and patted her head as if to calm her down. He crouched down to match her height, as she was only as tall as his stomach.
"You… woof saved me…" The girl tilted her head.
"Yes."
"But why? Woof! Why is a human… helping me?"
"Because I'm a good guy."
"Really, woof?"
"Yes."
"Then will you help my kin too?"
"Your kin? What happened to them?"
"They were attacked by bandits, woof! We need to help them, woof woof! The swords are scary!!! The huge men are scary! Killing, blood, and capture!"
Rain understood her words… barely.
Her words were jumbled all over the place, and she barked from time to time. She jumped too as she explained, panicking, as if the bad guys were just behind her.
"So… your kin was attacked by… bandits?"
"Right! Woof! Bad bandits! Help me! Help me! Good guy! Woof! Defeat the bad guys!" She looked at Rain with teary eyes.
"Okay." Rain nodded. "Lead the way."
"Let's go, woof!" The girl stood on all fours and ran… very fast.
"Wait!" She was so fast that Rain had to use physical enhancement to follow her
, but despite that, she was so fast that the distance didn't seem to be decreasing.
Diablo followed pretty easily behind, smiling. "Interesting." He murmured, watching Rain's back.
"I think I won't be bored for a while," Diablo said with a creepy smile.