Thanks for the reviews for chapter 10, you have all been very helpful. I was surprised that most of you chose to make Astramille vulnerable to magic. I thought magic came from spiritual energy and demonic energy, so by lacking a soul, Astramille should be immune. I have wondered whether it is possible for him to be a Hero, because he can literally walk through Royal Makai and stay uncorrupted. Surely the Chief God would recognise this advantage and use it, being the bitch she is.
Special thanks to Xenostriker j.g, for telling me that slimes and bubble slimes could be the bane of Astramille. I did not know they only needed semen or that the bubble slime can induce addiction. But slimes are slow moving and bubble slimes smell, so Astramille should be alright. Also, I don't see how Astramille is borderline sociopathic. Arrogant and condescending, perhaps, but sociopathic? I don't see it.
Asacreta Mountains
After four hours, Astramille finally reached the foot of the Asacreta Mountains.
"Well fuck," Astramille puts his hands on his hips, "this is going to be bad."
The Asacreta Mountains towered over him. In terms of size and scale, the mountains are not unlike those of Girraween National Park. To him, they should pose no problem. Yet the real issue is the Solar Glory. He looked around, but he couldn't see any of the flowers. The Asacreta Mountains are domes and peaks of bare rock, with vegetation only growing halfway to the top. Vegetation changed from meadows to shrubs and small trees. The Solar Glory trees cannot be seen. Then and again, did the Solar Glory grow on trees? Astramille can't remember.
But as he looked up at the sky, he realized that he will not make it back before dark. The sun is already halfway down and the colour is more of an orange. Heck, he may not even finish gathering the needed flowers before the sun goes down.
"I am better off finding shelter for the night," Astramille said to himself, "because there is no way I am going to have the stamina to do everything tonight."
He marched around the area, looking to see if he can find any shelter. He doesn't have an axe, so he cannot make anything too elaborate. Then and again, none of the trees looked good enough to form a shelter. Astramille is not familiar with the meteorological patterns of the region, but it feels like Canada in springtime. Then and again, who knows where on the planet Lescatie is. Of course, it hardly mattered. The weather did not require any advanced shelters.
Regardless, Astramille felt a nagging thirst. Walking for hours will cause anyone to be as thirsty as hell. Nearby, there is a creek or river of sort. Astramille ambles over to it. The temptation to drink from it is overwhelming, especially when there are no chemicals in the water dumped in by scumbag corporations. But there is the risk of catching nasty waterborne diseases, like cholera and dysentery.
"Oh, hell," he said, crouching down over the creek, "this is supposed to be Kenkou's ideal world, so the water shouldn't be filled with all sorts of nasty shit."
As he tried to scoop up some water, he noticed movement in the creek. Before he could react, something jumped out of the water and landed next to him. As it came to a stop, Astramille sees that it is a tiny humanoid frog about the size of a can of soft drink. In a flash, his hand slammed on onto the frog, clamped onto it and lifted it up.
"Hmm," he scrutinised it, "isn't this a mucous toad? It is so tiny, so I assumed it recently changed from a tadpole form, if one existed."
Astramille poked her in the throat. The mucous toad opened her mouth and inhaled. Astramille tilted his head in curiosity.
"REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" the tiny creature lets out a long, shrill, high pitched screech that threatened to rupture Astramille's eardrums. The decibel count had to be at least an order of a magnitude louder than any frog he has heard back on Earth.
"Jesus Christ!" he tosses the mucous toad away before wiping his hand on his jacket, "Damn, I can't believe it, I ran into a real life Pepe. Looks like normies aren't welcome here."
The poor creature was sent flying across the creek, bounced on the ground several times before disappearing into the grass. Suddenly, a large shrub catches Astramille's attention.
"There they are," Astramille said, "the Solar Glory."
Sure enough, there stood a shoulder height patch of undergrowth that contained the flowers.
"Hell yeah," Astramille quickly takes out a jar, "isn't this easy?"
Ten minutes later, he had picked every flower from the bush. Yet he only filled a fifth of one jar. Extrapolated, it means he needs to find nine more bushes of the same size to fill the jars. And it seems there are no more in sight, meaning he has a ton of trekking around to do. By now, the light is beginning to dim.
"Well then," Astramille puts the jar into his bag, "I guess this is all I can do for today."
Indeed, Astramille is getting really tired. It was about 9pm in his world when he was sucked into this one. Sure, he had a sleep in the orphanage, but a few hours isn't adequate for the amount he lost over the past days and the amount of walking he just did. Looking around, Astramille noticed that there is a large rock formation about 100 metres away and thirty metres above his position. He could sleep under that for the night. Astramille climbs up the side of the mountain. As he arrived, he noticed that it hung over a cave. The cave appeared to be fairly large, big enough to drive a tank into.
"Hmm," he smiled, "this is a nice cave. I guess I will stay here for the night."
He entered the cave and ventured deeper. While the cave is currently dry, Astramille could tell that water once flowed through the cave. Stalagmites and stalactites indicated that that the water also had mineral contents.
Astramille gets behind a large rock formation and puts his bag down. The then takes off his jacket, rolls it up and puts it on the ground. Astramille lies down and rests his head on the jacket. Fatigue set in and he fell asleep very quickly.
Meanwhile, back in Lescatie, Sasha Fullmoon is worried sick. Astramille stated that he was going to the notice board to find a job and Elt took him there. Elt returned alone and said that Astramille took the job of assisting an apothecary to gather herbs.
"What?" Sasha's eyes went wide, "You don't mean he is going to leave Lescatie?"
"Umm," Elt looked confused "I don't know, the paper only showed the basic job description and the address."
"Why do you even care?" asked Primera who looked like she was getting prepared to leave, "He's just soulless man who has a very annoying attitude. I only just met him and I already don't like him."
"Excuse me?" Sasha exclaimed, "Astramille was entrusted to me by the King and the High Priests. Yes, it is his duty to be my servant but I am responsible for his wellbeing. If anything goes wrong…"
"Come on, Sasha" Primera said, "he is not a child. He can look after himself. He's probably just picking herbs from a garden."
"I hope so," Sasha said, shaking her head, "I certainly would not want him to be wandering outside of Lescatie, not with all those horny – I mean hungry monsters out there."
"Don't worry," Primera said as she left with her bow, "I wager he'll be back before dinner time."
Well, the sun has gone down and the first glimmers of starlight have begun to show themselves, yet there is no sign of Astramille. The street lamps turn on, almost spontaneously. The lamps are connected to the centre of Lescatie by a grid of metallic wire. It conducts magic that ignites the oil. It is an ingenious idea, thought up by none other but Mimil. Every night, she is to turn up at the Magitec and cast a spell into the grid. However, the lights have to be manually put out every morning by the residents.
Sasha walks out onto the street. Only a few people remained and even they were hurrying as they attempted to go home quickly. Sasha sighed and leaned back on the fence of her orphanage.
Oh, Chief God, she prayed, please let Astramille return home quickly. The King and the High Priests entrusted him to me. Or, if you cannot, at least tell me where he is so I can find him.
Needless to say, not even a whisper could be heard from the Chief God. Sasha sighed. Once upon a time, she was a warrior nun who battled the monsters countless times and overwhelmed her enemies with her tremendous magic. Yet one day, she came to the realisation that she took away the smiles (and lives) of the monsters and their husbands. So Sasha wondered whether monsters are evil. Sasha did what she thought was the right thing but God did not answer her. Eventually, the Chief God stopped talking to her like a sulking child.
Sasha sighed again and said, "Why do I even bother? Even if the Chief God wanted to find Astramille, his lack of a soul makes him invisible to spiritual sensors and it is not like God is watching over every inch of land."
Suddenly, she remembered something. The hustle around Astramille made her forget about her orphanage in the woods. Today is that day of the week when she has to pay her other orphans a visit.
"Damn," Sasha cursed, "I forgot to buy the sweets. Well, I suppose I will have to go empty-handed. Surely they will understand that I had special circumstances."
Sasha looks up to the sky. In half an hour, she will depart for the woods.
Night fell upon the Asacreta mountains. With the sun gone, a myriad of stars are visible in the night sky, appearing as sprinkles of light set against an ocean of various shades of blue. But something else can be seen against the backdrop of a starry sky. It is a dark humanoid figure with large bat like wings and a long tail. It flapped its wings as it flew through the sky.
She is a young dragon, looking like a six-year-old girl with a pair of wings and a tail strapped on. Her arms and legs ended in massive claws. Grey colored scales covered her claws and legs while leaving her main body revealed. Various horns protruded from her head, which was covered in golden hair that reached down to her back. A pair of silver eyes peeked out from under the bangs. The aforementioned claws held a bunch of gold coins, two pearl necklaces, a potion in a glass vial and a golden amulet with a large emerald set inside it. Her mouth also contained coins and a diamond ring, held in place by her sharp teeth. She wore a long white dress that is tattered and torn.
This young girl is a dragon, one of the most powerful monsters in the MGE universe. When she grows up, she will be a fearsome monster, wielding claws that can tear through steel and a fiery breath that can incinerate anything. While this child lacks the characteristics that make her a dangerous monster, she already has the love of all things shiny and expensive. She had just raided a convoy that passed through the woods. Although she was driven away by soldiers, she managed to take quite a bit of the frightened merchant's belongings. Now she is seeking the cave she discovered recently to stash her newly found treasure.
Seeing the entrance to her cave, she descends from the sky and touches down to the ground. The young dragon then walks into the cave. Although it is pretty dark, she can see with relative ease. Her footsteps echoed through the cave as she walked through it. Halfway through it, she suddenly stops. Before her lay the prone form of a man. His head rested on a rolled up item of clothing. Next to him, a large travel bag sat.
The dragon tilted her head. The scent of blood could be smelt from him, along with the smell of werewolves. The man also had no spiritual energy.
She groaned through her teeth, the coins and the ring. This man must have gotten into a fight with the werewolves, got injured and ran here before he died. She will have to dispose of the man's body before it fouled up her treasure cave. The young dragon walked deeper into a cave before turning right at a fork in the cave. She keeps walking until she stops in front of a pile of treasure. It was an impressive bounty, comprised of gold and silver coins, jewellery, swords and even a crown. The crown was snatched off the head of a Lescatie Princess who went riding with her servants and guards. She raged and casted spells after the fleeing dragon. The dragon barely escaped that time. Yet the crown, made of gold and adorned with all sorts of shiny gemstones, was irresistible to a dragon. It was definitely worth the effort.
The dragon spits out the coins and ring in her mouth and dumps the treasures she held in her claws onto the pile. By now, the pile is big enough to fill a Lescatie war chariot. She examines her cash stash, grinning proudly.
The dragon now turned her thoughts to the dead man who polluted her cave. Although she does not have the arrogant attitude of an adult dragon, she already sees humans in general in a negative light. The fact that order soldiers claimed the lives of her parents made her hateful of them. Yet that nun who saved her and put her with many other monsters is so kind. It confused her to no end.
Humans are such strange creatures. Her father loved her mother and herself very much and treated them both with affection and care. Miss Sasha gave ample care to all the monsters of the orphanage in the woods. The kindness those two showed are very different from the savageness of soldiers who bore the cross002E
The young dragon walked back towards the exit of the cave. She stopped in front of the man and crouched down. That was when she heard breathing. The dragon backed away in alarm. The voice of her mother sounded in her ears.
Darling, one day, you will find a man of your own. He will fill you with love and spiritual energy.
What is spiritual energy?
It is the energy that is present in human bodily fluids, particularly semen. All human have it and all monsters desire it.
Well, this human certainly did not have it. Then, what sort of creature is this? The young dragon circled around to look at the man better. He certainly looked human, but the lack of spiritual energy was disturbing. In fact, looking at him was messing with her head.
"Ah, damn it," she muttered, "What should I do with this man?"