Mapulon walks along the road, ever since the last contact with Marisa, there hasn't been much activity other than the work of schoolwork and what he was doing today, it has been two weeks since that meeting with his mother. And then suddenly this sudden disease and his father catching similar symptoms of the disease, a swirl of emotion appeared at the memory.
But he forced those emotion inside, he could deal with them when all is done, worry seeped into his heart but he didn't allow it to show his face. He meditated for a bit as that worry grew but it didn't last that long as he nearly walked himself into sign, he kicked the ground spreading dirt around as his head nearly hit it. Despite the contagiousness and the symptoms associated with the disease, the rate of death wasn't really high considering how fevers can get worse fast,
He sighs and looks to the surrounding area he walked through, despite the name of it as capital city which is really original name, it was decrepit and the sign itself was rusting, not what he was expected considering this is the capital area but then again, the capital was really large itself, He wouldn't expected that things would happen like that, but considering the abandoned buildings he saw during that zombie incident. He knew there were but not to this extent though
Walking around the broken street, and avoiding the potholes, Mapulon knew that obviously no one would be here considering that is abandoned after all. He told that to Marisa said that there might be clues you could find in the cities, He walked until he found a building with broken glass, inspecting outside of the house, there wasn't really much and there was no one currently living here,
Instead, he went back where he left, there was a small hill though looking closer at it, it looked more of an elevated dirt with bits of bricks and paper stuck on it, he stood on it and allowed himself an elevated view and just like that he saw most parts of the city, it's obviously a ghost city considering the state of it, though he was curious why it become the way it was,
It's not that really hard to grasp but despite the mages around here, there are the occasional monsters that roam here when civilization was once here, and even if there were people here, they would have long fled or have been eaten by the wandering monsters that aren't killed by the local ones.
Instead, he tries to sense if there was anything of magical in nature, he spots dark magic all over the place though that's expected considering how decrepit it is and spots places where areas of depression were located, he sees faint traces of magic in the edges of the border of the decrepit city, he walks towards the area. He spots scratches were those monsters would lurk in.
He notices a pack in prowl far, by he moves in the other direction to avoid confrontation and preserving his mana. He walks towards the edge of the town to spot the earlier faint mana traces, arriving there he spotted broken pieces of metal and shards of some sort of mineral. He finds more in the same area,
It appears that is has been a ward that is protecting the area, though his mind boggles at the possibility of how such a ward that class could easily be broken into pieces, even if the monsters were to attack upon it. It would be too hard for them to do that and the local mages would have found about it and long ago have killed the creatures before even starting to destroy the wards,
Before he started collection one of the pieces he noticed the shuffling of grass as he removes three talismans on his bag and shifted himself unto a stance where he can easily take out the talismans he carried during these types of incursions, he looked everywhere inspecting the area around him and found a hill where he could use a sort of defensible position,
But unfortunately, whatever manner was hunting him was apparently intelligent enough that they started picking up pace wherever they are. He ran towards the hills and heard the growling of the dog monsters whatever they were called, and he ran until he was intercepted with two of those,
One tried flanking from the left and to the right, but unfortunately that would have pinned him down had he used a Foci to kill one and focus on the other but Mapulon wasn't having it, he poured energy towards the talismans which grew bright on his hand, threw on to the left and two to the right, hitting the first stunning it and killing the second as the talismans in order stunned and burned out its head,
He sprinted ahead without looking back as the monster was rolling around trying to remove the fire on its head, he grabbed two more in the bag to replace the talisman he used and went on the broken road towards the hills, he heard the barks of at least seven dog monsters on the left and five on the right. He stopped and threw three talismans on an angle making it rotate,
He threw one small minor gemstone he got before coming here in the middle, forming a minor air shield in front of him, he focused on two talismans which he poured more mana necessary for that and embers grew in those and threw them in the direction of where the monsters where passing by the air shield, moments later explosion blew scattering dirt and stone everywhere,
Stone hit the air shield making it ripple but not denting it, he heard the death cries of the dog monsters that were attacking him but felt the barking there, apparently it didn't kill the monsters that were after them, he waited there as his heart pumped in adrenaline at the suddenness of the large pack. These types of creature's spawn due to depression or despair,
As far as he knows those spots of depression, it wasn't large enough that they it would cause that type of monsters but even if that were the case, any mage would have known from the scent and the sight upon it, it's not that even hard to even sense unless you don't have fear considering the spots themselves are despair and depression themselves,
Though it would be hard that creatures suddenly forming by the spots of depression themselves which is already possible by the form of legends formed by humans over the age, it didn't require any human to form rumor for it take power, and even with that It wasn't possible for that to occur that fast, from what Marisa his mentor told him that, even if had a powerful impact it would still take time and that someone would have noticed it anyway,
And despite that here he was panting as he hears the barks of dog monster running towards him in the distance, faint traces of silhouettes of creatures catching up to him, he looks back to see just the uphill where blocks rocks and debris was there, it was like that just like the potholes he noticed in the roads he walked earlier,
He waits there in patience trying to think of strategy of killing the dog monsters, he could use the talismans and try to eradicate it by timing his talismans into great fires, but then that leaves on trying to purify those dark spots earlier, which would possible spawn more of those dog monsters considering the amount that was spawned today, and he didn't think he would have enough mana to start purifying those spots if he tried wiping out the dog monsters after him.
And the dog monsters in that amount could easily kill him considering the shield in front of him wasn't the most effective shields and would more likely last three to four attacks by the physical prowess of those types of creatures, and from that he could dodge and adequate training in martial arts, but the amount there? That won't be possible and his magic inadequate,
And that made him fear for the moment, he backed slowly to notice that the ground was a bit brittle in that part and more likely collapse if something were powerful enough to attack it, and with that despite the odds of getting eaten. He smiled coldly and opened his bag to open three talismans, he slapped two talismans in the ground feeling up for where it was weakest and so he found it,
He prepared the talismans and forcing wind affinity to both of the talismans and adding fire element for it to work properly, sweat gathered in his body. And he waited there as he felt the ground shaking as if announcing the beasts, and but that was unnecessary considering they were 500 meters away from him, and he waited and he looked at them and taunted, " Really? Ganging upon a single human, for shame. Though that's hardly needed for beasts like yourselves,"
Obviously they didn't understand what he said but they seemed to knew about is somehow as they started sprinting faster as if buying groceries in a Black Friday, sweat gathered at his hands as trying to maintain the energies in the Talismans themselves was a little bit harder than he expected. They approach as the distance became from 500 meters to 150,
As they did so, he unleashed the spell breaking the dust above his knee and boring a hole to it, bringing the dog monsters down with debris crushing them with the height of the hole he created, he forced himself to steady as the sudden large use of magic brought him down with that sudden usage, and nearly stumbles but forces himself to stand,
The noise of the death cries of the dog monsters seemed to dim as if they seemed to die, he allowed himself to look at the scenery too relax for a bit and check if every one of them died, and he looked down as dust was swirling around including black dust which signifies it died, and looked to see a blur of black which seemed to shine, he looked closer
And felt his hair rose and brought up his hand in instinct to block whatever might come, and gets his hands slashed with large gashes as the claw landed at the road as if trying to get up, and he allowed magic to flow in his legs enhancing it and he walked to the claw and with practiced ease, he kicks at the offending claw,
It doesn't destroy it but a dent appeared and the creature howled and slipped as the force of the kick made it unbalanced and fell to its death, though for that simple maneuver, it exhausted him considering the amplified kick, despite the feats he displayed today, the only reason he was able to do this kind of magic without getting exhausted that fast considering his low pool of mana,
Was because of the way he used his own runes and in his talismans with how those were made, it was pretty simple and just add mana to it and which activated some sort of mechanism on the runes he added so that it would allow smaller mana uses but similar effectiveness despite the small amount of mana he imbued upon it,
And despite that he still consumed enough mana considering the fact that he tried to manipulate the runes on the fly to change it on the spot, Marisa said that she was specialist on her type of magic but she still had enough knowledge to at least help him with the strange way he used his magic and when he asked Marisa he only received a goofy smile,
Though was stranger being the fact that she somehow convinced one of her friends to help his father while Mapulon and Marisa go out for some sort of camping trip for his output, or rather how she convinces some friend of hers to help them in this pseudo camping trip, considering how grump her friend seemed to be, it was a bit terrifying how she simply convinced that type of friend for this sort of favor,
But apparently right now, a loud yawn escapes his mouth escapes his mouth and his body ached, he looked at the sun and to realize that it was getting late and that it was turning midnight, he propped up a tent above the tall building and added precautionary wards around his surroundings and went inside and found it to be larger in the inside, it was apparently one of Marisa's friends.
Apparently she borrowed this camping equipment and got the idea of trying to expand the inside of it, as far as he knows, he hasn't an gotten any heads or tails on how it would have worked but honestly that didn't matter considering he was grateful for it as it allowed himself to carry large equipment without weighing him down that much,
And he prepares himself the bed and the things he brought with him, if he remembers correctly there was old maps and new maps he printed because he didn't want to waste his phone battery and space for those, he opens one of the old maps and a new map in comparison, from the old ones, it contained three small minor villages scattered outside the borders of the Capital,
And one tunnel leading beneath from the one small village and towards the Capital city, and he looks at the map to notice that there were as village that went gone towards the updated ones and the older ones, from by comparison it could be said that there were abandoned villages and mine shafts located in the old ones, and from the looks of it, there was a small one that seemed to interlap with the older tunnel connecting to the city,
From the looks od things there were 6 other small villages both new or abandoned in the area and 4 other mineshafts or tunnels that were scattered around the old and new, and considering that he is trying to investigate the causes of that plague, it might take longer but the symptoms aren't that bad and there are only the severe ones with the high fever but apparently there has been no change, and that there has been treatment available to slow down and improve the patient, it was what he did with his father after all,
But still, Mapulon looked at the empty sheets he prepared, if he wanted to investigate. Then asking the locals for signs and symptoms of the disease and taking a look at those who had the disease, and asking where he got it from and other assorted questions he put in the papers, considering that he is going into the abandoned mine shaft, getting much sleep, water and food would be necessary for where he is going.
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Drip, drip as small droplets of water touch down the damp surface of the rock, and from the moisture and water, the rock seemed to be brittle because of that though when he tapped it with a stick. It was actually sturdy enough to support his weight but that didn't mean anything considering how narrow the pathway was,
Though it was luck he was a bit smaller that most residents that he could slip through, his flashlight shining through in front of him, he could feel water flow in front of him, as light shone through. He could see the path widen a bit and saw another tunnel in front of him, it appears as stream up ahead too. He walks slowly as flashlight and a stick he picked up,
He walked slowly and looks at his surrounding to see broke pieces of a pick-axe and a broken helmet, it must have been abandoned considering the gases present in the air, he didn't know what it was but he had the magical filtering system he made when he searched about was to do inside a mineshaft, apparently there was gases that could be toxic in the air and wearing masks are necessary in this kind of work,
If he looked at the surroundings, he could guess that there might had been gas leak in the past and that they fear that it might have exploded as considering that he wore the mask before entering and remembered that smell of that kind of type of methane found in the tunnel he found himself in, being careful beyond here is definite considering the area he was in,
He walked carefully and noting the place, within his enchanted gas mask, whether if the concentration of the methane gas dispersed or increased he didn't know, he walked to see in front of him streams of water and bunch of weird stones or rather when look close to it, it was more rather stalactites and there were quite huge in fact, he examined them to see foot prints specifically of those dog monsters,
He looked close at the foot prints beside stalactites for a closer look and to see that there were two sets of the paw, he put the flash light down and put the settings low, he didn't want to alert the dog monsters and pouncing him in this tight environment, considering there was so many stalactites everywhere and many places where the dog monsters could be hiding,
And he added small quantities of magic to himself and try to mix it up with the mana in the underground, obviously it wouldn't fool anyone considering it wasn't a proper illusion itself and that despite his wonderful work in ward work, making of enchanted items, there was some sort part of illusions and veils that made it hard for him create veils in general,
The second he added the veil on himself, he could hear growling of the dog monsters quite plenty. His heart pumped in adrenalines and he clenched his chest and forced himself to meditate, fear suddenly erupted his heart as his mind suddenly went on tangent on itself picturing what would happen if his father would have found him suddenly missing, being part of the unknown and dying to somewhere he missing but was actually mauled to death by one of the dens hidden in the abandoned mineshafts,
Despite the fears he suddenly had, he forced himself to steady and analyze where he was currently and removed the unpleasant thoughts on his mind, he forced mana into him and try to relax, it was one of the many things he did when as a form of meditation, from when he used it always felt like warmth like fire went through himself and he usually felt himself balanced after just using it,
He meditated and suddenly he felt like the heavy oppression in the air, he was feeling earlier suddenly vanish and as if the oppression in mind specifically, he immediately reinforced the defenses of his mind, it was during that state of alert that he was lucky enough that he heard the approaching of the dog monster at him, it lunged at him and he barely managed to reinforce his arm, as it stopped momentarily as if an invisible shield was blocking upon it,
He moved just in time to see the reinforcement breaking and skin slashed not going any deeper, he hissed at the pain but most of the damage was superficial, looking at the dog monster silently as his immediate response of using quick and cheap easy way of killing it either the forces of elements were removed out of the picture by its sheer collateral damage would damage the interior and force it to collapse within,
That left him to fight it in melee range and fighting that way isn't actually one of his rather admittedly limited skills and included with rather limited abilities in physical prowess all he currently had was a stick he had and only the ability to augment his prowess and add fire effects to it if he wanted to, he looked at the dog monster that stared at him back with its eyes filled anger,
He slowly pulled himself into a battle stance with the make-shift weapon of the stick he brought as some sort of make-shift staff, he poured mana into it to form a stick that could break steel itself, he waited for it to pounce and so it did, he tried to anticipate one of its movements though he nearly failed to block it because of the power it dealt despite being predictable, it overcome it with sheer tenacity and power,
He tried hitting it back and smashing it in the head, it hurt the monster seeing it whine in hate but it didn't damage it truly more of a superficial damage after all, then he looked at the way it started getting cocky as it seemed it was playing with him as it noticed the damage it was dealing to him, he imagined it laughing at him for the audacity for fighting against the dog monster as it started dealing more confident attacks,
And then suddenly it lunged towards his throat, a perfectly viable solution considering the sweat and the wounds but that didn't meant that the mage wasn't doing anything, as the dog monster adapted at trying to corned the human and trying to let it bleed it to death, so to did the mage was planning a wat kill it, as it opened it's mouth, the mage smirked at it as he put the stick towards the opening jaw of the dog monster as sparks gathered around the stick, it become a small miniature fire ball,
The dog monster tried to close its mouth identifying its mistake in doing a rash movement but the mage took advantage of it and threw a small ball of fire inside of its throat, the dog monster leaped away thinking there was something going to happen but it seemed nothing, and when it did he charged again thinking that it did nothing,
Only to stumble and look at its body was burnt too crisp, it looked back only to find the stick to crushing it in it's head, Mapulon sighs at that and grabbed a potion that replenishes his strength, with the monster gone and to only look back to see that there was four more in front of him growling, he looks at his reserve and find that there were half way empty and to find that his stick was half-way to it's durability, he looked at himself and towards the monsters and sighs and says, " It's going to be one of the days, huh?". To find himself once again the possibility od death, he shivered and nearly fear tried to overtake him yet a smile appeared in front of his face anyway,
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An explosion went through as rocks and dust move upwards, as energy expanded outwards covering the area in debris, he lay there breathing heavily as gulping large amounts of breath, sweat covered his entire body and parts of his shirt were destroyed, making the reinforced sheet of cloth revealed inside of him, there were scratches but mostly bruises or scratches,
Though it would really hurt tomorrow, adrenaline run course in his body, he waited there for a moment and checked his surroundings for any more of the dog monsters, despite the minimal usage of magic and the efficient use of it, he was pretty much drained at the moment and the stick he had was reduced to some sort dagger, he shaped during the fight.
Though looking at the dagger itself it was pretty much useless and he threw it too the side, the outer portion of his bag was slashed by a random slash of the dog monster removing the herbs and the additional paper in emergency, he discarded some of the paper in the floor as they were sliced and merely put the herbs and the paper that weren't damaged back,
He looked at the surroundings that he destroyed quite a lot of stalactites, he looks around to find that despite that remembering the state it was before, there wasn't any kind of tunnel he remembered seeing other than the way he exited, yet despite that it seemed to have uncovered one during the fight, he removes one of the torches he was carrying, he planted it in the center of the place, lighting up the area of the stalactites including the way he went back and the other tunnel, he took a peak using the flashlight to reveal the crystals implanted the area. He walked through it and walked, felt like it seemed longer than it appeared, he couldn't tell how much time it took but a quick look in his phone,
Revealing that it was merely 2 hours has passed since early morning earlier. As he walked along he felt something change in the atmosphere or rather he felt like something touched his skin, it seemed he has entered some sort of ward, he walked along the tunnel, it seemed he entered someone's territory. He stood there as if waiting for some sort of backlash but it didn't appear,
So, he continued walking until he heard the groaning of some sort of creature, he took one of the talismans and herbs he carried, and the other with a talisman he added some sort of flash when if either case of if he had to fight whatever it was, he put the flashlight and tied it to his head, and saw shadows of movement up ahead it froze at the sight of the flashlight,
There were three people there and four other people or rather he nicknamed as "horned people", the horned person seemed to pale at the sight of him instead, and the humans were getting treated seemed surprised by them but only one of them, they descended into talking in front of him of rather, a language he didn't know, from the words he heard it wasn't a western language either, the accent reminded him of those Asian ones, rather Chinese?
So, in the name of civility, he simply went with English as it's quite common and easy to translate and smiled, " Good Morning! What brings you down here? From I'll last remembered this used to be an abandoned mineshaft here". At that mention one of the horned people seemed to looked irritated and rather angry at that and seemed wanted to punch Mapulon at his face,
At that, Mapulon simply allowed the talisman he used for attacking to infuse in preparation for an attack, they looked tense at that and murmured to one of the other, and says to him, " We didn't mean to offend spirit but this was ours from the beginning and we were just defending ourselves from the dog monster and the warlock that tried to take over our homes here".
He pointedly tried to discreetly look to his back thinking the spirit was at the back but realized that they were just pointing at him, true though he may have known that it revealed too by his father and mentor during that ritual they did that he was someone who had closer to affinity to a fire but and some sort of elemental, though he didn't expect to be discovered that quickly,
He forced his irritation beneath him and forced a polit smile and asked for more clarification about the warlock and the situation presently and one of the humans said, " He was a bastard! He summoned those creatures of dark and assaulted this village as if wanting us to kills us but the Oni in the village retaliated, giving him a fatal wound and escaping where you entered "
Mapulon listened and listened towards them and he felt a bit guilty thinking that using one of his flash talismans at them in front of them as they carter to their wounded but that pity lost when one of the Oni who entered looked down right at him, staring him down and says, " Hurt one of them and I'll hunt you down", He carefully nodded at that and went back listening,
So, as he continued talking to them, he heard one of the patients seated nearby cuss and one of the Oni comforting the patient as it replaced one of the bandages and apply to it, the patient looked to have fever and seemed to have fever, it's as the symptoms of one of the diseases in the surface, he noticed the dark miasma just like the same of those who were from the above surface,
He looked at towards the Oni who was treating one of the wounds and says, " Would you mind me allowing treating me one of your patients? I've noticed that it looked similar to one of the diseases that seemed rampant from above". The Oni was about to protest when she looked what he was carrying to see that he had herbs, that she knew was pretty rare,
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There were runes on one of the bandages and from the grim wounds on his body, it seemed that he fought here until he arrived at the place, seemed clueless of the existence of the Oni themselves, as with the somewhat surprised look in his face but had well controlled he was with he reactions as, that surprise face went away, controlling the emotions that appeared,
It appears the spirit before her was quite experienced, and knew of combat considering the calluses and the battered look, but despite that somehow sheltered in those of the matters of creatures like the Oni Themselves, She looked at the Spirit before her and allowed access towards the patients, despite the Teen in front of her, she knew that it was experienced as how fast he knew the what the disease was in nature and how he engraved runes in towards the bandages he carried,
The patient seemed to relax at the applied runes in the bandage, she was quite surprised at how efficient he was at that and stunned, that such a curse in the wound was instantly identified and countered though considering that he killed the many dog monsters outside that inflicted the curse may be the reason of that, she continued stare at the boy - spirit, who was fast at his job,
But she couldn't just allow herself to stare at the Spirit, but the professionalism, forced herself to stop staring and went towards the spirit and said allowing the tinge of awe in her voice, " Thanks for your assistance, from the work you've done. I hate to leave debts unpaid but what do you require in assistance, Spirit, or rather Mapulon?". Apparently the Spirit didn't like called like that and preferred that name, it was Filipino in origin but the meaning behind is appropriate she thought.
Mapulon looked at her and says, "Really? Do you know any other cases in this region, or like in the community in particular?, Has there been any clue of where the warlock is currently at?".
Though despite the cluelessness he displayed he was quick in the uptake and quickly deduced at the group of people, the seriousness he took in the subject and the way he looked at her was quite adorable to look at even though as an estranged spirit Mapulon was, she answered them all as amusement intent on her eyes, It was quite fun talking with the spirit,
They sat down as it appears that they had multitude to talk about apart from the disease, he was quite serious and she couldn't but squish his face as he started talking, he looked downright and glared at him but all it looks was just a squirrel eating nuts with his mouth to full, she smiled at the annoyed look he gave him, despite the disease, the spirit was too serious that she couldn't resist teasing the hell out of him, curing the strange disease is important but she found the reaction to funny and continued to tease him anyway…
Author Notes: Well, before all things said Merry Christmas Everyone! Chapter's a bit longer than what I've write more usually and satisified with it, though kind of hate and like the interaction between the Oni and the protag, kind of like it where it is goind and though it seems like the flow kind of boring but don't worry! things will be starting to pick up pace here on now!