CHAPTER 14

After the debacle of earlier, despite the obvious teasing in the Doctor's voice, they were talking seriously about what caused the issue, she was exactly what you would expect from a Doctor, though the warmth from talking with her was what eased him despite the overall feeling he could feel in the air, there was some sort sickness in the air, he felt sick upon feeling it.

He tried asking about records about the incidents and when they usually take place, and most he got was where general locations of those who were bitten by the dogs, it was usually guards who were at night shifts and switching up with the day shifts, at first glance on what she'd said it could be that the warlock in question was targeting this city as considering most of the victims present in that tent was guards at most

But if it was warlock's goal then why? From the doctor's explanations and the rumors, he'd heard when he ate lunch at a nearby chair, there wasn't any real threat of the dog monsters of an attempt to attack this village and there would have been reports of horde gathering and considering there are definitely mages here, it would be noticed quite quickly in fact, so he wondered where is he,

And from based on his maps and locations, that would mean searching a needle in a haystack, except the needle knows you're looking for it and the haystack is magical in itself and probably changes its shape. Which is quite difficult in the first place, which brings up to an important point, now knowing the fact that the disease wasn't something caused by a residual case of past magic-influenced negative zones.

Which areas are filled with enough energy that it creates monsters from that type of energy, which would have been easily solved, and could have been considered an open and shut case, but this wasn't the case as considering there was culprit which said culprit had unknown motives which complicates it more in this case, then it trying to reverse the process by thinking as the culprit or as a war-lock

He thought about it, if he was the culprit. From the way he has been dealing with things, it has already been noted that he would use the bites of the dog monster to make people sick, which confused him. As to why he would do that, if it was to get someone to pay attention towards the medical service in the city in some sort of twisted way,

Then attacking citizens which was sick to think about but that could be used to force the government to pay attention to it, which wouldn't fit considering that despite the relatively smallness of the islands and the relatively small advanced equipment for that, or rather if it was during those bad days where ships couldn't travel and someone close to him/her died because of it and is lashing right now.

Even if that were true, the dog monsters' disease should have been much stronger if it was out of revenge, magic is indeed quite complex but spells and rituals don't work if you don't have a strong will and belief that you are capable of what you are doing, then if it was in the case of revenge or some sort of strong emotion, then the dog monsters would have been much stronger, and the people would have been overwhelmed with dealing with it…

But it's not the case here, he scratches his head as his eyebrows crunched in concentration, as he looks over the maps, he has brough with him, this culprit's movement has been erratic quite random as of late, the culprit has been attacking people indeed so but to what goal, not even his maps displayed in paper and the maps he bought from the local store, view a goal to it.

It was erratic, non-sensical and pointless even. He hissed at it as he overlooked at the data once again but had to squint as a shadow passed by the maps and he looked back to see a human with a strange aura she had, she was quite average you could say, from looks but in this strange village he was in, he mustn't hastily judge people here so fast,

And just as he tries to compare, he noticed mystical energy present in a civilian quite large probably a mage instead, a rather unique person considering the way she walks was someone of a civilian. indeed, she was just all in instances a civilian but that wasn't what he had seen just by aura alone and so, he carefully looked at the figure at the back of him, so he greeted first

"Good morning! Or actually rather good afternoon, living in an underground village sure does messes up your internal clock, huh?" he probed the girl standing before her, she smiled at him and says, "Indeed, but there are cases of claustrophobia and those that tend to visit here aren't exactly permanent resident here either, or rather it's more of a tourist spot and more of a somewhere to shop for a while"

Mapulon looked contemplative at that, and merely gesture for her to continue. She then says, "In any case, this place isn't exactly for those who wishes to live her permanently, but if you do want to wish to live here. There are methods of mediation that you could use, if you want to stay here. It's quite popular against issues of living underground, especially for a human such as yourself"

She looks at him curiously as despite her continuing the conversation between them and says, "Your clothes are for those who are in for the long travel, right?". He nods at that and she continues and says, "Recently, there hasn't been any new people who travel here specifically in her either for residency and to travel her for the tourist spot here…"

"Rather, you're here to investigate something here. Am I right?", she says as if she solved a great mystery and that beaming smile of hers was certain as if expecting he would deny that and so he says, "Yes, indeed"

As he casually ignored the slightly smiling guilty face and continues, "There has been reports of a disease found above, and I was hoping I could get answers by finding locations where the disease has been found"

"Really? If that were true, then you wouldn't be here at here at the first place… most places here are abandoned at the surface and merely packs of dog monsters are usually found here…" She looked at him suspicion and curiosity evident, he had the to look away from that though

"Why are you insistent about that subject? You don't exactly have anything to stake in this subject and I'm not exactly hiding what I'm doing here either" he looked at her much closer to her but he could only see the someone who was curious, and to which is frankly better than things that his mentor told him, as trained as he was by his mentor. he'd frankly want to make sure that fighting isn't a solution rather he'd talk instead.

"Well, frankly you're an outsider and something new. And that's breathe of fresh air here, were travel can be quite difficult here without escorts when travelling to the surface or vice versa" she looks at Mapulon with the same curiosity he has and he felt like that she wouldn't budge just the way how her mentor would do so in matters of magic about safety and all. Frankly, it might be better to indulge her curiosity.

"Hmm… I see but if that's the case then there isn't anything special, I could say about my journey though, Investigating the cause is a serious matter. But if I weren't going to say anything you will more likely attempt to join in my journey anyway, right?" he looks at her with slight exasperation, someone used to deal with the antics of his master.

She in turned smiled

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He sighs as he finishes one of the many adventures, his mentor used to tell him and frankly at least it pays the price of her going with him without permission. That would have been another problem in itself, with the unknown culprit with unknown goal, though with the recent non-progress of his search there isn't much he could do in that way.

So, instead he'll go up back to the surface and report back towards his master and check upon on her side of the search, and also especially the fact that he still needs to finish his outputs in school after all. Not even a magical plague could help him in graduate and at least get a paying job, speaking of jobs. He looks at the side to see a person waving some sort of paper of sorts hiring mages for hire.

Though considering where this place was and some of the few stories he exchanged with that girl earlier, and from the looks of the job offers in the pamphlet he was given. From missions of search & rescue, reconnaissance and escort jobs dominate the scene, mostly to the reconnaissance and escort jobs considering that when a person gets lost, trying to find someone here where it is believed the tunnels are filled monsters of all kinds,

And along with the nasty booby traps set-up by earlier people who were killing of the monsters that roam here. When he looks closer, he notices that despite the amount of escort jobs, there has been increasing amount of trend in the search & destroy quests considering the current dog monsters that has rose for the moment. It must have been quite an issue but from the looks of things it isn't a priority quest at the moment.

He looks at the quest to find if there is any quest that he could do at the moment, and finds an escort job labelled as low priority and he quickly reviewed the content to find that it was a mage wanting to investigate trails of a stolen equipment and caught the scent of at least of the thief and wanted help for it. He looks at to find that there was just minor risk of running into monsters but that's expected here is what the people here think and possible chances of combat, he rolled his eyes at that. Considering that going here he's already seen combat, escorting some mage around wouldn't be that difficult

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He arrives near the location of where the mage he was supposed to escort was, the place he arrived at part of a town he was unfamiliar with, he looks around to see people minding their own business from people selling products or rather other were seen bartering and others were seen chatting or playing games. It was lively place despite the darkness of the caves, and only just seeing artificial light from above,

He slowly makes his way to a vendor nearby to ask if there is any nearby pub he could go to, and see if he could do something on the way. He nearly trips as someone suddenly bumps beside him, "Sorry! About that" was what he manages to say as he hurries towards the vendor in front of him, as he walks towards the vendor. He saw that he was staring at him intently which was confusing as he didn't do anything worthwhile to garner such attention

He waves his hands in front of him, which forced the shopkeeper to blink several times before coughing a bit and says, "Sorry about that, I thought you were someone, I know" and he looks at him in an emotion that Mapulon that could infer into as nostalgic and he continues, "Hey, you look quite new here, say would you mind a tour for that small mishap?"

Mapulon looks confused by that and didn't know what to say about that and so merely says, "Thanks for the offer but I have somewhere to go and it's a pub that someone told me to meet me up there, would you mind telling me directions?"

The shopkeeper looked at him curiously and says, "Sure, it's nearly lunchtime might was well grab food at the moment"

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They arrive at a small pub, there seems to be fewer people that he anticipated considering its lunchtime and that there isn't much in the way of food stalls here in the area, and from the looks of things. Despite the few people who went here, the service seems pretty good and the food smells great from a distance, which confused him as to why,

Though the minute he enters it was evident is why, as he entered, he could feel various auras from the place and most of them aren't completely human too. He could spot a few customers had horns and tails, it must have been that the stigma between youkai, and the witched that usually dwindle here.

As he enters, he saw few others look at him with caution and wariness, whether I'd be because of something they saw or the equipment he carried from his hands or from the looks of someone who was wary of an armed person, especially with the glyphs that were surrounding his clothes faintly seen or the paper that was obviously of magical of its kind.

Though someone didn't get the memo as soon as Mapulon headed towards the ordering station was halted what seems to be salesmen decked in formal clothes, they stepped in front of him and one of them says, "Good Afternoon Sir! We've got an offer for a hotel if you've come here to visit for a while" he gestures towards a picture of a lake "This lake is called the Misty Lake known for its beautiful fog when during nighttime, it changes sporadically into different neon colors"

As he continues to ramble on, he felt like haziness took effect on his body, not knowing for what it was for. He forced mana to circulate inside his body to destroy whatever spell that has taken place, he looks at the other members of the sales pitch to notice a shocked expression but replaced into an eager smile as it was before, so he took it into an account for what it was and simply ignored it. Mapulon notices the effect of some sort of mood changing spell but he looks to his surroundings while making sure that he looked like he wasn't watching his surroundings.

There was a faint trace but he couldn't locate but that didn't matter as the salesman handed him a pamphlet of a hotel with pricing, he couldn't care less for that and he was still on the lookout for the client he was about to escort, he didn't hear them leaving until someone tapped him in the shoulder to see someone looked annoyed and that person says, "Are you going to order or not? You have been standing there for a quite bit"

"My apologies, I was merely curious about that offer earlier that person gave me," Mapulon replies as he looks at the menu given by him, the waiter seems annoyed by earlier and merely waited for them to finish talking. Though might as well eat here, he hasn't eaten a proper meal for at least three days.

He looks at the food to notice that from most of the dishes are mostly meat and an assortment of vegetable dishes that he is pretty sure doesn't exist, his confusion seemed to be evident as the waiter that passed on the menu then says, "There are certain type of plants that has been sprouted long before the first person to ever live here, it has long since adapted to living in conditions like that one there over" the waiter points towards a plant-based meal

He looks confused by that considering the plant in the meal seems to look like the sort that needs a lot of sunlight and the only thing that resembled some sort of sunlight was the artificial lights. He looks at her to find her anticipating some sort of answer, there isn't much of way to make a plant grow underground even with little to none sunlight unless it used another source for food

"Unless, it uses another source of food. Something that couldn't produce in ordinary means" she rose an eyebrow but let him continue "It's something that can't be currently made physically right now but if magic comes into play, it might be possible"

"I didn't know that you believed in magic, or the sort to dabble in witchcraft" she looks at him with renewed caution but was easily replaced back to the polit smile she gave,

"Well, there are certainly things that I've seen before and it's my philosophy that it's best to know about it first than assume what it was for". She looks at you with renewed interest and mutters something small and threw a red gem, Mapulon looked confused and his eyes widened to notice that the gem split apart to many pieces forming a broken circle yet perfect sphere,

She smiles at that and merely murmured something and suddenly the circle glows once, until an aura of blue appears and envelops the whole circle until it swallows Mapulon, trapping them both inside the circle. He notices that the voice from the other table seems to muffled, 'Some sort of privacy spell then, must have been handy for taking privately in places like these' Mapulon noted

"So, sir what you want to order from the menu?" as soon as she asked the pages glowed and separated from the book to form some sort of a menu of something futuristic, he smiles at that and looks at the menu to find a small chicken salad that wouldn't hurt his cash but seemed filling for a meal, 'though, that was unnecessary waste of magic. It was splendid application, though Marisa's lightshows were better than this.

Mapulon says, "Chicken salad… In any case, are you the one requesting for an escort?"

she sighs and says, "Took you long enough for to understand". she says in a manner as if insinuating that he was a waste of time and teasing as well?' neither he knew why she was testing him whether he passed or not. He couldn't tell with the polite smile she gave him, with that being said, he was quite hungry at the moment and he'll let his future-self deal with it.

And the vegetable with the side of meat dish, 'Yes, indeed the meat is the side-dish. Weird huh…" wouldn't be waiting for him to eat it, and by the looks of things it would certainly would be a good dish

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With his stomach full and with his emergency stash slashed into half of what it was originally at, it was quite an expensive dish he could say but at least it was fulfilling to eat. He slowly stretches and so he walks up towards the entrance, to find the woman with her clothes changed from her work attire to someone who looked like the one of librarian which confused him.

"It's just that one time I was job hunting, and that one job didn't have that much requirements" she says so as if hearing his mind, could she really read his mind?

"Your expression makes it too easy to read sometimes…" she says so as she looked closer to him with an eerie expression similar to that of his Mentor when he was plotting about making him an assistant during one of Marisa's experiments that she was fond of when she wasn't training him to become a mage.

As she says so, she points to direction and so he looks at to find three bags of what seems to be research equipment, but he didn't saw anyone to carry and only saw a ritual circle beneath it which confused him as to what needs to be escorted considering from the details posted in the pamphlet on the bulletin board. It was about escorting some researcher in efforts towards what seems to be remains of a den of dog monsters that was wiped earlier at least nine hours reported by the he arrived here to help in the effort of trying to develop a vaccine against the disease

A simple escort through the den, let the researcher collect the samples in that den and escort her back towards the lab, he looks at the strange ritual that was set-up. There was equipment already placed and so he asked, "So, aren't we going to get the samples for your research?" he asked the person

"We're already at the place"

"What do you mean by that? There is only equipment for the research here… Unless you placed an illusion to hide it here" he stated, the woman snorted and muttered a spell that revealed glowing patches of gems formed into a circle as the bones that what seems to be stuck in the ground and others seems to levitating even,

"Technically what I've written is what you're going to be helping at, you have magic right? Would you mind assisting me here? You're going to be learning how bones can be used into turn into vaccines" she stated as if commanded despite it being a request

He does so as what was requested and helped along putting the reagents to their places and preparing for the transportation in general and at least so he could get in position to protect him even though the rest of the dog monsters has already been eliminated along with the whatever den that used to be here,

"The ritual quite delicate, would you mind pouring some of your mana in the other gems in a steady manner. This should help solidify the bone here and repair the bones so that we could use to identify it, and let me do my magic stuff and prepare a vaccine for it!" as soon as she finishes talking, she sits on the floor where a prepared cloth was underneath her and starts chanting as the bones that once were illuminated before began to look livelier you could say and more color unto it.

Sweat began to pour out his hands, as the mana he was steadily outputting towards the gems glow as it seems to detect the source as the bones that was glowing seems wobble around as fragments of bones that came from somewhere appears to attach itself towards the bone one by one as he saw individual mana ropes thread themselves as to tie bone fragment to bone fragment

It was tiring work, and then suddenly he felt cold sensation appear in his hands, it appears something/someone has entered the area that he has a placed the ward in. So, he slowly stopped the flow mana in the gems which noticeably had an effect as the broken shards knitting to each other slowed significantly. Even the researcher seems to notice as she looks at him with an eyebrow rose

"There's someone nearby, I want to check who it might be" he whispers to her and gestures towards the outside of the tunnel, where he could see marks of paper and stone placed to form a circle creating the ward around this place, it makes people look around and monsters not wanting to wander here

"What! Didn't you say that there would be no one disturbing us as we work here? Aren't the wards you placed as a precaution would help against it?!" she whispered hurriedly as a trace of annoyance seems to emanate from her

"Don't worry, even if someone somehow manages to see through the wards, there would have been a lot more noise if that person was persistent in coming inside here" she looks at him worriedly as if willing him to get to the point

"The only thing person that would enter in this region would be someone trying to exit the village here and attempted to shortcut here, a random monster that sensed the magic and traced it here searching for it. It's not something that I haven't dealt with before"

She didn't look relieved at that but continued back to her work, though he did hear her mutter something about "Interrupted work and "Going back to my spell research", "having to dress as some sort of waitress". Apparently, she doesn't want to be here and seems to be focused intently on the spell itself and quite intrigued in his spell matrix of when he went to interlock one of hiding the presence of what's happening here.

He took notice of it but she didn't comment or did small talk which surprisingly pleasant from her, which she seemed to appreciate with the way she seemed to untense her shoulders when they talked during the set-up for the ritual earlier, and which to went towards working instead of small talk,

She was pretty interesting character, though honestly, he felt like he forgotten something important and he says, "Sorry about bothering what you are currently doing but what's your name?"

She seemed to froze a moment and says, "Caitlyn Kate Disomimba Veluz" she says so with nothing else and continues back on her work. It seems that neither he did want to talk to her either, so it was some sort of agreement and so they went back to work and he went towards what was causing ruckus in the ward he placed.

He walked towards the entrance of the cave tunnel on where they set-up the makeshift laboratory that they were positioned at, he positions himself in a way so that if it was hostile, he could throw shields in place as caves aren't meant for this type of combat and his usual way of using fire magic might be dangerous to himself instead, the possibility of killing themselves because of accidentally burning up pent-up methane gas in the area is a bit high especially in this area.

So instead, he uses illusions instead, and so the first illusion went out as disguised as himself with some sort of staff with a glow emanating from it, and went it first went out to look for who discovered the makeshift lab, his hairs stood out as his paranoia proved true as illusion was ripped to threads by unknown enemy. The illusion destroys and he adds in blood pooling out to complete the illusion,

Whether the person attacked knew that it was an illusion or whether he was found out neither he could tell as it seems the attacker didn't reveal himself/herself to check if the body was either dead or not. And so, he waited there to see what the enemy was whether I'd be a beast, monster or a mage. So, he weaved himself a spell that makes him what seems to be invisible but rather instead makes is that people will more likely not view that certain spot

He walks outside and prepares one of his talismans, and crept forward. The small droppings of the water vibrate around him, the lack of sound and the beating of his heart could be heard so loud yet he didn't hear anything. No footsteps or even a trace of where the attacker was only one direction, possibility of illusion used more likely,

And without warning three silver spikes shot in his general direction, dodging to the right as one nearly his neck, a bruise forms in shoulder as the protection he placed on it did it's work but the sheer strength of it placed a small dent in the stone floor cracking bits of it. A small shield appears right in time before three spikes shots towards him, his will pours on the shield making it shimmer.

The first one hit the shield directly, breaking its momentum and the spike itself, Mapulon felt the shock revibrate from the hit, despite its power it wasn't mean to kill rather to incapacitate instead, and as he continues pouring his will on his shield, his other hand prepped with two talismans which he could choose which to use.

'There are different ways on how a person views about magic and superstition, so if he believed that he can make a flashbang with a simple light application and it would happen, after all to make magic work in the first place, you have to believe it was your right in the first place' Mapulon thought so as he remembers the lessons his mentor or rather Marisa told him,

And then as his talisman started glowing, it seems that the enemy seemed to notice his intent on what he was doing as the probing barrages increased in intensity, As Mapulon leapt to the side as barrages of crude stone appears right beside displacing stone and dust around him, as the shield in front of him barely protected him from the direct hits and the debris from it,

It seems that the enemy didn't want to let him retaliate either, as he could barely move out his hand to throw without it getting hit by the barrage. And so, he concocted a very stupid plan, as another barrage struck again in his direction as he predicted, debris flew around him from it. And throwing a series of talismans in the floor, he willed the illusion to come in life as it looks somewhat lifelike in the silhouette casted by his shadow.

And so, with a sprint, he prepares a flash and flooded it with his will into it, making it unstable as soon as he did so, forming a small fiery red talisman and throwing it the ground, he looked towards the direction the attacker was and proceeded to sprint towards there, as he ducks down to see that a barrage pierces through the illusion making the person widen his eyes.

But that was a mistake as the flash went of nearly blinding them both as Mapulon closed his eyes as his charges towards the attacker, as he tackles him, he places the talisman right into what seems to be the nape of the person. "Freeze, and do not move your hands or this talisman will knock you out!" he said as the ringing of the flash barely making him hear his own voice

"I was checking–," the figure murmurs but he started coughing. Mapulon notices the figure's condition and suddenly felt his hands shake, 'And just like that?' and 'Is there anything else' was Mapulon's thoughts as his head rushes to find but there was one thing he asked, "Are you okay?". The figure looks at him as if he was dim-witted child, and so he replies, "You think?" he answered dryly

"Well, it appears that I didn't hit you hard enough for that, my client isn't much of a talker and I've been looking to do something stuck in this gloomy cave here with only water and watching my client do her work over there" he stated

For some reason, the person in front of him whimpered

"I'm just going to be asking question, okay? You'll just answer a few questions and you'll be good to go wherever you came from" he stated and smiles as a lead finally appeared before him, after days of searching villages that were actually abandoned or it appears that they don't allow entry, something useful appeared like water bottle in front of thirsty man

The figure whimpered even further, as if in responding towards the figure Mapulon smiled further and walked closer

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Author notes: Hmm… well creating OC content is really harder than I thought it would be, though I would appreciate reviews as I am an amateur at best and your feedback is helpful!