Welcome everyone to another chapter of "For Myself".
Again after a long wait, I am here. The chapter would have come out earlier but I got too frustrated with it. At first, everything was going alright, but when I was rereading it, I really didn't like one part of the chapter. This ended with me rewriting it about four times before I needed to rewrite another part of the chapter as it didn't look good with the one I just fixed. There I got frustrated and just dropped the work for a few weeks. I am sorry, it shouldn't happen again.
Now for a few answers.
GhostDT you mentioned transfiguration and I am glad that you left your opinion as I almost forgot about it. Thanks to you I already have a way for Harry to work on this aspect of magic pretty soon. Again thank you for leaving your review.
The next point is Harry's looting of Stygai. Some of you asked why he didn't try to find anything useful in the castle or why the phantom didn't teach him anything. The reason is quite simple, if there was anything of value for Harry in the castle, the phantom would tell him that. As for why he didn't teach him, this is another simple reason. He just wanted to finally die and join his brethren. Yes, I know that he probably could wait a few more days to teach Harry something, but why would he? He already did his job.
Now about Harry being stupid. You need to remember that even after all these years he is still getting used to it and sometimes he might do something stupid. Of course, that doesn't mean that it won't get better. Like one of the readers said, this is a development of a character who is still getting used to the ways of the new world.
Oh and about not looting the temple of Red priests. I think that it is quite obvious that he wanted to get Maran out not loot this place. His priority was rescuing his friend. And now that I am on the topic of Red priests I want to say why Harry didn't kill them. While Harry might have lived in Asshai for almost 2 years, he never interacted with them too much. He knows that they are no good, but he still doesn't know everything about them. He will discover more about them during his travels. Remember even if they are Red priests it doesn't instantly mean that everyone there is evil and deserves to die. Plus Harry still possesses some of his old morals so there is that.
To Pokemon, Harry might be good with runes but not that good, maybe someday. Harry is not the master of Death, read the first chapter once more to find out. Death has no master. I always found this kind of story silly.
To people who tell me that Harry is OOC, OP or the story is just stupid, I don't care. This is my story and I will write it as I want it to. There are plenty of stories on this site where Harry is - and don't take it personally, it is just my opinion - his weak, boring self. Those times I just can't stand stories like this as most writers don't know how to make them interesting. So don't blame more for making some changes to the main character. This is fanfiction and I can write almost whatever I want here.
Now the last thing that I need your opinion about. I got a few PM's about the pairing and people want me to make this dual pairing with both Arianne and Dany. Now while I am not entirely against it, I don't know how well I will be able to write it. Adding this to the plot shouldn't be a problem, but I want your opinion. That's why I will be posting yet another poll on my profile with three options as we have a lot more readers now. The first will be Dany, second Arianne and the third option will be dual pairing. I want to see what you all think about it, but remember that is the last time I am doing this, soon I will need to set up some events if I want to have any of those two as a pairing.
PS: I am looking for a Beta, I still can't find one and it has been like 3 months. (Yes, I tried to find one myself.)
Alright, that's should be all. Have a good read and sorry for the long AN.
Chapter 9. Land of ten thousand tigers and ten million monkeys
Next Day
After the duo woke up the next morning, they quickly decided to find a ship that would leave towards Yi Ti and Qarth at the earliest notice. Fortunately, they were in luck as one of the trade ships was just leaving in this direction. With a bit of persuasion and a few coins, both Harry and Maran secured themselves a place to sleep below the deck. It was nothing special but it gave them enough privacy for Harry to practice some magic.
Both waited for the ship to leave before they emerged on the deck so they could enjoy the weather.
After a few minutes of silence and watching the disappearing Asshai, Maran finally spoke, "So tell me, wherein Yi Ti will you go first?"
Harry remained silent for a few seconds while he thought about the answer, "Probably the current capital... I don't really know much about the place so I hope that I will be able to learn about it there. The only problem is the language barrier, but I hope that at least some people there speak common."
Maran nodded in agreement, while not the best plan it was a start. However, he found something that might interest the younger wizard instead, "While your plan is not too bad, I would advise you to wait with visiting the capital of Yi Ti and first explore Leng."
Harry looked at the older man and frowned, "Leng? Isn't that the island a little below Yi Ti? Why would I go there, while I admit to not having too much knowledge about the land, I can't find a reason to make a stop there."
Maran chuckled lightly, "Do you really need a reason to go there? From what you have told me, you just want to travel the world and learn more about magic. And even then, trust me you won't be bored there. Leng has as much history as Yi Ti and I can assure you that you will find it the most intriguing."
After an exasperated sigh, Harry said dryly, "You won't tell me why you want me to go there and won't stop until I agree?"
In response, he got a bright smile, and Harry could swear that he saw the old man's eyes twinkle with amusement. It looked so similar to Dumbledore that Harry almost shuddered. It was better not to think about his past Headmaster.
"Alright, I will stop there," he agreed reluctantly, "From what I remember the Capitan said that we will be stopping by Turrani."
Maran nodded, "Right you are, it shouldn't take us longer than one or two weeks to get there."
Harry groaned, of course, someone would jinx it again. He had enough of delay when he traveled from Qarth to Asshai. "Great now you jinxed it, just so you know I am blaming you if I don't get to Leng in 2 weeks."
This time Maran exploded in laughter. He already heard the tale of Harry's journey to Asshai and it was very amusing to the older man. Still, deep inside he hoped that this time the trip will go according to the plan. He wasn't getting any younger and didn't want to spend more than 2 months on the boat.
Harry glared at the man. Of course, Maran wouldn't understand that Harry Potter's luck was following him even in another world. Harry was sure that Death was having a great time.
Five Days Later
"Found anything?" asked Harry as he walked into the lone room he and Maran acquired on the ship.
"Unfortunately, nothing that you don't know already," replied Maran with a shake of his head. The older man spent the last few days inspecting the three items Harry got from Stygai. Like Harry, he didn't get any new readings from the egg or potions and the book made even less sense. Still, there was one thing that got the attention of both occupants of the room.
"So the only thing useful for now are those new runes inscribed on the box with the potions?" said Harry a bit disappointed. Not that he expected Maran to find anything, it was just getting a bit frustrating to not know what to do with those items.
"Aye lad, still whoever created those rune matrixes was brilliant. They are a lot stronger than whatever we could create with ours. Just look at this," with that said the older man took a piece of boiled leather that was inscribed with runes and channeled a bit of magic into it. The runes gave out a glow that disappeared after a second. "Now use the short-sword and try to stab it."
Harry raised an eyebrow but did as he was told. He didn't use too much strength for his strike, but Harry was still surprised when he saw that his attack almost did no damage.
Putting his weapon away, Harry took the piece of boiled leather and examined it. There was only a small sign after his strike and while Harry was sure that he could pierce it with stronger hit or using Blackfyre, it was still impressing piece of magic.
Harry turned back to Maran and said, "Alright, color me impressed. Those are a lot stronger than our protection runes, now I need someone to make me a light armor of good quality and then inscribe those runes."
"Told you that I can find a way to make those work," Maran paused for a moment and took the rune matrix from Harry, "Now, while it is true that those runes are a lot stronger, there is one important drawback. With our rune matrix, we power it through absorption rune, but this feed on the magic around us. Yes, you can channel a bit magic into it, but it won't hold it for longer than a few minutes. From what you told me, the box in Stygai must have fed off the magic from the Heart so it wasn't a problem there. So as you see we still need to find a way for the rune matrix to store more magic at the same time or you will always need to recharge it after getting hit one time."
Harry sighed as he sat down on his bed, "Nothing can be easy, can it?"
Maran chuckled lightly as he patted the younger boy on the back, "Don't worry lad, we still got a few more days on the boat. I am sure that together we will be able to figure something out. Now tell me what are you planning to do with the potions?"
"Nothing," Harry answered bluntly, "I will probably use it when I will be in a tight situation and save the other one for someone who needs it."
Maran raised an eyebrow, "When? Not if?"
Snorting, Harry looked at Maran disbelievingly, "With my luck, it is always when not if."
Turrani, about a week later
The rest of the trip to Turrani went quite well. There were no storms, no pirate attacks, nor any other surprises which would slow the ship down. During this time Harry and Maran mostly kept to their room. Harry worked on his animagus transformation, while the older man mostly worked on the improved rune matrix.
Fortunately, they managed to find a way to fix the problem. Now the magic could be constantly channeled to the rune matrix and it wouldn't fail after withstanding one hit. There was still room for improvement, but for now, it should be fine.
While Harry was practicing his animagus transformation, which was coming along nicely, he noticed a few things about transfiguration which he missed earlier. First Harry knew that if his transformation was working, even if it was more tiring, then normal transfiguration should too.
With that in mind, Harry again tested his ability to transfigurate and conjure, but this time he paid more attention to the workings of magic.
When Harry first appeared in this world, he dismissed transfiguration because it disappeared at the same moment he stopped focusing on it. Now Harry knew that it was stupid to do as with enough control and focus he could maintain the transfiguration even if it took more magic. Now there was still one big problem. The focus needed to maintain the transfigurations meant that Harry almost couldn't do anything else at the same time. Fortunately, Harry managed to find a few ways to deal with it.
The most logical way would be training Harry's control of magic so it would work like muscle memory which would maintain the transfiguration when Harry focused on other things. Unfortunately, Harry had no idea how long it could take to gain so good control of his magic, so while it was an idea, it could take years.
Next, Harry could use runes to stabilize the transfigurations, so while it wouldn't be too useful in a fight, it could help him in everyday life.
The last idea Harry thought of was a wand. Yes, Harry knew that his magic was different than the one he used in his last life, but maybe in this world, a wand or any other magical foci would help. Harry already tried using Blackfyre and his short-sword, but the results were pretty bad. He could feel the magic going through the swords but it wasn't the same as with a wand. So either Harry's idea wouldn't work or those swords were not meant to be used as foci. In the future, Harry would need to collect some wood and creature samples and try to create something akin to a wand.
Unfortunately, those ideas would need to wait for some time as the ship just finished docking into the port in Turrani. Currently, both Harry and Maran stood in the dock making their final goodbyes.
"It took us a bit longer than expected, but we are finally here. I expect that our ways won't cross for quite some time, don't you think?" inquired softly Maran as he watched the sea.
"It appears so. Try not to die without me old man, hmm?" Harry joked.
Releasing a chuckle, Maran looked at his younger companion, "I think that I should be the one telling you this and with what I know about the island, I would be right."
"You really won't tell me what the hell are you talking about?" grumbled Harry. The older man just wouldn't tell him anything useful about Leng.
Maran shook his head, "No I won't, we are here and you can find out for yourself. Just please don't destroy anything."
"Who do you take me for? And don't even mention Qarth. I am beginning to regret ever telling you about this. Really, I know it was a mistake and it probably won't happen again," Harry tried to defend himself.
Rising an eyebrow, Maran asked with amusement shining in his eyes, "Probably?"
"Oh shut up!" the younger one said with a groan.
"You were asking for it my young friend," this time he adopted a serious posture and said, "Now, what do you plan after traveling through Leng? I don't know how long I will stay in Qarth so it would be nice to know where I should go if I want to meet you again."
Harry though a bit about his answer, he didn't really have any clear plan, only a few places he wanted to visit, "After Leng, I am going to Yi Ti, that I know, but next? I have no idea. I might go towards the Thousand Islands and explore them. I know that I want to make my way towards Bravos, but I don't know when. Still, if you really want to go somewhere next then this would be the place."
Maran nodded slowly, "Aye, I will keep it in mind. I assume that you won't pass through Qarth again?"
"I don't really know," shrugged Harry, "While I would prefer to stay the hell away from there, something might happen and I will need to travel through it. Who knows?"
Just when Maran wanted to say something, one of the sailors approached the duo and informed Maran that the ship was leaving in a few minutes.
"It seems we do not have much time left so let me say this one more time. It was a pleasure to meet and work with you, Harry. I hope that we will meet again in the near future," said Maran truthfully.
"Likewise Maran. Thank you for treating me like an equal instead of like a kid. Take care of yourself and I am quite sure that we will meet again," Harry responded strongly. He would miss the older man, he was one of the few good people Harry met in this world.
With those final words, the duo parted ways and Harry finally turned towards the new city which just waited for him to explore.
If there was one thing that Harry was not prepared for, it was the surprise when he saw the population of Turrani for the first time. Yes, he read about them, but reading was one thing, and seeing was another.
Lengii race, as that what the population of Leng was called, was the tallest known race of mankind, with some reaching seven or eight feet in height. They were slender people known for their beauty and having skin the color of oiled teak. They had large eyes golden in color which may grant them superior vision over other races. Harry was not quite sure about the last part, but he planned to find out. Maybe it was some kind of inherent magic trait Lengii developed but some investigation couldn't hurt.
From what Harry gathered from Maran and the books he read, the population in Leng depends on where you were. Apart from Lengii, there were also YiTish people living on the island, but it was quite hard to find them in the south. The only thing Harry knew was that after Leng managed to overthrow YiTish rule a few hundred years ago the YiTish part of the population mostly stuck to the northern part of the island. There were probably some of them in Turrani, but for now, Harry still had to see one.
On the other hand, Turrani was quite a beautiful city. Unlike Asshai which was built with the darkest material anyone could find or Qarth which gave you the feeling that you were in the desert, Turrani was quite... exotic.
The walls around the city were built by some kind of crimson stone which looked a lot better than anything Harry saw before. The buildings were made of all kinds of materials, be it stone, wood, or even straw. The last ones probably belonged to some poorer residents, but like with everything else it was something different. Harry was beginning to realize why Maran wanted him to come here. Even if Harry wouldn't find anything useful on the island, it still was nice to see the sights.
Harry finally stopped his examination of the city and decided to find someplace where he could exchange the currency, hopefully, people here could speak the common language or it could get pretty awkward. He really doubted that as Harry knew that not every merchant understood the language here so it would be logical that someone would be able to help him.
It took Harry about half an hour to find a person who could speak common and with a quick exchange of a few coins, the task was done. The merchant was quite friendly, but the man was curious about what such a young foreigner was doing in Leng. Not that Harry answered, the fewer people knew what he was doing here, the better.
The next thing on the list to do was resupplying. After almost two weeks at sea, Harry's stock on food was running dry. This time the task was a lot easier as the only difficulty was finding a place that sold commons goods. Fortunately, most of the merchants spoke common so no problem there.
There was one thing that surprised Harry when he was walking around the city.
Red priests.
Harry would have never thought that such a religion would be allowed in a country that was ruled by a God-Empress. It was probably time to gather more information about the land as it was beginning to get annoying to not know what was going on. Not for the first time today Harry cursed Maran's name for not telling him more.
That was how the next few days went by. Harry explored the city and searched for any information that would prove useful. Apart from that, the young wizard decided to learn at least the basics of Leng language. From what he gathered, it was similar to the one used in Yi Ti so it would help Harry in the long run. Of course, learning a completely new language was easier said than done, but it was something that was needed.
From what Harry gathered the religion of the Lord of Light was accepted in Leng but not too popular, people preferred to worship their ruler. Yes, it had some roots here, but the God-Empress only allowed it to exist as long as it didn't cause any problems. From Harry's experience, he didn't know how it was possible for red priests to not do anything wrong, but it was not his problem... at least for now.
Surprisingly the history of the island was quite interesting and Harry found himself enjoying reading about it and Yi Ti. Better to be prepared next time plus during his readings, Harry finally found out why Maran wanted him to stop by Leng.
Ruins of an old civilization. From what Harry managed to find, and there wasn't a lot of information on them, in the depths of the island's jungles were strange ruined cities, with massive, fallen buildings. Underneath those ruins were endless labyrinths of tunnels that led to vast chambers, and carved steps descend hundreds of feet into the earth.
The last thing that Harry found was quite disconcerting. Those who entered the underground ruins often returned mad or they just never came back. Currently, it was forbidden to enter them, under penalty of death.
Yeah, not exactly the kind of news Harry was looking for.
Nonetheless, Harry was determined to unravel the secrets of those ruins, it might take him so time, but there was no way that Harry would just leave. Unfortunately, ruins would need to wait as Harry ran into a very important problem.
Money.
In Asshai it wasn't a problem as his work with Maran covered all of the expenses, but now Harry was finally running out of it. He could probably survive another month with what he had, but more would be pushing it. That was why Harry decided to search for some small jobs around the city and earn some coin. It wasn't the best option, but it would give Harry some time to think of a better one.
It was during those one small jobs that Harry found another interesting thing about people in Leng.
When Harry first arrived in Turrani, he didn't pay too much attention to the magic around him, but when he was running an errand for one of the guards in the city, Harry finally noticed magic in those people. It was nothing like the magic Harry felt from Red priests or shadow binders. No, it felt more primal and even more wild than normally.
Harry didn't know what kind of magic they used or if the even knew about it, but from what he gathered, the only people with strong magic were a part of military force. That was good to know and it might prove useful later on.
Now though Harry finally decided to do something about his money problem.
From what Harry saw during his time in Turrani, the best selling items came from the tigers that lived in the jungles. Meat, leather, or even teeth, everything could be sold for a good price and Harry planned to make quite some money from it.
That was why Harry decided to travel to the nearest place that some tigers were spotted. Of course, he came prepared with a borrowed horse with a small wagon that would let Harry transport his catch.
Unfortunately, as Harry never really hunted anything, he had no idea how to go about it. Finally, he decided to just make a camp and create a ward line around it that would notice him when something was near. If any tiger came, Harry would use magic to quickly kill it.
Some people would probably be at least a bit scared about facing wild tigers, but Harry had no such problems. He already faced worse and this time Harry was quite sure that he was prepared to deal with normal animals.
And that was how the few first hours went by. With Harry waiting for his wards to alert him.
When the first tiger came Harry quickly created two arrows with his ice magic and banished them in the tiger's direction. It was good that Harry practiced this type of attack for the past few days as one of the arrows missed when the second buried itself deep in the tiger's skull, effectively killing it.
Getting the corpse of the tiger on the wagon was a bit harder as the animal was quite heavy and levitation used a lot of magic. Harry really needed to find out if a wand or any other foci would work in this world. It would make recreating spells from Harry's old world so much easier.
Sighing, Harry prepared himself for another few hours of waiting. He wasn't going back at least for a few days.
In the end, Harry spent almost 3 days in the jungle. If he wanted to be honest, Harry thought that the hunt would be a bit harder. But it looked like magic was just too strong for normal animals. Not that Harry was complaining, it was good to have something go his way for once.
He managed to kill four tigers and a few smaller animals that came upon Harry's camp. This little hunt should provide enough money for at least a few weeks, so Harry would be able to finally focus on discovering more about the underground ruins of Leng.
When Harry finally got back to Turrani, he quickly met with a man that promised to buy the spoils from him for a good price. It was a good exchange as the man provided Harry with the horse and wagon, even if he was a bit skeptical about such a young boy going on a hunt. It took Harry some time and coins to persuade the man, but in the end, it worked for both of them.
With the new stock of money, Harry again rented a small room in one of the inns. For now, he would stay there for a week and see what he could find about the ruins from the people in the city.
That was how the next few days went by. With Harry exploring more of the city and listening to every rumor he came upon. Luckily, just when Harry decided to get something to eat in the same inn he lived, he heard a discussion about the ruins.
Apparently about a decade ago the God-Empress decided that she would be the one to finally uncover the secrets of the ruins. She gathered forty volunteers from her army and sent them to the nearest ruins from Leng Ma.
The expedition was almost a complete failure. Out of the forty soldiers, only one returned. Fortunately, the man didn't return mad as many feard and after he recovered he gave his report to the God-Empress. Nobody knew what exactly the man saw but after this, the number of guards around the biggest ruins got bigger.
Nowadays the survivor lived as a rich merchant in the higher district of Leng Ma. That was the information Harry looked for. He needed to know what the man saw in those ruins if he wanted to go there. Harry might be brave, but even he knew that going in blind was a bad idea and he wasn't willing to just give up.
It was time to prepare and travel to Leng Ma. Harry would need to work on a plan as it wouldn't be easy to get information from a rich man who didn't know him. In the end, he would probably need to somehow steal this information. Harry just hoped that the man kept a journal of his journey to the ruins. If he didn't then Harry was back to square one.
4 weeks later
The way to Leng Ma was filled with surprises. Harry always preferred to travel on foot as he still thought that he was safer on his own two legs. He tried traveling on a horse, but it always felt wrong to him. Harry really didn't know why, as he never had any problems with brooms.
The first week was quiet, apart from the few tigers that attacked him, and Harry was glad for it as it gave him time to work on his magic. During his few encounters with tigers and other wild animals, Harry gathered a few wounds and he was growing tired of patching them every time.
While Harry was never good with healing magic in his past life, he always could do the spells required from Aurors that were needed in the field. That was why Harry decided to focus on this and another branch of magic for the time being. He hasn't made any great progress, but at least now Harry could heal the small cuts he received all the time. Healing magic required more precision and with the wild magic and lack of foci, Harry was glad that he managed to do anything.
The other field of magic Harry decided to train after his few spars with lower-ranked guards in Turrani. It was quite a surprise to discover what the Lengii people could do with their magic during a spar. From what Harry gathered, they could use the magic inside them to somehow boost their physical traits. Speed, strength, or even reflexes.
Normally Harry could almost defeat those guards after some struggle, but when Harry felt the magic inside them moving the effect was instantaneous. He always got beaten as Harry just couldn't match them. Maybe if he had fully trained, adult body, but now even the worst guards beat him. Of course, Harry could win using his own magic, but that was not the point. Their magic was non-visible, while Harry's created fire and ice. Not too subtle...
That was why Harry wanted to develop his own kind of magic that would help him with the physical aspect of fighting. Unfortunately, even in his old world, the only thing that boosted those traits was ritual and Harry had no clue how to do those. With that, he needed to create a whole branch of magic by himself, and during those four weeks, Harry made no progress.
Also during his travel, Harry encountered one of the fabled ruins. It greatly resembled some of the ancient Mayan temples Harry saw on the pictures in his old world. Unfortunately, the young wizard couldn't get too close to them as there were some guards patrolling the ruins.
Now though, Harry finally arrived at the gates of Leng Ma. The city was very similar to Turrani, but this one was divided into three parts. The lowest part of the city consisted of houses for the common folk and most of the markets. There Harry was quite surprised by the amount of YiTish people who in his opinion looked similar to people in China.
In the second part of the city lived all fo the more well off people. Rich merchants, higher-ranked soldiers and their families, and people who earned God-Empoesses's attention.
Finally, the last part was placed upon a small hill that overlooked all of the city. There, a very Greek looking palace was built. It was quite the sight and for Harry who only ever saw such thing on the pictures, even more. Of course in the palace lived the God-Empress herself and from what Harry heard from the whispers around the street, soon he would see the ruler for himself.
Now though a completely new city waited for Harry to explore and after that, his plans about ruins would continue.
That would be it for this chapter.
Yes, I know that there wasn't much in it, but I needed to do some world-building with Leng. Some I created myself and some I took from the wiki. Because of this, the chapter was mostly informative and filler-ish.
At first, I wanted the chapter to end in a very different place (the end of the exploration of ruins), but then I began writing and before I realized I had 5k words and I wasn't even in Leng Ma.
I am sorry to those who will be disappointed with this chapter, but I can promise you that this time the next one will be out much earlier as I already have everything ready for it.
One more thing, I am still looking for a Beta. I just can't find anyone willing to help, so if any of you guys could help me with proofreading, I would be most grateful.
That would be all, have a good day.
Chaos