Ch: 115.5 (Patreon)

I've never seen anything as magical as the lake before us. And I’ve seen a decent amount of magical stuff in the short time I’ve been alive on this world. However, the lake topped everything.

It was more magical than the massive trees we'd been walking through.

More breathtaking than the first time I set foot in the bottom of Master’s mine and experienced that much mana for the first time.

The lake trumped every magical creature I’ve seen, and then some, and was more intimidating than the soul devourer.

Looking at the landscape filled me with so many emotions it was hard to tell exactly what I felt. Excitement, pride, fear; I didn't know.

We had spent a good chunk of time climbing what we thought was a mountain, but now that we were on top of it, we realized it was anything but. Tabitha and I were now standing on the rim of a giant impact crater in the heart of the Endless Forest. And at the bottom of the crater was a lake like no other, but what surrounded the lake made it magical.

The sides of the deep pit went down much farther than what we climbed up to get here and looked to be lined with millions of grey rocks. But upon closer inspection, I see; instead, it's lined with loose bricks, the exact same kind that made up the buildings I’ve been sensing. Speaking of which, they were everywhere too.

Crumbling buildings were all over the place, sticking out of the sides of the crater’s walls. Some still stood proud, albeit at odd angles, suggesting they weren’t built that way.

I wish I could say that the presence of so many buildings was the most exciting thing about the crater, but they were only the first thing to grab the eye of the long list of magical things in front of us. Because while the buildings were incredible, they couldn't hold a candle to the bubble of mana encasing most of the crater.

The bubble was light blue and started halfway down into the crater, and inside that bubble were fish flying through the air as if it was water. But there was no water, or at least only at the bottom of the bubble where the actual lake was; instead, the bubble was formed of highly dense mana currents all originating from said lake.

All the mana was of the water attribute, and the atmosphere was so charged with the stuff even though we weren’t yet near the bubble, it felt like I was drowning in the ocean.

You would think it would be impossible for anything to live in such dense amounts of mana, but as we all know, life loves to find a way.

Thousands of fish-type magic beasts were swimming through the bubble, so much so that I questioned if I was looking at the world’s largest aquarium. But no matter how close they flew towards the edge, the fish stayed inside the bubble, leading me to believe it was what was allowing them to fly in such a unique way.

Outside the bubble, there was less life, but not none. There were dozens of crab species picking at the grey bricks, removing moss and what I suspect is magical algae. But all the big plants were inside the sphere, making it a world unto itself.

There were weird grasses that looked oddly like seaweed. I spot an orange flower shaped like a clam. And from where we were, I could even pick out a willow tree inside the sphere.

The tree wasn’t unnaturally big like the ones surrounding the crater, but it was just as unique. I called it a willow tree because it had thousands of long thin branches covered with small leaves. But unlike your typical willow tree, its limbs weren’t drooping towards the ground and instead spread in every direction and swaying as if underwater.

In fact, all the plants inside the bubble of mana swayed back and forth and grew upward like they were underwater.

“Have you ever seen anything like this?” Using my hands, I try to block the glare of the sun reflected by the magical bubble below us. I turn my head towards Tabitha, but my eyes never leave the enchanting scene in front of me.

“Never,” Tabitha responds, equally as captivated by the sight as I am. She doesn't use her hands to block out the glare, but I see her squinting.

"we have nothing like this in Scholl."

I want to ask what she means by that, only to exclaim, "Holly shit," and point at a distant figure deep inside the bubble. “Am I seeing things, or is that a shark?”

“Not a species I’m familiar with, but yes,” Tabitha nods at the magic beast. “I’m surprised you know of such beasts.”

“My mom comes from a merchant family, she’s told me loads of stories of weird and exciting animals,” I smirk at Tabitha. I wasn’t lying to her, per say, but I wasn’t telling her the whole truth either. Mother taught me the word for shark, and gave me a short description of them from what she’s read from books, but it was my past life’s knowledge I was mostly pulling from.

However, I’m not even sure if I should be calling the thing a shark or a whale? It looked like a shark but it was the size of a medium-sized whale, and I didn't need to see the inside of its mouth to know to avoid it at all costs. "But aren't sharks supposed to be in the ocean?"

Tabitha snorts at me. “Yor mother must have gotten bad information if you think sharks only live in the ocean. Scholl has many species living in our lakes and underground waterways; not all are aggressive or dangerous.”

“You think that one is friendly?” I ask sarcastically, but in my head, I note that sharks aren't limited to salt water in this world.

“No,” Tabitha says flatly. “Even from this distance, I can sense the danger that magic beast radiates. It is certainly over level 100," she proclaims darkly.

“You can tell that from all the way up here?”

“You can’t?” Tabitha casts a curious look at me. “Most skills that let a person judge another's level work on line of sight, so long as you can see the majority of the target. Yours does not?"

I shake my head, admitting I need to be closer. I’ve only ever looked at the souls of people and monsters within two thousand feet of me. If it’s any farther than that, my skill can’t reach them at its current level.

“That is quite the weakness.” Though it sounds like she’s insulting me, I know it was just Tabitha’s way of warning me I need to be careful if distance is an issue. And she’s right; it doesn't help me if I need to get up close and personal to scan a target only to learn its way above my level and that I need to retreat.

"I'll be careful,” I tell her soberly. If we could see a level 100 beast from here, it meant the bubble was a hazardous place to be. Of course, that only made me want to get closer to it, and if Tabitha’s grin is anything to go off of, she feels the same.

Sadly, that would have to wait. "We can't stay here, can we?" I ask, feeling an itch starting to form on my skin.

Tabitha frowns and nods in agreement. “The mana here is too dense for us to camp. If we try sleeping here, we'll get mana poisoning, and I need to rest before entering such a place." She looked ashamed to admit it, but Tabitha and I knew she was running on fumes. We had hours before the sun went down out in the open like this, but if we had to go back into the forest to camp, we would have less than half that time.

"I suggest we should be safe and return to the ruins we found. There were no beasts around it, and since we just opened it, we know nothing is living there. So it should be a safe spot for us to rest."

Tabitha smiles in approval at my suggestion. “That should be fine, and though the mana is still strong there, it’s better than this.”

And like that, the two of us agree to leave the heart of the forest. For now. We'll be back tomorrow or the day after if Tabitha needs a little longer to return to 100%.

I take one last look at the crater in front of us before reluctantly turning around. But as I turn, I think I see something move out of the corner of my eye.

“See something?” Tabitha asks me after I don't start moving toward the crater's edge

.

"It was only for a split second, but I think I saw something moving over there,” I point east of our location, but the only thing you could see now was the tops of the sea of trees. "Hang on; you see that?" I point far into the distance, where I thought I saw the movement just now. It was hard to see with the uneven tree line, but it looked the there was a black spot in the forest. “What do you think that is?” I ask Tabitha.

“Who knows, we can check it out later if you want, but we need to leave,” she reminds me.

“OK,” I reply, marking the area in my brain. The ruins we found were south, and the spot was in a part of the forest we had yet to explore. However, I must ignore it for now as Tabitha and I slowly start descending back down the crater.

It sucks that we must backtrack after finally finding the heart of the forest, but there was no way we could safely camp in an area with that much ambient mana. Not to mention the magic beasts that might be prowling the area. Anything that could survive in that kind of environment had either adapted to do so or was even stronger than Tabitha.

It takes some time, but we eventually return to the building buried in the ground. We'll sleep inside it once the sun disappears, but until then, I work to get a small fire going. While I’m setting up camp, Tabitha sits on the root obscuring the hole she punched into the building. Her eyes weren’t closed, but she was regulating her breathing semi-meditatively.

As Tabitha's recovering, I double and triple-scan our surroundings with Sense Mana to make sure we aren't drawing too much attention. There are a few magic beasts in our general vicinity, but judging by the amount of mana they have, they're only around level 50, meaning they're the weakest of the weak this far into the forest.

If any of them get too close, I'll handle them so Tabitha can focus on regaining her strength. I had no delusions about which of us would be carrying the other in the forest's heart. So I needed Tabitha to be at her best.

Thankfully, none of the creatures I’m sensing appear to care about us, so there’s that. Now is the perfect time to check out my status page.

LV: 75 Experience: 530,331/ 1,054,850

Health: 2,530/2,530

Stamina 1,195.87/1,697

Mana: 933.41/1,030

Vitality: 253.02

Endurance: 100.35

Strength: 156.02

Dexterity: 156.01

Senses: 62.69

Mind: 65.57

Magic: 103.33

Clarity: 79.24

Status Points: 0

Skills:

Tier 1:

Meditation (LV80), Running (LV79), Blacksmithing (LV75), Hammer Skills (LV70), Axe Skills (LV60), Cleaning (LV53), Mining (LV51), Chanting (LV51), Drawing (LV48), Trading (LV48), Cooking (LV45), Sword Skills (LV40), Dagger Skills (LV34), Acting (LV36), Wood Carving (LV32), Sewing (LV32), Dancing (LV28), Alchemy (LV15), Pugilist Skills (LV11), Spear Skills (LV2)

Tier 2:

Sense Mana (LV80), Double Step (LV67), Charm (LV50), Hammer Arts (LV50), Measurement (LV49), Axe Arts (LV39), Intimidating Shout (LV34), Steady Hands (LV33),Writing (LV32), Mathematics (LV31), Increase Price (LV22), Lower Price (LV20), Sword Arts (LV17), Dagger Arts (LV13), Gourmet (LV13), Marching (LV5), Shout of Valor (LV3),

Tier 3:

Expel Mana (LV63), Mana Manipulation (LV63), Double Strike (LV45), Weighted Strike (LV45), Precise Strike (LV44), Flash Step (LV36), Contract (LV22), Enchanting (LV10), Poison Resistance (LV3)

Tier 4:

Mental Resistance (LV61), Mana Skin (LV60), Inject Mana (LV54), Extract Mana (LV39), Magic Blacksmithing (LV36), Magic Threads (LV25), Air Walk (LV21), Empowered Spell (LV17), Ironclad Agreement (LV8), Appealing Deal (LV3), Multi-Strike (LV4)

Tier 5:

Sense Soul (LV40), Soul Manipulation (LV19)

Tier 6:

Soul Devourer (LV10)

Increased Skill Levels

Cooking (LV44-45) 4,450exp

Acting (LV36) 1,800exp

Dancing (LV27-28) 2,750exp

Gourmet (LV11-13) 3,600exp

Poison Resistance (LV1-3) 900exp

Magic Threads (LV25) 6,250exp

Empowered Spell (LV17) 4,250exp

Multi-Strike (LV2-4) 2,250exp

Skill Experience: 26,250exp

Crafting Experience: 1,177exp

Fighting Experience: 2,934exp

Total experience Gained: 29,361exp

Not the most growth I’ve ever seen, but it isn’t like I’ve done much since the battle with the goblins. Tabitha has handled almost every beast we’ve come across since then. And though she's been finding time to give me some pointers, we've only been doing light sparring; on account, we were both still recovering.

I got a bit of experience and a few skill levels from cooking magic beast meat every night, but other than that, not much has changed.

Sure, I got Poison Resistance a few days ago, but it would take a while to raise it to the point that it becomes anything worth much.

I mainly wanted to check my status page to see where my Health and Mana were at. It had taken entirely too long to recover after the fight with the goblins fully, and that was with my healing factor boosted by the status points I put into it during the fight.

I wanted to be in tip-top shape for when we entered the heart of the forest, and other than a bit of missing mana, I was.

Though reaching the heart did expose me to a danger I wasn’t used to worrying about, mana poisoning. When Del first showed me the magicite vein in the bottom of his mine, I was already relatively high level. The heart of the Endless Forest was similar but multiple leagues above what I was used to enduring.

We hadn't been standing on the crater's edge for long, but in the time that we were, my body had absorbed a ridiculous amount of ambient man. And that was without me pulling it from the air to speed up my regain like usual. My body was hard at work converting the raw mana into something usable, but for once, I would need to work on blocking out ambient mana rather than trying to absorb it. A first for me. But at least I had an idea of how to do so.

While Tabitha’s recovering tonight, I will start improving Mana Skin. It was at its second test, and it was time I started figuring out how to improve it. I doubted I could break past the barrier tonight, but I needed to start somewhere, and better protecting myself against mana was as good a start as any other.

But how did I do that? Mana Skin was actually two barriers; one overlapped over the other with a microscopic void between them. I designed and implemented that to pass my level 40 test; maybe I should try increasing it to three.

That would help, but it wouldn’t be that much of a boost. Two shields already reduced blunt force damage by quite a bit and reduced the effects of slashing attacks by a noticeable margin, but were absolutely useless against piercing damage.

The more focused an attack is, the easier it can puncture Mana Skin; another layer wouldn't do much to stop that. But it will insulate me from the surrounding mana. So, even if it won't change much in the grand scheme of things, that's where I'll start.

Channeling my mana, I pour more into Mana Skin and direct it to its outermost reaches to try forming a third layer over the two I had up. I still needed to sleep tonight to be fresh for tomorrow, but until then, I'll focus on improving my skill.

And once I have that done, I think of ways to strengthen it further.

I refuse to be more of a burden to Tabitha than I already am.

**********

2,700 words.

And that’s the end of chapter 115.

Thank you, everyone, for letting me know where you stand on the poll I posted. As most don’t care or want me to leave everything up, I won’t be deleting anything.

However, I saw some of your suggestions and finally learned how to tag stuff, so I hope that helps those of you who only want to read through the current chapters and not the rewrites.

Please continue to give me your suggestions, and as always, stay safe.