Chapter 10. The sentries

†††

"Imagine an amount of burning coal itself. Imagine it as the fire you are creating but big and tangible, Master" she replied on the same high-pitched voice as before. She clearly loves to watch the magic being created.

Tangible, huh. Hard like a rock but burning as a lump of ravaging coal. I desperately imagined it as far as I could then it formed an edgy spherical ball burning. Getting the same feeling with my other hand, I threw it to the flowing river and it exploded the moment it touched the water. Not so much for an erupting clot of burning coal that explodes, huh. I think I can do this until the evening and it felt lighter than what I usually feel when using my own magic.

"Sprigg, Origin Magic is like the mother of mana, right?" I turned to her after seeing the explosion of water, "... and to shape the mana you'll need enchanted items, right?" I added.

"Well, generally speaking, yes." She chuckled and then brushed her lap after getting up from the boulder she rested from and added, "magical items such as staff or grimoire are needed to harness the power of mana."

"Then that also means that since I directly have the Origin of Mana within me, I don't need any magical items, right?" I teased her by poking her head.

"What are you up to, Master?" She annoyingly moved my finger.

"Then, what is a pixie needed for?" I asked with a smug look, walking towards the boulder to rest. I don't feel exhausted like previously and to be fair, it's like my body is lighter than before.

"My existence is linked to your soul, even if you removed our connection with telepathy, I am still connected to you. You might not notice but your body is struggling in grasping your own magical powers. Ultimately, your predicament is, that's only 10% of your true ability. Evidently, the problem lies in the vessel. Regulating your magic flow and making sure you are alive is my job." she answered me with a serious face and it's as if she sounded like the dull and loud monotonous voice in the castle with her high pitched voice. I only want to tease you, I thought.

 I smiled awkwardly and said, "Fine!"

"Rest for an hour, Master." then she showed only one side of her lips curls up.

We tried several types of usage from the fire magic to control and master it. Sprigg told me to take it easy to learn one elemental magic at a time as it requires different aspects from each other, which I also agree with. Patience is what makes a man, as what my father always says. Tonight we will be hunting a beast and put my efforts to the test.

We continued traversing the gap between which is the barren land connected to the King's City to the forest. Way back, I was afraid and sprinted from the forest to the dome-like Kingdom like I was being chased with monsters from the forest since there are no trees to stay hidden. I was so scared that I'll be dead once they decide to follow and kill. Huh. Such pitiful circumstances. Now that I realized, it's already almost dusk and we need to start collecting our dinner.

Moments have passed after the darkness covered the wide-area showing the massive, seemingly clear sky spreading out for eternity and the specks of lights that flicker, drawing sparks of lightning shattering through it. The wind blows out the leaves vehemently. I can't help but feel overjoyed as we streaked across the border of the barrier when the glistening light of the box appeared again.

"Easy Mode Deactivated"

Procuring food by hunting these monsters is really troublesome. Although I was able to grasp how manipulating the mana is and turning it into elemental magic, aiming it on a moving beast is truly tough. We've been working this out for a set of hours currently but I'm still not apt to slay them using magic because once I ignite my hands with fire magic the creatures will flee indefinitely. I can't also rely on Sprigg since she doesn't know how to track down beasts and doesn't have magic.

What we're currently trying to hunt down are smaller varmints ever since the announcement displayed Normal Mode because the regular beasts that I used to hunt previously are now way vicious than the typical roaming beasts compared when I hunted them. Looking back, I nearly got killed by the smaller beasts if not for my hunting skills. Now that it gains a degree of difficulty, it's quite impossible to hunt them down when they are so agile and seem to be aggressive. 

Oh, the lucid glowing words suspended in the air are called window or announcement by Sprigg. She said that the world announces whatever we do and only I can see it since I have the power that is needed to supply the World Tree, the World mistakes me as the one that supplies mana to the world. How odd.

Sprigg also finished her appraisal with the Forest, she said that it is a lost part of the realm of Forest of Rogue. Yes, the first Fae of the Origins, Rogue the Dragon. That may be the reason why there are a lot of dragon-like existence here with no wings and perhaps evolved. I don't know. There are a lot of things to check now that it is on Normal Mode. For example, the entire region is not only lands but big lakes as well. There are seven lost realms of the Origins in each part of the Forest which also adds the difficulty of beasts to be hunted and every territory has its own portal to the Realms of the Origins. Sprigg and I wanted to see the Artefact first so we decided to go there while we only managed to hunt smaller species of beasts using sneak attack or not using magic along the way.

"I'm telling you magic is not needed when hunting. It only distracts the beasts and makes them go away!" I replied to her annoying insistence of using the magic. Well, there's no need for me to use that since we successfully kept the Origin Magic on its cage, as my core.

"You're wrong, master! Your body will eventually feel the burden of that Magic if you will not regularly use it. The debris that I am disintegrating is rapidly discharging more since you are not using your magic." she answered me with pouty lips, flying around me.

"I thought that we are only using the mana that is abundant in this place? How is that connected to the Origin Magic that is within me?" I confusedly asked her. I seriously don't understand the need to use magic when we are only using mana.

"Fine! The reason why I need you to regularly use mana is that it still needs to stabilize for your body's sake. When you use mana, I secretly eject a tiny bit of origin magic enough to disintegrate to mana which you will use. As you can see, your usage of mana is stronger than any humans can do and you are not using the mana. If not used, you are giving it to this forest giving life to the plants." chuckling, she answered me with her wide smile and high-pitched joyful tone. "Bottomline is, the power that you have is growing inside you, releasing more than it should be. Expending up that same magic stabilizes your body." She added.

"R, Really? What else is there that you are not telling me, Sprigg?" I didn't even know that she secretly supplies the forest with my magic. I am a total loss here, surprised at what she is doing.

"Nothing, master" she giggled while pointing she added, "we need that artefact guarded by that three jurassic, over there!"

"J-jura... sick, what?" I asked her again, showing my dumbfounded face. I was taken aback when she said that she wants me to get the artefact which also implies that I need to slay the three huge dragon-like with a massive head balanced by a long, heavy tail that has elements on each. These beasts are not here before, that's the reason I was so sure to return because it is not guarded.

The beast on the left is like a stone dragon that is resting but its head is spying, looking at everything that moved, and the beast on the right is like a dragon with a tail of fish walking like it's also looking for creatures that are moving, prying. The beast in the middle is like that borruca that's also burning but isn't. Now that I know how magic works, I understand why there are things like that. I mean, when I conjure the magic as a fire on my hands it doesn't burn, at least what I feel is a warm and very comforting feeling. Sprigg told me that it is how it is. Quite vague for an all-knowing pixie. She isn't the one to leave things unexplained.

"That beasts are the sentries guarding the artefact which you need to defeat using magic. They nullify physical attacks, negate lower tier magic and are pretty aggressive when provoked." encouraging me to use the mana while appraising what she can see on the beast's information.

†††