Chapter 14: Mana Crystal!
Laying under the tree Ark felt kind of good, this reform of his mind had made him realize what he had gone through in his world once more, so now he felt that he wouldn't be too excited to notice what was going on around him anymore. He was still a bit frustrated about how he had acted till now though, but, what was done was done. After thinking a little bit more about his new skills as well as his apparent bloodline Ark slowly drifted off to sleep, but not a deep one, he would still sense if people were approaching him.
Back outside the door, the people stood there a bit dumbfounded, too much had happened at once and no one knew how to react right now. It was obvious that the wolf had gone through some kind of change, but no one knew what had happened. Annette had noticed that his change the wolfs change in aura was quite big, she had also noticed that he now had a cyan eye colour compared to his earlier silver.
"Ahem"
Annette gained everyone's attention by making a fake cough as she told them all to go back to their rooms and wait and see tomorrow, since no one had a better idea, everyone quickly scattered. Most of them didn't think too much about what had happened as they didn't want to be bothered by stuff that had nothing to do with them. Annette did go searching for him for a bit, when she found him sleeping underneath a white pine tree she went back to her room that she had gotten and left him alone.
Waking up underneath the tree next day Ark was feeling refreshed, the cool summer breeze that brushed against his fur felt very pleasant early in the morning, it was a really good way to start the day off. After waking up he stood up, he felt that some presences were approaching from the mansion so he decided to greet them. When they had gotten close enough Ark noticed that they were only Annette and her entourage, he silently nodded his head at them and got into the carriage.
Seeing this made Annette frown a little bit, he had usually been pretty excited for almost anything, just like a child, but now it felt like he had suddenly become older and more mature. She also guessed that some of this coldness towards her was because of the seduction magic she had tried on him. Her intentions weren't all that bad, she just wanted to leave a better impression on his subconscious, this was because she wanted him to help this country.
Another reason was that she felt that it was only natural for everyone to like her and adore her, she had grown up to become pampered a lot by the king, even though she was the third princess she was born from the king's favorite wife. Her personality had turned out like this because everyone had always sucked up to her because of her status. But she hadn't lost all reasoning, and she still cared a lot for the country, but who in power didn't care for their country? If they didn't then they would probably one day have to move away leaving most of their power and influence behind.
This was also one of the reasons the princess cared a lot for the country, she wanted recognition from her father and be able to maintain her lavish and luxurious lifestyle. The princess had also been praised as a genius when it came to both magic and swords, but mostly for her skills with swords. But there was almost no one in the royal family who wasn't talented so that was to be expected. Hopping into the carriage and giving a signal to the coachman to start their journey ahead they rolled off.
In the carriage, there was an awkward silence for most of the trip since they couldn't communicate and even if they could they had nothing to talk about. Thinking about something Annette suddenly drew out something from out of thin air, at least that's what it would have looked like to a lot of people. But Ark had seen that there had been a portal who had opened for a second which she drew the stone from. He also saw that when she opened the portal, all the purple Mana in the air had started to gather.
This purple Mana was quite special as it usually warped all around the place, there was also not that much of it compared to the other elements, which indicated that it was quite rare. Ark then looked at the stone that Annette had gotten out, it was about the size of a marble and it faintly glowed a cyan colour. When he gave her a questioning look she started to explain to him.
"This is the Mana crystal from a low level [Blizzard Worm]. A Mana crystal is created when a monster dies and its energy is condensed into a crystal, this crystal is all the power it had when it was living, both life force and Mana. Therefore these can both be used to create all kinds of tools such as magic weapons, for example, they can also be absorbed by monsters to enhance their strength. If it has the same attribute as the monster who consumes it then it would gain more power."
This made Ark a little dumbfounded, he didn't know that there were ways like this to enhance his strength even if he didn't level up. After having said all this Annette also suddenly tossed the Mana crystal to Ark to let him try, at first he was a little apprehensive but then he remembered that he had his "Inspect" so it wouldn't be a problem.
"Inspect"
[Mana crystal]
Mana crystal from the low-level monster [Blizzard Worm]
Suited to ice or snow users
Seeing this Ark put his paw on top of the Mana crystal and started to draw out the Mana that was within it. After about a minute passed by the crystal had lost all of its lusters and had dimmed, when it had turned completely blank Ark felt very rejuvenated as he suddenly heard one of his favorite voices in the world aside from his own!
[Due to ingesting a Mana stone the host has obtained +1 intelligence as well as +1 vitality]
This made Ark quite happy, he didn't know that he could use Mana crystals to gain stats directly, he had guessed that it might widen his Mana capacity a little, but when he thought about the vitality part it made sense. Since he had obtained the [Blizzards Worms] life force then it would be quite weird if he instead didn't get any vitality. After this pleasant surprise, Ark gave Annette an affirmative nod to show that he had appreciated the Mana crystal.
Even if he didn't trust her he wouldn't mind getting some benefits from her if it meant that he would, in turn, become stronger. After seeing his nod Annette felt a little better, she also told him another thing.
"It isn't guaranteed for a Mana crystal to drop when a monster dies though, it's quite rare, but since they are so useful you should use every chance you get to use one! That one I gave you was pretty bad though."
At least she was being a little honest with him now. After this event though they didn't communicate anymore and just sat and looked out of the windows, Annette thought that the view was quite boring, Ark, however, saw a lot of new things every time he looked out of the window so he actually enjoyed the fact that he could see the view like this. Now that he had time as well he thought about what he would do in the capital a little, of course, he wouldn't just sit in the palace twiddling his thumbs all day.
He still wanted to get strong! And explore! He couldn't do that by just sitting in the palace, his plan right now was to see what it would be like in the palace and then decide according to that. If he didn't get the freedom he wanted and if it would be boring to be there then he would just leave, even if they didn't want him to.
After a whole day in the carriage, they decided to set up camp since they wouldn't be able to reach the next town without another couple of hours traveling. After having set up a series of tents for the different servants as well as having set up the princess private tent they decided that a few people would keep watch while the rest went to sleep. Ark decided to stay up with the guards for a little bit since he wasn't that tired just yet.
....
At the same time in a grand black palace, a servant was running fervently towards the throne room, there was however something wrong with this servant, it wasn't a human. It had long black horns that were slightly curved and the speed it ran on was astonishing. When it had arrived outside the throne room it suddenly stopped and knocked gently on the door. No matter how urgent something was the servant didn't want to die so it decided it would be wise to knock.
"Enter!"
Hearing this confirmation come from a majestic voice inside the servant quickly entered the throne room. When the servant was inside it could see a dark silhouette sitting on top of the jet black throne before hastily speaking.
"My lord, the preparations are complete!"
"We can now commence!"
Hearing this the presumed "lord" smirked before shouting.
"COMMENCE"
....
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Tyrone_Bedoire
Tyrone_Bedoire A little mystery eh?
You can probably make some guesses already... but still!
Hope you enjoyed it as always!
Chapter 15: Demons!
In the camp Ark had just fallen asleep when something happened, all of a sudden there was a mass influx of purple Mana gathering at an astonishing speed not far from where they were. Ark instantly noticed this and woke up immediately. He felt his hairs stand almost straight on his back, he was shivering, and he didn't even know why. He didn't know what was going on since he wasn't really sure what those purple Mana particles actually did, he only knew one of the functions. He wasn't the only one who noticed though since Annette also ran out of her tent.
"DEMON ATTACK!"
Ark suddenly heard her and multiple guards who had been woken up start shouting, he was very confused, but he could guess that there were demons who was the cause for the disturbance of the purple Mana. Since that purple Mana was supposed to be able to manipulate space, Ark had a guess, he thought that they might be warping it to teleport, but he didn't really know if it was possible or not. If it was then it would be pretty awesome, but also kind of terrifying.
"Get ready for battle!"
"Get into formation!"
After seeing them get organized and get into formation Ark started go get ready himself, at first he didn't really know if he should help them, but at the same time he still wanted to go the palace, and he didn't know if they were able to beat these demons, and he still didn't want to see them die. But he would probably bail if the fight was impossible to win, since he didn't want to die, and he didn't know them good enough to fight to the death with them, he barely knew them at all.
The princess had a total of 12 guards and 2 assassins, the 12 guards strength was not that great, but at the same time, they weren't weak, at least by the palaces standards. The 2 assassins, however, were 2 masters, and they were both incredibly powerful. Ark had tried to inspect them all earlier but he couldn't inspect the assassins at all since they were too powerful, the guards, however, had a level range from about 19-24.
Even though that's not too bad, they weren't that powerful since they didn't have much magical talent, good skills or a bloodline. So Ark would probably be able to beat a single one pretty easily. It would be a whole other story though if a person who was around level 20 had any of those skills, or all for that matter since your power would grow a lot more each level if you had any of those. If that was the case then Ark was not that confident in his abilities.
Both Ark and Annette had felt the Mana fluctuations, but not one of them truly knew what they were getting themselves into. After a second everything suddenly turned quiet, and then there was a massive explosion of Mana in the place where all the purple Mana had been gathering. When the group felt this Mana explosion they all turned pale, this was an entire squadron of demons! A squadron of demons usually had about 500 soldiers, with one commander. This was far beyond their current capabilities.
Even though Ark had called those assassins masters, they were nothing compared to the Mana that was being emitted right now. It was like comparing a dog to an elephant, whilst Ark was just like a cat. He would barely be able to do anything to the dog, let alone the elephant. The worst part about this whole ordeal though was the fact that they couldn't run away, this wasn't because of some stupid ideals or anything. They just couldn't run because of the pressure that was being emitted from the squadron up ahead.
...
Annette would have never guessed that this would be the way her life would end. She had unexpectedly run into a demon squadron, and in this backwater place at that! She had decided to travel the country to gain experience since it would benefit her a lot if she truly knew what the country looked like, and also try to gain some insight into the commoners' life since she would probably have a position in the future were she would affect a lot of their lives.
On top of that she had suddenly found a possible divine creature, and it wanted to come with her to see how the humans lived, this was great news since her father and her siblings would praise her and be astounded that she had managed to do something of this magnitude. She, however, had managed to make it wary of her since she was too irresponsible and tried to charm it with magic. But none of that mattered right now since she would die anyway. She had already given up hope. Demons were not weak, in general, they were more powerful than humans, the reason why they weren't dominant was because of their lower number, as well as the fact that the empire had summoned heroes from different worlds in the past that managed to turn the tide.
But those heroes soon left after having achieved their goal, the Aries plane consisted of 2 layers, the upper layer, and the lower layer. They lived on the lower layer, but the heroes from the past had already ascended to the upper layer. The power level of the people was supposedly on another level, but Annette didn't know a lot about that, in fact, most people didn't even know there existed an upper layer. She had heard however that the people on the upper layer didn't have levels, she couldn't comprehend how a world would work without levels but that doesn't matter right now.
...
As the whole squadron started getting closer to them, the forest in front of them was set ablaze. When they were about 50 meters away Ark could clearly see the facial features of their leader. This commander of theirs was very awe-inspiring as he was slowly walking towards them with everything burning around him, he looked like a devil straight out of hell. What was even more intimidating was the fact that he had a hoard of soldiers in black steel armor, these warriors stood a little taller than the average human soldier and they were quite muscular, they also had some pretty menacing black horns. Their horns looked like they could be a weapon just by themselves.
The demons had seen Ark and the group of humans a while ago but now that they were getting closer they were starting to grin disgustingly. Ark was really tense, he was scared for his life at the moment, what he had noticed though was that he was starting to get used to this pressure after having withstood it for a while. What ark didn't know was that this pressure didn't come from Mana as he had assumed, this formless pressure was actually just the demons killing intent that was directed against them.
If people weren't used to killing intent then it could do some pretty devastating things, if you were weak-willed and your opponent had a really powerful killing intent then the person could be killed from just the killing intent. Ark, however, had a pretty strong mind so he was slowly getting used to it already. The demon commander looked a little baffled when he saw a wolf standing by the humans, this was mostly because of the fact that the wolf looked really majestic, the aura it emitted was also pretty special, it didn't seem to be that of an animal.
The demon commander had a very hideous face, his jaw looked like it had been dislocated, his eyes were brown and looked like they had sunk in quite a lot, his face also contained a lot of scars, making his face pretty sinister. Another thing that stood out about him was the fact that his skin was releasing a slight metallic sheen, almost like that of a sword. This was because the commander was a [Iron Metal Demon]. The metal demons were graded according to what type of metal they could enhance their body strength with. Thus the harder the metal the stronger they were.
Even though a squadron was really strong in Annette's and Ark's eyes, they weren't that strong, there was still a lot more powerful forces out there, there was a simple reason as to why they thought that this squadron was powerful. And that was because they were both weak! The princess had also not gotten escorts that were that strong since their country was very peaceful at the moment, and the premise of her journey was to check out the lives of the commoners.
But the closer the demon squadron got, the more fired up Ark grew! Even though he was doomed to fail he still wanted to try! He wouldn't go down without a fight! The light in his eyes was getting brighter and brighter and his breath was getting colder, even though he didn't notice it himself his claws also started to glow an icy blue. The confrontation was getting closer and closer, the atmosphere was getting tenser and tenser. When there were just 25 meters between the 2 groups the demons suddenly stopped.
"CHARGE"
CREATORS' THOUGHTS
Tyrone_Bedoire
Tyrone_Bedoire
Hope you enjoyed!
Please comment if you want to, I certainly appreciate it!
Also have a great day, and to the guy who has done like 4 reviews, you just have to do it once you know!
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