บท 6: A test?

The portal shut behind us, and the intense pressure of the sinister mana disappeared. I hoped my father would be able to take on those monsters. Then every muscle in my body tensed up as I peered at the magnificent sight. Woah… My mouth instinctively fell in awe. The place was an endless azure blue, I could see no end, the blue ground stretched on for acres and acres. What the hell was this place? this was not how I imagined a portal to be. I stepped towards my shaking mother to comfort her. She must still be worried about father.

"You better hurry up, or else you'll be trapped here forever," the geezer said as he walked on. I grabbed my mother's arm as we both followed him, still looking round at the odd place.

Then a sudden realisation hit me. I couldn't feel a floor. There was nothing underneath us? Due to the vastness of this place, I couldn't tell if we were falling or if we were in the air. Pulling me out of my panic, my mother squeezed my hand and we both followed my grandfather in unison. I felt like I was walking on a cloud.

"Get ready…" the geezer warned. Ready? Ready for what? I looked up at my mother to see if she was as concerned as I was but when I looked back, Gramps was already gone. My eyes widened in surprise. My mum stayed calm and bent down to touch the non existent floor.

"Mum what-" All at once before I could finish my sentence my foot ceased to travel forwards and my body sunk into the empty void forming underneath me, the scenery started to blur like a poorly shot action photograph, as my body fell. The colours swirled and blended as my head became tilted towards the forest floor. My body was still free falling. "Aaaahhhh!" my mother screamed, grabbing me tightly. How was a 3 year old going to save her? We were still a thousand or so metres in the air.

[1000 metres till ground level. Do you want to activate Lightning Cloak (Level 1) to cushion the fall?]

[Yes/ No]

The notifications popped up, I quickly glanced at the text on the left side of my vision and looked at my struggling mother. Will she be affected by my skill?

[500 metres till ground level. Do you want to activate Lightning Cloak (Level 1) to cushion the fall?]

[Yes/ No]

I was hesitant but the safety of my mother came first.

"Yes!" I thought in my head accepting the system's request, blue streaks of lightning started to form around me cackling as they moved about my body like snakes. The snakes of lightning bolts wrapped around my body forming a cloak. I hugged my mum tighter as the ground became closer and closer by the second.

[Lightning Cloak will drain 1MP every second]

[Defence/ Durability has been increased by 10 to 15]

I looked at my MP bar getting drained at a steady rate. How long are we going to fall for? Then the moment of truth arrived.

[50 metres till impact]

I clenched my mother in my arms, and leaned back, so my body would hit the ground first. I closed my eyes hoping for the worst. As my body impacted with the ground, my consciousness fluctuated making my vision a blur of darkness and blue sky.

My broken bones and the weight of my mother made the pain excruciating. A large crater formed underneath me, as if a meteor had just rained down towards the ground.

My Lightning Cloak skill deactivated as I gasped for air, painfully as two of my ribs had been utterly smashed and bent inwards, causing severe internal bleeding and sheer unfathomable pain.

"Aaahhhh!" I cried out as the pain started to amplify and notifications of warnings popped up into my vision.

[You have sustained 135 damage]

[You have 2 shattered ribs, 3 fractured ribs, a spinal fracture, fractured radius and ulna, dislocated shoulder, damage to internal organs and severe blood loss]

[You will lose 5HP every minute due to blood loss]

[HP is now at 14]

"This is bad!" I thought, trying to keep sane as the pain drove my sanity into a wall. My mother got up from on top of my body, it seemed like during the fall she must have fallen unconscious.

"Oh My God! Zeref!" she shouted immediately, getting up and casting some sort of green spell, "2 shattered ribs, 3 fractured ribs, damage to internal organs…" she muttered to herself, the spell must have been some sort of medical skill.

"This will feel like hell my poor boy, just bear with it." she talked hastily, I couldn't muster up the energy to even speak back.

[HP is now at 13]

"Let's fix this blood loss situation first," she spoke as she bit her finger until blood started flowing out of her thumb. What was she doing?

"Oh monarch of beasts! Heed my request and allow me to summon the great medic!" she shouted infusing mana into her finger and striking the ground, "Release and appear!" Immediately a small tornado of green mana formed on her left and a weird monkey beast, with emerald green armour appeared.

"It's fine, no need to tell me what the situation is, I'll stop the blood flow and repair damage to the internal organs, You repair the bones." The weird monkey beast crouched down and cast his red coloured mana on me. Immediately a warm feeling of relief engulfed my body dimming the excruciating pain,

[Blood loss has stopped, blood levels are rising again]

[Internal organs are being restored]

[HP is rising 17/150]

My mother listened and straight away copied the same movements as the monkey beast and cast her familiar green mana, but this time it didn't feel as welcoming and warming as the first time. Again pain shot up my nerves, as the pain of bones being crushed and remoulded made me scream in pain and agony, I could feel the bones bending and twisting like vines being moulded into wires.

"I'm going to make him unconscious Rosaline, the pain will drive him insane." the beast spoke moving one of his hands away and putting it over my head. The red mana flowed over my head and started to shroud my body.

[A mental spell has been cast on you, Spell has been rejected]

"Strange it seems he's rejecting my spell."

That reminded me, I was immune to mental spells. As good as these perks were, now they were causing me pain. "Aaaahhhhh!!" I screamed again, as the pain was driving me insane.

[You have discovered a new skill: Rapid healing (Level 1)]

[This skill can consume MP to raise HP at a fast rate]

All this pain was worth it then. I looked at my HP. It was already at 47/ 150, then a thought came across my head, "Let's test this new skill, I'm tired of their stupid slow healing."

"That's enough!" I shouted as lightning mana cackled around me, I activated my lightning aura skill, and energy flowed throughout my body, recharging my depleted mana pool. Lightning mana particles in the atmosphere flowed into my body as if I was a magnet, and my mana pool finally started to fill up. My mother and the monkey beast backed away as the atmosphere became dense with lightning mana and they became unsure of what was happening.

[Lightning aura has caused intimidation, mana from the atmosphere is being absorbed]

[MP is now 78/100]

'Rapid Healing.' I thought, immediately a green coloured lightning bolt appeared around my body and started to circulate.

[Rapid healing has been used]

[You will lose 5MP every 30 seconds]

[3 HP points will be regained every 5 seconds]

I got up to my feet.

"Son what's happening?" my mother said worriedly, as she continued to witness the weird phenomenon.

My body reacted on its own. I ducked as an overhead kick was directed at me from behind. What was that? I moved backwards to a safe distance out of the large crater to see the old geezer standing sternly, with a serious look on his face. I glanced back at my mother and the monkey beast started to disappear. Her spell must have been deteriorating. I didn't realise the toll it took on her body, She started to collapse.

"Mum!" I shouted as I reached out with one hand, hoping for my arms to magically extend and cushion her fall.

"There's no time to worry about her, worry about yourself boy!" the old geezer shouted, disappearing out of my field of view.

In a second, the geezer closed the distance and threw two straight punches towards me, there was this gravity to his punches I could not explain, but then again I couldn't explain anything.

Why was he attacking me in the first place? Is he a good guy or bad guy? I wasn't going to let him keep attacking, I needed answers! Just then a new notification I had never seen popped up.

[New Quest: Defeat Zeref Amara for an Instant Level Up!]

[Do you want to accept the quest?]

[Yes/No]

Of course I had to pick 'Yes', even though I wasn't going to beat him, it was worth the try.

From my old world, I remembered the unique mixed martial arts style I had created through countless battles, maybe it could work here, worth a shot.

"Time to test it out then." I said as I used a mana infused step, vanishing out of sight and appearing behind the giant foe, he turned his bulky body and blocked my full forced roundhouse kick with two arms. My body was extremely small and I still wasn't used to the reduction in distance my attacks could reach but my rich battle experience made up for it.

I dashed backwards to a safe position to assess the situation. I glanced at my HP, it was at 116 and most of my injuries had already healed, my MP was at 44; I decided to deactivate the rapid healing skill and keep my lightning aura skill on.

The peculiar thing about this mana skill was it helped me gain MP at a steady rate 1MP per 20 seconds while moving, plus it allowed me to intimidate my opponent by mixing in my killing intent. It was different to meditating which had no limit to the absorption of mana, but it kept me still. It was the best combat skill, recharging on the go. I was like a solar powered car.

The only downside was it made my body more fatigued physically draining my stamina, and at an exponential rate at that. Especially as my body still was that of a 4 year old infant, i couldn't use this skill to its max potential.

[MP has reached 90/ 100]

I straight away activated my lightning cloak ability and used 5MP to cover the distance infusing my legs with lightning mana, making me travel at an above average speed.

I jumped up and aimed a Brazilian kick at his head, my leg moved like a little whip, as the lightning mana gave my legs temporary hardening and strength, he blocked the kick with his forearm, flinching from the effects of the lightning mana.

Again I shifted my weight into my right hand throwing a right hook then a low kick, all being blocked or dodged in succession. I moved back again, as the effects of my mana expenditure and the toll of the constant mana absorption caused me intense fatigue. I hunched over holding my knees trying to gasp for air and energy.

"Okay, that's enough kiddo, I've confirmed my suspicions." the old geezer spoke, showing no hint of negative intent in his voice. He closed the distance in an instant and came closer to me. I immediately put up my hands and moved my legs into a kickboxing stance. Did he want another round? He raised his arms showing his friendly intentions. I relaxed my stance and deactivated my skills and fell to the ground sitting down, regaining my stamina. Does that mean it was a technical win?

[Congratulations! You have completed the quest!]

[You have levelled up! You are now level 2!]

[All stats have increased by 1!]

"So you really are an other worlder? That damned monarch! I had a hunch you were the lightning monarch's candidate but I couldn't get myself to believe it. After that deal your parents had made, something like this was bound to happen. The lightning monarch's candidates always come from a different universe it's rumoured. I had my suspicions when you broke through the first mana pool stage at such a young stage and even this battle now.

"Well you might as well tell me about yourself Mr other worlder. Anything you tell me, I will make sure to keep a secret, I was planning on erasing the memories of you mother of this encounter anyways to ensure your relationship isn't harmed. You see your parents and I made a contract with the lightning monarch long ago, in exchange for power to fight off the beings from the parallel realms, we'd have to return the favour by doing one thing he requested, we all got different requests that we weren't allowed to share with each other. My task he gave me was to train you." the geezer spoke, finally we were by my mother's side.

Now that everything made sense, I decided to tell him everything about me from my past identity to my old status. By the time my little story was done, gramps had already healed my mother and patched her memories erasing the incident and giving her a different memory.

"By the way where are we exactly?" I asked Gramps, this being the first time I actually thought about it. I looked around, only acres of trees and the blue sky was in view, there was not even a single sign of life.

"We are in my personal training grounds, this is a dimension I created in anticipation of the lightning monarch's candidate. Let's get out of here and leave your mother at our house in the village." the old built man replied.

"Wait there's a village? So there are other people here?"

"Yes off course and this village isn't just any old village, they're filled with masters of all different specialities. I created this village in hopes of nurturing you, but who would've guessed that my grandson was the candidate. To be fair I was a little bit sad that i was creating all this for some other person and not my family, but look how the tides have turned." he spoke as he slapped my shoulder, making it sting.

My mother was still unconscious, so gramps was still holding her in his arms.

"Are you ready to leave?"

"Yes, let's go." I said.

Then the old man clicked his fingers and a portal appeared. I followed him into the green coloured portal.

[You have entered a green portal]