Luca DR
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Accidentally summoned 04
🕑 Added 2024-02-05 14:53:59 +0000 UTC04 – Towards the city
Sleeping on a branch was very uncomfortable, and a Tier 1 body was not sturdy enough to ignore the consequences of that and the muscle pain. Ishrin woke up groggy and tired for the first time in a long time, his very first morning in this new life of his. He stretched.
Feels nice.
Paradoxically, he was quite happy he was feeling this way. Being immortal and nigh-omnipotent for so long had robbed him of the little pleasures. Perhaps in a few days he would come to regret this, but for now he enjoyed the new sensations. The fresh air tickling his nostrils. The wet humidity sticking to his skin…
In his pocket, the little pixie Liù was still sleeping.
I’ll let you sleep a bit more.
All around, the forest was slowly coming to life. The soft light of the morning sun lit up the green trees and foliage, and from the vantage point up on the tree the air was still and peaceful. An illusion easily broken, however, by a simple sweep of Ishrin’s mana senses.
Things were moving in this forest. Unknown dangers, better to be met with a keen eye.
He poked the little pixie as softly as he could, waking her up. She was a little groggy at first, much like he had been, but soon she was flying circles around his head. Now that he had woken up his main weapon and companion, he descended back from the tree, leaving the illusory safety of height behind.
With protection and some semblance of power taken care of, the next thing on Ishrin’s to-do list was to find a city. Or civilization in general, so that he could begin to form a plan. There wasn’t much direction to his plan yet, and the instructions given to him by Albert had been vague at best – and utterly useless if one wanted to have a more realistic view of it. But they also afforded him complete freedom of movement, so that he could strategize.
Ishrin formulated three tentative goals:
1. Find civilization and learn about this place, its magic system and how it relates to the wider universe/multiverse.
2. Use this information to search for his wife. If necessary, make friends and social connections in places of power connected to the outside. Albert mentioned this was a backwater planet, so Ishrin’s best shot was to try and talk with someone with actual power.
3. Gain power himself. Without personal power, most things became harder if not borderline impossible.
Another benefit of being forced to interact with people was that he could finally start to offset the centuries spent alone in isolation in Eternia after his last rampage had rendered the planet uninhabited. Albert had stressed that point enough that Ishrin could not afford to ignore it.
He walked around. The soil was soft underneath his feet, still wet from the rains of a few days ago. The sun kept climbing steadily through the sky, its light shining through the canopy in small shafts of light that traced their path through the humid air, and a smell of plants and thriving life permeated the air. Occasionally sounds could be heard: calls of birds and strange animals, rustling of leaves moving in the wind, and the snapping of twigs in the distance. Ishrin decided to follow this last sound, that sometimes felt more like entire logs being destroyed rather than mere twigs. His hunch was right, because the closer he got, the louder the sounds were until he could distinctly hear footsteps in the distance, and the clanging of armor.
Armor meant people.
Except, what he found was a huge beast, a lizard creature at least two full meters tall that walked through the forest clad in heavy armor. Its back was hunched and his face tense, as if he was hunting elusive game in the noisy jungle that kept escaping from his clutches. He wore ornate armor made of thin strong metal and leather straps, held together by a medallion on his chest. His deep-set eyes that regarded the forest with methodical precision homed in on Ishrin the moment he emerged from the undergrowth.
“Shit,” Ishrin cursed. He showed himself and tried to appear as non-threatening as possible.
Surely – whatever creature this was – if it was wearing armor it must be intelligent. It followed that it would know where a city was, and asking for directions was the best way to appear less of a threat and more like something to exploited. Ishrin could work with that.
“Hello friend!” He waved at the lizardman, sporting a wide and hopefully not too fake smile.
The creature grunted, still staring at him.
“I’m… lost. Could you please tell me where I can find—”
Suddenly the lizardman jumped forward, unsheathing his large knives mid-air as he lunged towards Ishrin. His face was contorted in a snarl, feral and deadly, showing unnaturally long and sharp teeth dripping with a purple ooze. His eyes were transfixed on Ishrin and killing intent could be felt palpable emanating from the creature.
Ishrin didn’t even have time to move. The forest was, once again, proving to be much more dangerous than he could handle safely. Fortunately, he was not completely defenseless.
A beam of light, blinding and terrible, erupted from Little Liù, who had stopped playing with Ishrin’s hair and was now staring down at the lizard creature with an angry face. She was baring her teeth in an attempt to intimidate, but they only looked cute on her tiny face, and her puffed cheeks were bright pink from exertion. Nonetheless, the beam cut the lizardman in half, and the two parts separated in midair and landed on the ground near Ishrin, on two opposite sides. Behind the space the lizar man had been, a wide swath of smoldering destruction marred the forest like an ugly scar. There was no risk of fire due to the humidity, but several trees had been cut and burned, their blackened trunks witness of Liù’s terrible destructive power.
It’s gotta be at least a solid Tier 4. She was weaker last time too… is she getting more powerful already?
He gathered her before exhaustion hit her. She was powerful, yes, but these attacks still drained all the energy out of her whenever she used them.
Perhaps I should teach her how to modulate her power output. That would require a good reading of the enemy, as well as a benchmark of her own power… so much to do.
Chunks of still red-hot armor fell to the ground beside the slain monster, separating from the scales and meat beneath. Close to the larger half of the body, the once-deadly knives that had been bigger than Ishrin’s head were now nothing more than slag.
Trying to scavenge the core of the dead monster, he only found smoking and hissing shattered fragments.
“Too bad,” he said calmly, gathering the pieces and helping the pixie climb his shoulder. “Try not to shatter its core next time. It’s quite valuable.”
With a swirl of void and galaxies, reality shifted for a moment. The dead body, the destroyed armor and weapons, and the fragments of the core all went into Ishrin’s inventory in a ripple of displaced space, time and a hint of the fabric of what lied below. After all, Ishrin had yet to find a limit to how much his ability could store, which rendered an already powerful ability almost utterly insane, although experiments had shown that he could not use it for combat.
Unless I get creative.
The pixie hummed weakly, dead tired, but she sounded proud of her work.
“As you should be,” Ishrin continued. “Those were some good reflexes back there! Guess the lizard guy wasn’t too fond of talking, huh?”
The pixie flew until she was right in his face and stared at his eyes, floating at the level of his nose. She was pouting, hissing at him and flying up and down.
“I’m sorry!” Ishrin said. “I thought… surely he must know the way to the closest city, right? I mean, what sort of monster wears armor?”
The pixie wasn’t having any of it.
“Fine, new world new rules. I will be more careful. Happy?”
The sound of chimes told him that she was satisfied with his concession.
“It’s cute that you care about me.”
Just as he said that the pixie immediately turned beet red and disappeared in his hair. He couldn’t help but smile again, and a flood of pleasant memories came to his mind. His wife used to be like this too, and he wondered if the pixie knew that. Maybe it was the name.
“You two should meet. She is out here, you know? We just need to find her… after we manage to find a city.”
They walked for a few more hours. Occasionally they stopped to forage for some basic resources for his later rituals, but most plants were too high tier to be harvested safely while surrounded by possible dangers, so Ishrin simply noted their location and moved on. By late morning they had found a river, and some edible berries which, couple with the rich breakfast and leftover monster meat, had been enough to keep going.
Unfortunately by the time night came again they still had not found a city.
“This forest is larger than I thought.”
They had found a path, however, which had been great news and had lifted their spirits greatly. Following it, the path had steadily widened and had grown more well-tended, confirming that they were going the right way.
“It’s going to get very dark in here, with all these trees. What do we do? Do we camp, or do we try our luck and find the city?”
Liù whistled and chimed twice.
“I see. I agree with you, but I’m going to need you to provide some light.”
More chimes.
“A torch? Do you know how long it takes to make one? I don’t even know how to make one! Come on, just some light!”
Liù didn’t look too happy.
“Listen, back in Eternia I didn’t even need light okay? It follows that I forgot how to make a torch. It’s only a temporary arrangement until I get my power back, okay?”
The pixie shrugged. Just as Ishrin was about to offer some more argumentations, her body began to glow slightly, and the light intensified over the course of the next few minutes until it was much brighter than a torch.
With this, they could navigate the forest. There was also the risk that monsters could be attracted to both the light and the magic, but they decided to risk it anyway. It would be no worse than sleeping another full night in the trees.
Their gamble paid off a few hours later when finally, the duo broke out of the thick underbrush to the sight of fields and lone windmills in the distance. Up above, a large moon bathed the world silver, and silhouettes of imposing mountains stood tall and black at the horizon. Between two of those, faint twinkling orange lights were clustered together. A city.
“You know,” Ishrin said as they walked close to a watering trench, “the moon reminds of that time I explored the moon Celestar. Why I went there? Well, there was this ancient mage who had chosen to build his tower on it. So weird… there was no air, no water, no life, and no mana! Why would anyone sane ever choose to build their tower there?”
Liù bobbed her head and chimed.
“I guess it is more defensible.”
Another chime.
“Space magic? If there ever had been any, by the time I got there and looted the place the portal was long gone. I depleted three whole flying swords to reach the damn moon!”
Three quick chimes.
“Nope. A wasted trip. There was nothing of use, just some scrolls that had lost their power and a few ritual schematics that were centuries outdated. The view was nice though. Deep space was… much less so. I learned something on that trip, little pixie. Never, ever venture into space if you are below Tier 10. Trust me.”
They chatted a bit more, but as the night deepened, it was clear that Liù was getting tired. Ishrin was too, but the sight of the lights of a city in the distance were enough to entice him to keep going, trying his best not to fall asleep to the side of the road. It did help that out of the forest, the farmlands were much safer. There were lone monsters prowling in the distance, but without trees to obstruct the view it was easy to keep an eye on their movements, and Ishrin knew a lot about monster behavior to be confident he could avoid them.
Sure, things like the armored lizard might be different here, but basic monster know-how was not.
Thus, with a pixie resting in a nest of his long, black hair, Ishrin trudged on.
