Heyo, I finally got another chapter out. I will start updating this every time I get another 5k words on Vivian's prologue, so use this as a meter of how much progress I am making if you like.
Anyway, please join my discord if you wanna talk about this or make suggestions: https://discord.gg/aV9cGRYAtH
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Charlie's pov:
'I suppose I should look for where-ever all these magicules are coming from..' Floating into the air, I began to make my way toward the large mass of magicules in the deepest parts of these caverns.
I was caught off guard several times by other creatures, but I found I could get around them with spatial manipulation. The skill was much easier to use in line of sight, all I needed to do was look somewhere and it was easy to warp there.
As I wound my way from passage to passage, I began peaking around the walls and relying more and more on my sight as the magic sense became harder to use in the high density.
The oppressiveness of this aura made it harder to progress, but spending time with Cassidy made that easier to bare, and as I rounded one corner I was blinded by the light of a sphere of concentrated magic. Glittering off a lake, in what I believed to be the deepest cavern.
'This has to be it... It looks like there is something inside of that barrier.. Oh! It is moving-'
'Your thoughts are really loud, little one.' A deep booming voice pierced my mind as I felt my form ache with the sudden intrusion.
'Agh!.. You are really loud yourself.. Whoever you are..' I placed my hand against my chest and felt the creaking as fell to the ground, unable to keep using my skill.
'Oh? You don't know who I am, yet you bow. I suppose I shall introduce the greatest one such as myself. The Storm Dragon, Veldora!...' Somehow I could tell he was keeping his thoughts at the ready, waiting to cut me off or something.
I on the other hand was just dealing with the pain surging through my entire being, I needed to figure out what was wrong quickly.
'Oh.. This one is in pain, hm? I can see why, your soul and spiritual body are exposed to the material realm. Such turbulent magicule concentrations are tearing at them. Curious, though. Such a being with their soul in the material realm, perhaps you could erect a barrier to protect it?' The voice began pondering in my mind as the searing pain surged even more.
'Please.. stop.. no talking..' I needed to compose myself despite the pain, otherwise I might lose myself. I tried to use the magicules, making a bubble of them around myself, and finally a moment of reprieve.
I sat up and pulled my legs close to myself, hugging my knees tightly. 'I haven't felt that close to dying since..' I pushed my thoughts aside and just sat in the silence.
'You should strengthen the barrier more, if you wish to make this a permanent solution, little one. That one will break, eventually.' The 'dragon?' spoke again, giving me further instruction, and gave me another jolt of pain alongside it.
I tried pulling in the barrier more and making it denser, I wished there was some way it could be held up like this unconsciously though.
{Notice: Requirements met, would you like to acquire skill Ranged Barrier?}
{Y/N}
'If it will make this easier.. Yes.' I was shivering a bit, feeling truly at risk for the first time in so long was, unpleasant.
{Notice: Acquiring skill, Ranged Barrier.... Successful.}
With the skill it didn't require constant mental effort to maintain the barrier anymore, it just stayed around me. 'Better..'
'Are you able to talk now, little one? It was rude to ignore my introduction like that, you know.' The dragon spared no time in talking again the moment it seemed he felt he would be able to, luckily the thoughts didn't hurt anymore with the barrier strengthened.
I looked up to the original barrier, and without the pain assaulting me the sight I got through the it now was clearer. A massive steel black dragon, that had little gusts of wind wafting off of it. The eyes glowed a piercing gold.
He made a large motion as if puffing out his chest. 'What do you think now that you can see this glorious me, eh?!' His ego was insatiable.
'You look like a big lizard.' I thought bluntly.
'DON'T MAKE ME COME OUT THERE!' He made his thoughts really loud, but didn't put more magicules into them.
'Will you? You didn't even try to hurt me just now, when I think we both know you could have. Are you lonely?' I knew that feeling well, so it wasn't that hard to surmise.
'Eh?! I get tons of visitors, I am the mighty storm dragon!'
I tilted my head a bit, maybe I couldn't make an expression but I could show doubt.
'Ugh.. Fine. No one has been here in over a hundred years.. You are the first thing I've been able to talk to in the longest time.' The dragon sulked a bit while explaining.
'Huh, I that explains it I guess. My skill only told me you were a true dragon when I asked, it didn't say anything about how you got here.' I had been accessing Wisened one throughout the conversation. It seemed it could only tell me thing about myself, or about this world's 'system' as it was called.
'You needed to ask your skill? How could you possibly not know of the true dragons!? I suppose you are a type of monster I have never seen before, perhaps you are new to this world?' He could have no idea how accurate that was as his gaze shifted quizzically.
'Really? It said this thing already existed.. That is ominous. Guess someone else was already here, in this world I mean..' I didn't really know how to answer his questions further.
'How did you end up here, little one? Surely with your prowess with thinking you must have some story.' The dragon was able to deduce something quite well, I guess he really was never dumb as he seemed.
'Ah.. Well I ended up here after dying? I think.. I was already dead though. I had been for over a hundred years at that point actually. For a long time I inhabited a puppet robot, like this one. Then I was a soul on the flipside, a realm for souls to go after death, if they still had unfinished business.' I could only really explain so much, and tried to skimp on the details, as not to remember the painful ones.
'Referring to you so vaguely is becoming troublesome. It will be hard to remember this interesting story without a name to link it with, would you like one?' The dragon said something outlandish, and I still barely understand why it works that way.
'I have a name, you big lizard. My name is Ch-' I was cut off before I could continue.
'Don't! Stop thinking that this instant! You could kill yourself in an attempt to name yourself like that. What I mean is you have no name attached to your soul, and while as you appear to have had a name in your previous life. You no longer do.' He seemed legitimately worried for my well being for a moment there, guess what I was doing was really dangerous.
'uhuh..' I checked this with my skill at this point, and the information I got was very interesting. 'Wait, you'd just freely give up a part of your power... to remember my story? You would be terrible with money... Well, not that I can say I was ever better with it.'
'I am good at naming, I should be able to control how much I give you. Though I honestly wouldn't mind giving you more if your story is good.' He had to go and give me something of an offer like that.
'Well.. I don't really need more power. I don't think I do at least. I only need enough to keep others from going through what I did.' I still refused to elaborate, he wouldn't goad me so easily.
'If you are aware what naming would do and still do not freely take it, you are excessively noble. In this world it is survival of the fittest, and you will save no one with such an outlook. Whatever happened, you'll see it happen again.' Veldora pushed my buttons with that, but I couldn't exactly lash out from the inside of my own little barrier.
'I won't let people get killed in front of me again.. I can stop it... That monster won't get them this time..'
'Your aura is flaring more than it was before. That is enough, I apologize for making you think about it. I'll simply give you a name, free of telling me.' Veldora spoke his thoughts in my mind softly now, with an apologetic tone.
I simply didn't respond, before.
'Hm... Something in line with your current appearance may trigger those memories, but your old name was not exactly perfect either. It was close, however. I can tell that much. Perhaps you would be better named by Velgrynd.. No no. Not the time to think about that. I've decided, I'll simplify your old name. Charlie.' The dragon wouldn't shut up for a moment, but I couldn't focus on that.
The moment he said it, that name. Something I'd been called plenty of times in the past, it felt as if it was engraved into my very being. I could also see the magicules flowing from all around directly into me.
The barrier dropped, but I didn't feel as if I needed it any longer.
{Notice: You have gained divine protection of the Storm Dragon, Storm Crest.}
'Your magicules aren't hurting me anymore.. Veldora.' I didn't feel exactly equal to him any longer, I now felt somewhat drawn to him. It was a deeply unsettling feeling.
'Ah, you didn't sass me that time.. Perhaps you missed a part of naming, it does make you naturally more likely to like me. I tried not to make your subordinate with it, however I could not bring myself to name you as as equal either.' Veldora sounded a small bit apologetic again, but I just felt.
'I'm leaving.'
'Wait, no! Don't leave me all alone here!'
I ignored his thought for just long enough to get outside the cave, with spatial manipulation.
'I need to get out of this forest, I don't want to feel indebted to that lizard like this.. It is just too disturbing. I need to find the others, if they are out there.' I floated up off the ground and start moving.
...
I couldn't really decide on a direction, however. So I simply went away from the dragon's massive aura. It seemed to encompass the whole of the massive forest.
It had taken days to get away from it, luckily I didn't need to eat. Actually, I didn't even have a mouth. 'Don't think I could eat even if I wanted to..'
Standing up there in the sky felt nice, I wish I could have done this as the puppet. Breaking the cloud with your finger tips and moving them around with Telekinesis was fun. It helped me regain my nerves.
Though, eventually I had to land. Where exactly I was, I couldn't be sure of. What I did know is that it was a massive plain and that there was what looked like a small city in the distance.
'Should I approach? I don't know how they will react to me..' My guesses were all unpleasant.
'All the monsters I've approached have run from me..' I couldn't tell why, but a thought began dawning on me as I stared off into the human settlement.
'If other monsters can see that dragon cause of his massive aura, all those magicules.. Do I have one of those? A smaller one like his?'
I changed perspective on magic sense to look at myself closely, and realized that I did look different from my surroundings. Very different, to an incredible degree in fact.
I was like a massive hotspot of magicules, a burning star of color. Blinding when I actually looked at my own body. 'That must have something to do with my soul being in the physical world, and well. This won't do. I can guess humans don't look like this based on how low the amount of magicules coming from that city is.'
I had a bit of an idea, based on how I made the barrier before. 'I'll re-erect it and try to pull all the magicules inside.' As I performed the simple plan, I noticed just how hard it actually was to pull off.
It hurt a little bit to hold all these magicules in like this, and made magic sense and many other skills a lot harder to use.
I had to bear it though, and as I landed with my aura hidden. I realized another issue. 'I need some way to hide my appearance.. Well, there are plenty of houses around these plains.. Maybe I could steal some clothes from there?'
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-2180 words-
AN: Cutting it off here because I have a plan for Blumund, and it may be long.
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Five Nights In Tensura?
FanfictionCharlie wakes up in a strange cave, with a new mask to wear.
