[Xander – 12 years]
"This wasn't here yesterday…" Adam looks around the main room of the new addition to Dad's property and I let Trenton look around the room as well even though he's already seen it.
It's a big addition to the property, too. One of the things on my list of stuff that I'd like as a reward for not running away at all, even as I get more stressed with school coming up, was a new building. Specifically, a gymnasium like from school. I knew Dad couldn't afford it all of a sudden so I even listed that I would be the one paying for it. That would even allow for some additional things instead of just the indoor basketball court setup.
My bank account's big enough, with everything that's already been sold. Just one improved sensor for celestial bodies made more than enough for me to pay for it. Enough that I could even afford to hire a company under the Lumaria Group to perform the work. They're the kind who can get something like this done in less than a day when involving magic in the construction.
That wasn't my intention, but Grandpa Adrian made sure it was the best team he had. I was expecting it to take a few days rather than just one.
Dad was originally a little against it, so I brought up good points on why it's a good reward.He was still unsure after my points, but then I spoke with Grandpa Adrian to ask him about the cost of it so I could use the price in my arguments and Dad changed his mind. What was really surprising was that he agreed to all three of the things on my list which I felt he might not consider to be reasonable rewards.
Including the one I thought about while we were talking about the list. I felt it wouldn't be considered at all because it wasn't on the list but he said it was reasonable.
Which makes me really happy. I'm not sure when that one will be done, though, since I want to check something out before work on it gets started.
"The builders arrived yesterday," I tell Adam. "They came from one of Grandpa Adrian's companies and got it done in the afternoon, by the time I got back from Youth Group. It's a pretty complete facility. They even built the hall we just came through."
The gym isn't attached to the house directly but sits a little bit away from it. A covered walkway leads from one part of the house to one of the door pairs for the gym. The walkway itself has a square post every seven feet and a three-foot wall rising up from the ground. Between the top of the wall and the roof of the walkway is a glass window, to let us see the yard.
Which was repaired with magic after the construction work was done, and there are even some new things planted. Harold, our groundskeeper, is a little bit pleased to have less yard to mow even if there are some more flowers and bushes to take care of. That doesn't make any sense to me but that might be one of those things I'll never understand.
"And you can see the exits are all marked," I point at the double doors at the other side of the gym from us, but on the front wall rather than the side wall directly opposite us. "And you can see another two at the end wall down there," those are on opposite sides of it. "That's in case of a serious incident where the place needs to be evacuated. It's required by law."
There's also an emergency exit on the front end wall by the walkway here, in case the walkway is unusable during an emergency.
"Yeah," Adam says. "What are all of those other doors?"
On both side walls are bleachers, currently tucked in. Those are on an automated system which just requires pressing a button. Breaking up the bleachers a little on both walls are additional doors. They don't fully break up the bleachers, though – there are three rows of bleachers above the doors. This creates a sort of tunnel-like effect leading up to the doors when the bleachers are all the way out.
"Those two sets of doors," I point at the opposite wall. "Lead to two separate changing rooms with attached showers. The shower rooms back each other, and the changing rooms have openings into the new pool. The door between the bleachers and the exit," I point at the one opposite us. "Is a hall leading to the pool as well. So's the one on the far wall over there."
An attached pool wasn't necessary since we already have two here but the cost was within the budget I was permitted. By adding one to the home fitness facility, it's a more complete fitness center. I just felt that was really important so I asked for it.
"Know how the walkway suddenly stopped having windows on the right-hand wall as we got close?" I ask. "That's because there are more rooms on this wall. There are doors leading into each of them.
"One of them leads to a room with workout equipment," I tell him. "Another leads to a room with mats, where we can do martial arts with a higher ceiling. The last of the ones splitting up the bleachers a bit leads to the storage room. It's a big one because there's a lot of stuff in it. Not just the nets for volleyball or having basketballs and volleyballs and stuff in it."
"Cleaning supplies?"
"That's in a different closet," I tell him. "Among other things, there are also foam mats to cover the floor with and big, foam-covered blocks of various shapes. That's so we can make a cushioned obstacle course. Or just make obstacles for something like hide-and-seek or playing an augmented reality game or laser tag. There are also non-cushioned obstacles, and other stuff."
I wanted to make sure it was properly stocked, even if I might not use some of the stuff, like the trampolines. There's also no way I'm going to tell him that there's a rope system do to rope climbs. The controls are on the wall to let the ropes down or bring them back up, but he probably won't use them so he won't find out on his own, I don't think.
"This was all built yesterday?"
"Magic can do amazing things, huh?"
"Yeah, it can…" he looks around for a few more moments.
In addition to the bleachers, there's also a scoreboard on each end wall. The hoops are the kind mounted from the ceiling and which lower down at the push of a button. Rather than just two, there are the two on the ends and then two on each side of the room as well. That way, if a really big group comes in, we can split up into up to eight games.
I don't like that number, but it would be unbalanced in design if we tried making it an odd number of hoops. That's even worse. I also really don't think I'd have that many people in here to play with.
"Go get changed," Adam tells me. "We'll start today's session once you're back out here."
"Okay," I say, then head into one of the changing rooms.
My athletics clothes are already in one of the lockers, so I didn't need to bring them over. I set Trenton down on one of the benches before opening up the locker. My outfit for athletics days is MountainStorm Gear athletic pants and a long-sleeved athletic shirt from them. The pants are black with neon green stripes down their sides and the shirt is dark green with their logo small and neon green on my left chest.
The shirt fits a little bit snugly, which I'm not too happy with, but it's good for doing athletic stuff in. It's not a tight fit, but it does also show that I've got a little bit of muscle, too, which makes me feel happy for some reasons.
Using athletic long-sleeves instead of regular long-sleeves for my fitness sessions is something I'm starting this week. It's part of me attempting to wear clothes more appropriate for the sessions, even if it makes me uncomfortable. But at least I don't look bad in them.
Once I fully change, I slip on my athletic shoes, which match the outfit. Black and dark green with neon green accents and laces.
"Come on," I pick up Trenton and take him into the gym, then walk over to the controls for the bleachers on this wall and turn it on until the bottom row is out.
The way the bleachers work is that the bottom row slides forward or back when it's on. Once the bottom row is fully past the row above it, that row also begins to move outward. That repeats all the way up to the top. When putting them away, it works in reverse. All of the ones that are out slide back at once, and stop once they're tucked in as far as they'll go.
This lets me move out only the bottom row, and I only bring out the seat part itself, not the aisle as well. Once that's done, I set Trenton on the seat with his back against the second row, so that he can sit properly to watch me.
"Let's do our stretches," Adam tells me. "Right arm across first."
After spending five minutes doing different stretches, Adam has me run laps around the gym.
"That's right!" he calls out. "Make sure to keep yourself paced. Don't push yourself too hard, this is just a part of your warm-up with some light muscle training. You don't want to get out of breath from this. If you feel you can jog faster without getting out of breath, then do. Remember to keep your breathing as even as you can."
The jog lasts for five minutes, then Adam has me do several different exercises. Push-ups, planks, star jumps, squats, lunges, and jumping rope. Not in that order, and he changes it for each of the three sets he has me do.
"Let's do basketball today," Adam tells me. "You mentioned you've got those? Can you get one? And… we'll need one of the hoops down."
I walk over to the control panel for the hoops and press the button for the one at the end furthest from the walkway. Then I walk over and grab a basketball from the storage room, which is bigger on the inside than the outside by a lot.
That's not a normal addition to this setup. In order to accommodate all of the stuff for the obstacles and other games and sports, they would normally make several storage rooms or one really large one. But enchanting it to have an expanded space is easy for me so I was given permission to do that.
Making it stable was easier because the storage room was already going to be a decent size without it – twenty feet on each side and eight in height. That gave me more surface area to place the enchantments on. Powdered pocket hare bones were used in the formula for the concrete blocks in the walls, which also made it easier to enchant the space.
As a result, it's absolutely immense and fits everything needed to make the gym greatly multipurpose.
I grab a basketball and exit the storage room, then Adam has me show him my dribbling. Dribbling while standing still is the only thing I do okay with when it comes to playing with a basketball. Everything else when it comes to basketball is something I fail at horribly.
Because of that, the next part is Adam having me try to dribble it between my legs, and between my hands. I mess up a lot but he never yells at me, just tells me to get the ball and try again. Each time I mess up, he either asks me if I know what I did wrong or tells me what I did wrong. With both ways, he also tells me how to try and avoid messing up the next time.
The next part of today's athletics session is practicing dribbling back and forth across the gym. Thankfully, part of the standard enchantments for an indoor basketball court by the company I hired is one which prevents the squeaking noise from shoes on the floor. They assured me that it doesn't affect anything other than the sound, though I'm not sure why removing the sound would affect other things.
Apparently, the sound is because of friction, or something like that. But the enchantment doesn't affect friction, only squeaky noises. Which is important for running around, because it isn't just back-and-forth Adam has me do. He also has me turn and run between cones after asking me if we have any.
That's even more difficult than running straight, and I already trip a lot while just running back and forth while dribbling. A lack of friction would make me fall a lot more.
I'm really glad the pain from when I trip quickly disappears. My body being a lot tougher now than it was two months ago means the pain is a lot less as well, which is another thing I'm grateful for. Also that my glasses are enchanted, because they would probably fall off and break more than once when I trip otherwise.
Adam never gets mad at me when I mess up. I like that. It's only been a week but he's been good so far. More time will be needed before I can be certain that he's really a good person, but he seems to be for now.
Not-real fairies also love him so he probably really is a good person.
For the final part of today's fitness session, Adam has me practice trying to shoot hoops. He doesn't let me shoot from the same spot twice in a row, which makes it harder for me to get better. At least, in my opinion this makes it harder for me to get better.
Adam does his best to help me by letting me know how to adjust my aim, but that's useless when I have to shoot from another spot right after. I'll only be able to use that advice from the same spot.
The lesson finally ends and I'm able to take a shower and put on fresh clothes, then I collect Trenton from where he's watching Adam.
"I take you'd like to do martial arts in here tomorrow?" Adam asks. "Rather than the other room?"
"Yeah," I answer. "The training room here's got more space and I don't feel like the ceiling's too low in there."
"Alright," he says. "Let's head back into the house."
Adam and I walk back to the house and I lead him to the door, then wish him a good rest of his day.
"You, too, Xander," he says. "See you tomorrow."
"Bye."
Adam leaves, then I go to the kitchen. Katie already has a smoothie ready for me. Peanut butter, banana, milk, and some other things. I drink the whole thing before heading back up to my room. It's important to get protein and other nutrients back into my body after a workout. Katie now always makes sure the smoothie is made with magic ingredients for optimal effect.
My body heals immediately but that doesn't mean it recovers. And the magic in the ingredients makes it so my mana recovery rate continues to be pushed higher than its base level. My body's natural healing does consume a little bit of my mana, after all. I made sure to minimize the amount of mana I used after Monday, so I'm fairly full on it right now.
I should have enough for my next task for today.
Which is another of the things from the list which Dad gave me permission for. I'd asked him about going hunting to the south today as a possible reward. For some reason, he didn't ask me any details but I guess he's sure I'll be fine. Ms. Johnson apparently didn't ask any further information beyond where it would be. Even it being in true wilderness – the name for anything more than one hundred miles beyond where mankind has settled – didn't make her say no.
At least, that's my assumption. It's Dad who talked with her about it, not me.
I pull on my new hunting outfit. I bought it yesterday and used my magic to clean it to ensure it's properly clean and ready for today's hunt. The outfit is almost the same as the one I wore for the hunt on Saturday. It's from MountainStorm Gear's hunting gear line. Camouflage underwear, pants, and long-sleeved shirt, brown-and-green socks, hunting boots, and a neon orange cap. After pulling a brownish-green cloth belt around my waist, I fix on the knife that Mr. Martins gifted me. Two spatial expansion pouches with temporal stasis enchantments are also fixed onto the belt.
That should be all, I think. One of the pouches has a massive space in order to fit him inside after I take him down, and the other is large but not that large, and has some supplies in it.
I text Dad to let him know I'm leaving, then leave the house. Once I'm past the gate, I pull a marble from one of my pouches. It was initially a completely clear glass sphere but now contains a runic formula floating within it. A spell formula.
Teleporting somewhere I've been before is easy while teleporting somewhere I've never been before requires a little bit of extra work. Scrying or calculations. Guesswork with the spell formula. The one within the orb is the teleport spell based on my calculations for my destination.
I study it for a few moments, then use the spell. A moment later, I find myself falling from more than a thousand feet up. I was off! I was off by a lot!
A scream escapes me as the forest below starts rushing toward me. What do I do? I might survive the impact but I'll be in a lot of pain. Heights are bad! Heights are bad! Heights are bad!
Magic! I can use magic! But flight spells aren't designed to stop someone who's already moving at high speeds. What if I use it to fly and try to stop me that way? I don't know if it'll work with me falling this fast, though.
Think, Xander! You've got a temporalist brain! You've got time! Ways to stop my momentum without shattering every bone in my body… momentum! The catching spell that Carter and his family use on their ranch!
If I modify it like this… and then make these adjustments… no, that's wrong. Those magics won't be happy. They will if I move them like this, though. Got it!
My body stops falling the moment I cast the spell, stopping me around three hundred feet above the forest. I float in place as if I wasn't just plummeting to my death a moment before. This is… I should go on the ground. But in the sky will give me more room. But it's so high up.
Deep breaths, Xander, I tell myself, then try to take them.
That's what Dad would tell me to do. Take deep breaths and try to calm down. My heart is racing so fast and my body feels shaky and I feel light. But I can take deep breaths.
After I mostly calm myself down, I reorient myself so that I'm standing in the air. My modified flight-and-catch spell makes this really easy even if not any less scary.
"Okay, Xander," I tell myself. "Focus on what's going on. Don't focus on the deadly plummet. You need to focus. What was I doing? Um… orbs!"
I pull several streamer orbs out of my storage and they float in front of me, their irises still blue. After that, I swap my glasses for my magitech glasses and turn on everything's record mode. This isn't a stream, just a recording. I'm not even going to be posting this, I want the recording for a different purpose.
The irises on the streamer orbs turn green and the orbs fly off. Just in time, too, because I can see my prey coming towards me.
"Whoa."
It's so big. I mean, I knew it was big, but eighty feet from shoulders to tail is more than I realized. Especially since that's apparently only to the base of his tail, not its tip. It also doesn't include his neck and head, nor does it describe his height and wingspan.
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As with in the picture Carter showed me Saturday night, Akrolnomak looks somewhat draconic in form, but lacks a pair of forelegs. Instead, he has claws at the tips of his wings like all wyverns. His wings look somewhat leathery, though his body looks mostly stony. Each of his joints looks as if connected by vines, small gaps in the "stone" of his body exposing it.
A series of wooden plates cover his spine, and moss coats a few other parts of him. Actually, it looks like there are a few more wooden plates on his body, almost as if they're scales. Wyverns don't have scales according to the documentary on them I saw, but those don't seem to be attached via magic. They're an actual part of him.
The scale-like plates of wood may just be a feature of his traits, but they could be something else.
Do wyverns grow up into dragons? If so, just how big is Grandpa Adrian when he's in his original dragon form? Dragons are believed to be mythical creatures rather than real so there's no information on their actual size. Wyverns are known to get larger as they grow stronger, though. If dragons do that as well, then I bet Grandpa Adrian is at least a mile in length. Maybe a hundred miles.
Which would explain why he prefers a more human form. It makes it easier to interact with people and society if you aren't terrifying them just by the size of your nostrils. They'd be like caves.
Akrolnomak snarls at me as he approaches, then stops flying, his powerful wings sending gusts towards me as he holds himself in place. That's a mixture of flight, gravity, and air magics, but he's not actually throwing air at me. The winds battering me are just from the power of such massive wings flapping.
The wyvern inhales deeply for a moment before letting out a sonic roar. Only my flight spell keeps me from tumbling over from the sheer force of his roar. It's a good thing I cast protective magics on my body to ensure something like that won't damage me or burst my eardrums. Several birds and bird monsters take to the skies, fleeing the forest deep below us.
Those are no doubt the ones which could survive being this near to a sonic blast as great as the wyvern's. Many others likely died from it.
As Akrolnomak's sonic roar begins to fade, I inhale deeply. When his comes to a complete end, I let out a roar of my own. So great is the force from my roar that his wings are pushed back for a moment and he temporarily begins to drop down.
No wyvern can match the roar of a dragon. Even if I'm only one-eighth dragon, that still influences my power.
I raise my left hand above my head as I roar and begin casting another spell. A giant spear of pure flames forms above me, the fires concentrated so much they've taken on a liquid-like appearance.
My flame spear soars forward as my roar ends and the wyvern attempts to dodge. I move the index and middle fingers of my left hand as I guide the spear to the wyvern, slamming it into some of its wooden scales.
Upon impact, the spear sends all of its fire straight into the contact point. Flames spread out from there and the wooden plate burns quite nicely. A screech of pain erupts from the wyvern as I batter it with a swirl of green-tinted winds.
The screech is probably from the spear. The wind was designed to resemble the spells from the game, just with color so they're visible for the recordings. That did absolutely nothing to the beast. It might if I add some blades of compressed air to the gust.
Yeah, that did some damage, cutting into the beast decently well. Deep red blood begins to leak out of the wounds, but not very much. It's quite a large beast and the blades were quite small.
The wyvern inhales again and I can see the poison gas magic forming at the back of its mouth. I snap with my left hand just as the spell completes and a burst of flames forms in its mouth, igniting the toxic gas.
Magically-conjured poison gas isn't normally flammable but I designed this spell to ignite it. Even if I minimized magic use the last two days, that doesn't mean I wasn't preparing for this hunt.
As the wyvern recoils from the sudden flames in its mouth, I send another seven flame spears toward it. Each of these is a little bit weaker than the first one, but his wood burns just nice when they impact. So does the wood caught by the next seven, which are weaker still.
The wind magics I use against him are largely ineffective. It seems his skin isn't actually made of stone, it just has some stone-like properties. That does seem to make it slightly susceptible to harm from air magics, but not significantly.
I target the vine-like connections on his joints with more fire magics and find that they burn quite well. His hind legs go limp and his wings begin to droop at my attacks. Then the wyvern begins to sink down.
Without being able to flap his wings, he isn't able to channel the magics which keep him in the air too well. They're damaged enough that he's struggling to do this.
All of the data I wanted is collected. It's time to end this fight. Fighting the way I am right now means I'll end up using up most of my mana before it dies. That's not an attractive option to me. I do, however, have a spell which can end this entirely on its own. It'll even keep the wyvern mostly intact.
The spell will take me roughly a quarter of my maximum mana capacity. There's also no information on if it's regulated or not which means that Grandpa Adrian and I are probably the only ones who know it. I also didn't ask him if I'm allowed to use it or not, so I'll apologize to him after for not checking first.
But I wanted to make sure I had a way to end this if things got too dangerous. A way to end it and not have an angry wyvern attack society, I mean. This is probably one of those times where it's worth getting into trouble for not asking permission first.
Because it means that I can prevent the ancient and powerful wyvern from attacking society after doing my tests. And it also means this area will be safer for hunters going out to take on strong beasts which might become a danger to society.
I push both hands forward as Akrolnomak attempts to regain control over his flight magics, all of his focus centered on that. It prevents him from paying too much attention to me as I begin weaving my spell.
This one takes me about ten seconds to finish and by the time he realizes he's in danger, it's too late. A blackness forms in a disc centered in his neck and disappears after less than a tenth of a second.
Then the wyvern's head and body begin to fall. Separately.
I soar forward at a terrifying speed to reach the wyvern before it can fall even a hundred feet. The body and head are quickly stored into my larger stasis pouch, then I pull some giant glass jars out and teleport them under the dropping wyvern blood to catch it. The internet says that wyvern blood is extremely valuable and I don't want to waste a drop more than necessary.
Once the blood is collected, I put the lids on the jars and place them into my larger stasis pouch, then turn off and put away my streamer orbs and soar down to the ground. The moment I'm on it, I let out a massive breath, then pull out a box of lemon-blueberry cookies with cream cheese icing drizzled on them. Three minutes later, none of the three baker's dozen cookies remain.
Only as I put the box away do I realize something. I fought a wyvern and didn't feel scared in the slightest. I also didn't hesitate or feel bad or anything like that. According to the internet, that shouldn't be normal or something I can do casually because I'm not really a hunter. Not after just one hunt.
This must be further proof that I'm part-dragon. A real dragon would never tolerate a faker and that one was definitely trying to fake being a dragon, growing wooden "scales" on himself. With how easy it was to kill him, Akrolnomak definitely wasn't evolving into a dragon.
Just to be sure it's not something else, though, I decide to hunt something else and teleport to another spot on the mountains, about fifty miles away. Close enough that I saw it from up in the sky but far enough that our roars probably didn't scare things off.
"Oh, right."
I swap my glasses back to my normal ones before walking as quietly as I can through the forest. There are a few nonmagical creatures here, but almost everything I see is magical. This far away from society, magic was definitely able to flourish and nearly everything became magical at some point.
So many things to choose from. Maybe I should go to the plains where bison roam and hunt one of those? There's a significant stretch of them that's in true wilderness. Plenty of bison there, and I heard their meat's delicious. That would be a practical hunt. If they're magical as well, that's only better.
I do some calculations, then teleport and find myself face-to-face with a bison that's easily ten feet to its shoulders. His hide is a mixture of browns, greys, and whites, and there are earth and air magics in him.
"Ack!" I jump backwards in surprise, holding up my hands as a barrier flickers to life in front of me.
At the same time that I jump back, the bison somehow does as well. He's big and heavy yet as light as feather. And just as quiet. That must come from his air magics. There are also several dozen other bison scattered around the plains.
Oh, crap. This was a bad idea. I forgot they live in herds! At least this one is a decent distance away from the others. It would've been really bad if I landed right in the middle of the herd!
What do I do for a hunt again? The others… right! Net!
A net of purple and dark grey magic forms atop the bison. He's close enough that I was comfortable trying to make it above him and that seems to have worked. I'm not sure how heavy he is but he must weigh a lot, so the net uses gravity magic to increases its weight. The force magic aspect is to hold it all together and give it a more physical form.
Or, uh… couldn't I just use gravity magic for this? The bison seems to be not held down too well by the net alone. Except that would probably make it difficult for me to get close and finish things off.
I conjure another force-gravity net to drop on the bison. Then a third. That keeps it from being able to move around and it watches as I walk forward.
"S-sorry," I apologize as I poke a finger through the net.
An electric shock enters the bison, which drops to the ground with a quiet thud. That wasn't enough to kill it, just knock it out. I grab my knife and try to think of where its big neck arteries would be. I can't remember their names.
Is it… here? Maybe. Okay, Xander. Just stab in. Try again. Deep breath, then again? Fourth attempt at severing the artery better not be the charm. Yeah, I didn't stab at all this time, either. Another deep breath… and success! My knife enters the bison's neck and blood begins flowing freely.
I walk around to the other side and stab in the equivalent spot here… on my third attempt. This is almost like with the pocket hares. Definitely different from the wyvern. Grandpa Adrian will really struggle to come up with a convincing explanation for that unless it's that he really is a dragon.
Once I'm certain the magic bison is dead, I dismiss my net magics, then push the beast onto its side. That takes a little bit of effort and a small amount of enhancing my strength, but I manage it easily other than that.
"Eww…" I grimace as I field dress the beast.
This is so gross, but it's still best to do it now. Once the innards are destroyed and the bison is stored in the larger pouch with an expanded space in stasis, I use magic to clean my hands and decide against trying to take on another of those.
That was really gross. There was so much to remove, too.
Before I can text Dad to let him know I'm heading back home, an immense surge of mana occurs. A spell which starts and completes in less time than the dimensional-sever disc lasted. The only reason I even notice it is probably because of my quicker mind thanks to being a temporalist.
A teleport, but one which went unreasonably far. Someone just teleported me to somewhere else. A cliff overlooking a valley with a river cutting through it. A forest stretches out on the other side of the valley, and the mana here feels different.
It is different. The dragon veins are completely different from what I'm used to. Stronger and more potent, and the mana within them isn't like any I've ever seen before.
"Do you mind if I ask why you decided to hunt Akrolnomak?" A voice asks from behind me. "That seems very unlike you, Xander."
I turn around to find Grandpa Adrian standing there, mountains in the distance. He's in his real form, looking like he's around nineteen or twenty years old. Rather than a suit, he's dressed in shorts, a sleeveless shirt, and sneakers.
That looks better than a suit. I hate suits.
Wait. He's here? And he knew about my other hunt. Something tells me he may have even watched the fight and saw my magics.
I must be in a lot of trouble.
"Um…" my face heats up as I try to figure out how to answer.
"You're not in trouble," he smiles a little. "I just want to see if it's really you I'm talking to."
Really me? Then does he think I'm actually a monster impersonating me?
"Saturday night," I explain. "I was playing a video game with Carter, and the boss monster we fought in it didn't make any sense. And I found out he was based on Akrolnomak, so I wanted to see how accurate they were. And it turns out, they were super wrong, Grandpa Adrian! He is vulnerable to fire from the start! And wind magic wasn't really that effective on him, fire did way more! And he didn't seem to have wood and vines and stuff under his skin! And his skin isn't even made of stone, it just looks like that, probably because of the high concentration of earth magic essence in it!"
For several moments, Grandpa Adrian just stares at me. I'm definitely in trouble.
Or… not? He's now laughing really hard and no longer has the more serious feel to him that he normally does.
"You killed one of the most powerful wyverns on Earth because a game character based on him made no sense!" He says, still laughing a little. "That's my grandson!"
"Great-grandson," I correct without meaning to. "Sorry!"
"You're fine," he chuckles. "Can you tell me why you decided to hunt a bison after? Feeling hungry?"
"I am," I answer. "But that's not why."
I explain about my reasoning for hunting down something else, and he listens quietly for the short time it takes me.
"-and that's definitely proof that the reason I was fine with taking on a wyvern is because it's a dragon's duty to put fakers in their place."
"Wouldn't dragons be fine with killing bison, too?" Grandpa Adrian asks. "Since they'd be a food source?"
"I'm not in dragon form."
"Because you're not a dragon," he says.
"Yeah," I say. "I'm only one-eighth dragon. You're the dragon."
"No, I'm not."
"Then why was fighting the wyvern fine for me but not taking down the bison?"
Grandpa Adrian doesn't respond for a couple of seconds. That's because there's no good explanation outside of mine. A dragon puts down fakers no matter what form they are in. So even in my boy form, I'm fine with taking on wyverns.
"You're never going to give up the idea that I'm a dragon, are you?"
"Your mana speaks the truth."
Grandpa Adrian snorts and runs his fingers through his hair for a moment.
"I was born a farmer," he tells me. "To farmers. Mortals. Humans just like you and your dad."
He pauses her for a moment, as if expecting me to say something.
"I'm one-eighth dragon, so I'm not really a human," I tell him. "Which you know, because you're using your power to fool my power of lie-detection and you're actually a dragon."
"The reason you can sense draconic force within my mana and body," Grandpa Adrian says. "Is because a dragon blessed me. There's something a powerful enough being can created called a 'true seed'. It's… a sort of magical concentration of their essence. Using one can create another of the same being, but not as a clone. That part's a little too complicated for you to understand right now, and it's not something a twelve-year-old should be caring about, anyway.
"But it can be used in other ways," he tells me. "While still under the power of its creator, a true seed can be used to enhance another being. It alters their biology and power to be as if an heir."
"So what I'm hearing is," I say. "You were born a human, but then a dragon turned you into a dragon down to your core because he wanted you to inherit his power. So you're a dragon and you're trying to explain that dragons actually give people blessings. My dragon instincts say that they don't do that sort of thing. Dragons are above that sort of thing. That's a nice story, though. You should write a book about it."
"…did you just get cheeky with me?"
"S-sorry," I look down.
"You're partially right," he chcukles. "Dragons normally don't give such blessings. A farmer is even less likely to receive one even if a dragon does. I was a special case. By that point, I'd already received several divine blessings, including one which boosted the rate at which I gained mana, enabling me to increase my pool to nine times as much as it started as over the course of a year, up to my maximum growth rate. I was fairly powerful and managed some extraordinary feats. Including putting said dragon's son back in his place."
"Back in his place?" I raise an eyebrow.
He's weaving quite the tale.
"Dragons are generally benevolent beings," he tells me. "High dragons, at least. Feral dragons are problems. The dragon which blessed me with a true seed was a high dragon, and his son started harassing a town. I may have whupped his ass hard enough he turned over a new leaf and became their protector."
Hm… okay, maybe that makes a little bit of sense. But he still can't convince me he's not a dragon that's taking human form. It still sounds like he was turned into one.
"Sometimes," I say. "I can see a faint… other stuff there. Two others? I know I saw what one of them was before, but I can't remember what it was. The other was a unicorn. Did you get a true seed from a unicorn, too?"
"I did," he answers. "Unicorns always loved me when I was little. I actually received a true seed from him first, when I was only seven. The dragon was when was I thirteen. He was also powerful enough that he somewhat overwhelmed the unicorn aspect in dominance, though each of the three you can sense technically hold equal weight.
"And it seems," he gives me a small smile. "That much like me, you're loved by unicorns. I had to chase an entire herd away from your stream of exploring the Nine Springs ruins this week."
I did another of those streams this week just because I had time and was bored and nothing else seemed interesting. I don't remember seeing a herd of unicorns while there, but I guess my great-grandpa chased them off before I could.
"They wanted to be on my stream?"
"They did," he chuckles. "Chasing them off was a pain."
The thought of Grandpa Adrian having to actually chase unicorns away instead of just telling them to leave makes me giggle. He probably looked really funny while doing it.
"Okay…" I say. "So I believe you about being born a human."
"But you still think I'm a dragon."
"You're a dragon-unicorn hybrid who's taken on human form but are still a dragon-unicorn hybrid at the core," I say. "With something else mixed in. Your mana isn't a human's, after all."
Grandpa Adrian snorts.
"Are there dragons on Earth?" I ask. "Or just myths?"
"There are a few," he answers. "But like I said, they're generally kind beings unless they're feral, and humanity has explored anywhere where feral ones live. They don't bother humans. Akrolnomak actually lived in the territory of a dragon, who decided to watch you when you showed up. You were pretty close to his den, and I watched the fight with him. There's also one on the mountain here."
"But there being one there doesn't mean there's one on Earth," I say. "We ain't on Earth anymore."
Grandpa Adrian's head moves back with a small shake in what I think is surprise.
"Why do you think we aren't on Earth?"
"Two reasons," I answer. "First, the mana here is completely different from the mana back home. Even the dragon veins in the soil are different. And I know I haven't seen all of Earth, but I really doubt dragon veins change like this based on location. A person's body has the same magic all through it, so it makes sense that Earth would have the same magic all through it. And the mana itself is different here.
"Also," I add. "The teleport you used took way too much mana. I ain't an expert in dimensional magics but I could tell that much. You've got to be a way better and more efficient teleporter than me. That means you've got a cheaper teleport. And I'm pretty sure I'd use less mana if I tried to teleport to Mars from home. You used so much that I ain't even able to figure out how to compare it against mine. There's no way that would happen if we were still on Earth."
I nod. That's both of the reasons I can think of.
Grandpa Adrian looks impressed for a moment, then reaches forward and ruffles my hair. A squeak escapes me at that but I do my best not to pull away.
"Smart kid," he says, then looks out across the valley. "So you're fast enough to notice the cast, then? That's impressive, too. Yes, this is another world."
"Whoa."
"You already figured it out!" He laughs before sighing with a sad look on his face. "This valley here is where I was born."
"It was?" I ask. "But ain't you from a place of like, powerful beings?"
"You and I are the only people on this world," he says. "I left it when I realized society was destroying itself. There was a great imbalance on this world and it tore things apart."
"Like… the imbalance Greyson and I and the ninja twin boys are causing?"
"Not just the four of you," he says. "Your cousin, Matt. Luke. A young lady from Boston. There are around a dozen or so people causing this imbalance. I'd taken measures to prevent it for Earth, but… well, you're a very strong-willed soul."
"Sorry," I look down.
Whatever it is I'm doing to cause the imbalance, something tells me I can't stop it.
"Don't be," he says. "It's why I'm taking new measures, to try and counter this imbalance. If worse comes to worst, I'll just move Greyson to a world full of magitech with a magic level where he's more average. He'd still be a prodigy, but at least he wouldn't be a menace anymore."
"He'd probably feel at home there really fast."
"Probably," Grandpa Adrian snorts. "Back to the imbalance. It eventually led to mankind wiping itself out. That happens on some worlds, with no one left after. It happened a long time ago, though. And as I said, I left before it happened. That makes this the perfect place to speak with someone without any chance of being overheard."
I'm fairly certain he can already do that on Earth. He just likes this valley because it's where he's from.
"So is this where you have the secret orange and lemon orchards?"
"What secret orchards?" He asks.
"Nobody I asked knows where certain foods come from," I say. "Like oranges and lemons. And restaurants and stuff all have to buy from the same supplier, which is a company within the Lumaria Group. I asked Greyson about it and he told me. You've got secret orchards."
Grandpa Adrian snorts.
"No, Xander," he says. "They're native to Earth, in Asia. We have special orchards in North America, as they don't grow too well outside of the southern part of the continent and in Central America – a region relatively unknown due to the nigh-impossibility of ordinary people reaching it. You could, if you wanted to, but I wouldn't recommend trying. There's not much for you there. And if you go further south… that's where the cocoa tree is native to. I have those growing in a special orchard, too."
"Chocolate's awful and evil and I hate it."
"I'll never give you a tour of that facility," he chuckles. "For now, let's head back to Earth. I'm sure you want to get some food in you after using so much mana on your hunts."
"And I want a nap, too," I tell him. "I'm feeling sleepy, too. Oh! Before we go, I have a question."
"Go ahead."
"I told Carter and his dad and brother about my mana batteries," I answer. "Since you said it's fine to talk about it. And he asked… I don't remember his exact question, but are they something that Xanson Technologies will sell? Or will they remain only in our products? I know you said it was fine to put one in the generator for the new fitness wing at home, but I'm not sure about other stuff."
"How did it come up with Carter?" He asks.
"When his brother and dad were putting mana crystals into their special tractors for magically drying the grass into hay on Friday," I answer. "It came up then."
"I see," he says. "Such tractors do use quite a high amount of mana. As for selling the batteries rather than only including them in Xanson Tech devices, that would unbalance the battery market. It would essentially bankrupt every battery division in other companies which produce them. They only cost a little bit more to create but last significantly longer. When there's a product that's inherently superior to others of the same type in every way, it can be difficult to compete with it."
"Oh," I say. "I guess that makes sense."
"Yeah," he says. "Let's get you home, Xander."
What surprised you in this chapter (can pick multiple)?
