The Quantum Wanderer

I take a look at the position of the sun, and it is already late afternoon. Due to what my plans are, I am going to want to do this during day time.  I have everything ready for the start, and one day is not going to make any difference.

I portal myself back to the forest near Buzios, and I get back to Hikari’s in.  Muninn comes over to greet me, and he displays me a scene of Julian arriving at home.  The whole thing is still going on.  He is talking to his parents. His mother is tending to his brother. His father is scratching his forehead. The other two people are thrown on the ground as if they were potatoes.

The mother stays with the younger son, while Julian and his father go inside the house.  Someone comes out and cuts the binding wires. After sometime, a priest is brought from the nearby church, and he heals the brother.  Mother and brother go inside the house. Curious how it looks like he is not being placed under arrest. There are no guards escorting him in a forceful way. It did make a little of sense, considering that Julian hadn’t been introduced to the more crude responsibilities of government.

The girls and I go to wash ourselves, and have dinner.  While we are eating, Cecilia is the one curious. Hikari is not really paying attention to our talk, she is probably worried about Julian.

“So, what were you doing today, my villain?”

“Trying to locate the… “ I realize that I am in front of Hikari “… sea monster that we are going to eat. I also found a group of monsters in the sea that live in a ley line. They have fins, and other than that they look like female dragons.  I don’t know if they can talk or reason, though. I didn’t get too close.

“Another one of the ley lines had megalodons in it.  The third one looks promising, though.  There is a ley line that has no big monsters, only small ones. You know, stuff that would not serve as food.”

“And you think it is going to be there.”

“I know that something with a massive amount of mana in it is there. I don’t quite know what.”

I see that Hikari is just playing with her food.

“Hikari, I got some quick news from Shoria. I didn’t get these directly, but as far as I know, Julian arrived there without issues. Now it is up to his parents.”

“Thank you, sir Marcelo.”

Next morning, we go down for breakfast.  After we eat, I go back to our room, and I put on the armor and prepare myself.  I put all the nails in the bags, the spikes on my bracelets. I put the new sword on the waist, and I head out to the forest.  I portal myself to the sky above the place I think the kraken is at.

I start assembling a neutron crystal sphere around me.  The sphere is around 10 feet in diameter.  This feels too big, I can’t reach the walls.  I reduce the size, to seven feet. I touch the border of the sphere, and I create large thin crossed triangles around it. It looks like a porcupine sphere.  I make these spikes 5 feet long, there are several of them around me.

I fly down to the surface of the water and I land on the sea. I am floating a lot.  I add some layers of neutron crystals on the bottom, layer by layer, and the weight starts to add. A large fish comes at me to try to take a bite, but then it gets eviscerated against the blades around the sphere.

I increase the weight to leave the bloodied water behind, and I start coming down the sea.  There is a feeding frenzy above me, on the guts of the fish that killed itself against my blades.

I am not in a hurry, so I let the sphere go down slowly, specially  because I have a little concern on the integrity of the sphere. I know that it is way more resistant than steel, it can actually cut steel thick enough to dive to the deep sea floor on Earth.  But I am still kind of spooked. I think about my strategy again, trying to think of any scenarios that might happen.

I enhance myself, ready for the battle. In particular, I enhance my brain for reflexes and my eyes in order to be able to see in the dark.  I am reaching the deeps, there is already no light here.  I keep going down.

There are some suspensions on the water, the water is not entirely clean as I expected. I would believe that this may be some organic matter, but I am on the inside.  I speed the trip a little bit, using water magic to get some propulsion down.  I am cautious, I have no way to measure my speed or position right now.  This thing is a little claustrophobic.

I start to see the bottom, and I hit it.  The lances bellow me hit the floor, and penetrate it fully.  The floor itself is kind of a mud mix.  Close to me, there is a cliff.  It is a very long one, though not particularly large.  It must have some 100 feet width, but I can’t see the end of it with my enhanced view.  But even the enhanced view is on the short side in here.

I can sense something big, something powerful, inside this cliff. I shoot out a light spell, trying to make it travel a bit to see if it can bait the monster closer.  I manage to shoot the light spell.  A tentacle comes out from bellow and swipes both the light spell and me.  My spikes enter the tentacle, but the tentacle is way bigger than the sphere, even counting the spikes.

The movement is so fast that bubbles are left behind, it creates a long trail of cavitation.  It brings me over close to a huge eye. The eye is absolutely huge. I feel like a fly close to this thing. I take a look, and I think the eye 20 feet across.

It hits the sphere against the rocky wall of the cliff a couple of times.  I hold myself with all of my strength, but I fall on the side inside the sphere on the second hit.  The next scene I see is this beak. It is smaller than the eye, but it is still around 10 feet across, and it is about to puncture the sphere.

I turn to my back, and I open a portal to the desert in Drakonia. Even with my brain reinforced, things are going quickly. Next thing I know, I am flying through the desert. I close the portal. The monster stops holding the sphere, and when it hits the sands for the first time, the spikes penetrate in the sand.  The monster is still flying forward, it bounces on the sand.  I hit my head on the sphere, everything is turning.

I don’t know where I am, where is up and where is down.  After sometime, the sphere stops moving. The sun is very close to setting, I am laying on my back. I try to stand up, but it is hard, I feel as if I were drunk.  I can feel the mana being pulled by the regeneration runes all over my body. I undo the sphere. The air in the desert is not so hot anymore, the sun close to setting. I pour a lot of mana on my skull and my spine chord. I inspect my brain and my nervous system.  I have a jolt of pain. I put on adrenaline on my blood stream to alleviate it.  My left knee’s ligaments are all torn, same thing with my right elbow. My mana goes down to half.

I cast a fly spell, so that I don’t have to use my legs to move. I look up, and there is a circle of dragons flying above the area. I get close to the kraken, and I do a war cry, with a lot of mana.

“THIS IS MY PREY!”

I look at the kraken. It is actually a huge octopus.  The main body is around 220 feet in length, and the tentacles extend for another 3 times that. It is having some difficulty breathing, and I can see that it is confused.

I open a portal to Troggar’s cave, and turn to it.

“TROGGAR!  BRING MY CLAN! MEET ME AT THE BIG NOTHING! YOU ARE GOING TO SEE A COMMOTION.”

“Yes, my lord.”

I close the portal, and I get close to the almost dead monster.  Being thrown through a very tiny whole, a little bigger than the beak, at the speed of a bullet, and then not being able to breath will do that to anything. I know that octopuses can squeeze around any whole, but still, I didn’t give it much time to prepare.

I cast my soul absorption spell, and I cast a huge sanctuary spell to try to recover the mana. I don’t know if these dragons here are my clan or not.  The desert in Drakonia was never claimed as a hunting ground. No one was interested in it. The circle of dragons that was flying above land, still circling me.

I am gaining more mana than what I am loosing with he flight, but if I keep the whole regeneration I am going to spend a lot of mana. I can feel that my disorientation is a little better.  The dragons and I are now in a stare contest.  But then Troggar and a group of dragons come, and land facing the outer circle.

They roar at each other, but everyone holds their ground. I finally have time to inspect my body.  My brain is unswallowing. My internal organs are still in a little disarray. I focus on the brain, heart and lungs. Everything becomes a little easier. I keep the soul absorption spell on the kraken, that is barely moving now. I pick my sword with left hand, and make the mana vibrate. I cut it between the eyes, and I sever the ring that was in the monster schematics I had seen in the guild. 

The experience come my way, and right now it is too much.  Everything goes black.

I wake up, the sun is on the other horizon. I can see a circle of dragons surrounding me, facing outwards. My left knee hurts a lot, but my organs are feeling good. I take some time to remember last night, and take a look around. I am lying against Troggar’s wing, that makes quite a comfortable support.

I cast a fly spell, it is time to finish this up.  I start with the regeneration of the knee, I pour mana to make it active.  I go to each tentacle, and cut it at the base of the mantle.  I use gravity spell to help me manipulate it.  I put the tentacles, one by one, in my safe.  They are full of sand, but I am not going to worry about it now.

That is a lot of labor, even with this katana.  I have to cut it several times, because of the sheer thickness of the arms.  Troggar is up, he is looking at the scene, while the other dragons keep their lookout, scanning the horizon. 

I cut the eyes out, then I open the mantle in half. I look around, and then I have an idea.

“You, you, you and you, come help!”

Four dragons come my way. They look at the kraken, they are salivating.  Troggar is salivating as well, but he is better at trying to hide it.

“Pull this slab of meat from here.”

Once they do that, I keep going.

“Now, roll it up.”

I would have had a hard time doing that, not because of strength, but because of size. I am probably as strong as, or perhaps stronger, right now, than these dragons, but I need the size to be able to manipulate.

I open a portal to my safe, and make them throw the meat there.  I get there, and do a radiation pulse, to make sure no bacteria or something else in there is alive.  Once I come out of it and close it, I take a look at what is left.

There are the guts, the eyes and the beak. I cut the beak off, and throw it in the safe as well, it might be good for something, some armor, I don’t know.  I do another radiation flash.  Once I am back, I take another look at the scene. I get the monster’s stone and bag it. Only guts, eyes, brains. I turn to Troggar, he is still salivating.

“Troggar, is this tasty to you?”

“My lord, I have never seen meat with such amount of mana. Yes, ten thousand times yes.”

“What is the tastiest part in there?”

“The eyes.”

I think I am going to gift loyalty a little bit.

“Wait for me here.”

He turns his head sideways. I cut out one of the eyes, and with gravity magic, make it float.  I open a portal to Piotr’s cave. I enter it, and bring the eye behind me. The sun is rising over Andrea, and Piotr is waking up.

“Piotr! Good morning.”

“Good morning, my lord.” He sees the eye behind me. 

“May I ask what is that, my lord? It smells… almost unresistable.”

“I had told you that I was going to give you bullgoose, but I ended up not doing that. This is a little gift for your loyalty…”

He starts salivating.

“What is that, my lord?”

“Kraken’s eye.”

He swallows, and look at the huge eye on the floor of the cave. He looks at me wide eyed. I open a portal and go back to the rest of the kraken in the desert. I face Troggar.

“Troggar, listen up.  The eye is yours.  As for the rest, I want it to be shared with everyone in my clans. Elders, adults, hatchlings and females. I want them all to be able to eat. I am holding you responsible for making sure everything goes smoothly.”

“Yes, my lord. What are we to do if the other clans threaten?”

“Let them know that urges pass, death is permanent, and souls are not fixable.”

He swallows some air, and lowers his head to the ground.

“So shall be done, my lord.”

I open a portal to my safe, and cut out a piece of meat from the kraken, enough for some meals for my girls, something like a 100 pounds. I am amazed at how small a portion of the whole thing it is. The last look I took on the guts, I realized that a very large portion of the kraken was actually here.

I portal to our room in Hikari’s inn. I really need a shower, and I am already tired again. I undress, and then I am attacked on all sides.  The girls all jump me and hug me. I clear my throat.

“Wait, wait, let me shower first!”

“WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED?” Cecilia had tears in her eyes. “YOU WERE GONE FOR MORE THAN A DAY!”

The dragonesses, after the first hugging start feeling me all over. When they press my knee, I recoil it, I still didn’t have time to check it. I can see Opal clenching her fist in rage. I can’t help but feel that this is cute.

“Things didn’t go exactly like I expected.” I giggled.  I go to the shower, limping slightly. I will fix this knee in a little while, but right now I want a bath. Opal tells Shanon to get a chair, they put it under the shower, and Cecilia pushes me to sit on it.  The girls wash me.

“My lord, you have to take better care of yourself. No growth is worth you getting hurt.  We are not worth you getting hurt.”

They wash me in a caring manner, and dry me up. I am not hurt that it would warrant this kind of care, but I let them do it. It feels really nice. Once they put me on the bed, I start working on the last ligaments that were still hurt from the whole thing, and I work on reconstructing them.

“By the way, I brought a slab of meat for the next meals.  It is in the holding bag. Please open it in the kitchen. I could do with a piece of steak, I haven’t eaten for some time now.”

Ruby, Aquamarine and Shanon look at themselves, then look at the bag.  Ruby snatches it, and goes running towards the kitchen.  The other two are gone as well.  Cecilia and Opal are both sitting on the bed, each holding one of my hands.

Opal sniffs the air, and gets distracted.  She starts drooling by the corner of her mouth. Cecilia looks at her.  The picture of Opal doing something unseemly is funny on itself.  Opal starts shaking lightly. I turn to her.

“Go.”

And the next moment she is gone, only the wind of her passage is there.  Cecilia is looking at me.

“Is it *that* good?”

“I don’t know, I haven’t tasted it yet.  The dragons in Drakonia were salivating for the guts. I mean it.  I took out the tentacles, the mantle, all the normal meat. They were literally salivating uncontrollably while looking at a mess of guts. The kind you just throw away when you clean fish.”

We both laughed. The smell of the cooking reaches the room.  The smell of the meat invades our noses, and the mana adds to the experience, enhancing it to a level I didn’t know about. The sheer smell gives a feeling that is almost sexual pleasure.

My knee is healed now, so I focus on my right elbow. Opal brings in a plate with a piece of steak.  Her face is actually dirty, as if she went face first on a feeding frenzy. She cuts a piece with a knife, and feeds me in my mouth. The feeling is indescribable. The meat juices melt in my mouth, and mana amplifies the sensation of taste. All pleasure centers in my body fire up, and a sense of relaxation and energy swipes over me.

Cecilia reaches out to get a portion, but Opal growls. I stare at her.

“Now, now. I told you to never threaten your sister.  The piece I brought is just a scrape on how big that thing is, and most of it is going to be eaten by us. Now apologize to your sister.”

Opal lowers her head.

“I am sorry, sister. It is just… I lost myself for a second. It won’t happen again.” Opal then cuts a piece, and gives it to Cecilia.  I can see that Cecilia gets close to making the face of an orgasm. Her breathing changes, it gets quicker, then she relaxes again.

I eat the stake, and it relaxes me.

I wake up, the sun is rising. I didn’t even realize but I drifted in a sleep. I feel actually great now. I move a little bit, trying not to disturb the girls, but they wake up nonetheless. We get dressed and get down for breakfast.  Cecilia has a really bad headache, she is complaining about the second sun being too bright. The meat is gone already, I pick some more in the safe, always big chunks.

I get a separate piece of dragon meat just for Cecilia, I am guessing that she has a mana hangover.

“Cecs, do you think you may be having a mana hangover?”

“Fuuuckkk.  Keep it low, please… Yes, possibly.  I thought that I was already leveled enough to no have those.”

I laughed.  She sighed.

“Really.  I am level 43 right now. I got 8 levels since I met you. You do realize that this kind of thing is not supposed to happen, right?”

I scratch my chin.

“If we go for an ant nest, and I apply the soul absorption spell again, you might be able to get to your fifties in one go.”

Everyone in the table turns at the same time to look at me.

“WHAT DID YOU DO?”

I scratch the back of my head.

“You know about the soul absorption, right? That’s what it is for.  I use the soul of the dying to improve on experience gained. Last time, I managed to redirect it to you.”

Ruby slaps both hands on the table, stands up and then gets close to me.

“Could you do that for us as well, my lord?”

“Yes, but it is not so simple.  The first thing to bear in mind is that you need an adversary that is a lot stronger than you are.  For Cecilia, this is easy.  A Fenrir is a good one, an anthill is full of suitable creatures.  For you only something fiercer than a dragon can be used. There are not a lot of monsters that can be used.

“The second thing is that I have to be close, and the timing of the thing has be well done. It is not easy, I may not be able to hit the right timing every time.”

Ruby makes a face, it looks like she is doing a calculation.

“And Ruby, I will not start slaughtering dragons just because.”

Her shoulders slump down. I continue.

“I also have to improve on your sisters’ regeneration.”

Ruby sits down. I look around.

“Where is Hikari?”

Cecilia reaches for a piece of bread. “She went back to Shoria.  On the day you were gone, she got a letter that Julian’s father is resigning for him. The father, mother and younger brother are going to move to the capital, and Julian is going to pay a low stipend to keep them there. Julian intends on marrying Hikari. She left us here, and said that we could use whatever we wanted.  She is going to be busy with the marriage details for the next month.”

I look around, while hearing her story.  Muninn and Huginn are not around either.  I go back upstairs, and look for them.  They are at the top of the bookcase, having a worse hangover than Cecilia.  I giggle, and Muninn is apparently not amused, but he doesn’t have much strength to complain either. I get back downstairs.

“My lord, we forgot to mention something.” Opal volunteered.

“What?”

“The Comm Gem for Dávrin rang.”

“Thanks for letting me know. In the future, you can answer the call as well. You can speak for me.”

I place my hand on her cheeks, that turn red. She looks at the floor. Cecilia giggles.

“You just can’t turn it off, can you?”

I shrug, and open the bag with the Comm Gem.

“What do you mean?  I have no secrets from you right now.”

She sighs. I pick the Comm Gem up, and apply mana to it.