Nano Mage 2, page 3
I nodded and reached into my bag on my hip, where I kept some of those small brass metal balls in case I needed them quickly, and wrapped my hand around four of them.
Within seconds, I could feel my hand heat up, and even the balls themselves got warm, but thankfully they aren’t so hot that I needed to put my hand in water or for my palms to blister.
“Right,” Lita said, “Can you walk while doing that? We can keep heading east, and we should get a good distance toward The Wilds.”
“Yes, good idea,” I replied. “Lead on. Are you going in your -” I started, but before I could ask if she would be in her wolf form, she was already a wolf, tongue hanging out, and I could tell she was grinning at me.
With Lita in the lead, we headed out.
4
Based on the map in my head, we were days away from The Wilds. Though, admittedly, it wasn’t like my map had a ruler to tell me distance. It was mostly me assuming. On the second day, we ran out of turkey meat. It didn’t help that, for some reason, I was ravenous.
Lita said it was because my nanobots needed more energy in order to process all that metal. That surprised me. I just figured that they were getting energy internally. She laughed and said no, that they needed to get energy somewhere, and it was from me. Or something in me. Which food provided, but that meant that there was less for my body, hence reason I was ravenous.
“Anything?” I asked Lita in her wolf form.
She shook her fluffy head. “Nothing. Not a scent.”
In her wolf form, she could use her smelling ability to track animals or even monsters. While in her ball form, she was able to scan, but it didn’t have the ability to smell prey. But I also noticed she enjoyed being in her wolf form more and more.
Even at night, while we slept, she would be in her wolf form. Though, she would now and then reform into her silvery ball and scan around us before resuming her wolf form.
Suddenly and unexpectedly, she stopped, making me almost walk into her.
“Found something,” she said, her nose to the ground.
I looked down at her and asked quietly, “What did you find? Can you tell?”
She shook her head. “It’s nothing I’ve smelled before. It’s got a muskier smell.”
I stooped down and noticed that there were tracks there. Very faint, but I could barely tell what it would be. It was large though, that much, I could tell. Probably the size of a deer? I looked down at her front paws, and I saw they were slightly bigger than hers.
“Boar?” I asked her.
“No. Bigger than a boar,” she said.
Just then, Fiona came up behind me and looked down too. She stooped as well and placed a hand next to the barely noticeable print.
“No, that’s not a boar. I would say it’s bigger. See here,” she said, pointing slightly to the left side of the track. I saw there was something like a small hole in the ground, almost as if something had entered the dirt.
“That’s an animal with claws. What we are seeing is its claw enter the earth.”
“Monster?” I asked her, concerned.
“I’m not sure,” Fiona told me, looking. “It could just be a large animal.”
“All right,” I said, nodding. “Lita, follow it. We need food. We have maybe a bit of that old jerky left. If we don’t find something, we will need to forage.”
“Bleh,” Mika said, making a face.
I couldn’t help but chuckle at her. “I agree. I kind of like my meat. Now, if you had potatoes, that would be even better.”
“Potatoes?” Fiona asked me with a frown. “What are those?”
“Shit. You don’t have potatoes here? They are hmm. I think they are part of the tuber family? Or is it Nightshade? I can never remember. They have a thin skin around them that you peel, and inside is white flesh. They are not good raw, but if you cook them, either baking or even boiling them, they are amazing. Add butter, milk and mash them, and they are even better.”
Mika, who I saw was practically drooling, said, “I would honestly eat those, even though I’m not a fan of vegetables.”
I looked at Fiona. “Ever hear of such a thing?”
She looked at me with a frown but slowly nodded her head. “Yes. I think so. Though not sure about the white flesh, I think ours are purple. We use them in soups and stews. Do they grow these things, like roots, if you leave them out too long?”
Now it was my turn to frown. “Maybe? Do you get sick if you eat those?”
“Yes. Pretty sick. They can be removed, and you can still use them. Though we call them moltons.”
“We need to get some!” Mika blurted out before I could, making me chuckle.
“We just don’t have the butter or the milk,” I pointed out. “Or a masher.”
They both looked at me oddly, and so I explained to them what a masher did.
Fiona nodded. “I wonder if my dad can get one of the smiths to make one?”
“Hell,” I said with a laugh. “I’d pay for that.”
“But even without a masher, if you see any of these molton,” I told Fiona. “Grab some. We can bake them in the fire with some mud.”
“How do you know this?” Fiona asked me with a raised eyebrow.
“Let’s just say that between voyages, I did a lot of, hmm, reading.”
I didn’t tell her that I really watched a lot of documentaries on my long trips when flying in space. Many of them were about food and how to prepare it. A lot of the foodstuffs that were out there, most of the universe, had as well. Potatoes were considered a staple, like rice. I wondered if potatoes and rice came from Earth or from some other planet to Earth? They were grown on multiple worlds. How did I know this? I didn’t only play games during those long trips, I wanted to learn things as well!
Suddenly, Lita’s voice interrupted us. “Are we chasing this thing?”
I stood up and checked the time by thinking about it.
1:17:25 PM
“Yeah. We have time before dark. If we can track whatever this is, and kill it, we can make camp. Fiona, while Lita tracks, keep an eye out for these moltons. I assume they grow wild?”
Nodding, Fiona said to me, “Yes. We have them in gardens too, but there is also a wild variety.”
Within minutes, we had started off again, with Lita once again in the front, with the rest of us following behind her. Fiona turned her head now and then, looking off the trail. I was last in our group with Fiona behind Lita and Mika in front of me.
The trail we were on wasn’t really a trail, not of a path where something, or many things, used to travel on. The bush was still very thick, with branches slapping us, and even roots tripping me up. The sun was thankfully not fully hitting us, as there was a bit of cloud cover. One thing I noticed since I had been down on the planet was that I didn’t burn. I usually did.
When I had taken the survival training in the desert, I burned so badly, that after I qualified, I had to get medical help for it. Now? Now I was fine. I wondered if that was the nanobots doing their work on my body? Keeping me healthy.
I looked at my health, wondering if I got a sunburn. Would my barrier, as it was called now, go down?
Name: Zach Riley
Race: Human.
Class: Mage
Level: 2
Energy Power : 2100/2100
Energy Barrier : 200/200
Special abilities.
(1) Core Assimilation.
And I needed to find more of those cores. I was the only one who hadn’t gotten another level yet. Mika didn’t count since she couldn’t do magic yet, so it would be useless to her. She needed to have those nanobots in her first.
I heard Lita up ahead say quietly, “We are close. The scent is stronger, but also, the tracks are more visible.”
“Try to sneak up on it,” I instructed her. “But be careful. Remember, in your current form. You can take damage.”
“Don’t remind me,” she growled, and I could imagine the scowl on her wolf’s face. “Stay here. But be quiet.”
We all nodded at her, and suddenly, she was gone.
I don’t mean she simply disappeared but left the faint trail we were following and went into the bushes on our left.
“Will she be fine?” Mika asked nervously.
“She should be,” I told her. “As long as she doesn’t run into a mon—,” I began, but didn’t get any further before a loud growl of fury interrupted me.
“ROAR!!”
“What the fuck is that?” I yelled in surprise.
I looked at Fiona, and her eyes had gotten wide, and even Mika’s were as well. But they both shook their heads to show that they had no clue.
Fuck! What was out here? Don’t tell me we had more monsters! I mean, I knew we were supposed to be looking for monsters, but bringing my map up again, I could see we were what looked like still days away from The Wilds.
Suddenly, out of the trail up ahead, Lita came running hard.
“Incoming!” she shouted. “It’s a bear!”
“A bear?” I cried in shock. I looked up at the trail behind her, and about twenty feet away, a massive bear that was a tawny color charged into the scene.
Fuck! That was a grizzly bear. Quickly, I turned to Mika.
“Get behind me. Fiona, don’t shoot it with your water magic until I hit it. I will,” I had started to tell her that I was going to tank it. But there was no fucking way I was about to tank a grizzly bear with only cotton clothing on. “I will try to stun it.”
The bear, thankfully, had stopped when it saw all of us, and it stood up on its two back legs, and again, opened its mouth and roared at us.
“ROAR!!”
With some nervousness in me, I lifted my hand up, and brought up fire magic, and aimed my hand at the grizzly bear, who stood at least 12 feet high.
With a thought, I sent the Fireball that had suddenly appeared in my hand directly for this thing’s face, hoping that it would blind it.
You have caused 85 points of damage to the Grizzly Bear.
You have used 100 points of Energy Power.
Energy Power : 2000/2100
Energy Barrier : 200/200
I did the same thing again, bringing magic forward again, aiming slightly higher, as I had hit it in the chest instead of its face.
You have caused 100 points of damage to the Grizzly Bear.
You have blinded your target with your spell.
You have used 100 points of Energy Power.
Energy Power : 1900/2100
Energy Barrier : 200/200
That caused the grizzly bear to roar in pain. Not that it hadn’t roared with the first fireball. But it was more a cry of annoyance. This time, it was a roar of pain.
“Yes!” I shouted. I turn to Fiona. “Now!”
She nodded quickly, lifted her hand, and immediately, a water dagger flew from her hand and hit the grizzly bear in the chest, causing damage as I could see blood suddenly spurt out in a shower of red.
“Keep at it,” I told her. “Space out. So, it doesn’t attack us as a group!”
And I yelled that just in time, as it had heard us and had charged, even blinded. Mika, with fear, stuck with me and hid behind me. I couldn’t blame the girl.
I threw another fireball at the grizzly, but this time, I tried to aim for its front leg, hoping to disable it.
You have caused 67 points of damage to the Grizzly Bear.
You have used 100 points of Energy Power.
Energy Power : 1800/2100
Energy Barrier : 200/200
“Yes!” I cried as I hit its left paw, and it stumbled.
“Oops!” I cried out afterward as the bear righted itself and jumped towards my voice, even on three legs. Without thinking, I pushed Mika away from behind me. And just in time, as it swatted me.
You have taken 80 points of damage.
Energy Power : 1800/2100
Energy Barrier : 120/200
The pain exploded as its massive paw with the claws hit me right in the chest, causing me to fly backward. The pain was unlike anything I’d ever felt before. Even when I had a freaking engine blow up in my face, the plate that covered a portion of it had hit me in the chest. That had hurt, but nothing like this. This was more of a fierce burn, but I felt blood on my chest.
I was looking up at the bottom branches of trees when I heard Fiona cry out, “Zach!”
I craned my head up and looked towards where the bear was, and it was rushing me, even blinded. But before the bear could even get to me, I heard a growl of hatred, and a large gray thing slammed into the bear on its side.
Lita had a huge gash on her upper left shoulder, which, if we didn’t take this down, might slow her down. In her wolf form, she was an actual wolf, if albeit stronger. But she could still bleed out. Can she die? I’m not willing to find out.
I lifted a hand, still groggy with pain, and tried to cast Fireball, but couldn’t focus enough.
5
With the pain in my chest, I ended up putting my head down, trying to focus, so I didn’t pass out. The pain was so awful. I had my hand on my shirt, which was now soaked with blood. My blood. The growl I knew was Lita.
I hoped she didn’t take too much damage. Focusing on my pain, I tried to push it down, so I could refocus on the fight. Fuck! This was when I wished I had a damn healing spell! I needed to access Aether magic to do that, according to Lita. I had already opened up Fire, Air and Water, but I still needed to open Earth before that. Actually... I’d used Earth too! But I had no idea how to use Aether Magic. What spell would I use? Even Lita had no idea.
I could hear the growling, but I noticed it was getting fiercer. I looked up and saw a mess of fur fighting. Lita was on the bottom, with the bear on top, but I knew it wasn’t getting away without serious wounds itself.
I lifted my hand and, with a thought, shot out a Fireball, aiming for its head, or at least its eyes.
You have caused 100 points of damage to the Grizzly Bear.
You have used 100 points of Energy Power.
Energy Power : 1700/2100
Energy Barrier : 115/200
The fireball ended up hitting the bear right in the forehead, causing burns to appear on its fur. Though it didn’t stop its attack.
What kind of bear was this! It wasn’t even a monster!
But then suddenly, Lita got a chance to get out from under the grizzly bear when Mika slammed a stick she had found into the bear’s side, hitting it off of Lita. That caused it to roll a good ten feet into a tree, dazing it.
Then before the bear could get reoriented again, Fiona was there, with both hands in front of its face, and I stared at her, open-mouthed, as she shot not one water dagger into the bear’s face, but two! How the hell did she do that?
The bear, for getting two daggers into its face, one in its cheek and the other in its right eye, popping the eye and causing blood to gush out, still wasn’t down for the count. It swiped its massive clawed front leg at her, sending her flying with blood spraying as she flailed through the air.
“Fiona!” I yelled in horror, trying to get up. I ignored the pain and rushed to her.
Thankfully, Lita had gone back into the fray again and attacked the bear once more. I looked down at Fiona, who had ended up smashing into a bush. I pulled her out and stared down at her worriedly.
“Are you all right?” I asked her.
She looked up at me with pain on her face, but she growled out, “Yes. That fucker hit me hard.”
She looked down at her outfit, which was torn. “That fucker! He tore my damn outfit! I only have one spare outfit now! It will take me days to fix this, and I can’t do it here!”
“Focus,” I told her. “We need to get back into the fight. Mika is taking it on without magic.”
Her eyes snapped away from her chest, and she looked for the fight.
I looked back at the fight. Lita was circling the bear while Mika was behind it, trying to get a hit in with her improvised staff. We needed to get her a proper weapon until she could do magic. Though, Lita had said that she wasn’t able to connect to her system yet.
“Get ready,” I told her. “We will double-shoot it. I’ll hit it with Fire. You hit it with Water. How did you do two daggers?”
She didn’t look at me but answered, “I don’t know. I was so pissed at it that I thought of shooting it with two daggers, one after the other, but instead, it came out as two.”
“That was it?” I told her incredulously, looking down at her.
Without looking at me, she nodded.
“All right. Let’s do this. Wait until we get an opening, before shooting it. I’ll aim for its head. You aim those daggers into its side, close to its heart.”
Again, she nodded, not taking her eyes off the fight. I looked back, and the fight was still going on, but I noticed that the bear’s back left leg was dragging as if broken. It looked like Mika had been able to break its leg using her staff.
I also noticed that it had two extra-large gashes. One on its face, directly on its snout, and the other was on its left front leg, which it as being careful with.
I brought up my hands since I wanted to see if I could double cast as well and imagined just that. It was all about intent, right? So, I imagined two Fireballs firing out of my hands and letting the nanobots inside me see if they could do it.
Suddenly, I felt almost a pull, and something inside me snapped. There was no pain, but more as if I had broken through tough skin. But it worked. I had two Fireballs floating in my hands. I looked over at Fiona with a grin, but she was focused on the fight, with two water daggers floating over her hands.
Right. Daggers. Shit. I thought of changing the shape of my Fireballs to Fire Daggers, and it reluctantly did it, almost as if it was upset with me that I decided to change them. But it worked. I now had two Fire Daggers. I turned back to the fight and waited until there was an opening.
