Chapter 68 – Are We Lost?

"Uh, I’m no meteorologist," Titus said as he and his friends continued their long march. "But doesn’t it feel like it’s getting a bit dark to either of you?"

"Of course it’s getting dark," Petra snapped. "We’ve been walking for hours. In fact, I think we’ve been walking in circles... I knew it! I was right all along when I thought we shouldn’t follow this great lummox!"

"Hey, I know what I’m doing," Jordan snapped back. "And we haven’t been walking that long, or in circles. Maybe daylight hours work differently in this weird magical forest."

"They don’t," Petra said. "And if you’d have been paying attention, you might’ve realised we passed that rock three hours ago!" She pointed at a rock leaning against the base of a tree. However, when Titus looked at it, he truly didn’t know if he’d ever seen the thing before.

"No, we didn’t," Jordan said confidently. "We passed one that looked like that, but it was smaller, and the grass beneath it was flatter."

"How could you possibly know..."

"Because that’s one of the things that I’ve been looking out for. Someone in the group we’re following is placing rocks just like that every time they stop. We’ve passed five of them actually, so why don’t you stop criticising me and just let me do what I’m supposed to do? We haven’t been at this that long, so let’s just…"

"It’s been all day," Petra replied. "First, I was full, then I was hungry, and now I am starving. That means we’ve missed lunch, and now we’re supposed to be eating dinner. I’m telling you that my stomach never lies."

Titus looked down at his own stomach. Over the last couple of hours, he’d been silently willing it to just hold out and give him a little more time before it began to beg for food. But they hadn’t prepared for this, nor had they brought anything to eat along with them.

"Did they teach you to hunt for food while you were learning to track things?" Petra asked. "Or was this all just strictly combat-focused?"

"No, I can hunt for food, but when’s the last time you saw something edible around here?" Jordan asked. "What I can do is tell you which of the berries over there are safe to eat and which will give you the worst case of the 'you-know-what's' in your entire life. So why don’t you start being nicer to me, and maybe I won’t point you in the wrong direction."

"You wouldn’t…"

"No, he wouldn’t," Titus interrupted the two bickering. "But you do both have a point. We need to stop and eat, but we also need to trust Jordan if he says he knows what he’s doing. By the way," Titus added almost as an afterthought, "Do you know if we’re getting closer to them? I mean, how fast could they be going? They’re carrying Henderson, and he’s not exactly small."

"Actually, I think I’ve figured that out," Jordan said. "They’re running. They’re taking it in turns to carry him, but whenever they’re on the move, they run. They stop when they need to rest, but because there are so many of them to rotate, they aren’t really getting that tired."

"And they’ve probably got food," Petra added but stopped talking once she realised that technically the creatures did have food – only it was in the shape of a Blue-Ranked Contestant. A rather large, Blue-Ranked Contestant.

"If Jordan can get us food that’s safe to eat, then we should make a camp and prepare for the night. We can take turns staying awake to keep watch in case anything comes with the dark. But presumably the hours work the same in the forest," he looked pointedly at Jordan, "so it’ll be morning in no time and we can carry on. Will the tracks still be there if we stop and rest?"

Jordan scratched his chin. "Probably," he said. "They might be a little faded, and animals could…" Then he stopped, apparently remembering that he’d just said there weren’t any animals around. "Yeah, I think it’ll be OK," he summarised. "I guess the only danger is that we don’t really know what happens at night here. Could be nothing new, or it could be when all the monsters come out to play."

"Or it could be when the gumdrop king dances a jig and gives us all sweets to eat," Petra said. "We don’t have a choice now anyway, do we? So get cutting down some branches; your queen needs her shelter."

Jordan didn’t reply, but all three of the group quickly switched their focus – and that of their weapons – to cutting down branches an inch or so thick from the trees around them. After a good hour and by the time darkness had begun to interfere with their work, the friends had a small makeshift shelter that they could sleep inside and remain relatively well hidden from the forest around them. It was a small mercy that it wasn’t yet winter; otherwise, they’d’ve had the cold to deal with as well.

"I have to say," Petra said as the group sat inside their shelter, "this has to be one of our best ideas so far: run out into the wilderness beyond the walls, get lost in the woods, probably eaten by some monster or something. Really good work, you two."

"Hey, we’re not lost," Jordan said. "We’re in the forest."

Petra slapped her head. "Oh yes, silly me. That’s much better."

"Do either of you two know anyone that’s been outside the walls before?" Titus asked, attempting to change the subject.

"Yeah," Jordan started, but Petra interrupted him.

"Not the Hunters, idiot," she said.

"Oh… then no, not really," Jordan said. "It’s not really safe to leave the City."

"Why though?" Titus pressed. "It’s been pretty safe so far, hasn’t it? And the merchants seem to be able to do it, don’t they?"

"For all we know, the merchants travel inside their 'anywhere' boxes and have never even seen the outside of any City. Or maybe they pay Hunters to escort them so that they never get hurt?" Petra said.

"And nobody’s ever thought to ask these questions?" Titus asked.

"Nobody’s ever needed to," Petra said. "Why do we need to know how the merchants get about? Why would we need to know what makes the wilderness unsafe? It’s unsafe, you don’t go there, that’s it."

"I get that," Titus said. "But we’re here now, and being unsafe because of a lack of food and water is very different from being unsafe because of monsters."

"It’s the monsters," Jordan said with an air of finality. "Hunters live out here and if it was because of the environment, it wouldn’t matter how strong they were. So it’s the monsters."

"Right," Titus said. "So all we need to do is keep quiet for the night and carry on in the morning. We find Henderson and either sneak him away or fight the hobgoblins who were carrying him and get back home. Easy."

"Or we get killed in our sleep, killed on the way to find Henderson, get lost in the woods, killed by the group of hobgoblins holding Henderson captive, or killed on the way back home," Petra said.

"Hey, we aren’t lost," Jordan pressed. "And if you want to keep being so negative, you can sleep outside."

"No thanks," Petra said. "I’m hiding behind you if anything comes in the night; you’re a big juicy target."

Jordan snorted, but at least he’d stood up for himself.

"I’ll take the first watch then," Titus offered to swerve any awkward conversations that his two friends might’ve had about it and moved to the front of their shelter so the pair could rest. He actually didn’t mind taking the first watch as he was pretty sure he was too worried about what the darkness might bring to sleep yet.

Eventually though as hours passed and Titus stared into the darkness looking for something that simply wasn’t there, his mind began to wander.

If there had been howls or scratching in the darkness, perhaps he’d have remained a little more alert, but darkness and silence were actually almost maddening.

What Titus’ attention eventually fell upon was his Mana. More accurately it was his Mana pool and his Mana Resonance ability. He knew that he could see Mana as if flowed through others or surrounded them in some aura like it was steam, but beyond that, something told him that the skill had to be more useful.

He spent a long time watching the Mana within him, how it felt and how it moved. But eventually, he found that through willpower alone, he was able to make his Mana move, swirl, ebb and flow without any specific ability or spell to empower.

It was like something he’d known how to do all along. Something that was inherent to his very person; his Mana was a part of him and therefore it was his to control, but only if he so wished.

Over time, Titus found that he could move his Mana to every inch of his body. From the tips of his toes to the top of his head, he was able to make it flow and circulate, and it felt good.

But then he had something else in mind. Something that he didn’t know would be possible, but he had some time to try, and try he would.

After a long time had passed, Titus eventually heard a rustling behind him as he sat working on his new techniques. A rustling that betrayed the fact that either Jordan or Petra had finally awoken. It was still dark, so likely it was his turn to get some rest, but he knew he couldn’t wait to share just what he’d learned.

"Well, I’m awake, and my face hasn’t been eaten off," Petra’s voice came softly to Titus as she apparently felt like not waking Jordan from his rest. "Did you see any ooglie-booglies?"

Titus shook his head, but he couldn’t hide his smile.

"But something happened?"

Titus nodded, still smiling.

"Something good?"

Titus nodded again.

"This is something about your special Class, isn’t it? And it’s going to make me so mad, isn’t it?"

Titus nodded again.

"Alright then, show it to me," Petra said as she folded her arms across her chest.

Titus turned himself fully towards his friend, and then did what he’d been practising since he’d first had the notion: he pushed his Mana through his skin.

It wasn’t a spell that he was casting; rather, he was still containing his Mana, but instead of within his physical body, he was exuding it.

The Mana exited Titus’s body like neon blue smoke – at least that’s how he saw it anyway – and coalesced into a bright ball. The ball took shape as he fed it with more and more Mana from his pool, and eventually he’d given the ball everything he had. It floated by his head and then slowly began to orbit him like he was its sun.

"What…" Petra started to say and then her mouth hung open as she reached out to the ball.

"Can you see it?" Titus asked.

Petra shook her head, "it’s more like a feeling, an energy. I know it’s there, but I can’t see it. What is it?" She asked.

"It’s my Mana," Titus said. "All of it."

Petra stared at Titus for a long moment before she spoke again.

"What can you do with it? Is it like a fireball or something?"

That was something that Titus hadn’t thought about. The act of pushing his Mana outside of his body had just been something he wanted to try to do, not something functional.

"I… I don’t know," he replied honestly. "It wasn’t something I was trying to do so I could use it as an attack; it was more just like a feeling, really."

"Well, that’s a relief," Petra said. "I thought you were about to tell me you’d figured out a huge new attack that left me and Jordan in the dust. But if it doesn’t do anything, then I guess it’s OK with me."

"Doesn’t do anything?" Titus asked. "Have you ever heard of anyone being able to keep their Mana on the outside of their body before? Or have you ever heard of anyone being able to do this?"

Concentrating, Titus forced his Mana to separate momentarily, and then the one single blue glowing ball split into three, which continued orbiting his person.

"OK, so what, you split it down now? Yeah, you’re right, that’s far more impressive."

Titus frowned. He’d thought his breakthrough had been something monumental, but Petra had shot it right down like it was nothing. The worst part about it though was that she was right. Having such control over his Mana really did mean nothing if he couldn’t use it.

"I have complete control over it," Titus said. "That’s big, isn’t it?"

"It is, but still," Petra replied. "Does it mean you can do things other people can’t?"

"No, but…"

"Then is it really that special?"

Titus closed his eyes tightly, trying to think of anything that he’d missed. Something that made this skill useful.

"Can you control it to go into me?" Petra asked suddenly.

"What?" Titus asked.

"Can you make your Mana go into me, you know, to add to mine?"

"Is that a thing?" Titus asked.

"It might be if you make it a thing," Petra replied. "Go on, try it."

"What if it hurts you? Or kills you?" Titus asked.

"Then just use a tiny bit. See if you can increase my Mana by a single point."

Titus didn’t know what he should do. Honestly, he didn’t know if he would hurt Petra or even permanently damage her by forcing his Mana into her, even if it was only a tiny bit. But there was only one way to find out, and she was asking for it.

"Alright, I’m going to try it now," Titus said, though his uncertainty was evident in his tone.

Then, as expertly as he’d taught himself over the last few hours, Titus willed a tiny sliver of his Mana to break away from his orbiting spheres and touch Petra’s outstretched hand.

The tiny wisp of Mana did as it had been commanded, floating towards Titus’ friend without any hesitation, but when it reached her skin, it stopped. It sat there on the surface of her skin like a tiny soap bubble, refusing to move any further.

Titus watched it for a few seconds, and then willed more of his Mana to join the tiny wisp to see if that made a difference. He tried a few more times, but nothing helped; his Mana simply wouldn’t penetrate Petra’s skin.

"It’s not doing anything," he said eventually. "It’s like my Mana won’t go into you for some reason – like you’re full or something."

"Well, my Mana is at ten of ten," Petra said. "I don’t use any, so it’s always like that."

Titus smirked a little at hearing Petra only had ten Mana but kept any further thoughts to himself.

"Do you think if it went down, I could refill it?" he asked.

"No idea," Petra said. "And I have no spells and nothing that uses Mana, so we can’t even find out for ourselves."

"OK," Titus said. "Maybe we’re thinking about this from the wrong angle. What if I try to take some of your Mana and add it to mine?"

"OK, shoot, I’m not using it," Petra said.

Titus focused on the Mana he could see within his friend, the small glowing ball inside of her. He tried to will it as he did his own to move and swirl and to inevitably come to join his own, but from the very first moment he knew it wasn’t going to work. He knew that he wasn’t the kind to steal another person’s Mana from them.

"It feels wrong," he said eventually. "Like I’m not supposed to steal it."

"Then don’t steal it," Petra said. "I give you permission to have it…"

Something inside of Titus lit up at those words. It was again as though someone had just said something that he’d known all along but had somehow forgotten: He wasn’t stealing the Mana from his friend; he was being given it freely, like he was a storage device or something.

Titus recalled the wisp of Mana that he’d left touching Petra’s hand and as he did so, he felt a subtle movement from within Petra. Glancing up at her, he saw that the Mana that flowed within her was no longer fixed in place, but it was kind of swaying from side to side, much like his own had done.

"Something’s happening," Titus said. "Your Mana is moving like mine does… should I try?"

Petra nodded. "You can take as much Mana as you like; I honestly don’t need it."

Titus nodded and began to call upon Petra’s Mana like it was his own. He tried everything he’d tried before when he’d learned about his Mana, but after two minutes of trying, Petra’s Mana hadn’t budged, not even an inch.

"Nothing," Titus said, dropping his focus.

Petra stared at him for a long moment, and then stretched her hand out towards him. She met his gaze for just a second, and then Titus’ entire world shook.

The Mana within Petra began to seep out of her fingertips and joined with his own orbiting blue globes. Her Mana spread itself out across all of his own, and a second later when he looked at Petra, she had no trace of Mana left within her.

But he did.

His orbiting balls of Mana glowed ever so slightly brighter, and when he checked his status, his jaw dropped.

Titus: Level 4

Exp: 22/150

Class: Capacitor

Profession: Arena Contestant - Blue

Primary stats

Health: 59/59

Mana: 38/28

Stamina: 24/24

"I’ve… I’ve got your Mana," he said almost breathlessly. "It’s combined with mine, and now my stats say I have more than my maximum."

Petra gave a cocky grin. "I knew it. I knew this would be something huge. You remember your promise, though, right?"

"Promise?" He asked.

"You promised not to forget us when you’re a God."