Damon needed five blind salamanders; they lived in the cave system under the rocky mountains he once travelled to with Emilia.

On his way there Damon kept his greater shadow meld skill active. He alternated it with flatten ground to increase his skill level. Unfortunately, when he used the former spell, wolves and goblins never attacked him. But it wasn’t all bad since he’d never reach his destination if he kept encountering beasts every few steps.

When he entered the cave, his hearing went numb and a second later the echoes of water droplets falling from the stalactite appeared. He looked around and found a body of water where salamanders he thought they might hang around. None we there, and since there weren’t any logs or rocks to hide under, he guessed they may be in between dense stalagmite formations. He heard caves were a nest of bacteria and the sorts, so he decided to take out his sword to prod the stalagmite.

After a few seconds, he saw three small salamanders scurry away. Damon used a small net to catch them before transferring them inside a jar filled with preserving agents. They squirmed around for a few seconds and tried to climb out of the jar to no avail, only to soon curl up at the bottom and stop moving. Damon kept searching till he collected five of them. Just as he was going to leave, he heard movements in the distance. They sounded like heavy and rough steps. He didn’t know what kind of monstrosity lived in such caves, so he used smog, greater shadow meld, and shadow agility to run out of the cave system.

The noises kept coming so he climbed a tree at the entrance of the cave. A few seconds later three gulpers rushed out, their mouths were wide open, and their hind legs made small, rapid, spring-like movements. But when the light hit their skin mucous, they ran back inside.

Damon hadn’t read about this creature in the notes left to him by Stolas, so he assumed they lived deep inside caves. His commotion had probably woken them up.

Damon climbed down the tree and up the rocky mountain nearby where few beasts roamed. Stolas told him to also fetch some rock snakes if he had some time.

North of the Viscounty the forest ended, and plains stretched out for hundreds of kilometres. The switch in biome marked the boundary between the kingdom of Ferraneo, and that of Milone in which he currently resided. It was much larger and more powerful than Milone. They had a population of around twenty million, supported by numerous rivers permitting the cultivation of vasts amounts of arable lands. In fact, most of the food found in this kingdom came from there. In return Milone exported wood and ores to Ferraneo.

In their plains oxen roamed in great numbers. They were used to plow and till the land. He had yet to see a horse. Up here in Milone the preferred mode of transportation seemed to be lizard mounts. They were about two to three metres in length with crocodile scales, but the skeletal structure of geckos.

#

Three weeks later he reached the edge of the forest. In front of him, swaying blades of grass-covered his vision, he could only see twenty or so trees in the dozens of kilometres. He wondered how long it might take for him to find an ox. Perhaps due to the fact this area happened to be a border the grass wasn’t tall and seemed to be kept at a reasonable height. Perhaps to prevent enemy excursions from moving unnoticed. He headed towards a tree in the distance and felt thankful for having been transmigrated into a largely undeveloped and forested country. Here he couldn’t even use any dark magic skills. For the first time in his life, found an area without any shadows.

When he was about five kilometres from the forest’s edge, he looked around in search of oxen, but unfortunately, he didn’t find any signs of life.

After two days or so Damon found a small stream. He followed the current and soon found his prey; two adult oxen drank from the stream. Damon approached the beasts, when they noticed him, they did not charge, but simply drank from the stream. Damon kept approaching till the oxen reacted by facing him and letting out a scream. When they noticed that he didn’t back away, one of them charged. Damon waited till it entered his earth spike range and impaled it. However, due to its speed. The beast didn’t stop and kept charging with an opened stomach, gut’s spilling on the ground. Damon’s eyes widened and he hurriedly created an earth wall. One wasn’t enough and the ox broke through the wall. Thankfully, he had lost enough speed to fall over and succumb from his injury.

To Damon’s dismay, the other ox hadn’t retreated like the wolves and goblins. It contoured its brethren’s corpse and charged Damon.

Damon used sandstorm, erected two earth walls, and hide under the fallen ox.

When the ox lost sight of him, the beast started to furiously strike the ground and run circles around his comrade. Damon kept creating more sand and waited for the ox to leave. However, the ox didn’t move. He seemed to understand that there wasn’t anywhere for Damon to escape, and it became further infuriated by Damon’s cowardice. Perhaps if it charged into the dead ox, it could crush Damon under its comrade’s corpse, but it didn’t.

Although he could only see its shadow in the dense sandstorm, he waited for the instant a shadow passed by and used an earth spear to catch the ox’s attention. It gave up on the waiting game and charged at Damon.

Damon used his earth spike with fifty percent of his mana. Again, this didn’t stop the ox’s charge, so he set up three earth walls in between him and the beast. This time it came to a complete halt and Damon heaved a sigh of relief. He decided to stay under the ox for a few minutes longer. When his mind cooled down, he came out of hiding and pulled out his dissection tools.

After having stored the appendix, small intestines, and cervix of the ox, he left back towards the forest.

There he saw a caravan being attacked by what seemed to be bandits. The middle carriage had an emblem on its side of a snake wrapped around a stick.

Soon enough a dome of earth covered the middle carriage. Then wind blades twice the strength of what he saw from the level four mage assaulted the earth dome and started lacerating it.

Pressured water jets tried to pierce through the damaged area of the dome. When the dome was about to break, a large wind explosion from the interior of the dome made the earth and rocks scatter in all directions. Inside the hail of earth and stones, sharp needle-like rocks with a metallic glint pierced the bodies of the bandits.

Next a large tornado started underneath the carriage. The people inside came out. He saw two men in full plate armour, four others in chainmail and leather armour, a man dressed in furs, a woman, and two children. The man in furs ran towards the forest with his wife and children while the guards in the carriage kept fighting alongside whomever remained.

Since the enemy’s water spells had stopped Damon guessed that the enemy water mage had died.

The two men in full plate armour advanced on the enemy lone mage while the non-magical warriors kept fighting on the side lines. The bandits seemed to be steadily pushing back the noble’s entourage to head towards the family hiding in the forest.

The full plate mages didn’t seem to mind since they probably planned on getting a rid of the wind mage before quickly to deal with the stragglers without worry.

The earth mage created earth spikes which launched out of the ground and aimed for the mage’s heart. He didn’t seem to be limited by distance nor angle. The wind mage launched into the air with consecutive air blasts. Although it might technically be called flying, it lacked control and the smoothness of flight, as the flyer almost crashed into a tree.

However, the noble’s wind mage started to launch wind blades into the air and the next second an arm fell from the sky. While the two mages prepared the finishing blow, a water pillar erupted from the ground and engulfed the earth mage. The earth mage seemed fine. He probably had the same kind of item as Damon. The wind mage launched a flurry of attacks towards the water mage who had faked death. The water pillar stopped. They approached the wind mage who seemed to have bled after the loss of his arm. They drove an earth spike through his heart to make there wasn’t a repeat of the water mage incident. When the bandits saw this scene, they tried to escape into the woods, however, they were engulfed in a giant earth dome which slowly started to compress inwards and crushed them.

They didn’t seem to be taking any prisoners nor ask questions. As such Damon guessed that they knew the culprit, and well, he could guess this was the result of the fight succession crisis.

The full plate wind mage blasted into the air in a similar fashion to the previous one. Damon lost sight of him but soon heard branches break above his head. When he turned around, he found a giant armoured man standing behind him, and realized he was the prisoner. He felt a blow to his head, and his vision faded to black.

#

“You ready for the lab?” asked Frederick.

Harold scratched the back of his head. “Well, a bit. I’ve read the documents, but…”

“Yeah, I get it, I’m on the computer.” Frederick put his bag in the locker outside the lab and closed his lab coat.

Harold did the same, “Julia will make sure I don’t screw up so it’s fine. We’ll pass it no problem.” He patted Frederick’s back, who shook his head.

“I sure hope so.” They entered the lab and sat down on the stools in front of their workspace. Frederick looked at the clock hung in the right most corner of the lab, above the centrifuge. There were a few minutes left before the supposed start of the exam.

“Where’s Julia?” asked Harold. “Did you nail her too hard last night?”

Frederick pulled out his phone. “This is exam season, no one’s doing anything but studying. Well, unless you’re already failing, then go all out.”

“I’m not there yet.” Harold laughed. Fortunately, a girl with dark brown hair came in and quietly rushed to her seat next to Frederick.

Julia hugged Frederick, “Sorry, the bus got stalled by a guy who couldn’t place his bike on the front rack.”

“Thank God you came. I don’t know what I’d do without you,” said Harold on the side, “And it’s good to see you too.”

“Sure,” answered Julia. She let go of Frederick and sat down.

When Frederick let go of his girlfriend, he reflexively went in to kiss her, but when he pulled back, he felt … conflicted. Perhaps even disgusted. Her face was fat, her ears and figure was too round. She had also felt heavy, in his arms; however, it made no sense, she couldn’t be heavier than one hundred fifty pounds and looked lean according to human standards.

An older man in a lab coat brought a tray to his table. He regained his composure and took the instructions from his hand. They didn’t have time to waste when the cloak had already started ticking.

It read “Dissection, orc child’s small intestines” he heard a scream to his left.

“It’s a child!” Frederick yelled instinctively. “What the fuck is this?” A green child cried and moved around on metal tray. Julia and Harold flanked the child with scalpels in their hands.

Frederick reached out and grabbed Harold’s wrist. “What the fuck are you doing?” He noticed that his hands were dark purple. Damon stepped back. The others went back to work. Damon’s heart rate increased. He tried push them away; however, he couldn’t control his movements. He could only close his eyes and wait for the screams to end.