Chapter 363: The Ruins

Abnormals were supposed to be abnormally strong. The old man had said as much. Even in his glory days he barely won against one. But the old man went into a goblin's nest alone, killed all of them, and then dealt with the Abnormal, so I guess he was just being modest. 

But with the numbers, we saw in the nest and the number of Abnormals, it was only natural this girl would be concerned. But I guess she had the misunderstanding that I bargained out of there, rather than just letting them go instead. 

"Don't worry about it. I had a bargaining chip."

Which meant, I didn't have to go out of my way to make up lies and convince her. 

"You mean, that pink goblin?"

"Yeah."

It was more like either they'd tell me what I wanted to know or get eradicated but oh well. 

The girl exhaled and stood up. "Just a bit further and we'd reach the ruins." She still breathed a bit fast. "Sometimes I'm really jealous of the stamina of you guys."

You guys?

Did she mean my race?

"Tell me," We kept walking. "What are half vampires."

She was a tad surprised at first but spoke regardless. "Frankly, I'm not so sure. They're like half-deads but not quite. Your eyes only glowed in there but you're fine out here. That's the sign of being a half-dead. But you also need shadow imbuement to survive in the sunlight- which was why I concluded you to be a half-vampire. After all, half-deads wouldn't require protection from the sunlight. Or are you something else?"

Walking on grass brought back a lot of memories; some wanted, others, definitely not. 

"I'm not sure." That was a fair point. The shadow was- wait, she could tell? "You seem pretty experienced in Imbuition, I suppose?"

After all, I could hardly tell if someone was imbuing themselves unless it was night or they glowed a bit more than usual. 

"Imbuition? You call imbuing that?" She cleared her throat. "My mother was an expert. I'm just a novice."

The sun would set in maybe a few minutes. We weren't that long in the goblin's nest. 

I didn't know why but it felt nice to talk to another human being. Though I guess she wasn't human, I still felt better. 

So, all that stuff about me being dead and no feelings weren't quite accurate. I guess I was just in a state of shock. And I was just running away. Even now, I was running away. But- I was slowly gathering strength to face those feelings. 

And yet, I was slightly glad….

Maybe because the goblin was a goblin, I didn't feel much of anything towards it other than just hate and disgust. Perhaps it was unjust, but I couldn't help it. 

But- but I could see myself changing. 

Even now, I didn't quite understand it but- maybe, maybe something was different… something-

***

We traveled till midnight and then set up camp near some trees. The girl though tired never complained. 

Since the girl knew I could use shadow magic (which I couldn't), I didn't show her my holy magic. Reasons being, both were super rare. And if she knew I could use both of the rare stuff, yeah, needless to say, that'd be a hell of a mess. And I didn't want to go out of my way to explain to her that I had a malicious spirit guiding me. 

Luckily the girl knew how to use flintstones and unlike last time, things weren't so humid. 

The fire was lit up and we cooked some salamanders. 

Though I say we, I meant she. 

She cooked her portion, meanwhile, I ate the tail of the salamander raw. She didn't once question me about my eating habits. She wasn't wary of me either. I guess she was just too desperate. 

Anyway, I took a look at the parchment. 

***

To suppress mana, one first had to recognize the type. 

I guess me lighting up the darkness inside the ring was a dead giveaway. 

Mana circulates throughout the body but it is most concentrated in the chest. 

So, by restricting the mana inside the chest and trapping it, one could in theory suppress the opponent's mana. But- the method was unclear. It just included a chant but how it worked wasn't specified. 

Also, one had to be in a two-meter radius of the caster and have in-depth knowledge about the nature of the spell and mana type. 

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"Hey, can you use magic?"

"Yes, I can use earth magic."

We were both just sitting by the fire. 

Earth magic, huh? I didn't know much about it but I did know how mana flowed. 

"Alright, try to conjure up a small spell."

The girl nodded and formed a small ball of earth in her hand: the shape was crude and it was maybe the size of a small ball? She did speak some chants but it was too fast and too short for me to get. 

I focused. 

I said the chant. "Enshrined embellishment of yonder commands thou 'oh heathen! Suppress!" It felt awfully condescending if nothing else. I felt a bit of my mana drain and I could almost see the mana around us slowly evaporate, mostly from the girl. 'I can see it because I cast the spell?'

It was almost like steam but a mix of blue and brown in color. 

The earth ball in the girl's hand kind of shrunk but it didn't disappear. The evaporation stopped. The back of my head hurt. 

"Wow!" The girl cried out. "What is this?"

"I don't know, but I guess I need more practice."

Not only did it take way too much focus and mana to cast, it wasn't even that effective. And now I had a headache. 

So, I did need tons of practice.

The girl was very surprised but even now, she didn't quite ask me questions. I guess she was being too careful about all this.

Or maybe she had more hidden motives.

In any case, I didn't let my guard down, and since I didn't need sleep, I spent the whole night, practicing and memorizing the chant properly. 

I also hunted some raccoons and squirrels in the area for a bit of a snack.

***

The next day we headed straight for the ruins, walked nonstop, and reached the outer ruins by midday. 

There were broken houses everywhere. Pavement here, roofs there. Trees and mostly vines of sorts had this whole place domesticated. 

"The inner ruins are deeper that way." The girl led me. "There are supposed to be spirits here, so do be careful."

Spirits, huh?

If they were going to be useful, then I could form pacts with them and use them. But I had a feeling anything that'd be here would be more or less malicious. 

We walked. 

Something about this place was different. 

Something felt odd. 

Even though it was the middle of the day, there weren't any animals, there weren't any birds: there wasn't anything here. 

It was too quiet.

"We should rest for a while. The sun is at its peak." The girl said. 

She was right. Though I didn't feel tired, my skin kind of burned as I came in contact with the direct sunlight. It wasn't fatal but, it certainly drained my almost limitless stamina. 

There were broken houses everywhere. And most of them didn't have roofs but their walls were still intact. 

Even some roads were here. 

I didn't see any signs of toys, furniture or cooking ware, or anything like that though. Just plain old bricks and roads. 

"Sure." 

It didn't hurt to rest for ten minutes. After all, the girl wasn't a half-dead or a half-vampire like me. I had to consider that she was helping me out with this. Besides, I didn't need shade but every now and then, I had to spend a few minutes in shade. 

Though even now, I didn't know what to do.

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