Chapter 8: Chapter 8: Parallels

Chapter 8: Parallels

 

A few days had passed since his first excursion outside the voyagers’ quarters. Following Viggo’s advice, Parth had spent a good amount of time that day catching up on a few things.

It gave him a lot of insight into the way things operated here. Of course, he hadn't fully read through the entire history of Viz, or specifically Tava. But now he knew enough to understand why things were this way.

Tava was a hodgepodge because of the influx, because of the dungeon. Because Viz was different than the other three places.

Human, Fairy, and Synthire. Earth, Funar, and Yaawar. These three worlds were true parallel worlds. All three of them were very similar. They truly represented dimensional counterparts. Even the geography of all three of them was almost the same. 

The predominant species themselves differed in a major way. All of them started as human beings. But things did not stay that way.

The humans on Earth stayed humans. Whereas, the fairies of Funar evolved from human beings a long long time ago.

They were capable of manipulating mana in a very limited manner even before they came here. Their wings were projections; constructs. That's where the majority of their mana went. They used mana to manifest their wings and fly. They couldn't do anything much with the tiny reserves they had. Yet, this changed the course of their world.

Just because they were able to fly on their own since the beginning, their world worked differently. The world was small when everyone could fly. Borders were thin lines; because to stop fairies from flying was to clamp down on their birthright, and none of them wanted that. Even their politicians.

They had their industries, but transportation was an exception. That never took off in Funar. Why? Because everyone could fly. Even for moving goods, couriers were their best options. A large squad of fairies could fly while bearing the load between them. Even when development happened, it leaned towards creating things that supplemented their flight rather than wasting resources on making things fly.

Even an old fairy could fly nonstop for a whole day as long as they had food on hand. Logistics went a long way in such a situation. They had the art of supply chain down pat. A squad would carry a shipment, deposit it in an outpost, and another squad would pick it up from there and move it to the next location. The cycle went on, and the goods reached where they were supposed to. 

Their planet thanked them for it. It was richer in nature, unblemished by the pollution caused by vehicles. And since that sort of pollution was not normalized, they were not lenient on their other industries as well.

Their planet might have been a little behind on the technological front than Earth, but Parth thought that they had a better life than earthlings.

 

On the other end of the spectrum was Yaawar. The humans there stopped being humans in due time as well. Parth saw the roster of the early participants from Yaawar and saw that they were mostly humans till the fourteenth century. A few vampires were coming from there though.

That was the point of divergence between Earth and Yaawar. They had vampires. Initially, the vampires were living in seclusion. It all changed at a certain point. Their fourteenth century was apparently a lot worse than Earth's. The Black Death— the bubonic plague, in that world was more devastating than it was back home.

The vampires panicked due to their dwindling food source. They got a real scare since the plague-infested humans were like poison to them, and it started cutting into the vampire population as a result. In this drastic time, when most kingdoms were doing their best to stay alive; when their military might was brought low due to the plague, the vampires took over.

With promises of a substantially longer lifespan and superior bodies, the vampires turned many healthy humans and took over the world in that one single century. Once they took over, many of their subjects feverishly did their bidding to get turned as well. The smartest vampires figured out that at that rate, they'd run out of their food source even if they ruled the world. Even if they managed humans like cattle, it wouldn't work. They needed numbers to keep the world working, and the more people they turned, the more the chances of them starving. Vampires had a bad fertility rate. So, that was a problematic avenue for them as well. They had taken over the world in a panic but found it very hard to ensure their survival in the long run despite all that effort.

Hence, they hedged all their bets into technology. With superior bodies and minds, they toiled day and night inside their labs to find a solution. They created tools in order to create more tools, and finally, they found their solution. They made an artificial serum that substituted for human blood. Yet, it was inefficient, not completely up to the mark; faulty. So, they then created implants to ensure that the serum integrated perfectly into their body after each dosage. Over time, they perfected the process. They were not ordinary vampires anymore. They were more synthetic. Therefore, they rebranded themselves as synthires.

Once their survival was guaranteed, they moved over to other branches of science. At that time, they were satisfied and complacent, so the growth was slow. They were still ages ahead of Earth though.

Viz got most of their tech from whenever people from Yaawar came here. Yaawar and Earth had a lot in common when it came to the foundations, so the systems and sciences that came over were the same. People in Tava experienced Earth's stuff way before Earth even did. All due to the advancement from Yaawar. Parth didn't like to think about that, as his head hurt the more he thought about it.

In this mix, there was an unnamed planet where the creatures inhabiting the dungeon came from. Initially, they did not know whether it was just one world or if the dungeon sourced these creatures from multiple worlds. Even Byrone’s edicts did not say anything about that. With sufficient growth in magic and technology, they were able to narrow it down though. There was a fourth unnamed world. The dungeon sourced targets from that world too.

But it seemed that all that world had, were mindless creatures. Mindless, not powerless. They were dangerous and were one of the major reasons for fatalities within the dungeon.

The dungeon couldn’t physically move on the outside. So it sourced its food from all these worlds. That’s what they were. Food. If it weren’t for the people of Viz, they would have stayed that way. 

There was another planet called Yez, which was more of a dimensional counterpart to Viz. Information on it was sparse though, as contact with Yez was lost at some point. Even the dungeon did not reach into Yez for its meal.

The histories of these other worlds interested him. He didn’t read beyond all this though, as it was not currently relevant to him. He instead tried to understand more about the dungeon.

He did spend a good amount of time understanding what an entitlement was in terms of the Centurial Challenge. His patron had indeed used a valuable resource to get him on his team. That told him how much they valued him. Or maybe it was just the artifact. The fact of the matter was, nobody would use an entitlement on losing bets. That gave him a good measure of confidence. 

 

All this did not mean that he had stopped training. No. He recalled how his mana had pushed him far beyond the limits of a normal man during the fight against the golem. He wanted to do it on command. So, he trained in the designated area.

At first, it was just him. He hadn't seen the other two people who bonded with an artifact before him. He did see the few who went through it after him though. Few of them left after just a little bit of messing around with their artifacts while even fewer trained seriously.

Everyone knew that their patron would give them some rudimentary training before they had to go finish their bitter tryst with the dungeon. They took it for granted.

He had been training since he was a child. Sport or not, a fight was a fight. One had to train hard to keep themselves in fighting shape.

It applied twofold with the new addition of mana and an artifact at their disposal. Alas, it was not his place to advise others. He knew that the ultimate enemy was the dungeon, but he also knew that it liked pitting people against each other. So, he trained.

Applying the same concept as the activation of his tattoos, he attempted to gain better control over his mana. He noticed that his mana traveled very easily to his arms. As if there was a highway connecting his core and his artifact. Sending mana to the other parts of his body was sluggish in comparison. He later learned that it was the same case for everyone. It was easier to send mana to the artifact. That was a fact.

He had tried it out and could easily make jets of fire blast out from his gauntlets. He knew that he could control the fire, but he was not good enough at control yet. So, he upped his attempts at empowering other parts of his body. That would teach him better control.

In its essence, pyrokinesis didn't need a lot of thought. It couldn't be used in very many ways. At its core, it was a highly offensive power.

It did take him an entire day to get comfortable with moving mana to other parts of his body. He could force the issue by flooding his entire body, but that was a waste of resources. It was not entirely a foolish option, since he quickly understood that his reserves were vast. In moments of necessity, he would willingly burn through the well of power to prevail.

Yet, that did not mean that he had to slack off. The better he got at control, the less he would waste. The path to efficiency was ideal, so he walked it.

That's what lead to him sitting cross-legged in the corner of a training hall, trying to evenly spread small amounts of mana throughout his body.

“You’re doing it wrong,” said a childish voice, disrupting his concentration.

He slowly opened his eyes, only to find three children looking at him curiously. The three little girls had pointy ears, identifying them as fairies. They all had long citrus-green hair and eyes, and each of them had a small facial tattoo. The three tattoos were of four-legged winged creatures. The creatures were different, and the placement of the tattoos differed as well. It was good in a way as it would help identify them easily. Without the tattoos, it would be very hard to tell the kids apart. There was no observable difference in age, so he figured that they were most likely triplets. They couldn’t be more than twelve years old. His heart sunk at the implications of them being here. The only people inside the compound who were not D’Raacs were voyagers, advisors, and patrons.

“Pardon?” he asked in confusion.

You are reading story Pygilist: Fire + Fist [Dungeon Isekai] at novel35.com

“You are doing it wrong,” said one of the triplets. The one with the tattoo on her forehead.

"Okay. Frankly, I don't know what I am doing. So, what am I doing wrong?" he asked without shame.

"You're trying to force your mana outward, but you're not doing anything with it. It's a waste," she said.

Parth stayed silent for a few seconds and pondered on how he was actually using his mana.  

“Does there need to be another purpose even when I’m just trying to move it around?” he asked.

“Mana used without a purpose is just weak. It is... it is just weak. Hmph! I'm not able to explain properly," exclaimed another triplet as she stomped the floor and puffed up her cheeks.

“Calm down Amber, let me explain,” said the one with the tattoo on her forehead.

“Umm, before all that. I’d like to know your names. I’m Parth,” he said and then held out his hand.

"I am Opal Redwood," said the sibling with the forehead tattoo. She then shook his hand and looked toward the others expectantly.

“Yo, I'm Amber… but you already knew that. Opal, you spoiled my introduction!" Amber said and shook his hand. She then promptly blew a raspberry at Opal, who immediately distanced herself from Amber. Amber's tattoo was on her left cheek.

They all then turned towards the last one who drew in on herself due to the attention.

“Zircon Redwood,” she squeaked out and turned away.

"Aww, don't be like that Zirc, you need to make more friends,” Amber said and began pestering her sister.

During their introductions, he noticed that all three of them were wearing a ring similar to his. Which meant that they had also been locked onto a team before the team selections took place. He didn't like the implications of it, as it would most likely mean that they would all be on opposing teams. Unless their patron pulled off a crazy deal to ensure that all three of them remained together.

"Don't mind them. I'll tell you what Amber was trying to explain," said Opal with a serious expression on her face. "Think of yourself as a tap. You can control how much mana you can expend at any moment. Controlling where the mana goes is like connecting a hose to the tap. With a hose, you can now direct where the water goes. Now, can you think of a way to increase the speed of the water coming out?"

“By partially covering the hose.”

"Correct. The water is coming from the tap at the same speed, but when you press the tip of the hose, you build pressure there, causing it to come out faster. You are the tap, your mana is the water. You moving the mana is you using a hose. It does the job, but it's still not as fast as you want it to be. Giving it purpose is the same as covering a bit of the opening with your thumb. The amount of mana you use is the same, but it is way faster and way more efficient," said Opal.

Parth looked at her in astonishment and then nodded his head in appreciation.

“Oh, wow. You explained that very well.”

"Of course. You shouldn't be surprised. You're talking to a future professor," Opal said with a smug expression that looked like it would be more at home on Amber's face.

“Fair enough,” he chuckled and got up from his position. “Thanks a lot for helping me out.”

He looked at the other two and saw that Amber was still pestering Zircon.

Parth knew that they would get combat training from their patron, but he wanted to help them in his own way. The kids might have gotten curious and just helped him out on a whim. Yet, it did not sit right with him that they would be fighting without much experience. It might not do them a lot of good, but he would try to help them out.

"Say, kids. Do you know how to fight?" he asked.

This piqued the interest of Amber and she immediately turned around.

“No. But Ms. Nakiri said that she will get someone to teach us,” said Opal promptly.

He didn’t know who this Nakiri was, but he could guess that it was most likely one of their advisors. If not, it would be the patron who had pulled off the crazy deal to keep them together. The chances of that were slim though.

“Alright. Let Ms. Nakiri do her thing. Her instructor would mostly teach you a different style. Meanwhile, I will also teach you how to box.”

All three of them agreed without any objections and that’s how an hour went by.

He spent the entire time going through the forms and teaching them how to throw proper punches. He didn't want to overload them with advanced concepts on the first day. Throwing a proper punch was the most important of them all, so that's what he taught first.

People thought that a punch involved just their arms, but they were wrong. There were different kinds of punches, and almost all of the powerful ones engaged the entire body. So, he taught them how to position their legs, how to move their bodies when throwing a punch.

True, with their size, they couldn’t do much damage. Fortunately, mana was a great equalizer. He didn’t even ask them what their artifacts could do, but he knew that combining all of that with proper basics will shoot up their chance of survival by a lot.

When they used their mana to materialize their wings, they could also fly. He figured that their patrons would account for that in their training. He would mention it to the girls, but that was the extent of what he could do on that front. He wasn't the right person to teach them how to fight aerial battles. He'd teach them what he knew, and not waste their time attempting to formulate strategies he was unfamiliar with.

To his surprise, the girls did not complain even once. They focused hard on the training and tried their best to learn what he taught. They might have been playful children, but they knew what was at stake, so they did not whine with the repetitive nature of the practice. Throwing the same punch again and again for long durations would bore people, and he had dealt with his fair share of newbies who wouldn't stop complaining. These kids were nothing like that.

He planned on asking old man Gyn for some mitts, a punching bag, and a speed bag for the kids. The old D’Raac was helpful and would do it for sure. Gyn had already procured a punching bag for Parth’s use, so he would have no problem getting some for the kids. This time, he could even pay the old man. But he was sure that the D’Raacs won't take money for expenses related to the challenge. They considered it their honor-bound duty and wouldn't listen. That wouldn't stop him from trying though.

“Looks like you’ve made a few friends,” a singsong voice interrupted the training.

Parth turned around to see one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen. She had the telltale ears of a fairy, and deep blue hair and eyes. She was draped in an expensive silk dress that was very reminiscent of kimonos. There were metallic additions to the design, just like he had seen on Viggo’s clothes. The metal in her clothes looked way more expensive though. They were intricately designed filigrees that increased the beauty of the clothes. The blue fabric and silver metal complimented her hair as well. Her facial features did look Japanese, only with the addition of the features that made her a fairy.

Standing a few feet behind her was a male D’Raac who was dressed similarly to Roul.

“Ms. Nakiri!" shouted Opal and Amber in glee as they ran toward the lady. Zircon followed hot on their heels with a smile on her face but was silent throughout the way.

It looked like he had come across a patron before he had even met his own.

You can find story with these keywords: Pygilist: Fire + Fist [Dungeon Isekai], Read Pygilist: Fire + Fist [Dungeon Isekai], Pygilist: Fire + Fist [Dungeon Isekai] novel, Pygilist: Fire + Fist [Dungeon Isekai] book, Pygilist: Fire + Fist [Dungeon Isekai] story, Pygilist: Fire + Fist [Dungeon Isekai] full, Pygilist: Fire + Fist [Dungeon Isekai] Latest Chapter