Chapter 3: Chapter 2 | A Coward?

Chapter 2: a Coward?

 

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Florian had no idea how long he was unconscious, but the disembodied voices were just… too loud.

‘Those five strange but cool people just fucked the two cute dogs up with light bullet shots! So fucking cool!’ 
‘It’s not the matter now! We need to wake Florian up, stupid dirt!’ 
‘For destruction and revolution! The appearance of another world’s gate will trigger the birth of the Flame Destruction to be reborn! Revolution! Destruction! Miserable!’ 
‘Shut up, noisy water! Go splash Florian’s face and wake him up!’ 
‘You guys know it works nothing without the element-bender and haaaah… you are all unusually very noisy.’

“Yes, so noisy.”

Hearing Florian’s grunt, the four nature spirits gasped and frantically hovered around him.

‘Gasp! Did he just say ‘noisy’? Could he possibly hear us?!’ 
‘No way!’

As the energy gradually slithered into his body, Florian urged his eyes to open and saw the blue screen saying to have a fun play, but he swept it with his hand, so it was gone again.

But the following sight caused his eyes to bulge out of his skull.

“What in the world are these?! Why is there a fire orb, water ball, flying… gravel, and… a whirlwind—flying around me?”

Florian winced and tipped his head to the side, inspecting the four spirits flying around his body.

‘He can hear us? It’s shocking! But he can see us too?! It is unbelievably shocking!’ 
‘But how? It is so weird. From all these twelve years, why now?’ 
‘Revolution of the half-faerie boy, who is lame at creating magic circles and unable to control us! Revolution! Victory! Destruction!’

“Ah… I think I have gone crazy.”

Florian rubbed a palm over his face and hauled his back to lean against the tree. Seeing the nature spirits still hovering in the air, he began to wonder if he had some strange disease for seeing the intangible screen and having to hear and see those floating nature elements.

“How long I was unconscious… and where am I?”

He threw a few questions to confirm whether the floating nature spirits could really speak and answer his questions.

‘Don’t worry, you only passed out in less than five minutes!’
‘And we are still in the woods after the cool explosion!’

A crease appeared on his forehead as he heard the answer from the fireball and the whirlwind.

Do these floating thingies really speak? 

Then Florian studied all the spirits more thoroughly with a whimsical face while his index finger tried to prod them, but the spirits kept dodging.

The fussy one was the wind spirit, a whirlwind. The spirit with the foul mouth was the earth, flying gravel. The crazy one was the water spirit, a water ball. And the only calm and sane nature spirit was the fire spirit, a red-fiery orb.

They had been with him since Florian was born. And for twelve years, Florian could neither see nor hear their voices as he should. So why could Florian suddenly hear and see the nature spirit?

It was so unnatural. And above all, Florian still couldn’t control them.

Florian set aside his cluttered mind and the spirits because the matter that caused them was still before his eyes. Wobbling to his feet, he sorted out his rather shabby clothes as his body felt better, with less pain than earlier. All his senses were still the same, sharp and clear.

[You have been successfully restarting. +5% HP.] 
[HP: 200/3000]

He frowned at the screen and waved his hand over it again, but a crazy little whirlwind took place in his vision.

‘Florian! You must run! Those five strange people just revived one of the scary black dogs, and the dog is heading here!’ 
‘They must have told that demon dog to come after you, so better run, Florian!’ 
‘For revolution and survival! Escaping, now!’ 
‘That puny dog is dead, but how could it move?’

Florian’s face turned pale. It wasn’t only the noisy nature spirits who warned him.

[Danger! Undead Demon Dog is approaching. HP: 2200/2200]

A bolt of panic struck him, and darkness gathered in his eyes, but the first thing he was worried about was—

“The children…?”

The children, the house, and everything… had gone.

Where to go?

‘Such a sorrowful to put it in words, young Florian. They are dead, but—’ 
‘For the sake of the mighty tree spirit! It’s so fucking scary!’

Before Florian could arrange his mind, the sight of the undead demon god finally appeared in his view; closer and closer, and God, it was even more terrifying than before.

“Shit!”

He jerked his body to turn around and sprinted in the opposite direction, to the west. To the Forest of Gluttony. One of five restricted areas in the world.

The Forest of Gluttony might be dangerous, but he once read in the book that the first region—the outmost part of the forest—was not as dangerous as deeper forest areas. It took around twenty minutes to reach the Forest of Gluttony at moderate speed. But with his faerie strength, he definitely could reach it even faster.

However—

Running is so damn tiring!

His heart pounded rapidly, suffocating her breath, and with one sandal only, Florian could feel the gravel and uneven path hitting his barefoot. It was undoubtedly painful.

Florian naturally hated things that quickly made him tired, especially if they had no benefit. And running was one of many things he hated the most—especially running at full speed, energy, and urgency. Therefore, never once did he learn martial arts or any sports that didn’t make any money.

In his case, having the strength of the tailed faerie only made him excessively lazy.

Like, why would he? His dream was to be a great sorcerer. Cooler, he thought. 

Blowing up enemies with cool magic from a distance? And less potential to get an injury? Hell yes.

After around five minutes of running, he frequently glanced back to confirm the undead demon dog was nowhere to be seen. With his pace getting slower and slower, he stopped and plopped down. His chest went up and down as he tried to catch his breath. A tense vibration slithered all over his body, and a dull but persistent ache stung his legs and chest.

He perspired so heavily and truly despised it.

A couple of hours were left before the sun left the sky, but it somehow felt twilight and so dismal in the woods. Neither the spirits nor their noises enlivened him. It was strangely serene but also an opportunity to rest and reflect on all the events that had happened in such a short time.

The sudden portal, Maman, Zed, Lita, and Kieran.

He bit down on his lips, letting memories of the incident repeat themselves in his head. Dread and grief. He had been weighed down by them now. Why did everything just happen so quickly? Why only he survived? What should he do next?

Florian had no answer to all the questions, nor was there someone he could ask.

He had no one and was lost.

Then a subtle chime of a bell invited him to open his eyes.

[Warning! The Undead demon dog is still approaching! HP: 22o0/22o0]

Florian ignored the warning and rose to his feet. Something in his features had changed. His eyes looked somewhat soulless as if they were ready to wait for the sight of the monster approaching him. In his stillness, the whispers of the wind echoed in his ears as though telling him of his guilt. Again and again. To the point where he had fathomed himself being killed by that monster.

He attempted to move a muscle. But his bones seemed to have turned to water, losing to his grief. His body and desire to live weakened. 

Then, he breathed in exasperation, squeezed his eyes shut, and tears just rolled down his cheeks.

I shouldn’t have gone. I should have stayed at home before. I should have died too.

It is all my fault that they died.

I want to die too.

Death. He desired it.

He desired death to the extent that something new was evoked in him.

It was strange and pleasant, but oddly nostalgic.

[Death? You already faced it once, brother.]

Florian abruptly snapped his eyes open as the unknown yet familiar voice rang in his head. He was utterly shocked. It wasn’t the voice of any spirit. Who? He wondered, his heart racing in a weird tension.

But shortly after, the noisy voices of the nature spirits echoed in his ears again, helping him return to his senses.

‘What are you doing, young Florian?! You must Run!’ 
‘Fucking go run, bloody-head boy! That dog is too fucking strong for you to fight!’ 
‘You need to survive! You need to stay alive!’

Death always found a way in and out. Since Florian had death inside him, he didn’t need to ask.

He just needed to use it.

And it was Dark Mana, which was also known as Dead Mana.

Right then, as he felt a sudden strength allocated to his feet, he brought down his attention and saw dark mana covering his bare feet.

[Skill – Dark Mana (Strengthen, Flow, and Deform) lv. 1]
[Scoot]

Both shock and excitement had fallen across his face. “This is… perhaps?” He grinned—it was hard not to.

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‘Oh, very cool, young Florian! Now, run and go to the forbidden forest! A faerie land is beyond that forest!’

The word ‘faerie land’ lurched in his stomach.

Faerie land was a land of creatures even more arrogant than the Miradians or Darklanders. Florian knew about that place from a book, but no human could ever find the exact location because faeries were creatures of nature and loved to live in hiding, or you could say—they chose to isolate themselves from the outside world. It was also said to be a place protected by ancient magic. And there were even rumors that a dragon lived there and protected faeries.

But a faerie kingdom was beyond the Forest of Gluttony?

As if I could go beyond a dangerous forest that is almost as big as the Sandfort region!

As Florian drowned in apprehensive, a fire orb swirled in front of his face.

‘Florian, run now!’

Terror streaked through him as he caught the sight of the demon dog approaching him at an excessive speed. Unwilling to lose, he sprinted again, but now his speed was way faster than before; his legs jumped further and further and higher and higher, which was surprisingly fun.

This is fun but so tiring!

“Wooohoooooooooooooo!”

Yup, he was having fun.

But not for long.

When a massive wall of about ten meters that fenced off the dangerous forest came into his view, he slowed his pace as doubts began to fill his mind.

What now? Should I really jump and go into the forest?

A crazy water ball gave him an answer.

‘For the destruction of the future! Let’s dominate the forest! Jump now, weird half-fae!’

This goddamn water ball!

Regardless of how Florian wanted to curse the water ball, he heeded the advice and stepped on a boulder before shooting his body into the gate.

[Congrats! +5% XP and Your skill: Dark Mana (Strengthen, Flow, and Deform) has leveled up!]
[Skill – Dark Mana (Strengthen, Flow, and Deform) lv.2]

Merely reaching the top of the wall gate, Florian hung over it with one hand.

“Great.”

He sighed and ignored the floating screen.

The view of the woods and hills was a feast for his eyes. From up there, he could see the vast woods thinly blanketed by mists. Beyond them squatted the high jagged mountains as though they were fences protecting Sandfort’s territory. He had spent all his twelve years in that forest, in this region, but never thought he would see this sight from above. 

But now, it had become a place of both fond and sorrowful memories.

Would he be able to return?

With that thought, his mind quickly flooded with questions and doubts, wondering if he would survive in the forest later.

Fall and die? Or go inside the Forest of Gluttony to find the faerie kingdom? Was there even a faerie land, or did the nature spirits just fool him?

Since nothing came to his mind as an answer, he chose to enter the forest.

Florian drew in a shuddering breath and pulled his body up. Holding his frantic breathing, his hands stretched open to maintain balance by standing on a ten-centimeter-thick wall. As he looked down at the dark forest below, he swallowed hard, his body vibrating with tension and fear.

He was sure that a gentle blow of wind could make him fall.

“And now I have to jump in? And… die?”

When he hoped for an answer, the spirits were none to be seen, nor were their noisy voices. It left him with an odd feeling, for sometimes, he could not hear nor see the spirits.

Just why so?

Recalling his epic run, Florian got the idea to use the dark mana to cover his legs, but nothing came out, and a screen appeared in front of him instead.

[Unable to use Skill – Dark Mana (Strengthen, Flow, and Deform) lv. 2]
[Reason: Low Dark Mana Power. DMP: 30/2800]

He drew his brows close together, pondering something he had just realized.

Dark Mana? How could I have Dark Mana? Isn’t it a dark attribute? But how do I have it? 

This weird system?

Then another screen of his stats appeared.