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185: Growing pain

Author: Random_writer Word Count: 7904 Updated: 2025-06-09 14:42:06

Growing pain

The group continued back on their Amphiboards, getting lost a few times in the process. The sun kept moving across the sky and the fog kept thinning. By now, they could make out everything in a two-hundred-foot radius around them. If something jumped out at them, it was given a brutal death by either Elero or Frey before being tossed to the dirt or stuffed into a spatial ring. Doevm and Thomas sighed whenever it happened.1

The second Frey got past the string still wrapped around their improvised campsite, he lay down on his Amphiboard and covered himself in spare clothes: "Someone else take the first shift." He closed his eyes and let his tired body relax. The rest looked down at him in a moment of collective, silent envy.

The moment was broken however, when Thomas got off his Amphiboard. He reached into his bloody clothes and withdrew two spatial rings other than the one he was wearing. He tried to say something in between smiling, chuckling nervously, and looking at the ground.

"What is it Thomas?" Elero asked as she sat on her own Amphiboard and began disassembling her braces. Each piece, she wiped off before putting it into her spatial ring. "Did you find something shiny?"

"W-well I'm not proud of this…" Thomas scratched the back of his head. "but yes, I stole something shiny. Two things for that matter." Elero narrowed her eyes at the two spatial rings in his hands. Then the realization set in. "I knew I wouldn't be able to take anyone down, and I figured I should at least do something useful. The only things of values they had which were free game were their spatial rings, so I sort of…took them." He put them on and dumped out the contents at the center of the camp, which amounted to over a dozen corpses and a rolled up piece of parchment.

"Where…" Elero's eyes went wide. "You didn't!" She reached over and pat him on the back so hard that he almost stumbled into the pile of corpses. "Good job you slick bastard."

"Bastard?" Thomas scrunched up his eyebrows. "Um…thank you?" He stepped back from the pile and put on a fake smile.

Doevm turned the piece of parchment over and acted like he was breaking the wax seal even though he had already done so before. "Whose finger did you get this off of again?"

"This stuff is mostly from Gregen," Thomas kept his nervous smile up like a wall to hide his guilt. "He was a dick to me so I took it when I grappled him. That maybe, just maybe…had a slight probability of why I got cu…You know what? Nevermind. It's not important." He let out another nervous chuckle and hid his face behind his shirt. "I'm sorry. Liz always says I should not steal but I always got so bored back at that stinking house. How else was I supposed to have fun?" He took his head out of his shirt only to be met with Elero's glare. "I gave their stuff back, eventually."

"Good job." Doevm unrolled the map and prodded Frey awake.

Just like the map with bobcats, this one had a specific section of the swamp, a system of caves in the west-most side, in high detail, while the rest of the map was blurred out. On the left of the caves was a drawing of a venomous salamander, its footprints, a description, and point value: "Venomous Salamander. Currently unknown how they got to that size but they are highly toxic and a single prick can be lethal. While highly doubtful that they are a mutant, the mutant bonus combined with the rare point value still applies, making this a "times six" value target."

"We are still in the game," Doevm laughed. "But first, you guys should rest. I'll take the first shift."

"You know," Elero said as she finished taking off her last brace. "I think I'm starting to like this group. Besides Doevm referring to humans as if he isn't apart of them, which is extremely weird by the way, I think I'll stick with you guys after initiation. If you don't mid that is."

"Thank you, Miss Mech," Thomas said. "We'll need it."

"Just Elero is fine." She wrapped her legs in a blanket and shut her eyes. Thomas went to sleep under a pile of clothes. Frey soon began snoring. Only then did Doevm move.

He placed all items into his spatial ring and put his head in his hands.

"Lich, kill it!" The mob cheered louder than their prayers to that accursed goddess which demanded his death. They cried out with increasing fury. Ten minutes later and they were silent as the Undead soldiers which Doevm kept around his library.

"How could I spar with you?" The fifth person Doevm had asked to spar with him cried. "You killed my family, slaughtered my village, and trampled the ashes for an ounce of magical power. You should suffer for all eternity."

Doevm glanced down at Frey's sleeping figure. 'I'm going to have to tell him some day, a day I can't keep delaying for much longer. How did he resist? He followed the first two commands - to freeze and lay down - but why did the third order, to forget, fail? All theories point to that protective layer. Either he's using the small part of my soul he inherited to block it, or the hero's power. I would like to test how much it can defend, but that's risky. I already had to use magic once. If I could just isolate him somewhere and run a couple experiments, I could think of something, some way to keep manipulating him and finally get his head straight.'

He sat down and opened his notebook, which he pulled out of his spatial ring. "Side experiment. Subject Frey failed to follow the third command issued by soul mana: to forget. While greater amounts proved useful, it's clear the more I order him around, the more of a resistance he builds, whether he knows it or not. While the simple solution would just be to tell him, I don't trust him to keep a secret. Or maybe I can use soul magic to keep his mouth shut. However, if he resists one thing, who is to say he won't resist another command? Either path is a risk, but I need his power for the future, for when I finally take her down. Further experiments pending."

He flipped the page, then a few dozen more until he got nearly halfway through his little notebook, and sighed. "Learning to heal, trial number forty." He glanced at the cut on his finger, which had yet to heal. He moved the quill along the page: "Any combination of the old techniques proved to be ineffective. No combination of strengthening, defense, or speed seemed to be any help, so now I am forced to attempt new measures. Now I attempt to "breath" within wounded area, which I can only define in words as applying a rhythmic pressure to the area." He put the journal and quill into his spatial ring and closed his eyes.

'Breath in,' he thought to himself. 'breath out, just like meditation when gathering mana. Now condense.' Life essence wafted off of his body. He willed it, and all of his life essence moved to the wound on his finger. Blood sprayed out when he applied pressure, but when he inhaled and released the pressure, the flow of blood stopped, and any blood in the area retracted. That went on for several cycles until part of the ground was covered in his blood. He halted the experiment and wrote down the results before trying again, this time with more pressure. That too, was a failure. The next trial he tried less pressure. When Doevm opened his eyes and inspected the wound, he couldn't find one. It was gone. However, most of his life essence was gone as well. He frowned before taking his book and quill out.

He flipped through the pages and wrote down the results before glancing at all the blood on the ground. 'It's a shame to waste it.' He dipped his hand in the small pool and moved life essence to his fingers. To his dismay, the life essence didn't move to his blood, which he recorded in another page of notes. All trials stopped from there because his life essence flickered out of existence.

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Catalog (467)
1: Prologue 2: Pawn 3: Abuse 4: Rose Thorn 5: A Mother Worries 6: War Monk 7: Virility Mansion 8: Coming war 9: Cleaning books 10: Frey 11: Strength vs. Skill 12: A day in Jameson's Shoes 13: Investigation 14: Lava Boar (Part 1) 15: Lava Boar (part 2) 16: Lava Boar (part 3) 17: Analysis 18: The Past 19: Frey's Challenge 20: Life Essence Training 21: Unhappy Birthday 22: The Truth 23: Leaving 24: Numbskull and Goon 25: Emma 26: Double Date 27: Blacksmith 28: Double Date (Part 2) 29: Mummified Arm 30: Prophecy 31: A Single Cut 32: Inheritance 33: Blasphemy 34: The Rat 35: Twisted Bone 36: Old Addiction 37: Caught 38: Interrogation 39: Welcome to Squad Six 40: Friendly Spar With Squad Six 41: Throwing Knives 42: Calm Before the Storm 43: Manticore 44: Aftermath of The First Battle 45: Promotion 46: New Rivalry 47: Light and Healing Magic 48: Second Mission 49: Wade's Bad Call 50: Outnumbered and Isolated 151: Divine Intervention 152: Final Push 153: Reaper 154: Report 155: Light at the End of the Tunnel 156: Rest 157: Letter 158: Shopping (Part 1/2) 159: Shopping (Part 2/2) 160: Initiation 161: Group of Four 162: Amphiboards 163: The Paddle 164: Start! 165: Bullfrog 166: Noble 167: Underwater 168: Tongue 169: Distant Gaze 170: Trak 171: Doubt 172: Liar 173: Fang 174: Cerberus 175: Teamwork 176: Tired 177: Spear Throwing 178: Breakdown 179: Team 180: Payback 181: Civil Discussion 182: Chains and Anger 183: Mistakes 184: Slight tug 185: Growing pain 186: The Winning Plan 187: Corpse 188: Miss Vessa 189: Old Ways 190: Infectious Determination 191: Numbed Pain 192: Hues 193: Inexperienced (Part 1/2) 194: Inexperienced (Part 2/2) 195: Maddening Rage (Part 1) 196: Maddening Rage (Part 2) 197: The Other Half 198: Lich Talk 199: Demonic Weapon 200: Worst of the Worst 251: Piece of an Origin Story 252: Regret 253: Decisions Decisions 254: Sparring Session 255: Overwhelming Defeat 256: Discovery 257: Suspicion 258: The Broken Statue 259: Gossip 260: The Reach 261: Elero's Return 262: Mr. Lich's true identity 263: Breaking a Habit 264: The Notemaker 265: Beatings, Deadlines, and a Voice in Her Head 266: Unfinished Product 267: The "Jet" Property 268: Inspiration 269: Rough First Day 270: Frustrating Stagnation 271: Visitor 272: Price of Resurrection 273: Becoming Doevm 274: Room of Jars 275: Familiar Smile 276: Dark Magic and Shadows 277: Red and Blue 278: Punishment 279: Sneaking Out 280: The Old Puppet 281: Shattered 282: Assembling the Pieces 283: Timeline 284: Sticks and Stones 285: Initiative, Insults, and Interrogation 286: Thomas and Elero discover the power and the secret then they go and discover the ruins. Man how long can these titles be? I 287: Regret 288: Revamped Story and a Crowded Room 289: Attack 290: Changing Nightmare 291: Another Crack in the Seal 292: Physical descriptions are important 293: Backyard 294: Pale complexion 295: Costly Resurrection 296: Rabbid Rabbit Thomas 297: Cramped Coffin 298: Advanced Spellcraft 299: Gradual Return 300: Larque's Warning 51: Elven Techniques 52: Hopi's Rage 53: Bottled Slimes 54: Three Men of the Von Trike Household 55: Hooks and Vines 56: The Nest 57: Ancient Ruins 58: Legacy (Part 1) 59: Legacy (Part 2) 60: Easter Egg Hunt: Ghoul Edition 61: Regrouping 62: Carnage 63: Reckless and Stupid 64: Self Doubt 65: DID YOU WANT ME TO BE QUIET!? 66: Meeting With Marcus 67: New Men 68: Internal Battle 69: The Plan 70: "Honorable" Duel (Part 1) 71: "Honorable" Duel (Part 2) 72: You're Invited 73: Praise the Goddess 74: A Lich That Hates Magic 75: Ten Months Later 76: Doevm vs. Oliver 77: A Weird Lich 78: Final Battle (Part 1) 79: Final Battle (Part 2) 80: Final Battle (Part 3) 81: General 82: Aftermath 83: No Longer Human. No Longer Lich. 84: Blinded By Greed 85: The Spider 86: Back On Track! 87: Dark World 88: Return to the Virility Household 89: Old Man's Story 90: Meeting The Family 91: Dummy Brigade 92: Weak 93: New Weapons 94: First Mission 95: Sheltered Boy 96: No Graves 97: Severed Head 98: Specimen No. 12 99: Storm Brewing 100: Departure 201: Distrust 202: Spear and Shield 203: Winner 204: Karma 205: Training Complete 206: Ruined Church 207: The Scene of Slaughter 208: Giant's Rage 209: Bottled Emotions 210: Gregen's Blade 211: Inhumane 212: Just My Luck 213: The Demon's Prey 214: Fallen (Part 1/2) 215: Fallen (Part 2/2) 216: Losing Control 217: Nightmare 218: Lich 219: Final Secrets Revealed 220: Twisted Mind 221: Glossary, NOT A CHAPTER 222: Coming to A Close 223: Jackal's Deal 224: Swaying the Crowd 225: Away With You 226: New Recruit 227: Jar of Memories 228: Two Blue Flames 229: Cerlius 230: The Knight's Academy 231: Meeting (1/3) 232: Meeting (2/3) 233: Meeting (3/3) 234: Entering the Academy (1/4) 235: Entering the Academy (2/4) 236: Entering the Academy (3/4) 237: Entering the Academy (4/4) 238: Cerlius's First Day of School 239: Three Concepts of Magic 240: Picking up the Pieces 241: Third Concept 242: Fish Slap 243: My name is Cerlius! 244: Thomas's Natural Charisma 245: New Disciples 246: Consequences of Strength 247: Old Wheelchair 248: Judgement 249: Natural Evil Cannot Be Forgotten 250: Deal with a Demon 101: Scrap City (Part 1) 102: Scrap City (Part 2) 103: Curiosity Killed the Cat 104: Draken Capital 105: Flash of Light 106: Separation 107: Slow Recovery 108: Jackal Von Trike 109: Alexander Finlish 110: Place Your Bets 111: Catch 112: Kill Him 113: Fear 114: Depths of the Capital 115: Missing 116: Meeting of the Nobles 117: Creature (Part 1) 118: Creature (Part 2) 119: Creature (Part 3) 120: Later 121: Braces 122: Abandoned Food 123: Elero Mech 124: Masochist 125: Poisonous 126: Halfbreed 127: Jackal vs. Daniel (Part 1) 128: Jackal vs Daniel (Part 2) 129: March 130: Lord Brandon Von Trike 131: Raid (Part 1) 132: Raid (Part 2) 133: Raid (Part 3) 134: Raid (Part 4) 135: Raid (Part 5) 136: Raid (Part 6) 137: Sore Loser 138: Human Suffering 139: Broken (Part 1) 140: Broken (Part 2) 141: Dark Magician 142: The Plan 143: Unmoving 144: Action Reaction 145: Going Deeper 146: Unknown Voice 147: Gunshots 148: Illusion Spell 149: A Girl 150: Anger Management Issues 301: Alliance 302: Shattered Jar 303: Tricks up the Tyrant's Sleeve 304: Battlefield 305: Deep Scars 306: Pull 307: Tormentor 308: Heretic 309: Incoming Storm Cloud 310: Ominous Birth 311: To Take on an Army 312: Green Gemstone 313: Place of Origin 314: Birth of the Lich 315: You Either Die a Hero or... 316: Tired of Hiding 317: Demon King's Power 318: Different Magics 319: Guidance 320: Birth of a Berserker 321: Targets 322: The Survivors 323: Long Awaited Contact 324: The Final Cliffhanger (part 1/2) 325: The Final Cliffhanger (part 1.5/2) Yes, I know I f***ed up 326: Final Final Cliffhanger, an apology 327: Quiet Arrival 328: Wizard Kick 329: Dead Silence 330: Dwindling Defenses 331: Positions Everyone, for the Show Begins 332: Imminent demise 333: Dud Part 1/2 (but let's be real here it'll probably be out of 3 because I underestimate stuff) 334: Dud Part 2 (Thanks to Logician for the suggestion) 335: Dud Part 3 336: Refusal to Submit 337: Hungry for a Fight 338: Lich Unleashed Part 1 339: Lich Unleashed Part 2 340: Lich Unleashed Part 3 341: The Western Hallway: Part 1 342: The Western Hallway: Part 2 343: The Mess Hall: Part 1 344: The Forbidden One's Arrival 345: Two Kings, a Rook, a Queen, a Priest, and a Whole lot of Pawns 346: Exception to the Rule 347: Fellow Pawn 348: Divine Savior 349: The Aftermath 350: The Shadox's Lament 351: Elero's Operation 352: Fall Down Seven Times. Get Up Eight Times. 353: PMI: Passive Magical Income 354: Hurried Goodbye 355: Graduation 356: Undead Shambling Through the Streets 357: Can I come with you? 358: Graduation 359: Sparring Session 360: Liar Liar 361: Washed Up Demi 362: Just a corpse 363: Into the Ruin 364: A Hero's Hesitation 365: Losing Control 366: Paying the Price 367: To Rely on Oneself 368: Kin 369: Deal 370: Come With Me 371: When It's Painful, Cry, Then Get Back Up. 372: Thomas's Choice 373: Bloodtrail 374: Plan B 375: Fighting to Die 376: Past the Breaking Point 377: Captain Fisher 378: Prologue 379: Prologue (Part 2) 380: Prologue (Part 3) 381: Prologue (Part 4) 382: Prologue (Part 5) 383: Last Day in a Long Journey 384: Frowning Frey 385: Mercenaries 386: Distracted 387: Lord Jameson 388: Disarming Sincerity 389: Search For Arte 390: Friendly Fire 391: Anger and Gentleness of a Giant 392: Safe Haven 393: The legend of Arthur Botoman 394: Old Foe 395: Wear and Tear 396: Compliments to the Chef (Part 1) 397: Compliments to the Chef (Part 2) 398: My Only Family (Part 1) 399: My Only Family (Part 2) 400: Wake up! 401: Whispers Underground 402: Why a chef? 403: Hostage Situation 404: Radiant Burst 405: Left Alive? 406: The Slap 407: The Right Choice (Part 1/2) 408: The Right Choice (Part 2/2) 409: Report from the Capital 410: Owen's Warning 411: Patron 412: Goodbye Petal Town 413: Old Friend in the Bloodwood 414: Boiling Toad 415: Full Alert 416: Relying on Magic 417: Gutless Cur 418: Doevm's paranoia 419: A Letter From Elero 420: Takeoff 421: Destination: Polyglint Mines 422: Good Old Reverse Psychology 423: Got any better ideas? 424: Blending in 425: Sir Wilhelm 426: Passing on a Message 427: Let's Play a Game 428: Kilot's Infectious Laughter 429: Descent into the Darkest Darkness...which is Dark (Part 1/2) 430: Descent into the Darkest Darkness...which is Dark (Part 2/2) 431: EEEWWWWWWWWWWWW 432: Firing up the Forge 433: The Second Legacy 434: Hit the Books 435: Welcome to the Game, Doevm 436: The Players 437: The Hollow Stone 438: The Lich's Blessing 439: Stupid Frey 440: Dragon Hoard 441: The Source of the Mana and the Unconscious Ally 442: The Classic Old Dwarvish Bait 443: Chronomancy, an Assassin, and a Theory 444: The Assassin's Execution 445: Jumping at Shadows 446: Whole again 447: An Old Dwarf has his Tricks 448: Food, Shelter, and Privacy 449: Maker's Punishment 450: New Image 451: The Troop's Morale 452: Divide and Conquer 453: Custom Order Tool 454: The Beginning of the Last Crucade 455: Recurring Dream or Nightmare? 456: Instigating a Fight 457: The Arrogance of the Strong 458: The Hunt Begins 459: Edgy Tendencies and a Pure-Hearted Smile 460: Reward: Ascention 461: Multi-layered Trap 462: Percieved Threat 463: Rise of the False Hope 464: Questionable Alliance 465: A Reason to Fight 466: When an Unstoppable Force Meets an Unmovable Object 467: Lesson One Complete
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