I get up the next morning and decide that, instead of working out that morning, I will go do some mining after breakfast. So I get up and go to the mushroom area with my spear and quickly catch two fish.
⟨⟨-DING-⟩⟩⟩
- Congratulations, the fishing skill has advanced to level 4!
√ Fishing
√ Level 4
- Agility +4
- You can try your hand at fishing.
When I go to look for some mushrooms, I realize that only the new shoots are left and none of them look ripe, so I go back to my room with only the two fish. After roasting and eating them, I grab my gear and the spikes I made and head to the goblin nest to spend a couple of hours mining. During the two hours, I get another hundred pounds of iron ore.
⟨⟨-DING-⟩⟩⟩
- Congratulations, the Mining skill has advanced to level 7!
√ Mining
√ Level 7
- Strength +7 Endurance +3
- You can try to mine normal ore.
When I've taken the ore back to my room, I think I've had enough exercise and head back down to continue exploring. I head back to the storage room where I left it and continue down the main passage. About ten meters further on, I come to a crossroads; the main passage continues while there are smaller corridors to the left and right.
Following my strategy of exploring the outside first, I take the corridor on the left. The hallway is about fifteen feet long, but the strange thing is that as I walk down it, the air becomes noticeably warmer. The room at the end of the hallway seems to be lit by firelight, so I approach cautiously.
When I peek inside what I see surprises me, the room is empty except for one being, it looks like the figure of a woman made of fire. She is chained in place and appears to be either dead or asleep, but as the room is definitely warmer, I assume she is asleep. I look carefully around the room that seems to be a natural cave that expanded and seeing no other enemies I slowly enter the room.
As I approach her, I notice that the chains holding her are very thick and go from her wrists to the walls. I also notice a strange square hole in the ceiling just above her.
"Hey, hello?"
Elemental wakes up startled and yells "Die! Burn! Huh?"
Elemental says, "Oh, you're not a rat man or a goblin, what are you?"
"I am a beastman, Black Lion race. Are you a fire elemental? And how is it that I can understand you?"
Elemental says, "Yes, I am a fire elemental. We elementals are magical beings, we can communicate in any language. I've never heard of a Black Lion beastman before, where do you come from, and how come I can sense the mana in you?"
"That's a long story, and I have mana, shouldn't I?"
Elemental says, "Beastmen, as created beings, are not supposed to have mana."
"Created beings? What do you mean by that?"
Elemental says, "Beastmen are not natural, they were created by the imperial mages by taking the core of a mana beast and fusing it with a human."
"Mana beasts, they're not natural? The more you talk, the more questions I have."
Elemental says, "Well, since you're the first person I've seen since the Archmage last left that I can talk to, I don't mind."
"That's fine, I'd love to talk to you for a while, but first I think I should release you. As long as you're not going to attack me, sure that's fine."
Elemental says, "I'd love it if you could release me! And I promise not to attack you if you do, but these chains are made of steel forged with spells, so I doubt you could free me. Why would you want to free me anyway?"
-I don't like slavery! I'm not sure I can free you, but I intend to try.
I draw my sword and strike the chains.
"METALLIC SOUND."
The sword bounces off the chain without leaving a mark.
"Well, since you're a fire elemental, the chains will surely be immune to fire, so the fire beam won't do anything. I think I'll try the Black Razor."
The elemental watches as I draw the dagger and stand next to it to try to cut the chain. The dagger slowly cuts the chain as the elemental's eyes widen in disbelief.
Elemental says, "Natural mana ebbs and flows over time. Every hundred years or so it is at its peak and this period when it is strongest is called the time of invocation because only when the magic is at its peak can another world be reached."
"So the magic isn't at its peak right now, so it shouldn't have been summoned yet?"
Elemental says, "Correct. The peak is still a year away. Summoning you before that time would have required a great sacrifice."
"I wasn't the only one summoned, I didn't have a chance to look around but I feel there were between forty and fifty people around me when I showed up here."
Elemental says, "Are you sure you were summoned by a king and not an emperor? The reason I ask is that the maximum number of possible summonings is fifty. And before you ask, I don't know why that is the limit, no one has figured it out that I know of.
The amount of power needed to summon all fifty during the summoning time is immense, I can't even imagine how large the amount needed to summon all fifty would be before!"
"I'm pretty sure it was just a king, but I don't know anything about the kingdom or the current state of this world. Anyway, let me finish explaining so you know my situation."
I tell him that I was attacked immediately after being summoned and that I was deemed useless because I was zero level and thrown into the pit. I then explain how I survived and what I have accomplished since then.
Elemental says, "Wow, that's an amazing story! It's amazing that you survived, not to mention that you survived as a level zero. I'm sorry to say I don't know why you didn't have a level. Like I said, beastmen were created, so I didn't think it was possible to summon one. Well, let me tell you the story of the fall of the empire first so that you understand the origin of the beastmen."
"Well!"
Elemental says, "At the time of the fall, the empire was ruled by Emperor Quintent and the fall was caused by his older brother, Duke Daggun. You see, at that time the empire was ruled by magicians and magical power was everything. Daggun was the eldest, but Quintent was a stronger wizard, so he became emperor.
Daggun was sent to rule the far north territory as duke, of course he felt cheated and that the throne belonged to him. Ten years after the emperor's coronation, Daggun raised the north in rebellion. Now, rebellion was a fairly common occurrence in the history of the empire, so no one thought much of it and expected the army to put it down quickly.
At first they were right, the imperial army won several victories against Daggun at first, but then Daggun started using a new type of beast and the war changed."
Elemental says: "Now, magically created beasts were quite common in the empire, they were used for all sorts of things, such as farming, protection and arena combat. The main difference was that those beasts only lasted as long as mana was infused into them, whereas Daggun's beasts were self-sufficient.
They were real, living beasts and could even reproduce, no one had any idea that was possible before they appeared. They were also considerably stronger than expected and destroyed two entire imperial armies before anyone knew what was happening. Daggun had apparently been planning and preparing for a long time because he unleashed thousands of the new beasts against the empire.
These beasts became known as mana beasts, and what allowed them to live fully was the beast core. Now, for the first time, the empire was losing a civil war and such drastic measures were deemed necessary, the Archmage and the imperial mages devised a process to infuse a beast core into a human being."
"Those were the first beastmen, weren't they, that's why you called them a created race?"
Elemental says, "Correct. Thousands of the empire's human soldiers were fused with beast cores extracted from Daggun's mana beasts. Those who survived the process became the first beastmen. The process had a mortality rate of approximately thirty-five percent."
"Wow, that's a lot of dead soldiers, isn't it?"
Elemental says, "Yes, hundreds died to create the beastmen. But we're talking about...
Over an empire, the imperial army before the war counted more than.
Hundred thousand, that is, hundreds of losses were acceptable. Especially
since tens of thousands had died fighting Daggun's mana beasts.
Now the tide turned again, with the beastmen leading the army that were
able to kill the mana beasts and drive Daggun back. I think it was an act
of desperation on Daggun's part, but it created a new type of mana.
Beast. It was the only mana beast capable of using magic, what's worse, It could fly and spit fire."
"That sounds like a dragon!"
Elemental says "What's a dragon?"
"A mythical beast from my ancient world. Large, scaly, lizard-like, immensely powerful, able to fly and exhale fire."
Elemental says, "Sounds pretty good. Anyway, these new creatures were beyond Daggun's ability to control and went berserk all over the continent, burning all the cities and villages to the ground. Even the Archmage's castle, which used to stand over this basement, was easily destroyed and he had spent a lot of time and power in enchanting it.
At the time, it was considered second only to the imperial palace in terms of magical protection, but a dragon destroyed it in a matter of minutes."
"So they destroyed the entire empire?"
Ele says, "Yes, in about two weeks, everything was reduced to ashes. The war and the empire ended in flames. At least that's what the Archmage told me the last time I saw him. I think he just told me.
Because he had no one else to tell."
"So, the well used to be the basement of the Archmage's castle and the sewers were from the city that belonged to the castle?"
Ele says, "Yes, and the Archmage liked to hide from his people in the basement so he could research and write his book. That's the only reason he survived, but he was trapped there. After a while, he went to the sewers and talked to me for a few days. Then he left to find a way out, saying something about the river, and that was the last time I saw him.
Now I'm not entirely sure how long ago that was, I slept quite a bit over the centuries that passed, and that's the end of my knowledge of the world above."