The Infinite Bk. 01 Ch. 03

Noah simply sat there with an awkward smile, annoyed that his plans to keep a low profile had gone of up with smoke, but amused with the situation nonetheless. Tin, too nervous and embarrassed to say anything, simply hung her head while her face turned red as a tomato.

----

It was close to midnight, and Noah, having regained his strength, made his way to the dark apothecary. He carried a lantern with him, but its flame, like Noah, was invisible to anyone and anything, and the road remained as dark as it would be without his presence. He had shrouded it in his illusion as a way to test himself. If his mana slipped, light would escape. After the day's training, the mana expenditure was next to nothing. He had already passed the five-minute mark and felt only the tiniest shiver of fatigue. At the rate of expenditure, he might be able to maintain the illusion for an hour or more.

He reached the store and went to work picking the lock while sending his mana into the door. Wrapped in his illusion, the door made no noise, even when he opened it. There were a few guards patrolling the town, but they wouldn't have noticed him, even without being invisible. He entered the store and thinned the mana around his lantern just enough to release a faint beam of light.

There was plenty of valuable materials to steal, but Noah and Tin's suspicious behavior would have left an impression on the old woman, and she'd assume they did it. Instead, he searched the shop for books and potion recipes, though none could be found. They must have been hidden elsewhere. He did find plenty of compounding equipment, which he memorized in order to replicate. Noah moved beyond the store and into the woman's home.

She lived, as everyone else did in this world, rustically. All light was natural or flame-based, any food that could go bad was salted and kept in jars, there was no running water, and all the tools were pre-industrial. It still reeked of potions and herbs, but that smell was probably difficult to confine to the shop.

He came across a large wooden chest set against the wall, and after picking the lock, got it open, revealing his prize. The old woman's whole library was kept neatly arranged, all the answers Noah needed. In this world, information was as important for survival as food and water, so until society managed to invent the printing press, books were worth their weight in gold. Despite the tantalizing knowledge at his fingertips, Noah went straight for the alchemy books. He looked up the recipes for basic health and mana potions, memorizing the ingredients and processes.

Finding satisfaction, he removed all traces of his visit and left the apothecary.

----

The arrival of the next day brought Noah and Tin out to the woods to gather herbs and hunt monsters. Buying all the potions yesterday had taken a big chunk out of their finances, so Noah wanted to gather some materials he could sell. He had asked around the tavern the previous night and managed to find out the most valuable parts of monsters. He also found out some interesting facts.

"Summoned by magic?"

"Yes sir," said the bartender as he used a dirty rag to clean a glass. "If you're really lucky, you'll manage to see it happen. There are magic circles scattered across these lands, absorbing mana from the air and using it to summon beasts. About a quarter of each monster race is created by magic. And not just monsters, woodland animals as well, from the deer to the birds. Shouldn't you know that by now if you're going to be an adventurer?"

Noah remembered his fights in the forest, the monsters that seemed to be shrouded in mana. "Huh, my country didn't have anything like that."

Despite it being true, it was used as a lie. Ignorance of basic facts would give him away and make people suspicious, so he was hesitant to ask about anything involving magic. He couldn't expect much from this world's level of education, but a man with no knowledge of magic would probably stand out like a man in the 21st century that had never seen electricity before. At least claiming to be a foreigner would excuse most errors. He just had to hope he didn't meet up with any international merchants before he got more information.

"Where do these magic circles come from?"

"According to legends, there was a war between the gods and the spirits of nature. The spirits used their magic to summon armies of creatures, so that the minions of the gods could never walk the earth, and that magic remains to this day. Some believe that it is a weapon being used against mankind, to halt our expansion and exploration into new lands. Many believe it to be the work of troublemakers that got their hands on some kind of illegal magic, spreading the magic circles to create havoc.

Many times in history, areas have been declared monster-free, only for the creatures to spontaneously return. Even islands get plagued with monsters despite being swept clean. It's why many turn to adventuring; the steady income from hunting monsters and the reliable food source."

As Noah thought back to the conversation, he heard movement nearby. Bursting from the undergrowth, an adolescent wolf lunged at Noah and Tin. Noah was quick on the draw and managed to slash the monster on the shoulder with his longsword. It landed behind him, slightly limping but showing no signs of giving up. It flashed eyes full of bloodlust while it snarled and foamed. Tin hurried behind Noah, as per his orders, while he stared it down. If he cast his illusion, he could easily kill it without it ever seeing the attack coming, but today, he was sharpening his combat skills and refining his swordplay, so he needed to face his enemies without hiding from them. Besides, monsters that lost track of him often turned their attention to Tin.

Noah made the first move, charging while swinging down at the wolf's other shoulder. It jumped to the side to dodge, but Noah widened the angle of the slash as he brought it down, turning it into a diagonal attack. Chasing the wolf with his swing, he managed cut into its flesh. The wolf, infuriated by pain, pounced from a high angle, aiming for Noah's head. The angle was tricky, Noah sidestepping out of the reach of its claws, raising blade, and delivering an executioner's chop to the back of the neck, severing its head.

He didn't drop his guard and scanned the area, searching for any other wolves in hiding. He could detect none. "Clear."

That was his signal to Tin. With Noah keeping guard, she went to work on the wolf, removing the valuable parts like the skin and certain muscles and organs. It was messy work, but worth the effort. Everything was stored in her backpack and several other pouches and bags, along with Noah's bow and other adventuring supplies. Since Noah was doing all the fighting, the job of pack mule fell to her, or rather, she insisted on it.

Once she had gathered the best pieces, they set off again. Many might disapprove of letting so much of the monster go to waste, but the race couldn't go extinct and something else would come along and eat it, so Noah didn't feel too bad. Minutes after they moved on, Noah caught sight of something ahead, zooming between the trees.

"Tin, step back."

Noah readied himself, his sword raised as the blur approached. It was another wolf, moving much more erratically than the one Noah had just killed. It lunged for him and he sliced off its head. It was rather easy, as if the creature's mind was scattered. Perhaps it was rabid? But as he turned to examine the corpse, he realized he had broken a cardinal sin. There was an arrow in its hind leg, meaning that this beast had already been claimed.

Two young women appeared, having apparently sprinted a great distance and now gasping for breath. Noah had seen them before at the inn. One of them, a blonde archer, had attempted to talk to him the previous night, but her friend, a brunette with a staff, stopped her.

"Sorry about that, it seems I took your kill."

Neither women responded, both leaning on their knees and looking like they were about to collapse. Noah looked to Tin and nudged his head towards them. She got the message and approached with a water skin.

"Here, drink this."

The blonde gratefully took the water and drank deeply, then handed it to her friend. "Thank you, both of you. We were so close to giving up."

"I kept trying to grab it with my magic, but it was fast, even with an arrow in its leg," said her friend.

The archer looked at them and gained a wide smile. "Oh, I know who the two of you are!"

Tin blushed and averted her gaze. The magic user looked at them and sighed. "Good God, not again."

The archer extended her hand to Noah. "I'm Beth and this is Mira, very pleased to make your acquaintance."

Noah shook her hand. "I'm Noah and this is Tin."

"You took care of that wolf so easily! With skills like yours, we would love to team up. What do you say?"

"Sorry, but I'm still refining my skills and gaining experience, and I feel it works better when I fight the battles alone, but maybe in the future we could team up. Have you two been adventuring long?"

"Kind of," said Mira, "but not against monsters this large and fast. We each came from areas where the fighting was a lot easier and numbers were thinner, but we weren't making enough money and decided to try moving out here for a while."

"You said you tried slowing the wolf down with magic. If you don't mind me asking, what kind? I can't use it myself and I don't know much about it."

"Oh, well I'm a mage, so I can use elemental magic to conjure and control things like fire and water. My talents lie in controlling the earth, like this." She turned away and looked into the distance. Rings of sandstone-colored light appeared around her wrists like halos, and Noah could see diagrams and runes of an unknown language. "Earth Bind!"

She raised her staff and then slammed it into the ground. There was a pulse, and the ground came undone like there was an animal tunneling just under the surface. It shot across the forest floor, and thirty feet away, there was an eruption of earth, with hard-packed soil forming jagged shapes that converged like a closing flower. Anything caught within it would surely get held in place, even stabbed if they moved around the wrong way. The displaced earth used to create the spikes produced a pit, just in case anything tried to duck.

"Yeah, I can see why it wouldn't work in this case."

"What? Why?"

"Well we're in the forest. The ground is riddled with roots holding it together, so it takes a lot of time and effort to gather the soil and form it into those spikes. Also, you're going for fast prey with good reaction speed, so as soon as they sense the attack, they'll move before it fully activates. I assume your strategy was for Beth to injure it with the arrow, keeping it from moving while you cast your spell?"

"That's right," said Beth.

"And then you finish it off with more arrows, right? It's a good strategy, keeping your distance from the enemy to minimize risk. However, in this kind of environment and with this target, you'd need to change it up a bit. I suggest using poison arrows, or at least some kind of paralytic agent. That way, even a low-damage hit will slow it down. I'd also suggest using a larger bow for more penetration.

Mira, do you know any other spells?"

"I can create a dust cloud and send stones flying."

"But nothing close-range? That'll be a problem if there is more than one enemy or they get within striking distance. Mira, I suggest you work on learning a spell for melee combat, and Beth, get a sword. You also should find another member to join your party, sorry I couldn't be that person. They'd have to be able to pin down the enemy in one location for your arrows and magic to be able to hit their mark."

Beth and Mira swarmed him with desperation in their eyes. "Please reconsider joining us! We need someone like you, desperately!" Mira said.

"You can even keep most of the money! And if that isn't enough, I can pay you extra in nighttime fun!" Beth added.

Noah hadn't expected them to get so worked up and wanted to back away, only to realize Tin was standing behind him. She was tugging on his shirt, giving him her basset hound eyes, though he couldn't tell if she was trying to convince him to change his mind or telling him that they were better off on their own.

"Sorry, but I can't. I'm really trying to focus on training. I'm sure you can find a struggling swordsman who's desperate for a party to join and would fit right in with you two. Tin and I have to get going. You were first to injure the wolf, so the body belongs to you. We'll see you later."

He and Tin set out, waiting until Beth and Mira were out of earshot to talk.

"Was Master... interested in those two?" Tin asked.

"Well, the idea of forming a party is appealing, and their long-range abilities would definitely help out. However, I'd prefer to operate away from prying eyes for the time being. I didn't sense any evil intent in them, but there is no telling if they can be trusted or not. But I'm glad we ran into them, it gave me a chance to study elemental magic a bit."

----

They continued through the forest, hunting for monsters while trying to avoid other adventurers. Along with battles, they also stopped to collect herbs. Noah was always playing through the potion recipes in his mind. Then, when noon arrived, they stopped for lunch by the river. Their food was slightly better than the stuff they ate before reaching Clive, in the sense that the bread wasn't quite-rock hard and the meat actually had flavor. It was still disappointing compared to a hot meal. Their water came from the river, first filtered through a survival straw that Noah made.

Once they were done eating, Noah pulled out all of the plants they had gathered. He picked three different plants out of the pile; branches of blue strawberries, several feet of a vine with square leaves, and an orange moss. "Of the recipes I saw, this one is the easiest and doesn't require any specialized tools. Even if it doesn't work, it will still be good practice. We just have to grind these up with a ratio of 5:2:7 and mix them together with some water."

They gathered stones from the river to use as makeshift mortars and pestles and went to work. Working side by side, Noah noticed a small smile on Tin's face. "This reminds me of making lye at the waterfall," she said.

"Hopefully it won't have the same effect."

They mixed the ingredients together and poured them into the three potion bottles from the apothecary. They added some fresh water and Noah could see the concoction glowing as the potion was formed. Whether or not this potion contained mana or simply sped up the natural rejuvenation process, it appeared the necessary chemical reaction was taking place.

"Good, now to test it. I think this will be the perfect opportunity to see what my next spell is." It was very slight, but Noah could see Tin's excitement. "You should move back. If this second spell is anything like my illusion, you probably won't be in danger, but it's better to be safe."

Tin moved back twenty feet, and Noah, after taking a deep breath, put his hand over his right eye. The effect was instantaneous, his mana being drained twice as fast as his first spell, and this time, he could actually feel something happening to him. His body, it felt weightless, and his limbs, they were just moving of their own accord like jellyfish tentacles. His vision, it was almost blurry, like he was seeing doubles. It felt, of all things, like he had just taken a hit of some high-quality pot.

If his concentration broke for even a second, he felt like his limbs and head would just float on their own. Noah dropped his hand and staggered, nearly falling just like the first time he tried it back in the woods. It was like every movement he made had to be performed while walking on a tripwire, or else he would fall. He was shifting from side to side, struggling to remain in control. While this would be a great thing to do while attending a concert or watching a funny movie, it was far from useful in battle.

"I'm definitely feeling something. How do I look? Can you still see me?"

"Uh... I think so. How... are you doing that?"

"Doing what?"

"Master, look at your hands."

Noah, through great difficulty, raised his palms and looked them. He blinked and squinted several times, trying to see through the afterimages floating around them like an aura. Had he touched some bad mushrooms and then breathed in the spores?

'No, wait a second...'

These afterimages, they weren't some blurry silhouette; they had crystal-clear details. They were like exact copies trying to occupy the same space. He moved his arms around, watching the copies follow the originals. They were illusions! He stopped moving his real arms and tried to move the copies. He thought about it, he envisioned it happening, but only when he gave up and tried to bring up his real arms did the copies obey and fulfill the action. It was only for a second before they returned to their original place, but he had gotten them to move.

It took several minutes of repeated attempts before he figured it out. Halfway between thinking of moving his arms and actually harnessing the physical strength within them to create that movement, there was a point where he could move the copies. He was soon moving the illusionary arms however he wanted, with Tin watching at a total loss. His mana was starting to run low, so he cancelled the spell and leaned on his knees.

"Master, what was that?"

"An illusion. It appears that my left eye can conceal my real body, while my right eye can create a fake. I can control it similar to how I move on my own, but it requires a lot of focus. Hand me a mana potion, will you?" He downed one of the potions and then lied down on the ground and reactivated the spell. "Watch this."

Tin could immediately see it on his face, the exertion and focus he was putting in, but her attention was immediately drawn elsewhere, as a second Noah seemed to rise from the body of the second like two cells dividing. For Noah, it almost an out of body experience. The illusion stood up, every movement that Noah would have made being performed. It was difficult beyond words, leaving him drenched in sweat and gasping for air. Every muscle involved in standing up had to be acknowledged, from the muscles supporting his head, all the way down to the muscles under his feet as they tried to grip the ground for balance. He had to visualize not just the movement, but the sensation of moving.

The clone stepped forward, every movement clunky and unnatural, like a cheap robot. The clone turned to Tin, who was completely bewildered and even frightened. The clone opened its mouth. It started out sounding like radio static, but Noah managed to speak through the illusion.

"U-u-u-u-i-i-i-I cueolemfr-cuernlk-caern cont-cont-control it."

----

For the next three weeks, Noah and Tin worked out a routine of expanding Noah's mana reserves and going out to hunt, one day inside and one day outside. Everyone in the inn became aware of the pattern, as every other day, from breakfast to lunch, Tin's moans filled the building. It became quite the story around town, many people coming to the inn just see if the rumors were true. Tin would rob Noah of all of his stamina and they'd perform the drain and replenish process with the mana potions. The next day would be spent gathering herbs to make more potions and materials to sell, and continue cultivating Noah's combat abilities.

To deplete his mana, Noah experimented with his second spell. For the first week, he focused on perfecting the clone's movements and speech. He tried to get it as normal looking as possible, having it walk around the room and imitate various actions. Unfortunately, since it was just an illusion, it couldn't actually touch anything or affect its environment, and while he could speak through it, he couldn't see what it saw or hear what it heard. Unless it was in sight at all times, he was piloting blind. Strangely, Tin said that the clone had the same smell as him, while when he was invisible, his smell was concealed. These spells, they were more than just bending light.