Sharp

I really, really want to remove this collar. It was dark now, and I had been looking for a secure place for a while. I spied Moon Girl a couple of times. None of them would stop for night. They were silver, I am sure of it, so they will keep going longer than me.

The problem with moving slowly and carefully is that I am inside their search radius. Maybe they will concentrate further out? I don’t know.

Do I risk taking off the collar? I suspect it is the only reason they have not found me. That is quite ironic. But I am not out of trouble yet. At least this is not a high-density astral space with a monster every twenty meters.

And at least there are several edible plants. My body is slowly fixing itself. I want to get rid of this collar to release my familiars. It is so tempting, but I don’t know if it would lead to my recapture, which I don’t want. A little longer, guys.

It was night, and I had stopped for a longer rest, but I kept moving. The moon was out, so I could see fine. I was worried that Moon Lady would be enhanced by the moon, but I couldn’t do anything about that.

Then I sniffed a change in the magic. I slowed right up and moved carefully closer. The new magic got stronger. It was either a manifestation in the form of a monster or an essence or it was an astral space. A monster was bad for me. The essence would mask my magic if I carried it around. It was too strong to be an awakening stone. If I could find it, I would be more confident at getting this collar off.

An astral space could be good or bad. Going in means it is another dimension, and I can remove the collar, but going blind into the astral space was crazy. Even if I popped through the gate and removed my collar, then came straight back out, I could be attacked by anything. Assuming I could get back out. Not all gates were that easy. Admittedly, most were… but…

The magic smelled different to anything I had smelled before. I went cautiously as I thought it was worth investigating.

When I finally poked my nose above the grasses to see, I was confused. There was nothing there. It is not a monster, then. I moved forward when I caught another scent, and I stopped. This was a normal scent, but it was faint. The Mage had been here. Or maybe he was still here.

I backed off. The scent was faint, indicating it was old by several hours. I circled the place to see if they left a trap or if Dark and Moon were ambushers. One of them would be enough.

As far as I could determine, the place was free of people. This also meant the smell was not an essence, as they would have taken it with them; therefore, it was probably an astral space. They would have checked out the astral space to see if I had gone in. Were they still in there?

The magic was coming from a hole in the ground. It was too small to be called a cave. I snuck closer, and when I saw the hole, I relaxed a bit. They were not around, but they had left an alarm ritual over the hole. It was very amateurishly camouflaged. I carefully cleared it off so I could see what I was dealing with. I was not convinced I was going in yet, but how hard they made it to get in undetected was the first step.

I barely passed first-year Intro to Magic, but I did pass, and some of this stuff got sunk into my brain, especially the bits I saw as useful. Alarms and traps were useful. This was the most basic and first alarm we ever created. I watched Akemi disarm it in multiple different ways. I didn’t know what theory she had, but I watched her do it, and she showed me the practical side.

I looked further. This couldn’t be all. Surely, this was a ruse on top of the real alarm. You only use this alarm to warn of monsters or animals, as most people can disable this. I looked. I sniffed. I listened.

Were they lazy? Any first-year could get past this without setting it off. It did occur to me that they were covering a large area, and they had to set up a number of warning alarms along probable routes.

What to do? I can disable it and enter, but if they came back to check, a disabled alarm was a big flag. I might be able to enable it once I am past it if the gate to the astral is not right at the entrance.

Do I want to go in? If I go in, I need to stay for some time, so I need to reset the alarm. If I took my collar off in the magic area, it would mask me, but is my aura control good enough to hide from silver rankers? When I saw Black shadow hopping, he would certainly have dejected my aura if I hadn’t been suppressed. I must have sensed me as a normal frightened animal.

Options. One, leave the alarm alone, remove my collar and take my chances in the wild and not get close to my hunters.

Two, disable the alarm and enter the portal. If I came straight out, that would be no different from option one. If I can reset the alarm from behind it, I could hide there in a space they have checked without entering the portal, or I could enter the portal if they came back. That would mean I was stationary, with an unknown gate at my back. I wasn’t keen on that.

If I disable the alarm, I will enter the gate and spend several days hiding there. That is crazy. I am unsure if I can get back out, and there are unknown monsters and magic. If they are all silver rank, I am dead. There is no safety net like in the academy’s astral space.

I can mitigate the risk a bit. I have some pre-drawn rituals in my Hunters Pack for use on Astral gates to determine if they are stable and indicate whether they are one or two-way.

I am removing my collar. That is my biggest want/need. The magic from here will mask me for now. Then, I will disable the ward and see if there is space in the hole to hide. I will then enable the ward again if there is and have a sleep to clear my head. Then, I will investigate the gate.

The plan was decided. I reached up with my claw and worked vigorously at the groove I made in the collar. When my claw disrupted the magic circle, magic flooded back in, and I heaved a huge sigh of relief. I didn’t realise how much a lack of magic was affecting me. My Arua surged out, and I grabbed it as fast as I could and reigned it in tight. This was the biggest danger of doing this outside the astral space. If this was in the range of any of my hunter's auras, I am done. The magic from the astral space will mask it a little, but not completely.

Kai’s darted out and spread around. I created a small shield, opened my Hunter pack, pulled out a Spirit Coin and ate it. Magic flooded my system, and my Iron rank recovery attribute started working again.

I wanted to lie there in relief for a bit, but if I was detected, I needed to hide. I disabled the alarm and poked a stick in the hole. There was no gate, and no nasties bit it either. Also, there was no floor. I dropped the stick, and it rattled against the sides, but I didn’t hear it land anywhere.

I lowered myself into the hole and called the Kais back. I pulled the alarm back over and re-armed it. I then lowered myself down the hole using my arms, feet and claws. My arms were soon shaking with the strain. That was pathetic, and I would need to restrengthen them.

I was down about three body lengths when I realised this hole had no bottom. The gate was there just below my feet, horizontal and waiting for things to fall in. I am assuming that because of the alarm, none of my hunters fell in. I am not going to get a spot to sleep, am I?

Dark Gods, I am an idiot. I raised the arch for my garden on the side of the tunnel and tumbled inside. I breathed a huge sigh of relief and just lay there for a bit. Ardisia manifested on the arch, and two Kais scrambled out to sit on her and keep watch.

I grabbed some fresh berries off the bush and ate as I sorted my thoughts. I really wanted to sleep, but was I safe here? I sent a Kai to the top of the hole as a lookout. I started to collect my thoughts when the Kai at the top of the hole indicated there were three moons in the sky instead of the usual two, and one was getting larger fast.

Shit. I scrambled. Moon Girl is coming to investigate. I hopped out of the Garden and shrank it down, and the Kais and Ardisia came back to me. I didn’t even have time to put on any pants.

That’s right. Ardisia is bronze now. I had her manifest vines from my skin, and she lowered me into the gate.