The Unwanted Tamer

Gaia had no idea what a mana torrent was, but from the fact it was announced through the entire League, she figured it was very bad news. She then heard people rushing around quicker than usual and was nearly knocked over by someone before Fergus caught her.

“What is a Mana Torrent and why does it make everyone forget about everything else?” She asked.

“Well, a Mana Torrent is when the ambient mana in the world has been rising at a substantial rate. It causes monsters to spawn en masse and can even cause monsters to spawn in cities. They can also cause new portals to be created just about anywhere.” Griff explained.

“They are extremely rare. They are great opportunities to quickly level up and even rank up but often bring other problems. The main problem is that the overall mana density increases making it easier for stronger monsters to spawn naturally. This affects the entire world. The last one occurred over five hundred years ago. It caused an entire continent become uninhabitable because it spawned multiple Orichalcum ranked monsters.” Fergus explained grimly.

“That also doesn’t even bring in the possibility of a portal opening and an invasion occurring. The empire invaded a portal a few years ago so it is possible it could happen.” Griff added.

Gaia thought about these things and understood that it was a big problem. This would effect the world forever. Not only would it increase the spawn rate of monsters but also their strength. This didn’t include the hordes of monsters that would and could spawn anywhere. She wondered if there was a way to fix it but decided she couldn’t do it if the higher rank hunters couldn’t. She decided to prepare for it instead of worrying.

They went to the counter to get their first stone rank request. There were two requests they were debating between. One was to hunt a colony of Gust Wasps; the other was to clear a nearby portal. The Gust wasps were a species of monsters that looked like wasps but were three feet long and were able to use a few wind spells. The nearby portal was one of the few that created a small space instead of connecting to another world. It was known as a mini dimension. It was an area that was a few miles in diameter that was used for farming as it naturally had mana that sped up the growth of medicinal plants. It naturally spawned monsters but had a stone rank monster spawn about once a month which had an open request to hunt it.

Fergus and Griff couldn’t decide and left the decision up to Gaia. She decided to choose the portal request as they hadn’t ever been in one and thought it would be a good experience. The portal only spawned one stone rank monster that was usually around the level twelve but also had a horde of normal rank monsters for them to hunt and test their new items on.

They set out not long after the decision and arrived at the portal around midday. While Gaia couldn’t see the portal, she could somehow feel it. It was like all the mana in the area had solidified into a kind of undulating slab. The portal felt both extremely foreign but also somehow natural like it was both out of place and exactly where it should be at once. It was an odd feeling but also made her curious as to how she could feel it when it was over a hundred feet away. She was going to focus on the feeling but was interrupted by someone calling to the party.

“Are you guys the party that accepted the request?” The person called.

“Yeah. Is it the usual one stone rank like usual?” Fergus asked when they got to the person.

“As far as we can tell yes. The mana has risen though so there may be two at most. We haven’t gone in to check.” The man replied.

“What monsters usually spawn or can spawn in there?” Gaia asked.

“It’s usually some normal rank slimes that we could kill easily. The boss is usually what we call a Plasmid which is a large humanoid slime. It can use tools if it finds them and often spawns a horde of the small slimes. Though we’ve seen a Haretol which is a large rabbit type monster. This boss spawns a horde of Al-Miraj. The Haretol is essentially a horse sized Al-Miraj that can strengthen itself and the horde with its magic.” The man explained.

“Ok. Thanks.” Griff said.

After hearing the details of what they could be up against, the party worked on ideas for how to deal with the monsters. Slimes were notoriously weak to magic but highly resistant to physical attacks and the Plasmid should be the same. Both had cores they would need to destroy but the Plasmid could use tools. The Al-Miraj were harder enemies. They were extremely quick and could use some basic earth magic. The Haretol would make a difficult opponent as well, especially if it had a horde of Al-Miraj with it that it could strengthen.

They decided that if it was the slimes that Liv, Griff and Gaia would deal most of the damage while Fergus distracted and conserved his mana for the Plasmid. If it was Al-Miraj then Gaia and Malachite would be the defenders and take attacks to distract while Griff and Fergus attacked. The Haretol would likely be with its minions so they would have to make a strategy on the fly for it.

With their strategies decided they went into the portal. Going through the portal felt like pushing through jelly but only lasted for a second before they were inside. The portal was saturated with mana. To her magical perception it was like being in a lake but instead of water it was mana. It was oddly refreshing, like getting a breath of fresh air for the first time. She didn’t understand why it felt that way but enjoyed it, nonetheless. The party started by splitting up with Gaia staying by the portal acting as the center and a kind of base camp for everyone to return to.

She spent her time focusing on the mana around her and trying to figure out why she was so sensitive to it. She sent her webs out to act as a warning system in case a monster came for her but sat down and started meditating. She’d meditated a bit while on earth but it was mostly to help her calm her mind, so she tried that to start. It worked. Then she tried to focus on the mana around her, she could feel it like it was a physical force. If she pushed some mana out it felt like she could almost get an image of what was immediately around her.

She didn’t understand how it worked and wasn’t sure it would work outside of this extremely mana rich environment, but she could somewhat sense what was around her. She could tell there was some kind of farm tool around three feet in front of her, a plowed field to her right that started about five feet away, and a covered section that seemed like it was for breaks to her left about ten feet away. She could see them in a sense. She couldn’t get colors but knew where they were by pushing her mana out and creating a bubble around ten feet out from her.

Everything within that range was outlined by her mana. It was like seeing everything outlined but with no color. She could tell what and where it was but that was it. She’d be able to walk and not have to worry about running into things while she was in the portal. She was extremely happy when she came to this realization. She’d be able to explore without needing to be led everywhere. She waited for the rest of the party to come back while she used her new “Mana Vision” as she was calling it to explore the area around the portal.

The area was a clearing with a few trees place around the portal. There were eight fields in a circle around the portal as a center. There were a few covered tables just by the trees and seemed to be a place to relax for breaks or something similar. Passed the field directly in front of the portal was a small building that seemed to hold harvested crops. When the day was over and they’d be transported to Boundary. The crops were similar to the herbs used back on earth. One was similar to basil but was much larger, another was like thyme, and the final was similar to oregano. There were a few she didn’t recognize though. One had a perfectly vertical vine with small leaves, another had a short thick stem that had large spikes protruding from it, and the final was the oddest one to her. This last one felt like a void to her mana vision. She could see it because it was just a hole devoid of mana. It seemed like a small tree with thin leaves.

The rest of the party arrived while Gaia was investigating the oddity that was the mana void tree. They ran up to her and she got her first actual “look” at the two of them. Fergus was a thin man that stood a little over six feet tall and was slightly muscular. When she looked at his face, she realized he was extremely handsome but also remembered how Francois and Titania looked. She then realized that everyone in this world likely was beautiful considering their bodies became more ideal as they ranked up. Fergus had a handsomeness that felt more natural than high rankers. His nose was slightly too big which made him feel more real. It added to his charm in her eyes.

She then looked at Griff and was surprised. He was about half a foot taller than her four feet and seemed to be a kid. He had a childish face and seemed like he had a lot of growing to do. She stared at him for a while before he broke her from her daze.

“You, ok? I can feel mana pouring out from you.” He stated.

“Yeah. Sorry I can apparently use my mana to allow me to see things. No colors, just shapes and was surprised when I saw you. It’s the first time I’ve actually seen either of you.” She replied slightly embarrassed.

“Wait you can use mana to see around you?” Fergus asked incredulously.

“Apparently. I’ve only been able to do it since we got in the portal though. I think it may be affected by the mana density but on another note, did you guys find any of the monsters?” She asked.

“Yeah. If we’re using the building to designate north still, then I found a horde of Slimes and a Plasmid to the west.” Griff replied.

“Great. That means we have one of each group to deal with. I found a Haretol and a horde of Al-Miraj to the east.” Fergus replied.

“Which one do we want to deal with first?” Gaia asked.

“I say we do the Haretol as it’ll be trickier, and Fergus can focus on it. We’ll save our mana for the slimes and plasmids while Malachite and I can deal with the Al-Miraj pretty easily. Gaia you focus on trapping as many of its minions with your webs as you can while poisoning them. I think that should mostly cover the plan for it. It’ll be the opposite for the Plasmid though.” Griff explained.

They all agreed, and they set off to the east to deal with the Haretol and its minions. It took them an hour to get to the area as they went slowly trying to be unnoticed for as long as possible. When they arrived the other two described what they saw.

There were around a hundred Al-Miraj which were small rabbit monsters with a large horn on its head and oversized front claws. The Haretol was the exact same but the size of a small car. They quickly jumped into action with Fergus using his new item. When he did a large bow made from intertwined vines grew from the tattoo on his hand and as he pulled the string back a sharp thorn grew into an arrow which he fired. He swiftly made more and continued firing on the Haretol and Al-Miraj. Griff grew his gauntlets and started killing the Al-Miraj with punches and kicks. Gaia walked forward while Malachite ran around killing the monsters as he did so and she activated her new vines. They unraveled from her arms and started lashing at any of the monsters she could see in her bubble of mana. They couldn’t kill the monsters but did leave cuts on them that bled a bit more than they should. While her vines lashed out at the monsters, she was sending out webs and poisoning the monsters as she tried to bind a few so they couldn’t move. Liv was shooting poison blobs at monsters and binding any monsters that Gaia couldn’t with her webs.

Within the first minute around half of the Al-Miraj were dead or dying and Gaia was catching more as she went. Griff realized she’d get the rest of the monsters soon and ran to target the Haretol. It had started using its magic to strengthen the others, but they couldn’t escape Gaia and Liv’s webs. Fergus had been pelting the monster with arrows and magic, so it was now bound to the ground by thick vines while Griff slammed the monster with his attacks. Around five minutes after they had found the Haretol and Al-Miraj the monsters were dead. It was by far the quickest they’d ever killed a stone rank monster. It was a slightly lower level than them, but it went better than expected.

They’d expected to have a fight that would last around half an hour as there were a hundred of the small rabbit monsters, but it was over in a fraction of the time. They took a break after the monsters had all dissolved. Gaia was walking around using her newfound “vision” to see everything around her. The other two just watched in amusement as she looked like a child seeing trees and such for the first time. Their break ended when Gaia sat down in her throne on Malachite’s shell. The mana vision was tiring as it required her to push her mana out constantly, thankfully her regeneration was extremely quick and especially in the mana dense portal. They walked for a few hours until they found their other target. The Plasmid and it’s slime horde.

The Plasmid was a slime that was able to take a humanoid form and could use tools and weapons that it found. The slimes around it were small blobs of a viscous liquid with a small core inside. The cores of the slimes looked like a small pebble inside them with two indents on it. The Plasmid had a single core that moved freely through its body making it harder to kill as it could move from its head to one of its feet almost instantly. It was able to command the slimes to move but slimes were slow and had a low intelligence. This made them easier to deal with as they couldn’t follow sophisticated commands.

The party swiftly began their plan with Fergus sprinting out into the horde and getting the attention of the horde. While he distracted them Griff ran around the back edge and swiftly killed the slimes before they knew he was there. Gaia stayed on Malachite's shell and sent out her webs to poison the horde and her vines to keep monsters away from them. Malachite and Liv were shooting water and poison shots respectively at the slimes around them. Within about five minutes the slimes were all dead as well, which just left the Plasmid by itself.

It was an odd creature to Gaia’s mana vision. It was a blob in the vague shape of a person that carried a large club which appeared to be made from something bound together. It was around six feet tall and the weapon it carried had jagged sections like sharpened branches. It wasn’t overly intimidating, but the weapon made it much more dangerous. The monster moved erratically and could stretch its limbs farther than they should naturally. The monster started by stretching its arm and trying to hit Fergus with its makeshift club. He nimbly dodged under it while Griff ran up to hit the monster. It’s entire body shifted making a hole where his hand would have hit, making him fall. The monster then lashed at Griff’s prone form with its open arm striking him. He took the hit and was lucky enough to roll away before it could wrap around him.

Gaia was trying to use her webs to poison the monster but couldn’t hit it. She then decided to try making some web balls and threw some which it dodged by simply making a hole where the attack would have hit. She was starting to get really annoyed that she couldn’t do anything to the monster. Malachite and Liv were launching their magic attacks at the monster which was barely able to dodge them. Gaia decided to do something a bit stupid and hopped off Malachite’s shell to try and grab the monster. It seemed to have a harder time dodging the purely magical attacks and hoped if she poured even more of her mana out it might allow her to grab it.

She poured as much mana as she could into the area around her and she lunged for the monster. It was noticeably slower to respond which proved her idea right. The monster could sense things around it using mana. It had a similar type of vision as she did. When she had poured out her mana in a great volume it had affected the Plasmids vision and made it harder to sense her. She grabbed the monster and forced some of her poisoned webs into its body. The monster attacked her with its free arm which recoiled every time it hit her like it was being hurt. The more it attacked her the weaker the attacks got. As the monster attacked her the others were pelting the monster with attacks. Griff was slamming his magically reinforced fist into the monster. Fergus was hitting it with arrow after arrow that was infused with wind magic. Malachite and Liv were hitting it with their magic as well.

Gaia just held on until it stopped moving and she saw Griff put his hand through the monster and grab something that he ripped out. It was a small spherical object that she realized was the Plasmids core. He crushed it in his fist and the monster started to dissolve. Gaia fell to the ground and laid there for a few minutes as the fight had tired her out. The others joined her, and they relaxed for a while before getting up. It was time to let the farmers know the monsters were dealt with.

They arrived at the portal and Gaia realized she hadn’t even gotten hurt once during the request. She asked the others and neither did they which made her happy as it showed their growth. They’d normally end up with a few light wounds during battles so the fact they hadn’t this time was a major achievement to her. They stepped out and Gaia immediately lost her mana vision which made her a bit sad as she’d hoped it would work but she was back to her usual self.

She quickly got on Malachite’s back and reformed her throne. While she did this Ferguson was informing the farmers the request was done. She heard the farmers yell a thank you as they headed towards the city. She was relaxing in her throne and tried pushing her mana out like she had in the portal. While she couldn’t see anything she could feel a distinct difference to when she’d tried this before.

She could feel her mana reacting to the mana around her and caused something to happen. She didn’t know what it was but asked Griff if he could see anything. He seemed annoyed with her asking this when they were running but looked over at her.

“Fine.” He said as he turned to look at her. He abruptly stopped when he looked at her. She had a greenish bubble about ten feet wide around her. He could tell it was made from mana but didn’t know what it was.

“What in the worlds are you doing? How can that be possible?” He asked incredulous.

Fergus turned and saw the same. He was silent for a minute before speaking. “You really do impossible things, don’t you?”

“How does that work? I’ve never seen someone be able to affect the ambient mana to create whatever this is. I can tell it’s made from your mana, but it doesn’t seem to take up any of your own. You’re superimposing your mana’s will on the world.” He stated before mumbling to himself as he walked around her poking and prodding the bubble.

She could feel every poke and prod he made but it wasn’t actually using her own mana to create it. She could drop it when she wanted by just thinking about it ending. She let Griff mess around with it for a while though as he went full researcher mode. She’d seen this a few times when they took requests and they found new monsters. It was quite endearing if not boring at times.

After around thirty minutes of Griff messing with her new mana bubble she dropped it. He went to protest before Ferguson grabbed his shoulder and pushed him forward. She continued to put the bubble up and end it as they travelled trying to figure out more about it. She didn’t find out much aside from the fact she could bring it up and end it with a thought. In order to find out exactly what it did she needed to do some experiments first. By the time they’d arrived at the city she’d gotten a hang of controlling it. They quickly made their way to the inn and ate dinner before turning in for the night.

The next day was a rest day and they relaxed. They tended to take at least one rest day a week but normally took two. Their weeks had become more of a three-day hunt one day rest type of schedule. Today they decided to test out Gaia’s new mana bubble as they were currently calling it. Griff was the main one testing it as he wanted to know as much as possible. They went the entire day outside of a long lunch break testing it out. They’d gotten a few goblins that Liv went out and bound up with her webs to test it and discovered that any monster that went inside the area was poisoned by her Spiritual Toxin. He had the idea to check how poisons worked inside it since it had her poison attribute. He found out that they were immune to the poison effect she gave and were resistant to other poisons. While they were testing these out, she had gained a better idea of how it worked. She could push her mana out to start it which was nearly instantaneous and after that it would stay as long as she focused on keeping it up. Griff finally came up with a proper name for it. He called it her Mana Influence.

She’d discovered that the more she used it the easier it was to control and that she could extend a bit farther after using it for the entire day. She also told them about what she felt when the Plasmid was attacking but they didn’t know what could have caused it. They decided to place that on the back burner for now and relax for the rest of the night. They enjoyed the night and the next morning prepared to go hunting again. They had started preparing for the Mana Torrent as it was less than a month away. They wanted to be strong enough to defend themselves and help out when it occurred. They continued taking requests as normal but every request they took had more and more monsters. This was starting to show the actual effects of the Mana Torrent. Even though it hadn’t officially started mana was already flooding into the world causing more monsters to appear. The Hunter's League was getting more and more requests to hunt groups of monsters and some where there were even higher ranked monsters appearing. The worst one was an iron rank monster that appeared and attacked a village.

As they continued their hunts, they got stronger and honed their tactics and skills. This made it easier for them to hunt and they got into a rhythm of doing around three requests a day. The requests weren’t overly difficult as they were mainly dealing with low level stone rank monsters that came in groups. There were a few times where they saw some monsters spawn just before they were going to fight, and they had to back off for a bit.

The time passed quickly, and it was only a week until the Mana Torrent started. They had just finished their hunts for the day when they were called to one of the counters. They went over and were about to ask why they were called when the receptionist cut them off.

“We need your party to join a multi-party request.” She said.

“Why us?” Griff questioned.

“It’s a group made up of four teams including yours. The groups are Flora, Swords Edge, and Griffon’s Wings. One of them requested your group specifically as they believe your strong enough to assist them. The request is to hunt new a bronze ranked monster and the stone rank monsters around it.” She replied.

“Can we discuss this for a moment?” Ferguson asked as they turned to talk.

“Of course.” The receptionist replied.

“Ok so the group called Flora is Titania’s group and they’re bronze rank. Swords Edge and Griffon’s Wings are both high leveled stone rank. I don’t know why they would want us but I’m guessing Titania was the one that asked.” Ferguson explained.

“So, does that mean we should take it? It’s a bronze rank monster we can’t fight that at our level.” Griff asked.

“I don’t know if we should but since Titania is asking, I’d say yes. I doubt she’d ask us to join if they weren’t confident in killing the monster. It’s also a new monster so Griff’s skill may shine some light on it.” Gaia said.

“I want to say yes. It is my sister asking and I do want to try and help.” Ferguson said..

“I don’t want to take it but if you two want to I will.” Griff stated.

“I want to even though it’ll be dangerous. We can just hang to the back and fight the minions.” Gaia suggested.

“I want to as well.” Fergus finished.

After their discussion they accepted the request. It was in an area they’d never been to before and was set to leave tomorrow morning. It was likely going to be a multiple day trip, so they went to some stores to get the necessary items. They’d never had an overnight hunt, so they’d never needed any items for it. They spent some of the cores they’d saved for the party fund. Thankfully the items weren’t super expensive, and they were able to use the money they’d saved to buy a specific magic item. It was a small cube that created a warded area. The warded area was obscured from monsters' senses making it harder for monsters to discover them. The warded area was around thirty feet in diameter and covered the entirety of a small camp. It was also able to be recharged using the ambient mana.

It felt like a great purchase as it would also help keep the temperature comfortable inside it. They bought one last item. It was a small, enchanted bag that had a bigger capacity than the outside. They were able to carry all of their new items with them easily thanks to it. After finishing their shopping excursion, they made their way back to the inn and rested for the night as they were expecting to leave early the next morning. The night passed by quickly and they awoke the next morning feeling rested. They quickly made their way to the Hunter’s League to meet up with the other groups.