CHAPTER 15 (Patreon)

The jungle was dense, and pretty menacing. The bushes rustled, the shadows seemed to move and there were bird calls, shouts of primates and a cacophony of colors and sounds. 

“Stay close to me, little gem,” mother said.

Let me tell you, a jungle is not the place you want to be as a toddler. Even though my motor skills were vastly superior to a regular toddler from Earth, there was no way I could outrun a panther or a snake. I had some handy potions in my satchel, but they could only get me so far. And yes, mother had the niftiest, cutest satchel made for me from cured leather.

I was really glad my mother was with me. Despite my extraordinary skills, I had no business wandering around in a jungle alone.

Sometimes I had to hold her hand. It felt nice. When there was a sudden sound, I squeezed it and she squeezed it back reassuringly.

But sometimes she told me to hide and let her scout ahead. It was slow work, and even though we left before sunrise, it was noon in a blink.

When her Sixth Sense flared up, she picked me up. When there was difficult terrain, she strapped me onto her torso with cloth, which in my opinion she did too much. As dangerous as the jungle was, it was also fascinating, and I wanted to experience it by myself, and not just being worn by my mother like a hat.

The deeper into the jungle we went, the denser the mana got. With my Mana Sight still being relatively low-level, I was sure I could not sense even a fraction of all the atmospheric mana. Even so, the jungle had two or three times denser mana than the village and its beach.

I couldn’t wait to see how dense it would be at the ruins, which was at the heart of the jungle.

“If there is a beast in there, I will grab you and run,” mother said as we started to approach the inner jungle. “If it's The Silverback, you will run and I will hold it off.”

“But you’ll—”

“No arguments.”

I simply nodded.

Apparently beasts could use mana too. I had learned a lot about mana from my parents and Elder Piraka. Mana was ultimately what powered the System. In that way skills were magic too. But using mana actively like me or Elder Piraka was another thing entirely.

Having said that, even animals used mana. It was uncertain whether they also unlocked a System and had skills like “Hunting” or “Stalking” or “Venom”, or if they were just somehow enforced by the mana, and given vitality. Likely a bit of both. This was the prevailing theory because the beasts also took on strange characteristics, like changes in fur color, unnaturally long fangs or claws, spines growing from their back or shoulders, and other such changes. Basically the beasts would become more monstrous from the influence of mana.

“Mama,” I said when we were taking a break by a creek and refilling our water. “Did you ever fight a mana beast?”

“Yes,” she said. “Junglers hunt them when they can. Fighting usually means something went wrong, though. It is usually done with traps and poison darts. The meat and skin are very valuable.”

“Can you still fight one?”

“That depends,” she said. “Sixth Sense will usually give me a good idea of the strength of the beast or monster I’m facing.”

“Wow,” I said. “I didn’t know it could do that. Does it work on people too?”

“Well actually the strength gauging is granted by Beast Gauge, which is a Perk granted by Sixth Sense. It doesn’t work on people.”

“What does Sixth Sense do? You’ve never explained it fully.”

“It’s an intuition based Skill,” mother said.

“Just like my Spellcrafting,” I said. “Or that Skill Danek has.”

“A lot of specialized skills are like that,” mother said. “Sixth Sense is powerful, because it's universal, even if my Perks aren’t,” mother said. “I get hunches and impressions. When Vorok picked that fight with you on the beach, I didn’t see you, but I got the impression something was off.”

“That sounds very useful.”

“Yes, little gem,” mother said.”Sixth Sense is a rare-tier skill, I evolved it from the Heightened Senses Skill. Most Junglers will have that Skill, but I am the only Jungler in the village with Sixth Sense. Maybe even the only one on the island.”

We sat and ate, but mother continued. “That’s how I knew to marry your father. Don’t get me wrong. I thought he was cute even when we were kids. He had been courting me for some time, but I was… hesitant. He was a bit of a dummy and his rivalry with Marek could be dangerous for me and our kids.”

“You don’t say…” I muttered.

She mussed my hair and continued. “But after I got my Sixth Sense, it immediately blared at me to marry that fool right now before someone else snags him up. So I did.”

“I like that,” I said. “You two seem really happy.”

Mother smiled. “We are. And you are a big part of why.”

“I have my moments, mama,” I said and we chuckled. “Should I get that Skill?”

Mother considered it as she chewed on jerky. “Maybe. You would have to take Heightened Senses first. But since it gives Perception it wouldn’t be too bad for you. Especially if you take up adventuring in the jungle. There’s no guarantee it will evolve though.”

“What is needed for a Skill Evolution?”

“Special circumstances,” mother said. “The System will grant it for extraordinary behavior, or sometimes to survive a dangerous situation.”

“I’ll think about it. But I like keeping a slot open.”

“I know how you feel. I was like that when I was younger too.”

We ate our snack in a pleasant silence. But then I had to ask. I just had to know.

“Mama. What does your Sixth Sense say about me?”

She was silent for a moment as she chewed on a piece of dried fruit. 

“Many things,” she said quietly. “It tells me to support your specialness. It tells me to accept and cherish your strangeness; that it’s good. And… It tells me you will have to leave the island, and I will have to make a choice.”

“What kind of choice?” I asked.

“I don’t know yet,” she said. “Not a fun one, I assume. That’s how it feels.”

“I’m sorry if I make you sad, mama.”

She shook her head. “You make me so happy. But I can’t believe I’m escorting my two-year-old through the jungle. Let’s go. We need to get to the ruins before dusk.”

By the afternoon we crossed the great dark bogs circling the inner jungle. It was a lot of work, and mother had to distract a crocodile creature when we balanced through log bridges made by the Junglers.

Overall, the trip was pleasant. Mother managed to mostly keep us hidden. The jungle was full of things I had never seen before. There were trees with trunks so thick that even five men holding hands couldn't encircle them. Vines hung from their branches, some as thick as my legs. There were flowers in all kinds of colors, and colorful large insects I had no interest in inspecting closer, thank you very much.

But what interested me the most was how everything interacted with mana.

I noticed a beautiful flower growing on a mound of moss. It was white and blue with petals that looked almost transparent. In the middle of the petals was a hole and in the hole a faintly glowing blue pearl. When I activated Mana Sight, I could see that pearl glowed with mana like an anglerfish’s bait.

“Mama, look!”

She crouched beside me.

“Oh, that's a Shadowbell. Don't touch it. It's poisonous.”

“Of course it is,” I muttered as I prodded it with a stick.

I inspected the flower more closely. The mana seemed to be collecting in its center. When an insect landed on the petals, they immediately closed around it. The petals opened again a moment later, and the insect was gone.

“Wow, that’s weird. So the flower eats bugs?”

“Yes. And small critters, if they're fool enough to go poking around.”

I discarded my stick and took a respectful step back. The jungle really was something else. Even the flowers had hunting Skills. Or at least something close enough.

We continued along the narrow path until mother suddenly stopped me with a hand. I froze immediately. I put absolute trust in mother in the jungle.

“Behind me,” she whispered.

I obeyed. Mother's expression had changed completely. She was staring at a patch of thick bushes some distance ahead.

At first I couldn't see anything. But when I activated Mana Sight, I noticed a concentrated mass of mana behind the leaves. Something was hiding there. But it must have noticed us watching, because it emerged. Then I saw the eyes. Yellow and predatory.

A massive black panther emerged from the bushes. It was almost as tall as my mother at the shoulder, and its fangs protruded from its mouth even when it was closed. There were strange gray markings across its fur.

The beast crouched and let out a low growl.

Mother was already moving. She pulled a weighted net from her satchel and threw it towards the panther with surprising speed.

The net spread in the air and landed across the beast's head and shoulders. The weights tangled around its front legs. Mother whipped out a blowpipe and shot a dart at the beast.

The panther roared and thrashed. It was strong enough to rip free, but the net had bought us a few moments.

“Luka, your spell!”

I didn't need to be told twice.

I had already begun constructing my Water Bullet. The circle formed above my palm, and I packed as much mana into the kinetic symbols as I could.

The panther tore itself free from the net and prepared to lunge at me.

I aimed at its face and launched my new spell.

The Water Bullet struck it right on the nose. I think my high Perception gave me naturally great aim.

The beast recoiled with an indignant yowl. It jumped backwards, pulling the net with it, then twisted free and disappeared into the bushes.

I stood there with my hand outstretched, breathing hard and staring at the bushes the beast had escaped to. A thrill ran down my spine.

“Hah! Did you see that, mama?”

“I certainly did.”

“I scared off a mana beast!”

Mother smiled and mussed my hair. “Good spell, little gem. You were quick.”

I puffed out my chest.

“Of course. I'm a sorcerer.”

“Yes, yes. My little sorcerer. Now come along before the beast changes its mind.”

I hurried after her. I had just fought my first mana beast and won. Well, mother had done most of the work, but I had contributed. Luka one, jungle zero.

I watched my mother’s back as she walked in front of me. She took confident strides, and always looked behind to see if I could manage a particularly thick root. She was so confident and skilled in the jungle. I now understood where she had gotten her poise. She was a good Jungler.

I had to admit, watching her throw that net had been pretty cool. And the blowpipe too. I had no idea my mother could wield a blowpipe! She was one scary lady…

Finally we emerged from the thick jungle forest and arrived at the edge of a swamp. We had arrived at our destination and I saw what I had been waiting for.

The ruins of the ancestors stood tall in the middle of a clearing surrounded by a swamp in every direction.

It was a massive stepped pyramid made from shiny black stone. The structure rose far above the jungle floor, much taller than the trees surrounding it. There were wide stairways on each side leading towards a small entrance near the top.

The whole thing was gleaming in the orange light of the setting sun.

There wasn't even any stone like that on the island. The villagers built their houses from wood and thatch and mudbrick. The pyramid looked like it had been teleported in the middle of the clearing. Hell, maybe it had been.

The enormous blocks of black stone fit together so tightly that I doubted you could fit a sheet of paper between them. There were carvings along the stairways and around the entrance. I recognized some of the shapes from Piraka's booklet.

The building itself felt profoundly magical. Naturally I activated Mana Sight.

There was so much mana around the pyramid that I almost lost my balance. The whole structure was covered in it. Streams of mana particles flowed along the stone, collecting around the carvings and creating a sheen of light around the pyramid’s outline.

The pyramid seemed to be gathering mana from the surrounding jungle. But some of the particles were also coming from within the structure itself and spreading into the atmosphere. The whole opening was rich with mana.

I had never seen anything like it.

In the village, I had to work to gather enough mana to construct my spells. Here, the air was practically swimming with the stuff. I could already imagine the kind of magic I could cast in this place.

“Mama, look at all this mana!”

“I can't see mana, little gem.”

“Right. Sorry. But there's a lot of it! And those carvings! They're magical symbols!”

Mother looked up at the pyramid.

“Is that so?”

“Yes! I recognize some of them! I think the whole building might be some kind of magical formation!”

I was practically bouncing. “Can we go closer?”

Mother didn't answer immediately. She was examining the clearing, her eyes moving between the dark gaps in the trees and the stairway leading up to the entrance.

She had been doing that more and more as we approached the ruins.

Finally, she looked down at me.

“Carefully, little gem. And you do exactly what I say.”

“Should you tie me to your back?”

Mother was quiet for a moment. “No. It’s best I carry you.”

“Why?” I asked. “You’ll run faster if I’m strapped to your back.”

“Don’t argue with me, little gem.”

I thought it was strange, but I listened to my mother. She was the expert in all things jungle.

The opening in the middle of the forest was a swamp. There were log bridges across small murky ponds and the grass and moss squished under mother’s boots. However, she knew well where to step. Once we reached fifty feet from the ruins, the ground got solid again.

When we started approaching the pyramid something changed in the air. Even I could sense it. Before I saw it, mother flinched so hard, she almost stumbled.

We turned to look at a massive ape that had emerged from the jungle into the clearing. It turned to look at us and let out a roar.

The Silverback had noticed us.