Birth of the Legendary Battle Mage

Encounter a Demonic Beast

“I am royally screwed now. Heff”

There wasn’t much Julius could do in this situation, he was completely exhausted after releasing the built up mana, so he reached for the branch stuck in his thigh, taking slow and small puffs of breaths before taking a big inhale, he pulled out the branch slowly, twisting and turning it slightly so that it would come out smoothly. This was a painful process. He grit his teeth as some parts of the branch inside the leg tore some inner flesh on the way out. After a while, he decided to take a nap, he was already feeling a little nausea and severe weakness, that apple might have been full of mana, but it made no difference to his stomach. He felt pain all over his body, but tiredness soon took over and a little later, he was fast asleep.

“Ahh, somehow I feel better after sleeping.” As Julius pushed with his hands to sit up, he noticed something surprising. The wound in his thigh was almost completely healed, and most of his broken bones were back to normal, leaving just a few. ‘Impossible... Is this also the doing of the artefact? If it is then It’s incredible. For one thing to have so many functions and still be left behind as trash, the gods must really be as powerful as the legends say.’ “Then again, with all these goodies, I wonder how much longer the artefact would last.”

???

‘Wait a second, this artefact uses mana from it’s surrounding, and I’ve never really tested how long it could last while activated, and since it has stayed active for this long, hmm. One thing is for certain, there’s no way in hell I’m turning this in inactive’.

“Ahh, it feels good to be on my feet once again.” Julius stretched a bit as he stood up, his clothes torn here and there, but nothing too severe. The garment he wore on the outside had only a few patches and had protected both him and his inner clothes from taking too much damage, that is ignoring the broken bones. The herm of the garment was now dark brown, surprisingly dirty, because it used to be white. He could walk a bit normally with a few leaping action here and there, nothing too fancy, but he could get around well. Now he was faced with one deadly problem.

“Every fruit in this vicinity is darn poisonous! Come on luck? Were these guys ancestors vipers or something? What’s with all the poison? The few that are edible are like eating groundnuts, its literarily useless. Arrh, I’ll just have to keep looking.” After a couple more strolls around the area, Julius spent more energy looking for food than he received from the food.

A couple more steps and a clearing could be seen ahead of where he was resting. Amidst the clearing was a crater at least the size of a large pond. Now He had little to no zeal, he rather not enter into that grater, the energy wasted when it’d be time to get out would be unreasonable considering his current state. ‘I must have wandered away from the river quite a bit, I better not go any further, unless I want to end up as a snack for some monster. That crater though..’ “I should at least see what’s inside.”

Moving up close to the crater, Julius could feel a strange energy in that area, a feeling he knew all too well. Demonic energy, ‘I wonder if a demon died here, how would a demon even survive in a place like this filled with pure mana? Hmm..’

“Ahh, a demonic beast huh. I am in no condition to question how it got here, but one thing is for sure, their meat is edible.” ‘It might taste really bad like my grandma’s feet (notice: He has never even met his mother), but it’ll do for food to quell my hunger’. A hard grin appeared on his face as the thought of eating something so disgusting crossed his mind. The last demonic beast he ate left nothing to be desired about, but putting his hope on the fact that this one must be pretty strong, he could only pray that it would be bearable.

He cast out the memories of the last demonic beast meat he ate as he prepared to slide down the walls of the crater. “Ahh, I might be a magician, but man, I am pretty good in physical activities.” The demonic beast lay on the ground face up at maybe 10 meters in height, covered in loose muscles all over it’s body, with the shape of a bear.

Since Julius was a powerful magician, he never carried any weapons with him, not even a small dagger or even a knife, so the problem he faced now was pretty grave as he had no means of cutting the meat in front of him. That said, climbing back up was out of the question, he was already exhausted after spending the whole day searching for what to eat. As the sky got darker, Julius decided to spend the night inside the crater.

Early the next day, the wound on his thigh had recovered fully, and all the bones he could feel were broken before seemed to be good now. Seeing as he never got injured in the past, he would never had known to use the artefact like this. In less than an hour, after thinking out ways to overcome the biggest crisis he faced at the moment, Julius climbed out of the crater. He wasn’t as versatile as Mr. Bear Grylls, but he did as the times required. Using his wits and common sense he was able to successfully enter the stone age, crafting stone tools to be used as knifes and gathering everything he needed to make a fire. A little after noon, he decided to start work, he had thought of starting the feast in the evening, but this meal could no other be delayed. This was a sacrifice to the god of hunger, if there was one.

As everything was set, Julius thrust his stone blade into the leg of the beast tearing it out in a rough and barbaric manner. Fortunately, mana beasts don’t rot as fast as normal animals because of the mana contained in them which prevents decomposition after death for a while. But yet again, this beast was truly a bear. The skin is way tougher than it looks, and before a good chunk could be cut out, the first stone knife was already becoming blunt.

“Huff. Huff. Huff, so that’s how you wanna play it meat. Too bad I know more ways of cooking meat.” The frustration was clearly visible on Julius’ face as cutting the meat was taking more efforts than originally anticipated. “Truly, I have become a mere mortal.”

That didn’t stop Julius from achieving his duty of appeasing the god of hunger, as a little while later he was munching down on perfectly roasted demonic beast meat, and although it tasted like ass, it filled the stomach well. “Ahh, it’s been long since I got a full belly.” Julius chuckled a little, thinking to himself the fact that he could also use this beast’s hide to make a coat.

Julius spent his time cutting out more parts from the demonic beast attempting to skin it, when he suddenly hears a voice, although very faint, it sounded as if someone was calling him.

“Hey, hey, can you hear me. Hey I know you can, don’t try to ignore me.”

Julius knew of monsters that could mimic human voice, mostly a baby’s or a girl’s voice in other to catch unsuspecting people off guard. There was no way he was going to fall for such an obvious trick, he was no longer powerful so trying to confirm his suspicions would be suicide. He ignored the voice and returned to his skinning.

A few days later, after living off of demonic beast meat and fruits, taking a dump became his biggest problem. He hadn’t found any stream yet or water source, so the amount of water he had from leafs and watery fruits was close to little. Taking a dump became like child labour, coupled with the fact that he had to substitute toilet paper for leaves, the realization of how he needed to get out of this place became clearer. “Today, I must find a source of clean water, a stream or natural spring will do perfectly.” So he started his journey to find a source of water.

Luckily, the journey became a stroll as not long after he set out, he appeared before a stream flowing out of a cave. The cave wasn’t big, the entrance looked like it would barely fit Julius through. The stream was about a five minutes’ walk from where the crater was, so it worked out fine. ‘Hmm, something feels strange about this cave. I would love to check it out, but I no longer possess the strength to do such dangerous things. I really need to regain some strength.” Julius wore a worried expression as these thoughts rang through his mind.

He drank a little from the stream using his hands as a bowl, the water was refreshing, carrying a crystal clear appearance. It was really tempting to jump inside, the water looked comforting and felt soothing to the skin. ‘I should have brought the water pouch I made using the beast’s skin. That thing was too heavy to carry around for fun anyway, so no problem I guess.’ He looked relived as he thought about it. After rinsing his mouth a few times and taking some more drinks form the stream, Julius turned to go get his water pouch, when he heard a voice. The voice sounded similar to the one he heard before. He turned around immediately as the voice seemed to come from behind, but all he saw was the cave that stood beyond the stream. ‘Am I slowly loosing my sanity? This is the second time I’m hearing this voice.’

As he turned his head around trying to find the voice, he heard it again, this time with clarity.

“Hey, I know you can hear me. Come on don’t be scared, I won’t bite I promise.” Although the last thing this strange voice said was something any predator would say to its prey, Julius felt an urge to at least see what’s inside the cave. But that voice was still suspicious. Before he could decide on what to do the heard the voice again. “Don’t worry, I’m already dead. There’s nothing a dead man can do to you right? So please come.”

Finally, Julius decided to approach the cave. On getting to the entrance, to his surprise, after heading deeper inside for some seconds, he realised just how big of a cave it actually was compared to how it looked outside. The small entrance had completely given the wrong impression. As Julius searched the opening with his eyes, he saw something that caught his attention. With a faint gasp, he let out a somewhat ecstatic expression, “Oh wow.”

“Hi there Sir, you finally accepted my invitation. Welcome.”