"TEN HOURS!?" Caelus began panicking as he turned to Tellus, who was cleaning her weapon, and heading away, as she had something to do. So he was free for right now. He did wonder how far along he was in each stage.
[Will do]
[Name: Caelus
Species: Archidraconis
Path: Arcane
Auxiliary Path: [Locked till Next Realm]
Realm: Foundation Establishment II
Progress: 68% too III
Affinity: Spatial
Status: Normal
Techniques: Simple Cut, Enhanced Simple Cut (Variation of Simple Cut), Mana Barrier.]
Caelus didn't ask for it, but since it could read his thoughts, it'd probably know. Reading through it as it appeared, he was a little confused by Auxiliary Path, but he understood it after taking a second. As he finished reading, he thought. "So if I'm almost at the Third Stage... How many are there?"
[For Realms, in the Mortal World, there are 8 Realms, but each Realm has different Stages. The First three Realms have 9 Stages, the Fourth to Sixth have 10 stages, the Seventh Realm has 15 Stages, and the Eighth Realm has 20 Stages... You have a lot of work to do :)]
"Yeah, I know, I'm just asking, though, you sound unusually excited... Even if I've only seen you excited." Caelus thought, standing still, realizing he was wasting time. Though. Caelus quickly took off on foot, running at full speed, passing the person who had opened the door, almost crashing into someone, if it hadn't been him sliding to the side. And just barely grazing his hair against the entrance.
Reaching the Streets, Caelus rushed, enhancing his legs and eyes with Mana, though he was using a bit too much already. His speed reached higher, almost releasing a shockwave from the sheer speed, had it not been for his containing it with his Mana.
[Unlocked Enhanced Sight! 1/6 Senses, Good job :)]
"...Enhanced Sight? And six of them? Whatever, I'll deal with that later, Sys. I still need to get to that Mountain." Finally reaching outside of the Empire, he stopped, turning to one of the Guards. He stood still, though their heart was beating a lot faster, and he turned to look at Caelus and spoke. "What is it that you need?"
"Do you know where Tianyun Peak is?" Caelus asked, in a rush
The Guard looked confused for a second, taking a bit to realize what he was talking about, since that was its old name. "Ah, it's far off ahead, about fifty miles ahead, and then three hundred left, it's the smallest one."
Caelus nodded, seeing the guy drop a bit of Gold. Caelus turned down too, grabbing it, and... Running off with it, his instincts to hoard weren't always weak enough that he could ignore it. Especially since he was in a rush right now.
It took him a few minutes to calculate how long it would take. Considering how fast he was moving, he'd be able to reach there in about an hour and a half, giving him eight hours to look around it.
Even then, he wanted to see if he could get there faster, his wings sprang out as he began flapping them, becoming airborne, his Mana went from his leg, and only enhanced certain parts of the wing, allowing for maximum air speed, he became a lot faster, reaching a faster speed he quickly came to a stop, noticing three pathways he halted midair, a full minute passed as he turned left, only for his wings to slowly make him go back down to the ground and retreat into his body. He used it too much from earlier when running from guards.
Caelus turned and noticed two tents, then the night sky, meaning it was day in his world. Two people are sitting and roasting food. As both of them saw him, they jumped, startled by the fact that he was looking, his eyes, which were basically white, gleaming in the dark because of how much they were enhanced.
Caelus turned back ahead; he'd gotten distracted. Mana flowing back to his legs, he liked the fact that he could fly, since he'd never been on a plane before, so he assumed this was what it was like.
Using more Mana, getting rid of some for his body, though it felt a little painful, he could handle it. Having it regenerate just fast enough that he was losing little by little, but only now it became a lot more, rising by 3 times the amount being drained. Yet now he was twice his previous speed, at least on land; it couldn't compare to him in the air.
But now the time it would take him to get there would be almost halved, had it not been for the fact that he flew for a few minutes. This lowered it from an hour and a half to about thirty minutes. He pushed his body to its current limit.
[Warning! Your body will start using more energy to keep you running, so you'll need to eat sooner. If you continue when your body forces you to stop, it'll cause lots of pain. You know there is no penalty for failing or missing this, right-]
"I don't care, I want to see what those two things do... Plus, I still want to find out how much I can push myself; it's obviously needed after all." Something Caelus hid even from Tellus and his family, mainly because they wanted him to continue their business, which he had no intention of doing. He was more interested in something else.
Caelus continued to run, watching his Mana Deplete slowly, since he was using more than he should. Normally, it regenerated fast enough that it didn't matter, but since he was doing something intensive like this, it was sufficient that it had used the same amount as his advanced simple cut, which takes a large pool of his Mana. Taking hours to regenerate.
"Am I almost there?" Caelus asked the system, even if he was alone, he'd still communicate using his thoughts.
[About 20 miles left, you can slow down now, you have 9 hours and ten minutes left to search the Mountain.]
Caelus wanted to continue. But since he had a lot more time, he'd take time to rest and regenerate his Mana. Slowing down, Caelus began walking, and his Mana swam back to where it usually was.
Finally stopping for a moment, Caelus noticed it began raining, clouds across a large area, only for him to notice he could see far enough that the clouds stopped, not entirely, just the rainy ones.
As the water dropped onto his body, it took him a second to feel it; he'd rarely felt rain because it was so cold in his hometown. Even if he left that world, he couldn't stop thinking about it. Since he still wanted so much there.
Caelus shook his head, his hair swinging side to side as water dropped, the grass being blown by the wind softly, before becoming more windy. Caelus saw an abandoned building nearby, or more like a hut, which reminded him of a game he played, but since it was almost submerged, he thought nothing of it. Walking past, a trail, one of footsteps in the soil, dirt pressed deeper.
"Human feet, unless it's something like an elf or dwarf, but I doubt it." Caelus assumed it was just a world with only humans, Dragons, and draconic creatures, not something like what he'd see in books.
Caelus continued forward, following the footsteps as he smelt blood. Walking in that direction, he watched as corpses and skeletons lined the ground. He disliked the heavy smell, which was something he didn't like in this body.
"Okay... Creepy, but also I think it wants me to go this way-"
[Indeed! Also, would you like to give me a name~ Or am I going to be nameless :3]
"Just because of how you're speaking, you get the name Aphrodite," Caelus spoke without hesitation.
[Hey! I wanted some cooler name-]
"Then you should've said that, Aphro." Caelus thought, though a little amused, still following the path. Seeing more blood, though dried, he knew these were older. Finally, he reached a trail that had nothing, as if it was cut off from the rest. Caelus's Mana began regenerating faster the closer he got. But it felt weird. Caelus, in that moment, noticed a deer; it stopped, staring directly at him, about his size, even.
Only then did he notice that its body was covered in black, thorny spikes. Across its body, it looked completely fine, its eyes devoid of life; it was expected, since it was supposed to be black. Right as Caelus was about to move towards it, it ran off at full speed. Had Caelus not been Foundation, it would've seemed to disappear.
Caelus shook it off as a part of the corruption Aphro was talking about. Walking along the trail, he noticed the clouds around a particular mountain, farther away but clearly visible, spiraling with thunder striking directly at the peak in unison, which he knew was not natural in the slightest.
[That is Tianyun Peak! Just saying so you don't ignore it, once you reach there I'll replenish your Mana a Bit-]
"No Need, I'll be able to get back most of it by the time I'm there. Or at least finish exploring." Caelus, about to continue forward, got smacked in the side by what looked like a goat, being a lot smaller, yet covered in protruding veins, white in color, it leaked a liquid so dark it caused Caelus to flinch.
"...That's absolutely not norma-" Before Caelus could even finish his thought, he got rammed into by the goat, only this time, Caelus moved his hand, grabbing its horns by the portuding area and letting his leg fly forward to kick it.
Enhancing his Knee with Mana to strengthen the kick, he let go of the horns after the kick. The goat began moving back, only for it to stop and plant its foot deeper into the ground.
Caelus didn't know what it was planning, but enhancing his hearing to drown out the rain with any sounds living creatures would make allowed him to feel the goat's Heartbeat, or at least hear it. Alongside that, he heard three more heartbeats.
[Unlocked Enhanced Hearing! 2/6 Senses!]
"What even is that for? Just whenever I use Mana to change parts of my body?"
[Indeed! Though watch out, it's getting ready to attack.]
"I know." Caelus was still staring at the goat, thinking, "He could do multiple things at once, so he didn't need to worry about it. At least right now. Maybe, if he were overwhelmed, he would stop asking.
As soon as he heard more footsteps close in right behind him, he pushed his foot against the ground as his wings came out and flapped, letting him get some airtime, being big enough to hold him up, though not steadily, since he still wasn't strong enough to transform into his fully draconic body.
Another goat rammed from behind, going past where he would've been, partially grazing the skin of the goat he was staring at.
[New Object, take out the Corrupted Goats~]
[Reward - You decide!]
Caelus noticed he was being pushed by the wind towards the Mountain, or more upwards, even when that shouldn't be how wind works. Going up was not natural. But he reminded himself this wasn't his old world. His wings retracted once more as he fell, enhancing his legs with Mana, which turned into spikes. Moving it right at the head of one of the goats, it pierced the brain, completely shattering its skull as well. It would've been dead.
Caelus moved the Mana back as he jumped up and watched it... Stay up. "...That's not normal, not at all," Caelus spoke, not realizing he was actually talking.
Caelus took a few steps back while making sure to notice his surroundings for an ambush. His eyes turned to the side.