Chapter 2 – The Ancient and the Island

“I really can’t believe I’m inside the novel I’d written. All of this doesn’t seem to be sinking in my mind yet and I’m having a hard time accepting it. What will happen now? Everything from this point onwards will be a whole lot new experience.”

“Aargh, but before that” stomach grumbles- “I should probably head back now and make dinner, I’ve been here for a couple of hours now, is it still dark back at the house?”

Standing at the highest peak on the mountain, his eyes grew bright as he sees the beautiful scenery in front of him.

“Is this what I think it is, I’m in Alf Island! Even though it’s perceived to be an island no one can ever enter, a land filled with terrifying monsters and a very dangerous place, it’s quite beautiful if you look at it at a different view.  Oh, my Bathala, I’m excited! Oh my, I just made a joke, wow, that was lame. There should be no people here since this island is hard to enter and it’s guarded by a ton of catastrophe grade sea monsters.”  

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[ Catastrophe grade – ranking used by the guild association in the monster evaluation and information gathering system (Mondistem).]

[ Ranking used to classify each type of monsters starting from the first and top rank {Apocalyptic grade (S)} going down to {Catastrophe grade (A)}, to {Disaster grade (B)}, {Calamity grade (C)}, {Savage grade (D)} down to the lowest rank {Common grade (E)}; Unique grade (U) is a special grade for monsters who are said to be different than most of the monsters.]

--

If I stay any longer, I’ll have a high chance of meeting native monsters of this island, so I probably need to go back now. I don’t want to get killed by a monster this early in my new life. In any case, can I even take down a monster? I’ll look more into it tomorrow, heading back is what matters now.

Wait, how do I even open up a portal? Do I just imagine making one then, or does it involve this world’s magic and laws? I’ll try the former first!

As he was imagining opening a portal, he unconsciously made a monster!

Huh? What? What is this? It looks like a big cotton candy? Small cloud? Maybe spending some time at Bathala’s special realm somehow affected me unconsciously? But what is this really?

*Pokes

The small monster then roles to the side, showing its head and his legs.

It’s a monster? A cute little monster? Why did a monster pop up when I’d thought of opening the portal?

When the cute little guy heard him, he quickly roles over and stand on his feet and short after that, his cloudy fur began to expand. The cloudy fur began to turn into a large portal and the small monster was acting as a gateway between the two worlds.

So, what I imagined was still a portal then but instead of it being a normal portal, I made a unique grade monster that serves as a gateway! That is so cool!

As he enters the portal, he saw a glimpse of a realm like the one Bathala was residing but there was a lot of people inside. What could it be?

The fluffy little guy followed him to the other side. Looking exhausted by using the portal, he slowly then walks his way to Cillian’s foot and somehow, he ended up falling asleep. Cillian, using both his hands carefully lifted him up and placed him on the bed.

“He’s very soft and fluffy, I’ll name him Cotton since he’s like a cotton candy, a nice and simple name if I say so myself. He’s my first companion since becoming a god. Now that I think about it nothing really happened to me that made me a god.”

After getting Cotton to rest, he went downstairs to prepared his meal.

“It seems that the time here on Earth is slower compared to Asgrea. I don’t know the exact time but when I went back here just a few minutes ago the time here didn’t move that much. I was in Asgrea for a couple of hours. Or maybe, ugh, I’ll just think about that for another time.

While he was preparing dinner, Cillian started to test some things about his newly acquired gift and contemplate on how he’ll be going to use it.

“I should better check it thoroughly so that I can use it to its full potential. Hmm, how do I use this power ‘creation’ like how I did when I wanted to create the portal earlier? This is going to be tough. I only found small clues about this ability of mine, in order to test it I need to return tomorrow to Asgrea to check it further.”

--

The next day

--

“Are you ready, Cotton?”

“Ummah!”

“Let’s go!”

Cotton opened the portal and both of them got in.

“Ahh this feeling when going through the portal is really something.”

“Ummah!”

*both jumps through the portal

Hmmm, the time here didn’t move much, maybe what I thought last night was wrong. If only I can control the time here-

Uggh, I’ll just ask Bathala the next time he appears before me.  

“Now then, how about we go around and explore this island, Cotton? There are tons of powerful monsters living here so we should be move carefully. I just hope that we don’t encounter a monster that we can’t handle. Since most of the large monsters are in the north part of the island we should start exploring in the south. I want to see every monster but I don’t think I can handle them if they suddenly attack us, we can start first at the south area where most of the monsters are common grade.”

As they were walking through the forest a loud sound was heard throughout the area. Most of the monsters ran away just from the sound of its growl. When Cillian heard its voice, he instantly knew that a powerful monster was roaming around the area. They quickly hide behind a tree and observed the surroundings where the growl came from.

“Oh, damn I just said that-”

Slowly, the large monster came walking near them and it was massive!

It’s coming closer, Cotton, get in here. It’s just as I thought, the guardian of the sixth world tree “Semelera”, the most powerful beast living in this island, an Ancient.

The 12th Ancient, the giant tortoise ‘Bolus’ known as the gentlest beast among the first monsters that was made by God Nefelinn.

Oh yeah, are the Gods I wrote in my novel also here? I wonder if they know about my existence, since they’re my creations, does that mean I’m a higher being than them? All those 9 gods also stop moving when I’m not in this dimension too.

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[Ancients – Apocalyptic grade monsters who are said to be the first rulers of the continents of Asgrea, monsters that possess power that can destroy anything in their path.]

--

“I didn’t expect to meet you this early on, I must be quite lucky. Let’s go approach him Cotton!”

“Ummah!”

“Hmmm, why is he roaming outside the ruins, shouldn’t he be staying close to ‘Semelera’ the sixth world tree in the underground ruins beneath this large mountain? Did something happen that made him go out?”

Silently following the giant monster Cillian noticed that something was stuck on its back. It was a large glowing needle, its looked like it was causing him so much pain and that it looks like it’s somehow draining Bolus’s energy.

“What’s that thing on his back? I don’t remember making something like that. And why is it impaled on his back, maybe some monster attacked him? But is there a monster that can match up to him in this island? Gah, I should remove it first then I’ll ask him.”

“Cotton come here and I’ll carry you; We’ll go through the trees and catch up to him.”

“Ummah!”

He quickly followed Bolus while carrying Cotton on his arms, his movements wasn’t ordinary, he jumped from tree to tree to catch up on the giant tortoise.

“Hmm, just as I thought, my body is much lighter now and I can feel my energy inside me swelling up. Is this my mana I’m feeling right now? Controlling it seems difficult now but this’ll be easy after a few practices.

This feels incredible, is this how the characters in my novel feel when they are using mana, I like this!”

After a short while, Cillian managed to catch up to Bolus and ended up landing on his head.

“Hello there, little turtle!” Cillian sarcastically said after looking down on Bolus’s face.

Bolus was taken aback and stops on his tracks.

“What is a human doing here in forbidden island, get off my head at once.”

“Woah, woah, calm down, I’m not here to attack you or anything; It would be foolish of someone to try and attack an Ancient right, and my purpose here for coming here is to talk to you.”

“You… How are you calm in this situation? You are in front of a giant beast and you can still smile like that?” Bolus frantically said.

“Ahh it’s nothing, it’s just my talent not be intimidated easily. Truthfully, I wouldn’t approach you like this if I didn’t saw you injured like this. From the looks of it that needle stuck in your back is hard for you to remove since its already draining your energy, right? I just came to help you get it off. After I remove that needle, it wouldn’t take much long for you to recover since you possess such an amazing regenerative ability that can match against the Phoenix, right?”

“H-How do you know about that human? No person knows about the abilities of us Ancient much less my own existence.”

“You’re a human but you’re quite different than the people from the continents.” Bolus added.

“…”

“The only known Ancients to be recorded in history are not that many, the stone giant in the north, the large kraken living in the Ospian Sea, the phoenix and other more. The giant tortoise ‘Bolus’ wasn’t mentioned in the history books.

“!”

“Human, how did you know my name?”

“Ummah!”

“Oh Cotton, you got curious about our talk too, haven’t you? Before I answer that should I first remove that needle first, okay?”

Bolus was still filled with curiosity regarding Cillian’s identity but he accepted the offer for help since he can’t do anything about it on his own.

“After I remove the needle, you should tell me how you got this stuck, okay! Heeuupp! Now then, how should I remove this?”

“Ummah!”

“Are you saying that I shouldn’t pull it out with my hands, Cotton? Then this might be a great time to use what I’ve been practicing last night.”

Cillian started to concentrate, he controlled his breathing and then focused his mana on the impaled large needle. The needle started to shrink, slowly it turned smaller and smaller until it was at the size of a stick.

“Well, that sure was easy, I didn’t expect this ability to be this easy to use but it still needs some work for improvements.”

After the needle was removed, the wound on the giant tortoise’s back started to heal, it was an amazing sight, not even half an hour has passed since Cillian removed the needle, now it was already completely healed. The speed of recovery was indeed fast and not long after Bolus was feeling much better.

“Bolus, are you feeling alright now?”

“That was indeed quite helpful of you. The magic you just used now is not something a mere human can do; Now can you tell me who are you truly?”

“… I’m a human, but not an ordinary human, you can already tell just from the way I act towards you and the magic I performed to remove this needle from your back is not something you’ll normally see from humans in this world, I mean there must be some people out there that acts like me though.”

“!!!”

“Humans from this world? You really are different, but how do you know so much about me and the Ancients?”

“Oh that, it’s quite simple, I’m your creator, I made you that’s why I know a lot of things about you, haha.” Cillian laughingly said.

“Creator? That is impossible, God Nefelinn was the one who made us.”

“That was how it was portrayed but I was also the one who created Nefelinn!”

“!”

Bolus who was surprised from Cillian’s words fell down the ground, he was confused whether to accept these words as truth or not.”

“How can I know if what you’re telling me is just a bunch of lies, That is hard for me believe.”

“Of course, it is, I mean you suddenly met a stranger who knows a lot about you and told you that he created you would be something hard.”

“Even though when I met Bathala I just simply believed everything easily, haha.”

“If you’re not really trusting my words then I’ll just show you something else that will make you believe in me.”

Cillian then instructed Cotton to open up a gate. It was quite different from what they use to enter back in forth from Earth and Asgrea, using the gate it took both Cillian and Bolus to a dream-like space.

“What is this place?”

“This is a different dimension; this is the first time I’m ever using it so this is still new to me as well. Using this dream space, I will show you why I said I’m your creator.”

“This is… This was when we were being made by God Nefelinn, how are you able to show it to me.”

“Because I have memories of ever seeing it, of course! Nefelinn was the first God I made when I was making this world, I made him to be the leader of the other gods that I made after. Soon after that I started making other things and soon, I made you, the Ancients. I made Nefelinn to make you all as I imagined and thankfully it went quite well.”

“So, does that mean God Nefelinn and the other gods is under you as well? You can put it however you like, but the fact is that I’m still your creator.”

“I’m not showing this to you because I’m trying to deceiving you, I’m just showing you what it was for me when I was making you. All I’m showing you is the hard fact. In fact, you are the first one to ever come in contact with me, do you feel honored, haha.” Cillian jokingly said.

“It truly doesn’t look to me that you’re not lying but it’s still hard for me to completely accept.”

“I was actually like you a few hours ago, I actually didn’t believe God Bathala too, but in the end, I just accepted it.” Cillian murmured as he looks to Bolus.

“So, going back, who managed to pierce through your shell? Was it a monster?” 

“Yes, it was a monster who was inside my territory did that to me. A Giblinn, a unique grade monster was rampaging in the west part of the island managed to pierce me with its tail when I was trying to stop it.”

[ Giblinn – a monster that is like a large ape but possessing characteristics of having a tail with sharp long needles on its tip and has hard shell armor on his shoulders to his back.]

“Well, if it was a unique grade then I understand how it managed to damage you with its attack. So, where is this Giblinn then?”

“I ended up killing it after it hit me with its needle.”

“Wow, you killed a unique grade monster that easily, you’re not an Ancient for nothing.”

“It was quite unfortunate for him because he dared to battle against an Ancient like me. I would have forgiven him but it would’ve tainted my status if I don’t make the monsters in my territory know what I’m capable of.”

“I see… Well, enough about that, I came here to see Semelera while I’m exploring the island, would you mind guiding us to it?”

“I’d be honored to.”

 Carrying Cillian and Cotton on his head, Bolus headed to the center of the underground ruins where the sixth world tree is located.

“Wooaaah! That is huge! The last world tree I planted is now this large, It became this large and filled with mana! This is really going to be a fun adventure!”

Chapter two ends~ to be continued