For a whole day and a half, Shearwood stayed inside the lake, watching her new master go on with his life. She did not disturb him as he had ordered and would occasionally help him with manual labour when he asked for it.

She watched as the young man built a shelter out of resources he found in the forest. She watched him practice his unique and unknown magic quietly. He barely rested during this time, only sleeping long after the twin moons rose, and awake even before the twin moons set. “Such a hardworking human,” she thought. “It might be interesting to follow him and see what he would become.”

There were so many things she wanted to ask him, but by his order, she had chosen to remain silent, curbing her curiosity. She wanted to ask him why he did not have any mana leakage, or how he casts spells without incantation, or even just how he is constantly feeding off her own mana.

“Master, some people approach,” Shearwood warned as she licked her lips. “My sacrifice draws near.”

“Go inside the lake and do not come out until I tell you to!” Kiefer barked. “And you gotta teach me some of your magic, but one thing at a time” Kiefer thought silently. He could not afford to give Shearwood any chance of ruining this golden opportunity to find civilisation.

Still wondering how Shearwood could detect people’s presence, Kiefer took a break from fine tuning his mana armour and stepped outside the brand new shelter (3rd one) to look around. Ever since his battle with Shearwood, he began optimising his skills.

While he had no idea how to develop a defence against magical attacks, he could strengthen his physical defence by increasing the number of corrugated layers to 5 while at the same time reducing the thickness of each layer. This resulted in denser armour that was not too thick to restrict his movements.

After concealing his own mana, he stood outside his shelter, facing the distant sound of footsteps and metal armour scraping against each other. What emerged from the forest, was a group of humans, and a carriage pulled by 2 large 3m tall crystalline horses.

Deciding to take the initiative, Kiefer stepped towards the convoy and offered a friendly greeting,” Hello there! Good evening to you good sirs!” However, the men in armour responded by unsheathing their swords and pointing them at Kiefer.

“Stand back! Barbarian!” one of the men grunted.

“Why does every intelligent being I meet have to be an asshole?! First the balancer, then Sher, and now these humans that I’m seeing for the very first time..” Kiefer sighed under his breath. “I try to be nice but none of them seem to like it. Are the manners in this world really that bad?”

Kiefer stopped in his tracks and began calculating his chances of survival. He saw 4 knights with their swords unsheathed, 1 knight which he assumed was the captain on the carriage, and observed 3 more people dressed lightly exiting the carriage. Not sure if the horses also had any combat capabilities, he took a mental note of their presence and size as well.

“I mean no harm! Im just looking for directions to the nearest village or city” (Kiefer)

“Well then you are out of luck sir. Im afraid we are here on a one-way trip and won’t be able to guide you to our grand capitol of Alluviate. Even if we told you the direction to move in, you probably will not make it there alive. We lost 3 well trained knights on our way here, and the way I see it, you are just one unarmed person. You do not even have magi—“ (Wind mage)

Suddenly, the man stopped talking mid-sentence and started discussing something with the other 2 men who stepped out of the carriage and the captain of the knights.

“Men surround him!” (Captain)

At the captain’s orders, the 4 men dashed forwards and formed a perimeter around Kiefer. Kiefer, who was confident in his physical defence, paid no mind to them and stayed his ground.

“What are you monster? Why is there not even a single wisp of mana coming from you? I pride myself in being able to detect mana using my wind, but you totally escaped my detection. Even normal people have at least a minute amount of mana constantly hugging their body, but you are quite devoid of mana, as if you are not even alive.” (Wind mage)

“I see! So completely preventing my mana leakage is suspicious as well! I did not know that since I have not met any humans until now. Better remember to release some in the future.” Kiefer made a mental note to self. But for now, he had to worm his way out of this situation somehow. Maybe a change in subject would help.

“Im sorry but I do not know what you are talking about. However, you said something really ominous earlier about this being a one way trip? Where are you headed and what do you intend to do?”(Kiefer)

“You ignorant fool! Do you not know you are standing right next to Shearwood lake?! We’ve come to appease the titan ruler of this land and hope she does not bring her wrath upon our kingdom. And right now you are being a hindrance to the sacred presentation ceremony. Men! Detain this barbarian. We hope Shearwood will be pleased with the bonus sacrifice we are offering this year and leave us with our lives." (Captain)

The four knights slowly closed in on Kiefer swords first, kite-shields next. Kiefer was not the least bit afraid and seeing his mouth curl up into a sinister smile, the knights hesitated, if only temporarily.

“Sher! Come up and greet your dinner!” Kiefer yelled, and almost immediately, as if she had been waiting to open her Christmas present, Shearwood shot out of the lake, raining down water on everyone. Shearwood launched herself at the convoy and with one gulp, snatched the captain up and swallowed him whole, armour and all.

The old guard did not even have time to scream, while the others were still confused as to what happened, their vision obscured by the torrential rain of lake water pouring down on the area.

After all the water had fallen, the faces of the convoy contorted into terror as they stared at the majestic serpent looming over their heads. The four knights tried to run but they were unnaturally rooted to the ground. They looked down at their feet and saw silvery lines anchoring their feet to the ground.

“MAGE!!! Hes a mage!! Help us Priests!! What is this magic?!?! There was no incantation at all!!” (knights)

It wasn’t just the 4 knights that were binded by Kiefer’s mana threads, the 3 mages as well as 2 hourses were rooted on their spot too. Lifting up the 4 knights, Kiefer flung them one after another by their ankles towards Shearwood. “Here’s 4 more presents for you Sher, catch!”

Happily, Shearwood caught the men mid-air and swallowed them. “Master! What about the carriage? Can I have that too? It smells so tasty!” Shearwood asked eagerly, smelling the young boy inside the carriage.

“Sure, but don’t hurt the horses or the mages. I need a ride and answers” Kiefer replied, totally oblivious to the presence of the unconscious little boy inside.

No sooner had he finished his sentence did Shearwood appear next to the carriage and take a bite out of it from the top, leaving nothing but wooden planks and splinters on wheels. The carriage somewhat resembled an apple that someone had taken a bite out of.

“Asviran, hinti mos durani enria!” (Mage)

Kiefer observed elemental magic for the first time, and saw a blade of light emerge from behind the mage to cut the mana threads binding him. “Interesting,” he thought, as he began to cover the entire ground between him and the 3 mages in thousands of mana threads.

The mages watched in horror as the ground slowly turned silver, radiating from the half-naked man, creeping its way towards them. The silver threads starting working their way up their feet, ankles legs and finally up to their necks, constricting them and holding them in place. They did not know what was more frightening, the titan serpent floating above the lake, or the man that just fed the serpent four of their comrades.

“Are you afraid?” (Kiefer)

The three of them frantically nodded their heads, not daring to provoke the young man any further.

Facing one of them, Kiefer asked, “Where is your kingdom capital?” in a menacing tone.

Many scenarios were running through the head of the first mage. Should he answer, and risk bringing doom to his country, or should he keep quiet and face torture and death? Loyal to his king, and having served his whole life for his kingdom, the mage valiantly chose to remain quiet. He was already dead when he was given this assignment. There was no other way out for him.

Seeing the mage just cry and shake his head, Kiefer sighed, and crushed the poor mage with a single thought. Turning to the other 2, he warned them, “I hope you will not be as foolish as him. I am merely looking for a nice place to stay and do not wish to harm your home. Just answer my questions truthfully, and I will let you live.”

“S- southeast of- of Shearwood lake.. about 6 days by tarsus through the Agrean forest. You-you will reach the city walls at the northern ga-gate.” One of the mages stammered out a fairly decent reply.

“YOU TRAITOR! How could you lead this monster to our city walls?!?! You swore loya—“ The other mage did not get to complete his sentence before he too was crushed instantly.

“Very good, now if you don’t mind, tell me what is a tarsus?” (Kiefer)

“Th-that crystalline quadruped i-is a tarsus”(mage)

“Thank you. Now as I promised, I will let you live. Take one of the tarsus and head back home.” Kiefer assured him, gently lowering the mage down and unbinding him.

The mage quickly mounted the tarsus, looked back to make sure Kiefer wouldn’t attack him, and disappeared into the forest again.

“Sher.”(Kiefer)

“Yes master?” (Shearwood)

“Don’t play with your food too much.” Kiefer said, with a grin on his face.

“Thank you master!”, Shearwood exclaimed excitedly as she shot off into the Agrean forest to chase her dinner.

“Hmm, so the nearest civilisation is the city of Alluviate, 6 days away huh.” Kiefer started planning his immediate future, while tying up the remaining terrified tarsus to his shelter with some vines.

I know the MC took a dark turn this chapter, but I couldn't help it. It was crucial for his character development in the future. I also tried to limit the different coloured texts within the main story, hope it helps.