After I had told Boren and Mys Tara my resolve we moved to make use of that resolve.

Yet the fact remained that I was still a bird stuck in a dungeon in one of the most heavily fortified towers ever constructed. But I was confident we could do something worthwhile since I have Mys Tara and Boren with me.

Having somewhat regained their composure Mys Tara started rambling.

'So with this new resolve we should have a goal. Something like making it out of this dungeon alive.

Making it out alive would first mean staying alive which also includes you; Frank.

I say we make ourselves a set of priorities:

1. lengthening your life-span.

2. Escaping from this dungeon

3. Getting your family back together.'

'I had never even considered the possibility of lengthening my life-span. But what about your objectives?' I answered.

'Our objectives have already been proven to be preventing peace rather than providing peace.' Boren answered.

'I see...' I could kind of understand them but it still felt wrong that all of our priorities were to help me rather than to help them. Thus in my heart I swore to return the favor and help them even if they didn't think that they would need help.

Then as Boren again turned to me. 'We are not only helping you though. We want to get out of this place too.'

'What is this place anyways?' I asked with my mana.

'This place is where us the Ancients throw our trash from experiments.' answered Mys Tara.

'Why would they throw that away in the dungeon?' I asked.

'That is because most of those experiments had resulted in the creation of very volatile products of destruction. Thus they have been deemed to be too hazardous to leave the tower. So instead we store it all in this dungeon which actually was never meant to hold people (or Ancients or Guava's... etc. etc.) in it.'

'I still do not understand how this will help lengthen my lifespan. Wouldn't it be more likely to shorten it instead? I mean; I can see the piles of the trash from here.'

'Well this what you see here is the trash of the war against the dark elves. Behind this pile of trash is the remnants of our experiments on living beings which includes life-preservation pods which we no longer used as our current bodies do not require it.'

'I see; so those are from back when you created the sentient races.' I said. At this point I was starting to feel very excited and my urge to tinker started to surface again.

'Well we didn't really create them. We just combined two races of which we had the DNA. Humans from our own heritage and the Dark Elves who already inhabited these lands. We also tried to combine the DNA of the monsters but the results weren't usable in our plans. Except for the Guava which we designed as a food-source.'

'I see....' I looked down at my body wondering how I would taste. From being a prince of one of the mightiest nations of the world I somehow ended up as food. Quite ironic.

'Lets go!' said Mys Tara. And so we did. We went through the last bit of the entrance and entered the room that held all of the trash. The size of the room was incomprehensibly large with trash blocking our views in every direction. There were some indistinguishable paths that led through the trash which Boren was able to make out easily. While Mys Tara and Boren went off to look for a way through this mess I opted out and stayed behind.

Why you may ask. Well that is because the smell was horrible.

I do not know when the war with the dark elves took place but if I had to guess based on this smell it would be at least a couple centuries. Boren and Mys Tara had no trouble walking through it and they told me that I would eventually get used to it as my race was specifically built to be able to live in any environment. Somehow this also included bad-smelling areas.

After a couple hours Mys Tara and shortly after Boren too came back with nothing to show for their efforts. They had gotten lost and were only barely able to come back. They did however find a gas mask which they gave to me.

It didn't fit as it was made for humanoids so Boren went to get some tools that he had seen laying around so that we could adjust the gas mask to fit my face... or beak.

After returning with a tool and some scrap metal and leather Boren started working on the gas-mask carefully bending it and strengthening it with the scrap metal and leather that he had brought. Then he sent Mys Tara to look for some rubber to seal the gas-mask.

After he attached the rubber which Mys Tara had no trouble in finding he put the gas mask on me.

It fit but... It was far too heavy. I could still move my head around but walking or hopping let alone flying became impossible to me. But the bad smell was gone which was great. Seeing how I moved around awkwardly Boren and Mys Tara couldn't help but snicker at how odd I looked.

After noticing that they were laughing at me I almost decided to take off the gas-mask but decided not to as it was a hassle to put it back on and being relieved from the bad smell was more important than my looks.

'Could you help me out here?' I flashed in mana. My ability to write in mana had become more sophisticated and easy. So I decided to add some art to the first letter as I had seen being done in very old books.

'Yeah we should probably build some sort of framework so that you can at the very least move around properly.' Mys Tara answered.

'I'll get right to it then.' Boren said as he went off again into the maze of trash.

'Mys Tara.'

'Yes Frank?'

'Its not really the right timing but since I don't know much about you is it alright if I ask some questions?' I flashed in mana.

'Well.. I don't see why not.' Mys Tara answered.

'So what is your relationship with Boren?'

'We're colleagues and used to be classmates in our world. We were also involved in designing the upper half of this very tower.'

'That is not what I meant, I mean is there any romance between you two?'

Mys Tara stopped talking and stared at me wide-eyed. Then after a moment or two she turned her head away. It was obvious that she hadn't even thought of it like that and was too embarrassed to even reply.

I knew she'd respond like this. That's for snickering at me for wearing a gas mask. Behind the gas mask a grin appeared on my face.

Boren returned with a canvas filled with a variety of things dragging behind him.

'Could you come here for a second Frank?'

So I moved over.

'This that we will be putting on you will be permanent so is there anything particular that you want us to do?'

'What do you mean?' I asked in mana as I tried to look up to him.

'Well see it as a permanent set of clothes. What do you want to look like?'

After Boren expounded I looked down at the ground again contemplating any and all cool looks.

I was thinking of looking like a human again though that would probably be hard to achieve. But why would I want to be human? I was never happy as a human.

'Maybe a Tamarin' I said.

'You mean you want the ability to transform?' Boren asked.

It wasn't what I meant but it sounded really cool.

'Can you do that?' I asked with mana as I tried to write it in a way that conveyed my feelings which I had no experience in doing at all. For now I settled for smooth edges.

'Ofcourse we can. It will take some time but we have done similar things before. Would you like that?'

'Yes very much so!' In the end I conveyed my feelings through adding an exclamation mark though it felt quite awkward to use it as a means to talk.

'Then what do you want to be able to transform into?'

'Human, Giant, Elf, Tamarin.... all races?'

Boren laughed loudly.

'I am sorry' said Boren; 'Though I said you could pick anything to transform into it would be inconvenient to have so many things to transform into.'

'Why?' I asked.

'Well you would be carrying the metal part for each of those with you at all times. If we were to do all of the ones you mentioned you wouldn't even be able to move.'

'Then what if we used mana to move?' I asked after contemplating on the predicament.

Boren was silent for a moment. Mys Tara then interjected after recovering from the embarrassing thoughts. 'I think that should be possible since Frank has the firstborn trait.'

'What is the firstborn trait?' I asked seeing as it was something specific that they pointed to.

'Its your ability to use unlimited amounts of mana.'

'There's a limit to mana usage?' I asked surprised.

'Well for ordinary people and most of the other races they can only use certain amounts of mana for certain periods of time. They can't keep using mana indefinitely. You and all the firstborns of the human royalty have the ability to control as much mana as your concentration will let you.' Mys Tara answered while Boren was still contemplating seemingly drawing designs and system-outlays in his head.

Then he turned to me again.

'Frank; I have a great idea; leave it to me. I will make sure to make you look awesome.'

After saying this Boren went off into the maze of trash again without waiting for a reply. Me and Mys Tara looked at him bewildered.

After being brought to the dark elven refuge I was taught basic corporeal mana-control. I learned from my appointed master all the ways that mana surges through a body reaching every fiber and tissue within it. I wanted to immediately start using it on my body but I was stopped by her.

My master was a large dark elven woman who was extremely muscular and always sitting with her legs crossed.

'Isa! not yet! You have not mastered your mana enough yet. If you are to use it now you would ruin your body and any hope of seeing your family again will be gone.'

I quickly stopped doing what I had been trying. I wanted to try and move my toes with only my mana-control but instead I had felt a burning sensation in my ankles as the mana was too large to make it through the ever smaller growing channels to the feet.

'Here take this.'

My master handed me a needle.

'What do I do with this?' I asked.

'Your first assignment is to cast mana through the eye of the needle.' she calmly answered.

As I was holding the needle in my hand I went through the standard procedures of making an entry and dissolving point for the mana-arrow. I hadn't done this very often though. I then shrunk both points and shot a miniscule mana-arrow towards the needle but right before it went through it diverted its trajectory and hit the needle instead shocking my hand in the process.

'OUCH!' I said

'This is impossible! The metal needle attracts my mana.'

'Indeed it does.' she answered. Her calmness was slowly starting to get on my nerves.

'Here let me show you how it is done.'

She then took another needle from her pouch and held the eye of the needle up so that I could see.

She then followed through the standard procedures except for one difference. The dissolving point was a large black orb where all mana flowed to.

'What is that?' I asked as I pointed to the black orb.

'That is anti-mana, it draws in mana just like the needle does. Once it is strong enough it will overpower the conductivity of the needle.'

Shortly after the explanation the dark orb shrank as a tiny mana-arrow went right through the eye of the needle without hitting the rim.

I was fascinated and started trying the same with my needle immediately.

I created a giant black orb to the left of the needle. My teacher froze and looked at it with a fear-stricken facial expression which I didn't see as I was focusing on making a tiny mana-arrow to fit through the eye of the needle.

Then I condensed the anti-mana and made the tiny mana-arrow spin like I had seen my brother do once. It increased accuracy is what he had told me.

Then in one straight line the mana-arrow shot right through the eye of the needle giving off a bright white flash while it did and both the arrow and the anti-mana orb dissipated upon contact.

I was breathing heavily. I wasn't accustomed to using so much mana at the same time but it did make me feel empowered. Soon I wouldn't have to constantly depend on others for my safety. Maybe one day I could also provide safety to others as others had done for me.

Soon I would see my family again. As soon as I mastered these dark arts and flee from this wretched place which I can only call by one name. Hell.

Lava flowed in the caverns below leading it to the river of lava at the bottom of the crevice. From it gasses flowed freely throughout the crevice or earths but-crack as the dark elves liked to call it.

All around us were circular holes made into the walls in which there were innumerable dark elves all sitting in the exact same posture as my master. All extremely muscular after having trained the corporeal mana or 'qi' as they call it.

It seemed as though they had trained it for centuries without rest. There was one odd one though. A single kid who was flying through the center of the cave. He had no bulging muscle mass. He seemed like an ordinary boy as he went from dark elf to dark elf giving them encouragement as he smiled a bright smile to each and every one of them. He seemed very much out of place.

Obviously my curiosity was nearly killing me but I refrained from asking my master about him as I needed to train my skills first. Maybe I would be able to fly like that too one day.