Partial or whole chapters in [Alpha Draft] 

The Way Forward

The way forward was not an arduous one. In fact, it was quite pleasant if you discount the usual danger. The black market was his place full of his kind of people not the captain righteous type like Ross. Lent took in a deep breath taking it all in. The black market was a place where one could find virtually anything that was regulated and or illegal. The place was also not just a place but more of a when then were. Only the well-connected, and the powerful knew when and where the gates would be. A good example would be Sturbin. He had connections with King who, at the time was the human you went to for anything beast or monster.

Sturbin was more of the track and find guy but also took the time to make sure that the black-market circuit for poachers was profiting and collect the money for his second. Since Rayna took over, his job was more or less the same with some minor differences. He had the side job of finding and purchasing slaves that could operate in various capacities for the bitch.

This caused Lent some pause. His doppelganger senses tingled as a frightening thought ricocheted through his conniving brain. What if This persona was compromised? Would it be more or less dangerous to stop by the slave pens? He really needed a new persona that was very inconspicuous and slaves fit the bill. They were innocuous and more often than not looked over, because they are nobodies who would forever be nobodies destined to die in obscurity. Then there’s the second and almost equally important reason, which is their flavor. All that despair made them delicious, but that still did not help in determining if following Sturbin’s routine was going to be a problem or not.

In the end he decided to make the stop. Only, instead of hitting the slaves last, he’d hit them first and use it as a testing ground. It didn’t have to be a loss, and with a different perspective could be considered a win. On the one hand, if his persona was in fact compromised, he could always purchase the monster and store his snacks in his bag of holding for later. He wouldn’t be attacked until he left. This gave him enough time to deal with the issue. Murder wasn’t allowed, but capture most certainly is and he most certainly would be quite the prize. It was quite the gamble. On the other hand, nothing happens and it would be like he was never there.

Cutting into an ally, he jumped into a shadow while no one was looking and jumped through the shadows as an additional precaution. This would throw off any possible attempts at tracking Lent and force the best results. He passed into the slave circuit using a hidden entry and made his way to a shadow in the mouth of an ally adjacent to the usual slave market. Sturbin had a thing for half beast kin and imagined that this would be common knowledge. Using his mana intensive shadow travel, he jumped a distance away to give the illusions of having walked there.

It wasn’t like Lent just looked to and travelled to another shadow. He stayed for a length of time equal to the time it took to walk to the point where he would start his walk. As he was about to step out, he decided to take the form of Mr. Yates, but decided against it. He had started as Sturbin and would end as Sturbin. After all, his death brought him much joy, but more importantly, continuity was the key to such a good lie. More to the point, he knew from observing the crowd that at least three of them were there to catch him and not Sturbin, which meant he was now going to have to kill these three without being detected by the magic that governs this place, but he had an idea, an idea that would be very risky, because it entail him killing three individuals looking to capture him.

As he got closer, Lent continued his stroll to the slave market as if he didn’t have a care in the world, which was very far from the truth. In fact, he was as on edge and alert as a being could get. He knew the cruelty of King, and knew based on Sturbin’s memories that Rayna was not all that different, but if he didn’t sell this, then he would not get that sand worm and he would not get the information he needed to find any trace of this mythical dungeon. He almost drooled at the idea of his plan. As he neared the counter, the three made there move.

As they converged on him, they made to grab him, but instead of getting their hands on him, they instead got air. Grabbing Lent was grabbing smoke. As planned, Lent Made for the ally where shadows were abundant. As he dove into the closest one, his Shadow Stalker ability kicked in. It was the lightest of the shadows and would have worked, but if he was going to make his plan work, he need to lure them into the darker areas. Lent vanishing now would only lead to them being cautious.

It was a good plan. It was going great. It just had one problem. As he stepped into the darkest shadow to vanish, and he turned and unhooked his bag of holding, he saw one of them holding a blow dart gun to his lips. Lent felt the stinging of the dart as it impacted his neck. His sight was starting to get slightly fuzzy, and it was then that he understood that he had been poisoned. Acting fast he shadow traveled to the shadow of two of his per5suers who had stopped to look around, dumbfounded that their target had vanished. “Where did he go?” asked one of Lent’s ambushers. “I do not-”, but the other was cut off as Lent bought the bag of holding over his head and down to his feet.

Not waiting for the other to get his wits about their situation, he brought the bag down and over the others head. It was then that his vision become even worse. Lent even felt a little lethargic. His species of monster could take quite a bit of poison before going down. It had nothing to do with resistance. He had no resistance to poison. It was in fact due to the excessive amount of biomass that gave doppelgangers their abnormal tolerance, and the fact that this poison worked as quick as it did only confirm that they knew what he was.

He felt another stinging sensation on his arm. And did not look to see what it was. He didn’t have to. The same human that hit him before was pulling the dart gun away from his lips with a smirk on his face. That fucker knew he had guessed right and Lent knew it. The game was over if Lent didn’t do something fast. He was going to down soon. The only thing that saved the doppelganger was the fact that there were shadows every ware. Lent knew he still had plenty of mana and that shadow traveling would buy him at least half a second reprieve from the toxin. He knew this from his brief experience in this encounter. Shadow jumping to the shadow in front of his last ambusher, he brought the down over the human women’s head as his legs gave out beneath lent and he lost consciousness.
***
The royal procession continued its onward march to the capital. The woman they brought back was saddled on a horse and her wheelchair attached to the back of the transport. Every so often she would try to look into the magic vehicle in some vein attempt to see who was in it, but the curiosity wasn’t one sided. Dan and Ross were also trying to do the same. They caught snippets of the conversation as various guards got within earshot and what they heard were rumors and speculation. One of them was convinced she had to be nobility to have owned a transport like the one they were in. Another was she was a wealthy merchant which was why she was attacked.

It was plausible. This had been the only transport he and Dan had ever seen. Most people traveled on Lizzorse, and wagon or walked. There was one thing they all agreed on and that was she was attacked by bandits. Her people fought to the last man to keep her safe and even had help from their escorts, which they were positive would have unseen consequences. While neither of them knew enough about this world’s geopolitical situation or its workings, the two did know one thing. She was trouble. The coldness in her eyes when she was being friendly, how she analyzed everyone and everything, and then there were the odd things unseen by the others that only Dan and Ross could sense.

Every time Dan looked at her, all he saw was a bright sphere that encircled her with an outline of the woman within. In his experience with Mana Sight, he knew she was buried in layers of enchantments, which would easily explain how she survived, but why the major and minor illusions? For Ross, it was his Retributive Sense. He could feel the familiar and overpowering sensation he got when he was in the presence of someone who caused another being great and multiple wrongs. Yet the voices judging the source of that wrongness was not yelling out their misdeeds and trying to compel him to enact retribution. It made him question his class abilities. Ross had brought his concern to Danny, but his friend reasoned that it had to be one of the many enchantments protecting her.

Danny tried looking at her again, but it was like looking at the sun. As soon as he looked at her, his eyes were closed again. True, he didn’t have to gaze at magic for a period of time, but he still needed to look at it for at least a second or two. As soon as his eyes were opened, he heard Ross ask very concerned, “Dan, you alright? Your eyes are bloodshot.” He not ok. And Ross was right to be concerned. His eyes were most certainly open, but he could not see anything. “I’M blind Ross. She’s too bright. It’s like looking at the sun.” He began to rub at his eyes. Despite his panic, he found it interesting. Unlike before when he had normal sight. Something like this would cause him to see a big bright spot of lingering color for a while, but this was different. It was like his magical sight functioned on a fundamentally different level, and his sensitivity was adversely affected by multiple layers of magic. In short, his retinas weren’t the only thing that enabled his sight and there were other ways for him to damage his sight.

Danny felt Ross grab his hand and gently pulled it away from his face. “Just stop before you rub your face raw.” He complied. He knew it wouldn’t help, but the action brought a brief sense of calm to him, because it gave Dan a sense that he could somehow help himself if he did it, even if it was an action of futility. Dan felt Ross cover his eyes with a hand. Then, healing energy flowed into them and his sight returned to normal. He blinked a few times. “Besides blinding yourself, what did you see?” Frowning at his friend, Danny thought about it for a moment. “I’M only getting minor and Major illusion. How many other enchantments let alone what they are I can’t say for sure. I’d need more look time.” Ross looked as if he was contemplating something. “Your class is mana beast. Can’t you just… I don’t know. Dispel it?”

Dan looked at him hard and opened his mouth to not only explain how impossible that was, but how stupid he sounded, when he realized how narrow minded, he was being. “I don’t know.” he said. He looked at his class abilities. Specifically, he read through his Mana manipulation.

Mana Manipulation – (Passive)

You may manipulate the mana within your domain to enhance or alter the affect. Effecting an enemies Spell requires X to be Hire then the opposing spell resistance were X=INT+WIS. Level 6: Attribution: You have become intimately aware of how mana works. In addition, you may alter the mana within your domain with one of the following attributes by a number of times equal to X where X= class lvl ÷ 2 rounded down. Elements- Mana attribute changes to that of 1 of 6 elements (Fire, Air, Water, earth, metal, mind, spirit) Temporal- Mana based effects have a 15% chance to inflict stasis, or Temporal awareness. Dependent on the caster. Gravity- Mana based effects have a 25% chance to increase a creature’s personal gravity by X or the gravity in an area by X where X= class lvl ÷ 2 rounded down. Dependent on the caster. Level 9: Spell Transmution: You are able to manipulate magic on an advanced level. Level 10: Primal King of Mana: You are able to manipulate all mana-based and primal-based magic. It bends to your will. All mana-based and primal-based magic and magic like abilities within your domain may be manipulated by you a number of times equal to your class lvl + WIS ÷ 2 rounded down. If the magic or spell like ability was cast by another, success is determined by a contest of spell resistance

His eyes fell on Spell Transmution and Pimal King of Mana. He was able to manipulate magic on an advanced level and bend it to be other things, but he couldn’t dispel it. That’s when his knowledge skill kicked off and some interesting magical knowledge flooded his mind. An idea began to form, but it was not going to be pretty if he messed it up. “I know that grin, Dan. What did you figure out?” Not wanting to hold Ross in suspense he told him what he figured out.
***
Gulhigha’s realm was a dimensional reality that lay outside creation as part of the great cycle. It was dark and full of countless disintegrating worlds that lay barren of all their oceans, vegetation, and all their life. The life that did remain in these decaying realities were nothing more than cruel mockeries of the real thing, but it mattered not to Gulhigha. For, these fleeting shadows belonged to him to do with as he saw fit for as long as they were there. He could even make duplicates of those realities and all that lay within. Even with all that, he wasn’t happy.

It wasn’t often that he was bested, and when it did happen, it was infuriating. He was unable to finish conquering this reality. The rules worked against him. It didn’t make any sense. He seethed on his dark and misty throne. It wailed with the many mouths of the twisted and damned, their song of misery a source of praise and joy, and yet, not even that gave him any amusement. He thought back to that final battle between him, Julius, and the high dragon and his minions. His forces had been limited to the convergence; the last world conquered in the last reality he had taken. “That makes no sense.” he shouted.

The Outer Plaines quaked in response to his outrage. And then he got up and started pacing. His pacing turned into a short walk out of his throne room and to a room where he kept the remnants of his general. Gulhigha staired hard at the twisted being. He couldn’t decide if what he had postulated was in fact true, bhut it was hard for Gulhigha to accept. He placed a hand on the tube of corruption that contained Julius’ remains. It was not in any sense of longing to speak with or missing the outer being. In truth, he hated Julius. He was right when Gulhigha was often wrong. He lacked the outrageous pride that so many outer beings held, and it was this fact that he begrudgingly had to admit was why he needed Julius, even now.

There were two things that happened during the final conquest of Craylon that rumbled around the mind of the eons old being that bothered him. The first was what Julious had said before the Convergence fell, and the second was something that Karber had said during the battle that would ultimately determine the outcome of the invasion. A small tendril of corruption extended from the spot where Gulhigha placed his hand on the corruption field. It snaked out to Julius and effortlessly connected to Julius’ fading consciousness. “What was it you told me the day the Convergence fell?”

Standing in the mindscape of his dead general, Gulhigha sent forth a pulse of his corrupting aura with an intent to summon what was left of Julius’ consciousness. It was instant. A silhouette made of void so black that his being looked to have been standing in a tear of missing reality. “My lord. I have failed you.” it said before dropping to his knees in respect. Gulhigha took a small measure of pleasure at this show of fealty, but let it go. He was here for a reason. “I need answers, Julius.” Julius kept his head lowered. “My Lord?” Gulhigha saw a smile creep its way onto Julius’ lips. It annoyed him and tried to torture his dead general with no effect. Julius laughed. “I slip away from you even now, and you are powerless to stop it.” Gulhigha screamed in defiance and with all might griped the fleeting soul.
     
This caused Julius to laugh and stand up. Gulhigha felt an   overwhelming power loosen his grip and even held the soul in place on its own, which added to his confusion. What confused him more was how his ex-general’s fading soul was changing. Julius smiled. “It seems I have no choice.” This confused the outer being even more. What is going on? Julius continued, “I postulated that the planet was alive, and that was why you could not operate the way you wanted to, and now it seems our contract is over.” Now it all made sense. It wasn’t just the revelation that he was wrong about the rules, but also what was happening to Julius. Many eons ago he made a bargain with what felt like the cycle itself, and now his bargain to retain Julius was at an end. The cycle was finally claiming his soul.

Gulhigha lost his composure. “Wait. I need more answers.”, but it was to late. Julius was gone. Regaining his composure, he exited the shell before it too vanished and he made a shadow of Julius. Once that was started, he walked back to the throne room. It would take time for the shadow to replicate the mind and personality of his dead general, but a shadow was better than losing a valuable asset. He sat back down and propped his head up by his left hand. “That explains that, but what did that troublesome dragon say?” He thought and thought. It was so out of place for Karber that it stood out, but it was so close to a boast that he paid it no mind.

Gulhigha let himself drown in the vast ocean that is his memories. He let himself became saturated by them until he regained a partial sense of direction and self. Gulhigha traversed the flows until he found the memory in question. He stood as a ghostly silhouette within the memory. His only obstacle was about to be vanquished. Julius was overwhelming them with twisted high dragons from the Convergence. The fight was almost concluded. He couldn’t blame them for their folly. It was the only smart play they could make, and when all hope seemed lost, the dam dragon blurted it out “Can’t you feel it, Julius? The flows of chaos run wild with entropy.” It was then that the impossible became possible. The flow of cosmic events shifted.

Gulhigha paused the memory and replayed it and watched the dragon very closely. Each time he witnessed the memory, he noticed something new. When he concluded that he could get nothing else from it, he played through the battle and when he felt like he could learn nothing more from the battle, he left for the waking world that is the layer surrounding his subconscious. What he took from it, rattled the great ruler of the outer plains. Karber was speaking of his own volition and yet, it was like he was being influenced by another. Something or someone wanted the dragon to say that to Julius. It was almost… No. It did know. It knew he was paying attention and it wanted him to hear it; to know. The question now was, what was he going to do now? It felt like his time in that reality wasn’t over. It was almost like he still had a chance to take one more piece of it, but again, what did it mean by “The flows of chaos run wild with entropy?”, and could he directly invade, but how?
*** 
Lent opened his eyes. He felt a pounding in his head that he hadn’t felt in a long time since he woke up in King’s dungeon. His mind was foggy and his ears felt waterlogged. He looked around in confusion and saw that he was holding a bag in his left hand. “A bag?” Upon seeing the item clutched in his hand, the confusion lessened, and the fog started to lift. As feeling made its way back into his limbs, he felt an aching build within his muscles.

For a lot of sapient creatures, coming off such a tranquilizer would have been met with intense cotton mouth, but that was not so for doppelgangers. Doppelgangers felt intense hunger pains, and woe is the unfortunate soul that wondered across said doppelganger. Luckily, Lent was hidden in a shadow, and lucky for everyone else, no one wondered into the ally. With his mind still under an ever-lightening fog, he heard what sounded like barley audible screams coming from his bag. He opened it up and reached in. “Oh, my gods I am so fucking hungry. This must be what Dan calls the munchies.”, but his thoughts as fogged up as they were, and his muscles hurting as bad as they did, did not stop Lent from stuffing his face.

Lent reached into the bag of holding and grabbed his last delightful morsel by the throat and pulled the bag away from its feet. By now his mind was cleared enough from the tranquilizers effects that he knew where he was and why he was here. Still, he couldn’t let this human go to waste in this ally and he couldn’t use Sturbin’s identity anymore. He looked at the dead yet fresh human. “Well, I guess you will have to do. After all, any one of you will suffice.” Lent’s true mouth opened and he slowly munched on his victim.

With his hunger sated, he assumed the form of his last snack. The persona went by the name Wilner Perkants. The man was hired some time ago to track down any black-Market deals that could be flipped by the Zoo for easy coin.  Wilner also had another objective and that was to keep a look out for and capture Lent. The man had almost given up until he saw Sturbin. Him and the other Three had thought they caught themselves a lucky break. It was only after they lost him that they gambled on Lent switching up Sturbin’s schedule and sent Jully to the beast pits just in case. “Lucky for me, anyway.” Lent said chuckling at the fact he avoided capture.

Lent hated that he couldn’t purchase the slave, but it would have been out of character for Wilner to do such a thing. After all, he just caught a doppelganger and was now off to get a meet Jully at the beast pit. He slung the capture bag over his shoulder and filled it with biomass. He was surprised to find out that Wilner wasn’t the only one here for the bounty. On his way to the beast pits, he ran into another of Rayna’s hunters who clapped him on the back. “You got him? No way.” The beast kin was annoyingly loud about it and it bothered Lent. Especially sense Wilner’s memory of the being didn’t assimilate properly.

Placing a hand over his mouth Lent said, “Would you keep it down.” He directed him around a corner and into an alleyway. “What? Its not like anyone can kill you here, Wilner” The beast kin said his name with emphasis as he jabbed out with a tiny razor like blade that was coated with a sickly blue substance. Lent being a doppelganger was used to betrayal. This meant he was always on guard for such cheap tactics as this one. The beast kin snarled as Lent had not only blocked the attack, but broke its wrist. He then dropped the biomass filled bag and caught the tiny blade with the bag of holding as the blade plunged into its void like opening. “You really should not have done that.” Lent said. The beast kin went to yell, but Lent crushed his throat and kneed him in the jewels, and for good measure stuffed the beast kin into his bag. Without saying a word, Lent hopped into a shadow.

It was good that the memories involving Juley were intact, because he still needed to get that sand worm. Wilner’s memories identified the human as unusually perceptive, which made sense considering they were trying to catch Lent. Unfortunately for him, Juley was involved with one of the others he ate, and that could complicate and make the last part more difficult, or easier depending on how he pursued this conversational hazard.

At first, she seemed happy to see him and her smile only grew when she saw the capture bag. Her smile faltered a bit as she noticed that Lent was alone. “Where is Gat and Phill?” He shrugged in an attempt to dodge the question the way Wilner would. Juley got right in his face and staired deep into his eyes. He coughed and backed away. “Fine. They decided to split up their efforts.” She backed off. In times like these it was easier to play off what you knew they know to re-enforce their beliefs. It sold lies easier than flat out lying.

Lent still needed her to go away. Killing as many as he had in his bag of holding was pushing the envelope with the security enchantments as it was, and he couldn’t just outright buy that worm with his current persona. He dug deep into Wilner’s memories. What would be a good lie that would get her to go away. Then found it. As he looked through memories that related to Wilner’s time here, he found a re-occurring memory of one of them meeting up with his current problem at a pub near one of the hidden entryways to gather information and… do other stuff. He mentally gagged. “Before Phill went to the Giggling Glass, he sent me here to take over for you and to tell you to meet him there.” It had worked. Lent’s lie had worked. He even received notifications that he and the diplomacy skill leveled by 1. Her eyes lit up and she left in a brisk walk. After she turned into an alleyway, he walked over to the man at the potions shop counter. “I hear your imports are fresh today.”

Go to a black market circuit that houses an illegal beast/monster market (The Beast Pits) for a sand worm, and bonding scroll as Wilner Perkants.

Dan uses mana domain and mana manipulation to alter the rings magic but because he does not know what the other eight are he tries to finesse it to the rings cancel each other’s out, but instead causes the magic to mismatch the engravings and they exploded causing Rayna to lose her fingers and part of her hands.