The energetic air vibrated with tension, and lightning-like Qi discharges repeatedly set fire to individual treetops of the surrounding trees, which towered high into the sky.

  A bright, shining silver line separated the ground of the Inner Academy's Beast Garden from the sky, and slowly, like the first, lazy blink of an eye after a night of heavy drinking, the crack in the magical structure opened to reveal the path to the ruins of the dragonlords.

  The power pulsing from the rift caused even the clan's strongest magical beasts to hide in their dens, caves, and nests.

  "Once the portal is fully open, we can keep it stable for about two months." Cayden had begun to explain to a young man clad in a black and purple robe, and the two watched as the heads of the various departments of the Inner Academy, along with several tall, powerful apemen, began to combine their forces, "Unfortunately, you can never tell where the portal will lead you, because once you step through it, you are teleported to a random location near the ruins."

  “Is there a map or a way to contact the others?” Kilian asked, frowning.

  "No, there isn't, because the structure of the ruins is constantly changing. They consist of different areas, and the further you go inside, the more the Qi and structure of time change!" The weapons master described his own experience, "I reached the second level in my youth, and there, one day, in the outside world was about two weeks in the ruins. This means that the deeper you travel into the ruins of the dragonlords, the more time you have to train. Your body will change, but don't worry! Even simple Qi-Gatherers can retain their youth for dozens of years!"

  “So, after I reach the dragonlords’ library and start my trip back home, I’ll be years older by the time I finally leave the ruins?” The young Qi-Gatherer asked incredulously, fascinated by the concept of two places with a different flow of time.

  “Hopefully years stronger too!” Cayden replied with a curt nod, and his subsequent words were drowned out by a loud bang accompanied by an unstoppable discharge of Qi that numbed all senses.

  Several seconds passed before Kilian could see something again.

  He stared, as if spellbound, into the gigantic, rainbow-colored pupil of a reptile, in whose sclera countless different landscapes were dimly arranged.

  “The portal is open!” The voice of an unknown apeman sounded muffled in Kilian's still numb ears, “The expedition can begin! Glory to the clan!”

  As if on cue, a small group of five young apemen jumped down from a large, jet-black, feathered bird that was flying through the air with a proud croak and landed next to the human who was still rubbing both his ears.

  “Brother Kilian! After this mission, there will be a rematch!” Laughed Brother Li, patting his new companion on the shoulder, “A draw is a disgrace for a warrior! You are the first one I have failed to defeat!”

  “I agree!” The other Qi-Gatherer grinned back victoriously, “When this little excursion is over, we’ll see who’s the stronger one of us two!”

  “Get ready! Here we go!” Grumbled Master Arto, who was busy ramming dozens of metal rods into the ground around the portal and attaching brightly shining Qi-stones, more than twice the size of the ones Kilian had used in his training, to the top of them, “The passage is now stable… Good luck to you all! You'll need it…”

  Together, the six young people, followed by dozens of Qi-Gatherers from the small circle, took the first step somewhat hesitantly, but with growing courage in their eyes, toward the majestic eye hovering in the air.

  Each of them swallowed loudly once more, and shortly afterwards, the group disappeared, with shaky knees, behind the rainbow-colored pupil.

  "I hope they all come back..." Cayden murmured with a sad gleam in his eyes, thinking of everything he had gained and lost ten years ago, a tear falling unseen to the floor, "Deidre... I miss you!"

  As soon as Kilian's foot even lightly touched the portal, he was immediately pulled in and swallowed by an invisible force.

  His body felt formless, weightless, and without his five senses perceiving anything, he was moving inexorably towards an undefined destination, while his stomach turned.

  He felt like he was suffocating, like he was swimming through the depths of the ocean, and yet there was nothing around him.

  Nothing he could see, hear, smell, touch, or taste.

  Only the feeling of constantly changing Qi, pressed into the most diverse, unimaginable shapes and stretched out again.

  “Even the transformations of Professor Irwin's beard are nothing compared to these Qi currents!” The shapeless boy thought, trying to smile, but he couldn't determine where the corners of his mouth started and where they ended.

  Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

  An uncertain time later, Kilian didn't know whether only seconds or decades had passed; he lay breathing heavily on a wet, swampy ground and slowly began to smell something again.

  The smell of mustiness and decay.

  Instinctively, following the sense of danger, he threw his body awkwardly to the side.

  The movement felt unnatural after traveling through the portal, as if he were inside a stranger, and he slowly forced his dull eyes to open.

  It took a few seconds for Kilian's mind to process the unfamiliar impression of seeing again, and a few more to realize that he was looking into the deep throat of a snake about three meters long.

  From one of the two long teeth of the beast's upper jaw, a corrosive, viscous poison dripped down with a soft hiss at the feet of the now foolish-looking young warrior.

  The magical beast's jaws snapped shut again and only struck a pile of stinking mud, as the young warrior, now half awake, deliberately dodged this time.

  He stuck his right index finger, adorned with the tip of a quill, into one of his slung metallic ink bottles and prepared for battle.

  Half-sinking in the swamp, he wrote a word in the air and, as if out of nowhere, the next moment he stood on a solid slab of rock and the snake's teeth were digging into a stony shield.

  “The Qi concentration here is exceptionally dense…” Kilian thought feverishly and began to plan his next step.

  Just as he was about to apply the next ink, he noticed that his perception of energy had changed somewhat since traveling through the portal and murmured, "Qi is changeable, just as my body has been pressed into all sorts of shapes! Perhaps I can influence how the energy flows through my enchantments?"

  Again, his finger began to write in the air, only this time, instead of a shield forming, a pile of sharp spikes grew out of the ground at a breathtaking speed and impaled the snake, which was now writhing in pain.

  After his opponent's final, brief twitch, Kilian groaned exhausted, "This kind of enchantment makes me significantly more flexible, but it also consumes a hell of a lot of Qi! But used correctly, it could save my life!"

  The Qi-Gatherer, covered from head to toe in mud and blood, trotted carefully through the damp ground and a few moments later reached the lifeless body of the snake.

  His magic ring glowed brightly, and a small but sharp knife appeared in his hand, with which he wanted to cut the gigantic body into pieces ready for frying.

  Before doing so, he drained a few liters of blood to ensure he always had enough materials for some new magical ink and then skinned the gigantic reptile.

  “Enough work, now it’s time to eat!” he laughed, his stomach growling and his mouth already drooling from thinking about the soon-to-be grilled snake meat.

  He found one of the few relatively dry spots in the area, took some logs from his magic ring, and lit a small fire.

  With every bite of the Qi-charged meat, his depleted reserves were replenished.

  “I've never eaten anything so nourishing!” He exulted, full of renewed strength, as the energy from his stomach migrated into his channels, and then a small portion of it pulsed through his veins along with his blood: “The meat is so rich in Qi that just eating it makes you stronger! It must be because the beasts here breathe Qi-filled air every second of the day!”

  After Kilian's belly had already bulged outwards quite a bit, he grilled the remaining few pieces of meat and stored them in his magical ring.

  "These swamps must belong to the outer area of the ruins!" He muttered, jumping onto one of the few trees growing out of the mud, and climbed up to get an overview of his surroundings, "What treasures can I find further into the center? To the north, I see some mountains... That's probably where I'm most likely to find a dragon's hoard!"

  With his next goal in mind, he cleaned his robe with a water enchantment, quickly dried it over the fire, and set out to cross the swamp before the smell of fragrant meat could attract even stronger magical beasts.

  On his journey, he encountered many different species of frogs and snakes, but nothing that could truly threaten his life.

  On the contrary, he felt like a hunter on the prowl, filling his magical ring with vast amounts of Qi-rich meat.

  Hours later, just as the long tongue of a giant toad hidden in the mud tried to entangle Kilian, who had killed a crocodile with a mighty blow of his staff a second ago, an arrow shot out from the shadow of a bush that was already growing beyond the shoreline, on dry ground outside the swamp, and nailed the lurking magical beast to a half-rotten tree trunk.

  “Judging by your clothing, you must belong to the Kong Clan!” Laughed an angelic voice, and a beautiful girl of about fourteen, her face framed by smooth golden hair, stepped out of the shadows into the light.

  Two small spikes protruded from the side of her head, revealing her origins.

  “An elf!” Thought Kilian as he twisted his body and brought the massive staff of shadow steel down on the attacking beast.

  Upon closer inspection, he added in his head: “An exceptionally beautiful elf!”

  “My name is Kilian, and I come from the Inner Academy of the Kong Clan.” He said with an elegant bow, while the weapon disappeared with a brief flash of his ring finger, “I am looking forward to working with the noble elves from the deep forests of Terrapin.”

  "I'm Lilja." Giggled the elf, her snow-white, small hand covering her mouth while a wooden bow lay in the other, and asked with a slightly tilted head, "Since we're in an alliance, we could continue the journey together if you'd like! I could use your help for a small problem if you have some time to spare."

  "Gladly." Replied the young warrior, adding, "Do you have any information about the area? I've spotted a mountain range in the distance and am trying to make my way there."

  “That was my goal too, but on the way there, I discovered a small group of three orc warriors, and I had to retreat.” Lilja began to share her scouted information with her new ally, her playful smile turning into a bloodthirsty one: “But luckily, now I’ve found someone with whom I can slay these beasts together!”

  About two hours later, two hunters, hidden behind the veil of an illusory formation created by Lilja, lurked on a cliff, observing three heavily armored orcs.

  "The middle one is in the small circle, and the vanguard and rearguard are Qi-Gatherers of the middle circle!” Whispered Lilja, watching her prey's every move, "The two outer ones seem to be protecting the other one. Besides, he's wearing a badge of the Khan; he could be one of his descendants! We have to kill him!"

  "His armor radiates different types of Qi. It has at least four kinds of enchantments on it. He's well protected!" Kilian replied, forming a battle plan in his head, "In my opinion, we should first take the two stronger Qi-Gatherers in a surprise attack and then take care of the other one in peace! Perhaps he also has valuable information."