Torment Forest (1)

( After a few weeks.)

As Martin journeys around the forest, he asks Veliona about the realm of Tartarus while he walks through the vines of the forest, asking her if there is a way out from this realm since he only sees a long endless road in the forest with no way to go outside.

Hearing that, Veliona answers him by telling him that there is an end to this forest but it is still very far away, guarded by the Demonic Beasts that belong to another Deviant sealed here in Tartarus, one of her rivals.

" And ... that's why before we start our journey, I decided to train you in the ways of our kind since you're now are my essential Demonic Beast familiar," she tells him while explaining to Martin thoroughly about the Deviant that they're going to face.

" The Deviant that we're gonna face is the Torturer Swamp, Shrike. "

" One of the Deviants that I used to fight thanks to our mischievous rivalry over dominion in the Deviant ranks back then. "

" This Deviant has the ability to control both the Ground and the Plants since this Deviant is the Master of those subjects. " Veliona explains to Martin as the two went on while having to fight many plant monsters that exist within the forest.

" Oh damn ... it almost got me !!!! " Martin says as he fights the flower monster in front of him.

[ Name: Abyssal Flower ]

[ Race: Demonic Monsters ]

[ Status: Familiar ]

[ Rank: 4th-Class Monster ]

"( A 4th Rank huh ...? )" Veliona says while she sees Martin do his job continuously as he fights the monster with his pure hand-to-hand combat abilities that can easily block the monster's menacing offense.

"( Not bad ... but still .... )" Veliona says inside the Mind Plane using her mind while seeing Martin use his newfound technique.

[ Deviant Arts: Flow ]

As Martin punches the monster, Veliona's power flows through Martin's hand as it heavily releases its damaging energy towards the enemy creating extra massive damage similar to a wind explosion.

Thanks to that newfound fighting technique, Martin then continues his journey by defeating other mini-monsters that stand in front of him by defeating them one by one in order to reduce the enemies' number while training himself in every fighting stance he knows.

" Take this and take that !!!!!!! " he says while fighting the monsters while Veliona sits in the mind plane looking at him as a foolish battle brute who lacks the thing to defeat a monster which is.

" That kid lacks the creativity on using the skills he learned from me a recent hours ago huh ...? " Veliona asks to herself as she remembers that she already teach Martin some of her fighting abilities to increase his chance of winning.

" I guess that kid is not really talented in Magic at all huh ...?? " she tells herself while remembering their conversation weeks ago.

( Three weeks ago. )

" Magic ... what is that? ... some sort of a Martial Arts technique? " Martin asks Veliona which makes her so surprised.

" Really ? ? ? ? ? " she asks him while adding the question if he really didn't know what Magic is and where did they come from as she explains to him about the Mana, the substance of the universe itself a derivative substance of cosmic energy and all those other common knowledge only to hear Martin telling her.

" Nahh ... never heard of those.... !!!! "

" Especially when you say that this kind of power is used lately hundred years ago by humans which makes it obvious that it is now forgotten. " Martin answers her calmly.

At that moment, Veliona glares at him while thinking to herself about it as she wonders how can the humans now forget about magic since from what she knows back then, humans are the best Mana-user from any other species.

But then, her wondering is suddenly being answered by Martin as he reveals that the Diviners (the esteemed gods) never even tell this in their history on every other relic or history lesson that exists.

"( I see ... )" she talks to herself.

"( It seems that those greedy bird-brains (Diviners) are really that power-hungry after all ...!!!! )" Veliona says to herself

After hearing that explanation, Veliona decides to tell Martin about the Diviners as she explains that the Diviners may be manipulating him into believing that humanity only can have the power by the will of the Diviners only, no matter the cost but she decided to do that in a more manipulative way.

"( ..... so that's why the humans' Mana Gathering ability has become useless and dull.)"

"( So it was thanks to them huh !!!!! " )" she says while thinking to herself as she explains the thing about Mana first both what it is and its origin.

" A natural energy that exists in the world huh? " Martin asks as he heard that explanation.

" Sounds a little bit weird for me ...? " Martin says as he finds it hilarious for the 'nature' itself has its own energy and power of some sort despite being just an 'environment' only.

" What does it even do anyway? " Martin asks while Veliona explains that a Mana is a nature Energy that has the ability to empower a being with miraculous powers even beyond any mortal's understandings.

This energy is the source of every being's natural Superpowers back then until finally .....

the Diviners decided to do genetic modification (giving some genetic blessing) towards every mortal in order to prevent the future mortals to absorb Mana again as they monopolize it.

Hearing that, Martin then says wow as he tells Veliona about what an amazing story that is as he tells her that it seems the Diviners may have a point on disabling them from the Mana of Nature by giving them Metagene powers, a power that is more useful since it can be used freely by the humans (mortals) thanks to their genetic core, unlike Magic that needs to do some 'Mana absorbing' bullshit first.

" I mean really Veliona, ... this is the 21st century, the era of advancement and effectiveness ... "

" Why would the humans need to learn some ancient ability that can only be used for battle only? ... plus !!!! " Martin says as he says his opinion about magic.

" I think magic is a such mischievous power that humanity will always despise ... "

" Since from what you tell me, I can only conclude that magic is an ability to always cause more harm to people and always comes with many fatal consequences. " Martin says to Veliona back then.

( Back to the present.)

Martin in the present has already beaten many of the 4th Rank monsters in this forest as he used his physical type magic that was taught by Veliona since Martin says that he only liked those abilities since he found it kinda cool.

While he does that, Veliona inside him can only see him from the Mind Plane as she thinks of him as an ignorant child, thinking of him as a stupid person who refuses to learn while she is happy to teach him some of her abilities.

" Guess I have to wait until he really needs to learn it ... " she says as she decided to wait for Martin's decision or desire in the future rather than concocting him now while he himself is unwilling to learn.