A couple of days before Michael arrived in Kingsbridge City to have his Talent Awakening…
—
Under the bridge crossing the River Dames, there were a couple of kids playing around and scavenging waste from the water.
Some of them even swam in the shallow parts of the river.
They cared not for the potential dangers or diseases that they could contract by swimming or even drinking the infected water of River Dames. They didn't know better.
"Haha! I dare you to swim across!" said one boy.
"If you can swim to the bottom, then I'll swim across," answered another boy.
And as these rowdy boys played around, they didn't notice the presence of a creature peeking its head out of the water.
'Humans…play…fun…me too,' it muttered, but the children could hear nothing but a gurgle of unintelligible sounds.
"What's that sound?" one of them asked, whipping his head around the river.
"Don't tell me you're afraid of that fake story."
"I heard that it's true. My neighbor said that he saw the monster at night!"
"Bahhh! What a load of bollocks!"
But even if their parents warned them about going off on their own in the River Dames, they still went anyway. They didn't have any sense of self-preservation. If they had, they wouldn't even be near the River Dames in the first place.
'Play…me too…'
The creature slowly walked towards the children, its intent being nothing but pure. It just wanted to experience joy the way they were feeling right now.
Of course, the creature knew that it was different from them. No matter how much it wanted to interact with them, it could only watch them from afar, never being able to approach them because of its appearance.
But then, one of the kids scraped his knee playing too hard in the river.
"Ow!"
The creature saw microscopic bacteria and viruses floating around the river, slowly making their way toward the injured child who was none the wiser.
'Human…danger…ill…'
It knew instinctively that the child was in danger. Even with an open injury, the kid was still frolicking in the river, letting dirty water contaminate the wound.
It had to do something.
Its body started to glow a green light. Its innate magic allowed it to consume all the waste in the water, which helped sustain the creature, as well as purify the dirty water around the children.
"KIDS! WATCH OUT!"
However, one concerned citizen saw the green, glowing creature in the water slowly making its way towards the children.
As soon as the kids turned to see where the man was pointing, they were horrified to see the horrific appearance of the monster in the river.
Panic spread through the children. They rushed away from the River Dames as fast as possible, trudging through the wastewater causing them to slip.
"Save me! Save me!"
"KYAAA!"
"AHH! Monster! A monster's trying to eat me!"
All the commotion from the children garnered the attention of all the people crossing the bridge. They looked down at the river and saw the dangerous creature slowly making its way towards the innocent children.
"Someone save them!"
"Get the kids out!"
"Back off, you monster!" one of the men took out a knife from his pocket and threw it at the monster, grazing its head.
Seeing this, the rest of the people started to throw things off the bridge to try and ward off the monster that was trying to 'eat' the kids.
But even when the creature's head was being bashed by rocks and pitchforks, it kept moving towards the children.
After all, the injured kid was still in the water. Viruses and bacteria would contaminate the boy's wound and kill him in the process if the creature left now. The child would get overwhelmed by disease.
Finally, the boy found solid footing and was able to leave the current of the river. But then, he noticed something. He looked down at the scrape in his knee, and found it to have magically healed! It was almost gone, with just a little bit of redness in the area.
The kid looked back at the river and saw the creature staring at him.
Then, the creature descended into the depths of the river, as if it was only waiting for him to be safe.
A few hours later, after the situation calmed down, no matter how much the boy protested, a witch hunt for the creature began.
They thought it was dangerous. They thought it was the reason why people were getting sick from the water.
They tried to exterminate the monster.
…
…
…
Back to the present…
Michael observed the River Dames and watched the waste float to the surface. It was disgusting, to say the least.
ChatJK2, can you create a spell that will block that horrid smell?
[Understood.]
[Synthesizing magic spell…]
[Complete!]
[Scent Cleanser]
— ★
— Air element
— This magic allows the user to repel unwanted scents away from their location.
"That's better," Michael said as he took a big sniff, smelling nothing but fresh air.
Now, I just need to find that creature…
With his Supreme Skill: Mana Gathering, Michael could see and sense any mana in his surroundings. If there was a creature in this river, then he would sense the mana in its body.
His eyes scanned the river until he saw a clump of Poison mana in the river. Strangely enough, it wasn't hiding at the bottom. It was away from the river, towards the buildings on its side.
It looks like the creature found a lair for itself…
Without hesitating any longer, Michael jumped feet-first into the river.
Before the dirty, contaminated water could splash toward his body, an invisible prismatic bubble appeared around Michael and protected him from being wet.
He submerged underwater, with a 1-meter sphere of protection around him.
Once inside the river, Michael could see nothing but darkness around him. He had to cast a simple 1-star spell called [Flashlight] to illuminate the water using the ball of light at the tip of his finger.
He scanned his surroundings, ignoring all the garbage and waste in the water, until he finally found a hole by the side of the river. Thankfully, it was just big enough for him to squeeze through.
Michael entered the small burrow hole, following the tunnel until he found himself in a large dark cavern.
He emerged from the water and entered the creature's lair.
Just then, somewhere inside the underground chamber, the creature awoke from its slumber and felt a disturbance.
Unlike its original appearance, the creature was full of cuts and scabs. Plenty of humans have already tried and failed to kill the creature.
It thought Michael was another one of them.
But this time, the creature wasn't going to run away. No more. It was going to fight back.