The Confused Explorer

In the circled room of the cave Mike and Turul sat in front of the waterfall on the moss with beautiful plants and mushrooms surrounding them as a somber and quiet atmosphere circled the room with Mikes thoughts on the knights of old, and why they were here protecting a pool of blue liquid that he was scanning, and it was proving it was worth scanning, since it had already taken 20 minutes already and it was still going to be a while.

With a look of hesitation Mike reached out his hand to almost touch the liquid in the small pool but ultimately pulled his hand back deciding to wait and see what the Log said.

Mike looked around the room one more time making sure he didn't miss anything, but what remained was still just the beautiful scenery of light blue flora along with a moss all over the floor that supported and added to the mystical and sorrowful aura.

Turning back his head to the waterfall, Mike closed his eyes waiting for the scanning to finish and in no mood to speak.

After about another hour of waiting along side Turul the scanning process finished and showed up on the 'Materials' tab as 'Elemental Star Light'

--Elemental Star Light: When an Elemental Star is born in deep recesses of its core a small amount of Elemental Star Light is born as a gas, and then slowly it is condensed into a liquid about 4-5 drops worth, This liquid is extremely dense and has a color orientation to its specific element, however that may vary as it can be a different color and be the same element. This liquid can allow a person to gain an affinity to the element of that specific liquid, it only takes 1 drop to become an adept user of the said element, however it is unknown if there is a limit to how much you can drink.

Environment: Elemental Star Core

Effects: Gives drinker an elemental affinity

Danger Level: None

Rarity: Epic

Looking at this liquid, this isn't what Mike expected, Mike didn't think it was going to be something like toxic waste, and it was an obvious sign this liquid was of deep origins since it was protected

by a kingdom for a reason, but he didn't think it was going to be this awesome!

Excited about hopefully gaining an elemental affinity and being able to use it, Mike scrambled over to the side of the pool, even closer than before, scooped a handful of the liquid and got a big swig of it. Then not stopping in his excitement Mike continued to drink as much of it as possible before he was stuffed to the brim of drinking.

Turul didn't step closer to the liquid, since for one he didn't know exactly what it did and two even if he did know, it wouldn't be of help to him, since he is a legendary creature no matter what material it was that tried to add too his body something, like an elemental affinity, it wouldn't work because his body was created to be stuffed to the brim with the genes and abilities of a legendary bird.

Sitting back down and breathing heavily Mike felt good, really good in fact, he felt really tired with a warm current spreading throughout him starting from his stomach and ending with his hands and feet making him yawn.

Mike slowly started to feel lethargic with what felt like a head and body full of lead. Dropping to the moss and plant covered ground Mike closed his eyes and slept with a satisfied expression.

Turul scared and shocked for a second sped over to Mike but quickly relaxed when he felt Mike actually getting stronger instead of dying, and so he laid beside Mike to allow him to rest.

✵

With a jolt Mike quickly opened his eyes to an all new scenery, instead of being in the cave of mystery, Mike was surrounded by a gray gas that spread everywhere he could see and seemed to be infinite. Mike couldn't even see his own hands when putting them up to his face.

Mike wished nothing more than for him to able to see himself and what was around him as he slowly checked his own body. Then, it happened, the gas quickly blew away from Mike to allow him to see himself and what was around him. What surrounded him was nothing, around Mike was just a floor and that was it.

The floor was made of some weird material that looked like smooth gray rock, and that was all there was.

Shocked and with a confused expression Mike wondered why the gas had moved away from him when he had wished to be able to see himself and his surroundings. Swiftly adapting Mike began to think of his situation and how he got here.

"I arrived in this strange place whenever I fell asleep, so maybe this has something to do with the element I gained?" Arriving at this conjunction Mike excitedly wondered what all of this meant.

"Does it follow my wishes whenever I want it to do something?" Looking around him some more Mike decided to test out his hypothesis.

"Swirl around me." When Mike uttered this in a soft voice after a while of contemplation the gray gas, without fault, slowly but surely started to swirl around Mike and sped up quickly before it looked like Mike was in the middle of a tornado, and looking up and down as far as he could see there was nothing but swirling gray gas that followed his wishes.

"Stop" Mike uttered another command and the gray gas abruptly stopped moving and remained as it did before, slowly moving about, like regular gas.

'What else could I do with this?' Thinking it over this stuff followed his commands, but what if he commanded it to become an object or another material?

"Turn into a golden carp" Immediately after Mike said that wanting to test to see if it'd work, a large section of gray gas came swirling about in front of Mike before quickly morphing and turning into an all too familiar golden fish.

This 'golden carp' started to flop around and had that same look in its eyes when Mike had the real one, a look of anxiousness, it also had the same exact length as the original one. Trying to pick it up it also had that slimy and slippery sensation.

Mike started to feel slightly drained from asking that.

"It seems like this gray gas is connected to my energy, and more strenuous a task I give it the more tired I feel." Doing his usual muttering and pulling himself together Mike quickly gave the gray gas more commands.

"Put me into the cave where I found the Elemental Star Liquid!" Saying this the Gray gas pushed and contracted like a heart brightening up and dimming then once again it swirled around him quickly blocking Mikes view of the surrounding. Closing his eyes out of reflex, Mike didn't open them until he started to hear the gentle sound of a waterfall.

Looking around, it was like he was back in the cave with no difference other than the fact that Turul wasn't around. Putting his hand onto the floor it felt exactly like moss, everything about this area was the same, from the sound, smell, touch, and anything else that could be of noticeable difference it looked exactly like he was back in the cave with no alterations on it.

After looking around and touching up on everything for a while, Mike almost falling over blacking out, had quickly realized that maybe he had put too much stress on his new found powers too quickly before he could get used to them. Stretching he laid back down and closed his eyes to sleep right away as the scenery around him writhed and breathed with his own breath, following his movements as he slept.

After sleeping for a few hours and awakening slowly, Mike looked at the scenery of a soft blue light slowly fill his eyes as he awoke and looked at the flora surrounding him. Looking about Mike still saw no Turul but the scene was the familiar cave that he was unable to tell the difference from reality.

"Am I still in the gray sea?" Coining a name for it Mike decided to see if he was still in the place.

"Decompose this area" echoing throughout the cave and rebounding back to Mike, the cave swiftly unraveled like silk then softly popped and turned back into the scene of gray that he saw when arriving.

"Take me back to reality!" Wanting to 'wake up' Mike hurriedly said that to the gray sea hoping it'd work, and like magic the area warped and bent into weird shapes before shattering making Mike feel the world loop and twist his senses before he was back in the cave staring at the plants and mushrooms that grew on the ceiling.

Looking around for the third time today at this scenery, Mike quickly spotted Turul who was right beside him, guarding him.

Reaching over to Turul, Mike smoothed out the furs on his neck and back slowly calming down from the endeavor that he just experienced.

As Turul cooed at him to continue, Mike thought of his new powers wondering what all they could do and just how much he could create with it or if he could affect reality with them.

Picking himself up Mike wiped off bits of glowing grass and moss from his ragged clothes and looked at the area with a new excitement on the thought of his new found powers.

With Turul beside him and his powers Mike felt a new swelling of confidence well up inside his heart that gave him some arrogance that nothing could stop them.

Walking to the door of sorts to the circle room, Mike felt an all new vigor of working on living and a whole lot more in this new life of his.

When Mike was on the cusp of leaving the mysterious room with Turul, the room started to vibrate heavily, Mike quickly looked at Turul accusingly, however when he looked over he saw Turul not paying a lick of attention to him, but instead Turul was staring back into the room with a serious light in his eyes.

Looking behind himself, Mike saw the statues vibrate and crack a little as small bits of rock and dust fell from them, then one took a step forward as two bright red lights escaped from its helmet where its eyes would be.

Right after the one to the right of the waterfall moved the one to the left quickly moved as well, they swiftly moved towards Turul who puffed up his feathers and released a deadly cry.

Frozen for almost a minute as the fight was about to start, Mike quickly moved to the corner closest to the doorway, not willing to leave Turul to fight alone. Mike pulled up The Explorers Log and moved over to 'Fauna' hoping to be able to scan the two rock knights and learn their weaknesses.

As a hazy light was cast over one of the two identical rock knights, Turul rocked towards the air quickly, though they were in a cave it was tall enough to easily fit these two rock knights so the roof was fairly high.

Not willing to give them the chance to attack, Turul pulled the earth around them to surround them

rupturing and ruining the caves beauty but stopping the two knights in there tracks.

These shackles did not last long though, with two piercing sounds the knights cleaved there way out of the rocks easily with their swords. One rushed towards the front of Turul while the other flanked him too his right both swinging their swords sharply towards Turul. Pulling himself down towards the ground with a flap of his wings, Turul dodged the two swinging at him.

Just as fast as the knights, if not faster, Turul sprung himself forward off the ground to go in between one of the knights legs which was still in the stance for swinging, then Turul bounced off the floor, again breaking the rock surrounding him leaving an indent. Arriving at the back of the knight, Turul flexed one wing and c.o.c.ked it back as a shimmering light started to flow onto the wing from the surroundings, like tiny rivers all coalescing onto his wing, after a few swconds Turul brought down his wing like a general commanding his army to attack leaving a line in the air.

Faster than the sound traveling to Mike's ears, Turul released a pent up arc of resplendent pure light that slashed through the knight, splitting him in two. In the knight's last final attempts at fighting it swung its sword at Turul with all it had, hitting Turul with its final bit of strength it managed to connect sending Turul rocketing towards the wall where he crashed with a wave of dust and rock particles flying everywhere.

Not caring at all for the death of its partner, the second knight rushed to where Turul was with its sword ready to cleave anything that moved clearly knowing that Turul wasn't killed by that attack.

Rushing out with a mighty flap of his wings, Turul met the knight in a head on collision of sword and talons, rocking the cave with a quake from their standoff as sparks flew from the two meeting.