Damian focused his mind, inspecting the strange sensation within his head. An image of the ring-shaped metal disc appeared in his mind's eye.
He really was in another world! The disc, it seemed, was the key to crossing the boundary between dimensions.
The red crystal set into the disc acted as a reservoir, consuming its stored energy to facilitate the crossing. It recharged automatically, but a full charge would take seven days.
A round-trip ticket, Damian thought, exhaling a long breath of relief as he digested the information the artifact fed him.
Having already transmigrated once over a decade ago, he was somewhat used to the shock. Fortunately, this time he actually had a way back.
Seven days until I can go home. He could sense the dim, depleted state of the crystal.
It's already dark. I need to find shelter first and explore tomorrow. Damian sighed, knowing that surviving a week in this frozen wasteland would be no easy feat.
"Awooo—" Faint wolf howls drifted from the path ahead.
A wolf pack? Damian grew alert. He flicked his wand, casting a Disillusionment Charm to blend seamlessly into his surroundings.
He pressed forward for a few minutes as the howls grew nearer. Sounds like something else is out there, too.
Moments later, Damian spotted a pale blue glow racing through the driving snow. He quickly surveyed his surroundings, climbed a thick tree, and watched from his concealed vantage point.
The blue light rapidly approached. He saw a snow-white stag, massive as a draft horse, pulling a sled. Its antlers shone like magical beacons through the dark forest.
Driving the sled was a broad-shouldered, red-haired man with deep-set eyes. His face was frantic as he urged the great stag to run faster.
When the sled was a mere twenty metres from Damian's tree, its right runner clipped a hidden stump. The wooden shafts and leather reins snapped, sending the speeding sled overturning into the snow!
"Damn it!" the red-haired man cursed, shoving away the heavy planks that had pinned him. Crawling toward the wrecked canopy, he shouted in alarm, "Tina! Are you hurt?"
A little red-haired girl scrambled from the debris. "Papa, Tina's all right!"
She looked no older than eight. The fall had clearly hurt, and tears glimmered in her eyes, but she stubbornly refused to cry.
To Damian's shock, they were speaking a dialect that sounded exactly like spoken Ancient Runes!
Before they could regroup, more than a dozen huge wolves surrounded them. The beasts were larger than calves, with grey-blue fur, glowing red eyes, and fangs as thick as a man's fingers.
Those wolves are massive. I have no idea how strong they actually are, Damian thought, staying hidden in the branches.
The pack lunged.
The man's expression hardened. He drew the longsword at his waist and slashed at a wolf leaping toward the little girl.
The blade flashed with a strange cyan light. Half the wolf's head flew off, and the carcass thudded into the snow, twitching once before going still.
Before the man could shift his stance, agony shot through his left arm. A second wolf had sunk its teeth into his forearm, pinning him as others moved to pounce.
At the same instant, Tina screamed. Another wolf had circled around the wreckage and was closing in on her!
Hearing his daughter's cry, the man burned with desperation. "Get off!" he roared.
The cyan light flashed again, and the wolf clamped to his arm lost its head. But the rear wolf had already knocked Tina down, baring its massive fangs for the killing bite.
"Tina!" the man bellowed, his eyes wide with anguish. He tried desperately to reach her, but the remaining wolves swarmed, pinning him to the ground.
Trapped beneath the beast, the terrified girl snatched a jagged plank from the wreckage and bravely jammed it into the wolf's jaws.
The wood only delayed the inevitable; cracks raced across its surface as the jaws clamped down.
Suddenly, the plank in the wolf's mouth transfigured into a razor-sharp steel blade. It drove straight through the beast's palate and pierced its brain.
Tina stared in shock as the heavy beast collapsed beside her.
Around the clearing, the scattered sled wreckage instantly morphed into wrist-thick, iron-hard vines that whipped out and bound the remaining wolves fast. The trapped beasts thrashed violently, but the magical vines only tightened.
With another flick of a wand, the vines transfigured into a flurry of spinning blades. The wolves were instantly sliced apart, their dark blood staining the pristine snow.
Damian stepped out from the shadows. To a wizard of his calibre, these creatures were nothing but unusually strong animals.
The father and daughter gaped. The pack that had nearly doomed them had been slaughtered in the blink of an eye.
"Tina, are you hurt?" The man scrambled over and hugged her tight, his face a mix of self-reproach and immense relief.
Tina buried her face in his chest. "Tina's fine, but Papa, you're bleeding."
Damian walked over, dropping the Disillusionment Charm. With a casual wave of his wand, he untransfigured the bloody metal blades back into harmless wooden debris.
Startled by the boy's sudden appearance out of thin air, the red-haired man quickly knelt in the snow, shielding the shaken Tina.
"Thank you, Wizard, for saving my daughter," he said, bowing his head. "I, Chris Watson, will remember your kindness forever!"
Tina's eyes were wide with wonder. She had never seen such a young, powerful wizard before.
Damian nodded, a subtle blue light flickering in his eyes as he met Chris's gaze. "I am a reclusive wizard, new to these parts. Where is the nearest town?"
"White Stone Town is very close, my lord," Chris answered respectfully, still somewhat dazed. "I am the blacksmith of Gem Village. But our home is no longer safe."
Chris gestured to the dead pack. "The animals in the nearby woods have grown savage and started attacking us. They look just like these wolves—red eyes, swollen bodies. I was taking my daughter to White Stone Town to seek refuge. The Guards there will protect us. You are more than welcome to travel with us."
Damian nodded thoughtfully. So, these wolves were an anomaly.
He bent down to examine one of the carcasses and immediately sensed a wild, chaotic energy radiating from it—something entirely unlike wizarding magic. That violent energy was likely the very thing driving the local beasts mad.
As Damian's fingers brushed the bloody fur, the metal disc in his mind shimmered. A wisp of red energy rose from the dead wolf and was instantly absorbed into his palm.
Startled, he checked his internal connection to the artifact. The once-dim red crystal was now glowing just a fraction brighter!
The disc could absorb this alien energy to recharge itself! Without hesitation, he moved quickly from carcass to carcass, touching each one.
With every touch, he felt the disc's stored energy rise. His mood lifted considerably; his return trip would come much sooner than he had thought. After draining all the bodies, he sensed the crystal was already over one-third charged, meaning it would automatically fully charge in less than five days.
Meanwhile, Chris rummaged through the wreckage of his sled and pulled out a battered, leather-bound notebook.
"Wizard, I have little to offer to thank you for saving us," Chris said, offering the book. "My ancestor was a wizard, and this is his journal. It records a spell. I pray it might be of some use to you."
Chris clearly possessed no magical gift himself, but it seemed wizards were not a secret in this world. In his immense gratitude, he handed Damian the original family heirloom without hesitation.
Damian raised an eyebrow at the unexpected loot. The goatskin cover was worn thin, but as he flipped it open, he saw the archaic text inside, written in Ancient Runes, was still perfectly legible.
He accepted the notebook with a polite nod and agreed to escort them the rest of the way to White Stone Town.
"Reparo!" he cast, pointing his wand at the ruined sled.
Like a film rewinding in time, the splintered wood and torn leather flew back together, seamlessly reassembling into its pre-crash state.
Soon after, Chris returned leading the massive white stag by its harness. "Luckily, the beast wasn't hurt, and it didn't run far."
Damian just smiled faintly. The stag hadn't run far because he had immediately locked it in place with a silent Petrificus Totalus the moment the fighting started.
[75 STONES] - Unlock1 Bonus Chapter
[150 STONES] - Unlock 2 Bonus Chapters
[300 STONES] - Unlock 3 Bonus Chapters