Wizard Of Cosmos

259 - Mutated Human

“Hm? A human?”

The older man looked into the forest.

It was an old man working on a stone sculpture. His work was almost complete as he carved a perfect human figure from a boulder. The sculpture looked perfect, almost too perfect to be true.

It was an open patch in the forest, and the surroundings had many similar sculptures of different creatures. All the stone sculptures looked at a near-perfect level of detail, and the old man seemed to have carved them over the years. 

“Doesn’t matter. I will wait for you to be here, anyway.”

He turned his attention toward the sculpture, but it was only momentarily.

“Is that… Magic?”

The older man turned his body toward the direction Jason was coming from. His eyes remained dull as before, and his tone didn’t change. It was as if the man himself had no emotions. However, his movements showed signs of wariness. 

“Wind and Fire. He is commanding the elements of two domains.”

Humans were the only intelligent race that didn’t belong to a particular domain. In fact, they had no affinity to any element. However, humans learned to harness the magical power of each domain. Certain people harnessed the powers of two or more domains, commanding the magic of multiple elements. 

However, this old man looked at those humans with disdain. Only a single element had the true potential, and multiple elements weren’t much help. Also, he didn’t like any other element except the Earth. 

Still, there was a reason for him to be wary of Jason. 

The magical orbs floating behind Jason weren’t simple elemental magic. 

“This? How can a mere human command pure elements?”

Humans managed to use magic, but they couldn’t command the pure elements. Even in the natural domain, only the noblest of the creatures managed to command the elements to such a degree. 

“Is it not a human?”

The older man thought of the disgusting creature that had broken through the dark dimensions barrier a few hours ago. It could mess with his mind, he felt this could be something related to that creature. 

Of course, he knew it wasn’t a fully grown one. If a full-grown creature of a similar kind broke into their world, all the elders of each domain would confront it because such a monster could bring disaster if they didn’t stop it. 

“If it is that thing, I should probably get rid of it.”

He didn’t want to confront that disgusting thing, but he wasn’t afraid to deal with something so small. His duty as the guardian was to protect this part of the forest, and he had to wait until that thing came into his zone. The neutral zone was an area where any battle was forbidden unless there was a specific reason. 

…

“What kind of a weird place is this?”

Jason hid behind the bushes, staring at the lake with widened eyes. 

He was looking at a group of creatures that had illusionary bodies made of water. Their bodies moved freely as they emerged from the water and stood on the lake's surface. Jason knew this creature well. It was a Water Dancer, and he shouldn’t be surprised. However, there wasn’t a single Water Dancer, but around eight or ten in different sizes. In fact, there were smaller ones that looked like cubs, whom he had never seen before. 

The most amazing thing was there were no wizards in his surroundings. 

‘Are they not summoned? Do these things live here?’

He never heard of where these magical creatures lived. Water Dancers were elemental summons of the water sphere, and they shouldn’t be living creatures in the same dimension as humans. 

‘Where did they send me? Am I not in my dimension?’

Jason never felt so lost as he saw a giant frog with the body size of a boar jumping into the water. It was a Poison Frog. Another summoned creature of the Water Sphere, and it could spit a corrosive jet of poison out of its mouth. 

Jason felt no threat from any of these creatures, but he had no clue where he could be. 

‘Damn it, why is this happening? These things should be in the dimension where the Water Sphere should be. If such a thing actually exists.’

He cursed in his mind as he watched the playful family of Water Dancers for a moment. He had to learn where he was, and he had to do it fast. 

‘I should find a safe place before dark. Why didn’t they give me my mutation? I could have travelled way faster.’

He tottered away from the lake before continuing his journey. This time, he didn’t even have the luxury of dying multiple times. 

…

‘A human? But… Why?’

Jason heard the sound of chipping stones for a while before he saw the old stonemason through the trees. However, Jason felt no joy seeing this mysterious person. 

Other than the sound of chipping and the view, he didn’t feel the presence of this man from any of his senses. He didn’t know the person even when he heard the sound from afar. 

Also, this was a large clearing in the forest, and he only saw thousands of different stone statues there. Other than the older man with white hair, he saw no other living being in the vicinity. It was as if all the other beings knew to avoid this place. 

‘Why are there so many sculptures in this random place? I should have been happy to see a human, but why do I feel so uneasy?’

“You can come out now. What is the point in hiding?”

‘Ah….’

Jason felt a shiver down his spine when he heard the cold emotionless voice. For a moment, he wondered if this old man was addressing him.

“Yes, it is you. Why did you take human form? Are you trying to hide from me? Do you think you can run from me?”

“Are you talking to me? What is that language? I don’t understand you.”

Jason replied with amazement. For the first time in both his lives, he heard a language he couldn’t understand. A language his armband failed to translate for him.

He got up from the bushes and looked at the man in confusion. The man was facing him, and he knew it was him who this man was talking to. 

“What do you….”

Jason failed to complete his sentence as he saw the man’s eyes glow with a distinct brown-yellow glow. He forgot where he was, and moved to the clearing in a daze. He forgot where he was.

The strange power slowly eroded his body, and he failed to realise part of his skin turned greyish. It was as if he was turning into a stone, and his movements became abnormally slow. 

However, his eyes failed to avoid the hypnotic eyes of the old man, and Jason failed to focus on anything else. The grey skin covered his entire body, and his magic orb vanished without his control. Jason failed to notice his eyes also turning into stones at the last moment. 

“Hm? Was it just a human?”

The older man whispered in confusion. The evil creature he expected to see didn’t show itself until the end, and only a stone sculpture that resembled the human he saw was left on the spot.

“Whatever! It was trespassing, anyway.”

The man again turned toward the sculpture he was playing with as the reptilian eyes he had vanished. 

“Crack!”

The sudden cracking sound made the man turn back in a flash. 

He saw the cracks appear in his newest addition to his collection. However, it wasn’t breaking down. Instead, he saw the stone sculpture turning back. 

Still, it wasn’t turning back to a human. 

He saw a black skin filled with small patches of light underneath. 

For a moment, the man hesitated. Then he simply vanished from his place as if he didn’t exist. 

…

“What happened?”

Jason looked around in confusion. He was standing in the middle, and his mutation vanished after resisting the petrifying effect. Still, he had no idea what happened here. 

The last thing he remembered was asking the man what he was saying, and then opened his eyes from what he felt like a sleep. 

“How did I get here?”

He realised he was almost halfway across the open field from where he saw the old man. However, he had no memory of walking there.

“And seriously, where is he?”

He knew it wasn’t a dream or an illusion. Something happened after he got up, and he had no memory of it.

‘What a terrifying place!’

Jason took a step back and rushed into the forest. This place truly made him feel vulnerable.

…

In the distance, a pair of brown-yellow eyes opened in a dark cave. It was similar to the pair of eyes the older man had when he tried to petrify Jason. 

However, these eyeballs were much bigger and belonged to a humongous lizard. It looked like a common reptile with a green body, but its body was at least fifty metres long. 

It looked into the distance with wary eyes. 

His petrifying eyes failed to contain the creature, and it broke free. More than that, it felt a massive threat from the mutated human. 

“A mutated human? Such a creature shouldn’t exist!”

A Basilisk had the power to create strong illusions and power to petrify its opponents. Other than that, it had a powerful body and ability to use many types of Earth magic. However, it didn’t want to confront this new creature. 

Even an Angel would have a hard time facing its power, but this human was immune to petrification. This was a trait of the superior creatures, who were just a handful even in The Endless. 

Normal animals mutated when they lived in various magic domains, but humans didn’t. Also, the mutation this human showed wasn’t any simple mutation, it was the mutation of the dark dimension. 

A human who harnessed the terrifying power of the darkness. A dimension where they had no power to enter or explore. 

The massive lizard instantly disappeared from the cave, making a part of it collapse. It had to warn the Earth King about the monster that appeared near their borders. A mutated human.