Chapter 13

[POV MC]

An adventure could be called as such if you saw a monster in the first few minutes of it , I suppose .

At least if so , I'm in a great one 'a great adventure' if you will .

Oh how I wished to romanticize the situation as the great beginning of my epic journey . 

Too bad I'm too realistic to think so .

'Rather pessimistic . ' someone would say if they had the ability to read my mind .

An arrow flew from my strange magic stick/staff - that was bend like a bow - and hit a hideous looking creature , as I was thinking so .

Well , that was the reason many of the shaman wore eye covering head dress -' the mind magic'-.

Too bad it wasn't that fantastic of a magic, occlumency, and legilimency, I mean.

I had the chance to ask around about a few magic and it was rather disappointing to learn 'the known' mind magic had it's limit around surface-level mind reading .

It was easy to read the mind if someone was thinking something with their inner voice but it was that ; and occlumency was something about controlling your inner voice or something like that , not that I know much .

And thinking about it there were fundamental problems of 'reading' memories , not like what says in the fanfics really . Since you don't remember something how the other person can get it out of you . And it gets even more complex if you include short-term and long-term memory . 

It's a dream to read the long-term memory without either the reader or the other party going crazy , or worse dying .

How sad you can't kill everything with a look without risking your life .

'So , boring spells are the way .' I think , as I murmur a few ritualistic words to make the another arrow head react to oxygen while it moves . The metal tip getting red with the distance it takes , it hits a ghoulish creature .'Good thing I know a bit about rituals .'

Also I say 'ghoul-ish' as it had another name around here but in the end a variation of a ghoul , not to be confused with non-dangerous ones , and more like a zombie . Most of the creatures around the world were named differently and looked somewhat different from each-other too but at the end of the day they were massively similar , most of them anyway .

'Well , this place is definitely more than some cave . ' I look around and see the fungi and mushroom that cling on and seep in-between the obviously giant man-made walls . The magical flora dimly lights around with a lava-like color . 

Keeping up the walk .

"This place is full of monsters ." I say as I ambush another ghoul from behind .

"It makes what ... six?" dealing with those monsters carefully took hours unfortunately , for a novice like me .

And it's just the entrance . 

After going through the immensely big man-made tunnels for a while (and still dealing with some small fry monsters) I stumbled on a sight I would prefer not to see , and thought 'time to go back and find myself a place to hide .'

How nice it is to see a bunch of giants blocking the path!

I counted three , as I hoped there weren't more .

And when I said giants I meant it , 8-10 meter each , their heads almost touching the ceiling . 

As I strolled back towards where I came from for a while , I stopped , finding the distance between us safe enough .

I pointed my foci to the wall and hoped there was no protective magic over the walls .

Thankfully there were no anti-transfiguration spells cast on the wall as I transfigured the wall .

I then went inside the wall as if I was in a bubble that could go through walls , but in fact I was moving the mass away from where I was continuously , including to my behind .

'One of the many uses transfiguration has , yet not a popular style to use it .'

As I also open a little hole for air to come in I sit to rest and sleep , better to think about stressful things after a sleep .

As I slowly find myself asleep after awhile , I then open up my eyes with no fatigue not aware how many hours I spent sleeping . 

Though I woke up once to the sounds of stomping of the giants , I wonder whatever the fuck they were doing .

After I drank some of the nutrient potion I had with me , I started thinking about the problems at hand .

My current concerns were food , a bunch of giants , and the power I don't have enough .

Unfortunately I wasn't given rations that would last ; the reason being I could find food in here by myself -or so my guide had said - . 

"But how the fu- " I cursed , not exactly finishing the line as I had already started thinking .

Now I could taste test the shining wall mushrooms but even thinking that sent me chills , who knew what would happen to poor ol' me . Eating monsters ? Maybe , If it weren't only ghouls 'till now , and hunting giants to eat 'em while not knowing how far I will have to go through these tunnels . Can I even get rid of the giants ?

"Trick them . " I heard someone say or was it me ? Of course , it was . 

Tricking them into wiping the other monsters would be a great idea , and these guys didn't seem like the clever ones of their kin , most of the giant-kind were dumb . Well , there were shapeshifter giants too but they are better left unmentioned . 

Now , what if tricking doesn't work ? 

"So what , then die trying to kill 'em right~ ha~ha~ha~ " I heard my voice in my head again for some reason , but it was definitely the worst idea if I didn't have a death wish .

Gotta find a way to kill them , but they have such resistance that a normal attack wouldn't work if plans go awry . They are strong too , they would crush possible obstructions . Too bad they aren't some little trolls that would go unconscious with a club hitting them on the head .

Can I make something like a ballista , nah too much time consuming that my rations wouldn't last . Other possible options too don't sound positive or realistic enough such as making a hiding zone or something , I could be trapped there with no food with giants waiting in front of my safe-space .

Worst comes to worst I will escape the cave to return later . And then I can trap them inside with enough time and suffocate with starting a fire in it , closing the entrance so good that even giants can't come out .

"Enough planning , time to start moving and trick some giants ." I say and start skinning the ghouls I killed before , their skins will be necessary along with their corpses . 

After skinning the corpses , I stitch them together with a technique that wouldn't need strings to be sewn on each-other , basically using the parts of the skin itself by cutting it's sides and making it's two of the sides look like prongs of a comb .

I make two cloaks and then a blanket and start opening a tunnel from an unnoticeable corner to right under the giants and bring the ghoul corpses . I was down below enough that I would go unnoticed no matter what .

Now everything is set , time to make an appearance .

[POV 3rd Person]

Three giants are sitting around a fire pit leisurely and talking in a broken way and laughing .

Above the pit there was a big cauldron with unknown animals stuffed in it .

One of the giants had a whole tree in hand , he was using it to stir the pot from time to time . This one was fully bald but another of the giants had some hair but it was only on the sides and the back of his head . The third one had the most idiotic look in the trio , his eyes were pretty far away from each-other too and he was drooling , he wasn't bald .

The most stupid looking giants said , "Where you get this pot ? "

The half bald one looked up angry "You asked five " he said , meaning to say 'You asked it five times already .' "You dumb!" added .

The stupid one said "I no dumb , I taller !" said , though no smart being would understand how being taller had anything to do with not being an idiot .

The half bald grunted and kept doing his thing , 'he kept sitting' .

At that moment the stupid one made a move to hit the half bald but his hand was caught by the full bald one .

He said "No bam-bam" with furrowed and angry brows .

"Said me dumb!" the stupid one said .

The bald one then said "You no bam-bam , I tell how pot ." meaning to say how he got the pot , again .

The stupid one then sat quickly "You tell pot . No bam ." recognizing who had the actual authority among the three .

The bald one then started a long story , for him it was long anyhow "I forest , see hag , hag nom-nom child , pot full nommy child ,me drool . " he stops to take a long breath .

"See hag , hag see me , hag ugly , hag run , hag slow , me nom-nom hag , me nom-nom pot , me full - me smart , me bring pot ." as he finishes his story and looks smug .

But unfortunately he had already lost the attention he wanted from the stupid one when he said the word 'smart' .

The stupid one then asked "What smart ?"

The half-bald explained "No dumb-smart . I smart ." he gave an example too .

As they were chit-chatting a man came and sat next to them without a care in the world . A child actually but it was indistinguishable in the eyes of giants from an adult human .

He had a staff-like stick it was a bit short to call it a staff . He had a cloak but his head was visible right now .

The giants were dumbfounded , they thought this man is either crazy or unbelievably strong , their experiences had them know what confidence is . Currently they were leaning towards the latter .

The full-bald giant cautiously asked "What human want ?" .

The man answered "I'm not a human I'm the Aldacı ." expecting them to know the local version of the reaper . And knew they did .

"Al -da - cı - ?" slowly asked the dumb one , then the half-bald said opening his eyes widely "Alda!" he said pointing to the man with a surprised expression .

The dumb then said "Alda? Hhhaa! Alda!" understanding what was said , and exclaimed in horror .

The full-bald spoke again "What Alda want ?" he was a bit scared too . Believing in the lie as quickly .

Then the man spoke then "I came to eat souls but I'm full now , so I will rest here , I will eat your souls if you wake me up ." and he took out the blanket and went under it . 

The giants had believed it , so out of fear they didn't act immediately . But it didn't mean they wouldn't attack after some time .

As the man went under the blanket he immediately started transfiguring the earth under him and went down as he did like the first time he saw the giants , like in a bubble . As he went down he didn't forget to place a ghoul corpse in his place after dressing it with a cloak .

And of course the giants weren't too patient , after they too went to sleep afraid and woke up they saw the man there and decided to smash him to the pieces and they did so . Cherishing with every cracking sound they heard , gulping with relief each one .

But after they finished and went back to their fire pit , they were scared shitless seeing the man coming out of the place seemingly unscathed . 

They froze for a bit as the man came and sit next to them once again .

He then said "I'm hungry now , I will go eat souls . " showing his stick he said "The name of this is Soul Furnace , it burns the souls of whatever it touches . Except me , since I am already dead . "

Then he murmured to himself "Maybe it would like giants too , though if it doesn't then I can have a few giant souls myself . One giant soul equals to twenty other monster souls after-all . "

As he said so giants become pale . Then the stupid one said "No eat me , eat two" pointing to his comrades .

Then he looked up with a chilling smile and said "One giant soul would only satisfies me for a day . If you want we can make an exchange , kill twenty monsters in this cave every day , then you all will live one more day for every twenty ."

"Yes , yes ." says the stupid and the half-bald agrees too . The full-bald too looks convinced while still looking slightly dangerous .

"Then you can start tomorrow , I will hunt myself today !" as he said so the giants nodded , when he returned and went back to sleep again , they went to look for where he had gone and terrified when they saw dead monster along the way . Not expecting a wooden stick to have the ability to claim souls , before .

They smashed the man that day too , but they acted much more docile when the man next day returned again .

The man that day told them to go and hunt , saying "What are you waiting for , for my stick to eat your souls ." and they went running .

After they killed a bunch they brought the corpses and then the man said it was enough for the day , saying he was full now and will go to sleep then pulling the same trick .

And of course they again tried to kill his replacement , yet they looked more terrified after seeing him alive once again .

If they had a semblance of doubt before , it wasn't there anymore . They were completely fooled now .

Day by day they killed dozens of monster for him , good thing there were edible monsters in the killed bunch . He froze the edibles and buried them , not under the gazes of the giants obviously .

Days gone by until the giants came in front of a big gate . They said they couldn't open it nor break . It meant one thing , magics there were still active so no more transfiguration tricks . He needed a new plan and he needed it fast .

After a few minutes of thinking the new plan was ready .

Step one : Hope the door will react to me somehow and open .

Step two : Bait the giants inside and hope they get killed and you don't by whatever behind the gate is .

Step three : Make a new plan for the new possible challenge after getting to safety .

Then he said to the giants "Let's go . " and followed the giants to the gate , just after their report . 

They reached there after a bit of walking .

And just before touching the gate the man raised the ground between his back and the cloak so the cloak could stand alone without him -unknown to giants - , if the giants hesitated to go in he could hopefully open a hole while he was hiding under ground and tell them to go in .

And he also wanted to see whatever that was behind the gates .

Then he touched the gate and pushed it , and the gate started opening by itself ; thankfully it opened automatically and he didn't need to push the door all the way . The gates were massive too , he doubted he could open them alone .

Though this magical phenomena gave the giants the illusion of him being super strong , which was a good thing in his opinion .

One of them was murmuring "Strongy!" in fear and awe .

Then the man said , "Go in , I'm starving . I might eat your souls if I wait more . "

Then while the giants were about to move a massive spider started descending , but massive was a humbling word for it . That spider was so big it could at least hug one of the giants .

As it started descending , other little spiders skittered from the back of the room one by one , too many to count .

Then, at that moment, the man started descending to underground and moved under the ground for a while. He didn't want to disappear from the scene yet , so he moved to a corner and peeked from his underground spot, with a bit transfigured stone above his head as if it was a helmet for him , or just a rock for the untrained eyes of a random observer .

The giants though couldn't put too much of a fight . One of them was bit by the massive spider and quickly got paralyzed . The others were trying to deal with little swarms of spiders.

After the massive spider paralyzed one it quickly moved to others , so they couldn't escape too under its surveillance . After all the giants were paralyzed , the spiders started covering them with their webs and later the massive spider dragged them inside , one by one .

The giants were probably still alive - not for a long time though - and were just paralyzed . Poor things , soon to be eaten .

And later the gates closed by themselves , with a few man sized spiders left behind . 

Then the man disappeared , after holding a huge breath and sinking underground .

Later, he appeared near a fire pit with a giant cauldron above it. These were the only reminders left of the group of dumb giants that once walked the world.