M.D.Syl
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Chapter 95 colorless
🕑 Added 2023-07-08 17:40:11 +0000 UTCChapter 95 Wolves.
I’m ice, beautiful and cold.
Majestic, I stand tall.
Unmoving, unchanging I remember all.
Yet, when the sun’s gaze passes me, I shall fall.
Mayan, the Ocean Fairy.
The screams coming from the camp turns into shouts and curses followed by wolf howls. I decide to spend ten gems worth of mana to weave an alteration pattern and prolong my flying spell for one more minute. I soar above the treetops, and fly toward the camp as swiftly as possible.
The situation is apparent from above. A pack of large wolves is assaulting our camp. Strangely enough, they aren’t afraid of fire.
When I arrive I see the last moving guard throw a torch at a wolf. In response, the wolf opens his mouth and breathes out a wave of dense white particles. The wooden torch turns into an icicle, and the guard turns into a live-like ice statue. I can spot similar icy statues around the camp, along with four corpses of wolves who died to the guards’ spears.
I can’t spot Zoe or Jolla anywhere. The only one who is actively fighting the wolves is Ryon. His side of the camp is covered with smoke, and whining wolves run out of there. One is rolling on the ground covering its nose. I catch a whiff of an awful smell.
“Ahooooooooooo!” A massive white wolf pounces into the stinking smoke cloud.
I should really stop gawking and kill those things! “Felul felik!” <wind aircut> I cast wind blades at the wolves, one after the other. But the cuts don’t seem to do more than light wounds, their fur is too thick for that.
I pull out my copper bolts. “Kushgari yefa!” <metal fly!> The 'Lesser Flight' spell takes most of my patterns capacity, I can only loose one of these at a time. At least It's easy to aim them from above.
A wolf drops when my first copper bolt penetrate its back. Another soon follow, coughing blood on the snowy ground. Why is it snowing?! It’s spring!
The wolves now notice me, they dodge around in erratic patterns. The wolves scatter, using their icy breaths on themselves and each other to neutralize and freeze their wounds.
I huff in the sky above them. Earth magic isn’t easy for me to perform. Even though the mana comes from my necklace, something within me objects to the constant channeling of earth mana. After five bolts, I get a sharp headache and I have to stop with the 'Copper Bolt' spell. I aim an arrow head at the next wolf and "Ritsa!" <Repulse!> The sharp bronze hits the wolf directly, but it doesn't penetrate its thick fur. I can only assume that the 'Copper Bolt' spell has more force to it than 'Repulse' does.
“Ahooooooooooo!” the smoke slowly thins. The large white wolf stands over Ryon’s frozen figure. The pack forms itself around him, snarling upward in my direction.
The white wolf stares at me with a pair of intelligent blue eyes. I look back into his eyes, my heart beats violently in my chest. I can tell this creature isn’t weak. I guess the only reason I am not running for my life is the fact that I am way out of his reach. He can’t touch me, he has to wait until I come closer to him.
As if to dispel my early assumption, the white wolf opens his mouth, and a white projectile flies toward me.
I dodge with ease, and wince when my alteration pattern sucks more mana from my necklace to maintain my ‘Lesser Flight’ spell. The only way I can kill them for sure is to get closer, close enough for these icy breaths to turn me into solid ice sculpture.
Ice… what about attacking them with ice? My water affinity is second only to gravity. But they clearly have high affinity with water and ice, they even use ice to cover their wounds. Doesn’t hurt to try! It's pointless. Not if I use their habits against them, it's not. I fly directly above the white wolf. “Nimuwal!” <boundless water!> A violent jet of water comes out of my hands, slowly emptying my water mana pool.
The large wolf reacts just as I expect. He breathes frost upward and counters my water torrent with his freezing breath. The water freezes solid but maintains its downward trajectory. It turns into a rod of ice that shatters when it strikes the wolf directly on the head.
The wolf is knocked down to the ground, whining in pain. The pack scatters wide with whiny hisses. I eye the pack carefully and float downward, closer to the ground. I’m ready to bolt upward at a moment’s notice.
To my relief, the pack doesn’t intervene in this battle. I focus on the alpha wolf again and channel my water, splashing at his face. This time he’s careful with its frosty breath. Instead, he lets himself soak in my water and slowly gets up to his feet, shaking his head.
The moment he gets up to face me, I land, canceling my flight spell. “Reviss, kas.” <Energy, feed.> I cast ‘Energy Hand’ into the torrent of water. Blue sparks of electricity come out of my hands but don't reach the white wolf in a visible manner. Yet the wolf is electrocuted, unable to move or react, he spasms on the spot. I keep both water and lightning cantrips up.
I eye the wolf pack around me, ready to defend myself against the rest of them with the 'Flowing Shield' spell. Yes, it'd turn into an icy dome due to their breaths, but it'll probably protect me. Yet the wolves remain rooted in their spot. I slowly walk forward toward the spasming alpha, cranking my neck wildly around to ensure they aren't going to jump at me from behind.
Reaching the alpha wolf, I cut the mana off from my patterns, and place my hand on the wet canine neck. My hair stands on my nape with a zap and the wet fur stabs my palm. The wolf shakes under my hand. “Myrsha ritsa!” <Gravity repulse!> *Thooomb* It drops to the ground, lifeless and headless, torrents of blood splashing all over me.
I expect the rest of the pack to attack me now, yet the wolves run away, scattering into the woods. The snow stops falling. The spell is broken.
I take out my glassy bottles from the scaled wrapping, and channel my mana into the diamond stopper. Slowly, I drain the alpha wolf’s soul into the ectoplasm bottles. I fill four and half bottles with white bluish ectoplasm. Now, all I have to do is eat this creature’s meat with the consumption of its soul.
I wonder why do we have to eat the meat, why consuming the soul alone isn’t enough? If I only had to consume human souls in a form of ectoplasm, would it disgust me the same way as consuming their meat? And if not, what's the difference? As long as those humans are evil I don’t think I’d have a problem with that…
I shake my head, driving away the treacherous thoughts. It doesn’t matter! I can’t eat the meat, and I have to help my people!
The camp looks like a blizzard passed through it. The tents and ground are covered in snow and white frost particles. Multiple white wolves’ corpses litter the ground, their flowing blood creates black and red spots around the white clearing.
Most of my guards along with Ryon are frozen solid. I approach one of the guards first. “Rinim riss nim” <ice flow water>. The ice melts, draining more water mana out of me.
Lepp drops to the ground, covered in frost, shaking and hugging himself. His teeth chatter with the extreme cold. “Th-th-thank you yo-yo-Your Majesty!”
“You’re welcome. Make a fire!”
“Y-yes! Your Majesty!”
I move from soldier to soldier, draining my necklace dry to unfreeze them. When my necklace is out of mana, I start spending magical gems. Yes, this is wasteful, but I can’t know whether they’ll live or die frozen within the ice for too long. Magical gems, as useful as they are, are only objects, they can’t compare to lives.
“I like da’ new tricks! Old boss lady give da’ good stuff!” Ryon exclaims when I unfreeze him. “Thanks for savin ma skinny hide! Ya sure you don’t wanna snake? I’ma gentleman.”
I shake my head both in negative and amusement. I’m glad he’s so unfazed by all of this… By the time I unfreeze Ryon, all the guards are seated around the fires. They take off their clothes and are now huddled around the fires wrapped in dry blankets. Ryon joins them, and the scent of vegetable stew enters my nostrils.
“Have anyone seen Zoe or Jolla?” I ask.
“That way!” Ryon points out while accepting a bowl of stew from Lepp.
I rush in the direction he pointed at, my heart pounding in my chest. Without Jolla’s knowledge of the terrain, we won’t find the orcs. And Zoe. It’s true the girl hadn’t shown any magical potential yet, and I even find her annoying at times, but I got used to her presence somehow. Having her as my personal maid is pleasant, if not on my ears.
I don’t have to go very far. I find them both frozen solid with their backs to a large tree, along with two frozen wolves. The two women and the two wolves creates a singular connected ice sculpture. Within the sculpture, Zoe’s hands are held forward, as if to push the wolves away from her.
How did they get themselves frozen up with wolves… how did the wolves freeze up for that matter? I saw them breathing on each other earlier, it didn’t have the same effect.
“Rinim riss nim” <ice flow water>. I melt only the side with Zoe and Jolla. The icy statues turn to water, the shaking women drop to the ground. "Are you two alright?"
"Pha. Alright? By Tukado's beard we're freezing to death! Get us to a fire." Jolla demands hugging herself.
"Sorry, it took me a minute to find you. What happened? Why are the wolves frozen?"
"I-I think I froze them?" Zoe says hesitantly. "I th-think I do have m-magic? I don't know..."
That would make more sense... but how would anyone freeze those things? They seemed to be healing from the cold... not freezing... Unless the ice is already solid and hits them...
"Congratulation for awaken your magic, Zoe!” I declare with a smile.
“Ye-e-eah…” the shaking girl hugs herself letting out a nervous laugh.
“Magic, pha! So important. By Tukado's snake, if I lose a toe because of your magic talk, I'll rip your tongues out!” Jolla interrupts angrily. She looks weird without her glasses. She doesn’t sound like she's freezing to death, more like she’s annoyed that I ignored her plea for a fire.
I smile at her. “Come on you two, there’s fire and hot soup back in camp.”
“You stink, get yourself a bath first, woman.” Jolla rolls her eyes and step around. “By Tukado’s beard! Where are my glasses? Pha! Worgs, of all the dumb ways to die out here.”
I ignore her rumbling and lead the shivering Zoe back to camp.
Later that night, I teach Zoe the meditation method for opening her water mana-pool and ask her to tell me when she gets it done.
I also order my soldiers to skin the alpha worg, take its fur, and grill some of its meat. I spent the rest of that night in deep meditation, strengthening my gravity mana pool and absorbing the Worg’s soul. I use every break we have to meditate and absorb the wolf’s soul. I begin connecting the gravity pool, I’m going to need it.
*
{28} Noxi (April) the 24th
“Master! Will you tell that stinking soot licker that I don’t want to be with him?! He won’t stop pestering me!” Zoe comes to me with a complaint on the next day. We’re camping in the woods, and the a few orange sunrays sneak between the trees. The soldiers share a meal, and I focus on studying.
“Who, Ryon? Tell him yourself.” I shrug with a sigh.
“But I don’t want to be too mean, you know? He loves me for some reason, but I don’t share his feelings. I don’t want to hurt him…”
I can’t help but laugh. “Love you?! Ryon?! You’re aware he wants to snake anything with a big chest, right? Actually forget that, any woman in sight will probably get his attention eventually. Be as mean as you want to be.”
She wrinkles her nose. “I told him I don’t want to, but he won’t stop pestering me!”
“Hey, Ryon!” I call out. He’s fiddling with his gadget on the other side.
“Wha?” He approaches with a smirk.
“Can you stop pestering Zoe? She doesn’t want to snake you.”
“Ah that. Ye sure. I’m a gentleman. Here have a flower!” He takes a beautiful white hibiscus out of his ear of all places and offers it to the dumbfounded Zoe. “Neat trick, huh?” he says when we both stare at him.
“You see?!” Zoe goes away with a stomp, enters her tent, and closes the flaps violently.
I sigh and shake my head. “Ryon… can you please not talk to her at all? No flowers, no words, just don’t talk to her. She doesn’t like you.”
“Ah. She like to snake da fingers of other women. Ok!” He turns to leave.
“Ryon. Sit down!”
He stops and sits on the boulder in front of me. His green upturned eyes are focused on me, and his dark obsidian skin reflects the light of the campfire flames. “Ya?”
How do I talk to him about tact? By not talking about tact… He likes his so called ‘tricks’, let’s start with them…
“Ryon. What did you do to the wolves inside the smoke, can you show me your tricks?”
He grins. “Ah. That a nasty one. Right here and now?”
“Yeah, but not on me obviously, do it on the tree.”
“I do it on da tree it hit everyone.” He gives me a hopeful smile.
“Then don’t do it, just explain.”
“Bah 'splain 'splain. It’s da smoke with da’ nasty! Here!” He throws a small pouch at the tree near the guards’ campfire.
The moment it explodes, I feel like throwing up my dinner. It smells like feces mixed with rotten eggs and twenty years old dirty socks.
The men around the other campfire cough and run away, covering their noses. Zoe comes out of her tent in tears, then runs toward the men in the forest covering her nose with her arm. Only Jolla remains seated, writing her parchment on a flat rock. “By Tukado’s beard…” she mumbles.
“I see…” I hold my breath. “Any other new tricks?”
“Ya say neat trick now! Ya don’t say neat trick and I don’t show ya!”
“It’s a neat trick Ryon. Very useful against animals that have a good sense of smell, like wolves. You’re smart, more than I give you credit for sometimes. Did you come up with that yourself?”
“Nah. The old boss lady taught me how ta’do it. She neat, but her jugs are all wrinkly and she laughs like this! Gigigigigigigi…” he mimicks the hag’s cackle. “Said if I stick ta you, she show me more neat tricks. I have da gold dust now, it make big fire and go kaboom. But hard ta’make. An’ silver dust ta’make people blind! I know that one, but the old boss lady have better silver dust, and I didn’t have da’ gold dust…”
“Felul” <Wind> I cast while listening to him talking. My wind disperses the smelly cloud and makes it drift away. The guards return to their small bonfire.
Zoe stomps over to us. “Will you make this soot-licker go already?!”
“No. He’s my friend. And I like his neat tricks,” I reply with a smile.
Ryon laughs. “See? Boss lady like ma neat tricks! Oh. Not talking to you. Boss lady says not to, an’ I’ma gentleman.” He turns his back to Zoe.
“Argh!!!” Zoe stomps away to her tent.
“Can you show me the gold dust?” I ask.
“Da’ one that go kaboom? Nah. Save for good times! Hard ta’make!”
“Does the boom creates fire?”
“Ya! Big fire!”
“Ok good. Kushjak” <Oil> I aim my hand and spray oil at the nearby tree. “If you see me do that black thing on enemies, you throw the gold dust at them, ok? It’ll make a bigger fire.”
He nods, green eyes glittering with excitement.
“Actually. Bring me a few waterskins, I’ll fill them for you with this stuff, that way you can make more fires yourself. But be careful not to hurt people, only enemies.”
“Ya! Of course. Only da’ enemy gangs! I’m a gentleman, I don’t hurt pesies.” He hands a bunch of bladder bottles to fill.
“Pesies?”
“Normal peeps. Pesies. Only marks an’ enemy gangs are fair game, ya? I’m a gentleman.”
Maybe it's a slang for peasants? I cast my spell and summon oil into the containers. “Why do you call yourself a gentleman?”
“'Cuz I am.” He makes sure the bottles are closed tight before he makes them disappear in his array of bandoliers.
I raise a brow at him. “What does it mean to be a gentleman?”
“Snake the pretty ladies, eat da good food, and steal from rich peeps. I also wanna fart on rich peeps faces, always fun. Why you askin'?”
“A gentleman means a gentle man, a nice man. It means being a good person. Ryon, are you a good person?”
“Ya, I am a good person, I live da’ good life.”
“But…”
Zoe interrupts and sits near me, giving Ryon the evil eye. “Master? The spell I used to freeze the wolves yesterday. Do you know it?”
She has a point. I wonder what that spell is? I get my grimoire and open it in an empty page. I channel my mana. I need a spell that works like those wolves’ breath and freezes people solid!
Ayla’s Freezing Vapors
Names: Ayla’s Freezing Vapors, Freezing vapors, Lesser frost breath, Vargar’s breath, Worg’s breath.
Element: water
Sub element: vapor
Level: 0
Words: shanim rial
Translation: Vapor cold
Quicken: X
Patterns: 4
Gestures: exhale
Offering: X
Requirement: Temperature below -1c degrees near the caster’s mouth.
Range: varies
Target: breath.
Duration: as long as the caster exhales.
Effect: The spell will turn a single exhaling from the caster into freezing vapors to be carried by the wind. Anything the vapors touch will be frozen solid and covered in ice. It'll consume the vapors in the process. The vapors will snuff out fires, and it can be cast as long as the temperature of the caster’s lips is below -1c degrees.
It is highly advised to gain wind superiority before usage. If the wind carries the vapors toward the caster, the caster or a body parts of them will be frozen.
The freezing is only a few degrees below 0 and the ice will crack or melt shortly after. Ayla considered this to be a faulty and a dangerous spell. It was inspired by the Worg’s breath.
Cost: 8 water gems
Bound cost: X
Altered cost: 5 water gems per pattern.
Let’s see… oh wow this spell is faulty… no wonder she froze herself over there. I’ll have to cool my mouth to cast it… shouldn’t be too hard, I can just make a small piece of ice and put in my mouth… “Here, take a look, learn the patterns if you want, you have to create them out of your water mana to get an effect.” I hand her the grimoire. “Be very careful with my grimoire and don’t test your spell anywhere near it.
*~*~*
Power level: 3rd stage apprentice.
Mana pools status:
Crown-knot: Affinity 10: connected: 1 gem replenished per minute.
Neck-Bridge: Affinity 6: formed: max amount of gems drained per day: 73
Abdomen-storage: Affinity 5: formed: 11 gems. Conversion ratio: 6:1
Air: Affinity 4: formed: 22 gems
Fire: Affinity 2: formed: 11 gems
Light: Affinity 3: formed: 16/17 gems
Water: Affinity 6: formed: 33 gems
Earth: Affinity 1: formed: 5 gems
Wood: Affinity 2: formed: 11 gems
Gravity: Affinity 9: formed: 46/50 gems
Cantrip known:
Air: Shavi’s Breeze, Shavi’s Sword. Shavi’s Hair Dryer, Aria’s Enhanced Hearing. Aria’s Sonic Scream.
Fire: Nuriss’ Flame. Effrat’s Firefly, Effrat’s Fire Breath. Sorladika's Lesser Heating. Nuriss’ Ignite. Oniga's Soap Creation.
Light: Noxi’s Light. Lako’s Blinding Light. Rika’s energy hand.
Water: Water Evocation, Water to Ice, Ice to Water, Water to Vapor, Vapor to Water, Mayan’s Icy Spike, Ayla’s Water Jet. Ayla’s instant freeze. Ayla's Flowing Shield. Ayla’s Freezing Vapors.
Earth: Alice’s Oil Summoning, Reiko’s Acid Spray. Alf's Copper Bolt
Wood: Arigor’s Lesser Vines. Kolosu’s Vegetable Summoning.
Gravity: Lumina’s Kinetic Burst. Tukado’s Repulse. Tukado’s Lesser Shield II. Imari’s Minor Telekinesis. Imari’s Jump. Leo’s Pull. Leo’s Grounding. Alino’s Light Body. Alino’s Heavy Body. Alino's Orbiter.
Transmutation: Oniga's Laundry.
Spells known:
Light: Rika's Electric Channelb
Gravity: Alino’s Weightless Bodyb. Imari’s Lesser Flightb.
Life: Brigit’s Lesser Cure Poison.
Focus capability: 16 patterns.
Social status: The Queen of Red Cedar City. Inara, Daughter of Mysteries. Apprentice to the Maven of Mysteries. Sorceress.
Personal Wealth: 1738 Magic Gems. 63 Diamonds. 1420 Golden Peas, 45 Silver Scales, 32 Copper Bits.
Personal Items:
Magical necklace. Contains 100 gems of general mana, can be drained like a mana pool. It’ll recharge by itself at the rate of five gems an hour.
1 potion of lightning body.
1 potion of mana, medium grade.
5 potions of Lesser Healing.
5 potions of Pain Tolerance.
An enchanted belt with eight pouches, the enchantment keeps the pouches’ content fresh. Each pouch may contain 10g of petals or six potion flasks.
Fresh rose petals, 14g
Fresh lavender petals, 10g
10 empty soul bottles. Glass with a diamond stopper, put in scaled leather wrapping.
The Great White Egret grimoire. Dedicated by the Maven of mysteries to Inara. 26/100
Present Companions:
Zoe
Ryon
Jolla Silverquill
Languages:
Toml’a <People’s tongue> Fluent
Sinteo <Speech> Fluent
Myrsha <Gravity> 8/10
Felul <Wind> 1/10
Injuries and scars: melted skin; face, upper chest, chain scar.
-
Kingdom’s treasury: 8,438 gold coins.
Kingdom’s citizen: 5,898 humans, 2,251 human children.
Kingdom's army: 800 levy militia. 900 footmen. 26 peacekeeper knights.
Notables at Court:
Tasiya Keyholder
Jolla SilverQuill
Talbot Bookkeeper
Marasi Chef extraordinaire (spymaster.)
Old Gardner Tiom
