34 Ritual of Sacrifice (1/2)
Lars was stunned.
'What in the world??' How could he be forgotten so fast? It kind of hurt... First forgotten by his parents as an unwanted orphan, then forgotten by Sara and now forgotten by the one he thought just might be his friend in this bleak and lonely journey...??!
At least Moira didn't forget him... He touched the gold ring with the ruby inlaid that was hanging around his neck from a mana-reinforced hemp string necklace - concealed in a cloth pouch and out of sight. Safer that way.
”Oi, oi!! Okay okay! Don't look so down! I'm just teasing, kidding I tell you!”
Kizorik - the little penguin - waved its arms in consternation and began to sweat when it saw how the boy took the joke so very seriously. It even did a little dance while trying to comfort the overly emotional contractor.
After a while, the two of them calmed down smoothed their proverbial ruffled feathers. Then it was down to business.
”Alright. Now that you've summoned me, I can finally get to work recovering and growing my strength.” The penguin sat on Lars' lap and nibbled on dry biscuits while explaining how the contractor arrangement worked.
”No matter where you're headed or going, you'll definitely need more strength. You did realise, right...?” The bird smirked arrogantly as it spoke. ”Despite you being stronger in your mana and your soul-imprint being more solid, the people of this planet also wield artefacts to supplement their powers. Eunos was it...? This place is quite famous for high-quality items! You really should get your hands on some of them, both to use and to, erm... Sacrifice to me. Heh.”
Lars nodded. He had erred towards caution while interacting with the people of this world ever since his awakening. It was true that the werewolf captain had been taken down easily, but that was because the beastman was 3 whole realms below him, merely a Master-level berserker. Perhaps the wolfman did have a special item or life-saving trump card - alas, instant death would still have been the immediate outcome due to the immense gap in their levels.
However the young mage had been hesitant to reveal his powers; unless truly necessary or his bottom-line was crossed, he was reluctant to attract too much attention or cause a country-level conflict. He didn't have enough information about how they would react or how capable the true powerhouses of the Kingdom of the Sands and other nations really were!
He shook his head. Having reincarnated once, he had no desire to gamble on the chances of a second reincarnation. The necklace was already gone, anyway, the only remnants of it being the leaf-shaped birthmark on his chest.
Kizorik then gazed at him derisively and rubbed it in.
”You may think that artefacts are all... But this planet is pretty close to the Rune-forge Civilisation. As the name implies, their relied mainly on that one speciality and still had sufficient might to establish a haughty empire. With that, it's a safe assumption that most of the higher-ups on this planet will have at least a rune, if not 2 or more!”
”Runes...?”
”They're something like... Hmm, how should I put this... I haven't had to explain things to any idiots for the past, let's see... 15 years? Oh, yes! Yes. I mean since we last met. That's right.”
Lars fumed, tempted to swat the penguin on its tiny buttocks but decided against it. Time was always of the essence - he wanted the penguin to continue on. Which it did - it stuck out its little pink tongue through its razor sharp teeth and resumed its exposition.
”Alright. Enough with the jokes. A rune is simply a magic formation adapted so they can be affixed on a human's body. Don't look down on the process! It's not so simple as just shrinking a magic circle and thinking it will work! It won't! The mana flows for a formation drawn on skin and flesh are completely different, just like how you can't use paper notes for toilet paper...”
The little bird's eyes flitted to the corner, looking away and seeming reticent to speak about it. But the curious boy wasn't about to let it slide so easily.