Chapter 25: Landscaping (1/2)
Viv waited, breaths slow and deep. Not a sound could be heard as she raised her weapon high, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. Her prey had fallen into an ambush just as she expected. She focused on the monster’s extended limb as she made ready to slow her time perception. Soon, it would be the moment to strike.
Very soon.
There was a click.
Viv moved. She activated her acuity power and struck with enhanced strength, the roll of fabric descending upon the guilty white claw grabbing for the meat drawer.
Thwack!
“SQUEEEEEE!” the culprit yelped, running back to her lair with her tail between her legs.
“QUE JE T’Y REPRENNE, SALE BÊTE!” Viv bellowed in her native tongue. Sheer anger could do that sometimes.
Marruk took a quick peek inside. A glance at Viv’s outraged posture told her all that she needed to know, and she resumed her vigil.
A pale snout emerged from the blanket mountain. The mighty beast of Kazar was testing the waters.
Viv cursed herself. She was so taken in with catching and scaring Arthur that she had forgotten the good habits that her mom had taught her when handling pets. Positive reinforcements and all of that. Her mom had been the one to keep the house together no matter how stressful things got with elections and exams, even if her own way of coping was… less than ideal. Among other things, she had raised their pets until the dogs and cats she had had throughout her life had been as well-behaved as most humans.
Her mom would not have raised her voice. She would have calmly told Arthur to get back to her spot, then rewarded her for obeying.
Arthur was super smart and she would probably get smarter, so Viv should do her best to educate her well.
Viv sighed and retreated to the meat drawer. It was enchanted to be colder, which she had to recharge on occasion. Explaining that she could only use black mana had left Marruk perplexed at first, but the big woman had taken it in stride as one of Viv’s quirks. The Kark woman could use a bit of wind and a bit of earth. That helped with the chores, which they had shared so far.
Viv took one long stripe of dried meat. It was a dark piece of jerky from some wood creature with a very strong musk. It tasted like ass to Viv but Arthur liked the stuff.
“Come here.”
The dragonling slunked forward with her head low and they had a moment, interrupted by Solfis.
//It is time, Your Grace.
//We only have three days to train properly.
“Ok.”
Enough fucking around. A message had come in the morning with a request from Farren. He wanted her to clean a cave two days away from Kazar with the purpose of turning it into a safe haven. The other mercenaries had all declined, citing high risks. Or so Farren said. She had said yes on account of wanting her soul fixed. She had three days to practice her magic.
Marruk took Solfis and started dragging the sled, casually, with only one hand. Viv went to walk by her side, with Arthur tailing them, sniffing things as she went. The area directly south of the city was rather deserted, except for the estates reserved for guests. The official road through the forest started east of there. It meant that things were calm, which Solfis had relied on. They stopped next to a random boulder at the edge of the tree line.
//I will now assist you in acquiring the last of the basic mana skills.
//Manipulation focuses on using mana for your own use.
//Sense focuses on identifying, locating, and understanding mana.
//The last one is absorption.
//Absorption allows you to take mana from the environment and draw it into your core regardless of the mana’s original color.
//Now, you can quickly and easily recharge your core and conduits with ambient mana that you are attuned with.
//That is due to the fact that turning mana you are attuned with into your own is a natural process.
Viv thought about it. Her yoink spell relied on making an undead’s black mana into her mana, and it felt instinctive.
//Normally, mages will always manage to draw some amount of mana that they can use immediately.
//In your case, the ability to turn foreign mana into your own is paramount.
//That is due to the fact that most environments have a very limited amount of black mana.
“So I am super strong in the deadlands but weaker everywhere else?”
//The power of your spell is the same.
//Your ability to cast continuously, however, will be hampered.
//You already experienced this during your stay in Fort Stone.
“When I had to get poisoned to recharge?”
//Yes.
//Your key spell, yoink, is also geared towards killing undead.
//It will not work on anything else.
“So I need to update my repertoire.”
//Indeed.
//We will focus on both over the next three days.
//First, you can use your ‘bzzt’ spell with the pierce rune to overload the conduits of an enemy.
//This will kill them in a horribly painful fashion.
//It is a relatively mana-intensive spell.
//Try it now.
Marruk sat on the sled to watch while Arthur rolled around in the grass. Viv pointed at the boulder and summoned the twisted arrow of the spear rune in her mind. It was the first rune she had properly learned, and also the only one used in the yoink spell. She was intimately familiar with its working now, and it came to her with perfect ease.
“Bzzt.”
A slightly frayed bolt as dark as the void jumped from her chest to the stone. She didn’t need to point at stuff, though it helped. Casting spells from different parts of her body worked just as well and didn’t warn anyone of her intent, so she did it whenever she could.
The bolt smashed against the boulder without effect.
//Aim for a tree, your grace.
//Boulders have no conduits to flood.
“We’re not going to anger some forest spirit, or creature or something?”
//No, Your Grace.
//There would not be one so close to the city.
//I assure you that this forest can afford to lose a tree or a hundred.
Save a tree, eat a witch? Probably not today.
“Bzzt.”
She immediately felt the difference when her power easily wiped out her target’s tiny conduits. The sickly leafy thing she had chosen withered in an instant as if blasted by a toxic bomb. They heard creaks, then the small trunk collapsed forward on the ground. It exploded into dust and ossified fragments.
//Better.
//You will consume more mana the more complex your target’s conduits are.
//This will serve you well against lightly armored opponents.
//Now, I would like you to try the basic spell used by war mages everywhere.
//It consists of the basic… bzzt spell, infused with a destructive aspect.
“You mean like what I did with my blight spell?”
//Precisely.
//Giving a destructive meaning to your mana and sending it away is the mainstay of battle mages everywhere.
//Such a spell takes relatively little mana, but requires a higher understanding of magic itself, as well as mental fortitude.
//Try it now, on the boulder.
Viv turned to the blasted piece of rock. It had ignored her previous attack.
The bitch.
Her laughable attempt at getting angry did not work, and yet the barest amount of resentment reminded her of her mindset when she had used the blight spell. The black mana had been charged with its most basic concept: annihilation.
Black mana was the end of things.
Viv latched onto that truth and charged a spell with it, the mana coalescing in her hand. She would use it to remove from this world the things that she did not like. They would be… gone.
“Purge.”
The attack was silent except for the groan of shattering stone. The boulder now sported a deep groove two handspans deep from which gravelly grey sand spilt like blood from a wound.
//You do not seem to have any difficulty casting those.
//Reassessing current priorities.
//We shall practice later to improve your speed and range.
//However, I would like to work on the mana absorption skill, for now.
//In order to facilitate its acquisition, you need to empty your conduits of most of its mana.
//You could use this opportunity to cast blight again.