Chapter 22: The Ruins of Amatath
After Ren's departure, Seth's mood greatly improved. With a clear path in front of him and a fair amount of experience with mana manipulation, he was sure that before they arrived at Grechit, he would have grasped the basics of darkness magic.
With a broad grin on his face and a slight pep to his step, he called up the system's interface and opened a Basic guide to Darkness magic control- the spellbook he was awarded after delaying, or rather eliminating the blight ghoul. The book reminded him of another reward the system promised on but never delivered on – taking his life. His frame slightly shivered at the thought, but he quickly forced his fears aside, choosing not to dwell on it.
Instead, he poured his full attention towards the task before him, consuming the spellbook and replicating the spells. He studied the manual, flipping through it page by page, stopping only to practice spells and dismiss notifications.
After an hour passed, he mentally shut the book and took the time to digest what he'd read. Darkness was far more mysterious than he first thought. In the chapters on darkness theory, the author described it as "the cold embrace of everything not of light, an otherworldly ether that consumed all."
"Otherworldly." The word stood like a drop of blank against an endless canvas of white. There was an allowance for the artistic writ in prose, but he knew, no, he felt that this was not that. He stared at the pulsing bulb of stringy darkness that writhed between his fingers. It was though an intelligent mind watched from the ichor.
Seth found the spells interesting, practical, but exhaustively covert. None of the tier-one spells dealt any sizeable offensive damage. They all focused on basic darkness magic manipulation, diversion, and concealment. The two most notable spells, darkness shroud, and cloud had battle applications and were very dependent on the absence of light.
Darkness shroud covered the caster in a visible layer of darkness that increased your physical attributes by roughly five percent, erased your presence while you were covered in darkness, and granted night vision. It was a decent buffing spell better suited for reconnaissance and espionage. He had no doubt it'll be useful in the future, but at the immediate moment, it offered no sizeable increase in his offensive power.
Darkness cloud produced a cloud of darkness that could be woven around an object or used to create a small field of darkness to confuse your distract your opponent. Both these spells performed better at night and became staggeringly weak when exposed to a powerful light-emitting spell. They were also easier to cast at night time and required less mana. All the other spells in the spellbook were basic control exercises that built towards both spells.
Seth wasn't pleased with the underwhelming selection of spells he had access to, but he didn't complain too badly. While investing his stats in speed and strength would've served him better, a one stat boost to both won't increase his battle prowess; magic would.
He comforted himself with the knowledge that the Vampiric race, servants of Umber, enemy of Mormon, and Sun God Uvu, battle mages, used mostly darkness magic. Mormon has been at war with them for decades, and despite having several senior and intermediate magic knights of different elements on their sides, they've been unable to win with war.
The basics were a stepping stone to higher powers, and he was determined and admittedly impatient to gain said powers. So, he dutifully practiced, shaping darkness mana into shapes, changing its states, and holding the spells for as long as he could. He also learned of a better darkness mana accumulation technique using his darkness conduit and practiced that when he ran out of mana.
He repeated this cycle for hours while they journeyed in darkness. After their sixth hour of travel, the burly captain spoke up, "We camp there tonight." He pointed at a barely visible clearing just beyond the darkened tree line. Seth stopped practicing as he heard the captain's words, and together with the rest of the team, they waded through the moist undergrowth towards the clearing. With a few hours to dawn, the team set up several barriers- stone and magical – and turned in for the night, leaving Seth to take the first watch, which he didn't mind since it gave him room to practice discreetly.
He cycled through each shape- star, cloud, ichor, box, sphere- and tens of other forms outlined by the book. He drained his pool several times over and filled it again. With each cycle, he gained more fine control, and darkness that snaked through his fingers felt like less an unwanted gift was given by the mage that nearly murdered him and felt more like an element he could call his own. He enjoyed rapidly watching his control rise, and before long, he felt confident that he could handle larger spells.
He pulled up his status to check the fruits of his labor before he attempted shadow shroud or cloud.
Name: Seth Ryall
Level: 2
Bp: 0/2800
Pp:
Race: Human (level up to evolve race)
HP: 30
MP: 250
Strength: 23
Speed: 15
Stamina: 12
Intelligence: 8
Sense: 5
Days to death: 1061 days
Stat points: 2
Magical affinities: Darkness, corrupted light, Blood
Basic swordsmanship Lv 5, Basic Dagger arts Lv5, Basic Archery Lv 5, Basic Spearmanship Lv5.
Cruor's Aid: Blood siphon Lv.1 Blood absorption Lv.1, Life sense Lv.1.]
Darkness Magic Spells: Basic Darkness manipulation Lv 3, Darkness Cloud Lv 0, Darkness Shroud Lv 0
He was pleasantly surprised by the changes he noted, especially to his mana pool and intelligence stat. He was understandably upset at the sight of his estimated days to live drop, but he didn't dwell on it. Satisfied by his progress, he moved on to construct the spell. It was by no means complex, but he found his control for the element lacking.
Darkness shroud continuously failed, darkness cloud felt a bit easier, so he moved to that. He drew one of his two daggers and focused on encasing it in a thick cloud of mana. He'd cover two-thirds of his lengthy blade when he felt his control slip and his entire spell unravel, and his core empty out. He looked to curse, and that was when he noticed.
Warm rays accompanied by the sweet chirp of waking birds and soft dew descended upon the cloaked campsite. The morning had come, and he'd forgotten to switch watches with Brick, his soon to be battle mate.
The members of the Red hornet awoke from their slumber shortly after Seth gave up on spell casting for the time being. Ren was first to rise, and in minutes the rest of the team emerged from their tents. They broke up camp, disassembled the minor rock formation they created, erased all signs that they camped, and continued their journey to Grechit.
With groggy eyes and yawns, they trudged on at an unhurried pace. Brick, despite resting through the night, yawned and stretched. "I understand that we are in a hurry, and four hours of sleep is all you can allow," he said, facing Germo, "but traveling without a hearty breakfast, that is where I draw the line."
Germo, who led the party like he did the day before, turned the burly man with a simmering glare, and tossed him a hard loaf from his interdimensional ring. "Eat on the road if you are hungry. We are not stopping till mid-day. We might not be in a hurry to join the hundreds of Mercenary at the gate, but we have bigger concerns."
Brick snagged the bread from mid-air. "Like what?"
"We have to visit Amatath to practice formation we will use for strategies against the blood mage, and Ren needs to train Seth," the bearded leader answered. "Now stop grumbling. If you have the energy to talk back, you can walk faster."
Germo took giant strides forward, transitioning from a brisk walk to half sprint and the rest of the group reluctantly joined him, starring daggers at Brick as they strut past him. The background shifted around them as they traveled. They passed ruins of broken towers, reclaimed by nature, and small groups of returning merchants who wordlessly waited for them to pass, behind their lines of hired shivering mercenary mages.
When Mid-day came around, Germo directed the team to the ruins of trade town, by the roadside. Even from a distance, Seth could tell that a great calamity befell the town. The tallest of the ruined buildings were three meters tall, with walls as black as night. Once he ventured close enough to the ruined town to better inspect its remains, true horror filled his heart. The walls of stone were borderless and glib, their tips and edges brittle and caked. They looked to be scorched by fire so hot, it melted stone.
Amatath, it used to be called. A once vibrant trade post and popular destination for merchant and weary travelers. It burnt to the ground by the fires of Grand mage.
"A grand mage with quite the temper razed the entire town with a single spell. As the story goes, the son of the mayor insulted him, and no one in the town of thousands, not even the mayor himself, apologized, so he cast a wave of fire so hot, it melted stone, and purged the town," Sera explained as they navigated through the remains of the crumbled walls of the charred town.
"With a single spell?"
She nodded, "you vastly underestimate the power of a powerful mage. Supreme mages can siege major cities and battle hordes of mana beasts with leisure."
"That is… I knew that mages were strong, but…Cities"
"This entire place is hidden by an array of some sort. The mage wanted to keep this place a secret after burning it to the ground, so he hid it. We are only able to see and enter this place because the incantation holder allows it."
Seth raised a brow in doubt, "And Brightmont just ignored a major tradepost miles away from their city after it disappeared?"
"It was during the height of the Vampiric wars. Decades before you and I were born, Mazi found the incantation tile on the body of an older mage that a vampire lord fell."
"The bartender!" Seth could hardly believe his ears.
Sera nodded, her bright with admiration as she spoke, "He was quite the Knight back in his day. He was a great mage, the first one the Red Hornet ever had, and he used lost magic too. But that was before…" She looked to Seth, who starred at her eagerly, but she refused to continue. Sensing her discomfort, he shifted the conversation.
"The remains of the town are in the open. Surely people will stumble upon it, no matter how well protected it might be?"
Sera laughed, "As I said, you underestimate the power of a Supreme Mage. People have died trying to invade this town. The magical defenses are quite strong. You don't hear about places like these because the Emperor doesn't want you thinking there was an alternate path to power and glory, except through knighthood."
Emperor Talu wasn't the most honorable man to ever rule over Mormon, but he doubted that he would resort to something as underhanded. "I don't believe that for a second."
"Believe what you want to," Sera shrugged as she sidestepped a molten skull and continued on with the rest of the team towards the ruins of the local knight's academy. Seth pondered her words as he walked past half-molten stone towers, shops, and blackened remains of the town's former occupants. Though he abhorred mages, he wasn't blind to their power. The molten carriage to his left was proof of the Supreme mage who torched the town. Perhaps there was some benefit to becoming a mage. He wistfully imagined himself incinerating the mage that kidnapped his sister with a wave of his hand or a murmur. A small smile formed on his face as he followed after Sera and the rest of the red hornet.
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