Chapter 2: chap 2
It's been two years since my agreement with Markus. In that time I did learn a few things about armed and unarmed combat. Furthermore I did learn the basics about arrays and elemental-based magic. >status limit< got to level 4 and infinity to level 2 even though I do not know how they work. >perception< is currently only improving my eyesight is what I could learn while practicing the bow. Learning under this old pair is actually really fun but also very strict. At home I was always alone because my father is in the royal palace most of the time and my mother as an adventurer is visiting her family. So living in the church was a welcome change of pace even though it was harsh at the start.
But today teacher wanted me to go to an expedition as a final test before becoming an adventurer. I am on my way to the forest to look up the decrease in goblin activity. Normally this is part of the knights work or sometimes for high ranking adventures but this was the perfect opportunity to test out my improvements of the past two years as well as to gain real life experience.
Well, walking aimlessly through the forest won't get me anywere. But sticking to the road is also not beneficial as many adventure keep this relatively save. The river down there is a good marker so I think it is good if I follow it to it's root. There I should construct a temporary base of operation.
(...)
It seems there are two bear cubs who occupy the place I wanted to settle. Killing them won't be very wise as bears don't replicate very fast therefore the balance of the forest is thrown off more easily. It is better to wait for the bear mother to make a temporary pact of ignorance. Now that I have time I should start building my base. First building a fireplace, then a tent and at last cleaning up the surrounding place. Preparing a defensive array based on water and earth magic is the last and most important step.
"hm???..." There is a big presence right behind me and a few small to my left, right and front -no above. Is it an ambush? But the big one does seem very different then the other ones. The small presences are probably goblins while the big one is either a hobgoblin or the bear mother. If it is the bear mother then she is tailing me a quite some time wich means I would be pretty terrifying. I was going into the forest with the expectan that other then the forest guardians, the spirits and the inner inhabitants there shouldn't be any from whom I couldn't at least flee from. I mean I could even deceive "her".
PS She was not mentioned before, but he is talking about the city guard chief.
Anyway I started to activate the defensive wind barrier array. Afterwards I shoot up a small pebble to hit branch or the goblin. They could mess up the wind current of the barrier if multiple things are attacking it at once so reducing their number as fast as possible is good. The Barrier will be shredding the falling goblin so I rush out to my right to kill the first group. My weapon for fighting are two short energy staffs I got from my master. I combined them to create a Naginata as reach is important if I want back down fast to defend the barrier. As I don't know about the big presence it is better to hold the ground rather then trusting my array art.
I dashed forward and cut the first goblin vertikal downwards. I then rotated my pseudo-Naginata to cut the ankle of another goblin while retreating. A third goblin then jumped from a tree over the goblins. By moving the Naginata up I pierced almost it's heart but he graped the energy blade. I retracted my Naginata. The first goblin then used the pierced goblin to also jump attack with its club. As I don't have the time to create my weapon myself I used a preset and hoped to get something like the Nunchuks. I closed my eyes in the fear of being hit.
When I opened my eyes I created a cross with two kitchen knifes. In between the blades was the club. I opened up my arms and cut the club and the goblins eyes while I fell back behind the defensive array. The goblin that was falling is already dead besides the barrier. It has lost one arm and 3 toes as well as half of its face when crashing down. The left group of goblins already tried to attack the barrier and seem to give up and fall back. The right group shouldn't pose a problem with two injured one dead and another wise goblin in the group.
Anyway I am not here to make goblins go extinct as there territorial behavior is beneficial for plant growth and animal count control. But if the big presence in front of me is really a hobgoblin then I will change my plan.
(...)
It is already noon and the presence is still hiding around here. It has enough intelligent to avoid the barrier and waiting for me to come out and it didn't attack the bear mother that was returning in the meantime. I think it is something from the inner part with high intelligent and newly born without parents around. My theory is that it is a shell lurker or a fire lizzard. It was stolen by dark adventurer. they got killed by a hobgoblin or goblin mage. That must be when the beast hatched. Seeing the dead it though of it as its race or even its parents. That would be a viable answer if the informations I have are all that is to the case. But the beast could also be unrelated and not so strong as I though.
Now that I am alone in the forest I can create my very own tools. Before my teacher would take away everything with the excuse that I shouldn't distract myself. The first thing I want to improve is the magic staff. A magic staff functions by absorbing external mana. Then mixes it with your own mana to give you control over it. You then chanel it in one of the 4 mana cores that are from beasts. through the core you can convert it into the corresponding element and cast your spell. Lastly you must determine the target of your spell and let loose of the magic. This is super ineficient.
A better way to cast simplified magic with a staff in my opinion is to make a single propose staff or SPS for short. First I create a pipe. I make a hole on one end to load small pebble with arrays on it. Then I sealed it with a mana catalyst on which I attached the element-less mana core or mana storage with the mana gathering array from a normal staff. The SPS can now cast the magic from the array pebble instantly into the direction the pipe is facing. the only problem now is that the pipe is facing in a ninety degree to my hand. So I attached a handle with also functions as a barrier to not accidently cast and to preserve mana. Now here is the problem: The array will destroy the pebble so I need a function to automatically clean the pipe as well as a whole ton of array pebble. With more mana steel or other metals I could solve the problem but now I must engrave the cleaning array on the pipe. As the array could easily messed up in a fight I covered it up with a wooden pipe. The pipe was also useful for lining up my line of sight with the SPS for long distance attacks.
Creating and refining the SPS did take three entire days. I do know that every day when the sun sets the highest the beast goes drinking and hunting for around 20 minutes. The moment it comes from the east of the barrier back it always let its guard down. This is the moment I wil aim for my SPS loaded with a poison >sleep< array. Restricting the movement of it will be the key for my investigation. I first can find out what this beast is and secondly move away freely from my base.
(...)
All according to the plan, I hit the beast with the poison >sleep< magic. Now I will determine the identity of the beast...
it is a "MOVA!?"
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