Explaining to Hatchet all that had happened with the dragon went a lot soother than he expected. He just listened to everything without once interrupting. He did give a rather interesting glance at the gloves once he explained what they were, how they worked and that he totaled the area by trying some of his weaker moves.
“So you're telling me that you saved a disguised dragonling while in the city and as thanks for that its mother made you a pair of enchanted gloves?” his tone sounded exasperated.
“Yeah, pretty much” I answered.
“I think it’s a good thing you are going to become an adventurer once you decide to spend your stat points, don’t think the village will survive you staying.” he mumbled under his breath. “ On the upside these will at least let you be somewhat safe around here without always having a minder.”
With that explanation out of the way he told me to move a little further away from the village and continue my “demolition” so that other hunters wouldn’t stumble upon me. They had become rather jealous of us since with Hatchet's high level we tended to venture out further and actually find something to hunt, they would be quick to share news of my magic for a reward.
Getting used to the gloves was not all that difficult, I did learn that some of my tricks were best not put through the glove. The first time I tried to speed myself up by using the earth to give me a boost I launched myself into a tree. Right now with the values of my physical stats any enhancement that affected me directly was best used without the gloves amplification.
The impact from the tree was mitigated by the shield, it was the big bruise on my left leg that let me know that my magic still followed some of the rules of physics. Any push that launched me forward had to be withstood by my own legs.
After a week of playing around with my new boost in power Hatchet decided that I was finally ready to go by myself for a little while. This didn’t mean that I would go all by myself out in the forest, simply that we could now split up to cover more ground while staying in range to call for help. Though if he was calling for help it meant either he needed some healing after a bad fight or I should go start the evacuation.
On the third time we split up I found myself a small group of kobolds. They must have survived the raid on their camp and retreated towards the caves before being scared back in this direction by the salamanders that forced them out in the first place. There were only three of them which made this a good change for me to fight something that could give me a challenge.
I took aim and infused a shadow arrow to start and fired at the one holding a staff. I wasn’t ready for a fight including magic coming at me so I had to take that one out first. The arrow was fully covered in a thin dark membrane and flew silently right on target. My adage of [Piercing Shot] meant that the headshot was an instant kill.
Unlike any of the other pack creatures I had hunted before kobolds were at least somewhat intelligent and proficient in tool use. This meant that while they had no way of noticing the arrow approaching, once it landed they could figure out where it came from by the angle it hit their companion.
This quick thinking was the first thing that made me realize that these kobolds were different from the ones I had seen the past year. Their size was a bit bigger and bulkier, but a quick [Judge Threat] on them told me they were a lot stronger than the mage I had just taken out. These were the elites that had tried to retreat when the army took out their base.
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The armored one of the two charged towards me. It not only used mana to speed itself very similarly to what I did, I could also feel his mana core infuse his whole body with mana. While this seemed a bit costly to do, the effect was something that I had been searching for. Mana strengthening, I had been trying for a while to figure out how I could use mana to boost my physical strength and I finally had an example.
I pulled as much mana as I could through the glove into the sword and launched a quick wind slice towards the kobolds neck. My use of mana clearly caught it by surprise, as did the power boost from the gauntlet as the strike took its head clean off its shoulders.
The down side for me was that I hadn’t thought through everything when I launched my attack. Sure my opponent was dead the moment I took his head off, the problem was that a clean cut with a wind slice provided no stopping power. All the momentum the kobold used to launch himself at me was still pushing his corpse forwards and the headless body slammed me into the tree at my back.
Quite a bit of blood got on me at this point when I saw the last kobold pick up the staff of its fallen comrade. I hadn’t thought of the possibility of there being two caster, even worse [Judge Threat] marked this one as being the strongest of the two. I didn’t want to give it a chance to launch a spell so I tried to copy the mana enhancement.
As mana filled my body so did the most excruciating pain I have felt. The only thing that could compare to it was when the vampire ripped my arm off. Luckily I had started with only a small amount of mana so that I would be in control of my body depending on the boost. The pain dissipated as quickly as it came, I sagged down and breathed a sigh of relief. Something had definitely gone wrong there.
I felt the earth shift under me as it wrapped around my feet. This kobold clearly knew what it was doing. Instead of going for a big attack it first went to snare me in place. Funnily enough my own stupidity did the same thing, so had it gone for an attack it would have most likely landed it.
I tried using my own earth manipulation to free myself but for the first time my attempts did nothing. Even with the boost from the gauntlet I couldn’t overpower the kobold with the boost from his own staff. I was also running out of time as I saw a ball of fire blaze to life in front of the staff.
Feeling out of options I went to the last thing I could try. I used [Mana Syphon] to remove the mana keeping the earth strong around my legs. The feeling that came with it was surprising, not only did I manage to break myself free from the earth but I also rolled completely out of the way of the fireball. A quick look at my own body with [Mana Sense] told me that I was in a similar state to the second kobold for a quick moment there. I had somehow enhanced my body using mana.
The annoyed snarl coming from the kobold broke me out of my reverie, I could go about pondering and testing things after I dealt with him and I was no longer in danger. I drew a second arrow in my bow and infused it with air. I didn’t need the stealth provided by shadow so I went for penetration.
The arrow made quick work of the kobold much like the first. At the same time I felt the earth grip me again. The kobold had gone for a repeat of the first attack, hoping to pin me in place for a second fireball most likely. One that he will never get to launch now.
Instead of quickly freeing myself I instead tried to enhance my body with my own mana once more. This time I focused the enhancement only on one arm just in case it had the same outcome. That proved to be a wise choice as I felt the agony shoot up my arm. Despite using the same method as the kobold mana enhancement didn’t seem to work like this for me.
My second test consisted of using [Mana Syphon] to free myself once more. This time however I not only syphoned the mana at a much slower rate but I also looked carefully at the process with [Mana Sense]. I could clearly see the mana in the earth change as it got absorbed into me. Once there I felt myself enhanced once again.
The enhancement was also weaker than it was the first time, it did however last through the syphoning process and an instant more after it finished. This was an odd discovery, could I only enhance myself in a fight against another mage?
As a test I used [Expel Mana] to release a small amount of my mana into the area around me. I then used [Mana Syphon] to draw it all back in. I could see my mana change as it got sucked back into my body. I’m not sure how my legendary skill works but it clearly doesn’t take the mana to top up my own reserves. As the new mana drew into my body I felt myself grow stronger and faster once more.
This was a great discovery, though the fact that it took quite a bit of my focus just to use [Mana Syphon] meant that I was not ready to use this in combat on my own mana, it was a starting point. Hopefully in the future I would be able to subconsciously use both [Expel Mana] and [Mana Syphon] together to keep myself enhanced.
The excitement filling me up spent me along to loot the kobolds and continue my patrol. Starting tomorrow my training is going to change once more.