‘What!? How is that shield so durable!?’ Arthur was shocked by the strength and versatility of the shield being used by the gang leader who was happy to try and negotiate with him just a few seconds ago. ‘That is either the most efficient talisman I have ever seen or I don’t have all the pieces.’ Arthur watched as Kelile began running towards Arthur with his sword raised high ready to kill.
With a wide swing Kelile brought the sword down like an axe as Arthur blocked with his mage staff, thankfully it had an enchantment that improved its durability. Out of instinct Arthur shoved his attacker away and brought the mace-like end down in a counter attack. That attack hit Kelile in the shoulder and caused him to shout out in pain as Arthur smiled. ‘You idiot, that wasn’t a shield talisman. It was a magic shield talisman, it only blocks magic attacks. No wonder it worked against both geomancy and pyromancy with little energy drain.’
Kelile though was very confused, he assumed that since his talisman was able to block magic attacks it should also do the same for non magical attacks as well, in fact he thought it would be easier on the talisman. But despite this flawless logic he was still struck in the shoulder by what was effectively a large two handed mace and recoiled to try and get some room.
This was when the other members of the Black eye gang joined in and began attacking with whatever they had with them. Whether they had any proper training with a weapon or not they took whatever they had and ran towards Arthur with it more than happy to strike him down. Of course the older woman and her conscious subordinate were both the fastest and more dangerous of the few that remained.
They were on him quickly and struck at him with the fury of a living demon, they were so skilled compared to Arthur that he was even forced back towards the open doorway with the only thing keeping him alive being the mage staff in his possession and the force armor spell it contained. Without it he would have likely been leaving a pool of blood on the floor.
As he was being forced back he knew he needed to do something or he would be cornered and quickly disabled before he was killed. But as things currently stand he did not have a way to change that. The best thing he could do was use a large gust of air to propel himself back towards the door and by himself some time to cast either a force barrier or force wall.
The gust of air Arthur created was a bit stronger than he intended and pushed both himself and his two attackers a few meters from where they were. With a moment to think Arthur’s eyes darted around the room to look at all the other gang members, they were about as far back as the older woman and her subordinate which gave him enough time to properly cast something. Given his current position the best option would be the force wall.
Placing both hands on the shaft of his staff Arthur held it out at his arms length and quickly lowered it to the ground, following that was a small shimmer between Arthur and the gang members that also took notice but paid it no attention once it was gone. The first to reach the force wall was actually Pius, surprising his colleagues as well as himself, but he quickly met the invisible force wall and recoiled as he held his nose.
‘Okay, I have time to think. What do I do now?’ Arthur’s eyes darted around the room for something to use. Pyromancy was off the table as he didn’t want to start a fire in a building built entirely from wood. Geomancy and hydromancy wouldn’t help in this situation unless he removed the force wall, he could use aeromancy as it would pass the wall without any problem due to it not being a solid or liquid object. There was one problem with that, it was the type of magic that Arthur was the least skilled in which would require him to use most of his focus.
But then Arthur noticed something on the other side of the force wall, sticking out of the backs of the gang members and opposite walls were several of the earth bolts that he created as a barrage. Since he created them from actual dirt as opposed to conjuring them he could still use them with less mana than if he used aeromancy and he might even be able to surprise his opponents by striking from behind.
The remaining gang members ran up and began swinging their weapons at the invisible force wall, but due to their attacks simply being non magical they couldn’t even see if they were damaging it. Meanwhile Arthur raised his hands and slowly reconnected with each of the small earth darts that he could find scattered across the room, when he had a suitable amount of them he quickly turned his hands around and commanded them to go in the general direction of where all the gang members were.
They almost all shouted out in pain as they felt the second barrage of earth bolts pierce into their backs just like their allies who were killed by the first one. Although around half of them survived this one as they were struck with hastily reused and not of the same condition when they were first used. The half that did survive this included Pius and Eveline but not their second in commands while Kelile was killed instead of his second in command, there was also the second in commands of the other two gang leaders.
Seeing all his enemies on the ground and dying, Arthur dispelled the force wall and raised his left hand to conjure a larger earth bolt for each of the remaining gang members to kill them quickly. As much as he wanted to keep them suffering for what they likely did to his former teacher he knew if he dragged things on too much he could be attacked by their subordinates sitting downstairs, and in that fight he would be outnumbered even more so.
Most of the gang members were in far too much pain to even react to Arthur’s actions except Eveline, she could see him raising his hand and conjuring the earth bolts and in a desperate attempt to live she begged to be allowed to live. “Please, I will give you money, I will give you anything you want if you let me go.” Her voice was so weak that she didn’t even think that her attacker could hear her.
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But to her surprise he did hear her and he even responded. “I already have exactly what I want from you, and I can assure you that you wouldn’t even be able to give it to me while keeping your life.” Eveline was confused by this answer but she didn’t have all that long to think about it as an earth bolt pierced her through her eye and killed her almost instantly along with the rest of her remaining allies.
/- - - - - -\
+ 1900 Exp
Level up
Level 14
13500/15600
+ 10 points
\- - - - - -/
Arthur looked over each of the bodies to be certain that they were really dead before he started checking them for anything of value. What he most found was an assortment of silver and the occasional gold coin along with the weapon they brought along with them, but the dark skinned man Kelile was the best in terms of valuables as he had two talismans with him. One talisman would conjure up a shield that would block all magical attacks and the second was an offensive one, of course the previous one said it shot fireballs but given he didn’t know what type of shield talisman he had he probably didn’t know what type this one was either. ‘I’ll need to test it out myself to be certain of what it does.’
By the end of his looting Arthur was left with five steel short swords, twelve steel daggers, the two talismans, three gold coins and thirteen silver coins. Happy with what he collected Arthur walked back downstairs and into the actual tavern part of the building. A few of the gang members gave him strange looks as he exited the stairway, they likely heard something that happened upstairs and figured he must have started a fight of some sort. Although those were the ones sitting closest to the stairway, most of the others did not pay him any attention. As he passed by the bartender he gave him a smile and pointed upwards to the ceiling when they made eye contact, the bartender looked up and back at Arthur before he nodded with a smile on his face. Arthur suspected that later he would dispose of the bodies as right now he had too many people that would prove to be witnesses.
Arthur upon leaving the tavern returned home the very same way he left by circling around and passing through his neighbors back yard and into his own where he entered through the back door. Based on the sun it was around noon when he returned home leaving him with plenty of time to change and be ready for if Gaelin returns with a box full of ingredients like he always does.
As Arthur waited he began brewing a few potions that he knew by heart with some of the ingredients he currently had on hand. He managed to brew a few batches of whatever potions came to his mind when he heard a knock at his front door and went to answer it. Like he expected it was Gealin with a box full of ingredients he collected. “Good afternoon sir, I brought you the ingredients I collected this morning.”
Arthur smiled and welcomed Gaelin inside as he took a quick look over at the gang members watching his home. It was an elf this time, specifically a wood elf that looked like it had thick tree bark for skin. From such a distance Arthur couldn’t quite tell if it was a man or woman.
Gaelin brought the box inside and placed it on the table for Arthur to take a look through, when he was done he walked back into his alchemy room and returned with a small pouch with six copper coins inside. They thanked each other and Gaelin began walking out the door, but he paused for a second and turned around before he asked Arthur something. “Um, sir? If you don’t mind me asking, why exactly were you not here this morning?”
Arthur paused at that question, honestly he hadn’t come up with an excuse because he was not expecting Gaelin to arrive today. He figured that he had a second job that he would work for the rest of the day after delivering the ingredients he brought. Given that Gaelin is here right now that likely is not the case. “I… had something personal come up that I needed to take care of. It lasted the whole morning and I only got back around an hour ago. Speaking of me not being here, I assumed I wouldn’t be seeing you until tomorrow. I always thought that you had a second job that you would go to after delivering the ingredients every day.”
“Well sir that is because you pay me 2 copper pieces above the average of what most people earn for doing manual labor, and I only need to work for around half of the time that everyone else in related jobs need to. I do occasionally find a temporary job to pass the time and earn a little extra, but for the most part I have been going to libraries to learn how to read so I can read more books and learn from those.”
“Wait a minute, you don’t know how to read. Are you paying someone to teach you how?” Arthur looked at Gaelin with great confusion, he assumed that everyone knew how to read because even though it was only through the magic necklace he could understand what everyone around him was saying he still knew how to read in one language even though he did not recall the name of it.
“Well of course I don’t, I was an orphan and a commoner. There isn’t exactly any large scale education for the masses. If someone like me wants to learn how to read we need to go out of our way and find someone during our free time, and yes I do pay her to teach me. But it is a group of ten that she teaches at once so everyone just needs to pay her a single copper piece a lesson. Three days a week I go and do that and I only pay a single copper piece for each group lesson.”
“Wait a minute, if you weren't able to read then how did you understand the instructions on how to properly harvest certain plants for their ingredients. The thing is full of words, practically from top to bottom.”
“I just looked at the diagrams and pictures, they provided more than enough detail to harvest the plants you wanted… after a few attempts. And besides it wasn’t like they were harmful to me, the dangerous properties only become dangerous after being distilled and all sorts of other spells and alchemy stuff that you do.” Gaelin smiled as he explained.
Arthur on the other hand was a little less enthusiastic about that. “So how well is your reading ability now? Is it enough to actually read the book and understand the written instructions?” Arthur was gritting his teeth in worry over how he made an illiterate poverty stricken man go out into the nearby forest alone to bring him ingredients when he was unable to read the instructions on how to harvest them.
“I can read most of the words I have come across and I have even read a few books containing poems written by the famous poet Sharkspear. He has written a lot of poems and stories. Our teacher has us read some of his works as something she calls ‘homework.’ Personally I don’t really mind and I sometimes enjoy his stories, he put a lot of time and effort into them.”