For the remainder of the day Arthur practiced casting some of the tier two spells he had been learning so he could more easily cast them in the future. Interestingly Arthur found himself gravitating towards geomancy spells over the other three types that were widely available to him. The reason for this was that geomancy is one of the most versatile magic types for a beginner mage, the only real drawback is you can’t manipulate earth while far away from it, but once you learn how to conjure it with mana that no longer is a problem.
Arthur also found that his ability to cast tier two spells was beginning to pass onto new spells that he had been learning for the first time, he appeared to be adapting to the increased mana requirements that come with casting tier two spells and thus helped him control it with more efficiency.
While he didn’t make all that much progress in just a single afternoon and night, if he were to keep up such a training regiment he should be able to master casting tier two spells and move onto tier three. ‘I remember Georgius said that I will probably be able to advance my rank within the guild and become an evoker in around six months, although that was around a month ago now and I’m not certain that he accounted for my research and experiments into flesh golems.’ Arthur thought to himself as he was taking a small break from repeatedly casting spells.
Looking to his right Arthur could see the royal palace have several lit up rooms compared to most of the city excluding the various government funded guilds such as the mages guild and mercenaries guild. Arthur assumed that the upper floors were likely where the royalty lived, that left the other floors and the guilds as places for paperwork and other bureaucratic proceedings.
But this train of thought brought to Arthurs attention the fact the royals were unlikely to use fires, candles, or torches to light up their homes and the light did not look like it was from any of those sources. ‘Now that I think about it, the inside of the mages guild didn’t have a single candle or even a window to allow light in to see. Apparently dwarves don’t have much issue with the dark given as they live underground, but for humans and elves and those animal people… things… all need light to see. It must be some sort of magic, but it definitely wasn’t conjured fire as I would definitely notice the flames as they would need to be very large and open to light up such large rooms.’
Arthur made a mental note to look into how exactly the mages guild lights up the underground sections of the building and turned back to practicing his spells for one more hour before he went to sleep.
**********
/- - - - - -\
+ Geomancy Level 20
+ Aeromancy Level 13
+ Alchemy Level 11
+ Enchanting Level 2
+ Golemancy Level 2
+ Anatomy Level 1
\- - - - - -/
Another four day passed as Arthur practiced his tier two spells, created more things with his alchemy knowledge and skill that he sold to the alchemy club with the mages guild to keep up with his expenses, and two more attempts at creating a functioning flesh golem from the last two human corpses he had with him.
Arthur felt his power and control over his geomancy spells reach a sort of wall that he was unable to pass or even reach over even with a full day of practice. ‘I should probably move onto one of the other evocations now, even though geomancy is a versatile magic type it would be smart to diversify somewhat. I should ask Calavia for some advice on this when I see her again.’
Arthur continued with his alchemy like normal but decided to try buying a few recipe books from some of the alchemist stores he came across in his time in the city, of course these recipes were more advanced than what he had been brewing so far and required ingredients that needed to be imported from other places. Thankfully those stores sold those ingredients albeit at a marked up price. The three recipes in question were for Vials Of Stone Skin which was a drinkable liquid that created a thin layer of grey stone that covered the drinkers skin and clothes. The second was for a potion Of Eagle Eyes which would greatly improve the drinker's eyesight to that of an eagles although Arthur was currently unable to brew this potion as it required some more advanced restoration spells he was unable to cast. The third was for what was called Anti Sweat which would absorb sweat when rubbed on your skin and could be held like a gelatinous thing, it would grow along with the sweat it absorbed until it was around half a cubic foot in size which it would then die by melting into a weird gooey puddle.
Arthur’s experiments with the flesh golems had also shown improved results with his continuous attempts. With his experiments Arthur learned that if the age of the corpses had any impact on the final product then it was of minimal consequence within two or three days, this was because neither the corpse of the older man or the woman resulted in any lower quality golems, in fact each attempt only resulted in better and more improved golems.
The third attempt with the older man's corpse resulted in a golem that was able to move the entirety of its right arm and have a somewhat improved motor function regarding it and its mental capacity with it. The fourth attempt with the woman's corpse resulted with a golem that was able to move both its legs this time instead of a single arm, it was able to take a few steps before it suddenly collapsed face first onto the floor and broke its nose with a loud crack.
Arthur did make another attempt that day with the old recycled parts of the previous three golems but during the enchanting process nothing happened. The most probable reason for that was likely due to the previous enchantments likely messing with the new ones.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
On those last two days Arthur had to go out and find a few more criminals to kill and drag into his bag for his golemancy experiments. The only problem he had was that he couldn't find any, it was likely they were all hiding for some reason. Arthur did eventually find two standing in a back alleyway several blocks away from his home, out of curiosity Arthur decided to listen in on the conversation they were having.
“Gods be damned, has the world gone crazy? I can not believe that Yufur basically declared war on the other six groups over what might have been outside intervention.” The gang member standing on the right said as he held something in his left hand that gave off some smoke.
“Well he doesn’t exactly have all that much choice now does he? Someone destroyed a significant amount of the swamp weed that Kelile had imported before he was killed along with everyone else, it was easily worth 100 gold coins in its entirety. If I lost that much money then I would definitely be just as mad as he is.” The second gang member said as he leaned against the nearby wall.
“I guess I would also be as mad as Yufur is, but that doesn’t mean that this is the right decision to make. Just how many people are going to get killed from this gang war, and how many are going to survive what comes after.” The first gang member said as his ally turned to look at him with confusion.
“What do you mean ‘what comes after’?” The second gang member was no longer leaning against the wall, his hands were down by his strides and within a quick reach of his dagger that he kept at his side. Arthur was interested by that as well and listened with high hopes.
The first gang member paused at that question and looked down to the smoking piece of paper he had in a cylinder shape and gave a small laugh. He then dropped the paper and quickly reached for his dagger and swung it towards his former ally as quickly as he could. The wide swing easily missed as the second gang member stepped out of the range of the short blade and drew his own dagger.
The first gang member lunged forwards with the dagger intending to stab the second gang member forcing him to back step again to avoid the dagger from stabbing him in the gut. This continued with the second gang member being forced back progressively towards where Arthur was hiding without any means of counter attacking, clearly whatever that the first gang member burning had an effect on his mental state. This altered mental state was shown by the look of calm on his face despite the fact that he was trying to kill someone that was up until a few seconds ago his friend.
Soon the duo were out into the open area where Arthur was hiding. Neither paid him much attention as they simply thought he was just a normal civilian, that was until the first gang member felt a sudden impact from behind where Arthur was standing. He brushed it off for a moment thinking it was just in his head, but then suddenly it started to burn. It started as nothing more than just touching something that was hot, but it soon became more like sticking your own hand in a fire.
The pain caused the first gang member to stop his onslaught and try moving away from his target to figure out what the cause of the pain was. But as he tried to do so it was as if his foot was swallowed by the ground as he couldn’t even lift it off the ground. The second criminal noticed something on his former allies foot and thrusted the dagger in his hand into his open stomach before jumping back to avoid retaliation.
The wound slowly started to bleed and the first gang member clutched the open wound in his stomach in a desperate attempt to stop the bleeding. The only good that came from this was that it gave him an opportunity to see what was restraining his leg, but when he saw the earth coiled around his leg he was more confused than fearful. ‘How did this fool learn magic? Unless he had someone else doing the magic for him, but then why would he be at such a low rank under Kelile and now Yufur. Anyone with half a mind would have him in a decent position if he could easily hire a mage.’
The first gang member continued his struggling as his stamina drained along with his blood and his former ally took advantage of this by giving him a few more cuts with every opportunity he got, soon the first gang member was bleeding from just about every limb he had and the only thing keeping him standing was pure willpower.
This of course did not last long as the second gang member was able to use this weakness to disarm his opponent and drive his dagger into his chest several times, only when he was certain that he was dead did he stop and sheathe his blade. He noticed the vine like earth that was coiled around his traitorous friend's leg dissipated before his eyes. ‘Magic’ he thought to himself as he looked over to the other man that had apparently been watching the fight.
The gang member Paulus looked this strange man up and down, he appeared to be well off given his choice of clothing but he neither appeared scared or even concerned about the bloody fight that just took place before him. Either he was a master bluffer or this was nothing new to him, the small amount of magic that appeared led him to believe the latter.
“Was that magic you're doing?” Paulus instantly regretted putting his dagger away as it left him at a disadvantage against this possible mage.
“Yes it was. Now before you try anything I have a few questions I am expecting you to answer.” Arthur said as he conjured up several bolts of earth above his left hand, more than enough to easily disable Paulus without even accounting for the earth vine.
“Sure thing, what do you want to know?” Paulus could feel his heart beating rapidly at the display of magic before him, the mage before him didn’t even need to chant that spell he just casted, clearly he was very powerful.
“First things first I want to know everything about your criminal gang, who is leading it and who is leading the other groups?” Arthur asked as he lowered his hand yet the bolts remained floating where they were conjured.
“Well… since Kelile died Yufur has taken over our group, the other groups and leaders I don’t know much about except for the fact that they are controlled by whoever was either the strongest or the most trusted.” Paulus could feel his life slowly slipping away as he spoke with the mage, he knew he was too much of a liability to be left alive and only hoped that someone would stubble upon them and save him.
“And what exactly is being stored in those warehouses that have so many guards posted at? I have already raided one and burned it to the ground, though I must admit I didn’t see much value in dried grass.” Paulus could tell by the tone that he knew it wasn’t just some dried grass he destroyed, and he was expecting an answer.
“The warehouses are full of a drug called swamp weed, it is smoked and then inhaled for the feeling. It is also very valuable since the purge of the previous underworld kings and queens, without any of them supplying it the value of it skyrocketed through the roof. It was Kelile’s idea to start selling it before he was killed, helped us make a lot of money too and is half the reason why we were able to expand so much. We assumed it was sabotage by the other groups to slow us down, but clearly we went right about that.”