As he walked through the forest Arthur collected anything he could recognize as a possible ingredient for his potions, his primary focus was on the healing roots and the other ingredients that were needed to brew healing potions. But that wasn’t the only thing he was doing out there, he was also trying to create a small sound barrier in the palm of one of his hands as he walked around with some success.
As long as his hands were not full with useful plants Arthur was practicing and using up a decent amount of his mana as he did so, but he was sure to keep it above the halfway point just in case something dangerous happened where he needed his magic.
Unfortunately however danger always had a way of finding him.
While walking along the eastern edge of the forest near the road he suddenly heard a slight whooshing sound nearby that was followed by a little wrestling of a bush. He looked around a little confused at what made the sound but it was followed by another that nearly hit him in the face. With only a second to spare he realized what it was and conjured up a shield to protect himself from the arrow that would have hit him in the arm and forced him to hide.
Of course with arrows flying around he still did hide behind a tree to protect himself so he wouldn’t need to keep his shield up the whole time. The tree he hid behind was large and thick, more than enough to hide himself behind, but not much room to move around and not very effective when someone walked around just a few meters to the left or right. Still it was enough to peek around to try and figure out where his attackers were without exposing himself entirely.
As his heart started to slow with his steady breathing Arthur peeked around the side opposite that he hid from. Peering into the deep forest he saw nothing but more trees and bushes lining the somewhat raised forest floor.
Not wanting to give his enemies another opportunity he ducked his head back behind the tree and cursed the bandits that just attacked him. ‘Dam them, I just need one opportunity to deal some lasting damage to them and get them out of the fight. I just hope there aren’t all that many of them out there waiting for me to make a mistake.’
Instead of just waiting there for the bandits to enclose him Arthur started listening with his 30 points of perception for any signs of movement. To help concentrate he closed his eyes and focused only on what he could hear in a way not all that different from when he would meditate to more quickly absorb mana.
Around a minute of listening was followed with results, he could hear two sets of footsteps somewhere from where he was shot at from walking towards him with little regard for starting quiet. With a quick wave of both his hands Arthur conjured up six earth bolts and spun around the tree and pointed his hands forwards looking for the source of the footsteps.
Roughly thirty meters away there were two bandits, both human with unkempt hair and dressed in old worn commoner clothing that a day laborer or a farmer might wear. The first and larger one was carrying a large wooden rod that had a length not far from a spear. The other who was far slimmer yet looked just as mean had a bow in his hands with an arrow ready to draw, on his hip was an old skinning knife that would need replacing.
Without waiting for even a moment Arthur gave the mental command and the six bolts fired towards the two bandits with great speed. The two bandits didn’t have much time to react, the larger one didn’t even notice the bolts until they were far too close to dodge and was struck in the right shoulder, left thigh, and the lower chest before falling to the ground. The second bandit however noticed the bolts a few seconds before they hit him and managed to dodge out of the way of one of the bolts, the other two however struck him in the left shin and the last skimmed his waist leaving a cut that started bleeding.
The second bow-wielding bandit hobbled behind the nearest tree before Arthur had the time to process everything and conjured before firing off any more bolts. Looking at the first bandit who was laying on the ground that he could hear groaning somewhat he turned his attention towards the still standing bandit and the tree he was hiding behind.
Arthur quickly moved behind another nearby tree that was closer, closing the distance somewhat as he listened and watched the tree the last standing bandit was hiding behind. He did this once more and he could hear the bandit saying something muffled by the distance. Figuring that he would hear if the bandit tried to move from the noise he was making Arthur started casting the Free Handed Earth Weapon spell and conjured up a longsword made up from earth.
The muffled sounds the bandit was making didn’t cease during those twelve seconds Arthur was casting so he decided to walk closer with the conjured longsword hovering above his shoulder ready to strike like a snake. But as he got close enough he could hear that the bandit wasn’t talking but rather was crying.
Arthur hid behind a tree that gave him a good look at where the bandit was hiding and he saw the bandit was sitting there on the ground clutching at his bleeding waist and shin that still had the earth bolt sticking out of it. The bandit was trying to pull the bolt out but it wasn’t budging, instead it appeared to be causing the bandit pain which was why he was trying to pull it out in the first place.
‘Poor fool, I almost feel bad for him. But given that he tried to kill me just a few minutes ago while I was minding my own business I see no reason why I should care all that much about him.’ Arthur thought as he raised his left hand from behind the tree. Three more earth bolts were conjured with just a small hand movement and shot forwards with another.
Distracted with his wounds the bandit didn’t have the time or the focus to react to the bolts that struck him in the face, the right eye, and the neck killing him in just a few seconds. As he was dying however the bandit looked over in the direction of Arthur with wide eyes, from such a short distance Arthur could see the tears in the bandit's eyes just a moment before the bandit went limp and his head slumped down.
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For a whole minute Arthur waited behind that tree waiting for the sounds of anyone moving around just in case there were more bandits that he missed, thankful that appeared to not be the case. Slowly Arthur stepped out from behind the tree and walked over to the dead bandit and started looking through his things.
‘A bow and knife like I saw from a distance.’ Arthur said within his own mind as he placed the two weapons the bandit had to the side. ‘But you also appeared to have a few coins on yourself as well.’ Arthur smiled as he picked up a small pouch that jingled with the sounds of the familiar currency he was in such a need of.
Opening up the pouch showed Arthur a somewhat disappointing sight, only ten copper pieces to this nameless bandit that Arthur quickly added to his own bag with a little disappointment along with the bow and knife. ‘I really hope the other bandit has some money as well, but seeing how poor these two fools are thigh might be all that they owned.’
Peeking around to be certain that nobody had noticed anything while he wasn’t looking, Arthur then carefully made his way back to the corpse and started going through his pockets as well. ‘Looks like the two of you weren't completely poor after all, you seemed to have another three copper coins to your name.’ Arthur sarcastically said to himself as he opened the small pouch he found containing three copper coins. The only other object of value was the wooden staff that had a similar length to a spear which Arthur quickly placed within his dimensional bag.
‘Well I am certainly disappointed beyond measure and this trip has been ruined. Might as well leave now and return to the city while I can still salvage the day and do something else.’ Arthur thought to himself while taking one last look around to be certain he wasn’t being watched and began walking down the nearby road going north back to the southern entrance of the city of Antium.
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Once he returned to the city he took the quickest path to the Free Parrot Bar that he knew of going through several back alleyways to pass the large amounts of traffic that would often be on the proper roads at eleven o’clock in the morning, while it wasn’t recommended by the city guard due to the thieves and criminals that lurked away from the eyes of the public it wasn’t much of an issue for Arthur who could conjure up just about any weapon he needed for such low level and weak enemies. He found and entered the tavern and quickly walked up the stairs to the room he was renting and locked the door behind him.
With a deep sigh from the lack of valuables Arthur counted up the money he took from the bandits and disappointedly dumped the coins into the larger pouch where he was keeping the silver and copper coins he had.
“I still have over twenty silver coins, so I don’t really need to worry about money for the time being. But I still wished I got more money than what I did from those two, they did nearly kill me after all.” Arthur said to himself as he sat down on the bed.
With little else to do Arthur started to practice casting spells, specifically geomancy spells as that was his strong suit. The earth vine spell which would conjure up a small vine of earth from the ground was my focus for this training session as I wanted to try and use the spell against Darius the self proclaimed vampire lord.
With a small wave of my hand and a moment to manipulate his mana Arthur conjured up a vine that sprouted up like a bean plant that shifted and warped almost as if it was anticipating something. He stood back and did nothing while allowing the earth vine to move around on the spot while I watched from a distance. For a minute the vine moved around like a thin appendage of some underground animal before it simply broke apart piece by piece before it dissipated into nothing leaving no evidence that it was ever there.
‘I noticed several things with that spell. First, the spell took a bit longer to cast than the Tri Earth bolts spell. That was likely because I have a lot more experience casting that spell than any other spell.’ Arthur laid back on the bed as he continued to take his notes mentally. ‘Second, the vine was just kind of doing its own thing when it didn’t have a target to try and attach itself to. I wonder if that has something to do with the fact that it is an actual spell and what actually makes something a spell rather than anything on my end.’
As Arthur was about to think about other things he noticed such as how the spell acted when it came to an end he heard a sudden knock at his door. Quickly he sat up a little worried for a moment before he thought back to the glass bottles he ordered. With that he stood up and walked over to the door before unlocking it and opening to see a young human boy no older than sixteen carrying a box that was filled with the glass bottles he ordered.
“Are you Mr. Arthur? Because I have the glass bottles you ordered.” The young boy sounded a little nervous but Arthur paid that little attention. “Yes I am.” He answered as he took the box from the boy's hand and brought it into his room and placed it on the table. When he looked back the young boy was still there holding a small document and ink pot with a quill inside. Arthur quickly recalled that this was the notice of sale and would require his signature and the address he received the order from to prevent any legal disputes that may occur.
Without even waiting for the boy to say anything Arthur quickly took control of some of the ink and filled in the blank portions of the document to the surprise of the boy. When Arthur was done and was closing the door the boy had barely moved an inch and stayed standing for a moment when it was closed.
With his chain of thought broken by the sudden arrival of his bottles Arthur with a small hand movement and manipulation of his mana conjured up another earth vine and stepped back to observe how it acted taking notes within his own mind as he did so.
*********
The young boy who delivered the box of bottles slowly made his way back out of the tavern and onto the street. From there he followed the road back the way he came until he arrived back at the Ice Wares Glass Smith workshop where he found his boss and the Forman directing his workers out in front of the building.
The boy waited until they were finished before he walked over and told the Forman that he finished the task he was assigned and handed over the notice of sale. “That's good, if you didn’t deliver it and instead returned with nothing I likely would have beaten you and told you to bring them back. How was the client by the way? He was dressed a little strange compared to our normal clientele.”
“Well he is certainly a mage. I saw him doing magic with the ink, that was how he wrote everything down.” The boy said, his voice trembling a little as he spoke.
“Wait, our new client is a mage? That would explain the bottles he wanted.” The Forman said hoping that the people walking the streets didn’t hear his question.
Truthfully he didn’t need to worry about the common folk walking around several meters away, who he should have been worrying about where the workers and one worker in particular that was listening from just two meters away.