CHAPTER 101

THINGS IN THE HEAD

  Hans introspected what he had learned till now, if mana discharge was not considered as a spell then there were only two spells that he truly learned from the book Limitless. TheVeganCarnage and Mutilate were self-created, and so does Ensnare and SugarDrain. He recalled the first spell he learned from the book specialised in restraining and the second was to put down the restrained target, both of the spells complemented each other and now he was learning to change the terrain to his liking but as he began he understood it was not as easy as others.

  He was practising since late morning and now the sun was hanging high in the sky. He drew a Ten-metre box in the ground, setting the area as his initial goal but controlling every bit of mana in it was far-fetched, Hans was not even able to raise several plants in a five-metre radius simultaneously. If he took time and raise the plants one by one, it was pretty fast too, but his goal of realising parallelism was giving him a bad break.

  As he continued without rest, the training knights looked at him in awe. Their training regime had already halted for some time but they stood there watching their young Lord growing and drying trees one after another. They were familiar with this but every time he did that, it sure surprised them.

  Before long, he became fatigued from his unproductive training. He shook his head, attempting to alleviate the piercing headache that had resulted from casting Sprout spells of various types and when he found some comfort, he checked the book once again but it was still useless. He was groaning in frustration and a familiar voice interrupted him, looking up, he saw Vanessa as she asked,

"What happened?"

Hans sighed and replied,

"Nothing, I am trying something new."

"Like?"

Hans explained her whole SilvaOrtus and with a bit of thinking she responded,

"Why don’t you start by growing a single plant forest first and then gradually start changing as your mastery over it increases, one to two, two to four and so on?"

  Hans thought for a while, he had not tried this because of Sam’s words “A forest cannot have a single type”. If learning SilvaOrtus was a step-by-step process, Hans was directly attempting the last step. Realising that, he sprung up from the ground and started applying Vanessa’s suggestion but she stopped him in middle. Not understanding her action, he looked at her with questioning eyes and she answered.

"Lady Sierra just came back from the temple, she is asking for you."

Hans once again looked at the sky and replied to her,

"Grandma just came, It must have been more than three hours since I left Winters with you, so what was she doing all that time?"

"She has nerves of steel if I must say," Vanessa sighed as he responded, "Remaining seated without saying anything all the time. Even I started to feel restless."

  Hans chuckled thinking of her stern face and followed Vanessa inside. They did not go to the study but drawing room and as he reached the place he heard the conversation between them. Delimira was standing in front of Sierra like someone waiting for punishment. He heard Sierra talking to her,

"Mostly everything is settled, we didn't find the true culprit but whoever they were, Rudolf’s actions already sent a clear message. So we'll start your tutelage of Krosh arts from tomorrow."

She paused feeling Hans’s presence and asked her,

"Now tell me the reason, why you seek power?"

"Will my answer affect your teaching?"

"No, it will not, I just like honest answers."

"There is someone I wish to kill."

"Not an excellent reason but hatred is a greater motivation than anything, however, remember my dear, it's easy to get consumed in it."

Delimira hesitatingly replied,

"I hope, No, I will not - "

"Since I said I will teach you, you can call me, teacher."

"Yes, teacher."

"Now tell me how much you know about Krosh art."

"It is developed by the late queen of Grimgar, a way to be a knight and a mage at the same time but only she succeeded and despite the method not being so secret, the world never saw another sword mage."

"Yes, you are right, because others did not have me as my sister did" (Grimgar's second queen, Samson’s biological mother). This was the first time Hans saw his grandma bragging about herself but he was wrong and she proved to him by saying, "It's not aura that is used in Krosh art but dead mana." There were a total of three listeners in the room and all were shocked because dead mana is poison, it happened when the circles of a mage broke, and its mana remained in the body. seeing the surprised faces, Sierra added,

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

"The Krosh art's first step is to regularly collect dead mana inside the body."

Delimira who was quicker in wits than Hans replied instantly,

"Then, I have to break my two circles."

Vanessa intervened,

"Ouch!, That would be extremely painful."

  She herself suffered from her circles breaking and the pain still haunted her. It was also the reason Sierra was not adamant about teaching the technique to others. Even with her divine healing, neither the human nor the elf’s body could withstand the torture of circle breaking on a regular basis. She recalled her sister, the creator of the method, suffering a backlash from this and ended up weakening herself. She looked at her pupil, offering her the last chance to back out from this but Delimira was adamant to see this to the end. She asked Sierra confirming her goal once again,

"If I could withstand, can you guarantee that I will become the sword mage?"

"Yes, I am several times stronger than in my younger days but the pain would be real and yours alone to bear, I can’t help you with that."

"Then worry not teacher, I will succeed after all I am just a partial elf, the blood of someone far stronger also flows in these veins."

"If I did not know that, I would have rejected your mother already," affirmed Sierra.

Delimira smiled as she said after a bit of thinking,

"Then I guess, I only have today as a painless day."

"Yes, do whatever you want today because, from tomorrow, it will be hell."

Delimira thought to herself and looked at Hans and a bad feeling hit him. He started shaking his head left and right, signalling Delimira to not do any bothersome thing to him. However, she smiled at him and asked her teacher.

"Can I go outside for a while, I want to see things..."

  Hans was startled, it was actually not a bad thing for him to be dragged into this because last time, Xandor’s stunt ruined everything. He was locked in the mansion for all three months and he thought, a small break won’t hurt the rest of his practice. He looked at her grandmother in anticipation and as Sierra saw that both the children were looking forward to this, she took out something and placed it on the table. It was a small jewellery box meant for the girl and she said while looking at her,

"It's a present for my student."

As Delimira opened it up, Hans shifted near her to see what it was and found plain stud earrings which didn't suit Delimira's extravagant style.

Notice :An Artefact is detected

Arahan’s Beads

Allow the wearer to change his facial features and also protect him from the prying eyes

Hans knew what it was but he was still startled. Everyone was looking at him asking what happened to get him shocked. He sighed and replied,

"Its name is 'Arahan’s bead', for disguise, right?"

"How did you know?" asked Sierra in surprise.

"Things just keep popping into my head these days, was I right?"

"Yes, my sister used these to travel discretely, now it is in hands of her successor."

Delimira got happy and wear it quickly. She asked in a hurry,

"How do I use it, teacher?"

"Just think of what you wanna change in your face, it will create an illusion for others."

Delimira thought of something and her elven ears turned into of humans'. She turned to others in excitement and asked,

"Now, I look like a human.

The only change Hans detected was her ears so he remarked,

"Like hell Winters, humans are not this -"

"This what?"

"P..pretty. Jeez,"

"Thanks for the compliment."

"It was not a compliment, I mean you should change your overall clock [ face ] too."

"Then why were you stammering,"

"Whatever" He resigned and turned to Sierra and said, "Since she is new here, I will personally guide her in the city, Grandma?"

Sierra chuckled at his cheekiness and knew he was aiming at something else,

"You are also new to the outside Hans but I agree, I can’t just stop you from spreading your wings," she said.

Hans became happy, he thought he would be stopped and there was a place he wanted to visit since he knew about it so he struck the hammer when it was hot

"Then we will go without escorts, right? - "

"No, that’s dangerous." intervened Vanessa.

"Come on sis, we both just returned from Frozen Tooth, what worse can appear here?"

Sierra stopped both and looking at her eager boy she said,

"Whenever someone said those words, things escalate so Aldrich will accompany you - "

"But"

"No buts, however, he will be under your command and if you choose, he will not tell us a word of whatever you are planning"

"You are not duping me are you?"

"I'm not your grandpa, my boy"

"fine, don't break my trust, Grandma"

"You really are becoming cheekier than before Hans"

  While their conversation continued, Vanessa made arrangements for the carriage to be prepared. The county's emblem on it was sufficient to deter many difficulties since Rudolf's name had reappeared in Grimgar. However, Hans was more thrilled than Delimira about venturing into the city because he had been eager to explore it for the past year. In Concordia, first-year students were restricted to a few locations, so he had never had the opportunity to wander around the bustling city and see the sights he had only heard about.

  In this situation, both Hans and Delimira were exactly the same. One was away from it and the other was imprisoned in a castle. The both of them did not want to waste a little of their time, they got ready quickly and went to the carriage. At this point, Hans did not realise how much he will regret coming with Delimira.

***