CHAPTER 15
I WANNA BE A LIZARD
Hans came back sniggering. The bar owner of the bar had assured him that he would tear down everything and sell it as high as possible. On his journey back to the mansion, only two things lingered in Hans’s mind: he would have to wait for a week so the dwarf could trade his things, and sell it as high as possible and second was Kansas.
Shaking his thoughts, Hans settled in his mana control to stretch as far as it could go and found Kansas still breathing down his neck. “Tsk! Come on,” he vented and thought, “Tsk! I really need to cut him off. The merged book has the title written in bold and big words. If it is known that book of power is in my hands, it will do nothing but bring me a catastrophe.
So for precaution, Hans only followed Sierra like a duckling and did nothing. He felt as if someone had clipped his wings, and his dam of tolerance was about to break. He entered the Dwarven community in an irritable mood, but soon his crankiness faded away as he glanced at the sheer amount of mana gems and stones back at the alcohol storage. He entered the Dwarven community in gold was it?” He asked the dwarf.
“Around 130,000 gold. the bar owner answered, pushing the pile of resources into a belt and pointed out, “This is on me.” He flashed the beige belt laced with several small pockets.
“Is it similar to the space storage I have?” Hans questioned.
“As if!” Dwarf immediately retorted and pointed out, “This is several times advanced than what you had, and,” he stressed, “it comes with no tracking runes or spells.”
“How much is the capacity—”
“Five times than your waist bag.”
“You outdid yourself, Mr. dwarf—”
“I told you to call me by my name. Why are you calling me dwarf? How would you feel if I addressed you as the puny human?”
How would you feel ifI can’t just say I forgot his name,” Hans thought, perplexed, but the dwarf caught on and shouted to confirm, “You dare forget my name—”
“Humans are far inferior in many things than dwarves. Recalling names is one of them.” Hans buttered the dwarf, and like any other dwarf, the bar owner who took pride in thinking dwarves were better than humans, got pleased.
“Yes, you are right? You humans tend to be forgetful. Listen again, my name is Higrid Smithmason—”
“Ah, Smithmason, I remember the name now. How can I forget, tsk! tsk!” Hans shook his head, and his actions somehow pleased the giggling dwarf.
But before he could sway away in the pleasing feelings, the Dwarf pointed to the space belt. “Everything a dwarf makes has a name. This little beauty is called Knapbinder. See these eight pockets.” Higrid rotated the belt, pointing the stitched pockets, and continued, “Each of these pockets is special. One can even store a living thing…just do not put something big.” The dwarf sighed, adding, “I’ll leave for you to explore the rest of them. Take care of the knapbinder, and it will return the favour.”
“Speaking of Favour…can I ask you one?” Hans asked shamelessly.
“What?”
“You see, a fly is chasing me everywhere I go. I need a quiet place where it can’t reach.” Hans pointed towards the estimated location where Kansas was lurking, prompting Higrid to say, “That is some fucking dangerous fly.”
“Yeah.” Hans agreed, nodding, and asked, “So, can I get some quiet place in the Dwarven community?”
“You can get a place, but it won’t be quiet. We are a noisy bunch.” Higrid mentioned.
“As long as that ‘Big Fly’ won’t bother me. I’m good.” Hans nodded.
“Then come tomorrow. I’ll have a place ready.”
“Thanks, Higrid.” Hans waved his hand and left for home.
Since that day, it was Hans’s daily routine to visit the dwarves. The book of power brought major upgrades to Hans’s existing arsenal. His VeganBind didn’t grow stronger, but mixing the replica of day seed into it brought an impactful change. The moment someone rended the vines, it released the solar energy in the form of an explosion.
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Seeing him doing extraordinary things, dwarves keep challenging him for inspirations. And it was the day he perfected mixing the day seed with his projectile attack - SeedBullet. “Hey, Zukko.” Hans shouted at his sparring partner, “Your armour better be sturdy, I don’t know jack what this attack would do—”
“Don’t look down on Dwarven armour, human brat.” The dwarf named, Zukko rebuked, “This is a masterpiece. I won’t even feel it— Swoosh!” He wasn’t finished yet. Hans let the improved SeedBullet go. His control over mana wasn’t much improved, but his regular practice had brought significant changes. He could now attack five simultaneous shots, but only one needed to test out both: Zukko’s armour and his new SeedBullet.
“Boom!” The SeedBullet met the shining armour, and an explosive impact reached everyone’s ears.
The dust cloud around Zukko finally settled, and as he had said before, a dwarven armour was very much proven its worth, but Zukko wasn’t scathed completely. He was knocked out cold.
Hans was also surprised. It was like he had finally overcome the flaw of his BlastSeed spell, which needed a ridiculous amount to prepare and had a short range and expiration window. He smirked and said to himself, “Now this is what you call a BlastSeed.”
“Ha! Ha! Ha!..” Gasping, Zukko regained consciousness. It was all due to the dirty socks of Higrid stuffed inside his nostrils. But instead of venting on Higrid for his vexing action, he quickly disarmed himself and checked his shining armour, still dent-less. He breathed in relief but soon found a big problem, “No! No! No! Son of a bitch, he broke my protection runes!”
Before Hans could relish in the joy of what he was thinking, he asked his new dwarven friends to bring out more testing armours, and like an excited bunch, eager to prove their armour was better than the peers. They soon brought their best works, but one after another, Hans’s SeedBullet, which he now called BlastSeed, broke the runes.
It was a tight slap on Dwarves’ faces since the advantage of having dwarven armour was that it came with several abilities infused in them by dwarven runes, but now someone was capable of breaking them permanently.
However, unlike humans, dwarves were a race driven by the pursuit of challenges. They all set out to refine their armours to withstand any damage Hans could inflict. From that day forward, in the bustling community of dwarves, a cycle ensued: the dwarves continuously crafted new armor, only for Hans to break through them again.
Several days had passed since, and Hans had just dismissed the last dwarf. "Return with an upgraded version, Kronof," he called out to the disheartened dwarf. And when the coast was clear of prying eyes, he took out his little notebook, which he was using to keep tabs on things.
VeganBind - Explodes when someone tears it down
SeedBullet - explodes on impact and destroys the magic runes (not all)
SharpDeath - turns into a land mine (uncontrollable ). As a shrapnel mine of dwarves.
“There was something else in SeedBullets’ section…” Hans mumbled and pulled out his Book of Power from the space belt called Knapbinder. “Hmm…let’s see.” He skimmed pages and stopped at the SeedBullet.
Decrypting…
LongShot
As your understanding of day seed increases, you can use its special property to strengthen the attributes of the plants you create. You’ve noticed the VeganBind becoming stronger and your seed Bullets casings turning unbreakable.
With that in mind, I want you to test something. The mana path for seed Bullet you usually stretch, make it so the solar energy absorbs into it.
Hans tried, he concentrated, and quickly aligned the environmental mana and stretched it like rubber. “Phew, now focus.” He sighed and started directing his absorbed solar energy in the path. “What!” Surprised by the sudden accomplishment, he said, “This was easier than I thought.”
The mana path before him was conjured and was exuding a ravaging energy about to lose. “Now I should put the metallic seed—swoosh—pierce!”
“The hell you doing, human?” Kronof, the dwarf whom Hans dealt the last blow to, was shouting at him from two walls behind. His seedBullet had penetrated the two thick walls of dwarven architecture like a hot knife through butter and hit Kronof’s smithy.
“My bad. Sorry.” Hans quickly apologised. “Geez, I really need to read before I act.” He looked at his book of power and continued.
Decrypting…
Try to make the seeds more like your fingers, not to forget pointed at the end. The sun’s power inside the mana path provides an explosive momentum, so make sure you point it at your enemies, not friends.
“Yeah, I really should’ve read it.” Hans nodded shamelessly and continued his reading while resisting his itch to try it again.
Decrypting…
Also, see how far you can hit the target. It’s very long range and will take time to set up. But its power will be worth the effort, I’m sure of it. Hence, its name, LongShot.
“Nice!” Hans stood up energetically and called his dwarven friends for a new experiment. And as usual, the curious dwarves came running to see something new. They followed whatever Hans was suggesting and cleared up a straight path over six hundred metres.
“This is as far as we can clear up, human.” The bar owner, who was practically the middleman between Hans and others, hailed from a distance.
“Yeah, that is enough for a trial.” Hans yelled and gestured for Higrid to move away. He breathed out and with a graceful movement, his hand stretched and his finger moved as he called forth the feeling of his new SeedBullet, now Longshot.
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