“Felice, stay here, watch the prisoners, and report back to me if something happens,” the bandit leader commanded his Maester henchman.
“You got it, boss,” Felice replied.
After a few minutes, orders were dispatched for the gang members to spread out all over Flamemond, Oxdale, and the nearby villages to search for the duplicitous butler. According to the plan, he should have been here hours ago after returning to Oxdale and taking all he could at the Harper mansion.
Felice returned to the temporary working table that he usually set up on the road. On the surface were a bunch of bottles and vials, taken out from the inventory space bracelet he wore on his arm. Arranged in a specific way, the containers were connected by glass tubes, creating a kind of mechanism with an inlet and outlet. Smoke and bubble rose as Felice added mana crystals into the small fire in the middle of the table.
There were ten of them, half of which had to remain in Mocester to do the cleanup. They wouldn’t be able to return soon, for the teleportation gate was a luxury, even for a gang with as many achievements as this one. That left five here, including him. That would make his job a lot easier.
Maesters had always been famous for their cunning craft. That was why Felice was left at the base to do communication and track the location of each gang member through a specific powder substance they carried. Felice called it the conducting substance. While en route, the gang would mark their place after a certain distance that still allowed connection to the previous one. Felice, using the system he had set up on the table, or the tracker as he called it, would burn some of the substance along with specialized additives while channeling a unique mana manipulation method. A cloud of smoke with adjustable color would come out of the system and fly along the marked location with exceptional speed to create a type of communication. Red to spread out, yellow to gather, green for mission accomplished. Gradually, they managed to develop a viable real-time communication system. Therefore, Felice held a crucial role in the group and had long since earned the respect of the leader.
For a Maester like Felice himself, though, he was just trying to find a source of income for himself. The nature of the faction itself was extremely costly in terms of resources. The little payment from adventurer contract, healing, or teaching job was never enough for him to advance himself. In secret, he looked down on everyone here. Even though he was only a Herald, he saw no future in those around him. Still, he had to keep himself low, swallow the bitter pill, accept not being able to put a knife through the throat of the brat in the dungeon. His time was yet to come, but soon, Felice would have the power to put an end to the leader and take over.
His self-satisfied laugh grew broader, thinking about the perfect scenario, when he heard a sudden flapping noise in the air. His aura was invaded by a weak and fragile force but faster than anything he had ever seen. Felice tried to turn around, but a knife had already pierced his neck from behind. The strike missed the throat to the right, allowing the Maester to struggle, projecting his aura, trying to push the small figure sticking on his back. The sound of gritting teeth came from Felice’s right ear as a blade flew into the air before the attacker was thrown off in the chaotic mana blast.
The shock overcame Felice. He was panickily putting his hand on the wound to stop the bleeding when he saw something dark black catching on to his sleeve. He was terrified, seeing his reflection on the glassware. A dark flame was hanging on his neck, slowly spreading to his robe and hair. Perhaps, the pain was so much that he couldn’t even feel the heat.
Felice kneeled down; his consciousness slowly left him. Then, he hit the floor, turning his head toward the kid he had despised at first glance. Before giving out, Felice saved his last despicable smile for Jack, much like the one on his face at the dungeon.
“See you soon, kid,” he whispered.
The fire crackled on Felice's last breath.
Now, it was Jack’s turn to panic. He had been poisoned. He wasn’t sure when, but that last smile before going down from the Maester, as well as his growingly dizzy eyes and harder breathing, confirmed it. It wasn’t a counterattack by the dead man, for he had strictly applied the precaution techniques against the Maester from the Warrior and Nightblade, no breathing, no tasting. He had little time to question; he had to deal with it or else.
Jack reached out to the black flame and put it out before it could incinerate everything on Felice’s body, including anything that would potentially save him. He commanded the system table to appear and check the result of the successful strike.
You have used 7 stat points.
Your Strength Attribute increased from 10 to 22.
Your Agility Attribute increased from 3 to 9.
Your Spirit Attribute increased from 7 to 10.
You have used 2 skill points on Black Flame.
You have killed a High Herald Human, Level: ??? (Need Identification Lens for further information).
You have leveled up.
Your level has increased from Level 1 -> Level 2.
You have been granted 9 Stat Points and 9 Skill Points.
Please proceed to assign the points as you wish.
Your remaining stat points: 9.
Your remaining skill points: 12.
He had had to spend some points on his attributes and upgrade his Black Flame in order to kill his opponent. He had underrated Felice. The skills and buffs from Nightblade had only allowed Jack to put the blade at the bandit’s throat. His Strength had been increased to twist the knife for a critical hit, his Agility for the flexibility and reaction to brace himself for the thrown-off, and his Spirit to counter the aura disruption as well as to increase the damage of the Black Flame. Though, the primary reason the attack had been successful was still because Felice was a Maester, a faction whose focus was on Spirit rather than the other two attributes, and the element of surprise. In a frontal assault, Jack wouldn't have stood a chance.
He put a few stat and skill points to upgrade Maester’s Basic Knowledge, Resistance Technique, and Maester’s Item Crafting. This would hopefully help him with the necessary knowledge to escape death.
You have used 4 stat points.
Your Spirit Attribute increased from 10 to 22.
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Your remaining stat points: 5.
Maester’s Basic Knowledge (Herald, Passive)
Level: 3 (Requirements for next level: Spirit >= 24).
Effects:
Grant basic knowledge to identify and produce potions.
Resistance Technique (Herald, Active, Multiple Targets)
Level: 1 (Requirements for next level: Spirit >= 7)
Mana cost: Low mana per use.
Cooldown: 1 minute (59 seconds in the next level).
Effects:
Lessen the effect of any potion or poison on a target.
-15% poisoning damage and effects (-17% in the next level).
-15% healing or detoxing effects (-17% in the next level).
-15% poisoning or healing duration (-17% in the next level).
*Does not stack with other resistance spells or buffs.
*Does stack with consumable items.
Maester’s Item Crafting (Herald, Active)
Level: 1
Cooldown: 24 hours.
Effects:
Choose an item in the crafting list. The requirement of material, knowledge, and skill will be provided to craft the object. Increasing the level will reduce cooldown and increase crafting options.
Your remaining skill points: 7.
A wave of knowledge flooded Jack’s mind. Through the many times during which his brain had been overflowed and readjusted, he could now hold himself back from rolling and making a mess on the floor. He quickly used the acquired skill to check his body status. The poison hadn’t gone too far, but it was a stubborn and slow-killing one. Currently, he detected it on his lungs and respiratory tract, slowly ravaging his inner body. The process was temporarily stopped by the Warrior’s mana manipulating method, in which the infected parts were isolated, stopping the spreading. These parts themself, though, were in danger.
After some estimation, Jack added some more points to his Resistance Technique.
Resistance Technique (Herald, Active, Multiple Targets)
Level: 3 (Requirements for next level: Spirit >= 23)
Mana cost: Low mana per use.
Cooldown: 57 seconds (56 seconds in the next level).
Effects:
Lessen the effect of any potion or poison on a target.
-19% poisoning damage and effects (-20% in the next level).
-19% healing or detoxing effects (-20% in the next level).
-19% poisoning or healing duration (-20% in the next level).
*Does not stack with other resistance spells or buffs.
*Does stack with consumable items.
Your remaining skill points: 6.
Jack instantly applied the skills to himself. The already-existing Warrior’s resistance skill was contradicted, stunning him, so he had to remove it. Mana was channeled to fortify the infected parts.
Jack gave a sigh of relief, knowing he had just survived the worst stage.
He moved toward the body of the Maester. The fire had burnt away most of his skin, but other than that, the rest of his stuff was fine. The Black Flame had done most of its damage at the moment the blade pierced the neck, burning away everything inside the wound, from nerves to blood veins. The rusted knife he had picked up from the weapon stance was now two pieces of metal on the floor after the twist. The of a high-ranking Herald was a real challenge for common weapons. If Felice had had greater Strength and Agility, Jack reckoned the fight wouldn’t have been that swift.
Jack searched inside the pouches on the bandit’s body. Most of the vials contained poison, and the antidote he needed was still nowhere to be seen. He examined the Maester’s golden necklace, then his belt, and finally stopped at a simple bronze bracelet on his wrist. It was pulling in mana from Jack’s body, a sign of a personal inventory space item. He took it and searched inside. The space was relatively small, mainly containing potion ingredients such as plants, dead animals, and venom. There was also equipment like vials, bottles, filters, scissors, and blades, as well as some finished products. A small corner was saved for books and papers.
Jack gathered the finished products and spread them on the floor. They weren’t labeled; their containers and forms varied, from round to cubic, from powder to liquid. Some had crystal beads that sparkled under the light from the lamb on the table. Jack counted no less than ten different substances.
Seeing the things in front of him, Jack felt tired, thinking he had to examine them one by one. He took out the safety equipment from the bracelet. Gloves, a gas mask, and a small microscope. Different techniques were used based on the form of the substance. For liquid vials that immediately evaporated after opening, Jack reckoned they were no good to him. For powders, he would look under the microscope and occasionally use his nose to tell. After some examination, none of them seemed to be the antidote. Most were just other poisons, some through contact, some through digestion and inhalation. The rest were additives, as well as some kind of mana-connecting substance. Thanks to the knowledge from Basic Knowledge, Jack had managed to grasp the usage and effect of this special substance. Crafting them, he was not there yet, but using them was in his reach.
Jack had himself a moment of appreciation to awe at the dead Maester’s cunning. This conducting substance not only could be used for information transfer but could also be utilized as a catalyst for unleashing poison from a distance on his crewmates if he burnt the right mixture of ingredients. Jack could envision letting the substance slowly make its way into someone’s body. Then, with the proper additives, the Maester could blow them up from this table, giving himself a bunch of human bombs.
Returning to his search, Jack looked deeper inside the inventory. After taking out a bunch of herbal and medicinal ingredients, he proceeded to his second option.
Jack grabbed a surgical knife from the Maester’s bracelet, sterilized it under fire, then carved a line on his own tiny chest. He took some of the infected on the tip of the blade and placed them under the microscope. From the smell, the way it reacted to his blood and mana, and the zoom-in, Jack figured it was a combination of venom from snake-like monsters.
He then searched for extracted snake biles and venoms, as well as some herbs that could neutralize them. His eyes were slowly shutting down, his peripheral vision fading. The poison had made its way to other parts of his body. Swiping off the increasing sweat, he stuffed all of the useful ingredients in his mouth. All of that slimes and smells made him want to throw up, but he kept on chewing and swallowing.
So uncivilized.
This was one of the most primitive ways to deal with poison, something that went against the usual fanciness of the Maester. This would work, but not completely. It would clear most of the poison, but some would still lie dormant in corners of his body, waiting for the chance to burst out again. For now, though, Jack felt this was enough.
Jack commanded the system to upgrade his skill.
Enhancement Technique (Herald, Active, Multiple Targets)
Level: 1 (Requirements for next level: Spirit >= 7)
Mana cost: Low mana per use.
Cooldown: 1 minute (59 seconds in the next level).
Effects:
Strengthen the effect of any potion or poison on a target.
+15% poisoning damage and effects (+17% in the next level).
+15% healing or detoxing effects (+17% in the next level).
+15% poisoning or healing duration (+17% in the next level).
*Does not stack with other enhancement spells or buffs.
*Does stack with consumable items.
Your remaining skill points: 5.
Jack wanted to further upgrade the skill, but he was afraid he would faint with the reaction that would happen when it was enhanced.
It felt like a firestorm was burning in his chest. The detox mixture gradually reacts with his body and mana, cleaning the poison from his blood vessels and every nook and cranny of his lungs. This process resulted in the overdrive of his inner organ’s defense mechanism, leaving Jack feverish, sluggish, and dizzy. Enhancement Technique superimposed on the antidote and raised his torment to a new level, testing what little remained of his endurance.
After a while, the storm faded. Jack was still in heat but conscious enough to move his feet.
He walked to the table, grabbed the sugary white conducting substance powder, and put them into the tracking system Felice had created. Jack read the notes on the table, controlling the mana intensity extracted from the crystals to call upon the right target. Smoke came out at the end, yellow in color. It lengthed like a snake in front of Jack, slithering out of the window. Making its way to the marked locations, it split into two and continued toward the ones Jack wanted to call back.
Bud and Mantis.