It took me almost a full mark to work my way free from the corpse of the giant snake. Rather than continue my climb, I sat down with my back against the cliff wall. There was no way I was going to be able to reach the ground before nightfall.
Once my mana had refilled enough, I traced out a couple of sigils of concealment. The side of a cliff wasn’t a particularly good place to set up camp for the night, but I didn’t have much choice.
As I waited for the sun to go down, I retrieved my weapons. My knife proved difficult to extract, as it was buried deep.
Looking out over the canopy, I took solace in the fact that my impromptu campsite at least had a lovely view.
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I was falling endlessly. Strange shapes and images tumbled past, some falling with me as others flew past. Long, sinuous figures wound their way through the floating debris.
The images I fell past were often horrific and strange. I saw death, destruction, and violence perpetrated a thousand different ways by a host of otherworldly entities.
As I fell further, many of the images took on more realistic qualities. The scenes better matched events from my memories. In one, I saw the swarm of black monkeys moving in unnatural unison while in another I watched Sanctuary Valley burn once more.
The most disturbing images were all from that dreadful day all those years ago. In one, I saw a few spots of red upon a wall. In another, the familiar scuffs and gaps in the wooden floor of the house of elders filled the view. A pair of shocked faces soon followed; one surprised and the other horrified. A golden symbol slowly heating in a fire filled the final image.
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As something brushed against my face, I woke up in a panic. I struggled against my colorful assailant for a moment before I realized that it was just a feather. For something that had tried to kill me just the day before, the serpent’s wings had provided surprisingly comfortable bedding.
Sitting up, I found that I was in far better condition than I had been the night before. I was still bruised and battered, but not to the point where climbing the rest of the way down the cliff would prove overly difficult.
Yet again I was thankful for the system. Without the improved regeneration, I could have been trapped on the ledge for days, too weak to continue down the mountain.
Stolen novel; please report.
I glanced back at the giant snake I had used as a bed. Without everything the system had given me, I wouldn’t have needed to worry about making it down the cliff. If this serpent had found me before my magic had improved so drastically, I would have died. I held no illusions to the contrary.
It was strange to think that less than a month prior, I had needed all of my power just to momentarily stun a leopard.
Now here I was carving steaks out of a magical snake large enough to swallow me whole for my breakfast. The fact that I could also cook the meat using nothing but a carefully arranged heating spell was far beyond anything I had ever considered before.
While I let the meat cook, I wondered what other amazing things I could do with just the spell forms I already had. Just modifying the shape, timing, and affected area of an invisible force spell had let me craft wildly different effects. Everything from a gentle breeze to an impassable barrier had proved well within my capability.
Perhaps there were some interesting things I could do with other forms of energy? I had already managed to make a simple cooking spell by reshaping heat. Were there more unusual applications I hadn’t considered?
Thinking back to the time where I had been chased by a swarm of freezing insects, I realized that there was a very interesting possibility for a spell that moved heat rather than producing it.
Eager to play around with a new spell, I waited impatiently for my breakfast to finish cooking. As much as I had improved, trying to maintain one complex spell while casting another was still beyond my abilities.
By the time the meat finished cooking, I had already designed the new mana forms I was going to need for my experiment. The two spells I wanted to try were both inspired by my water gathering spell. The biggest difference was that I planned on moving heat from one area to another, rather than moving tiny particles with invisible force.
Taking a bite out of the roast snake, I paused. The flavor was something akin to poultry, though also a little fishy. Neither the taste nor the texture was what caught my attention though. I had never eaten such a magically infused beast before, so the warm, tingling sensation it left in my mouth was unexpected.
Back in Sanctuary Valley, it was very rare for the hunters to bring back any magical beasts of a similar level to this serpent. On such occasions, only a few were given the honor of partaking in the delicacy.
Now that I had the chance to try it, I understood why some people wouldn’t want to share. The sensation was oddly pleasant and unlike anything else I had ever tried before. The closest comparison I could think of was an extremely spicy pepper, but without any of the pain.
Nice though I found the experience, I wasn’t about to make a habit of hunting powerful creatures. Unless I there was nothing else available, no food was worth risking my life for. That didn’t change the fact that I was going to eat well for the next couple of days though.
With my unusual breakfast finished, I turned back to the mana forms in my codex. I had new spells to try.