Chapter 59- Magic Sucks

Morpheus pulled out the papers and crystal that Lucifer had given him. He had made a small little hole in tree where he placed his axe and water skin. He kept Dagger of Black on him just in case the tree was home to any others.

Fuzz jumped out of his cloak as he sensed the shadow crystal.

“Here for the entertainment huh?” He asked the cute shadow.

His little eye blinked at him, and he got a message that Fuzz was excited.

There were about five pages of slightly burnt paper, on the front was the title ‘Shadow’ in plain writing. He checked the back of the page but there was nothing on it so he moved it to the back of the pile.

He read out the only sentence on the whole page.

“A shadow is created from an absence of light.”

‘Really?’ He sarcastically asked himself.

He turned the page over and began reading again.

“A shadow is caused from the absence of light, but what if light is caused from the absence of shadows?”

“The fuck.” He said, confused. His basic physics knowledge argued over the truth of that sentence. He shook his head and carried on reading.

“Truth be told that the first entities created were primordial beings, elementals being second to them. Then a primordial created life, and that life then created the gods.”

Morpheus enjoyed the history lesson, he found it funny that Fuzz’s kind is older than the gods.

“What was before the primordial beings? Nothing.”

He started to read in his head.

‘Did light come before darkness? Or did darkness come before light.’

He put the papers down and looked at the bark of the tree, he wondered if the author was telling him a riddle.

‘If light was born before darkness then what was before light? The answer is darkness.’

‘Shadow magic is dark, darker than any other magic including death magic.”

‘When the sun is resting there is an absence of light, hence creating darkness. But what if the shadow is too weak to fight the light? It disappears.’

That was the end of the page, he turned over to the next one but there was just drawings of someone holding a ball of shadow magic and firing it.

“What the fuck am I supposed to do with this?” He angrily asked himself.

He scratched his head and read over it again, wondering why Lucifer had even given him this.

‘Darkness cannot fight light’ he thought.

He switched on Mana Sight and began to flow his mana into the crystal. He could see the mana flowing through his arm and stopping when it reached the bracelet. The bracelet began to dimly glow and a thin line of mana came from it and into the crystal.

Tiny licks of shadow magic began to drip off the crystal and fall on the ground, it was truly amazing. He strained his wrist more and slightly larger licks fell off, one fell off onto wrist and cut deeply into his veins.

“Ah fuck.” He shouted as he dropped the crystal.

This scared Fuzz and the shadow quickly scuttled behind him.

He held onto Fuzz as he picked up the crystal that dropped on the floor of the platform. He stroked Fuzz’s body, it was nice to feel comfortable with him again. He had missed being so intimate with his familiar.

He flowed mana into the crystal again and the same small licks fell off. Fuzz pushed Morpheus’s hand off himself and bounced over to the droplets. The shadow began to catch the droplets with his body.

+1 Intillegence

“You like them?” Morpheus asked.

‘Happy! Happy!’ The messages said.

“That’s good bud.” He said to the little shadow.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

He tried for the next half an hour to try and bend it with his will but he was useless at it. The licks just kept floating down to the shadow.

Fuzz seemed to get slightly larger but his level did not increase. When he stopped flowing his mana into the shadow went slowly and went to its original size.

“So this is a buff to you?”

‘Happy!’

Morpheus was getting fed up with it now, he had to ask Lucifer for some sort of guidance.

He got up and put the crystal away, magic was far to hard for him at the moment. If only it was easy as swinging an axe, his meat-head Viking side was showing.

His belly rumbled, it was too late for him to go hunting and it was almost midnight. He wrapped himself in his cloak and Fuzz cuddled up next to him on the leaves.

The next morning he woke up a few minutes before five. He scrambled up to gather his belongings and headed down the tree. Morpheus went to grab his cigarettes out of his pouch but realised it was buried. The young chimera knew it was going to be a difficult week or two.

He clutched his empty stomach as he made the short walk to the open stone area. Lucifer was standing there waiting patiently. The sun wasn’t out yet but a dim light from the moon lined out the area.

“Morpheus, report from your training from last night.” Lucifer ordered.

“I read it through but had no luck, the shadow did not follow my will at all Sir.”

Lucifer nodded. “Did you eat last night?” He asked.

“No Sir.”

“This will be a long morning then, what did you find challenging about the magic?” Lucifer asked him.

“The notes were not detailed enough, it was in riddles Sir.” Morpheus replied.

“You see, shadow magic is rather rare and there are not many teachers or books. That was the only piece that I have ever found for shadow magic.”

“What about the Scarecrows library?” Morpheus asked.

Lucifer ignored him and the young chimera took the hint.

“What about the Scarecrows library Sir?” Morpheus asked.

“Nothing at all for manipulation, the other books state that the best way to get a manipulation skill is complete understanding of the school of magic.”

Morpheus nodded, it would take a while.

Lucifer clapped his hands together. “For the morning I want you to lift this bolder over your head.” He said as he patted a bolder half the size of Morpheus.

Morpheus looked at Lucifer dumbfounded.

“When you are holding the boulder, I will be tempering you’re body. Drop the boulder and you will recieve even more of a beating.” Lucifer said with his hands behind his back. He then walked behind the boulder.

Morpheus nodded and stretched his whole body. If Lucifer thought his was going to help him then he would defiantly comply. He walked over to the boulder. He grabbed it with both his hands and lifted with all his strength but it barely moved an inch.

He looked up to Lucifer and a fist came flying at his face.

“The fuck am I supposed to lift that!” He screamed but Lucifer ignored him and stood still.

Lucifer ignored him.

“How am I meant to lift it? Sir.” Morpheus asked sarcastically.

“You have a space type skill, use it.” Lucifer responded.

‘Of course’ he thought. Archaic Wings allowed him to manipulate the space in a one metre radius around him, he never even thought about using it on other objects. It was always for his movement or his axe.

He weakened the space around the boulder and tried to lift it up again. The boulder budged slightly and Morpheus felt like he could lift it up eventually.

Lucifer hit him in the face again and he fell down.

“Fuck sakes!” He shouted, he hadn’t even picked it up yet.

“You’re more than welcome to hit me back” Lucifer said.

Morphues looked at the man and gritted his teeth. He crawled back over to the boulder again and weakened the space around it.

He kneeled next to it and rolled it on his thighs, it completely crushed the bones in his legs. Even with his Arcane Tuning and his stats the boulder still hurt him.

Morpheus tried to weaken the space further around him as he healed his legs.

He strained and strained his muscles.

“Good Morpheus.” Lucifer said.

The young chimera managed to lift up one knee with the boulder on. But he toppled backwards and the boulder fell on his chest, breaking multiple ribs.

Lucifer just stood there emotionless.

He managed to roll the boulder off and gasped for air.

“Don’t help.” Morpheus sarcastically sad.

Lucifer ignored the comment and walked up to him. He then pushed his boot down on Morpheus’s chest, cracking even more ribs.

Morpheus went to grab his leg but Lucifer kicked him in the face and knocked some of his teeth out.

Sanity: 11

“Stop my sanity just went down.” He said with a mouth full of blood.

Lucifer then proceeded to push down on his chest and squeezed all the air out of his lungs.

“Stop!” He screamed but Lucifer just pressed harder.

“Stop Sir!” He shouted and the man lifted his foot off.

Morpheus rolled over in pain from his ribs cracking back into place. Lines of arcane magic rushed to the damaged areas.

“Again.” Lucifer ordered.

Morpheus glared at the man as he coughed up blood.

Sanity: 12

He pushed his anger aside and repeated the same action again. This time he managed to hold the boulder between his thighs as he stood in a crouched position.

He tried to weaken the space further but he couldn’t and he dropped the boulder again.

This happened ten more times until finally Morpheus managed to heave the boulder onto his chest. His body was already covered in new and old blood.

“Now above your head!” Lucifer Shouted.

Morpheus was getting used to the order:. “Yes Sir!”

“Ahhh.” He shouted as he tried to lift it past his head.