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The Arcane Healer
Deciding Paths

Deciding Paths

After the battle scene ended, the screen became blurry once again. Silver eagerly waited to see what would happen next. In just a couple of seconds, another scene was projected on the scene. It was another battle scene! And another Earth Mage fighting outnumbered against several opponents…

Silver’s face puckered a bit. But soon his interest was piqued as he saw the Earth Mage using different spells than the previous one. This Earth Mage also seemed to be focusing entirely on defensive spells. However, a different outcome took place this time. Minutes into the battle, the opponents of the Earth Mage were easily overpowering her defences. The opponents of this Earth Mage were clearly stronger than that of the previous one.

Silver wanted to see more about what spells the opponents were using, but since the battle scene was mainly focused on the perspective of the Earth Mage, all he saw were large unidentifiable projectiles crashing against the Mage’s defences. The Mage’s earth barriers soon broke.

However, Silver was soon shocked and realized that this battle might be a real battle. The opponent mages didn’t hesitate to send spells crashing into the Earth Mage’s body. Her body tore apart and blood spilled everywhere.

“W-what in the-” Silver’s mouth was left agape as the screen became blurry.

Silver didn’t get to finish his words as another battle scene was projected on the screen. This was in the perspective of another Earth Mage! At least unlike the previous two times, the Mage this time was fighting a hoard of Arcane Beasts. But Silver was having none of it!

“No! I don’t want to watch any Earth Mages anymore!”

His words brought the battle scene to a halt. The screen became blurry before it cleared again, displaying words on it.

SLECT THE SUB-PATH WHOSE BATTLE VIDEO YOU WANT TO VIEW.

“I can choose any Sub-Path?” Silver hesitantly asked. He was still traumatized by the bloody scene he just witnessed. He had never seen anyone being killed. He was unsure if he should still continue watching these so-called battle videos.

The screen clearly didn’t deem to answer his question as the projected view remained unchanged. In the end, Silver’s curiosity still triumphed over his discomfort.

“I…want to watch the battle video for an Illusionist.”

The Sub-Path of an Illusionist interested Silver a lot. He was mystified how a Battle Mage could use illusions to defeat their opponent. Unfortunately, he had already decided that he will not become a Battle Mage. Otherwise, he would’ve considered adding this Path to the list of prospective Paths he might choose.

The screen showed a new battle video. This time there were only two people on the video. One man was carrying a light sword, while the other was empty-handed. Before the Swordman could do anything, the empty-handed woman bent down on all fours and started running towards him. Her arms and legs buffed up visibly and her nails turned into long sharp claws.

“Wow, is that a Transformation-Type Battle Mage? She looks so cool!”

However, something strange happened next. The woman stopped midway through her run. Her ferocious expression turned serene and her eyes became fuzzy, as if in a trance. The swordsman, on the other hand, seemed unperturbed by this anomaly.

Silver was confused with this strange display. After a few seconds, he saw the swordsman began running towards the woman. He raised his sword and sliced with it at the unprepared woman’s neck-

“NO! STOP! I DON’T WANT TO WATCH THIS!”

Silver rubbed his hand against the crystal. The screen immediately disappeared. The glowing point on the crystal dispersed back into numerous glowing lines, which also gradually faded away. Silver breathed a sigh of relief and nodded, satisfied.

“Let’s try something else.” Silver was no longer willing to watch any battle videos. He had seen too much bloodshed already.

Silver flipped the page to the next section- Alchemist. He definitely knew about this Path. The Path of Alchemy was quite an important and respected Path in the Mage community as they fulfil many significant functions.

One of the most important reasons they are highly relevant among Mages is because they are responsible for producing healing potions. Healing potions are a necessity for Mages, especially Battle Mages. Any Battle Mage who doesn’t carry at least one healing potion with him before participating in a battle would be considered a fool.

“The Path of Alchemist is one in which a Mage, using the mystical powers of Arcane, is able to create powerful arcane potions. The powers these potions contain is limited only to the Alchemist himself. The most basic potion effects can range from healing, invisibility, anaesthesia, temporary transformation, water-breathing etc…”

“There is often contradiction on the topic of who is the creator of the Leone Symbol of the Path of Alchemy. This is because multiple people around the world innovated different alterations of this very same path around the same time. Due to historical inconsistencies, it is dubious as to who first create its Symbol…”

As Silver read more through the information on the Path of Alchemy, he learnt that the Path of Alchemy also had its own Sub-Paths! For example, one of these alterations was dedicated entirely towards making offensive-type potions, such as fire potions, poison mist potions, etc.

The difference between the Path of Battle Mage and the Path of Alchemy, though, was that unlike a Battle Mage, an Alchemist had the choice to follow the generalized Path of Alchemy and not choose any Sub-Paths. Such a choice increased the Mage’s options and would not limit them in one particular field.

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However, the book specified that such a choice was usually not advisable as choosing to follow the generalized Path made it difficult for the Mage to advance their skills and rise up in ranks.

“Since I don’t want to become a Battle Mage, should I become an alchemist?”

The reason Silver said so was because one Sub-Path in particular caught Silver’s attention. The name of this Sub-Path was Shamanic Alchemist. This Sub-Path focused on the creation of Healing Potions. Although alchemists from other Sub-Paths also picked up this skill because of the profitable business it presented, they usually had to work harder to make such potions and were not as good at it as a Shamanic Alchemist.

A Shamanic Alchemist was able to make healing potions that were more specialized towards healing specific injuries which could not be treated with normal potions. They could also make higher tier healing potions that were able to treat injuries that were more grievous.

“Hm, I like the idea of saving lives much more than taking them. The Sub-Path really seems to suit me.”

Silver continued turning pages and when he finally reached the end of the section, his eyes gleamed.

“I knew it!”

A familiar thin crystal was embedded in the last page. Silver was curious. Would this crystal show him the battle videos of Alchemists fighting? But Alchemists weren’t supposed to fight, right?

He touched the crystal and a familiar screen came in view. A scene was soon projected from it. Unfortunately, the scene projected was not a battle video this time.

Silver couldn’t help but be disappointed. What happened next was one of the most boring experiences Silver had ever had the pleasure of experiencing.

An alchemist appeared on the screen. A large cauldron rested in front of him. He poured out water from a bucket into the bucket and started heating up the cauldron through a fire spell.

Silver was a bit puzzled by this. “That fire cannot be produced by just basic arcanite manipulation. He is clearly using a spell. How can an alchemist use a spell? I thought only Fire Mages could do that.”

The answer soon came.

THE PATH OF AN ALCHEMIST IS ALIGNED TOWARDS THE ELEMENT FIRE AS PRECISE CONTROL OF FIRE IS ESSENTIAL FOR PRODUCING POTIONS. THIS MAKES IT EASY FOR THEM TO LEARN FIRE SPELLS, THOUGH THEY ARE NOT AS GOOD AT IT AS FIRE-TYPE BATTLE MAGES.

Silver nodded in realization.

The fire kept on burning and the cauldron kept on boiling. This went on for about ten minutes.

Silver audibly yawned. “Can’t this be faster? This is so boring.”

There was no response from the screen, as expected. Silver pouted. Fortunately, the Alchemist finally did something new. The screen focused on his hand as brought out an ingredient and starting mashing it.

Silver, who expected something interesting to finally happen, was again disappointed.

“Do all alchemy processes take this long? This seems really boring…” Silver frowned. He now felt a lot more reluctant about choosing to follow the Path of Alchemy.

Silver was much fonder of the excitement of battlefield, as shown in the battle videos of earlier, than sticking through long and arduous processes of making potions.

But this presented another dilemma for him.

“If I’m so averse to killing, how can I even take part in a battle? Also, if I choose not to become a Battle Mage, would anyone even let me set foot in a battlefield? And even if they do so, what would be my purpose there?”

The mage poured the mashed contents from his bowl into the cauldron. Such a process repeated several times. The mage would mash an ingredient and pour into the cauldron. He would then stir the contents in the cauldron, and adjust the fire on the cauldron. After all that, he would bring another ingredient and start mashing it.

After a half-hour long struggle, Silver finally had enough.

“Enough! Stop!” Nothing happened. Then, he remembered it doesn’t work like that. He touched the crystal and the screen went away.

Silver huffed and turned the pages to the next section. He had already made a decision. He was not going to follow the Path of Alchemy! Even if he did not want to become a battle mage, he would never become something as boring as an alchemist!

However, to Silver’s horror, his disappointment was just beginning.

The next section described the Path of Artificery. Artificers were mages who created arcane artifacts. Their creations could be anything, ranging from a simple bulb which produces light through arcane current, to powerful armaments that were used by Battle Mages.

However, Silver soon learnt that the Path of Artificery was similar to the Path of Alchemy in the regard that it also took a long and boring process to create arcane artifacts.

Silver pouted in discontent as he shut down the screen by touching the crystal. He was once again let down. However, he was still not willing to lose hope! There must be a Path out there which suited him!

Alas, he was only to be further disappointed.

Embroidery – Creating Arcane clothes with mysterious and powerful properties.

Too boring and exhausting! Also, stitching clothes is too demeaning of a task for the mighty Silver!

Botany – Growing up arcane herbs, essential for making of arcane potions and sometimes also used by artificers.

Skip! Takes too long!

Divination – Prophesising the future and calculating the luck of heavens by studying the stars.

Sounds cool but studying the position of stars every day for hours sounds extremely boring!

Beast-Taming – Taming arcane beasts.

This finally got Silver to pause a bit. He liked arcane beasts! Especially the ones that looked like the wormie his father had got for him AND KILLED RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM. Silver shook his head to get rid of that traumatic memory.

Beast-Tamers had some similarities with Battle Mages in the fact that their tamed beasts can also fight for them. However, taming ferocious and battle-focused arcane beasts was just one of the Sub-Paths of the Path of Beast-Taming. It had so many other Sub-Paths which focused on taming unique Arcane Beasts for other purposes such as harvesting them for their meat or the stuff they produced.

Silver touched the Video Crystal for Beast-Taming. He had started calling these crystals ‘Video Crystals’. Not very creative, but it did the work.

Silver face grimaced when he saw the Beast-Tamer taking months, and sometimes even years to try to create a bond with the Arcane Beasts and tame them. Thankfully, the video was in a fast-forwarded motion and the timespan was written at the bottom of the screen.

These Beast-Tamers were practically babying the Arcane Beasts! In fact, they even cleaned their shit for them! Blasphemous! How can the pristine and noble Silver ever clean someone’s shit!?

This is a skip too! Not interested!

Silver’s shoulders sagged down. There seemed to be no Path suited for him. Were all of his hopes to be vanquished?

He turned the pages to the next section of the book.

The Path of Healing.

Healers seemed to be rather unpopular among mages because they were pretty much declared as useless. Their work was the same as that of Shamanic Alchemists– healing people. But the problem was that their healing powers were weaker than that of healing potions crated by Shamanic Alchemists. Their healing process also took longer than the amount of time taken for a healing potion to work on a person.

Their only upside was that they require the use of precious herbs to facilitate the healing process. But this wasn’t enough to make the Path popular.

Silver also agreed with this sentiment. “This Path seems pretty useless-”

His words died in his throat as his eyes fell upon one of the Sub-Paths of the Healing Path.

Battle Healer.

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