I had reached a point in my journey where being a priest was starting to be a hindrance for me. Classes within the mage category had specific abilities that other classes didn’t have, and I would need those abilities if I were to progress much further on my path to become a Philosopher.
My immune system had become slightly better at dealing with sickness, and my newly acquired skill in blood magic meant that I could heal myself even without healing magic. All told, I did not have any immediate use for healing magic, and I was hoping to hire a priest in the near future.
Unfortunately, the status of House Feldrast as an ancestral enemy to the Church of Nyx made it somewhat difficult for me to hire a priest. According to their dogma, the use of Hellfire punched a hole between this realm and the eternal realm of torment where sinners were sent after death, and frequent use of Hellfire weakened the veil between the two realms.
Considering the state of my healing potential, the timeline of me being a priest was limited, anyway. I suspected that three people had overdosed on the drugs I was selling, each reducing my healing potential by five points. That was the nature of selling large quantities of drugs. People were bound to overdose. I didn’t even know which drug they overdosed on, since I had started making painkillers for Sendrick by the time I took the hits to my healing potential. Honestly, I didn’t think overdoses would hurt my healing potential, but I was wrong.
If everything went according to the plan, I would soon run out of healing potential and would have access to the abilities of the mage class. I looked forward to finally switching to the class that I was destined for from the beginning.
Putting the piece of paper holding the message in English back into my pocket, I held up my left wrist and looked at the shield bracelet worn there. The incantation for the [Shield] spell was written in large, deep runes upon the iron vambrace that covered my forearm. The vambrace had enough space to hold the incantations for more spells, but it was kept simple to minimize the risk of failure.
Going through an inventory of my equipment, I drew my wand from the small holster on my left hip. It was the wand given to me by Lord Riomed all those years ago. All four sides of the wand held an incantation for a different spell. The spells were: [Fly], [Gust], [Wind Knife], and [Ice Spear].
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On Beltane’s suggestion, I had the Alchemist that enchanted the wand remove the two existing incantations. Lord Riomed was an exceedingly generous friend, but he was not a mage. A magic focus was meant to be used in combat or when you did not have time to speak the incantation. I would not use the [Lift Object] or [Catapult] spells in combat. If I needed to use the two spells, I would just recite the incantation.
I slipped the wand back into its holster and started walking once more. Every step, I jabbed my cane harshly into the ground in order to draw my prey out into the open.
After walking for a minute, I raised my hand into the air and chanted a few words in the language of the Ancients. “Loqui, audiatur vox tua!”
A crack like thunder echoed out through the forest. A flock of birds took off into the sky, and all nearby animals jerked into motion. They could probably hear that back in Etron, I thought with a smile.
The spell was [Shockwave], and it was only useful in situations like this. Its casting time was short enough to be used in combat, but its only function was to create a single loud noise. It could probably be used to deafen your enemy, but that didn’t serve much of a purpose.
Then, after a few more seconds of me pounding the ground with my cane, I heard it. In the distance, I heard dozens of animals charging in my direction. Just out of my vision, a stampede of large animals was heading my way. In the center of that stampede, I heard the unmistakable sound of a much larger animal.
I cast my cane aside and stood there with my wand at the ready. Based on the sound, my target was above ground, so I did not need to take to the air just yet. Quickly, I bit my thumb and scrawled a blood rune on the back of my left hand.
“Sanguis, fluere, tereb et secar,” I chanted. A terrible burning sensation passed through my hand as the rune burned a bright red color. Just as the rune stopped burning, I felt my own blood start to interface with the powerful stream of mana flowing through my veins. I willed my blood to flow more freely and my lungs to deliver Oxygen more efficiently.
[Blood Enhancement, Lvl. 3]
The blood magic would allow my body to move a bit faster and exert a bit more strength. Even with the enhancement, however, my physical stats increased to about the level of an average adult. In a situation like this, however, I would take whatever advantage I could.
The sound of stampeding animals reached a fever pitch, and then a group of horse-sized bipedal birds burst through the tree line. The birds were far too large to fly, and their vestigial wings were covered in green scales. These creatures were small fry, however, and my true prey had yet to reveal itself.