CHAPTER 45
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CHAPTER 45
284 AC
I was able to make breakthroughs in my buffs in these six months, not because I worked in the space, but because I worked in Wolfswood. Yes, the space's mana quality is much higher than Wolfswood's, but I realized there is something fundamental in Wolfswood that the space does not. Life... because there isn't anything else besides me inside the space. Its mana is pure without any affinities. Plants, animals, and all that vibrant ecosystem ensure that the mana of the forest is filled with the attributes of nature, thus making it much easier to grasp the nature spells and nature mana in the forest.
Thanks to this, my buffs have improved even more, and now I can even shape trees thanks to inretio (entangle). I can't change the shape of trees very quickly, so I can't call it a spell yet; right now, it's a cantrip. Thanks to this cantrip, I created a hut in the forest's center by bending the trunks of 4 trees and shaping their branches.
The center of the forest is like a focal point; the mana flows from the outside of the forest towards here, goes back to the ground, and spreads to the whole forest again while feeding every root. I have a high affinity for nature mana, probably because I'm a druid. Because in the six months I spent here, I accumulated more mana than the mana I collected in a year, and now I have 91 mana.
My mastery of 2 elements has increased thanks to this forest; As I said before, the first was the nature element, and the second was the earth element that nourishes the nature. Formoheba ( mold plants ) is the cantrip I used to shape plants. It is a cantrip, not a spell because it becomes increasingly slower as the controlled plant size grows. It took me days to form this hut; even a sloth can outrun the moving branches.
Formotegon ( mold earth ) allows me to move soil or stones like the Formoheba. It becomes slower as the size of the soil gets bigger. But this one is not a cantrip because I can use this to break my enemy's balance. With this spell, I can move a maximum of 1 cubic meter (35 ft cube) of soil. I tried this on animals, and when I moved the ground under their feet, they tripped and fell, even though they were four-legged. If the moved earth is as small as the place where a person's feet are, the speed of the soil's movement is enough to trip a person.
The next spell has become one of my favorites, Primaferus ( primal savagery); thanks to this magic, my nails turned into 3 cm (1 inch) long razor-sharp claws. They were like the perfect hidden knife. Of course, these were still nails, they couldn't pass through armor or bones, but they could rip the skin and muscle. I felt like Sabretooth from marvel while I was ripping open the belly of a pig I had caught, but there was a drawback to this spell; if I used it for too long, my hands started to hurt like hell. Because the human hand wasn't designed to claw things, this spell only strengthened my fingertips and nails, but the other bones in my hand, especially my phalanges, were still normal bones.
The last spell was the tegonspi (earth spike), which, as the name suggests, was an offensive spell. It was much weaker than tegonden (earth shard ) in terms of damage, but there was one point where it was superior to earth shard. Earth shard is a spell that takes time to reach the target and to form, but the tegonspi (earth spike) comes out from under the target instantly; it is very suitable for ambush strikes.
Another breakthrough was within the range of Promodynes ( locate animals ) and promoheba (locate plants) spells. While it used to work only in a 1 km area, it has now increased to a 2 km area, and I noticed another usage area of Promodynes ( locate animals ) from these spells. I can use this spell to find humans within 2 km. After all, humans are also a type of animal, so I can work on my spells comfortably in the forest.
Previously, these spells lasted 15 minutes, had a cooldown of 30 minutes, and cost ten mana, but now last 30 minutes, have a cooldown of 15 minutes and cost five mana. Since I realized I could locate people with this spell, I have been doing this before starting every magic training.
"Promodynes ( locate animals ) human" I felt mana coming out of my body like a wave, it wasn't coming in contact with anything as usual, and I thought it would be a comfortable training time today as well, but after a few seconds, I started to see glows in the spell's range. It showed that there were people in this area, and there were about 20 people as far as I could tell from the bright spots.
The dots were moving around each other like busy ants, and suddenly one of the glows went out. I wondered what had happened; 30 minutes couldn't have passed, and they were not near the border of the magic field. These people were about 1.5 km away from me. I could only think of one explanation for the disappearance of the glow; that person was dead.
Then the reason for this high movement must be fighting. I had a sudden curiosity, but at the same time, alarm bells were ringing in my head. I wonder if I should listen to the voice of common sense and stay away, or should I listen to the voice of my curiosity and go and look. It was not a difficult decision at all, and the answer was obvious. Of course, I would go and have a look.
It would take me a while to get there, but first, I sent Poe and Erebus in that direction and told them to contact me when they saw people, and just then, another light disappeared. I was running at full speed and was already starting to hear faint screams and shouts, just then Poe made contact:
"Daddy, we got to where the people are, and they're fighting. 1, 2, 3, ........ 18, aww one of them died, now 17 left.
"No, there are ten people."
"Stupid Erebus, because you only know how to count to ten, that is why you are saying ten people. Daddy, don't believe Erebus, there are 17 of them, ohh one of them died again, now 16 left." it felt bizarre; Poe and Erebus quarreling was like the fucked-up version of sesame street. People kept dying, but they kept counting. I was about 100 - 150 meters away; I knelt on the ground for a while and connected to Erebus with familiar sight to silence him and look at what was happening.
This must have been a forest trail from Winterfell to Deepwood Motte. I call it a trail, but those in this world would call it a road. It was a path of uneven compacted earth wide enough for only a horse-drawn carriage to pass. Of course, someone who is used to the roads on Earth will not see this as a road.
When I looked around, it was a dreadful sight to behold; they must have been trying to take a shortcut and got ambushed by bandits. 2 carriages were standing on the road, and around the carriages were full of blood and corpses, as far as I could see 13 people were still alive. There were about 15 dead bodies around.