Hildir of the Jagorn Wooden Forest (2)

Hildir turned into an owl, and started to fly in the air: "Since I have been impolite, let me warn you that Wooden Jagorn Forest Elven Tribe possesses more than ten beginner druids and 3 intermediate druids, including me. Perhaps it will dissuade you from 'fully committing', as you said"

Arthur took out six magic crystals and put them in a strange hexagonal formation. In the center, there stood an owl's feather.

Arthur smiled as he hadn't had the chance to properly test his newest medium-grade spell until now. Fighting Hildir, an intermediate rank acolyte, in the Landragon Castle was not something possible for him. Besides the risks that it implied, Arthur was not powerful enough to take down a Level 10 Druid without using his sword and physical strength. Even if he were, doing so without alerting knights and soldiers would be very difficult.

Arthur wanted to hide the fact that he was an extremely strong intermediate-rank body refinement acolyte in order to surprise Baron Lark if they were to fight against each other in the future. Although it was a well-known thing in the Ivory Tower, Baron Lark didn't have any connection to the Ivory Tower as he used to be a wandering acolyte. Purchasing the information was a possibility, but any information about Naarth Island was restricted information and by extension, very difficult to obtain. Not impossible, but definitely costly and time-consuming.

Thus, Arthur wanted to test out his curse spell

[Ice Curse - Medium-grade Rank 0 Spell

Using a medium (possessing mana belonging to the target), you can perform a curse ritual. This curse will take the form of a mist of ice elemental particles that will invade the victim's mana pool and spread to his physical body.

Requirement: Ice Magical Knowledge (50), Magical Knowledge (60)

Effect: Every day, you can perform the curse ritual to renew the [Ice Curse], which will deal 10+[Magic Power] points of damage to the victim and to the caster]

The greatest problem of the spell is that the caster also received damage for the curse. However, because Arthur possessed [Ice Physique], most of the damage was negated.

The curse ritual was quite complex. It contained over a hundreds of words of [Byron Empire Tongue], which was a runic language. Each word had to be followed perfectly, or else the curse would fail.

Despite having learnt the spell perfectly, Arthur had failed once before finally succeeding in casting the spell. Each time Arthur cast [Ice Curse], he would consume 6 magic crystals, making it quite the costly spell. Any failure would also consume 6 magic crystals. This definitely was quite expensive, but as expected, Arthur received a notification seven days later.

The whole process had cost him a fortune: 66 magic crystals.

[You have successfully killed [Level 10 Druid - Hildir]. You have earned 360 EXP]

[Your relationship with the Jagorn Wooden Forest has decreased significantly]

[Your reputation with Baron Lark has decreased significantly]

[Successive casts of [Ice Curse] and the killing of an intermediate rank druid has significantly improved your understanding of the spell]

[Your proficiency in the medium-grade spell [Ice Curse] has increased by 6 points]

Each ritual had taken over an hour to perform, and it had cost him a significant amount of magic crystals. However, it was worth it. With Hildir dead, the Jagorn Wooden Forest would not look down on the Landragon Household, and they would not involve in the war unless it is necessary, if only to avoid more deaths. Elves were hypocritical and cowardly creatures after all. Even Hildir's speech of preventing war from bursting was only done so to prevent his tribe to suffer from more deaths.

War.

War was a beautiful opportunity.

Just thinking of the Cursed Soul Flasks he would be able to gather, the amount of gold coins he would make out of it and the influence his family would gain was enough for Arthur to continue to work days and nights.

Finally, after seven days, he had killed the Intermediate-rank druid who would eventually be his enemy. During this time, Arthur continued his research, trained his brother and meditated a lot. He also advanced on his magical studies.

In exchange for the high-grade magical artefact [Blood Scepter] he had taken off the Crimson Clan Elder's body, Arthur had received three ice-elemental spells, magical grimoires and magical resources. By now, he had already finished two out of the three magical grimoires he had received, and his magical knowledge and ice magic knowledge had skyrocketed.

[Magus Ulif Experimental Magic (consumed already) - Medium-grade Magical Grimoire

Contains the studies of Magus Ulif, who has lived for 250 years before falling in a Drake Subjugation.

Spend 1000 EXP or study the book in order to raise your proficiency of [Ice Magical Knowledge] and [Magical Knowledge] by 26 points]