Chapter 7
[ SOUL DEVOURED ]
Nikolai spent a few seconds in silent confusion at what had just transpired, ' Soul devoured? ' he let those words sink in. For the mist to be able to devour souls was a very scary thing. ' Just what kind of things this mist not devour.
As far as the experiments he had conducted, he found out that the items the mist can devour are categorised into the following:
1. Weapons
2. Shields.
3. Armour.
4. Accessories.
5. Magic creatures, and lastly
6. Souls.
He did not know what items are regarded as accessories as he had not found one yet. The above items gave him just what their names indicate, except for Magic creatures: they gave Skills, spells and passives, but it was their downgrade version. But this was not really a problem as it could be improved and strengthened by regularly using them.
It was like learning to write. Take this for example, consider the teacher teaching you to write the alphabets. You would learn the alphabets, but your handwriting is shit at best, your lines would be crooked, some alphabets would be too large and some too small. It was obvious that the teacher had better handwriting than yours. But given enough time, your handwriting would get better, you would soon reach the level of your teacher maybe even better than your teacher.
Now back to the Sould devouring mist.
[ DEVOUR MORE SOULS TO STRENGTHEN THE MIST ]
He felt something empty inside him, it was like there was a water cup that wants to be filled. The was the fire of the grasshopper that was in liquid form inside the cup. It was like a drop of water, so less that it did not even matter.
With UNDEAD VISION still active, he looked for the nearest soul. The ability of the mist to devour souls was very eerie, but the reward of improving the mist was too good to ignore. So he decided to go for a walk in the woods.
{ Three Hours later }
An adult buck was lazily grazing the foliage that had overgrown near a stream. It was already mating season, it was always a good idea to have a good meal and plenty of water before he take part in the act of reproduction. But before that, he had to compete with many other bucks for a mate, but he was not really bothered by those youngsters as he was the biggest buck in the forest. It was going to be the same as the previous years.
But fate has other plans for the adult buck, as a black arrow went through his hind leg. It happened so fast that it was not even aware that its life was in danger and another arrow went through its other hind leg, rendering it unable to escape.
Nikolai approached the injured buck with his black knife in hand. ' I hope I'm not messing with the ecosystem here. ' He grimaced, killing too many of these animals would lead to an imbalance in the ecosystem, if these animals do not have the numbers to reproduce it would lead to no meat for his high protein-reliant diet.
He slit the buck's throat and let the blood flow like a running water tap. the dying animal was trembling, proving that it was near's death gate.
" UNDEAD VISION. " his vision turned black and white as he cast the spell. There was the dying flame of the animal flickering and slowly dimming to oblivion.
[ SOUL DEVOURED ]
[ SUFFICIENT SOULS HAVE BEEN DEVOURED ]
' Finally! ' Nikolai sighed, he had to kill six of these animals to fill that fucking water cup he dubbed, " SOUL CUP ". Sure he was getting more meat after this, so he was getting rewarded handsomely.
Now it was time to see what improvements the mist will get after all the hard work he had done for the past three hours.
The souls that he had worked hard to collect were getting drained and it was spreading across his entire body, the warmth was soothing, it was like taking a warm bath. The warmth was most intense at his chest, where his soul was located... he watched as his soul was absorbing the other souls.
[ MIST HAS BEEN IMPROVED ]
Without any warning, a vicious headache assaulted him, that forcefully shoved knowledge into his head. It lasted for ten seconds before the pain subsided.
[ FAMILIARS CAN BE CONTRACTED ]
Familiars as defined by modern magic professors were entities or spiritual guardians that serve many purposes for any magic users, either in combat, support or as assistance in the field of magic.
He was so preoccupied with this new information, that let his guard down, allowing himself to get attacked.
CRACK!!!
Something landed on the top of his head and left something liquid, his fight-or-flight response kicked in as he instinctively shoot an arrow straight towards his attacker.
SQUAWK!!!
He looked at his attacker, who was a crow sitting on its nest, but his arrow went through it impaling it to the tree and instantly killing it. He then touched the wetness on his head and found out that it was just its egg. The hatchling had already died from the high fall, its weak soul had already left its body.
The mother he presumed, that was impaled to the tree, dropped to the ground as the black arrow dematerialised itself.
' Well, that was unfortunate. ' he lamented at the loss of the mother and the innocent child. But what was done was already done, he silently apologised for their demise that was caused by his hands.
CAW! CAW! CAW! CAW!
He heard cawing from the nest, he climbed the tree and peeked inside the straw nest and saw two crow hatchlings. The moment their eyes met his, the two hatchings immediately began opening their mouths wide expecting food from their oversized, featherless and beakless father.
Nikolai chuckled at this, he grabbed a piece of smoked meat and chewed it to soften it and then fed it to the hatchlings. But the two hatchings still wanted more.
" You two sure are ravenous. " He chuckled at the pun he just made, the two hatchlings not understanding their featherless father, kept their mouths open wanting more food. He eventually fed them the entire piece of smoked meat that was supposed to be his lunch, but they still wanted more.
Seeing the two hatchlings brought warmth and wholesomeness inside him, it was like he had this kind of unexplainable bond with them, he knew they could not survive on their own and he was also responsible for killing their mother in the first place. So he had to take full responsibility for his actions.
" Yup, I'm adopting you both. " He gave a bright smile as he made that declaration and the two hatchlings happily cawed.
[ BONDS HAVE BEEN MADE ]
[ YOU HAVE OBTAINED TWO FAMILIARS ]
Well, today had brought enough surprises for him, he carefully scoped the nest and took it with him back to the cabin.
He knew that he was going to stay in this forest for some time, how long this was he had no clue, but at least he was not going to be alone.
{ Somewhere outside the forest }
Outside the forest, there was a village of a hundred souls living happily, doing their assigned tasks be it farming, fishing, hunting or household work.
This village was one of the last settlements that still adhered to the culture worshipping of their Gods. Living in an era, that branded them as Pagans in the eyes of the Christians.
They still stayed true to their beliefs and continued to worship the Nordic deities, for they know that they are not worshipping some made-up or " False" Gods as the Christians called their deities.
Times were tough for sure, but they knew their Gods blesses them with food, water, health and safety from all who wishes harm upon them.
But a scream broke the peaceful evening of the Village.
" EVERYONE RUN!!! " The village hunter came sprinting from the forest, fear deeply engraved on his face. The villagers were confused at what had spooked him so much that he came sprinting.
" A HORDE IS COM- " he was immediately silenced by an arrow that struck the back of his head.
There were screams of horror at the sight of one of their friend getting killed in front of them. It was then they saw what horror had set their four on their Village.
From the dark forest out came a horde of undead armed with weapons, with their only goal being to slaughter everyone.
" EVERYONE! RUN TO THE TEMPLE! BARRICADE IT! " A large man yelled, pointing to the building at the end of the village. " Tell to Oracle to request help from Valhalla! Quick! "
{{ Author's note}}
As always thank you for reading this story, and please leave a comment and a review. Some power stones would also help.