Chapter 16- Aura core part 1

"Excuse me, Mr Lucious?" A familiar guard captain approached with more than a dozen guards.

"Hm? Oh, it's you. Is there something I can help you with?" Lucious and Liara stopped just near the gate.

The guard commander didn't respond straight away, and instead reached into his pocket.

"This is for you; it's filled with the bodies of the monsters you slew." He said while passing him a storage ring.

If I knew I would be given so many storage rings, I wouldn't have bought my own earlier. He thought while taking it.

"Thank you, I thought the village would have kept them." He placed the storage ring with the others in a discreet pocket on his belt.

"We wouldn't dare keep your spoils of battle. Thanks to you and Miss Liara, we got out of the attack without a single casualty.

So, from the bottom of our hearts. Thank you for everything!"

Every guard, including the guard captain bowed in thanks.

Liara didn't know how to react as she wasn't used to such attention and waved her hands around in embarrassment.

Lucious on the other hand, grinned at their display and nodded his head.

"You're welcome. Let's go Liara, its time we get going." He said in acknowledgement before walking away.

"W-Wait for me." Liara quickly ran to catch up.

The journey to the first city was two days walk away.

Lucious was sure he would be faster alone, but he could leave Liara behind.

"So, Liara, are you ever going to tell me how you wound up captured." It had been on his mind since meeting her.

As she was almost never mentioned in the novel, he knew next to nothing about her.

"I... don't um... I don't really want to talk about it..." she said with a downcast expression.

It was clearly traumatic, and Lucious wasn't one to force the issue if they didn't want to talk about it.

"That's OK, just remember that I'm here for you if you need to talk about it" he said while patting her on the head.

"Wha- What are petting me for?" She asked as she started blushing.

She's pretty cute when she's flustered. Lucious thought as he stopped and apologised.

"...I didn't say you had to stop." She quietly mumbled under her breath.

Lucious heard her quiet muttering and pet her head again, only stopping after the moment passed.

The two walked in silence, as they continued following the road north.

"S-So where are we heading too next?" Liara asked in a desperate attempt to break the awkward silence.

"We're heading to the nearest city, Oura. From there, we will have better resources available, and we can rent a coach to get us to the next city."

Armour, weapons, food, inns, coaches... This gold won't last, it might be a good idea to register with the adventurer's guild.

As Lucious ran the mental statistics, he remembered the spellbooks Cassandra gave him.

"I almost forgot; my big sister got you a gift." He said while taking the spellbook out the storage ring.

[Would you like to spend one skill point to learn Frozen arrow?]

No thanks. He replied and handed it over to Liara who was looking at it curiously.

"A spellbook? ... wait, this is for ice magic." Liara's expression dropped slightly when she saw it wasn't a light magic spell.

Lucious chuckled at her, finding her lack of knowledge on magic cute.

"Mages can learn spells of any element." He explained and smiled while watching her face light up.

"You, however, possess a dual affinity. Light and ice. Using spells with those elements is more effective than a spell of a different element."

When Liara heard that she possessed a dual affinity she became even more excited.

Those with more than one affinity were not rare, but they were still coveted in some regions.

This rings especially true in small cities and countries as they're less talented warriors and mages to protect the people.

When the MC of the novel was said to possess a dual element, his already impressive reputation rose even further.

"Can I start learning it now?" she asked with anticipation, her eyes sparkling as she clutched the spellbook.

"Sure, we'll take a break for a few hours over there. I have something I need to work on anyway."

No sooner had he agreed, she rushed to the side of the path and sat on a fallen tree as she opened the spellbook.

System, show me all my skills

[Skills and abilities]

[Mana sense (level 5)]

[Fire shot (level 4)]

[Lightning shot (level 5)]

[Water shot (level 4)]

[Savek's breathing technique: first form (level 4)]

[Snake strike (level 2)]

[Lightning wave (level 5)]

–

After confirming all his skills, Lucious sat down and crossed his legs, sitting in the lotus position.

Tempering my body with one elemental affinity was painful enough, three is just torture at this point.

Despite his complaining, it was something that needed to be done in the pursuit of getting stronger.

Instead on localising his aura into a single spot, Lucious began to focus on his elements.

After searching around for the unique energy signature, he finally grasped at his lightning element.

He then slowly began to channel his lightning element into his very veins. The second he did, violet lightning burst forth from his body.

The pain was immeasurable as his entire body was electrocuted by his element.

Gritting his teeth, Lucious used his aura to seal his pores to lessen the pain by a small margin.

Once the lightning element was contained within his veins, he circulated it through his body.

Now comes the hard part, bringing in the next element. Unfortunately for Lucious, he now had three elements.

His previous body only had the lightning element, but things are different this time around.

While enduring the pain from the lightning, Lucious found his fire element and repeated the process.

In addition to the violet lightning, purple coloured flames also burst forth from his body, doubling the pain he felt.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!!"