Chapter 42

Darius woke up quite refreshed and limber. It could be because he had a long period of sleep or because his averaged out Endurance stat made him less fatigued overall.

Whatever the case, he bathed with the help of Portia - only in preparing it of course - and wore another one of Derek's altered clothes. Instead of heading out, Darius walked right back to the library where he resumed his reading.

Of course, he didn't forget about his newly refreshed Conversion Points.

[Would you like to change the empty spell manual into a small teleport spell manual? This will cost 9 Conversion Points.]

Darius was left speechless by how expensive it was. Then again, space was among the pinnacle of the elements and was definitely hard to grasp for normal mages.

Before he made the change, he decided to check how much it would cost to make a healing spell manual.

[Would you like to change the empty spell manual into a small recovery spell manual? This will cost 7 Conversion Points.]

Darius' lips twitched. Both were far more expensive than the Ember Spell Manual had been. Darius had planned to create a spell and some more Short Warp scrolls today, but his plans were shot.

Well, if he had a blink spell, it wouldn't matter if he had Short Warp scrolls, would it? With his healthy mana pool, even if the blink distance was short, he had no cooldowns for his spells like other mages.

He could just rapidly blink to his destination or until his mana ran out, which was why he chose the blink spell after thinking it through some more. Since he had potions to help with his healing, he didn't think he'd need a spell for that so pressingly.

As such, he sighed and created the small teleport spell manual for 9 of his precious points for the day.

[Blink Spell - Manual

Durability: 10/10

Description: Contained within is the required knowledge to cast the simplest spell of the space element, Blink. Due to the high quality of the material and the penmanship, the success chance of learning the spell is increased by 100% while the effectiveness of the spell is increased by 500%.]

Without wasting time, Darius learned the spell immediately.

[Detected spellbook. Would you like to learn its contents?

Warning: The spellbook will be destroyed upon using this method! Continue?]

As he assented, he saw the spell manual turn into a purplish slush that climbed up his arms and went into his brain through his ears. After a short pause to digest the years of practice and studying he had undergone to master the blink spell, he checked its description.

[Blink - Level 1 Spell

Cost: 1 MP

Description: Move through the folds of space to cross the distance between two locations instantly. The maximum distance is 10 meters.]

Darius tutted. 10 meters was quite short, he could even sprint that distance in under a second or two right now. However in battle, being able to appear even 1 meter away from an attack could mean everything.

This wasn't a traversal spell, this was a battle one. Darius understood this the moment he read its details, so he pondered if a traversal version of the blink spell existed.

It likely did for sure, but he fathomed that its relative cost would be higher, even with a prepared manual. Whatever the case, he would find out more on that later.

Just as Darius was about to enter the library with Portia, who had seen Darius absorb the spell manual with wide eyes and a drooping mouth, he saw Derek coming over.

Slapping his forehead, Darius quickly walked over to Derek. The young man still wielded his own spear, as if he never let that thing down for even a second.

"Hello there Derek, I was wondering if I could share some things I acquired with the homestead." Darius greeted with a smile.

Derek nodded and paused. "What would that be?"

Darius flourished his palm a little and a cut of Grey Bear meat appeared on it. This action greatly startled both Portia and Derek, for it was something they had never seen before.

"I have a lot of cut meat I saved for my journey, but no longer need since you have all given me lodging and food. As such, I also thought to give something back to you all, even if it might be small."

Derek received the meat and checked it to see that it was still as good as new, as if Darius had just killed the source of the meat a few seconds ago. There was even fresh blood still dripping from the meat!

The young man's face became solemn and he nodded. "Follow me to the storeroom, Mister Darius."

Derek turned and led the way down to the kitchen area of the farmhouse/manor. Darius told Portia to wait for him in the library while he followed Derek with a slight smile on his lips.

'Mister Darius, huh?'

Interesting. Just as the Analyze skill had stated, Portia was a friendly party to him and would likely be more if Darius accepted her advances. Derek though, despite being her sibling and seeing the same things Portia did, still did not fully accept or trust him.

It could either be part of his personality, being cold and detached which seemed likely, or it could be because he saw something in Darius that Portia failed to. After all, the young miss was enraptured by the circumstances and his looks, but the young man had no such interests.

As such, it was likely that Derek could see more about Darius than usual. This Darius disagreed with because if Derek could truly see into his character, even slightly, he would undoubtedly be hostile and not neutral.

Darius appeared in a storage room that was maintained by a few of the other men and women of the homestead, mostly the peasants just reaching the age of adulthood.

When they saw Derek and Darius, all work stopped as they greeted the duo. Derek nodded to them while Darius smiled benevolently.

Soon, their respectful faces changed to one of utter shock when Darius removed pounds and pounds of meat he had cut from the various beasts he killed on his way here.

As for the Troll's carcass, he obviously kept that to himself.