Ch. 73 A long Week

Magic Path Carving Techniques grade 2. Magic Path Carving Techniques grade 3. Magic Path Carving Techniques grade 4.

Mini Carving Techniques.

Advanced Magic Funneling Paths.

Illusion Magic Paths.

Illusion Magic Theories.

Herbal Healing Techniques.

Advanced Healing Techniques.

Replanting Magic Paths.

Magic Focusing Paths.

Identifying Magic Paths and more.

(That's it for the Magic Path books I picked out and the ones she gave me, now the ones with skills.)

Illusion Magic for the Basic Realm.

Telekinesis for the Basic Realm.

MindSpeak.

Backpack Magic.

(MindSpeak and Backpack Magic can go on the shelf, they may be useful to these guys later on. Illusion Magic should go first so I can better understand the Illusion Magic Path books, then I'll actually be able to mess with the Illusion Stones and know what I'm doing this time. Telekinesis wouldn't be useful for now, I'll learn it when I have some spare time. Here we go.)

'Would you like to learn Illusion Magic?'

(Yes.) The pain hit Gabriel differently this time, being that it started at his eyes before radiating out into his head. Before long his head felt like it was being pounded with a tack hammer over and over. His eyes felt they were going to melt out of his head, his vision had even started to blur before completely whiting out. The constant throbbing of his eyes was the only thing keeping him from passing out, that and the fear that he may have just gone blind permanently. After 10 minutes, the pain started to subside and his vision slowly came back to him. (Well, as always the pain is ungodly and makes me wish I was dead, but it doesn't last too long. Now, time to get started on these information books. I'll start with the Magic Carving Techniques grade 2 book and Identifying Magic Paths and more book, if I can handle those, I'll keep going 2 at a time until I'm done. It's been almost a week since I assimilated all that information at the Apothecary, I should be able to handle less than a quarter of the books I learned that afternoon, no problem.)

As the prompts popped up, Gabriel confirmed them and the pain started up again. This time it only lasted for less than a minute before subsiding, so Gabriel started on the next books. He repeated this process until the only books left were Advanced Magic Funneling Paths and Advanced Healing Techniques. Gabriel believed both these books would have the possibility of causing a Skill Mutation so he wanted to save them for last and assimilate them separately.

'Would you like to acquire knowledge from Advanced Healing Techniques?'

(Yes.) Immediately Gabriel felt his heart and hands start burning like they had been dipped in molten lava. He screamed out as a system prompt popped in his vision. He couldn't read it, nor hear it, as the pain was taking up every bit of his focus. Serah, Gala, and Ara arrived in his room moments after his scream rang out. Acorn had already come upstairs in the tree and was in the doorway between their second floor. They all stared at Gabriel as he slumped over onto his desk holding his head and screaming at the top of his lungs. No one moved as they all stared at their friend, finally as Gabriel was about to fall out of the chair, Serah ran up and stopped him from falling.

"...a few minutes...fine...." Gabriel whispered out some words to Serah when he felt her touch on his arm. He didn't know who it was, but he didn't want them to worry, so he tried his best to get out a few words. Serah helped push him back up in his chair and leaned him toward the desk. She stayed nearby watching him for what seemed to be forever, but was really only about 30 minutes in reality. "...thank you...."

"Are you okay Gabriel?"

"...I will be in a few minutes... I think one of my skills may have just sent through a Mutation...." Only one person here knew he could instantly learn from books, so he had to go back to using excuses to cover up his new skills. "Would you get me some water?" (I think I'll have to wait until tomorrow before trying to assimilate the other book.)

"Here you go. Do you need help getting to your bed or are you alright?"

"Thank you. I think I just need a few moments and I'll be alright. Sorry I didn't warn you guys beforehand, I'm trying to push my skills into their next Mastery, but it's looking like I need them to mutate." Lying through his teeth, Gabriel tried to gather himself to stand up. It took him a minute, but he finally managed to stand up and take a drink of water. He still felt out of sorts from all the information and knew he needed to meditate. "I'll go to the dome for a while, I'll be back at dinner time."

Stumbling his way to the dome, Gabriel entered and sat in the middle of Magic Funneling Path. It didn't take long for him to enter meditation and like that the rest of the day was gone. It was late in the evening when he came out of the dome and wandered into his house to find everyone eating dinner, there was a plate of grilled meat with brown bread and butter waiting at his seat. After eating with the group Gabriel announced he would be training the rest of the week and that he needed them to keep an eye on everything. "Gala, I'd appreciate it if you would run a couple of pounds of meat and berries up to our new Guard. He's got a small shack next to the second watchtower, there's a cold storage inside that is completely empty, just fill it up for now and we'll figure out the plan for the future. Thanks guys, I appreciate your efforts, let me know if you need anything. Oh, just a heads up, I'm going to try and mutate a skill again tomorrow so if you hear any strange noises, don't worry about it."

"Just be careful Gabriel, we would fall apart without you." Serah had a look of concern on her face as she stared at Gabriel. She was concerned he was doing something that could kill him after watching him struggle in pain earlier. It wasn't the first time she felt he was doing something really risky and she knew it wouldn't be the last, but it still scared her when he did. After all, without him she'd still be a slave getting beaten every day instead of having her own home, hobbies, and friends to rely on. "If you need help with anything at all, just ask and I'll do my best."

"May I observe when you try to mutate that skill?" Ara was interested in what he was doing as always and thought if he really was capable of Mutating a skill without any outside influence it would be a worthwhile study. (He's going to be my ticket to the Breaker Realm. I just need him to teach me how he manages to keep increasing his strength so fast.)

"I'll think about it tonight and get you in the morning if I decide you can observe. For now, goodnight gang." Gabriel went to bed early so he could get up first thing in the morning and get to it. He wanted to learn all his new skills this week and he wasn't going to take his time about it. (The faster I get these learned, the faster I can start mastering them. I suppose since she's already sworn an Oath to me, I can let her observe, hell she might even be teaching me something with her observations.)