Chapter 6: Why Should I Help?

"Please help the tribe... no please help me kill that monstrosity"

"..."

Braska who was busy drinking some wine started coughing as he spits the wine back out in shock. Silence rained, everybody stopped dancing and celebrating, they all stared at Lorthic.

'Would he do it?' went through everyone's minds.

Lorthic was calm, even when everyone was staring at him some with expectation some with pleading expressions. Would he do it, that was not only a question the tribe asked themselves but one Lorthic asked himself, that and 'Did he have a reason to kill?', Lorthic did not enjoy taking a life, when it was an artificially created one and it attacked him, he would do it without a second thought, the same applied for any other life if it dared to attack him without reason he would retaliate, but that was only natural, he would protect himself and everyone under him, but to actively go around slaughtering things was never what he wanted.

Now he is asked to kill a creature that threatens this tribesman, he has no relationship other than this brief few hours, they may have shared their food with him but that does not equal life. To him, life was one of the most precious things in the universe, he had spent his entire life researching the great art of Necromancy before he stepped upon an even greater path, The Pale Master, one who had dominion over the forces of death without any divine intervention. He has studied the creation and destruction of life his entire life, devoured to it as if it was his religion, some necromancers or even Pale Masters might believe to achieve the pinnacle was to destroy life and recreate it from the original, which brought forth undead, but Lorthic thought differently.

He had studied negative energy, the origin of a necromancer or Pale Masters powers, the very power that creates undead, he had even absorbed the unholy power into his own body, turning himself into something that can no longer be considered human...

Lorthic shook himself from his thought, the tribe was still waiting for his answer, Lothic looked the tribe over once before his gaze landed on Nevare, "Give me a reason", he said.

His words were straightforward, yet it brought confusion, "A reason...", Braska muttered to himself, he did not have a reason for a Champion rank being to kill something for them, even if he talked about the lives of the caravan people, Lorthic had no connection to these people so even that was meaningless.

Lorthic waited patiently while Nevare and Braska thought of a good excuse to have him help them. Money? They didn't have near enough to enlist the services of a Champion and even if they did would Lorthic accept it. This made Nevare and Braska put on bitter expressions, they didn't have anything give that was valuable enough to have him act.

Lorthic sighed when he saw their expressions, he knew well they couldn't come up with anything.

"Uhm...excuse me", Lorthic heard the tender young voice of a girl in her teens, looking towards its origins Lorthic was surprised to find a young maiden, around the age of sixteen looking at him through the bars of her bamboo cage. She had long golden hair a pair of green eyes, a small dainty nose with an oval face which still held a bit of immaturity, which made her seem more cute than beautiful.

"Yes?", When Lorthic spoke to the girl everyone turned their attention to her, being stared at by everyone caused her to lower her head a bit as she fidgeted with her hands out of nervousness.

"Can you help us?", the girl asked, by us, she was obviously meaning the captured caravan people. Lorthic looked amused at her question, "Why should I?" he asked, he was not against helping them a bit, as long as he had a good reason or else he wouldn't bother with himself with them.

He didn't immediately reject her which gave her some courage, while Braska got a bad feeling he immediately tried to intervene, "My Lor..." but was silenced when Lorthic held his hand up towards him.

The girl got excited when she saw Lorthic give her a chance to talk, "I am Annabell Frostbringer, of house Frostbringer, Marque of the Kingdom Ludvar", The girl made a courtesy bow or tried to at least as the cage in which she found herself was a bit small.

Braska and Nevare paled when they heard her, 'Shit we attacked a noble', both of them thought at the same time, but then again why would a Noble lady such as her be with a group of merchants and looking at the merchant groups face they were surprised as well.

"A noble? Do you have anything to back this claim of yours", Lorthic asked unperturbed, the girl, Annabell nodded, she pulled out a necklace that was hidden from view underneath her shirt, the necklace had three enlarged snowflakes carved into it and layered with gold and silver.

Braska and Nevare immediately knew she was telling the truth when they saw the necklace, they might have been part of a tribe and considered savages by many, but that did not mean they were idiots or uninformed by the way the world worked, in fact, it was because they knew how the world worked that they were able to survive up until now.

The problem now was, what to do about this noble lady, they had assaulted a caravan that she was riding with and even locked her into a cage after kidnapping her, these were serious crimes, especially because this noble most like had a Champion or two under his command.

While the two were brooding over what to do, Lorthic smiled at the girl, "Well now that we have confirmed your identity, tell me why I should help you"

The girl was taken aback for a moment, she was a noble, wasn't it a good thing to get close to a noble, even if he was a Champion she was the daughter of a marque, even Champions had to show some respect towards that title.

Seeing that Lorthic was not impressed by her noble title, she gritted her teeth, "I am sure my farther would reward sir greatly if sir were to rescue me."

"Oh", Lorthic said but he didn't move to help her instead he put on a disappointed face before turning around. Annabell grew agitated when she saw him ignore her so she pulled out something from her pocket, the tribe people did not search any of the caravan people's pockets for valuables when they were captures so she still had evrything she brought with her on her.

"I will give sir a mana stone in return for your aid", she said as she showed Lorthic a fist-size blue gem that had strange energy coursing through it.

Nevare and the rest of the tribe did not react at all since they didn't know what it was but Braska's body shivered when he saw it, 'Son of a bitch, why didn't we search them', he thought in regret when he saw the gem.

What was a mana stone? To put it bluntly, it was a stone that contained mana. To explain it in more detail it was a crystal formed over a long period of time in an area with a high concentration of mana in the air. They weren't all of the same quality though, they ranged between first-tier mana stone's and tenth tier mana stones, with the higher tier holding more and purer mana within.

The uses of these stones varied, from powering runes and magic artefacts to helping mages increase the mana amount and purity. Increasing the amount of mana of a mage was nice and all, but it's real value laid in the fact that it could increase the purity of the mana in a mage, this was something that would drive most mages crazy and now right in front of Braska such a treasure was shown, something he could have had but now it was beyond his grasp.

Lorthic looked at the stone in the girl's hand in a bit of interest, although he was not overcome with greed because of a little stone like this even if the one the girl currently held was a fifth tiered mana stone, he did not covet it, but this stone was something that he could accept as payment. To him, money held no value but this tiny little stone could help increase his mana even if it was just a little amount, every little increase helped, Lorthic didn't even think of the possibility of increasing his mana purity through the stone if a fifth tiered mana stone still held the ability to purify his mana then he might have spent his life as a mage in vain.

Lorthic, under the gases of everyone, took the stone from the girl. She looked at the stone she gave in with unbearable pain in her heart, but to protect herself she had to do it.

"I will help you", Lorthic said as the mana stone turned black and crumbled into pieces under everyone dumbfounded gases, just like that he absorbed all of the mana in the stone.