Chapter 18
Lith kept running until he was out of the woods, turning his head from time to time to check with Life Vision is he was being followed .
"There is no trace of the Ry, but better safe than sorry . I'm afraid I have pissed off that thing quite bad . It's better to give it some time to vent off and search for easier preys . "
He was near Selia's house, when he finally remembered about the magical stone . Lith activated Life Vision, getting a good look up close .
The first thing he noticed was that the rough edges on the stone had smoothened up, it did not prick his skin anymore . The surface was still rough, but now looked like a stone marble .
The buzzing sound had stopped from a while, and the magical stone's life force, despite being still at the same level, had changed significantly .
Back when he saw it for the first time, its life force was like a candle about to burn out of wax, now it had become steady, with a regular pulse .
Warning Selia about the magical beast took priority, so he hid the stone in a leather pouch he always carried at his neck before knocking at her door .
Lith explained her everything, describing in detail the size and power of the Ry, leaving her flabbergasted . Of course, he never mentioned their fight .
Lith told her that he had fled as soon as their eyes met, and that he got away only thanks to his magic, showing his tattered sleeves as proof .
"Good gods, kid . " She still refused to call him by his name . "You have been really lucky it took it easy on you . Had the Ry decided to give you chase, we would not be having this conversation . Nonetheless, thanks for warning me first, instead of going to your parents . " Selia ruffled his hair .
"How do you know I came here first?"
"Because if you didn't, your parents would have probably locked you up in your house, and one of them would have come here to warn me in your place . "
Lith froze up . He had just dodged a bullet much scarier than any Ry .
"You are right . Is better not to tell them, otherwise my hunting days may be over forever . "
"Yeah . I suggest you taking the rest of the morning off . Make up and excuse for those sleeves and go home . " Selia walked over the shed near her house where she kept her game maturating .
"Take these as a thank you for the heads up . " She handed him a rabbit and a blinker, ready to be cooked .
"I was about to go in the woods . I think I will follow my advice, instead, and keep tanning the remaining pelts . I'll go to hunting in the afternoon, when it should be safer . "
Lith thanked her with a deep bow, he knew how precious meat was in Lutia, even for a huntress as good as Selia . Not to mention she had just saved him from perpetual house arrests .
He spent the rest of the morning trying to understand how to use the magic stone . It appeared to be feeding off Lith's mana . Not leeching it like a parasite, more like nibbling at the mana that he naturally released being talented in magic .
The stone would simply breath in what Lith's body breathed out, nothing more .
Lith tried injecting mana into it, but to no avail . Then he casted elemental spells while holding the stone, to check if their strength, cast speed and area of effect were affected in any way .
All of his experiments gave no results, the stone looked just like any other .
"Stones do not have such a clear mana flow, and certainly they do not have any life force . Maybe this thing needs time to heal, to recharge or something . The Ry messed it up quite bad, let's hope is not broken . Unless it starts harming me, I'll keep it . Maybe is some kind of treasure, or maybe I can find something about it on Nana's books . I just have to be patient . "
The last days of autumn passed on uneventful, until winter arrived .
Having reached the five years of age, Lith revealed a little more of his magic talents, proving to be invaluable to his family .
He would wake up first and warm up the whole house with magic, even the floors . At that point the fireplace was lit only because was cozy, and because rounding up around the fire, especially during the stormy winter evenings, was a family tradition .
Even the cooking was entrusted to Lith . Elina would prepare the meal, and Lith would cook it faster and better than a ventilated oven, keeping the soup warm for everyone during the whole meal .
He could not go hunting anymore because of the bad weather, his parents had been adamant on that . But Lith could still go to Selia's house to perform the chores for her .
During the last year, she had become so lazy to become dependant on Lith for keeping her house clean and her tools sterilized .
This meant killing two birds with one stone for Lith . Now he had an excuse to go fetch his private stock of meat whenever he got hungry, and Selia had to pay him for the chores .
Lith would do it for free, just to get out of the house, but his parents would not agree . So, Selia paid him a few copper coins to clean her house, and some more for Elina to do her laundry .
Both Elina and Raaz would welcome any extra income, and doing the laundry for eight instead of seven wasn't much an effort . Especially since Lith provided her an endless supply of hot water .
"Nice to meet you, I am Lith, boiler supreme . " He would grumble inwardly every time .
In the first weeks of winter, Lith made a very important breakthrough . He finally understood how to use Invigoration's body imaging on others .
He was now able to let his mana seep into another person's body, and slowly take control of their mana flow, allowing Lith to know everything about the subject's physical condition .
The only way to achieve such a result was to keep physical contact, searching way ins for the mana without harming him/her .
Lith immediately used it on Tista, and his findings were appalling .
Her body was full of the tar-like substance, that for the lack of a better term, he had dubbed impurities . And the cause of that was her lungs .
Note : Please download the sponsor's game to support us!
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login