CHAPTER 31 (Patreon)

The next morning after a breakfast of fish and dried fruit, father offered to pull the carriage. Alik started walking next to the cart and chatted me up.

“How is it you learned all this, master?”

“Don’t—” I said before I saw his grin and I sighed. “A lot of it I just figured out on my own.”

“This I thought so,” Alik said. “No Shaman on our island can compare to you. So the Ancestor’s ruins then?”

“Good guess,” I said.

“You defeated the Silverback. That is where its territory was.”

I nodded. I didn’t really want to tell him too much about the First Ones just yet.

“I am a Hunter, you know,” Alik said. “Not a Fisher. This means I spent my boyhood in the jungle. I learned to fear the Silverback. I know how strong it was.”

“What are you saying?” I asked.

Alik gave me a measured look. “I suppose that I am glad that you are not cruel with your power.”

“Remember to smack me if I get too indulgent,” I said and smiled.

“This servant will cut off his hand, if he ever uses it to strike his master!” Alik said.

I splashed some water at him while I glared at mother who was holding back laughter. After a while I settled into training, which I did by infusing Danek’s potions.

To make things interesting for myself, I started refining the tonics without holding them. I soon realized I could do this and simply started refining potions that were still in Danek’s cart. The day went by fast through a fairly sparse jungle with well made dirt roads. Mother scouted ahead and with Alik’s help, foraged us lunch from berries and mushrooms. I wasn’t big on raw mushrooms, but mother insisted they were edible. I could have sworn I got an ominous tummy ache.

By the time we reached the first village, I was almost done with the potions, which made Danek very happy. He asked my father to help him deal with the trade and they went off with the little cart with Danek’s minions following in tow. Father had promised Konako and the families of the goons that he would be responsible for them and take care of them. 

That left me, mother and Alik to find us lodgings. Fortunately we were well received by the village elder, who showed us a hut we could use.

Naturally, I only had a single goal in mind, which was training. Infusing Danek’s potions was fine idle work to do while traveling, but I wanted to work on my Spellcraft. As I had suspected the mana was slightly denser on this island, and I wanted to make use of that.

Mother and Alik joined me eagerly. Now we had a chance to show him the Skill scroll, but not before mother made sure nobody was around the cabin. My mother asked me if I was sure, but I had a pretty good feeling about Alik. And me and mother had already learned the Skill from the scroll anyway. It wasn’t really valuable for me. I did want to trade it to some noble cultivator house somewhere in the future for stupid amounts of resources, but I needed a trusty companion right now more than daydreams.

“This!” Alik took the scroll reverently from mother who offered it. “An Epic Skill…”

“Needless to say,” mother said sternly. “This is a high honor from Little God.”

“Mom, I—”

Mother gave me a hard look. I nodded. Maybe using my stupid title in this situation was for the better.

Alik kept his eyes on the dirt floor and inclined his head further, while holding the scroll with two hands. “If you teach me this, I will serve your family until we both feel the debt is repaid. Do you accept?”

I thought we had this conversation the other day. Apparently our informal arrangement wasn't enough for him anymore. Now that he'd seen the scroll, he wanted to pledge his life or something equally ridiculous.

Both of them turned to me. I vaguely understood the gravity of the situation. This was an Epic Skill. Those were apparently really exclusive. I wasn’t exactly sure why the Skill was classified so high, but it had been some cherished secret of Mez and his people, so it probably had some applications I hadn’t found yet. Mother seemed to think so. Either way, while I was not the best people reader, and I thought people who said they were were idiots, I trusted Alik. Besides, who was he going to tell? He knew nobody in these islands beyond us and couldn’t leverage the knowledge to harm us. And even if he did, would they really kill us for this scroll? I doubted it. I could just give it away in the worst scenario.

But we were still far from such people. That was not who these village people were. So even if the scroll was taken from us, they’d leave us alive, allowing me to master magic to the point I could simply just take it back. I nodded to myself.

“Look, Alik. If you are going to be sticking around, I don’t want a servant.”

Alik looked worried.

“Well, I do,” I corrected myself. “I still want you to do all the annoying stuff. But I don’t want to be called Little God or Master. I want you to be yourself and become loyal because we deserve it.”

“This is the same as servitude,” Alik said. “I accept.”

“It’s not,” I said and groaned. “I just want you to help me test my magic and sort out annoying stuff during the tournament. Just help me for these few months, and I’ll teach you what you need.”

“But the scroll…” Alik muttered. “My honor demands I pay in kind.”

“Look, if I thought I’d get more use out of you, I’d try to wring it out,” I said and shrugged. “But for now, help me until the end of the tournament, and then we’ll talk, okay? Besides, my family is going to leave the archipelago and venture into the world.”

“Beyond the archipelago… But of course. For you this cluster of islands would be too small. What will you do in the outside world?”

“Pursue magic of course.”

Alik looked up and unfurled the scroll. “I understand. I will make myself as useful as I can until the tournament is finished.”

I smiled. “See, now that sounds way more reasonable than I’ll be your servant for the rest of my life.”

I extended a hand and he shook it.

“Now,” I said with an excited smile. “Let’s work on some Mana Absorption."

To his credit, Alik was a quick study. It didn’t take him long to acquire the skill.

Alik unfurled the scroll and fell silent.

“I have it,” he whispered. He looked at his hands, then at me.

I grinned. “Pretty neat, right? Did you get the Perk?”

He nodded and bowed his head. “The Perk is… The Ancestors made this scroll?”

“Yup,” I said. “They knew what they were doing back in the good old days.”

I will not waste this gift.”

“Good, good. Less pomp about it, more leveling up!”

We sat on the floor of the cabin, and I was mostly just narrating what I was doing. I had to accommodate for their lack of seeing the mana, but at this point I could absorb and manipulate mana even without Mana Sight, although it was significantly slower and awkward. And because this kind of stuff was becoming second nature to me, I could use some of my attention by clumping up mana right by their navels to make it easier for them to absorb it.

All in all, I was very happy to notice that the mana was substantial enough for me to bother with Arcane Body Art. At least to a degree. There was maybe fifteen or twenty percent more mana on this island than our home island. Still a pittance amount to actually work on my cultivation, but since we were using Mana Absorption, I might as well.

While mother and Alik worked on holding the mana and letting their System naturally absorb it, I worked on transmuting the mana into the purified form required by my cultivation.

I was eager to learn what benefits I would unlock by cultivating further. The magical fingertip worked as a mana reserve, and allowed me to cast spells instinctually. Combining it with structured magic was certainly one of the most useful applications. Additionally, the Arcane Body Art worked in conjunction with my level 20 Meditation Perk, Multicasting, making it easier to cast and maintain multiple spells. I was still getting the hang of that. Idly, as I worked the mana, I daydreamed about how advancing my cultivation could improve my magic. Having the soles of my feet cultivated could allow all kinds of applications, like speed boosts, levitation and such. Maybe even flight!

[Arcane Body Art — First Layer: 1.2%]

When father and Danek came back to the cabin, Danek was clearly very happy. The cart was filled with uninfused potions and other tradeables. It looked like he had made a fat profit. He told me to please be patient and let him trade at will and not ask for my cut before the end of the tournament. That suited me fine. What was I to do with some junk that didn’t even help me improve my magic. Hell, I wouldn’t ask for my cut until Danek decided to go his own way for good. Well, that is, unless we encountered some kind of expensive and exotic way to improve my magic. I’d clean all my accounts instantly…

I should probably not tell Danek that.

That evening we washed ourselves and the village elder led us to a table with food and drink. They had prepared a small feast for us in the name of hospitality. This was tradition for pilgrims making their way towards the Silver Sea Tournament.

The people were friendly and resembled us, but they were all bigger and bulkier. While they treated us well and asked about news and gossip and all that, there was an undercurrent of looking down on us. They didn’t believe for a second that I had won, and Alik had placed second in the gauntlet. They only laughed and thought our island was full of jesters and that wouldn’t work in the tournament. 

These people seemed to respect strength, and strength only. Their champions for the tournament had already left, but we could see a few boys of Alik’s age giving him stern looks and showing their muscles and sparring next to the feast table. None of them did approach for a challenge, but they sure were itching for it.

Sure enough, after the feast, the boys practically lined up to challenge Alik. He obliged them and beat all of them with a few swift moves. Most of these boys didn’t have a class, and the difference was noticeable. I hadn’t realized it before, but it seemed that Alik was extremely talented. Even the adults were impressed and said that our island would have a remarkable tournament this time.

I’d like to think so too.

We left the village and got back on the road. I started training my Mana Manipulation by infusing Danek’s new potions. But as we ventured deeper towards the shore, I noticed the mana gradually getting thicker. I smiled to myself. After I was done with these potions, I would get to training my kinetic magic. At this point I was already getting good at throwing my weight around, and dishing out some pretty good attack magic.

But with the Tournament coming up, I’d likely need to fight some powerful people who would want to punch back. I didn’t like that. I was determined to master the Kinetic Barrier spell I had been slowly working towards, so that I could become untouchable. Quite literally, actually.