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Forbidden Sphere Chapter 122
Both Arran and Lord Sevaril were quiet during the carriage ride back to the castle, Arran still thinking over the events of the day, and Lord Sevaril engrossed in his own thoughts.Now that he thought he understood the true purpose of Panurge's food, Arran was convinced he had been on the losing end of the deal. He had sold Lord Sevaril what amounted to an army of Body Refiners at a price of less than a quarter Essence Crystal per soldier, and although Arran had little idea of the value of soldiers, he suspected it lay far above what he had received.But then, Arran had no use for an army — he had neither soldiers to train nor lands to conquer, and the thought of leading a band of brigands or mercenaries did not appeal to him in the slightest. His only goal was to increase his own strength, and for that, the Essence Crystals were infinitely more valuable than the food had been.And when he considered the matter, he was certain that even if his treasures were worth a higher price, ther
Forbidden Sphere Chapter 123
Just opening the door to the treasury took Lord Sevaril some time, and Arran could tell that the door was protected by some sort of magical mechanism, though he could not see exactly how it worked.That Lord Sevaril bothered with such defenses even here, in his own tower, could only mean one of two things. Either he did not trust his own men, or he had such treasures to protect that doors did not suffice to protect them.Arran hoped it was the latter. If so, perhaps there would be something good to be had.Of course, he wouldn't be too greedy. Even if Lord Sevaril had said Arran could pick an item of his choice, he wasn't so naive as to think he could just take anything.As Arran thought about how to best handle the situation, Lord Sevaril finally finished disabling whatever magical defenses protected his treasury, and the massive steel door suddenly swung open."Follow me," Lord Sevaril said in an eager voice. Without waiting for Arran to respond, he stepped through the doorway.Arra
Forbidden Sphere Chapter 124
As Lord Sevaril showed Arran the rest of his treasures, the man's mood soon seemed to improve, and before long he was once more bragging about the items in the treasury. Shocked though he might be by Arran's revelations, it appeared that boasting about his riches brought him at least some comfort.Arran, on the other hand, found himself unimpressed by most of the treasures. Although there were plenty of them, few seemed to have any useful powers.There was a staff that could create Force Shields with the user's Essence, but the shields were weaker than those Arran could produce himself. There was a small green rod that could heal injuries, but when Lord Sevaril bragged that it could heal a broken bone in days, Arran knew his own Body Refinement techniques were more potent.Each time he thought he had found something truly useful, soon after there followed an inevitable downside that negated much of the item's value.Most of the items, it seemed, converted all kinds of Essence into a s
Forbidden Sphere Chapter 125
Back in his room, it took Arran some time to calm himself. Although he had spent the past several hours putting on a confident facade, the truth was that he had been absolutely terrified from the moment Lord Sevaril set foot inside the Golden Hall.He did not fool himself into thinking that he deserved the credit for the unexpectedly good outcome. He understood well enough that he been on the edge of disaster, and that he avoided it owed more to luck than it did to his own quick thinking.Only now that the immediate danger was gone did Arran have time to fully grasp just how close a miss it had been.Had Lord Sevaril not decided to put his faith in an artifact rather than his own reasoning, Arran doubted things would have ended so well. And even so, he'd been fortunate that the man already knew of Chaos, or else he might have been more skeptical of Arran's story, truth-telling artifact or not.Arran spent a good half hour thinking over the events of the day, reflecting on his mistakes
Forbidden Sphere Chapter 126
Arran worked through the night, then into the next day, foregoing breaks and sleep as he absorbed Essence Crystals one after the other. With each new Essence Crystal, he could feel his affinity to Essence growing stronger — more and more, it felt like his Essence was part of him, rather than some alien substance he could only barely manipulate.After just a day, Arran had finished absorbing the Purified Essence of close to a hundred Essence Crystals, and the effect left him marveling at how much his control of Essence had improved.Previously, it had been like writing a letter while holding the pen with only his elbows, and looking back now, he was almost amazed that he had managed to succeed in casting spells at all.But now, things were completely different. He could feel that the Essence was truly his to control, to be used however he wanted, and the awkward clumsiness he had always felt while wielding magic was rapidly melting away.He finally began to understand the real differen
Forbidden Sphere Chapter 127
"I take it you found most of the ingredients you need?" Arran asked, continuing to absorb Purified Essence as he spoke."I did," Snowcloud replied. "Only the final five ingredients remain. Finding three of those will rely on luck, but for the other two, I know where to look.""So where are we going?" Arran asked. With how little he understood of alchemy and herbalism, there was no point in asking what the remaining ingredients were. He knew that even if Snowcloud told him, the names would mean absolutely nothing to him."The remains of the Eidaran Empire," Snowcloud answered. "About two months' travel northwest from here.""The Eidaran Empire?" Arran had never heard the name before, and the thought of there being other empires still felt odd to him. To his mind, there was only one true Empire."Until a few decades ago, it was one of the largest and most prosperous powers west of the border region," Snowcloud said. "Then, one day, it collapsed into civil war. All that's left now is cha
Forbidden Sphere Chapter 128
"We'll talk about the Essence Crystals later," Arran said. "First, let me take a look at that wound."Snowcloud nodded, wincing as she gazed down at the arrow sticking from her leg.As Arran inspected the wound, he saw that although the arrowhead was embedded deeply in Snowcloud's thigh, it did not look like it had struck the bone."I'm going to pull out the arrow," Arran said. "Are you ready?""Do it," she said, clenching her jaw.Carefully, Arran took the arrow firmly in his hand. Then, with a single quick movement, he pulled it from Snowcloud's leg.She cried out in pain for a moment, gasping as the sharp arrowhead sliced through her flesh once more on its way out."All done," Arran said. Then, he took a bottle of water from his void bag and carefully cleaned the wound. With the arrow gone, it didn't look nearly as bad — though it was deep and oozed blood, it seemed like a clean cut that should heal well enough."I'll take it from here," Snowcloud said, taking out a small flask fro
Forbidden Sphere Chapter 129
In the weeks following their departure from Goldhaven, Arran quickly discovered that training with Snowcloud was far more arduous than he had anticipated.Although they had done some training together before they visited Goldhaven, after the progress Arran had made with the Essence Crystals, it seemed that Snowcloud now thought he was ready for more rigorous instruction.They spent most of their days traveling, but even as they walked, Snowcloud made Arran practice his spellcasting with a constant slow barrage of attacks at whatever happened to be on the side of the road.Occasionally she would give him tips and pointers, but more often, she would scold him if he paused his practice for more than a few minutes.And sometimes, she would launch sudden attacks, giving Arran only a moment to defend himself with a Force Shield. The attacks were never strong enough to cause serious harm, but the burns and bruises they left were sufficiently painful to motivate him to learn quickly.The cons