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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
Forbidden Sphere Chapter 130
"We could just go around the village," Arran said, looking at the smoke floating up into the sky. "Whatever happened to the village is long over, but those who did it might still be there."Even if he was curious to see what had happened to the village, perhaps the wiser choice would be to just avoid it altogether. It wasn't his first instinct, but then, his instincts rarely led him away from danger."We can't," Snowcloud replied with a small shake of her head. "If the village was attacked, we can get a sense of who's responsible." In a softer voice, she added, "And there might be people still alive.""All right," Arran said, not needing much convincing. "We can take a look, but give me a few moments to prepare first."Wary of going into danger unprepared, he changed into the black armored coat he got from Lord Sevaril and belted on his starmetal sword. With his Duskcloak within reach as well, he figured he would have a good chance of escaping even if there were a dozen strong mages i
Forbidden Sphere Chapter 131
They walked toward one of the small fires and sat down around it, the young woman taking a seat next to Stoneheart."How did you end up in such a state?" Snowcloud asked. "And where are your other recruits?"Stoneheart let out a pained sigh. "It all began after we left the Valley. Just a few days from the border, that venomous bitch Amaya—" He paused and shot a look at Snowcloud, seemingly worried that he had offended her."She deserves the title," Snowcloud said. "Continue.""She ambushed us when we had only barely left the Valley," Stoneheart said, his expression somber. "We didn't have a chance."Snowcloud raised an eyebrow. "You were defeated by Amaya? For all her cunning, I never figured her for much of a fighter. How did she manage that?""She wasn't alone," Stoneheart replied. "There were two other novices with her, both Waning Moon scum, along with their recruits. Against three mages and near a thousand skilled fighters, it was a miracle that any of us managed to escape.""You