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Alexei had wanted to go and retrieve Neave himself so that the girl didn’t freak out at any of the mages that had been sent to pick her up. Unfortunately, the mages hadn’t agreed with that. Apparently walking around while the Nilbog was still attached to his spiritual essence was a less than ideal plan. At any point, the creature could jump off of him and latch onto someone else, something that it wouldn’t be able to do while at the Mage Temple due to the spiritual hardening that all of the mages in the temple had learned. That was something that would have helped had he known it before he went down into the black market. Either way, the other people of the city wouldn’t have any spiritual hardening, and as such, they would have been prime targets for the Nilbog. I hadn’t understood why the Nilbog would jump ship at first, it wanted my divine powers after all. But if it were a choice between elimination by a mage or jumping into someone random, I’d have probably taken the la
The night was still a long way off, and that was the only time that they would be able to do battle with the Nilbog. So instead Alexei and Risa had a plan in mind, they were going to test Neave’s magical potential. All beings were born with at least some access to the magic of the universe, but not all beings were given that access equally. If Neave didn’t have enough influence to unlock the higher strata of magical ability then there wouldn’t be much that she would gain from our time in the Mage Temple. If she had potential, however, then she could end up becoming a mage just like many of the others in the temple. In all honesty, Alexei didn’t care too much if Neave was able to become a mage or not, but he knew the girl would feel left out if she didn’t have the potential within her and he’d rather her not have to deal with that. Besides, having someone else who could do magic around would be a great help in the future, no matter what venture they ended up exploring after
To match an Initiate in raw power was less impressive than it sounded on paper. On average the raw fighting ability of initiates and mages actually tended to average out the longer the mage trained in the ways of magery. As usual, the only reason Initiates were deemed to be more powerful by people who didn’t entirely know what was going on was because the power divine could be used to fight shades, while normal magic was incapable of such a feat. Either way, Alexei was still very glad to learn that Neave had the potential to become a great mage. If nothing else they’d have the skill set to become adventurers, not that Alexei had ever planned for that to be the case. There was a small part of him that still wanted to go back to his plan of being a roaming water salesman, though he knew the chances of that ever happening at this point were becoming vanishingly small. The trio ascended back up the flagstone steps of the temple and emerged in a much nicer area than the dungeon-
Alexei took a bite of his sandwich, for something that was created solely by magic working off of his intent it was an impressive bit of cheese and pickle. [Analysis complete!]Within a single bite of his food, the analysis bar of his power divine shot up from halfway full to completely done. [New Element: Manacule discovered!][New Combination: Empowered Oxygen available!][New Combination: Empowered Hydrogen available!][New Combination: Empowered Sodium available!][Further combinations based on these elements have been unlocked!]Alexei blinked and glanced down at his sandwich. His thoughts came in a rush. When he touched his foci for the first time, that was when this analysis had begun. He’d wondered whether it was some kind of wood, or the magic itself… now he had his answer. It had been the magic, and now he had access to magic at its most base and primal form. Manacules. He’d never even heard of Manacules before. “You okay, Alexei?” Risa asked, “You kinda spaced out the
“I thought you would have known…” Risa said, her voice no higher than a whisper. “The Academy… The Royal Defence Corps leadership… they know, so why don’t you?” “I don’t know Risa, but I’m beginning to think that not everything may be as it seems with the RDC and the Academy,” Alexei said between deep breaths. He was trying to keep calm, both for the sake of Neave and Risa and for his own mental state. It wouldn’t be right away, but eventually he was going to have to go back to the Academy, and when he did he was going to confront the Administrar. There were too many coincidences starting to build up. Lies that had been told, events that had happened. The Assassins of Delsi had appeared so quickly after he had been kicked out of the Academy that it was slowly starting to dawn on Alexei that there had only ever really been one option for who could have set them after him… and the answer was the Academy itself. He clenched a fist and clamped his teeth together painfully hard. It
After getting washed up, Alexei and Neave both spent the afternoon reading by the fireplace. The room that they had been given had access to many things, including a summoning stand that allowed them free reign over the library of the Mage Temple. He’d learnt his lesson about testing anything with magic after the whole sandwich exploding incident, but that didn’t mean that Alexei didn’t want to know a bit more about what he was getting himself into. So, when choosing his book, he’d decided to go with something related to his problem. A bestiary, noting down different creatures and monsters across the ages. The one he had, in particular, was about creatures that were most active before the last major war between nations and he had the yellowed pages turned to that of the Nilbog. Unfortunately, the Nilbog pages didn’t really tell him much more than he already knew. Well, other than the secret to defeating the beast, that was.It was a Goblin class creature that was first born of t
Alexei woke with a start. The smell of rust and smoke assaulted his senses, dragging him out of his slumber and back into reality. His eyes opened with a snap, what he saw was exactly what he had expected. It was exactly what he had seen the last time this had happened. The walls were painted red with blood, and once again at the foot of his bead was the dripping red decapitated head of Neave. The body parts were littered around the room as well, just like the first time, scattered like the forgotten toys of a child. The prickle on the back of his neck flared up as the Nilbog made its presence known. “Doing the same trick twice,” Alexei said offhandedly as he pulled himself out of his bed, “I have to say, not very impressive.” “The initiate knows!” The Nilbog’s voice echoed, just as high-pitched and nasally as it had been before, but this time Alexei was sure he could detect just the smallest bit of fear in the creature’s voice. “Indeed! The initiate knows, as does his mage fr
Alexei woke with a start, and for a moment he was ready to lash out at anything that got close, thinking he was still locked in deadly combat with the Nilbog. But as his senses returned to him, he realised that wasn’t the case at all. There was no smell of rust and smoke. No blood coating the walls of the room. No decapitated head of Neave. In fact, Neave was sitting right next to him, his clammy hand wrapped in her tiny comparatively cool ones. “Ah, you’re awake at last,” Risa said from a chair on the other side of his bed. “What…” Alexei tried to talk, but the raspy croaks that came from his throat made it impossible for him to get more than a word out. “Neave, remember what we talked about? Give him water, but only a little bit at a time so it doesn’t overwhelm his throat,” Risa said to Neave. The small foxgirl nodded with a smile and poured Alexei a small glass of water from a jug that sat on a table next to the head of his bed. She brought the liquid up to his