*clang* *slash*
*whoosh* *slice*
*howl*
With this desperate howl, the 5th wolf goes down.
With this, Civitas has hunted a total of 6 wolves, counting his first desperate struggle.
This is also the sixth time he gets the message about absorbing essence and gaining experience points. And the third time he levelled up.
His Evolution points did also go up. With this pace, he will soon find out what “evolution” will do to him. His ability values increased considerably from just two levels, and his Swordsmanship also went up a level, although it is still inferior. With this new improvement, it will get even easier to hunt wolves from now on. And maybe he could start hunting something bigger than wolves, in hopes of getting even more experience points.
{You're doing well, Civitas. If you keep this up, we will soon be able to teach you some magic. But you still need to improve your Intelligence, Wisdom and Mana for that.}
Civitas Sighs.
“I know, but right now, my physical abilities are much more important for survival.”
So far, Civitas crouched and sneaked through the caves and avoided everything, just picking out vulnerable wolves which got separated from their pack.
But the next time will be different, he promises himself.
However, that will have to wait. Civitas is on his feet since he woke up after teleporting. Exhaustion is weighing down his movements, so he decides to head back to the small room with the stream he rested in before.
Civitas gets there without much trouble and sits down. He gets out the sword and starts to skin the one wolf body he took back. He has to eat something, but the prospect of having to eat the wolf raw still makes his stomach revolt.
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
On one hand, Civitas is elated at not having to eat the wolf raw, but on the other hand, his stomach just got insulted as being puny.
Civitas swallows his slight anger and instead asks:
“I will gladly take you up on that offer. How do I start then? I have no clue about magic.”
Would it kill him to do without insults for one sentence?
[First, you need to be able to feel mana. That lizard is too rough to teach someone about something so delicate. I will now start circulating some mana through your body. Try to empty your mind and only concentrate on the subtle changes in your body. Breathe how I tell you to]
Without much introduction, Gabriel instantly starts teaching. Civitas is a bit perplexed at first, but simply complies.
[Breathe in…]
[Breathe out…]
[In…]
[And out…]
[In…]
[And out…]
{Shut up and let him focus!}
Civitas got disturbed quite a lot by their remarks, but luckily, they stayed quiet after that, and he got back to focusing.
He can't tell how much time has passed, but after a while, Civitas feels a small pulse in his chest. Like the beating of a heart, but not on a physical level.
It rather feels like a sound he hears with his mind. A deep humming sound that pulsates in his chest. From this humming spot, small streams seems to flow out into his body.
Civitas pays closer attention to one of the streams and follows it with his mind through his body. This one goes out to the left arm, circulates once through the palm of his hand and returns. Another, stronger, stream heads down to his lower abdomen. There it circulates a bit before splitting off into two smaller streams, each heading for one leg. In his right arm there is another stream just like in his left arm. The fourth and last of the streams heads upwards to his head. Civitas follows this one with his mind, just like the others. Trying to remember the path it takes and how it feels.
But when tracing the stream back to the center, he notices for the first time the fact, that there is more than one of those sources, from which the streams flow out, but only one is active right now.
He starts paying closer attention to these centers and counts four of them. Each of them causes a different feeling in Civitas. One of them feels hot. The second feels bright. The third feels dark. But not as dark as the last one. This one feels like a hole, so dark Civitas can't fathom the expanse within. He tries to look closer into what feels like a deep abyss, but suddenly an instinct deeply anchored in his mind jolts him away from that.
Civitas suddenly tears open his eyes and jumps backwards. What just made him run back was his natural survival instinct. He feared for his life at that moment.
{What happened? Did something hurt you?}
Zabula quickly asks, maybe real worry could be heard from her voice.
“It's… nothing. Don't worry about it.”
Civitas tries to play it down.
“But I got a question, could it be possible for me to feel your hearts within my chest in the form of mana sources?”
{Yes dear, our hearts are the perfect mediums to store, process and provide you with mana. Did you perhaps sense all three of our hearts distinctly? If so, could you describe them to me?}
Three hearts, she says, but Civitas clearly felt something more. Are they not aware of that thing, or does she deliberately not tell him about it?
“Yes, I felt one heart I'd describe as dark, one that was hot and one that was bright.”
{That does indeed sound fitting for us. Did you notice anything else?}
“No? Should I?”
{No, of course not. I just wanted to make sure you are fine after being stat startled before.}
Civitas is certain now. She knows about that fourth thing, but won't tell him about it. Civitas also decides to not tell them anything. Having some cards up his sleeve can't hurt.
“Alright then, let's get back to you guys teaching me magic. I know how to feel the mana now, but how do I use it?”
Civitas goes on to try to make the mana move the way it did before. He tries to beckon the mana gently to move the way he wants it to.
To this gentle approach, the fiery dragon heart stays still, instead mana starts flowing from the dark demon heart.
Civitas gets a bit confused. Does that mean he'll have to treat each of their mana types differently? But either way, he just puts that thought down and does as Dorminil said.
He pulls on the mana as strong as possible and tries to make it submit to him. This surprisingly works significantly better than he expected. After getting over the first hurdle and making the mana move at all, it seemingly does whatever he wants it to.
Quickly, his whole body is filled by circulating mana.
Civitas does not know this weird word, which seems to echo through his mind, but he understands its meaning instinctively. Fire.
So he did just as he was told. He guides the mana to his right hand and says this one word.
“????”
Suddenly, small flames spring up from his palm. He is a bit surprised at first and instinct tells him his hand should be hurting, but the pain never comes. Instead, it even feels rather pleasant.
{Very good Civitas. Now turn it off and finish preparing the wolf meat. Then you can roast the meat with those flames.}
While preparing the meat with the sword, which is his only tool right now, Civitas thinks up a question to bridge the extra time it takes without adequate tools.
“What was that word just now and what language was it from?”
Civitas is a bit disappointed at not hearing the story to that, but he has no way to make him talk, so he just moves on.
“Then I want you to teach me dragon language. Making me stronger should also be in your interest.”
“We'll see about that.”
With this, Civitas ends the conversation because he finished preparing the meat and is now ready to roast it.
For that, he needs to concentrate on the mana.
He expects the start to be a bit difficult just like a few minutes ago, but instead the mana instantly springs to life and within just a few seconds he once again uses dragon language to ignite a flame.
“????”
The flame lights ablaze once more. This time even just the slightest bit bigger than the last time.
Civitas has no cooking utensils, so he needs to hold the meat with one hand while roasting it with the other. He would rather not place his food on the cave floor, or burn it to a crisp by directly holding it with his burning hand.
This makes roasting a lot more difficult since he is always close to burning his other hand, which causes him to flinch away often.
But after a while, he comes up with an idea. He guides just a tiny bit of mana to his other hand and whispers another:
“????”
The hand holding the meat starts to be enveloped by a light red shimmer, and suddenly the heat coming from the flames just feels a little warm.
[That is quite an impressive use of magic for someone who learned it half and hour ago. But watch out, you probably have no feeling for how much mana you have consumed so far, and keeping up to spells at the same time drains mana exponentially faster.]
Civitas gets exceedingly more confident from making fast progress, so he just replies:
“Oh, don't worry, I could do this for a lot longer!”
Then he just proceeds to roast the meat a bit more. Just as he thinks the meat is almost good to go, he suddenly feels nauseous. The flames in his hands die out, and the world turns dark. In fact, to Civitas, the world seems to turn ever darker until it is completely black and he passes out.
The last words he hears before that come from Gabriel.
[Told you so.]