Technocide // Chapter 19

 
This story is a little weird to upload to patreon  whenever there are 'Boxes' to be displayed. Sorry about that.

Brook and I half ran, half limped, for hours in the dark forest, slowing only to retrieve my handmade spear from where I’d stashed it. We didn’t know what direction we were running, and didn’t really care at this point, we just needed to gain some distance. In the black forest it was nearly impossible to tell the time and I could only get a rough gage from my mana regeneration, that headache tag teaming out with a physical exhaustion headache, go figure. By the time the sunlight started flitting in through the canopy I had nothing left in the tank and I could tell that Brook was running on empty as well. Hells, even Sophie looked like she wouldn’t mind never running again.

We found a small hideaway that was formed by a few fallen trees just big enough for the three of us to crawl underneath it. The logs were covered in moss, vines, and fallen leaves, providing a really good camouflage, I figured we’d be able to rest there without too much issue. I swung the packs off of my back, ready to push them in first so that we could use them as pillows. I pulled out the salve I’d made from Yarrow, Goldenrod flower, and white pine pitch. I wasn’t sure how effective it would be, but I’d been taught that all three of them were good for slowing bleeding. I yanked out the spearhead as I applied the salve and then wrapped it with spare bandages I’d been carrying around. The spearhead went into my bag

“Lucas… Do you have any food, by any chance? They didn’t feed me or Sophie…” Brook talked slowly and didn’t make eye contact, gazing instead at the ground beneath my feet. I could tell she still felt awkward about abandoning me. Good, stew in your guilt and remember this for next time. I reached into the pack to pull out what was left of the roasted pork shoulder from the day before. As I pulled it out, I finally came to a realization.

‘Damn it! This is the reason I was being hunted, I didn’t smoke the pork and just carried it around. The wolf probably smelled it from miles away and started following me.’ I glared at the offending meat in my hands as if it were to blame when, in reality, I should have known better. I realized that Brook was staring at me, confused about why I was trying to re-roast the meat with just my eyes alone, so I took out a sizable chunk for myself and passed it to her.

“Finish off what you can, we’re gonna bury the rest. Predators can smell it from too far away and it makes it easier to track us.” I could tell from the way she tore into the meat that it had taken Brook all of her willpower not to just snatch it from my hands. She gave about a third of it to her dog and wolfed down the rest, pun not intended. Afterwards, I crawled into the overhead and she weaseled her way in next to me after I rolled onto my back. There wasn’t a point in one of us taking watch because we were both ready to pass out. Better to both sleep under cover and out of sight than one to doze off while sitting on a log in open sight. 

Once were both tucked away underneath our cover, however, I found that it was difficult for me to go to sleep. My heart was still pounding away in my chest and my adrenaline was over the top, coursing through my veins and keeping me alert even while I couldn’t concentrate. On my left, Brook was holding onto my chest where she had managed to fit herself in. Her hair was matted with blood and filth and her arm that was laying across my chest was layered with scratches, many of which would most likely scar. Regardless of all that, however, she was sleeping like nothing was wrong, slowly snoozing away on my chest. 

I stared at the rotting wood that was only inches above my face and willed myself to calm down. Naturally it didn’t work. I’d heard from others that there was a meditation skill, but it wouldn’t be as easy as just telling myself to calm down a couple times when it came to learning it. It was one of those skills that required the right kind of knowledge, a controlled environment, and a lot of luck to obtain. It was one of those skills I’d need to discover on my way to becoming a mage, however, as it enabled faster mana regeneration, or so I’d been told.

I knew I wasn’t going to sleep in the next five or ten minutes, so I decided I’d finally acknowledge the messages that were building up behind my eyes. 

Kill: Goblin Guard (Ger’rld Rot’toe)
Good Kill! With use of your new found stealth skill, your innate cleverness, and trusty knif-er-boar tusks, you managed to slay a mutated green humanoid. Usually, there are no rewards for slaying fellow humanoid races however, this tribe was known for murdering innocents and feasting on their flesh. As such, they were recategorised as a monster and you did the world a great service!

Rewards: +1 Agi, +1 Int

Interesting and unexpected. I, as well as everyone born in a human settlement, have known since I was young that the interface does not reward you for murdering other humans outside of special circumstances. For example, killing known serial murderers and rapists has always allocated some sort of reward, but murdering your neighbor for trespassing wouldn’t. I expected to gain from killing them, but didn’t realise that they were descendents of human. I thought they were just evolved beasts, go figure. 

Progress toward ???: Spell : ??%. You’re getting closer.

I rolled my eyes and dismissed that notification but spent a little time mulling over what spell I would have been crafting there. There weren’t time stamps on the notifications but I could feel mentally that it was around the same time I’d killed the first goblin. It must have been when I cast entangling roots on his corpse, but I didn’t know why that would make progress toward a new spell rather than just slowly refine the spell I already had. Magic without a tutor was too confusing, but I didn’t have the aptitude to get accepted into a real guild. All those who would have taken me in would have had me working their herb gardens for life.

Kill: Goblin Guard (Unknown)
Good Kill! Strike swiftly, Strike decisively, and Strike for the heart. Or neck in this case, I suppose. You get the point though. 

Rewards: +.8 Agi

The second guard who’d wandered up on us hadn’t given me his name. This meant that the prompt only gave me the first one’s name because I’d heard it from this one, but I wouldn’t be able to murder an entire village and then write their names down afterwards. I’m not sure what point there was for making the distinction, or what could be done with the name otherwise, but it was always good to collect more info. The interface was another aspect of my life that I knew too little about. 

In addition, I noticed that I’d received less of a stat boost from this one as well. I had to wonder if that was because of the relative difficulty, or because I’d already slain one of them. I was leaning toward the latter, assuming the interface wouldn’t want somebody to just slay the entire tribe in their sleep and walk out the other end a god. On the same note I felt that, if I had fought them both at the same time rather than one after the other, the rewards wouldn’t have been diminished. The rewards were always relative to difficulty, or so I was told.

Alert:

Severe wound has been inflicted, seek treatment immediately! Bleeding can cause dizziness, lightheadedness, and death! Patch it up and drink fluids.

Congratulations! 

Using the ability [Spell Manipulation] and spell [Minor Growth] and [Weak Entangling Roots], you’ve managed to craft two related spells resembling another in the Sylvan Spellbook. Awarding the spells [Constrict] and [Ensnare].
Associated base spells have been slightly improved upon and the knowledge has been directly absorbed by you. Keep up the spellcrafting, junior. 

Spell: Constrict (Weak)

Plants targeted by this spell will experience explosive growth of roots and/or vines in the direction of directed adversary, willed with the intent to bind and fasten. Once fastened, the plants will continue to thicken and constrict in attempt to squeeze the breath out of the victim.

More or less mana can be funneled into this spell for increased or decreased effect, efficiency will be lost.

School of magic: Sylvan

Unlock Method: Self-discovered combat-evolution of Growth and Entangling Roots.

Spell: Ensnaring Thorns (Minor)

Plants targeted by this spell will experience explosive growth of roots and/or vines in the direction of directed adversary, willed with the intent to bind, fasten, and pierce. Once fastened, the plant restraints will grow thorns in an attempt to pierce into the flesh of the victim and find purchase, bleeding them and holding them tighter. Spell is intrinsically linked with [Entangling Roots] and will share progress. Can be cast with [Ensnare] incantation. 

More or less mana can be funneled into this spell for increased or decreased effect, efficiency will be lost.

School of magic: Sylvan

Unlock Method: Self-discovered combat-evolution of Growth and Entangling Roots.

Two new spells in one encounter! Ensnare could be considered to be an upgrade of Entangling Roots, but the fact of the matter was it was listed as a new spell. That meant once I masted both of them, I could create my own arcane writ for each of them and either sell it or start my own guild. I could even submit my writs to an established guild to gain entry, should they deem the spell worthy. I’d have to be careful not to disclose my Spell Manipulation ability though, as it could bring me no small amount of trouble should the covetous mages find out about it. Strangely enough I felt like I still had more to review and my headache had kept building even as I processed the interface notifications.

Alert:

Using the ability [Spell Manipulation] you managed to spellcraft four new spells in one encounter. This ability is extremely rare because of it’s function to download new spells directly to memory, but also dangerous for the same reason. If you force too much arcane knowledge into your thick skull at once, adverse effects are to be expected. 

On that note, two of the spells you crafted are for a new school of magic. One that you haven't experienced before and have no knowledge of yet. That being said, big download incoming.

See you when you wake up, oh and Congradulations!

My Maintain Consciousness ability did not help me out there, and nor did I want it to. A pain dozens of times sharper than the spearhead that had pierced my shoulder bore into my skull between my eyebrows. My mind was set on fire and tears began streaming down my face as my mouth contorted into weird shapes. Luckily I was in too much pain to scream, less I attract any predators. I blacked out.