Chương 154: Tier 2 Magic Seal

"Really?" Gene questioned when Damion told him there was a Demonic Beast ahead of them.

"I don't see anything."

"Trust me it is there. About 3 meters right in front of us. Hiding in the grass."

"What should I do?" Gene asked. He had never fought a Demonic Beast before, or even been in a dungeon run for that matter. As grateful as he was for Damion giving him a chance, a little more direction would be appreciated.

"Well, the first thing you need to do is locate it. I know it is there, but if you can't see it, it will be hard for you to attack it."

"Right. How should I do that?" Damion wanted to smack the kid in the back of the head in frustration, or perhaps just shove him towards the Demonic Beast to flush it out. However, Damion held his frustrations in and remembered he was once as green as Gene was. The young man just needed time to learn and grow.

"You can either move close, to try and spot it, or try to flush it out of the grass." Gene chose to move closer to where Damion said the Demonic Beast was. He was hoping to be able to spot the creature in the grass and then launch an attack at it. A reasonable plan, however, as Gene moved closer he was having no luck in finding the Demonic Beast. Damion could see Gene was quite close to the Demonic Beast, but, contrary to expectations, the creature had not tried to bolt or moved to attack Gene.

The only reason for the Demonic Beast's inaction that Damion could think of was that the Demonic Beast was afraid of him and the rest of the team. Raising his palm, he cast Ice Shard. The ice crystal flashed through the air and landed very close to the Demonic Beast. Casting Ice Shard was effective in startling the Demonic Beast, but it also had the effect of startling Gene. The Demonic Beast leapt out of the grass, fleeing as fast as it could from Damion.

Gene jumped first when Damion's spell flashed past him and again when the Demonic Beast sprang from the long grass.

"Don't let it escape," Damion shouted at Gene who was still recovering from seeing the Demonic Beast. The Demonic Beast was small, the smallest Damion had ever seen, and furry. At first Damion thought it might have been some kind of rat, but he did not see a long tail and once he got a better look at it he saw it had a short flat nose with orange and white fur covering its body. The Demonic Beast looked very similar to a hamster.

To Gene's credit once he heard Damion's shout, he turned and cast Earth Shard at the small fleeing Demonic Beast, but the spell did not come close to hitting it and as the Demonic Beast ran further away Damion knew Gene would not be able to kill the Demonic Beast.

"Leave it," Damion told Gene. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"Sorry. It moved so fast," Gene meekly apologized.

"You'll do better with the next one," Josephine encouraged.

"She's right Gene," Damion agreed.

"Practice makes perfect. Let's keep moving. I'll let you know when there is another Demonic Beast nearby. The group continued on. Damion did not know for sure if he was heading in the direction of the entrance to the next floor, but one direction was as good as any other. After a few minutes of walking Damion spotted another Demonic Beast ahead. The Demonic Beast looked quite similar to the first one, except that it was somewhat larger than the last.

Despite the increased size, the Demonic Beast still only came up to Gene's shin. Since this Demonic Beast was larger, Gene was also able to spot it once Damion told Gene where to look.

"Earth Shard!" Gene shouted as he cast his spell. A small pointed rock flew out from Gene's palm and struck the Demonic Beast in the side. The Demonic Beast let out a scream of pain and charged at Gene. The young man retreated a few steps before casting another spell.

"Earth Prison!" This time Gene did not cast a spell that Damion recognized, but the spell's name was enough to tell Damion what it did. The ground underneath the Demonic Beast suddenly sprung up around the charging Demonic Beast trapping it. With the hamster like beast trapped, Gene raised his palm again and another Earth Shard lanced out, striking the Demonic Beast in the head killing it.

"Good work," Damion told him.

"What tier is that Earth Prison spell?"

"Tier 2," Gene answered.

"Josephine's family arranged for me to learn it. First tier 2 spell I've learned."

"Really? Elicia didn't get me a tier 2 magic seal to learn when trying to recruit me to her family." Damion's words caused Elicia to blush and Arica to glare at her. He knew that if he joined the Sorin family they would gift him a tier 2 magic spell, possibly more if he asked, but Damion was not interested in joining a noble family and only teasing Elicia at the moment. Though, he did wonder if he would have been able to say no to joining the family if they had offered him access to more spells.

"Can I take a look at the magic seal?"

"Umm, sure. I'm not sure how useful an Earth affinity seal will be to you as an Ice affinity, but here you go." Gene raised his palm and willed the magic seal to appear. This was Damion's first time seeing a magic seal above tier 1. He recalled his early lessons that magic seals over tier 1 could not be recorded on paper because they were too complex, now he understood why. There were two layers to the magic seal, one stacked on top of the other.

The layers of glyphs were arranged in circles and rotated around Gene's palm in opposite directions. Each time one layer of glyphs overlapped the other the glyphs in the center of the circle changed. With Damion's knowledge of Nashto he could read some of the meaning in the glyph, but he knew it would take a lot of study to be able to truly understand the intricacy of each change in the glyph. This was just a tier 2 magic seal and Damion could see why it could not be recorded on paper.

Not only did the center glyphs change with each interaction of the two layers of glyphs, but even the glyph's themselves seemed to change. Ding {Magic seal recorded} [Earth Prison - Active - (F Rank 45 Mana) Control the earth to imprison your target.] Damion was quite happy when the Magic System recorded the tier 2 magic seal, it meant he would be able to study it further on his own later.

Unfortunately, he did not get a quest completion notice when the Magic System recorded the magic seal, which meant he had to learn an Ice affinity spell to complete his quest.

"Thanks," Damion said after looking at the magic seal for a few moments.

"Are you good on mana, Gene, or do you need a rest before you can fight another Demonic Beast?"

"I can probably fight another Demonic Beast the same way before I'll need a rest."

"Well, let's go find one," Damion said as Arica pulled their team's first kill into her personal spatial storage.