Chương 17: Chapter 16 – Look at Me

"[Barrier]!" Kai heard Lena's desperate cast through the blood rushing in his ears. Judging from her cry of pain, it had only been partially successful.

"Hey!" he shouted again, but the goblins ignored him. Still too far away. He kept sprinting, but the goblins had lured him too far away. A stupid mistake.

"[Fire Bolt]!" His hasty spell missed, because of course it did. ~ EN: 6/10 ~ MP: 1/5 It was all so dumb. So many failures, so many stupid, stupid mistakes. Should he spend his last point of mana to send another bolt into the sky, having his father rescue them again? That would be the best choice. Lena was in mortal danger. He couldn't care less about the two idiots. Still, he couldn't bring himself to do it. He just… couldn't. The fire welled up in his chest, fuelled by frustration, fury, and indignation.

"LOOK AT ME!" A wave of heat burst out of him, rippling through the air and singeing the grass near him. The goblins' heads snapped around, eyes wide. Kai kept running. [Charge]. The last meters of his sprint were a blur. His sword impaled one goblin through its throat, the second one stared in shock with its one good eye.

"[Lightning Bolt]!" Its head exploded under Lena's spell, spraying green blood and brain matter all over the siblings. ~ Quest complete: Fend off the goblin raiders attacking the Pfenning Farm. ~ Reward: 5 SP ~ Goblins slain. 27 EXP awarded. So Tom killed the last hunter, huh? Kai slumped against the tree next to Lena, who was applying potions to her various wounds. A bad one on her thigh, multiple injuries on her arms, a jagged cut on her cheek. He handed her his remaining potions while catching his breath.

~ EN: 4/10 ~ MP: 0/5 After confirming again that Lena's wounds were closing and non-lethal, he pulled himself up to check on Finn and Tom. He found the latter stomping on goblin heads to make sure they were 'dead dead', and Finn trying to deal with the arrow stuck in his arm. He swiftly decided that something like that was above his pay grade and got his recovering sister to call in the cavalry with a lightning spell in the sky.

Daniel appeared among them out of thin air, clad in lightning like some god of vengeance. Kai was too exhausted to really care and gave him a brief summary of the fight, then watched as his father unceremoniously pulled the arrow out of Finn's arm in one swift and brutal motion. A potion was forced down the Archer's throat, and Daniel took him and Tom back to their respective families assembled in the town square. He returned half a minute later, his expression even more unreadable than usual.

He handed Kai two cereal bars, which were devoured in seconds, then simply said, "Review." = = = = = The review hadn't shed a particularly glowing light on their handling of the fight. Daniel had watched from above and could accurately pinpoint the moment everything went wrong – the small scuffle in the ditch before the fighters came out to confront Kai and Tom. Its purpose had been to allow the flankers unseen passage behind Lena. They had underestimated competent ambush predators and paid the price in pain.

To Kai's surprise, Daniel's assessment of the two idiots was even harsher than his own. According to him, Kai should have simply let Tom charge into his demise rather than exposing Lena, though Kai mostly chalked that up to fatherly instincts. He promised to have a chat with Laura about 'liabilities in the field', then brought Lena home while simply telling Kai to wait here for a moment. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Kai did not have a good feeling about this.

So, he distracted himself efficiently. ~ SP available: 5 He sank two SP into 'Sword' to raise it once, then the final three to raise it again. ~ Slashing Weapons: Beginner ~~ Sword 3 Getting it to four would cost another four points, illustrating why his father had called that a good stopping point for novice adventurers. The expense was simply too high to justify it over buying Skills, Perks, or Classes, particularly for a build as haphazard as his own.

Since Daniel hadn't returned yet, Kai took it upon himself to collect the dropped monster cores. There were five, so one for each party member. He decided unilaterally to award the last one to Lena for keeping Finn's arrow out of Tom's back. Job done, he settled back down against the tree. Only when he tried to relax and dip into his Energy did he notice an itching sensation on his chest, like a sunburn rubbing against clothes. He carefully took off his plate carrier and opened his shirt.

Strange marks, similar to scorching, spread out from the left side of his chest, right above the heart. They were… moving. Their patterns were like flames, and they flickered with his pulse.

"You got lucky," the voice of his father said beside him, the Wizard appearing out of thin air.

"... What is that?"

"Spellburn. A simple case. Just pour some healing potion over it later," Daniel advised.

"The most common result of chaotic magic." They were silent for a moment. Daniel walked over to the patch of burnt grass and did something that barely registered to Kai's budding mana sense.

"What are you doing?"

"Just confirming something. Did you consciously use sorcery?"

"... Not really," Kai hesitantly replied.

"It… sort of came by itself."

"Damnit," his father cursed.

"That means you're genuinely talented." Why does that sound like a bad thing? The Wizard turned around to face his son, eyebrows furrowed.

"Why didn't you signal me? The situation was bad. I had Displace ready to extract Lena."

"I… I don't know," Kai rasped, trying to rein in his emotions.

"It just felt like the wrong thing to do."

"It objectively was the right thing to do."

"I know!"

"And I know you know. You're not stupid," Daniel said.

"I want you to think about why you did what you did. Examine it."

"..."

"Think, Kai. What was the trigger?"

"... Everything went to shit. Tom messed up, Finn messed up, and I messed up the most. I was too far away," he pressed out between clenched teeth.

"And then…"

"And then?"

"I don't KNOW!" Kai shouted, throwing his arms up in frustration.

"I tried to draw the goblins' attention, and they didn't give a fuck. It felt like… it shouldn't be this way. And I had to… do something."

"Then the magic came."

"... Yeah." Kai flinched when a system notification popped up. ~ Signature Spell formed: Look at Me ~~ Draw attention. ~~ Cost: 1 MP ~~ Chaos Factor: Medium"You got a signature spell," Daniel stated, worry creasing his eyes.

"Mhm."

"Short, meaningless description?"

"Yep.

'Draw attention.'""Chaos factor?"

"Medium."

"Could be worse. Never, ever use it without Safe Spell."

"... Okay. But didn't you say–""It's clear that we can't just ignore it now. We'll keep it contained, but you need to get used to it. Understand it, so you know what not to do. That requires… practice," Daniel spat, clearly unhappy.

"Keep a log. Note down everything you do related to sorcery. Location. Circumstances. Effects. Emotions. Everything."

"To figure out my Concept…?" Daniel began pacing around the meadow.

"Yes. Knowing roughly what it is will help you counter its corrupting effect on your psyche."

"... Dad," Kai began carefully.

"Why exactly do you know all this?" Daniel froze mid-stride, then turned around slowly.

"Inspect me." Kai did. ~ Sorcerer, Level??? ~ Hero of the Northern Marches Well shit. = = = = = Dinara Silverleaf, High Priestess of Luna, rose from her prayer mat, deeply concerned. Before the traitor had stolen the core and opened a rift to the void between worlds, new Towers had appeared every twenty-odd years. In the last seventeen years, however, their total number had more than doubled. On one hand, it allowed them to compensate for the loss of one core in comparatively little time.

On the other, it represented an ever-growing danger of demonic incursion, only held back by the gods' concerted efforts. So, why did it stop now? The temples had gotten very good at predicting where a new Tower would show up. Number ninety-one was slated to appear later this month somewhere in the eastern wilds, and caravans of builders, adventurers, and temple personnel were already on the way. Now, Dinara had gotten reports that the telltale accumulation of mana simply disappeared.

What was already there was drained, like water from a bathtub. She strode out of the sanctuary and grabbed the next-best Acolyte she could find.

"Fetch Lady Ephania and prepare an owl. I'm going to the East."