Chương 130: Chapter 135: Skill testing

"Oh damn, poor girl." Rhea said in between a bite and another. Poor girl? I wasn't really sure about that, I mean, I understand she felt rejected and all, but Quinn actue with much more restrain than I though he could, she actually should be pretty glad that he just didn't jump at the opportunity, I know many men that would have taken it without considering the ethical repercussion of such an act.

Actually in court I had many cases of rape that were under scrutiny because of the abuse of substances, and it always eneded in a mess for all the people involved, at least this mystery meat sandwich was stupidly good, it helped my mood immensely. We were back at her tent in the forest, enjoying a late breakfast. Let's try to tackle this issue from another angle and delegate at the same time...

"Can you put in a good word for Quinn? The boy had the best intentions, but they are both teenagers. Both still inexperienced, your counsel could actually help a lot, especially because Melissa trust you."

"Of course, I think they'd make a cute couple if they manage to resolve this... situation." Rhea said, after a second of contemplation she turned directly on me.

"And you instead are… very experienced?" She asked in a dangerous tone.

"You tell me." I told her with a smirk. She swatted my arm, then mock sighed.

"It's not fair, but it makes sense, you're old."

"I looked at myself in the mirror yesterday, I think I'm pretty young looking." I told her.

"It's because of magic, you were starting to look like a middle aged guy just a week ago." She retorted.

"Do you like that look more?"

"Nah, while it has it's appeal, I much prefer you like this, but you need to shave."

"Mmm, it's just that I'm always doing something else…"

"I know, but you did the right thing to delegate with the group, you can't do everything yourself…"

"I am aware, but I can't stop Rhea, and not only because of my… problem, but because of this damn tutorial, now even that Adrian guy from the letter got added to the list." She took on a pensive look, "Set me as advisor in the guild or something, give me the interface too."

"Are you sure? You know it could be seen as nepotism, and it would take time and effort, I could simply let Chloe do it, she wants the position."

"Yea but two advisors could do more work than one no? And as soon as things are set I'd just retire from the position, I don't really care about all that, I just want to help you." I put down the sandwich on the table and took her head in my hands. She stopped mid bite, then I give her a kiss on the lips, they tasted of spicy sauce.

"You're too good with me, I could get used to it." She blushed after swallowing the bite.

"What do you mean? Hey where are you going! What do you mean by that!" I finished the last bite of my sandwich and flew away while blowing her a kiss, I had work to do.

"See you later! Advisor Rhea!" I said while entering deeper into the woods. With a mental command I opened the Guild interface and appointed Rhea as advisor with special privileges, then Chloe as administrator, and Tom as commander, there were many more positions open but it would be for them to decide where to put the others.

I flew for a couple of minutes, until I reached a clearing, well, nearly a clearing, it was just an opening in the canopy above, a pillar of light descended from the sky to illuminate a whole lot of nothing, just grass and small flowers, but it was warm, and while I sat down I extended my scans and found out that very little monsters were around me, I raised a barrier around me anyway, then proceeded to start my work. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

I took out my grimoire from the satchel, and opened it. Inside there were pages filled with runes and symbols, The first page had my curse written on it, but it was clearly still incomplete, actually it was very incomplete, just a small part of the page, maybe one twentieth was filled. I flipped to the next.

Curse of the Hollow Echo, another page, Curse of the Weight of Remembrance, I started flipping the pages, one by one, every curse that I got ever afflicted with got recorded on the pages, and in a bit, there would be much more. I totally abandoned the grimoire when I saw that it took me too much time to channel my mana through it then simply cast a skill myself, the book offer an amplification of power, but until now I couldn't use it that well in high speed combat, and against weaker foe it wasn't needed.

But with my new toys, namely the new trait and skills, I would be able to make use of it much better, especially because I intended to use the book as a receptacle for the curses I was about to extract from the items I bought. But first, let's see if this works as I think it does.

I flipped to the curse of Over-Attunement, it was a small thing, a curse tied to a potion of lesser wisdom I got from the first shop, the curse was minor, it made you more sensitive to mana fluctuations, actually it could be considered a bonus in some circumstances. Well, not if you couldn't remove it, but for me? Not bad.

I infused mana into the page, I could feel the Liber Maledictiorum, drank it greedily, infusing it into the ink of the page, it started taking more though, I felt it pull on my life-force and I stopped it. It fought back, trying to finish what it started, for creating the curse he needed to take some of me. Like hell I'd let it happen. Time to test my new skills.

I stretched my Arcane Sense as far as it could, a couple of gremlins were circling my position from behind the trees, waiting for a moment of weakness to strike. I used Accelerated Processing for the first time. My mana was getting drained pretty fast, damn this skill was greedy, and it was just the basic acceleration, I could crank it up more, I could feel it.

But when the gremlins were moving slow before, circling silently, now they looked like they moved in super slow motion, I observed my senses in this new state, it was incredible, but while my magical senses moved at the speed of thought, the sound was distorted, the rustling of the wind was strange in this state. Not only that, I was burning mana too fast, and I could feel a kind of strain in my head, like the beginning of a headache, and it was just a few seconds of usage.

I moved fast, In my accelerated perception I employed another skill, Aura Tether. Given that the little shits were in my range of senses I casted the skill towards them, strands of my aura, not thicker than a finger snapped taught as they connected me to them, I could perceive something from these monsters, I felt like if I put some work in it I could read their intention… But I wasn't here for that now, later, now I'd have to work.

The monsters didn't realize the connection, it was invisible to their senses, they weren't aura users after all, but they felt it when I started to drain them of their life-force. It was a fantastic thing this skill, not only the energy was pure and abundant, the tether reduced the waste of energy massively, and allowed me to use Drain the Accursed even without cursing the target before, maybe because my aura was already cursed? Probably, or the skill was just that good that it bypassed a requirement.

The two monsters looked around them in a panic for just a second before deciding to bolt. I couldn't allow that. I tried to pull them towards me, but the aura alone wasn't strong enough in this state, it was a connection of smoke, but I had the way to remedy that. Aural Manifestation. The tether became visible, material. It stretched into the trees from my position to the gremlins, attatching to them. The two little monsters got stopped in their tracks by the sudden tug, falling to the ground.

I started pulling both the life-force and them, I wanted to see what would happen. What happened was simple, they struggled and tried to cut the aura tether with their knives, but couldn't so much as dent the thing, my aura wasn't so easy to deal with, not for them at least, they died while halfway from getting dragged towards me. Their drained corpses I left in the forest, maybe this way I wouldn't get bothered anymore. I dropped both skills.

I could feel a pulsing in my head, this skill was good but had drawbacks, while the aura tether was just fantastic. I would have to experiment more. Now back to the grimoire. I started channelling mana into the curse again, then when the book required some life-force I provided the one coming from the gremlins instead of mine. It accepted it with greed.

The curse slowly detatched itself from the page, a small, dark blue, nearly black thing, it writhed and twisted its energy form while I commanded it to settle within me. As it gladly entered my outstretched hand, I could feel it settle into my being, I opened my status page and yes, it was listed there. Perfect, now to see if my idea has foundation.

I took the curse again, and extracted it from me, it didn't had time to anchor deeply, and being a minor curse it was extremely easy to remove, actually my aura would break it down by itself, given time. But in this case, I put it back into the grimoire. The curse settled again into the page, protesting all the while, then as I anchored it there, it stayed in its page, waiting to be used again. Oh this is wonderful, a grin stretched on my face, and I started to take out one by one all my new items.

Funny times ahead.