Nick turned to the magic beast carcass in response to Wallace's question and answered him while walking slowly towards the carcass:
"Yes, I am."
The crash site of the carcass was about twelve meters away from the town entrance and Nick walked silently towards it with a fixed stare, as if he was looking at something interesting. Wallace looked at Nick weirdly and thought:
(What's wrong with this young man, why is he going towards the carcass? Hmmm...he might be interested in magic beast anatomy; that's a brave bird, a relatively common magic beast that is at the strong end of rank two in terms of lethality. They are a problem for the city because they can get over the wall and some are brave enough to try to fly through our defenses in order to attack the people stationed here.)
Nick soon got to the crater where the magic beast's carcass was situated and willed for a clear glass pitcher to appear from within his space band. The crater that was created by the magic beast had already become a pool of red blood and more blood oozed out continuously from the brave bird's wound. From the edge of the crater, Nick bent down and used his pitcher to scoop up a serving of the dead magic beast's blood; what Nick did next caused Wallace to raise both of his eyebrows in surprise.
Nick brought the pitcher that was now filled with blood to his mouth and began to drink its contents as if the blood was a sweet drink; Wallace frowned slightly, not expecting this turn of events, he was expecting that Nick would become a little flustered and afraid after seeing the large magic beast fall from the sky. Wallace of course had known about the presence of the brave bird when he was leading Nick to the entrance and he accompanied him beyond the entrance to witness Nick's reaction to this course of events that would certainly have taken place so that if Nick was fear-stricken by the experience, Wallace could give words of encouragement, not because he particularly liked Nick but because he was the kind of person that liked to speak to others from a superior position. Wallace thought:
(What is this situation? Is this boy's head damaged, no sane person would just start drinking a magic beast's blood like this?...)
While Wallace was trying to reason out the motives behind Nick's actions, Nick himself had finished drinking the dead brave bird's blood and silently cast his spell:
(Growth.)
Nick suddenly felt energized as a rush of magic energy flowed into his body but he resisted the urge to meditate because of Wallace's presence, in addition to the fact that he was now beyond the entrance of the town where his safety was not necessarily guaranteed. Wallace felt the change in the flow of magic energy around Nick's body from his position and assumed that Nick's body had some sort of reaction from drinking the blood.
(It's not my concern what another Magician that is not a part of my unit does. This young man is strange, though. That being said, there are actually much stranger Magicians within the Ministry so this bit of weirdness shouldn't surprise me.)
Wallace returned his facial expression to a friendly one and genially waved Nick goodbye before turning around and walking back through the entrance. Nick stared at Wallace's receding figure as the commander went through the entrance but when Wallace moved out of sight, he then turned his attention to the brave bird's carcass once again. Nick's eyes shone with greed and he moved to secure another serving of blood when he heard a stern voice suddenly come from behind him:
"Stop what you are doing, that magic beast carcass is the property of the Ministry of Magic! Move aside."
Nick turned around to see a middle aged man in one of the greenish combat uniforms that had the Ministry of Magic's logo embroidered on the left breast area. The man had a head full of gray hair and stubble all over his chin; he was only a meter away from Nick when he appeared and Nick, not wanting to create trouble for himself stepped away from the carcass and stored his glass pitcher within his space band.
The soldier's stern expression eased upon seeing Nick's compliance with his instructions and proceeded to walk up to the crater at which point he tapped a magic tool attached to his wrist that looked to Nick like a space band but was clearly different in terms of the materials that it was made of compared to the ones that Nick had seen before. The large brave bird's carcass suddenly vanished and the soldier tapped onto the magic tool once again, at which point a palm sized flask appeared in his hand. The unknown soldier placed the mouth of the flask into the pool of blood left behind by the carcass and all of the blood proceeded to flow into the flask, somehow all being taken into the flask until not one drop was left within the crater.
The soldier looked at Nick for a few moments while storing the flask within his space band, then said:
"All magic beasts killed by our combat unit from the Ministry are to be left alone by you civilians, otherwise things could become unpleasant."
The soldier squinted his eyes, giving Nick a sharp look but within the next moment, the soldier suddenly vanished, as if he was never there to begin with. Nick turned his attention to the now empty crater and internally sighed:
(Just picking up rewards won't be so easy with all of these strong Magicians around. I need to get away from this town.)
Nick then focused his attention on the distant woodland and began to run towards it.
***********************
An ape like magic beast suddenly pounced on Nick from an over hanging tree branch and sensing its presence that was bathed in magic energy, Nick made his move; the magic beast's expression was filled with hunger and malice radiated from its deep green eyes but that expression frozen in the next moment when it sensed the magic power that was thrown towards it.
(Sever.)
RIIIIIIIPPPPPPPP!
The small ape was vertically cut in half as Nick flicked his finger while casting his spell. The magic beast's carcass fell onto the ground in two halves and its internal organs spilled out with a disgusting sound. Nick looked at the carcass indifferently and thought:
(I shouldn't consume these magic beasts recklessly before I have a better understanding of them.)
Although consuming magic beasts and then casting Growth gave Nick an interesting feeling, he decided that his current priority should be exploration; he did not receive a map or any related information from the town settlement and so he had to rely on himself to gain a better understanding of his surroundings. Nick had been traversing this woodland for a little over thirty minutes but the ape like magic beast was the only one that he had encountered.
(My current goal should be to cross a few kilometers before nightfall descends after which I would have to stop moving around.)
Nick walked deeper into the woodland that mostly consisted of oak like trees that were only a few meters tall; these trees had a mix of green and dull orange leaves which fluttered occasionally because of a slight wind. Nick went on for a few more meters before he caught sight of foot prints made by something bipedal but was clearly barefooted as imprints of its toes were a pronounced part of the footprints.
(A bipedal magic beast? Well, whatever it is, it's going to get a visit from this daddy here.)
Nick followed the footprints as he carefully moved past the trees, hoping to find another magic beast that he could battle; the footprints would often be seen going in different directions but Nick did not mind it since he did not have a definite destination in mind in the first place. Nick followed the footprints for about two hours before they suddenly ended at a point in the soft brown soil that only had patches of brown grass growing at seemingly random places.
(Huh, why did the footprints stop?)
BOOOF
Suddenly, a pair of hands forced their way up through the ground near Nick's legs and were about to grab hold of him but Nick reacted in time:
(Blink.)
Nick disappeared and reappeared a few inches away from the reach of the mysterious hands that seemed to be covered in dark brown fur and sported long, sharp fingernails. Nick willed and his sword appeared from within his space band; Nick quickly unsheathed it, placing the sheath at his right side and held his sword with two hands, striking at the now flailing two hands with a movent from the Menacing Crane sword technique. Nick swung his sword with a swift fierceness, severing one of the arms at the mid-forearm and leaving a heavily bleeding wound on the other.
SCREEECH
A shrill scream came from under the ground and a five foot figure was ejected from the ground and landed on its two feet less than a meter in front of Nick. What Nick saw was a magic beast that looked similar to an African baboon with a body almost completely covered in dark brown fur except at its bright red buttocks. It continued to scream shrilly as it bled from its injuries; its eye were blood red in color and saliva was being oozed from the side of its mouth.
Nick quickly grew annoyed with his noisy opponent and lunged at the magic beast, using another movement from the Menacing Crane sword technique. The magic beast foolishly tried to grab Nick's sword with its one functioning but injured arm, but Nick altered his stance mid-movement and cast:
(Five Blades.)
Four other blades almost identical to Nick's sword's suddenly appeared seemingly out of nowhere heading for the magic beast's sides and legs; the magic beast panicked slightly but still tried to defend itself against the sword that Nick was holding. Nick suddenly moved strangely and when the magic beast's hand came in contact with the sword's blade, its hand passed through the blade as if the blade was not even there. The magic beast was surprised but before it could do anything else, one of the blades on its left side increased its moving pace and bit into its midsection, cutting into it from side to side.
A moment later, Nick backed away from the large baboon and witnessed as its bloody, pink intestines fell from the open wound now in its midsection. The magic beast looked at Nick hatefully before its eyes turned lifeless and it fell to the ground, dead. Nick breathed in deeply and thought:
(The chain of events leading to the battle seems strange, like that magic beast had been waiting to ambush me. Did it somehow notice me tracking its footprints?)
Slade chimed in at this time:
[Is that strange? These magic beasts live in the wilderness and would have to survive by hunting prey, it's only natural for one of them to figure out that it is being followed and try to ambush its pursuer. It probably didn't expect that its pursuer would be such a hard stone, though. Ha, ha...]
Nick agreed with Slade's reasoning and decided to store the magic beasts carcass in his space ring to study it later.
(Now that I think about it, I forgot to store that ape magic beast's carcass.)
Nick shook his head and decided to forget about it. He quickly moved away from the sight of his battle after returning his sword and its sheath to his space band and continued further in the same direction he was moving towards before. After an hour of event-less travel, Nick found a tree with a relatively large trunk and sat at its base to have a meal.
Nick willed and a bag with a large piece of bread and a bottle of water appeared in his hands. The bread was packaged in a clear plastic bag but its fragrant, buttery smell escaped the packaging; this was a 'butter bread' that Nick had bought dozens of from a bakery on campus. The first time, that he had visited the bakery and tried one, he fell in love with the bread and had been eating at least two everyday for the past few days; the bread weighed about 450 grams and when Nick bit into it, he could taste the margarine that lined its interior.
Nick spent twenty minutes eating and drinking before he got up to continue his journey but before he could make a move, Nick heard a scream that was clearly made by a male human.
AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH
Nick quickly cast his spell, Clear Space, becoming visually imperceptible to his surroundings and moved cautiously towards the scream at a running pace. Five minutes later, Nick found a clearing within the woodland that was the site of some sort of battle between a group of eight humans, and a slightly larger group of twelve magic beasts that looked like the baboon like magic beasts that Nick had killed before.
Nick noticed immediately that the humans were young people, around his age, and all wore an emblem with Raylam Priest Academy's logo pinned to their chest. Nick thought:
(Oh, some students are fighting a group of magic beasts, I wasn't expecting to encounter this so soon.)
There were two dead baboon magic beasts on the ground already and one of the male students held his limp right arm as if it had been broken. The two groups were face to face with each other and seemed to be at a standstill, that is, until one of the large baboons wearing a sort of cloth hood over its head waved what seemed to be a partly glowing wooden rod in its right hand from which a bluish bolt of electricity shot out towards the group of students.
One of the male students moved to the front, in the path of the magic attack and shouted:
"Durable Wall!"
The burly young man's skin glowed a bronze color as he received the attack. The young man was pushed five steps backward as the attack struck him and he grimaced in pain; the baboon magic beasts except the hood wearing one cheered by beating their chests and slapping their buttocks as they felt that they had the upper hand.
One of the female students shouted to the rest of the group:
"Everyone, get ready for a fight, we've got to kill these magic beasts, especially the one with the glowing wand."
Nick was confused at hearing the term that woman used:
(Wand? Like the ones used in Harry Potter, real Magicians use wands?)
Nick ignored the students and looked at the hooded, wand carrying baboon and wondered:
(What's up with this magic beast, it's most definitely rank 2 but it cast a spell with a magic tool like a human?)
Slade informed:
[As I mentioned in the past, kid, not all magic beasts are made equal. some of them have weird talents and unusual growth patterns mentally, magically and/or physically. Those special ones tend to lead groups of their own kind even while being at the same rank. This one seems to have somehow formed a mindscape, learnt how to cast spells and even has a magic tool; in other words, its strong.]
Nick nodded in understanding and rubbed his chin while still staying hidden with the effects of Clear Space. Nick looked at the wand that the magic beast had in his hand and grew curious about it.
(I wonder...)
After thinking for a minute, as the two groups seemed like they were finally going to clash and the hooded baboon looked like it was going to cast another spell, Nick acted by stretching out his grasping right hand in front of him and cast:
(Plunder Grasp.)
Plunder Grasp was a space and theft path spell that Nick had learnt months ago but never used outside of his former dorm room. Now he was going to take the chance to test it out in the field. The effects of Clear Space were cancelled at this moment due to the power of Plunder Grasp and Nick became visible to the two groups that noticed the magic energy being exuded by him.
The female student that had rallied her friends before looked at Nick weirdly and asked out loud:
"Who the hell is this guy?"
The baboon magic beasts were enraged that a newcomer suddenly appeared so close to them and were about to attack Nick when the effects of Plunder Grasp became apparent. The icy round within Nick's mindscape cracked at various places and thousands of small magic ice crystals floated into the air towards the laws of Plunder Grasp that lit up as it was fed with magic energy. Within a moment, 6,300 magical units were consumed as Nick focused on the wand being held by the hooded magic beast.
A moment later, the wand disappeared from the magic beast's right hand and appeared within Nick's grasp.
(Success!)
While a few of the baboon magic beasts ran towards Nick, the hooded baboon went crazy and snarled in Nick's direction, pointing and screeching at Nick, seemingly upset at something that Nick had done. The students became confused at this time; one of the males asked:
"What just happened?"
Another male student replied:
"That guy just provided us with a good distraction, that's what happened. Let's take these monkeys down."
The students, feeling encouraged by Nick's move, ran towards the group of magic beats, preparing to cast their own spells. Nick looked at the approaching magic beasts and sneered:
(Soul Pulse.)
Nick's eyes became completely pitch black in color and a formless force was exuded violently from his soul and five of the twelve baboon magic beasts were thrown backwards as they coughed out a few mouthfuls of blood and hit the ground, sprawling out where they lied with slightly unfocused eyes. The students stopped running towards the battle when they saw what happened and the hooded magic beast looked at Nick warily with squinted eyes. The rest of the large baboons ignored the students and focused on Nick who now appeared to be a greater threat.
Nick stored the stolen wand within his space band and brought out his sword which he unsheathed and stored the sheath within the space band once again. Nick and the group of magic beasts stared at each other for a few moments without making any movements, the hooded magic beast having stopped its screaming in order to observe the thief that stole its property. Nick thought:
(The leader of this group sure has great intelligence. It immediately stopped caring about the wand and became cool headed the moment I showed my power. If it won't take the initiative to move this standoff along, then I will.)
By the time Nick had this thought, the magic beasts that had been struck down by Soul Pulse had risen to their feet again and were ready to attack. Seeing that all of its companions had readied themselves, the leader of the magic beasts screeched and pointed at Nick, signaling for its group to attack him. The group of magic beats ran towards Nick in tandem and with their speed it would only take them a few seconds to reach Nick.
Nick held his sword firmly with his right hand and swung it from his left side to his right with fierceness while casting his blade path spell:
(Cleave.)
While the eleven baboon magic beasts were running towards him, Nick radiated a strong magic power and a sharp, imposing force was launched at the magic beasts. A moment later, all eleven magic beasts were cut in half horizontally at their midsections and their carcasses fell horrifyingly onto the ground. The leader of the group of magic beasts opened his eyes wide and showed an almost human like expression of fear as its screeching stopped; instead of further retaliation, the magic beast immediately tried to escape by running way.
Since Nick was at its right side and the students from Raylam Priest Academy at its left, it decided to run towards the expanse of woodland in front of it. The magic beast was surprisingly fast and could run with both of its arms in addition to its legs, however, before it could get among the trees, one of the students suddenly cast a spell and within a few moments moved towards the magic beast amidst a gust of greenish wind, catching up to it and casting another spell:
(Wind Swirl)
A greenish mass of swirling wind shot out from around the male student towards the magic beast but sensing this, the magic beast countered by turning towards the attack and spitting out a blob of purple liquid from its mouth that turned into a bright purple gas when it collided with the wind. The gas spread and separated the magic beast and the student. One of the females from the group of students shouted:
"Sean, get away from that gas, that's definitely poison magic at work."
The young man whose name was apparently Sean wrapped himself with greenish wind and retreated back to his group, frowning as he witnessed the large hooded baboon escape into the woodlands. The burly student from before that had received the hooded baboon's attack looked over at Nick and shouted:
"Hey you, are you not going to chase that thing down and kill it?"
Nick looked and the group of students and internally sneered:
(This was your fight to begin with and even with my assistance, you let one of them escape and now you are asking me to chase the magic beast. Shameless!)
One of the female students patted the burly man's shoulder and said:
"Don't push it Clide, he already helped us out. Let that magic beast go, chasing it won't get us anything of value and might even be problematic if it has more poison path spells in its arsenal."
The burly man nodded after being reminded but kept a stern expression. Nick wasn't interested in these people and was about to leave when the group of students ran over to him. Nick stood his ground and flexed his right sword wielding arm as a warning to the group. The group stopped moving towards him when they got within a few feet of him; there were eight of them in total. The burly man stepped forward and introduced himself:
"My name is Clide Wilson of Raylam Priest Academy's second year and these are my friends and classmates. May we know your name so that we can communicate better?"
Nick thought for a moment, then replied:
"It's Nick capitol."
Clide nodded and continued:
"Well then Nick, thanks for the assist. The leader of those monkeys would have certainly been problematic to deal with if it had its wand in hand. Before you showed up, it had already struck Dave over there with its lightning path spell and crippled his arm."
Clide pointed to the young man that was holding his limp right arm and continued speaking:
"We'll have to return to Shelter Town to have him healed up so I was wondering if you wanted to return with us?"
Nick shook his head and replied:
"I won't be returning to Shelter Town for a while, don't let me get in your way."
A blonde haired woman stepped forward at this time and spoke:
"Well Nick, I'm actually interested in the wand that the magic beast was using and I noticed that you somehow stole it so do you mind if I traded with you for it. My name is Lissan Doyle of the Doyle family and we specialize in magic weapons like that wand."
Nick thought for a moment and brought out the wand from his space band.
(Honestly, this 'wand' just looks like a thin, partly glowing tree branch. Does it really have any use?)
Nick had that thought then remembered how the magic beast used it to cast a spell before and decided not to overlook its possible value. Nick looked at Lissan and asked:
"What do you want to exchange for it? Do you have any swords made from magic materials?"
Lissan shook her head in response to Nick's latter question and replied:
"No, I don't have such a sword but I have many magic potions within our group's space band. I want to exchange the wand for some of those."
Nick shook his head in refusal.
(Like I would purposely drink magic potions that I received from a group of strangers. Do I have 'dunce' written on my forehead?)
Nick responded while storing the wand again:
"No thank you, if there's nothing else, I'll be going."
Nick turned to leave and Lissan's face became gloomy. Clide saw her expression and felt downcast himself since he had feelings for Lissan so he steeled himself and spoke with his chest out, his words directed at Nick:
"Hey, are you forgetting that we out number you, don't be so quick to leave. We have not given you permission yet."