World of Laws and Magic

Nick was now running through an area filled with pine trees, trying to find a place to rest before night came as it was now approaching sundown.

(Slade, do you know a safe area where I can take shelter for the night?)

Slade spoke in a carefree manner.

[Your name is Nick Capitol, huh boy? Most of your thoughts are pretty bland, is all that you think about related to magic? That's not necessarily a bad thing for an aspiring Mage but I doubt that you are very popular with other people.]

A vein bulged on Nick's forehead; he spoke through gritted teeth:

"Stop messing around, If I die then you won't get what you want, right? It's in your best interest to help me. If I can't find shelter by nightfall, my circumstances will get dangerous if I encounter a magic beast."

[You're right about that kid. Hold on, I'm trying to familiarize myself with you before I start feeding you instructions. So...your now currently attending some sort of magic academy and you are within this realm because your academy is now conducting an exam. Hmmm..Some time ago, I did notice that there was a team of Magicians that were surveying the realm but since none of them appeared to have good aptitudes for soul or wisdom magic, I left them alone. They only did a superficial exploration of this realm so I doubt that they know very much about the few precious resources within this realm. Exam, huh? That's laughable, your academy is probably using that as a pretense to have you green horns explore the realm extensively. That monitoring device on your wrist...a space band...will probably alert them if you find precious resources. They use you weaklings because your level of strength prevents you from making use of the most precious natural resources that these kind of realms usually contain and so they will be able to find them without having to worry about you young ones consuming them.]

Nick squinted his eyes.

(That makes sense, I wasn't trying to be cynical about the academy's intentions but considering that I now confirmed that the dean tampered with my soul, I probably should start appreciating cynicism more. What do you think, what's the best course of action?)

Slade went silent for a while and then replied:

[There is a graveyard of sorts for soul eating lions that I created some time ago in order to make use of the carcasses of the soul eating lions that I couldn't eat for various reasons such as them having diseases or some sort of corruption that would have harmed my soul eating lion host. That place is filled with soul magic and the innate laws of those dead soul eating lions that spread into the surroundings over time, creating certain phenomena. I have a magic formation in mind that you can use to absorb the soul magic related laws within those surroundings into your own soul minus any corruption that affects soul eating lions. Absorbing those laws will increase your affinity for soul magic and even make your soul a little stronger but let me warn you, it's going to hurt...alot. Are you willing?]

Nick was internally rejoicing at the possibility of making his magic potential stronger but asked with some concern:

(Is there a risk that the pain will kill me?)

[Hmmm...no, you probably won't die from the pain. Although soul magic cultivation can be said to be the most painful among the paths you can walk, you're not at a level where the methods that I give you will kill you. That comes later when you are at least a rank 4 Apprentice Magician. Anyway, I will guide you to that area starting tomorrow morning; it will take about half a day to get to the graveyard if there are no interruptions. For now, I'll guide you to an area that should provide some safety for the night.]

Suddenly, thoughts that Nick were unfamiliar with appeared in his mind, giving him detailed directions to an area not far from his current location. Nick trusted that Slade wanted to make use of him so it wasn't very likely that he would knowingly harm him, at least not obviously, so Nick followed the directions that Slade put in his mind. Nick change directions slightly and ran towards the north east direction; the number of pine trees that Nick was seeing started to decrease and soon there were hardly any in sight. When sundown had arrived and Nick was very close to his destination, a large bird like magic beast appeared on his path. This magic beast had a body similar to an Australian emu with long legs, very tiny wings, a noticeably sharp beak and brown feathers but unlike emus, the magic beast had visibly sharp fangs.

[Kid, you sure are unlucky, that's a luring bird and I don't call it that for kicks. That creature operates by making a magical cry that attracts wary dogs when they encounter prey that they cannot defeat themselves. They let the wary dogs kill the prey and they pick up the scraps. Kill it quickly!]

With Slade's warning, Nick quickened his pace while the luring bird took a hostile stance and glared at Nick and so Nick took out a throwing knife from his vest with his right hand and pointed it at the luring bird.

(Big.)

Before the bird could realize the danger that it was in, Nick's knife broadened by half an inch and its blade extended by over twelve meters in an instant, piercing the luring bird's body and exiting behind it. By the time his knife pierced the bird's body, Nick already took out a second knife from his vest with his left hand and pointed it a little higher than his other knife. Before the luring bird could cry out, Nick's second knife pierced its throat, causing the bird to cough up blood. Nick released his knives and the luring bird's body fell to the ground, lifeless.

Slade praised:

[Not bad kid, your spell is based on rule magic, right? In my eyes, it's pathetic but the way that you used it to kill the luring bird was satisfactory, but...you've made a mistake.]

"Huh? What mistake."

SSSSSSSSKKKKKKKKKKKKEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Just as Nick asked the question, an ear piercing screech came from behind a large rock formation that was a few meters away from Nick. Nick then saw a smaller luring bird than the one that he killed run away from behind the rock formation towards a large collection of trees in the distance.

RAAAAAAWR RAAAAAAAAWR RAAAAAAAWR RAAAAAAAAAWR...

A succession of loud growls came from the woodlands to the west of Nick's position. As Nick listened to the growls, a chill went down his spine.

(Those are not coming from one wary dog.)

Slade spoke:

[You should run to our destination quickly.]

Nick ran quickly along the route that Slade had given him, internally grumbling:

(Slade, if you knew that there was a luring bird behind that rock formation, why didn't you say anything about it?)

Slade scoffed at Nick's question.

[Hmph, listen kid, I said that I would help you and make you my disciple but that doesn't mean that I'm interested in becoming your nanny. Are you telling me that in such an open space, you could not sense the magic energy coming from that luring bird? Most weak magical creatures don't have the ability to control their magic energy precisely so they bleed it as they go about their lives; if you could not sense it, that means that you're lacking some fundamental training. Instead of asking me why I didn't help you, you should be asking me how you can become better so that you don't make such foolish oversights again.]

Nick opened his mouth as if to speak but then he closed it.

(Sigh, he's right. I need to get better, not just in studying magic, but in using magic related skills in the field.)

After realizing his shortcomings, Nick no longer grumbled and simply ran forward. Soon, Nick heard many footsteps coming from behind him and so he turned slightly to see what the situation was behind him. Nick was shocked as he saw ten wary dogs chasing him. Most of them seemed to be tiger sized and there was one that seemed as large as a rhino.

[I've already read your thoughts so I know that the spell that you used earlier is the only one that you know so I don't have to tell you that trying to fight so many wary dogs at the same time would be a very risky decision. It will take them about two minutes to catch up; you're already fairly close to the destination that I have in mind. Keep running, if you get severely injured by those wary dogs, there will be no one to save you. Your academy sent you here without any magical tools related to healing, they must also be trying to weed out some of you people while using you to search through this realm. Efficient, right? Ha, ha.]

Nick clenched his fist and continued running. After over a minute, the wary dogs were only a few meters away from Nick and their growls filled him with discomfort. The rhino sized wary dog growled and was about to burst out with increased running speed when it suddenly sniffed the air and slowed down, eventually stopping its pursuit; the other wary dogs followed its lead and also stopped their pursuit.

Nick looked behind himself with some confusion.

(Why did they stop?)

[We're here. Keep your eyes in front of you kid. Those pups aren't a concern for now]

Nick looked into the distance. He was now within a woodland filled with old, short trees that seemed similar to oak trees. Beyond the trees there was a clearing in which a small lake was situated. Nick walked past the trees towards the clearing and got near the lake.

[Stop! Don't get any closer to that lake.]

(Huh, why?)

When Nick was about ten meters from the lake, a large bluish scaled snake lifted itself out of the water and looked at Nick with its glowing crystal like blue eyes. The snake hissed and stared at Nick for a minute; Nick stood in place looking at the magic beast, his mind overflowing with fear. The snake had raised itself by about twelve meters above the lake and its head was as large as a public bus and menacing.

After a minute, the snake seemed to have lost interest in Nick and placed its head back into the lake. When Nick saw that, his knees collapsed and he fell to the ground, lying on his back.

(Slade, you better have a good reason for leading me here.)

Slade chuckled.

[He, he, he. Kid, this is the 'safe' place you wanted. You'll be spending the night here.]

Nick squinted his eyes in suspicion.

(Oh, really...)