Volume 4 - Shadowlands
Step by step, a man was getting closer and closer to the bottom of a cave. He wore a red cloak and had silver hair, red eyes, and white skin. There was a gem carved in the shape of a blood-red diamond in the middle of his forehead, and two other similar gems were on the back of both of his hands. A sphere of light shone beside him, illuminating the entire dark cave. The man was then interrupted during his walk by two grunts:
"Grrr"
"Grrr"
Two creatures jumped out of the darkness. With just one look, he recognized them. They were baby manticores, a male and a female. As soon as the male baby approached, he gave a strong kick, throwing him hard towards the wall. Soon after, the female also attacked him. The man's skin changed from white to an earthy yellow, and he stood still while the creature tried to use its stinger to hit him. But no matter how strong the stinger was, the creature was nothing more than a puppy the size of a hunting dog. In addition to piercing its red cloak, it was unable to pierce its skin, which had undergone a strange change.
The man grabbed the small female manticore by the tail and looked at it as it struggled furiously, trying to free itself. At that moment, the small cub did something unexpected. A mist of poison came out of its mouth and covered the man's face. When the smoke disappeared, he laughed and took a deep breath of the mist as he said: "A mutant cub, what an unexpected profit."
As soon as he said these words, he threw the female on top of the male, who was getting up after his powerful kick. Both grunted in pain. Not wanting to waste any more time with the cubs, the man took out a scroll and activated his magic. Vines came out of the ground, pulling the small manticores away and immobilizing them, leaving them trapped in place. He then continued moving forward in the dark cave until he reached its end. There he found 3 wooden chests next to a corpse. A nostalgic and familiar sound announced that he had found the correct location:
[BEEP]
[Reached the location of the treasure map]
Rafael, at this moment, was on Manticore Island and had finally found the treasure from the map he had obtained almost 10 years ago. He opened the chests that were sealed with some kind of anti-corrosion magic, only to see many gold coins, jewels, soul stones, and some magical artifacts that ranged from grade 1 to 5.
All of this was irrelevant to someone of his status now. His eyes turned to the corpse. The man was wearing what should have been a robe, and his bones were so old that they must have been there for hundreds of years. The fact that there were still traces of his cloak showed that in the past, it must have been a quality magical cloak. Any other item he had had already turned to dust with the passing of time and exposure to the cave.
But there were two items that despite the accumulated dust, Rafael could feel great magical power coming from them. The first was a golden ring, where the gold could only be seen after cleaning all the dirt. And the second was a silver necklace with a white gem. As soon as both were taken from the corpse, the system analyzed the database and notified their uses:
[Relics detected]
[Ring of the Fire Lord] +
+30% range and area of effect of fire spells
1x per day allows you to cast 1 spell without preparation and reagents
1x per day allows you to cast the superior spell "Sea of Flames"
[Necklace of the Chief Exorcist] +
+20% damage to Light and Holy spells
+10% resistance to curses and negative status
1x per day allows you to cast the superior spell "Eternal Light"
1x per day allows you to cast the superior spell "Holy Purification"
"I thought I would have to spend a lot of Order resources during the auction to get my hands on a relic, but this treasure hunt rewarded me with two of them. Now I finally have three higher-level spells, too bad one of them only has a greater effect on evil creatures and the other is a status purge." Rafael said out loud and then decided to leave the cave, but not before waving his hand, collecting the chests in his inventory, and using another spell:
"Summon Lesser Undead"
Suddenly, the only corpse near him inside the cave stood up. Two pupils made of red light were now visible in the skeleton's skull. As soon as the skeletal body stood up, it began to follow Rafael out of the cave. The advantage of this soul-type spell was its easy preparation: It only needed a lesser soul stone and a corpse as reagents.
When they reached where the manticore hatchlings were, Rafael sedated the two, leaving them unconscious, and kept them tied up, after which the skeleton lifted the two off the ground and began to carry them on its back. Such hatchlings would be worth a good price both within the Order or if they were sold at auction. Leaving aside selling, he could raise them to use the hatchlings just like the Master of Beasts did in his tower.
When he arrived outside the cave he saw something that wasn't there when he arrived, two huge manticores, a male and a female. When the two monsters saw the skeleton carrying its young, the two creatures went into a rage and attacked blindly. Rafael reacted by raising both hands and throwing two fireballs at each of them, even after the flames hit the creatures they ignored the pain and moved forward. Rafael didn't hesitate and activated two new spells:
"Wall of Fire"
"Stone Skin"
After that, he drew his Valyrian Steel sword and advanced fearlessly towards the enormous creatures with the body of a lion and a human face. As soon as the two beasts passed through the wall of fire, the male immediately stopped and began to roll on the ground trying to put out the fire on his body, but the female ignored the pain of the flames again and just wanted to kill the intruders who had attacked her cubs. When she reached Rafael, the two exchanged blows, one paw hitting his chest while his sword cut the side of the female's neck in flames.
After the terrible impact, a loud noise was followed by Rafael's body flying 3 meters. He fell on his back but got up as if nothing had hit him, his brown skin turned white again after a few seconds, and seeing the female finally agonizing because of her injuries, his boots shone with the "Haste" spell and he crossed the 3 meters in an instant, cutting off her tail followed by her head. As he turned back to the still burning and howling male, he waved his hand, sending another spell toward him:
"Fire Arrow"
The arrow crossed the distance of 10 meters with terrifying speed and precision, hitting the head of the second manticore and killing it in an instant. Rafael went to the two corpses and stored them in his inventory, then returned to the trail that brought him to this cave. On the way back, when he was about to reach the beach, he was surrounded by several insects the size of a palm. Although they were flightless, they were carnivores and their appearance resembled manticores. It was also said that these islands were named after these insects, their venom was used all over the world and now there was a huge horde of them surrounding him.
The skeleton approached Rafael after his order and when he was about to use Fire Breath to open a path through the insects, he felt a connection become stronger and rushed towards him at high speed. "Run" was the wrong way to say it, should it be crawl? A huge red creature, almost 20 meters long and as wide as three barrels, appeared, breaking several trees and soon spitting flames at all the insects surrounding its master.
Then, after burning them all, Vulcan approached his master and leaned down so that he could climb on top of him, but Rafael prioritized the lives of the two cubs, letting them climb first. Soon, Vulcan took the 4 back to the beach. After Rafael arrived, he saw a large boat with the two men who had brought him. Far from the boat, it was possible to see a larger sailboat with 4 sails awaiting their return.
When they were about to reach the boat, an army of manticore insects appeared again. This time, Rafael ordered his allies to retreat toward the boat and then ran back toward the approaching sea of insects. When he entered the center of the swarm, his new ring glowed, and his entire body glowed with it.
"Sea of Flames"
The new superior spell showed its full power as flames flowed in all directions using Rafael as the center. The flames reached a height of 3 meters and advanced in all directions until they lost all their power 130 meters later. When the wave of fire passed, all that was left was a yellow flame that continued to burn everything within that 130-meter area. The two sailors who helped the skeleton board the two cubs on the small boat now had their mouths wide open.
The sea of flames approached them very close, and they felt the enormous heat coming from it. If they were inside, they would turn to dust before they could take a step out of the flames. As they watched, their boss walked out from within the flames as if he were taking a walk on the beach.
Not even his clothes were burned, he waved his hand making the skeleton lose its vitality and disappear into the water on the beach, and then he took a scroll from his inventory, when the scroll was activated his shadow swallowed the gigantic Vulcan and he climbed into the boat returning with the men to the sailboat. Inside his cabin, as the ship returned to Asshai, Rafael lay down inside a glass "coffin", activated a barrier, and closed his eyes. At the same moment, inside the Yin and Yang Tower, inside a similar glass coffin, a man identical to Rafael opened his eyes and woke up…
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Special thanks to the Patreons:
Sage's Supporter: Jan!
Magical Apprentice: Parsa, Pato Senalima, Axel Bour, Gabriele Sulpizio, Vinnie, frimorigo, Scott Robertson, Takatchi, Leery Falcon, Austin, mandeep singh, and Kobe Robertson!