episode 7

7 Chapter 7 - First Friend

I quickly prepared the "Smoke Ball", and I also decided to create a mantle and a mask, so that if someone survived, he would not be able to recognize me later. So, quickly swinging and throwing the ball into the center of their camp, I waited for the smoke to disperse. After a couple of seconds, all the bandits were in the smoke, and I, having released the shadows, ordered them to surround the curtain of smoke, while at the same time I already began to run up to the smoke and entering it I felt at home. I saw all the bandits and what they were doing, they were already worried and ready to fight. Four of them held ordinary swords, two of them held daggers in their hands, and the last one held two swords, one long and the other short. I quickly run up to one of the bandits with a sword and because he cannot see anything in the smoke, I quickly cut his neck. While he was dying I ran to another and did the same trick. After killing two, the other five began to run out of the smoke, but they were attacked by my shadows of goblins. I decided to turn those two killed into shadows so that they would help me. Quickly whispering under his breath: "Rise" and immediately run to the nearest bandit who was still in the smoke with daggers and just kill him and make a shadow out of him.

Now four bandits are behind the smoke and just kill my goblins. My mana is spent, but not too quickly and this is probably due to my fast mana regeneration, or just goblins consume little mana for revival. I give the order to my three bandit shadows to take care of the other three, while I will fight the guy with two swords for now. This is probably their leader, which means he is strong and there will be a lot of trouble with him, but I hope for quick help from the shadows.

While all the bandits are fighting with the shadows, I look at all this from the smoke, waiting for the right moment to attack the leader. I didn't have to wait long, and when this moment came I quickly run out of the smoke towards the leader and throw a dagger towards his feet. I was lucky or not, but I hit him in the thigh, I think now it will be more difficult for him to fight me. I quickly create another dagger and start fighting with it, but after a minute or two I realized that it is not as strong and as I thought. And very quickly one of my daggers was already in his chest, killing him. Turning to the other bandits, I see that my shadows have already killed two and the last one was left, I think that they will cope on their own.

When the battle is over, I turn all four already dead people into my shadows, and then I sit down on the ground due to the fact that I have a headache. Could this be a waste of mana? After all, making shadows out of bandits, I spent a lot of mana, or maybe this is always and for everyone only for the first time, and after that there will be no such pain. I'll have to check for the Academy exam.

After resting, I decided to inspect the bandits' camp. There were 5 tents, one of which is larger than the others, maybe this is the leader's tent and there they keep stolen from the caravans. Going inside, I saw quite a lot of all sorts of things from boxes to bags. After examining everything, I decided there was nothing not to take, since I do not have the inventory to store it all. But without leaving the tent, I noticed that what was covered with a cloth in the corner. Having removed the fabric, I noticed a cage inside which there was an animal. He was all black and his eyes were golden and on his or her forehead there was a small piece of golden fur in the form of a diamond, and the animal itself looked like a fox, and by its size I can assume that he was definitely not recently born. There was a collar on his neck, he probably did so that the beast could not use magic, which means that this fox can wield magic.

-And what am I to do with you? - (I)

This fox is looking at me with such eyes as if he wants me to let him go. I wonder what happened to him before that and what they wanted to do with him if the bandits hadn't stolen him? We ought to figure out what to do with it. The cage itself looks ordinary, but when I tried to break it, I realized that it was either too weak, or it was a special cage. Searching among the things for something like a bunch of keys, I began to try to open the cage. I didn't mess around for a long time, one of the keys came up and I opened the cage. The animal saw that I had opened the cage and backed away. I pulled my hand to him but did not touch him and just waited for him to understand that I would not hurt him. For a couple of minutes the fox was sniffing and was no longer so afraid of me. Then I pulled him out of the cage and looked at the collar. There were no holes for the key in it and I racked my brains for a long time how to free it, but I decided to just try to break it. Carefully so as not to damage the fox, I tried to break the collar. I managed to break the collar without hurting the animal by freeing it.

When the collar broke, I let go of the fox and walked away from him thinking that he would understand that I was letting him go and run away, but he came up to me and rubbed against my leg like a kitten. Is he like he thanks me like that? But the fox was not going to leave anywhere and only looked at me and waited for something.

- I understand that you want to come with me? - (I)

He seemed to understand my words and once again rubbed his head against my leg. Well, if you want to go, then okay, but here's how to hide you from prying eyes. I don't think it would be a good idea to just go to town with him in full view. He also possesses magic, maybe he has something like invisibility. Or you can think of something with the help of the "Kinship with Darkness" skill. It's getting dark on the street so you have to think up quickly. Okay, I'll take one of the bags and try to carry it home in it. I know that it is humane to treat animals in this way, but I see no other way out. Taking a bag from under all the trash in the tent, I show the fox to climb there and say:

—Listen, kid, I don't know if you understand me, but I need you to get in here. Well I)

He probably understood my words and instead of getting into the bag his body turned into a small cloud of black smoke and enveloped my body under the mantle. Did he really understand that I want to hide him, and so he used his magic to hide. By the way, turning your body into smoke is a good idea.It is necessary to try with this later, and right now, we will quickly check four other tents and go home. In the tents I did not find anything but rubbish, so I went home.

I got home without incident, but still late. I quickly went home and went into my room and quickly took off my robe and after that the smoke that enveloped me turned into a fox. I hide the robe under the bed and say to the fox:

- Be here and don't go anywhere, okay? - (I)

I hope he understood the meaning of my words and will not run away anywhere. Going into the kitchen, I see that everything is already assembled. As yesterday we had eaten and chatted and went to bed. When I entered, the little fox quietly settled down on my bed. I stroked him a little and he rubbed a little against my palm. I decided that when Seal enters the room it will be necessary to warn her about the fox, she will find out sooner or later.

When the forces came in, she had not yet seen the animal. And I decided to talk to her:

"Seal, just listen quietly, okay?" I say, and after a few seconds, when Seal is already looking at me with surprise, I continued. "When I was in the forest today, I met him there and after that he became attached to me. I hope you will not mind if he will live in our room? - I said and showed her a dark lump that was hiding behind me on the bed.

"Wow, what a sweetheart!" Seel said and immediately began to squeeze a black fur ball in the shape of a fox.

"I understand that you don't mind," I said and thought that it would be necessary to feed him, otherwise he probably hasn't eaten for a long time.

I went to the kitchen where my parents were gone and took two cups, one deep, the other no. Returning to the room, I mentally called the store, went to the "Other", and then went to "Food" and bought meat and milk, spending "1" coin for each and now I have "38" left. I put food in cups and laid it on the floor between my and Seal's beds. The little fox sniffed and began to eat, and Sil looked at me with surprise and asked:

- Sam, where did you get the meat and milk? - (Seal)

"Let me tell you later, Seal, otherwise I'm damn tired for today." I disagreed because I still don't know how to tell her that I have my own special abilities.

While the ladder was eating, I quickly lay down on the bed and began to fall asleep, thinking that I somehow easily endured the murder of people, but I don't know the answer to this question and probably won't find out. Then I felt something, opening my eyes I saw a fox on my bed who decided to sleep next to me. And again, as before, I fell asleep with a smile on my face.