Chapter 8: Gift of Mage

Hours passed, and Valier woke up from his sleep feeling energized. Sitting up, he looked left and right to see if Galleon had regained consciousness. He found the guy was not in the tent, so Galleon must have wandered somewhere without disturbing his sleep.

Alone, he proceeded to stretch both his arms and legs to loosen up the joints that had stiffened from sleeping. After that, he unwrapped the bandages on his right hand while opening the wooden chest with the other, taking out his reserved bandages and a large wooden bottle of water.

He placed a basin below his hand as he poured the clean water from the bottle. When it was done, he wiped his hand with a clean cloth before wrapping it again in new bandages. He did the same thing on his other hand and legs, which sustained most injuries.

During hunting, it was always advised to wear light protective armor. In his case, there was a leather padding his front and back. There were also protective gears on his arms and legs but only a few, as it could hinder his mobility.

Looking at the pitifully wrapped hand, he regretted not wearing gloves. But it was too late now, the damage was done. Speaking of damage, he caught a glimpse of the shattered wooden bow frame and sighed dejectedly.

He knew the other hunters were only sugarcoating it. The reality was that the bow was beyond repair by normal means. It had completely shattered into many pieces, with some of its parts lost in the unexplored area. It was better to purchase a new bow, since fixing this would cost more due to the requirement of a master craftsman to piece the bow together without it breaking apart upon one use.

But Valier was unwilling to let the bow be as its current state forever. It was his senior's weapon in hunting, and he would treasure it to honor his memory. However, he needed to be practical since life was not roses and rainbows. He needed a new bow.

A strong bow with the same features as the old one would undoubtedly be expensive, but he could cover the cost with one of the crystals. And even the cost of new armors, and medicine. Which he greatly needed at the moment.

'I promise to fix you up in the future— Wait!'

He had a eureka moment.

"Magic!" He exclaimed and rummaged through the chest. He found the book eventually, and could not be more happy seeing it. That experience was so unreal that he thought it was just a dream, that it had completely flown out of his mind, but now he remembered.

He obtained something from a Mage!

"Magic is infinite, so they say. So a spell to fix the bow wouldn't be that hard, right?" He mumbled with an excited glint in his eyes looking at the plain black cover.

'Huuuuu… wait…!' Taking a short moment to breathe, a sudden memory dawned on him that he had completely forgotten.

He was stabbed!

His excitement was quickly replaced with alarm as he stood up and stripped his top off urgently, revealing his well-built body with a glass-like skin on the upper left chest and back that provided him with a clear view of his beating heart and a small round brownish stone beside it.

"FUDGE SHIT!"

The sight immediately drained all colors on his face. It was disturbing. He was literally seeing his heart beating!

"Oh my god…" He murmured, becoming paler, while lightly touching the ice, feeling its smooth surface. Mysteriously, he did not feel cold like before. He did not know why, but he did not bother questioning it. He needed to find a solution quickly, recalling what Vivi had imparted. He could die!

"I had to learn magic, fast!" He mumbled, falling on his knees and grabbing the book carefully. Gulping out of nervousness, his shaking finger pinched the edge of the hard cover and flipped gently. What greeted him was a blank black page, totally normal for books.

But when he was about to flip it to get to the next page, to his surprise, a bright green drawing suddenly appeared in the middle of the page, forming a circle with complex patterns. At the top part of the page, there was a short passage written in green ink with his language.

[Smear the magic circle with blood]

Valier hesitated for a second before he bit his pinky, and it bled a trickle of blood. He smeared the blood on the center of the circle, and waited anxiously for the result. Not long after, the passage dissolved and vanished, leaving only the circle and his blood on the page. Afterwards, the green circle began to rotate slowly, as if it was not written on paper.

'Mages are amazing…' He thought inwardly while gazing in awe. No matter how he thought about it, the moving circle looked to be breaking the laws of nature itself. It looked unreal, and unnatural to a normal person like him. No doubt, if he told this to other people, they would think he was crazy.

FLASH!

The ink let out a blinding green light without warming, triggering his quick reflexes to cover his eyes and back away. As a result, the book dropped on the floor as he stood up almost immediately. Squinting his eyes, he peeked at the book radiating bright green light, illuminating every corner of the tent.

"The freak!?" He was startled from what he saw.

The circle had left the page, along with his blood, as it rose up in the air while continuously rotating like a disc.

FLASH!

It spewed out light once again, and a breathtaking change occurred. The disc began expanding until it was as tall as him, while some of the circle inside it broke apart and began spinning in other directions, turning into rings of green light. But what caught his attention more was his blood that had become a droplet inside— was turning green!

'What—!'

Before he could even construct his question, all the rings were sucked into the glowing green droplet in a blink of an eye, stunning him in surprise. Before he could comprehend what had happened, the green droplet flew towards his forehead at lighting speed!

Valier could not keep up with it, so he was unable to react on time or dodge. Surprisingly, he felt nothing from it. But when his eyes opened curiously, he was horrified to find his arms and whole body was covered in green glowing veins.

[Sorcery Guide Integrated]

Out of thin air, startling him so much that he fell on the floor, was a translucent green bar with white letters floating in front of his face. Out of reflex, he tried to swat it away, but his hand simply passed through as it did not exist at all.

"Am I hallucinating or what?" He mumbled in disbelief while backing away in caution. But despite his effort, the bar followed his every move until he was near the edge of the room.

"Huh?"

It was then he noticed the glowing veins covering his whole body was becoming dimmer, making him more baffled as to what had just occurred. But before he could say anything, another bar appeared out of nowhere, jolting him backwards.

[Sorcery Awakened]

Gripping the cloth wall of the tent anxiously, he read the words written on the bar. As he was comprehending the message, a sudden pain surged from every fiber of his being. He could not even scream for help despite thinking of doing so. His body did not listen to him at all as it was experiencing intense agony.

Thump.

He fell on the floor, face-flat and unmoving, with still wide eyes full determination to live. But the will to survive was not enough to prevent his mind from being exhausted from the continuous pain that had started a few seconds ago, but felt like years of suffering.

Slowly, his eyelids began dropping, until his eyes were closed completely.

*** (⁠●⁠´⁠⌓⁠`⁠●⁠) ***

[Body Structure Transformed]

[You have become a Sorcerer]

Valier's eyes fully opened after a few blinks. The sight that greeted him was the ceiling of his humble home, but with the addition of the strange floating bars he could not even touch or feel, like they did not exist at all. Still in doubt, he rubbed his eyes a few times, but the bars remained there.

"Strange—"

"What's strange, Val?"

"GAH! FUDGE YOU! Don't pop-out like that!" Valier sprang up almost immediately and covered his topless self in less than a second while simultaneously kicking a pile of cloth towards Galleon's face. The poor guy was unable to defend himself and fell down on the floor, while Valier hurriedly put on a random shirt he got.

Taking off the cloth on his face, Galleon looked at Valier strangely. Valier had always been jumpy, meaning he was easily startled, but Galleon felt there was something wrong and smiled embarrassingly. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to disturb your self-love time. Okay, I'll get out. Enjoy."

"WAIT!"

Just as he was about to leave, Valier unexpectedly called out loudly, taking Galleon by surprise. Looking at his brother, he could see something was definitely up. Instead of being red, Valier had become extremely pale.

"Are you alright? What's wrong?" Galleon asked while walking towards him hurriedly.

"You…" Valier gazed at him strangely. His gaze sWitched from Galleon's face to the bars floating in front of his face and instantly understood. The bars were invisible to Galleon. "Do… you see green bars floating around me?"

Galleon halted and tilted his head to the side in a clueless manner while looking at him in confusion. "Green what? Bars? Why would there be floating bars?"

"Ne… Nevermind." Valier shook his head helplessly while looking at the center of the room. There was a book there, the black book. Galleon noticeably traced his gaze, and judging from the raised brow, the guy found nothing there.

"Hey… Are you really alright? If not… I can leave you alone for some time. I'll go to Jakos instead." Galleon thought Valier had developed a trauma from the Beast he encountered and needed some time to think alone.

Valier let out a small nod despite his face clearly showing his unease. "I… I'm fine. I just need some time to think… Thanks."

"I should be the one to say that. But anyway, take care of yourself, Val. And I'm sorry for causing trouble." Galleon mumbled while turning away. He walked out of the tent and headed towards another direction, disappearing from Valier's view.

Left by himself, Valier carefully caressed his frozen skin in silence. His face was still pale, with cold sweat blanketing his forehead, despite knowing everything that had happened involved magic. He should not try to make sense of it, as it does not make sense in the first place.

What terrified him was the unknown. Magic was something mysterious, and now it was around him. It caused so much pain that he was unwilling to endure again. But as he touched his frozen skin, he was reminded of what he needed to do.

Valier picked up the black book carefully while inhaling air to calm his nerves before opening it. He was once again greeted by the blank page, but he waited for something this time. He wasn't let down and something happened, but it was totally unexpected.

The book began crumbling like dust, leaving no trace behind.