Chapter 2: Info Dump
Sammy looked at the bodies of the guards he had drained blood from and just shrugged. If it was before, he would have felt some kind of remorse but no, he felt nothing. This place really had changed him without him knowing. He then walked out of the dungeon and immediately saw the aftermath of the escaping party. Templar bodies were strewn all over the place. He surely recognized some of them as they were frequent offenders of sodomy. He even saw on body whose junk had been cruelly cut out. He just laughed at this as he walked away. Once he was out of the cathedral's compound, he took a deep whiff of the air then laughed out loud for some minutes. When he felt better, he headed to the cemetery. He had to talk to Ruth about a lot of things. When he reached at where he could recall the gates were, he was surprised to see the cemetery had no gravestones. He found some guards there so he decided to interrogate them.
"Chaps, hello there. What happened here?" he asked. The guards looked ay him in disgust. Well, he was dirty, had dirty clothes on, he smelt worse than a sewer and he had no shoes on. He looked like a beggar.
"Sod off," one of them shouted a him as they covered their noses. Sammy jus grinned at this then went closer to them.
"I will continue assaulting your noses until you answer me," he told them.
"The church destroyed every zombie, ghost, skeleton and ghoul in here because they believed it is a breeding place for demons about eight years ago. We do not know whether they found the demons or not but they did burn Ruth for the crime of conspiring with demon worshippers three months after," one of them answered. Sammy was suddenly left with nowhere to go. He felt as if he just lost his purpose.
"Thank you," he told them then walked away. Ruth was the only person who could possibly point him to the woman she said had brought him and the others there.
He decided first to get out of town, find somewhere there was a stream or river and just clean up. He certainly did not like how the people were looking at him like he could cause a plague. Even at the city gate, the guards let him through without asking questions. He sighed helplessly wherever someone ran off when he was approaching to ask for directions so he just had to rely on his skewered sense of direction. Three hours later, Sammy found a stream. He immediately stripped and dove in. He started scrubbing off ten years worth of dirt from him body using stones. Heck, he even scrubbed some skin off just to get rid of the dirt that had stuck on. Good thing was it grew back almost instantly. Sammy was fascinated by this so he started peeling off his skin using his claws. It was a painful ordeal but he was used to the pain. Now he was a grotesque skinless creepy figure standing in the water.
"I should have made the perfect slasher character in a horror film," he said as he watched his skin grow back. This new one was cleaner, fairer and had no hair, pubic or not. He watched in the reflection on the water as the hair on his body sprouted out slowly nd grew like plants when fastfowarded. It did not grow to be long but just short but it was still beautifully shining black as if it had been oiled. He then looked at his clothes and shook his head. No way would he wear those but he would not go naked either. As he was thinking, a mouse came to the stream and started lapping the water without a care in the world. Suddenly, Sammy felt a strange feeling in his body and he suddenly burst into blue smoke and out fell a blue mouse!
"What kind of cliché vampire power is this?" he asked out loud as he doggie paddled to the other side. The other mouse looked at him curiously. "Don't look a me like that, I'm not into animals," he said then scurried off.
One thing he was glad was he would not be seen as a weirdo now but as just a passing blue furred mouse. This world had magic so a blue mouse was not hard to believe. Sammy backtracked to the city and hitched a ride onto a dress of a not so good-looking woman but he did not choose her for her looks but for her wide dress. He stayed in it till they got into the city then jumped out, scaring her into a screaming rod swinging maniac. He was already far from her but he decided to watch her and her overreaction. Her servants did try to wake her up from her frenzy but she had floored them down with one hit. Nicklaus was laughing at this and decided to play with her more. When she recovered and was about to go on with her journey, he jumped out from his hiding spot and she went on frenzy. By two hours, people were watching this in fascination and Nicklaus had grown tired. He scurried off leaving the hyperventilating woman with no amount of joy.
After he had his fun, Sammy then started searching for a clothe store. After an hour of shenanigans, he finally found it. He got in through a gap in the roof and started exploring. He found the women changing section and got homey there. He never thought that the only time he would ever see so many naked women was when he would turn into a mouse. He had no complaints though. When it was nighttime, the store closed and it was his time to take the clothes he wanted. He changed back to human in a blue cloud of smoke and started looking. He did not take the most expensive ones but one fit for peasants for they would not be recognized easily. After that, he turned into a mouse to see if his clothes were taken too and then back into a human and his clothes were still on. He was tempted to stay and continue his peeping Tom actions but he had to know what he would do next. He turned into a mouse then ran out of the store. Once out, he then looked up at the moonless sky and started thinking.
First things first, he had heard from the prisoners about an academy here that taught magic and knighthood. He was having trouble thinking of how to get in but then remembered he can sneak in if the place did not have strict security measures. He had to assume they had so he had to think about another thing. Just then, he saw a bat fly past him. His thoughts were immediately hijacked by it. He started thinking of how in movies vampires can turn into bats and he decided to see if he could. Hs body burst into a cloud of smoke and he suddenly flew out of it as a blue furred bat. He flew around happily then settled down at a roof. His thoughts were then rearranged back to the pressing matter. He then looked at himself and grinned evilly.
He spread his wings and started flying higher into the clouds. Once he had enough altitude, he started looking for any place that looked like a boarding school for the privileged. He found the place alright and he started flying over there. He did not fly too fast or too slowly for he did not want to raise suspicions. He got into the compound alright then he started looking for the girls' residents. He flew around for two hours for the place was too huge for his little body. When he found it, turned into a mouse and started going around listening in to conversations. He did not want to be rescued by a crazy girl. Four hours passed and he finally found her, the perfect person to be conned.
He then turned into a bat then flew off to the sky. He doubled back and started flying towards her room. He picked up speed when he got near to her window and with a crash, he broke trough it, scaring everyone in there. Sammy landed on the floor and pretended to have passed out. The girl was definitely spooked and she proved it by almost jumping out of the window. She then saw a small bat laying on the floor and she went to its aid. First, she checked its wings and felt none were broken. She then carefully placed the bat on a pillow and put it on the bed. Just then, the door was fiercely opened by her friend.
"Jes, I heard a crash in your room, are you alright?" she asked her, holding a practice sword while wearing nothing but a bikini,"
"It was nothing Rose, a small bat just crashed into my room is all," Jasmine answered. Rose looked at Sammy who was still pretending to be passed out. She frowned as she came closer.
"What a weird bat. Its fur is blue," she said. Sammy almost woke up so that he can kick her tiny butt. "Why do I feel as if someone is badmouthing me?"
"Just go back to your room and stop causing a ruckus in mine," Jasmine said as she pushed her friend out. She made sure she locked the door then went back to her learning. An hour later, she went to sleep after checking on Sammy. Once she was sure he was okay, she closed her eyes and was out of it. Sammy waited for an hour then went for the books. He had excellent night vision so he could see well. Even as a bat, he still has his strength. So he started looking for books about beginner magic and luckily found it fast.
It was written that beginner mages are called Novice mages. They must first absorb magic in the air then circulate it in mana nodes. Mana nodes are present in every being and there are at least eighty nodes in humans and seventy in magical beasts. Once they can cast one Novice spell of any school then they can be truly called Novice Mages. There are seven schools; Earth school, Wind school, Water school, Fire school, Darkness School, Light school and finally Necromancy school. No living beings, except the elementals race, had an affinity towards a certain element; you have to choose which element or two to take. Sammy noticed that Jasmine had chosen the Water school which was quite accurate for her personality was just as gentle.
Sammy then turned back to a human and went to a meditation pose. He started by trying to feel the mana in the air which took almost immediately. He then started directing the mana into his body and suddenly, two star charts appeared. One had eighty shiny stars and the next had seventy. He immediately knew he had a beast's nodes and a human's. Since he did not know how to cultivate as a beast, he decided to first do so as a human. He then started directing the mana into the first human node which started shining slowly by slowly. He got tired halfway so he took a small break. He noticed that it did not go dim at all so he was glad. After a small break, he continued supplying the node with mana. He felt his head aching furiously but he ignored this and went on trying to light up the first human node. After two hours, he finally broke through. He had unofficially became a novice mage. All he had to do now was to try and cast one spell from any school and he will become officially a Novice mage. But he had three more nodes to light up in order to be a heavyweight in the novice rank.
A person with one node can only cast a novice spell once and his mana will be gone. With two nodes, fours novice spells can be cast. With three nodes, eight novice spells will be cast or four which can cause more damage. With four nodes, sixteen novice spells can be cast or eight with more power and precision. Once the nodes are out of mana, they flash like twinkling stars as they absorb mana. The higher the rank, the faster the recovery rate for the higher the number of nodes absorbing mana. It's like pumps; one piston will not pump more water than two or three or four. In order to be an apprentice mage, he had to connect the four nodes to form an path then connect with the first light green node. From there, nodes start having different colors like the Novice nodes were all white. Once the light green one is connected then he was unofficially just became an Apprentice mage. But he had a long time to go before then. He changed back into a bat for it was already morning and the sun was out. Like a normal bat, he found a dark corner and hung upside down as he looked at Jasmine.