Chapter 3: The Drinks

Sammy watched how the girl woke up groggily and started preparing herself. She took a bath, brushed her teeth, wore the Academy's uniform, took her books then ran out of the room. He confirmed that the girl had already forgotten about him when she couldn't see him when she woke up. Sammy then changed into a rat and ra out of the room. He wanted to look around and see whether he could get into the library where they might keep the tomes. As he was snooping, he got the general gist of the academy. It was divided into two wings, the Knight Wing and Mage Wing. Even though they had the same residents to stay and sleep in, they went to study differently. He also came to know that each school had their own building where they teach the spells. Each school had their own library so his work had been reduced.

After a quick thinking, he decided to go to the Darkness school and Necromancy school. He felt as if these to schools would be the best for him. So, he continued snooping until he found them. The two schools were right next to each other and were the most deserted of all other schools out there. After he got into the Darkness school, he changed back into his human form and started looking around. His movements were silent like a creeping predator as he did not want to alert anyone. He found a bag near the door so picked it up and started putting every book he could find in it.

After an half an hour, he realized the bag was not even half full while all the books were gone. He realized this bag must be an enchanted one to keep more things inside so he crept into the other school and did the same. Once he was satisfied, he changed into a rat and ran off the building. He was so happy with his loot that he did not realize he was being hunted by a hawk in the sky. Sammy still had the thoughts of a human so he did not realize his form could put him in danger until he suddenly felt talons round his body and he was suddenly airborne. A squeak of surprise and fear leapt out of his mouth then he looked up. He saw it was a hawk and immediately knew it had targeted him for dinner.

Sammy was now enlightened about some things concerning his transformation. One, he had the same weight as a regular mouse. That means if he was to encounter a chicken, it could probably fling him across a room by his tail. Second, in forms of prey, predators would not think twice about hunting him. He was as fast and strong as he was in his human form though. He then sighed emotionally then changed into a blue hawk. The other hawk was scared that it almost fell from the sky. Sammy quickly spread his wings and took off, leaving the hawk looking for his mouse desperately. He landed on a rooftop and sighed. If he encountered a poisonous animal like a snake, he would have been dead by now or inside its stomach.

The roof he was standing on coincidentally belonged to the Water school. He looked down and saw a class that was almost filled with girls in swimming suits inside a pool, meditating. He saw Jasmine with them and she looked the most serious of them all. There were four boys in the class and all of them were having nosebleeds as their looked around with eyes half closed. Sammy decided to teach them a lesson so he flew off in search for something to scare them. After a quick search, he found a grass snake basking in the morning sun and his eyes gleamed in cunningness. Before the snake could even register what was going on, he had grabbed it with his talons they were in the air. The snakes hissed and bite him desperately but he did not relent. He knew grass snakes did not have poison but it was damn painful.

Once he was in the Water school, he dove towards the boys and unceremoniously dumped the panicking snake onto the head of one boy. There was silence for a moment then the most girlish scream he ever heard came from the boy's mouth. Sammy was watching this from the roof as he laughed silently. Panic ensued the place as the snake left two punctures on the boy's left arm and slid down onto the water. Everyone fled away from it but the snake was a better swimmer as it showed by over taking them and disappearing into the building. The bitten boy was screaming about how he was going to die from the venom but no one was paying attention to him. They knew the snake was inside the building so they got back into the pool.

Before long, screams of terror came from the building as girls streamed out screaming about a snake. Teachers were trying to calm them down but the girls were paranoid of everything that had scales, had more than four legs or no legs at all so their efforts were futile. After an hour of panic and Sammy just dying of laughter, the poor snake was caught by a teacher and released away from the same. The snake glared at the blue hawk on the building and swore revenge on the trauma it had because of this before it slithered away.

Sammy was satisfied with the day's shenanigan so he flew off. He had got what he wanted here so he had to get someplace where he could practice without being disturbed and no place is better than the abandoned cathedral. He could see it from the air so he flew to the place. He found some guards leaving while carrying the soldiers he had killed earlier on. He changed into a rat and started scurrying all over. He found no other guard inside so he changed back into a human.

First thing he did was find the perfect place to sleep. He found the rooms' wing and chose the darkest room there. He closed it and barred it from the inside to make sure nobody got in. if he wanted to come in himself, he had made a small hole on the wall where he can fit as a mouse. He then proceeded to dump all the books to the ground and sorted them out to their school. Apart from spell books, he did find filled out griomores and one empty one. He looked into the griomores and found they were filled with the mage's insight into the Darkness and Necromancy spells. That done, he proceeded to start reading the darkness spells for novices.

He saw that the book had explained clearly how one cast the spell and after reading it again and again, he decided to try out his first spell, Darkness Orb. He made sure his mind was clear then he chanted the name; nothing happened. Sammy did not lose his cool so he proceeded to do it once again and many times more until he got a headache. He looked at the instructions once again and realized he had been acting like this was a game where you just put in the spell and the avatar cast it immediately. He had to first connect to his node then channel mana out of it and it will be converted to the spell he chanted out. He did this and he saw a small orb of darkness appear in the air and it hit the wall behind him. He suddenly felt as if he was exhausted and he somehow knew his node was out of mana. But that did not dampen the fact that he was now officially a novice mage.

As a celebration, he turned into a hawk and flew out the window. He searched around and saw a merchant who was not paying attention to his coin purse. He swopped down, snatched it with his talons and flew off, leaving a very red merchant hurling profanities at him. He got into an alley and changed back into a human. He then searched for a tavern and when he found one, he got in like a boss. Everyone looked at him as if he had gone off his meds as he walked to the counter, his mind playing the Devil Laugh song.

"Give me your strongest drink," he told the barkeep. The man nodded and proceeded to pour out a jar full of clear wine into a mug. Sammy nodded at this and proceeded to taste it. He just felt a faint tingling sensation in his mouth so he downed it all at once. He smacked the mug on the counter in dissatisfaction. He just felt as if he drank some tasty water.

"Stronger than that, don't let me down, barkeep," he said. The barkeep nodded and took another jar then poured the fragrant wine into his mug. Sammy drank it all down like the first mug but he never felt like he as drinking alcohol. "You keep letting me down, man. Is there anything stronger?"

"Yes but you can't afford it; not even the nobles can," the barkeep said, solemnly. Sammy sighed in dissatisfaction and just had the second wine once again. He made sure to drink it in sips so that he can at least look like he was drinking alcohol and not water. The barkeep looked at him with hidden interest in his eyes. When the mug was halfway through, the door the tavern was opened forcefully and four teenagers got in laughing. The tavern became quiet suddenly.

"Barkeep, bring us four jars of good wine and two roasted ducks," one of them said. They sat down at a table and continued chatting. Sammy looked at the boys and suddenly had a sense of de ja vu. He had read many books and these boys are the kind to start bringing trouble to the main protagonist. He started having thoughts about he would be the protagonist here until the door was opened and a teenage boy got in followed by two teenage girls. The boy had a spear strapped to his back and wore some fancy armour while the two girls wore quite the revealing armour and one had daggers by her side and the other had a bow and a quiver full of arrows strapped to her back.

"Estelle, you slept with Claude yesterday, I just want to sleep with him today," the bow girl said in a pout.

"That is because he is my husband to be. You are just someone who joined us yesterday, why should he sleep with you?" Estelle said in a monotone voice.

"Because I would be very counterproductive tomorrow when we go to the dungeon raid," the bow girl said. Claude looked as if he wanted to find a hole and die inside as everyone's eyes were trained at him. The two girls continued quarrelling without minding the stares they got. Claude tiredly and sat next to Sammy who flashed him a toothy grin.

"Quite the satisfactory party you got there, friend," he said. Claude sighed tiredly. "You don't seem too happy? I know men who would die to be in your place."

"I doubt they would be happy if they know what these two can do," he sighed.

"Oh, let me guess one of them uses only one kind of spell and the other can't hit anything with her arrow?" he asked. Claude looked at him as if he had found his soul mate making Sammy have a shiver run down his spine. "Ease down, boy."

"Sorry, it's just that everyone who see me with them always get jealous and start a fight but you actually saw through their façade as beautiful girls as cheats," Claude said, tears in his eyes.

"Mom always said I have a keen eye," Sammy said proudly. Just then, one of the four boys' hands shot out and grabbed bow girl's ass. She screamt as she turned around and slapped him, hard.

"Pervert!" she shouted then ran into the hands Claude. The other three boys got up, their faces not even masking the lewdness and feigned anger they were showing.

"Oi, boy, your girl just slapped and slandered our friend over here. As you are their leader, why don't you pay us for his tarnished name," one of them said. Sammy looked at them and felt like laughing.

"I would also like you to pay for your friend sullying my friend. What would be the perfect payment?" Claude said as he went into a thinking pose.

"Since hands did the deeds, why don't both of them cut off the pulpits and offer it to each other as payment," Sammy answered. The boy pretending to be hurt was stupefied as bow girl started crying.

"Claude dear, he is saying I should cut off my arm! How will I pleasure you with only one arm? Waaaah!" she cried, making Claude almost start beating her up. The three boys then turned to look at him.

"You're a mage? Why are you concerned us knights? Mind your own business," one of them growled at him. Sammy laughed a bit then finished his drink.

"Sorry, thought I would help to finish this fast," he said then paid for his drinks and left.

When he was gone, the four boys continued to pressurize Claude who ended up beating them all up. When he was done, they were thrown out. The four limped away from the bar cursing out loud and swearing revenge. They got into an alley where they planned on making a revenge plan.

"He let you go with such light wounds? That's disappointing?" they heard someone say from behind. They turned around and saw Sammy standing at the entrance of the alley.

"You, mage, what do you want?" one of them growled at him.

"I have had nothing but disappointing drinks today, your blood should help cheer me up," he said as he walked towards them, his eyes slowly shining blue.

The first boy threw a left hook towards him but he got of it then broke his leg, making him crumple as he screamt in pain. The other three felt chills down their spines when they saw this and they rushed at him at the same time. Sammy blocked their attacks easily then broke each of their legs. When they were all on the ground, he got hold of the first boy by his shoulder, pulled him up and bit his neck hungrily. As the blood got into his mouth, he felt as if his whole body was been massaged. He sucked out his blood until the died. He let him go then took a deep breath in. He then saw a node in the beast section had been lit up. He felt twice as strong and faster as before. He also felt that his sight, hearing and smelling had grown stronger too.

"So that's how I cultivate as beast, feed off blood," he said then turned to the three boys that were crying. He was about to go and bleed them too but he heard footsteps approaching the alley. He then jumped onto a wall and run on it to the roof, surprising the boys and him. He looked down and at his feet and chuckled.

"This will come in handy," he said. "If I continue growing like this, why do I even need to be a mage? But, who wouldn't want to be one? I will cultivate is as a secondary form of power.