"Damn those bird-brains! They just left without a word! Is the alliance pact just a piece of paper to them!?" an elven archer said, his voice full of anger as he watched the backs of the retreating Sky-Winged warriors. He wanted nothing more than to put an arrow in them. The front lines had already been pushed to their limit, with all the demons of the continent gathered against them, and now, at this critical mont, the Sky-Winged had completely withdrawn.
"Strange. The Sky-Winged warriors are not known to be cowards," Kraft murmured, also watching them go. As a mber of the allied army, he had been fighting to defend the Great Elven Forest, and the battles of the past half-year had greatly improved his skills. Now, seeing them all fly off to the northwest, he couldn't shake a bad feeling. When he had last parted ways with Serie and Rhodes's party, they had told him they were heading to the ancestral ho of the dwarves, which was to the northwest, the sa direction the Sky-Winged were now headed. It was the complete opposite direction of their Heavenly Kingdom. Sothing must have happened there. But all he could do now was pray. He hoped Eirik and Norne were alright.
anwhile, Rhodes and his party had taken up residence in the treasury. They couldn't move the stone pedestal, so they might as well study the grimoires they had found and see if they could find a solution. The space was large enough for them to move around freely, and even with all the equipnt and treasure, there was still plenty of room for their daily training.
"Look at this, Rhodes." Serie ca over and sat down beside him, a grimoire in her hands.
"What is it?" he asked. She pointed to a page, and he saw that it was a spell that could freeze water into ice. "Hey, isn't that ice magic?"
"Yes. This book seems to be from a northern race, so it records many ice-attribute spells."
She had been surprised to find a record of a spell he had already created. Does this man's talent have no limits? To be able to create the magic of other races out of thin air... it was truly remarkable.
"Are there any useful spells in there?" At the mont, their most-used ice spell was the ice wall. For offense, all they had was the ice spear. It was powerful, but not as useful as the light arrow rain. The light arrow rain had a high volu and each arrow was powerful in its own right, which made it far more useful than any other offensive spell. Serie was incredibly glad that the first spell she had taught him was the light arrow. Otherwise, they wouldn't have this improved version.
"How about this one?" she said, turning the page. "It's an enhanced version of the spell you used to freeze the stream. At full power, you could freeze a lake or even a sea with it."
"That's a bit of an exaggeration. A few thousand ters at most, not nearly enough to freeze a sea." What is this, a low-budget version of the Ice Age? Rhodes thought the spell was useless. They had barely seen any decent-sized lakes or rivers on their journey, let alone a sea.
"Then what about this one?" she said, turning another page. "Frost Breath. You can release a breath that will instantly freeze an enemy into an ice sculpture."
"No, no. The light arrow is better." He shook his head like a rattle.
"And this one? It can conjure an ice spear in the air."
"Does it have the sa volu as the light arrow?"
"No. Only one at a ti."
"Then no!"
"Hmph!" Miss Serie was clearly not pleased. "No, no, no. What do you want to learn, then?" she said, and kicked him lightly with her small foot. It didn't hurt, but it was enough to convey her displeasure.
"Ah, if you had just knocked on my head three tis, it would have had the right effect."
"What do you an? Why would I knock on your head three tis?"
"Because that would an 'I'll co to your bed at three o'clock tonight'!" he said, lying without a blush. This was another world, after all. He wasn't afraid of the Grandmaster of that other story coming after him.
"I don't understand." Serie gave up trying to figure out what he ant. He was always saying such strange things. She closed the book and looked at him, her head tilted. "Are you not interested in these grimoires?"
"Of course I am. Look," he said, holding up a grimoire of his own, "I'm studying right now."
"Let see."
She scooted closer, her golden hair falling into his line of sight, and he could sll her pleasant scent.
"Hmm... is this creation magic?"
"To be precise, it's a spell to create inorganic matter."
"Inorganic matter?"
"Like this gold coin, or this gem. They're all inorganic."
"You want to learn this spell so you can create gold coins and gems whenever you want?"
"Yes."
That was a lie. He wanted to use this spell to study sothing deeper, sothing like the creation of organic matter. Then he could proceed with his own plan. But he didn't dare to say it out loud yet. It was his little secret, just like his experints with the life-extending spell that Serie had almost caught him at.
She gave him a suspicious look and lightly tapped the page. "Creation magic isn't that simple. Most created objects only last for a very short ti." What she ant was that anything he created would just revert to nothing after a little while. As far as she knew, there was no record of a permanent creation spell.
"I know," he said with a smile, turning the page. "But it says here that they once used creation magic to create a permanent object, though it was just so simple tals and minerals."
"I see. I didn't know that."
"But what I'm more curious about," he said, as if it were just a passing thought, "is if there's any magic that can create life." He was trying to see if she had heard of such a thing.
"There is. The dwarves have a legend about it, about trying to usurp the Goddess's exclusive right to create life."
His heart skipped a beat. This was exactly what he had been looking for.
"And what happened?" he asked, trying to keep his voice calm.
"I don't know," she said, straightening up, her golden hair shimring in the light of the lumina-stones. "A legend is just a legend. And its veracity is even less than that of the holy sword, Org. I've always just assud it was a fabrication."
Rhodes nodded thoughtfully, his fingers unconsciously stroking the edge of the book in his hand.
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