Born a Monster

Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Born a Monster, Chapter 8 – Magical Beast, Learn Magic

Born A Monster

Chapter 8

Magical Beast, Learn Magic

Alchemy is a craft, which means that anyone with a Lore rating (even if that rating is zero, contrary to public understanding) can attempt it. That said, if your Lore rating is only one and the formula you’re brewing is level 4, such as the Woodman’s Healing Potion, well...

First off, I knew from just normal skill use that if you took time, paid attention, invested your emotions, you could do things well above your System level. System seemed to be good for doing mundane tasks, but anything you wanted to do well in – those things you needed to do for yourself.

So, the System SAID the formula took an hour to prepare. It took me four, and twice along the process I thought I had ruined it. Eihtfuhr left after the first fifteen minutes or so.

When it began to glow, I poured in all my mana – Water for the baseline, Fire for the transformation, Nature for the link to Life. My success netted me:

.....

[Inferior Healing Potion, quality: poor, one dose]

And an XP for Mystic Research.

“Well, that could have gone better.”

“Let me see.” I handed him the pot, taking two points of Thermal damage. It hurt less than my failure, and it wasn’t like I didn’t have healing potion nearby.

He made a motion as If to sip from the pot, but then placed it on the ground instead. “Perhaps we should give it time to cool.”

When it had, he told me that it took the full day’s nutrition, healed for half a day, and took four hours instead of one. It was enough to heal his burns from handling a pot fresh off the fire, at least.

“I think I know what went wrong. It’s my mana pools, they just don’t hold enough.”

“Do you have a magical training regimen, akin to your physical one?”

“Of course.”

He whacked me across the head for damage that my scales blocked. Still hurt and left a bruise.

“I think you should start practicing a daily mystic regimen, then.”

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Don’t let the writers of fantasy fool you – mystic regimen is more than just meditating and swirling mana around inside yourself. I mean, yes, that’s in there, but it’s like saying that running, crunches, and pushups are the way to develop your muscles.

Magic is, literally, everywhere. That makes it difficult to find a place of balance. I think of it as trying to find the eye of a circling current in a lake. Now imagine that every element has its own currents that interact with, but aren’t controlled by, the currents of other elements.

Ever wonder why the first stage of making a medicine lodge, a laboratory, even an altar is to cleanse the area and throw up a ward versus mystical currents? It’s a lot like the reason you cook in a prepared area with clean surfaces for food preparation, rather than just toss everything in the dirt.

The other part is that even to magical creatures, magic just doesn’t come naturally. Magic, almost by definition, is the negation, bending, or outright defiance of natural law. It isn’t life or will or the power granted by the gods. Magic is just ANTI. With all things, destruction is easier than creation. Just so, but with a higher degree, for magic.

Magic wants to destroy you – water to cleanse you of all things solid, fire to burn you, nature to break you apart for fertilizer or food to support the greater ecosystem. Magic opposes nature, even the nature that is you. Never think of magic as something that can be tamed and performed to do tricks. Magic can be coaxed, led into serving your purpose. But if you can count on one hand the number of “masters” consumed in green flames or similar, then your magical theory is lacking.

That said, I was drowsing in the shallows, trying to think some kindling on fire. Yeah, yeah. River Attunement 2, you’d think I’d have started there.

Anyway, I was focusing on generating fire in front of me when I felt a sharp pain in my side. Sharp enough that I fell out of my magic senses entirely. Well, that was a big failure –

It happened again! Two points of Laceration damage past my scales!

Well, it turns out that one of the river eels had grown desperate, and hungry. As it lunged in for a third time, I grabbed it. Around its mid-section, so it was still striking at me. I dragged it out of the shallows onto dry land.

It continued to attack me, even when it started Smothering. But it was out of the water; I had the advantage. Once I had it pinned, I looked directly into its eye.

“Your kind has made this river a danger for me. I am NOT just some prey animal for you. The weight you feel, the air you cannot breathe? I live here. You will die.”

Several things happened in that moment.

I gained a point of XP from my Malice cultivation method.

I gained an XP of Combat and Pankratios.

Her wild eye focused on mine.

“Oh kill me.” She sent. “Spare me your moralizing.”

Well crap. “Oh. You’re Aware.”

Aware, or Awakened if you prefer, animals are exceptionally rare, even near a feywood. They weren’t magical, but they weren’t quite just beasts, either. I’d always wondered what I would do if I were about to eat one.

I found out. I dragged her back into the shallows, stood, and threw her as far into the river as I could. It wasn’t that far.

“You fool! You think that sparing my life means anything? I am a predator, and I will teach you what THAT means just before you die.”

And, true to her word, she never stopped trying to kill me.

Notice that I am writing my memoirs and she is not.

When I noticed I was drooling, I decided to have an early brunch.

#

[Ignition – Level 1 Fire Magic

Special Ultra-Weak Thermal (Fire) Aura: 0

Requires use of skill: Lore/Fire Elementalism/Fire Aura/Create Fire

Requires one point of Fire aspect mana, or two points of mana

Uses Per Day: 1,

Development points per extra UPD: 2

Development points per one-time use: 1]

It wasn’t that same day, but I did finally manage the spell. Funny thing about spells – at least in my System, a lot of them were hidden until they were actually cast.

And, noticing they had a lot of the same measurements as Abilities and Powers, I found that I could make lists containing all of these.

Curious, and I’d have to come back to that later.

I made the daily casting of spells part of my daily regimen. At the end of each day, I would cook a porridge or stew, maybe roast some vegetable skewers, and attempt to brew a healing potion.

One day in four, I would end up with a working disaster instead of a foul-smelling mess. The process never worked when I attempted small enough portions that it would fit into one of the potion bottles.

It was the night of the second success when Eihtfuhr barged into my camp (the one in the eastern part of the woods, not the one near the main river) bowled me over, and pinned me beneath him.

I’d like to attribute that to surprise and fatigue and other factors, but my likes don’t change reality without a LOT of effort. He was just that much more physical than I was.

“What have you DONE? Where is the Gordvork?”

“Birimirihiirp? He said he was going to find a wife.”

Slowly, his mandibles released my head. Seriously, I needed to develop some distillation of spices or herbs or something. I mean, predator breath.

“That section of the wood will need a protector. I would ask the wolves, but they are not Awakened.”

“Perhaps Mother Bear?”

“Do YOU want to risk asking Mother Bear to leave the cave with her husband and cubs?”

“Well-”

“WHAT MAKES YOU THINK I WANT TO ASK THAT OF HER?”

“You needed a guardian. That isn’t me. I couldn’t even kill an eel.”

That led to a series of questions I won’t repeat here, save that you already have that story.

“Your cunning and the rapid growth of your power aside, it is true that you are not ready to serve as a Guardian of the Forest.”

He sighed. “She is the best choice, and I should ask her first. But come, there is another matter that you should be able to handle.”

There was a lone goblin, a scout. Was it two weeks ago, or three? Had it been a month since I first saw them?

How much power had I gained in that month? Okay, only a single statistic point, but:

[Rhishisikk

Level 5 Magical Beast, Protean (Lesser Titanspawn)]

Could I fight a single goblin? I felt like – maybe?

“I don’t need you to fight this one.” He said. “Come, let us withdraw a bit.”

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