Chapter: Two different sides

Wren Silaz was in his office, looking over the differenet reports, he made a notation in a workbook as there was a knock at the door.

He didn't look up until he finished the note. He activated an array that would make it impossible for someone to see the work on his desk as he sat up in his chair and arranged his clothes and rubbed his face a bit.

He looked outside, it was already dark, he let out a short snort, shaking his head before he recovered his regal disposition.

“Enter!” He yelled, his face serious as he looked down at the man that entered.

“Young Master Wren, those two that Domonos talked about have returned,” the man’s words were simple, his tone calm and subservient as he took a knee, looking at the floor.

Wren’s carefully prepared appearance changed as his head swung to the side, he looked over to a certain area within his family’s home, the most perfect house and gardens lay there and was the home of his little sister Qin’er.

“Tell me everything,” Wren demanded, he wanted to rush out and demand their help, but remembering his actions before he could only wince and try to gain more information on these two men to know if they might be able to help his sister.

Nothing else mattered if he was able to save his sister from her fate.

“They entered the city at some point, then ambushed the Healing Moon House, they entered the healing house killing Grandmaster Eri and his direct apprentice Xui Deng. The two people that planned out poisoning one of the men. Afterwards Lord Chonglu’s mount Ronhou confronted them but it was sent flying with a kick.

The two men were escorted to Lord Chonglu’s palace.”

The man fell silent as Wren’s mind started to turn over, he felt a chill fall over him as he thought of what he had asked his older brother.

Thankfully he wasn’t as rash as I was and gathered more information.

Wren was a proud son of the Silaz family, but he had not been interested in fighting, instead his strengths lay in the business, he wasn’t the strongest nor did he have the strongest will, but he was a great administrator.

Domonos would lead the family to greater heights and Wren would support him from behind, Yui was focused on training and he too would have a bright future fighting and even as he did call out, his brother Wren would still support him. The display outside the walls of their family home made them look fractious but it was a ploy.

That way they could draw out the sly ones, thinking that they could back a person in the family, only find themselves being played.

“Were any others killed?”

“Those on guard and those that didn’t surrender. The two men didn’t care for their lives, only those that had attacked them and removing any alarms so they wouldn’t get away.”

They only kill who they have to, their revenge isn’t blind. For trying to kill one of my family, wouldn’t I do the same? Would I be able to be as calm?

“Prepare my carriage and people, get two greater mortal grade monster cores and come with me to Lord Chonglu’s Palace,” Wren said, once he had decided something he wouldn’t step back down.

“Yes, young master,” the servant seemed shocked, not having seen this dominating side of the young master in a long time.

Wren did away with his mask, this matter was much more serious than keeping up appearances, this was about his sister’s life.

Seeing the servant bowing and being respectful, Wren grew frustrated.

“Move! We don’t have time to waste and let them go!” Wren said, standing up from his table, he might not have any fighting prowess, but that protective and determined light in his eyes his presence was that of a lord.

The servant rushed out to attend to their duties.

Wren’s face darkened in thought.

“I hope that they are agreeable to helping me,” a flash of worry appeared on Wren’s face, not worry for himself, but letting this opportunity slip through his fingers and Qin’er continuing her suffering.

Wren flicked the sleeves on his robe and strode forward, even at this time he could hear the distant sounds of Yui training, he nodded to himself, proud at his brother’s accomplishments and his drive.

Yui had hidden his abilities so that he wasn’t accepted by the Wilful sect, the sect was filled with snakes and Yui was too straight forward. Domonos could deal with these problems but not Yui.

I will have to find him another sect or group that he can join and increase his strength.

Wren dismissed such thoughts and focused on the task at hand, those under his command were moving, rushing to prepare a carriage and the goods he had requested.

***

“Enter,” Lord Chonglu said, opening his eyes as he looked up at the door.

It opened to show a servant.

“Young Master Wren has appeared at the gate to the palace,” the servant said, bowing deeply as they reported.

“I am not taking guests,” Lord Chonglu said in a deep voice.

“Lord, he is not trying to gain entry but waiting there in the rain,” the servant said, a hint of anxiousness in their voice as they were scared of overreaching their limits.

Lord Chonglu frowned.

“Why is he waiting?”

“He says that he wishes to apologize to the two guests that are staying here,” the servant said.

“Oh?” Lord Chonglu’s eyes moved over to Quinn.

“There was a commotion with Young Master Wren in the Silaz trading house and two strangers a few weeks back, maybe those two strangers are our guests?” Quinn said.

“He must have learned like we did that they are healers,” Lord Chonglu’s face softened, he knew Mister Silaz well and of his daughter’s ailment, he didn’t know the true details and had only seen her a few times, while others might not be able to tell and think he was sheltering her from the outside world, Chonglu’s senses were not simple and he could tell that she was suffering from some kind of health issue.

“Let him wait, I do not want to distract them, it will be up to them how they want to resolve their issues,” Chonglu said pushing it to the side.

“I’ll go and see how things are progressing,” Captain Quinn said.

***

Erik put his tools down, he had been working on Rugrat for some time, the latter having fallen asleep and was snoring in his chair as Erik worked.

“When using healing spells, it looks like I’m just converting mana into energy that makes the body regrow, a combination of their current state and when someone is born and their cells change into different systems and parts. I’ve been trying to focus on the physical differences between the parts of a body, but what if I was to alter the kind of energy. Like how dogs can hear higher frequencies, or a radio has different channels, I just need to tap into the right channel,” Erik called up the spell formation of the focused heal in his mind, he had taken some time to study spells and the way that they functioned.

“There are three things primarily, one the power, second the function and the direction. Right now with the focused heal I give it power, and it creates a healing energy that I direct with my thoughts, altering the direction. Changing the function can turn it from focused heal to a fireball. So I’m the human battery, the function is like plugging in a flashlight, or plugging in a railgun, if I, the battery, have enough power I can do both. Right now I’m spending a lot of mana on just directing the spell, if I was to fix the direction, so just bones, or just veins, then I could heal system by system, reduce the energy cost. Changing the function, that’ll be harder, the function is the body of the system, the coding the brains, the direction just says where it has to work.”

Erik wanted to alter the function to improve the spell, but it would take time and effort. Time that he didn’t want to waste. So he focused on changing the direction.

Erik focused on the spell formation, he altered the direction of the focused heal, he could do it easly now, but he focused on the alterations that he saw in the directional ring of the magic circle.

He let out a small trickle of power so he could focus on the changes.

Meticulously he altered the parameters, changing them and testing them out.

He didn’t know how long went past before a notification rang out in his ears.

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You have learned the spell: Heal Bone. Your spell book has been updated.

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Heal Bone

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Novice

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Fuse bone together as if it was never broken.

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Consumption of Mana based on area and effect.

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For teaching yourself a Novice ranked spell, you gain: 5,000 EXP

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61,534/195,000 EXP till you reach level 16

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Skill: Healer

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Level: 48 (Apprentice)

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You have become familiar with the body and the arts of repairing it. Healing spells now cost 5% less Mana.

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“Learning a spell increases experience and it increases the correlating skill, me likey,” Erik said.

Excited by his new find Erik focused on what he had learned, and once again started to alter the direction component of the spell.

As he’d done it once before it was much easier for him to repeat the process, it wasn't long until he had two new screens in front of him.

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Heal Scars

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Novice

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Remove scar tissue and replace with healthy tissue.

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Consumption of Mana based on area and effect.

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Heal Muscle

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Novice

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Repair muscle with ease.

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Consumption of Mana based on area and effect.

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For teaching yourself 2 Novice ranked spells, you gain: 10,000 EXP

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71,534/195,000 EXP till you reach level 16

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There was a knock at the door, not wanting to wake Rugrat, Erik moved to the door and opened it.

“Come on in, I think we’re almost ready,” Erik said moving into the room.

Quinn opened his mouth to talk and the looked at the bloody cloth, Rugrat’s still open arm and the tools that were beside him.

And the fact that he was snoring loudly.

Erik followed his gaze, “Rugrat!”

“I’m awake! What's happening,” Rugrat said, starting to get up.

“Sit down you idiot, your arms open still,” Erik said, he called up his heal bone spell, the bone formed tens of times faster than before as he altered the spells, now each of them were fully concentrated they were much faster and cost less mana.

Rugrat was blinking his eyes alternatively as his arm sealed up.

“Damn, I was dreaming about baywatch,” Rugrat complained.

“Mhmm,” Erik said as he doused the different tools in alcohol and started to clean them.

“I need to find a woman, you know, like one that’ll be there in the good times and bad,” Rugrat started.

“Not this again and we’ve got work to do,” Erik said.

“Huh?” Rugrat looked over and saw Quinn, he turned to Erik again.

“We good?”

“Yeah, I even got a few spells, gained some experience for learning them,” Erik said.

“Oh come on, how did you do that?” Rugrat asked in a low voice.

“Practice,” Erik said.

“We good to head over now, has everything been collected?” Erik asked.

“Yeah,” Quinn said, recovering slightly.

“Good,” Erik moved for the door, he glanced out of the window the morning was starting to be revealed.