Ch 40: Protection

The thrill of travel can’t be understated. The thrill of traveling somewhere dangerous though? Gets the balls tingling

• Lenn Braun, Chief Traveller of the Explorer’s Guild

Solomon asked the creature he’d created to sit on the edge of the desk while he finished his preparations for the next spell. He’d already made both spell circles, but he needed to add some fresh blood to each and give everything a final review. He removed the cloth he’d placed over each of them and went through a thorough review. After making his touch ups and adding the blood he turned to the clay figure perched neatly at the edge of the desk.

“Alright, come down here and stand in this circle,” he pointed to the one opposite of himself.

The homunculus hopped from the desk, landing a bit unsteadily, and trotted over to the other circle.

Once it was in place Solomon began moving his mana into the circle, feeling his blood react to it as each circle began to glow red. Once both circles were illuminated, he began to feel his own blood within his veins as well as that which he’d infused into the homunculus. He could feel them resonating for a few moments, then the spell ended.

Solomon took a deep breath. It had used a fair chunk of mana, but he felt it slowly flowing back into him already. With the spell completed he didn’t feel much of a change. He looked to the clay figure who was standing still, waiting for additional instructions. He took a few steps over to it and held out a hand.

“Hop up.”

It complied and he carefully placed it on the desk, then sat at it and drew his scalpel. He pressed it into his thumb, just hard enough to draw blood, but nothing happened. He looked at the clay figure and noticed a knick across its arm.

“It worked,” he muttered, nodding to the clay figure. “Thank you.”

It gave another of its salutes.

He placed his scalpel down and leaned back in the chair. He had a means to protect himself. He wasn’t sure of how much damage it could take, but any that it did take would be damage he didn’t. The only issue was that he couldn’t cut himself to draw blood as he had been. He had a good number of vials now, but he wanted to stockpile more. He also didn’t want to waste the effort he’d made creating this first homunculus, nor did he want to sacrifice it for nothing. He would be headed for Etling the following day anyway, so he would only be losing out on the two vials he would’ve drawn that morning.

As he was ruminating he heard another cracking sound as yet another of the homunculi hatched. He watched as, one after another, they all began to emerge from the dirt and take their first steps. Much like the first they all saluted him upon arrival and whenever he asked them a question. Before he left the hidden study he had them all arrayed in a neat line on his desk.

“Keep an eye on the study,” he said, receiving a neat salute in unison from all five of them in response.

That prompted a smile from him as he left them there, exiting the hidden chamber and heading into the library with a thank you to the suit of armor as he left. He walked up to the second floor to look out the window and consider what he had so far. He had the basic spells he’d learned before he had mana, the ability to avoid serious damage at least once, and a stockpile of blood he could weaponize along with a method of weakening an enemy’s mana. He wouldn’t mind being able to fling a fireball, but he would be far more confident if he encountered the Lord of the Black Wood again. Not confident enough yet to seek him out though.

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He knew the matter would come back again. He doubted he’d killed former mayor Neiman when he’d hit him with that enhanced gust spell and he and the creature clearly had a relation to one another. Eventually he would come to call. Solomon hoped he’d be able to be the one to control the confrontation.

He walked out of the library and into the hall, walking past several maids as he made his way to his room. He found Melissa waiting for him with a number of chests packed.