This day Ish and I were searching the surface once again, but to no avail. We spent lunch by the lake's shore in somewhat romantic mood, which, by the way, was ruined when a middle sized Reyr Fish (a sixty centimeters long amphibian that feeds on the roots of the local bulrush and small animals like rodents and juvenile Okons) tried to snatch our food.
As a result we got to taste its meat. I don't believe that it'd be delicious even cooked, which is why I wasn't very pleasantly surprised by its raw taste.
At one point, after we had killed a small herd of Okons, a Synas, this was the most common predator of the area, went to us. Supposedly these animals were rather smart, even forming temporary packs from time to time. This one was on the bigger side for the species, being about 1.5 meters long. The skin was reptile-like, scaly, on the parts that weren't covered by white down (that were the legs, the parts of the short tail and the snout). The rest of the body was strangely fluffy. This animal was probably male, judging by the horns, well the horn. One was missing. Male synases usually had two long, straight horns.
I wasn't in the mood for fighting it off, so I just threw a piece of meat instead. That, apparently, was enough to get it to leave us.
Later we returned to the camp uneventfully. Nothing of note had happened to the other, either, although Gror had had a wyvern fly almost right over him.
On the next day we went exploring the area again, but we were largely unsuccessful. Vrag didn't have much success in cutting through that cobweb either. Furthermore according to him during the night the spider had probably come and woven back the web to its full size. Poor guy, he seemed to be really frustrated.
The next day we didn't even get that far from the camp since Ish felt sick. At the end both Ish and I decided to return to the village.
We were quite heavily loaded, since we were carrying everything we had found in the ruins plus a large quantity of obsidian that was gathered in the area and dried Okon meat. We needed two days to cross the distance. Ish had three separate outbursts of vomiting, she had probably caught some nasty disease. At least no large animals crossed paths with us.
The village was just like how I left it.
After leaving most of the cargo I was carrying in the warehouse, I went to Freyr's hut, while Ish was going to rest. Fortunately he was there, he and mother were having dinner.
"Oh, Stralk!" said mother "I see you've returned from the northern camp."
"Yes, and, by the way, how did you deal with the undead? In the Gods' Names, they were frustrating..." I replied.
"Dear, the best way to solve any problem, especially of the undead variety, is a hammer." I was told half jokingly.
"What are carrying there?" asked Freyr "I have the feeling that you've got something you want us to see?"
"Yes, yes. I am not certain where to begin..." I began speaking "Maybe this will be the easiest way."
I performed my only magical trick.
Both Freyr and mother appeared a bit surprised. I don't think chief had expected that.
"Wow! I'm proud of you." said mother and then turned to Freyr "This kid's talented."
"Yes... Tell me now, what exactly happened up there?"
"Well, Ish and I decided to explore the caves after we got. We didn't face many obstacles. By the way, thanks for that, mother. Eventually we stumbled upon a metal door and entered the room that was behind it."
"Hold on." Freyr interrupted me "I thought you had checked it before leaving?"
"Yes, I had. The gate was completely shut, no brute force could open it." said mother.
"Well, it was opened when we got there."
"Continue." Freyr encouraged me. "I want to know what you found."
"Okay. There was a really big room behind the door. There was also something like a meditation chamber. When I entered it, well, the magic came. There were also many books, we've brought some that we were almost certain that they contained something about magic."
"You've done well, kid. I will definitely check that place as soon as possible. Now let me see the books you've got." he opened the first book "Hmm, that definitely is a magic circle, furthermore it is one I don't recognize. That's good, really good. But the writings, they're not in the common tongue."
"So, what do you think, chief?" I asked.
"I think this is worth the celebration." said Freyr "Experiments with these books are going to be rough, though. I will send an expedition as soon as possible. I believe that you are already interested.
"You are right, but..." I tried to explain "The next time Ish and I went there, we were attacked by some sort of giant. At the end it collapsed the tunnel and we barely escaped."
"It... collapsed the tunnel?" Freyr's eye seemed to twitch.
"Yes, it did." I said "Afterwards we tried to find another entrance, but to no avail. I'm sorry."
"Don't worry. Problems exist to be solved after all."
"Okay, by the way, could you teach me some magic?"
"I will try. I see that you already know how to cast some basic spells. All I can recommend you to do is continuing to practice, I recommend meditation for that, and coming up with new designs and also, if you get access to the formula of any spell, even in its condensed format, try adding it to your arsenal." Freyr started explaining.
"Condensed format?" I asked.
While I was asking that, mother was stood up and said that she didn't want to bother "us, the boys", so she left the hut.
"Bye, honey!" said Freyr and turned to me "This is how my teacher called it. A condensed spell lies in between a spell like the one you made earlier and a magic circle. Imagine making the circle out of energy. It takes a longer to cast and is slightly more energy intensive, but it also decreases the chance that the spell will collapse drastically. Any more questions?"
"You actually had a teacher?"
That sounded a bit weird. I tended to view Freyr as all knowing and just... great in general. The way I saw Freyr was only a step away from me believing that he had sprouted from the ground fully formed and knowing everything he knew.
"Yes, I had. That was 27 years ago, I met him a few days after my first birthday while I was hunting for my tribe. He was heavily wounded. Raphael, this was his name, was a human sorcerer, left for dead by his company. I tried to help him and he tried to teach me his craft. This is it in short."
"Let me continue. Performing magic with a circle always leads to success in the spell. In the center of the circle you must draw the actual spell that is to be performed." he took a pen and paper from a chest he had in hut and started drawing "These characters represent an explosion, the number of these symbols represents the number of explosions, the size of that character in relation the circle as a whole represents the power. Of course, things like time delay and the explosions having varying power can also be edited. I will show you these things some other time. The important thing about magic circles is that no matter what, you can't power them from your soul and you need a material source of energy. There are two possibilities for that: living and nonliving, and they are drawn differently. Living here refers to beings with some resemblance of soul, which is why most plants, expect for the druids and some others, don't make the cut. The best example for nonliving power source is fire.
As for condensed spells, this one is with two variants. You can either make your body attract or deflect most metals. I know it only in condensed format.
Last, for freestyle spells, this one I learned by observing local dryads. It basically causing a tissue selected by you to grow extremely fast. I suggest using it only on plants since it leads to the eventual formation in tumors in animals. I learned that the hard way, while trying healing. Understood?"
"Understood." I said
"Then take these notes and try them in your free time."
After that I left the hut. This night the entire village celebrated my return.