Now that he had access to the most powerful element, Lucas couldn't wait to test more runes out and see what they could achieve. He had plenty of trees as subjects to experiment on. He started to check what every rune did, most of them weren't that useful. 'Has Venion been hiding the stronger runes or does he not know anything else?'.
'He probably would hide the most powerful ones for himself, even if we can't use it.'
Stuck with that question, he grew a little annoyed that he only had a single rune that actually summoned darkness. All the other runes were for giving darkness velocity, and weight, making it last longer or shorter. Some were necessary for combining with other runes, but all of them didn't create darkness. Only the beginner rune did, but that only gave a small orb that faded away pretty fast due to the sunlight.
'In the mine, it should last a little longer, but still..it won't be longer than a few seconds, ten max'. He wanted to create flashy spells that overpowered everything, but he couldn't even create a darkness spell that moved properly.
Not that it stopped him from experimenting like crazy, he combined the beginner rune with practically all the other runes he was taught. Destroying tree after tree to see what the effects could do.
'If we leave the darkness float like all other elements it vanishes a lot faster. A flame will stand strong as long as we keep our attention on it and no external force extinguishes it.'
'The same holds true for the other elements, only darkness disappears after a few seconds.'
'Does light hold weight?'
'I don't think so, we can't move faster during the night can we?'
'What if the weight is extremely small, unnoticeable?'
'Light that has a very small weight?'
'If we create darkness in the shade it lasts longer, so wouldn't it make sense that light is more than just light and that it has some kind of weight or mass to it?'
'Hmm...'
Two days have passed since he started his experimentation, he didn't bring enough food to last that long, so he hunted after some wild animals. He could feel the contract forcing him to clear the mine, but as long as what he was doing was necessary for exterminating the monsters, it was fine. The contract could understand his interpretations and link them to what the baron had asked. If he were to run away now, the contract would take control of his body to go inside the mine.
Catching a boar and roasting it with magic wasn't that hard for Lucas. The reason was that he had calculated a single darkness spell that could hide his smell.
Using an extremely thin layer of darkness he could make himself see the outside world and stay hidden, there was only one problem, he couldn't move when the spell was active. If he did move he would lose whatever skin touched the layer. The layer also didn't have a human shape, it was a rectangle that was big enough to contain Lucas. He had a little moving space, which was enough for very small movements, but nothing else.
The spell did command constant energy, even if it wasn't that much, Lucas could only hold it for a few hours. It would be enough for a moment of stealth.
'Now I can research the spiders and perhaps even sneak around the mansion.'
'Hmm, then we would need to hide from Venion's senses'
'Do you think he's constantly monitoring the mansion? For what reason would he do that? It's not like he's onto us'
'You forgot the 'yet' at the end'
Thinking that he shouldn't take such a risk he prepared himself to into the mine. He would have to hurry a bit since he wasted two days of research for a single spell. If the baron ever asked what he did during this time, he would get in trouble, so he needed to take the initiative or his life would be back on the chopping block.
Before entering he casted the spell for heat vision and waited for his energy to refill. Entering the mine, his pace increased. He had already been in similar places and knew where to go.
'If there are any spiders, they would be in their nest or deeper in the cave.'
Lucas was now given a choice, there were multiple ways to continue. Even with his heat vision, he could not tell where the monsters were. 'I can only guess…or bait them out'
If he knew what the spiders were attracted to he could get them to come to him, but that would require some work first. Taking a random route that seemed to go down he pushed on. Focusing on his hearing and sight to try and figure out if there were any spiders nearby. He couldn't see the webs, but if he walked into them he would feel them. Every time he entered a bigger room he checked the ceiling almost immediately. Still, he reached the end and didn't find anything. With no other choice, he went back and chose a different route.
'Are there even any monsters in this place?'
This time he chose the most left tunnel, walking inside of this one, he heard a tiny bit of tapping further ahead. 'Finally, found at least one of them'
'WAIT! That sound doesn't seem similar.'
The tapping noises were still in the distance, but part of Lucas felt like it didn't sound right.
'You're right, the frequency, the amount, the sound itself, there are too many differences with what were used to. But then what is it?'
Fighting an unknown monster without any plan wasn't a good idea, especially when Lucas could only see colors for now. Differentiating eyes or vital parts would be difficult.
'What if we bait it out and hide, we can take a look at what we're dealing with?'
Having a basic plan ready, Lucas pulled his sword out and felt around for a rock that he could throw against the wall, making enough vibration to lure the monster out. He used his newly created spell to form a barrier of darkness, hiding his scent and form.
The tapping increased and it felt like there were multiple monsters coming, but when Lucas finally saw it everything made sense. 'A Giant Centipede, of course, we should've figured that one out'
An enormous dark brown centipede came crawling out from the tunnel. It was about the height of Lucas, but had a length of at least a few meters and around a twenty pair of legs.
'A strong exoskeleton with a dense carapace, it senses things with its antennae and has a brutal biting strength.'
'Don't forget its venom which can paralyze most beings on its level, yet is still below Rank 1'
Lucas was interested in using darkness to see how much damage it could do, but he was afraid of attracting the insect's attention. The way it moved creeped him out, the size really didn't help him either, but his survival instincts started to kick in. No matter how scary something can be, when pressed, humans make a choice, fight or flight. Running away was impossible, so his mind started to form a plan on how to deal with this.
With his sword in hand and his vision filled with colors, he could see where the exoskeleton left a few slits for movement. If he sliced his sword on those exact spots, he would damage the actual body, but doing so required precision and a distraction. The centipede wouldn't just sit still for no reason, it needed something to keep it busy.
'They are virtually blind and can only sense things through their antennae, can we make use of that? Or should we just sneak up on it?'
After some discussion, the centipede started to move again. After sensing that there was nothing to eat, it searched elsewhere. Lucas had to make his choice now, stay silent and escape without any problems or fight to the death. 'Sigh, the contract will force me to kill it eventually, let's get this over with.'
Having an excuse for entering this fight, Lucas removed his cover of darkness, thinking that the centipede wouldn't sense it. Sadly the moment he spoke a single rune to create some water as a distraction, the centipede turned around. It could only sense through its antennae, but voices and sound are vibrations, which it can pick up. 'Shit, do it now'
Stopping the process of the water rune, Lucas started a new spell, one of fire. Any animal had a primal fear of fire, insects are no different. Yet, this monster clearly had no issue dealing with fire. A fire spear was shot at its head, but the monster simply rushed through it, bringing its front pair of modified legs closer to Lucas in order to inject its venom.
Lucas still had some time before it would be too late, giving him a chance to make a single move. Creating a ball of darkness seemed very useless now, since it couldn't move, it would be stationary. Making an entire wall of darkness was the best option, but that required a lot more time. Plus he didn't know if the centipede would sense and avoid it.
'Think of Venion's lessons'
Looking upwards, he saw a few stalactites, none were sharp, but that didn't matter. He just needed a few moments.
Instead of slicing the stalactites down like Venion, Lucas decided to do the opposite. Creating a giant block of stone on the ground the centipede would walk on in a mere moment, Lucas forced it to move upwards. Creating an enormous pillar that covered most of the monster's body, he let it grow until it hit the ceiling. This didn't kill the monster but did slow down its movements. The exoskeleton was simply too strong to be broken with such a simple attack, Lucas could already see cracks form on the pillar. He needed to hurry things up, the centipede wasn't scared of fire, water, stone, and wind probably wouldn't do much. It couldn't see light and he couldn't move the darkness. He still had his sword but getting close to that monster while dodging its venom would be a challenge.
The pillar cracked further, to the point that a few of the legs already found their way out of the pillar. Even though the pillar pushed the centipede against the stalactites, they weren't sharp enough to deal enough damage, or his pillar didn't have the velocity to crush it to death. Armed with his weapon and his mind spinning to create a useful attack, Lucas stood still. The pillar cracked further, only a few more seconds, and the centipede would be in his attack range again. Lucas started to cast another fire spear, even two, knowing it would do anything to the monster, but he wasn't done.
The pillar bursted and the centiped came rushing out of it, sprinting towards Lucas again. There were two fire spears waiting for it, but it knew it would do much against its exoskeleton.
KIEEEEK
Passing the fire it opened its fangs to bite down on Lucas, but nothing happened.
THUD
A lifeless body of a Giant Centipede fell down, only inches away from Lucas' feet. The blood of the centipede was gushing out, slowly staining Lucas' boots to a green sloppy mess.
'Darkness truly is the most powerful element.'
Using the fire as a smokescreen, Lucas created several darkness orbs that floated behind the fire. He never launched the fire spears, merely holding them in place. The centipede was located on the ceiling, if it were to burst out, it would jump toward him. Letting the spears stay in place still made it seem like they were moving. The cover worked perfectly, leading it to jump straight into darkness.
Lucas had to calm down for a moment, the fight was insignificant to any Rank 1 mage, but for Lucas, it was an achievement. His first kill using darkness, made him proud, even satisfied, with this power, how far could he reach?