Chapter 13 - Laughter and Rage

The hours had gone by and the night was beginning to set. Doric, while not human anymore was mentally drained from discussing his past life and everything that's happened so far. The large Fey leader had energy to spare and would constantly ask the weirdest of questions.

"My friends, can I please see them now?" Doric let out an exhausted sigh. He needed to recharge his social battery and he was beginning to worry for them. The Fey leader noticed that the skull was drifting lower and lower to the ground. He rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment.

"Oh my apologies there, I forget that time is different for everyone and that your mind must be worried about the time your friends have left." The words sounded ominous in nature but were delivered with a genuine innocence. 

"I remember Fey live for a long time, forever in fact depending on the legends from my world. So it's not your fault for thinking of time differently, but you're right, I value the short time I have and worrying does nothing for the soul. Please let me see them great Fey." Doric tried to be polite but he was waning in care to give. 

The Fey looked at him and laughed. "I nearly forgot, call me Welisher, Great Fey is too much of a hassle!" He nodded to a few other fey one purple and one orange and they came closer to him.

"His friends should be cured of their poisons by now, Take him to them and let his mind be at ease now." Doric loved hearing those words he had hoped to be reunited sooner than later. He followed the two sprites down the hallway and when they stopped doric noticed that they were laughing. They opened the door and to Dorics surprise he nearly freaked out. 

"What the hell is going on!" Doric screamed with anger as he saw two skeletons lying in piles in the room. The sprites laughed some more and then turned to him and winked.

"Oh I don't know what could be going on?" the Orange one said with a snicker.

"Could they be dead or…" the Purple one said.

Anger welded up inside Doric he was given false hope that they were alive and tricked by the large Fey who wasted hours of his time he felt an unimaginable rage forming in his soul.

"Quite the power you have there young man." Welisher called out as he walked up behind Doric. Floating above the ground to not make any noise. "A power like that is very rare even in this world. To conjure up symbols and tags without the need to know them is very interesting. But it seems unchecked it will destroy you to use it."

Doric was not listening to him his voice was like a small ant in his ear. All he could feel was an unimaginable rage forming. He looked at Walisher and clicked his teeth in anger. "I may not control it but I can at least kill you right here and now!"

He began forming the symbol for Fire, in his seething anger he formed the tags for explosion, fusion, explosion, AOE, Explosion, AOE, fusion. The power was boiling over and his once blue flames were replaced with a green and yellow color. He was going nuclear.

He could feel his body slowly ripping apart at the molecular level as it was being replaced with nuclear fusion.

Just like that it all vanished. Washed away with a calming water that soothed the burning hatred in his soul. He looked at the man who was laughing. Not an evil laugh nor one with any malice but one that was genuinely happy.

"Young man, your friends are just fine, I was only testing you. I saw what you almost did when your friends were trapped in our vines and I needed to see how it was triggered myself. Its a very dangerous skill you have, If you value your friends and your life I would not recklessly cast spells above your Magic Power Level."

He clapped his hands and another door opened. This time two familiar faces came out and looked tired and weak but perked up when they saw Doric.

"Doric, you're safe!" Nyssa exclaimed as she slowly wobbled over to him. She hugged the skull and teared up a little. "I am so happy right now."

"Sorry for causing you so much trouble Welsher, We are feeling much better now. And the food was delicious thank you!" Skia said as she wobbled over to them. 

"I am glad to hear that, I see you are slowly recovering from the poisons still. You can stay as long as you all like. As for you young man. Maybe you could learn a few things from me while you stay. I also want to apologize for my sprite's behavior. As you said, we are a little mischievous at times."

He stopped laughing and extended out his hand to the flaming skull. Doric was hesitant his anger subsided by his mind was still racing. His friends were alive but he was still racing at the thought of losing them. He knew he needed to understand his powers more and also complete more missions and finding someone so skilled in magic right in front of him was perfect.

Was this the right option to take, could he learn magic from this man? He pondered the idea until eventually he used his psychic hold to shake the mans hand. 

"It's official, usually this would take many years but since you are reincarnated and you have a knack for picking up symbols and tags I feel like this will be easier for you than most."

He begins to walk back to his throne room. "Feel free to rest for the night and tomorrow we will begin your training."

Doric felt a moment of relief. He was finally able to collect his thoughts and looked at his companions. They were both teary eyed and relieved to see him but all three of them felt a wash of exhaustion fall over them once they were alone.

"I think we should do as he says and get some sleep. I don't know if you eat at all in that form Doric but there is delicious food in the room for us." Skia wandered back to the room as she talked. "I am going to go to bed though." 

Doric wondered if he could even eat in his form. He entered the room and noticed the food. He could not smell it but he did turn on his monocle for a moment to look at the food. 

"Ah, so the symbols are earth, and the tags for these are Mana, Health, Status Effect, and Recovery. Interesting, these are high-quality foods they have here. I wonder how I would go about using food-based effects.

 As he looked at the food and considered eating it he noticed that the one he looked at the longest began to disperse into particles and absorb into him He felt saited. Not full but more alert than he was before.

"Oh, so I can absorb things to gain their properties and nutrients. Interesting. I wonder though." 

He walked up to a mirror and looked at himself with the monocle on. He saw that his power was growing slowly 111,112,113,114,115. It stopped.

"Very neat so I gained a slight boost from eating that food. It looks like this food also has a 10-minute time limit before it stops. 

He tested it out once again absorbing a second piece of food. "Huh?" he was surprised to see that the first effect stayed in play and the second one added to it and reset the timer even.

"Very neat I could be just like in the fantasy games, Stuffing my face during combat to gain boosts." He clicked his teeth together and laughed. "That would be a crazy day when I did something like that."

He went to the lavish dog bed he found in the room and rested himself on it. He did not quite sleep like normal instead he entered into the void. Wandering a bit before he found a door. It looked familiar to him. Wandering closer he opened the door and found himself in Folia's room again. 

"Hey there Big Bro, you want to hang out with me? I just upgraded my Wifi and can play all kinds of games now!" Folia exclaimed as she ran towards him and gave his skull a big hug.

"What am I doing here?" he asked confused "Wait you have Wifi here? How do you even connect to anything?" He looked around and remembered the girly design that was Folia's favorite. In the corner of his eye, he saw the book on the table. Its soft glow reminded him of something.

"Oh right, I absorbed some mana, only temporarily but does that count?" He looked at Folia and she gave a slight giggle.

"Technically it does but I was hoping you would learn how to absorb mana that stayed with you." She continued towards the TV and popped in a game.

"Come, play with me tonight. It would help to hone your psychic abilities to a finer degree and who knows maybe this time you can beat me in the fighting game."

He felt a flashback forming in his mind as she said that. Two kids playing in a dark room with the same words repeated.