Note that using your mind to control the Sphere would consume a percentage of your mana and your strength at an hourly rate. It can also make you feel mentally depleted on occasions.
Still, the decision was easy. I went with controlling the Sphere with my mind. The next moment, all the levers, and buttons disappeared magically, emptying a lot of space.
Would you like to use the windshield?
Yes/No?
I selected ‘Yes’. Suddenly, the part of the Sphere that had the control board became absolutely transparent, such that I could easily see what was in the outside of the Sphere.
Yet another pop-up appeared in my vision.
To move the Sphere in any direction that pleases you, just will it to move. The Sphere can fly, move on land and even move on water. But be sure to close the lid tightly before you use the Sphere to go into a water body.
Of course, I decided to fly the Sphere. I was getting a feeling that coming for this quest was not going to be that bad a decision after all.
***
Lanak Tanor
Class: Not yet unlocked
Race: Human
Sex: Male
Level: 0
Strength: 141
Health: 430/500
Mana: 140
Intelligence: 60
Mental carrying capacity: 160/200
Youth:20
Chapter 4: Ranik Gombal
It was clear from the wizard’s face that he didn’t want to deal with me.
“Give it to me,” I said. It was the first time in the whole day that I had been able to corner the wizard. That no one else was in the guest house was a major benefit for me.
“Look,” the wizard said, holding up his hands. “I cannot just give the power to see stats to you. You must understand.”
“You are a wizard,” I said, “and from the grey of your beard I know that you have mastered a few too many spells.”
“Magic is not so simple my friend,” the wizard said.
“I am the future mayor of this town,” I said and I made sure that there was a certain amount of credibility in my voice though deep inside I had doubts my father would ever make me a mayor. “There will be times when you would need to come to this town in the future.”
That was just a statement. I knew without a doubt that the wizard had not simply come to the town without any secret agenda of his. Why would he simply travel hundreds and thousands of miles just so he can save our little town?
The wizard ran a hand down his beard in thought. I knew at that instant that I had caught something here.
“In our town,” I continued, “successors are selected based on birthright. I do not have any siblings.”
It was at that moment that the wizard looked directly into my eye. A smile crept up his lips. There was something frightening about it, yet I knew that his smile contained endless opportunities. That smile was so unlike the pervious smiles that I had seen him adorn.
“I cannot give you the power to see stats,” the wizard said. My heart fell, yet I felt like the wizard wasn’t done speaking, “you are not a player and on top of that I do not have the means to give the power to see stats to you. However, I can aid you in gaining the power to see stats.”
“And how will that be?” I asked.
“I will tell you,” the wizard said, “but this will be a business deal. And I shall tell it to you only once you agree to do something. Something that you cannot revert.”
“Well, go on then,” I said, “tell me whatever you want me to do.” The wizard in front of me was appeared so much at a contrast to the person I had thought him to be.
The wizard shook his head.
“First I want your promise that you will do what I ask of you,” the wizard said “and I want you to sign it in your blood. Like I said, it cannot be reverted at any costs.”
I thought over it. I wanted to possess the ability to see my stats any time I wished, yet my heart quivered. A contract signed in blood. I feared it will have consequences.
The wizard smiled. The candle flickering threw a very devious look on him. Suddenly, I was afraid.
“It’s okay if you… let’s say don’t have the guts…sorry, will to sign the contract,” the wizard said. “But know that without signing it, I cannot help you.”
I felt a chill catch me. Should I let this opportunity go? I didn’t know when I would have the chance to speak to the wizard again. He could leave the town as suddenly as he had come.
I swallowed. I was a man. I would act like one.
“I will sign it,” I said, “I am ready to do whatever you want me to.”
“Great!” the wizard said. He beckoned me over to a table. Then he snapped his fingers. The next moment a parchment and an accompanying quill had appeared in his hand. There was no ink. The tip of the quill was quite pointy.
Words in a very fine handwriting appeared on their own on the parchment. The words were in a strange language I did not understand.
There was a blank space at the very bottom of the text.
“Sign here,” the wizard said, placing a finger over the blank space.
I nodded. I took the quill. My hands shivered. I had never really inflicted any kind of injury big or small to myself. I made up my guts and pressed the sharp tip against the skin of my thumb. Fresh blood leaked out.
“Bravo!” the wizard said. I dipped the quill in my own blood, and then I signed the parchment. The moment I did so the quill and the parchment disappeared. A green light appeared all around me and then it was gone. I wiped the blood oozing from my thumb on my coat. It stung.
“So what do you want me to do?” I asked the wizard.
The wizard began to stroll about the room in a very relaxed manner. He gestured at a table.
“Do have a seat. It’s your guest house after all.”
I went and sat down on the chair.
“I am listening,” I said.
“In the brief conversations that I have had with your father, the mayor,” the wizard said and clapped his hands so that a tobacco pipe appeared. He began to take deep pulls of the pipe. The he coughed and continued, “I have come to realise that your father is a very sincere person. A person who loves his town, a person who loves his family… a person who loves his son.”
“What does that have to do with what you want me to do?” I asked.
“Everything,” the wizard said, shooting me a look from the corner of his eyes, before resuming to smoke, “I have realised that he would make you his successor.”
“Well, isn’t that obvious?” I said.
“Remember, my friend, he does have the power to make someone else the next mayor, if he sees the person to be more worthy of the task than you. But I have seen that your father’s love for you is much greater than your father’s love for the town.”
“What are you getting at?” I demanded. Was he saying that I could not be a good ruler of the town?
“Nah, do not take it too personally,” the wizard reassured. “Anyway, it is quite definite that you are going to be the next mayor. So what I want you to do once you become the next mayor is to give the position of mayor to me.”
My guts did a somersault. How dare the wizard demand that?
I shot him a glare. I stood to my feet in my anger.
The wizard raised his palms at me in a submissive manner.
“You said you wanted the power of to see stats,” he said.
“But I didn’t say I was willing to give up the town to you! You can ask me anything else you want but the town.”
The wizard came over to me. He placed his hands on my shoulder and pushed me down to the chair. He leaned in close to my ears.
“One thing I must make clear to you,” he whispered. There was something in his voice that chilled my insides, “You have already given me the town. That is, you have already made the payment in this little business deal of ours.”
He took a few steps back, such that he was facing me. He placed a hand on hi
s chest and made a small bow.
“And only my part of the business deal remains to be done. I am going to give you the method using which you can ultimately gain access to stats despite being a so-called ‘NPC’.”
I was thinking fast. Was the wizard tricking me? Well, if he actually got me a step closer to seeing stats, then he should be, right? That was the deal after all. As for the town… wouldn’t I be able to conquer thousands of towns like this one if I gained the ability to see stats?
“You are thinking too much, my friend,” the wizard said, observing me. “But I respect the fact that you are thinking. You made a very courageous decision today. But as I have said, you have already made the payment, and the thinking in truth is… unnecessary. Just a burden on your mind, especially considering that in this little business deal of ours there are no refunds. So, why don’t you just accept the commodity you have purchased and enjoy it and profit out of it?”
With some hesitation, I made a small nod.
“Now that’s more like it!” the wizard said with a wide grin. He began to rub his hands in a very complicated manner. Sparks began to fly out of his palms.
“Get me a paper please,” the wizard said, “I can conjure one myself but it’s a bit tough while doing a very complicated spell.”
I grabbed one of the books on the table nearby and tore a page out of it.
“Hold the paper steady,” the wizard said. His hands were moving very fast now and more and more sparks were coming out. Then he suddenly came near to the paper, ceasing all movements with his hands, holding them together as though he had something very precious in between them.
He separated his hands over the paper. Sand fell from his hands, forming a small mountain on the paper.
The sand was glowing green.
“What is this?” I asked, looking at the glowing sand with awe, but it was fast losing the glow.
“Traveller’s sand, also known as Traveller’s powder,” the wizard said, “a very special commodity.”
***
Chapter 5: Lana
“Wow,” I said to my sister, Binni, “what are you applying to your face these days?”
Binni looked away.
“Nothing special,” she said shyly.
I had been observing Binni for the past few days. Her face seemed to have a special kind of glow. What more, I had seen some of my friends acquire the glowing look as well.
“You know,” I said, “it’s good to share. I am your sister after all.”
But Binni didn’t respond. She went over to the other room without a word in a very shy manner. I shrugged. I reckoned I didn’t need it. I had always been more or less a tomboy. I did like bracelets though, which was perhaps the only thing feminine about me. Bracelets of all colours. I just couldn’t resist them and my mother often scolded me for I bought so many of them.
It was evening. I had spent almost the entire day in the house and I needed some fresh air. I decided to go out on a stroll.
“I’ll be back in a short while,” I told my mother.
Outside, in the streets, I saw many of the women and the girls having the glowing look I had seen on Binni. I wasn’t really jealous of them. But I didn’t understand why they didn’t share the secret. I had asked one of my other friends yesterday about it and, like Binni, she had also avoided the answer.
Hands in my pockets, I strolled about the streets. The sun had set only a short time ago and the sky in the west was a mesmerizing mix of colours. Oh, I wished if I had lived in a smaller town. A village would have been even better. I was getting tired of living in the same place.
In a matter of minutes I arrived at Mowa’s house. I realised my legs had decided early on that this was my destination. Mowa was more or less my best chum. My mother thought he was my boyfriend or something like that, and she would become rather quiet whenever he visited our house, which was often. But no, Mowa and I were strictly friends. A relationship was the last thing either of us wanted to get into. Mowa said love was boring. I absolutely agreed with him.
“Hey Mowa!” I called from below. His room was upstairs, and the window was ajar. Mowa’s head appeared at the window. He seemed a bit irritated, but seeing me his expressions softened.
“Oh, I see, it’s you,” Mowa said. “I am alone in the house. Hey, why don’t you come upstairs? I am doing something cool.”
When Mowa said he was doing something cool, I knew he wasn’t kidding. Excited, I entered his home and ran up the stairs. Mowa was sitting on the floor of his room. There was a metal tray in front of him.
He had a fire going in the metal tray.
“What are you doing?” I said, running a hand down my hair. Mowa was crazy, but this was the first time I was seeing him light a fire inside his own room. What if the fire somehow spread to the bed or the curtains? That would absolutely suck.
Mowa grinned.
“It’s an experiment,” Mowa said. I went and squatted down next to the fire. I realised Mowa had placed a small metal bowl on the fire. The bowl contained what seemed to be a pill that was beginning to fizzle because of the heat.
“You know, recently, girls in our town are…” Mowa scratched his small beard, looking up in thought at the ceiling, “becoming more and more attractive really. And they seem to have this special glow.”
“Not all girls,” I said. Often times I needed to remind Mowa that I was actually a girl.
“Not all, but quite a few.”
“But what has that got to do with this experiment?” I asked.
“This pill might be the reason behind that,” Mowa replied.
I raised a brow.
“You know,” Mowa continued, a sly grin coming over his face, “I managed to take one of those ‘glowing girls’ out to eat, no not because I was interested in her, but because I wanted to find the secret. And she gave me this pill and she said it was the reason behind her new appearance.”
“My sister seems to have started ‘glowing’ as well,” I said, “I asked her about it, but she avoided me.”
“Well, this girl avoided my question as well,” I said, “but I persisted and she eventually told about the pill to me.”
“Anyway, what are you exactly doing to the pill?” I asked. “What’s the point of heating it?”
A dark shadow came over Mowa’s face.
“First it was for fun,” he said, dropping his voice almost to a whisper, “but then I realised that I could actually find out if the pill contains any magic, or if it is simply made from powered herbs.”
“Just by heating?”
“Yes. I learnt about it a good while back from an alchemist,” Mowa said, “If black fumes together with sparks of green come out from the pill then there is a good chance that the pill contains magic. Black magic to be precise.”
“So did that happen with this pill?” I asked. My heart was beginning to pick up pace. If the pill indeed had been created with black magic, then I would definitely not want my sister to be taking the pills, wherever she was acquiring them from.
“Initially, the pill did fume and black smoke came out,” Mowa said, “but so far the green sparks are missing—”
Barely had Mowa spoken when a funny sound of gas being released came from the bowl. Moments later, dark smoke began to come out of the pill as it completely disintegrated. The smoke had sparks of green. The moment the smoke touched my nostrils, I was caught by a bout of coughing. Even Mowa was coughing like mad. The pill was small but the amount of smoke it was producing was not. Mowa grabbed me by the neck and pulled me to the window. The fresh air was a great relief to my lungs. Mowa threw the curtains wide, allowing the smoke to escape out.
“Everything all right?” one neighbour asked Mowa from below.
“Yeah, everything’s fine,” Mowa replied back, “just a cooking gone wrong.”
It was a full ten minutes before all the smoke was out. Only then could the two of us sit down and realise what we had discovered.
“Are you sure the gr
een sparks mean black magic?” I asked with much concern. I had a sinking feeling in my stomach as if bad things would be happening soon.
Mowa nodded. He was very grim.
“The alchemist had told me about that, and also I had read about it in a book from the town library. You know there are plenty of books in the town library concerned with magic. They are all covered with cobwebs. I reckon I am the only one reading them in decades if not centuries.”
I caught my hair with my hands.
“I am worried about Binni,” I said. “What can we do about this problem? Tell the authorities about the problem? Who are selling the pills anyway?”
“The girl never told that to me,” Mowa said, “she was ready to give me the pill. But she was just not ready to give up who gave her the pill.”
I stood up and began to pace the room.
“So many girls and women have taken this pill,” I said.
“I think we must investigate,” Mowa said. There was determination in his voice. “Even if we do tell the authorities they might take a long while to do anything about the problem.”
“Are you sure the green sparks mean black magic?” I asked the question all over again. Mowa shook his head, grimacing.
“I am absolutely sure,” he replied and from the way he looked I knew that he was sure. “You know what, go back to your house now. You have been here for long. If possible ask your sister from where she got the pill. But don’t pressure her too much. The girl I got the pill from became angry when I asked too much about it. Meanwhile, I will try to find out more about this on my own.”
I nodded. In fifteen minutes, I was back in my home. My home felt so different now. The last time I had been here, I had been more or less jealous of Binni. Now I was shit worried. I wished I had not gone out on the stroll. But then, ultimately it was good that I knew about the pill. Over dinner I asked Binni again about her new radiance. But she just avoided the question. Eventually I told her I had come to know about the new pill in the town. I was surprised when she glared at me when I told this to her. But later on that night, just as I was preparing to go to sleep, my mind clouded with thoughts, Binni came to my room.
Chains of a Succubus Page 4