Supreme Magus novel Chapter 16

During the following days, Lith made several discoveries about the changes he had undergone. His body felt lighter than ever, all his physical abilities augmented, all his senses sharper and heightened, compared to before.

There had also been cosmetic changes in his appearance. The moles on his body had visibly shrank, his skin was smoother than after a Spa treatment back on Earth and most of the freckles around his nose and eyes had disappeared.

Lith took note of all these changes, trying to understand what had happened, but he could not care less about beautifying effects. Even with no moles and freckles at all, he would still look like a crude hillbilly.

If his mother had passed anything to him, he was unable to notice. Unlike his sisters, Lith had nothing of her beauty or grace. Elina moved like a ballerina, while he was rough and clumsy enough to feel like a caveman.

Lith had deep set eyes like his father, a high forehead and a nose a little too big to be proportionate to his visage.

He wasn’t ugly but not even cute. The best he could give himself was a solid six out of ten. Lith’s only hope for improvement was the teenage growth spurt, to get rid of his thin and scrawny build.

Figuring out the changes in the mana core required even more time. Lith understood that his mana had undergone a qualitative change, becoming purer and denser.

This allowed him to cast stronger spells, also reducing the time he needed manipulate elemental and spirit magic, resulting in faster casting speed.

Through Invigorate, he could now spot the presence of that tar-like material scattered all around his body, in his organs, blood vessels and even in the neural pathway.

Whenever he used the Accumulation technique, he could feel the smaller tar-like particles being pulled toward the mana core, while the bigger ones would fragment over time, shrinking in size before actually moving.

Confident in his new strength, Lith started getting deeper in the woods, hunting for bigger preys. He was no longer afraid of predators. Instead of avoiding them, he started looking out for them.

Lith wanted for his family to have enough fur to make a set of warm clothes for everyone. He was sick of being forced to wear so many layers of clothes during winter, that he was unable to walk properly, swinging every step like a penguin.

The problem was that Lith still moved through the forest making a lot of noise, exuding enough killing intent to scare away anything that wasn’t stupid or desperate enough to stand in his way.

It was only thanks to the Life Vision spell combined with spirit magic that he was still capable of hunting. The spirit magic range had expanded to over 30 meters (32.8 yards) range, so he could easily kill any animal that tried to escape by climbing trees or by taking flight.

When Lith wasn’t able to catch anything, he would shoot down any bird that made the mistake of flying within his scope.

One day, Lith was exploring a new area of the Trawn woods, hoping to find a fur wearing meal, killing two birds with one stone.

While looking at a small mound, his Life vision spotted three lifeforces hiding a few meters underground. They were not strong enough to be predators, but they were big enough to be a perfect lunch.

"If those are rodents or other smart animals, there could be more than one exit. I have no time to waste, I’ll force them out!"

After getting on the highest spot of the mound, always keeping both eyes on the prize, he used earth magic.

"Magna!" The ground around him started to shake, making the burrow and the small tunnels collapse. The creatures started panicking, taking the most direct route out.

Lith started running, following their underground movements as close as possible, not letting them get out of the spirit magic range.

From a well-hidden hole near a bush, came out three big fat rabbits, two of them still wearing a snow-white fur.

"Lucky!" Lith screamed while snapping his fingers, forcing the rabbits’ neck to a 180° turn.

"I’ll keep the brown white one for myself, while I’ll trade the other two pelts with Selia for some fur of lesser quality but much more quantity. Today is really my lucky day."

Lith was so used being alone in the woods to always think out loud, to break the feeling of isolation. He hung the rabbits to his belt by the ears and started walking toward Selia’s house.

After a few steps, Lith heard an odd sound closing in. He had never heard it before, so he started looking around for its source. Soon he could see two horses in the distance, galloping in his direction.

"F*ck! It seems I have been too loud. Fight or flight?" To answer his own question, he activated Life Vision again. The horses were just horses, while the men were far from impressive.

The one taking point was barely as strong as Selia, while the one behind was even weaker than Raaz, Lith’s father.

Lith forced himself hiding a cruel smile. "Well, well. My first encounter with complete strangers in this new world! Are they good people? I bet that humans are humans everywhere. This would mean that they are a**holes! I can’t wait to find out!"

Lith stood there, waiting for them to arrive.

The first man was clearly a servant, dressed in a hunter suit made of leather of low quality with a crest on both his chest and shoulders. He was an unshaven middle-aged man, with pitch black short hair, mean and angry eyes sitting on a face worthy of a mugshot.

The one behind him was dressed with a suit of much better quality, probably brand new. He wore the same crest on his chest, but this one seemed to be made of silk and gold embroidered.

He was a kid maybe sixteen years old, with a handsome face and the build of a swimsuit model. The tight-fitting leather emphasised his muscular body moving in tune with his horse.

"Seriously? Robbing a kid in broad daylight? Don’t you have any shame?" _{freeweɓnovel.cѳm}