Supreme Magus novel Chapter 50

That long conversation had been pretty exhausting for Lith, adding new weight to his burden. Not for the information he acquired, all in all he felt his opportunity were still pretty good with or without an academy.

The only adjustment to his plans was that after joining the Mage Association as a de facto outer circle member, a rogue magician, he would need to rack up merits as soon as he could, to get himself an apprenticeship with a good Forgemaster.

Normal merits would do him no good, he needed those he could earn as a magico, serving the Mage Association as best as he could.

The only real problem with his current situation would be rotting for yet four more years, like the proverbial frog in the well.

The reason why Lith felt so down, was that he had finally realized how much his friends had invested in him, not only in terms of money, but also time, passion and hopes.

It wasn’t the failure bothering him, but the fact that with his brash and uncaring attitude, he had hurt their feeling, treating the whole thing as a joke. Lith had to admit that in their shoes, he would feel like having casted pearls to a swine for years.

Sure, Count Lark wasn’t as judgmental as him, but Lith could see how deeply he cared, and how wounded he was after the last rebuke.

It was the first time that Lith felt that by having won an argument he had actually lost the war.

But aside from second-guessing, there wasn’t much he could do at that point. So, he promised himself to reconsider everything with a fresh set of eyes if the opportunity arose, and decided to move to a more pressing problem.

Lith had yet to solve his problems with tier four magic, and asking Nana was out of the question. It would reveal too much to her, exposing how deep his comprehension of magic was, despite being a self-taught.

The only card he had yet to play was to ask the help of his friend, the Ry king in the west of the Trawn woods. Thanks to his cyan mana core, Lith had become less scared of it, and during the last few years they had developed an odd relationship.

Lith would use him as a confident, sometime asking it advice about fire and wind magic, the two elements the Ry could use. In exchange Lith would help him with the problems in the east zone of the woods.

After Irtu’s death, there wasn’t a magical beast strong enough to take its place, and from time to time the power struggle among the various factions would affect the balance of the forest.

In those situations, the Scourge and the Protector would join hands to force the magical beasts to a truce.

At the moment, tier four fake magic was a mental bottleneck that neither he or Solus could overcome. Despite being able to cast all the spells he had found in the Count’s books, they kept making no sense to him.

It was something unacceptable, eating Lith from the inside.

He had always hated riddles, unless he was the one giving them.

Lith had almost arrived home, when he caught a familiar smell.

"What the heck are you doing outside the woods? If someone sees you, it could trigger a witch hunt. The last thing I need right now is you having a bounty on your head and me having to explain why I’m not interested."

"I know." The Ry replied. "But desperate times call for desperate measures. A monster has appeared in the woods, strong enough to pose a threat for my cubs as well for yours. We need your help."

"I have never seen the Ry scared before, whatever this is, it must be damn important." Lith thought.

After agreeing to help, the Ry asked him to hop on its back, before running at full speed towards the woods. Between the use of air fusion and its physical prowess, Protector was able to easily reach the 300kph (186 mph), it would be a short trip.

When going so fast, the Ry would conjure a wedge-shaped wind blade in front of itself, so to protect their eyes and face from insects and dust, that at that speed would hit them with the strength of a bullet.

It would also create a slipstream effect, allowing it to go even faster.

Lith’s horsemanship amounted to the result of one lesson, two lifetimes ago, so he needed all his focus and willpower to not fall down.

The Ry had a thick and soft fur, but not being able to follow its movements, he was forced to use both earth fusion and light fusion to prevent permanent damage to his nether regions.

"What the f*ck it’s this thing? Is it really necessary to go so fast? If it keeps like this, I don’t know if there will be enough of me left to do anything!"

"Quit whining, we are almost there. And yes, speed it’s of the utmost importance when facing an Abomination."

Lith’s mind went through all the bestiaries he had in Soluspedia and all his table top and videogames RPG memories before giving up.

"What the heck is an Abomination? Why is it so dangerous?"

"You don’t understand. We don’t call it Abomination for what it does, but for what it is!"

They were headed north, in a region of the woods that he had never visited before. It started slowly, like the tension in the air before a storm. Only when they got deeper in the woods, Lith could understand what the Ry meant.

Soon the grass started to thin out, until there was none at all. The earth laid bare, with no undergrowth of any kind, dried and crumbling as after a months lasting drought.