New magics! Just not the ones you were all expecting.

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Gareth's POV

I made my way out of the cave with my sword once I pulled it outside the ice wall while making sure that no one else will ever enter there by burning it into oblivion. If anyone went to take a look all they would find are ashes. A shame I had to destroy the summoning formation as well.

I made my way out of the cave and heard some screaming and panicking among the populace.

"We are doomed! The Great Tree is dying!" I heard one of the villagers yell.

Oh damn. Right burning the roots of a tree would likely kill it and the only thing that was sustaining the tree was life force since nobody bothered to water that thing. Now that the tree cease to be the catalyst it will definitely die soon. Guess they need to find the proper God to worship next time. Preferably the right one. I already completed this mission so this already ceased to be my problem.

I made my way out of the village and when questioned by the guards about the state of the disease I told them "It's a temporary one. It will disappear soon and the village will return back to health in a few weeks" which was the truth in some ways. If what I read about life force is true then the tree can create their own and once the villagers start eating once more they will gain some more back in their body. With the guards thanking me for the information I made my way out of the village.

Took me a while to return to Rhieg, so I decided to go the nearest inn and take a rest there. It was rather expensive but wealth is the least of the issue for me. As I was resting and trying to think of the possible new uses for the life force magic in my room, I heard a knock on the door.

Placing my mask on my face and opening the door, I was met with a person wearing a high class suit that was black and white color with a bow tie on his neck. I half expected for him to introduce himself as 'Sebastian'.

"Hello, this humble servant is the servant of the Rose Family and my lord would like for you to attend a banquet he is hosting for his daughter's birthday" I was taken a bit back the amount of information that was sent to me. A banquet? an invite?

"He is the Grand Duke of Rhieg of the Rose Family" Grand Duke? This has suspicion written all over it. I have only been in Rhieg for a couple of hours and the Duke is inviting me to a banquet? The only thing they should know about me is my healing magic. Is it that rare that the Duke is inviting me?

"Where would it be held?"

As I asked the question he held out an envelope "All the information is right here" I took the card out of the envelope and began reading it. The banquet will be held in two days in the honor of the Duke's daughter's birthday.

"I will consider it" I told him and closed the door but before I could he held it and said "Be sure to wear something fancy. The Lord takes his daughter's birthday rather seriously" He then proceeded to hand me a pouch "This should be enough to buy some". I simply told him "No need" and closed the door. There was no use in owing favors to the family just yet.

Now, should I go or not? I might be walking straight into a trap but there is no reason for there to be a trap for me. It might just be an invite because they saw my healing powers. I needed to investigate this a little bit more. So I headed to the beacon of knowledge, gossip and rumors. The place where a man can find solace and happiness. A tavern.

Walking in and avoiding the crowd of drunken messes. I went to the bartender placing a gold coin on the counter stating "Surprise me with a drink and tell me what you know about the Rose family"

He glanced at me while he was slowly cleaning the glass in his hand. He reached out from under his desk a drink and poured it in the cup and giving it straight to me. He then glanced at a person at the corner table by himself. I nodded at him and walked towards him.

"You know you are pretty suspicious sitting in a corner of a tavern by yourself" I said while sitting down with him.

"Yea says the guy with a mask on his face. What ya wanna know kid? I got you covered from libraries to brothels" He responded back to me. He seemed quite drunk though so I am not sure if I could fully trust this man...

"What do you know about the Rose family?" I asked him.

"Oooh the Rose? What they do steal your girl? Hahahah" He stopped when when I glared at him "My bad my bad. Losen up will ya this is a tavern after all"

"Just continue with what you know about them will you?" I asked him in a serious tone.

"Alright..geez what a buzz kill. The Rose are the Grand Duke-athing, very serious family.. lots of money, ya know. Ooh the daughter is mighty fine too *cough* anyway..their wealth is almost the same as the Kings. Their whole family is made up of mages and are the only family in the entire darn Kingdom that know them healing magic..I seen them do it in public but they charge ya know? Selfish bastards..they are pretty dam expensive too. Once had a broken leg and they told me to fuck off when I could not pay 80 gold to fix it....but other nobles who get hurt pay them just fine so it gives them mighty large amount of power too plus everyone and their mother owe them favours.including my own..yea sad day she ended up stabbing herself when cooking dinner so had to eat blood soaked meat. didn't taste that bad to be honest *cough* back to the Rosy family they got a pretty strong army.. like what soldier would not want to be a part of their family? so they got one of the biggest armies in the whole place. Second to the royal family though they aint strong enough to take over.."

Interesting. So they see me as a threat to their so called business and want to rope me in... they are a rather powerful family so it will not end well for me in this Kingdom if I deny them.

"How strong are they in terms of their healing magic?" I asked the drunk man.

"Heard the head of family hit white stage in healing a few years back though it's very dim and still has hints of yellow in it" I cursed myself after that. I overestimated the strength of healing magic in this world and I casted a peak white stage healing spell in public too. No wonder my companions did not question me much about the power or the gold.. they must have thought I was from the Rose family..and why the Princess did not just capture me.

But there is one thing of concern here hitting white stage healing requires some knowledge of cells which I know this world should not know about.. or has some part of this world developed that far in? So many questions. I need to question the Goddess the next time I see her..

"Many thanks" I told the drunk man and walked off. He was rather helpful despite his ramblings.

"Anytime ! Buy me a drink next time" He said while waving me off.

I went back into my room in the inn to consildate the information I got. It seems I needed to attend the banquet or I would not be able to live peacefully in this Kingdom. I didn't have much of an intention staying here but there were only two Kingdom's in the south. It seems like I will have to go there.

Since I could not wear a mask to the banquet to avoid being seen as rude I was preparing to do the most dangerous thing I have done yet. I went into the bathroom and sat down before I actually did that I needed to set something up.

Willing mana around my face I chanted [Endorphins are neurotransmitter in the brain that is responsible for pleasure and pain relief] It produced a bright blue light and holy fucking shit it felt good. I could feel the massive amount of endorphins flowing into my face creating large amounts of pleasure. Calm down ..I can't get addicted to this.. willing my mana I chanted [High Emotion] and lowered the amount of arousal and pleasure I felt and let the pain relief stay. Chanting another piece of magic on top of that [Bones are a strong organ in the part of a vertebral skeleton] producing a white light and holy hell the amount of pain I would feel if not for the massive amount of endorphin flowing through me. You could easily hear the bone cracking and meddling. I was changing the bone structure of my face. Looking into the mirror and changing various parts of my face I managed to get to an optimal level which would make me unrecognizable to anyone who knew me before. Going completely overboard, most likely due to the high I am on. Even I don't recognize myself anymore. The figure in the mirror had large cheekbones with a straight jaw line that could be used to deflect a sword blow. All around perfection where it not for the skin being in a completely different place. All I needed to do is let the skin and muscle in my face to adapt to the changes and hopefully it will be done in 3 days.

This endorphin magic is straight up amazing.. I wonder if I could start putting formations in drugs and start selling them..that would spawn a calamity by itself hahaha. not to mention the public would turn into nothing more than pleasure addicted zombies.. if this whole hero thing does not work out I could make a sweet living selling drugs or hell I could make a killing doing facial reconstruction surgery. I already got the shady background, the black cloak and a mask covered . Laughing at the premise and trying to stop myself from flooding more endorphin into my system, I went to sleep.