Ch 34

After leaving the arena pit, I limped my way down the corridor, heading for the resting room where I could find some bandages and begin the work of healing my leg. It was a deep wound and had been torn quite a bit by the jerking of the spear as I had held it in my grasp while it was still embedded in my thigh while the lizard-woman had tried to reclaim its weapon.

Now finally alone, I was able to bind my wound and get it to stop bleeding so that I could begin the healing magick that would speed up my healing by twenty-one times the normal speed. With this all but the most grievous of injuries would heal in only a day but if I wanted to spend more time training with Lilly

I either needed to heal faster or avoid taking damage so that I would not need to heal. Avoiding damage altogether would probably not work even if I could somehow manage. If I never got hit Silvan would want me to fight everyday like he had done with Teka. Perhaps I should speak with Grelf again and see if there was a more advanced version of the spell but likely, even if there was such a spell, he likely would not be able to teach it to me because of my status as a slave.

That reminded me of the other spells that had been offered by Grelf when I had first spoken with him. The ability to heal faster, the ability to magickally toughen my body or speed myself up were the other two available spells. The speed spell was of course tempting as anyone would want to move faster but so too was the toughening spell which depending on how effective it was it could improve my survival odds and reduce my healing time by reducing damage even if it could not prevent it altogether. This would allow me to continue to have a day off in between fights.

I should speak with Gikats and ask his opinion, there was the possibility that he would not want me wasting time on other spells that I did not need in order to escape my situation an get a different master.

*****

“Oh! What a surprise. I did not expect to see you again for a while, to what do I owe the pleasure?” Gikats looked up at me and spoke out in a friendly tone upon my entry into the room I was starting to think of as his office. “Ah, yeah I just had some thoughts after today’s match and thought that I should come and confer with you regarding the best course of action.

I was thinking of going back to Grelf and having him teach me the spell to make my body tougher as well. This could help me keep from getting hurt as much so that I will need less time to heal and thus will have more time in the long run to train with Lilly.” I presented my case to him in a matter of fact tone of voice, sticking to the important parts and then waiting to hear what he would have to say about it.

After hearing my thoughts, he scrunched his face up for a moment as if thinking hard and began stroking the dark wrinkled skin of his face absently with one hand. A short moment later he seemed to relax and nodded his consent. “Yes, I think that will be alright. Let Lilly know that you will need to learn from Grelf again for a bit so she will have some free time until after you are done learning that spell.” After saying this Gikats grew distracted and started reading his book again, idly humming to himself as he did so.

I shook my head and started limping back out of the room and up to the trainers. I needed to deliver a message to Lilly and after that, I might as well get started learning, a wound would not stop me from learning a spell although I would need to be careful to make sure I had enough time to heal myself after learning. It was a bit of a gamble, but I just really couldn’t wait to learn some more magick.

It took me several minutes to reach the training room and when I did Lilly looked up and waved happily, eager to return to training. When she saw how I was limping her face grew crestfallen and she seemed to lose interest in me. I had to get call her name several times to get her attention again once I had gotten close enough to talk to her. “Lilly? Lilly? LILLY!!” She jumped a bit when I shouted and then turning a bit red stomped her foot and turned to me.

“What?!” she was glaring at me now. “If you aren’t here to train then why are you wasting my time?” Geeze this girl was seriously bipolar! “Um about that, I have a message from Gikats. He said to tell you that I would need to learn another spell from Grelf so you will have some free time until I finish that.” She continued to glare at me but also seemed to deflate a bit upon hearing this. “Fine, be that way! I knew you didn’t want to play with me anyways. Why would you want to play with that old man anyways are you gay or something?” Saying this she stuck out her tongue and then ran off before I could respond to her words.

Sighing heavily, I turned towards Grelf who had begun looking up annoyed from the book he was busy studying. It seemed that the misunderstanding with Lilly had gained us the attention of all the other trainers in the room as well. Rubbing the back of my neck self-consciously I began making my way towards Grelf. He seemed to grit his teeth a bit when he saw that I was coming his way and then carefully marked his place in the book he had open and turned his attention to me.

“Yes? Is there something you need from me?” His tone was not so much angry as snide, it was merely that he would rather be spending his time studying whatever esoteric volume he had open on the desk than spending his time fulfilling his obligations as a trainer. “Um I was wondering if there was an advanced version of the healing spell?” He looked at me as if I had walked up and spit on his shoes. “While there is a more advanced version of the spell, I already taught you, as well as many other spells in the school of healing, I am forbidden to teach it to you.

The only other spells you can learn from me are body toughening or the speed spell.” He had an irritated tone to his voice now as if explaining something remedial that I should already know. To be fair I had suspected as much but it never hurt to make sure, after all, ‘if you never asked the answer would always be no.’ Or that is how the old saying goes anyways.

“I understand.” I said to him in response, deliberately keeping my voice calm and even. I had a feeling that if I were to treat Grelf in the same way as he treated me, he would not be very happy about it. Presently I needed him in order to learn magick and grow stronger. “I would like to learn the body toughening spell please.