For an entire week, Damon followed Emilia through the mountains behind the troll’s village. The mountains didn’t reach more than a kilometre in height; however, they were rocky and hard to travel. When Damon found a patch of earth, he used his flattening magic to increase his earth magic skill and make it easier for Emilia to walk. Unfortunately, there weren’t any beasts to gain experience points. This made him feel like a pilgrim rather than a black mage. However, getting to your destination was an important part of the job, perhaps if he could fly the whole ordeal would feel more pleasant.

“It’s here,” said Emilia.

Damon looked around, “I don’t see it.”

Emilia pointed towards a bush in the distance.

“Are we searching for that plant? What is it used for? And why are we stopping so far from it?”

“Although the plant does have some value, it’s not what we’re searching for. What we want are rock snakes. They often make their nests under these bushes.” She took out her sword and shield, Damon did the same. A second later a large amount of water poured onto the bush. The localized storm kept up until a meter long snake with little grey and white dots slithered out of the bush.

“They can’t see nor smell. They mainly use vibrations to sense their surroundings.”

Damon began to shoot powerful rock bullets in the direction of the snakes. He managed to knock down four of them and Emilia drowned the rest.

“Do they have poisonous glands?” asked Damon.

Emilia nodded, “They can spit it out too.”

Damon slowly approached the snakes and quickly cut off their heads which held the glands. The rest of the body could serve as food for tonight. They set up camp a few kilometres away from the nest and roasted the meat. Nothing dangerous lived in these barren mountains so Damon let the tension he’d built these past days melt away.

When they’d finished their meals, Emilia showed him how to extract the glands. Damon tried and got it on his second attempt. Untreated the poison acted as a deadly muscle relaxant and when transformed by alchemists it could become sleeping drugs often used by criminals to knock out their victims, or high-grade sleeping pills for insomniacs.

Before they kept on going, Damon opened his status screen:

Damon Asmodeus LVL. 5 (30/1220)

Charisma

Intelligence

Perception

Agility

Endurance

Strength

Mana

15

31 (+2)

23 (+1)

21

15 (+1)

15

89 (+7)

All humanoid language acquisitions Arithmetic’s Lvl.6/7 Black magic Lvl.2/10 Dark magic Lvl.2/10 Dark spirit communication Lvl.2/10 Detect diseases and viruses through smell Lvl.3/5 Earth magic Lvl.2/5 (+1) Improved memory Lvl.2/5 Medium disease tolerance Night vision Telepathy Lvl.3/10

Damon’s heart slowed down when he saw that his method worked. Although he couldn’t always lay traps, he guessed that the dissections he executed after hunts helped increase his intelligence. The only other thing he wasn’t sure about was the charisma stat. He wondered if it increased just from social interaction, or when you got on good terms with others. The latter made more sense to him; however, he’d need time to fully understand it.

On another front, he’d managed to increase his earth magic level. This was welcomed news since his other magic types weren’t offensive and his strength left much to be desired. In short, he needed attack magic.

“Can you hear me, Stolas?” Apparently, there wasn’t a range limit when communicating with a contracted spirit since you were effectively tied by the soul; however, this was the first Damon had tried it so he wasn’t certain it would work.

“What is it? Has my little prince had enough? Do you want to come back to safety?”

“Spare me, no I was wondering if you could prepare earth magic books for my return.”

“When you return? That’s too far away. I already gave something to Emilia, think of it as your halfway gift. I’m glad you’re still doing well, keep it up.”

Damon turned to Emilia, “Apparently you have a book for me.”

“Oh, it’s already time. I guess the trap you set up for the trolls helped you quite a bit.” She took out a book entitled, ‘beginner offensive earth magic.’

Damon skipped the usual useless blabber and went straight to the spell section, although there were three spells in the book, he could only use two due to the last one being restricted to level 4 earth magic. The first spell called earth spear was a slight modification on earth pillar, and the second one was sandstorm. The third spell he couldn’t unlock at this instant was rocked spear and its schematic resembled the one for rock throw. He wanted to see if he could alter the rock throw schematic and get a mixture of both spells; but apparently the creation and modifications of spells were spectacularly dangerous if not done in a secure environment and the relevant expertise. As such he left it for another day. Night fell and Damon did his best to memorize the schematics and practise the spells.

The next day Emilia and Damon headed back from whence they came.

“We only have two more ingredients to harvest; however, they’re on the other side of The Tree. If you want, you can decide to go back.”

Damon shook his head, “I don’t mind it, I rather enjoy this hunt honestly.”

Emilia smiled, “Collecting materials is honest, and fun work. If Black mages were allowed to join the guild, I think we’d be at the top of it. We’d always bring back perfect materials after all. I’m sure we’d also out wit every other mage. After all the magic granted to you represents your temperament.”

“So, what are we collecting next?” asked Damon.

“Have you ever seen a Dragon?”

Damon’s eyes widened, “Can we kill a dragon, aren’t they legendary beasts?”

Emilia laughed, “not any dragon, the leaf dragon. It’s the weakest of them all and relies on camouflage to hide in the trees. It spites out corrosive acid on its prey. If you spot one, you could also kill it.”

“If I spot it? Is their camouflage so great?”

“Not only is it that good but they use wind magic to play with your perception. But do not fret young elf. This is how we’re going to find it.” Emilia pulled out a small compass. Dragons are a higher race. They’re as ancient as the rocks around you. As such, their absorption of magic is beyond what we can imagine—”

Damon interrupted, “But don’t book say we’re not certain if magic is absorbed or generated internally.”

Emilia nodded, “Those books were written for people not dragons,” she pointed the compass towards Damon, “although we know that dragons absorb mana, like any other legendary beasts such as phoenixes and Jackalopes. But last time I checked elves and humans aren’t legendary beasts. Claim such a thing is a pure insolence.”

“So how does it work?”

Emilia shrugged her shoulders, “We don’t exactly know how, all we know is that around legendary beasts theirs a dead zone of mana.”

Other than noting Emilia’s fervent nature when it came to things beyond her Damon wondered if perhaps this phenomenon resembled the interaction of light with black holes. The dragon’s mana attractive field was strong enough to pull in all then mana particles as to not let any of it escape. “Does the compass give an exact point for the dragon’s location?”

“No, it gives you a straight line in the direction of the dragon.”

Damon nodded, that would make sense since they only had one point of reference. But that didn’t give him any additional information. “Let’s go,” said Damon, his curiosity satisfied.

For the next two weeks, the pair tacked back on their steps, back through the rocky mountains, the green forest, and back into the dead forest which surrounded the tree. Back out the other side of what Damon now called the dead forest they entered the rattling leaf forest. Another subdivision of what humans called The Forest. On their way there, they encountered a few goblin patrol units and a small pack of wolves. Damon kept dissecting everything he encountered to increase his intelligence the next time he levelled up. And they soon reached the rustling forest.

Here the leaves were green, yellow, and some leaves were even purple. They walked around for three days compass, in hand searching for the prophesized dragon.

“There’s a reaction.”

Damon got closer to Emilia and saw that the line leads straight in front of them. “What’s the range on it?”

“About thirty metres.”

“That’s kind of close, can’t they spit their acid from where they are?”

“Yes, but they might miss so they’ll wait. I’ll prepare to cast a water shield. When it spits cast your sandstorm, climb the tree where it’s hiding, and cut it down. Make sure to keep your shield pressed down on its mouth. Although it’s weak, it’s not uncommon for people to die due to carelessness.

When Emilia took thirty more steps, a jet of green acid flew towards her. She created a four-meter-tall wall of water. The acid mixed with the water and turned it green. In the meanwhile, Damon cast a large sandstorm worth five mana points and activated shadow meld, shadow agility, and dampen reflection to go around the commotion. Emilia kept pelting the dragon with water spears which let him sneak up on the dragon. He climbed the tree which seemed to spit out acid jets. When he reached one of the higher branches, he looked around the foliage to find the dragon.

A minute later he saw a bushel of leaves above his head rustled slightly out-of-synch. He couldn’t make out the shape of the dragon, so he decided to plunge his sword into the leaves he suspected to be a dragon.

He drew blood; however, the dragon fell from the higher branch and tried to bite Damon’s neck as it fell. Its head resembled that of an alligator except with a slightly less protruded muzzle. Damon angled down his shield and slammed shut the dragon’s muzzle. A green liquid poured out of his mouth and started to melt the tree branch. He quickly stabbed it in the head and jumped onto another branch. The limp dragon fell from the tree and soon after the corroded branch cracked and fell on top of the dragon’s stomach.

“Is it damaged?” asked Damon from atop the tree.

“Probably, but it’s fine, I need its head, the rest is just food.” She washed away the acid in its mouth and proceeded to gouge out its eyes, pull out its teeth, and its tongue.

“Done,” said Emilia. She waved her hands as to tell Damon to come down the tree. “But you were close this time. That acid chews through flesh faster than wood.”

Damon hadn’t thought of it then, but his shield wouldn’t have stopped anything. He didn’t realize how dangerous its acid could be. Although physically weak, it still deserved the title of a dragon. He couldn’t imagine how they caught them before the invention of that magical tool.

“One last ingredient?” asked Damon.

Emilia nodded.

Damon didn’t mind this way of life. Although creating a living dead still intrigued him, the urge had slightly diminished. However, if he kept up this way of life, he wouldn’t be able to level up his black magic. Plus, the sect had already invested a lot into him. He doubted that he could find such kind patrons elsewhere.

“What’s the last ingredient?”

“A black wolf’s liver.”

“That … doesn’t sound too hard. Is that all?”

Emilia nodded, “they used to be just as common as the regular grey wolves. However, they were nearly hunted to extinction two hundred years ago due to their liver. Since they’re now protected, their numbers have slowly started to rise, but they’re still hard to find.”

“How are we going to find them?”

“Stolas said that he found poachers up north from here. They’ve apparently caught two of them and are currently leaving the forest.”