Chapter 75

Half an hour latter I am outside, helping with the finishing touches, specifically setting up a stand full of wooden weapons. While I am doing this I am attempting to use the training method I developed earlier, with an unsurprising lack of success. After ten minutes I had finished my task and just in time too, as the food was starting to be set out, signaling the start of the party.

Within seconds the several food tables have been surrounded, Mary’s birthday is a local holiday if only due to the celebrations that accompany it. very few people are willing to miss it, there was even a report of someone killing themselves because they forgot it was coming up and accepted a two week long contract, of course they were turned into an undead almost immediately after.

Every year the party goes pretty much the same way, almost like clockwork. The first several hours is accompanied by great food and even better booze, with the occasional spontaneous brawl. At dusk the last set of food is brought out, mostly because the chef’s would rather be part of the party than cook. This food is always their best, and this is the only day they make it, I’ve seen blood feuds start over this food. Luckily I don’t have to worry about that as I get my own plate before most other people, being related to the birthday girl has its perks. After the food is all gone the gifts are brought out, too be honest it is little more than a giant dick measuring contest, everyone competing to have the best gift. I’ve seen everything from bizarre sex toys to armies of goblin slaves, last year someone convinced an elder dragon to show up as his gift. Shortly after that it devolves into a giant brawl, several years ago we had a problem with the number of casualties resulting from this, but now everyone leaves their weapons home and uses the wooden weapons that are set up before hand.

At around this point we usual retire to the house too hand out our own presents, usual not as grand as an elder dragon though. Usually we just give little trinkets we find on our travels.

The part goes pretty much as expected, only one person died. A couple people challenged me and I got involved with a couple brawls, over all it was pretty fun. The food this year was some kind of giant crab, a mindless beast that some of the trainees stumbled upon during training, they killed it and brought it back, hoping to eat it, only for the chefs to confiscate it. Of course those trainees got their own plate of food without having to compete for it, Mary saw to that.

I saw the girls and the humans during a couple brawls, I didn’t manage to get a good look at them but most of the humans evolved into high humans. Although something feels, different, about them, I can’t put my finger on it though. Well whatever, a mystery for another day.

As for gifts I saw many interesting ones. There was a wand made by a sylph turned lich enchanter that was made from dragon ivory and a wood from a tree that was naturally struck by lightning no less than three hundred and seven times. Another noteworthy item was a cup full of a low grade healing potion, what was really noteworthy about it was what happened it was emptied completely, it filled up to the brim with more healing potion. It would be useful for refining high quality potions.

The gift that got the biggest reaction was something called an age reversal potion; Mary went up and personally thanked the man who brought it, something I had never seen happen before. Needless to say that gift was the winner. I found out later that there are a total of three people in the world that knew how to make them, and they only made twelve of them a year.

After all the gifts had been given we retired to our house. The presents we give aren’t nearly as grand but that doesn’t matter. Johanna got some chocolates from hell, aunty and uncle got her a blanket that was enchanted to be however hot or cold you wanted. The old man got her a hair tie the keeps your hair clean and looking like it was freshly brushed, apparently she had asked for something similar.

When it was my turn to give my gift I asked everyone to follow me into the dungeon, where I presented my ‘gift’. At first a look of shock and terror flashed on her face, but only briefly, it quickly changed to a look of glee and expectation. She asked me for a knife and kicked everyone out, including Alfred, who was in the other room.

The next several hours were filled with the screams of a tortured beast, in her rush Mary forgot to raise the sound barrier, and no one wanted to interrupt her. I decided to spend my time talking with Alfred. One of the first things he mentions is the fact that he found an interesting specimen today while he was hunting for test subjects. A goblin that can create fire, which isn’t all the impressive, except it wasn’t created through magic. Apparently the goblin has a weak soul based ability, technically magic, yes, but it functions more similarly to a blessing than normal magic. It won’t improve through use, instead requiring some other things to trigger it to grow, and in some cases won’t ever improve. In order to figure out anything else I would need to directly observe the goblin’s soul, which will be rather difficult as it is in the dungeon

After some further discussion I sit down and start to meditate, focusing on the training method I had come up with earlier. This time I manage to enter a trance, I don’t even register anything I’m doing, I just sort of do it. I end up losing track of time going through the same cycle over and over.

I wake up from my trance a while latter, still in the same spot on the couch I was when I started. I felt completely and utterly sore in both my soul and my mana pool, I couldn’t cast even the simplest spell with how worn out I was. My physical body was even a little sore.

Instead of getting up too see how long I was out, I decide to just lay down right there and go to sleep.

End chapter 75