Chapter 109: The Weekend Underground Gathering

A few days later, on Sunday, Jess was back in the basement of The Slaughtered Lamb.

He sat in a corner, studying A Brief Exploration of Orcish Rune Patterns, which lay open on the table.

Gakin had been talking by the fire for a long time, analyzing the spells—or phrases that might be spells—that the group had collected over the past few weeks.

Most of the supposed incantations were in Orcish. Jess could even understand quite a few of them.

Orcish spells weren't unheard of, but they were rare. Even magic like Eye of Kilrogg, invented or improved by orcs, was cast in Demonic.

After all, orcs had only been in contact with shadow magic for around a dozen years. During that period, the orcs who studied shadow magic themselves had used Demonic. Orcish hadn't yet developed a deep connection with dark magic.

So most of the discussion here was probably a waste of time. Jess listened while reading his own book, saying he needed to prepare for his exam. Nobody objected.

He hadn't dared try Drain Life again in the past few days. It was easily the most dangerous spell he'd learned and tested.

It could do terrible harm to someone else, and if he lost control, it could hurt him too.

Still, despite vomiting some blood that day, Jess hadn't felt sick afterward. He hadn't felt any signs of inflammation, either.

When he'd returned to Stormwind, he'd gone to the church priests for an examination. They'd found no external wounds needing treatment and no hidden internal injuries. The bleeding had stopped quickly.

Saeno guessed the stolen life energy might initially have ruptured Jess's blood vessels and disturbed his body's normal fluid circulation. But when the excess energy had finished overflowing from his body, the energy remaining inside him had repaired those vessels.

In other words, it had been a process of getting rid of energy his body couldn't contain. Any damage was limited to the very beginning. By the time the life energy spilled into the air as flashes of light, the whole process was already over.

The imp's theory had eased Jess's worries somewhat. And even the priests hadn't detected signs of dark energy affecting his body.

When they used the Holy Light to search for hidden damage, it hadn't caused the painful burning he'd felt during treatment for the undead rot poison infection. So Jess had put the matter behind him.

But thinking back to the moment he'd drained the sheep's vitality, Jess felt there had been something addictive about it.

NovelPhoenix is the author's publishing place for this chapter; this copy appeared without permission from the person who wrote it.

He couldn't tell whether the craving came from shadow magic or simply from the feeling of controlling such power.

All magical power could become addictive. At its worst, it led to dependence like the elves suffered. Stay away from a source of mana for long enough, and both body and mind began to decline. That was how elves became the Wretched—strange, dried-up creatures that looked like thin zombies, lost their reason, and lived only to hunt down the smallest scraps of magic.

To keep himself from dwelling on that craving, Jess planned to visit Gred after the meeting and see how his injuries were healing. Then they could return to sword training. Exercise and sweat might help him drive away those harmful feelings.

He noticed Erlan Dudemore glancing his way from time to time. Jess pretended not to see it.

Erlan could fight and was always rude, but he didn't seem like the kind of person Gakin had once been—someone willing to pull a knife on another person in an alley.

Besides, Erlan was clearly more interested in Gakin's collection of strange spells now. Before, he'd looked down on the gatherings and their lessons. But since Jess had cast Curse of Weakness on him, he'd taken a much stronger interest in learning magic. He was even repeating words along with Gakin.

Jess was absorbed in his Orcish rune research when Erlan suddenly called, "Hey, Gakin! What about that spell from last time?"

He was addressing Gakin, but his voice seemed aimed toward Jess.

Jess looked up. Sure enough, Erlan was staring at him.

He obviously meant Curse of Weakness. What was going on? Gakin had discussed all these spells and still hadn't mentioned it?

"I saw little brother Jess use it pretty well the other day," Erlan said, glancing at Jess before turning back to Gakin. "A spell that powerful—aren't you planning to share it with all of us?"

Surena, Ursula, and Gardes looked between Jess and Gakin. Gakin smiled.

"Don't be impatient, Erlan Dudemore. I'm delighted you're so eager to learn. But the strongest, most effective spell should naturally be saved for last. Jess is willing to share his discovery with us. I would never disappoint him."

Jess had been wondering something for days. Why had Gakin traded one of his carefully guarded "precious" spells for Jess's useful curse, only to share the new spell with everyone instead of keeping it for himself?

Maybe Gakin didn't think those supposedly precious spells were precious at all. Perhaps he treated them the way Jess treated Curse of Weakness—as small bargaining chips.

When Gakin produced the three spells, he'd admitted he hadn't learned any of them except Curse of Recklessness.

And Recklessness didn't sound especially useful. Who would want to make an enemy go mad? This wasn't a game where adding a modifier to an enemy gave you extra loot.

Or perhaps Gakin genuinely wanted to build the group into something bigger, sincerely drawing more people onto his "path of dark arts."

Now Gakin was looking toward Jess as he spoke.

"Our newest member happened upon a new incantation while traveling recently. He has named it Curse of Weakness. It's clearly different from what we've studied before, and its source may not be the warlocks of the orc tribes."

Jess was a little surprised. He hadn't expected Gakin to realize the spell wasn't Orcish. Even Jess had needed to ask the imp before learning that it wasn't Demonic at all, but came from the Void.

Ursula leaned closer and whispered, "Hey, Jess. You didn't learn that spell while you were in Westfall, did you? Did you steal it from the murlocs and hide it from me, only to tell Gakin?"

Jess answered helplessly, "I didn't even know what it was when I got back, Ursula. It's not a murloc spell. I found it while scavenging. When I first found it, I didn't even know whether it was shadow magic. I couldn't read it. For all I knew, it could have come from the Wizard's Sanctum. Didn't you hear Gakin? We can't even be sure it's an orc spell."

He leaned closer to her ear.

"Besides, didn't I give you a naga scale to make up for it?"