Granted, earth zeal wasn’t the best at direct combat either. At least not the style I trained in, but I had been using it to empower my body with Yorik’s instruction, which was the best method for direct physical combat. In short, this match up gave me a clear advantage.
Despite that, Gurthari was slippery. She launched a frenzied attack with zeal straight at my skull. If I had to spend time delicately unraveling my bonds, then she would have all the time in the world to slice my guts open with the long dagger she’d unsheathed. It was identical to the one that Illiel had tried to kill Yorik with, except the blade gleamed with poison.
I wasn’t about to bet everything on me being able to disable Gurthari’s mind spell before she could stab me. I’d timed this encounter, so it would happen just when Yulli and her crew were very close to our actual location. They were still traveling slow because they were carefully scanning the surrounding terrain, but once they had a location they could be here within under a minute.
Instead of attacking Gurthari, I simply called on the power of my spellheart to draw as much earth zeal from the area towards me as I could. Afterwords I let loose a thunderous rumbling of earth, like a localized earthquake. It wasn’t anything so formal as a spell, but it served its purpose. The sheer movement of so much earth zeal probably would have alerted Yulli and her mage acolytes, but if not then the sound of the earth shattering around me definitely did.
Gurthari ignored my spell and jumped over the suddenly broken and uneven terrain to lunge at me with a poisoned dagger, the same one Illiel was supposed to use on Yorik. A major mistake in my opinion. The smart thing to do would have been for her to recognize the signal for what it was and spend every second she had getting out of the area. But then, she didn’t know there was an angry true mage hunting for her.
Unfortunately, she chose to try to finish me off. That was the worst-case-scenario for me, but it’s what I’d planned for. While talking to her I’d been selecting potential projectiles in the area. Even frozen by Gurthari’s mind spell I had enough power to fling those things at her.
Gurthari dodged a jagged shard of rock at the last second. I followed that rock up with another while she was recovering from dodging the first. Unfortunately, she managed to avoid that one as well. I’d been hoping that Gurthari wouldn’t be trained in physical combat and would rely entirely on the strength of her mind magic. Unfortunately, it appeared that was not the case.
I flung stone after stone, every time Gurthari looked like she was trying to close the distance between the two of us. I was buying time. Either I would unravel the mind magic that held me in place, or —
A boom collided with the ground and a gout of fire rose up in the air. When the smoke and flame faded Yulli could be seen emerging from the tree line. She was still dressed in her armor, though not to the extent she had been before. It must have been too cumbersome with all the dents in it.
“You’re from the Cult of the Unblinking Eye.” Yulli leveled a harsh glare at Gurthari. Then her eyes caught mine and they widened in surprise. “What are you doing here? You’ll tell me what’s going on after, first I need to destroy this snake in our midst, Yulli opened her hand and a ball of dark red fire appeared in her hands.
Gurthari did a move I recognized. She tried to use the same freeze spell on Yulli that she’d used on me. Lucky for me, I’d had my mage sight active, so I was able to perceive the many glowing threads floating through the air as Gurthari weaved them from zeal emanating from her spellheart. I made a mental note to remember exactly what she did to prepare myself to better fight against it.
The spell was nowhere near as effective on Yulli as it was on elves still in the zeal accumulation stage. Instead of letting the spell touch her, Yulli reacted instantly and thrust her palm forward, expanding a ball of blindingly bright fire and light until it was a disk as tall as she was. Then she pushed the disk forward, causing the swirling bright flame to expand outward, devouring the plant matter on the forest floor.
Soon it projected in a line, consuming the mind magic spell that Gurthari had cast, and even scorching the flesh of the mind zeal wielder herself.
“Zeal that overwhelms and consumes. The ability to interact with zeals other than that of your spellheart. Only a true mage...” Gurthari backed up several paces, her limbs red and raw.
“I admit, mind magic is tricky stuff. Even those with mage sight have a tough time seeing it unless they’ve trained themselves to see mind zeal. Still, I’ve had a lot of practice dealing with mind magic lately. A little zeal accumulation elf like you doesn’t even measure as a threat compared to what I’ve faced recently.”
Yulli closed her fist, sending the deep golden flame swirling in the surrounding air, where it coiled like a snake. It reared overhead, shimmering like sunlight over a lake and preparing to strike Gurthari down.
As for the mind heart wielder, she did something that surprised me. She tossed her dagger on the ground in front of her and fell to her knees.
“Honored senior. I did not mean to offend your honor,” Gurthari held her hands up as she knelt on the ground. “Please, grant one weaker than you your mercy.”
Yulli considered her request for a moment. “Very well.”
I expected Yulli to withdraw at this point, maybe take Gurthari prisoner. Instead, the golden serpent of fire and light rearing up behind her struck down in one quick motion, engulfing the mind zeal wielder in a finger of flame.
When Gurthari died, the remaining bits of the binding spell unraveled from the air and scattered.
After a good ten seconds of burning, Yulli withdrew the flame back to her. There was no corpse left, though strangely, a small white sphere hovered in the air, swaying gently in the breeze. From it, I could see a pale amber glow slowly dissipating in the air.
Yulli reached for a small ring on her hand. She twisted it off her finger and pressed the ring to the floating ball of light. Suddenly, there was a small gleam in the previously dull jewel fixed to the ring. Yulli then slid the ring back on her finger.
I walked forward and kicked at the ashes. It was hot, so I didn’t want to sort through that with my hands. It only took a bit of searching to find what I was looking for. Gurthari’s mind spellheart.
I’d only caught a few glimpses of it, but what I’d seen hadn’t done it justice. It was a pale amber stone about the width of both my thumbnails. It had smooth edges, as if it were formed from a drop of some tacky resin that had hardened before it fell to the ground.
Yulli saw what I had pocketed. “Those things are useless. We’ve tried. The Cult of the Unblinking Eye must have some special techniques that allow them to begin practicing mind magic. It hasn’t worked for me or any of my mage acolytes.”
“All the same. I’d like to give it a shot myself.”
Yulli shrugged. “Speaking about you though, how is it you ended up here all alone? And how you ended up confronting an enemy heart wielder?”
I gave Yulli a half-baked story I’d come up with on the fly. Most of it was truth, though I left out anything that mentioned Illiel. I fully admitted that it was my desire for one of these mind aspect spellhearts that had driven me to fighting the heart wielder.
Yulli accepted my explanation as we gathered the rest of her troop. I thought things had gone rather well, but then Yulli pointed out two of her subordinate mage acolytes.
“I like your ambition. Were you anyone else I’d put you on a combat squad. But you’re too valuable to my clan to lose, so we’re going to have to curb this reckless streak of yours. From now on these two will be your keepers. You don’t go anywhere without them. They’ll see that you’re fed and washed and kept happy,” The two mage acolytes looked at me. One of them had her expression as stern and formal as it would have been had she been asked to take the night watch. The other though smiled at me and looked excited at the apparent prospect of coddling me like a baby.
“Thank you, I’m flattered, but that’s really not necessary. We need all the mage acoly
tes in your squad prepared for combat purposes. Having two mage acolytes tend to me would be a waste.”
Yulli shook her head. “Non-negotiable. Danori, the one male we managed to bring with us, has already reached his peak in terms of cultivation. He’ll never make it to the mage acolyte level. But you’re another story. Based on the amount of zeal I saw you pull just now, you’ve got talent to spare. From now on you will spend every breath training. Getting you to the mage acolyte level should be our top priority. Once you reach that level there any children you sire will be considerably more powerful, and powerful new clan members is just what the Songstone Clan needs right now. Until then, we’ll need to regularly milk you of vitality for the revival of our fallen and the continued advancement of our clan.”
That was... reasonable, from her perspective. I didn’t have anything against doing some intensive training, but this didn’t sit well with me. Yulli was already taking charge, and I was being reduced to something a bit above the field of mystic trees Nela was planting in terms of value. A stud in a pen. This was an unacceptable outcome. I’d have to come up with something to deal with Yulli, and fast.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
I PLANNED TO spend the next day in secluded training. When everyone else woke up and started working, I remained behind in my private chamber.
Technically, those were Yulli’s orders, so I had an excuse for the seclusion. Being secluded also meant that she wouldn’t be able to give more specific instructions other than ‘train.’
Still, she was a problem that would need to be dealt with sooner rather than later.
And so, I meditated, as the trance-like state was a prerequisite for gathering more spellheart power. I’d really taken to the hobby since coming here. It was actually quite relaxing. I focused for a bit refining my earth spellheart. By now, I was able to picture myself in the eye of the storm without even thinking. Earth zeal poured into my spellheart, as easy as breathing. The rest of my mind was able to contend with more important matters, like figuring out my plans for the future, both short term and long term.
For the long term, I realized that I would need to bind this earth spellheart to myself and become a mage acolyte. I’d gotten a taste of authority and power over the powerless mortals, but as soon as Yulli showed up, being a mage, I was stripped of all my authority.
Why? Because she was more powerful. In this world, personal strength determines your power. Sure, there are other kinds of power like money, connections, and rank within an organization, but that was all shaped by personal power. Those at higher levels of cultivation would find that all types of power would come to them far easier than those at a lower cultivation rank.
Mage acolytes had the advantage over heart wielders in every way. Not only could they easily physically overpower a heart wielder elf, and have access to special powers they could wield, but they also had extended lifespans as well, which gave them more time to accumulate ever greater amounts of power.
From what I’d learned, elves in this world weren’t immortal like the kinds of elves in Lord of the Rings and other such stories. In fact, an ordinary, mortal-level elf barely had a human lifespan. It was only with years upon years of cultivation that they could reach the mage acolyte ranks. Only then would they have some of that longevity and mythic grace human stories attribute to them.
But the mage acolyte ranks, and the ranks beyond, could be achieved by anyone. Even me. With hard work, dedication, and just a bit of luck, any elf can become one of those amazing, powerful beings. What’s more, cultivators like that actually are immortal... so long as they keep advancing.
As it turned out, each advancement came with a boost to longevity, and each level provided more longevity than the level before it. The catch being that progression became exponentially harder at each level. An elf needed more and more resources, talent, dedication, and luck at each level to make it to the next. That meant that there were many bottlenecks along the path of cultivation.
Any elf could eventually reach the mage acolyte ranks if they cultivated a good spellheart and were able to bond it to themselves. In other regions of the world, I had learned that the mage acolyte ranks were average. Any child could reach them upon being gifted dozens of high-quality spellhearts to try bonding with, no need to cultivate them yourself. But out here in the zeal-barren lands far from a true source of zeal, it took a lifetime of zeal accumulation to be able to reach the mage acolyte realm. The only way to do it faster was to receive the benefit of elixirs or mystic fruit. That’s why herbalists like Sava were valuable. A few good potions could do in a day what a year of meditation would not. I mentally thanked Sava for all the nasty tasting plant smoothies she’d been feeding me since I came to this world. Despite my apparent talent for cultivation, it’s possible I might have still been in the first layer at this point. Certainly, I wouldn’t have figured out as much as I had without her help.
There were a few other ways to get cultivation resources though. One of the most common was to simply take what you needed from those who had them. Many clans and sects would store up precious resources until they had important or talented descendants, or until a time of crisis was upon the clan. The Songstone Clan survivors had managed to escape with some of these resources, and they were hard at work consuming them to raise Nela and other important figures up to the ranks of mage acolytes.
This was because, while anybody could become a mage acolyte, there’s a cut-off in terms of quality that must be met if you want to fully bond with your spellhearts and get the maximum amount of power. Nobody would bond a low-grade spellheart when they could still improve it to a mid-grade spellheart with just a bit of time and meditation. Unless they really needed that power now. Bonding with an inferior spellheart would cut off the path for future advancement and make it impossible to fully master it and reach the true mage ranks.
Besides Yulli’s people, those with Nela were simple domestic staff for the Songstone Clan, now they were the core members of the group and would be given resources accordingly. Before catastrophe hit the Songstone Clan, they were saving up their pay to improve their spellhearts to top-grade before merging them with their bodies. Pressed for time and resources, many of them likely planned on accepting what they had and attempting the mage acolyte ascension ceremony anyway. I was curious as to exactly what that entailed, but the reverent and fearful voices I’d always observed when it was mentioned made it sound both painful and risky.
Good thing I’m indoors, or the elves might cough blood in envy. I thought as I nibbled on what tasted like a pear. The fruit was one of the things Yulli had brought back with her, originally to help her raise up Danori, the male she’d brought with her. Instead, it had been given to me, much to Danori’s fury. The fruit was sweet and crisp in a crunchy earth-like way. As I took the final bite I felt a rush of power flow through my body. Yulli wasn’t going cheap on me. Though this fruit was definitely one of the best resources she’d gifted me, I hadn’t eaten anything that wasn’t filled with zeal since she arrived. I wasn’t sure how long her supplies would last, but we both hoped that I would be a mage acolyte before she ran out.
You have broken through to the third layer of zeal accumulation!
50 points awarded. Total points: 734
That was the first time in a while I’d seen the messages. I needed to get back to Mac soon so I could buy some rooms aboard the ship. I was certain that Mac and the ship were a bigger advantage than any amount of fruits, if only I could accumulate the points to use them.
Scanner level 3 (Upgrades Available)
Upgrade scanner to level 4 for 350 points?
Scanner successfully upgraded to level 4
Weird. It was 400 previously. Mac must have done some something that lowered the cost. I accepted the upgrade, quickly bringing my point total crashing down again.
[Mac?] I projected in questioning. This time I sensed some fuzziness. Like white noise. I could almost hear something. This was good. Maybe one more upgrade an
d I’d be able to communicate with him. Maybe I would be able to do it with a short hike off into the woods. I’d need to come up with an excuse to leave camp though.
“So, you’d call this a high-grade mind aspect spellheart?” I asked Illiel. I’d gotten Sava to sneak her into my private quarters. Yulli’s guards were sloppy. One of them had actually started using her shift to catch up on her sleep. I suppose they were more babysitters than guards though, so it could be excused.
“Yes...” Illiel said slowly. She was still a little shook up from the realization that her mentor, Gurthari, was dead. Sure, she might have hated the older woman, but she was still a familiar face. It’s always uncomfortable when people you know die, even if you hated them. That was one thing that didn’t change even in another world.
“Mistress Gurthari spent years building that thing up from a mid-grade spellheart.” Illiel continued. “She’d drained it to nothing several times, and had hopes of eventually pushing it to the level of a top-grade spellheart so she’d have the best foundation for the mage acolyte realm possible. She never got that chance though.”
“I see... so binding this spellheart to myself would save me years of meditating, quietly collecting zeal in order to bring a spellheart up to this level.”
“That’s right, but it’s not so simple. There are ways to quickly improve the rank of your spellheart and save decades of work, but they typically involve the assistance of a cultivator many ranks above you. Or some incredibly valuable elixir or mystic fruit.
“You see, as spellhearts grow in power they become harder and harder to harness. The scale of low, mid, high, and top-grade spellhearts doesn’t apply to all spellhearts across the board. A spellheart is just a collection of zeal of a particular affinity, so it can be present in as little as a grain of dust or as big as a mountain. The issue is that a spellheart the size of a grain of dust would be essentially useless and attempting to bond with a spellheart the size of a mountain would destroy the mind and soul of the cultivator making the attempt.”
Zeal of the Mind and Flesh: A Cultivating Gamelit Harem Adventure (Spellheart Book 1) Page 26
