Chapter 138 - Controlled Vines

Mana slowly converged, seeping through my skin and into my body. The process of casting the 'controlled vines' spell was slow, but steady. The diagram gradually formed in my mind.

For some reason, it seemed far smaller than it did before. I guess memorizing with paper is just several times easier for me, or it was the fact I was casting while the spell was in front of me.

After a few moments, I got a bit impatient, but did not act on that.

Well, at least I didn't intend on it.

When I attempted to recreate the irregular spell diagram I learned a while ago, I ended up taking a wrong turn.

A sharp pain cascaded throughout my entire body. It was like countless needles were piercing through my skin. I quickly held my hand in front of my face as I felt something well up.

It was blood.

I began coughing violently, causing the blood to splatter against my palm. As it was getting a little overwhelming, I pressed my hand against my face. My hacking became muffled while blood continued dripping down past my palm and onto my chin.

After a little while, it calmed down.

My breaths were a little unsteady, but the overall damage wasn't too bad. It definitely looked bad since it was as though somebody just stabbed me, but the damage was manageable. 

The only reason it looked like this was that the surface layer of my throat was torn open, limiting the damage to the capillaries.

As such, I didn't even bother casting the healing spell and decided to try one more.

The process was rather slow like last time, but I didn't let it get to me.

Mana first formed several base spells, such as the earth and water diagram. Then, it created lines that connected together and diverged into various paths, eventually interconnecting into an entire spell.

Then the spell was cast.

Such a complex spell made me expect something rather astounding, whether it was the size or just overall visual effects. However, only a tiny green stub grew out of my hand.

My skin that surrounded the vine stuck to it tightly and the vine itself almost felt like a part of me. After a few moments of hesitation, I tried to move it.

Making the vine move.

After a bit of observing, I came to realize that the spell diagram lingered in my body. As in the mana was still in the shape of the diagram, but remained still.

Under normal circumstances, the mana would be consumed entirely, thus there wouldn't be anything left. However, right now, it was remaining stagnant within my body.

My first instinct was to try and push the mana out of my body. But I stopped myself.

Instead, I began gathering even more mana and continued to funnel it into the spell diagram within my body.

A strange feeling came from my hand, then the vine slowly began to grow. It made me quite fascinated, so I continued to add mana, causing it to extend even further. It quickly reached the length of my arm and was about as thick as my arm bone.

The sensation was a little creepy to a certain extent because I could even feel the air brushing against the vine. It was as though my nerves had extended into it, or that the nerves from the vine had connected to mine.

It made me hesitate, but I wanted to see the limits of this spell, so I gathered even more mana. There didn't seem to be any restriction as the vine continued to grow larger and thicker.

Eventually, it became larger than even me.

I stopped gathering mana for a moment and stared at it in surprise. The large vines gave me a strong sense of power. Like I could crush something easily.

However, it was also really hard to control.

As it was growing before, my control over the vines was very precise, like I always had a vine coming out of my hand. However, now I could only make general clumsy movements.

This time, the mana that was in the form of the spell diagram began to rapidly dissipate, funneling into the vine. It continued until disappearing altogether, after which the vine began to decay.

In mere moments, the once powerful vine coming from my hand turned into a bunch of mass of black. Thankfully, despite having my senses linked, there was no pain. As it began to decay, it became harder to feel and control the vine, until the sensation disappeared altogether.

It felt a little empty, like I lost the function of a limb.

With a soft snap, the vine broke off my hand, like it was never attached in the first place. The vine was now just the size of a rope. I set it aside casually, then leaned back in my seat.

Successfully casting the vine spell made me feel a huge sense of progress, especially towards my goal.

Creating some sort of spell that would grow plants.

Then, the root of all problems would be fixed, right?

The village that Leon was responsible for was so peaceful and had an excess of food. Surely, those two things are linked.

However, I didn't get ahead of myself.

Like Erin, I began to question how this spell worked.

Why was the strange smaller diagram required?

Why were the interconnected pathways the way they were?

I looked up at the ceiling.

It was easy enough to combine the water and ice spell to create something new, but they were relatively easy spells.

Not to mention, it was created using spell diagrams that had previously existed.

I closed my eyes.

In other words, while I understood the purpose of the smaller parts within the diagram, I did not understand why it was shaped in that way.

The only real growth related spell I had access to was this vine spell. That meant the only way to make a new spell was to create completely original additions to the spell.

Basically, it was going to be hard.

I could beat my head against the wall and try out every single variation possible, but that seemed like a dead end considering how many possible variations there would be.

A soft sigh escaped me.

Regardless, I made a step forward. With that in mind, I went up to Mildred's room. Her condition was fairly bad, but was restored after I cast the healing spell on her. From there, I took fifty coppers out, the payment for watering the garden today.

And so, with the money, I left to buy another piece of paper.

Standing at the edge of the palace entrance, I could make out guards. They were patrolling as they were before, but in noticeably fewer numbers.

After a simple observation, there was roughly a ten second window where the road wasn't being monitored. Considering I nearly got into the alleyway with only five seconds, I was pretty confident in doing so within ten.

I took a deep breath, then bolted forth.

I made it into the alleyway, and as expected, nobody noticed my presence. Since nobody saw me, I felt pretty confident walking through the alleyways. However, I decided not to get on the roofs since Mark would probably either choke or directly kill me.

Then suddenly, I froze.

There were voices.

"What is the point of us patrolling this place? It's not like someone would live in a place so dirty."

"The murderer may not reside here, but he used this as a method to escape. It is only natural to patrol here."

It seemed like the guards were arguing. Since they were directly approaching me, I scaled up the walls and remained still.

"But even if we did see him, there is no way we would be able to catch up! He disappeared completely last time!"

"Yes, but doing this is still better than nothing."

The guards began passing under me. One of them let out an audible sigh.

"I suppose you are right, but I still don't want to be walking around here. It's so dirty."

"That I can agree with."

Once it became quiet, I let out a soft sigh. If I didn't catch onto their voices, I probably would've missed the guards coming and got caught.

I guess it wasn't going to be simple.

With that, I dropped back down and continued through the alleyways. There was an occasional pair of guards, but I either evaded them or climbed up the side of the walls and remained still.

Eventually, I made it to the back of the shop, still in the alleyways. Every so often, I would see guards walk past out on the streets.

My brows furrowed.

...This would be hard to deal with.

I could time going into the shop while the guards weren't looking. But the same couldn't be said for leaving the shop.

It would be really awkward if I opened the door while they were there.

I tilted my head to the side.

....Unless I teleported inside.