Chapter 168 - Job

"Light of the skies, help this poor tired soul and purify it, Lesser Heal… " Zaos said while he was reading the translation of the Lesser Heal.

It was a pretty weird spell… Zaos imagined that he would learn something by reading the translation, but he didn't. Not to mention, nothing happened when Zaos read it. Most likely, if the spell could be activated by voice too, it had to be said in the tone of the ancient language.

Although nothing happened, Zaos decided to memorize the translation of each symbol in order to be able to read the language someday easily. Maybe that will be useful in the future. Regardless, after that much progress, Zaos managed to fall asleep pretty fast.

Once again, the next few days managed to pass pretty fast. Although she had the chance to train two types of spells now, Ameria decided to focus on improving the enhanced arrow with wind magic. That was pretty smart of her. Even Zaos was having a hard time following her arrows with his eyes alone.

"If you practice other spells, you will naturally become more skilled at using magic and thus your enhanced arrows will improve naturally," Zaos said. "Fire only three arrows enhanced with wind magic every day and then practice the arrows enhanced with earth magic. As for while you meditate, you can practice drawing those symbols, they are for fire magic."

"Can you make a demonstration?" Ameria asked.

"I guess so…" Zaos said.

Fire magic was a bit dangerous, so Zaos made a demonstration with water magic. When the arrow hit the target, Ameria didn't notice any difference. The speed and power weren't all that impressive, but she saw a thin layer of ice there once she approached the target.

"You can slow down the target by freezing them like this," Zaos said. "Even if you cause just a scratch, you incapacitate them for quite a while."

"The effect seems pretty weak if compared to the other enhanced arrows," Ameria said.

"Well, it can't be helped since it is water magic," Zaos said. "Still, if…"

"If… what?" Ameria asked.

Zaos couldn't help but wonder if he should tell Alissa that he only showed her the most basic versions of enhanced arrows. He had developed another level… However, he still didn't know if he should reveal that kind of thump card anytime soon, much less teach others. He didn't even teach Tyra since she didn't have that much free time due to her shop. Considering the incident of several days ago, Zaos didn't feel comfortable with the royal family. While he was just a kid from their perspective, they still were hiding too many things from him and using like he was just a chess piece.

"Nothing," Zaos said. "Focus on your training."

Ameria couldn't help but frown, it was evident that Zaos decided to hide something, but if he didn't want to talk about it, she wouldn't be able to force him.

After two weeks of research, Zaos also managed to decipher the symbols used in the Heal spell, but those didn't make any sense either. Also, Ameria mastered the enhanced arrow using Earth magic around that time, but that was just a minor detail.

"Guardian of life, with your blessing help your servant dissipate all suffering from the realms of men, Heal…" Zaos read the translation out loud, and once again, nothing happened.

Around half of the symbols of healing magic had been deciphered by Zaos, but considering that he had translated the simplest spells that could heal wounds, he felt an urge to play with them in order to find a new spell. Still, creating a new spell out of nowhere would really be that simple? If that were the case, the followers of the demon God were supposed to have developed many healing spells over the years.

"Before trying anything like this, I guess I should decipher the symbols in the spells that decrease the symptoms of diseases," Zaos said and then resumed his research.

Things were proceeding quite well, but Zaos was fully aware that things couldn't keep working favorably like that forever. Something was bound to happen that would break his rhythm, and the one who brought the troublesome news was his father the following day.

"I have a job for you, Zaos," Laiex said before the training could start.

"Job?" Zaos frowned.

"A certain book seller wants to sell some magic books of a friend in his store, but his friend lives pretty far away from the capital," Laiex said. "So, I want you to escort the book seller to his friend's hometown, and then bring him back to the capital alongside the magic books."

"This seems like a common job, why don't you ask for a more experienced soldier to do it?" Zaos asked.

"The seller wants to add new books to his store, because his own isn't doing that well," Laiex said. "That is why he doesn't have much money to hire many guards or experienced ones. He already paid fifty gold coins and you will be responsible for hiring enough soldiers to help you on that job."

"What if I don't want to hire anyone?" Zaos asked.

"I would say that your greed might cause you problems in the future," Laiex said. "That being said, it might be time for you to learn that kind of lesson. Do you want to risk your life and your client's life just for a few extra gold coins?"

"No, but I already consider this job a big waste of time, I might as well take some risks to make the most of the situation," Zaos said.

"At least hire Drannor," Laiex said. "He needs that kind of experience."

"He is the last person I would ever hire," Zaos said.

"What about the other squad leaders that worked with you in the North?" Laiex asked.

"No way," Zaos said.

Laiex sighed. His son obviously didn't like him all that much, but despite that, he was stubborn and as prideful as he was back in his youth… Hopefully, his actions and decisions won't cause any problem during that mission.