Chapter 86 The Duke’s Orders

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p It has been a week since the spar with the three kids, and we had been working together to grow stronger. We have not gone to hunt yet, however, as I wanted them to train before anything, and its not like there is any living being in the First Layer by now, you could call it a picnic area by now… the Demons are really hungry, huh.

I do plan in going there once more, the knowledge about the demons being in the forest is already spread around the entire village and probably the duchy, so there was no point in telling them I encountered some Imps on my way to the Second Layer.

I've been already preparing myself to create an internal Magic Circle inside of my Soul as of now, gathering the magic knowledge and the practice and patience to do it, I will mostly use all my Mana in the process as well, and if it goes badly, it might backfire and damage my soul.

A Magic Circle is a special formation that all magic users make into their souls, it helps them conjure magic spells as it is like a permanent shortener of spells. By using the runes in the magic circle, you're capable of shortening the conjuration of spells and make them faster, while also making them stronger.

The Magic Circle can slowly grow stronger and offer a greater boost to the magic power and mana regeneration speed through gaining more runes into its body, which you have to slowly refine into it. After reaching a certain amount of Runes, the magic circle increases in a Tier, and after a ritual of refinement, it can increase to the next Tier and offer even greater bonuses.

If it wasn't clear enough, the people of this world clearly don't know a thing about them, so I will be the first one to ever make Magic Circles, a miracle amongst miracles for the people in here who are too reliant in their Talents and Spirits, and well, the Spirit Orb Cultivation, which seems to be a thing, although not as advanced either.

Talents are interesting, and I've discovered more things about them as I see my three friends develop. First of all, they're not so different from what I can do with my own Grimoire, but without the Skill Points or Stat Points deal, unlike me who has the chance to use them as I please, their own Skill Points and Stat Points seem to always be automatically used to acquire new Skills or increase their stats according to their Talent.

So in a way, a Talent is no different than a Job Class… some good Talents often come with Skills right off the bat. But what are Skills when compared to my own? Well, very much the same, they're special non-magical abilities people can use inherently by using some Mana.

Although they're all Level 0, Chris, Eric, and Erika all have one Skill from their Talent.

Chris has the Fireball Skill, which allows him to shoot fireballs without having to conjure them, and they're naturally stronger too. Then there is Eric with his Nature's Blessing Skill, which is like a better First Aid, but he needs healing magic to back it up, and he's still getting better at that, and then there is Erika's Dance Skill, which allows her to… well, dance very well.

Her skill seems like the most useless of the three but she had fused it with her Martial Arts and it became an amazing complementary Ability that allows her to move more gracefully, precisely, and amazingly in a fight…

And well, as they Level Up or receive "Blessings" by killing living beings, people can gain more Skills, although this seems random, sometimes it happens and other times it doesn't happen.

My father had been working in the farms and I have been able to see his Talent as a Farmer through the Skills he had. Father had a total of four Farmer Skills, which seem to be all he got after maxing the Talent to max level, apparently… I don't know if there is even a max level, I am mostly assuming there is, but maybe he just needs bigger prey now.

These four Skills are Plant Empathy, Enhance Soil, Tireless Worker, and Gardener… Yes, my father lacks any other combat Skill, and the ability he has with the spear is purely based in what he had learned by himself. He told me that all these Skills worked in enhancing the farm, so it is way better than most other folk… but that's it.

Nonetheless, I can already see a lot of talent in them, if my father could learn Qi and Magic Spells, he would definitely be able to use these Skills in completely new ways. But for now, he's mostly resting and sometimes attending the farm…

I want him to recover so I can help him grow stronger, but for now I am just telling him to use the breathing technique to enhance his Qi.

I had recently finished eating breakfast, and I was feeling rather ready to go train some more today, however, something unexpected had happened.

"Blake, there's a big group of people outside, is there something happening?" asked my grandmother.

"Is it?" I wondered.

"These people… Wait, they're going to hunt?!" asked my mother.

I rushed outside my house, as I saw all the surviving hunters grabbing spears, they were being led by a new pair of people I had not seen before, they came from the main duchy, and were… not as poor-looking as us.

"What is happening here? Why are they going to hunt now that the forest is infested with demons?" asked my mother.

"The Duke had said that we need to hunt again… It's not like we can go against the Duke, we live on his territory…" said a hunter.

"The Duke… ordered people to go hunt for wild boar?" I asked.

"Yeah… I am also afraid, but we have to do it, even if we don't have as many men now…" sighed another hunter.

Hm… this is certainly troublesome.

I suppose I have to go as well.

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