Accumulation To Kill

Luca opened his eyes, the blue moon's light blinding him; soon, a figure appeared; surrounded by the moonlight,, she outshined it. Sylvia.

The memories came back to him in a landslide, he lept up in surprise, seeing that a white bandage was wrapped around his injured arm.

As for the large opening in his back, it seemed to have been mended together by magic.

His eyes focused on Sylvia, her expression cold and distant.

"Idiot" A crisp slap landed dead on Lucas' face, a subtle bruise being left behind.

Before he could say anything to defend himself, a furry of slaps rang out, each hitting the mark perfectly.

"I told you not to go. You didn't listen, and now look, you're barely able to move. Our rescue team had to spend a whole night searching for you, and because of your critical state, I had to personally go out there to patch you up." Sylvia grimaced, her anger obvious to anyone.

The guilt left Lucas unable to retort; he'd been too lax about his safety. Just because he saw a little hope in himself, he started thinking he was invincible, which he was clearly not.

"I'm sorry. I wanted to repay you for the healing pills, but I ended up costing you more." He scratched his head; even in such a situation, the most he could do was apologize.

"Oh! Did you guys get that abomination core? It should be enough to pay you back for the first time" He said, in an attempt to change the topic

"It's already been sold and distributed among the rescue team, so try again next time" Sylvia shrugged 

"Oh.." it dawned on him; the rescue team was a special force; it dealt with rescuing lost mages, whether it was a Tier 1 Rookie Mage or a Tier 9 Archmage.

It was special in the sense that, the current strongest mage, Griffin Stronghold, had made established a rule that a rescue team would have all the items of the rescued mage, no matter how precious.

Of course, this only applied to lawful areas like cities and some camps, like theirs.

Sylvia sighed, looking at Lucas' state. She almost didn't want to tell him the situation, but alas, every bit of help was needed.

"Heal up, news from Frost City, there's an Abomination tide, a Tier Three leading it, and a few hundred Tier One's and Two's headed straight for us."

Boom! A bomb dropped on Lucas' head, an abomination tide? The Tier Three wasn't all too bad; after all, the camp leader was also a Tier 3, but so many lower-ranking ones?

Keep in mind that Beast tides were divided into different levels, depending on the leader beast's level. A normal tide was led by a Tier 2 with a few dozen Tier 1 beasts.

This tide was called a Killing tide, as it was headed by a Tier 3 or 4 Beast; thankfully, this tide only had a Tier 3. But nonetheless, the large number of followers in these tides still caused a great number of casualties

Then there were Rampage tides; these were terrifying hordes, with thousands of beasts ranging from Tier 1-4, headed by a Tier 6 Beast.

Lastly, Destruction Tides were extremely rare but terrifying beast tides, usually led by multiple Tier 7 beasts or, at times, even a Tier 8 beast, not to mention the tens of thousands of weaker beasts; this had only happened once until now, on the Day of the Fall.

All in all, adding up even the medical staff, the camp had around 50 members, the guards numbering 10, with only half being Novice Mages (Tier Two).

"When is it expected to hit?" He questioned nervously

Sylvia raised her index finger, "A month".

"Cooked," Luca said, his mind flowing with thoughts, a month. He could do a lot in a month; in fact, he could probably become a Novice Mage or even surpass it.

The numbness in his right arm seemed to vanish under the adrenaline surging through his body. He mustered his strength to stand up from the hospital bed.

"I'm going to the Spell Tower, thanks again for saving me. I owe you one." He said as he walked out the door, unlike his outburst last time.

He walked through the camp; it seemed silent, and the usual cries of patients or laughs of the guards couldn't be heard.

He walked towards the back of the camp; around there was a majestic tower made from blue ice with a dragon spiraling out of its peak.

This was the Spell Tower, it was a spatial artifact developed by a Tier 8 Space Mage. It allowed for trading between cities and small settlements, but it couldn't be used as an escape route in case of disaster.

He pushed the door open, a fragrant gust of lavender assaulting his nostrils. His eyes fell on the person behind the reception, a short, bald, middle-aged man. 

"Uncle Ray!" Luca adopted a rare smile as he greeted the man

"Lucas, how are you, my boy? I heard you had a pretty close call yesterday. You keep worrying that little girl, she can't focus on her work, you know," Uncle Ray laughed, his missing teeth letting a sliver of wind pass through them.

"Yeah yeah, I already got lectured back there, anyways. Have you heard about that abomination tide?"

Uncle Ray's expression turned solemn; he scratched his head and sighed, "Well, yeah. It was pretty shocking at first that such a tide would aim for a small camp like yours, maybe that old fart Josh stirred up some trouble with the tides king."

"Thankfully you lot have Sylvia, she's got some good connections if she can find out about beast tides an entire month in advance in such a rural area" he commented, his voice carrying a teasing grace 

"Yeah, we are. She's a pretty good healer too, considering I'm still walking around just a day after I practically died." Lucas praised her unknowingly 

"Okay, keep your lovebird talk out of my humble shop; what do you need from me, kiddo?" Uncle Ray changed his tone to one of a sly old businessman.

"Two spells, a movement-based and a defense-based one." He said, pulling out a satchel filled with monster cores.

"What is that 30 monster cores? You've done well for yourself these days haven't you." The old man joked, his eyes flickering with the light of a leprechaun who stumbled upon another pot of gold.

"24, now recommendations," Luca said impatiently; he didn't have much time to chit-chat anymore.

"Okay, okay, since you already have Severing Wind as your main spell, for a movement spell, I'd recommend a wind spell too, something like Wind Dance. But it's a bit costly, with 15 low-tier cores."

Lucas sighed, "15 is a lot, you know; add on the monster tide. Shouldn't there be some brave hero discount?" 

The sly old fox laughed "Ha! Well, you're not wrong, kid; you do get a discount, 30% off."

"I'll take it," Lucas said without hesitation.

"Nice business, now for defense spells eh? They're a bit tough. You're more used to wind spells, but there aren't many defense spells with wind attributes." Uncle Ray said, throwing out a book labeled "Wind Dance" at Lucas.

"I've got 12 cores left; what's the best spell for defense I could get in that, no matter how difficult progression is or how obtuse its element is?

"Oh ho? Feeling so confident in yourself today? The only spell I have that meets your requirements is The Golden Body spell, a low-tier version of the actual one used by Consuming Mages."

"How much?" Uncle Ray received a nervous reply from Lucas. The Golden Body spell was definitely good, considering it originated from a Tier 3 Spell. But it would be more expensive too, wouldn't it?

Uncle Ray smiled, raising his hands and spreading out all his fingers "10, 10 cores and you can have it." The old man flashed a smile that didn't really look like a smile.

"Deal" Lucas took out two cores from his satchel, throwing the rest at Uncle Ray and catching the golden-colored book Ray threw in return.

"Good business, old man," Lucas said as he walked out without looking back.

"Good business indeed, young "hero,," Ray replied, laughingheartilyly. That damned spell had taken up shelf space for a good few years, he'd have given it to him for free had he asked.

After all, no one else was as crazy or, in this case, dumb enough to get a spell without seeing its requirements.

'But maybe, just maybe, with that kid's situation,, he could master the spell? After all, he is the first and last of his kind.' Ray thought, his eyes growing dazed as his mind went elsewhere.

Outside the Spell Tower, Lucas smiled as he looked at the two Spellbooks, ready to pull an all-nighter studying them. Then he just had to go hunting for those abominations until the month was up.

After all, even if he was trash for now, feeling the pressure of surefire death of not just himself but also Sylv- other camp members, he could transform into someone much stronger.