BrightMoon: Path of a Witch King

Chapter 4

I took off my skirt and tested the water with my hand. It was a bit hotter than I expected but I would rather take a hot bath than a cold one. I eased myself into the water before sinking down into the heated water.

I let out a sigh as the hot water covered my body, “God that feels good.” I said aloud.

“The view isn't too bad either.” Petra called out from where they had perched themselves on the edge of the tub. I flicked hot water at them, just as I was about to laugh as Petra fled from my attack the door opened. Elo came in and collected my pelt skirt and left a towel for me before making a quick exit.

“So Petra, the currency, cubes and disks? What's that about?” I whispered. 

Petra floated down to me and got close to my ear, “There are several precious metals in this world, most of which are made into coins or cubes, ten disks make one cube. Ten cubes makes the next metals disk, as for the metals it goes least valuable to most; copper, silver, gold; adamant, mithril, with mana veined silver and gold being the most valuable.” the little guide whispered to me.

“Mana veined?” I asked 

“Mhm, there are a few other rare metals out there comparable to adamant and mithril but finding them will be hard, mana veined silver and gold are worth the same amount in value, but they are incredibly rare. Those metals are the best for making enchanted accessories, while adamant and mithril are better for weapons and armor. However, as an earth spirit you are more likely to find rare metals than the mortal races who have to dig deep into the earth and search with their eyes.” I paid my full attention to Petras explanation. 

I hopped out of the bath and started to dry myself off. “So I can sense rare metals?” I found the underclothes, which happened to be just a loin cloth, it took a few tries to get it on right. 

“Yes, that's why eventually you will be approached about finding metals for a group or business. Depending on who it is you can either decline or hide, well unless you are strong enough to make it worth your while.” a knock came from the door as Petra finished up their explanation.

“Come in.” I called at the door.

Elo came in with a pair of leather boots, “Papa and Mama are ready to take your measurements, Ela picked out these boots for you sir.” Elo went quiet near the end of his sentence, I took the hint.

“You can call me BrightMoon, and thank your sister for the boots.” Elo nodded with a hint of a smile and closed the door behind him. I slipped on the rest of the clothes and exited the bathroom to find Ela waiting for me.

She quietly ushered me to the fitting room, Gola and his wife were inside waiting for me, both wearing matching brown leather aprons. “You can stand up there in the middle mister Moon” Ela said quietly while pointing at a small pedestal with three mirrors on the sides. It reminded me of the stands for wedding dress scenes from the movies I watched with my mom.

“Alright Mr.Moon just hold up your arms and we will get started.” Golas’ wife said to me.

I held up my arms so they could get to work, “The name is BrightMoon, just the one name and that is all you have to address me as.” I corrected the tailor's wife, she nodded in acknowledgment before she and her husband got to work. While the couple did their thing I looked myself over in the mirror, I was surprised that I didn't look anything like my old self.

My tanned skin was replaced by a dark grey, my black hair was a silvery white, and my once damaged eyes were bright silver moons. Hell I didn't have the white of my eyes, they were black like a demon or something. I opened my mouth slightly and I saw four sharpened canines, luckily no forked tongue, that would have been too much even for me. I even had horns! Which I had to resist touching in front of the tailors.

Ten minutes later I was free to step down from the mirror, “Thank you. BrightMoon. I know being poked and prodded can be an annoying process to some.” Gola began leading me to the front of the shop, “But thanks to your patience we can now start work on a few outfits, I can make two outfits with what we have and I will keep the rest. The change for your order is going to be two silver cubes and one disk. If you happen to hunt any more beasts please bring their pelts by and we will offer you a fair deal. Also if you don't need the meat our neighbor, Uran, is a great butcher and is in need of a steady supply of meat.” When we got to the front Gola handed me a pouch that clinked with the sound of metal. “Your clothes should be ready in a few days. Come on over anytime to pick them up.”

“Would you happen to have a bag and maybe a belt for sale?” I needed something to hold the claws, teeth, makeshift knife, and money pouch.

Gola smiled and walked behind the counter and pulled out a small traveler's bag that looked rather odd, one belt seemed to wrap up and around the torso and the other around the waist to keep it secure to your body. It wasn't very large so it would be good for holding my knife and money pouch and a few other small things. The second bag was much larger, I would be able to carry quite a bit in the back pack, enough for me to butcher a portion of my kills.

I paid the tailor for the bags, two copper cubes worth, and went on my way. I stopped at a general store as I needed a few things before heading back into the woods. I didn't have any intention of staying in town for the night, I learned from the general store clerk, a rather kind old woman, that living in town required quite a bit of money.

I decided to find one of the cabins she mentioned and come back to town whenever I needed supplies. My father had taught me enough to survive in the wilderness back on earth. This planet might be more dangerous but on the other hand so was I.

Finding one of the cabins was rather easy, I just followed the river back towards the hills until I came across a rather well maintained cabin. I checked the fireplace but there was nothing but dust and coals. 

“Well it's time to get to work.” I said before I placed my pack down in the cabin and sprinted back into the woods. I didn't run into any beasts over the next hour as I transferred my kills back to the cabin, though I did find some large tracks near my kills.

Once I was back at the cabin I started cleaning the place up, I found an old wooden bucket and rags inside and though it wasn't the best equipment it was better than nothing. It took roughly two hours to wipe down the dusty surfaces. There wasn't a bed inside but I did purchase a bedroll, essentially a sleeping bag, from the general store. 

I placed my firewood in the fireplace and got a small fire going. I didn't know if the nights were cold yet but it was best to be ready for it, once the fire was going I went outside and started on butchering my kills.

I had stopped by the butcher's place and a waxed paperlike material to wrap the meat in, the butcher was quite happy to hear I would be delivering meat later and gave me plenty of the waxy stuff.

I started with the deer, as I had actually butched one before, though it was nowhere near as big as this one. The deer, once I had finished with it, easily filled my bag.

As it turned out, I had been doing the tailor and butchers jobs for them. Normally you were supposed to drag the kill to town, the butcher would skin the kill and deliver the pelt to the tailor. My lesson was learned for sure, but it was fine, I would smoke the cat meat and have jerky as a snack after tonight.

After a quick trip back to town I returned to the cabin and started my work on butchering the cat. I hummed to myself as I set up a small smoking stand. On my trip I had bought some leather stripswhich I used to hang the meat all along the stand. I let the small fire in the center burn down to coals before placing fresh needs and wet bark on them, creating a nice smoke.

I closed off the stand to trap as much smoke as possible and left the meat for the night. I went back into the cabin and started working on an early dinner, a stew of herbs, lion meat and vegetables. As I stirred my stew I thought to myself, though this world was technologically near the dark ages, it wasn't so bad. 

Everything I did filled me with a sense of purpose. I thought back over what had happened since I cast that summoning spell on earth, I was genuinely happy so far. My problems were literally worlds away, and now that I had a day to live my life free of them I knew that whatever being had sent me here and whatever their intentions were it was the fresh start that I needed.

I looked over my shoulder to see Petra on my bedroll, surprisingly my little guide could snore, now that I had a moment to myself I tried something I had been putting off, I thought about holding the grimoire that being had told me about and before I could blink I felt the weight of a book appear in my hands.

The large book in my hands was black, all that stood out about the thing was the silver palm print on the front with a spiral in the center. 

“All those stories about magic and here it is at the tips of my fingers.” I whispered aloud, my pulse increased just thinking about it. What person on earth hadn't thought of wielding magic? And here I was about to look at a bonafide magic tome.

I tried to open the book but it didn't budge, a few minutes of struggling to force the book open led me to the realization that I had been going about it like a person who didn't have magic. I put the grimoire on the table and placed my left hand onto the cover and released a bit of mana from my hand.

Unsurprisingly the cover glowed for a moment before starting to open on its own, moving my hand away I pulled the cover open to reveal what was inside. A message was scrawled across the top.

{Mana accepted. Welcome master BrightMoon, would you like the current list of spells you are able to learn?}

“Yes?” I replied a little stunned.

The words faded before the first page was filled in quickly, I could hear a faint sound of what I believed was a quill writing on parchment. 

--

Spell types available: Slots 3

Combat spells- fireball, wind blade, water whip, earth spike

Support spells- Flame barrier, wind barrier, water shield, earthen shield, blessing of the earth

Unique spell- blessing of the earth, Summoning, Familiar bonding

--

Looking over the page I quickly ignored the combat spells, I was plenty strong and though I wouldn't have been against flinging spells at people I already had power over the earth so I had that covered in my list of abilities.

The support spells were interesting, the thought of working with a group of people and being able to protect them from a distance sounded almost perfect to me. Though once again, being an earth spirit I would be able to accomplish the spell earth shield in any number of ways.

What caught my eye however was that the same spell was in both categories of support and unique, plus the other two spells in unique were just as tantalizing as the blessing of earth spell. “Um, can you tell me or describe those three spells in the unique category?” I said to the book, I peeked at Petra and found them still snoring.

{Certainly master.}

Blessing of the earth spell- using your connection to the earth act as a bridge and give a blessing to an ally, the blessing will give a small barrier just above the skin making it much harder to injure the blessed.

Summoning- The spell summoning allows the witch to summon a particular race to fight for them and serve the witch for the rest of the witch's life. Be warned, the race is chosen at random and there is no breaking the contract of summoning a race to be your servants.

Familiar bonding- find a creature and cast the spell to bind it to you. Enhances intelligence of the creature to better serve their master.

“Holy s**t!” I breathed out. These are overpowered as hell, how in the world did I get these spells as a beginner? Okay the earth blessing makes sense but the summoning and familiar bonding are similar to one another, maybe this has something to do with moms lineage?

I had questions but no one to answer. After thinking it over I decided on my choice, “I want the three unique slot spells.” I whispered to the book.

{Right away master. Place your hand onto the palm print and inject your mana.}

On the blank page to my right another palmprint rose to the surface, I followed the book's instructions and placed my right hand into the outline and poured my mana into the book. Once the page glowed I stopped pouring in mana, the three spells on the left page turned into little runes and shot across the pages and up my arm.

An ice cold sensation ran up my arm and arrived at my brain before I could yelp in surprise, I abruptly stood up from the table almost spilling my stew, as I stood up the sensation was already fading. At the forefront of my mind however was the knowledge I needed to cast the spells, it was rather easy to activate the spells, all I had to do was channel mana into my vocal chords and speak the name of the spell. If the spell needed a target all I had to do was think of the target, much more straightforward than I thought it would be. I couldn't wait to test them out, I quickly finished my stew and laid down on my bed and closed my eyes. ‘I'm a witch!’ These were my final thoughts before falling asleep.