BrightMoon: Path of a Witch King

Chapter 14

“It is all clear master!” a little sprite said coming back in from the tunnels. I nodded and opened the door, the morning air was fresh with the smell of moisture.  I stepped out into the yard and examined the fence, it was obviously too short, I would also need to clear more trees so the goblins wouldn't be able to jump from them to the top of the wall.

I started my project by thickening the fence and slowly raising the height. I had to do the wall in sections. I wasn't even a quarter of the way done when I ran out of mana.

The sprites were on high alert, they actually seemed excited at the thought of fighting goblins, considering that goblins were roughly three feet tall and the fleck sprites were only about one third their size it was an odd match up.

I was meditating inside when I heard the sounds of screaming, I rushed out of my home, I found to my surprise a dozen goblins being stabbed to death by the tiny sprites.

A goblin managed to shake off his attackers but before he could recover a sprite ran up and drop kicked him in the chest. The other sprites quickly charged over and started a blood bath, I wasn't sure if I was supposed to feel sorry for the goblins or not.

They had probably been a force to be feared in the forest, even hunters had to take goblin packs seriously, but as the number of my sprites grew it was obvious that a pack of goblins was nowhere near capable of fighting fifty seven of them, and their numbers grew daily.

When the last of the goblins died my sprites cheered and celebrated before they started looting the bodies, the sprites piled the loot into two separate piles at my feet. One were the emblems and the other was the obsidian chunks. I rewarded each of them with a silver disk, though they haven't earned more than a few silver it was an acceptable loss.

At the rate I was handing out silver I was going to need to find a way to increase my income. After meditating for a few hours I was back to a full tank of mana, which I quickly spent on the wall, this process continued late into the night until there was only one chunk of the wall left.

It was about the width of three men, so not a very wide opening, I had saved enough mana to seal our home for the night which I promptly did once I knew everyone was inside. 

The next morning I continued my routine of summoning more sprites and recharging with an earth blossom. I felt a tugging on my pants just as I was getting ready for the day, looking down I saw a small sprite, they were only six inches tall and incredibly adorable.

“What is it, little one?” I kneeled down to get close to them.

They pointed at the stairs to the basement, “Master I found it! I found it!” they chittered excitedly.

“Oh? What did you find?” I smiled at their excited behavior. 

“Follow me master! I will show you!” with that the excited little sprite took off. I chuckled and went after them, I descended the stairs and looked around. “Here master. Right over here!” I followed the voice down the hall that had the storage rooms.

I found the tiny sprite at the wall, unexpectedly I found them standing next to a hole in the wall. “What did you find?” I asked and lowered myself to the floor to get a better look. 

They smiled and went into the hole, they returned quickly with a rock in their hands, they turned the rock around and along the rock was a shiny silver stripe, “Essence! I found an Essence master!” they cried in delight.

“No freaking way.” I said under my breath. This little sprite found a vein of silver beneath our house? What are the odds of that happening?

The tiny sprite started waving their hands over the silver encrusted rock, the entire piece of raw ore glowed and shrank until there was only a silver nugget in the hands of the sprite. The magic didn't end there, the silver nugget stretched under their hands into a small pickaxe and he dashed into hole in the wall.

I heard a crisp “Tink tink tink” sound.

Soon after the mining started a few sprites came over and stared at the hole, soon the tiny sprite came out with another chunk of raw silver, they passed it to the closest sprite before they charged back into the tiny mine.

The sprite held the ore and soon the same magic happened again, once the sprite had his own pickaxe he dashed into the hole, the process continued and one by one the sprites were widening the entrance of the hole while those who could fit were mining away and bringing out the silver ore.

As the sprites opened up the tunnel and they each made their own tools some of the sprites were not mining but working with the raw ore. They were forming various shapes, almost how I bent stone to my mind they were now practicing the same but with silver. 

A few sprites came down, they had been in the battle from earlier and sported a few injuries, one even seemed to have a broken arm. They each took a piece of raw ore and performed their magic, though this time I noticed that the markings on their bodies glowed brightly, the raw ore glowed before shooting into their markings.

The wounds mended almost instantly and the sprites seemed to be full of energy, they grabbed several more chunks of ore and repeated the process over and over. By the third round of absorption I noticed that the sprites were getting larger, once they had absorbed twenty chunks each they stood at a foot and a half in height.

They grabbed a few more chunks of ore and remade their weapons before heading back upstairs, my flecks had become nuggets, though it had cost quite a bit of raw ore their increased size would no doubt help them in battle.

I was curious why the others did not attempt the same transformation so I asked a passing sprite why only a few decided to become nuggets. They shrugged and said that when they were ready they would know.

I guess it was kind of like puberty, it hits when it hits, I sat back and watched the little sprites work which reminded me I had my own tasks to do as well.

I went back upstairs, the sprites reported that everything was all clear outside so I opened up the entrance. I went directly to the wall and began sealing the last remaining hole. I spent a third of my mana but it was finally done, I once again added a walkway at the top.

The sprites happily climbed up on top of the wall and resumed their lookout duties, I went back inside the house and found my large block of obsidian. The block was almost two fists around, I held it in my hands before pushing my mana, I reshaped my obsidian until I had two pieces.

In my right hand was a large hunting knife, the blade  was long enough to use as a weapon, in my left hand was the sheath which matched it perfectly. The only issue I had with the knife was the handle, which was smooth as glass, it would do ok for now until I got to town and was able to buy some leather strips to form a proper grip.

I tucked my knife into the back of my belt and picked up my axe, after I was done I probably wouldn't need anymore firewood till next year. Over the next two days I chopped down every large tree within five feet of the wall, there was only one more goblin pack that came by and the sprites easily took them out. 

I dug up a few saplings which the girls were replanting inside the yard, while I was dragging large logs into the yard and cutting them into properly sized pieces. Once my storage space was full I built a large fire pit outside and made a few seats with the stumps.

There was plenty of lumber still left outside the wall, but with no room to put it I decided to leave the logs outside. I was sitting at the fire pit reading from my grimoire when a new message came from the magical book.

{Master, with all the knowledge here it is possible to compose a guide for a new witch. It would be enough to help them step into witchcraft, however, there are two issues with creating a grimoire for others at present.}

“What are the issues?” I said down to the book.

{There is a lack of knowledge for combat oriented magic, they would be able to choose to study the same simple spells offered to you when you activated me, but you only have selected support spells. The more you use a spell the more you and I learn from it, our source of magical knowledge is connected, making it easier for you to learn spells. You do not use combat spells, so I do not know how to grow them.}

“Ok, what are your suggestions on how to fix that, and what is the second issue?”

{The first issue can be solved by; you practicing the spells normally. Waiting until your mana capacity, body, and soul are enhanced enough to make another spell slot and forcefully absorb the knowledge. You could also obtain another magical tome for me to absorb, these are the methods I have come up with. The second issue is creating a grimoire will cost you nearly ten times your current mana capacity.} 

Damn. That's a ton of mana, though if I kept at my daily routine I might be able to do it in a few weeks. As far as combat spells went it was probably going to take a long time before I opened another slot, and there might be something better than a basic spell available, the third option was also not something I could do immediately. It wasn't like I could go to the market and find a magic spell book.

Which meant I only had one option left, hour and hours of study and practice, I sighed aloud and repeated to myself, “This is for the apprentices.” over and over.