Bab 77: A Few Moments later

"Dobby had to punish himself, sir," said the elf, who had gone slightly cross-eyed. "Dobby almost spoke ill of his family again, sir. . . ."

"Yeah, I'd hit myself too if I had them as my family," said Ben.

"Sir knows of Dobby's family?" asked Dobby.

"I know the blondies alright," he said with a sneer, "and you don't have to worry, you'll be free of them by end of next school year."

"Free? Dobby? No, sir, Dobby wouldn't dare, sir," said Dobby, looking flustered as his deepest desire had been pulled out in the open.

"It's fine if you don't dare, just make sure to grab at the opportunity when it's thrown at you," he said, throwing a wink at Dobby.

"But, sir, Dobby can only be freed when-"

"I know all that, Dobby. You don't have to worry about anything, it is my word that you will be free, the means and the time is all left to fate," he said to Dobby.

"You is not only a great wizard, sir, you is good as well, too good, sir," Dobby said wailing, wiping his snot on his very dirty pillowcase. "You is thinking of freeing Dobby, Dobby is-"

"Alright, spare me the melodrama, go give Harry his letters back, and remember-"

"Dobby won't make any troubles for Harry Potter, sir," said Dobby, almost too excitedly. at the thought of leaving this place.

Ben opened a portal and dropped him straight into Harry's room.

"He looked too happy to leave this place, am I that bad of a host?" Ben asked himself.

Somehow even if we were to ignore that Ben had abducted the poor elf in the first place, the fact that Dobby couldn't access his magic here had made him extremely uncomfortable and hence very eager to leave.

"Well, let's hope he doesn't try to get Harry expelled now," muttered Ben and he too left the Nirn Island.

There was still a question left floating around.

"Why did Ben suddenly care so much about what happened to Potter?" Well, at first, Ben had only wanted to check up on Harry. But when he saw the poor state the boy was in, being worked in the sun like a house elf, he couldn't help but question if his indifference towards him was a little too cruel.

Considering that Harry had already had a very hard life and it was only going to get rougher in the future, Ben decided to ease some of his problems and send him a useful gift as well.

Just this year, Potter might have to face a giant, deadly snake, and Ben didn't want Dobby adding even further to his problems. But only time would tell how successful he had been in convincing the peculiar elf.

Time passed, and half a month went by in the blink of an eye. On Nirn Island, Ben was sitting cross-legged, holding the Dragonstone in his hands, meditating. The stone plate let out a slight humming noise that only Ben seemed to be able to hear, but a certain force could be felt permeating through the surrounding air, covering the ground around Ben in a layer of frost.

One could almost hear the tiny ice crystals forming on the ground as the cold travelled even further, covering the barren land with a frost blanket.

Just when the frost seemed unstoppable, Ben suddenly opened his eyes and stood up, putting a stop to the conquest of ice crystals.

Ben gazed at the lake in front of him. It remained still like a sheet of glass reflecting the world around it. Its crystal-clear waters allowed a view of the lake's empty bottom that once again reminded him of the island's barrenness.

"FO!"

A wave of icy breath rushed from Ben's lips, enveloping the area in a sudden chill. The air thickened, turning into a frosty fog, which quickly crystallized upon reaching the lake's surface. The newly-formed ice spread rapidly across the small section of the lake, emitting a soft, enchanting melody, reminiscent of the tinkling of tiny chimes. The effect was mesmerizing - the ice sparkled like diamonds under the dim moonlight of the two moons.

Ben smiled in satisfaction and looked at his status.

[[STATUS]] [SHOP] [STORAGE]

[Name: Benedict Nigel Brown.

Species: Human[Wizard].

Job: [Apprentice Mage], [Enchanter(Novice)], [Alchemist(Novice)]

Title: Dragonborn[Level 40].

Vitality: 500

Magicka: 511

[Deathly Hallows[1/3]: Invisibility Cloak△]

[Thu'um] :*[Animal Allegiance(RAAN M̶I̶R̶ ̶T̶A̶H̶)], *[Frost Breath ( FO K̶R̶A̶H̶ ̶D̶I̶I̶N̶)], [Unrelenting Force(FUS ̶R̶O̶ ̶D̶A̶H̶)]

[Familiars] :[Stoat(Silvaticus), Dragon(Norene), Owl(Aquila), *Snake(Karl)]

[[SKILLS]]

[Alteration[Level 42(Apprentice)]: . . . *Ash Shell, *Detect Life, *Ironflesh, *Telekinesis, *Transmute, *Waterbreathing]

[Conjuration[Level 41(Apprentice)]: . . . *Summon Karl, *Banish Daedra, *Bound Bow, *Conjure Ash Spawn, *Conjure Frost Atronach, *Conjure Mistman, *Conjure Seeker, *Revenant]

[Destruction[Level 40(Apprentice)]: . . . *Chain Lightning, *Fireball, *Ice Storm, *Flame Cloak, *Frost Cloak, *Lightning Cloak, *Whirlwind Cloak]

[Illusion[Level 42(Apprentice)]: . . . *Frenzy, *Frenzy Rune, *Rally]

[Restoration[Level 40(Apprentice)]: . . . *Close Wounds, *Greater Ward, *Heal Other, *Heal Undead, *Poison Rune, *Repel Lesser Undead, *Stendarr's Aura, *Turn Undead, *Vampire's Bane]

[Weapons Mastery[Level 20(Novice)]: [Slash], [Block], [Sneak Attack], *[Power Attack]]

There were a few additions to note:

Animal Allegiance: A Shout for help from the beasts of the wild, who come to fight in your defence.

Frost Breath: Your breath is winter, you Thu'um a blizzard into existence.

Ben had managed to reach level 40 in all of his Mage skills and had purchased all the Adept-level spell tomes available in the shop. However, despite his progress, he was still an Apprentice Mage and would only attain the rank of Adept once all his spells reached level 50.

Over the last two weeks, Ben had spent his time meditating with the Dragonstone and had learned two new words of power: Animal Allegiance and Frost Breath.

Although Ben found the idea of breathing out an ice storm with Frost Breath to be cool, the spell wasn't particularly powerful yet. He could achieve the same effect with his Novice spell, Frost.

The second word of power, Animal Allegiance, called the surrounding animals to his aid. However, Ben didn't find it very useful since he couldn't order the animals as he could his familiars.

During this period, Ben had absorbed six more soul gems, increasing his Magicka capacity by six. He had also noticed that he could absorb a soul gem approximately every three days and it took him five souls to learn a new word of power. Therefore, he could learn a new word of power every fifteen days.

Considering that there were twenty-seven shouts with three words each, it would take him over three years to learn all of them at this rate, which was quite disheartening. However, he still held hope for the future.

Ben also had a new familiar, Karl, and it took one petty soul to control. He found it when he had gone out to test the Animal Allegiance shout; apart from the common European Adder, also known as Viperus berus, he had only managed to summon a few lizards, birds and rodents.

--Dreamscape--

There, Ben's playing with snakes now, he's getting stranger, I tell you. Also, we have a Karl now; looking at you, Simple_Russian_Boi; I need you to sacrifice that bottle of vodka asap.