บท 13: The powers of life and death

'Healing your wound would require 30 BP, Cael. Proceed?'

'Yes!' Cael grit his teeth. He really wanted to be as stoic and impervious to pain as his father's knights, but the truth was… This was his first real fight, wasn't it? Everything before was just training.

The fact of this descended on Cael like a lead blanket—slow, hard, and heavy.

He killed a man—an enemy of their family—and drained his blood to empower himself. And yet… He realized that besides the pain from his wound and weariness from the chase, Cael felt great.

Exhilarated. More alive than ever.

He won! If he needed a tangible proof of his worthiness, here it was—the corpse of his enemy! And he was going to become stronger from it. Better able to protect himself, his lands and his world.

Cael grinned.

'Understood, Cael. You now have 12 BP left.'

He felt a tingling in his shoulder, which soon grew in an itch that replaced his pain. In another second, both were gone.

Cael carefully rolled his shoulder, then poked it with a finger. Then, to make absolutely sure, he pulled his shirt down to see his shoulder. The skin was completely unblemished—not even a scar. Only the leftover blood was left.

"Wow." Cael fixed his shirt again.

'I can't come back home like this… Would raise questions, like where's the wound? I'd need a second circle healing spell to heal it this well and quickly. Hmm… System! How much BP do I need to restore my mana?'

'20 BP, Cael.'

Cael frowned. That was expensive… He better to just meditate, since he had time.

By that point, the Grasping Vines spell had expired, and the vines had turned back into normal weeds. Nothing stopped Cael from putting his cloak on the ground and sitting down to meditate.

This area didn't have rich mana, but it was enough. Each bit of mana Cael added to his mana pool felt different. Air mana brought a sensation of weightlessness. Earth mana was heavy and sturdy. Grass shared with Cael its peaceful growth.

But the biggest source of mana in the alleyway was the energies released by the spy's death. Mana of death, and mana of his spilled blood. It was only natural to gather them, since Cael wanted to recover his mana as soon as he could.

He immediately didn't like the mana of death. It was too cold and far from life. But the mana of blood was its opposite.

It quickly dissipated, too volatile to exist for long, but how much energy was in it! It was like a moment on the brink of death, continued perpetually; a constant struggle at the limit of one's abilities; life that prevailed against all odds.

In that moment, Cael understood why blood was such a popular component of many rituals, and why his predecessor liked blood magic. This was the raw power of a human being.

He consumed all the blood mana in the alleyway greedily, and when he finished, his mana pool was almost full. He stood up, guessing that about five minutes must've passed. The blood on his clothes began to dry up.

Then he chanted the Lesser Exsanguination spell, but instead of the corpse, aimed it at his own bloody clothing. The weak spell strained to pull on the crusting flakes, but Cael pushed through, and in a few moments, the blood from his clothing gathered in his palm in a small red globe.

'I wonder… System, would I gain any BP from this?..'

'No, Cael. But you could use it for other spells if you learn any.'

'A pity.' Cael threw the globe on the ground. 'Alright, then it's time to get more upgrades.'

He needed to recover his mana one more time to drain all the blood from the body. It didn't look much different from how it did before—just deathly pale. Like a pig ready for roasting.

System declared that Cael had three upgrades ready for purchase, but he ignored it for how.

'If somebody asks me where did all that blood went, I really won't know what to tell,' Cael thought, biting his lip. 'Would anyone even notice? Of course they would—this man has a pierced throat! There should be a puddle of blood!'

And there was. His spell couldn't recover the blood from the ground, and there was plenty that had soaked in. An idea struck Cael.

He grabbed some of that bloody dirt and smeared it all over the corpse's neck and chest. Now he looked dirty and bloody. Kind of.

'This will do.'

Then Cael looked through the spy's pockets and bags. At first he found only ordinary things: travel supplies, some money. Then he checked the less obvious places, patting the clothing for anything hidden and trying to guess where the spy would hide anything discriminating.

He found three gold scudo sewn in the spy's belt, another finger-long knife in his sleeve, and finally—a small silver medallion in the heel of his left boot. A medallion with Nuvoloso crest on one side, and magical glyphs on the other. Cael could sense the mana lying within, but had no idea what the medallion did.

'Could it be some kind of a disguise amulet?' He guessed. 'Maybe Father knows. Regardless, it would be proof enough.'

Cael took the money and the medallion. Then, with a smile on his face and a pep in his step, he walked out of the alleyway. It took him another five minutes to find a group of guards who clearly were trying to follow the spy.

"You are all too slow," Cael said to them. "Somebody, tell Gianni Oliveira that I have killed a spy that got into our city!"