The Skinwalker armor had more holes than swiss cheese, but it was perfectly functional. The problem was repairing it required time or mana. Alas, Lith had a shortage of both.
Luckily, the Warp Gate (*) brought him straight from Xenatos to Linjos’s office, where Manohar, Vastor, and Marth were waiting for him.
Marth was there to heal his wounds while Vastor replenished his life force. Manohar was attending out of curiosity. He seemed to find the story of the wyvern and his mysterious array quite fascinating.
Lith reported to them the events, replying to all their questions about the nature of the Life Draining spell being careful to not blow his cover.
“Fascinating!” Manohar listened to every detail like they were sweet words from his beloved one.
“Wyverns are also known as pseudo dragons or lesser dragons. Never use those terms in front of them. They consider it a racial slur, just like the word ‘lizard’.”
“Bah!” Vastor scoffed at Manohar’s childish enthusiasm. “I have yet to meet a single dragon and even if they exist, they would still be lizards. A wyvern is even worse, it’s just a lizzie.”
“A what?” Lith asked.
“It means a lizard with an inferiority complex.” Marth explained.
“It’s how we members of the Queen’s corps refer to wyverns when they are not within earshot.”
“Wait, you are members of the Queen’s corps?” Lith was flabbergasted. Vastor looked more like a chef than a fighter. Marth closely resembled one of his high school teachers. As for Manohar, he was Manohar.
It was an inhuman task just to imagine someone willing to fight beside him without being given the opportunity to strangle him on a regular basis.
“We are. Don’t underestimate me because of my well-fed exterior.” Vastor patted his large belly to emphasize the point.
“Every element is deadly. It all depends on the user. Also, there is no one mad enough to walk into a fight without a true healer. After you experience enough battles, even if you start as a total rookie, you are bound to pick up a few tricks along the way.”
“Indeed. Until wars and illnesses exist, healers are like breathing. Something annoying that you can’t live without.” Manohar nodded in agreement with Vastor.
“Back to the lizzie’s topic, I wonder what the array did for him. Beasts use a kind of magic completely different from ours. Maybe we could have learned something by comparing a human and a beast array.”
“Unlikely.” Vastor scoffed again while checking Lith’s vitals.
“Surely it was something idiotic. It cost him his life.”
“Today I find myself agreeing with you often, my mildly esteemed colleague.” Manohar nodded again.
Vastor took the unintended insult gracefully, barely dilating his nostrils in annoyance.
“How do you feel?” Marth had just finished regrowing his hair.
“Tired.” Lith replied.
“You don’t say, Lith.” Vastor gave him a hospital gown to wear over his tattered clothes.
“The first lesson of Body Sculpting will be a simple one, but you still need mana. Let’s go to the hospital and find you a bed. You can rest until your companions get back from their chores.”
A Warp Steps brought them to destination.
“I’m really proud of you. It’s amazing how much you have grown as a mage in a single year.” Vastor said while Lith was tucking himself inside one of the beds in the VIP wing.
“Yet I feel forced giving you an unsolicited piece of advice. Being under the spotlight feels good, I know it very well. Sometimes it’s better to keep a low profile, though. Otherwise the wrong kind of people will take interest in you.
“At that point, being a healer will become a hobby, a cover story at best. Small or big, there is no country that isn’t constantly looking out for a Highmaster.” Vastor sighed deeply.
His eyes went out of focus, Lith’s enhanced instinct could sense that the Professor was being overwhelmed by bad memories.
“That’s how the Griffon Kingdom calls them.” Vastor mistook Lith’s curiosity about his past for confusion about the unknown term.
“The Gorgon Empire prefers the term Ravager while the Blood Desert calls them Starkiller. No matter the name, they are all the same. Mass murderers with a badge.”
“I thought War Mages and Wardens are the real backbones of an army.”
“They are.” Vastor nodded. “Highmasters rarely take part in a war. It’s too risky. They either start or end it.”
A long silence befell between the two men, while Lith mulled over the Professor’s words.
“This time you had no choice, but the next time you attend a party, do not show off that much. Otherwise when you get to my age, you’ll have a lot of regrets.” Vastor closed the curtains around the bed, giving Lith shade and privacy.
‘He’s a man full of surprises.’ Solus said.
‘Indeed. The real question is: is he worried about my future or rather that someone recruits me before he does? There is no such thing as a free meal.’
‘Your paranoia it’s disheartening.’ Solus pouted. ‘Can’t you just accept someone’s kindness at face value for once?’
‘My paranoia is one of the reasons I’m still alive.’ After all that had happened that day, Solus had no argument to refute his logic.
***
When the first gong woke Lith up, most of the damage sustained by the Skinwalker armor was repaired. It took him a bit of mana for the finishing touch while using Invigoration to recover his strength.
His body was in perfect condition, but his mind was still sluggish.
‘The Skinwalker amor’s self repair speed is much greater than the uniform’s, yet it’s still not enough. I better recover at least half of my mana. No matter how simple the lesson can be, I don’t want to suffer a headache the whole time.’
Professor Vastor was waiting at the hospital’s entrance for the students to arrive. He led them inside a small laboratory that had been rearranged to be used as a classroom. It contained sixteen desks, each one with a sealed fish tank on it.
After the students took their places, Vastor snapped his fingers. Inside the tanks now there was what appeared to be a cake shaped gelatine. They were all identical, each one was a translucent, colorless mass with no distinguishing feature.
Only when the ‘cakes’ started to move around, looking for a way out of the fish tanks, some of the youths realized what was in front of them.
“Is this a slime?” Yurial asked pointing at the thing that was slowly climbing the glass, until it was hanging upside down from the top of the tank.
“Yes. Ten points to Yurial for his expertise.” Those that had recognized the creature too but hesitated to express their mind, silently cursed at Yurial.
“The first part of today’s exercise is to learn the Scanner spell which detects the subject’s life force, and then use it on the slime in front of you. These creatures have the simplest life force pattern known to man, so I expect it shouldn’t take much for talented students like you to get accustomed to it.”
“What’s a slime?” Lith asked. He had never found a trace of them in any bestiary he had purchased, nor met any during his hunts.
“Excellent question.” Vastor nodded while throwing a mean look at those that were sniggering behind Lith’s back.
(*) Warp Gates are the fixed entry/exit points built inside buildings like the Association.
Warp Steps is the spell.
