Chapter 49: Gear Up, Roll Out
Hours later, Zarian was in his room, sitting at his heavy study desk. The dread gator grimoire was open in front of him.
It was late into the afternoon, getting close to dark. The room’s illumination was dimmed down to an acceptable level that was enjoyable for him.
Because of his Dark Affinity, he didn’t need much light to see. He’d been here for a while, rereading the same folktale for the second part of one large multi-spell combo. He reread the folktale in its entirety after countless times.
He closed the grimoire and ran through the first folktale spell through his Fractured Mind. It started with the ghoulish quagmire where people would meet a terrible fate once they fall in and sink like dropping into quicksand.
He hurried onto the next folktale spell where those who remained alive on the quagmire’s surface invited the hidden jaws of the quagmire’s resident, a creature of dread and nightmarish intent. Once it sought to snap up its prey, there was barely any delay before the invisible jaws closed and demolished the caught victims.
The second spell required an even longer retelling of the next tale, and the easiest way to do that was to have his Fractured Mind go over different parts at the same time. Each part ended in a sequence that completed the story of the second spell chronologically.
Usually, Zarian would make a mistake toward the end because the folktale used more archaic and harder words. This time he pulled it off and felt a click inside of him, followed by the upload of new runes into his profile and a soft notifying ‘ding.’
“Yes! I got it!”
Zarian threw himself backward too hard with his parasitic body. The chair was heavy and well-built for weaker humans. Against him, it didn’t stand a chance.