Jay decided not to bring his bone helminth into the guild; If someone grabbed the bone amulet he wasn’t sure what would happen.
He had planned to take it right into the guild and analyse it now that it was level three; he was even going to have it in its natural form and let it cast spells alongside him at the target rocks.
But now that these strange black guards were here? He wasn’t dumb enough to take such a chance, and neither did he have absurdly good luck.
Worst case scenario: The helminth would automatically attack someone and reveal Jay as a necromancer - he would be executed on the spot.
This was slightly more likely with all the aggression that the mage hunters were showing him.
Best case scenario? He would be left alone and possibly copy the necrotic bolt spell from his helminth today.
Obviously he could just learn it another time.
The benefits came nowhere near enough to outweigh the risks.
As he approached the association, he was finally in view of the guards and knew they could see him, but he still needed to ditch his helminth.
He suddenly grabbed the top of his pants before looking around and walking behind a rocky outcrop, out of sight.
With no one watching he had the bone helminth reformed into its physical form. As it sat on the ground looking at him it snapped its jaw a few times, as if greeting its master again.
Jay finally analysed it.
<[Bone Helminth Level 3]>
[Type - Undead, Parasite, Spellcaster]
[HP 50/50]
[MP 30/30]
<[Skills]>
-[Sentinel Form]-
- The helminth coils around its master, becoming an untargetable piece of their armour.
- Periodically lashes out at attackers or fires spectral bolts at foes.
- When its master is attacked, the helminth loses health instead.
-[Natural Form]-
- Allows HP and MP regeneration.
- +200% HP and MP regeneration.
- The helminth detaches from its master and acts as an individual construct.
[Spectral Bolt]
- Its jaw unhinges and slowly winds open before quickly snapping shut, a bolt of deathly energy firing out through its closing jaws.
- 5 magic damage (necrotic)
- Can only hold 15 bolts; new bolt produced every 300 seconds.
- 1 mana
[Ensnare]
- Can ensnare enemies and root them to the ground, making them unable to move.
- 3 second snare.
- 1 minute cooldown.
[Symbiotic] (Passive)
- Starts at level 1. Levels up with its creator.
[Grave Visitor] (Passive)
- Can travel freely and silently through the soil and ground
- Can covertly collect a nest of bones underground
[Grave Soil Miasma] (Passive)
- Enemies near the bone nest will be distracted by hallucinations
“Fifty HP? It was only ten last time I checked, what a great bonus.” Jay smiled.
It was especially good since the helminth used its HP to shield him when it was on his body. It was basically a free fifty HP.
Next, Jay saw its new skill [Grave Soil Miasma].
“Mi-as-ma?” he said slowly, “I wonder how effective it will be…”
“I wonder if it can control the hallucinations?” he thought, scratching his chin.
“Ah. I better get back before they get suspicious.” he said with a sigh before turning to the helminth.
“Hide underground and don’t come near the guild. Don’t let anyone see you either.” he said.
The helminth lowered its head, and seemed to look sad for a moment as it looked in the direction of the guild.
Jay watched it with a raised brow, wondering what was going through its hollow skull and its strange behaviour.
The helminth turned back to Jay and snapped its jaws once before burying itself underground.
“I guess it really wanted to be with me?” Jay thought.
With a shrug, he partly undid his pants and walked back to the path, doing them up completely just as he got back to the track.
“Actually, come to think of it… maybe I do need to pee…” he shrugged,
“Oh well. It can wait.”
As Jay approached the guild there was a startling difference: the floating mana stone gate had disappeared.
The boulders used to form it had all been dumped just outside the gate, no longer floating or even rippling with light-blue veins.
Jay thought it was a shame, but he guessed that perhaps it was meant to represent something - as to what it represented, he wasn’t sure.
Perhaps the mage hunters simply didn’t need a gate.
As he passed by the black-armour guards, neither of them questioned him, and Jay didn’t look up at them, though he did hear one of their helmets turn with a soft ceramic-grinding sound.
Still, Jay decided not to look, not after what happened last time he stared at their armour.
Behind the black armoured guards were some of the normal Losla guards, but they didn’t say anything either; they looked even more tense than Jay as they stood at attention like statues. It was like they were about to welcome a royal to the humble compound.
“Huh. I guess I won’t be asking them who these guys are.” Jay thought as he kept walking.
He kept walking past quietly as he went to ask Margaret.
Beyond the gate, the courtyard felt completely different.
There were no adventurers practising, none passing in and out of the guild to trade, and none of the usual lively atmosphere. It was eerily quiet, as if the whole place had been abandoned.
“Lara, the portal is almost ready. Another hour and I can activate it at any time. Have you heard anything at the guild?” Lannister asked as he formed mana into glowing golden glyphs around the stink-rat marsh.
Lara was holding an invisible crystal, while a blue string of mana went from it into her wrist.
“Not yet.” she frowned.
Lannister nodded and went back to forming the glyphs and runes.
“...Damn. Why didn’t he return to the guild last night? That would’ve made this so much easier.” she thought as she shook her head.
While monitoring the guild with her ears, she was monitoring the forest with her eyes, but also with her mana too; as a gravity mage, she would be able to detect changes in the gravitational field if any of those mage hunters in the heavy, thick armour ventured closer.
The heavier they were, the easier they would be to detect.
Thankfully, the mage hunters hadn’t yet started scouting the surrounding forests; many of them were resting from the journey as well as setting up guard and patrol routes.
Thankfully there were not many adventurers in the guild today, so there wasn’t too much background noise.
A few moments later, she narrowed her eyes.
“I hear someone now. I can’t tell if it’s Jay though. I’ll switch over to the one we left in his room.”
