Page 134 of I Ran Away to Evil
[You have attempted to use the High Draconic Spell:Rainfall.]
[You have a 72% chance of success with a +2.5% modifier from Skill:Magic (Level 5).]
[You have succeeded.Rainfallduration = 85 minutes]
A dark haze of clouds gathered around his hands and swirled into the air. The sky rumbled with thunder, and a drizzle of rain turned into a sprinkling which turned into sheets. Cheers were muffled by the heavy deluge, but Keith sighed in relief when the fires faded out. They could have been magical flames, which would have been that much worse.
They were lucky that it was spring and the bog was full, heavy with melted winter snow. He still took careful consideration and checked the bottom of the bog over for burgeoning flames. All it took was an ember in the mulch to burn toxic fumes and deep flames.
“By the Great Wyrm Who Knows Each Primal Force, [Sense Elements].”
[You have attempted to use the Low Draconic Spell:Sense Elements. You have succeeded.]
He sighed when he found nothing but earth and wood.
“Thank you, my king. I shall report.” A heavily pregnant lizardkin woman walked up to him. She bowed. “Two daysss ago, our home moved to the eastern ssside of the Great Road.”
She pointed behind Keith, where he saw the telltale cobblestone in the distance. His connection to the forest was tied to his Dark Magician King title. Using the [Mind Map] perk, Keith could sense the movement of the Dark Enchanted Forest. It wasn’t strong, as he’d rarely cared to cultivate or use the ability.
From what he could sense, the village had moved from just east of Lake Loria, with a path connecting close to Gerda’s bridge—where he knew it had been for most of the year—to halfway between the Servalt border and the Nilheim castle.
“Lesss than an hour ago, tensss of flaming arrowsss shot at us from the road,” she continued. “We initiated evacuation immediately. No one was killed, though we’ve lost a quarter of the village’sss infrastructure.”
“I see.” Keith nodded; he took off his glasses and wiped water from the lens. “Have a full report on my desk tomorrow at the latest.”
He resettled his glasses and pulled a bag of five thousand gold pieces from his storage unit. “And use this to replace everything you can. Kith Bog will be exempt from one year’s tax, and I should have a hundred able bodies at Kith Bog by week’s end.”
“Milith!” Sithli ran up to them and wrapped his arms around the pregnant woman. After carefully examining her to see if she was alright, the lizardkin turned to Keith. “Permission to ssstay and help clean up, Your Viciousnesss?”
“Permission granted.”
Henrietta rejoined him then. She greeted Milith as well, reassured that the lizardkin was safe.
If Keith recalled correctly, Henrietta had visited Kith Bog that first week after moving into the castle. She had already made friends.
Ria’s clothes were soaked, and her fluffy hair lay flat. Her bangs caught water droplets and dripped rain down her cheeks.
“We have to go after the ones who’ve done this!” his princess said with a passion and anger he’d never seen before.
“We will. Or we’ll see them when they reach the castle,” he told her.
She shook her head. “I want to find thembeforethey reach the castle.”
Keith nodded. Gimtak hadn’t sent word, so he assumed the band of assassins were still in the forest. “Run or fly?”
“Fly.”
Keith regretted leaving behind his construct wings in Gren’s Keep. They were being transported to him by the army and would arrive in their own time. In the meantime, he had to fly the old-fashioned way.
He popped a mana potion to recover from the [Rainfall] spell … just in case.
He could learn from his mistakes.
Keith and Henrietta made their way to the Great Road nearby. It was out of range of Keith’s [Rainfall] spell and thus clear of the downpour. He picked up Henrietta and activated his draconic [Flight] spell with no difficulty.
They found the first shoe within minutes. It was sitting beside the road, close to a holly bush. Keith sensed that the holly bush wasextremelypleased with itself. The Dark Enchanted Forest didn’tlikefire. It was sensitive to the smog, and any controlled burning was managed very delicately by the elves. Keith couldn’t imagine it took kindly to invaders lighting its home on fire without permission.
“My quest updated,” Ria let him know. “There are four less assassins to defeat.”
