Chapter 107: The Sheep Experiment

Slightly heavier than an unusual linen or wool cloak, the leather cloak did feel the thickness of the monster’s skin as Jace wandered back and forth in front of the house twice after donning it.

It just didn’t seem to have the rough feel of a normal animal skin coat on the outside, and to the eye there was little difference between it and a normal cloth tunic; the surface of the smoky fire dragon’s backsail was much smoother than one would expect.

The cloak is quite sturdy at the link between the cloak and the hood, as well as the shoulder area, which appears to be sewn from an outer skin shell.

The smoldering fire dragon is not a true dragon, but a giant fire lizard that lives in hot areas, and even near lava.

When Larson had just said that the clothes were made from the skin of a smoky fire dragon, he had thought that he was afraid that the clothes would smell fishy, but on the contrary, the clothes had been permeated with a faint smoky scent, so they should have been carefully handled.

Since it was worth so much as three gold coins, it must be worth every penny. Jace pinched his waist, feeling that all of a sudden this value of his was different.

Jace stood and lingered on the street for a moment, puffing out his chest and looking at the pedestrians coming and going, wondering if anyone who knew what they were doing would recognize them or pull their weight or something.

Yet after standing for half an hour, not many people looked this way.

Heh, it must be that no one who lives near this canal has any insight.

It didn’t hurt, though; if everyone could see the value of the cloak, wouldn’t it be watched every day, and someone could come and steal it at any time?

At that thought, Jace even wrapped his outer robe a little tighter.

Speaking of which, Larson said that the outer robes are resistant to fire and that they also enhance the power of flame magic, so I wonder if that’s true?

Jace didn’t know any fire-related magic right now, but his teacher Marin was an expert in flame elemental magic, and warlocks couldn’t get away from flames in their offensive magic, so this dress could be said to help him in the future as well.

But the fact that Varian Urien chose this shirt may be even more so because of the burns on his hands.

Jace looked at the back of his hand, the marks burned by the burning sword gauntlet didn’t hurt too much anymore, but they were still clear and painful to touch.

It’s probably going to leave a permanent scar.

Lunch was served, and in the afternoon Jace was going to take the brat out of town and find some animal to try that life sucking spell on.

His heart had been itching a lot since last night and he was going to suffocate if he didn’t get his release today.

He had been distracted all morning, and had even been reminded by Master Dushan for wandering off during his Orcish language lesson.

Though he knew that he would be taking the exams for the Orcish language class in less than a month, and one that concerned whether or not he would be able to travel to Dalaran at public expense. It was just that the allure of his own modified Life Suck spell was too great, and he had too many questions and speculations about it.

What is the form of the so-called “energy” that is sucked into the body?

If one is injured, will drawing in life energy heal the wound? Would it have the same effect as a healing potion?

Speaking of which, Jace hadn’t had a chance to make some healing potions yet, so he hadn’t drank any, so maybe the effects of the Life Absorption spell would give him some inspiration in that regard.

If one is completely healthy and nothing is wrong at all, will the life energy make one healthier and stronger or will it overflow and cause damage?

Of course, Sëanor knew nothing about this, as he was a demon and had no idea how Nasrezim’s terrible magic worked, and everything was waiting to be developed on its own.

So in the afternoon Jace took the Kid, a package containing two mana potions, Talongor’s baguette, a meal’s worth of dry food, and Gagin’s notes on the spell, as well as his own and the Kid’s summaries and revisions of the spell, and hit the road.

It was only when he got to the Irving Forest, though, that he realized an extremely serious problem.

Those fawns, rabbits, birds, whatever, run too fast.

Harmless critters saw Jace from a distance, or even just smelled him, and pulled their legs out. And Jace couldn’t think of a way to get them killed, after all, he had to live to try his magic.

What about those who don’t run?

Wolves, bears, wild boars and the like, Jace hadn’t encountered for the time being, nor did he want to. He did not want to face a carnivore still fumbling while holding a note while reciting a spell, neck let people gnaw a hole py blood, even with the power of Nasrezim can not be sucked back, right?

So what should be done to solve this problem?

It wasn’t that he hadn’t thought about hiring one of the bold ones over at Slaughtered Lamb to practice his magic, now that he thought about it two silver coins would be a good way to get a chance at a safety test.

But the biggest problem is that it’s living, breathing people who are being quizzed there.

If it was a weakness curse, a recklessness curse, or even a fear spell, so be it.

But when it came to things like life stealing, pain curses, and even corrupting techniques that he might learn in the future, he felt like he couldn’t control the power well or predict the consequences, so he really wasn’t willing to try it on a large living person.

After thinking about it for half a day, it suddenly occurred to me that the Black Iron Dwarf had tried it with a goat, so why didn’t he try it with a sheep?

There are a couple of farms near the town of Shining Gold that raise sheep, so you can buy one to try out the effects.

Jace followed the path off the avenue toward a small farm south of Crystal Lake and claimed a small sheep for three silver coins.

He’s out for blood for this quiz, so all of a sudden that beating he took yesterday will be for nothing.

Let’s hope this spell makeover works.

Jace walked a bit further southwest, away from the farm, and after making sure there was nothing around, he tethered the sheep to a tree and laid out the spell, the conditions for casting it, and whatnot.

Saeuno jumped out of the bag and bounced around, ready to watch the action.

Jace looked over to the sheep and then to the tree next to it.

Is not this tree, too, a life? Doesn’t it have the power of life flowing through its trunk?

What’s the effect of putting Life Suck on it?

Jace decided he’d better not think about these lousy jobs, if a normal tree could be the perfect object to cast a spell on, Gagin and the others would probably have run off to the forest to have a rally.

Now that the sheep has been purchased, let it do what it’s worth.

Eramont, Siliondor!

Jace uttered the incantation and pointed his finger at the sheep, he felt a strong tugging sensation clutching at his heart and it was the Shadow Force that had heard the call coalescing around him that was pulling him, however the spell didn’t have the desired effect, it was just this sudden sensation that ended it.

But the sheep are already spooked.

It struggled convulsively, gnawing at the ropes to try to escape, all the while letting out miserable cries that didn’t sound like a sheep’s at all, but rather like a woman in a frenzy.

“Shadow power! Shadow Power!” The Kid, however, shouted in excitement as if he was watching.