Holo-Worlds

Chapter 4 - The culprit

With things in the village being handled by the chief, Rio thought it was a good opportunity to just distract himself, so he headed not so far out from the village with a satchel of books. Magic books to be exact.

Over the course of his stay, Rio has become very interested in the mystic arts of the world, however, he realised early on that humans were at the bottom of the food chain when it came to using magic.

From the countless pages he's absorbed, the male outworlder learned that magic works in two ways in the world of Ortus.

The first way was Script Magic, it can be cast onto a surface by writing certain characters then letting energy flow into it. This was the basic form of magic that all races could perform without any problem, but the second form of magic was heavily dependent on the race and the one humanity could not use freely.

Dubbed Flow Magic, this was the type of magic seen in many fantasy books where the user can cast it freely, without any need for a catalyst. The types of creatures that excelled with this type of magic were usually elves or onis; while humans and beastmen were pretty much unable to use it.

With this in mind, Rio worked to the bone in finding ways to use script magic away from its traditional way of just applying it to appliances or weaponry.

Though it wasn't exactly going to plan.

"Ok please work, or else I'm going to end up hobbling back home again." Using a rock, the boy carved a character onto the ground then held his hand over it.

The character then began to glow white, while Rio could feel his body being drained of its energy.

Without warning, a pillar of ice then sprung from the ground knocking Rio back straight onto his butt.

After a couple of seconds of letting his heart calm down, the boy let out a deep sigh of relief from just managing to dodge the pillar by mere inches. "Oh thank god, I didn't get my face smashed in this time."

Reminiscing over all his failed attempts, the boy shivered at the countless times he's been knocked out from explosions or stone pillars from pouring too much of his energy into his spells. He shook even more at the memories of Sora berating him for his recklessness, which was far more terrifying than any explosion. She was relentless, making him kneel as she chewed him out for all his damaged clothing and injuries. He never knew she could be such a mom.

Still, it wasn't what he wanted, he didn't want a pillar, he just wanted the stone to be covered in ice.

"I need a break."

While relaxing for some time, the boy heard a couple of rustling noises come from some nearby bushes. At first he thought it was just a small animal, but when the rumbling was then accompanied by mumbling, his curiosity was piqued.

Sneaking through the shrubbery, the boy followed the mumbles until he reached a small opening where a random man was kneeling with a cage by his side.

Rio recognised him as Eric's friend or lackey for a more accurate description. Though it was odd to see him separated from Eric.

"What's he up to?" Rio pondered, crouching in some bushes and peeking through the leaves.

"Man Eric, why do we have to mess up the food? We won't be able to eat now," the man voiced out loud, most likely thinking he was alone. But of course, he wasn't.

Rio wasn't particularly shocked that Eric was the culprit for the barn being invaded by some rats and the cage his friend had was more than enough proof, but still, to think that Eric would actually go through with such a plan was still startling, to an extent.