Lament of the Slave

Chapter 10: Murdered

It is said that poison is a woman's weapon, at least it used to. I didn't like this weapon. Maybe it was because of what I learned at school about the poisons used during the wars or what I saw on television about people poisoned in their homes, or on their way to work, just because someone decided to get rid of them. Hollywood certainly played a significant role in my displeasure with poisons. In movies, people dying of poisoning suffered from convulsions with protruding veins, red eyes, and foam at the mouth. I didn't like this way of dying.

However, this was the only skill on the list with some offensive potential, except brute force. At least I was willing to give it a chance not to throw away this possibility just because I didn't like it. That tail was part of me now, and I learned to live with it. I should also accept that it's a dangerous thing capable of killing in a way I didn't like.

Of course, that didn't mean I enjoyed killing.

Just the thought of killing a creature made me sick, not to mention humans. As in everything, there are exceptions, such as Dungreen or Fae.

In the basement, I often looked at a list of my available general skills and wondered which I could use to kill my captor. I didn't have many options because even after seven mutations, no skill similar to [The Tail of Poison Empress] appeared on my list. If such skills existed, they were not general skills. Or I just didn't get the essence of the creature that naturally possesses these skills.

That has changed with the last injection when my heart has undergone mutation. Even though I was clueless as to what heart I had right now, the essence Dungreen had given me must have belonged to a magical creature. After waking up in the Sahal on the river banks, several magically focused skills appeared on my general skill list.

I liked magic; it was cool. I've been to magic shows a few times, and what some people could do with ordinary cards was unbelievable. But it was all tricks, not real magic. To my knowledge, magic on Earth was only in books and people's daydreams. Therefore, the idea that I could use real magic was something I couldn't resist.

Heart of Magic: lvl 1

Passive I

You are a magical creature. Mana is an integral part of you, flowing through your veins. You can't survive without mana, but your intelligence and wisdom are 75% greater.

Arcane Magic: lvl 1

Active I

Arcane magic is the magic of pure mana, with no attributes. It is magic focused on mana's pure power, magic which only a few creatures have.

I liked the bonus that [Heart of Magic] gave. Unfortunately, even with this bonus, my intelligence and wisdom did not approach other attributes' level. I couldn't change what my captor and my would-be master had done to them. They were not the attributes of a magician, but the girl could dream, right?

It was clear to me that I would probably never be a first-class mage, but I just wanted to try. Give these skills a chance, and when I find out that these are not suitable skills for me, I was ready to exchange them for different ones, just like [The Tail of Poison Empress]. Although my class level was 92, in terms of skills, I started from the beginning. I could afford to experiment, try one skill, and exchange it for another in a few days or weeks. Although I will lose the experience gained every time the change is made, it is still better to find out which skills are best for me now than to regret my decision later.

When I chose [Heart of Magic] skill, I immediately felt the change. For more than a year, I had learned to control mana in my body and to some extent, I did, but now I felt it flow in my veins. I had much more of it in my body; it was thicker; it contained more energy, and I had more control over it. It was amazing what one skill could do. But one thing that worries me was a sentence in the skill's description of how I couldn't live without mana.