29: Speak human language and thunder

When the blood-red setting sun dyed the mist crimson, I stood in a bow stance before the gap in the fence.

The dying wails of a Tass Creature pierced through the mist, the trembling arrow shaft in its throat stirring the scarlet haze, like a flower of death blooming in the sunset.

The painful wails reached beyond the mist, causing a commotion among the Tass Creature pack waiting outside.

“Whoosh!” Another arrow left the string, its tip piercing through its gaping mouth and embedding itself in its skull, and the screams abruptly ceased.

Just as I was about to shoot the next one, the Tass Creature leader outside the mist actually spoke.

“Wi-Wizard Adult!” A clumsy common language, wrapped in a high-pitched guttural sound, came from outside the mist, “Please… forgive… our ignorance!”

It was the common language! “This beast can speak human language!” I was a bit startled.

“Before, we… did not know this was… Wizard Adult’s terri… tory. Please… release my kin. We are willing to offer ran… ransom.”

“Now you know to ransom people? Where did your vigor from attacking me twice earlier go?” I muttered to myself.

Being able to communicate was a good thing, but they couldn't know that I was still a child.

I returned to the shack, communicated with the Professor for a while, then carried him out.

“How much is the ransom?” The Professor asked loudly in his ancient, metallic voice.

The Tass Creatures outside exchanged strange glances.

After a long while, the Tass Creature leader tore a dirt-encrusted necklace from a companion's neck, rubbed it on its body to reveal its golden luster, then respectfully placed it on the grass in front of the mist.

“Insufficient, add four more.” I had the Professor say.

The Tass Creature leader reluctantly tore off bone necklaces from the necks of several other Tass Creatures, as well as a necklace of unknown material from its own neck, and placed them all on the grass.

Only then did I return to the shack and use a mist crystal to open a passage for the remaining five Tass Creatures to leave.

Afterward, I returned to the mist, pulled my arrows one by one from the bodies of the two Tass Creatures on the ground, and then had the Dragon King throw the two bodies out.

The Professor spoke loudly on my behalf: “Take them and retreat quickly. If you dare to offend again, they will be your fate!”

The Tass Creatures seemed to have no complaints. They took the bodies and walked into the depths of the Eastern Forest.

I picked up the two long spears from the ground, swung them twice, and felt they were quite handy.

I had the Dragon King spray water to clean the two long spears and left them to dry.

Then I picked up those necklaces and cleaned them one by one as well.

One gold necklace and three wolf-tooth necklaces were put into the spatial storage.

There was also a magic item that I meticulously cleaned and rinsed again before wearing it around my neck.

[Shield Amulet]

This amulet can be activated by a simple command and touch, with each use consuming one stored charge.

Its effect is equivalent to the wizard's first-level spell, Shield.

While the spell is active, the wearer will have a base AC of 4, and gain an additional +2 AC against ranged attacks.

The wearer is also immune to Magic Missile.

The effectiveness of shields or other magic items can stack with this item.

Data:

Charge Ability:

- Shield

AC: 4, +2 against ranged

Immune to Magic Missile

Area of Effect: Wearer

Duration: 1 hour

Charges: 3 / 10

Weight: 1

...

As dusk fell, I continued to study language with the Professor.

From the day the mist began to protect us, small animals would occasionally stumble into the mist and then be unable to leave, easily captured by me.

If I occasionally found a pregnant animal in the mist, I would also open a passage and give them a way out.

For a period afterward, no formidable large beasts or monsters came to disturb us.

Two days later, we finished building the fence and gate.

Five days later, we completed all the planned Hunter Traps inside and outside the yard, which could both hunt and prevent wild beasts from entering the yard.

The busiest was the Dragon King; it patrolled in the air every day, countless times driving away seabirds to prevent them from hitting our Magic Bean spell traps.

Three months later, before the hurricane arrived, I knelt in the center of the newly expanded shack, on the fine, smooth white sand self-leveling floor, with the spellbook opened to the Thunderclap page.

I also spread out the spell notes that Wizard Wedell and Lavinia left for me, which detailed the casting essentials of Thunderclap, a zero-level evocation spell.

Under the Professor's guidance, I had already mastered two more zero-level cantrips; this was the fourth.

Among the various zero-level cantrips in the spellbook, I always felt that when casting this lightning-based cantrip, the surrounding magical elements felt more affinity.

It seemed that the lightning elements from Lavinia's accidental strike with a lightning spell still lingered in my body.

I took a deep breath, slowly exhaled, and calmed my mind to feel the faint magical dust diffused in the air.

I closed my eyes and began to silently recite the not-too-complex incantation in my mind.

As each syllable of the incantation echoed in my mind, I felt the magical energy within me begin to surge, like streams converging into a river, gradually forming an undeniable force.

When the last syllable fell, I suddenly opened my eyes, vigorously waved my hands, as if to release all the magical energy within me.

In an instant, a deafening thunderous roar resounded within the shack, a sound like a Thunderclap exploding in the sky, shaking even the dust outside the door.

The air around me seemed to be torn apart, and invisible energy ripples spread outwards from me as the center.

Under the shroud of this thunderous roar, everything in the shack seemed to momentarily freeze.

Then, a powerful force suddenly erupted. The practice wooden stakes, prepared beforehand within a 5-foot radius around me, trembled as if struck by an invisible giant hand.

At the same time, a thunderous energy shockwave swept through.

I nervously stared at the wooden stakes, filled with both anticipation and unease.

A moment later, as the energy shockwave dissipated, I was pleasantly surprised to find that several of the wooden stakes actually had tiny cracks, as if they had truly suffered thunder damage.

This meant that I had successfully cast the “Thunderclap” cantrip for the first time!

“Boom!” A huge Thunderclap came from the sky, followed by a bolt of lightning striking a large tree not far away.

“Thunderclap and rain are here, how could your Thunderclap have such power?” The Professor muttered beside me.

I was startled myself; my Thunderclap couldn't possibly be as loud as real thunder. It turned out it was really thundering and lightning.

Outside, large raindrops began to fall.

In the afternoon, the weather worsened. The sea churned with towering waves, and dense curtains of rain poured down.

The hurricane blew in from the sea, whipping up giant waves, driving them towards the forest, and scattering the thick mist.

A shack twice as large as before appeared and disappeared in the thin mist.

Explosions, flashes of fire, and various colored mists occasionally sounded around the shack.

The Magic Bean magic traps were triggered and destroyed one by one by the hurricane.

Several trees by the sea suddenly uprooted.

One of them tumbled and continuously moved eastward.

Another gust of hurricane wind blew this tree into the air, finally landing on the top of the shack.