Chapter 577: Good-Natured

The nature affinity focused on manipulating plants, beasts and the mage’s own body. This compilation was everything I had gathered into the dreamscape, filtered into a way my mind could process it the easiest. It was not a comprehensive list, as there had to be more apex spell forms out there, but with their rarity, mages who had learned them likely never wrote them down.

From the remaining nature essences I had, I assumed my nature affinity would settle around 41 to 42. Nature essences were one of the more common essences. Most lycanthropes would yield a nature essence, and there were a number of monsters that had symbiotic relationships with plants that would also yield a nature essence.

I looked over the index before starting to review each one.

Lessor Nature Spell Forms (10-25)

Plant Growth (10) Track (10) Entangle (10) Bestial Adaptation (10) Pass Without Trace (10) Commune with Beast (20) Assimilate Poison (20) Barkskin (25)

Greater Nature Spell Forms (25-40)

Greater Plant Growth (30) Poison Touch (30) Restore Body (30) Locate Creature (35) Befriend (40) Summon Vines (40) Bestial Body (40)

Apex Nature Spell Forms (40-80)

Blight (40) Shapeshift (60) Assimilate (70) Rebirth (80)

Plant growth reminded me of Flora. The mage aspirant had a very strong nature affinity at 66, I recalled. She had imprinted this simple spell form, losing out on more powerful possibilities. I was happy to find Flora alive and serving Empress Renna. The lesser plant growth spell form accelerated a plant’s growth, but the drawback was that it also drew nutrients from the soil, depleting it. At a certain point, the forced growth did more damage than good. It could be an invaluable tool in my alchemy. But there was also a greater version of the spell called greater plant growth, which used aether from the mage as well as nutrients in the soil for accelerating growth. The fewer nutrients that are available, the more aether is required to sustain growth. If I weren’t about to go to war, I might choose this spell form just for its applications in alchemy. I would be able to carry around seeds and grow fresh.

Tracking was another simple nature-spell form and was extremely valuable for Hounds, Rangers, and Pathfinders. The spell form worked best in showing the passage through any type of vegetation. It worked less effectively in urban environments, but still worked. The trail did need to be relatively fresh, no more than a few days old. There were better options to track prey at higher affinities though.

The entangle spell form was what Lexi’s wand did. It awoke roots in the ground to obey the will of the mage. The area of effect with a 10 nature affinity was fairly small, about two hundred square feet. But that doubled with every ten affinity. That meant a mage with a 100 affinity could affect an entire acre at once. That could change a battlefield instantly with the roots hampering the enemy while allies moved freely.

Bestial adaptation with a number of different spell forms lumped into one. When you imprinted this spell form you were able to select a single aspect of your body to change. Some had a slightly higher affinity for imprinting, like avian wings, which had a 20 in the nature affinity. Simple changes, like changing your nose to that of a canine, just required a ten affinity. There was a large variance as well: webbed fingers, claws, muscular changes to the legs to make great leaps, altering your eyes to see like an eagle, and many other aspects. The limitation was that you could only select one when you imprinted the spell.

The Pass Without A Trace spell form was more powerful than you first thought. It not only covered your tracks and eliminated your scent as you moved through wild terrain, but it also caused the vegetation to yield in front of the mage. There would be no more tripping over roots or getting slapped in the face by branches. The slower you moved, the more effective the effect was, since its range was only a few feet and extended only slightly at higher affinities.

The Commune with Beast was an interesting spell form. It didn’t allow you to talk to an animal, but it emitted pheromones that calmed them and signaled you were a friend. It was extremely useful if you wanted to train dangerous creatures, but the description also noted that there was a learning curve to using the spell form. It also suggested not jumping right in and trying to tame drakes, as one mistake could be deadly. I assumed Mage Sebastian knew this spell form as he raised drakes and other creatures.

Assimilate poison would have been better called denature poison. The spell form broke down the poison or venom in the body into harmless components. There were two aspects of the spell that were desirable. One was that it could be used on others, easily overcoming any innate aether resistance. And the second was that the spell form only took a tiny amount of aether to work. It would allow a mage to walk through a poisonous cloud with ease.

The last low-tier nature spell was called barkskin. It was similar to bestial adaptation, but for plants. The spell form turned the mage’s epidermis into a tough fibrous skin. There were notes that if the mage imprinted the spell incorrectly, this transformation could be excruciating to maintain. The spell form had one added benefit. If your real skin were cut, and then you activated this spell form, you could close your wounds when the skin transformed. Subdermal bleeding was not healed, but it could save you from dying from blood loss. I put down barkskin as a possibility, but continued reading to the greater spell forms.

The poison touch had many variants, such as bestial adaptation. You needed to select a specific type of venom or poison. When the mage used the spell form on a target by touching them, the poison or venom appeared in their blood. Some of the options listed were blocking the flow of aether like magebane, paralysis, unconsciousness, muscle deterioration, turning blood to gelatin, and loss of all memories. There were more possibilities, but you could only choose one when you imprinted the spell form on your aether core. I didn’t like that you needed to touch the target and that it would take a few moments to take effect, but aetheric resistance was easy to overcome as you were injecting the aether into the target.

Restore body was a real possibility after I read through it. It was a healing spell form that reverted a body to its healthy state. The reason why I considered it was that it could allow me to heal others. Like most healing spells, it used the target’s metabolic reserves for the healing but that just meant they needed to eat more after the healing.

I paused on the next spell form, something clicking in my head. Locate creature was a tracking spell form, and I think it was what was used in the blood compasses of the Hounds. The spell required a sample of the target, and with that, the mage would know the direction and relative direction of the target. Blood was the best medium for the spell, but hair or other parts would do as well. I would have to look at my blood compass more closely with earth speak to confirm my suspicions.

Befriend was a much more powerful version of the commune with animals spell form. Befriend tricked an animal or person into thinking you were their trusted companion. It would make training beasts much easier. When you targeted a person, they would innately trust you and do almost anything you asked of them. I found any spell forms that affected another’s free will slightly revolting and discounted learning this one.

The summon vines spell forms mixed plant growth and entangle into one more powerful spell form. With this spell, you didn’t need to have vines nearby, only any type of vegetation. The spell accelerated flora into tough vines that could quickly swarm an enemy. Since I could carry different seeds with me, this spell was a possibility. I knew there were vines with poisonous thorns, some with deadly oils, and others with flowers whose pollen also had detrimental effects. The drawback was that the flora always became vines, so I couldn’t use it to grow an apple tree, as I could with greater plant growth.

Bestial body was a transformation spell form. It was likely what lycanthropes used to transform into their hybrid form. Bestial body allowed the mage to imprint a single beast form. There were also several warnings listed for this spell form. The first was that mass needed to be conserved. Transforming into a dragon would be met with disappointment. The second note was that the transformation process was extremely painful, and you needed to imprint the layer of the spell form that cut off all sensory perception during the process, or you wouldn’t survive. Another warning was to make sure you didn’t forget to imprint the spell form layer that allowed you to transform back into your starting form. As I read the text, there were more warnings than perceived benefits. I could just imagine being mistaken for a lycanthrope and Konstantin coming after me.

Blight was something I would never consider learning, although I could see its uses in dungeons that had aggressive flora. The spell form allowed the mage to send out aether that would destroy flora from the inside out. Not only that, but the aether would penetrate to the roots and spread to other plants quickly. A mage could wipe out an entire forest with enough aether from a single spot. The only good news was that the spell form only affected plants.

Shapeshift was the same spell form as bestial body, but didn’t limit the mage to a single form. They could become any creature or race. There was still the limitation that mass was conserved. Assimilate was a more advanced form of the shapeshift spell. It sounded extremely dangerous as it allowed the mage to blend multiple creatures into one, becoming a chimera.

The last spell I had acquired a spell form for also had the highest required affinity I had ever seen. The power of the spell told me why. Rebirth allowed a mage to regrow an animal from just a blood sample. You needed a medium to feed the growth, but you could create a clone or bring back a loved one. The rebirth wouldn’t retain the original's memories but would otherwise be identical. I had so many questions about this spell that were not answered in the description.

Would the rebirth be a child or a full-grown person? Would the rebirth have the same aether core as the original? What about their spell forms? Since they wouldn’t have memories, how long would it take them to learn to walk and speak? It was not without a doubt a powerful spell form, but there were obvious drawbacks.

I tossed the ball for Oscar while I thought. Although I had planned to start studying a new spell form, I couldn’t decide on one. Greater plant growth would have definitely been my first choice to pair with my alchemy, but I seemed to always be caught battling. Maybe shapeshift if I were patient enough to raise my nature affinity. Then there was rebirth. Ginger could be with me forever, but would it really be Ginger? The same logic could apply to rebirthing people, and then the moral dilemma of whether it was right.

With no path forward, I stepped out of the dreamscape. Lexi was awake and walking around with the magus staff. She still looked a little weak, using it for support. “Alhur knows where to go,” Konstantin said when I sat up.

“Where is he?” I asked not seeing the elf.

“He is watching the dire boars in the next room. I think the boars might be dead when we go check on him,” Castile answered.

“Is Lexi alright to travel?” I asked Castile.

Lexi answered assertively for herself. “I will manage. I just need to keep eating.” I looked at the red-haired young woman. There was a new confidence there. She might be using the magus staff for support, but she just looked more self-confident than before.

I acknowledged her determined nature. “Very well, let’s go find the mithril and get out of this dungeon.”

© Copyrighted 2024-2026 by AlwaysRollsAOne

No permission is granted to translate, copy, or repost this original work of fiction. If you're reading this outside my Patreon, it has been stolen without my consent and infringes on DMCA rights. Remember, this work is the result of my creative effort and is protected by copyright law. Removing or changing this notice indicates you're aware of the DMCA violation. No permission is given to use my original work for AI training.