Chapter 27: 26. Black Magic

Alice struggled to keep up with the slaughter. She didn't even have time to summon her trusty blue screens to check on her ever-increasing level. Dragon roars shook the skies. Alice squinted as she witnessed another dragon crash into the white tower with a gaping wound in its head. Then, before the dragon corpse even grazed the ground, it began flapping its leathery wings with a dazed look. Death affinity mana swirled around its form as the dragon latched onto the back of the nearest chrome-scaled dragon and viciously bit into its neck. The two roared as they spiralled to the ground and, with a sickening crunch, flattened a couple dragon eggs, much to the still-alive dragons' despair.

Henry focused on weaving through the chaos and avoiding being flattened by falling corpses. At the same time, Alice hurled a [Fireball] and [Ice Bolt] at any dragon within her range. Her mana pool was more extensive than expected, and she had no issues throwing two spells every second. Alice could, of course, invest more mana into each attack to increase their potency, but she instead focused on tagging each dragon with one spell to increase her exp gains. Unfortunately, even with a fully powered up [Fireball], she failed to leave even a burn mark on the chrome dragons' scales, so she settled for mediocre shared exp gains.

Alice's vision briefly flashed white as thunder boomed through the clear skies. Purple lightning zapped a blue chrome dragon and annihilated its mana shield. A second later, a shadowy humanoid appeared, and then it vanished. The blue chrome dragon's decapitated head fell to the side, and the main body soon followed; both plummeted to the ground below. The Lord only appeared briefly after stunning everyone's vision with his lightning attack, so Alice was yet to get a clear picture of him. Much to her frustration. A shadowy arm here, a glimpse of a leg there, far too many blue eyes floating in the sky, she had seen a lot over the last few minutes but nothing conclusive. Magic's applications were vast, and at the level of the Lord, he could be using illusions for all she knew to mask his true form.

While frowning at her conundrum, a sick idea crossed the young mage's mind. A group of unguarded dragon eggs laid in their path. There were four in total. Two eggs were the same sky blue as the blue chrome dragon that had died moments ago. One was midnight black as if it was an egg-shaped obsidian rock and the final one was a striking orange. Alice raised a shaking arm and cautiously looked to the sky. Luckily, all the chrome dragons seemed distracted by the zombie dragons and the elusive Lord, that continued hurling his purple lightning and skewering the dragons with his claws.

Deciding it was safe to carry out her horrendous scheme, Alice condensed the mana in her body to her right hand. Since she was utilising her full power, the [Fireball] shifted from a calm orange to a hellish purple. Unfortunately, it hovered too close to her palm, causing her flesh to shizzle. Alice quickly deployed her [Mana Shield] spell to protect her palm from the heat. 'Why is my mana black... is it because the spirit of darkness blesses me?' Alice scrutinised the onyx sheen of mana that coated her hand like a well-made glove. 'And why did I learn spells like [Fireball] and [Ice Bolt] from levelling up? Shouldn't I be given spells that fit the dark mage theme? Although I guess dark purple flames are rather ominous...' Alice scolded herself for not concentrating more on non-merchant-related knowledge. 'Hopefully, the Lord will teach me some evil spells, like necromancy or that purple lightning spell, although I have his stealth skills. When will I be able to vanish into thin air like he does?'

Shaking her head, Alice aimed and fired her ominous purple ball of fire. As it flew through the air, it let off no light and impacted one of the blue eggs. To Alice's surprise, the eggshell merely cracked rather than exploded as she had expected. Having committed to the sinful deed of slaughtering unborn dragons, Alice decided a spell designed to pierce defences was the better option here.

Having learned from last time, she preemptively cast [Mana Shield] on her hand. Then, after confirming the shield was in place, she willed all her remaining mana into an [Ice Bolt]. The usual crystal blue ice transformed into a spear of midnight similar to Henry's. The Apocalypse Horseman made a drastic turn to avoid a falling corpse. Alice used her left hand to hold tight and winced as a mansion-sized lizard's corpse bombed the meadow right next to them.

With squinted eyes, Alice traced her mana and could feel the affected egg's direction through the dust clouds. Closing her eyes, Alice hurled the black ice spear, which ripped through the dust cloud like a crossbow bolt.

Alice hurriedly summoned her status page to check the notifications.

[Blue chrome dragon egg defeated! Exp awarded to all party members...]

[Contribution has been calculated at 100%]

[Exp awarded: 99.9% of total gain.]

[Name: Alice]

[Race: Human]

[Level: 41] (Level up x11!)

[STR: 59(+11), DEX: 71(+11), CON: 59(+11), INT: 126(+22), WIS: 118(+22)]

[Unspent points: 11]

(Slave)

[Blessing: Darkness]

[Class: Senior Black Mage]

[Sub Class: Apprentice Merchant]

[Divine Mission: None]

[Skills]

[...]

[Class Skills]

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[Stealth II]

[Fireball V] (Level up!)

[Ice Bolt IV] (Level up x3!)

[Mana Shield II] (Level up!)

[Float I] (New!)

[Mana Sight I] (New!)

[Sub Class Skills]

[Fast Counting I]

[Identify I]

Alice couldn't be happier seeing the immense gains she was receiving from this fight. 'I even graduated from a Junior Black Mage to a Senior one!' There were over ten notifications about slain dragons giving her 0.1% exp, but the one that really stood out what the 99.9% exp gain from killing the egg. 

"Go for the eggs! We can exterminate them together!" Alice shouted over the dragon roars from above. Henry surveyed the surroundings with his ruby eyes. "Dragon eggs? Do they provide a lot of exp?" Seeing Alice nod, he licked his lips. "Alright then. Point the way." Henry realised he was of little use against flying targets, so going after the eggs seemed like the best bet.

Alice gestured towards where she had thrown the dark ice bolt moments ago, and Henry, being the nice horse he is, obliged and galloped in the direction. Alice had a menacing grin as the wind whipped her black hair in random directions. She didn't even feel the cold metal slave collar bouncing on her shoulders anymore. However, her arse still burned from the constant horseback riding. With a shrug, she dumped all her unspent points on CON once again.

[Name: Alice]

[Race: Human]

[Level: 41] 

[STR: 59, DEX: 71, CON: 70(+11), INT: 126, WIS: 118]

[Unspent points: 0]

(Slave)

She hurled her head back in ecstasy as the mana flooded her body. Her muscles became toned and denser, her skin smoother, and her cheeks rosier. Even her bust saw improvements which were becoming glaringly obvious as her lingerie was struggling to contain them. Alice inspected her abs and arms and nodded in appreciation. She had returned to her prime, if not better, while she was a pampered merchant's daughter. A month of malnourishment, rough nights and mistreatments had vanished as if they had never happened. 'But I will never forget...' Those nights in that foul-smelling wagon. Being served cold gruel that had been spat on. Even that feeling of helplessness when she was stared down by Wiggles and could smell that creature's rotting beath. The humiliation was still fresh in her mind.

Alice tightened her legs around Henry's body and freed her other hand from Henry's waist. Then, as the eggs came into view, she cast [Mana Shield] on her entire upper body. Black mana coated her exposed skin, and then without holding anything back, she dual cast [Fireball] and [Ice Bolt]. Henry didn't even get a chance to stab his spear into the final blue-coloured egg before it exploded from the spell assault.

Grumbling, Henry switched targets. Before Alice could recharge her spells, he empowered his spear with an unknown skill causing it to glow with a red hue. With a grunt, Henry thrust his spear into the egg without mercy. The shell cracked, and when he drew back his spear, it was covered in slime and a severed black-scaled limb coated in blood.

Oddly, Alice didn't find the sight disturbing. If anything, the presence of blood only fueled her eagerness to kill. She was determined to become stronger, and the sight of numbers going up and the euphoria from levelling only heightened her addiction to battle.

Deciding to go with two empowered [Ice Bolt]'s, Alice obliterated the remaining orange dragon egg. A second later, she felt a mana wave wash over her, signifying another level up and replenishing her spent reserves. "Only three more levels until I gain a new spell. I wonder what it will be?" Although Alice had limited knowledge about how classes progressed, she had confirmed that she gained a new spell every five levels. "I wonder what will happen when I max out my Fireball spell?" Alice scanned the surroundings and found another group of eggs. "Only one way to find out..."