Karkov

She put up a black, sound dampening dome around him, saying, "get ready, I'm gonna send one in for thirty minutes."

but she was thinking, 'these kids are crazy. if he can really handle this, then I might've actually found someone capable. perhaps I can trust him...? no. not yet.'

Gror said worryingly, "I still don't know if thirty minutes will be safe though…"

"It's what he wanted. You can't refuse a man's last wish."

"Last wish?? What are you going to do to him?!"

"I'm just kidding, haha." despite her joking, she was similarly worried for his safety. Only Page was happily chanting away at a spell, certain this would be nothing for Zeeth. Inside the dark dome, Zeeth had condensed all his slimes and moved them to a pocket in his robe, somewhere they could all get an even dose. He finished his preparations by placing the purple one he found earlier was closer to his chest to get the most of it and shouted out, "I'm ready."

He set himself up mentally for the hell he was about to go through, knowing that this wasn't going to kill him, simply hurt for thirty minutes.

Rolas opened up a little gap in the dome just enough for her spell and shot it through. The lock on the spell hit his skin right after the hole closed and latched onto his skin, the moment he felt that grab he knew the worst pain he had ever felt was about to ensue. And sure enough, a small spinning tornado grabbed him by the chest and spun like crazy, it was like someone pinched his skin between a pair of large tweezers and tried to drill it around using an electric drill.

The thing instantly spun around his body from the spinning force but was being pulled back and around by the lock. It shot to his legs, tearing up his skin and back up his front. The balls of concentrated slime eventually got picked up by it one by one, the small purple one on his chest was picked up first and casually flung around with it. The pain and the force were so bad he knelt to the ground in pain, grabbing at whatever had hurt the most.

It felt like an hour had passed when it had only been five minutes, from what little bit he could see, his skin was already purple and red, botched up with bruises and pain.

Only Rolas could hear what was going on perfectly in the room, his screams of anguish and pain-filled cries, after all, it was her spell. Surprisingly, she didn't show any sympathy or pain from hearing his screams, her years of fighting and torturous spells had numbed her to the terror-filled screams. Thirty minutes passed by quickly on the outside of the dome.

Gror was sweating bullets from all his magic practice, his genes as a dwarf didn't allow him to excel in such areas. He was a metalsmith first and foremost. But Page was having a much easier time, he was barely putting in any effort and was blasting out one ball of black magic after another, even yawning at one point. It was just another re-teaching for him, so this was expected for Page.

When the tornado spell was over, Zeeth was lying on the floor. His slimes moved back into the pocket of the robe that balled itself up into a tightly wound ball.

The slimes had tried to give some of their health up to heal Zeeth's body but he told them to only heal the fatal ones or pain that had broken his skin and reached inside his body, he didn't want them finding out he could regenerate all that by himself. Besides, it would take way too much mana and health from them and the potions they had could heal him quickly.

Rolas dispelled the dome and they all looked at the damaged Zeeth, small bits of blood and sweat dotted the floor. Page wasn't too worried, he knew Zeeth could survive this from his slimes and the Tamer skill, Rolas hardly cared for him, they had known each other for just a couple of days. But Gror was panicking and sweating even more, "what if he's dead? Is he bleeding? Oh god, he is!"

"Gror, stop rambling. He'll be fine, it's minor surface pains. The potions can easily treat him." Page grabbed the balled up robe including all his slimes and items, knowing exactly what had happened.

Rolas used the remains of the dome to create a small bed that lifted him up. She opened up a few bottles of the potion and poured it on his tattered body.

His skin healed quickly along with the help of his slimes feeding him to constantly keep him energized. He spent the rest of the day brewing more potions for more sessions later and got Rolas to teach him one more, a spell compression potion. After taking it you would have an easier time compressing magic into a small, sharp point that would be very helpful in long-distance and precise battles that required power. It wasn't permanent and the length depended on the amount taken and effectiveness of the potion.

After finishing one last brew he asked Rolas if he could go for another session but she simply said, "are you crazy? You went through so much pain and you want to do it again?? No, if you do that twice so quickly you might get traumatized even if your body doesn't rip apart."

"Please?"

But Rolas has turned away and adamantly said no.

"Fine." He knew there was no one else he knew that would make a sound-proof dome and shoot a locking spell and a magic tornado at him so he gave in and asked, "Rolas, where is your bathroom?"

"Bathroom? I don't have one."

"Then where do you go?"

"I hold it in. Forever."

"Yeah, right. Do you have a secret entrance somewhere?" Zeeth began looking around, under shelves and behind pots for a small entrance.

"Of course not. I just use the bathroom in my dumpling store, you can get there from the back."

"Wow, you gave in fast."

"I don't want you people snooping in my place and breaking some stuff, I have expensive things in here that you could never pay back even if you worked your entire life."

Zeeth came out of the underground room, walking to the now dark dumpling store. In the distance, he could see the silhouette of a skinny, shirtless man with what seemed like colorfully dyed and long hair that reached his waist. He squinted harder to see if he was seeing right but a few leaves fluttered by, instructing his view for just a second. When the leaf had passed, the person was gone too.

A shiver went down Zeeth's spine, creeping him out. He ran to the bathroom, he just wanted to go somewhere private so he could test out his new magic. He held the darkest purple slime out, its name was Mel, in tribute for Melanis, and cast a shot of dark magic. The magic that shot out was a long spear of twirling black wind that seemed to stay latched to its target for a short while.

He had expected it to be an exact copy of Rolas' black tornado but it was nowhere near as strong or as concentrated. It was like a changed up version of her magic, his very own copy. By changing the concentration of magic or changing its structure, he could also change the swirl of the black magic.

Rolas' tornado was made to rip at the targets but the darkness also ate away at the skin. The tornado she used for Zeeth had a ton of mana to it, which is why his slime was able to absorb so much so quickly, but it was so that the tornado could last longer and the lock to be strong enough to stay properly. The magic residue leftover from using up the skill was what Mel had absorbed.

His tornado was just a longer but much weaker version of hers. His slime's skill could rip away at things but very slowly since that is the basic structure and design of black magic. He tested it while hiding Mel in his sleeve and combining the skill with his other slimes. It worked well with Mag's heat, allowing the heat to mix with the tornado and make it a hot, black magic tornado but it didn't do so well with Gul. The rocks and tornado simply collided and dispersed. Leaf had a similar effect to Mag, they simply swirled together, carrying the water up with the black tornado. It seemed Mag had actually also absorbed some of the dark magic, just not to the extent that Mel had. There was a tint of purple to the otherwise red core at the center of its body but the heat hadn't changed much.

He left the bathroom and headed back to the underground room, but the door was open just a crack. A tiny amount of black magic residue was left on the lock that seemed to be forced open. He ran down the steps, unsure of what to expect. Who would bust down the door of the future member of the Eight?

He heard Rolas saying, "Karkov? But how? I'm sure I killed you!"