Fire Mage

= Chapter 140: Ritual

"Teacher!" All four of them turned around in unison and shouted in excitement.

"Did I scare you guys?" Charles let out a chuckle and asked in amusement.

Meanwhile, Jessie and the other kids made a forced smile and shook their heads.

At that moment, the Holem's Crown in Jessie's hand flew out on its own and soon formed into a black cane.

Charles swiftly caught the cane, gripped the handle, and stood with its support.

Then, he turned his gaze towards Noel as he raised his hand, pointed his finger at the red-gem embedded ring, and spoke.

"Noel, give that ring. I will do some alteration and add a protect spell matrix in it." He paused for a moment as he saw envious gazes from the other three kids and added.

"You three would also get something for completing your personal missions."

Upon hearing those words, Noel hurriedly took the ring from his finger and passed it to Charles.

After taking the ring, Charles silently stored it in his space ring and then looked at the surroundings.

They were currently standing near a small rocky hill, and the surrounding areas were filled with cactus plants, yellow alpine alyssums, bur oak, neem tree, blue fescue, and rocky cresses.

'This kingdom really is a dry area.' He thought.

Then, he turned his attention towards the western sky and furrowed his brows.

'It's getting late.' 

He raised his hand, rubbed his chin, and spoke with a thoughtful look on his face.

"We should find a safe place near this hill and camp here. Traveling during night time is not safer."

"I also thought of the same, Teacher." Jessie tersely acknowledged and started talking out few long swords from her void pouch.

"We will gather woods for campfire from the nearby areas." She added.

"That would be helpful," Charles responded with a pleased smile and soon turned his gaze towards the left side.

Unlike other areas, that place appeared clean, as if someone had already removed the weeds and plants.

"Let's camp there," Charles said.

"Teacher, that place is so close to this dirt road." She hesitated for a moment and soon continued.

"Some merchant caverns might come during nighttime and disturb our sleep."

Upon hearing her words, Charles shook his head and spoke.

"We are not here to enjoy our sleep, lass. In truth, this place is most suitable for camping. If we came in some deep areas, we might let our guard down, go into a deep sleep, and get ambushed by bandits or thieves later. But if we choose this place, we will always be half-sleep and would wake up even if we hear a slight noise. During camping outside, one must always be in vigilance."

An awkward smile appeared on Jessie's face as she realized her mistake and nodded.

"I learned something new today." She muttered.

On the other hand, Charles also nodded his head and spoke with a solemn look on his face.

"You guys go and prepare the campfire. I have some work to do, and I might take two to three hours to return."

Without waiting for their reply, Charles turned his head towards the small rocky hill and started to walk.

He crossed many cactus plants and soon arrived near the rocky hill.

After that, he started climbing on the small hill, reached the flat summit, and stopped in front of a large flat rock that could almost cover 4 to 5 in diameter.

Although there were up and down in the rock, Charles didn't put much thought into it and started his work.

He first took out a golden-covered book and held it in his hand.

Then, he went towards the nearby round rock, placed the black cane beside it, and started walking towards the flat rock.

'First I have to draw the ritual circle.' He muttered inwardly, took out a white chalk piece, and started drawing a ritual circle.

'After I left the Tower of Elements, my heart is beating abnormally. This is definitely a premonition.' Charles's eyes constantly flickered as he entirely focused his attention on drawing the ritual circle.

If it were a few months ago, he wouldn't have put much thought into this uneasy feeling. But after he learns more about the Trickster Class, he clearly knew that it was related to his future.

His mind started to think at a fast speed as he sensed the urgency.

'Someone is targeting me. And, it is definitely those Tower Masters. They might have done countless research about this blood droplet and might be using some method to track the location of the Ancient Light God's blood droplet.'

Charles didn't dare to delay any longer and continued to draw the ritual circle.

After 10 minutes, he finally finished drawing the complicated ritual circle and tossed the chalk towards his left side.

He then took out twelve Fire Stones from his space ring and placed them on the ritual circle's twelve corners.

After that, he took out twelve Red Fruits and twelve different types of fire-elemental herbs and followed the same procedure.

Once he placed them in the right places, he took out twelve candles from his space ring, put them beside the ritual materials, and lit them one by one.

Following that, Charles took out a red vial, opened it lightly, and let a single drop of a red liquid drop on the burning fire of the candle.

Once the red droplet touched the fire, the fire turned dense red and started to burn fiercely!

He went near the next candle without any delay and poured another droplet of red liquid into the fire.

He patiently did this procedure and soon poured the 12th droplet on the 12th candle.

After that, he went towards the center of the ritual circle, opened the golden covered book, and started reciting the ritual song.

The song was filled with different kinds of emotions.

It ignited some fire in all the nearby living creatures' hearts!

The first verse made the creatures feel the deep anger in their hearts.

The second verse made the creatures feel joy.

The third verse made the creatures feel sad!

In seconds, Charles's melodic voice started to echo in all directions, causing the nearby birds and animals to howl, chirp, and sing in unison!

The ritual continued for the next five minutes and then ended along with a loud hum!

At that moment, those red fires in the candles started to spread towards him from all directions and started enveloping him.

Soon, twelve rings of fire appeared from his head to toe!

The next moment, Charles saw an unbound invisible power tore through space and descended on the ritual circle.

He felt a strong impulse to kneel, but he resisted with all his might.

Soon, a dense reddish fire landed in front of him and formed into a shape of a humanoid figure.

Then, the humanoid figure spoke in a strange language, but Charles clearly understood its meaning.

"Sacrifice."

That was the thought that came to his mind.

Charles took out the Fire Fiend's heart without any delay, tossed it towards the reddish humanoid form, bowed his head, and spoke.

"I request the 'Will' of Moris Elemental Plane to bestow me an elemental imprint."

Once he finished his words, the humanoid reddish figure moved its right hand and sent out a small red thread towards him.

Before Charles could blink, he felt a large fire-imprint appeared in the depth of his Inner World!

It appeared more like a large magic circle!

In an instant, a dense amount of fire elemental energies were coming through the elemental imprint, entering the Inner World, and caused major changes!