Hermes made the hole he was lying in deeper. Deep enough so he could stand in and move his injured leg and flex his toes. It seemed to be doing fine.
He needed to plan his next action. How should he make his journey to the Bright Castle without dying?
He could just tunnel through the ground? That was actually genius. He would go tunnelling under the ground and occasionally take a peek above ground to see if he was on the right track.
He needed to use and get used to his abilities as soon as possible. These weren't tricks or gimmicks. Mastering these abilities was his key to survival. He was nothing without these abilities. He could already imagine so many ways he could kill with just his innate ability Azoth!
Tunnelling was a good idea but it wasn't completely safe. There could be monsters that lived in the ground too. But it was fine. Hermes would keep his guard up and be prepared. This was his domain. Well not just this, but anything that was solid and not alive. That included the ground.
He needed to utilise his sorcery too. Hmm.
He had a spell he had wanted to try because he wasn't sure of its mechanics. He didn't know if there'd be any nasty side effects.
Yes, it was the luck enhancing spell. He hadn't cast it because… well there were many things that could go wrong. For example, what if the spell buffed his luck for a short period but then gave him a debuff right after the effect ended and gave him extremely bad luck?
But he had to try now. What if he was simply overthinking? Maybe there was no side effect? If it was true he would simply spam that shit at all times. Wait what if he just cast the luck enhancing spell at all times? Would that offset the debuff or make it stack?
That was a terrifying thought. What if it stacked the debuff and the moment the effect of the spell stopped he choked on his saliva and died? Or he tripped and fell in a suspicious manner causing him to die?
Ugh…
Stop thinking too much. Just try the spell and find out the effects and try to mitigate them afterwards.
Alright. Hermes calmed himself and began inscribing. Wait no!
He remembered how he had cast spells without inscribing them. He had just manifested his thoughts into reality. Was he using his attributes wrong? Had he misunderstood them?
He tried a simple spell. The water ball spell. He tried to make it manifest in his palm. He was concentrating hard.
Nothing happened. God damn it.
Am I wasting my time? My first priority is to make it to the Castle. No, if I figure this out it will be the biggest breakthrough for me. This was the same as wordless casting. It needed no inscription.
It would boost my strength to crazy level. This wasn't just wordless casting no, this was also instant cast! With zero delay. Hell he could even do close combat with this, maybe…
No, stop thinking so much. You're doing the same thing as before. This is taking too much time. Try the luck spell and figure out the instant cast later when you're safe in the Castle.
"Haah…" Hermes sighed. It wasn't as if he couldn't do it. He had already done so. He just needed to figure out how to repeat it.
Alright then. Let's begin.
Luck. Fortune. Abundance. Protection.
As soon as Hermes finished writing, the spell just dissolved. It didn't work.
Why?
Hermes tried again with much more effort and concentration but the result was the same. It didn't work.
Why? Could it be…
Hmm. It must require his true name incorporated into the spell. Hermes didn't know how to do that, it was above his pay grade. For now.
That sort of thing needed much more… lampooning. There were all sorts of aspects, maybe someone could see his runes and find out what his true name was? Maybe someone was on spectator mode right now looking at him, maybe someone was on spectator mode in the future spectating at his past self.
He needed to ward his true name. And make an anti divination spell before attempting to cast spells involving his true name. He needed to be future proof as well.
This was too much damn it. Is there no way I can enhance my luck without using a true name?
Hermes suddenly had an epiphany.
Hehe… Muahahahahaha!
Calm down, I can't laugh yet. I have to hold it in, it might not work after all.
Hermes grabbed a rock, placing it on his wrist. He then used Azoth to transmute and turned the rock into a bangle that adorned his wrist. He then transmuted the runes for the luck enhancement spell on the underside of the bangle, the part that touched his skin.
He then felt the inscription against his skin and poured in soul essence just as he had done so with the clay tablets in his Nightmare Trial.
Hermes was feeling giddy and couldn't help but smile. It was working! Though he had to constantly supply his soul essence it was a truly negligible amount. After all Hermes had purposefully made the spell a simple one, as to have milder buffs and debuffs but it also had a small soul essence consumption rate.
He was a genius!
Now he could see the extent of the buffs and debuffs clearly after all he wasn't the one suffering from the backlash but still got to enjoy the benefits. It was truly a loophole!
Though he did wonder what kind of backlash could an innocent little rock even suffer. After all it was an inanimate object. Well whatever, he was simply happy that his spell was working.
He felt much more confident in his journey now.
Let's do this.
Hermes transmuted the ground to rise and made a small opening to take a peek. It was safe. He poked his head out and looked for the direction of the Bright Castle.
There it is.
Then he went down and covered himself facing the direction of the Castle and started tunnelling straight towards its direction. When he felt that he had spent a considerable amount of essence he would stop and repeat the process of making a small opening to peek and confirm if he was still going in the right direction.
Azoth was his innate ability so it was already cost efficient with his soul essence. He really needed to learn how to spam that shit.
He was about to peek out again but this time he heard some strange noise. He carefully made a small hole to see without exposing himself.
There was a tall woman locked in a brutal dance with a giant monster. She was dodging and weaving around the monster with such skill that Hermes wouldn't even be surprised if she was an incarnation of Achilles himself.
His bangle suddenly broke. Hermes already had a guess for the identity of this strong warrior, he looked at his bangle. It really did work. He decided to help the woman. He quickly popped out of the ground like a mole in a game of Whac-A-Mole.
The woman was distracted by his sudden involvement but it didn't matter because the moment he popped out the monster completely ignored the woman and rushed at Hermes.
The monster was a wierd looking thing. It had blue skin covered in scales with massive canines that didn't even fit in its mouth. Then it had shaggy fur growing on its back but it didn't grow on its head or tail making it look like it had male patterned baldness even though it wasn't human and male. Its eyes were full of rage and madness as it charged at him.
Hermes was prepared. He immediately used Azoth and transmuted the ground beneath the monster, opening a hole, causing the monster to fall into the hole which Hermes quickly closed, leaving the monster half stuck in the ground. It struggled to get out of the ground wriggling its body helplessly.
Hermes wondered if he could just crush the monster in the ground, but as soon as he had that thought the woman finally moved out of her daze and went for the finishing blow with her own spear.
Hermes greeted her.
"Hello there."