Stygian Mage

Soren spent the night in the cave and did his routine cultivation and spell study to pass the time. He slept for a few hours after he was tired and finally, woke up somewhat late in the morning. He ate some dried meat and drank water to fill his stomach, and then got ready to head out. While moving out, he opened his status once to check on things.

Finished with that, he once again created a Zombie Wolf and went on his way.

……….

This time too, none of the weak Beasts dared to get in his path because of the Zombie Wolf. As such, his journey was fairly smooth, until he reached a deeper part of the jungle. As he kept moving in deep, he started encountering stronger Beasts. It slowly went from Layer 3 to 4 and kept increasing as he went on deeper. He also spotted some Initiators on his way but as he didn’t want to get involved with them, he changed his route every time he saw one.

The other Initiators also had same thought it seemed, as they also ignored Soren and went on their way.

Soon, he reached a much denser part of the jungle. The trees here looked much bigger and much denser. The big leaves and branches had almost covered the whole sky, creating a little dark and somber atmosphere in the jungle. The chirping sound of birds also did not feel like sweet melody anymore.

Soren got off the Zombie Wolf and dispersed it. He then repaired his Spell Vessel ‘Create Undead’ as he rested there for a while. He drank some water to satiate his thirst after finishing the repair of the Spell Vessel. He was also on high alert right now as he was already quite deep in the jungle.

He already had Isaac make a thorough map of the places he had visited till now, so he had a general idea on where he was. But as he didn’t have an official map for reference, his own map was still very basic and incomplete.

..……..

He walked through the dense jungle, using his survival knife as a means to create a way. He was once again reminded of the time when he first came in the jungle after becoming an Initiator. At that time, he was a little scared, a little excited, and a little nervous; all at the same time. He wasn’t experienced in any survival skill and was basically a noob in this area. He was not an expert right now either but at least he was better than that time.

He moved forward, clearing the branches, vines, and leaves in front of him using the knife and one hand constantly on his gun.

Actually, he also knew that at this level, his gun had become useless. Any Beast above the Layer 7~8 in Rank 0 range could avoid or defend against the gun. Especially if the Beast was Defense oriented; the bullets would just ricochet off its skin.

He could buy a better gun, but he knew it would be very costly and he didn’t want to waste any crystal right now.

He was trying to earn Mana Crystals because he wanted something from that auction—something that would be vital for his advancement. He had already gathered all the information about the things that was going to be sold in the auction. Although there were many things he wanted in that list, the thing he wanted the most was a fruit.

A fruit named ‘Frozen Crystal’.

Soren had read about it when he was looking for the information about breaking through from Rank 0 to Rank 1. This fruit was listed as one of the things that could increase the chances of a breakthrough. And most of all, it didn’t have to be processed it into a potion or a pill. It could be ingested directly and it would work perfectly. Actually, processing the fruit would instead decrease its effect, so it was meant to be ingested directly.

From what Soren had read, this fruit was something that could help in the compression of Mana. If someone wanted to break through from Rank 0 to Rank 1; in other words, if someone wanted to breakthrough from ‘Mist Condensation’ to ‘Hydrous Conversion’, they had to compress their Mana, which was like mist or fog, into a liquid-like state.

They had to turn their Mist Mana Core into Liquid Mana Core.

This fruit helped with the compression and that’s why it was sought after so much. The fruit itself was not that rare but every time it was sold in a market or an auction, the price was always sky-high. Of course, the price that seemed sky-high in the eyes of Rank 0 Initiators would be pocket change for someone at higher levels.

Soren wanted to get that fruit from the auction with some of the other things that he had his eyes on. That was the reason he was trying so hard to gather Mana Crystals.

………

Soren moved through the jungle while constantly paying attention to his surroundings.

While moving, he was also thinking about one thing—Scan Spell. He really wanted a Scanning type Spell right now. It would make it so much easier for him to travel that way.

GRRRR!!

A deep growl resounded in front of Soren as he came upon a small clearing between the trees and saw a Beast in front of him. The Beast looked like a mix of a dog and a wolf and seemed like a mutated Hyena. Though, it was bigger than a hyena in size and had black spotted skin. It also had a fairly small tail which looked quite furry.

The Beast was growling towards Soren and already had gone into battle mode. As soon as Soren saw the Beast, Isaac provided him with its details.

Crocotta!

That was the Beast’s name. It seemed quite similar to a hyena and its features were also very similar. One of its features was that its jaw and teeth were exceptionally strong; it could easily break a Warrior’s low-grade weapon using just its jaw strength. It was also not that aggressive in nature; instead, it was a little bit cowardly. It always tried to scare the opponent away and didn’t begin the fight itself; unless….

One fact of it, though, made Soren a little apprehensive: Crocottas always hunted in packs. It was actually quite rare to find a lone Crocotta. Soren knew he could not be that lucky. So, the Beast in front of him should have a pack somewhere nearby and it wouldn’t take long for them to come to this Beast’s aid.

But Soren didn’t plan to run.

If he ran away every time he met a pack of Beasts, he would never be able to finish what he wanted to do.

“Rank 0: Layer 7”

Black mist gathered around Soren and soon a grand black book floated in front of him.

Shadow Chain!

Soren quickly cast <Shadow Chain> to test the waters as a dark black chain came out of the shadows around him and rushed towards the Beast at a very high speed. The Crocotta, seeing that the opponent was not planning on retreating, howled loudly in response.

HOWL!!!

It sounded something like a Battle-Cry, but Soren knew—it was a call for its pack-mates.

He smirked after seeing the Beast’s actions. He didn’t care if the Beast called its pack-mates, he was planning on killing them all anyway. He didn’t cast <Create Undead> here as he was only facing one Beast right now. The limit on the use of that Spell Vessel made it really hard for Soren to use it as he wanted. He had to wait for it to become his Innate Spell before using it as much as he wanted; as much as his Mana allowed him to, of course.

He then took out his staff which was hanging from his back. It increased his ‘Intelligence’ and ‘Spirit’ stats which was a big help in his fighting style. 0

While Soren was taking out his staff, the Shadow Chain had already reached the Beast and the Beast had already dodged it; albeit with a small damage from the sharp end of the chain which had scratched the Beast’s leg.

Soren could see that the Beast was not that fast. In his ‘Powered Vision’, which had developed quite a bit now, the actually Beast seemed like a snail. Its every movement was being read by Soren, who was already prepared with his next spell.

With the staff in his right hand, Soren lifted his left palm and cast <Ice Arrow> twice. Two ice arrows soon formed and floated in front of him. Although he was still far from his idea of ‘Simultaneous Casting’, he was slowly developing towards it. Of course, he couldn’t do ‘Simultaneous Casting’ right now but he could easily maintain a certain amount of spells without releasing them.

Swoosh!

Soren sent one ice arrow towards the Beast, which was dashing towards Soren right now in an attempt to bring the battle into close combat. The ice arrow flew at a high speed towards the Beast, but it missed its target as the Beast easily dodged it this time. The Beast had slightly shifted its direction and had dodged the ice arrow. It was then going to continue dashing but.….

Boom!

The same old tactic—the ice arrow burst into multiple shards and shredded the Beast’s skin. It was a very common tactic but it worked every time. Although the damage was not that great as the shards only damaged the Beast’s skin and did not penetrate deeply, it greatly agitated the Beast.

ROAR!!

A loud roar sounded in that area of the jungle as the pissed off Crocotta once again faced Soren and started rushing towards him. But before it could even take its second step, another ice arrow came towards it at a high speed. It easily saw the ice arrow and made its move to dodge it one more time….

Boom!

But the same thing happened again. This time, the Beast was thoroughly pissed; the ice arrow had burst right in front of its face and had damaged one of its eyes.

As the Beast was going to growl in anger….

Swoosh!

Another Ice arrow came towards it. The Beast, already learning from its mistake, didn’t dodge it this time and rushed in, trying to force its way through the shards. It would take some damage from the shards but that way, it could reach Soren and tear him into pieces.

Soren simply shook his head in pity as he saw the Beast’s action.

Thud!

A dull sound resounded as the ice arrow pierced the stupid Beast’s face. Red blood splattered in the air as the beast continued on because of the momentum.

The blood flowing from its wound soon froze because of the ice arrow. Its face was beyond recognition and had an ice arrow sticking out of it, which made it a little funny. Its brain froze before it could die of anything else and somehow, that became the reason for its demise.

The Beast fell down on the ground with a dull sound as some of the frozen blood broke into small red crystals from the impact. The huge amount of ice shards also made the temperature around that area quite low.

This was a very dull battle for Soren. He didn’t even need to move from his place and finished off the Beast in a very short time. Actually, Soren could see the direction that the Beast was dodging towards in a slow speed and if he wanted to, he could do the same thing he did with the <Dark Bolt> before and move the ice arrow towards the Beast—killing it in one shot. But that would take a heavy toll on Soren and given that more Beasts were on their way towards him, he didn’t want to use that right now.

………

Soren waited a while for his Mana to recover and then cast another spell. This time it was—

Dead Rising!

Black mist swirled around him as he aimed the spell towards the only dead body in the vicinity. The dark magic circle under his feet dispersed as the black mist surrounded the dead Beast.

Slowly, the Beast rose from the dead. And after stabilizing itself, it moved towards Soren and stood in front of him as his protector. The Beast looked a little funny with an ice arrow sticking from its face but fortunately, its jaw area was still fine; if not, it would have lost its strongest weapon.

Though it looked funny, the dark mist that was surrounding it and the aura of death that it was releasing gave it a menacing look. Right now, it looked like a dark Demonic Beast.

Soren smiled upon seeing the effect of his spell and again cast a spell.

Create Undead!

This time, he chose the variation of the undead that he had never used in a battle before—Weak Wraith!

Once again, the black mist flew around Soren as a dark magic circle formed under his feet. Soon, the black mist dispersed and an almost transparent, black floating creature came out. It had no definite shape and seemed almost intangible. It seemed very weak and fragile like a gust of wind could blow it away and destroy it.

This was the Weak Wraith.

It specialized in Soul attack and was useless in a physical battle. That’s why Soren had never used it before. But as he had gotten more powerful, the Weak Wraith’s Soul attack also increased in power and this time, he wanted to test it in a live battle.

While thinking about the power of its Soul attack, Soren once again cast ‘Create Undead’ and created another Weak Wraith.

The assortment of the dark creatures made that area look like something from a Dark Abyss. Dark mist floated around; the temperature had decreased; Dark Souls flew around Soren; combined with the dark Demonic Beast protector—it really seemed like a scene from the abyss with Soren in the center.

Soren was finally done with the preparation for the battle and just had to wait now for the Beasts to arrive.