Stygian Mage

The Cultivation book which Soren had found was a technique named ‘Steel Skin’ and it was mainly focused on ‘Defense’. The stats it developed were mainly ‘Resistance’, ‘Strength’ and ‘Vitality’. This Cultivation Technique was built around the concept of a ‘tank’. Any Initiator who practiced this would most probably become a defense focused melee fighter.

Of course, it was pretty much useless for Soren but he could use it as a reference or he could sell it. Being a Cultivation Technique which focused on multiple stats, it would sell for a decent amount. And it could even be sold multiple times by someone who knew how to create Memory Spheres.

Soren kept the book aside for now and started to look at other stuff in front of him. The next thing he found was a bunch of Beast Cores, kept properly in wooden boxes. Delighted and ecstatic, he quickly did the count and found that there were 66 Beast Cores in those boxes. Some of them were even sealed and had their Mana intact which only made him happier.

Soren guessed that the girls did not gather these Cores from hunting Beasts but rather hunting people. Of course, he wasn’t going to complain as this had solved his Mana Crystal issue for the most part. He didn’t know the exact amount that the Beast Cores would sell for but he made a quick estimate and it came out to be around 8000 Low-Grade Mana Crystals.

…

The next thing he found in that loot was something that he hadn’t expected to find at all: a Spell Vessel. This find made his heart beat faster and his brain a little confused.

It was actually very uncommon to find an unused Spell Vessel on a person. As most people would just use it the moment they get it or very soon after. There were only a few reasons for someone to carry a Spell Vessel on them.

—Their Soul Form was full and couldn’t accommodate another Spell Vessel.

—They had just gotten the Spell Vessel and hadn’t had the time to use it.

—They had created the Spell Vessel themselves and intended to sell it.

—The Spell Vessel didn’t match well with their attributes and they didn’t want to use it.

There could be many other reasons too like buying it as a gift for someone but these few were the most common ones; as common as finding a Spell Vessel in a loot could be, of course.

Soren, controlling the excitement that he currently felt, opened the wooden box and took out the Spell Vessel. Taking it out, it looked quite different from the ones Soren was used to. It was totally transparent like glass but felt quite hard to touch. It also had some complicated runes on top of it. Soren didn’t have an understanding of runes currently so he couldn’t make anything out of it but he guessed that it must be related to the creation of the Spell Vessel. From the look of it, Soren could tell that it was an Artificial Spell Vessel but he couldn’t tell which element it belonged to or what spell it contained.

But nonetheless, no Spell Vessel could harm anyone by just adding it to their Soul Form so it was perfectly safe for Soren to use it. He could also sell it for Mana Crystals but, as he was already seeing the limits of his current spell arsenal and wanted to buy more spells, this one came at just the right time. Although he didn’t know what spell he would get from it, it would at least be something. Even if he could not use it, he could get some inspirations from the spell structure and maybe somehow modify it for his use when he attains full Spell Mastery.

…

While Soren went through the things that he had gotten from the loot, Isaac did his job of keeping a watch on the surroundings.

Isaac was a part of Soren and was connected with his soul so he also received the same feedback from Soren’s sensory organs. This was something that Soren knew before too but he only started using this fact very recently, as he was not used to it before. It might be something strange but as the time passed by, Soren started to rely on Isaac more and more and started to trust him thoroughly. It was not that he didn’t trust him before but there was always a subconscious barrier that even Soren himself was not aware of. He knew that Isaac was a part of him from the start but he had always regarded Isaac as a different entity; that’s why he gave a name to Isaac, otherwise he could have just left it as ‘Second Intelligence’ or ‘A.I’.

Though Soren himself wasn’t aware of this fact, it had taken some time for him to completely trust Isaac with his life. Maybe it started when Isaac had saved his life after his first fight with the ‘Kleboon’, or maybe it happened gradually as time passed by and they experienced things together. Whatever the reason may be, he had now started to trust Isaac thoroughly with his life and with his entirety.

………

Soren put the Spell Vessel aside for now and focused on the other stuff he got from the girls. The next thing he picked was a pendant which was worn by one of the girls. It had a heart shaped locket with a silver chain. The locket was empty but the total look of the pendant gave it a very feminine feel.

But as it was said—beggars can’t be choosers. Soren was not shopping for stuff right now so he couldn’t choose what he would get.

As for what effect it had? Soren knew that he could find that out just by wearing it but it had some risk. He didn’t have any way to check the item’s details to see if it was harmful to him. But to find out what it did, he had to take a risk here and go by the feeling he was getting from the pendant. And seeing that the girls wore it and were still fine, he guessed that it wouldn’t harm him either; he wasn’t fully confident though. So, without further ado, he wore it on his neck while hiding the feminine locket part inside his t-shirt.

While doing this, he also realized that he needed to figure out a way to appraise items. He could either buy a spell for it or somehow figure out the basics and create one himself. He didn’t want to take risks like this to check every item that he would get in the future. So, he put that on his to-do list which he just created; out of necessity.

After wearing the pendant, he waited for a few seconds and then checked his status. Its effect: The pendant had increased his ‘Spirit’ stat by 2.50 and in turn, had increased his Mana Recovery which he could feel by now.

‘Spirit’ was a very important stat to any Initiator regardless of their chosen path. While ‘Skills’ mainly required ‘Stamina’ to activate, some of them also needed ‘Mana’. ‘Spirit’ was an essential and one of the main stats for any Spell Caster, but it was also quite important to Warriors. Most Initiators who chose the Warrior path had ‘Spirit’ as their second or third priority and many of them also used some Mana Recovery items to make up for the difference.

……

The next thing that Soren found was a silver ring which was worn by the other girl. It had a very simple design; it had a width of around 2 cm and had a single groove circling the whole ring in the middle.

Of course, he didn’t have any way to check this item too, so he just went by the same logic as the pendant. He wore it on his right index finger where it was a perfect fit. After waiting for a few seconds, he opened his status and checked the result.

His ‘Agility’ had increased by 2.10 points. He was slightly disappointed as it didn’t increase a stat that would increase his ability as a Spell Caster but he knew he couldn’t be lucky every single time. The ring increased his stat without any side effect; that alone was good enough for him. And it was not like ‘Agility’ wasn’t useful to him at all. It would increase his speed, his reflexes, and his reaction speed, so all in all, it was pretty good.

He couldn’t appraise the items currently and had no way of finding their names, so he decided to just name them himself for now. He thought for a while and named them in a very simple manner: ‘Spirit-Pendant’ and ‘Agility-Ring’.

………..

Soren checked out all the other stuff but couldn’t find anything else that could be useful to him. The total useful loot he had gained from this was: 4000 Low-Grade Mana Crystals, 66 Beast Cores, a Cultivation Book, one transparent Spell Vessel, Spirit-Pendant, and Agility-Ring.

The rest of the stuff that he ignored included backup weapons like crossbows, guns, blow dart etc. With some survival kit supplies like bandages, medicines etc. He didn’t need any of these and didn’t want to carry them as they wouldn’t sell for much, so he just left them there. Before discarding them though, he checked out the guns in the loot to see if he could replace his own with a better one but was quite disappointed.

…

He was done there and was now planning to go back to his tree hole. The night didn’t affect him much because of his ‘Powered Vision’ and he had Isaac for the map, so it was pretty easy for him to make his way back. The effect of the drug was also completely removed by now and there were no after effects left. He was already clear-headed and was ready to face anyone in combat if needed.

Soren packed all his stuff into his backpack and got ready to move. He took a last look at the scene and glanced at the gruesome sight of the leftover blood, flesh, bones, and the organs mangled together on the ground. The two girls were pretty much mixed up now and there was no way to tell which part belonged to whom.

He picked up his backpack, his staff and together with his undeads, which were almost at the end of their lifespan, moved towards the deep jungle.

……..

By the time he reached his tree hole, he had already killed a few Beasts. They were quite weak and had lower cultivation compared to him so they ended up dying too quickly. He couldn’t even use his full power before they died. And since he didn’t want to cultivate using their Mana, he sealed their Cores using his ‘Dead Rising’. Now, he had 85 Beast Cores in total with some of them having their Mana intact.

His Mana had also recovered due to the increase that the pendant brought to his ‘Spirit’ stat. And he also felt the difference in his speed, reflexes, and his reaction speed while he was moving and fighting the beasts.

But he didn’t really want to get used to it the increased ‘Agility’ as it was only an external boost and not his own power, and also because he was planning on exchanging the ring for something that would increase his magical stats or spellcasting ability. He didn’t want to become an all-rounder so his physical stats meant very little to him right now. He obviously could not ignore them completely but he would rather play to his own strength than to cover all aspects.

He had already gathered enough Beast Cores and after breaking through to Rank 0: Layer-9, he was planning to meet the ‘Wandering Wolves’. He was thinking of trading the ring with them for something he needed.

There was one thing he needed to do before that though. The ‘Draconic Blood’ that he had received from Smiley—he still hadn’t used it. He was planning on using it after he completely recovered before but things happened and he had to come to the jungle earlier than planned. He was still injured right now but he wanted to use it anyway. He didn’t know if it would create problems for him or not but he wanted to use it quickly and get it over with.

But the problem here was: He was in a jungle. He had no place to take a bath and he could not put the blood in any big water source; that would be just stupid.

Soren looked around the tree hole and checked it out carefully. He was planning on going away now so it would have no use for him anymore. He might as well create a bathtub inside and make use of the tree hole one last time.

The floor of the tree hole was all wood so he couldn’t just start digging; that could take a lot of time. He had to approach it in a different way.

Deciding on what to do, he started to work. First, he chose a proper place inside the tree hole which could be converted into a bathtub. It wasn’t hard to do so as all the places were almost the same and he just chose the area which he felt was the best.

He then used his knife to create an outline for the tub. After finishing with that, he started casting ‘Dark Bolt’ and aimed inside that outlined area.

The increase in his affinity had brought him many advantages, especially when it came to ‘Darkness’ and ‘Ice’ spells. The Mana Cost for the spells of those two Elements had gone down to such level that he could cast them multiple times now without running out of Mana; especially the basic spells.

And so, he kept casting ‘Dark Bolt’ again and again. The bolts made of dense dark mist kept rushing towards the outlined area one after another. The sound of the spell colliding with the tree echoed in that hole as Soren kept going.

……….

Soren casted the spell around 30 times and still had more than half his total Mana left in his reserve.

The wood in that outlined area had withered and decayed as the spell kept colliding with it. Soren was ecstatic to see the effect of his increased affinity. Right now, he had full dominance over the spell and could easily change its power. He could easily make a very small ‘Dark Bolt’ to do less damage or increase its size to do more damage. He knew that it would be the same for his other spells of ‘Darkness’ and ‘Ice’ Elements.

The perfect control over the spells gave him an exhilarating feeling.

Before, his ‘Mana Manipulation’ skill gave him the ability to somewhat manipulate his spells and change their strength but now, his affinity gave him full control over the spells. The only difference was—his ‘Mana Manipulation’ skill gave him the ability to slightly control all his spells while his increased affinity allowed him to have full dominance over only ‘Darkness’ and ‘Ice’ spells.

Being lost in the feeling, Soren didn’t notice the condition of the wood. He had used so many spells that the wood was now thoroughly dead. It became so weak inside the outlined area that any average human could break it with their bare hands.

“Master…”

Only after Isaac reminded Soren, he became clear headed again. Soren saw the damage his spells had done and a feeling of pride spread through his mind. He had come a long way since he arrived in this world.

The fight with the Crocottas before had made him realize that he was overestimating himself and that he had become somewhat overconfident in his abilities. He hadn’t realized the extent of his power at that time and was made to realize the hard way. But now, he could say with certainty that he could kill those 5 Crocottas without breaking a sweat. This was not overestimating himself anymore. This was pure confidence which was based on his power and had the foundation of his abilities.

With power came confidence; confidence to move forward and destroy anyone who stood in his path.

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