Stygian Mage

Soren took one last look at the tree hole as he shouldered his backpack. He had already finished his business here and now, it was time for him to meet the ‘Wandering Wolves’. He had changed his clothes and put on his black jacket with the hood on. But this time, instead of using his collar to cover his face, he used the mask that he had bought just before coming to the jungle.

He had to wear disguise not only because of the ‘Wandering Wolves’ members but because the place he was going to came under the Liston Family’s territory. The Vestige existed in their marked territory and right now, they were fighting to monopolize it. From what Soren knew, they had already sent most of their Rank 1 experts there, and if not for the fact that it would be completely useless, they would have sent even their Rank 0 Initiators.

It was quite possible that Soren would come face to face with them. His face was already known by most of the Liston Family members, so the only thing he could rely on to hide was his disguise. He was already used to it and felt no discomfort, or experienced any problem during combat anymore.

………

Soren created a Zombie Wolf and rode on it towards his destination. Before moving out, he had done some experiments with his new Spell Vessel and found out some details:

His new spell was actually a Rank 1 spell;

The basic spell was a Neutral Spell called ‘Gravity Domain’;

The current Mana Cost of the spell was equal to almost all of Soren’s Mana reserve;

The spell’s overall range was around 20 meters, which would increase with his level of mastery, and he could form the epicenter of the spell’s area of effect anywhere in that range;

The spell’s basic area of effect was around 5 meters and was dependent on Soren’s ‘Intelligence’ stat;

The increase in the spell range and the area of effect was not unlimited, but Soren currently didn’t know what the maximum limit was;

The current effective size of the spell’s area of effect was around 7 meters because of his increased ‘Intelligence’ stat.

Soren had tested the spell before moving out as he didn’t want to do a live test in actual combat right now. The Mana Cost of the spell prevented him from doing a field test as after casting the spell, he would become almost powerless.

Although he couldn’t exactly check how the spell would affect anyone alive, he knew for a fact that it was quite powerful. And most importantly, it had filled one of the gaps that Soren had felt in his arsenal of spells. Whenever he was fighting against more than one opponent, he felt his ‘Shadow Chain’ lacking as a method for crowd control. He could cast the spell multiple times now due to his increase affinity, but it was still a single target spell; he had also tried to use only one ‘Shadow Chain’ on multiple enemies before but it had many limitations so he had to give up on that.

From his experiments, he already knew that his new spell had a basic area of effect of 5 meters, and because of his increased ‘Intelligence’ stat, it had become 7 meters now. So, not only this spell of his could trap his enemies inside that 7 meters area with ‘Gravity Domain’, but it would also deal damage to them because of the addition of his ‘Darkness’ Element, which created the spell effect—‘Dark Tendrils’.

After finding out all the details about his spell, Soren really wanted to test it in real combat. But he restrained himself as losing almost all his Mana just to test his spell while moving in the jungle was not a smart move.

……….

Soren met many Beasts while on the move and also clashed with quite a few of them. Mainly, he tried to just run away as he had already fulfilled his plan of gathering Beast Cores and was in a hurry, so when he could, he would evade those Beasts and run away on his Zombie Wolf.

Of course, when he did fight with the Beasts, he clearly felt the effect of his increased stats. Right now, he could kill a Beast which had lower cultivation level than him in moments, and even if a beast had similar cultivation as him, he could completely destroy it in a minute or so with the combination his spells.

His destination was slightly far so he had to spend some time getting there. When he had started, it was already late afternoon. So, he had to stay and rest for the night in some safe place and then continue the next morning.

……..

Soren sat inside the cave with the bonfire creating his huge shadow on the wall behind him. He had found this cave on his way and decided to spend the night in it. It was not empty though and a Beast that looked quite similar to a bear was living here. Unfortunately for the bear, it became Soren’s dinner.

Soren was already quite used to the life in the jungle by now and had no problem in finding food or shelter.

With experienced hands, he cleaned the Beast’s meat and cut them into small enough pieces. He could only roast them using the fire as he had no other way to cook, so he skewered the meat onto a stick and started cooking them.

He had also kept the spices that those girls had, and after checking them for any harmful substance, he had decided to use them to increase the taste of his otherwise bland food.

As the meat cooked from the bonfire, Soren picked out two vials of spices amongst the collection. There was one spice that he actually liked quite a bit. Though he didn’t know what it was called or what it was made from, he liked its spicy taste. The other spice that he had picked was something that tasted sweet and went quite well with the other one.

Soren sprinkled those spices on the meat while checking if it was cooked properly. After confirming that it was ready to eat, he took the skewer in his hand and started biting into the hot and spicy meat, which was slightly covered in ash. Although the ash seemed unpleasant at first, it added a smoked flavor to the food, which Soren like quite a bit.

…..

Soren spent the night in that cave eating, cultivating, researching, practicing, and sleeping.

But since he didn’t have much data on the Neutral Spells, he couldn’t do much research on his new spell. As far as he knew, the so-called Neutral Spells were basically spells that were based on raw Mana and had no Elemental feature.

Soren was also slightly confused as ‘Gravity Domain’ seemed more like an ‘Earth’ Element’s spell rather than a pure Mana one. So, he made a mental note to gather more data on Neutral Spells and increase the level of mastery of his new spell. Only by gathering knowledge about this spell, he could increase its spell range, and someday, make it an Innate Spell to remove its limit on uses.

………

Soren woke up as morning came and walked out of the cave. He took a deep breath and felt the cold and fresh air of morning entering his lungs and spreading in his body. He could also feel the cold dew on the grass as he walked with his bare feet. He took some deep breaths and stretched his body while listening to the sweet sound of birds chirping. He spent some time gazing at the serene jungle while basking in the diffused morning sunlight that made its way to him through the scattered leaves. Due to the weather turning colder these days, this little bit of warmth felt even more comfortable on his skin.

….

After he was done with that, Soren went inside the cave and started to get ready. He was planning to reach his destination today so he had to make haste.

After getting ready, he ate his breakfast which was the same as his dinner last night, just with the addition of some fruits from around the cave; he already had enough knowledge by now to know which fruit was harmful and which was not. He drank some water at the end to satiate his thirst and then cast ‘Create Undead’.

A Zombie Wolf stood in front of him as he finished the spell and the black mist dispersed. Looking at the undead wolf, Soren had an idea about adding some more creatures to his undead list, so this also entered into his mental note—Isaac.

He also wanted to buy a ‘Water’ Element spell as creating water from heating ice was becoming a chore now. After all, he needed food and water to survive; food, he could gather easily by killing any animal and cooking them, but for water, he had to first make ice and then heat it in a container to change it into the water. It was very time-consuming and also wasted his Mana as he had to cast two spells for this; one was even of the element that he had the least affinity with, or more like, that element hated him.

……….

The Zombie Wolf rushed through the jungle like a shadow, dodging the trees and jumping over obstacles. Soren obviously didn’t have it easy riding on it but he had to bear it for now.

They had already entered the area where the highest cultivation level of a Beast was around Layer-6. As such, Soren rarely encountered any Beast in his path because of the Zombie Wolf’s aura of death.

He had broken through Layer-9 and increased his magical stats even further. Adding on top the enhancements from the items, his undeads had basically become the strongest amongst the Rank 0 Beasts.

Soren had also done some research on the items that he had gained and the enhancements in particular. He didn’t know much but he at least knew what basis they worked on. The items were all basically amplifiers; they temporarily amplified the effect of the ‘Quintessence’ on the user’s body. Thus, through the items, one could increase their stats, albeit temporarily. Some items also provided users with some skill but they all worked on the same basis.

…

Isaac was constantly providing Soren with navigational support, so it became pretty easy for him to travel through the woods. He already had the coordinates for the meeting place, so there was very low probability of him being lost.

………

Soren canceled his spell as he climbed down from the Zombie Wolf. From here on, he had to move on foot, as he didn’t want to flaunt his ‘Create Undead’ spell. The destination was not far, so he had no trouble walking there.

He slowly walked while constantly checking in with Isaac for directions. He was pretty close, after all, so he couldn’t just follow a general direction anymore. As he kept walking, the trees became sparse and soon, he came upon a cave.

He was sure that this cave was his destination but to be on the safe side, he first sent a message to the group through his communicator.

He didn’t have to wait for long as he heard the echo of the footsteps closing in; the sound was coming from inside the cave. Slowly, the echo turned into dull sounds as a person wearing a black cloak came out of the cave.

The black cloak completely covered that person’s body with a hood covering the head. The only thing visible through the cloak’s hood was the black mask. That mask seemed like it was crying and laughing at the same time while expressing all kinds of emotions.

That person was the same one that Soren had met before: Smiley.

……….

“So, you made it. I thought you weren’t going to come on time.”

Soren just nodded in his reply. He was also wearing a mask right now that covered his whole face; a black cat mask. His black eyes were the only thing visible through the gaps in the mask as they looked at the man in the front.

“Come inside. I’ll introduce you to the members that came for the vestige this time.”

Soren followed Smiley as he walked inside the cave. The pathway inside the cave was slowly engulfed in the darkness as they kept moving deeper. Soren couldn’t tell the exact distance but after he felt that they had walked for around 100 meters, the dark path opened up into a small hall which was also covered in complete darkness.

Because of his eyes though, Soren had no problem with it. So, as he entered the hall, he immediately saw three persons; all wearing a mask and a cloak.

One of them had a sword strapped to the right-side waist, while another was only wearing combat gloves on their hand and had no weapon. The last one was standing in the middle of the hall and was looking at Soren right now.

As Soren and Smiley entered the dark cave, the other two also looked towards them.

“Let me introduce you guys.”

Smiley went ahead and started introducing Soren to the others.

“This is Zero. He was the one who killed Draco in a one on one fight and took his place.” He gestured towards Soren and introduced his alias to the others.  He then gestured towards the person who had a sword.

“This is Wood. She is the same as you; a Rank 0 Layer-9 Initiator….Ah! Sorry for scanning you without asking; it‘s become a habit now.”

Soren already knew that they had some kind of scan spell or skill, but he didn’t care about that as he didn’t really want to hide his cultivation level from them; it was also nigh impossible for him to do so right now.

Removing that thought from his mind, Soren looked towards the Initiator that Smiley had introduced. She didn’t look any different from the others because of the cloak but her mask was different; same as the others. It was a simple mask which looked like it was made from common wood. The whole mask was plain except for the two eye holes from which Soren could see two deep green eyes.

Soren knew that because all the members disguised themselves, their masks became the only way to recognize each other.

…

Smiley continued as he gestured towards the one who was wearing combat gloves. “This is Hound. He is also of the same cultivation level.”

Soren nodded in greetings as he looked at his mask. It was a mask that suited his alias: Hound. It was white in color with red stripes covering from top to down. The mask itself covered only half his face as everything below his nose was visible. Because of this, Soren could clearly see the small white fangs at the two corners of his mouth.

“And this is Tera. She is one of the co-founders of ‘Wandering Wolves’ and the one who started this group. She is a Rank 1 Initiator; same as me.”

Smiley then introduced the last member and finished his introductions. Soren greeted her and then looked towards her mask. It was also white in color but it covered her whole face. It could be said to be very simple if not for the runes that covered its whole surface. Soren couldn’t tell what the runes were or what they did, but he could tell that they were not there for show.

“So, you are Zero. Smiley told me about you. Welcome to the group,” Tera nodded towards Soren as she said in a mature but feminine voice.

The other two also welcomed Soren and same as him, they looked towards his black cat mask that covered his whole face. His mask was also fairly simple as it was completely black in color with some red diagonal stripes covering the left and right side. There were also two small ear-like structures on the top which gave the whole thing an aesthetic feel to it.