Stygian Mage

The reason why Soren focused so much on this fact of purity was that it also concerned him and his Mana quality. He found out that the Mana produced by using ‘Devour’ was actually 100% pure. It was not a surprise though, as his skill came from his dormant Bloodline combining with his Soul Form. It was not a cultivation technique, just a method to gather Mana. What it did was that it absorbed the Mana from its surrounding and then passed it through the Stygian Grimoire, which acted as a filter, to make it 100% pure and to modify it according to Soren’s attributes.

The Stygian Grimoire did not have a mind of its own so it could only function as it was supposed to. It just removed every useless thing in that Mana and modified it according to it's Master’s attributes. This, in turn, actually decreased the quality of the Mana. But without any external guidance, the Stygian Grimoire couldn’t decide how much pure the Mana should be; it just went all out and removed everything, only leaving the 100% pure Mana.

The modification it made was also just changing the nature of the Mana itself and was not adding anything in it. It was like taking a mass-produced car and then customizing it to fit the user’s needs like increasing the speed, decreasing the drag coefficient, etc.

This fact about the purity of his Mana became a problem for Soren, which he only found out about after doing so much research on the ‘Vornea’. Of course, it was not an urgent problem as it could be fixed even after he broke through to Rank 1. But he still had to make plans about it, and he had already started to do that.

One fortunate thing in all this was a fact that Soren had also found out during his research.

After trying many methods out, his final conclusion was that Elemental Particles were the best candidate for increasing the quality of the Mana and fixing its problem of high volatility. Also, using the Elemental Particles which the user had the highest affinity with was the best choice in this case.

One more thing about this was that the lower the temperature of the Mana was, the easier it was for its user to control it; the low temperature made the Mana less active which, in turn, made it easier for the user to control it, further adding to the quality of the Mana.

This fact was the silver lining in all of this, as Soren had the perfect Element for this job—‘Ice’.

‘Ice’ would not only work as the necessary Elemental Particle to increase the quality of the Mana, but it would also decrease its temperature, resulting in further enhancing its quality. This Element seemed to be the best choice in this situation, and fortunately, it was one of the main Elements of Soren. He had the highest affinity with this Element and this fact became his savior in this unfortunate situation.

…………

One way to fix this situation of his was to change his cultivating method and pick a proper cultivation technique. But he knew it was almost impossible to find a cultivation technique that was better than, or even came close to, his ‘Devour’. His skill ‘Devour’ gave him a very high cultivation speed and allowed him full control over the distribution of the ‘Quintessence’. Not only that, but it also modified the Mana according to his attributes. Trying to find a cultivation technique which could beat that was very close to impossible for him right now. Not to mention that Soren didn’t want to give up on any one of those aspects and would not settle for something less.

In the end, Soren just decided to create a cultivation technique himself with his ‘Devour’ skill at its core.

The final cultivation technique that he had in mind would contain all the pros of ‘Devour’, and at the same time would also remove all its cons; he already had the best Element for that purpose. Not only that, but he was also planning to integrate a perfected ‘Vornea’ skill in that cultivation technique; he didn’t want to give up on this either.

Of course, this was only the initial idea and could change in the future. But even so, it would only change for the better and won’t go down in quality.

.…………

Soren locked the door and went down using the elevator. Before moving out, he had applied what he had learned from that cultivation technique about ‘Vornea’ and tried to test his current progress. To Soren’s delight, he found out that although he didn’t get ‘Vornea’ as a proper skill in his status screen yet, the problem of backlash was solved; sure, he could only control light objects when they were in his extreme proximity and could barely move his spell projectiles when they were farther away, but it was still better than before.

Moving out of the elevator, Soren saw the person sitting behind the reception desk; it was Cole. Soren didn’t want to waste any time on this stuff at the moment so he just went out after taking a single glance at him. This action of Soren made Cole sigh in relief. He was truly very anxious and afraid when he saw Soren coming out of the elevator. He had actually wanted to leave the job and run away somewhere far with Leah, but she rejected his idea as she still hadn’t received her reward for this job. Although Leah was very afraid of Soren, somewhere in the corner of her mind, she knew Soren couldn’t harm her; wouldn’t harm her. This was based on the arrogance born from thinking that by doing this job; she had somehow become a part of the Liston Family.

Right now, she was waiting to get pregnant with Soren’s child, without knowing that he had already killed every possibility of that happening.

…………

Soren made his way towards the City-Guard’s Barracks first after getting out of the hotel. He had asked the Captain to buy a certain thing for him. It had already been a number of days now, so Soren was now going to check on that.

After reaching the place, he went in through the main gate and then walked towards the training field. He knew that at this time, the Captain would most probably be in the training field, overlooking the guard’s training.

He was right, as he found the man standing in the field, enjoying the warm sunlight falling on his skin. The guards were shouting in rhythm as they all trained together. Soren walked over to where the Captain was and then stood beside him, looking at the guards.

“How have you been, Mr. Soren?” Brady asked without looking at him.

“Have you bought the thing that I asked you to buy?” Soren didn’t waste time on these formalities as he just wanted to get it over with. He was still pissed about the fact that this Captain had lied to him and told him that there was no way for him to go back to his home-world. But he really needed this item so he had to force himself to come here and talk to this guy.

“Getting right to the business, I see.” Brady laughed as he saw Soren acting like that. He didn’t particularly care about these formalities either as he was more interested in making a profit.

“I have already bought it. It’s not one of those high-quality stuff, but you should still be thankful that you can get it here because of me. It took me a lot of trouble to get this, you know.” The Captain continued as he deliberately expressed how much trouble he went through to buy this item for Soren.

Soren knew the Captain was trying to negotiate the price once again. If it was any other time, Soren would have pushed back, but right now, he didn’t care about it. This thing was very vital for him and he just wanted to get it; regardless of the cost.

“How much do you want?” Soren directly asked Brady without beating around the bush. They had initially decided on 3000 Low-Grade Mana Crystals.

“5000” Brady directly increased that by 2000.

Soren furrowed his eyebrows after hearing Captain’s words. He didn’t know, at this point, how much he would need for the auction but paying this much would definitely decrease his chances of getting the things that he wanted.

“3200” So, he made a counter-offer.

“Mr. Soren, I went to a lot of trouble to get you this. The least you can do is appreciate my effort. 4000.” The Captain spouted some useless nonsense before stating his price.

This was still a bit high for Soren so he again countered the offer.

“3500”

Brady made a troubled face after hearing Soren’s offer like he was suffering from some deep injustice.

“Fine, I’ll accept it in the name of our friendship.” In the end, he accepted the offer. Soren actually would have given him 4000 Mana Crystals if he rejected this one; he didn’t want to continue this useless banter anymore and just wanted to get this over with.

As the deal was finalized, Soren took out 35 Middle-Grade Mana Crystals, put them in a pouch, and handed it to the Captain. Brady had seen everything but he still opened up the pouch after getting it and then counted it one by one; irritating Soren as he went through each every Mana Crystal.

After he was finished counting it, he kept the pouch inside his jacket pocket and took out a very small, transparent vial. The vial seemed to be made of glass and was filled with pale blue colored liquid. This was what Soren wanted so desperately, and had even paid almost double of what it was generally worth in the market; given, it had to be available.

This vial filled with pale blue liquid was the ‘Soul Recovery’ Potion.

………..

Soren kept the vial safely inside his jacket pocket and made his way out of the barracks.

“Soren” A male voice called out to him as he was about to go out of the gate.

“Oh, Claude” Soren turned around and saw Claude walking towards him.

“What happened? Do you need some help?” Claude asked as he saw Soren walking out of the barracks.

“No, I just had some business with the Captain. It’s done now.” Soren replied lightly.

“Ok…. So, are you also going there?”

“Are you talking about the auction? Yeah, I am going there now.”

“Auction?” Claude saw that Soren had misunderstood him so he corrected himself. “No, are you going to go together with that royal family member?”

This time, Soren became confused at Claude’s question. He had no idea what Claude was talking about, and Claude noticed this.

“You don’t know?” So he simply asked.

“I don’t know what?” Soren replied with his own question.

“There’s a member of the royal family in our town right now. I don’t know why they personally came all the way out here, but it’s true. Their purpose seems to be recruiting Initiators to fight for the royal family in the war that’s been going on for some time.” Claude explained patiently.

Soren was a little surprised to hear such news. He had just arrived from the jungle three days ago and had stayed inside his room for the whole time, doing his research and study. And such, he didn’t know what was going on in the town. But while he was surprised to hear this news, he didn’t take it seriously. This didn’t concern him in any way. From what the Liston Family knew, his cultivation level was still very low. Going to the war at that level was basically suicide.

This was not because Initiators at that level would not be useful in the war; Non-Initiators made up the majority of the numbers in the war so even a low-level Initiator was better than them. But the problem here was that even though they were low level, they had the title of an Initiator. The moment they became an Initiator, their battlefield changed from that of a Non-Initiator.

And even if somehow the Liston Family decided to send him off to the war, would he silently go? He had been waiting for today for a long time now. Today was the auction day, and the day he would get what he needed to break the chains that were binding him. He had already thought of this plan on the day he was forcefully made to sign the Blood Contract.

He had remembered every word that was said on that day. He remembered one fact in particular that Faron had mentioned when presenting the chains to him. The fact was that the Blood Contract which he signed was a Rank 0 Contract. This was effectively made for Initiators in Rank 0; Mist Condensation realm. Breaking this Contract meant death if one was a Rank 0 or a Mist Condensation Initiator, and meant Severe Soul Damage even if one was a Rank 1 Initiator.

But Severe Soul Damage didn’t mean death. It could heal over time and would heal even faster with some external help.

This was the only way Soren could think of to break the chains that were binding him. He was going to break through to Rank 1 and then was going to break the Blood Contract.

That’s why he was so desperate to increase his strength.

That’s why he went to the Vestige, trying to find something that could increase his strength.

That’s why he was so desperate for Mana Crystals.

And that was why he was so desperate for the ‘Soul Recovery’ Potion.

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