Stygian Mage

Four days had passed since Soren lost his eye. These four days were very silent and peaceful for him. No one came to take him to the torture room during this time; even Faron did not come to check his cultivation level. The only time Soren saw any other person was when the servant brought food for him. Although Soren did not know the exact situation in the Liston Family Mansion right now, he had some conjectures about it.

And as he had speculated, the elders of the Liston Family were indeed divided on what to do with him. Some elders were of the opinion that he had already lost his value, and so, they voted to kill him. Others still saw some value in him, so they voted to keep him alive. This hesitation on their part was the thing that was keeping Soren alive, and he knew that. But, at the same time, he also knew that this would not continue for long. As such, he had decided to speed up his plans.

Fortunately, these four days of peace allowed him to do exactly that. Now that he did not have to go through those torture sessions, he could use that time to continue with what he was doing. So, he extended his night routine and continued it even during the day time. Although there was still a risk of being found out, after carefully considering the situation, he decided to do it.

His plans progressed very quickly. And finally, after four days of continuous digging, his escape route was eventually finished; of course, all the digging was done by his undeads.

Maybe because he had continuously used it during this time, he also realized some of the details about his spell <Create Undead> that he did not know before. One of those details was a very important aspect of the spell that he did not have any prior knowledge about. This aspect of the spell was that it could be used to share audial and visual information between Soren and his undeads. It meant that Soren could easily know what his undeads were seeing and hearing; of course, its range was the same as the distance at which Soren could control them.

This new discovery made Soren ecstatic. This was a very useful ability that could really help him in various situations. And it did not take him long to find a good use for it as he used it to make sure that the escape tunnel was dug straight. Although his spell <Elemental Sense> could also do the job, its range was currently lower than his <Create Undead> spell; not to mention, he could not maintain the <Elemental Sense> spell with just the Mana gathered by ‘Devour’.

…….

Today was the day that Soren was going to escape. He had decided to escape just after receiving his food in the evening. This meal was the last meal of the day, and so, it would give him the longest amount of time to escape without anyone finding out about it.

Impatience filled Soren’s heart as he waited for the last meal of the day to arrive. To kill his time, he decided to check everything once again.

So first, he checked the frozen potion and the frozen juice of the fruit on his hard palate. He had used <Cold Touch> on them just this morning so he was confident that there would not be any problem for now. From his experience so far, he could tell that they would stay intact for at least a couple of days. But as he had used <Cold Touch> on them every day, he could not tell the exact time frame by which they would start melting.

Next, Soren opened his status screen and checked the changes that had happened in these four days. 

 

As Soren looked at his ‘Status’ and the ‘Health’ stat, he was instantly reminded of his lost eye. Although he had gotten over it and had regained his confidence, the fact that he had lost his eye still hurt him and made him feel low. The realization that it would be fixed in such a state after it was healed did not help either.

Another change that had happened was that he had gained 1 level in his ‘Mana Manipulation’ skill. This could be called an expected result as controlling the Mana gathered by ‘Devour’ really increased his overall efficiency in manipulating it.

Then there was his CP. To prevent any mishap from happening, Soren had not left his cell even once. Neither did he go into the tunnel to cast his spells, nor did he go in to cultivate. He simply persevered inside his cell and tried his best not to screw things up; after all, his survival depended on this. As such, his CP had only increased to 50%. This was already the best result Soren could get, considering the situation he was in.

…

After checking everything once again, Soren lifted his head and looked at the window where the little fox was currently sleeping. This white-furred fox had not left the side of that window since the day he arrived there after being abandoned by his mother. During this time, Soren had fed the fox a part of his meals and had also shared his water with him.

His physical condition had already given Soren some ideas about what had happened with him. Although he did not know the details, he at least knew that this little Beast had no home to go back to now. And so, Soren had already decided to take this little fox with him; it was just a matter of guiding the fox to where the tunnel would open.

As Soren was thinking about how he was going to lead the fox using his Weak Wraith, his last meal of the day arrived in the hands of a servant. Soren had already covered the tunnel with the bricks so the servant was unable to notice any problem with it; not that he could ever imagine a tunnel behind those walls to even pay attention to that.

Now that the way was clear, Soren started to remove the bricks from the entrance one by one. Although he had done this quite a few times before, this time was especially nerve-racking for him. After all, this was the moment that he had been patiently waiting for since the day he arrived here. He had persevered through all the physical and mental torture just for this day.

It took him slightly longer than usual to remove all the bricks this time. One reason for that was that he was being cautious, while other was that he was very nervous. But regardless of what he was feeling, he carefully removed all those bricks and finally exposed the entrance of the tunnel. Before moving into the tunnel, though, Soren turned around and took one last look at his cell where he had lived for this past month and a half.

Burning this image into his mind, he once again faced the tunnel and started crawling inside.

…

As Soren crawled in, he started feeling some difference in the power of restrictions placed in the Black chamber. The more he moved away from his cell, the more he felt the restrictions becoming weak. After about a couple of meters, Soren finally felt the freedom that he hadn’t felt in a very long time. He had crawled outside the range of the restrictions, and so, he was now free to use the Mana from his Mana Core as he wished.

So, without wasting any time, Soren quickly cast his <Create Undead> and created a Weak Wraith. He then ordered this Wraith to go above the ground and guide the little fox up there.

As the Wraith went up, it started sharing the images of what it saw with Soren. These images included the outside walls of the Black chamber, and a weak little white fox sitting at the window, staring at the Wraith.

The moment the Wraith had come up the ground, the little Beast had smelled Soren’s scent on it. As such, he picked up his injured body and started limping forward. He did not let out any sound this time like he had already realized the severity of the situation. He just followed the Wraith to the wall and then went out through the hole that he had entered from.

Soren was also halfway through the tunnel by now. His heart was beating fast, very fast; one cause of it was, of course, the fatigue, but the other was the adrenaline rush. While his situation was not something that he would enjoy, he did not dislike this feeling of blood rushing through his veins and arteries with such force. But of course, he did not get distracted by it and just kept crawling forward towards the exit.

…

The tunnel was neither long nor short. It took Soren about fifteen minutes to crawl all the way to the exit. As he climbed out of it, he saw a fox standing there with a Weak Wraith, both staring at him. A big smile formed on his face he realized that he was finally out. All his efforts had paid off today. But he knew he couldn’t waste any time now. He only had about a day’s worth of time to do what he needed to do to become completely free. As such, he quickly cast <Create Undead> once more and created a Zombie Wolf this time; he needed a ride.

He had already formed a plan back in his cell for what to do when he would get out. One vital thing for his survival was that he had to break through to Rank 1 in just one day. To accomplish that, he had some ideas. One of them was based on some conjectures, and so, he was not sure that it would work. But even if it didn’t, he had some backup plans and was sure that he could make do with them.

…

Soren picked up the fox and climbed onto the Zombie Wolf with some difficulties. As they started moving, the little fox finally began barking and yelping in an excited manner. He even forgot all his injuries at this moment and started licking Soren’s face while jumping in his arms. They have had a big barrier between them all this while. This was the first time that they had truly ‘met’ each other. And so, they both were quite excited.

The Zombie Wolf moved at a high speed through the jungle towards a certain direction. This was the direction that Soren had decided on after confirming it with Isaac. His destination was the Vestige; Drai’s cave. The reason for that was that Soren wanted to take advantage of the dense Mana inside to increase his CP quickly. Not only that, but there was also a high possibility that the cave had a Mana gathering spell formation.

After the inheritance was passed on, the entrance of the cave had remained opened permanently. The Families and Organizations in this area had thoroughly searched it many times but, in the end, they found nothing. Finally, they had decided to give up on it and went back. As for the possibility of the Mana gathering spell formation, they had ignored it. While Soren could see the dense Mana because of his ‘Powered Vision’, the others also had some different methods to check the density of Mana. So they were well aware of the dense Mana inside the cave. But the spell formation to gather Mana was something that almost all of the Families and Organizations possessed; as such, it was not something they coveted that much.

Of course, none of this information was something that Soren knew. But his decision was based upon the conjectures that also included these. From what he knew about the Families and the Organizations, he could tell that the Vestige without its inheritance held no importance for them. And so, at this point, it would have become just an empty cave with dense Mana.

One other thing that he had to worry about, though, was the Rogue Initiators. There was a good chance that some Rogue Initiators might have stayed in it for that Mana. But that was only possible if they had any way of differentiating between the densities of the Mana. While it was not impossible for Rogue Initiators to possess some kind of method to check the density, it was still a rarity; especially in this backwater area.

…

The Vestige was not that far away from the Black Chamber. Isaac had already created a rough map of the jungle and had also filled in the blank areas with conjectures formed on the basis of the geographical information in his database. As a result, Soren had little trouble reaching the Vestige.

The entrance that he had decided on was the main one. He was already familiar with it so he did not think twice about picking it. After dispersing the Zombie Wolf, Soren crawled inside the entrance together with the fox. So far, he had not seen any Initiator present in the area. This was indeed good news for him but he first had to confirm it before getting excited about it. And coincidentally, he had found a very good method of scouting recently.

After coming out of the small entrance, Soren first repaired his Spell Vessel and then cast <Create Undead> again. He created a Weak Wraith this time too and sent it in to scout for him together with the Weak Wraith that had accompanied him from the Black Chamber. This was the best method of scouting he had for now. But of course, he had some plans in his mind to make it more efficient as the Wraith was not exactly perfect for this job.

Soren kept receiving the images from the Wraiths as they moved from one place to another. So far, Soren had not seen one living soul inside the Vestige. But Soren wanted to be thorough so he ordered the Wraiths to keep scouting. It took some time but the Wraiths finally scouted the whole Vestige as best as they could. From the images sent to Soren, he had finally confirmed that there was no one inside the Vestige right now. Not only that but during this scouting process, he had also found a hidden room. Although he could not see the spell formation itself, he could guess that this room was probably the place that had the Mana gathering spell formation.

But before moving towards it, Soren first sent one of his Wraiths outside, towards the second entrance of the Vestige, for scouting. Soren wanted to confirm that there was no trace of anyone living in the Vestige before finally moving in. Of course, if someone was indeed living here and was not Rank 1, Soren was going to kill them.

The result of scouting came with a negative this time too. Finally, Soren had confirmed that there was no one in or around the Vestige right now. Although he could not say for sure that this situation would remain the same, he wasn’t much concerned about it. Once he settled in and broke through to Rank 1, he would not need to concern himself over some Rank 0 Rogue Initiators.

…

Soren went inside and came upon the hall with the multiple pathways. This time, he picked the pathway that Smiley had chosen before. This was because the hidden room with the possibility of having the Mana gathering spell formation was at the end of this pathway. With their sensing spells and skills, Rank 1 Initiators like Smiley and Tera might have already found out about this room. But at the same time, that sensing spell also allowed them to check it thoroughly without even going in. 

Naturally, just checking it with their sensing spells would not satisfy their curiosity, and so, Soren saw the result of that as soon as he arrived at the end of the pathway; a human-sized hole at the side of the room. A small smile formed on his face when he realized how those Initiators had done all the work for him. But this also told him that he needed to work on his scouting aspect; the Wraiths had shown no such images to him. Of course, that was something to do in the future. For now, he had to hurry up and do what he came here to do.

So, without wasting any time, Soren went inside the room with the fox in his hand. The room was not that big, almost sufficient for one person to live. Though, the fact that it was completely empty might have made it seem bigger than it actually was. Soren could still not see the Spell Formation as he entered it but he knew it was there. The reason behind that was obvious; he could see the dense Mana gathering at the center of the room. This density of Mana was far beyond any amount that Soren had seen before. And with this fact, the first part of his plan was completed with no hiccups.

With this much dense Mana, he had no need for the backup plan now. The only thing he hoped, for now, was that no one would come in to disturb him for at least one day.

But before he started his cultivation, he needed to do something first. Both the fox and Soren were injured right now, and he needed to fix that. And so, he sat in the middle of the room with the little fox and cast the spell <Withering Wood> for the first time. He had already recovered the Mana he used in casting the <Create Undead> before so he had enough for one use of this spell right now; albeit, it all drained away as he finished casting it.

A green magic circle formed under Soren as thick wood started growing around it. The wood grew in a circle around Soren, and finally covered him in a dome-like structure of about one and a half meter radius; all of this only took a couple of seconds. The dome covered Soren and the little fox in such a way that nothing could pass in or out. This was one of the weaknesses of this spell. Although Soren could still cast his spells from the inside, he had to make sure their origin point would be outside.

Another one of the weaknesses of this spell was that it also blocked all kinds of light; it meant that Soren could not see outside. Of course, that also meant that no one could see inside.

The dome of wood stayed intact for about five minutes, and then, it started withering. This withering was the second stage of the spell; the one that Soren had cast it for right now. As the wood decayed, it released small green blobs of light inside the dome which then floated around and entered the body of Soren and the little fox. These small blobs of light were the vitality, or life energy, of the wood, which was being passed on to Soren and the little fox. Of course, being a Rank 1 spell, it could not just pass on the life energy to speed up the healing process. Whoever had created this spell had definitely put some thought into it. Because this spell not only passed on the life energy to anyone inside the dome, it also cast a supplement spell that realigned any broken bones. And right now, this supplement spell acted on the little fox and realigned his broken leg.

After the realignment process was done, the healing process began. Soren’s injuries had already begun to heal at this point as he didn’t have any broken bones and did not have to wait for the realignment process to finish.

The whole thing continued for about a minute or so before the wooden dome turned into ashes. The second stage of the spell had completely healed the little fox and had brought Soren’s ‘Health’ stat at 97%, with some wounds still left on his body; his eye being one of them. This was the result when the life energy was shared by two individuals. If it had only been Soren inside, his injuries would have been thoroughly healed.

…

With that done, Soren finally started the main part of his plan; cultivation for breaking through to Rank 1. He put the little fox by his side and then quickly started using ‘Devour’. The little fox also seemed to understand the situation as he did not disturb Soren and just lay down by the side.

The ‘Devour’ took effect immediately as the dense Mana around him rushed towards his Stygian Grimoire.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------XXXXX-----------------------------------------------------------------------------