Stygian Mage

Soren was surprised by the voice in his mind. He had expected it but was still astonished when it happened. Soon, he calmed himself down. He was calm but his heart was bursting from excitement.  

“Tell me. Do you have sentience?” Soren excitedly asked in his mind

“Unable to answer the question, Master” The voice in his mind replied.

Soren was slightly disappointed after hearing that but soon recovered.

Thinking for a while, he again said in his mind, “Ok. I’ll call you Isaac from now on.”

“Understood, Master”

Soren calmed down from his initial excitement and focused on the other point.

Secondary Bloodline…

Soren thought and looked at the messages about the Secondary Bloodline; he read the words intently and contemplated slowly.

He then called his Grimoire out; Dark mist condensed around him and formed the black book, floating in front of him.

He already had all the information needed to use his bloodline talent; he took a deep breath and focused.

He then activated his Secondary Bloodline Talent.

“Devour.”

As soon as he said those words, white colored mist started rushing towards his Stygian Grimoire from the surroundings. The mist gathered around the Grimoire and slowly permeated through it.

Moments after, the black colored mist started coming out of the book and surrounded Soren’s body; slowly submerging in his body through his orifices. Soren stared at the process intently and soon issued an order.

Isaac, monitor and record the process and store it under the file name ‘Devour - Experiment’. Can you do it?

“Yes, Master.”

“’Passive Monitoring’ is already active. Starting ‘Active Monitoring’ and recording the process: Saving under the file name ‘Devour - Experiment’.” Isaac replied in monotone.

Soren kept using ‘Devour’ for quite a while; the counter started to rise slowly.

6%...12%...30%...45%

Soon though, he started to have a headache.

It was the first time he was using ‘Devour’ so his mind and body were not used to it. But even then he didn’t stop and continued to use it.

The counter soon reached 73% and continued to rise.

80%...88%...96%....99%

After a while, he started to feel bloated and finally had to stop. He released a long breath and relaxed.

He was sweating all over and was completely wet from his own sweat. Veins had started to pop on his forehead; his breathing rate was also quite faster than usual.

Soon he heard a somewhat familiar voice in his mind again.

“Master, your soul has reached its limit. It would be beneficial if you breakthrough and upgrade your soul.” Isaac said in an emotionless voice.

Soren was completely calm even after hearing Isaac’s voice. He already had an idea about what would happen and was already expecting it. He knew that there were two ways any person could cultivate.

First one was to absorb the mana from the atmosphere directly. Processing it and storing it in the vessel that was the soul.

This was a relatively slow process and people mainly practiced this method as a daily habit. The accumulation of daily practice would show its effect even if the process was slow.

It also depended on the environment as a place with higher mana density would show better results as compared to a low density one.

The second way to cultivate was to absorb the mana released by any living being that was killed recently.

After any living being died, the mana stored in its Mana Source got released into the atmosphere. This method was much faster than the first one as the mana released from their body was of very high density; relative to their cultivation level.

The major fault it had though was that people had to stay at the same place after they killed their prey.

Although they could use some sealing spell to seal the mana in and prevent it from dispersing in the atmosphere, it was still a fault nonetheless.

Non-Initiators faced this problem when it came to earning mana crystals from selling the beast’s Mana Source as they couldn’t cast any spell; even a one-time use spell needed mana to activate.

And a Mana Source filled with mana was much more expensive than the empty one.

Both the methods had their advantages and disadvantages but they had something in common: To perform any method, a cultivation technique was needed.

People had to use that technique to absorb and purify the mana from the prey or atmosphere. The rate of purification and absorption depended on the technique itself.

A high-grade cultivation technique would make it possible for anyone to cultivate just by using the mana present in the atmosphere but those who had a low-grade one; they had to go and kill the beasts for their mana source.

The cultivation technique had no grading system though. The ‘low-grade’ and ‘high-grade’ were relative terms and didn’t really signify a technique’s grade.

As Soren remembered all the info he got from Claude, he was once again astonished by his own Bloodline Talent.

He did not have much knowledge about the cultivation techniques but he knew that his rate of absorption had crossed even the best of them.

And on top of it, his Stygian Grimoire had completely purified the mana absorbed from the atmosphere and even modified it according to his attributes; though he didn’t know what that was.

Soren was ecstatic to know that the problem of buying a cultivation technique was already solved.

“Start the breakthrough process, Isaac. Continue monitoring and also record my physiological readings throughout the breakthrough process.”

“Yes, Master,” Isaac replied.

Soren sat cross-legged on the bed and slowly closed his eyes.

He completely relaxed and concentrated on the breakthrough process.

Soon, he started to sweat badly; he was feeling pain all over his body.

He felt like there were millions of ants crawling and biting his body, tearing it to pieces. But he gritted his teeth and held on.

Blood started flowing out of his nose and eyes as he held on through the pain. His fists were clenched so tightly that his nails had cut his skin, blood dripping from his fists.

After a while, his head started to turn dizzy as he came very close to losing his consciousness.

Before he passed out though, a voice rang in his mind: It was Isaac’s voice.

“Master, please choose the priority for the aspects you would like to focus on.”

Soren felt his head clear up a bit after he heard the voice. He tried hard to focus and issued the command to Isaac.

He said in a shaky voice, “F-First priority will be…t-the aspect directly related to a..S-Spellcaster’s ability.….n-next on lifespan and recovery related a-aspect….”

Soren finished giving out instructions to Isaac and passed out on the bed.

“Understood, Master” Isaac’s voice rang in Soren’s mind but he was already out cold.

The breakthrough process went on as the time passed by.

………

As morning came, Soren finally opened his eyes.

He blinked his eyes a few times and tried to focus. He got up from the bed slowly and drank a cold glass of water. He released a breath and soon asked Isaac about the process result.

“Master, the breakthrough process was completed without any complications. The pain you felt was because your body is still not used to mana. It should decrease as you get used to it.” Isaac replied in a completely emotionless tone.

Soren finally released a sigh of relief. He took a deep breath and opened his status.

Status: Lightly Wounded
Rank 0: Layer 2 [0%]
Name: Soren Farrow	Species: Human	Attribute: Unknown
Health: 90%	Stamina: 46%	Mana: 98%
Strength: 0.90	Agility: 1.20	Vitality: 1.66
Intelligence: 3.20	Spirit: 2.80	Resistance: 1.11

 

Soren looked at his stats and noticed that they all had increased by different amounts. Although he had a general idea what every stat meant, he asked Isaac anyway.

Isaac, describe every stat to me.

“Yes, Master,” Isaac replied.

[Health: It shows your whole body condition which includes your physical body and soul]

[Stamina: It shows your ability to sustain prolonged physical or mental effort.]

[Mana: It is the digitized form of your mana reserve.]

[Attribute: It shows your affinity towards any element. Your overall efficiency will increase when dealing with that element.]

[Strength: It is the value which signifies your physical prowess.]

[Agility: It describes your body reflexes, movement speed, and reaction speed.]

[Vitality: It signifies your aging rate, lifespan and recovery speed. It is inversely proportional to your aging rate and directly proportional to the recovery speed. In terms of Life Span – 1 numeric value of this stat means 1 cycle of 60 years. Your ‘Health’ and ‘Stamina’ is based on this.]

[Intelligence: It is the digitized form of the ability of your brain. It also affects the strength of your spells and some skills.]

[Spirit: It affects your total mana capacity and mana recovery. It also signifies your Soul strength.]

[Resistance: It is the overall defensive ability of your body.]

[Average human stat ~ 1.0”]

A bunch of words again formed in front of Soren’s eyes. The messages described every stat to him.

He read every message carefully and analyzed every stat. He checked every stat of his and came to a conclusion.

“So my strength is weaker than an average human even though I have broken through once.” He talked to himself.

My Intelligence and Spirit stats are almost 3 times the average human. As I thought, I am more suited for a Spellcaster.

Actually, Soren had already made up his mind when he heard Claude talking about the paths any Initiator could take: He wanted to be a Spellcaster.

Vitality…Life span…1 cycle of 60 years…So that means my lifespan right now would be around 100 years…

Though he had asked Claude about many things, they were only common knowledge stuff. So, he decided to go to the public library that he had seen before, first thing in the morning.

He also noticed that his wound was showing signs of recovery. He automatically gave credit for that to his increased vitality.

After checking everything once more, he washed up and went to sleep.

……..

He woke up late in the morning, completely refreshed. He cleaned himself up, wore his clothes and made his way out of the hotel.

He had stored all the stuff in his pocket and didn’t leave anything behind in his room.

He had quite a few things to do today.

First, he went to the breakfast café and ordered breakfast.

Since he didn’t really know about the dishes, he just ordered whatever looked tasty. After eating, he went to the counter desk to pay up his bill.

“How would you like to pay? Card or crystal.” The employee asked Soren.

Soren was surprised to hear about the card system. He knew this world was quite developed in technology but he didn’t expect this much similarity to his previous world.

But on another thought, it became obvious to him that the technology will always develop towards the most efficient and convenient path.

Watching Soren’s surprise, the employee understood who he was dealing with and said, “You can get your crystals exchanged with a mana card at Hunter’s Association; it’s more convenient to carry a card than a bunch of crystals.”

He had already recognized Soren as the rumored Traveler so he patiently explained everything to him.

Soren broke the mana crystal and paid up a 1/4^th piece of it. He then made his way out and started walking towards the library.

…..

It didn’t take him long to reach the large main gate of the library. He entered it, moved through the lawn path in the front and entered the building.

There was a man sitting behind the counter desk in the front. Soren paid him 2 pieces of mana crystal which were the cost of using the public library for one day.

He wandered into the library, slowly picking out books one by one. Picking out a bunch of books, he made his way towards an empty desk. He sat and opened his first book.

Isaac, start recording the information and save them according to the book’ name and category.

“Yes, Master,” Isaac replied.

Soren kept flipping the pages one by one. He finished reading and recording the books one by one. Soon he was finished with this batch so he again went to pick up more books.

……..

Time went on and soon the sun was ready to sleep.

Soren stayed in the library for the whole one day; he had stored a huge amount of information. He closed his last book and sat up; he was dead tired.

He rubbed the bridge of his nose, trying to ease a headache he was having. After Standing and stretching for a while, he made his way out of the library and to a nearby restaurant.

He ate dinner there and headed towards his hotel. As soon as he reached his room, he fell down on the bed, completely asleep.

Soon morning came.

Soren woke up and drank some water. Yesterday, he had stored all the information he needed to start his career as a Spellcaster.

Spellcasters were the Initiators who used spells as their main weapon.

Spells were stored in a special device called Spell Vessel: Initiators could add Spell Vessels in their Soul Form.

There was a limit to how many they could add though, that amount depended on the Soul Form.

Once the Spell Vessel was added to a Soul Form, it bounded itself to the user; it would break apart if taken out. An Initiator could only add an un-bounded Spell Vessel to his Soul Form.

Spell Vessels were both created artificially and formed naturally; Natural Spells generally were more powerful.

Spell Vessels, though, had their limits. Even after being added in the Soul Form, the Initiators had to use the Spell Vessel itself to cast spells.

Every Spell Vessel had a different use limit. Some were destroyed after one use; they were treated as disposable or One-Time use Spell Vessels.

One had to use their mana and repair the Spell Vessel before using it again otherwise they would lose that Spell Vessel forever.

The Initiators could also assimilate the Spell Vessels, which would remove the limit and make that spell their own Innate Spell.

Innate Spells were the spells which were either created by the user itself, awakened through bloodline or came from the assimilated Spell Vessel.

Initiators also had the option to make their Innate spell into a Spell Vessel but they were required to learn a different profession for that.

Soren went through all the information once again. He had already decided his course of action for today. He got ready and headed out of the hotel.