Stygian Mage

A few more days had passed since the day Soren evolved his spells. Because of the potion and his increased ‘Spirit’, his soul had completely healed by now. During these days, Soren had also started learning the skill that he had bought at the auction; Shadow Steps. Although he didn’t have a high mastery level in it yet, he was at least good enough that it was added to his status screen.

After learning this skill and making sure that his soul was all healed, Soren started thinking about what to do next. At first, he wanted to stay in the cave for a little longer and practice his spells. But after he found traces of people who were searching for him getting closer to the Vestige, he decided to move out. Finally, it was time he finished his business in this area and left.

…….

Soren walked out of the Vestige from the second entrance with Argus in tow. It was morning right now and the weather had become very cold. The jungle was engulfed in dense fog which made it much harder to move around. This was one of the main reasons that the search for Soren had been futile so far. Of course, the fact that they were mainly searching for him on the outskirts of this area also complemented it.

Soren had already decided where to go first. So, after taking a deep breath of fresh and cold air, he cast his <Create Undead> spell and created a Zombie Wolf. This spell of his had actually evolved in quite a weird way. This was the first time he had seen a spell with two different values for Mana Cost. He knew the reason behind it but it didn’t change the fact that it was a weird experience for him. For his Rank 0 undeads, the Mana Cost was ‘Negligible’, and for his new Rank 1 undead, it was ‘Average’. As for the strength of his new undead, although Soren hadn’t tested it thoroughly, he could at least confirm that it would easily wipe the floor with normal Rank 1 Initiators at around 1^st or 2^nd Layer. This fact had given Soren a big boost in his confidence and had helped him in making his decision. All the reservations he had about going against the Liston Family before were now gone because of this. With his ability as a powerful Spellcaster combined with his new undead, he could now stand proud amongst the ranks of the Rank 1 Initiators.

Furthermore, the arsenal of spells that he had in mind was also slowly taking shape. Although Soren was still not satisfied with some of its aspects, mainly his Defense Spell and Healing Spell, he had no other choice for now.

…..

The Zombie Wolf ran through the jungle at a moderate speed while dodging every obstacle it came across. None of the Beasts dared to stand in its way as the aura released from Soren terrified them to death. Maybe because it was very early, but Soren also did not meet anyone from the search party either. So, he reached his destination without any hiccups; of course, his destination being the Black Chamber. Soren had picked this place as his first target because of various reasons. One of them was the fact that he absolutely loathed this place and wanted to demolish it if he could. But the other, more important, reason was that all his stuff was stored here. When he was captured, he had his backpack with him. It contained all his clothes, his mask, his communicator, and also his staff. And now, he wanted to take it all back.

So, after reaching the entrance of the place, Soren climbed down from the wolf and started walking towards it. As he entered the place, the first thing he did was cast his <Elemental Sense>. He had been practicing with this quite a lot and was now very good at synchronizing his senses with this spell. With this spell now in effect, he could ‘see’ and ‘hear’ everything within the radius of about 60 meters; that was the current range of this spell. And while he had already used it many times while practicing, he still couldn’t get over the omniscient feeling it gave him. In the range of those 60 meters, everything was laid bare in front of him.

As he moved closer to the building, he saw through this spell that only a few people were inside there right now. From the aura they gave off, they all seemed to be only Rank 0 Initiators. Of course, to know their exact level, Soren had to scan them first. But that didn’t matter now. He didn’t care what layer they were in Rank 0. They all were the same to him.

As such, he started casting his <Create Undead> once again and started creating Rotten Zombies and Skeleton Soldiers. Only after evolving the spell, he had found out that the number of undeads that he could create and control at once depended on his ‘Spirit’ stat. It meant that he could not just spam this spell and create an army. Of course, with his current ‘Spirit’ stat, especially after going through the quality change because of the Mana Essence, the number of Rank 0 undeads that he could create almost seemed endless. And for these Rank 0 Initiators, he was not going to use too much of his Mana. For them, twenty or so Rank 0 undeads were more than enough; after all, his undeads were at the peak of Rank 0.

Screams filled with pain and desperation resounded in the Black Chamber as Soren’s undeads flooded the building. Soren just stood on the wet grass outside with his bare feet and took all the screams in with a serene expression on his face. This was just the beginning. It could barely be considered a preview of what he was going to do.

After some time, Soren went out of the Black Chamber on a Zombie Wolf with a backpack on his back. He was now wearing a black high-neck T-shirt with full sleeves, black survival pants, black boots, and a black thick jacket on top. Not only that, but he had also donned on the mask that he used when he was with the ‘Wandering Wolves’. He had done this because he didn’t want people to associate the name ‘Soren’ with what he was going to do. Of course, the people familiar with him would still probably recognize him as Soren but he didn’t care much about that.

………..

Soren reached the town’s main entrance without any major problems. He had met a couple of people in the jungle searching for him this time but his Zombie Wolf had easily killed them within seconds; they couldn’t even contact anyone before their throats were torn off.

The main gate of the town had two City Guards on duty as always. As Soren reached the gate, he got off the wolf and started walking forward. The City Guards quickly went on alert as they saw a masked person dressed in all black slowly walking towards them this early in the morning. But they didn’t take any actions yet and waited to first confirm this person’s identity.

Of course, Soren wasn’t going to wait for all that. So, as soon as he got inside the range, he cast his <Ice Barrage> and bombarded the stunned guards with a dozen ice arrows. These cold ice arrows pierced the guards at a high speed and killed them within seconds. They never even got any chance to take out their swords for retaliation.

After killing them, Soren moved in and slowly started walking towards the restaurant that he had left his Enhancement Artifacts in. He was first going to check if they were still there before doing what he had come here to do.

The time was still early so there were not many people on the street. As such, Soren didn’t have much trouble reaching the place. After getting there, he directly went inside and towards the bathroom without paying any attention to the stunned workers in there. Fortunately, his Enhancement Artifacts were still there. Taking them out of the cover, he quickly wore them. But after wearing them, he found out that they were not so effective anymore; they didn’t increase his stats by as much as they did before. Of course, it didn’t take him even a second to realize the reason behind this; it was because his life level was not the same anymore.

Nevertheless, he didn’t have time to dwell on it right now as he needed to start his plan.

So, he went out of the restaurant and walked towards the middle of the street. For a while, he just stood there and looked around the town covered in light fog and snow all around. After taking in this peaceful scenery, he finally started casting his <Create Undead> and started creating Rank 0 undeads. He mostly created skeletons and zombies as the wraith had limited effect in a battle; especially in the scenario which was going to occur.

After he was done creating the Rank 0 undeads, he once again cast his <Create Undead>. This time, though, he created his new undead; the Forsaken Knight. Black mist surged around him as a Rank 1 magic circle formed on the ground below him. Soon after, an undead with a height of around 2 meters stood in front of Soren. This undead was covered in black armor from head to toe with a tattered black cape flowing behind him. A bright red light flickered in place of its eyes as it wielded a huge black broadsword with both its arms and stood tall in front of Soren, awaiting his command.

And soon, Soren gave out his command for every undead that he had just created.

“Destroy everything.” This peaceful scenery of the town, he was going to destroy it.

……….

The whole town fell into chaos as the undeads started their destruction. They didn’t care who stood in their way as they just kept following Soren’s command. The massacre resulted in a river of blood flowing through the town, staining the white snow in red. Limbs were scattered everywhere as screams were heard in different parts of the town; it was pure carnage.

During all this, Soren was stealthily moving towards his destination. He had started this not because he wanted to just kill people. He had done this because he needed to create a diversion; a kind of diversion that would attract all the Rank 1 Initiators towards it. His Forsaken Knight was powerful enough to fight against multiple Rank 1 Initiators by itself. And Soren was going to use that fact right now. The Rank 0 undeads were there for just creating a lot of ‘noise’; the main part of his diversion was his Forsaken Knight.

As he kept moving forward towards his destination, he kept creating more Rank 0 undeads and left them with the same command. At this point, he didn’t care if he ended up destroying the whole town if that was what it took to accomplish what he wanted.

People died left and right while he moved closer to his destination; the Liston Family Mansion. As he reached its vicinity, he went into the shadows and waited; he was now waiting for the right chance. He had already released the bait, and so, he only had to wait for them to bite.

…..

He didn’t wait for long before the entrance gate of the mansion swung open and a few vehicles packed with people rushed out. As Soren saw this, a smile formed on his face which was hidden under his mask. He had just seen two of the Rank 1 Initiators from the Liston Family in those vehicles; Ervin and Faron. He knew that they must have gotten some information about his Forsaken Knight and moved out to take care of it. This was their town, so they had to protect it.

Of course, they were also not stupid and had already realized that this might be the doing of Soren. So, they had left Carla behind in the mansion in case he came by. Soren had already expected that, but still, he didn’t stop.

He waited for some time after the last vehicle went out and then walked towards the entrance gate. As he entered, he saw Carla standing ahead of him with a smile on her face. She was standing there like she already knew that Soren was going to walk through those gates.

But none of this mattered to Soren. He just kept walking forward with every intention of finishing her off.

“You are Soren, right?” Carla asked him a question instead of taking a battle stance.

A frown appeared on Soren’s face but he didn’t stop. He moved forward a couple of steps more and told Isaac to scan her as he prepared to cast his spells. The result of the scan was—“Rank 1: Layer 1”

“Don’t worry. I don’t intend to fight you. You can do as you wish, I won’t stop you.” Instead of defending the mansion as she was told to, Carla moved away from Soren’s path. But Soren was obviously not going to trust her, so he continued with what he was doing and cast <Elemental Sense> after releasing his ‘Stygian Grimoire’.

“Please stop. I don’t have any intention of going against you. In fact, I can also tell you that apart from me, there’s no other Rank 1 Initiator in this mansion right now.”

This sentence from her finally made Soren stop in his tracks as his frown became even deeper.

“What do you want?” He finally asked.

“Nothing, I just don’t want to become your enemy.”

Soren fell into silence for a while after hearing what she said. But soon, he released a sigh and suddenly aimed his palm towards her. A shocked expression appeared on Carla’s face as Soren swiftly cast his <Shadow Prison> on her. A dozen of black chains came out from the ground below her and quickly tied her up after piercing her body. Blood splattered on the ground as she screamed in pain and anguish. But Soren didn’t care for any of that as he then cast his <Ice Barrage>. Multiple ice arrows formed in the air in front of him as they flew towards Carla at a high speed. As the <Elemental Sense> was constantly in effect, Soren didn’t have any problem in aiming for her; especially, when she wasn’t able to move.

But Carla was also a Rank 1 Initiator; a Spellcaster on top of that. Although the <Shadow Prison> had taken her by surprise, she wasn’t going to be defeated so easily. As the ice arrows flew towards her, she quickly cast her Defense Spell, <Water Curtain>. The ice arrows pierced the curtain one after another but couldn’t pass through it. Instead, the low temperature from the ice arrows froze the curtain and made its defense even stronger; the water curtain now turned into an ice wall.

A smile formed on Carla’s face as she realized what had happened. Soren’s expression, however, remained the same inside his mask even after seeing all this. This much of a disadvantage was nothing for him. So, without waiting for Carla to fight back, he once again started his casting. This time, he cast his spell <Dark Raven>. Black mist once again surged around him as a raven shaped bolt formed in front of him. Although this raven looked like a normal raven, it currently gave off a lifeless feeling.

Soren then aimed his palm at Carla as the black raven flew towards her at a high speed. Carla also didn’t just sit around as Soren did all this; her Soul Form was actually her dress so it was already released out. As the black raven came at her, she quickly cast <Water Serpents> and sent them towards Soren. She was planning to resist this black raven with the ‘ice wall’ while retaliating against Soren at the same time.

Shadow Steps!

Soren used his new Innate Skill as he saw the water snakes rushing towards him. As he used the skill, he turned into dark mist and swiftly moved away from the spell’s path. Although he had a basic mastery level in this skill, he still needed much more practice if he wanted to use it at a level that he wanted. But for now, it was enough.

Seeing her spell miss its mark might have irritated Carla a lot if not for the fact that she was currently screaming while holding her right arm. The <Dark Raven> spell that Soren had released had actually moved around the defensive wall by itself and had attacked her right arm which she had used to protect herself on pure instinct. Currently, her right arm had completely withered down as she was unable to even move it.

But after seeing the effect of the spell, a frown appeared on Soren’s face once more. The power of this spell had disappointed Soren a little. Of course, this was something which he had to deal with in the future. For now, Carla had his full attention.

Let’s finish this now. I can’t wait anymore.

Dark Gravity!

Soren cast his spell <Dark Gravity>, intending to finish the battle at once. Carla also noticed this as her expression went through a drastic change. She could feel the elemental particles surging around her. A bad feeling rose in her heart as she quickly cast her other defense spell, <Water Dome>. As the spell took effect, a dome made of water rose around her, covering her from all directions.

As soon as the dome finished covering her, the gravity in the area around her increased exponentially. The moment Soren’s spell took effect; she felt her bones break one after another. The power of this spell of his had increased by a lot after he had broken through to Rank 1. As it was now, it could even break its target’s bones and finish off some weak enemies without any need for the second phase. Of course, Carla was not one of those ‘weak enemies’. And so, the second phase took effect as she stayed motionless on the ground under the effect of the increased gravity, unable to move even a finger. Her expression was filled with hatred for Soren as the ground around her turned black and dark tendrils started coming out of it.

The dome made from her defense spell could not even stand up to the high gravitational effect; it had already deformed and was on the verge of breaking apart. And so, the dark tendrils finished off what little strength was left in it as it popped like a bubble. After the dome was gone, Carla became the target for the dark tendrils. Screams pierced the Liston Family Mansion’s walls as Carla breathed her last breath before turning into a withered corpse.

After seeing this scene, Soren finally released a sigh of relief and moved towards her corpse. This was his first battle against a Rank 1 Initiator. Although it seemed like he had dominated the battle from the start to finish, he had actually been really nervous about it. And after thinking about it, he felt that Carla seemed a little weaker for a Rank 1 Initiator. While he had no experience in fighting against a Rank 1 Initiator and could not tell for sure, he had his doubts about her combat strength. Maybe it was because his first move had shocked her and she didn’t have enough time to properly keep up with his attacks; or maybe not, who knew.

But regardless of that, Soren was the winner of this fight and his prize was his life.

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