Stygian Mage

This compendium which was put out by a tan-skinned burly young man looking to be in his early twenties actually contained information on three subjects; Herbs, Metals, and Miscellaneous Items. Having information about more than one subject in a single compendium was a rare thing, so it came as a surprise to the others when this large young man had taken it out for trade.

As for the items that this tan-skinned man wanted in return, they were something that no one among the Rogue Initiators currently present in the hall knew or had heard about. So, to show everyone what these items looked like, he used some Memory Spheres to store the images from his mind and then passed it around for everyone to see.

These Memory Spheres were passed around one by one and finally reached Soren after going through several people. Holding it in his hand, Soren did not immediately use it but first had Isaac scan it and check it for any foreign Mana; it took Isaac around ten seconds to scan it a few times.

After getting the green light from Isaac, Soren immediately accepted the information from the Memory Sphere and then passed it on to Lyris who was sitting beside him. As he was passing it to her, he was also looking at the images that had just appeared in his mind. And like everyone else, he also didn’t know any of the items in these images; except for one, that was. This image was of a small dark-blue crystal sphere that looked very smooth and had a mirror-like surface; this was exactly the crystal sphere that he had looted from one of the Rank 1 Initiators back in Eastwood. The other four images that were in the Memory Sphere also looked like small balls similar to the crystal sphere but were not made of crystals; they looked like they were made of some thin shell-like material.

But even after knowing that he could possibly uncover the details behind this unknown material if he traded with this burly man, Soren stayed silent and didn’t show any signs of surprise on his face.

Without making any impulsive move, Soren first took some time to consider things. After realizing that this crystal sphere was something rare, he absolutely didn’t want to trade it. Even if its value was less than the compendium that the burly young man was willing to trade, Soren didn’t want to. This was obviously a gamble for him as this crystal could turn out to be a completely useless item for him. But even so, given his nature, he would not regret it once he made his decision.

After thinking it through for a while, Soren finally came to a decision. He already knew that he wasn’t going to trade this crystal. The time he took for making his decision was actually for something else. Now that he had met someone who knew what this crystal sphere was and what it did; how was it possible for Soren to let him go? All the thinking right now was about that; about how he could trap this person and kill him without suffering from any blowback. After all, they were still under the jurisdiction of Captain Hans. If he went around killing people for their stuff, it would definitely create a problem with that old man.

So, to make sure he got what he wanted; Soren had to make this man initiate the attack. Of course, he knew it would depend on the burly man though. Initiators were smart people; especially the high-ranking ones. Tricking them was definitely not an easy thing to do. 

To accomplish what he wanted to do, Soren knew that he had to put out the bait first.

“Mr. Garlon, would you be willing to tell us what these items are?” This was Soren’s bait.

As these words fell out of Soren’s mouth, everyone suddenly turned around and looked at him with a slightly surprised expression on their faces. Initiators were not stupid, after all. They all realized immediately what Soren was trying to do. But even after knowing that, Garlon was not willing to let go of this bait.

“Sorry, Mr. Soren. I am not willing to do that.” And thus, he said.

……

The bait was already out. Now, the only thing that Soren could do was to wait and see if it worked. For the time being, though, he had to stay for the meeting and continue what he was doing before; he even used this time to repair his Spell Vessels in secret.

And so, the trade continued after the burly man didn’t get what he wanted. Some trades were successful while some were not. As for Soren, he just kept observing from the side; taking in all the new information that was appearing in front of him. He saw one amazing thing after another which intrigued him quite a bit. He even saw someone selling an Initiator’s soul that he had kept in a Memory Sphere. This was very informative to Soren as he had no idea that Memory Spheres could be used for that.

With him being like this, it was like he had completely forgotten about what he did before. Of course, it only appeared that way externally; as internally, his thoughts were constantly churning.

He had already scanned the burly man before making his decision, so he was confident in doing this; Rank 1: Layer 2. But even if things somehow went south, he had the means to escape with his life intact. Although he had deemed the risk level to be low, it was still better to be prepared for the worst.

“This is Moonsilver. As many of you may know, it’s a good material to make an artifact of ice type. I am willing to trade this for a piece of Tranquil Wood,” A young male with short white-silver hair said as he took out a chunk of silver metal of about an adult’s fist size and put it on the table. As for the Tranquil Wood, it was a material of wood element which was meant for soul recovery.

“Would you be willing to take Beast Cores instead, Mr. Rigden?”

“Sorry, I am only trading it for Tranquil Wood,” Rigden replied, shooting down the offer from this Initiator.

……

The trades went on as most of the Initiators got what they wanted. Much to his delight, Soren was also able to get a Rank 1 Potion recipe for 10 Rank 1 Beast Cores. This recipe, whose name was Sun’s Afterglow, was purely for increasing the cultivation speed of the Initiators for a certain period of time. Being a Rank 1 Potion, it was only effective up to the Rank 1 cultivation level and showed the best results if the Initiator’s layer was low. Given these facts, Soren became quite tempted and had decided to trade for it; after all, there was no such recipe in the compendium that he had received from Hans.

At first, the person was not willing to trade it for anything other than what he wanted; Aneo Stalk, a rare ingredient that was used in several potions. But seeing that no one had this ingredient, he decided to trade it for the Beast Cores; after all, a recipe for a potion was basically a piece of knowledge which he would never lose no matter how many times he sold it.

Things continued like this for quite some time and finally came to an end when it was already close to midnight.

At the end of the meeting, Ashby proposed that they all head into the jungle together and try to search for whatever it was that was creating the irregular Mana Waves; this was his purpose for taking such a risk before. It was a dangerous time right now with the Beast Tide, but it was still possible for them to go into the jungle if they all worked together. Moreover, they also needed to stick together if they wanted to stand against Captain Hans and his group on equal grounds; until they were in the town and under his jurisdiction, at least.

Given the benefits they could gain with this situation, no one really opposed to this proposition with everyone agreeing to head into the jungle after a few days; they all needed some time for preparation. Of course, considering that all of these Initiators were rogues and were very freedom-oriented, the topic of Blood Contract was not mentioned at all. They all knew that once the supposed item or the vestige that was releasing the Mana Waves was found, all hell would break loose. They all were certain to fight against each other for that benefit; no one would be anyone’s friend at that time. That’s why they didn’t want to needlessly bind themselves with some contract.

Maybe it seemed more ‘civilized’ and more ‘peaceful’ with the Families and Organizations, but when it came to Rogue Initiators, law of the jungle ruled above all else. With them, there was no need for pretending. Unlike the Families and Organizations, they didn’t care for things like fame and reputation. As such, they didn’t need to put up a front for everyone else to see. The difference could be clearly seen from how the Liston Family had presented the Blood Contract to Soren as an employment agreement; when, in fact, it was just a slavery contract.

……

Everyone got up from their seats and made their way out of the restaurant. Most of them had gained quite a bit from this meeting, so they just wanted to get back to their place and prepare for what was to come in the jungle. As for the issue with Soren and Garlon, most of them knew better than to get involved in something that didn’t concern them. From the fact that Soren had put out the bait, it was clear that he was targeting Garlon. He just didn’t want to initiate it himself, so he took that course of action; turning everyone else into his witness. This was not about first come first serve, but none of them were willing to fight two Rank 1 Initiators at once for something that they didn’t even know about; not unless they had a chance to sweep in at the end and get everything for themselves. Maybe if it was some powerful item that was very well known, every one of them would have acted directly. But for some unknown item, it was not worth it to turn both Soren and Garlon into their enemy prematurely and become both their enemy at once. As for Ashby, he was not willing to take the risk in this case because he had his eyes set on the thing that was creating the Mana Waves; for that, he needed these Rank 1 Rogue Initiators’ help so he could not make a rash decision.

And so, like that, everyone dispersed from outside the restaurant and went back to their places. Soren also slowly walked towards his hotel while closing the chain on his white down-jacket. It was nighttime right now and the temperature had gone down quite a bit; so much so that even Soren, who had a high affinity with Ice Element, was feeling a bit chilly. Similarly, Argus, who was sleeping inside Soren’s inner jacket pocket, had also started feeling a little cold and so, Soren had closed the chain. Soren always took Argus with him no matter where he went or what he did, so his inner pocket had become like a home for Argus at this point.

Cold and chilly night wind blew against Soren’s face as his expression slowly turned frosty. With his <Elemental Sense>, he had already sensed Garlon tailing him from the shadows. Soren didn’t know if his <Elemental Sense> was just that good or this Garlon’s skill was just that bad, but he could easily use his spell to see everything Garlon was doing.

A wickedly evil smile formed on Soren’s frosty face once he realized that his bait was taken.

Garlon was probably quite confident in killing Soren after seeing the cultivation level difference. And yet, he was being this careful when tailing Soren. While Soren already knew that no Initiator was stupid without any underlying reason, this act from Garlon just made him even more certain of this.

But even so, he could not let Garlon go. As such, with the bait already taken, Soren decided not to wait anymore. With his mind set on killing Garlon, he abruptly increased his walking speed and quickly turned towards an alley. The alley that he had chosen was a one-way alley that only opened in the direction that Soren was entering from. He was doing this to give Garlon a little more confidence so that he wouldn’t run away too easily. After all, killing an Initiator who was escaping was much harder than its counterpart.

As Soren had thought, Garlon truly eased up a little when he saw that Soren had trapped himself inside the alley. Even when a small part of his brain warned him to be careful, he ignored it as he had the opening of the alley to his back; he could escape anytime he wanted to if things went south. Like this, he became even more confident and made a firm decision to kill Soren tonight.

“May I ask why you are tailing me, Mr. Garlon?” Soren asked as he turned around and came face to face with this burly person. He had already let Argus out and had him hide in the corner of the alley before Garlon came in. It was a night without moon, so it was especially dark tonight. With that cover, it was quite impossible for Garlon to find Argus; unless Argus came inside the range of his sensing spell about which Soren had already warned him.

“Because I am confident in my ability to kill you,” Garlon answered with a plain voice as he got ready to end Soren’s life.

A small evil laugh escaped Soren’s mouth when he heard Garlon say that. Accompanying that evil laugh were also some words filled with dark and cold killing intent, “So am I.”

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