One With The Abyss

After the battle with the knight I began making my way down the floors, seeing them all as training.

The 11th, 12th, 13th and 14th floor gave me nothing really. All of them just granted abilities to add to my [Exalted Physique] talent, pushing its potential to a max of 4. All, with the exception of floor 12, which granted skills related to her eye skill.

The 12th floor was full of mole and bat type monsters, all of these were blind but had great sensing skills. These were then fused into [Soul Sight], as Abby had recommended, until it became [Soul Sense 0/5)]

[Soul Sense (0/5)]

[Able to sense the souls of other beings around the host. Small increase to all physical senses]

I lost the 2 levels I had gained in [Soul Sight] with Abby saying it was natural. Now the talent became less useful in some aspects; before I could vividly see the souls glowing in the targets I looked at, but now it was much less vague.

I could feel that their souls existed, but it was not as obvious as before. The benefit now was that instead of just where I looked, I could fully sense all around me from every angle. 

"There are benefits and negatives I guess." I had said as I began getting used to the ability, it would surely help me in the future.

The 15th floor was when something happened, something great!

The 15th floor was one of the weirdest floors I had come across so far. It was much more enclosed as it took place inside an old mansion, there were doors to different rooms and places like kitchens and bedrooms all around for me to search through. The doors that would have let me outside didn't open and the windows were covered so I couldn't see what was outside of the floor's domain. The floor was much smaller than usual, with me finding the boss room in no time at all; it was in the ballroom.

However, the cramped floor only worked against me this time.

Every single enemy was flinging different elemental magic attacks at me, fire balls, earth spears, wind blades, water arrows all came very close to cutting me to pieces. They were flung by creepy little monsters called gremlins:

[Gremlin]

[Scheming little monsters, capable of more than they look. Don't let it get wet]

They were small, barely even half a metre, with large ears and sharp teeth and claws. They had eyes that looked like owls and flat noses, each of them bearing a brown colour with different coloured highlights based on their magic affinity; meaning water had blue (the strongest of the gremlins); fire had red; wind was green; and earth was brown.

The monsters were not a problem individually as I merely had to close the distance and cut them apart; it was when they had grouped that I was forced into a tricky position. Despite speaking gibberish and having times where they killed themselves from their own idiocy, the gremlins had unbelievable coordination with each other. Whenever there were 2 or more gremlins together the fight immediately jumped in difficulty such that I was forced to retreat from the floor after underestimating the gremlins when I fought 2 of them at once.

I now sported a large scar along my leg where a gremlin used an earth spear to gouge a chunk out. It matched nicely with the one I got on my side from the bat, the ones on my back from the goblin shaman, the one on my arm from trying to turn into an undead and the one on my stomach from the black knight. It was a scar bonanza!

Anyway, after realising they were a serious threat when grouped the floor went down easier. And the best part were the talents:

[Fire Mage (0/1)]

[Water Mage (0/1)]

[Earth Mage (0/1)]

[Wind Mage (0/1)]

[Allows user to freely form fire/water/earth/wind elemental mana and use it to create attacks]

"Hold on. I've seen these talents before." I said looking more closely at the names, "Some of those backstabbing classmates had them, but they were level 5!"

I was confused at the lower level I had received for the talent.

"Weapons and magic mastery talents are one of the most well known evolvable talents there are." Abby said, not really answering my question but giving me the clues necessary to do so myself.

"So, what you're saying is..." I said, thinking for a minute, "They are well known as evolvable because people do so a lot?"

"Only half correct." Abby said, "They are well known because they often evolve, but also because many people are born with varying levels of the same talent. Hence people know talents can evolve, since records of talents evolving already exist, just not which ones."

"So, how do I evolve them then?" I asked, knowing prolonged use and exposure were not enough.

"You've just got to be innovative, but I recommend you fuse them first. It'll make it easier." She replied. By innovative I assume she meant being creative in how I use them and pushing the boundaries.

"Ah! One second."

[Quad Mage: Fire/Water/Earth/Wind(0/1)]

[Allows user to freely form the basic elemental manas and use them to create attacks]

"Basic?" I asked, Abby happily explained.

There are 4 basic elements and 2 more primary elements to go with the 4 basic ones.I already knew fire, water, earth and wind, but then there were also the rarer light and dark elements.

Each of these elements came with a talent to command them and also talents like: [Dual Mage: Fire/Wind] or any other element, the rarest of these talents being [Elemental Mage], which was the fusion of all 6 natural elements.  The elements had their weaknesses but these mostly didn't matter.

It was: Fire is weak to water; wind is weak to fire; earth is weak to water; and water is weak to wind. While light and dark are weak to each other, meaning they cancel each other out.

Abby explained that the weaknesses never really matter since it almost never comes into play at all but still explained how it worked. In essence if 2 spells of the exact same power and mana quantity and quality were to clash, the superior element would defeat the other, with light and dark just negating each other.

However, this almost never came to be since the odds of that happening were ridiculously low. For 2 mages with the exact same qualities to clash was like finding a grain of rice in a corn-filled silo. The most common occurrence was when using barrier spells, when one mage used a spell with the same qualities as the barrier, only with a different element. So, for the most part, elemental superiority was ignored since when a mage was just better than another even the most difficult of the matchups (water vs fire) could be completely overturned.

After the 6 natural elements were the deviations: Each of the 6 elements created their own deviation when the mage had enough skills to do so.

Water became ice; fire became lightning; wind became sound; and earth became sand. Light and dark could eventually become sun and moon magic. Each of these elements completely overshadows their undeviated counterparts; these were considered the primary greater elements and it is mostly believed that only people with talents for an element can learn a deviated element; but in some very rare cases, people without the talents have learned deviated magic without the original talent.

But magic was even more complicated than that.

"The wonders never cease huh." I laughed as the explanation dragged on.

After the primary greater elements there were even more, someone discovered that depending on how you treat mana it can deviate into different elements than the usual ones, for example earth almost always deviates into sand, making the most rigid of the elements so much more fluid and versatile compared to how it can only really be used as a shield or a weapon in simple earth form; however, one mage discovered that earth, under the right circumstance could deviate into metal, it was not as fluid as sand but was so much more sturdy, and under the right conditions it could become versatile. When this was discovered, the magic world went insane.

They began looking into other elements and found similar aspects in some of the others; dark magic could become shadow magic; fire could also deviate into 2 strange elements of heat and ash. Ash however, was abnormal as while it only used fire mana, it needed a wind talent to learn. Ash is formed from incomplete combustion and therefore to produce it, one must manipulate the air around it to move away from the fire mana completely, which can only be done with a wind talent.

But ash magic opened the door for a new type of magic: Composite magic.

The very first composite element was created purely by mistake: Smoke. It was formed when someone, trying to form the ash element, accidentally combined the 2 elements instead of separating them, creating the entire concept of composite magic by accident.

Elements could be combined to create different and new elements. For example, combining fire and earth could create multiple elements based on certain factors. It could create the magma and lava elements depending on the concentration of each element, more earth created magma and more fire created lava, they were mostly the same except perhaps their density, but the elements formed with just these 2 didn't end there. With it you could form the glass element, but only by using sand and fire, on the other hand, by using earth and lightning mages found they could create the magnetic element. This process worked much better with metal and lightning, but earth also functioned as a means of producing what is now one of the rarest magic types in the world.

Beyond that there are now innumerbale elements based on all kinds of different applications of elemental mana. Even dark and light can come together to form an element: Twilight. These are more easily formed with sun and moon magic, but those 2 can also form eclipse magic so most know twilight as a fusion of light and dark.

The world of magic is great and vast, and many believe we mortals will never come to an end in our research of elements and mana.

There are 4 official titles magic users can gain.

The first and lowest is 'Novice'; they are just starting out, capable of moving pure mana but not really forming it.

"Technically up until now you were a novice." Abby said, interrupting her speech. I was slightly upset as I had always idolised stories of magic and wizardry, so learning about it was amazing.

"I thought I used abyssal energy, I don't think I even fit into these categories." I replied, wanting her to continue explaining.

"Abyssal energy is just another form of energy like mana, a better one, but energy nonetheless." She said before returning to the explanation.

After novices were 'Mages', these were magic users who can form elemental mana, it is seen as the real starting point for magic users.

The next rank was an 'Archmage'. This just means the mage in question is exceptional, perhaps they have pushed their magic beyond what is expected, arch's are the best of the best in the magic worlds with the only exception being the last category of mages.

For the 4th title the number of living and dead members of this category are so few compared to the others it allows most people to consider arch's the strongest; simply because they make up less than 0.1% of the world's population: 'Sorcerers'. These are the real cream of the crop, the top leaders in the magic world. These are people who discovered (and named) their own elements. They have such fine and precise control over their elements that some legends say they are capable of hijacking other magic users' spells.

This was all explained to me after I had cleared the gremlins floor and I had time to practise, with the boss gremlin just having a level 2 magic talent which made it so my own now had a max potential of 2. I had asked how getting a level 2 in 1 type of magic boosted all my other elements as well and Abby said it was simply a benefit of fusing talents.

Mage was the common term for all magic users since they were so abundant compared to even novices, since many enter and leave this group quite quickly; in fact it is mostly made up of children.

Before I headed to the next floor I spent a lot of time learning the basics of spell casting. Thankfully, there was no chanting or fancy hand movements or special rune I had to use thanks to my [Abyss Heart] talent which allowed me to freely shape the abyssal energy into the ways  I wanted it. 

I was able to graduate from Novice to Mage almost immediately, casting various elemental spells quite quickly.

Still, seeing myself throw around elemental attacks got my heart racing. With my increased proficiency I gradually became able to use more and more spells simultaneously. I made sure to practise until I was exhausted in order to raise my talent to its highest possible potential and I couldn't force out any more simultaneous spells.

The closest thing dedicated weapon-users had to mana it was aura, and with abyssal energy I could use both. According to Abby that was what made abyssal energy superior, as well as a few other things she couldn't tell me about.

Abyssal energy is essentially a fusion of all other energies, meaning it can create spells like mana and nourish the body like aura. With it I could be what is known as a [Dual Core] without actually having the talent for it.

This made me much harder to take care of, all I needed now was to awaken my aura and I would become a one woman fighting machine. Unstoppable when I face my classmates.

"I wouldn't look down on them you know." Abby said solemnly.

"What why?" I asked, sure I had the advantage here. All the talents I wanted, and perfect fusions of any to make the best possible talent imaginable.

"Mostly you will be fine." She finally said, it seemed like she didn't want to break my morale, "But level ten talents are beyond what can be considered normal."

That got me alert. I still remembered 2 of the people I hated more than anything in the world and their faces, both when they got their talents and when I got mine.

"Level tens are in a different world to any other talent, even level nines cannot match up to them. It doesn't even come close."

Her severe words put me on edge, she was right to worry about my morale here as I became shook.

"Even with every possible level nine talent in the world, you would still struggle to defeat a person with a level ten talent." She said, "Well I am exaggerating, but it really isn't comparable."

With that I steeled myself to train harder, I wouldn't allow myself to be defeated by them.

I swore to leave everything they cared about in ruin, and I would.