Spectral Regalia Resurgence

Within a small clearing inside a forest, a boar would suddenly burst out of the nearby greenery, sniffing around, as if looking for something. Its snout led it over until it touched a piece of food. Unfortunately for the boar, this was placed on purpose and would be its last meal.

Inside the nearby shrub bush, Avrin was waiting. His eyes snapped open and then narrowed as he looked at the creature. Extending his right hand outwards towards it, the air above the boar suddenly twisted slightly, and black and purple dots appeared from nothing.

However, the boar sensed the hidden danger, causing its fur to bristle and its muscles to tense. Unfortunately,before it could obey its instincts and flee, the boar could no longer move. It was pressed down heavily by an invisible weight, being crushed into the ground. One could see the area distort like the scene of fire, causing swaying ripples in the air.

The boar let out a pained sound, trying to move, but found it could not. It felt like a mountain kept it still. Its bones and body were being squeezed so much that it bled. Its bones even made audible cracking noises, but this didn't last long. The dots trembled for a moment and then vanished, the effect it brought of gravity disappearing along with it. get up, but before it gained its bearings, an arrow cleanly shot through its left eye and pierced into its brain, delivering a quick and instant kill.

Avrin walked out of the bush soon after. placing away his bow, his nose was bleeding, while he used a cloth to wipe the blood away. “I’ve made progress, but it's only because I have 9 spirit veins now… Its simply grasping at mana and converting it en masse to use this ability, but I need something to actually store power.” he pondered for a moment and then sighed, a little annoyed, though not disheartened.

Gaining the extra spirit veins was due to him discovering a method of absorbing matter. He walked over to the dead boar, removing the arrow from its eye socket and then placing it aside. His hands then hovered over the creature's corpse.

Soon, the corpse of the boar disintegrated into ash that further broke into bits of black and purple. Everything was then absorbed into Avrin’s body, only taking a few seconds before Avrin was done.

Avrin could do this, because he could adjust the creature's frequency and mess with it. This discovery was followed by an understanding that living things held much more mana than random things. For these reasons, he could gain more impure dark matter liquid for his heart to create spirit veins.

When Avrin finished, he took a deep breath and calmed himself. Everything around him felt alive but also unreal. This feeling took some getting used to, but he adjusted.

Extending both hands outward, two black spheres appeared, emitting purple electrical arcs. Gazing at this strange energy, he remembered what had happened to the magical beast. Though the spheres trembled, just like the dots he had created against the boar, they then vanished and caused blood to run down his nose again. After using a cloth to clean it, he pondered for a bit.

It had been nearly a week and a half since he left the village. The forest at his side had never vanished, and he came to understand what his dad said was true. This forest spanning a quarter of the continent was truly something. At the outer edges, people could already hunt several dangerous beasts, while the inner depths likely held magical beasts and possibly more.

“Not worth the risk. I think it's time I restock at a village and move on.” Avrin's decision to take a detour and not rush towards the academy was because he didn't want to arrive with no progress. He felt incredibly weak and wanted to become familiar with some of his newfound abilities.

Cleaning the arrowhead with some water until the blood was gone, he used a special cloth to dry it and then place it back into the quiver. Now, once again raising the hood of his outfit to nearly cover his face, he stood up and exited the forest.

After traveling for the rest of the day, Avrin reached the town by nightfall. It was much larger than his home, by several times, and the streets were packed with people. Avrin was wondering about his own matters before soon entering a nearby inn.

Looking inside, it seemed spacious. Most of the tables had people, who were gorging on food, gambling, or laughing heartily as they threw back their beverages to drink.

“Hmm.” Avrin walked to the counter, a man with a beard currently drying a mug. “Hello, are there still any rooms available?” Avrin asked. The innkeeper looked at Avrin, a bit surprised. From what he could see, Avrin was young. But then again, this situation wasn't too uncommon as everyone has their own difficulties or circumstances.

“You’re in luck kid, one left!” He spoke and gave a price, to which Avrin handed over some coins. Avrin then gazed around a bit more. “Is this village always so busy?” curiosity kicked in.

The inn-keeper looked a bit confused. “Busy?...huh? Don’t you know that there were ruins recently discovered? Everyone needs food and shelter before exploring.” He was speaking as if it were something obvious.

Avrin’s brows furrowed. This was interesting. He reached into his money pouch and added a few more coins. “Tell me more, please.” He spoke respectfully.

The innkeeper looked at the coins then at Avrin before speaking. Some time later, Avrin made his way upstairs and to his room. He now knew what was going on. This region was in the territory of a duke, who controlled several towns and mines. Within one of the iron mines, some underground temple ruins were recently discovered after a pit opened up and swallowed some miners. The mines were sealed up immediately, but the duke, who was a mage himself, could immediately detect and deduce the dangers within.

However, before he could make an announcement, rumors of untold treasures already spread throughout the land and attracted countless people. No one seems to know who spread the rumors, but ‌the Duke never denied the claims and didn't bother to stop the reckless or powerful individuals from venturing into new ruins. Over time, the duke eventually reduced the amount of resources being used to guard the temple.Instead, he opened it up to the normal folk and would charge an entry fee.

This way, he can also enforce the law of whatever one found belonged to them. For normal people, finding something small could change their life with a few gold coins. But in the end, they were cockroaches scrounging for scraps, it had been several months after all since the discovery, and the temple ruins itself was not that large despite having several underground levels.

Avrin didn't want to miss out on something exciting. He also understood his own luck so to speak, so he would lose nothing by going to give it a shot. He may also meet mages and could learn a thing or two, if he was lucky.

Sitting down on the edge of the bed. Avrin slowly opened his hands, and he felt the natural mana around him. Specks of mana gathered towards his hand and would then vanish within.

Every day that passed since awakening, he felt like his sensitivity and control towards mana was improving naturally. Despite not being able to use mana and having to resort to tearing it apart to the most basic of matter, to use it as a pure resource, he wasn't irritated.

The very next day, Avrin woke up bright and early. Wasting no time after washing up and grabbing a bite to eat, he followed what seemed like a back-and-forth mass of people that soon ended at what looked like a makeshift encampment.

The entrance of the mine was clear and visible, and a temporary fortification had been made. Many stalls were even opened up, selling various things from lucky charms to discoveries from within the temple, food, equipment, and the like.

Avrin waited in line for his turn to enter, not bothering to purchase any equipment, as he just wanted to understand the situation first. Paying the small fee, he continued inside. There were torches lined up, and as soon as he entered deeper in the mines, the temperature dropped before rising again to normal levels.

Avrin looked in amazement

Entering inside an enormous cavern, he saw the temple ruins. It reminded him of Petra back on earth, but much larger and grander, but in a disheveled state, with broken columns, and debris strewn about.

“Incredible.” Avrin's eyes appeared wide with amazement. For any sort of intelligent free thinking being, the ancient mysteries would always be a source of curiosity. Avrin made his way further inside and saw people all around the area, trying their luck and digging in random places. It looked almost like ants over a piece of meat that was discarded.

“Hm?” Avrin looked, spotting a young child, seemingly no older than 9 years of age, running over to him, while clutching an enormous pile of what looked like maps.