Stygian Mage

Soren opened his eyes slowly and yawned. It was dark all around him. He got up from the bed and stretched his body. He had slept through the whole day to midnight.

He splashed some cold water on his face to wake up completely. As he had nothing else to do now and he couldn’t go back to sleep, he just decided to cultivate.

Soon, his cultivation percentage started rising upwards. He had realized back in the forest that as his cultivation level increased, it took more time to increase his cultivation percentage.

Still, he persevered through.

After continuing for a few hours, his head started hurting. He stopped and checked his CP.

That is what he had decided to call the percentage needed for the next level.

Cultivation Percentage—CP.

His status screen had also changed according to his thoughts.

His CP had reached 62% by now.

Getting up from his bed, he went out into the balcony. He felt the cold and fresh air of the morning on his face. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply. Relishing the moment, he stood there for a while.

He came into the room and got ready to head out. He packed all the stuff he got from the jungle in the back-pack and went out.

He saw Leah as he was heading out so he greeted her and talked to her for a while before going out.

He first headed to the Hunter’s Association.

He directly went to the counter without waiting as it was early morning and there were very few people there. He greeted the beautiful human girl sitting behind the counter desk.

“Hey! Cecilia.”

“Oh! Soren, were you able to finish the job?”

“Yeah, it’s all done. Can you complete the submission process?”

“Please hand me your Hunter I.D.”

Soren gave her his I.D and opened his backpack while she was finishing the job. She gave the I.D back to him soon. “How many batches of herbs were you able to gather?”

He took out all the herbs that he had and put the package on the desk. “2 batches”

She first checked the quality of the herbs and then counted them before carefully putting them in a bag and storing them.

Soon, she was finished and handed 20 mana crystals in a small bag to Soren as payment for the job.

“Good job, Soren. It was your first time yet you were able to get 2 batches."

“It was not a big deal.”

Soren replied while gathering the mana crystals, putting everything into his backpack. He then said goodbye to Cecilia and headed out of the building.

………

First, he went to a somewhat desolate place and put on his disguise. Then he went to his next stop—‘Myriad Items’.

He entered the building after taking a glance at the big sign outside. As he entered the shop building, the same old man came forward and greeted him. “Welcome to our shop. How can I help you, Sir?”

“I want to sell some items,” Soren replied in a hoarse voice.

The shopkeeper acknowledged and brought Soren to a nearby counter desk. “What would you like to sell?”

“I have some Beast Cores. They are all around Rank 0 Layer 2~5, how much for them?” Soren took out the cores carefully and placed them in front of the shopkeeper. There were 7 cores in total: 1 from the boar, 4 from the Goblins, 1 from the wolf and 1 from the beaver.

The wolf pups were too young to form any core.

The shopkeeper calmly picked them up one by one and checked them. He did some calculations in his mind afterward and finally spoke.

“Although the cores don’t contain mana, they are still in good shape. You have 1 core of Layer-2, 4 cores of Layer-3 and 2 cores of Layer-5.”

He did some more calculations and gave Soren a final price.

“I can give you 150 mana crystals for all of them.”

Soren nodded upon hearing the price. He didn’t bargain with him as he was really a noob in this field.

He then asked the shopkeeper to show the Spell Vessel list.

He quickly chose the Spell Vessel he had in mind. It was something he realized he needed.

Spark: A very small spark that can do no damage. Mainly used as a fire-starter. Limit – 15 uses. Cost – 1 crystal.

He needed a fire-starter.

Although he couldn’t use this Spell Vessel right now as his Grimoire was already full, he still bought it for future use.

He also asked the shopkeeper about anything that could heal his damaged soul. Although it would heal over time by itself, he asked anyway.

After hearing the price for the potion named ‘Soul Recovery’ though, Soren was astonished.

It would cost him 20 mana crystals if he wanted to buy it—20 middle-grade mana crystals.

That was equal to 2000 low-grade mana crystals. And even if he could gather the amount, he could not buy it easily as it was only available in major towns, cities or the royal capital.

Soren also inquired about potions, medicines or pills that might heal him faster or recover his mana during battle. The answer he got though was quite disappointing.

There were pills available that might heal him quickly and potions that might recover his mana but they had some disadvantages; especially the ones that he could afford right now.

The cheap healing pills would over-draft his life force and would make him weak and sick and the cheap mana recovery potion made the mana reserves impure and decreased its quality.

Although there were potions and pills without any side effects, they were out of Soren’s reach for now.

……………

Soren went out of the shop after finishing the transaction. He was getting hungry by now so he decided to head to a restaurant.

The sun was already at its peak, shining brightly. He removed his disguise in an alley and headed towards a well-known restaurant. He could see people coming in and going out of the restaurant as he closed in.

He opened the gate and soon the waiter came to greet him politely.

“I would like a room to eat in silence.” Soren requested from the waiter.

“Of course, please come with me.” The waiter took Soren to the second floor.

The first floor was open with customers sitting around the tables, chatting and eating together.

The second floor was more silent. There were divisions made of thin wood, creating small cabins.

The waiter brought Soren to a decorated room in one corner. The room had a window so one could get a nice view while eating. There was a medium sized table in the room with chairs around it.

Soren sat on one chair and ordered the food and drinks from the menu. It didn’t take long before the waiter brought the order, serving them properly. He then went out while bowing politely.

Soren was really hungry and he hadn’t had a proper lunch in quite a while so he started eating without a care in the world.

He was still injured and needed to heal, so he ate regardless of the cost. He had become quite rich recently anyway.

………

Knock! Knock!

As Soren picked a dish that looked like chicken drumstick and bit into it, he heard a knock on the door. But before he could give any reply, the door opened and two men entered the room.

The man in front looked to be around 30 years old and was wearing silver colored full body armor. He had black hair of average length with a small beard covering his face. A sword with the standard cross-guard hilt hung at his waist.

The other man was young, around 20 years old or so. He had black hair of short length and was wearing a silver jacket. There was a white bow hanging from his shoulders.

The man in armor entered the room and sat on the chair opposite Soren arrogantly. The other young man stood behind him with his hands clasped at the back.

Soren was a little flabbergasted at the sudden intrusion but he remained calm and put down the ‘chicken drumstick’.

He faced them and remained silent, waiting for them to state their purpose of sudden visit.

“Hello, Mr. Farrow. My name is Faron and he is Kyle. We are Initiators affiliated with the Liston family. Mr. Ervin Liston was a little disappointed that you didn’t accept his invitation to the dinner party.” Faron introduced himself and the young man standing behind him.

Liston family….Ervin Liston?

Thinking it through, he suddenly remembered the weird event that happened a few days ago. He also remembered that the girl in red dress had invited him to some dinner party.

“I was busy.” Soren simply answered back.

Faron smiled at his response. “That’s why we have directly come to you. Sir Ervin has expressed an interest in you. He would like you to join our family.”

Soren had slightly expected it so he wasn’t very surprised and wanted to reject but then Faron continued, “Mr. Farrow before you reject our proposal you should first hear what I have to say.”

Suddenly, a deadly pressure stifled Soren. He was taken aback by the pressure as he stared at the source, with shock evident in his eyes.

He tried to control his body but it didn’t listen to him. It became harder and harder for him to breathe properly and control his body.

Soon, he became drenched in his own sweat.

He clenched his fist hard and tried his best to control his body. He soon realized what this meant….

Rank 1 Initiator!!

The man in front of him was a Rank 1 Initiator.

Faron smiled slightly at Soren’s response and suddenly canceled the pressure.

“I apologize for my rude behavior. Now let me explain some stuff. First of all, we already know you are an Initiator. That is one of the main reasons why our family head would like to invite you to our family.”

He looked at Soren and continued, “Your identity as a ‘Traveler’ has already been exposed, Mr. Farrow. The captain of the city guards, Brady Carnago, already sold your information to many families and organization at a high price.”

“And since they still don’t know that you have already awakened your Bloodline, they will do anything to take it. Your only choice is to either run or join us.”

Although Soren was a little flustered by the sudden influx of all the information, he maintained a cool and calm expression.

He had expected that he would be exposed as an Initiator in the future but he never thought it would be this soon.

He just kept looking at Faron with a cold expression.

Faron praised Soren inwardly after seeing this and slightly nodded in his mind. This was a trait that was needed to survive in this world.

“So you want me to join your family because I don’t have any other choice.”

“Well, I wouldn’t put it as that but yeah, it is the best and your only option.”

“What if I refuse?”

Faron smiled at Soren’s question and signaled to the man in silver jacket standing behind him.

And soon, a deadly arrow was pointed at Soren’s head.

“You will simply die,” Faron stated calmly.

Soren looked at the arrow and gritted his teeth in frustration. He was truly powerless to do anything here. He couldn’t beat the young man with the bow with his current power let alone the one sitting in front of him was a Rank 1 Initiator.

“What are the terms?” He asked Faron after gathering his thoughts.

Faron nodded as though he had already predicted this outcome.

“We will provide you with the resources for your cultivation. We will provide you protection from other families and organizations that want to dissect you for your Bloodline. You may also marry someone from our family. We only need you to fulfill the orders we give you—especially an order given by someone carrying the blood of Liston family.”

“….So basically, become your servant”

Faron’s smile finally vanished at Soren’s response as he said in a grave voice, “Mr. Farrow. We do not treat Initiators affiliated to us as servants. You will have the same position as us when you join our family.”

After finishing, he again smiled and took out a brown colored parchment.

There were some weird characters written on the parchment. They seemed like some ancient magic language.

Soren had seen that same language before. They were the same characters that were written in his Stygian Grimoire.

“This is a Blood Contract. You can go through it and tell us if you want to change anything.”

Soren had never heard of a Blood Contract before. He looked at Faron after taking a glance at the contract.

“Ah! I completely forgot. Here, this is a Memory Sphere.” He took out a transparent crystal the size of an adult’s fist and pushed it towards Soren.

“It is used to record techniques, memories, languages, and other stuff. This one contains the knowledge about an ancient language named ‘Enfari’. It is the language of magic.”

He gave that crystal to Soren and continued, “It would take you around 2 days to learn it completely, so take that and after you are finished, simply destroy it. Take the Blood Contract with you. Read it carefully and wait for us to contact you.”

Faron got up from the chair after he finished explaining everything.

“Have a nice meal, Mr. Farrow.”

And then both he and Kyle went out of the room in the same way they entered.

Soren sat there with the Memory Sphere and the Blood Contract in his hands. It took him some time to gather his thoughts.

Although he didn’t want to do anyone else’s bidding, he had no choice now. He clenched his fist hard and tried to control himself from tearing the Blood Contract in front of him.