Stygian Mage

Soren sat in his hotel room in silence. He had signed the Blood Contract and now, he had to work for the Liston family.

Unwillingly, he had accepted that.

Right now, he was in another pinch. The Liston family didn’t know about his cultivation level and neither did they know about his other spells. Even though he could explain his other spells as something he bought after meeting them but he absolutely had to hide his ‘Create Undead’ spell.

He was given a Spell Vessel of ‘Fireball’ by them and was expected to use it. But the problem was—his slots for the Spell Vessels were already full. He either had to breakthrough to Rank 1 or had to transform one of his Spell Vessels to an Innate Spell.

He already had a candidate in mind. He had almost mastered his spell ‘Ice Arrow’. It would be the fastest and easiest to master completely. Making up his mind, he started his work.

He started studying about everything that was related to this spell with help of Isaac first. He even forgot to cultivate because of the study. He continued this throughout the day. He slept at night for a while and again started the same process.

Next day, he went to the place where he could practice his spells. He paid the rent for one day and went in.

He hadn’t disguised himself this time as he didn’t need to do so anymore. He was already exposed, more or less.

He stayed in that place for the whole day, practicing his spells. He even slept there on the ground. He got out of the building the next morning and went to his room to clean up.

After that, he went to the breakfast café that he hadn’t been to, for quite a while.

……….

He ate his breakfast while reading about the spell. He had learned the ancient language ‘Enfari’ so it was a lot easier now.

He picked up the cup of ‘coffee’ and brought it to his lips to take a sip—

“Spell Mastery increased. Ice Arrow – Level 10/10.”

Soren suddenly got started from the message and spilled his ‘coffee’ on himself. He quickly put down the cup and used a cloth to wipe the coffee from his clothes. The people sitting on other tables looked at him while smiling and laughing.

This was a scene everyone had seen many times. Although they couldn’t see the message Soren received, it was easy to guess so since beginner Initiators generally reacted like this to a sudden message from the system. They were looking at him, smiling, as if saying ‘hang in there’.

A waiter came to his table and used a towel to wipe the table. She looked at Soren while wiping and smiled sweetly.

“Don’t worry, you will get used to it quickly. It happens to every beginner.”

“Ah! Haha… Sorry” Soren laughed embarrassingly and apologized.

She smiled and nodded at him and went back to her work. Soren cleared his throat and sat straight, trying to hide his embarrassment. He changed his attention towards the message to distract himself.

“Spell Mastery increased. Ice Arrow – Level 10/10.”

“Spell Vessel Assimilated. Innate Spell Learned: Ice Arrow – Level 10/10.”

“Spell evolution possible.”

Soren felt something changing in his Grimoire. He was quite sure it was the Spell Vessel assimilating and becoming his Innate Spell.

“Master, do you want to evolve the spell to next Rank?”

Can you explain?

“Spells can be evolved when you completely master it. There are two default evolution paths a spell can take or you can also choose to modify it by yourself but only up to a certain limit.”

Hmm, what are the default evolution paths for this spell?

“One will highly increase the overall power and durability of the ice arrow projectile but will only produce a single one. Another will only increase the power slightly but will, in turn, increase the quantity of the ice arrows.”

Soren thought hard after hearing about the possible evolution paths. Both had their advantages and disadvantages which depended on the situation. It was hard for him to make the choice.

Isaac, simulate both evolutions and give me an estimate of mana cost.

“Simulating both evolutions”

“……..”

“Simulation complete, calculating mana cost.”

“…….”

“First situation: Estimated Mana Cost – Very High. Taking Master’s current mana reserve into account, you would be able to use the spell 2 times at most.”

“Second situation: Estimated Mana Cost – Very High. Taking Master’s current mana reserve into account, you would be able to use the spell 2 times at most.”

So, both are same in that sense….Ok. Isaac, postpone the evolution for now.

“Yes Master.”

Soren didn’t see any advantage in evolving the spell right now.

Even if it became quite powerful, he wouldn’t be able to use it as he wished. He wanted to wait till his mana increased a little more and then he could evolve this spell. That would also give him more time to think about modifying the evolution paths.

After deciding that, Soren took out the wooden box given to him by Faron and picked up the red colored token from inside.

It was the ‘Fireball’ Spell Vessel.

He then used his knife and made a slight cut on his finger and dropped a drop of blood on the Spell Vessel.

The familiar scene occurred and soon the blood mist permeated into his Soul Form. It occupied the page which previously had ‘Ice Arrow’.

Soren had released his Grimoire in public right now since it was not possible to hide his ‘Soul Form’ anyway and the only reason he was hiding it before was to not expose himself as an Initiator.

And although a book type ‘Soul Form’ was not common, it was also not that rare.

Of course, it didn’t mean that every book type ‘Soul Form’ was the same. Especially Soren’s ‘Stygian Grimoire’—it was something truly unique which had combined with his dormant bloodline and provided him with an exceptional Bloodline Talent: ‘Devour’.

After adding the Spell Vessel to his Grimoire, he opened his status.

W-What the fuck…What is up with this spell’s mana cost!!? It’s the same as my ‘Create Undead’ spell! Is this really some basic spell? ....Wait, is this because….

As he thought of the possibility, his eyes went to a certain area in his status panel—His attribute.

He had a really high affinity with ‘Darkness’ and ‘Ice’ elements, which greatly increased his efficiency with the spells related to them but at the same time, it also decreased his efficiency with spells of other attributes—especially with the elements that conflicted with his own attributes.

He had made a miscalculation on this. He hadn’t taken this into account when he added this Spell Vessel.

‘Fire’ was quite opposite to both of his attributes. The ‘Darkness’ and ‘Ice’ elements loved him and he felt like a child in his mother’s warm embrace when surrounded with them, so anything that conflicted with those elements would also be in conflict with him.

He had wasted one of the slots for Spell Vessels with this spell. It was not at all practical for him to use this spell. High mana cost with low spell damage: It was simply a waste of space.

But in the end, Soren decided to leave it and didn’t destroy it. He didn’t have any other Spell Vessel with him that he wanted to use for now anyway.

He had bought ‘Spark’ spell last time to use it as a fire-starter but ‘Fireball’ could also, very well, serve the same purpose, so he left it as it was.

He also noticed that the spell mastery of ‘Fireball’ was already at level 3. He knew it was because of him learning the ‘Enfari’ language.

After checking everything thoroughly, he closed the screen and focused on his breakfast.

………

Finished eating, he got up and went to the counter to pay his bills. The same waiter that wiped his table was standing behind the counter. She looked at Soren and smiled.

She then calculated the cost and gave him the bill.

“Card or Crystal?”

Soren handed his mana card to the girl who was still smiling while looking at him.

He had already deposited almost all of his mana crystals into the card before. She took the card, deducted the amount and handed it back to Soren.

“Thank you for coming to our café. I hope you enjoyed our food and services and would continue to allow us to serve you.”

She bowed slightly while speaking.

Soren didn’t know it was intentional or not, but from his position, he could see most of her cleavage with the slight pink area in the corner.

Her skin was fair and she had ample sized breasts. Both of these features provided Soren with a beautiful scenery of two white-mountains and a valley between them.

She had a smile on her face even while bowing down. From her expression, it was obvious she was aware of everything and was doing it willingly.

While Soren was not an extreme pervert, he was not a saint either. He would never turn down an offer from such a beautiful girl but right now, he had more important business to attend to. He had to place his safety before the enjoyment of Soren Jr.

Soren took his card back and smiled back at her.

Much to her disappointment though, Soren went out of the café without looking back.

……….

Soren walked under the warm sunlight, enjoying his stroll and feeling the wind blowing on his face. It was already late in the morning so the streets were filled with people.

He walked slowly through the crowd while enjoying himself. Although he didn’t like places with too many people, he had no choice here.

He had a destination in mind, so he walked towards the market area and went towards the largest building there—it was ‘Myriad Items’.

Soren entered the building and again the same old shopkeeper came forward to greet him. The shopkeeper didn’t recognize Soren since he was disguised when he came here before.

“Would you like some help or do you want to look around on your own, Sir?” The shopkeeper repeated the same thing again. Soren looked at the old man who had his back bent slightly in humble respect.

“Show me the weapons for Initiators.” Soren had already decided before coming here.

He was going to wait before but after coming in contact with the Liston family, he had to slightly change his plans.

He was a Spell Caster by nature so his choice of weapon would obviously be something that would increase his efficiency as a Spell Caster; such as a staff.

But right now he was not in dire need of those kinds of weapons since his ‘Stygian Grimoire’ itself highly increased his ability as a Spell Caster.

Right now, he wanted to buy a weapon that he could use to defend himself when his mana reserve was empty or when he could not use his spells.

The shopkeeper replied humbly to Soren and brought him to an area on the left side of the big hall. He then asked for Soren’s preference.

“Hmm…” Soren thought about it and finally decided to explain the whole situation to the shopkeeper.

“Oh, you are looking for that. Those are called backup weapons. We have many types of backup weapons in our shop.” The shopkeeper then took out a glass panel and handed it to Soren.

Soren already knew how to use it so he didn’t need any help.

Soon, a list of weapons was displayed on the glass panel. Because of the filter, only backup weapons were showing on the list right now with their description and image. Soren browsed the list slowly, checking the weapon’s description properly.

He saw different types of weapons. Most of them were different variations of the crossbow. He also noticed some eccentric weapons like blow darts and slingshots.

Soon he saw something that stunned him.

He kept staring at the item’s image with his mouth agape. Although he knew that the technology in this world was very advanced, he hadn’t expected to see that here.

Seeing that item on the list, he became sure of one thing---he was going to get multiple surprises in the future.

The item he saw was a gun.