Stygian Mage

Soren packed his stuff in the backpack, strapped the gun holster on the right side of his waist and went out of the hotel, wearing his black survival gear and clothes.

Today was the morning of the day they were supposed to depart.

He went towards the breakfast café first and ate his breakfast as he didn’t want to go out on empty stomach. He also didn’t see the girl from before so, he just finished his food and went to the place they were supposed to meet.

……..

He soon reached the main gate of the town.

It was early in the morning and the atmosphere was still cool and pleasant. Soren stood by the side of the wall as no one had arrived yet.

Soon, he heard a heavy engine sound nearing towards him. He looked in the direction and found it was a car, something like an open jeep. The front seat was made for two persons; the driver and one passenger, while, the back area had two seats facing each other which could accommodate 6 persons; 3 persons per seat.

Soren had already seen Mana-Vehicles moving around in the town before, so he wasn’t surprised. The ‘jeep’ stopped in front of the gate as he walked towards them.

Ellie greeted Soren enthusiastically while standing inside the jeep with the support of the guardrail. Ward and Kyle also greeted Soren while Phil continued with his arrogant behavior, which was getting a little stale.

Faron got out of the car and nodded towards Soren.

“This is for you.”

He gave Soren a package which looked like a stick, wrapped up in some kind of wrapping paper.

Soren took it and tore off the paper. It was a wooden staff, not much different from Phil’s. It was around 160 cm in length and looked like a rough branch with a thick head.

He thanked Faron and nodded. Though, he was not planning on using his spells that much on this mission. He didn’t have enough control over them so as to reduce their power, and if somehow he ended up killing a high-level beast in one shot, the questions that would raise was something he could not afford.

This was also one of the reasons why he bought a backup weapon: Gun. The weapon had its advantages and disadvantages and Soren was relying on the fact that the weapon damage did not rely on the user’s strength.

“This is your ride. You will be using this for this mission. Take care of it properly and make sure to bring it back in one piece.”

Faron pointed towards the car and said smilingly but Soren was sure if they didn’t bring the car back properly, that blinding smile would turn into a smile of a beast.

Soren nodded towards Faron and got on the front passenger seat of the car. Phil started the car and soon they were out of the town.

From his observation, Soren found that the car was almost the same as he remembered from his homeworld except for the fuel source which was a mana crystal.

………

Ellie kept using her mouth, non-stop, throughout the journey, talking about different kinds of stuff.

Ward sometimes joined her while Phil made some comments from time to time. Kyle sat in the back seat silently with his eyes closed, almost as sleeping while Soren tried to do the same, except—he was not allowed.

Every time he tried to copy Kyle, he was dragged into the conversation by either Ellie or Ward. He only nodded sometimes trying his best to steer off from their stupid chatter.

Halfway through the journey, maybe she got tired or maybe she got the message, Ellie got silent and went to sleep.

Finally, Soren got some time to himself. He gazed out towards the rapidly passing scenery and opened his status. He had made some changes since the last time to accommodate some things and make it a little more convenient.

Common Staff: Increases mana efficiency and slightly amplifies spell power, applicable to all the elements.

Also, Soren still hadn’t recovered from the soul damage. He had hoped to recover before departing but was disappointed with the result.

……….

During the journey, he also tried something out. He knew it was somewhat risky but he wanted to confirm something. So, as they were moving on the road, he had secretly tried to ‘scan’ everyone.

The way that the ‘scan’ feature worked for him was something like this: Soren, because of his ‘Powered Vision’, could see the white mist or mana emanating from anyone, albeit, he had to focus hard for Initiators, compared to the beasts; as Initiators wouldn’t release their mana carelessly in the atmosphere.

And then, Isaac could use that image and, after comparing it with the database, would produce a result that would show the target’s cultivation level. Although he would not get a detailed result, it was still accurate; though he didn’t have any way to confirm that.

In the whole process, Soren never used anything that would alert the target in any way and that’s what he wanted to confirm. He hadn’t used the ‘scan’ feature before when Faron was around because he didn’t want to take that risk.

But now, he could first test it out on these Initiators as they were still in Rank 0 realm.

With his heart beating fast, he stared at his ‘colleagues’ and, trying his best to not alert them, used his ‘Powered Vision’. It didn’t take long for him to finish this process on everyone and when he was finally done, he heaved a big sigh of relief, silently.

Isaac also didn’t take long to produce the results and in a few seconds, Soren could finally see the cultivation level of his ‘colleagues’.

After confirming the results, Soren realized something that he hadn’t before—His own cultivation speed had really been extremely fast.

As he checked the other’s cultivation level, the result he got was—

Kyle was at Layer 9, Ellie at Layer 7, Ward at Layer 8 and Phil also at Layer 8.

Looking at their age, Soren deduced that to reach the level he was currently at, Initiators generally had to cultivate for at least a couple of years.

Ellie was the youngest among them, around 18 years old, and from what Soren had found out, the age at which people go through the Initiation process was around 15. It had taken her around 3 years to reach that level.

And looking at other’s result, Soren also confirmed that the time required to break through to next levels would keep increasing each level. Though the speed of cultivation remained the same, the requirement of mana for each level just kept increasing.

……..

Cutting the wind, they soon reached the path that went through the forest. It was a small dirt path but enough for their car to go through without any trouble. Their car was also built for this kind of rough terrain anyway.

After driving for a while, they finally reached their destination.

It was an outpost established by the Liston family. This area belonged to the Liston family and they were trying to expand now. They owned all the resources produced in this area and were in constant conflict with other families and organizations that tried to encroach upon their borders.

The outpost was nothing grand, just one storage unit, a residential unit to live in and a small area for training. It was surrounded by walls that were not that high, around 3 meters. A group of Initiators was also posted here to protect the base.

They all got out of the car as it stopped and took out their bags.

The ground floor of the residential building was like a lobby and it also contained the dining hall. The rooms started from the first floor after a flight of stairs.

They quickly chose their room after taking a look around the lobby and the dining hall. Since there were not many people living, it was mostly empty and they got the room they desired.

Soren settled on the first floor. His room was neither big nor small. He had chosen the first empty room he came across.

He looked around the room and put down his backpack. They were given one day to scout around the area to familiarize them, so he just took his gun, knife and the staff before moving out. As he went down, he met the others from his team; they were also planning to go out.

“Ellie, you go with Soren and make sure he stays alive,” Kyle ordered Ellie to escort Soren since, in their eyes, Soren was a pure beginner who had just completed his Initiation process.

They were not wrong at all but they were missing one vital information about him; his Bloodline.

“OK, Leader,” Ellie said in a hyped up voice. Soren also didn’t reject as that would have given him away. They both, soon, walked towards the gate of the outpost.

“Humph! Why do we have to babysit him?” Phil coldly snorted while staring at the duo’s backs, going out of the gate.

“It’s family head’s direct order. You want to go and question him?” Kyle simply stated.

Phil quickly cowered, suppressing all his complains, on the mere mention of the family head while Ward sneered at him.

Soon, they too went out to hunt and familiarize themselves with the surrounding. Kyle had a map of the area given to him by Faron and all of them had mostly memorized it somewhat, so at least they wouldn’t get lost.

……..

Soren walked with Ellie together while looking around at the surroundings.

The map was already recorded in Isaac’s database so he could look at it anytime he wanted. Ellie kept talking to him about various things, mainly useless chatter and he only replied sometimes, halfheartedly.

“Soren, you have just begun so it would be easy for you to increase your cultivation quickly, even with a common technique. I will kill a high-level beast for you so absorb its mana quickly, Ok!”

As they reached an area about half a mile away from the base, Ellie decided on the course of action by herself.

Soren thought things through and decided not to reject her. He had already made plans before for this.

Ellie also guided Soren and taught him things like ‘how to track trails---how to erase your track etc.’

To be honest, Soren did gain many things from this. Although he had studied the books and had Isaac, he was still no match for a properly trained scout and a ranger. So, he started paying attention to everything she said and remembered all of it. He didn’t know when it might come to use.

“Shh…!” She suddenly stopped in her tracks and made a ‘be quite’ gesture.

“Stay back. Only come when I call you.”

She whispered to Soren and went forward while crouching. Soren slightly smiled at her actions.

He could see the beast through the gaps in the bushes and had already scanned it. It was an elk-like a creature of Rank 0: Layer 5, except, it was completely red in color and fire came out of its nostrils from time to time.

Soren could kill it with only one spell but he still controlled himself. He admitted it was hard to control as the easy kill in front of him was very enticing.

Since the last time he entered the jungle, he’d almost never had an easy fight. It was not because he was weak but he always ended up meeting a stronger opponent or was himself injured.

Ellie walked towards the beast with silent steps from its blind spot. She kept a low posture the whole way while slowly approaching the beast.

She also released her Soul Form during that time. From what Soren could see, it was an In-animate type Soul Form: a pair of pale red crystal bangles.

Soren didn’t know what unique effect it had but he did notice a slight increase in Ellie’s speed and agility after she released them.

Ellie had already advanced quite a bit while he was thinking all that.

As soon as she reached a certain range from the beast, she dashed towards it. The red elk also noticed her but she was too close and too fast for it to take any big action.

In desperation, it faced Ellie, opened its mouth and breathed out hard, releasing a stream of hot fire towards her.

Maybe she already predicted it, maybe her reaction was just that good or maybe it was the enhancement from her Soul Form—Ellie ducked and dodged the attack while dashing towards it, her body almost parallel to the ground.

Soren had to admit that she was quite fast; at least he was nowhere near her in terms of physical ability.

Hot blood sprayed as she stabbed her dagger in its neck but it was not too deep. A shrill scream followed the blood rain as Ellie jumped back and took out a small crossbow from behind her waist, shooting the beast in its eye.

The beast raged and thrashed around trying to hit its nemesis in a desperate attempt but couldn’t continue for long and slowly it started feeling cold, stumbled and fell on the ground and closed its eyes for forever.

Ellie walked up to the beast while wiping the blood on the dagger with her cloak. Soren also came out from the bushes and gazed at the dead beast.

“Quickly, absorb the mana. I will keep guard for you.”

Ellie took out the beast core from its skull using her dagger which again made the dagger cover in blood making Soren confused at her actions—if the dagger was going to get dirty again, why wipe it in the first place.

Pushing the useless thoughts out of his mind though, Soren started his work.

Isaac, start the process.

As Soren started using the basic cultivation technique he got from Faron, the white mist slowly started gathering towards him.

But when he saw the effect of the technique, he almost cursed out loud.

Comparing it to his ‘Devour’ was like comparing a human infant to an adult Giant—it was too much. He felt the same as someone, who was used to travel in the high-end car with a beautiful secretary beside him, had to travel in cheap public transport with dirty old men sitting around him.

Although he had expected it, he was still shocked to see the results which Ellie mistook as him being surprised to cultivate for the first time.

The measly amount of mana gathered towards him but it didn’t go towards his Mana Source. He could never let this impure mana mix with his Mana Source.

His Mana Source was made up of the mana that was purified and modified by his Grimoire for him. The white mist turning black was the proof of the modification.

He made Isaac control the mana and store it away from his mana source. Later on, he could decide to either discard it or absorb it using his ‘Devour’. Isaac simply chose the navel area to store this mana.

Because the cultivation technique’s level was too low, most of the mana got dissipated into the atmosphere. But it was still enough for a Layer 1 Initiator to breakthrough to Layer 2 as it was a Layer 5 beast, though it took some time.

Confirming the amount of mana absorbed and after getting the green light from Isaac, Soren ‘started the process of breakthrough’. Although he was faking it, his acting was almost award worthy.

Finished with the ‘breakthrough’, Soren released a heavy breath and opened his eyes.

“Did you breakthrough already?”

“It seems so, guess I was lucky,” Soren simply lied.

“It’s not about luck; most probably your aptitude is quite high.”

………

They both walked forward together after finishing here. Ellie kept the core since it was her kill.

As Soren moved the tree branch which was in his way while walking, he felt something warm flowing down on his lips. He touched it and noticed that it was blood.

He was having a nosebleed!!

“It might be because of your first breakthrough. Your body is still not used to the mana.” Ellie also noticed the blood and assumed the reason to be his breakthrough.

But Soren knew it was not so and that’s why he became slightly nervous.

Did something go wrong with controlling the mana? Did my Mana Source get polluted? Thoughts like these ran through his mind.

Isaac!!

“Already completed the scan, nothing wrong found with your body, Master”

Soren still walked forward with slightly furrowed brows so as to not give himself up to Ellie. He made Isaac do another scan but still couldn’t find anything.

Not finding anything, he had no choice but to give up and so, he just blamed it on the bad weather.

They both walked in a circle around the base, keeping half a mile of distance between them and the base.

……….

BANG!!

BANG!!

A miserable wail resounded in the air as Soren put down his gun. They had just killed a mutated bear.

According to Ellie, the beasts evolved as they cultivated and got stronger. The time of evolution depended on their aptitude—the higher the aptitude towards mana, the later they evolve and vice versa.

This bear had a low aptitude and evolved at only Rank 0: Layer 6. Every beast’s evolution, or mutation, was unique but they all could be categorized according to their basic feature.

Soren wanted to test his guns so he asked Ellie to distract the beast as he took out his gun and shot two bullets in the beast’s skull. Surprisingly, his aim was quite good and he also knew the right posture to hold the gun even though it was his first time shooting.

He kept his gun in the holster and went towards the beast as Ellie checked to see if it was dead or not.

She nodded to Soren as she confirmed the kill and he started his ‘cultivation’. He was also paying attention to any change in his body this time to see if this had caused any adverse reaction but didn’t find anything.

“We make a good combo, don’t you think?”

Soren smiled at Ellie’s remark as they again walked on after collecting the Beast Core. All The Cores went to Ellie as she was doing all the work and the only thing Soren gained was ‘experience’.

They couldn’t collect any other part of the beast’s body even though it would sell for good amount because they couldn’t afford to carry it and had to take it to the town to sell it quickly lest it rots.

Soon, the sky started to turn dark and they decided to return to the outpost. They had hunted around 5 beasts during this time and were already familiar with the surrounding.

Soren had also learned many things from Ellie. And he was already at ‘Rank 0: Layer 3’, at least according to Ellie.

All the beasts they hunted were around 5^th~6^th Layer, so according to the speed of the cultivation technique Soren had, he was already at Layer 3.

But his original cultivation hadn’t increased by even 1 CP.

The outpost was already shrouded in darkness with some small lights somewhat brightening the area.

The others had also returned and they all met in the hall for food. They talked about their day while eating the food made by the cook stationed here. The food mainly consisted of the meat of the hunted beast and the collected veggies and herbs.

Phil continued to brag, Ward sneered, Ellie laughed, Kyle and Soren ate silently—the usual stuff.

……..

The dinner time was over soon and they got up to head towards their own room. Soren closed his room and lay down on his bed.

He then released his Grimoire and started using ‘Devour’. He first focused on the mana that he had absorbed today. Although it was not much, it was still better than absorbing mana from his surrounding directly.

Soon, he had used up all the mana stored in his body and focused on the mana around him.

CP – 27%

Finished cultivating, he closed his eyes and went to sleep.