Stygian Mage

Soren slept through the whole day and the whole night. In the beginning, the waves of pain coming from all over his body had kept him awake but very soon, his tired mind couldn’t continue anymore. He fell into sleep forgetting about his pain, his injuries, and his situation. His breathing slowly became calm, his heart rate dropped, and his body temperature became low as he slowly fell into deep sleep.

After some time, his eyes started moving inside his eyelids as he started dreaming.

His dreams were about his family. He dreamt of living together with them. He spent every day with them completely unaware that he was in a dream. He was happy and satisfied as he continued on living inside that dream.

His dream went on for a long time. Soren spent all his time with his family, living a happy life. He was content and wished that he could live like this forever.

But there was one thing that always bugged him. His life was perfect yet he felt something was weird. The thing that made him feel weird was that he could see his family and their faces very clearly but when it came to other people, they were completely blurred to him. No matter how much he tried to focus on their faces, it only appeared as a blur.

But Soren continued to live in that dream as he decided to not think about those things. After a long time went by, the blur started to clear up. Sometime later, he could finally see the other people’s faces but then another strange thing happened.

The faces that came out of the blur were all the same. It was a male’s face and he was totally stranger to it but no matter where Soren looked, he saw the same face. Regardless of the male-female, they all looked the same to him.

His parents and his brother were completely oblivious to this fact as if this was a very common matter to them.

The days passed by as Soren continued living in the dream. But one day, something happened as he slowly started questioning the things around him. Maybe he had just ignored them before because he wanted to live with his family regardless of the weird things around him but slowly, it caught up to him. By questioning everything, he gained awareness…..and his dream world fell apart like a house made of cards.

But instead of finding himself back in his bed, he found himself sinking deep in the water. He started feeling the same as the last time. He kept sinking towards the dark bottom but never reached it. He was deep inside the water but never felt any pressure on him that was common as you sink deep in the water. He could also breathe freely without any obstruction like his lungs had turned into gills. He felt like this place was his home; this cold and dark water felt like a warm blanket which would protect him from any danger.

He kept sinking without ever reaching the bottom. He was already aware that this was also a dream—or a nightmare. Last time, it was the loud knocking on the door that had woken him up but this time…..

He wanted to get out of this dream quickly so he started to think up ideas on how to break out from here; how to wake up. His mind kept running, trying to find a way. He thrashed around trying to find something; anything, that could wake him up.

Suddenly, he thought of something and reached for his waist but he couldn’t find anything there. He wasn’t disappointed though. He already had an idea; he just needed the right tool to implement it.

So, he lifted his palm and casted ‘Ice Arrow’. He was really hoping for a positive result right now. He quickly finished his cast and very soon, a white ice arrow floated in front of him. The water also started turning into ice because of the low temperature.

A confident smile slowly appeared on Soren’s face as he looked at the ice arrow. The water was slowly freezing around it so he had to speed up.

So, according to the plan, he used the ice arrow and…..stabbed his neck.

Blood spurted out like a fountain as ice arrow pierced his throat. He could clearly feel the pain as if all of it were real. Air bubbles came out with the blood as he had also stabbed his windpipe. His body started becoming colder as he kept losing more and more blood.

Very soon, Soren lost consciousness and became brain dead. His blood kept sinking in the water and made it turn red. He slowly sunk down in that red water and soon…..lost his life.

…………

Soren suddenly woke up on his bed while gasping for breath. He clutched at his throat but found that it was fine and in one piece. As he slowly calmed down and controlled his breathing, he finally felt the pain that surged in because he had moved too abruptly.

He winced in pain as he tried to not move his body suddenly. He hadn't felt this much pain yesterday but now, it was killing him. Most of it came from the broken arm, severe headache, the cut on his forehead, and the stab wound on his stomach.

He tolerated the pain and slowly got up from his bed. His body gave off a weird smell as he was drenched in sweat and dried blood.

He took off his clothes, threw it away and went on to wash. He bore through the pain and moved his body as he cleaned himself up; removing all the blood from his face and body.

His bleeding had already stopped so all he had to do now was to wait for his injuries to heal. Although his injuries would heal over time, he didn’t want to wait for that long. After finished cleaning up, he wore new clothes, tore a strip of cloth from his old one and used that cloth to hang his left broken arm to his neck. He also wrapped a bandage over his forehead and stomach in case they start bleeding again with his movements.

He then went out of the hotel while fighting with the pain which came in waves as he moved. The young man at the reception desk was still the same as the last time. He saw Soren coming down the elevator and ran over to ask him if he needed any help.

Soren politely denied him and made his way out.

He remembered that Claude had told him something about a Medical Center. He didn’t go there the last time when he was injured in the jungle because his injuries were almost all healed by the time he came back but this time, he had to go there. He remembered that the place was run by the City Guards and was somewhere close to the City Guards Barracks.

It took him some time to reach there and by then his stomach had started growling from hunger. He had slept the whole day before and now he was very hungry.

He somehow controlled his hunger and finally reached the place. He stood at its front gate as he looked at the average sized white building. It was a one-story building with a flat roof. The front had a signboard with a red plus sign on it. There was also a green lawn in front of the building which looked like a nice place to take a walk. The grass in the lawn was trimmed perfectly and the colorful flowers by the side looked beautiful.

Soren looked around for a bit and then went inside the building. Going inside, he found himself in a big hall which had beds on both the sides. It seemed like a place used for emergencies as it was mostly empty with some people using those beds to sleep. There was also a big door on the other side of the hall.

A middle-aged woman wearing a white healer’s dress came through that door and suddenly noticed Soren. She quickly moved towards him and then led him to an empty bed by the side. Soren didn’t even have to explain anything as she made him sit down on it and started opening his bandages.

She seemed quite experienced as she removed his bandages in a smooth motion and checked his injuries. She didn’t say anything and just focused on treating him. She checked out all of his wounds and then started with his biggest ones; the stab wound on his stomach.

“Take off your clothes.”

A sentence that might make some teenager’s blood boil came out of her mouth. Soren was the same but the pain from his wounds destroyed that thought very soon. She also made him take off only his shirt as he only had wounds on his upper body.

She cleaned the stab wound, applied some medicine paste, and then wrapped it with clean bandages. Finally, she casted a healing spell on it and moved on to the next injury; the spell seemed to be of the water element.

After finishing with the stab wound, she focused on his broken arm. She checked out his arm and found that it was broken from the middle. She could easily tell that it was a Closed Fracture but the bones were broken in multiple places.

She then put her palm around the area where it was broken and casted a spell. Soren was not experienced in healing spells so he had no idea what spell she was casting. But from the effects it had, he confirmed that spell was of two stages. The first stage realigned the bones and made the bones come together like it was before breaking, and the second stage simply increased the healing speed of the bone. The first stage made Soren wince in pain while the second made that whole area itchy.

Suddenly, Soren’s stomach made a growling sound which left him embarrassing and her laughing.

Though, she quickly controlled it and then smiled at Soren as she stopped him from moving too much. Soon, the process was over and his arm had been fixed. Of course, it was not completely healed as the bone had yet to thoroughly set, but it was enough for small movements and could be used to lift small things.

Finished with that, she moved on to his forehead wound. This wound was also from a knife so she cleaned the wound first and then applied some medicine paste. Finally, she casted her spell on the wound and wrapped it in clean bandages.

After finishing with all his big wounds, she checked him for any other small injuries that might become worse and then healed them with her spell.

……….

Soren paid up 10 Mana Crystals for her services as that was the normal charge for the healing. He thanked her for her help and then made his way out. His wounds had not completely healed but they were fine enough that he could move around without much problem.

He stood outside on the lawn as he went out and looked up at the blue sky, taking a deep and long breath. It was a nice and cold morning; the cold and pleasant wind was blowing on his face, making his black hair dance with them. He closed his eyes and slowly settled his mind as he felt refreshed.

Yesterday’s events had made him realize the obvious truth. Now, he had to speed up his plans which he was waiting for. He didn’t want anyone else to control his fate anymore so he couldn’t wait now.

As for those 6 clowns from yesterday, their fates had already been sealed.

He started walking and made his way towards a restaurant to have some food first. His stomach had been shouting at him all along; it wanted Soren to put some good stuff in there. After satisfying his stomach and satiating his hunger, he went towards the Barracks; he had some business there.

………..

Guards were training in the ground right now as their loud voice resonated together in the air. Soren walked in while taking a glance at them.

Soon, he noticed the Captain standing in front of the field. He was standing under the tree’s shade and was looking at the Guards who were training hard while shouting their lungs out.

Soren walked up there and greeted him.

“How have you been Captain?”

Brady was a little startled by the sudden sound but soon regained his balance and looked back at Soren.

“Mr. Soren. What brings you here today?”

Soren smiled and shook hands with the Captain.

“I wanted to talk to you about something.” Brady was a little bit surprised to see Soren smiling like that as he was sure that Soren already knew what he did. He was not afraid of this little Initiator—why would he be? He was already a Rank 1 Initiator. But it still made him surprised to see Soren acting like that.

He nodded and said, “Ok. Let’s go to my office.” He ignored the bandages on Soren’s forehead and led him to his office.

He also ordered the Guards to continue their training as he walked away with Soren.

“So Mr. Soren, what can I do for you?”

He gestured for Soren to take a seat and then sat on his own chair.

“I need you to find and buy something for me.”

“Ho…And why would I do that?”

“I’ll pay you for your services,” Soren said.

Captain smiled when he heard Soren’s words and said, “You might not be able to afford my services.”

“I can and if you do me another favor I will pay you extra.”

The Captain finally raised his eyebrows at Soren words.

“Ignore the incidents that will happen after a few days.” Soren continued as he looked at the man in front of him.

“What are you going to do?” The Captain smiled again and asked.

“That doesn’t concern you. And from what I remember you owe me one for earning so much. It was my information that you sold after all.” Soren also smiled and said in a light manner.

Brady looked at the young man in front of him for a while and then suddenly started laughing out loud. He was a little amazed as he didn’t think that this little ‘Traveler’ would one day come to his place and say that he owed him for selling his information with a smiling face.

“…..Ok. I do owe you for that so I will repay you with this. I will ignore the incidents but I can’t ignore them all. You need to inform me which one is related to you.”

Soren thought about it for a moment and finally agreed. They exchanged their contact details and then moved on to the next topic.

“I want you to buy a Potion for me.”

………..

Soren came back to his room after his talk with the captain. The missions he had accepted had to wait until his arm was healed properly. He didn’t want to do something right now that might break it again.

So, he was planning on staying in his room for a few days and focus on his cultivation and spells.

Thinking about the things he should do during this time, he changed into comfortable clothes and sat on the sofa.

Knock! Knock!

As soon as he sat down, someone knocked on his door which made him grumble in frustration. He got up and went to open the door while complaining the whole way.

As he opened it, he saw a green-haired girl in casual clothes standing outside his door.

“Hi... How are you now?”

She waved her hand in a reserved manner. Soren shook his head and just smiled at her. They both sat on opposite sides of the sofa with a table in between.

“So you heard.” Soren started the conversation.

“Yeah”

“I am fine now. You don’t have to worry about it.” Soren said.

Ellie was a little stumped after hearing Soren’s voice that seemed distant and thought about how to continue the conversation.

“Do you want to hang out with me? We can go out and have some fun.”

“No, I just want to rest right now. I’ll complete the missions I took after I recover.” Soren shook his head to reject her.

“Who cares about the missions? Let’s go out and have some fun. It will improve your mood and will be good for your recovery.”

“I will go out but after I recover. For now, I just want to rest.” Soren rejected her again as he had no plans to go anywhere with her.

Ellie tried to convince him some more but he continued to reject her and gave her a cold shoulder. She then insisted on staying with him but was rejected again. Soren simply rejected her and finally chased her away.

In the end, she only grumbled and complained about it but still left him alone.

Before going, she gave him some information about what was happening right now. She told him that Denise and her friends were punished severely for what they did and were warned not to do it again. They were even beaten by their parents for this.

This information was useless for Soren; he didn’t care if they were punished or not—it wouldn’t change anything that he was going to do.

The other information was about Faron; he had moved out yesterday with his team to hunt that Rank 1 creature and would not be back in a while.

As for their own team; Phil had accepted a mission and was going out of town; Ward had gone out to hunt for some beasts; Kyle was training and preparing for his breakthrough to Rank 1; while Ellie herself was totally free.

Soren thanked her for all the info before sending her on her way.

He waved her goodbye and then closed the door. He sat on the sofa and finally took a breath of relief; dealing with her was a little tiring for him.

He wanted to start his cultivation now; he was planning to do it continuously without any break.

He released his Stygian Grimoire and started using his Bloodline Talent—‘Devour’. White mist soon became visible around the book and started rushing into it. The book sucked in all the white mist and released the black mist which then surrounded Soren and permeated into his body.

Soren kept cultivating without stop and continued to do so till he could.

Time went by and the day became night. He cultivated, studied and practiced his spells. He also thought up ideas about the evolution of his spells.

Just like this—five days went by.