Stygian Mage

Soren released a long breath as he slowly opened his eyes. He waved his hand and dispersed the Stygian Grimoire which was floating in front of him.

Five days had passed.

Soren had stayed inside his room all this time, waiting for his injuries to heal. He had been cultivating all this while and also practiced his spells during the break. Ultimately, he had gained some achievements these days.

He mastered two of his Spell Vessels and turned them into his Innate Spells: ‘Cold Touch’ and ‘Spark’. He also perfected his control over Mana and increased the level of ‘Mana Manipulation’. His mastery of ‘Create Undead’ didn’t rise much as he didn’t have the materials to do research on so he didn’t have any other choice but to put it aside for now.

Furthermore, he had obtained all the information about breaking through to Rank 1 from the Liston Family’s Information Center.

He found out that when someone began the breakthrough process, they absorbed the Mana Essence directly from the world; it was different from the breakthrough of Layers. The Essence of the World also contained the knowledge that one could not generally obtain otherwise.

When someone broke through to the next Rank they got one chance to witness the mysteries of their skills, spells etc. Soren had thought about this deeply and finally decided to use his spell – ‘Create Undead’ during the breakthrough. He was going to use the Mana Essence or the World Essence to obtain the knowledge related to this spell.

He also had one other choice in his mind: ‘Mana Manipulation’ Innate skill. But after thinking about it, he had rejected it as it was possible to increase his mastery over this skill by just practicing it in comparison to his chosen spell. He still kept an open mind though, as he was still far from the breakthrough and had the time to change his mind.

Some of the other information he got about the breakthrough was about the soul. Initiators in Rank 0 had a very fragile Soul; this was something that was true for everyone. After breaking through to Rank 1, their Soul would evolve and mature. This allowed them to do things that they couldn’t do during Rank 0; one of those included having a Soul Pet. Soren didn’t get much data on this topic but from what little he gathered, he knew that this was a little different than keeping or taming a beast.

But this was something that didn’t concern him right now so he didn’t pay much attention to it; just an overview.

………..

Right now his CP had reached 99% and he was ready to break through to the next layer. He had spent five days closed in here and he was already healed by now. The date of the auction was also coming close so he had to hurry up and earn more Mana Crystals.

Deciding on making a breakthrough, he slowly emptied his mind and started the process. His black Mana Core had become quite dense by now and the black mist had slowly started to turn into liquid drops. From one look, his Mana Core looked like a compressed ball of black mist rotating at a moderate speed.

He checked his Mana Core once and then again started using ‘Devour’; he had dispersed his Grimoire before as he wanted to rest before trying to make a breakthrough and now he was ready to do so.

The black mist churned around him and permeated into his body through his orifices and some part of his skin; the modified Mana just kept entering into his body from where it found the least resistance.

His Mana Core started rotating faster and absorbed the Mana coming from the outside. As it rotated, it slowly got compressed and more black mist started turning into black liquid drops. Although it was still far from becoming a Liquid Core, it was slowly crawling towards it.

Soren breathed in and breathed out in a rhythm while allowing the Mana to seep in him without resisting. Soon, he reached saturation and couldn’t take in any more Mana; he knew it was time to start the breakthrough.

He had been bathing in Mana for many days now so his body was already used to it; he didn’t feel any physical stress as he was breaking through now.

The process continued smoothly for quite a while. Although he was fine physically, mentally—it was still tiring. He had to control the Mana with his mind after all so it still took a toll on him.

The process continued for a while; Soren’s hair was sticking to his forehead which was covered in sweat. Finally, the process was over as he released a long breath and ran his hand through his hair; removing them from his forehead.

He had broken through to Layer-8 now and was one more step closer to Rank 1. Priority of the stat development was Isaac’s job so Soren didn’t worry about that; he had already decided which stat to give the highest priority before all this.

He was thinking to open his status to check on his details as suddenly….

Eh!

Soren felt something warm flowing down his nose. He touched it with his fingers only to find blood on them: He was having a nosebleed right now.

Isaac!!

“Already on it Master; performing a full body scan”

“………”

“……..”

“Scan Finished.”

“……..”

“Performing a full body scan again”

“……..”

“……..”

“…..Nothing abnormal found with your body; All bodily functions working normally”

Huh! How can it be? Then what is the cause of this nosebleed? This is the second time now!

Soren wrecked his mind thinking of the reason that could be behind this. Isaac also ran multiple scans but was unable to find anything wrong with his body. Soren’s vitals were perfectly normal and there were no changes according to Isaac. But it didn’t give Soren much reassurance as they both knew that Isaac’s ability was still limited.

After not finding anything about it and seeing that Soren wasn’t having any other adverse effect, they chose to forget about it for now. They couldn’t do anything about it right now anyway and as there was nothing wrong with him, they let it go for now.

After calming himself down, Soren finally opened his status to check on his details.

He had set the highest priority to his ‘Spirit’ as he wanted to increase his Mana Capacity and Mana Recovery right now. His spells were quite strong already and with the staff they became even stronger, but he needed enough Mana to cast those spells.

As he checked his stats, he noticed that the total increase was much more than the last breakthrough. He knew that as the cultivation level increased, the increment to the stats would also increase. His physical ability had also developed a bit after this breakthrough. He could now be compared to any average Initiator at 2^nd or 3^rd Layer—physically.

He had also decided not to evolve any of his spells right now as the new Mana Cost would not be something he could afford easily.

………

It was evening right now and the sun had turned red like blood over the horizon. He went out into the balcony and witnessed the sunset as he breathed in the fresh air.

He had decided to go out today and finish his pending missions; the assassinations. He had to accumulate the Mana Crystals before the auction and he was left with not much time.

He had 1420 Low-Grade Mana Crystals right now and he knew that was not enough for the thing he wanted to buy; he had to move out and earn some crystals.

Most of his Mana Crystals were still in the crystal form and not in the card as he hadn’t gone to the Hunter’s Association recently. It was becoming a chore carrying so many crystals on him so he was also thinking about making a stop at the Association later.

He changed his clothes into full black color attire; he checked his bullets and holstered his gun; he also strapped his survival knife to his waist. After checking everything once more, he went out of his room.

He saw Leah at the reception desk and greeted her. They hadn’t met for some time so Soren stood there for a while and talked to her about different stuff; this was one of the things that always eased his mind, though he was not sure why. His one month time was also about to end so he paid up 60 crystals for one more month as the rent; the food was included in that so he didn’t have to worry about it.

As he saw it was getting late, he ended his talk with Leah went on to finish his business. After moving away from there, he walked towards a dark alley and put on his black jacket, covering himself with its hood and the collar.

He then took out his communicator and checked out his mission list, choosing a random one to do first. He walked out of the dark alley and moved towards his target; tonight was going to be a night of deaths.

……….

A man was walking down a dark street. His steps were unstable as he almost tripped on his own feet a few times. The street he was walking on was completely desolate with hardly anyone in sight. It was already dark and with the silence of the street, it created an ominous atmosphere.

The man seemed to be totally drunk and was going back to his home. He was not paying attention to his surroundings at all as he had already walked down this street multiple times and was totally familiar with it.

Though, he also had no time to be paying attention to his surroundings as just walking straight in a line seemed to be tough for him.

“I drank too much. Hehe… She is going to scold me for sure today.” He murmured as he tried to walk while maintaining a balance.

Swoosh!

A white light flashed behind him and swiftly pierced his neck. Blood spurted on contact as the man clutched at his throat with his hands. The sudden pain sobered him up but it didn’t matter anymore. He had no idea what had happened and how his neck was suddenly pierced through.

He felt a chilling frost expanding from the stab wound and slowly spreading in his body.

First, his spurting blood froze and became red ice crystals. It continued on and soon his face and then his brain froze. He tried to turn around but couldn’t see the one who had killed him as his brain froze and stopped functioning very soon.

Soren came out of the darkness and looked down upon the dead body. He was a little amazed at his spell, as this man had not died because of the stab wound but from the low temperature of his <Ice Arrow>.

But it was not the right time to be thinking about it, so he confirmed that the man had died and again went back into darkness. He took out his communicator while walking away and called the Captain.

“I am sending you the details.” He cut the connection right after saying what he wanted to say.

Brady was currently sitting in his office with a glass of alcohol in his right hand and his communicator in the left. He had just received Soren’s call; he was wondering before what had happened as it had been quite a few days since Soren had talked to him about this.

BEEP!

He soon received a message on his communicator. He opened it and checked the details and was stunned to see that the incident Soren had asked him to ignore was actually about the dead body.

But since he had already promised Soren, he was going to follow it through; he had to keep up appearances after all.

After contacting the captain, Soren contacted the cleaning team and told them the details. The Captain was just going to ignore the bodies but someone still had to clean them up before it became a big issue; they were also called Vultures sometimes because of this reason.

……….

It was a dark night without any moonlight. Dark clouds covered the sky, hiding the moon from the people’s sight. It was not the most romantic night but it became a perfect stage for someone to end others.

Soren moved from one target to another and left a bloody trail of bodies in his path. His killing count had gone up to 6 just for this night; it seemed like a child’s play for him. He was already at Layer-8 and his targets were all at Layer-4 or 5 and on top of it, they were all non-combat types.

The Captain was already having a headache as the messages kept coming in and every incident that he had to ignore included a dead body. The Vultures fared no better as they couldn’t keep up with Soren and had started to complain about it.

Soren simply ignored them and continued with his missions.

………..

BANG!

A bullet cut through the air at a high speed and pierced a woman’s head. The woman’s body made a dull sound as it hit the ground; blood and brain matter splattering behind her. The man that was with her screamed in a high pitched voice as he heard the gunshot and felt the warm and disgusting blood all over his face, mixed with some white gooey matter. He was trembling from fear but still tried to look at the source but only found a hooded shadow covered in darkness.

The man fell down on his ass and started crawling backward while sobbing and wailing. He begged the shadow not to kill him as he had nothing to do with the woman. He just kept going on and on about how he had no relation with the woman, but Soren never cared about that.

He just kept the gun in his holster and walked back, fading into the darkness once again. He took out his communicator and checked his mission list. He had finished most of them but had to stop now as he wouldn’t be able to finish off the rest with the morning almost around the corner.

He had killed 8 people this night. The Captain had already started to regret making the promise to this incarnation of evil. The cleaning team, the Vultures, had also decided to lodge a formal complaint to the family about making them overwork.

They couldn’t take even a moment of rest the whole night. They hadn’t even finished cleaning one place when Soren messaged them about the other one. Cleaning a body took much more time than killing one; they wanted to shout this at Soren.

They had stayed up all night cleaning after Soren; they were also a little surprised as they couldn’t keep up with Soren many times which increased the risk of exposing the body and yet there was no news about the incident. It was like someone had suppressed the news.

They didn’t know about Soren’s deal with the Captain so, they could only form their own conjectures.

………..

Soren woke up late in the afternoon the next day. He was dead tired from all the killings last night so he had slept till late in the afternoon. He was slowly getting used to this kind of mission but it still took a toll on him to kill 8 people one after another in only one night.

He hadn’t completed all the missions and still had some of them left. He guessed that the Vultures and the Captain must have been pissed off from the continuous killings last night so he decided to give them a rest for tonight; he also needed one.

He wanted to confirm the missions that he had already completed and see if he could take on some more so he went out after cleaning up and then headed to the Liston Family Mansion.