Stygian Mage

The sun had already set, making the environment colder and pleasant. The Captain and Soren both kept observing each other in that room.

“Mr. Soren.” The Captain broke the silence.

He continued, “I am sure you are very tired but it would be better if we finish this conversation now. It will take some time so would you like to drink something while we continue.”

“I am fine. Thank you for asking.” Soren replied.

“Ok. As you wish. So I am going to brief you on some common knowledge of our world and help you so that you can live a stable life here. You can call it a tradition, a rule or common courtesy. We do it for all ‘Travelers’ that come into our world. Some come from a world containing mana and knows all of this common stuff but many are like you who are completely new to this.”

The captain then opened a file and started writing something.

He looked at Soren again and said, “Since you arrived in a forest you must not have met any intelligent being yet I suppose. Let me begin then: This world we are in right now is called ‘Astara’. Since it is a Major World, it contains ‘Mana’ in high concentration. As for what mana is; you can think of it as the pure energy of the world. Ages ago intelligent beings started developing different methods to bend the mana to their will. We have advanced quite far on that path and are still moving forward.”

The captain took a sip from the glass of water placed on his table and continued again.

“Since then, multiple methods have been developed but they all share one common thing; they all focus on developing the soul. In simple terms; a soul is like a container, it is used to process and store the mana. But not all beings have the ability to bend mana to their will.”

Saying till here, the captain looked at Soren, checking his expression.

Betraying his expectation though, Soren was completely calm.

Since arriving here yesterday, Soren had seen many things. He had already formed his own speculation which was almost the same as reality.

Praising Soren for his calm attitude inwardly, the captain continued, “At a young age, people go through the process of initiation and try to materialize their ‘Soul Form’. If they fail; they remain ordinary, if they succeed; they become extraordinary. Generally, ‘Travelers’ have high affinity with mana and have a high rate of success but as people grow it becomes harder and harder to succeed in the initiation process. Looking at you….your age has already crossed the upper limit for natural initiation.”

Soren shivered on hearing the captain’s last sentence. He felt like he was defeated before the fight even began.

This time the captain could easily see the emotions on Soren’s face.

He smirked in his mind and continued, “Different people materialize different Soul Form; it depends on their personality, choices and other stuff related to their talent. You can think of Soul Form as a system used to utilize mana efficiently. Every ‘Soul Form’ comes with some kind of enhancements. It can be increased strength, increased agility, overall physique strengthening, enhanced spellcasting or some kind of unique talent.”

“There is no way to categorize every Soul Form as there are too many variations but it can be roughly organized into two types: Inanimate and Animate. Basically, Soul Forms that takes the form of inanimate objects like weapons, tools, books, etc. comes under ‘Inanimate’ and the Soul Form that materializes as some beasts, animals or some living being comes under ‘Animate’.”

The captain continued explaining completely ignoring what Soren might be feeling right now.

“After they succeed in the initiation process, they activate their Bloodline Talent. Bloodline is something like an innate talent. It is not known why but all ‘Travelers’ generally have a high-grade bloodline. Although you also might have some bloodline, you cannot use it unless you complete the initiation process. Some people might wake up their bloodline talent on their own but are unable to use it without going through the Initiation process. You can find further details afterward. I don’t want to overload you with information.”

Soren had already calmed down from the initial shock by now. He started analyzing the info he had; he went through everything in his mind.

The captain had already stopped speaking and was now staring at Soren’s face waiting for Soren to speak up.

After a while, Soren looked at the captain and said, “Captain, can you please tell me if someone, who has already passed the upper age limit, has any way to move forward?”

The captain smiled on hearing the question as if already expecting it.

“There is a way but I should warn you; it is not that easy.”

Captain took out a file from his drawer and opened to a certain page. A picture of a crystal was displayed on that.

Amazingly, the crystal was the same one that Soren had obtained from the red-haired man.

The captain showed the file to Soren and said, “This is called Initiation Stone; it contains highly concentrated mana which can be used to forcibly tear a part of your soul. The torn part of the soul then materializes into Soul Form. But heed my words; playing with soul is very dangerous. The reason why the initiation process is more likely to succeed on younger kids is that they have an immature soul. It makes it easy for their soul to divide and materialize. The rate of success with this stone is not that high; finding the stone in itself is almost an impossible job. It was sold in our town a few days ago but that was a very rare situation. I will not discourage you though; you can try to look if you want.”

Soren looked at captain while completely concentrating on his words. His heart, though, was beating excitedly because….he already had this stone.

Regardless of the danger, he had already decided to use the Initiation Stone. Without that he could not get stronger and without getting stronger, he could not achieve anything and will end up becoming an ordinary person. He did not want that; he would rather risk his life to achieve strength than to live a life as a weak person.

The captain then went on to explain some common stuff that all people would know. After the conversation was over he closed the file in front of him.

He looked at Soren and said, “We are done here. Here are some mana crystals to get you started. You can rest for now and start thinking about what you are going to do in the future. If you want to do any job you can look for me; I will recommend you some good ones. You can also opt to join Hunter’s Association and try to become a Hunter. You can get more info about that in the association.”

He took out a black colored pouch and handed it to Soren.

Soren received the pouch and kept it in his trousers pocket. The captain then called a person and told him to take Soren to the hotel and help him settle down.

That person looked like he was in his early 30’s. He had brown hair and brown stubble. He was quite tall; about 185 centimeters or so.

Soren got up from the chair and said to the captain, “Thank you for your help, Captain.”

The captain nodded with a smile and replied, “I hope you have a good life, Mr. Soren.”

Soren then followed that person out of the barracks.

……..

The captain sat there on the chair watching the two men going out of the building. After he made sure they were gone he said, “Come in.”

A man in black clothes came in from the side door as he heard the captain’s voice. He bowed to the captain and stood in front of him silently.

The captain looked at him and asked in a low voice, “What did you find?”

The man in black replied respectfully, “From his expressions, it didn’t seem that he was lying and from his way of speaking, there is a high chance that he did come from another world. I also cast a one-time use ‘Scan’ spell but didn’t find anything on him. If he had something he must have hid it before coming to the town. I also didn’t detect any fluctuation of mana from him.”

“Do you want me to tail him, Sir?” He asked the captain.

The captain thought hard for a while and then spoke, “No, Leave him be. He is a Non-Initiator for sure if there was no mana fluctuation. Just keep an eye out for the Initiation Stone; don’t let him get it. A weapon is only useful if you are the one controlling it. It becomes dangerous if you let it go out of control. Notify your contacts and look for any buyers.”

The man in black smiled after hearing the captain’s orders, bowed respectfully again and said, “Yes Sir.” He turned and went out of the room. The captain sat in the room alone, lost in thought.

………

Coming out from the barracks Soren finally focused on the town.

He noticed that the roads were wide and solidly built. There were shops built around the road. It was night time right now but the town was shining brightly.

Some people were walking along the sideway, some were shopping in the shops. Soren could see many horse carts driving on the road.

Amazingly, Soren also spotted some people driving something that seemed like cars and motorbikes. Although there were only a few of them, he was still shocked to his core; there were many things he didn’t know about this world yet and he really wanted to explore it.

Soren and the other person walked on the sideway slowly moving towards their direction. The other person’s name was Claude. He was very friendly towards Soren and was continuously explaining about the shops to Soren. Wherever they would pass, he would give an explanation of that place to Soren.

Soren asked Claude the reason for something that was bugging him a little. He had seen horse carts moving in the town as well as some modern vehicles. He found it odd to see the two contrasting vehicles existing together but the answer he received was fairly simple; vehicles were expensive.

“Mana vehicles are quite expensive to buy and even more as it runs on mana crystals. So, many people prefer to just use horse carts as they are quite cheap and reliable.”

Claude took his time and explained to Soren about different things as they walked.

Soren looked around and felt that it was quite a lively town; he felt like he was on a tour.

Soren almost felt he was back in his homeworld. If not for some differences like horse carts, different species walking on the street etc., he really would have thought that he came back home.

Soon they turned right on a corner and moved about 20 meters, reaching their destination.

Claude stopped in front of a 7-floor building. The area was very quiet and had a clean surrounding. There were some buildings spread apart inconsistently.

There were trees growing in between some buildings and on the divider which divided the road. The hotel had a small garden and looked like a good place to live. After looking around for a bit, Soren went inside the building after Claude.

He looked around the inside of the hotel and noticed that it was not any different than the hotels he was used to from back home; they had a very similar feel.

Soren saw Claude standing in front of the reception desk talking to the girl standing behind and walked towards him.

He stood beside Claude and could hear him explaining to the reception girl about his situation. He soon saw the reception girl’s expression change.

She looked at him with eyes filled with astonishment. Her eyes were shining when she looked at Soren like he was some precious jewelry; she had been informed about Soren being a Traveler already.

Soren had to admit though that the girl was quite a beauty.

She had black long hair, tied in a pony-tail. She had a cute and round face but her body was very developed; a voluptuous beauty. Her curves were very impressive and could cause any healthy man to grow a hard wood in his pants.

She kept taking glances at Soren, checking out his face and body. Soren chose to ignore the girl and took the key that Claude gave him.

Claude also tried to ignore the girl and said, “If you don’t like the room, you can have it changed. I have to go now. You should rest properly for today. Let’s meet and talk tomorrow. Goodnight Soren, have a nice sleep.” He brought his right hand forward towards Soren.

Soren replied, shaking hands with Claude, “Goodnight Claude. Thank you for today. I really appreciate your help.”

Claude nodded then and walked out of the building. Soren also looked towards the reception girl and asked for direction.

She replied, “Your room is on the 3^rd flood, Sir. You can use the elevator on that side.”

She pointed her finger towards a direction. Soren was stunned upon hearing the reply and suddenly, as if he realized something, looked upwards. He had already seen this many times today but never gave it any thought.

He was staring at the light tube on the ceiling. Looking at the light he thought, “Electricity…they have electricity.” The girl noticed Soren looking at the light and realization hit her.

“It works on mana Mr. Soren. Mana is the basis of all the things you might notice from now on. It is the essence of the world itself. We harness its power and use it for our daily life needs.” She gave a short explanation to Soren.

Although it was a little hard for him accept everything at the face value, he still had to try.

Soren then nodded to her to show his appreciation and moved towards the direction she pointed at.

He was still thinking about what she said while moving. He soon reached the elevator door and pressed the call button.

So mana works like pure energy. Multipurpose…Even the vehicles used it as their fuel…

Soon the door opened and he entered the elevator; he then pressed the button which had 3 written on it. Moving up, he again fell into deep thought.

I didn’t realize this too before but the language here is completely different from mine yet I could understand it and even speak it. It is convenient for sure but still very weird...

The door opened and he got out. A long corridor stood in front of him. He moved forward and kept checking the room numbers. Soon he found his room on the right side.

“Room no. 308. This is it.” Standing in front of the room he said.

He then inserted the key and unlocked the door. Upon entering he saw a nice room with tiles looking floor.

The room was big; containing a small hall upon entering, a bedroom on the right and a bathroom attached to it.

There was also a balcony connected to the hall just opposite the main door. The hall and the bedroom were separated by a translucent curtain of cream color.

Soren looked around the room, checking everything. After doing that he took the water jug and poured himself a glass of water.

He held the glass and went out to the balcony. The view of the trees and the sparse buildings was very nice and refreshing for him.

Soren drank the water slowly, taking in the refreshing view. He stood there for a while watching the stars and the moon in the sky; they were not much different from his home.

After a while, he went in and closed the glass door of the balcony. He put the glass down on the table and sat on the sofa to relax.

He had already ordered for food which was soon delivered to his room. He quickly ate the delicious food with big mouthfuls; he had not eaten anything for a very long time now.

He had also thrown those berries away as he had already reached the town and didn’t need them anymore.

He then cleaned himself up and got ready to go to bed.

He was already very tired from all the stuff since yesterday so he just lay down on the bed and fell asleep very soon.

He dreamt of the fight that happened last night, he dreamt of himself being torn apart and eaten by that beast.

He woke from the nightmare in the middle of the night; completely drenched in sweat. After drinking some water, he again went back to bed. This time he slept peacefully.

……….

Sun rose from the horizon, the sound of birds chirping could be heard. Soren slowly woke up and opened his eyes.

He got up from the bed and stretched his body. He then cleaned up quickly and got ready to head out to meet Claude; he wore the same clothes as yesterday.

He went down the elevator and headed to the outside of the hotel. While going out he saw that there was a man standing at the reception desk now. As Soren looked towards him, he slightly bowed and greeted Soren. Soren nodded and greeted him back as he went out the door.

He saw Claude soon after exiting the door. They greeted each other and got ready to head out.