Stygian Mage

Soren slowly walked on the street with his hands in his pocket. He kept looking around, sometimes observing other people, sometimes checking out the shops. He moved towards the same breakfast café he has been eating regularly.

………

After eating his fill, he just sat on the window side table; staring out the window.

A while after he got up, he paid his bill and headed towards the Hunter’s Association.

He always stayed cautious and checked a few times if someone was following him before moving forward.

He had never trusted the captain and his men to just leave him alone. He already knew that the bloodline that Travelers have is generally quite a high level.

That’s the reason the red-haired man had attacked him. He was not so naïve that he would believe the others would help him with no condition whatsoever.

For that reason, he wanted to hide the fact that he had become an Initiator, but it was not so easy to do. The only way to do so was to leave this town and afterward hide his identity as a Traveler.

Right now though, he was extremely weak and was a very sweet prey.

He didn’t know how the other Travelers survived this phase but he knew that if other people knew about him, the first thing they would do was to kill him and take his bloodline.

Actually, Soren didn’t know one fact: A bloodline could only be taken or given when it is in an un-awakened state. After the bloodline awakens, it becomes impossible for one to transfer it.

But it didn’t mean the Travelers were completely safe after they awakened their bloodline. There were many who were willing to try to transfer the awakened bloodline or they simply wanted to kill the future predator in its infancy.

………

Soren walked slowly on the street. The slightly warm wind was blowing against his face; his black hair flowing in the wind.

He walked along and soon reached a large building: There was a huge signboard outside. A picture of an arrow was printed on it; it was the Hunter’s Association insignia.

Soren looked at the signboard and then entered the building.

He witnessed a huge lobby like area, as soon as he entered. Comfortable looking sofas were on the right side; most probably for resting and waiting.

In the front, he saw a huge desk in a crescent moon shape which seemed to be the main counter desk. There were two doors on both, right and left, end of the desk.

Soren saw around 5 people sitting behind the desk. He noticed that the 5 people were not of the same species. He saw a girl with blonde hair and pointy ears, another girl with red scales on her face and red hair.

He also saw a girl with fluffy ears which looked like dog ears. She also had a tail which would peek out of the desk from time to time.

There was also a beautiful human girl with black long hair.

On the far left, he saw a large man; taller than most people even when sitting.

People of different species were standing or sitting around in the hall. He also saw a huge screen on the left which almost covered the whole wall.

There were multiple jobs displayed on the screen with some details. It displayed some urgent jobs with some of the high paying ones.

There were also several small screen panels built just below that huge screen. Some people were standing in front of them, using it as a touchscreen.

Soren observed all of this and slowly walked towards the desk: He went in front of the human girl.

She had beautiful and fair skin; her lips were glossy light pink, she had long black hair that fell down on her shoulders like silk.

As Soren went in front of her, she raised her eyes and looked at him. When the girl looked at him with those beautiful brown eyes, his heart almost skipped a beat.

Although Soren had no time for romance right now, he was after all a healthy young man.

He got slightly flustered but was soon able to calm himself down. Unwavering, he looked back into those eyes.

Soren himself would be considered quite handsome: He had dark hair and dark eyes that were like a deep and dark abyss, able to suck anyone in.

The girl was a little surprised to see Soren calm himself down so soon. She observed his face properly and checked him out without being too obvious.

She bowed her head slightly and said in a polite tone, “Welcome to Hunter’s Association. My name is Cecilia. How may I help you?”

Soren nodded and replied, “Hello, My name is Soren. I would like to register.”

Cecilia smiled and said while taking out a form, “Of course. Please fill out this form. If you don’t understand something, please ask me.”

Soren took the form and borrowed a pen. He then went and sat on the sofa on the right. After sitting comfortably, he started filling out the form.

………

There were not many questions. It only asked for ‘Name, Age, Sex, Job preference’ like small details.

So, Soren soon reached the question about being ‘Initiator’ or ‘Non-Initiator’. He mulled over the question for a while but finally decided to tick the Non-Initiator box.

He finally finished the form and went to the counter to submit it. When he reached there he asked Cecilia, “I have a few questions before I submit this.”

Cecilia replied, “Please ask.”

“Does the Hunter’s Association protect their Hunter’s privacy?”

“That is one of our strong points. We never hand out our Hunter’s personal information to anyone no matter what; we are a standalone entity. We are not affiliated with any empire or kingdom so we don’t have any obligation to follow their command. Please rest assured; your private information is absolutely safe with us.”

Soren nodded and asked again, “Can we change our information in the future if we want to.”

Cecilia patiently replied again, “Yes. You can change any information about you at any of our branches. We provide some special privileges to the Initiators, so people generally change their status if they are able to somehow become an Initiator after registering here.”

Soren was slightly relieved to hear her answers. Although he did not believe that they would protect his privacy at any cost, he was at least sure that they would not release it very easily.

After asking some more small details, he submitted the form.

Cecilia checked the form but got slightly disappointed when she saw the Non-Initiator box checked.

But her expression remained the same polite one throughout the whole process. She soon finished registering him in the system and gave him a yellow colored card, the size of his palm.

“This is your Hunter I.D. You can use it as an identity proof anywhere.” Then she took out a white card which looked like a polished marble.

She again said, “This is a mana card. It is issued to our Hunters after they register here. You can use the panels there to add or remove mana crystal from this card. You can also take or issue any jobs you want from those panels.”

He took both cards and thanked her. He then went to an empty small panel on the left side of the hall and inserted his Hunter’s I.D in the slot.

Soren gained access to the interface as soon as he inserted his Hunter’s I.D; there were a few options displayed on the screen.

He opened the job list and saw a bunch of jobs displayed. The jobs were divided according to the Cultivation level of the Initiators.

There was also a section for the Non-Initiators: Only Non-Initiators section was accessible by Soren for now.

He also saw options to issue a job.

Checking everything, he finally went to the Currency section. He selected the option to deposit mana crystal into the mana card.

He then inserted the mana card into the slot and after that, he started inserting the mana crystals in the slot made for them, one by one.

He deposited all the mana crystal he had into the mana card. When he took out the card he could feel the mana coming off from it.

He did not take any job for now as he still had things to do. After finishing everything, he went out of the building.

………

He walked at a normal pace looking like he was on an afternoon stroll. Taking an ‘afternoon stroll’, he walked towards the market area.

He walked into a clothes shop and after a while, he came out. This time though, he was wearing a black colored long jacket.

His head was covered with the hood and he had stretched the turtleneck t-shirt to cover half his face.

Although it could not be called a perfect disguise, it was still something.

Most of all, there were many people walking there who hid their identity so he didn’t stand out much. After making sure no one was following him, he walked towards the inner area of the market.

He soon headed towards the largest building in that area; that building’s name was ‘Myriad Items’. It was the all-purpose shop that Claude talked about. Soren opened the gate and entered.

As soon as he entered, an old man saw him and came to greet Soren respectfully.

“Welcome to our shop. Would you like me to help you with something or would you prefer looking around on your own?” He said politely. He was not fazed by Soren’s appearance as he was used to seeing this; people disguising themselves.

Soren nodded and said in a hoarse voice, “Yeah, I would like some help.”

Soren was completely a newbie at this so he didn’t hesitate to ask for help. The shopkeeper then asked Soren about the stuff he would like to buy.

“Show me the Spell Vessels you have here.”

“Of course” The shopkeeper looked at Soren and replied humbly.

They both walked towards the nearest counter while talking.

Soren stopped after reaching the counter and suddenly thought of something. He then looked at the old man and said, “Do you have an empty mana crystal?”

The shopkeeper raised his eyebrows at Soren’s words but soon took out an empty mana crystal and handed them to Soren politely.

The reason Soren asked for an empty mana crystal was that he wanted to find out his attribute before buying the Spell Vessels.

………

Mana crystals were basically stones or crystals that were filled with mana. Mostly mana crystals occurred naturally but there were some ways to make mana crystals artificially.

Through some process, empty mana stones were created and filled with mana manually which turned them into mana crystal.

Both types of crystals [artificial or natural] were basically the same, without any difference.

But here came another feature of an empty mana crystal: Instead of filling those empty crystals by pure mana from the atmosphere, if someone filled those crystals with their own mana and absorbed them again—they could find their attribute.

By absorbing their own mana, which gained different effects depending on the element, they could easily find out about their attribute.

Soren held the empty and dull transparent crystal in hand and focused on it.

He slowly released his mana and started filling the crystal.

Slowly the crystal started turning gray and before long, it turned completely black and was ice cold to touch.

Black mist could be seen flowing inside that mana crystal. It also gave off a chilling air and its surface looked like it was made of ice.

After he finished filling it, he started to absorb it back. The mana from the crystals was easy to absorb and didn’t need any kind of cultivation technique.

Although Soren was absorbing the mana, he already had an idea of what his attribute was going to be. Soon, he finished absorbing the mana and the crystal turned to dust with a poof!

Soren opened his status and took a look.

Status: Healthy
Rank 0: Layer 2 [0%]
Name: Soren Farrow	Species: Human	Attribute: Darkness & Ice
Health: 100%	Stamina: 78%	Mana: 80%
Strength: 0.90	Agility: 1.20	Vitality: 1.66
Intelligence: 3.20	Spirit: 2.80	Resistance: 1.11

 

As he had thought, it was ‘Darkness’ and ‘Ice’; he had felt it when he was filling the crystal.

The status was not visible to any other person so the shopkeeper waited for Soren to finish. Soren soon closed the screen and again brought his attention towards the shopkeeper.