Stygian Mage

“Old man, now show me the Spell Vessels you have,” Soren asked the shopkeeper.

Shopkeeper broke out of his daze after hearing Soren’s words.  

“Ah! Yes. Here. This is the list. You can choose which ones you want.” The shopkeeper handed a transparent glass, twice the size of an adult’s palm, to Soren.

Soren took it and supplied mana into it. The glass suddenly lit up and a bunch of words started showing up.

It worked just like a touchscreen from his homeworld. He looked through the list one by one; there were spells divided according to the level of the user.

Soren opened the list for Rank 0 spells and checked out some of the common spells listed there.

He saw some basic spells like Fireball, Waterball, Wind blade etc. They all had a cost of 3 low-grade mana crystals. He skipped all of that and used the filter for Darkness and Ice attribute.

Soon, the spells were displayed.

[Ice Arrow: Forms an arrow of ice and pierces the target. The user can make it explode by using more mana. Limit – 7 uses. Cost – 3 crystals.]

[Freeze: Freezes the target for a certain duration (depends on the user’s mana); Can be stacked to increase the effect. Limit – 8 uses. Cost – 3 crystals.]

[Cold Touch: Freezes whatever the user touches. Inflicts damage on the user too if the affinity to ice element is low. Limit – 4 uses. Cost – 5 crystals.]

[Dark Bolt: Forms a bolt of darkness and fires at the target; Does withering damage. Limit – 5 uses. Cost – 8 crystals.]

[Acid Splash: Fires a blob of acid at the target; corrodes the target upon contact. Limit – 6 uses. Cost – 7 crystals.]

[Shadow Chain: Pierces and binds the target. Effective time depends on the user’s mana. Limit – 4 uses. Cost – 9 crystals.]

Soren looked at a few of them and saw that they all cost less than 10 crystals. He went through the spells one by one and finally made his decision.

He selected the spells he wanted and gave the screen back to the shopkeeper. The old shopkeeper checked the selected list and soon took out four small wooden boxes.

He opened them and showed to Soren; there were 2 white tokens and 2 gray tokens. They were sitting on a soft cloth.

But when Soren saw them, he was stunned. He quickly regained his composure though and became normal the next second. He then nodded to the shopkeeper, closed the boxes and kept them inside his jacket’s inner pocket.

Next, he asked the shopkeeper and bought a complete survival kit which came with a water bottle, a survival knife, a rope, a first aid kit and some dried ration packed in a backpack.

He also bought a few pairs of cheap clothes and shoes.

After buying everything, he was left with only 5 mana crystals.  

He then went out of the store building and wandered around the market.

……

After a while, he went into a dark alley, removed his disguise, and then went back to his hotel.

But as he was about to open the hotel gate, he heard a voice.

“Are you Soren Farrow?” A high pitched and arrogant voice rang in Soren’s ear.

As he turned around, he noticed that the owner of the voice was a young lady, looked to be in her early 20’s. She was wearing a red colored one-piece dress with a flowing skirt. The clothes were very revealing which intensified her already sexy and provocative figure. She had a mix of black and red hair which complemented her already beautiful figure.

Even though she had a haughty expression on her face, it only helped in accentuating her beauty.

Soren raised his eyebrows upon looking at her and said, “Who is asking?”

Upon hearing Soren’s blunt reply, the girl was stunned. This was the first time anyone had talked so bluntly to her. She had been a princess ever since she was born. Everyone around her always bowed down to her politely and agreed to whatever she said regardless of what it was.

But after considering that Soren hadn’t been in that town for long and didn’t know many things, she considered to let it go and forgive him for his impudence and stupidity.

She again recovered back to her haughty expression and said, “I am Denise Liston. My father is Ervin Liston. I came here personally to invite you to a dinner party tomorrow night; come to the Liston family villa at 7 pm, my father wants to discuss something with you.“

After saying what she wanted to say, she turned and left.

…….

Soren was flabbergasted at this sudden incident. He was not even given a chance to either accept or deny. He just stood there and tried to understand what had just happened.

After a few seconds, he shook his head and walked into the hotel. He didn’t have time to waste on stupid things like that so he just went to his room and closed the door.

He sat down on his bed and took out the stuff he bought today. He put aside his survival kit for now and took out the four wooden boxes.

Then he took out the gray token that he had found on the bandit.

It looked exactly like the gray token he bought today; He was very surprised and happy at the time. Though upon further examination, he found that the gray token he bought today looked more polished and perfect.

The gray token from the bandit looked more like a rough stone. A sudden realization hit upon Soren which raised his heartbeat to twice its normal rate.

Soren knew what the rough token meant. He had already gathered enough information that he didn’t have enough trouble recognizing it.

He excitedly looked at the rough gray token as he thought of what he had read in the library.

The gray token was a Natural Spell Vessel; more so of the Darkness attribute.

……

It took quite an effort for Soren to calm his heart down. He then put that gray token aside for a bit.

It was time to use the Spell Vessels.

He called out his Stygian Grimoire. Then he picked up one of the white tokens, bit his finger and dropped his blood on it. It was a simple procedure which most of the people knew already so he didn’t have any trouble finding out about it.

The blood suddenly covered the token and soon the whole thing disintegrated and turned into red mist; entering the black book. It didn’t take long to complete the process. Soren didn’t feel any change except for the fact that he now had some knowledge about that spell and could try to cast it.

Soren flipped the first page of the Grimoire and found a strange diagram drawn on it. There were also some characters written at the bottom of the page.

He then saw a message.

[Spell Learned: Ice Arrow [7/7]. Mana cost – Average.]

He grinned happily upon seeing the message.

This was the first spell he had learned. He could finally be called a proper Initiator and a Spellcaster now.

He didn’t wait at all as he couldn’t contain his excitement and did the same to the other tokens.

But he left the Natural Spell Vessel aside for now.

Bunch of messages flashed in front of him as he filled the Grimoire pages.

[Spell Learned: Cold Touch [4/4]. Mana cost – High.]

[Spell Learned: Acid Splash [6/6]. Mana cost – Average.]

[Spell Learned: Shadow Chain [4/4]. Mana cost – High.]

After adding all the spells, he looked at the Stygian Grimoire excitedly.

He turned his head and then looked at the last gray token.

He picked it up and started the same process again. Soon the blood covered the gray token but this time the token turned into black fog.

There were creepy faces; laughing, crying and wriggling around in that fog.

Soon the black fog rushed towards the Grimoire and entered it. This black fog occupied the last page left in the book.

When the fog entered the book, Soren suddenly felt a cold darkness creeping into his soul. He heard wails and cries of different souls ringing in his ears.

He was startled at the sudden change but soon he found something weird. This dark and cold feeling that could make anyone despair and freeze anyone’s soul, made him feel like he was in a warm embrace of a mother.

The wails and cries of the souls felt like sweet songs to his ears; He felt extremely comfortable.

He closed his eyes and just sat there, bathing in the comfortable feeling of the wailing souls and cold darkness.

……

An Initiator’s personality was often influenced by the element they had an affinity towards. Or it could be said that their real personality was what gave them their affinity.

After a while, he slowly opened his eyes. His eyes were completely dark and cold.

Isaac, do a manual scan and check for any irregularities.

“Yes, Master. Starting manual scan….” Isaac replied in Soren’s mind.

“…….”

“No irregularities found in your body, Master.” Isaac soon replied again.

Soren was slightly relieved upon hearing Isaac’s answer. He then focused all his attention on the newly gained spell.

He was eagerly anticipating the result.

He opened his Grimoire and flipped to the last page. He saw a dark magic circle drawn on the top half of the page.

There were souls flying around that circle with different expressions. Some were laughing, some crying. Some were sad, some were angry. He gently touched the page with his fingers, trying to feel the spell.

He felt like he was looking at a sea of blood when he concentrated on the spell. He closed his eyes again and delved into the feeling. He then saw skeletons swimming in that blood sea with souls flying around with their shrill wails ringing into his ears.

It was a scene of carnage which would make even an experienced person fall into despair.

But Soren only felt one thing: Comfortable.

He broke out of his trance after a while and saw the message had received.

[Spell Learned: Create Undead - Low Tier [2/3]. Mana cost – Very High.]

The corner of his mouth curved upwards in an excited manner.

He had an affinity with the Darkness attribute so had expected himself to be compatible with this kind of spell. Moreover, after finding out his affinity, he had hoped to find any spell like this.

Summoning spells were very important for Spellcasters; especially if they fought solo.

Soren was very happy to see this spell, as it had solved one of his biggest problems.  

But, he soon frowned upon seeing the ‘Very High’ mana cost.

Isaac, explain.

“Master, the mana cost is relative to the user who is using the spell; it is not a fixed value. It changes according to the circumstances and other factors like your soul level. Once you upgrade your soul and mana reserve, the mana cost will change.” Isaac replied in an emotionless tone.

So, as my level goes up, the same spell would cost less.

Soren easily understood what Isaac was saying. He nodded and closed the message.

He then opened his status to check his spells.

Status: Healthy
Rank 0: Layer 2 [0%]
Name: Soren Farrow	Species: Human		Attribute: Darkness & Ice
Health: 100%	Stamina: 100%		Mana: 99%
Strength: 0.90	Agility: 1.20		Vitality: 1.66
Intelligence: 3.20	Spirit: 2.80		Resistance: 1.11
Spells:
Spell Vessels: 5/5		Innate Spells/Skills:
Ice Arrow [7/7] – Level 0/10.  Mana Cost – Average. ------------   Cold Touch [4/4] – Level 0/10.  Mana Cost – High. ------------   Acid Splash [6/6] – Level 0/10.  Mana Cost – Average. ------------   Shadow Chain [4/4] – Level 0/10.  Mana Cost – High. ------------   Create Undead – Low Tier [2/3] – Level 0/15.   Mana Cost – Very High. ------------

 

Soren noticed there was a level indicator beside every spell and asked Isaac.

“They are levels indicating spell mastery, Master. You can increase their level by increasing your understanding towards them. Completely mastered spells can be evolved or combined with other spells.” Isaac explained.

Soren nodded in understanding.

Soren could also see the spell description by focusing on any certain spell.

He focused his mind on the ‘Create Undead’ spell and soon saw a description.

“Create Undead—Low Tier: User can create low tier Undead – Skeleton Soldier, Rotten Zombie and Weak Wraith. Their ability depends on the user's 'Intelligence' stat. Their life span also depends on the user’s 'Intelligence' stat. The Undead creatures can remain in this realm according to the mana stored in them even if the connection with the user breaks, but they will stay completely inactive. Limit – [2/3].”

Soren looked at the limit and knew this Spell Vessel was a little bit damaged.

He put his palm on the page with the ‘Create Undead’ spell in his Stygian Grimoire and started sending mana in the dark magic circle. Slowly dark mist emerged from Soren’s palm and submerged into the circle. There were certain cracks on the circle which was not visible unless observed properly. The dark mana went into those cracks and slowly healed them.

Soon, Soren got a message.

[Create Undead—Low Tier Spell Vessel was repaired completely.]

Soren released a sigh of relief. This was the first time he had done this so he was afraid to do something wrong and break this precious Spell Vessel.

He was really excited about the spells and wanted to test his spells but had to kill this thought because his spells were not exactly environment-friendly and most importantly: he first had to understand them.

So leaving the test run for the future, he started his experiment with the Innate Spells.

Soren already had an idea on what to start with.

He sat on the bed cross-legged with hands near his lower abdomen; this was the only natural meditation position Soren could think of.

The Stygian Grimoire was floating in front of him. He slowly concentrated and tried to feel the mana flowing inside his body. Following the path of mana, he reached an area inside his head.

It was the nucleus of his brain: Soul Space.

What he saw there was a completely dark space devoid of any light. In the center area, there was a very small black sphere made of dark mist. The dark mist was quite sparse and loosely formed into a sphere.

Though both the sphere and space was deep black, they somehow created a contrast with each other.

In the center of that sphere, there was a complex rune which was covered by the mana mist.

The dark mist was the purified mana that he had absorbed using ‘Devour’ and the complex rune was the Core Matrix.

The dark space had a very cold and dark feel to it. Soren knew that feeling came from his affinity towards ‘Darkness’ and ‘Ice’.

There was nothing else in his soul space except for the black mana sphere. He looked into his soul space a little more and then opened his eyes.

He then lifted his palm slowly in front of him. He once again tried to feel the mana but this time he tried to control it.

Soon, the dark mist emerged out from his palm and fingers. Soren controlled that dark mist and tried to bend it.

He moved it around in his palm slowly.

He moved it, bent it, expanded it, compressed it, made different shapes etc. Slowly he started doing complicated shapes and also increased the distance and controlled the mana from a small distance.

Hours went by like this and the day turned dark.

Soren kept practicing like that continuously without stop; he still hadn’t stopped.

He kept doing complicated stuff using the mana and only took a rest when he felt his mana almost depleted. After a while, he started using mana as projectiles.

The mana projectiles by themselves were very weak and did no damage at all but he didn’t pay attention to the damage right now. He was fully focusing on just controlling it and bending it according to his will.

Once again, time passed by and soon it was midnight.

……..

Soren still sat on the bed practicing with the dark mist. His eyes had turned completely red by now. His hair had become messy and sweat dripped down from his chin, his breathing was also a little rough.

Soon he heard a voice in his mind.

“Master, you should stop for today and rest. Otherwise, you will only harm yourself.” Isaac said.

Soren’s mind suddenly cooled down upon hearing Isaac’s cold voice. He blinked a few times to ease the pain in his eyes.

He then took a deep breath and released the dark mist in his hand. Although he had improved quite a bit, he was still far from controlling the mana like his own limbs.

He was already dead tired so he just slept like that on his bed.