Moving past the dark streets and broken houses, I finally reached a multistory apartment building.
Walking inside, past the people lying passed out in the hallways, I soon reached my room.
Entering inside, I quickly locked my door shut. In front of me was a small room with a single mattress and a wardrobe in the corner.
Sighing, I stepped over the empty liquor bottles and collapsed on the mattress. My body was too exhausted to do anything.
Lying on the mattress for a couple of minutes, I forced myself to get up and take a shower outside in the communal bathroom. I then changed into some fresh clothes. Thankfully, Siv had only used poison; otherwise, taking care of wounds would have been a real chore.
I had enough food stacked in the room, so I spent the next couple of days inside. Resting, reorganizing my memories and most importantly making the plans for future.
I needed to get strong, and I wasn't an idiot to believe that my presence wasn't going to affect the plot; Roye Valdrin was supposed to die yesterday, after all. Still, going too far to mess with the plot would completely obliterate all of my advantages.
Which is why I had come up with a plan. I had only read the first half of the first book and had no idea what the rest of the story was going to be. Herein lay my plan.
In the world of Vaeloria, once a small percentage of people reached the age of sixteen, they had a small chance of awakening mana. From there, they could do a basic bloodline transfusion ritual and gain the bloodline of one of the many monsters roaming the earth.
These bloodlines were separated into several tiers, from one star to five star, depending on the strength of the creature the bloodline belonged to.
According to the ancient texts, such people were referred to as tainted, Though the alliance called them Arcanists.
'Soren Vylar' the main character of Echoes of the Fallen had to manage to acquire an unknown bloodline, whose couldn't be deciphered.
Soren is just a commoner who hunts low-level beasts in the expanse to make ends meet. During one of his expeditions, he accidentally stumbles upon an ancient temple, from where he inherits the bloodline.
Of course, the stronger the creature whose bloodline you inherit, the stronger its remnant will be. In the story, Soren struggled with the remnant will taking over; his behavior would sometimes change, he gained weird habits, and there were also constant nightmares and visions.
All in all, it was a terrible deal. What was worse was that I was planning to cash in on something similar.
There were two reasons, the first being that I needed every last bit of power I could get. Second, Soren wasn't the only one with a similar core bloodline. And I didn't know whose side those people were on.
In the second half of the book, some 'Tainted' discovered an ancient temple near the north of the scattered sea.
A temple very similar to what Soren had found.
Those idiots ended up awakening the dead body of a slumbering necromancer, and what happened after that was brutal.
This was almost a year from now, during the second semester at the academy. The only reason they had been able to do so was that by then the wards surrounding the temple had been shattered for some reason.
This made me the perfect person to raid his temple right now. During the chapters where those idiots awakened his slumbering body, it was revealed that only someone who hadn't been told about the temple but still knew about it could find it.
The entire thing was paradoxical, and perhaps that was the point; from what I had read, these kinds of loopholes were added to advanced wards in order to strengthen them.
Still, whatever the reason might have been, I had coincidentally managed to fill in all the criteria to find that place.
I just had to go there and stab the thing in the chest before it could awaken. Not going after such an opportunity would be total stupidity.
And so I began preparing, my mind going through overdrive, remembering every single detail I could, whether it was from the book or my new memories.
Two days later I exited my room out into the hallways and left the apartment complex. I needed to buy some things if I was going to journey out into the expanse.
Leaving the building, I cautiously made my way toward the inner parts of the undercity.
There I entered a run down shop, only to be immediately greeted by the old man sitting behind the counter.
"Well, well, if it isn't the young lord. Surprised to see you are still alive."
"I am here to buy some stuff." I handed Milo the list. "Also, can I borrow a spatial storage card?"
Milo snatched the list from my hands and began reading it, scratching his bald head at the same time.
"That's a curious list you got there. Do you even know how to do the ritual?"
Of course I did, I had seen it first hand through Roye's memories and read about it in extensive detail in the book.
"Just prepare the materials and add in your best beast-repellent gear. The kind that can work for a couple of days."
"Beast repellent doesn't work on stronger beasts, boy." Milo got up from his seat."Twelve thousand, not a single credit less."
"Twelve thousand? You-" I almost cursed out loud.
"Bloodline Transfusion materials are illegal to sell to unregistered individuals boy, especially to dead ones." He pointed at the face-changing ring on my hand.
Bastard, I cursed inwardly and transferred him the credits, reducing the sum total in my bank account to a little over six thousand.
Seeing the credit transfer, Milo smiled in satisfaction before looking at me.
"Don't make that face, boy; if I was really that bad, I would have already sold you out."
"What do you mean?"
"Word on the street is some former noble kid hiding in dregs. People have started looking for him, from the noble houses to the local street gangs; everyone wants a piece of him. Let me tell you, that kid would be worth a lot more than some measly twelve thousand credits."
People had started looking for me, that was bad. I wanted to ask more but Milo had already begun packing my stuff. Plus I highly doubted he was going to give me anymore information for free.
I needed to hurry up initially I had planned to leave tomorrow, but perhaps it wouldn't be a bad idea to leave right now.
Quickly packaging my stuff into a spatial storage card, which I had to pay an extra three thousand for. I exited the shop and made my way out of the city.
Exiting the undercity, I walked to the main gate and showed my fake ID to the guards. From there, I walked on foot until I reached a sufficient distance. There, I took out the spatial storage card and quickly changed it into light armor.
I then applied some Beast repellent all over my body. All living beings had mana inside them, as one became an arcanist, this mana inside them grew as well. That's why things like Mana repellent were very useful. Although I didn't work on stronger monsters, it erased your mana signature enough to not be noticed by the weaker ones.
And if all went according to the plan, then I wouldn't encounter a stronger beast anyway.
Reaching out into the spatial storage I took out a map. This thing was supposed to display the expanse from the city all the way to the shattered seas.
Drawn on it were several areas that had been researched and deemed too dangerous for the non arcanists to go to. Although I had to take a lot more detours, if this thing was as good as it claimed, then I wouldn't be seeing any of the stronger beasts in the upcoming days.
Steeling myself, I began my journey. Trekking through the forests. Fortunately, luck was on my side; the areas I had chosen to go through were predominantly occupied by the Gloomstags, who hibernated during this part of the year. With them out of the picture, all I encountered were weaker monsters who would usually not notice me. Those who did, I was able to dispatch with the help of my old rune glove.
A rune glove was a handy device used by the non-awakened who hadn't had a Bloodline Transfusion but could still control mana. This thing had three spells engraved on it. A mana bullet spell, a silence spell, and a low-tier invisibility spell. All in all, with my current mana capacity, I was able to use it three times per day, which was more than enough for my needs.
Psst, hey... I’m not a thief or anything, but if you accidentally dropped a Power Stone, I’d... uh, totally pick it up for you. Just saying
It took me an entire week of trekking to finally reach my destination. In front of me laid the shattered sea, in all its glory. Huge waves rose in the air, hiding dangerous nightmarish creatures underneath its depth. Even an experienced arcanist would feel afraid of diving into its depths.
I was going to traverse the sea, but thankfully, not on my own.
Right now, my ride wasn't here. But it would be in three days, a day after the full moon.
I just had to wait until then. I quickly set up my tent in a safe and hidden location. I was currently using every speck of information held deep in Roye's mind.
The next three days were uneventful. Given how my tent was set up under a large rock hidden away from prying beasts, coupled with the beast repellent spray I had been using.
My ride came after three days. In the distance, I could see a large ship passing through the shoreline. On the ship were tens of rock statues, all moving in a coordinated way, rowing the ship forward.
"There it is." I sighed in relief. I had known about the existence of the ghost ship from the book, but it was Roye's memories that had told me when it was going to pass by the coast of the shattered sea.
"At least this guy was good at gathering information." Musing to myself, I packed my bag and began sprinting. The ghost wasn't going to dock on the shore for long, and I needed to get on it before it could leave.
Sneaking up the ghost ship, I climbed up a ladder behind it and climbed up. In front of me stood several rock statues dressed in armor, standing straight with weapons in their hands.
Taking a deep breath I started walking towards a corner in the back of the ship. The rock statues didn't move, standing in place. Before long, the ship started moving forward, deep into the sea.
This was only one of the ships that traversed the scattered sea. Even in the novel, they didn't know much about these ships; all they knew was that the statues didn't attack anyone unless they showed hostility.
There were many in the alliance who used these ships for transportation across the sea. That's why their routes have been very carefully studied and drawn on a map. One of which I was holding in my hands.
If this was correct, we should reach our destination in eight days. Letting out a sigh, I jammed the map inside the spatial storage and took out some bread. Now, all I had to do was wait and pray that our boat wouldn't sink on the way.
---
Passing these eight days all alone was an excruciating experience. All alone, sitting on the back of the ship, trying my best to protect myself from the storms, the rain and making sure I didn't fall down in the ocean.
The nightmare finally came to an end when I begun seeing the outline of a large mountain in the distance.
"Oh, thank God." I let out a deep breath and began collecting my stuff, putting everything in the spatial storage. I then took out another piece of bread and began eating it. Who knew when I would get the time to eat once I left this ship?
The ship soon docked, not very far from the large mountain. I quickly climbed down from the back of the ship. Once on land, I took out an entire can of beast repellent and sprayed it over my body.
Although I had done my research about the area near the shattered sea, this place, the Doomspire summit, was still a relatively unknown place for humanity. Even after all my knowledge from the novel and my research, I couldn't be sure I would run into something terrible.
Steeling myself and thanking the gods, I began my march towards the mountain.
I didn't knew the exact location of where the temple was located, but if the novel was correct about the wards then I wouldn't need to.
And I was correct. After half a day of trekking through the forest towards the mountain, I came face to face with a stone door hanging in the middle of a field.
The wards must have realized I had fulfilled the conditions to enter the temple. Taking a deep breath to ready myself, I climbed up and walked into the door.
At once, my surroundings distorted, and I found myself standing in the middle of a hall. The moment I arrived, torches around the place lit up to reveal a room filled with runes. In the back of the room was a man tied in chains, his hands raised up towards the ceiling.
"What is this?" I couldn't help but stumble. I should have teleported inside a hallway that would have led to a day-long exploration before I reached this place. Was there something wrong with the wards, not to mention the body?
I cautiously moved towards the chained up man in the back. Even this was different, the necromancer should have been lying cozily in a grave, not chained up like a dog. The chains binding the man all had strange engravings marred on them.
At least he was the same necromancer in the novel. With eyes shut as if he was in deep slumber, coupled with hollowed bones and ash white skin.
Whatever the reasons behind these changes were, they didn't change anything; the fact was that he was chained up and being served to me on a silver platter. I wasn't going to stand here and wait for him to wake up.
Taking out my rune glove, I equipped it with the mana bullet spell. I pressed my hand against the man's head, and, taking one last final breath, I fired.
BAM!!!
The mana bullet struck his head at incredible speed but failed to penetrate through his brain. The man's eyelid shook before returning back to his previous comatose state.
This was fine; I had expected this. I had brought tons of mana crystal for this very occasion. Loading up the glove, I fired once again and then again and again.
Piercing sound echoed through the room, as little by little, the man's spell began to drill through his head. Every time that would happen, the man's eyelids would move a bit before returning back to normal. Blood splattered everywhere as a hole appeared in the center of the man's head.
It was finally, after my thirtieth shot, the bullet flew forward and managed to penetrate through the man's head. The man's head flew backward with a jerk. His already slumbering body went limp.
As if confirming his death, the chains around him loosened, falling down on the ground, along with the man.
Me: I’m totally cool.
Also me: holding a ‘Will Write for Power Stones’ sign in the rain.'
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