บท 42: Extraordinary Specimen

A popping sound resounded as it forced Andrew to open his eyes. Andrew instinctively lifted his head upwards as he saw a transparent projection above the battle arena.

[Andrew] vs [Jacob]

[Andrew won!]

[Reward: 10 credits]

[You will be warped back into your original location in 10 seconds!]

Andrew looked at the hovering projection with confusion.

'What are credits?' he tried to dig up any memory associated with this particular word, but nothing came up.

Then, Andrew looked at the burnt corpse one last time before scenery shifted in his eyes.

He returned into the cave, he was warped back in seated lotus position.

'I still have so much to learn!' Andrew heaved one last sigh as he stood up and headed towards training grounds. The recent battle was an eye opener to him as he decided to dive deeper into magic and learn all its encompassing fields.

Once he arrived there, he immediately went in Sethel's direction. As usual, the same old man was meditating near one of the facilities.

Like previous time, Sethel instantly opened his eyes once Andrew approached him.

'So my worth is getting higher' Andrew was amused as he did his best to suppress a mocking grin.

"What do you want?" Sethel indifferently spat out.

"I want information on all available facilities" Andrew said.

"Right now, you have access to 7 facilities including the previously permitted ones. The additional facilites are Array Association, Pill Palace, Spell Haven.

Remember, that those facilites operate throughout Demonic Abode, meaning that those facilities are merely the branches and if you want to enroll in any of those institutions you will need to pass special tests set by those factions, but it doesn't mean that you will lose your status as blood devil once you get accepted into them" Sethel explained.

"Then, what are the credits?" Andrew asked the second question.

"They are currency used in Demonic Abode. They can be considered contribution points too. You can exchange those credits practically for anything as long as you have sufficient status.

You don't have much to choose from anyways. You can at best purchase something basic from newly unlocked facilities" Sethel replied.

Andrew digested all this information, until he remembered about his burnt sleeve.

"Where can I buy self-repairing clothes?" Andrew asked.

Sethel furrowed his brows until he looked at Andrew half-burnt robes.

"At Array Association. With your status as class-1 blood devil you can acquire something similar as long as you have enough credits" Sethel replied.

After asking couple more questions, Andrew bowed as he first headed towards Spell Haven. From what Sethel told him, he could purchase blueprints for spells in Spell Haven.

Sethel pointed out that those were only blueprints and to get complete guide of the spell, Andrew would need higher status and even more absurd amount of credits, at least for current Andrew.

Andrew didn't know the hardships of learning spells from the blueprints only, so he assumed that with enough practise he could learn any spell. Oh boy, he will find out that he was wrong.

Once Andrew arrived in front of Spell Haven. He saw a tower building 100 meters high and 50 meters wide. It was pitch-black in color like any other facility in the training ground.

*Spell Haven* was written with radiant white color above the entrance.

Andrew entered the building and an expansive hall unfolded in his view.

Andrew looked around as he spotted someone who looked like a receptionist.

A lady clad in black robes stood there. Andrew approached her.

"Hello, I am new here. Can you tell me about this place in more detail?" Andrew asked with a smile plastered over his face. Although, he knew that his smile could be easily identified as fake, but he did it nevertheless since it would lessen any upcoming tension.

The woman just blankly stared at him for a while.

"You can buy blueprint of any spell as long as you have sufficient status and credits" she explained.

"On the second floor, in one of those cubicles you can purchase the spells" she said.

Andrew bowed as he left for the second floor. He didn't ask for a way to apply for the ranks of Spell Haven because he still didn't possess enough knowledge to create complex spell.

Andrew went upstairs as he chose an emty cubicle.

Once he entered it. He saw nothing but a blank slate. The cubicle looked the same as cubicles from Existential Hall.

Andrew took out his token as he placed it into the slit

The screen glowed up as the next line of information appeared.

[ID: 0273701]

[Class: 1 ]

[Credits:10]

[Inventory]

Andrew selected [Inventory]. Obviously, it was dead empty, but there was an icon next to it [Market]. He pressed on it as long list of names appeared in his view.

[Concentrated Shockwave]

[Shockwave Blast]

[Water Barrier]

[Fire Blast]

...

And the list went on...

The naming of spells was quite telling of their purpose.

Andrew tapped on [Shockwave Blast] and another icon appeared.

[Name: Shockwave Blast]

[Description: As its name suggests, this spell generates a shockwave using the caster as the epicenter of the shockwave. The power intensity is adjustable]

[Price: 10 credits]

Andrew compared the description to the spell that his opponent in Non-Death Match had used. He understood that not many details were revealed as only by buying it could someone learn about this spells to the full extent.

He was sure that this spell is bound to have a weakness since his recent opponent stood completely immobile whole time.

'So, every purchase is a risk in itself since not much is revealed about it in the first place' he contemplated for a while, thinking was it even worth to buy something like this since he was sure that with time he could replicate the spell.

'It's strange that this market even exists since anyone with basic knowledge can practically replicate any spell or it's not as simple as it looks in the first glance' Andrew deeply thought about it. Then, he went through other spells and they also had vague and lacking descriptions.

'This smells like a big joke' he commented in his mind as he exited the facility and headed towards Array Association.

The building of Array Association looked like a giant circle. It had an iconic color of pitch-black as it had its name written with glowing black color above the entrance.

Andrew immeadetly went towards the receptionist. A middle aged man meditatively sat there.

"Hello, I would like to enroll into Array Association!" said Andrew.

The receptionist opened his eyes as he lazily looked at Andrew. He pulled out a sphere from the desk as he presented it in front of Andrew.

"Put your hand on it" he said.

The next moment, peculiar glow started to shine from the center of the sphere. It looked like a dark star as the glow expanded further in the sphere.

Previously bored receptionist went wide eyed as each millimeter that the glow had covered made him incredibly dazed.

Eventually, the glow stopped once it covered a tenth of the sphere.

Meanwhile, receptionist was shaking from utter disbelief.

"HOW?!" he exclaimed.

Andrew was quite confused by receptionist's sudden remark.

"H-how do you have such high Phase Power? It would take centuries for you to actually achieve this! It's clear as day that you have become a mage only recently! This is absurd!" all those statements sounded as if receptionist was calming himself rather than asking questions from Andrew.

Andrew just stood there silent as he let the receptionist collect himself back.

After a while of disbelieving moments, the receptionist came back into his senses as he apologized for throwing such tantrum.

"Sigh~, I am sorry for such scene. You are truly an extraordinary specimen. Never in my life I would expect someone like you to pop up. It would be an utter waste to not learn any arrays with such extraordinary potential as yours. Give me your token and I'll register you in the database. First, you need to learn basic things before creating actual arrays" the receptionist said.

Andrew nodded as he handed over his token.

In just couple of seconds, the receptionist signed him up as he taught Andrew how to access that information.

Andrew thanked the receptionist as he left for his cave to study some arrays!