Stygian Mage

After they confirmed the details of the deal, Soren, Alrule, and Hans signed a Blood Contract to make it official; a Rank 0 Blood Contract, of course. Although the whole situation with the Liston Family and the Blood Contract was still fresh in Soren’s mind, he still signed this contract without any hesitation; this was a two-way contract instead of a one-way like before. Blood Contracts were only tools; their use depended on the person and the situation. Hating a tool just because it was used against him was not in Soren’s nature. After all, he knew that from now on, he would have to sign many Blood Contracts if he wanted to make deals with someone.

Also, the terms of the contract that they signed were very lax. It only stated that the two Initiators, Soren and Alrule, would have to do their best to fight the Beasts in return for the items that they received from Hans. And if they felt like they could not continue anymore or that their life was threatened, they had full freedom to pull back.

Hans knew that if he put in more strict terms in these contracts, no Initiator would be willing to sign it; regardless of the rewards. After all, Rogue Initiators like Soren might only work for the benefits, but they put their life first and foremost. That’s why he had made the terms like this even if he had to suffer a loss; the items he put up for reward came from his pocket.

……

Finishing the deal with Hans, Soren went out to look around the town. They would be unable to continue their journey for a while because of the Beast Tide anyway, so he decided to take this time and slowly work on his things. In fact, he was also looking forward to this Beast Tide. After all, there was a chance that fighting the Beasts could provide him with enough data to create his spell; not to mention he could absorb the Quintessence of the Rank 1 Beasts to increase his stats.

Bellfalls was a much bigger town than Eastwood, Duskfort, or Kilguard. If not for the fact that it hadn’t fulfilled certain conditions, it would have already been called a city. Tall buildings, rich market, wide streets, strong perimeter walls; all of these gave the town a majestic look. Of course, Soren hadn’t seen many towns or cities in this world yet, so he couldn’t tell whether this was considered huge here or not. But given the size of the town, he was at least confident that he could buy the stuff he was currently looking for.

According to the information that he had received from Hans, the Beast Tide was going to occur in the next few days; they had a week at most. In fact, small groups of Beasts had already started to attack the town from time to time. Seeing from that, it was obvious that they didn’t have much time left until the actual tide would occur. And to deal with that, Soren wanted to buy some things.

First of all, his staff had become completely useless now; it had multiple cracks running through its body and would definitely break if Soren used it to cast his spells even one more time. Thus, he needed to buy a new magic staff; a better one. He had tried looking for a good one in the last two towns but was disappointed with the options they had.

Next, he wanted to buy some spells. Not for his research about the defensive spells, but for the upcoming battle; also, for the future ones. He was well aware that his arsenal of spells was far from complete. He needed more spells to cover his weaknesses and also to have a weapon to deal with special circumstances. Of course, he knew that he could not build his arsenal in one day; he had to go with the trial and error method. So, for now, he wanted to buy what he could and then see if they worked well with his battle style.

The next thing he wanted to buy was some tools and ingredients. Both the books that Soren had received from Hans as his hiring fees were about the potions. The first one was about the basics of Potioneering; the methods to brew potions as well as some common knowledge regarding this field. And the second one was a compendium of potion recipes; albeit, they were pretty common ones. The reason Soren had accepted these books as his hiring fees was that these books weren’t available in the general market; at least, in this backwater area. He had tried looking for similar books about potions and pills in the market before but was disappointed every time. But now that he had received the books, he wanted to give Potioneering a try. And for that, he needed the proper tools and ingredients.

Finally, the last thing he wanted to buy was some Storage Pearls; of course, if they were available. He was going to face the Beast Tide soon. With that, he could sell the Beast’s corpses for quite a sum. But to fit in all the corpses, he needed a bigger storage space; his current space wasn’t enough. So, he wanted to buy some Storage Pearls and add them to his own, increasing the total size of it. After all, one of the best features of the Storage Pearls was that it could be stacked without limit; given that the Soul Form could support it, of course.

…….

After he was tired of strolling around the town, Soren decided to finish his business. But before going on a shopping spree, he first went to look for a place to stay. They were going to stay in the town for a while, so he needed a place to sleep and rest. And as he had already looked around for some good hotels before, it didn’t take him long to get a room in a good place.

Getting the room key from the reception desk, Soren went up to his room and took a nice long bath. He had been traveling for quite some time now and never had enough time to take a relaxing bath. Although there were certain spells that could clean his body perfectly, Soren still had to take a bath physically as he didn’t have them; he wanted to buy these spells, but they weren’t available in the general market.

After he was finished with that, Soren went out of the hotel and made his way towards ‘Myriad Items’. This shop was the best that Soren had seen in this world so far, so obviously, he chose to go there. The distance between his hotel and the shop wasn’t much so it didn’t take him long to reach there; he had already looked around the place before, so he didn’t have any problem finding it.

“How may I help you, Sir?” An old man of around sixty-five years of age with short white hair and average height received Soren as he entered the shop.

“Uh…I have a rather long list. Do you have a private room?” Soren replied after taking a look around the hall filled with different items.

“Of course, Sir. Please follow me.” The old man smiled politely and led Soren to a room in the backside of the hall.

The room was not big and only had a set of sofas and a table in between. Apart from that, it also had a wind chime hanging on the window which opened to a garden; this garden seemed to be a part of the shop. The soothing sound from the chimes and the pleasant smell of wood and grass coming from the garden gave the room a serene atmosphere. Although Soren was not exactly aware of the details behind these shops and how they had prevented the snow from accumulating in the open garden, he at least knew that this was done to make the customers relax and feel at ease.

But ignoring such thoughts, for now, Soren sat on one side of the sofa and waited for the old man to take his seat.

“May I ask if Sir is going to fight against the Beast Tide?” Contrary to Soren’s expectations, the old man instead asked Soren this question first just after sitting down.

“Why does that matter?” Soren frowned and asked back instead of giving him an answer.

“We are providing discounts for such people, especially for Rank 1 Initiators.” The old man replied with a harmless smile, completely unfazed by the aura that Soren was unconsciously releasing. Apparently, this old man was also a Rank 1 Initiator and had already noticed Soren’s rank just as he had entered the shop. If not for that, the old man wouldn’t have received Soren personally.

“How can I prove that?” Soren once again asked as he was unaware of such an arrangement.

“Mr. Hans must have sent you a message. You can check your communicator.” The old man explained with a simple tone.

Hearing that, Soren took out his communicator and checked if it was true. And indeed, he had received a message from Hans. Confirming that, Soren showed the message to the old man and got his status approved for the discount.

“First, I would like to see some magic staves; for Rank 1,” Soren said as he kept his communicator back in his Storage Pearl. As for the staves for higher ranks, he knew that he could neither find it in the open market nor afford it with his current capital; at least in the area that he was in.

“Of course,” The old man then took out a crystal panel and after filtering the options, he handed it over to Soren. The panel had a list of magic staves of various types; the only thing they had in common was that they were all for Rank 1 Initiators.

Soren saw many types of staves which gave boosts to different stats. Most of them focused on the ‘Intelligence’ and the ‘Spirit’ stats but some of them increased ‘Resistance’, ‘Vitality’, and even the ‘Strength’ stat. The ones which increased ‘Strength’ were seemingly preferred by the Spellcasters who also focused on the physical combat aspect on the side. There were many Initiators out there who chose to develop all their aspects; as a result, becoming an all-rounder. The main reason they did this was that they wanted to cover all their weaknesses. But even though these Initiators wouldn’t have any glaring weakness by choosing this path, they wouldn’t have any specific strength either. These types of Initiators were actually quite strong in the early stages, but as they stepped into the higher ranks, they would become an average existence at best.

Soren would, of course, not buy these types of staves as he had already chosen his path and didn’t intend to change it in the foreseeable future. So, he ignored such staves and started looking at the other types which could fit him. Apart from the staves which only increased the stats of an Initiator, there were also some that provided its user with a unique skill or enhanced a specific area. Most of these enhancements were focused on Mana recovery, increased senses, increased reflexes, concealment, spell stability, etc. While these areas were indeed related to the stats, these staves directly enhanced them without increasing the whole stat. In that sense, these staves were less useful than the ones that increased the whole stats; as increasing the whole stat would increase many aspects instead of just one of them.

Other than the stat enhancements, the staves were also divided by the elements. Some were fire type staves, while others were earth type. These staves increased the efficiency while casting the spell of their particular element apart from other enhancements; those enhancements depended on the staves, of course.

Disappointment covered Soren’s face as he checked the list once and realized that there was no staff for the Darkness Element. But happiness soon followed the disappointment as he saw a white-colored staff; it was a staff for the Ice Element.

This staff looked like an icy metal rod, completely white in color, with various grooves and designs covering the surface. It also had a white-colored claw-like structure on top which was holding a white opaque crystal ball. Even from the image, the whole thing gave out a chilly and icy aura.

After seeing the details of the staff, Soren became sure that he wanted this one. Its price was also something that he could afford; 105 Middle-Grade Crystals. This staff, which was named Moonshard, not only increased the efficiency with the spells of Ice Element but it also increased the ‘Intelligence’ stat by 4.50 and the ‘Spirit’ stat by 3.0; of a Rank 1 Initiator, of course. Apart from that, it also had an added feature of ‘spell stability’.

Other than at the beginning when Soren didn’t know the ‘Enfari’ language, he had never faced any backlash from failing to cast a spell. But he knew that this was because of his Soul Form; Stygian Grimoire. For other Spellcasters, though, that was not the case. For them, this feature could really help them stabilize the spell and would prevent a backlash even if they lost focus while casting a spell.

Given these facts, Soren became sure that he wanted to buy this staff. Although the ‘spell stability’ enhancement wasn’t really needed for Soren, other features were enough for him to buy it; ‘spell stability’ would just be an extra add-on for him.

“I want this one.” Deciding to go with it, Soren pointed at the white staff and showed it to the old man.

“Oh! A fine choice,” The old man then took the crystal panel back from Soren and selected the item for the time being; he knew this was not the only thing Soren wanted to buy.

“Next, I want to look at some spells.”

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