A few days later.

Ewan heaved a huge sigh of relief when he finished the final stroke of the spell circuit on the notebook. Mistakes riddled the pages along the way, but he finally did it. He was now proficient enough to cast his family’s spells. And so, without further ado, he traced the new spell in his soul space. His aim was Orange, who played with the pen before him.

He went slow with steady curves, and soon, he got the results.

[Astylind Name: Fire Monkey (Mutant)]

[Astylind Level: Level-0]

[Astylind Grade: Grade-D]

[Anima Affinity: Fire]

[Gender: Male]

[Description: Natives of Airadia. They are blessed with decent fire-element affinity (Recipient) but lack the skills to make use of it.]

[Grade-Exalt Requirements: Astylind Core (Fire), Blood-Firos Leaves, Fire Coral, Volcanic Rock.]

[Remark 1: Can be trained as a vanguard but require more attention with the elemental skills.]

[Remark 2: They look cool, can make them your mascot.]

[Remark 3: I agree with the second remark.]

Those remarks…. He didn’t know what to comment on that. On the bright side, at least his forefathers were fun people…

Once he read through the important details, especially the upgrade requirements, he closed the screen with a smug smile on his face.

Knowledge and information were important resources in any field. They could give him an edge over his enemies or friends. Thus, he was ecstatic to see the detailed description his family’s spell provided—the public spell paled in comparison with its limited information. It only gave him Orange’s species name, his level, his grade, his affinity, and his gender. There was no description, let alone any grade upgrade requirements and remarks. It didn’t even mention anything about his mutation.

After Orange, his thought led him to wonder about his own details with the new spell. Last time he saw his data was when he opened his soul space, and that was using the public spell. His family’s spell provided much more data, so he wondered if he could see more details in his status screen. So, he traced the spell circuit in his soul space again and aimed at himself. In the end, he made no mistakes and succeeded.

Status: Injured | Nutrient Deficient

Step-0 [1st Awakening]

Name: Ewan Ayres

Species: Human

Vitality: 0.8

Spirit: 1.3

Anima: 0

Astylinds: 0 [Potential: 4]

Equipment: Common Clothes.

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Storage: Three black-hardcover books; white-hardcover book; red-hardcover book; Pouch; dagger; silver metal dishware.

Novas: ??

Sol: 61

Ewan expected more data, but this was beyond anything he imagined. No one had ever mentioned numerical stats like that before, neither the fellow students nor the teachers in the school hinted at them. The spell even displayed the Sols he had in his account. And the ‘Storage’ part—the spell used his memory to display these details. If not, it wouldn’t have given those items in the claw-ring such vague terms.

But what was ‘Novas’…

He still had too much to learn about the new world he had entered after all. As a newbie, he was eager but didn’t fret. Because of his Pa, his beginning was already miles ahead of many others, he only needed to take one step at a time.

….

Now that he had practiced the spells, he checked the items in the claw-ring. He could cast the spell now, so he could contract Orange, but he waited. He had opened his soul space anyway; he wasn’t in any hurry.

He took out the bulging pouch and placed it on the table—it was the size of his head. When he stretched its mouth open, the pile of glazed stones gleamed in the diffused sunlight. White, red, brown, there were stones of three different colors in the pouch, and of random sizes.

Anima Crystals?

He took out one white stone and used the spell again.

[Item Name: Anima Crystal (Ice)]

[Item Description: Concentrated Ice-Anima in crystal form.]

[Remark: Money!!!]

Ewan’s lips twitched at the remark, but he tried to ignore it this time.

They were indeed Anima Crystals. His Pa never showed one to him, but his teacher once brought a rice grain sized crystal to show to the class. It was orange, he recalled, it was of the fire element.

Anima recovery and currency; these were their two main uses. Ewan understood the recovery part, but he never fathomed the currency one. They came in all different sizes, so how did Starons determine their exact value… Perhaps by weight…he shook his head and moved on.

He kept the pouch in the claw-ring again and took out the dagger. After unsheathing the wooden scabbard, the naked dagger bared itself. The straight black blade stretched to a width of three fingers, albeit of an emaciated man—it mirrored his face and a groove ran on its spine.

[Item Name: Obsidian Dagger]

[Item Description: Dagger made of obsidian ore.]

[Remark 1: Will retain the edge forever. Unless the blade breaks, it will never become dull.]

[Remark 2: It will kill.]

Ewan fiddled around with it, he checked the edge on some simple items near him, and it sliced everything like butter. And once he had his fill of fun, once the items around him were in pieces, he sheathed it and put it back in the space storage.

Next, he brought out one of the black-hardcover books—the thick spine filled his grip, and the velvet cover soothed his touch. Spell circuits filled the first few pages; their descriptions, their details, and the related runes verified it as a Spellbook. And it relieved Ewan, as he wanted to buy some basic spells but had no idea where to begin.

He was a complete newbie and had no connection to any of the actual Asheva’s community. Even though his shop dealt with some Severynths, they only had one leg in that world, most only dipped a mere toe. When he asked some of his regulars about it, they also made guesses, none of which could survive a single round of scrutiny.

Even his teachers knew nothing of it, or at least they weren’t willing to tell them. Instead, they all encouraged the students to join the defense force, the War Dogs. That was the only known way for someone like him to contact the other Ashevas. Most students chose this route, but he wasn’t willing to do that. There were too many restrictions; he didn’t want those chains.

He flipped the pages and skimmed the spell details. But after going through some pages, he sped up and only checked the element of the spells. Once he reached the end, he snapped it shut with his heart racing. The spells in the book were of nine elements—Ice, Wind, Wood, Blood, Dark, Lightning, Earth, Water, and Mystic.

This imaged two scenarios: either the old man left him spells of different elements to increase his options to major in, or he wanted him to use all the spells. If the second scenario was true, then he must’ve left something to tackle the problem of resistance and friction—his Pa would do so for sure. Ewan gently put the book back in the storage, keeping it away and safe from the dagger, and brought out the red-hardcover book.

This wasn’t it; the book contained a spell called . It sounded intriguing, but its details could come later—the previous thought had his head occupied.

He put it back in the storage, again away from the blade, and brought out the white-hardcover book; it detailed a spell circuit named . This wasn’t it either, so he put it aside and brought out another book—it was one of the black-hardcover books.

There was a single sentence on its cover written in ‘Atarin’—the universal language used to bend the elements.

‘Eterien Sien Trian.’

‘Eight Steps to Permanence’, it translated to common tongue.

Its words provoked him, they hinted at what he dreamt of, but Ewan let it go for now, grunting a deep breath, and took out the last black-hardcover book. And finally, it had what he wanted to see, though not exactly in the way he imagined.

‘Elementalist—The Path of Anima’, the header wrote in bold letters. Its preface talked of a circuit, the envisioned idea, its limitation, and its result—a subtype of Severynth. And it all began with the modification of the body to accommodate the Anima.

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