When I reached my home, I was greeted with a sight I never expected. In the hundreds of years I have been away, the Ulaspas family has been wiped out of existence. The great Rose Valley, which was the garden of our family, where beautiful blood-red flowers used to bloom was nowhere to be found. Now the place was filled with common shrubbery and nothing else.

The manor was still there, but the glory of the family was left in ruins. Due to my unmatched strength, I was able to unite the whole island with ease. I didnt even need an army to take control, my strength was alone enough for the conquest. It was only after I took control, that I started conducting my experiments again.

I figure that I should do a research on the Roses as well. It was clear that the plants were special as they were gathering energy from the blood. And for that, I needed a living plant. After a lot of looking around, I didnt find any plant.

Dejected I started continued my other work.

But coincidently some of the natives attacked the manor, they were foolish enough that they thought that they would be able to defeat me with numbers. It was safe to say, that I bathed the Rose Valley with their blood.

The surprising part came after a few days when I saw a Rose growing in the parts where the blood of my enemies was spilled…

With such a sight, I spent the upcoming days finding the source of the plants. I wanted to know how these plants were growing on the land. Upon some experimentation, I realized that the Valley itself was producing the Rose. The soil of the valley can't grow freely, which is why in the rule of the Ulaspas family, Roses were only grown in the valley, and not in the pots.

My queries took me deeper into the valley, and it was there I found the greatest discovery of my life. The Paras Stone.

It was a red crystal, embedded deep into the valley. It was such a powerful thing, even my soul could feel the pull from the stone. I had to store the thing in a special containment unit, a cube, in order to make sure that its power remains contained.

With the crystal gone, the Roses in the valley also withered away…

Upon research, I was able to contain the soul of a being in a container. I researched the soul extensively and realized that the soul was a great source of power, even greater than mana itself. But for an intelligent being, absorbing soul was a difficult task, but I was hell-bent on seeing it through.

After a lot of failed attempts, I was able to create a being that could absorb the souls. I name these creatures Vampas. These were magnificent beasts, who would attack any being with blood flowing through their veins. These creatures would absorb the soul and store it in a red orb-like crystal that they would form in their bodies. And these orbs were the things that a normal mana wielder could absorb.

I named the by-products of these creatures as Blood Orbs. The energy stored in these orbs was highly potent, and hence highly addictive. To research more about these orbs, I returned to the Hograve Continent. It is there, after cleansing some of the filth from the continent, that I gave my new disciples these powers. And saw the ill effects of the orbs. And realized how dangerous the power that I had developed truly is.

This power had the turn the whole world into a block of ice. And one of the examples was when my home was covered via ice. I realized that I dont want to leave such a legacy behind. Which is why I changed my name, and buried all this here, so that no one would be able to find it.

But a part of me wanted to leave something behind. So I left two keys to this place behind, in the hope that the person who unites these keys would not make the same mistake as me.

***

Drac looked at the letter with contempt. Clearly, this guy doesn't have any idea what writing a backstory entails.

The letter did help him understand and made some holes in his knowledge about the Ulaspas family, but at the same time, it also left a lot of unanswered questions behind.

He turned towards the vast array of books and lab equipment before him. It is a good thing that all the answers that I am looking for are just before me. I just need to start looking for them.

For now, as he has some idea about the box’s content he puts the cube aside and focuses on what this place has to offer. With the knowledge orb that he had absorbed, he could understand what is written in most of the books here. Along with the books of Mikaila, now he has a proper understanding of what the world of mana wielders is all about.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

In this Mana Wielders are divided into three categories, Warrior, Mages, and Warlocks. Warriors are the most common kind of mana wielder, then came the mages, and then were the Warlocks.

Warriors are beings who dont have mana hearts, like him, and they tend to create circles around their mana core, which the outside world refers to as Dantian. The Dantian is formed naturally in the Warriors when they start practicing wielding mana. The amount of mana that Warrior could wield at any stage is comparably much less than their Mage and Warlock counterparts.

Mages are mana-wielders with two hearts in their body. One heart is a normal blood-pumping organ, but the heart is purely made to store and pump mana through the body. Because of a physical Mana carrying organ in their body, Mages tend to have a lot of mana when compared to Warriors, but less than Warlocks. And no dantian forms in the bodies of a mages.

And then there are the Warlocks. These are the people who not only possess mana hearts but also possess Dantian at the same time. And they have a lot of mana stored in their body.

It is difficult to say which category of the mana wielder is considered the best, as every single one of them has its own unique weaknesses. Warriors possess low mana, but high physical strength. Mages although possess a lot of mana, the mana inside of them does nourish their physical body to the extent a Dantian does. So they are very weak, physically. As far as the Warlock are concerned, their weakness is that they have too much mana. They can't really control all the mana with precision like a mage or a warrior. Also, sometimes in the case when their mana goes rampant, it could cause a lot of damage to their body.

And then there are different types of Mana Arts in this world. One of them is Runic Arts, which is used in his satchel bag, as well as in the mana box that he got from his family’s house. There is alchemy, where the user uses the natural plants and substances of nature to create powerful potions and pills. There are some Mana fighting arts as well, but he has yet to read a book that could tell him what would curtail.

Currently, what Drac was most interested in was the Runic Arts. He has no idea of what the Runic Arts could do, or how they are practiced. But some alchemic books talked about special kinds of Runic pieces of equipment that could boil or cool a liquid and other modern appliances stuff. From this application, he realized that with Runic Arts mana wielders of this world were able to make a lot of modern world appliances. So he was rather curious about how these things worked…

***

2 months later.

Drac stared at the blue liquid before him. He had brewed a batch of mana-replenishing potion for the journey ahead, and he was just admiring his work. He had brewed other potions as well while he was here, but they had been all packed and safely stored in his satchel bag. He then stared at the book before him, it was the thing that had made him decide that he needed to get off the fucking island.

The book was called Vampa’s Inner Circutory. He started reading the book a week ago, just out of curiosity. It is then that he came across information of those beings that he didnt know. And Nosferatu didnt mention the detail in his last letter as well.

Apparently, Vampas were the dog-like creatures that the albino women brought to the castle. The first humanoid white creatures that he met were also Vampas, but they were considerably smaller and weaker versions of the original things. He never really understood how the creatures that he destroyed with his strength were the backups of that albino woman. Now he understands. Those creatures were meant to feed on the innocent people of the village, and then explode and provide the albino woman with their energy crystal.

Basically those creatures were that woman’s own private energy generators.

Original creatures are far worse. They were the reason that the temperature drops were in this area. He knew that these creatures were responsible for the Ice Era, but never understood how. And now he knows.

The more Vampas consumes, the more temperature drops in the neighboring area. And considering how chilly it has been getting for the past few days, it was really concerning.

At the same time, these erratic creatures are hard to handle, and not only that, they could become absurdly strong as well. With enough souls, these creatures could become stronger than Kaisel as well.

About a thousand years ago, a Vampas ran away from Nosferatu’s grasp. And that fucker got bigger and stronger, so much so that it was able to go toe to toe with an 11th-circle Mage. In the world of mana wielders, the strongest any mana wielder could get is till the 13th circle.

He personally oversaw the divas of Ulaspas, and they were incompetent fools. The moment he learned about their power, he knew that those women were bound to fuck up and let some of those Vampas loose. And he didnt want to live to see that. Hence he decided that it would be wiser for him to leave the island for now. And return later, if he had to.

And considering that he had gotten his second circle as well, he was the most powerful he had ever been…

Before leaving, he stared at the lab once again, nodded, and made his way up for, the first time in months. When he got out, a very cold breeze blasted him in his face sending chills down his spine. He saw the garden and the repairs that he had done painstakingly was gone. This had happened when the Royal Guards came to arrest him. He listened to everything happening outside through his reconnaissance room that day.

And based on Sara’s celebratory victory laugh he figured that she must have caught the Crown Prince.

Alright Drac.. You are a wanted man now. Keep your head down, find the information that you need, and act fast. He thought, and started walking through the ruins where the Sumor Castle once stood. And started making his way toward the Capital of the Kingdom…