The crimson flame burned with malevolence as Kal watched from the void. Its flames ran along every inch of the surface of its prison, looking for a weakness.

But its intent was different now, it felt -

Kal awoke with a start, throwing himself into a seated position, He was breathing hard and his head began to throb horribly as he looked around the room. He was still in the room with the stones of mana acuity but the butcher was gone.

Paranoid about his condition Kal checked his status.

Kalum Lesta

Status

Class:

Slayer of Fate [Epic] [Anomalous]

Level:

48

Race:

Human?

Health:

2370

Stamina:

5160

Wrath:

0

Attributes

Strength:

474

Agility:

247

Endurance:

516

Vitality:

237

Intellect:

237

Perception:

255

Will:

572

Wisdom:

345

Available:

18

Titles

Ascendant, Core Bane, Core Smith, Defier of Dhinir, Planeswalker, Planar Appetite, Slayer of the Strong, Endurance Elite, Strength Elite, Will Elite, Demon Slayer, Paragon of Man, Planar Binding I, Soul Seer

Skills

Soul Forge [Rare], Wrathful Regeneration [Uncommon], Wrath Incarnate [Uncommon], Abyssal Consumption [Rare], Flames of Wrath[Uncommon] [Soul Forged], Slayer’s Intent [Rare] [Soul Forged], Slayer’s Apathy [Rare] [Soul Forged], Edge of Malice [Common] [Soul Forged]

Race

Birthright: Confined

Relieved and surprised to see everything appeared to be normal Kal sighed and climbed to his feet. Seeing the primal affinities had been more of an experience than he had been ready for. Kal had assumed there would be some kind of signal or resonance to tell him or Ilgathar what he was attuned but other than the sensations he got off of each of the affinities he hadn’t noticed anything like that.

Looking at the primal affinities was definitely different from the other mana types he had seen. But the difference was pretty obvious, all of the types he had been able to sense since gaining the ability had combined with abyssal mana.

Curious Kal activated his mana sight and filtered out everything but the sickly green-red mana of what was present in the butcher’s domain. He hadn’t looked all that closely before, mainly using his mana sight as a way to get an early warning of attacks from those conjured limbs. But now that he was looking closer he could see that it was more than just sickly-looking red mana.

There were actually at least three main components from what he could see. Green, which was heavily mixed with a black-purple-red combination giving the green a dark rot-like tone, and finally the red mana.

The green mana was definitely nature but being mixed with the other darker mana had corrupted it, now it was something different. It was all complicated even further by the addition of the red mana. He suspected all of those specific mana affinities were required to form this specific type of mana.

Hopefully, since the demon hadn’t done anything to him while he was unconscious it actually intended to follow through on his instruction. Kal was about to leave the room and see if the demon was in the main chamber again but then he noticed he had two notifications.

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Title acquired: Planar Binding I

Title acquired: Soul Seer

Kal grinned he had forgotten about getting the first title but getting two in such a short time was great. It had been over a week since he had gotten his last title and he felt that if he couldn’t gain experience while in the butcher’s domain getting a title or two easily made up for that.

He started in order and read each of their descriptions hoping for some decent boosts.

Planar Binding I

You have entered into a contract with a being from a different universe. Beware the cost of defying a planar contract,

+50 Intellect, Wisdom, and Will.

Honestly, Planar Binding was pretty disappointing, he had been hoping for a percentage bonus to those attributes but Kal figured he shouldn’t complain. The bonus would help him hold off the drain of the Soul Maw for the time he was in the butcher’s domain.

Judging by the name it might be possible to increase the rank of the title by entering more contracts. Maybe when it reached rank II it would become a percentage bonus.

Soul Seer

You have proven yourself adept at perceiving the affinities of creation and above all have seen that which resides in all. Look beyond the shells of all and glimpse the product of the Astral Falls.

+15% Perception, Intellect, and Wisdom

Now that was much better. Ten percent to three of his mental attributes were great. It was a shame will wasn’t one of them but the three he got made sense considering what it took to see the soul affinity,

That was when Kal remembered the last thing he had seen before collapsing. Soul mana. It was not something Kal was expecting to see when Ilgathar pressed the last symbol. Honestly, Kal hadn’t even thought soul mana could exist but really Kal’s knowledge of affinities was crap, of course, he wouldn’t.

But what Kal saw bothered him. No, what bothered him was what he saw within himself. His birthright was not some separate entity that was trying to control him. It was simply his soul. Of course it was, everything he had learned up until this point had basically screamed that fact but he had done his best to deny and ignore it. He remembered his conversations with Melisia about his core and that one of the ideas was that a person’s core was either their soul or housed their soul.

The fact that Kal had survived tearing his core apart not just once but twice clearly pointed towards the truth being the latter. The question was, why didn’t he die when his core was broken? Melisia had said that in the few cases where someone’s core was broken, they died shortly after.

Was the reason he lived because of his “birthright” or dysfunctional soul? Or was it normal to live and the people had just died from injuries they sustained at the same time?

Kal remembered the second time he broke his core that the power of his soul had raged through his body, burning through his health and vitality. He had only been level twenty-five at the time and the power that had accumulated in his soul from leveling was enough to harm his body as it leaked out. Was that the difference? Was it because he was lucky enough to break it when he was weak that allowed him to live?

Perhaps that was part of it but that would mean the next time he had to break his core to reach tier two he would probably explode and die. Kal obviously didn’t like the sound of that so he was going to assume it wasn’t the whole answer and besides he had only just learned the barest piece of extra information. There was no point in revising everything he knew just yet but one thing he would try to get a grips with is that his soul was different.

What he saw above the stone of mana acuity was different to what was resided within his core in several ways but the base of them was the same. Looking at the crimson flame rage against the walls of his core Kal could compare it to what was on the stone.

The sphere above the stone was, without a better word, empty. It was like everything that was necessary to represent a soul was there but some important component was missing. It was the part that was missing that Kal envisioned while he looked upon it, it was like it was searching for a purpose.

In comparison when Kal looked at his crimson flame all he could sense was that malevolent purpose that he could feel with every flare-up and every beat of his heart while in battle and using Wrath Incarnate. He hadn’t seen any other souls exposed like he had his own but Kal suspected none were like his. Is that what a birthright is? Just some kind of faulty soul or a soul that has been changed somehow?

Another question, why did having his soul confined in a core prevent it from controlling him? Wasn’t his soul supposed to be him or at least some spiritual version of him? Kal cursed under his breath. Far too many questions with almost no answers, “Gods I wish I had those books.”

For now, Kal would just have to continue as he had before but learning what he had only prioritized his need to learn more about mana and its affinities.

Done with his new titles Kal stepped into the main chamber and found Ilgathar stirring a large cauldron vigorously.

At the sight of the demon, Kal could feel his birth- no, his soul flared up. It wasn’t able to affect his thoughts but he still wondered why it had done so. When the butcher turned to face him and Kal was forced to look upon its disgusting, twisted face the why was obvious. It was a demon, and even though they had a contract in place did not make them allies. Kal couldn’t forget that.

“You do any disgusting gorefiend curses on me or fill me up with those worms did you?” Kal was pretty sure the demon hadn’t done anything to him while he was out but he asked anyway to see its reaction.

Ilgathar paused and with a slight delay, it turned to face him, “Of course not mortal, even though not directly stated that would break the spirit of the contract. I also cannot conjure up such a creature during the challenge, despite our clear abuse of the rules.”

Kal had hoped that would be the case, having to be on edge to avoid getting more of those bloody things in him would have been painful.

“Alright, good. Did you learn anything from using the stones of magical acuity? I’m not really sure how they were supposed to work,”

Ilgathar’s eyes seemed dimmer than they were before Kal had passed out but his voice remained even, “Yes, quite a lot. It appears you are attuned to all of the primal affinities we tested. It was quite remarkable, very few mortals are attuned to more than four, let alone all of them. Being so uniquely attuned to all of the affinites is of course tremendously useful and will open many paths for you,” its eyes flickered, and then it started stirring again, “I must complete my work but I will answer any question you have within reason.”

Kal ignored the demon’s work but curious about his affinity attunement he asked, “What do you mean by opening up paths? Does that mean I could use multiple affinities in my skills?”

“In a sense yes, but the affinities you can use are dependent on both what you can perceive and your mana resource. It is likely the only benefit being a mortal has is that they have unattuned mana by default as a resource. Though the source of that mana is questionable it is objectively useful.”

“Wait, so any human, elf, or dwarf who, let’s say had both fire and nature affinities could in theory gain skill for each affinity?”

“Yes, most elemental classes or beasts have access to at least one or two of the elemental primal affinities. This mainly applies to magical classes or higher-tiered classes where most things become mana-dependent. Most weak martial classes either have very few affinities or they have more specific compound affinities. Hence why I assumed you would likely not detect many of the affinities on the stone.”

That was an interesting development. Kal hadn’t thought much about all that, he knew that many classes were themed like Leo’s flame-based class but not that the classes you received were guided by your affinities. Did the people back home know this? He had never heard anything like it before. If it was true he wondered what affinities Dalen’s tavern keeper class and his sister's merchant class were based on.

He could see nature being in tavern keeper but he had no idea what else would fit. But how did their normal mana resource get converted into nature affinity mana? Kal’s wrath was wrath, its properties might change a bit as they went through his skill constructs but it didn’t become water or anything like that, The biggest change he had gotten externally was when he hardened it into an edge.

Even then it was still clearly wrath fire, just condensed into a thin line along the edge of his sword. It didn’t actually become metal, and come to think of it maybe that's why it was so hard to get it to stay together when he imposed order onto it. Was he using the wrong affinity to get an effect like that? Probably but how could he use the other mana types?

“How does regular mana get converted into the affinity used in the skill?”

Ilgathar looked confused at the question, “It is simply all about compatibility. Base mana can be used for all primal affinities. Some compound affinities can work backwards but many mortals foolishly accept a resource change and cut themselves off from using all other types. Is that not obvious?”

Feeling like he just got stabbed in the heart Kal only had one reply, “Shit…”