Kal didn’t take Ilgathar’s words as fact immediately since after some further discussion Kal realized that the demon didn’t seem to have any idea how skills actually worked. To the demons, they simply worked as described from the moment they were given them, which gave Kal hope that he could perhaps one day figure out how it was done. The fact that normal mana was somehow converted to create specific attuned effects like fireballs or healing spells was a clear sign to Kal that something was happening inside the skill.
Ilgathar scooped a bottle of murky liquid from the cauldron as he continued, “Specializing in a single affinity has its benefits. Gorefiends like myself replace our default abyssal mana with a compound affinity called felmatterium, it is how we conjure the matter that we do. Felmatterium is in itself a branch away from our Great Lady’s great resource sanguinium,” Ilgathar quickly drank a bottle of the liquid before continuing, “Those who devote themselves to one affinity have a much higher chance of developing more powerful evolutions in the case of abyss spawn at least. As a mortal, you will be much more likely to gain a higher rarity class of that affinity.”
“So you don’t have a class? You evolve somehow?”
“Yes, all abyss spawn grow in stages, we advance in a similar way to beasts found on unconsumed worlds. Increasing our level is simple but evolving is much more difficult and can take some demons centuries to just reach tier one. It is for this reason you are so desperately hunted by the rabble outside. Though I would have devoured you as well if my master had not already promised me an evolution in return for my service.”
“Ok, so how do you actually evolve?”
Ilgathar’s face twisted slightly, “Do we so easily deviate from mana lessons?”
Kal wouldn’t push it yet, he still had three days but he did still want to know more about how the demons worked. Who knew? It might help him fight them later.
“Fine, so focusing isn’t necessarily bad but wouldn’t having a wide variety of affinities be more useful?”
“In some cases yes, but as I said a lack of focus means you stay at a lower rarity and a lower rarity means a lack of power. Foolish if you want to live for long.”
Kal guessed he could agree with that but he still wasn’t sure if the demon had the whole story. Kal almost asked about the constructs involved but he stopped himself, he wasn’t about to share that particular detail about himself. Ilgathar was already too interested in his wrath and now his affinities to let him know anymore.
The rest of the first day of Kal’s mana studies mainly revolved around what Ilgathar called the basics. This mostly involved methods of quickly filtering out different mana types. Apparently, it wasn’t that necessary for most demons or mortals since they normally could only sense a few mana types at a time but since Kal could see most if not all of them it was worth paying attention.
The new method was surprisingly fast and easy, it was similar to what he had tried to do on his own but now that he had properly perceived several of the primal affinities it was much easier to do. All he had to do was hold the sensations he felt while perceiving primal affinity he wanted in his mind. The one he held in his mind would be focused on with his mana sight. Kal’s original method had basically relied on the color of the mana which obviously didn’t hold a close enough meaning for his mana sight to easily adjust to.
So focusing on his memory of water mana the felmatterium around him completely faded away. It wasn’t a lot faster but he could see how it would make things easier in the future, especially once he made it home where he was sure he would find all kinds of mana types, not just the corrupted types he found in the abyss.
“If I am attuned to all the primal affinities we tested, why can’t I get the same sensations from your mana?” Kal asked as he was trying to induce the same sensation he had received when looking at the spheres above the stones of mana acuity.
“Compound affinities are more complicated. They are far more difficult to perceive in general, and even then the sense that you receive is more abstract. Most who look up felmatterium feel that it is sickly and corpse-like. To get a more clear sense of its make up you would need to have experienced all of the affinities involved.”
“I can see that it includes the nature affinity but it has been altered somehow by abyssal mana, what is the other type?”
“The two that you are missing are, abyssal mana, and sanguinium the great power of the Lady of Blood.”
That made sense Kal hadn’t seen the sanguinium, well at least not in its pure form. It was a shame looking at the gorefiend resource didn’t allow him to properly understand what it was made from but it did at least give him clues on how to continue.
For abyssal mana on the other hand was likely because when he had first tried to perceive it he had once again mainly gone by color and had barely tried to understand it. Sure he pulled it into himself to siphon but he had never actually tried to delve deeply into it. Ilgathar had gone back to his cauldron and started making another round of that murky stuff so Kal figured now would be a good time to try.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Getting back into his mediation position in the side room Kal filtered out all of the other mana the hard way. Since he didn’t have abyssal mana locked in properly he couldn’t simply focus on the sensation and instead had to do it by color. Luckily Kal already had some practice at that. Once he had filtered out all the other mana Kal was surrounded by a haze of abyssal mana, its strange mix of black, purple, and red slowly swirling around the room.
The fact that it wasn’t one single color made Kal worry about it being a compound affinity and that he might not be able to perceive it properly but the moment he calmed himself and truly delved into it he could feel it. He had actually been right, abyssal mana was a compound affinity, well sort of. It was dark affinity but something was different about it, likely something had altered it slightly but kept the base the same.
The influx of intuition didn’t come as it did with the primal affinites but it instead slowly escalated. At first, it was simply a feeling of anger, disgust, and greed but after a few moments, he could feel a deep corruption within, the need to destroy, weaken, devour, and change.
“Well. Abyssal mana is very pleasant,” Kal muttered, getting to his feet and walking back into the main chamber.
“I just took a proper look at abyssal mana and it seemed strange, like it was a different version of dark mana but at the same time it’s not a compound affinity,” Kal said interrupting Ilgathar’s stirring again. The demon was hard to read but it hadn’t shown him any hostility since the contract was in place.
Ilgathar chuckled or cried, Kal wasn’t sure which, “That mortal is because abyssal mana is an ascendant affinity, not some base mana you mortals are normally privy to. I was going to explain that tomorrow but it appears you have already figured it out,”
“Well, what's the difference? Abyssal mana is definitely more malevolent than dark mana.”
“The Great Lord Archeion of the Abyss on the day of our rebirth forged the mana of the abyss with his own power. He alone is responsible for all the power you have seen while in the abyss. It is said that even the void lords of old feared the power of the Great Lord,” Ilgathar’s expression changed into a twisted smile, “All the mana wielded by my kin is touched by the Great Lord Archeion’s power. One day all universes will be under his sway and will thank him for the opportunity to wield it.”
There was a fervent tone to the demon’s voice that went well beyond what he had heard from it even when it spoke about its master and the Lady of Blood. Kal just nodded and decided to leave it be for now.
They stood in silence for a time as Ilgathar finished his next batch of vials. He didn’t seem to want to divulge what they did but since he was drinking them so regularly Kal figured they were a food of some kind or perhaps something like a mana potion. Before it had drank the first one when Kal arrived its behavior was far less sane, so maybe it was some kind of mental control potion. Either way, he was happy to leave it be for now, even if it could be useful, Kal didn’t really want to know what was in that mixture.
After fully restocking the vials on its bench the butcher turned back to Kal, “Let us continue your instruction.”
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[Personality Module: 87%] Warning: Module shielding has deteriorated beyond acceptable levels. Please contact your nearest mana engineer for maintenance immediately.
[Defense Systems: Disconnected]Warning: Your personality module has been disconnected from the bunker's defense modules. Please contact your nearest mana engineer for reconnection immediately.
[Conversion Matrix: Disconnected] Warning: Your personality core has been disconnected from the bunkers conversion matrix. Please contact your nearest mana engineer for reconnection immediately.
[Integrated Memory: 2%] Warning: Please contact your nearest mana engineer for maintenance immediately for reconnection and emergency defragmentation.
Mira was scrambling to triage her multiple construct failures. The gods blasted, that Lumixet had fried the vast majority of her integrated memory constructs with its corrupted mana, taking with it nearly thirty percent of her remaining data.
When the demon had torn her away from the bunker she had barely managed to duplicate her data and store it in her backup memory constructs within her personality matrix.
She was trying to keep what was left spread out through the memory constructs so that if the demon shocked her again, less would be lost. But the demon proved to be a sadist and continually shocked daily making such a task virtually impossible.
If the demon continued she might actually forget what the demon wanted to know. Not that she knew all that much, but Mira would accept termination before she would betray the last person she got to speak with.
Mira had no external information now that she had been separated from her bunker. Without the bunker’s constructs, she could move her perception outside of her personality matrix. The only data she had on her current location was what the lumixet told her.
Not that she had hoped that Kalum Lesta would return. By her calculations, it was highly unlikely that Kal would be able to defeat the lumixet. He had only just ascended days before finding the bunker. Mira had started to fear that the man was dead but the lumixet had been clear that he lived.
That was good. If she had any say in the matter she would prefer to keep it that way. She barely knew him and Mira doubted he had even thought about returning to the bunker. But did not change what her creator had created her for. Even in her current state, Mira was a caretaker and she would not betray those who had refuged within her walls.
The dark presence of the lumixet entered the matrix once more, “You lie caretaker! What do you know of the mortal’s affinities?!”
The lumixet sounded strange this time. What had changed? “I know nothing of the mortal’s affinities demon. I cannot provide the proper exams.”
The lumixet didn’t bother arguing, instead, it just roared and sent a pulse of its foul mana into the matrix. Mira groaned in pain but tried to resist it as she rearranged her remaining data to try and save as much as she could.
[Integrated Memory: 1.8%]