Ethan discovered a mysterious orb in the silky purple cloth that glowed with pulsing energy. It was made from shimmering, iridescent material that seemed to shift in color depending on the angle he viewed it from as he turned it around before his eyes. The orb was roughly the size of a grapefruit and had a smooth, polished surface, almost reflecting Ethan’s trademark frown.

As he gazed upon the orb, he felt a sense of disorientation as the colors seemed to blend and swirl together, reminding him of a screensaver. In addition, the orb emitted a low hum that resonated deep within his body, causing slight discomfort. He focused on the sphere as another grey window popped up.

[Aspect of Flux] (aspect, mythic)

An aspect seed containing the power of transfiguration.

Do you wish to absorb?

Yes/No

Ethan stared at the ball and let out a breath he did not know he was holding. “Wow, now that is some loot. Incomparable to the old junk I found up till now. What is it doing sitting here?” he asked the ball and looked around the abandoned library, surprised to find it filled with books compared to the pilfered rooms he had seen before.

“What does mythic even mean…? Do I absorb it?” he considered and looked around the room, noticing that he had left the door open. Just to be safe, he got up and closed the door before sitting in the chair next to the large wooden table with the orb in his right hand.

Ethan had read enough xianxia novels to know that the main character absorbing mythic rarity magic orbs usually granted him vast cosmic power. On the other hand, he knew that drugging oneself with unknown methods had unwanted side effects. The most common - getting knocked out cold. “And what better way to test that magic is real than to nap in the middle of a creepy castle,” he mused. “What is the worst that could happen?”

He turned the orb around in his hand, thinking it over. He could not get out of the castle without any weapons or powers out of this world. And if the windows, he started to see where any indication - magic was real. If the orb could grant him actual powers that he could use, it was worth the risk.

"Eh, to hell with it, he said and mentally selected yes, bracing for the worst. Looking at the orb, he noticed it sank into his hand. He did not feel the sphere vanishing from his palm and frowned. “That was not so bad. What about the powers, though?”

As he finished the sentence, he felt a surge of power below his midsection rise up and towards his head. An endless pressure took over his body, his breathing stopping momentarily as he fought to understand what was happening to him. Then the pain hit him, and his world went dark.

- - -

Ethan opened his eyes sometime later, noting the signature pounding in his head as if someone had scored a knockout on him. It was rare for him to pass out cold, given that only a few boxers back home in his weight class had the reach and the talent to down him, especially during training.

He smacked his lips, clearing his parched throat, and thought back to his storage space. Then, remembering his water jug, he sluggishly summoned it and downed almost half of it in a couple of large gulps before he noticed a foul stench coming from under him.

Looking down, he saw that his clothes were stained in dark brown, almost black bile that stuck to his only pair of pants and shirt. “For fucks sake!” he exclaimed and jumped out of the chair, storing the jug, seeing that the black goo was spilled around the table.

He stepped around the chair and sighed, “How long was I out?” Then, checking the light in the windows above, he noted that the sun was still out, meaning that his short nap was no longer than a few minutes.

He noticed the dark goo dissolving into the air, disappearing from his clothes, chair, and even the cold stone floor. “Huh? That is convenient. How the hell did this thing hit my head so hard without downing my health,” he considered checking his health bar and seeing it was full.

He thought back to the novels he had read and recognized that what he saw all around him must have been some impurities he had accumulated. But the question of what the seed did to him stayed. So he pulled up his character sheet to examine the changes.

Ethan Jorgeson

Bloodline: [Reborn]

Titles: [none]

Aspects:

* Soul: [locked]

* Mind: [Seed of Flux] (Apprentice: 0%)

* Might: [none] (0%)

* Agility: [none] (0%)

* Recuperation: [none] (0%)

“Huh? All right, one of the slots was updated. So how did it work?” he asked himself, mentally pulling up his action log.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Action log

You have absorbed the Aspect of Flux. Purging is in process.

Your system has been purged of incompatible materials. Aspect ability [Karma transfer] has been awakened.

“Oh, all right. An ability. That wasn’t so complicated, was it?” he said and mentally selected the ability to review its description.

[Karma transfer] (spell, drain, creation)

Rank: Apprentice (0%)

Base cost: Varies

Cooldown: none

Absorb and accumulate a small portion of mana from every monster killed. Discharge saved or own mana in any form or matter. The amount and rate of mana that can be accumulated and discharged depends on the ability level and the user’s soul potential.

The constructs formed using stored mana will deal true damage to targets with weaker soul potential.

“Hmm, all right. Monsters and energy. I guess it must make sense if I am not getting crazy,” Ethan observed, paying attention to the second part of the prompt, not understating what ‘true’ damage and ‘soul potential’ meant. The best he could guess was that the effect was related to bypassing armor or a specific type of defense.

He could not help but recollect reading his first fantasy story when he was little, recalling how he thought magic was marvelous. Remaking reality with just a thought, using arcane energy without any tools or devices, seemed like a dream come true then. But now, looking at the gloomy library around him in an even more gloomy castle, having escaped beasts that terrified him, he paused to reconsider.

He reread the ability description, noticing that the key to the ability was for him to defeat monsters, which should trigger the absorption effect. But, remembering his fight with the rat, he could not recall if defeating it triggered any absorption of what the ability called ‘mana’.

“Well, one way to find out how it works,” he said and triggered the ability with a thought, thinking of the only thing that made sense as a weapon to him. Shadows started pulling in on his hand as a sinister, dark blade formed. It had the length of a simple katana, just a bit over half a meter, and was entirely black, made of dark, swirling wisps.

Once solidified, the blade reflected no light but seemed to absorb it as Ethan raised it to his eyes to observe. He noted immediately that the sword was as solid as metal; however, it lacked any weight he would have expected from a blade.

“No chant needed? That is convenient,” he mused and tried to drop the blade, it silently falling onto the ground. He then mentally attempted to recall the sword and was surprised to notice the dark sword just disappeared into the air, absorbed into nothingness before it appeared in his hand again.

Ethan shuddered, dismissing the sword, having not noticed the cold in the room before. “Did it just get colder when I summoned the thing?” he thought and looked around, noting that the sun was still up and the room was not supposed to be cool yet. Then, shrugging, he pulled up the window with the ability again and reread the first part.

“Conjure… wait, wasn’t my mana locked?” he checked the periphery of his vision and noticed that a new bar depicted in blue had appeared. “Great! Now I am a true video game character,” he threw up his arms and looked at his hands.

He summoned his blade again and took a stance before going through several katas. Then he stopped, looking around and dismissing the blade. It feels weird training in a library, he thought and summoned the blade again, repeating the motions to get used to it.

He checked his mana and noticed that the blue bar had lost approximately two-thirds of its maximum. Ethan frowned and thoughtfully absorbed the sword, noting that the bar increased slightly.

“This thing is mana hungry as hell. I wonder what happens if I run out of mana? Will it be the usual headache business, or will I drop unconscious?” he said, deciding not to test his theory. “Yea, that is it for today,” he said and returned to the door, looking around at the rows and rows of books. “It is not like you will go anywhere, right?” he asked the books.

Excited at the prospect of having magical powers, Ethan quickly exited the library room, shutting the door behind him. Books are all good, but magical powers! I would be damned not to try them out. This place has to have some training hall or something, he thought. Then, looking to the side of the corridor, he ran back to the stairs and descended to the first floor before running back to the kitchen and the central courtyard.

Noticing that the sun was setting, Ethan hurriedly decided to find an armory or a place with some training dummies to try his new ability against. Then he saw another smaller entry to the castle from across the yard and ran toward it with his trusty light crystal in hand. Excited and forgetting his usual cautious approach, he quickly turned a corner in the corridor before encountering a familiar sight.

Another of the tainted rats was blocking his way a dozen meters ahead. It immediately noticed him and screeched, spitting foul saliva around itself. Ethan’s heartbeat sped up ever so slightly as he clenched his fist at the sight of the foul beast.

Instead of being scared and surprised at the rat jumping him like last time, this time, he was excited. A savage grin crossed his face as he triggered his new and only ability, summoning the dark katana in his right hand. Cold spread from around the blade as the rat advanced with a shriek.