10. Duke of Mayr

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“I have seven universal skills, Food Resistance, Identify, Mana Manipulation, Mana Shot, Magic Missile, Mana Claw, and Mana Coat and Magic Intent.

As for skills I have four…

Night Vision, Enhance, Thread Creation ,Meditate and oh… it seems I have another skill waiting for me to be accepted and …. Acquired [Instant Ice Mana].”

I look at the old man and his jaw threatened to fall down.

…..

“H-H-How?”

……

At his question I smiled and replied.

“How else? Its because I am talented..

…..Unlike you.”

“……..”

Suddenly I felt quite hot and there was steam around me.

“Oi oi oi”

I look at the old man that’s gotten unnaturally red and warned him.

“You might want to calm down, you don’t have to be ashamed of it.”

The old man looked at me with red eyes and grabbed my throat.

“I’ll kill you!”

“Wai I was just j-“

“Are you trying to say you were joking brat, too late! Die!”

He was very angry bit when he softened his hands around my neck I was able to get my last words put of my mouth.

“I was just …j-jealous of your bravery to own it, ….sayo-nara.”

After saying my ‘last words’ I pretended to be dead only for the old man to tighten his grip even more.

“Whaaaaaaat! Brat! Don’t think you can play games with this Grand Archmage, I’ll kill you for real!!!!”

I jolted up as if I got out of my beauty sleep and said to him, “Why so serious old man, I was just joking old man, not ”

I didn’t say the last one really loud and just whispered it.

Well that earned me another punch to the head.

“Don’t get off topic and tell me how did you acquire so many skills? Even if you don’t have a limit, you should have at least years of training to get something.”

It seems that the book about the status screen had more information that I didn’t read.

“I trained for seven months before entering the ‘inner dungeon’ I leveled up my skills and gained a few more, that’s it.”

“If that really is a case, your talent surpasses even those heroes, hahahaha.”

The old man started laughing like a maniac. While I took a book and threw to his head with half of my strength. The book landed perfectly in his head and the old man fell to the ground.

At least he stopped laughing.

He stood up again and looked at me angrily.

“Why did you do that brat!, this body isn’t as strong as my main one, you could’ve killed me and wouldn’t have gotten my inheritance.”

“Oh! Now that you mentioned it, why did you come back? Is this ritual of yours done ?”

He looked confused at my question.

“Ritual?”

And as if receiving a revelation.

“Ah, Y-Yes how could I have not gotten it ready.”

“There is no ritual. is it?.”

A tick mark appeared on my head. The old man made me read books when there was no ritual.

“Brat! I did it for your own good, how can you be the successor of a Duke and Archmage when you can’t even have the most common knowledge.”

“You are a duke?” I was surprised.

“At first my family was only a count ranked family, but when I became an Archmage three centuries ago ,my family was raised two ranks, becoming the fourth family who has the rank of Duke in the Mayr Kingdom.”

“Ho! So you are from the Mayr Kingdom?”

He looked at me and asked.

“You didn’t read much, did you?”

“N-No?”

Paw

Another punch earned.

“I told you to read brat, Wait a minute…. Where are the other books?”

The blind old man seems to have noticed that they are ‘missing’.

“The reason I didn’t read them is because, I can store them to this spatial ring, I can read them whenever I want.” I pointed at the ring at my finger.

The old man looked at where I was pointing and was slightly surprised.

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“That’s a spatial ring? But how come I didn’t notice any spatial mana there ?”

“How am I supposed to know? and did you just say spatial mana?”

“Yes, I also have Space affinity.”

“Then why didn’t you test me for space affinity too?”

“There is no need, the Ice Crow bloodline will give it to you when you integrate it in your body.”

“Oh, okay, but what grade will it be ?”

“That depends on you, but I wouldn’t have much hope of a high grade affinity, mine is only Low grade.”

“Okay but why would I not hold hope for a higher grade?” I look at him for an answer.

“The space affinity is one of the rarest affinities, along side the Time affinity. The ice affinity is a mutant affinity like lighting, darkness, light etc. However the space and time affinities are singularities. Both have their own law. I might have a low grade afffinity but, at most I can do is sense faint traces of space mana, but I will never be able to convert my mana into space mana.” He explained.

“You never know until you try, old man!” I say to him.

“You don’t think I have tried brat ? I am centuries old.”

“I didn’t say you old man, I meant me !”

“What are you talking about?” He looked at me suspiciously.

“My Space affinity is probably at a high level too, that’s what I mean.”

I wasn’t sure if it was high, but I was certain that I have space affinity, staying in the void countless days has probably given me space affinity, but I wasn’t sure, because it’s only what my instincts are telling me not the facts.

The old man looked at me surprised and asked.

“What makes you so sure?”

“Instincts” I told him.

Sigh

The old man sighed and looked at me.

“Okay then, let’s start the procces.”

“How are we going to do that?”

He didn’t look at me and just waved his hand. A sphere appeared in his other hand. It was colored with purple and black. Shining stars could be seen in there, reminding me of my time in the void. I ask.

“What is that?”

“The inheritance of the Ice Crow.”

The old man responded

“In that sphere ?”

“Yes, Right now I am going to transfer my blood essence into the sphere and you are going to fuse with it, it will give you the bloodline of the Ice Crow the legendary mythical beast.”

“Alright then”

After finishing our conversation, he started concentrating and his mana around all of his body started to gather and went inside that sphere.

“Done”

He said.

“Eh!. That fast ?”

“It is nothing complicated brat.”

“But how can it be safe if it is that easy to gain the Ice Crow bloodline?”

Sigh

“This sphere you are looking not only is a treasure passed down from teacher to student of the Ice Crow Bloodline, But it’s also the only way to extract and fuse the Ice Crow Bloodline. You are underestimating the legacy of a mythical beast who can compete with dragons.”

“So it’s like this, well, old man thank you for trusting me with this legacy.”

He laughed.

“Hahaha it’s fine, I can see that your will to become strong is unrivaled, and your eyes also tell me that you won’t stray the path of the evil. So I am fine and very happy to entrust you with this legacy.”

I nodded and didn’t say more, instead I looked at the sphere. The old man woke me up from the stupor and said.

“Let’s go to a more suitable place.”

I nodded and a portal appeared before us. Reminding me of something.

“Old man, didn’t you just say that you can’t use space magic, how were you able to change the size of the dungeon. When I arrived before the dungeon, its size was only that of a caste. When I came inside the size was thousands of times bigger.”

The old man seemed to understand what I was saying and responded.

“I had the help of a [ Space Mage ], his name is Damien Vaan, he is also my friend, if you ever meet him tell him you are my successor and he will treat you well.”

“I see, what’s the grade of his affinity?”

Sigh

The old man sighed.

“Never ask strangers about their ability. Whether it’s their Class, Skills, Affinities or anything related to their power. In this world where the strong reign everyone has a trump card.”

I nodded, “I understand.”

Nobody would share their level of strength willingly, at least not to strangers. Well I wouldn’t..probably.

I was caught dazed by the foot of the old man which pushed me into the portal.

The coordinates changed a bit and I fell face first.

I looked around and I saw a square-shaped platform before me.

The old man came behind me while giggling, when I turned my head he suppressed laughing and tried to wear a serious expression, only to fail.

“Sorry brat!”

Sorry my ass.

I suppressed my anger towards the old man and asked him.

“Now what?”

“Now you are going to start to fuse with the sphere.”

“And how am I supposed to do that.”

“You will absorb the essence which contains the bloodline inside the sphere.”

“Alright let’s do it!”

The old man looked annoyed.

“Where is your patience brat ? If you absorb the essence now, without any preparations, you will die. Absorbing the bloodline essence will bring you unimaginable pain. If you loose consciousness you will die.”

I look at him with a deadpan expression.

“And how do we prepare against pain?”

“Runes”

“Like the one at the ice mountain?”

The old man looked surprised.

“Hoo! You noticed that?”

With another deadpan expression I say.

“How can I not notice my body senses heighten while there are giant symbols you call runes glowing on the ground I was frozen.”

“Eh, you make a point there. However this time the runes are not going to heighten your senses but lessen them.”

“Is this thanks to you friend Damien Vaan?”

“Yes, he helped make these runes.”

“Well this friend of your sure is more useful then you.”

I snickered. While the old man was offended but didn’t counterattack.

“We will see if these runes can help you endure the pain and transformation before you can say that Damien is more useful then me.”

He also grinned like an evil person. Reminding me that I could die. This old man is the Devil in disguise, no wait …that’s me the [ Crionic Devil ].

“Okay then you activate the runes, while I take a nap.”

“You can’t sleep now brat, all I have to do is supply the runes with mana crystals and then we can start.”

I look at him and say. “What are you waiting for then?”

“Are you ordering me around brat” He looked at me solemnly.

“No, I’m just reminding you.”

I said with an angelic smile. It’s funny I am a demon.

“Hmphh! With your attitude, you are going to die before you even live up to your potential.”

“Whatever”

I didn’t care what the old man said.

After me kindly reminding him. He took out a blue crystal out of nowhere probably a storage ring or something similar. Because of Mana Sense, I could tell that mana was concentrated in the blue crystal. This is probably what he calls a mana crystal.

After he took out the mana crystal he headed towards the platform before us and put the crystal in the the middle of the paltform which had a hole in it.

After putting in the mana crystal in the hole, the old man gestured that I follow him, which I did and arrived before him.

“Take it”

He gave me the sphere and said to me.

“After I activate the rune formation, you start the fusion immediately.”

“What ? I don’t know how to start the fusion.”

The old man smiled softly and said “You will know how to do it when you try.”

“Since when did you copy my words.”

I teased him.

“Don’t go too far brat” He ‘warned’.

He left the platform after he said all he had to say and started to concentrate on something.

At that moment. Gold lines started to form around the platform around me. I looked at the old man and he nodded at me.

I started doing exactly as he told me, I put my concentration at the purple-black sphere. I tried to inject mana into it only for the mana to bounce back.

That wasn’t without profit though, as I could feel it was sending me something. My body started to feel strange.

Pain!

Unimaginable pain enveloped me. It felt like somebody was stabbing me continuously with a sharp sword.

I instantly gritted my teeth and slowly the pain died, only for another rush of pain to come again.

Thousands of needles peeling my skin. I was starting to wonder if the rune formation is even working.

The pain died again, just so it could triple the amount of pain and this time.

I felt my organs crashing like they were hit by an earthquake.

Again and again.!

Every part of my body has endured pain that couldn’t even imagine before.

I was starting to lose consciousness. I could hear a faint echoing voice “Don’t give up brat!”

That’s right I can give up, I bit my lip with my sharp teeth. It was not enough to jolt me awake but it definitely helped.

“Comee ooon”

I screamed.

My consciousness no longer threatened to fail.

The pain stopped.

Wo

I felt the darkness swallow me. I didn’t get any pain.

But..

I arrived in the place I didn’t think I would ever see again..

The Endless Void.