CHAPTER 26

The boys played in the mornings with the two daughters of the Vitafius family, and in the afternoon, they normally read in the library Orthrus lived in. Even at the end of the week, they were still amazed by the library, not only by the amount of knowledge, but also by the fact that it had multiple inhabitants.

It had become more of a mystery where the two actually slept or ate, as they had never seen any kind of living quarters, despite going through the library multiple times. Cyrus was almost considering going through the iron door to see if there were any living quarters there, but he was quickly talked out of the idea by Daelyn, who had been on the other side. The prospect of a dungeon filled with large and powerful monsters wasn’t a nice one, and so they discarded the idea of entering it.

However, as the last day finally arrived, Cyrus was bummed out. Daelyn had left in the morning for the library, but he couldn’t follow. He once again noticed the difference between them, as Daelyn would start his journey towards magical prowess far earlier than Cyrus would.

The morning was just any other they had in the last week, except for the absence of Daelyn. Cyrus was becoming more and more bored at the prospect that he would have to spend the morning alone, as Lyvia was busy with the household chores, and she was busy training. She seemed to always train at the end of the week, she said that she didn’t want to lose her edge.

While Cyrus understood what she meant by that, as his father had always hammered on the message that ‘discipline is key’, he was still bored. However, he was pleasantly surprised, as he heard a knock on the door, only to find Ayda standing in the doorway after opening it.

Cyrus was quite surprised by this, as he had not expected Ayda to show up, since they weren’t being forced to come anymore by their parents. However, as he was about to speak, he was interrupted by her.

“Cyrus, I can see the surprise on your face. Be a little more considerate, will you?” She said with a slightly agitated tone.

Cyrus was only able to respond with a weak ‘sorry’, before asking with a hurried tone: “But, your punishment was over, right? Then why did you come back? Weren’t you scared of coming here in the beginning?”

She smiled, before saying with a soft tone: “Well, it wasn’t my punishment to begin with. My sister doesn’t have to go anymore, s she would rather hang out with her friends. I came back because I wanted to play. There isn’t a lot to do at home, as I learn about sewing from my mother, and there are no other kids around, so I came here. Yes, I was afraid in the beginning, but I was afraid of Daelyn. I saw his magic, and it was scary.”

Cyrus was a bit surprised by this, but his surprise was quickly overtaken by interest, as he quickly asked Ayda: “What kind of magic did he use? I know he uses blood magic, but what did he do, and how did he do it?”

Ayda sighed, before looking at him with a glare that betrayed her irritation: “You know, it’s really annoying to deal with your lust for knowledge, same goes for Daelyn. Well, I don’t know how he did it, but the blood that left the wound returned to his body, it seemed to go in weird lines as it was suspended in the air between the parted flesh, and then the flesh started rapidly regenerating. I heard from mom that it looked like the natural healing process, but much, much quicker. I don’t know how he did it though, he seemed kind of stumped afterwards, and he did not tell anyone how he did it.”

Cyrus had an expression of excitement on his face, until the last sentence. He realized that she had already told him all she knew, and he wouldn’t be able to find out more.

He gave up on prying for information, and instead starting asking Ayda about her sewing lessons. It was surprisingly interesting, as it seemed that even a basic craft such as tailoring, could be enhanced through magic. She told Cyrus that while she was unable to do it, because she had yet to form a core, tailors can imbue their thread with magic, and use if for varying purposes. The main purpose is using it for sewing, but it can also be used in construction, and it can even be used in battle.

Ayda told Cyrus that Celeria would teach her about sewing, and about the technique behind using a mana infused thread in battle, regardless of her affinity. She said that if she had a magic affinity, it would only help her battle prowess, as she could imbue her thread with her magic. For example, if she gains the fire affinity, she could light the thread on fire, and burn her enemies with it.

Cyrus was greatly intrigued by this, as he only knew of imbuing weapons with enchantments, or the user’s own magic, but he never thought that the same could be done with a thread used for sewing. He could only wonder what more he could do with mana imbuement, could he use it on almost any object? Could he pick up a single branch, imbue it with a large amount of mana, and have it be stronger than an iron sword?

He had heard of the basic skill [Mana strengthening] that imbues the muscles with mana, but could he imbue his bones with mana? Could he make his fingernails as strong as steel by imbuing them with enough mana?

He did not know the answers to these questions, but he was going to research them when he got the chance, but for now, he directed his attention towards an irritated Ayda. As she stood there with an agitated expression. He tried to muster some words to try and plead for himself, before she interrupted him with an agitated tone: “Ahhh, you and Daelyn won’t ever change, will you?”

Cyrus could only stand there, as he could say nothing in his defence. He really didn’t know how he could retort this, as she was completely right.

After a few moments of awkward silence, she said with a soft voice: “Well, it isn’t a real problem. Let’s play!” She said those last two words with a dazzling smile, and Cyrus couldn’t help but give in to Ayda, as they surprisingly started playing ‘house’. Cyrus didn’t really know what that entailed, and if he could guess, it would be kind of boring. He was pleasantly surprised at the roles they were assigned to play, Cyrus was the father, Ayda was the mother, and Ayda’s doll was the daughter. They had many scenes, such as the husband coming home, the family eating together, and many more everyday events that became a bit dramatic. The husband being scolded for being late, the dinner turning into a food fight, and the scene that they were going to bed turning into a wrestling match. They thought that they were acting out ‘sex’.

Cyrus and Ayda played this little game until the end of the morning, enjoying every moment of it.

While Cyrus was having fun with a girl, Daelyn was having fun with an old man and a six armed goblin. Well, fun is a broad term, especially if it involves being taught magic, and wounding yourself in the process.

The morning for Daelyn started with going over to Orthrus’ house. He knew the way there by heart, and he only needed to go a small distance over the forest floor to reach the house if he got off at the right platform.

While the distance was only several hundreds of metres, it wouldn’t be uncommon to see some kind of creatures roaming around, but surprisingly, Daelyn saw none. It seemed awfully quiet as it seemed like there were almost no forest critters nearby. Where the chirps of birds normally resounded through the forest, there were no songs to be heard, where the growls of animals were normally heard, there was only silence, and where the small herbivores of the forest could be seen eating their meal, none could be found. It seemed as if this part of the forest was abandoned by the creatures that inhabited it, like there was a large predator that would sweep up anything that came into its territory.

Daelyn realized that Orthrus was quite prone to experimenting on animals, and suggested that may be the reason. However, he did not know for sure, and as such, he continued towards his first lesson in magic under the guidance of Orthrus.

He was quickly led inside by Gob after knocking on the door. Surprisingly, he was brought to a dead end in the library. The dead end was surrounded on three sides by bookcases, with walls behind them, it was poorly lit, and it seemed to be quite far from the entrance of the library. The floor was made from stone tiles as normal, and the walls seemed to be the same material.

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The grey stone adorned all of the walls, as it seemed like the walls towered far above little Daelyn, and the floor could be mistaken for being part of a prison. The only thing that missed were iron bars at the entrance of the hallway leading to the dead end.

As Daelyn was about to ask what they were doing here, Gob climbed up multiple shelfs on the bookcase on the right side, until he finally reached the desired shelf. He stopped, making sure that all of his five arms had some good grip, until he reached out with the remaining arm, and pulled a book from the shelf.

He had only lifted the book a small bit from the shelf, until it was forcefully pulled back. The movement of the book was accompanied with the noise of stone suddenly being moved, as the stone behind the bookcase in the middle was slowly shifting to the right. The stone seemed to be moving under the influence of a large number of gears, as the soft sound of gears turning could be heard under the noise of the stone wall scraping against both the floor and ceiling.

As the wall had been completely moved out of the way, the gears stopped, and another set of gears started up. These gears seemed to be much simpler, and more quiet. They made the bookcase rotate 90 degrees, to let both Daelyn and Gob through.

The hall was suddenly illuminated as the room behind the bookcase exuded an almost blinding light. Daelyn was surprised by the change of lighting, and had to close his eyes to adjust to it.

It took several seconds for him to open his eyes, but when he finally did, he was amazed.

As most of the library and the dungeon was poorly lit with some basic torches, the hallway behind the bookcase was very well lit. It seemed to be lit by stones that were imbedded in the ceiling, which exuded a large amount of light.

Surprisingly, this hallway didn’t seem like it belonged in a prison. While the same stone walls adorned the hallway, the floor had oak planks instead of the normal grey stone, and the ceiling seemed to be the same in normal homes, it seemed to be made from the roots of the tree above them. Daelyn was quite surprised at this, as he had not expected that the house would be so big that it extended under the tree behind the house.

It gave quite a comfortable atmosphere in contrast to the rest of the house.

Daelyn’s thoughts were interrupted by Gob who was already standing in the hallway. Daelyn picked up the pace. as he followed closely behind Gob. He was amazed by the hallway, but also amazed by the large amount of doors present. The doors were made of the same oak wood that the floor was made of, and they normally had some kind of handle, with some doors even having a lock on it.

As Daelyn got further and further away from his point of entry, he turned around, only to see the wall once again in place. It seemed like it hadn’t made a sound as it closed. They had only walked about 20 metres, and yet it was already closed. Daelyn was quite surprised by this, but his attention was quickly directed back towards the doors.

The doors didn’t have any kind of window to see the rooms beyond them, and as he was just about to ask Gob about it, they stopped. It had taken several minutes of walking to get to this door, several turns, and even going through two doors which only resulted in more hallways. Gob stood in front of the door, and knocked on it.

After Gob had knocked, silence reigned for but a moment, until the goblin’s expression turned sour, and he knocked again, harder. 

He did this several times, until it seemed like he was trying to break the door down with his six arms. He smashed them at the door in a rhythmic beating, as if he was trying to break the piece of oak. As the door was about to cave in, the door opposite of the one Gob was banging on suddenly opened.

Daelyn turned around, and saw an agitated Orthrus standing in the doorway. His expression seemed to ooze bloodlust as his brows furrowed, and his voice rang out throughout the hallway.

“Gob! What are you doing?!”

The goblin turned around, and his expression filled with anger changed into one filled with regret, and fear. He realized his mistakes, he realized the ruckus he had made, and he realized that his master knew everything.

Daelyn was quite amazed by the change in expression, but his amusement was short lived as Orthrus directed his gaze towards him. His expressions hadn’t changed, and Daelyn felt the full force of the killing intent directed towards him.

“Get in here. It’s time to start your lessons.” Orthrus said with a cold voice.

Daelyn followed his orders, as he quickly followed Orthrus into the room.

The room itself was filled with a chest, a shelf on the right side filled with different kinds of crystals, a bookcase filled with all kinds of books, and three doors at the far end of the room.

While the room itself wasn’t as impressive, and it reminded him of the simple layout of the library, Daelyn felt odd in this room. He felt like something was missing, like a pressure that normally worked on him was suddenly gone, it felt like he had been able to relax all of his muscles.

As Daelyn was about to voice his worries, Orthrus interrupted him, and answered his questions before they even left his mouth.

“I prepared this room specifically for you. In the chest you can store some basic things that you might want to experiment on, , and some basic necessities that will help you survive some failed experiments. The bookcase contains a variety of different books on dark mana and blood mana, and the shelves on the right side contain empty mana crystals. The three doors on the far side of the room are a little special however. They will be the ones that will dictate some of your training. The doors are filled with different densities of mana, as they are meant to help you practise your auramancy. It’s clear that you have some talent for it, and it would be a waste not to make use of it. The four rooms, including this one, all have different mana densities. The mana density in this room is the lowest, and the door on the right has the highest mana density.”

Orthrus waited for a moment so Daelyn could take everything in, before he continued.

“I will give you some lessons on characteristics of dark mana and blood mana, and later I will teach you some basic spells. However, this is after you have learned to control your power. That is what the mana crystals are for, you will learn the most basic skill of a blood warlock in this room, so you aren’t inhibited by the ambient mana. You will use your mana to fill up those mana crystals, however there is a bit of a catch. Siphoning mana into a mana crystal is not easy, as you need to constantly concentrate to get the desired effect.”

Orthrus paused once again, he could see Daelyn’s expression be filled with anticipation, which surprised him a bit, since he found this an extremely boring task.

He walked over to one of the shelfs which held the empty mana crystals, took one, and walked back over to Daelyn.

Daelyn was quite amazed by all of this, as he had no idea that you could change the mana density in a room, but he felt very excited at the prospect of experimenting with his magic.

He greedily accepted the mana crystal Orthrus gave to him, and he couldn’t hide his excitement as he formed a large grin on his face.

Orthrus was delighted by Daelyn’s spirit, and started the lesson.

“Okay, before we start with your magic training, we are going over some basic things that will help you. You know that you will unlock the ‘system’ at the age of ten, right?”

Daelyn quickly nodded, and Orthrus continued.

“The variables the system produces, such as your stats, the statistics that represent your powers, or your skills, the quantified progressions of different kinds of magics or actions that you actively of passively perform, are based on your mana signature. The mana signature is consist of two parts, the first part is the core, which holds all of the information such as your statistics, or stats, your inherent physical and magical properties, and your current stamina, health, and mana. The second part consists of your different skills that orbit around the centre part.”

Orthrus took a deep breath, before he continued.

“The skills are divided into different rings. It isn’t known if there is a limit on the rings that one person can have, but it is limited by the person’s progression with their skills. This means that a person can’t have a lot of skills without first advancing their first or most basic ones. For example, the first ring is a ring which can hold two skills. Normally, if one of these skills has progressed a certain amount, the second ring will be created, which can hold eight skills. Skills which passively strengthen a stat, or increase its effectiveness, are normally situated closer to the core, while skills which only make use of the various energies a person has, such as their health, stamina, or mana, are normally situated farther away from the core. This is because such passive skills establish a stronger connection to the core, and have stronger attraction to the core. This is also true for skills that have higher levels, because they normally require more energy, or are more effective, and thus have more attraction towards the core. This makes it so that the first two rings of a person’s mana signature are normally referred to as a person’s core skillset. Mages are a bit of an exception to this, as their manipulation skills are normally in the core skillset, since they have a very strong connection to the magic that the mage uses, and thus the manipulation skills have a lot of traction, enough traction to get into the core skillset.

We will start with trying to get to your skillset. You should try and go to the soulspace, and  after that, you should try to turn you focus inwards on your own being, the mana signature will be there. Do not look at the core of the mana signature. I repeat, do NOT look at it, you could go insane from the overload of information. Your brain isn’t ready for that type of deal yet, maybe later.”

As Daelyn followed Orthus’ advise, he emptied his mind, and entered the soulspace. Once inside, he started to look inwards, he tried to break through the outer layer that encased his being inside the soulspace, and observe the mana signature.

As he looked in, there was a large surprise waiting for him, as his mana signature had been changed radically since his awakening. A change which would change Daelyn’s path once again, as his inheritance began to dictate it more and more.