I sit down and start meditating. I try to feel the mana that's in the surroundings as explained.
According to the book, there are three things one needs to have to able to use magic. Those are mana, a clear understanding of what to accomplish, and the will to perform it.
As mana is everywhere, my body subconsciously absorbs mana just like how I breathe air in and out without any constant effort on my side.
I need to observe this process thoroughly to slowly understand the idea of how I absorb mana from my surroundings After getting a good idea of what mana is, I should try to manipulate it. Just a little.
I sat there meditating trying to feel the mana entering my body and it took around six hours to feel it. And by the time I was able to manipulate the mana in the surroundings, it was already late into the night.
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Skills Unlocked : Mana Perception, Mana Manipulation
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Although I unlocked two skills related to mana, I don't plan on adding them to the list right now.
I still don't have any idea how the system works. I'll wait for a while to learn as much as I can and then proceed with adding skills to my list.
I keep manipulating the mana for a while and go to sleep after that.
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Even though I didn't add the newly unlocked skills into my list, I spent up to three hours manipulating the mana in my surroundings after my daily training this morning.
After that, I was ready to explore again.
I do have a basement to explore but I plan to do that after completely exploring the library. I would like to find as many books as I can first. Information is very important to me right now.
Yesterday when I fought with that skeleton, my improvised staff made from the Averich branch was almost broken so I need a new one.
I throw away the almost broken branch and climb the nearest Averich tree to find a branch that is three-quarters of my height and as thick as my arm and break it down.
With that height and thickness, I can comfortably hold it with a single arm and that reach also helps in my future fights by keeping my enemies at a distance.
With the weapon secured, I can go back and finish exploring the rest of the library.
I leave all the books I found until now at the base of the statue of Tharros in the Summoning Temple, take my new staff, and move towards the library once again.
After reaching the library, I move towards the second floor, carefully scanning to see if there are any more skeletons lying around. Luckily or unluckily, there is nothing that moves on this floor. The floor design is similar to the first floor.
Same as before, I progress through the whole floor, touching each book and I found two books on this floor. I skimmed through the books, it looks like these two books are about the prestigious organizations of the Empire that it was proud of. I'll go through it more thoroughly after I reach the Temple.
I leave the books by the stairs for the next floor and move up.
Here, I found an intricately made wooden door with a board in front of it with a big warning saying that this is a restricted area and only the current Emperor was allowed inside. There is no one here to stop me so I tried pushing the door but it wouldn't budge. It stayed locked no matter how hard I pushed.
I'm new to magic and even I can feel the mana flowing from the surroundings into the door, that's how large the mana flowing through it is. I tried pushing it for a few more minutes but I couldn't, it seems there is some kind of lock on it. Must be locked magically.
Either I need a key or I should be proficient enough in mana manipulation to unlock it without a key. As I'm not that good at mana manipulation, I'll come back later when I found a key or if I decide to add Mana Manipulation to my skills and improve upon it.
For now, I take the two books I found on the second floor and move towards the Summoning Temple planning on reading them before resting.
After reaching the Temple, I sit down on the floor and start going through the new books I've found on the second floor.
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It seems each of these books is about different organizations that have made a name for themselves during the era the Empire was ruling the continent.
These organizations were built around a specific class and the different variations and upgrades of that class that can be gained when a set of requirements to gain that specific class are satisfied.
They were kept in the library to commemorate the organizations in these books for their accomplishments. Moreover, if there was ever a time new ideas are desired to create some other organization to focus on a particular issue in the future, they can use these books as a basic reference to create their own or just copy the old ones from the past to recreate them as new ones after they are long forgotten.
There must have been more of these books but only these two survived whatever happened here.
It's fascinating to go through these two books and to think about these organizations that had such great achievements during their lifetimes. There were different kinds of them in these books, ranging from intelligence departments whose presence was never known to the outside world to the prestigious knight orders that were popular all over Ahera.
In particular, I was fascinated by an Order directly under the command of the Emperor. It was created to complete the most difficult of tasks anywhere on the continent. These tasks can be anything from assassinating a noble who was trying to rebel, to hunt down a powerful monster that was terrorizing some parts of the Empire. This Order can be said to be the most elite hunting dogs of the Emperor.
This Order of hunters can swiftly travel across the continent, proficient in both combat and space magic. And most importantly they can't be tracked or investigated even by the most stringent of detection methods.
It appears this order wasn't able to last for a very long time as the most important requirements to join this order is to swear their undying loyalty to the Emperor and to have an affinity for space element. The space mana affinity is a must, as apart from combat, it has a lot of utility as it helps with storage and also with traveling around the Empire which spans the huge continent.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
It is ridiculously rare to have an affinity for space as it is an element of Phantasmal grade. Those who are lucky enough to have it mostly become mages so that they can enjoy the privileges that come with being one of the few people who can transfer important people over long distances.
Those who did join the order did become powerful hunters but in return, they were sent after more powerful targets where they either succeeded or died fighting. This was the main reason for this order's decline and eventual disappearance from the Empire's history.
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Phantasmal grade.
Is this grade that rare?
Then its rank should be high among the five grades I know.
Wasn't that the grade of my perk Summoned Being?
That perk also allowed me to select a Perfect rank affinity for any element at or below Phantasmal grade.
Doesn't that mean I could directly select space as my affinity?
The more I read about this order, the more I felt it suited me. Not the going around and hunting targets for the Emperor like a loyal dog part. But the rest like the ease of travel, storage, combat-oriented. And the most important of all, that no one can track or investigate me.
If what the book says about Phantasmal grade is true then I want to hide it from everyone. I don't want to be interrogated or worse tortured by some noble who saw the rarity of my perks and skills and wants to know how I got them.
If anyone tries to appraise me after the class change, they only get the basic information that one would expect from any standard class I select. And as for tracking, they will be pointed in some random direction every time they try.
This is the part that made my decision, as it is very important for me to able to move freely anywhere I choose without getting bogged down by anyone.
Just in case, I go through both the books to check if any other options suit me better but no this class is the one that suits me down to my interests.
Let me see, to gain this class I should remain classless until I fulfill the rest of the requirements.
Those are to have at least one type of weapon mastery, an affinity to the space element, to hunt at least five elite targets whose levels are higher than my total levels, to have at least one attack, defensive, and movement skill. Finally, I need to make a life-binding oath to never defy the Emperor's order even if it results in my death which in my case will mean nothing as there isn't any Emperor here for me to swear my oath to.
After satisfying all the requirements, I need to undergo a ritual that would then make the necessary adjustments to my body and automatically upgrades my class. The irony is that the ritual that I need to undergo would be performed in this buildings i.e. Summoning Temple's basement. The same basement whose exploration I keep on postponing.
Now, I guess I don't have a choice.
During the ritual, I would be immersed in an unknown alchemical mixture made from the essence of different monsters that have the abilities relating to shapeshifting and blocking any kind of investigations and tracking. This alchemical mixture would then make some adjustments to my body by incorporating the very essence of these monsters such that no one will be able to track or investigate me. These changes will then take form into a type of perk.
Hmm.
Remaining classless and gaining the required skills may take time but I have time and the affinity problem will be easily solved by using the chance provided by my perk. That leaves the elite target hunt.
What is an elite monster?
And what does it mean by total level?
Total level must be my race and class level combined.
As for elite monsters, I open the monster encyclopedia and check it for any mention of them.
Found it.
It looks like when a monster from the same species as others around it grows powerful enough to dominate every other monster around it, it will be recognized by the system. This recognition is given in the form of a name and some powerful abilities, these monsters are called elites.
Named monsters are considered to be elites whereas the normal ones are the common ones of their species. Even if both monsters are of the same species, the elites are more powerful and a lot tougher to fight when compared to the normal ones.
That's also the reason they are very rare and provide more experience compared to normal ones.
Now that I have an idea of how to get a class, let me use the opportunity provided by my perk to get the space element affinity first. I think about selecting space as my element to gain a Perfect rank elemental affinity from the opportunity provided by the perk Summoned Being and then silence, nothing happens.
Hmm.
Did I gain it?
I'm not even sure whether I've gained the space elemental affinity or not.
How do I check?
As I couldn't make heads or tails of the situation, I open the book about magic and check the chapter that talks about elemental affinity. Okay, it says here that the easiest way to distinguish if one has an elemental affinity to a particular element is by using a magic tool that is normally used for checking the elemental affinities of any being.
It looks like there are different rarities in the tool, as the most Common grade one can only detect if one has a Common elemental affinity or not. And the next grade Uncommon one for both Uncommon and Common rarity, and so on according to the grade of the magic tool used.
It seems my guess was right. Grades are similar to rarity and the first grade is Common and after that is Uncommon.
If I go by the relation give here, I need at least a Phantasmal grade magic tool to be able to check whether I gained the space elemental affinity. Not to mention Phantasmal grade I don't even have a Common grade tool with me, so this method isn't going to work for me.
I check the book for any other options.
The only other way is through experimentation and one such method is to check against each element by trying to manipulate each element one by one, to check if any element responds to my will, which due to the innumerable elements present in the world, is almost impossible.
Hmm.
According to the book, it is assumed that those who have a Perfect rank affinity for any element can always manipulate it easily when compared to others. They don't need to use any medium such as magic formula, spell matrix, magic circle, etc. to use their magic effectively. But none can prove it as no one had a Perfect rank elemental affinity in centuries now or those who had it didn't come forward to confirm the hypothesis.
Let me see if there is any truth to that hypothesis.
As I'm already sitting on the ground, I try and meditate to feel the mana in the surroundings.
Before this, I used to feel that there was a mixture of different kinds of vapor flowing all around me. But now aside from this mixture of vapors, I feel as if there is some sort of silver fabric that is innately connected to me, present everywhere. I don't know how but I immediately understand that this is the spatial fabric of the world around me.
I try to move the fabric.
Although a little reluctant at first, after a few minutes it moves slowly according to my will. I can't believe how easy it is to manipulate this fabric. I feel like I knew how to do this from birth. It's just that I didn't see the need for it before so I left it alone, and now that I need it, it answers to my will as if a part of me is returning to me after a long time.
Name : Janus Arthridge
Race : Human
Level : 1
Bloodline : N / A
Class : N / A
Level : 1
Health : 100 / 100
Stamina : 150 / 150
Mana : 100 / 100
Attributes
Strength : 10
Dexterity : 15
Vitality : 10
Endurance : 15
Resilience : 10
Perception : 10
Intelligence : 10
Wisdom : 10
Willpower : 10
Attribute Points : 0
Skills
Appraisal Lv.1
Stealth Lv.2
Meditation Lv.3
Skill Slots : 7
Perks
Otherworlder
Summoned Being
Polyglot