Glenn looked at “Research and Study of Corruption” and reread the pages he'd marked the night before to make sure he'd understood them perfectly.
The first and most important component of the book, which is repeated on almost every page, is that Power means Corruption. Power, which is used in the book to put Aura, Mana, and Divinity in the same category. The three energies were unnatural sources of strength and gave an individual power that shouldn't belong to anyone. Destructive and creation powers, which can destroy the balance of the world. A single man could ruin a city or more, and so, Corruption seems to be the balancing element for these powerful individuals. The stronger, the more chances to get Corrupted. Divinity was also a source of power, one that came directly from the user's deity. The Silence Curse was a Divinity-powered curse, provided by Epinos, the God of Pain and Redemption, a god Glenn had a blood feud with, by the way. Wasn't that a funny thought?
Corruption was the consequence of mental instability combined with uncontrollable power and led to monsterification. "A terrible fate, but one that all Power users should be aware of", in the book's author's own words. Vandorian Di Forte, the totally-not-relative of Astrid Di Forte appeared quite pessimistic in his book. It got to the point where Glenn wondered if Vandorian had lost close friends to Corruption...
On a more technical side, Vandorian provided quite a bit of "statistical" data on Corruption. Nolan had called this book simple, but it was all but that. The first thing that interested him, of course, was the potential for militarization. There always was some guy that wanted to militarize the terrible stuff, don't they? At first, Glenn couldn't quite see the "advantages" to Corruption, but Vandorian then wrote that most Corrupted had an increase of over one hundred percent in power, some even more depending on their transformation stages. Older Corrupted can regain their intellect, but it will be tainted with Corruption, forcing them to be monsters for the rest of their miserable lives.
Since there was such a massive power boost, it was no wonder why Vandorian wanted to control Corruption. But he failed, and in the process, discovered more about how Corruption affected an individual and transformed their bodies into ones suited for monsters. He even managed to somehow follow the monsterification process with his own eyes: when the Corruption took over the affected individual, it changed the flow of Mana — the test subject was a Magi for this experiment — and redirected it to flow inwardly from the body to the Mana Heart. The test subject became a Mana vacuum, basically, and overcharged his Mana Heart up to the explosion. Normally, for a normal individual, they would simply die, their hearts exploding from within their chests.
But, for the Corrupted test subject, what happened was very different. The heart mutated into a much more robust shape, allowing it to endure the charge of the Mana Overload. It had the consequences of also modifying the whole body to become a suitable host for the Corruption, leading to the process of monsterification. The test subject's intellectual capacity then changed from an experienced, sixty-year-old Magi to one of a toddler. A mentally deranged toddler, with immense power and extreme bloodlust. It'd be probably more suitable for Corrupted to be named beasts, at this point.
Vandorian then stressed that his experiments never allowed him to see what would happen if an extremely powerful individual got Corrupted, like an Archmagi, an Aura Saint, or a high-ranked priest. So that remained to be seen for further consequences. But for individuals up to the Fifth Circle, the previous experience seemed to repeat in the same fashion, with some small differences. An Aura user would flood his body with Aura, which usually led to instant death, and increase their physical capacities tenfold, while Divinity users would summon cosmic creatures to destroy the world and assimilate with their bodies.
On that last note, Vandorian was adamant in saying that Divinity users were the most dangerous and unstable victims of Corruption, for the changes they would endure depended on the God they served.
Reading the book left quite a taste of ash in Glenn's mouth, but he was glad he read it anyway. This was a lot of information he would have never obtained on his own, even though it felt like some things were missing in Vandorian's book. What was the relation between insanity and Corruption? Why would the first lead to the second? That was the main point Glenn couldn't understand; why would losing one's mind inevitably lead to losing control of one's power? Back on Earth, some individuals affected with terrible mental illnesses were still more than capable of creating the most evil, cruel plans to harm others.
What part did Power — Mana, Aura, and Divinity — play in all of this mess?
What was sure was that Glenn wouldn't be able to answer these questions right away. So instead, he closed “Research and Study of Corruption” and stored the book in his dimensional pouch.
"...I sure hope I won't go insane due to the two idiots in my mind..." Glenn muttered as he threw on a simple brown assortment of clothes. Nelg didn't lose a single second to counter his host's words.
"You do know insulting me is the same as insulting yourself, right?" The sword remarked with a wicked tone, while Diamanes laughed mockingly, the mouth appearing without restraints in Glenn's left palm, showcasing its peerlessly white teeth.
“Heh, I'm pretty sure that you, of all people, can't comment on someone else's intellect, Glenn."
Glenn ignored both of them as he ate a quick breakfast of grilled toast, butter, and bacon, and cleaned his teeth with a nice Aqua Mundare. He thanked once again whoever nameless legend was the inventor of Mundare, and left his suite. Milena and Liara had left a while ago, and from the message they left Glenn on the living room table, they were going to take some Fixer contracts to earn money. Milena had already led Liara through the Fixer recruitment process at some point, and the Black Heir had earned the best rank, Silver. Glenn had no doubt she could earn her way up to Dark Gold if she wanted to. She was super strong after all.
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"Today's goal is..." The young man pondered aloud, trying to review his priority list. Right now...farming souls was the main thing, so he should probably do that...Also, he needed new Soulbound clothes, so he'll have to visit the Armory at some point. Hopefully Rusty was back, or someone replaced him. He preferred Rusty, but he'd do with anyone to get back a Soulbound set of clothes. Maybe a few of them, so losing one wouldn't be that much of a big deal, and to have some choice too.
Glenn left the Dormitory and headed straight for the Armory. He entered with hopes and dreams of finding the ginger-bearded dwarf. These hopes were shattered when he crossed eyes with a muscular old man standing behind the counter. He was wearing a thick leather apron and a massive hammer was resting on his shoulder while he puffed on a cigar. He had no eyebrows, which gave him some kind of crazed-out look.
"Hmf, another scrawny guy..." The old man grumbled as he crushed his cigar on the counter. Glenn grimaced and walked up to him, before looking around the shop.
"...Rusty isn't back yet, I take it?" Glenn asked with the same lack of politeness the old man showed him. The latter smirked and adjusted the position of the hammer on his shoulder.
"Hah! Sorry to break the news to you, but Rusty isn't coming back! The dwarf has gone into hiding 'cause his boy created something he shouldn't have created."
Glenn lifted an eyebrow. Rusty had to go into hiding...Wait, was it because the Smith made Nelg? The two did disappear after the creation of the Soul weapon... He could only hope they were well. The young man looked at the old man and moistened his lips.
"I came because I wanted to get myself a few Soulbound suits. Is it feasible?"
The old man looked up and down at Glenn's brown, cheap clothes and shrugged.
"Sure, if you can pay."
Glenn wordlessly summoned his Black Gold dagger and stabbed it into the crushed cigar and the counter. The old man squinted at the dagger, before coming out of the counter and taking a closer look at Glenn.
"...Mage or fighter?" He asked, circling Glenn, before answering his own question, "...Both, then. Hmf, you talked to me about some suits, huh? I guess you want it stylish as well..."
The young man didn't say a word and waited patiently. Finally, the old man sighed and went back to the counter to take the dagger.
"...Alright, and you also have practically unlimited credits..." The old man rubbed the back of his bald head and turned away to the back of the shop.
"Come back this evening, I'll have it ready," He said without looking at Glenn and paused for a few seconds. After that, he sneered and turned to the young man, "...And don't expect my stuff to be as good as what Rusty could make. I'm a weapon maker, not a fucking tailor, 'aight?"
Glenn nodded with a small grin as the old man entered the back of the shop. The young man smacked his lips and left the Armory. That went better than he thought it would have. The old man looked rough, but he also looked like he was going to get the job done, which was good.
"Time to go farm some souls, then?" Nelg asked with an interested tone. Glenn passed his tongue over his teeth.
'Yep. Let's go see if I can get Kevin to spare me the contract parts unless he gave his resignation letter to his higher-ups.'
Diamanes grunted with dissent, 'The rat, even though you scared him shitless, will probably stay with you. The higher-ups probably consider that putting someone else in charge of you is a bad move since another error the same kind as with Josh will likely repeat. Kevin already knows what he shouldn't do.'
Glenn nodded at the sharp explanation. Now that Diamanes explained it, it did make some sense. In the end, he would only know after asking for his assistant at the main hall. On these wise thoughts, Glenn entered the main hall and headed straight for the pretty but probably non-human ladies handling the counter. The lady looked up at him and didn't even give him the time to state his demand.
"Hello, Sir Glenn. Your assistant Kevin will be here shortly," She said with a smile. Glenn paused for a second, before smiling back.
"Thank you."
After waiting for a few minutes, Kevin finally showed himself, with wide, dark circles under his eyes and hair even messier than usual. His notepad, instead of being tightly clenched against his chest like usual, was barely hanging from his hand. Glenn almost wanted to grimace at this sorry sight but restrained himself from doing so.
"H...Hello, Sir Glenn," Kevin spoke soullessly, not even daring to look into Glenn's eyes. The young man rubbed his chin for a second, his lips pressed. It seemed like what he told the assistant the last time was weighing on the poor man. On one hand, that meant it worked and Kevin probably won't pull the same stunts as with Josh, but on the other hand...
Glenn grabbed Kevin's shoulder, startling him. "Hey, Kevin. Don't worry too much about what I told you last time. I was just in bad shape from having to kill someone I personally knew."
Kevin looked up at Glenn with suddenly hopeful eyes, "You...You're not going to fire me?"
Glenn blinked, before shaking his head.
"Nope."
The assistant's mouth gaped open slightly, and the dark circles under his eyes seemed to slightly lighten. Perhaps it was an optic illusion, but Kevin did look a little better now.
"A-Alright. Uhm, I prepared today's work, would you like to have a quick brief?"
Glenn grinned and looked at the notepad.
"Sure, let's see what we're killing today...Oh, a ghost?" The young man's eyebrows rose when he saw that specific word on the list. Kevin looked up at him and frowned slightly.
"...Have you never taken care of one, Sir Glenn?"
Glenn shook his head, curious.
"No? What the hell does a ghost even look like? Is it like some floating soul you need to exorcise or something?"
Kevin looked emptily at his boss for a few seconds, before pulling himself together.
"Uhm, no, it's not...well, you're not wrong either, but..." The assistant seemed to struggle to find his words. Glenn passed his tongue over his teeth, before shrugging.
"Whatever. What can I use to kill it? Magic, sword, both?"
Kevin shook his head and pulled out a small, iron crucifix. Glenn's eyes opened widely, scoffing as he thought back to all the horror movies he watched on Earth.
Was he going to exorcise a ghost for real?
'Glenn, in the role of the Exorcist!' Diamanes's voice suddenly rang with exaggeration, while Nelg added his grain of salt.
"Careful, this movie is recommended to adults only!"
Glenn laughed and patted Kevin on the back.
This promised to be fun.