Once he returned home, he sighed. He overheard several conversations about the ‘Smiling Devil,’ which meant the rumor spread fast. It was a little uncomfortable for him at first.
But then, he realized it could be to his benefit. No one could guess that he and the Smiling Devil were one and the same person, and the ‘smiling’ part now became even more misleading. Anyone who heard this title would instinctively think of a smiling man or monster. However, Illyan didn’t smile often.
This could misdirect the ones looking for him.
Hopefully, that would be so…
Just as he thought about it, he decided that it was time to go to the hidden room and check on his loot.
To be honest, he was thinking about it the entire time, and only with his strong willpower could he focus on something different.
So, now that he allowed himself to check them out, he was so excited that he almost hopped into the hidden room. Inside was still the unconscious Caleb, whom Illyan also checked to see if he wasn’t just pretending to be unconscious or whether his health hadn’t deteriorated.
Just in case, Illyan created a small nutritious pill that he pushed into his mouth.
The pill itself only had the most important nutrients and didn’t have any energy. That meant that Caleb’s body would have to burn its own tissues to survive. That was something Illyan aimed for, as the fat and muscles would be used first, which would make Caleb weaker.
Even if he was confident in winning against him, there was no need to test it out.
Once he made sure Caleb wouldn’t be a threat, he took out the things he collected.
It wasn’t exactly wise to have them in the same room with the captive, but Illyan didn’t want to take them out in fear of someone finding them. Even though he knew it was too paranoid, he didn’t want to take the risk. Rather, the risk of Caleb getting these things and using them against him scared him less.
He put away Caleb’s inventory that he had already inspected before.
The full-body armor, which now missed the chestplate, the longsword, and the set of throwing knives.
Instead, he took one of the barbs that had been stuck in his body before and inspected it.
Each was around the size of thirty centimeters and was smooth and sharp at its tip. Illyan played with it in his hands before deciding that they could be used in combat. Maybe he could find another purpose for them later on if the combat use would not be effective.
Then, he finally turned his attention to the prized belongings of the apprentice magister whom he killed in the arena. While the man wasn’t that hard to take care of, it was mostly because he depended too heavily on his attacks while not putting up any defense.
However, when Illyan thought about that attack, he felt shivers going down his spine. While he could regenerate, it depended on how severe the injury was. He was pretty sure that if he melted here and there, he wouldn’t be able to recover in months, let alone in the moment of the fight.
When he started to get through the things, the first thing that caught his attention was a small pouch. There were several purple coins he didn’t recognize and small pitch-black rocks that were somewhat familiar to him.
He guessed that the coins were currency outside of the kingdom, but he didn’t understand why the rocks were in the same pouch.
Were they a type of currency too?
What surprised him was that after looking at them for a long time, he started to feel small pulsations coming from them. The pulsations were definitely different from the spiritual energy, and so Illyan could calmly guess that it was mana pulsation.
Since he couldn’t guess what they were for, he turned his attention to other things.
First, there were three vials full of green liquid. Illyan saw the same vials used by the acolyte to heal other acolytes. While they were doing so, Illyan was secretly eavesdropping and looking at the results of the healing.
And his opinion was… If solely compared to his regeneration, then it was subpar. However, he never saw any other medicine that could achieve this level of recovery. Of course, it was probably primarily for healing physical wounds, and it wouldn’t serve as a universal panacea, but it was still useful.
Next, he found some incense sticks and powders. He already knew that one pouch of the powder was the troll sedative, so he let it be and then opened the second one.
It took him just a whiff to feel the difference.
His pupils dilated as his five senses were strengthened to a certain extent. He felt his perception of the surroundings extremely slow before it gradually dissipated, leaving an empty feeling in his heart.
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‘What was that?’ Illyan pondered. Then he remembered the day he went through the baptism. It felt a little similar. It was a strong perception of energy. However, this time it wasn’t Cold Energy, but probably mana.
‘Interesting…’
Thinking so, he looked at the rest of the loot. He left the best for last. Those were all written recordings the acolyte had on himself.
There was one book that Illyan recognized as a diary, two other books with black covers, and the rest were mostly loose parchment scrolls.
He looked at the first parchment and read the content.
They were notes. Probably of the acolyte. They were written in the Oberuan language, which was the common language of the continent, but Illyan had already learned it, so he didn’t have a problem at all.
‘The Mana Circulation Method works properly only if the user has mana talent of at least level five. However, depending only on mind while circulating the mana could cause high depletion at short notice and could even cause harm in the body if not careful. Thus, the delicate combination of the two should be used. Mind as the driving power and Mana Circulation Method as the guiding element driving it safely through the body…’
As Illyan read, he felt his blood boil and felt he found a golden vein.
‘Each strand of mana that is absorbed needs to be purified and refined before being carefully embroidered into Mana Nexus. The Nexus needs to be built in a dome shape where every strand of mana leans on others effectively supporting each other. Only once you become a Magister will the Mana Nexus solidify and be able to recover mana automatically.’
The man’s notes were the culmination of years of hard work. It was obvious that the acolytes didn’t have proper education and had to do everything through trial and error. Or, like Illyan, they could kill someone and steal their notes, as probably everyone had to record their knowledge.
Illyan finally understood how the power system of the robed men worked.
They absorbed the mana in the air or other materials rich in mana and put it in the artificial container called Mana Nexus, also called Mana Sea. This container should be built a little under the navel in the body where the energy can flow equally through each body part.
They also strengthened their minds to manipulate the mana easier.
Illyan looked at other parchments. When he unfolded one of them, his mind immediately stung with pain, but his mouth couldn’t help but curl up.
At the top was written in big letters ‘Mind Strengthening Runes.’
Underneath were some kinds of symbols. These were probably what was mentioned as runes. They were simply written with elegant calligraphy and didn’t seem special. But when Illyan looked at them, they seemed extremely difficult to look at.
The individual lines started to wave and even with Illyan’s golden eyes, he couldn’t remember them!
After the pain reached a certain threshold, he turned his eyes away from them. The pain didn’t affect his body but rather his mind. Because of that, he felt heavy brain fog and couldn’t focus for a moment on anything.
Then he noticed other instructions under the runes which explained how to gradually strengthen the mind with these.
He put it aside for now and looked at the other scroll. After another unfolding, he saw other symbols covering the parchment. This time, however, he didn’t feel pain.
There were many more symbols written there, but they were much sloppier. Some of them were obvious copies of the Mind Strengthening Runes but were visibly less mysterious. Then there were others and some notes on them.
Illyan guessed that the acolyte was trying something with the runes. Either learning how to use them or at least understanding them.
For now, he didn’t go through it since he didn’t understand it and there were no notes. They were probably in the diary.
So, he looked at the last parchment. This one was of higher quality than the other ones. When Illyan looked inside, there were the same symbols as on the previous parchment. The difference was that they were connected in difficult ways, creating certain geometrical shapes. At the top of the parchment was written ‘Blight.’
There was nothing else.
This made Illyan frown, but after several minutes of observing, he didn’t find anything special, so he decided to let it go.
The last two books were probably something even more interesting.
He browsed through the first one and found similar runes and geometric symbols, but this time they were divided into individual pages and explained. At the end, it showed a three-dimensional model of the spell called ‘Barrier.’
‘Spell Model?’ Illyan read the description of the spell and was thrilled.
‘Zero rank spell model of standard quality. It generates pure mana in a thin but wide shape enveloping the user and defending him from any threat from the outside, be it physical or magical. Its durability depends on how much mana is sent into it, but once the attacks reach beyond the first rank,
the spell won’t be able to endure.’
It was a spell for defending.
‘Hmm? Why didn’t he use it though?
If he used this, he had a chance to survive…’
Illyan pondered about it before he realized something.
Maybe these spell models were not the ones he had learned already but rather these that he was just learning. After all, having these books on your body after learning them was useless.
To prove his theory, he looked at the other books. If the book didn’t have the spell that the man used against him, then he was probably right.
Illyan nodded to himself when he opened the second book. The spell the acolyte used was some kind of acidic liquid, but this one was named Mana Rope.
It used pure mana to generate a thin rope of mana to bind enemies. However, this time it wasn’t a spell of standard quality but of grand quality. He didn’t know what that meant, but hopefully he would once he read the diary.
Actually, he hoped that the diary had a lot of answers to his questions. After all, the only thing he knew about the robed men came from Korin, who wasn’t trustworthy at all.
Thus, he put everything away carefully, fearing that he could destroy the precious parchment, and took the diary into his hands.
The diary was small and dirty. He even saw dried blood in it. He was sure that the man had used the diary for a long time.
He opened it and started to read the first page. Everything was in the Oberuan language, so he didn’t have a problem with reading at all.
‘In the year 5371 of the Oberuan Calendar, I, Armen, was born in the slums of Arkravav's capital Yihla. I lived there like a rat for nine years until I was kidnapped by what I now consider a ‘home’. Black Obsidian… One of the many organizations in northern Oberuan.’
‘When they took us with other kids to their headquarters, they used the tool for affinity measurement and then divided us into two groups. I have never seen the kids from the other group since then. It took me years to realize they were kids with insufficient talent in mana and so were then trained into knights and when they finally used up all of their potential in the body, they were turned into undead for the Darkstone War…’