After seeing that Erebus had acquired one of the skills he had in the {Basic Skills Package} through the System's prompts, he realized that there were three more slots available for him to fill. It did not take him too long to realize further that this meant he wouldn't be limited to a single type of magic like in most of the games and stories he had read!
With that knowledge in his mind, he tapped open the "Arcane Attunement" skill and was immediately greeted with three slots filled with three question marks and a filled slot for Shadow Magic. This is obviously the System making it clear that the slots were empty instead of showing a "[Empty Slot]" or a "[Available Slot]."
He tapped the second slot from the top and was greeted with a list of various magical schools he could select. From [Ancient Magic] to [Void Magic], Erebus looked at them all and knew he had to make three suitable choices.
Luckily, this came with a search function!
Without taking too much time, he came up with his three choices for his slotable magical schools.
==+==
Primal Magic
- Often called "Primordial Magic" or "Ancient Magic," it is known to be a very versatile school of Arcane magic that consists of delving beyond what is considered the normal magical prowess.
Necromancy (Death Magic)
- Known to be the magic which deals in the aspect of "Death" itself, this school of magic is the base for more advanced magic dealing with souls and the afterlife. In some rare cases, people who specialize in this school can gain immortality.
Storm Magic (Divination)
- Known to be the school which deals in the aspect of "Storm," this school of magic is a combination of Fire, Water, and Air magic to create powerful combative and utility spells. It is often known to forge brilliant inventors and scientists due to its innate ability to draw in clever people.
==+==
Now as to why Erebus chose these three? Well, he figured that having a powerful magic aside from his Shadow Magic would be beneficial to him in the long run.
Necromancy was an obvious homage to Mortis (the EG who brought him into the Galaxy and Variant Timelines some chapters back) and if he had the ability to wield Death magic, he could probably pass off any of his respawns as a powerful spell meant to ward being killed instantly.
As for Storm Magic? Well, if you had the ability to conjure lightning from your fingertips through the Force, wouldn't it be neat to pass it off as wandless Storm Magic in other worlds?
It made Erebus ecstatic to wield magical power to the point he was beaming with joy-unaware that due to his joy, his Lightside abilities in the Force grew in strength. This returned a sense of equilibrium to his soul and his rampant emotions that were tied with his Shadow Magic be calmed.
Now that he had fully unlocked the ability to wield magic alongside using the Force, Erebus knew that he had to return to Korriban. Using the System, he exited the dungeon-leaving it to be destroyed by the turbulent forces of the multiverse.
===+===
Meanwhile, in Wizard City, Bartleby had been feeling slightly uneasy. Malistare hadn't stolen the {Eye of History} yet in this point in time and yet even with his sight, the old Grandfather Tree could not have foreseen this event happening.
It was now the twilight hours and all of the professors for the Ravenwood schools had slept since the sun went down-including his friend Merle Ambrose. Bartleby and the school trees themselves were the only ones awake (albeit the young trees were tempted to sleep as well) during this time, but when the time reached the middle of twilight, a black-cloaked figure appeared in front of Bartleby.
This was not Malistare, however. This figure looked up at Bartleby with their eyes aglow with green energy and without giving the old tree a chance to ask anything, a cold silence blanketed over the school.
"Even with your Eye taken from you and kept away for many years to come, you will remember this, Bartleby. The One Who Moves in Shadow shall come to Ravenwood and be amongst those who come due to Merle's call beyond the Spiral. He will learn magic from this place and be unable to be expelled for he will help save the Spiral from the threats whose own shadows loom over all worlds. Do not fear him for his destiny shall take him far-farther than even the Spiral itself can cover-but instead pity those who align against him. For Death shall forever evade him until his soul has mended and no magic from the Spiral or any world he travels to shall mend it."
After it was finished being spoken aloud, even the young spell trees heard those words and etched them into their memory. Bartleby knew that the words spoken to him this evening were words of true prophecy uttered by a being far higher than himself in terms of power and above the law of {Absolute Fate}.
This meant that until the person comes, not even they could tell who it would be nor completely recall it.
===+===
Alex Forest (or Alex Fross as he liked to call himself) had been this once charming handsome fourteen year old half-blood wizard from London. His father was a pureblood from the Fross clan albeit they-like the Potters and Weasleys-were not listed among the Sacred Twenty-Eight. His mother was a muggle who specialized in biology and chemistry-graduating from Cambridge with a valedictorian.
Oddly enough, both of Alex's parents knew about each other through pure happenstance. She had encountered Alex's father through a shared hobby of gardening albeit his father had only gone to London that day to head towards Diagon Alley. When they crossed paths for the first time, they were smitten for each other.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
Understandably, it took them some time to get married since they wanted to cultivate their feelings a bit more before tying the knot. Once they both got married, Alex's mother was introduced into the Wizarding World and learned about this secret world-taking to learning about the customs like a fish to water.
After that, they had Alex. During the time he grew up, his mother had him enroll in public school to learn the basics (reading, writing, speaking English, etc) and he too took to this like a fish to water. His father and his side of the family were ecstatic to learn that their heir-despite being a halfblood-was showing signs of being a Ravenclaw in the future.
On his 11th birthday, it was believed he would receive his Hogwarts letter. Much to everyone's disappointment on his father's side, it hadn't arrived yet. Both of his parents (his mom knowing the customs about wizards and their magical maturity) were understandably concerned so they had gone to St Mungo's to learn more.
To their surprise, Alex's magical core was still forming and it would take four more years to fully complete. From their diagnostics, the healers hypothesized that upon fully maturing for the first time, Alex's magical core would be more robust than normal. After finding this out, his father informed his family of the results which received mixed positive results.
No one was angry since it was found out he wouldn't be a squib as they prided themselves on having the type of bloodline most receptive to selective breeding. They weren't like the Gaunt family who were all inbred purebloods from Salazar Slytherin or like the incessant Malfoy family who relied on bribes and backroom deals to attain notoriety. The Fross' were a family who were the type to choose their partners based on their inherent natural talent (like someone spending generations to achieve perfected or near-perfect genes) which made them have far greater natural talent than most wizarding families.
What made things even more interesting about the Fross family was their more modern ideals (early to mid 21st century than late 19th century) concerning gender identity and sexual orientation. Some of the Fross family had white, brown, and black skin tones, same-sex couples, and even identified as either or a non-binary gender. This made most wizarding families heavily dislike them, but fortunately for them, they were the type to hide their ideals in plain sight.
Going back to Alex, it was on his fifteenth birthday at exactly seven o' clock (07:00) in the morning that something unprecedented occurred. Like a piece of puzzle being put together and everything clicking into place, a burst of ancient magic flooded Alex's system (body systems of course) and triggered his first magical maturity. This had alerted the artefacts controlling acceptance into Hogwarts and it furiously wrote down Alex Forest's name.
It also set into motion the events described in the game Hogwarts Legacy.
===+===
Two weeks later on Korriban...
Erebus had slain the last challenging beast far away from the Academy. Ever since leaving the {Shadow's Embrace} dungeon, he hadn't touched his magical abilities, but not because he had to. He didn't unlock any spells for any of his schools of magic-not even the basic ones-so he couldn't use his abilities at all.
All he could do was reach level 20 to enable his departure from the Galaxy.
As for his cultivation, it was strangely kept at the peak of the Gold tier Mortal Refinement realm. Through his ability to gain experience points by killing wild beasts on Korriban, he kept himself from any of the big "cash cows" with Force sensitivity like that beast in Marka Ragnos' tomb. He also had Kreia teaching him more about his Force abilities-getting his level up to two in the process.
Apparently, levelling up {Force Manipulation} is exceedingly difficult even with a teacher involved. The only good news Erebus had at this point was that it gave him a higher degree of efficiency towards using the Force, but remained unaware of anything extra the skill had in store.
As for his {Inspect} skill that he had been using constantly for the last two weeks? It had levelled up to five as it was easier to train it like a muscle.
He had also gotten his basic {Martial Arts} and {Lightsaber Combat} skills up to level nine due to Kreia's training regiment with both at 75% and 65% respectively towards the next level. Erebus suspected that something would happen once he reached level 10 in his skills, but that would have to be seen at a later time.
As for the {Cloak of Shadows} and {Shadow's Epiphany} skills, he had reached level nine with 99% experience for the former while the latter was only level two with zero experience.
==+==
Shadow's Epiphany (Skill):
- Very little will be equal to you in this state and even the providence of those chosen by the world's will shall falter against you while in this state. Logic and reason give way to intense desire (+500% Damage Output; +200% Incoming Damage) for a short duration.
- Lasts for 2 minutes* with a cooldown of 30 minutes.
*This skill's duration increased by 1 minute.
[]
Cloak of Shadows (Skill):
- Enables the User to weave a cloak of shadows like a veil that can distort light with the capability of achieving greater feats.
- Lasts for nine hours* with a cooldown of 12 hours.
*The skill's duration increased from one hour to nine, but the cooldown reached the maximum duration of twelve hours.
==+==
From what Erebus knew, it was difficult to raise up some skills in the System than others, but he didn't mind the challenge set before him. He suspected that things were going to get even more wonderous and weird going forward, but again, he liked the challenge.
With his Money pouch full of an additional 8,800 credits due to his System converting some of the beasts' corpses into credits, he was at an even 10,000 credits in his pouch. Considering how many beasts he had killed with his combat skills, the tradeoff for conversions wasn't bad.
After killing the last beast he had been hunting, he received that blissful notification from his System.
==+==
》Congratulations, Host! You have reached Level 20!《
》Checking requirements...《
》You have completed the quest: {Rise of the Outworlder I}. Rewards have been distributed.《
》You have now unlocked the System feature: [Game Avatar]. This will allow you to create avatars in any world you choose and give them diluted aspects of your true self's abilities. Unlike your true self, these avatars will not have the ability to respawn upon death and if your avatar dies, you will be immediately returned to your original body.《
》You have received +1,000 Credits. You now have 11,000 Credits in your Money Pouch.《
》You have received +1,000 Experience Points. You are now Level 20 (1,000/81,000)《
》You have received 1x [Ravenwood Admission Letter]《
》You have received 1x [Hogwarts Admission Letter]《
》You have discovered multiple worlds! You now can travel to the following worlds: [The Spiral (Wizard101/Pirate101)], [Wizarding World], [Marvel Cinematic Universe], [DC Universe], [Earth 2138/Overlord], [Full Metal Alchemist (Anime Version)], and [Fairy Tail (Anime Version)].《
》Be warned! Some of the worlds you have discovered require a higher Level and Cultivation tier in order to travel to safely!《
》Congratulations! You have automatically accepted the next quest in your campaign: {Rise of the Outworlder II}《
==+==
When Erebus finally finished going through all of the notifications his System gave him, he had already returned to the Voidship. He was so excited to finally complete that quest that he rushed back and as soon as he arrived, Arch teleported him straight into the command deck.
Noting Erebus' excitement, Arch asked him "So, all of the Variant Timelines to explore. Where do you want to go?"
Erebus smiled and said where he wanted to go next...