"Stand up, boy!" a voice said. The owner of this voice was Chen Wu, the head of the Wu family. He wore a red, long-sleeved robe embroidered in golden and azure bear patterns along with golden shoes. He had short hair and piercing eyes with light brown irises. He seemed to be of Asian descent. On each of his index fingers were golden ruby rings. These rings represented his status as the head of the Wu family.
Along with him, 7 other men wearing similar but plainer robes were surrounding a young dark-skinned youth. The youth had short black hair, deep purple eyes and a tattoo of a hammer drawn underneath his left eye. He wore a plain, dirty, rugged white shirt and some tattered, black silk pants. His clothes were covered in blood and a clear cut could be seen across his abdomen. He was breathing heavily as he looked at the ground in front of him.
Lying down on the ground was the corpse of a man dressed in a fashion similar to the youths. His had a complexion similar to that of Chen Wu. His body was covered in wounds as it lay in a pool of blood. In his left hand was a pitch black hammer with glowing red straight line patterns. In his right was a sharp, long, sword. It had a white pommel embedded with red and green gems and a golden base. The symbol of a hammer could be seen underneath his left eye as well.
"Stand up!" Chen Wu said once again. He was starting to lose his patience with the youth who still did not move.
"Grab him!" he ordered the men on the left and right sides of the youth. The two men immediately walked forward and grabbed the youth by the arms and forced him to stand. The youth did not resist and continued to look at the corpse in front of him. The corpse was that of his foster-father. The man had taken him into his care and raised him after finding him when he was younger.
After his men made the youth to stand, Chen Wu took out a red oval crystal from a pocket near his chest and held it up. He then closed his eyes and muttered some words as he walked towards the youth. The crystal in his hand began to emit an eerie glow. A moment after, he placed the crystal in the centre of the youths chest. Upon contact, the crystal began to sink into the youth skin as if it was quicksand and a glowing red chain tattoo began to spread on the body of the youth causing him to scream in anguish. By the time the tattoo had finished spreading around the youth body, he had already passed out from the pain caused by the invasive object.
The two men then dragged him as their group started to follow their leader back to their family estate. The crowd that had been watching slowly dispersed and returned to their activities. Although this wasn’t a common occurrence, people weren't surprised when it happened. Slavery was after all allowed in Arhet, the Kingdom of Earth. "How unfortunate, to be the target of the Wu family." some of them sympathised with the youth. He was Imayhs Akriya, foster son and successor of Izo Akriya, one of the best smiths in the empire and the rumoured best of the Akriya smith family.
The men of the Wu family had travelled from the empire's capital, Xian, to recruit Izo to become a smith for their family. Izo refused because he did not want to leave his current life. Angered by the refusal, the arrogant visitors decided to use force to make him join and attacked him. After they saw that he would be fighting back to the bitter end. They decided to give up on making him join and instead killing him and forcing his only disciple into slavery for them as he was too strong for them to do otherwise. Having somewhat completed their objective, the men began their journey back to the capital.
----
A couple of days later Imayhs woke from his long slumber. He found himself in a smithy but he was chained to a pole in the middle of the workshop. The chains were long enough to allow him to move around the space without any problems. They looked to be made of obsidian which meant that he would not be able to break out of them. He noticed the red chain tattoo on his body and immediately recognized the slave insignia.
Slavery was a common practice in the higher echelons of the Arhet Empire. Usually the great families would take common folk as slaves on a whim. Since these folk had no power with which to resist the capture, they would submit to their fates and pray that their slaver would treat them well. Certain families trained their most loyal slaves in different arts and even treated them well so well that even though they had a status of slave they were better off than most of the common folk. The opposite was true, however, as some families saw slaves as objects that could be replaced on a whim and thus saw no reason to treat them with any care.
As he was looking around, Chen Wu entered the smithy. He had an arrogant smile on his face and carried the sword of Imayhs' father on his waist. Imayhs looked at him with disgust as he remembered the events that led to his capture. "Hello my slave." Chen Wu said to him acting as if he didn't notice the hate in his eyes. "Strangle yourself." Chen Wu then ordered as he raised him arm towards Imayhs.
Imayhs found that to his surprise, he could not stop himself from doing so. The moment Chen Wu had issued the command, his body had started moving. The moment his mind thought about resisting, the red chain patterns started to glow and severed his control of his body while causing him immense pain.
After Imayhs' body strangled itself without his control for about 10 seconds, Chen Wu issued the command to stop. Imayhs stopped strangling himself and quickly gasped for air. Chen Wu then said "Now you've seen what the insignia can do. If you do not defy my orders in the future, I will not use it and you will have your freedom. Maybe you might even be released from these bindings. If you defy me however, you will suffer."
Imayhs understood that he was currently powerless and said "I will obey."
"Looks like you're not as stubborn as that old fool." Chen Wu then said. Ignoring the anger on Imayhs' face as he said that, he continued "Since you did not give me any trouble, you will be fed well and the hammer will be returned to you. I expect quality work. Someone will deliver instructions to you later."
And so Imayhs began his days as a slave of the Wu family.
----
Two years passed since Imayhs had been captured by the Wu family. He was 18 now. Even though they had an arrogant attitude towards him, they did not mistreat him and because of that his physique continued to develop in a positive manner. He had met all the prominent members of the family and was even on good terms with some of them. He was currently receiving orders from Tian Wu, Chen Wu's son and heir to the Wu household.
Tian had very similar features to his father. He had one ring similar to his father's on his right index indicating his status. He was about the same age as Imayhs. Ironically he was not on bad terms with Imayhs and even treated him like a sibling since he had none. He would always come and talk with Imayhs and they would learn from each other. Imayhs taught him the basics of blacksmithing and in return he would teach Imayhs how to use various weapons. He was a once in a lifetime genius when it came to using weapons after all.
At first Imayhs had been vigilant but he eventually grew to like Tian. After the first year, Tian convinced his father to release him from the chains and allow his to leave the smithy whenever he was with Tian. Although most people, even commoners, would treat a slave with disdain in the capital, it never happened to Imayhs. Since he was always with Tian Wu, people would put on their best faces and so Imayhs and Tian had lots of adventures in that second year.
"I'd like that new glaive you were telling me about the other day." Tian said with a smile on his face. He was smiling because he knew that Imayhs' work was the best in the Empire. Since they were friends, Imayhs had shown him the skills that he had hidden from the rest of the world while he loading the Wu family’s weapon reserve.
"The payment, oh great master." Imayhs joked with Tian as he held his hand out.
Tian then took a scroll out of his sleeve and handed it to Imayhs. Imayhs had been waiting for this scroll for a long time. To a regular person it might look like a regular object, but once he had seen it, he felt a strange sensation attracting him to it and he was able to understand that it wasn't an ordinary object like it seemed.
He promised Tian that he would make him a powerful weapon as payment for acquiring the scroll. "Alright, I'll get around to it. It should be done by tomorrow." Imayhs said. The joy on face clearly showed that he was very thankful that his master and friend had obtained the scroll for him.
Imayhs moved towards a pile of ingots which was in a corner of the workshop. He took out a red and a black ingot from the pile. The materials were magmite and obsidian respectively, two very expensive and powerful blacksmithing materials. Only few blacksmiths were ever able to gaze upon them and he had a pile of them to himself.
He placed them inside a circular formation on top of a table which was located in the middle of the smithy. Other than the ingots was a long piece which seemed to be the future hilt of the new weapon. He then took the hammer which had been used by his father from the ground and grabbing it with two hand brought it up to his chest, perpendicular to the floor. His eyes, the tattoo under his left eye and the lines in the hammer started glowing in a purple light as a purple aura surrounded him.
Stolen novel; please report.
As he began to move towards the formation on the ground, he thought back to the time he had first learned this technique. Before he started forging in his younger days, his father had made him train his body past his limits under the saying "To forge the world, you must first forge yourself." Due to that rigorous training his body had attained a monstrous level of strength and his understanding of how to forge had been nourished before he had forged a single object. Due to his great aptitude with soul abilities, he was able to master this technique very quickly to the shock of his father.
He stepped into the formation as he changed his focus back to the present. The formation then also glowed in a purple light. As his eyes flashed, he entered a trance and the hammer started disassembling until all the pieces but the hilt had begun floating around the ingots while creating a 3 dimensional formation around the ingots which floated in the middle of it. The purple aura starting forming lines connecting the hammer fragments with each other. A 3 dimensional magic circle was made and began rotating with the ingots as the nucleus.
The ingots began to melt and enter their liquid state. The liquids then started to merge and take the shape of a blade. Imayhs then took his left hand from the hilt of the hammer and held it towards the floating formation. His moved his right arm to face his right side, still perpendicular. A red wave of mana then exited his left hand and moved towards the new blade. The red mana then started to smash against the blade while the purple mana of the formation kept it together.
This process continued for 20 hours. Imayhs was still in trance, a pool of sweat continued to grow as his body continued to drip. Still in trance, his altered voice called Tian "Stand on the other side of the formation and send your mana."
Tian moved as instructed, he understood that this was the most vital step as he had witnessed Imayhs use the technique once before. As he injected his mana into the formation, a green string of glowing mana started moving towards the still floating blade. As the blade absorbed the mana, its black base started turning green until it looked like it was made of jade. The blade had red glowing veins and a circle in the center of both sides of the blade. Each circle was purple and looked like a magic circle and had a hammer carved into it. This was Imayhs’ smith mark which stated that he was the one who forged this weapon.
Finally, Imayhs finally moved the hilt of the hammer back to its original position near the center of his chest and his left hand back on it.
The glaive's hilt which had been lying on the ground floated towards the blade and entered the floating magic circle. The hilt and the blade then merged and formed into one weapon. The purple mana connecting the hammer fragments started dissipating as the fragments started to gather back together on the hilt held by Imayhs. The floating glaive moved towards Tian.
Tian understood that only he could use this weapon. The formation which Imayhs had just used created weapons which would only allow the person who injected their mana into it during the forging process to use it. It was the reason why it took the colour of that person's aura and created distinct patterns for each individual.
After the blade and the hammer returned to their hands, both Imayhs and Tian fell to their knees. The forging process had tired them out, Imayhs more so than Tian. "Tell master that I will need to recover for two days." Imayhs said to Tian as he began to move towards the room that held his bed.
"I will. Thank you for this my friend." he nodded as he looked gratefully at Imayhs. He then walked towards the exit, ecstatic from the joy of receiving this great weapon. He couldn't wait to test it and moved immediately towards the training hall. He had a servant go tell his father that Imayhs would be unavailable for two days.
----
Two days later he woke up and found some provisions along with a note at his door. The note was an order from his master to stay inside the smithy for the next week and do whatever he wants. Something big seemed to be happening outside and the Wu family did not want to reveal their genius smith as someone might want to eliminate him for their benefit.
Since he now had enough time to spare, he hurriedly ate some of the food which was prepared for him and moved towards an empty area with the scroll he had obtained a payment for forging the weapon. When he opened it he found text that it seemed to be a story about a lost library. He read it over and over trying to understand the secret behind the story. After he read it a few times, he would stop and train in order to clear his mind in hopes that he could have an insight on the contents of the scroll. This process was repeated for four days.
On the fifth day however, he had a strange idea. What would happen if he were to do something like drop his blood onto the scroll he asked himself. He had read stories of people activating magical objects by feeding it their blood and he decided that it was worth a shot. He took a knife that was laying around the room and made a small cut on the thumb of his right hand. He then dripped some of the blood on a part of the scroll which did not have any writing. He did this so that if it didn't work, the damage wouldn't be too great.
As soon as the drop made contact with the scroll, some of the letters began to shift and the blood disappeared. He figured that it needed more blood so he made a horizontal cut on his right palm and started pouring his blood onto the scroll. After he had lost about a bowl of blood to the scroll, the story was replaced by a magic circle. In the center of the circle were two runes which by some strange luck he recognized. One was the rune for blood and the other was for mana.
Seeing the circle he determined that he needed to give both his mana and blood to the scroll. He took his left hand, placed it on the scroll and began to send his mana out through the palm of his hand. Immediately the scroll began forcefully drawing mana out of his body through his palm which was now locked into place and absorb it.
As the mana continued to inject itself into the scroll, a strange sensation overtook his body. He had only felt this sensation on the day he was captured. As his father lay dying, something in his soul snapped and he momentarily entered a state of mindfulness. In that state, he managed to draw the soul of his leaving father into himself and obtained his father's power.
That power was the power he had used to craft Tian's weapon. People assumed that he had this power since birth just like his father but he knew the truth. When the scroll had almost drained him dry of his mana, it turned into a black stream of mana which moved into Imayhs through the spot where his third eye would be located. As the mana entered his body, Imayhs felt a quick sharp pain before entering a trance as the scroll activated.
A moment later, his consciousness found itself in a strange realm. He was standing on a circular platform in the middle of a pool of purple mana. In front of him was a black waterfall of mana that covered half of the platform and merged with the pool below it. Other than that, nothing but emptiness could be seen around the strange space.
Still in trance, Imayhs walked into the waterfall and sat in it.
"I am the stream of souls. Ask what you wish to know." a voice resonated in his head.
"How do I use this power?" Imayhs responded to the voice.
As he finished his sentence, a tendril of black mana moved towards his head and connected it to the waterfall. The knowledge of how to activate this power and what it's uses were came to him. He had to find remnant souls and draw them into the scroll to learn their respective abilities. This meant that he could use any power that existed in the world as long as he was able to absorb it. If he absorbed it without the consent of the soul however, he would have to fight it and if he lost, he would be consumed by 4the scroll as payment which would kill him and shatter his soul into fragments, eternally trapping him in the void.
"How do I increase my mana capacity?" Imayhs felt that he was running out of mana and decided to use his last remaining bit of time wisely.
Information once again flowed through the tendril into his mind. Right before his mana completely depleted, the technique finished embedding itself into his mind and he fell out of trance into unconsciousness due to using so much mana to access the new power. Unbeknownst to him however, the mana of the scroll which had entered his body was currently making changed inside his body and his soul. It was releasing some of the seals on his powers and awakening his true soul.