It didn’t take long before I noticed a change in the black-tinted surroundings. At first, it was almost unrecognizable, but the changes were dialed up a few notches when I glared at my staff.

My eyes snapped wide open when the mana that was trapped inside of my orb was drained away to a spot far away at a remote distance. It was subtle when it first happened — in fact, I almost missed it — All that I saw was a small streak of dark green mana oozing away from the crystal. Instincts told me to follow wherever this streak lead, and with no other direction to go, I followed it.

The closer I got to the location where the streak was pointing, the stronger the draining effect. So strong that I had to feed more mana into the staff to keep the magic primed.

I kept a constant eye on my mana pool, which was rapidly decreasing before I noticed an object materializing from the streak of mana it had collected. The darkness around the object swelled, causing a distortion of light around it, and then, bit by bit, the object morphed into a familiar shape: A book.

In terms of its appearance, it was thick, and both covers at each end of the book were engraved with a decoration of dark steel that hummed with a strange trickle of my mana. Over time, my mana ran out as the glow of my orb vanished, consumed by the darkness, leaving the book and me alone, facing each other.

There were tiny lines covered by the ornaments on the cover which glowed the same color my Death Bolt did. A strange circular, unknown pattern was carved onto the surface of the cover, a shape that I couldn’t understand or describe; It was alien and demonic, yet, familiar and comforting at the same time.

An unknown force compelled me to approach. I was floating between the realm of consciousness, only to be woken up by a powerful surge of pain bursting forth from the tips of my fingers when I touched the book. Yelling from the pain, I knelt while the book latched onto my hand, tendrils sprouting from the metallic ornaments on the cover, spreading from my hands, all the way to the core of my soul.

“So, the sanctum chose you.” A familiar voice broke me from the sensation that overwhelmed me. It was a voice that I had heard before, a voice that I never once thought I’d hear in this darkness.

The Observer.

Strutting on top of the dark patches of the floor, he peered his head to the side, watching the book with a level of interest that I couldn’t understand. “If you’ve gotten this far without dying, then-”

“GAAHhHHH!!” I screamed when one of the tendrils pierced my chest. I felt something slithering around my ribcage, attempting to find a passage into my heart. I writhed under the gruesome feeling of having my insides ravaged inside out, and despite my best efforts to ask for help, my lips failed me.

A chuckle escaped his unseen lips.

“Interesting… I hope you survive whatever that book had in store for you- I watched his head turn to his left side as if he was looking at a screen not so different from mine, “-Gray. Gray Mors? That your name?”

Slither.

There were no words in the English language to describe the disgusting sensation of a thin, foreign object caressing a person’s heart. The feeling was more than just abhorrent, it was vulgar and sinister at the same time.

Stab.

Then, the coup’ de grâce. Tiny pinpricks sprouting from the tendrils pierced my beating heart. I didn’t know if a human’s heart had the sense of touch, but what I felt when it was stabbed was visceral, as if a massive needle had just penetrated my soul.

I screamed and yelled, cried, and howled, but none of my voice came out. In fact, on the outside, I knelt still as if I was frozen in time. Whatever that was that I felt at this moment, none of it was reflected in the outside world. Yet, this — whatever this is — was as real as it ever got.

Pain? This isn’t pain. This is torture.

All the while, the Observer stood behind me, watching every twitch of my muscle with a gleeful interest.

The tendrils drew back after molesting my insides, which felt like an eternity of suffering to me. A message appeared in my view when I regained control of myself, and also, with the book firmly within my grasp.

The Death’s Compendium

Rarity: Innate | Affinity: Death | Tier : 0 - upgradeable.

A book which souls could be stored into. You can integrate a stored soul into your core being temporarily, gaining additional attributes or skills based on their base attributes. Only one soul can be integrated at a time. A higher tier of this spell will grant more attributes from your currently integrated soul.

Attributes gained are temporary, as long as the soul is integrated.

Souls can be used for other purposes.

Currently stored souls : 0 / 5

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Soul Extraction

Rarity: Innate | Affinity: Death | Tier : 0 - upgradeable.

Extracts the soul out of a non-undead entity. The souls will then be stored in the Death’s compendium. At tier 0, all souls will only retain half their original strength. The attributes they provided when integrated will be reduced by 90%.

Conditions :

- Level of the entity must be equal, if not lower than yours.

There were no words that needed to be said. The relief from my long breath was more than enough to show how euphoric I was that I escaped whatever the hell happened when I touched the book.

He clapped his hands. “Fantastic.”

I was so absorbed why what just happened that I almost forgot the Observer that was standing behind me. When he realized that he’d caught my attention, he pointed at the book.

“To think that the sanctum chose someone like you…”

What the hell is he implying? “What? What are you saying?”

“Nevermind. You’ll figure it out yourself in the future. To be honest, I’m only here to see what kind of candidate the sanctum had selected for the book. I have to say-” He paused, scratching the lower part of his mask, “-I’m disappointed.”

As I stared into his mask, a million questions ran through my head.

He appeared to know what I wanted to ask next, but as I was about to, he held his arm, “Nope. I won’t answer your questions, Gray. That will happen once you cleared the trial.”

Turning around, He walked straight into the black void ahead. I watched the darkness consume his figure, leaving me back to being alone. “Good luck.”

Mission Completed - ???

Rewards - 1: The Death’s compendium

Rewards 2: 100 points.

Why is he here?

[Mission completed. Returning to the Trial nexus in 5 minutes.]

A lot of the things he said made no sense, especially the things about me somehow surviving the clutches of the book, and what he said after. Although, I failed to see why I would trust another who showed no interest in my own well-being.

Regardless, my attention shouldn’t be on him.

The Death’s compendium was a strange acquisition to get in this black space, but I wouldn’t say that it wasn’t worth all the trouble to get it. The book itself was weightless, which incited a disturbing feeling when I held it up high. It felt like I was holding up the air; if you could imagine how that felt.

I pried over the contents of the book. The ornamental cover was intricate to the touch, it elicited a touch of greenish spark when I turned the pages. There were no contents written on the pages, and upon a deeper inspection, I discerned that the pages themselves weren’t made of paper. Each of them hummed with a mysterious force, like how my mana felt when it was primed inside the orb of my staff.

The passage given by the skill descriptor mentioned that I could integrate the soul I captured into my own, granting additional attributes. It sounded crazy, but it had its limitations; I could only integrate one soul at a time, and the buffs would be removed if the soul was retrieved back into the book.

Speaking of souls… This compendium granted me another spell; The Soul Extraction. The wording of the spell was clear enough, however, it indicated that the soul I extract would be about half as strong as it was, which wasn’t a great thing, but it was foolish to conclude the effectiveness of this magic without watching its effects first.

But… Without a speck of soul in store, I couldn’t test this spell at all. I debated walking back and absorbing the souls of the snakes, but the darkness and the timer stopped me from doing so.

[Returning to the Trial Nexus]

###

Inside his chamber, The Observer watched the multitude of monitors on his desk with gleeful eyes. The batch of Hunters this year performed far below his standards, yes, but some of them had shown signs of potential for their future. So far, there were 14 of them that had completed their secret missions, which almost quadrupled the number from the last batch of humans he was given.

The secret missions were, in fact, not a secret at all. At first, he assumed that the secret missions were randomly assigned by the sanctum, but after generations and generations of hunters who had completed their trials, he found a pattern, albeit, it was a weak one.

Those who completed their secret missions possessed something that was innate to them, and that innate ability could only be unlocked once they completed the secret mission. Until this day, nobody — not even the Directors and the Observers — understood how those innate abilities came into existence.

But one thing was certain. They were unique, and the ones with innate abilities usually flourished. Not always, but most of the time.

The fact that more than 10 of them existed in a single iteration was a statistical anomaly. An anomaly that the Observer loved, and an anomaly that he’d want to keep a secret from the others until they made their way into the Universal Sanctum itself.

Maybe they aren’t so hopeless, after all.

Resting his head on his seat, the observer whistled as hope had made itself known for humankind.

###

“Wait, That’s not what happened to me.”

Phillip and I chatted in the Nexus hall after I spotted him a few minutes after I returned. He noted my charred state of clothing — which was a result of my own spell — and pointed at his fully intact clothing in return, with a mocking grin.

Then, we sat down and discussed what happened in the secret mission. He noted the stark differences between our experiences, and I was surprised to hear that what he faced wasn’t a bunch of silent, paralyzing snakes, he faced a maddening beast that seemed to revel in the fight; opting to extend their battle instead of winning from the get-go.

“It was strong, I would’ve lost if it went all out at the start.” Scratching his arms, he recalled the fight in that mission, evident from the gaze in his eyes. “I got another kind of skill in return, it has the, uh… innate rarity? I think...”

Same as mine. Death’s compendium is also of innate rarity.

I wonder if everyone who finished the secret mission was given a spell/skill of that rarity as well. From our small sample size of two, I couldn’t make a comfortable deduction, but it was better than nothing.

Phillip got up and stretched. As he yawned, he turned towards the portal at the back.

“Are you going to the living quarters?” I asked. Phillip had nothing else to do after finishing all of his missions.

He answered with a nod. “There’s nothing else to do, and I’m-“ Another yawn, “-Beat…”

I chuckled. Only those of his type of personality could smile after all the adversity he had faced. I found that part of him to be admirable, despite being lacking in other areas.

What am I talking about? I’m acting as if I’m better than him.

Noticing my thoughts, he faced me. “You coming with me?”

I looked aside, unable to meet his eyes. “I still have one more mission left.”

“Oh… Let me guess… The lizards?”

A nod and a frown we enough to display what I felt. Apprehension and doubt. He knew what happened to me against the sole lizardman in the Combat Training mission.

“Well, to tell you the truth, they came at me one by one. So don’t worry about facing both of them at once.”

My ears perked from his revelation. Really?