!!!!! Pr Credits To Draconis Von BloodTrap & Dragonofsomesort Who Constantly Help With SR chapters, Please take the time to rep them for their work :)
I figured saying haze lucent crystals or unclouded lucent crystals would be a mouthful, so i’l just shorten it when spoken, to haze crystals or unclouded crystals as a sort of short spoken word, of course their names are still lucent crystals, just consider it a way to save time from the local's point of view.
Going by the poll it seems its a yes for twitter. Im surprised so many voted no o.o, i guess people thought i wouldn't post updates with every release? Either way enjoy https://twitter.com/SpectralRegalia is my twitter feel free to follow, il be posting updates on all my stories from Spectral Regalia to Ethereal Sovereign and Mancers Grimoire.
For those curious in regards to my artwork as an admin reminded me, i pay 120$ usd for 3 character illustrations with no bg, i also pay 120$usd for every story cover i want to have made, in all honesty this deal is amazingly cheap, apart from this the cheapest i have found is 300$USD for 3 characters no bg. That being said the good thing about Raitworks is most artists simply work by commission while Raitworks is more or less dedicated and is there whenever you need a commission done. Their deviantart is http://raitvisualworks.deviantart.com/ if you are interested in hiring them just shoot them a note. They are quite good at matching what you are asking for. The artist who does my illustrations is Fadimas for those who wanted me to be a bit more specific.
P.S this is this weeks release, since its done i figured i would release it early :)
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A half hour later, a soft humming sound could be heard within the small, run down kitchen. Soon, a voice was heard. “It’s ready!” Calomia had a happy expression with a wide smile. Of course, because of her age, it would surely be a face that would make one who didn’t know her keep away.
“Yayaya!” Ilisia’s excited voice could be heard as she slapped the table with both her hands while seated on the chair. Her little feet were kicking in the air, as she wasn’t tall enough to touch the ground. Then again, it was an issue with the table not being well made.
Calomia came over with a cracked, old looking iron pot with a hearty looking stew filled with meat chunks, an assortment of greens and other edible food. She placed it on the table and began to give Ilisia her share.
“Avrin, you were lucky to find a half eaten body and get out unharmed. The creatures in this forest are very aggressive and won't simply let someone take their meal. Are you sure you don’t want me to give you some?” Avrin was reading a book Calomia had given him. Although the book was torn, in some places it listed creatures, herbs, and an assortment of things that could be found in the wild that held value. Calomia, being such a cheap old woman, would have to have some general knowledge and keep a book like this with her just in case one day she struck the jackpot with something that could be sold. That being said, the book itself was incomplete, but for Avrin it didn’t matter.
“-A spark brute, huh. It seems the horn is deemed valuable. Three Haze lucent crystals just for that piece of junk? It can only be considered a barely common material, then again these are prices from ten years ago-” Thinking about this, Avrin carefully summarized some things.
Because of the information God had given him in return for a favor was considered general knowledge with a few beneficial points, he was given quite a load to think on. He knew that the system of item ranking was not developed by the gods of Seleria, but was a universal standard. He also came to know that spirit stones are not a commonplace thing. This was because a Deity would have no need for one and it was considered by them as a weaklings way to tell one's own affinity.
Avrin glanced over towards the shabby table to see Calomia and Ilisia eating their meals. Although Calomia was quite old, with her teeth seemingly about to fall out, she had no problem devouring everything with barely any chewing. Ilisia was even more so surprising, as if she had never eaten before one would think she didn’t want to share by the speed at which she ate.
“Tomorrow morning I’ll be going to the village to trade some items. I may be late in returning.” Avrin would have headed out now, but by the time he would reach it, night would have fallen and his lack of money meant he couldn’t rent a room at the inn. Lower than lucent crystals was common currency, but this was a primitive method used simply for meals and the like, meaning a currency for the lowliest of the low, and even then Calomia barely had a few bent copper pieces. It made Avrin cringe somewhat at how bad her luck was. He truly felt sorry for these two.
“What?!“ Calomia stopped eating and looked at Avrin with her eyebrow raised. “Why are you going to that place? And what do you have to trade?!” Calomia, after recounting Avrin’s words, grew curious.
“Nothing yet, which is why tonight I’ll be heading out to gather some raw materials to sell.” Avrin didn’t seem stressed by this fact. He came to know that the creature he butchered was a peak Beginner level creature using his Divine Sense, and going by the book he had read and Calomia’s knowledge, the strongest creature in the outer forest that one could stumble upon would be at the level of a trained person. Avrin had nothing to fear. In fact, he was quite eager to bring himself up from his current circumstances.
“Hmm! How do I know you won’t skip out on our deal, ay boy?!” Calomia raised the wooden spoon and pointed it at him. Avrin looked at her and smiled. “You don’t, but I swore upon the heavens or whatever you made me say. That should be enough. In any case, I don’t see any downside to taking both of you with me when I head to the village. You told me there is a designated market for vendors to set up shop, if I choose to wander off and explore I will need someone to keep an eye out for me.”
Calomia’s face paled somewhat as she grunted, which almost seemed like a low pitched death throw. “Nonsense, not me or little Ilisia will be going there tomorrow. Besides, if they see you with us, it won’t be good for your image....”
Hearing this, Avrin realized that Calomia was trying to spare him some ridicule from the villagers, who may see him as an easy target. He then glanced at Ilisia, who had stopped eating and was forcing a smile as she spoke. “Mister Avrin, it’s fine. I don’t like being hit. I don’t want to go to that place, but could you bring some more meat when you come back?” Ilisia’s stomach rumbled at that moment and she gave a shy look before digging into her food again.
“Of course.” Avrin spoke. When Avrin arrived earlier with his previously missing arm now present, Calomia truly wanted to laugh. She wasn’t sure what to make about the situation, but it hadn’t surprised her as much because she knew Avrin had regrown his legs. She had expected his arm to regrow as well. Ilisia was still amazed and was circling Avrin like a hungry pigeon waiting for him to bring her something good to eat again. Being someone disliked, she didn’t have any friends and another reason she hung around Avrin was simply for the sake of it.
Avrin’s arm having returned, Calomia took this as a chance to make him work. She had gotten him to work the small 4x4 meter farm with some wilted crops growing, and got him to help her in drying the pieces of scrap meat she had set aside from the chunk he had gotten earlier.
Avrin could see their life was hard but it was something he was used to. Back in his universe, he had been to a mining planet that had been abandoned after the materials mined had run out. The government didn’t show much care for helping those people move and they were left to fend for themselves against the creatures of the planet. Avrin had led his crew to pass by on a scouting mission and had seen their situation on a holo screen, but he followed rules that had been set and didn’t pay them any attention. It was ironic that now he was in the same situation, if not worse. At least then they had each other to hunt and organise.
When, after fourteen straight hours of labor, Avrin realised Calomia’s and Ilisia’s struggle every day, not one task could be missed or it would set them back. It made him contemplate some things, but night had already fallen and it was currently 10:00pm. One could hear the soft roars and growls of the creatures within the forest. Calomia and Ilisia took a large risk by living here and it was no short of a miracle that they had survived without being attacked.
Avrin had taken a small, makeshift, stitched sack Calomia had made earlier in the day on Avrin’s request while he tended to the chores. It gave her time for a breather. Ilisia, by this time, was fast asleep and Calomia was tucking her in. Avrin stood at the doorway and looked over towards the dark forest. “Hah, when night falls people don’t dream of heading to the forest at night because of how dangerous it is, but you, boy, don’t seem to care one bit.” Calomia walked over with her makeshift wooden cane as she glanced in the direction Avrin looked towards.
“Why don’t you stop me?” Avrin curiously spoke. Calomia gave a haggled laugh and replied cautiously. “Nonsense. Me, stop you? I already know you’re capable. I know for a fact that no creature would leave a kill unguarded. You must have used some method to scare it away so I’ll just take this as having a bit of confidence in you. But be careful. At night, more creatures will be around and you won’t have an easy time!”
Avrin began to walk out of the small home and simply waved while walking off. “I’ll be heading straight to the village to save some time.” With this said, he vanished into the night and Calomia gave a soft warm smile.
“Mm, fearless. He reminds me of her..” Heading back inside, Calomia threw another small log into the fire pit before sitting on chair and shutting her eyes to rest. With that said and done, Avrin wasted no more time as he dashed forward to the forest. He could already smell blood coming from the forest. It seems the creatures had wasted no time hunting prey and even each other. It made the particles inside his body quiver with hunger and excitement, as if they wanted to be nurtured back to health.
The forest at night was nearly pitch black. Even with the moon being full, it wasn’t able to penetrate through the tree line and shine within. Avrin had to take note that the creatures most likely saw well at night. He soon dashed into the tree line while holding the empty sack on his back. He stopped. When his arm had healed he set aside some energy to use as an attack and with the amount he had stored it wouldn’t be any trouble.
He shut his eyes as he carefully used his body’s keen sense of hearing and the smell of blood to detect his prey. “-There!-” He suddenly vanished as he quietly dashed forward to the left. The foliage was quite thick and small rays of moonlight were barely able to shine in some areas. Avrin’s eyes began to twist and turn as a small thin coat of dark matter covered them. He wasn’t able to fully augment them, but all he needed was the aspect of night vision, and right now things were clear to him to a degree.
He had been running for five minutes before encountering his first target. A small, four eyed chimp with a round pebble-like crystal on its forehead was currently fighting with another chimp. Avrin, going by what he knew about animals, figured it was either a territorial dispute or a fight for a female.
“Leaf Crystal Ape.” Avrin quietly spoke, but this was enough for the already cautious chimps to quickly glance in his direction. They were engaged in conflict with one another, but they were not dumb. If they knew a predator or someone came they would band together to fight him off.
One chimp hissed and growled at him while another picked up a small rock and threw it at Avrin. “Little bastard...” Avrin revealed a wicked smile before he dashed forward after grabbing the rock that had been thrown towards him. His speed surprised the cautious chimps and the one on the left charged at him with its hands pointed out with the small claws ready to tear at him.
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The claws all stabbed forward, showing the chimp had no real method to utilize combat abilities and wasted an advantage, but Avrin, who had side stepped, used his momentum to curve his body until he was behind it. He glared at the chimp that slowly turned to face him, but when it did, a large crashing sound with bones breaking sounded out. The chimp’s head exploded into bits of flesh and gore with pieces of its brain splattering on the trees behind it.
Avrin had used the thrown rock to smash its head into bits. But the chimps head was quite hard and the stone had cracked and become useless, so he dropped it and picked up the small crystal that was embedded in its forehead. The crystal itself was like a symbol of pride for these creatures. It allowed them to gather a little mana which could be used as a trigger to learn some wild magic. Of course, right now, it had become an item ready to be sold by Avrin.
The chimp that remained and saw Avrin take care of its former competitor had its mouth open with shock, and its instincts had told it to run but it had not gotten far before Avrin rushed towards it. His speed had increased due to his small recovery. He appeared behind the chimp with commendable speed and gripped it by the back of the neck before raising it up into the air with ease and breaking its neck killing it instantly. Nebula Mist surged out and began to devour the corpse. Of course, Avrin recovered the leaf crystal beforehand. He didn’t want to torture these creatures. It was simply survival of the fittest, and he was not here to hunt for fun, but to survive.
After he had converted both these creatures into Nebula Mist he was a little disappointed by the amount of dark matter they had given him. Right now, he didn’t dare simply convert raw dark matter. This was because newly converted dark matter held unstable impurities and was not pure enough for him anymore.
He simply converted these creatures to Nebula Mist first and condensed the dark matter to be as small as possible. By doing this, he would be able to stabilize it and make the most out of it instead of letting the raw impure mass remain. It wouldn't help him recover as quick as he wanted, even if it could be purified within his body.
Avrin had shut his eyes again to focus. He was currently standing still and a soft breeze began to flow about the forest, causing the branches of the trees to sway. He could hear the low roars and sounds of creatures who had come out to hunt. Any normal human would hide and cower in fear, but to Avrin, this was an exhilarating experience. Due to his current handicap, this situation made his heart beat quickly with anticipation. It reminded him of when he first came to Seleria and had to survive.
Suddenly, Avrin’s pointed ears twitched slightly. He heard the sound of a bush rustling very faintly behind him followed by a low humming sound that was barely audible even to him at this stage. Avrin didn’t move and decided to put on the act of a clueless man as he stood still.
And at that moment, the humming sound shot up to a high pitched one and a flying figure shot towards him. This creature was a four winged Drill Bee. These creatures would live a solitary life and make nests at the top of trees. They were shaped more like wasps than bees but had green and black stripes, making them hard to spot at night as their dark colors blended well with the trees and bushes.
They had several large eyeballs that were split like a fly’s, though the most discerning feature was their drill shaped stinger, and they were considered a Beginner level creature that ambushes it’s prey. These creatures first stab their prey and inject a special enzyme that would liquefy their prey's insides, much like a spider, before using their mouths to drink the insides after piercing the skin with their hook-like fangs.
“Too slow!” Avrin used a simple sidestep before he engulfed his right hand in dark matter and straightened his palm, slashing down at a near exact moment and cutting the creature in half, causing green colored blood to spew out as its momentum in the air went for a bit before its halved corpse rolled on the ground. Avrin wasted no time before he used what he knew to scavenge the creature. He took the somewhat sturdy drill from it. The drill itself could be straightened and crafted into an arrow that was worth one Haze crystal. To Avrin, it was better than nothing.
After converting the creature’s body into dark matter, Avrin turned and shot off. He headed towards a small, rocky outcrop that was within the forest. This would be an appealing area for some creatures to lay about and make a home, but right now it was a battlefield.
The sounds of bones cracking and flesh being ripped sounded out. A large creature that resembled a lion but with five small, ten inch bone-like plates on its back emitting a faint red glow with a soft red hue as well as a blue body with a deep red mane that had been dyed by blood was currently gorging itself on one of several dozen corpses of a small band of creatures that had stumbled upon its territory.
This marvel of disaster was known as a Flame Plate Fury. This creature could be said to be a king of the outer forest and was three meters in length while being nearly two meters tall. It’s most notable aspect was not its fearful appearance, but the fact that it could absorb mana from the corpses and flesh of creatures it ate and store it within its bony plates and use a low level magic to engulf its body in a faint layer of flame and use this to attack with a fierce fury.
Avrin was currently eyeing the creature from a distance, carefully observing it and going over what he knew about it. Avrin could see the bony plates on its back were giving off a dim red light with some smoke emitting from them. This symbolized that it had activated its magic. After doing so, it needed five minutes after dispersing it to gather mana again. “-Not long should have passed judging by the freshness of the bodies… But it makes no difference-”
Avrin raised his right hand and dark matter began to gather. A small, two foot long weapon took shape. Although it was roughly made its strength was no less than an Uncommon level weapon. Avrin had formed a tomahawk with the back end of it had a curved blade like a sickle. The dark matter weapon gave off a purple glow, and it was because of this glow that the lion-like creature’s eyes turned to look towards him. Avrin had already dashed towards it after leaving the small sack on the ground.
The Fury’s eyes widened with surprise. It would have never thought a simple looking human would try and attack it alone, but as it saw how fast he came towards it, it figured he was not simple at all. It let out a roar before rushing towards Avrin with its blood stained teeth ready to bite down on him.
“You’re all the same! Hahaha!” Avrin found this funny. These creatures’ methods of attack seemed the same as they went head on first. Avrin didn’t dodge or act until the final moment. He simply jumped up and onto the back of the creature, using his hands to grab its mane. He skillfully used the sickle part of the weapon to cleanly cut across the base of the bone plates. He met with a little resistance, but he didn’t hold back and right as the Fury turned to look at its back its eyes bulged to see its plates were removed. It felt its body tremble with pain and anger as veins surged within its eyes. It madly began to struggle on the ground.
Avrin quickly collected the plates before he kicked his feet off the lion and jumped several meters to the side. He glanced at them with a smile, but his eyes widened as he saw the Fury had charged at him at a fast pace. Just as he threw the plates onto the ground the Fury jump at him and bite down on his shoulder. The force of its charge and weight pushed him back a bit and blood was drawn. Though Avrin’s body had natural durability, the Fury still held sharp teeth. Right now, in Avrin’s state, his body couldn’t match its previous durability and the Fury’s teeth sunk in nearly a full inch, with several teeth crushing down on his shoulder.
“I....guess I owe you this one....but,” As the fury felt satisfied with its bite its eyes turned to look at Avrin’s face, expecting to see fear, but what it saw was that dark veins surged near his eyes as his lips curved into a smile, revealing a sharp set of teeth. Avrin felt agitated. He raised his right hand and dark matter surged around it before his muscles bulged.
He then smashed down onto the creature’s backside, causing its organs to ripple, before the force of the attack made the creature’s insides explode out. Avrin had wasted 5% of the dark matter he had gathered from this night but he felt it was a worthy sacrifice. The Fury still had a shocked look on its face even as its body was blown to bits.
After Avrin turned the corpse as it was into Nebula Mist, his wounds began to slowly heal using the newly acquired energy. He then went over and grabbed the five plates from the ground and carefully examined them. “Uncommon ranked plates. Enough of these would make a set of scaled armor worth five Unclouded crystals, but the price should be two Haze crystals a plate.”
Avrin had spent the entire time hunting creatures and re-honing his combat abilities and what he could do at this stage. He had faced a large cyclops after he ventured a bit deeper into the forest that was at the mid trained level. It’s eye was considered valuable and a good magical medicine. The eye was worth three Haze crystals itself, and because the cyclops was no larger than a normal man Avrin had no issue dispatching it.
Avrin had felt a bit more gutsy and wanted to end his little hunt soon. He was walking back from the outer edges of the inner forest. He didn’t dare venture deeper, and right now his sack was filled with materials that would make any normal hunting group look with greed.
Avrin was casually whistling a small tune he had enjoyed within his former world. He was pleased with tonight. Right now, apart from gathering a potential total of sixty-eight Haze crystals he had absorbed a good amount of creatures to heal himself. Though as he walked, he suddenly stopped in an open area where a ray of moonlight shined down. He carefully looked around as the forest had seemingly gone silent.
“Hmm?” He felt his body shudder as the air grew colder. He quickly tilted his head to the left and just at the right moment, because right after a ray of silver light shot towards where his head had been. Of course, because there was nothing there, the ray of light shot forward and pierced into a tree leaving a clean hole going right through.
“You little....” Avrin gave a taunting glare. He felt his blood surge again, because as he glanced at the creature he knew he was going to get an even better profit tonight.
The creature made its way towards Avrin in the open. It had deer-like antlers but had the body and scales of a snake. It’s head looked like an eagle. It opened its mouth and gave off a wraith-like screech, as if it were angered that it had missed it’s attack.
This creature was an early Intermediate level creature known as Silver Scale Beaker. Though it didn’t seem daunting at first glance, this creature’s beak was quite hard. That being said, it’s most useful aspect was not that it had any useful materials but that it would make a beautiful scarf when dealt with.
Due to this, the creature had been hunted down until its numbers dwindled and it was considered a rare specimen. One left captured and intact would be worth four Unclouded crystals. This was because people would breed them together to make more. Of course, this was very risky and most people would die in the process. But this just meant the demand was higher.
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hopefully this chapters pace was a bit more appealing to you all, il stay in thread for a bit to reply to comments.
Avrin's Inner Workings Status
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Dark Stage Control ParticlesType 12100%Dark Stage ParticlesType 12100%God Essence WeaponsAstaroth-ScytheLimos-VajraGod Essence EquipmentSarcanus-Armor