Chapter 3 - Enlightened
I felt tendrils of mana interconnect my eyes with my mana pool. With the disappearance of the orb only the knowledge of my ability remained. My ability was called aura absorption, apparently I could reap the auras of others the only prerequisite being that they have to be dead. Shaking my head I try to clear my thoughts. This ability was straight demonic, stealing people auras ,and abilities what am I? A demon I thought. Standing up from the ground I wiped the dust off my clothes.
“So, what is your ability?” My father asked as he watched me.
“I can steal abilities,” I said with a deadpan tone.
“Stealing abilities hmm powerful, but most of those stealing abilities have limits. Is there an ability limit? Or certain requirements before you can steal an ability.” my father asked not scared of the possibility of me stealing his in the slightest. Then, again he probably had countermeasures if I tried to.
“Well,” I said slowly thinking about what to say I had to find a way to tell him the obvious aspects of my ability without exposing its weakness. Then again this ability didn’t have any side effects at all I thought to myself. It would be dumb to lie at this point. Of course, I could’ve lied now and eventually took him by surprise when I confronted him. But that would be stupid since knowing what the ability did wouldn’t give him an edge at all. “The only requirement is for them to be dead,” I answered.
A hint of surprise appeared on his face which he quickly hid, “If the only requirement is for the other person to be dead then it would be simplicity for you to take abilities. This is a great blessing granted to you by our ancestors. Truly the will of our ancestors is for us to succeed. Many ability stealers have to face harsh consequences when they steal abilities. In all of my travels in Alvernon, I’ve yet to heard or met off an ability stealer without any requirements ha ha,” he ended with an almost maniacal laughter. After a few seconds of laughter, he returned to his dignified posture without a hint of the previous laughter, “Oliver oh my son you’ve gone and exceeded my expectation. For now, return to your room and rest. In the morning I’ll have a magical beast ready for you to test your ability,” he said with hints of jubilation within his expression.
I’ve been trained by my father for more than 10 years. Judging by his expression or lack of it right now he was probably rejoicing in his heart of my newfound talent. Even though I was always talented. Receiving a high rank for my soul, and affinity to earth at the tender age of seven. Considering only 15 percent of the Empire were magicians, with only 1 in a 10,000 receiving a high rank for affinity. I was destined for greatness but as usual, my father was unsatisfied. When he was my age he was ranked as exceptional for his affinity to earth, as well as his soul awareness. He’s always wished for me to go above and beyond. He wished to use to me to accomplish his goal of taking down the other ten houses.
Even though the ten houses had formed an alliance which led to the formation of the empire. They all reigned over different areas, with each one being vastly more diverse than the other. Adventurers who entered Alvernon for the first time were always befuddled due to the different structure and culture in each of the dominions of the houses. To foreigners it seemed the empire was united as a whole but it was just a front. There existed many conflicts between the houses, which existed far before even the formation of the Empire. The biggest conflict between the houses was probably between us and the Lexus. The Lexus was a family which tread along the path of demonic transformations. There wasn’t much known about them since they hid their powers with conviction but what was known was enough to send a chill down any person's spine. The gist of their abilities was that they could become demons, not only taking their powers but also their forms. Demons were classified as the most dangerous species on the entire continent. They completed dominated northern Alvernon with only a population of a few hundred. They remained as the most powerful, deceitful, and ruthless beings on Alvernon with the exception of mythical creatures like dragons.
To actually become a demon even for a short while, would be more than enough to destroy an equal level magician. That’s why the Lexus head was able to defeat my father even though he was on the precipice of being an arch magus. I don’t know much about their rivalry but it runs bone deep. When I first heard my father talk about it I couldn’t believe it. How could my father who was one of the few Arch-mages on Alvernon lose. I hate my father but I do respect and admire his power. I asked him a bit on how he lost but he never did tell me.
“Alright, father I will go and rest for now. Will I still be leaving early in the morning for Lukedonia?”
“Yes, it won’t take much time for our little test. Some of my plans might delay you but you must go to Lukedonia,” he said stroking his beard in contemplation.
“Why do I have to go to Lukedonia?” I asked it was weird for my father to keep insisting on something. There's probably an important event that I probably had to show up at.
“There are plenty of reasons, but soon there will be a ranking tournament that’ll be happening in Lukedonia and you must compete. That damned Lexus House has been provoking me all these days with their heir,” he replied with a dark expression.
“Uhm, father are you perhaps talking about Melior Lexus?”
“Yes, that damned brat. You haven’t left this estate for a long time so you don’t know but that Lexus girl has reached the master level as a magician. Not only that but she already merged with a rank 4 demon.” he said with a growl. “But that's not even the worst part, she been taking part in many ranking tournaments as of lately around the empire gaining fame. She’s even went as far as to challenge you to come and duel with her in Lukedonia. I haven’t mentioned it to you since it was nothing more than an annoyance but she crossed the line. Just because I’ve kept our family hidden so you can take your time growing, does not mean the Kai family is weak. You must go to Lukedonia tomorrow and show her our true might!” he ended with a cold, resolute voice.
“Yes, father!” I yelled bringing my right fist up to my chest trying to fake some anger. But in my heart, I could care less what anyone said about the Kai family. I hate my father and I hate what he represents. If I could, I would probably go and thank her for doing me a favor, unfortunately, that’s just not possible. When she insulted the Kai family she insulted me. As much as I hate it, I am the future heir of the Kai house. For her to insult me would be fine but as the current heir of Kai I can’t ignore it without being considered a pushover.
“Good spirit but it’ll take more than that for you to defeat her. Even before your magical power dropped to the initiate stage you probably wouldn’t be matched for her. But with your new tattoo ability as well as your double affinity you might have a chance. Still, I’ll bring a high-level magical beast so you can gain a powerful ability. I’m sure you have your ways.”
“Of course, father I won’t let you down,” I replied before a wave of dizziness washed over me. I steadied myself but I knew I had to get some rest. “Can you let me out of the prison now father?”
“No need,” he said before he snapped his fingers. With a gust of wind he appeared inside the prison, putting his hand on my shoulder. The mana around us fluctuated with a certain rhythm before our surroundings transitioned into the second floor of our mansion. “Go get some rest,” he said before he faded away. With some heavy steps, I headed towards my room collapsing on my bed. Exhaustion washed over my body and I fell asleep without even bothering to remove my clothes.
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**
The next day I forced myself to wake up early, I believe that only a weak-willed person wouldn’t be able to get up in the morning. Putting on a black silk shirt, with some black leather pants I looked at myself in the mirror. For some reason, I’ve gained a large amount of muscle and it wasn’t the normal kind of muscle. It was extremely lean muscle. I didn’t look like a battle-hardened warrior or anything but instead like a sleek, lean panther. The other discernable change would be my eyes, they were extremely bizarre one was red while the other was brown and if you looked closely enough you could see some patterns inscribed in them. My hair was also much longer than before reaching down all the way to my waist. I got an elastic to tie my hair up into a ponytail. The only benefit this transformation provided was that it hid my tattoo. Digging through the back of my closet I found some skin tight leather boots. They were extremely comfortable and were without the bulk a regular leather boot. They were made of a snake type magical beast skin.
Finally, donning a robe I hurried to the courtyard. I’m not like Irene or my father I never bothered to learn teleportation spells. It was mostly because I’ve never had the need to leave the mansion. I’ve only left the mansion two times in my life, both of them being trips to the Northern Wilderness for some training. Plus it’ll be a waste of mana to teleport to the courtyard when I can just walk there. Within five minutes I arrived in the courtyard where my father was waiting for me. As I walked toward him I noticed a magical beast next to him tied up in chains.
“Oliver come over quickly,” my father said motioning towards the beast behind him. Speeding up my pace I arrived near my father. “Shouldn’t I test it on something less powerful first,” I said staring at the beast behind my father. I’ve had some combat experience against magical beasts before but the one standing behind him is probably a rank 7 magical beast. That’s at least on par with a tenth stage Master magician. I’ve never bothered to mention it but Magician ranks go from initiate, acolyte, adept, master, grandmaster, and then to arch-magus. Those are only most basics of rankings with each level having ten stages. Most mages train from the young age of seven and finally break through the initiate stage at 15, for someone to break through the master stage will require not only huge amounts of latent talent but also huge amounts of resources backing them up. That’s why people are so awed by Melior Lexus her being at the master stage at fifteen shows her huge amount of latent talent.
“No, even though your power seems to lack requirements it might have an ability limit. Which means that you may only have a set limit of abilities to obtain, so it would be fruitless ability if you could only obtain a weak ability,” he said.
“Alright, father so should I kill it.”
“You probably wouldn’t have been able to kill it even with your previous power, so don’t waste your breath on saying that,” he said with contempt. After making some quick hand gesture he started reciting a spell. An innumerable amount of mana fluctuations occurred around the magical beast. Earthen elemental energy started coalescing around the beast, not harming it but providing huge amounts of pressure. I noticed the beast’s muscles straining under the pressure, with an agonizing howl the beast fell to its knees with the chains restraining it cracking. “Now, you can try to kill it,” he said.
I knew without my father restraining this magical beast I wouldn't even be able to pierce through its natural defenses. The magical beast was a kobold, a unique variant one at that. Normal kobolds weren’t even matches for initiate mages but despite that this one was ranked at 7. Magical beasts and demons were ranked from 1-10 with each level providing a huge increase in power. Despite its origin as a the lowly kobold species which was ranked as a 1, it was able to reach this huge level showing how determined it was. How unfortunate it was for it to meet with my father I thought. My father was the only arch-magus of earth in the Empire, even rank 10 magical beasts would have trouble evading him. As for this rank 7 kobold, it was probably child's play for my father to capture him. I felt bad for it but that was it. I could careless about the kobold personally. This was a world where strength reigns supreme, it might be more civilized, but strength is how you achieve what you want. This kobold probably ate and killed countless other magical beasts for him to obtain his current power. It’s only normal for him to be killed as well, reaching inside my mana center I condense my gaseous mana.
I’ve dropped down from a tenth stage adept to a first stage initiate. I try to keep it out of my mind but it hurts. I worked hard to reach my previous level and for it to all be drained away to activate this ability sucks. This ability better be worth the cost I thought to myself as I activated my power. I sent the condensed mana into the link between my eyes and mana center. I could feel my eyes fill to the brim with power as that tattoos that submerged themselves emerged. A hint of demonic energy surrounded me as I activated my ability. When I first obtained this ability not only did the use of it appear in my head, the way it was used was imprinted in my mind. There were two ways to use this ability one was through my eyes while the other was through physical contact.
There were pros and cons to each one. If I tried to activate the ability through my eyes, my tattoo emerged and my eyes lit up with mana. Any magician would easily notice what I was doing if they paid attention to the mana fluctuations. While this power was easily noticeable I could use my ability without touching my target. Some magical beasts are extremely poisonous and touching them will result in death, with this ability I didn’t have too. Still, the other way of using it was probably way more useful. If I used the ability through physical contact minimal mana fluctuation would appear, and my tattoos wouldn’t emerge. The only downside to this way of using is the fact I have to touch my target. There are some magical beasts that could self-detonate, or even release poisonous gasses that would kill me. Still, this was more convenient way of using the ability, but since I wanted to hide the other way of using my ability I showed this version to my father.
With my eyes becoming an eerie green, an intangible hand shot out of my body heading towards the kobold. I could see my father at the side watching me activate my ability. When I activated my ability the tattoos reached towards my soul, I couldn’t tell what it did with my minimal progress in soul awareness but I know it tampered with it. The intangible hand that shot out was a personification of my soul. When it reached the kobold the hand captured its soul in its grasp. The kobold that was already under pressure from an arch-magus couldn’t take it anymore when the hand squeezed on his own. With a huge pull, the intangible hand pulled out what was the kobold soul. The intangible hand squeezed the kobold soul with a huge amount of pressure, The kobold soul which was originally shaped like the kobold itself reformed into a tiny ball. Even after reaching this stage the intangible hand wasn’t done, it kept squeezing the kobold soul until it was the size of a fingernail. Finally, the hand shot back to my body with the tiny kobold souls in its grasp, I wasn’t sure how but the intangible hand refused with my soul along with the kobold soul in its grasp. With the fusion of the kobold soul, messages appeared in my head.
Intuition acquired
Shadow affinity acquired
Shadow Manipulation acquired