For an unknown amount of time, Nick felt that he was covered in darkness, having nowhere to go, feeling nothing and knowing almost nothing about his circumstances. He, at the very least knew that he had been swallowed by a rank 4 warp bat which should have sent him to who knows where but for right now, he was just in darkness, unable to move.

(Sigh, how could this have happened? I thought that my luck was good but it turned out that it's not so good after all.)

When Nick felt that he had enough of his own self pity, he remembered that he had the will of a rank 8 World Class Magician housed in his mind so he attempted to speak to Slade?

(Slade, Slade. Are you there? Now is not the time for silence, I could be in some real trouble here.)

Nick received no response from Slade.

(Sigh, I guess I'll just wait for something to change.)

Nick waited seemingly for a very long time without any change in his circumstances until light finally came to his eyes. When his eyes adjusted to the light, Nick was looking at what appeared to be a ceiling, like one for the room of a house; he felt that he was able to move now so he sat up and took a look around. Nick was actually in what appeared to be a very large library with books organized on bookshelves all around him arranged in neat rows and columns.

"Where is this place? Is anyone here?"

Nick was so mentally exhausted and sick of all of this uncertainty that he at this time didn't mind if no one answered him but a moment later, someone actually did.

"Young man, walk further in front of you and come to meet me. I've got some freshly made juice and biscuits ready here. You'll probably like them."

Nick was so stunned by the voice because it was as if someone was speaking right beside his ear but he saw no one. Nick asked:

"Who are you?"

This time, Nick received no response so he had no alternative but to follow the voice's instructions.

(Slade, are you there?)

Nick received no response from Slade, like he had never inhabited his mind.

(Fuck.)

Nick walked past over thirty bookshelves before he came to a table with a smiling young man sitting at it, eating biscuits and drinking some kind of beverage. The young man looked to be in his early twenties, had long silver hair, gem like blue eyes, he had a white complexion and he was wearing a white robe reaching down to his ankles. He had a genial smile on his face and motioned Nick to have a seat in front of him. Nick took a seat but ignored the food, getting straight to the point:

"Who are you sir?"

The young man swallowed some biscuits and answered Nick in a calm, friendly tone:

"My name is Andre Reigns and who might you be?"

Nick answered back with some anxiousness:

"My name is Nick Capitol. Do you know exactly why I am here or even, how did I get here? You don't seem all that disturbed by my presence even though we have never met before."

Andre took a sip of his juice and answered nonchalantly:

"You were sent to me by one of my pets so to speak. You were swallowed by a young warp bat, were you not?"

Nick was visibly shocked:

"Your pet?"

"Yes, that's correct. You see a few hundred years ago or maybe more than a few hundred, I can't remember, I launched a little experiment. The idea was to send baby warp bats to a multitude of unknown realms so that they could grow and over time deliver me interesting plants, animals or treasures. They are magic beasts with the ability to use space magic to search even the most forbidden and/or tightly guarded areas so I thought that they would be perfect for the job. One of them seems to have sent me you but you don't look much like a treasure."

"Of course I'm not a treasure, your warp bat made a mistake and ate me. As the owner of the beast, are you going to give me some compensation, maybe a lift back to where I came from?"

Andre started laughing at Nick's boldness, almost choking on his biscuit; after drinking some more of his juice that he poured from a glass pitcher into his clear glass cup, he held his hands in the air and a black device appeared in it.

Nick looked at the object, then looked at his right wrist and saw that his space band was missing from it and was now in the hands of Andre.

"Hey, what are you doing with my space band?"

Andre spoke while keeping his eyes on the space band:

"Space band huh? I suppose many lower realms have variations of these kinds of devices. Don't be so anxious, I am just looking at its contents to see why my pet would have sent you here."

Andre focused on Nick's space band intensely.

"Beast carcasses, a slightly interesting corpse, some food and water, trash and..."

Andre's eyes finally seemed to shine with some interest while Nick looked on with bewilderment.

(How is he able to just inspect the contents of my space band. Is he a Magician? I can't feel any magic power coming from him at all but he took my space band so easily. Something tells me that If I try to take my space band back, I won't like his response.)

Andre's face became visibly heated like he had just found his long lost love and then he looked at Nick and spoke:

"It seems that you happened upon an ichor root, are you aware of its value?"

(The ichor root? Why would he be so interested in that?)

Nick answered with some uncertainty in his tone:

"Well, vaguely. I was planning to use it to nourish my mindscape to help me push towards becoming a rank 2 Apprentice Magician."

It was now Andre's turn to open his eyes wide in shock.

"You were going to use an ichor root to help you push towards rank 2? Do you also use ox cleavers to kill chickens? An ichor root can be used to make life saving potions for rank 8 and 9 Magicians so it is incredibly valuable considering how much time we spend exploring and the risks we take during occasional battles with magic beasts and enemy Magicians."

Nick did not miss the meaning behind Andre's wording.

"You are a World Class Magician?"

Andre nodded his head in affirmation:

"Of course I am and I have been for the past 1000 years. Oh right, I haven't been around a Magician of your level for a long time so I forgot that you would only be able to sense my power if I put in some effort. Seeing as how that would probably kill you, why don't you just take my word for it."

Nick silently shook his head and wore a bitter expression.

(I've landed in the hands of a World Class Magician, I'm done for if he is as ruthless as the rumors say that they are. Man, I didn't even get to hold receptionist Samantha's hand once even though she'd probably kill me right after if I did something like that.)

Andre saw his expression and reassured him:

"Don't be so glum Nick, I'm not going to hurt you, in fact, my faith does not permit me to harm the weak for my own benefit. Now if you were at my level, that would be another story entirely...but I won't get into that. Are you willing to trade this ichor root with me for something more appropriate for you?"

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Nick gave a wry smile and replied:

"Do I have a choice?"

Andre returned a smile of his own and asked:

"What do you think?"

"Sigh, then can I ask a question? Do you specialize in space magic?"

Andre wasn't sure why that would be important to Nick but he decided to humor him.

"Actually, that is only one of my specialties. Why do you ask?"

Nick steeled his determination at this moment. If he was going to lose the ichor root anyway and Andre did seem to value it highly, he might as well get a good enough benefit for all the trouble that he was going through. He looked at Andre in the eye and spoke clearly:

"My highest affinities are for rule magic, soul magic and blade magic. Is it possible that you could somehow give me a high affinity for space magic?"

Andre looked amused.

"Oh, so you are interested in space magic but don't have a high affinity for it, huh? Increasing your affinity is possible but I'll have to take away one of your other major affinities as well as damage your soul a bit to facilitate the increase in affinity. Would that be acceptable to you?"

Nick was a little let down by the requirements.

"Will I lose anything important after you damage my soul?"

"Hmmm...I suppose that you will. The damage I'm referring to involves removing the laws on your soul related to your other miscellaneous affinities which means that you would be able to directly manipulate only three types of magic energy all your life. If you are okay with that, then we can make a deal right now."

Nick thought about the cost of altering his affinity for space magic for a seemingly long time:

(I would lose the ability to use other types of magic. Is getting a better affinity for space magic worth it?)

Nick looked at Andre, wanting to seek his advice:

"If you were me, what would you do?"

Andre was put on the spot by the question, he just wanted the ichor root and didn't want to just rob this child so he was willing to just go along with what the boy wanted whether it really helped him or not but he was also inclined to answer the question honestly:

"Honestly, I would not do such an extreme thing but I am not you. If you want to become a strong Magician, you have to decide what you want and make the necessary sacrifices. That's it."

Nick returned to thinking deeply again and then a few minutes later, his eyes shone with determination.

"Okay, I'll go through with it but also, is it possible that I could also obtain a space magic inheritance that suits my rank and be returned from where I came from?"

Andre thought for a few moments then answered:

"I can give you some cultivation knowledge and spells that would be helpful for someone wanting to become a rank 4 Space Magician and I will return you to the realm that you came from. All that is fairly easy since that sort of knowledge is not difficult to obtain on Utopior and the realm that you seem to have come from is far inferior to the one we are in now."

Nick grew curious.

"Utopior, is that where this is?"

Andre shook his head and spoke:

"Alright, that's enough questions, I won't answer anymore since you have already agreed to the trade and set the terms but I will say this to you because I find you a little odd and I do like odd things. My intuition is telling me that you have very strong but strange luck; you should be careful going forward. While luck can certainly contribute to a person's strength, it can also be the noose that hangs them, so become stronger so that you are not so greatly affected by your own luck."

After saying that, Andre handed the space band back to Nick.

"I have already taken the ichor root so I will be making good on our deal now. One final thing, my intuition is now telling me that we will probably meet again so don't disappoint me when that time comes."

Andre pointed his dainty right index finger at Nick and Nick's vision was filled with a white light, then came abject darkness; Nick had lost consciousness.

.........................

When Nick had regained his consciousness, he found himself a dozen meters away from the cliff where he had been eaten by the warp bat. Nick quickly checked his space band and saw that the ichor root was indeed gone but his mind had knowledge seared into it that had never been there before.

(This is cultivation knowledge on space magic with spells and magic formations included. Andre kept his word.)

While Nick was feeling excited, Slade spoke with an unhappy tone:

[You really gave up your ability to use most other magic to increase your affinity for space magic? Kid, whatever you do with your body is your own business but what if you had lost your affinity for soul magic or rule magic, do you even understand the consequences. Let me remind you that your own mindscape is suited for rule magic and my inheritance and methods are suited for soul magic. You are lucky that that fellow seems to only have removed your affinity for blade magic but with your damaged soul and the loss of so many affinities, you have basically become a half-invalid. Was it worth it?]

Nick smiled.

(Yes it was. By the way, where the hell have you been, you left me hanging while I was talking to a World Class Magician, what was that about?)

Slade sighed.

[You've got to understand kid, the person who you made that deal with was definitely not an ordinary World Class Magician and he said that we were in Utopior which is a world that is many times more powerful than yours or mine for that matter. If he had discovered the will of another rank 8 Magician, he would have definitely not been so cordial and might have even forcibly extracted me from your mind so I stayed silent and hid to avoid detection.]

Nick could understand Slade's reasoning so he let it go.

(Alright, so now that my soul is damaged, you have a way of healing it, right?)

[Hmph, is that what you were hoping for. Yes, I have methods to heal it, you practically wasted all the efforts that I made to strengthen it with the soul formation so don't try to use the spells that I taught you for now or you might just invite trouble to yourself. The bad news is that we will have to use the corpse of the rank six hero Magician to mend your soul instead of nourishing your mindscape but the good news is that damaging the soul and then mending it is the essence of soul cultivation so it's not too much of a bother. Your exam should be over in a few minutes. Remember, don't tell anyone about me.]

(That's a given.)

Nick went to the edge of the cliff once more and looked down at the badlands to see the outcome of the beast tide. There was blood, corpses and carcasses everywhere but Nick also saw traces that suggested that some students fought their way out of the beast tide and escaped so he wasn't inclined to be too sympathetic. Nick waited for about twenty five minutes until a ray of light shone down from the clouds and embraced him, pulling him away.

"Finally, it's over."