《Ruins: Advent of Nerivenu》


 Imayhs 1

    "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.


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    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.

 Imayhs 2

    On the seventh day of his solitary confinement Imayhs woke up. As he looked around at his surroundings he was astounded. Everything seemed so clear, even in the low level of lighting in the forge. He also noticed that for some reason he could see the mana in the air and he could sense everything in a 10 meter radius. It felt as though his body had been completely altered. The efficiency of all his bodily functions as well as his mental capacity and physical senses increased tremendously.


    "This has to do with the scroll!" he thought as he was calming down from the shock of these changes. Suddenly he felt that something had entered his omnidirectional zone. Although he could feel the presence and the location of the thing, he could not discern any other information. "I have to train this ability" he decided as he readied himself for the coming encounter.


    The front door of the forge suddenly opened and Chen Wu entered. He was wearing his usual attire of the red robe and the rings.


    "Good morning, master" Imayhs said as he bowed. He was currently not powerful enough to oppose Chen Wu and as such decided to be submissive. The very sight of Chen Wu always reminded him of the day his father died. This caused his suppressed feelings to rise up. Over the years he learned to control them and not let them affect him.


    "My son seems very happy with you these days" Chen Wu''s tone indicated that he was not very pleased with the relationship between his slave and his heir. "Always remember your place" he said as he shot a murderous glance to Imayhs. "Starting today, you will be accompanying Tian to Amethyst Academy as servant. You will also be taking classes as a student so you become more useful to me." Chen continued as he revealed this information to Imayhs.


    Imayhs was astounded. Never in his life did he think that he would be sent out from the family estate. This showed how much trust Chen Wu placed in the slave seal. It seemed that he was confident in Imayhs not being able to do anything that would disrupt it. One had to know that Amethyst Academy was one of the three most famous schools in the Arhet Empire. Not only was it located near the capital of Xian, it was also famous for the great Amethyst Peak, and an indigo mountain composed of pure amethyst and earth mana stone mines, located inside of the school''s territory. The territory was also as large as an individual country in the Arhet Empire which was a privilege only first rate institutions could have.


    "You will be given a monthly allowance of 10 gold so that you can keep up with Tian in his studies. You will also be living in the residences that we have obtained for you two. If you are able to successfully help Tian graduate without problem you will be rewarded, but any failure will result in death." Imayhs was dumbfounded by this added piece of information. One had to know that 10 gold was an astronomical sum for those outside the nobility of the empire. It was enough to feed a family of 4 for 2 years. The fact that he would be getting this never mind how much Tian would have showed how wealthy the noble Wu family was. Not only that, they had managed to procure a residence inside the academy. This was bound to cost a huge amount of money and with Chen Wu''s character, this was bound to be an extravagant lodging.


    "You have two days to prepare whatever you need to go. You will be leaving tomorrow morning" Chen Wu said as he left. Imayhs immediately decided to think of what he would need. Since the Amethyst Academy was a magic school, he would need battle equipment. He would also need things for classes and day to day life. Since he was in a forge he decided to make himself some equipment and clothing. One had to know that because of the forging magic he absorbed from his father, he was able to forge flexible things with the right materials.


    He went to the ingot pile and drew 10 obsidian, liquidium, and manite ingots from the pile and brought them to the formation. He placed on of each inside the formation and positioned himself to begin the magic. Obsidian was a smooth, pure black and very dense ingot. Liquidium was a clear and soft crystaline ingot, this was the main component in crafting flexible objects. The magic enhanced this property to allow the smith to make clothing out of the ingots and was one of the reasons Imayhs'' father''s technique was so coveted. Manite was a material of which the colour was determined by the elemental mana composition in the surrounding area at the time of formation. It was basically a physically compressed version of mana and had many uses depending on its composition. White manite ingots as the ones Imayhs drew from the pile indicated a total balance of the elements and was extremely hard to obtain. The fact that the forge had an abundant amount of these once again indicated how rich the Wu family was.


    Imayhs cleared his mind and assumed the usual stance to activated the magic spell. As he performed the spell, he began to notice that his control over it seemed much better than before and that his mana was stronger as well. This caused the steps which usually took a long time to take a shorter time. Due to the fact that he was able to see mana now as well, he understood the process much better and fixed some parts which were somewhat faulty. This resulted in the usual 20 hour process only taking 5 hours as well as the equipment produced being the best he ever made. Imayhs also noticed that even after producing 10 pieces of equipment he was as drained as he was when he made one piece before.


    That day, Imayhs forged himself 1 long-sleeved shirts, 2 pants, 2 sets of strapped boots, a set of gloves, a hooded robe, a bow and a sword. All of these were jet black with similar white line patterns drawn on them. All of these items composed a linked set of mana equipment. One of the properties granted by the formation was that one could use magic to create a linked set of equipment. This meant that individually, the power of these items would be greatly reduced but when together, they would resonate together and significantly boost whatever property they were meant to boost.


    The property of this set was to boost the link between mana and the user which would help them use magic as well as help absorb mana at a faster rate. The purity and density of the manite stones used in the forging granted the set a much higher ability than regular sets. This was one of the perks of being a Wu family slave.


    Imayhs cleaned himself up and wore the newly made set of items. He put away the spares in a location he would remember to take them from. Now all that was left was to find a way to go out to town to buy what was left. He woke from his rest around noon of the next day and on cue, Imayhs sensed the presence of Tian Wu enter his zone. Differently from the other presence he sensed, he was able to discern the aura of Tian. This may have been due to the amount of time they spent together.


    Moments later Tian entered the forge with a grin on his face. Noticing Imayhs'' change of equipment he exclaimed "I guess father told you the news."


    "Greetings young master. Yes I was told." Imayhs confirmed Tian''s statement.


    "Since that''s the case, come with me to the Crystal Palace." Tian said noticing the exited expression on Imayhs'' face. "Here''s a transaction ring. Don''t tell father but I gave you a bit of the money from the family treasury. I''m sure he won''t notice." Tian continued as the smile on his face became even brighter. Tian continued as he threw a ring he was holding to Imayhs waiting to see what would happen when Imayhs checked the ring.


    Imayhs caught the ring full of expectation. A transaction ring was a ring made with a special rare crystal called Ratite. This crystal is able to condense gold coins and reverse to gold coins, send information on gold content and transfer a certain amount to another crystal depending on how mana is injected into it. The discovery of this crystal drastically changed how the higher powers of the Arhet Empire and equals performed business transactions.


    Imayhs probed for information stored in the ring following the instructions given to him by Tian. The figure which he saw in his mind space completely blew him away. With his mouth hanging open in astonishment he looked at Tian.


    "Are you crazy!" he exclaimed in the direction of Tian as he began to compose himself. Tian had smuggled a ridiculous hundred-thousand gold into the ring. If the master found out he would decapitate Imayhs on the spot.


    "Don''t worry. This was probably the tiniest fragment inside our treasury. Nobody would notice that this was missing." Tian attempted to reassure Imayhs. He had expected this kind of reaction as he understood that Imayhs had never seen such a sum before. To him, however, this was merely a month''s allowance. "Well, shall we get going?" Tian asked his friend.


    Seeing that there was no way to change the situation, Imayhs decided to take this situation as a blessing and make the best of it. He gestured to Tian to lead the way to the Crystal Palace. Tian led the way and the two exited the mansion and descended into shopping district below. The capital of Xian was situated on the second largest mountain in Arhet. The more important families and business were situated closer to the peak of the mountain while those of lesser status were lower and lower. The Wu family, being one of the prominent families in the empire were located near the area of the currently reigning Forin family.


    Although this was a mountain, due to its grand size the hills were not very steep and the area it covered was vast. The high density of earth mana in the area regulated the temperature of the whole mountain to a mild level. The vegetation in the area was also dense and diverse due to the mana. The buildings in the capital had an archeological structure of a castle from the middle ages. They were made of clean white carved stone and donned with green, red and gold paved rooftops.


    The highest parts of Xian did not have much traffic as the nobles enjoyed staying within the boundaries of the residential areas. Once you arrived into the lower area, the population began to increase. After roughly 30 minutes of walking, Tian and Imayhs arrived at the entrance of the Crystal Palace. It was a large dome-like structure located in the center of Xian''s market district. At the entrance were multiple guards who checked people entering and leaving the palace. They were also responsible for handling troublemakers near the entrance. With one glance one could tell that they were very powerful, truly worthy to guard a place such as the Crystal Palace.


    "Good morning Master Wu." the guards at the entrance greeted Tian as they saw him approach. Since Tian was a regular customer, they did not bother checking him and allowed him to skip the line at the entrance. The guards paid Imayhs no mind as they felt that he was lucky as a slave that his master brought him into such a place with him. Slaves in the Arhet Empire had the lowest of all statuses and were treated the worst. Even the lowest beggars treated slaves with absolute disdain. One of the reasons Imayhs could be said lucky to be a Wu slave was that Tian allowed him to escape such treatment.


    Since Tian was a regular and important customer, all the personnel had been informed to treat Imayhs as a regular customer and not give him any trouble. "Let''s meet here in about an hour" Tian said as he separated himself and headed to the upper floors restricted to VIP''s. Although Imayhs was allowed into the palace, he was not allowed to access that section. It did not matter to him though. The lower sections had everything he needed.


    Imayhs first headed to the section of the palace which handled storage items. After a collaboration between the Arhet Empire and the Ira matriarchy in the past, the research allowed the powers of both countries to develop magic which allowed certain crystals to condense objects similarly to how the Ratite crystal handled gold coins. He walked into the store and began looking for a wearable object he could use to carry items. Because he informed himself on this subject on the walk to the palace, he understood that the quality of the object determined what it could hold as well as how much space was available inside it.


    As Imayhs browsed around the store for the object, he noticed that due to his new ability to see mana he was able to tell which the best were. The brightness of the mana core as well as its color determined how good of an object it was. After looking around for some time he found a ring with a bright green and white mana core. The green signified earth mana which would allow living matter such as plants to be kept inside the storage space. The white was the ideal choice because it represented balanced mana and since the core was bright, it indicated that the ring was of good quality.


    He looked at the tag attached to the ring indicating the price as well as the size of the storage space. The ring was worth an astounding seventhy-five thousand gold coins and had a storage size of 10 square kilometers. Using the earth mana and the balanced mana, the inside of the space was changed into miniature replica of the Xian area with a single palace instead of the numerous households along with a clear blue sky.


    Surprisingly this storage ring included a magic formation which allowed the wearer to transfer themselves into the isolated space and return at the position they transferred from. The one downside to this is that if the formation on the outside was destroyed while the user was in the space, they would forever be trapped in the space. After reading this piece of information on the tag, Imayhs decided that he would only transfer at a completely hidden location if he were to do so.


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    Imayhs grabbed the ring and brought it to the counter. "I''d like to buy this." he said to the clerk behind the counter.


    "You can purchase a complementary information booklet for 100 gold if you wish." the clerk told Imayhs with indifference. He would not go against orders and cause trouble for Imayhs. It was not worth it.


    "Please add it" Imayhs responded. He knew it was better to have all the information he could have. He had to be as prepared as possible for this next step he was going to take in his life. Failure would result in his death and he had to avoid that at any cost.


    Imayhs placed his Ratite ring on a transaction crystal which was on the counter and controlled it to transfer the required amount. When the correct amount was transferred, the crystal released a pulse and transferred to the clerk''s ring which was connected on the other side. Imayhs then received his items and made his way to the entrance as the time was almost up.


    Imayhs arrived at the entrance and saw Tian who was waiting for him with a smile. It was obvious had enjoyed the VIP area of the palace which had much more to offer than the lower levels. Imayhs could only imagine what kind of things were in that exclusive area. The pair then made their way back to the Wu household and organized themselves for the trip in the morning.


    As soon as he returned to his forge, Imayhs activated the magical lock mechanism on the door, gathered everything in the forge that he would take with him and transferred them to the storage ring. The ingots were included in these objects. Every smith in the Wu family had their own forges and the ingots which were in their forges belong to them.


    After storing everything he needed to, Imayhs transferred himself into the ring and began to explore his new private space with excitement. After having read the information booklet and understood its contents, he knew that the method to transfer oneself into the ring was to inject mana into the entire body and then connect it to the core of the ring with more mana. This would create a link between the location at which one is positioned and the transfer formation in the ring to allow one to transfer themselves into the ring. This method was a more complex version of the method used to store objects.


    Due to him being the owner of the ring, he was able to sense everything inside the space which saved him the time that would otherwise be required for someone like him to explore the entire space. As he probed around his new space he felt very happy. He knew that this was a very good turn of events for him and would help him become more powerful so that he may one day free himself. Since there were a lot of smiths in the Arhet Empire, the space had a very large and exquisite forge available for use. Imayhs moved everything he had taken from his previous one into this newer and better forge.


    He then moved to the residential area and discovered a beautiful, large mansion. The mansion had enough space to house about 50 people comfortably. The master room was located in the center of the mansion and was even more extravagant that the other areas of the lodging. Near the majestic looking bed was a dial. This was an object which acted like an alarm by reading the flow of mana. Once the flow reached a state which corresponded to a certain time, the dial would release a mana pulse which would notify all within a radius.


    Imayhs set the dial to early in the morning and began to practice the mana capacity increasing technique revealed to him by the stream of souls. Although he had thought that the process would be simple since he had all the information ingrained into him, he learned that it would be much tougher to execute the technique properly. The technique was to release all the mana inside the body in a single moment and then quickly absorb more mana than previously stored in the body.


    First of all, one had to have exeptional control to be able to release every ounce of mana within the body at the same time. Secondly one had to quickly absorb the right amount of mana back into the body. If the process took too long, the mana capacity would be reduced and if too much mana was absorbed, it was possible to risk overloading the pathways and destroying them. Finally one had to continuously balance the elemental composition of the mana to suit one''s affinity. Since Imayhs'' ring space contained more abundant earth mana, the process of the technique was slowed down and the difficulty increased. Lastly, this technique created a huge strain on the consciousness since one was required to have complete focus for an extended period of time.


    After about one hour of training, Imayhs was at his limit and stopped the training. He washed off all the sweat on his body and cleaned his equipment set. One of the benefits of the set he had forged was that it could be cleaned by simply injecting mana into the set and directing it to clean the impurities on the set. Following that Imayhs prepared some food in his new kitchen and rested for the coming voyage.


    ----


    Having woken up due to the pulse of dial, Imayhs equipped the Olima set which he had dubbed his new creation. He then proceeded to exit the storage space and direct himself to the gate of the Wu household. When he arrived at the gate, Tian and the transportation mage were waiting for him.


    "Right on time as usual." Tian remarked as he saw Imayhs approach.


    "Greetings young master and master Ja!" Imayhs adopted a respectful tone of speech due to the present of the transportation mage Ja. This was the man who handled all the issues related to long distance travel in the Wu family. After having studied with some researchers during a collaboration between the different nations of the continent, him and his colleagues developed long distance travelling magic. Although it was not as good as instantaneous teleportation, it was a more advanced way than what regular people used to travel.


    The man called Ja just nodded at the greeting and prepared himself for the magic. From his spacial storage bracelet he took out a green mana crystal the size of a basketball with a map of Arhet drawn on it. As Ja injected his mana into the crystal, the location to which Tian and Imayhs were travelling to started glowing. Following that Ja instructed both youngsters to place a hand on the crystal.


    As soon as they did this, Ja used his mana to connect the pointed location on the map to the two who had their hand on it. He then proceeded to throw the crystal to the ground and shatter it. As soon as it shattered, the energy inside the core of the crystal exploded and a green cloud of mana enveloped Tian and Imayhs. Once they were enveloped, the green mana changed their body into an ethereal form and began transferring them to the marked location. The two youngsters became streaks of green mana as they were sent to the Academy''s transfer point.


    A few hours after the transfer began, Imayhs and Tian arrived at the transfer point. They passed through the transfer stone which returned them to their solid state. Still amazed by what he had just experienced, Imayhs stood astounded.


    "Welcome to Amethyst Academy Sir Wu" a voice greeted Tian. The owner of this voice was a young woman. She looked about 18 years of age, seemed to be of Caucasian descent and was endowed with long, straight, hazel hair and bright, jade eyes. She wore a long, green dress with golden patterns. The sleeves of the dress were shining white and on the left breast of the dress was a pure, amethyst turtle medal. There was a small brown satchel on her waist.


    "My name is Elena. I will guide you to the testing area." The woman continued before giving the two youngsters the time to respond. Following her statement, she gestured to them to follow her.


    Noticing Imayhs'' reaction after Elena mentioned testing, Tian quietly said to Imayhs "I guess father never explained the entrance exam to you". After Imayhs nodded his head, Tian continued "Basically there are two evaluations which will test your knowledge and your talent. In order to get into the school your total score must be at least fifty out of a hundred and you must pass at least one of the tests."


    Having received this new piece of information Imayhs cursed in his head. If he had heard of this before, he would''ve prepared himself before coming her and studied the right information so that he would be able to confidently take the knowledge evaluation. He could only hope that the test would be on information he was familiar with.


    By the time he realized, they had already arrived to the room for evaluating knowledge. It seems that special arrangement were made by the Wu family so that Tian and Imayhs could be tested apart from the rest of the new prospects. Inside the room were two isolated desks with testing papers on top of each. Thankfully Imayhs had learned to read and write unlike other slaves which would allow him to attempt the test.


    Both of them arrived to their respective seats and after being told to do so by Elena, they began the evaluation. They were told that they would have one hour to answer as many questions correctly as they could. The number of correct answers would present them with their final score.


    After the time for the evaluation ended, Imayhs and Tian gave the papers to Elena and waited with anticipation to receive their results. "How do you think you did?" Tian asked Imayhs. He had noticed that his friend seemed to be struggling when they were writing the test.


    "I can only hope that I did well enough." Imayhs answered. He knew that he did not do very well on this evaluation due to his lack of preparation. Hopefully his limited knowledge would give him enough points to support his performance in the next evaluation. He could only hope that his talent was good enough. Otherwise, death was the only option.


    Some time passed before Elena returned the testing papers to Tian and Imayhs. Tian had gotten a surprising perfect score and because of this he would be admitted into the special students group of the school and given special privileges as long as he performed adequately in the next evaluation. Imayhs on the other hand had scored an absolute low of zero.


    "I can only hope my talent is enough." Imayhs thought to himself as he stared at his disappointing test paper. It was do or die for the next evaluation and he could only try to get a perfect score. Understanding his approaching fate, Imayhs resolved himself to get a perfect score regardless of what the evaluation was. After being led to an area with several platforms by Elena, the pair of youths arrived at the next evaluation area.


    "The objective of this test is to survive on a platform for one hour. Any time an attack hits your body, you''ll lose a point from your total of 100. If you give up before the time is up, you fail this evaluation. The number of attacks will start at 5 attacks a minute and double every 10 minutes. You may use any skill or magic to escape the attacks. You should also be wary of injuries as they happen a lot." Elena explained to the pair. She then motioned each of them to climb on one and wait for the testing to begin.


    Imayhs understood that if he took a single hit, he was done for. He concentrated himself and began to try to understand where the attacks would be coming from. "Begin!" he heard Elena say suddenly. The outer area of the platform produced a mana shield which shrouded the outside in a green mist. One could only see through the mist from outside the platform. This was done to allow the proctors to observe the prospect being tested.


    As he was concentrating, he noticed an object enter his omnidirectional zone as it moved towards him at high speed. He looked towards where the object was coming from and saw a mana infused arrow head in his direction. He dodged to the side and escaped the arrow which created a huge hole in a thick tree which was behind him.


    The moment he landed on the ground, he noticed another object flying towards him from behind. As he turned around he noticed another arrow flying towards him. He dodged this one like the first one. Moments later as he waited for the next attack, he felt that a vine inside the trees behind him launch itself at him.


    Just as he moved to dodge the vine he felt another arrow enter his zone from his side at high speed. He stepped to the side and dodged the vine while simultaneously crouching to dodge the arrow. Right as the arrow passed above his head, he felt a pulse below him.


    As soon as Imayhs felt the pulse, he moved backwards as fast as he could. A split second after he moved, the earth below where he was located exploded with mana and a sharp spike quickly rose from the ground. A single drop of sweat dropped from his face as he sighed with relief. He had narrowly avoided being split in two by the earthen spike.


    A short while later, a mana pulse ran through the entire platform which then subtly vibrated and the purity of the mana imbued in it increased. Imayhs immediately deduced that this meant that the first 10 minutes had passed. This evaluation had only just begun.