《Kosmos》


 Prologues Chapter

    A figure clad in black clothes is standing alone in the open plain grass field. If one stood near him they would notice a faint light emanating from the black clothes. The color of yellowish white like aura was surrounding him majestically. Even his long black hair that reach his shoulder is glowing faintly with a tint of white. His face was full of confidence albeit his half opened eyes betrayed the situation he is in.


    In front of him were tens of thousands being standing in lines and ranks, all facing him. They are consisted of many kinds. Some were tall to be called giant while some were short enough that anyone would want to retort that they are children. But no one said anything as that being have long enough beard sufficed to be called old man.


    Yet that man alone stand about 100 feet away facing them. His hand were inserted into his pants pocket. His face is mocking them with his characteristic sleepy eyes; full of boredom.


    A few minutes passed without any sides moving. Wind blowing, caressing their cheek with refreshing air that brought the smell of freshly trampled grass right through their nose. The morning sun was in the east glaring at the non-proportional sized combatant.


    The man made a move first not with his leg or hand but his mouth.


    ¡°Whoever want his son to become orphan, his wife become widow, his family left unattended, come at me! At my back there is the place that you all selfishly want to trampled and monopolized by yourself for all of your selfish need. Come if you want it! In the name of god I would not let you land even a speck of dust into that place. Come if you think you are qualified enough!"


    The man talk loudly amplified by his sound strengthening magic. His voice reverberated throughout the plain grass field. The voice was loud enough to shake normal person and making them lose their spirit. But the army facing him is the elite among elite. Chosen by their finest general just to fight him.


    With a slight provocation, the general of the army try to shake off the any uncertainties among his soldiers with a bellow.


    "For our kingdom!"


    His men replied the same.


    "For our kingdom!"


    The sound are loud and clear, clearing their confusion.


    "Chaaaaarge!"


    The army with strength of tens of thousands toward their single target the man. It was a stampede. They charge in rank. Line by line of infantry and cavalry running across the green field toward the man. A lone figure covered in black clothing.


    The man could only sighed deeply. Well it can''t be helped then. Was what he thought. Without moving from that place, his mouth move.


    "Starstream"


    About 10 ball of light about the size of tennis ball appeared in front of him before it released beam of light toward the charging cavalry punching through their steel armor like leaves being eaten by worm. Red blood was splattered from the hole created from the light beam. In a second, a whole line consisted of best knight on horse was put out of the fight for good. All of the light beam punch a clean hole through their body before hitting anyone that is unlucky enough to be positioned in the back of the cavalry. After a few body had been punched through the beam winked out of existence as it exhausted its mana source. The charge was slowed down as the charging army was busy putting their armor in front of them in hope to stop the beam but unluckily their wish is trampled as they see how easy their brethren¡¯s armor couldn''t even put a little resistance.


    "Archers and mage in position. Unleash all arrows and spells." The general shout in loud voice.


    The man only smiled seeing it. He start chanting the next spell.


    "Light barrier"


    A thin wall made of hardlight came into existence. The archers that was firing thousands of arrow was dumbfounded as none of their arrow could pull a scratch against the barrier. The mage and sorcerer were more shocked to see their most powerful offensive spell couldn¡¯t even leave a mark on the barrier not to mention a dent. Their hesitation was something that he didn''t let go.


    "Pillar of the sun."


    A large pillar of light suddenly rain on them before moving deeper into the armies'' rank obliterating everything and everyone in its way leaving scorched earth and charred corpse behind its wake.


    With only 2 offensive spell, the charging army lose one fifth of its strength just three minutes after the battle start. The scene was like a painting of hell as the green grass become brown before turning to dust, people all alike moaning in agony from their wound, smell of charred corpse, the burned ground molten as the heat from the beam burned everything in its way and surrounding.


    The remaining of the army slowed down their movement to comprehend what had happen after their sight cleared. Their face was distorted in horror as they saw the aftermath of the spell effect. Some were clearly shaken, some were gritting their teeth in anger, and some started to retreat a few step. The sight of their brothers in arm writhing in agony were too terrifying for them. But as they were elite soldiers they didn¡¯t falter and continue with their attack albeit at a slower pace. The archers nock their arrow and release a rain of arrows toward the man clad in black, while magician start their chanting in unison to cast a massive wide area concentrated attack.


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    The storm of arrows and fireball started raining down on the man like a pail of water being poured on an ant. The man only make an indifferent face as he shrunk the size of his shield so it only encompassed the area in his vicinity. Then his location was engulfed in storm of fire and arrows. The area around him turned into scorched earth, the arrows that flew caught fire and became fire arrows.


    The archers and mages cheered as they saw him being swallowed by the wrath created by them. The knights, warriors and swordsman were standing ready, prepared to face anything that came out of the literally flaming hell. After a few minutes without seeing any movement, they lowered their weapon slightly and heaved a sigh.  But their happiness was cut short as the area cleared a little revealing the unscathed man under his barrier from light. He only smirked, while from his mouth a few words could be heard.


    ¡°Damn, that really depleted my mana quite a bit but it can¡¯t be helped isn¡¯t it?¡±


    The general was dumbfounded to see the man unscathed after 2 volleys of big scale spell and under fire of thousands of arrows. He immediately raised his sword and command his close range combatant to fight the man close range.


    The man only grin. Clenching his hand into fist, 2 yellowish translucent sword was formed. Standing in fighting stance, he prepped his sword facing forward. In an instance he sped up forward into the enemy rank. Using the momentum from the acceleration, he swung his hardlight sword. The sword caught its first victim, a knight on a horse. The unfortunate man was cleaved in halves including his horse. The second prey of the sword lose his head in a spray of his own blood.


    "hahahahahaha!"


    The man in black clothes only laughed loudly at their demise. Again, he swung the sword claiming another victims. The sword in his hand released a few shockwave slicing the soldiers all alike regardless of their armor. The scene of someone slicing human like hot knife slicing through butter was too surreal that make some of the soldiers back down. Their spirit was broken apart to pieces by the act.


    The man continue assaulting the army wreaking havoc within their ranks. He all sort of blade and sword art that was deemed impossible to execute with human body; parrying and counter attacking all at the same time giving the soldiers deadly whisper of death in a single blow that was aimed at the vital point.


    Unable to resist much longer, the army started attacking en masse like a bull toward the man. Using his agility, the man retreated backward to where he came from. He raised his right hand.


    ¡°Raise: Prison of Light.¡±


    Immediately the army was engulfed on their four side including above what seems to be wall made of light. The warriors and knights started banging on the wall but their weapon did nothing against the wall. Even the mages¡¯ magic can¡¯t scratched the wall. They started panicking but their general calmed them down for a while.


    The man started walking slowly toward the prison that he made. As soon as he came near it.


    ¡°Well, well, well. What should I do with the foolish man that dare to come near my abode? I¡¯ve wasted too much time on all of you when I should be using it to finish up my experiment. Damn it.¡±


    The man only cursed the army slowly as walk to and fro in front of the prison. The general could only watch in anxiety as he see what the man gonna do with them.


    ¡°Ahh. Right, I still remember 1 spell that I haven¡¯t tried on large scale. Maybe this is a good opportunity to do so.¡±


    The man put his right palm on the wall and started to concentrate his mana in it.


    ¡°Damnation.¡±


    Only one word is muttered by the man but the effect could be immediately seen. The air in the prison started heating up before it explode in a loud ¡°boom¡± incinerating everything and everyone in the prison in a split second. The man only watched the scene as the army was burned into oblivion. The sound of scream and prayer of men could be heard from the place where he stand. In a few seconds the explosion died down leaving almost nothing behind except the smell of the incinerated corpse.


    ¡°Not very mana efficient but the effect is really like I thought.¡±


    The man dispelled his prison and while humming happily, started walking back to the place which he called lab that is located near the place which could be called battlefield.

 Chapter 1

    A figure cloaked in black robe were staring deeply into the stars. Her black eyes looked deep and intelligent. Moving her eyes to and fro from one constellation to another discerning the pattern and writing notes in the leather scroll on the small table situated on a wide balcony at the tall tower. The sound of the quill writing on the leather scroll break the quiet night as not even a cricket sound could be heard from the tower.


    She sighed slowly


    ¡°It¡¯s about the time huh.¡±


    She slowly roll the scroll and tie it with a red string signifying the importance of the scroll. Putting the scroll in her pocket she quietly walk to the small door. She then close the dark oak door with a slow thud. The stars is glimmering through the dark black sky shining dimly on the balcony.


    A few hour later a small pigeon with its leg tied with a small parchment could be seen leaving through the roof of the tower. It flew to north of the tower. Within minutes the pigeon can¡¯t be seen.


    Serias Grey was walking on the street with the sunlight directly pouring through the tall skyscraper making the street that should be cool extremely hot and unpleasant. Finding it as uncomfortable, Serias took a cut through the back alley that was sheltered from the shower of sunlight.


    He is on his way to his workplace when suddenly a small vortex appeared in front of him. Surprised by the sudden appearance he stopped barely in front of the vortex.


    ¡°Hou, this thing look pretty interesting.¡±


    Serias let out an exasperated breath from his mouth. He slowly brought his hand closer to vortex. His hand pass through the vortex without resistance but it did not appeared on the other side of the vortex.


    ¡°Must be a small wormhole, but to think it would appeared on planet that the gravitational force is high is really awesome.¡±


    Serias was a scientist before being kicked out of his research lab for trying out unorthodox experiment that caused, well the destruction of the entire research lab as the experiment goes out of control.


    He did remembered the experiment. An experiment to accelerate photon exceeding light speed. The experiment end with a big explosion as the pure energy converter exceed its limit while accelerating the photon. The incident caused the complex multi-million dollars piece of machinery to be burned to smithereens. Not that he care. What he really care is his career as scientist and researcher collapsed like being flushed down the drain.


    As head supervisor he was made to take responsibility of the incident. This lead to his forced resignation. Luckily his expertise was still needed somewhere. If not he would be living in the back alley rummaging trash for a living. But this new profession inhibit him from doing research that he like.


    As a fellow scientist this kind of thing would of course make his heart as a researcher race wildly. Thinking about the fame and glory of finding something spectacular clouded his judgement.


    "Hahaha. I would make myself a fortune with this discovery."


    Thinking it would not harm to enter, Serias bring himself to enter the unknown.


    His eyes was bombarded by colourful light as he found himself standing on a green meadows. With the vortex behind him, he walked slowly downward as the vortex is situated on a small hill covered by greeneries of tall trees. The smell of the grass, the earth, the air is refreshing. It is very different from the hustle bustle of the city where he live and work.  From the width of the bark. From that place he could see green field that stretched to the horizon. It is like in the middle of nowhere. Looking up he could see the clear blue sky with specks of thin clouds spreading across the sky like some sort of (waves). There are some birds that fly in the blue sky. There were about two suns in the sky releasing its heat  and light.


    "Hang on a sec. Two suns. Twin star system. Not bad for a new world. Hahahaha."


    On his left side there is a small stream that flow slowly with crystal clear water. The sound of running water attract his attention as he run to the stream and upon arrival  slowly scooped a handful of water with hand and drink it. The water is refreshing and he feel revitalized by drinking it. After tasting the water he come back to the hill. From that place he could a tower that that is about 100m in height. Black obsidian in colour. The colour is really a stark contrast with the surrounding greenery.


    ¡°It would take about a few hours of walking to reach that place.¡± He thought.


    After a few hours walking around the small hill he found out that only the hill have trees on it while the other area didn¡¯t have any sort of tall vegetation. Only green grass could be seen as far as an eye can look. The grass look bluish if seen from afar. Occasionally, he could spot some flower that seem out of the world.


    Serias thought as he enter the vortex. Entering the vortex again he was brought to the same place where he enter it. He thought that he would forget the location of the vortex so bringing out his smartphone, he geotagged the location. Satisfied by his finding, Serias walked slowly out of the back alley and head to his workplace. He hummed happily thinking about fame and recognition that he could get from publishing the discovery.


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    Without his knowledge a pair red eyes could be seen from the dark place between the trees in the place beyond the vortex. The eyes were discerning him. A moment after Serias enter the vortex again, a black cloaked human came out and on her face a small grin could be seen. Her black cloak was shining dimly although it is made from black material.


    ¡°So he have come albeit too early from the prediction. But it shouldn¡¯t pose a problem.¡±


    For a few month after that, Serias frequented that place. He always come to that place to relax his mind from the stress of work. His current career as a lecturer is really annoying as he can¡¯t do any research after the big incident where he blow up the research lab.


    Thinking about the place, he could not see many of animals except occasional head of rabbits and the sound of cricket.  He also feel weird as nobody came here despite the location of the vortex in the middle of city. Although the vortex was situated in the back alley it seems weird that no one aware of the vortex.


    "Well that would serve my purpose to dominate the finding all by myself." He thought selfishly about it.


    He still didn¡¯t want to  walk far from the small hill that house the vortex location. He didn¡¯t want to take any risk of the vortex disappeared while he was walking to the tower. What his finding was for if the vortex collapsed and he could not go back.


    "No way in hell I''m gonna do that."


    He continued with the lifestyle until one day the vortex whisked out of existence when he just want to go back. He was dumbfounded by the sudden development. He stood at the place where the vortex was supposed to be.


    ¡°Ok damn it, now what should I do? All of my planning to study this place is now practically burned to dust. ¡±


    Calming himself despite the disaster, he sat down on the ground with a small thud. After thinking hard for a few good hours he decided to head to the tower that he had postponed for a few month.


    ¡°Well as my fear of the vortex closing has happened, shouldn¡¯t I explore the area?¡±


    Thinking logically, he remembered that he didn¡¯t even bothered to survey the area beforehand. Cursing in his mind, he slowly walk around for a bit before heading to the tower. The black tower look ominous contrasting the serene green meadows where the tower is situated.


    While walking to the tower, Serias noticed that the stream flows in two ways. One was on the side of the hill where he always spend his time, while the other flow to the tower. Despite the ominous appearance, he feel like there is an attraction that make him walk to the tower.


    After a few hours of slow walking, he arrived at the tall tower. Seeing it closely he could see numerous runes were carved on the wall. He walked around the tower until he found a big dark door made of wood. Knocking on the door,


    ¡°Hello is there anybody here. If there is no one, I¡¯m going in.¡±


    Without waiting for a reply Serias slowly pushed the heavy double door with all of his strength. Peeking into the tower he could see the dimly lit room was not dusty as if there is someone was living here. Even with the lack of light he could see the room was medium in sized that would do as a living room of a small house. Further back a flight of stairs could be seen. The windows was covered with a thick curtain blocking sunlight from reaching the inside the room. Suddenly, he heard a footstep from the wooden stairs. Serias quickly hide himself in the darkness of the room behind a big cupboard housing kitchen wares.


    ¡°Don¡¯t bother to hide. I could see you crystal clear from here. Just come out already, I¡¯m not gonna harm you.¡±


    Slowly, Serias came out of his hiding place. He walked slowly out of the dark hiding place behind the cupboard. His tattered steps could be heard echoing throughout the whole room adding to the eeriness of the room.


    ¡°It¡¯s been a while since a human came to this place.¡±


    A sweet alluring voice as sweet as honey could be heard coming from above. From the place he stood, the creaking sound of the stairs being treaded could be heard. Serias saw a silhouette of someone slowly descending down the stairs. The women as he would say from her womanly outline that satisfy all curves, The person herself was a beauty that could only be found in modelling agency. No, he thought to himself. It''s once in a lifetime chance for him.


    The woman was wearing a black hooded robe with the hood on her back. The robe has slit that travel from the bottom pair to her knees revealing the knee length black leather boots that she wore. An image of witch in movies and books came into Serias¡¯ mind when he saw the woman. The witch (what he call her in his mind) walked slowly from the stairs until she is about 5 m away from him. Her green eyes was staring deeply into his eyes. Then from her mouth,


    "Oh it''s you. The human of another world."

 Chapter 2

    "Oh it''s you. Human of another world."


    Serias was dumbfounded. How could she knew that. That was pretty impossible to know that he is from another world. His shocked face is clearly amusing to the blonde woman as she put her pale white right hand that look like it didn¡¯t met sunlight for long on her mouth straining herself from laughing, her cheek reddening and bulging like a balloon. Raising his shaking right hand slowly like a Parkinson''s patient, with his finger pointing at the woman.


    "How did you know I''m from another world?"


    "Oh. Did you think I don''t know what you''ve been doing near the portal for a few month. Taking sample here and there. And I don''t know if you are a fool or not. Didn''t your clothes show it all. It is not from around this place."


    Looking at his own clothes and comparing with the woman medieval styled witch robe , he palm faced himself. He did wear his casual clothes and his favorites dark blue sneakers. Thinking about his own foolishness make he want to head-butted his head at the wall.


    ¡°Ohh. Hehehe. How foolish of me. I myself lost control for a second there. I¡¯m very for sorry for my impudence. But, what if my clothes actually come from around here?¡±


    ¡°I''m not that unknowledgeable about this world and your world difference. Now, would you come with me and maybe we should talk about various things over a cup of tea, shall we?"


    Serias without questioning further trailed the woman''s back as they walk through a small double door that serve as entrance to the kitchen of the tower. After being shown the table and chair, Serias walked slowly to it and reluctantly sat down. the after boiling the water on the stove sat down on the chair opposite of him across the dark oak table. what surprised him is the kettle was suspended above the fire which use no firewood or visible fuel.


    "Whoa. what did you do with the kettle? How did the fire burn without any wood?"


    "Wait.Hold onto your horse young man. One by one. Don''t worry, I have all the time in the world to answer you question."


    "Young? Just how old are you just to call me young?"


    His answer this time was answered with a wooden ladle (only god knew where it came from) knocking down on his head. Grasping his head wth both hand he ducked down in pain. Her eyes glared him with her green eyes;deadly stares. He did really regret his choice of word which brought upon him the pain. Sitting down again on the seat, he apologized.


    "I''m sorry for my lack of choice of words."


    "Well this time only. Make no mistake as I''ll make you suffer next time. And lastly never ask for woman age. Well, what you want to ask after all?"


    Sitting with his back straight as a ruler like a good soldier in a marching parade;


    "Can I know your name?" was the first thing that he asked like he forgot what had just happened.


    "Ah nearly forget about that important thing. Well, my name is Stella and what is yours young man? "


    ¡°The name Serias Grey. And by the way I¡¯m 30¡± he answered Stella question nonchalantly as he was more interested in something else.


    "So, what do you do to make that kettle float and the fire keep burning?" Serias asked enthusiastically with his eyes shining with hope like a puppy. That puppy like eyes only make Stella want to once again hit his head with the wooden ladle.


    "If I say magic would you believe me?"


    "Magic?!"


    "In this world, the world called Kosmos, magic is something that defies logic of your world which has no magic. Powered by energy called mana and the manipulator of mana is called mage, wizard, witch and sorcerer.¡± Stella started her lecture before being interrupted.


    ¡°Wait, hang on a second. How did you that my world did not have any magic?¡±


    ¡°Isn¡¯t it obvious with your reaction of asking me question about the fire and the kettle. And in addition, I¡¯m also from Earth, not from this world. So of course I would know about our world. The world with magic was something out of fantasy.¡±


    ¡°So you are also from Earth. How did you end up here?¡±


    ¡°Well, it is also like what you experienced. I stumbled upon a portal to this place a long time ago. If I must say it¡¯s been about more than 1000 years if it is calculated using earth time. But the time flow between these two worlds is ever changing and not constant as I only have been living here around 500 years.¡±


    ¡°Wait....What? 500 years. Isn¡¯t that practically very old...¡± and the wooden ladle in Stella hand came flying to his head knocking him down the chair onto the black stone floor.


    Stella stand up from her chair and walk toward the stove that has finished boiling the water in the kettle. Pouring the hot water into the teapot containing tea leaves, she drain the hot water into the sink after a minute or so to release the aroma of the tea leaves. She then brought the teapot in a tray with two cup, levitating the tray by her side. Putting the tray slowly on the table, she could see Serias had already sat on his seat again waiting for her with his face contorted with smile.


    ¡°Next time you mention my age, prepare yourself to at least dying.¡±


    ¡°Okay, okay. I¡¯ll never mention it again. So could you please stop staring dagger at me? It¡¯s really uncomfortable.¡± Serias slowly rub his aching head with his left hand.


    ¡°Continuing from where I left, I knew almost all the latest exploit of human back on earth.¡±


    ¡°That means you could open the portal?¡±


    ¡°No. But I could only use prying magic to see what have happened on Earth. And unfortunately for you the portal only open once in a few hundred years when the mana concentration is very concentrated and a few condition is met. So you''ve got to live here after all.¡±


    Serias let out an exasperated sigh. He picked up the teapot and pour down the content into both cup. Sipping the aromatic tea he lean his back on the chair.


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    "I can''t go back huh. Well, whatever. I have another question. Can I use magic?"


    "Did you drink the water from the river near this tower?"


    "Well yes I had drink it. What about it?" Serias show an


    "If you have then it''s good. You knew that I also came from Earth, where our world did not have any magic. A select few of human on Earth have the capability to store mana and they were in fact my predecessor; a guardian of this place, The Archivist of Magic. We, for about 2000 years have catalogued and archived the history and the magic of this world from the end of Precursor''s Age until now and you are one of the people from Earth that could store mana in their bodies. So, the portal when it spawn somewhere, would release mana to its surrounding and and see who would react to the portal and enter it."


    "Okay I get it, but why the earthen people, why not this world''s human?"


    "The human of this world has a tendency to use the magic in this tower to cause destruction in the world and that is the last thing the first Archivist want. He had enough of the war at the end of the Precursor¡¯s Age. So he go the roundabout way of summoning a dimensional portal to bring someone from another world. It''s not an easy task considering the mana needed and the magic ritual used to summon only someone from a civilized world. My predecessor told me that the first Archivist took 300 years to prepare the ritual and another 200 years to accumulate enough mana to activate the portal."


    "Hey, you still didn¡¯t answer my question about the water."


    "Oh, the water. The water as you know is no ordinary water. Its is literally liquid mana dissolved in water but its property is still like water. Drinking the water wikl make your mana pool filled to the brim with mana and drinking it gradually make you generate mana fast enough to use first level spell that the archivist use."


    Continuing her lecture, Stella told Serias that his arrival had already make him an Apprentice Archivist. Not understanding it, another wooden ladle came flying to his face. This time he barely manage to dodge in time.


    "Hou. Impressive reaction time. Next time I''ll make it faster so you wont be able to even dodge. What I mean by thing the thing I explain before is the one who came here through the portal is fated to continue the responsibilities of safeguarding this place with their life."


    ¡°That means that I was fated to be an archivist of this old tower when I step into this very land. Urgh, I only feel regret thinking about it.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about that, as your predecessor I¡¯ll make you go through hell until you spit blood to make you as my successor. Time is a thing that you would have plenty. We the archivist was granted a long life span as the mana prolonged our own life force. In short we¡¯ll never die as long as we are not killed in one shot. If you lost a limb or two it would just regrow but it will take some time. Not something that you should worry about.¡±


    ¡°Not something to worry about my ass. Losing a limb was something that certainly painful.¡± Was what he thought. Stella would certainly be in fury if she knew what Serias was thinking.


    ¡°Longer lifespan meaning a lot of research could be done and with magic I could try experimenting on something that can¡¯t be done before. Not something that I would let go.¡± Is what he was thinking while his small lips grinned.  Stella just frown seeing her would be disciple like that.


    ¡°Another thing I want to tell you is, this archive was only updated every few hundred years when an archivist was sure that this place would not be trespassed by anyone. Keeping a ward working for tens of years is not an easy task as you¡¯ll get busy cataloguing and gathering new magic that had appeared during the time lapse of hundreds of years. By the way, as an archivist we could use all type of magic regardless of attribute, a courtesy of our second archivist that modified the magic ritual of the portal so his successor could use all type of magic making it easy for us to test any magic that is worthy enough to be put in the archive.¡±


    From the open windows Serias could see the two sun, side by side had already sunk beyond the horizon leaving only a little specks of orange and red light which illuminated the clouds. Stella stood up from the chair and step slowly toward the windows. She close the windowpane but let the curtain as it is. Serias put his face on the table, tired of the torrent of information that entered his head. He brought his head up and saw Stella looking at his face with a contorted smile on her face.


    ¡°For now just go and take a bath. The bathroom is at the end of the hallways and the spare clothes could be found in the room on the second floor. Just rest for today. We would take our time talking tomorrow.¡±


    Stella turned to face the door from where they had entered earlier. Only the slow thud of her boots could be heard after she left through the door. Serias thought that she maybe had return to her room. He started walking toward the hallway which is on the opposite side of the door before.


    After the bath and climbing the stairs to the room Stella had told him, he found himself in big room fully furnished with a closet and king sized bed. Stella must have clean the room while he is in the bathroom. Serias thought of thanking her tomorrow as he let his tired body land on the soft bed. Only a moment later a snoring sound could be heard.


    -------------------------------------------------------


    Hello dear readers. this is my first time writing a ff. So I would thank to all of you if i could get any feedback. If you spot any grammatical mistake please point it and I''ll try to repair it. The last thing is i hope that you enjoy reading this ff.

 Chapter 3

    Serias woke up this morning with his bed drenched with icy cold water and the blue crackling of lightning that scorched a ¡°little¡±. He is now sitting on a chair in the dining room slowly eating the slightly burned toast that he makes using Stella¡¯s magic tool. Stella, the perpetrator that made his bed¡¯s mattress lying under the sun was slowly sipping her tea with a white porcelain cup. Today she is wearing some type of white tunic that is worn loosely against her body.


    ¡°Today you¡¯ll start your magic training with me in the forest where you came from.¡± Stella started their first conversation that day. They didn¡¯t even talk when she woke Serias up roughly from his sleep.


    ¡°But....¡±


    ¡°No but. You¡¯re late when you should wake up early. But you woke up near noon already. Just what type of person are you. You didn¡¯t even awake when I used icy cold water on you.¡± Stella sneered at him with a tint of anger in her eyes.


    ¡°Well you I....¡± Serias stuttered


    ¡°What!? Not a morning person is what you want to say. Am I right?¡±


    ¡°Ah yes. Exactly.¡±


    Stella just let a heavy sigh escaped from her small mouth, didn¡¯t know what to say further to his new disciple. She stands up from her seat and walk slowly to the window that show the blue azure sky with the two suns in the background and the small hill from where Serias came from. She points her pale white hand to the hill.


    ¡°Change your attire first. The white one. I¡¯ll be waiting at the hill only 30 minutes. Run fast as I¡¯ll give you punishment this time if you¡¯re late. And don¡¯t forget to wash the dishes that we used. And I meant it now!¡±


    Stella spoke in shrill voice when she sees that Serias still eating his toast slowly, savouring every bite like he is eating a thousand dollars steak. Serias after hearing Stella¡¯s voice quickly stood up bringing down the chair that he sat on its back. He dashed quickly to the sink and wash the cup and plate that they had used for their breakfast. Stella just shook her head. She then just teleports to the meeting place.


    Serias change into the attire that Stella had mentioned before. Exiting the double door of the tower, he dashed quickly like mad rabbit to the hills as he is running late. Although he think he is running if someone who see him would be rolling on the laughing as his running speed would even lose against kid.


    Serias panted heavily when he arrived at the foot of the hill. He himself knew he is running late from the appointed time and physical activity was not his forte as he just worked in room only before. Waiting on the top of the hill was Stella who is glaring at him intently. This time he got his head knocked with a wooden pole that is longer than her height.


    Stella ask Serias to sit down in front of her. Taking a deep breath she started her lectures.


    ¡°What you¡¯ll learn today is the concept of mana. The energy that the precursor named. Mana is a type of energy that be freely manipulated by someone that is trained in mana manipulation. Mana is used to bend world logics according to the user¡¯s own imagination and a few certain rules.  There are two type of mana, the first one is the internal mana. Second is the ambient mana that surround us.¡±


    Serias could only tilted his head in confusion, hearing the multiple type of mana. Stella just ignored him while continuing her explanation that internal mana is contained in every body regardless of living or non-living things. Internal mana as she explain could be cultivated without limit until someone dies. It also prolong someone¡¯s life, but not infinitely.


    ¡°You¡¯ll need to meditate to feel the mana. Clear your mind from any idle thought and focus only on sensing the mana that is flowing in your body and the mana that is in the surrounding. You better get started now. And come back before the sunset.¡± Stella walked away from him, returning back to the tower.


    Serias sat down and tried to clear his mind from any thought. After a while he could make out the feeling of his blood flowing in the vein, the feeling of his lung filled with air. From his surroundings, he could hear the sound of the water flowing in the nearby stream and when he focused more, the sound of whistling wind moving past the trees in the forest could also be heard.


    The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.


    He continued his meditation until the two suns started to sink beyond the horizon, but he still could not feel the mana. Not wanting to walk to the tower in the darkness, he end his meditation in frustration. Slowly he makes his feet moved slowly.


    After almost one hour of walking in haste he arrived back at the black obsidian tower. He moved to the stream that flow at the back of the tower and drink directly from the river. He also take this chance to wash his face.


    A few hours later, both Serias and Stella were sitting in Stella¡¯s study room sipping tea slowly. Serias is frowning at his own development.


    ¡°Nearly a day of meditating, and I can¡¯t even feel even a sliver of mana.¡±


    ¡°Take it easy. It¡¯s only been a day. Even genius people would take at least a  month to feel the mana. And you need to be reminded the first step is always the hardest one. Oh and another thing is I don¡¯t really an expert in teaching others, so please forgive me for a bit.¡±


    Stella left her seat and took out a book from one of the shelf at the back of her study desk. The book was in red color with 2cm thickness. Browsing through the pages, she stop after a few tens of pages and place the book in front of Serias with a ¡°read it¡± expression on her face. Sighing slowly he took the book and started reading from the page that Stella pointed at. It reads ¡°The Archivist Guide¡±.


    The Archivist is an entity that protect the knowledge of magic from vanishing. It doesn¡¯t matter if the knowledge is dangerous or not, the archivist will preserve this knowledge. The Archivist itself can analyze any magic they¡¯ve seen in a moment, so that they can store this knowledge. It is an Archivist responsibility to protect the Tower that store all kinds of knowledge. This book wrote by me, The Second Archivist as a guide for new Archivist. I¡¯ll not give out my name as The First Archivist had said ¡°We, the Archivist,  is a single entity that work toward the preservation of knowledge. That is why we always didn¡¯t give out our name, only our title as an Archivist that we take pride in¡±. We did not only store the knowledge, we also research and develop new magic that piqued our interest. This book is wrote for the sake of introducing the world of archivist to the new apprentice.


    -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


    ¡°That¡¯s a lengthy introduction¡± Serias mumbled slowly. As he read on he found out some mana cultivation technique that could only be used, well after he could sense his own mana. He also read about how the knowledge was stored in the form of memory crystal that is located in the basement of the tower under maximum security.


    ¡°Then you should go and rest for today and wake up earlier tomorrow to continue your training.¡±


    Hearing those, Serias stop is reading and quickly went to his bed.


    After several days of meditation, Serias could feel the flow of mana in his body. It is a refreshing feeling of something cold flowing in his body and the feeling of something familiar swirling around his body. These two feelings are the internal mana and ambient mana respectively.


    Opening his eyes, he could see a myriad of colors billowing into his sight. Calming down slightly, he tries cutting off the mana supply into his eyes gradually until he could not see the colors of mana. Reminiscing the feeling of mana streaming through his body make he feel happy.


    A moment later, Stella approached him from behind. Putting her hand on Serias¡¯ right shoulder, he who is focusing on the feeling of mana was dumbfounded. Seeing that it was Stella who is smiling a vicious smile, his heart shudders.


    ¡°With this, let¡¯s start the phase 2 of your training¡±

 Chapter 4

    Both of them was back in the tower with Stella teleportation. She led him to a room on the third floor. The room was void of any furniture and equipment unlike any other room that Serias has went to in these past few days. The only exception is a crystal orb that is floating right in the middle of the room.


    ¡°What we¡¯re going to do?¡±


    ¡°Not we, you only. Well, I¡¯m going to test your magic affinities so that I could plan out your next training¡±


    ¡°Why now? Not before¡± Serias asked with face full of dissatisfaction.


    ¡°Fools! You can¡¯t even feel your own mana, how come we could test your affinities?¡± retorted Stella while waving her hand to the orb. Her hand motion activated the whole room. White light from the ceiling lit the whole room. She stood at one corner of the room.


    ¡°Put your hand on the orb and channel your mana into it¡±


    ¡°How?¡±¡¯


    ¡°Remember the sensation of mana flowing in your body. Will your own mana flow into the orb, imagine it, imagine the mana flowing from your body into the orb. That will do the trick, for the meantime¡±


    Serias put his hand on the orb and channeled his mana into it. For the first minute nothing happens. Then, the orb glow red before changing to blue, green and brown before dimming slightly. He thought the myriad of colors were beautiful when suddenly a blinding white light shot out of the orb illuminating the whole room white. Serias thought that his retinas were burned. The white light devoured his whole body and then it was black.


    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


    Serias open his eyes and found himself lying on his bed. He glanced outside to find that it¡¯s already dark. His eyes still hurt like hell from the blinding white light. He quickly went back up on his feet and started walking toward Stella¡¯s study.


    Knocking slowly the door, he could heard a faint ¡°enter¡± sound before slowly opened the wooden door with delicate handle. He found that Stella was writing something on the paper at the study desk. Slowly, he brought himself to the seat in front of Stella. Heaving a sigh, he let out his first question.


    ¡°What was that earlier?¡±


    Slowly putting the quill that she used, Stella look straight into Serias¡¯ eyes.


    ¡°Well, accident do happens after all. No need to worry too much. To tell you, after analysing the orb after you fell unconscious the result has come out¡±


    Stella told him that he has high affinities with fire, water, air and earth and last but not least the highest affinities is light. He was dumbfounded to think that his highest affinities was light. Thinking back, he doesn¡¯t know what light affinities could be used for.


    ¡°You must be thinking how the light affinities is useless. Well, how wrong you are if you thought about that. All Archivist from the first one until me has the highest affinities for light. I¡¯ll show you later how powerful the people with highest light affinities is.¡±


    Serias could only feigned silence. Seeing him like that, Stella clapped her hand twice to bring his attention again.


    ¡°We¡¯ll start tonight¡¯s lecture then. Today is about affinities and Spell Level.¡±


    Affinities are traits that allows someone to manipulate an element easily. Without affinities, someone could also cast a magic but with longer time. The incantation is also longer and the magic circles and magic circuit needed is also bigger. The higher the affinities the higher the abilities of someone to manipulate an element. They could also use chantless magic, cutting down the time to activate the magic considerably.  Not many people could do this.


    Spell Level on another hand is the degree of a spell. It was divided into 11 level from the lowest level, level 10 to the highest level, level 0. Level 10 is called beginner level, while the level 0 contained the forbidden spell that could even destroy a country. A level 0 spell in all her knowledge were only available to the Archivist as level 0 spell was created by the Archivist. For example is Scorched Earth, an Earth element spell. It will turn all land and earth within 1 km radius of the spell caster into molten lava. The molten lava then will proceed to swallowed anything on its surface, living or non-living alike.


    ¡°That is the gist of it. With that, the lecture is finished. And you still remembered the mana cultivation technique that you read before. Use it well. That is the only way to fill your mana pool quickly in the spans of a decade¡±


    With a slight nod as a gratitude, Serias dragged his legs back into his bedroom and he sat on the floor trying to meditate. He want to start his mana cultivation. Emptying his mind, he try to feel the sensation that he feel before. Before long the sensation of something cold rushing down his bloodstream. Remembering the guide, he try making his soul absorb mana. Slowly he feel the cold mana rush into his head. It could be thought like filling empty bottle with water. Slowly he feel the sleepiness was swept away as he try feeding his soul with more mana. The mana that is filling his soul could be felt like water in a container. After feeling that he could not feed any more mana, he divert the ambient mana into his body, refining it through his soul into his own internal mana. This time he absorb the mana into his own body, storing it in each muscle. Without knowing, this process make his muscle stronger.


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    It¡¯s already morning when he finished his mana cultivation. He feel refreshed even without a wink of sleep. He get up on his feet, he punch the empty air. The speed of the punch shocked him.  Thinking for a while, he didn¡¯t thought that the mana cultivation could make someone stronger. What he read in the guide didn¡¯t mentioned about body being stronger with only mana cultivation.


    Serias went down to the kitchen to prepare the breakfast. A little while later Stella step into the kitchen and after sitting on the chair gobbled down the bread that he had prepared before. Sitting down facing Stella, he took the teapot and poured down the tea into the teacup on the saucer.


    ¡°Can mana cultivation make the body stronger?¡±


    ¡°Yes it can, but I¡¯ll advise you to not do it at this early stage. I¡¯ll explain it after this¡±


    Finishing their breakfast, Stella brought Serias to the first underground floor, the training room. The white wall, floor and ceiling make the room look very spacious. The sound of their footstep falling on the floor made a slow noise as they enter the room.


    As the door close behind them, Stella flicked her fingers. The scenery of white room immediately change into a typical dojo style training room. But the difference between typical dojo is, on the left side of the door, a wide array of weapon was neatly arranged on their rack. Serias could see weapon like dagger, broadsword, katana, bow and arrows, and others that he could not identified.


    This room with Stella¡¯s explanation could materialize any scenery and battleground for practice. It could even materialize fake living organism that could be used as practice. For example, it could also materialize the previous archivist for the sake of training. Stella also told that her master had materialized a hundred thousand army and commanded her to destroy all of it. She could only finished the task after two full days of fighting. The time in the practice room could also be accelerated so that someone could practice faster. The maximum limit that the room can accelerate time is 50 time.


    ¡°Take one sword¡± Stella order Serias.


    Serias, with hesitation, moved to the weapon rack and choose one short sword. And moved to Stella¡¯s front. Facing Stella, he could see Stella wielding a blade made of pure light in her right hand. It glowed in yellowish hue. ¡°Oh crap!¡± was the only thing that he could thought at that time.


    ¡°Strike me¡± Stella ordered.


    Lurching forward unsteadily, Serias swung his short sword down from above trying to break Stella stance. And the sound of steel meeting steel could be heard. He was dumbfounded. Stella defended with only her left hand. He observed properly the hand and could see a thin layer of light was formed on her palm. The short sword was stop directly on the layer of light. In a moment Stella counterattacked with her blade in the left hand. The blade cut through the short sword like a hot knife slicing a butter cutting the short sword into two with ease. His eyes were wide open.


    ¡°This is one of the specialty of the Archivist. We could manipulate light to our will. People only thought that someone with light affinities could only use healing and buff. See this.¡±


    A few orb of light formed in front of Stella. The orb glowed slightly before firing a beam of light toward the target practice a good 100m from where she was standing. The target was pierced leaving only blackish hole on it. Serias¡¯ mouth was wide agape at the destructive power of the beam. The target practice from his observation is made of steel and yet could not even stop the beam.


    ¡°Did you change your opinion now?¡±


    ¡°Isn¡¯t this thing is too overpowered?¡±


    ¡°Well, you¡¯ll regret it later if you don¡¯t have it. The world is big. It¡¯s full of surprise. You¡¯ll never know what await you¡±


    ¡°There is also the Light Stance, the form of combat art devised by generations of Archivist that used ultra light


    weight weapon as the weapon made from light is almost weightless. It contained 35 stance that could be used with any close range weapon. From the 35 stance 20 stance is attacking stance with of it 17 of it could be chain with each other. Another 15 stance is defence stance. The 17 attacking stance could be executed even in the defence stance. It is a formidable combat art that could change on the fly. The 3 other is Light Step, Frenzy and the Death Stance. Light Step make someone move at near speed of light. Without special enhancement, anyone that execute Light Step will be crushed to death by the momentum. That is why I asked you to not cultivate the mana into your body. Just wait until you¡¯ve undergone the special enhancement. Frenzy is stance that increase the strength while Death Stance is the finisher¡±


    With a long lecture Serias could finally understand the high light affinity usefulness. He want to asked a few question when he was cut short.


    ¡°Well, enough with the banter. I¡¯ll make you master all of the weapon in this room before this year end. This training room time has been accelerated to the maximum 50 times. So you¡¯ll spend another 8 months real time while your magic training could be started at a later date. But, your mana cultivation and mana shaping training will continue on along.


    With a long no from Serias, they started the special training.

 Chapter 5

    The sounds of something clashing could be heard resounding through the white and desolate world of the training room. Two shadows move to and fro from each other with every time the shadows meet produce countless sparks and clashing sound.


    The shadows came to a stop revealing the identities of the two shadows. Stella and Serias. Both of them holding sword made of light. In Stella¡¯s right hand is a saber while Serias hold a long sword and a short sword in his right hand and left hand respectively. Both of them stood with a stoic expressions. Serias mouth curved into a smile and with a single step, move forward with a speed that couldn¡¯t be followed by ordinary eyes.


    Stella received his first blow with her saber and moved it to her right side successfully parrying it leaving her chest wide open. Serias quickly stabbed toward the heart with the short sword on his left hand. Stella quickly generated light shield on her chest and short sword was stopped right there but the momentum send her a few meters back. She steadily get onto her feet quickly. And dashed forward and executed about 15 slash filled with elemental waves of light onto Serias.


    Serias quickly put his left palm forward. A wall of light appears in front of him while dispelling the short sword that he used to stab Stella a while ago. The wall of light received the full brunt of the elemental waves light up slightly in yellow tinge. Halfway through the elemental waves attack Stella accelerated faster than the waves arriving in front of the wall. Her sword raised high above her hand with two handed. It changed from its saber form to a near 2m great sword. With a tremendous speed she brought it down, slicing the wall and Serias who stood behind it.


    No blood were spilled from what seem to be Serias. It only dissipate slowly into countless particles of light which flew upwards and then slowly fall down like snow. Stella didn¡¯t seem to mind it in the slightest. Immediately after the great sword touch the floor, it changed again into a rapier. Stella turn backward and thrust her rapier before stopping. It release a tremendous shockwaves that could knock out even the most powerful warrior on the planet.


    ¡°You lose¡± the word came out from her like a whisper.


    Serias dispel his invisibility magic and from his sight he could see the pointy tip of the rapier was on his Adam¡¯s apple. Only few millimeters more and it would cut his throat. He also dispelled his sword. Stella flick her finger and the room change back to its original appearance of much smaller room.


    ¡°That¡¯s my 36th clone, master¡± Serias stated unhappily.


    ¡°Not that I care. Yours is not perfect. I could see there is no mana presence in the clone. What did you think by lowering your shield durability?¡±


    ¡°I thought of slowing down your sword speed for a few milliseconds could be enough for me to strike your back¡±


    ¡°In your dream. Your invisibility spell is good, but did you remember what I said by disguising your mana presence to be same with your surroundings. You¡¯ll be harder to be detected if your mana presence is same as your surroundings. You¡¯ll stick out like a sore thumb if you make your mana presence is completely invisible¡±


    Stella strode out of the room followed by Serias slowly afterwards. From this day on, his first phase of training was finished.


    -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


    For almost 33 years, training in the training room was the most terrible experience Serias ever had since he was alive. His sword skill rose by leap and bound in that period. His mana also increased by tremendous amount. Now it was equal to an S-class mana well.


    He was now standing in a boundless realm where someone couldn¡¯t even see the horizon. The sky above him is dark blue in color. It is like seeing deep ocean but this is on his head. His feet was submerged to his ankle with bluish liquid that is cold and calming. The bluish water was concentrated mana. A blue orb that about 1m in diameter was floating in front of him. He could see some of the mana slowly evaporated into thick blue mist before being absorbed slowly into the blue orb.


    He was now in his soul space. Inside his own soul. After being taught by Stella about soul and how to enter his own soul space he always visit this place, pondering at the blue orb which is his soul core. The soul core was a black box that never had been be touched by human hands. It is really dangerous to tinker with the soul. Stella also had taught him few soul based attack that attacked the soul directly regardless of physical defense. It is useful in high speed battle where a few seconds of stun could render someone dead.


    He had tried tinkering with his own soul. Using the soul based attack on his own soul he successfully slipped into the soul core. He only could transverse a few upper layer when he is pulled back into the soul space. Forcefully.


    He could sense that the soul core have thousands of layer while he could only travelled a few upper layer. He also confirmed that the layer contain the personality and memories of someone. He reported his founding to Stella. She was amazed to find that Serias could break through the layer of the core. She agreed when Serias ask her to help him.


    He was pondering when Stella arrived. She wore a golden dress that look majestically mesmerizing to his eyes. He thought he should ask her about her appearance after this experiment.


    ¡°You sure want to this? It is dangerous to tinker with the soul. Even my master didn¡¯t dare to approach too deep in this soul matters. There is no turning back after this.¡± Her forehead wrinkled in worries. She still didn¡¯t believe that her disciple was really brave enough in this matters.


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    ¡°Don¡¯t worry. I just need master to cast Aura of Death and Aura of the Damned on my soul core so I could slip through the soul layers and pull me out if something bad would happen. After all how could I retreat in the face of a big discovery.¡± he replied nonchalantly.


    Currently, he is using his mind¡¯s bodies to stay in the soul space. There were two ways to enter the soul space. First by meditating and focusing on his soul. Second is to use the mind¡¯s body that is constructed in the mind space. The mind and the soul are two things that can¡¯t be separated. Separate one from another and the people will sure to die. The reason he used the mind¡¯s body is so that his consciousness would not fade while under influence of Stella¡¯s soul attack. He couldn¡¯t lose his consciousness while inside the soul core or its consequences would be too great for him to handle.


    Aura of Death and Aura of the Damned are soul based attack that directly attack the soul. It induced fear on a colossal amount that could make some people untrained in fending their soul faint. It also weaken the soul defense on the soul core making the soul more susceptible to subsequent soul based attacks.


    ¡°Prepare yourself. I¡¯ll cast both of the aura with the strongest magnitude.¡±


    Serias prepared himself, facing the blue orb. Stella started casting the spell. Black mist seep out of her body little by little it become dark that it look ominous to someone who saw it. After a while the black cloud was hurled toward the blue orb at high speed. As soon as the black cloud touch the orb, it shuddered and for a few seconds it reveal its outer layer like an orange peel.


    Serias felt an immense pain run through his body as the soul core get peeled layer by layer. He cut the pain reception using his magic and flew toward the soul core. The black cloud dissipate and entered the soul core slowly like how the mana being absorbed. He successfully entered the soul core without any problem. Slipping past the first 100 layers of soul core was no easy feat even although it is still under attack.


    After a few moments in the soul core, he started analyzing the complex pattern of that were embedded on each layer of the soul core. Floating closer to the 99th layer he could the pattern resemble something that Stella  had taught him the defensive ward¡¯s magic circle. This contain more intricate and small patterns embedded in each line. He came closer and started copying one of the pattern into his photographic memories, courtesy of his body and mind enhancement that Stella had performed on him before he started practicing the Light Stance.


    After that, he sailed past a few hundred layers while stopping for a while to analyze the pattern on every layers. The pattern of the layers changed after the first 100 layers. This really piqued his interest as the pattern become more complicated and intricate the deeper he dived into the soul core. A few hours in the soul core didn¡¯t make him meet the end of the road. In disappointment he started turning back, driving his mind¡¯s body outside.


    ¡°Better not be greedy. All of the pattern should take time to analyze¡± he thought.


    Outside of the soul core, he was greeted by Stella¡¯s worried face. Seeing him getting out she heaved a huge breath of relieve. She thought something had happened in the soul core. Serias give a satisfied look at Stella albeit with a small just hint of disappointment.


    ¡°What with that look. Shouldn¡¯t you be happier doing something that even our predecessors couldn¡¯t do?¡±


    ¡°I could only travelled a few hundred layers of the soul core and I don¡¯t think that the end of the layers is near.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t be too greedy. Just do it slow and steady. Soul is not something that mortal like us to interfere.¡±


    ¡°Alright. I¡¯m going to start analyzing the thing that I found in the soul core.¡±


    ¡°Good luck with your research.¡± After saying that Stella¡¯s body slowly disappear to reality leaving Serias alone in his soul space. He sat down and using his memories he started analyzing the complex pattern that were embedded in the soul core¡¯s every layer.


    Browsing through his memories he selected the magic circles that were embedded on the 51st layer. Deliberately he expanded the magic circles to see the basic outline of it. What shocked him is the basic outline of the magic circles is almost the same for a basic defensive wards that he learn before. Then he noticed that the line used one the magic circles were a little rugged. Expanding it again in his mind he was utterly stunned. The line were made using thousands of small string of words and according to one of the Precursor¡¯s text he could translate it into binary number that executed a certain function. Some of the line were adjoined like electronics circuit but this were more complicated. He didn¡¯t worry too much about that as he had wrote a thesis before regarding binary code. It were his specialty. So how could he doesn¡¯t understand it. He laughed loudly that resonated throughout the whole soul space.


    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


    It took a long time to churn out new chapter, although some people that I see could bring you 1 chapter per day. Well, I don''t know how they do it but BANZAI!! to them. This chapter had to be rewritten before it could be posted. Well, comment and advise are always appreciated.

 Chapter 6

    Two people could be seen descending down the stone spiral stairs. The sound of their footstep reverberate through the area. Their slow footstep sound make the dark flight of stairs eerie but the two people didn¡¯t even seem to mind that.


    ¡°Serias, how was your research about the soul?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s progressing in quite a good pace. But I lack any other soul other than my own to help me analyse the pattern of the soul. This hamper my research a bit but not a main problem¡± reported Serias.


    ¡°Okay then, I want you to recite back on what I¡¯ve taught you about the magic system.¡±


    ¡°Magic system was divided into seven type. The first one is the elemental magic that pertaining about controlling six basic element that is fire, water, wind, earth, darkness, and light. The second is space magic that control the space. It is one of the most difficult magic as the knowledge about it is limited. The third one is barrier magic which is about creating barrier, seal and wards. The fourth is conjuring magic that create temporary structure made of pure mana. It need magic circle or strong imagination to activate it. The fifth system is the soul magic, the most undeveloped branch of magic as soul is not easy to investigate and understand. Utility magic is magic that encompass magic from reinforcement magic, movement reinforcement magic, tracing magic, alteration magic and rune magic. The last branch is the alchemy where potion or material is concocted with the help of magic to improve its effectiveness.¡±


    ¡°Oh! You did your homework didn¡¯t you?¡± Stella smirked at him playfully.


    They arrived at a door after descending for about 10 minutes. The door was made from a type of metal but was painted black. Stella touched her silver ring on the door and it swung out revealing a small room with a white crystal orb on a 1m high column at the centre. They entered the room and the door were closed by Stella quietly. Stella moved to the centre of the room and put her hand on the crystal orb.


    ¡°Come. Put your hand on the orb.¡±


    Serias stepped slowly to the centre of the room and stood opposite of Stella. He put his hand on the orb. It glowed white before his consciousness was bombarded by numerous white light. The he feel that his mind is pulled to somewhere.


    What he saw after his mind is cleared is numerous number of shelves with books. There were books everywhere. It could be compared to the biggest library that he saw back on Earth. His mouth was wide open and his interest is perked immediately by the monstrous amount of books. This amount of books could last a lifetime. There were also stairs that could brought the visitors to the next floor. From his eyes he could see the library was at least 10 floors. Suddenly his shoulder is poked by someone. When he turned around he could see Stella with her smile.


    ¡°What do you think of this library?¡±


    ¡°Just what the hell was with this library? Every single floor could even last a single lifetime to read it.¡±


    ¡°Well this is the Archive. The library that housed the Magic Archive. It included every single book or knowledge or a grimoire that had been found by previous Archivist.¡±


    ¡°You meant this is the lifework of thousands of years?¡±


    ¡°Yes it is. Did you remember when I told you to train and control your own mind? It is for you to access this Archive.¡±


    ¡°How?¡±


    ¡°An untrained mind could be burned and paralyzed when accessing this Archive. The load of information could overload and fried the brain. That is why I taught you to train your mind first. And you must thought about why the first Archivist built the Archive to take form like this. Well, it is only for aesthetics sake. Oh, the Archive also use (time acceleration magic) like the training room, so just read the book without worry.¡±


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    Serias could only frown when he heard the reason behind why the Archive take the form of big library. As it take the form of a library it contain a number of seat and tables for the use of Archivist. Then he slowly walked to the seat that when gestured by Stella.


    ¡°For today I¡¯ll tell you some history about this world. The previous Archivist, our predecessor didn¡¯t take priority in compiling the history of this world. The First Archivist was too busy collecting books and information about magic by the end of the Precursor War that he simply discarded any notion of collecting any history book. What I could you is only the tale that the previous Archivist told me.¡±


    This world, Kosmos, was initially a planet that didn¡¯t have any fauna only flora. Then one day the Precursor found this world through some exploration team. Then gradually the Precursor started moving into this world. For about 2000 years the Precursor develop this into something like paradise. Then they found out about mana after some of their own assimilate with the mana. The era of magic start and rapidly developed what the people now call the golden age of magic. But this era end when they started straying from their path. Creating abomination for the sake of curiosity, the dragon for example is actually created by the Precursor. This created a friction between the Conservative and the Revolutionary faction.


    After a cold war that last for about a millennium the two forces clashed. The Conservative force that employ their best magician that had been cultivated for about 10 century. The Revolutionary on the other hand release the beast and monster that only could be heard from legend story of the Precursor. This war last for about 200 years. This was the Precursor War. Both side didn¡¯t want to lose and threw away their ideal. By the last half century of the war the First Archivist started moving to collect the knowledge that didn¡¯t get burned by the flame of war. By the last decade of the war, he built this safe sanctuary to store the knowledge that he collect. He leave the job of collecting, compiling and the safeguarding of the Archive to his apprentice before he passed away.


    Finishing the story, Stella sat on the seat and out of thin air two cups of tea with saucer was safely conjured and put on the table. Serias were perplexed by this act. He knew that this act was an act that defy logic as magic is not omnipotent that it could materialized the thing in front of him. Stella take the cup and sipped her tea while eyeing her apprentice with amused face.


    ¡°Don¡¯t think too much about that. This place after all only a virtual or imaginary not a real one. As the supervisor of this place, the act that I do is not even a magic. Only something in our mind. I know that you are drooling at the book. Just go get a book that you like.¡±


    Serias without further ado dashed to the nearest bookshelves to take a look at the numerous book that were contained in the library. Eyeing at the bookshelves he could see almost all of the book were about fundamental of magic. Stella from afar laughed loudly at her disciple.


    ¡°This floor only contained the book about the basic of magic. Only from next floor contained advanced level magic book.¡± Stella yelled loudly at Serias who were quite a distance away.


    Serias who heard that bolted to the next floor. Stella could only shook her head at his childish disciples. She continue to sip her tea while contemplating about what to do next.

 Chapter 7

    Two silhouette could be seen in the training room, circling each other. Slowly but surely their distance increase little by little and after a few moments the distance were apparently 50 m and they stopped their legs from moving and face each other.


    ¡°Should we get started, this last magic combat of ours. I¡¯ll gauge your combat capabilities using magic. Like I had told you before, no using Light Stance combat arts in this duel. All spell from level 10 until level 0 is usable. No restriction on fatal spell. Winners determined by inabilities to continue. Did you understand that?¡± Stella¡¯s clear and crisp voice could be heard by Serias that is standing a good 50 m away from him.


    Serias only nodded his head signalling that he understood that rules. Stella took a gold coin from the pocket in her long hooded robe. She tossed the coin high into the air. Both of Serias¡¯ and Stella¡¯s pupils contracted, focusing on the coin¡¯s trajectory. The gold coin with ornamental pattern flew in the air, rotating for a few moment before hitting the ground with a loud sound.


    Both of them moved backward quickly to create distance between them. Standard mage tactic that denote them as glass cannon. Powerful but weak in close combat. Serias quickly cast smokescreen made from melded magic of three elements; earth, fire and wind. It barred any visual confirmation of a target. To make it difficult for Stella, he also dispersed a good amount mana into the air to make detection using Sensing Field useless. He also triple casting with his chantless incantation by using Soul Shock that directly attack the soul. Stella however fended of the soul attack successfully by her powerful soul defence.


    Stella nod in satisfaction with her disciple quick thinking. Triple casting was almost impossible for her that didn¡¯t excel in soul magic. She quickly moved outside of the smoke area using Blink, an instantaneous movement spell that allow the caster to move to a short distance in a straight line in their line of sight. Three Ice Spear impaled the ground where she was before. She blinked again. This time around 300 m from the smoke. Stella knew that Serias¡¯ Sensing Field could only cover 250 m radius maximum at any given time. Using the smoke that surround Serias as reference point she cast a level 1 wind attributes spell; Maelstrom Tempest, a single target spell that would obliterate anything in its way to the target. Her abilities that she called Short Chanting allows her to only say the name of the spell without long chanting that would be useless and troublesome in high speed battle.


    The Maelstrom Tempest flew at high speed and tore its way through the smoke screen. The magic didn¡¯t meet anything in its way and only pass through the smoke screen without any resistance. ¡°He is not there¡± was what Stella thought when suddenly a hot plasma ball came crashing down from above. She quickly cast Blink just a moment before the impact causing the ground to melt from the heat and momentum. Before, she thought without using Soul Perception she could caught Serias from the Sensing Field but she guess could not.


    ¡°Let¡¯s bring this duel up a notch, shouldn¡¯t we?¡± Stella¡¯s vicious smile and voice gave a chill down on Serias¡¯ spine.


    Stella caught Serias when she used Soul Perception. Gauging the distance, she was sure it was about 25 m up in the air with 73 m distance from her. She only smiled and activated Zero Field which freezes everything in a radius of 1 km. A really vicious level 0 spell. The area around her freeze like a frozen hell. The mage in the centre of it, Stella stood majestically with her hooded robe fluttering under the cold wind that blew across the frozen field. Two block of ice appeared both in the air where her Soul Perception had detected earlier. Another is about 50 m behind her. ¡°So he is thinking of backstabbing me using his Light Clone but failed.¡± She walked slowly toward the block of ice that fall from the sky. When she entered the distance of about 3 m from the ice block it shine brightly in white light before exploding, engulfing everything within 10 m radius.


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    A few minutes earlier.........


    Serias quickly Blinked away when he saw Maelstrom Tempest was heading his way. He¡¯s not going to test his body endurance against that deadly level 1 spell. After that spell tore halfway through the smoke screen, he quickly create 2 clones and filled one of it with artificial soul that he had created earlier. He send those two to do his bidding while moving further away from his master. Knowing Stella¡¯s temperament she would probably use a wide area of effect spell to obliterate anything in her vicinity. While doing so, he also casted Invisibility spell using voiceless incantation. It was a result of him tinkering with the soul. He directly imprint the spell formula on his soul layer giving him the almost cheat-like ability.


    He was about 1.5 km from her and using light attribute spell he spied his master and saw all that were happening. He feel bad for his clone with the artificial soul that were trapped in a chunk of ice. When he saw that Stella was within 10 m of the ice block, his heart was fluttering happily. Then he unleashed the complicated trap that he embedded on the clone. It exploded with a loud bang. His original magic, Energy Conversion. He get the idea to create it when he realized that the blade of light was made from coalesced light particle which gave it shape and mass. Then by using the light particle, he could converted it back into light energy and could further convert it to another form of energy. It also converted energy to another form with 100% efficiency using mana as its catalyst.


    Stella was thrown backward a few meters from that explosion but quickly got on her feet. Serias could feel she was using Soul Perception when a sudden wave hit his soul. He quickly retreat back and while leaving something on the ground. Stella Blinked to his previous position while slashing her fire sword down. The floor was smashed to pieces with some of them flew up with flaming red colour. Serias surmised that that Stella couldn¡¯t use Soul Perception for a long time. ¡±Probably for a few seconds only, but that time is precious.¡± He quickly activated his second trap. Few rope made from water spurted out from the smashed floor and constrict her before freezing up binding her. All in rapid succession.


    Stella just smirked and break the ice binding like it is nothing and use Blink again to decrease the distance between them. She sprint forward by reinforcing her muscles with magic boosting her speed three fold. She also summon a fire sword in her right and ice sword in her left hand. Serias having no choice create 4 layers of earth wall with a height of 3m and width of 5m. He knew with the flaming red and freezing blue sword in her hand, Stella was unstoppable with just the puny wall in front of her. His master was renowned as ¡®Juggernaut¡¯ when she is travelling in a hundred years back. She would bulldozed anything that dare to stand in her way.


    The flame sword was powered by mana and couldn¡¯t be extinguished by robbing them of oxygen. To counter it was not an easy thing to do. Serias create a vacuum blade in both of his hand and filled it with flaming blue plasma made from the surrounding gas. ¡°This should keep the plasma in place for a while¡±. A few moment later the wall was sliced to pieces by Stella¡¯s flame sword. The flying debris was blocked when Serias employed a thick wall of wind in front of him.


    Serias opted not to retreat. Their blade met a second later after the wind wall was cancelled as it will only cause disturbance. The ice sword was cleaved into half while the flame sword met with the high temperature plasma blade. The point of meeting of the two sword release numerous sparks.


    ¡°Hou! I don¡¯t know that you could enhance your blade into this.¡± Stella scowled seeing the plasma blade.


    Crooked smile was carved on Serias face. His smile hid his annoyance at his master¡¯s flame sword. Using his feet as point of activation he activated a spell. A yellow light glowed dimly under his feet before forming a magic circle. He quickly leaped backward as the magic circle spit a swirling tempest skyward, nearly hitting Stella. Stella knew that he would activated something when she saw the light glowing under his feet.


    ¡°Hahahaha. Reckless enough to activate Maelstrom Tempest at point blank. But, did you thought that it will be enough.¡±


    Stella Blinked and appear right behind Serias and elbowed his back hardly that he gasp for air. Not wasting any moment she hacked downward with frightening speed using her flame sword. Serias although quite dizzy still react by turning back and parrying the sword before using Blink to shift himself up directly on Stella. He fired about 4 Win Cutter that moved at high speed crashing on Stella. The Wind Cutter crashed harmlessly at Stella¡¯s Vacuum Wall. Wind Cutter that use high speed wind to cut was rendered useless in a vacuum area.


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    Serias frowned looking at the Vacuum Wall. He was still high in the air. Using Air Burst to propel him down, he reverse grip his plasma blade to give it much more penetrating power using his momentum. As the plasma blade touch the Vacuum Wall, the plasma was spread quickly into the area in the Vacuum Wall causing the surrounding area to expand in rapid pace causing the Vacuum Wall to rupture. What follow after that is an explosion that rivalled even a fragmentation grenade as a plasma explosion is a nightmare that could cause 4th degree burn to normal people.


    Serias was thrown high into the air before came crashing down with a loud thump. He groaned painfully as his back hit the floor. His entire chest area were blackened by the explosion. His clothes is in tatters after the explosion. He quickly applied Supreme Healing magic to heal his body. He stood up to see how Stella fared.


    Stella didn¡¯t fared any better than him probably worse as he could see crater where the explosion had occurred. Stella grunted as she also applied Supreme Healing magic. She was far worse comparing the two of them. She was directly under the explosion point and was crushed by the shockwave sent by the explosion creating a 1m deep crater. Few of her rib and bones were cracked, not broken thanks to her augmented body.


    Standing up, she quickly shrugged the debris off her body. She called to Serias that was looking at his tattered cloth.


    ¡°You won this time. By a small margin as you recovered faster than me.¡±


    ¡°Haha. Not an easy task master.¡± Serias only grinned.


    ¡°Come to my study tonight. I¡¯ll give you something important.¡± Stella turned her back to Serias as she make her way to the door of the training room.


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    That night Serias was walking along the dark corridors aided only by a single mage light that he casted. The dim light only illuminated around his near vicinity showing the cold marble floor that he step on and the black coloured wall and ceiling. The tower as Stella had told him was made from a certain material that was synthesized using alchemy. A really precious material that could absorb and store mana. The tower not only acted as shelter but also as mana storage point for the portal and the wards that guarding the area of the tower. Near 100 km around the tower not a single life form except insects could be seen. Occasionally he could see a rabbit or two wildly running freely. The area of 100 km of the tower contain a large magic circle below the ground that powered the portal spell. That is why the area along the circumference of 100 km radius of the tower is heavily warded and it didn¡¯t even let a single animal pass through it. The lush green forest was deforested leaving only the centre untouched. The whole area turned into a large green field that he could only see in pictures back on Earth. Nothing but green lush field that extend beyond the horizon.


    He arrived at the front of the study and knocked the door thrice. Without waiting for an answer he open and enter the study. The knocking only to signify that he had arrived. He found that Stella was standing near the window looking beyond it. It is white outside. Full of white snow. Winter that he truly didn¡¯t like. He took a seat in front of the only table in the room, located opposite of the door, at the far back.  Two cup had been prepared beforehand, with the steaming hot tea releasing white steam from the teapot. Taking the teapot he poured the content into the two cup. Stella turned around and step slowly to the table. Taking the cup she sipped the golden tea calmly.


    ¡°From now on your training is completed. You are now a full-fledged Archivist. Your responsibilities from now on is to collect and archived any known magic in this world. Some of the Precursor¡¯s ruin may contain knowledge that could not be saved by the end of the Precursor last war. All method during the compiling the magic are acceptable as long as you don¡¯t kill innocent. Although Archivist is a powerful existence we still follow an ethic codes that states that we didn¡¯t kill innocent.¡±


    Serias only nodded, conveying that he understood what she was saying. After saying that Stella brought out a black outfit and on it was a silver ring, unadorned and still new. She put it on the table and brought out a thin but long sword. It could be easily concealed under the layers of a mage robe.


    ¡°This robe have been engraved with magic circles. It have two abilities, first it will act as catalyst to activate a full body armour made of light. Second ability is illusion magic that will divert any eyes from you. Just channel your mana into it to use the magic. The ring is actually a terminal that allow you to access the Archive from anywhere within this world. It also made your recording your find and research easier. And this sword is made the lightest metal so it could be used with Light Stance combat arts. Really durable.¡±


    ¡°Why would I need a sword?¡±


    ¡°Did you think it is okay showing your magic prowess to anyone that came across when you are killing monster. Just use it when you are thinking to kill something in quick way. A stab to the heart that bypassed any armour or slit their throat.¡±


    ¡°Your word is vicious master¡±


    ¡°Well, yes I am¡±


    ¡°Prepare your equipment, tools and some provision. That included your food, some spices and potion.¡±


    ¡°For what?¡±


    ¡°You are out of this place in 48 hours.¡±


    ¡°What?!¡± Serias face distorted, shocked by his master¡¯s word.


    ¡°You¡¯ll be traveling the whole world to compile all of the magic that have been created a few hundred years back since the last time I was out. Truthfully I don¡¯t what is the condition of the continent right now. In peace or at war. You¡¯ll just have to adapt while continuing your travel. Start preparing from tomorrow morning. You¡¯ll have many thing to pack up.¡±


    Serias could only sigh. He nodded slightly and step to the door. Uttering a small thanks for the black outfit and the ring he open the door to the corridor and left for his room.


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    After about 48 hours had passed, both Serias and Stella was on the 3rd floor of the tower. This is where the teleportation room was situated aside from the testing room and experiment room. He occasionally use the experiment room to in the past to experiment and to create new magic.


    The room was about 10mx10m with white colour blanketed the whole room. There were a magic circles in the centre. The pattern were very intricate as a spell that bend the space were very complicated and dangerous as a small mistake could rip apart space and cause death.


    Stella gestured to Serias to move to the centre of the magic circle. He slowly moved to the centre and waited for Stella. For today he wore the black outfit that Stella had gave him before. He also wore dark blue robe with hood as his outfit with the sword on his left hip. His beg was safely tucked at the back of his hip for easy movement. That beg was enchanted so it could carry a large amount of item even if it is small.


    ¡°I¡¯ll channel the mana from now on. I have set the location to the outskirt of the town called Ast. It is quite dangerous for people to know see you suddenly popped out of thin air.¡±


    Serias only smiled at his master and nodded in satisfaction for the explanation. The magic circle started to glow brightly in various colour. His vision started to become fuzzy as the space started to distort. He could only heard the voice that his master said:


    ¡°Good luck¡±


    And all his vision become dark.


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    Double chapter for today. Advice and comment are really appreciated. rate this fiction if you like it.

 Chapter 8

    Sunlight was glittering through the dense tree canopies giving the viewer a dazzling light play. Sound of river stream flowing could be heard along with sound of giggle. It is snowless winter and for winter it is really weird to see that not a speck of cloud blocking the glaring sun making the winter cold climate warmer than usual.


    Near the river stream, a few small figures could be seen, 3 boys and 2 girls. Their outline were similar to human except their long pointy ears. All of them were either blonde or white hired giving them beautiful appearance that is rather rare to find in children.


    One of them were manipulating the water from the river using magic before transforming it to a handful of ice spike that were about 10 cm long before launching across the river that were stretched about 20 meter and impaled a tree on the other side.


    The sound of hands clapping then followed. The boy the bowed slightly like a pianist after a performance. The boy then take a small towel from the basket that near his feet. Wiping his face from sweat that come out when he is casting Ice Spike. Casting magic take a lot of concentration for a beginner like him. An experienced mage would not even break a sweat when casting a level 7 spell.


    Casting a spell have two form, which is using ambient mana or internal mana. Mage usually use internal mana when cast their spell as internal mana is easier to use than ambient mana as it came from within the mage themselves. It is harder to cast a spell using ambient mana as the caster need to take note the condition of the ambient mana. But there is a boon when casting a spell using ambient mana. A mage could few Level 1 spell two or three times depending on the density of ambient mana. But it is also 5 times harder to cast such spell. Only few could cast such spell.


    ¡°Hey Edur, could you do that again?¡± one of the girl plead with her hand clasped together like someone that is praying.


    ¡°Of course, my cute little sister As.¡±


    The elfish boy called Edur smiled brightly giving the girl a slight nod and raise both of his hand upward. His finger propped open revealing his tad pink palm. Closing his eyes he concentrate and start channeling his mana from his soul through his hand and out. Mage usually used medium such as their hand or staff and wand to channel their mana so the spell that they cast could be manifested. Chanting slowly so that he didn¡¯t make a mistake, a ball of water start condensing in front him and then the ball of water split into a few smaller sphere before freezing and change its shape into cone shape ice spike.


    Opening his green eyes with his pupil trained on the tree that he had use before as a target. The ice spike slowly turn their sharp end toward the tree across the river. After a few second the Edur launched the projectile toward the tree. But, before he could see the result of his spell a sound of explosion that come from the direction of their village.


    Although obscured by the thick canopy of the forest the children could see smoke and ashes flew upward. After a few second in trance they started running toward the village starting with Edur that recovered first. They sprint forward while occasionally moving left and right to evade the trees and sometimes jump to avoid being tripped by the buttress root of the tree.


    After a few minutes of running they finally arrived at the outer wall of the village. The wall of the village was made from dense cluster of a few meters diameter trees that were grown using magic so that it could grow even when planted next to each other. The tree made the outer wall of their village. It would look inconspicuous even when compared to the surrounding trees as the wall have been enchanted with illusion spell that repel and confuse even mage but right now the children could not feel the spell anymore. Even the physical condition of the wall is appalling like it had been attacked with a Level 5 or more powerful spell. The wall was full of black charred hole.  The children¡¯s heart were thumping loudly when they saw the condition of the wall. After entering the village, passing through the entrance their fear turn into panic and what they see with their eyes betray their hope, their desire, and their heart. What they see and hear are tragedy.


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    Serias was stabbing his black sword into the head of the dire wolf. It pierce through the head like its head were made from tissue. He could only marvel at the sharpness of the sword. The sword only have one edge and from his perspective and he would call it a katana if not for its lack of guard and its straight blade that is about 80 cm. Well, totally not a katana is what he thought as he extracted the sword from the head of the dire wolf and in quick movement dispel the blood on the blade before sheathing it again.


    His day started off with a skydiving. His master teleported him not near the town of Ast but ten thousand feet above ground. Totally a bad way to start a day. Luckily he had deployed the light wing that gives the ability to fly.  He wonder what else a light element magic could do as he have seen numerous utility spell created using only single element. The spell created 6 wing with 3 on each side. Although he called it wing, normal people wouldn¡¯t call that wing as its appearance is like his back being protruded by 6 sword. Each of about 20 cm width with 1 m long. Shortly after landing he was attacked by a pack of dire wolves. And he spent about half day hunting every single one of them to release his stress. He could imagine that his master is laughing maniacally at his bad luck. She always do, like when she pitted him in the training room with dragon and at one time against a clone of Precursor. That was really a fight with his life on the line. She is just plain sadistic. Well at least she was kind enough to teach him about magic and sword.


    After killing the last of the dire wolf he sit down quietly. He spread his Sensing field to the limit about 1 km radius. That is his limit for now. If it is a focused field he could sense in one direction for 3 km. He usually used it to snipe someone using magic. From his sensing field he could feel about 2 pack of wolves and about 50 monsters. Not too many in this dense forest. The time is almost dusk. His time was spent hunting those wretched wolf. In his anger and releasing his stress he forgot to use Sensing Field. If he had use it the time spent hunting it probably would only be about a quarter of it. His heart feel a slight tinge of regret at his own foolishness. As it is almost dusk, he skin the wolf only taking the meat to use it as his food for tonight¡¯s dinner.


    Moving eastward he found a ruin of a settlement. There were ruin of building and almost all of it were covered with greenish moss. He decided to camp here as it provide a clearing that is quite wide and he could see if anything came for him. He thought that this is probably the ruin of the town known as Ast as his master didn¡¯t came out from the Archive for about two hundred years. He started collecting wood for the fire to roast the meat. Using a simple fire spell he lit the wood bundle into a campfire. He chuckle as he remembered the camp that he participate as a boy scout when he is in middle school. At that time, manually lighting the fire and keeping it from burning out was a pain in the ass job. And the meat that his friends cook was overcook that he thought it is better eating it raw than his friends cooking.


    He brought out salt and pepper from his bag and started marinating the meat and left it behind for a while. From what he read when he was at the Archive, dire wolf meat is delicious if it is roasted. The fire crackle wildly consuming the firewood. The flame dance left and right illuminating the almost dark place. The sun is hidden by the sea of trees. He could see the red colored sky to the west. As it is winter there is only one sun in the sky. The night would be cold. He start creating ward to repel wild animal and monster. The ground brightly glow before spreading out revealing a magic circle before dissipating into thin air. Serias breathe out air as the air inside the ward become warmer. He imbued the ward with elemental protection so when he sleep it would not be too cold.


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    When he start to sit to roast the meat he saw smoke billowing from the east. He started thinking that there is a town to the east but reject such thinking as the smoke is too thick. Probably a there is a fire in the town. He then start sprinting toward the smoke source. Utilizing Light Step, his figure blurred forward. With his body right now what he could achieve were probably 1/30 of speed of light and that was his limit without breaking his body through sudden acceleration. In less than 1 second he arrived just barely outside the town or village as it seem. The village were located nearly 10 km from his campsite and as he approach the village the smoke grow denser that he cough two or three times. The village is walled and from the faint mana it release probably there were some sort of enchantment that were already broken. Some part of the wall that were made from wood were already collapsed.


    Serias spread his Sensing Field so that it encompass the whole village he could feel about 50 or more people are in the village. Then he activated his Soul Perception and overlapped both sensing magic. These two magic, combined give him an almost bird eye view of his surrounding and that is truly a convenient ability. With it he could fight with eyes close but that ability is not omnipotent. He feel malice in their soul. Only two of the soul didn¡¯t have it and currently the two pitiful soul were confined within one of the house, probably hiding from whatever hounding them. Serias could only shook his head and cast invisibility spell. He is determined to save them from these malice soul.


    When he entered the village he could see men wearing armor running to and fro from one place to one place. Probably soldiers. But that made him confused. How could soldier of the kingdom attack their own people? He stride slowly so that no one could hear him. Although he mask nearly all of his presence the sound of his footstep could not be masked. When he walked for about sixty pace he found something that would made anyone without a strong will pale and puke on the spot. It is the dead bodies of elves as conclude from their long pointy ear and their beautiful face but it is now tattered. If it is only one or two it would not be a problem but it is nearly one hundred or more bodies. Serias could only close his eyes and pray in his heart for the poor soul. Some of the soldier spill liquid on the bodies which from its smell he knew that it is oil. Flammable. They proceed with lighting the bodies which give out horrid smell. He didn¡¯t do anything but stared. Blinking a few times from his stupor he started moving toward his objective. From his Soul Perception he could tell that both the soul are young.


    Abandoning any sort of masking his footstep, he dash forward while hoping that the sound of the flame consuming the bodies could mask his footstep sound. He moved without using Light Step to avoid causing shockwave. After a few minute of running he arrived at the shed that have the two soul that he detected earlier. Opening the door of the shed gently he cast a small magelight to illuminate the small dark shed. He see two small figure limping in the corner of the shed, one boy and one girl. The girl a white haired is awake while the boy from his injured form is unconscious. The girl shivered uncontrollable when Serias release his invisibility. He could see from her eyes the feeling of fear and the feeling of wanting to protect the boy, probably. He is not an expert at reading someone¡¯s eyes. He also know that if he developed more his Soul Perception he could even read what is the in the heart of human. He could use it in combat to read his opponent moves and other miscellaneous thing. But for now he had to settle with what he had. He hold out his hand and cast healing spell on both of them.


    When he try to touch the girl, she trembled slightly before pushing his hand away. She probably uncertain as a human try to help her when her village was ravaged by human. This make thing a little complicated for Serias. He is not a master in word to try and reason with her especially at this time.


    ¡°Little girl, listen here. This place is full of enemy that would like to kill you the moment you step out of this place. What I¡¯m doing here is to try to save you and that boy. And we do have little time to spend before they found us.¡±


    Hearing Serias¡¯ words the girl sit up from her place and from what he could see her legs were shaking in fear but he could praise her determination. Seeing that the boy still unconscious Serias grab the boy under his arm and the girl also found herself under his arm. After making sure that both of them tugged safely his arm he started using Reinforcement magic on his body. His body without Reinforcement magic is seven time stronger than normal human, and with Reinforcement magic is about 15 times stronger. And then he thought about how to safely transport both of this children from this place. Using a Blink spell is not an option as it could only teleport one people. Using Light Step would definitely crush both of the child to a meat pulp. Even Silver Step, the downgraded version of Light Step could not be used.


    After few minutes passed, he had considered the most viable. He activated an illusion magic. The magic made people didn¡¯t want to look the direction of the caster. It is a magic that affect the mind. He step outside of the shed, looking left and right and after confirming there are no one nearby, he walked out completely from the shed. As it is already night the potency of the magic increase by a few fold. He keep himself to the shadow to avoid being detected and he is truly grateful as there were no moon tonight. After a while walking with the shadow he finally arrived near the entrance of the wall. But before he could step forward, a figure step forward. The figure show itself. It is a man with equipped to the tooth with armor and a longsword at his hip.


    ¡°So there are insect that is still alive. Luckily I waited near the entrance. Put down those two kid down and surrender or I¡¯ll severe your neck this instance.¡±


    Serias could only groan back at the knight. Luckily he wore his hood or his would be recognized and probably if he escaped this night his face would on the wanted poster post haste.


    ¡°Well, as you see I couldn¡¯t¡±


    His short answer currently enraged the knight. He could only rebuke the knight as short tempered people would always lose in a fight. The knight face was red with anger and unsheathe his longsword. Serias sighed loudly. He put both of the children down and whispered to the girl to guard the boy. He then continue to cast a light barrier to protect the children. Unsheathing his black sword, he face the knight. The knight stared at his black sword. Serias start enchanting his sword with light element magic and light coalesced around the sword making it sharper.


    Without uttering a word Serias dashed forward using Sliver Step. He downgrade himself to such level so he could gauge the strength of the knight. The knight were dumbfounded when he could only see blur. Then his instinct kick in as he deflected the blow that were delivered by Serias. Both of them then continue exchanging blow. Sparks are produced every time the sword clashed.


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    Expect another chapter in 1 or 2 days.