Eve was inside the integration room boiling with anger, she hated Adrius because he was guilty but won’t admit it. Of course that was only her instinct but her instincts always have been right, so she was furious when the order came from her superiors about letting Adrius go.

She then walked out and went to an office, she knocked, then she heard a voice “come in”. She then pushed the door and came in, she was met with a man in his thirties sitting behind an office, it was the magus in charge of the order hall. Eve bowed to him and stood up then waiting for him to give her permission to speak.

The man looked handsome with blue eyes and black hair, he had a firm aura around him, the aura that you will get from a policeman or anyone who is keeping order. He looked at Eve and said: “ Speak!”

“My lord Evan, why did you let Caseo walk out like that, I think both you and me know that he had a part in Linda's death?”

The magus Evan looked at Eve with a calm manner, but it was like a monster looking at it’s prey for Eve, he the opened his mouth and said: “ Eve I think you forgot something about this Adrius, he has a powerful person backing him and you can’t just assume he is like the other persons you’ve questioned. Croft is a potion master and has a status that is like or higher then me, so you can’t just hold his apprentice for something you don’t have a proof to. Understood?”

Eve had a bad expression on her face, she didn’t want to let Adrius walk out just like that. Because he can hurt more people, but she didn’t have any other choice but to accept because it will only make it worse for her if she argued with Evan: “Understood sir”

“You can go now” Ordered Evan

Eve then bowed and walked out, even though she was rank 3 magus apprentice but if she didn’t show respect in front of a magus then she was just asking for death.

Meanwhile in Croft’s lab were two people sitting in front of each other, it was Croft and Adrius.

Croft was sitting in front of Adrius and had an amused expression on his face: “ So Adrius if you didn’t kill this Linda how did she die then?” He knew that his apprentice had a hand in her death but he wanted to keep his secret. Because if you think about it, who is more valuable an apprentice of a potion master or just a student that was rank 1 magus apprentice? It may seem to the normal students that the law of the academy is firm and punishes all without discrimination but that is not the case, if you have powerful person backing you then no one can touch you unless you made something like murder.

“ I think she was careless and opened the poison tube without protection and you already know what happens if you do that with a poison such as Silent poison” Said Adrius, he didn’t trust Croft so he won’t tell him the real story, he was sure that Croft already know about his part in the death but still he doesn’t want tell the real story.

It was his future/life on the line so he won’t trust anyone with the information about the real story, he even had some thoughts of killing Phil but even if he has a good plan he can’t do it. Because Phil is a rank 2 magus apprentice and he is stronger than him, also he is more valuable to the academy than Linda so if he did pull off something, then the academy won’t let him walk out like they did today.

‘ I should find a way to make myself stronger before the yearly exam’ Noted Adrius to himself, he knew that if he had power then no student in the academy would dare to plot or fight against him.

With that in mind he asked Croft about it: “ Professor, are there some ways I can increase my magic power with?”

Croft thought about it for a second then he spoke: “ Yes there is, there are a lot of ways to increase your magic power fast but there are 2 ways to increase it very fast. One is to use a potion named Bloody tears but unfortunately you have to be at least rank 1 magus to make the potion , or you can use the other method: use the spell Soul drawing and eat souls to increase your magic power.”

Adrius wasn’t surprised to hear that there is such a spell and method, because he has discovered in these past days that his academy is a dark magus organisation, and the opposite organisations are called light magus . There is a big difference between these two like for one, dark magus use humans, souls and other things. And this method is called the dark arts, as for light magus they are more “innocent” then dark magus, they don’t use humans or souls in their spells or experiments. But both the sides of the magus were it dark or light has something that they have agreed to: mortals have less status then a magus. It is maybe more difficult for a mortal to live in a dark magus area because dark magus are literally raising mortals like sheep or cows. Where in the light magus area it is better for a mortal, there no one will kill them for a spell or an experiment.

Adrius thought for a moment and spoke: “ The first method looks safer than the soul eating one, but the official magus thing made it impossible. If I eat those souls will it affect me in any way?”

Croft thought about it like he usually does to every question: “ I only mentioned Bloody tears because the big magus families uses it on their younglings, and it it's more twisted than the soul eating method, because with this potion you need a hundred person’s souls and you have to make their soul cry blood, then you put the tears in the mix to make the potion. As for the soul eating method, it will not affect you in any dangerous way, it will only make your eyes look like mine, that is the only side effect.”

Croft then pointed at his eyes, they were black like the abyss and the frightening thing about them was the lack of white in the eyes it was all black.

‘ If this is the only side effect then it is not a big deal’ Thought Adrius, but then he remembered something. His soul has transferred from another place so maybe it is damaged, then a question popped into his head.

“ Professor, can this soul eating method cure a damaged soul?”

“Hmm, a damaged soul? In your case yes because your soul is still a mortal soul, but for magus it can’t unless they eat a magus’s soul which is near impossible to do.” Answered Croft

‘Wonderful, so if my soul is damaged from the transfur it can heal and also make myself stronger at the same time’

“I will use the soul eating method, can you explain to me the steps for it?”

“Good choice, now sit down and listen ”

After some time Adrius walked out from his professor’s lab and walked straight to his room, he walked in, took off his mask and sat on the bed thinking.

“So there is two ways to use this method: one: Refine the soul into a potion,

two: absorb the soul how it is. The first one is the better option because you can get the essence only and not the memories of the soul owner, not like the second method. But the first method needs good knowledge about souls and how it works. It is easy to get souls because this world has slavery so it won’t be hard, even if they didn’t I don’t think any mortal can escape from me, well except knights”

Thought Adrius out loud, he has made his decision. He will use the first method, but first he has to learn about souls first. And what is the best way to learn about souls? Doing experiments on them!