The Initiators had two main categories but they also had many sub-categories. For the Warrior-types—Swordsmen, Defenders, Brawlers, Knights, Assassins, Archers, Lancers, Berserkers, etc. And for the Spellcasters types—Pyromancers, Hydromancers, Necromancers, Electromancers, Cryomancers, Photomancers, Elementalists, Healers, Summoners, Illusionists, etc.

These were all titles though. Initiators used them based on the specific combat styles with no restrictions otherwise. Being called an Archer didn’t mean the said Initiator would not be proficient in any other combat style or could not use any other weapon. The title ‘Archer’ meant the said Initiator preferred using bow and arrows as his main weapon.

All the same, having an affinity with more than one element would give Soren the title of ‘Elementalist’. But since he could create—raise—control undeads, he was also eligible for the ‘Necromancer’ title.

………..

Ice Barrage!

Ice Barrage!

Snow Blades!!

Using his spell, Soren countered the incoming sword streaks. And cast to maintain the sustained damage on the two Rank 1: Layer 2 opponents. A Swordsman and a Brawler.

Create Undead!!

Drifting snow-blade crystals all around, the Forsaken Knight appeared from the mist and bolted forward. It slashed its large black sword at one of those Initiators. The target was the Swordsman who attacked Soren with his sword streaks. Except, the result of this slash surprised Soren. The Initiator used his thin single-edged blade to parry it.

As he did that and moved inside the range of Soren’s though, the razor-sharp and icy-cold snow crystals that painted a beautiful picture of a snowfall lacerated his skin and decreased his speed with its freezing temperature. After all, this spell did more damage to the target if they moved around inside its area of effect; the diameter of which was around forty meters.

But not leaving Soren any time to analyze the effect of his spell, the other Initiator, the Brawler, raced towards him using his skill. It looked like the movement-cum-buff skill ‘Surging Fury’. Isaac confirmed it.

Ice Wall!

Shadow Steps!

Soren used his as an obstruction and sprang back with his . He couldn’t match this Brawler’s speed. Especially with the buff skill.

Dark Gravity!!

With ample distance created, he aimed at where he was right now and cast his . Blasting the ice wall into pieces, the Brawler fell right inside its area of effect.

The increased gravity now bogging this Initiator’s speed, Soren cast his spells.

Shadow Prison!

Ice Chakra!

Ice Chakra!

He cast his twice and hurled them at his target. But even though this Initiator was under the effect of the increased gravity and the shadow chains restrained him, these two Ice Chakras were not enough to kill him. And as Soren expected—the two serrated Ice Chakras hummed at him, the Brawler seemed to disregard his injuries from the shadow chains and used his defensive skill. It resembled ‘Vital Shield’. His forte didn’t seem to be ‘Resistance’ though. He was agile instead. Thus, his defense shield was only able to resist for a moment. Nonetheless, it dampened the projectiles’ force and also deflected them from their original path. The two Ice Chakras targeting his head now flicked down and gashed his stomach sides. Blood splattered. A groan escaped him. The chakras continued on. Gouged out the earth. Blasted the soil away. And halted due to resistance.

Not giving his target any time to act, Soren aimed at him and cast . One after another.

Ice Wall!

Ice Wall!

Ice Wall!

He surrounded the Brawler with many ice walls and forced him to stay inside the area of effect of the . He snapped his fingers and started the next phase of this spell.

Everything happening around him, the Initiator probably realized the danger of the spell he was currently confined in. But since the ice walls trapped him, he couldn’t break through them. It would take too long. The only way left to evade was above. And this was Soren’s bait.

The Brawler used an unchaining blast-type skill a few times in quick succession to break the shadow chains and rocketed up. Even though he was still constrained by the high gravity, with his own physical prowess combined with the buff skill he used before, he soared and latched on the edge of an ice wall. The effect of gravity curbed at this height. He pushed against the wall with legs and climbed on top.

Yet, when his body went up, dozens of acid needles zoomed in and stabbed his throat. They melted and released the poison in his body. He gurgled, clawed his neck, and dropped down the wall. He still wasn’t dead though. The poison wasn’t potent enough, it only incapacitated him. He fell with a thud and lay on the ground. His limbs twitching, his mouth frothing, his eyes losing its light.

Soren won this bout.

As for this Initiator’s partner—even though the Forsaken Knight wasn’t able to kill or defeat him, it kept him busy throughout this fight.

…...

Dealt with the Brawler, Soren attended to the Swordsman now. But as he was about to make his first move, this Initiator shoved the Forsaken Knight away and broke into a run. In the opposite direction. He chose to escape.

Fuck!!!

Soren cursed with clenched jaws. His precious contribution points ran away. And he couldn’t pursue.

He was on a battlefield right now. Chasing after his target deep into the enemy lines could mark the end for him. Thus, he let go of this target.

Shadow Steps!!

The moment he concluded his thoughts and curses though, a squad of six Rank 1: Layer 1 Initiators marched in from the side and bombarded him with their spells. Facing them all at once, Soren evaded the attacks with his and cast twice. He created two Forsaken Knights more. With his undeads now protecting him from all sides, Soren checked his available Mana before making any move.

60%....it should be enough….

………

After a long and arduous battle with these six Rank 1: Layer 1 Initiators, Soren ended the fight. His breath ragged, his hair disheveled, his throat parched. Out of the six Initiators, he was only able to kill three of them. The last three took that chance and retreated. And since he got injured and his Mana was running low now, Soren wrapped it up for today.

His Forsaken Knights were still active, so he didn’t face any problem on his way back. He combed his hair with his fingers as he stepped out of the battlefield. The images of the battles flashing through in his mind. These last two battles revealed several things to him.

First, his Forsaken Knights were not as invincible. Or more like, the Initiators here on the battlefield were much stronger than the ones he met so far. He’d once fought against eight Initiators at once and killed five of them. Most of them were even Rank 1: Layer 2 Initiators. Based on that, he could defeat, if not kill, a Rank 1: Layer 3 Initiator as long as he fought with everything he had. Especially with his Forsaken Knights possessing brute force equal to that of a Rank 1: Layer 3 Initiator. Yet today, he had trouble dealing with a squad of six Rank 1: Layer 1 Initiators. While he never underestimated anyone, he had been using the strength of those Initiators he had killed back then as the standard for the basic caliber of that layer. Today’s battle flipped his estimation upside down. It gave him a rude awakening. Every one of those six Layer 1 Initiators today was more powerful than Faron, Ervin Liston, or even Garlon who Soren killed in Bellfalls.

Maybe the resources available to them here made the difference, Soren thought. Regardless, he had to update his evaluation now. Or he would die a miserable death.

The next thing was about his Mana Recovery rate. Unless someone had a Bloodline Talent that affected the recovery rate, or unless someone used an Enhancement Artifact that targeted only the recovery rate, the Mana Recovery rate of every Initiator remained constant. It was 1% per minute. It didn’t matter how strong the Initiator was. Unless they met these specific conditions, their recovery rate remained the same. This was because the stat that affected the Mana Recovery was the one that was responsible for the total amount of Mana—‘Spirit’. So, no matter how strong an Initiator became, their total Mana and the Mana Recovery would always maintain the same ratio. With that, the recovery rate would also always be 1% per minute.

This was common knowledge among Initiators, including Soren. What he learned from today’s battles instead was actually the specific effect that a Mana Crystal had on this recovery rate. He could have figured this out back in Bellfalls but since there were other things that concerned him at that time, he never focused on this aspect. As for today’s battles, he used two Middle-Grade Mana Crystals and noticed his recovery rate went up to 3% per minute. It was an increase of 1% with one Middle-Grade Crystal. This data was beneficial for him. As with this, he would have a better idea in the future battles about how much Mana he was using and how much remained. And although he hadn’t tested other grades crystals, with this data, he could make some conjectures about it.

Other than this, he learned he was in dire need of either a detoxification spell or a potion that would be able to deal with several poisons. His own spell was the proof of it. After all, the spell could only heal his physical wounds and was useless against the poisons.

Furthermore, these last two battles made it clear that absorbing the Quintessence from a Rank 1: Layer 1 Initiator stopped having any effect on him now. The effect of the Quintessence from a Rank 1: Layer 2 Initiator also diminished. His stats were reaching a saturation point for his current layer. If he wanted to increase it any further, he would now either have to start cultivating again or hunt for higher layered Initiators.

By the time Soren finished his thoughts, he was at the command center. He made an entry at the command center and hitched a ride with a group that was going back to Dalhurst. Sitting in the back seat of this heavy-duty vehicle, he brought his communicator out and checked the contribution points he gained today. In total, he killed five Initiators. Three of them were Rank 1: Layer 1, one was Rank 1: Layer 2, and one was Rank 0: Layer 9. Based on the contribution points assigned to each layer in every rank, his total came to 509 points. A hundred points for each Rank 1: Layer 1, two hundred points for the Rank 1: Layer 2, and nine points for the Rank 0: Layer 9.

Earning that much at once. All in all, it was a productive first day for Soren.

Status: Lightly Wounded

Rank 1: Layer 1 [CP - 0%]

Name: Soren Farrow

Species: Human

Attribute: Darkness & Ice

Health: 87%

Stamina: 82%

Mana: 37%

Strength: 7.94

Agility: 9.71 (+1.90)

Vitality: 17.73

Intelligence: 21.26 (+7.20)

Spirit: 20.29 (+8.45)

Resistance: 9.11 (+2.35)

Spells:

Spell Vessels: 3/10

Innate Spells: 18

Innate Skills/Bloodline Talents: 7

Water Bubbles [6/7] – Level 8/10. Mana Cost – Very Low. [Rank 1]

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Snow Blades [2/5] – Level 9/10. Mana Cost – Very Low. [Rank 1]

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Ice Chakra [1/6] – Level 6/10. Mana Cost – Very Low. [Rank 1]

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Create Undead: Low Tier Ⅱ – Level 7/15. Mana Cost – Average. [Rank 1]

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Dark Raven – Level 8/10. Mana Cost – Very Low. [Rank 1]

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Ice Barrage – Level 10/10. Mana Cost – Negligible. [Evolution Available] [Rank 1]

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Dead Rising – Level 7/10. Mana Cost – Very Low. [Rank 1]

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Acid Needles – Level 5/10. Mana Cost – Very Low. [Rank 1]

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Shadow Prison – Level 6/10. Mana Cost – Very Low. [Rank 1]

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Frost Domain – Level 10/10. Mana Cost – Negligible. [Evolution Available] [Rank 1]

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Elemental Sense – Level 10/10. Mana Cost – Negligible. [Evolution Available] [Rank 1]

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Dark Gravity – Level 10/10. Mana Cost – Low. [Evolution Available] [Rank 1]

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Withering Wood – Level 10/10. Mana Cost – Very Low. [Evolution Available] [Rank 1]

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Ice Spikes – Level 10/10. Mana Cost – Negligible. [Evolution Available] [Rank 1]

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Soul Search – Level 6/10. Mana Cost – Negligible. [Rank 1]

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Ice Wall – Level 10/10. Mana Cost – Negligible. [Evolution Available] [Rank 0]

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Waterball – Level 10/10. Mana Cost – Negligible. [Evolution Available] [Rank 0]

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Rainfall – Level 10/10. Mana Cost – Negligible. [Evolution Available] [Rank 0]

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Spark – Level 10/10. Mana cost – Negligible. [Evolution Available] [Rank 0]

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Fireball – Level 10/10. Mana Cost – Negligible. [Evolution Available] [Rank 0]

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Space Snatcher – Level 10/10. Mana Cost – Negligible. [Rank 0]

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Mana Manipulation – Level 7/15

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Potioneering [Rank 1] – Level 1/15.

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Powered Vision – Level --/--

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Vornea: Basic Form – Level --/--

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Devour: First Evolution – Level --/--

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Second Intelligence – Level --/--

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Shadow Steps – Level 10/10. Mana Cost – Very Low. [Evolution Available] [Rank 1]

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Equipment: Common Clothes; Magic Staff – Moonshard; Spirit-Pendant; Snake-Earring; Spirit-Ring; Resistance-Ring; Caster’s Bracelet; Agility-Boots; Dagger; Mana Touch – Gloves; White Ring [War Accessory] – 509.

Storage Pearl: Common Clothes; Hunter I.D; Mask; Multiple Unfocused Cultivation Techniques – Low Grade; Focused Cultivation Technique – Middle Grade; Egg – Crystal Albarose; Various Ingredients; Automatons x3; Beast Cores[Rank 0] x184; Beast Cores[Rank 1] x114; Rank 1 Potion Recipe – Sun’s Afterglow; Rank 1 Potion Recipe – Soul Recovery; Cultivation Technique – Turtle’s Life; Cultivation Technique – Flaming Hair; Various Skills – Memory Spheres; Empty Memory Spheres; Books and Compendiums; Rank 0 Common Potions[Middle-Grade] x0; Rank 0 Common Potions[High-Grade] x0; Rank 0 Common Potions[Top-Grade] x0; Rank 1 Potion – Soul Recovery[Lowest-Grade] x2.

Mana Crystals: 672 [Middle-Grade]; 202 [Low-Grade]; Myriad Items—Card [Value-000]; Six Mana Cards.