Chapter 24 – Secrets and Discoveries

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

Dropping Silia at her alchemy hall, he headed to his Practical theory session, but he was slightly late compared to his usual timings. As soon as he entered the hall, the recruits had their eyes focused at him. The majority of the females went beet red, immediately turning away their gazes. As he seated himself, he couldn`t help but notice that the girl from the demon race was staring at him intensely along with the two boys beside her, ignoring them he focused onto the lecture.

The session today compromised of the recruits giving a theory on mana usage. It was a surprise test which they would be graded for. Many recruits were unprepared as they underestimated the Practical theory lesson thinking it would be where they could laze around. Lucifer`s and the girl “Es`kina” from the demon race who had sat beside him were the only ones who ha prepared. After her presentation on using mana to bypass the Brain Limiter, she had met the approval of the chubby teacher, who gave her a thumps up.

As Lucifer stood in front of the class he spoke about the creation of runes, which could nurture and amplify mana altogether, and how they could be used to empower mana based objects, he further provided a method to engrave a marking that could help the object collect mana essence from the air in the atmosphere, his explanations where brief and easy to understand, but as he continued to describe the method, the lecture hall went silent and the chubby teacher was bewildered while taking notes of his speech.

As he set back onto his seat, the air was tense, the Chubby teacher`s expressions seemed to shift continuously.

“End of session”, the teacher spoke before speeding out of hall

Only after Lucifer exited out of class, the lecture halls mood lightened, he could hear their faint voices from the passageway.

“What is he, a genius?”

“I always thought he was …just a pretty boy”

“Did you see how remarkable he looked?”

“I wish he would be my boyfriend”

For him this was just basic knowledge, which he had procured from reading books, his mind was constantly visualizing. Heading into the Essence Arts Lecture hall he saw Silia waving, gesturing to the seat beside her. As he took his seat, Kalac had entered the lecture hall.

“Quiet down class” his cold voice resounded throughout the classroom

As the voices in the class settled, he scribbled something onto the board, taking out an orb he showed it to everyone in class.

“This is a monster core, which is only found in beasts which have fused a certain type of attribute essence and mana into an orb” he spoke while showing it around.

“We are going for a trip in a class 2 forest dungeon, where many of you will suffer causalities, you have no choice but to join, you may even form a group, however, by the end of the given time limit if you haven`t gotten a core You will be expelled!”, his cold voice resounded unveiling the gravity of the situation.

Whispers exploded throughout the crowd, recruits distraught because they could become prey to those savage beasts. It has to be known that a difficultly of a dungeon depends on the continent, as the Human continent has the least amount of mana, the monsters in the dungeons are weaker, but a class 2 dungeon in the elven continent would be similar to a class 4 of the human continent.

It would check ones survival capabilities. Kalac looking at Lucifer gave a nod signaling the best of luck as instructors were unable to intervene until the end of the time limit. The duration they had to stay in the dungeon forest was for approximately a month to weed out all those who lacked the essential skills of survival.

Monster cores were highly valued as it increased ones level depending on its quality. However, even the lowest quality core was bought for a hefty price due to their benefit and the risk accompanied in retrieving them. Dispersing the class, all the other sessions were cancelled so recruits could prepare for the trip, but everyone knew only those in Transient rank or above could have a chance at survival.

Entering the dorm, he sighted Silia seated on the bed, the look of madness expressed through her eyes. Her behavior had completely changed. He was sure now that she had multiple personalities.

“It is going to be fun”, she muttered bewitchingly while biting her lower lip, he voice becoming soft when she said,” Don`t die for me and Silia…..Promise”.

“Promise” he spoke, heading to the cupboard he retrieved the katana and the dagger from his rucksack, equipping the katana and the dagger at his waist, he went to the institute stores to get food supplies. Nonetheless, they were emptied. Heading back to his room, he set cultivating; make use of the two days they were given. Cultivating nonstop for an entire day with the use of some pills from the pouch, he attained 8 levels in one go. As he woke up next morning from his meditation, he saw that Silia had filled the room with doll corpses of female recruits.

Sitting upon her bed, she polished a large bastard sword; he was unsure how she could lift it. Silia getting of the bed, holding the grip with one hand, slashed at the empty air, creating a loud screech. The sword itself was quite unique; have carving of beasts engraved on its surface. It glistened with a mysterious aura.

“Beautiful isn`t she” Silia spoke as the Sword turned into black specks of light and vanished; he wondered where she had stored it.

“What is it?” he asked

She seemed hesitant to tell, so he didn`t probe any further, again settling into cultivation he reached the Transient rank in quarter of a day, he could feel the growth of his body, all the pores opening up, to let the filth ooze out, purifying his insides. However, a bizarre change occurred, the attribute core floating above his mana pool sank to the center of his pool. Then the container ruptured letting the attribute essence pour out.

Mysteriously the attribute essences divided themselves into diamond shaped crystals, earth, wind, lighting, dark, ice and fire. The five crystals formed a hexagonal shape within his mana pool, linking themselves with numerous strands of mana.

Retrieving ice essence into his hands, he noticed it had flowed many times faster, unlike before when he had to retrieve the mana then the desired essence from the core. He had during the previous fight noticed how strange the dagger had reacted, so he had planned to bind it.

Grabbing the dagger from his waist, he cut his finger, dripping some blood onto it, which was absorbed by the dagger, time passed by, as the dagger decided whether to choose him as its master.

Within a few moments engravings appeared on the dagger signifying its ownership. Flowing ice essence into the dagger, he watched it greedily absorb the frigid essence in torrents, several hours passed before it was satisfied. Attaching it back to his waist, he slept on his bed eagerly waiting for tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Silia was jumping over rooftops engaging in an one on one fight with a mysterious hooded individual.

“Princess, come back” the figure spoke caringly

“No!” Silia responded and then their swords clashed against each other, Dark essence converged behind Silia manifesting into a dual sword wielding armored knight, as the knights sword slashed through the air, it produced multiple sonic booms. The dual swords clashed against the hooded figures blade causing her to blasted back several meters, charring the hood with dark essence flames. A Pitch black armor was worn by the figure, as their two gazes met the figure backed down disappearing from the spot.

The manifested knight started to disperse as the threat vanished; she looked towards a certain direction with a hint of longing but then it was erased under the resolute gaze. Turning around she shot through the air, towards the institute’s front forest. As the elderly man, the dean of the institute looked at her fading figure from his office, he wondered about her identity. What was more astonishing was that she was a Peak God ranked individual at such a young age.

“That manifested Avatar was terrifying, and very similar to the one we saw years back”, a voice spoke from behind the dean.

“You`re aren`t hinting to that clan?” the dean spoke shivering a bit as he thought of a past incident

“I hope no one messes with her, or their entire linage will disappear from the face of the planet” the voice resounded from the back.

“We have another issue on our hands, the Emperion Dragon`s grandson has enrolled in our institute” the voice spoke turning grave

“That Dragon Kings grandson………, has enrolled in our institute, this year is just getting worse every day, keep an eye on the both of them tomorrow, see that no harm comes to them, or this institute ……..no……this continent will cease to exist under those two old bastards wrath, if the girl hails from that clan” the dean voice wavered as he spoke

At the issue of the order, the being behind the dean vanished. The dean stroked his beard thinking about the incident that had occurred before; the chubby teacher had highly spoken about a prodigious recruit who had presented a mind blowing theory.

“Bring him” the deans cold voice resounded in the office

A being crawled out of the elderly deans shadow, teleporting into Lucifer`s room, it stood beside his bed. Even though, Lucifer had a high perception he couldn`t feel the being at all, the figure could have killed him without him even knowing. It shook him, as Lucifer gazed at the figure; he noticed it was entirely covered with dark essence, with two green flames for eyes. Grabbing his hand, it teleported into the dean`s office.

The bright room, blinded Lucifer for a moment, as he observed his surroundings, two couches were neatly aligned opposite to each other and the room was covered with numerous artworks. A table was placed in between the couches by the shadow being and then it dispersed.

Sitting himself down, Lucifer waited, after a while, the door of the room opened, and then the dean walked in. His expression was gentle unlike the one at the introduction. As the dean seat on the couch opposite to Lucifer, he observed him for quite a while.

“Drop the guise” the dean’s voice turned stern

Lucifer had put up his unaware recruit façade, but it had been easily seen through. As Lucifer expression turned emotionless, the dean was slightly taken back, as he couldn`t read anything his eyes were devoid. It was the dean`s first time witnessing something like this, any and every being displayed some sort of emotion but in front of him a young boy had broken the rule.

The dean, however, was relaxed as the boys power level was merely at the transient rank and that too at the beginning stages.

“I heard you theorized about some mana based item called a ‘rune’” the dean spoke

“Yes” Lucifer`s emotionless voice came out, to the dean it was quite unsettling as he felt as if he was talking to a soulless doll.

“Then can you make it?” the deans asked in a questioning manner.

Lucifer nodded, the dean`s shadow extended and from it a hand made out of essence shot out holding some sort of object. A small stone slab was placed upon the table by the hand before it descended back into the shadow.

“Make it” the dean gestured

As Lucifer grabbed the stone, he examined it, if it met the requirement. Done checking, he grabbed the slab; pouring a tiny orb of mana fused with gravity, he planted it at the center of the slab. As soon, as it was completed, specks of mana were drawn into the slab, getting collected within.

The slab emitted a light blue glow, representing the amount of mana it had collected.

The dean then started laughing, “Quite brilliant, fusing gravity within a mana orb to draw nearby mana, However, it requires quite the meticulous control” the dean had seen firsthand his skill at manipulating mana. Lucifer himself had just shown the basic method of creating a rune, nothing more.

“I will issue this to the Elven council, who will make use of you discovery and you will also receive a substantial reward” the dean spoke with a smile

“Your control is quite good boy, would you like to be my apprentice?” the dean asked his gaze hardening

Lucifer thinking about it for a while, nodded.

He was teleported back into his room, sitting upon the bed, he noticed he couldn`t feel anything from the dean. He was far from reaching that stage. Peering at Silia bed he noticed she hadn`t returned, once again closing his eyes he fell asleep.

The dean back at the office, conversed with the previous shadow

“What did you think of the boy, your honest opinion?” the dean spoke

“Truthfully, the boy feels wrong…my mistake…not the boy…..something inside him…..it was very faint…..but I felt it when you looked at him” the voice resounded from behind

“You might be mistaken, I felt no such thing”

“I guess so, but nevertheless, the boy is absurdly talented, his control is far too good even compared to God ranked experts, you got quite the catch”

“Yes, I will mold the boy into a strong expert, are the preparations ready for tomorrow?”

“Yes”

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

:imdead: