Finally, it was time to explain Stages and Levels!

The magic path of an individual is separated in Stages, further separated in Levels. This is something established by Mages for centuries. You could very well just rise in levels forever, without Stages, but it didn’t work as well. Everyone did it like this not because the world said it was the only way, but because the big guys said it was the best.

They could be lying of course, but they did need soldiers and helpers so I didn’t think so.

So here it goes.

First- Formation Stage, Levels 1-5

Second- Apprentice Stage 1-10

Third- Whirlpool Stage 1-9

Fourth- Solid Stage 1-9

And they don’t tell normal people about the rest.

I was currently at Level 0 of Stage 0 - which I just made up.

In the Formation Stage, you prepared your body to handle actual structured spells (more on that later, though I didn’t know much). Here you had the most freedom.

What you had to do was destroy every part of your body and reconstruct it with a better one that was able to hold Mana in a smoother way. Yeah, it did hurt a lot.

Different from other Stages, it only had 5 since there were only five parts to reconstruct. The skin, the organs, the blood vessels, the muscles and the bones.

What I loved about this kind of magic system was its freedom, and we all know I love freedom. You could just skip the first Stage, no reconstructing anything and go to the next one. You wouldn’t get the same results of course, but nobody was stopping you.

Not only that, the first part you reconstructed was something of your own choice. It mostly helped the process happen faster, while others also said it helped later on; though I wouldn’t know.

Anyway, theory done, I decided to start with either the bones or the blood vessels. From what I gathered, going for either of these two would support the rest going further, since they were at the core of the body, or in all of it. Doing the organs first would damage the muscles, while doing muscles first would put a lot of pressure on the bones and the skin and blah blah you get it.

Point is, I chose blood since I would be using it for quite a while, considering the Trait, and it was currently my only weapon.

Taking both the Mana in the Core and the one still coming in, I directed them to the blood vessels, mostly to the walls of the veins, but also the blood itself, making sure to be as thorough and careful as possible. Not that it mattered, I could count on my fingers the times people did something wrong in the Formation Stage anyway - and if I did, the consequences would appear later on.

Slowly, I could feel a prickling sensation all throughout my body, which soon turned into something like an ache, quickly followed by pain. I tried to do it slowly, to try and ease the suffering, but goddamn I don’t even think it did anything.

“Fucking Trait, do something you useless-” I unleashed my whole wonderful vocabulary between breaths on a poor thing who did nothing wrong.

Few minutes later, I was sprawled on the ground, all caked in sweat. Gotta say, it went well in the end. Yes, it did hurt, but nothing wrong happened so ‘twas fine.

I used one of those crystal thingies again, changed the sheets on the bed and went out. Only an hour had passed while I was doing all that and the others were still awake, grilling some of the meat they caught today.

There were two fires, one occupied by the “youngsters”, and another by big guy Langos. The former were cooking what looked like an oversized rabbit, while the former was gorging on a huge muscled leg.

‘Oh yeah, it’s all coming together,’ I smiled.

If you haven’t already guessed, big man was devouring the meat of a Spiked Lion, the highest leveled Beast we (more like they) fought today.

Turning around, I joined my peers on the log near the fire, trying to strike a conversation. We were chatting away, when the girl, who was cooking the meat, announced it was done. Probably trying to seem friendlier since in their eyes I was a whale, they offered some to me.

“Hehe, don’t mind if I do,” I rubbed my hands and leaned in to get a piece.

Halfway there, my hand was grabbed and I visibly flinched, looking up. There he was, my savior, the knight in shining armor, Langos.

‘I thought you’d never come’ I really wanted to smile and thank him, but of course I shut up and tried to look in pain. I jerked my hand back - which he let go - and jumped back.

“What are you doing?!” I yelled.

“Eat your own food,” he said plainly and went back to his fire.

“Sorry man, he’s the boss here,” Jason, the first son, shrugged and went back to his meal.

I looked at both of them, frowned, and got back to my tent, but on the inside I was giggling like a little girl.

—-------------------

The rest of the night passed uneventfully and morning came, along with the chirping of the birds and the humongous shadow passing over the forest. I didn’t see it, only a gust of wind and a shadow, but whatever it was it was huge.

Not my problem, I couldn’t beat it anyway, so I went on with my day. The others apparently didn’t share the sentiment, because they panicked and started packing, saying something about it being safer in the city, like it could defend from something like that. Even the big guy’s face didn’t look that good, but it also might’ve been the diarrhea I gave him.

Quickly, we packed and went on with the journey, this time a little more hurried. Langos was all about pace last time, but now it seemed like he was hurrying as well. Hehe.

Every animal in the forest must’ve gone in hiding after that huge thing since we barely saw a few, including a big rhino-looking thing that almost rammed the big guy before he barely managed to dodge, almost turning him into paste.

My gloating stopped by the time we set up camp, time in which I had nothing to scheme, so I hit the bed.

G’night!

—-----------------

By morning he was starting to look really bad, with bags under his eyes, sometimes salivating without even realizing and even being irascible most of the time. Since today was the last day of the journey and we would arrive in the city by evening, I needed to act soon.

Now, at about 12 o’clock in the middle of the day, I came next to the young ones, Langos having left ahead to scout the area, and asked the woman.

“If I may ask, My Lady, are you also a noble?”

“Of course I am, my father is also a Baron, though much farther away. I have been sent here to gain experience and maybe find a suitor,” she responded, a hint of pride in her voice that she tried to hide.

“Then you must find the first son, Jason to be the best, am I right? He is, after all, the heir to the title,” I said. This visibly made her grimace a bit, with the two men, having heard our little chat, coming over.

“What did you say?” the younger one, Killian yelled (like fucking banshee, goddamn).

‘We can see who is the spoiled one, I guess’

“He was stating the obvious, of course, what do you think?” Jason defended.

And so it began.

“Why you? Father clearly favors me, he sent Langos for me, after all,” Killian shot back.

“He sent him because you are useless, you dumbass!” Jason shouted.

‘Now we can observe the dumber specimen’

The yelling obviously attracted some new friends, since I could see an oversized monkey with six hands crawling from behind the trees.

Seemingly like a trend, the idiot didn’t realize until it was upon them.

Just when the pincer was upon the woman, a fireball slammed into it and it was pushed away. Knight to the rescue, Langos jumped upon the Beast, piercing its fur with his sword before slamming another fireball right in its head, effectively killing it.

He got off, panting, sweating and understandably fuming.

“What have I told you?!” he bellowed. “What were you doing?!”

“I am sorry Langos, but we were discussing the issue of Clarrissa’s eventual engagement with one of us, and I think that I am the obvious choice. Don’t you agree?” the younger one said.

“We don’t have time for this, let’s get going,” he waved his hand and stored the body. “Pack up and-”

And there I was, right behind him, knife in hand, smeared with one of the deadliest liquids I owned. Not my blood, no no, it was the most expensive toxin I could buy, one that could instantly kill someone at his level.

Lo and behold, he dropped dead right then and there, with an incredulous look on his face and blood pouring like a fountain from his open mouth.. The body dropped to reveal me to the young ones, smiling all the way to my ears.

“Surprise, bitches.”

The look on their face said a lot, but they didn’t get to say anything before I took out a crossbow and shot the girl in the chest.

Throwing my weapon to the ground, I sidestepped their first attack, an ice needle, and closed in on the youngest. This one finally had his weapon out, a spear, decorated with what looked like silver but could’ve been anything.

Since I was already too close to him, he slammed the handle into me, pushing me back, while the other one shot another two ice needles, one missing and another hitting my calf.

Bracing the pain, I rolled to the left, dodging a thrust from the youngest and managed to cut just above the heel, making him drop down.

‘Another one down.’

Jumping away, I faced the last contender, and the hardest one to beat.

“It is an honor to fight you, Jason Hont, future heir to the title of Baron.” I bowed, just enough to be able to react if he attacked, which he did not. Instead, he whined like a bitch.

“How could you? We helped you!” he complained.

“Yeah, for money, which is just a deal, and if I take back what I paid it’s like it never happened,” I shrugged.

“What? How does that make sense? Do you have no shame?!”

“Of course I do, I don’t just go running around naked, it’s shameful” I rolled my eyes.

“You bastard!” he roared as he jumped, sword raised, while icicles were forming in front of him.

Knowing my speed wasn’t even close to his, I dropped down the moment I finished talking, knowing he would attack anyway. That or continue talking, in which case I would’ve said I was poisoned as well, making him underestimate me or something. They called me the king of improvisation, you know?

Like planned, he jumped over me and I swiped towards his legs, trying to get that poison in, but he moved faster than me and pulled further. Crouched down in the “Spider-man” position, I said:

“You wanna continue doing this? You’ll run out of Mana at some point and I’m certain I’m a better fighter than you, so what now?”

“You aren’t going to let me go anyway,” he hissed.

“Of course I’m not-” I snorted”- but you can kill yourself and we can end this faster, you know?”

He snorted and charged, while his sword was starting to accumulate ice.

Seeing this, I rolled to the side to escape his swing and rolled again to make distance between us, only to see him right in my face. Shit.

And if that wasn’t enough, there was another icicle forming, ready to impale me. And that’s what I let it do. Moving just enough to make it hit the shoulder, I hugged him, bracing for the pain.

“You fought well,” I whispered, before stabbing right in the spine. I didn’t have enough strength to get it right in there, but the knife certainly was sharp enough.

Panting, I could feel him crumble, taking his weight off me. I heaved a sigh, looked down, and crouched.

“You really fought well. I can kill you right now if you want,” I said, brandishing my knife. I knew this type of poison only left the mouth and neck part unparalyzed before killing them.

“H-how?” he said, trying his best to breathe.

“How what? You gotta be more specific buddy.”

“Langos. You poisoned him as well. How? He didn’t let you eat with us,” he said hoarsely.

“Oh yeah, that was all planned. Remember that big-ass lion that attacked me?” I asked, and he said something that sounded like a “yes”. Then I made a cut on my finger and purple blood came out.

“Make the connection? It wasn’t purple at the time but you get the idea,” I said.

He stared, wide eyed, at the blood dripping and closed his eyes. I could see a tear rolling across his cheek.

“Yeah, life’s rough,” I said, and cut his throat.

Sigh

Getting up, I stored his body, leaving his inventory for later, and went to my other spoils. The other brother had long since died, so I did the same with him, only to hear a sound that shouldn’t have been heard there. Someone was trying to breathe, only for it to sound like an asthma attack.

Snapping my head, I scanned around and could see the girl, sprawled on the ground, trying to move, constantly looking around. I quickly moved to her and covered her mouth, thinking hard.

“Oh, come on, this thing killed that fucking guy, who was like two Stages above you!” I said (I actually had no idea)

“Trait? Definitely Trait. Possibly something to do with poison, and definitely not as good as mine,” I nodded, ignoring the girl trying to survive on the ground.

“Now what to do with you, darling?” I asked, finally paying attention to her. In response, she started shaking her head while trying to talk.

“Oh, we can already move, can’t we? Very well, then I can’t leave you alive, can I?”

I could sense her trying to thrash around, trying to escape, or to at least say something, and I could see the despair in her eyes. Getting close to her ear, I whispered:

“I’ll make good use of you, don’t worry”

Taking my hand off her mouth, I made a few bottles appear.

“Are you going to rape me?” she asked between breaths.

“Oh come on, why is everything about rape? No!” I threw my hands up.

“You said you would make good use of-”

“Oh yeah, I did say that. Don’t worry, it’s not like that,” I said as I put a syringe in each bottle and took a drop of every one of them. Giving it a flick, I smiled.

“If one can’t kill you, why not more?” I said.

“No please no, ple -mmm,” she tried to talk as I covered her mouth.

“Shh, it’s fine, it’s fine,” I said as I injected it into her neck.

Ten seconds later, she was dead, as the inventory confirmed, since you could only put dead things in. I couldn’t even trust a fucking pulse now.

‘Man, I hope I did good. I heard they take the characteristics of their death so I guess it’s fine.’ I thought.

Next I went to the big guy and same thing, I took his body and left the inventory for later.

Then I ran like Speedy Gonzalez, ‘cause I was fucking scared. All that adrenaline was nice but now I really appreciated my life and it would’ve been nice to still have it a bit longer.

—------------------------

Eight hours later, just as the Sun was disappearing beyond the horizon, I could see a concrete wall ahead, along with a gate as big as the one in the prisoner camp, standing at about 10 meters.

On each side of it stood guards, brandishing spears, wearing heavy armor, but only on some parts of the body.

In front of the gate instead, there were six guards, the ones fully kitted, along with another one in a battle robe, sitting on a wooden chair and waiting for the people to come to him. This was the guy who checked your identity and noted you down, trying to see if you were a criminal or not. There were no ways to see someone else’s Status without that person showing it themselves.

So the only way was to ask for it nicely, which was what this guy was doing, accompanied by other six guards glaring at you.

Being a city in the countryside and right on the border of the Kingdom, there was barely any traffic, thus I was fifth in line, barely having to wait for two minutes.

“Status,” he demanded, and I complied, already too tired for any shenanigans.

Twenty seconds later after staring at nothing he let me in.

Oh, and I also remembered my other name was Clay Lusac. Good to know.

Realizing that I had no idea where to go now, I went back to the gates and asked one of the guards.

“Where’s the closest hotel?”

“An inn, you mean,” he snorted, but still gave me directions.

As I said, fantasy but still advanced world, blah blah, there were hotels, but this particular city was too poor to have any. You’d normally see quite a few in one so close to forests, since a lot of money could be made from Beasts and people loved money, so tourists and all that, but this part of the Kingdom seemed to be the most boring and useless one.

Thinking about it, I didn’t even see that many Beasts. At first I thought the attackers killed everything in the area before the siege but even later, there were barely any, so I guess this region was just poor in that sense. Or any other sense, really.

Anyway, getting to the inn, I was amazed by the simpleness. And thrilled, really; every fantasy story had inns, and I was just about to go to my first one. Nothing would probably happen, but still, it was exciting.

Going in, I asked the really nice old lady at the desk for a room, and picked the most expensive one to make use of that immense wealth I got in a totally legal way.

The room wasn’t big when compared to other hotel rooms in this world, but it was the biggest I’d had in my whole life, thus it was the best. I fell asleep the moment my head touched the pillow, not even caring that I smelled like a pig and was probably covered in blood and some deadly liquids

G’night!