--Grimoire Of Soul Magic

-Written by the first king of Sefai Lopie after his wife’s death, he achieved a miracle in magic, but at a great cost.

-Cursed.

-Durability : INDESTRUCTIBLE

I whistled at the marvel in front of me.

From my recent discoveries, it was told that Soul Magic has many uses.

If it were to be compared to another type of magic, it would be a superior version of Necromancy, with actual control over the soul.

A soul is the basis of our life.

It is what generates mana, so those who are able to connect to another soul, their mana regeneration increases, depending on the strength of the soul.

And what determines the strength of a soul is WIL stat.

Those with weak WIL stat are more prone to have their souls snatched away from them, to be used as a backup generator for whoever got it.

Another way to use souls is for golems.

Yes, the good ol’ slow statues.

Except if they are well made, you can just beg for mercy as it chases after you to the end of the planet.

Or so the books say.

I walk towards the book, blinded by the greatness of its power, and touch it.

Suddenly, words started to fill my head.

“Kill them”

“Take revenge”

“Resurrect me”

“We have the power”

“Join us”

My hand, unable to let go of the book, stuck to it like it was melted on it.

Then, a pop up came.

“Void Mind activated..”

“You have resisted Curse with Void Mind.”

“Void Mind have leveled up by 2!”

“WIL+ has increased by 5”

Finally, the voices stopped entering my head, and I was able to let go of the book.

“Would you like to register yourself as the ‘Grimoire of Soul Magic’s owner? Y/N”

Since the curse has dissipated, not accepting would be a complete waste, wouldn’t it?

Thus, I said yes, and the book turned into a ring and attached itself on my index finger, then became a tattoo.

Well then, now I can stop worrying about it being stolen, eh?

I use ‘Inspect’ on the tattoo, learning new information

--Grimoire of Soul Magic

-Owned by Archillies Duane

-Able to store an infinite amount of souls.

-Able to take a maximum of 25% mana generated by the souls.

-Dark magic is 50% more powerful

-Blood magic is 25% more powerful

-Durability : INDESTRUCTIBLE

What a nice ring.

Tattoo?

Both, I guess.

Now I finally know what is the use of WIL.

It doesn’t only affect the soul, but it could resist status effects, such as the curse.

Thankfully, Void Mind, which has no description, finally did something.

I looked at the books for what Void Mind is, but nothing was said about it, making it a complete mystery for me.

Now that I think about it, where does the information from ‘Inspect’ come from?

I took it for granted at first, true, but right now I’m curious.

Since the room has nothing else, I exit, and just as I step out of the door, the pillars start shaking, crumbling the room on top of itself in the process.

What a shame, it was well built.

Just as the shaking stopped, the maid appeared at the other side of the hall, with a hint of worry in her face.

“What happened?”

She asked.

“I entered this room and it crumbled on it’s own just as I got out.”

“W-what..?”

She said, confused.

Well, of course she would be confused.

I entered a blood sealed room, which is considered the highest difficulty type of seals.

However, with my textbook knowledge (literally), I was able to crack it open with a bit of forcefulness.

“Did… did you unlock the door?”

“Yes.”

She stiffed after I replied, then took a step backwards.

“Hey now, the grimoire isn’t controlling me right now, alright?”

Her body relaxed a bit, but she was still on-guard.

“Ugh.. just go get me food, alright? I’m leaving soon anyways..”

“Y-yes..”

She fixed her composure quick, then quickly went out of the library (maze) with ease.

If my calculations are correct, the magic hands should be about done in 3 hours.

In the meantime, I look through my randomly picked up abilities to find an ability called ‘Illusionary Barrier’.

What it does is create another world, for a certain amount of time, or as long as the caster is supplying it with magic, as I explained before.

It seems like the barrier the assassins made was also an ‘Illusionary Barrier’.

Inside this barrier, what happens inside, doesn’t connect to the outside.

For example, let’s say I made a barrier around this whole castle, and only I am inside of it.

I turn the castle to ash, then when I get out, the castle comes back to the way it is.

Very nice..

Mm..

Ah!

I’m getting out of track.

After some pondering, I decided to not use it, yet.

For now, I kept summoning orbs made out of air then cancelling them, all in order to gain better ability levels.

After about an hour of repeating the same actions, I gained the abilities ‘Parallel Thought’ and ‘Auto Cast’.

‘Parallel Thought’ is passive, allowing me to think better while doing an action.

Just to simplify, I am now able to multitask.

As for ‘Auto Cast’, I’m able to cast the same ability at a specific speed at the cost of extra magic, but I don’t really care about the extra magic, and turned it on.

Now I’m bored..

-Ding!

“Magic Hand has reached level 10!”

Finally!

Now I’m able to cast 5.

I casted the two, and sent one of them to do the same action as the others.

As for the other one, I wanted to fiddle a bit with it.

I tried to control it to do actions, such as play rock paper scissors, make gang signs, and tested its fighting strength.

The first two actions were hard to do, but after a bit of practice, it was able to fluidly act as a third hand for me.

Well, not exactly, but it is fluid enough.

As for the fighting strength, I made it go into a fist pose, then thrust it at my face.

And what happened was..

I was pushed back a little.

It seems that according to my STR stat, the magic hands will have the power.

Then I thought…

What if I add mana to it, will the punch be stronger, or just the same?

With that, I learned one important lesson.

Don’t screw with the magic hands, they are more dangerous than the assassins and the castle guards combined.

Another test I did, was whether if I could wear the magic hands like a glove or not.

If so, that might solve a bit of my weapon problems.

And it worked!

I wore it exactly like a glove, and tried to move my hands, but it was as if it was a glove to begin with.

I grinned while thinking about the possibilities, then put more mana into it, making it larger.

My hand, feeling a bit heavier, was hard to control.

I had to train my fingers from scratch if I wanted to control it well.

Engrossed with my new hobby, I didn’t notice the maid who was standing there for 10 minutes straight.

Feeling embarrassed, I scratched my head, and took the tray from her hands using the magic hand, then placed it on my lap.

I thanked her while showing a smile, then looked at the food.

Reminded of the incident with the king, I casted a ‘Purify’ on the food, then dug in.

Mhm, just as always.

Then, I remembered.

“Hey, what time is it?”

“It is about midnight, sir.”

“Alright, thanks.”

She nodded, but just as she was about to leave, it struck me like a charged magic hand bashing my head.

“Wait! Could you tell me where the bathroom is?”

I said, feeling a bit embarrassed.

She made a silent chuckle, which looked cute, then motioned me to follow her.

I quickly ate the food, then told the magic hand to go work.

With that, I’m finally greeted by the moon-lit golden halls.

Since electric lamps don’t exist in this world, the stars were completely shown to the naked eye.

I stopped in the middle of our tracks, making her give me a confused look, but I did not care.

The sky… was majestic.

No matter where it is, the sky at night is always beautiful.

Unless it was red like a planet orbiting a near death star, but that isn’t the point.

After staring for who knows how long, the maid shakes my shoulders, and I finally snap out of it.

“How long was I out of it?”

“20 minutes.”

What?

It can’ t be..

In my mind, I was grateful to the patient maid who stood here for 20 minutes, waiting for me to stop staring.

We started walking once again, and we reach the bathroom.

Weirdly enough, it has a toilet that looks exactly the same as the one on Earth, with a flush and everything.

I didn’t complain and relieved myself, washed my hands, then left, feeling great.

Making a mental note about where it is on my mental map, I got back to the library and layed on my makeshift couch.

For one reason or another, it is comfortable.

I casted a Lifetimed barrier, actually, 10, tightly sandwiched together, then tried to sleep.

And surprisingly, fatigue took over, and my vision blacked out.

…

Yawn..

I woke up and stretched my body, then looked around me.

Mhm… nothing has changed..

Except for the floating hands around the barrier.

Just by looking at them, I got the stupid idea of making them attack it.

Don.. Don.. Don..

Dull sounds kept resounding as each of them hit, but with no avail.

I washed my face and dried it, then ordered them to stop and cancelled the barrier.

On the corner of my eye, I saw stacks of pop ups asking me to ‘Read’ the books, which I answered all of them with yes.

A headache started, making me dizzy at the same time.

Omph.. Maybe I should have did it slowly..

Since everything in the library was taken, I went out, and started looking for an exit, finding the maid in the process.

I asked her about the direction of the gate, which she asked with a worried expression if I need to learn about anything, but no, I don’t.

Finally, she asked me if I have money, at that time I realized that if I went out as is, I would have a hard time, so she told me to stay and ran towards somewhere.

I played with my magic hands, making them fight each other, thumb wrestle, and hand shake, until she came back.

When she came, I saw her holding a leather pouch, making clicking sounds as she came towards me and handed me it.

I gave her my thanks, and handed her 2 out of the 10 golds I had in the pouch.

She looked surprised, and tried to refuse them, but at the end, she gave up, and it was high time I’m able to explore.

But before that, I had an important question.

"What's your name?"

I asked.

"Valie."

"Nice to meet you, Valie. The name’s Archillies, I hope we could meet again."

With that, I push the gates, slowly opening in a dramatic way.

Heh…

A new world, new mysteries, new discoveries.

Here I come!

====Chap3 End====