Hey guys! Sorry for the not posting! I was busy with papers for college. Finally done with all that so I can continue writing again.

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I have been in Aliad for a couple months already. Right after I agreed to Entropy, he touched my head with one of his fingers. Immediately, my brain felt like it was being pressed on all sides. I would’ve screamed if it were not also numbing. I felt my consciousness waver and drift away. After what seemed like centuries, I heard a faint crackling rain of glass and then a flood of information streamed into my brain. I learned about the history of all the races, countries, continents, magic and magical research. All the world’s information was plunged into my brain. There was so much that I fainted. When I woke up the next day, Entropy told me that I fainted the moment he began the information transfer, I felt it last centuries but it was way less than that.

Then began instruction from Entropy. Though I say instruction it was more of having me recall the information. There was so much that I knew now that I couldn’t easily recall it. He had me do these strange exercises involving the city, runes, magic, Arc, and myself. It was so embarrassing really that I do not even want to think about it.

Arc accompanied eating with me every meal. Though he can’t eat, he would go outside of the cave and find some animal and bring it to me to prepare. He almost always brought back a Dragans but sometimes he would bring back Woldrans as well. One time he brought a Slaunkal, a serpentine creature with red blazing scales. It would’ve been alright if there was no way to cook the Slaunkal. It was also poisonous but because the poison is in the organs, I could not control it… yet. Then Entropy came along while I was arguing with Arc that there was no way that I could eat it. He wrote a strange rune in the air, it was circular in shape with lots of rounded shapes inside, and then it attached itself into the Slaunkal. The scales turned crystal clear and Entropy assured me that it was no longer poisonous. I refused to believe him as I knew that there was no way this could be done to a Slaunkal. He shrugged his rocky shoulders and said, “There is a way, you just need to remember.” He proceeded to cook the Slaunkal in front of me in a simple way by cutting it into pieces and laying it on a rough stove that was a rock on top of the flame. After handing it to me, I reluctantly ate it and boy was it delicious and life changing. The Slaunkal had no spices or seasonings but the juices inside of it made it even more delicious than the food my mother made. I remember that at that time I asked myself, “My mother didn’t make any food. She was too busy, so why did I compare this to what my mother made?” Try as I might but I never could remember and it hurt my head whenever I thought about it too long.

Arc and I would also talk about anything and everything. I told him about my clan and our history and he told me about what he and Entropy had been doing here. Him and Entropy have been here for a millenia already and all they’ve been doing is maintaining the city as much as they can and doing the exercises that I mentioned.

Sometimes monsters would come in but I could easily take care of them. Well… more like Entropy forces me to by teleporting me. The first time it happened I was unprepared as he just sent me off with a random, “Good luck.” Then suddenly, I was surrounded by a pack of Woldrans. This would be alright but I was sitting on top of the Alpha Woldrans. After the initial shock, the Alpha growled and knocked me off him. I heard another growl and then I heard several sounds around me. Immediately I had to think of something and my brain remembered a spell. I casted it and I felt myself flying through the air. It was so amazing but then I hit my head on the ceiling. I grabbed a nearby stalactite and breathed out a sigh in relief.

I had no idea how I was able to cast that spell, “Soar” but I was certainly glad I did. I was more interested in how I was to survive than I was to worry about what I was doing.

The Woldrans under me were growling and snarling at me. Some even tried to climb the walls or jump to get me. I hadn’t had much practice with controlling blood so I used them for target practice. There was a total of ten of them, a small pack including the Alpha. They were all moving so I could not easily control the blood so I could only control the blood of one of them at a time but I couldn’t think of how to deal with the others.

If only there was a way to trap them, I thought and then I suddenly thought of a spell, “Shadowlock”. I casted it and the wolves seemed to stop moving. Not knowing how long the spell would last, I controlled the blood flow of the Alpha starting from a speck and proceeding from there. Although the wolves stopped moving, I could feel that they were resisting the spell as the Alpha was straining really hard to stop me from controlling its blood. Within seconds, I had control over the Alpha’s blood and forced it to stop flowing. The Alpha died in no time but the other Woldrans were finally free.

Seeing that their Alpha died the rest of the Woldrans snarled more. One of the Woldrans started gathering lightning in its mouth.

Crap, I thought. I then started to control the blood on the Woldrans with the lightning but then the rest of the Woldrans also started gathering lightning.

This isn’t good, I thought.

Suddenly, the earth started moving and created spikes running through most of the Woldrans.

“What are you doing to my big brother!” shouted Arc.

He had just come back from his hunt outside. He had ten Dragans that he was dragging behind him. Most of the Woldrans died from the spikes but the rest, two of them, were only seriously injured. With their injuries, I could control their blood a lot easier so the two bled to death.

“Cool!” said Arc as I got down from my stalactite, “How’d you do that?”

“I am a Lunos, our power is to control blood,” I said as matter of factly.

“Really?” he asked as for some reason his eyes started to glaze over, “To what extent?”

A bit confused, I said, “Well, I start from a speck of blood until I can have control over all the blood. Once I have complete control, I can then instantly kill the target.”

“Hmm, I see,” he said and nodded as his eyes looked to be shining every so often, “Is that all it can do?”

“No, I can control lifeblood as well. Because I am a pureblood, I can control anything that lives so long as I know what keeps them alive. Like for trees and plants, I can control sap as well but not as easily as blood. I also have the ability Blood Feed, it allows me to learn everything about a creature so long as there is enough of its blood and it’s still fresh. I may also only learn a portion of what it knows and can do but the chance is slim.”

“Interesting,” he said, his eyes had random characters going through them now.

“Are you ok Arc?” I asked concerned.

“Yes, could you show me how Blood Feed works please,” he said gesturing to the corpses.

I obliged and started Blood Feed on one of the Dragans. The blood flowed out of its mouth and I condensed it all into a seed. Before I could put it in my mouth, Arc walked briskly over and took it. He started staring at the seed and before I could even say anything, he swallowed it.

“Why’d you do that?” I asked him.

He didn’t answer. His eyes were blank now and I waved my hands in front of him trying to get a reaction out of him.

Suddenly, his eyes shined bright and I was blindedly pushed back. I rubbed my eyes and he said, “Dragans, of the ursine species. Capable of creating sharp winds dangerous to those without any protection from wind magic. Fur is as strong as mythril and claws as strong as adamantine. Physical components are made of a combination of Carbon and Flourine.”

Then he looked at me and said, “So this is the power of Blood Feed. It is just a tad weaker than the power of the Codexes.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked, “What’s this about Carbon and Codexes?”

And then instantly I learned all about the elements and the Codexes of Magic, Elves, Humans, all of them. It was amazing to say the least that there could be these books scattered all over the world filled with everything that could be known.

He smirked and said, “You should know now.”

“Arc, what’s going on with me?”

“Forced Recollection, it’s a spell that came along with the information that Grandpa gave you. It only lasts for a year so, until then, you should make use of it. Once the year is up, you will never remember anything else and the only things that you can are the ones you had before and the ones you recollect now.”

I nodded and asked, “So what was that earlier, you know when you ate the Blood Seed.”

“Oh that, that was me scanning the ability. I may not look it but I want to know everything so when something I don’t know is in front of me I like to know about it.”

“But didn’t you have this Forced Recollection thingy too?”

“Yeah but it only works when you really need the information, so most of the things I know are about magic, runes, architecture, and caves,” he said shrugging, “you should use blood feed on the rest, you never know what you might get.”

I nodded and did that. In the end I only got Wind Blade from the corpses.

“Are these abilities the same as magic?” I asked Arc as we headed back.

“No, these abilities are similar to your own Blood Feed. They are innate abilities that the creatures can only use. Magic works by gathering mana to yourself and converting it to the right type for the spell to work,” Arc explained.

“But when I used magic back there, I didn’t use any of that. I didn’t feel any conversion or mana gathering in me. And what’s mana?”

He looked at me incredulously and said, “Mana is what everything in this world is made of. Though living creatures still also require some element. Without mana the elements would not even exist. The fact that you used magic without gathering mana is something my grandpa might know about.”