Chapter 23: Obtaining the mark
Jaden, however, didn’t let the fear eat at him and continued with the process.
A few moments later few sparks began to appear in his vision. At first, he saw red sparks, then blue, yellow, green, cyan, grey, white and at last black sparks...
’W-What?!’
He opened his eyes, and they went wide as he huffed for air. His expressions turned dumbstruck before his lips widened into a grin.
"Hahahaha!"
His laughter echoed within the stone walls of the room as he soaked himself in the excitement of having an affinity for all of the elementals.
His laughter soon stopped, and a serious look appeared on his face. He closed his eyes again and began the mana absorption art.
Once again, the various sparks appeared before him, and he began pulling them towards him. He began with red sparks and stacked them together; however, the more he stacked them, the harder it became to control them.
Soon enough, the whole stack broke away from his control.
He heaved a sigh and mumbled.
"I have to start with fewer of them..."
He once again began pulling the red elementals and stacked them together, and just as they began to show him even a hint of restriction, he pulled them into himself... the fire elementals entered his minor mana veins and soon reached his fire elemental point.
Suddenly, he felt warmth spreading throughout his body.
Jaden did not stop at just this and continued to absorb the red sparks until he could no longer absorb them.
He then began to absorb the blue sparks, and just as before, a calming cold swept throughout his body.
After absorbing enough of the water elementals, he began absorbing the yellow sparks, and suddenly, he felt like he was much more stable than before.
After finishing with earth elementals, he began absorbing the green sparks, and just as before, he felt weightless as if he did not weigh anything at all.
The Ice elementals made him feel sharp and indifferent.
The Lightning elementals made him feel destructive and unrestrained.
The Light elementals made him feel like nothing could be hidden from him.
The Darkness elementals made him feel like nothing could gaze upon him.
Just as Jaden finished filling his elemental points, he felt a strange current run through his body. A grimace appeared on his face as he gritted his teeth.
The elements contained within the elemental points moved to the great mana vein, which followed it towards the mana core located at his solar plexus.
Soon, a soothing warmth coursed through him... A look of pleasure appeared on Jaden’s face as he completed the first cycle of mana absorption.
He opened his eyes and clenched his fists as he muttered.
"Wonderful..."
Right then, a blue screen appeared before him.
[Ding!]
[Host has completed the first cycle of mana circulation.]
[Assessing affinities...]
[Ding! Host has affinity to all eight elementals.]
[Host had met the hidden condition - The Eight Elemental Physique]
[Ding! You are being rewarded for completing - The Eight Elemental Physique]
[Your Grimoire is being upgraded...]
Jaden blinked his eyes a few times as he read the messages before him.
"Upgrade?"
A puzzled look appeared on his face as he muttered.
"There is a rank above gold?"
’How come I do not know about it then? I already asked others about it...’
He rubbed his face with his hands and heaved a sigh.
"I hope it doesn’t get me unwanted attention..."
Suddenly, another screen appeared before him... this one, however, was black instead of blue, and it had glowing white text.
| You are being bestowed your mark. |
"What is this screen?"
He questioned with a puzzled look, and another message appeared before him.
| The shadows choose you as their own. |
"What?"
Just as those words left his lips, the room turned darker... shadows stretched further until they began to stand up and a hunched being with burning white eyes and towering figure stood before him.
The towering figure moved its shadowy black hand towards Jaden and touched his abdomen with the nail of its enormous finger.
Suddenly, the shadows which were covering the being like an oversized hood moved and wrapped themselves around Jaden.
Jaden looked at everything with wide eyes, but he did not say anything... or more like he could not say anything.
The enormous, shadowy black figure had deprived him of the ability to think and speak.
He tried to speak... his lips moved, but no words came out; he tried to think... thoughts churned and took birth just to crumble before they could mean anything.
The shadows which were wrapping themselves around him suddenly moved towards his abdomen and entered his body.
A chill ran across his body, and suddenly a message appeared before him.
| You have been bestowed with the mark of shadows. |
Just as Jaden finished reading the message, the shadows retreated, and the departing words of the shadowy being echoed within the room.
"I shall wait for our next meeting, scion."
The being’s voice was like someone or something was speaking from the very depths of the world. It was chilling, it was deep, and it was fearful.
Strangely, Jaden didn’t feel anything from the shadowy being’s voice and just nodded absentmindedly.
’What did he mean by scion?’
Jaden questioned inwardly before mindlessly staring at the location of the shadowy being.
A few moments later, he clapped his face and rubbed it before muttering.
"It doesn’t matter... I should focus on getting stronger."
Jaden stood up and walked back to the room with spell books... he looked around the room with curiosity as his thoughts kept turning to what had just transpired, but each time he pushed them back.
A few moments later, he picked up as many 1-star spells as he could and turned back towards the training room. It was time to learn some spells.
He grinned while looking at the spell books as he made his way to the training room.
Soon, he entered the training room and placed all of the spells on a nearby shelf.