Chapter 29: First Reward
A blue screen once again flickered before him.
[Host’s reward has been decided.]
Jaden looked at the screen before him with expectations... He hoped that the reward was something useful... not like the system had ever given him anything useless till now.
His hopes were answered.
[Host has been granted the following spell books.]
[Umbral Grasp ★ (Evolvable) - Conjures small shadowy hands from nearby shadows]
[Soul Thread ★ (Evolvable) - Creates a faint tether of soul to an enemy or ally to sense presence.]
[Death’s Whisper ★ (Evolvable) - Inflicts a chilling curse that causes fatigue, slowed reaction, or creeping fear.]
Jaden’s eyes widened, and his lips arched up as he read the message before him.
"Wonderful!"
He let out a hearty chuckle and called out to the spells in his mind.
Suddenly, three spell books appeared before him; however, they were different from the previous ones... these had a presence that made other spells fall inferior. The books themselves were distinct, made of shadowy black leather with dim white patterns on them.
Jaden could not understand what was written on it, though. So he simply ignored it. He tried to open the book, but just as he did so, the book burst apart into shadowy black sparks and entered his body.
It entered an inch above his mana core. He tried to open the other books, and the same happened with them... and then he let out a scream as blood began to drip out of his eyes and nasal orifices.
His vision turned red due to his own blood as information flooded into his mind... it was information about his astral core—the generator and reservoir of mana for the mark-based magic branch.
The astral core existed an inch above the mana core, and it generated mana on its own; however, to use that mana, he would have to learn spells of the branch of that mark.
"M-Minor Heal..." Jaden mumbled to ease the headache assaulting him... his mana flared and water elementals rippled throughout his body. The pain receded for a moment, only to return the next moment.
Jaden grabbed his head and fell onto his knees as he let out screams full of agony.
This continued for about thirty minutes, and after that, the pain began to dim down.
His agony-filled face softened as he breathed heavily... the pain was so potent that he couldn’t even think, let alone speak. It was simply soul-chilling...
"I never want to experience that again..." he added in a low voice, still unable to speak clearly.
He placed his head on the mirror-like sea and stayed like that for the next ten minutes as he organised his thoughts and relieved himself from the backlash’s agony.
"Blasted hell..."
He closed his eyes and let himself have a moment of peace before continuing with learning the spells he had just obtained...
The spells were simple, really... their cultivation was a bit similar to martial arts circulation, and the mana movement was similar to magic spells. The only difference was the existence of an astral core, which did generate mana, but it was a mana with no elemental properties...
Like right now, Jaden’s astral core was generating shadow mana, soul mana and death mana. But they only have the property of shadow, soul and death... they simply lack the property of mana, which is why one had to mix the two mana to do the spell and because of that... the mark magical branches were much stronger than basic elemental branches.
"Let’s do this."
Jaden finally stood up and began mastering the spells.
Time passed, and a few messages appeared before him.
[Congratulations, you have learned three 1-star spells: Umbral Grasp, Soul Thread, Death’s Whisper]
[Experience +45 (Spells Learned)]
However, just as he finished mastering the spells, a slight headache hit him, and more information flooded into his mind. This time, there was way less information.
It was the information on evolving the spells from a 1-star spell to a 2-star spell, and to do so, he just had to use other elementals with the spells... the spells he had didn’t have an elemental limit, so he could blend with any and obtain various results.
However, that made the spell that much harder to master.
"Fuck this!"
He cursed loudly and exited the [Epiphany Zone].
Jaden stood within the dark stone walls of the training room with sweat rolling across his body. He took in the room with his eyes before stepping towards the room with magic spells... it was time for him to get some food down his throat.
"I am so hungry that I could eat a horse."
He pushed open the door leading to the room and stepped inside. Just as he did so, the table with two plates covered by silver cloches fell into his view.
Based on that, he was given one meal per day... three days had already passed within the real world or the dream realm.
His expression hardened as he muttered dejectedly.
"I still haven’t learned the spells..."
He clapped his face and walked towards the table with the plates as he mumbled.
"Better fill myself up before working hard again."
The room was soon filled with the aroma of both meals as Jaden removed the silver cloche covering them. He once again took large mouthfuls of the meal and finished it as fast as he could... he then picked up the glass jug placed nearby and drank water from it.
Letting out a low burp, he turned back towards the training room... it was finally time to learn those 2-star spells.
The number of two-star spells had climbed to twelve from the initial nine... and he just had four days to learn them all.
He hoped that levelling up twice would let him understand and learn a 2-star spell to gain exp. His main objective was to get to the Adept rank after all.
"I’ll do it no matter what," he added with determination and continued towards the centre of the training room.