“Have you decided if you also wish to become a warlock?” Lisa asked, pouring me a new cup of tea. The dark red liquid filled my cup, with whisps of steam floating up.

It was my fourth day in a row of sitting and reading at Lisa’s strange shop. The past couple of days had been filled with nothing more than reading and studying, be it under Professor Whistle’s guidance, having the System walk me through the play styles of the other Players, or reading over the System’s blue texts of the huge beginner’s book to magic. Studying was not my forte, but I forced myself to push through because it was Micah’s only directive.

‘Don’t worry about anything else; focus on expanding your knowledge. And when you come across anything interesting or useful, inform me.’

Something was going on, given the sheer number of suspicious-looking men and women coming in and out of the Frey Manor these past few days, but when I asked, Micah smiled and told me just to study.

Luckily, it was easier to read due to the System’s blue screens that translated text into a format that my mind could process, and having done nothing but study these past few days, it had become more manageable. A habit was forming.

The only relief from all this studying was a short trip to the casino to ask Kathy for help identifying a cure for the effects of the Wobbly Pebble. I had supplied her with one of the inflicted guards for further evaluation, and she was going to send a note on her findings on his possession. Most notably, today was also the day I was finally going to see Freida Stran and meet with Grandov in the evening.

I raised my cup of tea, savoring the fragrance of spiced black tea.

"A warlock, huh?" I scoffed, taking a sip of the steaming hot tea. Its warmth spread through me. “Absolutely not.”

Lisa grinned at my response, her eyes concealed behind her black bangs.

“Too high a price?” she asked.

I nodded.

Paying with my life to produce magic wasn’t an issue. Sure, it would bite me in the rear if utilized in the final round before beating Adovoria’s Fall, but otherwise, hacking away at my life expectancy didn’t pose any real issues in any of the rounds leading up to it.

The real issue lay in the unmentioned part of Chase Daylan’s explanation–forming a contract with a Celestial, an enigmatic being not of our world. Celestials served as conduits for expending life force to produce magic, and by the descriptions in the beginner's magic book, they weren't benevolent entities. There were various types of Celestials, each demanding something in return, often with sinister undertones.

“Just what sort of Celestial did Chase form a contract with?” I pondered aloud. “What sort of evil being did he form a pact with?”

Lisa shrugged. “You’ll have to ask him. But I have observed that it appears to be a quirky sort of being rather than evil.”

With her teapot in hand, she strolled away, offering no further explanation. Lisa settled back into her chair, engrossed in her own book.

I stretched my neck and refocused on the text before me.

It was unfortunate. A warlock did not require mana to perform magic. Much of the other types of magic did require mana, and enhancing one’s mana was something that even this book discouraged, albeit it did not shy away from describing.

Resting my cheek in my palm, I studied a drawn picture of a mage extracting mana from a tree. Subsequent images portrayed the tree being depleted of mana until it appeared charred black, with dead mana forming at its core.

Could this be the secret behind how the Spiders are producing their mages? It might explain the rapid spread of the land’s infection in recent times. They could be draining the land dry of mana and surpassing its limits, causing the formation of dead mana.

[ Intelligence: +1 ]

I smirked.

Despite the amount of knowledge I was accruing the past couple of days, the System didn't display much of my progress. Nor could I capitalize on a few stats, even though I had passed the thresholds needed for new abilities. It was frustrating, but before the change was completed, I had requested the System to revert the permission settings so I could reaccess the Game Store. The reason was simple: I had sacrificed a lot to obtain phoenix eyes to purchase Fin. Given my unexpected deaths in previous rounds, losing all that money upon my death in this round would be catastrophic. Holding my small fortune in Nexus Coins allowed me to transfer it between rounds. I didn’t intend to die soon, but Micah had warned me to be ready at a moment’s notice, given my track record to date.

I turned the page.

While most magic types didn’t suit me due to a lack of a mana core or suitable conduits, two kinds of magic piqued my interest.

The first was Illusion Magic, disparagingly talked down even in this beginner's magic book, insisting that it was not real magic and something toddlers played with, requiring a laughably low amount of mana. However, that very line was what sold me.

Being the equivalent of a toddler mage with my Mana stat at a mere 2, what better type of magic to learn?

I spent the last few days studying it through a dedicated book on the topic. Even the book appeared meant for toddlers, with lots of colorful pictures and diagrams and very few words. It was perfect. I didn’t even need to use the System to understand its logic, and the whole thing only took a few hours to finish reading. I spent the rest of the time studying and practicing the enchantments in the text.

Unlike what the snobbish book called “real magic,” where a tea cup could be produced out of thin air, illusion magic produced the image of a cup. At my level, it wasn’t a very convincing illusion; it was slightly transparent and distorted. Moreover, I could perform two small illusions every couple of hours.

But magic was magic. Creating something out of seemingly thin air was pretty impressive in my eyes.

“Why don’t more people learn it?” I had asked Lisa.

She shrugged. “There are few mages as it is. How many of them do you suppose have children and have the time or resources to have them learn it? It might not look like it, but that book is almost two centuries old. Teaching magic from birth is a lost tradition. Especially magic that is considered as only visual and rarely practical.”

I frowned.

Well, no matter. Even if, in the past, Illusion Magic was seen as a mere stepping stone to “real magic” for mages, I wasn’t a real mage, nor did I have any talent. Moreover, with creative application, I suspected Illusion Magic could prove beneficial on its own.

However, a second sort of magic had caught my attention, and I was currently learning about it from the beginner’s guide to magic: Chaos Magic.

Much like Dark Magic, it didn’t require a mana core. Nor did it even require living mana. Rather, it gained power from dead mana.

I gazed at the diagram of a woman pulling power from the charred tree shown on the previous page, and the tree returning to its former state.

Technically, Necromancers also sourced power from dead mana, and I grimaced at the association, given that the Kobar Empire utilized necromancy in the conquests. However, with the performance of Chaos Magic rather than Necromancy, the practitioner depicted in the picture was referred to as a Chaoturgist. That was more palatable.

The System had informed me of a handful of the previous Players utilizing Chaos Magic in their playthrough of Adovoria’s Fall. They took advantage of the massive amounts of dead mana across the continent and used it in their fight against the Kobar Empire. They failed in the end, obviously. But, their endeavors gave me an idea.

I smoothed out the page, soft to the touch after who knows how many years of use.

Before me was a drawing of a circle with swirls of white and black. It depicted the balance between living mana and dead mana; despite how despicably evil and damaging the infection’s spread had been upon the continent, this text suggested that it was a necessary evil.

I picked up my cup and finished the dark tea, leaving the cup barren white. I stared into the empty cup.

Given the destruction of too much dead mana, are there consequences to too much living mana?

I wanted to pose this to Leona in case her ancestral knowledge had any clues, but she had not come along to Lisa’s these past couple of days. Her hunger seemed insatiable and worryingly so. However, she met Fiona again in this round and spent her days gobbling up food in the kitchen. Fiona didn’t mind; it gave her an excuse to try out all the fancy recipes she had been unable to, given how infrequently my family members dined inside the manor. Leona was straightforward and detailed in her evaluation of food and capable of eating unimaginable amounts, thus making her an excellent food critic.

I set the empty cup down and resumed my reading of Chaos Magic.

While a Chaoturgist didn't require a contract with a Celestial, because of how dangerous dead mana was, a few conditions had to be met to utilize Chaos Magic. The most critical requirement was utilizing a Chaos Artifact that allowed access to the magical properties of dead mana while deterring its ill effects on the Chaoturgist.

In the image, the woman held a stick or a knife of some sort. It wasn’t clear exactly what the artifact was, but the diagram stated it was a Chaos Artifact.

<< System, do you know what a Chaos Artifact looks like? >>

[ Obviously. Given how past Players have utilized Chaos Magic, they would have required a Chaos Artifact to do so. ]

<< Did they source it from my world or bring it from their own inventory? >>

[ In all 11 cases, the Chaos Artifact was sourced externally. ]

That either was very good news or very bad news for me.

<< System, pull up the Game Store. >>

A screen appeared before me, noting the 1,562 Nexus coins in the Game Store. Some were from the fortune I had turned into other goods and sold on the marketplace; some existed previously. It was less than the fortune I had, but much of the inventory I put in the store hadn’t sold yet. I would loved for it all to be goods from the Ashford Bakery, but they couldn’t supply with with enough.

Perhaps in the future, I could set up a factory to supply enough baked goods to cover the demand seen within the Game Store?

However, that was a consideration for another time. I scrolled through the screens, checking the various artifacts and opening their descriptions to see if any qualified as a Chaos Artifact. Finally, I came across what seemed to be a metal wrench conveniently named the "Wrench of Chaos."

However, any excitement was quickly extinguished, like a bucket of dirty water being splashed onto my face. To start, the item’s Quality was Very Low, and the list of warnings and precautions regarding the side effects was longer than any letter I’d written.

I only bothered reading the warning at the very top.

[ Warning: the Wrench of Chaos will not be able to cleanse dead mana thoroughly, and minuscule amounts will be embedded into the user’s core. If accumulated, the dead mana will take over the user’s mana core, resulting in death. Recommended use for individuals with starting Mana levels of 120 and above, and not utilized more than three times. ]

What sort of nonsense was this?

Most insulting was the price for the artifact: 12,000 Nexus Coins.

I sighed, closing the Game Store screen.

I gazed down at the book with a red runic diagram. This was the second condition of becoming a Chaoturgist. Chaos Artifacts were extremely dangerous and thus required a runic tattoo to be imprinted on one's skin first to allow use without being instantly killed. It was essentially like using one poison to offset another poison.

At least this part is simple.

The tattoo wasn’t complex. I felt I could probably have drawn it out myself. Not that I was going to attempt to do so. I had a decent enough understanding of my drawing abilities and wasn't about to undertake to tattoo a runic tattoo onto myself—a skilled runist was best suited for this job, albeit they were rarer than mages.

I’ll ask Princess Evelyn or Kathy for a referral.

I closed shut the giant book.

“Are we heading out?” Fin asked.

He had been sitting nearby, absorbed in whatever far more advanced mage book.

“Yes,” I replied, rising up. I needed to drop Fin off and head out to see Freida Stran.

Just then, Lisa's Books and Tea's hefty wooden doors swung wide. A melodious creak announced the newcomer, and a dramatic backlight of lightning bathed their silhouette. The doors shut, and a muffled thunder followed.

“Ah, Freida! It’s been a while. What can I get for you?” Lisa's voice greeted.

My mouth hung open.

There was no mistaking the elderly woman. With her magenta dyed hair and a ridiculous yellow and green polka dot jumpsuit, entered none other than Freida Stran, my favorite information broker.

“Heya, Lisa. Got one of them books on curses? I’m looking for a cure to the Wallflower Curse that makes one forgettable.” The clink of hard candy accompanied Freida's words. Her gaze met mine, and she nodded my way. “Young man, I’ll see you shortly.”

I slumped back in shock, rubbing my temples.

A whirlwind of emotions stirred within me. Shock? Disbelief?

I never knew how Freida gathered her information. I never questioned it even. However, to think that she was procrastinating like so? Is this how she always worked? And her source was Lisa’s Books and Tea? Is that what I paid for?

My questions burst forth at Freida, but she simply laughed.

“Hey, I got what you wanted before, on time. It’s not my fault your request was something I knew I could find in a book. If you want it, you can read the book yourself.” She tapped the green tome Lisa had handed her.

Before I could retort, the wardrobe burst open, and Leona soared into the room.

“PEEP!”

Luca! You have to get back to the manor! Your brother is in trouble!