Soren sat on the cold hard ground inside a cave while eating his overcooked meat with lots of spices on it; Argus was also eating by his side but as he didn’t like spiced meat, Soren had given him one without any spices on it. Cooking the meat on the campfire was quite hard, so his meat had ended up being overcooked because of his lack of skills; of course, Soren didn’t care much as long as it tasted good.

It had been a couple of days since he left the Eastwood Town. He was planning on going to the nearest town, Duskfort, and was currently taking a rest in a cave; he had not stopped even once after leaving the town just to be on the safe side.

About the conversation in his fragmented memories, he had decided not to think about it right now. According to his speculations, the damage that he had suffered inside the Space Crack was probably the reason for his lost memories. Consecutively, the fact that he had recovered a part of those memories was perhaps related to his breakthrough; his increased stats, to be exact. So, it meant that as long as he kept increasing his cultivation level, he would one day recover every bit of his lost memories.

Keeping that in mind, Soren had decided to put this matter aside for now. After all, he was going to recover more of these memory fragments as long as he kept increasing his stats. So, he only had to focus on one thing for now; his cultivation.

But before he could cultivate, though, he needed to do something first. The problem with the purity of his Mana, he had to fix that. He needed to develop a proper cultivation technique that would fix the problem with his Mana Core. To do that, he was planning on getting as many cultivation techniques as he could for reference. Based on those techniques, he was going to develop a cultivation technique that would fit him. But to get that many cultivation techniques, he first needed to go to a more developed area; preferably, the royal capital of the kingdom that Soren was currently in.

For now, though, the only thing he could do was to master his spells. His one of the most powerful spells, <Dark Gravity>, had a major flaw; it was limited by the durability of the Spell Vessel. If Soren could make it an Innate Spell, his overall power would increase exponentially. Apart from that, he could also increase his stats using stat enhancement potions and the new feature of ‘Devour’. Of course, both methods had their own problems. The problem with the enhancement potions was related to the resistance that the body would form after a while against any potion. While the problem with ‘Devour’ was that the increment was very low; so much so that unless he absorbed the Quintessence from a very strong being, he wouldn’t see a huge increase in his stats at once.

…..

After eating his meal, Soren brought his focus towards his Storage Pearl. He had received five additional Storage Pearls from the Rank 1 Initiators that he had killed, so the current size of his Storage Pearl had increased to about five cubic meters. Not only that, but he had also found various items inside those Storage Pearls. Although most of those items were useless for Soren, there were some that he could utilize. These items were: five low-grade unfocused cultivation techniques; 235 Middle-Grade Mana Crystals; a small dark-blue crystal sphere which was very hard, yet, very light in weight; Skill Book – Shield Rush; Skill Book – Aura Blast; Skill Book – Wind Slash; Skill Book – Treading Wind; a dagger; and various spices.

Apart from these items, Soren had also taken the Enhancement Artifacts from their bodies. These artifacts were: a black-gray ring that increased his ‘Spirit’ stat by 3.10; a white ring that increased his ‘Resistance’ stat by 2.35; a navy blue metal-chain bracelet that increased his ‘Intelligence’ by 2.20 and his ‘Spirit’ by 2.05; a red ring which increased his ‘Strength’ stat by 2.10; and a pair of black boots that increased his ‘Agility’ stat by 1.90.

Except for one artifact, Soren could use all of them to increase the stats that mattered to him. Of course, there was a limit to how many artifacts one could wear at a time; if someone crossed this limit, the artifacts would start interfering with each other and wouldn’t enhance the stats by as much. But for now, Soren hadn’t crossed that limit and could wear these artifacts.

Also, to make it easier on himself, Soren decided to name these artifacts. The black-gray ring that increased his ‘Spirit’ stat by 3.10 was named Spirit-Ring by Soren; the white ring that increased his ‘Resistance’ stat by 2.35 was named ‘Resistance-Ring’; the navy blue metal-chain bracelet that increased his ‘Intelligence’ by 2.20 and his ‘Spirit’ by 2.05 was named ‘Caster’s Bracelet’; the red ring which increased his ‘Strength’ stat by 2.10 was named ‘Strength-Ring’; finally, the black boots that increased his ‘Agility’ stat by 1.90 was named ‘Agility-Boots’.

From the fact that these artifacts could increase the stats of a Rank 1 Initiator by that much, it could be said that they were high-end products; at least, in this backwater area. These kinds of artifacts were not something that any Rogue Initiator could buy; only someone who had a Family or an Organization supporting them could think of obtaining these items. Of course, if a Rogue Initiator had the power to kill those high-ranking Initiators, they could also get their hands on these artifacts; just like Soren.

Other than these artifacts, the only thing that attracted Soren’s attention was the small crystal sphere. The skill books were useless for Soren as three of them were only for the Warrior type Initiators and the last one was a movement technique; something that Soren already had. The crystal sphere, on the other hand, was something that Soren could use. Although he had no idea what it was, he could still use its toughness and lightweight as a weapon. This crystal sphere could be a good fit for his Vornea; of course, to use it efficiently, he first had to perfect his Vornea Skill.

……..

After Soren was done sorting the items and equipping the Enhancement Artifacts, he started working on his spell mastery. Although all of his spells were important for him, he gave precedence to <Dark Gravity> right now.

The recent fight with those Rank 1 Initiators had reminded him of the weaknesses of his arsenal. He already knew that his defense spell, <Withering Wood>, lacked flexibility; and the last battle had done nothing to refute that fact. In a fight where Soren had to move around a lot, this spell would not work. Once he cast this spell, he would have to totally depend on its defensive power and just spam his spells from inside the dome. For Soren, this weakness was fatal. Hence, regarding this problem, Soren was planning on developing a Defense Spell by himself. Of course, he had already tried doing that before and had failed. So, he was planning on first checking out other defense spells and skills for reference and then he would create his spell based around that.

Apart from that, he also lacked a good Offense Spell. He needed a powerful spell that could do serious damage to his enemies. While his <Create Undead> and <Dark Gravity> could fill in for that, he wanted a spell that would only focus on offense. But as he had no way to obtain it right now, he had to focus on making <Dark Gravity> his innate spell. Of course, while doing that, he wasn’t going to forget his other spells; especially his <Elemental Sense>. Soren didn’t need anyone to remind him of the importance of this spell; he knew it all too well. His whole ability as a Spellcaster was depending on this spell; as such, he could never neglect this spell.

And as he had already gathered all the information about the concept that the spell was based on, he could easily increase his spell mastery.

……..

“Spell Mastery Increased. Elemental Sense – Level 8/10.”

“Spell Mastery Increased. Dark Gravity – Level 6/10.”

Soren stretched his tired body as he finally saw these messages. He had studied and practiced these spells all night long and, at last, had received this result.

It was early morning right now and the sun was still below the horizon. Sitting in the same position for so long had made him a little stiff, so he stood up and went out for a breath of fresh air. Walking outside the cave, Soren stepped on the cold snow with his bare feet. He liked this feeling of coldness entering his foot and spreading in his body. He also liked the time of winter as it somehow made him feel comfortable, like being in the embrace of his lover.

As he walked on the snow while relishing this feeling, he strangely started craving the ‘Freezing Lava’ that he had drunk back in that club.

Wan!

Suddenly, Argus who was sleeping inside the cave all this time woke up and ran towards Soren, dragging him out of his thoughts about the drink.

A few moments later, the area surrounding the cave resonated with laughter and barks as one person and one fox played around in the snow.

….

After having a Thorn Boar for lunch, Soren and Argus started their journey towards Duskfort once again. The area that they were currently in did not have any Rank 1 Beast so they had no trouble passing through.

A few days passed like this. They kept moving during the day and then found someplace to spend the night. Soren had also been diligent in meditating and studying his spells all this time, and its result was already showing.

“Spell Mastery Increased. Elemental Sense – Level 9/10.”

“Spell Mastery Increased. Space Snatcher – Level 8/10.”

“Spell Mastery Increased. Withering Wood – Level 4/10.”

“Spell Mastery Increased. Create Undead: Low Tier Ⅱ – Level 2/15.”

“Spell Mastery Increased. Ice Barrage – Level 2/10.”

“Skill Mastery Increased. Shadow Steps – Level 3/15.”

During this time, Isaac had already finished the task that Soren had given him; analyzing the residual of that red beam with the homing ability. Using that information, Soren had started to develop his <Dark Raven> with a certain direction in mind. Of course, his mastery level of the spell also increased as a result.

“Spell Mastery Increased. Dark Raven – Level 2/10.”

……..

More than ten days had passed since Soren left Eastwood Town. It was a long journey but he had finally reached his destination; Duskfort.

The town looked nothing special from outside the walls. In fact, it looked much worse and underdeveloped than Eastwood. Even the protective stone wall surrounding the town was not maintained properly and had various cracks running through it. But of course, this had nothing to do with Soren. So, he just showed his Hunter I.D to the guards stationed at the gate and entered the town.

After entering, Soren first went towards the nearby restaurant and ate his fill together with Argus. He had eaten nothing but roasted meat during this journey and had wanted to eat something delicious for a long time.

Done stuffing his stomach, he walked towards the Hunter’s Association with lazy and heavy steps.

As he didn’t know the way, he had tried asking the pedestrians walking on the street. But he hadn’t realized how terrifying he looked with the scar on his left eye. With the situation as it was, most people were used to seeing this kind of injury. Yet, it still caused many weak-hearted people to step back in fear once Soren approached them. Seeing this, Soren made a mental note to buy an eye-patch once he finished his business with the Hunter’s Association. Finally, a young couple who looked like they were enjoying their date had helped Soren out once they saw how others were avoiding him.

….

Walking for a few minutes, Soren eventually reached a dilapidated wooden building which had the sign of the Hunter’s Association hanging outside. Ignoring the condition of the building, Soren walked in and went towards the screen panel. There were not many people inside right now so the whole place felt desolated. But Soren liked it that way as it made things easier for him.

Inserting his Hunter I.D in the slot, he opened up the list of missions that had a recommended level of Rank 1. Many Initiators didn’t upgrade their ranks at the association usually. So, there was no lock on the mission lists based on ranks; except for the Non-Initiators, of course.

As Soren had been traveling alone, he wasn’t able to get much free time apart from when he rested. And now that he wanted to develop a defense spell, he needed as much time as he could get. So, he wanted to look for a mission that would give him a lot of free time but still take him to his destination.

And after looking through the lists a few times, Soren finally found what he was looking for. The mission he chose according to his requirements was to protect and escort a group of merchants who were on their way to Bycrest.

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