With Dame’s disappearance, Raze was now waiting for him to return with either the materials or at least the money to buy the materials. While they were getting a few things, he would be on the lookout again for items that had an affinity for magic.
This was one of the reasons why Raze had decided not to enchant the statue he had found. If he received some compensation for his work, he could use a level 2 power stone to enchant the statue, giving it a greater effect.
Still, Raze wasn’t just going to sit down and do nothing; there was a reason for him being here in the first place, and that was to increase his strength. He was ready to start his daily routine, and he had been using the Dark essence cultivation technique to increase his dark magic attribute.
As he sat on the floor cross-legged, he was ready, that was until a thought came into his head.
‘Wait, in the Academy, I won’t be able to rely on my magic so much, especially if the eyes of the others are on me. It would be better for me to focus on my Pagna warrior skills.
‘If that’s the case, then I should be focusing on the Demonic faction cultivation technique instead. The cycle of life and death.’ 𝗈𝓋𝑙xt.𝗇𝓔t
The cultivation technique was one that was best to be used in an area where many lives started or many ended. In theory, Raze believed that surely the faction that had created the technique was best to be used in its own territory, so he thought, what better time than to give it a go now.
Sitting down, Raze thought back to the contents of the book. Due to all his training with magic, he was quite a quick learner because magic was far more complex than the cultivation techniques he had learned so far. It was easy for him to remember the important points and to go through the motions. With his eyes closed, he instantly was able to concentrate. He could feel all of the lives that had been born in the surrounding areas. Imagining all of the births in the rooms, the happiness around, it was quite a large amount as Raze could feel the energy entering his Dantian and pushing it to grow stronger than before.
‘There’s so much energy here, with all of this, will I be able to become a second-stage warrior, and one so soon?’
However, with the cultivation technique, one wasn’t just meant to think of the first part of the cycle; they needed to gather energy from both parts. And when it went to the cycle of death, something strange started to occur.
‘What is all of this… this noise?’
The sound of distant screams was going off all around him. They weren’t regular screams but ones as if a person was in pain.
The energy was now rapidly entering his stomach, and it felt almost overwhelming, his stomach felt like it was ready to burst, and a large amount of pain was felt in his head. With his eyes closed, the imagery he had in his head, what he had imagined, it was starting to feel real. The vague images that were almost like a dream were becoming solid. For a moment, he thought he might have transmigrated again to another world. He could feel the heat on his skin, the sounds around him, and even what was below.
His body was on a battlefield. He was higher up compared to everyone else, able to overlook everything, but as for where he was, he was sitting on a hill, but this one was made from a pile of the dead.
The field was full of broken swords and weapons on the ground, the dead bodies had fresh wounds, and the smell of iron was thick.
‘What is all of this? Is this the demonic faction before it was built? Is this all of the lives that had been lost in the past?’ Raze thought.
The energy was still pouring into him, and he felt like he needed to put it to a stop, to try and put this whole thing to a stop. He was in too deep in this trance-like state. As he closed his eyes again, he tried to break out of it.
He then felt something brush against his cheek, gliding across it ever so slightly. The touch, it was cold.
Opening his eyes, Raze was taking a look at what it was, thinking he would see the room or break out of the imagery he was imagining at the moment. To catch someone touching him in the real room. Instead, he could see the imagery that was in his head as if he was actually there.
Reaching out from the gap of the soaking dead bodies, a long stretched-out arm was visible. It was pale and thin, almost only bone, but there was visible skin. Its entire hand was dyed in red blood, leaving traces of it on Raze’s face. It had appeared from the ground and was gently stroking him constantly.
‘Oh… you have a stronger desire than even him… I like you.’ The voice whispered.
Raze wanted to move, he wanted to grab the cold hand from his face, but it wasn’t working.
‘Why do you have so much anger inside you, and why have you seen so many lives! Oh, I really like you.’ The voice was a sinister whisper that made one’s hairs on the back of their neck stand up straight.
‘I guess, I will take you then, and help you get what I want!’
Out of nowhere, from the air, a second bloody hand appeared and went to stroke the other side of Raze’s face, but before it could, Raze had lifted his right arm completely covered in black magic.
“I don’t like it when people touch me, and that includes some damn spirit who hasn’t even washed its hands!” Shoving the hand and flinging it to the side, Raze gathered the magic in the palm of his hand again.
“Dark pulse!” The beam of energy fired right through the hand and the pile of bodies, and the whole world that was around him started to shatter. It was breaking apart and disappearing, but the voice had one last word to say.
“Oh… I really like you now.” It whispered.
Blinking a few times, Raze could see that he was back in the room, in the Inn again, but there had been a big change because in the floorboards underneath, a giant hole had been ripped through to the restaurant below.
“AHHHH!”
“Am I still hearing those screams?” Raze thought.
It wasn’t the screams in his mind, though; it was the screams from below. The Dark pulse strike had gone through the floor and had hit below. It had hit a person that was enjoying a drink. A hole was now in the top of his head, as he lay there dead on the table.
“Ah, Sh*t,” Raze said to himself as he went to touch the cheek that still felt slightly cold from earlier.
Slowly he pulled his hands away and looked at his fingers, which were faintly covered in red.
