Fire Mage (Web Novel)

Charles's eyes widened as he understood her words and soon went near them while staring at Andrew in confusion.

'Why couldn't I see that skill in his status bar?' He raised his eyebrows in puzzlement.

'Withering Shadow Organization knew what to hide from others, lad. They aren't fools.' Suddenly, he heard an old man's voice in his head and got startled for a moment.

'What are you doing in my head?' Realizing who was taking in his head, he asked in annoyance. He hates it when someone reads his thoughts without his permission.

'Don't worry; I'm just communicating with you through telepathy. I can read the flow of your thoughts like a telepathist and can communicate with you easily.'

Without minding the old man's words, Charles appeared in front of Night-Eye, stared at him for a second. Suddenly, he thought of something, gripped his Ghost Dagger tighter, and then lunged forward. Although Night-Eye tried to dodge the attack, he didn't even have the time to think about it due to immense chest pain.

Meanwhile, not only Andrew and Emilia, even the Holem's Crown became started by Charles's action. On the other hand, Charles directly stabbed his dagger into the half-dead Night-Eye's chest and pushed it harder. He didn't stop there, though. Charles then pulled his dagger and then swiftly moved it towards his neck.

Like a demon, he slashed his Ghost Dagger multiple times and completely decapitated Night-Eye's head in less than four seconds. He then stood up, licked the scarlet blood that dripped down from the corner of his lips, and turned around.

[Target Eliminated! 2574 Exp Rewarded!]

A second later, the notification appeared on the game interface, causing his lips to curl upward subconsciously.

A devilish smile appeared on his oval face.

'It doesn't matter who gave the fatal blow. All that matters is the final blow.' He nodded in enlightenment and soon turned his attention towards Emilia and Andrew, who were now looking at him with slightly wary eyes.

"Ahem, I got angry at him all of a sudden," Charles replied with an awkward smile and then wiped the blood on his face.

"What should we do with these guys?" Asking, Emilia turned her attention towards the frozen thieves and narrowed her eyes.

"Shall I kill them?" Charles's jade eyes glowed in excitement.

'There are more than 20 Mystics here. Killing each of them will give me more than 200 Exp points. With those Exp points, I can construct my other spell models or Level-Up and improve quickly.'

Before he could jump towards them, Emilia shook her head and refused,

"Don't forget that these guys are the pillars of Slum Street. If not for them maintaining a peaceful atmosphere, the whole slum would have already filled with killers and evil cult members. If the situation didn't force me, I wouldn't have agreed to kill Night-Eye."

A look of realization appeared on Charles's face as he stared at those frozen thieves for a moment and then sighed in regret.

'Well, all I can do now is increase my strength using the current Exp points and progress steadily.' He thought to himself and then shifted his attention towards the game interface.

Meanwhile, Emilia dismissed the 'Ice Net' spell and started chanting an incantation.

Charles froze for a second as he heard those strange words and soon checked the real Charles's memories.

A few seconds later, he creased his eyebrows and asked Andrew in a curious tone.

"What language is this?"

"It's Goddess Nira's Divine Language. Our team Leader is casting a divine spell by borrowing the power of 'Life' from the Life Goddess. It will take more than 10 minutes for her to finish this type of chanting."

Andrew said in a solemn tone and then started taking the two silver daggers, two rings, and one bracelet from Night-Eye and patiently waited for Emilia to finish her chanting.

In the meantime, Charles thought for a second and asked the Holem's Crown in his mind while leaning his back against a slightly tall black mangrove tree.

'Hey, Holem's Crown, what are your abilities?'

He was always curious about Series-A artifact's other abilities. He knew it had 'Miracle' and 'Past-seeing' abilities, but he wasn't sure about other abilities and their cool-down time or effects.

Holem's Crown went silent for a moment as it heard his words and then said in a cold old man's tone.

'Just call me, Runeth. Before I answer my question, when will you release me? I'll be honest with you, lad. If you don't promise to release me without playing any other tricks, I will commit suicide by severing my link with the Crown and harm your Inner World before entering the Eternal River of Life.'

Charles became surprised by the artifact's decision and soon frowned. He suddenly felt a danger premonition from the [Prevision] skill and knew that this artifact wasn't bluffing.

Although the contract mark in his mind restricted the artifact from acting against him, it wasn't an omnipotent one to completely control the artifact's soul. Even if the mark could control the soul, Charles wouldn't do it unless he left with no other choice.

He started to think in English.

'Forcing it to work for me will do no good. I need to make this artifact submit to me. Otherwise, it will simply scheme behind my back and might harm me in the future. Hmm, should I make a tempting deal? Yes, that's a better way to control it. If my guess is right, the Holem Crown's previous owners, including Eddie Nightwind, forced this artifact to work like a slave and became its sworn enemies. If they had made some equal agreement, they wouldn't have ended up dead.

Eddie Nightwind is a real example. He did achieve great things by using numerous miracles, but the real Eddie isn't alive anymore. From my understanding, casting these miracles must have some consequences on the user's body, but this artifact seemed to have hidden some important details. If not, Eddie wouldn't have ended up meeting a very powerful foe in another dimension and got killed in return. He must have relied too much on this artifact and acted without knowing the consequence.'

After a short silence, Charles closed his jade eyes for a second and then said in mind while opening those two eyes slowly.

'Okay. I will release you after 100 years. But before that, you have to help me achieve my goal.' He offered a deal.

Charles didn't even ask anything about strange miracles or any other abilities. What he needed now was a powerful helper. Although the fake Eddie Nightwind seemed to be an honest guy, Charles was still wary of his mind and imagination-related abilities.

Unlike him, this artifact had restricted abilities and appeared to be easy to control. Although 100 years looked like a long time, Charles knew that an average Rank-1 Mystic had a lifespan of 130 years, and for a series artifact, this much time would be like taking a nap.

Upon hearing Charles's words, Holem's Crown, aka Runeth, became surprised for a moment and soon asked,

'What is your goal?'

It had long already realized that it would be a futile attempt to blackmail the opposite party due to the new contract and chose to submit for now. Yes, for now.

Charles maintained his cold look and said in deep thoughts.

'My goal is to stand above all. I want to reach the pinnacle in power and become a truly omnipotent being.'

The Holem's Crown went dead silent for a whole three seconds and soon asked in an angry tone.

'Crazy lad, you want me to become your eternal slave, aren't you?'

Before it could curse at him in bad words, Charles interrupted the Holem's Crown.

'I don't need to rely on some artifact to survive in this world, Runeth. You are just a tool for me, once I got powerful enough to face my enemies, I will just release you somewhere in the void. So, 100 years are more than enough for me to walk on my own. Now, what is your answer?'

It suddenly realized that this kid had some problem in his head and began to ponder deeply.

'Hmm, something is not right. From where did he get this kind of confidence?'

After some thought, the Holem's Crown let out a dim light through the red gem and said in Charles's mind.

'I will work for you, then. As for your previous questions, I have three main abilities. Before I tell you the details of those abilities, I will ask you a question.' It paused for a second and then asked while organizing its thoughts,

'What do you know about the Class-Gem path?'

This question made Charles raise his thin eyebrows in surprise. But he didn't put much thought into it and replied,

'I almost know nothing about this Class Gem Path. Actually, I planned to ask this question later. Who is the 'Taboo Existence' who created this 'Class-Gem' Path by gathering 100 Luck divinities? Why did he do that?'

His sudden questions startled the Holem's Crown.

'Are you a demon? You sure knew more about forbidden things. But you also knew nothing about the common knowledge of Mystics.' Holem's Crown said in a baffled tone and soon started talking.

'It's not a time for you to learn about the Taboo Existences names. The more you learn about them, they will also perceive your existence and learn more about you. Now, I will tell you some basic things about the Class-Gem path. The Class-Gem path can be divided into four types.

The first type is the Outer Class-Gem path. Thief, Warrior, Prisoner, Explorer, Deceiver, Shooter, Swordsman, and so on would come under this section. This class mainly involves strengthening one's body.

The second type is the Inner Class-Gem path. Psychologist Class, Corrupter, Dreamer, Astrologer, Seer, Learner, Teacher Class, and other mind-related classes would come under this section. This type of class mainly involves strengthening one's wisdom and mind-related abilities.

The third one is the Mage Class-Gem path. As you know, mages are seekers of truth in one aspect. Before the Era of New Time, I was an ancient mage. At that time, I was a powerful Tri elemental Mage and explored many dangerous High Planes.

But due to an accident, I lost my body and chose the Class-Gem path to rise using the 'False Reincarnation Ritual'. At that time, I chose the [Historian] Class Gem and started my journey to the void to understand the Origin of the Universe and everything.

Tsk, I'm going off-topic. Let's come to the current discussion. This Mage-Class path includes Fire Mage, Darkness Mage, Necromancy, Water Mage, Wind Mage, etc.

Unlike the above two paths, this Mage path is a different one. If a mage wants to rise in power, he needs to face too many obstacles, like creating spell models on their own, linking their Inner World with the corresponding elemental plane, traveling to the elemental plane to get more resources, and so on. But the reward will also be huge. A peak level single Rank-2 mage can have the power to toy with multiple same rank individuals of other classes.

But sadly, there are no natural dungeons in this world. So, the chance of a normal mortal or low-level Mystics finding a corresponding Mage-Class gem is very hard here. Even if he did find one, he will be stuck in the same rank due to the Churches' monopoly of Mage class gems and would die early. Due to the severe restrictions, the current era mages now became tools for Churches and other organizations.

The fourth one is the Fake Origin path. Except for the ancient existences and the foreigners, nobody knows about this path in Edhen World. This Fake Origin path is a unique one and was specially created for the Gods. In this path, the Mystics will borrow power from their favored Gods and battle their opponents. Well, there is a side-effect in this path, though. Unless their chosen God dies, the Fake Origin path Mystics will never be able to enter the Eternal River of Life, and those pitiful souls would forever be eternal slaves for their chosen God.

Then there is the Forbidden Path, but this one is totally different from the Class-Gem path. Forbidden Path mystics are Warlocks, Druids, Divines, and Ancient Mages and are rarely seen in Edhen World. It would be better not to learn any information about this one because this world's Gods feared those who walk on these paths.'

The Holem's Crown deliberated for a second and then continued in a solemn tone,

'Now, I will tell you more about the skills. My current skills are from the [Historian] Class. Except for the Mage path and Forbidden path Mystics, all other types of mystics will receive three main skills as a reward when ranking up. Ancients call this process gifts from the Creator. The [Historian] Class has three main skills. They are [Recall], [Knowledge Seeker], and [Wonder Sense]. And, yes. You can learn additional class skills through various means, but it is a time-consuming process and lessens your progression.

Next, when someone ranks up to a higher level, they will also improve their skills and get a deeper understanding. Take [Recall] as an example. Once you rank up a few times, this skill will also evolve and let you remember every minute of details about what happened in your whole life. For example, you will have an Eidetic Memory and wouldn't forget about what you had for dinner on your 3,000th birthday.

The second one is [Knowledge Seeker] skill. The evolved version of this skill [Elapsed Time] is a very powerful one and has the origin divine power of Time. When activating this skill, you will be able to see the past itself. For an ancient mage like me who seeks the truth of the universe, this skill is a valuable treasure. I chose to walk on the path of [Historian] mainly because of this skill.

The last one is [Wonder Sense] skill. The reason Explorers dares to enter deep into devil's den is mainly because of this skill. It can let you steal one's luck and enchant your own. Same as before, this [Wonder Sense] will also evolve and will become [Miracle] in future ranks.

Except for the [Recall] skill, I put a one-month cool-down on the [Elapsed Time] skill and 45 days cool-down on the [Miracle] skill. Although I can activate this skill beforehand, the consequence will be severe. Moreover, constantly activating the [Elapsed Time] skill will also harm my inner world and might erase some memory permanently, so I mostly activate these two skills only when the cool-down ends.'

Upon hearing the lengthy explanation, Charles nodded his head solemnly and then fell into deep thoughts.