Sacrifice Mage

[ Affix Unlocked!

You have acquired a new Affix for your Sacrifice Aspect.

Affix: Overclaim ]

[ Rank Up!

Your Spirit and Thauma Attributes have risen by one Rank.

Your Sacrifice Aspect has risen by one Rank.

Your Paths of Starforged Firmament and the Auric Hierophant have risen by one Rank

Spirit: Gold V

Thauma: Silver VIII

Sacrifice: Gold V

Path of Starforged Firmament: Gold IV

Path of the Auric Hierophant: Gold III]

[ Path Evolution

Your Path of the Auric Hierophant is now evo—

<ERROR>

<Current Path incapable of evolution due to insufficient rank.>

<Remnant of Divinity enforcing evolution directed to [Unawakened] mana core instead.>

Mana Core: [???] ]

The series of blue screens finally ended, finally gifting me the context I had been missing due to unconsciousness. I thanked the Councillor for her guidance. It was such a small thing, yet I’d never bothered to ask. I had never needed to before.

So that was what had happened to my Path Evolution. Or the attempt at the Path Evolution, which had unsurprisingly and obviously failed because Auric Hierophant wasn’t close enough to an evolution. All the energy—the remnant of the gods that Se-Vigilance had been talking about—that would have raised the Path to… whatever it would have become had instead been diverted to my new core.

Which was why it had adopted the property of the Beyond. The blue screens had ended with question marks, but I didn’t need to poke any further. I remembered exactly what I had seen before fainting.

After I explained what I saw, the Councillor’s words were terrifyingly quiet. “Speak of what you have told me to no one.”

I swallowed. I had never heard her sound so serious before, not even when she had been stuck inside the Nether Vein’s simulacra of the Beyond. “You’re making it sound very dangerous, Councillor…”

“It is. If the others learn what you are becoming, then you will become a target of far too many people to keep yourself safe and free.”

“That’s… crazy. Because I feel like I’m already targeted by way too many people.”

“This would be orders of magnitude different. We’ve talked of this slightly before, but just between us, I shall shed all subtlety. There is a reason that the gods were banished over a millennia ago. Even the slightest hint that a new one is arising will upend the very fabric of the world. If it becomes common knowledge.”

I felt like I was becoming my soul again, like I was occupying the same ethereal space I had when my mana core Sacrifice had transcended me. “A new one…”

“Yes. A new god. A foundling divinity. A demigod. You.”

I did my best not to let Se-Vigilance’s dire warning affect me too much. There were too many things I was looking forward to, too much stuff I needed to take care of, to let myself be distracted by crazy talk of gods and all that.

That said, I did heed her main warning, though. Even if it did make me feel a smidge guilty for hiding things from others. People like Ugnash, Cerea, and even Khagnio had more or less been ready to lay down their lives for me. If I couldn’t talk with them, if they couldn’t know the important things about me, then who could?

And yet, I remained mum.

It helped that I myself was ignoring it for now. The whole thing was just too… out there. A problem with a scope so big, I just couldn’t wrap my head around it in a way that would make it feel real.

Returning to the cult helped maintain my distraction. We had been gone for almost a week. That felt kind of crazy to me, because it hadn’t felt much longer than a couple of days at most, when combining all the trekking time alongside the constant battles and the times we had taken to rest or gather resources and treasures.

Well, at least that was solid evidence of the time-warping that the deeper sections of the Nether Vein were capable of.

“We’re so glad you’re back safe and sound, Cultist Ross,” Aqrea said. “Come on, please. We’re all hungry to get this feast going.”

I laughed. For all that I had experienced in the Nether Vein, for all that I had seen and witnessed and gone through myself, it hit all the harder to be back where I belonged. To be home in the end.

Especially when all the people I cared about were attending too. Hamsik had brought Thefris, at my insistence. Aurier and Sreketh were taking breaks from smithing and studies respectively. All the Scarthralls had cleaned up like this was a formal ball or something.

It was great.

We had a nice dinner. It was actually nice, not just nice by Ring Four standards. Real meat, not just bugs. Actual vegetables. Eggs and milk. Pure luxuries that Aqrea had acquired off of Ring Two somehow. I wondered what kinds of strings she had pulled to obtain those, but she just gave me a sly look and told me to focus on enjoying myself.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Which I did. There were more new initiates in the cult, whom I did my best to greet personally, even though I knew I’d struggle to remember most of their names for now.

The Scarthralls insisted on hearing every little detail about my experiences in the Nether Vein, and I was happy to go over it all. Although, I did sidestep some of the grislier things like all the gruesome ways I had seen people die. That really didn’t make for delightful dinner conversation.

“We could do it, Cultist Ross,” said one of the newer Sun Cult initiates, Tiste. He was one of the innocent Scarthralls as well, though he wasn’t as adventure-minded as Vandre and Lujean’s group. Which was fair. It wasn’t a profession for everyone, and for good reason. “Not exploring the Nether Vein and expanding its frontiers. But other things you mentioned.”

I nodded. “You mean collecting the treasures, gathering up the resources it offers, things like that…”

My words trailed off to silence because I was suddenly reminded of the need for a mining operation. Hmm, was that a direction I could explore with the Scarthralls? They had many excellent selling points that I could bring forward.

“I think there’s a specific way you can get involved,” I said. “And that too, pretty quickly. Let me just make some inquiries first, all right? I’ll let you know as soon as I can.”

Aqrea cleared her throat. “Cultist Ross!” she said, a little admonishingly. “We’re here to celebrate your safe return! Can we not discuss business matters afterwards and just enjoy the food and company?”

I opened my mouth but thought better of my instantaneous reply. She was right. There was a time and a place for everything.

“Aqrea is right,” I said. “Let’s enjoy the food, enjoy the company, and be thankful for all we’ve got.”

Just because I had agreed to mind my manners during dinner didn’t mean I could keep my thoughts completely contained. Come on. I had been told, in no uncertain terms, that I was on the path to becoming some kind of god. That was insane. That I had been able to bottle it up and not do anything about it just yet was crazy in and of itself.

Aqrea looked like she was holding back her exasperation when I approached her after dinner and everyone was retiring. Like she knew the dam I had built up during the meal was about to burst. “How can I help, Cultist Ross?”

“Could you do me a small favour, please?” I asked. Best tactic for asking something from someone was to make it look like the most minor assistance possible.

“Of course. What is it?”

“Can you like…” My hands spread as I tried to find the right words without revealing too much. “Can you scour the temple for information about the gods and about the past?”

Aqrea’s eyes narrowed briefly. “Wouldn’t you know that better than me, Cultist? I am, after all, merely a secretary.”

“Right. But you’re basically the person who’s in charge of organizing everything. I mean let’s face it, you do it even better than I do, and that’s not a bad thing at all. Everyone’s got something they’re really good at.”

“Do you… want to just gather these scrolls and books for organizational purposes?”

I clearly didn’t, and she clearly understood it, which was what she had asked. But I still nodded. “Sort of. It’ll be nice to have everything sorted so that we can peruse through it all much easier. It’s high time we paid attention to that side of the temple and the cult.”

“As you say, Cultist. It will be done.”

I wondered how much she could tell I was hiding something and how much she was holding herself back from asking. Once again, I was hit with a bit of guilt. Se-Vigilance had impressed upon me the need for caution and care. I didn’t want to let it turn into a mindless need for secrecy, though.

So I offered up at least some portion of the truth.

“I want to advance my cultist Path some more,” I said. “And to that end, I need some more information. Having it all in one, easy-to-access place would help a lot with that.”

Aqrea nodded like it made perfect sense. “Yes, of course. I’ll get on it as soon as I can. Maybe I can reel in the new initiates to help…”

I smiled. “Thanks, Aqrea. You’re the best.”

“I know. The best deserves the best, after all.”

The next day, I took some time to train with the Scarthralls again. Besides training itself, I had to weather a lot of their questions about the Nether Vein.

“No,” I said. “The Nether Vein doesn’t automatically drop loot and treasure in your lap as soon as you defeat a monster in it. Who even told you something like that?”

And then— “Not at all. The Nether Vein doesn’t have a special core like dungeons. There’s a lot of mana cores driving it, sure, but it’s not a singular core with a unique Aspect.”

And— “No, I really didn’t kill all the monsters there, much as I’d love to hoard all the credit. I took care of the biggest threat, and I only managed it because I had a lot of help.”

Also— “No, you can’t become immortal by drinking the Netherthreads. Who said you could drink them?”

I entertained their questions mostly to curb their enthusiasm. Despite having seen my rather shabby state when I had arrived, despite eventually hearing about the deaths and the overwhelming odds we had faced, their excitement hadn’t faded one bit. If anything, they were even more eager to dive into the Nether Vein and take on its challenge.

Over and over, I made sure to emphasize that the Nether Vein was absolutely no joke. I didn’t want to be gruff and mean about it. Just bluntly telling them that going there would see them killed made me feel awful.

“You get it, don’t you?” I said. “I’m not trying to be mean or paranoid or crazy. The Nether Vein isn’t at all like anything we’ve faced before. None of the dungeons in Zairgon even remotely compare to the kind of challenge it will fling your way.”

“Sorry, Cultist Ross,” Lujean said. He glared at the others, most of whom quickly mollified their expressions into something a bit more sombre. Most, because Jalais had been sensibly unsure about it from the beginning. “We’re just excited at seeing you succeed, and it makes us feel inspired too.”

“Right,” Vandre added. “I’m sure we’re nowhere near strong enough to tackle the Nether Vein just yet, but you give us hope, Cultist Ross.”

I nodded while sighing. “Hope’s good. Just don’t let it get to your heads. You aren’t ready for the Nether Vein just yet. But that doesn’t mean you won’t be, soon enough.”

“When, though?” Vandre almost sounded whiny, but I excused it. Sometimes, I forgot he was supposed to be around Aurier’s age. Youthful. Bit of whining here and there was excusable.

“When you hit Gold,” I said. “I promise.”

That was good enough for the Scarthralls. They looked at each other with fires of determination burning in their eyes, glad to have a specific target to work towards. Some of them were nearly halfway through Silver now, so it wouldn’t be too long before they hit Gold too.

Honestly, that just made me want to focus on my growth even harder. I needed to be stronger. My experiences in the Nether Vein had just ensured that, forget my fellow cultists, I wasn’t yet ready for the Nether Vein. Not as well as I’d have liked to be. Which was why that deferred Path Evolution for my cultist Path was such a wake-up call.

I had to be faster. Stronger. More powerful. Until the Nether Vein was nothing to me. That was my goal.

As such, training wasn’t just about sparring against the Scarthralls, though I did a good chunk of that. What I was more interested in practicing was my new Sacrifice Affix.

Overclaim had me reaching out with threads of white mana to latch onto anything and start Sacrificing it immediately. Where this differed from regular use of my Aspect was that it started the sacrificing process before I needed to ensure that I had ownership.

The name was very on point.

I successfully tested this against Vandre. He threw his blood at me in a high arc, and all I had to do was focus on Sacrifice to send out a net of white mana. Every sizzling crimson droplet that touched my magic got reduced to alabaster motes.

[ Sacrifice

You have Sacrificed 1 [Minor] Opposing Cast of 1 Silver-ranked Aspect. Windfall bonus activated.

Reward: Damage of next opposing cast is reduced by 3.5x. ]

“Huh,” I said, reading through the Sacrifice reward.

The Scarthralls got pretty excited when they heard about it.

“Doesn’t that mean you can just stack up on defences the more someone keeps attacking you with the same Aspect?” Lujean.

“I’m pretty sure it would, yeah,” I said. “But it’s still a bit limited. It’s giving me a flat defence against a singular use of the enemy’s Aspect, not a constant improved defence against that Aspect for a set amount of time.”

“True…”

That didn’t mean it was useless, of course, or even that it was a bummer. Quite the opposite, in fact. Now, with Sacrifice, I could literally negate the attacks of others completely because that was the first main line of defence. All those droplets of acidic blood that should have hit me were simply eradicated out of existence by Sacrifice.

I’d need to test how valid that was as an actual defence mechanism, though. Because our preliminary tests had Vandre just lazily throwing his Aspect at me like we were playing catch. I had only wanted to test if Sacrifice itself would work in a hypothetical battle.

Unfortunately, I had other appointments that day. Further testing would have to come later.

A quick trip to the Mage Guild to see if and how I could awaken my new mana core was on the docket. I was sure I’d be able to scrounge up some information there, even if Master Kostis was missing.

“Ross!” Silhatsa said as she saw me. She was smiling, but her face was kind too. “Welcome back. I heard all about your Nether Vein expedition. Are you alright?”

I raised my leg a bit with a small smile of my own. “Didn’t lose a limb this time, so all things considered, I’ll grade it better than my last one.”

Of course, after remembering the people who had died and nearly died, I couldn’t remain chipper for long. That was partly why I was here, after all.

“Oh, so your second mana core is up!” Silhatsa said, impressed. “Already, too. You’re something else, aren’t you?”

“I’m just looking for a way to awaken it now,” I said. “It’s not like my first mana core where it gave me a clear and specific warning about how exactly it was going to implode to awaken.”

“Right.” Silhatsa hummed to herself, considering. “I’m not well versed in this matter, as you know, but I can forward you to some people who know more.”

“Like Professor Urhei?”

She nodded. “Yes, like her. Well, I don’t know about her expertise in this specific area, but it can’t hurt to ask.”

If it was Urhei, I wouldn’t be needing much. Just some information about the days the Scalekin professor tended to be at the Mage Guild.

“But there’s one thing we need to settle first.” Silhatsa’s eyes turned flinty and hard. “We need to talk about your booth at the magic festival.”