17 The Mine VII : Spirit Crystal, The Way, The System

When I woke up next, I felt happy for some reason. To be honest I didn't know why, but there was a sense of excitement in the air, that after today things would get easier for me, and that somehow I would be able to find and make my place in the world of darkness that has become my own. The first thing I did was have breakfast or dinner or was it lunch....I didn't really know, like I said time was sketchy in place of perpetual darkness like the pit.

We had a hearty. Breakfast of olive bread, berry juice I had no idea which kind. And a hefty serving of dog's blood. It had a terrible after taste, but it was satisfying enough. Though it could not be considered satisfying on the level of a human's blood. After that Nisi had nearly pulled my arm off in excitement as she asked me to unveil everything we bought yesterday. To be honest it surprised me that she slept through the whole thing, considering the green district market was so damn noisy it would be hard for me to even doze off in such a place.

The first bundle wasactually filled miscellaneous things, from writing materials, an alchemy set?Clothes, and a new pick. There was a bevy of cooking equipment, from pans, pots, cups, plates and spoons. But there was nothing to cook. Basically the firstbundle just had what ever was necessary for a comfortable life.

Next was the farming equipment I insisted on getting. You might ask why would I do such a thing, after all, did I not survive mainly on blood.Well for that, you would be right. Farming is not looked on favorably by the vampires, even though we were already dead, we still had active taste buds. In fact it's heightened to unprecedented levels, but normal or mortal food is never filling or satisfying. We always want more.

If I could grow something, I could at least get to taste something different than blood all the time, and also because it was a nagging feeling I couldn't do without. Probably has to do with a perk of my missing memories of a life that somehow keeps on jumping out an scaring the crap out of me.

The final thing to be opened was the case that was three meters long and one meter wide. It was also about a meter and a half in diameter, I could not begin to fathom what was within it. But Asare had given me a list of instructions, and first on that list was to read the entire list first!Before touching anything in that case once it was open.

So I did just that, even reading the list before I opened the case. And to be honest I had my mind blown and my heart pounding in excitement. What was in the case were weapons mostly, but what really made impact on me were the other things within. Apart from holding a cask of werewolf and fairy blood, it also had what Asare called elemental crystals, and a spirit crystal.

Spirit crystals are transparent crystals that houses a consciousness within. Most spirit crystals are born from the cores of defeated dungeons.They are used in the creation of wizard towers, puppets, golems, and with sinister magic like necromancy and soul magic.But the real curve ball about this is that spirit crystals own a system of their own, which they can share with their owners.It was a long shot, but Asare had a theory that I would be able to access my system if I owned a spirit crystal. So far my weaving abilities doesn't rely on the ether like almost every other class on Shearath, to power my weaves. Instead I draw power from my soul and my mental energy.

If I use the crystal and turn it into a tower spirit, I should be able to view my stats and watch my area of growth. I would have no access to any of my abilities that depends on the ether to work, however I would be able to control and monitor my growth properly.

There were two elemental crystals of earth and water that could be absorbed by the spirit crystal. Once it does so, the spirit crystal gains that elemental affinity, and would be able to create and perform tasks that require both elements.

In other words, Nisi did not need to build the tower, with the spirit crystal the tower could just build itself up as long as it has enough energy. The elemental crystals would improve and evolve the spirit crystal, bringing it more and more to a state of maturity when it would awaken a full consciousness capable of self thought and independent actions.

The tricky part is where to get the energy for the tower, according to Asare, a variety of materials could be delivered to the crystal for it to evolve andgrow differentfunctions, however to truly evolve its consciousness, it would need to absorb souls much like a weaver does. So naturally once Ibecomes the master of this spirit crystal, I would have to kill stuff, and a portion of the souls I absorb once I've killed would be taken by the crystal for its own evolution.

That's why I said it was tricky, the only thing to kill around here would net me a ticket to the afterlife. I couldn't go after the humans or the werewolves, and I most certainly can't go after my own kind. The only other option would be too...….wait a minute!Has he been planning this right from the beginning.

I was placed in a tower at the very edge of not just the blue district, but of the pit as a whole. From here onwards all that could be seen was darkness, and within that darkness were creatures living and surviving just as we have been. The only kind of living thing I know exist out there are the stone rats, and there are millions of them. Killing a few million of those rats should not be a problem for me, that should be more than enough souls absorbed for the crystal. Asare was a sneaky little bastard, but I had to give credit, he was smarter than he looked.

"What's this shiny looking crystal Kael?" Teluna asked with a curious voice.

"It's a spirit crystal."

"What does it do?" somehow this string of questions sounded familiar, but I just couldn't place where I heard it.

"It's going to make me and the tower stronger."

"How.?"

"You know what!Enough with the questions, how about I show you."

Teluna nodded his head, and Nisi looked up from the piles of clothes she was trying, her attention solely on me.From the instructions Asare left behind, I had to bind my blood, and my soul to the crystal. The blood part was easy, but the soul part.....well that might be hard.I don't even know how to trigger my weaving abilities, so far everything that has happened could only be attributed to chance and luck.It was disappointing but I had to face the simple truth....I had no idea how to weave, much less move my soul into a crystal.

But a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step, so I took the step. First of all I had to cut myself, my wounds from yesterday were not completely healed, but all that was left in the areas were tiny and rapidly closing holes.

There was no way I was getting any blood out of them.After I let my blood fall on the crystal that was a good two feet long and fifteen inches wide, I picked the crystal up and moved closer to the center of the tower. It took me almost ten minutes to walk there due to the distance, and somewhat confined space due to how rough Nisi's construction has been going.

When I got to the center, I placed the crystal down and placed my hands on it. To be honest I was stumped, how the hell do I deal with this. But there were some things in life that was just instinctual. It'snot that I don't know how to weave or call my soul energy, the answer was that I have not actually tried to do so. Everything had happened from my reactions.Which was why I raised my hand up and I told that hand(in my mind of course,)to shine like its attachment to the rest of my body depended on it. And it did.

That warm and cold comfortable feeling washed over my body. I felt it flow from the bottom of my spine and through invisible pathways to my hands. This was the first time I actively tried to summon my soul energy, and I wanted to savor it. This feeling was amazing, and then I placed my hands on the crystal, and the most amazing feeling in the world, became the worst feeling, or one of the worst feelings(I still had been poked full of holes by the metal shards of an exploding mining pick.)

The crystal was draining my soul energy, and it was doing so at such a rapid pace, that in no time at all I was drained dry, and my body felt like it was being sucked into a vacuum created by the crystal. Who was the vampire between the two of us?I had to ask, before my vision went blank for a moment. When my brain rebooted, I was still standing with my hands on the crystal. But now I could see a screen,a screen made of runes. I could feel a connection not just to the crystal, but to an entity bigger than anything I could ever imagine. I could feel the System!, I could feel.....the WAY.

CRYSTAL SPIRIT PROFILE

NAME:????

MASTER: KAEL COR/????

AWAKENING: 0.8/100

CURRENT TASKS: NONE

EARTH ELEMENT ENERGY: 0%

WATER ELEMENT ENERGY: 0%

FIRE ELEMENT ENERGY: 0%

WIND ELEMENT ENERGY: 0%

METAL ELEMENT ENERGY: 0%

WOOD ELEMENT ENERGY: 0%

DARK ELEMENT ENERGY: 0%

LIGHT ELEMENT ENERGY: 0%

SOUL ENERGY: 7/1000

CRYSTAL SKILLS: NONE

VIEW MASTER'S STAT PAGE.....

************

NAME: KAEL COR/????

AGE: 19

RACE: VAMPIRE

RANK: REVENANT

CLASS: WEAVER(ACTIVE)/ SWORDSMAN(SEALED)/FARMER(ACTIVE)

REALM: WEAVER(1ST CIRCLE)/SWORDSMAN(SEALED)/FARMER(MORTAL 1ST CIRCLE)

STRENGTH: TIER 1(SEALED)

AGILITY: TIER 1(SEALED)

PHYSIQUE: TIER 2(SEALED)

MIND: TIER 2

SOUL: TIER 2

ETHER: TIER 1(SEALED)

SKILLS: PASSIVE

[ETHER MANIPULATION: LEVEL 1] BASIC (SEALED)

[SOULENERGY MANIPULATION: LEVEL 1] BASIC

[MENTAL ENERGY MANIPULATION: LEVEL 1] BASIC

[SWORD MASTERY: LEVEL 1] BASIC

[FARMING MASTERY: LEVEL 1] BASIC

SKILLS: ACTIVE

[WEAVE: LEVEL 1] BASIC

[NINE GATES OF THE ETHERS SWORD: LEVEL 1] BASIC (SEALED/????)

[MINE: LEVEL 1] BASIC

[ACTIVE FARMING: LEVEL 1] BASIC

[READ: LEVEL 3] BASIC