Chapter 52: Celestial Spirit Steel

Chapter 52: Celestial Spirit Steel

February 2nd, 2089

Its been 4 days since I have made Kira my mate and its been 5 days since my raid on the Redemption group. I have also finally let go of Hafor, which has led to a surprising discovery. The refreshing feeling that appeared when I overcame my trauma was due to a rapid increase in my mana.

My mana pool has increased to the levels that I would only have during a dissociative episode. Ive realized now that this mana has always been present within me, but it had been sealed away by the guilt in my heart due to Hafor. Now though I am at peace and my abilities have improved tremendously.

If the average wizard has a small pond of mana that is replenished by a brook, than I had a large pool of mana being replenished by a stream. But now my mana has expanded to the size of a lake with a river feeding into it. It is a level that only truly talented wizards in the other world achieve after many years.

This mana is so vast that it has manifested on me in a physical form. My eyes now have a light glow to them that is especially noticeable in the dark. I can suppress it, but if I lose focus they start up. *Sigh* Although it is not quite on the level of a cheat, it would have been nice to have this much mana these past couple of years.

Currently, I am at the marketplace in Obsidia disguised as an elf. I have done a lot of business here the past weeks selling my loot from Faulk. I kept valuable materials and unique magic artifacts but sold everything else. Rather than accumulating even more gold, I had bartered to acquire even more valuable materials.

His target market will be upper nobles, the Cult or the royal family. He probably only called me in to fulfill the Chain of Contract since I was the one who commissioned his search. The price was also probably the upper limit of what he could stand to make selling it piecemeal. He would probably get a higher number by putting it up for auction, but since hes a commoner there is a high chance the auctioneers will screw him over since they dont have to fear retaliation. Regardless of Gnordens high asking price, I must have this steel. I can sense the power within it and I have a feeling its properties may actually match the legends surrounding it.

I reached into my dimensional storage and brought out 1500 gold coins. Gnordens eyes bulged out at seeing that much money in one place. The magic scanner confirmed the amount and Gnorden quickly snatched the gold while handing the box with the steel to me. I gave him a smile as I said Its been a pleasure, Gnorden. Try not to spend it all in one place. The gnome cackled in response Right you are Igor, its been a pleasure doing business with you as well!

I left the store and immediately teleported to a cave that I had converted into a lab. The reason why I have spent the majority of my life savings here on this metal was because of my battle with Elna. I was too weak and could barely win against her. My mana may have expanded tremendously, but against the leader of the Redemption group I am nothing but an annoying fly.

I didnt have all of Euals memories about Jupon, but the few I did all point to one terrifying conclusion: hes a monster. His mana pool is ridiculously large and he is the oldest of the group. A wizard naturally becomes stronger as they age since they become more accustomed to magic and their mana pool grows.

I saw in Euals memories that Jupon could take on a pair of dragons by himself and win easily. Even as I am right now I could barely survive against one dragon. The gap is too great for me to close without taking some major risks. Thus, I have drawn inspiration from sci-fi in my world and have decided to do some human augmentation on myself to try and gain power. Theres a chance of me dying a horrible death or becoming a hideous abomination, but if I dont do this Ill lose to Jupon for sure and Ill die when both worlds end anyway.

I had actually been slowly preparing for this even before my raid against the Redemption group, but I wanted to see how I fared during my raid before committing to it. My struggles against Elna show that Ive only been able to win against them with trickery and deceit. But against those with overwhelming power like Jupon, those ploys are worthless. I dont want to do this, but for Kira and Veronica I will risk it.