Chapter Twelve: Horror of Horrors

He made his stance, and began to follow the rhythm, hitting the wooden dummy at targeted points. Sweats dripped down his head and onto his light brown skin. He punched and blocked, his movements turning into a trancelike state.

For the past two weeks, he'd settled down in this world and had started to learn the way they do things. His roommate Magus was seated at the far corner, writing stuff down with a quill. After he had set his goals on Ag, every morning had been like this. He would wake up and go for his training routes which usually began with endurance and strength training. He would then move to skill acquisition. Within these two weeks, his body had grown rapidly, and a day before Ag had notified him that he had unlocked a warrior's body.

After he finished with the wooden dummy, he went straight to the bathroom to get ready for school. He checked his profile.

/PROFILE

HP: 98

ES: 4

MP: 53

TIER: SORCERER

ORDER: 0

Lvl: 2 (50% complete)

WARRIOR BODY: Level 1(34%)

SKILL: HEAVEN'S WINTER

RAGE SKILL: HELL'S WRATH

CRAFT SKILL: STONE IDENTIFICATION/

He needed to accumulate more MPs, as it seemed everything he did currently depended gravely on it. He wasn't yet bothered by the Essence, he didn't need it yet. He clicked body information and this dropped.

/Strength: 4

Speed: 3

Stamina: 5

Trickery: 2

Intelligence: 4/

It seemed within those two weeks of training, since it was consistent and precise, he had started to increase his potential. He felt freer lately, like he could fly. After he finished bathing, he dressed up and by that time, Magus had already completed whatever he was writing. The boy was a very eccentric one, and Coral; even with his additional twenty three years of experience, he hasn't seen anyone weirder. He had this way of switching personalities that made him afraid, one second he is happy and beaming like a sunflower in summer. The second he goes quiet and there is this pale and calculative.

Currently, he was in that pale mood, staring at him like he was trying to disembowel him with his eyes. A knock sounded on the door, shaking Coral from his thoughts. He opened the door to find Aduke standing there smiling.

"Hey! Are you guys ready yet?" she smiled.

"Yes! Miss busty we are!" Magus said, cheerfully knocking into Coral's shoulders and giving Aduke a pat on the head.

"Stop calling me busty and stop patting me on the head," Aduke said with a frustrated stamp of her feet.

Since the incident with the Logged relic, Coral and Aduke had grown quite close. He'd visited her the day after the incident and since then they had become somewhat friends. Automatically, she'd gotten acquainted with Magus and since then, their relationship had been somewhat weird. Aduke had planned on avoiding Magus as much as possible due to him being a 'Nihilist', a term Coral had finally gotten accustomed to. Magus had insisted he was gonna make himself unavoidable.

"Trying to avoid the Void Magician? I am going to make sure I am everywhere you are." he'd said those exact words with a smile.

They were all dressed in a black dress, a funeral attire all supplied by the school. They were going to give Faith a befitting burial and Aduke seemed to be a bit at ease because of this.

He smiled at her and she grabbed his hands, scowling at Magus as they all walked out in unison in their all black attires. Aduke was in a black iro¹ and blouse. Coral on the other hand had brought black T- shirt with brown claw marks as the shirtfront design and a pair of black trousers that made him look smart and he had tied a black shirt around his waist. Magus on the other hand was in a suit.

Coral had stopped wondering about the planet's similarities to earth, he was growing accustomed to it being as earthlike as possible but with few different cultures and the heavily acknowledged magic.

During their journey, Coral's mind wandered back to all the things he had studied in the past few days. The magical system in the world as passed down by different deities to their followers were arranged in a systematic manner. Even till now, he was not yet able to access most of the files. But for now, the few things he knew were deep enough.

The Magical system in the world was based on a force called the Wild Force. This force was what the magician's in the verse manipulate to perform extraordinary feats. The force was split into two classes and six tiers as he had read before in the library. Those tiers namely the Pure and Impure classes actually held three tiers each under them.

Each tier was serrated into stages called Orders, these Orders were divided into different sects. Order 0s and 1s were called Magical Practitioners, Order 2s and 3s were called Warlock and Order 4s were Saints. The book claimed to lack sufficient info on higher orders. The most interesting thing about the Orders was that they had different names attached to them. For example, the Order zero of a Void Magician who is still a magical practitioner is called Escape Artist. These names give rise to what the abilities of said Order would be like.

The Pure class held the Spellweaver Tier, the Sorcerer Tier and the Diviner Tier. This was the magic that was mostly accepted and widely practiced by everyone. They were taught in the school along with other subjects like Maths.

The Impure class on the other hand held the Discord smith, the Corruption Invoker and the Void Magician. These tiers were ostracized and were only taught to be avoided and controlled. Magicians on these paths like Magus were naturally born on the wrong side of things. The book he'd read had said these exact words.

"...corrupt energies sips into their souls, slowly they are drawn towards the dark, towards the deep lightless blackness where nothing rests but a single mass of whispers and nudges that were breathed by something so evil and vile, and yet so old and familiar. Like it was formed from the breaths of men, like it was a collection of their most evil thoughts. There was no name for it. But we all agreed to call it. Horror of Horrors."