NOCTEM

Ruined temple

"Ha.. Ha.. cough* cough*. "

Nox drew in raspy breaths, struggling to stand upright while sweating profusely from every pore in his body.

It had been two days since he agreed to be the student of the wizard, at first he had labeled him as eccentric because he didn't quite get the actions of the wizard or rather he couldn't understand the reason why the wizard wanted him as a student.

While he had accepted the offer, he was already starting to regret his decision.. Those last two days were nothing but hell, at first he had been running away from some insanely strong beasts which managed to survive the hex of the forest.

Not only were they strong but they were quite cunning as well, and if he wasn't running away from those beasts then he would spend hours in the cursed forest, trying to resist the forest dream hex while keeping his mind as sharp as possible.

Second, he was trying to feel the surrounding mana, although his mana was currently sealed, the wizard had mentioned that since he was still born with mana, sealed or not, with enough training he would eventually be able to feel mana, despite the complicated condition his body was in.

And third, if he wasn't doing any of those things then he was busy swinging wooden sticks, both sword length and dagger length, repeatedly."

He had not gotten an ounce of sleep ever since he started training and it wasn't like he didn't try to, but rather whenever he tried to fall asleep, his teacher would silently attempt to assassinate him so he had to stay vigilant while sleeping, in his case that meant not sleeping at all.

'Hah!, this crazy wizard!'

Nox was starting to believe that the strange wizard was really as eccentric as he had labeled him to be, because no normal person would dare reside in a small cabin, located somewhere within a place designated as death zone.

Although it was a neutral death zone since it was usually identified by an orange dot on some maps of the mystic realm and a few said people seemed to have actually survived passing through the hexed forest, it was still a dangerous place to live in.. yet, his insane teacher was doing just that.

Growing impatient, Nox suddenly asked.

"How long do I have to keep this up for?"

His teacher replied to him with a deadpan look.

"The entire day, why.. don't tell me you're already tired?"

Nox's face twisted into a scowl, if it was possible for him to, then he would have tried to strangle his teacher where he stood, but he couldn't even dream of touching his clothes let alone harm him.

Instead of retorting he just sighed and went back to swinging the wooden sticks the way the eccentric spellcaster had taught him.

He swung the stick with an incredible amount of precision, much so that his teacher couldn't help but be impressed, the kid was a natural.. and he didn't even know it.

Eren pondered silently as an idea registered itself in his mind.

"If he's this good, then maybe I can teach him that technique. He already has an unusual level of concentration so it shouldn't be impossible for him to learn it."

After a while of consideration he decided to wait a bit more before teaching Nox the phantom steps and death dance battle technique which he had gotten from the ruined temple in the mythir desert.

****

During his exploration as a wandering witch, back when his father the descendant of Aurolis Von Michælson was still the regent of the witches,he stumbled upon a ruined temple in the heart of the mythir desert, where he found an unusual stone inscribed with runes, complex ones which his countless studies and knowledge of ancient runes proved to be quite useless as he couldn't even decipher the meanings.

All he knew was that the person or people who inscribed the runes were quite ancient and really powerful too.

Even after being abandoned for many years there was still a large amount of mana in the unusual rock which was easily four times his size.

An absurd idea registered itself into his mind, since there was mana in the rock, what would happen if he tried to embed some of his mana into the rock as well? What reaction would he get? He was dying to know, after all as a young witch Eren was quite curious about a lot of things.

Although his curious nature had helped him a great deal it had also doomed him quite a number of times, even more than it helped him.

Without so much as a single thought, he placed his hand on the towering rock and poured his mana into it.

At first he didn't get a reaction or anything, his mana reserves were close to empty and he was looking more dehydrated than before.

Disappointed, he was about to continue his exploration of the temple when a faint shimmer came from the rune of the rock.

Intrigued by the sudden reaction, he tried to study the strange rock but besides the brief glow on the rock nothing else seemed to have changed.. or at least it looked that way until he reached out to touch the rock once more.

Much to his surprise his hand went through the towering rock before his body followed suit.

He suddenly found himself in the same ruined temple, or so it was supposed to be.. unlike the temple he found the rock in, this place wasn't destroyed neither was it empty.

There were relics of various types and more importantly there were ancient scrolls containing the knowledge of the past.

He quickly looked around, reading from one scroll to another even though he couldn't understand anything written within them.

A familiar section of the temple caught his eyes, it was dark and uninviting as if warning him not to get closer, nevertheless his curiosity got the better of him.

He had thought that there was going to be something guarding that section of the temple and was prepared to defend himself from whatever it was but to his surprise there was nothing there, instead there was a scroll with a different texture from the rest, its paper was as black as night and the content which were runes had a subtle golden glow to it.

Besides the scroll, was a vial containing a black ichor, there was a rune carved on it as well, although he couldn't tell what it was, he instinctively knew that whatever thing that was contained inside the vial was the source of the ominous aura surrounding the temple.

At that moment he didn't know what compelled him to take the black scroll and the vial, usually he was someone who would just explore and be on his way without taking any relics or items, but this time it was different.

His hands moved on their own and before he knew it he had already summoned a sixth grade spatial storage spell, he could have just let it go.. but he didn't, he felt strange.. like if he didn't take these items then he might come to regret it later.

As soon as the presence of the scroll and vial left the temple, the whole building began to quake and sink at a rapid rate.

Eren took a few more basic scrolls that he could use to learn a bit more about the runic language of the ancient civilization that dwelled in these parts of the mystic realm long ago.. with hurried steps he exited the temple going through the towering stone once more as he found himself on the other side, the outward appearance of the temple which was destroyed.

****

Chuckling as he remembered his past shenanigans as a kid, Eren stared at Nox who was sweating buckets, his movements had grown a bit sluggish, hinting that the kid had gotten tired.

Still his mind was still as sharp as a blade.

"So he's willing to endure anything I throw at him if it means getting stronger, huh?." Eren mused, a subtle smile appeared on his face.

"Good.. that's exactly the kind of resolve I need from you, brace yourself little one... I'm going to make you into something more terrifying than you can ever imagine."