Chapter 17

  The last couple of weeks had been a whirlwind of activity for both Adam and me. We had split our time between practicing our skills and spells, continuing my training sessions with father, going to the Records Hall to conduct further spell research, and hunting monsters in the forest to earn some coin from what could be harvested from their corpses.

  The hope, of said hunting trips, was to earn enough coin to curry favor with the criminal network within the Township. All so I could, with any luck, get a reliable lead as to where Adam and I could find a status board illusion spell diagram.

  It was certainly a challenge to hide all the Mana Stones and monster materials from my parents, but eventually I came up with the idea to stow my bag of gains in my brooding tree until I was ready to turn them in to the Adventurer’s Guild.

  To that end, using some spare coins I had saved up, I went to the market and was able to purchase a sturdy full-face mask. The mask was oval shaped and had two almond shaped eye holes in it that allowed me to see.

  The mask was further decorated with dark green lines that were painted running over the eyes, down the mask, and then jutting off at angles to wrap the sides of the mask.

  To compliment the mask, I paired it with a dark cloak and hood that covered my whole body to further conceal my identity. What was also nice about the cloak was that it had various pockets sewn into it for storing things away.

  The expense of the mask and cloak was well worth it as they did an excellent job of hiding my identity whenever I went to the Adventurer’s Guild to exchange my hunting gains for coin. There were some questions asked about who the masked person was, but I never stuck around to answer those questions. I just got in and out.

  During times when I went to the Adventurer’s Guild to access the Record’s Hall, I sometimes overheard a conversation about my alter personality from the other adventurer’s and how they had started calling me the ‘Phantom Mask.’ When I first heard that moniker, I almost broke down laughing from the fact that I was being called that by everyone.

  Adam had remarked that such a moniker made me sound like a ‘Chuniybo’ from his old world. When he further explained what the term meant I internally cringed at what it implied, and it was the furthest thing from what I wanted to be known for.

  Hopefully, the Phantom Mask disguise would only be needed for a little bit more time. By the time I had acquired the status board illusion spell diagram and Adam had mastered it, the ‘Phantom Mask’ should no longer be needed. They could then just fade away into obscurity until they became a story that adventurers told over drinks for the thousandth time.

  Acquiring substantial coin and a disguise had not been the only thing to change over the past weeks. What had also changed were all of Adam’s and mines stat values from all the training we had undergone.

  Our combined status board now looked like this,

  Name: Callum Luxeria (Adam)

  Age: 16 (Soul Age 25)

  Skill: Dual Soul (Soul Knight & Grand Sage)

  Sub-Skills:

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Callum – Soul Slash, Soul Shield, Soul Blast, Spectral Sight, Soul empowerment, Soul Diviner, Soul Double

  Adam – Mana Manipulation, Mana Perception, Grand Elemental Magic, Scholar’s Eye, Spell Manipulation, Soul Empowerment, Dual Casting

  Spells:

  Fireball, Water Arrow, Wind Burst, Sound Wave, Sharpening, Fire Lance, White Out, Wind Cutter, Rock Throw, Ground Erosion, Physical Enhancement, Language Perception, Mapping

  Str: 21

  Agl: 25

  Dex: 25

  Mana: 40

  Int: 30

  Wis: 32

  Soul: 54

  Undoubtedly, the last couple weeks had been very productive for Adam and me. All our stats had gone up by a couple of points. Adam’s Mana, though, had made the biggest jump with a seven-point increase. However, that was only because Adam was constantly perfecting his spell casting while I slept.

  When Adam was not training with me by engaging in combat with monsters, he was in our Soul Space, perfecting his mana-based skills and spell casting. It was the reason he had added so many spells to our combat repertoire.

  Adam was relentless when it came to the discipline of perfecting his magic. Something I noticed whenever I decided to join him in our Soul Space to duel against each other and try out new ideas that Adam or I came up with.

  Adam’s and mines drive to better ourselves had also granted us access to new skills. Those skills being Soul Diviner, Soul Double, and Dual Casting. Our combat training had shown that Soul Diviner was a precognitive ability that allowed me to perceive what my target was going to do through the reading of their soul. Making the skill very handy for dodging an incoming attack.

  Soul Double was a distraction skill that allowed me to take a portion of Adam’s and mines soul and perfectly recreate my appearance. I could then project that image anywhere that was within my field of vision. The double, however, could not make any moves; it stayed where it was placed and, in the position, it was placed in until it was disrupted by an attack.

  There was another downside to using this skill. Because Soul Double used a substantial amount of Adam’s and mines soul energy, if I used it too much, the strain on the soul would leave us both extremely weak and vulnerable to attack. Adam and I furthered learned that once we reached that state, it took a fair bit of time for our soul to recover from the expenditure.

  Dual Cast was a ‘fairly’ straightforward skill that would allow Adam to more easily cast two different spells at the same time. Some magical practitioners could do this without a skill, but having this skill lessened the mana consumption from activating two spells at the same time.

  When the new skills appeared I had to explain to Adam that in the world of Kaneon when a person reached a certain threshold, their Skill would unlock new Sub-Skills for them to utilize. No one knew what those thresholds were as they were different for every person and the Skill they had awakened.

  For those who had the same skill, there had been documentation that similar skill thresholds could be observed. And, sometimes, even though two people had the same skill, one person gained a different skill when they both reached a similar threshold. Proving that it was also the individual that influenced what Sub-Skills they unlocked.

  Adam and I had stuck to our agreed upon plan of adapting to our new strength gradually, but one time when we were hunting in the forest, an E-Rank Stone Raptor attacked me from the sky with its sharp, pointed beak and serrated claws.

  The monsters' tough craggily armor was too thick for any of Adam’s or mines current physical or magical attacks to injure it. Thus, when it made a wide turn to come back and attack me, I took advantage of that and used a soul-based skill to bypass its tough skin and kill it. That was the only monster that required us to do this, so we were still okay in terms of not gaining too much power too quickly.

  Which leads me to where I was now, heading to the Adventurer’s Guild to exchange my latest haul of monster’s spoils. I had my Phantom Mask disguise on and was quietly maneuvering my way through the Township. Once I reached the Guild, I did the same as I made my way to the exchange counter.

  A male advisor wearing the typical Guild uniform politely greeted me as they had seen me enough times to know what my intention was.

  The exchange of monster spoils for coin was completed quickly and then, where I would normally leave with no further interactions, this time, I made my way over to the bar section of the Guild.