Merchant Of Yliaster

A man radiating a peaceful aura sat in a chair, his expression serene, but visibly strained. Before him, an anathema of said man was watching him, darkness almost dripping from his body. It was a scene fitting for paintings, but Neivor couldn't appreciate the sentiment as he explained his situation to the man.

Normally, he wouldn't trust the guy enough to tell him about these, but he trusted in his god. He explained the current faith landscape to the man, and he could swear that the man was bored. It was hard to understand due to the mask, but even the mask somehow looked bored.

At some point, the man interrupted him, an echoing voice coming from him. Neivor barely managed to hold himself from wincing when he heard the man's voice for the first time, and even now, he was not very comfortable hearing it.

"So you want me to destroy a sect of darkness priests?" Maxwell asked. He was truly bored, as Neivor had been beating around the bush for some time now. After telling Maxwell about 20 inconsequential faith, the man arrived at the main topic only now.

"Not necessarily destroy, but protect us against them," Neivor added helpfully. He knew what he was asking was ridiculous, trying to hire a mercenary to protect his faith from an organization as big as the mercenary guild itself, but he was a bit desperate at this point. He would try every way to keep his church from toppling.

"Would I need to stay by you to do that?" Maxwell asked, considering the difficulty of the task. Some darkness or shadow priests would pose no challenge to him, as his control over darkness was perhaps the strongest among his elements. His level was also completely out of the norm. But he didn't want to spend most of his time beside Neivor, standing like an idiot.

"Zeylin's priests don't attack midday. Spending the nights in the church would suffice." Neivor said, trying to be reasonable. If the other party was dumb enough to attack when the sun is up, he could kill them himself.

Maxwell considered this. With this arrangement, everything seemed a bit more doable, but he still didn't want to spend all of his nighttime beside the creepy man.

"What is the reward?" he asked.

"Eternal support of the Heavenly Church. While this branch is not very strong, I can guarantee that you wouldn't be disappointed by our other branches." The man stopped, the book on his lap radiating a sudden glow.

He opened it, and his eyes widened, as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing. He glanced up, looking at Maxwell first, and down at his book, double-checking whatever he was reading.

"My god sent me a revelation. If you can help us, you will become an honorary Bishop. That would give you the resources of the church and a considerable amount of power inside," the man said. It was not hard to see that the man completely disagreed with his god at that moment.

Maxwell was a bit speechless seeing the interactions. Were revelations so cheap that they came like messages? It was a bit scary to think that someone could communicate with a real god without many restrictions being in place. He was pretty sure there were, though, as Neivor wasn't exactly incomprehensibly strong.

Having a title like a bishop could be useful in the future, as he would also become a noble with his main identity. The problem was that this was not a very big faith, and Maxwell was a bit creeped out by the religion's god. His "regards" were certainly a bit weird before.

Neivor told him, among his ramblings, that the Assassin Guild in the city also had many followers of the cult among them, and Maxwell was pretty sure Gendor would end up in that guild somehow. Considering the man's affinity and profession, it seemed inevitable that the goofy assassin's path would converge with said guild.

When that eventually happened, Maxwell being on the opposite side would be quite useful. While he didn't need such political moves to live comfortably in this life, some habits were hard to let go of.

Him on the "light" side and Gendor on the dark side would mean they had a grip on both sides. With his own identity, Maxwell would also have some influence as a noble, completing the set.

He was not sure how good being an honorary bishop was, but he cared less about that fact. Maybe he would be able to get some resources out of it.

"See you in a couple of hours then," he said to Neivor, and left the place, dissolving into darkness before phasing through the wall.

Despite all the rationalization, the real reason he accepted was simple. He was curious about the whole conflict, so he would examine it firsthand.

He travelled towards the mercenary guild to turn in the mission. He planned not to take a new one, as he wanted to experiment a bit with the skills he had pending.

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Maybe I can evolve the constructs with imbuement? He thought as he passed through the buildings as if they didn't exist.

Soon, he entered the mercenary building, but he didn't bother with going through the floors as usual. He just phased through the roof, and he found himself promptly circled by mercenaries with weapons drawn.

"He is not an intruder," an emotionless voice said, as Dave stuck his head out of his cubicle. As always, he had a blank expression, but Maxwell could faintly detect some annoyance on the man's face.

He walked toward the cubicle, mercenaries around him scattering back to their spots.

He entered the cubicle, finding it as organized as always. Dave glanced at him, looking up from his book as if he hadn't come outside just now.

"You can have some difficulties in life if you refuse to use doors. They are a new invention, you would like them." The man said.

"I completed the mission," Maxwell said, ignoring the sarcastic remark.

"I heard. Mr. Leyn is now one of the highest-level people in the city. You certainly put your heart into your work, if you have one." He said, pulling out a pouch from his drawers.

"The payment this time is not in gold, but in mana stones. I assume you know what they are?" He gave Maxwell the pouch.

Maxwell had some tier one and two rocks from the cave, but he wasn't sure of the real value of the stones.

Dave, though, seemed to explain this without him asking.

"The stones inside are tier two, and the conversion rate is around 100 gold per one of these these days. It used to be higher, but there had been a market flood in the recent days by the military. They probably found a new vein or something." He said.

So they found the cave. Maxwell thought. Leaving behind all those precious stones had been a pain, but he couldn't exactly transport a cave with him. At least, he was pretty sure that no one could harvest the tier three or for a long time.

He left the guild and flew towards the woods, his hypnotic stealth working as intended as he passed through the streets without being seen.

This skill and phasing really worked well, as people simply ignored a mass of darkness moving through the walls at high speed.

He came to a halt in an empty part of the woods and took off his mask. His clothes morphed back to a set of white casual wear.

He infused his body with life mana, as the mana type was by far the most comfortable to infuse with. Immediately, his body was embraced with a feeling of relaxation.

Here comes the interesting part. He had two theories to improve the myriad mana constructs, and he had more faith in one than the other.

He created a construct filled with fire mana before him, watching it form a clean orange shape. It was solid and didn't look like fire at all.

With delusion of the guided, he imagined the construct burst into flames, and the reality followed as he felt some soul energy drain from his soul.

Now, an arrow made of fire floated before him, but it was way too stable to be called usual fire. It had clear borders, and fire flowed inside like liquid in the construct.

Even though this would probably be enough to make the skill a respectable tier 2 one for his standards, Maxwell felt greedy. Myriad Mana Construct was one of his oldest skills, and he wanted it to remain formidable as he got stronger.

He added a small trace of lightning mana to the construct and watched it as it gained a blue color. Still, the fire and lightning mana were distinctly separate. He tried to fuse them like Great Phyr did, but he was unsuccessful.

Wait, he decided to try it in a different way. He first turned the fire construct back into a normal one, flames disappearing like an illusion, and tried the experiment once more. This time, the process was still hard, but Maxwell could definitely see some progress.

Two mana types started to fuse in the construct as Maxwell insistedently commanded them. In his prima sense, the mana took a blueish-orange color, indicating the new nature it gained. In the end, while this was an interesting thing to do, it severely reduced his ability to turn the mana into reality.

He had no idea how a flame fused with lightning would behave after all. But, this didn't mean that this wouldn't add a side to the skill he could use.

Now, it was time for the most promising experiment. He focused on the construct, and with a mental command, he activated soul imbuement on the construct. He had nothing special in mind when activating the skill.

In one of his previous fights, he used an arrow of metal mana to kill a lot of wolves. If he could give a construct a rudimentary soul, he imagined it could do the same thing without his input.

A ball of soul energy formed in his soul, and it was launched at the construct, fusing with it without a problem. Maxwell felt some of the energy disappearing as it was destroyed by the fire and lightning mana inside, but most of it remained.

A green glow radiated from the arrow, making the flames and sparkles gain a green tint to them, and the skill finalized without problem. Immediately, a few notifications assaulted Maxwell's mind.

Title Upgraded: Magic Prodigy → Magic Savant

Skill "Myriad Mana Constructs" is being readjusted.

Skill cannot be contained by tier one.

Proceeding Advancement.

Skill Created: Everchanging Soul Constructs*