Occult Awakening: From Commoner to Archmage

Luca shrugged the pain off and decided to see the rest of his tasks through the end.

He moved through the seemingly never-ending sea of leaves, hiding in the wide canopies of towering oak trees.

More than once, he disturbed the creatures nesting within. Birds scattered into the air and squirrels leapt from branch to branch, but their brief commotion faded quickly back into the stillness.

The ground below crackled with rustling leaves and snapping twigs, and with the insects buzzing low and the magical effect of the cloak, he was as silent as a shadow.

Currently, he was foraging through the forest, looking for a specific spot.

It was a lot harder to find the location since he'd just run into a random direction, compared to if he started from the city.

Nevertheless, he would still find it.

The Shadow Raven Cloak offered more than sufficient protection as he moved in and out of shadows and light. The only times he was fully visible were when there was a change in light.

It took a while to find the spot, but that gave him more than enough time to sit with his thoughts.

First he thought about the potions Digger gave him. He'd wanted to save both of them for later and see if he could maximize the value.

In some ways, it was more true for the Titan's Breath potion.

Digger had said that it would enhance his actual physique and draw out every aspect of physical potential you could think of.

That was partly why he could still move. Aside from the high of the chas, his healing factor was multiplied by a few degrees alongside his strength, agility and endurance.

Still, there was certainly a price for such a quick increase.

It puts immense strain on the body and the user would have to train intensely to adapt to the raw power.

Luca had wanted to do that before using it, so his base strength would be multiplied, which would increase the benefits of the potion. But life didn't often abide by plans.

It wasn't all bad, though.

Luca thought about Digger's words, about how mages could dip into any paths if they wanted to.

He wanted to know how Knights operated their energy and their powers, and he wanted that for himself.

There were also several other physical paths that Digger told him about like the Titan, Colossus and Dreadnought paths.

'With time.' he said to himself.

FWOOSH.

Wind whipped the cloak in all sorts of different directions as he made a large jump over to the next tree. It was over ten meters but it was a piece of cake.

Despite the distance, he landed as silently as before. His newfound physical strength was still incredibly fascinating to him.

It made jumping through the trees even easier.

His mind flashed back to the Nature's Renewal potion. This was far more valuable than the Titan's Breath.

After all, who didn't want to be healed from all injuries and ailments instantly?

Luca realized he might have used it prematurely, but it was better that he didn't take any chances lest he'd end up like the people diseased with the plague.

His brows creased into a frown.

'It's becoming too large of a problem to ignore, even for the nobles.'

Aside from all that, the Nature's Renewal potion was something that fascinated him because of the interesting little tidbit Digger had given him.

The recipe was made by elves.

Luca knew they existed and had heard that there were even some that worshipped Sol, but he had never seen one before past the few stories.

It all made sense. In a world with magic and Esoteric Beasts, why wouldn't there be elves or other sorts of intelligent creatures?

Just thinking about it made him remember all the stories his parents told him.

They died years ago, and while he largely didn't care for most people, he held a soft spot for them in his heart.

'Come to think of it, what the hell did they do to get Digger to protect me?'

Digger didn't do any favors for free, even the easiest ones.

Most people asked him to do easy favors too, at least, easy for his capabilities.

Luca's paranoid nature made him suspect something was going on there, but after inspecting for a while longer, he just dismissed the thought.

'Protecting someone whenever possible isn't as hard as it looks. Especially for Digger. He could call in some favors, or even just ask nicely and people would do it for him.'

He tossed the thought to the back of his mind and focused once more on the surroundings.

'Here it is!'

He stopped on a tree with open branches. Dozens of miles away, the city sat in its unmoving form.

From here, it looked almost serene.

Tall buildings of white and red brick rose, while slender church spires reached even higher, their spiraling arcs glinting bright silver as they absorbed the sunlight.

Long, winding streets cut through the buildings like the threads of a spiders web.

A long, invisible divide marked the difference between the richer part of the city and the poorer district is

There was an ever-present thin layer of smoke from the constant operation of forges and chimneys, faintly hazing the horizon.

This was Carinthia, the so-called Silver City.

And most importantly, from the direction he stood, he could determine that this was the area he had told the Initiates to deliver his catalysts!

'Beautiful from a distance…'

He jumped down from the tall tree, landing gracefully on the ground with a small thud.

Then he began looking around for the subtle signs he asked them to leave.

Since Moth was killed by him, he wouldn't be able to get the Stormglass. That was a problem before, but he already asked Digger to help him take care of that and the rather.

He very quickly found the first and the only sign that Bjorn left.

A small symbol was carved into a nearby tree trunk. It looked like a glyph but it was angular, and unlike any other Glyph Luca had seen.

Bjorn had insisted on using that and refused to elaborate on what it was.

It was a strange shape, but not very complicated with a singular horizontal and two vertical lines at the top.

Luca took a deep breath and punched through the tree where the symbol was carved.

BANG!

Wood splinters flew around in all directions and a small hole the size of his fist had appeared.

He reached into the hole and found a small jar filled with sparkling blue dust.

It was only a vague feeling he had, he didn't expect that the catalyst would be sealed into the tree somehow.

Luca exhaled, feeling like a weight had come off his shoulders.

"Two down. One more to go."