Seeds of Discordia

The night went by quicker than Liam realized. He was lost in a curious trance as he read the Knowledge Theory book called Peering into the Umbral. While Vesely had said it was a Knowledge Theory on advanced Shadow Manipulation after reading and digesting some of its contents he had discovered it was more than that. The theories held within contained understandings of one of the many different paths one could take Shadow Magic.

After a half an hour into reading the book he had decided he needed to start making notes on what it was he was learning and how this new understanding could affect his thoughts and direction on his own Shadow Magic. Like the name entailed, this book talked about the path he could take Shadow Magic known as Umbra.

While he was still learning more on this new direction of Shadow Magic he believed he was understanding why Lady Arachne had suggested he read this book. Umbra Magic, from what he was able to understand so far, focused on three things. Deeper layers of Shadow Magic, infection, and a type of puppetry-like magic.

He wasn't entirely sure what it was talking about when it came to deeper layers of Shadow Magic. The way his current knowledge on the subject was translating it as was within the shadows there is a deeper darker layer than what he currently knew of. By studying and getting better understanding of it he would be able to dive deeper. He was sure if that's what it really meant, but so far that's how he was looking at it.

What backed this way of understanding on the theory was the dreadful experience he had back during his fight with the Shadow Giant. That dark cold space his consciousness had slipped to when he was losing his mind to Eri's Chaotic Nature after accepting the offer to be her Champion had felt like he was in a deep shadowy ocean. The whispers, cries, and screams of voices that surrounded him there was both unnerving and frightening.

If that place was similar to what Liam was trying to learn about then he could see it being something powerful. The Umbral Swamp ability he had received recently came to mind when he thought about the two. Why right now all it could do was make those who were trapped within it sluggish the fact that they could sink sown to their ankles held a lot of expectations. If it could make them continue to sink until they are completely swallowed up within the shadowy swamp then it would further prove that his understanding was going in line with this. However, he wouldn't know until he leveled the ability up high enough to see if that would be the case.

As for the infection portion of what he was trying to understand, this could be likened to when someone uses a magical attack at him, and he absorbed it with his shadowy blob of manipulated shadows. Once magical attacks or even an object like a dagger enters within the shadowy blob the properties change. objects like a dagger, they are coated with Shadow Mana and when struck with the object coated with Shadow Mana then the target or targets are tainted or rather infected. The same happens when a magical attack gets sucked within the shadowy blob. The magical abilities themselves get infected with Shadow Mana which in turn turns it into a shadow-like version of themselves and have Shadow properties added to them. It was because of these actions he believed and understood this as infection.

Lastly, the shadow puppetry-like portion of his understanding is due to the shaping Lady Arachne had told him to look into. With much practice and more leveling he could shape shadows into moving forms and have them move. He wouldn't be able to move them like a puppet like Gimmel could with his magic. Instead when the form has fully taken form it would be able to move on its own. However, this shadow-like puppet didn't have sentience or awareness, but rather it would have its own predetermined movements determined by the shape, size, and what it was.

This meant he had no control over it, and it would be doing what it was designed to do with only a hint of what it was supposed to do in mind. This was something Liam didn't really like. It was a chance like effect. Whatever he shaped and used would be a gamble if it would even do what he wanted it to do. However, like all magic there was a chance it would or could change depending on his knowledge and understanding.

Even though he was only filled with more and more questions the more he read and pondered on it all, he was feeling excited. This book showed how much he still didn't understand how magic, let alone Shadow Magic, worked. He could see aspects of this path for his Shadow Magic already within his own Shadow Magic abilities he had recently gained and could go this route, however, having this book to read and learn from really helped him to understand if this was the path he wished to go down. So far, yes. Yes, it was.

He hadn't realized the sun had rose until Mercer knocked on his door letting him know breakfast would be ready soon. Liam looked out the window and cursed as he realized he didn't get any sleep at all throughout the night. He looked back down at the three notebooks he had filled with pages of notes, questions, and slight discoveries he had throughout the night. As much as he realized how tired he really was, he was glad for spending the entire night doing this. He then realized how helpful it was and decided he needed to do this for all of his other magics and even the fighting styles he was currently trying to both learn and master.

He let out a sigh and shook his head. He was now starting to understand how far away everything really was and how much harder he needed to work in order to reach further heights. The road to getting strong was a long and strenuous one and he could slack.

As he packed up his notes he came to another realization of something. His Soul Craft. It was still an unknown thing, at least that's what he believed. He knew it was considered a Lost Craft, which meant finding someone who knew how the craft worked was either impossible or hard. He was going to need to make notes just like he was doing with his Umbra research. He also needed to find more time to work on it so he could make those notes. He needed to work more on those abilities. He had been so focused on everything else he hadn't really paid nor given much attention to his main class abilities.

Besides his Anima Forge ability that was really limited, he also had his Spirit Weave ability. However, the problem with that one was he was only able to use it on his Shadow Moon Daggers. He didn't really have anything he could use it on nor know how he could. He was going to need to do some research into to see what triggered the ability. And by that he meant to see if the answer laid in his weapons or elsewhere.

He still had a lot to do. On top of all of that there was also all the crafts he wanted to improve on and grow. Something he really didn't have to worry about. After leaving the island, Liam threw himself into crafting what he could. One such craft that had improved over the next few days was Tailoring. Thanks to the repetition of making shirts, pants, and other such clothing he was able to grow Needle Work Precision to level fifteen and Thread Strengthening to level ten. His own Tailoring Craft had reached from twelve to level fifteen as well.

He wasn't really able to make anything worthwhile in the sense of armor for his group, but to his expense, Roman had joked that at least their normal, sleep, and underwear were well protected. That joke made Ariyana comment on the fact that his sense of female style when it came to undergarments needed a lot more work if he wished for them to ever wear what he made. Something that made Liam grow red and feel uncomfortable at the same time.

Uncle Naro laughed at his embarrassment and had informed him that what she had said was a grand idea and that he was going to make him study up on that. His reasoning behind that comment was because fashion actually had a big impact on his Tailoring crafting. Knowing fashion helped a tailor understand the material others used and how it strengthened both the finished product itself and the effects it could gain.

Learning where certain material was used, how it sewn and stitched, and the type of material used overall could help make it easier for things like Mana, Runes, and Enchantments to be used and how many could be used on the finished product. As it stood now the finished products he was able to make didn't allow any of those. Instead they only had a small defense effect on them. That didn't bring down his motivation though. He knew he was still a beginner in this craft. After he reached level twenty that was when he'd start making better and actual combat ready things.

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The next craft he was able to work on was Rune Crafting. He had reach level nine and was close to reaching ten. He was excited to see what he could do once he reached that level. For now though he was getting used to how Rune Crafting felt. Through hours of practicing he was able to gain an ability that helped make it easier to carve Runes onto objects called Engrave. This ability, through channeling his Arcane Mana, helped smooth the surface he was carving a Rune on.

The ability was so helpful he had to learn how much pressure he was allowed to use when using it. He found out the hard way how much easier the ability made carving Runes when he first tried it out and carved a huge hole onto the surface. Thanks to experiencing this failure and the many more to come he was able to understand how meticulous one had to be when performing the craft.

Another thing he also thought about was whether it was possible to channel other mana types instead of Arcane Mana while Engraving. This thought led him to experimenting which was met with complete failure each time as the different Mana Types spread out across the object destroying it completely. He had found out later from Uncle Naro that what he was doing was an advanced type of Rune Crafting. Because he lacked the Knowledge Theory behind it and didn't have proper experience all he was doing was forcing the runes to accept something they couldn't handle yet.

That ability wasn't the only thing he had to practice with that made things easier to craft with. His two Support Craft abilities also helped make crafting easier. He hadn't practiced the two abilities on Alchemy, Blacksmithing, or Tailoring, but through his other two crafts he was able to feel the crafting going much smoother. One such craft he had practiced his Support Craft abilities on was Enchanting. He was finally able to start his actual training with the craft, which excited him immensely.

Thanks to both Uncle Naro's guidance and the Knowledge Theory he was given to study up on, he came to really understand why Uncle Naro had him wait so long. He also came to the realization that Fia put a scary amount of faith in him being able to pull off Mana Attunement when he did. Without having the Support Craft abilities Mana Thread and Mana Concentration there was a fifteen percent chance of success and a seventy percent chance the mana being used to attune to the daggers could have backlashed or exploded in his face.

After learning this he vowed to chew her out when he saw her…depending on her mood that was. Even if he was pissed about those odds she was still stronger than him and could knock him out with a single swing of her fist with no problems…probably.

Another thing he had learned about Enchanting was it was a heavily resource needed craft. The materials needed in order to actually enchant objects was a long. Thankfully he could gain most of those materials from items they gathered from dungeons or on the market that they didn't want or didn't see any point in selling. He could also recycle finished products he knew would sell to use as Enchanting resources.

Those materials he was informed he needed were Mystic Matter, Mystic Powder, Arcane Powder, and Siphon Oil. Mystic Matter was a material that is siphoned out of an object that holds enchanting properties on it. Siphon Oil was an oily substance used to make it easier to siphon Mystic Matter out of an object. Arcane Powder is a powder material created when you take any object that was just siphoned and use the Decompound on it. Lastly, Mystic Powder is a powder material made after you compound Mystic Matter and Arcane Powder together.

Like in the description on a few of these, the materials were only attainable if one had the abilities gained from Enchanting which he was able to get after reaching level ten in his Knowledge Theory in Magical Enchants. These abilities are Matter Siphon, Compound, and Decompound. Matter Siphon was an ability that allowed him to siphon Mystic Matter off of an enchanted item or object. The amount on was able to siphon depended on the level of the ability.

Something he had also learned from practice was depending on the quality of the object and the level of the ability sometimes not all Mystic Matter is siphoned off of it. When he learned this Uncle Naro had to sternly warn him not to try and use the ability on high quality items. While he would be able to siphon the material off of it he wouldn't get quality material that matched the object he was siphoning off of.

The ability Decompound was an ability that poured what he was believing to be something known as Destructive Arcane Mana. From what he learned and understood the Arcane Mana that was poured into the object that had been completely drained of Mystic Matter begins to crumble into a powder-like state. That powder was Arcane Powder.

The next ability was Compound. This ability, at lower levels, allowed the user to mix two separate items and blend them together with the help of condensed mana. For example, if Liam wanted to make an item easier to enchant he would take some Mystic powder and sprinkle a certain amount on it then use the ability to condense his mana over the powder and item allowing them to blend and make it easier to enchant. He had found out the hard way that when doing this the ability wouldn't blend the two items evenly. That was something he would need to do and learn over time how to get it right.

During his learning and making mistakes he had also found out that if he didn't spread the powder evenly then the ability wouldn't be one hundred percent successful. The Mystic Powder used and failed with would take away all the enchanting properties in it, making the material useless and ordinary powder.

Like his Engrave ability, Liam had thought about if there were other possible usage for these abilities. His thoughts on whether or not the ideas he had were possible weren't something he could do on the ship and without specific targets. Until he was able to come across those targets all he was able to do was work the ideas out in his mind.

Crafting wasn't the only thing he worked on as they sailed through the open waters. He went back into a rhythm of training he and the others came to do as they sailed. While he didn't see any rise in his sub-stats, he was starting to see some fluidity in his combat style starting to take shape.

Sparring wasn't the only way he practiced. There were several times Sea Parades had appeared in the path. Uncle Naro had tasked him to put to use what he had practice while limiting him to using his Bestial Takeover only when he allowed it so he could not wear himself down and be able to use it again later if needed. The only thing he was banned from using was his Lunar Magical abilities. Uncle Naro had told him that until he was able to get it to a satisfactory level and he was able to smoothly using them in practice he was only allowed to practice them in the training room he was using for crafting.

Liam was alright with that. He wanted to explore more on the possibilities he and Uncle Naro had with the Field of Study. While it felt like it was diverting slowly from how he was originally using it, he was fine with that as well. He wanted to solidify his path better and felt having everything going into different directions would only hurt him instead of helping him. He was now starting to understand the warnings he was getting back in the Tutorial Area. While having different possibilities was good, having too many left him with too much to focus on.

Sea Parades weren't the only times he was able to practice his combat style. They had stopped by a few islands that had Dungeon Towers on them. While they did enter Open World like dungeons they had also entered Tower, and Swarm style dungeons to work on stamina, teamwork, and role work.

During the Tower style Dungeons Liam had practiced on his Soul Crafting. Thanks to this he was able to finally reach level ten in both the Soul Craft and Core Creation. Through the small practices he was able to get his Soul Flame, Phantom Sight, Spirit Channeling, Spirit Control, and Spirit Manipulation to level ten as well. He had also reached a pleasant surprise when he reached level ten, he unlocked a new section of the craft known as Soul Core Integration. Liam was stunned and excited when he saw the notification that came with the description of this new Soul Craft section.

[Soul Core Integration. Soul Craft Sub-section. Description – The craft of integrating Soul Cores into a suitable weapon, armor, or object. By channel Spirit into an object and coating it with enough Spirit, a weapon, armor piece, or object can be merged with a Soul Core. When a weapon, armor piece, or object has been successfully merged together the final product becomes a Growth item. Growth Item will receive the added bonuses the Soul Core contains as well as the soul of the core it was made of. Requirements to use Soul Core Integration – Anima Forge, Soul Flame, Spirit Manipulation Level 10, Spirit Control Level 10, Spirit Channeling Level 10, Soul Core.]

[Warning! Please note that Soul Core Quality and object (Weapon, Armor Piece, or Item) Quality needs to be same level or lower in order to integrate Soul Core. If an attempt is made to use a Soul Core of higher quality than object something bad will happen. Experiences vary depending on the Soul within the Soul Core.]

He had finally received the answer to the question Mercer had asked him when he crafted a Soul Core in front of him. He now had a purpose for all those stocked up Soul Cores he had made. He wasn't able to test out the new Soul Craft after receiving it since they had spent a lot of time inside that dungeon as it was and it was too late, but he made a mental note to test it out the moment he could.

Something he would come to regret since a couple of days later they were told they were a day away from their final destination. This announcement had made Omira stiffen and look slightly worried. Something he and the others noticed. However, they didn't need to wait long since later that night she had asked if they could all get together to talk.