Without a hint of what's going below, Mark along with his party were recuperating hard on third division, preparing to face their last challenge if necessary I.e, at time when the test is over but the track does not exits them, and there's four hours to it!
Mark had selected his first profession as an array master and successfully entered the ranks of them.
System had started imparting him with the basics and also provided him with things which needed to further his career in it.
Tons of information started flooding his mind, along with his body which was becoming more adapt to it.
Fifteen minutes from then.
" So that's it, it's really simple... since when did comprehending these arrays made easier?
Had I really obtaining the rights to practice this profession? Why do I feel like I'm getting conned? Am I being scammed by this system?" Mark was startled by the things, which flood his mind.
He doubted himself for obtaining the memories of array mastery, which seems too good to be true!
Tons of experiences ran through his mind, where mark was practicing the arrays for years, and increasing his proficiency in it.
He was so confused that he could not discern weather what he experienced was real or just some unrealistic dream shown by her.
Though learning arrays were difficult, they weren't all simple to comprehend, but within a short span of fifteen minutes the system had imparted him with knowledge and experience needed to execute basics of arrays in depth.
Let alone the complex ones, which were deemed to be tough. Even the most basic of arrays I.e, grade zero category consists at least hundreds of magic circles as base!
Each of these bases may be of varied thicknesses and diameters, present in varied rotations of both clockwise or anticlockwise, either in fixed or changing positions depending on the position they occupy in thar array.
Superimposed by hundreds of smaller connecting circles and channels which runs above the bases, the set make a complete array, which becomes activated with the presence of an adequate power source, the thing which supplies them with mana.
There were cases of array mastery, where some ancient masters of highest caliber spent hundreds of years, creating huge mega structures that encompasses a country as whole, to defend against monstrous beasts invasion.
Though they were myths of the past, mark at his current mastery could execute a grade one array, which was quite unheard of, considering his age which didn't even exceed six, this news may even tempt the ancient masters who will do all in their power to nurture mark into their inheritor.
Even the fated ones requires years to get their grasp over the basics, just to execute a zero grade ones, let alone a complex grade one array which mark is starting off with.
Mark opened his eyes slowly, before looking around, seeing the surroundings. But all of a sudden, the world he started to perceive had became different.
Mana was moving in orderly path, seems of orange, blue, golden shades of mana was moving around, before going down to the floor where the picture appears in the shades of grey in white against black background.
The scene was as if the mysteries of nature started to unrival before him this moment.
The flow of mana which runs through the arrays, like blood through the blood streams was visible to his eyes.
Levi and his followers were recuperating on floor, but their bodies had been reasing threads of oranges light since the beginning, competiting with the array below to restore their mana's to peak.
Though this orange light was visible to his eyes before, but not as much as what he could do at this moment.
Mark didn't pay much attention to them before, but had to rub his eyes twice with shock, before confirming the presence of floating organisms around them.
Some minute creatures in translucent bodies, with orange glow in middle were floating in air.
They had some lengthy, fibrilar and linear thread like extensions, with sole like pads at ends. And were literally waggling their body to move around, like a group of jelly fishes from deep oceans.
Their main body was lesser than a millimeter in size, but were capable in storing mana many times their original capacity at an alarming rate.
Mostly from their surroundings, as if they were born for the only purpose of eating mana from the mouths of testers.
Mark was startled, he became quite curious about these little things which were moving around.
He had a hunch, but wanted to confirm whether these tiny creatures were the real culprit behind the adverse conditions they were suffering with.
Using his high sense value, he started glaring at a particular one, magnifying it's body to several hundreds of times, only to be startled by the result he found from their bodies.
" An array! "
Mark was startled, looking at the little body of the creature, only to sigh at last that it was an complex array to begin with.
The complexity of floating arrays was no less than a regular grade five ones.
Each of it's cells were made up of complex magic circles. Interlinking with other circles through connecting channels they assumed the shape of an tiny creature, which looked no different from a real organism.
The profession of array master could never be underestimated, invisible things which were no different from living were swirling around him, scavenging mana from the surroundings to keep it as their own.
Mark let a bit of his mana from the finger tips, releasing it out to test the potency of the little waggling creatures around him.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Like a swarm of fishes which found their food, these tiny creatures rushed towards the finger tips of his, absorbing all mana they could store, till they turn golden brown.
Like a fluffed up mass, they became twice their origin size, like a swollen mass as if a simple poke from him could burst them apart.
But this state was quite a short lived one, as these minute greedy scavengers returned back to normal, after passing their mana down to the other such creatures around them.
Like a hungry beast this creature had once again started to suck mana from mark's fingers, before turning it down to their companions below, till it reaches the floor in a circuit where it is dispersed soon to the surroundings to be stored.
" So this was the reason why this golden streams of mana were generated! " Mark became excited after finding the cause behind.
" Array master! It really is fun to begin with! " Mark exclaimed internally with anxiety, and his interest towards this profession had started to deepen all of a sudden.
" Wait! Golden streams... and little creatures... No! This can't be! Please say that's not true! I don't want it to be real, why couldn't I think off it before? Che! There's no use in crying over spilled milk now!
" I am not a damn lecher, believe me I really am not! " Mark bellowed in internally, with a murderous eyes looking at the little creatures, the culprit that made him almost lose his life earlier.
When these array creatures transfers their mana to other translucent ones, their extended tentacles makes a wavy course, moving in a S shapes.
Though they are not visible nor are touchable, these mystic tentacles gains physical self temporarily for a fraction of second, while the main body charges.
And when the mana is channeled down to others, they make a wavy moment, like a hose pipe from fire engine which gets out of control, violently.
A single tentacle might barely produce any sensation to notice where as a group may cause a tickle, but if the entire body was rum by them, without exception, what sensation could these little creatures cause by then?What if a defenseless lady having conscious was subjected to it? And what if a lady named levi were to be present in that situation? The aftermath could be quite imaginable haha...
No wonder such a delicate women turned fierce at that moment, and wanted to kill mark later.
Mark was quite interested in the creatures before, which was created by the array. But he became repulse all of a sudden and wanted to murder nine generations of them, until no such thing littered around his vision.
These little creatures were the ones which made him a lecher in levi's eyes. Thinking back about the events which made him quite vulgar in the eyes of spectators, mark wanted to find a deep hole and bury him deep into it, to prevent the gazes of the spectators from falling over him.
" My righteous self was branded with the name of a lecher!
I became a dirty bastard in eyes of her, even my own followers are giving their condolences, thinking of the aftermath I am going to face once the test gets over!
Lord class! Yeah, if I became a lord class, I could literally fight against an aura king, no wonder system informed me before hand!
Couldn't she be more clearer with her words before. Had I taken a profession which wasn't named "Array master" wouldn't I be kept in dark, not knowing about the blunder I mark made before!
Che! Such a devious women, did she already guessed that I would go for an array master profession? How calculative of her! " Mark rolled to the floor from his seating, by his sudden insight, making a regretful face, biting his lower lips in anger, cursing at the system inwardly.
" Ding! Host... " System called him out, wanted to notify him that she could hear, every single word he was thinking about, which made him turn expressionless.
" lev... " Mark wanted to clear off their misunderstanding, but stopped at his words immediately, thinking of the broader picture, where their misunderstanding could further deepen to a point of no return, if he tried explaining to her right now.
" Whatever let's wait until i get out this test track, I'll try explaining her at that time! " exclaiming internally, mark began to test the average time limit, his way of strength could last for.
" Last time this trump card of mine had lasted for five minutes, now that my mana reserves are tripled from boost up pack, I hope for it to last for fifteen minutes! " Exclaiming internally, he circulated his mana executing the way of strength immediately.
Five minutes later.
" Why hadn't my skill's time limit exceeded the limit of five? " Mark bellowed in looking at his attributes, checking weather his attributes panel had been updated by system or had she not finished doing it for playing some lame excuse later.
Demon Slayer System
Player's name : Mark White
Player's race : Human (Incubus - 3 horned)
Player's age : 6
Player's level : 50 ( Exp - 0.01 /100% )( Aura Grand master, high stage )
location : Platform number 7, Master's zone, Underground arena.
Current quest : Side line quest ( Difficulty = Rank C-10 start )
Title : Slayer ( Raise in attributes to four times for a short duration of 1 minute. Side effects : Temporary reduction in attributes by half for 1 week )
Players Attributes
Attack : 1552 Agility : 1864
Health : 6040 Defense. : 1052
lntelligence : 58900 Sense : 10120
Mana / Qi : 58900
Skill points : 75
Skills : Fire Blade - lv 6 [(14000/50000 p), 4800 % more damage to target, cool down time - 10minutes, mana consumption -800 / second )].
Fire arrow lv 1 [(0/10p), 100 % more damage to target ].
Way of strength lv 2 [(5200/ 10000), overall attributes raise + 50% , Time limit- 5min per use, limitations- excess mana drain, intelligence decrease permanently by hundred ].
Abilities [(Space traversing ), ( Resonance), (Darkness extract)]
Armaments : Azure dragon robes [ health = +2000, defense = +500 ], Dead man blade [ Attack = +2500, hidden (unlocked 1/3 - Asura's cry) ]
Blessing : Blessing of horned incubus ( Makes user temporarily attain a higher realm for couple hours, Can be used once in three days ; Limitations- player had to die before being revived with a higher realm temporarily. )
Professions : 1) Array master ( Grade one - peak)
2) unlocked ( lv 60)
Few visible changes made him startle a little. The experience points had literally turned into a horizontal bar called experience bar, showing the percentage he acquired after entering the new level.
The thing of profession had been attached into his information card, at the bottom, showing his proficiency in this field.
His attributes had raised exponentially, literally sky rocketed by the boost up pack.
Unlike before he was now sure that he could equally match against the puppets, and if the way of strength was taken into account, he could trash them badly, as he done with the puppets in the second division to get four new followers of his.
" Seems likes the way of strength could at most, hold for 5 minutes. " Mark exclaimed internally then his gaze turned towards the green line where he fought against the puppets before.
looking at the broke up pieces of puppet, he sighed internally thinking " Well at times of battle even a single second is crucial, which could decide the life and death of an opponent, let alone five minutes where whole of the battle may be played! "
" Seems like I have to restrict the usage of this way of strength to critical times, where death is hanging at hair breath, if not I am on the loosing side, irrespective of the cause.
A strong skill like that doesn't come freely, it taxes me a whole hundred points of intelligence to activate, the each time I use! Which is non recoverable, what a waste, sigh! "
Since fourth division is named as such, it definitely had to be a lot tougher while comparing it with third division.
Good thing that I had upgraded my realm at a perfect time. If not, thinking of challenging the fourth division later would only be a fools play to begin with.
Since time was plenty, mark tried to study the array below and see weather he could decipher it in the least.
3 hours later.
" Judging by its absurd complexity, this array had to be of grade seven in the least. May be a strong grand master practitioner in arrays made this complex array.
Though I'm not sure about the creators level, but I could discern one thing for sure that I didn't understand much from this array to begin with! " Mark sighed helplessly, unable to see through this array with his basics imparted by system.
Though he was not able to see through this array entirely, just with his deep basics alone mark was barely able to scrap through its exteriors, discerning the superficial changes to predict what surface changes might be brought over by this array, if a trap could be triggered.
To understand them thoroughly, Mark looked for an untriggered tile, which was quite remote from his place, present few dozens of meters away from him, near to the corners of the wall which separates them from outside.
Boom!
Nine stream lines of mana, roughly discerning the figure of spear heads started to take shape in the array below.
Which then started to rotate in rounds around a circular ball like structure, that may seem to pop out any second from now, to devastate him thoroughly.
" Nine piercing sun blast trap! "
Mark was startled by looking at the changes, which occurred in array below the floor, he could now decipher the type of trap dealing with, before the actual one had been launched for him to get on guard.
Even his test token undergone a slight change, gaining a hue of blue shine on the exteriors, after the tiny creatures created a long circuit between his token and the floor below.
This made him understand a little in depth about the array he was dealing with.
The translucent creatures were not just mana scavengers but were the basic unit of labor, which does things for the floor but at free of cost.
Earlier mark was dealing with a trap named nine piercing sun blast, where nine spears would pin down the target to the tile so that the condensing sun above could devastate him with the explosion it would trigger.
Though it wasn't a strong trap to begin with, as it could be avoided easy. But if the tester were to be trapped in it, the blast could injure the cultivator to some large extent, where he would need to use his dormant mana within to recover.
The tiny creatures in air by that time would try parasiting his mana from outside, decreasing his efficiency in healing, and putting him to a dire state unable to continue this test to begin with.
After escaping from the trap before, Mark once again had tried stepping on the same tile to see visible changes occurring under it.
" How could a trap be forming on the same tile... for the second time!? " Mark was startled looking at the array which was going to hit him by a triple overlapping trap, which was quite lethal to begin with.
By his very own experience, Mark could say that the same tile wouldn't trigger a trap for the second time, but right now the conditions he was about to face doesn't seems to be of the case before.
Just when mark was about to displace from his position to step out the tile, going back to a safe point and prevent the triggering trap from attacking him, the translucent creatures had finished forming the circuit and were going to initiate the trap, means there's no escape for him if the trap starts now.
" Shit! There's not enough time to escape, let face it head on while moving back. It would at least prevent me from getting injured lethally." Mark bellowed internally, grabbing the blades from his back all of a sudden, to face the triple overlapping trap which was triggered by him.
But his worry was short lived, the token which had emitted a shine of blue hue had glowed with the colour of red this time, which immediately halted the trap as a whole, freezes it in a stationary state, as if time was stopped for it, which neither was progressing forward nor subsiding to disappear.
Earlier, when he stepped on this tile, his test token was directly positioned above the tile and gained a hue of blue shining which triggered the trap.
Now that a red light had been formed, the triggering trap had halted immediately as if the key to open the door of the trap had been closed, preventing it from appearing out.
Mark seems to find a hole in this array, which may help him not just a bit, but could even let him walk freely over the floor without a worry to loose his life over it.
He decides to call Gregor and Haylin to come to his place, to discern his reasoning.
" Gregor! Haylin! " Mark bellowed their names, curling his fingers twice in a row, and letting them know that their master was calling for their presence before him.
" Gregor step on this tile! " Mark exclaimed out, then carefully looked at the floor below.
Gregor was puzzled by the absurd order his master made. But since it was an command from his superior he could only choose to follow his orders without taking back, like a disciplined youth following his mentor's command.
Whoosh!
A non lethal trap was about to come and mark informed him the next moment, for Gregor to ready himself for facing it.
" How did he knew it before hand? " Gregor was puzzled so was Haylin who were glaring at mark like a ghost, who spilled out the type of trap ahead of time, even before it surfaced to the floor outside.
" Now haylin... carry Gregor's token and step over the tile! " Mark said loudly to let Haylin come out his daze from the shock earlier.
Whoosh!
The trap came out regardless of the Haylin carrying Gregor's token, but this time the trap wasn't launched at Haylin but was directed over Gregor, the original owner of the token.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Unable to withstand the blows Gregor fell to the floor defenseless.
Whoosh!
Mark blocked the energy swords which was launched over Gregor with this blades, and protected his life at the last moment.
" Hundred sword strikes, Why did it launched at Gregor? " Mark muttered lightly, unable to discern the cause.
The thing happened before was a little bit confusing to mark, as he was startled by the result he found out from the little experiment of his, but he was left in confusion looking at Gregor who was lying down on floor getting slipped from the blows before, due to some unknown reason.
He then calls for Sidmon and clain, to make their presence before him and tells them to repeat the exact things Haylin done before.
" Boss! Please do tell the name of the trap this time, I was waiting for your response and let my guard down, please don't kill your follower by mistake! " Gregor who just got up had exclaimed out in a weaker time from the injuries sustained in him by a sword pierced on his shoulder from before.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Like before the trais had triggered again, and had befallen over Gregor, who was targeted by these traps. But mark saved him timely, as his follower was not at his peak condition being injured, so he ought to block hits for him, since he was helping in his little experiment to begin with.
" Haylin go again! " Mark exclaimed with his hands behind wanted to check what would happen if he carried Gregor's token and enters in for the second time.
" The hell! why are you torturing as such... master! " Gregor bellowed in, not daring to show out his anger before mark, in fear of him.
Few seconds from then.
" Hah, nothing had happened this time! So even if the token was not with the owner, the track would be will triggered for him, if some other with his token were to step on it. but it wouldn't for a second time like the case normally. " Pondering on it mark sighed a little before sighing in internally thinking " Good! if I could explout this wouldn't I gain an additional life saving trump card in dealing against string targets in the fourth division later.
Fourth division, let's see if fate allows you to enter in your domain of not, but if I would, then I would for sure exploit this hole to begin with! " chuckling in internally, Mark let his followers rest for time being as the four hours time was going to be over in few minutes to begin with, where mark may need to face stronger challenges in the next division to clear.
Author notes.
Another big chapter for readers to read XD
3900+ words. please comment if you need big chapters of smaller ones😀