Identify.
[Astylind Name: Blood Lotus]
[Astylind Level: Level-0]
[Astylind Grade: Grade-D]
[Anima Affinity: Blood]
[Skills: Blood-Recipient]
[Gender: Female]
[Description: Extinct natives of Sepra. They had decent affinity with Blood-Anima (Recipient) but lacked the means to protect themselves. Delicate and feeble. They lost the battle of natural selection.]
[Grade-Exalt Requirements: Astylind Core (Blood), Blood Stone, Astylind Blood, Bone Marrow.]
[Remark 1: Can be used as an ingredient for potions. Useless otherwise.]
[Remark 2: Decent choice for a healing type Astylind. But lack strong evolution branches.]
[Remark 3: I don't like them. They're nasty~]
[Remark 4: Special evolution path found. Focus should be on its grade.]
Ewan read all the remarks but paid special attention to the last one, which could be from his Pa. The relation between the evolution and the grades was a new thing for him, no one taught it in the class. He made a mental note to read up on it and focused on the bud for now.
She thirsted for blood, and her craving tingled his soul. But before feeding her the leftover Astylind blood, he did a test. He sliced his right palm and offered her his blood.
The pinkish bud quivered; her intense furor flooded Ewan's senses. Yet, she rejected him. No matter how much he enticed her with it, she didn't go for his blood. He smiled once he confirmed this.
"Good girl." She swayed on his caress.
Ewan prepared a small dishware and poured the Astylind blood in it for her. And this time, she didn't shy away. A tiny root struggled out of the seed and reached for the blood. As she sucked, the bud's color deepened, and she gained a red luster. Little by little, she gulped down the rest of it—the pinkish bud now turned wine red.
Ewan stood to the side, licking his wound. The taste of iron tingled his instinct, but his reason smothered it.
Now that all the contracts were over, he had to make plans. He needed resources to grow, much more than an average Step-0 Severynth; he had four Astylinds after all. Toast didn't need any resources for he was one with Ewan, but his other Astylinds did. His Pa left him a good number of Novas and Anima Crystals. But he couldn't rely on only them forever, he needed to source his earnings.
Hunting, it was the first thing that popped into his head. Yet, before marching out, he needed to make sure he and his Astylinds were up to par. On top of that, he also needed to prep. From information to necessities, he had to make some trips to the hub again.
…..
Ewan's days monotonized. Apart from his daily needs, he only trained. He drilled his Astylinds and drew the spell circuits; he studied the related books and experimented with the ideas he had. He had three elemental runes now—Fire, Ice, and Blood. He ignored the fire for now, as his Spellbook missed this element, and focused on the other two.
The only issue was that its circuit had no targeting mechanism. It didn't act like a normal spell because of this. Instead, it contained a structure that enhanced Ryvia, a skill that most Ashevas had, in one form or the other—Severynths and Cerades gained it after their third awakening. But before that, it was weaker than even
Ewan chose it with the future in mind. By the time of his third awakening, which he set as the minimum requirement for hunting, he would become adept at tracing its spell circuit.
Ice Daggers!
He read the Spellbook in his left hand and followed the spell circuit diagram. This was his fifth attempt, and he succeeded. The Ice-Anima left his ice rune and flew through the circuit he created. He only used enough to reach the spell's min Anima point, and it activated.
However… Ewan's muscles tightened, his face flushed and contorted, veins bulged on his neck and forehead. The frictional force combined with the resistance wreaked havoc inside his body. The spell succeeded, yet the result was a tiny blunt and disfigured ice dagger floating before his right palm.
He cancelled the spell and collapsed on all fours, breathless and gasping. Frost and Orange halted their training and rushed to him.
Bottle…
His throat grated when he breathed, so he told them through their connection. Frost dashed to the table and grabbed him the bottle of water while Orange stood in front of him, silent and confused.
After gulping down large mouthfuls of the cold water, Ewan lay flat on the floor, staring at the white ceiling, his limbs spread apart. The cold floor comforted his spasming muscles, and his heaving chest rested a few moments later.
Mr. Worth sure downplayed the side effects of having different elemental runes a lot in his class, Ewan wanted to punch that old bastard in the nose. This was the first time he cast a spell after he gained the ice and the blood elemental rune. And the negative impact was a lot worse than just a weakened spell.
"Go back. Its fine now."
When his Astylinds returned to training, he sat in the corner with his books and his notebook. He had a theory on why it happened and how to overcome it but needed to confirm it.
After scribbling for half an hour, he verified the reason and let it go once it satiated his curiosity. The different Anima were in balance inside his body, it was the cause for what happened. If he made any one element the dominant party, it could solve the problem. The body modification techniques that Mr. Worth mentioned must work on this basis. He had no intention of following the same path though, he had the 'Elementalist' path.
"I should start with that…," he murmured. The spells were out of his reach for now, not until he completed a part of the first layer of his body modification at least. The 'Elementalist' subtype would reveal its glory only after the completion of the modifications and the circuit setup, but its passive effect of taming the Anima would show up from the beginning.
The combined feedback from his Astylinds, excluding Toast, pushed his Spirit to 2.6 in the last week. He could try the hub again and look for the ingredients.
Another brief read of its book detailed what he needed for its completion. The first layer, 'Heart of Anima', required potions. Because it had its own recipe, he couldn't buy it anywhere and had to create it himself. And for that, he needed tools.