Looking at Lior's corpse, Rian couldn't help but let out a sigh. Of course, this wasn't the first time he had killed a person. Considering how their world was built on a culture of invading other worlds and celebrating conquest, all the noble clans had their own ways of getting their scions used to killing, most of them involving executing death-row prisoners.
Still… Looking at the corpse, Rian shook his head. No, it was the right call; the guy was going to be a huge threat to him in the future. Not to mention, his death was going to keep the princess off his back for a very long time.
Once the Whitlock family examined the corpse, they were surely going to notice the traces of Mana Disturbance, a bloodline ability exclusive to the Nehlhim royal family, and they were bound to raise questions against the only royal present in Aetherion City, Mirai.
A flicker of blue light erupted from Lior's cooling form, coalescing into a familiar glowing prompt.
[FOREIGN BLOODLINE DETECTED]
[Do you wish to extract: Water Affinity Essence Fragments (17%)?]
[Note – Special Constitution Detected. Absorbing this affinity would unlock (Ice) Sub Affinity.]
[Y/N]
Ice Sub Affinity? That wasn't too bad, Rian thought, a grim smile touching his lips. Yes, he could definet…
All of a sudden, his smile faded away as he felt a trace of red light flicker beneath Lior's chest.
Oh no. He knew what this was every noble child did, actually. In fact, he had been hoping the Whitlocks wouldn't be generous enough to use it on Lior.
Soultrace Seal was a spell noble houses placed on their direct heirs in case they were assassinated. This spell was designed to scan the area while marking all those nearby with a sign, directly sending their mana signatures and locations to the family's guardians.
And it was starting to activate.
What… Why him? Isn't that spell supposed to be super exclusive? Why would they mark the clan head's nephew with it?
Panic filled Rian's body. The spell activated automatically after draining the corpse's remaining mana, and his original plan had been to run away while the effects of Mana Disturbance still lingered, buying him a precious few seconds. How the hell was he supposed to know the corpse would offer him the rare Ice affinity?
His eyes shot toward the system prompt before darting toward the alley's entrance.
The rational part of his brain screamed at him to run and abandon the corpse before he was caught red-handed.
But the greedy goblin inside him chanted about Ice Affinity over and over again.
Screw it.
He slammed his hand down onto Lior's corpse while mentally selecting the [Y] option. A wave of biting cold, like swallowing a glacier, shot through his veins, causing him to gasp as the Ice affinity was absorbed into his body.
[Ice Sub-Affinity Acquired: 17%]
[Progress 66% – (34/100)]
The cold was immediately replaced by a surge of adrenaline-fueled panic. The second he was done, he turned and activated Swift Wingbeat, sprinting deeper into a nearby alley and barely escaping the spell's deployment radius. Even so, he didn't stop running.
Even though his face was hidden by a hood and this area was nearly empty at this hour, he didn't want to risk anyone spotting him fleeing the scene especially since he had already extracted everything of value from Lior's corpse.
So Rian kept running through the dark alleys, only slowing down and relaxing once he reached the crowded part of the city. Or semi-crowded. Despite the sun only now rising in the sky, the streets were already filled with people going to or returning from work.
After once again making sure he wasn't being followed, Rian stretched his arms. "That was so stressful," he muttered, a huge yawn and chuckle escaping his mouth. "Phew, I almost got caught back there."
"What now, though?"
He shifted to the side, glancing at the majestic Aetherion Academy towering in the city center. He had already taken care of the first and second objectives, and now all he had to do was decide how best to allocate the money left in his account. Only, he was too sleepy and mentally exhausted to bother with that right now.
Should I attend my classes today? Rian wondered. With so many people around, Mirai would find it harder to move against him, and the classes focused on debriefing students about Taurent's culture while discussing strategies to survive their first week in the individually allocated locations they would teleport to. Since he already knew exactly where he would teleport, the lectures gave him the perfect excuse to sneak in a nap or two.
No, wait, there were still his half-siblings prowling around the academy looking for him. Argh, this is so troublesome.
Rian's thoughts were interrupted when he noticed a set of police cars and an ambulance racing past him toward the city's outskirts.
"Guess someone reported the body." Mumbling to himself, Rian started walking, creating as much distance as possible from the crime scene. At the same time, he opened the banking app on his commlink and checked his account balance.
56,733 Credits. Not too bad, considering how he had been cut off with almost nothing left in his account. Still, it was nowhere near enough for his current needs. He still had to buy a storage ring, as well as a new beast sigil once he inevitably advanced to 2-Star rank in cultivation. Then there was also the matter of finally awakening that second water affinity.
Letting out a sigh, he summoned his status screen.
==
Name: Rian Ashmere
Cultivation: 1 Star (9th rank)
Affinity: Air (D+ Grade), Water (Ice Sub Affinity) – 66%
Sigil: Skyrazor Falcon (Grade 1)
Skills and Spells: Swift Wingbeat (Short burst of speed to dodge attacks at close distance), Talon Rake (Hardens the mage's arms and makes them sharper for five seconds)
Title: Heir of the Flesh Throne
Divinity Granted: Biomastery
==
You see, humans as a species were incapable of manipulating mana or cultivating naturally and thus had to rely on runes extracted from magical beasts' mana cores after death. These runes, or sigils, could then be transplanted into an awakened's body, granting different physical mutations and allowing them to use spells aligned with their sigils. Awakened could upgrade or even switch these sigils, enhancing their spells based on their elemental affinities as they progressed in cultivation.
Of course, there were restrictions. With human cultivation stages ranging from 1 Star to 9 Star, with seven inner stages in each tier, and magical beasts categorized by grades from 1.0 to 9.0, a cultivator with 1 Star strength couldn't transplant a grade 9.0 beast sigil without the residual mana wreaking havoc in their body. Thus, they had to transplant a sigil from a beast of a similar grade.
But that didn't mean there weren't outliers. A few rare awakened, like Mirai, with exceptional talent, were known to withstand sigils one or even two grades higher than their own realm, automatically placing them above competitors of their generation.
As for him, his current Grade 1 Skyrazor Falcon sigil was already trash; it would be totally useless at the next level. He needed an upgrade, ideally a dual-affinity sigil to match his Air and new Water/ Ice affinity.
Rian let out another sigh. Oh yeah, he also had to unlock his water affinity before buying that new sigil, and a dual-affinity sigil was going to be even more expensive.
"Guess my days of breaking into restaurants are far from over." Mumbling to himself, Rian walked onward toward the academy dorms.
----------
"Today, you will enter a world that does not care who you are. It will not bow to your talents, your bloodlines, or your reputation."
"Every action you take will be watched by billions. You will compete against those from other academies. Represent our academy with strength and…"
Listening to the boring speech, Rian couldn't help but let out a weary sigh. He was currently standing in the middle of a giant courtyard amidst a hundred or so students.
In front of the courtyard, Aetherion Academy's headmaster, Darien the Relentless, was giving a speech, his every word igniting a fire in the students. To their right, above one of several floating platforms, sat the Academy's faculty, alongside several dozen reporters and news station camera crews, which were broadcasting the entire ceremony live to the entire galaxy.
Three days had passed in the blink of an eye. The fallout from Lior's death… had been surprisingly tame. And by tame, he meant there was no news of it whatsoever. From what he had gathered, students were told that Lior had returned home for a while, and that was it.
Yes, Mirai herself had also left the academy for two days, only returning yesterday. It wasn't hard to guess where or why she had gone so abruptly. Anyway, just a single glance at her frowning face was enough to tell him she was going to be far too preoccupied to bother with him for the time being.
"I trust all of you are familiar with the interdimensional video transmitters linked to your IDs. By channeling mana into them, you can activate a live broadcast at any time."
"And yes, I know you'll be tempted to turn them on the moment you land, but I would advise against that. Instead, use them once you have confirmed you're safe and not broadcast yourself being eaten by some magical beast in front of the entire galaxy."
Now that was one piece of advice Rian could agree with, as he tossed the transmitter deep into the storage ring.
No one was going to see what he planned to do in Taurent, at least not yet anyway.
"Be advised, Taurenth is a single planetary B-Tier world when it comes to size, which means upon entering the portal, you will be randomly teleported across the world. To ensure your safety, we have ensured that those regions are of low mana density. You may find yourself alone, with allies, or neck-deep in trouble. Adapt quickly. No one is coming to hold your hand."
Listening to the headmaster, several students in the crowd nervously lowered their heads. It made sense though, for all they knew, they could be teleported inside the nest of some low-tier magical beast, or inside some gorge.
As for Rian, based on the rough map, he knew exactly which town he would be transported into, and because of that, he had commissioned a set of clothes tailor-made according to his memories of the game. The town called Beuclair was situated right on the border of the Hollowcrown Peaks, a dangerous expanse teeming with monsters of every kind.
His plan was simple , avoid drawing attention. The moment he was transmigrated, he would change into those clothes and quietly slip out of town before anyone had the chance to stop him for looking suspicious. The place was perpetually on high alert due to the constant threat of shapeshifters invading from one of Taurent's forbidden zones, Hollowcrown Peaks.
The greatest danger, however, wasn't the monsters but Beuclair's margrave himself, Darian Veythar.
In the game, the man had been infamous for being a ruthless figure who had safely guarded the kingdom's borders against monsters from Hollowcrown Peaks. Rian didn't want to cross paths with the man while he was still so weak.
Then again, he would have to do something momentously stupid to cross paths with the lord of the entire region in his very first visit.
"If you find yourselves in danger, hold out, survive, and persevere for at least seven days, that's how long the teleportation spell is calibrated to anchor you to Taurenth. After that, it will automatically bring you back, but before…"
"You have one week. Use it well. Scout the land. Understand the enemy. And if you must die, make sure it's after you've learned something worth dying for."
"So go forth, my future conquerors!" he bellowed, as the giant portal behind him shimmered to life and the space in the courtyard began to bend as the spatial spells opened a tunnel to Taurenth.
At the same time, the band in the back began their performance.
THUM! THUM! THUM!
Loud drums resounded through the surroundings as the courtyard was filled with a melody that made everyone's blood boil with determination.
At once, a sense of excitement and nervousness swept through the crowd of students as they hesitated to move forward. This moment was something most of them had been waiting for their entire lives, but now that it was here…
Just then, the one standing at the front of the crowd, Princess Mirai, stepped forward with her head held high, and without an ounce of fear she walked forward and entered the portal. Seeing her resoluteness, several students behind her followed her example, especially those like Zathiel standing close behind.
One after another, groups of students began stepping into the portal in an orderly fashion. Soon it was Rian's turn, as he too unhesitatingly walked inside.
The moment he stepped through, an unfamiliar darkness took over his body, causing all of his senses, including sight, smell, and touch, to cut off as he travelled through the void, the boundary between worlds. And then all of a sudden, it all came crashing back, along with the sensation of being thrown headfirst into a wall.