The next morning, Nick left his safe-house and stored it within his space band. He then slowly made his way to the undergrounds with the morning sun shining fiercely. Nick went past the temporary settlement which was filled with students who were busily moving around.
On his way to the undergrounds, Nick summoned his sheathed sword, Pressure Piece, from his space band and held it firmly with his left hand. Nick saw many groups of students who were also making their way to the undergrounds. Nick didn't intend to interact much with the other students and simply minded his own business.
Soon, he reached to entrance of the undergrounds which was a large hole in the ground that interrupted the uniformity of the flat, grassy terrain of the surrounding plain. Most students made use of ropes or their spells to descend into the hole and after looking at the situation for a while, Nick decided to act. He pointed his right index finger toward the sky and cast:
(Space.)
A special space created by Nick's magic power expanded into the surroundings with Nick at the center and soon, after determining a safe spot to move to, he disappeared from where he was standing to the surprise of the surrounding people, however, they quickly dismissed it since all sorts of strange people were now at the undergrounds, anyway.
Nick reappeared at a relatively quiet area on the first floor of the undergrounds. The area was generally dimly lit since only a little sunlight was able to enter from the opening above. The walls were made of dirt and scattered stones and there was a musty smell present everywhere. Nick ran from his position, planning to find his way to the lower floors; eventually Nick came across groups of students fighting with magic beasts but he ignored them and soon found several tunnels that seemed to lead deeper into the ground.
Nick did not hesitate and ran through a random tunnel and continued running for what seemed to be over thirty minutes before he finally reached the second floor of the undergrounds which were now being lit by glowing stones that lined the dirt and stone walls. Nick did not plan to go to the deeper floors for now and just wanted to start the initial phase of his plans
"The information that I received from the resource center stated that the second floor is large, covering a few dozen kilometers in radius and so should have a decent amount of magic beasts present. This should be as good a spot as any to start my plans."
Just as Nick summoned his five projection stones from his space band, he felt a magical presence looming over him. Nick looked up and saw a tractor sized, hairy spider fall down from the rocky ceiling in an attempt to ambush him. Nick unsheathed Pressure Piece and swung it towards the magic beast.
(Big Cleave)
A large wave of sharp magic power flooded towards the spider like magic beast, cutting it in half in midair, from its head to its body. Its two pieces fell tragically to the sides of Nick as the magic beast's blood came pouring out of its fatal wound, leaving him covered in greenish blood.
Nick quickly wiped the blood from his eyes and smiled, saying:
"A little rain was just what I needed to perk me up."
Nick quickly used Pressure Piece's blade to help him bury the five bright, blue projection stones at several meters away from the tunnel where he emerged from, each situated at different points in a nearly circular fashion.
Nick clapped the dirt off of his hands and said:
"It's time."
(Formation Soul.)
The projection stones reacted and a pattern of bright blue symbols appeared on the ground in the shape of a circle and then disappeared. Nick cast his spell, Clear Space, and waited for the show to begin. A few minutes later the ground began rumbling and Nick became concerned:
(Is this another earthquake?)
However, a few minutes later as the rumbling intensified, a large group of different magic beasts soon became visible to Nick, running towards the direction of his formation and as soon as they entered it, the various magic beasts that seemed to be a mixture of rank 1 and 2 started killing each other while in a frenzied state. The site of the formation quickly became bloody.
It wasn't long before people from other sections of the second floor started noticing the strange movement of magic beasts and began moving towards Nick's position to see what was happening. One group that consisted of twelve students arrived to the area only an hour after the formation had been active. One of the women in the group who wore glasses and had short red hair spoke in disbelief as she witnessed the bloody scene that was unfolding:
"The magic beasts are gathering in this area in a crazed manner and are killing each other for apparently no reason. What is going on?"
A young man from the group who had spiky brown hair and freckles all over his face replied:
"This is definitely unnatural. I can feel a sort of feint magical disturbance in the atmosphere. Someone is probably manipulating these magic beasts."
An older looking man who wore an all black combat attire rubbed his chin and said:
"It doesn't matter if someone is behind this. All I know is that there are now loads of possible magic materials on the ground for the taking. This is a chance for us to pick up some benefits. Everyone, go collect the carcasses on the ground and kill anything that gets in your way!"
The students all nodded at the man in agreement and quickly ran towards the formation, however, a young man dressed in dark blue jeans pants, a jeans jacket and blue polo shirt suddenly appeared before them out of nowhere.
One young man who was in the lead shouted:
"Who the hell are you?"
Nick indifferently replied:
"This doesn't concern you. If you come any closer, I'll have to interpret that as an act of aggression and act accordingly."
The young man scoffed:
"Doesn't concern me? Act of aggression? You're saying a lot of nonsense but since we've found such a good opportunity today, my friends and I will let you off with a warning. Get the fuck out of here!"
Nick squinted his eyes and pointed his right index finger towards the ceiling and cast:
(Space.)
A special space created using Nick's magic power now enveloped a large portion of the area and the young man that just cursed at Nick suddenly disappeared and reappeared right in the middle of the violent confrontation between several magic beasts within the Soul Prison Formation. The young man was quickly ripped to pieces as he screamed tragically and transformed into specks of white light before disappearing.
The other students were shocked at the development. One of the women from the group shouted:
"What just happened to Josh?"
A short young man who was wearing a white tank top took a combat stance and replied:
"Don't you get it, this guy must be the one responsible for this situation and he's trying to prevent us from interfering."
Nick gave an eerie smile and tapped his nose, saying:
"Bingo, you are correct. Are you going to leave now?"
Nick asked that but knew that the students would definitely not leave, not with possible benefits right in front of them.
(Magicians can never have too much magic materials so to them, the carcasses on the ground must seem like a treasure trove and I'm the dragon guarding the gold. Looks like I'll have to deal with these people. At least I was able to solve the mystery of whether my spell, Space, can move other people, however, doing so cost me a few thousand magical units so I should do that sparingly.)
The man wearing the tank top snorted and ran towards Nick, saying:
"Hmph! Let's see if you can block all of us indefinitely."
The man pumped his right fist toward Nick at a distance of about seven meters away and Nick felt an intense pressure crash into his abdomen, pushing him two steps back. Nick gritted his teeth and unsheathed Pressure Piece, swinging it in the direction of the man that attacked him.
(Sever.)
The man wearing the tank top snickered as Nick swung his sword but in the next moment, he suddenly felt a wave of magic power hit his neck and then his vision went black.
The students following behind him only saw their companion's head suddenly fly off of his body which then transformed into specks of light and disappeared along with the rest of his body. The man who was wearing the all black combat attire stood at the back of the group and shouted:
"This guy is strong, don't hesitate to use your strongest spells against him!"
Nick suddenly noticed that a thick, white cloud formed above him that sparked with bright blue electricity. Nick quickly cancelled Space and pointed at a woman who was approaching him from his left side, casting:
(Exchange Space.)
The woman and Nick suddenly exchanged their positions and Nick watched as a bolt of lighting struck out against the woman from the hovering cloud, turning her into a charred mess. The smell of burning flesh made everyone present frown. The woman's corpse turned into specks of white light and disappeared. Nick quickly cast Space again and six students who were now surrounding Nick disappeared from their positions and reappeared in one spot in front of Nick who had already swung Pressure Piece down.
(Big Cleave.)
(Twice The Blade.)
A large three meter high wave of formless but sharp magic power washed over the students but since the students had seen Nick's tricks before, they had already activated their defensive measures. Some students' skins shone with copper colored light, while others' skins turned into jade crystal. Nick recognized the spells that were being cast instantly.
(Rank 2 Bronze Skin and Rank 2 Jade Skin. They are fairly strong defensive measures but from my estimations, they are unfortunately incapable of fully enduring my attack.)
The first wave of magic power only left the defending students with a few deep cuts all over their body but when a second powerful wave of the same sharp magic power crashed into them seemingly out of no where, the students defensive spells were overwhelmed and they were all cut into pieces, blood and organs flying everywhere.
Before Nick could celebrate his success, however, three thick white clouds similar to the one before formed above him and sparked with blue electricity and struck down. Nick manipulated the special space around him and quickly disappeared from his position, dodging the attacks that were meant for him. The lightning hit the dirt ground which effortless absorbed it. Nick reappeared several meters away from the impact site and looked at the man wearing the all black combat attire who was now radiating with magic energy.
(Those lightning path spells should have been cast by him.)
Nick cancelled Space since it was rapidly consuming his magic energy reserves and ran forward while casting his spell, One Meter At A Time, reaching the student in combat attire quickly but before Nick could swing Pressure Piece, he suddenly heard pleasant sounding music from the surroundings and his movements slowed to a crawl. A young woman with an odd looking violin in hand that had three sets of five strings on it continued to play the music while shouting:
"Quick Terry, he's slowed down by my Slow Tune, kill him!"
A young man with brightly dyed red hair approached Nick from his right side and screamed while exuding a large amount of magic energy:
"Heat Lamp!"
The young man suddenly glowed with an intense light as he ran toward Nick and the closer he came to Nick the more the temperature in the surroundings rose. Nick soon felt like he had been tossed into a furnace and he started becoming disoriented from the heat and some areas of his skin started to feel a strong burning sensation. Nick gritted his teeth and cast a spell, his eyes becoming a pitch black color:
(Soul Pulse.)
All three students around Nick were blown away by the physical impact of Soul Pulse and landed on the ground with severe headaches as they bled from their noses. The music had suddenly stopped and Nick felt his body become free of its effects, so he did not allow his opponents too much of a reprieve.
(Blink.)
Nick appeared beside the woman who was now shakily holding her magic tool as she tried to get off the ground and swung Pressure Piece with both hands towards her head:
(Cleave.)
Pressure Piece emitted a slight pressure as it bit into the side of the woman's head, cutting it in half and making the remaining half a literal fountain of blood. Terry, who was now coughing up mouthfuls of blood lied on the ground struggling to get up.
(Son of a bitch! Heat Lamp is a spell that requires focus to maintain and whatever spell that guy used resulted in my focus being disrupted and my spell failed, causing me to have a backlash.)
Terry spit the blood out of his mouth and looked at his companion, Boris, to see if he was still in any condition to fight. Boris picked himself up relatively quickly off the ground and nodded at Terry, indicating that he was fine. Terry breathed a sigh of relief and Boris thought:
(Those last few Lightning Clouds depleted most of my magic energy but I've recovered enough to start fighting again. Why is this guy so tough, he seems even younger than me?)
Nick saw that his two opponents had not given up and snorted:
"Hmph!"
Nick cast Blink again and appeared beside the helpless Terry. Boris saw this and clapped his hands.
(Gold Sparks)
A beam of bright gold electricity suddenly shot out from Boris's clasped hands and went straight at Nick. Nick didn't hesitate to cast Exchange Space on Terry at which point Nick and Terry swapped positions with Nick now lying on the ground and Terry standing in the path of the electric beam. Terry's eyes opened wide in horror, uttering only one word:
"What?"
The beam of electricity shot through Terry's chest, burning his organs and surrounding skin charcoal black. Blood flowed from Terry's mouth continuously as his eyes became lifeless. His body started to fall but transformed into specks of white light that disappeared before he hit the ground. Boris cursed Nick for being shameless:
"You trash, my friend was already down, why involve him?"
Nick looked at Boris indifferently and casting Blink, he disappeared and reappeared standing behind Boris. Nick swung Pressure Piece into Boris's right side with both hands, casting:
(Cleave.)
Boris felt the pressure from Pressure Piece's approaching his right side but his spell Gold Sparks had already depleted his magic energy reserves and so he was as defenseless as a child when Nick's attack struck. Boris groaned in pain as Pressure Piece cut horizontally through his midsection, separating him into two halves. Blood splattered on Nick's clothes but before Boris's pieces could fall to the ground, they turned into specks of light and disappeared.
Nick breathed in deeply and then remarked:
"That was eleven people that I killed, weren't there supposed to be twelve."
Nick frowned and turned towards the magic formation to witness a slim, white man with short, straight black hair run towards a few carcasses on the ground while dodging attacks from magic beasts; wherever the man went the carcasses lying on the ground disappeared. Nick raised his right eyebrow, speaking indifferently:
"You sure have a lot of guts, don't you?"
Nick quickly cast Space to contain his formation and swung Pressure Piece horizontally in the direction of the thief.
(Big Sever.)
A wide arc of magic power suddenly appeared inside the formation and the thief went on alert, suddenly diving into his own shadow which quickly moved across the floor, then moved into the tunnel leading back to the first floor. The magic beasts that were fighting near the man, however, were all cut into two gruesome pieces of varying sizes.
"Oh, he escaped. That looked like shadow magic...probably."
Nick shook his head and decided that he would not try to follow the thief since he had nothing to gain by doing that, after all, the carcasses of the magic beasts were not what he was after.
(People who use shadow magic are also above average at hiding and Soul Vision is my only scouting method which isn't a very strong counter to shadow magic.)
Nick cast Clear Space again and waited in quiet as more and more magic beasts came running towards this area.
*********************************
Daryl Smith was currently exploring the the first floor of the undergrounds and he and his team were battling a group of drunken wretches which were magic beasts that resembled bipedal dogs with albino, hairless skin that normally moved around stumbling like drunken people but once they became involved in a battle they stopped moving sloppily and became precise and violent in their attacks.
Daryl snapped his right index and middle finger and a slim steel spike suddenly jutted out of the ground, impaling a drunken wretch from its crotch to its brain. The magic beast's carcass now stood still, seeming like a strange piece of art. As the fight continued, the drunken wretches turned their attention away from Daryl's group and began running to another area of the first floor. Daryl frowned, asking:
"Where are those dogs going? Magic beasts usually don't run away from a fight so readily."
Cindy Reece moved her hand through her short blonde hair as she said:
"The direction that the drunken wretches are running toward leads to the second floor. Take a look around, they are not the only group of magic beasts that are going that way."
Daryl turned his attention to the other fights happening on the first floor and observed that the other magic beasts had indeed started to move towards the direction of the second floor.
(Are they migrating? No, that doesn't make sense. Even if that was true for one group, multiple species of magic beasts moving towards the same place at the same time is unnatural.)
Daryl commanded:
"Everyone! Follow them so that we can find out the cause of this disturbance."
Suddenly, a familiar voice was directed at Daryl:
"Yo, baldy! Why don't our teams head to the second floor together? If all these magic beasts are gathering there, we'll need to go at them together to cut down their numbers."
Daryl frowned and turned around to see a large group of students led by a man that he was familiar with. Daryl replied:
"Who the fuck are you calling baldy, Merick Asher?"
A young man with bright red hair walked over with several dozen students in tow and replied:
"Hey, hey, hey. My bad, I didn't think that you would take offense since you are, in fact, bald."
Daryl's right eyelid twitched at hearing that and was about to raise his hands to cast a spell but Merick continued speaking:
"Hold on. I was serious about my proposal, this migration of the floor's magic beasts is strange and we are not the only ones that have noticed. Look, there are students from Raylam Priest Academy that are rushing to the second floor already while killing magic beasts."
Daryl did notice the movement of other students towards the second floor but paid it little mind since normally, that was only natural.
"So what? If they want to thin out the magic beast population for us, they are welcomed to do so."
Merick shook his head and spoke:
"Think Daryl. If the cause of the magic beast's behavior is not natural then there must be some kind of magical event happening. Haven't you played video games before? The situation screams: 'Opportunity right here.' Let's team up for now and see what benefits are involved with this event."
Daryl put on a thoughtful expression, thinking about the situation and after being nudged by Cindy who gave him a look of eagerness, Daryl made his decision:
"Fine. We'll team up with you Merick but if things go sideways, you better watch your back."
Merick smiled and commented:
"I always do."
Just as Merick and Daryl's groups were about to set off, they all witnessed a large shadow move across the ground before a young man jumped out of it, running in the direction opposite to the migrating magic beasts.
The young man ran quickly and eventually shouted:
"Something fucked up is going on on the second floor, there's a bastard luring the magic beasts there somehow and having them murder each other. Magic beast carcasses are all over the place."
When everyone in earshot heard that, their ears twitched and their hearts started to beat faster, having thoughts like:
(Magic beast carcasses are everywhere? One fool thinks he can take all those materials, not likely.)
(Someone is causing such a ruckus and didn't include this daddy here. Well, it looks like I'll have to invite myself to the party.)
(They are luring the magic beasts? How are they doing it? Who are they? Which academy are they from?)
Daryl and Merick looked at each other with heated gazes while the young man who was running away snickered, thinking:
(Bastard! I don't know who you are but since you won't let me have the lion share of the rewards, you can forget about having them either.)
The young man once again cast his spell and jumped into his shadow, moving out of sight of the others. Merick spoke coldly:
"Let's hurry to the second floor."
**********************************
Nick was thrilled, looking at the current state of events. Over the past three hours, at least two thousand magic beasts had already entered his formation and died through battles with other magic beasts. The air was filled with the think scent of blood and there was flesh all over the ground.
(It's almost about time that I start the other phase of my plan. The last times that I used other souls to cultivate my own soul, they were only souls from normal animals. Souls from magic beasts are fundamentally different from normal animals in that they have far more soul path laws and they are stronger but they are far less tame than normal souls; that, however, is not a problem for me.)
Nick got ready to make his move when he realized that another group of students were flooding into this area of the second floor. Nick at first didn't think that he would be disturbed too much since the second floor was large and there were many entrances to the second floor that led to different areas so he thought that the interference from other students would be minimal.
(Looks like I miscalculated.)
During the next ten minutes, over one hundred and fifty students came to this area and observed what was going on with the magic beasts within the area of effect of the formation with shock, no one attempted to mix in with them.
Merick commented:
"This is a slaughter-field and there seems to be a strange mist that's concentrated over it, who is responsible for this?"
Daryl puffed out his chest and said:
"Who the fuck cares, look at all those carcasses on the ground. Even if they are damaged, they still have worth in making magic tools and potions. We can make a fortune."
Merick became silent, feeling uneasy about this situation:
(This phenomenon is definitely unnatural. Will a person capable of doing this just watch as we steal from them?)
Daryl shouted, directing his speech towards his group and all the others that were idly standing by:
"What are you fuckers waiting for? If you don't go after those materials then my group will take them all!"
The other groups became restless at hearing that and after one person started to run towards the carcasses within the formation, many others followed while getting ready to cast their spells at the surrounding magic beasts.
Merick looked at Daryl with an expression of contempt, saying:
"Hmph. Do you really think that inciting these naive people to test the waters for you will gain you anything?"
Daryl smiled, ignoring Merick's question and spoke to Cindy and the rest of his group:
"Be prepared, we are going to have one hell of a fight down here."
Just as Daryl said that, the first group of students to reach near to the formation felt a strong surge of magic power in the area as a brown complexioned young man wielding a sword appeared at their flank as if out of no where.
Nick cast a series of spells and swung his sword that was now being covered with a translucent miasma:
(Reinforce With Soul.)
(Space.)
(Big Cleave.)
(Twice The Blade)
Hundreds of ice pillars shot up towards the sky within Nick's mindscape as the laws for several spells consumed the crystalized magic energy. Like this, almost half of Nick's magic energy reserves were consumed and his mind strained as he tried to coordinate the use of so many spells simultaneously.
(These few years of meditation have really paid off. Six years ago, there was no way that I could use so many powerful spells at the same time.)
The nearly six dozen students approaching the formation felt a strange shift in the flow of magic energy around them and soon realized that they had been caught in someone's area of effect spell. One student looked at Nick who was radiating magic energy like a living kettle and who had swung his sword at them from about eight meters away and started to curse him:
"Fuck your sist..."
But before the student could finish his curse, a large wave of magic energy crashed into the large group of students, cutting away at their skin and flesh even as they cast their defensive measures. The magic power was fierce and sharp and covered a large area. By the time the magic power had washed over the group of students, 80% of them had been cut into pieces, screaming tragically before they died and transformed into specks of light, disappearing. The ones that had adequately defended against the attack were in bad shape as most of them had lost one or more limbs or had been crippled.
Before anyone had any time to make sense of the situation, however, the power of Nick's Twice The Blade activated and another powerful wave of sharp magic power bombarded the already badly injured students.
"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Shrill screams sounded amidst the torrent of magic power and by the time it dissipated, only dirt and blood could be seen where the students once stood in defense. Nick stood indifferently with Pressure Piece in hand, appreciating his handiwork.
Merick, Daryl, Cindy and the others who had not rushed towards the scene of carnage at first looked on in shock at what they had witnessed. Cindy lost her composure and shouted:
"Who is that lunatic?"
Cindy was too shocked by what happened to look closely at the mass murderer but Daryl and Merick were not so easily shaken and had already ascertained the identity of the attacker who they had both met before. They both muttered his name at the same time without thinking:
"Nick Capitol."
Cindy opened her eyes wide at hearing that name and asked Daryl:
"Are you sure? Nick is only a second year like us, where did he get that sort of power from?"
Daryl frowned and remained silent while Merick stepped forward to speak to Nick:
"Old boy, do you remember me from when we met in the cafeteria and I challenged you to a duel? My name is Merick Asher of the Asher family. It seems that you have quite the situation going on here. I think that we should negotiate how we are going to distribute those magic beast parts, after all, there is only so much food that one person can swallow."
Merick was surprised by Nick's power but knew that such power had to have an equal cost.
(He should be emptied of magic energy by now. We can use this time when he will be trying to recover his magic energy to threaten him with our numbers. Although, he is strong, that does not mean that a proud member of the Asher family will just back down in the face of overwhelming benefits.)
Nick looked at Merick and felt that the latter seemed familiar but soon pushed those thoughts out of his mind.
(It doesn't matter who he is, he's getting in the way.)
Nick immediately stored Pressure Piece within his space band and Merick and the others breathed a sigh of relief, mistakenly believing that Nick was willing to compromise, however, the next moment, Nick folded both his hands into each other and a sickeningly dark magic power radiated from him. The area became covered with a think darkness that the students were somehow still able to see through, at which point, they witnessed hundreds of white bones appear on the ground and and a decrepit temple stand erect in the distance. Merick and Daryl opened their eyes wide in shock, looking at the results of this spell.
Daryl asked in confusion:
"Is this really a rank 2 spell? It has to be at least advanced grade so how did he cast it so quickly and shouldn't he be nearly out of magic energy already?"
Merick dismissed the questions that were gnawing at his mind since he felt imminent danger. Merick cast a spell of his own:
(Ice Fortress)
A building of hard, crystal blue ice formed within two seconds and covered the entire group of students, protecting them. The students cheered at Merick's actions, even those who did not know who he was and what was going on. Merick shouted for everyone around him to hear:
"Everyone, this Nick capitol is too arrogant, thinking that he can take all the rewards down here for himself and even trying to killing us who reasonably ask for our just share. As long as we endure his current method, we should be able to defeat this murderous villain!"
Everyone cheered all the louder despite knowing that Merick's speech was hypocritical at best since they were the ones trying to steal the fruits of Nick's labor. Various people made loud declarations:
"He is only so so and yet he is putting on airs!"
"Hmph! My grandma's fart amounts to a better method than this boneyard!"
"This guy is actually trying to take the food out of our mouths, he is asking for a beating!"
...
Nick heard all the shouts from within the ice fortress but disregarded them since he considered those students trapped lambs, waiting to be slaughtered. Nick turned slightly to look at the decrepit temple behind him, then turned to face the students that were barricaded within Merick's ice fortress. Nick tightened the grip of his already folded hands and whispered:
"Malevolent Shrine."
The surrounding magic within the atmosphere began to flow in a frenzy as it transformed into waves of formless blades, washing over everything around Nick including the now frightened magic beasts that had already gathered within this area because of the Soul Prison Formation.
Within moments, the magic beasts were all silently cut into ribbons and Merick's ice fortress only lasted a second under the cutting power of Malevolent Shrine before it too was cut into thousands of pieces. Dozens of screams followed as students were minced into hundreds of bloody pieces of meat by Nick's spell, then transforming into specks of light and disappearing.
By the time the darkness of Malevolent Shrine faded, this area of the second floor became quiet as Nick stood as the only living thing left in the area. The magic beast carcasses on the ground were now unrecognizable because they were all cut into minced meat. Nick had never seen such a bloody and gruesome scene before but he quickly got over the sickening feeling that began to emerge from his gut and moved to summon one soul capturing bottle from his space band and activated its power as soon as he arrived inside the formation.
The thick mist that had discretely formed above the formation was now being absorbed into the bottle and eventually after this bottle had been filled, Nick had to take out another soul capturing bottle which he used to trap the remaining souls until there was none left floating in the atmosphere.
Nick breathed in deeply and cast his spell Space, moving all the pieces of meat still left inside the formation out of it. Nick then summoned a large assortment of magic materials from his space band and started to to arrange them inside the formation at various points and in seemingly complex patterns.
(If I think of this magic formation like computer code that is a set of instructions that commands the computer to perform a task, what I'm doing now is altering the instructions by placing additional code at various points that change the overall meaning of the instructions.)
Nick's understanding of formation path was slowly increasing but he was still mostly using his soul path scholar attainment to alter his Soul Prison Formation. Over the past few months, he had already developed the concept of a formation that used the Soul Prison Formation as its base to help cultivate his soul and he was able to fully conceptualize it after receiving additional soul path materials. Now, all Nick had to do was to arrange the soul path materials so that the laws within them came into harmony with the laws that made up the formation.
If Nick was not a soul path scholar, doing this would have been impossible. Nick now fully realized the value of having high attainment in one particular area. Twenty minutes later, Nick was finished arranging the materials and and looked around at the area.
"No more magic beasts appeared. The thick smell of blood from so many magic beasts probably overwhelmed the power of the formation to lure other magic beasts here. Most magic beasts had a strong survival instinct, after all."
Nick sat in the middle of the formation with his legs crossed and once again cast his soul path and formation path spell:
(Formation Soul.)
The formation reacted by absorbing the materials that Nick had placed at various points within it and soon, several spike tipped chains made of translucent miasma stabbed into Nick's abdomen, causing him to spit out a mouthful of blood. The chains wrapped around Nick's soul and squeezed it, resulting in its compression which evoked a nauseating pain within Nick. He gritted his teeth and wiped the blood from his mouth before picking up the two soul capturing bottles that were beside him, one in each hand and started drinking the souls contained within. Nick poured the contents of both bottles down his throat within one minute and after that, the color of his eyes became pitch black except for the pairs of reddish rings that were situated where his irises were supposed to be.
Nick felt the various souls of the magic beasts flood towards his own, enveloping it. The chains wrapped around his soul reacted by shining with an eerie dull, grey light that seemed to calm the frenzied souls that were now fusing with Nick's own soul. This process went on for about another hour. Nick gritted his teeth in extreme agony the whole time and thought through what was happening:
(I call this the Soul Enhancing Formation. Using the Soul prison Formation as its base, I can use it to incorporate the laws of foreign souls into my own, while filtering out any excess laws that are not compatible with the laws that exist within my own soul. Considering that this is the first time that I am using this formation, it's a long shot to believe that it will work perfectly but I had to at least try after so many months of working on its concept.)
A few more minutes later, the chains made of miasma suddenly vanished and the pain that Nick felt slightly eased. Nick whispered:
"It's over."
Nick cast Formation Soul Once again, deactivating the magic formation. Nick got up, feeling a splitting headache but he mustered his strength to summon Pressure Piece and dug out the projection stones that were buried in the area, storing them within his space band. Nick quickly cast Clear Space and left the area.
**********************************
Two hours later...
Groups of students finally came to the scene of Nick's earlier activities and were disgusted by what they saw. The area was filled with blood and the smell of rotting flesh; large piles of meat paste were present on the ground.
Soon, a group of Ministry of Magician soldiers appeared and one soldier stood out since he had an emblem with three horizontal bars and two red stars pinned to his uniform's right breast area.
Dave McKoy looked around with his glowing purple eyes and asked the surrounding students with a cold, indifferent voice:
"Does anyone know what happened here?"