Time froze as his staff made contact with the skull, and a notification popped up before his eyes.

Activating Mana Vampirism will also activate the Staff of Mardun’s third ability. Will you proceed?

The choice was obvious, so Mason confirmed it.

Congratulations! You’ve unlocked the Staff of Mardun’s third ability: Soul Steal.

Soul Steal: Connect with traces of an unbound soul, absorbing parts of their power into you. The cycle of life requires the transfer of strength and energy, but your will drives the cycle forward.

Mason’s body burned worse than from any bit of mana he had ever touched. It was as if his very mind were affected, memories flashing before his eyes with a flash of flame that drove the very concept of breathing or self-control from him.

He saw familiar things; sitting by a lake, breathing, meditating, trying to relax and still his mind. Making love to his first girlfriend and the way her skin flushed as the sweat between the two of them seemed to bind them. Getting his first car and driving as far and as fast as he could, terrified he would wreck on his first day out but exhilarated to be so far from home.

But there were unfamiliar things too; a world with no natural light, but mana everywhere, and he could see the mana as easily as Mason could normally see true light. The people wore shimmering coats and clothes with patterned, decorative runes conducting mana this way and that. He saw a figure he identified as himself, but who was clearly a Darkest Night he had never seen before, using his mana to summon a vehicle much like a San Francisco trolley, preparing to leave his family behind to start a new career…

The two sets of memories flashed and burned and Mason thought he would die, but as the agony continued he became accustomed to it, and he began to feel his way back into his body, remembering hands and feet and eyes in a corporeal sense.

He was almost back to normal, he could almost remember where he was, and who he was, when another notification bombarded his awareness.

You have been called Demon, slayer of Legendary Kings, Stealer of Souls, Stalker of Shadows. You acknowledge your bloodlust and will to strike.

You have plunged this kingdom into chaos, yet return to wreak more havoc. You steal the soul of an unknown warrior to fuel your ambition.

Choose: Do you embrace what you have done? Or do you run from responsibility?

The world was frozen, and Mason had to choose if it were ever going to start again. It didn’t seem a fair choice- Mason hadn’t known he was choosing to do any of that. He killed the king on accident- not even an accident- he still didn’t even know how that had happened. And the soul steal ability had activated on its own. Sure, he accepted the ambiguous prompt, but he hadn’t decided to steal a soul!

But he had taken the Staff of Mardun and the gold around it. And he had consumed that corpse as a means to power. He also chose to slay those guards merely because they were in his way.

I’m not who I thought I was, not even a little.

But he would embrace what he had done.

You have become the Demon you once reviled. What you do with your strength is your decision, but the Trials have brought you further than you dared on your own.

+1 FP for intelligence.

+1 FP for willpower.

Several of your Focus Points have been integrated.

By integrating the soul from the Darkest Night race, you’ve developed the ability to impersonate them using the ability Glamour. This ability can be defeated by close inspection, and those familiar with you will be harder to fool.

By integrating a soul from the Darkest Night race, you’ve begun to master their skills.

Your Mana Sight levelled up (4): 10

Your Mana Manipulation levelled up (5): 8

Your Mana Blade levelled up (4): 6

Recalculating status…

Demon of the Darkest Night:

Amateur Magical Slayer

Level 3 (30FP)

Health: 52/52 (3.2/hr)

Mana: 35/35 (2.5/hr)

Mana (Mardun): 35/35

Stamina: 12/70 (3/min)

Strength: 5 (+1)

Agility: 6 (0)

Intelligence: 8 (0)

Willpower: 7 (0)

Vitality: 6 (0)

Endurance: 7 (0)

Creativity: 5 (+2)

Active Skills: Focus (10), Mana Vampirism (7), Analyze (5), Life Drain (5), Recovery (6)

Passive Skills: Equip (5), Staff Specialization (8), Blade Specialization (5)

Mana Arts: Mana Sight (10), Mana Manipulation (8), Mana Tolerance (10), Mana Blade (6), Shadow Stalk (8), Glamour (1)

Soul Arts: Soul Steal

They were lucky that the next Roving Band was meant to be nearby, or Shaywise likely would have had a heart attack while fearing for her son. When the couple had first seen that the sword and the supplies were gone in the morning, Treyjol had taken his axe and stormed into the woods, certain the boys would still be nearby.

When the tracks led off back toward the entrance to the dungeon, he knew it was too late to go directly after them.

“Maybe we can get to them before they try to open it, Treyjol. We have to try, we should leave right now!” Shaywise insisted, already hastily throwing food and mana crystals into travelling bags.

Treyjol was a kind man, despite his gruff nature, but the thought of putting his wife in danger was beyond what his patience allowed. He took her by the shoulders and spoke clearly in a low voice, “We are going to alert the Rovers that there is a dungeon nearby with a high presence of mana. We’ll offer to split the reward for its discovery as long as they agree to launch a rescue mission for the boys.”

Shaywise looked away from him, obviously seeing the path of mana her son had taken, and looked ready to argue.

“There is no way you’re entering those dungeons. You are not made for violence, dear. The Rovers are experts at it.”

So after Treyjol put down the rest of her protestations they set off, relying heavily on Shaywise’s mana tracking to pick up the scent of the Roving Band.

“I miss the real world,” Leornal whined, sucking on a mana crystal from his pack’s reserves. “Back on Marra we could just pull all the mana we needed from the air, simple as breathing. Now we’ve gotta fucking dig it from the ground, and it can take us a week and a half just to find a good place for our shovel.”

“As if you’ve ever held a shovel in your life, old man,” said the captain of the Roving Band, Torysen. “And when we find one good store of mana, you’ll see this world isn’t so bad. Its mana-poor, sure, but can’t you feel the other energy? That strange life force that these plants seem to draw from the stars?”

“Screw the plants, and screw the stars. I just want to see the mana blossoming from the Kharlan craters once more. I want to sit in a pool and feel it soaking into my skin. This world is a desert.”

“Wait a second, do you sense that?” A third member of the band, Sentir, said, walking up close to the others. “There’s something coming.”

Torysen held a hand up in the air, then made a gesture once she had everyone’s attention. The group all at once released a wave of mana to scan the nearby area, and their combined strength gave them mana visibility for a tremendous distance.

Deep below their feet were sparkles and glimmers- mana sure enough, but hardly enough to constitute a mining effort. But off in the distance two bright lamps of mana were moving hurriedly toward them. Torysen formed a rune with her mana and held it up high for visibility, and saw the figures in the distance form the corresponding rune moments later.

The whole group eased up at once, one of the rangers chuckling even. There were hardly any dangers this far south, but that led to a danger of a different kind. This group was combat-ready by training standards, but it had been so long since they had seen real action that they couldn’t know for sure that they could react properly if a tribe of Corrosi popped up.

With a clear direction to focus, Torysen could see the two approaching, and she recognized them as Treyjol and Shaywise. She was supposed to recon with them a few days later, but couldn’t blame them if they had something exciting to share sooner.

She sent up the rune of kindness and greeting, though that was typically reserved for marking a home, and appreciated their response of a rune of familiarity.

Torysen had been on this patrol longer than most, and had been in this region even longer than the two gatherers who were now walking up. Her brother had come this way during the earliest scouting, and she had followed with the Roving Bands not long after, though they had never managed to find him.

“What news, Shaywise?” she called, as soon as the two were in hearing range.

“We found enough mana to maintain our entire population for years, to maybe reclaim the glory of Marra,” Treyjol called back in his deep voice. “But we fear there’s trouble, and we need your Rover’s help. The mana is in a dungeon, and our son has entered it.”

Torysen frowned, her Rovers might get enough combat experience to get back in shape after all.

“Are you absolutely certain the Staff of Mardun is a wise thing to leave with the monkey people? They might all just fry themselves to dust by accidentally taking too much mana at once.”

“I know the Trials classify it as legendary, but I can’t remember ever hearing a real legend about it. I don’t even believe it’s that strong. But it’ll let the human boy tinker with things he shouldn’t have any ability to tinker with, and if that doesn’t suit the spirit of the Trials I really don’t know what would.”

“Well, this is your pet project so I will trust your judgment. You will remember to not get attached, won’t you? The chances that a non-mana race will even be able to leave the first plane is nearly zero, after all.”

“Most races don’t make it off the first plane, Helzibeh. I just find it cruel that the Trials would let a race die without giving them the slightest bit of hope. If he can find just a tiny bit of strength, give the humans a fighting chance to survive their first month, then I will be able to walk away satisfied. Perhaps they’ll even pass the Staff of Mardun to a race that can use it properly.”

“Who has it now? That weird race with the feathers?”

“Yes, they’re dreadfully dumb. But moving your entire civilization underground can really stall out your development. I heard they once had actual wings, and yet somehow they decided to live in caves. But whatever their poor decisions, now they live in the Trials so fate is unkind to even the foolish.”