CHAPTER 49: OPPORTUNITY

All around him, Baruch saw dense darkness and mist.

Twirling in the same spot, his mind raced as he looked in different directions. He didn’t hear his heart beat, but the sense of awe and fear still clutched at his chest.

He looked down at his body and raised both his hands with a look of wonder. At certain moments, it was like he could see through them, but the optical illusion didn’t last and they were back to looking like his real hands.

He was dressed in the light wool he was wearing in his room. After assessing himself a short while longer, he calmed himself and stood straight, his eyes darting at different spots in the thick mist.

When something is completely beyond his understanding, Baruch was the type of person to easily give up, mostly because he didn’t like difficult things and would get bored with easy things.

This time though, he didn’t give up out of boredom, but patience.

That feeling he felt in his room was like the first time he’d been with a woman or the first time he’d smoked the tilav, only times more ecstatic.

He wasn’t a spiritual person, but when it’s right in front of you, doubt and questions might not be the best decision.

Of course, part of him thought it could be a high rank mage. To be able to bring me to such a space.

It didn’t matter to him, if at only the first rank he could bend his body like he was boneless and infect people with diseases, a high rank mage and a god might be no different.

Just as he thought this, the mist around him got restless, dispersing like it was being blown away by strong winds and he felt a gaze land on him.

It felt like it came from all directions in the abysmal darkness, ancient and vast.

Most of his initial excitement turned into deep fear, and no longer thinking of the ecstasy of that moment, he went down to his feet, feeling like it was indeed an ancient horror he had come in contact with.

The chaotic mist around him stopped for a moment and then engulfed him.

The next moment, he was screaming on the floor of his room.

...

Hadrian was approaching the whole thing with cautiousness and in truth, he was debating if he should kill the guy.

He might have been a passive beneficiary, given his post due to his uncle, but he was involved with vile men.

But at the same time, this was the first time something like this had happened, and Hadrian had always been the type of person to show great interest in new things.

In any case, he’d done his little experiment and learned a few things.

One, Baruch was just as powerless to him in here, if not more, than he was in the real world. This was good, it meant Baruch could not affect him.

Second, after summoning Baruch up here and busting his tiny fog ball mass, Hadrian could, if he wanted to, speak to him in the real world through his mind.

Third, and maybe the most important, was the true purpose of the tiny fog ball masses.

Hadrian’s main vessel formed out of the mist and he approached one other tiny fog ball.

He sent out his intent to it, and just as he’d expected, nothing happened.

I have to first turn them into my vessels in the real world, it seems.

His pupils shrunk.

Not really vessels, though. What will I call them?

On the matter of Baruch, he’d come clear on what to do, and it would also be part of his experiment.

He wasn’t stupid.

Clearly, the only explicable reason as to why it was like this with Baruch, has to have something to do with his path.

One of the new paths Hadrian was hearing buzz about in his little mage world.

One of the three paths, which he thought, had a clear connection to his authority.

Mind, Soul, and Flesh.

Due to Baruch’s nature and crimes, Hadrian found himself dejected at the man and did not wish to benefit him the joy that, for whatever reason, he was giving him.

However, unlike the other cores, Baruch’s was tied with a fog string to his tiny fog ball mass.

If Hadrian was to kill him, he wasn’t sure what would happen, and he did not wish to lose an experimental subject this early on.

Of course, if he found another mage like Baruch, who belonged to one of those three paths, he would be happy to test what would happen.

Baruch also has a core. I can only assume he can ascend his path like the other mages.

If the paths were truly connected to his authority, Hadrian found it strange. He, unlike Baruch, didn’t possess a core and all his abilities were tied to his vessels. Which meant he could not ascend like regular mages.

He didn’t think it was a bad thing, just strange. In only a fortnight, he’d become a rank two mage while from Bagdona’s description, it seemed to take some mages years to rise in rank.

It had its cons too.

If he had three vessels with cores from different pathways and one of those vessels happened to be killed, he wouldn’t be able to substitute that vessel’s core to his other vessels since they repelled each other.

That would mean he’d just lose that core, or cores. If it was a powerful core or cores, he lost, like Truston’s, he can only imagine how it would feel after everything he’d gone through to obtain them.

That’s the other thing with Baruch’s core and essence. It seamlessly merged into the other vessels and cores, and he could use Baruch’s first rank abilities on any vessel, whether they had a different path’s core or not.

It felt like it synergized well with him, and it was one of the reasons that reinforced the idea that Baruch’s path was tied to his authority.

The other reason was of course Baron’s reaction to Hadrian grasping at his essence.

It wasn’t fight or flight like the other mages and creatures, but seemed to be more like a heavenly experience for him.

Hadrian wriggled with disgust. Was it like I was pleasuring him?

He shook the thought out of his head, twirled into the fog, and left the space.

I wonder if when Baruch ascends, it will affect my connection to him. If it doesn’t, then I can benefit from his hard work without lifting a finger. He doesn’t look like a hard worker, though.

Thinking of Baruch, Hadrian didn’t really know what to do with him at the moment.

With Baruch still being very conscious, he could not just throw him into situations like with his other vessels.

Unless I want to punish the bastard, I can’t just make him do things he would rather not.

Hadrian looked up into that beautiful night sky and the stars that reminded him of those tiny balls of white fog.

Well, I want to find other mages like Baruch.

Those in the mind, soul and flesh path.