Heir of Synthesis: The World Mage

The days passed slowly as Priam moved between all six Pillars of the Planetary Inscription. He visited all thirteen treasure areas, and in every single one, he found dozens of medicinal herbs.

They weren’t anything insanely amazing, just average by Divine Plane standards. He could probably buy them inside the sect, but getting them in such quantities and completely for free made all the difference. To Priam, they were treasures that would open up countless possibilities.

The knowledge he had previously acquired through the system proved incredibly useful, telling him exactly what the energy properties of every herb were. So he gathered everything he came across without hesitation.

Using Divine Concealment, along with the experience he had already built up escaping from and avoiding Corrupted Beasts, Priam managed to sneak into their territories and quietly collect everything.

Occasionally, he ran into Beasts that were extremely close to the treasures. In those cases, he would set up a trap using his poisoned arrows.

Fortunately, Corrupted Beasts possessed extremely low intelligence. Even obvious traps were enough to make them fall for them.

Using Transcendental Anima and his experience to identify each Beast’s weak points, all he had to do was poison them and then run like there was no tomorrow. Eventually, he always came out on top.

On top of that, his speed and mastery over the wind element kept improving. Priam had reached a completely different level in that regard.

By the time exactly one month of exile had passed, he had already killed a dozen Corrupted Beasts... plus a Quasi-Sage Mage as a bonus.

That day, he found something unusual.

It was a gigantic crater. Priam immediately sensed that it wasn’t natural and became certain that it was hiding something.

After slowly climbing down the crater walls, it wasn’t hard to find the entrance to a cave. It was an enormous opening, clearly forced open by brute strength.

Inside...

There was a dark hall. The entire floor and walls were covered in runic inscriptions. However, everything was obviously completely drained of energy.

Priam observed the place for a long time, deep in thought.

”The Sages discovered this place a very, very long time ago. It was probably built by the Sorcerers. Even after removing all its energy, the planet’s corruption remained. Maybe the Sages decided not to destroy it so they could study it and, who knows, find some kind of clue. But apparently, they never found anything.”

That was the most logical conclusion. With everything completely devoid of energy, there was no way that place could still have any connection to or influence over the planet’s strange phenomena. It was like a car without fuel or electricity—nothing more than an inert object.

”...a genuine Sorcerer inscription...”

Priam rubbed his chin.

Inscriptions were extremely common in the Divine Plane, just as common as pills.

When it came to pills, the medicinal herbs and materials had an enormous impact on the final product. An extraordinary Alchemist could perform miracles even with low-grade materials, but there was always a very clear limit that could never be surpassed.

Inscriptions, however, were completely different. The creator’s skill and creativity in developing unusual inscriptions had a much greater influence on the final result.

Because of that, both high-level inscriptions and the knowledge required to study them and become a great Inscription Creator were absolute secrets.

The Sorcerers undoubtedly had specialists in this field, but...

”The fundamental power of high-level Sorcerers is Corruption. Their Inscription Creators definitely develop everything using only that power, because ordinary Mages would never be able to manipulate it properly, much less understand it.”

Priam understood the Sorcerers a little better after acquiring the system’s new knowledge about Energies. Basically, Corruption was a type of energy, just like a natural element.

The system simply stated that it possessed an extraordinary ability to attack, defend, and greatly enhance a person’s physical attributes, albeit at an extremely high cost.

The Sorcerers were known for murdering people and using their life force to strengthen themselves. So it was highly likely that this power was created by burning life force through some method that only the Sorcerers of the Divine Plane had mastered.

The conclusion was simple: the inscription inside that cave could never be understood by Mages, for obvious reasons.

But...

Priam took a deep breath.

Ordinary Mages were completely incapable of manipulating or using Corruption.

He...

Didn’t have that problem.

Priam waved his hand, and from inside the Nexus Seed, a dozen tiny remnants of pure Corruption emerged.

He had collected them from the cores of the Corrupted Beasts he had killed. Back then, he figured those fragments might come in handy someday. Maybe some unusual Power Rune would require that kind of material. Either way, it was better to have them than not.

Now, he had found another use for them.

[Dominate?] [Yes / No]

Priam completely dominated those fragments of Corruption, and from that moment on, he could manipulate them freely.

Without hesitation, he walked to the center of the hall, where there was a much more intricate set of runic inscriptions. That was, without a doubt, the core of everything.

Priam carefully guided the Corruption into the core. Then, using his control over it, he made it begin to ”burn.”

It was basically the same as Aether. Every beginner Mage learned early on that, to use it in any way, they had to manipulate and catalyze it to generate energy. Priam called that process ”burning” because that was simply how he understood it mentally.

Going back to the cave, the Sages who had discovered that place might have even thought about extracting the Corruption from the Beast cores and then finding some way to force it into the inscription’s core.

But they would never be able to make the Corruption ”burn” and activate its raw power. That was something only a Sorcerer could accomplish.

*BUZZ*

Suddenly, the entire cave began glowing with an ominous light. The inscription received energy once again after an immeasurable period of inactivity.

A black sphere appeared in the center of the hall. It was translucent and slowly rotated. It was clearly the inscription’s control core.

Priam reached out, sensing the sphere...

”?”

Suddenly, he realized that the entire place was connecting to another location somewhere else on the same planet.

He could faintly sense the destination...

*Fwoom...*

The next instant, all the light vanished, and the inscription completely lost its energy.

Priam let out a faint sigh. He had only used a tiny amount of Corruption to power it, so it was only natural that the inscription had functioned for a brief moment.

But now...

He quickly took out the map and began searching for a specific location.

”It has to be here!”

He pointed at a vast plain located in the planet’s far southwest. It was a region far away from the six Inscription Pillars, as well as the thirteen locations marked as treasure areas.

He was certain because he had sensed an extremely low concentration of energy there, along with only a faint flow of the wind and water elements.

Across the entire planet, the two places with the lowest concentration of energy were the desert where everything had begun and that plain.

”There are a few smaller places with similar characteristics, but only this plain and the desert stand out this much,” he muttered.

Then, without wasting any time, he set off.

After returning to one of the Inscription Pillars, he teleported to the pillar closest to that vast plain. Then he headed toward it as fast as he could.

...

The journey took two days, since Priam couldn’t afford to let his guard down and end up being discovered by the Corrupted Beasts.

The plain was enormous, covered in low green vegetation and crisscrossed by countless rivers flowing in every direction. It looked peaceful and quiet... and in fact, it was. For some reason, the natural elements in that region were incredibly faint and weak.

Priam advanced slowly, carefully watching for even the slightest unusual detail. There were Corrupted Beasts around, but only a few, and each one controlled an enormous territory.

Without a doubt, something connected to the mystery of that planet was hidden somewhere in that area.

Hours passed until...

[Treasure detected!]

[Primordial Chaos Corrupted Seed is nearby.]

Priam stopped in his tracks, surprised.

Then another unexpected window appeared before him.

[Notice: You have detected a World Power Seed for the first time. After absorbing it, your System Assimilation level will increase dramatically in a single leap.]

”System Assimilation...”

Priam reread those words, feeling his heart race.

Ever since the tragedy involving the Pristine Wild-Spirits, when he had reached Assimilation Level 2, he hadn’t received any sign of progress toward the next level.

Now, he had finally discovered why.

The system needed to absorb certain things in order to evolve. Were they like nutrients the Nexus Seed needed in order to sprout?

”Great. I need to find it. I have no idea what a World Power Seed is, but that name sounds incredible. And for something like that to be here, it has to be connected to everything that went wrong on this planet.”