Soulpets

The two balls of energy in Arnik's Soulspace were quite different from each other in terms of both looks and size.

The larger of the two was a mass of blue flames. This represented his fire affinity and a lot had changed since he first got it.

Initially, it had only been a small orange-colored flame but eventually, it began to show changes of growth as Arnik strengthened it, but that had only been in size and the intensity of the flames.

The biggest change came after the fight with Rowan, the orange-colored flame had changed its color, increased in size, and burnt much more intensely than ever before. Also, Arnik realized that he could control his flames a lot better since these changes occurred.

He took a few steps towards the blue flames and stretched his hands towards them, initially, nothing happened, but eventually, the flames began stretching towards Arnik and what looked to be the head of the Basan appeared, it gave a loud screech before lowering its head for a pet.

Arnik had seen this happen many times and had even spoken to Olea about it and had gotten a decent explanation.

The Basan had more or less become Arnik's Soulpet. What happened was that the creature had submitted itself to Arnik and fused itself with his mana through a process generally known as Spirit Bonding.

Since it was a creature with flame attributes, it automatically affected his fire elemental affinity and allowed it to become much stronger than before.

According to Olea, Soulpets were not uncommon.

Every magi-creature had a core, and the power within these cores varied based on the elemental affinity of the said creature and the power level of such creature, Magi-creatures were divided into five levels based on these conditions.

They were D ranks, C ranks, B ranks, A ranks, and S ranks. Experts of the magi-creature field believed that there were legendary creatures above the level of S rank, these were called SS ranks but since they were extremely rare, many considered them extinct.

A magi-creature had various uses based on its ranks and abilities, for instance, the lower ranked creatures from D and C ranks were used to make low-tier magi gear and their magi-cores were used to power simple magi equipment.

B-ranked creatures were used to produce mid-tier magi gear and their cores were used to power slightly more advanced magi equipment.

A-ranked creatures were used to produce high-tier magi-gear and their magi-cores were strong enough to provide enough power for an entire household.

Also, the magi-cores gotten from A-ranked and above creatures were strong enough to be absorbed by a mage to strengthen element affinities corresponding to that creature, also there had been a few instances where mages were lucky enough to obtain a skill from such creatures.

Although there was a major difference between A-ranked creatures and S-ranked creatures.

A creature at S-rank would most likely have already obtained consciousness and the core of such a creature would have a will inside of it. What that means is that if a mage decided to absorb the core of such a creature, the core of that creature could reject the mage if it feels that he/she is not worthy of its power.

Apart from the core, the skin and other resources gotten from S-ranked creatures were used to make legendary tier armor as well as weapons, and due to their rarity, such equipment was very hard to come by and even harder to purchase.

The same thing applies to SS-ranked creatures as well, only a few mages in history had managed to ever absorb the core of these creatures, that is if they could even find them.

The few pieces of equipment rumored to have been gotten from such creatures were regarded as mythic tier and most were owned by either the government or the largest families.

The essence of Spirit Bonding was to demolish the existing will of a creature and reconstruct it as a new being connected to the mage. The new being usually had the consciousness of a newborn and had the potential to grow as the mage got stronger as such Soulpets were popular among the younger generation as they had room to grow.

Olea had told Arnik that the orb of the Blue Basan had been acquired by the headmaster Quintus Millenia.

Several students had tried to absorb the core of the Basan in the past, but it had refused every one of them, due to its rarity however, Quintus had refused to let it be used as just a power source.

Arnik let out a sigh, and then squeezed his hand into a tight fist,

"Now that it's in my mind, I'll make the most of this power ", he muttered to himself with determination etched on his face.

He turned to look at the other mass of energy in his Soulspace, unlike the giant blue flame burning calmly, this mass of energy with a blue almost translucent color seemed very much unstable.

It didn't have a definite shape and would occasionally shoot bolts of lightning in random directions. It was also a lot smaller in size compared to his flames.

"It seems about ready to break through into the next level, okay then, let's do this ".

Arnik sat cross-legged in his Soulspace and concentrated as hard as he could on the small ball of lightning in front of him, at first nothing noteworthy happened but eventually a slim tube extended out of the floor he was seated on and connected itself to the ball of lightning.

Immediately after that happened, the ball began pulsating and started increasing in size.

********************

Outside of Arnik's Soulspace, Arnik was seated on the floor of his room with his eyes closed, a small vortex had appeared on his chest and was rapidly sucking in all the mana in the room and the nearby vicinity.

The door to the room opened and three people entered the room, they were Arnik's roommates and had just returned from the training hall.

Rowan, Arnik's classmate and childhood friend, Floki, a second-year with wind affinity, and lastly Haust, a third-year with flame affinity.

The four of them stayed in the same room in the Serdana dorm and their seniors had been helpful to both of them.

"Even though I've seen this several times, I still can't get over how he's able to gather so much mana from the environment so quickly ", Haust said with an exasperated look on his face.

"Yeah, it really is amazing for a first-year", Floki replied with a slight smile on his face.

Rowan simply stared at Arnik with a bright smile on his face, to think that this was his same friend who had always longed to practice magic.

"Best not to bother him, " Floki said before moving further into the room to change out of his training clothes, the other two followed him quietly.

*******************

Back in Arnik's Soulspace, it had been almost two hours before the ball of lightning began showing even more signs of instability, it looked like it was about to explode.

Arnik had experienced this several times and knew that there was no need for panic, he carefully retraced the slim tube and created an invisible barrier around the ball of energy.

Immediately after he did this, the ball of energy began condensing. It became smaller and smaller till it eventually imploded.

Arnik waited for a little while, before removing the invisible barrier, initially there was a small spark but it started growing bigger and bigger. The lightning bolts from this ball were stronger than before, also the size of the ball of lightning had stabilized and was slightly bigger than before.

Arnik placed two fingers on his forehead and immediately left his Soulspace. When he returned to the real world he was still seated cross-legged on the floor of his room. It had grown darker outside and his roommates were lying in bed.

He looked at a small ball of lightning in his open palm and closed his fist.

"Level 3 lightning, done "