Chapter 8: Recruitment

Slowly waking up from his dream, Lorian looked at the celling before getting out of bed.

Thoughts swarmed his mind as he stood up before quickly checking his progress.

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Race: Human 

Strength: 6 

Speed: 8 

Stamina: 8 

Intelligence: 100 [MAX] 

Path: Time 

Aptitude: D 

Mana: 12

Path Rank: 1 

Path Progress: 0/450 

Skills: [Heavenly Hourglass (EX)] 

Path Attributes: [Perception of Time (SSS)] 

Blessings: [Blessed by Fate] 

Curses: [Cured by Fate] [Curse of Chaos] 

Artifacts: --- 

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'My mana is slowly starting to accumulate; my other stats are extremely high for my rank.'

Lorian had a cold gaze as he checked over everything; mana was slowly accumulating while everything else he had was extremely high.

Mana accumulation was different for every aptitude. D-tier aptitudes had a mana accumulation rate of around 12 mana per day.

E ranks got around 7 a day while

F-ranked couldn't get a single drop.

A majority of the population in this world simply had an aptitude of F. It wasn't that they didn't want to become a Path Master. Fate simply didn't allow a F-ranked mortal to refine their path.

Even if some person had helped them get mana, the Runes within the mortal couldn't be refined by the F-ranked mortal; it was pointless and futile to try.

Lorian took a look around the room as he picked up his backpack that he had bought and picked up the water flask. 

He walked outside his door, closing it before walking downstairs. He walked downstairs and grabbed some dinner and filled up his flask before walking out the door and heading off.

As he walked down the streets, Lorian had the aura of a Rank 1 Path master; mortals would tend to scatter and avoid him, not even trying to go near him.

After walking for several minutes, he finally reached the entrance into the inner city, where only Path Masters could go.

The people guarding the entrance let him in quite easily; as long as one was Rank 1, you could be let in. Security within this inner city was quite relaxed; nobody dared to steal anything.

After all, the city lord within this city was a Rank 4 Path Master, and the officers patrolling this place were Rank 3

As Lorian walked in the city, the atmosphere was completely different from the outside. The streets were clean, and buildings were constructed properly.

There were shops everywhere and had better places to stay; as a person entered closer and closer to the center of the city, the nicer the surroundings would become.

In the center of the city stood a castle, where the city lord resides. The castle was quite big compared to the rest of the buildings.

It reached over 50 feet and was built out of a marble-white material. As Lorian headed towards the center of the building, he also got closer to the castle, showing just how huge it is.

As he walked towards the center, he eventually arrived at the Viscounts recruitment center.

Surrounding him were tens of different Path Masters, varying heavily. He could sense the aura from within them; a majority of them were Rank 1, and a few were Rank 2.

The Viscount was offering good money and benefits for the Path Masters that signed up, but they had to contribute to the Viscount.

The main idea was that the viscount would offer quests that the contracted Path Masters would pick up and do for a certain price.

All Path Masters will also be paid 7 silver a week, but the contract deal they had to hold up to was that during a certain time in winter, all the Path Master's would have to launch a raid on the Castle of Detachment.

Lorian glanced ahead as he saw the line slowly moving forward; at the very front of the line were two Path Masters.

They had an aura of a Rank 3 Path Master as they quickly made contracts with other Path Masters.

In one of the hands of the guards held an artifact called the Blood Contract Scroll.

Artifacts are a type of tool used by Path Master's; they were made of materials that contained Runes within them; they usually had one special ability. 

The expectational difference was that the artifact could be used by any type of Path Master. The artifact could be of the Water Path, but a Fire Path Master could use it as long as they had enough mana.

The Blood Contract Scroll was a blood path artifact, letting the people use a drop of their blood to sign a contract agreeing with the details.

There were two types of artifacts in this world: converging and divergent. Every artifact contained different ranks and skills, varying from how they were created and what was used to create them.

Convergent artifacts were made of materials that contained runes, called runic materials. By combing the same path of Runic Materials, with enough time and understanding of the path, a person could eventually create one.

Blood Contract Scroll was a part of the Convergent side of artifacts; the Runic materials used to create it were Rank 3, and so naturally it was also a Rank 3 artifact.

Eventually, the line shrank as Lorian reached to the front of the line.

The guards looked at Lorian before speaking.

"Look at the contract before agreeing to it; if you agree, then use a drop of your blood on the contract."

The guard on the left that wasn't holding the artifact spoke with a plain voice as Lorian looked over the contract.

Lorian had obviously seen it before; he made the face of a person being extremely focused as he looked through the contract.

Lorian looked up and spoke to the guards,

"Alright, I accept the contract."

The guard on the left that wasn't holding the artifact gave Lorian a needle. Lorian quickly poked himself with a needle, dropping his blood on the artifact, setting the contract in place.

After completing that, the guard gave Lorian his 7 silver coins and a token as Lorian left.

With the contract deal, Lorian had a good amount of freedom within this city. The quests wouldn't start until the recruitment process is over, which will take until the day after tomorrow.

Lorian once again headed to the market and grabbed some supplies that he needed and some rations that he could eat.

Lorian headed towards the city gate, which led to outside of the city. As he got to it, he quickly showed the guards his token that he had gotten from the contract, and they let him out without any hesitation.

Lorian quickly looked at the sun, figuring out where he was, and started to head north.

Even though his destination was a couple of miles away, with his newfound speed and stamina from ascending to a Path Master, he got there extremely quick.

Once he got there, he once saw the wondrous view—the Lake of Sorrow and the Castle of Detachment.

This place was absolutely stunning; it seemed surreal. The lake was perfectly blue, while the castle in the distance was made out of ice, flashing brightly with the sun's rays.

He stood at the edge of the lake, glancing at his own reflection before turning and walking around the lake. Eventually he found a huge rock beside the lake. Lorian climbed on top of it before sitting down and starting to refine his path.

He specifically came here to use the Nature Refinement Method. This place was dense with mana, making the area favorable for Lorian to refine his path.

Within the city, there wasn't much natural mana anywhere, making it impossible for Lorian to cultivate.

Along with that, Lorian couldn't use his own mana that was accumulating due to his low aptitude. Lorian had to save up his mana; otherwise, in dire situations, he couldn't do much.

This was the single biggest flaw that Lorian had: his low mana accumulation rate. This was an extremely unfavorable situation for Lorian.

Lorian pushed those thoughts away as he slowly started to use the refinement method.

As he was sitting down, he closed his eyes as he started to focus, paying extreme attention to what was happening.

Taking in the mana from nature and using it to refine a person's path. The process required a lot of attention and used up a lot of energy.

Lorian slowly used this method, taking small breaks when he had the time; eventually the sun in the sky started to dim as Lorian continued.