The Inventory

The last notification was something new for Freya, as she failed to understand its meaning. She opened the description for the Inventory function and a blue pane appeared before her.

[Inventory

Description: Anything that the players wants to be stored will be put in the inventory space. The inventory space is separated dimensional space that is only available to five circle or higher space mages. The current space available is nine meter cubed volume. This space can be increased as the system receives more upgrades. The items placed in the inventory will store in a separate artificial dimension and will drastically reduce the player's burdens.]

As Freya read the description, she slowly began to understand what it was, bit by bit. It was a function for storing items, but unlike a physical bag, it will transfer the item to some other place. It was just a convenient storage space, but the value of this convenience wasn't lost on her.

Freya brought up the inventory menu and a rectangular blue car titled 'Inventory' popped up. Under the title, there was a three by three, grid of small squares. Freya picked up one of the twin axes she had brought with her and thought of storing it in the inventory.

A dim white light enveloped the axe and it disappeared from her hands a moment later. In the corner square of the grid, an icon for an axe appeared. When Freya thought of taking out the axe, the icon disappeared and the axe reappeared in her hands.

'This amazing!' Freya thought with shining eyes as she stored her bag, her two swords and the twin axes in her inventory and it only took three squares. 'With this, I don't have to carry around that damn back-breaking bag. I don't know how to thank you, Artium.'

'Really?' the mage asked sarcastically, 'You didn't thank me for so many skills that made you so strong and you are thanking me just because this function reduced your carry burden.'

'Well, yes,' Freya felt embarrassed, 'but also thank you for everything else. I'm truly grateful.'

Freya gave final look at the look at the inventory, the top three square were filled with two crossed axes, a bag and a two crossed swords icons respectively in each square. Then she finally remembered that she still had the Master ranked skill book in the bag and had forgotten to take it out.

She was about to curse at the thought of taking out the bag and then taking the book out of it, when the skill book appeared in her had with a flash of white light. The mage was delighted to learn that she didn't have to take out her bag every time she wanted something from it.

She looked at the book in her hand. It was a dark purple book and had a large rune on its cover. The rune was different from those on the Epic ranked skill books and it also had a circle surrounding the rune. With a quick thought, the description menu appeared.

[Skill: Jura's Twin Axes Style

Type: Passive

Rank: Master

Description: A twin axes wielding technique developed by the Legendary Orc Ancestor, Jura. He developed it during his early years and later abandoned this style to create a more powerful one. However, that doesn't mean this style is weak, it's a very powerful set of techniques that are still used to this day by his descendants. The only caveat is that its true power can only be embodied with aura energy. Without Aura, its power is greatly reduced.

Restriction: Aura Energy, Two Axes]

Freya went into deep thought as she studied the description of the new skill in front of her. After a while, she came out of her thought and asked Art, 'Is this skill stronger than the Swordsmanship of the Lightning King?'

'Yes.' Artium answered, 'But if you learn this skill, it will only hinder your growth tremendously in the future.'

'How?'

'As the description mentions, even the creator had to abandon this style in favor of a stronger one.' The Ancient mage continued to explain, 'While I accept that it is a more powerful technique than the lightning king's style, the swordsmanship style is only a stepping stone for you.'

'Once you truly master it, you will have great understanding of the sword and you will be able to easily awaken your Aura. After that you will get a better skill, but if you learn this skill now, a time will come when you will realize how big of a mistake you made.'

'Fine, fine.' The female groaned as her hopes were dashed. She was so excited to learn her first Master ranked skill. 'So what should I do?'

'Exchange it for credit points' the soul answered emotionlessly.

Freya reluctantly agreed and opened up the Skill Exchange menu.

[Do you want to exchange this skill book for credit points? Y/N]

Freya steeled her heart as she pushed the Y button.

[The skill has been successfully exchanged. +3000 credit points.]

"Three thousands!" the mage couldn't help but shout in outrage as the skill book disappeared from her hands in a white light. 'What kind of joke is this? Aren't Master ranked passive skills worth eight thousands points?'

'No, you can buy a Master ranked skill for eight thousand points.' Art quickly explain to calm her down. 'The system will only give you points based on the quality of the skill exchanged. This only means its quality wasn't that high for a Master ranked skill.'

"Humph!" Freya huffed at the low number of points, but didn't pursue it any further and swiped away from the menu. She wanted to master her current skills before buying any new skills. She had enough to buy three Epic rank active skill but she decided it could wait.

Finally, she turned to the last of her errands for the night. A smiled appeared on her face as with a single thought, a dark gray blade appeared out of nowhere in her hand with a flash of white light.

'This is going to be fun.' Freya looked at the blade in her hand. Her smile widened further at how the docile the blade was being. Usually such a docile state meant the sword had exhausted it miasma reserves and didn't have any left to fight, but the mage could feel that the gem was almost full of miasma.

Freya mentally ordered the sword to release the energy and it resisted for a moment before a flurry of purple energy erupted from the sword but didn't harm her. With another order, the dark miasma rushed towards her hands and travelled through the mana channels that Artium had formed like an obedient child

The rune in the middle of the purple circle began to expand and continued it progress as she pumped more and more miasma into it. Unlike the blinding pain she felt before, now she only felt a slight tickle through her hand, in places where mana and miasma collided. It was purely due to the cooperation of the sword and Art's handling of her mana.

No matter how much, she tried, she couldn't even force her mana to form a small tube, let alone the long tunnels that Art had formed. It was just extremely refined mastery of mana. The best she could achieve was for a small ring, and even that was once the mana had left her body. Inside her body, the mana concentration was too dense to even try.

Almost a minute later, the rune reached completion and Freya stopped absorbing any more of the poisonous energy. As the rune was fully formed, the whole rune circle glowed brightly before vanishing from her hand.

[You have completed the quest, Demonic Energy (Miasma).]

[You have received a Skill/Trait Evolution Card.]

Freya unconsciously felt the space in her inventory fill up and she opened the inventory menu to see one of the slots filled with rectangular card icon. With a thought, a small deep purple card appeared in her hand and it had the same rune as the one that had been on the back of her hand a few seconds prior.

[Skill/Trait Evolution Card

Type: Demonic

Description: An Evolution card is powerful tool that can force a skill or a trait to evolve into a better version of itself based on the card's nature. This card will increase the power of any skill or trait that it is used on, and the skill will gain a demonic component. However, due to its demonic nature, the skill or trait may also gain a negative effect.

Restriction: Only skills up to Epic Rank can be evolved.]