New Power

He skulked around the library, nervously biting the tips of his fingers. He wanted to understand more about this worlds powers. He was keenly aware from his previous life that age awakenings typically were just the median age when people would awaken, not the specific age. The issue he now face was that he didn't know enough about mana.

He walked over to the section that had all of the books on magic and traced his finger across their spines until he settled on the one he was looking for – Basics of the emblem.

He settled into a corner away from prying eyes and began to read.

[The emblem acts as the magic wielders source of power. It draws on the mana settled inside of the wielders mana core, propelling that power around their body allowing it to take on specific shapes. It does this by recognising the emblems shape and choosing the optimal type of magic that would suit the wielders body and mana potency]

'So it already optimises your body?'.

[The emblem itself doesn't signify what attribute a wielder will be able to use, although it does give us some indication towards what it may be. Basic emblems, such as the fire, earth, water, wind, light and dark emblems, each signify the lowest level of elemental magic]

[Emblems often grant specific skills or attributes to a wielder, rather than just elemental magic. An emblem's given skill cannot be changed and it will not be altered by the elemental magic you also learn. When it comes to learning elemental magic, the emblem also places restrictions as to ensure you don't overload your body]

He bit down on his finger, falling into though.

'To me, rather than an emblem acting as a balancing act, it seems that the world itself was created in perfect harmony. It sounds like it ensures a few people don't get far too powerful and start breaking the bounds of the world'.

This was an act he knew all too well from his previous life. As a dragon, something as simple as breaking the bounds of the world was an easy task for one such as him. It wasn't just him, he had met countless humans in all shapes and sizes who had reached the 12 courts through their cultivation and had been forced to leave their worlds behind.

He was one of them, born as a dragonborn in the Azure clan his talent for cultivation quickly bloomed alongside his natural inclination towards the 4 essences. It wasn't until he began to see the fruits of his labour that he started to realise that getting too powerful was actually more of a problem for those around him.

Everyday tasks started getting delegated to him simply because he could do it faster than others.

People became wholly reliant on his strength when it was needed, but he was cast away when peace was established. It was then he began slipping into the wrong path, killing and stealing other people's essence in return for accelerating his own growth. That was when it happened, his very presence became a disruption to the world and he was forced to flee into a higher plane of existence.

'So I take it that whoever created this world did it this way so that each person wouldn't be able to start damaging the world with their strength. If that is the case, is there even any point in attempting to grow in power?'.

But even if that was the case, it didn't explain what an emblem actually entailed in order to weaken a person, as well as strengthen them. Choosing to ignore his own thoughts, he flipped the page revealing a demonstration of what an accurate emblem might look like.

[Name: Sword Dancer]

[Ability: Sword skills, 100 blades – can create the illusion of 100 blades and excel at close combat with a sword]

[Type: Brawler]

[Elemental attribute strengths: Wind and Light]

[Weaknesses: Casters and Dark magic]

[Sacrifices: For each sword conjured the wielder loses 1% of their mana potency. It takes a full week to recover to 100%]

'I see, so it really is like the entire there is no power without consequence type of situation. It reminds me quite a bit of how Qi, Yu, Shi and Ta used to work together and prevent one essence from far surpassing the other'.

Thanks to his experience, he was already familiar with this concept.

When he was a member of the 12 courts, he experimented more than he should have with the essences and found out that they coexisted alongside one another with perfect harmony. Qi was weak to Ta, Ta was weak to Shi, Shi was weak to Yu and Yu was weak to Qi. Each of the essences perfectly counteracted one another, that was why it was so rare to find someone who could wield them all simultaneously.

Strength coming with consequence was a common thing to the extremely powerful few he had met. It was the first time he had seen it demonstrated on such a low level, people who were as young as 7 would have a hinderance in their way from the very moment they awakened. That was a drastic change he would need to get used to.

With his experience with the scroll of rebirth, strength with consequence wasn't anything unusual. In fact, a large majority of the taboo arts he dabbled in all had severe consequences. He thought back to the time he killed another dragonborn and stole their essence, but his blood shifted from a deep crimson to a pale purple … he found himself bedridden for 14 years.

'That wasn't fun in the slightest, how was I supposed to know his essence was poison to my body'.

Milo furrowed his brows, focusing intently on his past with the essences. He had originally wondered if he might be able to translate it to mana.

Since coming to this world, he had attempted to let go of his attachment to his previous life. It was an act he started to feel was impossible, his vast knowledge would be a major factor in how his life in this new world went. He wasn't willing to let go of it just because the power was under a different name, if he could use his experience with the essences for mana, he could jump leaps and bounds within a single year.

'Well I guess I won't know if I don't actually give it a try first'.

He flipped the page, continuing to read about the workings of the emblem.

[To find out what emblem you have, the method is very simple. Get a plain sheet of paper and trace this crest using black ink, drop a few drops of blood onto the crest and allow it to seep into the paper, eventually the ink will slowly rearrange itself, revealing your own emblem statistics]

Drawn beneath these words was what looked like a demonic summoning seal. It had 7 points with countless lines in the shapes of X's running throughout. He folded the corner of the page and hurried around the library, desperately searching for a piece of paper. He pulled open a draw and found a stack of unused paper and a quill. He took five pages just in case he messed up the drawing.

He appeared as if he really was a child, lay on the floor scribbling on a piece of paper. He constantly checked over his shoulder, ensuring the ever-troublesome Melissa wasn't watching him. He scanned from the corner of his eye, ensuring that the image he was drawing was as close to the original as he could possibly get it.

Finally, he sat up and without hesitation, bit down on his thumb and allowed the blood to eerily trickle onto the page, dying it bright red. He winced as he brought his arms up to cover his eyes as the page took on a red hue, lighting up the entire library.

He stared on slack jawed as the black ink steadily started to gravitate towards the middle of the page, taking on the shapes of letters. Each one organised a neat line, explaining specific parts and perks of his emblem.

The bright red page slowly lifted about an inch from the floor, and shook itself?

'What in the fucking hell is going on?'.

A thick black smoke shot from the page and swirled around Milo's body. He tried to track it with his eyes, but even with his vast amounts of combat experience, it was still too fast for the eye to see. It shot into his back; he lurched forward feeling a searing pain overtake his entire body. He wanted to let out a bloodcurdling roar but was forced to bite his bottom lip out of fear his family would notice him.

He lifted his gaze from the floor, noticing the page had finally settled. He pulled it towards him and despite his pain, his eyes widened when he read the name of the emblem.

[Name: Soul Harvester]

[Ability: Harvest the souls of slain enemies and boost your own power by stealing. By doing so, you can steal their mana and abilities, but are shackled by the weight of their existence lying dormant inside your conscious]

'This … feels weirdly familiar …'.

He slumped back onto his hands and wiped away the sweat trickling down his face as the cogs in his mind began to turn. His initial and only reasonable thought was that it had something to do with the fact he was a reincarnate. His previous life was the same after all, he killed and stole countless powers and forbidden arts. So he thought that somehow fate itself had recognised him and given him the skills to match.

This however, wasn't the problem.

[Type: ???]

Where he should have been listed as either a brawler or a caster, he got question marks.

'I assume that if my power has a name that means someone in the past has also wielded it, but the question marks leave me relatively confused. Does it mean I am both or I am neither? If it is neither, what exactly am I supposed to do?'.

[Elemental attribute strengths: Dark, Fire, Wind, Earth and Water]

Being as clueless as he was when it came to elemental attributes, he didn't think too much of this assessment. All he knew was that if he had 5 strengths then he was likely to have a major flaw.

[Weaknesses: Light magic]

'That was a given, if it wasn't listed in the strengths then light was obviously going to be a weakness of mine. Not to mention it's just common sense that light opposes dark'.

He looked down towards his last section. His eyes widened as they read each word, he rubbed them hoping that he may have read them wrong. His fingers gripped the page, crumpling it in his frustration.

'No, for the love of god tell me that isn't actually what I think it is … that shouldn't even be here …'.

[Sacrifice: Deity's discerning eye – For each soul harvested that doesn't make it to the afterlife, the deity's eye slowly alerts him of your presence]

He gripped the side of his head, rubbing his temples as all sorts of thoughts suddenly flowed through his mind.

'That means this world must be one governed by the courts …'.

The supreme deity and the 12 courts governed a selection of worlds that was simply referred to as, the entity. In simple terms, the entity were the worlds the supreme deity had created, and he assigned each court a single world to watch over and ensure that any promising individuals were transferred to the official heavenly domain.

As he was a member of the 12 courts for a time, he was well aware of the entity and what it meant. It was perhaps the only thing he wasn't really intrigued by, but now he was caught in a world that was seemingly governed by the 12 courts after being slain by their master, his life got exponentially more difficult.

His power itself was something he was glad to have, what made it awful was the overwhelming sacrifice. He wasn't even sure if it could be called a weakness! There was no balance to this at all, he could grow fast but he was under the watch of the deity, that's just outrageous!

'Shit! Is it even worth my time anymore, what's the point if I'm just going to get killed off again'.

As if he was back in the meadow with the deity looming over him, he started to feel like a trapped rat with no way to escape.