The Hex, Part 1

I slowly walked into the study room. This is where grandpa should have kept his journals. I suppose they are the things that Carla's grandpa mentioned in his letter. I'm going to study all of them. This foreign energy is more useful than I first thought so I won't stop until I learn everything about it.

"Maybe I should also become the first sage. The first sage on earth. It sounds nice."

The study room was messier compared to the rest of the mansion. Grandpa wasn't a person who likes to tidy up after himself. This makes me emotional but I don't have time for this. I searched around the room and finally found some journals that had leather covers. I sat in the chair in front of the desk.

The journals were written by grandpa. The writing belongs to my grandpa. I can recognize it wherever I see it. I start reading the journals. The first one I read was about grandpa's adventure in his early ages. As I thought, he really is involved with the supernatural.

My grandpa, Uncle Zheng, and Uncle John were a group of three people who all had supernatural abilities. It doesn't write much about how they met but there are a lot of stories about their adventures. They even faced spirits and defeat them. According to the date he wrote, they fought the spirits 50 years ago. Last year my grandpa was 65 years old. This means that spirits are in this world at least for a half-century by now.

Kairi said that they had their own world called Spirit Realm. So the appearance of this much spirit already is extremely suspicious. I wonder if grandpa has some other notes about them? I continued to read the journal. I learned that the spirits weren't the only supernatural creatures we had in this world.

There seems to be some kind of monster race in the world. They are called demons or fiends. Most of the legends and myths are created after them. Grandpa described them as bloodthirsty and mindless creatures. They seem to be drawn to human blood so they massacred a lot of people. And the people eventually fight back. 45 years ago my grandpa and some of the other known figures of the supernatural world gathered together and wiped out their race in one last battle.

Grandpa even mentioned that the grandson of the War Hero Izomir was with them. I never knew he had a grandson. Anyway, it is good that such dangerous supernatural creatures were wiped out. The stray spirits and the humans who suddenly gained the power of mana are enough danger on their own.

I finished the first journal. The rest of the journal was filled with the stories of him fighting against other people or creatures. He seems to enjoy fighting maybe he is a battle maniac. Well, magic and supernatural creatures are real so battle maniacs could be too.

Anyway, I start another journal. This one was about his stories too but unlike the first one, this had some useful information. I finally learned the name of this foreign energy. Apparently, its name is Hex. There is a basic description of it too. Thank god, grandpa wrote this journal.

The Hex is an energy created by a person by burning their own vitality. Vitality is the life force of a human so burning it makes them live less but in exchange for a shorter life span this energy gives incredible powers. Only some of these powers are described in these journals.

Hell Thunder: This ability work by changing the nature of the hex energy. It perfectly imitates natural lightning so it's almost impossible to discern it from the natural one. Also because of its perfect imitation, it can draw the natural lightning to itself too and make it very hard to counter or defend against.

Aspectum: This is an eye ability. When it's activated the pupils and irises disappear and only yellow hexagons appear in the user's eyes. This ability allows the user to see through every spell or curse. It also passively cancels any kind of illusion. It can see through every secret.

Denial of Limits: This ability allows users to perceive reality itself as a limit to themselves. This ability denies the limits set on them and allows them to surpass those limits. The higher the limits, the more power they gain from this ability. This ability isn't just drawing power from the hex energy it also draws power from the user's soul. Excessive use might damage the soul.

These abilities sound awesome. Especially, Aspectum. It sounds cool and extremely useful. But the one that made me excited the most is Denial of Limits. Not that it's actual use but its ability to interact with the soul. Interacting with the soul is theoretically the first step to defeating death. I should look for more information on these subjects.

The rest of the journals was about grandpa's meeting with some other people he calls "bloodline holders". These bloodline holders are people with special powers. The Hex is a bloodline too so this makes everyone who is able to use it, a bloodline holder.

I take a break from reading the journals. I have been in this study room for four hours already. My head is already hurting from all this reading. I'm going to have lunch. After lunch, I returned to the study room and continue reading the journals. It was mainly about how to use hex and how it interacts with the body.

Because of its origin being the vitality of the body, it strengthens the body to superhuman levels. I'm talking about the level of lifting buses or houses. It also improves the regeneration rate and the five basic senses of the body.

There is also the mention of a person who was a hex user using seals and formations. Grandpa fought this person and it somehow ended in a stalemate. From that fight, he figured out that hex had an incredible affinity for seals and formations. Seals and formations, huh... I remember Kairi mentioning them.

"It's an old way of performing magic. Runes, magical languages, or magical coding are used to perform formations. Their effects vary from the water creating to creating pocket dimensions."

That was what she said about them. Also, there were clear differences between them and the magic circles.

"Formations usually said to have to necessary of some mediums or platforms to inscribe on. They have more leeway to activate when it's already inscribed and prepared. Some books I have read also said that ancient elves had a way to use them with Aether but it's believed to be a false rumor.

Also, one of the reasons why it isn't popular is the formation itself being fragile. Even the tiniest mistake can cause dire situations. Some runes and words from magical languages have several meanings. Even if you think that you created a good formation, the other meanings can make a completely different formula with different outcomes."

It seems like the time has come for me to learn and practice formations and some seals. With them and hex maybe I can achieve my purpose of coming here. They are broad subjects so it's hard to master something in a little time frame but I will have to do my best.