Quintessence of Arcana

The Grimoire's Spirit

Erald timidly opened his eyes to the sight of the rabbit’s foot inches from his face. The rabbit had stopped just before hitting him. Erald thought that the creature intended to toy with him further, but then he noticed there was something off about it. A closer glance revealed that the creature was trembling.

Erald furrowed his brows as he sensed something and subconsciously looked behind.

A new monster had appeared from the right-hand corridor Erald had tried to escape into. The monster was massive. It stood over three meters tall, and had a white fur. And just like the others, it had veins of dark-red light running down its body. The closest thing it resembled was a bear. However, unlike a bear, it had massive forearms that went all the way down to its feet, which ended in wicked sharp claws over thirty centimeters long.

The bear-like creature had closed in while the rabbit had been focused on Erald, and it glared down at both of them. A moment of silence enveloped the corridor. The rabbit had gone stiff out of fear and stopped moving. Rather, it couldn’t move. It was in the exact same situation that Erald had been in mere moments ago. It was staring up at the bear, completely immobilized.

“...Grrrrr.” The bear let out a low growl, as if tired of watching two unmoving statues.

The rabbit quickly did an about-face and began hopping away as fast as possible. The explosive jumps it had used to annihilate its foes were instead being used to jet out to safety as fast as possible.

However, its escape was still unsuccessful.

The bear-like creature rushed forward, surprisingly fast for its large frame, and swiped its paw at the rabbit. The rabbit nimbly dodged, twisting its body to avoid the paw’s sharp claws.

It seemed that the rabbit had somehow managed to dodge perfectly, avoiding the blow. But that wasn't the case...

The moment the rabbit landed, a fountain of blood spurted forth, and the two halves of the rabbit fell in different directions.

Erald watched on in shock. That overwhelmingly powerful rabbit had been killed so easily. It hadn’t even had time to put up a fight. Erald now understood why it had been so scared and ran earlier. The bear-like monster was on a completely different level. Even the rabbit’s martial art skills had been of no use in the face of its might.

The bear leisurely walked up to the rabbit’s corpse, speared one chunk of it with its claw, and began scarfing it down, making sickening squelching noises.

Erald was rooted to the spot. The combination of fear and the bear’s sharp gaze kept him pinned in place. It kept its eyes on him even as it chewed on the rabbit.

It finished the rabbit off in three huge bites, then turned its body around and roared at Erald. Its eyes told him everything he needed to know. The bear’s next meal would be him.

Panic gripped his mind as he stared into the eyes of the predator.

However, it was impossible for Erald to escape from an enemy that not even the rabbit had been able to flee from. He heard the sound of rushing wind, and an instant later something hard hit his left side. He was flung against the wall.

“Ghaah!” Erald coughed violently as all the air was pushed out of his lungs, before sliding down the wall to fall in a heap on the ground.

Erald used every ounce of his willpower to keep himself conscious, rolling himself onto his back. He gazed blankly at the dark ceiling above him. There were no blue crystals there to light his surroundings.

Erald began to recall what happened to him back at the village as he slowly closed his eyes. He then clutched the pendant around his neck.

“Guess this is what they mean when they say your life flashes before your eyes.”

Just as the bear-like creature was about to charge in, an oozing shadow emerge and envelop Erald's body, seemingly protecting him. The shadow then extended and stretched out towards the creature, like a hand reaching out to something. It quickly envelop the creature and swallowed it's huge body bit by bit until nothing else was left.

Erald’s faint consciousness then began to grow brighter. Bewildered, he slowly opened his eyes.

“I’m alive...? Did someone save me?” He raised himself up, only to noticed something resting above his lap.

“Wait... this is...”

He widen his eyes in surprised as he realized that it was the black Grimoire that he found back in the ice cavern.

“Master, are you alright?” A familiar voice resounded into his mind. It was none other than the Grimoire's spirit.

“Are you the one who saved me...?”

“Yes Master. Sorry I was late... I was just... waiting for your call...”

“Waiting? You mean... you are with me this whole time?” Erald trembled out of shock.

“Indeed. I was currently residing in your shadow the day you become my Master...”

Erald's face suddenly twitched when he heard the spirit's statement. He didn't knew that all this time, the Grimoire had been in his side, residing in his shadow. He was just on the verge of dying moments ago. If the Grimoire didn't rescued him on time, It was sure death. But even so, he was still angered at the fact that the Grimoire didn't even at least greeted or notified him with it's presence earlier on.

The Grimoire's spirit seemed to hear his thoughts as it responded apologetically. “S-sorry Master...”

Erald didn't bother to refute anymore and instead looked into his injuries. He noticed that all of his wounds have been closed up. Even his fractured arm seemed to be reconstructed back into it's original state.

“Did you heal me?” Erald asked.

“No Master... From my guess, It have something to do with your physique. Your innate body constitution seemed to have regenerative abilities much faster than an average human.”

“Oh, is that so?”

Erald was quite surprised. Even he himself was unaware of it. Though he always felt that his physique is quite different, he didn't expected this kind of quirk.

After a short moment of silence, he stood up, picked the Grimoire and asked, “then, can you explain to me why was I in this place? And how in the world did I come here?”

“Master in fact... when you become the newly recognized owner of the Grimoire, the teleportation array planted out by the previous owner at the cavern... suddenly triggered, teleporting you in this area...” The spirit said suspiciously. “It shouldn't activate in the first place... which means that a certain 'unknown variable' seemed to triggered it...”

“So that also explained why I was sucked in back into the cave...” Erald massaged his temples. “Do you agree with me?”

“I-I don't know h-how to explain that either...” The spirit's voice stuttered.

“You said that the teleportation array was planted by your previous master. Is that 'dead  man' back at the cave your previous master? What is his name?”

“To be honest... I don't even know. It seemed that I've lost some memories of my previous owner. I didn't even remember if I have a name.”

Erald thought of something for a moment before he responded. “If that's the case, then I will call you Shea from now on...”

The spirit seemed to be overjoyed as she replied lovingly, “Thank you Master...”

“Then Shea, can you tell me what is this place?”

“I don't know exactly either, but based on my knowledge, this place seemed to be a kind of dungeon, a complex one at that...”

“Dungeon?”

Erald seemed to recall what Croen said to him about dungeons where all sorts of monsters are usually found. Speaking of monsters, he suddenly remembered the large bear-like creature that attacked him. He looked around at his surroundings but he didn't found it's trace.

He frowned and asked, “Where did that creature go?”

“The Grimoire already swallowed it's body...” Shea responded.

“What do you mean?”

“What I mean is that it literally absorb that creature's entire body until nothing was left... It is one of the Grimoire's magic spells...”

Erald suddenly brightened up and said, “Can I freely use it?”

“Master... it takes a considerable amount of time in order for you to learn this magic, much less use it. And besides, I just noticed that your mana veins... are blocked... to be more precise, it is in the state of quiescence. In this case, you will not be able to generate mana much less cast magic.”

“Blocked?” Erald was confused. “Why?”

“I don't know... Perhaps someone did it...”

“Then how can I re-opened it?”

“Well, that is... to forcefully awakened it using external means... It is risky but I believe that your body constitution can withstand this method...”

Erald was startled by what she said, but he continued to ask, “Then what is this 'external means' that you're referring to?”

“That is... me!”

Out of a sudden, a strand of shadow emerge from the Grimoire and slowly materialized into a human-like figure. Erald widen his eyes from the sight.

A woman with an ethereal beauty appeared before him, looking straight at him with her starry, emerald eyes.

Erald just stood still and stared blankly at her, with his mouth agape.

She was wearing a long black dress that fully accentuated her well-proportioned curves. Her looks were peerlessly beautiful as though a goddess descended from the heavens. Her jet-black hair reached down to her waist, giving off a lustre under the warm sunlight. In contrast to her black dress, her skin was white as snow, making her look like a perfect jade sculpture.

She silently stood there, giving off an enchanting air that could make any man go into reverie. Looking at Erald's dumbfounded expression, she lightly smiled and curtsied, making her gentle movement looked incredibly stunning.

“Greetings Master... It is I, the Grimoire's spirit, Shea.”

Erald was stunned. He didn't imagine that the spirit residing in the black Grimoire is such a peerless beauty. If one could appraised her looks, she's definitely on the level of someone who could topple over kingdoms with just her beauty alone.

“Is that your real appearance?” Erald couldn't help but asked.

“Yes Master.” Shea nodded. But then, after noticing Erald's weird face, she couldn't help but asked, “Master did you not like it? I can change into another form if you—”

“N-no!” Erald immediately interjected as he waved his hands. “It's okay. I totally liked it...”

Erald then coughed out of embarrassment to break the awkward atmosphere. “You just said that you can help me opened up my mana veins. How will you do that?”

Shea replied earnestly, “I can inject my spiritual energy into your body. In that way, I can forcefully re-open it, but you will suffer some drawbacks. You will received pain in both of your body and soul. I can help you to alleviate it a little, but the rest is up to you...”

Erald thought that the method was quite reasonable, so he immediately agreed.

“If that's the case, then we can start now...”