The Asshai's Bloodmage

While Rafael, his friends and new members of the Order had a nice celebratory lunch after the morning of tests. In the tower, Old Daran was smiling from ear to ear as he used the elevator from the Garden of Beasts and went to the penultimate top floor of the tower, there he knocked on a door and waited until the door opened by itself. Inside an effeminate-looking man without a mask was working on his alchemy. The Old Man remained silent until the effeminate man said:

"Old Daran, you can speak, I've already finished my experiment."

"Today's test was quite interesting, big brother Genesis... Almost 80 people showed up and almost 20 of them passed the first phase. Not only are there many talented and peculiar people, but I registered two of them as having special physiques."

"Two at once? Don't we already have little Liu joining this year? Who are the physiques?" Genesis asked a little excitedly.

"Yes two, I have already gained a lot of points with this great achievement during my time as the general supervisor of today's exam. Soon I will no longer be so weak among the remaining disciples left... Here is the report, no one but you can enter the Tower Master's chambers so I will leave it to you to inform him. Be quick, it shouldn't be long before the entire city knows about this and you know how those Masters will act when they know that we have 3 future Masters in our tower. When you read the details, you will know that even those "monsters" from Stygai should be coming to Asshai soon."

When the old man spoke about the "monsters" from Stygai, Genesis dropped everything and began reading the report before he began breathing heavily and ran off, accessing a different special elevator and reaching the top floor of the tower. Old Daran gave an evil smile as he saw the "young man" run to the Tower Master.

Daran and Genesis had entered the Beast Garden 50 years ago during the last recruitment and were one of the last 10 apprentices who were still in the tower since that recruitment. But unlike Daran, his talent was much greater and he had reached the top of the tower's hierarchy to the point of being recognized as a disciple of the Beast Master himself. There were even suspicions that Genesis also had a special physique, as he had already achieved great achievements as a Shadowmancer and was not far from the position of Master.

Daran who did not have the same talent as Genesis could only rely on his luck and other schemes to achieve everything he had so far. After seeing Genesis disappear in the special elevator, he went ahead and took another elevator and went down to the deepest floor of the tower underground. After arriving there, he ignored all the abominations he saw in many cages and all the terrifying plants inside greenhouses. Even someone as cruel and cunning as Old Daran could not look at all these artificially created aberrations.

But suddenly, Daran saw a purple mist inside a greenhouse that should have been empty. His curiosity was greater than his own fear, and he looked at the mist that covered a huge tree full of "fruits." But when the mist thinned inside the greenhouse and changed direction, he stopped breathing. The fruits on the tree were actually the heads of pale, cadaverous men. These heads were stuck to the tree trunks, and some of them barely had skin left. When he saw the face of one of the "fruit heads," which still had much of its skin and face intact, Daran felt his soul tremble. He turned his back and continued running in the direction he needed to go. Only after reaching a room with only two entrances and closing the door behind him did he stop to take a deep breath and calm his old heart. The face of one of those "fruits" was actually someone who had been an apprentice in the tower with him. The man had been killed in an accident, but now his corpse was there mixed with other bodies in an abomination of plant and necromancy. The most terrifying thing is that on his almost fleshless face he was smiling in a frightening way, almost as if he were still alive...

After another 5 minutes of calming down, he knocked on the other door of the room and waited. Soon a woman with pale white skin, long green hair, green eyes, full lips with a vivid green color and a body so full of curves that would make any man bow down to her opened the door and looked at Daran with an ugly face.

"You better have a good reason for interrupting me, Daran, or be prepared for the consequences."

"Madam Zirya, I would never do such a thing unnecessarily. I, Daran, have always been your most loyal servant in this tower and have once again come to prove my worth to the Madam. I have an urgent report of interest to you…" When he handed her the paper about the recruitment, the woman frowned as she read the initial subject of the document, but when her eyes passed over the number of candidates, the number of magical talents, peculiarities and lastly the two special physiques, she opened her mouth for a long time. Before sighing with slightly moist eyes.

"Finally found it!"

"Yes, Madam, I knew how important this plant and poison type physique was to your studies, I made sure you got the news faster than your husband. So, what are your orders regarding the boy named Jhon?"

"Good job Daran, I will prepare the poison heart transplant for you, you have proven your loyalty in these past 40 years, just wait until the current selection is over. As for the boy... As soon as he enters the tower, make him my apprentice and relieve him of all unnecessary tasks, I will speak to him about the rest."

"Yes, Madam!" Daran bowed and left the room, the hunchbacked old man ran away this time without looking to the sides and only stopped when he was inside the elevator leaving the last lower floor of the tower. Only then did he finally celebrate the other benefit he received thanks to the student with a special physique. This poison heart was a transplant that only Blood Mages and some Shadowmancers could do. It gave someone the ability to obtain an elemental affinity that the person with only 1 affinity did not have. It was the most expensive item in a life-altering surgery, second only to the Blood Mages' life extension. With this surgery, he would finally get closer to his dream and his ambitions would soon be realized.

***

On the top floor of the tower, Genesis entered his master's laboratory and soon found him sitting meditating. The Beast Master appeared to be an ordinary man from Asshai with short black hair. Waiting for him to finish his meditation, he knelt in front of him and remained silent, waiting for his master to give him permission to speak. Only after 40 minutes, the Beast Master's two eyes opened and looked at Genesis as if he were a predator looking at prey. Luckily, Genesis was already used to his master's yellow eyes and vertical pupils and did not let the look affect him too much.

"Did something important happen, Genesis?"

"Master, we have almost 20 people who passed the test today, almost all of them are Valyrians, among them some are quite peculiar, there is a man with never-before-seen alchemical artifacts, a boy with a relic, several with low-level alterations and artifacts, and even two with special physiques, here is the report."

When his master heard everything, he didn't take it too seriously, since it should be a smaller organization joining them. But when he heard about the two special physiques, he had to pay close attention to it. He quickly took the paper from Genesis's hands and began to read. The more he read, the more his eyebrows furrowed. Only after thinking for a while did he finally say:

"The boy with the plant and poison physique will probably be taken by my wife, if anyone comes to investigate, make that very clear. As for the boy with the immortal physique, refuse any Necromancers from Asshai or any other region who come after the boy. But if anyone from Stygai comes, let me know immediately so I can receive them, okay? One more thing, our common library does not have methods for the boy to study, so let him access the toilet using the rules and point costs of the common library. And lastly, investigate the origins of this group, find out who the person with the relic is and who their leader is."

"As you wish, master, I will immediately investigate!" Genesis then bowed and left the entire floor that belonged to the Beast Master.

***

In the small Tower of Sages, a day had passed since the tests, at the window on the third floor of the tower, Rafael was observing the several bodies hanging on stakes in front of the mansion's gate for everyone to see, these were the bodies of those who ambushed the Order. Salim also confirmed who the two assassins who came in the middle of the night were, but said that their leader was a coward who would probably pay compensation for him to leave him alive. Salim also informed the location of the lair of the pirates who attacked Aisha's island and I made arrangements for this man who ambushed me to get rid of them and bring me their heads along with that of the leader and some members of the gang alive, this would be part of the compensation for his attempt on my life.

I'm not kind enough to let the man get away with just apologies and some money, I'll make him and these ex-pirates work for me until I'm satisfied. Salim had said he had a huge amount of men, so I left this dirty work to them, it would be nice to have these disposable lackeys at their disposal. Besides, I really liked the new cooperation with the King of the shadowmen, Salim was very fair in telling the truth about spying on me, so I told him some valuable information about the Century of Blood and other information without much value about me. And this gave me a lot of free information that I needed from Salim, especially after calculating that he still owed me due to the high level of any information about the future.

In the next few days before joining the Garden of Beasts I would only be working on the grand opening of our new store and some unfinished business from Valyria. I stopped and finally looked at the new missions that the system gave me after arriving in Asshai, there were much fewer missions this time and some I still didn't know how to proceed.

"BEEP"

Main Quest:

[Achieve a major achievement as a Bloodmage.]

Side Quest:

[Become recognized as a Master in Asshai.]

[Achieve a great achievement in the Necromancy Profession.]

[Achieve a great achievement in the Shadowmancer Profession.]

[Locate and kill Kalindor, the surviving Bloodmage of Valyria (Time remaining 98 years).]

Special Quest:

Discover the main secret of the Shadowlands.

Optional Quests:

-Exterminate the Faceless Men of Asshai

(1/5)

-Study Shadow Creatures

-Study the Waters of the Ash River

-Explore a Small Dungeon

-Explore a Medium Dungeon

-Explore a Large Dungeon

There were only 4 Faceless Men left, I was going to exterminate them all in their tower before the store opened. This wasn't even so much for the reward system, the first reason was personal revenge, the second was a form of protection, getting rid of them before they became a threat in Asshai for me and my group and the third reason was to strengthen my ties with Jhon by seeking revenge for him, while also testing Jack's current loyalty.

If someone in our group fails the Garden of Beasts test, I will send them to Braavos to personally observe the Iron Bank. It would be good to have some spies in the local religions as well, but that can be dangerous since they can be brainwashed there. Leaving aside the optional missions, the Kalindor mission has finally come up. I will send an invitation to those Shadowmancer brothers from Pentos to join my Order. They would be more active in that region and can help me with the current location of Kalindor. Besides, my Order will finally have two Masters. Should I try to invite Master White Shadow as well?

No, I think Natasha would be better, she has the potential to be a Master and that would put her Master on good terms with us. As for the main mission, I just need to improve first, these missions should be completed over time... The greatest secret of the Shadowlands? It could only be something related to the origins and secrets of these two cities...

Leaving aside the new system missions, I also put several new missions on the Order of the Sages' task board. It's time to just sit down and delegate. I can't do everything alone. It was time to put the Order's new apprentices to work. I took a piece of paper out of my inventory and began to list a summary of the missions:

*I need a new blacksmith and a craftsman to create some of the containers and packaging for the store items…

*I need a milk supplier on the outskirts of Asshai…

*A grain supplier…

*Guards at the store and in the mansion…

*Magic and alchemy instructors to teach the newbies at the Tower of the Sages…

*Make at least 1 change to everyone who will work for me, I can't delegate that unfortunately…

*I also collected a lot of shadow bags and I'll let someone else do the work of accounting for these new resources…

This morning all the crew members brought me their personal belongings that each of them brought from Valyria, this included many diverse things such as books, armor, weapons, jewelry, paintings, sculptures, ceramics and Valyrian tapestries. The jewels are the only ones that won't fetch a good price here, so I sent them back, and opened another mission to catalog all the works in preparation for sale. I've already sent almost all of my jewels in a chest to my father to sell in Dragonstone. But there is room in my new shop to sell any Valyrian artwork, especially now that prices are inflated after the Doom.

The shop has 3 floors, if I leave the first floor for food and other consumables, the second for miscellaneous items from Valyria or Valyrian craftsmanship then I can leave the third floor as a place for auctions and VIPs. As for the underground floors I leave as storage, a possible forge, alchemy lab and other processing methods for food and other items that may be sold in the future.

With everything arranged I called Aisha and Ted to discuss the details of the shop, the Chef of our ship to discuss the menu for the opening day and Salim to help me send out the invitations to the right people. After that, I went to the ship with Omar and Zhang to say goodbye to Henry and Will. Their ships were already leaving for another long journey at sea. I asked him to take another medium-sized sailboat that we had bought to Aisha's island to help transport resources, as well as some letters for the blacksmith and Arthur's men. The ships soon left the port.

The next day, the ex-pirate who tried to assassinate me sent a message that the mission had been completed, and that he would be at the port with the captives tomorrow morning. I asked Salim to spread the word that tomorrow morning the criminals who attacked the islands around Asshai would be executed by the Order of Sages. In addition, the opening date of our store was finally set, and it would be 5 days before the students were chosen in the Garden of Beasts. Invitations would also be sent out starting tomorrow.

***

Meanwhile, 1 day after Rafael and the others took the test in the Beast Garden, the news spread everywhere, not only was everyone shocked by the two special physiques, but when they learned that they were the Red Sage's men and that he was also joining the Beast Garden, everyone began to closely observe the movements of this new group. The news somehow also traveled further, even reaching a place where not even most of the Masters of Asshai dared to enter, the corpse city Stygai.

At the entrance to the corpse city, Esmer stood there looking apprehensively at the city that had some of its buildings and structures demolished in some places, while a fog covered much of its towers blocking part of the sky. Esmer's hands were sweating just from standing near the entrance to this place, and he constantly looked at a pocket watch. When the clock finally struck noon, a green light that caused small gales shone on Esmer's body, followed by another light at his feet, this one was even stronger, then a Valyrian Steel sword appeared in his hand and a cloak in the form of shadows covered his entire body.

The moment all the spells shone on the Bloodmage's body, the dark city finally became daylight, receiving a little light similar to the day in Asshai, but Esmer knew that unlike Asshai, daylight here would only last 1 hour. Full of magical effects and hidden under a cloak of shadows, Esmer was a blur at high speed, jumping over whole and broken buildings and passing through narrow alleys. As he breathed, another spell was activated, this time removing all the air in front of him, creating a kind of vacuum that made his speed even faster.

Esmer could fly, but not even the most powerful Necromancers who lived in Stygai dared to fly inside the city. As Esmer ran, he suddenly saw shadows starting to follow him at high speed. He could only scream and curse silently: "Sons of bitches... So fast? It hasn't even been 10 minutes since I entered..."

With no choice, he used the Valyrian Steel sword and cut one of the shadows in half when it got too close to him, ignoring the dead creature and seeing more of them coming, he just kept running, but this only made things worse because more of these creatures were alerted by the death of the first one and the number of shadows chasing him doubled. As Esmer ran using the shadow cloak he knew he was avoiding many soul-type monsters and undead, but he knew he could not deceive the eyes of these shadow-type monsters, as well as their leader who at that moment was constantly observing him...

At the top of one of the city's towers while hiding from the sunlight a 3 meter tall creature dressed in a black cloak with a hood, made completely of shadows, had been observing Esmer since he entered the city. While holding a scythe in its right hand, the creature looked at the invader and looked at the sun, every 1 minute it repeated the process and held its scythe tighter and tighter as if it could not wait much longer to attack him. Whenever its eyes landed on Esmer a green glow lit up in them showing a sign of activation of some ocular ability.

After 25 minutes of running, Esmer arrived at a partially destroyed tower and entered it, going directly underground until he reached a double gate made of the bones of several creatures. He took out a vial full of blood and threw it at the gate. When the gate absorbed the blood, it finally opened and closed behind him after he entered. Finally, after the gate closed, all of Esmer's active spells disappeared and he began to breathe heavily. Covered in sweat, his body was cold and he had great difficulty breathing. Ever since he changed races and reached the peak of a Bloodmage, Esmer would never get tired so easily from running and fighting in such a short time... This showed how terrible the environment in Stygai was. In addition to the environment, he also felt some curses on his body, but they were already dissipating after entering the tower and getting out of the caster's range.

At that moment, while he was breathing, thinking that he was finally safe, a bone dagger flew, almost hitting his head. Esmer dodged it by a hair's breadth, screaming and showing a medallion that was in his hand. Only then did the creature that threw the dagger make a slow entrance, emerging from a small lake. It looked like a drowned corpse with rotting purple skin. It only had a few tufts of hair on its head and all over its body there was pus coming out of the many wounds it had. A voice sounded from its body as if it had scratched a painting:

"What is your purpose here, bearer of the medallion?"

I am Esmer... I have come... To speed up the resurrection process... Of your Immortal master... Esmer said after taking a few more deep breaths.

"Follow me..."

Outside the Tower that Esmer had entered, the creature that was watching him from afar gave a horrifying scream of fury as it lost sight of its target. The scream was heard throughout almost the entire corpse city.

***

Special thanks to the Patreons:

Sage's Supporter: Jan and Scott Robertson!

Magic Apprentice: Parsa, Pato Senalima, Axel Bour, Gabriele Sulpizio, Vinnie, frimorigo, Takatchi and Leery Falcon!