Dealing with the Dark Ones went quickly.
The remaining mages desperately wanted to live and were terrified of me to the point of nearly wetting themselves.
They told me everything they knew: where the fences operated, who paid what for which goods, and so on.
I also managed to seize this group’s treasury.
The sum was considerably more impressive than that of the previous gang: almost five million jewels, not counting the rare fabrics and spices they had in considerable quantities.
But the most valuable acquisition was a book.
Or rather, not merely a book, but the Book.
At least, it was for me.
It described general exercises for beginning to master the Force.
Judging by the illustrations and design, it was intended for children, but once you stripped away the pretty pictures and superficial fluff, it presented a very interesting picture.
Apparently, local magic was divided into different schools, but all of it came from a single source with which the “souls of mages” interacted.
It also mentioned that developing one’s Gift required understanding oneself and one’s spirit, not being afraid to experiment, and stepping beyond the boundaries of the ordinary.
Well, at least that explained some of the local mages’ questionable behavior.
If they were constantly stepping beyond those boundaries…
But that’s beside the point.
Another interesting detail was the source itself.
If I compared it to technology, the picture looked something like access to a computer.
Mages were ordinary users.
They could access certain programs and use them to influence the world.
The more experienced the user, the better they understood the necessary “program” and the wider their arsenal.
A mage’s power could be explained in the same way, with a few adjustments.
Imagine connecting to a server through a dedicated line.
The “wider the channel,” the faster the mage could cast, while the “more powerful the computer,” the more complex and powerful the spell-programs would be.
There you have it.
Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t have any other theories yet.
The book also had a few words about Absorption.
Most of that section described the dangers of the school.
It said that very, very few mages could actually use Absorption, and that it was primarily an ability of monsters.
There were plenty of creatures capable of devouring a person’s essence, for which the authors expressed their gratitude to Zeref.
I’m exaggerating, of course.
The book put everything much more gently, but there was definitely some propaganda in it, some attempt to instill the “correct” way of thinking.
In any case, the Book could give me the initial push I needed to master my Schools.
It wouldn’t replace a teacher, but it was better than nothing.
There was even an explanation of why a teacher with the same School was useful.
Apparently, they were needed for the fastest possible initialization.
A mage simply immersed the student in their magic so the student could feel it within themselves and accept it.
After that, anyone could continue the process.
It was possible to manage without a mentor, which was what the exercises were for, but the path was much longer and offered no guarantee of success.
Well then.
Looks like I have something to work on now.
Feel the Force, young Padawan.
Damn it.
The rest of the gang’s little “shop” consisted of various magical trinkets and a dozen books on extremely specialized branches of magic.
There was almost no theory in them.
At best, they said something like, “Release your power this way and that, and the following circle should appear and cause this or that.” Some simply said, “Ask your teacher.” And not a single, even remotely decent, pamphlet explained where all those circles came from in the first place or why they were shaped that way instead of some other way.
No, I’m a practical person by nature, but trying to study magic without any theory at all?
Considering my Schools, there were more pleasant methods of suicide.
And without proper foundations and general exercises, there was no way to rise above C-rank.
There were some magical items too.
First, various useful little things, such as a magical toothbrush, moisture- and odor-absorbing fabrics, and different kinds of glow-lights.
There was even a set of red lamps.
I wonder where they were taking those?
I also stocked up on an amusing pen.
It changed color depending on which of the ten crystals in its handle received energy.
And it could even write in midair.
The writing remained either until the pen ran out of charge or until someone crossed it out with the same pen.
All this wonderful stuff was powered by small lacrima crystals, which served as batteries in this world, albeit in a much broader range of applications.
The gang had nearly twenty of them in reserve.
They were tiny, but they would definitely come in handy.
Those were the pleasant parts.
Now for the drawbacks.
There weren’t many, but *what drawbacks they were.* The biggest problem was that I was starting to become a berserker.
Maybe that radiation was affecting me, or maybe something had gone wrong during the transition, but I knew one thing for certain: the old me would never have stormed into a camp and started cutting everyone around him apart with a pleasant smile on his face…
unless one of his own people had been hurt.
But this time, something simply snapped.
Yes, I needed adrenaline, but not at that price.
What if it happened to me in the middle of a city?
*Brrr…* I didn’t even want to think about it.
And then there were those constant thoughts about girls…
It seemed my clever body was finding its own solution.
I just needed to figure out what was making me go so crazy.
Still, I didn’t have enough data yet.
Meanwhile, the Dark Ones I’d enslaved finished loading the most valuable goods onto a cart.
Where had they even gotten it?
Although…
they had probably taken it from a caravan they’d robbed.
Well, that was everything.
Time to move.
Although, I did have four mages right here.
It would have been stupid not to search their minds as well.
Of course, there was no guarantee they’d remain sane afterward…
but they should have thought about that before slaughtering caravans.
I tried to act as carefully as possible.
After all, I might need this method of gathering information on people I actually wanted to remain mentally intact.
In the end, it took me a week.
Still, I could proudly say that one out of the four hadn’t become a vegetable.
Well, he was constantly muttering something about a silver-haired demon from the darkness and looked absolutely terrified, but technically, he was still functional.
Oh, and I almost forgot.
I had to change bodies.
First there had been the encounter with the unknown predator, then the insane strain of fighting the mages.
My condition wasn’t critical, but it was pretty bad, and I had four “volunteers” waiting for me.
The most promising candidate seemed to be the man who used Requip, There were several reasons for that.
First, it gave me mobility, and I really liked the motto, “I carry everything I own with me.” The Hamster approved too, which was hardly insignificant.
Second, considering my sword, even a low level of proficiency would already make the magic useful, unlike the weak flame or barely formed magical attacks possessed by the others.
So I knocked out the remaining sane Dark One to make sure he couldn’t escape and began transferring myself into one of the “vegetables.” That required some work too, of course, but rejuvenating and cleaning up a body was much easier than frantically patching up the old one.
And that was it.
Rising from the ground was no longer an unnamed D-rank Dark Mage, but the same charming silver-haired young man.
I used the old body for resources, and very little remained of it.
Its appearance certainly couldn’t be identified anymore.
It was a shame I’d be paid a little less, but the new body was worth it.
It had been saturated with magic for much longer than the previous one, which made it stronger and more durable.