Chapter 211 - Deception

To conduct the experiment and deceive himself, Wain needed a helper. He came out of the cave and immediately found a goblin walking idly.

"You, follow me." Said Wain.

The goblin was surprised that Wain chose to address him but immediately agreed. This goblin wanted to participate in the concoction of fruit and crystals, but he didn't have enough room. 

Black Rabbit created several teams and distributed responsibilities between them. The rest of the goblins were superfluous.

Wain didn't need many helpers. Just one goblin would suffice. He had already figured out how he would cheat himself. It was a rather primitive yet effective method.

Wain snapped his finger when the goblin came into the cave, and white souls floated up around him. He looked at them and muttered, "Oh, it won't be enough. Stay here. I'll be back soon."

Wain closed eyes, and his Seal of Darkness glowed brightly. He headed for the wall and disappeared into the ink. Wain wanted to kill some zombies and gather the necessary materials at the nearest store.

...

An hour later, Wain returned and retrieved several small sacks from the ring, as well as ropes. He handed these items to the goblin. 

Wain also collected thirty souls. He wasn't sure if it would be enough, but he could go back at any time.

"All right, then, let's get started. You have to put one energy crystal each into a pouch. Then you're going to put those souls in the sack, but along with the souls, you're going to put chunks of ice as well. Your job is to ensure that the bags are about the same weight. Do you understand me?"

The goblin nodded vigorously and immediately shoved the energy crystals into the bags and tied them with rope. However, when it came to the souls, the goblin stopped.

"What happened?" Asked Wain.

The goblin scratched the back of his head and pointed to the ice wall. He didn't have the right tools to break off pieces of ice.

"Ah, right, I'll help you."

Wain walked over to the wall and struck a powerful blow with his fist. Several neighboring caverns shook with the power of the blow, and many pieces of ice fell down.

The goblin was stunned by Wain's power. To him, it was something unbelievable and impossible.

"Good, now collect the ice."

The goblin nodded, and in a few minutes, it was ready. In all, the goblin had prepared sixty pouches. Thirty were of crystals and the others of souls and ice.

Wain nodded and sat down. He took a deep breath and tried to concentrate. He needed absolute silence.

"Listen to me carefully. You should put one of the pouches in my hand. Choose randomly. I must not know what you put. Try to make sure I don't guess your choice." Said Wain extending his hand forward.

The goblin didn't know why Wain needed to do that, but it didn't matter to him. He nodded and signaled that he was ready.

"Okay, here we go."

The goblin took one of the pouches that contained the crystal. He placed it in Wain's hand and stepped aside. Wain squeezed the pouch with force the next moment, and the crystal inside shattered into small pieces.

'It was a crystal...' muttered Wain to himself.

His job was to clear his mind and not think about anything, but he wasn't very good at it. 

Wain tried to anticipate what the goblin was about to do, though he knew it was getting in his way. He couldn't bring himself not to think about it.

"One more time." Said Wain.

This time the goblin took the sack of soul and ice. Wain crushed it, but as he supposed, it was a soul, so it didn't work.

"Again."

Crackle.

"Again."

Crackle.

"Again."

...

After fifteen attempts, Wain failed again. 

"Bring another one."

He took a deep breath and clenched his fist sharply.

Whoooooooosh.

There was a loud cracking sound, and blue energy burst out of the pouch, gradually taking some form. 

It looked like a sphere that had ice inside it, but up close, it looked magical and seemed like you could see an intense blizzard in the sphere.

This was the first Essence Wain had ever received. He didn't know he had succeeded because he was concentrated and thought it was another failure. 

However, when the sphere flew into his body, he knew he had finally succeeded.

He felt an intense cold, and he felt as if he was about to freeze and turn into an ice statue. But then that feeling changed to a pleasant freshness.

"Fine... But, no need to relax. I must learn to do this on my own without such experiments." Mumbled Wain and signaled the goblin to continue.

Ten pouches later, Wain already had a total of three Essences. It was quite small, but it was only the beginning. 

Wain was sure that he could soon retrieve Essences with a hundred percent probability. All he needed was a little practice.

"Let's go." Said Wain, and the goblin picked the next pouch.

...

When only twenty of the sixty pouches were left, Wain already had ten Essences. The goblin served the pouches in random order, so there were thirteen pouches with souls and seven with crystals.

'Hmm, I'm getting much better at this already. I need to try increasing the difficulty.' Thought Wain and opened his eyes.

He gave a sign to the goblin, and the monster handed him the pouch. This time Wain decided to open the bag, which was a crystal. He wanted to learn how to get Essence at will, anytime, anywhere.

'Sven said I can get Essence from souls as well, but for now, I need to learn how to get it from crystals. That will be the first step.'

Crackle.

Wain clenched his fist and the crystal shattered into pieces. The energy from the crystal began to turn into a sphere, but at the last moment, it collapsed. Wain didn't get upset and tried again.

In the end, there were only three crystals left, and when Wain destroyed them, he got three Essences. It was the success Wain was aiming for.

"Whew." Wain took a deep breath and smiled contentedly. "It was hard, but now I have fifteen Essences."

Wain stood up and looked at the goblin, "The remaining crystals and souls are yours."

The goblin didn't expect Wain to be so generous and thank him like this. The monster smiled broadly and nodded contentedly.

Wain walked through the icy caverns and thought about what had happened. At one point, he stopped, and his eyes flashed. A single Essence appeared in his hands.

[Ice Essence (3%)

Rank: Primary

Rating: Common]

'Hmm? This is unusual. This is the first time I've seen an item that wouldn't have a Chronicle but has a Rank instead. Furthermore, what is that percentage next to the name?' Wain thought.

He decided to look up the information about the other Essences, but he saw about the same thing.

[Ice Essence (2%)

Rank: Primary

Rating: Common]

"I need Souls and Essences to improve skills. The terms always have a Rating, Chronicle, and state of the soul. However, Essence had the necessary Rank written to develop a skill. Hmm, most likely, the percentage means the amount of energy in that Essence. It's depressing."

During training, Wain destroyed only one crystal at a time. It was possible to get Essence from them, but only with a small amount of energy. 

Any Essence was quite strong, and it could not be obtained with a single crystal.

"I have fifteen Essences, and they are all Primary Rank. I need First Rank Essences to improve my skills, and among the necessary ones are none with the ice attribute. These Essences are useless to me, but I can use them for something else."

He decided that if the Essences were only partially filled with energy, they could be combined. That's exactly what Wain was about to do now.

Click.

Two spheres filled with ice particles appeared in his hands, and Wain slowly pressed his hands together. 

He didn't know how the Essences were supposed to come together, so he decided to try the simplest option.

To his surprise, he succeeded, and the two Essences merged together.

[Ice Essence (5%)

Rank: Primary

Rating: Common]

'Hmm, okay, I need to keep going.' Thought Wain, and the next moment thirteen ice spheres appeared around him.

As the energy increased, the number of ice particles also increased slightly, and the coldness emitted by the sphere intensified.

After a few minutes, Wain turned all Essences into one. However, given that their average amount of energy was between 2% and 3%, he didn't manage to fill the Essence by even half.

[Ice Essence (39%)

Rank: Primary

Rating: Common]

"Energy crystals growing in Ice Caves are First Chronicle, but Essence has a Primary Rank. However, given that one crystal has rather little energy in it, it makes sense." Wain muttered and headed towards the crystal warehouse.

Wain had previously said that he wouldn't use crystals for himself, and he wasn't about to break that word. 

However, now he wanted to gain experience in extracting an Essence and merging them. For that, he would need a few crystals, and the loss would be small.

Wain used forty crystals and extracted thirty-seven Essences. It was an excellent result, and now Wain was satisfied with it.

Then Wain began to combine one Essence after another. Eventually, he was finally able to infuse one Essence with energy fully.

[Ice Essence (100%)

Rank: Primary

Rating: Common]

'Great, but what should I do with this Essence? Give it to someone? I don't need that kind of Essence for skills.' Wain thought.

The next moment a message appeared in front of him.

[Ice Essence has 100% energy. Do you want to improve it?]

'What? Improve an Essence?'

[Yes. You can increase the Rating of that Essence. In this case, it will become a Rare Rating, but the amount of energy will drop to 0%.]

'That's interesting. Is there any way I can increase the Rank of an Essence?'

[Yes. For that, you need at least a Rare Rating Essence with full energy. In that case, you can boost its Rank, but the Rating will drop one level, and the amount of energy will drop to 0%]

'So if I have a Rare Rating Essence when I increase its Rank, it becomes a Common Rating?'

[Yes. You're entirely correct. There's also another option. You can use three Common Rating Essences to create one, but with a higher Rank]

'I see... It's quite simple.' Thought Wain and the sphere disappeared from his palm.

He looked at the hundreds of energy crystals in the pit and decided it was time for him to leave. The island was a little over a month away, and really that was pretty small.

Now Wain was going to go to the Arena. He was fully prepared. He discovered a fifth form, had a special item to conceal his identity, and fully recovered from his injuries.

He also learned a lot and solved important issues in Void. Now it was time to fight and hunt.

"Huh, honestly, I've already missed the smell of blood and clanking swords since I've been here. I wonder how the fifth form looks?" Wain pondered.

Wain opened his World of Darkness card.

[Nameless

Race: Human

Chronicle: First

Voids: 1, Frozen Land Rank-E, Small

Warriors: 1359]

He nodded and closed his eyes.

'Sven said the Arenas are like declaring war on other Voids. I hope it works out.' Thought Wain, and the ice beneath him turned to ink the next moment.

He found himself in a dark space, and many bright dots hovered around him. 

The Voids looked like stars in the night sky, but the Arenas differed. Each Arena was seemed at some ancient structure, like a coliseum or ruined ruins.

Wain liked that. It gave a fighting attitude and created a unique atmosphere.

"Well, it's time to choose a place where my sword will be drenched in blood!"