"How should I deal with them?" Nishant wondered. He tried to look for the girl. After, confirming the girl's location. Nishant decided the plan.
"Ki Armour... Scatter!" Nishant simply barged in the settlement.
"Found you." Nishant found the girl tied on a chair and her mouth gagged. Nishant untied her who in response hugged Nishant and cried. Nishant was a little surprised but then decided to calm the crying girl by petting her head.
"Space Rhythm: Compress!!" Nishant casted the spell twice at the same time. The huts were flattened and several Zinds were immobilised. Nishant freed himself from the girl and turned to Zinds.
"Who is Kala Kutta?" Nishant asked. All Zinds eyes a Zind with black tone and with clothes made up of the skin of a black dog.
"So you are the big bad guy here." Nishant said in a mocking tone. Nishant made his way towards Kala Kutta.
'Void Burst' Nishant casted, a shockwave sent Kala Kutta crashing into the ground.
'Scatter' Nishant shot towards Kala Kutta only to find him unconscious.
"Well it was fun till it lasted." Nishant muttered in disappointment and dragged unconscious Kala kutta to the girl.
"Did it do anything to you?" Nishant asked the girl. Girl burst into tears.
"Crush!" Nishant mistook girl's reaction and killed the zind.
"Let's go." Nishant said and started walking slowly. Girl followed after him with hurried steps.
Both of them escaped the compressed Space without any further trouble.
Nishant reported the incident to the local authorities leaving the part about his space element and conversation with the old man and Bhoora.
Authorities went to the place but didn't find the compressed Space. They even requested an Advanced Tier Mage with Space Element to help them to find the compressed Space.
The girl was traumatized with no other harm done to her neither physical nor magical.
AFTER 4 MONTHS
Yearly exams are being conducted and the winner will get to cultivate in the Altar. Altars was the main reason students chose IIMs over other institutes. Other institutes only have few altars to support few schools of element magic but IIMs have all of them, so students don't worry about their secondary awakening at least not due to lack of resources.
"Next! Mohit vs Nishant!" Teacher announced. Both of them entered the arena and stared at each other.
"Begin!" Teacher signalled the start of the match.
"Fire Burst: Rupture!" Nishant casted with great speed.
"Magic Shield!" Mohit used magic equipment.
"Fiery Fist: Exploding Heavens" Nishant casted but the shield protected Mohit.
"Fiery Fist: Exploding Heavens!" Mohit didn't waste the opportunity. Nishant tried to dodge but the shockwave hit him hard and went flying a few metres back. Nishant stood up with some effort. He was burnt quite badly.
'What's the point of keeping it a secret if it becomes a hindrance in my path?' Nishant thought.
"Fiery Fist: Exploding Heavens!" Mohit was already done with his next spell.
"Void Wall!" Nishant casted. Void Wall stopped the 'Fiery Fist' easily.
"Space Element!" The teacher was shocked. The revelation of Space Element shocked everyone present. Everyone was in utter disbelief.
"Telekinesis: Void Claw!" Nishant hit Mohit with the invisible 'Claw' who fell unconscious on impact.
"The winner is Nishant!" Teacher announced.
"It is really the Space Element." students went wild and started clicking Nishant's pictures.
"I thought only Advance Mages can awaken it."
"They say some talented Intermediate Mages can also awaken it."
"Nothing less from IIM Delhi."
With his Space Element exposed, Nishant made short work of his opponents.
"Having the Space Element is literally cheating."
"Yes, he can cast defensive and offensive spells with it."
"Even Novice Spells are insanely strong."
As such Nishant got the chance to cultivate in Fire Altar for 1 week.
Yearly exams were also taking place among 2nd, 3rd and 4th year students. So the Fire Altar was completely occupied for the whole month.
Each year's topper got their turn as per their year. Like 1st year topper got 1 week of the month, 2nd year topper got 2nd week and so on.
AFTER 1 WEEK
Nishant came out of the Altar with a smiling face. One could easily tell that he has made tremendous progress in his cultivation.
AFTER FEW DAYS
"Fiery Fist: Ground Break!" Nishant hit his fist on the ground. Fire shot out of the crumbling ground. A group of 5 One-eyed wolves burned to death.
"A Soul Essence! Now I can buy a Top Tier Spirit Grade Fire Seed for myself." Nishant got overjoyed at the appearance of soul essence.
AFTER FEW DAYS
Nishant is in an auction house to buy a Spirit Grade Fire Seed.
"The next item is a Top Tier Spirit Grade Fire Seed, Dawn Flame Seed. The item was found in the state of Gujarat it is showered by the intense sunlight for decades. According to the appraiser, Spirit Grade Seed has a purifying ability which means it will have similar effects to the Novice Tier Light Spell, don't miss this rare chance of owning this precious item. The starting bid is 12.5 Crores! anyone wants to buy!" The auctioneer tried his best to create the hype.
"13 Crores!" a middle aged man bid for the Fire Seed.
"14 Crores!" Nishant made his bid. The middle aged gritted his teeth.
"14.5 Crores!" the man again made a bid.
"15 Crores!" Nishant made his bid.
"15.5 Crores!"
"16 Crores!"
"16.25 Crores!"
"17 Crores!" Nishant made the bid. All bidders were silent now. Unlike them who were there to buy 2 or 3 items. Nishant was solely there to buy the Spirit Seed with all the money he has in his pockets.
"17 Crores one! 17 Crores two! 17 Crores three! And Sold! The Dawn Flame Seed goes to this Young Man." The auctioneer announced and pointed the hammer at Nishant.
Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.
Nishant went to deposit the money and get his Spirit Seed.
"Good morning sir, 333! Let me check... So Mr. Nishant has bought the Dawn Flame Seed. Haha... what a coincidence? Seems like this Fire Seed was meant for you." The receptionist commented with a smile. Nishant responded with a polite smile at the comment. The meaning of Nishant is 'end of night', Dawn Flame Seed simply matches with Nishant's name.
Nishant hurriedly went to his dorm and absorbed the Dawn Flame Seed. Nishant grinned and barely kept himself from laughing like a madman.
'I now have a Nebula Tier Cultivation Tool and Spirit Seeds. A good armour remains. When will Totem Snake start shedding its skin?' Nishant tried to remember. Then he searched on google but found nothing. He then subscribed to a Hangzhou news channel.
"Pink Flames?!" Nishant felt himself losing his mind when he formed a fireball in his hand. Before Nishant was only seeing the colour of spirit seed which was a solid item so it appeared to be Whitish Red but flames weren't solid objects.
"This is a scam I want my money back!" Nishant screamed in agony.
NEXT DAY
Nishant is looking at the missions listed on the giant screen in Hunters Union reception hall.
"Hmm... a pair of horns of Blue Mountain Beast.. 20 Lakhs (2,000,000 rupees = 48K dollars)... I should start hunting down warriors now." Nishant muttered to himself.
...
"Fire Burst: Rupture! Fire Burst: Rupture!... Fire Burst: Rupture! This is insane. So many demon beasts. To think just adding another 10 kilometres in the Orange zone will have this kind of effect. Then how dangerous will the Red Zone be?" Nishant was taken back by the number of monsters. Until now he has to wander around a lot just to find a group of 8-12 monsters but now when he is a little deeper in the Orange zone he is coming across groups of 15-18 monsters every now and then.
"If I can become strong enough then these monsters will be just fodder for my growth." Nishant muttered to himself and regained his vigour and started attacking with newfound fierceness.
"Fiery Fist: Ground Break!" Nishant attacked the group of Sand Hyenas who were attracted by the sound of battle and were waiting to attack the losing side.
"WTF!" Nishant was taken back by the sheer numbers of the Sand Hyenas. Sand Hyenas were actually dominating monsters in the Aravali Range with their huge numbers. They were 3-4 times of wolves he just defeated.
"Seems like I will have to postpone the mission." Nishant said with some disappointment. He has already exhausted himself.
"Crush!" Nishant crushed heads of two Sand Hyenas who were at the front of the charging group. 'Crush' was simply 'Telekinesis: Void Claw'.
"Scatter!" Nishant jumped high into the air.
"Void Wall!" Nishant casted and landed on the Void Wall which served as a floating platform.
"Fiery Fist: Exploding Heavens! Fiery Fist: Exploding Heavens!... Fiery Fist: Exploding Heavens! *Pant* *pant* what a group of rascals?" Nishant was quite surprised by the cunning of monsters. Only the first few Fiery Fists killed 8 monsters each after that Sand Hyenas started dispersing and the kill count reached 4 per Fiery Fist.
"Let's end this!"Nishant grinned.
"Crush! Crush!... Crush!" Nishant started casting relentlessly. Unlike Fiery Fist which was evitable by predicting its trajectory, 'Void Claw' has no such downside. After 10 Sand Hyenas died the mysterious death, remaining decided to flee.
"As if I would let you." Nishant jumped on the Void Walls and chased after the monsters.
ROAARRR! A roar stopped Nishant in his tracks.
"Hunter Sand Hyena" Nishant decided to not bother with Sand Hyenas anymore as a warrior appeared. Warrior Sand Hyenas possesses a troublesome ability called Sand Escape which enables them to dig tunnels to escape or harass their enemies. He will be wasting his mana here unless he can kill the warrior using 'Crush'. But with his Peak Level-2 mental strength he highly doubts it's possible.
"Whatever, 1 soul essence is already good enough." Nishant happily left the place and returned to the Safe Zone.
AFTER 1 WEEK
"Scatter!" Nishant dodged a pair of hooves which crushed the rock under them. A Blue monster similar to a huge antelope turned towards Nishant and its body started glowing with blue colour. The monster shot towards Nishant with insane speed.
"Scatter!" Nishant dodged again. Nishant wasn't happy with his current opponent. It was fast, too fast. It wouldn't let Nishant cast Intermediate Spells and Novice Spells weren't of any use against it. Even his defence of 2 Void Walls was destroyed by the deadly horns on the monster's head.
"Only Spirit Grade Level-3 Defensive Spells can stand a chance against its attacks my half assed defense spells wouldn't work. Fortunately, this monster only has average stamina." Nishant talked to himself.
Blue Mountain Beast used its ability a few more times then it slowed down due to exhaustion.
"Fiery Fist: Nine Halls!" Nishant didn't waste the opportunity. The Blue Mountain Beast was burned badly.
"Fiery Fist: Nine Halls!" Nishant didn't dare to take any chances so he attacked one more time. Then Nishant proceeded to pull out its horns.
YEAR-0019
AFTER 3 WEEKS
Monthly challenges are being held in the IIM. Nishant had transferred to the Dimension School in the beginning of 2nd year as his Fire Element was at its peak already.
"Next! Nishan vs Mohan!" Teacher announced. Both students entered the arena.
"Dimensional Summon Come Forth: Tyrant Lizard!" Mohan summoned his contract beast.
"OMG! a warrior! thank goodness I wasn't his opponent otherwise my Wolfy would have been heavily injured."
All the students present in the Dimension School were Summoning mages or Mid Tier mages who awakened Summoning Element but have yet to summon a beast. Only Nishant was an exception with his Space Element.
"Let's see how the Space Mage will fare against it." Students were eager to watch the fabled Space Element in action. Few students were even live streaming.
Tyrant Lizard rushed towards Nishant at unexpectedly great speed which turned out to be Earth Element.
"Scatter!" Nishant simply dodged the charge.
"Void Wall!" Nishant casted when a spiked tail attacked his flank.
Tyrant Lizard opened its mouth wide and shot a green gooey substance like a cannon ball.
"Scatter!" Nishant decided to dodge in case the substance turned out to be poisonous.
The gooey substance burned the ground and released poisonous fumes.
"My turn now! Fiery Fist: Ground Break!" Nishant casted. Tyrant Lizard got thrown back by the spell. The Tyrant Lizard was burned seriously.
"Oh my God! Spirit Grade Seed! He has Spirit Grade Seed and his Fire Element is tier 2. We are not his opponents."
"Damn it! This rich son of a gun will dominate our school now."
"Wasn't Mohan also the same?"
"*Grit* I concede!" Mohan surrendered decisively. He very well understood he is not Nishant's opponent especially not now.
"The winner is Nishant!" Teacher announced.
After a few matches, it was Nishant's turn again.
"Next! Nishant vs Himanshu!" Teacher announced.
"Dimensional Summon: Come Forth Blood Raven!" Himanshu summoned a servant and jumped on its back and soared into the sky at the height which is out of range of Intermediate Mages.
"Wind Disc: Tornado!" Himanshu casted.
"Void Wall!" Nishant casted. The tornado failed to do any harm to Nishant.
"Seems like it will be a draw." students wondered.
"Yeah, they can't do anything to each other."
Nishant grinned and bent his knees.
'Ki Armour! Scatter!' Nishant overlapped the two Star Paths as both were the same and couldn't be recognised. Nishant launched towards the sky and reached even higher than the Blood Raven.
"Telekinesis: Void Claw!" Nishant casted and Blood Raven lost its balance.
"Descend!" Himanshu said decisively. It was obvious if he doesn't do so his Summon beast will die.
Nishant started falling down as well.
'It is really a pain to hide my Innate Talent.' Nishant thought.
"Void Wall!" Nishant landed on Void Wall and stopped falling but he was still at considerable height. He then again started falling and then landed on Void Wall to break his falling momentum. Doing so he safely landed on the ground.
"Wind Disc! Tornado!" Himanshu casted as soon as Nishant landed.
"Void Wall!" Nishant casted and defended against the tornado. Himanshu kept the spell as long as he could hoping to overwhelm Nishant but couldn't do so. In the end he exhausted himself and fell on the ground.
Nishant earned the prize to cultivate in Dimension Altar for 1 day. From now on with each successive semester the time will be increased by 1 day for monthly challenges.
AFTER 1 WEEK
"Fiery Fist: Nine Halls! Fiery Fist: Nine Halls!... Fiery Fist Nine Halls!" Nishant was killing Sand Hyenas like a mad man. He wants to buy Galaxy Vein which will cost him around 20 Servant Soul Essences, if he is lucky and can get 1 soul essence after killing every 100 monsters he will need to kill at least 2000 monsters.
"It's too much!" Nishant's Fire Nebula got depleted of mana after casting the spell 6 times and only managed to kill 68 monsters.
"It's enough for today!" Nishant decided to leave. He has saved his Space Nebula's mana to deal with unexpected scenarios.
Nishant returned to his dorm to rest.
Nishant was laying on his bed while staring at the ceiling. It was rare for him to waste time like this but he wasn't able to do anything better, he was even a little lost.
"It's not working. I will need to do more than that." Nishant said to himself. His gaze wandered outside of the window. One of the rooms in the opposite building was pitch black with darkness and suddenly the room got lightened up. Nishant sits up with a jerk. He grabbed his smartphone.
"Undeads in India" Nishant muttered while typing in google.
"No specific region in India is known for undead but West Bengal and Assam have a high population of Dark monsters..." Nishant read the information.
"Despite having some of the most brutal battles in history. India was able to prevent the birth of any Undead Kingdom or even a horde by using their ancient Holy Blessing Magic..." Nishant continued reading the article.
'What a pain? Undeads would have been easy to deal with but Dark monsters are really troublesome. Should I go to China? no, butterfly effect may cause serious issues.' Nishant laid down and decided to rest.
NEXT DAY
Nishant was killing a nest of Sand Hyenas. He was standing on top of Void Wall as Hunter Sand Hyena could attack him even from underground.
"100, today's target is achieved." Nishant said to himself and left. He was a little upset as he didn't get any soul essence but it was also true that he has got a soul essence after killing just 60-70 servants.
AFTER 3 WEEKS
Monthly challenges provided Nishant with another chance to cultivate in Dimension Altar for one day.
AFTER FEW DAYS
Nishant was in the class learning about the Hellish Maze. The maze which can help in breakthrough in Mental Strength.
"Our Class has gotten 10 passes. So who is willing to be the first student from this batch to enter it? But I warn you it will not be easy. You must possess a certain level of combat strength to clear it." Teacher said in a stern tone.
"I will try" Nishant volunteered. He really wants to improve his mental strength after all the performance of his Space Element directly depends on it.
"Good you may have this ticket then." Teacher said with a smile.
Nishant entered the Hellish Maze. It was more like a narrow rocky cave.
"Sniff*
"What's with this smell?" Nishant couldn't help but complain. It was a special scent to make mages dizzy it was the most basic part of the Hellish Maze. The maze is actually a square basement with rock walls and going 4 storeys down.
The maze works similarly to altars the main source of its power are mages themselves.
Naveen easily passed 1st level. His Mental Strength was more than enough to get out of there unharmed.
He continued on the second level for a very long time. 2nd level was not long but was made of compact and curved paths.
"Where the hell is this 'screeching' sound coming from?" Naveen looked around but found nothing. He concentrated on the sound and found it increasing while moving forward. The sound was irritating and high pitched.
"*pant* *pant* what in the world is even happening?" Naveen said in an exhausted voice. He fell on his knees in exhaustion. Nishant stared at the ground then he clenched his jaw and stood up with great efforts.
Suddenly all the walls of the maze started moving and opened a straight path leading to a stone door. Nishant came in front of the door and it opened on its own. Nishant entered the next level.
*Dhum* a stone wall closed the path from where Naveen came.
"Just this? It is much smaller compared to the 2nd level." Nishant muttered to himself then his gaze fell on the words written on a wall.
"Made enough effort that the wall will open on its own." Naveen read the words written on the wall.
*Stomp* *Stomp*
A golem came out of nowhere and started moving towards Naveen with heavy steps.
Nishant just looked at Golem with tired eyes. He wondered if the golem was really a challenge, as slow as it was even a Basic Tier mage can dodge it.
BOOM! Golem hit the ground and a shockwave sent Nishant several meters crashing into the ground.
BAM! Golem hit its rocky hand into Nishant and again sent him crashing into the ground.
Nishant again looked at Golem but his eyes weren't showing tiredness anymore but were glaring at the Golem.
"You better be ready for payback." Nishant said while glaring at Golem.
"Space Rhythm: Compression" Nishant casted. Golem got on its knees but soon recovered.
"Didn't work!" Nishant got baffled. That was his strongest offensive attack.
"Umm Hello, I concede!" Nishant shouted. He doesn't have any hope of getting out of the place. No reply came. He glanced at the wall and again read the sentence written on it.
"So I have to survive as long as I can to get out of this place. Let's see, if you can really catch me. Scatter!" Nishant dodged Golem's attacks easily.
BAM! Golem again hit the ground. The shockwaves spread in all directions. Nishant had no chance of dodging them.
"Void Wall!" Nishant casted.
"Ahh!" Nishant grunted in pain. His Void Wall easily stopped the shockwave but there was also a soundwave accompanying it. It straight attacked Nishant's spiritual world.
"Sound Magic!" Nishant said in grimace.
"Fiery Fist: Nine Halls!" Nishant casted but in contrast to his expectations it did little to no damage.
"Hmm... let's try this. Ki Punch!" Nishant's right arm got covered in silver aura and hit Golem with it. The punch sent back Golem a few metres back and destroyed a layer of rocks from its body.
"As I thought my Mental Strength is at Level-3 now and by concentrating my will at a small area I can do more damage." Nishant deduced.
BAM! Golem again sent shockwaves which did their work.
"Damn it, why is the damage more than the previous one?" Nishant cursed as he realised the strength of Golem is increasing.
"Ki Combat!" Nishan started thrashing the Golem and chipped off a chunk of rock from its body.
[ Note- Ki Combat is a proficient use of 'Scatter'. Mage is covered in Ki Armour. When Ki Punch makes contact with a surface, the Ki layer burst generating force comparable to 'scatter' spell which is as strong as an Intermediate spell when the area of impact is narrowed down. ]
"Space Rhythm: Compress!" Nishant casted to slow down Golem's movements only to realise it was even faster now.
"What?!" Nishant was utterly confused. Nothing was making sense to him. He spells were now becoming useless one by one.
"Calm down Nishant calm down, now is not the time to lose your cool. Hmm... Space Rhythm: Compressed Point!" Nishant focused the compression on a single point.
Thud! Golem's rocky arm fell down.
"It worked damn it!" Nishant rejoiced at the results.
"What? even this fatal attack can be regenerated. Space Rhythm: Compressed Point." Nishant casted again and observed the regeneration in dismay.
Naveen fought with Golem for an hour
and finally got beaten after his Element Nebulas dried up.
...
"What's this place? Infirmary? Ah! right Hellish Maze" Nishant thought of his fight and shook his head.
"I really need to improve." Nishant muttered to himself. After resting
for a few hours, he decided to leave.
