Nightmare's Call - Chapter 266
Chapter 266: Treatment: Part 3
Lin Sheng could feel the faint envy and jealously from the side glances the apprentices were throwing at him.
Even when these emotions were concealed, he could still perceive them.
“Continue, aside from the new students, all of you need to finish two antidotes by five. Those who fail to do so will be fined ten thousand, and three failures will get you the boot!”
Auldmandiller turned over and roared with a stern voice at the apprentices.
“Do you hear me!” He raised his voice.
“Yes, sir!” the group of apprentices quickly replied. It seemed like they were being drilled thoroughly on this.
Aside from Mylissa who was not used to it, the rest were already used to lowering their heads and work.
Auldmandiller then turned over and said warmly to Lin Sheng.
“Let’s go, Lin Sheng. We’ll first have breakfast then I’ll commence with the first of your initiation classes.”
“Thank you, sir.” Lin Sheng nodded.
Standing before the group of apprentices, he now knew what it was like to be on a level with special privileges, how it was like to be treated as a genius…
Compared with Mylissa who had come together within on equal standing, there was now a massive gulf between them, as though they were in two different worlds.
Auldmandillar gave the apprentices another fierce glance before taking Lin Sheng for breakfast.
The menu was crispy maple syrup pancakes and ironfowl eggroll with orange juice and mashed potato with beef liver and tomatoes.
The ironfowl eggroll was not something Lin Sheng had eaten before. According to the books, the ironfowl was a large bird and their eggs were cooked using peanut oil.
Lin Sheng wolfed down three in one go and felt that his body was all warmed up, seemingly overdoing it.
Yet Auldmandiller kept offering him to eat more, and the gentle care in his eyes surpassed even his own father.
After breakfast, Auldmandiller brought Lin Sheng alone into a small classroom and got him to sit on an independent set of tables and chairs. On it were a stack of brand new study materials, and by the books were all sorts of stationery and an empty notebook.
A moment later, four people entered the classroom, and two of them were Mylissa and the tall lady with a mole on her nose.
The two moved quickly as they fearfully looked for a seat at the edge of the room.
The two other persons were panting boys, their looks were unassuming, but caution was apparent in their eyes.
After everyone had gotten to their seats, Auldmandiller stood calmly on the lectern as he said to everyone below.
“Alright, we will commence our first class. This will be about the basic type and properties of dark powers.
“During my lecture, if you have any questions, I hope to not be interrupted. You may keep the questions until I’ve finished a section. Ask questions only when I indicate that you can start asking. Am I clear?!”
His voice was calm, yet there was a stern warning laced within it.
“Understood!” everyone answered at the same time, Lin Sheng included.
“Of course, that excludes Lin Sheng. You can interrupt me and ask questions at any time.”
His tone literally shifted from the cold winters of Siberia to the warm breeze of Hawaii, and the sudden shift had all of the other students gnashing their teeth.
“Thank you, sir.” Lin Sheng smiled in reply.
“Alright, let’s start then.” Auldmandiller whipped out his teaching cane and pointed at the air in front of him.
*Humm…*
A cluster of green orbs appeared in the air and floated about.
“This is what you call dark powers,” he said as he pointed at the orbs.
“All of us know that dark powers originate from the soul, the spiritual powers from the malevolent side. And because of its nature, it has powerful corruptive and destructive powers, hence we are able to use it as a weapon to protect ourselves.
“Of course, there are powers from the benevolent side as well, but those kinds of powers cannot protect us, so we’ll leave it for the time being.”
When it comes to lecturing, Auldmandiller did have the air of a professor.
“The history of dark powers, I’ll be passing on that. You can go through the books if you are interested. It’s in the study materials.
“What I want to talk about are the properties and usage. Properties first!”
He gently tapped one of the dark power orbs, and the orb immediately split into a green color crystal prism and a slightly fainter green orb.
“There are three types of dark power properties. Corruption, Violence and Phantasm.”
“Corruption, Violence and Phantasm?” Lin Sheng had some inkling. He had, after all, fought against quite a number of Darksiders now, and the moment he heard the categorizations, he immediately had some ideas.
“Every type of dark power will have all these three properties, but their weightage will be different, hence the differentiation.
“Your study materials have also recorded these three categories. So what I’m going to focus on, is their difference,” Auldmandiller continued.
“The first type is Corruption. These Darksiders are the most numerous. The dark powers that they awaken are mainly to corrupt objects or minds. This kind of Darksider would start to have nightmares every day, normally a continuous sort of dream or an endless dream state.
“After their dark powers are awakened, the first thing that they need to corrupt is themselves.
“Without proper guidance, these Darksiders, unless they managed to defeat their fears, they would quickly devolve into all sorts of monstrosities and are hunted down.
“The next type is Violence. These Darksiders are average in numbers. The powers that they awaken mainly stimulate their muscles to create a stronger physical body. And here, at least 90% are the second type of Darksiders.
“The dark powers of this type could either increase strength, speed, self-recovery, but the side effect is that their temper is short and would go berserk easily.
“The third type, Phantasm. This type of dark power is mainly to create illusions. You’ll probably run into a bunch of people called the Audial-mesmers, their specialty is phantasmic dark powers.
“This type of dark powers have all kinds of style and patterns, but when it comes to combat, they are either terrifyingly powerful or terrifyingly impotent. It’s very easy to veer off the edge with that. We’ll delve into the details when we have the chance.”
Auldmandiller swept aside the green orbs and kept only the green crystal.
“Next is use. Normally, upon awakening their powers, they’ll simply use it crudely to improve their powers, either on the surface of their bodies or within their muscles.
“But only a few know that if one were to modulate it into weapons, items or even living beings, the potency and usability of dark powers will be greatly widened.”
He pointed at the floating crystal, and the crystal soon shuddered. It twisted and turned into a small, intricate cup. Not long after, the cup changed again, and two seconds later, it became a four-winged dragonfly.
The dragonfly then flew about, letting out a buzz as it sped across the classroom.
“All dark powers have these three properties, Corruption, Violence and Phantasm. And everyone will have different inclinations and specialties, so you need to find which area you are good at, and choose your path from there.
“Amplication, modulation, and short-term activation are the three basic usages of dark powers, and is the content that I’ll be teaching you next.”
Lin Sheng sat still as he listened on intently. To think that such a crude and simple green light had all sorts of different properties to it, and to have so many different usages.
What got him interested was Auldmandiller’s talk about the general state of the Darkside.
Based on his demarcations, there were three types of people in the Darkside.
The first referred to the powerful Darksiders trained by the military. They possessed both a strong will and body. While their average power was the highest, their number was the lowest.
The second type were those from the civilian universities led by the Three Hidden Realms. The ability of this group was not consistent but their strongest ones were a match for the first.
The third consisted of the wanderers who did not belong to any organization. They were the most numerous in numbers and the most dangerous. The monsters, disasters, and horrifying tales that popped up from time to time were usually their handiwork.
Most of them would have no idea that they had awakened their dark powers until their minds were corrupted and they had turned into monsters.
