After a few minutes of walking, Velten finally arrived at Victoria's lab. The door opened automatically, and he slowly entered the room. The bookshelves that were entirely filled, were covering the walls and almost touching the ceiling, and at the end of the room, Victoria had fallen asleep on her desk last night from exhaustion.
"You have never changed…" Velten uttered smiling while he patted her head "working so hard every day to accomplish your dreams, but you always end up reaching your limits and fall asleep"
"Hmm?" Victoria opened her eyes after Velten said that and started rubbing her right eye.
"Oh! Looks like the princess has woken up"
"Huh? Velten? What are you doing here?"
"I figured I would ask you to help me with something, but it seems like you're pretty tired"
"Ah, I'm sorry," Victoria said while holding her head "it seems like I fainted before I knew it while I was working"
Victoria then smiled and said while putting her hands on the desk "so, what do you want this time around, Velten?"
"Well, remember the slavery mark that I have on my neck?" Velten remarked as he pointed to his neck.
"I want you to try and remove it…"
"Huh?!" Victoria looked at Velten confused, with her eyes wide open.
"Umm, Velten? You know there is no such a way to do that, right?"
"Just hear me out, you're the only one currently who knows how to use the purification skill"
"Wait, so you're saying that the mark can be removed by just using the purification skill?"
"Yes" Velten replied with a serious face "but the problem is that it will consume a lot of mana"
"I'm willing to transfer all of my mana to you, but even with that, I'm not sure if it will be enough or not"
Victoria grabbed her chin and stayed calm for a bit while thinking about what Velten just told her. She then looked into him and said "are you sure this will work?"
"I can't guarantee that it will work, but we won't know until we try it, right?"
"Sigh…". Victoria sighed, smiled, and said "you looked a bit different when I opened my eyes, but it seems like you've never changed, huh?"
"Different? What do you mean?" Velten lifted his brows in confusion.
"Your soul looked in a perfect condition, but there was a dark aura surrounding your body"
"Huh?" Velten uttered in confusion "That's weird, I never felt something like that"
Victoria clapped her hands and said while slightly hitting the edge of the chair "Enough of the useless talk and come here so that we can start"
After Velten took a seat, then Victoria put her on his neck and started casting the spell.
[Notification: The Purification skill has been added to the store]
[Notification: the user didn't reach the essential requirements to start using the store. The purification skill will remain unavailable for the current time]
"Wait, what? I can learn skills by just watching other people using them?" Velten thought in confusion. The system didn't answer this time so he just assumed that it is right.
"In this case, if I leveled up enough, I would be at a high level by just watching people from away… this really sounds interesting," Velten thought and closed his eyes, letting Victoria do her work.
At first, everything was alright, but when Victoria started using more of her mana, the place of the mark started shining in red.
"Aaarrrrgh!!" Velten started screaming in pain as his neck started bleeding.
Victoria quickly moved her hand worriedly from Velten's neck after she heard him screaming, but he grabbed it, put it back, and said "don't stop! This is the only way…"
"But… you will–"
"Don't worry about me. I'll be fine" Velten interrupted her before she can say anything.
Victoria hesitated for a moment, but she just closed her eyes as she continued the process while hearing Velten screaming in pain.
After about 15 minutes, they were finally done. The mark indeed disappeared, but Victoria had to push herself even more so that she can heal him since he was suffering from a terrible severe deficiency of blood.
After she finished, she took some mana potions and started drinking them like crazy. Her Mana dropped down so much that she almost fainted again.
"I didn't expect this to work, though…" Victoria remarked as she dropped down exhausted on the floor.
"Yeah. The process is so dangerous that it could lead to the person losing his life if he can't endure the pain"
"However, it really deserves the risk" Velten then smiled and added while clenching his fist.
Velten's body was glowing in a golden color, and small golden particles were swirling around him. His eyes were all white, and some mana strips were surrounding him.
"This seems too good to be real…" Victoria stated.
"I know. I still haven't reached my soul's perfect form. I'm still too far away to reach that level, but unleashing my soul by removing the slavery mark is the first step to be taken…"
"However" Velten pointed to Victoria saying, "I need you to keep this a secret for the time being"
"Huh!? Why? Won't it be better if the world knows about it?" Victoria said in surprise.
"I know there is a lot who are suffering from the slavery mark, but since there are few people who have the ability to use the purification skill, your life might be in danger"
"My life might be in danger?"
"Yes, the ones who have the other marks, especially who have the dominance mark, might feel threatened since their work is all based on controlling the ones with slavery mark, and they might hunt you down"
The slave trade domain or slavery in general, has been going on for decades now, due to the difference in power and status, which was caused by the marks, meaning that the information about this process might cause a lot of trouble if anyone knew about it.
Velten then stood up and walked towards Victoria. He patted her head and said "That's why I need you to keep this a secret between us until I reach a level, where I can protect you without worrying too much about the other rankers"
"Or at least until I learn the skill myself," Velten thought.
Victoria's face flushed and she blushed as she heard that. She never expected the insensitive Velten she knows to say something like that. She turned her face away and uttered under her breath "You seriously need to watch what you're saying"
Velten then stayed there, chatting with Victoria until his body went back to normal and he could control his mana and the aura that was emitted by his body.
"Now that I'm done with this, I should take the second step soon," Velten thought.
"Before I do anything, I need to be the first to put his hands on the five ancient relics that are scattered all around the world"
A long time ago, a craftsman that wrote his name in history with gold, received an order from the sovereign to create some apparatuses that can help the defend itself and grow more.
The craftsman was against it at first, since he thought that making anything beyond humans' power, might lead to some, of what he referred to as skirmishes with those in power, and it might lead to the loss of many innocent lives.
However, the sovereign didn't give up and kept trying to convince him, until the craftsman did what the sovereign ordered him to do.
However, it was so late since the sovereign was breathing his last by the time the apparatuses were done, so the craftsman separated them and put them in random places around the world, using the help of the royal mage since he didn't trust anyone to keep them
"One of them is here in Lasturg, and not far away from where I am now as well".
Velten smirked and said, "I will make sure, this great power will be mine"
"But first, this weak body of mine should be taken care of"