Idle Mage: Humanity's Strongest Backer
chapter-113

"Interesting...very interesting..." Ashton muttered to himself as he was immersed in whatever he was currently reading.

There's a strange glint in his eyes as he read the contents of the book in his hands. Ashton had seen enough of this world that mellowed down his enthusiasm but there are certain things that pique his interest.

The Grand Archives opened up a whole new world for him to explore. It does make sense as most of the books here were the life work of deceased Heroes. Everything here has value and their discoveries were something that Ashton may not be able to have despite his clear advantages.

One of the said discoveries, one that truly caught Ashton's attention currently, is a Cultivation Technique that focuses on a specific Specialization.

As a reminder, Specialization is the person's inborn or trained affinity. It may fall into a specific element or concept, and it's something that directs Knights or Mages to a specific path in their journey to becoming powerful.

Ashton's Specialization is set to White Mage as his main and Gunslinger as his sub-class.

But this book is really tempting him to swerve on a different lane; The Slayer's Path.

That's the name of the book by the way; The Slayer's Path. It is created by the 199th Hero - Norman Black, also known as Mr. Slayer.

In this book, he wrote about his life experiences. This book was his diary. It is detailed to the point that he even wrote about his thought process, his theories, and everything that lead him to the path he has chosen.

Mr. Slayer is someone who possesses an inborn Bloodlust affliction. It is not a curse like one that Ashton has but it did make his life a bit difficult since, due to prejudice, people lumped him with the accused ones anyway.

The Bloodlust affliction caused him to be a Battle Maniac. The sight of people bleeding gives him some sense of exhilaration. He loves a good fight and sometimes he even goes out of control. Nevertheless, he never killed a fellow human in his entire life.

Due to his aggressiveness and his love for battle, he was isolated from his peers. Nevertheless, it is also because of that he was a phenomenal fighter. The Bloodlust affliction might've caused him to become weird in the eyes of others but it did hone his combat style, so much so that rarely anyone could match him at all.

Pair that with the Trait he managed to awaken, he was almost matchless in his life.

Norman Black awakened the Predator Trait which ramps up his combat talent through the roof. Each battle he experiences and lives through only served to make him stronger. It is said that his killing intent was so potent that his mere presence causes people to fair from sheer terror.

And it wasn't just humans who were afraid of him...

Mr. Slayer was one of the more difficult humans to deal with. He's scary and he knows it. He didn't give a shit about anyone and does whatever the hell he wants. Forget about the Morning Sun Federation, not even the Revenants knew how to deal with him at all.

The moment he reached the bare minimum requirements to venture outside of the bubble, he took it. That's the start of his legend.

For years to come, both Demons and Angels came to know and fear Mr. Slayer. He will come without any notice and began reaping lives like they were wheat. He left a bloody trail in the outside world, killing thousands of invaders in his wake.

Both races were so freaked out by him that they gave a 'Flee on sight' order to their subordinates. That hardly did anything though since Mr. Slayer never gave a shit about where they hide.

Kill everything on sight, move on, rinse and repeat, this was his routine. And said routine lasted for four decades before Mr. Slayer's age caught up to him.

He was captured in battle against Demons and Angels working together. It wasn't the Revenants who captured him, but his ending might as well be the same, eaten by them.

The secret behind Mr. Slayer's power is in his secret Cultivation Technique, which is called the 'Slayer's Path'.

To use this technique, one must have a weapon of their choice. Once they made their choice, they then have to carve a Blood-Drinking Seal on a said weapon to lay down the foundations.

After that, comes the slaying part. As the name suggests, the seal must drink blood, preferably fresh from the source, in order for this technique to grow.

A single Blood-Drinking Seal can drain the blood of 50 targets. Once it's full, the seal will then take effect and will improve the lethality of the weapon it's attached to by 10% against the targets that the seal drank blood from.

For example; if the Blood-Drinking Seal consumed the blood of 50 Demon Imps, it will improve the weapon's lethality against Imps by 10%. Additionally, one can have as many seals as they want, and their effects can also stack to a ridiculous level.

The Blood-Drinking Seal has a limited time of effect. A seal that's completely filled will last for 100 days before fading away. In order to remedy that, one has to change their Specialization to 'Slayer' so that the seals won't have a time limit.

This is why it is stated that this technique is centered around Specialization.

The higher the quality of blood is, the lesser number of victims required for the seal to be full. Mr. Slayer was able to condense a total of 999 Blood-Drinking Seals, all filled to the brim, from his victims. It allowed his weapon - which is a Scythe, how fitting, to be so deadly against both Celestials and Hypogeans that it is said that they could see a sea of blood on which their kind drowns, appearing whenever he's near.

Mr. Slayer was truly a scourge, a nightmare, for both races. If it weren't for his age catching up to him, he would've probably done more damage to them, making their lives even more miserable.

Mr. Slayer explained that, while the Slayer's Path is indeed formidable, it is far from being perfect. He personally said that this is an incomplete technique because ultimately, the seals have to be attached to a weapon, which becomes an obvious weak point and fatal flaw.

Had the Celestials and Hypogeans used their brains, they would've noticed this and made his life difficult.

Plus, the Slayer's Path isn't an easy road to traverse. If one wants to excel in it, one must constantly throw themselves in danger. Slaughter would become a constant thing in one's life and that does things to an individual's mind.

That being said...

'I know how to fix this...' Ashton mused to himself.

Indeed. Evidently, this technique was an old one. Mr. Slayer's terror had long since faded from the minds of the invaders due to the erosion of time. Since then many discoveries were found, some found their way into the public while a select few ended up here at the Grand Archives.

The Blood-Drinking Seal was something that was ahead of its time. Back then, seals, arrays, and formations weren't a thing yet. These are something that the 201st Hero discovered.

So really, Mr. Slayer was way ahead of his time. As a result, there is plenty of room for the mages of today to improve the Blood-Drinking Seal. And it just so happens that this falls into Ashton's specialty as well.

It had to be known that before the tragedy of the Mystic Academy and City M, Ashton was already learning Senior-level Inscriptions because of his genius-level intellect.

Aisha, his Professor on that subject, gave him advanced materials. The contents of his exams were way beyond what his peers are taking so he's a special case.

In Ashton's hands, this technique can experience rebirth. He already discovered 10 ways to improve this thing the first time he saw it. He might even be able to solve the Time Limit of the seals with the knowledge he possesses, that way he doesn't have to switch his Specialization anymore.

'Yes, maybe I'll work on this.' Ashton mused to himself. 'It's worth the shot at least. With my experiences so far, I'd have to deal with crap tons of enemies anyway so I might as well use them to strengthen myself directly.'

With a discernable grin on his face, Ashton no longer hesitated. He grabbed all the research materials he needed, told Aria that he'd be locking himself up in the Grand Archives for a while, and started his mission.

To become Humanity's Strongest Backer, he'll need more than just resources. People won't listen to him if he's not strong enough so to remedy that, he has to be stronger than most people.

The biggest advantage he has was time. Ashton wasn't in any hurry right now. He could take his time accumulating resources so that when the time comes that he's needed, he'll be more than ready to face the music.

'I wonder, how dense a Blood Drinking Seal would be if it absorbs a Demon Prince as its first meal?'