11 The Well Of Darkness

Bull entered the room nervously, only to see Victor sitting on the floor and counting magic crystals.

"Hey, Bull. Did you know that I am your master from now on?" Victor says without lifting his head.

"Yes master, Cindy told me everything."

"Nice. Makes things easier for me." Victor paused for a bit as he threw all the semi low grade mana crystals into the biggest bag. 'These things should be able to fetch a price, even if it's low. I don't want to take them to the main house as I don't know much about that place and by looking at how mom and dad talked about the place, it seems like I should be more cautious with my actions.' Victor then looked at Bull "Tell me about yourself Bull."

"I have a 10% mana body and I was a professional in street boxing as my previous master liked making money in that way. You can use me as your training partner and a body guard. I may be young but I have defeated more than a hundred strong adults."

"What's your age?" Victor asks in a bored voice.

"I am 16 years old, master."

"You are quite unlucky huh? 10% mana body..... just one step away from being a qualified mage." Victor said as he pulled down his earlobe. Although the people with mana bodies were considered mages, the kingdom only trained and taught the people with mana purity of 11% to 40%. People with 1 to 10% mana purity could use magic but it was not considered much. They could conly circulate mana inside their body and if they tried to use magic outside, the effects would be negligible.

10% was a barrier for many people with mana bodies. For example, if a person with 11% mana purity uses a fire ball, it would be as big as a fist and if a person with 10% mana purity uses the same magic with the same effort, they would only heat up their hands and harm themselves. Victor didn't know why the magic couldn't come out of their bodies and manifest itself but, he knew that the people with mana purity of 1 to 10 percent were called as body enhancers. They could physically enhance themselves whenever they wanted. The mages with mana purity over 10 percent couldn't enhance their bodies as it would harm them more than benefit them in the long run.

Bull stared at Victor as he was expecting him to show disappointment but, he just smiled and said "Do you know how to enhance your body?"

"Yes master. I'm a strength type enhancer of earth attribute." Bull said as he looked at Victor in a new light. Enhancers were usually the people who were thrown out of the society. Nobles hated them as they weren't "real" mages and the commoners / ordinary people hated them for being mages. Enhancers were the group of people who were stuck in the social differences between the nobles (mages) and commoners (ordinary people).

Most of the time, enhancers are conceived from weak mage couples or from a mage and non-magic pair. Although the chances of an enhancer being born to couples that have high mana purity can be negligible, it is not impossible. So, in most of the cases enhancers are the off springs of nobles and once the news about them being enhancers is known, they are either killed, sold to slave traders for a high price or exiled from their homes. There are cases of people accepting the enhancers but, it is comparatively less.

"Hmm nice. Strength with earth attribute is considered rare. Your abilities are far more useful than Cindy's. Let's go to the training grounds. Show me what you can do before Cindy comes back."

**************

[Training grounds]

"Activate your enhacement." Victor said as he looked at bull. Bull nodded and took up a weird boxing stance. Victor could see many flaws in the stance but he decided to ignore it. Slowly, bull's skin began to change color. It looked like the skin changed color but a keen observer could see cracks forming on the skin and the skin slowing turning into stone. Victor just patiently stood at the same place as he observed the changes on Bull. 'The transformation is so slow….. no wonder the mages reject them. Enchanters could be killed a hundred times before they completed their transformation.'

After two minutes , the transformation stopped and bull was two inches taller than before with a one inch thick stone layer covering his body.

"Good. Now just stand still." Victor said as he grabbed a sword from the family barracks at the corner of the training grounds. He then stabbed Bull but, the sword didn't pierce through the stone layer. It just made a small mark.

"Oh well. Time for test two." He said as he ran back to the barracks and came out holding a hammer. When he came near enough to strike, he lifted the hammer up and brought it down diagonally towards Bull's shoulder. Bull fell down with a heavy thud. The stone armor was broken at the place where Victor had his and there were cracks formed throughout that particular arm half of his head and chest.

"Alright that's enough I guess…. Let's go back." Victor says as he gives Bull a healing potion. 'weakness is blunt and strong attacks huh… and his body doesn't become rock, he just covers himself with it.'

They walked back to Victor's room and waited for Cindy to come back with the mask. They didn't have to wait for a long time as Cindy came back a few minutes later.

"Master I got the masks for you." Cindy says as she gives him two plain masks of same design with different colors. One was black and the other was white. Victor gave the black one to Bull and said "Find shops which buy low grade mana crystals and try finding out if they are interested in buying semi low grade mana crystals. The price of semi low grade mana crystals will be 750 stone rings and don't sell it for lower than 500 stone rings. I will take care of the low grade mana crystals."

"Okay master." Bull said as he put on the mask.

"Take the mask off. Put it on when I tell you to. Let's go." Victor said as he took all the storage bags and gave them to Bull.

"Carry them for me."

*************

The trio left the Lee mansion by foot. Bull knew some places where they could sell the mana crystals with some anonymity but, the main reason why victor wanted to go there was because the businessmen in that area were struggling and wouldn't mind dealing with a masked person if they could make some profits. The place they were going to was Goldwing Town but the truth was completely different from what a normal person would expect. The town head, Baron Kyle was a corrupt man and would turn a blind eye to any crime if he received "compensation" for the disturbance caused. Slowly , the town was filled with scammers, bandits , lone mages, prostitutes , illegal slave dealers , etc.

Slave trading was legal in the Maximilion empire and this confused Victor when he heard about illegal slave dealing from Bull. "Why do they have to sell slaves illegally when they can just do it the normal way."

"They do it to escape the annual taxes, master."

Victor nodded 'I forgot about the taxes.... nice.'

"But that is not the main reason for illegal slave dealings, master. You would think that they sell the slaves for a low cost because of the contracts issue but most of the people prefer buying from these shady people and the slaves are sold for at least double the cost of what you get from the legalized shops. Do you know why?"

Victor thought for a moment "I do have a guess but answer my question before I confirm it. If you and Cindy were sold illegally, how much would you both cost?"

"Cindy would cost 10 gold coins and I would cost 2 gold coins master."

"The contract gives complete authority over the slave to the owner. But would Cindy be sold for 10 times her original price and you only 2 times?" Victor said with a smile.

Cindy just stared at the ground as she didn't like being treated like an object and she couldn't voice her opinions.

"Yes master. You are completely right and to answer your question …. Cindy is a mage, trained to keep things and people clean. This alone will give her a value of 4 gold coins and the extra 6 is because she is still a virgin. She can't be physically abused because of the slave contract and this is the first time she is sold as a slave."

Cindy's expression showed a mixture of anger and sadness. 'Probably some past thingy.' Victor thought and was about to ask bull more questions but stopped when they arrived at Goldwing Town.

Bull leaned towards Victor and said "I forgot to tell you before but there is a place in this city which is called as the well of darkness."