Resting for the night healed the Time Compression Stress ailment, which was nice since he still felt a bit of that even as he went to bed, it having lessened instead of having gone away completely after he left the Time Compression Pseudospace. It lessened by one stage. Still, it was Sunday. The day of the deadline of the Quest, the Quest being due at Midnight. In the morning when he woke up all refreshed at a regular time, not really bothering to try and get up early today. No. They would need all of their strength if they were going to go through with this plan. This was why Ren wasn't planning on performing any Grinding today. "Just preparations for now..." Ren got out of bed and went to his computer, deciding to just eat some of the snacks he kept at his desk as a breakfast. He was too lazy to actually prepare breakfast right now, the aura of a neet flowing through him at the moment. They filled him up and Ren never got fat, ever. Despite that his metabolism he began to wonder if he was ever going to grow beyond his short height of about five feet. Not that he really cared. Ren wasn't much for keeping appearances up, and only made himself look somewhat presentable every day just to not stand out more than he already does. Spell Tomes or Magical Tools that help with frost or demon magic that were in his price range. With near a million Yen, which Ren figured was probably chump change to people in the abyss but to Ren it was more money than he had ever had total in his entire life, not counting what he has already acquired with the Gamer Power. With that, Ren began searching for one of those two things, willing to spend part of the morning doing so. --- Auction Search: 87 - 14 Luck + 25 Multiple Search Penalty = 98 --- Ren found... nothing really. Well, nothing special anyway. To phrase it properly, he didn't find anything special that was on sale or that he could afford even if it wasn't. Magical weapons and items were expensive. Spell Tomes, which were books that contained info on a single spell, were also expensive, but not too expensive. Still expensive enough to blow away a large chunk of the money he currently had though considering that the cheaper ones were either Upper E or Lower D Rank purchases. There wasn't really much on there though that Ren was willing to blow tons of money on. With time wasted, as he had no Toggles to grind aside from Meditation, which he didn't bother with, Ren decided to move on to something else after having spent around an hour or so searching. "Time to prepare for midnight." Renewing his Jinx, making some Runes, and creating some better Essence Weapons were all a part of his preparation plans. If he had any time left, he would try contracting another Demon. He wanted to save some time though to just rest and relax in the evening, unwind by playing some games before their quest began. First came renewing his Jinx of Draining. After that, he decided to attempt making another Hex or two. --- Jinx Renewal: 4 (Critical!) --- The Hex Renewal worked. In fact, it worked so well that he felt like he would be able to use its power more before it ran out. After that, Ren thought for a few moments, wondering if he could make some sort of paralysis hex. "It would certainly be useful against human foes..." In the games he played, the job of a black or dark mage, while sometimes was dealing major damage, was also more or less debuffing. By making the enemies weaker it made them easier to destroy. That was what his Black Magic would be for once he leveled it up some more, Ren not having paid too much attention to it ever since he now had two other forms of magic to focus upon. --- Jinx Creation: 3 (Critical!) --- A Natural at Black Magic. Being called such a thing probably... was both good and bad in a sense. Perhaps it was Magic Affinity, but Magic was coming so naturally to Ren, it felt incredible really. With one of the Death Runes he had as a focus before to harness the powers of death like he used before to make the Mark of Numbness, he was able to create the Hex and still even keep the rune intact. The black magic mark on his right hand glowing some, Ren cringing a bit as it hurt, but he endured it for now, looking in apt satisfaction at the new windows that appeared. With that out of the way, Ren wasn't stopping there. That grand showing of magical prowess ranked up his black magic enough, he figured he would learn some black magic spells, something he wasn't planning on, but figured he could do anyway. Hexes were the next step in the path of black magic. Hexes were similar to Spells, but were created differently. Black Magic is a magic born from dark desires. It made Ren wonder if White Magic was the opposite if it even existed. It was something worth looking into, a buffing or positive magic of sorts. Unlike other forms of magic, if one had the desires and means of focus or symbolism, one could create any form of spell as long as it is within the mage's power. If it wasn't, then the attempt to create the spell would probably kill them. Ren decided to use his Survival Knife as the focus medium for the first attempt at a spell. It had cut into alot of enemies and he had been using it for a while, even having enchanted it a few times with temporary magics. It would make the perfect focus. --- Attempt at Hex Creation: 32 - 52 Ritual Black Magic - 7 Skill Bonus - 3 Magic Ritual ID Bonus = -30 --- Ren could feel dark desires bubbling within him. Desires to hurt, desires to harm, desires to cut down enemies. The knife was a perfect Symbol for this, its blade glowing with a black energy for the ritual as Ren's chanting continued. In order for the ritual to work properly one had to feel their own creation, their own Hex. Experience the darkness of it for themselves. Without hesitation Ren closed his fist around the knife, cringing some as he could feel it cutting into him. No blood came out, but he could feel as if it was coming out, running over the knife and onto the circle where the knife had been placed. From the 'wound' he could feel the dark magic beginning to move into his hand, the mark pulsating and glowing with a dark power. It was hot, and felt like it was filling his very being, attacking it, empowering it, corrupting it. He felt the demonic force within him react in kind, the two dark forces moving within him now, Ren cringing and crying out loudly in pain. The ritual was working, but he could feel his HP dropping, Ren wondering if he could even endure this dark power corrupting and eating away at his being as he felt both the darkness of his black magic and the very demonic energy within him starting to merge as one, something Ren tried to stop, but for some reason he just couldn't, no matter how hard he tried. Because of this, he felt as if it was tearing his very being apart, his MP and HP both being drained at very fast speeds, dark thoughts slithering into his being like some sort of white hot malice. He couldn't even focus himself to resist the malice, relying on just sheer willpower to resist. --- Endure the Power: 53 - 22 VIT = 31 Resist the Corruption: 75 - 32 WIS = 43 --- Ren's eyes were rolling back in his head a bit, the dark power starting to burn and eat away more at his very essence while it seemed to corrupt more of his mind. He tried his hardest to keep himself with whatever force of will he could muster. It was all too much, but somehow Ren barely managed to pull through. He collapsed to the ground after that, exhausted, barely able to move. HP and MP were both extremely low. He felt though that this power was tamed within, whatever it was. A force of dark will and demonic strength. Something that just seemed incredibly dangerous. Ren felt weaker physically while his mind felt duller for some reason. His eyes widened when he discovered that said force had weakened his body and damaged his mind permanently, a -1 to each Stat being listed, except Luck of course, so just his Physical and Mental stats. "Dammit... that's the last thing I need, today of all days..." Ren panted heavily, slowly crawling towards his bed. Luckily though the new windows explaining some of his new stuff was interesting, but Ren was wondering if the loss of five entire Stat Points was worth it. Those weren't going to be easy to come by, not easy at all, especially now that he was Level 20. He had lost a total of 11 Stat Points to these dark powers so far. Ren wasn't really sure how many more he was willing to lose. Too tired to do much else, Ren decided to first heal himself as much as he could with Healing Wave before resting, resting the rest of the morning away, making sure to set an alarm to get himself up around noon. And get up he did. Feeling a bit more refreshed now, it now being around noon. The afternoon was all Ren had left to prepare. He wanted to grind until he leveled up again, but decided against it. Ren wasn't too keen on utilizing a power that nearly killed him yet, so first he decided to practice a bit of Essence Manipulation. He figured that two Minor Crystals and two Frost Crystals would make a decent dagger of sorts. --- Essence Manipulation: 26 - 48 Ritual Water Magic - 7 Magic Affinity - 3 ID Bonus = -32 --- The manipulation worked like a charm. With Shimo's help, a dagger of chilling energy and solidified essence of frost was now sitting in Ren's hand, which was then soon enough stored within a Rune. He needed a new weapon now more than ever since learning that new Black Arts Spell destroyed his Survival Knife. It wasn't that strong, but Ren figured he would use it if need be. Next he wanted to create a water knife. He thought about a trident, but decided against it. --- Essence Manipulation: 8 - 58 Bonuses = - 50 --- The water essence dagger was easily created, and a bit stronger than the ice one thanks to both the materials he used, and the fact that his Water Affinity was much higher than his Frost Affinity. With two elemental weapons created, Ren decided a bit of an experiment was in order. He wondered that if he used a bit of his own Mana, the technique of Essence Manipulation, and his more or less pretty good knowledge of magic if he could somehow use these two weapons as ranged weapons for launching blasts of the elemental energies within at an opponent. It was certainly worth a shot. So first he turned on Mana Focus and Essence Manipulation, deciding to use his Water Dagger in the experiment since it had more uses available to it. This was a pretty foreign concept though, so Ren wasn't sure if he could even do it or if he was even doing it right if there was a way to do it. --- Essence Focus: 13 + 25 Unknown Method - 51 Focus - 5 Focus Title Bonus = -18 --- It was incredibly difficult, but somehow Ren pulled through. By focusing into the mana the magical weapon was powered by and by grasping the Essence of the weapon, with a burst of mental focus he was able to eject it out with a slash, creating a blade like wave of water essence. He looked down at his dagger after that, a small smirk appearing on his face after he saw the new Window that had appeared. With that, a third of the afternoon was gone. Ren decided to spend it grinding his newest Whisper and Hex, the Whisper having been updated again when Ren learned that Cold Fire whisper Skill Book. Of course, Healing Wave would also be trained here as well so that he could be healed, letting Shimo and Undine also assist with Healing when necessary. Grinding these Skills was a bit harder, especially since he had to face Corruptive Encroachment a couple of times, but with proper focus and inner strength, and thus a bit of time wasting, it was fought off. A couple levels were gained in Harm, the newest Whisper he acquired, and the corrupted being Skill. Ren decided that for the last bit of preparation today he would just make a bunch of Runes before heading off to Gekkoukan. Healing Wave Runes was going to be what he made. Of course, he turned on Mana Shield in case any of the Runes decided to explode on him like before. --- Rune Magic: 5 - 58 Bonuses = -53 Rune Magic: 96 (Fumble) Rune Magic: 12 - 58 Bonus = -46 --- The first one went well, but the second exploded right in front of him with enough force to nearly shatter his Mana Shield, which he was glad that he kept up. After that, Ren rested for now, playing games and just relaxing. Once it was around 10:30 PM, Ren left for Gekkoukan, getting there around 11 PM. It was an hour before midnight, Ren hanging out a bit away from it on a nearby bench, waiting for the others to arrive now.