Sealed: Breaking Destiny

Nine Seals

It was just another day for Luke. He would get up, take a perfume bottle filled with cheap liquor and spray it all over his body, as well as fill a bottle with fruit juice to make it look like he was drinking alcohol. Also, Luke obviously wasn't stupid, so he put black and white dyes in his hair, and wore makeup to look like a man in his fifties.

Everyone in Ludwit City thought Luke was a drunkard, but it was just a character he was playing. One of the main rules of assassins was to always keep a cool head, something he had learned the hard way during his youth, so it was impossible for him to get drunk on a daily basis.

The routine was simple, go out around lunchtime to beg for money and then spend the rest of the day wandering the streets or in some shady bar. The truth was that he didn't need money, as he had stolen enough on his journey to the Doira Kingdom and from the stupid kids of the noble families of Ludwit City, but it was necessary to keep up appearances. A person with enough money to buy alcohol who had no job would quickly arouse suspicion, so this whole show was absolutely necessary.

After this, he would return to the house he illegally inherited and spend all his time trying to crack the mystery that prevented him from cultivating.

"Damn. I've already wasted two years of my life in this miserable city and I still can't reach the First Rank. That damn pendant has brought me more trouble than good..." Even though he said this, Luke knew they were just empty words spoken out of the helplessness he felt. If it weren't for the pendant's help, he would be nothing but bones in a grave under the ground right now.

Removing the clothes covering his torso, he approached the mirror in his room and carefully observed the seals that the pendant had applied to his body.

They were nine circular seals with different geometric shapes within them, ranging from his heart to near his groin. From an aesthetic perspective, Luke thought they looked really cool and gave him a bad boy aura, but he couldn't have hated them more.

At first he thought it was a cheap trick to protect his Core due to the overstraining he had to do in order to feed the pendant with World Energy, but it had been two years since he had started cultivating again and there were no significant results. Although his Core had been relatively unharmed, so absorbing World Energy to cultivate should not be a problem, these nine seals did not allow this to happen.

Some time ago, and after much observation, Luke finally discovered why the three smaller seals near his groin looked familiar. About 15 years ago he had infiltrated a scouting mission in the Lost Lands to assassinate a nobleman.

There, he had the opportunity to take a close look at the seals placed in Fallen's Valley. Although they were not identical, they certainly shared certain similarities. In general, the magic seals were composed of different circles with designs representing different levels.

However, both the Fallen's Valley seals and the ones on his body were formed from only one circle and strange geometric figures inside. According to rumors and the few existing historical records, these types of seals had been created by the Great Amethyst Empire, only to be abandoned in favor of simpler seals like the ones used today.

"What a headache. Now I understand why the Dark Ones have not been able to continue their advance despite being so much stronger than us. But why does my luck have to be so bad? If they haven't managed to destroy them in almost 15000 years, the future doesn't seem to be very encouraging for me." Luke couldn't help but frown thinking about how his plans had gone south.

Obviously these two years had not been in vain, and he had managed to weaken the first seal by 70% just by using brute force, but it was far from enough. At this rate, it would take him perhaps another two years to reach the First Rank.

Although with his knowledge it was possible to use the World Energy within his Core to cast some magic spells, its effectiveness in battle was very low. The reason was that he could not replenish that World Energy fast enough.

For example, a normal cultivator could in a 1-minute battle spend 50% of his World Energy and passively recover 20%, so he would not be immediately knocked out of combat. The recovery rate depended on Rank, World Energy purity and special artifacts, as well as certain pills that could speed up this process.

However, in Luke's case, this process could take up to a week given his special circumstances. Those who were not yet at the First Rank could not use magic spells since their Core was not yet fully formed. But since Luke's Core was not destroyed, but merely shrunk and lost much of its refining ability, he was able to use some First Rank magic spells.

The idea behind cultivation was very simple. The person had to absorb the World Energy available in his environment and fill his Core with it, while refining it to a much purer state. The purer, the less of it would be needed to use a magic spell. At the same time, the Core would expand, which was what ultimately determined Rank.

The First Rank to the Third Rank were very simple to classify, it was simply a matter of observing the size of the Core. From the Fourth Rank onwards, things became more complicated, since it was not only the size that mattered, but the ''Stars'' also entered the equation.

The Stars orbited the Core at an unimaginable speed, being composed of the purest World Energy. Their function was basically to enhance the purity of the World Energy and, once they were all formed, to merge with the Core to enhance it significantly.

From the Fourth Rank to the Fifth Rank there were 3 Stars.

From the Sixth Rank to the Seventh Rank there were 4 Stars.

At the Eighth Rank there were 5 Stars.

And what about the Ninth Rank? Even Luke didn't know the answer to that question. Ninth Rank cultivators certainly existed at some point in history, but records about them were very scarce and unreliable.

At present, it was impossible to find any Ninth Rank cultivators or anyone who had met one. To the historians of the Aurora Continent, this was probably the main reason why humanity had fallen so low.

At his peak, Luke was a 3-Star Eighth Rank cultivator. The strongest members of The Circle like Dimitris were at his same level, while the weaker ones like Xavier and Akami were at 1-Star Eighth Rank.

"There's no point in dwelling on the past, now I'm simply a miserable cultivator with no rank. My only option seems to be to bet that one of the entrances to that crazy old man's inheritance grounds will indeed be located near this place." Luke had no choice but to bet that Duke Valkrys' map was correct.

Ten years ago, Luke managed to enter the inheritance grounds of Duke Valkrys, who once was part of the Great Amethyst Empire during its first 3000 years. From there he got a map of the various entrances, and one of them was located in the Rotten Valley outside Ludwit City.

Luke simply had no choice, Duke Valkrys was his only hope of learning something about the seals. The only other place he could get information was Amethyst City, which was clearly impossible.

"I have to speed up my plans, it shouldn't be long before the Magical Beasts attack again. I must get someone to take me to that place, but I also can't act like a madman and put my true identity at risk. Tomorrow I'll go to the bar and see what the latest news are, I'll have to work with whatever I possibly can, time is running out."

---

The next day...

The sun was burning. Luke headed to the Piggy Bar, a shady bar, where the worst of Ludwit City hung out, making it the perfect place to gather intelligence. Drunks always told the truth, so the Intel you could get from a criminal by paying for a few bottles of cheap wine was invaluable.

When he was a few feet from the gates, he saw a few members of the Rockwell Family passing through the area surrounded by a few guards.

'Mmhh, how interesting. That guy in green clothes is hiding his level. He's clearly one step away from the Second Rank but is acting like he just reached the First Rank. Also, he doesn't belong to the guards, but walks aside from the direct descendants. Hehehe, looks like my bad luck has come to an end.'

With that thought in mind, he entered the Piggy Bar to get information about the young man and the Rockwell Family. It seemed that he could finally put his plans into action.