Innate Magic

"This is the story of your birth, Salomon." Master Gu Yi ruffled five-year-old Salomon's fluffy curls. The Venerable One had always been quite satisfied with Salomon's behavior, because he had never displayed the temperamental crying and fussing expected of a child. The Venerable One could always see Salomon thinking.

The Venerable One was not surprised by this. After all, Salomon's birth had been Heaven's handiwork. Although Master Gu Yi had intercepted him midway, his special qualities were bound to reveal themselves.

For example, he possessed a small amount of magic even without signing the Vishanti Contract. This ability had manifested when he was five years old, during the Millennium, and it had caused a little trouble.

There were certainly spellcasters on Earth who cast spells using their own magic. Ordinary people, given the proper method, could refine magic from their life force. In the West, this power was called magic; in the East, it was called qi. But regardless of what it was called, it was necessary energy for powering magic. Yet spellcasters who refined their life force were, without exception, not particularly powerful. Aside from a few exceptionally gifted occultists, they were all self-taught mages.

Spellcasters who generated their own magic had very special identities, more or less connected to the Outer Dimensions. Because of this, many Kamar-Taj mages asked the Sorcerer Supreme about it. They worried that the source of this magic might affect the delicately sculpted child.

"This is because he possesses greater life force." The Sorcerer Supreme pulled over Salomon, who had been sitting beside her in a daze. She spread open his palm, allowing the apprentices to see the unopened Holy Marks visible only through special sight. "The essence of magic is an energy that exists within all forms of life. Since he is a born saint, his body has been strengthened by Positive Energy, granting him more powerful life force.

"The excessive life force is automatically converted into magic by the Holy Marks. His magic merely uses his own life force and has nothing to do with the Outer Dimensions.

"Thus, even before signing a contract with the Vishanti, Salomon possessed the ability to cast spells on his own. Not only that, his body also possessed strength and senses far greater than those of ordinary people."

However, the Sorcerer Supreme told no one about the other things the Holy Marks brought. She did not think the other apprentices needed to know.

Salomon's clothes were more conspicuous than those of the other Kamar-Taj apprentices, because the Sorcerer Supreme had made them from deep crimson Holy Shroud to prevent the Holy Marks on his hands from running wild. After he put on those clothes, ordinary people could no longer see the Holy Marks.

"Is it Heaven? Or does it come from the Vishanti?" an apprentice asked.

"No. It is merely the Positive Energy Plane, neither Heaven nor something originating from the Vishanti," the Sorcerer Supreme said. "The magic we acquire is also Positive Energy, and Mount Olympus is likewise a Positive Energy Plane. There is no difference. If his body had been through Negative Energy—that is, Dark Magic—he would never have been able to put on weight."

Salomon Damonet puffed out his cheeks in displeasure. He had always insisted it was baby fat, and several female apprentices could not help pinching his chubby cheeks a few times.

For many years, the Sorcerer Supreme had worked within Kamar-Taj to eliminate the worship of the Vishanti, even though the Vishanti were the patrons of both Kamar-Taj and herself. One reason Kamar-Taj could obtain magic from the Vishanti rather than other magical entities was the intervention of the Living Tribunal—the Living Tribunal was one of the Five Cosmic Deities. It was also at the Living Tribunal's instruction that Ancient One had been able to sign a contract with the magical entity known as the Vishanti.

In truth, the Sorcerer Supreme had initially been hesitant about taking in this disciple, because even the Vishanti had their own designs. Although the Sorcerer Supreme had the Living Tribunal behind her, the Vishanti were the patrons who provided her magic, and they had already chosen the next Sorcerer Supreme. Agamotto, Oshtur, and Hoggoth of the Trinity all wanted to bring Kamar-Taj, which had effectively slipped beyond their control, back under their control. They wanted to select a sufficiently obedient Sorcerer Supreme—but Master Gu Yi was simply too powerful, and her relationship with the Living Tribunal was too close.

The Vishanti could not be sure whether tearing up the contract would drive Ancient One toward Dormammu and turn her into their enemy. They could not afford to gamble, so they could only wait quietly for Ancient One to die naturally.

The birth of Salomon Damonet allowed the Sorcerer Supreme to see new hope—a hope that, before the new Sorcerer Supreme matured, Earth could remain independent and autonomous, and Kamar-Taj would not fall into becoming a puppet of the Vishanti. She had also told him Jezebel's story, attempting to bind Salomon's feelings to the people of Earth. She told Salomon that his existence was the continuation of Jezebel's love.

"How did you do it?" After the apprentices had left, the Venerable One asked Salomon.

The Sorcerer Supreme deliberately stroked Salomon Damonet's fluffy, soft, long black curls. Before a human child had fully grown into their features, this hairstyle made it difficult to tell whether he was a boy or a girl, making him especially adorable. Even the Sorcerer Supreme could not resist pinching his chubby, rosy cheeks twice.

"I just wanted to warm up some soup. I was reading The Book of Rogorel and didn't have time to eat, so I wanted to finish the soup I hadn't drunk last night." Salomon spread his hands, looking utterly innocent. And he had not lied.

In fact, the moment Salomon gained self-awareness, he saw Master Gu Yi. He quickly sorted out where he was, but due to his extremely low-desire personality, he could not even be bothered to be surprised.

Afterward, Salomon carefully examined those cheat abilities. The ten Holy Marks on his fingers not only gave him physical abilities far beyond ordinary humans, but each also contained the memories of a deceased archmage, holding vast amounts of magical knowledge and memories of their lives. Of course, he could tell where those memories came from: either Faerun or Greyhawk, either Eberron or Krynn. There were even some from the Inner Sea World.

But he still wanted to complain. Why were there so many mages who loved necromancy among the memories he had received?

Was it because they were too evil and got beaten to death? And why did his cheat ability work so much like a Demilich's Soul Gem? Did all this imply that he would become a lich in the future?

While this cheat ability was a physical trait, it also brought certain side effects. When he unlocked the Holy Marks to obtain knowledge, he suffered immense floods of information. Every one of those archmages had possessed a long lifespan, while he was merely a shut-in otaku. His soul was not yet strong enough to accept all those memories.

It was a vicious cycle, so Salomon had to begin learning Kamar-Taj's spells and improve the essence of his soul before he could receive the spells within the Holy Marks.

After Salomon received a basic education, he was permitted to read some of the magical books in the library. The book he had been reading, The Book of Rogorel, also called The Key of Solomon, was not the original text but a translated edition produced after it had been deciphered. It had nothing whatsoever to do with King Solomon and had simply been written by medieval warlocks.

The book encouraged killing and Blood Sacrifice, making it typical Dark Magic. However, because its contents were all nonsense and contained no useful information, it had been tossed into a corner of the library and used as one of the teaching materials for newcomers to understand the horrors of Dark Magic. That was why Salomon had been allowed to read it.

The true Book of Enoch, which recorded the knowledge of the angel Rogorel, was something Salomon was not yet permitted to read.

It was like when parents frightened children by saying that if they did not go to sleep, some strange thing like a big bad wolf, a witch, or Voldemort would come and take them away. It was purely intimidation-based education.

Still, Salomon found it fascinating. After all, he had only inherited memories of a few minor tricks so far. He had never encountered orthodox occultism before.

Salomon's innate personality, combined with the excitement the mages in those memories had felt when first trying magic, led him to attempt warming the soup with Magic Tricks. In a world without Spell Slots or the Web of Magic, he could only recite a long incantation and control the output of magic himself.

Yet instead of turning cold soup hot, he sent a burst of flickering sparks crackling out the door. This had particularly worried the mages who were practicing spells, which was why the opening scene had happened.

The Sorcerer Supreme gently patted Salomon's head again. Naturally, she knew Salomon's origins were far from simple, but she had no intention of telling anyone. She had not even used the Eye of Agamotto to observe Salomon's future. Although she had received the Eye of Agamotto from the Living Tribunal, it was a Vishanti artifact, and it was difficult to say whether the Vishanti had left any hidden tricks behind.

The Venerable One seemed to be considering something. A single kind of magic could only support one system of spells. For example, Dormammu's cultists could not learn Kamar-Taj's portals. The Venerable One knew the Holy Marks would bring knowledge, but Salomon's magic seemed capable of supporting the operation of those spells...

"You need more practice, Salomon." After a while, Master Gu Yi reached out and pulled Salomon over. She took a cup of juice from a portal. "You can try freezing this drink. Come, give it a try. Don't be afraid. I'm right here."

Salomon was somewhat moved. He looked into the Sorcerer Supreme's encouraging eyes and did as she said... Then the Sorcerer Supreme inserted a straw into the cup and walked away holding the frost-covered drink. Salomon rolled his eyes. Fine, the Sorcerer Supreme really was somewhat different from what he had imagined.

At first, he had thought the Sorcerer Supreme would be an exceptionally dignified and benevolent mage, like Dumbledore next door. But what kind of mentor said a whole bunch of touching things just to trick an apprentice into freezing a cup of drink?

Master Gu Yi did not look like some crooked-nosed old man who loved sweets, either!

New book, please invest in it.

A heads-up for those in front: perhaps some people can see it and others cannot, but the protagonist is being deliberately cultivated.