Chapter 1313: Repairing the Lightning Constellation (Part 1)
“Saleen, I’m about to impart a secret art to you. If you were to master it…”
Saleen looked at his teacher. Jason had never been so serious and solemn when he was about to teach him something.
Jason continued, “If you were to master it, you shall do your best to keep this deep within your heart and not impart it to anyone else.”
Saleen was dumbfounded for a bit and did not ask questions. There were many secret arts to the world of mages, as well as many rules. Teachers were not allowed to pa.s.s them on to their students.
All mages within the temple excused themselves. No outsider was allowed to stand around and watch while the imparting of secret arts was being carried out.
There had been many methods of training practiced during the time when humans threw their weight around in all manner of planes. That was also the beginning of the secret arts. Even after the secret arts were modified and refined by humans, only a handful of humans were capable of practicing them. They either needed some special talents or bloodline.
Lex’s secret arts required the bloodline of the Grukos, specifically the line of Emperor Chanake, in order them work in an apparent fas.h.i.+on. Emperor Chanake only dared to invade the Tanggulasi Empire because he had succeeded in mastering their family’s secret arts. The power of secret arts were usually ma.s.sive.
Jason dismissed all of the mages. None of the people around Saleen were allowed to stay either. Sika took the followers outside. Rafel the archangel intended to stay, but she was also hauled away by Sika.
Rafel never expected Sika to possess such monstrous strength. When Sika pulled her arm, it felt like her arm was about to come off.
That was Saleen’s wife. Rafel was not angered. Instead, she was curious. She knew of Sika’s priest profession. People in such a profession had few among them who possessed formidable combat capacity. Even in regards to brute strength alone, there were few contenders found in the divine kingdoms. If there were to be anyone who able to actually overpower Sika through brute strength, it would have had been someone above level 14. They would still need to borrow divine powers to do so.
Jason unleashed his magic amplifier and sealed the room off. Water and fire elements coursed about the walls of the room, forming a visible barrier.
Saleen had not seen this before and kept watching with his Element Eye. He quickly found that the elemental barrier his teacher unleashed had elemental structures tens of times finer than what he usually saw. This implied that his teacher’s power in magic was tens of times greater than conventional elemental magic and capable of greater changes.
“Saleen, the secret arts I’m about to impart are completely dependent on compatibility with your talents,” Jason said. “If you’re unable to comprehend it, there will be nothing I can do to help you. Watch closely.”
He began to chant complex verses. The tempo of the chants was stiff yet sounded exotic. Saleen was unable to comprehend any single rune, yet extremely complex, ever-changing perceptions began to form in his mind.
He was finally able to see what the elemental barrier cast by the Rings of Water and Fire truly was. Those elements formed complex magical runes. There were at least billions of combinations between them.
“Saleen, this secret art isn’t something I’m proficient in,” Jason said. “If you were to be able to master it, it shall provide you with unique methods for controlling souls.”
Saleen was astonished. There were billions of rune combinations, yet Jason claimed that he was not proficient with it. Just how complex would such a skill be to master?
Jason’s eyes sparkled. That skill came from another crystal wall system. While that other crystal wall system had humans, their cultural development bore no similarities to theirs.
At present, one would not be able to find any detailed information regarding that crystal wall system, let alone learn arts from it. Jason forced himself into research using magic to acquire those skills. He was eventually able to translate about 40,000 of the scripts used and deduce every single syllable.
Despite the effort, those scripts still looked and sounded alien to him. Every single expression seemed contradictory. Only by comprehending another civilization altogether would he have been able to master such a skill at a deep level.
The very reason Jason had been able to learn Water Flame Alchemy and Blazing Flame Soul-refining was because his thought patterns resonated with the things that those two skills expressed, which made learning a literal breeze. He came to learn hundreds of skills from a single piece of memory gem, yet only one-fifth proved relatively compatible with him. As for the rest, he was barely able to deduce over a dozen of them.
Jason spent a great deal of time in his youth trying to acquire those skills. It resulted in him becoming a level five mage when he was in his 30s. However, as those skills matured, his rate of advancement soared. It was so quick that the other mages were astonished at his rate of growth.
The Ring of Cosmos on Saleen’s finger spun in a frenzy. Every spin sent countless information into his soul. That information was translating the scripts that Jason ill.u.s.trated. Some content came from the ring itself.
Saleen suddenly felt that there were huge s.p.a.ces within the Ring of Cosmos. There were 64 of them, and every single s.p.a.ce had extremely deep attributes. They were as vast as oceans.
He was a mage, so he probed it using his senses. He surprisingly ended up spending all of his mental powers, including the boosted parts the Ring of Cosmos bestowed him. Not a single drop remained.
Jason was shocked to see Saleen black out in front of him. Saleen’s Ring of Cosmos continued to spin, unleas.h.i.+ng gentle powers to replenish his mental powers.
Saleen gradually came to shortly after, but the ma.s.sive content sent to his head gave him a headache. The vast information all ill.u.s.trated a world. There was hardly any information regarding skills in it. Still, every single detail surprised, startled, and astonished him.
The information within the ring ill.u.s.trated all worlds, from structures to rules and G.o.ds to humans. Furthermore, the information within the ring ill.u.s.trated the direction of human evolution. They were to become everlasting beings higher than G.o.ds.
G.o.ds would eventually perish. At the end of humans’ training, they would be able to share the lifespan of the cosmos.
Saleen began to slowly digest the information as he came to. At first, he thought it was ridiculous. As he came to comprehend more information, his expression turned glum.
The information within the ring seemed to have been correct. Magic was not the penultimate of knowledge. At the very least, in the parts concerning lightning, it was explained in the informational exchange with unnerving clarity.
One of the s.p.a.ces was even meant specifically to store boundless Aqua Fulgur, flowing within the s.p.a.ce. The lightning skill that Saleen had barely able to learn, ball lightning, was being mimicked within the Aqua Fulgur.
The lightning runes in his eyes s.h.i.+fted and continued to split up, increasing in volume. One extra weird rune was added inside. Those extra runes were none other than one of the eight runes on his ring. It was clear cut with some broken lines.
Within those three lines, however, was limitless knowledge. Saleen felt that if he were to master that one rune, it would allow him to reach the highest point of level 18 and perhaps even surpa.s.s level 18. Furthermore, there were eight runes like that on the Ring of Cosmos.
Then again, that knowledge were nothing like magic. In the eyes of mages, some of the descriptions of the contents were absurd. The Ring of Cosmos had its name rooted in earth and heaven. The heaven was round while the earth was square.
Although it seemed absurd, high level mages long knew that the sky was a part of the universe and the earth was but one huge star. Astrologers even knew that in some distant stars, there might have been other living beings. The astrologers even deduced that it was what “planes” truly meant. The universe had more than one dimension, and the multiple planes were actually hidden in multiple different dimensions in the universe.
The heaven is round and the earth is flat? What kind of nonsense is this?
When the myriad of information was cross-referenced, Saleen hardly saw anything that could be deemed stupid. The information elaborated on the fundamental nature of the world. He was at a loss for words and simply looked dazed.
“Saleen, what happened?” Jason asked after seeing his student black out, quickly come to, and then look dazed.
To a mage, that could have been lethal. While mages might be wooden and deadpan, no mage was simply dull.
Saleen came to his senses and smiled bitterly. “Teacher, this thing…” He took his Ring of Cosmos off and handed it to Jason.
His teacher took one look and said, “It’s quite a st.u.r.dy piece. I’d say that even my alchemical arts wouldn’t be able to do anything to it.”
Saleen sighed and thought, Is this what the astrologers meant by luck?
After he had restored the Ring of Cosmos to its original form, he came to realize that the ring harbored secrets. His teacher had seen more than he had, but Jason was unable to tell much about the ring.
Saleen took the ring from Jason and put it on his finger again. “This ring is also something from another crystal wall system. I’ve understood the skills that you’ve imparted to me, but I won’t be able to use any of those skills for the time being. Given my mental powers, I’d say that I’d need three months to train with them.”
“Three months! That’s fast!” Jason took out a piece of emerald and handed it Saleen, saying, “This is the secret skills that I’ve acquired. Let’s see if you’ve got what it takes to see what is inside.”
Saleen took the piece of emerald and held it in his hand, probing it with his mental powers. However, he was unable to see anything.
Jason had a bitter smile when he saw Saleen’s puzzled expression. It seemed that the conditions for learning that thing would have to be harsher. He was able to learn it but not his student. However, Saleen’s ring was higher than his piece of emerald. Saleen was able to tell the difference, but he was unable to see anything in the emerald.
A mage was actually held back by such a thing as luck. Jason was unable to help.
He sighed and said, “I’ll tell you the rest later.”
“No need to hurry with all that, Teacher,” Saleen said. “My level is still low. If I were to learn something that complex, I’d probably need to break through level 12. So you…”
“I’d take care of the matters with the Grand Duke,” Jason said as he regained his composure “His armors are easy. The abyssal creatures are invading, but I didn’t call you back because of those monsters. I’m able to take them on myself. Anything below level 12 would not have posed a problem to your teacher.”
Saleen’s mind was put to ease.
“Keep patiently training,” Jason said. “I’ve met the key moments of my training, but it seems that researching magic alone has had little benefit for me. I need to do something else. Take charge of the city. I’ll go gather an army to take on the abyssal creatures.”
It was rare for Jason to do all that personally, which put Saleen in even greater ease. His teacher’s Rings of Water and Fire would have enabled him to take on level 12 professionals.
“Why did you call me back then, Teacher?” he asked.
“There are a few at your side about to advance,” Jason said. “It’s too dangerous doing things out there. I’m calling you back to prevent Fycro’s men from acting against your people. Clipping the wings, they call it.”