Chapter 26: Level up! [2]
Jaden once again found himself within the white world and mirror-like sea of [Epiphany Zone]; however, this time it only had nine stars instead of twenty-four. The stars, however, were no longer of a single colour; instead, they had blended colours, such as a round red star with green spirals, a white star with black cracks, and more similar stars.
These stars were much brighter than the ones before, hinting at their hierarchy within the ranks of spells.
Jaden pointed at one of the stars and gestured like he was pulling at it.
Right at that moment, a book appeared in his hand, and so did a blue screen.
[2-star spell: Firestorm Slash]
He flipped open the book and began reading the instructions described in it. He read it once, twice, thrice, but he could not understand it completely; heck, he could only understand about ten per cent of it. And if he tried to use the spell without understanding and circulation, he might even cripple himself.
His expression darkened as a curse slipped out of his lips.
"Blasted Hell..."
He took a deep breath and took his time in exhaling it through his mouth.
’I can do this.’
He hardened his resolve and once again focused on reading the spell book.
Time passed.
Moments turned to minutes,
Minutes turned to hours,
Right after a total of seven hours had gone by, while reading and understanding, he muttered.
"Finally..."
Jaden had finally understood how he was supposed to perform the circulation for a 2-star spell.
"2-star spell has multiple elementals... so I have to flow multiple elementals in different veins at the same time. The hardest part in that is making sure that they don’t come in contact with each other... otherwise they will react to each other’s presence and go berserk..."
His eyes sparkled with understanding as he began circulating his mana... however, doing it was much more difficult than just saying it.
His eyes opened as a frown appeared on his face.
He had to flow his mana through different cycles to reach the elemental points while making sure they do not come in contact with each other before that happens, and that was just the internal circulation of the spell; he would also have to constantly feed it mana so it could give a suitable result.
"There’s a reason an Initiate cannot master a 2-star spell, after all."
Jaden took a deep breath and closed his eyes as he began circulating his mana for the spell, again.
His mana core churned as mana began to flow towards his great mana vein... he guided his mana to part away into two and forced each part to move differently. One of them flowed towards the fire elemental point, while the other part flowed towards the wind elemental point.
However, just before they could reach the points, they came into contact with each other.
Blood dripped out of Jaden’s lips, but he didn’t stop and continued with gritted teeth. The mana churned again and parted into two as it moved towards their decided points. Jaden’s body was in severe pain due to the contact the two parts had just made, so it was even harder than before... thus, they came into contact again.
A scream tore through the empty world of [Epiphany Zone], and Jaden was thrown out of the white world.
He lay sprawled on the ground as blood dripped out from the corner of his lips, his eyes were bloodshot, and a pained expression had taken place on his face. His pale body winced from time to time as the two parts were being sent back to the mana core.
"Blasted hell," Jaden screamed as he gritted his teeth to bear with the bone-biting pain running wild across his body.
He opened his mouth and spoke with quivering lips.
"M-Minor Heal."
Just as those words left his lips, the mana within his mana core flared and moved towards the water elemental point without any guidance whatsoever.
Soon, a slightly soothing feeling covered his body, and the pain subsided, even if the reduction was nearly negligible.
This, however, helped him think better.
’Minor Heal.’
He thought instead of speaking, and it worked as intended.
’Minor Heal.’
’Minor Heal.’
’Minor Heal.’
’Minor Heal.’
’Minor Heal.’
’Minor Heal.’
’Minor Heal.’
’Minor Heal.’
’Minor Heal.’
’Minor Heal.’
He continued to use Minor Heal on himself, and with each use, the pain subsided a little.
Soon, his mana core ran dry, and he could only bear the pain... the pain, however, was no longer that severe.
"Fuck this..." he cursed with a tired look on her face. He, however, didn’t let the fatigue take over and forced himself to sit again and began absorbing mana. After he got enough of it, he used Minor Heal to treat himself.
The more he used the spell, the more tired he felt... But he didn’t know the reason behind it.
He forced himself to continue with the training, but his body betrayed him. His eyes dropped as his vision darkened, and he fell asleep.
Just as he fell asleep, the door leading to the training room parted open, and the curator of the church of knowledge stepped in.
He walked forward and looked at the spell books sprawled across the boundary.
The curator’s lips arched up upon seeing that. He looked at Jaden, who lay asleep at the centre of the boundary, and cast a healing spell on him.
Colour returned to Jaden’s body just as he did so.
The curator stepped towards the door leading to the room with martial arts.
He pushed open the door and entered the room. The room was similar to the room with spell books, but... this one had way fewer tables.
Continuing his steps, he stopped before the wall of the room and placed his hand on it, just as he did so... the wall parted, and a small chamber, enough for one person to sit comfortably, appeared.
Strangely, though, the chamber had the symbol of Nightshade City... under the symbol, something was written in deep red words...