Chapter 138: Division and Choice
Although it was difficult for him, Hardrial witnessed how he managed to walk on water. He staggered, but he didn’t lose his balance.
’He has a very good sense of balance and control of magic. I thought he would fall more,’ he thought.
In fact, what he was doing was quite amazing in terms of speed. Not only did he manage to learn those spells and how to do them in record time, but he was also using them in a practical way just a few hours after learning them.
Even Laura, talented as she is, took a few days to be able to do this. He had done it in a very short time.
At this point, Laura was still trying to do what she had been asked to do, but her training was still not bearing fruit.
It took Louis about 30 minutes to get to where Hardrial was, but he was exhausted.
’God, it took me too long,’ he thought. It had taken Hardrial a few seconds, but him several tens of minutes.
The difference in magic control was too great, and by the time he got here, he had fallen three times, so he was soaked.
What’s worse... is that this place wasn’t solid ground. It was still water, and it was even more aggressive than the water he had passed through.
The water falling from the waterfall formed a powerful natural dam that could easily knock him off balance. The current was strong, so losing his balance would mean being swept away; therefore, he had to stand firm to avoid having to walk again.
He nodded carefully to Hardrial. "What else should I do, Professor?"
"It’s quite simple," he said, pointing to the shore. "Go back and come back again. Do it as many times as necessary, but remember that the magic in your feet will run out at some point, so try to replace it every 15 minutes."
Louis stared at him in shock. ’Go back?’
It had taken him 30 minutes to get here, and now he had to go back?
’God...’ His head was throbbing. Honestly, it was starting to get a little annoying, perhaps due to the stress caused by the fact that he was still reeling.
This was serious.
He suddenly lost his balance because he lost sight of his path and fell into the water again. Under Hardrial’s gaze, his body began to be swept away by the current.
He didn’t help. Instead, he watched to see what he would do.
Louis poked his head up to breathe and immediately jumped up before falling back on the magic at his feet, a process he had done quite a bit before and which had helped him.
He walked back to where Hardrial was after he motioned to him.
"Start here. Do it until nightfall."
There were still several hours before that happened, so he set to work.
Walking back and forth, creating magic to support his feet, falling down, getting wet, getting up, and repeating the process many times.
Slowly, he began to understand what he had to do and how he had to do it. His feet became more stable, and his physical endurance increased greatly.
His body and mind were being pushed to the limit, so there was a noticeable improvement.
Meanwhile, Laura was in a similar situation.
After spending five hours underwater, she had to come out to create ten more orbs and then went back into the water to keep trying.
Slowly, as night approached, she managed to create her first orbs underwater. Her understanding of magic also grew a little.
It was soon 7 p.m. Louis could now walk fairly freely on the water. He could still fall, because the currents in this place were unpredictable, and it was very difficult to stay stable when the currents lashed at your feet, but at least it wasn’t like before.
He didn’t fall once in the last 10 laps and completed them in much less time than when he started.
Just then.
"Come out. It’s time for a little theory," Hardrial said, shouting to be heard.
Louis was reaching solid ground, so he took a few more steps and finally freed himself.
The wind was drying him off, but he still didn’t feel quite right in his wet clothes.
Hardrial simply cast a wind spell on him that dried him off in a few seconds.
Then Laura came out. She had three water orbs left that she had made outside, but she destroyed them. Creating them wasn’t difficult; the hard part was making them underwater.
She had made two underwater, so she kept them upright.
"I made two, Professor," she said, smiling happily.
He nodded. "Very good. Now sit down. I’m going to tell you the reason for these practical classes," he said, after drying Laura similarly.
They both sat in front of Hardrial, who immediately began explaining.
"Having learned various magical topics so far and having fought, you have surely realized that improving your firing speed is complicated. But in reality, it’s not that difficult. Reaching 5 minutes is easy, and even 1 minute is easy. Creating magic in seconds is relatively simple. It’s when you reach 1 second that it starts to get complicated."
"The problem isn’t the difficulty, but how tedious it can be. If you learn to deal with the tedium of rigorous magical training, you’ll begin to enjoy the learning process," he said, creating some magic in his hand.
"I’ve told you before that current magic usually comes from large Arkanometric Fabric. Large fabrics are reserved for the highest level of magic, while different, less complex fabrics are derived from those fabrics until you reach the base."
"The thing is, the foundation is as deep as it seems. Because it is the basis of powerful magic, it is diverse, it is peculiar, it changes as you change your mindset, and it changes as you change its form."
"Therefore, understanding and improving the foundation will help you understand and improve everything in general."
"Now, both trainings are focused differently. Laura, you are learning one thing."
Hardrial destroyed the spells he had created, which were of different levels but of the same type and in ascending order, and then created the spell Laura was practicing.
"This magic is not as complex at first glance, from a theoretical point of view, as you will remember: it contains hydrogen and oxygen. That is what water is made of, and then it has more oxygen inside it, which makes it a complete and sustainable magic to a certain extent."
"Now, as you know, this is not just because magic is constructed that way. This magic is water; therefore, all water has the same composition."
"The idea of this training is that you can extract oxygen from water, but while using water to create the orb, you need to envelop that oxygen so that it becomes sustainable while you are down there."
Magic in general is based on that. Division and correct choice of elements/threads you want to use, in a world where many things are apparently united but physically separated at a microscopic level. This training would be useful to practically anyone in this world.
Even people at a very high level, such as Hardrial, tend to do it because it’s never enough.
Furthermore, when you improve the foundation, the strengthening that follows is much smoother and easier, more enjoyable, and often more effective.
Finally, Hardrial had Laura practice out of the water differently; they would return to practicing for hours in the morning.
And there was a reason that Louis didn’t know, but he would show him in seconds.
"Even though I see that you want to continue practicing there, I won’t allow it because things get complicated in this place at this time of night. Although no meteorites have fallen on the Ancient River for many years, you should know that it is full of nocturnal beasts," he said.
"Beasts? During the day, it’s quite clear and you can’t see anything," said Louis.
He smiled. "Yes. That’s why the Ancient River is so dangerous. Falling in at night can be a death sentence, although it’s still possible to fish, because none of those beasts are stupid. They know our intentions when we cast our hooks, so they simply choose not to show themselves."
"But if you fall in, it’s possible that a huge snake-like beast is staring at you when you open your eyes underwater. Or a dragon is smiling at you. There could be 200 dangerous and deadly sharks ready to eat you, or worse, a combination of all of them."
"Huh? That much?" Louis felt that this river could feed the phobia that many people suffered from. It sent a chill down his spine.
Hardrial smiled. "Watch this," he said, pointing his gun at the river. Without thinking, he fired two shots at ridiculous speed. The bullets quickly reached the river and traveled many miles, sticking to the wall on the other side, dozens of miles away!
Their power was amazing, but soon part of the river was stained with blood.
’Did he kill something?’ Louis thought. From here, he couldn’t see clearly, but if there was blood, naturally, that must have happened.