章 24: Quartet

Toz was reluctant to wake the cat to wake up and try and bond with it when it was so tranquilly purring in his lap. While Nil and Lucy finished their dinner and Toz slurped up his soup however the cat seemed to have rested enough.

It opened it's dark orange eyes, revealing yellow candlelight pupils. The pupils swayed ever so slightly as the cat turned around to look at Toz's left hand moving across it's back. Then the cat moved it's gaze to Toz's right hand, resting on his knee, next to the cat. More specifically it looked at the symbol on his hand.

After confirming the existence of the symbol the cat looked questioningly at Toz as it slowly moved it's paw toward the symbol.

Upon contact between the hand and the paw, a familiar singing sensation rushed through the symbol on Toz's hand.

At first he couldn't place the feeling but when he looked into the cat's eyes he remembered it was the same feeling that had appeared when he first touched the orb down in the pit. He hadn't put any thought into it then, because he was preoccupied with other things, but what if that was the egg reacting to his inclination, or his inclination affecting the egg in some way.

Maybe it was due to Toz's interference the egg had hatched a cat, and not something else. Even if it was a hunch, just the idea that an inclination could affect the birth of another creature was almost revolutionary.

No matter if Toz made the egg hatch into a cat or it was already going to do that without him affecting it, Toz was happy. Since he wouldn't be able to bond with any other kind of beast it would be inconvenient to travel with it, and it would be difficult for it to keep up with the rate Toz, Nil and Lucy improved their strength.

Instead of going through unnecessary troubles because of a fleeting affection it would be better to sever ties early on and make sure the beast gets a better home. Thankfully there was no need to even think about that anymore since the cat had even initiated the bond by itself.

Regardless of whether Toz had turned the egg into a cat, his inclination had come into contact with it once, and at that time already briefly made the egg's not yet developed consciousness aware of Toz. The mana itself was already familiar with his existence even if it wasn't under control of a condensed soul yet.

Then, during the time in the cave afterwards, Toz had spent a lot of time close to the egg and further imprinted his existential signature on the cat-to-be. With all of that the cat didn't need any further prompting to bond with Toz.

The bonding process began as soon as the cat touched the cat's paw symbol on Toz's hand, and their mana began connecting and linking to each other.

Different types of creatures and beasts use magic in different ways, but most train their mana in similar ways. By absorbing the mana in the atmosphere and converting it into their own.

Mana of the same element doesn't need any real conversion, the magic user only needs to absorb it and make it theirs.

Neutral, or no-attribute mana needs one conversion. A different element requires at least two conversions. Depending on the different elements, both of the user and of the absorbed mana these conversion can become more arduous sometimes, and easier during other circumstances.

During the process of converting and absorbing mana the mana in the body is further condensed and strengthened. The strength and purity of mana is measured in several levels, where low, medium, and high level signify a significant transformation in the mana's structure.

Toz linking his mana with his cats' mana gives him the ability to possess that element and also helps him in absorbing and controlling it. After bonding with Nil and Lucy he can absorb various elements, convert it into either metal or darkness and use that to wield magic. The mana he already owns is easily transformed between the elements he has access to.

And now that he has bonded with a fire attribute cat beast he has access to the fire attribute as well.

Although the cat's don't get any direct benefits the same way Toz does, the inclination connects them and all of their magic related talent is shared, making them better at controlling mana and magic in general. That's what Toz has concluded in his observations of Nil and Lucy at least.

One of the most noticeable increases in talent that all of them benefit from is the size of their mana pool increasing.

As the bonding with the fire cat continued Toz could feel his body heating up and his mana begin trembling. The previous times he had bonded he had first turned shiny and then he had been totally covered in darkness. It seemed that every time he got access to a new element his body would go through a quick baptism, and get acquainted with the element.

After the baptism Toz felt his body begin to instinctively draw in the surrounding mana, filling up his recently expanded mana pool.

With the place he was in, right next to a pool of lava, in a fire attribute realm, there was no need to convert the fire attribute mana into any other element before he could absorb it properly.

However there was no time to rest, with a new element he could refine his body once again, this time using fire attribute mana.

There is no real need to do it, since the total strength of all elements is based on his level, and his level increases as long as he trains at least one of his attributes to the next level, if one attribute breaks through so do the rest since it's all his mana just in different forms. Refining his body is basically just a way to strengthen himself and his control over the specific attribute.

But refining his body with his mana also increases the amount his mana pool can fit to some degree.

The more common way to train for mages with several attributes is to rush one attribute as high as possible as fast as possible, since greater strength is better the sooner you get it. If they hit a wall when trying to reach the next level, they begin bringing other attributes up to the same level. If the fourth level is their first limit, they will first become a fourth level, once refined mage, then a fourth level, twice refined. All the way until they break through, or until they run out of elements. A new refinement is only counted when it reaches the same level as the highest attribute.

With three cats of different elements, Toz can become a second level, thrice refined mage if he focuses on refining the fire attribute until it is at the same level as the other two elements, on it's own, without relying on his already strengthened mana.

Since having several attributes makes it easier to absorb a lot of mana quickly, no matter what element one has chosen to focus on it is a popular method. However Toz wouldn't be able to chose one element over another since it would mean choosing one cat over another. There is also the fact that Toz uses a mostly close quarters combat style, which greatly makes use of his advantage in physical strength against opponents of similar levels.

With the talent for fire mana Toz is now sharing with the other cats, as well as his previous experiences he didn't need too long to reach the first level, which, fair enough, is only to get proper control over the mana as it is circulated around the body once. The second level requires going into places the first level doesn't cover, and further strengthen the body and mana veins. It's the same with the third level. Things change at the fourth level however.

Since Toz had reached the first level he decided to stop there and begin informally interacting with his new companion, as well as make sure the other two cats are doing okay with the increased talent and mana pool.

Toz looked up to find the cat inspecting Nil and Lucy as they diligently absorb and convert mana while laying next to each other almost a couple of meters away from Toz.

The burning cat seemed deeply interested in the way the two cats did their training, and especially in the way the mana surrounding them moved. But it was slightly hard to tell if that was what the cat was really looking at considering it's out of the norm pupils, that moved on their own.