章 51: Master Class, Part 2
Raven followed Zahe into the small, stone building and into a workshop unlike any that she had seen before. There was a large furnace in the center of the room, with emerald flames inside, and a black anvil right in front of the hatch. Shelves littered the rest of the space, some were filled with different types of metals, others held stones, vials of different colored liquids, and glowing mana crystals of all colors, shapes, and intensity.
"So, tell me, can you craft your own mana crystals?" Zahe asked as he walked towards the forge area.
"No, only condensed mana vapor," Raven replied.
"That's fine; you're only two years into your training. Show me something you've created," Zahe said, before he stepped on a button which caused a short worktable to form over the anvil.
Raven tapped her ring and summoned out her exo-suit, piece by piece, and placed them onto the worktable. Zahe's mana stirred, and his black eyes turned gold while he looked over the suit. He made different sounds of approval and disapproval, mostly the latter, as he inspected each piece of the suit.
"I understand that Sancu said that your training was informal, but are you destitute? Artificially refined metal, no tempering, and the lowest grade of mana crystal, not even a beast core? The fact that you can enchant such poor material is proof enough of your skill," Zahe said, tossing the helmet of the suit behind him like it was trash. "Kiit! Gather materials for a mana distiller, lowest-grade materials and a hundred sets. Colo, dirt-metal, a hundred bars; first ten to me!"
Raven did not reply, but it was not because of Zahe. Pieces of two different golems flew towards them, but before they cleared the shelves, two incredibly dense crystals shot out of the ground and drew in the pieces, forming two thin humanoid shapes out of the pieces of metal, with golden mana holding the pieces in place. Both looked identical due to their detailless forms, and after they finished forming, they both grabbed buckets and started running between the shelves, gathering materials. One of the golems returned quickly with ten bars of what Raven knew as mage-steel.
"I won't question your upbringing. Selene taught us that each person is unique in their understanding of the Laws of Magic, so she must have her reasons for making a Construct version of me that suits you. At this point, I don't think your problem lies with Enchanting, but rather the materials that you are working with. Dirt-Metal is literally the lowest form of metal that can hold an enchantment, and even if this is all that you have, you can refine it better than this," Zahe said as he threw the bars that the golem delivered into a stone bucket then shoved it into the furnace. "Get comfortable, I'm going to show you what it really takes to be an Enchanter."
For the next ten hours, Zahe instructed Raven through the process of refining metal. He had noted that one of her companions had Dragon-blood, so he had told her how useful her blood would be as a quenching agent for the prepared metal. The distiller could still be made without a high-grade quenching agent, but it would require a finer enchanting technique though Zahe was confident that he could teach her that.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Echo followed Raznar deep into the jungle silently. Although he did not show it, the lycan was taking note of every move that she made and her temperament. He intentionally walked on longer than he needed to, trying to test her patience, yet her face and even her aura stayed neutral.
Raznar stopped and asked, "What do you see? What beasts live in this jungle?"
Echo was quiet as she examined the area around her and Nyka sniffed the air. There were a few different tracks left in the mud, a patch of fur that had been caught by the broken limb of a small bush, scratches on the lower limbs of the trees near the fruit that they were growing. Echo noticed all of these traces and a few pictures were pulled to the forefront of her mind.
"A boar of sorts, wider than three feet, since it broke the brush on both sides when it fled through. It was being chased by a large cat-like creature. One of the two has dark brown fur like the dirt and fallen leaves. The marks on the branches near the fruit tell me that something is eating them, but the shape is not quite right for it to be a bird of any kind that I have seen," Echo explained.
There was the slightest twitch of his lip as he was impressed by her attention to detail since she had not used a bit of mana. It was clear that she was an experienced tracker, and her patience was also good, since he had wasted over an hour of the seventy-two that she had to complete her goal without a single complaint. So, now his question became, why did she need help with his technique?
"Since you do not know it, track the beast," he instructed.
Echo closed her eyes and stirred her mana. She channeled it through her eyes and focused on scratches, but the spell collapsed before it could form.
Raznar gave a huff annoyance and barked, "You have no idea how to use my Eye of the Hunt properly! You can't just locate something that you don't know! You need to track it, follow it's trail, learn it's habits! How can you call yourself a Hunter if you don't take the time to study your prey?!? This is how you use the Eye properly!"
Raznar's brown eyes changed to the same lime-green color as his armor. Echo immediately noticed the difference in the way he used the technique, versus how she did. She would flare her mana as it took a lot to lock onto her target, but his usage was subtle, and so weak that she could only sense it because she knew that he was using the spell.
"While this technique can be used to track a target, there is so much more to being a Hunter. Gently, gather your mana into your eyes to enhance your vision, but as little as possible since you do not want your prey to sense you coming. Focus on the talon marks, see how they are made by blunted claws, which means that the creature only uses them for defensive purposes, and perhaps as tools. It's eating the fruit like you said, so it is likely a herbivore…"
Raznar began to explain what he could see using his enchanted eyes. Occasionally, he would tell Echo how to adjust her mana, allowing her to see more than the surface level. She quickly realized why he had been so offended by her usage of his technique, since it was clear that she had just been scratching the surface of the true potential of the power.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Katye(Alkatyenia) appeared a few hundred feet away from the clearing, in the air with her wings fluttering. The memory Alkatyenia appeared a moment later, ten feet away and copying her actions. They stared at each other for a moment, the memory version knowing that there was more to this than the snake had said while Katye(Alkatyenia) knew that fighting the memory would only serve to harm Katye herself.
"You're at the Minor God-rank, right? We reached the peak of the Nova-rank before our death, so if Katye unlocks the seal on the Arcana incorrectly, she'll be consumed by it, or us since we would not leave Dystina's heir to face the future alone," Katye(Alkatyenia) explained. "Teach her as you would a new student, and not a Fairy Queen. She is still us, but not raised as we were."
Katye's aura changed and she faltered in the air as she re-took control of her body. The memory Alkatyenia sighed and waved a hand, catching Katye in the air with a violet plate of pure mana. Alkatyenia appeared to walk on the air to close the distance between them.
"Who holds our Soul?" Alkatyenia asked.
"Istar," Katye replied.
"That short-sighted fool? You would think that with his expertise with Time that he would lean more our direction, but I swear he is more aligned with Dystina," Alkatyenia sighed.
Katye could not help but chuckle at her past-self, a memory from Istar no-less, that was insulting him. After everything that he had put her through, she also wanted to curse out Istar, but she also understood that this entire 'second life' was more for Rebecca's sake, than her own. The True Soul of Alkatyenia had reached the peak of what the current Istar had mastered of the Arcana Path and done so numerous times while she kept trying to perfect her understanding of Order.
"Do you understand what the Arcana is?" Alkatyenia asked.
"It's like the base code for all forms of magic," Katye replied.
"True, but also incomplete. The Arcana is the root of all magic; it brings Order to all forms of mana. Elemental mana is nothing more than mana with both Order and Chaos influencing it. The reason affinity comes into play with elemental spells, is because of the understanding that the person has of both the chaotic, and the orderly natures of said elements. Each person's understanding is different, even if two people are taught identically from the moment of birth due to the influence of their True Souls. To be the Fairy Queen of the Arcana means that our True Soul is the Soul closest to harmonizing with the Arcana, which is why it is insulting that you can't cast a single gesture spell, but that is not all your fault. Alkatyenia's seal is holding back your connection to the Arcana because it is too powerful for your Ego to remain intact. The only safe way for you to break the seal is to rediscover the meaning of each of the runes that make up the Arcana."
"There are thousands of symbols! Do you know how long it would take me to learn all of them?" Katye complained.
Alkatyenia chuckled, "This memory of me is ten million years old, the Alkatyenia sealed inside of you would make me seem like an infant, yet neither of us had mastered the Arcana, or you would not be here. You need to start discovering your own meaning of the Arcana, and as it grows, the seal will slowly release. Show me some of your spells and I will guide you as best as I can."
Katye sighed, realizing that she would not be able to close the distance between Rebecca and herself easily. That was the difference between Chaos and Order; the former could grow exponentially while the latter could only be built up, piece by piece. There were no shortcuts for her, only practice and repetition.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I laid in a crater, my body twitching with pain as a familiar energy reset my body to how I had been when I first stepped into Sancu's game. I had been broken, burned, crushed, drowned, drenched with acid, electrocuted, frozen, poisoned, and all kinds of other cruel and slow ways to die, yet before I did, the energy would reverse whatever damage I had taken. The most frustrating thing of all is that Dystina had not moved once from her bed of broken trees, other than to rearrange something, or to sun the underside of her giant dragon body.
The sun never moved, remaining directly overhead, so I could not help but question at times just how long I had been at this. Hours? Days? It felt like months, if not years, at this point, yet I was still being tortured by my own Chaos Storm. I knew what I needed to do, Dystina had explained it a dozen times, but 'embracing' the Storm was easier said than done. My body had to be in tune with the constant changes of the Chaos Storm, which was hard enough on its own, but Dystina would mess with me any time that I got close to recreating the current 'feeling' of the Storm.
I felt multiple auras appearing around me, around the edge of the crater, and three were recognizable immediately as Katye, Raven, and Echo. My body had only just stopped twitching, but I did not have the strength to sit up yet, so they got to look down on me. Sancu was the last to appear and he tapped his cane which caused the crater that I was laying in to refill underneath me.
"Well, at least two of you were successful. Congratulations, Raven and Echo, you two will be essential for completing this journey," Sancu replied. "As for Rebecca and Katye, I hope this has been an eye-opening experience. You have only just begun to learn about your true strength."
Dystina, Alkatyenia, Zahe, and Raznar all vanished with a tap of Sancu's cane, and after a second tap, we were all back onboard the Fae Dragon. I was placed on my feet, thankfully, but I was still shaky because of the echoes of the pain from my last faux-death. Sancu dipped his hat to us, like he was some kind of a gentleman, then vanished with the third tap of his cane.
"Are you okay?" Katye asked, touching my shoulder softly.
"It's up for debate," I replied as I sat down on the bench along the dining table.
"What happened to you?" Raven asked and sat beside me.
"I was bullied by a real dragon and healed whenever I neared death," I sighed, leaning against her.
"So, an advanced version of training with Indra?" she teased lightly.
I chuckled and could not help but agree, "Yeah, I guess it was."
"How was your trial, Katye?" Echo asked.
"Fine. My requirement was something that could not be achieved quickly, but I have a better idea of the path that I need to take," Katye sighed.
"I think we all learned more about our paths," Echo replied.
"Mmhmm," Raven mused.
"Why is my path 'the path of the punching bag'?" I complained.
"Because you always want to be everyone's shield," Katye retorted.
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