DISCLAIMER: This guide will be tackling the basics of performing magic in Elderone. Specific types of magic (teleportation, healing, attack-type spells, etc.) will be discussed in Part 2

Magic
-Magic is the manipulation of both elements and mana

Elements
-Pertains to the four key aspects of nature that binds and circulates within a world (i.e. Earth, Wind, Fire, Water)

Mana
-The incorporeal energy found in all things (living and non-living) and the same one that flows around, within, between, and connecting the realms. The amount of mana in a particular thing (or being) or in a particular place varies greatly and affects the performance of magic. As such, those with little mana inside themselves usually have difficulty in using magic (or cannot even use magic at all).

Language
-The method used to channel one's intention in order to perform magic. Known as the Gift from the Gods. Language allows one to precisely manipulate both elements and mana to achieve a more 'specific' result. It is classified into both the written and spoken form. However, most mages agree that the use of both ensures greater effectivity of a spell. Each race has its own Language unique to them, but it is not common for other races to use Language from others. Runic Language, the Language of humans, is one of the more commonly used ones, followed by Elven and Dwarven Language. Runic is divided into both the Old Runic and New Runic.

Spells
-The end result of magic, pertains to the various feats achieved through the use of magic

How to Perform (or use) Magic
-To perform magic, one must have a sufficient supply of mana within oneself to be able to manipulate the elements and the mana surrounding himself. The next step would be to choose the medium of Language to use (whether written, spoken, or both). After choosing the Language, and keeping in mind the limitations of the spell to be used, one needs to have the right condition of mind. As one starts chanting or reading (aloud or silently) the incantation, the spellcaster's intention together with his mana and strength is then projected outward, producing the spell.

What is the Right Condition of Mind in Performing Magic
-Most mages agree that a focused mind is the right condition of mind needed to use magic. A focused mind is different from a calm mind since the former allows the flow of emotions instead of inhibiting them. It recognizes the current state of emotion that the spellcaster has while keeping concentrated at performing magic. While this could alter significantly the results of the spell (e.x. an ice-based spell produces snow instead of hail), a focused mind is still preferred to a calm mind since mages believes that the results produced by the former are the ones that truly reflect the intention of its caster.

The Use of Language
-There are differing opinions among practitioners of magic as to which between the written or spoken form of language is more effective. Some argue that the spoken form is better since lesser concentration is needed in using spoken spells, due to the fact that the user himself speaks out what he intends the spell to do unlike in the written form where the caster must concentrate harder as he projects his intention and mana on the written incantation of the spell. However, casting out loud a spell can take from seconds to hours even and speaking hastily or a mispronunciation can alter significantly a spell's result.

-On the other hand, some prefer the written form because writing requires a greater time of preparation, allowing the use of more complex spells without exhausting one's voice in speaking them out loud. Written spells are also easily casted by simply directing mana on the writings symbolizing the incantation. However, spells written in an unknown language can prove to be a challenge since its caster has no way to gauge how much mana one should use and what intention to project. In such cases, most mages would simply use a simple command as their intention such as "activate" or "use" while pouring as much mana as they can. This can be dangerous in certain cases as the large amounts of mana may 'break' the spell or alter its effects.

-As the debate on what form of Language is better suited for spellcasting continued throughout the decades, a third school of thought emerged; the use of both written and spoken form. As of the present, most highly skilled practitioners of magic advocate the use of both forms in order to bring out the full potential of the spell. This school has produced what's referred to as 'hybrid spellcasting' methods such as 'Silent Reading', 'Materialization', and 'Transcription or Engravement'.


Silent Reading
-One of the earliest forms of hybrid spellcasting that was developed. Just like its name it merely involves reading a written incantation silently while projecting both mana and intention towards the writing. This assures a faster casting time while providing more precise results. The method also is used as a "shortcut" by some mages, reciting the first few words or lines of an incantation in their heads then simply using a command such as "activate" for the rest when pressed for time. This type of spellcasting is one of the most convenient and has the lowest risk of backfiring compared to the other two hybrid methods.

Materialization (or Rune Materialization)
-A method used by highly skilled and proficient practitioners of magic. By manipulating the mana around them as they speak an incantation, powerful mages are able to "materialize" the very runes forming a spell. These materialized runes serve as the written form of the spell resulting to the use of both forms of Language without resorting to any physical written form. Such method also allows the almost instantaneous casting of a complex spell since the runes appear as the caster speaks.

-It takes years of training and a great aptitude for sensing and manipulating mana for someone to be use materialization. Most mages in Adrana are well-versed in this method, with the very best being taken in as apprentices by the royal family. This form of spellcasting requires significant concentration. There are accounts of sorcerers materializing a different rune from the one they're chanting, resulting to "breakage" of the spell and its effects rebounding on them.

Transcription (or Engravement)
-One of the lesser-known methods of spellcasting and involves "transcribing" or "engraving" the spells to be used on oneself. Engraved spells can be activated anytime and may even be left on a continuous state of "activation" without the need for regularly chanting it. The procedure usually starts with the "transcriber" or "engraver" casting the spell on the person subject of engravement while engraving the runes on the person himself. The intention used as the spell is cast must be similar to "engrave", "etch", or "transcribe" in order to avoid producing the spell completely. Transcription can only be done to living things and is also the riskiest of all methods. There always exists a high chance of spell breakage when transcribing, with the person or being subjected to it dying or warped by the effects.

-Transcribed or engraved spells can be casted anytime without the need of even chanting them but by the user merely "remembering" the incantation and speaking it inside his mind. Spells of such nature are also more effective and precise. However, transcribed spells that are in a constant state of activation drain greatly the caster's mana compared to non-transcribed ones.

-The Exiled are the only known practitioners of transcription while some tribes from the continent of Mauza are said to engage in a similar practice. No one knows how the group discovered the method though. All of the members' body contain a variety of curses and spells, including the runes needed to counter the killing enchantment Heronicus put on Threanas.

The Difference Between Manipulation of Elements and the Use of Magic
-Manipulation of elements unlike the use of magic produces inaccurate and highly unpredictable results. A spell might be able to produce a ball of fire with a specific size and even shape, while manipulation of the elements to produce fire may result to a small flicker of flame or in worst cases, a sudden explosion. Some races, just like the Dragons, can manipulate the elements easily but most cannot. The ability to manipulate elements to some degree usually is an indication of an affinity to magic. 

Spell Breakage
-Spell breakage involves using significant amount of mana to weaken the integrity of the written form of a spell to the point that it's rendered useless. Breaking a spell is a difficult feat since the more complex one is, the greater is the mana needed to break it and the number of runes forming a spell does not necessarily equate to its complexity. Further, there is also the risk of dying due to complete mana loss. There have been numerous accounts of mages simply dropping dead after attempting to break a spell. Lastly, when done incorrectly, spell breakage sometimes result to the spell's effects backfiring on the person projecting the mana.

A princess and a peasant. A peasant and a prince. With the help of a potion from a kind old lady, Lyrus and Auria discovers the true meaning of love and standing up for yourself. Witness the beginnings of a queen and a hero. Witness one of the grandest tales from the kingdom of Threanas.

"So let me get this straight, you want someone to teach you how to read and write and also you want access to a library?"
"Essentially, yes"
"Hah.. already you show the traits of a genius, very well as said before I will do anything in my power to give you what you requested for now please return to your assigned room"
Leaving the office the siblings headed back to their room on the way Airi was scolding her brother
"You know onii-San it wouldn't kill you to be a little less reckless"
"Wait... you're actually mad about this?"
"Yes, thanks to you I didn't get to finish my breakfast"
"Oh, don't be like that I'll let you have my portion next time as compensation ok? And besides it's not like you wouldn't have done the same thing"
Begrudgingly accepting her brother's reasoning and logic Airi just took his offer of compensation and stayed quiet on the way back
A few days later things were looking up for Asher, besides becoming the most isolated person in the orphanage for nearly turning Elric into a bloody sack, he and Airi got taught how to read and write from a private teacher that Charles hired
Due to his already genius mind and experience in learning new subjects from his past life being amplified by the amount of points he dedicated to his intelligence Asher learn how to read and write in only 2 days
In his past life because he wanted to get revenge on his father as fast as he can, Asher learned how to study as fast and effective as humanly possible, this includes practicing learning methods like speed reading, lip reading and total recall, this coupled with his exceptionally high degree of synesthesia made him a more powerful data sponge than even the latest technology invented, and now all of that metal prowess was augmented beyond peak-mortal by his stats (Author: for those of you who don't know synesthesia is a mental phenomenon that sometimes appears in people allowing them to make "connections" between multiple sensory experiences, if you hear someone say that they can "hear" colors or "see" sounds they probably have synesthesia, if someone has synesthesia they can make calculations, solve equations and learn faster than normal people)
And now that he basically has a dictionary in his head Asher moved on to the next part in his plan: getting exposed to as munch information about this world as he can (Author: I smell exposition coming, don't worry there will be a lot of world building in later chapters)
As promised Charles gave Asher access to one of the biggest archives of information in union city, the wanderer's library
The wanderer's library was built 300 years ago as a way to encourage citizens to educate themselves, the library hosted nearly 5000 different books all written by the most famous scholars on Ziost, although in union city's standards it's only a small public library housing everyday knowledge that everyone should know and doesn't have any info on forbidden arts the two academies were well-known for
Immediately after stepping in to the library Asher rushed to find a book containing information about this world's so called magic
He found an ancient-looking book bound in black leather on one of the top shelves he was looking at with a title:"ars magica" which roughly translate to "magecraft basics" in this world's language

A broody misanthropic teenager gets reincarnated in world where he can vent out all his hatred and frustration of his old life while simultaneously finding enjoyment in this new one, he will not be a hero or a villain because of his profound hatred for those concepts of mortality instead he’ll become a legend

They went over to the reading rooms, and sat down. 'Finally', Dante thought. 'I finally get to become a summoner! I just need to learn all about it in this book…'

With three giant books in front of him, Micheal was indecisive. 'Where do I start?' Eventually, he just picked the book on pathways and started skimming through.

With a flip to the table of contents, his gaze was drawn to "List of Pathways and Steps. (Known in the Kingdom of Lunalla)" 'Known in the Kingdom of Lunalla? So this implies that there's more pathways than even this kingdom knows!'

Flipping to the page, a table soon greeted Micheal. Neat and orderly, a simple table with many sections that start at Step 1, and into higher steps. Although this was a simple table, its contents filled Micheal with reverence. 'Every Step…. Clearly organized and defined.' Looking through the steps, Micheals expression kept changing between fear, awe, and worship. "Step 3 Polymath" Looking at another section, "Step 5 - Four Leaf Sorcerer." 'Just these lower level steps have such dominating names… how do you become them!'

Flipping to the page where they are elaborated on, there was a sentence at the top. "Due to dangers associated with high level steps, the methods to rise above Step 2 are not public information." 'This… the dangers!? What kind of dangers could there be?' The sentence had a page number attached to it which lead to the middle of the general information section. It read, "Death, explosions, going insane, turning into a monster, natural disasters, and more. These are various examples of what can happen to those who experience complications in advancing through the steps. The higher the step, the more chances of problems occuring, and can lead to tragedies. The most famous example is the Demon Lord. Experiencing problems when he tried to ascend, the monstrous tyrant who killed millions appeared."

'These dangers… if going up the steps can cause this… is it worth it? I thought I would postpone my new goal in life until I know more, but I was leaning towards becoming powerful through the steps. Who wouldn't want to have these amazing powers! But now…. I don't know what to do. Lets just keep reading more steps, those were interesting.'

"Step 7 Voidwalker" "Step 8 Walking Disaster." As Micheal kept looking downwards, his attention was soon brought to the grand, shining silver letters near the bottom.

"GOD"

"G-g-god!?" Micheal couldn't help but exclaim out loud! 'You can become a god through this?! T-t-this… this is' 

"Dude, what the fuck" Dante said due to his reading being rudely interrupted due to the human next to him being unable to control himself. Micheal looked at Dante and simply uttered, "Sorry". He was in the wrong after all. 'Alright, I don't think I can handle the mental shock I would have from reading the names of the God steps right now… but I'm still curious! One step below god, Step 10. Let's read!'

"Step 10 Universal Exploiter. Step 10 Author. Step 10 Miracle Invoker"

'These names…' Micheal stared at those names before deciding not to even try to understand them, and just read the rest of them. 'Alright. My curiosity has been sated, but what I need to memorize is general information and my own pathway! Lets see here... '

"Step 1 Fortune Teller"
"Step 2 Trickster"   
"Step 3 Deceiving Wizard" 
"Step 4 Anonymous"   
"Step 5 Bizzare Mage" 
"Step 6 Soothsayer"  
"Step 7 Voidwalker"  
"Step 8 Histories Administrator"  
"Step 9 Otherworldly Pinochet"
"Step 10 Miracle Invoker"

"God" Micheal was hesitant to look, but eventually steeled his resolve.

"God - Unthinkable Undefined Symbol"

'That name…so… strange!'

.........

Time passed as the two were engrossed in reading. Church bells rang once in a while, and after a few rings of the bell, a young boy in scholarly clothes walked in. "Excuse me, everyone, the library closes in a few minutes. Be sure to put borrowed books back in their respective places or give them to the librarian, or if you paid to take them with you, then please take good care of our books." With that, the boy walked back out.

Micheal slowly was brought out of reading and looked up for the first time in hours, and no longer saw Dante anywhere. 'Seems my journey with that orc has finally come to an end. We coincidentally met, and turned out we were both hero descendants! Hero descendent, heh, he certainly didn't act like one.'

'Take the books out for a fee… I barely have any money! I can just come back tomorrow to go more in depth in this knowledge.'

Walking out from the library, Micheal debated where to go next. 'According to books, most people live in a rented out place, rather than owning their own house. Should I check the rent prices? I also need a job…'

As he walked, he remembered he was holding a paper in his hands. 'The king's notice of gathering the strong and the heroes descendants! I actually forgot to read this since I was so focused on the books!'

'Let's see…'

"Official notice from the king and the great churches. Through the history of our land, many great occurrences have been witnessed." 'Wait a minute… this is useless information!' Flipping through the paper, near the back he found the important information.

"This mission regards the safety of our land, stemming from occurrences related to the ancient Demon Lord. For specific information, please show up at the palace to gather, effective from June 1st to July 1st" We call those who are strong, have a unique skill, or descend from the respected heroes to rise up and protect our land in this mission. Ample rewards will be given
just from participating, and more depending on the situation. During this period of time where we wait for participants to gather, housing will be provided if necessary."

'Ample rewards? Housing! I must check this out!'

While walking to the gathering spot, Micheal internally went through all his recently acquired information.

'Alright, so the main points to remember are:

You can only be on one pathway, and attempting to go to another pathway's steps will result in catastrophic results. Ascending through the pathways can also have disastrous results if they go wrong, so public knowledge of how to ascend stops at step 2.

The Great churches are all massive powers spreading across nations, each worshipping a god.

Our nation of Lunalla is the biggest center of pathway knowledge, located at the southern tip of the northern continent.

As Micheal finished organizing his thoughts, he had arrived at the palace entrance.

Meeting on the Road to the Capital to Lunalla, what awaits Micheal and Dante in this world full of pathways and monsters, bringing with them all sorts of mystical occurrences and figures. The Ancient Demon Lords return, the legend of the three heroes, descendants of legendary figures, and new, rising legendary figures. How will all this play out to those who just had a simple dream?

Davis inwardly gave off a sigh before he told Elder Seylas to swear to the heavens to not leak his identity.
The latter instantly did so causing Davis to take a problem of his mind, however, Davis didn't let his guard down. This elder in front of him had lived for over 1,800 years. He might know how to bypass the swear he made on his heart. 
Davis condensed a pure yellow light which shot into Elder Seylas's soul, causing the latter to shudder in fear of death.
"I have placed a binding on you. If you ever try to divulge my identity to other people someday, I will come to know of it." 
Davis solemnly spoke as his eyes emitted daggers at Elder Seylas. He then took the letter and disappeared from the small room.
Elder Seylas's back fell on the ground as he tried to breathe heavily even though there was enough air in his lungs.
'How terrifying! This little monster has such methods to know if I have reneged on my words.'
This feeling turned intense when he realized that the pure yellow light that shot into his soul disappeared, making him unable to trace it even though it was in his soul.
His face broke out into an ugly smile as he thought, 'I managed to court death again, but! I came out alive as always! Phew... Begging always works...'
Nevertheless, if Davis knew that Elder Seylas had derived such a philosophy to survive, then he would've puked blood right there.
However, Davis didn't have such mystical methods to just know if the other party had divulged his identity.
It was only a lie, however, the psychological cue he had planted in Elder Seylas will remain effective, rendering Elder Seylas incapable of divulging his identity unless he is not afraid of death or able catch on to his lie.
======
While being in the 'Dark Concealing Shroud Art' state, Davis exited the Thousand Pill Association and sighed in exasperation. What he came to obtain wasn't available but he managed to find the person who probed him at that time.
Tina Roxley...
He took the letter out and saw that it was a sealed parchment. It meant that no one had read it after it had been sealed.
Davis felt increasingly curious and opened the letter after he had torn the seal by utilizing his cultivation.
[
Alchemist Scythe, I know you would think less of me after you hear that I killed my own father.
However, I can only say that he deserved it.
Fate let us meet twice...
If it lets us meet again...
 -Tina Roxley
]
Davis became stunned!
If it lets us meet again... What?
'What is she going to do? Kill me?' Davis inwardly sneered.
Then he looked back at the first two sentences.
These sentences seemed as if she was trying to explain herself to him but also looked like she wasn't willing to reveal much.
Nevertheless, he knew exactly why through Elder Seylas's narrative.
'Indeed, if her father was like that, then he did deserve being poisoned by his own daughter...'
However, he felt like he still couldn't understand her motives to know about him.
What was she really up to?
'Tina Roxley... huh...'
He shook his head and etched this name in his memory, but instantly moved it to the back of his mind since thinking about it was useless as it seemed that she had left this territory.
He then took out a messaging talisman from his spatial ring and sent some transmissions into it but received no reply.
Sighing gently, he took another mask from his spatial ring and held it beside the mask he had been wearing, pointing out to his identity as Alchemist Scythe.
In an instant, the masks switched place out in the open, however, he wasn't worried since he doubted if normal cultivators would even be able to discover his presence.
He kept the previous mask in his spatial ring and headed in a direction.
With his Soul Sense spread out in the streets, it didn't take him long to find out his destination.
In half an hour, he casually walked in the streets and arrived at the destination.
A small-sized residence just as the one he bought came into his view, however, the residence screamed that it was not one of Asian origin but European origin in terms of architecture.
With only a bit of change, it would resemble the medieval European architecture from Planet Earth.
Davis's eyes twitched at Drake's preferences. He was not looking down on Drake but realized the latter's intention to openly contact people from Earth.
Anyone with a little bit of knowledge in Earth's architecture would be able to notice the difference, and in so, initiate contact with the owner of the residence.
In the cultivation world, there were n number of architectures which left the artisans confused, so they would usually listen to the requirements of the owner of the property or land to construct the appropriate framework and structure for them.
So, even in this Royal Xuan City, there were different types of architecture making one imagine that each residence belongs to a family with different sets of cultures.
However, it wasn't the truth. 
Culture in terms of architecture was no longer prevalent because the techniques that the artisans learned no longer catered to one style or culture but the need to stay different.
After all, most people didn't want their residence looking the same as their neighbors or people of status so as to not offend them. In case if someone had built their own royal palace, then they would be courting death from the Royal Family.
Davis took a step forward and looked at the garden in front of him, blocked by the fence-styled gates. He saw some servants catering to the needs of the garden before they spotted him.
One of them signaled a person before another person ran to the gate before opening it.
"Sir, I apologize. The master of this residence is no longer here and has left the city."
"Drake Blackburn?" Davis tried to probe.
The servant nodded his head but then hesitantly asked, "Sir, can I know your name?"
Davis was about to lie but then realized that Drake could've left something for him the same as Natalya.
"My name is Davis Loret."
The servant's eyes lit up before he excitedly laughed. He then realized that he had lost control and quickly shut up.
He opened the gates and gestured, "Please..."
Davis slightly hesitated for a moment before he walked in, his steps were soft, ready to quickly respond to ambush or aggression.
After they walked on the pathway for a bit, the servant froze.
"Please wait..." The servant bowed as a form of respect before running into the residence.
Davis raised his eyebrows thinking that this servant was clumsy. Why did he invite him inside if he wasn't going to let him into the residence?
Davis just inwardly shook his head as he waited patiently for a minute. 
The servant came to him running in an enthusiastic momentum before stopping before him. In his hands was a parchment that was scrolled but had a circular stamp making him unable to open it see its contents without breaking the seal open.
This was a parchment sealed with an inscription, just like the one Tina Roxley had given him.
The servant handed him the parchment and he proceeded to break the seal.
[The novel you are reading is from 'webnovel.com'. If you are reading this in any other site, then it is stolen content. Please visit the website to read and support or at least support the novel by voting power stones.]


Tian Long, an orphan without much of a life in both his thirty year long life and lifespan!
To him, a single opportunity was displayed to transmigrate into another world with his Death Book!
"What's this? Is this the body of a three year old? Davis? Is this my name from now on?"
Finding himself possessing a small child, he becomes inwardly conflicted before he faces the truth and his reality! 
Young Davis finds himself as the legal heir, the Crown Prince of the Loret Empire in the Grand Sea Continent, becoming a powerful cultivator in a short time...
However, is that all?
Follow his journey as Young Davis becomes a full fledged death's advocate while embodying into the Divine Emperor of Death in the world of cultivation!
"Mn? The route to become the Emperor is a given? Nah, I still don't want it..."
"Oh? I'm courting death you say? Unfortunately for you, death is already my woman..."

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Almost 200,000 (Around 170 Chapters) words available for free!
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P.S. Cover is not mine, so if you want it taken down, please message me. Credits to the cover goes to the real owner, not me.
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English isn't my main language. 

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Discord link
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Power Stones Ranking
We've reached around 30's so far in 2018, 70's in January 2020. hope we can make it again! 


Power Ranking Milestone (Updated : 6th July 2020)
We've reached 75th the previous week.
Top 70 - 1 Bonus Chapter + 15 chapters per week
Top 65 - 1 Bonus Chapter
Top 60 - 2 Bonus Chapters 
Top 55 - 1 Bonus Chapter
Top 50 - 1 Bonus Chapter + 16 chapters per week
Top 45 - 1 Bonus Chapter
Top 40 - 2 Bonus Chapters
Top 35 - 1 Bonus Chapter
Top 30 - 10 chapters mass release! 

Other than this, I'm planning for individual mass releases as well but don't rely on it.

It's been a while since I felt so weak , the spiritual Qi in the lower realms is so low , oh well this should do . First off , I need to deal with my cultivation method.

Which one should I use ? The 6th Sense , Qi creation stages , Fire Gods rage... Oh I know , the Seven Elements of Creation. Though this Qi cultivation method doesn't have a particularly fast cultivating speed , unlike the others it granted an innate advantage over other cultivation methods . This was for two reasons.

The first reason being because it granted a perfect and stable foundation and the second being that you can cultivate all of the six elements: Dark , Light , Fire , Water , Air , Earth and Lightning . This means you can cultivate all kinds of battle techniques and fuse Elements to make even stronger attacks .

Soon after deciding , Yan Zhe decided to cultivate and he slowly got into a cultivating position. 

Streams of Qi from the atmosphere whispers around before eventually being sucked in by the current of Yan Zhe's dantian , slowly but surely , streams of Qi flooded his body. His Muscles gradually expanded to the point that they were triple the previous size.He was no longer that thin little weak boy .

He'd reached the first stage of Muscle Strengthening stage , but he didn't stop there.

1...2...3...4...5 

He reached the 5th stage of Muscle Strengthening Stage!

Instead of going further he stagnated at the  5th stage of Muscle Strengthening.

'Finally , I've  started my cultivation journey but this is only the beginning. I need to test my strength and learn some battle techniques. I should have roughly about the strength of 2000 Jin. Not bad , I guess most people my age are at this stage , but it's still not enough, the average person at this stage would have the strength of about 1600 Jin but since I'm using such a high level cultivation method I have an additional 400 Jin of strength. Still it isn't enough '

Since Yan Zhe was born here , he was very familiar with where to test your strength and where to test your battle techniques, so he wandered around slowly reminiscing about this place.

Soon enough , he had reached the training area.  And he heard a somewhat familiar voice , it was him. 

"Oi , Yan Zhe  the cripple , how is your cultivation going ?" Yan Mo said laughing crazily.

Yan Zhe knew who he was , he wasn't one of the particularly strong clan mates , after all this was just a branch of the main clan but he had bullied Yan Zhe for many years , since Yan Zhe wasn't able to cultivate . It turns out the reason Yan Zhe couldn't cultivate was actually because he was using a bad cultivation method. Even still , Yan Zhe wouldn't be courteous.

"Yan Mo ,you can talk the talk but can you walk the walk , I'm not the same Yan Zhe who gets bullied by you . If you're really are so high and mighty , then please , allow me to teach you that when you trash talk you have to be able to back it up! After all , Hands and feet don't have eyes , so I can't be at fault if I injure you." I replied mockingly .

"Fine , Yan Zhe , since you want it so bad , I'll teach you that only strength matters in this world." Yan Mo said teasingly .

I got into a stance. I was surprised when I saw him. He was just standing there dumbly. It seems he doesn't know a stance , I shake my head . Still I  prepared to attack him.

At almost the same time , they charged at each other and their fits collided and a heavy sound (almost like metal) reverberated around the training hall.  Yan Mo shot backwards like lightning hitting into the nearby wall .

Unconvinced , Yan Mo shouted " WHAT , how are you so strong , did you take some divine medicine ?" 

" I don't need divine medicine in order to deal with the likes of you , now if you don't mind I need to test out my strength." Yan Zhe replied coldly.

With no other choice ,  Yan Mo walked off slightly annoyed . From that exchange he could tell that him and Yan Zhe weren't at the same level. Yan Mo was only at the 3rd stage of Muscle Strengthening , if Yan Zhe hadn't held back he would have killed him.  

Yan Zhe then walked to a training pillar and used all his might to punch it , then just as he expected the reading showed a force of 2000 Jin. He then decided to use a battle technique from his previous life . It's name was 'The Seven Elemental Change'. At the muscle strengthening stage this technique could only give you characteristics of the elements . For example , Earth would make your Defense stronger then usual , Lightning would make you fast , fire would make you stronger etc...

In order to get his body used to using the battle technique he practiced for a while.

Roughly an hour later , he walked up to the training pillar , he then activated the fire element attribute. He clenched his fists tightly. Yan Zhe's fists grew closer & finally it collided with the training pillar. From the rebound of the attack the training hall vibrates slightly. The pillar showed a reading of 3200 Jin. That was the strength of someone at the 6th stage of muscle strengthening!

Happy with this result , Yan Zhe went back to his room and went to bed . Yan Zhe was tired and had much to process after all he had just reincarnated.

Once he had woken up , Yan Zhe started cultivating. His strength hadn't progressed much at all . The only reason his strength progressed so rapidly was because his strength had been growing it's just that it had been suppressed due to his inferior cultivation manual , now however he couldn't cultivate at such astonishing speeds. Knowing this , Yan Zhe made a decision. 

He decided to go outside and get some pills and cultivation treasures. Before that he needed money , and he knew just the way.
But he knew he didn't just need cheap pills , the pills he need were spirt pills . In the Lower realms (particularly in the Yin-Yang section) , Pills are  divided into 3 main categories , each more effective than the other :
Human Pills (Effective )
Spirit pills  (More effective)
True Spirit pills  ( the most effective)

Each category was further divided into Lower , Middle and Upper. The least effective being the Lower rank Human pills and the most effective being the Upper rank True Spirit pills.

He knew that he needed spirit pills because human pills wouldn't be very effective because of his cultivation manual requiring more strength in order to progress.

Yan Zhe first went to his father and told him that he was gonna go out , it was normal for 14 year olds to go out after all. He then left the Clan Manor. As he walked through town he heard numerous people speaking about him , the infamous cripple of the Yan Family. Yan Zhe shrugged his shoulders in response. 

Suddenly , Yan Zhe heard a very loud roar  coming from behind him  . He seemed to be shouting , " Swindler! Great Swindler!" The man he was shouting at then replied , " I'm not a Swindler , just a teacher at an academy , I just wanted to make you my student."  I ignored them. This sort of stuff was common in the Cultivation world. Arguments would often escalate very quickly.

Once Yan Zhe could no longer hear their voices , he approached a tall and firm building . On it was written in bold letters:

"ALCHEMY ASSOCIATION" 

Yan Zhe walked in. The first thing that he saw was a beautiful young girl with silky silver hair , a beautiful figure and an angelic countenance . This was truly ' Femme Fatale' , beauty which could bring the downfall of civilisations. 

The girl  glanced at him coldly , and talked with a tall and broad old man , then left the alchemy hall not sparing Yan Zhe a second glance. 

Yan Zhe was surprised but not sidetracked , he had seen many such beauty's in his life . Yan Zhe then walked to the counter and demanded to meet the Alchemy Association leader. The accountant looked about 15 and she was surprised that he wanted to meet the leader. Yan Zhe was ignored the first time. And the second. And also the third. But finally he used some force to gather the attention of the accountant and he stamped his foot , causing the floor to be imprinted with the bottom of his shoe.

" Where is the Alchemy Association leader , only he is worthy of talking with me , you're lucky I'm in a good mood or else if you ignored me while I was in a bad mood , you wouldn't live to tell the tale!" Yan Zhe said slightly annoyed. 

The accountant was enraged. And she roared  at him , " Kids like you should be playing in the park , you have no right to be here so SCRAM!" 

"You want me to scram ? With just you ? Pffff , you are unworthy , maybe if you bowed to me 3 times and kneeled on the ground while begging for forgiveness I could consider forgiving you." Yan Zhe replied nonchalantly.

A crowd had gathered at the spectacle , they had faces like those that wanted to watch a good show.

"Good , very good , let's see how you act when I  tell the Alchemy Association leader of your behaviour , kids like you need to learn how to respect your elders!" The accountant responded trying to calm herself down .

I'm laughed inwardly , In truth I'm probably 100 times her age . She hurriedly scurried off in anger , and when she came back the same tall and broad old man appeared. The crowd was shocked when they saw him . They all had heard of him . He was the Alchemy Association Prodigy , Nie Li.  It's said that when then old Alchemy Association leader (Yang Xin) was 25 , Nie Li already knew more than her at the age of 13. He also knew all uses of purple mist grass and told the Alchemy Association every use. His findings shook the Alchemist community as he went on to become one of the most influential alchemists on the continent.

"Why are you here to cause trouble ?" Nie Li's deep voice reverberated in the hall. The accountant had a smug face behind Nie Li , she was very happy at the ignorant kid being taught a lesson.

"She had caused this to herself , she purposely ignored me for no reason!" Yan Zhe said in protest .

"Is this true ?" Nie Li said slight surprised.

"No way , I attended to him properly but he didn't listen and said he wanted me to be his girlfriend, I was so scared." the accountant said weakly , her face was blistered with tears and there was 'genuine' fear in her eyes. The crowd had a look of schadenfreude.

"Such behaviour will not be tolerated in the Alchemist Association head quarters , you are forever banned!" Nie Li states firmly. 

A slight chuckle escaped Yan Zhe's lips , he hadn't expected such a spectacle to occur. A long list of words then came out of Yan Zhe's mouth.

"Blue river grass , Bodhi fruit , Purple miss grass in the ration 7:2:4 , Suction fruit , Flame lotus pill , Nine ice fruit , Phoenix rock  in the ration 4:5:6  and both of these have to mixed in the ratio 2:3 . In order to form the Middle Rank Spirit Pill , Nine Phoenix river . Am I right?" Yan Zhe mentioned causally as if it didn't really matter to him.

Nie Li was shocked , so shocked he nearly fell backwards , 'how did he know which pill I was attempting to create , and now that I think about it , those ratio's... OHHHH so that was the case , I had used the wrong ratio which leaded me to fail when forming the pill , I should have know... how does this little guy know though , is he a super genius ? I must get to the bottom of this!' Nie Li thought it himself.

"Well , I'll be going then Old Man." Yan Zhe said as he proceeded to leave like it was only natural. 

"Wait , wait , I said wait , young man how did you know how to form the middle rank spirit pill Nine River Phoenix ? Not only that , how did you know I had just tried to make that pill?" Nie Li asked with interest.

When Yan Zhe was at the door of the Alchemist Association he slowly turned around . Yan Zhe's face then beamed into a toothy grin.

Yan zhe is an  expert from the heaven realm but was returned to the past when he was betrayed by the Immortal empress In hope that she would find the method to a theoretical ‘higher realm’. After his death he awoke in the mortal realm, where he originated. Once he ascended past the human and sky realm he was known as the ‘Martial Genius’ for inventing so many new techniques and ways to cultivate.Once he returned to the mortal realm he realized that he was in the same place as he originated.Join Yan zhe as he uses his advanced knowledge and cultivation methods to pursue the peak!


Gao Yue said helplessly, "Jiang Chen, don't be too upset. It's better to break up with that kind of woman."

"I will not sign the disengagement agreement,"Jiang Chen said, "I will write a certificate of divorce instead."

"But in this way the Sus won't send people over here." Cher felt this was a losing proposition.

"With the Su's attitude, even if they send people over here, it would be difficult to send them away later. We will probably have to try our best to please them, but they won't necessarily give us any help," Jiang Chen said.

"Son, are you sure?" It was difficult for Gao Yue to make a decision.

"Yes."

Jiang Chen was sure. He took pen and ink to write the certificate of divorce and then asked a servant to send it over to the Su's.

The Su's could refuse to accept the certificate of divorce. Su Qian could claim that she hadn't been cheating on Jiang Chen, so he couldn't divorce her for no reason.

But they were the ones who wanted disengagement. Jiang Chen had put them into a dilemma.

"But what should the east courtyard do?" Gao Yue was very worried.

"Mother, we should reduce the establishment and focus on our core industries. As for the other things, it's fine to hand them over to the west courtyard."

Jiang Chen went on, saying, "After all, it will depend on grandpa whether the west courtyard can replace the east. The industry is only one of the things that grandpa evaluates. The more important thing is me."

Gao Yue nodded. She understood what her son meant.

"If I can achieve the Gathering Yuan State before the spring festival, whatever the west courtyard has done it will only be in vain," Jiang Chen said.

"Only three months to go until the spring festival. Won't it be too difficult?"

"Mother, did you forget?"

Gao Yue recalled that old man with the white beard and nodded seriously.

"Besides, I am already in Cloud Seven."

Jiang Chen's state had been enhanced in seven days through panaceas and the sky level method.

"You are?" Gao Yue looked at her son excitedly. All of her worries had disappeared instantly.

…

The news that Gao Yue hadn't gotten any help spread quickly, as well as the disengagement with the Su's. This way, the east courtyard's decline had become a consensus in the Southwind Ridge. Even Jiang Chen's brilliant achievement in the winter hunt couldn't reverse people's opinions. There even had been rumors floating around about the west courtyard petitioning the old lord to give the east courtyard to them.

Jiang Chen didn't bother with those rumors. He contributed all his time to practice. He achieved Cloud Nine in two months. Maybe it was because he had been in Cloud Nine. Although the loss of genuine Qi resulted in state degradation, starting all over again and repeating the whole process, of course, was faster than the first time. However, he was at a crucial point that he was unable to break through.

It will be a qualitative leap to cross the big gap between two states. With the aid of the sky level method and the holy pulse, it's a piece of cake to break through. But the thing is, there is only a month to go until the spring festival. But it's no use to be anxious. I'll just take the chance to study some martial techniques.

At the time of the spring festival, things wouldn't end with reporting your state level. There probably would be a fight.

Jiang Chen could hunt fierce beasts, but beasts didn't have wisdom. The human beings would be much more difficult to deal with. People gain strength from practice. But that's not enough. They have to make use of the strength they get. If you have the strength to move five hundred kilograms, but not even 10% of it can be put into use, your strength has no use. But things were like this a long time ago until forefathers with great wisdom created effective fighting methods like the fist method, palm method, sword method and the knife method. All of these are called martial techniques.

The practice of martial techniques is very stringent. For example, the powerful sword method can be given full play only when the person practicing it has great swordsmanship attainments. Swordsmanship doesn't come from nowhere. It requires practice of entry-level swordsmanship and accumulation of experience. The swordsmanship and other martial techniques collected in the Over Cloud Palace are for master level powerhouses.

If Jiang Chen insisted on practicing them, they would only do him harm instead of good. So, Jiang Chen called Fan Tu over. He asked Fan Tu to show him a basic martial technique, better than a sword method.

"Young Lord, you've been back to Cloud Nine? That's fantastic. You will be someone big even without the holy pulse!" Fan Tu was a direct man. No one else in the east courtyard had the nerve to mention the holy pulse in front of Jiang Chen. Fan Tu continued, "The master learnt his swordsmanship from the Taoist Priest Skywind. It cannot be spread out. Even though it could be, it wouldn't be useful to Young Lord."

Jiang Chen understood what he meant. It was for the same reason that he was unable to practice the swordsmanship of the Over Cloud Palace. In short, if a person who practiced it with level one swordsmanship attainments persists in practicing a level four sword method, he will get nowhere.

Of course, martial techniques and swordsmanship attainments are not classified in such a simple way. But the logic is the same. Jiang Chen's current state didn't allow him to practice any of the martial techniques collected in the Over Cloud Palace. He gave Fan Tu that Dorje Subduing Demon because the latter was in the Gathering Yuan state and he had been practicing fist methods for decades. But even Fan Tu was only able to achieve the entry level after months of practice. Among all the martial techniques Jiang Chen knew, Dorje Subduing Demon was an inferior one.

Jiang Chen wanted to find a sword method suitable for him. It was for this purpose that he called Fan Tu over. 

"Young Lord, wait for a second!" When Fan Tu got Jiang Chen's attention, he left the room and soon came back with some servants, who were carrying lots of books. The floor was heaped with books instantly.

"These martial techniques are the east courtyard's collection. Although they were dedicated to the Jiang Mansion, people from the east courtyard are not allowed to practice them, let alone the Young Lord."

Jiang Chen watched the sword methods carefully. He had a yearning to be a swordsman. No one knew why. But in the Sacred Zone, eight out of ten top-level masters were swordsmen. 

"Young Lord, what do you want? Generally speaking, what you like is what suits you."

"Swords."

Once he got the answer, Fan Tu picked the sword methods out for him.

Jiang Chen browsed them one by one and kept shaking his head. He thought to himself, these are insignificant for swords. What's really important is only the sharpness of a sword.

Jiang Chen finally found a suitable one. The Sword Method of the Holy Spirit.

"Young Master, you want to practice swords now? All right!"

The two of them came to the spacious yard. Fan Tu found him an extremely sharp iron sword, which had been edged.

Jiang Chen felt very emotional holding the sword.

The number one Sword Master in the Sacred Zone Yin Qianmo picked up a wooden sword when he was three. Without any experiences of practicing any sword methods, he reached the entry level just with some casual waves of the sword, and in this way beat his ten-year-old brother, who had practiced sword methods for five years.

The Sword Saint Dugu Yu was a knifeman at the beginning. He gave up the knife and picked up the sword when he was twenty. He became enlightened overnight on the 'The Sword Method to Kill' and then killed ninety-nine brutal vicious scoundrels in three days. The whole Sacred Zone was shocked by his feat.

How far will I get?

The Sword Method of the Holy Spirit was laid open to the first page on the ground. The first movement was shown by a little man on the page, with annotations below it.

Jiang Chen didn't stop reading until he memorized everything. With key points in mind, he started to wave the sword in his hand.

"Can't wait to see Young Lord's sword skills." Fan Tu looked hopeful. His master was adept in using swords. For sure, the young lord had inherited this ability!

However, soon after, his face became embarrassed for what he was seeing.
Jiang Chen looked so clumsy when he was practicing sword methods.

Yes, very clumsy.


The war of gods left the earth no winners, but a broken world.
Thousands of years later, the soul of the God of war created a new world from the ruins.
Nine reincarnations for the same one belief.
A youngster looked up at the starlit sky with his sword in hand.
Monsters, demons, evil persons…Whoever had the nerve to damage this world would end up dying.
To see how a youngster got onto the top of the world little by little, inherited the soul of the God of war, and defend his own world!

By the time I stopped crying, there was only Luke and I inside the dorm room.

Crying never really worked in the first place with Luke. I gave up using the useless tactic as I tried to think of better ways to persuade him.

I tried to recall my memories of Luke frowning when he interacted with other people that weren't in his inner circle.

From what I observed, Luke didn't like people who were obsessed with things just because they were expensive.

He pretended to listen to their conversation so he could politely answer questions when asked as he focused on other thoughts.

Luke also despised people who got way too close to him as they extensively touched him due to their admiration for his handsome appearance that resembled a fairy tale prince out of a storybook.  

And most of all, he hated it when I didn't act accordingly to the Roselia family name. 

But, this was exactly what I was going to do until he put the necklace off.

I would act like the most detestable and disgusting person to Luke until he finally broke down to listen to my command.

I instantly snuggled up to him as I schemed, "Of course it doesn't matter if you don't put the necklace off."

I fidgeted with Luke's soft hand as I knew Luke hated excessive skinship.  

After I quickly got bored of playing with Luke's hand, I decided to braid some tiny braids into Luke's hair with my dexterous hands.

My hands drifted through Luke's soft hair as he ignored me to read the assigned reading that was one month ahead for class.

This was strange. Luke usually tried to shake someone off when he got annoyed from the unrestrained contact, but he just left me alone as his neat hair turned messy from the disastrous braids.

I sniffled a giggle when some of the strands of his hair poked out in weird directions as he calmly flipped to the next page of his book while he was unaware of his appearance.

This was clearly not working as Luke wasn't getting distracted by any of the tiny contact I made.
What other things did I not try yet?

I recounted all the other methods of skinship in my head. A long hug, holding hands, ruffling his head, and a kiss?

I already messed with his hair and fidgeted with his hand. The only thing left was a hug and a kiss.

I took Luke's book away from him as I placed it on the tiny table beside his bed and pulled Luke into a long hug.

I was definitely going to change my clothes and take a shower after this.

"Are you done Rika?" Luke asked me after a long minute.

Luke's expression didn't change as he waited for me to finish hugging him before trying to pick up his book again.

Seeing that hugging him wasn't effective, I let Luke go as I contemplated about the last option on my list.

Did I really want to kiss Luke over this?

I took a glance at Luke's unflustered face as he stared back at me in confusion.

Luke grew up wonderfully as his sharp jaw line and long eyelashes made him stand out from the countless good-looking children in the first district.

I closed my eyes as I got the courage to reluctantly kiss his forehead. 
 
Bleh my lips. I was going to wash my face more carefully after this too.

I opened my eyes as Luke sat frozen on his bed.

His expression showed that he was absolutely clueless of what just happened.

Luke looked like he was dumbfounded as he stared at me blankly before he blinked several times while picking up his book again to cover his face.

Why wasn't he shaking me off like he usually did to other people? I was pretty sure that I covered everything on my list.

However, Luke didn't reject any of my advances as he sat there quietly while resuming his daily routine like nothing had happened.

What else did I miss?

I tried to recall all the shoujo manga I read in my past life. 

The protagonist usually bumped into the male lead as she accidentally bumps into something or lands in some kind of trouble. 

The most used scene was the female lead pushing the male lead down as she 'accidentally' kisses the male lead on the lips as she falls in love at first sight.

But would that popular scene work on Luke? I was annoying Luke on his bed anyways as I already disturbed him from peacefully reading his book.

I had nothing to lose at this point. 

I threw the book that Luke was holding onto as I pushed him down on his bed by grabbing both of his shoulders.

'You can do this Rika!' I encouraged myself.

I kissed Luke on his soft lips that smelled like roses and tasted like the honey lip balm we bought together on our tablet.

Luke's eyes widened in surprise but quickly recovered to unexpectedly kiss me back with gentleness like he was cherishing a precious item.

I immediately separated from Luke as I pushed him away as my face flushed in shades of pink and red after the short kiss.

"What is this?" I screamed when a big blue magical circle scripted with incantations suddenly appeared under us.

I was captured and put onto a stake to be lit on fire as part of the ongoing witch hunt conducted throughout the land. I had to do something. But, this life really sucked. 

This all started when I was accidentally killed by God. 

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to kill you. It was just that I was overworked lately by my superior and I just wanted some time to relax and vent my stress out," he confessed.

"So, while I was snacking, I accidently dropped one potato chip into the human realm where the child tripped over the potato chip onto a den of steep stairs." God guilty admitted.

So I reincarnated into the most adorable girl with the largest orange-speckled eyes that contrasted her pale white skin void of any imperfections.

'How could someone look this pretty?' I thought as I admired my new appearance.

I was nowhere close to this pretty in my previous life. Did God put me into this new vessel as an apology?

But some things were too good to be true.
***
"We can do this the nice way or the hard way," My fiancé’s brother started off.
"The nice way is where you willingly come with us back to the first district and the hard way is where we forcibly take you back, which would be hard for all of us," Lucius gave me a warning.
Why was my life so depressing? He practically meant I didn’t have a choice! 
***
Few months later, I was at a party that I planned to escape from my fiancé’s family.
"I still get to continue with my naps on the weekends?" I tried to confirm with them.
No one answered as I almost cried from giving up my rare nap times from the mess I got involved with. This life was too bothersome!

After the discussion of the Honeycomb Magic Web and also the promise of 'rewards', Gawain didn't ask Rebecca and Jenni to leave. Instead, he took out some of the blueprints he had drawn recently. Using his own understanding, he had made a summary and calculations for the 'logic of runes'.
Rebecca's attention had been drawn to Gawain's blueprints while Jenni immediately noticed Gawain's calculations. The latter was astonished as she widened her eyes and asked, "Are these all done by you?"
"When I had nothing to do during my spare time, I would study the information that you provided to me and attempt to form my own rune arrangement." Gawain laughed and nodded before saying, "In terms of magic theory, I am still at the fundamental level."
"This… this isn't a problem about the fundamentals." Jenni looked at Gawain's conclusion with disbelief and said, "These calculation methods and… the writing habits. Have you already had access to these things previously?"
"During the Gondor Empire period, there were plenty of contributions in terms of mathematical sciences. Of course, the logic of runes had yet to be developed," Gawain casually elaborated, while only he knew about the actual situation. He might not have had any contact with rune logic previously, but the mathematical ideology of his previous life was still around. Even if the formulas were different, the logic and method of calculation would still be applicable. As of now, the rune logic formulas that Jenni came up with were rather simple. As such, it wasn't difficult for Gawain to make calculations with these formulas by using his experience.
When Gawain noticed that Jenni still wanted to ask questions, he quickly changed the topic to the next phase. "Let's take a look at these things first."
"Is this the 'second-generation Magic Powered Engine' that you mentioned previously? Something called the rotor-type engine…" Rebecca flipped through the blueprints and said, "I have never seen this before… This magic circle seems to be of the fire element?"
"It is the Scorching Ray magic circle. Grade-two magic that could release a focused heat ray from the magic circle," Gawain explained. "This is merely low-grade magic and is even one grade lower than Large Fireball… You have never seen it before?"
"I have never seen it before." Rebecca shook her head and said, "Back then, Aunt Heidi had taught me the Scorching Ray's spell mold. She felt that the spell was similar to Fireball and thought I might be able to learn it. As a result, my head hurt when I learned this magic and had a mental trauma. Afterward, whenever I tried to learn how to turn this spell mold into a magic circle, I would always fall asleep during the lecture…"
Gawain was dumbstruck as he looked at his great-granddaughter who spoke about her dark history in a straightforward matter.
This so-called Scorching Ray wasn't a profound spell. In Gawain's opinion, the ability to shoot out a Scorching Ray had a truly eye-catching effect, but it was actually a Grade 2 magic and was just one grade superior to the Grade 1 Small Fireball. Rebecca had used her tenacious spirit to forcefully learn the Large Fireball and became a 'Grade 3 Mage'. Logically, Scorching Ray shouldn't be a problem for her. However, in a world filled with Beyonders, the so-called spellcasting talent was determined by the heavens. For a Mage who relied on individual capability to cast spells, even if there was a natural law in spellcasting, no matter how hard a person worked, it would be useless.
Overworking would only cause pain in their heads.
To just give an extra note. Rebecca might only know the 'Fireball' spell, but she could actually say that she knew two spells. If she used less magic, it would be the Small Fireball spell, and if she used more magic, it would be the Large Fireball spell. One spell was grade one and the other spell was Grade 3. The spell mold was almost the same, but the latter would require more magic and greater focus to control. Rebecca was innately able to record only one spell mold, and that spell mold just happened to be Fireball. As such, there wasn't a problem if she said she knew two spells…
Gawain had a feeling if this young lady continued on her proper talent, she would probably create a nuclear fusion…
"Lord Ancestor, why are you looking at me like that?" Rebecca had finished reading the blueprints and lifted her head up to ask curiously, "Could it be that you are preparing to create this rotor-type Magic Powered Engine?"
"When creating complex magic-powered machines or high-grade magical tools, our great problem is 'interference'." Gawain talked about the things he had been considering recently, "When the magic circles are in operation, the energy flow in between the runes would produce interference. Two neighboring magic circles would also have interference. High-grade magical tools had complicated magic circles and many runes, causing greater interference. This is also the main problem why there are rarely any finished magical tools, and they are mostly very expensive. Since a long time ago, traditional Mages haven't been able to resolve this problem. This is also the most important reason why Beyonder items aren't generalized."
Jenni looked at the calculation formulas written by Gawain and had a sudden enlightenment before she revealed a pensive expression.
Gawain continued to talk, "We have already discussed the rotor-type engine previously. Its only problem is interference, and there are too many Repulsion magic circles. They are arranged symmetrically. Therefore, interference is inevitable. There isn't a choice but to give up for now. But this heat-ray magic circle…"
"The heat-ray magic circles wouldn't have any interference problems, right?" Rebecca wasn't really sure as she said, "I might not know how to cast the spell, but I know that such magic circles are already very common. Many Mages like to set up such traps in their Mage towers. The firepower is good, and it wouldn't blow up the surrounding things, unlike Fireball. It could also accurately eliminate intruders…"
Gawain waved his hand and said, "That's right. Heat-ray magic circles are already in use, but that is with traditional Mages carving them on expensive magic-guiding bases to 'solve' the interference problem. But I plan to draw it on the very-cheap copper base. The runes' materials will be the even-cheaper quartz sand and blood-tree resin. Therefore, there is the problem of interference again."
Jenni had also vaguely guessed Gawain's meaning and said, "You wish to lower its cost. But if the magic circle is drawn on inferior magic-guiding materials, it would cause all of the runes' grade to be suppressed by the materials, causing the effective power to be reduced. In order to ensure the magic circle's operation, there wouldn't be a choice but to increase the number of runes to increase the effective power. But in the minds of many traditional Mages, more runes would mean a higher chance of interference being produced."
"That's right," Gawain spoke unhurriedly. "Drawing the magic circles on low-grade base materials or using inferior materials to create the runes would cause the runes' 'effective power' to be reduced. Therefore, it is necessary to increase the number of runes to ensure that the magic circle would function with its original effects. However, more runes would mean a higher rate of interference, causing a collapse. Traditional Mages solve this problem by carving the magic circles on expensive high-grade materials using the most simplified magic-circle structure to achieve the objective… They are used to using such methods to avoid interference as they didn't have a lack of money."
Rebecca said, "But Lord Ancestor has been working hard on making Beyonder items… What was that term again?"
Gawain looked at Rebecca with a praising expression and said, "Low-cost mass production."
Subsequently, he said, "All of the problems come from the magic's characteristic 'interference'. The magic circles' interference is actually the stumbling block that is affecting low-cost mass production. It directly pulls up the cost of many magical tools that should be of low cost. It has also directly caused many of my designed machines to be unable to operate. But now… we have the method to eliminate interference."
"The method is to use the rune logic's calculation!" Jenni was engrossed. She had studied rune patterns for many years, but she would only design magic circles to complete the tasks given by her master. This was the first time she realized the true value of these mathematical tools. "Traditional Mages believe that more runes in the magic circle would cause more interference and lead to the collapse of the magic circle. But in fact, we are able to calculate using the formulas so that the increase in runes won't cause interference. On the contrary, more runes would actually increase the magic circle's ability to resist interference. The thing that causes interference is when runes are arranged in a specific way that could produce 'interference bonds'. But the interference from the interference bonds increases exponentially and would be far beyond the ability to resist interference that is produced by the increase of runes. As such, everyone assumed that if there were more runes in the magic circle, it would be unstable…"
Gawain laughed very heartily. "That's right. With the rune logic, we wouldn't need to research trial-and-error methods like those traditional Mages. We don't have to rely on luck and their unreliable experience to design the magic circles. Just like the rotor-type magic-powered engine that I designed previously, we can simply make some slight adjustments to each of the Repulsion magic circles' rune arrangement or even redesign it to reduce the interference bonds. We can also use the same method to draw those magic circles that originally needed expensive magic-guiding materials and draw them on cheap copper bases. We can make it so cheap that everyone can use it!"
"Everyone can use it…" Jenni was obviously frightened by these words. "Is it possible?"
Gawain asked in return, "Why is it not possible? Even the workers at the brick-kiln yard and the mines are using the Magic Powered Engine. Isn't the Magic Powered Engine a kind of magical tool?"
Jenni was instantly speechless.
"So you want us to calculate these things?" Rebecca looked at the blueprint Gawain had taken out and revealed an excited expression. "Ah, I can see that you have specially put marks beside the magic circles that state the base material and the runes materials' cost range… You want to make the magic circles activate on such cheap base materials? It seems like it would be very challenging!"
"Are you confident?" Gawain smiled and asked.
Rebecca puffed her chest out and said, "Very!"
Jenni smiled with a shy and reserved expression and said, "I will work hard and will not disappoint you."
The two young ladies then left with a whole bunch of new blueprints and information. Gawain relaxed and allowed his upper body to lean on the backrest of the chair while allowing his thoughts to float.
He was thinking that he had finally found a way for normal people to enter the mystical domain, a proper path.
He had also grasped the method for this world's 'magic' to be utilized to the greatest efficiency.
The 'imaginative' characteristic of magic was the greatest assistance for his odd and wonderful ideas to turn into reality at rapid speed!
In a world without magic, a concept might need a few years or a few dozen years or a few generations of hard work to make it into reality. The difficult tool production and improvement process would have taken up a large portion of the time. However, in the world with magic, the entire process was greatly shortened. Almost all of the time, it was done with the mind and the blueprints. If a Mage could calculate quickly, precisely, the moment the spell mold was completed, the spell would become 'something' that could be utilized in reality. Even if the magic only belonged to them temporarily, the 'sense of reality' of the magic had already been proven.
What Gawain wanted to achieve was to make all of those magic into Magic Powered Engines, heat-ray guns, crystal bombs, Honeycomb Magic Webs…


During Gawain transmigration, a little problem occurs.
After hovering in the sky above the land of a strange world for over hundreds of thousands of years, he realizes that perhaps his transmigration is completed by acquiring a physical body.
Never did he imagine that he would have to guide the body out of a coffin after going through great difficulties to obtain it, only to come face-to-face with his two extremely shocked great-great-great-great... great-granddaughters, and also—
Be thrust into a world that's the verge of its era’s end.

Ultrix sat in his new dorm room still dazed at the number of resources the Academy was suddenly bestowing upon him.

His current dorm was leagues better than his old one and there were even silver tier guards standing guard outside the main gate.

Of course, all of this didn't belong to Ultrix. He was currently staying at a dormitory building that housed all of the special guests of the Academy and it's best students.

Looking through all the runic creation tools yet again, Ultrix ultimately decided to hold back from any testings and headed straight to the main library.

Ultrix realized that his current understanding of combustion was too fundamental so he wanted to read up on some more research before attempting any magic circles.

Looking through the titles, a book called 'Fundamentals of Magic' caught his eye.

It was a fairly thick book and skimming through it quickly, Ultrix found that it had a basic understanding of all types of magic circles with a guide on the most efficient and effective means of drawing them.

Putting aside the book for the time, Ultrix went through the titles again to pick out another book to read. Ultimately, his gaze was drawn towards a book titled 'Combustion Control'.

Ultrix took the book off of the shelf and began reading it as well. Whenever he ran across a method that was mentioned in the book that he was unfamiliar with, he referenced back to his other book on magic fundamentals to compare notes.

After reading for a couple of hours and memorizing a list of do's and don'ts of magic circle drawing, Ultrix decided it was time for him to start applying his knowledge to practical use.

Picking up a piece of dry wood, Ultrix started carving a basic combustion rune onto it.

After a few seconds of carving, the rune was complete.

At first, nothing happened and Ultrix thought with disappointment that he had failed his first attempt. However, after a few seconds, a few sparks shot outwards from the rune.

Ultrix was ecstatic! Although he had not managed to start a fire, he felt like this was a better improvement from his previous attempts before he had read anything.

Reading more on the runic uses and combustion efficiency guide, Ultrix took a piece of paper this time and drew a runic circle on it with flammable ink.

This time the reaction was a lot faster, and hardly after he had completed the circle, the paper ignited and shriveled up quite quickly.

While this was a lot faster than his previous attempt at starting a fire, Ultrix ultimately still felt like it was too slow. He yearned for a method of faster casting but did not know how to improve.

After scanning all of the contents in the library again, Ultrix was just about to give up for the day when a glint in the corner of the room caught his eye.

Walking over to examine the glint, Ultrix realized that it was a book on 'Instantaneous Castings'.

Confused on what 'instantaneous' meant, Ultrix tried to open the book and read it's contents.

However, to his surprise, the book could not be pried open. It was as if all the pages were glued together and formed a solid block.

Feeling quite curious at this point, Ultrix examined the book more closely. Looking at the bookbinding, Ultrix realized that there was a runic circle faintly inscribed into the string.

However, it was a runic pattern that Ultrix did not recognize.

Scanning through the library once again, Ultrix took out all the books he saw which had anything to do with magical paper and books.

At first, Ultrix skimmed through the books, but a few minutes in, he realized it would be even faster if he knew what he was looking for.

Looking back at the design of the runic circle, Ultrix realized that he had seen the format before in the fundamentals book.

Looking through the fundamentals book glossary, Ultrix noticed that there was a section on magic circle encryption that correlated to the magic circle that he saw on the other book.

Unfortunately, although the fundamentals book covered the different types of encryptions, it did not go into depth on all of the methods of unlocking said encryptions.

Looking back through the books on books and magic, Ultrix finally found a chapter on magic encryption.

It turns out, magic encryption was quite a common usage in the world of magic. However, this was confusing to Ultrix as for some reason he had never heard of this term before.

However, after much thought, Ultrix realized that it probably made sense that he would not have known about such a method. After all, the departments that he had learned from were more practical and not very scientific departments.

It would make sense for there to be encryptions required on more important data, but for magic users like Ultrix, such encryptions seemed impractical.

Reading through the book though, Ultrix realized that the process of encrypting a book was not too difficult to learn.

However, there were different tiers of encryption, just like how there were different affinity tiers. Unlike the affinity tiers though, which were separated into bronze, silver, and gold, the encryption tier was simply given numbers with higher numbers meaning higher difficulty.

Luckily for Ultrix, the book that he currently wanted to unlock was only at tier 3.

With the highest tier mentioned in the book being a tier 7, tier 3 was still a relatively simple encryption code.

Without further hesitation, Ultrix started unlocking the book bind.

The process of decrypting a tier 3 was quite simple. All it required Ultrix to do was to rotate the rings of the magic circle in a specific order until they all lined up with each other.

At first, Ultrix was not sure what the book meant with 'turning the circles'

However, after a bit of messing around, Ultrix realized that once a magic circle was put onto an object, it would hover slightly above the original surface almost like a liquid skims the surface that it is on.

Ultrix tried to spin the circles in different ways, but he quickly discovered that the order to unlock the rings could not be done through brute force.

Anyone who simply guesses the order of the rings would temporarily lock the entire rune and the rings would randomize themselves again with a new combination code.

Luckily for Ultrix, the book on encryptions was quite detailed and he slowly solved the algorithm by turning the runic circles.

After turning the final circle in the correct order, the magic circle finally dissipated.

Ultrix was not surprised at all that the circle dissipated. After all, most encryption locks that were tier 3 were one-time usage only.

Once they were broken they had to be redrawn.

Ultrix looked at the book in anticipation. Something that required a tier 3 encryption surely was quite valuable, right?

However, before Ultrix could open the book, he suddenly realized that a new encryption circle had appeared again.

Multi-level encryption? Ultrix thought to himself.

He was not too surprised at this either, the book had mentioned that a lot of magic users liked to use multiple levels of encryption to secure their work in the case that the previous runic circle was depleted of its energy.

Upon closer inspection of the encryption runic though, Ultrix's face turned dark.

"Crap!" He said out loud.

"It's a tier 5 encryption this time?!"

"To be in control of destiny is to understand the laws of nature and the course of human consciousness. To lose sight of consciousness is to fall into the absence of self-awareness and stray from the path of universal equilibrium."

"Did you get that, Ultrix? Or are you too busy setting the workshop on fire again?!"
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This novel is for the Writing Contest 104.

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