Chương 36: Stone Patterns

Chugum suddenly put his arms in front of him and released his soulpower. Just like Beta's, it was invisible. Yet there was a huge difference. Chugum's soulpower felt as vast as the whole universe. Beta felt as if he was floating within the void world but there was still something different about it. Somehow, it felt wrong. As if something important was missing. It didn't give him the same feeling of being at home like how the void world gave him. Then suddenly, it felt like space is being ripped apart. Slowly, a door manifested in front of Beta.

It was a weird sight to Beta. It was a thin screen that seemed to display the image of another place. It seemed to be somewhere outside of this cave, filled with trees and plains. Beta also saw some water at the edge. When he looked at it from the other side, he saw a different view. It looked like there was a volcano, towering above everything else with clouds covering the top of it. He imagined it to be the other side of the door in the unknown place. Although the view was very different, it still looked connected.

"Let's enter!", Chugum said, looking happily at Beta's reaction.

Beta didn't hesitate and entered the door. He instantly arrived at the place he saw. There was no nausea overcoming him or any other strange phenomenon, it was simple and direct. Chugum followed right after him and stood there without saying anything, waiting for Beta to be ready. Beta was still marveled. He closed his eyes and tried to remember the feeling of teleporting, to ease his studies later on, but he didn't feel much. It was similar to when he put something in his personal space.

Beta then opened his eyes and looked at the scenery around him. Just like he had seen earlier, there were trees. But the few he saw back then were only the beginning. A huge forest stretched itself before him, covering his view. On the other side was a huge sea of which he couldn't see the end. Just like what he saw through the thin veil, there was a volcano surrounded by clouds, emitting smoke every now and then. Behind it, was a mountain range that reached far and wide just like the sea from before. Beta also saw a desert in the distance, but he couldn't make anything specific due to his limited eye visibility.

"This is my world!", Chugum said with a proud smile.

"Your world?", Beta asked, baffled.

"Yes, my world! This is what you will be able to create one day!"

"But how does it even work?"

"Right now, we are in my personal space! It's so big that I'm able to place a miniature planet inside it! It's pretty hard to find your way back though, so before you create one of your own, you should have the appropriate methods to locate your old position. But for now, we should focus on different things. Your combat ability is not even close to what it could be! Your spellcasting is too slow, your manipulation mediocre, and the end results not efficient enough. Just what have you been doing all your life? It's time to let you practice that before we continue, otherwise we won't get anywhere! You're even still a level one Beginner Elementalist!", Chugum said in a serious voice.

Beta slightly blushed. He indeed was still quite inept when it came to soulpower, so he couldn't refute him at all. Even if he tried, telling someone who had his own miniature planet that he was quite good, felt a bit too shameless.

*snap*

Chugum snapped his fingers and fifty stones with different kind of symbols popped up out of nowhere.

"Inscribed on these stones are things you have to manipulate your soulpower to. If you see a rope, create a rope. If you see a bow, create a bow. It's as simple as that. To motivate you, I will give you a gift depending on how fast you are. We will start in five minutes, so prepare yourself!", Chugum said, looking at Beta devilishly. Chugum had taught a few other kids before. They weren't void elementalist like him, but definitely had talent that made up for it. This was actually the second step of their training regime. He believed that the first step would be too easy for Beta and he wanted to try skipping levels to challenge him.

Beta sat down cross-legged and entered the void world. Without any hesitation, he entered the river and let the souls tear him apart. Due to Chugum's poor evaluation of his soulpower, he was too determined to even care about the pain he felt. Soon after, he left the river and started cultivating. A few minutes later he had successfully replenished his soulpower.

"I'm ready.", Beta said, still having a ghastly glint in his eyes.

Chugum, of course, noticed that glint. But he didn't ask anything about it. Everyone had their own secrets. This is especially so for people with the void element. Only someone who has gone through a lot is able to get this element after all.

"Alright, start!"

Beta stared at the first stone, pictured on it was a gourd. He hadn't seen anything like this before, so he was unsure, but he willed his soulpower out anyway and used it to form a gourd. Just when he finished producing it, he felt that the bottle had its own personal space. It's just that a bottle made purely of soulpower will disappear sooner or later. But it still gave Beta an idea of how awesome Voidweavers are. If he could make a gourd that doesn't decay, he could carry around a huge amount of water for emergency cases. As Beta was thinking about it, he moved on to the next stone. On it was the picture of a backpack with patterns that seemed as if tentacles are slithering around it. Beta didn't think much of it and directly created a mini version of the backpack above his hand. Just when he was about to proceed with the next one, Chugum interrupted him.

"Fail! Start from the beginning!"

"Why?", Beta asked, stumped.

"The pattern is a bit off, and the creases are not accurate as well."

When Beta looked at the backpack he made, he noticed that there were indeed a few small differences. He grumbled a bit and started from the beginning again. This time, he was a bit faster in creating the gourd and when he tried to form the backpack next, he meticulously copied every small detail. After making sure that he didn't miss anything, he proceeded with the next stone with a pattern of a wriggling snake that seemed to be moving its head in a certain rhythm. It had a pattern like that of a king cobra on its back.

The details on the snake were so intricate that Beta found it very hard to accomplish. It took him three tries until he finally managed to copy it perfectly. The training went on like this, copy then form, if he fails to follow the exact details, Chugum fails him again. Every time he failed with one of the rocks, he had to start all over, but as he kept on repeating the process, he noticed that his soulpower manipulation was improving so fast, thus, increasing the speed at which he was able to create the patterns on the stones. By the time he reached the tenth stone, he was already able to instantly create the gourd from the beginning. Even he himself was surprised at how much he improved every time he finished a rock.

Meanwhile, Chugum was watching Beta carefully. "He advances incredibly fast. With how little he knows about the world and cultivation, I'm pretty sure that he entered school not too long ago. The tenth rock is something that even some Intermediate Elementalists can't create, not to talk about this kid, which is a complete freshling. Ahh… His talent for the void element is truly too frightening. I intended to just let him try this trial. But if he actually managed to finish it, he will want a proper reward, won't he? Sigh... If he gets too far, I'll just make things a bit harder. I'm sure he hasn't looked at the other stones yet, so he shouldn't notice anything if I switch the last one or two stones...", Chugum thought with a devilish glint in his eyes.

Beta didn't have any clue that Chugum was thinking about ways to make his time here even harder. He completely focused on finishing his tasks. The feeling of getting stronger within such a short amount of time excited him greatly. Soon, he got the same feeling he had when he conducted an experiment. He was completely calm and analyzed the stone pictures at a speed much faster than before. The forming of his soulpower also was much smoother and it seemed to become sentient as it created one item after another. At one time, he creates a mountain, at another, a river. His eyes started glowing more and more, completely absorbed in the process..