Chapter 79: Consolidate
Deciding to read the ranger one first I open its index to see what it's about. Briefly going through it, it's basically a mixture between Druid and Warrior arts. Reinforcement, Nature Sense which is a dumbed down nature's language used to look at surroundings by instinct, and Pet training which instead of having multiple contracts, this area talks about training one pet of one contract.
So this is how those bandits were able to have those wolves. It certainly is a nice training guide for a great class and it has its own original ideas as well.
The next one I read was the knight one which shattered a few expectations. They had three sections as well. Aura Reinforcement, Shouting, and Equipment handling.
Aura reinforcement was a way of using your own mana a specific element to your surroundings. I can do this somewhat with my ice bones for an area a foot away from me but these auras cover minimum 30 feet at rank 4. This is still different from dragons as they don't have active control over the element, just spreading an aura of this element. Also, knights don't typically reinforce their bodies, but their equipment. equipment handling has to do with using mana to reinforce your armor, swing slashes with a sword.
Shouting is just using your voice laced with a mana technique to buff your comrades and demoralize your enemies.
I am wondering why that bandit captain didn't use any of these techniques.
[Do not under any circumstances respond to me. The reason that bandit was rendered helpless by you was because he lost contact with his weapon and he had a low amount of mana. Knights have to use weapons to exhibit their prowess and there was likely a misconception from that bandit that strength was more important than mana in his training. Which was why his aura which, was clearly extremely weak, barely affected you. Plus his aura was ice based which only served to lessen the flames around him. Your ice bones ensured your safety due to your tolerance.]
...
Interesting, If I can apply both these books to my personal training, I might be able to bridge the gap between my Druid and warrior techniques.
"Wait until you read occult." Senior Loki said next to me clearly reading my mind still.
Opening the book called occult by Loki Odinson, I read about a previously unknown training art that was not at all similar to the rest.
I can see charms from the warrior, forgemaster, and Druidic arts but it was completely different as well.
Occult is a discussion of one of the main schools of Magic casting as described by Loki Senior. In it he describes how Magic by definition is just manipulation of mana to effect the environment. Warriors, Druids, and Forgemasters all use magic. An Arcane caster is someone who also uses mana but with some differences. Like Warriors and Forgemasters, they use their personal mana but they use it in the form of spells which affect the environment. Spells are complicated but in essence, they are condensed commands for mana to perform a specific function. For instance, using a spell, I can make my casting of Lighting Autocannon much less of a hassle since I won't have to multi-task and give step by step instructions to mana using natures language. Their training of the soul has to do with accumulating bigger reservoirs of mana to cast bigger more complicated spells.
Many of Loki's progeny sought to further organize spells into different types more specific than Loki's first compilation of arcane spells but his first compilation is still a good method to learn. He separated spells based on what the spell was targeted to change. They consist of elemental spells affecting the environment in the school of the elements, Occultic spells that affect the mind and body of others called the school of the occult, and the final school dealing with rituals and pure mana control called the school of formations. The final school is a little bit of a black sheep as masters of this school can technically cast spells of the other two schools but require preparation and rituals to cast. The brief descriptions of the third school gave me an idea that if rituals were mixed with Runesmithing a new age of technology based on it can come about but that's for another time.
Unfortunately, the other schools are mentioned with a brief description in order to draw comparisons, but clearly this book was about only the occult school. I didn't gleam anything more information besides that. In fact many spells which were written in here were only from this school while only basic spells and rituals from the other schools could be found. I couldn't read them though because they were in a type of runic script. I recognized some of the runes but some were very esoteric.
"That's because I created my own runes." Loki senior commenting again.
I am still dumbfounded on how casual this man is about things I find daunting.
"Okay Loki Senior. So I can see a lot here. How do you intend to help my situation out."
Loki senior thought for a moment. "I already told you that you needed to consolidate your abilities into a whole to reflect what you want and that most people do it unconsciously over time. Thus doesn't just have to do with attributes. When you train in a training art, your soul will automatically adjust to the manual overtime in the direction you will desires. This is similar to how a warrior can train to a point where his body affects the environment."
I immediately thought of how the Elders had titles like Sea Giant or New reinforcement types similar to that.
Loki senior smiled, "you are on the right track. As you grow stronger, your will, mana, and soul synchronize to produce incredible effects. The greater your foundation, the greater this effect. Picking an appropriate training manual to express this is almost as important as picking a goal for yourself. You have trained as a druid and a warrior when I can clearly tell your thought patterns don't align completely with either of those styles of fighting. You prefer something more calculated and deliberate. Its impossible to change back your soul to its origin and the effects those manuals left on it so that you can pick up Arcane Caster, but that doesn't mean we can't edit your soul now so that we make a new training style that is more compatible with your mentality and my inheritance."
I was excited now because I get to learn spells. Imagine being those powerful wizards throwing level 5 fireballs everywhere to solve all my problems. What a simple life!
Loki senior laughed a bit, "So you have jokes do you? I can tell your just excited to do more Intuitive things with mana. Your soul is practically screaming it."
This whole mind reading thing sucks. I then asked, "So how are we gonna do it?"
Loki senior then gazed off the vast wasteland and stared for a bit clearly in thought.
I wasn't until he saw his wolf running around and chasing his tail that he had an idea. "What do you know about dragons?"
I got excited instantly on this topic. "Besides what's written about them, nothing much."
"So you know that they can use one element outside their body at will?"
I nodded.
Loki senior elaborated, "I based my arcane casting art on them. I used runes and the ability to hold mana inside someone's body as a mechanism to cast spells. You already have gone through Druid training so my Magic casting training would harm you but what if I transformed your Druid/ warrior trained soul to be something similar to a dragons. Dragons reinforce their bodies with an element and have innate command over that elemental mana in their bodies. They can also habitually turn the surrounding mana into their domain of mana element. By using some charms from the ranger and Knight guide, it should be possible. You'd be able to potentially use all arcane casting, Druid arts, Warrior, and maybe some skills from the other two."
I loved all this but there has to be a catch.
[Just in case, I am reminding you again to not respond or he will hear our thoughts. What he is proposing is possible, especially for him but it will be risky and extremely painful. But if you go through with it, we will have to completely upgrade and refit your blessing from me]
"What's the catch?"
Loki senior smiled, "there are risks to be sure, you could die if I get something wrong. If I'm slightly wrong I could be in essence cutting off one of your abilities. The soul is a very hard subject to master. Luckily, this isn't my first rodeo designing a new training method. Also, inherently, no training style is better than another. The path to the top can be made with all training styles. Having the ability to use all these schools may hamper all of them equally or something of the sort."
So jack of all trades master of none situation.
Loki senior then interrupted, "my goal is to not just to make you proficient in everything since that would be a waste of talent when you sorely need to focus on one thing. My goal is to give you an better outlet to use your abilities by synchronizing your current ones and the ones you just read about."
Before I could say anything a flat twin bed appeared in front of me.
Loki senior strictly pointed at the bed. "Lay down, we need to get this done soon. Although time passes slower in here than in the outside word but it still passes. I'm sure your companions will be worried sick and I still have plenty to teach you about fate after this."
I looked at this man like a mad scientist now but I still went a long with it. Fate huh? I shat on that a long time ago, I might as well make it my bitch now.
[With my help you changed your fate. This time you are all on your own]
…
"Well, I'm gonna take my time with this. In fact I am currently simulating several ideas in my head right now. I'll speak out loud so you understand my thought process. I'll take your input through reading your mind. Don't worry, it'll be over before you know it." Loki senior said
"You have any other words of encouragement?", I asked Loki senior.
He giggled, "Good luck but, this is going to hurt." A wood block appeared between my teeth.
He then raised his arm and a rune flew out. This rune instantly shattered and Ice came out like chains sealing me here.
Then he waved his hand again and a type of arcane circle appeared around me. I felt very lucid. Before I knew it, many threads like a gold River flowed in front of me forming what seems like a copy of my soul.
"I'll have a few tries with the copies of your soul. This should maximize our chances of success."
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