While Wu Juren was trapped in the grey world, he could not practice magic. Now that he back, he could finally take the time to figure out his problem.
While he could not cast any spell from the four elemental magic, he could still gather spiritual qi and form his spiritual rings like everyone else with spiritual roots.
In this regard, Wu Juren was far superior to his peer. At 16 years of age, he was already a 3-circle mage despite being unable to cast a single spell.
People were born with different spiritual roots. People with fire spiritual roots excel in fire magic, but may not necessarily reproduce the same result in other areas of magic.
From this, we can see that a person's specialty in magic is closely tied to the spiritual root they possess.
However, spiritual roots were something everyone knew existed but had no way of determining. In fact, people did not know different types of spiritual roots existed. They only figured this out later in the future.
...
Wu Juren made his way back outside the city and headed into the mountain to practice his magic, where it is quiet and away from prying eyes.
Before leaving, Wu Juren selected a 1-star mission to collect herbs for the academy. Unless he was performing a task, it was not easy for students to leave the city, where danger was ever-present.
The mountain is naturally dangerous, but he was equipped with a rusty iron sword for protection.
Compared to the forest, the mountain was not as dangerous. Magic beasts are rarely seen on the outskirts of the mountains. Unless Wu Juren intended to venture deep into mountains, the chance of running into magic beasts was low.
Magic beasts were physically stronger than humans and resistant to magic due to their innate ability to temper their bodies with the rich spiritual qi of heaven and earth.
As such, magic beasts were difficult to kill and cause the city to face the threat of destruction during every beast tide that happens within the magic beast season.
Wu Juren recalled there was a type of non-attribute magic called body enhancement magic developed in later years by a young genius by the name of Cai Ming.
It was unfortunate that Cai Ming fell in the battle against the beast tide before developing the magic further.
Wu Juren recalled that Cai Ming should be entering the academy to study in another two years' time. He should be 13 this year.
"Guess I will test body enhancement magic first."
Wu Juren sat in a meditative position and ran his unique breathing exercise to draw in the spirit qi through his pores and temper his skin.
Contrary to the refined spiritual qi residing in his spirit rings, the unrefined spirit qi absorbed onto his skin was more violent brought pain to his body.
He endured the pain and allowed the tempering process to continue, but inwardly admired Cai Ming. Such magic was no doubt created through a lot of trial and error, blood, and sweat.
After a full hour of tempering, Wu Juren no longer felt the stinging pain and knew that he had completed the prerequisite step.
Wu Juren felt physically stronger after this one round of tempering, but it was still far from what body enhancement magic could grant him.
Mages did not necessarily need to chant to invoke magic. The power of language was only used to help them visualize their magic. As long as they have powerful visualization, they could skip the chanting phase and invoke magic quicker.
Wu Juren's will was tempered over his long years of solitude and loneliness in the grey world. He had seen many things and understood many magic theories. This laid the foundation for his powerful visualization.
The three spiritual rings spun in full motion as Wu Juren invoked body enhancement magic without chanting.
Spiritual qi transformed into physical attributes that coursed his whole body and raised his physical abilities to the same level achieved by martial warriors.
Wu Juren successfully invoked his first magic spell, but his expression remained calm like still water without ripples. He tested his newfound physical strength and speed by moving around swiftly before punching a large boulder.
Bam!
The force of his punch failed to shatter the boulder, but web-like cracks were formed on the boulder's surface. Wu Juren estimated the power of his punch to be around 600 pounds.
Wu Juren was satisfied with the result and began traversing along the river near the bottom of the mountain in search of Blue River Grass.
As its name suggests, Blue River Grass was a type of grass that usually grows on the banks of rivers. It was also the object of his herb collection mission.
He needed to collect 20 stalks of Blue River Grass to complete the mission, not a difficult task considering its commonness. The mission was completed after 20 minutes of harvesting.
The Blue River Grass was mainly used by people of the Alchemist Association to concoct low-grade medicinal pills.
After completing the task, Wu Juran resumed testing his magic. He had no intention of trying his luck with the basic 4 elemental magic again since he knew there was a problem.
Whenever he chanted, there would be a reaction, but it would fail in the end. He was not sure in the past, but now he was confident that the four elemental spirits had refused to heed his call.
There was a magic he was keen on trying. It was high-tier magic that absolutely requires chanting.
"Ahem."
Wu Juren cleared his throat.
"Spirits of heaven and earth, heed my call. With my blood as the guide, I call upon the ancient contract to ask for the one willing to form a pact with me and become my lifelong companion."
A magic circle appeared in front of him as he cut his finger and let his blood drip into the magic circle.
"Come forth, my spirit companion!"
The magic circle shined, and the nearby water river water was drawn into the magic circle in a swirling motion before a water gate rose and fully open.
On the other side of the door was not the river scenery in front of him but the fabled spirit world. There were many spirits on the other side of the door competing for the first to cross over.
No matter how tough his mind and what he had already experienced through the grey world, Wu Juren still couldn't help but feel his hair rising at the scene of thousands of higher-level spirits rushing towards him.
A higher-level spirit exited the gate, and the watergate collapsed right after, stopping the rest from crossing over.
"Yeah~! Yanyan was the fastest~!"
An adorable little girl half his height was seen jumping in celebration in front of him.
Wu Juren was taken aback by how much the adorable spirit resembled a little human girl. He did not expect to summon a higher-level water spirit on his first try.
There were 4 known tiers to a spirit; lower-level, mid-level, higher-level, and king spirit.
The lowest water spirit level would exist as a body of water and have little sentience, unable to commute with their summoners but could execute their commands.
Mid-level spirits also exist as a body of water, but they take on the shape of other races and can have the ability to converse with their summoners telepathically.
The higher-level spirit has corporal spirit bodies with great intellectual capacity and can converse naturally.
As for king spirits, they only existed in myths and legends. No one had succeeded in summoning a king spirit before.
The little girl seemed to have spotted Wu Juren and started circling around him while inspecting him like he was a rare oddity.
"Eh~~? A human~? How rare. I haven't seen a real human before. Are you the one that summoned Yanyan?"
The little girl rested her chin on her index finger and questioned him with curious clear eyes.
"That's right. I was the one who summoned you."
Wu Juren nodded.
"That's great!"
Yanyan bit her finger and reached it out to him while jumping but failed to reach her intended destination due to their height difference.
Knowing what the water spirit wanted, Wu Juren lowered his body and allowed the little girl to press her finger on his forehead before a drop of blood seeped into his very soul.
Wu Juren could sense the blood he offered in the summoning magic had already been absorbed by the little girl. As both had a drop of blood from the other fused with their souls, a profound connection was formed.
Yanyan sighed in relief after completing the blood pact ritual. The magic circle below her shortly faded, allowing her to leave its range.
The blood pact was the highest level contract between a summoner and his summoned spirit. It was a contract of equals so she could not be abused by her master and retained her free will.
Yanyan could choose to refuse her master's orders if it conflicts with her own interest.
While Yanyan studied her new master, Wu Juren was also studying the little girl.
He wondered how the hell he was able to summon a water spirit when spirits of the four elements always reject him when he chanted a spell of the four elements in the past.