ALL NOVEL Chapter 17 – Magical Laws
After heading to the first floor of the Inn, Jonathan quickly located Uncle Kil and the Wilderwolf soldier's in the middle of a discussion. Food was already laid out waiting to be grabbed and when Jonathan and the little kitten got settled, the little kitten went immediately to work on the various foods.
"Uncle, so this Thunder Mountain Hunt is a month away, how long does it take to travel there from here?" Jonathan asked before taking a swig of his drink.
"Hmm. Right now, we're situated in the upper parts of the East of Falcio and it'll only take a few days to reach the North. From there it'll take around a week and a half to reach Thunder Mountain. So in total, it should take around two weeks to reach our destination. This leaves us one week of free time so feel free to spend this next week enjoying your time in this city and then one week from now, we are set to head off towards Thunder Mountain!"
"Yes, Sir!"
"Got it, Uncle!"
"Meow!"
★★★
A week passed by quite quickly and the little kitten spent that time peering her consciousness into the last two Echo Stones. These last two Echo Stones were for Magical Arts and were somewhat different compared to Echo Stones for spells.
For Magical Arts, the Echo Stone would limit the viewers vision at a certain point, disallowing them from seeing too far past their Magical Rank. In the case of these two Magical Arts, the little kitten could only see the spells available at the Minor Magical Beast Rank. When the little kitten makes a breakthrough into Major Rank, only then could she see learn the higher ranking spells associated with that rank. However, the Echo Stones still contain some information on their respective Magical Arts and gave the Little Kitten an understanding at the level of requirement needed for every spell.
The first Magical Art she studied was 'The Dance of the Flames' Art. This Art uses the element of fire as it's main attribute and is a very strong offensive spell. This Art was split into five spells, each an evolution of its predecessor. The Echo Stone gave a list of the spells and there requirements:
Middle Stage Minor Rank - Living Spark
Late Stage Minor Rank - Wandering Glow
Early Stage Major Rank - Ravaging Blaze
Mid Stage Major Rank - Dominating Blaze
Late Stage Major Rank - Dragon Inferno
All the spells in this Art are similar to each other and every level seemed to evolve in strength. The next Art was the 'Arrow Shattering Sky Art'. This Art used the element of Metal to unleash fast and far reaching attacks in the form of various arrows. Instead of being split up in Spells, the 'Arrow Shattering Sky Art' is separated into five stages, with each stage having several spells. The information given in the Echo Stone only told her of the spells available in the Stages of the Minor Rank and only told her of the titles of the later Stages. The 'Arrow Shattering Sky Art' was presented as such:
First Stage: Foundation Stage - Late Stage Minor Rank
First Spell - Sky Piercing Arrow
Second Spell - Sky Piercing Bolt
Second Stage: Duplication Stage - Early-Mid Stage Major Rank
Third Stage: Variation Stage - Late Stage Major Rank
Fourth Stage: Combination Stage - Early-Mid Stage Minor Transcendence Rank
Fifth Stage: Formation Stage - Late Stage Minor Transcendence Rank
The aspect that amazed the little kitten the most was at the end of both Echo Stones was that a flurry of information was transferred from the stone to her mind and gave her a bunch of knowledge that furthered her knowledge of these arts. She was amazed that in but a flash, she had gained a whole books worth of knowledge. All with the benefit of not having to read!
One of the most valuable pieces of knowledge she gained in both of these Echo Stones was about Magical Laws! In magic, the elements all contain the natural laws of the world and to gain better knowledge of their own elements, Magician's and Magical Beast's alike need constant study into these laws. What surprised the little kitten the most was that one could study the Magical Laws of elements that they are not aligned to and even put them into practice!
So while she only has the rare element of metal, she could, in theory, study the Magical Laws of ice, space, light or whatever element she wished. However, there were many factors to take note of when studying foreign elements like this!
1. To study an element one isn't aligned to is several times more difficult and requires an impeccable amount of insight on its Magical Laws. Normally, the thread of element in one's Inner Haven would aid one in their study of its element, however without this thread, studying an element is like learning to read a book of a language you don't know.
2. With an aligned element, the element will consistently grow stronger as the threads suck in a person's aura constantly, especially during breakthroughs. When studying foreign elements, unless with the help of a very powerful item of some sorts, one's affinity with an element will only improve with active study, which obviously takes up a lot of a person's time. For this reason, Magician and Magical Beast's would rarely study more than one foreign element, if at all!
The little kitten had to let out a long sigh as she processed all of this new information before moving on. Meanwhile, apart from her training, she had also joined Jonathan in touring Evergale City once or twice. Throughout the city she got to see various Magician's using magic in their daily lives. It seemed even the standard citizen had some level of magic as she saw a few people light fires in their hands to fuel devices and she even saw kids playing with water, shooting them out of their tiny fingers at each other, which reminded her of those damn kids in her past life that would shoot her with water pistols.
Time leisurely passed like this and by the end of the week, everyone was ready to depart Evergale City. New provisions had been bought and without delay, they walked out of the city gates and began the journey northwards. Destination: Thunder Mountain.
★★★
Currently, the party were on a long stretch of dirt, a path that lead into the horizon. There, the geography was of a grassy plane as far as the eyes can see. There were only a few trees dotting the landscape and to the far left, around a mile away, a small village could also be seen, the people there living there everyday mundane lives.
The sky was calm, with white clouds passing by and the sun peaking out behind them. In Jonathan's hands, the little kitten was currently meditating. Her cultivation had proven fruitful as she found her soul growing ever brighter and it was now around the size of a fist.
She could feel a great pressure whenever she looked at it with her Subconscious Eye. It was quite apparent that she was getting close to the peak of the Middle Stage.
"Uncle Kil, are we doing any sightseeing along the way to this Thunder Mountain?" Jonathan asked while petting the soft bundle of fur in his hands.
"Hmm. That'll be impossible I'm afraid. We've only got a little more than two weeks to get to Thunder Mountain and to get there will take around two weeks. We're gonna have to be on the move for the most part."
"Tch! I thought we could have time for some spars, Uncle. We've got some scores to settle!"
"Hahahaha! You punk, don't you worry yourself, there's still plenty of time for me to kick your ass a few times on the way!"
"Hehe, we'll see about that! I've finally completed the third stage of the 'Breath of the Elements Art'!"
"Already?! You little rat, when will you stop giving this old man a shock." Uncle Kil's eyes were opened wide in shock before narrowing in fake anger.
"Meow?..."
"Listen to this kitten, the 'Breath of the Elements Art' is a very powerful art of extreme importance to the Wilderwolf family. It usually takes around three years to reach the third stage from the First Stage. But this foolish nephew of mine has apparently accomplished this in less than a year... sigh... You must have inherited it from me somehow!"
"Yeah right, if I inherited my talent from you, I'd be bound to be stuck at Spirit Rank my whole life. No thank you!"
"You ungrateful brat, you want to spar now?!"
"Anytime, Uncle!"
The little kitten found herself being quickly placed in the arms of one of the Wilderwolf soldier's as the Uncle and Nephew duo walked off into the grassy fields just a dozen meters from the dirt path. Everyone else surrounded them in a half circle, a variety of them started betting on who'd win.
'A spar! Finally... I'll get to see two Magician's in action!' The little kitten looked on with rapt attention.
"Ready, Uncle?" Jonathan's fingers tightened as he lowered himself into a fighting stance, a grin plastered on his handsome features.
"Humph! You ungrateful little brat, how about you show me your comprehension in the 'Breath of the Elements' Art's third stage!!" Uncle Kil's fighting stance was much like Jonathan's as a smirk broke out on his bald head.
A battle between Nephew and Uncle was about to begin, and the little kitten's eyes couldn't help but narrow her jagged eyes further in deep concentration, not willing to miss a second of this upcoming bout!