Ugly Bastard

Noah sat at the edge of the cliff watching the big waves on the stormy sea below him as it washed over the rocky beach with loud noise. He’s been sitting in that spot for over a day, seeming to not do anything but watch the beautiful scene of raw nature.

However, while from the side this was a beautiful scene, for Noah this wasn’t as serene it seemed. He wasn’t sitting there to enjoy the picturesque scene and sat concentrating all his senses while watching the waves intently, paying great attention to every change on the surface of the water, with an expression of worry.

For Noah this was not just a sea, it was his foundation, his protection and cornerstone for his system’s unperturbed development in the future, and today it was the most important stability test of his latest grand idea.

It was the launch of his newest masterpiece and cheat skill that was breaking the logic of the world. Well it wasn’t entirely his idea, but an inspiration that Kate, from Samanth’s team, pointed out for him, although she did not admit it and seemed a bit angry for some reason. He did not really get the reason for her over reaction to his latest skill, but he got the general idea what could be the reason. 

She must have felt envious that he could actually do it, when she just mentioned it in a passage.

All the people in their world that possessed the systems capable of using magic, had to train their minds and magic control just like warriors had to train their body and swordsmanship. 

One of the basic training methods for mages was Meditation. In meditation a person needed to reach a special state of their mind where they consciously could look into the unconscious processes of their body and mind. When people dwelled into the realm of unconscious processes, their consciousness became blurry and muddy, seeming to lose all logic and dragging people into a state of dream.

It was similar to how a very drunk person perceived the world. They lost clarity of thoughts and with that lost the ability to control the inner processes. The long mediation helped to clear the mind.

The better you could hold your mind in consciousness while meditating, the clearer the mind would be and the easier it was to observe the inner flow of magic. 

However, while mages possessed a skill helping them find the right state of mind, needed to enter a meditative state from the very beginning, others, who had less magic inclined systems or hybrid systems that used both magical and physical skills, needed to learn how to meditate on their own. 

As they had no specialized skill coming with the system, concentration and preparation of mind took a long time and so the meditation took longer. It may seem like a minor setback, but when you take into account the time needed to advance the mind control throughout the whole life of a mage, just this time spent on preparation of the mind accumulated into years, if not decades, drawing a glaring line between those who had the skill to instantly enter meditative state of mind and those who did not.

Experts explained this phenomena in their scientific research of magic, with the limits that the God placed upon the systems to even or balance all systems. 

Generally accepted theory that was also supported by the Central Cathedral Church stated that God meant all systems to be equally important and significant and for that one system should not be too overpowered compared to others. Which would have been the case if hybrid system possessors had the best of both physical and magical systems, allowing them to become unjustly powerful, which could potentially make them arrogant and turn against humanity if they imagined themselves above all others. The only exception were the heroic systems.

Many mages found themselves weak physically, as many warriors were too thick-skinned to feel the fine details of the magical energy around them and could use it in a rough and non-efficient way at most.

However, as mages could train their body on their own, those who had no specific skill for mediation learned how to train the mind on their own as well.

It may be the human’s greed for power or it may have been the Gods intention from the get go, but many humans reaching a bottleneck in their system, turned their gaze onto the powers that were not meant for them and learned from those, who had the specific skill, finding a new way to advance further.

Just as mage found that a strong body is beneficial for the amount of mana they could gather, warriors found that mana control allowed them to increase the power of their skills.

With that, through many generations of human history, people created both countless ways to train one's body, as well as many ways to increase the power of mind.

One of the methods was relying on the potions that could increase the power of body and mind quickly, however, this method had many severe consequences, which is why this method was classified as unnatural and harmful.

The natural way, such as constant physical training and long mediation, had no side effects, however they were less effective and required a lot of time.

A mage with mediocre talent needed to spend decades in meditation, on later stages even exchanging with it his sleep and rest to reach the highest levels of control over the magic. Those who had no meditation skill had to spend even more than that.

Of course humans found a good solution to that problem as well. This solution, however, over a long time, became the reason for the division of humanity into nobles and commoners.

Over the years some families developed special potions that they used in combination with the usual training methods creating a special way of quick advancement with low side effects. These methods were kept in secret and were considered a family heirloom, the same as the unique magics that were made to complement their training.

The creation of such methods needed centuries of research and a whole fortune of wealth. 

From special ingredients that they were growing with special methods and techniques in their territories, to special fighting styles and meditation methods, the countless steps that were needed to develop such short cut training were something no family could recreate in a single generation, no matter the amount of wealth they possessed.

This way some people always had stronger people in their families. With time this inequality in strength only grew and arrogance and haughtiness of those with power increased. As a result the nobles appeared.

Many strong warriors at some point attempted to follow the same path, however, the research had to continue constantly over the generations. And not many families could achieve that. 

A long time of stability in the family was the prerequisite to development of the finest of methods. However as it was normal for humanity, wealth and power corrupted the minds. 

The families whose discipline was not rigid enough to withstand the test of times, would soon start to produce the wastrels in their families. The generation that lazed and became haughty and arrogant, would soon stop the advance. Content with what they already possessed, while basking in the glory of what was achieved by the hardship of their ancestors they would doom their family into slow decline and inevitable fall from grace. 

Over several generations most families would start to decline and cease to exist, taking their secret research to the grave. Sometimes the decline of a certain family was because the knowledge was lost with the death of patriarchs and seniors that did not manage to pass on their family secrets to the younger generation.

And for that, just as Monster families were more valuable the higher the ability to create strong sentient members, the respect and value of the Human families originated from their efficiency to create strong members of the human society. 

That’s why all Kingdoms had a set of rules that allowed all commoners to try and become nobles. If they proved themselves to be capable of withstanding the test of time, they could gain a spot among the noble families.

The lower class noble titles tested the achievements and strength of the first founders of the noble family.

Higher titles however judged the capability of the family to withstand the stress of times.

But the requirement to advance from middle class nobility to High-class nobility did not just mean to have a long history and some outstanding ancestors. It meant to have a stable way to produce outstanding members over and over again.

Even if someone was born with a unique system and talent that made him an unparalleled prodigy earning to be written into history with legendary achievements, it did not mean he could be advanced into High-nobility by the simple decree of the Royal family of any country or Saintess.

The most noble rank anyone could be granted would be in the middle class of nobility, even if their achievements were unparalleled. And even then, the title would not be hereditary unless they proved that the offspring could possibly achieve the similar result.

The long existing noble families on the other hand could train new strong system wielders. Even if they had a generation of talentless youths, they could still train their closest servants into strong protectors.

With this a divide between commoners and nobles was drawn and for a long time old families ruled humanity as they pleased. Even slavery was not uncommon.

But living these lives of over indulgence made nobles stop to advance. Family after family would decline. The country lost its power with every loss of a long lasting family. This impeded the development of humanity. The Royal family needed to do something.

From that originated the Royal decree, that all noble families were obliged to have family members at a certain level. At first it seemed as a move to force nobles to gain levels, but criteria was not very high, which made many treat this policy lightly. However those who understood politics, saw the true meaning of that move.

What the Royal family had made was not just a rule for nobles, it was a set of clear instructions for commoners explaining what was needed to become a noble family. 

However, it was not just a whim of the Royal families in all the countries. This was a political move that they were forced to do, when Adventurer’s guild appeared producing strong members in batches, while many noble families were declining and ceasing to exist. 

The very system of nobles was endangered, which made the Royal families all over the world act.

Thanks to the clear instruction of what was needed from the noble family, many adventurers found the idea that they could do it too, and so the pool of lower nobles was now constantly provided with fresh newcomers. The time of course would weed the most of them out. But some would be able to exchange the noble families in decline as intended. The old families now felt rivaled and returned to the path of progress. This move helped stall the decline of many noble families. And with thay humanity returned to the path of gaining new territory instead of losing it.

The arrogance of nobles however was very big at that time. They considered commoners as some other type of creatures by that time and were strongly against such a move, however the Royal family had the support of Central Cathedral in this matter and made the nobles swallow their anger. But contempt remained. That's why Nobility was divided into ranks. Old families did not aknowledge newcomers in lower noble ranks that came from commoner blood.

The set of rules and instructions has also become a good indication for the Royal family to measure how much longer the family that lost its way would last and when they should start supporting another family in their State, Earldom or Region to exchange them in the future.

The De la Cour family was one such example. At some point in history they were the rulers of the state and even had the Title of Margrave in their hands, but when The Royal family sensed their decline, they quickly switched to supporting another competitor to make them quickly grow in power. The O’Sullivan were later entitled as new rulers of State while De la Cour now almost fell entirely from the rank of Counts.

A good example of the system was the Pendragon family. A commoner with the Sage system who was written into the history of human civilisation for his unparalleled achievements had been granted a rank of nobility, however it was not for these achievements that his family became the Grand Nobles of Central Cathedral. 

Among all the possessors of Hero type systems there were many nobles, but even after their glorious days, barely any of their families have reached anything worthy to be mentioned. The legacy died with the person who wielded the heroic system unable to be passed on to anyone.

Unlike them, the Sage named Merlin Pendragon, has developed secret methods that he later passed on to his offspring, which allowed the family to produce incredibly powerful members. This became the reason for their rapid ascension.

An achievement that some Noble families could not reach in a thousand years, was overcome by the unparalleled genius of the man’s mind. Even though this man was not the main character of that time, being only the right hand man of the Hero at the time of the previous demon war, because of these achievements he has become a more legendary person than any Hero. This showed just how important was the development of methods to reach a certain level of power over and over again, not just achieving it once.

The stories and fairy tales about Sage Merlin were retold for centuries, while even the name of the Hero of that time was lost from memory of common people. Only those who read it from the book may know it.

Kate read a lot of books, so she knew the story of Sage and Heroes. She felt that stories about them were often over exaggerated, but even these stories had never dwelled into the absurdness that Noah has achieved before her eyes.

In just one month he had not just achieved what mages would strive for, for decades, but with a sudden inspiration he went beyond what would be called genius. He did it without any secret method, without special potions. Only relying on the well known method of the Adventurers guild. He made a miracle on the border of absurdity. 

When Kate, as a mage that Noah sometimes asked for advice in these weeks, heard what he did, her jaw almost dropped to the ground.

Noah had not been in the Academy, nor had he been taught the McDaniels family secret knowledge. The only source of knowledge he could rely on was Theressa’s incredible collection of books. 

Theressa herself, although was a good magic user, could not teach Noah the basics as she was a monster and had a magical body that greatly differed from a human. The flow of magic within her was too different to be of any example to him. The same could be said about Dryads. They possessed the inborn ability to wield spirit magic and although could also use normal magic, their mind state was too different from humans to be able to teach Noah any basics. 

Kate in this regard, was a Godsend gift. Not only did she possess a genius talent and almost reached an advanced step in magic control, which was an astonishing achievement for her young age, but she was also a treasure trove of knowledge. 

Luckily she also had a calm and patient character and answered all the questions that Noah asked, teaching him the basics he was lacking and filling the voids in his understanding.

Thanks to that, Noah finally comprehended the path that lay in front of him, as well as many other things that he could not figure before. Such as for example the training method that Paula taught him.

Noah knew the principle behind Paula’s training but he did not really understand the true scope of it and theory behind what Paula taught him. Wether because of her intolerance toward nobles, or simply because that granny just had that kind of nasty character, she never made any attempt to teach him theory. With Kate's patient explanation it now became a lot more clearer in his mind. 

What was the mind training for magic control?

Every human had magic circulating inside them. Magic users could separate a piece of this energy to leave their body and make it produce a needed effect, which was called magic spell.

With meditation, mages could sense the inner flow of the magic within their body and after long observation of the flow, they could notice the pattern of the flow and understand the ways to tweak with it, to achieve some special result. 

For example quickening or concentrating the flow to some degree they could train their body to use the energy more efficiently or speed up the recovery. It was similar to how fighters trained their muscles, stressing them by lifting weights to let the muscles grow.

Although it sounded easy, it took years to learn to consciously influence the fully unconscious process. The degree of difficulty was akin to learning how to willingly quickening and slowing once heart.

Those who reached this state were stepping into the intermediate stage of magic use.

Once reaching that level, the mage could start studying the effects and side effects of different interventions into their inner magic flow. And with countless repetitions the mind would start creating neuron connections that would give the mage an access to control the flow more easily. 

Through long practice this would allow the mage to redirect the magic flow to the places where magic has not been reaching naturally and increase the precision and quality of their spells. However, at that point not only would they gain an incredible boost of power, but also a great side effect. 

Gaining control over the inner magic flow, meant that the mind would learn how to intentionally intervene with the flow, and if the mage made too great a mistake or someone attacked his mind, the flow could be turned against its own body and accidentally ruin the mage's mind and organs. In the worst case even killing himself.

At that step of their growth, just the fact that they did not have a firm control over their own magic flow posed a great threat to a mage. Their control was similar to how people could hold their breath or change the pace of their breathing on some occasions, but once they stopped concentrating on their breathing, the process would be taken over by unconscious control and aim to return back to normal flow. 

Only in case with magic this transition between conscious and unconscious control could potentially be fatal if mage lost control at the wrong time or tweaked with the flow so hard it could accidentally destroy any of his organs, including heart and brain, which would cause death quicker than he could repair the damage. 

This was exactly the situation with Noah, when Ugy warned him about the danger. He gained control that mages strived for in their training, however he had absolutely zero experience or knowledge of it and the slightest of mistakes could be fatal.

A long rigorous study of the inner flow, at some point would allow the mage to take full control of this flow. At that step the mage would be able to control his inner flow even without the meditation. 

With that ability, mage did not need long time to quicken his recovery or redirect the inner flow, he could instantly boost his flow, which was a considerable upgrade to their fighting ability. 

Freely controlling the magic flow in the middle of the fight allowed the mage to change both the quality and volume of the magic so much, it simply had another magnitude compared to the previous level of control. 

This step was called an advanced magic use and mages of this level were considered elite and high leveled mages. 

The most important thing about this step is that the mage would hold such a firm grasp of his inner flow that even if someone tried to forcefully disrupt the flow from a distance, the mage could easily return it to normality. 

As long as the mind of the mage was protected no interferences from outside could disrupt the inner flow enough to bring harm to him. Because of that, the protection of the mind was more important to the mage than their body's protection. 

This was the stage that Ugy wanted Noah to reach to be able to protect himself from any potentially harmful effects that the people in the Comment Section could cause with their antics.

However, normally, to reach this step, mage needed decades of practice and spent many years within the meditative state. Many mages in the attempt to reach this state quickly, would become a recluse, spending more time inside their mind than living their lives.

Not all could take such measures. Unlike nobles, most people needed to provide for themselves and had to work, which turned this training so long, most people could not reach this step in their entire life. 

That was the reason why people searched for quicker ways to reach this step from the get go. And that was the origin of how nobles came to be. People could not or did not want to spend so much time of their life on training, neither they wished their children to spend so much time as then, so they developed shortcut methods to quicken the process.

The method that Paula taught to Noah was one of such shortcuts, however, it was one of the roughest and most painful methods from the available. It also wasn't a very good method generally as Noah now understood.

The effect of constant interference with the inner magic flow that the walls within the Great Tree Labyrinth had, could put a great pressure on the mind allowing it to directly start from the step of withstanding attacks instead of gradually learning it from long attempts to twerk with the flow on their own. 

It was similar to being beaten by a stronger opponent on the training ground, instead of practicing martial arts alone by repeating the same movements over and over again. Under constant beating you were bound to learn to protect yourself faster. 

This was a rough method and just as constant fighting depended more on muscle memory rather than understanding principle of some movements, so was Paula’s method lacking in clarifying the basic understanding about magic flow control. It gave firmness of mind but not flexibility.

It still was a good method for Noah’s initial purpose and Paula’s choice to teach him this method was understandable. Noah did not ask her to teach him magic. He needed only firm control. That was exactly what Paula gave him.

The walls of the Great Tree Labyrinth had weakened effect the further they were from the Core of the forest, it allowed the one who risked such training method to gradually increase the pressure, by stepping into the walls deeper in the labyrinth. 

Metaphorically speaking, Dryad’s Labyrinth was a source of mind opponents that could beat the crap out of your mind until you finally learn to withstand even the hardest of blows. Even without secret methods that nobles developed over centuries, this place could let the mage reach the advanced magic control step. And through his training Noah finally reached that step.

However, there was one main issue with this step as well.

When mage took absolute control over his inner flow he had to use part of his mind to constantly monitor it. He had to be aware of it at all times, even when he slept, which is why High-leveled mages tended to exchange sleep with meditation even more. This kind of mind power use tended to tire the mind at the initial stages of this magic control step. However after prolonged training this process became easier and easier for the mind.

At some point the mage’s understanding and control over the inner magic flow become so strong, that control merged with their consciousness. 

The control over the flow becomes so natural and easy that mage would not need to put much thought to it. In a sense it once again becomes part of an unconscious process, with that it also blurred the borders within the mind of the mages. The mages of that level could open a new state of mind that had not been clearly defined yet.

What people did know about that level was that, every breath of the mage would be filled with enough magic energy to recover all magic inside them. Every gaze would send ripples in the magic field around him, bringing discomfort and pressure to everyone. Any swing of mood could permutate magic energy making it either healing or destructive for the surroundings. It was not uncommon to see the flowers bloom or wilt in the presence of such people.

The border between systems and classes blur at that step, allowing the mage to easily use magics that his system was not meant for and copy skills from other systems.

Fire mage would be as efficient in the use of water magic as his intended element, while having no side effects. A mage could access Physical system skills and Warriors could use magic. 

Systems and levels would start becoming non essential, allowing Masters on that level of magic control to content equally even with the great difference in levels, relying simply on their comprehension and skill of magic use.

The system would not be able to provide them with any new development and further growth would only depend on their own enlightenment.

The abilities of the people on that level could only be described as divine. In fact it was the first step into the realm of divinity and Divine magic. The strongest person of that stage was known as The Saintess and she was the ruler of the entire human race.

And here’s where the absurdity of Noah’s achievement originated.

It was one thing for Noah to reach the advanced level of magic control, which already made Kate as an experienced mage grind her teeth in frustration. 

How long has it been since Noah awakened his system and learned to use his magic? Less than a year?

Years upon years of training barely let her step into the latest steps of intermediate level of magic control. She still could not achieve full control of her flow without meditation. And yet Noah overcame her in such a preposterous way.

Kate understood that Noah’s strange system was fully inclined into mind development, and far more than any other mage system she has ever heard of in her life. The fact that his system gifted control over senses that depended solely on one's mind, clearly pointed at that. 

It was frustrating to hear that the years of training she spent to be able to interact with inner magic flow, was easily granted to Noah with simple level up. However she clearly understood that such degree of control given into the hands of undeveloped and unprepared mind was akin to a suicide. 

Noah may have jumped over several steps, quickly gaining the ability that mages gained over the years, but he has jumped over his own head. Mages did not just gain control through training, they gained knowledge and experience. They gained understanding of the causes and effects of every change in the inner flow. 

Noah had none of it. His gains were great but the risk was even greater. 

Noah and his system Ugy of course understood that, which explained their wish to train in such rough conditions to quickly overcome the intermediate state of magic control and step into the advanced class. 

Normally it wasn’t this easy. Even with this method it should have taken years to do it.

But the effects of Noah’s dreams with stories that described the people cultivating their inner energy, greatly helped Noah in comprehending the inner magic flow. He wasn’t just training to withstand the blows and hold firm grasp as the method Paula thought him was usually used for. Noah was also comprehending the magic flow. 

Even to Kate who was just a side observer of several such stories when she came to Noah’s mind to answer his questions, the stories were of great benefit. 

She even asked Noah to be allowed to watch the stories as well and lately spent almost all her free time watching cultivation stories whenever she wasn’t meditating.

 With every meditation after watching those stories, she felt its great benefit to her own comprehension of the flow. She could only imagine how good it was for Noah who literally lived through those stories. His prodigious advance in magic flow control was fully understandable. Kate could come to term with it even though it frustrated her that he had it a lot easier than her.

What she could not come to terms with, however, was what he did next. When she heard of his idea, she shouted in frustration and stomped away with an angry look on her face, making Noah bewildered at her reaction.

Although Noah gained an advanced degree of control over his inner magic flow within a month, stepping into the arena of elites among the Mages, his comprehension could still be described as greatly sub par while mind was still undeveloped enough. The amount of mind resources he had to devote to hold firm control at all times was very big.

He achieved something great, but the benefit was not fully realized. He did not know magics, he did not know different ways of mana circulations, and had a lot of his mind preoccupied with controll to make anything intricate with magic. 

All he had was a firm grasp on the energy and could easily find a problem with it, allowing him to quickly normalize the flow of energy if someone tried to intervene with his inner flow. Yes, he reached the goal that he intended from the beginning. But he did not have the ability to use this level of magic control efficiently. 

Metaphorically speaking, he was like a martial artist that excelled in one single move that he honed to perfection. Yes, that move was at the level of Master, but could it be called true martial arts?

He could normalize his inner flow and hold firm against any energy attacks sent to disturb his inner flow like advance level mage, but he could not do anything beyond that. He had magic control stronger than Kate, but was no match for her in magic.

As Kate once said, magic was a canvas that mages painted on and Noah was a painter with the most expensive paints and brushes, but only knew how to paint a perfect black circle.

And these words of hers brought insight to Noah. If magic was a canvas, could he use the skill to paint with it? 

In the next few days Noah an Ugy successfully integrated the mind realm and the skill Mind canvas painter with his magic control, which resulted in the current scene of sea in front of him.

The sea was the representation of his magic energy. The visualization of mana within him.

The high tide and the low tide controlled by the newly created celestial body in the sky above, was his normal flow of magic, while waves on the surface were the disturbances that influenced him.

The stronger the ripple on the surface of the sea the stronger the disturbance that was influencing his inner magic flow. Which explained the high stormy waves he was observing at the moment, because outside the mind realm, his body was sitting in the middle of the barrier that Dryad Queen created for his training. The barrier was currently at the most powerful setting and battered his mind mercilessly. And yet his inner flow continued to cycle as intended.

By creating a constant set of rules for the sea and the moon-like thing high in the sky, Noah successfully stabilized the cycle of his magic energy flow and made it autonomous.

Now, no matter how high the disturbances he encountered and no matter how high the waves on the sea would occur, this was just a ripple on the surface of the sea. 

The tidal cycle was unchanging. The sea level would rise and fall unimpeded. And the most amazing thing was that he did not need to constantly hold it under control. It was repeating in the loop simply guided by the implanted set of rules. Moreover he could make several sets of rules and gain different effects any time he needed them. It was a rigid method but it left his mind mostly not loaded as when he had to stay aware of the flow at all times.

But having unconscious control of flow while being in full control of it at the same time, wasn’t it the divine degree of control? 

Kate knew that purely hypothetically you could gain a divine level of control while still being weak. But there was a problem. To gain that control your mind had to be able to grasp it. For that the mind had to evolve. And evolution happened with system level-ups. So in reality, you could not possibly step into divine magic control without a high leveled system.

And yet, what Noah did, could only be described as divine control. 

Yes, his ability and use of that level compared to any Great Mage was like comparing a kitten to a Lion. They were not even in the same range. But given time he could potentially write enough sets of rules to be able to shorten the distance between the ranges, while still continuing to train. His starting point has just shifted from basic where everyone began, directly into divine that everyone could only dream to reach.

Kate could only sight when Noah reached a rank above her. But when he jumped over it in the next few days, directly skipping into the next one, she could not help her frustration inside and stomped away screaming in anger.

How many years would it take her to get even near that level and how far would Noah advance by that time?

Unknowing to Noah, Kate thought she could still gain on him and would not let him win over her in skill that easily. Her proudness of her own prodigious talent did not let her admit defeat so easily. But now, has she even had a chance to do it?

How many people could do it at all?

Excluding the King himself, there were four well known people that openly declared to have been able to step into that realm. Each of them has been appointed as the protector of the entire region of the country. They were the four Archdukes of the Kingdom.

Of course there was at least one such person in almost every Duke family, however the levels and skills of these Masters varied. Not all wished to take up the positions and the responsibility that this title entailed, so they kept low to not publicize it too much, so this information wasn’t openly available to commoners. What was clear is that these people were the strongest force of the kingdom. The ruling body of humanity.

Was it even possible for her as a commoner to reach it? Even among A-class adventurers there were barely any that were at this level. Paula and her team’s Mage are one of them. Margaret of the well known B-rank team in Greenville town was said to be half way close to that step, but still far from it just yet. 

All of a sudden Noah became as unreachable as the strongest people in the Kingdom, no, the whole human realm. Was she able to catch up with this kind of cheat?

At the end she could not hold it in and screamed as she went back to the real world and did not return for a few days.