NOVEL ONLINE FREE Chapter 6: Pentabolt Vajra
Within the two months of Luke learning under Anthony as his apprentice, he learned everything he could from the man, who in turn was flabbergasted by his disciple's progress.
Two months was all Luke needed to master every type of Elementary-rank magic, including Attack magic, Healing magic, Detoxification magic, Summoning magic, Barrier magic and Divine magic.
Naturally, Luke also learned and was able to cast all the basic Elementary-rank Attack spells of the four elements silently. He learned that unlike the Magus world, there was no such thing as an elemental affinity. Perhaps a magician might find himself favouring and thus specialising in a particular element due to personal taste, but not for lack of an affinity for other elements.
Summoning magic involved calling forth either fiends or spirits to do the summoner's bidding after forming a contract with them.
At lower ranks, specific magic circles were drawn in order to summon an entity. The summoner would only need to supply their mana and the summoned fiend or spirit would obey the summoner's command. Elementary and Intermediate ranked fiends and spirits didn't have intelligence, they only behaved instinctively.
The contract that was formed from the magic circle used to summon it created a connection allowing the summoned creature to understand the commands of the summoner.
At higher ranks, the summoned being might have more complex requirements and conditions in order for the summoner to form a contract. They might require human sacrifices, or impose a condition that allowed it to only fight on certain days of the week for example.
Healing magic and Detoxification magic both either originated from or were controlled by the Millis Religion. The Milis church held a monopoly on Saint-rank and above healing and detoxification magic, and only its clergy could have access to and learn these spells.
Barrier and Divine magic were even more special in the sense that their propagation was strictly controlled by the Millis church to the point that only the Elementary-rank Barrier and Divine magic were allowed to be circulated and only in human-held territories.
Anthony himself was also limited to Elementary rank Divine magic, though he shared that he had secretly discovered and learned from a Millis tome of Intermediate Barrier magic. He forbade Luke from telling anyone of this, since the Millis church would mark him as an enemy if they found out.
Normally, the Millis church would send out their paladins and templars to hunt down anyone who violated this rule. Against Anthony, being a well known Fire King near the end of his natural life, perhaps they would not do something so drastic. But they would certainly blacklist him from their temples and services forever, and even Luke could be implicated if this was leaked.
Regardless, Luke didn't have any intention to ruin his relationship with his mentor by leaking this secret. It wasn't even that big of a leverage for him to use, since Anthony was already near the end of his natural life and the church wouldn't want to make a life-or-death enemy out of a King-rank magician.
Although Anthony believed two months was incredibly fast for Luke to have mastered all forms of Elementary-rank magic, in truth the split soul had considered it excruciatingly slow.
Casting a spell was as easy as simply reciting its incantation and letting your magic flow accordingly. But with the aid of the A.I. Chip, Luke could easily imitate any spell he has seen cast before by analysing the circulation of mana within the caster's body and henceforth cast them chantlessly.
The only thing that held Luke back was his meagre mana reserves. Though it was indeed pretty decent for a Elementary-rank magician, and was also rapidly growing, compared to someone like Anthony, it was still quite pathetic.
He managed to receive confirmation from Anthony that it was indeed 'true' that everyone had a fixed magical potential, but a child's mana reserves would slowly grow as they aged until they hit puberty. At which point, their total mana reserves would be permanently fixed.
The fact that it could also be increased through training was not mentioned by the former Royal Court Wizard.
Luke didn't think Anthony had been dishonest. And the A.I. Chip had confirmed it. Then again, Anthony was one of the rare lowborn commoners that managed to reach incredible heights in magic despite the lack of opportunities in his youth, so he may not have been privy to the grand conspiracy of nobles to suppress magic in commoners.
But could the previous Royal Court Wizard of the Asuran Kingdom that had served for over forty years not been privy to the magical secrets of nobility?
Doubtful… Luke had to consider the possibility that he might just be first to have discovered he could raise his magical reserves through training while at a young age.
After two months under Anthony's tutelage and dedicated training, Luke's stats now looked like this:
[Luke Notos Greyrat (Split Soul)]
Strength: 0.45
Agility: 0.50
Vitality: 0.73
Spiritual Force: 142.9
Magic Power: 41.8
(Magic Power is not synchronized with Spiritual Force)
Luke stopped looking at his Soul Force that was equivalent to a resource he could not access without being a Rank 4 Magus.
He had quadrupled his Magic Power in the two months since coming into contact with magic in this world, while his Spiritual Force had also increased slightly from the recovery of his soul.
His physical stats - Strength, Agility and Vitality - had also increased dramatically. This was because he did not stop his swordsmanship training. Or rather, he could not stop as the last order Amarant had given Bernard, his North Saint fencing instructor and bodyguard, was to teach Luke swordsmanship as the native Luke had requested.
Additionally, the A.I. Chip had also managed to salvage a breathing technique from its fragmented database that was akin to swiss cheese with how many holes there were in it. The breathing technique originated from the Magus World, and was used by mortal knights to cultivate the inner life energy within their body.
It comprises a specific sequence of breathing patterns that could, if practiced diligently and correctly, expel the impurities of one's body and improve the condition and physical ability of the user.
This particular breathing technique was taken from a Knight Training Manual called the Pentabolt Vajra from the Central Continent.
The Original had only spent a tiny amount of wealth to purchase tons of these Knight Training Manuals in the Magus World for research purposes.
Naturally, most of the knowledge from these manuals had already been lost from the spatial storms the split soul went through to get to this world. But the A.I. Chip had managed to salvage this breathing technique which was the most complete version out of the fragments of memories it had left.
The Pentabolt Vajra this breathing technique came from wasn't particularly powerful but it would be treated as a treasure in mortal nations, as it could only allow a knight to transcend a Grand Knight and reach the level of the weakest Rank 1 Magus, but it was a comprehensive and holistic manual that did not rely on external devices or runes to cultivate.
The increase of his physical stats was still minor for now, but that was because he was still young. If he diligently practiced this breathing technique, the A.I. estimated that his physical stats could reach upwards of 20 or 30 when the cycles were completed in around 10 years.
And this was only the improvement of physique from the breathing technique. Dedicating himself to the Knight Training Manual could allow Luke to reach a Rank 1 Magus combat ability, which still could not compare to the strongest of the natives on this world.
A Rank 4 Morning Star Magus had the capability at full power to devastate and change the landscape of a battlefield, even permanently altering the environment and geography of the region forever. On the Magus World, a rank 4 Magus had once unleashed their Morning Star Final Technique to unleash a meteor shower that fell like rain on the battlefield.
The entire area afterwards had turned into a living hell. The continental crust had collapsed, and lava surged from beneath the earth, turning the area into an ocean of lava. After a few decades, the lava ocean cooled, but turned into a region of active volcanoes that would erupt every year and kill all living creatures within a few hundred kilometres, transforming into a danger zone that even Official Magus would avoid.
Luke was skeptical that even a Fire King like Anthony could reach such a level, and he never heard or read of any battle between powerhouses that could affect the environment on such a terrifying scale.
Perhaps only Saint Millis, who was said to have used his holy sword to carve a path from Millishion, through the Blue Mountain Dragon Range, through the Great Forest, then across the ocean and finally ending at what is now known as the city of Wind Port on the Demon Continent, might have reached the level of a Morning Star Magus, though still incomparable to Morning Star Warlocks.
To reach the level of a Morning Star Magus, just the Knight Training Manual wasn't nearly enough. Thankfully, the A.I. Chip had also revealed another piece of knowledge that it had luckily managed to preserve.
The Original had once found an entire independent world when experimenting with the Astral Gate. He had named the world Blackrain World, and it was inhabited by natives with seven arms. Their race were not magic casters like Magi. Instead they relied entirely on their physical bodies and fought only with their body strength.
But the leader of a tribe of natives, the Quark tribe, managed to reach Morning Star realm with just his body strength. How terrifyingly strong would the native's leader have to be in order to reach the Morning Star realm with just his physical might?
Fortunately, the Original managed to exchange Magus World Knight Training Manuals with the Quark tribe's secret strengthening techniques the Original dubbed The Multilimb Strengthening Art.
The Multilimb Strengthening Art could greatly increase strength and vitality, additionally it can also be used in a fight to temporarily increase the user's physical power. With Multilimb Strength, the toughness and coordination of the user's body increases leaps and bounds.
The user could even launch a physical attack similar to that of an Morning Star realm ancient beast. It also has an effect of sealing and reinforcing the body so it would resist spells that could alter the body's molecular makeup.
It was this Multilimb Strengthening Art that the Original had retrofitted to accommodate two-armed humans, which the A.I. Chip was fortunately able to preserve.
Of course, it wasn't as though Luke could immediately start cultivating the Multilimb Strengthening Art and instantly reach Morning Star level at five years old.
The Multilimb Strengthening Art needed a baseline level of physical strength and constitution for it not to immediately tear the practitioner's body apart when it is first activated. The A.I. Chip had recommended Luke to complete the Knight Training Manual's breathing technique cycles first before starting to cultivate the Multilimb Strengthening Art.
Nevertheless, Luke's priority wasn't his physical stats, but his Magic Power instead. Though he had increased his initial Magic Power by leaps and bounds since he began training, it was still pathetic. Anthony's stats were way more impressive as he had over 5,000 Magic Power.
It had taken the A.I. Chip a few days to quantify Anthony's mana capacity as the old man never had to empty his reserves while teaching Luke. The A.I. had no choice but to brute force sense and calculate the old man's Magic Power stat which took a few days.
But other than just learning how to cast spells chantlessly, Luke had also decided to reveal a hint of what he was truly capable of by adjusting and modifying an existing spell without any incantations.
For example, the Elementary-rank spell Flame Stream simply allowed the caster to shoot out a stream of fire from their wand. It was a much more mana intensive spell than Water Orb, depending on how long the caster wanted to hold the spell for.
While Luke could have increased the strength of the spell by making the stream of fire wider or hotter by adding in more mana. But Luke demonstrated his 'discovery' by pumping oxygen to the spell, to create a gout of bright blue flame that nearly doubled the temperature of a normal Flame Stream spell.
Now, based on Luke and the A.I. Chip's previous discoveries, the mana requirement for creating something of immense size is as much as trying to create or manipulate something of microscopic size.
As such, Luke wasn't creating oxygen and adding it to his Flame Stream spell. All he was doing was manipulating air flow while casting Flame Stream in order to create the blue flame effect.
It was a more efficient method of increasing the power of a spell than simply injecting more mana into the spell, as it only cost 20% more magic power in order to achieve a 100% increase in firepower.
Anthony was sufficiently amazed at his apprentice's discovery, praising him to have the potential to revolutionize the current era of magic that has stagnated for thousands of years.
Though neither of them expected for the window of the tower they had been in to suddenly shatter dramatically while Grant, the Sword Saint knight of house Notos, suddenly leapt in front of Luke in a defensive formation and loudly demanded Anthony to surrender and identify himself…