Chapter 21: Impossible To Practice
A deafening crack echoed from the impact. Everyone who had been busy searching for their Magic Arts dropped their Jade Slips and turned around in shock.
"My apologies, Young Master. This Jade Slip sparked my interest in an almost... spiritual way. It seems I was faster and got it first."
Priam’s completely emotionless voice echoed through the pavilion. Holding the Jade Slip in one hand, he looked at the man writhing on the floor and apologized with impeccable elegance.
Silence.
Everyone’s eyes were fixed on the black branch in Priam’s hand. Noticing their stares, he waved the stick around, proudly showing it to everyone.
"This is the mighty Heaven-Wrecker, World-Ender Branch!"
Absolute silence.
It was a branch.
No matter how much the young Mages tried to probe it with their senses, there were no fluctuations of Ether, no incredible elemental or natural aura, nothing at all.
Yes... it was literally an ordinary branch.
Just a strangely dark piece of wood that apparently possessed the power to rewrite destiny, or at least the shape of other people’s faces.
Of course, nobody would be able to sense even a trace of energy coming from it. It contained the curse of the Six Sovereigns of Primordial Chaos. Possibly, only someone at their level could understand even a fraction of it.
[Achievement Unlocked: Instinctive Dominant Reaction]
[+100 GP]
Priam quickly read the notifications, surprised. ’Oh? I get points this way too? Good to know...’
When Gangrel finally stopped writhing and tried to stand up, the crowd let out a collective gasp of horror.
A swollen black mark stretched across the Young Master’s pale face, and the level of detail was humiliating: the imprint of leaves and tiny twigs could be clearly seen tattooed across the middle of his face.
He tried to roar in a frenzy, but when he opened his mouth...
"!"
He froze midway and slapped a hand over his mouth in shock.
The entire pavilion seemed to lose its breath. They had seen it for a second. Where there had once been an arrogant smile and teeth worthy of an heir, there was now a catastrophic void. A third of his upper teeth were missing, and the "Young Master" looked as though he had aged fifty years from a single strike of applied botany.
Nobody could believe that the prestigious Magic Arts Pavilion had become the scene of a dental disaster caused by a stick.
"Who dares be so presumptuous as to act violently in here?!"
Suddenly, an icy shout echoed out, and a woman dressed in black appeared from the upper floor. Her face was cold and severe as she stared at Priam and Gangrel.
An intense demonic aura and suffocating power radiated from her. Priam’s pupils contracted...
’A truly powerful Mage...’
Thinking about it, this place was an extremely important part of the clan, and having a strong person guarding it saved them a lot of trouble. Fighting inside was obviously forbidden. It was a rule everyone knew, and breaking it resulted in an extremely severe punishment.
"Speak. What happened here?" the furious Demoness shouted at Priam.
"If you want to know, ask him." Priam showed not the slightest fear as he innocently spread his hands.
Gangrel was outraged. Obviously, he was the one who had taken the hit, so why would she need to ask him?
"Young Master! What the hell happened? Speak immediately!"
The Demoness roared, showing not a shred of respect despite knowing exactly who Gangrel was. It was clear that even Gangrel couldn’t escape something of this magnitude.
Gangrel clenched his fists so tightly that people could see blood dripping from them.
His face was already ugly enough, and the black mark only made it more comical... at least from Priam’s perspective.
"Senior, here’s what happened: my face suddenly became incredibly itchy. So I asked my little friend here, who owns a special branch, to scratch it for me. The problem is... we got a little too enthusiastic. The fault is mine. There was no struggle or fight; you can verify that yourself."
Priam nearly burst out laughing as he watched Gangrel spit out those words with burning eyes.
Shione and Lumiere were catatonic. They had never seen their older brother so furious, or so thoroughly humiliated while being completely unable to do anything about it.
Silence again.
The Demoness narrowed her eyes and said nothing for a few seconds. Then she finally snorted and looked at Gangrel, who was still on the floor.
"If your face is itchy, then just scratch it. Don’t make such a fuss. Clean up the mess you made. I don’t want to see a situation like this happen again."
After saying that, she turned around and left, leaving behind a crowd of stunned people. They would definitely never forget this ridiculous scene.
At that moment, Shione ran over to her older brother.
Seeing the furious expression and glare aimed at him, Priam chuckled lightly. "Didn’t you hear what she said? Hurry up and clean up your mess."
"You hateful bastard!"
Seeing Priam brush off the incident so casually, Gangrel became so furious that his eyes practically spat fire. His two siblings, meanwhile, remained silent, unable to process what had just happened.
Priam couldn’t be bothered to respond. He turned around and walked over to a table where he could spend some time reading his Jade Slip.
Under everyone’s gaze, Gangrel abruptly stood up... then waved his hand, using Ether to gather all of his scattered teeth.
Without saying another word, he turned around and quickly left the place. He no longer had the face to remain there.
Lumiere and Shione stood frozen in place, still unable to react.
Priam, on the other hand, ignored everything and focused on reading.
...
An hour later, he was stunned.
’It’s really incomplete. It’s only a preliminary body transformation method that, in theory, can make the body become one with the wind element. There are eight stages, but the first two and the last one are missing.’
He only had the middle five stages. But even just reading those parts was already shocking.
This could permanently transform an ordinary body into something anomalous, capable of manipulating the entire wind element effortlessly. Moving swiftly and attacking would merely be secondary effects.
There was a final note inside the Jade Slip, written by the person who had left it in the clan.
’I spent 300 years analyzing this incomplete Magic Art and conducted many tests. The only thing I can say for certain is that the first two stages require the creation of two different sets of pure wind-element runes, mixed with the user’s life energy. This is very different from every wind Magic Art I’ve studied in my life. With those two different sets, the third stage can be trained. However, without the method for creating those initial runes, it’s impossible to practice it.’
Priam took a deep breath, feeling his heart race.
’Pure wind element mixed with life energy? I... I can synthesize that, can’t I?’
He thought about it, but quickly remembered there were two different types.
Besides...
The chances of him creating a rune different from the original were practically one hundred percent. In other words, the Elder’s warning earlier was no joke. Many Mages died because they couldn’t perfectly replicate a Magic Art.
After thinking for a while, Priam simply stopped hesitating.
[Total: 315 Germination Points]
He read it and snorted. "I just earned 100 GP. Adding it to what I already have, unfortunately, I’m still short of the 400 GP, so I can buy the knowledge of the natural elements. That would help me a lot right now. Hmm... If I get into a fight with that idiot again, will I get more points?"
’Well... fuck it. I have Energy Dominion from the Nexus Seed. If I react fast enough when a problem appears, I can avoid the worst outcome. At most, the runes will be destroyed, and I’ll have to create them again. But... if that happens in the middle of a fight, it could become a problem. I can’t rely on that completely. I should get another Magic Art when I have the chance.’
There were far too many questions surrounding those runes. He only had a vague idea from that person’s notes about what energies to use.
But he was definitely excited.
If he could make it work, this technique was definitely something of an extremely high level.
"Time’s up."
Suddenly, the Grand Elder’s voice echoed out.
Everyone had already chosen a Magic Art and had been reading through it to make sure they wanted to keep it. But now, they had to stick with whatever they were holding.
"You have three free days to study. Also, the clan’s five training facilities are available for your use. Feel free to study there, but don’t push yourselves too hard; nobody is going to learn more than the basics of these things in such a short amount of time."
Everyone nodded, an excited gleam shining in their eyes.
