Chapter 66 Wonderful Phenomenon, Beginner-level magic foundation
[A/N: Ahem, this chapter is big and wonderful, and I've tried to simplify the magic stuff, so I hope you can tell me your thoughts in the comment section once you finish this chapter ^.^ Thank you, and happy reading.
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At the island's seashore, Erix stood with his Iron Flower skill activated beside him while his gaze was transfixed on a floating octahedral-shaped metal shard.
'No way… Did it work?'
Excitement danced in his eyes as he willed, and another tiny iron shard was conjured as he consumed his Mana.
Unlike Rin and Isabella, who could produce lightning and fire by consuming Mana after gaining their affinity, he couldn't produce metal by consuming his Mana.
But when he used his Iron Flower skill, his Mana was surely consumed, and an iron flower was produced.
It essentially produced iron by consuming Mana.
So, Erix thought he also should be able to do that, but he didn't know where to start, so he checked inside his Origin Region.
The metal affinity's visible form was the dreamy metal shard in his Origin Region, and he started studying it.
There was no written knowledge, so he had to make do by feeling, sensing, and understanding it in his way.
After spending twenty minutes on it just trying to pierce through its structure with his consciousness and attempting to understand it, he glimpsed something and understood a vague thing.
As such, he stood up and arrived at the seashore before carefully studying the iron he formed from the ground by gathering iron elements.
He also studied its structure and tried replicating it since he had the Metal Affinity.
At that moment, he felt a closer familiarity with metal elements that he couldn't describe, and he managed to produce iron by consuming Mana.
Naturally, he was not going to do that during fights just to waste Mana, but to create a skill like Iron Flower, he needed to transform his Mana with his metal affinity.
'Now that I can produce iron using mana, how to create a skill?'
Erix waved his hand and used his Iron Flower skill again.
Since he did not worry about consuming his Mana in the Limitless Plane, he produced ten Iron Flowers while carefully understanding how they formed.
He then used the flower petals and saw how they magically transformed into barriers and powerful seeds.
'Wow…'
Erix was amazed when he looked closely at how the skills actually took form!
He was amazed at the magic, and his thirst to understand it grew exponentially.
The Mana was already transformed into a beautiful iron flower, so how could those flower petals contain such power to further convert into barriers and blasting seeds?!
He had always thirsted for power ever since he had to fend for himself on the streets after being homeless at the tender age of ten when his mother died.
On the streets, he had to fight for everything down to the smallest things, like working for a day's worth of food at a young age.
Weakness, especially a weak mentality, was fatal. If you were weak, your hard-earned food would get snatched. If you were weak, your shoe-polish customer would get snatched. If you were weak, your place to sleep would get snatched.
So he lived like a mad dog and bit everyone that messed with him. Even if he couldn't physically match with older kids, he would still ferociously fight in a destructive way that would injure both him and the other party.
The general government hospital for the poor was helpful to him at that time because a poor old nurse who knew his mother would treat him. But she was also poor and abused, so that was all she could do.
That was why he thirsted for power. To him, Might was respectable! Might was justice!
So having opened this new door to power…supernatural, magical, and otherworldly power, Erix was more than excited and thrilled to learn it.
His depth of focus was already high in this Limitless Plane, where one's consciousness and subconsciousness would merge to enhance one's comprehension ability. But Erix went even further into the depth of his focus and started studying magic.
How did the skill form? What was the first step? How did Mana take the shape of a supernatural phenomenon and transform again into a supernatural force?
He thirsted to learn all of them and started with fundamentals.
His deep focus allowed him to peer into the very foundation of a skill where he saw a formation in which Mana flowed and transformed.
But how did the formation of Mana get created to produce such effects?
Not even realizing himself, hundreds of Iron Flowers floated around him as he observed how they formed numerous times.
He also used other active skills and found a fundamental difference between them and the Iron Flower skill.
Other skills seemed to have some mystical external support that helped him conjure them upon using the skill, but the Iron Flower skill was influenced by his Metal Affinity!
'Hmmm, it also should've been like other skills if I hadn't awakened Metal Affinity, but now that I have it, the tiny blank gap that exists in other skills is filled in for the Iron Flower skill.'
Erix's eyes danced with excitement.
Taking a deep breath, he gathered his thought and did that quickly.
His perception and comprehension regarding such things were already high as he had learned martial arts and combat by watching movies and watching others in all sorts of media.
When Rin arrived as a teacher and started teaching, the shallow foundation of his martial art instantly solidified upon learning some crucial points, so he could also defeat Rin even though she had trained since she was young.
As such, his perception and comprehension were even higher in Limitless Plane! In simple terms, he was a genius at learning such things that his mind had wired towards since he was small, but nobody knew that he would also turn out to be a genius in the path of magic.
'The skill's foundation lay in an ethereal formation that I must create with my mind, and only when Mana enters that formation will it transform into magic. The formation…interesting.'
Erix's eyes had a brilliant sparkle in each as he finally pierced into the depth of his Iron Flower skill and saw its proper formation after using it numerous times.
'So the formation is multi-layered nodes in which Mana travels. The more nodes, the more Mana it consumes, and the more powerful the skill.'
'The nodes, are they created simply within my mind if I imagine it?'
Erix randomly created a bunch of nodes and let his Mana pass through them.
But the Mana sped up and took an active form as it blasted from his hand—a simple energy blast.
'I see. I-I get it…' Erix's body trembled.
Once again, he created a formation with simple nodes similar to the ones he instinctively created when he formed his Imposing Fist skill. A mix of martial art and magic skill. The nodes in that skill were scattered and not properly formed, but since Imposing Fist was a pure mix of physical and magic, it was still power.
After all, it was about forming multiple waves of Mana and forcing them through his enhanced fist or palm for a powerful strike, so the nodes in them were scattered and not arranged.
But this time, he added the ethereal force of his Metal Affinity in the formation and slightly altered the nodes.
Stretching his palm forward, he activated the formation and counted 10 points of Mana consuming as a shining iron orb shot from his palm, crashing into a rock and blasting it into pieces!
But this was not even considered a Normal-Tier skill.
After all, the Iron Flower skill had precisely one hundred and six nodes in three layered formations! Mana passed through all of them in an instant before he could conjure the Iron Flower beside him and keep his connection to it!
'So, out of three layers of Iron Flower skill, the first and foundational layer of nodes represented its base form with six petals. The second layer of nodes represented the barrier form, and the third layer represented the seed form.'
'What the fuck, this is too much fun, hahaha!...'
'Now I can finally create a skill. But, what kind of formation should I form using nodes to create a powerful metal-attributed skill?'
Rin and Isabella had also studied and even attempted to create a skill, but it was just raw power and no skill form. It wasn't even recognized as a skill, so they were in the middle of studying their skills and how they formed when they were kicked out.
Rin was studying her lightning-attributed skills: Thunder Blitz and Lightning Charge, and also looking at other skills while Isabella was studying her Flame Whip and other projectile skills.
But before he could finally start getting serious about creating nodes to shape and conjure his first self-created Metal-attributed skill, the scenery changed before him as he was kicked out of Limitless Plane.
Rin and Isabella had also studied and even attempted to create a skill, but it was just raw power and no skill form. It wasn't even recognized as a skill, so they were in the middle of studying their skills and how they formed when they were kicked out.
Rin was studying her lightning-attributed skills: Thunder Blitz and Lightning Charge, and also looking at other skills while Isabella was studying her Flame Whip and other projectile skills.
They didn't reach the depth that Erix reached, but their progress was good.
When they opened their eyes outside after their consciousness returned from Limitless Plane, they saw Erix's frustrated expression as he cursed, "Damn it! I was about to finally start it."
"Eh? It's rare to see you this frustrated," Rin was surprised. "What happened?"
"Did you guys find out about the skill's formation and nodes?"
"Nodes?" Isabella revealed a confused expression.
Rin blinked and said, "I saw the formation of our skills, but I don't know anything about nodes."
"Same," Isabella nodded.
"Nodes are the most important and are the foundation of a skill's formation" Erix rolled his eyes. "When you imagine your lightning taking the form of a dragon, you have to create nodes for your mana to travel such that they end up forming the lightning dragon!"
With shining eyes, he continued, "You put more layers of nodes in the formation if you want your skill to have more additions and variations of effects! The amount of Mana a skill takes also depends on nodes, which also decides the skill's power in offense, defense, or other uses depending on the skill."
"And your complete formation's shape should look like the skill you imagined with proper nodes in it if you want to create a projectile skill! And to have additional effects and changes after the skill is executed, you can form layers of nodes!"
Rin and Isabella were stunned.
Rin immediately used her Lightning Charge and Lightning Blitz skill as she finally glimpsed at the clear formation of the skills right before they took form!
Isabella also conjured her Flame Whips and glimpsed at the same thing!
They managed to gain such insights into magic, Mana, and skill thanks to Limitless Plane and their Spiritual Art: Way of the Unfettered.
Of course, Erix managed to uncover the foundational depth of beginner-realm's magic and skill due to his ability on top of Limitless Plane and spiritual art.
Even now, Rin and Isabella didn't know how to properly arrange nodes since they would have to practice with it later after entering Limitless Plane the next day. But Erix… he had even understood that, so he was raring to finally start creating a bonafide skill before reality slapped him and sent him out of Limitless Plane.
"Sigh, we'll continue this tomorrow. For now, I actually need a nap since my mind is heating up," Erix wryly smiled as he rubbed his temples.
"Come here. Sleep on my lap," Rin lovingly smiled and patted her thighs.
"Ah, great. My favorite pillows," Erix grinned and put his head on her thighs before closing his eyes.
It didn't even take a few seconds for Erix to sleep. That was how much he exerted his will in the Limitless Plane while trying to uncover how skill and magic worked!
"He slept so fast," Isabella exclaimed. "It looks like he exerted himself greatly in the Limitless Plane."
"Hehe, Erix is awesome, isn't he?" Rin giggled with a pridefully smug smile. "Thanks to him, we also got a flash of insight and will understand the foundation when we enter Limitless Plane next time."
"That, I can't deny," Isabella smilingly nodded. "The competition you wanted will truly start after that, but I don't think we would be able to beat him, haha."
"If I understood it correctly, the formation made of nodes depends on our imagination and how well we can build the nodes and their layers in formation to bring out their true potential in the form of magic," Rin smugly smiled as she also understood the crux. "Of course, we haven't seen and felt it ourselves, so we don't know how hard it will be."
"But ultimately, it will depend on our creativity and control."
Isabella nodded before she stretched her limbs.
"We should also take some rest," she said before she leaned against a board behind her and looked at the sky, losing in random thoughts while resting.
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