He opened the thick light-blue book. The title read "Dimensional Magic: Introduction written by Edward Acker, Founder of Dimensional Magic, Supreme Dimensional Sorcerer of the Reinforced Layer." The author sounded extraordinary and his names were written with fancy calligraphic letters. The introduction read "Dimensional magic is unnatural in this world, yet this world is unable to ban it with its laws. Some theorize that this world's laws are not powerful enough, some others theorize that dimensional magic is the ultimate form of arcane magic. The reason is not clear, however it is known that dimensional magic is denied by this world's laws."
"Whenever someone establishes their Anchor Origin Point, the world forms a dissonance with that person and their arcane casting times are lengthened because of this dissonance." Arcane magic? I guess it's the mainstream way of doing magic, like I saw earlier. But wait, what?! The casting times are longer??? How does that help improve my talent! Ethan was angered and felt indignant. Was he swindled by Daniel?
"On the other hand, with a permanent Dimensional Storage Node, one can increase their mana capacity and mana-to-spell flow. So Dimensional Magic comes with its benefits and disadvantages for arcane magic." So this was the talent improvement aspect of it?
Ethan continued reading and learned about the fundamentals of dimensional magic. It seemed that dimensional magic was induced not by the world but by something outside of this world. The link that he formed was his Anchor Origin Point. It was what he would use to absorb Dimensional Energy used to cast spells. These Anchor Points were anchored according to the Universal Frame which was why he felt that the location of it was moving away from him.
In reality, it wasn't just the Anchor Point moving from him but also him moving away from the Anchor Point. Before coming to this world, he was fixed on Earth which was rotating around the Sun, so according to the Sun he wasn't stationary, and according to him, the Sun wasn't stationary either. Similar to this phenomenon, the Anchor Point was fixed in the Universal Frame which was not the same as his frame, so it looked like the Anchor Point was moving away from him.
This Universal Frame, however, wasn't special to this world which was another argument for those who supported the theory that dimensional magic is induced by an otherworldly force.
Everybody needed to establish their Anchor Origin Point before being able to cast. They could establish more and more Anchor Points as they leveled up. Anchor Points could be used to absorb dimensional energy, as well as remote-cast to specific places. One could remote-cast to any of his Anchor Points which made these points very powerful and useful.
Except the Anchor Origin Point, any Anchor Point can be fixed to an object so that it doesn't float away with the Universal Frame. As any Anchor Point can be sensed remotely by a Dimensional Magician, these points become enormously useful for Dimensional Magicians living in countries like Sorceria where Dimensional Magic is banned.
They can set up Anchor Points in their base and know if their base is compromised instantly.
The stage of the Dimensional Magician was determined by how many dimensions they can cast up to. From 0 to 3 is the known stages of Dimensional Magic. 3-Dimension Magicians would be deemed Supreme Sorcerers and had near-invincible power in this world.
However, there was only about a dozen Supreme Sorcerers in the world. They formed the Dimensional Magic High Council. These Sorcerers could not be provoked by anyone. Their only interest was to find the theorized higher world so they could improve their power and reach immortality.
Each stage of Dimensional Magic could be divided into 5 levels, except the Apprentice stage which is divided into two. These levels are namely the Initial, Foundational, Substantial, Solidified and Reinforced level. Apprentice levels were the Initial and Ethereal stage. At each stage, the limit of Anchor Points increased by one. This meant that even 3-Dimension Supreme Sorcerers could only establish at most 17 Anchor Points! This rule was unbreakable.
This also meant that by establishing his Anchor Origin Point, Ethan became an Initial Apprentice.
He found a basic-level meditation technique to gather dimensional energy from the book. He started to use it to gather dimensional energy.
The technique involved using his Origin Point to vibrate the void and attract the dimensional energy around it. He could feel that his Origin Point was in the middle of deep space so it was suitable to do this.
He concentrated his spiritual power and invoked the link to his Origin Point. Suddenly, a gush of dimensional energy entered the Origin Point and reached his body through the link.
"What! It said in the book that it was supposed to be a calm and nearly indiscernable flow of energy, but this is more like a waterfall gushing onto my body."
For some reason unbeknownst to Ethan, the world didn't suppress the dimensional energy from entering his body. In a couple of breaths, he felt that his body was saturated by the dimensional energy and stopped absorbing it.
He wanted to try and create a Node which was the fundamental piece of a 0-Dimension Spell. He focused his spiritual power and guided the dimensional energy to his hands. Slowly, the air seemed to distort and a light-blue glowing point formed in the air. The Node was distorting its surroundings but it didn't have any special properties.
He had read in the book that every Dimensional Magician had access to "extra" dimensions which they could cast to through their spiritual sense. The number of extra dimensions increased with each stage being that Apprentices accessed one extra dimension, 1-Dimension Sorcerers two extra dimensions and so on.
He tried to push the Node in his hand inside as if to send it to another dimension. He exerted more and more pressure but the Node seemed unmoving. Finally, as if the dimensional barrier couldn't take the pressure anymore, the Node disappeared. Ethan, however, could sense the Node through his spiritual sense.
It was said in the book that talent for Dimensional Magic was measured by three standards, the rate at which dimensional energy is absorbed, how much the body can store and how far one can go in their extra dimension. Ethan could absorb dimensional energy at an absurd rate and his storage capacity wasn't that bad either. He was eager to know how far he can go in his extra dimension for it would determine his overall talent in Dimensional Magic.
Most Apprentices could only go about 10 meters. 1-Dimension Sorcerers could go about 25, 2-Dimension 50 and 3-Dimension about 100 meters. It seemed that these extra dimensions were very restrictive in nature. In fact, the farthest distance ever reached in an extra dimension was 200 meters by Edward Acker! It was astonishing that he could reach twice of what the average 3-Dimension Sorcerer could.
Ethan started to move the node further into the extra dimension. He didn't feel any restriction whatsoever and easily reached 10 meters. He went further and further to 25 meters and he was extremely excited. He just as easily crossed 50 meters. He was moving further into the extra dimension and felt that the connection to the Node he created was slowly weakening.
He estimated that he could go about a kilometer before the connection was not enough to maintain the Node. He moved the Node still further in. When he reached 100 meters, he felt a bottleneck but still crossed it with some effort. His feelings slowly turned from happiness to being cautious.
If the book was correct, he was moving into unexplored territory. Nobody knew the true nature of the extra dimensions and it seemed that these extra dimensions did not intersect for different people. This meant that there were myriad extra dimensions and every person had their own. He was worried that something could be hidden inside his extra dimension.
Even though such a thing had a very low possibility for no one had ever experienced it, he still had a feeling that something was there inside the extra dimension. He moved yet further into the dimension and reached 500 meters. The connection was gradually fading but could still hold for about another 500 meters.
He decided that he would push as far as he can and reach his restriction today.
Nothing happened till he reached 900 meters. He was feeling that the connection was about to fade. He got to 950 meters and was still pushing on, but now the connection was draining him of his dimensional energy. He reached 990 meters with a spoonful of dimensional energy left. 991... 992... 995... At 999 meters, he hadn't any energy.
Many dimensional sorcerers would definitely spit blood on hearing this. An Apprentice wasn't stopped by a restriction in his extra dimension but stopped from the lack of dimensional energy!
Even though he couldn't push the Node any further and the connection was disappearing, the Node continued moving with its inertia. Ethan felt it reaching 1000 meters by its inertia.
Suddenly, he also felt that something was flowing to him from the Node. The Node had hit something! And this something was now maintaining the dimensional connection and invading his body! He tried resisting it with his spiritual power but whatever that was invading was too powerful.
It instantly crushed Ethan's spiritual power which caused him to lose consciousness!