It took Aric a while to find the dorms, it wasn't nearly as easy to locate as the headmaster said , it took so many wrong turns and asking around to finally find it and in doing so Aric realized something quite apparent.
" This place is huge ! "
From dining halls to training areas to pavilions to different dorms, this place was on it's own the size of a city.
Everything was clean and tidy, and everyone had an air of importance and dignity in here, even the people sweeping the floor seemed a tad bit nobler.
It seemed like a detached entity from the surrounding city, there were shops in here, and stalls set up by the students selling everything a person could ever need, it was so convenient, one might never need to leave the school grounds since everything could be found in here.
It's not like Aric was some country bumpkin or anything, he was raised in a relatively big city, but this place was too much, it was a shame Aric felt his head on fire, otherwise he would've taken all the time in the world roaming around and getting to know this place.
It took Aric about a half an hour to make it to the dorms and When he finally found them, he couldn't help but second guess himself, this place appeared so earingly silent, like no sound or movement was happening at all, it appeared like the resting grounds for spirits and ghosts rather than a dorm.
All he could hear was the rustle of trees under the passing wind, giving the place a creepy feeling , like a haunted land or a ruin of a distant war.
Aric didn't think much of it, accepting it as a normal thing since this was the new recruits' dorms, and their trials will only begin tomorrow thus nobody will be here in a while.
Usually Aric was quite the utentive person, despite the foolish and playful character he fronts and shows on the outside, he was no idiot, cause an idiot bastard of the royal family would have no way survived this far .
But the headache, and Mental fatigue he felt from everything that happened these last few days made him ignore the obvious warning signs and just made his way to the dorm with the same number as the jade bracelet in his hand.
He found this small simple house build of bricks in one of the rows carrying his number, all the houses in this dorm appeared the same ,all build with carved limestone and a small wooden window for natural lighting, it wasn't a luxury but it sufficed for its purpose, and that is to keep people from the wind and rain.
Along the way here, Aric had seen much bigger and luxurious houses and dorms, and most of which were the instructors, teachers and high ranking members of the school's lodging, and some even belonging to the senior students in purple robes.
The color of robes seemed to advocate a hierarchy among the students , and it was obvious from the different treatment each of the robed students received, but Aric wasn't in the mood to inquire further at the moment.
He entered the lodging and found a pair of beds , one on either side, meaning he would have a roommate after this?
" Great, now I have one more thing to deal with. " Aric sighed, and then chose one of the beds and sat cross legged on top of it, hoping not to get a roommate who's a supporter of one of his brothers, or a maniac of a person, who he has to stay on guard of, for every second of the night.
The beds were nothing great, the linen covering them was rough, but they were soft enough that Aric didn't mind that, after all he wasn't one of those spoiled noble kids.
Aric took a second to take a deep breath , he was meddle headed and confused , and only now did he realize how bizarre his life has been lately.
He was alive and up on his feet after having his main heart pressure point crushed by a dark steel knife in only a day's time ,and on top of that when he did he felt like a reborn person, in the best shape he've ever been , and now there's a crimson crystal of essence lying in the center of his heart over his main pressure point, radiating this endless pressure form within him, after he tried inspection it this ancient text had suddenly appeared in his mind and the pressure resonance from within the crimson crystal was so overbearing it destroyed the test cube like it was a fragile piece of glass struck by some heavy metal hammer.
Aric closed his eyes and took a deep breath and thought " maybe that ancient text will have an explanation to what's happening with me right now "
After resting for a bit to catch his breath, Aric dived into his mind, to find the memories of the art still pulsing vigorously in his brain.
He started skimming through it and it felt like it was imprinting itself with every word deeply in his soul, becoming more of an unforgettable memory, and the headache lessened slowly till it disappeared completely.
Even though he just skimmed through it, it took Aric several minutes to Finish the three pages worth of text in the art and when he did, Aric felt his blood boil with more excitement then he ever felt before.
" Is.. is this a forgotten legacy?! " Aric mumbled as he kept on reading and inspected every word in the art , getting more and more certain of his assumption.
A legacy is much like a mystical art, but on a whole different level, for an art to be classified as a legacy, it has to be so powerful and potent it'd change the course of affairs in an entire empire or even the world.
Such arts were extremely rare, and were the foundation for all the powerful royal families and sects in the realm, they are usually only passed to the direct bloodline of a family or direct disciples of the sect, and most paladins won't ever get in touch with such a technique for their entire lives.
But of course they're is always exceptions, the realm of mystic is vast and profound, it houses the history to hundreds and hundreds of heaven defying wars and billions of years of heritage, although most of this heritage was lost through the pass of time, tribulations and wars, some did survive ,and at times with certain arrangements of fate it'll fall into the hands of some lucky man to make of him a legend of the times, forging explicit wonders in the history of mankind.
And that's exactly what seemed to have fallen into Aric's hands.
Aric started physical shaking from excitement, and it took him a while to calm down.
He started by reading the name of the art and it sent Shivers down his spine.
The Divine Chaos Trinity art.!
It was such a domineering name for a mystical art, it was hard to find someone with a skin thick enough to put divine in the name of an art, doing so would be like a defiance to the holy lords and would be an omen of bad luck for the founder, only a supreme expert would dare name a technique as such and go uncaring for the retaliation of heaven.
Aric kept on reading and the more he understood the technique the more bewildered he became.
The technique opened up with a heaven defying mantra, Saying
" heaven is but a path, and defiance is it's truth, chaos riddles every act and gods are just its toys, with heart and mind in hell, I shall ascend to what stands beyond, and I shall slay the domineering fate "
Just reading it felt like a blasphemy and even if Aric wasn't the most religious of individuals, he still was raised in a society that heavily believes in the fate of the seven lords, thus even if he didn't practice the rituals and ideals of this land, he still believed in the gods and such.
Bur saying the mantra gave Aric a weird feeling, he felt his thoughts go astray and his heart start beating much faster, it felt like something profound was hidden in the mantra, and that it was bringing him closer to some illusory concept that was too grand and divine for him to understand on his own.
Aric then went on to read the following page, where it explained what the crimson crystal in his heart was.
It said that the crystal was a chaotic origin crystal made through divine aliments and conditions, and was also the only vasel capable of containing the chaotic elemental force.
It then explained how chaos exists in all different planes and forms, and how it's the driving force for change and movement in the universe.
And the last page had a simple yet unusual breathing technique, used to condense and absorb essence and capture it in the chaos seed.
As for the last four pages in the art ,they seemed like complete gibberish and unfathomable, it seemed to have either been ruined by the passing of time or that Aric needed to grasp the art more for him to be able to read further the art.
When Aric was done reading the legacy, he opened his eyes and was bewildered and confused at everything he read.
The art spoke of a concept extremely rare in mystic arts , and somewhat more common in spiritual and arcane practices, and that was the concept of containing Essence within one's body.
Most arcane warriors and practitioners would refine the essence within materials, and use it to nurture the body then discard it, since essence wasn't some soulless intimate object, using it was thousands of times easier than containing it within the body.
The price one would pay to do as such would be far too great for the gain he would get by locking the essence within.
It is a fact essence is dull and easy to control as long as it is kept moving and not stationery, it's one of the laws of this universe that essence should never stop moving, and whenever something or someone tries to contain and confine it, it retaliates in the most vicious of ways.
Arcane artists that use essence in the forging of weapons and creation of miraculous pills and machinery have to forge complex circuits and structures within their souls to contain essence unperturbed in its movement , and they spend years training and studying the mystic to master they're arts and accomplish that, yet when Aric read the text of The Divine Chaos Trinity law it made it sound so simple and basic, Aric started feeling doubtful of the origin of this art and its authenticity.
But Aric decided to give the art the benefit of the doubt, just for the wonders it had proven so far.
" What's the worst that can happen right ?" Aric though, before he took a deep breath and with both excitement and caution, Aric braced himself for the unknown,