Magnius didn't sleep that night. He kept imagining what kind of spirit he would be bound to. It would all be up to chance to a certain degree.
But if he got to choose...
He would want a water spirit of at least the superior grade. It was simply too versatile. It would be perfect. He could use the magic to spin a high-pressure stream of water around his blades, making them even more deadly. Not to mention he could create water whenever he needed a drink.
Another good one would be a glass spirit. That would make him ridiculously strong. He could already imagine all of the practical applications. He could make screens that sped up his strikes as he struck, or a screen that would get rid of his fatigue when he touched it.
He couldn't disregard lightning or ice spirits either. While less versatile, they were still extremely useful regardless of the situation.
If there were spirits he did not want to be bound to...
Most definitely not a life spirit. The magic was simply too conditional for practical use, and his body already had powerful healing passively. It would be useless for him.
And fire... It was definitely powerful. Sedia was proof of that. She wasn't a proper standard, as she was bound to a grand rank spirit, but he was definitely able to get a rough idea of what the magic was like.
It lacked fine control and was geared solely towards destruction. Destruction... When one thought of destruction the image of a dragon breath came to mind. Dragon breath...?
Wait...
What the f@#ck?
Magnius realized that Dragons were bound to spirits as well, most of them superior rank, and they used that magic to create their dragon breath. And sedia was bound to a grand rank fire spirit.
That meant her flames were more powerful than that of a dragon. He suddenly understood why she never used it during sparring. There would be nothing left of him.
Once again he was reconsidering what kind of existence his mentor was.
Another bad one would be a space elemental. There was just too little information on it for him to imagine a practical use of it. What did spatial magic even do?
___
"Not so tight around the crotch area."
"Shut it."
Sedia was helping Magnius gear up before they moved into the gate. She was fitting him with a lightweight, skintight battlesuit made of robust string and wire. This piece of gear was mandatory to wear for all hunters.
The fabric it was made from was created using an artifact. It could prevent most small monsters from injuring a hunter, and prevent excessive bleeding. And the material was self-repairing-- extremely convenient.
Next she let him put on some of the lighter armor himself. Most of the armor was made from Platicide– A fusion material made from rare metals and fermented white wood tree sap. Platicide is extremely flexible under regular circumstances, but hardened in response to physical trauma. Again– extremely convenient.
Magnius picked up his Perexar daggers and wrapped the long wire around his waist, sheathing the daggers at his hips. He still had to decide on names for them. Calling them the perexar blades would get tiring quickly. If he looked at their characteristics…
The one with a sharp edge was clearly meant to cleanly cut and deliver a fatal strike. He would call that one 'fatal edge' from now on.
The other was deadly serrated, in opposite directions on both sides so it would destroy flesh both when he stabbed something with the dagger and pulled it out. When sedia had stabbed his stomach with it the amount of blood that had sprayed out of him could paint a valley red. He would call it the 'blood edge'.
And the wire… just 'wire'. No need to make it complicated.
Magnius was satisfied, having finally named his weapons. He approached Sedia, who had just finished preparing. She pointed to a small pack next to her, similar to the one on her own back.
"Pick it up. You're carrying that one." Magnius picked up the small pack and found that it was extremely heavy. What the hell was in this damn thing? 10 ton bricks?
"The hell. Why is it so heavy?"
Sedia acted like her own pack weighed nothing. "Since when did you complain so much, stupid bratr? Just shut up and carry it. All of your food, sleeping gear maintenance gear is in that thing."
Magnius frowned at her like she was lying to him.
Sedia looked at him how she looked at dumb people.
"They're artifacts. I got lucky and found a few a long time ago. I sold most but kept two for myself. They compress the space inside and allow you to put a bunch of stuff in. They can't change the weight, though. So deal with it."
Magnius followed her silently while she guided him to a gate. They traveled for hours, moving from floating island to floating island using a travel artifact. It pulled in air from the front and expelled it out of the back at extreme pressure, letting it float. But the artifact became somewhat unstable in harsh winds, so they only used it to travel short distances between islands instead of relying on it.
"You know what a gate looks like don't you?"
"Yeah."
"Take a good look anyways."
A small island came into view, sparse with trees and foliage. In the center of it was the massive crack in reality that represented a gate. The cracks of energy splintered into the air similar to a broken window.
"Isn't this a massive one?" Magnius deduced. Gates came in different sizes and shapes. A gate could be as small as a pebble or as large as a city. The reason why hadn't been deduced yet. Almost everything about the gates was still shrouded in mystery to humanity. Why they appeared or how? They didn´t know.
Sedia was impressed. "Yeah, this is a pretty big one. It seems to have grown a bit from the last time I saw it."
Sedia and Magnius landed on the island and took a moment to observe the other side of the gate. Gates were truly similar to cracked windows. They allowed you to see what was on the other side.
In this case--
"Darkness." The view of the gate would be harrowing to most. Complete darkness and a lack of sound, but instead Magnius became excited.
"We'll be going through a few different gates to get where we need to be. The world we're heading into now is essentially a cave labyrinthe. No lightsources or heat anywhere." Sedia explained.
"I kinda despise this place so we'll be moving fast. Stick close or you'll get left behind."
Sedia used her magic and a large ball of flame appeared above her head. She swiftly jumped into the gate and Magnius followed behind her.
The feeling of moving across the gate was jarring. A sudden change in gravity, temperature, atmosphere and light assaulted Magnius all at once. Ordinarily it would put a person into a state of shock, but Magnius merely faltered before he regained his steps.
He looked ahead and saw Sedia moving through the darkness, expertly navigating her surroundings with unimaginable speed. Magnius focused some mana into his leg muscles and sprinted after her.
He had learned through sparring that besides taking deep breaths of mana to speed up his healing, he could circulate it throughout his body effortlessly. If he focused it in bones he would become extremely sturdy and if he focused it in his muscles their power would increase dramatically.
Magnius copied Sedia's moves, using parkour to leap off the dark walls or slide under a series of stalactites.
Sedia Jumped up a vertical wall, jumping to the wall opposite of it and doing it again and again, moving straight up. Magnius once again copied her moves, but slipped on his last jump, barely crossing the gap.
The massive ball of flame above Sedia's head suddenly burned brighter, lighting up their surroundings.
"There's something here."
"What is it?"
"We'll find out in a second." Sedia snapped her fingers and the ball burned even brighter, almost white. It hovered upwards to better light the area.
'SKRAIEeaeA'
As soon as the room was lit a swarm of small beasts detached from the ceiling, screaming at the light. They had no eyes and their skin was paler than white jade, glinting in the light of Sedia's fireball.
Magnius tensed, but not from the bat-like beasts. Ahead of them something large hid in the shadow of a boulder, determined to slink away from the light.