A month passed.
A man sat in the middle of the room with dozens of translucent screens floating around him.
He had an overgrown unkempt beard as he looked extremely disheveled.
His eyes were unusually red as his face was twisted in exhaustion.
Of course, it was none other than Andrew who got into practicing arrays a little too much.
He had been trying to create a complex array for almost a month already. The task was incredibly hard even though the array was of the same existential level as him.
He had two small dark crystals hovering above each palm.
Suddenly!
He swiftly closed his eyes as the air around him became incredibly tense. Wind currents madly raged throughout the room as his robes were torn apart in some places.
'Almost there!' he literally screamed in his mind as the war cry echoed through his entire being.
The two crystals started to visibly tremble as the intensity of dark light started to flicker.
Then...
[BOOM!]
An explosion occurred as Andrew was sent flying for a couple of meters.
Andrew motionlessly lay on the floor...
All hair strands on Andrew's body were completely burnt to ashes.
Yet, he didn't care...
Suddenly!
Two bright crystals flew towards him as they stopped right above his eyes.
They looked like black stars in the middle of the day.
Slowly...
A smile blossomed on Andrew's face as a previously doubtful feeling of his success was washed away!
He succeeded!
'I did it!' he exclaimed as he swiftly grabbed those crystals.
All of his failures were worth it as in the end he managed to create a double-cored array!
Yes! An array that had two cores aka two control keys.
It was incredibly hard to link them together since having two identical control keys was a bit too much for a low-level 1-grade array. In short, it can't do too many complex actions. Moreover, there is a high chance that the array might outright implode if two keys simultaneously give different orders.
Andrew finally managed to complete the hardest project available in the catalog of low-level 1-grade arrays!
He stood up with a smile as he released his mana sense to the entirety of his body and supported the regeneration of his hair strands by focusing the circulation of his mana.
Indeed, mana had a circulatory system. Mind's eye aka soul domain acted like a heart as it pumped in freshly refined mana into the body.
Usually, the mana flow focused on the crucial parts of his body as the majority of refined mana went there to strengthen and improve the organs, but now he consciously focused the flow onto his skin as it would take just a couple of hours for his hair to be restored to its original state...including his beard...haha...
Andrew stood up as with a thought he blew the ashes and dust away as he let crystals drift in his mana sense.
Now he had a clear connection with both of those array cores as he could control them as long as they had his energy signature imprinted on them.
Oh, a question might arise. How does energy signature imprinting work? It's quite simple.
Those two crystals were actually low-level 1-grade mana crystals!
It was a fact that all magical objects have mana cores. The place where all the pathways that mana runs through meet. In short, the greatest concentration of mana in non-living.
In the case of living beings, it's a mind's eye that houses the soul domain. The energy signature can be left regardless even if the soul domain wasn't unlocked aka a mortal can still leave his energy traces.
Naturally, the energy signature can be discovered if the mana sense of a mage is strong enough to find it among possibly thousands of others per meter square.
The energy signature is a quite deep topic.
Some fairy-tail writers in Aria theorized that energy signature will be forever left in the records of the world.
It's even believed that once mages become gods they will be able to see through the entire timeline of existence!
The entire history of Aria!
From its birth to the present!
Maybe even the future!
Meanwhile, Andrew experimented with the array cores. He issued commands at a moderate rate as its various functions manifested in the room.
The arrays were actually tied to the array cores instead of being frozen in specific coordinates, meaning that it was a portable array.
Although, this array might sound extremely handy, like all things in the world it had its own downsides.
There can't be added as many functions as one would put into an immobile array.
It simply has a raw advantage of mobility rather than having a diverse set of abilities like traditional arrays do.
Nevertheless, it was extremely useful in emergencies or when someone wanted to ambush their victims.
Generally, arrays were divided into 3 categories:
[Immobile Array]
[Mobile Array]
[Fleshly Array]
There can be some sub-categories like hybrids or even soul-tied arrays, but most of the time they were too flawed. To simply put the populace of Aria hadn't advanced to that point yet. Of course, like everything in the magical field, NOTHING HAS LIMITS.
Andrew played around with the functions of the array as sharp wind blades madly cascaded in the room, but they were too slow to hit Andrew.
'I should do something else' Andrew decided after feeling content with all the effort he had put into making this creation.
'Oh, now I remember that there was an option called [Magical Martial Arts]' Andrew decided to learn something else.
He put his token into the slit of the monolith as a familiar screen popped up.
[Select Category]
[Magical Martial Arts]
[Spells]
[Arrays]
[Alchemy]
...
[Magical Martial Arts]
[As anyone can guess, magic is mixed with martial arts. Anyone can actually create it with enough experience and knowledge. It's just executing a spell while shooting at insane speeds or throwing an all-out punch, but you have to cast spells while simultaneously exerting immense physical power...]
'Quite interesting' Andrew commented while calculating how hard it would be to cast a mentally draining spell while running at full speed.
'Tough' a single word that can describe the sheer mental power required for this.
[Viper's Fangs]
[A magical martial art that focuses on thrusting the speed of the fingers while executing various spells to boost the penetrating power of the moves...]
[Phantom Steps]
[Provides extreme speed while immensely reducing the fraction between wind and body...]
[Tanking Bull]
[The name should be quite telling...]
...
Andrew read through those magical martial arts as he looked for something suitable to him.