Saleen felt as though he had entered a large empty space. He eyed his surroundings and indeed, it was a black space in the shape of a square. There was no light shining into the black space, and yet, Saleen could easily perceive all of the changes happening within the space.
Saleen felt as though he had returned to the day his magic chords had begun. It was just that he saw many more elements being arranged into an orderly manner inside the space, and they were all undergoing changes.
Since Saleen had previously observed the Figaro formula, he had already realized that the elements that were being arranged in this space were in fact a kind of formula too. However, this formula was much more complicated, and he was not able to comprehend it.
Once he had calmed his mind down, Saleen realized that his physical body was not in this space. Or rather, that he had taken on a virtual form inside the space. The elements in the space were able to pass through him. Furthermore, his virtual self was three-dimensional, and had been made out of countless elements.
On the left side in the black space was a door. Saleen thought about walking towards the door, and before he knew it, he had teleported in front of the door.
On the other side of the door was another black space, identical to the first one. The two black spaces seemed identical to one another, but Saleen could already see the arrangement of its elements and quickly realized that this second black space contained another complicated formula.
Saleen became deep in thought and looked in front of him. At the end of the second black space was another door.
But how would he get out of this?
Saleen had never done any research on these magic formulas, but he walked towards the second door. Past the second door was yet another black space, and the elements in there were arranged to show a third magic formula.
Saleen kept going forward. He went through twenty-three doors and finally came to a space that looked familiar to him.
Indeed, Saleen felt that this space was very familiar, thinking that he had seen that collective formula before. Wasn’t… wasn’t this the Figaro formula?
Except that the formula he was looking at right now seemed to be more complete and perfect than the one he had seen in Faerun’s place. The arrangement of the six great elements seemed to be clearer too.
Oh, so this was what happened.
Saleen had thought of a piece of information that he had once read in a book.
Soul projection!
Soul projection was a magic dating back to the First Dynasty. People at the time had only used their bare hands to engage in combat, and there was no need for props. They could tear through space and traverse through the vertical and horizontal planes of space. Soul projection was an ability that everyone had.
As Saleen was thinking about soul projection, he realized that his virtual body was slowly diminishing, as the elements began to separate. Saleen did not try to stop this process. He actually took it calmly and started observing the changes closely.
The elements within the black space began swirling. Saleen’s virtual form starting floating and was sucked into the vortex. As he was spun about furiously, Saleen felt that he was being thrown about repeatedly.
Ker, ker…
Saleen started coughing violently, and his head came out of the water. He realized that he had still been bathing in the wooden tub. There were no changes to the room, and the temperature of the water remained the same.
Ever since Saleen had obtained his magic chords, this had been the first time he had choked on water.
Ker…
Saleen coughed out the water that had gone into him, and could not help but start laughing. He did not understand how he had been able to execute soul projection. But Saleen did not need to understand. He just needed to know the effects of the necklace that he possessed.
The necklace contained twenty-four magic formulas. As long as a person had sufficient mental strength, they could use soul projection to enter the necklace to observe and learn. Right now, Saleen’s mental strength was inadequate. Therefore, he had been unable to continue projecting his soul into the necklace and had been expelled from it.
Twenty-four pieces of crystal made up the black necklace. Each of the twenty-four pieces contained a magic formula inside, and one of the pieces contained the Figaro formula.
To a mage, this necklace was priceless.
In this day and age, it was almost impossible for someone to be self-learned and succeed in magic. Without a teacher, a mage would find it difficult to understand the true laws of magic. And this necklace was one of the best teachers a mage could ever find.
"Nailisi," Saleen called out. Nailisi stood at the door weakly and replied, but she did not enter.
"How long has it been?"
"Seventy-three thousand seven hundred and seventy-four frames, Master."
Upon hearing Nailisi’s answer, Saleen did not know whether to be happy or sad. A frame was a unit of time for mages. One frame was only 0.6 seconds. Seventy-three thousand seven hundred and seventy-four frames might have seemed daunting, but was in fact only twenty minutes. However, in these twenty minutes, Saleen had managed to memorize more types of arrangements than what he had in ten hours in Faerun’s room that day. All of the different arrangements had been deeply etched in Saleen’s mind and had become part of him. Therefore, Saleen would never forget the arrangements.
Saleen’s eyes became very enthusiastic. Training like this would enable him to grasp the Figaro formula quickly. The gap between Earl Sufonso and him was also narrowing rapidly. If a person were to fully grasp all twenty-four formulas, what would be the consequences?
The existence of mages was to gain insight into the truths of this world…
Subconsciously, Saleen’s desire for vengeance had greatly diminished. The coolness in his body had dissipated, his magic chords stopped tossing about, and everything went back to normal. The two water shields revolving around Saleen had also stopped in their tracks. Saleen had exhausted too much of his mental strength, which had caused all of these effects to be terminated as well.
Furthermore, the two water shields had undergone a miraculous change. They had grown to twice their original volume. The water shields no longer looked like bubbles, and there were now elements actively circulating within them. They were also nearly transparent now and were no longer light blue.
Saleen had just then regained some of his mental strength and noticed these changes. He knew that his magic was undergoing new changes, and as long as he used the Figaro formula to calculate derivations, he would be able to gain a new mantra.
No, if he was able to completely comprehend the Figaro formula, there would be no need for mantras in the future. Saleen would be able to skip the tedious learning process and directly cast his magic.
With sufficient time, a person could acquire the ability to learn just by observing how others cast their magic. Without any mantras nor hand signs, one only needed to cultivate magic until it became a part of their instincts.
Was this how people in the First Dynasty used to improve their magic?
Forget it. That had been tens of thousands of years ago and there was no point to thinking about it. For Saleen, the most important thing right now was to grow his power as soon as possible. Now that his mind was clear, Saleen started reanalyzing what Viscountess Lex had said, and began to feel that something was going to happen. This matter superseded Saleen’s own revenge. However, he possessed limited access to information and was unable to infer anything.
Saleen did not meditate. He only habitually took out his family badge and held it in his hand. Saleen cast a Grade 0 spell, and began training.
This time around, as the badge sapped his magic chords and strength, Saleen was not clueless. He could feel that the badge had not only taken away his strength, but had also removed some impurities from his body.
Mages believed that everything in the world was formed by elements, and the same was true of the body of humans. Through eating, humans absorbed elements from the other forms of life in order to maintain the balance in their bodies. Out of all of the elements that were absorbed, most were useless and would be expelled from the body. Some elements that were absorbed could not be transformed into energy, and all of these elements were the impurities of the human body.
In turn, the impurities would affect the growth and development of a human and cause different kinds of illnesses.
The reason why mages lived a longer life than the average human was because mages could closely observe and control the elements, and methodically get rid of the impurities.
Back in the courtyard, the snow had stopped falling, but the sky remained dark. Sika was practicing her combat skills while Nailisi sat on the steps of the stairs. Nailisi looked on restlessly as Sika waved her cudgel about and ruffled the snow on the ground.
Faerun grew suspicious when he saw that Saleen was late in coming to the laboratory. Didn’t he know what had happened in Ceylon City? The boy wouldn’t be so rash as to leave immediately, right? Faerun was worried for Saleen. Given the strength Saleen possessed right now, Saleen would not even be able to get close to Earl Sufonso if he returned to Sikeqinya, let alone exact revenge on him.
If a genius like Saleen died young, everyone would feel remorse and pity.
When Faerun thought of that, he could not help but stand up and head out into the courtyard.
"Master." Sika stopped training and lowered her arms to greet Faerun.
Faerun laughed. Given Sika’s accomplishments, she would definitely supersede other fighters such as Bain if she were to learn swordcraft. It was too bad that had chosen another path, rendering her sword aura inconsequential.
It seemed that Faerun had been a bit too rude. Everyone had the freedom to choose whichever path they wanted. How Saleen wanted to settle his affairs were entirely his own business, and Faerun should not have tried to interfere. It was just like how Sika did not need to try and alter her life.
At this point, Faerun felt regretful. Why wasn’t Saleen his student?
"Sika, where did you learn those skills?" Faerun began to chat with Sika. It was extremely rare for Faerun to do that. A few other mages in rooms on both sides of the courtyard overheard Faerun talking and were bewildered, but the mages were not usually such busybodies. Saleen was so lucky. Faerun always gave him advice, and now Faerun was even starting to care for his companions as well. Sika shyly kicked the snow beneath her feet and replied, "I learned it from the village chief."
"Can I take a look at your weapon?"
"Sure," Sika said, and handed Faerun the cudgel. Faerun waved his hands and a gentle wave of wind engulfed the cudgel, pulling it upwards. The wind brought the cudgel before Faerun, and it continued levitating in midair.
This was the Binding Magic of Grade 4 Wind Magic. Faerun had already fully interpreted and understood magic, and was extremely powerful. One needed to understand that normal Binding Magic could only trap its target to the spot, and there was no way to move the target about.
"It seems like the damage is pretty serious. Sika, do you mind if I help you repair it?"
"About that… how much would it cost? Sika replied naively. The expressions of the other mages listening in on the conversation grew very queer. The Caucasus warrior was actually treating Faerun as though he were a magic craftsman! God, she was so stupid!