by Weiqi Wang
‘That one is not bad, but what about this one?’ Kriagon cast another photo, which looked dark and rocky. ‘What’s this?’
‘It must be a cave of some kind.’ Omifo said. ‘Hold on! This reminds me of something…’
‘Seriously? Caves? Deadly caves?’ Kardiac shivered, and his eyebrows shot up. ‘Like the beetalbull nest?’
‘Yes. So we can hear “holy mama” again.’ Catheray said. She always teased Kardiac for the “holy mama” scream in the beetalbull nest years ago.
‘I don’t like it!’ Kardiac barked. ‘I don’t wanna go somewhere like this!’ Even though it was years ago, he was still freaked out whenever he recalled the scary looking beetalbulls and the creepy noises that they tended to make.
‘Kardy, we beat them last time.’ Soarame hurriedly said. ‘We were fine even when we were just Novices. Now we are all Adepts. We will be fine!’
‘No. We never beat them, we were lucky to survive because of Chelonad!’ Kardiac refuted immediately.
‘Fine, but that’s because it’s an Expert trial site, we only got there by accident.’ Omifo said. ‘This time it’s for us, so it must be a lot safer. We’ll be fine!’
‘Safer?’ Kardiac stared at him. ‘Read it again — the quest is completely unsupervised. Ambition can result in fatal incidents…’
‘Kardy, don’t forget about Rodka!’ Soarame cut him off. ‘We need Expert soulcores, and the quest has them as rewards!’
‘I know! But…’ Kardiac halted on Soarame’s words. Seconds later, he pulled a long face. ‘Just give me some time to think about it.’
‘Do you really need that?’ Dileys cut in. ‘You are a fearless warrior! You once tried to save Halgon with your own life! Remember that?’
‘She’s right!’ Kriagon followed up. ‘Come on, big guy! You are stronger than that! Get over it!’
‘It’s different! You don’t get it!’ Kardiac was as anxious as he was upset. ‘Any one of you is stronger than a spider, but can you get over it and eat one?’
‘Oh dear… Are we being too harsh on him?’ Watching Kardiac go upstairs frustrated, the friends looked at each other, worried.
‘Now what?’ Watching Catheray run upstairs, Alicey asked. ‘He will join us after all, right?’
‘Let’s hope so. Let Catheray work on that, and we’ll make a plan in the meantime.’ Dileys urged. ‘It says that each team can only have up to five people plus their magimals… hmm. That means we have to form two teams.’
‘But different teams will be separated upon entering the quest!’ Omifo suddenly sat up straight. ‘Why?’
‘Because a rehearsal team usually has no more than five people? Otherwise the entire school could form one big team and there’d be no point,’ Vivarin guessed. ‘But we can talk via our emblems, and gather anyway.’
‘No. Our emblems won’t work in the quest.’ Dileys checked the rules carefully. ‘You are right. They are trying to prevent us from forming a large team.’
‘Meow!’ Right then, Snower suddenly stood up.
‘You wanna join the quest too?’ Soarame was surprised. ‘No. It’s too dangerous. Maybe after you’ve grown up a little more.’
‘Meow!’ Snower was reluctant. She seemed to be arguing about something.
‘Oh dear… really? That’s right! How could I forget that?’ Soarame smacked his head and interpreted to the friends. ‘Snower can be our connector between the teams! We can locate each other via mind-talk!’
‘What a genius idea!’ Everyone marvelled. They praised the cute kitten joyfully. ‘So if Snower and Soar split into different teams, we can bring our two teams together!’
‘Aww!’ Icer suddenly jumped up too.
‘Oh no, Icer. I’m sorry but you can’t join us.’ Soarame understood the firntiger via Snower’s interpretation. ‘Halgon is not here, so if we lose you in the quest no one can ever find you!’
‘Howlhowl!’
‘Chacha!’
‘Gaga!’
Hearing that, Niuniu, Pipi and Gaga all jumped up, asking what about them?
‘Oh no…’ The friends spent quite a while settling the little ones down. They all wanted to join in, but it was a dangerous quest so the friends had to minimize the risk. In the end, they decided to bring two — one for each team, so that both teams could use communication and cross-interpretation. Snower and Pipi were finally selected, because they had the best language abilities, and the rest of them would have to stay at home. ‘We’ll bring you gifts, and you’ll play with our neighbours for two weeks, okay?’
After that, the friends quickly worked out the team configuration. Team one included Soarame, Kardiac, Catheray, Jemario, Dileys and Pipi. Team two included Alicey, Kriagon, Vivarin, Omifo, Snower and —
‘Ericson, are you okay?’ The friends noticed that the boy had been silent since the beginning.
‘Ahh… yes. I’m fine.’ Ericson had seemed to be mind-occupied until then. ‘I was thinking about Kardy. He has actually got a point — I don’t think I could eat a spider.’
‘Yark! Stop it!’ The girls screamed as they felt gooseflesh growing all over their bodies.
ESSENCE OF MAGIC ELEMENTS
After settling the teams’ configuration, Soarame left the dorm for his secret practice again. He should have gone to Dafinol on this weekend day but, in order to make preparations for the rehearsal, he had decided to leave the ice-carving behind for a while. The good thing was that, with the help of the Godmade, he no longer needed to practise ice-carving for his Water improvement.
Hold on, Rodka! I’ll be there for you before long. Sitting on the grass, Soarame closed his eyes and started his unique learning loop again. With his willpower stronger than ever, Soarame was pleasantly surprised to find that he could concentrate a lot more and keep the cryptic pattern in mind for longer. This was great news because he found that, as the time of maintaining the pattern in mind elongated, his comprehension of the pattern grew exponentially. So, Soarame kept trying and trying, totally forgetting the time. This turned out to last longer than he thought, until he felt warmth somehow and opened his eyes —
Sunrise? It’s another day?! Soarame was surprised. He stood up and stretched. How come I didn’t feel tired after practising such a long time? The learning loop had always been an exhausting job, but this time it was so different.
‘It must be the pattern.’ Soarame muttered to himself. He had a strange feeling that, although the Godmade took his mind power every time when the loop started, the cryptic pattern somehow helped him to recover a lot faster than usual, and therefore made up for the loss. The consequence was that, after an entire night’s hard training, Soarame’s mind ocean was actually full to the brim!
This is unbelievable! Soarame marvelled. He couldn’t even remember how many times he’d been surprised by the wonder that Ecrif had brought, but he was used to it now and didn’t need to physically loop around anymore. Soarame lay back down instead, and inhaled a deep breath of the fresh air with the unique smell from the grass, feeling amazingly robust. After that, he subconsciously drew a circle with his finger, mimicking what Sandoray had done the other day when she cast her mirrorface spell. Soarame had been learning that spell, but had always failed, because it demanded one surface of the ice-plate to be very glossy, which was really hard. But this time Soarame suddenly saw his face show up in the ice-plate, before he realized what was going on.
‘Wait… What?!’ Soarame suddenly sat up, looking at the mirror-like ice-plate in his hands. ‘I… I made it?’
‘I levelled up to Grade 5 in Water?!’ Soarame widened both his eyes and mouth. In order to qualify as a Grade-5 Water wizard, he must possess enough mind power — which he did; plus he must master a Grade-5 Water spell — which he hadn’t until right then. ‘How did I do this then? And I actually insta-cast it?!’
It’s the pattern! I subconsciously followed the pattern and it worked out! After quite a while of thinking, Soarame reached this conclusion in the end. The pa
ttern is how Water Elements align and form items — it can be as great as a Godmade, so an ice-mirror is obviously much easier!
Staring at the boy with his mouth open in the mirror, Soarame sank into a trance — just as the voice had claimed, the cryptic pattern could help any spell in Water; mirrorface was just a beginning!
‘AWWW!!!’ Soarame couldn’t control his excitement anymore. His roar echoed in the air, spreading far away. He kept roaring, to let out his joy, his rage, his confidence in the future and his blessings to his best friends far out there!
‘What’s that?’ Some early-rising students were walking around and heard the roaring.
‘Gee, who knows?’ One said. ‘Probably someone just got dumped?’
Of course, Soarame didn’t hear this. He had to rush for his Wind class…
‘Soarame! Hi!’ As Soarame was running, he heard Alicey’s voice. ‘How’s Kardy? Is he feeling better?’
‘He’s fine. Thanks for asking.’ Soarame told a white lie to the little girl — well, she was almost 12 now but still the little one. ‘I’m late for my Wind class, let’s run!’
‘You are a Grade-6 in Wind now, and you’re still going to classes?’ Alicey asked as they sped up.
‘I’m not an Expert yet.’ Soarame shrugged his shoulders. ‘Classes are still helpful.’
‘May I observe your class today?’ Alicey suddenly asked. She was always keen to watch Soarame fly and battle with Wind.
‘That’s up to Dean Harries, not me.’ Soarame smiled. ‘But he’s very easy-going, so let’s just ask.’
‘Soarame, I thought you wouldn’t come.’ Dean Harries smiled. ‘‘You are already a Grade-6, with insta-cast on flying spells. I don’t wanna lose to you today.’ Dean Harries was the dean of Dileys’ crew, and Soarame still remembered this dean’s help at his college application interview years ago. For that, Soarame had always respected him, although his magic power didn’t seem to be very impressive. In fact, he was one of the few deans whose power ranked only level 8; so any professor, such as Professor Sandoray Greibec, ought to easily defeat him. However, Dean Harries seemed not to care about all that; he had his own style of doing things.
‘Morning, Mr. Dean.’ Soarame laughed at the teasing. ‘I need practice in real battles, so please be harsh this time.’
‘Oh, already?’ the dean was surprised to hear this straightforward demand. ‘Okay, seems that an old man needs to wake up.’
The two walked into the arena, followed by little Alicey — the dean allowed her to stay and watch, as expected. Any Grade-6 student was taught in one-on-one fashion because there were only a small number of them in the school, and Dean Harries had been appointed to be Soarame’s Wind teacher. Because of that, Soarame had been guessing that the Principal meant to let him try defeating the dean, because he really seemed to be the easiest dean in that sense. However, no matter how hard Soarame had been trying, Dean Harries always managed to defeat him without hurting him — as a sharp comparison to Sandoray’s style.
Soon enough, the two stepped to the centre of the arena and saluted each other. The next second, both started rising up into the air. They were floating and watching each other with precaution, in a stalemate.
‘Sir, I’m going to be blunt.’ Soarame sent his last notice. ‘Please be alerted.’
Dean Harries didn’t say a word, but just nodded at Soarame with a smile on his face — as always. The next second, Soarame waved a blast of windblades at the dean, covering all the angles that he could dodge. The dean was taken aback — although he was expecting a ferocious attack, he had still underestimated Soarame. So he hurriedly waved both of his arms in circles, causing several eddies in front of his body. Each eddy caused strong turbulence that tore apart several windblades, so that altogether they broke all the windblades.
After all, he’s an Expert. Soarame was impressed. The dean’s general understanding on Wind magic was much better than his, so it was not going to be easy to beat him in Wind. However, did Soarame ever plan to rely solely on Wind?
‘Soarame, your control of windblades is splendid…’ Dean Harries was impressed too. It was not easy for an Adept to spell so many windblades so fast, let alone with accurate aim. However, before he managed to finish his words, another blast of windblades had been sent on their way.
Again? The dean puzzled. Soarame was always a smart boy; why would he do the same thing after the first attempt had failed? Just as the dean was trying to make the same defence again, he noticed that Soarame had drawn a circle with his wand, and a beam of strong light dazed his eyes in the next blink — mirrorface!
The dean was caught off guard. He certainly knew that a blast of windblades would arrive the next moment. To Soarame, aiming was never a problem, so once he’d mastered the mirrorface spell he could easily use it to accurately reflect the sunshine to the dean’s face. So, at this moment, Soarame was watching Dean Harries closely, trying to see if his secret strike would work. However —
In the same instant, a loud, sharp noise sounded out of nowhere. The strange noise was different from any Soarame had ever heard before — it pierced his ears in no time and transfixed his brain, almost knocking him out. The next second, Soarame found himself losing control and falling from the air. He quickly managed to control the falling and landed properly. Shaking his head with both hands covering it, Soarame tried to clear his mind from the overwhelming dizziness and sharp pain in the head, looking towards Dean Harries.
‘Soarame, are you okay?’ The dean was all well, totally unaffected by the windblades — and they were gone, somehow. The dean’s eyesight had recovered too, but he didn’t make attempt to pursue and attack because he was worried that his last action might have injured his student.
‘I’m fine, don’t worry.’ Soarame took a deep breath and kept his balance. ‘What was that?’
‘I’m sorry, I was too hard on that one.’ The dean also landed. ‘It’s called piercing wave, an Expert Wind spell which I’m not supposed to use on students. Are you sure you are not hurt?’
‘I’m fine, but Alicey…?’ Soarame turned around and found that Alicey was lying on the floor. ‘Oh no!’
‘Oh dear.’ Dean Harries dashed over to Alicey, checking her status. Luckily, he soon confirmed that the girl was fine, although she had been knocked out by the piercing soundwave.
‘Thank god.’ Soarame was relieved to hear the dean’s conclusion. Alicey had been knocked out during Halgon’s transformation in MagiMax and missed a lot of splendid scenes in the following battle; she’d really regretted that, and had always been eager to see Soarame battle again. However, this time, just when her wish was being satisfied, she just happened to be knocked out once again.
‘Okay, I think we are done here today.’ The dean shook his head. ‘My bad, I shouldn’t have done that.’
‘No, it’s me. I forced you.’ Soarame hurriedly spoke up. ‘What happened anyway? What exactly was that spell and how did you dodge my windblades blinded?’
‘I didn’t dodge them. With your precise aiming I can’t dodge them.’ The dean had to admit that Soarame’s skills on windblades had reached a considerable level. ‘The only choice I had was to break them, using a spell called piercing wave. This spell strongly vibrates Wind Elements, so that your windblades were broken.’
‘All of them?’ Soarame was surprised. ‘I cast a dozen windblades, and you broke them all at once?’
‘Yes, it’s an Area-of-Effect (AoE) spell that vibrates all Wind Elements within its range.’ Dean Harries nodded. ‘And, as you’ve seen, as the result of the vibration, the spell generated a strong pulse of piercing noise. This noise can hurt ears and brains, so it can do damage to mind oceans and shock people into coma.’
‘There’s such a spell? It feels so different!’ Soarame was surprised. According to the dean’s description, this new spell didn’t feel like any Wind spell that he had learnt so far; but he hadn’t figure out a clear clue yet.
‘Yes, it is different.’ Dea
n Harries helped the boy out. ‘For ordinary spells like wind summoner or windblade, you first summon Wind Elements, then cast them to strike. But for this one, you don’t summon the elements — you distribute vibration to them instead. It is the vibration that does the damage, not the Wind Elements.’
‘It makes the air vibrate?’ Soarame nodded as he was reminded of Ecrif’s words that day. ‘So it shakes the air to create the noise, and does damage through that?’
‘You are almost right,’ the dean said, encouragingly. ‘But it shakes the Wind Elements, not the air. There’s a subtle difference between the two things.’
‘And what is that?’ Soarame’s eyes brightened. He recalled that the cold voice in the Godmade had told him something similar. ‘Isn’t the air made of Wind Elements?’
‘Great, great question! I wouldn’t have expected you to ask this yet,’ the dean said as his eyes widened. ‘The short answer is that the air is made from Wind Elements, but not made of them. But wait a minute — who told you about this?’
‘No one. I just like to woolgather.’ Soarame hurriedly made it up. ‘What’s the big deal?’
‘What’s the big deal? What you are talking about is the Essence of Wind Elements — what they are, and why they are what they are. By answering that question you can further answer the question of where this world comes from, and why!’ The dean’s breath quickened. ‘That’s the ultimate goal of every single wizard in the top rank, because the answer can not only give them understanding, but also incredible power!’
Soarame nodded as he listened. The dean had just made the same claim as had the cold voice in the Godmade. But Soarame was not sure about one thing — ‘Power?’
‘Of course, power!’ The dean sighed and shook subconsciously. He was a bit disappointed to realize that the boy had accidentally asked such a profound question without really thinking it through. ‘Think about it — once you know how Magic Elements form the world, you then, of course, know how to best utilize them to serve yourself!’