Book 01, Coiling Dragon Ring

by Unknown

  “Those who have the same spiritual power as me are most likely Saint-level combatants. Only Saint-level combatants can sense my presence, if barely. But of course, the prerequisite is that I appear outside the Coiling Dragon Ring. Once I enter the ring, there is no way they can find me.” Doehring Cowart smiled as he spoke.

  Linley mentally nodded as he grabbed a roasted leg of mutton and chewed on it.

  “Linley, eat more slowly.” Hogg saw how fast Linley was eating and couldn’t help but laugh.

  Linley grinned at his father, but continued to devour his food with haste. In the twinkling of an eye, he had stripped the leg of mutton of all flesh. Linley let out a comfortable burp, then used the napkin to wipe his lips. Standing, he said, “Father, Uncle Hiri, I’m done eating. I feel like my head is still a bit dizzy, so I’m going to go and get some more rest. Wharton, see ya.” Linley was the first to finish eating.

  “Still feeling dizzy? Then go and get some rest.” Hogg hurriedly said.

  The earlier events of the morning had left a lasting impression on Hogg. There was a moment when he even thought Linley had been crushed to death. After experiencing such an event, Hogg’s attitude towards Linley clearly had improved substantially.

  “Big brother, see ya.” Chubby little Wharton waved at Linley with a grease-covered hand.

  *

  Book 1, Chapter 21 – Earth-Style Magic (part 2)

  Linley ran directly back to his room, and then tightly shut the door behind him.

  He quickly removed his shoes, then jumped onto the bed and sat down. “Grandpa Doehring, come out now. Help me test my magical aptitude.” Linley was extremely impatient. When he was eating dinner just now, all of his thoughts were turned towards this.

  A misty ray of light shot out from within the ring, falling onto the floor and transforming into Doehring Cowart.

  Grinning, Doehring Cowart said, “Linley, don’t be so impatient. First, I must tell you that because I don’t have any specialized magical aptitude testing equipment with me, I can only test whether or not you have any talent for earth-style magic. Since I have no tools, there’s no way for me to test and see if you have aptitude for any other magic.”

  “You can only test for my aptitude for earth element magic?” Linley felt a little disappointed.

  He had also heard that in order to test for magical aptitude, special tools were needed, but since Grandpa Doehring was a Saint-level Grand Magus, Linley had been hoping Doehring might have some special methods.

  “What’s wrong with the earth style? Linley, let me tell you, amongst the elements of earth, fire, water, wind, thunder, light, and darkness, earth is the mightiest style of them all.” A look of pride was on Doehring Cowart’s face. Clearly, he was filled with confidence. After all, he was a Saint-level Grand Magus of the earth element style.

  Linley found this somewhat hard to believe.

  Each style should be equal. How could the earth style be the mightiest?

  “Grandpa Doehring, I heard that fire-style elemental attacks are the most powerful? And that darkness-style elemental attacks are the most unpredictable? How could the earth style be the mightiest?” Linley frowned.

  The formerly amiable Grandpa Doehring suddenly turned angry as he grumbled, “Linley, let me tell you that when it comes to attack power, each elemental style has its strengths!”

  “For example, the forbidden fire-style spell of ‘Heavenly Fire Burning the Fields, Earthly Fire Burning the Cities’ can burn an entire city to ashes, true. But the water-style has the forbidden spell of ‘Absolute Zero’, which when unleashed can freeze to death hundreds of thousands of people. Thunder-style’s ‘Heavenly Lightning of Absolute Destruction’ can unleash tens of thousands of lightning bolts, which no one can survive. Wind-style’s forbidden spell, ‘Annihilating Tempest’, can fill the entire sky with blade-like gusts of wind… “

  Doehring Cowart let out a long sigh.

  Linley’s heart was trembling.

  He had thought that the fire-style’s attacks were the most powerful, but from the sound of it, that was an absolute joke. Every single elemental style, at the level of forbidden spells, contained astonishing destructive power.

  “And earth-style?” Linley didn’t forget about the earth-style elemental magic.

  Doehring Cowart self-confidently said, “How could the earth-style be weak? When the earth-style’s forbidden spell, ‘Heavenly Meteor’s Descent’, is executed, countless enormous boulders will rain from the sky and reduce a city to rubble in the twinkling of an eye. It also has the forbidden spell, ‘Heaven Collapses, Earth Shatters’. When this spell is used, the earth itself will begin to roil about like waves in the ocean. Houses will collapse, the earth itself will split apart, and magma will spew out from the cracks, killing countless people.”

  Linley didn’t dare to even breathe.

  “Simultaneously, the earth-style also has the wide-ranging protective spell, ‘Pulsating Guard’. Once the Pulsating Guard is used, the area above, below, and around an entire city will become protected from all attacks. Even if an opponent uses the ‘Heavenly Lightning of Absolute Destruction’, this spell can fend it off.”

  Doehring Cowart began to speak faster and faster while laughing. “But of course, I’m just speaking of wide-range destructive spells, and not one-on-one battle magic.”

  Linley nodded.

  He could tell that Grandpa Doehring was exclusively talking about wide-range, castatrophe-level magic.

  “Grandpa Doehring, it seems like the earth-style has lots more forbidden spells? Why is that?” Linley said curiously.

  Doehring Cowart said confidently, “Linley, there’s something you aren’t understanding. Actually, each elemental style is roughly balanced, but in different environments they will have different effects. For example, in the water-rich environment of the ocean, water-style magic will be extremely strong. In some places where the wind blows powerfully, wind-style magic will be very powerful as well.”

  Linley began to understand.

  “Linley… in the entire world, isn’t it true that most battles and most magi are on the earth? And when used while standing on the earth, earth-style magic is extremely effective.” A smile was on Doehring Cowart’s face. “As you stand firmly on the boundless earth, an earth-style magus will have an extremely effective assistant.”

  Linley now understood!

  Each elemental style of magic was more effective in certain places.

  But the battles fought by the magi of the Yulan continent were virtually all on land, meaning that earth-style magi were almost always at an advantage.

  “Amongst all the styles of magic, as the earth-style allows us to absorb earth elemental essence into our bodies, earth-style has the most benefit for improving your physical form. Mother Earth is most benevolent towards us.” A look of veneration was on Doehring Cowart’s face. “When we earth-style magi sit upon the ground, we can feel the vastness of the earth, feel its pulse, and feel Mother Earth’s love for us.”

  “When it comes to attacks, earth-style magic has the one-on-one ‘World Protector’ forbidden battle spell, and also the destructive spells of ‘Heavenly Meteor’s Descent’ and ‘Heaven Collapses, Earth Shatters’. When it comes to defense, amongst the forbidden spells, there is the wide-ranging protective spell, ‘Pulsating Guard’, as well as the personal protective spell, ‘Earthguard’. When it comes to personal protection, nothing beats earth-style elemental spells!”

  Doehring Cowart appeared very confident.

  “Personal protection? Grandpa Doehring, you’re saying that the earth-style has the strongest personal protection spells?” Linley looked questioningly at Doehring Cowart.

  Doehring Cowart laughed as he said, “At the earliest levels, earth-style magi have access to simple spells such as a shield of earth, or a wall of earth. Upon becoming a magus of the fifth rank, you will gain access to the ‘Earthguard’ spell, which will continuously grow in power along with you.”

>   “When utilized by a magus of the fifth or sixth rank, it will cover your entire body with a layer of stone armor. But upon reaching the seventh rank, it will transform into an armor of jadeite. Upon reaching the eighth rank, this Earthguard armor will be made up of crystal jade. And upon reaching the ninth rank, it will be composed of platinum. Finally, when a Saint-level magus executes the Earthguard spell, the protective armor will be made out of diamonds. The defensive power of this spell… ” as he spoke, a smile appeared on Doehring Cowart’s face.

  Linley couldn’t help but sigh inwardly.

  This earth-style element really was a mighty one. When the Earthguard spell reached the Saint-level of power, it was composed entirely of diamonds! Linley knew that diamonds were an extremely hard and unyielding substance. And the ‘diamonds’ composing the Earthguard were no ordinary diamonds, but ones formed from magic, making them even tougher than real diamonds.

  “Oh, right… “

  Linley suddenly remembered the two Saint-level combatants who were fighting in the sky. He remembered how the green-robed man had landed that huge hazy sword-tip attack on the gray-robed man, whose robe shattered and revealed a diamond-like armor beneath it.

  That Saint-level magus named ‘Rudi’ had relied on that diamond armor to block the attack by Dillon.

  “That must have been a Saint-level Earthguard spell.” Linley felt secretly shocked.

  It was powerful enough to take a direct blow from a Saint-level combatant. From this, one could tell how powerful it was, defensively.

  “This is why I told you that earth-style magic is the mightiest elemental style of them all.” Doehring Cowart’s white beard fluttered about, making him look all the more self-satisfied.

  After all, all men survived by living on the earth. They lived on the earth, and they made war while on the earth. Naturally, earth-style magi would always have an advantage.

  *

  Book 1, Chapter 22 – Spring Ends, Autumn Comes (part 1)

  Actually, all of the elemental styles, including earth-style, had their own particular strengths. But as a Saint-level Grand Magus of the earth-style, it was only natural that Doehring Cowart would strongly praise the earth-style. The eight year old Linley, upon hearing Doehring’s words, was filled with eagerness.

  “Grandpa Doehring, hurry up and test me and see if I have any aptitude for becoming an earth-style magus.” Linley was feeling extremely anxious.

  Doehring Cowart began to laugh. “Fine, I’ll test you right away.”

  “First, let me tell you that the test for magical aptitude is a two-part test, so the test I am administering will also have two parts.” Doehring Cowart was behaving in an unusually generous manner. After having been trapped along in the Coiling Dragon Ring for five thousand years, of course he was now in a wonderful mood when faced with such a cute little child.

  “Magical aptitude is divided into two parts – the strength of one’s magical affinity for certain elements, and the strength of one’s mental energy.” Doehring Cowart began to explain the basics of the test.

  “What are these two parts good for?” Linley asked curiously.

  Doehring Cowart said in a kindly voice, “Linley, before answering this, let me ask you, if a magus is about to cast a spell, what does he rely upon?”

  “Magical incantations!” Linley immediately said.

  Linley had seen how the magus who rode the Velocidragon first mumbled many magical words before casting his spell.

  “Wrong.”

  “I’ve seen magi cast spells. All of them recited magical incantations first.” Linley immediately argued.

  Doehring Cowart stroked his white beard, and contentedly said, “When casting spells, the most important thing for a magus is his ‘mageforce’ and his ‘mental energy’. If his mental energy is sufficiently powerful, he can even instacast spells, without need for any incantations. Magical incantations only serve a supplemental function.”

  “Oh? Instacast?” Linley looked questioningly at Doehring Cowart. Linley felt as though suddenly, the huge world of sorcery was slowly opening up before his very eyes, but still remained hazy and indistinct. Doehring Cowart, however, was dissipating the mysterious façade behind this world of magic.

  Smiling, Doehring Cowart nodded. “Right. To cast a spell, your body must be able to provide a sufficient amount of mageforce, and then use mental energy to control that mageforce to summon sufficient elemental essence to form it into a spell!”

  “Elemental essence?” Linley was surprised. “Grandpa Doehring, are you saying that in order to cast magical spells, we need to draw upon external elemental essences?”

  “Haha. Of course. Linley, did you think that a powerful magus could simply rely on the elemental essence already in his body? Impossible! Let’s look at forbidden-level magical spells. The mageforce in the body of a Saint-level magus can only provide 1% of the amount of essence needed. The other 99% can only be provided by natural, elemental essence.”

  “Let me put it to you like this… a magus’ so-called ‘mageforce’ is really just pure, highly-refined elemental essence. Mageforce can be described as a ‘general’, whereas nature’s elemental essence is the soldiers. A magus summons his mageforce and uses it to direct nature’s elemental essence to form amazing spells. Understood?” Doehring Cowart smiled as he looked at Linley.

  Linley couldn’t help but frown.

  “Oh… I understand.” Linley laughed and nodded. “The ‘mageforce’ inside a magus is kinda like Uncle Hillman, while elemental essence is like our group of kids. Uncle Hillman, all by himself, directs our entire group in training, or in attacking, or engaging in battle!”

  Doehring Cowart smiled and nodded. “Right. Therefore, the ‘mageforce’ of a magus is extremely important. If he doesn’t have enough mageforce, he will not be able to cast a spell.”

  Linley nodded.

  “Compared to mageforce, however, mental energy is even more important!” Doehring Cowart smiled as he spoke. “By now, you should have realized that so-called mental energy is really spiritual energy, a form of controlling energy!”

  “Linley, a large amount of mageforce draws out an even larger amount of elemental essence. If such a huge amount of force is not controlled by spiritual energy… what do you think the end result would be?” Doehring Cowart stroked his white beard as he quietly watched Linley.

  Linley frowned, pondering.

  “Grandpa Doehring.” Linley said in a low voice as he frowned. “In some books, I read about some military tactics. In it, one of the things it said was… to subdue an enemy, first subdue their king. For example, bandits. If you first kill the bandit leader, the bandit army will naturally crumble to pieces and fall apart. So spiritual energy should serve a similar purpose as the ‘controlling energy’ which the bandit leader exerts on his subordinates. Without spiritual energy to control a large amount of mageforce and elemental essence, this power would run wild.”

  Doehring Cowart laughed.

  “Haha, Linley, you are very smart.” Doehring Cowart was laughing happily.

  “Right, a large amount of mageforce and elemental essence, when controlled by spiritual energy, can be formed into a spell! Sometimes, in order to execute a particularly powerful spell, too high of a demand is placed upon one’s spiritual energy. Thus, the assistance of magical incantations is needed.” Doehring Cowart smiled as he spoke.

  Linley felt as though a huge, important principle of magic had suddenly become crystal clear to him.

  Smiling at Linley, Doehring Cowart continued, “Of course, that’s just the basic theory. The world of magic is far more complicated than you can imagine! The question of exactly how one uses mageforce and elemental essence to form ‘magic’, now that’s the real issue!”

  “What’s the point of having mageforce, if you don’t know exactly how to shape it into a magical spell?” Doehring Cowart let out a long sigh. “The world of magic is an extremely complicated one. Magical research is very difficult
and dangerous. But due to intra-empire struggles, countless magi engage in the research of new types of spells.”

  “Actually, every single empire researches new ways of using different matrices of mageforce and elemental essence to produce different spells! But magical research is extremely dangerous. The more destructive a spell potentially is, the harder it is to research. Sometimes, it can even catastrophically backlash upon the researchers.”

  Doehring Cowart laughed as he spoke. “In most magus academies, you can only study spells up to the sixth rank. Spells of the seventh, eighth, and ninth ranks, as well as Saint-level spells, are considered secrets. Only if you join a kingdom will you gain access to those special spells.”

  Linley had read many books and therefore understood this principle.

  “If you have no instructor? No matter how much mageforce you have or how high your spiritual energy is, you won’t be able to execute a single spell!” Doehring Cowart smiled faintly. “The profound secrets of every magical spell lies in how to control mageforce and elemental essence to form the spell.”

  “After countless years of magical experimentation, the magical system has essentially been perfected.” Stroking his white beard, Doehring Cowart laughed loudly. “Linley, don’t worry. In the future, there’s no need for you to bend the knee to any kingdom or any lord, because… I can teach you seventh, eighth, ninth, and even Saint-level spells!”

  Linley took a deep breath.

  He could feel himself embarking on a new path.

  Under the guidance of Grandpa Doehring, he had no need to continue to follow the path of the warrior. He would now embark on the more mysterious, more powerful way of the magus.

  “Come, let’s begin the test of the strength of your elemental affinities. Sit down with legs crossed, close your eyes, and enter a meditative state.” Doehring Cowart said gently.

  “Meditative state?” Linley felt his heartbeat quicken.

  How would his affinity rate?

  “Don’t worry. Just carefully try and see what you can sense, and whenever you sense something, just tell me.” Doehring Cowart smiled encouragingly towards Linley. Linley immediately closed his eyes and tried to force himself to calm down.