The Dao of Magic: Book II

by Andries Louws

  With that, I jump away. I start running towards the south, slowly at first, but I speed up with every step I take. I jump into the storm and try fiddling with the air mana. I do something right, and the wind starts blasting at my back. I speed forwards, dodging large streaks of lightning by pure reflex. A few seconds later, the sky clears again.

  I look back and see half of the storm following me. Looks pretty neat. I focus forward and kick at the air. I form and yell at a shell of qi around me, gliding forward, my air resistance largely gone. I kick a wave, the exploding blast of water propelling me further ahead.

  ⁂

  Vox looks around. The shouting and ruckus around him suddenly stopping, the lack of noise catching his attention. He slowly lets his sister go as he takes in the sights. The storm which had been lurking a hundred or so metres from their current position has a dent in it.

  It’s like a giant being punched it with a giant fist, causing it to bend on a massive scale. Slowly, the storm further transforms as it lengthens and stretches backwards. The inner engine seems to be broken, and the storm starts disintegrating slowly.

  Vox then feels a hand touch his face. A faint power wants to invade his skin, but his subconscious protections are enough to withstand the pressure. Ares is holding a glowing hand up to his cheek, her face the picture of contentment.

  “No need,” Vox says with a smile. He circulates the power from his core through his bruised face and ribs. Pinpricks sparkle across his skin as his superficial wounds heal.

  Ares gasps. “You’re a light mage too?”

  “Something like that. Come with me for a second.” Vox then grabs the girl by her waist and gently jumps. Ares’ eyes go wide with shock, and she holds a hand to her mouth in order to prevent herself from screaming in fright. They soar through the air for a few seconds until they land on the bigger ship with a gentle thump.

  “…left before he told us who won, that’s kind of rude… Hi, Vox.” Tess stops speaking as the redhead plonks down on the deck, gently setting the girl down.

  “This is Ares, my sis. Where is Teach?” Vox sees complicated looks all around. “And where is the tall lady that suddenly appeared? Teach called her Rhea?” More complicated looks are cast in a lot of directions.

  “He, um…” Selis tries to explain but seems to be at a loss for words.

  “The Tower containment spell is full. He’s going to Tower City to fix it, I think.” Ket fiddles with his clothes as he looks around, not making eye contact with the newly arrived duo.

  Vox looks at the black-haired boy. “He just left? What’s in this crate?”

  “Rations. Only eat when hungry or something.”

  Vox taps his cheek as he looks up into the sky. “So… Teach is gone, just when we make contact with a group of mages?”

  “Test of independence!” Selis cheerily smiles at the redhead. She walks over to Ares. “Hi, I’m Selis. Are you Vox’s sister? You two look really alike.”

  The redheaded girl still has tear-tracks running across her cheeks, her hair a mess from the sudden jump, and her eyes puffy. Still, she musters up a smile. “Nice to meet you, Selis.”

  Selis nods and starts rapidly talking. “This fatty is Bord, the gloomy guy is Ket, the furry chick is Angeta, and the girl no one ever notices is Tess.”

  She yanks the black-haired girl forward, presenting her to Ares. Ares however, is staring at the beastwoman. She raises a trembling finger. “W-what is someone like her d…”

  Selis dramatically slaps her forehead. “Ah, almost forgot that other people are still this silly.” This time she pulls Ket forward. “Ket, you used to be a racist piece of shit. What are your views on being with other external features than you have now?”

  Ket’s eyebrows try climbing to his hairline as he remains silent for a few seconds. “I did some calculations, and racism is inefficient.”

  “See, he doesn’t care! Neither should you.” Ares is so overloaded by the barrage that she can’t get her thoughts in order.

  “RETURN HER NOW BY THE ORDER OF SUSPENSION AND WAVE!”

  Selis frowns as her introduction is rudely interrupted. “What should we do about them, though?” She gestures to the other boat, still filled with potential hostile mages.

  Ket makes a vague gesture, and the rambling shrieks coming from the mage-filled boat are muted. “Some quiet, that’s better. So, Teach is gone and has given us a free pass to do whatever we want. Vox, congrats on finding your long-lost sister or something like that, but what do we do now?”

  Angeta is the first to speak. “Teach is going to gather more q… energy for us all to use right? The energy in Tree is getting kind of low. Mana can be turned into energy, so should we go to that Mana Mine Dungeon thing?”

  Vox speaks up. “Teach is obviously hitting on that woman, but she doesn’t have a trace of energy. Are you guys sure that introducing a new face to that whole… conundrum is wise?”

  “Ah, the dragon lady?” The water dripping from the sail and boom is suddenly very loud as everyone stares at Bord. “Didn’t any of you feel like someone was watching you over the last week? And there always was this mysterious white dot in the sky right above us. I think Teach is pretty cool for trying to bang a dragon.” He continues picking his nose as he talks with a slightly bored expression on his fat face.

  Angeta is twitching while some object wrapped around her waist squirms wildly. Ket just freezes as steam comes from his head, Selis is staring with her mouth agape, Vox is rubbing his eyes, Tess is in the beginning stages of curling up again and Ares is just all around confused.

  “I knew Teach was something, but that is pretty insane, even for him,” Tess says.

  “Maybe stuff like that was normal in Teach’s w… hometown?” Selis asks while fidgeting.

  “Rhea is Flight? Rhea is Flight.” Ket is mumbling those three words over and over, seemingly stuck in a loop.

  “Uhm, Ket? What are the chances of us running into trouble we can’t handle?”

  Ket glances at the difficult to notice bunny, who is still staring at the mages’ boat, as he replies to Selis’ question. “Under twenty percent.” He looks around and only sees blank faces. “One out of five,” he elaborates.

  “Ah, thanks. So, let’s go to the Mana Mine. Vox, you’re responsible for your sister?” Selis looks around as she asks this question. She sees nods from all. “She’s your responsibility then. I don’t want Teach withholding foo… getting mad at us for something like that.”

  She turns around and looks at the boat. The single mage who is still standing is getting more and more red in the face as she tries to scream through the sound barrier Ket placed. “What do we do about them, though?”

  “I have something for that, I think. Ninety percent certainty. Ares, you know what this is?” Ket pulls a stick topped with a small gem from his ring.

  Ares goes pale and stumbles back. “Where in all the hells did you get that?” She starts shaking as her hands involuntarily grasp for the object.

  Ket just nods, turns around and walks to the railing. He then throws the stick with a long and carefully measured arc towards the smaller boat. It lands perfectly straight up in the middle of the rowdy group of mana wielders. All the mages immediately look at it.

  Purnicia is the first to go pale. Taran and Resen both start shaking as their eyes grow wide as saucers. The other leftover mages quickly follow in this behaviour, freezing up while going pale and shaking. None of them react as the bigger boat extends its oars and slowly paddles away, leaving the mages behind.

  “What was that thing?” Selis asks as the entire group is standing around the steering wheel.

  “Something that dropped in the Tower. Teach just took some raw materials for himself but left the rest to us, right? Ares, I think it was earth, so not useful for you, but can you explain?”

  The girl has been staring at the slowly shrinking mage’s boat the entire time, but this direct question is enough to snap her attention back to the group. Awe,
fear and reverence fill her voice as she speaks. “That was a mage wand. It will double anyone’s mana control. Entire kingdoms have been destroyed over those items.”

  Ket grins savagely. “Just a heap of weapons and materials seemed - to me - a way too small a reward for reaching the levels Teach did, so the Tower must have granted that item to make him go away, or something.” He starts humming a tune as he pushes some buttons on the steering wheel, making the oars move faster.

  “But… but won’t taking Ares with us raise suspicions?” Vox asks with a worried glance to his sister.

  Ket only grins wider at that. “The little I know about mages tells me that they won’t hesitate to kill each other over that item. Taking a single mage from that patrol group won…”

  A massive blast of multicoloured mana exploding behind them seems to underline his words. “Heh, not my fault the greedy nutcases can’t control themselves. Sorry if there were any friends of yours among them, Ares, but I couldn’t think of any other efficient way to get rid of them.”

  The blast of wind gets diverted by the still active shield. Ket pushes a button and the barrier disappears as the ship fades from view. Ares smiles as she watches this happen. “No problem. I thank all of you for taking care of my little brother while I couldn’t be here.”

  Vox unconsciously rubs his stomach as Ares literally starts glowing with contentment.

  Chapter ten

  Unanticipated

  I kick the water again as I glide back down to sea level. I leave a rising column of water in my wake. Those must be visible for miles around. I just dropped stealth way down on my priority list. The strain my circle formation is under becomes cleared the closer I get to the Tower.

  The waves in front of my path bulge upwards and I jump again. A massive tentacle rises out of the sea as I soar above it. I frown at the unexpected obstacle in my path. Water is too dense to scan with any ease, pushing qi through it costs a lot more effort. My radar only penetrates a few metres of the sea. I divert some more power to my scanning process, and I immediately sense a lot of sea creatures moving in my opposite direction, all of them rushing towards the last fragments of the fading storm.

  I cycle through all the emotions that are linked to mana, but the elemental mana seems calm to my eyes. Then I remember learning the feelings linked to air mana, so I simulate some admiration and loathing. The world lights up around me. Grand streamers of a deep indigo move towards the dissipating storm.

  I make note of this, setting up a reminder to check why animals without any air affinity are attracted by the disturbed air mana. I dodge another tentacle bursting through the sea surface. I bend backwards and feel water droplets smashing into my body as I narrowly dodge the squirming limb.

  Landing with a lazy backflip, I tread the waves while hugging the water surface. Sudden course corrections are less qi-expensive when I can kick against the relatively heavy water instead of having to cause small sonic booms to manoeuvre around. I use the tops of the waves to make large zigzagging motions, avoiding the large variety of marine animals below the surface.

  I hope my students are smart enough to evacuate the area near the storm quickly, constant pressure against the ship’s shield will drain it quickly. I shove the image of a vessel hugging octopus to the back of my mind and decide to spend my time wisely while letting my heartcore move on autopilot.

  I have done very little actual cultivation so far. This is because the time needed between levels also scales with time. A beginner cultivator can break through the initial levels and realms rather quickly, but things slow down when the foundation realm has been reached.

  My subconscious habits are still the ones of a pre-ascension stage old monster, not those of a core forming newbie. The fact that I missed the Tower circle link for such a long time is more than enough proof for me to want to fix this.

  While my body propels itself over the wave tops, kicking against water with such force that it explodes into steam, I focus inwards. I concentrate my attention on my heartcore, which is still a large unknown to me. I have read a lot of theoretical information about cultivating the body and heart. I’ve found the amount of actual information in these texts to be even less than traditional cultivation techniques. I move a strand of augur from my braincore through my chest, feeling every cell and fibre it glides through.

  I narrow the strand into a needlepoint as I move it closer to my beating heart. I check the outputs of my running processes and sense no danger to me for kilometres around. With increased focus, I slowly caress the core inside my heart.

  Water sprays everywhere as I fall flat on my face. I grind across the choppy surface, bouncing across the salty wetness with massive force. High-pressure water smacks into my face and body as I send a plume of misted seawater up into the sky. My mind is exploding with information. My strand of augur slides through my heartcore, overloading my brain. In a daze, I skid across the water as I flip head over heels, smashing into wave after wave as the world spins around me.

  With a final flip, I plunge to a halt. I lie there for a few seconds, calming my body and mind. Staring upwards into the blue sky, I wait as my mind comes back to me. I try it again the moment I find my equilibrium, determined to figure out why I just lost all motor control. With a bit more care I caress the needle point of augur over and just into my heartcore. The amount of information is still straining, but manageable this time.

  My curiosity peaked, I study the scanned image. A holographic representation of a large cluster of heart cells shines brightly in my mind’s eye. The contact point of augur and core is lit up with dense information. I take a closer look and see a near-infinite fine mesh of separated core structures. Besides the normal-sized cells I’m expecting, I see a second level of dense information - the place where my heartcore begins, the amount of data per cubic millimetre skyrockets.

  I narrow my focus, even more, trying to decipher what exactly I am sensing. I zoom in further, ignoring large amounts of data as I study a minuscule part of the whole. My heartcore seems to be made from nanoscopic compartments, their small and varying shapes reminding me of ordinary cells. I look at one of the heartcore compartments with close scrutiny and come to the conclusion that it really is a miniature cell. What the heck? Why are there cellular models inside my heartcore?

  Focusing on one, I start to feel a link. I follow the link and arrive at my crotch. The heartcore compartment is linked to a single cell in my left testicle? I frown rather deeply as I look at another heartcore section. That one has a link to a pancreas cell. Another is connected to a single skin cell and the fourth one I check is a fat cell in my nose.

  I measure how big each compartment is and use that to divide with the total volume of my heartcore. My sum tells me that around a hundred trillion compartments can be fit inside the core. An adult human body has around forty trillion cells, give or take a few. I thus conclude that half of my heartcore is filled with sections, one for every living cell in my body.

  This answers a couple of my questions about body cultivation. It’s just a shame that I can formulate so many more things to be tested with this new information that I have even more experimenting to do now. I smile wryly, the more you know, the more you realise how little you really know. I add any new experiments I come up with to my ever-growing to-do list.

  Spreading some qi through the water I’m floating in; I stand up and start moving again. I try to bore down into my heartcore, making the needle of augur as thin as possible, but I get overwhelmed before I get through a quarter of the core’s radius. My braincore isn’t powerful enough to handle all the different sections, and I get a headache. I manually heal my bleeding nose and try once more. My mind fills up with the scanned data before I can see what the inner half is made up of.

  I’ll try that again later. I just hope that my heartcore won’t grow even denser and harder to scan by then. I set a small notification process running. It will remind me to check my cores and general cultivation once per day. I c
an no longer afford to go years without doing in-depth cultivation reviews.

  I feel both anger and joy at the fact that I got stripped of my thousand years strong cultivation base. On the one hand, I’m weak as shit right now. On the other hand, I get to do it all over again with a millennium of cultivation experience under my belt. My dual core setup is another win, but the general powerlessness in my current situation sort of cancels it out.

  I do take note of the fact that I can do stuff way above my power level. Making Tree into a dimensional and semi-aware artefact is not something I should have been able to accomplish. Nor should I have been able to make spatial rings. My braincore can only account partially for these feats of strength.

  My mood sours as I recall why I’m in this situation in the first place. Usually, I don’t really bother with revenge and stuff like that, but I think I’ll have to make an exception this time. I make another note and decide to forget about it until I am near ascension again. Until then, all I can do is prepare and regain my power. For now, though, I decide to stop lazing about as the waves carry me back and forth.

  I continue moving across the sea, the waves becoming higher as the seabed rises. The sea creatures are acting normally in this area, no swarms of them racing just under the surface. I pull up a scan of the mage boat we met. The mana cannon is the first man-made magical device I have seen so far.

  It is made from some sort of iron, but I’m not sure what type. I was kind of distracted at the time, so I didn’t do a detailed augur scan. From what I can tell, it works on a very simple principle.

  A complex web of inlaid channels guides the injected mana into the cannon’s pressure chamber. There, a mana powered force field stops it from exiting the barrel prematurely. The pressure keeps building until it overpowers the force field, causing the raw power to explode from the barrel. A crude and unpredictable system, it does pack quite a punch. From what I have seen so far, the cannon is a lot more effective than all the mana users casting spells separately. It’s penetrating power - courtesy of the high speeds the energetic beam is travelling at - is nothing to sneeze at.