The Dao of Magic: Book II

by Andries Louws

  “Lots of plants around; this is a weird dungeon. There is nothing in this massive room, only some lights on the ceiling.”

  “Yeah, I feel really comfortable here. Lots of nature mana around.”

  “Comfortable, why do I feel like I should be angry then?”

  “I’m just feeling thankful…”

  “Wait a minute, those are the emotions linked to nature mana, right? This must be the nature or wood floor? Maybe other floors have other affinities?”

  “Can you guys please focus on helping my sister? I just gave her some rations to eat when she was hungry but forgot that qi is bad for untrained people. I’m sorry, sis.”

  Suddenly, the retching girl is filled with compassion and love for her brother. She feels gratitude at the care he showed her. Then anger floods her again as she realizes that her current state is his FUCKING FAULT, THE ASSHOLE.

  And just when she is getting distracted from the roiling pit that is her stomach, she somehow manages to vomit up even more biting bile.

  “Te… You know what, she’s in just as deep as us right now, no need to hide things anymore, right? So, Teach formed our cores for us, how do other people form qi cores?”

  “He punched me in the gut and I have a braincore, location is not important.”

  “Let’s try punching her with some qi loaded strikes?”

  “You are not punching my sister for fun.”

  Ares is too wrapped up in her tumultuous emotions to really pay attention to the conversation happening around her. All her attention is concentrated on laying down in a fresh patch of grass. She manages to squeeze out the presence of mind to not roll around in her own puke, at the least.

  “Let me try something.”

  “Ket, you are not punching my sister!”

  “No, no, I have a few theories on how to form a core. Let me try it.”

  “No Ket, you are also not groping my sister. Tell me what you want to try, and I will do it.”

  “Tsk.”

  Tess glares daggers at the black-haired boy. “So, you really wanted to touch her? What’s wrong with you?! Come on Angeta, beat him up, we girls have to stick together!”

  Honestly, at this point, Ares is fine with anything. Just please make this feeling stop. “Vox, please h-” Her plea gets cut off as she vomits again.

  “Ket, tell me what you plan on doing, she is not looking good and getting worse.”

  “Simple, move a ball of qi through the three locations.”

  “That’s it?”

  “Yes, see what sticks and release control of your qi if the place feels right. That’s all I can come up with.”

  “Kay, I will try.”

  Ares feels a hand on her stomach. She cracks open an eye with much effort and sees her brother staring at her with concern in his eyes. Compassion floods her again, barely winning out over anger.

  “All the hells, I feel her organs failing.”

  “What?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “She is slowly shutting down. It’ll get really bad in a day, I think. Please shut up, let me concentrate.”

  Ares feels a ball of… something moving inside her body. Her nausea fades a bit. Then, the ball moves up inside her chest and she faints.

  ⁂

  “Is she dead?”

  “Shut up Selis.” Vox’s terse reply causes the blue-haired girl to snap her mouth shut. She then furrows her brow and seems to be getting more and more angry in response to the terse reply. Then she looks around and suppresses the rising anger with obvious effort.

  “Not the gut, not the heart, not the brain. I don’t know…”

  “Try flooding her with your own qi, maybe you can suppress the rampant qi that way?”

  Vox closes his eyes in reply to Ket’s question. Light floods the unconscious figure as Vox slumps his shoulders a bit. “It stopped her organs from breaking down, at least. She vomited up her stomach lining there and there.” He points to the latest two places of dirty grass. Small flecks of pink can be seen in the yellow bile.

  “Damn, that must suck. So, what’s up with this dungeon?” Angeta asks while tapping her foot.

  As if in response, Bord kicks the ground and shoots off. His spinning flight stops when a figure appears under his foot. The shape formed from leaves that suddenly appeared explodes into a storm of shredded greenery.

  Only Vox is not looking at the majestic scene of Bord being showered by green confetti.

  “What was that? I felt a mana fluctuation just before you kicked it.”

  Bord shrugs at the beast woman’s question. “It felt slightly dangerous, so I kicked it.” His finger slowly reaches for his nose again but gets interrupted as a glowing green shard falls into his blonde hair. Fat fingers pluck the object from his head as he studies it.

  “Look at the ceiling, the crystal dimmed when Bord destroyed the… nature golem? Plant monster?”

  Everyone gazes up at the ceiling just in time to see two of the lights dim from blinding to just bright. “Vox, you are on healing and support. I will guard you two. The rest, do as you like. No uncontrolled external qi usage, I don’t think Teach would like it if we caused this dungeon to explode.”

  Angeta grins as she cracks her knuckles. “Finally, some fighting without all this stupid holding back!”

  Just when she is about to turn around to punch some plant monsters, Tess appears from her shadow, two green crystals in her hands. “They are even weaker than those dog things from the Tower’s first level. Ket, are these useful for Teach?”

  Ket catches the two shards and studies them. He flicks a hand sideways, a metal ball piercing through a suddenly appearing leaf monster. He crooks his finger and the metal ball hits the crystal falling from the ceiling. It explodes into green dust upon contact. “Oops, they seem quite fragile. I think that we can start producing quantitative amounts of qi with these.”

  He holds the crystal up to his nose and breathes in. “Going to need more mana types though, single mana type conversion gives very little qi.”

  “Yeah, whatever. We just have to beat up these plant things, right?”

  “Yes Angeta, we just have to beat up these plant things…” A tired expression flickers across Ket’s face as he answers the pumped up beastkin. “Why are you not feeling angry, though?”

  “Why do I need to be angry if there is so much anger in the air?”

  Ket seems about to reply but just shrugs his shoulders. His own face sports a grin as he rubs his spatial ring. A stream of metal objects, varying from ball to ingots to swords, start spinning around him. “Vox, heal as needed but focus on keeping the wild qi in Ares suppressed. Let’s kick this dungeon’s ass. We got to level forty last time, let’s see how far we can go!”

  Eight ceiling lights dim and eight plant golems appear as the group - except for the sibling duo - all smile with the same wild grin.

  Chapter nineteen

  Ambitions

  I ‘ve kept my qi as neutral as possible. I’d be easy prey for a water cultivator had I specialised in fire. Controlling lightning is useless if your opponent has a metal-based cultivation method. I have to admit though; this wind affinity is something else. It feels like my qi is still the same qi, as neutral as possible, but my entire being is in contact with the wind.

  I could have caught up with Rhea easily now that the wind obeys my mental commands without a need for qi. I can save a lot of power by telling the wind to part before me. And still, I let her go. I am sure she has her reasons, and it gives me some time to prepare, so it works out for me. Also, how can I follow my own path of freedom if I start restricting the paths other people follow? The least I can do when I do impose restrictions - like my no killing rule - is to explain the reasons and motivations.

  The jade necklace contains a whole suite of spying features along with the cultivation information, so I keep track of her wherever she goes anyway. I also included the little information I deduced about the switching process; I’m curious wh
ether or not she can control the entire thing with sufficient data. She should be able to manually control the entire liquefaction and reforming process using qi.

  She just landed a distance away and dumped my shirt in the woods and is now wearing some commoner’s garb. I will go and pick up the shirt in a bit, it is a pretty nice shirt, no need to let it become some animal’s chew toy.

  I mean, it is Heaven Spun Rising Sun Cotton. It contains a little bit of passive qi, so it will take a couple of million years for this planet’s ecosystem to destroy it. And it’s really comfortable. Waste not, want not.

  Back to the wind affinity, it is pretty neat. I managed to land from my Tower jump without using qi except for my stealth field. It feels like something I have read about, divine will. Ascended personages who came back to the cultivation world for whatever reason had the ability to influence the world with the power of their mind alone. No need for qi, augur, divine energies, ordinary will or what have you. Just a heavenly will so powerful that the world obeys.

  The air swirling around my body obeys me without any need for qi. I can slow down my fall and speed up my flight with my mind alone. It’s not much yet, but it helps. I don’t need to fight air resistance as hard as I used to, making moving around a lot more economical.

  All in all, I’m quite happy with this outcome. I don’t know if the affinity is tied to my body, soul, or mind, but the price of half my cultivation base was quite cheap, in my opinion.

  I see three dragons fly off into the distance. They soar north-east, confirming my suspicion that the dragon’s home base is beyond the mage isles, in the forbidden waters. Kicking the ground, I command the air to split before me. Some leaves get caught in my wake as I burst from the thicket I was hiding in.

  I make a pre-set for my scanning process, and it gives me a result nearly instantaneously. A small amount of passive qi is located a few hundred metres from a small village. I approach the place and see a neatly folded shirt laying on a tree stump. I pick it up and sniff it. Smells pretty good. Storing it in my ring, I move on.

  My next goal is the Capital. Curiosity about that place finally won out, and a small detour is a price I am willing to pay to satisfy that itch. I check the predictive part of the process keeping tabs on my students. Ares has a small chance of dying at the moment. It will reach fifty percent in a day or three. Sowing animosity with Vox is not on my to do list, let’s not let his sister die for nothing. They should be able to suppress the rampaging qi for a few days, right?

  Ares will need to start cultivating on her own. Core forming is a process I never truly understood. I only know that some steps need to be taken in order to increase the probability of forming a core. It’s a delicate balance of forcing and guiding qi to the possible locations, letting some of the power free to settle in, and waiting for the qi to snap into place. My disciples might attempt this, but I formed their cores for them when they were still blind to qi, no chance of them knowing how it’s done.

  I start running, supporting each step with air cushions. My quality of life has greatly increased compared to my time in the cultivation world. Instead of running through long lists of muscle stimulations to execute movement techniques, I can leave that to my heartcore. Instead of forcefully ramming through the air, I can now slip between the currents. I had not learned new things for a long time, but each day in this new world allows me to gather new knowledge.

  Maybe I should take things a bit more seriously once again? There is still that building full of frozen slaves in Tree. I have a group of disciples. I actually like Rhea. And if I am totally honest, I could leave it all behind. I would feel shitty for a few centuries, but what is time to someone effectively immortal? This entire planet could vanish, and my biggest concern would be my own boredom, stuck in the void of space.

  That is not an aspect of myself that I like. So maybe I should start investing and building something once again.

  I used to build and gather all sorts of things. I stopped once it was apparent that every high-level foundation cultivator in a couple of thousand-kilometre radius could peek inside my storage spaces and just take whatever they liked. And they did. Everyone was free game unless they were under the protection of a powerful sect or figure. Everything I made or wrote that wasn’t something standard got stolen by force.

  That habit became so ingrained that I never got into crafting interesting stuff anymore. Not even by the time I was powerful enough to defend myself. I kept tinkering, of course, but the truly interesting items and weapons only got made inside my mind.

  Ascension-level old monsters were even worse, privacy near a sect was non-existent. I took me a long time to learn this fact. But I’m not there anymore. Here there are no ancient powers desperate enough to keep their leading positions through genocide, or so I hope.

  So, let’s make some actual plans. I will reach the Capital in a few hours; I have some time. First, I should solidify my own power base. Helping others from a position of personal weakness will not be beneficial to either party. First, fix your own life before trying to fix others. So, I need a volcano. I think I know where I can find one.

  Setting up a qi cycle will start generating power inside Tree. This will supplement the exponential need for qi at higher cultivation levels. All the qi currently inside Tree is not enough to form a single foundation level entity. Having a source of qi that can keep up with our rising energy needs is a base-level necessity.

  In the past, I ran scenarios and researched this possibility a lot. I never did it because it would get snatched by some sect elder within seconds unless I stayed deep in the wilderness, where high-level monsters were abundant.

  Any form of dimensional space item big enough to live in was worth an entire major sect. They would only use it for space and prestige though. Generating qi is not that useful when the planet is bombarded with shitloads of qi from the sun.

  The contrast between the ice-cold mountain and the molten heat of the volcano will produce friction. The ice-influenced qi and the fire qi will clash, generating a bit more power in the process. That is my theory, at least. I have no scientific explanation of why this happens. It is just potential energy that reacts with itself in a slightly different phase. I tried pretty hard to find answers for this weird phenomenon. I have found none.

  Then I should set up a proper knowledge net. I’ve had the idea for a while now; I want to compact all that I know into a Wikipedia style format and allow others to add to it when they discover new information, make a version of the internet based on all my knowledge. Maybe use a massive slab of jade with a read-write permission controller? That way, I can cultivate my path of asking why and new knowledge without lifting a finger!

  Genius, I am truly a genius! That way I don’t have to think so much anymore and can let others do it for me. Maybe add on a quest system that is fuelled by some sort of spy system. Maybe throw a few satellites up through the atmosphere to scan the entire planet? I’ll have the brain capacity to support that kind of stuff when I reach foundation level.

  Give every single person, weak or strong, the ability to gain enough power to defend themselves? Maybe find out what happens when a medieval, cruel society suddenly gets some overpowered rule enforcers around? I stop my evil plotting and cease planning to take over the world because I can see the Capital.

  This heartcore is really fucking awesome! I could think while running. Normally, I’d have my brain full of speedy muscle control, balancing calculations and structural scans. Now I only need to scan how much force the ground under my feet can handle.

  I do a few flips and twirls around on my tippy toes. I don’t need to go into slow motion anymore! These movements used to take so many calculations that I would need to speed up time for myself. Now I only think of the movement, and it just happens!

  Alright, enough gloating about my heartcore.

  The Capital has wall thirty metres high, like all the other cities. It looks fake to me because it seems too perfectly round and
straight. Like a cheap rendered model photoshopped on a field of grass.

  It does smell real. My nose crinkles as the smells of a large city wash over me. Luckily, it’s not as bad as some mortal cities back in the cultivation world. Some places had massive amounts of animals inside the city. I dim the signal coming from my nose and keep running.

  I jump, reinforcing the ground to withstand the force, and look over the sprawling metropolis. My best guess is that four hundred thousand people live here. Smoke trickles from some chimneys, most of them located on the east side. There is no way that this is possible, right?

  There are a lot of carts on the road, and I see most of them carry foodstuffs, but this massive size is hardly plausible without modern technology providing and transporting enough food. I smell a secret here.

  I land and jump even higher. The ground in a ten-metre circle around me caves in as I worm my way through the air with excessive speed. My face deforms, and my lips flap about. Bwuwuwuwuwuwuwwuuuuuuuuuuu.

  Haha, that is fun. I cough and look at the city. A big castle is located near the coast, in the shape of a massive, square doughnut. Why is it shaped like a stone ring? Castles are hardly ever ring-shaped. Not without a good reason.

  I decide that my curiosity is more important than maintaining absolute stealth. I start weaving a small ball of qi. Done with that, I start forming qi constructs around my legs, hips, and back. I send a stream of qi forwards into the path of my next jump. Halfway to the ground, I gently lob the ball of qi forwards.

  I land and everything is still. The grass moves away from my landing but freezes as the air grows thick with gathering power. The exoskeleton-like constructs around my lower body start to bend as I pre-tense my muscles. I breathe out and flick the switch.

  The ground I leave behind explodes from the force of my jump, exploding and imploding at once. Left behind is a crater two hundred metres wide. My face and liwwuwuwuwwuBWUWUWUW—