The Dao of Magic: Book II

by Andries Louws

  I suspect that the memory banks in my brain have a sort of dial-up connection to an energy construct in a higher dimension. Firing my memory neurons in specific patterns then provides the requested memory.

  Back on Earth, there were stories about people who could remember every single day of their life. They could look back through every day, hour and minute of their life like flipping through a file cabinet. The brain is quite complicated, but storing such enormous amounts of data seems to break the laws of physics.

  All the information I could remember was available for access even when I didn’t have a scrap of qi inside my head. My braincore simply allows me to access more of it at once. I am sure it will all become clearer to me once I reach a higher-level universe or plane, but so far, my experiments on the soul have been crude at best.

  Long story short, compressing and archiving all that data into an easily accessible file format is quite the challenge. I have merged a lot of the smaller pieces of jade in my ring into a single whole, giving me a sizable amount of storage to work with.

  So far, I have linked and archived all the information that I found inside the library in the Capital. The head-sized chunk of green stone now contains a high school level of data in a sprawling web of knowledge. Currently, I’m working on an access system. I’m torn between making physical terminals or linking the database to smaller pieces of jade.

  I wave my hand and the flying pieces of tree shooting towards me clatter off a quickly formed shield. Angeta has ripped a tree out of the ground and is trying to tenderize Bord. Without much success. He absorbs the physical force without moving a step, the rippling fatty tissue the only indication that he just got hit with the force of a speeding truck.

  I quirk an eyebrow as the shattered tree reforms into a giant, Angeta hanging inside of its chest. So, she did go for wood control intent, after all. Her previously vibrant green aura now has a darker, sturdier feel to it. Bord’s aura feels weird, a combination of geometric abstractness and unmoving strength.

  A large brown fist crashing down on Bord finally forces him to move a single step. He then twirls around, using the circular momentum to perform a gale inducing roundhouse kick. A single wooden leg shatters back into its individual splinters as Bord continues to whittle away at the splintered construct.

  Selis is cheering them both on, water sloshing in intricate patterns as it follows her cheerleading dance.

  “Go Bord! Go Angeta!”

  “EAT SPLINTERS, FATTY!”

  “POLY PUUUUNCH!”

  KER-BLOOOOOM

  I want to focus back on my own project, but this entire scene is just too amusing. Angeta crashes through a tree as Bord waves his hand around.

  “Ow, that hurt.”

  “WOO GO BOOORD! That’s twenty-three to twelve. GO ANGETA!”

  “COME HERE STUPID TREE.” huff huff “AND LAUNCH!”

  Bord gets pelted by a hail of tree shrapnel as Selis takes cover behind a thick wall of water. Talking about trees, maybe I should make Tree the access point? It could keep a list of permissions and note down the progress people have made in studying the material provided.

  I ignore the rampaging trio and decide to have a nice chat with Tree.

  ⁂

  “DIIIEEE! DIE DIE DIE DIE!”

  Vox is looking at his sister with a complicated look in his eyes. Ket pokes him in the arm. “She is wild.”

  “Is this the effect Teach has on all of us?”

  “I don’t know. Thinking is hard. I’m going to punch some things now.” Ket walks away, a blissful smile on his face. He pulls a metal brick from his ring, throws it into the air and punches it. It leaves a vapour trail as it smashes through a swordfish-like stone construct that just emerged from the rolling waves of earth.

  “Ket, please go back to a braincore cultivation.” Ket doesn’t even glance back at Vox’s request and continues to shatter the sleek stone forms emerging from the dark waves, a stupid grin on his face.

  Four humans and a rabbit move around in an enormous cave. The ceiling hangs high above a sea of moving dirt. All kinds of stone fish jump at the intruders, only to be dispatched in a wide variety of ways.

  Tess is surfing the undulating earth, doing insane acrobatic tricks with a dull expression on her face. “Bored, so bored. So incredibly booooored.” Every move causes a torrent of black streaks to fly from her limbs in every direction.

  Small knives made from pitch black qi fly everywhere, missing allies with calculated precision and every single one hitting a weak spot of the dungeon monsters. A few dozen more black streaks emerge from her feet as she handstands over a rock turtle that’s snapping at her ankles. Every black weapon scores a hit or bounces a falling mana shard into her direction. Most do both. A lot do even more in a single throw, their trajectory calculated with utmost precision.

  She twirls again, becoming a dark blur moving too fast for normal eyes to follow. The movement ends in a triumphant pose on top of a breaching grey whale, her hands filled with brown shards of mana. Numerous black qi constructs fall from up high and strike around her feet. The whale freezes as cracks appear everywhere on the massive aquatic and moving stone statue. Tess rides the waves of disintegrating rocks downwards and continues to skate over the roiling soil, all the while stuffing solid mana into her ring.

  “Calculating the least amount of force necessary for optimum stone breakage is too easy. I’m so bored. I hate having a braincore, I need to think way too much. LOLA, COME HERE PLEASE!”

  A white bundle of fluff bounds towards the black-haired girl, jumping into her arms while avoiding a mass of granite flying fish.

  “Thanks Lola. I’m going to try a heartcore this time, cya later!” Tess touches the necklace around the rabbit’s neck and with a wave towards the others, she disappears.

  Ket and Ares are now working together to reduce the stone fish into gravel. The redheaded girl is still shouting “DIE” at the top of her lungs every time her fist smashes through a dungeon mob. Ket is just giggling to himself while wacking a marble hammerhead shark in the face with a metal pole.

  Vox scratches his head while looking at the spectacle. The surface of roiling soil under his feet explodes as a segmented stone tentacle attempts to wrap itself around him. A flash of blinding light later, he is standing on top of the emerging appendage while looking down.

  “Speed is fine and all, I just have no attack power like this.” He disappears with another flash, landing next to the rampaging duo a split second later. “I’m going to try out another intent. Pure speed is useless for attack.”

  “Weapon?” Ket utters a single word in between his giggling fit. The metal pole is now rammed up into a certain marble orifice and Ket is waving the shark around like a flag.

  Vox looks at his ring as realisation dawns in his eyes. A curved sword with a long handle appears in his hand. He twirls it around experimentally, avoiding a shark exploding from the dirt waves in the meantime. Ket smashes the impaled shark against the newcomer and both stone creatures shatter into pieces.

  “Crystals!” Ket once again only utters a single word before going ham on a stone turtle. Vox looks around and curses under his breath. He zooms away, barely preventing some mana crystals from disappearing under the brown waves.

  “LET’S DO THIIIIIIIS!” A thunderous voice sounds through the large cave as Bord pops into existence above Lola. He looks around for half a second and jumps away. Soon three heartcore cultivators are going all out on the large variety of boulder-like animals.

  Ket doubles over at the sight of the polygonal musculature that Bord is now sporting. Ares is still too busy with venting her frustrations on the dungeon mobs to take note. Vox rubs his eyes while groaning.

  “Whatever, let’s go find out if speed works with weapons.” The redhead jumps away again, now occasionally splitting a monster in half while catching all the dropping crystals.

  ⁂

  “Teach, can you make a shield like Vox made for me? I’m super
, super duper bored like this.”

  I look at Tess, who popped into existence right beside me. “Braincore not suited for you? You did try automating parts of your mind, right?”

  She raises a single eyebrow in response. “Of course, but I still need to think a lot, or time goes by way too slowly. I want to try a shadow heartcore now.”

  “Sure, go ahead. Just shout ‘up’ or ‘down’ when needed.” I form a qi repellent sphere near the edge of the clearing, and she hurries over. I can see the relief on her face as she empties all of her qi into the atmosphere.

  “By the way, you formed that braincore with your own expelled qi, right?” She nods. “That boredom could be a side effect. Maybe try forming your heartcore with wild qi?”

  “Too much work, I think I’ll stick to a gutcore in the end. I’ll form that one the old-fashioned way, ‘kay?”

  I shrug. “Do whatever you want.” I focus back on my brainstorming session with Tree. We are exchanging ideas on how to form a system that even super dumb people can learn from. Tree is the dumbest being here - well, maybe except for Bord - so it’s an excellent testing platform for ideas.

  I rejected its suggestion to implant jade shards directly into the brain and a whole slew of even more morbid notions. “Nope, force feeding information is a great way to make someone brain dead. I am also not implanting your saplings in the poor saps, stop being so morbid.”

  Tree gets even more confused. Morality is not something it has even a basic understanding of. “I also can’t bury a piece of myself to make more of me.”

  I sigh, maybe Tree wasn’t the best brainstorm partner after all.

  Chapter thirty

  Disclosures

  H ak-Ham Plogan Nuur Kwam-Tuurkun (and at least twenty other titles which are omitted here for the sake of brevity) is a very proud dragon. Woken from a nap at least a century too early, he is also a very pissed off dragon. The cowering figure standing halfway in the doorway to his personal chambers, a massive cave, shakes as it continues its report.

  “Graawl. Groohoowul. Rarwiiirrl.”

  “GROOOOOOWWWWWWLLLLL”

  “Mineth sincerieths exusems, oh Aal-Druuguun.”

  “RUMBLE”

  “Is this dialect better for thine ears, oh All-Dragon?”

  The figure is shaking now, terrified at the annoyance the strongest dragon currently awake is projecting towards him. The massive dragon head nods while snorting, causing the simple robes of the person to flutter. He immediately kneels on the ground, face hovering centimetres above the floor.

  The massive cave is dimly lit by an entire rainbow spectrum of glowing rocks. They softly tinkle as the dragon’s rumbling causes them to shift and dance across the rough floor.

  “Reporting to the All-Dragon. Re-Haan has returned without permission, her watch post abandoned while she snuck back into the fold. She has been spotted going down towards the weak quarters. All active patrols are engaged in the search.”

  “RUMMBBLGROOOWL”

  “I shall dispatch all personnel to the new silent area at once.” The humanoid figure immediately runs out of the cave, not even waiting for dismissal. Blinding light pours out of the cave he just ran away from, lighting up the dim surroundings. He only casts a single glance back before running away even faster.

  ⁂

  “UNCLE, OPEN UP!” Re-Haan is yelling at a large door disguised as a rock. The slab of stone blocking her way is unable to mute the sound entirely, causing a bespectacled old man to look up from his book with annoyance.

  “I KNOW YOU’RE IN THERE. I JUST WANT TO ASK SOME QUESTIONS.” Pounding on the chunk of stone, Re-Haan shiftily looks around. A barrier shimmers behind her, blocking all sound from leaving towards that direction. “Stubborn old man. He can leave anytime, right? It’s not like this…”

  Rhea looks around as her eyes open up wide. The occasional glowing crystal gives her just enough light to make out her surroundings. Squinting, she peers into the murky darkness. She then slaps a hand over her face.

  Moments later, her eyes glow with a violet tint. “They turned this entire section into a silent zone?” She swivels her head around, not believing what she is seeing.

  “He… turned this entire section into a silent zone.” Now visible to her qi enhanced eyes, tunnels litter the large tunnel she is standing in. Every cave-entrance has a massive piece of rock placed in front of it.

  “These are all my kin, why would he do this?” She tears her eyes away from the beehive of plugged tunnels and glares at the rock impeding her way. She breathes in deeply before slapping both hands to the obstacle. Her fingers sink into the stone as corded muscles become visible in her arms. With a small yell, the stone rolls away from the entrance.

  Sputtering at the avalanche of dust she receives to the face, she notices a placid old man is sitting in the middle of a circular room, surrounded by books. A small smile flits across his wrinkled face while he pushes his small, round spectacles up on his nose.

  “Hello, Re-Haan. To what do I owe the pleasure.”

  Distracted by thundering steps coming closer, Re-Haan looks back towards her uncle. “I just want to read some of your books. One moment please.”

  She turns around, shoving her fingers into the stone a second time. More dust showers her as she pulls the slab back into place. The old man looks surprised for a fraction of a second before schooling his face back to placidness.

  “Why are you in silence with only a few crystals?”

  “Oh, you know. Just the All-Dragon displaying his dominance by suppressing the previous council.”

  Frowning, Re-Haan walks towards her uncle, her eyes now the brightest sources of light in the dim cave. Looking at the books scattered everywhere, she makes her way between the piles and stands in front of her uncle. Then she smiles and hugs the old man.

  “I missed you.”

  Suddenly frozen solid, he looks bewildered for a moment. Then his face becomes gentle as he pats her on the back. “I missed you too. It was quite boring without you around.”

  Pulling back, they look each other in the eyes. “Care to tell me why you are here and not on your watch?”

  She scoffs. “Pah, watch. Just an excuse to get me out of his sight. His power isn’t an issue now, don’t worry about me. Do you mind if I read some?”

  “No, no. Go ahead.”

  “Thanks.” With a smile, she picks up a book and flips through it. Her uncle stands there for a few minutes, unsure what to do as Re-Haan flips through the books at a fast pace.

  “Anything specific you are looking for? It might not look like it, but there is a system to this chaos.”

  “Haha, sure. Remembering where all the books are does not mean it’s a system. And I’m just browsing.”

  Silence once again descends on the duo, the only sound the shuffling of paper.

  ⁂

  A man who looks like he is smuggling large watermelons inside his arms is walking speedily through a spacious tunnel. A space of ten metres around him is clear, his following of humanoid figures clad in a wide variety of dress giving him more than enough room. The man himself wears the barest amounts of leather armour, only covering his important bits.

  “Is she found yet?” No one seems to have enough courage to answer. Only when the man glances back does someone speak up.

  “No, All-Dragon. She seems to have gained a great talent for subterfuge.”

  “Or you are all incompetent.” His words drip with disdain and the small female brave enough to answer shrinks back. “Maybe the wrong brood is in silence right now?”

  The entire crowd of followers shiver at this question. The procession continues to move at a rapid pace for hours as they half walk, half run through a complicated network of rough tunnels. The man in front suddenly stops and looks around.

  The group watches on in silence as their leader scours the environment with his eyes. Then a low growl starts to emanate from his throat, slowly becoming louder.

  “rrruumm
BBLLEAAND NONE OF YOU THOUGHT TO CHECK FOR SIGNS OF ENTRY?”

  The sound of falling dust and rolling crystals is very loud in the ensuing silence. The muscled man spits on the floor, drawing a gasp from the crowd. He then walks up towards a rock and studies it closely.

  He puts his hand to the stone, brushing fine powder from a set of five holes. He does the same for another set a metre to the side. His fingers sink into the holes halfway before getting stuck. His arms bulge as a dense network of veins pops out from his skin.

  Five minutes of futile struggling later, he slinks away from the immovable rock. “One of you shift and push this thing away.” His face is an unreadable mask and none of the bystanders dares to make a single sound.

  The same female from before speaks again. “Uuhm. I’m the youngest. I think I’ll fit in this small tunnel.” Timidly she steps forward, a white dress patterned with dark scales adorning her slim frame.

  The All-Dragon waves a hand in assent. Dark light spills from the girl as her silhouette expands, the rest of the hangers-on quickly scurrying to the sides. Moments later a dark grey and sleek dragon is standing in the now cramped tunnel. She shuffles around a bit before grabbing onto the rock with a large clawed paw.

  And nothing happens. The claw retracts before it crashes against the obstacle once again. It does not move an inch. Veins are now visible on the bare-chested man’s forehead. The grey dragon whimpers as she begins to gnaw on the rock, with little effect.

  ⁂

  “Re, what’s that ruckus outside? I can’t read like this.” An old man grumbles as he looks up from an open book, a dim mana crystal in the hand that’s not holding a tome.

  All kinds of sounds have been audible inside the dimly lit cave for a while now. They vary from groaning sounds of stress to a jackhammer-like staccato.