The Dao of Magic: Book II

by Andries Louws

  Re-Haan looks up from the latest book she is scanning, only to snap her fingers. That snap is followed by an eerie silence, not even the usual groaning of rock reaching the small library. “Better?”

  The old man stares at the grin on Re-Haan’s face for a bit. He then shakes his head and resumes his reading, once again the only sound the rapid flipping of pages.

  ⁂

  “So, my dear students. What have you all learned this past week?”

  I sit on a couch, relaxing. Not on my usual super comfy chair but something made from materials I harvested in this dimension. Vox’s snake has a lot of trouble floating around now that it’s shaved, but the couches I stuffed with its hair are really comfortable.

  We are all sitting in a large circle just before Tree. The small pond it used to have is now gone, allowing us to sit in its shade. Not that we really need it, the clouds circling around this pancake of land are getting thicker by the day, and they provide ample shade.

  It will properly rain soon, and that should provide another cycle that will liven up this place and increase qi generation by a minute amount. Speaking of qi generation, that has been going rather well. More about that later though; Ket is about to speak. This should be good.

  “I want everyone to promise never to speak about my heartcore fiasco again.” The poor boy is looking rather depressed. He’s slumped on the couch, his head in his hands.

  “Why though, you were so happy with that core. Even kind of cute, giggling all the time.” The beastkin sitting next to him is smiling rather broadly. Her tail is twitching behind her as she tries to hide her mirth.

  I notice Tess twitching the moment Angeta said the word ‘cute.’ That reminds me, I never really talked about safe sex with these kids. Being a cultivator makes some things easier, others a whole lot more complicated.

  “You seemed so happy when you were bashing those swamp things over the head with a massive chunk of metal. Those stone fish never knew what hit them when you headbutted those metal balls right through them. Or those water things, I never saw you that happy. I also never knew you could giggle so much. Pfhaha.”

  Angeta’s savage comments cause Ket to shrink further into his seat. He just groans as he tries to forget those dark days. Then he suddenly sits upright and starts talking.

  “I don’t think that we have affinities for a certain core system. I do think that certain personalities match with certain cores better. Extrovert and introvert were the terms I learned from some of your information, Teach. Body cultivators do everything external, both in body and mind, in terms of their cultivation. Braincore cultivators do everything in their heads before it sees the light of day. I have found out that I enjoy not thinking too much. The memories from the time I had a heartcore are irreconcilable from my current, braincore perspective. A gut core gave me the worst of both worlds, so I am sticking to a braincore.”

  Here he takes a deep breath. “I shifted my general intent to all types of metal. Controlling ferromagnetics is still easier, other metals also have their uses though. I am currently experimenting with alloys, both here and through simulations.” He takes another deep breath. “Done, next.” And he goes back to sulking again.

  “That was quite a story. Who’s next?” I continue to pat Lola as I sit back in my seat. This couch can’t hold a candle to my own personal chair when it comes to comfort, but I think I did quite well with the materials available.

  “I’ll go next.” Tess stands up and holds out her hand. “Someone please cut off my hand.”

  Ket looks up in horror as the rest display varying levels of alarm. “Just do it. I’m not quite as stupid as Ket with a heartcore, trust me.” Tess is now also grinning at the boy. He gets a mean look in his eyes while pulling a sword from his ring.

  sswingg

  plop

  A slender hand is now lying on the grass. Ket looks between the severed limb and the sword clutched in his hand as he slowly starts turning pale. “Tess, sorry, I never mea-”

  The hand turns into wisps of smoke as it returns towards her stump. The end of Tess’s arm is wreathed in black smoke as the strands of darkness return to their origin. Moments later, Tess is showing off a pristinely reformed hand with a smirk on her face.

  “How much can you sublime?” Tess looks at me with a dumb look on her face. “How much of your body can turn into smoke?”

  “Two fingers.” Her ring and middle finger immediately turn into black mist. She forms some shapes with the fog before returning her hand to normal.

  “I think braincores are super boring and heartcores are too limiting.” Tess nods to herself with a satisfied smile before sitting back down.

  “I’m a fast, close range support heartcore,” Vox says. He is sitting next to Ares, who speaks up next. “I’m a long-range support braincore.”

  Vox and Ares look way too smug as they high-five. They must have rehearsed that bit. “Elaborate. Wait, I mean explain further.”

  “My heals and buffs are around three times more effective now, but I need to touch people. My intent is fast and wholesome. Also, smart.” Vox casts a wry glance at Ket and Bord when adding that last part.

  “I can attach a qi thread to someone and improve all kinds of different things. I also learned that healing is very similar to damaging.”

  Are they going to continue this duo act? I hope not. It will get old fast, I think.

  “Triangles all the time is not good. I learned that no triangles means more triangles when triangle.”

  Bord is back to his chubby self. Other than that, I’m not even going to try to analyse what he said. Let’s move on quickly. Angeta breaks the awkward staring contest between Bord and the rest by speaking up.

  “I first changed my intent base to wood. That was useful when fixing the ship but rather useless when fighting.” We all glance towards the pristine-looking boat at the edge of the clearing. I give her a thumbs up. “Relying on plants for armour all the time has its drawbacks too, as Teach and Bord showed me.”

  Here she rubs her stomach a bit. “So now I am focusing on aspects of plants for my intent. I am still working on it. Poisonous intent is not fun though.”

  You bet; her fur was purple for an entire day after she asked me for the most poisonous plants at my disposal. We now all stare at Selis.

  “I am still working on it. Can I tell you guys later?” Her bright blue eyes are staring into mine with such innocence. I think it’s all an act though. She can be vicious.

  “Sure, tell us when you are ready. Anything else?” I receive head shakes all around. Now it is my turn to grin. I put Lola on the couch and stand up.

  “Great, we have half a day left before we need to leave. I want to know if this dungeon also stops at level one hundred. Lola, want to join me on a small rampage through this place?”

  Her head perks up at the mention of her name and a certain expression comes across her face as she hears my words. My wide grin might have something to do with that though. She jumps into my arms, and I start walking towards Tree.

  “You guys do whatever. I’m going to do some exercise.”

  Chapter thirty -one

  Venting

  “R e, what happened?”

  The silence that went on for days is finally broken. Re-Haan is sitting next to a massive pile of books. She flicks a slender hand, shooting out a thin thread of purple. It attaches to a book, which flies she pulls over as she looks up. She purses her lips as she thinks for a few moments.

  “I met someone…”

  Unsure how to even begin describing all that has happened, her speech falters. Her uncle’s mouth twists into a smirk. “You met someone…”

  “Yes…” She nods to herself, tilting her head left and right. “I think he’s not from around here. He can do things that… even we can’t do.”

  She looks at the book in her hand and starts flipping through it. The old man opens his mouth a few times as if to begin speaking, but no words come out. The silence resumes for
hours as Re-Haan flips through books, reading them at inhuman speeds.

  “All done. Now uncle, thanks a lot for letting me read a bit without asking too many questions. Is there anything I can do for you in return?”

  “Ho ho ho. Is the world ending? Re thanking me and asking if I need help? The dungeons must have stopped giving for this to occur, truly.”

  Now looking annoyed, Re-Haan stands up and begins walking towards the entrance. “Tsk, never mind. If you insist on remaining in silence, I will at least fix up your room.”

  Her back to the dark area, the air around Re-Haan explodes into violet shimmers. The carpet of books starts rolling in a wave, expanding outwards from her figure. Thin lines of deeper purple spring into existence as they rush towards the walls, where they disappear.

  THUNK

  A large, square slab of stone slides from the wall. Then more rectangular bricks pull themselves free. The floating books swiftly fill these gaps, forming neat rows of tomes inset into the stone. Smaller chips of rock now start flaking off the rough surfaces everywhere. The large chunks start sliding around as the floor smooths itself out.

  Slowly but surely, the rough cave turns into a neat looking room, bookshelves lining every wall and benches formed out of stone appearing here and there.

  “He can do things, hmm. I think I understand a bit of what you mean now.” The old man looks around the dark space unfazed. Only when the few mana crystals lift from the floor and scatter into dust does an anxious expression come over his face.

  The glowing clouds of dust then divide into four, one part going to a corner of the room. There they combine into bright points of light and set themselves in shaded alcoves, casting muted brilliance across the small library.

  “This is the least I can do.” Still with her back to the room, Re-Haan touches the green gem on a chain around her neck briefly. Then she resolutely shakes her head and puts her hands to the stone door blocking the entrance. “I’ll see you later.”

  With those parting words, she lifts the stone to the side, opening a gap small enough for her to squeeze through. No longer inside of the silence field she set up, a cacophony of sounds batters at her eardrums. Roaring and thumping sounds reverberate through her chest as she slides through the opening.

  Silence reigns as she sees the group of gathered dragons. She sneers the moment a certain over-muscled person catches her sight.

  “You still dress like a pervert, I see. Oh, mighty All-Dragon.” The glistening muscles tense up as soon as she says this, sarcasm dripping from her voice. Everyone stops, both humanoids and dragons staring at her. Unruffled by becoming the sudden focus of attention, she strolls out through the opening, casually sliding the stone back into place.

  “Re-Haan. I hereby judge you to be a tr-”

  The muscled man receives a punch to the gut and shoots backwards, slamming into the opposite wall. He lands in a crumpled heap, a thin stream of blood trickling from his head. Not a single sound is heard as she walks over to the heap of manmeat.

  Every step she takes causes a near invisible shimmer to pour from her form. Soft rumbles can be heard as she works the stone beneath her feet, carving a network of tunnels connecting the locked-up caves that house the dragons she grew up with.

  “Bring me bags.”

  That nonsensical demand does not cause anyone to spring into action. Re-Haan glances at the baffled faces of the hangers-on and she creases her brow.

  “Bring… me… bags.”

  Her words, now laced with qi, cause a flurry of activity. Moments later, she is standing alone, only the unconscious All-Dragon keeping her company. The ground rumbles some more as stone shifts under the command of a higher power than mana. She stands there for ten minutes as she finishes carving out a humanoid sized network of tunnels.

  Then she walks back up the main tunnel, moving towards the large cave the now unconscious dragon woke up in days before. “I’ll need bags to bring along all those mana crystals, after all.”

  ⁂

  “One moment, one thing I want to do before we leave.” I stop a few metres away from Tree. Designing formation circles can be quite complicated, not this time though. I pull out all the forcefully fused pieces of mana crystal from my ring, a couple of dozen spheres, along with some fragments.

  “Ah, please give me all the crystals you guys gathered. I can use them to increase the qi density here.”

  A wave of tinkling sounds later, and each disciple has a pile of colourful crystals at their feet.

  “Thanks.”

  A circle forms in my mind. It’s a rather simple one for a rather simple purpose. Have you ever looked at a succulent plant from the top? They all have their fleshy leaves in a spiral-like pattern. This pattern is formed by using the golden mean, nature’s way of optimizing surface area for sun absorption.

  A circle similar to that pattern forms in my mind. Instead of the usual five arms, this one has eight. A growing twister of semi-circular lines that spirals outwards. A snap of my finger later, it appears in front of me, formed of qi.

  Choosing the largest compressed mana crystals I have, I place them at the points where the lines meet. The second largest group gets placed in the second tier. The piles of crystals start to move as I guide each one to their own crossroad of lines.

  I stretch out a hand and squeeze, forcing all the wild qi in a radius towards a single point. A small orb of solid qi forms and I place that at the centre, making sure that my fingerprints are still there. The circle has grown quite a lot now, so I send it upwards while continuously placing the mana crystals at their proper locations.

  I hang it above Tree. It now looks like some weird form of a holy plant, a sparkling halo hanging above its crown. I activate it the moment all the crystals are in place. It starts slowly, small rivulets of power moving across the lines, but it starts picking up steam pretty quickly.

  All the mana is guided towards the centre qi sphere, which absorbs it and releases it back out into the air, now transformed into a higher form of power. Doubling the qi generation of an entire dimension turned out to be pretty easy. I feel the excitement radiating off Tree at the power increase.

  I smirk and pat its bark. “Come, Lola, let’s see how deep this dungeon is. And you guys, finish your houses. Bord, a hut made of mud is not a proper house for a cultivator. Make something better to live in.”

  With that, I jump outside, landing inside the resting room between level forty and fifty. My students have spent most of the time inside Tree, only going through dungeon floors when they wanted to try something. They only cleared ten floors… Lazy bastards. Ah well, more for me.

  They left the necklace in the middle of the resting area. A few days back, I moved the necklace to a corner and added a stealth field because I sensed some mages walking through. The levels in between decads must be dimensional neutral ground.

  I wonder how the dungeon core solves issues like multiple groups arriving at the same time without merging the people once they step inside the room simultaneously. A good question to research later. Now I want to blow off some steam. Lola lands on the ground and looks at me while stomping her feet.

  “You’re pumped too, right? Show me how much power you have gained since last time.”

  I swear I can see a vicious grin on the cute rabbit’s face the moment I say this. I hang the necklace around my neck. Let’s go!

  ⁂

  I look at the ceiling with irritation. I let Lola have some fun from level forty to fifty, but I saw that she was never challenged. So, I started jacking the mana crystals from the ceiling halfway through that decad and we have been sprinting through the dungeon ever since.

  The crystals got harder to pull down from level seventy on, but still doable. We are now at level ninety-five and I can’t get a grip on them anymore. The crystals grew larger or more numerous every level down, never both. They are now too big and too well entrenched in the ceiling for a single qi thread to pull them down. I have to focus on a maximum
of ten crystals at a time to do this, and at that point, I might as well just beat the mobs as they spawn.

  I pluck Lola from my shoulder to stop her gnawing on my neck. “I know you are bored, but as a civilized rabbit there are better ways to express yourself, like kicking monsters in the face.”

  Glancing around the metal wasteland I’m standing in; I can see a large volume of the rusted debris shifting. I pull my Lola-carrying arm back and hurl her at the forming monster. She kicks right through its barely formed face, horn shining brightly on her forehead.

  I want to cover my face since the horn is both, you know, a fucking forehead horn and triangular, but the large metal pterodactyl rushing towards me prevents me from doing this. Actually, I can work out some of these frustrations now, so thanks for attacking me, oh rusty dinosaur.

  I engage combat mode by swirling qi through my brain. The world slows down as my perception lengthens. Movement on the right, monster underground. Move to the right. Big bird-dino makes course correction. Tentacle centipede jumps at me. Move away. Watch dino and bug collide.

  Avoid swarm of metal ants. Eliminate through magnetism? Eliminate through magnetism. Set up focussed field. Aim. Activate.

  CRISIS MODE. Avoid storm of metal coming my way. Magnetism too effective. Adjust calculation algorithm. Account for relatively high magnetite percentage in metal. Use in smaller quantities. Make auto targeting process for small fries. Scan for priority targets. Massive sandworm is emerging, engage.

  Curse at Lola for kill stealing. Stupid horn is still stupid, even if it is coated with a negative magnetic field. Gather scrap for small fry elimination process. Railgun construction is most optimal way of fighting here. Aim at all visible enemies. Activate.

  I land, metal shards raining down around me. Another process catches all the falling mana crystals, so a stream of shiny shards is now pouring into my ring. Note to self, don’t automate the battle if you want to exercise some. Being too effective is also not good.