16 The Early Formation of Magic Chords Part 1 (2/2)

Usually, it took half an hour to get there; Saleen had dashed there within five minutes. He dove straight into the stream and found a relatively deep area. He then threw off his robe, removed his clothing, and immersed his entire body in the water.

The water of the stream entered Saleen’s stomach and simultaneously passed through his nose into his lungs. Saleen did not feel as though he were choking. Every pore on his body was now respiring, inhaling the stream’s clean water and expelling dirty bodily fluids.

This was not a painful process, but a physically exhausting one. Saleen felt extremely hungry, but there was no food, and he dared not leave the stream. Although he had already immersed himself in the water, Saleen still felt as though there was not enough liquid in his body. It was not a feeling of thirst, but a sign of dehydration.

The magic chord medicine flowed through Saleen’s blood vessels, absorbing the water within his body and forcefully expelling the impurities from his body at the same time.

This process continued for nearly six days. Saleen thought he was going to starve to death in the deserted wilderness. At this time, there was finally a new change in the magic medicine within his body.

Saleen sensed the water element in the area, and his mental power immediately became active. Shutting his eyes, Saleen felt his body become transparent, and he seemed to be able to observe all activity within his body. The blue translucent medicine was diminishing, and was fine like gossamer. It was probably only as long as a finger. After it had flowed into the blood vessels throughout his entire body a week ago, the medicine entered his brain, and appeared to have exploded without warning.

Saleen was startled. He thought he was doomed, but then he realized that the explosion was only an illusion.

An empty space suddenly appeared in the middle of his brain region. A fine translucent blue line floated in this space, and continuously absorbed the water element between heaven and earth.

Originally, when he had used his mental power to sense the water element, it had been formless. Now it seemed as though Saleen was watching from the sides. The formless element was objectified. Numerous transparent blue elemental bodies were closely lined up in the empty space, resembling a massive blue crystal. It was so enormous that there were no signs of any of its edges.

Saleen observed the basic structure of the water element carefully. Before becoming a Grade 4 mage, this was his one and only chance of sensing the element this way.

The filament in the middle of the empty space of his brain region was absorbing the water element, but did not seem to get any bigger. It was still as long as a finger, and much finer than hair. This was the magic chord that the books had described. This elementary magic chord would eventually develop into a network of complete magic chords.

These networked chords would have six properties, representing the six core types of magic. The longer a mage’s magic chords, the more powerful the magic he would be able to cast.

Each time, the magic chords would automatically restore themselves after being exhausted during the deployment of magic. Mage apprentices could also use meditation to restore their magic power. However, the magic power that magic apprentices could store was very little, and was incomparable to magic chords.

With the use of magic chords, a Grade 1 mage could deploy one Grade 2 spell, ten to twelve Grade 1 spells, and almost a hundred Grade 0 spells. Fundamentally, the most advanced mage apprentice could only deploy one Grade 1 spell, and around ten Grade 0 spells.

This was the power of magic chords; they were the cornerstone of the entire world of magic.

Coupled with meditation, the restoration of the magic chords that the mage had exhausted would be swift. A powerful mage would only need one or two hours of meditation to restore combat effectiveness. For ordinary mages, six hours would be sufficient to restore all magic chords that had been lost.

The magic chords in his brain finally began to grow steadily. They continued to grow until they were a foot long, before becoming as thick as a thumb and then stopping. Thereafter, they began to grow branches. Saleen had no clue as to how much time it had taken. The senses in his body had disappeared, and all observational power was concentrated in his mental realm, observing the growth of his magic chords.

The space formed in the middle of his brain was very large, as though it were a water droplet more than three meters tall. The branches that grew out of the foot-long magic chords were very tiny. They resembled the veins of tree leaves, and were mostly spread out throughout the brain region.

Saleen carefully recalled the illustration of magic chords in the book. A foot-long magic chord was a special characteristic of a Grade 1 mage. He had bypassed the stage of being a senior mage apprentice and had advanced directly to being a Grade 1 mage. This was truly thrilling.

However, there were two other problems regarding things that were different from what the book depicted.

The first problem was that the book had mentioned that the space of a mage’s magic chords would be about a cubic meter or so. But the space of Saleen’s magic chords had exceeded what was recorded in the books by at least six times.

This was not a big problem, though. When the space for one’s magic chords was big, it illustrated that one could learn more elementary magic. But the second problem was serious.

There were twenty-four branches of magic chords in the space. They were divided into six colors. Yellow represented Ground Magic, blue represented Water Magic, clear represented Wind Magic, red represented Fire Magic, black represented Dark Magic, and white represented Light Magic.

These six-colored magic chords represented the various magic types he could use, but all of Saleen’s magic chords were translucent blue, without any exceptions. This meant that he would only be able to deploy Water Magic in the future. Until the magic chords had been completely formed, he had not sensed any other element.

Saleen lacked some ability in releasing Grade 0 magic. Other than the six series of unpopular magic, he was now also unable to deploy the Invisible Shield.

Saleen remembered the sentence in the book –”Whatever you pay out will exceed what you receive”.

Was that the payment? Saleen crawled ashore, feeling depleted of energy. He lay face down at the side of the stream, desperately gulping down water. Having starved before, Saleen knew that by filling himself with water, he could temporarily provide his body with a little energy, allowing him to rush home.