262 Up North Part 1 (1/2)
Saleen gently tapped the calabash and watched as a wall of azure-green water about six meters in length gushed furiously from it. The stream of water pulsated and spun nimbly in the air before snaking around Saleen's body.
Saleen felt as if this stream was moving much more fluidly and rapidly than before. Never in his wildest dreams had he thought that the calabash would become so powerful after a minor refinement from his mentor. It was then that he realized that his alchemy skills were garbage compared to his teacher's. He started to understand why his teacher had said what he had earlier on.
The fortunate thing about the magical patterns were that they had the ability to refine the current shooting out of the calabash by themselves until it was perfected. Saleen was unable to comprehend how that was even possible. He did not know how these corrective abilities came about in the first place. All he had done was replicate the magical patterns imprinted on his family badge. Another interesting thing about the magical patterns was that they were able to store energy from lightning and thunderstorms, although this feature had never made an appearance.
”How does it feel?” Jason enquired.
”The water elements have become more concentrated, and the current seems to be able to last for a longer period of time, though I don't think the elemental sequence has changed, nor do I notice the presence of any fire elements. How did you do it, Teacher?” Saleen asked.
”Water flame alchemy. It's a pretty popular technique that you'll learn once you've reached grade-7,” Jason replied.
”Water flame alchemy?” Saleen asked, confused.
”You should know that the fire element is considered the most unstable and violent element because of its ability to break any magic arrangement found in fortified objects. In reality, all elements possess this characteristic. The earth element can create gravitation and we all know strong gravitational forces can force matter to shrink beyond its limits, effectively getting rid of any harmful things standing in your way as well as breaking apart the fundamental matter that make up other elements. The wind element, on the other hand, can be said to be the most unpredictable element, just like storms and hurricanes themselves. It can be the most delicate element, or the most destructive. Once you've managed to attain grade-10 mastery of the element, virtually no magic shields will be able to withstand your attacks. The wind element destroys everything in its path, that we all know. But do you know what the water element has?” Jason explained, throwing Saleen the question out of the blue.
”Does the water element have the ability to solidify into ice?” Saleen threw a wild guess.
”Nope, water has the ability to completely disintegrate matter. Once the water element has lowered the surrounding temperatures below its physical limits, it will either completely disintegrate all other elements or revert them back into their original form, which is the state that they were in before that particular dimension was created. The water flame is a good example of this. In fact, you can use this technique to either disintegrate or refine matter. If you can create record-low temperatures, you can use that to refine even higher-quality material. You can even conjure up enough water flames to completely destroy a dimension,” Jason said.
”Destroy a dimension…” Saleen repeated Jason's words, trailing off at the end, almost as if his entire body had gone numb. No wonder mages were not moved by the presence of god. Whatever the gods could do, mages could also theoretically achieve. In reality, creating spatial equipment was equivalent to forging a mini-dimension, just excluding the fact that there would be absolutely nothing in there aside from a completely sealed off space.
However, the basic fundamentals of the creations of these dimensions all originated from the Dante Sequence. Completely destroying one piece of spatial equipment would be akin to completely destroying a part of interdimensional space.
In the room filled with magic scrolls, Jason decided there and then to tell Saleen the origins and principles of the Water Flame spell. Saleen was not too anxious to learn about them anyways. He listened patiently to Jason's descriptions and explanations. He knew that his mentor was imparting the essence of his take on magic to him to the best of his ability.
After rambling for about four hours, Jason decided that was enough explanation for the day. He paused momentarily before speaking again, ”Lex is probably almost done with the collection and trading of her magical items. Let's go.”
Although Saleen yearned to hear more about the water flame, he had already gained a general understanding about the technique and how it was applied. If he wanted to further his interest and continue studying it, he would have to apply it in real life. Alas, with his current grade, he would never be able to activate it. Even if he did ask for help, he would never find out the important parts that he needed to note.
As Saleen stood on the teleportation portal, he turned his head around to take in the sight of the numerous scrolls again, feeling slightly dissatisfied. Leaving the scrolls on this island was just too wasteful. Then again, if the time did come for the Sregl Island mages to utilize these scrolls, the magic towers on the island would be demolished so quickly that Saleen was positive he would not even have time to blink.
That would never happen, of course, unless the Lord of Glory made a trip down to the Myers Mainland himself.
”Saleen, to a mage, only the magic chords can qualify as a loyal companion and friend,” Jason brought his lips down to Saleen's ear and whispered lightly just as the magic light started powering up. In a flash, Saleen was teleported out of the storeroom and back into the larger storeroom located outside.
Coincidentally, Lex was just pocketing the last of the equipment that she was interested in collecting. No sooner had both men materialized did she bow slightly in Jason's direction before speaking. ”Thank you for your kind gesture, master sorcerer.”
”Don't worry about it. Believe it or not, your dreams were once mine. I'm happy to help you achieve yours. I'll be even happier if you managed to realize them,” Jason said with that all too familiar gentle tone in his voice. He looked at Lex for a minute before blurting out, ”I know you're studying fire magic, so I have something to give you.”
As Jason spoke, he took out a necklace made from a tiger's eye gemstone. The gemstone took on a six-sided structure and had a string of three precious gems in the shape of water droplets contained in the center. Those three gems had a fiery red appearance, and looked purer than anything Saleen had ever seen. They had been carved and polished using the core essence of red gems. They also had the ability to store a certain quantity of fire elements.