919 Outwitting One Another Part 2 (1/2)

Gaine was not a good teacher. He had a hands-off approach after giving Saleen a grade-12 Star Gathering Needle. To mages, all knowledge could be forcefully memorized, but it was something else altogether to use that knowledge as one's own skills anytime anywhere.

After Saleen's mental powers entered the needle, he was able to see narrow spaces and a limited number of nebulas. At the core, laid a black hole just like the needle he had with him.

Saleen maneuvered his way dexterously into the black hole. The space within seemed rather thin. It was nonetheless still a grade-12 equipment, and his mental powers were locked tight within that space still. Four large transparent crystallized bodies levitated midair. They had complex, intricate writings etched within as before.

Saleen's mental powers were able to make it into the crystallized bodies, and he felt a super-strong connection between the needle and his soul. The writings in the first crystallized body were forcefully memorized. Saleen had yet to use memory magic.

Memory magic were low level spells. To astrologers, something like that was not even worth learning from mages. They had their own ways of passing on their lineages. Before he was able to understand what was going on and knew only for the time being that it was part of the program to learn the language of the astrologers, he was interrupted by Gaine.

”Saleen, there is no need for you to learn further. If you feel like leaving. I can send you out of the imperial city right away.”

”That won't do!”, Saleen said in a very dissatisfied tone, ”I learn astrology best in such an environment. One of my people lost his way coming to the imperial city. You are an astrologer; can you help me see if he is doing alright now?”

Gaine left the room exasperated to do something else. He came back soon after and said to Saleen, ”That man of yours is in no mortal danger, but if you leave any later, it would have been hard to tell. I can send you to him.”

”How long can he last out there still?” Saleen was unmoved. The two blood soul towers that Nailisi crafted were way stronger than Nicholas' soul bead. Even if Nicholas' soul bead was to be damaged or destroyed, he was still able to compensate him somehow. It was more important to Saleen that he stayed there in the astrology tower to continue learning astrology, as his level would be able to see a frightening increase.

Most importantly however, was that his magic skills were nearing advancement. His magic chords were getting restless. In the entire imperial city, only the areas surrounding the astrology tower had a balance of the six elements. His advancement had to be done in that place. Leaving the Imperial City of the Abyss would mean facing off with the variety of powerful magic beasts out in the oceanic ice block, a place ill-suited for advancement.

The Magical Element Tower needed to be crafted back in Metatrin City, and he would not be able to advance within the tower itself. The astrology tower was therefore, the best place for advancement.

Gaine was not irked. In the long flow of the river of fate, such minor matters hardly bothered him. Saleen's intuition, on the other hand, made Gaine very pleased with himself, as that meant that his predictions were correct. The little king was the one meant to save him from his predicament. It was no big deal that Saleen wanted to keep learning astrology in the tower. Saleen did not even have a level in astrology. Even if he were to train until he reached grade-10, it would hardly expend much of the tower's energies.

”I need to be somewhere quiet.” Saleen looked at Gaine in the eye.

Gaine stroked his beard and said, ”Follow me.”

Gaine took Saleen out of the door, to a corridor where he could clearly see the hall on the second floor. The skylight was at his front, and starlight was shining down on him. Gaine had Saleen stand before the railing and pushed him off. Saleen was pushed off by an irresistible force, and with a whoosh, was sucked into the starlight at the top of the building!

Gaine clapped his hands and thought, ”Let's see you have fun in the nebula. One day's time. You can last one day at most there. A grade-8 mage's mental powers can only last you that long after all!”

Mental powers were more important to astrologers than they were to mages. When a mage's mental powers were running low, they would still be able to cast low level spells with only their experience. Such spells could still be powerful. Astrologers on the other hand, required mental powers to be stable no matter what skills they were using. Once Saleen's mental powers were depleted, he would be forcibly booted out of the core of the astrology tower into the Outer Nebula.

That part of the nebula was connected to a starlit sky. Most of the scene was real, with only small pieces of the place being constellations and arrays crafted by astrologers.

After Saleen went into the nebula, he took out the grade-12 Star Gathering Needle and began learning the writings of the astrologers. There was hardly any difference between an astrologer's lineage than that of mages'. The only notable one being that the knowledge system of the mages was more complex, yet very clear-cut. On the other hand, while the astrologers' knowledge system was huge, it was something ambiguously connected between its parts.

Saleen saw one-hundred and twenty-eight-thousand of the astrologer's scripts, which were even greater and more complex than the ones used by mages. Such complex writing system lacked the accuracy seen in magic scripts in terms of their ability to depict things and matters though.

Saleen naturally went about memorizing those scripts used by astrologers and went on to understand them. Saleen had not even thought of encountering such powerful ways of passing down lineages.