1358 Lightning Armament Part 1 (1/2)

Mages valued their lineages just as humans valued procreation. There were those who, despite being dirt poor, had been able to persevere and raised their offspring. They sacrificed nearly everything for them.

That was the instinct of living beings. The instinct of mages was to disseminate their skills and knowledge. Most mages liked having their names recorded in history, and then there was a handful who disliked leaving their names behind.

You would be hard-pressed to find any mages who liked the idea of having their skills lost in the coming generations.

Saleen was even more so. While his skills were less impressive compared to those of ancient times, there were parts of his skills that the ancient mages paled in comparison to. For one thing, ancient mages did not have to be as detailed and meticulous with their art.

Furthermore, Saleen had already begun to develop his lightning skills when he was below level-9. Although weak, those skills would have still proven useful as a way to get to know lightning. The ancient mages lacked this skill entirely.

Saleen crafted magic books and concentrated his mental powers, writing on the golden liquid of the granules. The more he wrote, the more developed his mental powers became, and he continued writing for days. But on this particular day, Saleen felt as if his mental powers were contracting violently and returning to his body.

He was afraid this might be the end of his magic book. Since changes with mental powers could be a matter of life and death, he felt he had no time to spare by looking at the magic book. Instead, he focused his mental powers and observed his insides.

Saleen felt the sensation of the mental powers returning to a single dot in his mind that then exploded and fused within an eerie place within his body.

That place seemed to be a parallel dimension. Every single movement he made affected the energy of that space. Things felt vague, and Saleen sensed it was that space affecting him in return.

His entire life seemed to be filled with changes; in actuality, he felt as if he was being manipulated by that space.

Even his thoughts seemed to have been little more than projections from that space.

Saleen was startled. He wondered if he was real and if the Myers Mainland was just an illusion.

He wondered if his mental powers were about to crumble as fear welled up inside him. His mental powers were on the verge of dispersing into the vast, endless void, never to have coalesced again.

Be strong, Saleen...

A voice was heard from the depths of his mind at that moment. The voice was a very, very familiar one, and suddenly Saleen felt reassured. That was...

Father's voice!

Saleen was already at an age where he began to remember things from when his father died. But he was unable to recall when his father had said something like that to him when he was still alive.

Those reassuring words made Saleen feel as if he was being thrown back from that parallel space of his own, merging back into his own body.

!!!

His mental powers burst again. Saleen opened his eyes and 360 million lightning characters flew out. Rafel was hurled back over 100 meters.

A human has three souls.

Saleen recalled such a description in the secret arts. He believed it at that time. A lot of what he had from his teacher seemed utterly ridiculous now, but Saleen truly believed that line at the time.

None of the three souls truly resided in one's body. Only by regaining all three of them would humans be able to surpass the gods.

Saleen was immediately aware of his soul's return. There seemed to be two other parallel spaces outside his body that were vague and unreachable. Those were not actually spaces but his souls outside.

Myers Mainland was real. What he experienced was similar to looking in a mirror and thinking his reflection was his true self while he, on the outside, was the projection instead.

There was little need to talk more about how perilous that would have been. If it hadn't been for his father's voice, Saleen's mental powers might have crumbled altogether by then. Even if he had survived, he would have sustained a severe injury that was unlikely to heal.

As a mage, the crumbling of Saleen's mental powers would have nearly marked the end for him. He would have retained magic chords of level-10 mages but would no longer be able to cast any magic spells. That's the best he could have hoped for in such a predicament.

A transparent golden magic book hovered quietly before Saleen's eyes. Lightning magic patterns shimmered indistinctly on the book cover. The magic book was still successfully crafted.

”Lord Saleen...” Rafel knew that Saleen had been in a perilous state earlier and wanted to say something when he simply waved dismissively saying, ”We'll continue.”

Rafel shut her mouth and backed away, leaving Saleen alone with his thoughts.

Saleen opened the magic book without realizing it; he had been poring over whatever he had learned and comprehended during more than 100 years of training. Perceptions of conventional mages wouldn't have been able to look into the contents of the book he wrote with magic patterns.

A reader had to be someone who had learned these lightning skills, someone whose mental powers were capable of manipulating lightning before being able to safely absorb the knowledge in that magic book.

That book seemed to be devoid of words altogether, yet Saleen knew he had actually written all of his 360 million lightning characters. As long as readers of future generations were beings whose mental powers were immune to lightning powers, they would be able to start learning.

There were 36 pages in the book and every single page consisted of transparent paper of a faint golden color that enabled the user to store one magic spell. There was no special requirement for the spell store.

Be it elemental, spiritual or even death magic, a spell could have been stored within the book as long as it was of a magical nature. Saleen felt that even divine spells could have been stored.