The Sixth School

Author's note.

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All Characters in the story are 18 years of age and above...

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Chapter Sixty Five: Maelstrom Ascension Manual...

Greg's eyes fluttered open to find his teacher seated across from him. Her eyes were closed and a small milky white pearl was pressed up against her temple. One who didn't know his teacher well would be tempted to think that she was sleeping. Greg, however, could see the look of deep concentration on her face. Given his past life as an earthling, when Greg came across the word manual, he'd expected a book of some kind. Perhaps a thick, ancient-looking tome, perhaps a sheaf of parchments loosely bound together, maybe even a scroll of some kind. What he had gotten instead, was the small white pearl currently in his teacher's hands.

An attuned memory pearl. That's what Olivia had called the thing. She'd instructed him to run his mana through it. Once Greg had done so, she'd informed him that the pearl was now attuned to his mana signature. That, without him using his mana as a key, it would be impossible for someone else to access what was inside the pearl. With that out of the way, Greg had naturally asked how he was supposed to use the thing. His familiar had instructed him to do the same thing his teacher was currently doing. Press it to the side of his head, close his eyes, and direct his attention to the pearl.

Greg was completely unprepared for all the sensations and information that flooded his mind the moment he did as instructed. Greg had been expecting some form of written information detailing what the Maelstrom ascension manual was all about. And while there was indeed a written explanation of the ascension manual, Greg was also flooded with memories, impressions, and feelings from the one who had created the method. It was the difference between a 2D drawing and a full 3D rendering of the same image. The memory pearl captured everything about the ascension manual up to and including the way the mana should feel as it courses through one's body.

However, the fact that the pearl flooded him with information, didn't mean that Greg understood the manual. There were several terms employed that Greg couldn't make sense of. The ascension manual spoke of connecting nodes, gathering mana in one's nexuses, creating harmony along one's flows, and a whole laundry list of other things that Greg couldn't make heads or tails of. Even with the mana flow itself, just because Greg could feel the way it should flow around his body didn't mean that he could replicate it. There were many subtleties to the flow that Greg couldn't track with his limited knowledge of mana manipulation within the body.

Greg had still wanted to at least try and mimic the flow of mana demonstrated in the ascension manual. Olivia, however, had shot that idea down immediately. According to her, practicing a manual that you don't understand is a surefire way to create hidden problems with your mana circulation. And this is to say nothing of the fact that his mana pathways weren't even fully formed yet. When Greg had asked what he was supposed to do with the pearl then, his familiar's response had been simple. "You have a teacher don't you?" she had posed rhetorically. It had felt a bit anticlimactic to get a reward from the dungeon that he couldn't even make use of by himself, but in the end, Greg didn't have that much of an objection to having his teacher help out and so the next day he'd given the memory pearl with the Maelstrom ascension manual over to the healer.

That had been close to seven weeks ago.

Greg looked towards the mouth of the cave trying to gauge the time of day. The blizzard that had already begun when he went under, however, hadn't yet let up, so it was impossible to tell. Turning his gaze back to the healer, Greg realized just how much he'd been underestimating what it would take, not only to understand but to put into practice what any given ascension manual laid out. When Greg had given the pearl to his teacher and explained that it was the first layer of an ascension manual that he needed her help with, he'd expected that he'd get some feedback from her about it within the hour, perhaps the end of the day latest. As such, one can imagine his shock when the healer said she would need three months to familiarize herself with the ascension manual.

Noting his confusion, the healer seemed amused. "These aren't instructions on how to boil an egg Roka, If I get something wrong, the consequences may be far-reaching for you. In fact, the only reason I'm asking for three months is because of my tier and the deep understanding of mana and magic that I've already gained through the centuries. If you had a fifth-tier mage as your teacher it wouldn't be odd for them to ask for a year or two. At the third tier, a mage would probably have asked for about five years to go through the manual carefully before they could claim to be competent enough to guide you," She had informed him.

"But, it's just the first layer," Greg had countered. The words were borne out of a genuine surprise on his part. He hadn't really thought that the first layer of any ascension manual would be that hard to parse out.

A serious look, however, had crossed his teacher's expression at this. "The number of mages out there that are stuck and can't progress because either through neglect or lack of better options they weren't able to set up good foundations is beyond count Roka," She had said in a tone that relayed she was being deadly serious about this. "Get off on the wrong foot Roka, and you can forget ever reaching the higher tiers," she had said in a tone that relayed that this wasn't a matter of opinion but cold fact. Olivia had given him that very same warning back when they were discussing how long it would take for him to set up his foundations. Even before one considered anything else, a stable foundation was the first prerequisite that had to be met if Greg wished to become a formidable mage.

When the healer began studying, it actually led to the first trade between the two of them. Greg had never seen a cat high on catnip, but if he had to guess, it looked a lot like the way the healer had been those first few days. The trade had been for hive scrolls. The hive scrolls, despite their utility, were still tier-two items whereas the beast-cores were tier-three. At the same time, however, after making use of the obsidian earthmover's core, the remaining cores didn't offer that much improvement. As such, they traded the five scrolls at a one-to-one exchange. Greg was certain that the healer would have driven a harder bargain at any other time, but back then she'd been so caught up in the excitement of discovering something new that she didn't even care.

Indeed, it had been a case of casting pearls before swine. To Greg, who didn't have a lot of magical knowledge, he wasn't able to see what was remarkable about the ascension manual. On the other hand, when the healer got the scrolls, she immediately tore one. If one makes a single copy of themselves using the scrolls, it can last up to thirty or so days depending on how intense the magic usage is. On the other hand, if you go for the maximum number of copies you can get, which is about ten, they'll only last about three or so days. And yet, this is exactly what his teacher did.

Immediately, there were ten copies of her standing around her. Given that the scroll was only a tier two item, each of her copies was only limited to the power equivalent to that of a second-tier mage. This, however, was more than sufficient for her purposes. Olivia had passed around empty tomes to each of her copies and a quill. The copies had then sat all around her with a quill to the page. Four among the ten were already writing where as the other six seemed to be waiting on the healer. When he'd later asked about it, the healer had explained that one of her copies was writing down everything exactly as it was communicated in the memory pearl. The second one was writing down what she understood from the ideas within the pearl. The other eight were present to capture all new ideas and inspirations that the ascension manual was generating within her. On more than one occasion, Greg had seen all ten copies of her writing, so it was safe to say that this ascension manual was quite the deep font of inspiration for her.

It didn't take long for the healer to uncover what was so unique about this ascension manual. According to her, she discovered it on the third day but double-checked her conclusions for another ten days before she revealed it to him. Unlike every other manual that his teacher had ever come across, it seemed that the Maelstrom ascension manual was specifically designed for someone with mana pathways but no central mana core. In other words, it seemed to be perfectly tailored for someone like Greg. As it turns out, this had been one of the major worries that his teacher had been harboring about Greg's situation. She'd been trying to figure out what the ascension path would look like without a central core and had been coming up empty. This manual, however, put that worry to rest. Not only did it offer the answer to the predicament, but based on the healer's assessment of it, the manual itself was among the best ones she'd ever come across. Chances are that it had enough layers to take him to the sixth or seventh tier.

"Oh, you're awake," Greg was drawn out of his musings by his teacher. The healer's eyes were now open and the pearl was no longer pressed against her temple. Eventually, the number of new ideas the ascension manual gave her had gone down enough for her to capture them without needing to create several copies of herself.

"How long did it take this time?" Greg asked.

"Two days. It would seem that the less you gain from the beast-core, the less time you are lost in the illusion that it produces," She answered him then tacked on her assessment.

Something had happened that neither he nor his teacher had anticipated after Greg gained an increased affinity for the earth element from the obsidian earthmover's beast-core. If the healer hadn't been so meticulous with her work, they would have completely missed it until it was too late. His teacher, however, had been monitoring the development of his mana pathways from the very first day that Greg began using the sigil, so it had only taken five days for her to notice it. And that was the fact that the rate of development of his mana pathways had picked up speed. According to their initial assessment, he was supposed to enter the first tier early in the spring. At this new pace, he would have entered the first tier a week or two before the end of winter.

It would seem that an increased affinity led to an equivalent increase in the pace of one forming their mana pathways. This had completely thrown off the schedule they had come up with. They had planned to have Greg use a beast core every twenty or so days to increase his affinity. Now, however, every time he used a beast-core to increase his affinity, the day he would become a first-tier mage was brought forward. Given the fact that they still weren't sure he would be able to increase his affinity after he had crossed into the first tier, this meant that they had to cut the gap between the use of beast-cores in half.

Now, every ten or so days, Greg had been making use of a beast-core to increase his affinity. Greg had been tempted to start with the cores that drew him in the most. His teacher, however, had advised that he take the opposite approach and begin with the cores that drew him in the least and progress from there. According to her, slow and steady progress would lead to a more stable foundation as opposed to sharp increases in power that large modifications to his mana pathways promised. Despite his desires, Greg had chosen to go with the healer's advice.

Outside of the deep respect he had for his teacher, there was also the fact that the more soul battles he was exposed to, the more he tempered his soul. After getting the aftereffects of his dungeon dives reduced because of an increase in soul strength, Greg was more than happy to see that trend continue. This led to a bit of a disagreement between him and his teacher. Greg had wanted to tackle the next beast-core without the aid of the soul-reinforcing formation she had carved around the sigil. That way, his soul would bear the burden of the illusion and grow stronger as a result. With a safe room in his mind carved out by a deity-level being, Greg wasn't afraid that a tier-three beast-core would harm him.

It had taken a lot of convincing, but eventually, his teacher had given in and allowed him to do it. This, however, was on the condition that if anything went wrong then all future beast-core assimilations would be done with the aid of the soul-reinforcing sigil. Unable to move her from this, Greg had been forced to agree to it. Luckily for him, thus far, he had managed to come out of all the assimilation sessions without coming to any harm. His teacher's instruction to go slow but steady with the beast-cores instead of going straight for the one with the biggest draw turned out to be great advice. Outside of giving him a chance to engage in various soul battles, Greg gained two more benefits that he hadn't even considered when he began.

The first was a deepening of his connection to the earth. Before his connection was a passive thing that usually faded into the background unless Greg actively paid attention to it. The more the types of creatures whose life and experiences connecting to the earth he assimilated, however, the more that sense grew. Before, it did little more than tell him that there was earth under him. The more it developed, however, the more information this sense picked from the earth under and around him. So far, Greg had yet to refine this sense or learn how to control it, as such what he got out of it was usually a mix of useful and random information that sometimes didn't make any sense. For example, in one moment, the connection would make him aware of the fact that some animal had burrowed a hole a few feet under the ground he was stepping on. At other times, it would tell him that the soil composition was wrong. How it was wrong or what Greg was supposed to do about it, he couldn't as yet puzzle out.

The second and more exciting benefit that Greg obtained was a growing list of innate spells. Preoccupied with the desire that the best cores evoked within him, Greg hadn't even paused to consider all the innate spells that each of the beast-cores could confer to him. Not every single beast core gave one and not every single ability given was that useful. However, given that these were abilities that he didn't have before, Greg wasn't exactly complaining. After making use of six beast-cores so far, Greg had gained four innate abilities. From the obsidian earthmover, Greg had gotten the earth step, as he had dubbed it. The next ability he'd gotten was from a rock lizard that looked a lot like a gecko, except it was the size of a small truck. From it, Greg had gotten a camouflage ability, except it wasn't of the chameleon kind. The beast, usually found in rocky areas, can turn its scales into any kind of stone based on the rocks around it. It can also stay still for days on end which is how it fools its prey into thinking that it's just another boulder. While Greg didn't have scales, he could turn his skin to stone in much the same way the lizard did with its scales. Like the lizard, this transformation was only good for camouflage. Skin turned to stone sounded like a formidable defense, until one considered the fact that human skin was only a few milliliters thick, if that. Even a mundane human with a decent enough punch could punch right through such a flimsy defense.

His third ability was from a strange quadruped that looked a lot like a gargoyle. Large bat ears, a pair of prominent, ashen-colored horns rising from its forehead, and a long prehensile tail that it can control just as easily as any of its other four limbs. The only thing missing was a pair of leathery bat-like wings to complete the ensemble. These beasts have a peculiar way of fighting. When faced with a threat, they will sink their hands into the ground and 'pull out' an earthen javelin which they will then lob at whatever the perceived threat is. Given that they can live in troops of fifty or more, a perceived threat can easily find themselves pinned with more than a hundred earthen javelins in short order. It isn't that the beasts keep a cache of earthen javelins handy just below the ground. Instead, they have the ability to harden any type of earth they touch into the shape they want, which often, for the admittedly unintelligent beings, is a javelin. Unfortunately for Greg, he didn't get to create instant javelins out of dirt. Instead, he only got the first half of the ability. So long as he concentrated on it, Greg could turn any earthen material harder by a factor of two or three times what it previously was.

The last one and the one that Greg was most excited about was a creature that looked a lot like a crab, though it didn't live anywhere near the ocean. The thing was born a creature of flesh and blood. Over the course of its lifetime, however, it would consciously turn its flesh into some kind of Green crystal that was damn near unbreakable. The most peculiar part of it was that even after it was fully turned into crystal, the creature didn't die. Given that he'd already encountered a deity-level being, Greg suspected that a being made entirely of crystal wouldn't be the last peculiar being he encountered. From this being, Greg had gained the ability to turn parts of himself into that same crystal. Greg had been very careful in testing out this ability, not willing to permanently turn any part of himself into crystal.

He had started with his nails, not really expecting it to work seeing as nails were supposed to be dead. To his pleasant surprise, his nails had turned to crystal without any issue. He could even get the crystal nails to elongate and narrow into sharp points turning them into dangerous claws. And from the grooves left behind when he scratched at a wooden surface, they were just as strong as the crystal the beast made. Unfortunately for Greg, he also painfully learned that unless he reinforced the flesh into which the nail was embedded he would just rip the thing off, which is what he almost did. The experimentation, however, led to the discovery that his ability to change parts of himself into crystal was nowhere near as advanced as that of the actual creature.

For starters, when Greg finally got brave enough to try it on his actual flesh, he quickly learned that it wouldn't be as easy as he'd expected. For one, it required a sustained infusion of mana to keep the transformation going. As soon as he stopped supplying mana to the transformed parts, it would quickly turn back to normal flesh. Secondly, and unsurprisingly, the more of his flesh that he turned to crystal, the more of his mana was consumed. At present, Greg could maintain the transformation of two fingers into crystal indefinitely. Beyond this, the rate at which he naturally generated mana was outpaced by the rate at which the transformation consumed mana. The most that Greg had managed was to turn his fists into crystal before the consumption got to be too much. And even that transformation, Greg could only maintain for thirty or so seconds before they turned back to normal fists.

"Anything new?" The healer's voice brought Greg back to the present.