Blademaster Ascension

23- Theories

Magic is an ancient word. It is used to describe something that is extraordinary, beyond logic, beyond a mortal's touch, something to be feared and revered, something sinister and unknown. Yet what we wield, the power over ether, the universal element, is also labelled as magic. 'Why is that?' One could ask, no doubt.

Then we'd have to erase the previous definition of magic. Because manipulation of ether is not illogical, neither is it beyond the understanding of a mortal. Then what is magic?

A very difficult question, for this has an answer which is ever changing. Magic is the unknown, magic is the secrets hiding around us, waiting to be explored by a curious one, magic is the vast expanse of knowledge that can grant you powers beyond imagination, magic is a key, a key to a door that can lead you anywhere; of course, where you end up on the other side of the door wholly depends on your understanding of magic.

In short, magic is dangerous, for it hides secrets so deep and numerous that one can get lost and misled easily. However, there has never been a lack of brave or perhaps foolish souls who experimented and explored the hidden world of magical wonders, discovering concepts and knowledge which perhaps belong to the gods themselves. Thus, the path of a mage was established. A path that grants one immense power, power to rival gods.

The subject of our discussion shall be the first step of a mage, one of the most important step in their life. This is a step that'll decide the speed of your stride, the momentum of your following step, or even the end of your journey.

Despite being busy with brewing potions, Rowan was also trying to be an attentive reader. With Chip's help, he had the ability to do two tasks ar the same time. Chip had scanned the book and stored the data within a few hours. Then the necessary data was filtered and displayed to Rowan who was busy brewing the potion. Everytime the potion needed to be tended to, Chip would issue out warning to Rowan and after the task was done, Rowan would go back to reading the book and comprehend the path of a mage.

Although it was a rather taxing way of doing things, there were benefits to it. His reflexes regarding brewing was getting better. Countering and correcting his mistakes, taking a faster decision while following a particularly complicated step in the formula, these were obviously improving his skills in alchemy. Rowan was delighted by his progress in the last few attempts. His mistakes had been reduced to a negligible number and the success rate was slowly climbing up. It was currently almost forty percent. He still had much room for improvement.

Adding another ingredient in the current batch, he reverted back to absorbing the knowledge in the book. He didn't actually need to learn much when it came to the seeker stage. He could sense the presence of ether easily with Chip's directions. But he needed to check for necessary details at least, so he decided not to skip those parts.

But soon, as he read, his brows became furrowed.

For various reasons, simple practice of sensing ether cannot raise the efficiency of a young seeker very fast. For this, an extra mental exercise is required, similar to meditation. The style and rituals may vary in each legacy or 'school of thoughts', but the principle is the same. A few examples are described below...

Turio's notebook never mentioned anything like this. Perhaps he had skipped those parts because he didn't think they were important. Some parts of the passage clashed directly with the Turio's notebook. But why would he deem them unimportant? Something seemed fishy...

But when Rowan asked Chip to analyse these techniques underneath the passage, Chip replied that they were authentic after a few hours. Those techniques really could increase his efficiency to a certain degree. However, Chip also mentioned that some parts of the meditation seemed to be unnecessary for the whole process and minimization and optimization was possible. Rowan considered whether to proceed with optimisation. Even if these steps seemed unnecessary, perhaps they had a hidden effect that Chip couldn't understand.