Nick cast Grey Room and returned to his commercial building before canceling the spell. By the time that Nick walked through the building's front door, his indifferent expression had returned and he called Dewy using his smartphone and after moments, Dewy picked up, Nick said plainly:
"Dewy, effective immediately, I'm raising your and Nate's salaries to double the current amount."
Dewy was surprised when he heard that:
"Really, sir? I don't mean to question your decision but what brought this on?"
"I have recently experienced some financial success that necessitates that I spread it around because you and your grandson have been doing a lot around here."
Nick knew in theory that to keep people working loyally and faithfully, they had to eventually be given appreciation through rewards; that's just how it was.
(It has to be that they see that when I win, they win as well or they will grow dissatisfied and I can't have that. It would be annoying to have to get new people in here to do their jobs.)
Dewy's voice almost cracked when he realized that Nick was actually rewarding them out of appreciation but he managed to maintain his calm and replied simply:
"Thank you, sir."
Nick then gave instructions:
"I need you to hire about three more people to help with additional administrative tasks. I'd rather if they were young and hardworking. You can use an agency or just hire good people that you know. I just need three more warm bodies to share the coming workload."
Dewy was not sure what to think following such instructions so he simply accepted the instructions with a, 'Yes, sir.', and Nick ended the call. Nick then went up to the second floor and sat at his work table. He was tired from the work that he had done over the past few months but his latest win pumped him up in an extreme way.
"I'll have over 16 vatas to spend after today. I can't be lazy. There seems to be a lot of money in extracting high ranked resources from realms so I will aim to do that more in the future but what I have to work on now is my rank and my spell set. I still need a way to manage my magic expenditure properly and that problem will be more easily solvable after I become rank 3."
Nick was a master of five paths and a scholar in one path. His magic skills were also at the very peak of rank 2 while his financial resources were sufficient now. Therefore, Nick felt that it was time that he pushed towards rank 3.
"Before that though, there are steps that I need to take such as strengthening my soul's foundation, redesigning my foundation laws and my meditation technique, obtaining the Soul Cradle talent and obtaining suitable magic items to support myself in battle and other similar situations like what Kirst Elthirst had..."
After thinking over what he needed to do, Nick summoned the glowing red soul from his space band onto the metal work table and asked aloud:
"What do I do with you exactly?"
Nick already tried to read the soul's memories but failed to do that so. He thought about trying to consume it but that seemed dangerous, considering that he knew nothing about this soul. After thinking some more, Nick threw his hands up into the air and said:
"I'll just put it away for now."
Nick stored the strange, red soul back into his space band and then called Dewy again to instruct him to order 14,000,000 high quality rank 2 magic beast souls from the Spirit Nectar Company. Dewy accepted Nick's request and their phone call ended.
"I did not pursue the Soul Cradle talent with full intensity before because I lacked the means of obtaining so many souls in the short term but with my new found wealth, I can simple buy them. Now...my foundation laws and meditation..."
Nick quickly summoned a stack of blank papers from his space band and made notes on what he needed to do:
"I need to design foundation laws that efficiently process not just rule magic but also soul magic, space magic and blade magic. Up to now, my power has been held back because my mindscape is filled with magic energy that mostly has rule path characteristics imbued in it which results in my casting spells of the other three paths to involve some amount of inefficiency and thus a reduction in power and potency. I will fix that, then I will work on my meditation technique which will allow me to develop a mindscape with suitable characteristics that allow the four kinds of magic energy of the before mentioned paths to be comfortably stored and employed. By doing so, I can actively decide the style that I will use long term as a Magician. I did not really have that option when I became rank 2 but I will make full use of my attainment levels to make it so when I promote to rank 3..."
Nick made notes about his plans until he eventually fell asleep at the work table out of exhaustion. When he woke up the next morning, he summoned his laptop from his space band and checked his Magicians Association National Bank chequing account balance and sure enough, he was now 16 vatas wealthier than he was yesterday.
Nick quickly showered and then ate a few bags of butter bread before beginning his work on his new foundation laws. Nick thought out loud:
"Ideally, I need an underlying principle that all the types of magic energy that I am trying to have processed within my mindscape need to abide by. I think that is where I should start in designing new foundation laws in order to basically develop on the foundation laws that I already have. Hmmm...a principle or principles..."
Nick thought through his options for over a day before he came up with something:
"My current foundation laws are called Big Improvement and they process my magic energy in a way that allows me to reasonably maintain relatively large magic energy reserves by allowing my active and passive magic energy recovery to be above average despite my mindscape's large magic energy holding capacity. The latter point is evident when I meditate. My current foundation laws basically keep my magic energy reserves 'big' without delays in recovery. Now, I think that I need my foundation laws to keep my magic energy reserves 'big', 'concentrated' and 'potent'. The latter two principles would help me in better managing my magic energy expenditure. I remember how Jessica Jones' magic energy has a natural azure color because it is so concentrated. I will aim for my magic energy to be the same and I want every magical unit to be capable of fueling my spells to produce the best possible effects; that is what I mean by 'potent'."
Nick got to work immediately but summoning his tablet computer from his space band. His new foundation laws promised to be complex and so it was best to use his tablet computer to design them. After Nick made up his mind about his foundation laws, Dewy called him on his smartphone and conveyed:
"Sir, the Spirit Nectar Company says that they will need time to gather that many high quality rank 2 magic beast souls. They said that it is because high quality magic beast souls are not like cabbages at the market and so they need to pressure their harvesting sites before they can fill the order."
Nick completely understood since he was a soul path scholar:
(Souls can come in all kinds of states and conditions when they are taken from a corpse or carcass, depending on the method of harvesting, the skill of the Magician and the health of whoever or whatever the soul is being taken from. Of course, obtaining 14,000,000 rank 2 magic beast souls of uniform and high quality is difficult for a relatively small company like the Spirit Nectar Company but I have to use them because larger companies will only want to do business with a licensed Magician. I can wait for the souls.)
Nick hung up the phone after being informed and continued working on his set of new foundation laws.
"These foundation laws will include rule path, soul path, space path, blade path and even formation path laws using rule path laws as the back bone of their functions and formation path laws as a means to maintain uniform efficiency. There is no such thing as a formation magic energy type but that does not mean that formation magic, that is, its laws are useless in this case. Formation path specializes in granting efficiency, robustness and automation to spells and so it is especially useful here in managing the interaction of so many kinds of laws..."
Nick worked with little rest going forward, basically ignoring anything that didn't involve his cultivation. During his cultivation, all irrelevant or administrative tasks that needed to done were done by Dewy, Nate and the three other people that Dewy had hired. Nick had not even had the time to meet those new people, even when they started working within his building and a long time after that. Nick took calls from Carla but would refuse to meet with her at any time, using his cultivation as an excuse.
Tracy Capitol and Jacob Argant often came by Nick's commercial building so that they could possibly talk to him despite Nick having warned them not to. Nick completely ignored them and had Dewy or Nate turn them away each time. About a month after he had placed his order, Nick finally received the 14,000,000 high quality magic beast souls from the Spirit Nectar Company and because of the size of the order, they were even delivered personally by one of the company's sales executives.
Nick had spent about £490,000,000,000 on acquiring the souls so he was now one of the Spirit Nectar Company's biggest clients and they treated him accordingly. The souls came stored within fourteen transparent magic orbs with 1,000,000 souls being stored in each orb. Nick stored the magic orbs within his space band after Dewy brought them to the second floor and then continued working on his new foundation laws.
A little over six months passed after Nick had begun working on his new foundation laws. At the end of that time, his new foundation laws were finally complete and he lovingly named them, Dragon's Rock.
(I chose that name for my foundation laws in consideration that I am a deep seeker dragon warlock and these laws will be a firm foundation that I use to go in that direction. Upon this rock, I will build my church...)
Nick carefully reviewed Dragon's Rock on his tablet computer and approved of its over one hundred and fifty thousand symbols that were drawn in either Nickel, D-Soul or Valteese. The foundation laws had basically been designed as a magic formation. Big Improvement, Nick's current foundation laws only consisted of almost ten thousand symbols so the improvement to them was by a big leap.
"Next is my meditation."
Nick was not going to carve his new foundation laws within his mindscape just yet since the process would not be easy and so he decided to work on his new meditation which would not just focus on rule path but also soul path, space path, blade path and formation path; rule path would be his meditation technique's backbone, though.
After getting two days of well-deserved sleep, Nick started designing his meditation technique on his tablet computer. Since he had already designed his new foundation laws, designing his meditation was a simpler matter, even though it was not easy. Nick took up the decision to draw all of the meditation technique's symbols in Valteese this time, instead of Nickel, because of the multiple magical paths involved and the need for the laws to be uniformly consistent during his future meditations.
That was not an issue when creating his new foundation laws but that was because his meditation technique had to be used actively and there could not be even the slightest deviation in intended meaning as a result of different mystical languages being involved because that would risk his mindscape collapsing in on itself.
Nick spent four months working on his meditation and upon completion, it consisted of 100,000 Valteesian symbols. Nick reviewed the meditation's design on his tablet computer and mused:
(This meditation technique has way more...personality than the one I've already been using so I will give it a name. Hmmm...how about, Dragon's Keep.)
After completing his new meditation technique, Nick slept in bed for two days before deciding to finally go absorb the 14,000,000 rank 2 magic beast souls that he had bought months before. Nick had already told Dewy to rent the old gymnasium that he had used in the past for the task, so he simply cast Grey Room and made his way there.
When Nick arrived at the old gymnasium, he cancelled Grey Room and entered it. Afterwards, he set up the magic formation that he would use to refine his soul after consuming them using Big Copy.
"I have a sufficient supply of soul healing scrolls stored within my space band so this session of soul cultivation should go on without a hitch."
Nick sat at the center of the soul refinement magic formation and summoned one of the clear magic orbs that stored 1,000,000 souls within itself. Following that, he released a few thousand magic beast souls within the bounds of the magic formation and cast Eat Soul to consume half of them before moving on with the rest of the process.
Like this, eight long months of nonstop soul cultivation passed...
At the end of eight months Nick stood up from the center of the soul refining magic formation and used a soul healing scroll, after which, the magic scroll turned to grey ash that scattered. A few moments after that, Nick's soul had been sufficiently healed of the damages resulting from his soul cultivation. Nick looked up at the gymnasium's ceiling momentarily and breathed out deeply, saying:
"Finally. I've obtained the Soul Cradle talent."
Nick then immediately used his magic sense in order to observe his soul properly and true to his hopes, his soul did not seem typical. Compared to eight months ago, it was no longer a bright-silver orb but instead had changed to a charcoal black orb of floating, glowing energy. That was not all, what indicated that he had obtained the Soul Cradle talent was that his soul now had a thin grey ring of magic power that hovered around its center like the ring of a planet.
(I know that the grey ring of magic power is related to the talent because I am not manifesting it with my own magic energy or my soul's power so it must be the manifestation of Soul Cradle. The talent is supposed to give my soul supernatural regenerative abilities; I'll only be able to know what that really means with time.)
Nick summoned a tennis-ball-sized, blue projection stone from his space band and threw it at his feet. Following the appearance of a blue transportation sub-formation, the sub-formation enveloped Nick in silver light and when the light abated, he found himself within his building's underground parking lot.
(Weird...I don't feel like sleeping at all even after eight months of hardly doing so. I must be more excited that I thought.)
Nick ignored the jade-green wyvern sleeping in the corner of the parking lot and went up to the ground floor. When he got there, he called Dewy on his smartphone and asked him to have a meal of stewed peas with beef, white rice and pasta salad sent up to the second floor as soon as possible. Dewy accepted the instruction and Nick hung up the phone.
Nick then went up to the second floor and sat at his work table, thinking:
(I've increased my soul's foundation significantly, I have upgraded my foundations laws and I have also enhanced my meditation technique. Rank 3 is within reach.)
Nick was so stoked that his usually indifferent expression was nowhere to be seen. Nick decided to get things rolling after he ate, so his indifferent expression did not return until someone brought his meal up to his workspace. To his surprise, the persons who came up did not include Dewy or Nate. Nick looked at the man and woman duo in front of him and asked:
"Who are you two?"
The young man and woman in front of Nick glanced at each other awkwardly before looking at Nick again. The young woman seemed to be in her early twenties, had white complexion, a slim body, a head full of short, brown hair that reach down to her neck and green eyes. The young man seemed to be about the same age, had white complexion, a slim body, a head full of short, but flowing black hair and dark eyes. They both wore the same black uniform that included a vest, a pair of dress pants and a white, long-sleeved, collared shirt.
The woman answered Nick:
"My name is Joy Clouse and I am one of your administrative assistants. we were hired almost a year ago, sir, but we've never met until now."
The man then also answered Nick:
"My name is Heath Tully and I am also one of your administrative assistants. I was also hired around same time as Joy and there is one more person, Leon Vauxhall, that is down stairs doing some work with Dewy and Nate that was hired around the same time as us."
Nick eyed the two blankly for a few moments before muttering:
"...Okay."
Nick then took the two dishes of meals out of their hands and placed them onto his work table. He then turned around in order to eat the food. Joy and Heath awkwardly glanced at each other again and took Nick's eating as the queue to leave, so they left moments later. After Nick was finished eating, he silently remained on his stool and closed his eyes, following which, his consciousness entered his mindscape.
Nick's consciousness observed his mindscape for a few moments. The sky was filled with stars that twinkled amidst a dark background; the stars were arranged in the patters of laws that represented Nick's Malevolent Shrine bloodline spell. The ground was covered with crystal-blue ice that represented Nick's magic energy reserves. Situated on a section of that ice was a human like figure of golden light that walked on a seemingly never ending, concrete road. The figure of golden light appeared to have a red Nickel symbol imprinted on its head.
(It's time.)
Nick willed and his current foundation laws, Big Improvement, appeared in front of him with each symbol seeming to be made of white light. Moments later, the icy ground broke apart and crystals of magic energy rose into the air and interacted with Nick's foundation laws by dissolving into them and adding more white light onto them. The situation started with a few dozen ice crystals interacting with the foundation laws but after a few minutes, thousands of small magic ice crystals began interacting with Nick's foundation laws.
Nick's foundation laws then developed symbols glistening with white light at a rapid rate. Nick did not know how much time had passed but by the time that over one hundred and fifty thousand symbols were present, all the white light making up the symbols changed to an eerie black light and faded. Following this, Nick's consciousness was ejected from his mindscape and seeing that he was still sitting upright at his work table Nick concluded:
"I must have succeeded in laying my new foundation laws."
As soon as he spoke, as if in response to his voice, the flow of magic energy within his surroundings changed as much of it flowed vigorously towards him and soon, he felt absolutely 'stuffed' with magic energy.
(This 'stuffed' feeling is a result of my ability to process magic energy far outpacing my mindscape's ability to handle the strain. I need to use my new meditation technique, now!)
Nick began chanting his meditation techniques aloud in Valteese:
"With rule path, I make the rules. With soul path, I command the source of life. With space path, I decide the position of mountains. With blade path, I cut away all my adversaries and doubts. With formation path, I arrange the world. I am a pervading force..."
Nick closed his eyes as he continued chanting his meditation and his consciousness entered his mindscape once again. Nick immediately looked downwards at the crystal-blue ice, feeling a change. The blue ice all around began to degenerate into black miasma and after an amount of unknown time, the crystal-blue magic ice was no more.
Besides the still twinkling stars that included a large, distinct, red-blue star, the entire mindscape had become a void having nothing but copious amounts of black miasma. Nick tried to find the golden, human figure of light and its road but what he found instead was a vague figure of a small dragon that was entirely made out of the black miasma.
The dragon had red-blue eyes that were filled with life and intelligence. It had four strong legs that had no claws, two wings folded onto its back and a head with a single horn attached to its right side. The dragon weakly walked along the same concrete road that had existed before but each step left an imprint that was a few inches deep.
Nick did not know what to think of about these changes:
(Considering the fact that I developed my foundation laws and meditation on my own and that they are not simply a consistent improvement on the previous versions, I should have expected this sort of drastic change. Unplanned changes are natural when walking on your own path. Designing your own future is not a uniform and entirely predictable process, it is filled with things that you cannot foresee and at first make sense of. I see...)
Nick's consciousness was suddenly ejected from his mindscape and what he saw after that was his workspace filled with black miasma. Nick asked aloud:
"What is this situation?"
Somehow, the black miasma felt extremely familiar to Nick, like it was an extension of himself. Nick stood up from his work stool and turned around. He then tried to move the black miasma according to his own will because his intuition was subtly suggesting for him to do so. As soon as Nick internally declared his intention, the black miasma flowed towards him and seeped through his body until the room was absent of it.
Nick then sensed that his magic energy reserves had risen by a great deal but was still far from full. Nick's intuition nudged at him again and after internally declaring that he needed more magic energy. The magic energy flowing within his surroundings gradually became visible, black miasma over no more than eight seconds until the room was saturated with it. At that point, Nick had no doubt:
(The black miasma is my own magic energy. I can process the free flowing magic energy within my environment to become my own magic energy while it is still outside my body and draw it into my mindscape.)
Nick willed and all the black miasma flowed towards him and seeped into his body. Nick therefore concluded:
(So this is my mindscape's new ability. Is it because of my foundation laws or my meditation technique? Hmmm...it is basically an active method. My mindscape is definitely still a special grade mindscape.)
Nick filled the room with black miasma and afterwards drew the miasma into his mindscape, performing this process eight more times until he felt satisfied; he stopped generating black miasma after that. At that point, Nick knew the details of his mindscape's magic holding capacity.
(My mindscape's total magic holding capacity is 200,000 magical units and each time that I process the free flowing magic energy within the atmosphere, creating the black miasma, I can draw the miasma into my mindscape to recover about 20,000 magical units of magic energy. I suppose that means that I can recover 20,000 magical units over eight seconds actively, at least by processing magic energy outside of my own body and without using my meditation technique.)
After thinking a little about the effects of his foundation laws and mindscape, Nick finally acknowledged that he had achieved his goal:
"I am now a rank 3 Magician. I did it. Going forward, I'll have to do some experimentation to determine the effects of my foundation laws and my meditation in their entirety."
Nick kept himself calm despite the achievement, saying:
"Results naturally come after hard work. I don't need to be giddy about this, I earned it."
Nick went into his bathroom and took a look at his physical appearance but there was no apparent change in his appearance. That was not the case when Nick's rank was last raised but he could accept things as they were for now. Nick went back to his work table and sat down, still not planning to leave his workspace.
(The active ability that I seem to have gained that allows me to process free flowing magic energy outside of my body basically forms an unexpected remedy to my high magic energy consumption problems. Now I have another problem. I am a rank 3 Magician that only has rank 2 spells in his arsenal, not counting the spells detailed in my space and soul path inheritances; I will only use the latter spells as reference. My blade path inheritance that I received from the military is only developed to rank 2. Since I don't plan on making use of readymade rank 3 spells, I need to design them on my own. That's fine...)
Nick summoned his tablet computer from his space band and began his work, thinking:
(I need rank 3 spells. I will improve the ones that I already have to rank 3 level or scrap them in favor of creating entirely different spells. My rank 2 spells provided a decent foundation for me but now my time has come and my real adventure as a Magician is about to start. The spells in my arsenal have to be undeniably awesome and suited to me perfectly, which means that I have to create a spell set with a consistent system in mind, covering, offense, defense, scouting, movement, concealment and healing and recovery. No aspect can be lacking.)
Nick started theorizing concepts since he already had an idea of the kind of Magician that he wanted to be:
(I want to be able to travel everywhere, free and unhindered and for that to happen, I need to be indomitable and my influence, far reaching despite to my miniscule stature...)
One year passed while Nick worked on his methods. He was so focused during this time, that he accepted no calls, having already told Carla that he would be unreachable for a time and he did not leave his workspace, having his five employees do everything for him that did not relate to his cultivation.
One day, at the end of that one-year period, Nick stood up from his work stool and stored his tablet computer within his space band. He yawned before doing a quick stretch of his arms and back. He then sat back down onto his work stool, preparing to write some notes on the blank papers in front of him with the blue pen in his right hand.
Nick was currently wearing a red silk polo shirt, a pair of dark-blue jeans pants and a pair of laceless, black dress shoes. Nick's expression was indifferent as he wrote down on paper the details of all his new rank 3 spells that he had worked on for an entire year:
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Tyrant Form -> a rank 3, advanced grade, blade path spell, that increases the speed and agility of arm and hand movements while holding a bladed weapon in proportion to the concentration of his magic energy within or flowing over the body or weapon; the increase is capped at five times the caster's speed and agility without the use of this spell. The base cutting ability of a bladed weapon is increased by three times while this spell is active. This spell can remain active indefinitely and requires 10,000 magical units to activate and 300 magical units every second thereafter to maintain.
Tyrant Aurora -> a rank 3, intermediate grade, blade path spell, that produces or enhances blade light. The resulting blade light can be shot out as a devastating ranged attack that travels at the pseudo-light-speed and cleaves its target. The power of the blade light is largely dependent on the bladed weapon that is used to cast this spell. The base consumption for the activation of this spell is approximately 10,000 magical units to approximately 15,000 magical units.
Tyrant Domain -> a rank 3, advanced grade, space path, rule path and blade path spell, that creates an adjustable space where blade light is more easily generated, reducing the cost of producing blade light by 50%. The power of space path allows the caster to freely teleport himself within the space or teleport objects or other beings at a cost equivalent to the magic energy concentration within them. The power of rule path suppresses magic energy that does not belong to the caster or his magic items in proportion to the caster's superiority in magic energy quality; this suppression effect is not capped. This spell can remain active indefinitely and requires 5,000 magical units to activate, maybe more depending on the size of its intended area of effect and 500 magical units every second thereafter to maintain, or maybe more depending on the size of its intended area of effect.
Tyrant Recovery -> a rank 3, intermediate grade, soul path and rule path spell, that heals the caster of physical injuries in proportion to the quality and health of the caster's own soul. Foreign magic energy lingering within any physical injury is broken down and converted into the caster's own magic energy. This spell can be maintained until all physical injuries have been remedied and has a base activation cost of 12,000 magical units and 800 magical units every second thereafter to be maintained; the activation and maintenance cost may be more depending on the severity of the injury.
Tyrant Specter -> a rank 3, intermediate grade, soul path, rule path and blade path spell, that creates a minor split soul using the caster's own soul, which becomes a specter that binds to the target's soul. The specter causes the target to experience false realities that imprints blade path laws onto the target's soul with each false reality experienced; the blade path laws may have a degenerative effect on the target's soul. This spell is self-perpetuated by the magic power within the minor split soul and lasts until that magic power is depleted or the minor split soul is destroyed. This spell requires 21,000 magical units to activate.
Tyrant Armor -> a rank 3, advanced grade, soul path and rule path spell, that produces an adjustable, physical and magical defensive layer over the caster's body using the properties of the caster's soul. This defensive layer is rich with the power of soul path and so the magic power within the caster's soul can be mobilized into it at will in order to adjust its defensive or secondary offensive properties. The armor persists passively and can be hidden or manifested at will so long as this spell is active. The base cost of activation is 12,000 magical units and 200 magical units per second thereafter to maintain it indefinitely.
Tyrant Sense -> a rank 3, intermediate grade, space path and soul path spell, that radiates pulses of magic power from the caster throughout a space that has a radius of one hundred meters around the caster in every direction. The caster is then transmitted information about the details of the space captured by the magical pulses via his soul and is especially sensitive to the spatial positions of souls. This spell requires 9,000 magical units to activate.
Saturn -> a rank 3, intermediate grade, space path spell, that produces a visually unperceivable gravity field within a radius of sixty meters around the caster in every direction, where gravity may be neutralized and push and pull forces are under the control of the caster. This spell can be maintained indefinitely. It has an activation cost of 15,000 magical units and 400 magical units per second thereafter to be maintained.
Neptune -> a rank 3, advanced grade, space path spell, that allows the caster to instantly teleport to any place that he can see with his eyes or perceive in combination with another space path method. This spell has a base cost of 11,000 magical units to activate in order to teleport to a space within one kilometer of the caster and additional 3,000 magical units is required for every additional kilometer after that.
Pluto -> a rank 3, intermediate grade, space path and rule path spell, that allows the caster to instantly force any portion of their body into an adjacent space. While within that adjacent space, the caster's whole body can be instantly shifted to a position within his original space that is located within sixty meters of his adjacent space's equivalent position within that original space. This spell has a base cost of activation of approximately 1,000 magical units to approximately 10,000 magical units. This spell must be activated each time the caster or portions of the caster's body enter or leave the adjacent space. If the caster or portions of his body is forcefully ejected from the adjacent space because of a lack of magic energy, the caster will face severe backlash.
Advanced Blade Works -> a rank 3, intermediate grade, space path and blade path magic formation, that creates an adjacent space around the user of the magic formation that can be used to store blades indefinitely; the blades influenced by this magic formation can be readily manipulated by the user. This formation can instantly transfer blades out of the adjacent space. Both the caster and one target can be drawn into the adjacent space for two minutes at a time every twenty minutes. The cost of usage varies depending on the user's arrangement of and use of magic materials and complementing spell.
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These were Nick's ten new methods that he worked for a year on, nonstop, and that would be a part of his magic arsenal for the long term.
(I thought about procuring magic tools to complement my methods but while I am not a licensed Magician, I will have trouble getting my hands on decent magic tools, especially weapons, so magic tools will have to wait. I could try to create magic tools myself...)
Nick shook his head when he thought about the latter possibility, denying it.
(It took me three years to promote to rank 3 and develop corresponding rank 3 spells once I set the intention. It would take me many more years to learn how to develop suitable magic tools, so for now, I won't make that a priority because I am going to end my closed door cultivation.)
Nick had been isolated from the outside world for a long time but he had other things that he wanted to do. Not to mention, a part of being a Magician was putting your methods to use, not just developing them.
(It's time to shift to establishing myself in the real world so that I can develop myself in other ways. On that note, over the past year, while developing my methods, I learnt much about the effects of my foundation laws, Dragon's Rock, and my meditation technique, Dragon's Keep.)
Nick summarized the effects of his foundation laws and meditation technique on paper as well:
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Dragon's Rock -> these foundation laws can actively process 20,000 magical units of a mix of rule, soul, space and blade magic energy outside of their host's body over a period of eight seconds. Through active meditation, these laws process 1,000 magical units of rule, soul, space and blade magic energy per second within the mindscape; passive recovery within the mindscape is 200 magical units per second. These laws also give the magic energy that they process the form of persistent, black miasma.
Dragon's Keep -> this meditation technique produces a special grade mindscape that has a holding capacity of 200,000 magical units. The resulting mindscape allows the host's magic energy to be freely drawn into or released from the mindscape at will and allows one active magic formation to be housed within the host's mindscape at a time, having its effects projected outside of the host's body.
____________________________________________________________
Nick stood up from his work stool again and cast Tyrant Sense. Following that, a vivid and detailed view of the space around him, including sections of the ground and first floors appeared within his mind. After getting a good feel for his scouting spell, Nick cast:
(Neptune.)
Nick suddenly disappeared amidst a flash of blue magic power and then instantly reappeared amidst the same blue magic power, facing the entrance of the building, on the ground floor. Nick proceeded to quietly leave his building, following which, he cast Saturn and rose thirty meters into the air. Nick maintained Tyrant Sense during this time in order to get a good view of the surroundings before flying off rapidly in the direction of the Dean's Administrative Building.
Nick reached the Dean's Administrative Building within two minutes and landed in front of the entrance to the building, which had glass double doors. The building was a pale-grey, metal and concrete, cubic structure that had many carvings on its exterior walls. The carvings were laws that consisted of symbols from a mystical language that Nick did not know.
Nick entered the building and went straight up to the reception desk. The reception area/lobby was a spacious place with grey painted walls, portraits of past deans that decorated the walls, polished, white, tiled floors, several couches where guests could sit and stone statues of the busts of famous deans located in the four corners
The receptionist's desk was wide and made of polished marble that had a mix of mineral colors. The person manning the desk was a white man that looked to be in his late forties, had a head full neatly trimmed black hair and dark eyes. He wore a three-piece suit that consisted of a black vest, a pair of black pants and a long-sleeved, collared green shirt along with a green tie.
The receptionist watched Nick walk up to his desk plainly but had no noticeable reaction. When Nick arrived immediately in front of the desk, the receptionist asked:
"What can I help you with, sir?"
Nick replied using an indifferent expression plastered on his face:
"I would like to arrange my graduation from Richter Order Academy."