Finding Jinhyung wasn't difficult at all.
Right now, only 56 people throughout the ten cars of the Rest Train could afford to eat to their wishes.
He was the only one who had a feast before him; others chewed on bread with jealous eyes.
Many of them sat together in groups, making plans. Even in the face of hardships and fear, adventurers didn't lose their spirits.
I quickly sat down, right before him. I didn't order any food as I was sipping on a magic refill potion I grabbed while passing by the market.
I had exhausted quite a lot of strength earlier and felt an uncomfortable chill inside my lower stomach.
I ignored whether my feeling of hunger disappearing was an illusionary side effect of the potion or that magic energy could replace food.
"You fought?" asked Jinhyung between two mouthfuls of pork bulgogi. He seemed rather relaxed as he examined my clothes; they just finished patching up and steamed a bit.
"Yeah, she wanted me to join her group plotting against 'King'. I doubted their strength, and she started to attack."
His rate of bulgogi consumption was nothing less than phenomenal. While I gave him a short rundown of what happened, he had already completed three whole plates. He frowned as I mentioned Lillian saving me.
"Hey, I had no other choice; I don't have anything to fight with, and if she didn't help, I wouldn't be here right now." I said, grabbing Lillian's cover in my pocket.
"I know, I am not mad at her; I am mad I wasn't the one to save you. I underestimated Irina and didn't think she would be dare," he said, hitting the table.
The covers were shaken, and the food almost fell to the ground.
I touched something weird in my pocket. I took it out and dropped it on the table.
"What's that?" Asked Jinhyung.
It was one of the ice shards that Irina used against me.
However, it wasn't made of ice at all—not even cold. A crystal shard it was.
"You said she used ice magic!"
"You think I looked closely at the things piercing me?"
If she really could summon crystals, this would change everything.
To create an ice bullet, you can simply freeze some of the ambient humidity. But in order to summon actual rocks, she had to master matter synthesis from energy.
Such a feat was incredible on its own, but they weren't simply rocks. They were pure crystals with no impurities in sight. Usch precision and magic were unseen to us yet.
"Why is everyone so much stronger than us?" I whined as I fell back onto my chair.
"What do you mean by 'strong' ? If you talk about the amount of internal energy, you certainly have no rivals—apart the 'King'."
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"But she can create matter out of thin air! Since I sealed Lillian inside my grimoire, I can't even cast a spell."
"That's great; as I said back then at the Castle of Nightmares, you hammer a stick through a hole in a wall instead of pushing it. Now, the whole wall is broken. You have no other choice but to rebuild it. That's the perfect opportunity for you to shape this 'wall' into your 'tools'."
As usual, when he had to explain something, he talked as an elder monk.
"I have no idea how magic works; all I can do is move it around," I shamefully said as I looked downward.
"What do you think the things you call 'spells' are?" asked Jinhyung, staring right into my soul.
A spell, huh? I never thought about it, but if I had to give an answer,
"A set of instructions imposed on a flow of magic power by a magician's mind in order to achieve a desired result."
"Well, you are not wrong, but your brain would explode processing a magic circuit of such a scale. I understand now why you relied so much on the empty grimoire. You think too much, a technique is something that is in your soul. You do not 'learn' a technique; you make it part of yourself. When I use 'Dawnbringer's Stance', I do not control my Qi with my mind. My whole being feels the technique and shapes the energy flowing through me. In a way, you become the technique when you use it."
Become the spell?
"Of course it requires rigorous training. I trained my martial arts for years before the way of the sword got ingrained in my muscles. It took me then a whole month of training to combine them with the internal energy available in this place. Luckily, it was somehow similar to the breathing techniques of the old world."
Ok, so without decades of training, I cannot learn spells? Great… And I doubted that Irina, who had rather impressive magic, was amartial masters.
"Obviously, this was my way; everyone has their own."
Right, I should ask another mage for better enlightenment since magic mastery is unique. I gathered some energy in my palm and infused it into Lillian. She immediately flew out of my pocket.
"Hi Lillian," I joyfully greeted her.
"...", as expected, Jinhyung would be rather cold. His face grimed too, what a child, really.
[Well, well, why did you wake me up? You got yourself in trouble again?]
"I am not 'that' weak; anyway, I called you for some wisdom."
[Wisdom? Hmm, alright, what is up?]
"How do you learn or create spells?"
[Hmm, well, since I am a book... If my pages contain a magic scriptures, I can execute them by pushing energy through them. But I doubt this is what you were asking. When I had my original form, I read magic books, and I tried to replicate the spell little by little, slowly imbuing my soul with the spell. But I recommend doing this with basic spells. I learned this way the 'carmine fog', and then through my life I adapted this spell to every use :spears, healing, transportation, etc.]
Same logic, huh? Training a single basic spell until it becomes you, then using these simple magic bits that became a part of yourself, comparable to breathing, you build up more complex techniques.
"I see. Where can I find such a magic book?"
Jinhyung used his martial arts as a base, and Lillian used the grimoires of her family, but what could I use? And what was the base of Irina's magic? I already checked the market, and no such thing was there for sale.
[Well, I am a spellbook after all.]
"I rather not… You are sentient, and you possess a soul inside you; I fear something weird would happen." I didn't want to hurt her feelings. Did grimoires get offended if someone refused to learn from them?
[Well, you do you. I will go back to sleep since you got what you wanted.]
"Good night." With these words, she crashed onto the table.
"I know how you can find your base technique. You cannot train martial arts like me; you lack time for that."
Time?
"What do you mean I lack time?"
Jinhyung's perfectly chiselled brows rose a bit.
"The leaderboard says '5 days remain for the second challenge'. Don't you remember? Even after we completed the second level, the '3' button wasn't lit.
The train gave late teams time to finish the second car in order to have enough people in the third car. I fear it won't be 'instanced' this time around. We cannot be late for the next trial."
"Then what is it?" I asked with hopeful eyes.
Jinhyung took his glass filled with a greenish liquid.
"The nokcha here is not all bad, haha," he exclaimed, standing up after chugging his drink.
"Let's go buy some elixirs; the first car awaits us. You will have to train a lifetime in under a week."
I never liked to study or put effort into anything; I always chose the easiest way, but now I was eager to push my limits.