When Pragna met Evy today unlike last time, she greeted him with a smile. Even with all that scars she still looked enchanting. After introducing herself she led him to a stand-alone building. The building has a sign on it saying, ‘basics of formations’.
As they entered the building Pragna asked, “Tell me, do you also have to read lot of books under pretext of work”.
Evy laughed and said, “Not as much as you and I love reading books anyway.”
She asked, “So how are you adjusting to the battlefront?”
Pragna slightly smiled, he knew why Evy suddenly became all chatty with him. He already met the other new librarians. But till now Evy did not interact with him. Though he could assume she is busy with her work, it was well established from the beginning that this ‘work’ is nothing more than a cover for their individual grooming. He still does not know why owner is doing this, but still it is happening. So, the only reason Evy is talking in a friendly manner with him now is because they told her to do it.
To confirm his suspicions he said, “I don’t know, many things are new to me and at the same time some of things have this weird Déjà vu feeling to it. Putting that aside, Biazib and I will be going to the arena next week. Do you want to come see us?”
Evy thought for a second and said, “Yeah I am free then. I will come.”
That confirmed Pragna’s suspicions. But he is not much worried about it. He wanted to see how this will play out.
Evy took him to a room with empty shelves and all the books are on the desks.
She said, “These are the books you have to read and arrange them back on the shelf. If you need anything tell me.”
After saying that she left the building. Pragna picked up a book and started reading. After reading for some time, he gained a rough understanding on how formations work.
For a formation to work you need at-least one of the two things. One is a formation diagram and other a language.
Usually first they draw a formation diagram. After that they fill the diagram with symbols at specific location. But there is a very Strict rule to this, precision. Even if there is an error of 1millimeter the entire formation will go haywire. There are good chances you will kill yourself from the explosions of a wrongly drawn symbol. It is very hard to create new formations. Only experts have a chance at creating new ones. It is advised to remember the currently used diagrams and use them.
But symbol-language is a tricky one. It seems only few symbols can be used inside formations. Sometimes some symbols work only when they are in a specific formation diagram.
There are very few symbols that can be used in formations. Only formation experts can recognise new symbols.
After designing the formation, next comes the construction parts. Quality of formations depend upon quality of materials. The higher the quality of materials, better the formations.
Up to this point all the books agreed. But after that it was more speculation than accurate logic. They use empirical data to contradict each other, but when it comes to proving their theory with proper logic, almost everyone fails.
Despite their pedantic arguments all seem to agree on one point. Nobody knows the origin of this symbols but all of them believe that unravelling their origin will unravel the origin of battlefront.
As for the people who understood deeper concepts, they seem to rigorously hide their findings. They only expose it to rest of the world when they have something substantial to gain.
For example, the formation to generate fire. They had no clue how to do it in the beginning. But the fire realm had it from the beginning. In fact, even the rest of the battlefront was very close to creating it. The only thing they lacked was the symbol to be used inside the formation.
After lot of negotiation and after paying astronomical price, fire realm sold the symbol.
Reading this Pragna chuckled. He understood that learning about formations is a herculean task. But lucky for him he is inside the library. Here can get his hand on as many books as he can. Like this he spent 2 weeks in basic formations building.
After reading all the basic concepts, he started reading about how to draw basic formations for elementals. That is using formations to generate elementals. But it seems that to generate them you need mana stones.
After finishing reading about them, he got a notification,
Acquired new title, Formation Amateur
Formations subject is vast beyond Belief. Title upgrades depend upon the enlightenment rather than accumulation of data.
The last time he seen a title on formation was on that dragon-kid who he killed. Though that kid had novice title, it did not amount to much offense towards Pragna. So, he thought formations are more of an auxiliary skill.
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He got tired of reading books so he left that realm and went back to his house.
When he returned yigg sent a message to him saying it wanted to talk to him. Yigg appeared in-front of him. It said, “Are there any books on flora and fungi in the library?”
Though he felt mentally exhausted, he knew that this is for his own good, because yigg becoming strong is basically same as him becoming strong.
So, after searching for it he found the section. He took yigg there and left her there. After returning he felt like sleeping. Though he has no need for rest, after all the reading he felt like he need few hours of peace. As he lazily lay around bed for some time, yigg started sending messages about the materials she needed.
The core concept of the skill the yigg is practicing is very simple. It is believed that all the flora and fungi are born from world tree. Of course some believe even all creation is born from the world tree. But putting aside the latter, former theory is believed by many.
So by doing things in reverse, that is letting a plant absorb as many flora and fungi it can, it is believed it can be evolved into a world tree.
Though it seems like an excellent idea, very few practice such art. The reason is very simple, the cost of materials.
Right now Pragna is realizing that fact. He started checking that prices on the crystal cauldron site and the costs are humungous. Some did not cost even one high mana stone, while some costed more than 100 essence stones. While some had price tags called law-fragments? He does not even know what is a law fragment is!
Pragna checked his financials. After the previous purchase and his recent monthly salary he has less than 4 star mana stones. Looking at the items yigg wants, it is not even enough to cover 10% of the entire item list.
He pondered for few minutes not knowing what do. Then he remembered. Till now Owner asked him to lot of things. But per the original contract he signed with the owner Pragna can ask for one wish.
So Pragna contacted Agarthala and went to his office. He told him his situation. Agarthala thought for few minutes and said, “I have a solution for that, but it will a be risky manoeuvre.”
Agarthala continued, “I know about an abandoned realm that is mostly contains plant type creatures. If you can absorb them I think you can cover most of the items you can find on the list. But there are two problems. One it is one of the largest abandoned realms and second some of the creatures are at divine soul stage. If you can avoid them, you will be fine.”
Pragna asked, “Is there some kind of portal by which I can escape in case of emergency.”
Agarthala laughed and took out a small token, “This is portal key that will directly lead you to our dungeon entrances.”
Pragna asked, “Dungeon entrances?”
Agarthala smiled and explained, “I am supposed to take you there in 6 months, but because of your, request I am taking you there a little bit early. So how much time you need to prepare?”
Pragna asked, “Is there anything I need to take?”
Agarthala said, “The realm you are going to is abundant in food and water. So there is nothing to worry. Also with your constitution food is not a major issue. The only thing you need to worry about is healing potions.”
Pragna thought about and said, “Give me two days.”
Agarthala said, “Ok then make your preparations. This is a good thing for you. OF all the four you have the lowest level. This place will be greatly useful to you.”
Pragna looked confused and Agarthala explained, “While you were busy reading in fire realm section, Harima who had lowest level actually made an advance into immortal stage. Biazib made his advancement 3 weeks back. Evy long ago advanced into the immortal stage. You are the only one left.”
Pragna is stunned! Last time he met them, he clearly remembered their auras. Due to his sensor vision he can make a rough guess to which stage an individual belongs to.
Though he could not check their status all of them emitted aura of half-immortals, so how did they break through so fast?
Agarthala understood what Pragna is thinking and explained, “That is why owner said your weak. Who said you to trust their auras? There are ways to hide the auras and the information displayed by windows. Evy always hides her status and aura. While Biazib did not intentionally hide anything, he was very close to becoming an immortal.”
Pragna asked, “What about Harima?”
Agarthala grinned, “I am not going to explain everything. Figure it out.”
Pragna was not worried that they powered up so fast. But what worried him is the fact that there are ways to gain strength this fast and he has no clue about them.
Agarthala looked at Pragna and said, “Pragna in battlefront Might and Trickery go hand in hand. If you are not careful you will dead before you know it. It seems these peaceful few months have made you callous.”
Though what Agarthala said may sound harsh, what he said is true. Pragna did slack up. His senses were much sharper when he was in 12 fire islands. Right now, he is like a scholar who has spent his entire life in libraries. He has been piling data higher and deeper with no real-life experience.
What is the point of knowledge when there is not practical application?
Pragna laughed at himself. He has no clue who he was. He has unknown enemies trying to kill him. In fact, he is not even sure who these enemies are. He took it at face value when owner said he has enemies.
It’s true his life would be in danger if he ventures out. But his problems are outside the library. How can he find answers when he does not even know them?
Pragna decided that after coming back from this realm, he is going to venture out and find his problems.
He returned to his house. He cancelled his previous order of body nourishment pills and soul nourishment pills.
After that he placed order for mana and health recovery potions. After tallying things, he could only get 50 health potions and 20 high mana potions. He checked them to find that one health potion could regain his health by 10% and when his health is higher than 50% effect is much lower. Pragna knew this is wasteful of his money, but knew it’s always good to have life-saving options no matter how meagre their effects are.
On other hand mana potion effects seemed straight forward. For one potion, his mana would increase by 20% total. Also, it seems even if his mana bar is full he can consume and his mana would still increase. Only caution seems that over usage may lead to addiction and consuming it when the mana is already full may lead to some damage, so it is advised to consume it only when it is necessary.
After that he went to martial art section. He copied the martial art book that yigg wanted to practice with database-compiler skill.
After that he went to the alchemy section. He first went to basics section and scanned all the books he thought he needed. That took him almost one day. After that he went to flora and fungi section and scanned all the books he thought he needed to identify different kind of plants.
Pragna felt satisfied with the preparations he made. Then he after taking yigg he went to Agarthala on the appointed time.
After coming here, he did not get an opportunity to use his soul weapons. He really wanted to see if they lived up to their expectations.
Agarthala took him to him to a spacious room, with round portals on the three sides of the wall. In the middle of the room, there is a device that is used to set the destination.
Agarthala operated it and portal on the left side of the wall which was shining in black colour started glowing in yellow bright colour. After opening the portal, he said, “The portal will close after you enter. The only way back is the token I gave you. So, keep it safe. You will be teleported to one of safe locations there.”
After that he told Pragna some details about this abandoned realm.
Pragna left through the portal without any further delays.
After Pragna left the portal it went back to its dull black colour. Agarthala took out a communication device and said, “I sent him there as planned.”