John had now become an official wizard. He was rank 1. He didn't plan to stop there though.
John had to make a decision. Did he want others to know he was an official wizard? Or did he want to hide his level?
After thinking about the pros and cons. He realized that he had only shown a talent of 3 to everyone. Not to mention breaking through to a wizard. It should of taken him a year to tap into the matrix.
His abnormality wasn't known to others, mostly due to him taking eight entire months to become an acolyte. Even though, that wasn't due to his talent, but more so him focusing on building his knowledge reserves through the public library.
John had been at the academy for over a year.
But he had only recently acquired the materials needed to become an official magus. Not to mention building his magic core. With an aptitude of 3, it should still take a year for him to even tap into the matrix for his core to have spell casting ability.
He already had a passive spell shielding him at all times! This wasn't good.
Due to his spiritual sense, he could naturally see the energy leaking off his body now. Unlike with cultivation, there is no 'perfect' magic core. There aren't any cracks. But it does leak mana into the environment.
From the shield covering him alone. Other mages will be able to tell he is an official magus. Unless... what if there was a way to make a perfect magic core?
Why should John have to play by the same rules as everyone else? Why not redesign the magic core entirely. Why not make his own magic rules?
Sure, he may only be a mere rank 1. But his knowledge could be compared to a rank 4! If you didn't factor in his lack of spell models and lack of passive spells.
He also wasn't from this world! He understood the human body on an entirely different level then this world. He also had reached nascent soul in a cultivation world. This led him to forming a core when he became core formation.
Isn't this magic system just relying on a similar core? It may not exactly be relying on building something in a dantian. But the concepts weren't completely unaligned.
John immediately started his plan to make a 'perfect' magic core. This style of forming a core was alien to this wizard world.
But John still worked at the library 24/7.
This was an issue.
He held out his hand forming a phantom soul. He then formed a perfect copy of his body. It just lacked a nascent soul. He needed another medium. He gave this body 5 magic stones, leaving him with 500 magic stones left.
He made sure to give it one of his other sets of clothes.
He had this body travel to the market and buy a magic medium, then had it come back to his room.
He enchanted this medium using his backdoor. Making this new body become an acolyte in an instant. Good. He now had a cover.
He had this body continue to work at the library. WIthout a nascent soul, this body would require sleep and breaks. But he still had his immortality to get around this. Making it essentially no different from him working at the library.
It was now time for Operation Perfect Core!
John teleported about a kilometer below his room and began to hollow out an area in the ground. He used formations not from this world to support the ceiling and build a proper lab. He also had his illusion array built to disguise this area and make it look a like a solid.
He had no doubt that there were spiritual sense like spells in this world.
So what exactly was he trying to accomplish?
He had a few goals for this project.
Firstly, he had to understand what the reactive elixir did on a microscopic level.
Second. He had to know how the malleable the core could become.
Third. He needed to re-purpose the focus in the middle of the core and make it work differently.
He clearly had his work cut out for him.
John teleported around the world and acquired materials for his experiments. He also converted some of his magic stones in gold coins. He secretly left 100 gold coins for his father and mother.
Now, he had paid back his debts.
It was time to experiment!
Thanks to the backdoor John had left in the magic matrix. He could effectively make any one of his bodies an official wizard. Especially, since he had the blueprint of the process of forming a core.
But this didn't satisfy him at all.
An army of rank 1 wizards? This may tempt a normal person. But it was trash in the eyes of John. He believed in quality over quantity.
John made many bodies and slowly began to digest what exactly happened to the body from the reactive elixir. You see, John had compartmentalized his understanding of his immortality. Making it more systemic. He had did this a long time ago. This made it easier to use definitely. But it also made it so he didn't have to think about things as clearly.
Then his immortality changed fundamentally when his soul system was created. It no longer required a blood anchor, or even used one for that matter. It anchored to the phantom soul.
Because of this. He had become weaker in some aspects in understanding. For example, he couldn't tell you the reason the reactive elixir created a magic core in the brain.
Yet! He was researching in this direction. He then realized he could cut out he middle man completely. Why mimic the reactive elixir, if you can create a core using your immortality?
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You see... John needed examples for his immortality. Just like how he couldn't make his body become a core formation instantly despite knowing of their existence. Hell, despite him using the cores from dead cultivators in formations. He wasn't able to just magically make his body have one.
Why was this?
He lacked the blueprint for it!
Once he had something to pull from. Once he had an example, every future body he made could have one without needing to cultivate from the beginning.
This wasn't without problems though. Just like in the cultivation world. He couldn't mimic certain special characteristics even with his immortality. Making future bodies lack a soul field and spiritual sense.
He got around this by using his own universe to imprint these characteristics on the phantom soul.
He faced a similar problem here.
Except on a larger scale.
A mage required the blessing of Mer to progress.
John had gotten around this by leaving a back door for himself. But what if he could do better then that? What if he could understand the magic matrix itself?
What if he could walk down his own unique path, instead of following the path of this world?
John had some insights into how the magic matrix of the world worked. He knew this from when he saw the programming of this universe, although it was briefly. He had tampered with this code.
John focused on his skeletal body in the Infinite Maze dimension.
He created a soul and sent it to that lifeless planet.
He went through the familiar steps required to have it gain a spiritual sense and nascent soul.
He then began to tamper with his universe. This was something he hadn't practiced much of.
He hadn't yet experimented enough with his new powers! This was a grave mistake, and he realized it quite soon. He was ignoring his potential!
Wasn't he planning on surpassing himself? Just like how he stretched the abilities of his immortality... didn't he plan to do the same with his new abilities?
Exactly! That is why he began to make a magic matrix over this lifeless world. He began to experiment.
He didn't plan to abandon the path of the wizard world. He just planned to make some edits to the system and make himself a better one. He figured something designed by himself would be a thousand times better then that pushover Mer.
John studied the connection between the nascent soul and its generation of Qi from the consciousness.
He soon was shocked!
"What if I were to have my soul house an entire magic matrix? Instead of relying on a virus in the system of Mer's matrix. I will make my own!"
John was nearly omnipotent while messing around in his universe. It was the perfect place to experiment.
"The main question I have is... how do I fit a universe inside of a soul?"
That's right! John planned to do something a little insane. He had already proven to himself that he was capable of creating his own universe.
Why should it be impossible for him to make what he called a 'soulverse'?
His idea was that just like creating an anchor point for a pocket dimension. Or like that point in the wizard world that served as the world will and housed the entire afterlife.
Why not make 'Lucas Aternaz' the persona he was playing in the wizard world, why not make an entire soulverse in his soul.
He had great control over the soul due to being a nascent soul.
"Instead of trying to become a rank 2 wizard. I should first try to make a soulverse."
John didn't plan to experiment on his body in the wizard world.
He would first perfect it using less important instant bodies he made in his universe.
After a few hundred failed attempts. He succeeded!
How did he do this?
Simple.
You could say he was heavily inspired by the cultivation world. He first created two constructs inside of a phantom soul. He called these two things yin and yang. He then had these two things chase each other at an ever increasing speed.
Once they became so fast that they blended into themselves and they became one.
He created a third construct called 'space'.
This acted as a sphere barrier. The yin and yang rotated around this sphere, splitting this sphere of space into two halves.
The entire sphere stays together. He then created two more constructs out of each of the hemispheres.
One of them was called 'inertia'. While the other was called 'momentum'.
So we now have space, yin, yang, inertia, and momentum.
The only thing spinning is the yin and yang. But now you began to rotate 'space' as well.
Something interesting begins to happen in the soul from this point on.
Momentum starts to bleed and mix into a liquid like blood leaking into water. While Inertia begins to solidify into a solid.
Momentum becomes white, while inertia becomes black.
Then you simply stop these constructs completely...
Nothing happens... All activity stops.
As yin and yang began to slow down.
They are no longer one entity.
Momentum begins to solidify as Inertia begins to bleed.
Specks of black appear in momentum's hemisphere. While specks of white appear in Inertia's hemisphere.
You then have to time it perfectly.
Once 50% of the mass has converted.
You shatter Space!
You attack the entire construct. Destroying space, inertia, momentum, yin, and yang.
Something quite interesting happens.
The entire construct explodes creating a soulverse.
This took quite a bit of trial and error from John.
He had to mess around quite a bit with his soul manipulation abilities.
This isn't all though.
As the soulverse is being created. You have to create a construct called 'time' that doesn't exist in space itself.
This is necessary to have a tik for creating mana later.
You then have a few milliseconds to shape the universes rules.
John failed many times in creating a magic matrix in the soulverse.
He was stepping into entirely new territory.
You must understand something from this. This isn't creating an 'actual' universe. It is merely the creation of a soulverse. It doesn't have any laws or his soul as the foundation.
It is simply a poor imitation of his own universe.
But it is the key to having his own magic matrix!
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On a lifeless planet in John's universe.
A soul appeared.
It was struck by hundreds of lightning strikes.
A spiritual sense and nascent soul appeared!
A body formed with all meridians unblocked along with a core in its middle dantian.
And a pillar in its upper dantian.
And in its brain?
A perfect magic core!
This magic core never was enchanted. It naturally was custom designed by John.
Inside this magic core... wasn't a simple focus.
It was multiple chambers.
A rotating focus!
It had 7 chambers on its first layer.
Inside of the soul. Yin, Yang, Inertia, Momentum, Space, and Time rotated and exploded into a soulverse.
While this soulverse was constructed. A magic matrix was built over the entire thing.
The soulverse was then linked through a spatial connection with the magic core.
Gas mana was being gathered in the magic core.
"Alright. It is ready!"
The body was sucked into the soul as it vanished.
Meanwhile...
John consumed the magic core that was in his body in the wizard world.
He then constructed a perfect magic core that had multiple new functions that would be useful.
He then created a soulverse in his soul.
He then tapped into this soulverse instantly by linking his soul to his magic core. Something that people who used Mer's magic matrix couldn't do!
His focus was extremely complicated.
It had seven chambers.
He could fill these chambers with spells.
The first layer alone could fit six rank 1 spells!
It also had a blank chamber that imitated a mortal.
As for leaking mana? It was a closed system. Instead of mana leaking into the environment from the matrix. It would flow back into the soulverse in a loop.
Now... John still had a problem. He had a matrix. But he had no energy in it! Did you think energy was free? Or that it would magically be generated from his soul?
This is where the nascent soul comes into play.
It converted his consciousness into Qi.
Some of the Qi would be consumed by his soul.
Then through his soulverse. This Qi would become Mana.
Infinite energy generation!
Now he could have the benefits of a environment based magic system, with all the perks of a internal system. You see, his mental energy system that he used was limited to tier 7 magic.
That was legendary.
But this new system from the wizard world. It had ranks. If he were to put his strength into ranks. He was only around rank 4 with tier 7 magic. But he could become rank 6 or higher with Mer's magic system.
It was time to explore the functions of his new magic core!