Preface

I thought long and hard about writing this book, for the longest time I thought it would be best to keep my secrets to myself.  You see, in one of my past lives I wrote a similar book that to this day is still read by every magus in training, and many warriors.  I feel kind of… obligated to leave something similar behind in this life. Since I’ll soon be leaving this plane for the higher-realms I decided to leave behind this book depicting my time on the elemental seas.   Perhaps, one of you will be able to gain some insight from it.  Good luck, you’ll need it.

Chapter One - Huh?

My early memories of the Elemental Sea are fragmented and consist of mostly doing nothing.  I was seriously injured when I first awoke, and it wasn’t until years after my rebirth that I was able to remember anything about the sea clearly.  This I will say; some days I wish I’d just stayed there.

- Nicholas Freeney

*ZAP*

“Huh?”

It was as if someone had thrown a bucket of ice-cold water on my face.  One moment, I was drifting peacefully, blissfully asleep.  The next, I was awake.  

“WHAT THE FUCK?!?!”

I panicked, trying to move, trying to breathe, trying to feel something.  Anything.  Its a surreal feeling; being alive yet not having a body.  It’s an experience not for the faint of heart.  I have no idea how long it took before I finally settled down enough to observe my surroundings.

To my surprise, I could actually see!  Though I wouldn’t really call it seeing, more like sensing.  Everything within a 10 foot radius of me I could sense.  The empty sky above, the purple sea below.  No matter what I tried however, I couldn’t affect anything.  I was just a mass of energy floating along, bored.

Not that the sea wasn’t fascinating, it was.  As my ability to sense slowly increased, the natural wonder of the place slowly began to awe me.  So much pure, focused essence right there.  To make it even better, just being around the stuff refines your soul, making you stronger.  Anyone with even the slightest affinity for lighting essence would think the place is heaven.

For the most part the sea is a calm, smooth, relaxing place place.  However, like any mortal sea, things can take a turn for the worse.  Hurricanes and tsunamis occur infrequently, later I learned that when a being of massive power uses a lot of essence, for instance a massive lightning bolt is called to fry some luckless fool, the elemental sea will react.  Usually, this results in a tsunami of essence rushing forwards, for a reason I’ll explain later.  For a long time, I thought that was the only thing that could cause one of these events, but then suddenly maybe 20 feet in front of me a massive plume of sparks erupted from the sea.   It was the best fireworks show in the universe, and I was a little too close for comfort.  

Perhaps because it was so close, and because I’d already spent at least a century floating around doing nothing but watching the sea, I was able to faintly understand what had happened when the eruption occurred.  Deep, deep in the ocean a massive amount of essence was slowly gathered, concentrated under pressure until finally the volatile stuff couldn’t take it anymore then… BOOOM.

Stolen novel; please report.

Well, maybe it was because of the loss of my previous life’s memories and therefore my loss of all understand of what is possible.  Or, maybe I just really wanted to actually do something other than float around aimlessly on top of the sea, but I wouldn't give up trying to figure out a way to affect my environment. Teaching yourself how to gather elemental essence without any cultivation techniques is hard, doing so without a body is INSANELY hard.  Hell, according to all the major literature on the subject it should be impossible for a soul to gather Elemental Essence…  Well, maybe it was because I’d been alone for far too long with nothing to do but try, or maybe it was because there is literally no such thing as a better location to cultivate at than in the middle of the elemental sea.  For whatever reason, I did the impossible.

Now, just so you apprentice mages and warriors reading this journal don’t get too jealous, you should understand just how long it took for me to gain even the slightest control over the lightning elements.  In the elemental sea, there is no easy way to tell time like there is in a mortal world.  In the mortal world the sun rises and sets; moons wax and wane.  In the elemental sea… there really isn’t a good way to tell time.  What I can say, is that based off my observations of time in the mortal world since I was reborn, I spent at least a century studying on that endless sea before I could even create even the smallest of sparks.

It was worth it.

*spark*

I can’t tell you how excited I was when I finally managed to gather together that tiny amount of essence and create my first spark.  Time passed, and I got better at creating sparks.  By then I could create massive explosions of energy, and I was starting to get pretty bored with it.  It had become a habit of mine to always be gathering essence by this point, and I absentmindedly gathered more and more and more.   While I pondered about what to do next I suddenly realized that I had surpassed my limits.

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM*

My soul shook, nearly imploding as a massive explosion ripped from the sea beneath me.  When I finally regained my senses, I stared in wonder at the sea beneath me.  Except, I wasn’t my customary few feet over the sea.  No, I was a few thousand feet above it.  As I reached the top of my parabolic arc I noticed far off into the distance that the sea was no longer purple!  No, it was Red right in front of me, and off to the left it was Blue!  To the right it was Yellow!  SWEET, something not purple!  Not that I dislike purple, but a few centuries of only purple would drive anyone nuts!  Hell, back then I thought there were two colors.  The purple of the sea underneath me, and the black of everything else!  

At this point, I started falling and everything else left my mind in a massive O SHIT moment.  Sometimes, it really sucks not having vocal cords.  There is a certain release of fear that comes along with screaming “AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!”  In a high-pitched voice as you plummet to your doom.  Unfortunately, all I could do was think “fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuckity fuck” to myself as the purple sea came closer and closer.

*SPLASH!*

My soul descended into the Elemental Sea of Lightning.