Chapter 5: The Right Choice?
AN: Well, the polls are done and it’ll be… dun dun dun dun! Exposed in the next chapter. Haha! Some theory-crafting here and more about the world in this chapter. I hope you guys enjoy it. :D
Have fun reading!
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“Grandma Meng, what do you mean by choose?” I asked.
Knowing that pondering over it wouldn’t do me any good, I just voiced out my question.
“To become a mage, one will need to attune himself with a certain element. For normal aspirants, it would be something that they will naturally grasp when the right time comes. But for you, since I gave you the chance to enter the Room of Essentials, then of course, you can choose which element you would like to be attuned to.”
Once she was done speaking, a sudden realization dawned upon me.
I can choose my own element?!
As that thought appeared in my mind, my eyes hurriedly turned left and right as I observed the countless balls of light around me.
As I observed more of these balls of light, I understood that choosing an elemental attunement meant that choosing among these things.
But, what are the limitations? How many could I choose? How do I choose? How do I even know which element is which? What are the advantages and disadvantages of choosing among these essences?
Many questions appeared in my mind. Perhaps Grandma Meng has already read it or learned of it but right now, she doesn’t seem to be too keen on answering me.
With each passing moment, my heart grew even more frantic. Even with this golden opportunity in front of me, a certain feeling about how I might regret it if I decided rashly continued to warn me.
Thinking about it, doesn’t this concern my future? Doesn’t this entail that once I choose one, it’ll be something that will stick with me for the rest of my life?
If I made a wrong decision, then I might become unable to do anything about it in the future… I mean, I don’t have that much of an aspiration as a mage but, I still want to try and become the best of whatever I can be.
Insights… Information… Yeah, for now, these are things that I really need to collect before deciding. I shouldn’t be rash and I shouldn’t do anything that I could regret for the rest of my life.
This is already my new start and I have definitely decided to live it to the fullest without regretting anything.
“Grandma Meng, can you give me more time to decide? I’m in need of information and…”
Plop
While I was speaking, I suddenly felt my body falling and in the next moment, I hit the ground.
What? What the hell just happened?
When I came to be, I realized that I was once again inside the library. I was directly sitting in front of that certain wall which suddenly turned into a wooden door that lead to the room which Grandma Meng called as her ‘laboratory’.
Did she kick me out of the room? Did I say anything bad?
At that moment, while I was pondering over what is currently happening, I suddenly heard footsteps that came from behind me.
As I did, I turned my head and my sight immediately fell on Grandma Meng who has a very large brown book tucked between her body and her left arm.
Looking at her frail body and that book that seemed to be so heavy, I instinctively stood up and hurriedly took the book away from her arms.
But when I did, I once again met with the ground when I suddenly felt the enormous weight of the book that Grandma Meng was just carrying…
Damn… this… this is heavy!
While lying on the ground, I looked at the book being held in my hands. As soon as I saw it, I couldn’t help but gasp in shock when I saw that there’s certain distance between the book and the floor.
To put it simply, the book is floating!
Looking up, I saw Grandma Meng’s face still with her rather indifferent expression. That calm and serene smile once again took up her face as she said, “I’ll give you two days to decide. You can read this book for everything that you need to know about essences.”
As soon as she finished speaking, I was yet again shocked when I suddenly felt that… the once really heavy book that made me fall to the ground suddenly felt weightless.
Compared to the moment I tried to take it from the arms of Grandma Meng, right now, it’s as if it doesn’t have weight at all.
Again… magic?
As I curiously looked at the book that Grandma Meng gave me, she slowly walked away and left towards the opposite direction.
But before she could completely go away, she suddenly stopped on her tracks as her voice resounded, “If a mage’s possession was forcibly taken away from their grasp, then the proprietor will definitely have a price to pay for it. It’s lenient of me to give you just that so please do be careful in the future.”
Leaving those words for me, her silhouette completely vanished and all that was left was me and the weightless brown book held by both of my hands.
Sighing, I slowly stood up and walked towards a corner where a table for reading could be found. Today, I’ve been surprised a lot… but right now, I just need to once again leave all of those things aside and focus on the task at hand.
Choosing the right magic!
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“Sigh… I still can’t choose…”
With a heavy sigh, I couldn’t help but mutter these words.
After ten hours or so of vigorous reading and comparison, I still failed to comprehend which is which and how advantageous or disadvantageous the pros and cons of each kind of essences.
Actually, it’s more of everything became a little bit too complicated.
As I realized this… yeah, I’m opening more of my eyes about the probability that I was just so stupid to think that only information and insights are what I need in order to decide about this ‘elemental attunement’.
For starters, yeah, it’s true that we need information. It’s true that we need insights. But… a really big but, too much wouldn’t help at all.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
It’ll actually give you a certain headache that deciding about something becomes even more of a chore than that of when you know so little about it.
During the time I’ve spent reading, I’ve learned the basics about essences and the general knowledge that mages should have about elemental attunement.
Essences aren’t actually as simple as what I’ve learned in the past.
In fact, it’s so damn complicated that there are so many theories and so many things to learn about it that perhaps even if I spend my life researching it, I wouldn’t even scratch ten percent of its surface.
Right now, I just want it to simply become something like food so I can somehow at least puke it. The overload of information in my mind is just… making me regret of everything that I did today.
Ugh… fuck my life, really…
Anyways, from what I’ve learned from the brown book, Essences are something like raw energy. It is always there, never to be lost nor created.
Whenever mages absorbs it, these essences turns into mana. Once they used it to cast a spell, it’ll perform its duties and return to its original raw form.
Well, that’s what the book told me… Although I’m not really at the point where I completely understand everything that I just said, the idea is still something that I could grasp.
Raw Energy (Essences) > Mana > Spell > Raw Energy (Essences)
Just like a repeated process, it’s something that is constant and will never change.
These essences can be found in various forms. Well, this is where it gets so damn complicated.
Starting from the six [Origin Elements]; Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, Light, and Darkness, variations of different kinds of elements can also be found.
Some of these variations can be a combination of two or more Origin Elements, and for some, these variations are those of a different kind or an evolved form of the Origin Elements.
For example, the Origin Element, water can become ice which can be considered as an evolved form. For combinations, if a mage have two different Origin Elements residing in his body, then it can be combined. For example, Fire and Earth can become Magma.
To put it simply, there are so many other elements that came from this Origin Elements that learning about each and everyone of it will take up an unimaginable amount of time which I would never dare to think about.
And when I learned of this, well, it’s the point of no return. I’m stuck and I don’t even have a single idea about where to go or where to start.
The Origin Elements and its variations can be distinguished by its color. When I entered the Room of Essentials, I’ve pretty much saw all and if not, then most of the colors of each of these elements.
Red is to fire, blue is to water, green is to wind, yellow is to earth, white is to light, and black is to darkness.
As for the variations, its appearance could be described by the difference in shade or intensity of the color of the Origin Element where it came from. Some might be a combination of two colors, while some might be just a lighter or darker shade of the six original colors.
For example, a variation of water to ice can be described with the color of its essence turning from blue to light blue. The variation that came from the combination of fire and earth, magma, will have the color of its essence as red plus yellow.
These colors signify which is which and all of them have their own pros and cons that right now, I just couldn’t help but become even more confused with what I should choose.
When one acquires an Origin Element, basically, he’ll be able to access all kinds of variations that is under that Origin Element. There's only a need for comprehension and understanding if a mage would like to learn to use each and every variation of an Origin element.
Aside from that, there’s always a rare chance of acquiring a secondary Origin Element and then having the combination of the first and the secondary Origin Element as a personal variation.
As for choosing an Origin Element like Grandma Meng said, there’s no real limit to it as long as your body can handle it. But… that isn’t really right…
I mean there’s no such thing as a body that could withstand three or more kinds of essences occurring in their own bodies.
As explained in the brown book, once you have your own Origin Element, it’s better to not try to attune yourself with another Origin Element because if you do, there are only two possibilities.
Either it complements with your current Origin Element, which happens one in ten thousand of aspiring mages, or, it gets into a fight with your current element then your body wouldn’t be able to handle it and... you will simply just go and self-destruct… to death.
Because of this, I’m thinking of limiting myself to choosing only one among these Origin Elements. Even there might be a heathen chance that I could gain two, I don’t think I’m ready to face the consequences if it ever failed.
And again, because of this… I’m lost. Choosing one among the six, it’s just something that needs more time to ponder about.
Once I choose one, it’ll be my own Origin Element for the rest of my life and the only magic that I can use are everything about it and each and every possible variation of that lone Origin Element.
Haaa... I wonder… what should I choose? What path should I take?
Ugh… this is really… father?
While I was lost in thought, a certain person appeared in my mind. Yeah, my father.
Now that I think about it, I’ve always wanted to become someone like him. I’ve always wanted him to be proud of me.
Well, I know that there’s no more chance with making him proud of me but, about becoming someone like him… yeah, certainly, I might actually get close to that.
Ah… I think, for now… I should follow his footsteps.
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AN: What kind of person is Cleo’s father that even though he was the one that kicked Cleo, Cleo still admired him this much… Well, find out in the future chapters of… Lustrous Odyssey! LMAO
As a sidenote, please do rate, comment and tell me whatever your thoughts about my story and suggest whatever you guys would like to change or whatever you guys would like to happen and I’ll think about it. It’s still underway and I’d be more glad to have you guys help me create a much more interesting story.
Anyways, thank you so much for reading!