Generally, the skins, cloths, or even the papers used for making scrolls were brown, or brownish white in colour. But whether it was the Three Turns Spirit Forging Art, or the new Spirit Forging Art that his master was giving him, both their scrolls were black. They were so strange, that back when his master had given him the scroll of the Three Turns Spirit Forging Art, no matter how he tried, he had not been able to wrap his head around the unusual scroll.

It was only when the blood red ink from the scroll had come alive, and had imprinted itself into his head, that he finally understood the purpose of the strange scroll, and the red ink. Later, after his incessant naggings, his master had finally relented, and told him about the origin of the ink, and the scroll. Apparently, both of them were derived from Dream Bull, a type of Oren Beast found in the Forbidden Areas of the Union. It was apparently a close relative of the Phantom Bulls, descended from the Fantasy Bull, an Origin Beast.

It was said that the Fantasy Bull had the capability of turning fantasies into realities, and realities into fantasies. The Dream Bulls, of course, were not capable of such fantastical feats. They were, however, capable of creating their own dream worlds, where they often dragged their enemies to fight. The strange thing about their dream world though, was that even if their enemies knew that the dream world was an illusion, a fake, they were not able to get rid of the memories they gained in the dream worlds. Not even after the Dream Bull’s death. To them, it would feel as if whatever they experienced within the dream world was their own memory. Their own experiences…

Though the skin, and the blood of the Dream Bulls did not have the ability to create a similar dream world as the Dream Bulls did, using their skin, and blood, with some other materials allowed for creation of scrolls which could transmit all their contents directly into the mind of their readers. Furthermore, with slight tinkering, the content of the scrolls could even be designed to move around, and demonstrate the contents in action, making it easier to understand.

This, unfortunately for the Dream Bulls, meant that they their skin, and blood was always in high demand, almost driving their species to extinction. Maybe, that was the reason why these Bulls were found only in the territory of the Union. After all, only the Union could force the Orthodoxies, and other Wanderers living in its territories to stop the indiscriminate hunting of Dream Bulls, regulating them as a sustained, and renewable resource. And a very precious resource, that few could enjoy.

Yet, the true value of the scroll lay not in the materials it had been made out of, but its contents itself. Technically, not counting his Three Turns Spirit Piercing Needles, the scroll had one of the only two Arts in the world. A truly unique way of using the Mysteries of the Origin Sea, manifesting them directly into his Spirit, rather than outside of it. No such other methods existed in the world. At least not that was known to the world at large.

To Alnea though, the most valuable thing was not the uniqueness of the Art, or the extremely handy feature of the scroll, but the fact that his master had made the Art specifically for him to use. This was her way of expressing her love, and care for him. This was her way of looking out for him. So, with the scroll in his hands, what did he have to hesitate for?

Getting the nod from his master, Alnea opened the scroll with hands shaking from excitement, and nervous energy, only to be greeted by an eerie sight of countless small texts, inked in blood red colour, crisscrossing each other, almost forming a giant network of veins on the black parchment. The moment he looked at the scroll though, he felt a strange pressure descending upon him. As if a mountain was pressing on his shoulder, making it hard for him to breathe.

Thankfully, he had experienced similar situations many times, mostly due to his Oaths, and was able to retain his clarity, and reason, and looked away from the scroll. Seeing his reaction, his master smiled, and nodded in satisfaction, but did not come forward to help him. She just waited for him to deal with the situation on his own. So, he did.

Taking a deep breath to calm his racing heart, Alnea gritted his teeth, and looked back at the scroll, at its eerie content. And the more he looked, the greater the pressure on his shoulders became, suffocating him, almost crushing him to death. However, his perseverance was not in vain. After looking at the scroll for long enough, he was finally able to decipher what was written at the top of the scroll.

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“Art of Spirit Rebirth… First Cycle?”

“How is it? Do you like the name?”

“Of course, master! This name… it perfectly describes the Art. In fact, this name is an art itself. A—

“Cheeky disciple,” his master said, using hands condensed from her Spirit Power to flick his forehead. “Save your flattering for other people. Do not try to fool your master.”

“…I was not fooling your master,” Alnea said, rubbing his forehead. “No one can fool you. You are omniscient. You are—

“You will never change,” his master said, chuckling at his words, not forgetting to flick his forehead once again. “Like I had told you before, I had no intention of letting you train with… Spirit Forging Arts at the Seed Rank. But the circumstances forced us to adapt. In the end, the Three Turns Spirit Forging Art that you had practised with was just a prototype, something that I had developed in order to get better understanding of the mechanics of Arts. It lacks the true essence of Arts. After all, there are no Seed Ranked Mysteries.

“It is only after reaching the False Rank that you can see the true ability of Arts, and the same time, their true terror. There was a reason for why Spirit Forging methods were abandoned. So, in the past several months, I have not stopped my research into the Arts, trying to increase their effects, while decreasing their dangers. And this Art of Spirit Rebirth is the crystallisation of that research.”

“…Did it hurt, master?”

“Silly disciple,” his master said, ruffling his hair with a smile on her face. “Mere False Mysteries, no matter how strong they are, cannot hurt your master. Of course, they would not benefit me either. For you though, this Art of Spirit Rebirth will have roughly the same effect as a normal Divine Grade Arcana would have had. This is also one of the reasons why it took me so long to develop this Art.”

“…I will soon learn how to make Arcanas. And then you will not have to suffer to create these Arts.”

“Oh? But you do know that only the Arcanas of the same Stage as your Spirit Power would have the best effect in training your Spirit, right?”

“…I know.”

“Arcanas of the lower Stage would decrease drastically in effect, while Arcanas of higher Stage would be impossible for your Spirit to handle. To be able to train your Spirit Power with Arcanas of the same Stage, your will have to create a new Arcana for each Stage you advance. To do that though, you will also need to comprehend the Mysteries of those Stages… Are you sure that you can do all those things? And even if you can do it, can you ensure that you would not fall behind your peers in your training speed?”

“I…”

“If you cannot even surpass your peers, how are you going to become the greatest Wanderer?”

“I… I…”

Seeing him fumbling with his words, his master sighed, and shook her head, before gently patting his head.

“Being weak, and helpless is not wrong, Alnea. Everyone is weak, and helpless at some point in their life. But not admitting that you are weak is wrong. Not recognising your deficiencies is wrong. Because only if you are able to recognise your deficiencies, will you be able to fill them up. Only if you are able to recognise that you are weak, will you be able to accept help from those who want to help you. And only then, will you grow strong. Do you understand?”

“…Yes, master,” Alnea said, biting his lips in frustration. “…But I don’t want you to suffer because of me.”

“Then just grow stronger than me,” his master said. “Once you surpass me, I will no longer be able to help you create Arts. At that point, you will have to start relying on yourself. And maybe, even I will have to start relying on you.”

“…I will,” Alnea said. “Soon, I will surpass you, master. And then, I will protect you from all your pains, and worries. I will protect you from everything in the world.”

“…We will see about that,” his master said, as the corner of her slips curved upwards slightly. “Let us come back to what we were talking about, the Art of Spirit Rebirth. Or more specifically, the First Cycle of the Art of Spirit Rebirth. As its name suggests, this will be a series of Arts, going from the Initial Stage of the False Rank to the Tenth Stage of the True Rank, having fourteen cycles in total, giving your Spirit a complete rebirth.

“The Mysteries from the lineages of Creation, and Destruction will... Forget it. It will be too complicated to explain. In short, you can think of it as instead of only one specific point in your Spirit going through the process of rebirth, as was in the case of the Three Turn Spirit Forging Art, your entire Spirit will be going through that process in the Art of Spirit Rebirth. You will understand it better when you experience it for yourself.”

“…Right now?”

“When else?”

“…Yes, master,” Alnea said, complying with the words of his master, shifting his focus back to the scroll in his hands.