The moment Alnea finished familiarising himself with the process of directing his blood flow, the chains of his Oath, existing on a plane beyond his cognition, shattered into tiny, illusory fragments, which then further disintegrated into even tinier pieces, before submerging into his Spirit, flooding it with a cool and refreshing sensation. And with the sensation came the usual growth of his Spirit Power. Except, this time the growth was a little more than usual.
Growing his Spirit Power by taking, and completing Oaths, it was a unique method of training his Spirit which he had inadvertently discovered around four months ago. Ever since then, he had been taking Oaths frantically, whenever and however he could, all in pursuit of increasing his Spirit Power. In pursuit of the path to the greatest Wanderer. Unfortunately, things were not as simple as he had first taken them to be.
Increasing his Spirit Power from the first Level to the Second Level had taken him only a week or so. That was around ten units’ worth of growth, including breaking through a bottleneck, which he never even noticed. In the second week though, his Spirit Power increased by only six units. And that growth slowed down even more in the following weeks. Higher levels of Spirit Power naturally require greater effort to increase, but Alnea believed that the inefficiency of his Oaths was a problem as well.
The effect of his Oaths on his Spirit Power was directly proportional to the difficulty of those Oaths. The greater the difficulty, the greater the increase in his Spirit Power would be. However, the level of difficulty was reflected not only in the Oaths themselves, but in his ability to keep them as well. With his master’s strict standards, along with his own persistent efforts, his abilities were increasing at rate that he had once not even dared to imagine.
So, it was not surprise to him that the Oaths, which were once difficult enough to threaten his life, became just routine exercises for him. And since they were just routine exercises, just how much could those contribute to the growth of his Spirit Power? A unit in ten days? Twenty days? Even just repeatedly exhausting his Spirit Power would give him better growth rate, probably.
In any case, whether he admitted it or not, the fact was that slowly, but surely, his Oaths were beginning to have lesser, and lesser effect on his Spirit Power. And if left things be, a time was bound to come when his Oaths would stop affecting his Spirit altogether. Unless, of course, he took riskier Oaths for himself. Oaths, which would be difficult enough to threaten his life.
However, thinking of such Oaths was not easy. Especially since what he was looking for was not an Oath that he could take only once, but an Oath that he could repeatedly. To make matter worse, he did not even have much time to himself. Most of his time was spent with his master, while the rest was evenly divided between revising what he had already learnt and keeping company to his mother.
Taking risky Oaths in front of his master on a regular basis was out of the question, and neither could he take them in front of his mother. Then all that he was left with was the time when he usually polished his foundation by himself. Revising what he had learnt, doing some simple exercise, and running on the streets. The Oaths he took while doing those things was already risky enough as it was, if he went a bit further, then he would really be signing his life off to the Origin Sea. But…
There were times, when even if he was not sure of his Oaths, he still had to take them. To become the greatest Wanderer… and to master the eight Martial Styles in two weeks. Even if it meant putting his life on the line, he did not regret taking those Oaths. One was for his conviction, and the other was for his pride. He was Alnea Oathkeeper, the man who would become the greatest Wanderer of all. How could he accept his master praising other people in front of him?
To make matters worse, the object of his master’s praise was some kid half his age. How could he accept that? She was his master. All her praises should be reserved for him. And so, he had decided to show it to his master, who was better, he or some ignorant kid. And since he was going to make a point, then he had to take his Oath to show his determination. If he could not even do that, then what would the point of his Roots be?
Even the fact that the Thousand Arms Style had been giving him quite some trouble the day before had not dissuaded him from that viewpoint. Rather, the more difficult things got, the more determined he felt to complete his Oath. Because only then, would he be able to prove to himself, to his master, that he had not been wasting his time over the last few months. That slowly, but surely, he was catching up to the Seeds from the Orthodoxies.
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Still, he could not deny that he had been worried about his Oath. After all, determination alone was not enough to complete his Oath. Thankfully, courtesy to his already strange dreams turning even stranger, his determination had soon turned into confidence. Thus, the cool, and refreshing feeling spreading through his Spirit was something that he had already expected. What he had not expected though, was experiencing the growth of his Spirit Power once again.
It had been around four months since Alnea officially began ‘training’ his Spirit. In that time, he had already experienced four bottlenecks in the growth of his Spirit Power. The first one was just a nominal bottleneck, which he had not even felt. The second bottleneck did obstruct the growth of his Spirit Power, but only for half a week. The third bottleneck, on the other hand, had halted his growth for whole two weeks. As for his fourth bottleneck, he had been stuck at it for a nearly a month, and yet, had experienced no signs of breakthrough.
The greater the Spirit Power, the harder it was to increase. That was not just a phrase, but a fact that Alnea had personally experienced. With the decreasing efficiency of his Oaths added into the mix, it was as if he was experiencing all doors closing on him once again. If his Oaths really failed to increase in his Spirit Power one day…
There would be no such day, Alnea thought with a smile spreading across his face, as he turned to face his master. “I did it!” he said. “Eight Martial Styles… I have mastered all of them, master. And my Spirit! I can feel it. My Spirit Power has finally reached the Fifth Level. With this, I am growing closer and closer to the day that my Spirit becomes strong enough to break this ring on its own.”
“I could feel it too,” his master said. “I knew that your Roots were special, and that keeping your Oaths could increase your Spirit Power. In fact, I have always felt it when your Oaths had helped you grow your Spirit Power before, so logic dictates that I should not be surprised by it. And that I should focus more on the fact that you mastered seven different Martial Styles to your limits as a Seed in a span of less than a couple of hours. Yet, I cannot help, but be drawn back to the growth of your Spirit Power. How long has it been since it reached a bottleneck?”
“...Roughly around twenty five to twenty seven days. I don’t exactly remember.”
“Twenty five days,” his master said. “Your Spirit Power reached the limit of the Fourth Level exactly twenty five days ago. And yet, you broke through its bottleneck in just twenty five days. This is breaking all sorts of common sense.”
“Is it really that unusual that my Spirit Power has grown, master?”
“This is no longer just about the growth of your Spirit Power, or the rate at which it has been growing. Although the rate at which your Spirit Power is growing is remarkably fast, it cannot be said to be too remarkable. At best, it is comparable to Seeds training their Spirits with one of the better Perfect Grade Arcanas. It is not enough to surprise me. The fact that your Spirit Power so abruptly broke through its bottleneck, however, is very concerning.”
“What is so concerning about that, master?” Alnea said, unable to understand what his master was worried about, and why she was not more excited for him. “Rather, my breakthrough has come a little later than I had expected it to. My Spirit Power has been stuck at the bottleneck to the Fifth Level for twenty five days already. This is the longest my Spirit Power has been stuck at a bottleneck. I was beginning to worry if my Oaths had lost all their effects. Thankfully, the Oath about the Martial Styles did its job, and helped me break through this bottleneck.”
“Have you forgotten the most basic of the rules of the growth of Spirit Power?” his master said, shaking her head. “The higher a Wanderer’s Spirit Power grows, the harder it becomes for them to make it increase even more, especially so when they are stuck at bottlenecks. That is why, as Wanderers advance on their paths, they have to keep on changing to higher Rank and Grade of Arcanas with which they practise their Spirit, so that the growth of their Spirit Power can keep up with their progress as Wanderers.
“The way how your Spirit Power has grown though, is breaking all those rules. According to the rate of your earlier progress, your Spirit Power should have taken another twenty to thirty days to reach that level. Yet as your Spirit Power is increasing, the pace at which it is increasing is increasing as well. Something just does not add up.”
“I think I know the answer to that, master,” Alnea said with a smug smile. “It is because the harder it is for me to keep my Oaths, the more rewarding it is for my Spirit Power when I truly complete them.”
“...I understand that logic as well,” his master said, shaking her head, letting out a wry smile at his own smug smile. “But if you say that the Oath to master the Martial Styles was very difficult for you to keep, then how did you complete it before even one tenth of the stipulated time has passed?”
“That… I…”