While every magician faction in Milele was clamoring for the Ignition cores, Mwana and Kia continued their window shopping at the treasure house, admiring but not buying anything. A moment later, numerous carriages, transportation beasts, and people running on foot all arrived at the treasure house like a flock of flies.
“It seems like what was brought in was a really big deal.” Kia could not help but exclaim.
Before, there were only a few people in the hall but now dozens of people had flocked in and there were even more on the way. However, most of these people did not stay on the first floor and quickly rushed to the higher floors. While the two children were curious, they were not busybodies so they did not even bother to go up and check when the big fuss was all about.
Even if Mwana had known that the object causing all the commotion was a set of Ignition Cores, it was not like he could afford it. Even his entire family putting all their funds together could not afford it. When it came to Ignition Suits, the suit which Mwana could summon with his Illusion grade Core was the Demon Sealing Armor.
Naturally, this armor had its origins with the Demon Sealing Portrait Technique, an art which Mwana had mastered under the tutelage of his mentor and art teacher, Jua Urembo. The technique allowed Mwana to bring forth the incarnation of the artist – combining his knowledge of swords, spears, music, embroidery, painting, the elements, magic, dragons, among others and giving them life through his art.
Jua Urembo had explained to Mwana that the Demon Sealing Portrait technique qualified to be a Canon. In the Zika world, Canons were more or less comprehensive arts that covered all angles a warrior could possibly want to train. Some examples were obviously the True Spirit Canon and the Solar and Lunar Divine Canon also referred to as the Sun and Moon Arts.
“Canons encompass all Aspects of Being even if they have a particular one they focus more on.”
As Urembo had explained, canons were all encompassing but had a particular focus as well. The Aspects of Being in discussion were just the basic: Body, Soul, and Mind aspects; these three were the main aspects of being. Others included the Lifeline, Nature, Magic, and Divinity.
Naturally, there were arts and techniques aimed at each Aspect of Being for example: spiritual techniques for the soul, psychic techniques to strengthen the mind, natural energy techniques to control nature, body strengthening arts, vitality arts that enhanced or took advantage of one’s life energy, magical arts, and divine contracts with the gods such as Divine Invocation.
However, canons could cover one or more aspect allowing warriors to train themselves in a more even and direct manner rather than using a technique for each aspect. For example, with the Sun and Moon Arts, the people of the Jua and Mwezi village could absorb sunlight and moonlight to strengthen their bodies, minds, and souls. With the companion Moon Bracelets, they could even train their magic further when using techniques such as the Crescent Moon Blade.
In the same manner, the Demon Sealing Art that Urembo taught Mwana encompassed sealing techniques that targeted the body, mind, and soul of opponents as well as the environment around them [nature].
“You can draw on the pen tattoo I gave you to draw the demon seal, the sword tattoo can server the seal and the hammer to forge it.” Urembo had explained the use of Mwana’s tattoos in practicing this art.
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The pen and sword tattoos had been chosen by Urembo as she was his mentor at White Rock Academy. After his Awakening Ceremony, he received these two tattoos.
As for the hammer, Mwana had only received it recently a short while later after he became an entry level smith. It was also Mwana’s first Ranked Tattoo! With this, even in the village he had some privileges that he did not have when he only had unranked tattoos. For instance, after graduating from the Academy, if Mwana did not choose to pursue martial arts, he would be taken as an apprentice by a veteran blacksmith. This was actually the most common career path in the Jua village. Not many would continue pursuing martial arts to the very end especially as Martial Schools were not free unlike the government sponsored Academy.
In the Jua village, Mwana was just an entry level smith and it was not considered impressive at all. However, such level of skill would be considered great almost everywhere else. After all, the standards for blacksmiths in a smithing village were much higher.
Another skill that Mwana greatly depended on when learning and using the Demon Sealing Portrait and its derivative sealing art was his skill in painting. He was an extremely skilled painter and this also contributed to his beautiful designs when sewing clothes. In the Zika world, artists were graded based on how immersive their art was and Mwana had already broken past the third level. Artists were graded as:
> Level 1: Ordinary painter.
> Level 2: Injecting emotion into art
> Level 3: Emotion radiating outside the painting.
> Level 4: Painting World - The viewer sees the painting as if they have been sucked into the world of the painting itself.
> Level 5: The world of the painting comes to life in the real world.
> Level 6: The real world including people and objects can be physically transported into the artwork.
Even months ago, Mwana’s art was already capable of radiating emotions just from looking at it. Now, he had long surpassed that level. When utilizing sealing arts, the feeling of being sucked into the art was exactly the effect that Mwana aimed to replicate.
[Note: covered in Chapter 14: THAT Painting!]
“The form of a magician’s Ignition Core is determined partly by their Magic Class and partly by their Magic Form. In this case, form is more or less the core of one’s magic while class is how that magic would be classified according to magic institutional standards.”
As Mwana understood it, Magic Form was the outward presentation of the core of a magician’s unique energy. Others had described it as a magician’s unique way of doing things. It was the basic form in which ones magic came in, for example: Transformation Magic, Transaction Magic, Conversion Magic, Magic Call, and etcetera.
As for the Magic Class, in general it was what one based their magic circles on. The classes themselves had already been decided by magic institutions. Therefore, the magic class was more like which field of study the magician was focused on.
After-all, the field of magic was extremely wide and encompassed numerous classes such as the Enchanter Class, Elementalist, Lifestyle Magic, Necromancer, Barrier Mage, Magic Communication, Spatial Magic, Blood Magic (Berserker), Armament Mage, Attack Mage, Healer, Wizard Knight, Soul Mage, Alchemist, Potion Mastery. Earth Mastery [Gravity Magic], Fire Mastery [Explosive Magic], Wind Mastery [Cutting Magic] and many more.
Further, the many classes of magic also had subclasses due to how wide they were.
It was also not uncommon for institutions, clans, and magic groups to focus on one or two classes of magic. For example, the Jin Clan of Eastern Jin Nation focused on [Berserker Magic] and [Possession Magic]. Mwana’s cousin, Fury Jin Jua, was extremely versed in these two subclasses. The two types of magic were subclasses of Blood Magic and Soul Magic.
As for the Jua clan, they obviously specialized in [Smithing Magic] which was a subclass of Fire Magic.
Among the wide range of magic classes and subclasses, the first path for Mwana to master the Demon Sealing Portrait Art was to enhance his knowledge in sealing magic, painting magic, and even sword magic. While he could not get far in the little time he had, Mwana had still managed to materialize the Demon Sealing Armor. This armor was black and red in color with many crescent shaped plates intersecting like a Pangolin’s armor.