Two hours later, Kairos is walking around the perimeter with a Stratagem book in hand. Jones had convinced him that it would help them gain valuable time that they sorely lacked and he could probably succeed in learning the art quickly. Even if it eventually ends in failure that would merely result in them losing a few items.
Now that they had cleaned out a major treasury from the Phrixus palace, a few losses would not be any issue at all.
Seeing no reason to decline, he continued trying to understand the odd instructions written in the book, but reading through it a few times, he realised that it wasn't something easy to pick up.
He flipped through the pages filled with detailed explanations, but without a basic knowledge on the subject, it is no different from trying to figure out an unknown language.
"Gah... I can't do this" he muttered, on the verge of giving up.
Yes you can~
An unexpected reply came from Aisa, within his mind and when he did not respond, she continued explaining.
Kairos just make eyes golden~ things will become clear
"G...golden? I've heard that before, but how do I do it?"
It's easy~ Just with a bam or a boom!
"That's not helpful at all..."
Oh...
The little dragon sounded sad for a moment, then chirped,
Why don't Kairos try asking?
"Asking... who..? You mean... like, pose the question in my mind?"
Aisa who is near bounced over with her short legs and nodded. Her large, determined, eyes made her ridiculous advice somehow cuter.
With a sigh like he was putting up with a child's notion, he closed his eyes and tried.
"Alright, here goes... I want to create a Stratagem. No... I want to understand how to create a Stratagem!" He said mentally to no one in particular, but when he opened his eyes, both of his irises turned dimly golden. Then, he looked once again, at the book in his hands.
Just like before, the explanations within confused him. He did not notice yet that his eyes have turned colours and he felt a deep disappointment in his heart as he flipped through pages after pages with no improvement to his understanding.
But just as he was about to close the book, he landed on a page with a full diagram of a Stratagem array.
The title of this particular formation reads:
The Infinity Trap.
Information of Stratagem: Creates an infinite loop for your foes. Keep them in the area you want them to.
When he observed the diagram, the connecting lines and their purposes seemed to leap off the page into his mind, and something instantly connected.
"Aisa, you're right! It worked!" He told her excitedly.
Kairos quickly poured through all the diagrams in the book, every Stratagem diagram becoming clear and made perfect sense to him unlike before.
Seeing his success, the small dragon happily exclaimed,
Yay~ Looks like Kairos has learned how to activate it. Aisa is such a genius~
"Haha, yes, Aisa good job!" He praised her with an unreserved laugh. The ability to understand Stratagem is too much of a gem to uncover, and they can have huge improvements in the future. Once he learned them, the Stratagems could be deployed at his dorm, in his shop, and even during combat. If course, the requirement is to survive this situation first.
Kairos can even use your Veritable Sight in combat if the activation increases. Hehe
"Huh, wait, did I just hear some huge news?! My eyes glowing is called the Veritable Sight? And what do you mean by using it in battle? Hey, Aisa?"
When his eyes turn golden, he managed to read the runic traps set up within the Phrixus' treasury. And now the Stratagem diagrams.
The runes and the diagrams are insanely difficult to understand, and usually requires a master's guidance, yet appeared comprehensible to him. If this ability, the Veritable Sight, could also work in combat it would definitely not be weak.
Kairos guessed that if it gives him some form of observation ability, perhaps it would enable him to acquire hidden information when in a battle. And to be able to collect data on the opponents during a fight is one of the most important aspects for a commander.
But when Kairos asked Aisa more on the matter, she revealed no further useful information.
Satisfied with what he learned so far at least, Kairos turned his attention to the book and started working on the particular Stratagem that they required. Its title is The Heavenly Energy Whirlpool. An array with a powerful suction ability that could gather the Heavenly Energies around the area to one spot.
The use of this array is to allow them to cultivate faster than before.
However, under the gaze of his golden eyes, Kairos started altering the construct of the formation with confidence. His eyes grew brighter, as a faint smile danced on his lips.
The changes he made to it would allow this new Stratagem to speed up the land's creation of Heavenly Energies, further improving their speed of cultivating.
Such alterations are hardly possible for anyone without a century's knowledge on mystic formations, but in Kairos' hands, he did not even require a test run, and he quickly laid the perfected foundation.
"Woooohooo!" Jones exclaimed when he saw Kairos drawing a complicated symbol on the ground. The Stratagem foundation is made of a myriad of runic words linked and interlinked together to form a greater symbol. Then, following a strange system, they are chained together to create a circular type of talisman drawing.
Though it is not yet activated, everyone gathered and beheld it with a confident smile that it would work. Kairos, however, observed his creation silently. He had no knowledge to this diagram beforehand, yet now he could complete something that never existed in these lands in the first try without erring.
"Just what is this Veritable Sight?"
After laying the diagram down, the next step is the most important part of setting a Stratagem, the placement of objects of power.
Kairos first took out a few high-grade spirit stones and placed them on the intersecting lines along the border of the symbol.
Then he muttered softly to himself, "We'll need a wind elemental Demon Core of rank 6, a water elemental Demon Core also of rank 6, an earth elemental Demon Core of rank 8 and a time elemental Demon Core of rank 2."
When Jones accidentally eavesdropped the whisper, he turned and stared at his friend.
"T...time elemental Demon Core, and ranked 2 at that?! And a ranked 8 Demon Core as well? What the heck are you creating, Kairos?"
The Demon Cores are crystallised power of a beast that reached spiritual enlightenment. No matter if it is Spirit, Magic or Demonic Beasts when they first began cultivation, Crystallised Essences will form. It will slowly enlarge within them as they pursue their Dao, until the day they unlock Spiritual Enlightenment, the essence within will turn into what is known as Demon Cores.
Generally, lower ranked Demon Cores are harder to find than higher ranked ones, and that is because of the difficulty of creating a core within themselves.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
A beast becomes stronger than the lower ranks, in all aspects as it grow and that includes its intelligence. To unlock spiritual enlightenment, it requires a very high level of wisdom for it to find its Dao. But once it does, it will gain a human-level of sentience, and often the ability for human speech.
While Wisdom is not equalled to intelligence, a higher level of intelligence means an active brain to pursue Dao, but for lower ranked beasts, their minds are more focused on survival and hardly have time to reach for enlightenment. However, having great wisdom does not depend on one's intelligence nor experience. Therefore there are often exceptions to the case and lower ranked Demon Cores are merely more uncommon.
In any case, among the beasts of the same grade, the ones that are enlightened are trickier and generally more powerful to deal with. Thus, Demon Cores are always pricey due to their rarity, difficulty in procuring and always being highly sought after.
The ranking of a Demon Core is the rank of the beast itself. Because Demon Cores are traded from overseas, they did not follow the ranking system of Saint Empire from Triple S to F rank, which is made because their empire is a military state.
Instead, they use the traditionally known ranking of rank 1 till rank 9.
Where rank 1 would be the equal of a beast at F rank, and Rank 9 would be of Triple S.
When Kairos said he needed an Earth elemental Demon Core of rank 8, he is essentially talking about getting one from a double S ranking enlightened beast. And the general rule of thumb to fight against an enlightened beast requires a single practitioner of one rank higher to the beast and four practitioners at the same level to take it down.
Such an item is a treasure no matter which nation finds it.
The other item that Jones was surprised about is the Time Elemental Demon Core. Even if it is only a ranked 2 core, Time Elemental Demon Cores are exceptionally rare. There are plenty of elemental cores of the 5 elements of creation and 3 elements of nature, but those of the transcending elements are a different case.
This is the case because even practitioners find it hard to cultivate when there are no terrains that are naturally advantageous for transcending elemental cultivators. For beasts that mainly depends on their environment, they are even more difficult to encounter than people.*
In the past thousand years, only two time-elemental demonic cores have ever surfaced in Saint Empire.
"Why...why would you even need a time elemental Demon Core?" Jones couldn't help but ask, even though he was eavesdropping.
Kairos looked up with a confident smile on his face, "Don't worry, we have all the items we needed here" He said, patting a time-space pouch they lifted from the royal treasury, "And when you try out the completed Stratagem, you'll understand why I needed those cores."
He took out the cores, some spiritual herb seeds and a phial of monster blood and began to create the Stratagem.
The crystal-like Demon Cores are lodged deeply within the soil at the centre of the array. The seeds he sprinkled over. And with a splash of the monster blood, the symbol began to glow brightly at first, then vanished without a trace.
What remains in the spot is instead a field of spiritual grass, the same weed-like plants planted everywhere at the Hope's mansion. And a giant orb, created from the merging of the Demon Cores. A circle of spirit stones floats above ground around the field, lining the area of the Stratagem and powering the array.
The spirit grass had grown at a speed visible to their eyes. If they had not personally seen it, it would be an unbelievable thing.
"T..this is the effect of the time elemental Demon Core?" Jones pointed at the spirit grass that is already fully grown in a matter of minutes.
"Not only that. It will compress time within the area. Though not by a whole lot" Kairos explained.
"How much?" The others asked excitedly. To cultivate within a high Heavenly Energy concentration area is a privilege only for top-level clans and noble families, but it is something completely unheard of to add a time compression attribute. A creation made by Kairos who just learned about Stratagems through a book, yet for some reason, none of them felt surprised at it.
They already are immune to Kairos' quirks by now, and one of his speciality is creating what was completely unknown in the past, and seemed utterly impossible. Since they could not do anything about this, they have all accepted it or became numb by the constant surprises.
"Well, cultivating a single day within this small field would be around seven days' worth?"
The wind, water, and earth cores would maintain the spirit grass in this area, while the time core will speed up everything, including the generation of Heavenly Energy and the cultivator's training speed.
The symbol he drew will gather all that energy, including the surrounding land's, into this one spot and raise the cultivation value.
When the array is completed, the guys excitedly sat down, wanting to give it a try. They exclaimed at how unimaginable the effect is from the Stratagem, but Jones, as the heir to a large clan, knows exactly how inhuman this array is.
With this formation, everything changes.
The Time core does not age a practitioner within it. He could feel that at least. It means that getting stuck at B rank and unable to break through the bottleneck for life, could become a thing of the past.
Just because of this newly invented Stratagem.
"What is it called?" He asked with respect. Not just for Kairos, but also towards this innovative creation.
"How about, Energy sucking, quick cultivation circle?" Kairos said, copying Jim's naming sense.
"Wha.. that sounds great!" Jim cried out from afar. They could all see that Jim is serious, earning a laugh from everyone.
"N...no way... this Stratagem is a wonder. You're not going to bestow it with such a name" Jones insisted.
"I was just kidding," Kairos said, earning a sigh from Jim who muttered that he thinks it is a very informative name.
"Well, how about something to do with 'time' in its name?"
"We better not. Time-based Stratagems will create incredibly huge waves in all land. The inventor for the time-space ring became a legend and an overnight tycoon, but at the same time, his life and even his family were destroyed because of people's greed."
Kairos shuddered when he heard that, then after a while, he decided on the name, "The Crystal Valve."
"...why?" Jones asked. Though the large crystal in the middle made of the fused Demon Cores could be the reason why Kairos called gave it the word 'crystal' in its name, but he saw no mechanisms on the array that could be called a valve.
Kairos saw the curiosity in his eyes but dismissed it. He found it embarrassing to say that his reason behind giving this name came from something he considered a childish whim. It's simply from a legend, of a place that stores souls called 'The Crystal Valve.' It was a place underground which nobody knew about in the past, but because of the immense power from the valve that seeped out of the land, people had gone over to it to cultivate. Over the years, they created a great city above the valve which flourished for decades.
Until one day, the residence became overcome by greed and curious with what was emitting that much power. They dug and dug underground until they finally found a valve made of precious crystals. Their desires overruled good sense, and they dissembled the entire place and released all the souls.
In the end, the crystals crumbled to dust, and they lost their cultivation ground, but in the process, they unknowingly did a good deed with their greed and set freed those trapped souls.
"I'm borrowing the name of the crystal valve because, like it, this Stratagem is a cultivation circle. I hope they will remember the legend and not destroy the Demon Cores in the middle" He thought to himself.
However, unknown to Kairos and the rest at this time, others would give the name 'The Crystal Valve' a new reason to it in the future. A more practical and less fairytale-like explanation: 'The Crystal Valve' is a crystal device that controls the land's energy.
And in part, that is the truth as well.
After creating this formation, Kairos went to a corner by himself. He was bursting with curiosity about his eyes. The activation process did not feel difficult or unnatural in any way, and instead, it seemed as if an invisible new limb on his body. Yet just a short while of activation caused him mental fatigue.
He became highly interested in what are the exact nature and the extent of his abilities, and thus with dimly golden eyes, he took out all the skill books that are stored within the time-space containers he had on his person and began perusing them.
There are very few skill books found within the royal treasury collection, but every dusty tome that he took out is a precious treasure with very high technical requirements. As he pulled them out, Kairos found a particular tome within the mix. His Origin's Cultivation tome.
"What is it doing here?" Kairos couldn't help but wonder. He had previously loaned it to his fifteen disciples, but somehow the tome returned into his inventory.
Putting it out of his mind for a while, he refocused his attention in researching the abilities he gains when his eyes glow golden. The process is dry and draining. To cope with the fatigue, he would take frequent breaks, along with eating spiritual recovery pills. Among the items found from the treasury, there is a stash of high-grade pills.
He flipped through all of the tomes, trying to figure out what could he use his new abilities one, and soon he has the answer.
Kairos realised that things that are man-made, like instructions, methods or tips used to create something remain as cryptic as before. Neither did his glowing golden eyes help him with the names of anything given by people.
Regarding stuff that naturally exists, like runic formations, runic symbols, attributes of natural materials, and even the core theories behind each martial arts, however, became crystal clear to him.
It was quite similar to the gaining of a new language and suddenly could read a book that he once failed to.
With a smile, he closed the last tome in front of him. A martial arts book.
Kairos discovered that what he had gained is much more than he first thought.
By the time he has finished, night has already fallen. Though all the guys were busy with their training, they all noticed that outside of this illusionary barrier created by Jones' ermine, their pursuers are finally coming close.
When they traced the aura of the fugitives to this place, it suddenly disappeared.
Under the light of the moon and their torches, soldiers and Phantoms searched the plains. Though with a single glance, they already could already tell that there is no one in this place.
A single soldier walked close to their spot in his search. He suddenly stopped, as his gut feelings told him to. Then he turned directly towards the barrier, and with uncertain steps, he walked forward while waving his torch in front of him for a better view.
He continued walking in a straight line, but after an hour, there was nothing.
The guys within the illusionary barrier, however, saw how the soldier kept walking straight until he hit the edge of the barrier. And then he traced it along the diameter, walking in a full circle, but never stepping a foot in.
They breathed a sigh of relief and continued their training.
*- Those that practiced fire Ki looked for volcanos to speed up their cultivation. Water looks for water bodies. Wood, in forests. Metal, at quarries, mines and natural mineral veins. Earth at Soil Mountains and Great Plains. Frost in the blizzards and the deep north. Lightning in the stormy seas and chasing the lightning clouds. Wind in the windy Ravines.
There are no natural areas in the mortal realm for transcendent elements: time-space.