Renara slowly made her way towards the High Priest’s chambers. Her long robes billowed out behind in a small trail of cloth despite the fact that much of the cloth hugged her feminine curves. Many eyes roamed her figure as she passed by paladins and soldiers on her way, but she basked in the attention. Part of being Bronze Tier meant she was very attractive and she loved the eyes on her. It made her feel wanted, desired. Beams of light shone through stained glass windows of the upper level of the Holy Chapel, where the higher echelons of the Church resided.
It was here that they studied divine teachings and tested the lesser members who sought to reach higher ranks. Eventually, the humble priestess arrived at an ornate door carved from goldwood planks and adorned with gold-crimson metal. On either side of the door stood a High Paladin. Unlike normal Paladins, who wore simple, if shiny, plate armor, these wore a glamorous set of electrum armor fashioned from an alloy of silver and bronze. The armor was covered in a myriad of glowing runes and their faces were similarly covered in a full helmet that hid their faces.
Upon seeing the priestess, the men gave a small nod of acknowledgement and moved their weapons to the side, letting her pass. Renara grasped the gilded door handles and pushed open the office to the High Priest. As expected, the man was there, sifting through one of the various holy texts he kept in the bookshelves of his private study. Upon hearing the door open, the man looked up. The man was, in the commoner’s tongue, a silver fox, having lived nearly five hundred years. The benefits of reaching Hirdmen tier, or over Level 100. A rugged and chiseled face, if a bit stern-looking, sat upon a herculean body covered in enchanted mithril armor with crimson and gold trim. Said armor was also adorned with a red cape to complement his color scheme, as was customary in the Church. Renara went to a knee to show her proper respect to the man, who just huffed.
“Lord Garium.”
Garium motioned for her to rise and the woman did so as he spoke.
“Enough of that, Renara. We’ve known each other for over fifty years now and it’s just the two of us. How is the plan going, I trust you have good news?”
The woman simply smiled and raised a hand to her hand as she giggled. The man was right, with just the two of them there was no need to keep up appearances.
“Of course, we managed to summon a Transmigrator and convinced him to put on the level inhibitor disguised as a system integration device. He’ll be able to open the door no problem. Honestly it was easier than expected! I almost feel bad for what the others are going to do to him once the time is right.”
The man let out a hearty chuckle as he flipped through a few pages of the book in his hand before he set it down.
“Of course it was easy, you know how their kind are. Always so naive when introduced to magic and the system, even peasants and heretics have more suspicion than them. It’s just a shame we had to summon another one after the last...expired.”
Here, Renara gave a sigh as she approached the man, trailing her hand across his chest and leaning into him.
“Indeed, we had to dip into some of our crusade funds for the materials and several participants died during the ritual. But unlocking the secrets left to Transmigrators by the old ones will be useful in the long run.”
The man let a smirk tug at the corner of his lips as he moved his hand to cup the woman’s chin. His other hand shot out an invisible wave of power that kept the sound from escaping his study.
“You don’t need to tell me. Now, how about we celebrate this victory of ours? If I recall you were getting on your knees earlier.”
He trailed off, giving her body a gaze that many would deem ‘unholy’.
Renara, for her part, just bit her lip and started to undo her gown, letting it fall to the floor. It had been months since the man had taken her to bed last. And she was going to milk the time that they had to themselves as much as she could.
----------------------------------------
“Right, I forgot you’re new.” Eugene said, rolling his eyes in irritation.
“Yeah sorry, I know I sound like an idiot. But seriously, what IS a Dao?”
The fire mage just sighed and looked at the other team members, who just shrugged. Guess it was up to him then. Great. Eugene looked as if he had swallowed a lemon but pushed on regardless.
“Fine. A Dao is a concept and something more...esoteric compared to, say, skills and abilities. Sure you can throw fireballs with a Fireball card, but imagine, say, using an aspect of the concept of fire to heat a blade to cut through flesh like butter.”
To prove his point, Eugene pulled out a small dagger he rarely used and held it up for Tyler to look at. Before Tyler’s very eyes, the air around the blade started to shimmer and steam began to rise from the metal before the blade became cherry red.
“See, simple as that. But don’t worry your little head over it, kid.”
Eugene replied with a look of boredom as the heat began to leave the blade, letting him store it back in his robes.
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“So how does it work?”
Tyler had to ask, whatever the man had done, it didn't use mana as far as he could tell. When mana was used there was always a slight buzzing in the back of his mind, like a constant shock of energy that permeated the air. What Eugene had done had not given him that feeling. It simply...happened. This made the fire mage groan to himself.
“Listen, it’s a lot of weird shit. Not gonna put it any other way. It’s all about meditation and understanding the concept you are trying to employ. You also need to have a basic understanding of the concept and do a lot of meditation or think on that concept.”
“Seems kinda convoluted. Also, kid? You look to be about my age!”
Tyler scrunched his face at the man who just laughed.
“You don’t know the half of it. And yeah, I may look in my twenties but I’m actually hitting sixty three soon. Benefits of high levels and treasures.”
That made Tyler pause and stare dumbstruck for a second. Just how...well, whatever. It was irrelevant anyway. Instead he asked the pertinent question.
“So a Dao Repository is what exactly? It looks like a library.”
This made Daren look up from inspecting a tome of some kind, the man’s beefy hands closing the book as he looked at Tyler in annoyance.
“Seriously kid, your realm must be backwater as shit. Anyways, you’re half correct. A Dao Repository is a sacred place that contains many things, but primarily manuals and tomes to aid those who seek to cultivate mana. From the location of divine treasures, to ways on how to move your mana through the channels inside of it. Sometimes you can even find lost artifacts and relics if you’re lucky. It’s all high level stuff so don’t worry about it right now.”
Seeing the man turn back to his book, Tyler furrowed his brow. Where had the cheerful himbo energy gone? It’s like as soon as the doors to this place were opened, their personality did a 180. At least towards him. He didn’t like it, it gave him a bad feeling. But he, at least, had nothing he could do or say about it.
Instead, he turned to walk towards one of the bookshelves away from the group. He wasn’t sure what he was looking for really, he just needed to get his mind off of the current situation. He walked for a full five minutes looking at various books and objects on his way. But it would seem that the majority of the books had lost whatever made them useful. Many of the pages were blank, or in a language he couldn’t decipher. Eventually, Tyler did find a book that was mostly legible. Sitting down, he looked at the cover.
“The Basics of Water, Dao, and Mana. So basically….water magic for dummies?”
He shrugged to himself and got to reading the dusty, what were they called, oh right. Manuals.
To cultivate mana in a way befitting a Dao of Water, one must ask themselves. What is mana, if not the soulwater and lifeblood of existence itself. Mana exists in all things, be it the ink on these pages or the flowing energy within one’s body? Therefore, one must go with the flow of their mana and treat it as if it were water itself. Fire imagines mana as a flame in the center, Wind a tornado, Earth an ever growing mountain and so forth. So what does a water cultivator imagine it as?
It varies between each person, as even people with the same Daos, abilities and cultivation are drastically different. One must simply reach within themselves while in mediation and get a feel for their mana.
God, could this Dao stuff get any more esoteric? Either way, Tyler flipped through the manual, until he found something that caught his eye.
Many dismiss Water abilities and Daos related to water as weak. But this is not true. A cultivator of water-attuned mana can drown his enemies, make them slip, and even cause other abilities to have an added effect. For instance, you could in theory use a water Dao with a Fireball spell to create either a bolt of scalding water or a ball of steam depending on the ratio. It is up to the user how they wish to use their Dao. That is the essence of all Dao in the end. Personalization.
Okay, he thought to himself. That made sense. He knew that water magic in games back on Earth was often laughed at. At least until said water mage was contorting your body in on itself, or using pressurized water to cut through metal. Guess the same was true, even in a world where magic was a real and tangible thing. A small cough brought Tyler out of his thoughts and reading as he looked up.
“Ah! Emilia, right? Can I...help you with anything?” Tyler asked as he tried, and failed to hide his lingering gaze on the woman’s curves. Sue him, he was a hot blooded male, especially in this life as he was young and cancer free again.
Emilia, for her part, did not seem to notice Tyler’s gaze as she spoke. “Ah, Skylar, right? Just who I was looking for. See, I want to reach one of the books on a shelf and well…”
She trailed off as she gestured at herself, who stood barely a few inches over five feet. A far cry from Tyler’s height, who was a foot taller give or take. Now, one could ask why she didn’t ask Daren, who was nearly seven feet tall and full of muscle. Tyler mused about that, but figured the paladin was further away. Well, who was he to deny a beautiful woman his company? She also seemed to have kept the same attitude after opening the Repository, unlike Daren and Eugene.
Closing his book and politing ignoring the fact she forgot his name, Tyler smiled. “Oh uh...sure, lead the way!”
It took a few minutes as they walked in mostly silence. Tyler and the woman made some small talk here and there but it was clear that she either was a light speaker, or he was just boring. Well, maybe a bit of both. Emilia led him to a section of the repository that seemed to have been shattered or broken off somehow. Where there should have been a complete section of bookshelves was split in two, with the level of the floor tilting ever so slightly downward and into a crevasse that could seem to go on down forever. Tyler, of course, was more focused on the books. They seemed to be...pet books, of some kind. As far as he could tell anyway. He used [Analyze] on some of them to get a reading of their titles, as they were not on the spine as one would assume.
Dragon Taming and You
Type: Book
Rarity: Uncommon
How To Survive a Wild Beast Attack
Type: Book
Rarity: Common
Those were just some of the titles and Tyler furrowed his brow in consternation. As far as he had seen, not that he was really paying attention, Emilia wasn’t a pet-type of class. Maybe there was a book placed in the wrong section?
“Hey, where’s the book you were looking for? I don’t see anything pertaining to healing. Or were you thinking of getting a pet-”