“If you hadn't ruined everything, it would have been much easier for everyone. The way would have been linear. After joining the Royal Guard," explained Alexander, continuing to caress Bucephalus’s muscular neck, "you would have taken part in a Mission. Together with Madonia’s elite and me, you would have fought against barbarians. We would have faced countless..."
"Ok, listen up, since we're in an illusion, how fast does time flow here?" Asked Helial curiously.
"I was talk-", Alexander tried to say, amazed by that sudden interruption.
"Yeah, I noticed. I asked you something else, though. I don't care how this great training with Madonia's elite would have been. How fast does time flow here?” asked Helial.
"About ten times slower than in the real world."
Alexander's comment had just dealt with Helial's impertinence, indulging it. A snort at the end was easily ignored by Helial, who, on the other hand, had begun to walk in that expanse of absolute emptiness.
"I can't level up in here, can I?"
"More or less. You know how Levels work. It's not just about experience. To overcome the bottlenecks between the Phases and to make a few small leaps in level, it is necessary and possible to deepen the knowledge on one's Mana Path. "
"How important is the Mana Path when increasing in level, apart from the bottleneck between two different Phases?"
Without knowing it, Alexander had just turned into a Master for Helial. Although he should have thought about giving his advice beforehand. However, he had been in the form of Soul for an indefinite amount of time now and was bored of being alone. Helial was the first who had entered the Illusion in a very long time, and Alexander would have to take advantage of his company as long as he could.
Probably someone would wonder why a powerful man like Alexander, who had created his empire from nothing and conquered half the universe, had chosen to remain in an insignificant place like the Goblin Capital, even if in the form of a fragment of Soul.
Even Helial asked himself that same question. Yet at that moment, Helial could only worry about his progress on the Mana Path.
“What is the difference between different Mana Paths? Name a few, for example,” said Alexander, crossing his arms.
“There are Mana Paths large and narrow. The largest and deepest are those directly linked to Life and Destruction, or even to Chaos. However, not all of these are easily developed within our universe. For example, chaos is not something perceptible in our current dimension.
“Then there are less deep, but absolutely not negligible, Mana Paths. One of these could be the one related to the Art of the Sword, the Lance or some profound knowledge developed over the millennia and brought to the apex within our universe. "
Alexander seemed satisfied with Helial's explanation, but corrected him: “Actually, the Mana Path is the set of knowledge that an individual puts together from the various building blocks of the universe. The ones you mentioned are parts of the various Mana Paths. Arts, Elements, Destruction, Life and anything else that is deep enough to be one of the building blocks of the current universe in which we find ourselves can be contained in a Mana Path. The greater the weight of the power something in our universe has, the deeper the Mana Path containing it will be. Now, in our universe the supreme powers are cultivating Life and Destruction, because they are predominant, but they aren't the most important.
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"Besides," continued the King, "Life, Destruction, Art .of the Sword... they are all Ways, which have a beginning and, difficult to believe as it is, an end. These are very profound concepts and will not be very useful to you at the moment. To answer your question, the deeper the Path and the lower the level, the easier it will be for those who follow it to level up without gaining experience. However, to give you an example of what I have called the "end of a Way", the power of Destruction within the universe, like that of Life, has not always been so profound and powerful. Their Way was carried on by two legendary figures from the post-Chaos Era.”
"But didn't you just say that the Paths may end and only the Mana Path are endless?" asked Helial perplexed.
"The Way of Destruction, for example, has not always been like you know it," explained Alexander. “As you said, the Ways that have reached a certain bottleneck can't go on linearly any longer. However, some legendary monsters manage to influence a Way with their Mana Path, instead of the other way round, which is the most common situation. These titans are not bound by the Way they travel on, but they themselves shape it thanks to their unquestionable strength. "
Helial seemed to be immersed in deep thought, trying to understand what the man in front of him was telling him. He looked at his hands and brought out two flashes of different colours, two different powers, on his fingertips.
On the right hand there was a milky light, while on the left a greyish one.
"Is this a Way or a Path?" Helial asked doubtfully.
A big smile spread over Alexander's face. The boy was much smarter than he had imagined.
Iblis had told Helial that no one had ever been able to merge Life and Destruction. However, if it had really been a question of simply following two Ways, then it shouldn't be so difficult to transcend the two powers and arrive at a new state of understanding.
But if the power that Helial was trying to wield had been a different Way, something outside his Mana Path, then all the difficulties encountered by those who had embarked on that same Mana Path previously would have been explained.
Suddenly, Helial felt bewildered and immediately understood the magnitude of the enterprise he was trying to accomplish. If he really managed to do what no one had ever done, then he would create a new Way within the universe.
Yes, simple to say. In fact, a feat that would discourage even Ancestral Creatures like Kirin.
As if he were an ant in front of a giant, Helial realized that he was infinitely small and that he had really underestimated what he was trying to do.
His heart skipped two beats, before forcefully making the blood flow back into his veins.
The weight of that feat crushed his shoulders and he almost felt the need to fall to his knees. But in a moment the images of Lumia, Snowflake and all the people who counted on him peeked into his mind along with the threatening image of Hades. He took a deep breath and stood firmly on his legs, like the last bastion in the midst of waves of enemy soldiers.
He had to resist.
"It won't be easy," said Alexander enigmatically.
Changing the subject and returning to his first question, Helial said, "Even though I can't level up consistently, I can still level up the Skills and increase the level of Knowledge through training and practice, right?"
The King nodded.
"I must say that, before reaching Immortality, anyone could acquire new knowledge in Skill and experience in combat. Maybe even after...?" murmured Helial, scratching his chin and thinking about how to squeeze the maximum out of his stay in that place.
"The passage of time in this place can be up to twenty times slower than in the real world. Considering how powerful the entity within your body is, he could generate illusions for you to train, even much more powerful than this. It amazes me that you don't know. However, yes, within Illusions like this one can train their skills disproportionately before Immortality."
Helial turned red with anger, but kept his mouth shut. He didn't know how amazing it was that Alexander noticed Iblis, but he knew that even Kirin hadn't been able to. Following this reasoning, was it possible that Alexander was so experienced as to be even more terrifying than an Ancestral Creature like Kirin?
Iblis owed him explanations. Among them, the reason why he had decided not to generate an infinite Illusion to train Helial. Maybe he did that because in an Illusion only the Skills would Level up and, to a certain extent, this would make him weake...
No, nothing.
Helial thought only one thing about that black-fringed, crookedly smiling child: Iblis was just a big, huge dickhead.