Rick turned the page to the first chapter, and to his disappointment, it was exactly what the title had suggested. It was a compilation of instructions on painting.
“I can’t think of anything better,” he sighed and flipped to the first page.
It was more than a hundred-page compilation on abstract art collected by the Lemegeton from all the modern books available and known to mankind and Rick read through it all.
Art is the medium of converging the thought onto the material. It is to make things consciously by delving it’s the sub-conscious and the pseudo-conscious…
Although Rick could retain everything he read on the Lemegeton by merely reading it once, but he could grasp only an ounce of the knowledge in there.
“What does it even mean,” he lamented clawing on his face. “You might as well have written it in Latin!”
It took him a little over an hour to retain all the information on the Lemegeton, but the process of digesting the information and understanding was taking painstakingly longer.
“Clear my mind and then think on the first though, my foot” he mumbled. “The first thought I get is to think of the first thought!”
Since it seemed impossible for him to understand all of it at once, he decided to process it little by little and then try it out.
“What’s next,” he skipped over to the next method.
Understand how you reached the feeling and what you had done the previous time.
As he read the phrase, he closed his eyes delved his consciousness into his Mana.
“The way to become a Space Elemental mage has to on the same lines as becoming a Fire Elemental Mage,” he reasoned.
Rick quickly snapped open his eyes and flipped drew the Lemegeton close to him.
“Space Element,” he mumbled. He needed to understand the subject better.
With a thought, the grimoire opened up to the correct page.
Space Element
The mysterious and elusive of the Five Elements. There are few who have mastered it to its pinnacle and all those who have, stand atop their own worlds.
Alone it is nothing, otherwise, it is everything
It is made of all other elements or all other elements are made of it….
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He had read the two page worth of information on the space element before as well. It was the one thing on the Lemegeton which had surprisingly scarce information about.
“It feels like a tear,” he mumbled picking up the pen again.
The whole purpose of this was to draw the Space Core Rune after all.
But then the method of how he had come across the Fire Core Rune was much different from what he was experiencing now.
He had stumbled across the Fire Core Rune by sheer luck when he found Pip’s egg and right after became a Fire Elemental Mage. But since then, he did not have any luck in finding any other core runes.
Core Runes
Each of the five elements can be harnessed by humans through core runes.
The World is formed by these elements. When a Mage’s Mana resonates with that of the world, an opportunity arises for him to comprehend these Core Runes.
Comprehension of Core Runes can bring immense benefits to Mages, and gives an edge to Elemental Mages over all other Mages. However, the path of an elemental mage is froth with trials and tribulations at every step…
Rick recalled a passage from the Lemegeton.
“I might not get the chance again,” he clenched his fist and dived into his consciousness.
‘What does it feel like?’ he asked himself. But he got no answer even from himself.
He sat at the study alone while the entire place was engulfed in darkness on a cloudy night.
“I will keep trying till I die if I have to,” Rick steeled his nerve.
There was too much he had to do and there was very little time to accomplish it all. And there was no way he could do it without increasing his overall ability.
He closed his eyes once again and entered his subconscious.
He just had to focus his mind and he could immediately dive into the deep heavy feeling unsettling feeling in his chest. It felt like it could consume him whole if he let it.
He slowly circulated the mana and the crushing feeling slowly elevated.
“That’s much better,” he smiled.
As the Mana coursed through his veins he decided to practice his Fire Elemental.
He directed his Mana in the Fire Path and the pale white neutral mana rapidly took the crimson colour of the fire elemental as it coursed through his body.
‘It is made up all elements,’ Rick’s eyes furrowed as he recalled the phrase he had read moments before in the Lemegeton.
He directed the Fire Elemental Mana towards the immaterial spot where he could feel the Space Elemental.
As the two came closer, the existing mana and the non-material feeling crossed boundaries as it all became a reality!
As the Fire Elemental Mana inched to the spot between his eyebrows, a sudden cracked appeared out of nowhere drawing his consciousness into it and then right after disappeared.
---
“Aaa,” Rick startled with a scream as his consciousness came about.
He found himself falling into a world filled with fire and flame as far as his eyes could see.
If he fell into the world it would be his sure death!
“The golems.” he realized and looked at his hand.
But to his dread, the storage ring wasn’t on his finger. He looked further down and realised that there was not a single piece of cloth on him!
“Fuck!” he gulped.
Right before diving into the pool of Magma that was the world, he cast the Hot Hands Spell all over the body.
Splat!
He fell into the thick magma, alive.
And then a second later, the Magma disappeared and he found himself in a dark space, floating around.
Another few minutes in the abyss and he was tossed into the World of Inferno again.
The process kept continuing again and again and then again.
His body and mind were both stretched to the limit between being tortured in scalding pain, followed by recovering his Mana in solitary silence and then repeating the process.
All he could do was make sure he recovered enough Mana before being tossed again into the fiery world.
It continued for another hundred times.
Then a thousand more times.
But Rick did not despair, he kept at it. He did not lose his mind and the endless torture as the Tranquil Heart skill worked on overdrive to keep his sanity in check.
But unknown to Rick, his experience of the Planar Tribulation was much different from the normal.
Usually, a candidate would cross the threshold and escape from the Planar World tribulation after the tenth time while the hundreds of others who could not leave, would lose their minds and die. It was because of this do or die nature of the Planar Tribulation that there were so few Space Elemental Mages in the world!
But Rick had already undergone the process more than a thousand times while keeping his sanity for more than a thousand time. While the Tranquil Heart Skill prevented him from losing his mind, it was also trapping him in an endless world of torture!