After finishing lunch, which cost one golden coin, Aina said she wanted to take a nap, so Navin proposed to go to an Inn. Unfortunately, his two female companions had become spoiled by the comfortable beds and luxury of their new home in the Traveler’s Cabin, so they didn’t want to go to an Inn.
“Alright, then let’s go out of the city and rest in the Traveler’s Cabin.”
“Yeees!”
They left the restaurant and walked into an alley. After making sure no one was watching, Navin teleported them to a beach on the western coast of the country. A few hundred kilometers from Buri City.
“Oh!”
Maria exclaimed in surprise upon feeling the breeze of the sea, she had thought Navin would take them back to the hill where they had been before entering the city.
This was a pleasant surprise for both her and especially for Aina who started running on the beach happily.
“Mom, look! The sea, it’s beautiful!”
“Aina, you are going to dirty your dress! Come, let’s get changed if you want to play on the beach."
Maria told Aina, although she was very excited about the beach too.
Navin made the Traveler’s Cabin appear and they entered to get changed.
After a brief explanation by Maria about how was the swimwear in this continent, Navin made swimsuits for them.
He made many different options for them to choose but decided that it was better to give them the freedom to design their own swimsuits.
He handed them two white tunics.
“These are Cloud Silk Tunics; they possess the special quality of freely changing their texture, shape, and color. Put them on and use your imagination to design your own swimsuits, you only need to make your Qi flow through them and give a mental command. It’s very simple and that way you will have exactly the swimwear you imagine and want.”
The pair of females then went upstairs to experiment with their new cloth.
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Barely 5 minutes later, mother and daughter had changed their Cloud Silk Tunics into a dudou and short skirt set-up. While Aina's version was full of engravings and decorations, Maria's was simpler yet it carried a sense of elegance as it accentuated her figure.
“How do we look?”
Maria asked Navin with a slightly red face, she spun around to show her swimsuit.
“Beautiful.”
Navin praised her with a smile, he was only wearing blue shorts revealing his muscular body.
Maria’s face got even redder but bloomed with a smile after hearing Navin praising her.
They started submerging in the sea and ended up playing around for 2 hours, Navin used magic to make a show of lights and water for entertainment, helped Aina build a sand castle and also took photographs as mementos.
They were fascinated with the photographs, which Navin printed magically.
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After hours of playing and fun on the beach they went to relax under the sun and fresh breeze.
“Lord Navin, how does one make magic?”
Maria asked while lying on a long chair under an umbrella, Aina had fallen asleep by her side. There were snacks and refreshments in a low table next to them.
Navin was lying on the sand with both hands behind his head, he turned to her and started to explain.
“There are many ways. For a beginner, chants are very useful because they help to make a clearer mental image of what you want, they are often made like giving a command to the spell, magic or the elements ordering them to do something.”
He raised one hand and made a chant.
“For example: water, gather on my hand and form an orb, [Water Ball].”
A globe of water appeared over his palm immediately. He moved it to a side, where it floated in the air.
“Once you have more control of your mana and can make a clearer mental image, you can skip the chants, many mages at this level use only the name of the spell to cast it. [Water Ball]”
Right after his words ended, a globe of water identical to the first one appeared.
“You will notice that there is a difference between simply saying ‘water ball’ and using those words to cast a spell, that’s due to the Intent infused into those words when used as a command for casting magic.”
Navin raised a bit and turned his body to be completely sideways facing Maria, one of his hands still supporting his head.
“The name of the spell and the command word for activating it can be pretty much anything, what really matters is the Intent behind it, and the mental image you are using.”
Navin extended his index finger and drew a shining blue curved line on the air.
“Another way to cast magic is by using runes. Runes are symbols that hold Intent within them, they possess meaning and power, just like the command words for activating a spell. They are the way to ‘write’ magic.”
The blue rune shone and then a water globe formed around it, then the rune dissipated into the water.
“So by using a rune, I don’t have to say anything?”
Maria asked, intrigued by the wonders of magic.
“Exactly, although to be correct, you never really need to say anything, a mental command is enough to activate magic and cast spells. It just requires more practice.”
Navin once again drew the curved line resembling a wave and then made a second rune that looked like an arrow coiling on itself.
“Runes can be of any form, shape, color, language, and size; they can be written with any material and on any surface. The only thing that matters is your energy to power it and the willpower to imprint the intended image into it. For this reason, there are many different types of runes and many different ways to use them.”
The two new runes shone and another water ball appeared, but this time it started to rotate.
“By adding a new rune to another, you add an effect to the spell, the possible combinations are endless, but you have to be careful to not give conflicting commands. The order in which they activate and the way energy needs to flow are also important for proper activation.”
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“Like how one needs to slice the vegetables before putting them in the water for soup? Or to build the first floor of a house before building the second?”
Maria was a bit embarrassed for her example, but she was a cook so the first image that came to mind for an example was cooking.
She was glad Navin didn’t laugh at her, he actually looked at her with encouragement, she knew he liked them to ask questions and participate during the lessons, he said that was important feedback and that new insights were always welcomed. He smiled at her and nodded.
“Exactly! There is an order and an appropriate way to do everything. It’s good that you got it so fast, that way you won’t become confused when using the runes. Just look at them as the recipe for your spell; runes act like instructions for preparing a dish and the types of Mana are the ingredients. Excellent analogy, Maria.”
She got a red face and started to awkwardly drink from a glass of lemonade to hide her embarrassment.
Navin drew a set of runes in the air again and next to the group he drew a separate single rune.
“Many runes used together form a magic array, which serves a specific purpose and is used when you need to keep the magic activated for longer periods of time, it’s generally used for complex purposes, just like you wouldn’t use a hatchet or an axe for peeling a potato, you wouldn’t use a complex array for forming a water ball. Once you have more control of your magic, you can imbue more complex orders and in larger numbers to a single rune, so one rune could do the same as a group of simpler runes.”
Both the small array and the separate rune activated and formed water balls that rotated and moved in a circle.
They had the exact same effect despite being so different.
“There are many other ways, like performing rituals, using magical artifacts, or making pacts with spirits to use their powers, but those depend on an external source and thus they are not truly your power.”
“It’s amazing, so many new things to learn, all these marvelous things to explore.”
Maria said with sparkling eyes, she was imagining all the wonders she could do with magic.
“I wonder when I’ll be able to use magic.”
“If my estimation is correct, Aina will form her core today or tomorrow, and you will form yours in 3 days at the latest.”
“Eh?”
“Yeah, it’s just a matter of time, no need to be impatient. Use these next few days to keep practicing the breathing exercises and the sensibility to cosmic energies; it will help you improve your mana pool faster.”
“Yes!”
It was good that Maria had enthusiasm for learning, she had started cultivating late, so there will be some difficulties in the process at the early stages, but Navin was confident on taking care of those issues easily.
For a cultivator, what was more important was that they had strong determination for learning and improving.
They continued talking until sunset when they decided to go prepare dinner.
Aina woke up just as dinner was ready to be served.
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Later that night, the stars shone brightly in the sky above, a beautiful scenery by the sea.
On this calm night, three people gathered near the beach.
“Are you ready?”
Navin asked his 3rd Disciple.
Aina was sitting on a circular stone platform, prepared to form her Cultivation Core.
From dozens of meters away, Maria stood watching the procedure. Navin told her that her core would be formed differently from Aina’s, but there was no problem if she watched, the only condition was for her to swear not to talk about it to anyone besides Navin and his disciples.
She watched how Navin pointed a finger to Aina and made a ray of light enter her forehead, then started to walk around the platform.
Having listened to Navin explain about runes in the afternoon, she knew these drawings were a runic array, a magic formation, but she had no idea what they meant nor the effects the runes had.
Lights of many different colors and appearance were emitted from Navin’s body as he walked around Aina, forming a spiral of energies.
It was a fascinating scene; looking at the different streams of swirling colors and bright lights, Maria got contrasting feelings from them; sometimes cold, sometimes hot, she could look at a few lights without a problem but her head hurt when she looked at others, she got lost in her thoughts while contemplating them.
Soon she noticed the vortex of energies was being absorbed into Aina’s body; after absorbing it completely, Aina opened her eyes, shining like the stars in the heavens, and bolts of bluish purple lightning surrounded her whole body.
It was a scene Maria remembered from the time when they first met Navin, the storm of Heavenly Tribulation had gathered and Aina had used this same lightning to push it back.
Maria found herself looking at her daughter with reverence, the aura of majesty emitted by her was vast and glorious, Aina’s hair turned the same purple tone as her lightning and moved as if pushed by an invisible wind.
Aina took a deep breath and exhaled slowly.
As she exhaled, the lightning dimmed and dissipated, her hair color also returned to normal.
“Congratulations on forming your core, you are officially a cultivator now.”
Navin gave Aina a light hug and patted her on the head as she had a huge smile on her face.
“Congratulations, sweetie. How do you feel?”
Maria approached, hugged her daughter and gave her a kiss on her head.
“I feel great! I think if I jump with full strength I can reach the clouds!”
“Your hair got smoother, sweetie.”
Maria said while caressing her head.
“Ah? Oh, you are right! Wow!”
Aina also started touching her hair, noticing the new smoothness and soft feeling.
“When advancing in cultivation, impurities in the body are eliminated and our true selves manifest as our potential explodes, our bodies change and develop new qualities too, it varies depending on the individual.”
By their side, Navin explained.
“Mine got wavier and also changed a bit in color, it even shines in different colors when contacting certain energies, it’s a bit funny looking, hahaha.”
He extended a hand in front of Aina.
“Aina, can you gather lightning on your hand?”
“Yes!”
Aina tried flowing her energy to make lightning appear on her palm.
Inside her, the Supreme Core formed by Primordial Chaos was surrounded by lightning, it was the same bluish purple lightning she emitted before, she could feel a special connection to that flowing power even if she still did not fully understand it yet.
A bit of that lightning flowed up her arm to her hand, sparkling and flowing between her fingers.
“Hmm, this is quite the curious lightning.”
Navin commented and grabbed Aina’s lightning with his hand, taking it from her grasp.
It was a smooth and fluid movement, Aina felt her connection with that bit of lightning was lost, but she didn’t feel it forceful at all.
As if it was a natural occurrence.
“Aina, this lightning of yours is special, and possesses extraordinary qualities; while I encourage you to cultivate it with dedication, you must also learn to use common electricity, ok?”
Navin spoke after taking his eyes off the lightning now sparkling on his hand.
He closed his hand, absorbing the lightning.
“My lightning is special?”
“Yes, just like there are many types of energies with different properties, when the elements interact with higher energies, they also gain special qualities. Your lightning is such an example.”
“What does it do?”
“You tell me, it’s your lightning, its special qualities are due to you and your special physique.”
Aina close her eyes to think about it, she could feel the strange lightning, her lightning dancing around her Cultivation Core, entering it, exiting it, and even circling around her body, she felt better and better each time it completed a cycle.
Her body was strengthening.
“I don’t know, Master. It feels good and strengthens me, but I don’t really know what’s so special about it.”
Aina said with a tilted head.
“Well, you can contemplate it and study its qualities; take your time to familiarize with it and understand your own powers, that’s an important part of cultivation.”
Then he added with a bit of a mischievous smile.
“Or would you like me to tell you now? That would spoil the surprise, and it’s always better for you to form your own understanding of it.”
“Hmm… okay! I will study it on my own.”
“Good girl.”
Navin patted her head and turned to Maria.
“Should we go to rest now? What would you like to do tomorrow?”
“I don’t think there’s anything really enticing in Buri City, I’d rather stay having fun with you.”
Maria said a bit distracted from watching the lightning, and quickly got embarrassed at her a-bit-too-honest reply.
Even Aina was laughing with a hand covering her mouth.
Navin laughed a bit but did not tease her.
“As you wish, then we’ll stay here and continue training and have fun.”
“O-okay.”
“Master, can you tell me a bedtime story?”
“Sure.”
They entered the Traveler’s Cabin, that now was considered by the mother-daughter duo as their new home and not just a magical artifact, and got changed into pajamas.
Aina’s room was big just as her mother’s room, and her bed could easily fit 2 adults.
“Mom, come, it’s a big bed.”
Aina beckoned for Maria to get in the bed with her, Maria got on the left side near the wall and Aina was on the right side, while Navin sat on a chair next to Aina.
Navin made a small book appear on his hand.
“This is a story of long ago, about a little fish who wished to explore the vast ocean…”
Both mother and daughter listened with rapt attention to his story after covering with the sheets, Navin’s stories were always fascinating, as he told them tales from around the cosmos full mysteries and wonders beyond their imagination.
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“…and so it raised its head and jumped off the water, and started to swim into a brand new sea, a sea composed by the stars in the heavens.”
Finishing the story, Navin closed the book.
He looked down at the sleeping figure of Aina by his side, hugging her mother. Maria had her eyes closed and a little smile on her lips as she returned her daughter’s hug. Navin made the book disappear as he put his right hand on the border of the bed.
“Good night, girls.”
Whispered Navin, he was about to get up from the chair to exit the room when he felt his hand grabbed.
Maria, still with her eyes closed, and with a new shade of red across her face, held his right hand with hers.
He let out a soft sigh, shaking his head with a smile.
“Okay.”
He whispered and leaned back in the chair, keeping the hand holding.