Path
A noble youth with curly golden hair and blue eyes lay on a soft silk bed in a dim room, a contemplative look on his face.
‘Arcanists… Magi who comprehended laws descended into the World of Gods during the final war, and created them to adapt their power into this world’s laws. They attempted experiments to make themselves like natives, and this was the result… They were the founding fathers of wizardry…’
Leylin viewed the materials he had obtained from the ruins of Netheril. With the A.I. Chip’s powerful capabilities, he had copied all of the ruins’ information and begun to arrange them into categories.
Arcanists weren’t simply battle spellcasters. There was a whole lot else to them as well. Alchemy, botany, enchanted architecture, forcefields, arcane runes… It was almost an all-inclusive package. If arcanists were used as the standard to select the best wizards, then the number of wizards would drop by over 90%.
After all, arcanists were Magi who had localised themselves to the World of Gods. They couldn’t be compared to the wizards who used the Weave.
Among all this data, what Leylin cared most about was the Magi who comprehended laws. These ancient Magi were gloriously powerful, and Leylin admired them deeply. He longed to learn from them.
Although it was difficult to perform research on arcanists, Leylin didn’t think much of it. The only thing that he needed to focus his mental and physical efforts on was the paths of those ancient Magi and their inheritances. Their thoughts and reasoning spilled forth from the arcanist inheritance.
This was the truly valuable aspect and the greatest guiding light for him!
The inheritances of the Magi had been damaged due to the ancient final war. Only the inheritances of mysterious and powerful ancient Magi circulated in the World of Gods, but there had been very few truly crucial and pertinent ones.
Although Leylin’s original body had risen to near rank 7, only after meeting ancient existences like the Mother Core did he truly begin to come into contact with Magi who comprehended laws. Even those existences did not truly comprehend the paths walked by other rank 8 Magi.
Far too many Magi had fallen in the final war, and few had been able to leave behind inheritances.
Leylin had completed integrating everything he’d gleaned from the arcanists’ inheritance. With this he could finally form an image of an ancient Magus, and acquire a general idea of the path walked by those who comprehended laws.
‘A Magus needs to surpass an enormous threshold every three ranks. Rank 1 to 3 Magi cultivate their spiritual force, and rank 4 to 6 Magi expand their soul force. For rank 7 and above, one needs to grasp the power of laws!’ Leylin’s eyes gleamed.
‘A rank 7 Magus needs to grasp a complete law, and rank 8 Magi need to grasp several different ones. To break through the threshold of rank 8, one needs to refine all the laws they’ve grasped to form their own path. And in one’s own path, they need to leave enough leeway to grasp the power of space and time, else they will never be able to advance to rank 9.’
Leylin’s eyes glowed even more brightly, ‘The path cannot be walked twice, and perhaps a peak rank 8 existence like the Mother Core walked down the wrong path. Her powers cannot extend to control spacetime, and she can’t advance.’
“As for my path… How should I plan this?” Leylin muttered to himself. His path of advancement had to remain steady, and the choice of what laws he would refine was even more important.
This was just like the ancient Distorted Shadow. Although Leylin could not confirm what laws he grasped, he understood that the power refined from them was one of distortion!
The power of distortion held the law of spacetime within it. As a result, Distorted Shadow had been extremely close to the realm of rank 9. Even having fallen thousands of years ago, he could still cause some trouble today.
‘It is very important to have a stable foundation of laws. The feeling that I get from Mother Core is one of stability and gravity, so her foundation must have something to do with the power of the earth and fire. Perhaps it’s too difficult to extend that to control spacetime,’ After his worldview was expanded, Leylin held a deeper understanding of the strength of the other Magi who comprehended laws.
‘The Snake Dowager is different! Although she has not advanced to the peak of rank 8, the power of shadows she has chosen is rather good. At the very least, the power of shadows is more compatible with space, so if she truly obtains the world origin force of the Shadow World and breaks through to the limit of rank 8 she’ll be stronger than Mother Core. Still, it’ll be difficult to advance to rank 9 since shadows aren’t related to time at all…
‘One needs to choose a path compatible with spacetime before advancing to rank 9,’ Leylin stroked his chin, ‘Then… is it possible to directly refine the laws of space and time in rank 8? No, impossible! Someone who has yet to form their own path cannot touch the power of spacetime at all. Normal refining methods cannot touch the laws of spacetime…’
As his understanding of the paths of ancient Magi grew deeper, Leylin’s knowledge of his own path also furthered.
‘With the arcanists as a guide, I’ll advance rapidly. The ability to break away from the Weave will allow me to overcome its restrictions. Although instant casts of legendary spells will be impossible, it won’t be a problem to use rank 9 and below spells if I pay a bit of the price…
‘Even if I am discovered by a god, they would most likely think that I’m an arcanist’s descendent or perhaps a fortunate person who discovered the inheritance of an arcanist. This will always be better than being thought of as a visitor from another world…
‘Since it’s like this, I can put many of my earlier plans into action!’
“The news came at just the right time.” Leylin’s eyes grew more serious. Having become a high-ranked wizard, the legendary realm would not be a bottleneck to him. He could later prepare to ascend into godhood.
At the very least, he would have to be careful in choosing his divinity in the future, making sure to pick one that was compatible with the path of his original body.
‘The path of divinity will affect my ascent to godhood and my church, so it must be considered carefully!’ Leylin’s expression grew sombre. Many divine wars had broken outs between gods due to opposing paths. He did not want to cross swords with other powerful gods the moment he ascended to godhood.
‘I’m currently a human. Those of us who ascend to godhood automatically join the human faction, so the best thing to do would be to ally with the pantheon of gods. This eliminates many divinities and territories… It’s also necessary to find something that would be compatible with the future path of my original body…’ Leylin massaged his temples, and found all of this a headache.
‘However, if a god dares to stand in my way, then I can only ask them to die as soon as possible…’ Gods such as these did not have the qualifications to stand in the way of someone like Leylin, someone who had grasped the path of laws and truth.
From his point of view, these gods would only have mastered one or a few powerful laws at the very most. There was too large a gap between them and a Magus who comprehended laws. This was the limitation of godhood. Since their power came from the world and their followers, there would naturally be limits to it.
A god was like an officer. They could use their divine force to wield power on par with Magi who comprehended laws. In their own divine kingdoms, they could even surpass such Magi. It was just that, once they left their realm or their followers lost faith, they wouldn’t even equal peak legendaries.
Magi were different, however. No matter where they were, their strength would at most be suppressed. However, their power could not be stolen or exchanged, it belonged to them and them alone.
Consequently, there were rank 9 Magi who managed to find their own path. However, the most powerful amongst the gods with greatest divine power was the Overgod, who was also the incarnation of the World of God’s World Will.
‘Once I ascend to godhood, I will only be a weak god comparable to a rank 7 Magi in the Magus World. If I were to encounter a mid-ranked god or rank 8 Magi, or other gods who are like peak rank 8s, then it won’t be possible for me to win. As a result, it’s best to avoid those two. I should also avoid clashing with any Chosen…’
‘This leaves me very little wriggle room, but luckily it’s not like I’m out of options,’ Leylin’s lips curved into a rather strange smile.
……
As he drew closer to Dambrath Kingdom, Leylin’s studies had also increased in speed.
[Beep! Arcanist build has been recorded, spell models collected. Legendary: 3, Rank 9: 17, Rank 8: 23…] The A.I. Chip’s prompt caused Leylin to nod in satisfaction.
He still saw many of these arcane spell models using wizard spells as their base, and several of them were similar to the spell models of Magi. If he relied on the A.I Chip’s slow analysis, perhaps he would need thousands of years to deduce all of this. However, he had relied on own power to achieve this knowledge, and did not need the A.I. Chip’s deductions.
[Rank 8 Arcane spell models have been completely recorded. Record rank 8 spell models?] The A.I. Chip issued yet another prompt.
‘Yes.’ Leylin now had the power of a rank 15 arcanist, and could use rank 7 spells without consumption. Rank 8 spells on the other hand needed some extra effort.
For a rank 15 Professional to use rank 8 spells, a traditional wizard would have their requests completely rejected by the Weave. Arcanists however would use their arcane knowledge and some preparations to successfully cast such spells after paying a certain price.
As it was like this, rank 8 and rank 9 arcane spell models would become Leylin’s strongest trump cards. It was comparable to the spell torrent that he released using the Weave.
[Transmitting rank 8 arcane spell models!] The A.I. Chip loyally fulfilled Leylin’s orders.
Sensing that his sea of consciousness suddenly possessed even more data on arcane spell models, Leylin nodded as he looked at the other benefits he had gained. He had found other interesting things in the data from Netheril.
A multitude of data and news flashed before his eyes, before it stopped at several short poems.