Chapter 5 – Foundation Arts

 

…

Jigen invited Jed to his house to play. They went from street to street until the human traffic diminished and turbulent noises became sporadic.

The County of Hopes and Dreams were hospitable. They didn’t discriminate against others and entertained them like a family. To them, every day was a day of giving. Hence, children, although ignorant about their words and actions, they still picked this custom from adults.

Jigen just wanted to kill time. Every person in his clan was killjoy, nerdy yet hard to bully, people he didn’t relate. All they do was research and train. He was going to lose more than he could win if they played. As for the other clan’s children, forget it. They may not want to play using their brain. More like brute forcing. He knew in terms of own’s individual strength, his clan was in the bottom. Only in terms of intelligence could hold them with regard.

So, it excited him about having a playmate. And an innocent sheep at that.

“Do you know how to play cards?” asked Jigen. Storm brewed like coffee in his mind, bitter to those who tasted it.

Jed only tilted his head in question. Almost half of his life, he’d only travel and tried to survive. So, he recognized cards, though he didn’t know how to play.

Jigen didn’t mind the lack of words. He continued. “Well, there is a famous game right now in the city. Almost all kids play this card during their vacant time. Oh, except for that Sarah.”

This time Jed asked. “Why she didn’t?”

“Hm. That girl is our celebrity freak.” Jigen gossiped.

“Huh?”

The chubby boy pursed his lips. He looked upward; the trees casted a shadow on his face. “Usually, you bully someone on your age. But she didn’t. Err, well sometimes she did. But her reason she didn’t because she doesn’t like to face weaklings. Instead, she makes pranks on adults. And sometime she likes to play to extremes.”

“We considered her as strongest and smartest kid in the county. No matter game you think of, she going to beat you senseless.” Pulling funny faces, Jigen described her vivid as possible, which was to Jed’s interpretation was a gorilla no matter where he looked.

The enthusiasm replaced languidness. “What’s more! There is a time that she even went to the forest and hunt a Beast! Everyone thought she only gone missing or making a prank to her father.”

“But when she arrived at the county gate, covered in blood, bruises and has so many holes in her clothes while dragging a creature triple of her size, everyone was so shock.” Jed’s eyes enlarged.

“That is a Beast, bro!”

“Anyone will be shocked if you can even fight a Beast one on one on the same level. What’s more, possibly killing them!” Jigen spread his arms and turned around to face Jed.

“But did you know what is her age back then?”

“Six! A freaking six years old defeated a Beast!” Jigen screamed as Jed was disbelief from hearing the story. His mouth shaped into an ‘o’; an egg could fit in there.

“And did you know what she did next?”

“She just greeted everyone with a toothy grin.” Jigen became agitated. It reminded him of that day. The memories of a devilish tiny red-haired girl covered with red imprinted itself on everyone’s mind who saw her.

Talented? Everyone could argue with that. The Mortal Lands was a salad bowl of talents.

Fearless? Anyone can be fearless, depending on the situation.

But a freak? Everyone accepted it that day that, Sarah Pendragon, was a freak. There might be someone who didn’t know her face, but everybody heard a thing about her. Even Meteor doesn’t have that skill in that age.

“Thus, no one wanted to play with her, nor she likes to play with others. She will win eleven out of ten, brain or brawn.”

“Wow. She is so strong and unbridled.” Jed muttered before thinking to himself. Everyone loved strong people and dreamt to be like them. But facing someone at the same age as him was quite unbelievable. So, a person can be that strong, Jed made a fist.

“Yeah, right? She even burned a house down!”

“Heh, I’m actually gloating her father. Earlier, didn’t you see her expression? She sure rushed towards her father and by now they are coming to an argument or worst, come to blows with one another.”

This time, it bewildered Jed. His eyes narrowed. From what he observed, that girl was brash but not evil. She hailed from a clan, after all. The clan had the most stringent and concrete education aside from schools. Teaching morality was second to none.

While talking, the duo arrived in a front of a large wooden gate. A guard was standing at the side. The man wore a blue leather jacket with a badge and black pants. Drawn in the badge was a bridge and mallet. He didn’t even look at the two. Instead, he just stood there carrying his duty.

Seeing this, Jed thought his new friend must be from a prominent family. Earlier when Jigen approached him, he thought the guy was only a child of a common folk. It was easy to distinguish between common folks and the clans.

Common folks had an aura of vigor, and their eyes were very cordial. However, they didn’t mind their words and actions. On the other hand, the clan members had strict and scholarly disposition. Some of them appeared aloof or arrogant. But their gestures and movement showed how polite and educated they were. But looking at the lazy chubby face of his new friend and his lousy manner of speech and actions, Jed thought it was strange. Did he meet one of those so-called privileged brats?

The two boys went inside without hassle. Inside was a large mansion and a building as large as the former. The mansion was similar as the mansions in the surroundings. However, examining the structure, there was something about it that was hard to point. The building beside it resembled a warehouse. Grey color coated its wall, and the windows were blackened. There were two men in blue uniform guarding the door with people in white shirt or gown going in and out of the building.

Jed admired. There was a fountain in front of the mansion and blue flowers placed on the both sides. Paving the road with black material while gravels and marbles outlined it. In addition, there was a tree with white leaves overhead. He clicked his tongue in amazement.

Then a shadow clutched his hand before pulling him in a direction.

“HAHA, let’s run to my room.”

Jigen began introducing his clan to the other one.

“I’m from Metallon clan. We do construction here in the county. But we are more popular for our Constructs.” Jigen beamed.

Jed’s eyes shone. Anyone will feel excited if they hear that word. After all, who didn’t like robots?

“I see.” Jed asked. “Are you familiar with it?”

“Hm. I dab a little. But my clan’s head, which is my father, won’t let me play any longer unless I have reached the acceptable level of our family’s Foundation Arts.”

Jed blinked. It seemed like he was correct. A child of the clan head should be privileged, Jed trying to justify his conclusion.

“You know, that’s disgusting. If you see one, you need to admire it. But my father beat me every time he sees me touching one. See, this one is heavy.” Jigen showed him his plump ass with a black bruise in the shape of a hand.

Jed almost felt speechless. Privileged… on the ass.

“Your father is quite fierce.” Jed blinked for umpteenth time. So what is going on? Is he spoiled or not? Jed knew nothing anymore. He patted himself and thought. “I can’t be that good in reading people suddenly.”

“That’s right. But he let my cousin, not only drive one but he also gifted it to her.” The boy pouted, wheezed and rolled his eyes. He fixed his hair to the side but let out his tongue outward.

“Thankfully, my mother loves me. I got one too. But that’s a secret to my father.” Jigen winked at Jed.

“I guess, your factory for Constructs is in the other building. Do every clan have a spare building like yours?” Jed looked back, but he let himself pulled by the other guy.

“You didn’t know? Well, yes. We call it factory while others called theirs as laboratory.”

“Every clan develops their own expertise. This is our way of contributing to our Mortal Lands.”

Jed's lips were straight. He blinked, spoke seemingly without other intention while observing everything in his vision. “Hm. Can you tell me what each clan’s expertise and what they are developing?”

“Man, that sucks. There are so many clans here.” Jigen shook his before grinning, “I’ll tell you if you defeat me even once.”

Jigen’s clan hallways incorporated teal, black, and grey colors. The walls, the ceiling, and other things bore semblance of metal. But looking closer, it was not. The painter did a fantastic job of making everything looked metallic.

After walking a few turns, they’d arrived in Jigen’s room. The duo went inside it.

“This is my room.” Told Jigen. “Come on. Let’s play!”

Jigen’s room was modest. In fact, it was so plain that Jed wouldn’t know that he entered a mansion. His new friend went towards a drawer. He pushed on the wall and the drawer automatically pulled out itself. He got objects inside before repeating what he did. Grasped in his hand were two small wooden boxes. He presented what inside to Jed.

“This is CM cards, stands for Combat & Magic cards.”

Jigen began explaining the game.

“The game was simple. First, we draw five cards. Then we decide who goes first. You just need to draw first another card before playing a card on your hand. The first to play cannot attack.”

“Each card has different types. A beast, a combatant, a wizard, a shaman, a demon and a devil. They also have different effects and elements. Then you need to sacrifice some of your cards for energy. This energy will be the factor in how strong your card is. The sacrificed card has a number on top of it, which is the energy they will sacrifice. Their effects can also be used once.”

“The energy will amplify the played card’s attack damage. You need to arrange your deck in favorable manner because there is a thing, we call it chaining. The chain is the factor how will your card survive. By chaining, you can use the sacrificed cards effect to use other cards in your deck or by making field effects that will make your played a card in favorable situation.”

“We only have ten lives. After you’ve been attack for ten times, you lose.”

Jed scratched his head. Jigen guffawed in this behavior. He could not help it when his opponent didn’t know the rules, wasn’t it?

“You’ll understand it before long.” Jigen squinted his eyes like a hunter looking at his prey. Too bad it didn’t look a bit menacing because of his chubby cheeks.

Jigen sat on the floor. He pressed on something before a clinking sound emerged under them. A part of the floor opened, and a table went up in Jed’s amazement.

Jed scanned his sight. The boy thought there might be more hidden mechanisms within the room. Now Jed erased his former judgement. He also sat down and looked at the cards he got. He analyzed it first before saying to Jigen that they could start.

Five hours gone by quick.

“Venerable Djinn Warrior, attack his Master Occult Shaman.”

“Noooo~.” A second later, a shriek sounded in the whole vicinity. Several birds scampered in distress. A maid almost lost in balance due to shock. Thankfully, the snacks and juice she was carrying didn’t spill.

“What sorcery is this?” With red bulging eyes, Jigen asked Jed.

He was certain he could bully this novice. But that’s what he thought. In their first match, of course, Jed lost hands up. Next match, Jed could put into a fight. Then horror came from the third match. Albeit, it was a horror for Jigen. In the fourth match, Jed had already perfected the synergy of his deck. That’s why Jigen lost miserably in the last match. He wasn’t able to put in a fight. Jigen made sure the deck didn’t have something amazing. But he still lost to the one he thought he could bully.

The maid knocked before entering. Seeing her, Jed immediately got up.

“Hm. I think that’s it for today.” Said Jed, awkward.

“Tomorrow I’ll beat you till your momma doesn’t recognize you!” Jigen snorted. He went towards the maid and get one glass on the tray. He poured himself with the cold juice and gulped it down almost quickly to his satisfaction.

…

“Hiss.” Rough, rhythmic breathing followed.

The difference between the common folks and clans was the house they live in. Common folks lived in a one-story residential house while clans lived in a mansion. Sometimes, they even owned several of it.  One thing they had in common were the designs. This idea of similarity perpetuated in the county.

The clans in the County of Hopes and Dreams adapted the style and design of Grandmaster Eric White Metallon. In his era, he was so renown that almost every house and structures followed his design. Although it was not as prevalent, many still used his designs as a basis and combined it with other grandmasters of construction’s designs and techniques. This made the construction field very respected and trusted.

The interior was simply detailed. Though tricolor scheme was applied, the colors was pleasing to the eyes. It was complex but the theme of design strived for the beauty of simplicity. The furniture wasn’t overcrowded. The patterns of the curtains, flooring and walls were straightforward.

There was a place with multiple mansions, with a symbol of five petals flower inscribed on its main gate, but, with meticulous eyes, the petals were actually the heads of five scaly creatures with razor-sharp teeth, drawn using optical illusion and realistic details.

It was the home of County Lord and the home of the Pendragon Clan.

The clan had ten mansions, a courtyard and a building with people coming in and out. The mansions had hundreds of rooms, but their owners were nowhere. And the halls seemed empty for how spacious it was. There were even rooms that were ownerless. But they were clean, proving that there was still someone taking care of them.

Walking in the silent, dark and cold halls, alone, was quite unnerving. But Sarah seemed used to it as she exited her room with tight-fitted clothes. Following Sarah, she went outside the mansion she was in and went towards a large space surrounded by other mansions, a courtyard. The courtyard had a few numbers of Acacia trees. From the looks of it, the trees were in awful shape. The courtyard also had several equipment, sandbags and other stuff lying in the ground.

Sarah didn’t look anywhere and just sat in random, which was by chance beside one of the acacia trees. She closed her eyes and steadied her breathing. After several seconds, beads of perspiration trickled down her forehead. “Hiss.”

Inside Sarah’s body, two phenomena were visible.

The first phenomenon was sitting at center of her head. It was a suspended cluster of circles inscribed with complicated rune-like words.

The other was branch-like veins scattered throughout her body.

Happening inside these two phenomena transpired was distinct.

Tiny colorful streams were relaxed and fused with the circles before completing a tiny rune-like word.

On the other phenomenon, an imperceivable transparent stream mixed with a white color river flowing through the veins.

The occurrence was quite mystical because every time the white color river entered one vein, the latter lighted up like a bulb. The river tried to enter the other veins, but there was an invisible wall blocking it.

These streams came from the surroundings and inhaled by Sarah through the pores of her skin. Mix color streams went upward while the transparent stream followed the river. This process was very tedious and painful.

Gritting her teeth, Sarah recalled what happened earlier.

She felt wronged for losing a valuable time from a crappy story.

“There is no interesting there. And all of them are just a bunch of kids. Put that boring teacher on top, then it is a complete package.” She thought. Her red hair was shaking.

The teacher might have his own way. It might be beneficial and she didn’t know how. But it should be easy to comprehend for a child. Things should start from simple to complicated, it should be progressive.

She started her training when she was three. Cruel, but she had talent to back it. And just that alone made her father steeled himself to pressure her. But she still started from the basic.

Implications? Dig more? She thought what her teacher said, it could be a nonsense story or profound principles. She didn’t deny him at all. There would come a time she had to understand these principles. But, someone who just started her journey, foundations must be built first before taking on these worldly philosophies. And she wanted to make the most of every minute and second.

She grimaced, not only from pain but also the information she got from her father. She got to know the teacher and the school from her father before, but she didn’t know it that deep. After she got home, she at once consulted her father about it. Though, it was more like confrontation than consultation, but the meaning was surely passed. She hoped so.

Anyway, she got into a brawl with her father about it. And while they are coming to blows, her father had a slip of the tongue and said that the Academy of Hopes and Dreams prioritized teaching moralities than other things.

Heck, she won’t go there anymore as the clan had also complete resources and inheritance to provide her studies and training.

She was very proud of herself. This was very evident that until now she was only doing intense exercise and Foundation Arts.

How was it an evidence? An essay appeared on her mind. Sarah recited in her head. “Foundation Arts are something that anyone can learn. The only remaining factor is how long you can persevere in doing this art. There are many arts that when trained in a certain amount of time can strengthen you easier. These arts are very popular because it is used in head-on battle, while foundation arts, albeit, can only be at most a supportive type.”

“Creating the phenomena and training with it is very long and painful process. That’s why there are few who can persevere down this road. Even adults forsake it for how excruciating the process was.”

Gnashing her teeth, she continued. “Reluctantly, humans deduced that training in Foundation Arts to an acceptable level is the most orthodox path. There is a valid reason for this. The Mortal Lands have something called World’s Energy. It is the tiny streams that people absorbed.”

“Many theorized that these World’s Energy are the building blocks of the world. The reason is that almost all things in the world contain the World’s Energy. However, some people disagreed to it, for there are many things that don’t contain World’s Energy or at least aren’t able to contain it at birth.”

“A human was one example. People don’t carry any World’s Energy at all the first time they come into the world. But training in arts enables the person not only to carry but to use the World’s Energy. Thus, it is possible for someone to not train in Foundation Art yet trains in other arts.”

“However, that someone will soon realize that his body deteriorating inside out because of the body not being able to fit in with Word’s Energy.”

“This is because carrying World’s Energy is like carrying a heavy and foreign object inside your body. The body will keep rejecting it but for forcing yourself in carrying it, the body will soon succumb from conflicting responses and additional baggage.” The pain reached a level that blood came out from her nose. She was shaking. But she was distracting herself by thinking.

“On the other hand, training in Foundation Arts made one ‘absorb’ the World’s Energy into his own. Meaning, the World’s Energy you absorbed becomes your own. An unknown scientist said that Foundation Arts are invented because he considered it as the ‘first dip’ in the sea of Powers. Thus, it became the orthodox way of humankind to train on it to acceptable level before training in other arts.”

“There are many kinds of Foundation Arts but the most popular are Combat Foundation Arts and Spell Foundation Arts.”

“Scientists found that there are hidden veins inside the body. Unlocking it gives an individual a tremendous potential. It is almost like removing the limiter of the brain and harnessing its complete wealth. Hence, the Combat Foundation Arts is created. This enables someone to perceive the hidden veins inside the body and light each one of them. By training with it, one can jump over the mountain and reach the sky. It is as seem parallel to the classical words in the novel of being able to lift mountain with one hand and stop a river with another.”

“As for Spell Foundation Arts, it has a long history. Humanity is very fascinated with magic. However, doing so is against the nature of things. Most of the time, people got burned and cursed by transgressing this unknown domain. And more often than not, terrible things happen not only to them but to others as well.”

“But the humans didn’t give up. Until one day, they found that by using a medium, a spell can be activated. A book, an orb, a strawman, a hair, a needle, a fan and other things can be used as long as one chanted the right words.”

“However, humans felt it was lacking. They expect more of magic. They demand more power from magic. Hence, it was created, Spell Foundation Arts. By creating a medium, the spell circles, from the World’s Energy and, once again, using the World’s Energy as ink to inscribe the spell chants to the circle, powerful and deadlier spells can be used at will.”

“The only disadvantage is the tedious amount of time needed to create a spell circle. It not only needs to be tough, but also has to be substantial. A more complex spell circle, the better.”

An individual that constructed a spell circle was more talented than the one who lighted up a vein in the same age. This was the common knowledge. In addition, only a few could create spell circles, thus, the stigma of wizard was more talented became indisputable.

Thus, Sarah was a one-of-a-kind genius. She lighted up several veins but also created a considerable amount of spell circles already compared with the same age. Others wouldn’t have time to train in one Foundation Art, yet she was training both at the same time.

But, her talent stemmed not only from her bloodline. It was the fact that she was doing this every day non-stop. Just the amount of pain she was suffering was many folds than others. Others would train because required.

Many hours had already passed by. Sweat had soaked the clothes she wore. But she still persevered. This was because she had a secret; a secret most people couldn’t think. But, unlike most cheats that gave the main character utmost advantage, hers was very greedy and had too many limitations.

Hidden beside the two phenomena, a tiny sprout had taken root just below her navel. It only had one yellowish leaf. Its stems were thin and so its trunk. It looked so weak that it might wither a second later. It was only a baby sprout and already on the verge of dying. But as if enraged by its situation, it persisted, clinging to its life.

At first, Sarah couldn’t detect the existence of the sprout.

She only sensed the World’s Energy she absorbed was disappearing.

But as time passed, the disappearance became noticeable and she soon discovered the anomaly.

A vortex appeared on its trunk and devoured couple times of the combine amount of World’s Energy she needed to light one vein and inscribe a word on the circle.

The massive influx of the World’s Energy she was absorbing was already beyond her capabilities.

Thankfully, she knew this would happen, hence; she stored already a sizeable amount of it inside her body.

However, because she didn’t absorb it earlier into the spell circle and to the white river, she felt her body strange, nauseated and heavier.

She persisted because of this moment.

Then a roar came from within the sprout’s tiny frame. The roar seemed to emerge from an ancient era. It exuded the vicissitudes yet majesty of time.  A moment later, vast streams of green light emerged out of nowhere and went below its roots. The image gave the sprout a touch of holiness and devilishness. This process continued until a shade of green visible on its leaf.

Heretical Sprout Open!

Then those pairs of close eyes opened.

…