Chapter 0011

The wind howled and swirled masking sharp blades of ice and streaks of dancing lightning.

 

A black hair little girl stood on the cliff ledge watching the culmination of 6 months of hard work. Athena… no Tempest had an impassive expression but her eyes gleamed with joy.

 

During the last 6 months, the temperamental little brat changed to a straight A student, diligently studying charm making, array and formation.

 

From charm making, the studious student was able to create charms for Wind Blade, Ice Bolt, Lightning Strike, and the support skills As Swift as the Wind, Levitation and Flash Step. From her charm making studies, she was able to understand the basic of spell casting. She spent three days going from making to charms to casting spells against a target. During the past 6 months on the journey to become a great mage, Tempest learned to release three spell simultaneously.

 

There were barely any drain on her energy reserve. Sensing her energy reserve was the third field Tempest concentrated on.

 

Tempest is a survivalist. She focused her efforts on subjects applicable to the real world. Attack and escaping spells are necessary for protection. As a great person once said, “If you can beat them, run!”

 

The amount of energy a cultivator has determined their options and specialties. If Tempest had a small energy reserve, she would focus her efforts on low energy costing spells with great practical application when controlled right. A small spark can cause an explosion when lit in a barrel of gasoline. However, Tempest’s energy reserve is large. She doesn’t have anyone to compare her energy reserve to but when she questions Ventus, she was assured her energy reserve rivals those who live for hundreds of years.

 

Therefore, Tempest focus her energy on powerful spells with the highest damage potential and the fastest escape spells.

 

Her three spirits are unable to guide her on her road to becoming an immortal. They know what to do on their end to make her strong, but they do not know what she should do to become strong.

 

Tempest ignored the dilemma. If she can’t fix the problem then she will leave it aside until she can address the issue. Instead, Tempest focused on getting stronger as fast as possible, which means learning all the spells available to her.

 

In this situation, she was happy the spirits recommend charm making as a profession. After studying the runewords for a week, Tempest realized runewords are the conduits for channeling the powers of the spirits outside her body.

 

Charm Making requires runewords to be written from top to bottom.

 

Spells require the runeword to be written in a circle with the beginning of the spell cast at the 12 o’clock position. Spells can be combined by casting one spell, hold the spell in stasis and encircle the original spell with a second spell. This is called a two circle spell.

 

Tempest attempted to cast a two circle spell before, but she was never succeeded. There are hidden requirements to a two circle spell she was unaware of and the spirits were of no use since in the spell casting process they focus on channeling the energy through the runewords and not the format of the runewords itself. Since she was unable to cast a two circle spell, she shifted her focus to casting as many one circle spell as fast as she could.

 

Despite her efforts, Tempest can only cast six different spells. The “Beginner’s Charm Book” only has the basic spells for each element. In fact, the “Beginner’s Charm Book” Tempest is learning from is used to teach talented genius of the Magus Alliance. Most “Beginner’s Charm Book” will have one commonly used spells for each element.

 

Because Tempest put her effort into learning charms, the little girl barely made any progress into arrays and she hardly studied formation.

 

Her lack of progress into formation is understandable. Right now, Tempest is living on a cliff ledge in the middle of nowhere with a newbie beginner collector’s edition starting space ring. No matter how generous the starter package is, it is still a starter package. Tempest doesn’t have the material or the space to explore formations.

 

Tempest is capable of progressing very far into arrays, yet every time she tries to use more soul force, she becomes dizzy and weak. Tempest is aware her soul forces is very strong. She is a reincarnator! Strong soul force is one of the requirements for a reincarnator, yet she can use the energy of the soul as effectively as she could elemental energy.

 

The little nerd theorizes that since elemental energy comes from the spirits and she just act as a conduit for the energy, the toll it takes on her body is less than using soul force, which comes directly from her.

 

Currently, the only array Tempest can cast is Panther Strike. Furthermore, she can only cast it three times. If she cast Panther Strike more than three times, she faints.

 

Despite the setback, Tempest is pleased with her progress. Panther Strike is an array composed of ten orbs, six black orbs and four white orbs, with the black orbs as the head and body of the panther and the white orbs as the claw of the panther.

 

Orbs are the basic unit of an array. In order to create an array, an Array Master must first condense soul force into orbs, then add an aspect to the orb by changing its color and finally arranging the orbs into a pattern.

 

Aspects determine the nature of the array. For example, a fire type array are composed of mainly red orbs while a water type array consist of blue orbs.

 

Soul force lack an elemental nature yet most arrays have an elemental aspect because by changing the nature of the soul force it eliminates the potential counterattack from the target as well as limiting any backlash should the array be interrupted mid cast.

 

The ability to take on any type of energy gives Array Master versatility. If an Array Master was attacked with fire, they can counter with water. Array Master can also use array for scouting, tracking, poisoning and other myriad utilities a mind can dream of under heaven.

 

For all the versatility benefits an Array Master receives, there are drawbacks. First, it requires more soul force to execute an attack of the same strength. A mage uses ten units of energy to destroy a dummy. An Array Master requires twelve units of soul force. An attack whose nature has been change is not as strong as an attack using its base type.

 

The second major drawback to an Array Master is the backlash. If an Array Master tries to attack without changing the basic element of their soul force, they can suffer a backlash if their attacks fail.

 

Tempest tried casting a pure soul force array.

 

There are moments in life when one has to do something insane for the sake of curiosity. This is one of those moments in Tempest’s life. She learned her lesson. Unless the circumstances are life threatening and she did not have any other choice, she will not cast a completely pure soul force array. The consequence was… Tempest still cringe at the consequence.

 

After experimenting around for five months, Tempest decided to focus primarily on charm making and cultivating her affinities. She spent the next month learning how to control her powers, which lead to the regular scene of her releasing three spells consecutively within three seconds.

 

“Finally, I am confident I can survive the dangers of this world.” Once Tempest learned how to cast Levitation, she had the capabilities to leave the cliff, but she stayed here longer to hone her skills and refine her spell casting while trying to gain understanding to the laws of this world.

 

“Goodbye Asalia, goodbye Athena. May you rest in peace.” After saying farewell to the past, Tempest cast Levitation and ascended up the cliff.