This issue was a big one. It meant that there would never be a natural ecosystem, not in the truest sense. If Darius wanted wildlife to exist, he had to create it somehow.
This was an issue of such difficulty that he couldn't even describe it to you. Darius may have access to the Spirit element, but one could not create souls out of nothing.
Perhaps the Element Discoverer might have created a Grandmaster or Divine grade spell of such a nature, but it was impossible for others. The best one could hope for was to manipulate or control already existing souls, which was the traditional use of the Spirit element.
Like with the Material element, Darius wasn't able to create an item or material from nothing. He could only change one from one state to another. That was just how the various elements worked.
To curb this, Darius had come up with an idea, a crazy one. He wasn't sure if he should attempt it before entering the next stage of his plan, because if it worked, it could change things for him.
Darius walked down to the settlement and entered a certain building which had been shaped like a lab. It even had all the various tools he would need. He had long since created it to experiment on various things, and now he would be performing his biggest experiment to date.
The lab was powered by generators, and most of the machines were not automated since Darius could not create software. There was a limit to his skillset, otherwise he would not need Miranda for many things.
Most of them were controlled using his Advanced Psychomancy. Despite seemingly moving on their own, they were moved by Darius' mind, though in a way, this made them more efficient than automated ones.
Darius took a deep breath before making the machines retrieve a block of stone. They placed it on an experiment table before Darius and shone a light there while the brightness in the rest of the lab got dimmed.
Darius then focused and began casting a spell above his stage that he had never attempted before. He knew the pathways for it as he had made it himself, so he traversed them and put in the perfect amount of mana as stipulated by his own guidelines.
After 5 years of practice, he had perfectly mastered every single Basic spell of every element manually with the exception of the ones belonging to the Order, Chaos, and Aether element, as those were done internally due to their problematic costs.
He had also mastered the Intermediate spells he had learned for every element, especially those he had learned during his first 5-year break after the Plains of Death Quest just to fill his arsenal.
This included spells like; Fireball, Flamepillar, Water Jet, Rain Clouds, Void Cut, Void Split, Time Forward, Time Reverse, Gravity Push, Gravity Pull, etc.
Unfortunately, as he had come here right after becoming an Adept, meaning he didn't have many Advanced spells apart from those he had upgraded. This blunder pained him, but he had ways to rectify it once he returned to Safemoon.
So you could say that he now had reached the level of supremely talented Adept mage that was unprecedented on Fallon. However, he was jumping above his stage to cast something that should be beyond himself.
That was right, Darius was aiming to use a Master grade spell!
Now, under the laws of the Supreme System, he had been barred from the following;
1. Create any spell above his stage
2. Use any spell above his stage!
The only exception he had found was for rule #1, in case he became the Element Discoverer.
Alas, even after he did create a Master grade spell, the Supreme System would only let him look at it but not touch!
Fortunately, the Faustian System had no such restrictions!
You were free to create a and cast spell of any grade at any stage, provided you had the necessary talent and mana respectively!
So then why didn't anyone do this?
Why hadn't Darius done this over the past 5 years?
Well, the answer to that should be obvious.
If creating a spell tailored to your own stage was already fatally dangerous, meddling with higher grade spells above your stage was a surefire way of turning yourself into a blood bomb.
There were so many reasons why this was dangerous, but there was no need to go into them as long as the rule was understood, the danger of casting above your stage was fatal for most.
What gave Darius confidence to try this was multi-fold.
- His Draconic bloodline gave him unparalleled magical and elemental talent
- His Intellect was nearing 500 points, more than double the base needed to ascend into a Grandmaster (200 INT – as a human baseline)
- His expertise with magic after dedicating himself to it for the past 5 years
- His status as the Discoverer of the Material element, which gave him great advantages in spells of that element compared to all others
If even one of these were missing, Darius would never attempt something so dangerous and risk ruining his chances for the Test of Mettle. It should be obvious, but if he died in here, he would not die on the outside, but he would certainly fail.
That was why he hadn't dared to practice around with Order and Chaos especially.
Now, he was bravely trying to use a Master grade spell, one that would solve all his problems if he was able to master it to perfection and achieve perfect conversion.
That's right, the spell Darius was trying to use was Flesh to Stone!
As long as he could create flesh, he could create a variety of methods to solve his issues, from something as simple as diet to something as complex as ecosystem survival and development.
Darius passed through all the correct circuits in one practice swoop with the perfect amount of mana. Not only did he create the spell, but he also transmuted the finished version and even read the skillbook.
It meant the knowledge of the skill and how to perfectly cast it was in his head but he simply had no practice with it.
Darius activated the circuit without hesitation, and the mana flowed through in a blitz as it activated 'Flesh to Stone'.
