Under the gentle glow of the twin moons, Adam sat on the tilted, slanted rooftop of his living quarter. His grimoire lay open before him and Valerian slept beside him, softly purring from time to time, seemingly enjoying the nighttime weather.
As the cool breeze blew by and brushed past his face, the youth glanced at the City of Stardale from his vantage point in a slight daze.
Down below, the city was bustling with activity. People went about their daily routines, seemingly unfazed by the conflict that occurred every day beyond the city walls.
Magi lounged under the trees, chatted in the lively marketplace, and went about their business as if the war was nothing more than a fictional story to them.
As Adam realized this, he scoffed, "If an outsider teleported here, they would never guess that we are in the middle of a war."
Today marked two months since the war with the orcs had begun. They would control the magical beasts to attack at sunrise and retreat at sunset.
Following this similar pattern for such a long period, it was no surprise that everyone was behaving the way they were now.
Adam glanced at all this with a sense of detachment. To him, this war was just a backdrop. His entire focus was on his research, delving deeper into the mysteries of the soul and the usage of spiritual power.
His eyes were deep and thoughtful as he slowly jotted down notes on his grimoire. From time to time, he would stop and look up at the twin moons, deep in contemplation.
"I wish there were more details about magical focus in the Savant Tower…" he muttered with regret.
Magical focuses were in use thousands of years ago, perhaps even more. Ever since the establishment of the model components, they had become obsolete. That was why Adam had found barely any papers on them at the grand library.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})This resulted in his research on spiritual power becoming more difficult and time-consuming. However, there was no way he was giving up. It would truly be a shame if he couldn't utilize this energy when everything was laid out before him.
With a steady hand, he made the quill dance across the pages of his grimoire. Despite the chaos that surrounded the city walls, his aura was calm.
At that moment, he was not a warrior. He was a scholar, a seeker of truth.
He slowly closed his eyes and shifted his consciousness to his spirit sea. When he opened his eyes again, he found himself levitating in front of the white lotus.
Inside his spirit sea, the white lotus was enormous. Its size was comparable to a small island one would find in the outside world. Adam looked around and saw that the waters that symbolized his spiritual power were vast, calm, and gentle.
The youth exhaled a deep breath as he rubbed his hands in excitement. "Alright, let's try this one more time."
He slowly raised his hands above his head and stretched them wide as if he were hugging the world itself. For the next few moments, nothing happened even as drops of sweat trickled down Adam's face and his muscles started to tremble from the sheer stress.
But suddenly…
RUMBLE!
His spirit sea responded to his call. The calm surface of the water began to resonate with him, the waves swelling and rising, following the rhythm of his breathing in perfect synchronicity.
Adam's eyes narrowed, his expression extremely solemn. With a highly focused gaze, he commanded the water around the lotus to rise higher and higher before it cascaded down.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})Every time the water fell, he manipulated it to rise even higher the following moment by taking support from the kinetic energy of the waves. The waves danced at his command, displaying his amazing control over his spiritual power.
The air was filled with the sound of waves crashing as the water around the white lotus rose higher and higher. It was a breathtaking spectacle as Adam levitated before the lotus, commanding the waves to surround it.
Finally, the youth couldn't hold it any longer and gave up. His arms listlessly fell beside him. The large wall of water that had surrounded the lotus lost its support and fell down as well, merging back into the sea.
Adam took large mouthfuls of air as he glanced at the lotus. "Damn it, I'm still missing something."
Having just expended so much energy in his soul form, Adam was mentally exhausted. After catching a breather, he flew closer to the lotus, mumbling to himself,
"If I could use the lotus as the magical focus and have additional support from one of the three spell components, that would certainly make things easier. But then again… that's easier said than done."
Coming up with a brand new spell model, hand gestures, and identifying which materials to sacrifice was essentially the same as creating a new spell.
Although Adam's knowledge could be considered deep regarding the analytical side of magic, it would still require a long time for him to be able to create a brand new spell.
Not months, but years.
Moreover, this spell would be something that used spiritual power as fuel and the white lotus as the magical focus. Both these things were closely tied to his soul.
If he made even the slightest of mistakes, it would lead to devastating consequences. Something that he did not want to see.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})That is why he didn't rush to complete his research. It didn't matter how much time it took, as long as he succeeded, that was all that mattered to him.
As Adam was flying over the white lotus, he suddenly paused. Directly below him was the artifact. From his perspective, the top side of the lotus looked almost identical to a spell model!
"Huh, how uncanny…" Adam's eyes flashed with surprise and curiosity. "This geometrical pattern almost resembles the flower of life that the professors spoke about in the academy."
"Wait a minute!" The youth's eyes widened, his heart gripped by disbelief. "Flower of life… flower… this can't be a coincidence!"
The flower of life was considered by many Magi a geometric form of perfect proportions. It was an ancient symbol that was depicted across many cultures across time.
Tumultous waves rose inside Adam's heart as he involuntarily gulped, "No… this... this is too good to be a coincidence."
He shifted his consciousness back to the outside world and hurriedly started writing down his speculations about the flower of life and how this sacred geometrical pattern could be used as the basis for a spell model.
Of course, he was wise enough to not mention anything about the lotus.
The shock and excitement in his eyes couldn't be concealed as the quill in his hand drew letters and formed words across the pages of his grimoire.
As he was lost in his research, outside the city walls, in the depths of the forest, shadowy figures could be seen slowly advancing toward the city.
Finally, a towering and muscular figure stepped out of the forest.
This figure's skin complexion was a shade of light green. His upper body was bare and leather garments covered his waist. His blood-thirsty eyes coldly gazed at Stardale, his lips curling up into a sinister grin, displaying his sharp lower tusks.
The orc grabbed an ivory horn hanging from his waist and blew on it. For the first time since the beginning of the war, the sound of the trumpet echoed on the battlefield during night-time!
