The Lone Wanderer

Percy’s newest spell was an odd one.

He wasn’t exactly surprised by the notification, having expected it for weeks. He’d already been aware of the spell’s existence due to Nephthys, who had registered three such spells years ago, and even upgraded them to the “Advanced” versions by now.

It also made sense that the water variant of the spell had been the first one he registered, since his experience with Micky had given him a major head-start. The other elements would probably lag behind by another month or two.

Percy had, however, found it strange that Basic Water Control was a Refined spell, back when his familiar had first told him about it. In his mind, the “Basic” spell should have been a Crude one, followed by an “Intermediate” upgrade at Refined, and finally the “Advanced” one being Masterful.

It was only after having spent years personally working on this project that he understood why Phoebe’s Decree had skipped both the Crude tier and the “Intermediate” designation entirely. There was simply no world where such holistic mastery of an affinity could be considered “Crude”.

Leaving what Percy could now do with water mana aside, just the knowledge that he had acquired while going through the exercises was impressive. He knew not only how many separate blobs of water he could maintain at the same time, but even how that number would change as they moved farther away from his body, as he altered their size, or tried to force them into more intricate shapes.

He understood how much water weighed with such specificity, that if he were to lift a large boulder, he could instinctively estimate the exact quantity of water mana that he would need to expel from his body to match it. He was even familiar with obscure properties of the element: such as its thermal capacity: allowing him to accurately guess how much warmer a body of water would grow if it absorbed a certain amount of heat.

This wasn’t information that Percy had deliberately tried to learn: it was just stuff that he had inadvertently burned into his mind through the endless repetition of Nephthys’ exercises. If he were to write it all down, the data would likely fill an entire book.

‘Congratulations!’ the familiar exclaimed, snapping him out of his thoughts. ‘I’m guessing that you’ve finally registered it?’

Nephthys couldn’t see his notifications like his main body could see hers, but his abrupt pause and subsequent silence had clearly clued her in.

He nodded. ‘Thanks. I’m starting to see how this branch of magic can lead to the Concept realm.’

Simply by forcefully applying the properties of the water affinity that he had comprehended to any other mana type, he could imagine turning even fire or lightning into water. Perhaps, this was what it would take to generate an element without the corresponding core. Demigods and true deities had to manually build this skill up over millennia.

This was what a concept was.

Or, well… it might be more accurate to say that this was the prototype of the skeleton of a concept. To fully comprehend the corresponding concept, one would probably have to upgrade the spell beyond the Masterful tier. Despite the newfound depth and breadth of Percy’s knowledge in this subject, he had merely scratched the surface of the water affinity.

‘I’m not completely sure,’ Nephthys admitted. ‘I didn’t even know that it was possible to acquire additional elements before I met you. Understanding my mind affinity this well was what it took to forge my internal world, so I figured that it should work with anything.’

Percy would have sighed if his host’s physiology had allowed it.

No wonder even centuries-old mages like Galahad or Archibald didn’t just stumble upon these spells by accident. Developing even the simplest version required years of deliberate effort. Until fairly recently, Percy’s relatives hadn’t even thought it possible to attain divinity, so they hadn’t had a reason to research their affinities in this manner.

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Despite her experience and mutation propelling her forward, Nephthys had spent close to a decade to master the Advanced versions of the spells. In hindsight, her progress had been nothing short of shocking, yet she had mentioned that the next step would likely take her several centuries: if not a full millennium.

Percy had figured the Refined spells out quickly enough, but this was a mere taste of what he would need to do in order to become a god. He expected to spend much longer than his familiar to upgrade the spells to Masterful: thirty to fifty years at a minimum.

As for whatever came next? He shuddered just thinking about it. It would easily take him thousands of years, and only if he focused on a single affinity at a time, even with Nephthys and her mutation guiding him.

He couldn’t help but pity those who lacked his advantages. Even a Green-born demigod studying their affinity for a hundred thousand years might die of old age before succeeding. Percy had been told several times that most Clear mages failed to attain divinity, but it was only now that he truly understood the reason.

‘This explains why Ishkuria’s Decree is regarded so highly, why lesser and greater springs like saving their Wiseman’s Dust for their elites, and why the peak factions keep fighting over the Elemental Sources,’ Micky said.

‘Indeed. They clearly need every advantage they can get to complete the spells in time,’ Percy agreed.

It was yet another reason to return to Melodia soon. In addition to helping Sol and her people establish their civilization on their war-torn continent and retrieving Zoris from them, Percy wouldn’t mind an opportunity to meditate near the Mirror Lake for a few months.

The clone in Nephthys’ body couldn’t practice with the borrowed soul mana properly, and his main body didn’t have access to the inspiration brought about by her mutation, so this might be the only way for him to expedite his progress with a different affinity.

An Elemental Source should be even better for a specific mana type than his familiar’s mutation, though Percy doubted that he would be able to register Advanced Soul Control without several years of hard work.

Still, the Basic version of the spell might not be out of his reach in the short-term, and this was something that he would have to do sooner or later anyway. It was debatable how much it would help him in a fight, but it sure wouldn’t hurt to have it.

Without any major boosts like his artificial advancements on the horizon, Percy knew that he would have to stack multiple smaller upgrades to keep up with Machaon and the other patriarchs.

Growing his coalition was a given, as was strengthening his allies with the Dance, but matching the top-level combat strength of his enemies would still be quite a challenge. Machaon, Theseus, and Morpheus would eventually upgrade their boosting arts, while Percy, Archibald and the Ruby Empress couldn’t grow much stronger in that department.

‘Sending a clone to Melodia is just the start. I’ll need to spend all of my time productively from now on, with both the clones and my main body.’

Percy hadn’t forgotten about the Void Decree still gathering proverbial dust inside his Status, though learning first-hand how difficult mastering a concept was, he suddenly felt quite glad that he hadn’t foolishly activated his third core. Even if the flawed Decree had left him enough of his lifespan to reach the Clear grade, he wasn’t sure that he was willing to sacrifice all the extra time that he might need to study his affinities properly.

To extend his lifespan again and give himself more time for everything, his best option was to return to the Vault or the Void Hand and try to learn the locations of other greater springs that might hold the answers.

Unfortunately, returning to the alliance this soon wasn’t a great idea. Kassorith’s betrayal had probably alerted them to the possibility of intruders, and Percy didn’t know what Zurvanai might have managed to tell them. He’d also decided to postpone his return to the artificial world for a while, to prevent Metatron from realizing how quickly he had advanced from Orange to Green.

‘I suppose I’m going to have to focus mainly on random clones and whatever improvements I can make at home.’

The Basic Elemental Control spells weren’t enough. Percy wasn’t going to stop working on them, but he would need to leverage his familiar’s abilities in other ways to give himself an edge.

His next set of natural promotions was a major milestone that should only be a few decades away, but he wasn’t sure whether his enemies would figure out the Masterful boosting art sooner than that.

The good news was that the clone had already cleared the main body’s lightning and acid channels while the latter had been busy with the artificial advancements. Perhaps, it was time for him and Nephthys to introduce yet another type of training into their busy schedule.

‘Soon. Our main bodies should be back to the Fungal Spire any day now…’