The Lone Wanderer

Chapter 657 – Ishkuria’s Decree (1)

The participants remained silent, waiting for their guide to elaborate.

“All of you stand here before me due to your exceptional ability to fight against mages at higher grades. Our alliance has invested heavily in your growth because of that talent, hoping that you will one day become some of our strongest gods. Unfortunately, raw magical prowess or powerful bloodlines will mean very little if you ultimately fail to forge your internal worlds and attain divinity,” the demigod explained before clearing his throat. “This is why we wish to evaluate your potential in that department.”

“Excuse me, sir,” an Inimit said, obviously feeling more at ease interrupting a Clear mage of his own species. “I was under the impression that the two things you have mentioned are strongly correlated. Don’t powerful mages generally have an easier time comprehending concepts?”

“Indeed,” the demigod conceded. “Each of you is considered more capable than the average mage at exploring your affinity, yet there have still been many champions of the void tournament who have died of old age after failing to become gods. Even among those who succeed, only a tiny fraction can hope to climb to the current known pinnacle of that realm.”

“Isn’t that just a matter of spending enough time to master every available concept?” a female Ollorian asked, her voice sounding a little raspy due to an obvious lump in her throat.

“Yes and no,” the demigod replied with a shake of his head. “Reaching the peak of the Self-Discovery stage is trivial, since anyone who manages to comprehend the foundational concept of their affinity is capable of learning a few more concepts given enough time. Climbing through the Elemental Acquisition stage, on the other hand, is a different matter entirely. Whenever a god attempts to incorporate a new affinity into their internal world, they have to simultaneously comprehend the associated composite – or higher-order – concepts. The process grows exponentially more difficult each time, culminating with the addition of the fifth common element, which is widely considered to be one of the toughest milestones for a god to reach. It’s even harder than casting a Decree and becoming a titan.”

The demigod paused, probably to give the mortals in his charge a chance to digest his words. Upon scanning their faces and confirming that nobody had any further questions, he continued.

“Ishkuria is among our oldest and most revered titanesses. She originally attained divinity with “just” a water affinity, theoretically capping her potential below deities who ascend with rare concepts. In practice, there are very few gods in the universe who have ever climbed to the peak of the Elemental Acquisition stage like her, and fewer still who have cast a Decree after doing so, which is why the flowerbed you are currently standing in is so valuable. It allows a mage to briefly experience common and composite affinities that they do not possess, which provides us with an excellent way to measure your ability to master new elements. Finally, it gives you the opportunity to experience a foreign affinity, so that you will have an easier time comprehending it in the future.”

Percy was already quite impressed with what he was hearing.

After his chat with Phoebe, he had spent a lot of time thinking about ways to obtain more mana cores and rare affinities, since those were considered impossible to acquire after becoming a god. He had reasoned that he could worry about figuring out the missing common and composite affinities later, so they wouldn’t be his priority while he was still a mortal.

However, the titaness had also made it very clear that even mastering all the combinations of the basic affinities was quite the challenge. Phoebe herself was still working on her third common element after nearly two million years.

Sure, she had also begun her journey with a mind affinity, bringing her total number of elements to four – or eight if one counted the fused mana types separately – but this Ishkuria woman had apparently mastered five common elements – or thirty-one different affinities in total – making her significantly more powerful than Phoebe.

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If it was true that so few deities made it that far – and it certainly seemed so – there was plenty of power to be gained even without rare affinities, thus the opportunity to experience more elements as a mortal was nothing to scoff at.

‘I doubt that applies to us though,’ Micky said.

‘Probably not,’ Percy agreed.

Unlike the other contestants, he had already wielded most elements before – to various extents – through his clones and familiars. He could always possess a body with a desired mana type again if he needed more hands-on experience, and he was definitely going to be doing a lot more of that before attempting his ascension to divinity.

What was undoubtedly an invaluable Decree and a strategic resource for even a peak faction like the Void Hand was more-or-less useless for Percy. Consequently, while the other participants’ eyes flashed with greed and anticipation, Percy and Micky weren’t nearly as interested.

‘Screw you both,’ Kassorith spat through their connection. ‘For some of us, this is still a good thing.’

Percy shrugged internally. ‘The good news is that we’ll probably have a major advantage in this event. As long as you don’t get in our way, feel free to take what you want out of this opportunity.’

“The rules of the event are simple,” the demigod suddenly said, breaking Percy and his companions out of their short conversation. “See that empty patch of dirt?” he asked, pointing to a small, circular region in the middle of the flowerbed.

After getting a few nods back from the contestants, he continued. “You will take turns stepping onto that spot. Let’s do it in reverse order of your final ranks in the previous event, to keep things suspenseful for the audience,” he said with a chuckle. “You will be given the option of any common or composite affinity you want, though you will receive no points if you select any elements that overlap with your own. After that, you will be given twenty-five standard minutes to practice with the new element before performing the most impressive spell that you are capable of.”

“Only twenty-five minutes?” a male Denyte asked with a grimace. “That’s nothing! Even the most talented mage would need a few days to get used to a brand-new affinity.”

The corners of the demigod’s beak curved slightly. “Keep things simple then. Unfortunately, Ishkuria’s Decree consumes a lot of resources to run and cannot be used often, so we really can’t give you much longer than that. Besides, we aren’t expecting you to produce any Masterful or even Refined spells with so little time. You just need to gain a rudimentary grasp on your new element and do something useful with it.”

“How will our performance be evaluated?” Remlat suddenly asked, speaking for the first time since arriving on Tanarill.

Along with Percy and his host, the two-cored Inimit was probably the participant with the most at stake during this event, as his potential qualification to the elimination phase would be decided here.

“A good question,” the demigod said, before elaborating. “Once you select your affinity, the entire flowerbed will enter an illusionary state, allowing you to wield the new element and the rest of us to watch. Your performance will be evaluated by the Decree itself. As soon as your time is up, a variable number of flowers will change colour to indicate your score. You will be judged based on your proficiency with the new mana type, the complexity and effectiveness of your spell, and also the affinity you have selected. Composite elements will be rewarded more generously than common ones, but are much harder to get used to with so little time, so only pick them if you feel confident.”

Percy carefully listened to the Clear mage’s instructions while considering his own choices. Picking a composite affinity was a no-brainer, but he would have plenty of time to discuss with Micky and Kassorith which one to choose, since they would apparently be the last ones tested.

It also sounded like a more elaborate spell would receive more points, but not if it was just a flashy trick with no real purpose. Of course, Percy already had a few ideas on how to win this thing, so he allowed himself to relax slightly, feeling a lot better about the contest than he had before reaching the flowerbed.

Shifting his attention to other matters, he couldn’t help but take control of his host’s mouth to ask: “do these flowers have any special alchemical uses?”

The demigod creased his brow, having clearly not expected such an off-topic question. Still, he collected himself soon enough. “Not that I know of. The flowers themselves aren’t special – they’re just a bunch of mundane plants, really. It’s only the soil that’s enchanted, and the Decree only interacts with the flowers by temporarily changing the colour of their petals. I’m not the one responsible for maintaining this place, but I’m pretty sure that the species of the flowers don’t even matter, and that they’re replaced pretty often.”

Percy nodded thoughtfully, though he was slightly disappointed that even a titaness at the peak of the Elemental Acquisition stage hadn’t managed to interact with the plants in a more profound manner.

Oblivious to his thoughts, their guide spoke again. “If there are no more questions, let’s begin.”