After some well-earned shut-eye, Emery resumed his task of making himself stronger by practicing the spells. He got out of his residence and walked toward the back, where he could see the shadow of the mountain range with the silhouette of the ever stretching waterfalls. He only had two days left before the Magus Games started. Hopefully he will be ready with his preparations.
Emery sat in the middle of the dark and misty backyard and closed his eyes. He tried to communicate with the pool of spirit energy inside him, trying to learn the tier one spells first.
The first tier of spells didn't take long to master. He was able to cast the [Water Breathing] within just a few minutes of understanding its construct. The bluish light that covered his head lasted for only a few minutes. It was shorter than Magus Carla, but Emery believed he could increase the duration the more his spirit energy became stronger as well with his overall mastery of the spell.
The next spell he mastered from the tier one spells was [Soften Earth]. That too didn't take a long time to learn. With it if he grabbed a piece of earth, like a stone or soil, they became as soft as mud.
The last spell for the tier one was [Entangle]. This spell was a bit more challenging for Emery. The hard part of mastering it was commanding the roots where he wanted them to go, like making it wrap around an object or making a bridge.
He then spent another 20 minutes for each spell to familiarize himself with their executions. Once he felt like he had the gist of all three spells, he proceeded to practice the tier two spells.
For the tier two spells, it took him almost an hour before he was able to cast [Mudwall]. The soil in his courtyard had been raised to about a meter high and three meter wide, about a third of the size Julian had cast back in the savage planet. Emery guessed he needed more practice.
The second spell was [Nature Sense]. It didn't take as long as [Mudwall]. And, when Emery was able to execute it, he was definitely surprised at how thrilling it was to use.
[Nature Sense] allowed him to connect and be one with the plants in a way. When it was being channeled, he could feel the presence of an acolyte about hundred meters away from him through the grass that was being stepped on. He could also feel the presence of the wind from the twigs and leaves in a hundred meter radius.
Next was the [Steam Lance] spell. At first, Emery was concerned at how there was no source of water nearby. His residence was situated near the edge of the cliff and the waterfalls were like a kilometer away from him, but then he remembered Klea using it against the skyglazers with no immediate source. So, he gave it a try. He was surprised to learn that there was water in the air. In particular the morning mist seemed to get thinner, which meant it had some water in it.
The water formed into the shape of an arrow, the size of a spear, and Emery made it fly toward the tree.
The tree trunk cracked. He then tried it against the mudwall he had created but it only punctured about an inch deep. Not enough to make any significant damage.
Emery wasn't sure whether he should be happy or not. He was half-sure there would be other acolytes using this spell in the Magus Games, assuming it was a battle competition of sorts. It not being able to damage a mudwall meant that it wasn't powerful. And its power would be even less if he targeted an acolyte wearing a protective artifact.
Regardless, the end result made him frown. He had tried to make it several times and the results were the same. He had seen this [Steam Lance] used by Klea being much bigger and powerful that it could kill a level 3 beast, skyglazer with just one strike. It looked like he still had to practice this one more.
Finishing his practice on the tier two spells, the first light was starting to rise. He still had a couple more hours, so Emery tried to learn the tier 3 spell called [Crashing Wave] only to find out he wasn't able to decode its properties and execute it.
This was the first tier three spell he had attempted and this was when he found out that the difficulty of learning tier three spells was so much harder than tier two.
Still after about an hour and a half, Emery was somewhat able to use it, but he was disappointed. He came to a realization that he might have chosen a wrong spell.
The spell needed a huge amount of water. Although he was able to gather the water through the mist, the air and the dew on the leaves and grass, its effectiveness was almost the same as his tier one spell [Whip Splash]. Of course it looked different, since it looked like a wave. Still, Emery was a bit disappointed to know that he would have to be in a location where there was lots of water, before he would be able to use it to its fullest potential.
Again, he tried to familiarize himself with the spell. The deeper he tried to force it the more confused he became. He wondered if it was because he hadn't mastered the spell yet, maybe he had been doing it wrong or it could be because of the environment. In truth, now that he had thought about it, he could feel that something wasn't right. For some reason, he couldn't seem to access
the explosion of energy that he felt when he reached rank 6. Something definitely wasn't right.
Emery sighed and tried to calm himself. He tried to convince himself to not rush the learning of spells and be more patient. One thing for certain though, the light of this world's sun, the shining of its rays just above the peak of the mountain from afar, wasn't helping.
He decided to call it quits for now and went back to his residence to freshen himself and eat something for his rumbling stomach.
Now that he was all ready, he set his path toward the Darkness Institute. Hopefully, he would get answers to his questions.
Emery found himself in front of a cave, while the building of the Darkness Institute sat beside the cliff above. Fortunately, even though Chumo wasn't with him to guide him through the confusing tunnels, which felt more like a maze, there were some signages written on the ceiling of the caves to tell him where to go. This time, before he joined and received his welcome package, he planned to get some guidance from a magus to help him decide which spell to get for free.
He then remembered Magus Xion telling him to find him, if he ever made it to the second year. The magus also promised to compensate him for being unable to use last year half a day time in the stone origin room. And, since Emery now fully understood what the origin stone room was worth to his cultivation, he made a mental note to really get it. His mind then wandered off to what other kinds of compensation could he receive from the magus.
After arriving at a dungeon-like hall lit only by torches, he wished that the bad luck he had kept on having in this place would not hang around him today, since he only had two days left before the Magus Games started.
Emery went looking for Magus Xion from the acolytes at the grand hall.
"You're looking for Magus Xion? What is this about?" said an acolyte in an exasperated tone.
"He asked me to come see him last year," Emery said straight.
The acolyte then shook his head and answered, "You lower-ranked acolytes think you can just come see whoever you want, now do you? Well, I suggest you wait here and hope he passes by."
"I see, thank you. Does he normally pass by around this time?" Emery asked.
"Don't know. If you are lucky, he will pass by any minute now, but if he's cultivating, you might have to wait a couple of days, weeks or so…" answered the skinny acolyte. It was clear that he didn't want to help Emery.
Not sure what to do now, Emery once again looked around and saw only about a dozen or so acolytes walking in and out of the hall. He asked the other acolytes, but got the same answer, so he was hoping to maybe find Chumo or the magus.
Having to wait like this while he had a very strict time schedule was not good. He hoped to make the time run slower. Each minute passing was extremely important, so Emery was struggling whether to wait or return to his residence and keep on practicing the spells.