Chapter 139: Variables and Elemental Magical Connection
Upon closer inspection, blood soon stained part of the river, but within seconds, the strong current swept it away, dragging away a huge beast.
It was a strange freshwater shark.
At that moment, a bunch of sharks appeared near the shore. There were about 200 of them, and they weren’t the only ones.
The back of a beast, presumably a water dragon, appeared quite close to both of them.
Hardrial stepped forward and slammed his foot into the water, sending powerful currents crashing into the surroundings. They didn’t hit hard, but they did reveal his strength.
The hundreds of beasts that had appeared seemed to glare at him dangerously before hiding. Hardrial’s message had been clear: Do you really want to fight?
Although they are beasts, they are much more intelligent than one might believe. They know how to attack in packs, but also when they cannot fight.
That is why they returned to their hiding places.
"See? There are many of them down there. If I weren’t here, that dragon might have come to the surface. But it’s smart, so it hid as soon as it saw me."
Louis felt fear run through his body as he looked at this and took a step back. There were so many immensely powerful beasts—what the hell were they doing here?
"This... Where do those beasts go during the day?" he asked, in shock. Had he really fallen dozens of times today in a place full of such dangerous things, and no one had told him?
"Hahaha, don’t be scared. During the day, they are all blind. They are intelligent, as you have seen, and will not attack when they are at such a disadvantage. That is why during the day, until 7 p.m., it is possible to train in the Ancient River, but after that time until 5 a.m., it becomes impossible."
Even though he said not to worry or be scared, how could he not?
Those beasts were very powerful!
Perhaps they were all above level 300. Falling into a den of such powerful beasts was suicide for him.
But, thinking about it that way... weren’t they very useful for leveling up?
He looked at Hardrial. "Do powerful people like you use them to level up?" he asked.
Hardrial blinked a couple of times, surprised by his question, but soon laughed heartily before speaking.
"Young people always have such suicidal thoughts that it’s scary sometimes," he said, before shaking his head. "No. No one dares to try hunting to level up in this place. Even though it’s obviously a paradise for doing so, anyone who dares will certainly die."
"Although you see them there, intimidated by my show of strength, the reality is that if I started slaughtering them, they would swarm out like flies and kill me. On each floor from 10 to 49, there are at least 10,000 of these beasts per floor. If they all came out, do you think I could survive?" He scoffed.
"Once, these guys slaughtered a family of powerful ascended ones because they thought together they could win. There were more than 150 of them, and the family was wiped out from history, simply because of the beasts on the 40th floor."
Louis was perplexed. He couldn’t help but imagine the scene in which 150 powerful members of a prestigious family fought against more than ten thousand powerful beasts.
Even if they were twice as powerful as the beasts, there were still more than ten thousand of them, and the numerical difference was no joke.
So the best thing they could do was not tempt death and avoid scares. The tower is a dangerous place, no matter when you say it.
"That’s why you can’t train, I hope you understand. It will serve you well all the way to the 50th floor to know that this place is more dangerous than you could ever imagine," said Hardrial, turning away. "During the night, until it’s time to sleep, you will train in the various ways you can create that magic you were practicing today or something similar."
Louis sat down in front of Hardrial, who began to explain.
Thanks to the incredible versatility of water magic, not only in its form but also in its size and distribution of power and defensive attributes, each spell could be created and/or cast in many different ways.
Although Armamentalists find it difficult to cast spells in different ways, as they tend not to take advantage of this due to their peculiar tendency to always "cast to kill," it is very important to learn the variations of the same spell.
Louis witnessed this when one of his water bullets slowed down those demons in the tower. Different variants serve different purposes. Some variants are extremely powerful and penetrating, while others are useful for crowd control, etc.
With so many variables, it is good to know a few and master them so that you can occasionally vary your attack.
Now, how many variables should you learn?
According to Hardrial: The number will increase when you learn new spells and realize that you can transform low-level spells into similar forms. But for now, it was worth covering the deficiencies of an Armamentalist.
"What are they?"
"Since we are natural attackers with no defensive capabilities, we must cover the deficiencies in defense. We would normally use ice for this, but since we are using water, I will teach you the variables for slowing down the target. Slowing it down is a way to protect yourself, so it is one of the best things you can do as an Armamentalist," said Hardrial.
Thus began his learning of the variables of the same magic.
Not all spells can have the same variables, but some were so versatile that you could practically create anything with them.
There were several spells to slow down a target, all of which were long-range spells with little penetration power but good resistance and the ability to reach considerable distances.
For example, a variation of one of the basic spells creates a chain and wraps itself around the target’s body to slow it down.
There is another that you throw to the ground and, upon impact, explodes into a series of chains that bind the nearest target, preventing it from moving easily.
Similarly, there are many variations for each spell. Sometimes these variations are imprinted in the very creation of a fabric, but in most cases this is not so. They are simply part of the spell. Part of the final result.
That is why it is so important to learn to control magic.
As the night hours passed, Laura and Louis immersed themselves in a deep understanding of magic, albeit in completely different ways.
In Louis’s case, he was learning at an alarming rate, flaunting his high Perception stat and good mental abilities.
However, these mental abilities had nothing to do with the Louis of this world, but rather with the Louis of Earth who had been betrayed, so even for his body, this alarming improvement was strange.
When midnight arrived, they rested as Hardrial stood guard throughout the night.
The next morning, they ate some fish and immediately returned to continue training at the Ancient River.
During the first few hours of training, Louis couldn’t help but feel nervous. Even though he could see clearly to the bottom of the river and no beasts were nearby, Louis still acted cautiously during the first few hours.
But after a certain point, he stopped paying attention to it, as he was failing a lot at what he was doing. Thanks to this, he improved dramatically until he was finally able to come and go on the water without any problems.
"Very good." Hardrial came up behind him while he was in the middle of the river and smiled at him. "It’s time to move on to the next level." He motioned for him to sit down in the river.
"Sit down?" He looked at the river again and ensured there was nothing there. Then he created the same spells and used them to sit down.
"You can feel the water and see the threads surrounding you, right?"
"Yes." Louis nodded. "There are a lot of threads everywhere. I can feel a strong water connection, too. It’s as if it could be my power at any moment."
"That’s very good, it means you feel the magical connection to the element. Something that few achieve so easily." Hardrial praised him sincerely, his eyes lighting up with excitement. "So it’s time for you to start practicing by following Training Sequence 1: Repeat all the water spells you know, following this connection."
"Remember, the key to improving speed in creation and versatility in magic is constant repetition of spells. You can start right now," he said.
Louis nodded and watched the water hitting his body. Due to his proximity to the waterfall, he was soaked, but he didn’t care, as this made him feel much closer to the water than he otherwise would have.
He didn’t hesitate to start doing what Hardrial had instructed him to do...
Repeat the creation of spells he already knew, following the magical connection with the element hitting him.
It sounded difficult.