Chapter 140: Guardian of the Ancient River
And it was, to a certain extent. This magical connection with this element interfered with his creation.
According to Hardrial: Every portion of water has the intention of its creator, that is, the God of Water. Therefore, this magical connection with the element was nothing more than a connection with the God of the element, which made it much more difficult to create magic.
Still, was this real?
’In that case, this goddess would have the ability to be omnipresent, wouldn’t she? Is that even possible?’ Louis thought.
If her intention was present wherever there was water, then she could practically be everywhere in this world at the same time. That would make her someone of ridiculous power and make the God of Wind (or the God of Earth) some kind of living being reigning everywhere.
If they were real gods, then, being practically omnipresent, some kind of battle would break out between them all to establish a ruler. Louis ruled out any possibility that these gods were neutral, if they existed at all.
After all, evil was present in all strata of life. Even in his Family, whose existence is terrifying, it was present in different forms. An example of this is that a God killed him just as he arrived in this world, and no one noticed.
That is why he dismissed the possibility that this supposed ’God’ could be omnipresent.
But if it wasn’t, what exactly was Hardrial saying?
’If it’s not a God, then this supposed intention must be something else. Right? It could be intention, but not of an omnipresent being, but rather of magic,’ he thought, considering that possibility.
Based on what he knew so far, it might make sense to a certain extent. He remembered the day Hardrial had decided to teach them about the Magical World, when it occurred to him that what was happening in the North and South might not really be a God at work or volcanoes everywhere, but rather the same magic creating magic underneath.
Continuous Magical Reactions, it was called then.
If it were magic, as he had said, then what he was thinking right now might make sense.
And if it was a god, then this god would simply be completely omnipresent.
The more he thought about it, the more he felt he was getting sidetracked and not understanding what he should.
He didn’t need to know if it was a god or magic, as that wouldn’t help him improve his magic now. Instead, he had to focus on what had worked, at least until he had time to study the mysteries of this world.
The only thing that helped him right now was understanding that this supposed intention was getting in the way of his spellcasting.
He quickly immersed himself in Training Sequence 1, entering a state of continuous repetition of different basic spells.
At first, it was very difficult, due to the intention that got in his way. The river also hit him, increasing the difficulty. Little by little, he could create his first spells and repeat them continuously while trying to create all the ones he knew.
By nightfall, he had improved considerably in this... too much, in fact.
Hardrial, who was watching him from the side, had to nod approvingly many times, as he managed to complete it without any problems and reached the point where he didn’t even have to pay attention to those Arkanometric Fabrics to cast them.
He even practiced the concepts of Variables in Magic and Logical Variables of Fabrics (they are different topics, despite their similarity) and tried to move on to the next level: creating Logical Variables of Fabrics and adding Variables in Magic to them, because the first stages were very easy for him.
But at this point, he did have to stop.
In addition to the time, it became so complicated that in the last spell he tried to cast by combining those two concepts, he hit himself in the face and fell backwards.
As he fell, he realized it was nighttime. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the body of a water dragon, several sharks, and giant eyes staring intently at him at the bottom, very deep down.
They were too big...
His body trembled. So many beasts that if just one of them chewed him up, he would be dead.
He immediately began swimming upward at full speed.
As soon as he was above the water, he activated several spells with terrifying precision and jumped as hard as he could, falling and rolling on the ground.
Hardrial, who had prepared to catch him, suddenly burst out laughing.
"Hahahahaha." His laughter woke Louis from the dizziness of having his head hit against a rock.
In pain, he put his hand to his head and looked at Hardrial. "I saw them down there. Dragons, sharks, and something terribly large staring up from the depths," he said.
Hardrial started laughing again, and a few seconds later, when Louis couldn’t understand why he was laughing, he replied.
"It doesn’t matter. You’ll always see them when the sun goes down, but they won’t appear on the shores until 8 p.m. So you could train for another hour if you want," he said with a clear tone of mockery.
Louis looked at Laura, who had already left, and shrugged.
He would never look at this river at night again, let alone go in there to practice anymore.
He rubbed his nose a little when he realized it was bleeding from the magic that had hit him earlier and went to sit down, indignant, next to Laura.
She opened her eyes and looked at him. "What did you see?"
"Dragons, sharks, and something very big. They were all looking at me," he replied with some embarrassment.
She smiled. "Hahaha, my first experience with that was like that too, don’t be embarrassed. But I’m curious about that beast you say was watching you from the bottom. What was it exactly?"
"I don’t know." He shrugged. "Something very big. Its eyes were huge."
"Hmm." Laura looked at Hardrial to see if he knew.
"Perhaps it’s a Guardian of the Ancient River. There’s one of these per floor every 10 floors between the 10th and 50th floors."
"Guardian?" Louis looked at him. "What do they protect? The river? Or those beasts?"
"According to rumors, they protect the river. But, likely, they’re also protectors of the floors as well. In all of history, the Guardian of the 40th floor has only appeared once. They don’t usually show themselves at all, so you’re very lucky to see it," he said.
Not only were they very lucky that it was here, but the 20th floor is very large, and for it to be in this area was a "privilege" for Hardrial.
Unless he felt like coming out to cause them trouble, but that was very unlikely.
After thinking a little about that huge beast, Louis decided to ignore his moment of embarrassment and began to practice magic in the same way as yesterday.
-
Soon, the third day of training dawned.
The entire morning was spent training, with Louis progressing rapidly and Laura slowly beginning to understand how to do it, quickly approaching the 10 orbs created inside.
Morning turned into afternoon, and afternoon turned into evening.
Then the fourth day dawned, and then a fifth day.
Almost a week had passed when Louis finally completed all the variables Hardrial wanted.
This increased his mana much more than he had imagined. Approximately 55 mana points, without increasing his stats, proving that magical understanding was an amazing way to increase mana.
"Now you come with Sequence 1 in Reverse. That is, you are going to create many defective Fabrics. None of them should work," said Hardrial, leaving Louis in shock.
"Why?" he asked, puzzled. How would that help him?
"Create what should not be created in all its variables, and you will understand the Fabrics better. Don’t ask any more questions, start immediately," he said.
Although Louis didn’t think it was necessary, he obeyed and began to do so...
PRK*
Louis put his hand to his head to rub away the sharp pain that struck him and looked at Hardrial with a rather long wooden stick in his hand.
"You have two options here: you will receive a blow from me for every mistake, or you can dodge it. Either one is valid. Start again," he said.
Louis was stunned to hear this, but because he was stunned...
PRK*
The pain of feeling that thing hitting his head woke him up.
’Damn. Isn’t he taking too many liberties?’ he thought, complaining.
But he didn’t hesitate to start.
PRK*
PRK*
PRK*
Each blow was a failure in every sense: he couldn’t dodge it, nor could he create a fabric that would fail.
’How the hell am I not going to create a fabric that fails? It’s just a matter of putting something wrong, for God’s sake! A thread, move a thread!’ He insulted himself and tried again.
But the blows kept coming for the rest of the afternoon, until he frowned.
"It’s my subconscious," he said suddenly. It was past 7 p.m., and he was still on the water.