Timeless Prominence

“How? The dragons would surely strive to keep such complete versions of their magic a secret?” Rein was rather perplexed. He was quite aware that the beastkin had intentionally leaked parts of their techniques to bait humans into using said magical arts meant for beastkins, thus losing their minds in the process.

“Indeed. This was retrieved by the Allfather after he struck down the origin demonic dragon.” Duzkr praised with an adoration that nearly fooled Rein into believing she was no dragon.

Rein raked his eyes across the other booklets on display. Many of them were booklets that detailed the magical arts original to many of the beastkin-- demonic races.

“I have provided you guidance as the original draconic arts are believed to be the very source of all demonic arts. In understanding their mechanisms, you will no doubt gain insight into hunting demons and devils. After all, it, too, gave birth to devils.”

“Remember,” she warned purposefully. “Do not attempt to use the magics within, as the core of human magics are different. Only the dragons, with their draconic core, can safely use such magic.”

Rein would be an absolute dullard if he didn’t pick up the hint within Duzkr’s words.

“You can keep this copy.” She added. “The Allfather intentionally made many copies of this to arm humans against the demons!”

Rein rapidly flipped through the booklet and found many annotations written by a different hand. Stopping on a page, a closer look revealed the annotations accurately describing the weakness of the beastkin art on the page.

He eventually found the draconic body tempering art only requiring wood and lightning, likely created by Gent personally, seeing as he was the one with such a constitution. Only one weakness was stated by the additional hand-- Lightning-based movement stutters every dash. Rein also took note of the many materials required for this beastkin art. One such item was a divine lightning-infused wood perfect to be absorbed by Rein’s new body. Where to find one? Rein had absolutely no idea.

“What other knowledge do you seek?” Duzkr asked when Rein raised his head again. The minor keeper had patiently waited on the side this whole time.

“I’ve teamed up with one with an origin ability. It is valuable for me to understand how to cooperate with him.” Rein obviously wanted to gain a better understanding of origin abilities, though secretly, he wondered if he might find additional uses for his own. 

Duzkr nodded and proceeded to lead Rein back up to the very first floor. She led the young man to a room that was rather packed with Halls members. No doubt, countless advancers were interested in knowledge of origin abilities, likely fearful of their users and therefore hoping to prepare some counterplay in a potential conflict against them. Knowledge of Xeeseir’s performance might have been the very cause of this crowded section.

Luckily, there were many copies of the same knowledge filling the maloewood shelves, and thus Rein had no trouble finding one such book.

Rein found himself struggling to understand his Half-Master Yirn. This half-master of his had barely any books on origin abilities in his underground cave paradise. He knew of Rein’s transformed draconic core, and yet only provided an elementary introduction to draconic arts. Perhaps Master Yirn could not get his hands on the copy that he now had.

After some contemplation, Rein identified a reason for Master Yirn’s incomprehensible choice-- the ancient master must be concerned that he might unintentionally display understanding of draconic skills while entering the Hall of Heroes and draw suspicions. Now? Any display of such draconic skills could be attributed to his visit to the Halls of Knowledge. That was Rein’s conclusion.

In some ways, it was similar to the situation where Master Yirn had order Rein to learn his set of staff arts, going as far as to indicate that he would not take Rein as disciple otherwise-- only to point out that Rein was free to pursue other forms, such as sword and dagger outside of their initial tutorship.

Once again, Duzkr waited patiently on the side, giving him ample time to examine the new book in hand.

The book in Rein’s hand had the title: Nature of the Origin Magics. Turning the cover, Rein’s eyes raked across the basic introduction.

For years, we humans have investigated the nature of origin magics. Our earliest discoveries were basic. These origin abilities are believed to once belong to the fallen gods, and contain the very essence laws of nature. They jump from host to host. If a user is killed, that origin ability would, after an unknown point in time, reappear on another host triggered by an echo of the fallen gods.

It was only after collecting numerous data, that we noticed a pattern-- each origin ability picked their host based on said host’s nature.

Before further expounding on that point, let us examine the types of origin magics first. They can be categorized from general to specific, active or passive, and split or of-one.

Another important fact to note is the nature of origin magic itself. They are always simple in nature, but their efficiency and strength cannot be contended with. All these points give us a clear picture that have been tried and tested through the ages.

Let us first illustrate all these points with a few examples. Take the origin ability, ‘Heart of Fire’. It is classified as a general and passive type, as the ability serves to boost all advancer magic with the nature of fire in them. That would include the speed at which said ability could be used, and the heat and breadth of the flame.

The ‘Heart of Fire’ is also a split origin ability. For one reason or another, this origin ability appears in, it is believed, around twenty-four individuals on average. Each of these individuals would then have to hunt and consume each other in order to unify the ‘Heart of Fire’, and truly bring forth its full potential.

However, the fragments would split again if the user who might have unified a few pieces falls in combat.

Herein lies the reason as to why these --perhaps even sentient origin magics-- pick their hosts. All individuals discovered to have a fragment of ‘Heart of Fire’, always have a fiery and aggressive nature to them that push them to seek out battle as a means to unify the split fragments. Thus, it is impossible for a piece of ‘Heart of Fire’ to ever appear in an individual that lacks such a trait within them.

Now, let's examine an opposite example. A rather heaven-breaking ability is the ‘God’s Eye’. This is a specific and active origin ability that allows its user to see through illusions, patterns and geomancy formations, and even assess the nature and quality of advancer magics within their sights. Such an ability naturally requires the host to activate it.

In recorded history, It only ever appears in a singular host with a sharp mind. However, some of these hosts differed in that some chose to pursue power, some chose to simply position themselves as a right-hand man of another well-positioned advancer.

As a scholar, I do have to point out something important: All origin magic has weaknesses. The ‘Heart of Fire’, for example, requires its hosts to conquer each other to unify the fragments, and its nemesis also exists in the origin ‘Heart of Water’.

‘God’s Eye’ itself is simply a mental comprehension ability. Its host could still easily be killed if they lack the ability to react to an attack despite having foreseen it. Knowing a sword stab is coming does not mean one has the swiftness to dodge it…

Simply the introduction had vastly expanded Rein’s mind. He continued flipping through the pages, and he inevitably came across a list of recorded origin abilities. The one that stood out to him was the one that matched Xeeseir’s.

‘Trace’ or ‘Rebound’: Its hosts are brash to take action. Thus many of them become known for their origin magic at too early an age, to their detriment. The ability, though strong, has a severe weakness where it is only effective against magic-- it traces aurae to the initiation point, and detonates that magic ability backwards.

Due to its hosts often being brash, many educated advancers are aware that using indirect magic, such as magic to throw a normal tree trunk, or attacking from range with weapons not augmented by magic are an effective measure.

Another glaring weakness is its ineffectiveness against advancers with extreme physical bodies. Such advancers have no need to employ aurae to attack a host of ‘Rebound’.

Rein’s eyelids flickered. That fully confirmed why that outer advancer from Convergence Sect had resorted to miring Xeeseir in some sort of quicksand before launching projectiles at him.

His eyes ran over much more text-- Rein was trying to memorize as many of these recorded origin abilities as he could. Although this was a rather extensive list, many of the abilities had question marks that reflected the incomplete understanding of most of them. Some even had queries as to whether someone had exaggerated their observations of the ability in action.

A short moment later, Rein returned his attention to the previous booklet that he had been allowed to remove from the Hall of Knowledge. Bringing a metallic orb of light downward, he illuminated the contents on the pages.

Another page that caught his attention was one that spoke of the draconic metamorphose bead. This was a booklet that focused on dragon magic, supposedly a trap aimed to devilize humans with the incompatible magic that belonged to the demons.

The page was brief, yet enlightening. Supposedly these metamorphose beads existed in all ‘beastkin and insectkin’-- the booklet, as spread directly from the dragons, did not call themselves demons. The page claimed that these metamorphose beads were the method for previous generations passing their knowledge down to a new generation by the will of the dying older generation.

A detail that attracted Rein’s eyes were someone’s scribbled notes on the page: The metamorphose bead is but another trap by the demons. The rare number of humans that have consumed a metamorphose bead have all lost their mind to madness.

Rein furrowed his eyebrows. He was certain that he was not, in fact, mad. Was it because the remnant will of the dragon Gent, within the bead, accepted him as a human? It must be so, Rein figured. Humans and demons had been in conflict for eons. Perhaps only one such as Gent, who had formed some form of friendship with the youthful Yirn when the Gods still ruled, would entertain sharing knowledge with a human.

Then again… would a madman know himself to be mad? He had previously accepted Blacksmith Tiehr’s explanation as to how the bead was obtained. Now, he believed Blacksmith Tiehr had intentionally hid many details, perhaps not wishing to speak of some, or perhaps because of the desperate situation they were in at the time.

Whether his hypothesis was correct mattered not to Rein. This was a mindset the Rein had increasingly found himself in ever since he honed his mind on those lonely nights the past six plus months. He had initially contemplated that devil’s words, to rejoin his family in the afterlife. But then, increasingly, he realized: If he was going to ‘die’ anyway, what did he have to lose-- really?

And so, this supposedly recorded history of humans going mad from consuming a metamorphose bead-- it mattered not to his heart.

After quietly examining more content from the two books, occasionally even comparing cross-over knowledge between the two, he returned the book regarding origin magic back onto the shelf and turned to leave.

Unlike the book on draconic magics, the Halls chose to not allow anyone to withdraw a copy of any knowledge in this area. Rein could but surmise that the Hall of Heroes was very interested in allowing those across all realms to understand how to kill dragons, and held other knowledge, such as those on origin magics, close to their chest.

A bright silver doorway immediately lit up on one of the uniform maloewood walls of the room, and Duzkr reappeared. She must have vanished elsewhere for other duties while waiting.

“Please open the door to the Pavilion of Arts,” Duzkr requested the air.

A hidden controller opened another bright silver doorway appeared on the wall to their side. Both Duzkr and Rein entered this doorway.

Rein found himself standing before a white and pearl marble tower on top of a mountain peak. It was decorated by the typical humanoid against demons and devils motifs. He was baffled as to how he had come here from the underground labyrinth of the Hall of Heroes within Green Trout City. Or perhaps all this was just an illusion.

“All new initiates are allowed to obtain an advancer art. However, most leave with nothing on their first time-- inner realm advancer arts are rare and ninety-nine percent of the time, require strenuous requirements to use.” Duzkr gestured for him to enter the archway. “I will await you here.”

Rein complied and entered to find an old man in a similarly sky blue Halls robe.

The old man did not even deign to take a glance at him and muttered impatiently, “First floor is the inner realm arts.”

Reni hooked his fingers towards the elderly as a sign of respect, then he directed his steps towards the direction pointed out to him.

Ascending a set of divine white stone stairs, Rein found a floor with shelves once again a blinding white and gleaming pearl. The whole tower of white and silvery pearl exuded the heavenly sensation of floating upon a divine cloud.

Indeed, the inner realm arts are rare. Looking around, Rein found the booklets on this floor spread far and wide, with the shelves mostly empty.

He first found his eyes on a skill named ‘Moonlight Shifting Steps’. Curious, he examined the contents. The explanation provided was that since inner advancers are unable to draw their aurae outside of their bodies or even augment their bodies properly with an aurae shell, a method was to employ concentration of outer sources of aurae.

The ‘Moonlight Shifting Steps’ required a user to have his whole body bathed in moonlight in order to augment their movement. The fuller the moon, the better.

It had severe weaknesses-- a cloud obscuring the moon, or combat under the canopy of a forest… and the skill would become unusable.

After scouring the floor, Rein found one that suited him perfectly! Rein thanked the fallen gods for his luck.

The inner advancer art he had retrieved was named ‘Frog Leg Release’. A madman had attempted to observe and imitate a frog’s ability to gather strength in its hindlegs and leap vast distances relative to its size. The downside? The creator stated that despite having somewhat tempered his body, his legs broke when he attempted to execute the art. Only those with ‘beastly’ legs of born ‘demons’ might be able to safely use such an art.

Rein wasn’t dumb enough to test the skill outright, but he believed that he should certainly be able to safely execute said skill if he tempered his already innately formidable draconic body.

The old man sitting on a white stone brick guarding the inside of the archdoors into the tower scoffed derisively when Rein handed over the art he wished to withdraw.

“Young fool,” the elderly in blue robes shook his head. “If you’re thinking of mastering this advancer art after entering the shell realm, it’s pointless. There will be far better movement arts once you gain the capabilities to wrap and augment your legs in a sheen of aurae.”

Rein hooked his fingers and smiled like a fool.

“Other inner advancers come back with broken legs attempting this in the inner realm,” he sighed. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Rein left the Pavilion of Arts and Duzkr could not resist taking a cursory glance at the new booklet within his hands.

She could not restrain herself from giving him a fanged grin conveying full confidence before leading him away once again.

The miner keeper soon bid him farewell and best of luck, and Rein found himself turning to the Hall of Treasures. He already had a very good idea of what he needed after examining the body tempering draconic art created by Gent.

He once again walked past the burning gazes of ten silvery-plated guards and entered the left portal.

For a single heartbeat, his vision turned dark again, before he found himself in a hall similarly identical to most of the halls in the labyrinth: A pure white-stoned basilica with rounds pillars, decorated with motifs of humans battling demons and devils, created through the interweaving of pearl white marble material against the pure white stone.

There was however a major difference in the Hall of Treasures-- it was not devoid of color, and was instead filled with a cluttered mess of various armaments, each casting their unique hue against the backdrop of the white and pearl stone. If anything, the white and pearl background allowed these weapons to shine even more brightly.

Another difference was that there were white spiral stairs that lead downwards into the ground, likely multiple lower floors containing even more advanced armaments.

Rein only took a cursory glance at the armaments-- he wanted to get an idea of the worth of the points he had been rewarded by the Halls for his contributions during that night.

This first floor should have the most basic of weapons, and Rein discovered that many of the weapons that had a shell advancer level inscription spell were worth at least a thousand Hall of Heroes contribution points.

The ever common box of aurae bombs were more affordable at less than a hundred points for a set of twenty.

Rein had no interest in any of these-- he doubted he would be able to find anything affordable to rival his soak staff, provided by Half-Master Yirn. 

Rein instead sought out vials of wood-infused aurae and lightning-infused aurae alchemical liquid. A method described by Gent was to temper his body by continuously alternating the injection of these two energies to damage and repair his body.

He spent nearly all his contribution points on these two types of products without regret. The faster he could temper his body, the quicker he would be able to use the ‘Frog Leg Release’ without any risk of breaking his own legs. Then, he might not even have to reveal his trump card that is his origin ability to escape most dangerous situations!