Chapter 320: Finally some peace

"What about the other two?" Eldrian asked after a moment of reflection. Wishing to see the array in action. Especially how Smite worked. Just imagining a sword forming in midair and suddenly striking at him gave him goosebumps. It would be near impossible to dodge. 

"One is called Strike Evil, the other is called White Hell." Thesolis replied, "Strike Evil takes the form of lighting, with it moving just as fast. While White Hell sets the entire area aflame in white-hot flames blessed with divinity."

Eldrian assumed that the White Hell was what was used against the lich back when the fort was under attack. Causing him to look at the pillars with new respect, that power was quite insane.

"Why four spells?" He asked after a bit.

"It is a way to determine the strength of the target. If Divine Cleanse can't kill them, then they are likely the Unwilling or a Higher undead. If Smite and Strike Evil both fail, then it is certainly a Higher Undead."

"Even if White Hell fails to kill the Higher undead, it will be greatly weakened and we will know what we are facing."

Eldrian nodded, finding this a crude but likely and effective measure to kill most, and determine the threat at the same time. Still, he believed simply adding observe or something similar would be far more effective. 

"How many of the spells can it cast?" Eldrian asked, recalling that the mana was limited.

"Two rotations. Each consecutive spell takes far more mana than the former. White Hell uses nearly half the mana of a Mov Crystal. It is just a last resort."

"Right, that is the basics of what we are doing, why, and how. You can give me the rest of the crystals and go do your own thing." Thesolis said, not meaning to be rude.

The carving of an array required utmost concentration. Last time he had nearly caused her to make a mistake, which would have ruined the entire pillar. Which itself was not cheap, since it had to be made from a special type of marble. 

"Can't I stay and watch?" Eldrian asked, only to find his question dumb after Thesolis countered his question. 

"You already did last time, are you telling me you found that interesting?" 

Eldrian shook his head in denial, it was extremely boring. Especially since he had no idea what they were really doing, as such he could not learn from them. Just looking at them carving patterns did little for him, nor was it fun to watch. 

"Your right, here are the other three mana crystals and the Mov Crystal," Eldrian said, handing them to Thesolis who quickly stored them in her own dimensional storage.

A neckless she wore under her clothing, tucked between her breasts to make it hard to see. She even had another neckless hanging above her clothing to hide the dimensional neckless. There was also no need for her to even take it out, to Eldrian the crystals simply disappeared. He had no idea where to. 

With that done Eldrian headed back to the camp. It was still quite early in the day, around 10 am. As such he could still do plenty of training before needing to log out and join the others for a few matches in the league. 

Finding himself a quiet spot not too far from the camp. One that was not burned nor reeked of the undead. Eldrian started to practice as he always did. Firstly by casting Mana Examination whilst also casting Tier 0 spells. 

After a good warmup he wanted to start with Tier 1 spells, only to find that he had lost his edge in dual casting them.  Dammit, I guess I should have solidified it more. Eldrian mumbled, realizing that the slight paused had caused him to lose some ground. 

Luckily, it did not take long to catch back up. After dual casting a few Tier 0 spells with Mana Examination active, he then moved on to Tier 1 spells again. Starting with Frost Needle which he was most used to. 

He looked at the spell form, his mana moving out in the form of a light blue mist, as well as some a soft white. The blue mist quickly formed the icicle which was quite deadly in the right hands -or rather mind.

The white mist instead surrounded the icicle, and as Eldrian moved it through the air, the white mist grew thinner and thinner. However, he could not keep the two spells active at the same time for long. After just five seconds, Frost Needle was let loose or he lost focus on Mana Examination. 

It took him a few hours before managing to hold out long enough for the white mist to be fully used up. Which he found happened when he moved around 35 meters with the icicle. This was quite impressive, but only possible if he let it flew straight and at its fastest. 

Even if the icicle was just hanging in the air, the white mist would disperse. Once it was fully used he would start to feel a pull on his mana again, a stream moving towards the icicle. This was far less efficient than when first casting the spell.

Frost Needle only cost 20MP, but if he kept it active when the raw mana was up, then it would take 2MP every second. And the further the icicle was from him, the higher this cost.

Interesting, so that is what determines the active time.  Eldrian pondered, quite upset that he had been so busy the past few days. So much had happened that he had nearly forgotten about his training and had to spend a few hours to catch back up. 

After playing a bit with Frost Needle, Eldrian then cast Aeraki - the spell he uses to cool his surroundings with a refreshing breeze. This was also good practice, especially if he tried mixing in the water element like usual. A small addition that made the dual cast far more difficult.

This took him another few hours to perfect, at which point he could finally see a wind spell in action as the sun was starting to set.

Interestingly enough, this spell worked very differently to Anemos - the Tier 0 wind spell. All that Anemos did was send some mana to excite the local wind elements - the white green mist. 

Aeraki instead sent its own wind elements into the surrounding, creating an imbalance. His keeping the spell active was not mana expensive, and all that it did was keep the imbalance. A mix of reabsorbing mana on one side, and sending others out on the other side. The direction of the breeze being determined by this.

A pressure difference... As I suspected. Eldrian mumbled, finding this to be quite exciting. After enjoying the sight of the moving mists for a while, Eldrian then looked for the water elements he had added. This took some time, with him needing to recast the spell a few times and follow it from the start each time. 

The water element mixed into the surroundings and became almost invisible. It was so little that it did nearly nothing, hidden by all the other elements in the air. However, the addition still cooled down the air. 

Not by forming water or making the amount of water more, but rather by eliminating the fire elements in the affected area. It was in fact the part of the spell which seemed to be the most mana hungry. 

"However, water is not really cold." Eldrian pondered, recalling that Frost Needle was a mix of water and darkness. "I wonder, what if I tried to add darkness. Would that even work? Would it make it more efficient?" 

Eldrian felt this was unlikely, realizing that the mana he let out for Frost Needle was not a mix as with Aeraki. Instead of being dark blue, it was light blue. 

After a moment he decided to put that at the back of his mind. Realizing that he had wasted quite some time by waiting for his mind to relax. He should have been doing something in that time. 

"While I do not plan to learn any skills at the moment, practice is not a bad idea," Eldrian mumbled, about to stand up when he recalled that the system had informed him that all he needed to do to reach Tier 3 was meditate. 

"Scratch that, let's see if I can follow her advice instead."

Sitting back down, Eldrian started focusing into himself. Quickly finding himself following the mana flowing inside of him. He enjoyed this for a while, finding that it was quite calming if all he did was follow along. 

This might be a better way to rest.  He thought before starting to truly meditate. As soon as he started trying to force his mana to move in a certain way, he could feel it fighting back. 

This took a great deal of effort and focus, and within minutes his back was wet from sweat. Each time he was tired, he would simply stop and enjoy the calming effect just being in this state gave him. 

Soon Eldrian lost track of time, only coming to when he was rudely pulled from his meditative state by someone tapping on his shoulder. 

Turning to the disturbance in irritants, Eldrian was about to let them have an ear full when he saw it was Katania. She appeared apologetic which made him calm down. 

"Sorry, I tried waiting, but... You have been like that for over ten minutes." Katania explained, Eldrian looking at the time and shocked to find that two hours had passed. The sun was now completely down and he was quickly becoming cold. The cool air of the forest over his wet body made this just worse. 

"Ah... No," Eldrian shook his head and stood up, nearly falling over as his legs were asleep. "I got lost in meditation, thanks for waking me."