Chapter 689 - Mistra Flowsteel

A woman with metallic-grey hair floated above Icy Bastion. The pressure she gave off was awe-inspiring, but not in a terrifying way.

Her pressure felt more like a very tight and strong hug.

She looked with a strict expression at the present people, but everyone could also feel some concern coming from her.

In a way, it was like she was a powerful and strict mother, and her eyes were reflecting these thoughts.

These belong to me!

This was what her eyes said.

"Hello, everyone," she said in a polite but commanding voice. "My name is Mistra Flowsteel, and I am a Bolt from the Lightning Manor. That means that I am one of the Lightning Manor's Mage Lords."

The present people looked at each other.

Should they greet her?

Should their leader step forward and greet her?

Some people glanced over at Shang, but Shang hadn't moved at all.

"Warriors at the True Path Stage, please form a line," she commanded. "Family and friends, please step away from the warriors. Impose Stage warriors, please wait near the side."

The people slowly complied, and after a couple of seconds, three groups formed.

The True Path Stage warriors, Impose Stage warriors, and everyone else stood in different locations.

When Mistra saw that, she nodded and landed near the gate of Icy Bastion.

SHING!

A small booklet appeared beside her, hovering in the air. 

Surprisingly, she actually put on some glasses, which was very unusual. After all, there probably wasn't even a single Mage that had issues with their eyesight, which meant that the glasses were probably for something else.

"True Path Stage warriors, step forward one at a time," she commanded.

The first person in the line nervously stepped forward. They still weren't entirely sure if everything would work out fine since a lot of the stuff that they had heard just sounded way too good to be true.

Even more, standing in front of a Mage Lord was always a terrifying experience just due to their sheer power and status.

Especially one that belonged to one of the Empires.

"Name," she said.

"Tarkus," the warrior said.

"Who will you be bringing with you today?"

"My wife, my three children, and two friends," Tarkus answered.

Several tiny letters appeared on the booklet on their own, and Mistra nodded.

SHING!

The True Path Stage warriors and stronger looked towards the wall since their Spirit Senses had just picked up something.

A thin but huge plate of glass had suddenly appeared just outside the town. The glass was thinner than a centimeter, but the entire pane was probably nearly five kilometers wide. One could also see several circles that were a couple of meters wide on it.

"Bring everyone to the Transport Plate, get yourself a circle, and stay inside it," Mistra commanded.

The warrior nodded and quickly waved his friends and family over.

Then, they left the town, went onto the huge plate of glass, and gathered in one of the circles.

"Next," Mistra said.

This was how things went for the next two hours. 

Eventually, all the True Path Stage warriors boarded the Transport Plate with their friends and family, leaving only the Impose Stage warriors and their friends and family behind.

Mistra called the first Impose Stage warrior over and asked him the same questions.

But after she got her answer, she had more questions this time.

"When did you reach the Impose Stage?" she asked.

"About 17 years ago," the warrior answered.

"How did you do it?"

"I practiced my techniques until I achieved perfect execution and Synchronized Mana Flow."

"What is Synchronized Mana Flow?" she asked, throwing a glance at the warrior.

The warrior felt uncomfortable. "Well, Synchronized Mana Flow is when the Mana you use to perform your techniques travels through your body in such a way that it doesn't injure the body anywhere while also flowing at intense and rapid speeds."

"Oh?" Mistra slowly uttered as she moved her glasses a bit to look more closely at the warrior's body.

The warrior felt more uncomfortable as Mistra just silently kept looking at his armored chest.

"Show me a couple of your techniques," she said.

The warrior looked around uncomfortably. It was a bit awkward to just start slashing in the air with his weapon while strangers just watched him.

"Okay," he said awkwardly as he summoned a long sword.

Then, he performed a couple of slashes. Luckily, he was so used to training his techniques that the awkwardness in the surroundings didn't negatively impact his performance.

"Most interesting," Mistra said as a second booklet appeared beside her, which was rapidly filled with words. In fact, the words appeared on the booklet at a speed of over 20 pages per second.

"Alright, you can stop," she said.

The warrior awkwardly put his sword away again and waited for more orders.

"Okay, so, how can you ensure that the technique you are using isn't incorrectly using your Mana Pathways?" she asked.

"It depends on the technique," the warrior answered. "My Mana Pathways were created by the world when I reached the True Path Stage, and they are perfectly made for the Path I have created. As long as I use techniques from my Path, I can be sure that my Mana won't move in unsuited ways."

Mistra nodded a couple of times as more pages were filled of her booklet.

By now, she had written down many times more about this Impose Stage warrior than about everything she had written down about everyone that had come before him.

"What if you want to change your Path? What if you want to use other techniques?" she asked.

The warrior smiled uncomfortably. "That's… difficult. I would need to change my Mana Pathways."

"Can you?" Mistra asked.

"Well, I can't, but I know someone that can," he answered.

"Oh? What makes them able to change their Mana Pathways while you can't?" she asked.

"I mean, I could learn how to change Mana Pathways, but it is very dangerous, very time-consuming, and I am not confident enough to edit my Mana Pathways in such a way that I would create something better than the world."

"You know, my Mana Pathways have already been optimized for the Path I have chosen, and I use many of them for many different techniques. By changing one of them, I would need to change even more of them since now other techniques don't fit anymore, which would need me to change even more of them."

"I would probably be left with a nearly unsolvable mess of Mana Pathways, and even if I managed to solve that mess, it would probably take me decades, if not centuries. I don't think that's worth it," the warrior explained.

The booklet was turning like crazy, and the warrior felt quite intimidated by it. He had just talked for a couple of seconds, but the booklet had already written down thousands of pages of information by now.

What the hell was this Mage Lord writing about, and how could she write that much about the little bit of information he was giving her?

Also, how many pages did that booklet even have?!

"Mhm," Mistra hummed as the booklet stopped writing. "So, how is this a problem for you but not for your friend?"

"Well, you see-"

"Wait!" Mistra suddenly said, lifting her hand.

The warrior blinked a couple of times in surprise. "Yes?"

"Is your friend amongst the Impose Stage warriors?"

"Yeah, he's-"

"Alright!" Mistra shouted with a chipper voice before she realized that she had let her giddy and curious demeanor slip out.

Mistra coughed once to return to her professional demeanor.

"Then, I can just ask your friend later."

"Okay," the warrior slowly and awkwardly said, unsure how to respond.