[Severed Divinity] 75. Welco’s Lesson

Welco’s teeth flashed in the firelight. “That’s reserved for tier threes.”

“Usually?”

“Usually.” He frowned. “What do you know about aura?”

Isen shrugged. “I’ve seen it a few times from tier threes. Never from a monster, though.”

“That’s because aura intent requires sapinas,” Welco said.

“What...?” Isen didn’t recognize the word.

“Intelligence. The ability to think and reason.”

Sapience.

“Some monsters are intelligent, though,” Isen noted. “They can even speak.”

“Can they?” Welco asked, smiling, his gaze probing. “Tier three monsters?.”

Isen just stared at him.

The mage laughed. “You’re right, of course. Some can learn languages and think just as well as you or me. Such monsters should theoretically be able to produce aura intent. But they cannot.”

Isen scowled. “Why?”

Welco held up a finger. “Aura is directly related to the soul, and for beasts, the soul is a touchy subject.”

“What... is the soul, exactly?” Isen asked. “All I know is that the fifth tier is called the nascent soul stage.” Teacher Conrin’s story about Tsuna and the butterfly dream had mentioned it.

“The paths of cultivators and mages develop a proto-soul. For cultivators, the proto-soul manifests as your core. The third tier focuses on consolidating it, and the fourth on its maturation. The core allegedly evolves into a soul vessel at the fifth tier.”

“It’s different for monsters?”

“It shouldn’t be,” Welco replied. “They’re all natural cultivators and possess cores—proto-souls. And yet, there’s something incomplete.”

“That’s why they can’t reach the nascent soul stage?” Isen murmured. “A broken soul?”

“Broken is too harsh a term,” Welco said. “I’d bet that divine beasts have some control over their souls, enough to produce aura intents. Still, there’s a reason why monsters only lay permanent claim to the parts of the world that nobody else wants. They aren’t strong enough to defend desirable territory.”

Isen had never been to the Bitter North, the lands of the Dray Anarchate, but from its name, it didn’t sound particularly ideal.

“I digress. So, Isen—you wish to learn how to use your aura as a tier two. Can you tell me why that might be difficult?”

“I don’t have a consolidated core.”

Welco jabbed his rod in Isen’s direction. “Exactly. But let me tell you a little secret. The core is nothing special. It’s your rings pushed so tightly together, they merge, becoming something greater than their parts, a second heart pumping energy throughout your body.

“Mages work a little differently than cultivators, in the sense that we receive a lump sum of energy when we tier up that we must invest immediately. These are called investitures. Cultivators draw in the energy of the world, and process it, cobbling together a core. Mages instead master their magic. They research, gain insights, and decide how they want to direct their advancement.

“And when they’re ready, they trigger the next investiture. It’s a bit like how cultivators at the peak of a tier attempt ascension. Either a mage’s investiture succeeds, and they gain an entire tier’s worth of power... or they fail, and the energy dissipates, leaving them with a cracked foundation, weaker than before attempting the investiture.

“That’s why most tier two mages, seeing the failure rate for tier three, lack the courage to take the leap.”

Isen struggled to make sense of the system. “Mages of the same tier are all the same strength?” That didn’t sound right. Lumina had made it sound like Welco was weak for his tier, or at least that he had been for a while.

“Not at all. Think of it as potential power that must be mastered. Based on the ability of a given mage, they’ll be able to master a certain amount of their power. Ideally, full mastery is a requirement for attempting the next investiture, though some get away with less than that, at least for the first.”

That made more sense. If Welco had become more powerful recently, it would stand to reason that he’d made a breakthrough in mastering the power of his tier three investiture.

“As for where the power of a mage lies... It’s called the mystic seed.” Welco tapped his head. “The mystic seed becomes a mage’s soul vessel, so my version of your core. There’s nothing fundamentally different about my tier three mystic seed, though. It’s just bigger than in tier two, more saturated with energy. And yet, once I advanced and began mastering my expanded power, I gained an intuitive sense of aura.”

“You’re saying that your tier two mystic seed should’ve produced aura intent, but not enough to perceive or use. Likewise, the rings within my hollow core should produce scraps of aura. And if I found a way to perceive the trace amounts... I could produce an aura intent at tier two.”

Welco looked at him strangely. “Yes, exactly. With only eight rings, I don’t think it’s possible, but it’s something to keep in mind as you advance.”

“Is there anything I can do to develop my aura sense faster?”

“Aside from advancing? Not that I’m aware of. There are aura strengthening exercises, but you can’t perform them without an aura sense.”

Isen wasn’t too surprised. If it were easy, tier twos would be doing it. It was disappointing, though—he wanted to learn something that he could use immediately. He let the emotion show on his face.

Would Welco take pity on him and give him instruction on something else?

The mage sighed. “I suppose I haven’t truly shown off my abilities as a teacher yet. Is there something more tenable you’d like to learn?”

“Shadow aspect,” Isen said. “It’s your domain of expertise, yet it’s something I’m only just learning about. Can you help me improve my shadow techniques?”

“What are you looking for, exactly?”

“I’d like to be able to use the abilities more before exhausting my energy.”

“A short-sighted goal, given your talent,” Welco said. “You’ll eventually have more energy than you know what to do with.”

“Not so short-sighted when I might die before the end of the month,” Isen pointed out. “I want to survive the coming calamity.”

“It’s a mistake,” Welco said, doubling down. “Strength, speed, efficiency—the three factors to consider when refining and evolving techniques. Most people agree that you can only pick two. Efficiency is a waste on you, especially when you already have A-rank meridian responsiveness. You’re more efficient than almost all people at your cultivation level. I would pick strength or speed to be your primary, and the other your secondary focus.”

Isen couldn’t argue Welco’s point—he didn’t want to sacrifice his future for the present, especially when he had a trump card in the Shard of Erasmus to get him out of an otherwise hopeless situation.

With respect to choosing between speed and power... the answer felt obvious.

Speed and power worked together. Isen had learned as much in calculus with Lady Jin. They had often used examples from the natural world. Heavy things, when thrown very fast, could wreak havoc. But how did you throw the heavy thing fast? You needed enough power to lob it.

Thinking about the evolution of techniques, Isen could see a clear delineation based on the two specialties. Speed would focus on evasiveness and striking rapidly. Many cuts versus one strong slash. In contrast, power would focus on more direct confrontations, soaking up damage and delivering devastating strikes.

The former was more rogue-like, the latter the archetypical armored warrior.

Isen didn’t think either path specifically called to him. Evasion sounded better than soaking up damage if he wanted to avoid any injuries, but one wrong move might be catastrophic. So far, he’d been relying on his ability to dodge to stay alive, and he hated it.

Likewise, he was disillusioned by how weak his attacks seemed against powerful foes. It was a pipe dream now, but Isen hoped to one day close the rank gap and kill a tier three while still a tier two—without relying on a cheat like the Shard of Erasmus. To do so, many weak blows wouldn’t cut it. He’d need to penetrate highly defensive scales and fur to deal real damage.

“What if I balance both equally?” Isen asked.

“You can try. First, let’s decide which technique you want to evolve.” He snorted a laugh. “I know you’ve only just learned them, so any of them should work equally well.”

Isen chewed on his lip. “Shadow step.”

Welco nodded. “Let me explain a few common paths people take. Going the same distance for less cost is common; that’s an efficiency improvement. The power improvement evolves the skill to almost be a sort of teleportation, allowing you to phase through objects. And the speed evolution focuses on the casting time and optimizing the skill for better mobility. One that lets you keep the momentum generated by the skill is rather popular.”

Hearing the possibilities, Isen immediately understood why efficiency would be a waste. Phasing through objects? Rapidly accelerating and keeping the speed boost? Both sounded incredibly useful.

“I can’t have all of them?” Isen asked.

“Well, it’s not like evolving techniques uses up a finite resource,” Welco said. “You could evolve the one base technique into two divergent techniques, but that takes effort and splits your focus. Given where you are in your cultivation journey, I’d pick one for now.”

“Tell me more about phasing,” Isen said. “What would stop me from using a phase shadow step to cross through a locked door?”

“The energy cost,” Welco said. “It is incredibly difficult to phase through a solid object like a wall. You would probably be able to cast it once before fully exhausting your reserves. Certain materials are also much harder to phase through than others. Take the white stone comprising Eldrassin City, for instance—it’s considered impossible to phase through for anyone under tier three.”

Isen’s enthusiasm waned. He wanted what effectively sounded like a short range teleportation power, but it didn’t seem practical given his current cultivation level and his physical location in Eldrassin City.

“I choose the speed evolution, then.”

Welco held up the rod. Energy twirled over its tip, producing an inky ball the size of an eyeball. “This is a wand,” he said. “A tool often used by novice mages to manifest their aspect easier. Humor me and see if you can channel energy through it.” The energy around the instrument dissipated and Welco handed it over.

The wand was warm from Welco’s hand. It felt as smooth as it looked, and shone in the light of the fire. Isen held it up to his eyes, inspecting it. “How do I use it?”

“Vent energy in your hand—the wand will absorb it.”

Isen did so, and sure enough, the wand activated. Energy condensed on its tip, forming the same inky sphere.

“You called unaspected energy,” Welco observed. “Try it again, but call shadow aspected energy instead.”

This time, the energy on the tip was much murkier, beyond what Isen could conjure on his own. The wand had amplified the potency of Isen’s shadows.

“Now, start channeling shadow step. Place the wand’s tip to one of your calves. The potent energy will mix with your own, increasing the intensity of the aspect and making it easier to shape the technique.”

Isen understood what Welco was saying the second the wand touched his leg. Suddenly, his left limb felt less tangible. It was an incredibly bizarre, off-putting sensation.

“Now, try casting shadow step.” Welco cocked his head. “Do it only on your left leg, though. Maybe stand on one leg.”

With the balance of a tier two, it was easy to do so. One-legged, Isen invoked the technique.

He went further than he’d intended and the energy cost was less. The main downside was that he had to actively channel the wand and press it to his leg.

“Good,” Welco said. “Now try it again.”