Master of Dominion-Chapter 53:Thunder circuit manuscript

Sizzle!

Rael took a deep breath, his lungs had long since adjusted to the thick, smoky heat of the House of Forges. So with a steady hand, he drew a sword out from the depths of a wooden quenching barrel. He ignored the rising steam and admired the shiny steel he had shaped into a lethal longsword. It was a near-perfect replication of the longsword he’d gotten from the Rosil guild.

Though the sword was not as perfect as he wished, it was a start. Truthfully, he was certain that repeated clashes with hard rock would cause the steel to break, if not shatter entirely, but he wasn’t particularly bothered. He had already planned a solution for that ,he would use the Uruz rune to reinforce the metal, granting the weapon the strength it currently lacked.

He shifted his gaze, that carried a flicker of pride, toward the two other weapons he had managed to produce. Beside him lay a second longsword ,just a necessary backup should the one he held fail him in the heat of battle and a curved blade intended for Iyvre.

Though he called it an elven blade, it lacked the intricate, flowing craftsmanship typical of true elven work, appearing more like a simple, crude scimitar.

Beyond the practical fact that Iyvre needed a weapon as much as he did, Rael felt a slight obligation to replace the one he had shattered during their duel. Even though this current creation was a mere apology compared to the masterpiece she had lost, he couldn’t shake the tiny guilt,he was, after all, the reason she was now unarmed.

Rael twirled the longsword in his grasp, his wrist flicking as he tested its weight and fluidity.

"Mmhm, not bad. Hehe," he chuckled to himself.

But then his expression grew serious. "It seems we’ll have to start the hunt today, not tomorrow. We definitely need beast blood for the rune. I don’t trust this at all," he muttered as he tapped his finger against the flat side of the sword, while listening to the vibration.

For a split second, he considered slamming the sword against the nearby rock slab just to see how much it could take, but he quickly rejected the idea. He couldn’t afford to break his hardwork before the runes were etched on them.

Rael gently placed the sword alongside the other two before finally pushing the door to the House of Forges as he stepped outside for the first time in four days, the world seemed blindingly bright,well it was because the two suns glared down from above.

He squinted, raising a hand to shield his eyes from the harsh rays until they adjusted.Then Immediately, his gaze fell upon Xaphxan.

The young man was sitting cross-legged beneath a canopy of leaves he had woven for himself. Rael opened his mouth to call out but caught himself choosing not to disturb the fella after all he had given Xaphxan a cold ultimatum which was to master the Thunder Circuit manuscript and adjust to its power, or be discarded as useless. Of course to Rael, it had been an empty threat just meant to motivate, but Xaphxan had clearly taken it to heart. He was so deep in meditation that he remained oblivious to Rael’s presence, even as tiny sparks of static electricity shimmered and danced occasionally around his seated figure.

Rael watched in silence, his curiosity piqued. "I’ve never actually seen a spellcaster recover or in his case, practice a manuscript before," he mused. He decided to stay back and observe not only did he plan on attempting to master the manuscript himself, but he found the process fascinating. It was a stark contrast to the loud, agonizing path of the WarMaster Scripture, which felt like a violent internal struggle in his veins compared to this quiet, sparking focus.

Xaphxan remained totally oblivious to Rael’s watchful gaze, his entire being focused on grasping the fundamentals of the Thunder Circuit manuscript.

The path of the spellcaster was fundamentally different from that of the warrior. While warrior manuscripts emphasized on physicality focusing on the raw gratification or, in Rael’s case, the grueling pain derived from the experience a spellcaster’s manuscript demanded mental fortification.

It relied heavily on the "Intelligence stat’, requiring the practitioner to build a mind capable of weathering immense strain. So to truly master the Thunder Circuit, Xaphxan had to temper his psyche using the volatile, sparking essence of the manuscript, forging his mind into a vessel strong enough to contain lightning .

This mental tempering was the core of any spellcaster’s manuscript. While many manuscripts are diverse much like Xaphxan’s former one, which only granted him a tracking spell and a low-class fireball those types allowed the user’s aether to remain neutral.

The Thunder Circuit, however, was different. To truly progress, he would eventually need to taint his aether with the lightning element itself, a feat achieved by consuming thunder-based resources.

Of course, such advanced path only mattered at higher ranks, levels far beyond Xaphxan’s current reach.

For now, he focused on the basics stimulating his aether and meticulously directing the flow from his veins toward his head toward the mind itself.

As he sat, he silently recited the specific incantations from the manuscript Rael had transcribed for him. He repeated the lines like a mantra, over and over, until the air around him began to hum. Finally, a sharp, numbing sensation surged, crawling up his spine and into his skull, signaling that the first circuit was beginning to take hold.

The Thunder Manuscript was divided into three distinct circuits, each corresponding to the first three ranks of an Aether user and coming with its own unique quirks and abilities.

Although the first circuit only granted him one spell compared to the diversity of his former manuscript ,Xaphxan wasn’t complaining. He could already sense that just a single cast of this new spell used half of his entire aether reserves, a clear indicator of its immense strength. It gave him only two tries in a fight, which spoke volumes about the sheer power contained within the spell.

He took a slow, deep breath and centered himself, before finally opening his eyes, only to find Rael standing directly before him, his muscular chest exposed and gleaming in the light.

"Ahh, Boss!" Startled, Xaphxan scrambled nervously to his feet.