Re: Timeless Apocalypse-Chapter 50: Mage Path

The way to grow as a mage was rather simple and was mostly rooted in resonance.

Advancement possessed three steps: Resonance Plane Access, Magic Circle Pin, and Rune Line.

The first step, Resonance Plane Access, was actually considered the simplest, yet it was the most pivotal of all steps.

In this step, the mage had to create a permanent link of resonance between their core and the world, more specifically, between their natal aether and the atmospheric aether of the world.

It was a two-layered link.

The issue, however, was that there existed a dividing line between the links formed, what one called the Access Grades.

The access grades decided the depth of resonance the link achieved and ranged from the Iron Access Grade all the way up to the Diamond Access Grade.

These grades determined the sheer quality of aether one would have access to, but also everything one would be capable of in the following steps.

And there was no way to simply upgrade one’s access grade.

This directly bled into the second step, the Magic Circle Pin, which was, relatively speaking, easier and far less dependent on natural talent.

After forming their access grade, the mage would then have to choose and learn a runic language, of any type or specialisation.

As they did, they would also need to learn a second tier of resonance—a way to resonate their mind with aether and thus spontaneously form runes from understanding alone.

Perfectly comprehending their chosen runic language would cause their minds and cores to resonate, and at that precise moment, around the True Core, a tool would form—the Magic Circle Pin.

Through their Magic Circle Pin, bound directly to their core and aether pool, they would finally be able to truly use magic linked to their runic language—First Circle Fire Magic, First Circle Healing Magic, and so on.

Forming one’s circle would cause a qualitative change to the body, attuned to the runic language, but it would also cause a set of runes to be permanently etched onto their body. Through these runes, they would exist in a constant quasi-resonance with the specific aether type aligned with their magic, drawn directly from the air itself.

A First Circle Fire Mage with a Gold Access Grade would constantly be attuned to Gold Grade Fire Aether present in the environment.

In the blink of an eye, they would be able to form Gold Grade First Circle spells—because, in all evidence, the access grade directly impacted the grade of Circle Spells one could wield.

Then, finally, came the last step: the Rune Line step.

It was, by far, the most time-consuming of the three.

It was known that across one’s Magic Circle Pins existed what were called Origin Runes—the fundamental nodes of one’s circle. To be exact, there were thirteen origin runes per access grade: thirteen Iron Origin Runes, thirteen Bronze Origin Runes, and so on, all the way to the Diamond Origin Runes.

During the Rune Line step, by perfecting their understanding of their magic, a mage had to awaken these Origin Runes, which would bring about a qualitative evolution to their might.

For someone who had built their Magic Circle Pin upon a Gold Access Grade, they would need to awaken their Iron, Bronze, Silver, and Gold Origin Runes to be considered perfected.

The higher one’s access grade, the more mastery was required—but in turn, the more power was granted for each awakened rune.

At that point, with all runes lit, a mage would have reached the peak of their circle, and to advance further would need to form another and repeat the entire process.

From the First Circle all the way up to the Thirteenth Circle, these three steps were required and primordial.

This meant that the most accomplished of Mage-Type Ascendants would have access to thirteen different magic schools, all at their fingertips.

"..."

Uriel exhaled, a great many things suddenly becoming clear.

He finally understood why his talent in aether control and the arcane arts was so absurd.

’It’s like my body naturally has an Access Grade of the Diamond Grade... or maybe even higher. It’s so high that I don’t even need a Circle Pin to spell-cast.’ 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

He chuckled softly. ’Huh. So that’s why she was so shocked.’

As things stood, Uriel felt that as long as he was given enough runic languages, he could easily reach the Thirteenth Circle—in a day at best, and a week at worst.

He was that confident.

Still, he decided not to be brash.

Currently, thanks to his rewards, he had the opportunity to form three Diamond Grade runic languages of any type he desired.

If he added the runic languages included in his pack’s guide, that brought the total to five languages at his disposal.

He could become a Fifth Circle Mage.

’But what do I want to specialise in, though?’ he thought as he reopened his eyes and exhaled slowly.

The obvious answers were offense and healing.

He was absolutely defenceless. His body was essentially useless in any physical confrontation and was constantly being crippled by injuries.

He had also not failed to notice that his disease only ever flared up when he was injured. If he had overwhelming attack power and vitality that could not wane, what would be able to stop him?

Quite a bit, as it turned out.

’I’ll have to factor in my Spark, my Class, my Spark Frames, and future evolutions. If I commit too heavily to a niche, like Lightning magic, and end up growing in a completely opposite direction, I’ll either have to shatter my core or find a way to bridge the two.’

’But if I go too broad and safe, becoming a jack-of-all-trades, I’ll end up with the short end of the stick and waste potential by failing to optimise my abilities.’

’And I still need to shore up my weaknesses while empowering my strengths... not that I have many.’

He glanced toward the sleeping Enoch for a moment, then shook his head.

"I can’t ask him about this."

He clenched his fist slightly.

"This is my path."