Chapter 88: Spirit And Will

After registering the question Guy went on to explain everything that had occurred, barely an hour ago, with enough detail to enlighten Al's doubts. Sure, there were parts Guy wasn't "allowed" to reveal such as the existence of The Church, since it would inevitably point towards the presence of the RoK inside him, which would, in turn, make it evident that he wasn't from this world.

"After Markus' loss against Gaige, he had been holing up in his room coming up with spells to counter the wave of darkness," Guy started.

To which Goran chuckled lightly.

To Goran's surprise, no one else chimed in with him.

"What?" Goran asked in disbelief as he looked at Al. "Wait, he's serious? Making new spells?"

Al simply nodded matter-of-factly.

"You're saying that as if he were assembling a toy! We're talking about spells here, right? Like spells, with intricate mechanisms, and theories, and functionalities?!"

Al nodded once again, and reprimanded Goran with a frown, "Stop interrupting him, Goran."

Goran raised his hands in defeat and retrained his attention on Guy.

"I then explained the science of the spell to him," Guy continued.

"Science? What's that?" Goran interrupted once again.

"Goran! Please..." Al said irritatedly, to which Goran once again raised his hands and mimicked zipping his mouth.

"Markus couldn't understand and fathom the details within the explanation. Which was expected, since he hadn't seen such a phenomenon before in his life. And so, to enlighten him, I sort of... transmitted a visual? Yeah... I think that best explains what happened there... I transmitted a visual of the phenomenon to him directly," Guy concluded.

"YOU DID WHAT?!" This time, it wasn't Goran, but Al that exclaimed animatedly.

"I don't know how to put it into words. It was like this: I had the idea in my head, I just showed it to him," Guy said. As he explained, he grasped at the sides of his head, grabbed a handful of air, and flung it towards Markus' head. "Something like that, I guess."

Al started to breathe heavily, with his eyes bursting out at their sockets.

"No wonder the insights were so vivid and robust. You performed a |Soul Imprint|!" Al muttered with excitement.

"|Soul Imprint|? But how?" Goran parroted incredulously.

"That's the only explanation! You should have seen what I witnessed in the boy's cultivation. It was magnificent! The power... It was a hundred- No! A thousand- No! Argh! It was immeasurably stronger than the strongest darkness spell recorded in history! I can attest to that claim!" Al declared.

Noticing the growing agitation amongst the crowd, Guy cautiously voiced a query, "Teacher Jeeves. What is this |Soul Imprint|? Is it a spell?"

"What's |Soul Imprint|? Boy, are you daft?!" Goran blurted out. "You used the damn technique, how can you not know about it?"

"Goran!" Al reprimanded. "Please pardon my friend, he often speaks his mind openly."

"Please, I'd actually prefer it if everyone talked that freely," Guy responded with a chuckle.

Goran scratched his head sheepishly, "You jest, but I will actually take you up on that offer!" 

Al snorted in amusement and explained, "|Soul Imprint| is an extremely rare and high-level technique. It is most sought after by Teachers and individuals at positions of power because it allows for quick transmission of large chunks of information as condensed packets. The best part about it is that not only is it possible to transmit information through |Soul Imprint|, but one can also transfer more abstract concepts such as emotions, hopes and so on."

"That sounds about right," Guy nodded. "But why are you guys so agitated about all of this?"

Goran interjected passionately, "It's because this technique is only possible when a mage reaches Core Condensation realm or above!"

"That's inaccurate," Al corrected. "It is possible to learn and apply this technique at the earlier realms, however, to be able to do so one must cultivate their spirituality to an extremely high level. This process in and of itself is time-consuming and arduous, thus most mages leave it till they hit Core Condensation and have time to spare towards improving their spirituality."

"Cultivating spirituality?" Guy inquired.

"It is the final step a mage needs to go through before they can step off from their mortal coils and embrace true immortality," Al answered.

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After a pause he continued, "Why do most people pursue magehood so ardently? For some, it is power. For others it is recognition. For most, it is to become immortal - longevity! But how does one truly achieve this so-called immortality? It is a fact that advancing in realms through cultivation grants the cultivator with longer life. But living for a long time does not make one an immortal."

Al rested to let his thesis sink in, drawing in the audience. One thing he had learned after interacting with Guy was the perfect method to orate to an audience, regardless of demographic. As a renowned teacher, albeit one that had receded from the public eye for a long time, Al realised through self-evaluation that he had become quite detached from his base. In fact, he found that it wasn't just him, but even the more overt teachers, while successful, had horrendous skill in lecturing.

Before his acquaintance with Guy, Al thought that his peers such as Kaist were at the forefront of pedagogy. Many mages would line up for days just to gain the opportunity to listen to Kaist's scarce lectures. They hoped to extract as much insight as possible from the unbearably arcane concepts regurgitated during the lecture, in hopes of internalising them and achieving breakthroughs. But many didn't comprehend just how dangerous this was.

To internalise half-baked theories that sounded logical, without thoroughly vetting the information and cross-referencing its reliability and applicability with one's self was a surefire recipe for disaster. Even if this insight was derived from a lecture of a successful mage at a higher realm of cultivation, one mustn't forcefully augment their own cultivation with insights that were originally tailored to the lecturer.

Therefore, Al realised that they had been going about it all wrong. A lecture wasn't just about disseminating information. A lecturer's main goal must be to maximise the assimilation of the information they're intending to circulate. Sure, lectures could entertain complex and advanced topics, however, the lecturer must recognise their audience and tailor their oration accordingly.

Al admitted that there had been many occasions in the past when he lectured about advanced topics such as Familiar Inhabitation to freshly minted mages at Mana Condensation realm.

For most mages nowadays, these lectures had turned from a mode to teach into a platform to boast about their superiority.

'Can't understand what I'm talking about? Well, you can only blame yourself that you aren't a genius such as I,' was the common thought paradigm.

It was a bitter realisation, but the fact remained. Was it better to lecture to a massive audience where 2% understood what you were talking about, or to a more mediocre audience where over 80% absorbed your words? Before, Al would readily agree with the former, but after meeting Guy, he was leaning towards the latter.

"It is the soul that tethers a magical being to their mortal coils. To transcend, one must untether, and to do so they need to merge their cultivation - that is the ultimate accumulation of their insights, a physical manifestation of their will - with their soul. This is a complicated process that not only requires an unshakeable cultivation, but also perfect control over one's soul. Many mages die during the transition from Core Condensation to Tesseract Transformation because either their cultivation has cracks, or their spiritual manifestation is unwieldy or non-compliant."

Guy nodded and hummed in affirmation. "That makes sense. Sure, it sounds a little abstract and fantastical - merging the soul and cultivation and what nought - but I can understand the conceptualisation."

"Coming back to the start of this discussion, |Soul Imprint|, as the name suggests, is a technique that can actually be picked up quite early in the path of spiritual cultivation. However, its efficacy is greatest at the mid to higher levels. Through it, a mage can transmit their own insights as a whole package to another, the size and quality of which depends on their spiritual cultivation. It is so difficult to become proficient in this that most mages without aptitude in spiritual cultivation avoid it altogether. Almost all teachers yearn to become adept in this skill."

At this point, Goran interjected, "Based on what Al admitted earlier, it seems that you," he said while gesturing at Guy, "have an even greater accomplishment in this technique than Al himself. And that too when you were at the Late stage of Mana Condensation realm? How is this even possible?!"

Goran's doubtful and piercing gaze bore down on both Guy and Al. The former started to secretly sweat bullets as pressure started to build up from within.

'Here we go again. It seems I have to put back on that abomination and weave up some BS...' Guy wasn't looking forward to that. He had already spun a farfetched yarn a year back to throw Al off of his tail. And honestly, Guy had forgotten the exact plotline of his earlier lie. 'What did I tell him last time? Damn my other self! He cooked up some hot garbage and didn't note it down... What am I going to do?'

Guy looked at Al with a blank gaze, which the latter took to be a signal of some sort. Because Al nodded in affirmation and began talking, "Actually, Goran, Guy here has a secret he hasn't shared with anyone else except for myself and his Disciple here. What I am going to share with you must not leave this room without Guy's express permission. If it does I will not think twice before taking action!"

Al extended his warning towards the other parties in the room with a meaningful gaze.

Jean and Josie gulped audibly at being stared down by Al. Although Al joked often with her, Jean could feel the realness of the threat.

Goran was the first to react and declared, "I swear on my name and the name of my Clan. Should I break this oath, may I be struck where I stand and get reduced to ashes."

This was followed by Jean and Josie.

"I swear!"

"I swear!"

____

In a small cottage in the village, Krish chuckled and voiced out audibly.

"I swear."

____

Al leaned in and spoke with a measured tone, "Guy was fortunate to gain enlightenment from an inheritance of an Ascended mage. Although we don't know the exact specifics of it, since Guy himself is oblivious to how he stumbled across it, I am confident that whoever it was, they were highly unorthodox and extremely powerful. My hypothesis is supported by the fact that not only did this inheritance encapsulate a myriad of arcane, unheard of knowledge, but it also contained the skill |Soul Imprint|!"

Goran's jaw dropped in surprise, "I-Is this true?!" He asked Guy.

"Eh?" Guy blurted.

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