Magic is an ancient word. It is used to describe something that is extraordinary, beyond logic, beyond a mortal's touch, something to be feared and revered, something sinister and unknown. Yet what we wield, the power over ether, the universal element, is also labelled as magic. 'Why is that?' One could ask, no doubt.

Then we'd have to erase the previous definition of magic. Because manipulation of ether is not illogical, neither is it beyond the understanding of a mortal. Then what is magic?

A very difficult question, for this has an answer which is ever changing. Magic is the unknown, magic is the secrets hiding around us, waiting to be explored by a curious one, magic is the vast expanse of knowledge that can grant you powers beyond imagination, magic is a key, a key to a door that can lead you anywhere; of course, where you end up on the other side of the door wholly depends on your understanding of magic.

In short, magic is dangerous, for it hides secrets so deep and numerous that one can get lost and misled easily. However, there has never been a lack of brave or perhaps foolish souls who experimented and explored the hidden world of magical wonders, discovering concepts and knowledge which perhaps belong to the gods themselves. Thus, the path of a mage was established. A path that grants one immense power, power to rival gods.

The subject of our discussion shall be the first step of a mage, one of the most important step in their life. This is a step that'll decide the speed of your stride, the momentum of your following step, or even the end of your journey.

Despite being busy with brewing potions, Rowan was also trying to be an attentive reader. With Chip's help, he had the ability to do two tasks ar the same time. Chip had scanned the book and stored the data within a few hours. Then the necessary data was filtered and displayed to Rowan who was busy brewing the potion. Everytime the potion needed to be tended to, Chip would issue out warning to Rowan and after the task was done, Rowan would go back to reading the book and comprehend the path of a mage.

Although it was a rather taxing way of doing things, there were benefits to it. His reflexes regarding brewing was getting better. Countering and correcting his mistakes, taking a faster decision while following a particularly complicated step in the formula, these were obviously improving his skills in alchemy. Rowan was delighted by his progress in the last few attempts. His mistakes had been reduced to a negligible number and the success rate was slowly climbing up. It was currently almost forty percent. He still had much room for improvement.

Adding another ingredient in the current batch, he reverted back to absorbing the knowledge in the book. He didn't actually need to learn much when it came to the seeker stage. He could sense the presence of ether easily with Chip's directions. But he needed to check for necessary details at least, so he decided not to skip those parts.

But soon, as he read, his brows became furrowed.

For various reasons, simple practice of sensing ether cannot raise the efficiency of a young seeker very fast. For this, an extra mental exercise is required, similar to meditation. The style and rituals may vary in each legacy or 'school of thoughts', but the principle is the same. A few examples are described below...

Turio's notebook never mentioned anything like this. Perhaps he had skipped those parts because he didn't think they were important. Some parts of the passage clashed directly with the Turio's notebook. But why would he deem them unimportant? Something seemed fishy...

But when Rowan asked Chip to analyse these techniques underneath the passage, Chip replied that they were authentic after a few hours. Those techniques really could increase his efficiency to a certain degree. However, Chip also mentioned that some parts of the meditation seemed to be unnecessary for the whole process and minimization and optimization was possible. Rowan considered whether to proceed with optimisation. Even if these steps seemed unnecessary, perhaps they had a hidden effect that Chip couldn't understand.

In the end, he decided to take the safest bet and not practice these techniques in near future without verification. He didn't have that much time anyway. Finishing the part about seekers, he started with the much anticipated collector part.

He wasn't disappointed by the amount of information inside. There were complicated theories, mathematical explanations for efficiency of spells and potentials, concepts he had never heard about and many others that nearly made his mind explode from excitement.
One of the most important information among those was the technique to draw ether inside his body without harming himself. As he hurriedly looked for that, a page containing a large, complicated inscription caught his eye. It looked quite similar to the symbols he used in the technique from Turio's notebook. But when he observed it more carefully, he found many tiny details that were different from that one. On the back of the page was a passage saying that this was the orthodox symbol among the students of Heavenfire academy. It came from a part of the legacy the academy was based on which was used for drawing ether from one's surroundings. Apparently, any single wrong detail while drawing the symbol could lead to dangerous repercussions.

Now Rowan realized how Turio had tricked him back then. Those minute differences made the previous symbol harmful to the practitioner, resulting into his failure to absorb ether and damaging himself in the process. He sighed with relief. Fortunately, he didn't try to ignore Chip's warning and force himself to practice back then. Perhaps it would've led him to his death.

Ther were many more important information inside the book. The best example would be the classifications of magical spells, something he had been very anxious to learn.

Apparently, level-0 spells were suitable for a seeker stage mage. The minimum threshold to pass the seeker stage was to store enough ether inside him to cast three consecutive level-0 spells. At this stage, the ether inside the body wasn't regulated or disciplined. Because of this, level-0 spells were weak and the results varied from person to person. They mostly appeared similar to neat party tricks.

For collector level mages, level-1 spells were the mascot of their stage. Of course, they could also use level-0 spells with enhanced effects. At this stage, the ether inside the body increased and became more concentrated. To pass this stage, ther were three requirements that had to be met. Firstly, one had to gather all the ether within themselves to manipulate them with absolute control. Not a single atom could be left out of control. Mastering this required a long time of repeated practice. The second another requirement was to cast five level-1 spells consecutively. The third requirement was basically the last step of a collector on his path of advancement. Gathering all the ether within oneself, they had to condense it into a single runic inscription, a straight line. The longer the length, the higher the potential for the next stage.

The book also mentioned some strange phenomenons while advancing to rank one. Apparently, there were powerful and mysterious entities who messed with people for some reason when they try to advance! They would lie to you, mislead you, show you illusions to confuse you and might even kill you if you displeased them. It was an uncommon phenomenon, but not rare. Usually, just before breaking through, a strange force would interrupt said person and ask them some stranger questions, or perhaps show them horrifying things no human should see. For each person who encountered them, there was a different entity. The book repeatedly warned the readers to act subservient in front of those beings if they ran into situations like that. They were said to have incredible powers, enough to smite down anyone.

At the end of the book, there were five level-0 spells, three level-1 spells and one level-2 spell, much to his delight. But when he read through them, he realized these spells didn't have much use in battle. Of course, they weren't exactly ineffective but the legendary spells he had in imagination seemed to be a far cry from them.

Having finished the book, Rowan fell into deep thought. The path to rank one seemed way more straight forward now. But there had to be hidden complications that he wasn't aware of. Nothing was so simple in reality. He wasn't a hero from the epics sung by bards. Becoming powerful would never be so easy. With the kind of luck he had, he'd probably make an enemy of whichever mysterious entity tried to interrupt his advancement. He'd have to tread really carefully from now on.

[ alert. The next step of the concoction is about to start. The last three ingredients will be required soon. Precautions advised. The potion might become unstable in the next twenty seconds. Fire regulation is necessary. ]

He put the book aside and and started following the formula mechanically with practiced motion, his hands exploding into a blur of activities. Grinding, mixing, extracting, fleecing...

Hours later, the process was completed and he had another new batch of successfully brewed potion. Including this, he had concocted five batches successfully. Five more ended up in failure. But at least he was at the fifty percent mark now.

He decided to take a short break before returning to work on the next batch. It had been only 80 hours since he had received the second supply of ingredients. Having used ten batches already, he was extremely tired. Now he wanted to rest and experiment with magic for a while.

After finishing up drawing the triangular mass of Inscriptions, he calmly sat in front of it and waited for Chip to detect the ether. A while later, Chip ensued his confirmation. Frowning with concentration, Rowan attempted to establish a mental connection with the mysterious element inside and around the inscription. His skills had gotten rusty due to his lack of practice after the first attempt a few days ago. It took him a long time to be able to sense its presence in front of him.

Slowly, slowly, he strengthened the bond, pulling the ether toward him step by step. All around him, a strange, invisible presence could be felt, a pressure in the air, an abnormal density. Rowan felt a trickle of it cross through his skin after a long time, gathering beneath the surface. Instinct told him that this time the ether wouldn't damage his body in any way. And he was proved true when Chip affirmed his thoughts. The ether lay inside, dormant and asleep like an obedient pet. Rowan's confidence swelled. Again, he went through the motions. Sense the ether, establish the bond, pull it close, absorb it wholly, let it rest.

A night passed by like this. Yet Rowan didn't feel tired at all. In fact, he seemed to have been refreshed by the whole ten hour long session. Examining his face in the mirror under the light of the rising suns, Rowan couldn't help marvelling about how conveniently this technique let him enhance himself. It even had a hidden rejuvenating quality to make the practitioner strive harder and be more effective.

His stomach growled in protest, having been nearly starved for sixteen hours at a stretch. Rowan decided to take a look at his new stats before making his breakfast.

[ Host stats:
Strength : 6.3
Speed : 7
Physique : 6.5
Innate ability : none awakened
Elemental affinity: fire (level 2) earth (level 2)
Mutation compatibility : 65.8%
Constitutional limit: rank two (evolvable) ]

The enhancement rate was way higher than his first session using that deadly technique from Turio. But there were some highly alarming issues here as well.

Why hadn't his primary stats changed? Why were they stuck despite having practiced gathering ether for so long? Considering how his mutation compatibility was increasing in leaps and bounds, shouldn't his primary stats become higher as well? He checked the book again to look for any solution to his question. But the only relevant information was that whenever a mage advance by a rank, his physical properties would undergo a tremendous change. He would instantly become stronger and faster. His regenerative abilities and bodily functions will rise in quality as well. Moreover, manipulation of ether provided a mage with minor physical enhancements, similar to the refreshing feeling Rowan felt even after practicing gathering ether for a whole ten hours. It wasn't anything exaggerated like Rowan's rapid enhancement.

"Why does this sound similar to what Chip told me initially when I had just started on my way to become a ranked being? But the problem is I can raise my stats whenever I want by consuming monster flesh...Yet, this book describes the enhancement of physical properties as a perk of ranking up? Something that happens after you enter the ranks?

Could it be surmised that normal mages do not have any effective way to heighten their stats? The only rely on the qualitative change brought by ranking up? If that is the case, then master Fallspark might already be a high level mage in the archmage stage.

But then, a bigger problem surfaces. Both the mages and Isa rely on their legacies to strengthen themselves by using the same principle, manipulation of ether. How come Isa's method allows him to enhance himself physically as well while regular mages have to rely on this?