WITHERED WILLOW ISLAND

Lynne had already been in the ocean for two full days. His routine was rather simple: use Mana to form waves that would carry him forward. When the Mana ran out, replenish; when he got hungry, he would dive into the ocean and catch some fish; when he got thirsty, he’d use Magic to filter out the salt in the water and drink it. He had no time to train, as World Essence here was abnormally low, at least twenty times lower than the Palace. What he needed right now was a piece of land, a place to settle for a short while and gather his thoughts and formulate at least a general outline of a plan for the future.

He was aware that not many islands could be found eastbound off the shore of Highlind. Majority were situated westward, while south was almost completely empty for thousands of miles through the ocean. In addition, ‘Eastern Islands’, as they were called, usually would have natives there, mostly sea vultures or other oceanic beasts. ‘Eastern Islands’ referred to a set of about one hundred islands that spanned thousands of miles eastward from Highlind. Most of them were not bigger than an average city, while some were as small as a rural village. However, Lynne had absolutely no clue as to where he was; he merely kept moving east, looking for a piece of land. He had a hard time focusing since his mind was still in great turmoil, playing over the scenes from Edgemaw. He’d occasionally take out the medallion that was given to him by Headmaster and sigh, pondering as to how he’ll fulfill the promises he made.

It wasn’t until the fourth day in the waters – just about the time he was going mad – that he spotted a piece of land on the horizon. Elated, he immediately sped towards it, disregarding anything else. A few short hours later, he had finally neared the shore.

The island didn’t appear to be extremely large, consisting of a shallow, but wide shore, forest, one large mountain and several hills. However, the most distinct feature of the island was the forest that span around, acting as sort of a barrier between the shore and the hillsides and the mountain. It was composed solely of withered willows, and the moment he recognized them, he remembered the piece of information he came upon in the library of the Academy: “This is Withered Willow Island!” he exclaimed before landing ashore.

It was well past midday, and the clouds had overtaken the sky, but it didn’t rain. Looking around for a spot to relax in, he saw as mall cliff side peering through the forest; it was perched forward from the hillside behind the forest, creating a decent spot beneath, granting him dryness if nothing else. He headed over and didn’t stop until he reached the hillside, with wide rock spanning above his head. Withered willows were rather thin and appeared extremely old; there was a distinct legend tied to this island: it states that thousands of years ago, this used to be a paradise. Sand ashore used to be completely golden, while forest brimmed lime, while hillsides were composed of precious gems, while the mountain was built completely of precious materials. However, it was inhabited by a fierce Dragon. When humans invaded, two sides fought fiercely for ten days before the Dragon fled, but not before burning away the entire island – ever since then it didn’t recover.

Lynne had no clue as to how true that story was, and at the moment it didn’t matter. Withered Willow Island was, after all, one of the few uninhabited islands around, and he felt rather lucky to have come across it. The moment he leaned onto the soft earth behind him, he closed his eyes and fell asleep. After all, almost five days without a whiff of sleep would exhaust anyone, let alone someone as lazy as Lynne.

He slept a dreamless dream, and by the time he woke up, it was already a morning of the next day. The sky had cleared, but there were clear signs that it had rained; however, considering how exhausted he felt, Lynne wasn’t one bit surprised that he slept through it. Perching back up, he fell into deep thought. Right now, he doubted anyone was aware that he was alive. It felt rather terrifying, but relaxing at the same time. There were no words he could express that would attain the level of gratitude he felt towards the Headmaster and Auldin, so he spoke none, and decided to affirm it with his actions. He couldn’t simply begin wandering through the world, especially not now. Although he doubted his father was still alive, he still needed to confirm it, and if nothing find his body and give him proper burial. That was the least he could do considering how terrible of a son he was for almost eighteen years. Taking revenge or learning the truth was beyond him at the moment; he was a simple, weak Two Star Archmage without much battle experience or spells. He would love if he could stay on this island and train, but World Essence here was beyond worthless. Training here for full ten years would probably equate to about one or two days in the Palace, so he quickly decided that he’d depart as soon as possible. Considering he knew the name of the island, he also knew his approximate position in the ocean.

“I should probably first head to the Rolyhard Kingdom,” Lynne muttered slowly as he began formulating the course of actions. “While I doubt people would recognize me, I should at least alter some of my facial features. I should move northward and then westward; I suppose that in two-three years I could reach Artan Kingdom. By then, I should at least be within ‘Dao Archmage’ rank, which should be enough to enroll in one of the low-ranked sects. Who knows though, maybe some opportunities will present themselves in-between and I may be stronger than I estimated. Oh, right, I should look at the pouch and the ring...” the moment he thought of the two, he felt his heart grow heavier.

He first took out Headmaster’s pouch; it was very small and light, but Lynne could feel massive world inside of it. As he sent a whiff of his Mana into it, his consciousness was immediately connected to it, and he began scouting through it. His face flashed with surprise and astonishment; there was roughly thirty thousand gold coins in there. He wondered whether his father would even come close to this amount, even if he sold all of the land they owned. With this, he realized, he wouldn’t have to worry about money any time soon. Besides the money, there were a lot of potions – ranging from Mana Recovery, to some that cured external or internal wounds, anti-venom ones, Magic Enhancing ones, and even a batch of ‘Dragonkin Draught’, which increased fire-affinity lightly when drank. Their value was extreme, but Lynne wasn’t in a hurry to either drink them or sell them.

Alongside the potions, there were several dozen weapons, from small daggers to enormous waraxes, but he merely skimmed through them and didn’t pay much attention to them at the moment. He finally landed at six scrolls and exclaimed happily “’Spell Arts!’”. Undoubtedly, he was beyond excited, as these were six ‘Spell Arts’ from the Headmaster of a prestigious academy! However, his excitement quickly died down; of the six, he found that only one was appropriate for him. The others were mostly aimed at ‘Skyfire Mages’ and were all fire-aimed ‘Spell Arts’. When his thoughts trailed here, he couldn’t help but sigh. He was tasked with bringing honor to the ‘Skyfire Magus’ title, yet he wasn’t even a ‘Skyfire Magus’ himself. He pondered briefly until an insane idea struck him. He immediately shook his head and rejected it, but the idea still pressed on.

In one of the stories of the past legendary figures, he remembered the second ‘Skyfire Magus’ ever recorded in the history records. He went by the title of ‘Fire God’, but what fascinated everyone who read that story wasn’t the title or his insane battle records, but rather his Path of Magus. Unlike what common sense indicated, he didn’t follow a single Path, but rather a combination of two: ‘Void Magus’ and ‘Skyfire Magus’. His heart slightly shook, but he was absolutely certain that was just a legend. After all, what kind of a monstrous existence would someone be if they combined two Paths? Imagine if someone combined ‘Physical Magus’ with ‘Blood Magus’. They would become an absolute, immortal existence. Yet, he still couldn’t completely shake the idea off. The legend stated that the reason he was able to follow two paths simultaneously was because of the sub-paths he had chosen.

Sub-paths referred to the further classification of Mages within a single Path. Each Path of Magus had six sub-paths, and then there was the ‘Origin Path’, which referred to the original path. For example, ‘Spellweavers’ could become ‘Dragon Kings’, sub-path proficient in using elemental melee weapons and prolonged, exhaustive exchanges, or they could follow the path of ‘Imperial Executioner’, which used long-ranged throwing weapons with aim to kill the opponent in one strike. ‘Origin Paths’ were similar to those, but they were much harder to train in, and even if one was willing, finding a manual was equal to burning away the ocean. The legend states that the ‘Fire God’ followed two ‘Origin Paths’ - ‘Celestial Emperor of Flames’ for ‘Skyfire Magus’ path and ‘Lord of Infinity’ for ‘Void Path’. This made it possible to follow both paths at the same time, enabling him to reign over the world as its supreme leader.

Lynne quickly scoured through the pouch and, sure enough, he found the manual for the ‘Celestial Emperor of Flames’. It was a rather thin book, not larger than thirty pages, but Lynne knew that if it was released publicly, it would probably cause even Kingdoms to engage in wars. However, he still lacked the ‘Origin Path’ of the ‘Spellweaver’. From his memory, he knew that it was called ‘Spellweaving Celestial’, but in addition to the massive requirements that came with training ‘Origin Paths’, it also required innate Gifts of ‘Comprehension’ and ‘Mana Manipulation’. Lynne had no clue whether he had them, but even if he did, he still had no clue as to where the hell he could find the manual for it. However, considering that one didn’t have to choose sub-path until at least ‘Master Archmage’ stage, he had some time to scout out information. If nothing else, he could at least try. Indeed, the idea of becoming a supreme being of the entire world was extremely tempting, even for someone like him.

However, at the moment, the only ‘Spell Art’ he could use was called ‘Starcarrier’ and it was personally created by the Headmaster.

“Enables caster to project the essence of stars into spells,” Lynne read the rough description silently. “Basic understanding grants spells fiery prowess; advanced understanding enlarges basic spells without wasting additional Mana; profound understanding allows one to project stars themselves into the attack, bringing absolute catastrophe to the targeted area. Hm, it’s enhancing art, very well suited for the ‘Spellweavers’. It actually has no Mana cost, and would passively enhance my spells with each advancement in understanding. Yeah, this is good.”

After scouring through the rest of the pouch, he found some smaller maps as well as some books about both Magic and the Continent, as well as some general information about other Kingdoms. As he had no desire to learn anything just yet, he simply put the pouch back into his pocket and took out Auldin’s ring. Sighing softly, he poured a string of Mana into it whereas he was immediately connected to it. Ring contained only a single thing - ‘Spell String’. Lynne’s eyes glimmered in absolute awe when he saw it. No wonder he told me that it contained ‘him’…

Unlike ‘Spell Art’, ‘Spell String’ aimed to combined several – or even dozen – of spells into a singular explosion. Drawbacks included insane difficulty in training and insane ‘Mana Manipulation’ abilities. In return, one ‘Spell String’ could do as much damage as several dozen ‘Spell Arts’, which spoke volumes to its value.

“’’Array of Divine Flames’...” Lynne muttered the name, reading the general description. “Forms a singular array of all seven kinds of Natural Fires, and two Primal Flames. Basic understanding allows one to create an array of three Natural Fires; advanced understanding allows one to string five Natural Fires; grand understanding allows one to string all seven Natural Fires; profound understanding allows one to unleash full potency of the String,” Lynne sighed softly; he was absolutely certain that this actually wasn’t created by Auldin. At best, he figured, it was modified. Even though he lacked in-depth understanding about ‘Spell Arts’ and ‘Spell Strings’, he could easily conclude that this ‘Spell String’ was anything but ordinary. Forget ‘Primal Flames’, even trying to combine three different Natural Fires was a task only a few in the entire world could complete. Divine Spell… where the hell did Auldin find it…

Lynne realized that there was absolutely no way he could gain even a whiff of understanding from this ‘Spell String’ - at least not before he also begun following the ‘Skyfire Magus’ path if possible. As ‘Skyfire’ was one of the two ‘Primal Flames’, its name indicated the entire purpose of the path – to achieve the absolute, unparalleled control over all fires. Perhaps only those ‘Skyfire Mages’ at the very apex would be able to unleash seven Natural Fires within a ‘Spell String’. However, as for two ‘Primal Flames’, Lynne believed it to be impossible, as even the venerated ‘Fire God’ couldn’t even look at ‘Primal Flames’, let alone control them. ‘Skyfire’ and ‘Hellfire’ were two flames from which Natural Fires were created – they were deities of sort. Trying to control them… Lynne simply thought it was impossible. However, it was Auldin’s last wish, and he couldn’t just shake his head. When there’s will, there’s a way… as long as it’s possible, I will do it, even if it takes ten lifetimes to accomplish it.