In front of Jack was a simple Non-Element Seven Element Magic Circle Diagram. Six of the seven points were diagonally opposite of one another and there was one point that stood by itself. The aligned points represent opposites: Fire-Water, Wind-Earth, Light-Darkness and the one that stood by himself was Lightning.

In Ashan Magic, everything in the Cosmos is made of these seven elements. Wood and Metal for example are classified as a special Earth Element Material, while Magma and Ice are the result of fusion between Fire and Earth or Water and Wind.

As Jack ingrained the Magic Circle Diagram into his mind, he simultaneously tried to construct the same Magic Circle by himself. However, he didn’t have much luck as he had a hard time balancing the seven elements without one being over dominant of others. Constructing Magic Circles was hard because of one certain factor, the Lightning Element.

Lightning didn’t have an opposite like for example Fire and Water, so when Jack managed to balance the six elements without any problems, trying to add the Lightning Element without disrupting the balance was quite hard.

He had to simultaneously either add or decrease the Mana he had input into the six other elements to find the perfect balance between the seven.

Even after continuously trying four days he always fell a bit short. All that practice wasn’t totally in vain as his Magic Circle building was several dozens of times faster than in the beginning. After familiarizing himself with the process of balancing the six elements it wasn’t hard to instantly create the incomplete Magic Circle but every time he tried to add the Lightning Element, the Magic Circle failed.

Some times it just shattered and fell apart while some times it gave off a small explosion.

Currently, Jack was standing in his courtyard and in front of him was a weird contraption. It composed of a stick as wide as a finger, a plate as with a diameter of 30 centimeters and seven small marble balls.

The stick was injected into the ground and it stood up ruler straight while on the stick was the plate. It was perfectly balanced in the centre and currently Jack was adding the little marbles onto the plate one by one. When looked from above, it would look very similar to a Seven Element Magic Circle.

What Jack was currently doing was trying to add the seven marbles like the seven points of the Magic Circle and try not to tilt the plate off the stick in the process. He had thought of this simple method to further try and deepen his understanding of balance between the seven elements. All of the seven marbles were exactly the same with exactly the same weight, so to try and balance them on the plate without tilting it was a worthwhile activity.

It took Jack several tries to perfectly balance the seven marbles on the plate without tilting it but when he did so, he had to put the seven marbles on at the same time. As Jack stared at the plate from an upper perspective, he suddenly slammed his forehead with his palm as he muttered, “Of course, no wonder it is so hard to add the Lightning Element afterwards when everything else is already balanced.”

Jack suddenly felt that he was extremely dumb for not thinking about this before. Before, he balanced two elements before he added another two and then another two. However, the crux of the problem was that these elements were all opposites so balancing them was easy but if he had added one at a time, then he would have reached this conclusion sooner.

If he tried to simultaneously balance the seven elements form the beginning it would be far easier than to balance two, then add two and so on. With this newfound inspiration, he immediately started experimenting.

Simultaneously balancing the seven elements while also trying to make sure everything is where it is supposed to be and at the same time add Mana to each point equally was easier said than done. After a few failed attempts, Jack stopped as he mused to himself, “I am definitely on the right path but doing everything at the same time is a bit hard. Maybe I should divide it up a bit more.”

As he thought that, he decided to simplify the process for himself by breaking it down into a few stages.

He decided to try it like this: First create the Rough Circle by making sure that every element is next to the element they are supposed to be and try to balance them like that. Then he would slowly add the Mana into it to create Complete Circle that he can imprint into his Soul. That will be the base template for his future Non-Element Spells.

When Mages learn specific spells they need two things: The Chant and the Basic Template. A Template is a Septagram with each of the seven points touching the circle that encompasses the entire Septagram. Then there is a small gap and then comes a bigger circle that swallows the previous circle with the Septagram. That gap is where the spell Chant is.

If you have the Basic Template of the element imprinted into your Soul, you can easily take that Template and by adding the chant you can use the spell very quickly. In a fight every second counts so who will give you the time to both build the Magic Circle and recite the Chant? No one will.

A Mage would be killed way before he could even finish building the Magic Circle if he had to build a new Circle each and every time he wanted to use a Spell.

If you had the Base Template, you only needed to recite the Chant either verbally or in your mind and focus your Mana on the Basic Template and the Magic Spell will build itself according to the Chant. Chants are the key to Spells as they are what guides the Mana in accordance to the effect of the Spell and executes it.

Innate Spells however did not require a Chant or a Basic Template as the Spell that is imprinted onto the Soul is an already finished Magic Circle with the Chant. You only need to pour your Mana into the Magic Circle imprinted onto your Soul and the Spell will immediately activate.

This was the advantage Innate Spells had, they needed very little time to activate. If the Spell is a large scale spell, then you needed a bit more time to absorb the Energy and pour it into the Magic Circle. However, if it was a self target spell like [Flash Step] or [Armour of Flames] then the cast time was low.

However, if you wanted to cast a large scale Spell like [Meteor Shower] then you needed some time to gather enough Mana to create the meteors. So for every pro there was a con. Large scale spells were useful in large scale fights but they needed ample time to cast and also a large amounts of Mana.

However, in single combat they were quite useless as you would not have the time to finish casting the spell before you would be cut down. In those scenarios single target spells like [Lightning Bolt] or [Magic Bullet] were more useful as they needed less Mana to cast and their cast times were also several times lower.

After trying several times, Jack started increasing his rest time between next tries. Every time he rested, he also replayed the whole process in his head and tried to find where he went wrong. After finding his mistakes, he started thinking how is the most efficient way of fixing it without creating more problems.

In the beginning the rest times was around 5 minutes but after repeating the process for several times, the analysis time grew significantly longer. It was obvious as Jack gathered more experience with the Magic Circle, the more familiar he grew with the build up and why something conflicts with one another.

He also found several problems with the Magic Circle that he had built. These problems weren’t anything major and were easily overlooked but in the long run, they may cause problems when he tries to cast higher levelled spells. Time slowly ticked by and soon another 4 days passed, however, in front of Jack there was a small Magic Circle.

Jack grinned as he looked at the Magic Circle floating on his palm with bloodshot eyes. This was the Basic Template of Non-Element Magic Spells. His hard work had completely paid off as he had managed to create the Basic Template in only eight days after starting trying. Besides eating or going to the toilet, he had kept trying to create this simple little thing.

As for sleep, he had slept for the bare minimum these past few days and so his mind was currently a bit off. Jack let out a laugh as he kept staring at the Magic Circle and he felt proud of his accomplishment. He himself was very satisfied with the Magic Circle in front of him as it was a one on one replica of the one that Raelag had left behind for him.

That Diagram that Raelag left behind for Jack was something that he had spent many many years in perfecting. After taking a deep breath, Jack sat down cross legged and closed his eyes.

The Magic Circle in front of him then slowly started lighting up as it slowly floated towards Jack’s chest and then entered it.

***

Up in the air overlooking Jack’s courtyard were two people. A gentle old man wearing white robes and a hooded figure in white robes. The symbols on the robes of the two people were the same and if you looked closely, you would recognise the old man as Xia Hao.

As for the person next to him, her features were unrecognisable. As they looked at Jack on the ground, Xia Hao let out a surprised laugh, “Atta boy. He managed to create a perfect Base Template in only eight days. If those guys from the Ashan Cosmos heard of this, they would probably die of embarrassment.”

What Xia Hao said wasn’t wrong as a person that manages to create even a Five Element Basic Template in three months would be dubbed as a genius. To create a Seven Element Basic Template in only eight days, it was completely unheard of. But at the same time, there had never been an Acolyte with a Magus Soul as strong as Jack’s either.

His starting point was already miles ahead from others and also, it wasn’t like he had no contact with the Elements before. Even as a cultivator, you try to understand the elements so Jack already had a basic knowledge on the elements.

The hooded figure took a small step forward but then stopped. She seemed to be hesitating as she tightly clenched her fist. What was shocking was that on her snow white arms were many hideous scars. A hoarse voice came from the hooded figure, “He looks just like his Father.”

Xia Hao’s smile disappeared as he seriously nodded his head and said, “Even thought over 8000 years have passed, the chances of Jack being him are relatively high.” The hooded figure seemed to struggle even more and as Xia Hao saw that, he said seriously, “Remember, it is not definite. After all 8000 years have passed since that day and even though you threw him to the Ancient Battlefield, the time is distorted there.”

Xia Hao then added in a cold voice, “Jack is only 15, turning 16 this year. He has the medallion and a mysterious past but that doesn’t mean that he is him.” The hooded figure finally seemed to relax and took a step back. She then said, “I’ll have to trouble you Father.”

Immediately after saying so, she disappeared into thin air. Xia Hao looked at the spot the hooded figure disappeared form and murmured to himself, “Aiaah my foolish daughter. Far too much time has passed, the chances of him being dead are thousands of times higher than being alive….”

After murmuring that, he turned his head to look at Jack. This time with a serious gaze that seemed to look deep into his Soul.