Magic has always been a fascinating thing. Be it the spells in Harry Potter series, the ninja techniques of Naruto and Sasuke or even the cultivation techniques mentioned in popular webnovels. Everyone has at least once imitated them, especially when they are alone.

***

It was noon. Four people could be seen in an open space near the Fairy camp.

Param and Madhu had serious faces, and were watching with extreme concentration. In front of them was Claire standing and demonstrating them.

“Magic is a mysterious thing. When magic is used, it forms something called miasma and vice versa. Miasma is harmful for creatures who depend on magic. Also, Profound Energy is magic and miasma both. When we say Profound Energy it means the energy used by a person, it means either magic or miasma depending on the user.”

“Most creatures use magic as their Profound Energy, while Dragons, Beastmen and Humans can use both magic and miasma. Devils are the only race who use miasma exclusively.”

It was fairly easy to understand. If magic was oxygen, then miasma was like carbon dioxide.

Both were polar opposite forms of energy, and their power harnessing techniques seemed to be different.

Claire continued.

“There are myriad of techniques developed to use Profound Energy, such as rituals, formation, spells and cultivation techniques.”

She stopped talking, and took a deep breath. Param couldn’t help look at her chest and sighed. Everyone in this world looks so darn perfect !

She started chanting nasally and guided her hand towards a nearby tree. The tree swayed a little and then stopped as if mocking her : this is it ?

Claire flushed and said, “That…. The Profound Pressure here is too much. Usually this creates an intangible attack from air, and it’s enough to kill a beast.”

“Interesting…” Madhu replied. Indeed it was interesting, if not for the fail show.

Yun Bao was silent all this while and spoke now.

“Let me add a little. Druids were the first Race of this planet, and they were the one who started practicing rituals. As times developed we developed something called as cultivation techniques.”

“Rituals are cumbersome and difficult to perform. But their effects are extremely powerful. Things like changing weather or terrain can become possible using rituals.

While cultivation techniques are the methods to accumulate and condense Profound Energy and nourish the body using it.”

The class ended and Param and Madhu said their thanks.

After they entered their tent Madhu said to him.

“Are we really safe here ?”

Param was worried about the same thing. Although it looked like things were well and peaceful, the both of them were hanging on a tight rope.

Although they were shown what exactly was magic, neither Claire nor the Druid taught them how to exactly perform a magic. They clearly did not want these two to increase their combat strength.

There was something that these people were cautious about, thought Param. He had no idea how his constitution and his boss “Varaha” had given the others a huge fright.

He assured her that they’ll figure something out. They had to figure something out.

***

In another part of the huge forest, corpses laid and blood flowed. Their was a terrible stench of blood in the air. Bits of hands and legs were hanging left and right. There was some amount of newly created magic in the air. This was created using miasma techniques.

Only a few devil soldiers remained standing with general Tengoku Yokusei. Their opponent was a an ape looking Sage Beast.

Sage Beasts had intelligence of pre teen kids. They usually were mischievous but seldom initiated a fight with others. It was the general who coveted the body of the beast.

The general was not at fault; how could anyone let such a treasure walk away ? The blood, flesh and bones of the beast could be used to create healing and nourishing potions.

The Sage Beast was exhausted and irritated. He was just peacefully taking a dump when suddenly this group of despicable people attacked him.

He even tried to communicate with sign language used by his fellow creatures to show peace symbol by showing his middle finger, yet their attacks strengthened whenever he did that.

Yokusei was exhausted and irritated. He’d spotted this guy and silently lead his army here- to watch him taking a dump ! Was he to wait for him to finish ? Honestly speaking, he disliked unfair battles. But being a general, he had to consider his soldiers.

The Sage Beast was powerful. Along with his resilient body, he was perhaps able to innately use some Profound techniques.

The irritating part was that this despicable guy kept showing him the middle finger. How dare he !

The Sage beast sprinted towards them with a boom. The ground shook a little and Yokusei wielded his spear. It was time to display his technique.

“Buy me some time.” He told his men, and they engaged with the beast.

He took a deep breath, and nasally chanted a spell. The spell had little words, yet each word brought some changes in his body.

He felt the familiar sensation of energy travelling from his entire body towards his hand holding the spear. The spear was made of a special alloy created to withstand high temperatures.

The energy flowed into his palm and then into the spear, where it turned into heat. The spear heated up and became red. General Yokusei felt resistance from the environment due to Profound Pressure.

Most of his soldiers fighting the beast earlier were heavily injured. The Sage beast was worthy of its title. He had developed the feeling of compassion, even for his enemies.

Yokusei was surprised, grateful, and sorry. He gave a short kind smile to the beast.

The Sage beast looked at him tiredly, and raised his middle finger.

The general’s eye twitched. This beast has to die !

He ran towards the beast, and the beast bent towards him to knock him down. He raised his spear near the beast’s hand and stabbed into it. The beast moved its hand and was lightly grazed.

The beast roared, not because of the graze but because of the burn it got from the spear. It stumbled and fell along with the spear in its hand.

Yokusei wasted no time and grabbed another spear and thrust it into the beast’s throat. He stabbed again and again until the Sage Beast stopped twitching.

Totally exhausted, he collapsed on his knees near the dead beast. The reserve soldiers were treating those injured, and some of them were preparing to carry their prize, which was the beast.

Yokusei had a bad feeling after this fight. He dragged his legs away from the battlefield. He won’t be able to bear seeing the child-like Sage beast getting dismantled.

Only little Harumi can make him feel better now.

***

“I am invincible !!!” Shur gave a yell and pierced into a savage beast. The sword finally broke and remained inside the throat of the panda like beast.

Shur breathed deeply, feeling confident with his progress. The did not notice the awkward expressions over the soldiers faces. How could they not feel embarrassed ? Their prince had this peculiar habit of declaring himself as invincible whenever he performed a fatal strike.

Elder Accha was even more embarrassed than the soldiers. He could not deduce how could his descendant have this kind of habit. So he turned to other direction, as if saying- I do not know this kid !

***

Param and Madhu brainstormed and tried to think of various solutions. The major problem they faced was Profound techniques. They had no backing and no individual strength.

Madhu was a little more lucky than Param, as she seemed to be able to subconsciously control some Profound Energy in her body. She could move a minute part of it from one random point in her body to another- that was it.

Param was a not surprised. Her species was at the apex of the Fairy Race, so it was possible that she would have some kind of bluffs.

He tried to detect the energy inside his body. He concentrated and focused, but after all that the only thing he could do was to barf.

Maybe I’m trying the wrong approach, he thought.

He sat down on the ground in a lotus position and calmed his mind.

He wanted to test something out. He inhaled a deep breath, and chanted the ‘Om’ word.

“Oooooommmmmmm…….”

He wasn’t used to meditating, so his chanting was short, stiff and broken.

He took a deep breath again, and chanted the ‘Om’ word again. This time it wasn’t stiff or broken, but it was shorter than it should be.

He tried again and again. Their tent was filled with the vibrations of ‘Om’.

Madhu didn’t know what he was trying to do, so she continued experimenting on her own after watching him for a while.

Param gradually began to grasp the technique and started to feel extremely minute changes in his body.

He could feel something, like an itch inside his body. He could feel the vibrations through his whole body. As he continued, these vibrations resonated and allowed him to vaguely feel the structure of his body. Like how one is able to sense the structure of their entire mouth through their tongue, he was trying to use these vibrations to sense the structure of his body.

Although circumstances forced them to rediscover Profound techniques, they would open a new path which would lead them to the apex.