The Mind is the weakness of all beasts, whereas humans have the weakest Body. The danger of beasts is when a king surfaces with a strong Mind because as strong as humans are, a beast tide controlled by intelligence is a nightmare they won’t survive.

~Cernunnos, Lord of the Wild Things

After that day in the library, Crow felt Zoe was right. The library gave off the perfect atmosphere to help him study. Every day, he’d gather new books on various topics related to what he needed. These mainly were science-related research.

The thing was, even though these topics were more for the mortal population, the insights couldn’t be ignored. Just because a person wasn’t a cultivator didn’t mean they lacked intelligence. The philosophy, outlook on life, and even speculation about the Truths governing the universe were helpful.

Every time Crow got stuck on his increasingly complex technique, he’d find a random book to read. The topic wasn’t always critical, and because of that, he read books on astrology, farming, finances, and whatever else the mundane world offered.

He took an hour to flip through all the books on Scholarly Talents, but he only did it to record the content. There were many books, but quite a few of them he’d already read. Scholarly Talents were better organized than techniques, so it wasn’t surprising that some texts were mass-produced. The only section he put more emphasis on was formations, but there didn’t seem to be any advanced topics anywhere. Crow assumed either they were on a lower floor or maintained by the masters. This didn’t seem like a place that would openly share.

A week of studying passed, and he and Zoe both took the same obligation to clean and maintain the abandoned area. Crow didn’t want her to be freaked out, so he told her about the leprechaun. Once she understood what had happened to the other disciples, she looked more relaxed. Crow did a large part of the work, letting her explore the buildings without fear.

Crow didn’t throw caution out the door because he felt the main reason for abandoning that part of the sect didn’t have anything to do with Donovan. The reason he read through the sect’s history books was to discover what happened, but he didn’t discover anything about it at all. They buried that part of their history, not letting anyone know what happened.

He didn’t have the heart to tell Zoe, but he wouldn’t let her run around unsupervised. Crow monitored her the entire time to be safe. Nothing even triggered his instincts. The mystery was probably related to the nighttime events and why they had to leave this area before sundown.

Sighing, he dropped his quills on the table that had quickly become ‘their’ spot in the library. He arranged his hands so they could massage the opposite wrists simultaneously. Dual-hand writing put a lot of strain on his hands and wrists, but now that he was done, the pain was drowned out by his relief and sense of accomplishment. He’d done it.

Picking up the stack of parchments covered front and back with writing, he reviewed his work. Reading it twice for good measure. Turning page after page, he was excited. The last few pages were mostly theories on how to break down his other techniques. Not to mention his thoughts on how techniques were created.

Crow remembered his father wanted him to study the Ecology of Mana, which is what he’d done. Following the flow of things, he realized how it balanced. Collectively, he was calling it the Aura of Awen since it was a culmination of the three Auras related to Mind, Body, and Spirit.

Most of his focus after the Aura of Awen, he shifted his thoughts toward breaking down the Blood Vine ability. It was the one he was most familiar with and extremely powerful. Ghosting followed that since it was his self-created ability, and with it, Ghostly Steps. These were his core abilities. The only thing he didn’t try to modify for now was his Body cultivation method. And it didn’t appear necessary anyway. Unlike the Druid method, it was passive, and the chakras were legitimately linked to his Source. He hesitated to redesign any part of it because those chakras were still mysterious to him. The Song sisters might be able to help him understand it more, but he wasn’t sure. The real reason he feared touching it was that he didn’t want to put more pressure on his libido. There was no telling if it’d mess up the fiery essence of his manhood.

The three pillars of his Aura of Awen were much easier to build than understanding the body cultivation method Song Lin gave him. Then again, that could be because of the Auras he’d originally designed for his techniques. Redesigning his Auras in this way just felt like a natural progression.

There was only one thing left for him to do now—abolish his previous designs. Crow shuddered thinking about it because it’d be painful and leave him very vulnerable. It was also a massive gamble because he was in enemy territory, but he was pretty sure this was one of those times where the choice was not a choice. Nor could he delay it for long. This would significantly improve his strength and ability, but only if he was allowed to train peacefully for a few more weeks. It didn’t guarantee he’d escape, but the odds would favor him more.

Looking internally, he mapped and remapped the pathways he’d need to activate in his body. It was similar to what he needed to do for his Body cultivation method, but with one big difference. These channels would need to be useable by all cultivation methods. The best part was that his Aura of Awen made sixty percent of every spell and ability redundant. Meaning every technique, spell, or ability he found in the future could reuse the parts of his Aura, which massively lowered the mental burden.

The mana that brought the ability to life—and provided its behavior—was essentially a wild card. Unless… they mastered how to create Druid Circles. These circles were more versatile than he’d initially thought because he could control all the mana within them. This allowed him to choose which type of accessible mana he could use to fill the last requirement of the spell. The spell’s power or ‘umph’ was from his Source since it was as close to Origin energy as he could get. So like a normal Druid spell, he drew in the elements from his surroundings and then sent it into overdrive with his Source.

On the surface, this appeared very complex, and Crow couldn’t deny that. However, once set up, using abilities and spells was stupidly simple. The Aura formed over half of every spell, so he needed to connect it to the remaining part, which automatically called on his Source. Even without a Druid Circle, he could passively pull in mana, even if it was a little chaotic. Still, Crow had another even better method. He always had access to Night Fire, which meant he could first teach himself all those techniques and confirm their behavior using Fire Mana. Ghost Mana was also in him since he’d used it in Body refining for his Ghostly Aura. Then there was access to Yggdrasil and Wood Mana from his Soulverse.

While contemplating the following steps, an argument at the table nearby broke out. In this sect, that wasn’t unusual, so he’d typically ignore it, but Zoe had been socializing with them since her coven sisters were there.

Sighing, he broke free from his speculation and turned all his documentation into ash. The heat wave caught a lot of attention which is what he wanted. People that’d been hanging around and trying to spy on Crow’s research saw his actions and sighed.