The Weave

The worlds within the multiverse are places brimming with magic, where every existence is saturated with magical power. Every stone, every stream, every living creature, and even the air itself contains untapped potential energy.

This raw magic is the raw material of creation and a silent, existential consciousness; it permeates every speck of matter and manifests throughout the multiverse in various forms of energy.

Mortals cannot use this raw magic directly, but they can borrow power through a woven structure of magic that acts as a bridge between the caster's consciousness and the raw magical essence.

And casters call this—the Weave!

The deity who masters the source of this Weave is Mystra, known as the Goddess of Magic.

Casters have different names and understandings of this bridge, but regardless of what it is called, without the Weave, raw magic remains locked away and unreachable.

It was once asserted that even the most powerful archmage could not use magic to light a candle in a place where the Weave is severed.

Yet, in places surrounded by the Weave, casters can summon lightning to strike down enemies, teleport thousands of miles in an instant, or even reverse death itself.

All magic is closely related to the Weave, though different spells interact with it in different ways.

The Elves call it Elven magic, or life magic!

The Dwarves have runes!

The Dragons have Draconic magic!

Those like celestial clerics, who borrow the power of gods to cast spells, call it divine magic!

And so on!

Before his eyes lay a vast, white world; the ground was covered in a dense grid, and the sky was a fake shade of blue.

After Borne woke up, he stared blankly at this low-budget, special-effects world, not even knowing how to begin his complaints!

But because this world was so obviously fake, Borne immediately recalled that he had been undergoing magical "enlightenment."

This must be a place similar to a dream, or perhaps like the mental world of the Tailed Beasts in Naruto!

Borne realized that he had actually forgotten about the real world and accepted this false one; if it hadn't been so absurd that it touched upon his inner bottom line, he wouldn't have realized it at all!

After walking around, he understood the situation well enough.

With a thought, the surroundings began to shift.

When he came to his senses, he found himself in a place resembling a water prison. Before him on the water's surface stood a massive iron gate with a large "Seal" character in the center, though there was no giant fox inside.

"Only matter?"

Borne rubbed his chin. With a thought, a glass of animated, ice-cold Sprite appeared out of thin air, bubbles constantly rising to the surface.

It was simply magical!

But why did the art style look so much like a drawing?

Gulp... gulp...

It tasted like Sprite, but it felt a bit strange...

He immediately conjured a hamburger, but it looked as if it had been plucked right out of a picture book. Borne tried taking a few bites, but his face darkened shortly after.

It had the right taste, but it provided no sense of satiety; it felt like eating air once it hit his stomach.

As expected, it was fake! This world was truly miraculous, capable of deceiving even the senses!

It was a foodie's paradise—you could eat whatever you wanted without worrying about being full.

Without dwelling on it too much, Borne had a sudden inspiration, and a large tree appeared before him!

A blue energy sphere, spinning incessantly, appeared in his hand. He shouted, "Rasengan!" and slammed it into the tree.

Crack!

The tree collapsed and vanished.

"This works too..."

Borne twitched his lips.

"Let's try this."

"Come, swords..."

"Return of the Ten Thousand Swords!"

"No, the more complex it gets, the weirder the art style becomes..."

Later, Borne imagined a Gundam, but the art style was bizarre, comparable to a kindergarten robot drawing.

Of course, if one ignored the atrocious art style, this place could satisfy any human fantasy.

Borne waved his hand, clearing the surroundings once more, and returned to the initial, low-budget white grid world.

He generated a low-budget lounge chair and began to rock back and forth.

"It's exactly like 'The Little Match Girl' in the fairy tale..."

"No..."

"Matches? Fuel?"

"Where is this... how did I get here?"

"I am... Borne Ioulaum, Count, Grandfather?!"

"Right, the Enlightenment Ritual... yes, I am undergoing the Enlightenment Ritual!"

Borne remembered!

"Then these grids are... the Weave?"

The Weave in his memories was merely a name, representing the primordial source of magic.

"So, is this a projection of the subconscious? Then wouldn't the Deep Weave be..."

Borne widened his eyes, peering down through the white expanse.

Suddenly, everything around him changed; the white expanse turned kaleidoscopic, and the sky became breathtakingly beautiful.

There are countless colors in the world, but the human eye cannot distinguish them all, a limitation determined by the types of cone cells.

A normal person has three types of cone cells and is a trichromat (red, green, blue).

These three colors compose the seven colors, just as humans see the seven-colored rainbow through a crystal in visible light.

At most, there are only differences in shade.

But now, Borne felt as if he could see over a dozen colors!

Most of the rest were hazy and gray.

Inert elements!

Borne understood this quite naturally. He tried to sense them; the gray ones were complete voids, and as expected, he couldn't sense them, but the colored ones responded.

"Emotions?"

Even though he could see over a dozen colors, most of them didn't 'give a damn' about him.

Borne discovered that colors leaning toward 'flame' were relatively closer to him; these must be fire elements, as he could feel the heat of the fire.

The second type, an element that looked very much like 'blue', made his senses feel a bit numb. This is...

Electricity?

His hands couldn't touch them, but when he sensed them with his mind, he found he could still communicate with them.

Yes, communicate!

The elements actually possessed consciousness!

It was just very weak. Even within the same element, some were very lively, some clearly had higher 'intelligence', and some were as dull as wooden puppets.

Borne tried to gather them into his body. Although this spiritual form was illusory, he could still feel the elements swimming through it.

This gave Borne the distinct feeling of being a kindergarten teacher!

He was coaxing a group of children wearing clothes of various colors; some would listen and stay, some would leave as soon as they entered, and some would ignore him entirely and run around!

The 'children' who stayed would slowly be infected by Borne's 'emotions' and turn into the same 'color' as him.

Mana!

He understood it all at once; this was the correct way to open it!

Knowing what he had to do, Borne began to communicate with the elements incessantly, coaxing them in to be converted into mana.

Not long after, Borne noticed something was wrong.

Not only was his sensing becoming weaker, but he also seemed to be getting 'tired'.

Only then did Borne realize his body was becoming somewhat transparent.

"Mental energy consumption? That's not right either. Shouldn't meditation restore mana and mental energy? Why would it be consumed?"

Could it be that another kind of wondrous energy was being consumed by him? Borne recalled the materials his grandfather had placed on the ritual magic circle.

Borne felt that the current state of his 'spirit body' must be related to those.

It seemed he had to hurry and convert more mana. Clearly, the elements with "higher intelligence" were of higher quality, but they required more mental energy to 'coax'. Borne didn't have any extra energy to burn, so he could only use the low-"intelligence" elements to boost the quantity first!

Until the very last shred of energy was exhausted, the mana only occupied half of his body.

In an instant, Borne felt as if he were on a roller coaster, only to be flung off.

Bang!

Borne collapsed directly onto the ground, hit by an intense wave of dizziness, as if he had spun in the air a hundred times.

Ugh... ugh...

Borne began to retch, though fortunately, there was nothing left in his stomach.

The Count helped him up and gently brushed his hand over Borne's head.

The intense dizziness and the throbbing in his head eased significantly.

He steadied his spirit.

"Thank you, Grandfather."

Borne felt genuine gratitude toward the old man; he could already sense a different kind of power within his body, a power known as...

Mana!

With the possession of mana, he felt as though his soul had been cleansed. The veil that had once shrouded his spirit seemed to have vanished, and the world appeared so beautiful in his eyes!

He understood now!

He had truly integrated into this world; the world no longer rejected him, and his soul had finally become one with his body.

Not even a true master of the soul would be able to detect the anomaly of his spirit now.

His grandfather's eyes shimmered with the radiance of mana as if trying to see right through Borne, and he couldn't help but nod in satisfaction.

"Good! Good! Not bad at all—you have already reached the level of an intermediate magic apprentice!"

Ignorant as he might be, Borne understood that this 'Enlightenment Ritual' was simply heaven-defying!

Completing this ritual granted one the full mana of an intermediate magic apprentice, skipping the initial accumulation phase entirely; once he learned the incantations, he could master magic immediately!

Reality was not like a game, where every character was a professional and could cast spells the moment their stats were high enough.

An ordinary person might have a slim hope of becoming a warrior or a guard with enough effort, but not everyone could become a professional; breaking through one's limits to achieve that status was, after all, a rarity.

Those with the talent for spellcasting were even rarer, like phoenix feathers and qilin horns; even among the Elves, high-level spellcasters accounted for only a small fraction.

The key was the entry point—the entry was the most important thing. Without it, one wouldn't even know which direction to strive toward, no matter how hard they tried.

For some reason, Borne felt his head grow heavy. His body swayed uncontrollably, his vision went black, and he fainted on the spot. The Count seemed to have been prepared, catching him before he hit the ground.

Seeing Borne being carried out by the Count, Viscount Gordon hurried forward.

Although the Count remained as aloof as ever, the slight upturn of his lips told Viscount Gordon immediately that the matter had been a success, and he couldn't help but grin broadly!

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