Magic Books

After that, Arnold continued battling Fifth-level magical beasts and did not dare provoke Sixth-level magical beasts. Even against a Hedgehog Earth Dragon, a Fifth-level magical beast said to rival Sixth-level magical beasts, Arnold was not guaranteed to kill it in a one-on-one fight. One could naturally see just how powerful Sixth-level magical beasts were.

After fighting a Fifth-level magical beast, Arnold decided to rest for a few days. He stopped in a forest somewhere within the Warcraft Mountain Range.

This forest was fairly vast. From the outside, it appeared to be nearly several thousand meters in both length and width. Other than some large rocks and trees, there seemed to be no magical beasts inside. Naturally, this was the result of Arnold's investigation with Wind of Detection.

The few days he spent in this forest were considered a chance for Arnold to relax. He had spent forty or fifty days in the Warcraft Mountain Range without even having someone to talk to, so he was naturally quite stifled.

On the second morning in the forest, Arnold woke up and practiced low-level magic beside a two-meter-high boulder. Although he had already mastered these low-level spells thoroughly, Arnold knew that the deeper his understanding of magic became, the faster he would comprehend Laws in the future.

Wind Blades, Shattering Stones, and Earth Spikes swept across the ground, kicking up clouds of dust. Arnold paid them no mind. Once the dust settled, a sudden whim struck him. He walked to the boulder, set his bundle aside, and began pushing it.

The boulder stood two meters high and weighed at least several hundred jin, perhaps even over a thousand. But with his interest piqued, Arnold pushed it aside directly. Arnold now possessed the strength of a Second-level Warrior, so moving the boulder was naturally effortless.

After pushing the boulder away, Arnold leaned against it and casually looked at the ground where it had originally stood. At first glance, he noticed something unusual. Though the ground beneath the boulder looked perfectly natural, filled with uneven pebbles of all kinds.

Other areas were covered in numerous protruding, pointed stone pits. Though they had been pressed smooth by the boulder's weight, they were still obvious at a glance. Yet one patch had none of these pits and was exceptionally flat.

Arnold did not waste any time. He directly dug away the earth surrounding that spot. By then, he had dug a circular pit roughly one meter deep and two meters wide where the boulder had stood, leaving only a half-meter-wide section in the center sticking out abruptly.

Arnold lightly jumped into the pit and slowly peeled away the soil from the cylindrical mound in the middle.

To Arnold's amused bewilderment, he found nothing after clearing away the entire cylinder of earth. Instead, after moving the soil elsewhere, he spotted an old piece of cloth resembling a bundle beneath where it had been. With no other choice, Arnold carefully dug around the cloth and eventually unearthed the bundle. Then he returned to sit beside the boulder aboveground.

The bundle was around twenty to thirty centimeters long and only a little over ten centimeters wide. It was also very light. Arnold guessed that it probably contained books, though he had no idea what kind.

Of course, to guard against poison or anything similar, Arnold carefully cut open the bundle with his knife, then moved more than ten meters away and watched it.

If there really were poison, it would probably be powdered poison placed on the book or inside the bundle. Generally speaking, though, powdered poison could not last very long. Judging by how old the bundle was, it had likely been there for decades, and poison could not possibly remain effective for that long. Still, Arnold did not dare gamble. He stayed at a distance for half a day, and only after deciding there was probably no danger did he approach to inspect the book.

The book's cover looked as though it was made of silk, and it was dark gold overall. Arnold guessed that it had been made from exceptionally fine materials. Otherwise, after sitting there for decades, the book could not possibly have retained its color.

Arnold picked up the book and casually flipped through it. He was immediately stunned. It was actually a book about earth-element magic.

Moreover, the book was extremely detailed. Arnold flipped directly to the final pages and actually saw the incantations for Ninth-level magic.

Excited, Arnold began reading the book again from the beginning. The first page briefly explained that the book mainly described all earth-element spells from the first through Ninth-level, interspersed with the author's own understanding of earth-element magic.

Arnold continued to the second page. Beginning with first-level earth-element magic, every important point was written with great clarity, and each spell included the author's personal insights.

Arnold did not skip ahead to the advanced magic above Sixth-level. Instead, he read from beginning to end. By the time he finished the book of barely more than a hundred pages, an entire day had passed.

After finishing it, Arnold felt deep admiration for the book's author—Magus Morin.

Morin had been a Ninth-level Archmage of the earth element three hundred years ago. He had never broken through to the Saint Domain in his life and had therefore died of old age.

The incantations and detailed explanations for first through Ninth-level magic that Morin left behind were already enough to benefit Arnold immensely. Yet the book also contained Morin's questions and insights regarding magic, recorded before his death, and they set Arnold's heart surging.

Morin explained in the book that until shortly before dying of old age, he had never comprehended even a trace of Law and had been unable to enter the Saint Domain. This left Morin deeply depressed, so he decided to copy out a book that explained first through Ninth-level magic in detail and included his own understanding.

However, after writing and organizing all the spells from the first through Ninth-level, Morin developed a new view of magic as a whole. Morin's former teacher, Saint Domain Magus Balo, had once guided him, saying that the only path to becoming a Saint Domain expert was to comprehend Law.

The Law Balo had comprehended was something he called Earth Law, which manifested in the composition and fluctuations of earth elements. Therefore, Morin had always explored in the direction of earth elements. In truth, however, Morin preferred the magic derived from the low-level earth-element spell Earthshaking Art.

But because Balo, a Saint Domain magus, had succeeded before him, Morin had believed Earth Law was as Balo described it: one had to comprehend the fundamental elements of the earth element.

Yet during his final days, as Morin organized earth-element magic, he came to feel that Mentor Balo had been wrong. Or rather, not exactly wrong—what Mentor Balo said simply did not suit Morin.

Based on all earth-element magic, Morin divided Earth Law into several categories, and they were surprisingly almost identical to what Arnold had previously imagined.

Morin named the Earth Law derived from Gravity Spell Gravity Law; he named the Earth Law derived from the use of earth elements in Meteorite Descent, Earth-Rending Rupture, Earth Guardian Sacred Armor, and Earth Guard Earth Element; he named the Earth Law derived from Earthshaking Art and many other spells related to fluctuations Earth Fluctuation... Morin guessed that if earth-element magic continued to be studied, other manifestations of Earth Law might be discovered as well. He estimated that there could be no more than nine such derived Laws.

Morin claimed that Earth Law was composed of these several derived Earth Laws. It was said that those Saint Domain Pinnacle experts had already comprehended 99.99% of Law, and that as long as they comprehended another trace, they could become gods.

Morin himself speculated: assuming Law was composed of nine derived Laws, then fully comprehending just one of them would probably be enough to become a god.