Earth Escape Spiral Sphere and Life Force

However, mages had obvious advantages over warriors. First, many spells were far more powerful than warriors of the same level; second, mages also held a higher status than warriors.

Setting aside his resentment over having to create spell chants every time, Arnold began researching once more.

At present, the strongest offensive spell among Arnold's earth-element magic was the Seventh-level Magic he had created himself—the Spiral Sphere. This time, Arnold planned to improve the Spiral Sphere again, hoping to increase its speed. According to e=**/, when mass remained unchanged, the faster the speed, the greater the energy, which meant greater destructive power.

The Spiral Sphere was formed when the caster used mental power to gather earth-element magic elements from the earth, causing large amounts of soil to rise directly from the ground and wrap around the Earth Element, forming an ochre sphere once more. This ochre sphere also possessed a peculiar vibration, making the Spiral Sphere especially powerful.

How could he make the Spiral Sphere merge into the Earth Element after it formed, greatly increasing its speed?

The Earth Escape Art allowed Arnold himself to merge into the Earth Element. Although the Spiral Sphere was not Arnold, it was controlled by Arnold's mental power, making it practically an extension of Arnold himself.

Furthermore, the Spiral Sphere had originally been formed when Arnold used his mental power to strip earth-element magic elements from the Earth Element, turning them into earth-element magic elements controlled by his own mental power. To make the Spiral Sphere merge into the Earth Element again, the mental power Arnold controlled would have to yield, allowing the earth-element magic elements forming the Spiral Sphere to return to the earth. Wouldn't that make forming the Spiral Sphere pointless? Thus, most of the mental power controlling the Spiral Sphere had to withdraw, while an extremely tiny amount had to remain to keep controlling it.

But with so little mental power, he might not even be able to control the Spiral Sphere's attack direction. Therefore, during the experiment, the mental power attached to the Spiral Sphere had to be adjusted on a microscopic level. Bit by bit, he fine-tuned it until he found the minimum amount of mental power that would not leave the attack direction completely uncontrollable.

Time gradually passed, and a month went by in the blink of an eye as he adjusted the Spiral Sphere.

Recently, the animals and magical beasts in the mountain range where Arnold stayed had begun having hard times, because a great demon king had arrived in the heart of the range.

This great demon king created noise every day, making the entire mountain range shake and tremble. Since the range was fairly small, even though Arnold conducted his magical experiments at its very center, they still caused tremendous disturbances.

On a mountain path at the edge of the range, two magical beasts faced off. One was a Baby Dragon, while the other was a Tiger-striped Dragon.

The Baby Dragon was a Third-level Magical Beast of the wind element, an extremely weak lower dragon species. The Tiger-striped Dragon was also a Third-level Magical Beast of the earth element, a tiger-like dinosaur species whose running speed was exceptionally Fast.

These two rather small magical beasts were facing off, so naturally they were about to fight. The Baby Dragon spat out more than a dozen Wind Blades, shooting them toward the Tiger-striped Dragon.

The Tiger-striped Dragon fiercely kicked off the ground and leaped aside, dodging the Wind Blades. Unwilling to be outdone, it swiftly sprang to the Baby Dragon's side and swiped a claw at its body.

The Baby Dragon spread its wings and took flight, attacking the Tiger-striped Dragon again. The two magical beasts fought fiercely, sending dust flying everywhere along the mountain path.

However, the good times did not last. With a bang..., the entire mountain path shook again. The Baby Dragon and Tiger-striped Dragon were both helpless; this had to be the great demon king causing trouble again. The two magical beasts stopped fighting and headed elsewhere, lest they be caught up in the disaster.

After a month of improvement and refinement, Arnold finally found the trick. Arnold once again bestowed a name upon the improved Spiral Sphere, calling it the Earth Escape Spiral Sphere.

Now, when he cast the Earth Escape Spiral Sphere, once the Spiral Sphere formed, it could smash toward an enemy at an unparalleled speed.

The casting speed of the Earth Escape Spiral Sphere was now more than twice as Fast as before. Moreover, because of the Earth Escape Art, Arnold's mental power increased very quickly. Arnold had long changed his usual method of continuously training his mental power to merging himself into the earth, though he did not use it for movement. Like meditation, he remained fixed in one location, but because he could merge into the Earth Element, the effect was far stronger than meditation. When Arnold became a Seventh-level Mage, his mental power had only just reached the level of a Seventh-level Mage. He had stayed at the academy for nearly two months, then spent another four months after leaving it. In six months, Arnold's mental power had reached the middle stage of a Seventh-level Mage. The growth of his mental power was an unexpected delight.

After developing the Earth Escape Spiral Sphere, Arnold left the mountain range and continued on to other places.

At present, the branches of Earth Law summarized by Morin and Arnold were: Gravity Law, Earth Element, Earth Fluctuation, the Earth Escape Art comprehended by Arnold, and the Life Force summarized by Arnold. Of these five major branches, Arnold's comprehension of Earth Element was somewhat weak, while he had not comprehended Life Force at all. As for the other three, Arnold could be said to have grasped a mere superficial understanding.

Arnold did not know whether this state of constantly researching magic was good or bad for cultivation, but he believed that researching magic was joyful.

Arnold was not worried that by the time he became a Ninth-level Mage, his lifespan would run out before he comprehended a law and entered the Saint Domain. He attached great importance to the Gravity Spell, and Arnold believed that he could enter the Saint Domain.

Of the branches he had summarized so far, only the Life Force contained within Earth Law remained completely beyond Arnold's grasp. Arnold's research focus shifted once again to Life Force.

Walking along the road, Arnold began pondering the Life Force contained within the earth.

Previously, Arnold had traveled through major cities with Yale and the others, but now he hardly went to large cities at all. At most, he occasionally passed through some towns to exchange for necessities.

This journey to comprehend Life Force was exceedingly long. Arnold had already crossed the entire Fenlai Kingdom from the imperial capital. When he reached some towns along the border of the Fenlai Kingdom, Arnold turned around and began walking back toward the imperial capital.

Whenever he passed through a town along the way and felt like it, Arnold would chat with some uncles in taverns, boasting about the tall tales everyone already knew.

Sometimes, Arnold even watched magical beast mothers lay eggs in the forest. With Arnold's strength, the magical beast mothers naturally never noticed him.

Watching the process by which life was nurtured, Arnold was deeply moved.

Occasionally, battles between low-level magical beasts also drew Arnold's attention. Watching magical beasts be born, then fight other magical beasts until death resulted, all of it filled Arnold with emotion.

Another month passed in a flash. Arnold had already been away from the academy for four months.

As for the Life Force contained within Earth Law that Arnold wanted to comprehend, he felt that he had gained a certain degree of understanding.

The earth bore all things with great virtue, containing the power to nurture life. Yet the earth's power of nurturing differed somewhat from the Life Force of Life Law: the Life Force of Life Law encompassed the entire process of life, and all things without exception contained Life Force; the earth's nurturing power, however, emphasized the process of gestation. Even Water Law had a connection to Life Force!

In order to distinguish the Life Force of Earth Law from the Life Force of Life Law, Arnold simplified it slightly and named the Life Force contained within Earth Law the Force of Life.

However, although he had comprehended the principle, Arnold had no idea for the moment how to apply this Force of Life to magic. Still, he vaguely felt that this Force of Life was extremely special. It could serve as a bridge connecting the other branches, and using it as a link would be a good application.

For example, the automatic changes in Gravity within the Gravity Space that Arnold had been unable to stop thinking about before—perhaps combining the Force of Life with Gravity Space could make it possible?

But he had been away for too long this time. In order not to make Yale and his other brothers worry, Arnold decided to return to the academy. Moreover, when Linley graduated last time, Arnold had not managed to return in time. He also planned to visit Linley.