Chapter 346

Jacob and the others stepped inside the mural that King Blade painted. The man started explaining immediately.

“I couldn’t leave behind my technique to everybody. And I needed to work on it with a man of true artistic understanding, one who would master the great arts — which is why the royal family was instructed to pass them down generation after generation, so that my descendants would inherit these capabilities, so that one day they could do what I really needed.”

Jacob was starting to get an idea of what the king wanted. And he asked King Blade, “May I try and infer something? Could I try a little guess?”

“Go ahead, Cloud,” King Blade said, as they walked in a dilapidated castle upon which, on each wall, there was a half-finished mural — this time full of runes rather than artistry.

“Is this an attempt at Runic Notation?”

King Blade is exhilarated by the fact that Jacob guessed correctly.

“How did you know? Is your eye for runes really that well developed, Cloud?”

“Your Majesty, I do have some familiarity with trying to, um, understand Runic Notation. But you are trying to pass down the Runic Notation of a Primordial Spell?”

“It’s not that simple.” King Blade starts explaining. “A Primordial Spell can be taught individually. Otherwise, my Wrath of Blade couldn’t have been taught to anybody. But a Skill is a crystallized form of power that is universal. A Primordial Spell is more flexible, but also weaker and more chaotic. A fireball Skill Crystal will always be stronger than a fireball generated through Primordial Magic. That is just how the world works. The reason behind that ties to Karma. Whatever becomes universal, even though it was unique before, will crystallize and become an actual Skill Crystal. I don’t know if you have heard of the esoteric origin of Skill Crystals, Jacob Cloud.”

“I hadn’t, Your Majesty,” Jacob says, pondering on what the man just said. “So you’re saying that…”

Jacob looks around and starts getting an idea of what’s happening.

“You wanted to turn Wrath of Blade into a Skill Crystal?”

“Wrath of Blade is just a rough way that I found to replicate our ancestor’s skill with the pickaxe. As it stands, it is an attack that shreds Nightmares of Apocalypse and other disgusting primordial monsters. My intent was to turn it into a Skill Crystal. I am arrogant enough, Jacob Cloud, to say that my understanding of Primordial Magic is not that much inferior to Rafnov’s himself. In fact, people don’t know this, because records were lost during my reign and I never bothered — but I am Rafnov’s grandchild, and I was taught by him personally alongside my father. My father was a man of peace, a man focused on reestablishing order across the torn world that his own father won over by warring with primordial creatures. My father never took that much of an interest in war, mostly focusing on defense. But the Primordial Gods are angry beasts that have just grown hungrier and hungrier. And now Zamorye is under siege again. I can feel it. I can feel the magic of the filth trying to destroy us.

“Wrath of Blade as a Primordial Spell can enhance damage done against primordial beings. The same way it can peel Mana Crystal Stone, it can also destroy Nightmares way more easily than you might think. And it’s a Skill that can destroy a Primordial Dungeon. If you used Wrath of Blade with the same proficiency you used it upon the book that contained my spirit, on a Primordial Dungeon, it would create permanent damage.”

Jacob, having been in a Primordial Dungeon, didn’t actually understand what the man meant.

“So let’s say I’m in the Intermediate Grounds, or in Rafnov’s Bounty,” Jacob says slowly. “If I put the pickaxe against a wall, what happens exactly?”

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“A Primordial Dungeon — a real one, not the ones that sometimes are used as decoys in your world — is something that spans almost infinitely. And the closer it is to the source of its power, the more corpses it reaps, the stronger it becomes. And it could go on almost indefinitely. By using, though, my Primordial Spell — which was our ancestor Rafnov’s, my grandfather’s spell — then you can chip at the power of the Dungeon.”

“Wait, what?” Jacob frowns.

“When you unravel a Nightmare, a poor soul twisted by the power of Apocalypse, part of that power goes back to the Dungeon. The soul gets lost, but the Dungeon can recycle almost an infinite amount of power. If you struck even just a wall in a Primordial Dungeon with your pickaxe while using my spell, it would make the Dungeon bleed power, because you would fundamentally destroy the matrix that is underneath the Dungeon. You would be dealing permanent damage.”

Jacob starts thinking. “Because you pick apart the magic, so the Dungeon starts bleeding?”

“Indeed.”

Jacob thinks of how hard it was to defeat Lyra, a Dungeon that didn’t even have a monster above Imperium level. And he thought about the fact that without some luck, and without putting his life on the line, he would have never won against it. But now what he’s hearing from King Blade is that if he had used Wrath of Blade instead, he could have taught this Primordial Spell to everybody, and through that made the Dungeon bleed. By wielding the power of Augusta, the Dark Champion capable of spawning doors and teleporting people from point to point, he could have bled the Dungeon dry without losing one single man.

“I see that your gears are turning,” King Blade says with a smile. “I take it that you have faced a real Primordial Dungeon.”

“Uh, we call it an Original Primordial Dungeon. I had to fuse a lot of Skills together, and it allowed me to gain Heartfire.”

“Heartfire?” King Blade booms with laughter. “You are… I can’t believe this. So you are Gornyakov’s son. Well, not son, but descendant. Heartfire.”

King Blade kept shaking his head.

“You can paint the world with Heartfire. You must have a wealth of wonderful Skills, then. I can’t imagine what you must have mined here in Zamorye thanks to your Skill.”

Jacob made a face and said, “Well, about that, uh, not exactly.”

And then he explained his trouble with Mana nodes.

“I see. How peculiar — but befitting of Gornyakov’s lineage. Gornyakov,” King Blade said, “was one of the most, if not the most, ingenious heirs of my grandfather. He was a man of war, not as much interested in mining as he was in better understanding how to kill Primordial Gods. My goodness. I can feel something in your blood. I wish Gornyakov were still here. I knew him. He was a true warrior. But also cursed. And he had a great deal of trouble surviving in a period of peace. He went and hunted Primordial Gods until the end of his days, until he found his death against Apocalypse. In fact, Jacob Cloud, your ancestor, just like my grandfather, killed several Primordial Gods. He was a terror incarnate, and he developed a technique that my grandfather himself then decided to learn from Gornyakov. Well, that means you’ll be even more able to help me out. I’ve always wanted Gornyakov’s help, but he was gone by the time I was strong enough to craft the Wrath of Blade into a proper Primordial Spell. It was my lifetime’s work, and yet I never managed to turn it into a Skill Crystal.”

King Blade looks at Jacob.

“Until now.”

“Your Majesty, if it’s about—”

“Don’t call me Your Majesty anymore.” King Blade waves a hand. “If you are Gornyakov’s heir, I would like for you to call me Grandpa.”

“All right, Grandpa. Tell me now, what is it? If it’s Runic Notation, I am very good at writing Runic Notation. I can easily write a perfect explanation of how to use the spell for your subjects.”

King Blade shakes his head.

“The current version of Wrath of Blade is only as powerful as its user. Below Mithril Rank, it won’t have the effect we are seeking. Primordial Magic relies on Rank too much. Of course, even if we condense it into Skill Crystals, its Rank would affect its potential damage against Primordial Gods. But the underlying effect against them would be way stronger, and it would inflict permanent damage at whatever Rank. We could turn this war around overnight with enough Skill Crystals.”

Jacob looked down.

“Now, though,” King Blade clears his throat, “I have the first of the two trials you will go through in order to help me turn this into a Skill Crystal.”

“Okay.” Jacob smiles. “I’m happy to help.”

“For the first,” King Blade says, “we need you to complete a mural with a display of art. You will paint the most beautiful spell. And after — now that I’ve discovered you wield Heartfire — we will go mining, and you will showcase all your might to me, and I shall guide you.”

Jacob wasn’t listening to the second part, because the first was already instilling fear in him.

“Your Majesty, when you say paint an artful mural, you mean like what you just did?”

“No, not that pitiful expression. If you are Gornyakov’s heir, you definitely have an incredible penchant for the art. He was a master painter and carver and sculptor. So please show this old man how a true artist creates art.”