Conquest

Miracle City (2)

 Shaar did not agree to Tatara’s request immediately, merely shooing away the disappointed magician’s assistant for the moment. Now that he was alone, he patiently asked Dora for help: 

“Life Curses can generally be divided into three kinds and it’s not strictly a curse, it’s an art of spells. The first type is foresight.” Dora’s tone turned stern! “Don’t laugh! What’s so funny about foresight?! Predicting the future is a peculiar type of magic, high-level Byzantine spiritual workers, Odin’s ceremonial masters all have powers in this area. Life Spells come from magic so it is not strange that part of the energy comes from this aspect.

“The second type is support-function magic like mental and physical strength boosts- a boost of courage, healing wounds, increasing strength, faster speeds or even prolonging life etc… 

“The third type is attack-type magic, the exact opposite of the second kind. Take away your enemy’s courage, deepen your enemy’s wounds, absorb their life force etc… Since Life Spells do not belong to any element, it does not have any attributes tied to the elements like wind, fire, water, earth etc. 

“All these decades, human magicians have categorised all the Life Spells and nine of the highest-level Life Spells are: 

Intuition - foresight-type

Courage boost - support-type

Healing, also known as life-replenishment- support-type

Strength boost - support-type

Speed boost - support-type

Courage robbing, also known as Fear Spells - attack-type

Life robbing, also known as Wound-Deepening - attack-type

Strength robbing, also known as Weakening Spells - attack-type

Speed robbing, also known as Speed Retardation - attack-type

It can be seen that the support and attack-type spells are all complete opposites of each other. 

In terms of the separation of levels, a magician’s prowess in Life Spells was dependent on how much of their own life force they were willing to sacrifice. There are four levels. 

Level 1 Life Spell magicians can master three spells, they automatically receive foresight abilities and one support and attack spell each. 

Level 2 magicians can master five spells, in addition to Level 1 abilities, they can master one more support and attack spell. 

Level 3 magicians can wield seven spells, in addition to Level 2 abilities, similarly, they have one more support and attack spell. 

Level 4 magicians can wield all nine aspects of magic. 

However, even with such abilities, the magicians who cultivated the incomplete version of the spell were still far from what Fihar used to be although they had attained the fourth level and mastered all nine types of magic. They were only similar to an intermediate-level magician. 

That was why there must be at least another level beyond this but… Without the complete cultivation methods, no one could know what came next. 

Being a prodigious scholar of the dragon race, Dora could provide a very detailed explanation but afterwards, she asked in a strange tone, “Are you really going to let that magician’s helper cultivate this magic? His current abilities are almost non-existent, if he cultivates Life Spells, it’ll definitely be an effective method for him to grow but…” 

“But what?” Shaar grinned. 

Dora huffed. “You’ll understand in the future! Growing stronger isn’t as easy as you think! Fihar did not leave behind a complete cultivation method- I’m afraid he had hidden intentions for writing down an incomplete version on purpose! Did you realise that even with these nine spells, they’re still quite useless in a battle between two magicians! It doesn’t matter if it’s attack or support-type, they emphasise too much on physical aspects and not magical power! They are not magical-attacks or magical-defences. 

“With a toolbelt of spells like that, if your opponent were a warrior, perhaps you’ll be at an advantage but in a fight between two magicians, think about it… Speed robbing, Weakening or even Wound-Deepening… How effective are these spells against a magician who chants incantations from a far distance?” 

Shaar was stunned. 

 “The magician you encountered today- although he cultivated the Life Spell, when he attacked, he was actually using Death Magic! That guy was initially a Death Spirit Magician himself so cultivating a little Life Spell on the side is no strange thing. However, no Death Spirit Magician would cultivate Life Spell as their main power source. For example, the magician attacked using a type of Death Magic called Disintegration… This is a typical Death Magic spell.” 

Shaar thought about the terrifying black light that came from the magician, how it could ‘melt’ people to leave only a pile of bones behind. He shivered. 

If he did not have his Dragonscale armour, he would be a pile of bones too! 

“Basically, in my opinion, without Fihar’s complete guide to cultivating the Life Spell, the current incomplete version does not hold much value at all, especially when the enemy is a magician. Relying on just Life Spells would not defeat a magician from any elemental attributes, at least not without magical shields. Life Spells would never hold up against other magical attacks. There isn’t even one spell for defence amongst the nine!” 

Shaar thought for a while and changed his mind about cultivating this magic. How insane would that be?! He would have to shorten his life for it! Although it would cut down the magician’s life force expenditure, he did not want to turn from a strong youth to an elderly man after casting a few spells. 

In addition to that, even though Life Spells did not have high technical requirements, one must still have the foundations. Shaar on the other hand… he was no magician. 

“So… we’ll let Tatara cultivate it then!” 

Shaar took a lambskin scroll out, read it in great detail, then made his decision. 

“Hmm… I just hope you will not regret this decision,” said Dora with a hint of mockery. The hillbilly was slightly uncomfortable but no matter how he pestered her, Dora never answered again.