The Dao of Magic: Book III Read online

  The Dao of Magic

  Book III

  Andries Louws

  The Dao of Magic - Book III

  Copyright © 2019 Andries (WeirdWhirl) Louws Cover design & art © 2019 by Andries (WeirdWhirl) Louws All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any manner without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  V1.0

  Index

  Index

  Acknowledgements

  Reminisce

  Initiation

  Drafting

  Strata

  Etiquette

  Expectation

  Conflict

  Excitement

  Agency

  Reaching

  Shocks

  Severance

  Incoherent

  Awareness

  Cooling

  Manufacturing

  Emissions

  Sparring

  Invasion

  Developing

  Brief

  Modify

  Dominance

  Coasting

  Fragmentation

  Conversation

  Scoring

  Variegation

  Surveying

  Lattice

  Toiling

  Summation

  Hostility

  Viewpoints

  Digest

  Front

  Triturating

  Prelude

  Protraction

  Stroll

  Prolusion

  Encounters

  Assessment

  Lambasting

  Repudiation

  Parley

  Foreboding

  Accounts

  Quarrel

  Range

  Fulmination

  Rundown

  Gifts

  Afterword

  About

  Appendix

  Acknowledgements

  Lots of love and thanks to you, for being the wonderful person you are and for reading my work. Much love to my friends and family. I will deny having written this sentence if any of you ever decide to read this. And finally, many thanks to everyone who supported me in the writing of this book, namely all my lovely proof-readers and Patrons:

  Zivlanir, Zeiryu & Zivlanir, Zeiryu, xydra22, Wolfram Von Peterhausen, William mccarthy, William Hoyt, Wiljami Anttila, Vorquel, Visi, Viktor Thornqvist, Trevor Sales, Tomislav Fistrić, Tomislav Fistri─ç, Toc Anastar, Thubanshee, TheLunaticCo, tetsumora, tehlu, Taverius, Tate Anderson, t0tom, Stranger, Spooky Bones, Sparkey, Something witty and offencive, Siobhan NIghtshade, SideraX, Septimus, Seijax, Sean Rumler, Seadrake, Sanjay, Sanderson Dersham, saganatsu, Ryan Blair, RYAN, rwn, RR, Roland Hansson, Rodrigo Noronha, Rodrick Dusio, Robert Beine, Rhiannon Demeter, Rayna Veleva, Programan, Priddles, Pietr Alexander Dragonov, Peregos, Patrick Sylvester-Jose, Paichun, Ozzy, Oskar Nordström, Orims, NineYetis, Nigel Franklin, Nick Dubitsky, Nathan Fish, Nathan emerson, NA Young, mt2222, mr sparks, Michael Thaller, Michael Ruhland, Meredith Leu, Matthew Walker, Matthew M, mars kiyu, Marcus Seigman, Marcus, Marco A Enquel Ponce, Man of u, Magdragon, MaddoScientisto, Luke Baseley, Louis Bordessoules, Leonard Marchant, LAzza, Kyle f, Kosie van der Merwe, Konno Yumi, kirasakuya, Kharon Styx, Kenneth Stiles, Ken Johnson, Kalvin Dunn, Jule Hutzler, joshua strider, Joshua John Wallace, Joshua Henne, Joseph, Jose Miguel Diaz, Jordan U, Johnathan, Johannes karlsson, Jesse Palmer, Jerome, Jerad Stephens, Jared Spitzer, Jason Hogue, James Cohen, Jakob, Israel, IronJim, Hugh Legge, Hal, Graeme Kent, Glyndon Peters Hotchkiss, Gillium, Ghostingstar, GenericKane, Gardor, Gabriel Boudreau, Francisco J Guzman, Florian Deutsch, Flogoyog, Filippo sagra, Eric Jaschen, Eric Blanz, Enni Avoranta, Enaz the great, ElricFlairgold, Elrath, Elaborate, Edward Scott, earlj, Dragoon, Dom Ritter and T Lewis, Dom Ritter & T Lewis, DokkaN, Doggi, Dicky wongsonegoro, DesertWight, Derek Finnigan, Demian Buckle, Definitely not Dio, Dawn, Davide Dici, David Opseth, David n smith, David Madden, Dave The Technician, Dark Chaos, Daniel young, Daniel Stahel Christiansen, Daniel Rhodes, Daniel Mackie, Damayne Hyatt, Cory Cinquini, Corneel Louws, Cole Terlesky, CJ, Chrome, Chris Vogt II, Chris Flores, Chris, CharleyHorse, BukVyrm, Bud Terry, Bryan wiggins, bob Johnson, Bob, Bill Dixon, Azarek, Avartil, Athos Kieran, Athena Delacroix, Artherium, Argetsword, Antoine Cavaliero, Angel Diaz, Andres Madroñal Benitez, Amine Tahiri Alaoui, Alge, Alexei Azimov, Alexander Smith, Alex, Aidan Green, Adarsh BV, Adam Roundfield, Adam Andersson, 28th00

  Please enjoy!

  chapter zero

  Reminisce

  Re-Haan Ra-Lush-Neer Hu-Ungu Le-Fetsun is a very conflicted dragon. A hundred thousand years of heritage, history and teachings, and she is throwing it all away. She is lying next to someone she really shouldn’t be spending so much time with. Someone that really ought to be far beneath her notice.

  She, as an immortal dragon and a proud member of the illustrious Flight, shouldn’t be here. Comparing her and this being is like comparing the sun to an ant. But then again, this very ant had punched her in the face.

  She’d been dive-bombing the little human as he was standing on top of the massive pillar known as the Tower Dungeon - just to scare him. People that are pissing themselves out of fear of getting devoured or squished are much easier to deal with.

  But scaring him didn’t work.

  Instead of screaming and cowering, he punched her in her draconic face - halting all her momentum. She’d been knocked senseless with a single punch. Even now, she sometimes still feels a faint pricking sensation on her forehead. She checked a while ago, and the fist-sized shape dent is long gone from her draconic form.

  After that the teasing started. His display of sheer power had thrown her for a loop, just enough for him to but the perfect bait out. It started with a small booklet filled with tantalizing information about the element of air, the affinity of her magic. That one had been free, and the moment she opened it, she was lost. He sent mouth-watering smells from his cooking up at her. She had, in turn, been lured in step by step. Her control over air and magic in general, had skyrocketed after she had read the three small booklets that he had gifted her. And the food he had fed her had been too good. She also lost herself in his guitar playing, singing a song of magic that had called down a massive thunderstorm and tornado.

  And then her own kin betrayed her. A trio of dragons from Flight Mountain had ambushed her as she was trailing this intriguing human, this insignificant person calling himself Teach, but actually named Drew.

  Her back twinges at the memory of the pain.

  The molten attack, combined from three separate elements should have killed her. Drew had saved her somehow. Then he took her into his private dimension and healed her broken body under the swaying branches of the golden Tree.

  A lot of weird, impossible, sexy, majestic, and violent stuff had happened after that.

  Even months later as she lies in bed, just thinking about the many times Drew imposed his might over the masses does something to her body. The way he stole the skulls powering the Mage Isles, for one.

  His latest stunt had been to go on a road trip with a small group, including her. They left the chaos of Tree and its factions to go and check out large groups of mana mutants that had been spotted by one of Drew’s students. During the journey, Drew discovered he might be to blame for throwing the energy ecosystems of the entire planet out of whack. Flustered, he mumbled something unintelligible and locked himself i
n his head.

  Then the beast hoards this could have overrun capital cities had started vanishing. The rushing front of monsters had disappeared one by one, teleported by Drew to lands unknown. Then they had run around with his unresponsive corpse until the entire hoard had disappeared. After that, their group stepped back into the pocket dimension known as Tree, expecting the fighting to be over.

  Instead, they were met with complete and utter chaos.

  Instead of disposing of the beasts in the normal manner, Drew had decided just to let them rain down over all of his students – giving them the chance to dispose of the beasts and presumably some needed fighting experience. Re-Haan was forced into some creative fighting in order to secure Drew and her little castle house.

  Re-Haan decides that things could be worse. She has a deep-seated biological urge to follow the strongest being around, and Drew has shown on more than one occasion that he is the strongest being around.

  Thinking back of the few moments where he decided to be domineering does more funny stuff to her body. The way he fought in the open-air dungeons on the other continent also puts a flame in her loins.

  Eyeing the softly snoring man, she decides that he really should be taking responsibility for this thing that he unlocked. Grinning like only a dragon can she disrobes and hops on.

  chapter one

  Initiation

  “I’ve decided!” I suddenly yell.

  “Hubbahwa what? What’s happening?” Pulling strands of white hair from her mouth, Rhea jerks awake. “Stupid human, let me sleep.”

  I ignore her whining and get out of bed. “I’m going to tour the world. Would you like to join me?”

  She throws a pillow towards my head. “Sleeeeeep,” she growls.

  “I spent a long time thinking this through.” I stand up and immediately stop. I do not remember going to sleep surrounded by stone walls. “How did we end up at my castle?”

  Sighing deeply, she drags her body in a half-upright position. “You locked yourself in your mind, leaving us to fend against the beast hordes you pissed off.”

  “That’s not right. I left the beast transport and teleport processes running.” I dodge another pillow.

  “You left us to fend against the hordes you pissed off, so we dragged your unresponsive corpse around until all the beasts had jumped us and vanished. We talked about what to do for a bit and decided to evacuate into Tree. Ket managed to drag you and your necklace through the portal where we found the rest of your disciples fighting against the last remnant of the mana mutants.”

  “That’s when you decided you had an unscratched itch?”

  “It’s the least you can do for me.”

  “I’m not complaining.” I dodge the third pillow with a wide smirk on my face. A rain of feathers suddenly surrounds me. I turn and look at the place where the soft projectile impacted the castle wall.

  I think I will ignore that massive crack that wasn’t there before. How hard did she throw the bloody thing?

  I finish pulling on my clothes and briskly walk through the door, stepping outside. I stop and stand on my porch a while, taking in the scenery. Tree is glorious as ever - shining a soft gold. Someone must have gone on a mana crystal delve, as the crowning formation above Tree is slightly bigger.

  The houses of my students are still there, an odd collection of freaky architecture. I see a new building near the garden, smooth wooden planks giving the square building a clean look. I check in with Database and learn that that’s where Danarius and Ares are messing with plants and medicine.

  I had a lot of sugar pills made and stuffed a lot of qi inside of them while mentally screaming ‘HEAL’ at the things. They heal mortals and qi condensers easily. They are horribly inefficient, though. A more targeted application of the same amount of qi could save a solid core practitioner from the brink of death.

  Looking further, I see the library. Its white Greek-style facade still has signs of scientific graffiti, and I’m happy to see that not all who walk inside are robed braincores. I see a few people going back and forth from the moon, their jumps assisted by Database. Gravity is a fickle thing here, as it is basically made up, enforced by Tree and me.

  I also see a large dirt wall surrounding the main buildings and Tree. I walk towards Tree and jump up. I grab its trunk once my upwards momentum stops and look around.

  Small groups of humans and beastkins are working on the wall. A few beasties come close, but they are dispatched by students without much effort. Looking further, I see that the more powerful animals and mutants are starting to claim territories and are digging in.

  I change the blank space of my core into a duplicate of the brand placed inside every animal’s core. I sense them here and there, a few thousand strong, scattered across the kilometres of ground around Tree.

  To the south, near the ice mountain, I see a small settlement. Those should be those fans of Rhea, right? I look to the north and immediately spot Lola sitting on a lava stream, bubbling from the volcano. She turns her head, and I catch a glimpse of a dissipating horn. I glare at her minuscule form far away. She just wiggles her nose at me. The red streak of fur looks kind of cool.

  I look upwards, to the moon. Small buildings have sprung up beside the large apartment complex. I spot a few areas where people are sparring, small fences marking fighting arenas. Things have calmed down again, now that there are a few safe spaces on Tree’s lands, but people seem to have a purpose now.

  What that purpose is, I don’t really know. A lot has happened, it seems.

  “Oh, hey, Teach! Nice view, no?”

  I look upwards and see blue hairs surrounding a cute face. Selis is sitting on one of the lower branches, also taking in the view. Her aura is brimming with silent contentment. “Hey, Selis, you seem happy.”

  She smiles wider. “Nearly all the mages are gone from the Capital. I think that your skull rampage has them scared.”

  “Your parents must be doing great then.”

  “They are doing fine.” She waves my sarcastic concern away with a dainty hand. “I’m at core forming now!”

  “I noticed. Ket too. Congrats. Work hard in the future, okay?”

  “Why did you forbid us from killing intelligent beings, by the way? You didn’t really mind us bashing animals of all sorts.” Her demeanour turns a shade more severe as she stares at me.

  “Sapient beings are not wired to kill others they perceive as fellow intelligent beings. A race where the majority can kill each other without any remorse or guilt won’t last a dozen generations. It breaks something, killing another being without absolute cause snaps a certain barrier.”

  “Oooh, oooooh! Some people feel broken? Like their aura has a crack or something.”

  I nod at her response while swinging myself up to the branch she is sitting on. “It’s a shift in perspective. Other people go from sacred, independent entities to walking flesh machines that can break easily. You’ve got one of the guns I made, right?”

  Selis rubs her ring and nods.

  “Pulling a trigger on a complex piece of metal is also different from stabbing a sharp implement in someone until they die. In my previous world, it was impossible to reach the core forming stage without killing someone. Too many people were fighting over too few resources, the powers that be encouraged it as a form of population control.

  “But that’s not really important now. The gathering and condensing stage are the formative stages. It took me a lot of time and research to find out that your entire cultivation path gets set in stone in those two realms. If someone slaughters their way through these two… The only way they will reach immortality is through another river of blood.

  “I don’t want that kind of school… You would need to kill beings as powerful as yourself to advance. The only beings that will be that powerful in the later stages are your fellow students, Lola, Re-Haan, and me. Do you get what I am saying?”

  Selis swallows audibly. “We would need to cannibalise ourselves
to grow stronger. There would just be one of us left in the end, stuck at that level forever… Unless they started a school…” She glances at me furtively.

  I nod in return, a grim smile on my face. “That seemed like a pretty fucking bad idea to me, so I decided to go with a non-killing policy.”

  “The pirate captain?”

  “I had a solid core back then. And I made a thorough cost-benefit comparison.”

  Selis is silent for a bit as we stare at the forest below us. I ask Database to give me relevant info and start receiving data about tasks and quests that are active. Looking one over at random, I see that magical or manual labour on the wall gives someone a point an hour. I can nearly see the data flowing between Database and the small medical laboratory. The old light mage seems to have roped in his previous student, Ares, in his medical research efforts.

  Valerius is puttering about the herb garden while Angeta is soaking the newly planted saplings with her green qi. I see a large beastkin using one hell of a fancy axe as he chops down trees. Focussing on him, I see that he sends a stream of qi from his… bones? What? He doesn’t have a central point from which his power flows, instead seeping from his skeleton into the axe he wield.

  Not only did someone invent another way of cultivating, but that dude is also now turning a marvel of modern science into a magical artefact. I rub my eyes for a bit. That axe was a theoretical design I came up with centuries ago, incorporating all my knowledge about modern earth materials while using the mundane table of elements.

  Making mystical materials such as Ever Burning Hell Metal or Moonlight Shining Steel takes a lot of time. Put normal iron in a qi-rich volcano, wait a thousand years, and voila. Mundane, simple matter plus qi plus a lot of time will net you esoteric and rare materials. I am almost afraid of what type of fearsome weapon that axe will become after being swung about and infused for a thousand years.

  Turning to Selis, I ask, “Did you check how the king was doing?”

  “Nope.”