Coiling Dragon_Book 1 of the Coiling Dragon Saga Read online

  Doehring Cowart laughed.

  “Haha, Linley, you are very smart.” Doehring Cowart was laughing happily.

  “Right, a large amount of mageforce and elemental essence, when controlled by spiritual energy, can be formed into a spell! Sometimes, in order to execute a particularly powerful spell, too high of a demand is placed upon one’s spiritual energy. Thus, the assistance of magical incantations is needed.” Doehring Cowart smiled as he spoke.

  Linley felt as though a huge, important principle of magic had suddenly become crystal clear to him.

  Smiling at Linley, Doehring Cowart continued, “Of course, that’s just the basic theory. The world of magic is far more complicated than you can imagine! The question of exactly how one uses mageforce and elemental essence to form ‘magic’, now that’s the real issue!”

  “What’s the point of having mageforce, if you don’t know exactly how to shape it into a magical spell?” Doehring Cowart let out a long sigh. “The world of magic is an extremely complicated one. Magical research is very difficult and dangerous. But due to intra-empire struggles, countless magi engage in the research of new types of spells.”

  “Actually, every single empire researches new ways of using different matrices of mageforce and elemental essence to produce different spells! But magical research is extremely dangerous. The more destructive a spell potentially is, the harder it is to research. Sometimes, it can even catastrophically backfire upon the researchers.”

  Doehring Cowart laughed as he spoke. “In most magus academies, you can only study spells up to the sixth rank. Spells of the seventh, eighth, and ninth ranks, as well as Saint-level spells, are considered secrets. Only if you join a kingdom will you gain access to those special spells.”

  Linley had read many books and therefore understood this principle.

  “If you have no instructor? No matter how much mageforce you have or how high your spiritual energy is, you won’t be able to execute a single spell!” Doehring Cowart smiled faintly. “The profound secrets of every magical spell lie in how to control mageforce and elemental essence to form the spell.”

  “After countless years of magical experimentation, the magical system has essentially been perfected.” Stroking his white beard, Doehring Cowart laughed loudly. “Linley, don’t worry. In the future, there’s no need for you to bend a knee to any kingdom or any lord, because… I can teach you seventh, eighth, ninth, and even Saint-level spells!”

  Linley took a deep breath.

  He could feel himself embarking on a new path.

  Under the guidance of Grandpa Doehring, he had no need to continue to follow the path of the warrior. He would now embark on the more mysterious, more powerful way of the magus.

  “Come, let’s begin the test of the strength of your elemental affinities. Sit down with legs crossed, close your eyes, and enter a meditative state.” Doehring Cowart said gently.

  “Meditative state?” Linley felt his heartbeat quicken.

  How would his affinity rate?

  “Don’t worry. Just carefully try and see what you can sense, and whenever you sense something, just tell me.” Doehring Cowart smiled encouragingly towards Linley. Linley immediately closed his eyes and tried to force himself to calm down.

  “Don’t worry. Just do as I instruct,” Doehring Cowart said in a gentle voice.

  Meditation was one of the basic underpinnings of all magi. It was needed for both absorbing elemental essence to transform it into mageforce, and for improving one’s spiritual energy. The first time one entered a meditative state was the most difficult and dangerous one, but of course, under the guidance of a Saint-level Grand Magus, Linley wouldn’t find it too difficult.

  After half an hour of instruction, Linley finally entered the meditative state for the first time.

  Seeing Linley in a meditative state, Doehring Cowart let out a faint smile, then waved his hand.

  Immediately…

  A large amount of earth essence began to swirl around Linley. Normally, most places only had an ordinary density of earth essence, but right now, Doehring Cowart was using his powerful spiritual energy to increase the density of earth essence near Linley by a hundredfold.

  “If he still can’t sense any earth essence around him even under these conditions, then there’s no hope for him at all,” Doehring Cowart said to himself.

  Even a totally ordinary person should sense something, given that the density of earth essence was a hundred times greater than normal.

  Right now, Linley, still in a meditative state, felt extremely happy and excited. He had never realized… that around him, there were so many amazing things. Countless earth-colored specks of light were floating around him, in such a high density as to be shocking.

  “Linley, can you feel it?” Doehring Cowart’s voice gently sounded in Linley’s mind.

  “Grandpa Doehring, I can feel it. There’s so many specks of earth-colored light. So many… too many. They’re clustered so densely, thousands, no, tens of thousands. A hundred earth-colored specks of light just floated past my hand. There’s too many.” Feeling the large amount of earth-colored specks of light floating around him, Linley felt extremely happy.

  Hearing this news, Doehring Cowart was immediately ecstatic.

  “Very good. Now, slowly, do as I say. Don’t think about anything. Quietly…” Doehring Cowart droned almost hypnotically, helping Linley to depart the meditative state. At the same time, he released the control he was exerting over the earth essence. Immediately, the earth essence density around them returned to normal.

  After awakening from the meditative state, Linley felt as though he was full of energy, totally different from before. Even while fully awake, Linley felt as though he could still sense some of the oscillations from the nearby earth essences, even though he couldn’t sense them as clearly as when he was in the meditative state.

  “Grandpa Doehring, I can still feel the movements of those earth-colored specks of light. Really! Even though it’s not as clear now, I can still somewhat feel them.” Linley was feeling extremely excited.

  This was his first step into the world of magic. Linley was filled with amazement.

  “What did you say? You can still sense them?” Doehring Cowart was very astonished, because the nearby density of earth essence had returned to normal now, and Linley was no longer in a meditative state. If he could still sense the nearby earth essence, even while awake… then his affinity for earth essence…

  “Grandpa Doehring, why aren’t you talking? How is the strength of my affinity for earth elemental essence?” Linley said nervously.

  Linley didn’t know if he had done well or poorly.

  “Good. Extremely good. Your affinity for earth elemental essence is extremely high.” Doehring Cowart’s face was wreathed in smiles. “Based on what I know, only perhaps one in a thousand magi would have as strong an affinity for earth elemental essence as you do. Truly.”

  Linley felt his heart began thumping frantically. He was so excited he didn’t know what to say.

  “But naturally, elemental affinity is just one part. Spiritual energy is the most important of all! After all, given enough time, one’s mageforce will naturally strengthen. But it’s extremely difficult to improve the spiritual energy of a magus,” Doehring Cowart said solemnly.

  Linley took a deep breath and nodded.

  “Now, it’s time for the second test, to test your spiritual energy.” Doehring Cowart looked at Linley solemnly.

  Linley also knew that this test of spiritual energy was an extremely important one.

  “Grandpa Doehring, what do I need to do?” Linley stared at Doehring Cowart, mentally preparing himself.

  “Nothing at all.” Doehring Cowart laughed.

  “Uh…” Linley was startled.

  “I am the spirit of the Coiling Dragon Ring, while you are the master of the Coiling Dragon Ring. I am totally capable of sensing the strength of your spirit! There’s no need to test it at all. I c
an tell you right now!” Doehring Cowart smiled at Linley.

  “I… how is my spiritual energy?” Linley held his breath.

  The strength or weakness of a person’s spiritual energy determined one’s destiny.

  “Your spiritual energy is ten times stronger than an average person of your age.” Doehring Cowart smiled as he spoke.

  Linley felt a sense of excitement in his heart. Ten times!

  That wasn’t a small number.

  But Doehring Cowart continued, “Generally speaking, only one in ten thousand can become a magus, principally because there’s a high requirement when it comes to spiritual energy. The absolute minimum requirement for a magus is having five times more spiritual energy than someone of the same age. Ten times puts you roughly in the middle of the pack, as far as the average magus goes.”

  Linley’s earlier excitement was immediately dampened.

  “If it were anyone else instructing you, you could at most become a magus of the fifth or sixth rank. However… since the person instructing you is me, the situation is now different.” Doehring Cowart stroked his beard contentedly, a look of self-confidence in his eyes.

  Linley suddenly came to the same realization.

  Right. Doehring Cowart was a Saint-level Grand Magus!

  “As long as you work hard, Linley, I am fully confident that you can reach the eighth rank. But as to whether or not you can become a magus of the ninth rank, or even a Saint-level magus? That will depend on your own comprehension and your own experiences,” Doehring Cowart said seriously. “If you do not work hard, I’m afraid you might not even become a magus of the sixth rank. At that point in time, you’ll have no one else to blame.”

  A good instructor in magic was just one part of the equation.

  The most important part was still one’s own effort.

  “Grandpa Doehring, please don’t worry. I won’t disappoint you, or my father, or the Baruch clan.” At this moment, Linley’s mind was filled with the image of the spirit tablet in front of the ancestral hall, and those illustrious names and stories engraved on the back.

  To renew the former glory of the Baruch clan!

  Linley’s chest was filled with boiling heat!

  “Good. Starting tomorrow, I will begin to instruct you.” Doehring Cowart looked at Linley, his eyes gleaming. Right now, Doehring Cowart’s body was once more emanating the self-confidence and pride which a Saint-level Grand Magus possessed!

  Starting the very next day, Linley began to live an extremely tough, arduous life.

  He couldn’t reveal the existence of Doehring Cowart to his father. Every morning and evening, he still needed to attend physical training, while later in the morning, he would have his lessons with his father on politics, religion, religious rites, warfare, geography, art… and all sorts of other lessons.

  Only in the afternoon, during his previously spare time, would Linley run towards Wushan, east of the town, hide in a quiet place, and begin to learn the basics of magic under the guidance of Doehring Cowart. He studied hard, while entering the meditative state to absorb and process mageforce.

  In addition, each day, after eating dinner, Linley would spend a large amount of time in the meditative state.

  Every day, Linley would spend only six hours sleeping. All of his other time was spent in physical training, intellectual studies, magical instruction, and meditation. Six hours of sleep a day, frankly speaking, was simply not enough. In truth, entering the meditative state was extremely taxing, far more tiring than most people’s lives. Every day, Linley entered a very deep sleep for those six hours.

  Filled. His time was absolutely filled.

  With each day passing like this, day after day, Linley’s improvement was very evident, to the point where it wasn’t just improvement, but a form of transformation!

  As he was hard at work training…

  He experienced, for the first time, the joy of absorbing elemental essence into his body, and then transforming it into mageforce.

  He experienced, for the first time, entering so deeply into the meditative state that he almost became unconscious.

  And he experienced, for the first time, the excitement of performing earth-style magic, even if it was nothing more than generating a tiny ‘Earth Spike’ that was only twenty centimeters high.

  Hard work, day after day…

  Linley’s effort and the speed of his improvement caused even Doehring Cowart, that five-thousand-year-old Saint-level Grand Magus of the Pouant Empire, to sigh with amazement.

  Due to his daily physical training exercises, Linley’s body was growing sturdier and sturdier. Because he often entered the meditative state and absorbed earth essence, Linley became calmer and more tranquil. Linley’s transformation caused his father Hogg and Hillman to both be amazed and overjoyed.

  Spring ended, and autumn came. In the blink of an eye, it was now autumn.

  There was only one month remaining before the magus affinity testing and recruitment event.

  In the ancestral hall within the Baruch clan manor.

  “Whew. All done cleaning. Time to go do some more magical training. Yesterday I actually managed to successfully execute the ‘Earth Tremor’ technique. That was wonderful.” Right now, Linley was in an extremely good mood. He quickly strode out of the ancestral hall and closed the door.

  Walking on the blue tiled steps of the stone walkway, Linley’s footsteps were firm and swift, but made little sound.

  This was an ability that virtually all earth-style magi possessed. Because their power was derived from the earth itself, they could mask virtually all sound from their footsteps.

  “Eh?” Linley frowned.

  His ears twitched as he turned and stared towards a far-off building. “I heard something?” He immediately stealthily walked in that direction. His footsteps made almost no sound. Normally, just while walking ordinarily, he could mask his footsteps. Now that he was intentionally trying to hide them, he made even less noise.

  He crept closer, step by step.

  When Linley reached the door to the building and took a peek inside…

  “What’s that?” Linley’s eyes widened.

  He saw a twenty-centimeter long black mouse chewing on a piece of stone rubble. And then, in the blink of an eye, the black mouse appeared tens of meters away in a different direction, and began to nibble on a piece of blue tile. The black mouse’s fur appeared very soft. Its eyes were guileless, and its paws were furry. In a word, it looked very cute.

  It even hopped around just on its two hind legs for fun.

  “What an adorable little mouse. And how amazingly fast!” Hiding by the doorway, Linley exclaimed silently.

  Most mice wouldn’t reach such a size, and most mice were loathsome creatures, but this mouse seemed particularly adorable. Its eyes seemed to be full of meaning, as though they could speak. Most importantly of all… it was astonishingly fast.

  “Such speed… I bet even Uncle Hillman, a warrior of the sixth rank, couldn’t catch it. How can it be so fast?” Seeing the cute mouse move tens of meters in just the blink of an eye, Linley felt astonished.

  Doehring Cowart flew out from within the Coiling Dragon Ring. Standing next to Linley, he looked at the black mouse with some surprise. “A magical beast, a Shadowmouse? And judging by its size, a Shadowmouse infant.”

  “A magical beast? Shadowmouse? It’s so big! How can it be an infant?” Linley stared at Doehring Cowart in surprise.

  Aside from the Vampiric Iron Bull, the Griffin, the Velocidragon, and the Black Dragon magical beasts he had seen, this was the first time Linley had seen any other magical beasts. This adorable black mouse was actually a magical beast? A magical beast, with magical abilities?

  Part II

  Growing Up

  13

  Magical Beast, Shadowmouse

  “Magical beast ‘Shadowmouse’? Grandpa Doehring, what special qualities does a Shadowmouse possess, and what rank does it have amongst magical beasts?�
�� Linley and Doehring Cowart were mentally communicating, but at the same time, Linley was staring excitedly at him.

  Doehring Cowart smiled. He pretended to hem and haw for a few seconds, then slowly said, “The magical beast ‘Shadowmouse’ cannot easily be hemmed into a particular rank. This is because it represents an entire race of mice. Amongst rat-type creatures, there are two major types; the Stoneater Rat, and the Shadowmouse. But both the Stoneater Rat and the Shadowmouse are omnivores. They can eat anything, whether it is stones, bones, or even meat.”

  Linley mentally nodded.

  Just now, he had seen that black Shadowmouse nibbling on a rock.

  “Magical beasts are divided into nine ranks. Magical beasts of the first rank are the weakest. And of course, above the ninth rank are magical beasts at the Saint level!” Doehring Cowart smiled at Linley. “Linley, the weakest type of Stoneater Rat is the Grey Stoneater Rat. Stoneater Rats of the first to third ranks are all grey in color, with some minor shading differences. A Stoneater Rat, upon reaching the fourth rank, will see its fur turn pure silver. Upon reaching the seventh rank, its fur will turn gold! A gold-colored Stoneater Rat will at least be a magical beast of the seventh rank, and at most a magical beast of the eighth rank.”

  “Linley, the Stoneater Rat race is an extremely terrifying race, primarily because they have huge numbers, and extremely sharp teeth, far sharper than the Shadowmouse race. When large numbers of Stoneater Rats appear, even an army of a hundred thousand people cannot hope to withstand them.” Doehring Cowart sighed as he spoke.

  Doehring Cowart was recalling a catastrophe he had witnessed long ago.

  The Stoneater Rat was not as fast as the Shadowmouse, but its body was as tough and durable as steel. The higher ranked a Stoneater Rat was, the tougher its body would become, and the sharper its teeth would become. Its body seemed small, but that was deceptive; in large numbers, they were absolutely terrifying.