Astral Apostle
chapter-226

Chapter 226 – Sorcery Mechanism (1)

Zhou Jing took his time to appreciate the Elemental Vision. It was quite novel, and he felt as though he was put into the shoes of a patient with extreme light sensitivity. At this moment, Roman’s eyes flashed as he entered the Elemental Vision as well. He started to explain,

“After entering this state, you can sense the various elements in the world. The nature spirit is a special existence among the elements, and it usually appears in deserted places.”

Hearing this, Zhou Jing turned around and was suddenly stunned.

Under the Elemental Vision, Roman’s entire body flickered with three colors of light. They were a lively red light, a rich yellow light, and the piercingly cold cyan light… It was as if there was a neon sign on his body, making one feel that he would start flashing in the next moment.

“What are you…”

“You see it? This is the fire, boulder, and wind nature spirit in my body.” Roman smiled. “Fusing with the nature spirit will expose me to the elemental vision, so it’s difficult for one sorcerer to hide from another.”

Zhou Jing’s heart skipped a beat.

No wonder Roman still believed that he had not been exposed even after being in power for so long. It turned out that as long as a sorcerer entered the palace and he met them, the two of them would immediately sense the other party’s unique signatures.

For the sorcerers, they mainly lived in seclusion and were not organized. Perhaps they did not want to be found by their peers.

“Can’t you restrain this characteristic?” Zhou Jing was curious.

“Yes, but it’s very difficult. Only when I deliberately control it can I make my elemental characteristics not so obvious. However, one’s mental strength has to be high enough, or else you cannot achieve this.” As Roman finished speaking, the light on his body slowly dimmed, almost fading, but there were still some signs present.

Seeing this, Zhou Jing was a little worried.

In the Mutant World, only sorcerers could enter the elemental vision, but in the main world, they could probably use tools such as spectral analysis, special energy monitoring, and other instruments to achieve similar effects.

There was nothing he could do about it. Technology was too advanced.

If it was difficult to hide his abilities and convert them to his main body, it would also be easy for others to discover them… However, speaking of which, his main body was still waiting to go to school. It was very safe, and there did not seem to be much need to hide.

Zhou Jing composed himself and asked curiously, “Then what should we do now? After entering the elemental vision, can I immediately fuse with the nature spirit? How should I go about doing it?”

“Of course it’s not that easy. Sensing the Elemental Vision is only the first necessary step. If you can’t even do this, it means that you don’t have the qualifications to become a sorcerer… Of course, you definitely do.”

Roman waved his hand and continued to explain,

“Next, you have to use your Elemental Vision to find your own matching element.”

“What do you mean?” Zhou Jing blinked.

Roman raised his hand, and a flame appeared in his palm. He turned his hand to extinguish it before slowly speaking.

“People have different physiques. There’s a difference in the intensity and compatibility of different elements. By going to places where different elements are dense, you can experience your own feelings. If you feel relaxed and happy, it proves that you’re suitable for this kind of element. If not, it means that an element doesn’t match you… For example, my most compatible element is fire.”

“… Good lord, then how did you discover this back then? Being surrounding yourself in fire?

Why don’t I believe this saying? If I ran into a world of ice and snow, I don’t know if I would feel happy to know if the elements are compatible with myself, but I’m quite sure that I would freeze to death.”

Zhou Jing suppressed the ridicule in his heart and decided to maintain an objective and analytical viewpoint to look at the experience of the sorcery system. He did not blindly believe in the “local formula”. He coughed and asked again,

“First find a matching element, then what?”

“Then, in such a place where the elements are dense, you can meditate and train the tolerance for these elements, as well as your own spirit. The moment you feel that you’re ready, you can then find a natural spirit to fuse with. A natural spirit is a product of the convergence of some elements in an area. Only when the concentration of a certain element reaches a certain level will it be born. Therefore, it usually appears in the area corresponding to the elements. For example, a fire natural spirit usually appears in a hot area, while a flowing natural spirit usually appears in a river stream… That’s why I have to search deep in the wilderness. It’s very magical, right?”

“So that’s how it is. The concentration of elements in different terrains is different. For example, there is a large amount of water elements gathered beside the water source. How wonderful. This is the first time I’ve heard such a thing… Pfft, isn’t this common sense!

I don’t even need the Elemental Vision to know that!”

Zhou Jing secretly rolled his eyes. He adjusted his emotions and pretended to be worried, “Then if I can’t fuse with it, will it be dangerous? Will I die like a Mutant Blood Warrior?”

Roman shook his head and continued to patiently guide him,

“The Mutant Blood Potion changes the human body extremely quickly and violently. This is against common sense, so it will die suddenly. However, the nature spirit is gentle. The fusion is only the first step. After success, one needs to slowly refine, digest, and develop it to increase their strength step by step. Even if the fusion fails, it will only waste the nature spirit. At most, one will feel tired, but their lives will not be in danger.”

He understood now. The blood potion was equivalent to gambling. If he won, he would be a model, but if he lost, he would end up as a pimp. As for the nature spirit, it was equivalent to sending his resume everywhere to find a job. As long as he could pass the interview and officially work, he would be able to get a salary…

“Then how should I cast my net… ahem, fuse with the nature spirit? Should I swallow it after finding it?” Zhou Jing’s eyes widened in curiosity.

Actually, when he used Jason as an apostle, he had seen the method in Lynen’s incomplete sorcery book. However, with an expert like Roman in front of him, he might be able to obtain some new knowledge.

However, Roman’s answer was no different from what was written in the book. He only needed to use some specific support items and then grab the nature spirit when he was meditating under the Elemental Vision.

At this moment, Zhou Jing seemed to have thought of something and asked excitedly,

“Does that mean that the more nature spirits you fuse, the stronger you will be? Are you considered powerful among the sorcerers?”

“Of course I’m a powerful sorcerer.” Roman chuckled, “What you want to ask is how to judge the strength of a sorcerer, right? The more nature spirits you fuse, the more elements you can control. It doesn’t mean that it’s powerful, and not the more the merrier.”

As he spoke, Roman gestured and explained to Zhou Jing

Sorcerers were not like Mutant Blood Warriors, who were clearly divided into levels of strength based off every additional enhancement. Because there were few sorcerers, their inheritance was limited, and their organization was extremely low, they had never formed a clear hierarchy.

The strength of a sorcerer mainly came from their own mental strength, as well as the development of their nature spirits. Both of these would affect the degree of a sorcerer’s control of the elements… And the core ability of a sorcerer to control the elements was known as “Merging Thoughts”. Zhou Jing had already read about this in the remnant book of sorcery.

By combining the elements corresponding to the nature spirit in his body, he could control the target. For example, Roman could control a bonfire that was already present. He could also greatly strengthen the power of the flames according to his own development of the nature spirit and his mental strength.

When there was no object material around, the sorcerer would not lose his combat strength. He could stimulate the nature spirit in his body and produce the corresponding elements. However, the consumption was far higher than that of the object material… Therefore, it was not as though Roman could not start a fire when there was no fire around. He could transform into an arsonist at any time and anywhere..

However, sorcerers relied more on the environment. With the advantage of the venue, they could use the least consumption to maximize their power.

As for the number of nature spirits, Zhou Jing combined Roman’s words and realized that they were roughly comparable to what he knew as the “Skill Tree”—in other words, a nature spirit that fused a new element was equivalent to having an additional skill tree. He could use this element in many forms.

The Level 1 abilities of the skill tree required cultivation to slowly unlock them, while the powerful abilities at the bottom of the skill tree required one to put in a lot of effort and resources to develop them.

Therefore, the number of nature spirits did not represent strength. Just having a great number of skill trees was useless. The most important thing was the depth of development of a skill tree… For example, Roman mainly cultivated the fire nature spirits. He only dabbled in the boulder and wind spirits to enrich his repertoire.

In this aspect, the Lynen that Zhou Jing knew had walked into a misunderstanding. This person thought that the reason he had never been able to advance was because he had not obtained any new nature spirit. This was the disadvantage of being unorthodox. Without a teacher to explain the way, the student could only fumble around themselves.

“I understand.” Zhou Jing nodded. This time, he really understood everything.

In that case, it was very difficult to determine a sorcerer’s strength directly… However, he had (Detect] and could directly see the other party’s attributes.

The cultivation of a sorcerer would ultimately be reflected in the changes in attributes. He still had a way to directly judge the strength of a sorcerer.

At this moment, Roman paused, before concluding, “What you have to do now is find the elements you match and then focus on training. When you’re done, I’ll take you to find the nature spirit.”

“This should take a long time, right?”

“It mainly depends on how long it takes you to prepare. Finding a nature spirit is very simple for me. I know many places where nature spirits exist. I’ll take you to whichever element you need.” Roman shrugged.

Hearing this, Zhou Jing secretly took a deep breath.

If he were to search for it, he would most likely be confused. He did not know when or how he would encounter a nature spirit.

However, as an experienced sorcerer, Roman remembered many locations. Because of Roman, he did not have to try his luck like a headless fly.

It felt good to have someone guiding him!

The wrong he commented… Cough, this brotherhood he “forged” was not wrong indeed!