Chapter 302: Speed Is Important
Lake didn't know how long he had been at cube training but it had been at least a few hours so he planned to end this after his current cube exploded. He felt like he was hitting some type of wall and he didn't think trying for much longer would actually be useful. He needed to go and find a book that could tell him if there were limits to how hard you could make mana.
He was on his twentieth round of this so he thought there was about an equal chance that he had hit his current limit or the actual limit for Wind mana. Once his cube failed Lake walked out of his room and went towards the Temple Heads office. He wanted to know about the limit thing he had just been thinking about but the Temple Head had been waiting for him.
The Temple Head would probably be a better source of information anyway since it would be hard to track down the exact knowledge he was looking for in the books they had here that were mostly about Light magic. Seeing the Temple Head's door was closed, Lake wondered if he should wait or if knocking would be alright.
Deciding to just knock Lake did so and a second later he heard the Temple Head's voice. "You can come in." Opening the door, Lake saw the Temple Head was alone and asked. "Am I interrupting something?" Lake knew he had only been gone a few hours so the Temple Head was probably working.
This tended to happen whenever he walked into Lucas' office as well so Lake had no problem coming back later if she needed him to. "No, it's fine, come on let's get to the tour." Lake never even really got into the room so he just moved out of the doorway and let the Temple Head out into the hallway.
"I'm going to show you the training rooms first. That's where a lot of people around your age spend their time so I'm sure you'll like it for passing time there." Remembering what he had just been doing inside his room, Lake thought it was great that he got to see where he should have been training.
He also saw this as a great opportunity to ask his question since the Temple Head was already thinking about him training. "Speaking of training, are you aware of a limit to how solid you can make Wind mana? I've hit some kind of wall and I can't seem to get past it."
"What method are you using? I saw you use the cube method a few days ago, is that still your go to method?" Lake nodded and asked. "Does this method have a limit?"
"No not the method but most people slip into tricks to make the compression easier when in reality its best to compress the mana with no internal structures since they eventually get in the way. If this is what you did we can fix it pretty easily, all you need to do is go to a pure compression method. Show me when we get to the training room, ok?"
Hearing the Temple Head's word he knew she had to be right about the problem. He had by the end of it had five internal shapes to make the cube compress better. As they were walking into the training room Lake saw the Temple Head point at a door before saying. "Don't go through that door until you are giving permission. Other than that you are free to use any of these rooms as you wish."
Lake was surprised by how nice this room was. He had expected the one here to be worse or at least smaller than the one inside the spire he had spent some time inside. "Wow, it's really nice in here." There was no reason to keep this to himself since it was nice so he just said what he was thinking.
"Thank you, let's go ahead and solve your wind magic problem. Step inside this room with me." Following the Temple Head into the private training room Lake saw this room was padded just like the one in the spire and concluded they were exactly the same to keep people from being hurt while they trained. "Alright let me see how you've been doing it."
Forming the cube and rocketing through the first 17 rounds Lake quickly got to the 20th cube compression before having to stop. "Well I have some good news for you. Once you get to the stage where you start training with your own mana I don't think you'll have any problems making formations. That's some time away though so lets focus on your force not the amount of control you're exerting. Change the cube to a sphere."
Doing as he was told, Lake slowly made the cube into a sphere which took a long time. "Ok now get rid of the internal structures you added to this method." Once again doing as he was told he was only able to get rid of half of the compression layers before the ball exploded. "Sorry."
"Don't be sorry I wanted that to happen to show you how you messed up. The cube method is perfect because it trains control and force in even parts but by over relying on control to make progress you lack force in your mana control. You should be able to crush the mana without needing multiple rounds of compression. For now switch to doing sphere training until you're able to make it to 15 rounds. This will catch your forcefulness up to your control."
Lake was thankful for all of this help so he said. "Thank you Temple Head. I'll do as you said." He could tell the Temple Head found his sincere thanks funny and was about to ask if they should move on in the tour when the Temple Head said. "How are you doing in the speed principle? I'm sure you have neglected it in favor of your own legs because of how fast you are."
She was completely correct. If Lake knew how to measure how far he was in each of these principles he was sure the progress he had made in speed was tiny. "You're correct. I don't really fly very often since I have better ways to get around even in the air so I've almost completely stopped training the speed principle."
"Well I would recommend you start putting more effort into it. The speed principle is a lot more special than the solid principle and it puts a limit on your magic so training it should be higher on your list if you plan to be good at Wind magic." Lake was sure she knew what she was talking about so he nodded and said. "I'll do my best to catch up in speed training."
"Good. Alright let's move on there are still three more places I have to bring you before this tour is over." Lake nodded and followed behind the Temple head. As they were walking to the next location Lake thought of something else he could probably ask the Temple Head about that pertains to speed. Fleet-foot was a job he was very interested in and with the magic compass he was sure he could start tracking down other people that had the job to level it up.
He wasn't sure if it was a good idea even if it did give him perception on level up which was something he really needed. Deciding it would be fine to ask after the Insider didn't stop him, Lake waited till he was sure they were alone and asked. "Do you know anything about the Fleet-foot job?"
Lake was relieved to find the Temple Head didn't jump in surprise or anything when he asked this and waited for her answer. "Do you have it or is it just something you heard about?" Feeling he was already too far to lie he said. "I've had it for a few weeks but I've been too busy to find out anything about it yet."
"I wouldn't recommend you use it but just in case you plan to I'll tell you what I know." Lake got excited when he heard the Temple Head take an almost worried tone in the way she was speaking. He knew this was a bad sign but with there being high stakes he was sure there was an interesting story.
"First it's funny you ask about Fleet-foot right after I helped you with Wind magic since Fleet-foot is a job created by the God of Wind to find people worthy of being subordinate demigods to him. All the gods do tests like these just not always in the form of a job. For more information on these tests you should look into reading a book called Paths of ascension. It's very good and you'll find it helpful."
Lake took note of the name real quick before going back to listening to what the Temple Head was saying. "So this competition job forces out those good at fighting that have Wind affinity out into the open so it's easy for the God of Wind to find them but it's almost impossible to find others with this job so it's considered a waste of time."
After the Temple Head said the last thing she was silent for a while before saying. "Don't think just because you're able to find others it's a good idea. You'll be in competition with others who are in most cases much older and experienced than you." Lake wasn't about to run off to find these people he just wanted to know what kind of skills this job gave so he asked. "Do you know what kind of skills the job gives?"
There was no reason to listen to one warning after another so he felt this question was likely to give him the information he needed to know. "I would expect an increase in Wind affinity or a speed increasing skill but I don't know for sure. You would have to find someone with the job to get more but like I said its a bad idea. There's nothing some people won't do to become a demigod in a safe manner that the Demon Lord won't interfere with."
Lake had heard of the Demon Lord hunting demigods as a source of divinity so he wasn't surprised a lot of people would be involved in this Fleet-foot test. "Anyway we're here so let's stop talking about this so I can show you which parts of our information room you have access to."
This 𝓬ontent is taken from f(r)eeweb(n)ovel.𝒄𝒐𝙢