With meditation techniques ranging from low‑grade all the way to high‑grade methods available within the academy now fully analyzed and cross‑referenced, Leylin possessed a clear grasp of the standard path of magus advancement.
He knew every milestone, bottleneck, and established ritual the world's mages had walked for millennia.
Yet the deeper he delved into his own discoveries, especially the mechanics behind natural runes and bloodline atavism, the less impressed he became by this "tried and true" path laid down by his forbearers.
The ancestors built well enough, Leylin can admit to himself calmly that their achievements deserve respect and to serve as inspiration for future generations… but only as a starting point.
To simply follow in their exact footsteps would be nothing more than walking a track someone else already paved, limiting oneself to boundaries already set.
'One must walk their own path… especially when you have the means to build a better one.'
Glancing around him, his quarters were no longer just a bedroom—they had become a private vault. Shelves, tables and floor spaces were stacked neatly with rare, element‑aligned materials: glowing crystals of pure fire essence, cold cubes of liquid‑like water jade, blocks of heavy earth‑core ore, vials of swirling wind‑storm mist, shadow‑veined metal ingots, light‑refracting glass, specimens of life‑rich wood and vials of crackling lightning salts. All eight fundamental forces of this world were represented, gathered, sorted, and waiting.
From studying magical beasts—how natural runes formed spontaneously within flesh and blood to grant innate affinities—he had conceived a bold, revolutionary idea: artificially induce and stabilize every elemental affinity within himself, allowing him to utilize every form of mana equally, without restriction or dilution.
Leylin: "Replication model complete. Can I actually reproduce the natural rune formation process artificially across all eight elements?"
AI: [Calculation complete. Biological formation principles fully understood. Current integration precision yields 80% Success Rate per element. Risk of conflict or resonance interference manageable.]
Leylin: "And the imbalance problem? Why mages naturally lean toward one or two affinities?"
AI: [Natural competition. Without precise control, stronger affinities consume or suppress weaker ones. Magical beasts only develop what suits their survival instinct and environment—never full spectrum naturally.]
Leylin: "Then we simply force balance where nature only creates compromise. Eight affinities. Eight foundations. All equal, all active."
AI: [Feasible. Will require massive material reserves and repeated nano‑etching cycles.]
Leylin: "We have the resources. Let's begin mapping the formation sequence."
Right then—before he could dive deeper into the schematics—his HUD flared with urgent new alerts.
[Network Signal Detected — Farlier Encryption Protocol Recognized]
[Connecting…]
[Authenticating Biometric Signature…]
[Verification Complete — Connection Established]
[Connection Established with Evernight City Base — Online]
[Connection Established with Grey Stone Castle — Online]
[Connection Established with Witch's Garden Outpost — Online]
[Connection Established with Black Gull Harbour Node — Online]
[Synchronizing Global Data… 47%… 92%… Complete]
[Receive Incoming Compressed Transmission? Y/N]
'Yes!'
Leylin's voice held genuine excitement—this was the first full stable link from the South Coast.
Reports flooded in as soon as the link stabilized.
[Core administration of Evernight City infiltration at 69%; key nobility replaced. Trade tariffs adjusted, resource flow secured. Low profile maintained.]
[Grey Stone Castle has been taken through gradual influence infiltration; military command fully seized]
[Project SKYEYE delayed... Delay Cause: Massive mana interference zones, signal loss and unit destruction.]
[Encounters with established powers: Oathbreakers, Nightless Clans, and wandering organizations like the Guild of Travelers.]
These groups proved far more wary, powerful, and internally cohesive than Leylin expected.
According to reports, the direct replacement attempts seems to have failed repeatedly as they possessed bloodline markers, soul oaths, and identification techniques that are yet to be analyzed.
Leylin studied the overview, the map dotted with bright green lights representing secure footholds, but vast stretches of lands are still grey and unclaimed.
"Good progress," he murmured, "but we've only scratched the surface."
Leylin pondered for a bit before making his mind.
'I see... Transmit the full dataset on natural runes to all nodes. Expand the scope of my project immediately. Designate highest priority: capture, containment and deep research of high‑grade magical plants and beasts, every specimen, every bloodline, every variant matters. I want every natural rune we can lay our hands on to be recorded, analyzed, and optimized.'
Leylin's earlier excitement faded completely, replaced by that familiar, cold, absolute focus.
'We have the model. We have the materials. Let us proceed with Project Artificial Genius.'
The blueprint unfolded within his mind.
What appeared is an elegant, ancient‑derived yet entirely revolutionary design.
Instead of scattering runes haphazardly across flesh or forcing conflicting elemental patterns into the same tissues, he would align perfectly with the natural structure of living beings.
This means matching each fundamental element to a core internal organ, grafting and etching complete affinity rune networks directly into an organ just as how it worked in nature.
[Project Artificial Genius — Organ‑Element Mapping & Implementation:]
The seat of warmth, rhythm and life force is the heart. The Fire Affinity Runes will be etched here.
As a result, it will passively draw, purify and refine fire mana into spiritual force while granting Leylin immunity to mundane fires, resistance to fire magic, and enhanced fire spells.
Kidneys are the seat of stillness, depth, preservation and circulation regulation.
The Water Affinity Runes will be etched here.
The projected result shows that they will then be able to passively absorb, store and filter water mana, granting resistance to cold, innate toxin purification, and smoother, more efficient mana flow throughout the whole body.
The Wind Affinity Runes will be etched on the organ of breath, movement, exchange and speed, the lungs.
Once active, every inhalation would pull in and refine the previously elusive wind mana.
This would increase his reaction speed, agility and range of movement, while muffling sounds and dampening impact force.
The Earth Affinity Runes will be etched on the liver, an organ of stability, endurance, nourishment and solid anchoring.
This affinity would passively draw in the heavy, dense earth mana that used to be indifferent to his presence, vastly boosting his physical defence, vitality and regeneration.
This also acts as the stable foundation that would prevent the other elements from destabilizing.
At the foundation of all magic lie only these primal four: Fire, Water, Wind, Earth.
According to his studies on beasts and affinities, every other element is not truly separate, but a combination, mutation or state change born from the interplay of these primal mana.
Ice, Mist, Steam arise from interaction between Water and Wind or Fire mana.
Lightning, Storms form through friction and resonance between Wind and Fire mana.
Mud, Clay, Crystal, Sand are Earth blended with Water, Fire or Wind mana.
Acid, Lava, Dust, Rot are all simply expressions of these four fundamentals interacting under different conditions.
Standard mages suffer crippling disadvantages when straying from their native affinity.
First, mana must be laboriously converted, incantations lengthened, control frays, and efficiency plummets often costing double, triple or more mana for half the effect, while casting drags out as formulas struggle against conflicting elemental signatures.
Most magus never even bother to look at other elemental spells unless their lives depended on it.
They accept this limit as some kind of law in nature.
If it can be helped, Leylin would have no need for such handicap.
By mastering the root source, all derived forms would come naturally with no conversion penalty, no affinity friction, no extra cost or delay.
Theoretically, every spell, of every variant, would function at full efficiency, as if it belonged to his nature from birth.
'Let us begin!'
[Commencing Etching Sequence]
[Initiating Quad‑Organ Rune Integration — Synchronized Deployment]
[Target Sites: Heart, Kidneys, Lungs, Liver...]
[Protocol: Parallel Nano‑Etching — Artificial Bio-Resonance Calibration Active]
Swarms of mana‑infused nanites flooded inward simultaneously, behaving less like machines and more like enchanted symbionts capable of weaving into cell membranes, embedding within mitochondrial structures, and rewriting metabolic pathways.
[Initiating Phase‑Transition Rune Seeding]
[Epigenetic Rune Encoding — integrating affinity patterns]
[Mana‑Reactive Bio‑Ceramic Lattice forming…]
[Elemental Resonance Anchors bonding to organ meridian nodes…]
[Cross‑Conduits establishing harmonic flow between all four systems…]
It was not carving, it was more like an artificially induced growth.
The runes, albeit artificial will become part of the very function of Leylin's organs.
Soon enough, the Heart began to metabolize fire essence as naturally as oxygen, Kidneys stored water mana within ionic gradients, alveoli in the Lungs developed micro‑valves that filtered wind currents from ambient air, and Liver cell structures crystallized into dense earth‑mana capacitors.
[Four Primary Affinities — Embedded.]
[Status: Stable.]
When the last rune locked into place, the four primal forces did not remain separate—they began to sing.
[Harmony Index: 98.1% — Exceeded Theoretical Projection.]
'Hmmm? Exceeded?'
Then as if on cue something shifted.
[ANOMALY DETECTED — ]
Lines of elemental influence, balanced and perfectly weighted, started resonating across biological and magical boundaries.
Fire heated Water into vapor that fed Wind, which eroded and aerated Earth that grounded and cooled Fire.
This resonance formed a complete, self‑sustaining cycle deep within his physiology.
The feedback loop spiraled upward, exponential rather than additive.
[Unscripted Cross‑Affinity Resonance...]
[Spiritual Force Rising: 19.8 → 21.4 → 24.7 — Accelerating!]
Leylin who just reached rank 3 apprentice now possessed a spiritual force that exceed that of a newly promoted magus.
If he was anyone else, he would have already exploded a few times over. Thankfully, his rank 3 physique saved him from the fate of exploding into minced meat.
The problem however wasn't really addressed. He is still in danger of exploding, only much stronger than normal.
[Warning: Exceeding predefined safety thresholds — 20.0 breached. Buffer capacity insufficient.]
'What is happening? Show me the resonance graph.' Leylin asked internally.
[Four‑element cycle achieved perfect equilibrium. System now functions as closed‑loop mana amplifier. Energy is regenerating, compounding, and reinforcing spiritual force in turn. Current rate: +0.7 Spiritual Force per minute and climbing.]
"Estimate peak containment."
[Projection: Structural limits will be reached at approx 38.2 Spiritual Force — in 24 minutes 15 seconds.]
'What if it exceeds that threshold?'
[Beyond the projected threshold— tissue destabilization, mana crystallization, spontaneous detonation probability: 91.6%.]
'Show me the options for stabilization.'
[1: Sever cross‑connections — revert to separate affinities. Success: 100%. Consequence: discard entire breakthrough, regress to standard model. Soul damage.]
[2: Install artificial dampening arrays — bleed excess energy continuously. Success: 74.2%. Consequence: permanent power loss, wasteful operation, spiritual force leak, premature explosion, death.]
[Solution 3: Construct and inscribe Rank 1 Spell Model immediately promoting to Rank 1 Magus. Success Probability: 89.7%]
Mental pressure continued to built inside him like a star collapsing inward, fire, wind, water, and earth mana are continuously absorbed by his body and directly refined into spiritual force.
Crushing weight pressed against the boundaries of his swelling sea of consciousness.
Despite the danger, Leylin felt no spike of adrenaline, no cold knot of panic in his gut.
The fear was there, he could feel it press against his will. It's just that the fear response simply… activated a different set of operating protocols for him.
He sat perfectly still, pulse steady, gaze clear and cold.
An absolute composure, legacy of a world where machines hunted man at every turn, where only total clarity can keep you breathing.
John Connor had learned never to flinch before the dark, and as Leylin, he simply became a little mellow but essentially the same man.
"Lets go with the third option," he stated calmly. "Build the spell model for me. Do not create a destructive spell. Design a spell that can be an extension of my awareness with a pattern that matches your core functional logic.]
[Rendering Spell Architecture]
[Expanding Red-eyed Crow innate ability as foundational structure...]
[Simulating...]
[Simulating...]
[Simulating....]
[Stable Structure Found...]
[Optimizing...]
[Isolating successful results...]
[Simulating integration procedure...]
[Spell Creation Complete]
[Spell Function: Receive, process, decode, amplify, broadcast mana‑encoded data across vast distances, and act as organic transceiver.]
"Refine efficiency. Merge mind‑rune processing pathways directly into the spell matrix."
[Integrating… Blueprint Finalized. Model ready for inscription — immediate execution required.]
"Then begin."
[CRITICAL PRESSURE — Spiritual Force: 31.9 — Containment failing —]
'Then begin inscribing the spell now!'