The Ascension of the Celestial Priest

5; The Meditation Arts.

Opposed to what Lukas once thought of the mages in his past world, where they only pointed their wands and staffs and shoot out spells like a cannonball, the world he was now living in has evolved in more ways past that. Though Meditation has always been the bread and the butter for every Mage since yonder, the current generation has found more efficient methods in which Mages can use Meditation for even higher and quicker achievements than their past counterparts.

And that came in Meditation Arts.

In general Meditation Arts are specific methods Mages and even some warriors could use to easily pull mana into their bodies and comprehend the Elements with their Soul, with a few more added benefits. Within his inherited memories the more powerful the meditation arts are, the more obvious their added benefits could be seen. And as a rule of thumbs all of the major institutions in the continent had their own powerful Core meditation Arts that allows them to stand at the top of the Power Struggle. Including the most known institutions like the Tabernacle of Flames and the World of Ice both found in the North-Western of the Cathedral of Light under the Twin Mountains.

After spending a few moments familiarizing himself with the new and the not so new language of his present body, he started summarizing most of the knowledge on meditation arts, their types and their levels only to find that even though the previous Lukas had a powerful sister in the inner sect, his knowledge was still considerably low from what he could tell.

In his mind, he found that even for Meditation process there are different levels to it, each one bringing more benefits than the other. The first level respectively named Surface level mediation involved passively absorbing mana from the air into one's body. It was pitifully slowly and basically every mage in the continent could perform it with ease.

Then there was Semi- Conscious level which involved actual meditating and absorbing the mana in the surrounding world with one's will. It was more powerful than Surface level as it also allowed comprehending and familiarizing with one's element but it depended wholly on the level of the one's will and determination coupled with one's talent and power of soul in both taking in mana and understanding the elements.

The deep conscious level was the real bread and butter in which a mage can fully and wholly focus on absorbing mana in very high efficiency and form deeper connection to their elements. It involved letting go of their surroundings and delve into the realm of being half asleep. Unless one is sure of the safety of their surroundings no one dares initiates this very easily though. Not forgetting the part that one's mind should be able to let go of the all distractions to be able to experience this in full but once achieved it can allow one to take huge strides in increasing their cultivation and their spell casting, as once the respective mage is more familiar and intimate with their elements the easier it is to cast spells and summon more power from it.

Lukas thinking on his previous life experience he wondered if this mediation level could basically be the same with the deep mediation he used to do back on Earth. Holding that thought, he calmed his nervous heart and then began reviewing the Meditation arts the previous host was practicing.

It was called the Radiance Meditation Arts.

Just as its name indicated this Meditation Arts was great for Light Mages and it was tailored for them who awakened the elemental light. Though by practice any mage could cultivate, it had long term bonus for the light mages as at higher levels The Meditation Art accompanied various battle skills and many specific spells that mages with the Elemental Light could use to grow stronger.

And the small book within Lukas hand's was the foundational level that involved taking one's soul altar and visualizing it one's mind. A little confused Lukas decided to review his new knowledge on precisely what Soul altars are and it didn't take long for to be able to collect all of his thoughts together.

It was common knowledge in the Continent of Lush that any awakened Mages posses a soul altar that indicated their talent and housed their element respectively. With years of accumulation, Soul Altars were discovered to be born the moment one's potential to be a mage was awakened completely. The Souls altars were then found to be formed and shaped very differently from one mage to another and this depended on so many variables like races, bloodlines, lineages, special destinies, fates and many others. Soul altars became a norm for every mage and being able to possess one means one was given a chance to travel the Exalted Journey of Magic.

The Radiance Arts capitalized on that, giving out clear cut instructions on how to visit one's altar and then forming a visualization image in one's mind palace to attract even more mana and comprehend the elements more deeply whilst increasing their psych power also. This will bring many advantages starting with better control of spells, easier and faster recovery of mana and a more efficient refinement of one's mana allowing for much easier and quicker breakthrough in the long run. This also provided a subtle chance of hidden bonuses that one's altar can bring to the specific counterpart. This was said on the belief that many soul altars brought various gifts to their mages and visualizing it they have a higher chance of being able to awaken their innate gifts even faster and earlier as opposed to mages who didn't cultivate meditation arts at all.

But even though this Meditation art seemed of a high class and powerful it brought a few pointed disadvantages. It depended heavily on what kind of Soul Altar one formed. Meaning that if one's soul altar was low ranked in terms of talent, though it can considerably be enhanced, it will be severely limiting in comparison to the talented mages of higher caliber. So if one's soul altar was more powerful and showed more potential, the more this art capitalizes on letting that potential shine.

In addition not every soul altar formed was able to be perfectly visualized in one's mind palace. There are so many different soul altars formed by many different mages that this meditation Art could not cover them all. The path of Magic didn't doesn't only need a stronger will, higher comprehension and strength to even be able to visualize in one's mind it also needed a touch of luck as well. Lacking in any of these categories meant that one's path will be severely limited, that even this foundational art will be of barely any use to them at all.

Looking at the small booklet, Lukas mused. The Radiance meditation arts in his hands was only at foundational level and he was sure the higher levels could only be obtained in the inner sects and higher , and only contributing large amounts of efforts in return.

Shaking his head he sat crossed legged and then took a deep breath. The existence of a Soul altar was already a given for him seeing as he could summon his elemental light easily and as he descended in his own version of deep meditation a stray thought passed through his mind.

What would his Soul Altar look like especially now that he seemed to be a fusion of two souls in one body?