The Celestial Land

Chapter 8: Ascending the Stage

Elleste had been absorbing the nature energy at Mage Serena's place for a few days. She had gained more control towards the earth energy and finally able to absorb it at more faster rate.

At this few days, however, the scene of Arlina looking at her as if she was food still engraved at her mind. She couldn't help but feel that there was something off. Despite knowing Arlina for a few days, she somehow felt that it was weird for Arlina to suddenly became like that.

Moreover, aside from that one time, she didn't see Arlina acted like that again. Elleste wasn't sure, but it was as if Arlina was...

"Don't get distracted again. You will lose control over those energies. Controlling two element energies at the same time required twice the effort from controlling only one element energy."

Arlina took a deep breath as he found that her mind was wandering again. The energies around had her become slightly chaotic and if she forcefully absorb the chaotic energy, it will cause chaos on her body.

Over the few days, her physique surprisingly had gotten stronger. She no longer looked as weak as before, even her face became slightly prettier.  Turn out that the nature energy also had this effect of keeping one's looks.

Elleste slowly got rid of any distracting though that would sow chaos in her process of energy absorbtion. Gradually, she over the past months, combined with Mage Serena's pointers and her own hard work, she had managed to control five elements at once.

Absorbing the nature energy was an arduous process; one careless move can cause someone to have backlash in case they failed to control it. Too little energy would make the process much slower, but too much energy being controlled at a time can cause unstability.

How much energy one could control depend on oneself. Each person had their own limitation depended on their talent.

The ages of races from this world were quite long enough. The time passed so quickly that Elleste had begun to adapt to the new environment. She also almost forgotten about the matter of Arlina.

She just suspected that Arlina had just lost control for a moment. She no longer thought about it, though she still retained her vigilance.

It had been a few months since she came under Mage Serena guidance.

Elleste had tried to be diligent enough these past months. She wanted to break through the first stage as soon as possible, so she can start learning the magical spells.

The first stage involved the baptism of one's body to accomodate the nature energy. After all, the spells being casted by mages needed different amount of nature energy. The more the body can hold the nature energy, the more powerful a mage become.

Mages at the same stage can also have different strength. It had to do with the talent and the amount of nature energy being stored. Complicated spells required more of the nature energy.

For the last few months, Elleste had tried to absorb the nature energy more ardously. Whether it was night or day, in the Mage Serena's private room or her own cabin, she never stopped.

Her body had gotten tougher. She no longer needed food as much as ordinary human. She only eat once a day and she was still fine. At night, she began to sleep less; accompanying Arlina while she absorb the nature energy, and Arlina absorb the night energy.

"Your process had improved so much for the past few months. No wonder they placed you in the second batch of the Green Wood Palace. After all, some of them had almost broken through the second stage. Your talent is quite high." Mage Serena praised her after Elleste gradually opened her eyes.

Elleste revealed a smile. "Thank you, Mage Serena."

Mage Serena also looked quite happy. "After you broke through the first stage, you should go back to the class so you can train along with your batch. After all, they will be your companions later."

Elleste swallowed the unwillingness down deep down in her heart. She honestly didn't want to go back, but she had no choice. So, she just looked at Mage Serena and nodded.

She still remembered that the first day she entered the class, she had a fight with that golden haired girl named Glacia.

"Mage Serena, among the mage apprentices of the second batch Green Wood Palace, who have reach the second stage among them?"

Mage Serena pondered about that question for a while, then she shook her head slightly. "I can't remember all of the names. But, the ones that have the highes talent are Glacia and Leon."

Elleste let out a sigh. These two people were the ones that also had argument on that day, right? It seemed that they were in fierce competition and always oppose each other.

"Don't worry too much. Your speed of absorbing the nature energy is actually much faster than other people. You will be able to reach these two's level soon." Mage Serena assured her as soon as Elleste became silent.

Elleste nodded at Mage Serena. She calmed herself. When she was about to go back absorbing the nature energy, unexpectedly Mage Serena called her back, which made her let out a huge breath.

She didn't know when, but since she had developed the habit of absorbing the nature energy nonstop, she unknowingly felt some sort of depression inside. Now, she had just realized it.

"Don't just kept going on absorbing the nature energy like your life depended on it. It will affect your mentality if you do that without rest." Mage Serena gave her some pointers and advices again to Elleste. Having a private teaching like this really gave her a lot of benefits.

"Here, to let your mind relax, how about I teach you abiut rune? This can also help you to cast the formation."

Elleste looked excited when she heard that. The magical runes! She really though that those things were really cool. She had observed the runes in Mage Serena's room and found out that they had different uses.

It was so magical that Elleste interested in learning about it. However, Elleste never asked Mage Serena to taught her. After all, Mage Serena once told her that she would teach her those magical runes a some months ago.

Elleste just thinking that maybe it wasn't the right time and that the nature energy in her body wasn't high enough. So, she just waited. And now, she was offered to be taught about magical runes, and it made her really feel excited.

Drawing runes was a slow process, as it would involved injecting the nature energy at the some points around the key places. The amount of energy being ijected also should be controlled. So, it was an arduous process that needed precise calculation and huge patience.

The first time Elleste tried to draw the rune, she had failed. Those runes were complex and even if she had tried to draw it without using the nature energy, she still made some mistakes here and there. Either she lack some strokes at a certain point or there were too much lines that were not supposed to exist there.

It was a complete failure. However, Elleste didn't give up. The rune was a simple one that could be used at the first stage. She just needed to use the golden ink to draw it on the ground. Its function was to completely hide one's presence from any being at second stage and below. Even so, the drawing was still quite complex for Elleste.

"Don't copy the rune that way, you should imprint it to your mind  and make it the part of yourself." Mage Serena pointed the flaw in Elleste's method, making the girl's eyes lit up.

Elleste began to imprint those each strokes of the complicated lines into her head. It took a long time, around a few hours before she fimally able to make it turn perfect. However, Elleste finally found another problem. She was still unable to grasp the feeling od making it a part of herself as as Mage Serena said.

This made her frown. Mage Serena had told her that she should figure it out herself and shouldn't ask other, or else the rune wouldn't be hers. After all, Mage Serena had told her that the method of each person making the rune as the part of their own were different.

"Making it a part of myself... " Elleste began to ponder. However, after another few hours passed and she was still unable to comprehend this issues too deeply.

In the end, Elleste just sighed. She didn't think about the matter regarding the rune anymore and finally got up from her sitting position. She looked at Mage Serena with complex feelings, afraid that she would be disappointed.

"Don't rush it. Search for your own method and slowly integrated the rune within yourself." Elleste nodded. She bowed at Mage Serena and thanked her for the today's teaching.

"Take this book." Mage Serena handed her a slightly dilapitated book with yellow paper that gave off ancient feeling to Elleste. "This book contained the bases of learning ancient runes. Study it carefully."

"Thank you, Mage Serena." Elleste's eyes revealed an extreme gratitude. Mage Serena just nodded.

Elleste turned around, and walked into one of the runes. She gazed at it for a while before taking the step forward until she completely stepped into it. After a few moments, her body finally disappeared, and being transported into her own cabin this time.

After Elleste left, Mage Serena sat silently on her chair. Occasionally, there were flashes of some unknown thiughts on her eyes before her expression gradually turned normal again.