NOVEL NEXT Chapter 39: Pathway Blocking
"Universal Resonance?" The term resonated with me, a fundamental building block of mana itself. Had Derrick found a loophole there? I would be shocked if he had, as I thought the loophole would have come from ancestral weight.
He looked at me with curiosity. "Astraga, have you ever heard of the term I just spoke?"
"Yes, Derrick, I have," I replied. "Due to my mother being an Ashborn and my father a manomancer, I was able to gain knowledge that universal resonance in this world is a phenomenon where mana responds to words, symbols, or actions when they're repeated across time and culture. This acts as an imprint for mana to develop an ancestral weight, which then determines and forms an ancestral authority."
"Wow, it appears this world favored you more in terms of access to deep knowledge, Astraga," he said. "I'm sure you're aware that knowledge in this world is very secretive; even libraries aren't publicly available."
I thought to myself, if only Derrick knew about the internet. It struck me that universal resonance acted much like the internet a platform that built itself on shared knowledge, actions, and cultures. It made retrieving information easier to a certain degree. That seemed like the best way to visualize it.
"Eventually, I was able to figure it out from my own personal experience with mana and how I cast it while I was alive," he said. "Now, as years passed, I began testing some ideas, creating my own spells, but they lacked the firepower to make them powerful. They were only at 1% strength as they lacked the proper universal resonance, which led to lower ancestral weight due to the fact that I was the only one who knew and used the spell, and a weaker authority over mana."
These were also areas I had explored and thought I would need to test myself, but hearing it from Derrick was starting to sound extremely time-consuming a lifetime spent trying and failing. It was a stroke of luck to be able to talk to someone who had already done some of the hard parts.
"In time, I then applied my ideas into motion during the war and, using my knowledge, finally broke the barrier and passed on the mantle to my sons, who had to perfect individual techniques sealing and barriers. My third son would also do the same, but all of these required the ultimate sacrifice."
This was it the biggest question of how he did it. I could already read from his face that the biggest sacrifice had something to do with his life and him dying, but it indeed worked and had taken the Ashborns to where they are today.
Deciding to push further, I needed answers. How did he do it? Did it have something to do with everything around us?
"How were the Ashborns able to remove themselves from the standard way of casting mana without losing effectiveness in spells and seals?" I asked, a sense of urgency in my voice.
"If I knew how you developed Latin and, now that I think about it, Egyptian languages and signs to cast spells, seals, and barriers, maybe I could create my own."
"Well, Astraga, it wasn't easy to accomplish," he replied, a hint of pride in his tone. "To make sure this worked to its fullest extent, I had to perform a technique known as pathway blocking. This made sure no one else would ever be able to accomplish it again."
"Even if they tried, the pathway was blocked, plain and simple?" I thought. What was pathway blocking exactly? I was already planning to ask him, but before I could barrage him with questions, he responded. "You need to know that I had a large pool of mana, as this was one of the foundations to achieve this. A specialist core was typically blessed with a larger mana pool than most cores."
"The second thing you have to know is that I was a philologist."
I stared at him, a bit lost. "Philologist? Now I'm confused. What does that mean?"
He chuckled. "Aren't they the best job in 2018?" he laughed. If only he knew how much people were making just streaming. The job market was already crazy. Trying to at least make an attempt, I added, "Does it have to do with culture?" I asked, trying to piece the puzzle together.
"Close," he said with a slight smile. "Before the Second World War, I was a philologist who focused on Latin and Egyptian language and culture."
"Wow," I said, a look of understanding finally dawning on me. "Now that explains the detailed pyramid and the obsession with it earlier."
"But what did this have to do with how you made signs and words specifically for Ashborns?" That question itself hadn't been answered.
"Well, as you have said yourself, universal resonance was shared culture and the meaning of words and how they imprinted themselves in this world with mana channeling through them to accomplish tasks. But, Astraga, one thing was clear: if a mage had enough influence as a powerful mage with a large mana pool, one could create new spells that were only specific to the caster, as the mage had created a new meaning from his intention for those spells. Are you following, Astraga?"
It appeared he was leading me on, dropping hints, but I still wasn't getting them. Okay, mages who are regarded as powerful or influential get some kind of temporary weight? Was that what he meant?
"So you mean something like a mage's influence on other mages made it possible to create new spells?"
"Exactly, Astraga. So I set out to become a well-known mage. What better way to do that than to become an adventurer, building your status? All of this was before the war, the rebellion against the elves, of course."
"Derrick, I understand you, but still, how does that affect anything?" I did get his logic. Just like in our world, celebrities could create meaning for words they made up, be it in music, movies, or genres. I remembered Shakespeare did it a lot of times in his literature, as he created new words during his lifetime. They had some level of use by his readers and understanding, and words like "addiction," "assassination," and even some compound words like "watchdog" probably weren't widely recognized at first. This phenomenon was also common in the field of science, as Newton also coined terms like "centrifugal" and "mass" towards a brand new meaning with its own weight, separate from its previous meaning. Was this what the term "creating a pathway" meant?