The First Cultivator - Changing Existence

These lines had given him a lot of inspiration, and he had finally developed a diagram of his own that seemed to conform to the laws of his magic. After testing them and changing them around, the lines were able to achieve exactly what he wanted. Increasing the amount of magic he can control at once and the speed at which he can move it.

He could create the circle with magic, and as long as it was active, these effects were present. Naturally, Fa Zhu wanted to make this effect permanent so that he could essentially transform himself.

After a few weeks of thought and deliberation, he finally decided on a course of action.

He headed back into the woods and created a structure by the nearest river.

It was made of wood with a circle made of metal hanging on at the end. He created a fire under it.

The circle of metal was flat on most parts, but there was a thin line that was sharp and would go a bit deeper to really set it up.

As the fire raged, he used magic to make the flame go higher and burn hotter. It swirled around the piece of metal for a few minutes before Fa Zhu dissipated the flames and backed up against the piece of metal. It went deep into his skin, branding his back.

At the same time, he controlled the magic to infuse into the brand forming on his back.

After an entire minute, he finally moved away from the piece of metal and jumped in the river.

The burning feeling began to recede. When he finally left the river, he was exhausted. It had not been an easy process, but he could already tell that it worked.

The amount of magic he could control was on an entirely different level. In just a few weeks, his power increased by a lot. But the path of magic was far deeper than he had gone into so far. He began to focus on the fine bits instead of just roughly controlling the magic in the air.

Within a week of branding the circle onto his back, he created his first magic spell. He called it Flame Spear.

Although he could control all types of magic such as water, fire, earth, air, and others, he found that he was much more proficient and talented in using Fire Magic.

So he focused on that. Every time, it took him a week to create a new spell. After practicing them enough, he could cast them almost instantly. It took a single second for a Flame Spear to form and shoot out. It was something that could easily destroy a house, and he found it hard to believe that any human would be able to survive it.

His other favorite spell was simply called Fireball. It was much simpler, and more power could be poured into it. It also exploded. The only downside was that its piercing power was much weaker and it moved much slower.

These two spells he practiced the most.

For other types of magic, he created at most a spell or two and didn't practice it too much, just enough to get a basic grasp.

As a year passed, he grew much older and wiser.

He moved out of the library basement and into a courtyard. It was a small house, but it was also cheap as it existed at the edge of the city.

He also developed a new spell he valued greatly. He called it the Magic Shield.

It had two modes. Active, where it was visible and much more defensively powerful, and passive, where it was invisible and had less defensive power, but would still stop anything these mortals could wield. He imagined only a ballista would be able to pierce through it.

Eventually, he considered leaving the city. Although his family was waiting for him to return home with a wife, he had no plans to go back any time soon. And if he did, it would be as a visit.

He wanted to go towards the capital of the kingdom, where true rich and powerful people lived. It was something incomparable to this small city.

This idea had formed after the girl who hired him mentioned that the capital was adding three new floors to their library, and they needed to hire more workers.

Fa Zhu had managed to get his hands on an application and sent it through the mail system.

He didn't know if this job was competitive or not, but all he could do was apply.

He made sure to study up in case his application was accepted, spending many nights in the library.

A month later, he received a letter saying that he had been accepted for an interview. If he wanted the job, he needed to be in the capital within a month of receiving the letter. As the capital was a three week journey away, he did not hesitate to leave the same day he got the letter. He did say goodbye to the girl and her family, as they had been very kind to him over the years.

The journey to the capital was smooth, with not a single thing negative happening. Even when bad weather came, it was moderate.

He made it to the capital relaxed.

Although the wagon and horse had cost him a bit, it worked out in the end. The capital city was huge. In the distance, he saw a tall tower. This was the library.

Naturally, there was a much bigger building that was the palace, and a few other buildings as tall or taller than the library.

But his only goal was to reach the library for an interview.

He went ahead and sold the horse and wagon to the first person that offered a reasonable price.

This way, he could enter the capital without anything tying him down and plenty of money in his pocket.

It did not take him long to arrive at the entrance to the library.