NOVEL WEB Chapter 4 - Prodigious Expansion
45th of Season of Fire, 56th year of the 32nd cycle
Magmin graciously gifted Newt with a total of sixty-four spirit gems, and the youth devoured them voraciously.
“How much time does a spirit gem take to form?” Newt asked, looking at the tree, counting six remaining fruits, confirming that this one too only had eight sparkling crystals on it.
Magmin led the way uphill, taking two spirit gems from each tree they passed.
“The time varies, but I do not know why. Around a year on average. I have erected one thousand and twenty fire-earth trees in eight layers around the crater, and each of them sprouts eight spirit gems. I have done a lot of experimenting, destroying and recreating the fire-earth trees until I was satisfied. Packing them more densely or designing them to bear more fruit means spirit gems take longer to reach their ideal size. If they are too small and frail they shatter when they fall, and their energy does not reach the realm barrier. Instead, the volcano reabsorbs it to grow taller.”
Magmin looked back towards the invisible end of the slope, and Newt followed its gaze. “Positioning them is also important. A spirit gem will decay over time if it rolls down and gets stuck behind a tree, and the volcano will claim it to further its growth.”
“You’re talking about the volcano as if it has its own will and desires.” Newt went back to climbing, spotting a reddish-orange glow of lava lazily flowing downhill a good fifty yards away.
“Your creations will have a nature, yes. Fire and earth combined wish to grow infinitely.” Magmin hissed in frustration. “Wish is a wrong word. They have no wishes. They have tendencies. Yes! Fire and earth when combined, tend to grow taller and taller and wider and wider the more lava they spew. Ha! I am a genius! I was not even aware that I had attained such a high level of enlightenment. You are a useful student. Good newt.”
Newt gave Magmin a flat stare, but the reptile remained oblivious, unable to read the emotion from circular pupils and the lack of tongue flicking.
“As I have said, what I have gifted you is about a year’s worth of spiritual energy a third layer of the first realm gathers. It should help you reach the third layer and start building your own realm. Once you have cultivated your realm, we will proceed until you reach the fifth layer of the first realm. Then you should be strong enough to help me defeat the mighty pterodactylus.”
Newt nodded, noting that Magmin would only help him reach the fifth layer, not the peak of the tenth. He also noticed that the plan had changed, Magmin no longer mentioned fighting the pterosaur alone.
It either fears me, or plans to use me as a discardable pawn.
“Why the fifth layer?”
“Because I will teach you a technique, and you need at least that much spiritual energy to use it,” Magmin replied without pause.
“Which technique?”
“I call it Magmin Scales. It makes your skin impervious to fire. No mere stone would hurt the mighty pterodactylus, and if you want to attack it at range, you will have to throw lava at it.”
“Throw lava? You know a technique which can make me immune to fire?” Newt could not believe what he was hearing. Becoming immune to fire would give him an immense advantage over a large population of cultivators and warriors. More importantly, it would make him invincible within his family, which has practiced fire-related techniques for generations.
“I would not say immune. Just temporarily impervious. Unless I am wrong, at the fifth layer you should have enough time to fire two shots before expending all your spiritual energy.”
Newt nodded, staring into the distance. He wants to use me to throw two missiles and become the object of pterodactylus’s wrath. Then, while the pterosaur is distracted, he will attack it, maybe even finish me off while he’s at it since running out of spiritual energy would make me helpless.
Newt tried to think of the situation just like his father had taught him, by putting himself into the other’s skin, or scales in this instance, and then making sense of their words from the new perspective.
“Do you perhaps know any other techniques?” Newt asked. “Something offensive to improve the odds of hitting the pterodactylus or a way for me to fight it in close quarters?”
Magmin stopped slithering and turned around. He gave Newt a long squint before nodding.
“I could teach you how to coat your fangs in flames and inflict burns with every bite,” the serpent offered.
That sounds absolutely useless. Wait…
“Do you know how to cover all of yourself with flames?” Being able to set himself ablaze without suffering injuries sounded like a useful skill, but Magmin hesitated, its stare boring into Newt’s skull.
“Yes, I could teach you Magmin Flames as well,” Magmin said slowly. “But you would have to reinforce your skin, lest you immolate yourself. You are an amphibian, your scaleless skin is water aligned, fire would quickly consume it and proceed to burn your own flesh for fuel. My nature is partially fire aligned, so both techniques are more effective and require less spiritual energy for me to use.”
We should share elemental affinities if my spirit root was formed from your core, meaning you are overestimating the amount of spiritual energy I would need to use your techniques. Which is good, but still…
“If that’s the case, I will need a bit more spiritual energy to use Magmin Flames and protect myself with Magmin Scales.” The youth hesitated for a moment, then decided he stood little to lose by flattering the magma dragon’s primordial form. “It would make me part Magmin, I might even evolve in that direction.”
Magmin did a strange side-to-side dance with its head for a second, before its pupils narrowed and it violently flicked its tongue.
“Yes, yes, we shall see. Now let us leave,” the serpent said, resuming their upward journey.
He’s definitely going to throw me off the cliff once I’m no longer useful.
Newt struggled not to gulp or show his nervousness while trying to figure out how to defeat Magmin. He had the same affinity as the serpent, but even if it helped him reach the sixth layer, he would still be far behind, both in terms of power and experience.
My only chance is to let it and the pterodactylus fight until they severely injure each other or better yet until they kill each other, reaping the fisherman’s profit.
“Here we are,” Magmin snapped Newt out of his plots. The youth looked around in a daze, noticing they were near the edge of the black forest, with a volcanic crater several thousand feet away.
“The cave is over there.” Magmin pointed towards a small crack in the ground.
“I can’t fit there,” Newt said, staring at the foot-high and three-feet-wide crevice. For Magmin, it must have been a spacious cavern, but for Newt it looked like a recipe to get stuck.
“Sure you can. Just squeeze.” Magmin hissed the last word, flicking its tongue before moving again. “Come, follow me.”
The serpent did not wait, nor did it check whether Newt followed. The young man glared at its back, clenching his teeth, then dragged his feet towards the crack.
Magmin slithered into the fissure, and Newt went down on his belly, inwardly muttering curses. The ground was bumpy, but the bumps were smooth, lava covering whatever jagged edges once existed before cooling and becoming solid, warm stone.
Just as Newt went halfway into the hole, a shriek echoed from the flaming sky above.
The youth scrambled forward in wild panic when he caught the sound of rushing air. He grabbed a smooth protrusion and pulled himself inside.
Newt thought he had made it when his foot flashed with pain. He clenched his teeth and bent his legs, drawing them further in as blood stained the rock behind him. Unlike the gloomy mine, the cavern was pitch black. Newt could not see, could not turn, and the only sound he could hear was the pterodactylus scraping at the ground outside, clawing at the cavern entrance while trying to grab him.
Magmin slithered beside him, moving towards the hole leading outside.
Oh, no! If the pterodactylus has landed and it’s trying to crawl in, Magmin can grab it and either constrict or burn it to death, and I’m utterly helpless here.
“It flew off,” Magmin hissed, and even though he could not see him, Newt knew the serpent was angry. “And stop trashing, it is just a scratch, barely any blood leaking. You will be fine.”
“Are you certain it won’t try to crawl in here?”
“Of course it would never crawl! Pterodactylus is a mighty predator, a terror of the skies, why would it ever touch ground? Even lowering itself to reach us must insult its pride.”
Newt blinked. “You mean it doesn’t land? Ever?”
“Never,” Magmin said with fanatical conviction. “If it can live in the sky, why would it crawl on the ground?”
You have never seen a real pterodactylus, have you? Newt thought, recalling how the pterosaurs tore at the fruits in his family’s orchard, fighting over scraps and wallowing on the ground. They were not the most agile creatures on their stubby hind legs and folded wings, but they walked and pecked at each other well enough. That’s not bad. If it thinks the pterodactylus can’t crawl, that means its heart demon most definitely can’t move properly on the ground, and we can exploit that.
“Now, enough chatting. Close your eyes and focus on your realm. I will explain everything, you just follow my instructions.”