Chapter 18 - Flame Mastery Practice

Alex stood there stupefied looking at the 10 points in his nameplate. An outer sect disciple was required to earn at least 20 points every week. He had earned 10 in less than an hour.

"Good night elder." He said as he left the mountain back towards the sect valley. Along the way, he started to wonder.

"Do I go earn some more points? Or do I got to learn the flame controlling technique I got from the library?"

He was in a dilemma. "Hmm… I already have some contribution points, it might be more useful to have at least one technique before I go to aid any alchemists."

"Alright. That settles it then. I'm going to learn the flame controlling technique." He said and started walking back to his cottage in the outer sect disciple's mountain.

He soon reached his cottage and opened his door. To his surprise, there was light inside his cottage. "Did someone come in?" he wondered.

There was a lantern hanging in the middle of the empty room, illuminating his room with flickering light. There was no one inside.

'Who lit the lantern?' he thought.

He sat down on his small bed and took out the technique from his inventory. He looked at it once more.

[Flame Mastery Scripture]

As he focused on the book a little more, a panel popped up.

[Do you want to learn <Flame Mastery Scripture>]

He instinctively brought up his hands to click the 'Learn' button, but stopped. 'Wait. What happens if I learn it? do I lose the book?'

Every cultivation method and technique he had learned up to this point had been from the inventory. And after learning them, the source had always disappeared.

He started to get worried. If he really did lose the book, he would have to pay a massive amount of fines to the sect in the form of contribution points. He didn't want that.

'Why don't I learn it like everyone else then?' he flipped the book open and started to read it.

The book seemed to be written in illegible alphabets, but for some reason, when he saw it, he understood what they meant. In fact, reading these illegible words was much faster in his opinion.

Within 15 minutes, he finished reading the whole book.

<Congratulations you have learned the [Flame Mastery Scripture]>

Alex looked at the intact book in his hand and sighed in relief. "Thank god that worked."

"Techniques," he said as a panel of learned techniques opened in front of him with 2 items in it. The first one was obviously the [Alchemy God's Knowledge]. The second one was the newly added [Flame Mastery Scripture].

He clicked on it and opened its description.

[Flame Mastery Scripture: Level 1

Grade: Mortal (Growth)

Level 1:

Unlocked: Can freely control existing fire and influence its temperature

Level 2 locked.

]

"Only 1 feature at level 1 huh. Guess that's to be expected from a mortal grade technique. I will have to level it up soon, somehow."

He had yet to learn how he could level up a skill. He looked at the description and realized he needed fire to control it in the first place. Thankfully, the fire was everywhere during the nighttime.

All the lanterns around the sect were lit with fire. Same for the lantern in his room. He stood up and slowly brought down the lantern from the very low ceiling.

He put it on the ground and took off the lantern's covering. Inside was a metal plate with a ball of fire floating on top of it.

"Wow. How does this work?" he wondered. There was a lot of magical stuff in the sect, and he was happy to see them.

"Okay. So how do I use the technique?" he wondered. He somehow hadn't thought of this point.

"Flame Mastery Scripture" he shouted hoping to get a reaction. Nothing happened. He looked at the technique list to see if there was a 'use' button. There wasn't.

He was now confused. How was he to use a technique then?

"Hmm… if the developers really went for as much realism in the game as possible, then there is no way using a technique should be so simple."

Not even fighting was simple in this game. To even fight a normal snake he had to…

"Wait. What happens if I go into that weird time slowed state."

He looked at the flame and started to focus. Suddenly, time started to slow down. The small ball of fire floating in the center looked ever so vibrant. It's light shining brighter than ever.

He could feel the increase in the temperature of his surrounding, and how the hot air was moving up. He could smell the minute particles in the air burning and leave an almost unnoticeable smell.

He ignored all of those senses and focused only on the fire. He looked at the fire and saw it the same way as he ever did.

But, for some reason now, he could feel the fire as well. It was almost like he could touch the fire, without actually touching it. He slowly brought forth his hand and stopped a few centimeters away from the fire.

As if he was born with the knowledge, he started moving a sort of energy in his body. "Is that my Qi?" he wondered. His Qi was all over the body in small amounts in every single vessel.

He instinctively started moving the Qi in a certain path. Within a few seconds, the Qi had gathered in one spot, his hands. He could see the space in front of his hands fluctuate, as tiny invisible Qi came out of them.

As the Qi touched the fire, he thought of turning the ball of fire into a candle flame-like oval shape. As if understanding his commands, the fire slowly started to change its form. It started twisting and turning until it finally came to a stop in the oval shape of a candle flame.