Chapter 102

The Library

“Wow, it’s so big!” Chu Shen exclaimed as he looked around at the surrounding buildings. They were huge ma.s.ses of stone and brick, towering over the streets.

Lucas shook his head. “Stop it Chu Shen. Seriously, you look like a star struck tourist. Besides, you saw bigger buildings on Sparta.”

“I know but still, doesn’t it impress you in the slightest?” Chu Shen said, glancing at Lucas before turning back to stare at the buildings.

Lucas looked at the buildings. “Maybe, but only because they actually made such huge buildings with such primitive technology. Then again, they don’t need cranes with how strong you guys are.”

Chu Shen nodded. “Yeah, some cultivators who don’t like fighting become masons, miners, all kinds of different crafts. Having a cultivator tends to make any project progress much faster than using regular mortals.”

“Makes sense. Anyways, we need to find the library if we are going to find out anything.” Lucas said sighing.

“Yeah, let’s ask.” Chu Shen ran up to one of the food vendors that was on the side of the street. Soon after he came back holding a small skewer with grilled meat and peppers on it.

“So he gave you directions and free food?” Lucas said, a bit incredulously.

“Yeah. They can’t resist a cute kid. I am still thirteen you know. Come on, the library is this way.” Chu Shen ran down one of the streets while Lucas followed, shaking his head.

After a couple turns, Chu Shen and Lucas were standing in front of a large imposing building. It was huge, made of solid marble. Huge marble columns stood in front of the building propping up a large porch. A door much too large was set behind the columns in the wall. There was a flight of stairs leading up to the door as well.

Chu Shen and Lucas walked up to the door. Entering, they found themselves inside a well lit room. Comfortable carpet was spread on the ground while sunlight streamed down from many small windows in the roof and sides of the wall.

There was large bookshelves farther into the room with some tables off to the side, most likely for studying. A lady, probably a librarian, glanced up from a book she was reading at a desk when they walked in. Putting the book down, she walked up to them. “Yes, may I help you?”

Chu Shen was about to step forward but thought better of it. After all, he was a kid and Lucas, even though he was a kid as well, looked like a burly man. Chu Shen nudged Lucas. “Go on, ask her for some books on warrior stuff or something.”

Lucas kind of stumbled forward. He reached his hand out to the librarian. “h.e.l.lo, my name is Lucas. I am looking for books regarding the manipulation of the elements and other ways to fight. Specifically research on those topics.”

The librarian shook his hand, though she looked taken back by the obviously contrast between his manner of speech and barbaric looks. “Well, that is a common topic. If you go to aisle 9 and look at the third shelf from the top you should find some books on mages. The fifth shelf will have books on warriors. If you are looking for an introduction book there is some available here for the young one.”

Lucas nodded. “Yes, that would be much appreciated. Thank you.” He turned to Chu Shen. “Alright, I’ll go find those books while you read that introduction.”

Chu Shen gave his approval and let the librarian lead him to the tables set off to the side. She set down a thin book in front of him. “I think this will help you out, there is a picture book I can get instead if you can’t handle this heavy reading.”

Chu Shen almost facepalmed. Almost. He shook his head. “No I think I should be good. Thank you for your concern though.”

The librarian shrugged. “Alright then. Please ask me if you need anything. You won’t be bothering me at all.” The librarian went back to her desk and started reading her book again.

Chu Shen picked up the book. [Warriors and Mages. Interesting Facts!]. Seems simple enough. Chu Shen started reading. But he became intrigued at the ideas introduced in the book.

According to the book, there were warriors, mages, and battle mages. Each mage was decided at birth, there was no growth. Apparently each warrior and mage had something called the ‘magic source’. This was where mana was stored at. Chu Shen a.s.sumed the magic source was a dantian and mana was Qi.

Mages had mana rivers, where mana was absorbed in a river. However, each river must be forced to go into the magic source, making it bigger. Each Mage was born with a certain amount of blocked rivers, they could never make another river. It was something they were born with, nothing more.

As for Warriors, they had a mana network. It was small amounts of mana that went to their magic source from all over their body. This amount of mana was very small compared the mana rivers. However, the warriors could make their mana network expand, allowing more mana to come in at once.

Battle mages was someone with both a mana network and mana rivers.

Immediately Chu Shen became mesmerized by this. Obviously mana rivers was the major meridians! The mana network must be the minor meridians! The book however, ended there.

What did make him curious was that while there was pictures, there was none with the meridian network. Instead it was pictures of men in armor or with robes and a staff. Obviously it was images of mages and warriors.

Lucas came back holding only one book. “Here you go Chu Shen. I figured a book like this would be best. After all, its when there are comparisons that all the tiny details are revealed.” He set down the book, [Warriors Vs. Mages: Pros and Cons].

Chu Shen gave Lucas the book he had just gotten done reading. “Well this world has some interesting ideas for cultivation. Truly interesting things. You know the basics for cultivation so you should understand the significance of this.”

Chu Shen started reading the book Lucas gave him. It gave in depth a.n.a.lysis of warriors and mages, giving him a very accurate description of the exact powers and limitations of the people here.

Mages mixed mana with the surrounding mana using it to enhance their attacks, making it much stronger than merely shooting out pure mana. However, they had to have time to mix their mana. They also had to visualize the mana's form. As a result they would chant to help visualize their spells. They could also fire mana over a very long distance.

Mages also could not shoot out ma.s.sive amounts of mana at once. The reason was because the mana river flowing inwards blocked the mana from coming out. So they had to fight against the flow of the mana river so they compared to warrior, they would need far more mana to get an equal attack.

Warriors used their mana network to rapidly shoot out mana. They widened their mana network so that more mana could be shot out at once. It even got to the point where they could shoot out their entire magic source worth of mana in one shot.

As a result, warriors became focused on speed and shooting ma.s.sive amounts of mana to beat a mages long chant time. The only downside was that a warrior could not control their mana over long distance and must get in close combat to fight.

Also, a warriors mana network would increase a warrior's body strength far beyond that of a mages. So mages couldn’t run away from a warrior so mages could only stand and fight against a warrior of equal rank.

Compared to mages, warriors could continue getting stronger and stronger. On paper it would seem as though warriors would easily out number mages when it came to power levels.

However, in order to widen their mana network, they had to go through ma.s.sive amounts of pain. The pain would also get worse exponentially. Compared to mages who only had to force a mana river to go into their dantian, a warrior had to go through many hards.h.i.+ps to reach an equal footing.

Battle mages enjoyed the combination of both mana network and river. As a result, their spells could be cast faster or become more powerful compared to a regular mage. They were also physically stronger than mages but their mage rank would be higher than their warrior rank since they couldn’t deal with the pain.

Also, Chu Shen found out the ranking scale of the mages and warriors. They were quite simply listed into different ranks with a rank 1 being equal to a normal person. He compared it to his own power system and it lined up perfectly. The comparison he made was as followed.

Man/Tiger/Dragon = Rank 1

Student = Rank 2

Pract.i.tioner = Rank 3

Scholar = Rank 4

Warrior = Rank 5

Army = Rank 6

King = Rank 7

Emperor (1st part) = Rank 8

Emperor (2nd part) = Rank 9

A Mage G.o.d was a mage born with all 7 mana rivers while a Warrior G.o.d was one that fully expanded their mana network. However, they could only become a rank 8 at best. Only battle mages could become rank 9 and were cla.s.sified as Paragon G.o.ds. To Chu Shen, this world was interesting. Very interesting indeed.