Zilan climbed up the tall mountain, making his way to the cave entrance.
“This place…”
From the outside, the inside of the cave appeared pitch black, no one would be able to see anything.
Once one was within the cave though they would be shocked to find that this place was extremely well lit. There was no corner left untouched by the light. Light that came from sparkling golden rocks that lined the interior of the entire mountain.
“In the physical world this whole mountain range must be a mining haven. These stones are quite valuable in Alchemy, for so many to appear here this place must be blessed with bountiful energy.” Commented Zilan.
He soon lost interest in the stones as they were simply illusions created by this place.
“Lead the way.” He commanded.
Shadow coach acknowledged the order, moving forward.
As they made their way through the gigantic tunnel, Zilan couldn’t help but marvel at the size of the Rain Dragon King. Spring Dragons despite their superior bloodline were actually on the smaller side when it came to body size. In comparison to the Rain Dragon King in his prime, a transformed Sera would probably be about half of his size.
Half an hour quickly passed. It was only now that he could see signs of them reaching their destination.
‘What is a few steps for him takes us half an hour of running.’ Thought Zilan.
Shadow coach kept moving for five more minutes before coming to a stop. He then turned around and tapped Zilan on the shoulder.
“I see.”
From Shadow he found out that this entire mountain had been carved into by the Rain Dragon King. Inside there were various chambers connected together by a network of tunnels however, the ones open to the current Zilan were just two.
Ahead of him now were two separate tunnels. The one to the right would lead him to the laboratory and the one to the left would take him to Rain chamber, a sealed off place that could allow him to ponder and gain insight quicker.
“Hmm…I know what the finished product looks like however, I do not completely understand the underlying concepts involved in [Rain Drizzle]. This environment basically allows me to retrace the Rain Dragon King’s steps. By knowing how he created the technique and what it entails, I can better know how to proceed in improving my Mastery of it.”
In other words, he would be re-creating the [Rain Drizzle] technique. This way of learning was very rare, it practically never happened. Usually through a good training manual as well as a little bit of guidance, one would have no problems practicing a technique.
For ‘re-creating’ the technique to be the optimal method to improve mastery, it just went to show how hard it was to fully comprehend [Secret] level techniques.
Zilan decisively walked through the right tunnel. It took him ten minutes to reach its end where a screen of thick reflective water caused him to stop.
Shadow coach did not follow him through the tunnel so without knowing what to do, he simply walked through the screen. A refreshing energy coursed through his body giving him a sense of pleasure that he rarely felt.
His vision was obstructed for a few moments before he suddenly found himself standing in the middle of a shallow pool. The eerily dark water that barely reached his ankles gave Zilan Goose-bumps however, knowing that this was just an illusion he did not panic.
His surroundings although illuminated, lacked character. The ceiling was wet and rocky, the surrounding mountain walls appeared greasy, muddy even, for reasons he did not quite understand.
“Dragons can be picky about where they choose to setup their lairs. The environment must cater to all of their needs before they’d even consider making it a part of their territory.”
“This Mountain must be particularly suitable for Rain Dragons since he decided to turn this place into his training place. All of this rock and mud…and this dark water…..if I’m not mistaken this Mountain should be sitting on a fairly decent ley line.”
Ley lines were places in the Universe where particular types of energy for one reason or another gathered. Sometimes, the lines represented a pattern showing the flow of energy in the world while other times the lines were formed either by the hands of someone powerful or are off-spring of coincidence.
Zilan was still pondering when suddenly all around him, varying shades of blue flames started popping up out of thin air. Their number was so plentiful that with only a single sweep of his gaze, Zilan had already counted more than a hundred floating wisps of flame.
Unable to resist the urge, he touched one of them.
*Whoosh*
A vast amount of information both in text form as well as visual representation made its way into his mind.
“It’s actually…..”
He then moved on and touched another flame, and another flame and another, until before long he had come into contact with over 50 flames.
“They’re all records…” Thought Zilan, baffled.
He had seen many things but this place was truly interesting. Each flame was actually a stand-alone technique, creations that came before the [Rain Drizzle] he currently possessed.
From what he’d seen so far, the techniques did bare vague resemblance to [Rain Drizzle] however, they ultimately fell far, far off from the real thing. Of course, not all of the flames were techniques. Some of them held the notes the Rain Dragon King had penned whilst he was thinking of a new technique. Others contained stories from his experiences both good and bad, something Zilan was very much looking forward to reading.
And then there were the rare flames that contained insights, most of them worldly insights, but from his train of thought then, it was clear to see he was steadily treading on the path towards Universal Rain.
Looking at the now glowing cave, Zilan couldn’t help but get excited. Due to the nature of his ability and the nature of his people, there were few things he loved more than learning. That being said, it was not just the content of the flames that captured his attention but the flames themselves also fascinated him.
Even after staring at them for a period of time that was not short, he still could not identify their origin.
“Is it an ability exclusive to the Rain Dragon?”
“No…I would have known about it if that was the case.”
The flames gave him a unique feeling. It was something he could not put his finger on but deep down he knew that a great concept lay within them.
A theory formed in his mind but he couldn’t confirm it.
“It looks like the Rain Dragon King had more secrets than he cared to share.” He smiled.
The Rain Dragon King was a thinker, a genius with few equals. This was a fact Zilan acknowledged but seeing his roots put things in perspective and let Zilan know that there were many geniuses in the Universe.
“The concept is indeed unique however, it’s useless to me.” Sighing, he turned his attention back to the contents of the flames.
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