BXBX NOVEL Chapter 106: Pillar of Steam
"Success....."
Benjamin looked at the three runes that shone respectively, revolving around him like constellations. Suddenly he felt moved. His doubts about the pure blue space previously and his guilt for not remembering the chant were gone instantly.
These three runes......how fascinating.
He had a sudden feeling that he could stare at these things for the whole day and not feel bored.
Hard work paid off after all.
At that moment, Benjamin felt gratified.
He really wanted to give a test run to see what ability the newly formed rune gave him. After a deep breath, he managed to hold back his excitement and returned to reality from his space of consciousness.
Entering his dimension of consciousness in the presence of another person was already quite worrying; if he stayed too long, something might happen.
Jeremy was still waiting to help him wash up and the people downstairs should be starting their breakfast already.
Thus, he went back to the reality, washed up, had breakfast, and then returned to his room. After making sure the door was closed, he re-entered his dimension of consciousness and started his research on the new runes.
Standing in the dimension of consciousness, he drew a deep breath, and chanted the spell for the Pillar of Steam.
The new triangular rune -----a gaseous rune, suddenly made a "ding" sound.
The ripples spread out, and the water elemental energy gathered.
With just a puff, there was a strong gust of rising air that appeared before Benjamin. The humid and warm air came towards him, making it hard for him to keep his eyes open due to the heat and intensity. Even his hair and sleeves were blown back involuntarily.
Benjamin staggered back for a few steps, and raised his brows in awe.
Oh damn...
An actual gust of Rising Air.
What was this wretched magic?
But he quickly shook his head in attempt to aside his malicious thoughts, and went back to being serious, and started to feel this Pillar of Steam that he conjured. Through the elements, he could feel the water elemental energy dancing actively within the shapeless and colorless Rising Air.
Through the manipulation of his spirit, he could move this patch of air around freely. While toying around with the Pillar of Steam, he even managed to form a mini tornado of steam.
Benjamin was surprised to see this.
He somehow managed to create the effect of a wind magic through the elements of water.
He compressed the steam, and tried to create a wind blade. However, after experimenting with it, he realized that the malleability of this steam was low, with just slight compression, the steam would expand itself again.
It appeared that he could not create a wind blade.
The compressibility of the steam was much much lower than the water ball; it could not even compare with the ice. If it was not able to be compressed much, it meant that it did not have much offensive capabilities. If it was a loose ball of steam, when mixed with other gases, its inherent temperature would not be able to cause much harm.
But, Benjamin knew the benefit of steam ----- it was lively.
He could not compress the steam, but he could expand it!
He had another light bulb moment. He summoned the steam within vicinity and made it surround himself. The steam made his hair and sleeves dance along with the flowing wind; his feet suddenly left the surface of the ground, and he slowly ascended into the air.
"....You’re going to heaven." The System suddenly intercepted.
Benjamin did not even hear one word of what it said.
He was completely immersed in this marvelous and bizarre experience.
While he was feeling the floaty sensation of the steam, he then suddenly thought: what if he used the Pillar of Steam to help him fly. Thus, he gave in some thoughts and decided to try it out.
Who knew, he actually succeeded!
Following the continuous flow of steam, he managed to stabilize himself mid-air. Even though the wild steam blew strongly against him and made him look rather clumsy, but as he looked down and saw the runes that were usually above him were now below him, he became excited.
The feeling of flying.....not bad.
After some thought, he started manipulating the steam again, and pushed himself forward.
Thus, under the motion of the water elemental energy, he moved once more. Even though it was shaky, but he managed to move forward and slowly advanced.
In the beginning, it was challenging for Benjamin to control his movements due to unfamiliarity, so he flew slowly. But getting used to the motion, his flying speed increased. In just a while, he looked back and saw that the three blue runes were no longer in sight.
The steam whistled at his ears, and gave him the feeling of riding on an open-air coupe on a highway. It made him feel high.
He became excited. Then thought, and shouted at the System: "Hey, take down the distance that we have travelled, and the highest speed we’ve achieved."
He maintained his control of the steam, and went full force after speaking to the System.
Woosh!
In the endless void of darkness, a thrilling shout like a rider of a rollercoaster could be heard; a humanly figure was also seen dashing across.
It has been said that flying is a dream all humans shared; Benjamin was never that fond of flying, but once he flew, he did it for quite some time in this dimension of consciousness before finally feeling satisfied.
---- The other half reason for stopping with the flight was because he was experiencing mental exhaustion from this and could no longer hold on.
After flying for who-knew-how-long, he slowed down, and returned to the place where the three runes were and descended.
"Did you record the distance and speed?"
The System said, "You flew about 50 kilometers, and your fastest speed was around twenty kilometers per hour."
Benjamin was shocked once more.
This speed was not spectacular. Riding a horse in this world would let one achieve the same kind of speed. But it was not an easy feat to be able to maintain this speed for so long before feeling tired.
He predicted that he could fly around longer than two and a half hours with the mental strength regenerating cross and the willpower boosting ring. After the strengthening of the rune, the speed and distance would naturally increase.
This was such a great ability!
He was happy, but when could he actually fly in reality?
But, this could only remain in his imagination for now. If he were to really fly, the Church would probably shoot him down with holy missiles.
In just a short while, Benjamin put aside the joy and thrill of flying and sat in the middle of the three runes, and closed his eyes to rest and recover the willpower that he had lost.
But, he realized something was different from before.
His mental energy recovered much quicker.
Benjamin thought, after he woke up and noticed the "special ability" ----- was it that there was a change in his mental strength as well? As he thought about this, he frowned and started trying to feel his mental energy.
In a while, he discovered what had happened.
His mental strength had almost doubled!
It felt as if luck dropped on his lap.
Thus... him feeling more alert in reality, and the endurance for flight, was it all because of this?
But the question now would be: how did his mental strength improve out of nowhere?
Benjamin thought for a while, then came up with an answer.
It was because of that pure blue space.
The echoing sounds in the pure blue space might have tortured him tremendously, but it was this torment and trial which tested his mental strength. He had earlier confirmed that the pure blue space was related to his soul. Thus, it was his soul that was tormented.
It was through this process that his mental strength improved bit by bit.
Wonderful.....
He was regretful that he did not remember the syllables of the "water", but, this newly developed ability gave him better hope for the pure blue space.
Not only increasing his mental strength was difficult, he also did not have the talent and basic foundation for it either. Relying on the nourishment of the magical runes was a slow process. In almost every battle, his lack of mental strength was always limiting his ability to do battle.
Thus, the strengthening of his mental strength was a great boost to his capabilities.
It would be great if he could go there for a few more times.
It was worth a bit of hardship. After all it was just bearing with sonic waves? Even if he could not remember the syllables, having his mental strength much improved was truly a blessing!
However based on how he managed to enter the pure blue space these few times, it appeared that, he would have the chance to enter it again only when there was improvement in his magical skills, or through some accidentally fulfilled requirements.
It seemed like the next time he could enter the pure blue space would not be within the foreseeable future.
Benjamin was not sad about not entering the pure blue space anytime soon.With this improvement, he already considered it a blessing. He had yet to be done being happy, why would he be sad?
He rest a short while and regained his mental energy. The he started scouring through the capabilities of the Pillar of Steam. But, once he gazed at the magic runes, he felt something was not right.
It felt strange.
There was a change....in the space of consciousness.
After some thought, he spoke to the System," Look at this. The distance between these three runes now, and then when I was preparing to form the third rune; are their distances the same?"