Realm of Myths and Legends

While Izroth made it sound simple and easy to understand, in actuality, it was much more complex than he led on. On paper, reversing a magic cycle sounded effortless, however, it required a near-perfect control over one’s own mana to execute properly.

At the moment, Izroth believed that, currently, no players within RML were capable of accomplishing such a feat; at least not yet. This was something that awaited them on their far journey ahead.

There was much more to the magic in RML that players were completely oblivious about. However, once they began to fully understand that, it would separate the true master magic casters from those who were mediocre at best.

Orion wasted no time as he placed the thick yellow covered book back into its proper place on the bookshelf. He then picked out another book in one of the piles. This book was on a more advanced level than the 255 laws of magic sequences and a lot thinner.

"This book was written by a warrior with little talent, but vast knowledge when it comes to the topic of warrior skills. There is one specific warrior skill within this book that has a major drawback. What’s the name of this skill?" Orion asked.

"Fleeting Collision." Izroth answered without the slightest bit of hesitation. He had not been standing by idle this entire time and used it wisely to organize his thoughts. While there were still a few things out of place, it was nothing that could not be corrected.

He then continued, "The approach to this skill is incorrect. How one could even dream of executing a skill with a multitude of flaws amazes me to no end."

Orion furrowed his brows and responded, "You could hardly call five flaws a multitude. Fleeting Collision may be imperfect, but it’s still a highly advanced skill if we’re speaking in a strictly technical manner. This judgment is too harsh." Orion shook his head to show his disapproval.

Five? Izroth was rarely taken aback, however, Orion was able to make him near speechless. Of course, five flaws was far from being a lot for the average skill and this was even more so for an advanced skill like Fleeting Collision.

After all, even the most highly advanced skill had a few flaws in them, so this was nothing too unexpected. But, Fleeting Collision did not have just five flaws, it had over fifty flaws! In all honesty, Izroth would be surprised if one could even use that skill to squash a bug! Harsh? His judgment was actually him being polite!

"Five flaws? I’m afraid you’ve miscounted. It has exactly 56 flaws." Izroth said in a nonchalant manner. However, when those words left his mouth, it made a heavy frown appear on the face of both Orion and Kaz.

Kaz was just beginning to see Izroth in a new light, but it appeared that he was almost too quick to change his initial assessment. That was because he himself had read the same book and had only managed to find two flaws!

Even the Grand Master had only located five flaws in total which meant one thing, there were no more than five flaws! After all, how could the Grand Master possibly be wrong? Maybe if it were six flaws it may be somewhat believable, however, to say that there were 56 flaws? How outrageous!

Although the young man before him may be talented when it came to his memorization ability, as well as, magic sequences, he was incredibly lacking when it came to the technicality of advanced skills.

However, that was nothing to be ashamed of. What bothered Kaz the most was that this young man was extremely arrogant! He always spoke calmly as if he knew everything and was afraid of admitting when he was clueless about something. This caused Kaz to have mixed opinions about him.

Orion released a small sigh as he shook his head in disappointment. Why was it that youths these days were so troublesome when it came to admitting that they did not know something? He did not expect the young man to know everything as even someone with his vast amount of knowledge and experience was not omniscient.

However, he was not a close-minded person. Therefore, even though he was disappointed, he decided to see what the young man had to say about the so-called 56 flaws that he found.

"You’ll have to enlighten me on this subject." Orion said as his gaze never left Izroth.

Izroth was no fool. He could see the glaring doubt lingering inside of Orion’s eyes. From that look and Orion’s words, it was obvious that he did not believe him. However, there was a simple remedy for this. Not to mention, Izroth had something else in mind.

"You seem to doubt me. In that’s the case, why don’t we make a small friendly wager?" Izroth said.

Orion was surprised by Izroth’s sudden request. To make a wager based on knowledge against a Grand Master, one had to be either infinitely confident or stupid! Either way, it was true that he still held some reservations. It was not that he did not believe the young man was gifted, however, everyone had an area of weakness.

After thinking it over for a moment, Orion replied "Very well, what would you like to wager? You should know that I am not one who lacks gold coins. Do you still have anything to offer me?"

Indeed, there was not much Izroth could offer at the moment to someone like Orion that made for a fair wager. Knowledge? How could he use that was an offer when Orion still held certain doubts?

There was one thing that he still had up his sleeves that just may catch Orion’s attention even if only a little.

Izroth removed his Sword of The Storm from his back.

"I am willing to wager my sword." Izroth said without any sign of doubt present.

"This is..." Orion scrutinized the sword Izroth held in his hands. Even though it was a marvelous sword for someone like the young man in front of him, it would be nothing more than a small decoration on his wall if he were to win it. However, since the young man was so eager to wager it away, he would not refuse. This would serve as an important life lesson as well.

"Alright, I accept your wager. In return, I will give you one item with equal or greater value. Is this acceptable?" Orion spoke in a stern tone of voice.

Izroth gave a small nod in response as he replied, "I accept." He knew that if Orion really did give him an item that was, at the very least, equal to his Sword of The Storm, it would be a huge gain! Of course, he was not afraid of losing his Sword of The Storm. Why? Because he was absolutely positive that there were exactly 56 flaws!

He then continued as he began his explanation, "The first flaw is within the initial step of Fleeting Collision. It’s completely out of synch with the natural flow of one’s body."

"This is correct." Orion said as he nodded in approval. That was one of the more glaring flaws, however, the other four were not so easy to discover.

"The second flaw has to do with the motion itself. It’s set at two paces instead of three creating an awkward rhythm." Izroth stated.

"The 3rd flaw..."

"The 25th flaw..."

"The 56th flaw..."

Izroth went through all 56 flaws in a single breath without stopping!

At first, Kaz was sure that Izroth was simply spewing out a bunch of nonsense, however, after seeing the look on the Grand Master’s face, he knew that he could not be further from the truth.

As Orion listened to the first four flaws, he was already singing secret praises about Izroth in his mind. However, when Izroth reached the fifth flaw, that was when a look of disbelief appeared on Orion’s face. That young man had found all five flaws! He was completely and utterly speechless!

Even if that young man could not truly name 56 flaws, he would still let him keep his sword as a reward. After all, even his own assistant had only managed to locate two of the flaws.

But, just when Orion thought that it was all over, that young man went on to his next sentence... And the next... And the next! After listening to his words and connecting the dots, Orion’s face lost color from the level of shock!

"Of course, how could I have missed that...!", "If one did it that way then... Incredible!", "It’s possible even using it that way?", those were some of the few thoughts that raced through Orion’s mind. By the time Izroth finished listing all 56 flaws effortlessly, Orion was left dumbfounded.

"56... There were really 56 of them..." Orion could not help but mutter to himself. Just a few moments ago he was shaking his head at the notion of there being even six flaws, let alone 56 flaws. To make matters even worse, after listening to the young man’s explanation, he felt that he was always one step short of discovering some of those flaws.

But, the most frightening thing was that there were even some parts that he did not understand! Who was he? He was a Grand Master! He had taught countless prodigies and geniuses throughout his time and there were those who would grovel at his feet just to speak with him for a few minutes and receive pointers.

However, he had just taken a huge blow! Could it be possible that the young man before him was born with that rare gift of knowledge that allowed one to hold onto a vast amount of information from the time of their birth? Otherwise, how was it possible that he understood so much at such a tender age?

"What about the Ten Alignment Talisman? Everything is perfect but it never works." Orion said.

"It should be eleven alignments instead of ten. An even number of alignments would never work. As for its core structure..." Izroth responded.

"Then, how about the Polarisyllia Flower that only blooms at night? How come it won’t grow within Amaharpe?"

"Amaharpe lacks the heavy flow of natural mana that its original growth place does. In other words, the mana is not dense enough. Also..."

"How about..."

Orion continued to ask Izroth a stream of questions and every single time Izroth would answer flawlessly. He even threw in a few questions that he already knew the answer to just to keep Izroth on his toes. But, that young man would uncover some things that had never before crossed his mind even on topics that he was already familiar with!

A smile actually found its way onto Orion’s face. When it came to discussing interesting topics and obtaining new knowledge, he was like a child at a candy store always craving more!

Kaz had a dumbfounded look on his face as he watched the Grand Master he respected so much excitedly ask questions to a person who could not be any older than him. He could not believe his eyes and always felt as if he were dreaming. At that moment, there was only one thought that drifted by Kaz’s mind. Who was the real Grand Master here?

Fifteen minutes had passed by as Orion bombarded Izroth with questions ranging from skills all the way to the basic fundamentals.

"What is your thoughts on the Arcane Pendulum?" Orion asked in an excited and enthusiastic tone of voice. He was nothing like that stern and serious old man from before. It was almost as if his personality took a complete 180-degrees turn!

"I’m afraid I’m unfamiliar with it. I have not yet had the time to go through the entire library." Izroth stated.

Orion had a blank look on his face for a moment as if he had just been snapped back into reality. That look was immediately replaced by one of guilt. He got so caught up in asking questions that he had completely forgotten about what happened beforehand!

"Young man, I may be stubborn on some matters, but I know when to admit when I am wrong. As a Grand Master and Keeper of the Books, it is my duty to never turn a blind eye to new knowledge. I have almost sinned in the biggest way possible and for that, you have my sincerest apologies." Orion said in a sincere tone of voice as he gave a respectful bow.

Kaz nearly fainted from shock! The Grand Master actually bowed to someone in respect who was much younger than him! It must be a dream, yes it had to be a dream! However, he could not shake off the reality of it all.

"Just a simple misunderstanding. Think nothing of it." Izroth replied in a carefree manner and just as he did so, he received some interesting alerts from the system. In truth, he had been receiving system alerts the whole time, however, he did not stop to check them during his conversation with Orion.

Even though he was doing most of the talking, Orion’s vast experience and amazing comprehension ability made him someone interesting to speak with. There were even a few things he learned from him about RML that he had been unclear about in the past.

As Orion stood there in silence with an expression of deep thought on his face as he pondered Izroth’s words, Izroth decided to use the opportunity to check through his system alerts to see what popped up.