The Gatekeeper Chapter 10- Exploring A New Territory.

After having breakfast, I went and bought some new clothes and a new pair of shoes, which I obtained at a discounted price because of the female owner's 'generosity'.

I am currently headed towards an unpopulated area which is around five kilometres away from the south walls of the capital.

The closest town to the Royal Capital is at a distance of about two hundred kilometres. The reason for the huge distance between each town of a nation is the nation's humongous size and low population. This world's population seems to be about seven hundred million(0.7 billion). After the holy war, the population plummeted and large groups of people gathered together and established these towns without any concern for the distance from other towns or the people they accommodated. People from all the 13 nations that existed during the holy war were accepted and treated equally. And now, each established and recognized town has at least a minimum distance of fifty kilometres from the town nearest to them, which is consistent all throughout the world.

I reach my destination in about five minutes, I just took it slow and walked here. If I were to run five kilometres, it would surely result in me losing my newly acquired footwear.

I managed to obtain a decent attire composed of a half-sleeved white t-s.h.i.+rt with a green-coloured jacket on top of it, black coloured trousers which appear to be made from an Athena Kingdom exclusive fabric, and shoes which resemble my previous one, but st.u.r.dier and more comfortable.

I can see the wall which surrounds the royal capital from here, knights and mages are standing on top of it with swords, bows, firearms, and other utilities; ready to defend the Royal Capital if any unexpected disaster should befall them.

People don't tend to venture here because it is just plain gra.s.slands as far as the eye can see. Well, I can make out the river beside which I landed from this distance, but it would be impossible for a normal person to do so.

I parked myself on the soft gra.s.s and folded my legs. I haven't explored in the magic territory yet, so I have to be prepared for anything unexpected that may happen. I course through all the data on magic I have.

This sure is interesting.

It took me a couple of minutes to go through all the data, I now have a firm understanding of how to use and control magic and mana.

There are various types of magic in this world. Some sinister, some pure. It all depends on the amount of mana and control over the magic power as to not let it run amok. Mana supply is not the end all be all. Even if a person has an abundant supply of mana, but is incapable of proper magic manipulation, the talent is said to be an utter waste. However, even if a person has a meager suplly of mana, but has proper magic manipulation capabilities and the skills to utilize mana to its fullest, then that person can become as strong as he/she desires. Proper magic control can only be acquired by intense hard work or an amazing amount of talent.

In a broader sense, there are 9 major elements of magic, also said to be the fundamentals which were the origins of anything and everything that exists.

Ice.

Dark.

Light.

Earth.

Fire.

Water.

Wind.

s.p.a.ce.

Time.

A commoner is said to only have one or two elements at most while royalty and n.o.bility are said to have control of three to five elements. Even if an individual has an affinity for an element, the necessary mana and magic control is required to properly access it's powers.

The power output is determined by the amount of mana the person has, and the skill with which a person can manipulate magic.

An all-out fire from a commoner may be able to destroy a small house, but fire from a fire-mage from the Royal family may be enough to obliterate an entire town. That's the difference between those whole rule, and those who are ruled.

The most common elements are wind and light, while the rarest being s.p.a.ce and time. Even if a person has access to s.p.a.ce or time element, they are restricted to only low-level spells; the spells of these elements require a tremendous amount of mana and superior magic control.

If a person has a certain amount of magic control, spells themselves become redundant as said person can wield the element itself in any desirable way. Many people avoid this method and solely rely on spells in combat situations; the reason being their inadequate magic control or mana reserves. Element manipulation is only viable in daily activities rather than actual combat because of its low power output in hands of anybody other than n.o.bility and royalty.

Spells, based on their mana requirement and power output are separated into five groups.

Primary -> Intermediate -> Advance -> Legendary -> Divine.

That would be enough. I already know about every spell that exists and have mastered magic manipulation.

The full extent of my enhanced memory is still unknown, but it looks fine for now.

I stand and glance at surroundings.

First, let's start with some basic stuff.

I close my eyes and can feel all the elements within me.

Let's start by casting some low-tier spells.

"Fire Magic- Flame Arrows"

As soon as I utter these words while using my mana to fuel my fire element, the words reverberate in the environment as if they are echoing in a mountain range, at the same time, numerous arrows constructed of pure orange fire appear behind me out of thin air.

I can consciously control each and one of them. More than hundred arrows of about sixty centimetres each move in air as I command them. And at once, they start coming towards me with full speed.

"Light Magic- Sacred barrier"

Once again, the words reverberate in the atmosphere.

All the fire arrows vanish as soon as they touch the white transparent barrier of light magic.

Each element provides many number of spells and each of them have their own purpose. Attack, defense, support, reinforcement, healing, creation etc, are some basic category of spells.

The spells I cast were of the primary level. They were just for testing the flow of the wind. As the level increases, the number of spells decrease, this is because not many people are able to touch the higher levels. There are only 6 spells in total for the Divine cla.s.s. s.p.a.ce, time and dark elements don't have a divine cla.s.s spell, as none have reached that pinnacle before. Most people are only able to advance to the intermediate level. Only people who are able to achieve the legendary or divine cla.s.s magic are high ranked adventurers, or n.o.bility who were born with an immense level of talent. Of course, everything in this world has exceptions, so I must not let my guard down.

I decide to cast a divine spell just to test it out. I stretch my hand out towards the sky. I provide the spell with a limited amount of mana because even if I have an unlimited supply, I am still the conservationist type.

"Ice Magic- Wrath of Khione."

This time, my voice reverberates a lot louder than before, and with a strange pressure behind the words.

The temperature suddenly drops down below zero, the gra.s.s around me starts to freeze, so does the moisture in the air. The clouds above me change their colour to that of black. Winds blow at inconceivable speeds. I remain unaffected as the caster. Meanwhile, monstrous tornadoes, typhoons, hurricanes and cyclones of ice erupt, each powerful enough to eradicate an entire city, accompanied by blizzards which are strong enough to uproot an entire forest.

All these developments occur in a matter of seconds. They ama.s.s power as the time elapses, slowly gaining highly destructive power and momentum. After about 2 minutes, I simply clench my fist, retract the mana which was powering the spell, and all the phenomenons which could've brought unprecedented destruction upon the capital just 'vanished', leaving everything in my surroundings covered in thick ice.

If I didn't possess this level of magic control, it certainly would've turned out to be a disaster.

Only the ice remained, covering an enormous area.

Let's test out what I can really do.

I cast no spells. By simply accessing the fire element within me, I manage to conjure a blazing orange fire on my index finger by imagining it.

It's fuelled by mana, a commoner could probably keep this fire lit for 4 months.

I start to consciously raise the combustion of the flame, the once orange flame changes its color to that of a pretty blue. The ice beneath me slowly starts to melt.

In comparison, this flame may not even last a full 4 minutes in a commoner's hands.

I can't even feel the mana draining, it's comparable to taking a spoonful water out of the entirety of water available on earth. And on the other end, the spoonful of mana replenishes many times faster than it is consumed, this can be reasoned to be the result of my enhanced regeneration capabilities, as 'mana' is basically life 'energy'.

Let's do this.

The blue flame expands, covering my whole body. As the flame engulfs my body, the ice in the fifty metre radius burns away with the gra.s.s underneath turning into lumps of black powder.

If just having flame over my body wasn't bizzare enough for an otherworlder like me, it doesn't even hurt or burn my clothes, on top of that, it is completely in my control, it makes me feel like I have pyrokinesis or something.

While throwing these conflicting thoughts out of my mind, I shout as I increase the mana quant.i.ty alloted for this paticular fire.

"GO!!!"

The flames amplify furiously, completely filling my view. The flames extend one kilometre in each direction, and burn everything without mercy, leaving just the scorched ground in its wake. The flames disappear at my command and the only flames which remain are on my body. With a slight thought, they disappear as well.

From above, it would probably look like a two kilometres wide crater.

Let's change that.

Accessing the most difficult and strenuous element, time, I cast the advanced level spell.

"Time Magic- Deception of Time."

My words reverberate as I target the scorched ground specifically and supply the spell with tremendous amounts of mana. As soon as the spell takes effect, my surroundings, with me in the middle of it, return back in time, they start all scorched, turning back to their frozen state, and finally returning to the original green.

The Mana consumption was equivalent to 'Wrath of Khione', but the Mana replenished instantly.

But still, time element. I could be immortal, travelling in time isn't too far-fetched either. Now I understand what Gatekeeper-san meant by 'being able to defy the laws of s.p.a.ce-time'. Maybe I can even break the reality barrier and return to my reality.

My heart starts to feel heavy at the sudden thought of my previous world. It makes me feel really bitter.

Let's do some more experiments!

Banis.h.i.+ng these thoughts, I start to experiment with different elements and spells.