The Third Portal: Chapter Twenty-Three

“You have already found an Elysian Mastery Tournament orb, correct?” he asked, continuing at my nod. “Good. The upcoming tournament is set in Daocheng, specifically at the Silent River Sect in the Kingdom of Zhuanzhe. Now, if you were still my apprentice, I would have been training you intensely. But in the advisory role that I have taken, and without suggesting you as Mossford’s second competitor… I am much more limited.”

“I know,” I said. “I still think the healer’s heart was worth it. If nothing else, it saved my life from mana toxins when I was getting my beastmark.”

“It is an extremely rare plant, and should open some soul alchemy routes for healing, even if it does put me in a rather annoying spot” Orykson said. “I’m not simply complaining. I’m also pointing out that Meadow and Ikki’s contracts to teach you were until the peak of third gate. If you want more, then you’ll need to earn it. Given that Meadow and I have traded places, that now means Ikki and me.”

He passed over a scroll, which I unraveled to see was marked with what had to be five hundred different events, then listed prizes for taking different spots for them.

“If you can enter the actual core tournament, then it's a standing tradition to allow you a spot in any supplementary events you want. I’ve marked the events where you can use your prize to earn advice from me with a black star, the ones where you can earn advice from Ikki with a white star, as long as you also advance far enough in the main tournament.” 

I nodded, but I was more interested in looking at the prizes that were in place for the tournament. Even if I only made it to the top sixty-four, I would earn a set of advancement treasures that included a golden soul potion, hollow void vial,  ninelight elixir, bronzepick pill, and a wallsurge stone. I didn’t know what the last two even were, but I could make a guess with the wallsurge stone, while the pill sounded like it resembled a spiritual tool of some sort? 

“I thought most of my competitors would be peak fourth gate?” I asked. 

“Many are, but many are early or mid fourth. For those who are peak fourth gate, this reward is worth far less.” 

I read on. The top thirty-two were guaranteed spots in the next Arcanist tournament that they could meet the age and advancement requirements for, without having to earn it in an orb, given permanent access to the Silent River Sect’s core disciple training grounds, and were allowed to select an item from their Arcanist treasury. 

“You must make the top thirty-two,” Orykson said flatly. “If you can’t, then you’re also going to be ineligible for training with Ikki and me, and the competition for orbs among Arcanists is much more cutthroat.”

I nodded in agreement. It made sense to limit the training behind training requirements, and I wanted a spot in the Arcanist tournament. Liz’s grandfather had competed in the spellbinder one, but he hadn’t been good enough to get into the Arcanist one, which suggested that he’d only made it to the top sixty-four to me. 

I read on. The top sixteen were given the deed to an apartment in the Sect owned tenement housing, had a technique selected especially for them from the core sect archive, and were allowed to use a heritage headstone from Greater Daocheng’s collection of them. 

“Really? A single technique?” I asked. I wasn’t going to look down on housing, for a lot of reasons, but… it seemed remarkably underwhelming to gain lifetime access to their training grounds for top thirty-two, but only get a single technique for top sixteen.

Orykson let out the most aggrieved sigh that I’d ever heard from him. 

“The Storm King values knowledge, but in a very different way than I do. I have realized that spreading knowledge allows people to generate more knowledge. He hoards them like gold coins. Still, don’t look down on it. It is a technique, not a spell. It could be a spell that the sect keeps secret, it could be a mana manipulation technique, a veiling technique, or many other things. If you’re especially lucky, they’ll be able to find you a compatible mana meditation technique with layers for sixth and seventh gate, as Depths of Starry Night never developed those.” 

I made a noncommittal sound. I still thought that it was pretty underwhelming, but I wasn’t going to look down on knowledge. Besides, I could always donate it to the library, and then it wouldn’t be locked up in a random sect archive. Still, unless a heritage headstone was really good, I felt like I could write off the top sixteen. 

“What’s the headstone?” 

“They can be created by a dying master of magic, anyone who has created a Title. They interweave the person’s mana, soul-self, and fractions of their soul-mana and Title into the stone, creating a semi-stable enchantment core,” Orykson lectured. “When someone uses them, that power is converted into growth on a similar spell, granting massive amounts of growth to them. In theory, a perfectly compatible person and spell could extract an entire decade’s worth of advancement to a single spell if they focused it. Most get closer to five, though.” 

“Oh,” I said, and immediately took back what I’d been thinking about writing off the top sixteen. “What if you’re not compatible with the person or spell?” 

“Then you’re a fool,” Orykson said. “At least when it comes to spells. Daocheng has perhaps the single largest collection of heritage headstones in the world. Anywhere else, and this would be a top eight prize, or perhaps even a part of the top four. Even if the exact spell isn’t the same, spells in a similar vein are often compatible as well, such as two variations of dragon breath. Attitude… Yes, that is a more legitimate concern. Still, if you can force the power out of the stone, even with bad compatibility, you should gain at least two or three years of advancement on a spell.” 

I nodded slowly, then looked at the top eight prize, which was a selection of natural treasures, potions, pills, or other items, selected specifically for the winner by the Patriarch of the Silent River Sect, with advice from them, their allies, and any sponsors. Though the number of items could vary, their sum total value would be the same. 

“You have been fortunate enough to trip over natural treasures and strange items from the instant you drew my attention,” Orykson said. “Even still, if you can make it to the top eight, I advise you to ask for a Spellbinder Rose, a rare natural treasure that can only be taken as a Spellbinder, and allows you to bond something to your ungated mana. If you used it to bond your staff, you could free up room on your spirit for a new growth item, and allow it to improve your resonance. That would likely be about a third or quarter of your rewards.” 

I sucked in a breath at the potential value on display. It sounded… absurd. It could absolutely pave the way to Arcanist. I eyed top four hungrily. The winners of the top four were given a Craftsman work ticket, with the promise from him to track you down before the final round. 

“I already have one of these,” I said, “but if the Craftsman is at the tournament, I could track him down. And a second one… that does have some value.”

“You shouldn’t treat it lightly,” Orykson said. “The Craftsman is impossible to find, and harder to get a guarantee for work out of. And frankly, I wouldn’t expect you to make top four. Top eight is a distant dream, but in some projections it is possible.” 

I frowned at him, unsure if that was legitimate advice, or if he was trying to encourage me in a roundabout way. Since I couldn't figure it out one way or the other, I read the prizes for reaching top two: a Jade Fairy Youth Elixir, an Unsealing Heartblood Flame, and a dip in the Silent River Sect's Saint Bath. 

“The elixir wouldn’t work on you, it would clash with your full-gate spells,” Orykson said. “It warps the flesh to keep you looking fresh and youthful until the day you die. The Heartblood Flame consumes a chunk of your lifespan to guarantee your ascension to Arcanist. Worthless for you, though, since to get into sixth gate you’ll need to advance the normal way anyhow.”

“Hold on,” I interrupted. “They let you advance to Arcanist in the Spellbinder Tournament?” 

“Only if you make it to the top two,” Orykson said dismissively. “It’s all a game to make the competition fierce. Look at the top prize.” 

I glanced at it, and my eyes went wide. 

The number one spot was given a Peach of Immortality. I didn’t remember everything about all the different types of immortality, but I knew peaches. They were legendary. They created a soul-body tether, and as long as either the soul or the body was left intact from an attack, the other could regenerate with time. 

It didn’t stop the eater from visibly aging, but it did stop them from dying of age. But with the youth elixir and the peach, the winner of first place would be an eternally young immortal. 

“I would love to see what happened if you ate one,” Orykson said wistfully. “It would have unknown interactions with a gestalt body, which is always interesting. But yes, it’s all a game.” 

“If you use the flame, you’ll almost certainly be stronger than your opponent, and if you win, it’s fine, since you’re becoming immortal anyhow,” I said. “But if both eat it, then one is almost certainly going to die. The best course would be for both not to eat it.” 

“Oh, that’s basic game theory!” Hannah said, manifesting next to me. “I took a course on that. There is a surprising amount of overlap between math and ethics.” 

“Huh,” I said. “I had no idea.” 

Orykson nodded to the ghost, then pointed back at the top two prizes, specifically, the bath. I’d skipped over it, caught up by the other two.

“If you can gain an audience with the River Lord, you should negotiate for access to the Silent River Sect’s Baths. Even if you don’t have a Saint bath, it will be good for you. Body strengthening baths, and baths that interact with body-focused growth spells are common in Daocheng,” Orykson said. “The Silent River bath will strengthen your body’s energy, but more importantly, it removes harmful energetic buildup and recycles it elsewhere in the body or spirit where it's needed.”

“What sort of stuff would it remove? I can draw on the energy wherever it is in my body, and Quality Lifespan already helps it go where it’s needed.”

“True, but that is a spell optimized to allocate free energy, not remove harmful energy. A high enough grade bath could undo some of the damage to your mana channels from fusing them too early. Not all of it, not even the Healer could repair the places that you reforged with resolve, nor should he, but… some. The bath also lets it burn away built up trimmings and the like to reinforce your mana-channels, walls, and foundation. And finally, the hair thin lines of desolation buildup in your bones from breaking them so often could be sorted out.” 

I let out a low whistle, and Orykson nodded. 

“As I said, you won’t make the top four, let alone the top two. But you should seek out a lesser version of this bath, even if you have to trade for it. Now, we should optimize the rewards you can get here, and what to use them on. After all, if you can make good use of your points here, it vastly improves the odds in the tournament."

Hannah manifested again, and we started a discussion of the optimal way to use points, but to my surprise, he didn’t simply tell me to get a list of things, but instead we discussed different synergies, like how the organshield crystal’s improvement to telluric could synergize with Fungal Armor, how the Pearllight Pumpkins could offset my lack of a Hudau harvesting spell, the Timemind’s synergy with Foxarmor, the utility of spiritual tools, and the benefits of having Elio transform Dusk’s Immortal Cloud into a full growth item. Eventually, though, Orykson ran out of time, and I began the spell to teleport back.