Spirit's Awakening: The Path of Lightning and Water-Chapter 321: Brainstorming More Letter Concepts

Lassim stood in front of the Skybound Village library, its lightly weathered wooden doors showing the random accidental damage it’d survived from years of the Tempest’s effects. The structure was identical in shape and only half the approximate size, less height of floors, than the one he’d visited at the Lightning Sect Headquarters in the heart of the desert. It had the same imposing yet welcoming atmosphere as he pulled open the doors and entered.

Inside, a soft, orangish ambient glow from mana-infused crystal lamps enclosed in concave crevices illuminated the space, casting even light over rows of neatly arranged shelves.

He stepped in, brushing the dampness of the night off his martial uniform, and was immediately met with the sight of a reception desk.

Behind it sat a Spirit Growth stage disciple in violet robes, accented with light grey trim. The young man looked up from a ledger as Lassim entered.

"Welcome to the Skybound Library, Senior Brother," the disciple said with a polite nod and half bow from his sitting position. "Is there something I can help you find or are you here to browse? If you have a specific text in mind, I might be able to help?"

Lassim returned the nod. "I’m here to get inspiration from materials on runes, arrays, and tool blueprints. Anything that are resources on foundational concepts and innovative approaches would be best suited to what I’m looking for."

The disciple raised an eyebrow, but let it fall quickly. "That’d be the comprehensive subjects section. The materials you’re looking for are available, with quite a variety due to how many people come to the Tempest Cradle for inspiration on arrays and defensive tools. However, if you’ve visited the library at any point prior to 5 years ago, we have unfortunately had to raise the price of study time. The library requires a higher fee—20 mid-grade Elemental Source Stones per hour of use. My apologies for the inconvenience if you’re used to the old pricing system."

Lassim reached into his magic pouch, producing a small pouch of ESS and placing it lightly on the desk. "Ah, it’s actually my first time here, so it makes no difference to me. This should cover me for the time I’ll need, and just keep it on a tab for me if I need to come back." he said. The amount he handed over was 1000 mid-grade ESS.

The disciple measured the pouch’s weight in his palm and made a few scribble motions on the sheet in front of him. "Accepted. I’ve made a note in the ledger, but I’m the only one that works and sleeps here. I’m paying off my escort fees to the sect that I incurred after traveling from a fairly poor village. But, don’t worry about me, I get to do a lot of reading while I meditate and I quite like this mission location. You’re free to explore. If you require further assistance locating specific texts, let me know."

He then gestured toward the main hall. "The research materials on runes and arrays are primarily located in the central and eastern wings under the Comprehensive subjects sections that I mentioned earlier. Though… tool blueprints and design diagrams are housed in the far west section under the Creations and Design sections."

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"Thank you," Lassim said, inclining his head briefly before stepping into the maze of bookshelves.

The library’s interior was well-organized, with rows of towering bookshelves stretching far into the wings. The shelves were meticulously labeled, and small spirit tablets affixed to each row projected catalog lists when approached.

Lassim’s gaze swept across the aisles, noting the diverse range of topics engraved on their labels: foundational crafting, elemental applications, mana gathering arrays, and more.

He made his way toward the central wing, intent on beginning his search. He let his gaze wander over the rows of shelves, each one stretching far beyond what seemed practical for a simple village, before settling on a section marked with labels of array construction plans and rune theory.

"If I’m trying to create a foundation for something entirely new," he mused, "then studying how others approached their building blocks is where I need to start." He tilted his head slightly, a faint smile tugging at his lips. "At the very least, I’ll see if I can avoid tearing another hole in the fabric of space with a half-finished sequence."

Selecting a few promising titles, Lassim carried them to an empty table near the library’s eastern wing. As he placed the stack on the table and opened his notebook from his magic pouch that had survived the chaos earlier and flipped to a clean page.

Opening the first book, Foundations of Symbolic Mana Manipulation, he quickly skimmed past the historical preamble. His eyes eventually landed on a passage discussing the relationship between symbols and the energy they represent.

The text outlined how early runes and array systems used broad, universal concepts to encode specific meanings, creating a flexible foundation for further specialization. "Broad concepts," Lassim murmured, tapping his quill lightly against the page. "This sounds like my current issue. Specific concepts that will directly help with the creation of a teleportation tool will work best, but if they’re super niche, I can’t fully build an alphabet with it, can I?" He thought to himself.

He resumed reading, focusing on a later section that described the role of movement, containment, and amplification in early symbolic systems that later became the rune systems that are commonly used today. Spirals, interlocking triangles, and concentric circles were used as visual shorthand for these concepts in the early days.

Lassim frowned slightly, scratching a note into his notebook. "Spirals for openness and movement, triangles for connections. Well, I guess I was onto something with my [Solid Rune] that I created since it’s mainly just a wide base triangle with some extra limbs curving outwards."

His gaze shifted to his notebook where he scribbled a quick list: Open. Close. Link. "These are the main points I need to resolve…" he said aloud, nodding to himself. "I think… If I can create enough symbols to accommodate multiple interpretations while staying grounded in these core meanings, it should go smoother from here on out."

Setting the book aside, he reached for the next, The Craft of Constructs.

While the title suggested a focus on practical tools he was already intimately familiar with, the opening chapters had caught his eye as they delved into the process of distilling complex ideas into simple, modular components that build on each other. That’s why he pulled it from its shelf.

Lassim’s eyes lit up as he read about how early array masters and blacksmith forgers using the metal element identified recurring patterns in nature—paths of least resistance, cycles of growth and decay—and translated them into the blueprints for their own projects.

"Pathways and flow, hmm…" he muttered, tapping his quill again. He flipped a page, studying a diagram that illustrated overlapping arcs used to be a fix for long distance communication relays between command consoles and their target constructs. This early versions of long distance array communication systems made his eyes light up, "Arcs for bridging gaps," he murmured. "That could translate to… connect? Or maybe link? I’ll refine that concept into a rune later."

As he continued his search through the pile of books, and occasionally grabbing fresh ones to add to the stack, his notes began to fill with other conceptual terms: Channel. Bridge. Cross. Wall.

Each one represented a piece of the puzzle he was building, a fragment of the potential larger alphabet that would eventually bring his vision to life. "I can’t just focus on only about space itself," he thought aloud.

"I need stuff that encapsulates how it connects, separates, expands, and stabilizes." He glanced at the list he had compiled,"Though, these are promising bones so far..."

The last book, Infinite Boundaries Within Finite Spaces, was dense and technical, its diagrams intricate and its text uncompromising that focused on the initial understandings and designs for magic pouches and their internal spaces.

This was perfect, and Lassim found himself drawn to its approach and explanations. It wasn’t concerned with the mechanics of arrays but with the theoretical limits of spatial manipulation itself taken from beasts that had internal spaces that were fashioned into the magic pouches used by Spirit Warriors today; the same whale hide magic pouch Lassim used was an example of this.

Other sections discussed the natural formation of the random secret elemental dimensional spaces that opened across all of Nexaria and speculated heavily on the dimensional trial zones created by the pantheon known as God’s Trials; specifically Famthar’s Lightning God’s Trial housed within the headquarters of the Lightning Sect..

The most interesting section was one that explored the idea of Recursive Spaces—zones that could fold in on themselves without collapsing, creating stable yet dynamic environments.

Lassim’s eyes narrowed as he considered the implications. "A framework for stability," he murmured. "Not just to contain space, but to define it." He jotted down another term: Boundary.

He worked steadily through the night, his focus unwavering. Each new book he encountered was a potential cornerstone of the alphabet he was trying to construct.

By the time he leaned back in his chair, the first light of dawn was filtering through the small windows high up on the walls that were their size due to protecting the library from the Tempest, but just enough to give a sense of time of day for the bookworms inside.

When he looked back down at his notebook, it was filled with even more terms, each one a distilled representation of what space could do and what might be useful to turn into the alphabet he’d use for his teleportation tool: Open. Close. Channel. Bridge. Expand. Stabilize. Boundary. Net. Connect. Power. Tunnel. Wall. Beam. Fold. Horizon. Shift. Extend. Shrink. Point. Direction. Focus. Core. Compress. Breach.

He closed the books with a sense of quiet satisfaction of progress having been made. The pieces weren’t complete, but they were coming together.

Rising from his chair, Lassim returned the books to their shelves, pausing briefly to rest his hand on the cover of Infinite Boundaries Within Finite Spaces.

"You’ve definitely earned a second read. I’ll come back for you later," he said with a small smile before turning away. On his way out he bid farewell to the Spirit Growth stage novice ranked disciple that was now in the middle of eating some sort of soup, blowing gently on the spoon and its contents. The disciple returned the wave with one of his own after shoving the spoon in his mouth to free up a hand.

Outside, the streets of Skybound Village were starting to become active as it was now a few hours past sunrise, the air fresh and crisp but the rumblings of the thunder of the Tempest roaring the loudest it’d had been since his arrival.

Lassim’s thoughts turned to the next steps. "There’s so much more to refine," he murmured. "But, let’s get some sleep. They should be finished with my room by now."

By the time he reached his quarters, exhaustion from having dealt with the chaos of his accident and the heavy studying was beginning to press heavily against his mental exhaustion.

The room was now fully repaired with an identical desk and brand new wall. He collapsed onto his bed without a second thought.

As his eyes drifted shut, a faint sensation brushed against his awareness—a subtle pull, like something still trying to pull on his attention slightly, the same he’d felt before, like that of an idea slipping just out of reach, but sleep claimed him quickly.