Shades of the New World

Chapter 174: The True Path

Arza slouched inside a hot tub filled with bright pink liquid, with Deminte speaking in the background about the same topic over and over again. 

"Tsk, that boy almost ruined you completely. So much useless information flooding your brain, confusing and distracting you from your True Path," Deminte's voice entered Arza's head.

Arza didn't bother retorting like he did previously, and silently sat in the tub, trying to absorb its powers into his body.

"Do you know why Nasst's type always goes for sneak attacks and a cacophony of other unsavory methods? It's because the path they take is too heterogeneous. Illusions, portals, raw mana, gestures he knows all these random things and they're not even his strongest World," Deminte went on.

Ever since he was taken to Deminte's dwelling, which happened to be a simple two story building in the mage-area, he has been receiving a thorough lecture about the True Path of a mage and the dangers of heterogeneousness.

"And I can see him imparting all that side knowledge to that boy you love and respect so much. Thinking that he's going to become stronger and better thanks to it Really, I felt a bit bad when he chose Nasst over me, but how joyful I was when I learned what kind of approach he had towards learning magic. Such variety, such open-mindedness, such adaptability. All of it absolutely useless in the face of the True Path," Deminte said.

Arza's head was becoming a bit more muddle-headed, as the heat from the water seeped into his brain.

"No. In the end that boy will just have a thousand methods to deal with one problem. While, we, the followers of the True Path, shall only have a single method to deal with a thousand problems," Deminte said reverently.

Arza heard this speech a dozen times at this point, and frankly he was getting tired of it. But the more he listened, the more it sounded plausible to him. Of course, no one wanted to learn countless different methods to deal with the problems that appeared on their path. If Arza could learn one thing and that helped him with any situation that came to him How convenient would that be?

"You may think this philosophy stupid, as there are 12 Magical Worlds in Alvox. It would be a shame if one didn't use them all, or at least become familiar with them all. But I ask you this? What's the point of it all. The World of Fire, the World of Thoughts, the World of Space and the World of Emotions I can deal with all of them, by only relying on my Ice. It's because the Ice is truth for me. It can do anything I wish from it. Dispelling illusions, quenching fire, distorting portals, clearing my mind. Whatever I need my Ice to do, it performs without fail."

A sudden sting from his muscles jolted the drowsy Arza awake and he hurriedly began processing what the woman just said.

"There is no limit to your willpower. If you need to deal with the elements, you can will your body to become heatproof, windproof, and even cold proof. You can even will your skin to become mystical enough to resist the deadly cuts of portals," Deminte continued.

Arza's eyes excitedly imagined a sight of his body casually swatting away lighting and fire like they were made of paper. All thanks to his absolute body.

"At the top of this World, what matters most is willpower. There, logic alone doesn't prevail. Instead, it becomes a certain kind of willpower. For example, let's say top-tier lesser-imposer X fights another top-tier lesser-imposer Y. To conclude the battle swiftly, they simply agree to blast at each other their most powerful spells. This is an extremely simple example, mind you."

"Y is known for his powerful Fire attacks and is a willpower driven mage, while X is known for his Water and is a logic driven mage. X will perform extremely well in this matchup, as he knows and believes that Y's worst enemy is Water magic. This knowledge, confidence and belief will act as a boost to his willpower, giving him a much better edge over the other. This is what makes logic driven mages strong, their belief in the nature of things strengthening their spells to an almost impossible degree," Deminte said. 

Arza imagined such a scenario and the outcome he came to ended up overlapping with what the elder said. Water beats Fire. Pretty simple. 

"But, this can also become an obstacle. What would X do if he were to fight another mage, one who is strong against water, like a user of steel, or thunder? At that point, X will have a hard time, since their belief is telling them that water is weak in these situations. On the other hand, mages who rely solely on their willpower would not have these problems," Deminte finished explaining and let Arza process the information a bit.

'At this point she's just speaking whatever that's coming into her mind,' Arza thought. He really didn't like how Deminte spoke to him sometimes, like she was talking to a child. But this was what he had agreed to, so he couldn't just go back on his word.

'Alright Trying many things bad, focusing on one thing good. One solution to every problem. Willpower good, logic bad,' He chanted inside his head.

After Arza agreed to train under Deminte, she explained that he needed to forget about all the things that Evin taught him, and condition his mind for the True Path. 

Arza asked Deminte what this True Path was, but she only explained that he had to understand it himself. 

Currently, Arza felt that the True Path was just pushing one World to the limits. Like she said herself, to have one solution for every problem. Arza really did like this concept. Deminte was right when she said that Arza would like it even though she introduced it in an extremely scam-like way. 

He voiced this opinion and received a vague smile in response. She didn't tell him it was right, or if it was wrong. Arza was a bit confused, but he didn't mind it too much. He'd been with Evin for too long to mind such mysteries.

Instead, he opted to focus on the training and the absorption of the bright pink substance in the bath.

Arza was a bit regretful at first, coming to this crazy woman and having to listen to her drone on and on about the same topic but she gave him a free boost to his mana-core so he wasn't that dissatisfied. 

She also promised to give him a similar martial art scroll similar to Evin's, one that was more suited for him. 

From the contents of her speech, she wasn't going to teach Arza a lot of different things, aside from of course, the True Path and the World of Life, but she expressed her sincere desire to groom him into his full potential. 

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