"Is the voice telling you to guard the rod?" Asked Alex.
"YES! As soon as anyone gets close to it, he keeps screaming at me, talking about divine law and judgment or whatever." Malena finally let out all her built-up frustration.
"Where did you find it?"
"When I came to help you in the library. I thought you'd been attacked, so I searched for a weapon on the way. I saw a faint glow while walking past one of the shelves and grabbed it because it caught my eye."
Hmmmm... so that's what happened... My voice is coming from the ring.
Malena caught Alex looking at his ring.
"Did you pick that up at the archives too?!"
"Yes. It fell from one of the books I tried reading. I put it on before leaving the room I was in." Replied Alex, still looking at the ring.
"You mean to tell me that we risked our lives at the library for you to read books!!!" Malena's hand moved faster than sound and hit Alex on the back of the head.
"Owww! It's not like that. Well, it is, kind of... I was lost and took a break, that's all. Besides, the books were empty." Alex rubbed his head, thinking about how Malena never gauged her strength.
"You're just making things worse," replied Melana.
"Whatever! So was it the voice that told you to dash into Xander's fireball?"
"Hmmmmm, quite the opposite, actually. It told me to back off, but it was too late; I had already moved. Malena's face was dim, replaying the scene in her mind.
So the voice has a keen sense for combat... it reacted faster than Malena to the threat. I think I know what happened in those archives.
Since the voice is still in her head when she doesn't have staff between her hands...
"The logical conclusion is that we've successfully established a link with a Myth!" Exclaimed Alex, barely believing what he had just said.
Malena's jaw dropped. She had heard stories about this but had never even seen a mythical user in her life.
"Are you sure??" She asked, feeling a fire starting to roar inside her chest.
"Well, the evidence points toward it. We both grabbed items from the "Forbidden Archives". It had always seemed odd that death was the sentence for going there. But now it makes sense." Alex sped up, energized by adrenaline from the conversation.
"Well, I still think it's extreme, but it does get the job done." Added Malena, trying to keep up the pace.
"The fact that we've been hearing these voices ever since is also proof of it. From what my Dad has told me, the mythical users are able to have conversations in their minds with their Myth; they can even see them if they want to."
"Does that mean we're going to become as strong as Roman?!" Melana looked at Alex straight in the eyes.
"Well, it depends. Myths and cores are two different things. Have you been following in class?" Alex held Malena's gaze.
"Don't get all high and mighty and just answering me!" Malena was so excited that she was pulling on Alex's arm at this point.
"Okay, but I'll have to explain how everything works."
"Yes, no problem! We've still got at least eight hours before we get there."
"Right, now tell me, what are the three things that you need for a magic spell?" Alex started his professor's lesson while walking.
"Mana, Star Ink, and Calligraphy," Replied Malena, like a good student.
"Exactly. The first two are measured in tiers; the last is about knowledge and accuracy." Alex glanced at Malena, expecting her to doze off as usual, but he saw determination. "Both Mana and Star-Ink have seven tiers, or grades. You, for example, have a sixth-tier mana core. Each mana-core tier has three states..."
"Shattered, stable, condensed," Malena finished Alex's sentence, which caught him off guard.
"Ex... exactly. Your core is shattered. So you're just above the bottom of the barrel, mediocrity at its peak!" Melana glared at Alex.
"You're the one talking?? You wanna go there? At least I have a core!" Replied Malena.
The insult would have hurt coming from someone else, but Malena was a special case.
Alex cleared his throat. "Dad, Mom, Klutz, Xander, they're all fifth-graders, and Aunty Celia is a condensed Sixth-Grade, which is already pretty rare for a healer. The grade of the mana influences how many spells you can cast before needing rest, and the level of Ink you can manipulate." Finished Alex.
"Okay, and what about the ink?" Malena wasn't going to stop until learning about everything.
"Ink also has seven grades, each divided into raw or refined states. This determines spell power; you've only ever used 7th-grade raw ink, barely enough for serious damage."
Alex brought out an Ink sac that he had grabbed for the trip. Even if he didn't have a core, it could always come in handy.
"Look, it smells like rot and is emitting as much light as coal." Alex showed the oily Ink to Malena. "This is seventh-grade raw ink. But yesterday... Xander used fifth-grade ink, and Dad answered with fourth-grade refined ink. If the blast had hit the library, the damage would have been colossal." Alex looked out into the horizon, thinking about their fight.
"And calligraphy is what decides what spell will come out right?" Malena snapped Alex back to reality.
"Exactly, calligraphy is the complex symbols that you draw in the air to cast a spell. The beginning spells look alike, especially the first sigils, but the harder and stronger the spell, the more complex it is. That's why people often specialise in one element. Firstly, their mana starts with a preference, adapts even more to the element, and flows better towards the specific sigils they use. And secondly, they get better at drawing the correct symbols." Finished explaining Alex.
"Without any Ink, conjure a firebolt and a fire arrow."
Malena moved her arms to conjure a firebolt. Then, when she started to conjure the fire arrow, she stopped in her tracks.
"What?? Almost half of the symbols are the same??" Whispered Malena, her eyes wide open.
"Yes, since you mostly fight using kicks and punches. It must have slipped past you," Alex tried to give her credit, but he knew deep down that she just never cared enough to take conjuring seriously.
"But I don't understand what this has to do with the myths we've just discovered." Malena was impatient to hear the rest.
"I'm getting there... Myths can only replace calligraphy, not mana and ink. They're the embodiment of people and stories from the past that get linked to a human. You can think of us as their vessels, but unlike in the books, they don't control our bodies or replace us. They can just talk and influence us with their will." Alex was nearing the end of his knowledge of these phenomena.
"Hmmmm... So even if I have a really strong myth, if I stay a sixth-grade fighter or have poor ink, I'll never be strong." Malena started to realise the journey she had ahead of her to become strong.
"Precisely." Nodded Alex.
"What do you mean by 'replace calligraphy'?" Malena raised her left eyebrow.
"Myths are known to have spells and powers that are much stronger than your typical caligraphy. The fact that they don't need to write anything to cast their myths' specific spells makes them much more sneaky and scary. That's how Xander's cane caused us so much trouble; it was Momus' doing. A typical 7th-grade myth user could potentially defeat a 6th-grade or even 5th-grade user if he's prepared enough."
"And how will we know how strong our myths are?" Malena was asking all the correct questions, which stunned Alex, who had always found her very scattered.
"Well, there is a scale, but it's not as objective as Ink or Mana. The myths are divided into five classes: Historical, semi-legendary, legendary, semi-divine, and divine. But there are two problems with this scale. First, it's not always a good idea to compare classes before combat, because depending on the setup and battlefield, a historical myth can easily defeat a legendary or semi-divine myth."
Alex paused to step over a fallen log.
"The second is that there have been instances of myth moving from one class to another. So I think the way they're classified must be fundamentally flawed, since the stories are already written into history; the myths shouldn't be able to rank higher. It doesn't make sense. Nevertheless, to find out our grade, we need to register at the capital. That's where the testing ground is."
"Well, this is a lot of stuff to think about." Malena seemed to have reached her utmost limit in terms of concentration.
"Yeah. This is maybe a bit much for a hot head like you. Anyway, we have to think about our current mission. We're going to face very strong people, we'll probably get a feel of our power sooner than we think!" Added Alex before going back to thinking about a plan to fight the Wolves.
The duo walked in silence for what seemed like an eternity. That is what the scene looked like on the surface. In reality, they were both having an extensive conversation with their respective myths.
We still have a bit of time to get to our destination. How about you tell me who you really are?