Chapter 18: Learning

“If you never feel the coming of a dormancy period, you might remain a Young Dragon forever.”

“What? Stay small my whole life? What’s the impact?”

“There’s an impact. Each time the Dragon Clan’s dormancy period ends, their bodies strengthen once. The dormancy period is also a metamorphosis period for the Dragon Clan. Each one is important.”

“…Well, that’s no fun,” Zheng Yichen said, lowering his head to look at his own claws with a bit of helplessness. As for dormancy periods, he said he had never experienced one. Even if he could sleep for two or three days straight, sleeping for long just made him not sleepy anymore.

“Not having a dormancy period can be a good thing too. For the Dragon Clan, dormancy is a metamorphosis, but it’s also a weakness, though not many dare to exploit that weakness,” Loris said plainly. “As for you, while it seems you don’t have a dormancy period, your body keeps strengthening anyway. Among the Dragon Clan I’ve seen, your physique is the finest.”

She wasn’t saying this to comfort Zheng Yichen. Through her observations these past two days, Zheng Yichen’s body was strengthening every single moment. Even if it was very subtle, it made up for it by being constant and unceasing.

“Growth and strengthening that defy natural rules ultimately feel unreliable,” Zheng Yichen muttered.

Loris glanced at Zheng Yichen. She didn’t mention that she had discovered far too many things on Zheng Yichen that broke this world’s rules. And defying natural rules or something like that… in this world, it wasn’t really… such a big deal!

“Within three days, you must master one of the most basic Rune Patterns. Any one will do.”

“Aren’t you worried about whether my Talent is up to it?”

“If I say you can, then you can,” Loris said plainly. When she touched Zheng Yichen’s consciousness in the Dream, she also discovered that Zheng Yichen’s Soul was slowly strengthening along with his body. The Soul’s strengthening was probably due to the influence of the special ‘factors’ from his own world that Zheng Yichen carried over after his Transmigration.

The abnormality of his body was likely also caused by the conflict between those special ‘factors’ from the Otherworld and this world, causing this body to lean more towards Zheng Yichen’s own understanding, or rather, the growth rules of his world.

But this leaning wasn’t a complete distortion. Therefore, it resulted in such abnormal growth, until it got stuck at the Dragon Clan’s first growth dormancy period.

These were just Loris’s speculations, but they could be verified slowly. In short… if nothing unexpected happened, Zheng Yichen might remain a Young Dragon forever. The reason the Dragon Clan went into dormancy was for their bodies to undergo metamorphosis, allowing their bodies to adapt to stronger power growth.

Zheng Yichen’s physique, however, was constantly improving. So-called growth dormancy became a joke. With such abnormal improvement, even a normal Dragon Clan member would probably skip one or two unnecessary dormant metamorphoses.

Narrowing his eyes slightly, Zheng Yichen looked at a book in front of him that Loris had enlarged again. This wasn’t some Enlightenment Book, but a genuine book that recorded Magic… the kind for basic entry.

Even though it was entry-level, looking at it gave Zheng Yichen a headache. What about the off-the-charts Magic Talent that Transmigrators were supposed to have? He seemed to lack it completely!

“Do I have to memorize all of this?” Zheng Yichen asked, his head throbbing as he looked at a complex Rune Pattern. And this was the simplest one!

“You have to memorize all of it,” Loris said with a slight nod.

“What if I forget later…”

“Once you memorize and master it, carving it into your Mental Consciousness makes it hard for you to forget. After Reaching the Tier, you can start modifying Magic, making it more suitable for yourself,” Loris said plainly. “These are all basics. Memorizing them all is fine. Afterwards, you can choose one or several systems you find easier to master as your main power.”

“Oh… I’ve been wondering for a while now, what is this ‘Reaching the Tier’ you mentioned? The Enlightenment Book doesn’t have level divisions for various professions either, so what is ‘Reaching the Tier’?” Zheng Yichen asked curiously.

“Reaching the Tier isn’t a level division. It’s just a symbol, a symbol that the power you have mastered has its own characteristics,” Loris explained. “For a Mage, the standard is being able to adjust Rune Patterns. For a Warrior, it’s being able to adjust the execution path of Combat Techniques to a certain degree, thereby developing your own or modified Combat Techniques. For a Battle Qi Warrior, Reaching the Tier means fully mastering the violent nature of Battle Qi.”

“Uh, aren’t there level divisions like Magic Apprentice, Bronze Warrior, and such?”

“Unnecessary. Once you grasp power, you’ve entered the door. Getting stronger is also a slow accumulation. Not every race can achieve high leaps in enhancement through growth metamorphosis like the Dragon Clan.”

“Then… what about Mana accumulation?” Zheng Yichen opened his mouth slightly. This felt like his understanding was taking another hit!

“When you practice and master Magic, you mobilize external power. Part of that power will flow into your body and be absorbed by it, becoming your own power. Warriors achieve this effect when they train in Combat Techniques. Battle Qi Warriors… practice with the relevant training methods until they nearly die from it.”

“I thought there would be something like meditation methods…”

“There are indeed, but they aren’t suitable for you,” Loris glanced at Zheng Yichen. “The Dragon Clan has their own specific methods. These methods reside in the Inherited Memory, so I don’t know them. Accumulating Mana through conventional means doesn’t necessarily mean inefficiency. After Reaching the Tier, you can create your own cultivation method. That’s the normal choice for most Ranked Practitioners.”

“Understood,” Zheng Yichen nodded, resting his chin on his hand. He felt a bit disappointed but had no other extra thoughts. The more he knew, the more he understood the realism of this world’s cultivation methods. Wanting to get stronger meant accumulating bit by bit!

As for creating things like ‘techniques’ or such, judging from Loris’s explanation, he had to wait until Reaching the Tier. The levels might be vague, but it felt more realistic.

To master which Rune Pattern Magic, he first needed a sufficient understanding of that Rune Pattern. How much understanding? At least enough that when he closed his eyes, he could clearly picture the complete form of the Rune Pattern in his mind, and then draw it!

After all, the Rune Patterns had to be carved into his Mental Consciousness. If his understanding wasn’t even sufficient, how could he talk about carving? This carving was similar to visualization. The deeper the impression and the more detailed the understanding, the greater the success rate of carving. This applied to basic Magic.

For higher-level Magic, besides detailed understanding, one needed to master the complex operational paths of the Rune Patterns. Basics and low-level Magic didn’t require this, simply because those could be drawn in one smooth stroke, not requiring such effort. Higher-level Magic could be tackled later. For now, the main task was to master the basics…

By the way, the Magic Rune Arrays in this world weren’t like those Magic Arrays with lots of mysterious lines inside a circle. Although Zheng Yichen thought such Magic Arrays were pretty cool, changing that would also have to wait until after Reaching the Tier.