Chương 532: The Conceptual

The next day, at noon, I showed up at the fog pillar's domain again. This time, more than anything else, I felt excited. I was about to receive tutoring from a being that had reached at least Law Grade 1, if my assumptions were correct. How could I not be excited? Even if the pillar had a very different concept than the one I had, I still expected to get a lot of value out of this training - especially since the fog pillar clearly had some kind of focus on conceptual abilities.

Sallia, Felix, and Anise all used very different frameworks to understand and utilize their own magic systems, which meant that the four of us had rather limited reference values when we compared notes for how to develop further. The pillar seemed much closer to me than my friends, at least. The moment I entered the fog pillar's domain, a group of fog sprites led me to the palace. I didn't notice many changes in the palace itself as I ascended the steps and entered the fog pillar's central area.

When I stepped into the room the pillar actually resided in, I could see that its life force was undergoing some kind of exceptional change. Previously, its life force, if converted into the Market's grade system, would have been somewhere between grade 40 and 50. Now, it was increasing by the second - likely as a result of gaining access to the missing half of its body. I wasn't sure when its life force would stop skyrocketing, but at the moment it was already about equal to someone with Grade 60 [Fortitude].

"Ahem. I believe that humans do this to get attention, yes? I know that my body looks magnificent now that I have recovered my missing parts, but I would appreciate it if you would stop staring at me. Our species are not compatible. I'm sure you're a magnificent human… female? But my species reproduces via a unique form of mitosis." I blinked in surprise, and then tried not to make a face.

I had been eyeing the pillar of fog because I was curious to see how its body changed after it recovered the missing pieces of its form, but it seemed that my intentions had been mistaken. Which felt more than slightly absurd, because there was no way for any sort of romantic relationship to exist between humans and a freaking pillar of fog. The pillar didn't even sound sure about my gender, which made the whole thing even more ridiculous.

I rubbed my forehead, and tried to ignore the feeling of my cheeks warming a bit. Even though I wasn't interested, being caught staring was still a bit embarrassing.

"I'm glad to see that you're focused now," said the fog pillar, completely heedless of my internal thoughts.

"Let's move on to the actual lesson. But first, I need to know a bit more about what I'm working with. What do you know about the great bottlenecks in improving a Skill?" The fog pillar's words finally snapped me out of my thoughts.

"I know that there are three great 'bottlenecks' in skill development. From Master to Heroic - errm… from Tier 5 to Tier 6 of a Skill is the first great bottleneck. Then, from Tier 10 to Tier 11, and finally, there's another one from Tier 17 to 18," I said.

"Each one also comes with some sort of major, qualitative enhancement in a skill.

"Correct. I'm glad I don't have to introduce those in more detail. Now, it doesn't feel like your conceptual half is quite up to the bottleneck between Tier 5 and Tier 6 yet, but the biggest reason I can think of for why you sought out my teaching is because you want to focus on enhancing this particular Skill to Tier 6. Is that a good assumption?" Honestly, I had just thought it was a good opportunity to receive instruction from something far more powerful than I was.

But the pillar's words made sense, and they didn't oppose my goals. Getting to Heroic Grade faster sounded like a great idea if I could find a way to do so.

"Yes, I want to reach Tier 6 with my conceptual skill if possible. Since you seem to have some kind of conceptual skill related to fog, I thought that even though our concepts are different, I could still get a lot of valuable references from you," I said.

"That's a decent way to improve, yes. Also, just for reference - is your conceptual skill related to your ability to attack the connection between souls and bodies, and your ability to heal others?" Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

"Yes, they're the same… ermm… Skill. And they're all derived from a gift I was born with."

"I see. Well, I don't quite understand what you're using to fuel those abilities - it seems kind of like mana, but also feels somewhat similar to the System itself. However, I can work with that. We can find ways to boost your conceptual side a little bit, and then hope that you improve a little bit by the time I leave. Does that sound fair to you?" I smiled. That was exactly what I was hoping for.

Improvements to my ice magic would be easy to cart back to the Market if I used them - but honestly, their value to my combat style as a whole was rather limited, since I intended to keep focusing on the two things I was best at - cursing enemies by screwing up their life force, and healing my friends, with some support magic thrown in from the side to keep my friends alive and make our enemies dead. I had already earned an evolution for one of my abilities.

If I could get an evolution for one or both of my other abilities, I would be much stronger when we returned to the Market.

"I would be happy if you help me find a way to improve the strength of my conceptual side. Since it's given by a gift, I don't really benefit from the System helping me improve it faster… but I've consistently found that it matches my combat style very well, and it has a lot of useful abilities that I can't find anywhere else."

"That is a reasonable statement. Not to mention, finding some sort of conceptual skill and then raising it to Tier 6 tends to be a lot more beneficial than a regular skill. Conceptual skills are, by their very nature, already somewhat akin to a Tier 6 skill, after all."

"They are?" I asked.

"Indeed. You probably already know that the bottleneck between Tier 5 and 6 of a skill is the process of internalizing a certain law of reality. That law might be anything - it might be the laws of physics that govern shooting a bow and arrow, or the laws of physics that govern swordsmanship, or the laws of mana and physics that govern how some specific spell or type of magic work. What matters the most is that when one reaches Tier 6, their body changes to internalize those laws of physics or magic.

Afterwards, your body will literally fight against any laws of reality that don't 'match' the ones you have internalized - meaning that, for example, if you move from this plane of reality to one where the laws of physics don't support your biology, your body will fight against instantly collapsing due to the conflicting laws of physics. Tier 6 is the minimum requirement to fight in hostile planes without fearing the world itself - at least in theory.

In practice, some planes have more compatible laws of physics, so people below Tier 6 may still be able to survive and thrive in other planes… but I digress.

"The most important thing to note is that not every Tier 6 skill is the same. After all, for a skill like {Swordsmanship}, the skill will help develop and enhance your muscles, tendons, et cetera more than it will focus on your brain or your magical abilities, yes? Any Tier 6 skill can at least keep you alive in another plane, but the focus is very different. But what about conceptual skills? Even before reaching Tier 6, conceptual laws of reality apply to every dimension.

There is no dimension in the conceptual side of reality does not exist. They are an underlying truth to all of reality, at least in a sense. They are not based on biology at all, either. Thus, they also provide a much better level of immunity and enhancement upon reaching Tier 6… although they are much harder to train, and also have much more stringent requirements for acquisition. You are very lucky to have been born with one. Normally, acquiring a conceptual skill is a nightmare in and of itself.

I myself spent nearly four hundred years setting up the conditions to get my own conceptual skill, and that was with my innate biology already being highly compatible with the law of fog." I blinked in surprise. This was information I hadn't had, at least not in quite this level of depth before. I was still a few grades away from Heroic grade… but I was getting close.

More importantly, if I could mimic even a few aspects of a heroic grade skill, I might be able to gain a more decisive advantage during the fight for more lives. Truthfully, I hadn't put much thought into what it meant to have half of my biology be literally conceptual instead of physical. I had mostly thought about it in concrete terms, such as the ability to manifest 'hopes' in reality as long as I had enough essence and enough hopes to draw from.

The ability to spend a crapton of essence manifesting wishes, even in a very limited form, was already powerful enough.

"So, what's your plan for helping me grow my conceptual side?" I asked. The fog pillar created a giant whirlpool of fog.

"Step inside. Then, I'll start by using the concept of fog to 'push' against your conceptual side, to give you a better understanding of what your conceptual side truly is. I've noticed that your connection to your conceptual side seems a little weak, so I think that's the best starting point." I only hesitated for a moment, before I entered the whirlpool of fog.