Chương 53: Everest

Mason started the month of November on top of Mount Everest. Kamar-Taj happened to be deep in the Himalayas, so Mason had taken to climbing the mountain. It was not much of a challenge to someone like him, but he quite enjoyed meditating up there. He was in one such meditation session. A couple of weeks had passed since Mason had first arrived at Kamar-Taj alongside Danny and Izo, and things had been pretty uneventful on his side, which was exactly what he needed.

He had returned exactly once to New York with the help of Kamar-Taj's portals. The isolated temple was connected to three headquarters: the New York Sanctum, London Sanctum and Hong Kong Sanctum. Each was led by a Master and dealt with the mystical matters in their regions, and Mason also heard something about them being placed on top of ley lines or something similar, utilizing the power of the world to form some kind of array. It was magical nonsense to describe a form of protective barrier, basically.

Anyway, Mason had used that visit to take some of his belongings, tie up loose ends with SHIELD, and bid his family goodbye. Things were still awkward with Ashley, so he was fine with keeping things short. It was not very brave of him, but he had other things to worry about. The majority of Mason's time had been on meditating. Second came drinking tea with the Ancient One and the old bag of bones, and third, he helped around by becoming a temporary, honorary instructor in martial arts for Kamar-Taj.

Magic and Sorcery were immensely powerful tools, but if one only relied on them, they could easily turn into glass cannons. That was why martial arts were long implemented in the way Sorcerers fought. As the Ancient One had taught Mason, there existed Three Forms of Magic: Egocentric, Ecocentric, and Exocentric Magic. Egocentric fueled magic with spiritual energy, Ecocentric fueled magic with the natural energy of the world, and Exocentric borrowed from other dimensions.

It was how the ranks of Sorcerers, or students of the Mystic Arts as they liked to call themselves, were classified. From top to bottom: Novice, Apprentice, Disciple, Master, and Sorcerer Supreme. Novices were the newest students, those who had not yet mastered any spells. Apprentice are those who got a grasp of the First Form, Disciple of the Second, and to become a Master they must form a contract with at least one dimension other than their own, borrowing its power.

The Sorcerer Supreme was the best Master, the single most powerful Sorcerer in the world. Novices could not cast magic, so martial arts were their only way to defend themselves, although they typically would not be involved in fights unless the Sanctums or Kamar-Taj itself were to be under attack. But for Apprentices, although they typically did not undergo missions, it was a possibility, and Egocentric Magic was not really an offensive one.

The most advanced form of it was Astral Projection, and most of the magic had to do with hypnotism, mind control, telepathy, and such. The only real way they had to fight was with the help of artefacts. Artefacts are objects that were imbued with magic, one way or another. Some can be used by anyone, but most require Egocentric Magic to be used. The staff and bracelets Drumm had been using were perfect examples. The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

But artefacts rarely could perform magic themselves; they were weapons most often meant to be used physically, so there came the martial training. And since artefacts could hold some of the most powerful magical energies, martial arts were useful to any Sorcerer. Even if they could not tread upon the road of cultivation, the basis of martial arts was fighting technique, not cultivation. And it just so happened that Mason had pretty much become the best martial artist in the world by this point.

And it was no wonder. He had started training five months ago by this point, and he's had the Spirit of a peak Awakening Grandmaster since the very beginning. To put things into perspective, Steve Rogers, thanks to the Super Soldier Serum, had a vastly enhanced learning ability that allowed him to learn remarkably fast. Steve had not even received any formal training during World War II; he had come up with it on the fly, and he had only fought for two years.

And even with these horrendous conditions, he had still come up as one of the finest martial artists on the planet, even seventy years later, with all the progress that had been made in the field. And following Mason's scale, that was not even a 1, while Mason was a 10 in Spirit. Granted, it was not a strictly linear scale, but Mason's Spirit was vastly more powerful than the Captain's, which granted him what was essentially a Sharingan on steroids.

A single look was all he needed to learn a move, and his capacity for improvisation was increased. It was how Mason had come up with his own style so fast, and although that style was tailored to his personal physique, and thus could not be copied or taught directly to others, he was more than capable of teaching more regular styles that would work for regular people. That was what he had been doing with Doom, Steve, and Bobbi. Anyway, all that to say, Mason was far more than qualified to be their teacher.

For all intents and purposes, Mason was the best martial artist in the world, so they would be hard-pressed to find someone better. But overall, only a small portion of his time had been spent teaching, as his current top priority was breaking through, and the best way he had to find the way was through meditation. Not because he expected some divine revelation handed out to him for free, but because he knew it had something to do with his Three Treasures, so exploring them felt like a pretty good way.

For his Spirit, Mason had already explored everything there was to explore and more over 18 years, so he focused on his Essence and Breath, which he knew for a fact he had not mastered in their entirety. He had just discovered at Fisk Tower that he was capable of manifesting his Chi outside his body, and even giving it properties. He still was not sure of why creating a dragon head gauntlet had created a dragon roar when he punched.

As for Breath, the Dao was endless, although Mason found himself strangely stuck with his Gravity and Fire Dao lately. He could feel the immensity of both Daos clearly now, but just as the two started getting useful and resulted in some power, he no longer managed to make progress with them. At least, not in the past two weeks. He did feel tempted to seek to learn other Daos, but he felt that it would be too greedy.

Besides, although his understanding of the Concepts he had understood did not improve, that was not to say he did not make progress. He could feel that as time passed, his vision was broadening, and only when he became capable of seeing the whole picture would he be able to take the next step. Mason could not tell whether he was close or infinitely far from that step, or from even seeing this whole picture, but he was working towards it, one step at a time.

Maybe he had a thousand more things to discover, maybe it was just around the corner. Whichever it was, he knew he could not let this turn into an obsession, so he meditated. He guessed that it was easier said than done for most martial artists, but Mason had been making so much progress so rapidly that not advancing for a few weeks felt more like a break than a bottleneck.

Unfortunately, as much as Mason enjoyed these few weeks of calm, tranquility, and meditation, all good things had to come to an end, and this was no exception. When he returned to Kamar-Taj, he realized they had newcomers. The Chaste had returned.