Chapter 75: Talismans

In a remote forest, Teo stood in front of a tiny shack not far from a river. This place was within the south west side of the academy. The distance was quite far from his residence and on the way, he noticed that this place was more like a desolate forest compared to the other districts.

Upon arrival, he checked to see if he could let himself in but he discovered that the shack was locked, so he was forced to wait outside.

Teo carried a wooden practice sword on his waist while a short wooden dagger was hidden underneath his left sleeve. Underneath his uniform, he wore the chainmail that Rowen gave him before she left.

Not long after, he noticed a rustling sound coming from behind. He turned around and found a familiar face.

‘Grifford!’

Teo recognized this person as he had always been in one of Teo’s classes for two years. During the first and second years they were both in the elementalist class. Even after Teo was ejected from the class, Teo could still see him during his inscription class.

The two of them had never talked to each other, but would sometimes catch each other’s gaze. They were aware of each other’s existence but Teo was always with Windle and Lia, while Grifford had always kept to himself.

“The instructor is still not inside?” Grifford asked as he did not seem to feel any awkwardness between him and Teo.

“I don’t think so, the doors have been locked for sometime.”

Teo then took this time to introduce himself properly as he held out his hand,

“Hi my name is Teo, I guess we’ll be having this class together.”

“I know who you are.”

Gifford ignored Teo’s hand and sat on a rock nearby and waited. Teo looked back and thought that Grifford was an unfriendly person but not long after he heard him continued,

“I’m Grifford. I didn’t think someone as famous as you would take this class as well.”

“Me? Famous?”

“Hmph! Don’t tell me you didn’t even realize it? The only pure whose growth potential is different from the rest. This alone made you famous enough. Your existence alone proves that our understanding of elementalism is still incomplete.”

“…”

Teo did not reply. He agreed with Grifford’s point and understood his situation but he had never thought of it like that.

“Not to mention, money and trouble seem to follow you very closely,” Grifford laughed.

*Rustle Rustle*

The sound of rustling grabbed both their attention and saw Deacon approaching.

As he saw the two waiting in front of his shack, he gave a grin as he recognized these two students from last year.

“Good! You are both here.”

The two of his best students he had taught last year in his inscription class had come to study talismans; A path of academic research that not many were interested in.

Deacon stood in front of both of them and his expression turned solemn.

“Before we start, I just want to understand both your reasons for taking this class. Talismans are inscriptions, but instead of having a persistent effect, they are temporary and weak. So I ask both of you why are you here?”

He wanted to ascertain their intentions. Talismans were something he researched in depth. The knowledge of talismans were shallow so the class would only progress quite a bit before finishing. After both of them learned the basics of talismans, the majority of the time will be spent on research.

The two would act as his research assistant in this path and if they did not have enough motivation, it would be useless to proceed at all.

Deacon gestured for Grifford to answer first.

“I am here because I wish to completely master all things related to inscriptions. Even though talismans are of little use, I wish to thoroughly understand them as well.”

Hearing Grifford’s response, Deacon nodded his head and turned to Teo.

Teo hesitated as he did not have a clear cut answer. The only reason why he took this course was because it piqued his interest. He was unsure of what answer Deacon wanted and thus hesitated to think for a moment.

‘Do I just copy Grifford?’

After contemplating, he finally looked at Deacon to answer.

“I want to make use of talismans in combat”

Teo’s answer was simple. He knew that these talismans had offensive and defensive properties, which indicated they were mainly used for combat, but despite this fact, they were hardly used.

This was because the offensive and defensive properties of talismans were very weak. Most of them required one to place the talisman onto another object to activate its temporary function. Creating a talisman required too much resources that it was not feasible when comparing its usefulness.

Deacon’s gaze was fixated on Teo, as his research was exactly to solve the problem of feasibility! His research on the new symbols he discovered before was fueled by the goal of either increasing the effects of such talismans or allow them to be created in a cheaper manner.

The same amount of elemental ink used within five talismans could be used to enchant an equipment with permanent effects as long as it was not damaged.

It was a simple answer, but it had many deep meanings. Whether or not Teo implied these hidden meanings did not concern Deacon as he was satisfied with both of their answers.

“Good, now let’s get inside and I’ll have you memorize how each known talisman is drawn, and their basic functions.”

Deacon unlocked the door and entered. It was small but well maintained. As they followed Deacon inside, they noticed that not a spot of dust could be seen and the room only contained a few tables, cabinets and a drawing board.

“Let’s start. Since you know about inscriptions and the basic symbols, memorizing how these talismans are drawn should not take too much time. After that, you two can either research on your own about talismans or assist me in my research.”

—–

Talismans were generally divided into two categories; Wards and Charms. Wards were talismans with defensive effects, while charms had offensive attributes, but more specifically there were talismans that operated in a different manner.

These effects were temporary and mimicked the most common skills of elementalists.

One of which was enhancements. Enhancements were in a way, similar to inscription enhancements, by embedding a certain element into an object, it gains the natural properties of the element.

Fire, wind and lightning gave offensive properties while water, earth and wood gave defensive properties. The first three were considered charms, while the later three were considered wards. Metal was unique and had both offensive and defensive properties, but as for the darkness, light and void elements, they were much different.

Using these three attributes to enchant into an object does not change their defensive or offensive attributes so they were not usually used as not many knew how to make them work.

Darkness element focused on concealment effects, while light element focused on illumination and revealing effects. They were both irregular elements that not many knew about them, much less crafters.

Of course, there were always some exceptions, but those who were proficient on using these elements kept them to themselves, keeping it a mystery to the majority of the world.

The void element was even more mysterious of them al. The secrets of the void elementalists were heavily guarded by pures and other great powers across the lands, such as the Imperial family. With the exception of the legendary Void specialist and pures, no other elementalists had gotten the void attribute before.

Aside from enchantment effects, there was also the reaction effects. These reaction talismans were all regarded as charms that uses the natural reactions of three specific elements. These were fire, lightning and light.

The fire reaction charm produces a small explosion of flame before vanishing, the lightning reaction charm produces a small discharge of electricity, while the light reaction charm produces a brief light.

The reaction for each of these charms were so weak that they could hardly be used in combat, but if they were stacked together with the exactly identical charm, the effects would be enough that it was considered to be an offensive talismans.

There were also talismans that was widely used in a particular way. This was the elemental wall. The requirements for activating these wards required the specific element to be present when activating.

A wall of flames required fire to be burning nearby; A wall of water required a source of water to be nearby and so no. Besides the wind, earth and wood element that were usually everywhere, the other types of wards were inconvenient to use.

The darkness, light and void elements were also not often used to create such wards because even if stacked together, they could not block any form of attacks.

These elemental walls were actually very weak and could only be used in a way that required one to stack the same wards into a bundle. If they were used alone, they could offer no resistance to even the simplest of attacks.

“A total of 16 talismans are publicly known. Six enchantments, three reactors, and seven wards. You will need your Qi to activate these talismans and elemental ink to draw them. The patterns of lines are preset as the shape and quality of paper we will be using will always be the same. Technically there are three more elemental wall wards but for now we won’t be dealing with them at all.”

After explaining the basics of Talismans to his two students, Deacon revealed each of the sixteen different talismans they must memorize.

For these two who were well versed in inscriptions, memorizing these talismans should not take too long, but Teo had other thoughts in regards to these talismans.

‘They look complex, but it’s actually a very wasteful design. If I can translate the basic arrays I know into inscriptions, they should produce a much larger effect.’

Teo’s mind started thinking of many ways to use this new way of using inscriptions.

[Proofread by Soeir]