I spent the last of that night going through some of the books and documents given to me for study purposes. I more or less glanced through a couple books about organizing conventions used in contemporary administration, noting down the important methods, before eventually finding a handful of books on formations. I began looking through one of books that seemed to provide instruction on the whole formations, rather than a listing of a random subset of formations.

I came to find out that formations are organized by “tiers”, in which each tier is associated with an additional ring created with the formation. The ones I had been using, what I had known to be “simple” formations, were just first tier formations, uncomplicated ones at that. I went on to learn in some settings, the formations I had been using were called “cantrips” due to their lack of many of the elements that formations use to some extent. I knew they were simple, but I would’ve thought a big foot sized fireball wouldn’t have been academically controversial as actually being a formation. I kept reading, finding that a major association with higher tiered formations is the complexity, and at high enough tiers, near sentience. There were records of a [Formations Prison Overseer] who was so well versed in formations that he could, using sixth tier formations, send out a mass of chains and handcuffs that could independently target and restrain prisoners who were attempting to escape prison. The formation was able to determine guilt and intent of the prisoners within the larger prisoner grouping to target only those escaping, while avoiding others.

I saw that the sixth tier was not even the highest tier, as the seventh was the last “true” tier, as there were an eighth and ninth tier, but were controversial in their classification. You can group a series of seventh tier formations in certain ways to produce an elevated and distinct new effect, which produced the eighth tier, and do something similar with the “super formations” of the eighth tier to make the ninth tier. The reason these are controversial is due to the fact there are no longer any recording of a single formation being able to perform those level of effects, but there were historical stories, with some element of truth to them, of such a level of formation existing. Until such a time as a single formation can achieve those feats again, they are more formally recognized as either “special tiers” or just super formations.

With all this is mind, I was curious why I hadn’t gained more ranks in formations, as I had killed quite a few spirit beasts, as well as just general usage of formations throughout the trip. Knowing that I was basically using a stick instead of a sword, much less a gun or tank, even if I still did things with it, I was not improving my skills, or really using true formations. Looking through some of the useful tier one formations, I noticed some that could be useful for my current needs. I found a simple cleaning one, not much more than a magic duster and broom, as well as a formation designed for hands free organizing that worked of eyesight and designated piles. Flipping through the pages some more, I noticed more formations that could be of use, many battle related, but as I looked far ahead into tiers two and three, more and more seemed useful. I began to really take note that while formations were generally used for war, defense, or utility, that the increased “intelligence” and complexity associated with higher tiered formations was where administration and more personal utility really shined.

Going through, I wrote down all the decent personal utility formations that may be useful in my roles as a Young Master or a Scholar, along with a general description of their function md the name of the formations, left them in a pile at the corner of my desk, and made sure I had thoroughly looked through each of them. Then I attempted to practice a handful of the less destructive and more generalized ones, just to get a feel for them and to see where I may need to practice. It took a lot longer than I would have liked to admit before I got the first one right. The previous formations I had been casting were really only a foot or so wide, these were several feet, even for the least complex ones. With how little my cultivation was, being at only middle Mortal Realm, and that many of these formations would either be cast alone, or only a couple within an hour of each other, I didn’t get to cast too many before having to rest and wait for my Qi to recover, getting through five castings before my Qi got too low. I managed a decent casting of Minor Office Cleaning, although my pronunciation for Telekinesis was slightly off, so the formation failed after handful of seconds, causing a bunch of books to scatter.

A couple hours later, and a dozen castings later, I more or less perfected Minor Office Cleaning, I might miss a couple spots, but who cared. I never quite wot Telekinesis, but I improved the channeling flow and pronunciation well enough that I could hold things for a couple minutes before the imperfections eventually disabled the formation. Near the end I got tired of my lack of noticeable progress, so I tried some more peripheral formations, namely a true tier one Shield. The shield that was formed was some anime looking stuff, but definitely looked much thicker and stronger than previous ones. I only cast this one twice, but even then I almost perfected it. My castings of the weaker shield, along with the fact that this was still just a simple shield, if only slightly complicated by the shield aesthetics and the changes made to make it stronger and larger. I would not be surprised if this shield could rank that two tailed light beam, if not two before collapsing. Proud of my new understanding and formation repertoire, I put everything away, and decided it was time to sleep.

[Path of Formations Rank 4]

[Path of Formations Rank 5]

[Technique: Minor Formation Correction acquired]