The man held out an arm and turned his head away to indicate the column beside him. Sage was pretty sure the man looked away in order to make it more awkward to ask questions. There was no way to catch the man’s attention with eye contact, he’d have to speak up to ask directly. This didn’t bother Sage too much as things were already in line with what he expected. He also found that this place he was in blocked him from leaving. After having entered this place there weren’t many options available to him, and this fellow in charge didn’t seem to want him to ask any questions.

The attitude of the man wouldn’t have stopped Sage from asking questions, but he honestly couldn’t think of any. They’d already confirmed the time that he was likely to be locked up in here before he entered so he didn’t have to worry about the definition of a ‘year’ being different than he was used to. In fact, he tried not to think about that bit of information as somehow this world he’d reincarnated into had the same scale of time and calendar as he was used to back on Earth. He wasn’t sure if this was part of the magic that translated everything for him when he first arrived, or just a cosmic coincidence. Whatever the case may be, it didn’t matter at the moment. Sage didn’t have any direct questions, learn the technique or die, what could be simpler?

Without any apparent hesitation Sage stepped forward and placed his hand upon the stone column that the man was pointing to. As soon as he did, a wave of knowledge flowed from it and directly entered his mind. He didn’t try to resist it, as he expected it to perform in such a manner. Since this space could already contain his Nascent Soul so easily, then it was certainly not a big deal for this column to act like a Jade Tablet. As he processed the information he was not let down by the difficulty of the technique. It wasn’t a different type of seal like with a Repress or Siphon Seal, nor was it a complicated and higher leveled Seal like the Human Seal.

Instead, it was like a whole new type of Seal. In a way it reminded him of the difference between standard Array Symbols and Ancient Array Symbols. This new technique, ‘Release the Masterpiece’, was like a whole new Seal language. It was immediately apparent how so many would fail to grasp this change. In fact, it might actually be simpler for someone to learn the technique if they have no prior knowledge of Seals. Since the Stone Tablet was obviously related to Seals, then it was quite likely that only very skilled Seal Masters tried to attempt it, but their deep familiarity with a completely different system of Seals likely led to their downfall. Then again, this was all speculation.

Sage was also feeling the difficulty, but he wasn’t worried. In comparison to others that took this trial, he had an abundance of time. Seven hundred times more to be exact. The Inner World was contained within his Nascent Soul and this trial couldn’t cut him off from it. Not only did he have the benefit of a great amount of time, but he also had teams of researchers. The most skilled of them were waiting outside in the Universe Ring, but there were still many others who could assist him that weren’t qualified to be part of the backup plan. His Nascent Soul sat down cross legged in front of the column to meditate and study the technique with a peaceful and placid look on his face. In the Inner World there was a lot more excitement going on. The full extent of the knowledge sent into his mind was transcribed and distributed to the research teams. Each team came at it from a different direction and they would update each other on a regular basis to compare and contrast. Within a few weeks Sage had a decent grasp upon the problem.

It was an issue of dimensions.

An Array Symbol was essentially a four dimensional object. The symbol might look like a simple two dimensional object, but there was far more to it. Each of the lines that made up an Array Symbol were actually carved to very specific depths, which added a third dimension to it. As for the fourth dimension, it was the amount of energy infused into it. Each of the lines had to be infused with a certain amount of power in order to function in the correct manner.

A Seal added another layer of complication. The symbols used were different from Array Symbols, but that was not a big problem. The real trick was that the Seal was not a static symbol, it was constantly changing. It was far more difficult to create an animated image rather than a static one. It essentially multiplied the difficulty as there had to be many ‘frames’ instead of just a single one. To make it worse a Seal Master had to decipher all of these different aspects in relation to the target they were trying to apply the seal to.

The Seals used for Release the Masterpiece took things to another level.

A Seal was constantly changing over time, but it was otherwise quite similar in complexity to an Array Symbol. The lines and shapes that made it up had depth to them, but this was more like having a line thickness. It was much like a painted engraving, except constantly moving and changing. The carved lines had depth and nuance to them, but overall the Seal was still applied to a mostly flat surface.

The Essence Sculptor called these new creations Essence Seals. They were integral to his technique, Release the Masterpiece. Instead of a moving carving, an Essence Seal was like a full three dimensional model. Instead of a collection of carved lines, it was a moving sculpture created out of energy. While this didn’t sound that much more complicated, its creator had to fully comprehend and understand every part of it in order to create it all. Especially because it was also moving and changing every moment. They not only had to know it perfectly frame by frame, but also keep track of which ‘frame’ they were on as it corresponded to the part of the seal they were currently creating. It wasn’t just completely the current image, but timing their work to finish with the correct frame.

Imagine trying to sculpt replacement parts for a statue that was constantly transforming. You start creating the arm of a bear while the statue changes into an eagle, then a lion, and you have to finish the bear’s arm right as it changes into a bear and attach it before it keeps changing and turns into a fish. The actual Essence Seal was not as obvious with its transformations and shifts, sometimes being far more subtle and other times far more drastic than this example, but the principle was similar.

Successfully mastering Essence Seals was truly a matter of exquisite predictive ability, deep knowledge of the subject to be sealed, and also excellent timing. It was no wonder that this heritage from the Essence Sculptor had not turned into a famous school. There didn’t seem to be any limits upon the Stone Tablet for passing out its knowledge, but the sheer difficulty probably led to enough deaths that others gave up trying.