Chapter 140: Two Sources of Strength
"So, it's just the three of us on the road?" Rikas sat on the back of the shell beetle, stepping his foot through the gap in the carapace, keeping his balance like the other two. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info He has not ridden any other creature other than the opponents he has encountered in the fighting ring. He was a slave and was supposed to be kept at the bottom from birth, ridden by others. Despite his strong and agile body, he just couldn't conquer the beetle's smooth shell, and had fallen off several times. Even when riding on it, the awkward position will always elicit laughter from the other two.
There was no mockery in their laughter, only pure joy. Mike can be happy, he's a slave owner, why can Butcher be happy too?, and the big question is, "Do you really have what it takes to bring me into the gladiatorial competition of the Temple Tower?"
"Yes, I promise. You will get the freedom you want. Zhao Mai meant something. He had a plan, a plan that could not be shared - and only secrecy could make it successful. So, he didn't even tell Butcher unless he could improve his psychic abilities a little more, or at least avoid being easily spied on.
"You can only participate in the competition if you form a group, and the minimum size of a group is three people. Rikas staggered, arms waving wildly in the air. "Please tell me you have at least one other slave. ”
"It's gone. Zhao Mai shook his head: "I don't have that much money to buy another slave." So, I'll play if I need to. ”
Rikas turned his gaze to Butcher and said, "The master is joking, isn't he?"
"No, what he said is true. Butcher shook his head at the corners of his mouth. "If you're really the strongest gladiator, then the two of us are enough. He's just a one-size-fits-all figure. ”
"Master Mike, you're the most honest slave owner I've ever met, but I'd love to run away right now. ”
"No matter how you run, the desert will catch you, and you will eventually have nowhere to run. Zhao Mai turned back from the beetle's back and said to Ricas. "I gave you my assurance, you should catch it. ”
"Yes, master. Ricas gradually figured out the trick, and the shaking became smaller. "I'll make a lot of money for you and fill your pockets again. I wish I could have one more teammate. ”
"So you have a couple of things that you have to do. Zhao Mai threw a book into Rikas's arms and said, "You are responsible for watching the road, taking us to Tyre City, you are responsible for fighting, and you are responsible for learning psychic abilities." ”
"Psychic abilities, can I learn them too?" Ricas, with trembling hands, clutched the book in his hand. He knew all the wonders of psychic abilities, and his half-blood bloodline gave him some innate abilities, but they were of no use other than to form a fragile layer of protection for his spirit and soul.
Powerful psychic abilities are necessary to gain higher social status. Not to mention the priests, but the large number of Templar officials, not a single one who is not a user of psychic abilities. Although all Athas can manifest their abilities (that is, cast psychic abilities), only through systematic and formal learning can they become powerful and exceed their own limits.
Several large city-states, such as Tyre, had schools where abilities were taught. However, it was difficult for ordinary citizens to get in, let alone slaves of low status. Psychic abilities are the best way to punish and control slaves, so they don't give them access to the art. Rikas didn't expect that he would get such an opportunity, and he was naturally excited.
"I don't know if you can read or write, but if you don't understand, you can come to me. Not really, but so can Butcher. Zhao Mai put away the parasol above his head, exposed himself to the scorching sun, and then closed his eyes and began to meditate.
He's learning psychic abilities.
There's not much that can be done. Attas's natural force is so weak that only the Witch King is in control of the city that he can cast spells without restrictions. Moreover, as long as he casts a spell, he will absorb the life force around him. Starting with vegetation, all living things will be affected, and until the extinction of the organisms, it will continue to destroy the vitality of the planet itself.
Some mages are known as Guardians who recognize the harm caused by their spells and then consciously control them to avoid irreversible damage. However, even a Guardian may become a blasphemer due to an emergency or some kind of loss of control, causing irreparable and permanent damage to the environment. Once he becomes a blasphemer, Attas's planetary will infect him, and it is impossible for him to regain control and become a guardian.
Zhao Mai's own spell ability is relatively weak and will not cause very much damage, and he extracts the Force but does not cast spells, and has not been infected by the will of the planet for the time being. But even if you carefully control the size of the cast, over time, the forest will turn into a desert, and the green will also turn yellow, and this is how the entire sea of sand in Atas came about. It's entirely the fault of the arcane users, but now even the druids are implicated. Now that the ecology of the planet is irreparable, even the most careful druids, even those who follow the Guardian's Code of Conduct, can only cause damage.
Spells are evil and become the truth in this extreme environment.
But life will always find a way out, and psychic abilities are that way out. In addition, Zhao Mai needs to conserve his physical strength to deal with the harsh natural environment, so he doesn't need to use the natural force, so learning the spiritual ability has become his best choice to pass the time.
The Halfling's Psychic Handbook states that the limits of the physical senses help to stimulate psychic abilities, and that the sun - despite its brutality - is the source of all of Atas's energy. Zhao Mai exposed himself to the scorching sun, receiving the irradiation of this source of power, and at the same time began to look inward and meditate. The unbearable pain challenged his physical limits and provoked a counterattack from the forces within him. Before learning the psychic ability, this power was a pure force of nature, his own desire to survive. But now, another force is growing, and that is the power that bursts out of his spirit and soul.
How did this energy come about, and why didn't it appear before but can appear now? These are all things that Zhao Mai couldn't understand. When studying the Force of Nature, he had similar questions: where did life come from, why did it exist, and what was the nature of the Force? These questions are like mages pondering the origin of magic and priests searching for God's original intentions, just as the philosophers on earth keep asking, "Who am I?", "Where do I come from?", "Where am I going?"
There will always be problems, but we can't ignore the reality because of the existence of problems, and we can't stop moving. The reality is that with the psychic ability, Zhao Mai can better protect himself, at least not so painful under the scorching sun. Moreover, he is also consciously guiding, so that the natural force and the psychic ability have started the initial cooperation, both of them have the same purpose, to protect Zhao Mai from the harsh environment, so there is a basis for cooperation.
The idea of survival is quite powerful, is this from the innate intuition of the body to danger, or from the acquired fear of death in the spirit and soul? Anyway, Zhao Mai didn't know. A phenomenon raises a series of questions that ultimately lead to only one consequence, and that is to urge humanity to progress in the process of continuous inquiry.
Whenever the psychic powers intensified, unimaginable pleasures lingered in his mind, and whenever the natural force strengthened, his physical body became strong and free. It was because of these two feelings that he was able to withstand the persecution of the desert environment and persist in meditation for a long time.
However, being able to persist does not mean that you can ignore it. Meditation always ends, because Zhao Mai needs to drink water and eat to make up for the consumption of his body and avoid going to death. Powerful druids can use the force of nature to stop their own aging process, and powerful psychic sorcerers can free spirits from the shackles of the body and soar freely between heaven and earth. Zhao Mai is still too far from that realm, but he is moving in that direction step by step.
In the same way, their team continued to make their way to the city of Tyre.