Chapter 17: Astral Form

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As he finished reading the introduction of the book, Edward felt for the first time how much humans were insignificant. Not only weren't they alone in the Universe, there was even a much bigger Multiverse, within which were beings capable of destroying and creating whole universes.

Ever since he came in contact with magic he knew the world was much bigger and dangerous than he thought, but not to this extent. The purpose of Kamar-Taj for example was to raise Sorcerers to fight against threats from other dimensions that normal people can't even hope to come close to.

This all allowed Edward to get a new perspective of the world, and strengthened his resolve that he was needed as a hero. The threats he came to learn about as he read the book… it seemed the Earth was a beacon for trouble as everyday monsters more powerful than the last tried to invade it.

For the rest of the day, Edward continued reading the book, and reached the section about the Astral Projection. It actually wasn't a difficult spell to master, it didn't even require any kind of magic, it simply allowed the soul to leave the body for a while.

However, it's easiness also made it dangerous because if handled thoughtlessly, then the user could send their soul into dangerous dimension, such as Hell or the Dark Dimension of Dormammu, a powerful higher being. Even worse, one might get sent to Apokolips and become a slave of the dark gods…

Most students usually had their Astral Form forced out of them at first and were guided by a more experienced Sorcerer so they wouldn't get lost in the infinite dimensions.

Edward felt curious about those planes too, but the warning were pretty clear, and he didn't want to have his soul destroyed or worse, enslaved, by a higher being, so he didn't intend on sending his soul anywhere far from him for now.

To leave the body with the Astral Form by oneself, one needed to first accept the existence of said Astral Form, of another form of existence aside from the material body. Then, all he had to do was to enter a state of deep meditation, just like when he circulated Chi, but for a different purpose this time.

Still, it remained meditation in the end, and thus with his experience Edward managed to enter his Astral Form after only thirty minutes of practice.

The feeling of exiting his body was quite outworldly, and he could feel his connection to the world had changed. He was no longer bound by the world, and was free to leave it as he wished. The law of physics had suddenly become inexistent for him. Even his vision didn't rely on light, but his mind reproduced it by reflex.

Edward tried touching his body, and as mentioned in the book, his hand went through his body as if it wasn't there. He then put his hand on the book, and it first went through it. However, after focusing for a second, he managed to grab the book and lift it.

Astral Forms were generally unable to interact with the material world, and it required a strong mind and great concentration, or magic, to interact with the world. Most people relied on magic. Edward though was different as he had a stronger mind than the average people, or so he was told by the Ancient One.

Edward then looked at Diana, who surprisingly was looking right back at him, and asked "Can you see me?"

Diana nodded, and Edward stared at her for a while before he asked "Do you hear me in your head, or from your ears?"

Diana tilted her head at the question, and replied "From my ears, like a normal person?" Edward smiled at her tone that clearly asked why he was asking such a question, so he said "Sound is a vibration of the molecules in the air. If you hear my voice from your ears, then it means my voice affects the physical world, and by extension, my vocal cords are more attuned to the world than the rest of my body."

Diana stayed silent for a moment before saying "Have fun nerd." Edward grinned and continued experimenting.

Something else he found through the night was that he could remain in this form for as long as he wanted, or rather for as long as his body could live without movement or the consumption of any food and water.

While he was in his Astral Form, his body would go on auto mode, as if he was asleep, allowing his brain to rest and his body to recover. However, if he stayed in his Astral Form for too long then he would be just like someone in a coma.

One of Edward's objectives was to make his Chi Meditation, or Cultivation, become automatic so that his Chi would revitalize his body every second even without his full concentration, which would allow him to remain in Astral Form for much longer and give him many benefits he already listed earlier that day.

But before experimenting on that, he wanted to test on one last thing, while in his Astral Form. The method to access one's Astral Form was at the very end of the book, meaning he had finished it. However, reading it only once didn't allow him to memorize and integrate everything in the book, so he would have to read it multiple times.

He had a theory though. Going back to the first pages, Edward reread the book. The first thing he noticed was that he was reading much faster than before, and secondly, just as he expected, the knowledge he came upon in this form integrated much more easily.

It made sense though, he was no longer limited by his brain in this form, as he was out of it. But information had to be stocked somewhere, everything he saw, everything he heard, everything he learned, it had to be stored somewhere, and since he was a pure spiritual construct, then he theorized it was directly implanted into his mind.

And his theory was confirmed just now. Edward felt excited at this new way of learning, and at the same time felt magicians should all be geniuses.

What he didn't know though, was that accessing one's Astral Form wasn't so easy for everyone, nor is maintaining it. His body was already used to meditation, and adding in his stronger mind, he didn't feel anything even as he stayed in his Astral Form for an extended period of time, which is why he theorized he could stay in his Astral Form for as long as he wanted.

But he would only discover later that this wasn't the case, and ordinary people who aren't used to meditation or had a weaker mind would start to be afflicted with different symptoms such as headaches if they remained in this form for too long.

Also, not everyone liked to study, to learn new things, and some even abhorred reading. Sorcerers were human beings too, and although they were generally wiser than the average human, there were still all kinds of people among them or there wouldn't ever be any problem.

After rereading the Introduction To Mystical Arts with enhanced speed, Edward came back to his body as he began testing his cultivation process.

He was already extremely familiar with his cultivation process, every time his Chi circulated around his body it would take pathways all around his body, which were meridians, or so did Dragon teach him.

Everytime he went through cultivation his Chi would go through a different path, but it would still ultimately go through his entire body. One of Edward's theories was that the path his Chi took would determine the degree at which his body was strengthened, that some paths were more efficient than others, and finding the right pathway could be a way to break through the Human Limit.

Unfortunately, he had no way of controlling his Chi this precisely, especially within his body. He could roughly send it to places around his body, if he was injured in said area for example, but the meridians were far too numerous and small for him to inject his Chi into them.

It was simply too hard to control his Chi right now, and even his master, Dragon, wasn't even close of becoming able to do that despite his mystical artefact, the Dragon Fang, which allowed him to wield his Chi.

But it didn't matter to Edward for now, as he had another idea. Cultivation needed a switch, something to activate and preferably deactivate it too. Right now, it was meditation. Entering a deep state of meditation would activate cultivation, and leaving it would stop it.

Meditation wasn't something that could be done at all time though as it required his full attention and thus for him to be immobile and he couldn't think of anything. So he had to find a switch that was in his every action.

And no matter how much he thought about it, the best ones he could think of were: breathing, and his heart beat. His heart beat couldn't be controlled though, or far from precise enough, so that only left his breathing.

Thus, he now firmly believed that the way to Automatic Discontinued Cultivation, or ADC, was through breathing. He had to find a way to make his breathing the switch. Breathing would allow him to cultivate, and not breathing would stop it.

As a human being, this meant always. Of course, it wouldn't be easy to accomplish it, maybe it wasn't even possible in the first place, but he wasn't the type to give up at the first obstacle.

Speaking of impossible things, as he began trying to make his breathing the switch, he thought about the way to breath. Breath in through the nose, and exhale through the mouth. An instinctual gesture of any human.

But Edward hardly saw how he could control his whole body through his mouth, so why not breath through his whole body?

His skin was covered in pores, and maybe that if he managed to find a way to breath through those pores and guide the air using Chi, then…

This was all quite crazy, and Edward felt his brain work harder than ever as countless ideas came to him. He ended up pulling an all-nighter as he simply couldn't find sleep, it was just too exciting.

Still, he had to stop in the end as Diana woke up and went to work. He had things to do, and maybe it would even help him.

He cleaned himself, grabbed something to eat and moved to his lab. It was a medium sized warehouse in Queens, which was closer to Peter's house than Edward's. However, he didn't have much of a choice, it was simply cheaper here.

When he saw him, Peter greeted him excitedly "Hey Doctor Bell! How was your trip?" Edward smiled at Peter and said "Great, I got a new friend, and gained something myself. What about you, are your holidays fun?"

Peter shrugged and replied "Well, it allows me to spend more time for my extracurricular activities, so I guess yes. Speaking of which, I saw something interesting on the news."

Edward smiled, extracurricular activities was obviously hero stuff, and the reason they spoke this way was because they both cared about their secret identity.

As they entered, Edward flipped two switches. One of them was the light, and the other was an EMP that dealt with bugs and mics. Edward wasn't just a biologist, although he doesn't have any Doctorate in mechanics or engineering, he was good. Very good. And so was Peter.

Now sure no one was listening to them, Edward said "The Deflective Man… He was annoying to fight." Peter shrugged and replied "I thought it was cool. Cooler than my fights at least."

Edward smiled and said "In any case, fighting such an enemy for a martial artist is a nightmare, I definitely am building something to stop this kind of enemy. But enough about this, it's time for our training."

Peter smiled, and took a training suit out of his bag as he went to change while Edward simply changed his Armor of the Ancients, not before putting down all the stuff in his pockets off course. If he could help it, he would rather not fight with those stuck to his body.