Magic, Cultivation, and others
This chapter is also a reference for me, so I don't forget things. DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BE SPOILED ON CERTAIN THINGS! ONLY READ THE KEY IF YOU WANT TO READ THIS WEBNOVEL SPOILER-FREE! Only Magic & Cultivation power systems will be explained here, things like Classes will be explained within the main chapters. I can't use text formatting unless Webnovel contracts me apparently, so here's a key:
¦Text¦ = Concept.
Text = Explanation, Realm Titles, other titles.
- Text = Sub-realm/stages in cultivation and other powers.
{Text} = System messages.
[Text] = System skills (Shop & Inventory count as core system skills).
"Text" = Dialogue/Monologue
'Text' = Character Thoughts, Guild Names
Formatting for some devices may be messed up. I can't use bold, italics, underlines, etc. at the moment. There will be no more weird formatting after this chapter. Feel free to skip this section if you already know enough about cultivation and magic, just be warned: some of it may be a little different to what you're used to.
¦Cultivation¦
Centropai World Realms (more realms will be added once the story progresses beyond the starting world, there are currently 8 Major realms, as well as several sub-realms, at least 2 more major realms will be reached before leaving the world). <- THESE ARE JUST EXAMPLE REALMS, ACTUAL REALMS MAY DIFFER.
Body Refinement:
- Heart (3 stages)
- Eyes (2 stages)
- Nose (3 stages)
- Mouth (4 stages)
- Ears (5 stages)
- Bones (1 stage for each bone)
All of these must be refined in order to step onto the path of cultivation, all senses must be enhanced in order to gain access to spiritual energy used for cultivating. Body refinement makes use of nature energy (renewable energy source present throughout the Jang Universe).
Tempering (9 stages each):
- Body Tempering (strengthens the body)
- Soul Tempering (strengthens the soul)
- Spirit Tempering (increases absorption rate of spiritual energy)
- Dantian Tempering (increases durability, makes Upper, Central, and Lower Dantian harder to destroy).
Foundation Establishment (9 stages):
- After tempering is complete, one must establish a solid foundation in order to efficiently
gather the energies of the world (Qi, Shi, Rei-Qi, etc). Each stage also increases the user's base attack output, defence, agility, and all of the other physical and mental attributes. The same goes for every other realm after this.
Foundation Building (9 stages):- A solid foundation has been established, after that, one should build on that foundation. This stage can be skipped and will often be overlooked by a huge majority of cultivators, but if it is not skipped, the user can build on their already existing foundation, further increasing efficiency, as well as the rate at which the cultivator's attributes will increase in subsequent realms. It takes much longer to reach the peak of this realm than all of the next realms, apart from the last one.
Qi Gathering (9 stages each):
- Qi Absorption: Absorbing Qi from the surrounding environment.
- Qi Circulation: Circulating the gathered Qi around the whole body.
- Qi Refinement: Preparing the Qi for internal and external use.
- Qi Enhancement: Internal application of Qi (strengthening particular parts of the body, enhancing other senses).
- Qi Expulsion: External application of Qi (attacks, defence).
- Qi Manipulation: Further external application (weapons, shields, and other items formed with Qi).
Dantian Refinement (9 stages):
- After cultivating all of the basics of Qi application, one must expand their Qi capacity, as well as ease of Qi absorption in their Upper, Central, and Lower Dantian. After reaching the peak of this realm, Qi capacity will be anywhere between 10-20x the normal amount, as well as automatic regulation of Qi within the body (auto-absorption & expulsion of excess Qi).
Soul Reconstruction (9 stages each):
- Reconstruction: Reconstructs the soul in preparation for mortal ascension.
- Reformation: Reforms the new soul, strengthening it.
- Divinity: After strengthening, the cultivator can begin to absorb traces of Divine Qi
Mortal Ascension (9 stages):
- After absorbing a small amount of Divine Qi, the body is reborn, and all of the impurities contained within the mortal body are cleansed. This is the highest realm a cultivator can reach on Centropai before breaking through the shackles of the world. After reaching the peak of this realm, a large majority of cultivators will reach a bottleneck in their cultivation. Any further attempts to progress further without knowledge of what comes next will most certainly result in Qi deviation.
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¦Magic¦ (Will list a few types of magic)
Some explanations were taken from the Superpower wiki: https://powerlisting.fandom.com/wiki/Superpower_Wiki.
Mana: The fundamental energy for wielding any form of magic.
Dark Mana: Just like Mana, but it is created using life & soul force, and only used by Black/Dark Mages
Elements: The main five elements are Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, and Lightning. It is possible to combine elements in order to form compound elemental magic.
Alchemy: The ability to understand the structure of matter, decomposing it, and then reconstructing it. Through practice, one can turn a seemingly worthless element into a more valuable element such as Gold. Compound elements can also be formed. The ultimate goal of Centropian Alchemists is to create the Philosopher's stone, however, they have not found an ethical method to create one, since it does require an absurd quantity of life energy. Other uses of Alchemy include the creation of Homunculi (no ethical method of creation known), Chimera creation (outlawed but still practiced by Dark Alchemists), as well as similar uses of the five main elements.
Technomancy: The ability to use mana to interact with technology, applications include Hacking Intuition (hacking into any system without a computer), Electronic Communication (to communicate without accessing any standard source of communication) , and Scanner Vision (made redundant by the [Observe] skill).
Mage: Can use Mana to manipulate any form of magic, aside from black/dark magic.
- Ranks: Neophyte, Apprentice, Journeyman, Lesser, Greater, Master, Grand, Supreme, Imperial.
Dark Mage: Uses dark mana in order to manipulate outlawed magic such as Necromancy (raising the dead to do their bidding), Blood Magic (sacrifice rituals, improving talent, etc.), or Chaos Magic (Uses the forces of the universe to manipulate probability & reality, chaos is an order that a large majority of magic users do not understand, and Mages, as well as most dark mages, prefer not to dabble in chaos magic).
Every known type of Magic is present within the Omniverse in which the story takes part in, from Absorption Magic to Inertia Magic to Zodiac Magic. Summoning, Beast Taming, Familiars.
Archmage: Someone who can safely use every form of magic without repercussions.
Levels of Magic
- Magic: Utilise mana or dark mana to achieve any effect one desires within their respective field
- Magic Mastery: To use all myriad forms of magic.
- Meta Magic: Transcends the rules of magic (can manipulate cause and effect).
- Omni Magic: Possession & Mastery over every form of magic (break or create natural laws, warp fabric of reality, etc).
- Almighty Magic: Wield omnipotent magic.
Runes: Magic symbols that can create low-level natural laws (not on the level of Omni Magic), like barriers, victory conditions, formations, etc.
Artifacts: An enchanted object which can do anything from increasing offensive and defensive capabilities, to summoning lightning, or even wish granting capabilities (just a few examples).
Circles: Each circle engraved inside the heart, indicates the level of magic that someone can use. Someone with Profound or greater talent can manipulate magic above their level, with some restrictions. There is no known limit to how many circles can be engraved. Archmages are usually 9th Circle mages and beyond.
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¦Talent¦ (Applies to all forms of magic & cultivation too, multipliers in brackets indicate learning speed)
Trash: You can learn, just incredibly slowly (0.4x)
Low: The base level of talent (1x)
Mid: In between Low and High, can also be called 'Average Talent' (1.5x)
High: The highest base level of talent (2.5x)
Super: First level of genius talent (4x)
Profound: Second level (7.5x)
Superior: Highest known talent found on Centropai (15x)
Spirit: A higher form of talent, only found off-world so far (30-200x)
Godly: Godly levels of talent, that far exceed any genius level of talent (1000+).
Talent cannot be improved through any normal means of effort, this can only happen in special circumstances or if the user decides to utilise Extreme Blood Magic (absorbing the blood of victims to increase talent, high risk of death).
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¦System Jargon¦
Stats: A numerical representation of one's physical, mental, and spiritual attributes.
Regular Stats:
- STR: Physical strength, how much of it can be exerted.
- PHY: Physique. Allows one to use more of their physical strength. If PHY is too low compared to STR, there will be a higher risk of causing temporary or even permanent injury.
- AGI: Agility. Acrobatics, stealth, athletics, dodging
- DEX: Dexterity. finesse attacks, using a rapier or throwing a dagger, sleight of hand, blocking, etc.
- INT: Intelligence. Logical thinking, conceptualising abstract from reality. Increases capacity for all forms of energy. Overall knowledge. Decision making.
- WIS: Wisdom. ability to grasp human nature, as well as being able to display insight and understanding. Increases resistance to all forms of energy, however, if the energy is strong enough, it can negate some or all of that resistance. Increases the regeneration rate of all forms of energy.
- VIT: Vitality. Life energy, mental strength, capacity for growth and development. Increases the amount of HP added on for each level, as well as overall MAX HP.
LOCKED Stats (Can only be unlocked in certain situations, these will be revealed during the course of the story):
- PER: Perception. Ability to predict attacks, and other actions. Amplifies senses, increases understanding of surrounding world.
- CHA: Charisma. Defines how attractive others find you, no matter what you look like. The higher your charisma stat, the more people will look to you for answers, those with insanely high charisma will inspire fanatical devotion and cult worshipping.
- LUK: Luck. Defines how lucky you are. The higher your luck stat is, the more lucky encounters you will have. 100 LUCK = Almost Guaranteed Lottery Numbers.
- FORT: Fortitude. Increases tolerance to pain. Not to be confused with resistance skills, it just means that the user can handle more pain.
- DTY: Dignity. Ability to maintain composure in any situation.
- SPI: Spirit. Increases the capacity & absorption rate of spiritual energy. Easiest LOCKED Stat to unlock.
Skills:
- Active: Requires the user to trigger it with a thought command, for example, '[Inventory]', '[Fireball]', or '[Golden Palm]' <-- One of the many cringey cultivation attack skills.
- Passive: Effects of these skills, once acquired, are permanent, for example: [Natural Regeneration], [Ranged Weapon Accuracy], [Cooldown Reduction], or [Critical Hit Rate].
Inventory:
- The user starts with 9 slots, each slot is a 1m x 1m x 1m subspace, each slot can be upgraded. Another row is unlocked every time the user either reaches the next Major Realm in cultivation or Engraves another magic circle in their heart. Only one type of item can be stored in each subspace.
Shop: Unlocked at a later stage. The user can buy weapons, artifacts, skill books, etc.
Requirements: Each power is locked behind a quest or level requirement. An example of one of these powers is Cultivation, once unlocked the user will gain access to everything they need for the basics of cultivation (Manual, Martial Arts Scroll, Spirit stat UNLOCKED, Basic Formations Manual).
Wheels of Fortune: The user will earn tokens through quests; these tokens can be used to spin a 'Wheel of Fortune'. Just like the wheel seen in gambling games, it is all luck-based. However, higher grade tokens will activate Wheels with better rewards. Rewards can include skills, items, or quests.
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Rarities (How common Items & Skills are):
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Number abbreviations, displayed in Bignum notation:
1k = 1 thousand
1M = 1 Million
1B = 1 Billion
1T = 1 Trillion
1Qd = 1 Quadrillion
More revealed later on...