Magic Meditation (2)

Ms. Lim headed to the front of the room and opened up the hologram projector.

"Let's begin the introduction to Magic meditation. My first question to all of you is what is Magic meditation for you guys? Be honest." Ms. Lim looked around the class, looking at different people, and some of the students raised their hands up and directly answered.

"I think it's a test whether you could stop yourself from falling asleep and gaining benefits from it."

"Hehe, I think it's just a mystified way of absorbing the elements around us. Isn't it just deep meditation?"

"I think it's more than deep meditation. I think it allows you to comprehend the elements more sensitively and accurately."

"Those aren't wrong answers, but still a bit far from the answer I was looking for. Mr. Cloverfield, for you, what is Magic meditation?" Ms. Lim redirected the question to Xander, who then lazily looked up from his watch and saw the class watching him attentively. Xander rolled his eyes inside, before pausing the game and then acting all serious and dignified, pursing his lips a bit.

When the girls saw this, they couldn't help thinking that Xander was looking cute by acting very seriously. Even Valerie just rolled her eyes when she saw him do this. Maryann and Carly, who at this point were now fans of Xander, listened attentively.

"By textbook definition, Magic meditation involves 3 things: Deep meditation, which upon reaching Mundane-9, one is able to do; Magic energy cycling and production from Elemental energy absorbed, and Comprehension of the Elements. In one sentence, Magic meditation is the use of deep meditation to stimulate one's magic cycling and improve one's comprehension of the elements."

"By my definition, I think Magic meditation is really just reaching the most balanced state of your mind, body, and soul, allowing you to be in tune with the universe, connecting you with the world and letting yourself be immersed with its power and grandness, which creates a feedback loop, as it benefits your body in the process." Xander then added his own thoughts, which he thinks accurately described the purpose of Magic Meditation.

In fact, he wasn't really sure what the universe wanted or had gotten from any cultivator or magician who undergoes Magic meditation. Why is it that they are able to form positive feedback? Such a process indicates that there was something that was taken from them by the universe, and was 'paid' back by the universe in return in the form of magic comprehension, elemental or magical energy, etc. For now, he returned to playing with his smartwatch, resuming his game, not bothering to delve deeper. He had a lot of time to discover the situation in the near future, so why rush?

Ms. Lim was quite surprised by Xander's answer. Even the students were also contemplating between the two definitions and felt like they understood more with the second definition than that of the textbook version. Ms. Lim, creating a mental note for later, nodded in response to Xander's answer, and continued the discussion.

"The two definitions are correct. Magic meditation involves deep meditation, the cycling of magic energy and elements in one's body, and comprehension of the elements. Specifically, your primary elements.

By the continuous absorption of elements, conversion of elements to magic energy, and comprehension of the elements being converted, your body and life essence is refined, as well as your Magic seeds, and self-made Magic Circles." She paused for a while, showing another hologram of how supposedly Magic meditation works in the human body.

First and foremost, the elements enter through the openings of the body, being sent into the bloodstream, cycling all over the body.

As it cycles, its properties transform from elemental particle to elemental energy to that of magic energy, slowly being absorbed and released by the cells, tissues, and organs of the body.

It was quite unscientific, completely transforming something like a particle into energy completely? What about its mass? What about the famous E= mc^2? Shouldn't the particle travel at the speed of light multiplied by itself to transform into energy? In fact, these were Xander's thoughts when he first delved into this topic a year ago, and it was only recently, when he had accessed a larger database than that of Eteria's that a lot of his questions were answered.

It seems the physical constants in this universe were very different from his previous life's. Although there were similarities in some equations and theories, the laws of physics have greatly altered values or formulas. that means machines in this universe, or any byproduct of his previous life, would not completely work perfectly when transmitted to each other's universe.

Now, the conversion of elemental particles into elemental energy then into magic energy is completely facilitated by the connection of the universe and the magician, with the magician's cultivation skill already inputting the general/precise commands. This means the stronger or the better one's magic meditation/cultivation skill, the better the control and conversion occurring, producing more and more magic energy from elemental energy at a faster rate.

This magic energy increases in small amounts, and as time is continuously sped up, the more cycles are done, and the accumulated Magic energy increases in the human body.

After a day of cycling, the volume of Magic energy in the body is expected to be 1 to x times what it was originally. It was then distributed to the magic seeds of the caster, showing a visible increase of the magic seed's size and structural integrity as well as improving the pseudo-spell selected (the process of summarization or writing), but it is clear to the viewers that the magic seed that they were seeing has not undergone compression before.

"As you can see in the hologram video, Magic meditation speeds up magic training, whether it is the magic seed's size, structure, or pseudo-spells branded/written in it. In fact, it's important for our short-lived forms. If we weren't doing this, it might be when we are already old and frail that we can have a breakthrough or our foundations would be quite pitiful.

To understand this, I'll give an analogy: Enzymes function to enhance the reaction and catalyzation of proteins. Without the enzymes directing and facilitating the movements of proteins, it would take more than several centuries or even thousands of years to complete a single reaction.

The process of magic cultivation is protein, and the enzyme is the act of Magic Meditation." Ms. Lim continued and saw that the previously confused faces of students were clearing up one by one. After all, all these teenagers were the cream of the crop, one of the best batches in Eta. She inwardly nodded before she continued discussing the important aspect of Magic cultivation: cultivation skills.

"Now, a vital component of Magic meditation that makes it efficient for magic cultivation would be the use of cultivation skills.

So, what are cultivation skills? These are basically skills that allow one to reach deep meditation easily and connect into the element particles around them, allowing them to absorb them faster.

Although when you were in the Mundane class, you could absorb the elements and generate your own magic energy, it isn't as fast as using a cultivation skill in junction with Magic meditation."

"At the same time, it gives the cultivators better affinity to their respective elements, as long as their cultivation method matches their primary elements improving their comprehension of the elements at all classes, and understanding of the representations at the Legendary and Mythic class.

More functions will be explained at the Advanced Magic Training class you will be taking. For now, this is enough for the class." Ms. Lim said, stopping herself from describing the remaining benefits of cultivation skills. After all, you need to learn to walk before one can run.

She then continued, "Now, for limitations. First, a person can only use 1 cultivation skill at a time, and second, they can start the use of cultivation skills only at Elite-6 class. Why do you think so?" Ms. Lim asked the class, and some of the students were frowning before Carly raised her hand to answer.

"Ma'am, I think it's because of the strain of the cultivation skill to our body. Maybe, with Elite-6 we have sufficient Magic energy that can be channeled by one's cultivation skill? At the same time, for the limitation of 1 cultivation skill, I think it's to avoid conflict between circulation pathways." Carly said with a pensive face.

"That's correct, Ms. Bernault. We are limited to 1 cultivation skill at a time, and if you want to change to another one, you need to cycle the new one for at least 1080 cycles to completely remove the traces of the old cultivation skill, while also enduring the pain of restructuring.

This is because cultivation skills are eventually pathways for the elemental particles, energy, and Magic energy to traverse inside the human body. If you cultivate supplementary, but non-related skills to one's cultivation skill, this is still going to result in the same thing: a conflict between the two types of pathways." Ms. Lim nodded at Carly's answer, before continuing the discussion.

"Now, cultivation skills are not created equal. There are ranks differentiating their effects and quality. Ranks are divided from Low, Med, High, and Perfect. There is one more known rank, which is called Transcendental, but usually, only people with fortuitous encounters or those that are highly valued by their ancient clans can have a chance of using them."

"The higher the rank, the more complex it is, but the better its effects would be. At the same time, the less specific to an element it is, the better it is in the latter stages.

Low - 0.25x increase in effects (affinity, comprehension, understanding, fusion, and generation)

Med - 0.5x increase in effects (affinity, comprehension, understanding, fusion, and generation)

High - 1x increase in effects (affinity, comprehension, understanding, fusion, and generation)

Perfect - 2x increase in effects (affinity, comprehension, understanding, fusion, and generation)

There are, of course, higher classifications, but for now, let's make do with this, as most cultivation skills available publicly would reach this quality of standard." Ms. Lim then changed the hologram projection, showing ten different virtual bodies, each one undergoing Magic meditation, but there are distinct differences in each of them. Each one was on a box with a label of "I, II, III...X".

"Now, another classification is done, which is based on the specificity of the cultivation technique, labeled from Class I to Class X.

Class I - Perfectly Broad; around 100%. Focused on attaining the best state for magic meditation, to generally understand everything about the Universe and the Elements, their intricacies, their relationships with one another, not just focused on one element. Virtually no conflict with other supplementary skills.

Class II - Very Broad; around 90%. Focused on attaining the best state for magic meditation, to generally understand everything about the Universe and the Elements, their intricacies, their relationships with one another, but still contains traces of element-focused training and pathways, understanding a specific element/s. Virtually no conflict with other supplementary skills.

Class III - Broad; around 80%. Focused on reaching a good state for magic meditation, to generally understand everything about the Universe and the Elements, their intricacies, their relationships with one another, while including a few element-focused trainings and pathways merged into the state of magic meditation, understanding a specific element/s. Little conflict with other supplementary skills, still requires minor self-adjustment.

Class IV - Quite Broad; around 70%. Trying to reach a good state of magic meditation, to generally understand everything about the Universe and the Elements, their intricacies, their relationships with one another, but contains several element-focused trainings and pathways merged into the state of magic meditation, understanding a specific element/s. Minor conflict with other supplementary skills and requires minor to major self-adjustment of cultivation skill and supplementary skills.

Class V - Nearly Broad and Specific; around 60%. Attempting to broach into the generalities, intricacies, and relationships of everything, but remaining focused on a specific element/s.

Class VI - Nearly Specific; around 60% focused on a specific element/s, the rest focused on understanding general principles.

Class VII - Quite Specific; around 70% focused on specific element/s.

Class VIII - Specific; around 80%.

Class IX - Very Specific; around 90%.

Class X - Perfectly Specific; around 100%. Focuses on completely comprehending and understanding a specific element/s.

Class V to X are completely in conflict with non-related supplementary skills for meditation, hence it is not desired to cultivate opposing or non-matching supplementary skills along with one's selected cultivation skills."

Ms. Lim said, finishing describing everything in under 2 minutes.

Someone asked a question, and a question Xander was also itching to find out: Why do we have to follow a previously made cultivation skill? Can you create your own cultivation skill? One that perfectly matches your body and needs?

Ms. Lim looked a bit unsure and was hesitating for a bit before answering.