Chapter 180
Chapter 180
Chapter 180
Garrett hurried into the room, his head lowered as if a magical beast were at his heels. The female knight called out to him from behind, but Garrett ignored her, his pace quickening. Master Tolga’s concerned inquiry fell on deaf ears as Garrett nodded hastily without breaking his stride.
Elder Wood’s chuckle followed him, "Garrett, you haven’t returned the wooden staff yet..."
"Bernard, guard the door for me! Keep everyone out!" Garrett dashed into a guest room, the same one he had occupied before, and slammed the door behind him. The two elders exchanged a puzzled glance, ready to jest at Garrett’s urgency, but their amusement turned to concern as they felt the energy shift in the air.
"This is..."
Elder Wood shot up from his seat, darting into Iris’s room to reclaim the oak staff. With a swift motion, he snatched it back as though reclaiming a stolen treasure before hurrying back. Not far from the guest room’s entrance, Master Tolga stood frozen, his face drained of color.
"What powerful fluctuations...?"
Instinctively, he moved to investigate, but halted as the barbarian positioned his bone club defensively. Elder Wood’s irritation mingled with amusement as he pulled the old mage back and gestured with his staff. A tendril of green grass broke through the soil at the door, swaying toward the interior of the guest room.
"...A potent elemental vortex."
Elder Wood’s expression grew grave.
Within the room, he sensed not a person but a swirling miniature tornado, drawing in surrounding forces. He extended his hand, feeling the invisible elemental wind coursing through his fingers, and watched as the hairs on his hand stood on end. The elemental energies flowed freely into the guest room...For a higher-level spellcaster, such disturbance might be insignificant. But Garrett, only a second-level priest and first-level mage, with the leaf on his oak staff still tender green—how could he generate such intense fluctuations during his advancement? Could he control them?
Control wasn’t even a consideration for Garrett. He seated himself on the bed, assuming an unorthodox meditation posture, and closed his eyes. In his mind’s eye, earth, water, fire, wind, and various elements shimmered into existence one by one.
Translucent figures stood in the void, silently awaiting his command as forces from all directions poured in, filling his being.
This ascension was different from the serene ascent of a priest; it was turbulent, violent. Garrett concentrated, guiding the energies inward, arranging them meticulously. Around the translucent figure, the "shell" housing the elements grew stronger, with elemental forces rippling silently between the outer shell and the core, awaiting further refinement.
His work wasn’t finished yet. Advancing as a formal mage required engraving a magic during meditation—a process of constructing a robust spell model within the "shell" and "core" using mental power.
This magic could be learned or self-created. Self-created magics offered greater power and bypassed the need for materials or incantations, casting with a mere thought. The engraved magic couldn’t exceed the mage’s previous level, though going a level lower wasn’t prohibitive, just wasteful. Typically, mages chose their highest-level mastered spell...
But which one should Garrett choose?
He pondered, considering his repertoire: magic tricks, mage armor, X-ray magic, ultrasound magic... Each flashed through his mind, attracting elemental feedback, and dispersing at his command. Higher-level magic attracted stronger fluctuations, while self-created spells drew the strongest. Garrett’s focus shifted to burning hand, envisioning the convenience of wielding white flames without cumbersome materials. Yet, a nagging doubt surfaced:
Is raw destructive power truly what I desire?
He turned to ultrasound magic, its spell model illuminating in his meditation environment. Vibration, frequency, direction—everything clicked into place, beckoning him to choose.
Circular, triangular, wavy curves—various shapes and lines intertwined, forming a complex three-dimensional structure. While casting spells was manageable, constructing them with mental power proved chaotic. It felt far more challenging than sketching on a computer, especially without any tools!
Take ultrasound magic’s architecture, for example. There was a segment resembling a sine curve, familiar to Garrett. The issue? Drawing curves without a ruler or compass seemed impossible—how was he to create them with just his mind in the meditation realm?
It seemed absurd!
Despite the challenge, Garrett focused his mental power, meticulously sketching the spell model stroke by stroke. Straight lines, curves, three-dimensional shapes... he drew them, infusing each with mental energy to stabilize and connect them.
Traditionally, mages were simply told to "trace according to the scroll" when drawing spell models. Precision and skill were often disregarded, leading to vastly different results among mages learning the same magic—some akin to Sun Wukong’s feats, while others resembled street performers...
However, during a recent training session, the teacher introduced a new method for spell model creation: mathematics!
Triangles, circles, curves—all mathematical concepts! And if you couldn’t grasp math, you had no business aspiring to be a mage!
So, about that sine curve... Garrett recalled the formula y=Asin(?x+?)+k. Adjusting the amplitude and angular frequency values, he eagerly observed the changes...
His meditation vision widened as something new emerged—a concept he’d never encountered before. Waves—undulating, vibrating, transmitting through the void and reflecting back from unknown origins...
They were waves!
Longitudinal, transverse, electromagnetic, mechanical—waves of all kinds materialized in his meditation vision for the first time!
The feedback surged from the meditation world.
The spell model for echo magic, ultrasound magic, a seemingly insignificant gadget that earned merely two research points at the Magic Council, materialized and shimmered brightly in Garrett’s meditation environment.
As he filled the spell model, the elements pouring into the meditation realm dissipated outward, increasing the concentration within the "shell" by at least ten percent.
Satisfied, Garrett opened his eyes.
"Yes! No more need to carry around bats!"
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