First Spell

A week later.

A strangely shaped windmill stood behind Richard's Palace. When a gust of wind blew, the turret at the top automatically adjusted with a creaking sound. Its main blades turned into the wind and began to spin.

Mechanical energy was transmitted.

Whoosh, whoosh!

Through gears and a crankshaft, the spinning blades drove a magnetic rotor below. A metal coil around the rotor continuously generated electric current, which flowed through metal wires to the bottom.

Mechanical energy had become electrical energy.

At the bottom sat a simple yet practical Lead-Acid Battery, absorbing and storing the current, waiting to release it when needed.

Electrical energy had become chemical energy.

Night.

Richard's Palace, bedroom.

Richard sat cross-legged on the bed, with a fully charged Lead-Acid Battery before him.

His eyes closed, Richard was deep in meditation when he felt his body begin to vibrate rapidly. Then, like a butterfly breaking free of its cocoon, his consciousness burst out of his body.

Looking at his physical body through the eyes of his consciousness, Richard tried to use Mental Strength to take control of it. He had done this many times before and was already familiar with it. Soon, the body sitting cross-legged on the bed moved. Its hands slowly rose and reached for the two external wires of the Lead-Acid Battery.

Crackle!

The instant his body's hands touched the wires, the body itself became a conductor and formed a closed circuit with the Lead-Acid Battery. Current flowed from the battery and rapidly coursed through the body. The sensation of electrocution spread through every part of it, then traveled through the transparent strip at the back of his neck to Richard's consciousness—numbing and scorching.

The bioelectric current within his body began to increase drastically, and his cells entered a state of "Highly Activated State."

Richard recalled the contents of the Chapter of Munro while gathering his Mental Strength.

When Mental Strength was condensed to the extreme, it became something semi-material, tiny as a speck of dust. He controlled this speck of mental dust and floated it toward the center of his chest, fixing it in place. Then he condensed another speck and attached it to the first.

The process was like a swallow building a nest, slow and time-consuming.

According to the Chapter of Munro, "Open Source of Magic" was of vital importance to wizards and often took dozens of days, or even months.

The longer it took, the larger the Mana Source that could be constructed, and the more mana—energy—it could store, allowing more spells to be cast.

Of course, since a Mana Source could be constructed, it could also be modified. Many wizards began by opening a small Mana Source, then later found it insufficient and modified it to expand its capacity.

However, modifying a Mana Source was not much easier than opening a new one. Therefore, wizards who did not wish to modify their Mana Sources would continue opening new ones as their strength increased. It was said that the strongest wizards possessed more than ten Mana Sources, and their mana would almost never run dry.

Of course, possessing more than ten Mana Sources created another major problem: how to perfectly use the mana in each Source without causing conflicts. But for Wizard Apprentices who had not even entered the field yet, thinking about that was clearly a little premature.

As Richard pondered, he continued condensing mental dust and slowly constructing his first Mana Source. After working through the entire night, he had only built an area less than the size of a fingernail. He was still far from completing a full Mana Source.

But Richard was in no hurry. For a long time afterward, he patiently continued building it.

Thus, as the days passed, the Mana Source gradually took shape. In the end, a standard diamond shape formed at the center of Richard's chest.

Next, Richard had to face the third Life Reshaping required to become a wizard—Energy Melting.

According to the Chapter of Munro, Energy Melting transformed the energy absorbed through Astral Projection into the purest standard energy: mana.

Simply put, because the stars differed, the energy projected from them was an incoherent mixture of many different types. Even when stored in a Mana Source, this energy was difficult to use. Only by "melting" it into uniform mana could it be used to cast spells.

And to undergo the third Life Reshaping of "Energy Melting," the body had to be in a "High Energy State."

As for this "High Energy State," Richard had formed many guesses while opening his Mana Source. The one he considered most likely was a "magnetic field."

The Chapter of Munro described the second and third Life Reshaping as both involving energy covering the entire body. They shared certain similarities, but were not entirely the same.

Considering the relationship between electricity and magnetism, the third Life Reshaping could basically be confirmed.

And once it was confirmed, it was easy to solve—far easier than the first or second Life Reshaping. Because of electromagnetic induction, electricity and magnetism were inseparable. Magnetism could generate electricity, and electricity could likewise generate magnetism.

He arranged metal coils around the bed in the bedroom. When current from the Lead-Acid Battery flowed through the coils, a magnetic field naturally formed.

Within it, Richard clearly felt the energy stored in his Mana Source being refined bit by bit, eventually becoming mana.

At this point, the three obstacles to becoming a wizard—the so-called three Life Reshaping—had all been overcome through scientific means.

The door to casting spells burst open.

A month and a half later.

Late at night.

The whole of Blue Lion City had fallen asleep, and the royal palace was silent as well.

Richard's Palace, bedroom.

That night, Richard was not meditating. Instead, he stood by the window, lost in thought.

After a long while, he turned his head. His gaze fell on the bed, where the Chapter of Munro lay open to a page recording a Zero-Ring Spell.

Zero-Ring Spell.

According to the Chapter of Munro, spells could be divided into Zero-Ring Spells, One-Ring Spells, Two-Ring Spells, Three-Ring Spells, and so on, corresponding to different wizard ranks.

Wizard Apprentices could cast Zero-Ring Spells and occasionally cast weaker One-Ring Spells.

Level 1 Wizards cast One-Ring Spells and could cast some Two-Ring Spells in an explosive state.

Level 2 Wizards normally cast Two-Ring Spells and could even cast some Three-Ring Spells when fighting desperately.

And so on.

Each ring of spells was further divided into three minor tiers: low, middle, and high.

Clearly, the higher the spell ring, the more powerful and difficult the spell. In fact, even One-Ring Spells were already terrifying. The strongest One-Ring Spells—high-tier One-Ring Spells—were as powerful as missiles on Modern Earth.

Zero-Ring Spells, meanwhile, were the lowest class of spells. Most had no destructive power and could only serve indirect purposes, such as lighting, opening doors, repelling enemies, warning against beasts, and so on.

The weakest Zero-Ring Spells, low-tier Zero-Ring Spells, were often called tricks by wizards.

The spell Richard was looking at was one such trick. Its name was—Phosphorus Candle! "Ke Rui Te... uh... Plas... Te Ke... Ai Ni Ze..."

The obscure incantation left his lips as Richard slowly extended one hand.

The next moment, the Mana Source inside him trembled. Mana surged out, rushing through his blood vessels at high speed and undergoing some particular transformation as it moved.

Once it reached a certain speed, the mana became active, like boiling water. As it passed through his blood vessels, it produced a distinct burning sensation.

Richard's palm shook. The active mana traveled down the radial artery, entered the digital veins, reached his fingertips, and then burst out.

The five fingers of Richard's right hand suddenly twitched, and with a puff, five ghostly blue flames appeared, burning quietly.

His five fingers drew together. The five flames merged into one, burning more fiercely and illuminating the entire bedroom. Beneath the eerie blue light, the entire room took on a sinister atmosphere. The sweltering summer night gained a trace of chill, as though the air had suddenly dropped several degrees.

"Phosphorus Candle... does phosphorus burn? Is that why the flame is blue?" Richard muttered to himself, carrying the flame to the window and looking outside. There was no one there.

With a flick of his hand, he threw the flame out. It flew into midair, then rapidly swelled from the size of a fist to the size of a washbasin, then to the size of a bathtub.

The flame, more than half a meter across, cast an eerie blue light over the ground before the palace. Just as it was about to continue expanding, it went out with a puff, as if it had never existed, vanishing without a trace.

Edward, the Guard Captain on night watch at the palace entrance, suddenly raised his head. His eyes flickered. It seemed that the corner of his eye had caught something extraordinary just now, but after scanning the surroundings, he found nothing.

"Did I see it wrong?" Edward shook his head and lowered his gaze back to the palm-sized book in his hands, reviewing the "knowledge" he had learned.

"Countess Elizabeth let out a coquettish laugh... suddenly... glug..."

Inside the bedroom, Richard sensed a strange energy fluctuation dissipating outside the window. Looking at his hands, which bore no trace of burns, his eyes brightened slightly. "A spell, a real spell? Is this pseudoscience that science cannot explain, or an undiscovered science that Modern Earth has yet to explore? But no matter what, the legends of wizards in this world appear to be true. In that case, I want even more to uncover the truth of this world, and to find out how I came here. Interesting."

He closed his eyes as if savoring something. After a long while, he opened them, nodded, and said seriously, "Yes, truly interesting."