Spell Model

Gao De returned laden with three spell formulas. When he got back to the herb garden, it was just in time for the evening meal.

Suppressing the impatience in his heart, he went to the dining hall and forced down the classic two-piece meal he already disliked and had grown sick of: Rye Bread and pea soup. Only then did he return to his workspace.

Evenings were the apprentices' cultivation time, free for them to arrange as they pleased. No one would come disturb him.

Gao De took the three spell formulas from his robes. After a moment's thought, he opened the formula for Acid Splash first.

What met his eyes was a Spell Model composed of numbered lines. It had nine nodes, and at first glance, its structure resembled a three-dimensional constellation chart. Below it was the spell's official description.

The description of the spell's effects on the yellow parchment Yom had given him had been copied from this.

The right-hand page contained an enlarged diagram of part of the Spell Model, along with detailed written explanations.

Turning to the next page revealed another enlarged partial diagram and its corresponding explanations.

The Spell Model for a cantrip was not particularly complicated. Moreover, it did not require drinking the corresponding potion, eliminating the need for a potion formula. As a result, the entire spellbook was only five pages long.

In just a few minutes, Gao De had given it a quick read-through.

Of course, that was not enough.

The first step in constructing a Spell Model was memorizing it.

For an ordinary Mage Apprentice, this first step alone would take one or two days.

Gao De's memory had always been exceptional, and his predecessor's memory had not been bad either. It seemed that one plus one had become greater than two, turning his already outstanding memory into something extraordinary.

In less than half an hour, he had firmly committed the Spell Model for Acid Splash to memory.

Gao De then put away the Acid Splash formula, closed his eyes slightly, and swiftly entered a meditative state.

Five days of cultivation had made Gao De increasingly proficient at entering meditation.

His consciousness immersed itself in the world of the Spell Starsea.

In the depths of his dark consciousness, countless tiny stars drifted about, beautiful and dazzling.

To construct a Spell Model, he needed to use his mental intent to draw in and connect these tiny stars, making them obediently stop at specific positions. Then, through links formed with Mental Strength, they would become a Spell Model.

Once a Spell Model had been constructed, a mage could channel mana through it, transforming it into the corresponding spell and releasing it.

Yet these tiny stars moved in random patterns. Drawing them in, fixing them at prescribed distances and positions, and connecting them was by no means a simple task.

Constructing the Spell Model for Acid Splash required a total of nine tiny stars. It was neither too many nor too few.

In fact, ninety-nine percent of cantrip Spell Models used no more than ten tiny stars.

Following the Spell Model diagram and detailed route recorded in the Acid Splash formula, Gao De began attempting to construct the model with his Mental Strength.

He casually locked onto one tiny star. His Mental Strength approached soundlessly like a hunting snake.

As the distance closed, Gao De's Mental Strength suddenly swept forward, firmly pinning the tiny star, which had been drifting erratically, in place.

It went very smoothly. Nothing unexpected happened.

With his current Mental Strength, controlling a single tiny star would not go wrong.

But simply locking down a tiny star would not make it stay still obediently. It would constantly struggle and resist. In other words, until the Spell Model was completed, Gao De needed to continually use his Mental Strength to keep it in check.

If any tiny star slipped out of control and shifted during the construction of the Spell Model, all his efforts would be wasted, and he would have to start over from scratch.

People said that all things were difficult at the beginning, but constructing a Spell Model was the exact opposite. The first tiny star was the easiest part.

That was because Gao De next had to split off some Mental Strength and attention to lock down and control a second tiny star while firmly holding the first in place.

By the final step, he would need to control the ninth tiny star while simultaneously holding down eight others. The difficulty was obvious.

And this was only a cantrip. The Spell Models for higher first-circle and second-circle spells would be built from hundreds of tiny stars. The thought alone was terrifying.

No wonder a mage's two most important attributes were mana and Mental Strength. Without mana, one could not cast spells. Without sufficiently powerful Mental Strength, one could not construct Spell Models. Without Spell Models, even a person with abundant mana still could not cast a single spell. Neither could be lacking.

However, that was not something Gao De needed to consider right now. What he needed to do was control the second tiny star.

He tried splitting off a strand of Mental Strength and, as before, controlled a tiny star that happened to be drifting near the first one.

Yet for this second tiny star, merely holding it still was not enough. It also needed to be moved to a specific position relative to the first.

Gao De took a deep breath. The Mental Strength coiled around the first tiny star extended outward, becoming a straight star track that directly linked to the second tiny star until the two were connected.

Then, following the instructions in the spell formula, Gao De controlled the second tiny star and began moving it from the first tiny star's position.

"Forward one, right one and one-third, up one-quarter."

Any object's movement involved only two elements: direction and distance.

There were only three directions in which tiny stars could move: forward and backward, left and right, and up and down.

Distance, meanwhile, was expressed directly with numbers, without any unit.

That was because the distances between every tiny star in a Spell Model were fixed in proportion.

For example, if the distance between the second and first tiny stars in a certain direction was two feet, and the distance between the third and second tiny stars in another certain direction was four feet, changing them to four feet and eight feet would not affect construction of the Spell Model.

Thus, the one in "forward one" was actually a ratio. The actual distances set by each person constructing the Spell Model differed, but the ratios remained the same, ensuring the uniformity of the Spell Model.

As the second tiny star moved, the star track formed by Mental Strength connecting the two stars continued to stretch and lengthen.

At last, the second tiny star reached the position where it belonged.

Gao De pressed on and caught a third tiny star near the second one. Again, he formed a star track with Mental Strength to connect the second and third tiny stars, then controlled the third one to begin moving from the second tiny star's current position.

There was nothing but tiny stars in the Spell Starsea. There were no points of reference, much less measuring scales.

Yet the positions between every node of a Spell Model had to be absolutely fixed and precise.

By that logic, merely judging the distance each tiny star moved should have been as difficult as reaching the heavens.

But the truth was the opposite. During the construction of a Spell Model, controlling the distance a tiny star moved was actually the easiest part.

That was because the Spell Starsea existed deep within every person's consciousness. Within one's own mental space, everyone possessed an almost mechanical instinct for precision regarding real-world properties such as distance, size, direction, and mass.

The true difficulty in constructing a Spell Model lay in controlling the tiny stars' movements and maintaining their stability.

This was because whether the tiny stars were moving or still, they constantly struggled, producing immense resistance whose direction changed randomly and continuously.

"Forward one-half, right two-thirds, down one-half."

Likewise, the second star track continued stretching and lengthening as the third tiny star moved.

Gao De concentrated intensely on controlling the third tiny star.

The third tiny star moved at a steady pace.

However, at that moment, the star track between the second and first tiny stars suddenly began trembling for no apparent reason, its vibrations growing faster and faster.

Then, before Gao De could react, the star track snapped amid violent shaking. Freed from the star track's restraint, the second tiny star raced through the Spell Starsea like a wild horse breaking loose from its reins.

Like falling dominoes, the second tiny star's departure caused the second star track to collapse as well, and the third tiny star naturally slipped free of control.

Gao De's first attempt at constructing the Acid Splash Spell Model ended in failure!