Three Tenets of Mages

First were the two booklets placed on the top layer of the wooden box, the ones taken out at the very beginning.

Their names were already marked on the covers.

They were the Apprentice Guidance Method and the Apprentice Meditation Art.

Gao De picked up the two booklets and leafed through them. After confirming they matched the cultivation methods in his memory without any discrepancy, he set them down.

It seemed Mage Seda had not been so insidious as to secretly hold something back while teaching the apprentices cultivation methods.

Of course, it was more likely that Mage Seda had never considered beggar children like them worth his notice.

He would never have imagined that one of them could possess the power to threaten him.

After reading the title of the thinner booklet, Gao De's heart could not help but burn with excitement.

"Mage Apprentice Handbook: Introduction to Spells."

This was an introductory booklet for mage apprentices.

It might have seemed insignificant, but it was precisely what Gao De needed most right now.

Mage Seda had never regarded the apprentices as his true apprentices, so he had never properly taught them mage knowledge.

Though Gao De had already mastered five spells, his understanding of the mage world was, in truth, no different from that of an ordinary civilian. He was the very picture of someone who knew nothing when asked.

It was like learning English through pinyin annotations. It looked convincing enough, but there was no real framework of knowledge. The further he went, the harder it would become, and sooner or later he would fall behind.

With that thought, Gao De eagerly opened the booklet.

A striking line on the title page caught his eye.

"The Three Tenets of Mages."

Gao De was not entirely unfamiliar with the phrase.

Emil had told him one of the Three Tenets.

"Never let others know your spells."

Before, Gao De had only half understood it. He knew the principle of Know Yourself and Your Enemy, and you will win every battle.

But he had not understood why spells were considered so important that they were even listed as one of the Three Tenets of Mages.

Yet after his spell duel with Mage Seda, Gao De had finally gained a profound understanding of those words.

If he had not known that Mage Seda possessed the Flame Arrow spell, how could he have thought of the killing move of a dust explosion?

If he had not known in advance that Mage Seda possessed Flash, he would have died on the spot beneath Mage Seda's chain of spells.

Spells were a mage's lifeline!

For that reason, Gao De was brimming with curiosity about the complete Three Tenets.

His gaze moved downward:

1. Knowledge is power.

2. Never let others know your spells.

3. Though spells are omnipotent, spells are not omnipotent.

"Hm?"

The complete Three Tenets left Gao De somewhat baffled.

He could understand the first one, "Knowledge is power," well enough.

Though from his current perspective, it would be more fittingly called, "Knowledge is money."

Gao De already had a deep understanding of the second tenet, "Never let others know your spells."

However, he felt it would be more accurate to say: never let others know all your spells.

After all, since mages wielded extraordinary power, they could not possibly refrain from casting spells.

So long as they cast spells, others would inevitably learn of them.

Thus, hiding all of one's spells was absolutely impossible, but never exposing all of one's spells was indeed essential.

To achieve that, there were two approaches:

Either be cautious enough, or have a sufficiently rich reserve of spells in one's spell arsenal.

Only, the third tenet—"Though spells are omnipotent, spells are not omnipotent"—was difficult for Gao De to understand.

It seemed somewhat similar to the classic saying from his past life: "Money is not omnipotent."

Yet when he thought it over carefully, the meaning seemed entirely different.

After pondering it for a while without figuring it out, Gao De firmly committed the three tenets to memory, then stopped dwelling on them and turned to the next page.

"What is a spell?"

The title stood out clearly.

"A spell is an independent magical effect."

"It is a process of reshaping the magical power permeating the world and manifesting it in a specific area through a specific method."

"Spells can serve as convenient tools, necessities for survival, weapons, or protective barriers."

"They can inflict or soothe harm, produce or remove specific conditions, draw upon or bestow life force. They can create or destroy everything."

"Spells can do anything!"

This was probably the general outline of the booklet. Gao De's emotions stirred, drawn in by this introduction that was rigorous and scholarly, yet grandiose beyond measure.

Could spells truly do anything?

Who knew?

Mage apprentices certainly could not, in any case.

Gao De knew his own limits well and continued reading.

"Spell Rings."

"Every spell belongs to one ring from Zero Circle to Ninth Circle, although Ninth Circle spells have yet to appear."

"A spell's ring generally indicates its power and complexity, yet lower-ring spells remain wondrous beyond measure. Take the First Circle spell Magic Missile, for example.

Even among Zero Circle Spells, which high-ranking mages often refuse to recognize as spells, there are classic spells such as Mage Hand—interestingly, these high-ranking mages who refuse to recognize Zero Circle Spells as spells can scarcely do without this spell in their daily lives."

"."

The classification of spell rings was common knowledge even Gao De knew, but there were details he had not known.

Ninth Circle spells had yet to appear.

Based on the correspondence between mage ranks and spell rings, did that mean no Ninth Circle mages existed in this world either, and the strongest were merely Eighth Circle mages?

Gao De's thoughts drifted as he could not help considering it.

Think as he might, he could not dwell too deeply on it. Eighth Circle mages and Ninth Circle mages were beings standing at the summit of the world; someone like him, a first-rank mage apprentice, should not waste time thinking too much about them.

"Spell Rules."

"Whenever anyone casts a spell, they must abide by the same set of rules: casting time, casting range, and spell duration."

"Casting time is the time a mage requires to activate a Spell Model."

"Under normal circumstances, the higher a spell's ring, the more complex and massive its Spell Model, the longer it takes to activate, and therefore the longer its casting time."

"However, this is not absolute. Though some spells are not high-ring, they may require several minutes or even several hours to cast."

"Some mages possess certain special talents that allow them to cast spells in an extremely short time, or even cast them instantly."

"Casting range means that a spell's target must be within the spell's casting range. For spells such as Magic Missile, the target is a creature, whereas for spells such as Fireball, the target is a point in space."

"Some spells affect only the caster themselves. The casting range of such spells is the caster's own body."

"However, once a spell has been cast, the range of its spell effect is no longer restricted by its casting range, except for certain specific spells."

"."

"Spell duration is the length of time for which a spell remains in effect."

"The durations of different spells vary enormously, and can be measured in seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, or even years."

"Some spells may even last until the spell itself is destroyed!"

"Many spells vanish in an instant. Such spells instantly harm, heal, create, or alter a creature or object in some way. Since their duration lasts only a moment, the consequences they produce cannot be undone afterward."

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