Chatting About Magic

Lately, whenever Frederick had free time, he'd take out a few wheat seeds to study.

When he left Chestnut Village, he'd asked for a handful of the enhanced wheat seeds. He'd observe them carefully, even biting into a few.

But he hadn't been able to find any difference between these seeds and regular ones; mixed together, they were indistinguishable. That was until he met an expert.

At the moment, he was in a place called Oak Village, where the main headquarters for the canal excavation was located.

Weissenburg University had civil engineering students, and they had optimized the canal's route based on Frederick's survey and design, shortening its length from 16 kilometers to less than 10 kilometers. They were also building a dedicated commercial city in Oak Village.

Although the distance was shorter, they had to dig through several small hills, so the overall workload hadn't changed much.

Craftsmen and workers from the Stonemasons' Guild in the City of Nuremberg had started arriving after receiving a 30% down payment. Frederick was here to meet with their master craftsman, Edward, to discuss construction matters.

The civil engineering students from Weissenburg University were also working here, currently led by the Principal, Manuel.

As soon as the Necromancer saw the wheat seeds in Frederick's hand, he asked, "Principal, where did you find these wheat seeds? Their vitality is so strong."

"Oh?" Frederick asked him, surprised. "You can tell?"

Manuel sat down on a nearby chair, took the seeds Frederick offered, and after looking at them, said, "We Necromancers are evil people who manipulate life force, so we are particularly sensitive to it. It's like how a drunkard can smell which wine is stronger, or a rider can tell which horse is better at a glance."

Frederick hadn't discussed Necromancy with him yet, so while there was still some time before the project meeting, he asked, "I heard you can also manipulate corpses?"

Manuel said, "Yes, but they must be bodies that died only a few days ago and still have muscles."

"The Necromancy used to manipulate corpses gives them a false life using a simulated life force. In our hands, they are like marionettes."

"Because of this, to ordinary people, we are devils. Some people will make us important figures in their schemes."

"For example, someone poisons their father and has a Necromancer manipulate the body to announce, as if alive, that all property is to be given to the murderer."

"There are also some more disgusting things you'll learn about when you're older."

"We also appear on the battlefield and can make dead soldiers die several times over."

"During the internal strife in Constantinople, a warlord demanded we hand over all the women in the university and library to his army to be ravaged."

"We told him and his officers to come in first to choose, and then we poisoned them all at the banquet."

"Later, I manipulated the warlord's body to order the road to the port to be opened, but it was discovered midway. His behavior didn't match his usual conduct. We had only retreated halfway at that point, so we fought a battle."

"At that time, the high-ranking officers of that army were all dead. I then made the dead soldiers stand up again, which scared them away. Eventually, we all escaped onto ships and left Constantinople."

Frederick understood after hearing this, but he still had a question: "Huh, didn't they say Necromancers can control skeletons?"

Manuel shook his head and said, "That's an Undead Mage. Their specialization is Virtual Soul. The control core for the Golem Puppet that Aumert is researching was developed from them."

"In our eyes, Undead Mages and Golem Puppeteers are actually different branches of the same magic system, both centered around Virtual Soul. It's just that Undead Mages use Magic Element Muscle to control bones, while Golem Puppeteers create their own Magic Muscle and Metal Skeleton."

"However, you can't tell Aumert this; they strongly dislike being compared to Undead Mages."

Frederick understood, thinking how wonderful the world of magic was.

He pointed at the wheat seeds and said, "These are seeds that Matthias enhanced. They are said to increase yield."

Manuel suddenly understood and said, "So that's it. No wonder he asked me about knowledge of life force before."

Frederick asked curiously, "So, is the false life force of Necromancy infused into the seeds?"

"No," Manuel shook his head. "The life force in these wheat seeds is real. I think he used some method to increase the life force and make it more active."

"Such wheat is more vigorous and resilient than ordinary wheat, so increasing yield is certainly possible."

"He is truly a genius. This kind of thing only exists in theory, yet he can achieve it through external control."

"Theoretically speaking, if this method could be applied to humans, it could grant immortality."

Frederick was startled by this heaven-defying magic and thought about asking Matthias if his QQ number was 337845818.

"But this is just theoretical," Manuel shrugged and returned the seeds to Frederick. "The human body is like a colander, and life force is like water. As the body ages, the leaks become more numerous, and the water leaks faster, so eventually no amount of life force is enough."

"There's still no consensus on how life force affects the body. The only consensus is that false life force exceeding the body's tolerance limit will cause physical mutation."

"Another very important point is that whether enhancement is controllable has never been definitively determined."

"My teacher's teacher once tried to enhance his own life force with false life force. He spent a lot of time perfecting the theory, and later... his sphincter turned into something like wings."

"My teacher experimented with a chicken, and the result was a chicken with six wings that died shortly after."

"I don't dare follow their path, nor do I allow my students to venture into this Domain."

"Compared to humans and other animals, plants are much simpler and have a higher tolerance for mutation."

"The plants Matthias cultivated before were terrible and he was ridiculed for a long time. Now he must have found the pattern from countless failures."

"As I understand it, he has selectively enhanced the ear part of the wheat, and I estimate the root system has also been strengthened."

Frederick entered a state of not understanding but feeling impressed. For a moment, he couldn't figure out the principle, so he just treated it like space radiation breeding.

"I find it strange," a new question popped up. "This magic is so powerful, why does it look so ordinary?"

Manuel laughed, thinking this was the kind of thought a child should have; the flashier the magic, the greater its power.

"Magic shouldn't be judged by its appearance," he said, raising his right hand. After a few breaths, a black ball the size of a ping-pong ball appeared above his hand.

This black ball had no reflection at all, like charcoal, and looked completely ordinary.

He smiled and asked Frederick, "What do you think of this magic?"

Frederick looked left and right, but didn't see anything particularly special.

"This magic is very powerful, right?" he asked.

Manuel didn't answer. Instead, he raised his left hand and conjured another identical, seemingly ordinary black sphere, then said, "Which one of these two spells do you think could kill you instantly?"

Frederick's expression immediately turned serious. He looked left and right, but honestly couldn't find any difference between the two magical black spheres.

Finally, he could only shake his head and say, "I can't tell."

Manuel motioned for Frederick to follow him outside.

They went outside the village and found two large trees within the canal's red line that were scheduled to be cut down. Manuel didn't do anything, and the two black spheres flew towards the tree trunks, growing larger as they went.

The trunks, which took two or three people to encircle, seemed like ice encountering hot water when they touched the black magic spheres, which were a meter in diameter. They were corroded and disappeared at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Frederick's mouth twitched. Holy hell, either one of them could take me out.

Then he and Manuel turned and ran. The large trees were falling towards them.

After reaching a safe distance, two more magical black spheres appeared in Manuel's hand. Frederick observed carefully and found they were the same as before.

Then Frederick was hit in the face by one, but nothing happened to him.

On the way back to the village, Manuel said to Frederick, "You can't judge a spell's effect and power just by its appearance. Mages these days will deliberately disguise very powerful spells to look like simple ones."

"In magic battles, even a slight mistake can cost you your life, so you have to use every method you can think of."

"Extending from this, when mages invent new spells, they will give the spells' appearance some special design so outsiders can't discern the magic array circuit, but internally, they are far from simple."

Frederick had a look of sudden realization, thinking, So that's how it is.