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Professor McGonagall's first lesson covered the basics of the Transfiguration Charm, with the class assignment being to transform a matchstick into a needle.

This involved turning one inanimate object into another with similar volume and shape, requiring a brief change in material and subtle changes in form. It was indeed very suitable as the first introductory lesson.

Adam pointed his wand at the matchstick and recited the spell. In the next moment, the matchstick became slender, sharp, and metallic... eventually turning into a shimmering silver sewing needle.

"Very well done!"

Professor McGonagall, who had already been paying attention to Adam, brightened. She walked over, picked up the needle, and examined it. Not only was the material change uniform, but the form was almost perfect, even with the thread hole at the end of the needle.

"Try to change it back."

Professor McGonagall placed the needle back in front of Adam.

Adam tried as instructed, but found it a bit difficult this time. However, after a moment of thought, Adam understood the key and succeeded in one go.

"Excellent! Five points to Hufflepuff!"

Professor McGonagall had originally planned to give Adam some guidance if he seemed lost, but she didn't expect him to figure it out on his own.

This is a Transfiguration prodigy!

With proper nurturing, he's sure to become a Transfiguration master.

As a professor at Hogwarts, what could be more fulfilling than seeing a student you taught achieve great things in their field?

Professor McGonagall excitedly encouraged Adam for a few words before going to guide the others. Some people's matchsticks hadn't changed at all, clearly indicating that they hadn't understood the previous lesson or had some problems with their spellcasting.

After Professor McGonagall left, Adam stared at the matchstick and began to think about his second spellcasting.

In his current understanding, the process of spellcasting was like using magic to walk through a vast, endless maze with countless exits. Furthermore, the dead ends in this maze weren't meaningless; they could potentially grant the spell special effects.

A mage's spellcasting method was to honestly rely on research to find the path from the entrance to the exit, then control the magic to walk along the path. If you wanted special effects, you'd go down a specific dead end—of course, in reality, spellcasting also involved various mystical elements and so on, making it very complex. This was a simplified representation of the process.

The advantage of this spellcasting method was that it was concise and clear, requiring no incantations. External objects like wands only served to amplify the effect. With enough magic, you could cast silently and wandlessly as long as you learned the spell.

The disadvantage was that the caster had to fully understand the magic. You either knew it or you didn't. And if you wanted to create new magic, you needed a lot of time and energy to explore and research, placing high demands on the creator.

A Wizard's spellcasting method was slightly rougher. Their spellcasting ability came from their bloodline, so they didn't need to precisely control the flow of magic to cast spells. Thus, the current spellcasting method was to first use incantations and casting actions to define a range that included the entrance and exit, then directly pour magic into the entrance.

Although the loss was a bit high, the magic would only come out of the correct exit due to the existence of the frame, achieving the effect of the spell. This greatly satisfied the Wizard's ancestors.

This spellcasting method allowed for the setting of multiple different frames for the same path, which led to the development of multiple variations of the same spell, such as those with higher precision that reduced magic loss, or those that included certain dead ends to produce special effects.

But the disadvantage was also obvious. If the frame was inaccurate when initially set, problems would occur. That is, the randomness of the spell's effect was greater when inventing the spell, and the controllability of subsequent development was not high.

Professor McGonagall's task was equivalent to having him walk the path by pouring magic into it, and then, instead of waiting for the magic on the path to disappear and the spell to dissolve on its own, walking back along the original path from the exit.

Adam suspected that this was the principle behind counter-spells, based on the fact that the magic flow between Lumos and Nox was reversed. At the same time, his successful transformation of the silver needle back into a matchstick confirmed this conjecture.

Due to differences in cognitive dimensions, counter-spells in the eyes of Wizards were not like this. They often used an incantation and action different from the original spell, which was equivalent to framing a new frame. But in Adam's eyes, the new frame actually caused the final magic to walk the route in reverse of the original spell.

It was also not difficult to imagine that Wizards' counter-spells had another disadvantage, which was the problem caused by the inability to control the precise flow direction of injected magic—not all spells could create opposite paths by changing a frame.

In other words, not all spells could have counter-spells developed.

But fortunately, Wizards weren't completely helpless. They could directly dismantle the frame, allowing the magic to flow freely through the maze and unable to maintain the spell. In a sense, this also counted as dispelling the spell. This was the principle behind the universal counter-spells Finite Incantatem and Protego Diabolica.

Through this method, the vast majority of spells could be dispelled in this way—except for the legendary Unforgivable Curses, which had been proven to have no counter-spells.

Thinking of this, Adam felt that the Unforgivable Curses might not be completely un-counterable. According to this principle, maybe he could try using his method... It was just a pity that no one was currently hit by an Unforgivable Curse, and he wasn't interested in taking an Unforgivable Curse himself to test it out.

After comprehending this point, Adam suddenly realized: combining the two spellcasting methods, and using the Wizards' magic as nourishment for the rapid growth of the mage's path, seemed to be the version answer!

Using the advantage of being able to precisely control magic to quickly learn Wizard-version spells, releasing targeted counter-spells for each spell, and even using Wizard-version spells to frame the range for him, changing the release method of these spells to the mage version...

Although the last point seemed a bit redundant, it could actually bring great help to Adam both in the early and late stages.

For the early Adam, mage-version magic was more concise, accurate, and efficient when released. Most importantly, his magic growth was directly proportional to his magical knowledge, and in the process of converting spells, his magical knowledge would inevitably be greatly improved.

And for the later Adam, who had mastered a large amount of magic and magical knowledge, if he wanted to go higher and further, then the mage path was definitely more suitable for him. Compared to the Wizards' state of knowing what magic was but not why, Adam still wanted to fully master his magical power. In addition... the upper limit of Wizards, or rather warlocks, depended on bloodlines, while the upper limit of mages depended on wisdom.

It would be one thing if the bloodline came from some god or demon, but the bloodline of the Wizards in this world was from magical animals that intermarried with ancestors... The apex of magical animals was roughly like Fawkes, whom he had touched yesterday. This ceiling was a bit too low compared to the ceiling of mages.