Overnight, Donald had focused his mind using Seven Strokes. Then, in just half a month, the Divine Elements in all Five Elements had each surpassed a hundred. Even the legendary geniuses who rarely appeared would probably have felt ashamed of themselves at Donald's pace.
But now, the genius Donald had run into a thorny problem. He had Divine Elements aplenty, but he had no idea how to build a Magic Model. Those students who claimed to be "upholding justice" had their eyes firmly fixed on him, leaving him unable to browse freely in the Library. He could only slowly piece together clues by asking Wesley and Victor.
The knowledge he gained this way was obviously unsystematic, but at least he now had a general idea of the key points involved in building a Magic Model.
First, he needed to improve his mental control: his ability to manipulate multiple Divine Elements precisely. This depended on the strength of his Spiritual Power. Even the simplest model required three Divine Elements, and he had to advance to Low-level Magic Apprentice before he could build one.
Next was his ability to sense Magic Elements. When trying to build a model, he had to constantly feel the reactions of the Magic Elements around him. Only then could he find a stable structure. This ability also evolved as his Spiritual Power grew stronger.
Finally, there was proficiency. By repeatedly building the same model in his mind, he could eventually form a conditioned reflex and quickly direct his Spiritual Power to construct it when needed. When not being used, all Divine Elements remained in a free-floating state, so every spell required the model to be built anew. Improving his proficiency would reduce the time needed to build it and speed up spellcasting.
Late at night, in a bedroom on the second floor of Professor Victor's house, Donald lay on a comfortable bed and began trying to construct the simplest possible Magic Model.
Of the Five Elements, he liked the Fire Element best. The first story about a Mage he had heard on the island had featured a fireball of unmatched power. The first element he had ever condensed was a Fire Element, and the first spell he had witnessed had also been a fireball.
So now, he was arranging three Fire Elements into an equilateral triangle in his mind.
In principle, the regular polygon models of each type of Divine Element were the basic attack spells of that element: Ice Spear, Fireball, Flying Leaf, Wind Blade, and Stone Spike. The more vertices, the more powerful the spell. Carl's fireball, for instance, might have used more than twenty Divine Elements as vertices, while Wesley's Wind Blade was probably just a triangle. To balance the difficulty of construction against practical use, Magic Apprentices usually made a hexagon their first model. Most of the advice passed down by their predecessors also started with building a hexagonal Magic Array.
The difficult part was that everyone's mental world was distorted to some degree, so the model would never be a perfect regular polygon. Its sides would vary slightly in length, and some vertices might not even lie on the same plane. Moreover, because the mental world could not be measured, there was no way to describe the polygon's side lengths. He had to figure them out through trial and error.
Donald had no reference materials, so he had to start with the simplest three-element model. He had already made sure he understood all the necessary steps.
He would enlarge and shrink the equilateral triangle formed by the three Fire Elements, find the size that made the surrounding Magic Elements react most actively, and memorize it. Then, keeping the triangle's base fixed, he would move the vertex across the plane in which the triangle lay, continuing to sense the elements' activity until he found the best position. Finally, he would move the vertex back and forth along an arc perpendicular to the plane to confirm the ideal position.
Donald worked slowly. Each step was like turning the dial of an extremely sensitive radio: first he narrowed down the general range, then adjusted it back and forth repeatedly until he was completely satisfied. At last, he completed a Triple Fireball Magic Model in his mind. The entire process had taken only half an hour.
That was an extraordinary speed. With more than a hundred Divine Elements in each of the Five Elements, Donald's mental control and ability to sense elements were beyond those of an ordinary Low-level Magic Apprentice.
"I only need to learn the incantation before I can cast a spell." Thinking this, Donald still stretched his hands out from under the quilt. He imagined what it would feel like to cast the model between his palms. It would be a tiny fireball, probably a little hot. But how hot? Carl's fireball had been so close to his palm without burning him, so it couldn't be very hot. At least it should feel warm, like his palms did now—warm, warm...
Warm? Donald suddenly realized that there really was a tiny fireball in his palm!
Excitement, confusion, and panic surged through him in a rush. The room was filled with expensive furniture and exquisite wallpaper. He couldn't let the fireball loose, so he could only watch it burn between his hands.
The fireball was only the size of an egg. Unlike the bright red Fire Element in Donald's mind, it was blue. If not for the flickering flames and the warmth coming from his hand, its color alone would hardly have convinced him it was a fireball. But Donald knew that its blue hue meant its temperature was already incredibly high.
The Blue Fireball slowly turned white in Donald's palm, then red, then yellow. Just as it was about to fade, Donald suddenly remembered the sparks that had scattered across the floor when Carl's fireball disappeared. In a panic, he clapped his hands shut, smothering the fireball between his palms. Thank goodness, he hadn't burned the quilt.
At that moment, upstairs in his bedroom, Mr. Victor was fast asleep. He hadn't noticed the magical fluctuation below.
The room returned to complete darkness. In the dark, young Donald's heart raced. He had just cast a spell—a real spell. Happiness had come so suddenly that he hadn't even had time to learn the incantation.
Wait, I didn't chant anything. How could I have cast a spell? But the burning sensation left on his palms after he smothered the fireball reminded him that it had really happened.
He quickly thought of a possible answer. It was obvious: his Spiritual Power was different from other people's. The Spiritual Elements generated as he drew perfect function curves were just as perfect, without a trace of impurity. The Magic Models built from such perfect Divine Elements were pure and vibrant, responding to his will. They no longer needed the assistance of an incantation.
Over the next few days, Donald repeated the exercise whenever he had free time: build the three-element Fireball model, let it dissipate, then build it again and let it dissipate once more. It wasn't that he was particularly fond of this Triple Fireball. He was simply completely stumped by more complicated Magic Models. But the result was that he really could complete this model in an instant.
Victor confirmed Donald's suspicions about incantations. Magic Apprentices recited them to increase the activity of the Magic Elements around them in advance. As long as their Spiritual Power was strong enough, they could skip this step entirely. Mages of the first rank and above didn't need to recite incantations except when casting large-scale spells.
There was another piece of history about Magic Apprentices and incantations that Donald hadn't known.
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