The Rudiments of Flight Magic

The Box World, a certain layer of space.

This space was stretched out to be extremely vast, and the sky was especially high and distant—this was specially cleared out by Lucien for the Zouwu. The environment was not fully arranged, and the ground was still relatively empty.

Looking up from the ground, a small black dot is moving rapidly through the clouds.

Zoom in.

Lucien sprinted through the air at high speed, his hair and robes fluttering wildly in the strong wind.

He was like a cannonball that went off track, crashing straight into a magically created white cloud. The white, fluffy cloud was torn to Diffindo, leaving several messy trails behind him.

Amidst the white clouds, the Zouwu's figure appeared and disappeared.

Its current posture is quite interesting - its huge head and front paws have retained their original appearance, fluffy and majestic, but its hind legs and tail below the waist have transformed into a yellow and red whirlwind, leaving a flowing trail of flame-like trail in the air.

The Zouwu moved freely in a half-real, half-illusory manner, sometimes appearing directly above Lucien's head, sometimes passing by his right side, and the next moment it had circled around to his left, curiously examining him with its big, round eyes.

Following Lucien as he darted around in the air, the Zouwu clearly found it very amusing, as if it were playing with its own kind.

Lucien gripped his wand, trying to adjust his direction.

He adjusted the angle of his magic output, trying to turn his body to the left and forward.

As a result, he suddenly plunged diagonally forward, deviating "slightly" from his expectations.

This was a prototype of flying magic that Lucien had conceived before he even received the Zouwu.

The fundamental reason why humans are bound to the earth is the existence of gravity.

The most direct way to soar into the sky is to directly defy gravity with immense magical power—simple, direct, and requiring no fancy techniques.

Of course, one of the costs is that the consumption is indeed huge; only Lucien's magical power is so astonishing that he can withstand it.

Moreover, the more magic power invested, the faster the sprint speed; the only limitation is physical strength.

It's like riding a rocket; the more fuel you have, the faster you go—it's like a powerful brick flying.

But the biggest problem is that it's too fast. So fast that when it turns in the air, even a slight adjustment in angle results in it crashing headlong into things.

This leads to a very "fatal" drawback: it makes landing very difficult.

Given that wizards don't have particularly strong physiques, Lucien doesn't want to attempt the vertical landing that's a hallmark of the strong.

Lucien waved to the Zouwu.

The Zouwu's figure vanished instantly from the upper diagonal and reappeared directly below him, catching him steadily with its broad, soft back.

The fluffy fur cushioned the impact, Lucien, nestled in the warm fur, exhaled.

Besides flying by transforming into the wind, the Zouwu race is also adept at Apparition. While they may not be as good as the Phoenix in terms of teleportation distance and frequency, the Zouwu are better at breaking through barriers and limitations.

The combination of supersonic flight and space jump capabilities makes traveling thousands of miles a day a standard feature of their species.

The Zouwu carried Lucien back to the ground, landing lightly on its four paws with almost no sound.

The cat rolled off the bed.

As Lucien gently rubbed the Zouwu's fluffy head in a spiral motion, he exclaimed sincerely, "It's so nice to pet such a fluffy head."

Zouwu narrowed its eyes, letting out a low, satisfied gurgle in its throat, and gently swept its tail, which had transformed back into its whirlwind form, across the ground.

After petting the cat a few times, Lucien stepped back, waved his wand again, and began to attempt another prototype of flight magic.

Strands of air, some thick and some thin, emerged from his body, slowly swirling around him and growing denser with each passing moment.

As the airflow gradually increased its lifting force, Lucien's body slowly lifted off the ground and floated gently upwards.

It tried moving in different directions, drifting to the left for a while, then shifting to the right for a while, drawing an arc in the air.

The steering is quite controllable, the posture is stable, and hovering is not a problem at all, but the speed and altitude...

Lucien shook his head, withdrew his magic, and gently landed back on the ground.

Both of these spells are still in their infancy; they've only been in practice for a few days since they went from being ideas to being actually cast, and are far from being fully realized.

To fly, at the very least, one must be able to move quickly in the air while also changing direction flexibly.

After all, according to the loan mission of the master-level wind elemental magic rune, what he needs to develop is flight magic, not levitation magic or dash magic.

Lucien had previously attempted to apply a partial Transfiguration to himself, resulting in larger wings and a lighter skeletal and muscular structure...

They did fly, and could even cosplay as angels.

As he expected, the system classified it as Transfiguration rather than a flight spell.

Lucien was a little suspicious. After the last upgrade, the system had become "smarter" and the criteria for judging tasks were more stringent, as if some bugs had been fixed.

But it didn't matter. He thoroughly enjoyed the process of thinking, and even without considering the loan repayment period, the process of exploring and creating magic was captivating enough.

Now that the Zouwu is available as a reference, it provides him with a ready-made direction for optimization.

The Zouwu's innate ability to fly is to transform a part of its body into the wind.

The wind, naturally, doesn't need to consider "how to fly".

The loan for the Master-level Wind Elemental Rune is a quarterly loan with a repayment period of three months. Three months should be enough time to perfect the flight magic.

As Lucien pondered, an idea suddenly occurred to him—once he truly created flight magic, could he replicate its effects with potions? Could he create a "Flying Potion" that would allow wizards to gain the ability to fly freely simply by drinking it, without relying on any equipment?

Such a potion would be a substantial advancement in magical civilization, enough to prompt the completion of the Emerald Tablet.

If this were written into a paper, it would be perfectly qualified to be published in the journal "Practical Potioneer," fulfilling one-third of Snape's requirement...

Lucien gathered his thoughts and vigorously ruffled the Zouwu's fluffy head.

"Let's fly another lap?"