The Expensive Magic

Expensive Magic

The multiverse offered a dazzling variety of magic, but most of it came with certain restrictions. Fairy magic, for example, could only be used by those who had entered into contracts with fairies; elven magic required the caster to be an elf, and so on.

Precisely because of these restrictions, most types of magic had limited reach and even more limited influence.

Among all categories of magic, the one with the widest spread and broadest application was called arcane magic.

Its greatest feature was the lack of too many messy requirements. As long as someone was not stupid and possessed a certain amount of magical power, they could learn it by grinding through three years of casting and five years of simulation. Though the number of spellcasters remained small due to issues such as literacy, the overwhelming majority of them used arcane magic.

Furthermore, arcane magic could be divided into nine different schools: evocation, transmutation, enchantment, abjuration, conjuration, illusion, divination, necromancy, and alchemy. Each school had its own characteristics, while spells themselves were divided into six grades, from A to F.

Since arcane magic had the most practitioners, it naturally also had the most newly developed spells. As a result, novice mages had to face a vast ocean of spell materials the moment they entered the field.

Thus, most chose only one or two schools to specialize in. Some mages also used magical rituals to specialize in a particular school, increasing the power of that school's spells while lowering their cost. The downside was that they had to abandon two other schools, leaving them unable to learn or use spells from those abandoned schools.

This was a compromise forced by insufficient time and energy. Everyone knew that generalist mages were the strongest, but ordinarily, they could only prioritize one or two schools to form combat effectiveness as quickly as possible.

Whether through specialization or focused study, mages skilled in a particular school were given that school's title.

For example, those proficient in evocation were called evokers; those skilled in transmutation were transmuters; and those skilled in necromancy were necromancers.

Unlike the villain-boss status necromancers usually held in popular imagination, although necromantic spells did not have the best reputation, learning and using necromancy was not illegal from a legal standpoint.

Moreover, necromantic magic played important roles in medicine, pharmaceuticals, criminal investigation, and many other fields. Necromancers were even highly sought after when looking for work.

After all, spells were merely tools. Good and evil depended mainly on the person wielding them.

The multiverse's current level of social development roughly corresponded to the Middle Ages through the Renaissance, but with magic in the mix, they could create things beyond their era.

For instance, the dormitory shower room at the Adventurer Academy provided hot water twenty-four hours a day. They had made a bell-shaped magical item and hung it upside down in the bathroom. It could be activated with only a faint amount of magic, and if no one replenished its power, it could be used for around thirty minutes a day. That was not much, but it was more than enough for showering.

At the same time, with magic involved, people in this world—where heavy construction equipment did not yet exist—could still erect magnificent buildings with far less manpower. Drainage systems on the scale of entire cities had also become nearly universal.

Honestly, that was a huge relief to me. At least once I entered a city, I would not see filthy water flowing across the ground, or worse, shit and piss smeared everywhere, forcing me to use descriptions like "just like India."

Additionally, with magic in the mix, their manufacturing industry had developed ahead of its time as well.

The paper available for purchase was no worse than what one could find in a stationery store on Earth, and glass had long since become commonplace. Its price could not compare to industrially manufactured goods, but at least it existed.

So if you wanted to get rich here using knowledge from Earth, you had better conduct thorough market research first.

—Excerpt from Notes of Demon King Atlas

At first, Pei Renli had thought magic was something like in Harry Potter—mutter a couple of cringey, tongue-twisting incantations, wave a wand, and that was it. At most, he would need a bit more practice.

Then reality slapped him hard across the face.

With rune magic as his casting method, he was indeed learning new spells at a godlike pace, just as easily as he had imagined.

But the inherent flaws of rune magic would not disappear simply because he became more proficient. Its slow casting speed, for example.

Rune magic was characterized by writing different runes and arranging them into combinations to unleash different spells. The further one progressed, not only would its slow casting speed fail to improve, it would actually become increasingly severe.

After all, higher-level spells required more runes.

Moreover, his rapid progress now was mainly due to the ability he had gained after transmigrating: the power to understand any written language and speak any tongue. Though it had nothing to do with the Demon King System—which had already been proven to be no good—the fact that its origins were unknown remained a hurdle he could not get past.

Pei Renli had a strong sense of preparedness. He believed that placing all one's hopes on a single thing was inherently unsafe.

So aside from studying rune magic, he chose another casting method as well: spell model construction.

This was also the most widely used casting method at present, and the one closest to the conventional image of a mage.

It involved using magical power to construct different spell models and release spells through them, with gestures, incantations, and casting materials assisting in the models' construction.

Compared to rune magic, one major advantage of this method was that once a spell had been mastered, its casting time would be drastically reduced. Sometimes, a single gesture—or even a mere thought—was enough to activate it.

However, constructing spell models had its limitations as well. The same model could not be constructed consecutively. Casting different spells was no problem, but repeatedly constructing the same model could easily cause it to collapse, resulting in casting failure.

In gaming terms, it was somewhat like having to wait for the cooldown.

That did not really matter. At worst, he could use rune magic to complement it. Things were dead, but people were alive; there would always be a way to deal with it.

Comparatively speaking, rune magic had a low entry threshold but a low ceiling, while spell model construction had a high threshold and a high ceiling.

Naturally, its drawback was equally obvious: it was genuinely hard to learn.

Pei Renli had no choice but to summon the same drive he had used for the college entrance examinations, memorizing as much of the thesis-like spell material as possible. Even so, memorizing it word for word was extremely difficult.

To that end, he had Lavna make a trip back and find a blank notebook... or rather, a blank book as thick as a dictionary.

He copied down the key points and sections requiring attention, fully embracing the spirit that a good memory was no match for a rotten pen. Since beginning his study of magic, Pei Renli had used up an entire bottle of ink in just two weeks.

No wonder mages often carried spellbooks with them. As their studies deepened, the number of words in those books naturally continued to grow.

And these were only basic spells. It was easy to foresee that he would need to record even more in the future.

What troubled Pei Renli was not that it was too difficult to learn, but the very practical fact that he had no money.

Ink was not outrageously expensive, but for Pei Renli, who had only a little over twenty copper coins in his pocket, it was an expense he could not afford. It gave him a headache, and he wondered whether the school offered interest-free loans or something similar to ease this pressing need.

"Focus!"

As he pondered where to get money, that sharp shout immediately snapped Pei Renli back to his senses. Kaya rushed toward him like a whirlwind, her wooden sword—wrapped in thick sponge and flannel—slashing down at an angle.

Even if it was a practice weapon, getting hit by it would definitely leave a huge bruise.

Pei Renli hurriedly brought his shortsword up in a backhand block along the attack's path, barely avoiding a shoulder that would ache for half the day.

"Your reactions are quick enough, but letting your attention wander isn't a good habit."

"Something came up."

As he spoke, Pei Renli rather dishonorably clenched his left hand into a fist and drove it with all his strength at Kaya's lower abdomen. She withdrew one hand from the sword hilt, utterly unsurprised by his sudden attack, and spread her fingers to catch the punch.

But Pei Renli immediately gave her a surprise.

"Electric Claw!"

Casting through the construction of spell models was difficult to learn. A week had passed since Pei Renli returned from his first mission, yet he had only managed to learn Electric Claw. Like Light, it was among the most basic cantrip-level spells.

He still had a long road ahead if he wanted to completely make up for his shortcomings.

Just as he had expected, Kaya usually relied on rune magic, so not seeing any runes this time truly caught her off guard.

Kaya was just a little too slow to let go. She failed to avoid the fierce electric light, and a powerful numbness surged through her palm.

Then she saw Pei Renli's left fingers draw a curved rune.

"Flash!"

It was another lowest-tier cantrip. The sudden burst of brilliant light made Pei Renli vanish from Kaya's sight for an instant. All she could see was a hazy white blur, forcing her to close her eyes.

Seizing the chance, Pei Renli pulled back his shortsword, shifted half a step sideways, and attacked from the flank.

But Kaya seemed able to pinpoint his position by sound. From the faint noise of his footsteps, she judged Pei Renli's exact location, and her longsword blocked the slash of his shortsword.

Flash only lasted for an instant, and Kaya's vision had basically recovered. Then she saw that Pei Renli's left hand had already finished writing the rune. Three gleaming runes transformed into tangible magical force as his palm struck the flat of her longsword.

"Magic Missile!"

The arcane force exploding at close range knocked the practice sword from Kaya's hand. Pei Renli rejoiced inwardly, but immediately realized something was wrong.

He had used Magic Missile to restrain her. After all, when force was applied to a weapon, people instinctively tried to hold onto it, temporarily throwing themselves off balance and leaving them unable to counterattack.

But her weapon had been knocked away far too easily. That meant Kaya had never intended to hold onto it in the first place—it had been deliberate.

Realizing something was amiss, he was just about to retreat when Kaya lowered her body and rushed into his range at a speed too fast for the eye to follow.

Then his right hand holding the shortsword went numb. Kaya snatched the shortsword from his grip and smoothly laid it against his neck.

"Time's up! Class dismissed!"

With the teacher's words, today's practical sparring session came to an end.