A New System

Were the research drones of his previous life tired? As Blade Tusk, a half-baked liberal arts PhD student, he had never truly experienced it firsthand. But magical research in this life had undoubtedly become an extremely physically demanding job.

As his stamina steadily drained away, he repeatedly explored the special structures inside the Magic Crystal. The "changes" within were recorded again and again through perception. Take the process of "fire element conversion," for example. By comparing the similarities and differences in the "changes" between different fire-element Magic Crystals, he focused on identifying even the slightest characteristics, hoping to find a better way to replace Magic Crystals.

"First, I need to find a way to replicate the process of change."

With that goal in mind, he chose to focus on the concept of "runes." He imagined the special structures inside Magic Crystals as the "magic runes" from novels in his previous life, assuming that when energy passed through a specific "rune structure," it would undergo a specific change. Combining multiple rune structures would then form a complete spell.

Why go out of his way to introduce the concept of "runes"? It was to make it easier to "deconstruct" the complete "changes" within Magic Crystals, allowing the different parts of those "changes" to exist independently during meditation while also being combined with one another.

As for whether "magic runes" truly existed, that was not important. What mattered was the process of exploration.

He used the construction of "runes" to simulate the process of change. Through repeated adjustments, he made the "simulation" steadily approach the "natural state" within the Magic Crystal.

Once this simulation process succeeded, then regardless of whether the Magic Crystal truly contained so-called "rune structures," "runes" would have become established as a form of epistemology.

This work was extremely difficult. Blade Tusk was practically multitasking. With his left hand, he held a Magic Crystal and cast spells as slowly as possible. His right hand was empty, yet it continuously mirrored his left hand's movements. The only difference was that the process intended to produce changes within the Magic Crystal was transplanted into the Meditation Space.

Within the Meditation Space, mist endowed with the dual nature of stamina and Mental Power moved constantly, leaving traces in the "empty spaces" as it tried to synchronize with the "trajectory" inside the Magic Crystal.

After countless attempts, Blade Tusk helplessly discovered that the possibility of completely recreating the "changes" inside a Magic Crystal within the Meditation Space was close to zero.

"Why is that?"

He tried to analyze the cause of this difficulty based on the differences between the two.

The greatest difference between a Magic Crystal and the Meditation Space was undoubtedly their state of existence.

A Magic Crystal truly existed in reality. Naturally, then, no matter how fantastical the changes occurring within it might be, they were produced according to the rules of the real world. The Meditation Space was different. Even if it had been endowed with the quality of "substance," that substance still existed only on the level of experience. Its influence on reality was rooted in imagination, and thus there was some kind of boundary.

When its influence was limited to oneself, that "boundary" remained unclear and could be crossed through methods such as self-hypnosis. But if that influence spread into reality beyond oneself, then its "boundary" would reveal itself.

Once that "boundary" was applied to the spellcasting process, the reason for the failure became obvious.

Blade Tusk's exploration of the structures within Magic Crystals was actually conducted through the vibrations of "perception." His attempt to reproduce them in the Meditation Space was likewise a simulation of those "vibrations." Runes were merely the form he gave to the simulated changes.

The Meditation Space does not exist in reality, and rune structures are merely fictional. There is a wall between illusion and reality. What happens in the future remains unknown, but right now, I do not have the ability to ignore the limits created by that wall.

But as the saying went, when one door closed, a window naturally remained open. Another saying went that all things existed in relative motion.

Once the cause was identified, he could find a way to solve it.

Blade Tusk's previous life had contained neither fantasy nor magic, but his real-world education and all kinds of online novels had given him a rich imagination and broad knowledge.

And those two things were precisely the indispensable ingredients of research.

For example, when he had first resolved to "cast spells without Magic Crystals," the concept of "runes" had naturally flowed into his mind. When his research into "runes" encountered a slight bottleneck, potential avenues for breakthroughs sprang up one after another like bamboo shoots after rain.

This was undoubtedly one great advantage brought about by living two lives.

Looking at the witch doctors of this world, their intellect and other qualities were clearly no worse than his. Yet because they lacked a little imagination, knowledge, and dreams and aspirations for the future, they had been forced to stagnate on the path of magic for countless years.

Encouraged by this uplifting thought, Blade Tusk had clearly just suffered a setback in his research, yet he immediately threw himself into a new stage of work with boundless enthusiasm.

Since the boundary between reality and illusion prevented mere meditative runes from casting spells, couldn't he simply add another medium capable of affecting reality on top of that?

In his new concept, he no longer sought to perfectly recreate the operating principles of Magic Crystals. Instead, he sought a breakthrough within the "differences."

First, the step of reproducing "runes" in the Meditation Space would remain unchanged. But the runes' influence on reality would take a detour through a medium, changing the step of "runes shaping energy" from "completed in the Meditation Space," as originally envisioned, to "carried out in reality."

Thus, through repeated research, Blade Tusk first succeeded in reproducing a set of Flame Spell runes within the Meditation Space through his exploration of "perceptual vibrations."

This so-called "Flame Spell" was the crudest spell Blade Tusk could find. Its composition was even simpler than Low-Level Fireball. The "runes" omitted "shaping" and contained only two parts: energy conversion and activation.

Afterward, through the Meditation Space's influence over himself, he used a method similar to his previous visualization to connect the "runes" with "language and hand movements."

For example, when he chanted syllables such as "convert" and "activate," the effects of "conversion" and "activation" that should have belonged to the "runes" would be realized through sound vibrations. The accompanying finger movements would then help the two separate vibrational structures form a whole.

This method was based on the fantasies of "spirit words," "incantations," and "casting gestures" from novels in his previous life. It allowed "runes" to no longer directly affect "energy," but instead indirectly affect energy through the medium of language and hand movements.

Without question, the research had succeeded. He had broken through the boundary between illusion and reality, successfully allowing a spell to be cast without the aid of a Magic Crystal.

Even though he could currently only use something as useless as a Flame Spell, it signified the birth of an entirely new system.

Within this system, spellcasters could not only directly sense the amount of their own "magic power (stamina)," avoiding needless loss of lifespan, but also escape the awkward dependence on Magic Crystals.

Most importantly, it made magical research possible. No longer would they have to hesitate and stop because of lifespan and the "black box."

Blade Tusk felt immensely proud of this. The mediocrity of his previous life made his present achievements taste all the sweeter.

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