第30章 魔法与神术

"When this book has lost its value to you, please pass it on to someone in need. The truth has an obligation to be preserved."

This was the first sentence Benjamin saw when he opened the front cover.

Sure enough, as he read on, the following content was a mage's version of the origin of magic and divine arts—another story of Cain and Abel.

In this story, there were no demons, only the God of Magic and the God of Light, who bestowed the powers of magic and divine arts upon the two men respectively. The villains of this story were the treacherous natural environment and powerful magical beasts; Cain and Abel worked together to open up the wilderness and lead humanity in building a home of their own.

Like all stories, good times did not last. The brothers had a disagreement over sacrifices. The God of Magic favored offerings of grains and vegetables, so Cain insisted that all sacrifices should be grains and vegetables; the God of Light favored offerings of cattle and sheep, so Abel insisted that all sacrifices should be cattle and sheep. Coupled with constant conflicts between their followers, the brothers finally broke apart and engaged in battle in a valley.

Just as the battle reached its peak, two rays of divine light suddenly descended from the sky, and the God of Magic and the God of Light manifested simultaneously. They were deeply disappointed by humanity's fratricidal behavior, so they unleashed divine punishment to kill Cain and Abel, declaring that they would never descend upon this continent again. From then on, this continent became the "Land of God-Forsaken," and the place where they fought was named the "God-Forsaken Valley."

Cain and Abel's followers were suddenly left leaderless, and long-suppressed conflicts erupted, plunging the two factions into a long-standing feud. Abel's followers were better at winning hearts and minds, establishing the Church and growing steadily across the continent; Cain's followers gradually became loners, disdaining the act of banding together.

Consequently, the Church gained the upper hand and began a massive slaughter of mages. Eventually, the situation on this continent evolved into what it was today.

After finishing the mages' story, Benjamin felt that this version seemed more objective than the Church's, and it lacked any attempts to smear the opposition. However, according to the Rashomon effect, as long as someone is involved in a story, their account cannot be absolutely objective. Therefore, he finished the story with a spirit of inquiry and skepticism.

At this moment, his mind was no longer on these messy myths and legends.

This Bible was not thick to begin with, and more than half of it had already been used to tell this story. Benjamin was a bit worried about how much space would be left for the magic part.

Fortunately, as he continued reading, Benjamin saw one spell after another: Fireball Spell, Water of Life, Earth Sink Spell... among them were the Water Ball Spell he was most familiar with and the Binding Spell that had caused him such frustration.

These spells used homophonic words to indicate their pronunciation, with a simplicity similar to using "good morning" to annotate "good morning." If it weren't for the detailed analysis of the spell's pronunciation beneath the annotations, Benjamin would have doubted the accuracy of these spells.

Coupled with the fact that Benjamin already knew the incantations for the Water Ball Spell and the Binding Spell, he was confident that he could master the pronunciation of the other spells without making any embarrassing mistakes.

The remaining half of the book was dedicated to introducing these spells one by one, totaling over fifty spells, and their chaotic nature was evident. Moreover, based on the book's introduction to magic, these were all entry-level spells—easy to pick up but low in power. Many could even be called useless, such as the Face Washing Spell or that bizarre Skin Hydration Spell. Did the person who invented this magic really not come from a drugstore in their past life?

This left Benjamin somewhat disappointed.

He had hoped that this book would explain some magic theory, clarify what the consciousness space was, or discuss elements and mental power. Instead, this book only knew how to stuff incantations into the reader.

It wasn't that the spells were bad, it was just that Benjamin had expected more.

He felt a bit anxious. What if the magic level of the entire continent had remained in a state of empiricism due to the Church's long-term suppression, knowing only how to bury their heads in learning spells without developing an advanced methodology?

If that were the case, then he was already the leader in the field of magic theory...

After a brief disappointment, Mr. "Leader" still maintained his academic spirit and quickly entered his consciousness space to begin testing the fifty-plus new spells he had learned.

He started with the spells unrelated to "water," chanting them one after another: Fireball Spell, Paralysis Spell, Shadow Stealth Spell... The result remained the same; a faint repulsive force emanated from within his consciousness space. A few times, the free-floating water elements even began to riot, as if saying, "You motherfucker, you're chanting my rival's name! Chant it again and I'll kill you!"

With no other choice, he picked a spell for the Water Barrier. After confirming its pronunciation, he focused his mind and chanted it.

A ripple emanated from his body.

The surrounding water elements shifted, slowly showing a tendency to gather. However, just as they were halfway through gathering, Benjamin suddenly felt a pain in his head, the ripple vanished, and the water elements stopped their movement.

The magic had failed.

Benjamin didn't get discouraged; he felt that this magic still had potential. So, he cast the Water Barrier over and over again. Finally, after more than a dozen failures, he succeeded.

A thin film shimmering with water vapor wrapped around him like a bubble, and a sense of mental connection felt quite fresh. Looking at this barrier that appeared as fragile as a bubble, he couldn't help but reach out and poke it.

Pop! The bubble burst.

Damn it, it really was as fragile as a bubble...

There was no helping it; the first time he used this magic, the power certainly wouldn't be anything to write home about. Benjamin had to console himself with that, and then he summoned the same ruthless drive he used when looping songs to practice this magic repeatedly.

Facts proved that repeating an unfamiliar spell was quite mentally exhausting, especially since there was a small backlash every time a spell failed. After countless failures, he was kicked out of his consciousness space once again.

And in these countless practice sessions, he had only succeeded five times.

Clearly, a spell with such a low success rate could not be used in actual combat.

Benjamin was disappointed at first, but thanks to the spirit of inquiry instilled by his modern education, he quickly calmed down and began to think about why this was happening. He had used the Water Ball Spell in his consciousness space countless times with a hundred percent success rate, and it didn't consume much mental energy. The Water Barrier was slightly more complex than the Water Ball Spell, but surely not that complex?

Where exactly did the problem lie?

After comparing the casting process of the Water Ball Spell with that of the Water Barrier, Benjamin found the answer.

It was because of that blue character shining in his consciousness space.

When he used the Water Ball Spell, the character would vibrate, emitting ripples to guide the water elements. But when he used the Water Barrier, the character did not join the process; he had to rely on himself to emit the ripples, and his control over the water elements dropped significantly.

Having figured this out, a bigger question arose.

Why didn't the character react when he chanted the Water Barrier spell?

Or, looking at it from another angle, what did he have to do to make the character help him cast spells other than the Water Ball Spell?

He returned to his consciousness space and tried other water-type spells: Water of Life, Freeze Spell, Ice Shatter Spell, Mist Spell... The results were much the same as with the Water Barrier. The Triangle Glyph was like the gate of Alibaba, and the incantation for the Water Ball Spell was its "Open Sesame." Beyond that, it ignored everything else.

Now he had no clue at all.

To put it bluntly, he didn't even know what the character was, let alone how it worked. As a leader in the field of magic theory, his research into magic was limited to understanding the process of its occurrence; as for how each component functioned, that remained to be explored.

In short, he was just like an ordinary person. He knew that the hands of a clock moved by electricity, and he knew how to change the battery when the clock ran out of power. But for more detailed things, like if a gear inside the clock broke, only a watchmaker would know what to do.

Where was he supposed to find a "watchmaker" for magic?

Benjamin sighed, feeling a bit frustrated.

He returned to reality, picked up the Bible in his hand, and flipped to the end.

Besides the myths, legends, and fifty-plus spells, the book had one more sentence written at the very end, just like on the front cover:

"You are the fifty-sixth person to finish this book. Please give this book to someone who needs it and pass the magic on."

Not long after he turned to this page, the number in the text underwent a strange change, and "fifty-six" became "fifty-seven."

Benjamin was startled. However, after confirming that this was just an insignificant magic trick—not even possessing any magical fluctuations—he was no longer surprised.

The passage itself, however, moved him quite a bit.

Under the Church's brutal manhunt, a group of mages hid in the darkness to survive, yet they didn't forget to pass on their magic. Thus, they came up with this method, compiling such a seemingly crude and simple Bible, and then passing it on from one person to the next.

Finally, it reached his hands.

No wonder, no wonder when Michelle spoke of equivalent exchange, she mentioned using the treasure vault to save his life but didn't mention this book. Giving Benjamin this book wasn't doing him a favor; Michelle was simply fulfilling a promise—a promise that fifty-six people had already fulfilled.

Sigh...

Benjamin shrugged helplessly.

Unbelievable. What was the point of making it sound so mission-oriented? Were they really planning to start a revolution?

He was already like a clay bodhisattva crossing a river—he couldn't even save himself.

Putting his emotions aside, Benjamin's attention returned to the Triangle Glyph. He had to solve this problem; otherwise, even with so many spells, he would still be stuck in a corner shivering with nothing but a Water Ball Spell.

How did Michelle and the others learn magic? Did they struggle as much as he did?

Could it be that he had to wait for Michelle to appear again and find a way to ask her? But that was too passive; whether she told him or not, the initiative was entirely in Michelle's hands, and he didn't have the patience to wait until then.

Think about it, was there anything he hadn't utilized yet...

"I've discovered it! I'm a genius! I am the invincible, super-intelligent AI system!"

Just then, the long-silent system suddenly popped up, shouting in Benjamin's mind like a madman, scaring him so much he almost threw the book in his hand.

"...Next time you decide to launch a surprise attack, could you turn the volume down?" Benjamin said helplessly, adding, "Better yet, just mute it. I'll definitely write a thank-you letter to your manufacturer."

The system spoke in a haughty tone: "Really? I just researched an epoch-making achievement. Don't you want to know?"

"..."

Benjamin was speechless. In this day and age, even systems were starting to do research?

"Don't want to hear it? If you don't want to hear it, then I won't say it." The system was very arrogant.

"Please don't say it, I thank your whole family." Benjamin almost applauded.

"Why don't you play by the rules?" The system was instantly enraged. "No way, even if you don't want to hear it, you have to! I worked so hard to figure this out, so listen up, ahem..." As it spoke, it even pretentiously cleared its throat.

A system clearing its throat...

Benjamin wanted to retort, but before he could, the system continued:

"Do you remember when you were in the castle, and Grant almost used a divine art to help you?"

Benjamin sighed, nodding along with the system's words: "I remember, but he didn't end up using it. I was quite curious to see what a divine art looked like; it seemed pretty powerful."

The system said: "Then you don't need to be curious anymore, you've already seen it."

Benjamin raised an eyebrow and said: "I don't think so. At least since I transmigrated here, I haven't seen a divine art with my own eyes. Let's not count things from before I transmigrated."

The system seemed very smug and didn't answer immediately, instead playing a coy game until Benjamin was about to curse at it, at which point it spoke in a showy manner.

"Not only have you seen it, you've used it yourself." The system drew out its tone. "According to my analysis, magic and divine arts are essentially the same thing. Divine arts are magic, and magic is divine arts. You don't need to separate them at all."

Thanks to 1232s and Volor for the tips; I'm so excited to have received so many tips in one day.