The temperature continued to drop. The Sunwell's radiation could only keep Eversong Woods warm; it could not fully reach the inland Ghostlands.
Inside the Mage Tower, the Constant Temperature Field kept the chill outside from being felt. Patrick was refining Metamagic: Arcane Matrix, a composite metamagic technique he had created himself using Metamagic: Spell Sequencing.
The material on Spell Sequencing that Telestra had brought earlier had touched briefly on the Arcane Matrix, but offered only a simple introduction. A single metamagic technique was like a "point" in a three-dimensional model, while advanced Spell Sequencing combined multiple spells and metamagic techniques into a composite spell. Compared with an individual "point," Spell Sequencing was equivalent to a "line."
When Spell Sequencing was inscribed as a spell circle, it was like connecting points into lines in a Cartesian coordinate system to form an enclosed region. At the same time, the concept of Spell Sequencing advanced from a "line" to a "plane." Within the spell circle, the various spells linked together in an unending cycle, combining into a large composite spell.
Some mages also gave the spell combinations contained within that "plane" three-dimensional form. Simply put, they activated the space of the Spell Sequencing "plane," forming a "spatial" combination spell. Auxiliary spells surrounded the core spell like electrons around an atomic nucleus, creating a three-dimensional composite spell.
What Patrick wanted to do was use spatial-vector spellcasting in combination with Spell Sequencing to construct individual "point" spells in space, then sequence and vectorize those points, uniting them into an entirely new, three-dimensional vector-based composite spell.
Constructing the spell was extremely difficult. Many factors affected its success, and each could only be tested individually. Patrick chose to verify his technique through Iterative Experiment. Although Iterative Experiment had a long cycle and a high budget, it could