Secondary Mechanized Mind

"Teacher, I have no problems. After several months of reflection at the manor, I've gained new insights into logic. These two weeks are just enough time to write them down," Ace answered readily.

"Very good. Then we'll set it for Thursday two weeks from now. This will be your first speech before the public. Once you have your material prepared, I'll train you in the techniques of public speaking."

Ace and Peter chatted casually for a few moments, and Peter indeed asked about New Medicine. Ace was briefly embarrassed. "I've been busy with the manor's construction lately. New Medicine has only just gotten started."

Peter did not mind. They went on to discuss the manor's construction, and he lavishly praised Ace's innovative farming methods.

"I once saw similar descriptions of these new methods of yours in a library in one of the northern city-states. Legend says that before the last great extinction of civilization, people plowed with oxen and had a whole series of methods for increasing yields. The exact methods were unknown, though. I never expected you to restore them."

Ace blushed as well. So this world had once possessed methods of intensive cultivation. All he had seen was slash-and-burn farming, so he had instinctively assumed their agricultural methods were backward.

But it made sense when he thought about it. Over nearly a hundred thousand years of history, civilizations had risen dozens of times and then been destroyed for various reasons. It was hardly strange that techniques of intensive cultivation had been hidden among them.

Ace took the opportunity to speak with his teacher at length about the history of civilizations' rise and fall. He learned that roughly two thousand years had passed since the last civilization's destruction. Legend held that the previous civilization had eventually developed into a great empire that united the continent.

The empire's emperor had been the son of God-King Knoans and a mortal woman. The emperor was favored by Knoans, who bestowed boundless glory upon him.

But he was tempted by an ancient greedy Devil. Unsatisfied with being king of the earth, he actually wished to become king of the heavens, ultimately bringing about the destruction of the previous civilization.

After chatting idly for a while longer, Ace finally revealed the dagger beneath the map. He wanted to borrow Peter's treasured mirror while writing the new material on logic.

"The Mirror of Calm Contemplation would indeed help you write the new material, and I can lend it to you. But you may only use it here. It isn't that I don't trust you—it simply wouldn't be safe to take it outside."

Peter took the carefully wrapped bronze mirror from within his broad white robe and handed it to Ace. "Remember, you may only look once. Never look too long."

Holding the bronze mirror, Ace stayed in a guest room at Peter's house. The room was spacious and sunlit, with tables, chairs, a bed, and parchment all provided. Ace lit the oil lamp on the table and took out the Mirror of Calm Contemplation.

The last time, at the royal palace, Ace had not dared release his spiritual power to sense it. There had been too many heroes there, and he could easily have been discovered.

He ran his fingers over the bronze mirror's icy surface. When he fixed his eyes upon it, Ace felt his spiritual power being gently tugged away and absorbed. If he wished, however, he could keep his spiritual power under control and prevent it from being pulled away.

Ace released his control over his spiritual power, allowing a tiny amount to enter the bronze mirror.

Within his spiritual perception, the world turned black and white. The bronze mirror gradually vanished, leaving behind a flat Soul Rune structure where its surface had been.

After absorbing Ace's spiritual power, it triggered a ripple of magical law that fed back into him. He felt his emotions being suppressed, while his thoughts became calm and active. The state reminded him of a term: mechanized mind.

Ace reined in his spiritual power and examined it carefully. There were no secondary runes on the bronze mirror, and for the moment, he could find no way to replicate the Soul Rune. Should he give up now?

Ace did not want to give up. He desperately wanted to obtain this state of mechanized mind. Whether for academic thought or tense combat, stripping away emotion and keeping the mind active was an ideal state.

Furthermore, both the Mirror of Calm Contemplation and the Hallucinatory Eye should be magical artifacts, and the Hallucinatory Eye was clearly of a higher grade.

The bronze mirror possessed only a flat Soul Rune, with a single function, and no secondary runes on its physical body. The Hallucinatory Eye had secondary runes, and every secondary rune he had discovered had a more advanced version within its three-dimensional rune structure.

Perhaps he could approach it from this angle and attempt to degrade the bronze mirror's Soul Rune.

After giving it some thought, Ace took out the Hallucinatory Eye and began studying the differences between the same types of Soul Runes and secondary runes on it.

For the next week, Ace essentially shut himself in his room all day. Other than eating and using the toilet, he never came out. Whenever Peter saw him at mealtime, Ace was deep in thought, so Peter instructed everyone not to disturb him.

After careful comparison and experimentation, Ace discovered the relationship between similar Soul Runes and secondary runes. Though Soul Runes were more complex, their fundamental expressions resembled those of secondary runes. It was simply that many advanced expressions were omitted from secondary runes.

A rune's internal structure was also a kind of language. Ace surmised that if he could master it deeply, he might one day even create original runes based on the laws of nature.

The key to degrading a rune lay in skipping the expression of its core points. Soul Runes could not be replicated, but that did not mean none of their contents could be replicated—only certain core points could not. If he ignored those core points and the replica could be made visible and activated, that would mean the degradation had succeeded.

After some research, Ace discovered that the Mana Rune on the bronze mirror differed from the one on the Hallucinatory Eye. Perhaps he could label them Soul Mana #1 and Soul Mana #2. Limited by his spiritual power, he could not investigate the precise difference in their effects.

He successfully degraded the runes on the bronze mirror. In total, he degraded two secondary tool runes—Emotional Suppression and Active Thinking—as well as one secondary basic rune, Automatic Siphoning.

The effect of Secondary Automatic Siphoning was to automatically absorb mana or spiritual power within a certain range. It could be used in combination with a Mana Rune or on its own.

A secondary spell model embedded with Secondary Automatic Siphoning could activate automatically when its conditions were met.

The remaining runes were all Auxiliary Runes and Mana Runes, so there was no need to degrade them.

Ace successfully combined a Secondary Mechanized Mind spell model and drew it onto a card in his spellbook. Activating the spell with all his strength, Ace successfully entered the Secondary Mechanized Mind state.

He cast Secondary Aversion Spell on himself. The moment the feeling of aversion arose, Secondary Mechanized Mind suppressed it.

Secondary Losing Gaze and Secondary Panic Gaze were both eye-cast spells. He could cast them on himself using a mirror's reflection, though their effects would be weakened to a degree. Ace cast both spells on himself and still resisted them.

After roughly ten minutes, Ace felt himself exit the mechanized mind state, with no adverse effects.

He recorded this experiment in his magic diary, writing at the end, "Existing spells should be categorized by their effects. Secondary Mechanized Mind requires a category of its own. I shall call this type of spell, which applies a state to oneself, aura spells."

With the magic research finished, one week remained. He also needed to properly prepare the later material on logic. There was no shortage of content concerning judgments. Recalling how he had felt when first learning about judgments in his previous life, his mood grew ever brighter.

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