Chapter 57: Flash Teleportation

Table of Contents: I. On Gods and Heroes, II. Mortals as Eternal Supporting Characters, III. The Pioneers of Wizardry, IV. Mental Overdrive, V. Runes, Spell Models, and Rune Arrays, VI. The Path of the Wizard.

Daina was immediately captivated, settling in to read Introduction to Wizardry. She was already aware and accepting of the helplessness of mortals in this world. She quickly browsed to Chapter Three, “The Pioneers of Wizardry.”

“Why do we call ourselves Wizards? Because our origins lie with a group of such pioneers. They honored nature and showed no reverence for the gods. They explored the method of Mental Overdrive within the impossible, achieving the mind’s intervention with matter. This was the first time mortals grasped supernatural power—they were the Shamans!”

“Yes, the Barbarian Shamans are precisely the pioneers of Wizardry. They believed that the bodily organs of Monsters possessed miraculous effects, so they captured Monsters and used their materials to create the most primitive of magical potions. After countless deaths, they explored a rudimentary path to the supernatural.”

“The Shamans imitated the mysterious patterns of Monsters and created Witchcraft. This was the first time humanity, relying on wisdom, imitated supernatural power.”

“Our word ‘Wizard’ is a combination of the prefix for ‘witchcraft’ and the suffix for ‘scholar’. This represents a new era! Shamans rely on conjecture and a priori knowledge to explore the supernatural, a path that is doomed to fail; they cannot reach the end.”

“We, however, are destined to reach the end! This is because we use Logic and Mathematics as our tools, guided by the spirit of objective and neutral research. We Wizards focus on Experimentation. The Wizard’s path to the supernatural adheres to Empiricism. Bold conjecture, careful verification—this is our principle.”

Daina was somewhat shaken by these concepts. She felt that these words were strangely familiar to Ace’s teachings. If Ace is involved, perhaps he can go much further down the path of Magic.

Or is Ace the Torch-Bearer, or related to the Torch-Bearer?

Unfortunately, she was bound by the covenant. She could not tell Ace about Magic or Wizardry without the Torch-Bearer’s permission, nor could she try to probe Ace.

Moreover, even if she could tell Ace, if he wasn’t the Torch-Bearer, how could she help Ace achieve Mental Overdrive?

Daina decided to temporarily bury all of this in her heart and earnestly begin her path as a Wizard Apprentice.

She subsequently flipped through the later chapters, gaining a preliminary understanding of what Mental Overdrive is, what a Rune is, and what a Spell Model is.

“If Magic is a complex language, then Mana essence is the alphabet of Magic, Runes are the words of Magic, and Spell Models are the full articles. The laws of Magic are the grammar of this language!”

“Of course, this is merely a way to help beginners understand Magic. Mana essence is far more difficult to memorize than the 32 letters of the common language, and the structure of a Rune is far more complex than the composition of a word. The laws of Magic are also not as simple as grammar. As a beginner, you only need to know the general situation and do not need to delve into their true relationship for now.”

The book did not provide examples, so she had not yet truly seen real runes and Spell Models.

To cast spells, mental power must reach 1 Mental Power Unit or higher. The article mentioned the Five-Step Meditation Method, specifically for achieving mental overdrive but without reaching 1 Mental Power Unit.

Ace noticed that Daina began running to the secluded hills in the western part of the estate every morning, calming her mind and using lead rings to train her mental power by the river and mountains. Upon returning to the estate, her appetite markedly increased.

Subsequently, Ace entered the second floor of the hidden room, his secret laboratory.

Ace had always planned to reverse-engineer the Lesser Runes. The spells he currently mastered most lacked Soul Spell-level movement spells and ultra-long-range attack spells. Therefore, he planned to reverse-engineer the Lesser Ejection, Projection, and Tracking Runes one by one.

This task was originally uncertain, but thanks to the Spirit of the Book, Ace’s confidence greatly increased with Fuwa’s powerful ability to understand and deduce.

The biggest problem in reverse-engineering a Lesser Rune into a Soul Rune is Mana essence. Unknown Mana essence cannot be created. It can only be constructed using known Mana essence. The missing parts must be formed by invoking natural Mana, which carries a high probability of failure.

“Fuwa, activate your understanding and deduction abilities to assist me in deconstructing the Ejection Soul Rune.”

The Spirit of the Book’s authority was cast upon Ace. He felt he had received the blessing of a set of fundamental rules, indescribable. To use a forced analogy, it was like someone pulling his ear and telling him exactly what to do.

The Mana essence structure of Ejection gradually became clear. Coupled with Ace’s advanced mathematical skills, the Mana essence structures were reverse-engineered one by one. He recorded these Mana essence patterns in his Grimoire.

One month later, it was deep autumn.

Even with the assistance of the Spirit of the Book, reverse-engineering runes was an extremely tedious task. It required numerous assumptions, verifications, and continuous elimination of possibilities, involving complex mathematical calculations.

After a month, Ace reverse-engineered only a few Soul Runes and successfully combined them into a movement spell, which he named Flash Teleportation.

The spell consumes 3 Mana Units and grants up to 9 opportunities for displacement. The maximum distance for each displacement is no more than 600 meters. The distance is halved when teleporting between the sky and the ground.

When the spell targets a creature or object, it can be marked. Once marked, the caster can continuously Flash Teleport, tracking the marked object.

Using the same principles, Ace developed corresponding long-range attack spells, which will not be detailed here.

Ace spent the last few days summarizing the estate’s agricultural techniques and wrote a book, Intensive Farming. He planned to return to the city-state with the Elementary Mathematics series and Intensive Farming, entrusting them to Teacher Peter for promotion.

During the time Ace spent reverse-engineering the runes, Daina was also busy. She persistently trained her mental power daily using the Five-Step Meditation Method. Finally, not long ago, according to the Grimoire’s perception scan, her mental power reached 1 Mental Power Unit.

As mentioned earlier, Ace’s research concluded that Mana is generally equal to Mental Power x 3 + Inherent Mana x 3, and Inherent Mana is equal to Mental Power x 4. Daina’s body has not been Mana-“contaminated” (i.e., not magified), so the concept of Inherent Mana does not yet apply to her.

Based on the current situation, Wizards are categorized from low to high as follows:

Mental Overdrive Specialist: Mental power is above 0.6 but below 1.0.

Lesser Wizard Apprentice: Mental power is above 1.0 and can cast spells.

Mid-level Wizard Apprentice: The body and soul have been initially Mana-“contaminated” (i.e., magified), generating Inherent Mana.

Advanced Wizard Apprentice: Has opened the Soul Sanctuary space, replicated core runes in the lower layer of the space, and Spell Models in the upper layer.

Formal Wizard: No one has reached this level. The conditions are unknown. Ace guesses it requires combining a three-dimensional Spell Model in the Soul Sanctuary space.

With Daina’s mental power reaching 1 Mental Power Unit, the Rune Book Page and the Spell Book Page, which were originally blank, displayed new knowledge.

Daina touched the burning hot nail tip, transforming it back into the Grimoire with a mental command. Flipping through it, she noticed that the Rune Book catalog had an added Lesser Mana #1, and the Spell Book Page had an added Minimal Meditation spell.