章 19: Science in Magic

Earlier, when Guy and Markus split up for breakfast, Guy was in a bit of a pickle. Although he didn't want to lie to his disciple, he couldn't just reveal that he was from another world. Although he believed in the free dissemination of knowledge, there were some things best left unsaid.

And so, Guy spent a good chunk of time coming up with a decent explanation to support his new "discoveries". That was how he came up with the idea of the True World Theory.

Guy was unskilled in stitching together mistruths out of nothing. Therefore, he resolved to borrow from Earth's history and made modifications here and there so that it would make sense for the people in this world. The True World Theory was an appellation he threw together that corresponded to the amalgamation of all the knowledge he brought over from his original world. He planned to use it as a convenient catch-all for ideas and concepts that were foreign in this world.

In the end, though, he only needed to build a facade that could stand on its own at a cursory glance. He wasn't expecting anyone to obsess over it. Even Mast's sibling wouldn't preoccupy themself over it. Guy was convinced that Tron would probably write it off as a revolutionary thinker trying to stay low-key to not attract too much attention.

Evidently, the result was a tad outlandish and a little fanatical. As Guy listened to himself say it out loud, he felt as if he was a preacher initiating new members into an up and coming cult.

'Believe in the True World, and ascend!' Guy delivered internally. He quickly shook that thought away and returned to his audience.

"True World?" Al muttered as he digested the new information. "But how were they able to arrive at that conclusion?" he asked in response.

Guy answered, "According to the books that I read, it said that when they travelled to other realms, they were able to sense mana. It was only their realm that was devoid of it. They then began to conduct experiments in all the different realms they had access to and found that without mana, certain behaviours and phenomenon were consistent. But when they introduced mana, these behaviours began to deviate and that too without any consistency. Following that, they concluded that in a world without mana, the True World, things worked the way they were supposed to. By introducing mana, you essentially lied to the True World and caused it to deviate."

Al scrunched his eyebrows and probed, "How did that lead you to develop this spell?"

"I used that ideology to guide me as I developed the spell. The books from the travelling merchant didn't contain any spells. All they contained were the theories developed by the Homo Sapiens. I used their theories as a basis and created this spell, which is as close as we can get to the True World," Guy replied.

Markus tilted his head and spoke sheepishly, "Master, I don't understand…"

Guy nodded knowingly and presented an analogy, "Consider the following case. An acquaintance of yours asks to borrow some money from you, but you know that he is unreliable and don't want to give him any money. However, this acquaintance is pretty close to you and you don't want to spoil your relationship with him. How would you get out of this predicament?"

Markus pondered for a bit and said, "I'd think of an excuse."

"OK! What excuse can you think of?"

"I'd say I don't have any money to lend," Markus replied confidently.

Guy shook his head and retorted, "He would know your monetary situation before asking you for money. If you tell him you don't have any he'd only get more suspicious."

"Then I'd show him proof. Maybe I could ask my sister to hide the money away when he isn't looking…" Markus started to conjure up an elaborate strategy to convince this hypothetical defaulting relative.

"Stop, stop! You came with such a long-winded strategy to accomplish something so simple. Can't you just tell him that you're saving up to purchase something big? He would immediately give up since you were upfront and transparent with him," Guy proposed.

Markus opened his mouth as it dawned upon him that an easy solution was right before his eyes.

"The purpose behind this whole exercise was to show you how this spell works. The other spells that you see here in this library are like a longwinded lie. They contain way too many unnecessary details and use up a lot of mana to hold up. This spell is a short and straightforward lie. It hits only the important points and requires only the amount of mana to just get the job done.

So in other words, spells are lies you tell the True World to make it do what you want. And how do you spin the most convincing lies? You keep it as close to the truth as possible. That is the importance of the True World Theory."

As Guy exhaled a long breath, his audience members nodded their heads vigorously as they digested everything.

Al felt the information was revolutionary. His foundation was literally bursting from within, urging him to devour this new knowledge. He held himself back with great difficulty while soothing himself, 'One at a time now, first the Beast Tamer license, then this.'

Guy closed the topic with a question for Markus, "As it stands, I can give you two options. One, I will try to develop a few more spells and hand them to you. You can grind them and push your cultivation forwards. Two, aside from grinding, I can also teach you about this True World Theory so that you can gain a better understanding of what you are doing. Since you are my disciple, I highly recommend option two. But in the end, it's your choice. What will it be?"

Markus dipped his head and stared at the spell construct in front of him. He spent the entire breakfast time deciphering it, but he ended up short.

He replied resolutely, "I also think option two would be better. In fact, I want to know more about how this spell works."

Guy smiled and reached into his carry bag. He pulled out a workbook and handed it to Markus. Apart from building up a decent lie, Guy didn't slack off during breakfast. He used the computer in the RoK to compile the introductory chapters from the elementary school science textbooks into a workbook. Presently, the book was incomplete. Guy planned to fill it up as Markus worked through it.

Markus carefully held the workbook and opened it up. On the very first page, the following words were written: "To learn about the True World, One must follow the scientific method."

Markus asked, "Master, what is the scientific method?"

"It is the way by which Homo Sapiens did their research. It is a very rigorous process that ensures the integrity of their experiments, and the accuracy of their results. Instead of telling you about it, I think the chapter should help you figure it out. But I'm going to leave you to work it out later. Give the book here for a second."

Guy took the workbook from Markus and turned to a different page, "This should explain how the spell works."

Al scooted over to Markus, leaned in and started to read through the workbook as well.

Markus started to read audibly, "For a fire to burn, it needs three things: Heat, Fuel, and Oxygen."

"Master, what's oxygen?"

Guy replied, "It is a type of gas that exists in the air. It is the same gas that you breathe."

"So you're saying that there are different types of gases in the air?" Markus asked in disbelief.

Guy nodded. Al thought about it and speed read through the rest of the chapter. Within the workbook, there were experiments that Markus could perform, and space to jot down his observations.

Al looked through the methodology and quickly pulled out a palm-sized plate from a pocket inside his jacket.

He then channelled his mana into the plate. Almost instantly, a myriad of apparatus and items materialised on the table.

"That's a storage disk!" Markus exclaimed. Al smiled and sorted the items on the table. He had pulled out a transparent beaker, a set of transparent test tubes, a heating and a cooling rack. The racks had spell formations etched on them that ensured the items placed in them were at a steady temperature.

He also removed a piece of coal from his storage disk and, using a knife, cut out equally sized small pieces.

He placed one of the coal pieces on a fire-proof pad and ignited it. As the flame bloomed, he followed the first instruction on the workbook at covered the flame with the beaker.

Markus and Al both moved closer to observe the flame. As seconds passed, they saw the flame decrease in intensity until it was completely doused, while the piece of coal remained.

"It really does breathe," Al murmured. "How do you know what gas is being used?"

Guy thought about it and replied, "There are methods that can be used to differentiate between the gases. To understand them you'd need to learn more. It won't make any sense otherwise."

The teaching voice resurfaced as he elaborated, "An intuitive way to go about it is to think about how blacksmiths stoke their flames. If you blow on fire, it burns out. But if you lightly fan it, it starts to grow. We can surmise that the gas you exhale is detrimental to the fire. Naturally, that gas must also exist in the atmosphere. So if the flame grows when you fan it, that means that in the air you exhale, there is less of the gas beneficial for fire, and more gas that is detrimental to it."

Al nodded and continued with the experiments. The next thing he did was place a coal piece inside a test tube and ignited it. He then lowered the tube into the cooling rack and observed the flame. As described in the workbook, the flame slowly diminished.

Finally, Al commented in awe, "These experiments are really interesting. In fact, we already know all these mechanics through common sense, but we don't think too deeply about it. The way this book breaks down the components and isolates them into different controlled tests is quite fascinating."