บท 15: Chapter 15: Spell Model
Gao De returned to the herb garden, his heart brimming with excitement, clutching the three spell formulas. He arrived just in time for the evening meal.
Suppressing his eagerness, he headed to the dining hall and forced himself to swallow the unappetizing and now tiresome classic duo: black rye bread and pea soup. Only then did he make his way to his workshop.
Evenings were reserved for the apprentices' personal practice time, allowing them to manage their own schedules without interruption. No one would disturb him.
Gao De took out the three spell formulas from his pocket. After a moment of contemplation, he opened the [Acid Splash] formula first.
A spell model composed of intersecting lines filled the page. It had nine nodes, and the overall structure resembled a three-dimensional constellation chart at first glance. Below the diagram was the official description of the spell.
The spell effect description on the yellow parchment Yom had given him was excerpted from this.
The right page contained a magnified view of a section of the spell model, accompanied by detailed textual explanations.
Turning to the next page revealed another magnified section and its corresponding textual explanation.
The spell model for a cantrip wasn't particularly complex, and since it didn't require consuming a corresponding potion, the potion formula section was omitted, making the entire spellbook only five pages long.
In just a few minutes, Gao De had skimmed through it.
Of course, this wasn't enough.
The first step in establishing a spell model was to memorize it.
Ordinary mage apprentices would be stuck on this first step for a day or two.
Gao De possessed exceptional memory to begin with, and his predecessor's memory was also quite good. It seemed that 1+1 was greater than 2, resulting in his memory going from excellent to extraordinary.
In less than half an hour, he had already memorized the Acid Splash spell model.
Next, Gao De put away the Acid Splash spell formula, closed his eyes slightly, and quickly entered a meditative state.
Five days of practice had made entering meditation increasingly effortless for him.
His mind immersed itself in the world of the Spell Star Sea.
In the depths of his dark consciousness, countless stars wandered, beautiful and dazzling.
To construct a spell model, one needed to use their mental will to guide and connect these stars, making them stay in specific positions and then linking them together with mental power to form the spell model.
Once the spell model was complete, the mage could channel their mana through it, transforming it into the corresponding spell and releasing it.
However, these stars were constantly in random motion. Guiding them and fixing them at fixed distances and orientations was no easy task.
The Acid Splash spell model required a total of 9 stars, not too many, but not too few either.
In fact, 99% of cantrip spell models didn't exceed 10 stars.
Gao De began to attempt constructing the spell model using his mental power, following the spell model diagram and specific instructions recorded in the Acid Splash spell formula.
He randomly selected a star and approached it with his mental power, like a snake hunting its prey, silently and stealthily.
As he got closer, Gao De's mental power surged forward, firmly locking the star, which had been wandering erratically, in place.
It went smoothly, without any hiccups.
With his current mental power, controlling a single star wouldn't pose any problems.
However, the star wouldn't just stay still after being locked. It would constantly struggle and resist. In other words, until the spell model was fully constructed, Gao De needed to continuously use his mental power to keep the star in check.
If any star slipped out of control and deviated from its position during the construction process, all his efforts would be wasted, and he would have to start over from the beginning.
As the saying goes, "Well begun is half done." But for constructing spell models, the opposite was true. The easiest part was precisely this first star.
Because next, Gao De had to firmly hold down this first star while simultaneously dividing his mental power and attention to lock onto and control the second star.
Until the final step, where he would have to hold down eight stars simultaneously while controlling the ninth star, the difficulty was unimaginable.
And this was just a cantrip. The spell models for higher-level spells, like 1-Circle and 2-Circle spells, would be constructed from hundreds of stars. The thought was daunting.
No wonder the two most important attributes for mages were mana and mental power. Without mana, one couldn't cast spells. Without sufficient mental power, one couldn't construct spell models. And without spell models, even with abundant mana, one still couldn't cast a single spell. Both were indispensable.
However, these weren't issues Gao De needed to worry about right now. His current task was to control the second star.
He attempted to split off a strand of mental power and, just like before, control another star that happened to be wandering near the first star.
However, this second star couldn't just be immobilized; it also needed to be moved to a specific position relative to the first star.
Gao De took a deep breath. The mental power wrapped around the first star extended outwards, transforming into a straight star trail that connected directly to the second star until the two stars were linked together.
Then, following the instructions in the spell formula, Gao De controlled the second star, using the position of the first star as the starting point, and began to move it.
"Forward one, right one and one-third, up one-fourth…"
Any object's movement involved two elements: direction and distance.
There were only three directions for star movement: "forward-backward," "left-right," and "up-down."
Distance, on the other hand, was directly represented by numbers, without any units.
This was because the distance between each star in a spell model was fixed and proportional.
For example, if the distance between the second star and the first star in a specific direction was two feet, and the distance between the third star and the second star in a specific direction was four feet, you could change them to four feet and eight feet respectively without affecting the construction of the spell model.
Therefore, the "one" in "forward one" was actually a ratio. The actual distance set by each individual when constructing this spell model would be different, but the ratio would remain the same, ensuring the uniformity of the spell model.
The star trail formed by mental power connecting the two stars extended and lengthened as the second star moved.
Finally, the second star reached its designated position.
Without pausing, Gao De captured a third star near the second star's position. Similarly, he used his mental power to form a star trail connecting the second and third stars, then controlled the third star, using the current position of the second star as the starting point, and began to move it.
There was nothing but stars in the Spell Star Sea, so there were no reference points or rulers.
However, the positions of each node in the spell model required absolute fixity and precision.
From this perspective, simply controlling the distance each star moved seemed like an impossible task.
But the reality was the opposite. During the construction of the spell model, the easiest part was actually controlling the distance the stars moved.
This was because the Spell Star Sea resided in the depths of each individual's consciousness. And within their own consciousness space, everyone possessed an almost mechanical precision and intuition regarding real-world attributes like distance, size, direction, and mass.
The real challenge in constructing a spell model lay in controlling the movement of the stars and maintaining their stability.
This was because the stars were constantly struggling, whether in motion or at rest, creating immense resistance, and the direction of this resistance was constantly changing randomly.
"Forward one-half, right two-thirds, down one-half…"
Similarly, this second star trail extended and lengthened as the third star moved.
Gao De's mind was highly focused on controlling the third star.
The third star was also moving at a steady pace.
However, at this moment, the star trail between the second and first stars suddenly began to tremble inexplicably, and the frequency of the tremors increased rapidly.
Then, before Gao De could react, the star trail snapped under the violent vibrations. Without the constraint of the star trail, the second star bolted like a wild horse through the Spell Star Sea.
Like dominoes falling, the departure of the second star caused the second star trail to collapse, and the third star naturally escaped from his control.
The first attempt at constructing the Acid Splash spell model ended in failure!
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