7 The Mage’s Principle Part 2 (1/2)

”Thank you, Teacher,” said Saleen with a heart full of joy. He picked up the bags of money and returned to his room, putting the bags of money and the Qin Empire bank notes into the box which still contained the outdated collection slips, documents, and his family badge. Saleen tried to stuff the money into the box but felt that it was not right, so he took it out again, unsure of where to place it.

After wavering for a short while, Saleen felt that he was being a little ridiculous. What thief would dare sneak into the house with Jason around?

Recalling how his teacher had released one spell after another at the city guard department without chanting, Saleen felt his excitement mounting. If he was able to do the same, no one would dare harass him!

Magic was the only principle in this world. Those who possessed abilities in magic were above the law.

At the thought of this, Saleen could not sit still. He put the money on top of his bed and headed to a room containing magic books.

Looking at the rows of bookshelves in the room, Saleen was impatient and wanted to read each and every book there. He walked to the back and stood before the shelf containing the level-0 magic books.

The shelf for level-0 magic was the largest, and yet it did not have the largest number of spells. There were less spells than there were in level-1 magic. Despite this, there were four books to a series titled ”Principles of Level-0 Magic”, and each was extremely thick.

Saleen took a book and sat himself down on the ground. Leaning against the shelf, he began reading.

Reading magic, illumination magic, burning magic, detection magic, poison detection, invisible shield...

Reading on, Saleen was a little overwhelmed. He realized that without the support of a theoretical system, he did not even know how to decide on what to learn. As he leaned on the bookshelves in a daze, Saleen felt like he had lost control. Even if a person was eager to increase their strength, they could not be overly ambitious. His teacher had asked that he conduct his learning in order. If he skipped over his foundation, it might cause unknown issues in future.

At this thought, Saleen placed ”Principles of Level-0 Magic” back onto the bookshelf, returned to the beginning, and started to gather basic knowledge on magic in a systematic manner.

Magic was categorized into six types, but in practical terms, when learning magic, most people conducted their learning according to its uses. The six types included the attack series, protection series, therapy series, alchemy series, potions series, and one other type. In addition to the six types, there was also the summon series, which was not a popular form of magic. It had originated in recent times, beginning no more than ten thousand years ago, but it had declined some five thousand years ago. The deployment of each magic spell had three stages – the preparatory stage, the completion stage, and the release stage.

The preparatory stage referred to the chanting of spells, use of gestures, pooling of elements, and resonance of magic – all of which required the mage's use of their mental power to control. With practice, the mage could shorten the time needed to prepare their magic by chanting silently and omitting the hand gestures.

The completion stage referred to the spell being formed and readied for deployment. This stage could be extended. The mage could keep the prepared spell on standby while preparing a second spell to achieve an intensive attack. For example, after a mage had prepared a Fireball spell, they could choose not to deploy it while preparing a second Fireball spell. When the second Fireball spell was ready, they could deploy both at the same time. This skill was known as double release, and was a method commonly used by mages to magnify their attacks.

Similarly, double release required the mage to have powerful mental power. Without strong control, the mage could cause severe harm to themselves if the elements emerged in a disorderly manner.

The release stage was about more than just the deployment of a prepared spell. This stage comprised of locking onto the target, the final cutting of the elements, and time control.

These three parts all relied on mental power to be completed, with locking onto the target being the most basic ability. Without tracking abilities, a mage was no different from an archer. The final cutting of the elements was the key to expending the spell. Without this ability, the mage's expenditure would always be at the maximum. Lacking good control, a grade-1 mage could use up their magic chords by simply releasing two level-1 spells instead of the usual twelve.

Time control referred to the continuous control that was exerted while magic was being released, allowing the magic to complete its release at the most appropriate time. This skill was also known as level-2 execution. Senior mages could skillfully use level-2 execution to control the momentum of the battle. Similarly, level-2 execution was also used in the making of magic scrolls and alchemy.

Mastery of these abilities was the absolute minimum for one to be a qualified mage.

Saleen also understood that the values of the basic attributes of each spell were not fixed.

Execution time, execution distance, and energy units were three variable components. The execution time of a spell was not measured in seconds, but in frames. Each frame was equivalent to one-sixtieth of a second.

Instant execution was not done at a speed of zero frames, but at a speed of two frames. While it was commonly said that magic was instantaneous, this essentially meant that it took two frames for the three stages to be completed – preparatory, completion and release – which was two-sixtieths of a second. No matter how powerful a mage was, they could not compress this time further.

The cause of the zero frame illusion had been the double release, meaning that a mage would not release a spell after it had been completed, but would store it for release at the same time as the second spell. Basically, the post-completion release stage of this spell took place concurrently with the release of the second spell. This required the mage to have resilient mental power.

Such a skill was considered high order control, which was a very dangerous action.