Chapter 109: Gravity Consolidation

……

Arcane Year 713, Windclaw Month, Day 3.

I have to admit, my thoughts last night were somewhat treasonous.

I hope Lady "Mistra" does not discover it, and if she does, please do not hold it against me.

You know, I have always been the most devout believer of the "Goddess of Magic," and I have never slandered or belittled the great role the "Magic Net" plays for Spellcasters; the radiance unleashed by mana shines brighter than the sun.

May the Arcane endure forever.

……

Arcane Year 713, Windclaw Month, Day 6.

The Green Grass Festival is approaching, and Lia specially sent sweet flower cakes for me and the other Apprentices to share.

It was indeed very sweet.

……

Arcane Year 713, Windclaw Month, Day 18.

Recent experiments have not gone smoothly; even Burgess was scolded by the Mentor for an entire afternoon over a common and harmless little mistake.

He is the Mentor's closest Apprentice!

I was not swept up in the Mentor's fury, but I do not feel fortunate because of it.

After all, only those who truly participate in the experiments have the opportunity to make mistakes.

And I, who can only stand aside doing menial tasks and watching, do not even have the qualification to make a mistake.

Next year will be the final admission examination of the Huosuoe Huangjia Xueyuan.

With the current progress, can it really be done?

……

Arcane Year 713, Windclaw Month, Day 21.

Oh my god!

I only found out at dinner today that Burgess was actually one of the eliminated candidates from the last examination.

How is that possible!?

Hasn't he already mastered three-ring spells?

If even he cannot pass, then I...

……

Arcane Year 713, Month of Melting Snow, Day 5.

After today's experiment ended, my landlord, that Calishite, came to the Mage Tower.

He said I haven't paid rent for two months.

Burgess helped cover the Gold Coins.

I plan to take a leave of absence and go back to take a look.

……

Arcane Year 713, Month of Melting Snow, Day 7.

It turns out that a few months ago, Lia had already been fired from the workshop, the reason being that she misjudged the price of a magical item.

She said she absolutely did not misread it; the customer, in order to inflate the price using an appraisal certificate, had bribed the old appraiser in the workshop beforehand.

Once discovered, they threw her out to be the scapegoat.

Lia grew up in Niumu; even though she followed me all the way to Huan Cai Cheng, she had never suffered much hardship.

I know she was afraid I would worry, so even though she was wronged, she never said a word.

I must do something.

……

Arcane Year 713, Month of Melting Snow, Day 12.

Through Burgess's channels, I obtained information on that scoundrel who caused Lia to lose her job.

He is an Apprentice Teacher at the Huosuoe Huangjia Xueyuan.

I wanted to go confront him, but Lia blocked me at the door, crying.

She begged me not to go, saying he is a big shot and would affect my admission exam next year.

I promised her, pretending to be very angry.

But actually, I know that even if Lia hadn't stopped me, I wouldn't have been able to see him.

A Wild Mage from the countryside, living a slave-like Apprentice life in the Mage Tower.

I can't even get through the gates of the Huosuoe Royal Academy; who would I go to confront?

……

Arcane Year 713, Month of Flowering, Day 9.

It has been almost a month since I returned from the rental house that day.

Lia has come to the Mage Tower a few times, as if nothing had happened.

The pretty little dress she used to wear has been replaced by coarse hemp clothes.

The jewelry and necklace she used to never leave her side are also gone.

She smiled and said wearing it this way is more comfortable.

This cannot continue.

……

Arcane Year 713, Month of Flowering, Day 12.

More than a year remains until the entrance examination, yet I feel hope growing ever more faint.

In the Mage Tower, what I have learned is simply insufficient for me to enter the Royal Academy.

To pass the examination, I must find another path.

Seek some other way.

……

Arcane Year 713, Month of Flowering, 20th.

Today is a rest day; it is my turn to clean the laboratory. Suddenly, I recalled the experience from two months ago.

Borrowing the rune array in the laboratory, I tried again without using spellcasting materials.

It succeeded once more.

What does this mean?

If I can discover the principle behind it, can I pass the examination on this basis and become a member of the academy?

……

Arcane Year 713, Month of Flowering, 21st.

There is only one rest day per month; the laboratory is simply not enough to go around.

Since it is all Gravity magic, and Gravity Solidification is the only spell I have mastered, perhaps it can replace the rune array as my experimental subject.

After all, it also requires spellcasting materials, constructing a Spell Model, and connecting to the Magic Net; the steps are no different at all.

……

Arcane Year 713, Month of Flowering, 28th.

First, I tried changing the spellcasting materials for Gravity Solidification, using laundry powder and small gravel to replace the original iron filings, and then attempted it without any spellcasting materials.

All were effective.

But except for the iron filings, the spellcasting effects under all other materials were very unstable.

I suppose that makes sense; after all, the function of "spellcasting materials" itself is to maintain the stability of mana operating within the Spell Model.

Then I went a step further, thinking that without using any material assistance, I could even omit the Spell Model and directly guide the mana itself through the Magic Net.

The experiment failed.

Without a Spell Model as a terminal, even if I filter out more mana from the Magic Net, it is merely Magic Particles, with no additional effect.

……

Arcane Year 713, Summer Court Month, 15th.

I began to ponder the exact relationship between spellcasting materials, Spell Models, the Magic Net, and the Spellcaster.

What exactly is the principle of spells?

Is it truly just following the experience left by predecessors in spellbooks, rigidly measuring spellcasting materials precise to the gram, using mana to trace complex and utterly incomprehensible massive models, and drawing mana from the invisible and intangible Magic Net? Is that all there is to it?

If spellcasting materials can be replaced and Spell Models can be omitted, then what about the Magic Net?

……

Arcane Year 713, Summer Court Month, 27th.

I attempted to think about the essence of Gravity magic.

Is it adjusting the density of Earth Elements in the air to increase or decrease the pressure effect on objects;

Or regulating the flow rate of Ether to weaken or strengthen the gravitational binding of the Material Plane;

Or is it both?

……

Arcane Year 713, Sun Month, 10th.

Success!

No spellcasting materials are needed, no Spell Model needs to be simulated, and there is no need to connect to the Magic Net.

I omitted all superfluous steps in Gravity Solidification, keeping only the simplest part that touches the essence, simply using spiritual power to stir the Magic Particles in the air.

It is still effective!

In that case, what is the significance of the Magic Net's existence?

……

Arcane Year 713, Sun Month, 21st.

Strange.

Although the spell succeeded, the laboratory detected no changes in Earth Element density or Ether turbulence.

Then what is this so-called "Gravity," or rather, "Gravity"?

……

Arcane Year 713, Withered Month, 13th.

Today, during a break from work, I told my mentor about my doubts.

A strange expression appeared on his face, one I had never seen in the year since I entered the Mage Tower.

……

Arcane Year 713, Withered Month, 15th.

I was dismissed.

Burgess helped me pack my luggage and stuffed a few Gold Coins into the bundle; I only discovered this when I returned to my rental room.

He is a good person; I will remember him.

……

Arcane Year 714, Deep Winter Month, 2nd.

Lia now works two jobs every day, leaving before dawn and returning late at night; it is very hard.

I thought I would do whatever work I could manage to help subsidize our household expenses.

But she told me to focus on my research and not be distracted.

I will definitely treat her well.

I swear it!

……

Arcane Year 714, Winter Claw Month, 13th.

Even without the professional equipment in the Mage Tower, the most basic experiments can still be conducted.

I did not give up.

……

Arcane Year 714, Winter Claw Month, 30th.

The quill pen floating under the influence of Gravity suddenly reminded me of fallen leaves drifting uncertainly on the water's surface.

It has nothing to do with Ether, nor is it the Earth Element.

Magic Power within it serves only a catalytic role.

Is it something invisible and flowing that exists within the air?

……

Arcane Year 714, Twilight Claw Month, 25th.

When making the quill pen and the ink bottle float to the same height, with all other conditions unchanged, the latter requires more concentration and Magic Power.

Is it a difference in weight?

……

Arcane Year 714, Snowmelt Month, 21st.

"Gravity" itself does not exist because of magic.

The so-called Gravity Magic is merely using Magic Particles as a catalyst to alter the magnitude of Gravity acting upon things.

It is like an invisible river; what a Spellcaster can do is only temporarily change or slow its flow.

I seem to have discovered the pattern within it.

Yet whenever I want to utilize what I have summarized and generalized, like the Legendary Mages in the Bard's stories, to create magic and branch off from the riverbed.

Just like the Sorcerers I saw in Huan Cai Cheng, bypassing the "Magic Net" to simply regulate Magic Power itself.

There is always just a little bit missing.

Whether it is the frequency of particle fluctuations or the stability of the energy flow...

The reasons are bizarre and varied.

Yet always at the very moment before I am about to succeed, they cause all my efforts to come to nothing.

As if an invisible giant hand is, in some unseen way, preventing me from taking that crucial final step.

Is it the effect of differences in air humidity, or the afterwaves continuously rippling through the earth veins?

Or perhaps, the dice thrown by the gods in the Sea of Ether?

Is it "Him"?

……

Arcane Year 714, Summer Tide Month, 6th.

Lia said that during this time I seem like a different person, no longer hanging ununderstandable terms and theorems on my lips, nor often mentioning the Royal Magic Academy I once dreamed of.

Only I know the reason behind this.

Like an ant crawling out of a cramped nest for the first time, the vast and boundless material world, merely revealing its most marginal yet fascinating corner, is enough to shake my body and soul.

In comparison, the dreams and wishes of the past are like childish nonsense, immature and pointless.

……

Arcane Year 714, Withered Month, 7th.

I still went to take the assessment, just to draw a period on my two years of effort.

The result was as expected.

My findings were repeatedly refuted by several examiners, and one of them even called it garbage waste.

I did not refute them.

The future will prove who is right and who is wrong.

……

Arcane Year 714, Falling Leaf Month, 1st.

Lia is pregnant.

We plan to return to Niumu first to rest for a while before making further plans.

……

Arcane Year 714, Year-End Month, 30th.

Gravity objectively exists upon every object.

Magic is the path to lever it.

But as long as that otherworldly "Saintess," "Lady," still sits high upon the God Kingdom.

The Outer Plane, the Astral Realm... there is nowhere that can escape His gaze.

It doesn't matter.

If the world is His sandbox, I am willing to be the flea that leaps out of the box.

Xia Nan's gaze swept to the bottom of the page.

A look of lingering desire appeared on his face.

A diary.

From a Wild Mage three hundred years ago.

Although he did not know the name of the diary's owner, nor the reason it had fallen into the Goblin Lair.

Yet this wonderful sensation of glimpsing another life through words made him unable to help but immerse himself in it.

He even ignored the filthy, choking stench in the air and the sticky, muddy wet earth beneath his feet.

Standing there in the cave filled with Goblin corpses, he turned page by page and read it all the way through.

Recalling the "Huan Cai Cheng" and "Gravity Magic" mentioned within.

Come to think of it, since his transmigration, he seemed to have never seen a proper Spellcaster.

Oh, perhaps that Sun Priest of Kalanfur counted as one.

Watching the Wild Mage in the diary accidentally discover the existence of "Gravity," gradually shedding his ignorance to become firm and calm.

He, as an observer, felt as though he had experienced it all over again.

Unfortunately, even though he came from a technologically advanced modern society and had struggled in the workplace for years, his entire understanding of "Gravity" was reduced to that apple that fell and smashed onto his forehead, and the tides surging and ebbing by the seaside.

However, seeing the other person re-explain it from a magical perspective using the methods of a fantasy world was quite interesting.

Treating it as a small interlude during the "thrilling" mission, Xia Nan closed the thin book, intending to put it back into the book box and take it back to River Valley Town.

The fingertips holding the pages, however, paused involuntarily.

It was the back cover at the very end of the diary, thicker than the rest.

As if thinking of something, a glint of light flashed through Xia Nan's dark eyes.

His index finger and thumb pinched the diary's back cover and rubbed it gently.

Rustle—

A yellowed paper sheet, half-filled with dense characters and stuck between the layers of the thin book, drifted down.

He hurriedly caught it.

His gaze instinctively swept over the written text recorded on it.

"As expected!"

This paper hidden in the back cover layer clearly recorded the detailed method by which the Wild Mage in the diary, without relying on the Magic Net or Spell Model, purely used spiritual power to manipulate "Gravity."

"I didn't expect an unexpected harvest!"

Xia Nan happily folded the paper and carefully stored it against his body.

Thinking that once he returned, he would study it slowly in the inn.

Accompanied by the metallic clinking of Chain Mail clasps colliding, the footsteps gradually disappeared deep into the tunnel at the lair's exit.

On the stone wall dome, crystal-clear liquid flowed down silently, gathering at the tip of a stalactite to condense into a single drop of water.

Wobbling back and forth.

Finally, under the action of invisible Gravity, it quietly dripped down.

(End of this chapter)