Chapter 1298: Admiration, Success

The process of Luo Zi creating Arcane Fire did not exceed Xia Duo's expectations, but the environment in which he created the Arcane Fire was something Xia Duo had never considered before—

Creating Arcane Fire within a Micro Magic Net unfolded by a Great Arcanist.

The essence of Arcane Fire is a mass of curled, condensed Micro Magic Net; it cannot be created out of thin air, but must be torn and snatched from the external Magic Net environment.

This means that every time an Arcanist is born, the Magic Net must be damaged once.

And if the external Magic Net environment is replaced by a Great Arcanist's Micro Magic Net, even if the Great Arcanist can repeatedly create Arcane Fire, the lost Arcane Energy cap can never be recovered.

If a Great Arcanist constantly provides the Magic Net environment needed for a High Mage's advancement, their Arcane Energy cap will remain at the initial value of the 10th Ring level.

That is about 1000, which is roughly the total energy consumption of a single 10th Ring Spell, only double the Arcane Energy cap of Xia Duo's main body in the Main Plane!

This value is actually already very small.

Xia Duo now knows that the Magic Net in the usual sense only has ten layers, which means that the stage where one can level up quickly can only reach the tenth layer of the Magic Net at most.

A Great Arcanist is at this level, and not all Great Arcanists can continue to climb upward at the end of the Magic Net; therefore, their Arcane Fire rarely has any explosive growth and can only grow slowly over time.

Their Arcane Energy cap is based on roughly 1000, growing slowly.

But a Great Arcanist can generally achieve this before the age of forty, and their subsequent lifespan, depending on each person's situation, is at least several decades.

Although Xia Duo does not know how high the Arcane Energy cap of a veteran Great Arcanist is, it must certainly be significantly different from the initial value of 1000.

Judging solely by his appearance, Dean Bernie looks to be nearly sixty, but no matter how high his Arcane Energy cap was before, after Luo Zi's advancement, he must immediately return to the initial stage.

If a certain Spell requires consuming more than 1000 Arcane Energy, then after the Arcane Fire returns to the initial stage, Dean Bernie would be unable to cast that Spell with the help of Arcane Fire.

Of course, this is not to mention the risk after the Arcane Fire collapses.

If someone were to attack him after his Arcane Fire collapsed and before the new Arcane Fire was created, it would be an excellent opportunity; even Xia Duo, as a bystander at this moment, could easily succeed if he had the intention to ambush.

Of course, Xia Duo would not do that.

On one hand, Dean Bernie just mentioned that there are three other Great Arcanists watching and guarding this advancement; even if a sneak attack could succeed, one would not escape the subsequent strikes from those three.

On the other hand, Xia Duo is still very admiring of Dean Bernie's willingness to sacrifice his own Arcane Fire to help a junior achieve success.

Not everyone can have such awareness; most people do good deeds only because they can gain more benefits, and if their own interests are damaged, they are unwilling.

Xia Duo asked himself, unless it were his own children, and with deep affection, otherwise he would not be willing to pay such a price.

Do not look at it as just a small reduction in Arcane Fire growth accumulation and a tiny bit of risk before re-creating the Arcane Fire, but one must know that Bernie could have completely avoided doing so, and no one would have forced him.

Even if a High Mage's advancement might be monitored by Keman, one could take them to a distant place to advance, at most building a few one-time Advanced Laboratories in the distance; even if discovered, it would not matter, and they could return after the advancement was finished.

Or one could set up various stronger measures to shield against Scrying; as long as one is willing to think, the methods a Great Arcanist can think of must be more than what Xia Duo can think of standing here, so there was absolutely no need to sacrifice himself.

Xia Duo speculated that perhaps from the perspective of resource consumption, sacrificing a Great Arcanist's Arcane Fire has the lowest cost.

But even so, for the sacrificer, no amount of resources can make up for the loss of the Arcane Energy cap.

Soon, a point in the space above Luo Zi's supported hands suddenly burst into bright radiance; seeing this scene, Xia Duo breathed a slight sigh of relief.

This was the birth of Arcane Fire; the most difficult step had been completed. Next, combining it with his will—as long as Luo Zi had perceived his Soul beforehand—would be almost effortless, and almost no accidents would occur.

And had Luo Zi perceived his Soul beforehand?

That is certain; if he had not been able to perceive his Soul beforehand, where would the confidence to succeed in the advancement come from!

Luo Zi, with his hands supporting that point of Arcane Fire which actually required no support, turned and shouted excitedly to Bernie and Xia Duo: "I succeeded!"

"There is still one last step, don't waste time!" Xia Duo reminded him, and took the initiative to calm the broken and chaotic Magic Net around them.

Despite having the foundation of Bernie's Micro Magic Net, the destructive power of the advancement still caused non-negligible interference to the external Magic Net environment.

And while calming the Magic Net, Xia Duo also noticed that Dean Bernie had not given up on the already shattered Micro Magic Net, and was still carefully organizing and repairing it.

This scene stirred Xia Duo's heart; could it be that providing a Magic Net environment for others to advance does not require the cost of the Arcane Fire being completely destroyed?

If that were the case, perhaps it would be more reasonable.

The commotion of a Great Arcanist re-creating Arcane Fire is far greater than when a High Mage advances; even if it is convenient, it is certainly not as safe as not having this step.

If any accident were to happen, it would be too worthless.

Perhaps this current situation is the real reason why Bernie was willing to sacrifice himself; of course, the reduction in the Arcane Energy cap is also unavoidable, but at least compared to the Arcane Fire being completely destroyed and needing to be re-created, this sacrifice is still much smaller.

Before long, Luo Zi had completely mastered the Arcane Fire. He stood beside Xia Duo, helping to calm the surrounding Magic Net environment, while also silently waiting for good news from Dean Bernie.

With the assistance of a newly promoted Arcanist, the broken and chaotic Magic Net environment in the room was quickly brought under control; although it could not be completely repaired in a short time, the combing and organizing were completed quickly.

And Dean Bernie, because of this, reshaped the Micro Magic Net. In the process of the Micro Magic Net curling and condensing, Xia Duo accidentally perceived the Arcane Energy reserve in the other's Arcane Fire—

There was still nearly 1000!

Being able to store so much Arcane Energy shows that the other's Arcane Fire can barely maintain the ten-layer structure of the Micro Magic Net; if Dean Bernie's Arcane Fire had been slightly weaker before, it might have already collapsed by now.

"Dean Bernie—"

Xia Duo just wanted to ask about the other's previous Arcane Energy cap, but felt it was somewhat inappropriate, so the words that came out became—

"Are you alright?"

Bernie turned and looked at Xia Duo, nodded, and said: "I know you must have many questions now; ask whatever you want to ask, I will give you five minutes."

After speaking, Bernie began to repair the damaged external Great Magic Net environment in the room.