Chapter 1540: Flight Control System, Seizing the Initiative

First, Xia Duo was hidden in the shadows; helping Iolum directly was simply unrealistic. Without prior communication, the two sides could not coordinate at all, and it was quite possible that as soon as he appeared, he would be besieged by both combatants.

Then, he could only target the Elf Mage individually, but this Elf Mage was currently in a Saint Form, and attempting a sneak attack was almost impossible to achieve.

In that case, the only option was to use an attack that could directly render the opponent unable to resist and resolve it in one go!

Spells directly targeting a goal are usually targeted spells.

If it is a non-targeted spell, the spell's effect requires the Magic Net as a carrier; by the time the spell effect approaches, the other side might have already made the corresponding countermeasure.

But targeted spells are similar to quantum entanglement; the moment the spell is completed here, it takes effect there immediately, and even if they notice it, it is too late.

Typical representatives of this type of spell are various curses; of course, various Transmutation spells are also targeted spells, it is just that the spell's effective range is not as far as curses.

This situation is influenced by demand; under normal circumstances, it is estimated that no one would need to cast 【Flight】 on another person from an ultra-long distance.

……

And to finish off this Elf in one go, the Spell Circle must be maxed out.

The Magic Net goes up to the tenth layer; under normal circumstances, the highest Spell Circle can only reach the 10th Circle, but through "Low-Circle Element Expression of High-Circle," the equivalent Spell Circle can theoretically be increased infinitely.

It is just that the Magic Net lacks deeper, more complex structures to actually support this type of spell; in layman's terms, it cannot be simplified.

Starting from the 10th Circle, for every increase in Spell Circle, the difficulty of casting the spell increases geometrically!

This is similar to what Xia Duo had envisioned long ago: allowing a Level 1 Mage to express a 9th Circle spell using only the surface of the Magic Net and the Spell Elements of the first layer.

It is theoretically feasible, but in reality, the difficulty of casting across so many Spell Circles is so high that even a robot might not be able to complete it, let alone a living human with various emotional disturbances.

And above the 10th Circle, due to the lack of support from the Deep Weave and the loss of the automatic ascending conversion trend between elements during spell ascension before the 10th Circle, the casting difficulty is even higher.

In layman's terms, it requires stronger control, or rather, a higher degree of concentration.

Xia Duo can think about the 11th Circle, but the 12th Circle is almost unimaginable.

For the current situation, a 10th Circle spell should be enough; even if the Elf were not in Saint Form and appeared only in the flesh without any protection, a small knife for killing fish might be lethal enough.

But for the sake of prudence, Xia Duo still decided to use the 11th Circle; otherwise, if he wasted such a rare opportunity to seize the initiative, he would have no choice but to fight it out head-on.

Without prior communication or a discussed strategy for cooperation, 1+1 does not necessarily equal more than 2; it might even be less than 1!

He must settle it with one blow!

……

As for which spell to choose, Xia Duo actually had no choice at all; he currently only had two 11th Circle projects under research.

One is Suspension, or Flight—the essence is the same; the other is material transformation, or more accurately, transforming water into stone (provisional).

Both of these spells were prepared for the Floating City. The reason he did not cut a mountain peak to serve as the main body of the Floating City was, on one hand, that he did not want to destroy the Nature environment, and the number of mountain peaks was limited after all. After education becomes popularized in the future, the number of Great Arcanists would not be small, and Xia Duo felt that as a leader of civilization, he could not set this bad precedent.

On the other hand, he hoped that the Floating City would not just be a ground building constructed on floating stones, but a strategic piece of equipment similar to a space battleship, where every part would be fully utilized.

Research on the spell ascension of these two spells had been on the agenda since he became a Great Arcanist, but they had been delayed by various matters, to the point that not even one finished product had been completed.

However, whether it is completed and whether it can be used are not the same thing.

Taking Levitation as an example, the effect Xia Duo wanted was the ability to cooperate with the Floating City blueprint to generate an adaptive Levitation Field, while also reserving open Nodes for subsequent control, as well as corresponding protection and counter-mechanisms.

This is a system engineering project, perhaps it should be called a "Floating City Flight Control System," which is not as simple as just getting a big rock into the sky.

If he only required an 11th Circle 【Suspension】, Xia Duo would have finished it long ago; this could not even be called a research task, but rather a game to pass the time when bored.

As for material transformation, it could be called a "Floating City Main Body Construction and Repair and Maintenance System," which also needs to be used in conjunction with the blueprint, and also needs to reserve open Nodes so that relevant personnel can use it or connect it to a Mythallar.

But the deep transformation spell from water to stone within it, like the so-called 11th Circle 【Suspension】, was something Xia Duo had completed long ago.

This is not a specialized attack spell, just as chopsticks are not a specialized weapon for attack, but this does not prevent chopsticks from becoming a tool for murder in specific situations.

Likewise, in the current situation, Xia Duo was going to use such a Petrification Spell, which was originally intended for construction, to launch an attack; he only needed to adjust the spell's effective range to make it act upon the target Elf.

……

Fine-tuning the spell was not difficult for Xia Duo; it could even be said to be extremely easy. The only thing that worried him was the casting process itself.

On one hand, using 10th Circle elements to express an equivalent 11th Circle spell already increased the casting difficulty; on the other hand, he had never actually cast this spell before.

Everything was still on paper; after all, this was not a standalone project, but one of the sub-projects. Before today, Xia Duo had not even thought of this situation.

Even if he believed that his spell design had absolutely no loopholes, casting a spell that could affect him as well if it went out of control—without verification or practice—could hardly fail to bring immense pressure.

But by comparison, this was the most feasible plan he could think of.

Or he could gamble that Iolum would not fail because of his sudden appearance, and would cooperate with him tacitly to strike down the Elf together.

When gambling on this, he would also have to gamble that the Elf would not explode with power in a desperate situation, or that the Elf was not holding back.

Of course, he could also gamble that people from the Seven Towers had already arrived nearby, just waiting for him to strike first to scare the Elf, and then everyone would rush up together to finish the Elf off.

Xia Duo had never liked gambling, nor did he like following the crowd. In the past, he had no choice due to a lack of ability; now that he had a choice, he naturally hoped to keep the initiative firmly in his own hands.

……

Having made up his mind, Xia Duo began to carefully retreat. Although it was basically impossible for the opponent to perceive his spellcasting movements at the current distance, it was still better to be prudent.

Additionally, this spell had a long casting time and required higher concentration. During this period, Xia Duo would be almost defenseless against the outside; moving a little further away would also make it convenient for him to deploy Arcane Fire to set up protective measures.