Chapter 211: Imprisonment Sphere

The next day, Xia Duo temporarily cast all trivial matters outside the Mage Tower to the back of his mind, and he did not even look at the Intermediate Arcane Geometry that Niya had asked him to preview. Three days had passed since the Arcane Competition, and only now did Xia Duo remember the matter of the new spell—that Force Sphere spell which had been created by a stroke of luck from the Circulating Missile.

Magic Missile is merely a 1st Circle Spell; even when cast by an Archmage, it does not differ in essence from one cast by a low-rank Mage.

However, an Archmage can usually upgrade it, turning it into a 2nd Circle, 3rd Circle, or even higher-level Magic Missile, and add more new characteristics to it, such as locking, Haste, explosion, and the like.

Xia Duo's Circulating Missile is the same; before coming into contact with the Second Layer of the Magic Weave, it is entirely realized using the Spell Elements of the first layer. If one can succeed, one can thereby come into contact with the second layer of the Magic Weave; this is equivalent.

In other words, a 9th Circle Spell can actually also be realized solely through the elements of the first layer of the Magic Weave, but in that case, the complexity of the Spellcasting would likely be sky-high.

For example, one would need to maintain focused Spellcasting for several years, performing a massive amount of operations at the level of the first layer of the Magic Weave, and any small mistake in any step could lead to the failure of the Spell.

If one could truly do this, perhaps one could come into contact with the ninth layer of the Magic Weave in one step.

Xia Duo had never thought of, nor would he do, such a crazy thing. Pushing up by 1st Circle was already difficult enough, just like that Force Sphere spell.

The original plan was Circulating Missile (unverified), but instability appeared during the Spellcasting process. To avoid failure, he could only improvise based on his understanding of the Principles of the Spell, and the final result became unrecognizable.

What Xia Duo needs to do now is to completely organize this Force Sphere spell, and finally simplify it (replacing a large number of 1st Circle elements with 2nd Circle elements; this step is the easiest), and it will be a true 2nd Circle Spell.

Previously at the competition, Xia Duo had already organized the vast majority of the key elements and the general outline of the Spell model, so there was not much work left.

Carrying his Spell Notes, Xia Duo came to the Spell Laboratory and applied to the Tower Spirit for a 2nd Circle level Magic Weave stabilization effect; he did not want any accidents to occur during his experiment.

"Not bad!"

After slightly sensing the Magic Weave environment inside the Spell Laboratory, Xia Duo nodded with satisfaction; it was worth the price of 60 Gold Coins per hour! The experiment began. Xia Duo did not experiment with the Force Sphere spell first, but instead tried the initial version of the Circulating Missile once. If it could succeed, he would have one more 2nd Circle Spell.

However, two consecutive force explosions made him realize that the Circulating Missile was indeed still immature; if he had not been inside the Spell Laboratory, he might have been injured.

Thinking back to that Force Sphere at the competition, it was truly a stroke of luck! Once the Spell Laboratory is activated, it is for at least 1 hour; there is no situation where it is turned on during Spellcasting and turned off while thinking. But it was precisely this feeling of burning money every moment that made Xia Duo feel his sparks of thought were also burning fiercely.

Even his memory became much clearer, which saved him a lot of effort in completing the elements of the Imprisonment Sphere.

At noon, Xia Duo hurriedly finished his lunch and dove back into the Spell Laboratory. His experiment had reached a critical moment; the Spell Elements and Spell structure had all been completed, and he was now conducting stability tests.

A Spell is not just about letting someone successfully cast it; it also cannot have too many variables. Factors affecting the stability of a Spell can generally be divided into two categories:

Reasons from the Spellcaster themselves, and reasons from the Spell itself.

The former is not considered for now; the latter are mostly conflicts between Spell Elements, similar to redundant components in computer programs, which may or may not affect the Spell effect.

But for the sake of greater stability, they must be eliminated as much as possible.

And to check for redundant elements in a Spell, besides slowly detecting them through stability tests, the most direct method is to start from the essence of the Magic Weave and the Principles of the Spell, using theory to guide practice.

In this regard, Xia Duo is still somewhat lacking for the time being, and he is not as proficient as he is with the Ring level. However, practice itself can also promote theoretical progress; he is currently spending money to grind for theoretical experience.

There is an old saying in Xia Duo's hometown: "What is learned from books is always shallow." Thinking about theory in isolation is very hollow. Combining theory with practice, being neither biased nor extreme, is the right path.

One hand on the essence of the Magic Weave and the Principles of the Spell, the other hand on Spellcasting Training and practical Application; grasp both, and both must be strong.

Returning to the Spell itself, this new Spell, which had been named Imprisonment Sphere by Xia Duo, finally took shape after more than ten experiments.

The specific effect of the new Spell is a Force Field sphere that, upon contact with a solid object, will rapidly wrap around and imprison the solid object.

It is not limited to being placed on an enemy's head; hands, feet, and weapons are all possible. Although it is not a directly lethal Spell, Xia Duo is quite optimistic about its Application.

This is a 1st Circle manifestation of a 2nd Circle Spell. Simplifying it into a true 2nd Circle Spell—only at this step can the Imprisonment Sphere be considered successfully developed.

But Xia Duo still has some regrets; he needs more tests, such as Spellcasting distance, imprisonment strength, the reaction with Mage Armor, and so on.

It is just that the number of Spells he can use every day is extremely limited, which simply does not allow him to conduct endless experiments. At this moment, he could not help but think of the benefits of recruiting an Apprentice.

An Apprentice assisting a mentor in experiments is essentially Joint Casting led by the mentor, which is more labor-saving than the mentor casting alone.

But in the Tower of Time, only an Intermediate Mage can recruit an Apprentice, and one must actually have an Apprentice; there are not New Mages every year.

Even if there were, one would have to wait one's turn based on seniority; who knows how long one would have to wait for it to be one's turn!

Sigh—

Xia Duo let out a long sigh and felt that he was being a bit too optimistic again; what he should be worried about is when Niya will grab him to do experiments!...

With only a little energy left for making Scrolls in the evening, Xia Duo did not intend to try anything else, and the afternoon time became very leisurely.

He took out the Intermediate Arcane Geometry he had borrowed earlier and began to preview it. Although it was placed in the Intermediate section of the Library, in reality, most of the cases inside were still 1st Circle Spells.

However, starting from Intermediate Arcane Geometry, it is no longer limited to analyzing Spells, but analyzing the Magic Weave, involving the essence of the Magic Weave.

If the Principles of the Spell are engineering, then the essence of the Magic Weave is natural science. This Intermediate Arcane Geometry already has a bit of the flavor of "Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy."

Xia Duo greedily flipped through it, skipping over parts he could not understand for the time being, striving to finish it as quickly as possible to first have an overall understanding of it.

But when he flipped to the last page, a line of text on it left him somewhat dumbfounded—

"To be continued."

(End of this chapter)