Chapter 373: Level Up 7 Times in a Second!

After moving about a bit to adapt to his physical body, Xia Duo began casting spells directly under the light orb in the Projection Hall; this was a Permission Level he possessed only as a Tower Master Proxy.

Others, even Aiboke, could not cast spells here at will.

The Spell Xia Duo chose to use to break through to the fourth layer of the Magic Net was Mage Armor; as a Mage, one could never place too much importance on one's own protection.

For an ordinary person, Mage Armor below the 3rd Spell Circle is sufficient, but what a Mage faces is not merely ordinary people—or rather, only a Mage can serve as a Mage's opponent.

In the past, when Xia Duo upgraded Mage Armor from the 1st Circle to the 3rd, his only line of thought was to increase the intensity of the Force Field; for instance, at the 1st Circle, Mage Armor could not even withstand the cutting of a sharp sword, only slightly cushioning it.

But by the 2nd Circle, it could already withstand point-blank arrow fire, and by the 3rd Circle, attacks from ordinary people could basically be ignored.

For the 4th Circle Mage Armor, Xia Duo's line of thought was focused on integrating other Protective Spells, such as the more targeted Protection from Energy, Resist Energy, or even the further Element Balance Domain.

Previously, in the Projection Plane, Xia Duo had already created a complete 4th Circle plan, so the first thing he did upon returning was to use it to make contact with the fourth layer of the Magic Net.

1st Circle Mage Armor has only 18 basic elements (12 on the surface of the Magic Net, 6 on the first layer), which means that one only needs to perform 18 specific operations on the Magic Net String to successfully cast 1st Circle Mage Armor.

2nd Circle Mage Armor, however, has 36 basic elements (12 on the surface, 12 on the first layer, 12 on the second layer), making the Spellcasting difficulty much higher, but these elements are not without patterns; in a sense, Spell structure is a pattern, and also a method to assist memory.

And at a level above the Spell structure, one can also use various incantations, gestures, diagrams, and so on to assist memory; only by using multiple methods simultaneously can one remember all the complete elements of a Spell.

The higher the Spell Circle, the more constituent elements there are; generally speaking, elements in the Shallow Magic Weave can be replaced by fewer deep-layer elements, and vice versa.

But if one were to express a 9th Circle Spell using shallow-layer elements, it would perhaps be an astronomical number; even if, theoretically, a Primary Mage could release a low-level Spell equivalent to a 9th Circle Spell, the actual operation might not be so ideal.

Of course, if it were truly released, that Primary Mage could also, through this one Spell, glimpse all nine layers of the Magic Net in one step.

In reality, Xia Duo had never heard of such a Mage, and even if one existed, without theoretical Knowledge as a foundation, they would only be an exquisite toy with no practical value.

It is more likely that they would accidentally drive the Magic Net String of the ninth layer and end up killing themselves.

Currently, Xia Duo can only break through the Magic Net layer by layer; he has never thought of reaching the sky in a single bound—he only dares to advance as far as his theoretical foundation allows!

The 4th Circle plan for Mage Armor was something he researched specifically to contact the fourth layer of the Magic Net, and because he lacked fourth-layer elements, he needed to replace them with a large number of shallow-layer elements.

If one did not have a full understanding of the essence of the Magic Net and the Arcane Principles, no one would dare to play like this.

There are nearly two hundred basic elements in total, among which the third layer of the Magic Net String is used the most, accounting for almost half of all basic elements.

There is no need to keep this kind of complex intermediate transitional Spell entirely in one's head; in fact, Xia Duo began casting while looking at the Arcane Geometry diagrams in the Spell Notes before him.

If it were an ordinary notebook, one would need to constantly flip pages in the middle, but this was built on a solid foundation of "Arcane Geometry."

Xia Duo had already practiced the Spellcasting process many times in the Projection Plane, but because he could not reach the next layer of the Magic Net there, he had returned!

"Hum—" An invisible armor appeared on Xia Duo's body.

Thanks to his study of "Arcane Principles," Xia Duo had a deeper understanding of energy; this 4th Circle plan not only could absorb a certain amount of energy damage but also optimized the original Spell structure, making this thin layer of Protective Field become even more powerful.

This is similar to a technological iteration and upgrade, and even the previous low-level Mage Armor could benefit from it!

And at the very moment the Spell succeeded, Xia Duo's consciousness was instantly elevated; it was not a substantial elevation like that of an Astral Projection, but an elevation in terms of vision and cognitive level.

In that instant, he saw the essence of the Magic Net from a higher perspective—a magnificent, gorgeous, and complex structure overflowing with energy, spread throughout the heavens and the earth.

He himself, and the Tower of Time where he was at that moment, existed within this magnificent structure, with the Magic Net Strings connecting everything and interweaving with one another.

The next instant, Xia Duo's consciousness fell back to that of a mortal, and all the previous visions vanished, leaving only the fourth layer of the Magic Net open to him.

However, Xia Duo had no desire to experiment with the fourth layer of the Magic Net at this moment; he only wanted to know if that Projection Plane still existed!

"Tower Spirit, does the previously searched Projection Plane still exist?"

"Agent Xia Duo, 10 seconds ago, Projection Plane No. 2 disappeared."

Ten seconds!

Xia Duo still vividly remembered the situation before this projection; after receiving the reminder from the Tower Spirit, he had teleported to the Projection Hall to perform the projection almost without any hesitation.

After returning, he had immediately executed the 4th Circle plan, but he had not expected to be a step too late; the part that took the most time was his Spellcasting process, which took about 20-something seconds.

Calculating it this way, this Projection Plane had only existed for about 10 seconds. (Main Plane time)

Xia Duo was somewhat disappointed that he had not managed to arrive before the Projection Plane disappeared, but subconsciously, he still felt a sense of relief from the bottom of his heart.

The next moment, a wave of fatigue struck; Xia Duo thought of the last time he had performed an Astral Projection and then slept for an entire day, and besides this, perhaps he also needed to pay attention to the traces of time.

He instructed the Tower Spirit to teleport him back to his residence, then felt his way to the bed and fell asleep the moment his head hit the pillow.

The next day.

Xia Duo woke up from his deep sleep, lazily stretched, and opened his eyes to see the familiar ceiling style of the Tower of Time, and felt the bed, which was incomparably softer than the tree house.

"Right!" Xia Duo jumped off the bed, took off his clothes, summoned a water mirror, and compared himself to the mirror, trying hard to recall his physique and appearance from "a year ago."

After more than a year in the Projection Plane, upon returning to the Main Plane, all that time would be reflected on his physical body without a single bit lost, but his consciousness having been away from his body for so long made him a bit fuzzy about the details of his body.

It is truly difficult to see the traces of time after one or two years.

Additionally, there is the influence of his bloodline; after awakening his bloodline, the influence of age on appearance has diminished, which is somewhat similar to an Elf—an ordinary Elf can also live for hundreds of years, but will only age rapidly when their lifespan is about to end.

Xia Duo suspected that awakening a bloodline was, to a certain extent, becoming a long-lived species, but unfortunately, he had not seen any books about the lifespan of a Bloodline Sorcerer in the Tower of Time.

Otherwise, he could have more boldly utilized the Projection Plane to obtain an effect nearly equivalent to Time Acceleration.