Chapter 42: Standardization, Archmage

After getting his dinner, Xia Duo immediately returned to his dormitory. While eating, he took out the biography of an Archmage and began to read. He had already read this book several times, but to familiarize himself with Netherese script, he still repeated it tirelessly.

After all, reading the legendary story of Archmage Dasiruier was much more interesting than reading the Proverbs of the Lord of Radiance. Xia Duo could even glean some adventure and combat experience from it, from a Mage's perspective.

This was something that could not be obtained from Mu Yan.

The Mage Tower Library was not lacking in biographies of other famous Mages, but the time and Gold Coins spent on borrowing and copying books were not enough to make Xia Duo do so. Perhaps only when he was truly settled would he have the state of mind to consider leisure and entertainment.

After finishing his meal, Xia Duo immediately put away the Archmage's biography and instead took out two sets of notes on 【Daze】, one from the Apprentice Dewan and one from the Apprentice Halun.

However, neither of them had ever obtained a Learning Scroll. Their understanding of 【Daze】 came from those who taught them or from the library. They could obtain most of the spellcasting details, but it was not as intuitive or detailed as a Learning Scroll.

Moreover, everyone's understanding of the Magic Net was different, which led to subtle differences in spell structures. If these subtle errors could not be eliminated, the effects of the spells would also differ; in serious cases, it could even lead to spellcasting failure.

This was not the same as technology on Earth. Technology could be standardized, but Magic was difficult to standardize because technology utilized external objects; as long as the rules of the world remained unchanged, a standard could certainly be formed.

Magic, however, was closely related to individual thought, cognition, intelligence, the Soul, and other factors. People were different, so naturally, Magic and Magic also had differences.

However, Xia Duo always believed that a stably existing world must have stable rules, and Magic must also be able to be standardized. But he was still just an Apprentice now; to speak wildly of standardizing Magic was somewhat arrogant.

He simply kept these thoughts deeply in his heart.

……

Comparing and studying the two sets of 【Daze】 notes, Xia Duo quickly analyzed the basic structure of 【Daze】. It had to be said that the existence of Learning Scrolls made him quite sensitive and familiar with the basic structure of Ring spells.

Once, Xia Duo had always had such an idea: to use up all his Learning Scroll exchange Permission Levels. He wanted to see if researching several spells at the same time would lead to faster progress!

It was just that his reason kept shouting at him—what if it didn't! Greed leads to indigestion!

But the lightning speed at which he successfully learned 【Sending】 today made Xia Duo somewhat conceited, and having just researched 【Daze】 made his confidence increase even more. Counting them all, there were five spells in total, and Xia Duo discovered that their Control over the Magic Net was extremely superficial.

So-called spellcasting was the act of entangling, joining, bending, coiling, and overlapping the threads that composed the Magic Net to form a spell structure with specific Magic Effects.

And after researching five spells, Xia Duo discovered that the structure of Ring spells was too simple.

For example, the spell structure of 【Light】 was similar to a sphere with radiating lines; 【Acid Splash】 was a semi-open shuttle shape, and the other spells were not complex either.

Broken down into the most basic "actions" of controlling the Magic Net, these spells had many repetitions.

Xia Duo even speculated that spells above the Ring should also have similar characteristics. If so, researching a certain number of 1st Circle spells would allow him to draw inferences about others and speed up the research of other 1st Circle spells.

If it were to verify the Ring spell stage, it could be verified immediately.

Thinking of this, Xia Duo had already made a decision and called out, "Tower Spirit, request: current time."

The on-call Tower Spirit responded immediately, "Apprentice Xia Duo, current time: 8:35 PM."

Time passed so quickly?!

Xia Duo only remembered that he started researching 【Daze】 after returning and eating. He didn't expect that in a blink of an eye, it was 8:35. That meant he had been researching 【Daze】 for nearly three hours.

"Tower Spirit, request: is Material Requisition Office No. 6 currently available?"

"Apprentice Xia Duo, Material Requisition Office No. 6 is currently unavailable."

The news brought by this hollow and mechanical voice made Xia Duo very disappointed; he could only wait until tomorrow to exchange it.

With his thoughts unsettled, and since it would soon be "lights out," Xia Duo stopped researching spells and instead took out the *Sacred Proverbs of the Lord of Radiance* to read.

Reading these dry Proverbs before bed helped with sleep.

……

At the same time, at the Town Hall on the north side of the Savile Town Central Square, the pre-war meeting chaired by the Lord, Eps Saville, had reached a critical moment. The heads of all the factions in the Territory had grave expressions, and no one dared to speak first.

Eps was filled with anger. Ten years ago, it was because these people were too selfish and dragged their feet in various ways when dealing with the Orcs that his father—the Lord at the time—was seriously injured and passed away the following year.

Ten years had passed; he did not expect that he would also experience his father's difficult situation, only this time he would not be as naive as his father.

"Have you all considered it?"

"……"

It was still silence, and Eps was even more furious.

Seeming to notice that the Lord's expression was not good, a wealthy middle-aged man wearing a silk Elf robe finally spoke:

"Lord, the Chamber of Commerce is only managed by us; it does not belong to us. We really cannot fulfill your request. As long as the Lord does not bring up that request, I am personally willing to donate another 1,500 Gold Coins to the Savile Territory to support the battle against the Orcs."

With one person taking the lead, others also spoke up one after another:

"That's right, Lord. We dare not act on the property of the Chamber of Commerce. As long as the Lord does not bring up that request, I am also willing to donate 1,500 Gold Coins to the Territory."

"Me too."

"Me too."

……

Listening to the chaotic remarks of these people, Eps suddenly calmed down. He touched the staff at his side and, ignoring the Chamber of Commerce representatives on the left side of the conference table, looked at the people on the right side of the conference table.

The closest one was a middle-aged Mage wearing a Mage Robe similar to Eps's, with two Magic Stones orbiting each other floating above his head. Eps asked calmly:

"Archmage Olong, what is the meaning of the Mage Guild—"

"All members of the Savile Town Mage Guild are willing to follow the Lord's arrangements."

Eps nodded. He did not value the members of the Mage Guild; most of the Official Mages in the Territory had already joined the Mage Tower, and the rest were just a few low-level Mages. To some extent, these people were not as useful as the apprentices in his own Mage Tower.

What he truly valued was the Archmage Olong before him, whose Spellcasting Level was as high as 17.

A week ago, the Territory's Scout detected unusual movements from the Orcs. During this sensitive ten-year period, Eps went to investigate himself.

After confirming the news that the Orc Tide was coming, Eps sent a request for help to the rear of the Empire, and later went through trouble to find his grandfather's fellow disciples to help speak out. Those who could live until now as fellow disciples of a Great Arcanist were naturally not ordinary people.

Thus, there was this Archmage from the Arcane Union who came to support, which greatly increased Eps's confidence in dealing with this Orc crisis.

Looking over one by one, Eps saw the representative of the Temple, "Bishop Anbulier, what about the Temple's side?"

"Everything will follow the Lord's arrangements."

Although Bishop Anbulier's words were brief, they were filled with firm conviction.