Chapter 681: Talking to a Brick Wall, Petrification Domain

"The situation is somewhat complex. I have never seen such a curse before. His leg is attached to a very strange and stubborn power. I need some time to consider how to banish it."

After Bishop Anbulier finished speaking, he glanced at the strangely postured Petrified Jabas to the side, then looked at Boke lying on the wooden board, and said to Xia Duo:

"His condition is relatively mild and not life-threatening. If you agree, I will test the banishment effect on him."

"Very well, I agree!" Xia Duo agreed to Bishop Anbulier's test without any hesitation, as this happened to facilitate his more detailed observation.

As for the "very strange and stubborn power" the Bishop spoke of, Xia Duo did not take it to heart. For a Mage, Magic is a very concrete and quantifiable operation.

But for a Cleric, Magic is more like a vague and formless mysterious power, understood entirely through Perception.

The two sides view the world from different perspectives.

The petrification state on Boke's leg is a strange power to Bishop Anbulier, but to Xia Duo, it is a concrete Spell whose inner workings can be understood.

On this issue, Mages and Clerics basically cannot talk to each other. Unless it is an Astral Mage or a Priest of the Magic Goddess, it is best not to discuss Magic topics; "talking to a brick wall" is truly no joke.

……

Next, Bishop Anbulier checked the completely petrified Jabas again, and only after pondering for a moment did he begin to experiment on Boke.

What appeared in Xia Duo's naked vision was a piece of constantly changing Holy Light surging on the Bishop's hands, while Boke's thigh, which was being illuminated, showed no changes at all.

Not to mention returning to normal, there was not even any deterioration, as if the Bishop's actions were completely useless.

But in Magic Vision, this series of stimuli exposed some details of the Petrification Spell. Although the Bishop is not skilled in Magic, he has an intuitive sharpness based on experience.

His Holy Power shuttled and flowed through the Magic Net Strings, touching here and nudging there, much like an adventurer constantly exploring in a Mysterious Mist.

While Xia Duo used simple Arcane Geometry Diagrams to quickly record some details of this Petrification Spell, he was also silently analyzing the full picture of the Petrification Spell constructed by these details in his mind.

……

A moment later.

Boke, who had been lying quietly, suddenly let out a scream of "Ah—", woke up from his deep sleep, and then frantically used his hands to beat the junction between the flesh at the base of his thigh and the petrified part, while his upper body kept struggling, wanting to sit up.

Interrupted so suddenly, the Holy Light surging on Bishop Anbulier's hands suddenly contracted and almost went out of control. Fortunately, the Bishop was experienced and managed to soothe Boke in time. Afterward, he wiped the sweat from his forehead, stood up, and said to Xia Duo:

"I still underestimated this curse; it is too tricky! I need to rest for a while before trying again."

After speaking, he sat down on the chair nearby that had not yet been put away.

Xia Duo also happened to need to think, so he took out a small table and a tea set, placed them on the open space between their chairs, and began to brew tea.

However, this time he could not bear to take out the "Bonu Original Leaf." After all, his own tea trees had not yet grown, and obtaining them from the Elves was very unstable, plus he had to risk being tracked.

With only this one jar in stock, even if he only drank it himself, it was not certain how long it would last; he definitely had to save some.

But even the export version of "Bonu No. 4" still had a considerable refreshing effect. It was just that after drinking Bonu Original Leaf for so many days, Xia Duo's palate seemed to have been spoiled. He only took a shallow sip of "Bonu No. 4," put down the teacup, and focused his mind entirely on the Spell Notes in his hand.

Although the forms in which any Spell occurs may differ, their essence is the same: they are all operations on the Magic Net Strings. This unknown Petrification Spell is no exception.

It is just that whether it can be analyzed or dispelled is another matter.

Judging solely from the information already collected, Xia Duo speculated that this Petrification Spell might be a field-type Spell, rather than a Spell targeting a single object.

Perhaps a Spell targeting a single object can cause a localized petrification effect, but there is a very obvious difference in structure between a field Spell and a single-target Spell.

Calling it a Petrification Spell is not as accurate as calling it a "Petrification Domain."

Boke or Jabas inadvertently triggered some kind of mechanism, and a Petrification Domain appeared there, transforming everything within the domain into a stone form.

Xia Duo recalled the situation he saw when using the Scrying Spell in that so-called ruin; there was indeed nothing there but earth and stone. It seems only substances with an earth-elemental tendency can be immune to this petrification effect.

Thinking of this, Xia Duo immediately stood up and went to the completely petrified Jabas, forcibly snapped off the Dagger that was tucked at his waist and also petrified. The break was very clear—

The inside of the Dagger sheath was not a metal Dagger, but a stone Dagger.

This was somewhat beyond Xia Duo's expectations. Could it be that the Petrification Domain was already powerful enough to transform even metal?

But conversely, if one could master the method of metal transformation, wouldn't one be able to generate various metal materials at will?

However, Xia Duo could not think that far for the time being. Thinking about the conversion efficiency of Elemental Gemstones, one knows that this generation method must be both time-consuming and energy-consuming.

Without high-efficiency, cheap energy, one can at most occasionally try this extremely expensive experiment in the Laboratory.

Returning to the Petrification Domain itself, Xia Duo could not yet judge what level of Spell it belonged to, but it was certainly above the 5th Circle. Although he could not observe the deeper structure, through rational deduction based on the essence of Magic, he was very certain that there was a deeper structure.

But the problem is that the existing partial information does not allow Xia Duo to deduce the deep structure of this Petrification Magic. Even if he could understand everything involving the first five layers of the Magic Net, it would be difficult to further deduce all the details of this Petrification Magic.

This is somewhat similar to 【Identify】. At the Magic Net levels that Xia Duo cannot observe, the complexity there is even greater than in the shallow layers. This is like knowing all the information about a mobile phone chip, but still being unable to know all the information about the other parts.

Although one might be able to deduce a part, it can never be the whole.

If at this time, the Mage attempting to explore has sufficient theoretical reserves and Spell design experience, they might be able to complete the remaining Spell details on their own. In this way, although there might be some subtle differences from the original Spell, it can be made completely consistent in the general direction.

And Xia Duo is such a Mage with both theory and experience; now he just needs to collect more information.

After pondering for a moment, he picked up the teacup again, took a sip of the tea that had already gone cold, and said to Bishop Anbulier: "Bishop, shall we continue?"

"Good!"

After resting for a while, Anbulier had regained his spirits, and during the rest, he had come up with some new ideas, giving him a bit more confidence in this attempt.