Chapter 28: Analyzing Lumos

But the ancient runic book Allen found next poured a bucket of cold water on him.

He had already expected the Wizarding World's research results on runes to be relatively poor, but he never expected them to be this poor; a single runic dictionary contained only over two hundred ancient runes with completely certain meanings, while the rest were merely guesses about what they meant.

Moreover, when Allen compared the runes he had recorded against these two hundred runes, he discovered that many rune shapes were very similar to his records, yet there were significant differences in the details.

Allen firmly believed the rune shapes on the light screen he saw were correct, which meant that among these two hundred-odd ancient runes with determined meanings, quite a few contained writing errors; this inevitably left him somewhat disheartened.

But Allen's greatest strength was his ability to sit still; he gathered a pile of books related to ancient runes to cross-reference them, and finally achieved some results.

He chose to analyze the ancient runes of the simplest Lumos spell.

The ancient rune key-value pairs for Lumos (hereinafter referring to the key of the key-value pair as key, and the value as value) numbered only twenty-six; among them, the value of four key-value pairs was empty. Through Allen's efforts, the meanings of half of the ancient rune key-value pairs were deciphered, including three key-value pairs with empty values.

Gazing at the deciphered key-value pairs, he fell into deep thought.

The first three he noticed were the meanings of the keys for the key-value pairs with empty values: rotation speed, trajectory, and number of cycles.

Among them, "rotation speed" made him feel as though he had seen it somewhere before, evoking a strange sense of familiarity.

Lumos was one of the spells Allen mastered most proficiently; when casting it, he could quickly clear his own thought, visualizing a sphere of light blooming at the tip of his wand, then performing the corresponding wand movement with his wand while chanting the spell in the correct tone; this was the standard casting procedure for Lumos.

"The standard casting procedure..." Allen unconsciously murmured this sentence. Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck him, and he realized where he had seen the keyword "rotation."

He quickly retrieved his "Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1," flipped to the Lumos section in the first chapter, and found what he wanted at the very end of the first part of that chapter:

Mr. Hobbs Black (1629–1721) improved Lumos in 1644; the improved Lumos sphere could rotate and flicker at the tip of the wand.

Allen stared fixedly at the word "rotation," while a storm of waves surged in his heart.

Lumos was the simplest of all magic spells; beginners could master it after simple practice, and when wizards invented this spell, they had already mined its potential almost completely, so the textbook contained only this single record of improvement. Although this improvement was included in the textbook, the standard casting procedure in the second part made no mention of it whatsoever.

Allen recalled Professor Flitwick mentioning this part in class and briefly introducing a non-standard casting procedure—imagining the light sphere rotating and flickering at the tip of one's wand while casting Lumos—and suggesting that students could try this non-standard procedure on their own after class. At that time, however, Allen had completely disregarded it.

Allen numbly drew his wand and cast Lumos according to the non-standard procedure; sure enough, a flickering and slowly rotating light sphere appeared at the tip of his wand.

"No wonder this didn't make it into the standard casting procedure; it's truly all show and no substance!" Allen thought, feeling somewhat broken. "The person who thought of this must have been nothing but idle!"

When he recorded the ancient rune key-value pairs for Lumos, he must have cast it using the standard procedure, so the value corresponding to the key "rotation speed" was empty, because he had absolutely no thought of "rotation" in his mind while casting. Allen thought with great certainty.

It seemed his conjecture at that time was correct; indeed, one's own thought during spellcasting would be translated into key-value pairs composed of ancient runes and then sent out. Allen felt somewhat delighted in his heart.

Then the meaning of the last key with an empty value that had not been deciphered was obvious: "whether to flicker!"

Pondering this conclusion, Allen felt a sense of familiarity once again in his heart: the process of casting Lumos was so much like calling a computer function, and a function with twenty-six input parameters at that; the spell was the function name, the thoughts in one's mind were the various input parameters, and input parameters for which there were no corresponding thoughts in one's mind were passed as empty.

A computer function refers to a segment of program or code that can be directly referenced by another segment of program or code. It sounds very convoluted, but it is actually quite easy to understand; for example, if you create a function named "addition within 10," this function has two input parameters, a and b; the function's implementation is c=a+b, and then the result of c is displayed in a pop-up window. When you call this function, you input a=1 and b=1, so the final result is a pop-up window appearing on the interface with the content c=2. This is the simplest function.

Similarly, Lumos is the same; when you call the Lumos function, inputting the necessary parameters summons a light sphere at the tip of the wand, but you can also input certain agreed-upon non-necessary parameters to achieve different effects. Just like the two parameters "rotation speed" and "whether to flicker," if you do not pass them, Lumos will not fail; if you do pass them, you can achieve different effects.

To verify his thought, Allen cast Lumos once more; this time, while casting, he only imagined the light sphere rotating at the tip of his wand, and sure enough, he summoned a light sphere rotating at the tip of his wand; then he only imagined the light sphere flickering at the tip of his wand and cast Lumos, and sure enough, he summoned a light sphere flickering at the tip of his wand.

So the improvement of spells in the textbook was actually discovering new usages of the spells!

Allen's gaze fell again on the translations of the keys for the remaining two key-value pairs with empty values: "trajectory" and "number of cycles."

Allen's heart suddenly beat violently; he suddenly realized the function and practical significance of these two keys. If he could develop the functions of these two keys, it would mean his next, and final, improvement to Lumos.

This would definitely have to be included in the textbooks! His discovery was obviously far more practical than that Black improvement! I wonder how much bonus the Ministry of Magic will give me! Allen thought happily.

However, the most urgent task was still to uncover the functions of these two keys; with so many people and eyes in the library, it was definitely not feasible. Allen thought silently.

Then Allen returned all the borrowed books and, without looking back, rushed toward the abandoned girls' bathroom where he had stayed yesterday.

"Girls' toilets! Your Emperor is back!"