Sanctuary Paradise

Chapter 765 Home Field and Mana

What is home ground?

Regarding this point, there is an extremely large amount of relevant information and descriptions in the paradise.

Some say that the home field is a special area where one can use certain special skills that are restricted under normal circumstances without restraint, and some say that the home field allows one to fight continuously without sleep until one's energy is exhausted... But in fact, if one strictly follows the academic definition of the home field, the real "home field area" actually has only one definition from beginning to end -

That is the area where you can maximize your advantages at the current stage.

Just as the system that controls the ability to fly will prioritize the environment with no footholds as its home ground when facing the technical system of the walking chicken, everyone's needs for the home ground are completely different depending on personal ability, moves, system, time, place and even enemy.

Taking their own experience as an example, in the progress of each world they have ventured into, they have also set up their own home court several times.

Among them, the one in the Black Four World accumulated magic power in the home field in advance and used magic to activate the surrounding rocks, so as to ensure their mana consumption and mobility within it; the one in the God Eater World gave priority to gathering a large amount of earth elements and pursued extreme lethality; and the one in the Earth Wrong World integrated all the magic they mastered into the surrounding environment, so that they could give their all to fight to the death with Ji Ren Yuan Ying.

It can be said that although the arrangements of the home courts were all centered around elemental magic, the details were completely different. This feature is also called the "timeliness of the home court" in the theories of academic sects.

Because of different objective factors, even if their own strength has not changed, they will be affected by various uncontrollable factors, and the home court they need in different time periods will definitely be completely different.

In other words, if we use a strict definition, there is no absolutely perfect home field in the world.

On the other hand, since there is no 'absolutely perfect home field', it means that a 'relatively perfect home field' does exist in this world.

This is also the purpose for which various domain and barrier abilities were developed. They do not need to be perfect, but as long as one can enable one to exert nine or even ten points of strength in an environment where one can only exert six points of strength, it is already an extremely successful domain and barrier ability.

Taking the 'Netherworld Realm' of the Death Master as an example, under normal circumstances, the opponent's Netherworld death energy and Netherworld transformation will be restrained to a certain extent when encountering a high enough level of healing exemption and a strong enough space shock, and the 'instant death' method of the Netherworld Lord's core can only be effective when facing undead enemies.

But when the opponent pulls the enemy into the "Netherworld Realm", the situation will be completely different. At that time, the opponent's Netherworld death energy will not only ignore various exemptions, causing the judgment level to be so high that even those with fifth-level healing exemption and heavy sword masters will be banned from healing, but also form an absolute suppression on the enemy's time and space means. Even the instant death that originally needed to be triggered once when the enemy was killed can be enhanced to be directly judged once as long as the enemy's Netherworld erosion degree is full.

Although even they had never really tried the last point, during their daily sparring, they either did not give the Death Master any chance to stack up their Netherworld Corrosion Value in the Netherworld, or when the Netherworld Corrosion Value reached 99.9%, the training ground's protection mechanism was automatically triggered, and they were judged to have surrendered in advance.

After all, the opponent's Netherworld Instant Death is too terrifying in terms of judging depth. It is an ability that can kill the entire world. If they are really hit by it, no one can guarantee that it will not leave them with some permanent damage despite the protection mechanism.

From the above examples, we can also see how well the 'Netherworld Realm' of the Death Master performs in the 'relatively perfect home field'. Although there is the defect of excessive consumption, the opponent's 'Netherworld Realm' can actually guarantee that as long as it opens the field, it can directly enter an environment that is most suitable for its own performance.

At the same time, with such a living competitor around them, no matter if they admit it or not, the intensity of the 'Netherworld Realm' of the Dead has undoubtedly brought them a certain stimulation.

——Even if it cannot be done perfectly, at least we have to develop a field-related capability that has the potential to catch up with it.

Although no one pointed it out, Xin Lailai knew very well that this might be the reason why he was so obsessed with the home field.

Otherwise, with their level of magic, there is no need to be so obsessed with pursuing the top home-type field that can take care of their own magic system. Instead, they should settle for the second best and choose a regular home-type field that is not so comprehensive in effect, or a home-type barrier that is comprehensive enough in effect but cannot be moved freely.

Just like the Ice Prison barrier with drifting ice, it may not be as flexible as the field, but after it is deployed, it continuously increases its own ice element spell damage and continuously applies ice element erosion to enemies in the field, reducing their entire body speed. In fact, it is enough to ensure that it has an absolute advantage in combat in a fixed area.

But they did not choose to do so. Or perhaps, it was because they had been demanding almost abnormally of themselves all along that they were able to catch up with the Death Keeper and others with such qualifications.

Lowering their demands might make their lives a lot easier, but if they were looking for ease, they could have chosen the easier path back when they arrived in the wrong world, instead of squeezing and forcing themselves like they are now.

Again, since you have chosen to aim for the "strongest", you must do your best, rather than using excuses like "try your best", "try your best", "give it a try", or "this is not bad". This is Xin Lailai's style.

But getting back to the point, after having seen the nearly perfect Netherworld Realm and the relatively imperfect Ice Prison Barrier, what kind of home-field domain would be able to meet their requirements?

This was what had troubled Xin Lailai before.

The route he thought of at that time was to find a way to integrate all his spells, that is, to find an all-round field that could enhance spells such as annihilation, gravity, and suturing, which are completely different in principle.

In fact, from the conclusion, this is not wrong.

If one wants to develop a domain-type spell that has the potential to catch up with the Netherworld, then the above conditions are at best just the most basic step. Therefore, in terms of requirements, when using the Netherworld as a comparison object, the above requirement is actually not harsh.

The key is the starting point.

At first, Xin Lailai actually simply wanted to make the domain he created be able to comprehensively enhance the spells they created, just like the Netherworld Realm. Simply put, it was to make the healing depth of the Crystal Suturing Technique one or two orders of magnitude deeper, and to make the gravity induced by the Chaos Star Technique a thousand times or something... In short, it was to achieve an all-round improvement to the upper limit.

But when they put it into practice, they soon discovered that such an idea was simply impossible to work. Even Xin Lailai's thinking was once stuck in a bottleneck. No matter how much information he read, he could not find a solution to the problem.

It was not until he heard Kraft's unintentional mumbling to himself that he suddenly realized the misunderstanding they had fallen into.

Their starting point was wrong.

If they want to enhance all their spells, the right way is never to give them the ability to increase the upper limit of all their spells like the Netherworld does.

Or maybe such a field does exist in this world, but it is definitely not something they can create or control now.

The Netherworld domain of the Death Master can produce such abnormal gains because the Netherworld origin that is linked to the entire Netherworld is sealed in the other party's body, and because the other party's foundation is naturally much larger than theirs, so it can bear such abnormal domain-type abilities.

However, they have come from scratch, with a heritage that is cleaner than their money pockets. They obviously do not have such potential. This is an objective fact that must be faced and acknowledged.

In other words, the all-round spell buff they want will never be about raising the upper limit of the effects of all spells, because this is simply not something they can afford now.

So, where do we start?
After giving up on the route of increasing the upper limit of the spell's effect itself, what else can he use as a starting point?

Is it the casting speed and casting accuracy?

Obviously not. With two souls in one body and a soul master, their casting speed and accuracy have undoubtedly reached the limit of the current level. In theory, it is impossible for a wizard of the same level to cast spells faster and more accurately than them.

After all, no matter how powerful a normal wizard is, it is impossible for him to concentrate all his energy on casting spells at all times during battle. He will inevitably be distracted to consider things like body control and close combat. On the contrary, they, with two souls in one body, can make one person be responsible for body control while the other devotes himself to casting spells.

Of course, regarding this defect of the wizard, there are actually many ways to alleviate it from the fifth level onwards, such as the most classic "artificial magic spirit", which uses a method similar to their two souls in one body to solve the problem of needing to distract and control the body during battle.

However, this has nothing to do with them now, or it is not something they need to consider now.

But getting back to the point, when spell effects, casting speed, and casting accuracy are not suitable as entry points for improvement, where else can they start?

Is it the casting distance?
This is obviously not the case. With their current perception range and mental strength of the Star Luo Domain, if we only talk about the casting distance, they are definitely the top-tier even among the third-level external wizards.

You have to know that the maximum casting distance of Xingnu and Daofa is basically around 2km, and if they want, they can accurately release their spells at any location within a 4km radius, which is 3/1 more than the 3km casting distance standard of the third-level outer echelon magician. Even if they really condense the domain, it is still unclear whether the range of the domain itself is larger than their casting distance. In this case, it is obviously unrealistic to use the domain to increase their casting distance.

So, is it the number of spells cast?

At first glance this direction seems to make sense, but unfortunately, in reality it still does not.

First of all, we must understand that the number of spells a wizard can cast can be divided into two factors: the maximum upper limit of spells that can be manipulated at the same time and the maximum number of spells that his mental strength and physical strength can withstand. The former is linked to the strength of mental strength and brain computing power, while the latter is linked to mental resilience, physical strength and mana reserves.

From the perspective of mental power, their mental strength and resilience have begun to approach the limit of their current level under the effect of the Soul Burning and Heart Refining Ritual during this period, and their brain computing power, with the help of psychic acceleration, can easily reach the limit that the current body can bear.

Not to mention the physical strength, with over 80 points of body defense, points of health, and the body protection energy brought by the passive of the five masters, it can be said that there are few people in the entire third-level outer-level echelon who are tougher than them, let alone the mages in the outer-level echelon.

As for mana reserves? For someone like White Mage, who lives in the paradise of reincarnation and is tormented by the bad market environment there and can't even afford a few bottles of enhancement potions, this might be a problem.

But for them who live in the Sanctuary Paradise and have the support of the alchemist Xiao Huangshen, this question is a bit ridiculous.

Let's put it this way, they have 400 bottles of the legendary mana purification extract that restores 20 mana points per second for 10 seconds, with the recovery effect stacked up to 1 times at the same time. One bottle costs 20 Paradise Points on the market.

And this is just the quantity prepared by the Little Wild God for their tea party. If it were a war world or an abnormal world, the number would be even more exaggerated. This is the benefit of having excellent logistics. Of course, the environment of the paradise also has a big role to play.

Therefore, starting with the number of spells cast is not a wise choice. In other words, if you simply ask them to cast the spells they can cast now a few more times, it will not have much significance for normal battles.

So, what else can serve as an entry point?

What else could satisfy the need to simultaneously enhance all the spells at their disposal and still have enough potential for development?

The answer was simple, just as they suddenly realized from Kraft's words:
mana.

Or in other words... it's the 'efficiency of mana utilization'.

This is the answer that Xin Lailai realized.

As for how this answer works on all their spells, we must first understand one question:
If the total mana reserve is 10000 points, how many times can a spell with a mana consumption of 1000 be released continuously in theory?

The correct answer is "infinitely".

Yes, not 10 times, but infinite times.

This is not a logical loophole or a word game. In the theory of magic, any spell, when the user is in a closed system, as long as the total mana reserves inside reach the level that can release the spell once, then the spell can be released an unlimited number of times in this closed system.

As for why this phenomenon occurs, we need to understand another question on this basis:
That is, where does the magic power go during the process of casting a spell?

Was it completely consumed? Or was it transformed into some other form of extraordinary energy? Or did something else happen that could not be explained by theory or logic?

The answer is smaller mana.

Yes, the end of mana is still mana.

Whether it is a normal spell that uses mana as fuel or a spell that uses mana as a participant, the final destination of the mana after the spell effect ends is always mana.

Take their Crystal Devouring Technique as an example. In terms of effect, the process of Crystal Devouring Technique will give people a feeling that all their magic power is converted into devouring energy, but in fact it is just... just a process.

In other words, although the end point of their Crystal Devouring Technique is to convert mana into devouring energy, in fact, when these devouring energies explode and cause real damage to the enemy that is consistent with the calculated results, their structure will disintegrate into smaller units of mana in the process.

Just like the differences between atoms, protons, electrons and quarks in the material world, under normal circumstances, no one would consider mana, magic power, and Blue Steel Shadow energy as the same thing, just like no one would consider iron and carbon as the same substance.

But if these extraordinary energies that can be converted through magic power are endlessly disassembled, then when they are smaller than a certain unit, the structure that makes up them will directly collapse and return to the original state of magic power particles, just like when iron and carbon are disassembled from the atomic level, only a bunch of protons, neutrons and extranuclear electrons will be obtained.

Of course, following this logic, one might wonder, since magic power and Blue Steel Shadow energy, these extraordinary energies, will undergo structural disintegration after being disassembled a certain number of times, losing their original effectiveness and returning to the most basic mana particles, then what about mana itself?
If mana is disassembled endlessly, will it also produce a microscopic level where mana is ineffective?
The answer is no.

That's right, no matter how many times the magic power is refined and cut, even if it is cut to below the quark level beyond the observable limit of the material world, its properties will not change at all, and it will still be able to exert the characteristics of "law" and "force" that magic power should have.

Theoretically, there is no critical limit to magic power. This is the result obtained by countless scholars after research.

This includes the so-called 1 standard unit of mana. The reason why many spells have unit volume requirements for the mana used is because the spell models that constitute them can only use mana that is "rough" to this extent.

Just like a 20cm deep hole requires something larger than 20cm to penetrate to the bottom, the magic model itself requires such high mana accuracy that such a large mana particle is used, not because mana particles only have the characteristics of mana when they gather to such a large size.

The phenomenon occurs under the transformation of the spell model. During the execution of the spell, it combines with the external environment to become free mana particles that need to be refined before they can be used again.

In fact, not only mana, but also soul energy, which exists as the boundary of the spiritual world towards the origin and cannot be directly converted by mana, actually has the same characteristics.

It cannot be created out of thin air, nor can it be permanently consumed in any real sense.

This is based on the "Law of Conservation of Extraordinary Energy" at the spiritual level.

According to this theory, a new question can be raised:

Suppose there is a spell that can make one's own mana not immediately converted into free mana particles after participating in the spell, but re-aggregate into controllable mana like the mana in the body, or even go a step further and directly create a spell that can control the free mana in the nearby area... and even all free supernatural energy. What will happen?

Yes, it's just as expected.

At that time, any enemy within the range of this spell will no longer be able to call upon any free supernatural energy, and even the supernatural energy consumed by the enemy when attacking them will be used by them instead.

And they...will always be an almost inexhaustible source of energy!
This is the answer that Xin Lailai realized from his epiphany.

Starting from the effects of spells, unless they never create new spells, what awaits them will only be endless improvement and filling. Starting from the magic power and even the extraordinary energy itself, unless they completely abandon the path of magic, no matter what kind of spell it is, it will eventually escape their control.

Just like what they realized when they broke through the bottleneck of Spell and Mana Master LV.50:
All things have different paths, but all paths lead to the same destination.

This time, what they have to grasp is no longer the myriad things in the world that are heading in different directions, but the great road that leads to one place!

……

(End of this chapter)