Cornflower Witch

Chapter 318 The Three Major Magic Systems
"Long time no see, Professor Seroffie."

Upon seeing her teacher, whom she hadn't seen for over two years, Hiltiya bowed respectfully to express her welcome.

"Long time no see, Tiya." The refined scholar nodded, looking around with slight curiosity.

"The air here is very good, the environment is elegant, and it's a great place to do research."

"Thank you for the compliment, teacher. It would be even better if you could stay here permanently; I would be very happy to welcome you."

"Hehe, then I'm afraid I'll have to trouble you for a while. I am indeed very interested in this area." He nodded with a smile.

"Sit down, don't be so formal. Tia is a big shot now."

"The teacher is teasing me again." Hilti smiled and shook her head, then sat down opposite the other person.

"How's your studies going these past few days? As far as I know, you've been quite busy."

"Indeed, as you said, I'm afraid I've missed quite a few classes," Hiltia replied, slightly embarrassed.

"I'd also like to ask you to give me some extra lessons this time."

"Hehe, no problem, just make your request. As long as it's something I know, I'll definitely teach you everything I know."

The two then discussed Hilti's progress, as well as her future study plans and schedule.

“Now that you’re here, I remember promising you that if you reach the third tier, I would teach you a spell with the ‘Emerald Honey’ attribute called ‘False Bouquet.’ This is the perfect opportunity to pass it on to you,” Cerrofi said, recalling his earlier encouragement.

"Teacher still remembers?" Hiltiya was slightly surprised.

“Of course, I am a scholar of the ‘Secret Language’ aspect. If I can’t even remember this, wouldn’t that be too embarrassing?” He commented that Hilti had forgotten the characteristics of the various aspects of the profession.

The concepts and abilities of the 'Secret Language' aspect are mostly related to 'knowledge', 'history', 'memory', 'writing', and 'codes'. Their memory is enhanced as their aspect rank increases. At higher ranks, they almost all have the ability to memorize instantly and remember everything they see, making them walking human libraries.

Upon hearing Cerophie mention teaching the spell 'False Bouquet', Hilti also grew curious about this spell's ability and began to inquire about it.

"What exactly is the difference between magic and the abilities we commonly use?"

“You’re quite perceptive. Spells and abilities are indeed very different,” the learned scholar began to explain to Sylvia.

"Based on their main focus, we can roughly divide them into three major systems: 'wizards,' 'mages,' and 'scholars.'"

"Most of the spells used by wizards are ancient, and their earliest origins may be the abilities of some powerful creatures."

"For example, ancient wizards saw the 'phoenix,' a powerful creature born from flames that could command towering flames."

"Envious of the phoenix's power, wizards began to try to obtain this power. Their initial idea was to transplant bloodlines to become a 'phoenix' themselves, but this was so difficult that it was simply impossible."

"Later, they imitated the body structure of the phoenix and conducted anatomical studies on it, imprinting and recording its blood vessels and patterns."

"If this bloodline pattern were copied onto human flesh, even if the effect was less than one percent of that of the phoenix, it would still grant power. This method was very popular in the early days, and you may have even heard of it now. Shamans in some remote areas would carve the battle patterns of ferocious beasts onto warriors with knives to gain powerful strength."

"After initially acquiring this power, wizards gradually became familiar with it, discovered and summarized the rhythmic principles within it, and further refined them, which is the ancient rune inscription."

"Later wizards went a step further, using these rune inscriptions as a foundation to construct spell models that were completely independent of physical entities, thus obtaining spell prototypes."

"The prototypes of these spells are often very crude. They must be continuously researched and improved over the generations before they can be widely adopted. The imprints of these spell models are often the secrets of various schools of thought in that era, and they are never taught to outsiders," Cerrofi explained in detail.

“At this point, it should be easy to understand.” Cerrop looked at Sylvia, who nodded, and then continued his explanation.

"However, the human pursuit of power has no limits, and the ancient wizards gradually diverged on the subsequent development of magic."

"Some people want spells to be as powerful as possible, and even hope to create spells that are more extreme and powerful than the originals. Spellcasters with this mindset are the 'wizards' and 'witches' that you and I are familiar with now."

"Another group of people have a different idea. They believe that a single strength is often not suitable for complex survival and combat. If one can flexibly switch and combine strengths, one can achieve unexpected results and create new abilities that have never appeared in the world before."

"Following this line of thought, they continued to delve into the secrets of runes and constructed more complex and precise spell models. They also began to explore the standards for runes, that is, to completely fix the size, shape, and specifications of all runes so that spells from different schools could learn from each other. This is similar to the standard scale in the craftsmanship industry."

"Compared to wizards, their spells are often less powerful, but they are exceptionally flexible and can be switched easily. This kind of spellcaster is what you occasionally hear about as a 'mage'."

"The last group, though also spellcasters, don't focus entirely on spell models. They only need a few spells with specific effects, so they also create spell templates and can switch between them to some extent. However, their flexibility is not as good as mages, and their power is not as good as wizards; it's a compromise between the two." "This compromise has many disadvantages, such as the difficulty in improving spell models, unlike the other two groups which can iterate easily. But the advantage is that they only need to learn specific knowledge, occupy fewer card slots, and consume less energy. It is very suitable for 'scholars' who need a certain level of self-protection but are unwilling to invest a lot of card slots."

"The spells you learned in the woods were mostly secret teachings of various schools, that is, spells of the 'wizard' system. They were not related to each other, could not be used interchangeably, and were very powerful."

"Powerful?" Hilti tilted her head.

“That’s right, as a gardener, you’ve also studied ‘vine growth,’ right?” Cerrofi asked with interest.

"Yes."

"Could you use vines to crush the stones?"

“I could do that when I was at level three,” Hiltiya nodded.

“Don’t you think this is very abnormal?” Cerrofi replied with a smile.

"Think about it again. Since your vines can crush rocks, wouldn't it be easier to strangle and kill a knight of the same rank?"

"It seems so."

"Don't you find this strange? Knights are usually among the strongest in their class, powerful individuals who can rival beasts of the same class, yet they can be bound by vines by gardeners of the same class and rendered immobile."

"They focused on improving their strength and combat skills, yet they were defeated by your single ability. Don't you think that's a bit unfair?"

“There are some,” Hiltiya said thoughtfully.

"Of course, your talent is also an exception. Other gardeners of the same level certainly couldn't do it as easily as you," Cerrofi added.

"However, this does not affect the overall situation. As a gardener of the same rank, being able to bind a knight with vines is actually quite extraordinary. Under normal circumstances, since you have focused on gardening, you are definitely not as good as those of the rank who focus on this aspect in other areas."

"But surprisingly, you can actually do it. This is the effect of constantly iterating and specializing in magical abilities, making them incredibly powerful."

"If a mage of the same rank were to directly trap a knight, it would be very difficult. His spells, such as 'Binding Ring,' would often be violently broken by the knight of the same rank, and he could only hold out for a short while."

"However, mages often have many methods. They can be flexible and change their methods. For example, they can create an extremely smooth plane to make it difficult for the knight to move and to keep falling down, thus achieving the same purpose of trapping the person."

After listening to Cerrofi's explanation, Hilti nodded slightly, gradually understanding.

"However, how do they manage to switch between spells so flexibly?" the girl wondered.

“Let me give you another analogy, and you’ll understand soon enough,” Cerrofi said with a smile to his bright student.

“A wizard is like a beautifully crafted scepter carved from a single tree root—sturdy, durable, and powerful.”

"A mage is like a scepter made of a hundred or so building blocks. It is flexible, fragile, and omnipotent. He can also turn the building blocks into longswords, shields, houses, armor, tables and chairs, and so on."

"A scholar is like a scepter made of six parts, more reliable than that of a magician, but not as sturdy as that of a wizard. However, these six parts can also be assembled into a chair for resting, so it serves two purposes and is very economical and material-saving."

"When a wizard reaches the third rank, he will condense a unique spell based on the core secret technique. When this spell is used, it often has a powerful effect that exceeds that of other spells of the same rank."

"For example, some dark wizards with the 'Death' attribute choose 'Lamentation' as their core arcane spell. This spell can tear apart the souls of creatures of the same level, and its power is astonishing."

"However, some mages with the 'Golden Steam' attribute choose the 'Spell Furnace' as their core secret technique. In battle, they can cast the spell simply by replicating the spell model recorded in the spellbook in the 'Spell Furnace'."

"The spell furnace is that box full of building blocks, and the spell model is the installation guide. When a mage casts a spell, he stacks the building blocks according to the guide to make the spell work."

"As for the scholar with the 'castle' attribute, he only has three stones of fixed shape, and the spells he can combine are extremely limited, but the effects are indeed a little better than those of a mage."

"Now you understand the specific differences between the three, right?" Cerroff finished explaining the differences between the three major systems of magic.

“Now I understand.” Hilti nodded knowingly.

"Very good, now I can begin teaching you the spell 'False Bouquet.' It's a spell from the Scholar system, not as powerful as spells from the Wizard system, but the advantage is that you can adjust the effect type depending on the 'flowers' used, and you can also convert a blessing effect into a curse later..."

In the empty classroom, Hilti listened attentively to the teacher's instruction and began to learn new spells.

　Many thanks to Shuyu Papa for her generous support!
　　Thank you~xy~, sweet and sour liyuu, Huainan Twelve Guards
　　Today I'm becoming a mystic, in the pitch-black universe, amidst dreams and illusions, Chao Longyi, Ying Niyan, I'll give you a quick scrape with my file, and I'm waiting for your generous donations~
　　Thank you everyone for your concern. Dad's condition is now basically stable, and he should recover by the end of the month.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)