A certain Hogwarts professor of runes

Chapter 199 Ancient and Modern Times

Hermione seemed to remember something. "Professor, was this the same spell you used in your open lecture last year?"

"No, what was demonstrated in the open class was real ancient magic, but it was based on this rune," Felix said.

He glanced at the time and said gently, "That's about it for today. As for how to unlock the power of individual runes, I've scheduled that for tomorrow. You can try it yourself when you get back; there's no danger, but it might cause you some trouble."

"Troublesome?"

Felix smirked. "If I remember correctly, one of the runes I taught you had a rather interesting effect. I wonder if you can spot it?"

Hermione felt a little resentful; the professor's wicked sense of humor had surfaced again...

By this point, Hermione had a pretty good grasp of the logic behind the entire practical ancient rune system—to draw an analogy, she thought of the radio she had personally disassembled.

The runes are the foundation of everything, equivalent in status to the electronic components in a radio;

But whether it's a single rune or an electronic component, they are relatively independent and can exhibit their own characteristics, such as the heating of a resistor, the light emission of a light bulb, and the rune symbolizing light that the professor showed.

These characteristics are not inherently good or bad, strong or weak, but they become different when human subjective judgment is involved: luminescence is clearly more useful than heat generation...

The rune circuit corresponds to the circuitry in a radio. At this point, the runes have been combined to form a circuit with specific magical functions, such as the burst rune circuit that the professor demonstrated a long time ago.

She recalled that Professor Hyp described it as "very unstable," which meant that even a single spellbook loop was difficult to use stably.

Only by having multiple rune circuits work together can a fully functional rune artifact be created, just like her beaded pouch.

As for ancient magic, she didn't have much information about it, so she assumed it was the same thing.

Hermione thought this analogy would make it easier to understand, so she shared her thoughts with the professor, looking at him expectantly, "What do you think?"

Felix gave him an approving look. "That's a very apt summary, Miss Granger. For you right now, that's perfectly acceptable."

The little witch nodded. She had learned so much new knowledge today that she needed to review it all when she got back.

……

After Hermione left, Felix sat on the sofa, his thoughts on the differences between ancient magic and simplified magic deepening after tonight's experiences.

His previous idea was that ancient magic was powerful but difficult to control; while simplified magic, though not particularly powerful, was perfectly adequate. Its greatest advantage was that it was easy to learn and had a lower probability of going out of control.

But in reality, the replacement of ancient magic with simplified magic was almost inevitable.

Simplified magic can basically be seen as a combination of incantation, casting action, and mana manipulation.

The "spell" represents the power of the mind; once mastered, it can be omitted, meaning it can be cast silently.

The latter two—'casting action' and 'mana manipulation'—can be confused in most cases.

This is because in the simplified magic system, the casting action and the mana mobilization are bound together one by one. One casting action corresponds to one way of mana mobilization, which is the essence of the entire simplified magic system.

The benefits of this approach are astonishing:

Wizards don't need to spend a lot of time learning how to manipulate and control their magic; this knowledge is naturally integrated into the Hogwarts curriculum.

In theory, once you've learned the standard spellcasting actions, you're qualified to master most spells within the same system.

The reason it's not all the spells is that some less common spell-casting actions have been removed from Hogwarts' current curriculum, meaning that young wizards cannot master the magical manipulation behind these actions.

However, if the professor wants to teach extra, he can spend more time on the new casting action while explaining the spell. At most, the young wizard will find the spell a bit difficult and not very good at it.

Because the casting action and the manipulation of magic are so closely integrated, many young wizards only know the former and have no concept of the latter, but this does not affect their ability to use magic.

An extreme example is:

Some exceptionally talented wizards can master the corresponding magic simply by observing someone's spellcasting and actions after watching them cast it only once.

What's even more convenient is that once you're familiar enough with the spell, the casting action can be omitted, and everything seems to return to the essence of manipulating magic.

However, most wizards never saw this process clearly from beginning to end.

If young wizards are not satisfied with the school's curriculum, the Hogwarts library also has a wealth of materials for them to refer to and study in depth, provided they choose the right books.

The above considerations can all be considered advantages of simplified magic—it is easy to learn, forms its own system, and retains the possibility of further improvement.

This is far superior to ancient magic.

It's important to know that ancient wizards didn't even have standardized spell-casting techniques. Learning each ancient spell meant taking an adventure, so they naturally preferred the same type of magic to reduce the risk of learning new spells.

In addition, ancient wizards followed a master-apprentice system, and communication was not as convenient as it is now. This led to their serious imbalance in their skills, and many wizards only mastered a few fire spells in their entire lives.

According to Felix's speculation, only when he has mastered the characteristics of a large number of practical ancient runes and the ways to combine them will he be able to truly unleash the power of ancient magic.

Even a few fire spells could set off a prairie fire.

However, simplifying magic isn't all an advantage—

This practice has led to an inevitable result: for modern wizards, the more ancient the magic, the more difficult it is to master.

This is because some ancient magic inherited the ancient wizards' understanding of magic, but this understanding seems out of place in the current magic system.

For example, the Guardian Charm focuses more on the use of mental power.

Moreover, its method of manipulating magic is not within the basic spellcasting techniques taught at Hogwarts. This means that you have to relearn several, or even a dozen, methods of manipulating and controlling magic, which stumps more than 90% of wizards.

Felix realized this early on and also thought about how to break free from the constraints of the simplified magic framework.

He first learned how to manipulate and control magic by browsing books in the library.

He also attempted to discover powerful magic from various ancient texts, and to master and control it.

In fact, this is also the choice of many wizards—in the pursuit of powerful magic, they improve their control over magical power and their understanding of magic.

Later, Felix set his sights on the practical ancient runes that he believed pointed directly to the essence of magic, and has continued to develop them to this day.

But now it seems, is runes the essence of magic?

In just one year, he had witnessed Slytherin's blood magic, Ravenclaw's memory magic, and Dumbledore's transfiguration magic, which he had never shown before.

Everyone is on the right path, although Felix has no doubt that the path he has chosen has the greatest potential.

If he were to judge now, there is only one essence of magic, and that is magic power—the magic power that wizards are born with.

With magic, a vibrant and diverse magical world comes into being.

This chapter clarifies some of the original settings, and it was a real headache to write. I'd like to ask for everyone's opinions. If you don't like it, the author will reduce this kind of purely theoretical description.

Also, only two chapters today.

(End of this chapter)