Above the mage

Chapter 15 Spell Models

Gao De returned to the herb garden with three spell recipes, just in time for the evening meal break.

Suppressing his eagerness, he went to the restaurant and struggled to swallow the already unpalatable and tiresome classic two-piece set meal: rye bread and pea soup, before finally arriving at his workspace.

Evenings are the apprentices' practice time, which they can use freely without anyone disturbing them.

Gao De took out three spell recipes from his pocket. After a moment's thought, he first opened the recipe for the spell "Acid Splash".

What comes into view is a spell model composed of a number line graph with nine nodes. At first glance, the entire spell model looks like a three-dimensional constellation map, with the official description of the spell below.

The yellow paper that Yom gave us earlier contained descriptions of the effects of spells, and this was taken from those descriptions.

The right page features a magnified view of the spell model along with a detailed textual explanation.

Turn to the next page for another enlarged view and corresponding text explanation.

The spell models themselves are not very complicated, and since no corresponding potions are needed, the potion recipes have been omitted, making the entire spellbook only five pages long.

In just a few minutes, Gaode Maps quickly went through it.

Of course, this is not enough.

The first step in creating a spell model is to memorize the spell model.

Normally, a mage apprentice would be stuck on this first step for a day or two.

Gaode itself has an exceptional memory, and its predecessor also had a good memory. It seems that 1+1 is greater than 2, which led to its memory ability going from outstanding to superb.

In less than half an hour, he had already memorized the spell model of acid splashing.

Afterwards, Gao De put away the recipe for the acid splash spell, closed his eyes slightly, and quickly entered a meditative state.

These five days of practice have made Gao De increasingly adept at entering a meditative state.

He was completely absorbed in the world of magical stars.

In the depths of dark consciousness, countless stars are wandering, beautiful and dazzling.

To construct a spell model, one needs to use one's mental power to guide and connect these stars, making them obediently stay in a specific position, and then connect them through mental power to form a spell model.

Once the spell model is completed, the mage can use the model to transform mana into the corresponding spell and release it.

However, these stars are constantly in irregular motion, and trying to pull them together and connect them at a fixed distance and direction is by no means a simple task.

The spell model for [Acid Splash] requires a total of 9 stars, which is neither a lot nor a little.

In fact, 99% of magic tricks don't have more than 10 stars.

Gao De began to try to construct the spell model using his mental power, following the spell model diagram and specific route recorded on the [Acid Splash] spell recipe.

He randomly locked onto a star, his mental energy moving silently like a snake hunting its prey.

As the distance drew closer, Gao De's mental energy suddenly surged forward, firmly locking the previously irregularly wandering star in place.

Everything went very smoothly, and there were no unexpected events.

With his current mental strength, he should be able to control a star without making a mistake.

However, the star doesn't just stay still once it's locked down; it will continue to struggle and resist. In other words, before the spell model is constructed, Gaode needs to constantly use his mental power to restrain the star.

If any star is not properly controlled and deviates during the process of constructing the spell model, all efforts will be in vain, and everything will have to start all over again.

As the saying goes, everything is difficult at the beginning, but for building a spell model, it's the opposite; the simplest thing is this first star.

Because Gaode will need to focus its mental energy and attention on locking onto and controlling the second star while firmly suppressing the first one.

The final step will involve simultaneously suppressing eight stars while controlling the ninth star, the difficulty of which is unimaginable.

This is just one trick. The spell models for higher-level first-order and second-order spells will be constructed from hundreds of stars. It's terrifying to even think about.

It's no wonder that the two most important indicators for a mage are mana and mental strength: without mana, one cannot cast spells; without strong mental strength, one cannot construct a spell model; and without a spell model, even with abundant mana, one still cannot cast a spell. Both are indispensable.

However, this is not the problem that Gaode needs to consider at the moment; what he needs to do now is to control the second star.

He tried to dedicate a portion of his mental energy to control a star that was wandering near the first star, just as he had done before.

However, this second star cannot simply be kept stationary; it also needs to be moved to a specific position relative to the first star.

Gao De took a deep breath, and the spiritual power wrapped around the first star extended outward, becoming a straight star track that connected directly to the second star, until the two stars were joined together.

Then, following the instructions in the spell recipe, Gao De controlled the second star and began to move it, starting from the location of the first star.

"Move forward one step, move one and a third to the right, move one-quarter upward."

For any object to move, there are only two factors: direction and distance.

There are only three directions in which stars move: forward and backward, left and right, and up and down.

Distance, on the other hand, is expressed directly as a number without any unit.

Because the distance between each star in a spell model is proportionally fixed.

For example, if the distance between the second star and the first star in a certain direction is two feet, and the distance between the third star and the second star in a certain direction is four feet, then changing it to four feet and eight feet will not affect the construction of the spell model.

Therefore, the "one" in "forward one" actually represents a proportion. The actual distance set by each person in constructing the spell model is different, but the proportion is the same, thus ensuring the uniformity of the spell model.

The star track formed by spiritual energy connecting the two stars also extends and lengthens as the second star moves.

Finally, the second star reached its rightful place.

Gao De pressed on and captured a third star near the location of the second star. He then used his mental energy to create a star track connecting the second and third stars, and controlled the third star to start moving from the current position of the second star.

In the magical star sea, there is nothing but stars, so there are no reference points or standards.

However, the positions of each node in the spell model must be absolutely fixed and precise.

Therefore, it seems that simply grasping the distance each star moves is an incredibly difficult task.

But the truth is the opposite. In the process of constructing a spell model, the simplest thing is actually controlling the distance the star moves.

Because the magical star sea is located deep within each person's consciousness, and within each person's own consciousness space, each person will possess a precise intuition for real-world attributes such as distance, size, direction, and mass, comparable to that of a machine.

The real challenge in constructing spell models lies in controlling the movement of planets and maintaining their stability.

This is because, whether the planetesimals are moving or stationary, they are constantly struggling, which creates enormous resistance, and the direction of this resistance is constantly changing randomly.

"Advance one-half, advance two-thirds to the right, advance one-half down."

Similarly, this second star orbit extends and lengthens as the third star moves.

Gao De's spirit is highly focused on controlling the third star.

The third star is also moving at a steady speed.

However, at that moment, the orbit between the second and first stars suddenly began to tremble inexplicably, and the trembling frequency became faster and faster.

Then, before Gao De could react, the star track broke amidst the violent tremors. Without the restraint of the star track, the second star sped off like a wild horse through the magical star sea.

Like dominoes, the departure of the second star caused the collapse of the second star orbit, and the third star naturally escaped control.

The first attempt to build a model for the Acid Splash spell ended in failure!

(End of this chapter)