My physics masters couldn't possibly be grand mages.

"Before the era of the Magic King, if you wanted to use such magic, you even had to learn twenty-four runes first."

If you're talented, you can learn it in a decade or two; if you're not, it might take decades.

Think about it, spending decades at the first tier. That's enough to erode many people's passion for magic.

Xia silently turned his head and glanced at the monstrous old man beside him who had carved twenty-four runes in one night.

Einstein noticed the gaze, tilted his head slightly, and widened his gray-blue eyes more than usual, looking utterly innocent.

Char didn't speak and continued looking at the blackboard.

"You were born in a fortunate era; now you only need to follow in the footsteps of those who came before you."

Byrne tapped the first rune in the configuration on the blackboard.

"This is for 'energy release' and 'conversion'. It's used for ignition."

He pointed to the second one.

"This is 'gas manipulation' and 'circulation.' It's for air supply. Without it, the fire will only burn you, and its power will be weakened."

He stepped back, picked up his pointer, and tapped the blackboard: "You only need to learn these two runes, and then know how to put them together. That's it."

Byrne threw the chalk back into the box and dusted off his hands.

"No amount of talk is as good as hands-on experience. Let's get straight to the practical lesson."

The practical lesson took place in the plaza outside the tower where we first encountered it.

There is a projection device in the center that can project the three-dimensional geometry of the configuration into the air—two-dimensional drawings are not clear on the blackboard, but three-dimensional ones are immediately apparent.

Byrne stood at the edge of the court, arms crossed, like an impatient proctor.

A tall boy stood in the center of the field, his hands raised in front of his chest, his face flushed red, but there was nothing in his palms.

"Concentrate!" Bourne's voice came from the side. "I'm not telling you to use force, I'm telling you to find that shape!"

The boy's hands trembled even more violently. Then—

"puff."

A very soft, muffled sound, like a barely loud fart. A puff of gray smoke emerged from between his fingers, carrying a sulfurous smell.

The entire venue fell silent for a second. Then someone started laughing. The laughter spread like a plague; some people clutched their stomachs and squatted down, while others leaned against the low wall laughing.

The tall boy stood there, his face turning from liver-colored to tomato-colored.

"Congratulations, you've created a new configuration," Byrne scoffed. "I suggest you name it the Farting Technique."

He tossed a handkerchief to the boy: "Wipe your hands. Go back and look at the design diagram again."

The boy walked away with his head down.

Others experienced similar issues, with some burning their eyebrows and others their hair, creating a chaotic scene.

Char stood at the edge of the field, not in a hurry to make a move.

He went over the configuration in his mind—two runes, one for ignition and one for airflow.

And those intricate magical loops.

He knew their shapes and how to put them together. But between knowing and doing, there was the difference between the hair and eyebrows of the students around him.

Char stopped, took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and entered his sea of ​​consciousness.

As he meditated more often, he was able to freely immerse his consciousness into his sea of ​​consciousness.

Two runes were slowly rotating in the sea of ​​consciousness.

Driven by Char's mental power, each of the two runes projected a clone, which, under his control, combined in unique shapes...

Like assembling two building blocks. The first one is on the bottom, the second one is on top, and some patterns are used to connect them in the middle, which are the channels of magic.

The magic channel is the most difficult part; differences in the angle, length, and curvature of the intersections can cause subtle variations in the magic.

This is a delicate task; if it were an average student, they would probably waste the entire class practicing the depiction of magic circuits.

But this wasn't difficult for Char, because the diagrams he drew when he was studying electrical engineering were much more difficult than this.

He could feel the magic flowing into his hands. Like water flowing downhill, it was very natural.

He opened his eyes, palms facing forward.

A ball of flame shot out from his palm. But it only lasted for a second before it went out.

The original structure in the sea of ​​consciousness also dissipated in that instant.

"Oh?" Bourne's voice drifted from behind, tinged with a lazy, mocking tone. "A little better than 'farting.'"

Several students nearby were trying to suppress their laughter, their shoulders shaking.

Char didn't turn around. He stared at his palm, recalling the feeling of magic flowing through it just now.

The details of the configuration should be fine; all angles and lengths are drawn exactly as shown in the 3D diagram.

But why not?

As he pondered, he heard Bourne speaking to a student on the other side.

"Everyone's soul is different, and their attributes are different. The configuration in your mind will differ from that in the mind of the person next to you. You have to adjust it yourself."

Tighten it a little here, loosen it a little there, until it resonates with your soul. You are of the fire element, your fire is too strong, and it's easy for you to hurt yourself when magic is channeled into you.

property?

Char recalled what was said in "The Method of Meditation" that humans have five basic attributes: earth, water, fire, wind, and space, and each attribute represents the magical tendency that each person is most proficient in.

So what is his attribute?

Bourne seemed to have some kind of ability to see other people's attributes. After observing the students for a while, he could accurately tell what their attributes were.

However, ever since Byrne mocked him once, he has only been interested in Victor.

He paid particular attention to Victor and those around him, including members of the Golden Family, but also some without family crests, whose identities he didn't know.

It shouldn't be a problem for someone like Victor to have Bourne give him private lessons; inviting him to these regular classes is probably just a way to win people over.

For these powerful families, the Tower of Truth, a magical school, is the central place where they meet other descendants of the Golden Families, build future networks, and consolidate their social status.

While the price of the professor's lectures wasn't expensive for these golden families, Bourne wasn't just a fifth-tier professor; he was also backed by a sixth-tier archmage, which should attract many golden family members.

Moreover, they were happy to receive free lectures from professors.

But for Char, this was clearly not a good thing.

Now, he needs to figure out the "attributes" on his own.

So what attribute do I have?

Char didn't rush to try again. He carefully observed the students around him—each one's flame was different in color and duration. He suddenly realized that these failures were data in themselves.

He walked to the edge of the field, squatted down, took out his notebook and spread it on his lap, his eyes scanning over each student who was trying.

Bourne had just pointed out the attributes of several people one by one, and he had memorized all the ones he could.

Fire-attribute students: Orange-red flames that can shoot one or two meters away and burn for three or four seconds before going out.

Students with water attributes: Their flames are orange-yellow, soft, and don't travel far.

Students with the wind attribute: The flames are blue, they shoot far but are very scattered, like a gas stove with the flame turned up too high.

Char drew a simple table in his notebook, then recalled his previous failure.

The orange-red color with blue undertones extinguished in a second after being sprayed less than half a meter.

"The color is wind-related, but why is the distance so short?" He frowned.

He stepped back to Einstein's side and handed him the notebook.

"Could you take a look at this for me?"

Einstein took the notebook, his grey-blue eyes quickly scanning the data recorded by Char, and the corner of his mouth twitched slightly, as if he had seen something interesting.

He took a pencil out of his pocket and wrote two lines in the blank space.

First line: Flame duration ∝ Magic input × Combustion efficiency.

Second line: Spray distance ∝ wind speed/flame stability.

He pointed to the second line and said, "You are of the wind element, and your wind is stronger than most people's. In a sense, what you exhale is not fire, but wind with sparks."

"Then should I reduce the mana input to the wind runes?"

"Give it a try."

Char closed his eyes and adjusted his configuration in his sea of ​​consciousness—narrowing the magic channel connecting the "gas manipulation" rune slightly.

Then cast the spell.

This time the flames turned blue, shooting far but spreading outwards.

"That should work," Einstein said. "This is a spell best suited for fire-attribute users; it's reasonable that it would be less powerful for wind-attribute users. If you learned wind-attribute magic, it would be even stronger."

Xia didn't speak. He felt the "configuration" in his sea of ​​consciousness that maintained a certain stability. He only needed to input magic power once more, and this configuration would be basically fixed in his sea of ​​consciousness.

But he didn't try again; he always felt there were other ways.

The first spell he learned turned out to be a weakened version, which was not what he wanted.

He looked up and stared at the three-dimensional model projected in the center of the square.

He went over the principles of the magic in his mind once more: converting magical energy into flames, then using the "gas manipulation" rune to fuel combustion and shape it...

Wait, gas manipulation?

Can it be used to filter gases?

A thought suddenly flashed through Char's mind.

He abruptly turned to look at Einstein.

"oxygen!"

Einstein realized his mistake and stroked his chin, saying, "That's indeed a good idea. Only 21% of the air is oxygen. The remaining nitrogen doesn't support combustion; instead, it absorbs heat. If we could make 'gas manipulation' only filter out oxygen..."

Char picked up his notebook and drew a simple combustion equation in the blank space.