My physics masters couldn't possibly be grand mages.

"If pure oxygen is used directly, the combustion temperature will be much higher, there is no need to reduce the air output, and it will not affect the fire."

He put the notebook down.

Char tried to combine and adjust the positions of the runes in his mind.

With each attempt, he gradually became more proficient.

He suddenly felt that this thing was somewhat like engineering.

It's like a hybrid of hardware engineering and low-level programming.

He took a deep breath and raised his hand.

In his mind, the "gas manipulation" rune began to change—he tried to adjust its structure so that it could "recognize" oxygen instead of sending all the air in at once.

The magic surged once more. This time, a light flashed in his palm—

This time, however, the flames didn't shoot out at all; they just burst into flames in Xia's palm, almost burning his hand.

However, he reacted quickly and promptly cut off the supply of magic.

Someone nearby chuckled.

Char turned his head and saw Viktor looking at him with a mocking gaze.

He slowly raised his hand, and just like Bourne had done, cone-shaped flames erupted from his palm.

He succeeded.

He withdrew his hand, glanced at Xia Ya, and a slight smile appeared on his lips.

"Perfect," Byrne praised. "You did not disgrace the Vilvia family. As expected of a great family that once produced a seventh-tier member."

He paused, shifting his gaze from Viktor to Einstein standing next to Char, a slight twitch at the corner of his mouth.

"Mr. Einstein, would you like me to tutor your student?"

His tone was light, even casual, as if he were talking about something trivial. Several students from the Golden Family nearby chuckled softly.

Char ignored him; he was now focused solely on the magic.

He knew exactly where the problem had occurred.

He cannot have the same rune do two things at the same time.

Screening and conveying are two different things.

Therefore... he needs to add another "gas manipulation" rune, specifically for filtering oxygen.

In other words, this must be a three-rune configuration...

He then closed his eyes and began to try again.

This time, he didn't rush to activate his magic. He first went through the entire process in his mind.

One rune filters oxygen, another shapes form and applies pressure, and finally, the "Energy Release" and "Transformation" runes convert magic into fire to ignite it...

Then he began to build.

In the sea of ​​consciousness, three runic structures simultaneously emerged—air shaping, oxygen sifting, and flame release.

Magic surged up.

Then--

A ball of blue-white flame shot out from his palm.

"Buzz!"

It was a deep, continuous hum, like something vibrating at high speed.

The edge of the flame trembled slightly, distorting the air and creating a ring of transparent ripples around it.

The scorching heatwave assaulted the surrounding air, causing the students near Xia to involuntarily take a few steps back and their faces to change color.

Even Viktor, who had originally planned to leave get out of class early, felt the unusually high temperature.

He turned his head abruptly, the intense blue-white firelight reflecting on his bewildered face.

That was definitely not the Burning Hand that Bourne had just taught him.

The power is wrong.

It lasted for about five seconds.

Char withdrew his hand. The flames went out. But his palm was clean, without a trace of smoke.

"The mana consumption is greater," he murmured, "but the power has also increased."

Xia stared at his palm, stunned for a moment. Then he realized—the entire arena had fallen silent.

Bourne stood there, having clearly seen what had just happened, but he saw more than Victor.

That's why a look of disbelief crossed his eyes.

His lips moved as if he wanted to say something, but in the end he only managed to squeeze out one sentence.

"...Three runes?"

The voice was very soft, so soft that only a few people nearby could hear it. It wasn't a question, but more like a confirmation of unwilling disbelief.

Bourne could tell that it was indeed the Burning Hand, only it had been optimized.

"Did you teach him to make these changes?" Byrne asked Einstein.

"No," Einstein shook his head, "He did it all by himself; I wasn't involved."

Seeing the skeptical look in Bern's eyes, Einstein shrugged. "I'm his teacher, not his PR. What he did is what he is. It won't do him any good if I brag about it."

Bourne stared at Xia, a look of disbelief in his eyes.

"Attribute adaptation modification" and "optimization" are two different concepts.

The former is simply to adapt magic to one's own magical power; unless it is for someone with the corresponding magical attribute, this kind of modification is usually "weakening".

"Optimization" is something that only mages of the fourth or fifth rank or higher can usually do.

Because they know more runes and understand them more deeply, they know which runes, when added, can bring about a qualitative change in magic.

Bourne raised his hand, and several scarecrows sprang up out of thin air from the previously flat open space.

"Try using it again," Bourne said to Char.

Char felt the second-order configuration in his mind, which did not disappear after being assembled as in previous attempts.

Instead, it remains in a precarious state, as if it will collapse at the last moment—or become completely solidified.

He took a deep breath, raised his hand, and the magic flowed once again along the crumbling structure.

Blue and white flames shot out from his palm and struck the scarecrow's chest.

"call--"

There was no explosion, no roar. There was only a dry, rapid burning sound, like a bundle of dry firewood being thrown into the furnace.

The scarecrow's surface turned black the moment it came into contact with the flame, and then quickly curled and cracked from the center outwards.

A wave of heat hit them, carrying the smell of burning. Several students standing nearby instinctively took a step back.

Char withdrew his hand. The flames went out.

The scarecrow was still burning. Flames leaped from its shoulders and head, crackling and popping. After about ten seconds, it finally collapsed completely, crumbling into a pile of smoking charcoal.

The entire venue fell silent for a moment.

"...Is that the Burning Hand?" someone whispered.

"It's about 800 degrees Celsius hotter than the original," Bourne said.

He turned to look at Char.

He was slowly closing his eyes at that moment.

The magical channels between the three runes were originally like misaligned mortise and tenon joints; every flow of magical energy would cause them to vibrate and loosen, and they could fall apart at any moment.

But just as the flames erupted, all the channels lit up simultaneously—not a collapse, but a welding process.

The magic, like molten tin, seeped into the cracks, filling, pressing, and locking every joint.

The structure no longer swayed. It floated steadily in the depths of the mind, like a building with a solid foundation.

He could feel the magic surging from the depths of his consciousness flowing along this new path, washing over his body.

With each rinse, the structure brightens a little more, and his body gets a little warmer.

That wasn't ordinary heat. It was the soreness of muscle fibers being stretched and contracted by magic, the tingling sensation of nerve endings being licked by electric current.

He could hear his heart pounding in his eardrums, each beat deeper and more steady than the last.

Char suddenly opened his eyes.

The warmth of the flames still lingered in his palm. He looked down at his hand—the skin hadn't changed, but he could feel something different beneath it.

It's like a rusty iron pipe has been replaced with a copper pipe, and the "pipes" through which the magic flows have been stretched out a bit.

He took a deep breath, suppressing the feeling of fullness throughout his body.

According to the description in "The Method of Meditation", learning a second-tier spell is essentially like having one foot already in the second tier.

Of course, the standard for a second-tier mage is three basic second-tier spells, and only after that will the enhancement of the second-tier configuration for the mage be reduced.

He's only just getting started.

Viktor was clearly unwilling to give up, and he raised his hand again to use the Burning Hand.

Orange flames shot out from his palm, spreading out in a perfect cone shape, and struck the scarecrow five steps away.

Flames clung to the surface of the grass stems, like a bundle of damp firewood being lit—the flames licked at the scarecrow's chest, but only burned through the surface layer, revealing the dry but not yet fully burned grass stalks inside.

He gritted his teeth and maintained his magical output. The flames lasted for about seven or eight seconds before going out.

However, no one paid him any attention.

All eyes were fixed on Xia, as if the blue-white flame still lingered in his palm.

"Char," Bourne said calmly from the side.

Char looked up.

"Would you be willing to include this version of the Burning Hand in the Tower of Truth?"

After a pause, Bourne continued.

"Every mage who wants to learn this configuration needs to pay you a patent fee. For the second-order configuration, the fee is about twenty to sixty."

Xia thought for a moment and said, "I'll consider it."

The exam is in two months. He doesn't know what the exam will be about, but he knows that having an extra trump card is never a bad thing.