Chapter 7: A Gathering of Experts (Part 1)
Pressed by his own brothers, Linley honestly confessed everything about his relationship with Alice, which left the two playboys, Reynolds and Yale, clicking their tongues in amazement.
Ever since confirming their relationship as boyfriend and girlfriend, although they were separated in two different academies, they had agreed to meet in the middle and at the end of each month.
In the blink of an eye, nearly a month had passed. On December 28th, knowing that tomorrow he would head to Fenlai City to see Alice again, Linley was in an excellent mood.
"Hey, Linley."
"Oh, David."
Linley walked along the paths of the Ernst Institute of Magic, greeting acquaintances and friends warmly.
"Boss, are you really that excited about hooking up with that Alice?" Bebe, perched on Linley's shoulder, wrinkled his nose disdainfully. "Look at you, grinning like an idiot all month long."
In the past, Linley wasn't exactly cold or heartless, but he wasn't particularly warm either. This month, however, his mood was clearly excellent, and he was always smiling at people.
"What do you know, you little rascal?" Linley shot Bebe an annoyed glance, then strode spiritedly into the library. After picking out two books on wind-style magic, he entered the reading room and began to read.
The reading room was very quiet. In the spacious hall, only about twenty or thirty people were scattered about.
Linley chose a seat by the edge and started reading quietly. In the Ernst Institute's library, he had dabbled in history, magical beasts, continental geography, and various schools of magic… but the subject he devoted the most energy to was wind-style magic.
After all, Linley specialized in earth-style and wind-style magic. For earth-style, he had Doehring Cowart, a Saint-level magister, to guide him. But wind-style was a different matter.
As he read, Linley had flashes of insight and nodded in admiration.
After two hours of reading, Linley closed the book in his hands. "Grandpa Doehring, just fully understanding the mysteries of wind-style magic is already difficult enough, let alone creating new wind-style spells."
Casting magic usually involved reciting incantations and following the steps mechanically. One knew the "how" but not the "why." But by grasping the principles of magic, one could even simplify incantations or, through mental control, make more efficient use of magical power.
"Of course. Do you think creating magic is that easy?" Doehring Cowart's voice rang out in Linley's mind.
"Forget creating. I'd be happy just to learn some spells above the seventh rank. But the academy is too stingy—spells of the seventh, eighth, ninth ranks, and even forbidden spells, are never made public." Linley was quite dissatisfied with this, but he also knew that behind the Ernst Institute stood the Radiant Church, and the Radiant Church would never pass powerful magic on to people from other kingdoms.
Linley also felt somewhat fortunate that he had Grandpa Doehring to guide him; at least he didn't have to worry about earth-style magic.
He picked up another book on wind-style magic and continued reading…
"Looking at it comprehensively, it's not just wind-style. Many high-level spells in other schools are mostly extensions of basic spells. For example, the wind-style 'Wind Blade,' the higher-level 'Chain of Wind Blades,' the even higher 'Dance of Wind Blades,' all the way up to the ninth-rank wind-style spell 'Vacuum Binding Technique'—they all belong to one branch. Of course, following another branch of development, the Wind Blade can ultimately evolve into the most powerful forbidden spell, 'Dimensional Blade'…"
Reading this detailed description of the Wind Blade, Linley felt extremely excited.
This book's description stood at the pinnacle of the magical world and described things from a unified perspective. It was very beneficial for those with a solid foundation, helping them form a complete system of magic in their minds.
"The 'Levitation Spell' is actually a relatively simple spell, but it's not easy to cast because it relies heavily on affinity with wind-style elements. The higher the affinity, the more precisely you can control wind-style magical power and elements, allowing the Levitation Spell to reach greater speeds. The 'Flight Spell' is a level above the 'Levitation Spell.' Levitation only allows straight up-and-down movement, while Flight allows movement in all directions. It seems like all directions, but in essence, it only adds four directions—forward, backward, left, and right—compared to Levitation. For example, if you want to fly down and to the left, you just need to control yourself to fly down and left simultaneously. In fact, based on this principle and the incantation for Levitation, it's relatively easy to deduce the incantation for Flight…"
Reading this passage, a flash of inspiration struck Linley's mind.
Right. Compared to Levitation, Flight only adds the four directions of forward, backward, left, and right. In essence, it's just using wind-style magical power to control wind-style elements and propel the body in those four directions.
"Exactly. It's just adding four streams of wind—forward, backward, left, and right. If that's the case, deducing the incantation for Flight isn't hard." Linley immediately envisioned several possible incantations in his mind.
Of course, whether these incantations were correct would need to be verified through experimentation.
In the past, Linley had thought Flight required movement in all directions, making it difficult to formulate an incantation.
But now, it seemed Flight only added four directions compared to Levitation—just four extra wind currents. For Linley, this wasn't a big challenge.
Excited, Linley continued reading.
"Of course, high-level spells that can be easily deduced are extremely rare. For example, the level above 'Flight' is 'Wind Wings.' 'Wind Wings' requires shaping invisible wind into the form of two wings, which is extremely difficult. Its incantation is also vastly different from Flight's, making it impossible to deduce."
Linley nodded slightly.
The further he read, the more he believed the author of this book was definitely an expert in researching and creating magic. The explanations mostly came from magical principles, discussing how to study incantations, how to control elemental arrangements, and so on. It didn't talk about how to increase a spell's power.
If it were an ordinary person, seeing how complex the elemental arrangements were, they wouldn't bother with this book.
But Linley understood that if he figured out the principles, he would naturally know how to control magic to make the same spell more powerful.
"Linley." Just as Linley was immersed in the book, a crisp voice sounded beside him.
Linley looked up to see a tall, beautiful girl standing nearby. It was his good friend, Delia. However, her expression wasn't exactly pleasant.
"Delia, what's wrong?" Linley asked with a smile.
Delia bit her lip and was silent for a long moment before speaking. "Linley, I heard… you have a girlfriend?" Her big, moving eyes stared intently at Linley.