Chapter 80: The Essence of Magic and the Sound of Art

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

To the majority of the people in this world, “What is magical power?” wasn’t a question at all. They thought the answer was obvious and not worth getting to the bottom of. Magical power was magical power; it was one of the ubiquitous energies of this world, the most precious wealth that the gods had bestowed upon humankind, and also the standard with which humans were divided into various grades and classes.

Some of the priests would tell you, magical power was the power that the gods scattered in the world after they fell; it was the aftermath from the battle of the gods that was recorded on the ‘eternal stone tablet’. The defeated gods broke into pieces during the battle and fell towards the earth; their bodies burned in midair, and the flames and smoke became the first magical power, whereas the residue left after the burning became the first demonic beings.

On the other hand, some scholars amongst the mages would say — magical power was the bridge between the elemental world and the real world. It was a kind of ‘hypermatter’; it could be felt, could be used, but could not be seen. It came from the turbulence of the Sea of Ether and would present an irregular rise and fall following the changes in relative distance between the real world and the elemental world, which was also the phenomenon of magic upsurges…

However, Gawain could not accept either one of these claims. He came from a modern world that advocated science and reason, advocated clear and definite interpretations of all profound mysteries. He believed there ought to be an even clearer, more comprehensible explanation for magical power that could even be quantified in data and specified using models.

Perhaps this could not be done in areas involving the gods, but since the mages could use specific methods to utilize magical power and even use formulas to simplify the procedures of spellcasting, then magical power could definitely be analyzed like that.

According to the information that he’d currently grasped, magical power was indeed ‘ubiquitous’; every corner of the entire world was filled with this invisible power, and the people of this world mainly had two ways of utilizing magical power. The first was by directly casting spells. Mages would use mental focus to construct the model of the spell, then use the spell template to utilize the magical power already present in the atmosphere, and finally, form the spell effect. The second way involved using facilities similar to self-powered arrays or magic wells to first extract magical power and then use this magical power in the spell rituals.

Regardless of methods, magical power was ‘drawn’ from nature and wasn’t something that humankind could create out of thin air.

Hence, Gawain believed at one time that magical power was possibly a kind of special ‘matter’ or a certain thing that used matter as its carrier. However, the instant magical power that Rebecca’s ‘rune trigger’ produced at the moment it was connected now gave him a different idea.

This seemed to be a phenomenon that would emerge in a certain energy field — he boldly assumed.

What if magical power was a kind of ‘energy field’, and the various performance effects of magical power could be viewed as a type of special fluctuation? The rune trigger was like an incomplete circuit in the energy field. In the instant that it was connected, the circuit became complete; hence, a part of this energy field entered the circuit, and in this process, the flow of energy produced this observable ‘fluctuation of magical power’. However, as the circuit of the rune trigger was a closed one, this process could not proceed continuously; thus, the magical power was instantaneous…

In this case, he thought the initial source of magical power was still nature. The instant magical power in the rune trigger was ‘created’ with humans as a factor, so there was no process of ‘derivation’. This was also why the rune trigger had no structure for collecting and charging, so a minute amount of magical power was produced.

Gawain frowned. He took a piece of black stone that served as a paperweight from the side. His fingers forcefully wiped across the surface, and with the power of a professional, he drew lines winding like a whirlpool on it with ease. Following that, he forcefully pressed a dot in the middle of the lines, forming the wind elemental symbol — fair wind.

An extremely slight wind current appeared around the black stone. This inexpensive magic-conducting material that was only slightly more expensive than quartz sand began to work. Gawain felt a cool breeze lightly caressing his wrist.

With a casual wipe, the rune was destroyed, and the wind immediately stopped.

This was the most inconceivable part of this world. With such a simple rune carved on a specific material, it could actually create such palpable effects… Why?!

If he really were to use the ‘energy-field theory’ that he’d put forward earlier to explain it, things seemed to make sense. Magical power was already plentiful and had a ceaseless interaction with these natural magic-conducting materials. Originally, this process would be calm with no special effects. However, as specified patterns were carved on the surface of these materials, change was brought to the balance between the ‘energy field’ and the ‘nature of the effects’. The frequency of the fluctuation of magical power was therefore altered, and the phenomenon consequently occurred.

But if the energy-field theory was true, it could not explain the principle of the various storage crystals. How did they store the magical power? If the essence of magical power was a ‘field’ that enclosed the planets, and magic was merely a ‘fluctuation’ at a specific frequency, what form did the magical power stored in storage crystals have?

As Gawain’s thoughts raveled out, he suddenly recalled the history concerning the origin of magic. Putting aside the ‘everything is conferred by the gods’ and ‘dragon language’ theories (the origin of magic propagated by certain groups), in actuality, there still existed another claim in the academic world. This version believed that humankind’s very first magic originated from the imitation of certain monsters. Those monsters possessed special cuticle layers or exoskeleton structures. And these parts just happened to form natural magical runes. They were due to unbelievable coincidences in the process of biological evolution. Animals that evolved to possess such structures then owned certain miraculous powers and became monsters. Humankind in the primitive period copied the runes that appeared on these monsters and carved the runes on various kinds of stoneware; thus, the earliest magic was born.

Whereas grasping mental powers and converting substantial runes into spell molds in the inner world came afterward.

This legend was the kind that Gawain really liked. Although there were lots of assumptions in it, it’d abandoned the completely unreasonable explanation involving gods and gigantic dragons and, in turn, used a logical way to pursue the origin of magic. However, regrettably, many mages didn’t seem to like this theory; of course, the priests hated it even more. It painted humankind, the wisest of all creatures, as stealers who had to follow behind uncivilized monsters at every step. This had those big figures who bragged and boasted themselves to be outstanding feeling extremely displeased.

An aura with the scent of fresh mud and green grass suddenly came from the side and roused Gawain from his state of raveled thoughts. Gawain didn’t need to turn back to know who was here. He casually tapped the side. “Don’t touch my stamp. This is the only thing on the entire table that is still worth some money.”

A hand that appeared in midair was firmly hit by Gawain and pulled back with a swoosh. Following that, Amber leaped out of her shadow state. “Oh damn, it hurts… Are you still human?! How can your senses be this good?!”

Gawain rolled his eyes irritably. “In any case, I used to be a legend back then. Even if I have declined now, I’m still more competent than you, this rascal whose combat ability is worse than a goose’s. Besides, did you think I didn’t know you’ve been having designs on this silver stamp of mine for quite a few days? Ever since the day the craftsmen carved it, you’ve had your eye on it.”

Amber wore an embarrassed smile. “I just had some bold thoughts. It’s not like I put it into practice…”

“You practiced twelve times. Only, I countered back each time, okay?” Gawain glared at this half-elf with absolutely no morals. “Speak! Why did you want to see me? There’s still more than an hour before mealtime. There must be something if you came back before mealtime.”

Amber puffed up her cheeks at once. “Am I someone who only knows about eating in your eyes?!”

“Duh, I use you as the alarm for all three meals these days. Seeing you is equivalent to seeing food soon,” Gawain said in distress. “Say, what exactly do you want?”

“Psh, this old man is indeed no fun… Alright, I just wanted to inform you of a matter. I’ve been wanting to tell you two days back, but I forgot. —— I realized that entering the shadow realm these days has become much easier than before.”

Gawain had initially thought that this half-elf was merely feeling bored after slacking outside for too long and was here to look for some fun. He didn’t expect it to really be proper business once this rascal spoke up, and he instantly faltered.

Amber became slightly displeased. “Hey, at least have some reaction. I’m reporting the situation to you very seriously. What do you mean by becoming dumbfounded?”

Gawain coughed dryly — swiftly suppressing the ‘I just didn’t expect you to have something important’ gaze — and instead looked at her solemnly. “I remember what you said the first time you brought me into the shadow realm — that it was also your ‘first time entering such a deep place’…”

“Actually, I told a little lie then… I was afraid it’d be too shocking, so I was a bit more humble.” Amber stuck out her tongue. “As a matter of fact, I’ve completely entered the shadow realm more than once, but really, it wasn’t that easy to enter the shadow realm in the past. It required an extended period of meditation or the help of rituals and incense. At the worst, I would have to chug half a bottle of shadow potion before I was able to enter…”

Gawain lifted a brow. Chug half a bottle?! You’d f*cking drank yourself to death and then crossed over, didn’t you?

Apart from marveling, he also realized one thing: what Amber said was probably true. Which meant that the barrier between the shadow realm and the real world was weakening?

To be honest, forming such a guess about the world’s forces just based on this unscrupulous half-elf’s side of the story was really rather unreliable. In normal situations, such an issue would require assembling at least half a division of experts and scholars to research for a year or two before coming to a conclusion. Then again… Gawain really suspected that even with half a division of experts and scholars all together, they wouldn’t be as useful as Amber’s totally unreasonable talent.

This was just like you finding 10,000 psychologists to study why your wife was angry when you took a glance at her shopping cart¹. Various kinds of skills and studies had their own research direction…

He nodded solemnly. “So you mean that the shadow realm is gradually ‘drawing nearer’ to the real world? Other than you being able to sense this, do you think those scholars who research the shadow realm will discover this?”

“Honestly, I believe such ‘drawing near’ is still in quite an initial stage. Probably only people like me can accurately sense it. As for those scholars… Alright, they aren’t total good-for-nothings. Those true masters should still be able to get the faintest sense, but I don’t think they can see the changes as directly as I do.”

Gawain’s brows furrowed. He did not know whether this issue that Amber reported was good or bad because no one in history had ever determined the ‘distance’ or ‘gap’ between the shadow realm and the real world; neither did anyone know the specifics of how this natural barrier had changed. There was even the possibility that, perhaps, the shadow realm had more than once, moved closer to the real world; only there was no one who sensed it then, and this process simply would not result in anything of consequence.

He kneaded the space between his brows and looked at Amber. “What do you think will happen if the shadow realm comes into contact with the real world?”

“How would I know… but it most likely wouldn’t be anything good.” Amber rolled her eyes. “Anyways, the majority of shadow-related magic is destructive. The shadow itself is a rather negative power. Normal people are absolutely not fit to engage with it.”

Gawain Cecil let out a sigh. “Alright, that didn’t help at all. Say, why did you specially come to me about this? I’m not a scholar. Neither am I a warlock or mage who specializes in studying shadow-related magic. Moreover, I reckon, even if I were to write to those scholars in the Association of Mystics in the name of Gawain Cecil, they wouldn’t take it too seriously…”

“Then I shan’t care anymore.” Amber pursed her lips. “I just wanted to find someone and tell them. After sharing it with you, I feel much jollier. As for how you want to handle this, that’s your business.”

The veins on Gawain’s forehead seemed ready to pop.

However, just as he was hesitating over whether to give this person a beating, a sudden explosion startled the two people in the tent.

“Boom!”

Amber scrambled under the desk then and there. “Whoa! What’s happening, what’s happening?!”

Whereas Gawain ignored this cowardly rascal and, instead, dashed out of the tent on wide steps and looked towards the direction of the sound.

He saw many alarmed soldiers running towards the southeastern corner of the camp. That was where Heidi’s magic laboratory was located!

Damn! Art exploded! Rebecca was a truly driven person.

Gawain immediately ran over there.

Though there were the protective magic circles of the magic laboratory itself and Heidi’s protective spells (Gawain had even mentioned to Heidi to take note of safety), the people should be fine. But listening to the roar of the explosion, it was uncertain how much of the equipment in the laboratory still remained intact.

He had to rush to go save her before Rebecca was hung up and beaten up by Heidi…

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