When A Mage Revolts

Chapter 30: Magic and theurgy

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"When this book has lost its value to you, please give it to those in need. The truth has an obligation to be preserved."

This was the first sentence Benjamin saw when he opened the title page.

Sure enough, if you read further, what follows is the wizard's version of the origin of magic and divine magic, another story of Cain and Abel.

In this story, there are no demons, only the God of Magic and the God of Light, who gave them the power of magic and magic respectively. The villains of this story are the dangerous natural environment and powerful monsters. Cain and Abel opened up the wilderness together and led mankind to build their own home.

Like all stories, the good times did not last long, and the brothers had differences over the sacrifice. The God of Magic likes sacrifices of grains and vegetables, so Cain insists that all sacrifices should be grains and vegetables; the God of Light likes sacrifices of cattle and sheep, so Abel insists that all sacrifices should be cattle and sheep. Coupled with the constant conflicts between their followers, the two brothers finally broke up and started fighting in a valley.

Just when the battle was at its most intense, two divine lights suddenly fell from the sky, and the God of Magic and the God of Light appeared at the same time. They were very disappointed with this kind of cannibalistic behavior of mankind. They sent down divine punishment to kill Cain and Abel, and said that they would never come to this continent again. From then on, this continent became the "Gods Abandoned Land", and the place where they fought was also named the "Gods Abandoned Valley".

The followers of Cain and Abel suddenly became leaderless, and the long-suppressed conflicts broke out, and the two factions fell into a long dispute. Abel's followers knew better how to win over people's hearts, established a church, and were determined to grow on the mainland; Cain's followers gradually became solitary and disdained the behavior of grouping together.

As a result, the church gained the upper hand and began to massacre mages. Eventually, the situation on the continent evolved into what it is today.

After reading the mage's story, Benjamin felt that this version was more objective than the church's version, and there was nothing to discredit his opponent. However, according to Rashomon's principles, as long as it is a person related to this story, his narrative cannot be absolutely objective. Therefore, he finished reading the story with a spirit of inquiry and questioning.

At this moment, his mind was no longer in these messy myths and legends.

This Bible was not thick to begin with, and more than half of it had been used to tell this story. Benjamin was a little worried about how much magic would be left.

Fortunately, when he looked down, Benjamin saw one spell after another: fireball, water of life, ground trap... Among them were the water ball spell that he was most familiar with, and the restraint spell that frustrated him greatly.

The pronunciation of these spells is marked with homophones, which is about as easy as "goodmorning" is marked with "good morning". If it weren't for the detailed analysis of the pronunciation of the spells at the bottom of the label, Benjamin would have doubted the accuracy of these spells.

In addition, Benjamin himself also knew the spells of Water Ball and Binding. By analogy, he was sure that he could master the pronunciation of other spells and would not make any mistakes such as mispronunciation.

The remaining half of the entire book is devoted to introducing these spells one by one. A total of more than fifty spells are introduced, and the level of confusion is also obvious. Moreover, judging from the introduction of magic in the book, these are entry-level magics that are easy to use but not very powerful. Many of them can even be called useless, such as face-washing spells and skin hydrating techniques. , Is it true that the person who invented this magic was not from the Watson family in his previous life

This still made Benjamin a little disappointed.

He originally hoped that this book could explain some magic theories, explain what consciousness space is, and talk about elements, spiritual power and other things. As a result, the book just keeps pouring spells on people.

It's not that the spell is bad, it's just that Benjamin expected more.

He was a little worried. What if the magic level of the entire continent has been in a state of empiricism due to the long-term suppression of the church, and only knows how to learn spells without developing an advanced methodology

If this is the case, then he is already a leader in the field of magic theory...

After a short period of disappointment, Mr. "Leader" still followed the academic spirit and quickly entered the consciousness space and began to experiment with the more than fifty newly learned spells.

He started with the spells that had nothing to do with "water" and recited them one after another: fireball, paralysis, latent image... The result was still the same. There was a faint repulsive force in the conscious space. Several times, Those free water elements even started to riot, as if they were saying: "What you're fucking thinking about is my enemy! If you think about it again, I'll kill you!"

He had no choice but to pick another water barrier spell. After confirming its pronunciation, he concentrated on chanting it.

A wave of energy came from him.

The surrounding water elements began to move, and gradually tended to gather. However, when they were halfway together, Benjamin suddenly felt a pain in his head, the fluctuations disappeared, and the water elements also stopped gathering.

The magic failed.

Benjamin was not discouraged, he felt that this magic was still working. So, he cast the water barrier over and over again. Finally, after more than ten failures, he succeeded.

A thin film filled with water vapor enveloped him like a bubble, and a feeling of connectedness made him feel very fresh. He looked at the seemingly weak barrier and couldn't help but stretched out his hand to poke it.

Snapped! The bubble bursts.

Damn, you are really weak...

There is no way, if this magic is used for the first time, its power will definitely not be much greater. Benjamin could only comfort himself in this way, and then he used the same vigor as the single-cycle spell and began to practice this magic repeatedly.

It turns out that repeating a spell that you are not very proficient in is quite labor-intensive, especially when there is a little backlash after every failed spell. After countless failures, he was kicked out of the conscious space again.

And among these countless practices, only five successful spells were cast.

Obviously, magic with such a low success rate cannot be used in actual combat.

Benjamin was disappointed at first, but thanks to the spirit of curiosity that modern education brought to him, he quickly calmed down and began to think about why this was the case. He has used the water polo technique countless times in the conscious space, with a 100% success rate and not very draining of energy. Water Barrier is a little more complicated than Water Ball Technique, but it’s not that complicated, right

What exactly is the problem

After comparing the casting process of Water Ball Spell with the casting process of Water Barrier, Benjamin discovered the answer.

It's because of the blue character shining in the consciousness space.

When he uses the Water Ball Technique, the characters will vibrate and send out waves to guide these water elements. When he used the water barrier, the characters did not participate in the process. He could only send out fluctuations on his own, and his control over the water element was greatly reduced.

After thinking about this, a bigger problem emerged again.

Why didn't the characters react when he recited the water barrier spell

Or to put it another way, what should he do to get the characters to help him cast magic other than water polo

He returned to the consciousness space and tried other water magic: water of life, freezing, ice breaking, mist... The results were similar to the water barrier. The triangular rune is simply like Alibaba's door, and the water polo spell is its "open sesame". Other than that, ignore it.

Now he had no clue.

To put it bluntly, he didn't know what hyphen was, let alone how it worked. As a leader in the field of magic theory, his research on magic is only to understand the process of its occurrence. As for how everything works, it has yet to be explored.

To put it bluntly, he looks like an ordinary person. He knew that the hands of the clock moved by electricity, and he also knew how to replace the battery when the clock was out of power. But for more detailed things, such as if a gear of the clock is broken, only the watchmaker knows what to do.

Where could he find the magical "clockmaker"

Benjamin sighed, feeling a little frustrated.

He returned to reality, picked up the Bible in his hand, and turned to the end.

In addition to myths and legends and more than fifty spells, there is another sentence at the end of the book, like the title page:

"You are the fifty-sixth person to read this book. Please give this book to those who need it and pass on the magic."

Not long after he turned the page, the numbers in the text changed strangely, and then "fifty-six" became "fifty-seven."

Benjamin was startled. However, after confirming that this was just a trivial magic trick and that there was not even a fluctuation in magic power, he was no longer surprised.

But this passage touched him quite a bit.

Under the harsh search of the church, a group of mages hid in the darkness to survive, but they still did not forget to pass on the magic. So, they came up with this method, compiled such a seemingly simple and crude Bible, and then passed it on from person to person.

Finally it reached his hands.

No wonder, no wonder when Michelle talked about equivalent exchange, she was talking about exchanging treasure troves for lives, but did not mention this book. Giving Benjamin this book is not a benefit to Benjamin. Michelle is just fulfilling a promise—a promise that has been fulfilled by fifty-six people.

call…

Benjamin shrugged helplessly.

That's it. Why do you have such a sense of mission? Are you really going to make a revolution

He has already crossed the river as a mud bodhisattva and cannot save himself.

Putting his emotion aside, Benjamin's attention returned to the triangle characters again. He had to solve this problem, otherwise even if he got so many spells, he would still be able to tremble in the corner holding a water ball spell.

How did Michelle and the others learn magic? Is it as hard as him

Is it possible that we can only wait until Michelle shows up next time and then find a way to ask her? But this was too passive. Whether to talk or not, the initiative was all in Michelle's hands, and he didn't have the patience to wait until that time.

Think about it, is there anything else he hasn't used yet...

"I discovered it! I am a genius! I am a genius and invincible super artificial intelligence system!"

At this moment, the system that had been silent for a long time suddenly appeared and yelled in Benjamin's head like crazy, scaring Benjamin so much that he almost threw the book in his hand.

"... Next time you carry out a surprise attack, can you turn down the volume a little?" Benjamin was helpless and asked again, "It would be better to just mute the sound. I will definitely write a thank you letter to your manufacturer."

The system said in a arrogant tone: "Really? I just developed a breakthrough achievement. Don't you want to know?"

“…”

Benjamin couldn't complain. These days, even systems have begun to be studied

"Don't want to hear it? If you don't want to hear it, then I won't say anything." The system was very arrogant.

"Don't say, I thank your whole family." Benjamin almost applauded.

"Why don't you play by the rules?" The system was immediately furious, "No, you have to listen even if you don't want to! It took me so long to come up with it, so listen carefully, ahem..." He said, It also pretended to clear its throat.

How can a system clear its throat...

Benjamin wanted to complain, but before he could complain, the system continued:

"Do you remember when Grant almost used magic to help you in the castle?"

Benjamin had no choice but to nod his head and follow the system's words: "I remember, but he didn't use it in the end. I really want to see what the magic will look like when used. The posture is quite powerful."

The system said: "Then don't be curious, you have already seen it."

Benjamin raised his eyebrows and said, "No, at least I haven't seen magic with my own eyes since I traveled here. Don't count what happened before I traveled here."

The system seemed very proud, and did not answer immediately. Instead, it pretended to be a coward, and when Benjamin couldn't help but scold it, it opened its mouth as if to show off.

"Not only have I seen it, but you have used it yourself." The system's tone lengthened, "After my analysis, magic and divine art are essentially the same thing. Divine art is magic, and magic is divine art. You simply There’s no need to look at them separately.”