Chapter 300 – Magic

In the era of Netheril, there was a saying:

“When a Master-Level Mage can learn a Master-Level spell solely through studying its spell model without anyone’s guidance, he has stepped across the threshold of Master-Level.

When he can improve upon a Master-Level spell model left by predecessors entirely through his own understanding, he gains a slight possibility of reaching for Legendary status.

If one day, a Master-Level Mage can create a Master-Level spell purely through his own inspiration and technique without any reference, he then has the opportunity to attempt advancement to Legendary.”

From this passage, one can see the three distinct yet vastly different tiers of Master-Level Mages.

Master-Level spells exist in a delicate state—”advancing one qualitative step forward leads to Legendary, while mass-producing them backward relegates one to Formal Level.” Thus, mastery of these spells best reveals a Master-Level powerhouse’s developmental potential. Although this potential doesn’t directly affect combat power like level gaps, it represents whether a Master-Level powerhouse possesses the possibility of treading the path to Legendary.

Don’t think that “learning,” “improving,” and “creating” sound trivial—the gaps between them are almost immeasurable.

Using an Earth analogy: if learning a spell is comparable to the difficulty of copying Wang Xizhi’s calligraphy, then improving a spell is equivalent to establishing one’s own calligraphy style, while creating a spell… is almost as difficult as independently developing a calligraphy style no less remarkable than Regular Script.

Having fully experienced Vedrasha’s life, including his experimental memories, Punk had perfected the foundational stage of “copying” to the utmost. Now, to progress further, he must pass through the barrier of “improving spells” to thoroughly integrate his learned knowledge. Only in this way could Vedrasha’s “theories” truly become Punk’s “understanding.”

To this end, Punk planned to dedicate the next two to three hundred years to diligently researching the goal of “thoroughly integrating” spells!

Acting decisively had always been one of Punk’s excellent traits. Since he decided to begin spell research, and this research was indispensable, Punk would never dawdle or waste time. In fact, the very second he made up his mind, Punk had already started formulating his research plan.

Theoretically, no spell is perfect; all spells are refined through successive improvements by mages. For example, the now-ubiquitous spell “Fireball,” whose spell model is almost un-improvable, had over a million similar spell models during its refinement process. The smallest differences between these models might be just a single runic circuit. The final “Fireball” spell model that endured was the one with the most outstanding comprehensive attributes among those millions of “Fireball” spell models.

Generally, novice mages practicing spell improvement would choose spells like “Fireball”—simple in structure and with abundant prior improvement experiences—to make minor modifications for practice. However, Punk believed he didn’t need this “practice” step.This wasn’t arrogance but confidence—confidence born from inheriting Vedrasha’s memories and trust in his own abilities.

Thus, Punk decided to save time by directly targeting a complex “failed” spell that no predecessors had successfully improved. This was quite easy for him, as both outdated ancient magic and numerous failed spells from the Netheril era could serve as excellent material. Most of these spells were ineffective, lacked power, or had unstable models, having been mere transitional products or outright failures in history.

Such spells perfectly met Punk’s requirements. He believed that by improving a backward or failed spell into a practical Master-Level spell, he would gain immense insights.

This was Punk’s confidence in his learning ability.

Of course, to excel at a task, one must first sharpen the tools. Spell improvement required meticulous work, so before beginning his research, Punk didn’t forget to create his “good assistant”—Golem Three.

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Golem Three—the second golem personally crafted by Punk (Golem Two was a modified version of the repaired Golem One). As a standard semi-elemental golem, its main structure used Master-Level magical material—Minisen Alloy. Its energy circuits were inscribed using Aoke Fire Rock Crystal as a fusion medium, while its command system employed a very ordinary magical virtual soul. Its overall characteristics were just two—simple and cheap!

Golem Three retained a nimble, maiden-like form. Punk’s initial design concept for golems was to create ambush units that would unsettle enemies. To realize Golem Three’s “ambush” essence, Punk inscribed it entirely with Master-Level spells focused on various speed-enhancing auxiliary enchantments.

However, during the creation process, Punk once again confirmed the stark divide between theory and practice.

In his memories, even enchantment runes hundreds of times more complex could be effortlessly inscribed mid-air by Vedrasha with a wave of his hand. But when it came to Punk himself… let’s just say he ruined five or six alchemical enchantment plates just to inscribe a “mere” Master-Level enchantment.

Perhaps Punk’s alchemical talents were all allocated to Alchemical Potions, as he truly wasn’t adept at crafting Magic Equipment. At this point, the completed Golem Three left him feeling utterly helpless.

The saying “you get what you pay for” with material-focused “physical golems” was proven true beyond doubt. This cheap semi-elemental golem was barely serviceable to Punk—its strength just barely qualified as Master-Level, and its intelligence… the virtual soul’s wisdom couldn’t even match the modified soul of Golem Two.

In the end, Punk could only assign this creation to guard his Magic Tower and assist in experiments. Taking it out for fieldwork would be far too embarrassing.

“Sigh, cheap golems really are unreliable. You simply can’t get quality without proper resources.”Punk controlled the golem to trudge toward the corner, then sighed helplessly. He decided that after his current spell research reached a milestone, he must create a combat-capable high-quality golem. Hmm… the Flesh Golem from the “Kewowo Golem Notes” was cheap and practical – truly the most cost-effective choice.

As for whether using such a “controversial” creation would bring trouble… Punk’s stance was – if semi-elemental golems were actually useful, he certainly wouldn’t court controversy while focusing on steady development. But now… his own safety was paramount. Moreover, judging by how the Thought of Truth turned a blind eye to Ben Lajie’s “collaboration with the enemy” behavior, there shouldn’t be problems as long as he didn’t flaunt it too openly.

As for reputation… he’d let nature take its course. Would a Master-Level powerhouse backed by the Thought of Truth really fear the nagging of a few Formal-Level Church madonnas?

(End of Chapter)