Chapter 161: Spell Forensics
When Anji finally finished writing all the talismans she had ever created, there was an odd sense of satisfaction looking back at how far she had come. Although not all of them were fully functional and lacked efficiency the way her shifu liked, it was the product of her sweat and tears for three long years.
"That’s all of it," Anji handed the last set of talismans to Researcher Xi.
After studying Anji for a long time, Researcher Xi finally accepted the last batch of talismans. Unlike earlier, the researcher was calm. Instead of jumping at the first chance to study them, she put them on the desk and turned to Anji again.
"Have you learned how to troubleshoot spells?" the researcher asked.
Anji blinked. Was this a pop quiz session? Although she knew the basics of troubleshooting, such as dissecting elements and recalculating errors, it was not in-depth knowledge.
Shaking her head, Anji explained her usual troubleshooting process. It was pathetically basic, even in Anji’s opinion, as she explained.
Thankfully, Researcher Xi did not mind. If anything, she grinned cheerfully and patted Anji’s head as if to praise her for her honesty.
"These books might help you. I created them. It’s not officially recognised as a textbook of the sect because there are not enough case studies of this being applied. Think of this as a prototype thesis for spell forensics. I heard from Senior Researcher Mo that you’re adept in medicine and even helped perform surgery. You should be able to grasp the concepts more easily than other researchers with your experience."
Although medical forensics was not Anji’s strong skill, she knew enough from Doctor He’s reverse engineering teaching methods. Oftentimes, it was impossible for a medical apprentice to practice on a living subject. The risk was too great. Instead, by studying dead samples of a living organism, medical apprentices learn how to apply their theoretical knowledge safely without risking any lives.
In a way, creating new spells lacked any proper safety features. It was partially why Anji never created dangerous or outrageous new spells without her shifu’s failsafe included. However, the failsafe feature often hindered Anji’s understanding of a failure because the spell simply would not activate. Without the ability to understand what went wrong, Anji could only revisit books to simulate the flow of her logic in her spells without understanding how every piece of her spell interacted with each other.
"Spell forensics should increase your ability to troubleshoot ineffective parts of a spell. Even with only basic knowledge of spell writing, if you understand the ways a spell is crafted, you can easily identify the problems within it when designing its flow."