Chapter 230 : Chapter 230
Chapter 230. Changing His Mind (Part 2)
As Vernon’s gaze swept downward, he did not skim over it at an extremely high speed the way he had with the earlier papers. This time, he was deeply drawn in by what was written there.
“What is this?!” After reading through the explanation of the principles at a speed far slower than he had used for the previous papers—though still much faster than an ordinary mage—an indescribably strange feeling rose in his heart.
He could sense that this paper was using mathematics to define certain things, and he could also sense that this was tremendously important.
Yet he found it difficult to explain exactly what the “result” of this paper was. He could only rely on an instinctive feeling that this “result” was of immense importance.
At that moment, his thoughts stalled slightly, then quickly recovered, and his gaze continued downward.
This time, his train of thought was not interrupted. He carefully read through the entire process and conclusion of using mathematics to analyze the Fireball model.
At times, he ran into the same problem that the reviewer at the Northern Society had encountered—namely, that in some places, it was hard to understand how the process jumped directly from one step to the next...
But Vernon was, after all, still a Fourth-Tier Mage. The raw capacity of his mind was far beyond anything an ordinary person could match.
With only a little thought, he could see what Fulan had omitted there, and by following the omitted parts back through the logic, he still managed to understand it.
When he finished reading the final character, his face was filled with complexity, as though he did not know what he ought to do.
Vernon unconsciously tightened his grip on the pages in his hand. The powerful force granted by his rank and his modification surgeries tore a slit into one edge of the paper in an instant.
Vernon quickly noticed the tear and hurriedly set the paper down on the table, then folded both hands atop the desk.
He glanced at his disciple Scott. Scott was currently studying a paper that Vernon considered academic “trash” with complete concentration.
He shook his head. This was one of his long-standing habits, and it had now spread to his disciple as well: when engaged in research, they became utterly focused and loathed being disturbed by others.
Vernon lowered his head and began thinking over this paper.
If this paper had appeared inside his own Ocean Society, and if what it analyzed had not been Fireball but any random apprentice-level spell at all—
Then once the paper had passed review because some reviewer happened to overlook the fact that it was using the Alchemy School’s “mathematical calculations,” the moment Vernon laid eyes on it, he would immediately have put the author’s name onto the nomination list for the Ocean Heart Award within the Ocean Society, and when the vote came, he would absolutely have cast one of his votes for that author.
Perhaps among the people responsible for the featured publications of the Northern Society, only one person had recognized that this paper possessed an exceptionally groundbreaking quality.
This paper analyzing Fireball had opened an entirely new path for the future study of all spells: the use of mathematical analysis.
Before this, most of the Alliance’s internal efforts to analyze and optimize spells had followed the line of thinking handed down from the ancient mages.
For example, if you wanted to cast a spell, how could you maximize the effect produced by that spell?
The first line of thought was to increase the input of mental power. By modifying the spell structure so that the spell could withstand a greater amount of mental power, one could then use all sorts of methods to increase mental power.
For example, group casting, spell-scroll-assisted casting, material-assisted casting, and so on... all operated on this line of thinking.
The second line of thought was talent. That was right—in the world of magic, mages believed that the talents they possessed would affect the power of spells, and in truth, that really was the case.
This included elemental affinity when casting elemental spells, one’s own understanding of a particular spell, and the “talents” one could obtain from the Spirit Realm...
The third line of thought was casting sensation. In many cases, when you cast a spell, you could not reach a state of true proficiency, because if you wanted to become familiar with a spell, you had to practice it over a long period of time...
And to practice a spell over a long period of time—setting aside the fact that there were so many spells in the world, and no one had that much time to practice them all—the high-tier materials consumed by higher-tier spells alone were already beyond what an ordinary mage could afford.
But through long years of research, the mages had discovered a simpler method: learning from people who were already “proficient.”
That meant comprehensively learning the behavior of a mage who could cast that spell “proficiently,” including the habits with which they infused mental power, the speed of their casting—not too fast, not too slow...
In this way, as long as a small number of mages studied a spell until they reached the level of “proficiency,” other mages could learn from them and attain that same level more easily.
But this paper analyzing Fireball had struck at the very root of that third line of thought. Vernon could see that precise mathematics not only made things easier for the explainer, but could also convey the necessary information to other mages with far greater accuracy.
In the future, when mages learned spells, they might only need to substitute a few numbers precisely instead of chasing after that vague and elusive “feeling.”
Halfway through reading the paper, that feeling had already arisen in his mind. It had even begun to inspire him regarding how he ought to proceed with his own future experiments...
He could feel that this mathematical method alone had already given new direction to many experiments he had previously believed could never succeed.
Quite a few of those experiments were attempts connected to his pursuit of advancing to the Fifth Tier...
Vernon still kept his head lowered, while his fingers moved restlessly up and down. That alone was enough to show the unease in his heart.
He had seen the potential of this mathematical method. It made it possible to analyze many processes through mathematics that had previously been impossible to analyze in that way.
Perhaps this might be useful to his advancement to the Fifth Tier...
Perhaps this mathematical method was still not enough. But he had reason to believe that, in the future, a mathematical method capable of analyzing Fifth-Tier advancement might well appear.
But where could such mathematics be developed? Within the Ocean Society?
Even Vernon himself knew that if he chose to promote such a method within the Ocean Society, he would draw even more of the Alliance’s fire than the Northern Society did.
“But this lets me see hope of advancing to the Fifth Tier—right there within those numbers.” Vernon’s fingers suddenly clenched hard, and his arm, which had always been poor at controlling its own strength, smashed a small pit into the desk.
“If I am destined to become enemies with others in the Alliance anyway, why shouldn’t I find myself a few allies instead?” A rare smile, one that truly came from the heart, appeared on Vernon’s face.
Anyone familiar with Vernon would know that his current state had only been seen twice before: when he had just advanced to become a Fourth-Tier Mage, and when he had founded the Modification School.
“Scott!!” Vernon called out sharply, his voice full of energy. The shout startled Scott so badly that his hairs stood on end.
“What is it?! Teacher.” Scott hurriedly rose to his feet and asked.
“Tell Cole to inform Elise that I’ve decided to stand on her and Habos’s side. We can discuss the rest in greater detail through magical communication.”