The Mighty Dragons Are Dead

Speaking of water mages, Liszt immediately thought that Ach should also be promoted to Grand Magician.

Nevertheless, he waited until the banquet was over before he went to the sea view villa. The crystal lamp light had been burning all night, and tonight, the beautiful shell girl was reading under the light.

"Brother!"

Ach, familiar with Liszt's footsteps, didn't hide in the room but awaited his arrival with reserved excitement, "You're here."

"I haven't seen you in a few days, Ach, and you seem to have changed a bit?" Liszt always felt that Ach now had a different air about her, more so than when he saw her a few days ago.

"Ach really has changed." The sea serpent twirled joyfully, like a fairy under the moon, her curvaceous figure making Liszt's mouth go dry, "Brother, can you guess what changes have happened to Ach, please?"

Has she developed?

Of course, that was unlikely. Liszt's eyes sparkled, "Ach, have you been promoted to a Water System Grand Mage?"

"Mmm!" A touch of pride showed on Ach's little face, and she then extended her hand and slowly conjured a water wave shield to envelop herself, "I just learned it two days ago, and I'm still not very proficient. The casting difficulty is quite high for these advanced spells, requiring prolonged preparation."

"Let me test the defense of the water wave shield." Liszt couldn't wait to draw his Sky-Cleaving Greatsword and aimed a fierce chop at Ach's water wave shield.

There was no Dou Qi attached, it was merely a plain chop.

When the sword blade touched the water wave shield, it felt like chopping into a kind of chopping block, sinking in a little bit before meeting a great resisting force, unable to penetrate any further.

He lifted the sword blade, and the water wave shield was intact.

"I'm going to infuse Dou Qi now, be careful, Ach."

"Mmm."

Fire Attribute Dou Qi surged powerfully within him. Now, Liszt's consumption of magic potions had become smoother, and his Dou Qi naturally more abundant. Flames danced upon the Sky-Cleaving Greatsword as he chopped fiercely at the water wave shield once more, and a dull thud rang out from where the sword blade touched the shining light of the shield.

The water wave shield violently oscillated and flickered but firmly blocked Liszt's close-range hefty strike.

Sheathing the Sky-Cleaving Greatsword, he nodded, "The defense of the water wave shield is quite good. Based on my attack just now, it would probably take dozens of chops to break the water wave shield. If I were to unleash my strongest attack, it would still require at least five or six hits to break it, very powerful."

Of course, facing the charge of a band of knights, a magician probably couldn't maintain it.

But when it comes to a duel or hunting magical beasts, a magician wrapped in a water wave shield could virtually annihilate the opponent... assuming the magician had time to don it.

Ach canceled the water wave shield and asked eagerly, "Brother, is Ach very powerful now?"

"Of course you're powerful, but you still lack advanced offensive magic. Your next step should be to learn Waterfall," Liszt said as he stroked her azure hair.

"Ach has already started learning Waterfall, but advanced magic is hard to learn. There's too much content to grasp, and I can't perform it instantaneously."

"You're already doing great. Normally, Grand Magicians can't even instantly cast common spells," Liszt consoled her, then asked, "By the way, Ach, after your promotion to Grand Magician, did you notice any changes in your body, in your magic power or spellcasting? Or rather, what's the difference between a Grand Magician and a Magician?"

...

The difference between a Grand Magician and a Magician had always been something Liszt was curious about.

Now that Ach had advanced, she could finally give Liszt a glimpse into the qualitative change, and as she continued to share her experiences, it became clearer to him.

Essentially.

Magicians rely on meditation to harness magic power, then use that power to create runes, which form a magic array. Magic is the manifestation of magic power constrained within a magic array.

Magic apprentices only know about meditation, or use magic power to form the simplest of runes, and complete the simplest magic arrays—basic magic. Spells such as the Water Arrow Spell, Flying Rock Technique, Fireball Technique, Wind Blade Spell, Flash Magic, etc., and they may not even realize that the magic they're casting is a magic array.

Magicians have mastered runes well enough to form magic arrays within themselves and release more advanced magic—common magic like Water Arrow Barrage, Rock Spike, Light Body Skill, Great Fireball, et cetera. This represents a solidified understanding of magic.

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And Grand Magicians, they've broken through cognitive barriers regarding magic arrays, deeply understanding the relationship between magic runes and the arrays, and extending to the essence of the relationship between magic and magic power.

Once they grasp this layer of relationship, they can manipulate the runes to induce more complex changes in the magic array, evolving to unleash more powerful spells—advanced magic.

"Ach, do you think my understanding is correct?" Liszt summarized the content Ach had mentioned, and reflected, "Basic magic is like an embryonic form of a magic array, common magic is like the static form of a magic array, and advanced magic is the dynamic form of a magic array?"

The embryonic form of a magic array—Magic Apprentice.

The static magic circle—Magician.

The dynamic magic array—Grand Magician.

That is Liszt's understanding of magic, in a nutshell.

Ach pondered for a moment, then nodded, "Brother, your summarization is quite vivid, and it's essentially correct. However, regarding the understanding of dynamic magic arrays, there should be an additional point. Ach is a Water Mage, so when releasing Water System advanced magic, the form of the magic array undulates like flowing water."

"If the dynamic form of advanced Water Magic is like flowing water, does that mean the dynamic form of advanced Fire System magic is like a flame burning?"

"It's highly likely."

After understanding this,

Liszt had a good grasp of the principles of a magician's practice. He patted Ach's hair and said, "It's very hard to find advanced Water Magic spellcasting methods, and you might not have more advanced Water Magic to learn for a while. However, you can start researching practical applications of magic arrays."

"Do you mean making magic equipment and extracting magic potions?"

"Yes."

"Mm-hmm, Ach will study hard to help brother make magic equipment and magic potions!" Ach shook her bracelet on her wrist, a gift from Liszt that could amplify casting range.

Armed with Ach's insights,

Liszt immediately set to work on writing a book about magic. He named the book Three-Phase Magic Array and Reality Interaction Theory.

The title was grand, but the content was straightforward—it simply summarized the three stages of a magician's magic from Ach's perspective, comparing the magic array in magic with that in magic equipment, and ventured into some discussions about the application of magic arrays.

It wasn't filled with detailed theories, just some general talk.

He planned for the book to be thirty thousand words long.

This book wasn't intended for public distribution, just meant to be given to Chris Truth for her to read, and later, when other magicians faced issues with advancing, they could also refer to this book.

"Once I finish writing it, I'll have Ach proofread it for typographical errors... Who would've thought that I, a knight in my own right, would actually write a book on magic."

"Magic's loss is sure, for not having me study it."