Chapter Twenty-Four: The Apprentice of Magic

  After reading the article recorded by the witch in an excited and trembling state, Lucien also felt a kind of unspeakable shock. In fact, after crossing over and discovering that this was a world with divine techniques and magic, he had also had some doubts about it, but due to his limited knowledge and lack of understanding of magic, he quickly forgot.

  Now, these ten questions that directly point to the origin and rules of the world make Lucien believe that if he can understand these questions, he should be able to see through the truth of the world, understand why he can travel through time and space, and find a way back.

  "This Douglas, the great occultist, even if he hasn't thoroughly figured out any of these ten questions, as long as his research on these issues has made some progress, then his strength will definitely be exceptionally powerful, enough to rival the ancient legendary magicians mentioned at the beginning of the article."

  "There is the Arcane Journal, and witches who encounter strange magicians. It seems that this world indeed has a relatively safe place to learn magic, but it's a bit weird, even the journal appears."

  "What kind of power and status does a great magician represent in the world of magicians?"

  ……

  Lucien associated a lot from the witch's diary and this article, the more he thought about it, the more excited he became, wishing to meet that strange magician as soon as possible, go to a place where he could safely learn magic, and after his strength reached a certain level, return to Alto and secretly help John's family.

  But here, Lucien is most excited, most expected and also most puzzled by two questions:

  "Are earth, fire, wind and water really the basic elements? If so, in what form and under what laws do they constitute such a wonderful world? If not, what are they? What other magical elements should there be?"

  "Why does the world have sun and moon, why do they rise and fall every day, what power makes them maintain this operation? In the material world, these seemingly normal things, if we ask a few more whys, we will find that we still don't understand the underlying principles. Are these principles, laws, and knowledge related to magic? Can they be combined with magic? Can they help us explore the essence of the magical world?"

  In Lucien's view, if the first question is that earth, fire, wind and water are not basic elements, and the answer to the second question is that the laws of the material world can be applied and combined with magic, then it means that most of his knowledge learned over the past decade or so, as well as a large part of the knowledge in the library, will come in handy when he studies and applies magic.

  If it can be used, what role can this knowledge play? Lucien has not yet deeply contacted the world of magicians and can only secretly speculate: "At least during this period, I have seen things similar to silver, copper, and iron. It is very likely that 'elements' really exist, and apart from magic and divine arts, everything in daily life has not violated physical laws so far."

  "But once you add spiritual power, souls, and powerful magical creatures, this world gives me a feeling that is similar yet different from Earth."

  Lucien suddenly had an idea: "Looking at it this way, the reason why some books in the library can't be opened may not be what I previously suspected, and it's worth doubting."

  After a long time, Lucien gradually calmed down, and the much more mature him understood that what was most important now was to study magic diligently, and he absolutely could not indulge in unrealistic fantasies or pursue things that were still unproven.

  No matter in which world, being down-to-earth is a quality worth having.

  Lucien flipped to the last page of the witch's notes, gathering various ideas:

  "After meditation and experimentation, I often think of him. A knowledgeable and elegant gentleman, always very charming."

  ……

  "He told me that he had come to Alto for the purpose of carrying out some grand, secret mission, and if all went well, perhaps in a few months' time he would be able to take me away with him to the headquarters of the 'Continental Council of Mages', a paradise for magicians."

  "He asked me to meet him at the cemetery in Adéla?de district tonight."

  Here it reached this place, the witch's magic notebook suddenly ended, and behind was all blank sheepskin paper. It seemed that she and her magician friend were ambushed by the watchmen who had been taught.

  "Does the magician manage to escape?" Lucien thought with some annoyance, he was the only clue to finding the "Continental Magic Council" so far, and as for other legendary magicians hidden in Alto, he had no idea where to start looking.

  Taking a few deep breaths, Lucien cleared his mind of the numerous thoughts swirling in his head, restoring clarity and calmness, preparing to attempt meditation to see if he could learn magic.

  According to the records of the magic notebook, Lucien maintained a gentle and prolonged breathing rhythm, letting his spirit disperse and then slowly return, dispersing again and slowly returning, until he entered a state close to emptiness and blankness.

  According to the witch's own experience, she was identified as having magical talent since childhood and had a good spiritual power. When she first tried meditation, it took her two years to enter this empty and blank state. And another year passed before her spiritual power grew to the level of an "apprentice magician" who could sense the surrounding magical elements in this empty state.

  However, after becoming an apprentice magician and before advancing to a formal magician, there are basically no obstacles in the cultivation of spiritual power. According to the meditation method, one can step by step temper their spiritual power and soul to the strength that can build a spell model, the difficulty lies only in how much time it takes.

  The witch began learning meditation at the age of ten, became an apprentice magic student at thirteen, and by fourteen she had crossed the threshold to become a high-ranking magic student. She was very satisfied with her innate talent for spiritual power.

  However, due to her inability to analyze magical structures and build a model of the seal, she tried to increase her spiritual power to that of an official magician in order to forcibly construct it. Unfortunately, the apprentice-level meditation technique had a very poor effect at this stage, and the witch was unable to achieve her goal. She then turned her attention to a rare magical potion called "Magic Gate", hoping to use its powerful spiritual energy, which surpassed that of most high-ranking magic apprentices, to directly advance.

  After reading the witch's records, Lucien was slightly disappointed and felt that he would not be able to rely on magic to deal with the possible revenge of the black gang in a short period of time. However, as Viktor, a well-known figure in Altor, often received invitations from nobles and moved in high society, after becoming his formal student, under normal circumstances, except for those reckless guys, most black gang members should not bother him again.

  Of course, Lucien also had a vague expectation in his heart, because Lucien had already sensed that his spiritual power had made a big breakthrough after the incident in the sewer, and he could even vaguely sense that someone was following him. This might shorten the time it took to become an apprentice magician to several months or weeks.

  But in reality, it was completely beyond Lucien's expectations.

  Because after Lucien dispersed and retrieved that spiritual power with a wave-like feeling several times, he found himself entering that empty and ethereal state smoothly, and the first meditation succeeded in less than thirty seconds!

  Maintaining this meditative state, Lucien attempted to extend his spiritual energy outward.

  Everything around is completely different from what the eyes see, filled with steady and heavy power, fierce and explosive power, light and scattered power, soft and continuous power.

  "This is the four basic elements of earth, fire, wind and water? My spiritual power has already reached the level of a novice magic apprentice!" Lucien was extremely surprised, almost losing his meditation state, "No wonder I succeeded in meditating for the first time, but that was a gain obtained at the risk of my life. Am I considered a magic apprentice now?"

  Having understood the reason, Lucien calmed down with joy, and perhaps it wouldn't be long before he could learn his first informal magic!

  "It's just that these four basic elements of earth, fire, wind, and water seem to be closer to the state of energy." Lucien was about to use the apprentice-level elemental meditation method from "The Book of Stars and Elements" to temper his soul and spiritual power using earth, fire, wind, and water, when he unconsciously raised this question in his mind. Thinking back to Douglas's question, Lucien began to suspect, "Perhaps these are the four fundamental forces of the universe: gravity, weak nuclear force, electromagnetic force, and strong nuclear force? But aren't the latter three just different manifestations of one force?"

  Although not a physics student, Lucien had vaguely heard people popularize that the weak nuclear force, electromagnetic force, and strong nuclear force seemed to have been unified by some theory, and they were different manifestations of the same force.

  As soon as Lucien had this idea, he immediately felt that the spiritual force around him had changed again. A starry sky appeared above his head, dark and twinkling, with each star shining like a small light point, flickering constantly. They all seemed to have an invisible power extending down to the ground, while the earth was emitting a thick and steady attractive force. Apart from this, fire, wind, and water didn't seem to have changed much, only the clear and impassable intervals between them had become slightly blurred.

  Lucien in a state of contemplation, his emotions not too intense, but such changes still made him unable to help thinking: "Is the magical 'element' world I sensed with my spiritual power changing according to my cognition, or gradually becoming more perfect and clear?"

  However, such a change seems to have no direct impact on Lucien's current spiritual power training or magical studies.

  "Wait, Stellaluna, isn't that the meditation technique that can only be used after becoming a high-ranking magic apprentice?" Lucien suddenly remembered another apprentice-level meditation technique recorded in the witch's notes.

  "The Book of Stars and Elements" is obviously focused on the star and element systems, and the meditation methods of these two schools are naturally included. However, the apprentice-level meditation method of the star system is not stronger than that of the element system in terms of increasing spiritual power and soul strength, and it has little effect on witches.

  However, as an introductory meditation method for the star system, it has an important ability, which is to select one's own "destiny main star" from the sensed starry sky during the first meditation, and try to connect with it, then slowly stabilize. In this way, when learning various magic of astrology later on, you can get a lot of help, more importantly, without this "destiny main star", the divination magic such as astrology in the star system cannot be learned or used.

  From the perspective of astrology, each soul corresponds to a star in the vast universe, and their fate is reflected in the changes of the stars. Without connecting with one's own destiny star, it is impossible to observe the lines of fate in the starry sky, and thus unable to use astrology.

  It is precisely because of this that the introductory meditation methods for astrology are all about reaching a high level of magical proficiency or having sufficient knowledge to learn, use and sense the starry sky. Before that, they will practice with other non-conflicting sects' meditation methods until becoming a high-level magic apprentice.

  Lucien muttered to himself, "When did gravity and fate become connected? It seems that many things don't necessarily conform to previous knowledge or concepts. Of course, it's also possible that I just can't understand the reason."