31 The Study of Magic

By the time Reed returned to his mage tower, it was already night. The dim magic lights inside the mage tower were very magical, giving off a Harry Potter vibe.

He handed the task of the trade with The Alex Consortium all to Laurent, then picked a few clever apprentices in the tower to follow along.

The Goldwheat Tower would be an important component of the Vermillion Tower in the future, and these apprentice mages were by far the best labor force he had, and getting them exposed in advance was a good thing.

On the seventh floor of the mage tower, the Goddess of the Night had already enveloped the world with her dress.

Looking down at Grimm from a height, there was no such brightly lit scenery as the modern day.

The scattered lights were only seen in areas where the nobility lived. Most of the shops on both sides of the streets were closed, and only a few were operating with oil lamps or magic lamps on.

The streets were even more empty with no pedestrians. Even beggars were reluctant to walk on the streets after dark.

The moon, half-hidden by white clouds cast a cold, hazy light.

The city that was bustling by day, had fallen into silence.

The vampires were the darlings of the Goddess of the Night.

Reed could clearly feel that the moment the last gleam of daylight in the sky disappeared, his control over his mana instantly became active.

During the day, the mana around him felt like mercury and needed much more energy to mobilize them. While at night, they were like clean, gentle spring water, which only needed his will for it to be roused by his mental powers.

The mana was still the original mana, but night gave the vampires increased sensitivity to magic, and that was why he had this sensation.

It was no exaggeration to say that the strength of the vampires, upon nightfall, was at least 50% stronger than that of day.

Reed was already used to this situation, and so he preferred to conduct his study of magic at night.

After several days of research, coupled with the knowledge of the Progenitor Vampire's gained in the past two hundred years, Reed had deeper learning of magic.

If a mage wanted to cast a spell, it must be done through a magic model.

The magic model was similar to computer programming. One only needed to enter a fixed formula to get the direct results.

The only difference is that the magic model required the input of mana.

A spell from the First Circle of Magic would not exceed a hundred magic nodes, and a spell like Mage's Hand only had 30 nodes.

Dozens of magic nodes form a model, and the model was operated using a fixed rule. After inputting the required mana, the model could be activated for the spell to be cast.

However, Reed was curious about whether the magic nodes on a magic model are fixed and completely unchangeable, and what would happen if he were to move the nodes.

The boldness of modern souls for magic was far beyond the imagination of the people of this era. The awe mages had for magic in the world of Glory was carved into their bones.

Even the Progenitor Vampire had never tried to change the magic model, and this not only required a deep understanding of magic, but also a huge reserve of knowledge and a heart that did not fear the Goddess of Magic.

Even in Grimm, only that Transcendent Mage had successfully improved a magic model, and even the three Archmages at a level of more than 15 had not studied the matter.

After thinking over for the past few days, Reed was going to try the bold idea of changing the magic node tonight.

However, in order to prevent any accidents, he still made thorough preparations.

The first thing he wanted to study was the First Circle spell, Mage's Hand because this spell was the simplest of all First Circle spells... and only had 30 magic nodes.

Many mages even did not recognize this spell as First Circle Magic and regarded it as a party trick.

Plus, the Mage's Hand was not an offensive spell, and even if there was a backlash he could withstand it.

The function of the current Mage's Hand was very simple and could only create a giant translucent hand.

The power of the giant hand created by this spell was about 150 pounds, and the mana required was 10 points.

The average apprentice mages did not have such power, and the strength of the giant hand they created was about ten-odd pounds, and there was a large gulf between him and them.

But at the same time, the apprentice mages also needed to consume 10 mana. Although they were casting the same spell, consume the same amount of mana, yet the results were completely different.

This led Reed to have two speculations about spellcasting.

Whether the more mana one has, the stronger the spell was, or whether the higher the level, the higher the efficiency of mana usage.

Reed was very interested in exploring the mysteries of magic.

If a magic node was not fixed, then could the magic model be improved by adjusting the magic node, or the magic circuits between the nodes to achieve the effect of reducing mana consumption or strengthening its power?

What effects would he bring about if the magic nodes were reduced or increased?

As he thought of this, Reed's heart throbbed even faster, and he was even more curious about his speculations.

It was just like how a child sees his favorite toy, but he was a man of action.

First, he started to input mana.

Reed carefully observed the magic circuit from the first node to the last since the input of mana.

After connecting the 30 magic nodes, the magic model of the Mage's Hand took shape in an instant. He could clearly sense that as long as he released this magic power, the Mage's Hand would be successfully cast.

Nevertheless, he did not release the cast, instead, he slowly reduced the mana input. And as long as there was an inflow of mana, the magic model would always stay in an activated mode and could be cast at any time.

Until the mana inflow dropped to the limit of the magic model operation, and any further reduction would see the collapse of the magic model, Reed stopped reducing the mana input.

The purpose of reducing the mana input was to minimize the damage should a backlash occur. Activating the magic model was to more intuitively observe the role of the magic nodes within the magic model.

The next step was reducing the magic nodes.

Reed was extremely focused as this was his first attempt.

After having the idea of improving the Mage's Hand, he had cast the spell more than a hundred times in order to be familiar with the spell.

So, he already knew the structure of the spell's very well now.

He first numbered the 30 magic nodes from 1 to 30.

Node 23 and Node 24 were the closest of nodes within the model of the Mage's Hand. If one of them is removed, the magic circuit could bypass this distance and connect to the next one.

If he was to remove a magic node, could the mana cost be reduced after casting?

It was very simple to remove a magic node. One could achieve this by controlling the magic circuit to avoid this node and directly connect to the next one.

Reed slowly released his mental power and controlled the circuit to avoid Node 23 so that Node 22 and Node 24 would be directly connected.

Whoosh~

When the circuit bypassed Node 23, the entire magic model of the Mage's Hand spell shuddered for a while, as if it was about to collapse at any moment.

Reed was prepared for this and did not panic, as he slightly increased the input of mana.

And the shaking magic model temporarily stabilized because of the surge in mana powering in.

And just as Reed breathed a sigh of relief, a light flashed out and the entire model collapsed.

Reed felt a surge of pain in his mind as if he had been stabbed by a needle in the head.

The first experiment...

Failed.

Thankfully, the backlash of the spell was not too great, and with the vampire's improved control of magic at night. Reed returned to normal after a ten-minute rest.

"No, the magic nodes cannot be removed just because they are close. This node is most likely a point for the stabilization of the model. If it's stable, can I add one more parallel node to continue strengthening the magic model?"

If removing one would cause a collapse, what about adding another one?

As he was already prepared for failure, Reed was completely unaffected. He then concentrated his mind again, as he input the mana into the Mage's Hand magic model.

This time around, Reed added a parallel node to Node 23, which was used to connect Node 23 and Node 24.

Adding an additional magic node was simple, he only needed to focus his mental powers on one point, and leave a mark in his mind. Then he connects the circuit to the model, and this extra node could be integrated into the magic model itself.

After adding the extra node, the magic model did not show any signs of collapsing but worked normally.

Reed was overjoyed. It seemed like his idea was not wrong, and that the magic was not unchangeable.

After running it for several more minutes, he was sure that the model would not collapse.

Then, the sound of a finger snap rang out.

Snap!

A translucent Mage's Hand appeared before him.

But this Mage's Hand was different from the initial version.

The original Mage's Hand was a giant hand, but now the Mage's Hand was a literal abomination.

Of the five fingers, three were left, and the arm became three times bigger, looking like a hammer, and the entire spell looked full of disharmony and weirdness.

Reed was not disappointed after he saw that, but was instead overjoyed.

"I'm able to successfully cast the spell, and the magic model did not collapse even after casting. This means my assumption is true."

Reed was greatly encouraged by the spell that was far from successful.

Being able to successfully cast the spell meant that he was not in the wrong direction.

Since his direction was right, what he needed now was to continuously experiment with improvements until he understood the role of each magic node, and to refine and reconstruct it so that this First Circle spell could become a brand new spell.

Reed was full of interest and confidence in this matter.

Studying magic was so interesting. The joy of creation was something that could hardly be described with words.