The Mighty Dragons Are Dead - Chapter 155:
Chapter 155: Chapter 0155: The Incarnation of the Mundane Truth
All the materials and items were moved into the new house, and thus Mr. Grandini settled down in Fresh Flower Town.
The noon banquet was held in the castle by Liszt to entertain Grandini, where nobles and would-be noble classes gathered in numbers, yet the atmosphere of the banquet was somewhat mediocre.
The magician wasn’t as unsociable as imagined.
Of course, he couldn’t be described as witty and humorous either; often, it was Goltai and others entertaining themselves, with Grandini merely eating and drinking, more like a self-absorbed creature.
The materials for crafting the Black Pearl were not yet sufficient.
Therefore, after the banquet ended, starting from the afternoon, Grandini’s work mainly focused on teaching—although he also had the task of crafting Crystal Lamps, he needed the cooperation of a crystal craftsman, as the magician wasn’t skilled in carving crystals.
The Fresh Flower Caravan had already gone to invite the crystal craftsman Brad, who would probably arrive the day after tomorrow, if he wasn’t too busy.
“Magic, just like Dou Qi, is a form of magic power,”
Grandini started without any fuss, “The world is triangular; matter is one corner, spirit another, and magic power the third. This is our magicians’ understanding of the nature of the world, and the source of magic. Specifically, as it relates to ourselves, the caster is matter, the power from meditation is spirit, and the combination of matter, spirit, and magic power creates magic.”
“What about knights, then?”
“As I said, magic and Dou Qi are alike—magic power, the releaser, and spiritual power create various Dou Qi manuscripts. The difference between magicians and knights is that knights regard themselves as the triangle, while magicians integrate themselves into the larger triangle of the world.”
As he spoke, he asked, “Do you understand?”
Liszt nodded as if he really got it, “A triangle, huh? The most stable structure.” In fact, he didn’t understand at all—what large triangle, small triangle.
Then.
Grandini continued to talk about his triangle theory, like how Taoism believes the universe is divided into the five elements of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth, and Buddhism generalizes that matter is composed of earth, water, fire, and wind. Magicians believe the world is divided into spirit, matter, and magic power.
A very broad cognition, its correctness unknown, and the content extremely dull.
Grandini wasn’t a good teacher either, and his speech was even more tedious. An afternoon of repeating the same triangle theory nearly put Liszt to sleep several times.
Finally, he couldn’t bear it anymore and interrupted, “Mr. Grandini, I’ve already understood the triangle theory, you can skip it. What I want to know now is how magic is released and why magic power is divided into different properties like water, fire, earth, wind, lightning, light, ice and darkness. Also, I’d like to witness real magic.”
Grandini frowned.
Being interrupted during a long lecture was very disappointing.
Luckily he still knew that Liszt was his patron, so he raised his left hand, his fingers slightly spread, and quickly rubbed together a fireball. The fireball appeared out of thin air, from a tiny flame to a fist-sized fireball. With a fierce push of his hand, the fireball shot out of the castle window and exploded in mid-air not too far away.
“Fireball Technique, the most basic of the Fire System magic.”
“Do it again,” said Liszt, narrowing his eyes, bringing forth the Eye of Magic Power. He wanted to observe closely—he had observed a Magical Beast releasing magic, where magic power condensed in its body and was expelled from its mouth, naturally forming magic.
Grandini nodded.
Raising his hand, he once again created a fireball.
Liszt watched very clearly this time—Grandini had only a small amount of magic power inside him, chaotic and colorless. The moment he cast the Fireball Technique, the magic power in his palm quickly turned red, becoming Fire Attribute Magic Power. Then, speckles of red magic power in the air were attracted by the magic power in his palm, coalescing into a ball and forming the fireball.
Pop!
The fireball exploded outside the castle.
In the vision of the Eye of Magic Power, that fiery attribute magic power dissipated with a roar as if it never existed.
He had a rough idea of the process of casting magic.
However, he still didn’t understand why magic could gather into a fireball, as the Eye of Magic couldn’t observe the force that caused the magic power to condense.
Perhaps, as Grandini had said, it was the power of the spirit.
Like him, a single thought could drive the Dou Qi within his body to circulate according to his will. Why it followed his thoughts was a mystery.
At this moment,
Grandini continued to manipulate the magic.
“Meditate, to build a bridge between your spirit and the magic power,” his voice was somewhat ethereal, his gaze fixed on the palm of his hand, his whole being immersed in a certain state, “Magic power is a third existence outside of the material and spiritual realms. It has emotions. Feel them, befriend them, and they will serve you.”
Gradually,
A gray-brown substance, which was magic power materialized as soil, began to appear in his palm.
The soil sphere slowly grew larger, and his voice continued to drift: “Meditation is an essential step in building the bridge. Only when your spirit is in a state of calm can you touch the existence of magic power. It is everywhere, jumping for joy. Once you find them and make friends with them, you can obtain magic, and then, understand the world!”
Finally, the soil sphere expanded to the size of a fist and then gradually solidified, turning into a rock with distinct edges and corners.
Grandini didn’t stop, continuing to cast magic, compressing and solidifying the rock over and over again until it emitted a cracking sound, and only then did he stop.
With a flick, the rock completely shattered.
But unlike the fireball from before, the shattered rock didn’t disappear; it remained as debris: “Flying Rock Technique, an Earth System Magic, as low-level as the Fireball Technique. However, I can’t master it very well. I specialize in Water System and Fire System Magic, and I have a slight understanding of Wind and Earth Systems but am not proficient.”
“Lightning, Ice, Darkness then?”
“I have not delved into these four systems of magic and cannot cast them.”
“But I’ve heard that magicians can master and cast magic of every type.”
“If I can get closer to Truth and become a Grand Magician, maybe I will have enough energy to study Lightning, Ice, and Darkness Magic. But right now, I am far from the Truth, and my spirit is not broad enough to be proficient in both Water and Fire Systems is already pushing it.”
“What is an Archmage like?”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
Grandini lifted his head, his hooked nose tilting upward: “Archmages are incarnations of Truth walking in the secular world, beings that magicians look up to. Baron Liszt, why do you think I would understand Archmages? Even you, do you understand what a Dragon Knight is?”
Faced with such a question, Liszt couldn’t argue—he had always thought that Dragon Knights were simply knights who rode on dragons.
However, the Advanced Dou Qi of a Sky Knight was just one level below Dragon Dou Qi, the legendary Dou Qi shared with dragons. As for what Dragon Dou Qi was, not even his noble relatives and friends, like Marquis Merlin, a veteran Sky Knight, knew what it was.
All the noble knights dreamed of becoming Dragon Knights.
But knights who possessed dragons were lofty beings, out of reach for the common man—even the King who had dragons, such as the Sapphire Duke, likely had no idea what being a Dragon Knight felt like. The first Sapphire Duke was a Dragon Knight, but the current Sapphire Duke was merely the dragon’s partner and caretaker.
No chance for dragon riding.
“Alright, let’s change the subject. Why did the rock condensed from magic power continue to exist?” He asked a question that had puzzled him for a long time.
