Chapter 22
The experimental equipment that Xerath received is a set of mithril stands. Mithril is a good conductor of magic, although it's inaccurate to say it's a fact. Until now, it's unclear what exactly "magic" is. However, it is certain that mithril can assist mages in performing many tasks and is a valuable material for spellcasting. The black market prices for mithril are always fluctuating. Prices of many magical items also fluctuate with the futures market. By the way, Xerath and Virgil once made a fortune in the mithril futures market. Mithril is often used to make magic arrays or even pen tips and ring settings.
However, Sylas doesn't understand what a magic array is, so Xerath continues to explain it to her. Sylas listens attentively, but it seems that she doesn't grasp the concept. Xerath has to explain, "The circle I carved in the living room is a defensive magic array."
Sylas seems to understand now and asks, "What's next? This is, a magic—array?"
"Correct. This is a magic array, and its purpose is to evenly store absorbed magic power in each crystal. Usually, people think that defense crystals can only absorb harmful spells, then overload and explode. But it's not like that..." While Xerath explains seriously, she notices the confusion in Sylas's eyes. "Um... you didn't understand, did you?"
Sylas nodded and shook her head again. "Who is 'everyone'?"
"Someone who is usually considered ordinary." Sylas still looked confused, and Xerath was slightly impatient. She usually had no patience for people with intellectual disabilities. But because of those bright emerald eyes, she still remained patient. Thanks to this patience, she suddenly had a flash of inspiration and said, "The 'general public'."
Sylas nodded eagerly. Xerath breathed a sigh of relief, but then had a new worry: would Sylas have a biased understanding of the term 'general public,' just like 'purchase' and 'customer'?
"What happens next?"
"Well, this magic circle can help the absorbed things conduct between the crystals. In the past, if you wanted to resist a large-scale damage spell all at once, you needed large and pure crystals. But if someone could develop and perfect this magic circle, they could use many small and impure crystals." She pointed at a bag of cut small crystals on the table. This bag of scraps probably cost ten silver coins, while the same weight of crystals would cost ten gold coins. The price difference was astonishing, not to mention the mithril that made them practically equal.
This was undoubtedly a milestone discovery, but Xerath's previous paper had been criticized by the academic community. Even the journal accused her of being a "regrettable genius - the youngest Elemental Archmage in history, addicted to eccentric skills."
Archmage felt down for a while. Wasn't this worth writing a paper about? Until Aimekotes broke the news last month, no one had questioned the article itself. They were all questioning her "fallen" status. Her frustration was not because of being denied and criticized, but because she felt disappointed in the academic community. Some people took the identity of a "noble thinker" too seriously and refused to do any artisan's work. They also tried their best to pull her down.
Sylas didn't need to know about these troubles. In fact, she wouldn't understand. She looked at Xerath, perhaps just wanting to know the ending of this narrative that sounded like a story. Maybe she just thought Xerath was "extraordinary."
"So what flows between mithril and crystals? No one knows, but one thing is for sure..."
"What is it?" Look, the little girl couldn't wait to know the ending.
"During the process of overload, it will generate heat. In other words, no matter what magic is absorbed, this process will cause heat. I think there must be a proportional relationship between the amount of heat generated and the amount of magic consumed during the casting process. Do you understand?"
Sylas shook her head honestly, "How can I help you?"
Xerath suddenly laughed, "Just cast spells casually."
"Casting spells means that, no matter how, you can play with elements, right?"
"Yes. You seem to enjoy that, don't you?"
Sylas nodded honestly.
"But not today, I have to pack up the equipment."
Sylas seemed like she wanted to help, but Xerath politely asked her not to move. Her hands had already started drawing lines in the air, and dazzling golden tracks tore open one rift after another. The Earth Child and Water Child ran out orderly from the rifts, skillfully packing up the bulky rack.
The frame is not made of expensive mithril material, it seems to be only for supporting the floating spell and the transparent container, so that the mithril spell at the top can be immersed in water.
Sylas was very curious about all this, but Xerath said they couldn't play with them. In the corner of the room was a big table with feathers, which she had seen before. It was surrounded by things that had just been unpacked, and Xerath was taking them out one by one and handing them to the nearby Earth Child. The things gradually piled up, making one wonder where they had originally been kept, as there was almost nothing here the last time they came.
Hyectra disappeared with the water child as soon as they appeared, and when they came back, each elemental creature was carrying something. Hyectra had a large round belly, and inside it was a writing desk. Because of its shape, the corners of the desk stuck out a bit. Then there was a small bookshelf and a set of writing tools. Xerath pointed to a spot and had them unload the goods. Finally, she took the work notebook from a water child and placed it in the drawer of the writing desk.
Xerath inserted the golden feather into a machine near the writing desk, and a faint light penetrated into the shiny silver metal pipe connected to it. A wind wall appeared in front of them. Xerath nodded in satisfaction, and Sylas curiously reached out to touch the wind wall, but was pushed back by a gust of wind. The harder she tried, the stronger the opposition force from the wall.
She looked up at Xerath and said, "It's different from that day."
Xerath nodded, "That's right, I changed the spell. Look at the floor."
Now Sylas recognized the spell. The text around the wall was similar to what Xerath had carved in the living room upstairs, and the straight "spell" under the wind wall looked like patterns on the floor. However, Sylas quickly started playing with it. She kept moving closer to the wind wall and then being pushed back, and even called the busy Hyectra to join in.
The good-natured water lord couldn't handle both requests at the same time, but the child's beautiful emerald eyes made it unable to refuse. Xerath came over at the right time, pulling Sylas and giving her a water ball.
"Okay, don't bump into it anymore. The feather's support time is limited. Play with this instead." She threw the water ball, and it bounced back when it hit the wind wall. Unexpectedly, Sylas had good body coordination and ran around catching the ball, never letting it drop to the ground.
It's really enviable to be carefree.
