Mages Are Too OP

Roland studied magic in his own chamber.

Substance Transformation wasn’t hard to learn. At least, the spell model that the Magic Tower provided wasn’t.

But the problem was that it could only transform the four basic metals. To transform other substances, he had to figure out the different ratio of magic power.

Then there was a huge problem.

Roland didn’t really know the molecular formulas of other substances.

For example, Roland knew that water was dihydrogen monoxide.

But then, what did the oxygen atom look like? How should elementary particles be combined into that? How should they be rearranged into hydrogen atoms?

After thinking about that, Roland found it rather tricky to reassemble new substances with the spell.

Having no other choice, he could only ask the netizens on the Internet in a thread.

“I have a question for the experts in physics. What should I do if I want to create new substances with the elementary particles?”

He described the problem he encountered when he studied the new spell in detail in the thread, and asked what books he should buy if he wanted to learn the basic structures in matter.

All the replies were very interesting.

“I have no idea what Roland described. What are elementary particles? Is that a physics concept?”

“It used to be, but they don’t talk about it anymore, because the so-called elementary particles have complicated structures too.”

“I don’t think anybody can answer Roland’s question.”

“Me neither. It’s possible to combine different molecules with chemistry, but atoms are minimal and indivisible particles in chemical experiments. It seems pretty easy to turn a hydrogen atom into a carbon atom by adding a few electrons to its surface, but it’s chemically impossible. Even I, a doctor in chemistry, can’t do that.”

“Building a new substance or atom with neutrons, protons, and electrons? I think it’s an academic question in the micro world, which I’m told is a place predominated by idealism. But I’m not sure about that. I’m 27 and I’m already bald. You must know what I do for a living.”

“Hehe. Are you a coder?” “Idealism? Shouldn’t it be magic?”

“Mr. Roland, I don’t think you should worry too much about science. If the transformation of substances involves elemental particles, how was the Substance Transformation spell created? I don’t think the Mages in the game world understand molecules or atoms. They must’ve invented the spell with a magical principle or method.”

Roland was greatly enlightened when he read that.

Exactly like what the last netizen said, the magic world had its own rules, and science wasn’t the only way to comprehend the world.

Therefore, there must be secrets that he hadn’t unearthed from Substance Transformation.

It was because when Roland parsed the spell, he only discovered the energy flow but didn’t find any energy nodes concerning the transformation between different substances.

What had he missed?

He tried the spell again and again and explored the nodes repeatedly, but he always had the feeling that he was taking a part for the whole.

The spell wasn’t really hard, but it contained a lot of nodes that were expressed in the jargons of Mordenkainen’s age. It was slightly difficult to construct it due to the time gap.

Fortunately, Roland had a database to help him with confirmation and extrapolation. After he examined all the nodes, he found that they were all about input and output of magic energy, and the core energy transfer nodes were nowhere to be seen.

That didn’t seem right.

Roland examined the nodes again, and the result was the same.

Then, the research on the spell came to a halt.

On the second day, Roland went to the place they agreed upon and waited for Field.

After Field arrived, he showed him the Cloud Flight spell.

This spell which looked splendid and could carry multiple people won Field over instantly.

“I’ll take it! I’ll take it!” Field rubbed his hands excitedly with glowing eyes. “Mr. Roland, would you mind noting the design principle of the spell and the functions of every node?”

“Of course not.” Roland gave him a dozen pieces of paper that contained detailed designs and explanations of the spell. He then handed another piece of paper that was full of words over to him. “Those are all the magic materials I want. They aren’t easy to gather, but I think they’ll be worth it.”

Field carefully read through Roland’s list and was greatly relieved, “There are truly a lot of them, and some are quite rare, but it’s not really a problem for the Julian family. Your new spell is much more valuable. I’ve taken advantage of you.”

Roland nodded and felt that Field was keen enough to see the potential of the spell. “Not at all. We’ve done each other a favor.”

“In any case, thank you very much, sir.”

Field was extremely grateful and left with the spell model first.

Then, Roland left the woods and returned to the city where the Transmutation Magic Tower was located

He wasn’t in a hurry to resume his magic studies. He would rather take a walk first.

This city had been constructed because of the Transmutation Magic Tower. There was a similar city where every Magic Tower was located. Everybody in those cities was in the service of Mages. The people here lived a better life than those near the Red Magic Tower.

After all, there were many more resources in this subtropical forest than there were in the desert where the Red Magic Tower was located.

However, the Red Magic Tower, established in a desolate and destitute place, was apparently better at combat.

While Roland was taking a walk on the street, he couldn’t prevent himself from thinking about magic.

After a while, he found that Kujira, the mentor he chose, was sitting on the lawn, or what appeared to be a small part of a lawn, on one side of the street.

The mentor was surrounded by kids. He was playing a lot of level-zero tricks, such as Hands of Magic, Magic Servant, and Illumination, while he said, “Mental power is very important to a Mage. If your mental power is high enough, you can beat an enemy even with such level-zero tricks.”

All the kids looked at him with admiration in their glowing eyes. Those kids were all locals. They were even mostly the offspring of Mages or apprentices who longed for magic adventures.

Kujira continued, “Also, spells can be changed, as soon as we use different variables.”

After he said that, he cast a dozen light balls, and they gathered together and fell on the lawn.

Very soon, the grass around the light ball withered and blackened at a high speed.

“Do you see that? With enough mental power, you can hurt the enemy with tiny light balls,” said Kujira with a smile. “So, don’t rush to study any spells yet. Meditate and improve your mental power. If you lay a solid foundation, your future studies will be very easy and efficient.”

All the kids agreed with him in excitement.

Roland, on the other hand, was stunned to see the light ball. He vaguely sensed something.

The main purpose of the light ball was no longer illumination, although it could still illuminate the surroundings.

Wait… All the nodes in Substance Transformation were energy streams!

Roland clapped his hands. He suddenly had an inspiration and vaguely realized the mysteries behind the spell.

He was about to leave, when Kujira rose and called out to him. “Mr. Roland, please wait a moment.”

Roland stopped and looked back with a smile. “You knew that I was behind you, Mentor Kujira?”

“There’s no need to call me mentor when we’re out.” Kujira walked to Roland and pointed at the street ahead. “What about a

walk?”

Although Roland was eager to go back and confirm his speculation with experiments, he had to nod his head after his mentor said that. “Of course, mentor.”

Kujira shook his head and stepped forward first.

Roland instantly caught up with him and walked next to him.

As an old man, Kujira was no longer as high-spirited as in his prime years. He even looked rather exhausted. With his hands at his back, he walked slowly. “Mr. Roland, did you have an argument with Young Robert in the cafeteria yesterday?”

“Yes.” Roland nodded.

“Young Robert is reckless and seems arrogant, but he’s essentially a good kid.” While observing the passersby on the street, Kujira said with a smile, “Julian is a good kid too. Things are rather difficult now that you’ve been caught between them.” “It’s not difficult at all.” Roland shook his head. “I won’t meddle in the trivial matters between them at all.”

“The trivial matters?” asked Kujira with a smile. “It’s no trivial matter at all. The title of Great Elder is open for competition every ten years in our Magic Tower. Old Robert’s term is about to be over, and Old Julian is his strongest competitor. To secure a second term, Old Robert has to overshadow Old Julian.”

So it was a conflict about power.

Even so, Roland still felt that it was trivial.

However awesome the Transmutation Magic Tower was, and no matter how good the learning environment was, it was just a tiny force in a tiny city.

Roland had seen great scenes. Not just the battles of players and the war in the Realm of Devils, it was also a great matter when the Goddess of Light arrived and apologized to two major forces.

In comparison, the two groups of people’s competition for the leadership of the Magic Tower looked like child’s play.

Seeing how unconcerned Roland was, Kujira stopped and said solemnly, “Roland, you are still new here and have no supporters. Don’t get involved in their competition. You can’t possibly hold back their attacks if nobody backs you up.”

Roland knew that Kujira said that for his sake. He nodded and thanked him for his kindness. “I’ll go back to my dormitory right now. I won’t go out except to go to class or eat food.” “That’ll be great.” Kujira nodded in satisfaction.

Roland slightly bowed at Kujira and quickly returned to his dormitory.

Roland was rich enough to rent a whole dormitory for himself. It was quiet and more convenient for his experiments.

Roland analyzed the Substance Transformation spell again, but instead of examining one node at a time, he observed dozens of them in groups all at once.

Just in time, Kujira’s light ball gave him inspiration.

Was it possible that some of the nodes were for different purposes than what they appeared to be? When he carefully calculated and reviewed the groups of nodes, Roland finally found something interesting: a large amount of magic power disappeared during the application of the magic. Conservation of energy worked in most spells in this world. Where was the magic power lost to after the Substance Transformation was initiated?

C.

Roland examined the nodes where the energy disappeared. His attempts all failed until the eighth try, when he finally noticed a part that seemed to be wrong. That part contained a lot of barriers and was slightly brighter than the other nodes.

It was only slightly different, not obvious at all.

However, after he drew the nodes and connected them, he found that those nodes constituted a five-star magic array.

A magic array had been embedded into the spell model!

That was an extremely advanced trick.

Not just Roland, even the Goddess of Magic might not have been able to do that when she was young

After identifying the nodes of the hidden magic array and inferring them with big data, Roland discovered, to his surprise, that it was actually a causal spell.

He finally had an answer to why Substance Transformation could change matter.

It was a causal spell that could invoke changes when it was activated.

As for the unbelievable number of nodes, they were simply meant to transmit energy to power the causal magic array, which had a huge energy cost.

Even more unbelievably, to simplify the spell model, the nodes were carefully arranged, and many of them were for multiple purposes. They were also arranged in a very delicate way and revealed no anomaly during the energy transmission.

Probably nobody could’ve thought that a magic array that was purely made of nodes could be hidden among other nodes except the creator. That was the core of the spell. As expected of Mordenkainen, the strongest Mage of the past age.

After his initial admiration, Roland began to study the causal spell.

Then, he ran into problems again.

The magic array was very sophisticated.

Roland didn’t understand the functions of some of the nodes at all.

They were like an encrypted language to him.

After all, he had recorded too little data on causal magic.

Things were rather tricky.

But it was fine. He could try to infer it backward, or just crack the encryption with brute force.

When Roland was about to devote himself to magic studies, someone knocked at his door.

He was rather angry… Those who were concentrated on their work hated being disturbed more than anything else.

He opened the door, only to see Young Robert leaning against the wall. Roland couldn’t help but ask, “What can I do for you?”

Young Robert took out a piece of paper and waved it in front of Roland. “These are the requirements you submitted to Julian. May I ask what you offered him in return?”

The style of the words on the paper had changed. It wasn’t Roland’s own handwriting. Someone must’ve copied it.

Was there a traitor on Julian’s side?