Chapter 109 Gravity Compression

Arcane Calendar Year 713, Month of the Wind Claw, 3rd.

I must admit, my thoughts last night were somewhat treasonous.

I hope Lady "Mystra" did not notice. Even if she did, I pray she does not blame me.

As you know, I have always been the most devout follower of the "Goddess of Magic." I have never slandered or dismissed the magnificent role the "Magic Weave" plays for Spellcasters. The brilliance of blooming magic outshines the sun.

May the arcane last forever.

Arcane Calendar Year 713, Month of the Wind Claw, 6th.

The Greengrass Festival was approaching, and Lia specially brought over some sweet flower cakes for me to share with the other apprentices.

They were indeed very sweet.

Arcane Calendar Year 713, Month of the Wind Claw, 18th.

Recent experiments have not gone smoothly. Even Burgess was singled out and reprimanded by the mentor for an entire afternoon over a common, harmless little mistake.

And he is the mentor's closest apprentice!

I was spared the mentor's wrath, but I did not feel fortunate.

After all, only those truly involved in the experiments have the opportunity to make mistakes.

Relegated to running errands and watching from the sidelines, I do not even have the right to err.

Next year will be the final entrance exam for the Hawthorne Royal Academy.

At my current pace of progress, is there really any hope?

Arcane Calendar Year 713, Month of the Wind Claw, 21st.

Heavens!

I only found out during meals today that Burgess was also among those eliminated in the previous exam.

How could that be!?

Hasn't he already mastered 3rd Circle Spells?

If even he couldn't pass, I...

Arcane Calendar Year 713, Month of Melting Snow, 5th.

After the experiment ended today, my landlord—that Calishite—came looking for me at the wizard tower.

He said I hadn't paid rent in two months.

Burgess helped cover the gold coins.

I plan to ask for a leave of absence to go back and check on things.

Arcane Calendar Year 713, Month of Melting Snow, 7th.

It turned out Lia was fired from the workshop several months ago. The reason given was that she misappraised the price of a magical item.

She said she definitely hadn't made a mistake. A customer had bribed the workshop's senior appraiser beforehand in order to artificially inflate the price using an appraisal certificate.

When discovered, they made her the scapegoat.

Lia grew up in Nym, and even though she followed me all the way to Chromatic Ring City, she never had to suffer any real hardships.

I know she was afraid of worrying me, so she kept quiet despite all the grievances she suffered.

I need to do something.

Arcane Calendar Year 713, Month of Melting Snow, 12th.

Through Burgess's channels, I got information on the bastard who caused Lia to lose her job.

It was an assistant lecturer from the Hawthorne Royal Academy.

I wanted to confront him, but Lia stopped me at the door in tears.

She begged me not to go, saying the man was an important figure and that offending him would jeopardize my entrance exam next year.

I agreed for her sake, pretending to just be angry.

But in truth, I knew that even if Lia hadn't stopped me, I would never have been able to see him.

A wild mage from the countryside, living a slave-like apprentice life in a wizard tower.

I couldn't even get through the front gates of the Hawthorn Academy, so who exactly was I going to confront?

Arcane Calendar Year 713, Month of Bloom, 9th.

Almost a month has passed since I returned from the rented apartment.

Lia visited the wizard tower a few times, acting as if nothing had happened.

The beautiful little dresses she used to wear, however, were replaced by coarse linen clothes.

The jewelry and necklaces she never took off were nowhere to be seen.

She smiled and said it was more comfortable to dress this way.

Things couldn't go on like this.

Arcane Calendar Year 713, Month of Bloom, 12th.

There was still more than a year until the entrance exam, but I felt my hopes growing ever slimmer.

The things I learned in the wizard tower were simply not enough to get me into the Royal Academy.

To pass the exam, I had to forge a different path.

Find another way.

Arcane Calendar Year 713, Month of Bloom, 20th.

Today was a day off, and it was my turn to clean the laboratory. I suddenly remembered that experience from two months ago.

Borrowing the rune array in the lab, I tried it again without using spellcasting materials.

It still succeeded.

What did this mean?

If I could uncover the underlying principles behind it, could I use this to pass the exam and become a member of the academy?

Arcane Calendar Year 713, Month of Bloom, 21st.

There is only one day off each month; my access to the laboratory is simply not enough.

Since they are both gravity magic anyway, "Gravity Compression," as the only 1st Circle Spell I have mastered, could perhaps replace the rune array as my experimental subject.

After all, it also required spellcasting materials and the construction of a spell model, and the steps to connect to the "Magic Weave" were no different. Arcane Calendar Year 713, Month of Bloom, 28th.

First, I tried changing the spellcasting materials for "Gravity Compression," using laundry powder and small crushed stones to replace the original iron filings. I also attempted it without any spellcasting materials at all.

They all worked.

However, aside from the iron filings, the casting effects with all other materials were highly unstable.

That made sense. After all, the very purpose of "spellcasting materials" was to maintain the stability of magic flowing within the spell model.

Then I took it a step further. I considered omitting the spell model entirely without the aid of any materials, and directly channeling the magic itself through the "Magic Weave."

The experiment failed.

Without a spell model serving as the terminal, no matter how much magic I filtered out from the "Magic Weave," it remained nothing more than pure magical particles, devoid of any additional effects.

Arcane Calendar Year 713, Month of the Summer Tide, 15th.

I began to ponder what sort of relationship truly existed between spellcasting materials, spell models, the "Magic Weave," and Spellcasters.

What exactly were the fundamental principles behind spells?

Was it merely referring to the experiences left by predecessors in grimoires, rigidly pinching spellcasting materials accurate to the gram, using magic to sketch out complex, bloated models without understanding why, and drawing upon magic from the invisible, intangible "Magic Weave"—was that all there was to it?

If spellcasting materials could be replaced, and spell models could be omitted, then what about the "Magic Weave"?

Arcane Calendar Year 713, Month of the Summer Tide, 27th.

I tried contemplating the essence of gravity magic.

Did it increase or decrease the pressure exerted on an object by adjusting the density of earth elements in the air?

Or did it weaken or strengthen the gravitational bonds of the Material Plane by regulating the flow rate of the aether?

Or was it both?

Arcane Calendar Year 713, Month of the Scorching Sun, 10th.

It succeeded!

There was no need for spellcasting materials, no need to simulate a spell model, and certainly no need to connect to the "Magic Weave."

I omitted all the redundant steps in "Gravity Compression," leaving only the simplest parts that touched upon its essence, and purely used my mental strength to stir the magical particles in the air.

It was still effective!

If that were the case, then what was the point of the "Magic Weave's" existence?

Arcane Calendar Year 713, Month of the Scorching Sun, 21st.

Strange.

Although the spell succeeded, the laboratory didn't detect any changes in earth element density or aether turbulence.

Then what exactly was this so-called "gravity," or rather, "gravitational pull"?

Arcane Calendar Year 713, Month of Wither, 13th.

Today, during a break from work, I shared my doubts with my mentor.

An eerie expression appeared on his face—one I had never seen in the entire year I'd been in the wizard tower.

Arcane Calendar Year 713, Month of Wither, 15th.

I was dismissed.

Burgess helped me pack my luggage, and he also slipped a few gold coins into my bundle. I only realized it after I got back to my rented apartment.

He is a good man. I will remember him.

Arcane Calendar Year 714, Month of Deep Winter, 2nd.

Lia is now working two jobs every day. She leaves the house before dawn and returns late at night. It is exhausting.

I thought about finding work to help subsidize our household expenses.

But she told me to focus on my research and not be distracted.

I will definitely treat her well.

I swear it!

Arcane Calendar Year 714, Month of the Winter Claw, 13th.

Even without the professional equipment in the wizard tower, the most basic experiments can still be conducted.

I haven't given up.

Arcane Calendar Year 714, Month of the Winter Claw, 30th.

The quill pen drifting up under the effects of gravity suddenly reminded me of fallen leaves bobbing unsteadily on the surface of the water.

It had nothing to do with the aether, nor was it the earth element.

Magic merely acted as a catalyst within it all.

Was it something intangible and flowing, existing within the very air itself?

Arcane Calendar Year 714, Month of the Twilight Claw, 25th.

When levitating the quill pen and the ink bottle to the same height, while keeping all other conditions constant, the latter required far more focus and magic.

Was it the difference in weight?

Arcane Calendar Year 714, Month of Melting Snow, 21st.

"Gravity" itself did not exist because of magic.

So-called gravity magic merely used magical particles as catalysts to alter the amount of gravitational pull exerted on an object.

It was like an invisible river. All a Spellcaster could do was temporarily change or slow its flow.

I seemed to have discovered the pattern within.

But whenever I tried to utilize my own conclusions to create magic—like the Legendary mages mentioned by the bards—by branching off tributaries from the main river channel...

...much like the few sorcerers I had seen in Chromatic Ring City who bypassed the "Magic Weave" to purely control magic itself...

...I always fell just a little bit short.

Whether it was the frequency of the particle fluctuations or the stability of the energy flow, the reasons for failure were always myriad and strange.

Yet it always caused all my efforts to be wasted right on the verge of success.

It was as if an invisible, giant hand was silently stopping me in the shadows from taking that crucial final step.

Was it the impact of the difference in air humidity, or the ceaseless reverberations echoing from the ley lines?

Or was it the dice rolled by the gods in the Sea of Aether?

Was it "Her"?

Arcane Calendar Year 714, Month of the Summer Tide, 6th.

Lia remarked that lately I had been like a different person. I no longer incessantly babbled those incomprehensible nouns and theorems, nor did I often bring up the Royal Academy I once dreamt of.

Only I knew the reason why.

Like an ant crawling out of its cramped nest for the first time, the vast, boundless Material Plane had only revealed a tiny, fascinating sliver of its outermost edge—yet it was enough to shake me to my core.

In comparison, my past dreams and desires were like the delusional babbling of a child, childish and meaningless.

Arcane Calendar Year 714, Month of Wither, 7th.

I still went to take the exam, just to put an end to my two years of effort.

The result was as expected.

My achievements were repeatedly criticized by several examiners, and one of them even called it garbage and waste.

I did not argue back.

The future will prove who is right and who is wrong.

Arcane Calendar Year 714, Month of Falling Leaves, 1st.

Lia is pregnant.

We plan to return to Nym to rest for a while before making our next move.

Arcane Calendar Year 714, Month of the Year's End, 30th.

Gravity objectively exists on every object.

Magic is the avenue to leverage it.

But as long as that aloof "Holy Mother," that "Lady," remains sitting high up in her divine kingdom...

The Outer Planes, the Astral Plane... nowhere can escape her gaze.

It doesn't matter.

If the world is her sandbox, I am willing to be the flea that jumps out of the box.

Xia Nan's gaze swept to the end of the page.

A look of lingering fascination appeared on his face.

A diary.

From a wild mage three hundred years ago.

He didn't know the diary owner's name, nor for what reason it had ended up in a Goblin Lair.

The wonderful sensation of glimpsing into another person's life through text still left him entirely immersed in it.

He even ignored the filthy, choking stench in the air and the sticky, muddy wet earth beneath his feet.

He just stood there in the cave, which was littered with the fragmented corpses of Goblins, flipping through and reading the entire thing page by page, recalling "Chromatic Ring City" and "gravity magic" mentioned inside.

Speaking of which, ever since his transmigration, he didn't seem to have met a proper Spellcaster yet.

Oh, perhaps that Cleric of the Sun God in Kalanfor counted as one.

Watching the wild mage in the diary accidentally recognize the existence of "gravity," gradually break free from ignorance, and become resolute and calm, he, as a bystander, felt as if he had experienced it all the same.

Unfortunately, even though he hailed from a technologically advanced modern society and had struggled in the workplace for years, his entire understanding of "gravity" was limited to that apple dropping on a forehead and the surging, ebbing tides by the sea.

However, seeing the other party reinterpret it from a magical perspective in the style of a fantasy world was quite interesting.

Treating it as a small interlude during a "thrilling" mission, Xia Nan closed the thin book and planned to put it back into the Book Box to take back to Rivervale Town.

But his fingertips, which were pinching the pages, couldn't help but pause.

It was the back cover at the very end of the diary, a layer thicker than the rest.

Seeming to have thought of something, a gleam of light flashed through Xia Nan's pitch-black eyes.

He pinched the back cover of the diary with his index finger and thumb and rubbed it gently.

Rustle—

A piece of yellowed paper, which had been glued inside the hidden layer of the thin book and was half-covered with densely packed characters, drifted out and fluttered to the ground.

He hurriedly caught it.

His gaze subconsciously swept over the written text recorded on it.

"Just as I thought!"

This piece of paper hidden in the interlay of the back cover impressively recorded the detailed method used by that wild mage in the diary to stir "gravity" purely relying on mental strength, without the aid of the "Magic Weave" or a spell model.

"To think there would be an unexpected harvest!"

Xia Nan happily folded up the paper and carefully stored it close to his body.

He figured he would study it slowly in the inn after heading back.

Accompanied by the crisp metallic clinking of chainmail clasps colliding, the sound of footsteps gradually disappeared into the depths of the corridor leading to the lair's exit.

On the stone dome ceiling, a crystalline liquid silently flowed down, gathering at the tip of a stalactite to form a single droplet of water.

It wobbled and swayed.

Finally, under the effect of an invisible gravitational pull, it quietly dropped down.