Chapter 72: Some theories of magic: going to the orchard to pick fruit.

So tired!

Not only was he exhausted, but his brain had turned to mush, leaving him groggy and lightheaded.

Shu Li began to panic. He looked to the Elven King for help, wanting to ask why his limbs felt weak and his head was spinning.

Just as he opened his mouth, the Elven King took a tiny wooden bowl from his storage ring and placed it in front of him. Then he produced a beautiful crystal bottle, removed the stopper, and poured a single drop of golden liquid into the bowl.

“Thirsty?” the Elven King asked.

Shu Li had been fine until he mentioned it, but the moment he did, Shu Li’s throat suddenly felt dry.

He steadied the wooden bowl with both hands and leaned unsteadily toward it. A sweet fragrance reached his nose, and he could not resist lowering his head to take a sip.

Wow!

It was delicious!

The golden liquid was soothing and refreshing. The moment he swallowed it, his mind cleared, his spirits revived, and all his physical exhaustion vanished.

Shu Li lifted the wooden bowl and gulped down the rest in one breath. He gave a satisfied burp, feeling as though he had come back to life.

After setting down the empty bowl, he licked his lips, still craving more, and looked up. “Your Majesty, what was that?”

The Elven King placed the crystal bottle, which was as tall as Shu Li, in front of him. “A potion that quickly restores physical strength.”

A potion that restored physical strength?

Shu Li stared at the crystal bottle filled with golden liquid and asked in surprise, “Did I just... exhaust all my strength?”

All he had done was use magic to open the cover of his “textbook,” yet it had completely drained him. How strange!

“Why did that happen?” Shu Li asked in confusion.

The Elven King tapped one slender finger against the magic book. “All the answers are in the book.”

“Oh.” Shu Li lightly fluttered his wings and flew onto the book.

With the heavy hardcover open, yellowed pages and distinctively styled Elven script were revealed inside.

To read comfortably, Shu Li had no choice but to fly several inches higher and hover in place.

The magic book was richly illustrated and perfectly suited to beginners, making it effortless to read.

Eager to find the answer, Shu Li quickly became absorbed in it. He read from top to bottom, and as soon as he finished one page, he moved on to the next. Gradually, he became so engrossed that he completely forgot about the Elven King beside him.

Aisha and Siet had previously taught him that, for magic to achieve its full power, an incantation had to include a lengthy preamble. Removing that preamble would greatly weaken the spell’s effects.

Long ago, when the heavenly and mortal realms had still been connected, praising the gods had carried a high chance of triggering a blessing that enhanced the spell’s effects.

Now that the passage between the realms had shattered and the gods had lost their connection to the mortal realm, those preambles had gradually become a burden, restricting the speed at which mages could cast spells.

For the past ten thousand years, mages had devoted themselves to finding a way to shorten incantations without reducing their power.

Regrettably, no one had succeeded.

The passage praising the gods was like an insurmountable barrier. No matter what, it could not be omitted.

Omitting it meant weakening the spell.

The short incantation he had just used was actually an intermediate spell.

Had he included the full preamble praising the Wind God and recited the complete incantation, it would not have produced a tiny current of air. Instead, it would have summoned a force-eight gale powerful enough to topple a large tree.

The spell had lost far more than just a little power.

The difference was almost absurd.

No wonder mages always recited their incantations in full during actual battles.

Otherwise, an advanced spell might be reduced to an intermediate or beginner spell. If it lacked sufficient destructive power, the mage could pay for it with his life.

Upon reaching this point, Shu Li finally understood why his strength had given out.

He was only a Mage Apprentice, yet he had cast an intermediate spell above his rank—and unexpectedly succeeded on his first attempt.

Did that mean he was extraordinarily gifted?

Ever since he had begun learning magic, Shu Li’s confidence had suffered blow after blow. He had even humiliated himself by clinging to the Elven King’s chest and sobbing his heart out.

Just over ten minutes ago, he had failed ten times in a row while trying to open the book with magic right in front of the Elven King. His pride had practically suffered ten thousand points of damage.

Fortunately, the Elven King had neither laughed at him nor looked down on him. Instead, he had patiently guided Shu Li and given him an entirely new understanding of magic.

Thought determined the form magic took, while an incantation was the key that transformed energy.

Once the Elven King’s explanation cleared away Shu Li’s confusion, he had immediately put it into practice and succeeded in a single attempt.

However, even though the shortened intermediate spell had lost much of its power, it still exceeded what his body could bear.

Had the Elven King known in advance that Shu Li would exhaust himself and deliberately prepared a restorative potion for him?

Shu Li’s attention wandered for a moment, and he turned his head to steal a glance at the golden-haired Elf beside him.

“Is there anything you don’t understand?” the Elven King asked.

“N-no.” Shu Li secretly stuck out his tongue, quickly lowered his head, and continued reading.

He had been caught peeking. How embarrassing!

Covering his slightly warm, round little face, he tried hard to redirect his attention.

Why did removing the preamble weaken an incantation so drastically?

The book provided an answer.

Translated into Shu Li’s own terms, it could be summed up in four words: no authority to command.

When the Mother Goddess Isfu created all things, seven principal gods were born: the Light God, the Dark God, the Water God, the Wind God, the Fire God, the Wood God, and the Earth God.

These seven principal gods controlled the seven natural elements of the world.

If a mage wished to borrow the power of the natural elements, he first had to obtain a god’s permission.

For example, the god was a marshal who possessed the military seal, the natural elements were soldiers, the mage was a general, and the incantation was an order.

When enemy forces attacked, the general could lead his soldiers into battle only after requesting authorization from the marshal.

The number of soldiers available determined the general’s method of fighting and overall combat strength.

The higher a general’s rank, the more soldiers he commanded.

An outstanding general understood military strategy and possessed keen powers of observation and judgment. He simulated the course of battle in advance, issued the most precise orders to his soldiers, displayed exceptional military skill, and ultimately achieved victory.

Conversely, if the marshal disappeared and the general lacked the military seal, the number of troops he could mobilize would be limited, inevitably weakening his combat strength considerably.

At present, every mage on the Austin Continent had lost the means to communicate with the gods. They were like generals who had lost their marshal. If they wanted the natural elements to obey their commands, invoking a god’s illustrious name was equivalent to possessing the military seal.

That was why the preambles of magical incantations had inevitably grown so lengthy.

Removing the preamble was no different from discarding the military seal. A mage would then be able to mobilize only a small number of natural elements, so of course the spell’s power would decline.

However, there were two kinds of natural elements a mage could use.

The first consisted of the natural elements drifting freely through the air. The second consisted of natural elements absorbed through meditation and stored within the body.

The former were scattered troops, while the latter were personal guards.

Scattered troops were inexhaustible and could be summoned on a massive scale. Personal guards were limited in number, and once they were used up, they were gone.

Therefore, unless absolutely necessary, mages would not deploy their personal guards. Those forces were their lifeline.

They could be played only at the crucial moment.

Once exhausted, they could be replenished only through a lengthy period of meditation, during which the mage absorbed free-floating natural elements and converted them into magical power stored within the body.

After reading the detailed explanation, Shu Li understood everything.

No wonder no mage had managed to shorten an incantation without reducing its power.

Not even the Elven King could do it.

No matter what, there was no circumventing the authority of the gods.

Having learned the truth, Shu Li sighed repeatedly.

He had only just regained a little confidence, and now he had been knocked back to where he had started.

There seemed to be little hope of simplifying magical incantations.

Was he doomed to keep stumbling over them forever?

No, that wasn’t right. The Elven King had not asked him to read this book to crush his confidence. He wanted to teach Shu Li how to think.

Since the book was called Secrets of Beginning Magic, it had to contain some way to keep him from tripping over his words.

Shu Li turned the page and continued reading. Two or three pages later, his eyes lit up.

There it was!

[Treat magic as your natural instinct.

Shu Li rapidly skimmed the passage and was surprised to discover that its contents closely echoed what the Elven King had told him.

Magic could move as quickly as thought.

When a mage prepared to cast a spell, he first had to conduct a detailed simulation and calculation in his mind.

Take a water ball spell, for example.

How large should it be? How powerful? Who was its target? How much damage was it meant to inflict?

If none of those things had been considered and the mage’s mind was completely blank, failure was only natural.

Shu Li had succeeded in using magic to open the book precisely because, after receiving the Elven King’s guidance, he had formed a specific image in his mind.

That was what it meant for thought to determine the form magic took.

Once magic became his natural instinct, perhaps his tendency to stumble over incantations would disappear on its own.

Shu Li’s confidence reignited. His future looked bright. The day he became a hero and saved the world was practically within reach!

“Grrrgle... Grrrgle...”

Huh?

What was that sound?

Shu Li abruptly came back to himself and looked around in confusion.

“It’s noon.” The Elven King set down the book in his hands and asked, “Are you hungry?”

“Uh, I’m not...” Shu Li shook his head in denial. The next second, his little stomach let out a loud growl.

His face turned bright red.

So the “grumbling” sound had come from his own stomach.

“Your Majesty, shouldn’t you let little Sperien go eat lunch now?”

At some point, several other Elves had entered the library to read. When they heard what happened, they all laughed good-naturedly.

Ilio leaned against a nearby pillar, watching Shu Li with a beaming smile.

Shu Li’s face grew even redder.

The Elven King reached out, lifted him, and placed him on his shoulder. Shu Li froze for a moment, then quickly recovered. He darted into the Elven King’s hair and “buried” himself inside it.

Ilio coughed several times. The Elven King glanced at him, and his coughing immediately grew worse.

Shu Li pretended not to hear. He left the library with the Elven King, and the heat in his face gradually subsided.

Once they entered the dining room and he smelled the food, he immediately cast aside his embarrassment. Crawling out of the Elven King’s hair, he eagerly lunged toward the lavish lunch spread across the table.

The Elven King did not stop him. He sat down gracefully and handed Shu Li a small dish for washing his hands.

Now that class was over, the Elven King had returned to his usual gentle, considerate self.

Overwhelmed by the favor, Shu Li thanked him, washed his hands in the water in the little dish, then picked up a kuku fruit and bit fiercely into it.

He had only spent one morning reading. Why was he hungry again so soon?

No matter how Shu Li puzzled over it, he could not understand.

In the end, he blamed the intermediate spell that had drained all his strength.

After lunch, the Elven King sent him back to his room for an hour-long nap. Once the hour was over, their lessons resumed.

The afternoon lesson was not held in the library. Instead, they were going out into the countryside.

When Shu Li learned this, he looked at the Elven King in confusion.

The Elven King smoothly mounted his snow-white unicorn, extended a hand toward Shu Li, and said, “The fruit in the orchard is ripe. Let’s go pick it together.”

“Huh?”

Still dazed, Shu Li landed in his palm.

Was the afternoon lesson about gathering fruit?

Wonderful!

He had thought they would spend all day studying magic. So they could balance work and rest here, just like they did at the divine tree.

Shu Li happily settled onto the Elven King’s shoulder and gathered a lock of his hair into his arms.

Rather than spreading its wings and taking flight, the unicorn carried the Elven King at a leisurely trot along the ground. Every Elf they encountered stopped and bowed upon seeing the Elven King.

Half an hour later, the unicorn entered an orchard in the countryside. The rich fragrance of fruit washed over Shu Li, making his mouth water.

The Elves’ orchards covered dozens of times more land than the Fairies’ orchards. They were divided into separate plots according to the type of fruit grown, and each plot was meticulously tended by an Elf.

The unicorn ambled to the entrance of one such plot.

“We’re here,” the Elven King said.

Shu Li released his hair, spread his gauzy wings, and flew into the orchard. He gazed excitedly at the enormous, pumpkin-shaped fruits hanging from the branches.

Wow! A single fruit that large would be enough to feed him for half a month!

He flew up to a bright red fruit and gently patted it.

The Elven King dismounted the unicorn with graceful ease. He reached Shu Li in a few strides, looked down at him, and said, “Go ahead and pick it.”

“Huh?” Shu Li was completely baffled. What did he mean? Who was supposed to pick it?

Meeting Shu Li’s confused gaze, the Elven King extended one slender finger and pointed at him.

Shu Li’s jaw nearly dropped.

W-was this some kind of joke?

Was it really reasonable to expect one tiny, tiny Fairy to pick a pumpkin-sized fruit all by himself????