Chapter 934 Rudiments of Space Magic III

CH933 Rudiments of Space Magic III

***

Alex’s eyes lit up.

But then, the scattered ambient mana suddenly pulled back towards the box, and whatever effect had been created within it collapsed, causing the stick to be pushed out of the box.

"What do you understand from this demonstration, Young Master Alex?" Master Sahira asked.

"The formation on the scroll disturbed, or rather scattered, the flow of mana within the box. If I understand this correctly, it seems this also affected the spatial energy within the box. With the spatial energy scattered, the phenomenon of space could not power itself and became unstable.

"I am guessing the box used the period of instability to establish a connection between its two ends, allowing for a quick teleportation between the two points," Alex explained.

Master Sahira’s eyes flashed with pleasant surprise, while Asta stood there with her mouth open in shock.

A quick glance from the Master Space Mage silenced her student before she could say anything.

"That is an admirable deduction." Master Sahira nodded.

"You are right. By scattering the mana, we were able to create a temporary spatial anomaly.

"You see, in my research, I have found that space naturally seeks equilibrium—stability.

"In regular situations, if a region of space is unstable, space realises that maintaining its current configuration is energetically or geometrically unfavourable, so it moves to rectify the instability.

"Typically, that region of instability is isolated from real space, essentially existing in a different dimensional state. During this period, space manages the instability by connecting the ends outside this region together, briefly."

"Like holding the ends of a hole in a fabric together to hide the hole before it is fixed?" Alex said unconsciously.

"I hope you don’t mind me using your fabric analogy," he quickly said after recovering himself.

"No, that’s another apt way to put it. Your understanding is correct." Master Sahira nodded.

She continued, "Generally, Space Magic works by creating destabilised space, which will elicit a response from the Fabric of Space to rectify the instability. This natural response from space provides the intended effect. Once the conditions sustaining the destabilisation are removed, the affected region of space will return to equilibrium."

"That sounds like stretching a bowstring. When released, the string will naturally try to contract back into place. However, depending on how the string is pulled and what is attached to it, the resultant contraction of the string can be used for many different things. For example, firing an arrow," Alex said.

He added, "Destabilise the space to elicit a natural spatial reaction, then exploit that reaction for a controlled outcome."

"Exactly." Master Sahira nodded. "Once you understand this principle, the mystique around Spatial Magic should be gone."

Alex smiled. "The theory sounds simple enough, but I doubt it is that simple in practice. For example, I don’t believe this box is simple."

"This is a Void Box. It hosts an internal space that is easier to destabilise than real space, making it a sufficient practice ground for controlled destabilisation of space. This box has also been tempered to autonomously create spatial holes that mimic a teleportation effect," Master Sahira explained.

"As I thought. I doubt real space is that easy to destabilise. If not, many battles between professionals would cause spatial cracks all over the place," Alex said.

"Pangea is a higher world. Real space in lower Planes would be much weaker. But nonetheless, your deduction is correct. It takes more effort than demonstrated here to destabilise space. That is why Space Magic tends to be energy-demanding, and somewhat energy-inefficient as well."

Alex took a minute to ruminate over what had been revealed to him. Then he asked,

"Creation of portals, particularly interplanar portals, seems to be the main thing Space Magic is known for. Are there other uses or effects triggered by Space Magic?" Alex asked.

"Creation of portals actually falls under one effect of Space Magic—Spatial Compression.

"Portal creation, as well as any other means of creating conditions that allow an object to cross a larger real space by travelling through a smaller effective distance, is referred to as Spatial Compression," Master Sahira said.

"As you’ve said, this is what Space Mages are mostly known for, as it is what most people care about with Space Magic. Actually, Space Magic can do more than this."

Suddenly, Master Sahira unfurled her conceptual domain.

Alex found himself in what looked like an illusion or a simulation.

He saw an individual charging towards him. However, the more the figure ran towards him, the longer the distance between them grew.

Master Sahira’s voice sounded in his ears.

"The opposite of Spatial Compression—Spatial Expansion.

"By imposing the right conditions on a region of space while preventing the Fabric of Space from removing the affected region, it is possible to expand the effective distance travelled through a weakly unstable real space. This is Spatial Expansion."

The scene disappeared, and a new one formed before him.

Alex saw the figure of a projectile fired towards him. Without moving, the projectile suddenly shifted from directly in front of him onto a trajectory that missed him entirely.

"All of space has individual characteristics that keep it on its spatial coordinates. A Spatial Mage can impose conditions that alter the characteristics of two regions of space simultaneously, thereby causing the Fabric of Space to swap them with each other in order to maintain the equilibrium of their spatial coordinates.

"The effect is called Spatial Redirection."

Alex suddenly felt the conceptual domain around him retract.

He looked at Master Sahira with surprise.

"I never expected that Master Sahira would take her identity as an educator so seriously that you would form a Conceptual domain around it," Alex commented.

"I am not a combat-oriented professional. This Simulation Domain aids both my work as a researcher and inventor and my work as an educator," Master Sahira responded.

Alex nodded in understanding.

However, in reality, what stuck out to him the most wasn’t the nature of the Domain, but the fact that she had a Domain at all.

Master Sahira was a Great Mage; she was Class 4. Based on this, she wasn’t supposed to possess a Domain yet.

The only explanation was that her promotion to a Tier IV Space Mage had allowed her to develop a Domain ahead of time—before becoming a Grand Mage (Class 5).

’In that case, one doesn’t necessarily need to be a Saint or a Grand Mage to possess a Domain. Interesting...’ Alex mused to himself.

Alex smiled. "It seems the field of study of Spatial Magic is vaster than I realised. There are more uses of the discipline than just creating portals. It makes me wonder if we are all missing a potentially groundbreaking use of Spatial Magic that we don’t realise."

He looked at the Master Space Mage.

"Master Sahira, can you enlighten me? What is your biggest achievement with Space Magic? Or what is the greatest achievement of Space Magic that you have been a part of?" he inquired.

"That is easy." Master Sahira didn’t even think about it.

Her response stunned Alex.

"The Coinage Moonstone Interspatial Ring."

***