Throne of Magical Arcana

After completing ‘On Quantum Mechanics’, Lucien did not submit it right away. Instead, he studied its applications and analyzed the new legendary spell that was formulated inside his soul. Having received the feedback of the real world, his soul and his cognitive world were both much more steady, and he could already construct the fourth legendary model.

After a month of analysis, Lucien had basically grasped the weird, unpredictable legendary spell. It was an ancillary spell that could map certain features of the microworld to the macroscopic domain. For example, no matter how tough, marvelous or mysterious the enemy’s defense was, there would definitely be uncertainties, and it was possible that the attack and weakening spells enhanced by this magic would pierce through it directly.

To be more exact, in that moment, determinism would collapse. No matter how many life-preserving spells the enemy prepared, how many phylacteries they made in advance, and how their life was absolutely ensured by such preparations, there were still odds that they would perish abruptly because of the influence of the magic.

Of course, for Lucien, the stronger the enemy was, the lower the odds would be. There was a 20% possibility that he could destroy determinism when faced with opponents of the same level, but the odds would be lower than one percent if he were faced with Douglas. If he ever encountered Silver Moon Alterna, the chances would be below 1/10000.

“No wonder it gave me such a weird feeling. This legendary spell is truly a marvelous weapon.” After the analysis, Lucien scratched his chin with mixed feelings, “But what’s the mechanism? Why can part of the features of the microworld be reflected to the macroscopic domain? The interference is ruled out? Why can the interference be ruled out?”

Vaguely, Lucien seemed to have grasped something that concerned the nature of spirits and magic. Also, it was the opposite of his left hand’s ability to nullify magic and divine powers.

However, his inspiration disappeared very quickly. Lucien could only shake his head and reconsider the names that Natasha came up for the legendary spell. In the end, he decided to go with ‘Evans’ Hand of Uncertainties’. The name might be too long, but it didn’t matter. This spell did not need to be cast by chanting but could be added to other spells when he cast them. No extra preparations were needed.

But of course, as a result, it would take one more second to cast the original spell, and the consumption would increase exponentially. Supposedly, Lucien could perform forty legendary spells in a battle, but if those legendary spells were attached with the effect of ‘Hand of Uncertainties’, his spiritual power would run dry after a couple of casts.

After finishing the analysis of the spell, Lucien decided to devote much of his attention in the next month to its construction. Then, he cleaned his paper and went to the Allyn magic tower, ready to submit it to his teacher.

In the past month, the members of the Highest Council were all studying the wave function of electrons. Because of the deficiencies in mathematics and the lack of the notion of spin, little progress had been made. However, Douglas, Hathaway and Brook, as experts of mathematics, already had ideas and began to modify certain mathematical tools. As for the other arcanists, besides their own studies, they were mostly devoted to the design of the magic circles about electron interference and diffraction. It was a pity that they made little progress, either.

Hathaway, Hellen and Klaus all visited Lucien in the meantime. They were curious about the studies in crystals. Lucien, on the other hand, subtly hinted that he suffered setbacks when he tried to deepen his studies due to the lack of mathematical tools and prerequisite knowledge.

After hearing that, although Hathaway and Hellen did not say anything, it was obvious that they intended to research the mathematical knowledge in that aspect.

Perhaps, they would be remembered by future generations for their enormous contribution to mathematics. Lucien was quite optimistic about them, because they were actually much more talented in mathematics than him. Hathaway was among the top three of all the specialists in mathematics in the whole Congress.

In the meantime, Lucien and Natasha’s life was just like before. The pressure from the experts of the Church and Kritonia was gradually forgotten as time went by, which made Lucien’s life rather comfortable. Apart from his arcana and magic studies, there was music, love, interesting trivia because of their personalities, the fun when he tortured the students such as Annick and Heidi, and the bad jokes he added during the preparation of the magic tower college, the Lanxiang and the generic schools.

…

Instead of jumping directly to his office, Lucien roamed to the Allyn magic tower with his hands in the pockets of his tuxedo for no other reason other than to watch the red banner hanging outside of the magic tower in person. In the meantime, he considered the things he should work on in March. “Other than constructing ‘Hand of Uncertainties’, I need to start preparing the craft of legendary items. To pick up the skill, I’ve wasted quite a few items in the past half year.”

Although he was an authority in the field of alchemy, Lucien had always been a theorist and barely crafted any legendary items. He was better at mixing drugs than he was at crafting items. But nobody else could replace him to craft a unique legendary item. Therefore, he spent most of the arcana points he earned through new alchemy and the general theory of relativity to materials, increasing his deftness and confidence by repetitive alchemical experiments.

Over the past half year, Lucien had broken too many items and wasted too many materials. Even though he had sold the items that he successfully crafted, his arcana points had been disappearing quickly with few left right now. However, he was more or less confident to craft a legendary item now.

“It’s true that you can only increase your proficiency by devoting money to it…” Recalling the games he played in the past, Lucien thought in amusement. At this moment, he had already arrived at the Allyn magic tower and saw the cheesy red banner hanging on the gate, which was the polar opposite of the body of the tower that was dreamy and exquisite.

“Designated Fields for the College Entrance Exam of Advanced Magic.”

Lucien felt like smiling the moment he saw it. It was too warm and familiar!

Below the banner, a lot of sorcerers had gathered. They were reading the introductory board at the gate excitedly:

“The Holt Magic College has a capable faculty. Many of our teachers work for the Arcana Review Board part time…” The sorcerers were rather excited after they understood what it meant. “Is this a college that targets the low-rank arcanists? Wonderful! It’s such a pain to learn without a teacher. I can’t understand most of the papers on the journals at all.”

“Yes. It was better in the past, but the arcana theories today are drastically changing after every year. I can’t keep up with it no matter how hard I work.”

“The deadline for applications is the end of March. The exam period is from April 1 to April 6… Do we have to pass this ‘College Entrance Exam of Advanced Magic’?”

“This is great! We are no longer scared that the sorcerers with backgrounds and connections will steal our spots. It will be abilities that matter. Let’s see what will be tested!”

“Yes, that’s right! This is the fairest way!”

Hearing their complements of delight, Lucien felt that his lips were twitching. He only hoped that they could retain the thought and did not curse him or ‘College Entrance Exam of Advanced Magic’ in the future.

…

Passing the arcanists at the gate without catching anyone’s attention, Lucien reached his teacher’s library, only to discover that he was sorting out his paper.

“Master, you’ve completed your research?” Asked Lucien with a smile.

Fernando looked at him. “Yes, the exclusion principle, but I don’t quite understand what the fourth quantum number represents yet. Have you accomplished something in your research, too?”

Lucien took out ‘On Quantum Mechanics’ and handed it over to Fernando. “It’s mathematically resolved, but its actual arcana significance still needs exploring.”

Taking over the paper, Fernando asked prudently, “Is it disruptive?”

“No, it is based on the features of particles and the discontinuity.” Lucien thought to himself that the most disruptive thing was already hidden inside, but nobody would notice them until its significance was figured out. Also, he had already excised the part regarding the uncertainty principle.

“Particles, non-continuity?” Fernando smiled. “You confirmed the wave feature of electrons, prompting Brook, Oliver and Hathaway to consider from the perspective of waves, but you resolved the problem from the perspective of particles. How interesting.”

He opened the paper but frowned at the definition and calculation rules of matrix. The strange and opaque mathematical tool was truly cold and unfriendly. After he read that the multiplication in matrix was not commutative, he suddenly raised his head and looked at the bookshelf on his opposite side. Deep in thought, he said, “The mathematical tool that is not commutative… There seems to be some of those in mathematics in the past, and they were applied to the analysis in the classic system a long time ago. Also, the idea behind your matrix can be traced back to certain things in the past a long time ago, too…”

“Yes.” Lucien did not deny it. There were certain mathematical tools in it which he planned to use to deduce the mathematical tools in Dirac’s paper. The arcanists today were more familiar with them. After all, the magic world had their own unique achievements, but there was something wrong with all of them, which was the reason why the theories about sets and groups developed rather slowly. So, he was perfecting the mathematical foundation.

Since he was unclear of Lucien’s methodology yet, Fernando did not pursue further why he constructed a new mathematical tool instead of using the older ones. He continued reading.

The rest of the paper was extremely difficult to understand. Fernando read it for a long time, calculating and confirming its correctness.

When it was already sunset, Fernando finally raised his head after naturally coming up with the quantization conditions that matched the experiment results based on the new theory. He frowned and asked in confusion, “Everything is good. I’m feeling much better myself, too, but what is the arcana significance in your matrix? What’s the meaning of its calculation? Why is there not a concrete model or image?”

Thinking for a moment, Lucien reiterated what he said in the past:

“Experience is untrustworthy, imagination is untrustworthy, and nor are the models and images we imagine; math reveals everything.”