Chapter 23 - The First Spell

```A week later.

An oddly shaped wind turbine stood behind Richard's palace. A gust of wind blew, and the turning tower atop the wind turbine automatically adjusted, making a creaking noise. The main blades mounted on it aligned with the wind direction and began to spin.

Mechanical energy transmission.

"Swoosh, swoosh!"

The rotating blades drove a magnet rotor below through gears and crankshafts. A metal coil surrounding the rotor continuously generated current, which flowed downward through metal wires.

Mechanical energy was converted into electrical energy.

Below, a simple yet practical lead-acid battery was fixed, absorbing the current to store it, ready to release it when needed.

Electrical energy was then transformed into chemical energy.

Nighttime.

Richard's palace, bedroom.

Richard sat cross-legged on the bed, in front of a lead-acid battery filled with stored electricity.

With his eyes tightly shut, Richard, who was in deep meditation, felt his body vibrating rapidly. Then, like a butterfly emerging from a cocoon, his consciousness burst out of his body.

Using the eyes of his consciousness to look at his physical body, Richard attempted to summon spiritual power to gain control over his body. Having done this many times before, it was easy for him, and soon, the body sitting cross-legged began to move. His hands slowly raised, reaching for the two external wires of the lead-acid battery.

"Crackle!"

At the moment his physical hands touched the wires, his body, acting as a conductor, formed a closed circuit with the lead-acid battery. The current flowed out of the battery and surged rapidly through his body. The sensation of being electrocuted spread throughout his body and was transmitted to Richard's consciousness through the transparent band on the back of his neck, feeling numb and burning hot.

The bioelectric current in his body started to significantly increase, and his body's cells entered a "highly activated state."

Richard recalled the content of the "Monroe Chapter," simultaneously remembering while gathering spiritual power.

When spiritual power was concentrated to the extreme, it became a semi-physical, minuscule substance, resembling a grain of dust. Controlling this grain of spiritual dust, he guided it towards his heart, fixing it in place, and then gathered another grain of spiritual dust to stick together.

This process was akin to swallows building nests and was a time-consuming endeavor.

According to the "Monroe Chapter," "opening the magic source" was crucial for wizards, often taking tens of days or even months to accomplish.

The longer it took and the larger the magic source constructed, the more mana (energy) it could store, allowing for the release of more spells.

Of course, since a magic source could be constructed, it could also be modified. Many wizards initially opened a small magic source, only to find it insufficient later, prompting them to modify and enlarge it.

However, the process of modifying a magic source was not much easier than opening a new one, so some wizards instead continued to open new magic sources as their strength increased. It's said that the most powerful wizards possessed more than ten magic sources, and their mana was virtually inexhaustible.

Of course, possessing more than ten magic sources, and how to perfectly utilize the mana in each without causing conflicts, was also a big concern. However, for a wizard who had not yet entered the discipline—apprentice wizard—the consideration was evidently a bit premature.

While Richard pondered, he continued to condense spiritual dust, slowly constructing his first magic source. After working busily for an entire night, he had barely built an area smaller than a fingernail, far from forming a complete magic source.

However, Richard was not in a rush, knowing he would patiently keep building for a long time in the future.

Thus, as days went by, the magic source gradually took shape, eventually forming a standard diamond shape at the center of Richard's chest cavity.

Following this, Richard faced the wizard's third life remolding—energy melting.

According to the explanation in the "Monroe Chapter," the purpose of energy melting was to convert the energy absorbed through star body projection into the purest standard energy, known as mana.

Simply put, due to the distinct nature of different stars, the energy projected by them was a chaotic mix of various types. Even if stored in the magic source, it was difficult to utilize without undergoing "melting" to transform into unified mana used to release spells.

To carry out "energy melting," the third life remolding, the body needed to be in a "high energy state."

During the process of opening the magic source, Richard had numerous suspicions about this "high energy state," with the most probable being "magnetic field."

The "Monroe Chapter" described that both the second life remolding and the third life remolding involved energy covering the whole body, showing certain similarities but not entirely the same.

Considering the relationship between electricity and magnetism, this third life remolding was determined.

With the determination, it became easy to deal with, simpler than the first and second life remoldings. Because of electromagnetic induction, electricity and magnetism were inseparable—magnetism could generate electricity, and electricity could generate magnetism.

Arranging metal coils around the bed in the bedroom, a magnetic field naturally formed when the current from the lead-acid battery flowed through the coil.

Therein, Richard clearly sensed the energy stored in his mana source being refined, eventually transformed into mana.

At this point, the three barriers to becoming a wizard, the so-called three life remoldings, were all scientifically broken.

The door to releasing spells suddenly opened.

Half a month later.

Late at night.

The entire Blue Lion City had fallen asleep, and the palace was also utterly silent.

Richard's palace, bedroom.

Tonight, instead of meditating, Richard stood by the window, pondering something unknown.

After a while, he turned his head, his gaze landing on the "Monroe Chapter" lying on the bed, opened to a certain page, recording a Zero-Circle Magic spell.

Zero-Circle Magic.

According to the "Monroe Chapter," spells could be categorized into Zero-Circle Magic, First Circle Magic, Second Circle Magic, Third Circle Magic, and so on, corresponding to different wizard levels.

Among them, wizard apprentices could release Zero-Circle Magic and occasionally release weaker First Circle Magic.

A first-level wizard released First Circle Magic, and in an explosive state, could release some Second Circle Magic.

A second-level wizard usually released Second Circle Magic, and in desperation, could release some Third Circle Magic.

And so on.

Each circle of magic was further divided into three levels: low-level, middle level, high-level.

Obviously, the higher the circle of magic, the stronger the spell's power and the more challenging it became. In fact, the power of First Circle Magic alone was already considered terrifying, with the highest-level First Circle Magic comparable to modern Earth's missiles in power.

Zero-Circle Magic, however, was the lowest level of magic, most of which lacked destructive power and could only play some indirect roles, such as lighting, opening doors, repelling enemies, alerting against wild beasts, and so on.

The weakest presence in Zero-Circle Magic—low-level Zero-Circle Magic—was often referred to by wizards as trickery.

The spell Richard was looking at was considered such a trick, named "Phosphorus Candle."

"Coret... Uh... Plas... Te Ke... Anize..."

Obscure incantations were uttered from his mouth as Richard slowly extended a hand.

The next moment, his magic source within vibrated; mana surged forth, coursing swiftly through the veins and undergoing some specific transformation during the process.

As the speed increased, the mana became active, similar to boiling water, and the passage through the veins brought a distinctly scorching sensation.

Richard's palm trembled, and the active mana flowed along the radial artery, entering the palmar veins to reach the fingertips, and then burst forth.

Richard's five fingers on his right hand twitched violently, causing five small, bluish flames to appear with a pop, burning quietly.

The five fingers came together, and the five flames fused into a single flame, burning more fiercely, illuminating the whole bedroom. The forest-blue glow made the atmosphere in the room eerie, adding a hint of coldness to the sultry summer night as if the air had suddenly dropped several degrees.

"Phosphorus Candle, phosphorus combustion? So, the flame's color is blue?" Richard muttered to himself as he carried the flame to the window, looking outside where there was no one.

With a flick, he tossed the flame from his hand, watching it fly through the air—its size quickly expanded from a fist to that of a basin, then to a bathtub.

The flame, more than half a meter in diameter, bathed the ground in front of the palace in a ghostly blue, unbelievably bizarre. Just as it was about to expand further, it extinguished with a puff, vanishing without a trace as if it had never existed.

The Personal Guard Captain Edward, standing vigil at the palace entrance, suddenly looked up, his eyes flickering. It felt as though he glimpsed something extraordinary out of the corner of his eye, but after scanning the surroundings, he saw nothing.

"Did I see wrong?" Edward shook his head, refocusing on the palm-sized book in his hand, revisiting the "knowledge" he had learned.

"The Countess Elizabeth chuckled... suddenly... glug..."

Inside the bedroom, Richard sensed a unique energy wave dissipating outside the window. He looked at his hands, which bore no burn marks, with his eyes slightly aglow. "A spell, a real spell? Is this pseudoscience that defies explanation by science, or is it unexplored science not yet discovered by modern Earth?

But regardless, it seems the legends of wizards in this world are true. In that case, I'm all the more eager to understand the truth of this world, to figure out how I came to this world. Interesting."

Closing his eyes as if savoring something, he opened them again after a while, nodding seriously and speaking aloud, "Hmm, truly interesting."