Chapter 228: The Journal "Spells"
Sensing the terrifying power, Ace made a prompt decision and abandoned the entire mental tentacle.
The abandoned mental tentacle was quickly burned to ashes by the power of the morning glow. Ace’s face was pale and looked very unwell.
“Random positioning almost inevitably carries safety risks. But if I don’t explore, I’m afraid I’ll never obtain more useful coordinates or discover various extradimensional creatures.
I cannot give up eating for fear of choking. I need to improve the Magic Array and set up a Ritual Interruption Magic Array in advance.”
A week later, Ace added a new Magic Array to the Non-directional Summoning Ritual’s composite Magic Array: the Ritual Interruption Magic Array.
This Magic Array acted as a safety valve. If necessary, it could forcibly retract the summoner’s consciousness and mental tentacles, or sever and destroy the mental tentacles to prevent leaving traces that could be discovered.
Ace stood on the Magic Array and started the Non-directional Summoning Ritual again. Buzz!
The spatial barrier was quickly breached, and a unique coordinate rune formed rapidly.
Ace looked at this coordinate rune, a trace of doubt flashing in his eyes. This coordinate rune was very similar to the coordinate rune of his own location. The only difference was that the peculiar symbol structure composing it was inverted.
Like a mirror, reflecting two symmetrical coordinate runes.
Completely different from the previous feeling, in a trance, it was like jumping into a river but not entering the river, instead entering the reflection of the river.
This was a world of gray tones, almost exclusively gray and white.
If one were to use a metaphor, this world was like a pencil sketch. The Creator seemed exceptionally busy when creating it, so much so that He forgot to color it.
Gloomy, cold. This power felt familiar to Ace.
“The Lord of Greyness!”
His title suddenly popped into Ace’s mind. Everything here was so similar to greyness and shadow. The only difference was that there was no omnipresent chaotic will here, only bone-chilling cold and gloom.
“This place must be related to the Lord of Greyness,” Ace thought involuntarily.
He looked around and found that the environment here was surprisingly similar to the valley of the High Tower Territory. The gray-white reflection of Nightlight City was right in his field of vision.
Looking further away, this was the reflection of the valley. The entire world was bizarre and grotesque. Some mountain ranges were completely inverted, some ground rippled like water, some hills disappeared instantly, and some places were the same as the real world.
Just then, Ace began to notice the creature he had located. It was a peculiar crow composed entirely of shadow. Perhaps it could be called a Shadow Crow.
This crow looked at Ace’s mental tentacles and the sacrificial mist with lively eyes, flying up and down around him, gently pecking at Ace’s mental tentacles.
According to Ace’s observation, the strength of this crow was estimated to be equivalent to an ordinary Blood Crow in the Larr Mountains. But the fact that a shadow creature could directly touch a spirit body was unexpected for Ace.
Unlike the kin created by the Lord of Greyness, which carried the chaotic aura of the Abyss, this crow was composed of pure shadow. It was a native shadow creature and possessed high research value.
Ace activated the Covenant Magic Array. Sacrificial mist surrounded him, and the Soul Spell Charm Monster activated, enticing this agile Shadow Crow to sign a Master-Servant Covenant with him.
The Shadow Crow seemed to sense something was wrong, but the sacrificial mist and Charm Monster tempted it simultaneously. It finally established a Master-Servant Covenant with Ace.
As the covenant rune structure left a Master-Servant Imprint on its shadow body, it also absorbed the sacrificial mist. Almost instantly, it grew much larger.
Ace activated the Summoning Magic Array. The coordinate rune in the summoning array emerged, connecting with the reflection coordinate rune. Under the Mana rhythm of the Magic Array, a spatial teleportation channel was formed.
The space around the Shadow Crow began to distort. Within a breath, it came from the Reflection World to the real world, to the third floor of the West Tower of the Magic School Castle.
A month later, in the East Tower of the Magic School Castle, an academic journal was brewing.
Standing on a high platform, Ace wore a pitch-black Magic Robe, the hexagram badge shining. The shadow beneath his feet twisted from time to time, occasionally releasing a few Shadow Crows.
Eleven Mid-level Wizard Apprentices sat in the seats below the stage, looking at Ace on the stage and staring curiously at his shadow.
Ace did not explain the meaning of his shadow to the apprentices. He said to them:
“You have met all the graduation requirements, except for publishing an academic paper. Today, I will teach you how to write an academic paper. Many of you have actually produced corresponding results through research; you just need to convert your results into papers with unified standards!
Paper journals will be a powerful form for Wizards to engage in high-level collision of thought sparks. We follow the principle of equivalent exchange, but if some knowledge can be shared, it is more beneficial to all of us.
I believe we should share foundational runes, principles of spells, mathematics, and even principles of magic. This guiding knowledge should be published in the form of papers.
All published papers should possess one characteristic: verifiability…”
Listening to Ace’s speech, the Mid-level Apprentices gradually gained an understanding of the paper journal format. However, purely theoretical understanding still left them somewhat confused.
At this time, Ace took out eleven parchment scrolls from the spatial stomach pouch at his waist. The shadow beneath him surged, and eleven Shadow Crows darted out, grabbing the scrolls with their claws and handing them to each Wizard Apprentice present.
Bayen took the scroll handed by the Shadow Crow, feeling its icy touch, and slowly opened it.
A title came into view: Five Common Applications of Activation Series Spells. Evaluation: Discovered the magical path for activating inanimate objects and plants, laid the foundation for inanimate object activation magic, highly pioneering, highly discussable, and important.
“You are only graduating from the Elementary Magic School. You don’t need to explore the mysteries of magic too deeply. As long as you can bring forth new ideas about a certain spell, improve a certain rune structure or even a rune, propose new applications for a certain rune or rune structure, or present some highly imaginative magical techniques, it can become a paper.
At the end of the paper, you must indicate the source of reference, such as articles I published in the Grimoire, textbooks you studied, etc. In the future, if others publish papers that involve referencing your papers, they also need to indicate the source of reference.
I call this form citation.
Publishing a paper will reward a certain amount of Mana Stones. Citations of a paper will generate Academic Points. I will open a Magic Shop where Mana Stones can be used to purchase various ordinary magical goods.
Academic Points can be used to exchange for various precious existences, such as rituals, magical materials, Magic Items, Magic Potions, Contract Monsters, etc.
For example, 100 Academic Points can be exchanged for an Advanced Apprentice Promotion Ritual.”
Ace said softly, watching the apprentices study the sample paper he had given them.
Two months later, all apprentices in the castle knew a piece of news: the magic journal “Spells” would officially launch next month. The inaugural issue would announce the submission conditions, and everyone could read and learn from the articles in “Spells” for free.
This caused widespread discussion among the apprentices. The concept that knowledge has a price was deeply rooted in their hearts. Although publishing a paper was required for graduation, many apprentices were somewhat reluctant to share their research results for free.
Inside the Magic School castle hall, Eddie sprayed saliva as he said to the apprentice at the next table: “I, Eddie, am unwilling to share my research for free! Even if my magic research cannot progress and I cannot graduate, I must insist that knowledge has a price!”
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