Chapter 438: Method
Ace looked at Bayen with an encouraging gaze and whispered, “You seem to have discovered something. Speak, Bayen.”
Bayen bowed slightly modestly to the three and said, “I think we need to create a tool—a tool that can be mass-produced like a machine and can assist us. And one of the functions of this tool will be the virtual mental imagery world!”
Betty also slapped her forehead and nodded: “As expected of Bayen, clever as a fox. We just need to divide the work and cooperate to produce such a tool.”
Ace also smiled and said, “Exactly so. I will provide the components regarding dreams and virtuality as the cornerstone, and you will provide your own paths as the core. I call this tool the Natal Artifact!”
The three looked thoughtful. Ace took them to the laboratory. Dream mist permeated the air, gradually forming a three-dimensional virtual image. It was the fantasy structural diagram of a Natal Artifact.
“The so-called Natal Artifact originates from the concept of Quasi-Noble Phantasms of Legendary Heroes. A Quasi-Noble Phantasm is the condensation and solidification of a Legendary Hero’s Noble Phantasm, and we wizards can also make similar things.
“Initially, this was an important magical item concept I prepared for Warlocks. Restricted by their bloodlines, Warlocks cannot learn or research many magics. Their path prospect lies more in digging deep into the power of their bloodlines. For them, a Natal Artifact is a Bloodline Artifact.
“When manufactured by ordinary wizards, the Natal Artifact is the condensation of their path, the crystallization of their cognition. This concept of a magic item can be said to be the best carrier. I can directly manufacture the Dream Base, and you can condense your path’s spell models onto this base.”
Betty and the other two were a bit confused. They hadn’t quite figured out how the Natal Artifact was refined when—Bang!
Three thick books made of magic paper appeared out of thin air. The title flashed on the cover: Theory of Natal Artifacts.
The next day, news of Lord Ace publishing a monograph spread throughout the High Tower. The first print run of a thousand copies was snatched up instantly. This tome, worth ten magic stones, was considered very cheap for most advanced wizard apprentices.
Eddie was lucky enough to snag a copy. As an advanced wizard apprentice focused on Contract and activation magic, he was barely affected by the recent “Elemental Revolution” trend.
In Eddie’s villa, fifteen or sixteen small golems were busy working. These small golems did not possess powerful magical attack power; they were housekeeping golems developed by Eddie, providing comprehensive housekeeping services for wizards.
Eddie made a fortune from this invention, and people successively came to him to buy housekeeping golems.
Lying on an oak rocking chair, Eddie comfortably opened the book. It had a cold and silky texture. The whole book was divided into two parts: Bloodline Artifacts and Path Artifacts.
After scanning the introduction to Bloodline Artifacts, Eddie flipped directly to the page on Path Artifacts.
“The so-called Path Artifact lies fundamentally in the path. Replicate one’s own foundational path onto the Dream Base. If used externally, it serves as the handiest magical weapon. If stored inside the Soul Sanctuary (mental imagery world), it has the effect of a safety valve, capable of isolating the cognitive collapse brought about by theoretical innovation.”
Reading this, Eddie sat up. Anything involving one’s life was extremely important to any wizard.
“A Path Artifact first requires a base similar to a Soul Sanctuary (mental imagery world) to carry everyone’s path spell models. This base is open-ended; you can freely combine spell models within it.
“However, having the base and replicated spell models alone is not enough to construct a true Path Artifact.
“The so-called Artifact is our imitation of Quasi-Noble Phantasms, creating a treasure belonging to every wizard researching magic. If we want the Artifact to possess incredible power like a Quasi-Noble Phantasm, it must possess the power of Will.
“When a Golden Hero advances to Legend, the most critical step is the chanting of epics. The essence of this is absorbing the Will—the power of faith—generated when people pass on the stories by word of mouth.
“Why is it that only city-states can support a Legendary Hero? Because only a city-state can provide stable chanting to form Will power.
“After we gain insight into the secret of Noble Phantasms, we can use the same method to manufacture Artifacts. Every person is a source of Will. The stronger your mental scale, the stronger your Will. Although it cannot compare to the unique fluctuation formed by the chanting of ten thousand people, the focused Will of an Official Wizard is enough to rival the chanting of nearly a thousand ordinary people.
“The base and the replicated spell models can only form a blank. Only by injecting Will can a qualitative change occur…”
After finishing the whole book, Eddie was eager to try. He walked out of his house and started asking around about the base mentioned in the book, only to find that everyone was discussing the matter, but no one knew what the base was.
In the laboratory of the West Tower.
A Space Gate had been opened. A powerful magical barrier sealed the Space Gate. If someone stood directly in front of the door, they could see the infinite depth and faint starlight within.
On the other side of the Space Gate, a gigantic dream creature was cruising in the Sea of Reality and Illusion. That dream creature was dozens of meters in size, with hundreds of tentacles. It was shrouded in five colors, scattering wisps of mist, appearing and disappearing unpredictably.
Its movement speed was very fast, and its tentacles could extend extremely long, effortlessly capturing a large number of Level 1 dream creatures and Level 1 void creatures.
As long as they were entangled by its tentacles, mysterious sealing runes and frost would flash. That gigantic dream creature seemed to have hunted enough. It swam quickly to the vicinity of the Space Gate and stuffed the prey inside.
Its massive body probed into the Space Gate and suddenly vanished.
Ace stood at the door and closed the Space Gate. The mental imagery world manifested, and Glazed Heart Fire floated out from it, refining the floor full of dream creatures and void creatures into Dream Crystals and Void Solute.
“Busy for almost half a month, and I only managed to produce three Level 2 Dream Crystals and three Level 2 Void Solutes, along with one hundred and twenty-one Level 1 Dream Crystals and sixty-five pieces of Level 1 Void Solute.”
Ace collected and sealed all the Level 1 Dream Crystals and Void Solute, then took out a Level 2 Dream Crystal and a Level 2 Void Solute, placing them on the experiment table.
His eyes turned into the Eye of Truth. The two powers of Dream and Space intertwined. The Dream spell model and the Dimensional Mastery spell model at the bottom layer of Ace’s mental imagery world lit up simultaneously. Dream mist diffused, and space distorted slightly.
Tiny beads of sweat gradually appeared on Ace’s forehead. Both the Dream Crystal and Void Solute gradually turned into a fluid state. Under Ace’s manipulation, they slowly converged. This step was not simple; Ace needed to create a fantasy object, a material possessing both dream and spatial attributes.
This required extremely high micro-manipulation capabilities. The Eye of Truth in Ace’s eyes operated to the extreme, and thousands of extremely tiny Hands of Mana appeared, inscribing runes bit by bit.
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