Chapter 389: The Summoning Spell That Can't Summon Anything?
I stared blankly at the Academy Head and then at Teacher Ji Niang, sowhat unable to believe what the Academy Head had just said.
Her earlier statent about completing the rune into a full Spellbook was my plan as well, so that didn't surprise .
The surprise was the Academy Head's next statent: she decided to temporarily join Teacher Ji Niang's laboratory as a mber dedicated to researching this rune and its derived spell!
After the shock subsided, I quickly realized that the Academy Head in front of was a physical avatar.
If Teacher Ji Niang hadn't told , I might not have even noticed the difference.
To be honest, I didn't know the Academy Head well, and I couldn't possibly use Spirit Vision to examine her closely in a casual setting, right?
Upon realizing this, I accepted the fact.
With the Academy Head's addition, the research progress soared instantly.
I originally thought I would learn many Transcendent-level knowledge concepts by following the Academy Head, but I quickly realized how shallow my thinking was.
I was learning sothing far more important than re knowledge!
I was learning the "thodology" for Transcendent research.
For witches, the knowledge is already out there; the key is knowing how to use it.
After all, I might not even finish reading the Witch Academy's library before graduation, but the thodology and approach to exploring the Transcendent—that was more precious than knowledge itself.
These thodologies were the optimal solutions derived from continuous trial and error.
From this alone, it was clear that the Academy Head was far more adept at teaching than Teacher Ji Niang.
But I didn't bla Teacher Ji Niang.
I had heard she was a first-ti class counselor.
As ti passed, the next half-day quickly elapsed.
With the Academy Head's participation, her knowledge acted as a dinsionality reduction attack on the research here.
The plan that I thought would take several days, or even many days, of hard work was completed in just this half-day.
The cost was that I felt my sense of participation was low, and Teacher Ji Niang simply opted not to join this in-progress spell derivation experint, choosing instead to continue systematically struggling with the core [Transcendent Knowledge].
"Watch closely. Although you cannot yet master True Editing, I believe you, possessing Spirit Vision, should be able to understand its operation."
At this mont, the Academy Head held the spell prototype, temporarily nad the "Summoning Spell," and spoke to .
I was already prepared because I knew the Academy Head wanted to demonstrate the True Editing process for .
Even though I wasn't qualified to learn this technique yet and might not fully understand what I was seeing, it was still a great opportunity to broaden my knowledge.
Seeing that I responded with action rather than words, the Academy Head wasted no further ti.
As she gently tapped in front of her, a Compound Rune appeared on her fingertip.
Then, countless runes rapidly shot out from it as a dium.
"True Editing technology is a technique based on True Ti. It is also a way to apply the Rune Ritual. What you are seeing now is the operating thod of True Editing. You should understand its barrier to entry now, right?"
"...Mhm, Transcendent."
I pondered for a mont and nodded, giving an answer that seed like a platitude.
However, I saw very clearly that those runes did not appear in False Ti (the reality that ordinary people inhabit).
Those runes completely severed their relationship with False Ti and appeared fully ford in True Ti!
Therefore, even if the Academy Head were to create a Spellbook in front of her students, unless they had fully mastered Foresight-level Spirit Vision, they might not be able to figure out what the Academy Head was doing.
But I was at the Floating World level of Spirit Vision, so I naturally saw many unusual aspects.
Just the "starting move" of her fingertip just now seed to use the True Sense of Touch from the True Five Senses, which I still didn't fully understand.
The subsequent True Editing to create the Spellbook would likely utilize even more abilities, so the answer that the barrier was Transcendent status was not wrong.
As the Academy Head operated and explained to simultaneously, I felt powerless, as if listening to gibberish.
The content the Academy Head spoke was simply too difficult to understand.
"If you don't understand, don't force it. I'll just give you a brief popular science explanation now, trying to build a concept and frawork you can understand."
The Academy Head said, seeing my furrowed brow.
But she didn't bla .
Learning also has a threshold, not just for intelligence, but also for cognition, comprehension, and knowledge reserve.
The learning threshold for True Editing is Transcendent status, naturally not just because it requires the cultivation of the True Five Senses, but also because of the elevated life level achieved by advancing to Transcendent.
The enhancent of the life level is comprehensive, naturally including mory, learning ability, comprehension, logical ability, and cognition.
The life level is even the barrier for learning so specific knowledge.
After all, [Knowledge] has many classifications.
So knowledge can be disseminated (like the ordinary knowledge taught by the academy); so knowledge cannot be disseminated, or the knowledge itself is power (this is [Transcendent Knowledge]); and so knowledge can pose unpredictable harm or benefit to life even just by observing, comprehending, or hearing about it (this is [Forbidden Knowledge]).
The more one knows, the more one realizes that many things cannot be forced, and i Linde clearly understood this.
The concept of "learning ability" had already beco an attribute directly linked to one's strength in the Transcendent World.
It was just that so people would firmly grasp it, while others would continuously let it waste away.
Especially many naturally Transcendent beings or people who obtain power too easily will not cherish what they gain effortlessly, and this includes cognition.
Power naturally inflates one's desires and makes one arrogant.
At this mont, the Academy Head also entered a tedious stage.
Creating sothing is much harder than destroying it.
Although I found dismantling a Spellbook easy, I knew very well the internal structure of a Spellbook.
The Spellbook structure and those runes inside had to be hand-crafted!
The sheer difficulty of this made my scalp tingle just by thinking about it.
I took this ti to test the spell myself.
I had watched the derivation and completion of this spell from start to finish, so I also learned the spell the mont it was announced complete.
In fact... I could now hand-craft this spell and rune ritual.
This was not a joke.
The reason this was one of Witch Academy's most secret laboratories was not just that there was no phone signal here.
The main reason was that this independently existing space managed to ignore the spell effect of the Great Weakening Spell!
Actually, it was more like exploiting a loophole.
The only ans capable of countering the effect of a Grand Spellbook is another Grand Spellbook.
Ordinary thods or spells can only slowly wear it down.
And the fact that the effect of this Grand Spellbook has persisted to this day, even though the major Transcendent Academies had initially agreed not to break its effect, who knows what happens in private?
The fact that this Grand Spellbook's effect has held up until now is a testant to the absolute suppressive power of a Grand Spellbook over ordinary spells.
At this mont, I was slowly constructing the spell ritual by hand.
Although the Academy Head had already determined this spell was a summoning type, no one knew the specific effect until an actual test was conducted.
As for why we were so eager to construct a Spellbook for an untested spell, the Academy Head explained that the Spellbook form provides a platform for the spell to be easily derived and modified.
This answer truly struck a chord with .
Among my fellow students, no one knew better than I how convenient having a Spellbook platform was for modding a spell!
I almost forgot this point.
However, the hand-crafted spell, when used... felt a bit sluggish.
But soon, I successfully cast the spell.
The spell ran smoothly, the runes flowed, and the ritual flashed.
The flashing ritual runes expanded outwards, centered on , in the lab's testing area.
Clearly, the spell cast was complete.
This was the spell effect.
According to the usage procedure for a Summoning Spell, sothing should have been summoned here.
I instinctively walked out of the center of the spell and moved back a little.
After waiting for a while, I found no movent at all.
"Strange... no movent at all? Is this even a Summoning Spell?"
I looked at the spell ritual curiously, thoroughly confused.
This Summoning Spell, according to Teacher Ji Niang, had spatial characteristics.
That ant its spell effect wasn't direct creation of a summon but rather the teleportation of real objects or entities.
Was it a Contract Summoning?
Was it unable to summon anything because the spell had no contract target?
I thought of using the Permission Teacher Ji Niang gave to search the Earth Vein System for the source of the problem, primarily to check the category of this Summoning Spell.
I hoped it wasn't what I had just guessed.
Furthermore, a spell system built on the foundation of that earlier rune—a rune that allowed to see the beautiful girl—shouldn't be ineffective.
I even jokingly called the previous rune effect the "Beautiful Girl Summoning Spell."
How could it have no effect now?
Or was it because there was no guidance?
I could see that girl earlier because the thread of Destiny served as guidance, or rather, an "anchor"?
In short, I guessed that this spell couldn't summon anything out of thin air.
It felt just like my Teleportation Spell, which required pre-marking a location.
At this mont, I subconsciously looked at the thread of Destiny on my hand, but it showed no movent at all in the presence of this spell.
I wondered if I should directly use this thread of Destiny as an anchor?
But I decided against it for now.
I might not be able to bear the cost of failure.
I would wait until the Academy Head finished constructing the Spellbook for this spell and tested it before touching the thread of Destiny.
Otherwise, if this thread of Destiny accidentally dispersed completely, it would be gone for good.
I stood by the side of the spell ritual for a long ti.
The spell dissipated without summoning anything, which truly left embarrassed.
Even the busy Teacher Ji Niang took a mont to glance at my situation.
In the end, she just shook her head.
I wasn't discouraged.
After all, testing is testing.
Even if it succeeded on the first try, multiple tests are needed to gather more experintal information.
A laboratory is not a battlefield.
It does not fear failure.
There are only attempts, and then attempts made in a different way.
There are only success and failure here, but fundantally, they are no different.
Ti passed until late at night.
Since even the Academy Head wasn't resting, I naturally stayed here.
It was just one night without sleep, wasn't it?
I could certainly manage staying up this late.
And I also wanted to witness the Academy Head complete the construction of the Spellbook.
Moreover... just recently, the Academy Head said it would be finished soon.
So, I put down the work I was doing and went to stand beside the Academy Head.
Since the first spell attempt, I hadn't been idle.
I imdiately used Teacher Ji Niang's data literature query permission to organize and analyze the spell.
This included so of the drafts and notes the Academy Head used while completing the spell, as well as my own notes recorded in the mory Bookshelf.
However, I still hadn't found much.
With the Academy Head's final action, the initial structure of the Spellbook was completely finished.
After adding the Spellbook's unique protective layer, the Spellbook was truly complete.
"It's finished. Give it a try."
The Academy Head subconsciously narrowed her eyes, throwing the Spellbook to .
Clearly, the Academy Head had exerted a lot of energy to create this Spellbook and was resting her eyes slightly after completing everything.
"Should I... start the trial imdiately?"
I asked, confused.
"Mhm. You can start the trial imdiately. We are your greatest insurance. What? Don't you trust us?"
The Academy Head opened her eyes and asked with a smile.
"No, no. I just feel it's a bit fast..."
"Fast is normal. Research is all about efficiency. More theoretical analysis is not as good as an actual attempt. Witches are not afraid of trying, wasting resources, or taking risks."
"I... suppose so."
I nodded hesitantly.
After all, when attempting spells, a witch with a Magic Power Source can make infinite mistakes.
How much does a Spellbook cost?
As for the experintal risk... a witch's own strength is the best guarantee against risk.
Just as I was about to use the Spellbook to cast the spell, the Academy Head suddenly interrupted .
"Wait a mont."
"What's wrong?"
I looked at the Academy Head confusedly, wondering what the problem was.
"I almost forgot. This is another Spellbook sponsored by personally, as a gift for so abruptly joining your lab."
"Ah? A gift?"
I stared blankly at the Academy Head.
What kind of strange words was she saying?
Was there any essential difference between this action and paying to work?
But I looked at the new Spellbook that was handed to , and I was instantly curious.
What spell had the Academy Head given this ti?
The last ones she gave seed to be the Resurrection Spell and Teleportation.
"Yes, take it."
The Academy Head smiled.
"Didn't you say that the girl you t had a language barrier with you? This spell can bypass the language level and allow for a more direct conscious communication with the other party. However, the drawback is... only the caster and the connected party can communicate."
"Thank you, Academy Head."
My eyes widened slightly in surprise.
I hadn't expected the Academy Head to be so thoughtful and even have a Spellbook like this, which she gave directly to .
It seed the Academy Head's spell repertoire... was very deep...
I was truly envious, but I believed that if I were given ti, I could reach this level, too.
"You're welco. Go ahead and start trying it out."
The Academy Head urged.
"Mhm."
I didn't refuse.
I imdiately inserted the Spellbook into the mory Bookshelf Spellbook and began my first casting attempt.
As the spell ritual rose, this ti, the spell was cast very smoothly.
I have to say, it felt so much better compared to hand-crafting the spell!
But to my disappointnt, even so, the summoning ritual still showed no sign of summoning anything.
I observed carefully with Spirit Vision, but there wasn't even a trace of anomalous information.
"It's still the sa. Nothing is being summoned... Is there sothing wrong with this Summoning Spell?"
"Perhaps we can try a different approach and thod to cast this spell. After all, the spell ran successfully and stably, so it must have an effect that we haven't discovered yet."
"A different approach? How should I change it?"
I couldn't just cast it upside down, could I?
This was a gap in my knowledge.
"Perhaps... you should try standing in the center of the spell ritual?"
The Academy Head suggested.
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