The Transmutation Magic Tower was hidden to the south of the Elf Forest in the unpopulated area beyond the border of Fareins.
Roland had learned that piece of intelligence from Alfred.
This Magic Tower wasn’t good at fighting, but they knew a lot of weird spells.
Those spells were quite unpredictable, but not very powerful in head-on clashes.
So, this Magic Tower preferred to hide and conceal its presence from outsiders.
However, there were communications among the eight Magic Towers, or the seven Magic Towers left, anyway.
It took Roland three days to find it. Then, he successfully got admitted by the special Magic Tower with a recommendation letter from the Red Magic Tower.
Unlike the Red Magic Tower where students were divided into classes, the Transmutation Magic Tower featured a communication system.
It had a super big open-air classroom, where a dozen teachers sat in different places.
The students could just sit down next to whichever teacher they wanted to listen to during the class.
They were allowed to move freely as long as they didn’t make noise. Such a communication system had an advantage. Many teachers and students often gave impromptu speeches on the knowledge and theories they recently developed, and the listeners who disagreed with them would debate with them.
These debates could have hundreds of participants.
One couldn’t acquire truth without communication… The Transmutation Magic Tower’s pedagogical methods might not be very scientific, but the collisions of different thoughts often raised sparks of inspiration.
So, the spells of this Magic Tower were all rather untraditional.
However, Roland liked its taste very much.
He fell in love with this place after merely three classes. He completely forgot about the expedition in the Realm of Devils and making money. He listened to the teachers and students’ heuristic speeches every day and crazily took notes with the system. The speeches of many students didn’t make sense from either a scientific or magic point of view, but they were still very interesting. Roland noted them down and hoped to see if he could make use of their insights in the future by inferring with big data.
On one particular day, he was seated next to a mentor named Kujira, who expounded on the theory of the Rope Trick spell.
“The Rope Trick spell creates an alternate dimension for us to hide in. Many of you may wonder why it’s a transmutation spell instead of a spatial one.” Kujira stroked his long beard and explained nicely, “The spatial magic allows you to move in a space that’s known and exists in reality, or to kill your enemy with the features of space, whereas the Rope Trick essentially creates a fake space. Remember, this space is fake. But thanks to the wonder of magic, it temporarily exists in a real space, like a small country within a bigger one.”
Some students were greatly enlightened, and some were still confused.
Their expressions indicated the gap of the ability of comprehension among them.
Naturally, Roland was one of the people who were greatly enlightened.
“Fake spaces can exist briefly.” Kujira was always delighted to talk about magic theories. “So, compared to Mystra’s Mansion, this spell has a time limit and cannot create a permanent space where you can keep your personal items. However, the Rope Trick has its own advantages. First of all, it doesn’t require a high level. You can learn to cast it when you’re almost a Master. Secondly, it’s very fast. You only need no more than two seconds to create a rope. Of course, its shortcomings are quite obvious too. You cannot enter the illusionary space until you climb to the end of the rope. If your arms aren’t strong enough to pull you up, you might not be able to enter that space. Also, the rope will still exist after you enter the space, and may expose your location to a canny enemy.”
Roland listened to the lecture with great interest.
Transmutation magic was essentially different from evocation magic.
Evoking was just a random bombardment of energy.
Transmutation magic, on the other, enabled people to do incomprehensible and interesting things.
After seven days, he had learned some transmutation spells, including Essence to Magic Power, Short-Time Shapeshift, Substance Transformation, and the Rope Trick he just heard about.
None of the spells were good for fighting, but they were very intriguing. They gave Roland the feeling that they should be what magic was like.
For example, at first, Roland thought that “Essence to Magic Power” was a spell to transform redundant energy in one’s body into magic power.
As it turned out, it was a spell to turn semen into magic power.
The male Mages could use it on themselves, and the female Mages could use it on men.
It was a highly-rated spell in the Transmutation Magic Tower.
Almost all the capable male Mages loved the spell because it could keep them focused on magic studies without thinking about random stuff and increase their magic power. It was truly a great aid to Mages.
The female Mages, on the other hand, loved the spell because it gave them an absolute edge in competition against mistresses.
They would never worry that their husbands might cheat on them. With this powerful spell, they could easily have their men return to them in peace without making a scene.
It was the guardian of their marriages.
Transmutation magic was based on different principles from evocation magic.
So, Roland had met many perplexing points during his study, but they didn’t prevent him from absorbing the nutrition of transmutation magic like a dry sponge. Kujira continued, “Magic is a culture and a symbol of civilization. Whoever masters magic will be extremely civilized. Magic is meant to serve the world and the people. Those who only learn offensive spells are essentially barbarians who can read. Speaking of serving the people, one fellow Mage created the water-making and oil-making spells a year ago. You all know that, right?” “Yes!”
Many people nodded.
The two spells had already spread out in the magic world.
The water-making spell stopped the Mages from worrying about water sources, or that someone might poison the water they drank.
The oil-making spell, on the other hand, gave the Mages who were relatively poor a source of income and made it possible for them to continue their studies.
“The Mage who created such spells really understands the purpose of magic.” Kujira looked at Roland and asked with a smile, “Mr. Roland, can you tell us why and how you created the two spells?” A lot of people looked at Roland, and the whole classroom seethed.
“Sir, are you Roland?”
“Mr. Roland, thank you so much. The water-making spell is very convenient. I couldn’t have found a treasure in the desert without it.”
“Thank you for your oil-making spell, Mr. Roland. I’ve saved enough money for my tuition fees for the next ten years.”
Other students surrounded Roland and expressed their gratitude at the same time.
Unlike the other Magic Towers which merely regarded the two spells as tools, the Transmutation Magic Tower really appreciated Roland’s creations.
After all, the doctrine of the Transmutation Magic Tower was to make everybody’s life easier.
Roland stood up and coughed. All the people around him fell silent.
Roland wasn’t afraid of giving speeches. Besides, he always liked discussing magic with others.
But he hadn’t been here long, and he didn’t make any friends yet, so he had only been listening Besides, he wasn’t really good at the transmutation theories yet, and he didn’t know what he could discuss with the others. Now that the teacher had called his name, he could only stand up and tell everybody his thoughts when he created the two spells.
While the students of the Transmutation Magic Tower were very inspirational, their curriculum was unsystematic, and their knowledge foundation wasn’t as solid as that of the students from the Red Magic Tower.
They could cast spells according to models, but they might not understand the function of every node in the models.
So, after Roland interpreted the functions of the nodes in his spells, many students were deeply impressed and suppressed, wondering why they never came up with such a simple solution.
Roland continued, “I planned to create a food-making spell too, but there was a major problem. Water can be fetched from the Infinite Spring, and oil can be fetched from the insect tomb in the Astral Plane. What about food? I couldn’t find a place with inexhaustible food. However, Mr. Kujira’s Substance Transformation spell gave me inspiration. If it can transform minerals, can it turn minerals or other things into food?”
Hearing that, the students all whispered to each other. Even the students and mentors in other areas were attracted too.
Stroking his beard, Kujira thought for a moment and said, “Theoretically speaking, it’s possible to transform minerals or other stuff into food with that spell, but the problem is that we don’t understand the functions of the nodes in that spell.” “Why not?” Roland asked. “You must’ve gotten to the bottom of the spell.”
Kujira explained, “Not exactly. That spell is said to have been created by Mordenkainen, who lived in the age of magic desolation. So, his spell models were expressed in a completely different way from ours. We can copy him, but we don’t know the functions of the nodes in those models.”
In other words, they could cause a chemical reaction by copying the instructions, but they didn’t know the mechanism behind the chemical reaction.
Therefore, it was impossible to modify it.
“Can I take a look at the model of Substance Transformation?” asked Roland.
“Of course,” said Kujira with a smile. “I’ll inform the library to give you a level-three permission. I hope you can create a food-making spell too.”
Roland nodded and sat down. The students nearby were all excited.
They all wanted Roland to create the spell. If he could, they could save a lot of time in making food. Kujira clapped his hands and drew everybody’s attention to him. Then he continued, “Although Mr. Roland’s inventions are special applications of spatial magic, we should all learn from his creativity and adaptiveness. Our Magic Tower focuses on transmutation spells. We want you to observe and think more and associate them with other spells that you know.”
After that, Kujira began to introduce the mechanism of another spell.
The students were hooked by the lecture again.
That was how a teaching session was conducted in the Transmutation Magic Tower. The teacher would only elaborate on principles and concepts without showing spell models.
If a student developed interest in a certain spell, they could find its model in the library and learn it by themselves.
Time always went by fast when one studied carefully.
After the morning lecture was over, Roland stood up. A lot of people gathered around him this time.
Those who appreciated Roland, and those who wanted to make friends with him because they thought that Roland was a big shot, all wanted to introduce themselves.
They accompanied him to the cafeteria, but before they reached it, a young man stepped in their way.
The young man was quite handsome. More importantly, the magic waves coming from his body were quite active.
He was a Master!
He couldn’t have been older than 25. He was definitely a genius considering how strong he had become.
“There’s something that I’d like to speak to Mr. Roland in private. Guys, would you mind?” He smiled warmly. The magic apprentices around Roland all dispersed. Many of them even bowed at the young man respectfully before they left. Roland saw their attitude and realized that the young man must be a celebrity.
After they were mostly gone, the young man walked closer and said with a smile, “Allow me to introduce myself. I am Field Julian. Call me Field, Mr. Roland.”
“Nice to meet you.” Roland nodded at him and asked, “Is there anything I can help you with?”
“This is not the place to talk about it. Would you mind coming to a quieter location with
me?”
Roland replied, “Not at all.”
“Thank you.”
Field led the way, and they came to a relatively quiet corner.
There was a mottled wall at the corner that was covered in tiny green vines.
Field said with a smile, “Thank you for coming with me, Mr. Roland. You said you wanted to create a food-making spell, right?”.
Roland nodded. That was indeed his intention.
He already had a water-making spell, and he felt uncomfortable for not having a food-making one.
He felt that something was missing, which was terrible for him who was somewhat of a perfectionist.
“I know what I’m about to say will probably make you very unhappy, but I still have to say it.” Field dropped his smile and said solemnly, “If you do create the food-making spell, can you give the honorable identity as its creator to me? I’ll pay you a satisfactory price.”
Roland slightly raised his eyebrow without being too surprised. He wasn’t infuriated either, mainly because Field spoke gently and wasn’t one of those aggressive types.
“You should know that the identity as the creator of a spell is a great honor,” Roland said casually. “Besides, a satisfactory price? I’m not short of money.”
Field smiled bitterly. “I know you aren’t. I’ve already investigated you. You are an undying Golden Son. The most priceless thing in this world is life, and as a Golden Son, you’re not short of that, so I have no doubt that you’re very rich.”
“It seems that it’s the honor that you seek, but you don’t impress me as someone who would claim other people’s work.” Roland was rather curious. “Why are you doing this?”
Field said with a bitter smile, “It’s a qualification for me to go somewhere. I’ve tried, but I’m not talented in that aspect and I never succeeded. I can’t tell you anything else. Family secret.”
All right!
Roland thought for a moment and was about to turn him down, when Field suddenly opened his mouth.
“Don’t decline my request just yet. You can hear my offer first.” Field took a deep breath and said, “A thousand gold coins, and real estate on a rather prosperous commercial street in the capital of Fareins!”
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