Chapter 278

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I apparated to several other places around this area and conjured an Echo several times. When I returned, a clear knowledge of the positions of the wizards appeared in my head. Taking advantage of this knowledge, I cast a spell of the magic mark from the Grimoire on static magic objects. The only one I didn't put the Mark on was Moody. At least I thought it was Moody, for there was too much magical feedback coming from that object - only this old paranoid can be hung with a bunch of amulets, and his leg is definitely an artifact. I had to repeat the procedure a couple more times, noting the wizards who had moved during my previous scans.

<So what are you up to?>

Nothing special. Judging by the absence of any change in the patterns of actions and movements, the wizards did not notice my manipulations, which means I can track them.

Generally speaking, when comparing conventional weapons and spells, the latter have a very striking disadvantage: speed and range. It's very hard to aim at long distances with a wand - even a hundred meters is a problem. Of course, these disadvantages are mitigated by area-affecting spells, which basically activate in a certain area and affect everything in it. However, the various ray, clot, and other "flying" constructs are very limited. They are limited by the wizards' thinking capabilities.

If you use mental control of the flight of a construct, then you are faced with a similar problem - it is difficult to see and accompany the target at a great distance, simultaneously forcing the construct to bend around obstacles and all that stuff. Even if you know and feel the target's location through different analogs of the Dark Mark, there are still natural obstacles in the form of landscape, buildings, trees, living creatures - you have to go around them too. In general, hitting something that isn't fairly close and out of the line of sight is no trivial task.

Spell speed limits also have rather common roots. You can, of course, simply know which part of the magic construct is responsible for this, saturate this area with magic without destroying the integrity of the structure, and the construct will fly faster. But for this, you also need to understand which area is responsible for this. To understand constructs in general, you need to feel them. This is already very difficult because you need to develop this very sensitivity. Another method that almost everyone uses to create spells and partially change their properties is imagination. But not everything is smooth here either.

To increase the speed of your spells with your imagination, you first have to imagine exactly what it's like to move at the speed you want. Of course, very few wizards and people, in general, have experience moving in space at speeds above one hundred and fifty miles per hour, and wizards even less - now the ceiling of speed is reached only by one broom, Firebolt. This ceiling is one hundred and twenty miles per hour.

One would say, "Lots of people have flown airplanes, and their speed is high. However, you need to imagine exactly how objects are flying around you, how this speed affects, literally feeling the air resistance with your skin, and many other factors. From here, by the way, and the speed limits in transgression - the wizard simply cannot imagine what it would be like to move very fast. A simple thought is not enough here: "I want to fly faster."

Why all these thoughts at all? I have Rowena. Like me, in the near future, she can accurately track the beacons of wizards, control the flight of spell constructs, simulate various situations from the point of view of physics and perception, take into account a bunch of factors and all this is parallel to one another.

<I only had to help once, and you've already made a targeting system out of me. But I like the idea itself. Only knowledge about subjects is lacking.>

And for such a case, wizards have in their arsenal a spell. However, it is rather useless for the average wizard because of the inability to quickly perceive, process, and memorize a three-dimensional map of the area. This is usually used in order to find something specific, and the incoming data array is simply ignored until this "specific" flickers in mind.

Looking around so as not to miss the "sudden wizard," I saw only a grove behind and a field in front, behind which the streets of the town were located. Getting down on one knee, put the tip of the wand on the ground, and created the necessary mental image in my head.

"Locus Scientia."

My magical sensitivity was not enough to detect the fluctuations of magic. Still, I know for sure that the spell began to spread along the ground around me, and the speed of its movement was amazing. With the help of Rowena, a detailed three-dimensional map of the area was built in my head, on which absolutely everything that somehow contacted the ground and with each other was displayed. Of course, moving objects disappeared, but static ones remained - grass, curbs, bushes, trees, fences, houses, furniture in them, windows ... Everything.

Now I could mentally track the movements of the wizards with marks on a three-dimensional map. A silly smile spread across my face.