The Study of Magic

The first thing that appeared in Richard's line of sight was a large gray hare hopping around. Then there was a monkey, followed by a goat, a large horned deer, a gray fox, a bison and a wild boar.

A mighty army of animals lined up, all coming from the same direction of the forest. They drank water at the edge of the pool in an orderly manner and left quickly. No fights broke out between them, and they interacted extremely harmoniously.

Suddenly, there was a slight chaos in the middle of the queue. It was the wild boar, who was wrinkling its nose forward, wanting to cut the queue to drink. But the wild boar's body froze in place as a fair and tender fist quickly approached him.

Bam.

The wild boar's entire body shook violently.

Bam.

It was smashed on the ground, its four short legs trembling frantically. It struggled for a long time before standing up.

Pandora stood next to the wild boar with a cold look on her face. She pointed to the back of the queue. The wild boar babbled twice, lowered its head, and scurried to the end of the line obediently.

Richard suddenly understood. The harmony of this entire army of animals was due to Pandora's terrifying violence, it was no wonder.

But how was this list of animals determined? Why was it that these animals could drink water, and the cheetah and the black bear couldn't?

Was it because cheetahs and black bears were carnivores? No. The gray fox and the coyote in the team were also carnivores.

Was it because cheetahs and black bears were larger? That wasn't right. The wild boar and the bison were bigger.

Was it because both the cheetah and the black bear were uglier? Well, that was possible.

Nevertheless, the most likely explanation was that the cheetah and the black bear had come to drink water for the first time and did not know the rules. Not only had they not queued up, but they had also skipped the other animals. Hence, they had gotten beaten up.

Alright, alright.

As he stared at the queue of animals drinking water, Richard shook his head. He turned around and walked back to the hill.

Instead of fighting for water with a group of animals, Richard used the Water Drops Condensation spell to liquefy some water for himself. He washed up quickly and then began to conduct research.

He took out some things from the suitcase in the castle room and read The Writings of Monroe. When he found areas that required further research, he would use these materials to conduct experiments. During the occasional times this would cause a large reaction, he would go to the open space outside the castle.

After doing this a few times, Gregory walked out of the dragon cave with a sullen face. He watched Richard's every move. After a long time, he yawned and asked, "Hey kid, what are you doing? Don't you know that I'm sleeping?"

Richard glanced at Gregory and said, "I'm doing some interesting things. I'm studying the mechanism of spells."

"What is this? I don't understand," Gregory said.

Richard looked at Gregory. "Simply put, I'm analyzing the basis of casting spells. After successfully researching this, I will figure out many things—like why I can release a flame, or condense water vapor, why you can fly and switch between two different bodies, and so on."

Gregory's eyes flashed, and he frowned slightly. "What's the use of this?"

"Of course it is useful," Richard said. "It's only when you get to the bottom of a discipline that you can truly understand it, master it, and turn it into a strength. Otherwise, you will forever be under other people's control."

"What a strange kid. I've never seen anyone do this before," Gregory said.

Richard shook his head. "Strange? I think those who don't do this are really weird and illogical."

Richard asked aloud, "Gregory, if you encountered something strange, would you find a way to figure it out, or would you accept it completely, even if it was extremely illogical? For example, one day, you suddenly discover you have eight limbs. Would you just believe that you should have eight limbs and carry on with your life normally?"

"Of course not."

"That's right," Richard said. "This is like suddenly growing eight limbs. No matter what, you need to find the cause. After you figure it out, you can then try to revert to the number limbs. And on the other hand, if you find it useful to have more limbs, you could find out how to grow more.

"In the same way, if you figure out how to release flames, you'll be able to release more powerful flames or even stop others from releasing flames. After figuring out why you can make vapor condense, you can condense more vapor or other things. After finding out how you fly in the sky, I could fly in the same way, or even make you fall during the flight."

"You…" Gregory stared at Richard with a strange expression. Obviously, the boy in front of him looked weak and frail. He also could not understand a lot of what he was saying. However, he felt inexplicably pressured by him sometimes—in fact, he was slightly worried after listening to him. Would he suddenly fall from the sky one day? It seemed that he would have to fly lower and slower in the future.

Damn it, had he made a mistake in bringing him here?

After a silence, Gregory asked, "Are you sure you can do all of this?"

"I'm just carrying out some basic research. Of course, I can't do all of this now, but I could do it if I achieve a breakthrough," Richard said.

"So what you're saying is that this is all useless now, right?" Gregory asked, feeling somewhat relieved.

"Not necessarily," Richard said. "The research process is a long journey, and it's not necessarily considered successful only at the end. In fact, it's normal to return to any stage of your progress, such as this."

Richard cast a spell quickly, and a faint blue flame appeared in his hands.

The Phosphorus Candle Spell.

"This is a low-level Zero-ring Spell used for producing light, and its essence is burning."

Waving his hand to dissipate the spell, Richard cast another one again, and a blood-red flame appeared.

The Flame Charge Spell.

"This is also a low-level Zero-ring Spell used for attacks, and the essence is also burning."

"So?"

"Why are their colors so different when they are both burning?"

"How would I know?" Gregory murmured.

"Combustion is a chemical reaction that produces heat and light," Richard explained slowly. "The process is very complicated, but the principle is a radical chain reaction, and the end result is light and heat. Because the spectrum of each burning element is different, the flame colors are also different. For example, the Phosphorus Candle Spell burns phosphorus oxide, and hence the color is blue.

"In addition, temperature can affect the flame color in several ways. When the flame temperature is very low, between 200 °C to 300 °C, incomplete combustion will produce a large amount of black smoke, and the flame will be black. If the temperature is higher, between 500 °C or 600 °C, the flame will look dark red.

"The higher the temperature, the brighter the flame color, turning into fuchsia, deep red, and then blood red. For example, the color of the Flame Charge Spell is blood red because the temperature has reached 1,000 °C."