013. Magic Aptitude Test
Learning magic is not an easy task.
Even though Li Aozi had raised his [Intelligence] to 84 points, he still couldn't fully digest all this knowledge at once.
Magic is a practical discipline. At its core, constructing a spell isn't the 'chanting and casting' that outsiders imagine. Instead, it's more like programming: building models, inputting commands, and producing results.
Chanting spells is really just for the caster themselves to hear.
The outsider's image of spellcasting: "Oh, fervent fire element, gather into a fireball and burn my enemies!" — casting failed, magic backlash, coughing up blood.
In reality, a mage's spellcasting goes more like this: [Add: Fire Element — Condense/Place — Hover at palm = 5cm] Event-Driven — Fill Coefficient [while range > 500 yards = explode] — Self-correct errors = 0] — Release failed — Restart — hello world!
Take, for example, the much-discussed high-level spell [Fireball]. As a spell requiring knowledge from "Shaping Magic" and "Advanced Elemental Theory", not only do you have to construct the spell, but you also need to consider how to launch it, how to aim, and how to adjust its trajectory.
Therefore, if you want to release a precisely lethal and stable fireball, you also need to study subjects like "Ballistics", "Calculus", "Experimental Aerodynamics", and "Nuclear Physics" as auxiliary disciplines.
This makes sense because a mage's battlefield is in space, amidst high-energy radiation bombardments, or within desolate planetary belts. Every combat spell is born to adapt to the vast environments of the universe.
However, there's one advantage to spells. Combat spells can easily be converted to civilian use by just removing a few formulas. This is the greatest strength of magical civilizations; by focusing heavily on military magic, they can gain highly efficient civilian magic in return.
Because of this, magical civilizations have little room for corporate businesses. Instead, they are dominated by military-government-controlled magic workshops, as well as academic factions led by individual scholars and bureaucrats, filling in employment roles.
Li Aozi's main focus was on "General Magic". This is the foundation of everything, and it explores and summarizes the objective laws of the magical world.
The practical use of "General Magic" is quite poor, and there are barely any spells to learn early on. However, Li Aozi chose to specialize in it without hesitation because this theory is so classic that he could use it as the basis to dig out a worldview of "Objective Materialism"—which was also his ultimate goal.
Learning magic and learning science are both about studying materialism; otherwise, what's the point?
"Objective Materialism" and "Objective Idealism" are the two most mainstream worldviews in the universe. Choosing "Objective Materialism" comes with the trait [Thought Deconstruction], which gives a 50% learning correction for any extraordinary knowledge, making it easy to switch between different worldviews later.
Moreover, "Objective Materialism" itself offers an advantage that neither Li Aozi nor any spellcaster could refuse:
Trait • "Heaven of Purification" — Units with 'divinity' cannot be immune to any of your spell effects.
This trait is called 'God-Slayer,' and because of this, materialist mages and warriors are the group with the highest god-slaying numbers.
Incidentally, the Lord of Entropy is a unit with 'divinity.'
"With the talent of the Tanas people, I should be able to master "Objective Materialism" within four years. That way, I'll be able to contribute when it comes to dealing with the Lord of Entropy."
Azure Star was Li Aozi's home base, where he had friends and power. He couldn't abandon such an important place, and besides, he had no intention of letting [The Society of Forgeries] off the hook.
He would find an opportunity to take down both the Lord of Entropy and [The Society of Forgeries] at the same time.
On the other hand, Li Aozi discovered something interesting.
As he deepened his understanding and breakthrough in magic theory, Li Aozi had mastered a specialty called [Vast Knowledge and Strong Memory], which increases proficiency learning speed by 10%.
At first, this didn't seem special. After all, gaining a specialty through practice and in-depth learning is normal.
But when Li Aozi checked the status of his main body's colony, he glanced at the specialty column.
—[Vast Knowledge and Strong Memory] was listed there!
"The specialty I gained from learning on my own, knowledge that will stay with me for life, doesn't disappear with a change of body… This is different from the game. The system doesn't show it, but it definitely exists."
Li Aozi became even more convinced of his previous deduction—Ingenious Network really was hiding and blocking a lot of things, especially the understanding of in-game knowledge.
Why were they doing this?
Was it to maintain the stability of the Terra Federation (the real world), or… were they afraid of the knowledge itself?
After all, the players didn't just grasp cutting-edge knowledge; some players had already collected utopian-level knowledge.
If we consider the nature of 'knowledge technology,' combining this with the fact that one of the Destroyers, the Eye of Identification's 'body,' might be involved… perhaps… in reality, what they fear most is the 'Eye of Identification.'
Li Aozi didn't think further. If he continued down this path, he felt he would only get deeper and deeper until he was eventually corrupted by society.
The line between reality and the game was already blurred, but Li Aozi, always a troublemaker, knew when to focus on priorities. He began to immerse himself in studying, putting his energy into a serious exploration of magic.
Besides studying textbooks, Li Aozi didn't forget to memorize facts and use mass repetition of exercises to strengthen his test-taking ability. This was second nature to him—after all, doing exercises didn't cost much, but it sure was intense competition.
As it turned out, practical application required thresholds, but doing exercises didn't, and it was indeed highly beneficial.
Two weeks later, Li Aozi closed his books and stepped out of his house.
"All done with cramming. Now it's time to go."
Li Aozi went to the village's public flying carpet station. Today was the exam day in the city. The magic aptitude test, held every two weeks, was quite an expense for rural people. As a result, they only took it seriously when they were certain of passing.
Although this wasn't unusual, the exam lasted a full five days, so there were many well-wishers seeing the examinees off. Families grabbed the test-takers before they boarded the flying carpet, repeatedly checking if they had forgotten anything. Their bags were packed with snacks, food, and spare clothes that they wouldn't normally splurge on.
While comforting their children by saying, "Don't worry, worst case, we'll try again next year," they quietly muttered with hopeful expressions, "If you pass, you'll bring honor to the family."
Luther was among the many examinees, and Li Aozi spotted him immediately.
The people sending him off were hard to miss:
In addition to his cute and considerate childhood sweetheart, there was also a sultry, mature older woman with a similar face to Luther's, probably his sister, smiling and reassuring him, "It's okay, sis believes in you."
Standing next to her was a round-faced, big-eyed, blonde twin-tailed rich girl who always looked away with flushed cheeks while talking to Luther. She put on a fake front, saying, "I'm just passing by! I-I'm not here to see you off on purpose. I don't care whether you pass or not!"
Then there was a cool, aloof, bespectacled, black-haired literary girl who lightly adjusted her glasses and, when seeing him off, simply said indifferently, "It doesn't matter. Wherever you go, I can get in too."
His parents didn't come, but his whole harem did, and their farewell gifts took up three seats.
—Li Aozi suddenly thought, maybe he hadn't hit him hard enough last time.