Cæ indulged in fulfilling his desire to learn more about magic. From understanding its history to understanding more about the magical industry and magic as a field. He skimmed through his courses, understanding in greater detail what the progression of magic mastery would be like.
The progression of magic mastery in the apprentice program could be divided into two separate categories meant to tackle eidos and mana mastery. After all, these were the fundamental halves of magic as a phenomenon and were the basis upon which mages would be evaluated and tested.
"Eidos mastery begins with a theoretical understanding of the Memory Model of Eidos invented by Merlin," Cæ noted with an intrigued expression. "Followed by practical training into learning to create eidos using memory as a crutch."
The fundamental underlying principle of the Memory Model of Eidos was that memory could allow the mind to create what imagination alone couldn't. The mind could better recollect what it had seen many times, what it couldn't entirely imagine from scratch.
The modern implementation of this model amounted to an intricate and complex system of universal triggers associated with templates of eidos that were taught to all students identically.
"A language…" Cæ realized with interest. "A language of magic."
It even had a name.
[Magia.]
Magia was a universal language of eidos comprised of its own unique set of sounds and runes that were universally taught to be associated with the same eidos. By ensuring that all students were taught the exact same triggers to be associated with the exact same memories, they had essentially created a language that allowed for the communication of eidos.
It allowed for the mass distribution and circulation of magic.
If one developed a spell and wanted to teach, share, or sell it to others, then one needed only to inscribe the magical circle inscribed with runes or write down the incantation corresponding to the eidos that he wanted to share.
Then, others merely needed to concentrate fully and 'read' the magic circle or incantation and that would allow others to create the eidos that he wanted to sell.
It functioned identically to how normal language did with conveying normal information, conveying instead eidos information.
For some reason, Cæ found this knowledge to be extremely thrilling.
"Magia, runes, magic circles…" his eyes lit up with a glint of excitement.
He truly looked forward to eidos mastery training.
This was despite the fact that he didn't need it as a pure mage. In fact, it was because he was a pure mage who couldn't afford to reveal his pure magic that he was eager to learn master Magia and the Memory Model of Eidos.
'This way, I can use my magic under the guise of the Memory Model of Eidos,' he mused inwardly. 'The more I know on paper, the more pure magic I can use without drawing suspicion.'
This was a powerful incentive for him to master Magia as a trigger for creating eidos.
He also looked just as forward to mastering mana. Mana mastery worked simply by perseverance-oriented training to cultivate greater willpower, drive, and mental force to draw upon mana.
The more one went through, the more power one could wield. This allowed one to harness greater amounts of mana at any given moment. In other words, even if one was the richest man in the world, it was worthless unless one built up the ability to move all that colossal mana within one's mana core.
Since the Age of Magic, an entire field of psychology had been developed around what was the best way to train mana manipulation. A system of training centered around cultivating willpower had been refined over the years.
"The Drive-Anchor Method introduced by Magus Morgan le Fey." Cæ's eyes lit up with interest. "To center one's drive around an objective or agenda that you resonate the most with emotionally."
Scientifically, it was proven to yield the best results time in and time out in all manners of experiments, surveys, and trials. It was thought to be more effective due to willpower being consolidated and harnessed around a goal. The goal offered direction and drive, allowing for greater growth of willpower through persistence training.
It was one of the most testing parts of being a mage and was one of the reasons that ascending up the ranks was so difficult.
An apprentice mage needed to be above certain thresholds of both Magia mastery and mana manipulation. The conditions only got harsher and harsher for senior and master mages, and Cæ couldn't even imagine how harsh the conditions for archmages and magi were. These mages had surely reached a realm of magical prowess that Cæ probably couldn't even imagine.
Cæ couldn't wait to touch these echelons of magic, not just because it was useful to his goal but also out of pure passion for magic.
'Which brings me to my next matter to settle.' His eyes sharpened with fierce determination. 'I need to find a way to ensure that I waste as little time as possible in my progression.'
The average time needed to pass the apprentice program was four years.
Thankfully, the highest-ranking students in the apprentice program were able to complete the program much sooner. The same could be said for the wealthier students who had the resources needed to commence their magical training even before entering the apprentice program.
Cæ recalled how silian and his cronies could wield magic, bit slowly before taking even a single class of magic.
The wealth gap could compensate for talent immensely, it appeared.
'Still, it means that I won't draw any attention to myself if I finish this program as soon as I possibly can.'
Having started at magic six years too late, he didn't intend to waste even a single month longer in the apprentice program than he needed to. He could immediately start grinding and make use of his pure magic to aim for the quickest possible completion of the apprentice program possible.
Still, that was to be seen after the program officially started; he still had a few more days of freedom before that happened.
"Speaking of which," his demeanor grew serious as he recalled what he had been waiting to do after he got admitted to the magicademy. "It's time to begin doing some manual digging with my new identity as a topper Elendir Institute student."
His pursuit of magic was also one of two agendas aimed at fulfilling his ultimate goal of destroying and rebuilding the world.
'Now that I have become a student of this magicademy, it is time to leverage that identity in the direction of pursuing my business ideas.' His demeanor hardened with determination. 'I have already learned as much as I possibly could through online research on the maginet. But the issue is that the information I seek is relatively niche.'
His next business goal was centered around tapping into untapped housing demand in the Colohen Slums.
While it was relatively novel, it was not an absolutely unheard-of idea. There had been some scant initiatives in the past, both private and federal to tap into demand in the slums, that were largely unsuccessful and since abandoned.
He wanted to understand why these initiatives failed from the perspective of an insider. He also wanted to speak to experts in fields that intersected with both the housing industry and the slums. There were insights that only those with experience and exposure to this particular niche had. Even those that failed to make any progress would be able to give him the knowledge that he wouldn't find in any book or in any article online on the maginet.
The more he learned about the failures of the past, the better he could ensure that he wouldn't make the same mistakes. This vastly increased his probability of coming up with a business that was profitable. He wanted to squeeze as much wisdom from the failures of the past as possible and use it as a stepping stone for his success.
This phase was one of the most time-consuming and tricky phases of a novel business such as this.
Cæ was in no hurry to rush into formally registering a business with the government and put together a half-baked product in half a year.
Any idiot could get this done.
But if he wanted his business to genuinely achieve the kind of success he hoped it would, he would need to make sure that he had formulated a crystal clear business strategy that was most optimal for generating revenue.
Before, he was just a man from the slums.
Now, he had a more respectable identity with a brilliant performance on the magic aptitude test. With this background and profile, people would be much more inclined to take his requests for a meeting seriously.
"Thankfully, I know exactly who I need to meet."
He had done his research into this little niche to understand who he needed to speak to so that he could immediately contact them the moment he got into the magicademy and got the credentials that he sought.
His goal was not only to meet with people but also to hopefully find someone in this little niche not only to offer him their insights and experience as well as to potentially find a business partner of sorts.
He suspected that he might not be able to pursue this business by himself.
What he was aiming for wasn't simply a small-scale bakery or restaurant that could potentially be run by himself. He was looking to enter a vast market with weak consumer spending, requiring an immense volume of sales to make a worthwhile profit.
This was very difficult when he was in the magicademy training hard in his magic. Thus, he was ideally looking for a business partner with whom he could share much of the more time and energy-consuming parts of the business.
"Ideally, this will be a party that is already in the broader housing unit industry," Cæ noted. "Convincing someone who isn't already in this business to partake in it is unrealistic. I might even have to partner with an existing housing development company."
This would involve taking his idea after it was fleshed out well enough to be compelling enough, forming a company around it, or directly partnering with a housing development company that would take care of the manufacturing and distribution.
"I would also lose control over much of the entire matter, but it would lessen my burden. Though I would also lose much of my total revenue," he heaved a sigh.
He wasn't sure if he wanted to make this trade-off.
How was he going to become rich and powerful enough to destroy the existing world order and build a better one if he kept ceding so much control over his ideas?
On the other hand, gaining mastery over magic was just as important. Simply monetary and political power alone would not allow him to destroy the existing world order. The magicademy was timebound, and his business idea was not under any time pressure of any kind whatsoever.
Thus, logic would dictate that he ought to spend more time on his magic mastery while diverting less attention to
"It's not impossible, I suppose. Oh well, for now, this is not what I should be focusing on."
What he needed to focus on was nailing his business strategy to be one that would yield profitable success. It was only when he had absolute clarity with it, as he did with the changes to Selvig's Ristorante, that he then made a better decision on whether he wanted to pursue this as a solo venture where he started a company centered around this business.
"The nature of the business strategy will matter a lot," Cæ realized. "If it's too divergent from industry norms, then I won't be able to outsource the operations to other companies. Hm, maybe I should factor that in when fleshing out the business strategy."
Regardless, that, too, was something he ought to leave until after he fleshed out his solution to fulfill the housing demand in the slums.