Chapter 28: Second-Level Spell

“No need to worry. When one’s ability is insufficient, forcing a connection to a deeper level of the Weave of Magic naturally causes such an overload reaction. However, your situation is still quite good. You just slept for a while and recovered…”

The old mage’s voice sounded by his ear. Constantine almost used all his strength just to barely force his eyelids open.

When the young boy arduously raised his head, he discovered he was still in the old mage’s study, only his position had changed to a low couch that had appeared out of thin air. Judging from the fact that the potion in the old mage’s hand had just been distilled by a set of crystal vessels, the boy’s unconsciousness clearly hadn’t lasted too long.

But that dizzy feeling spreading from the center of his mind made the boy feel awful. He habitually shook his head, but because of this movement, he felt a wave of nausea and almost threw up!

“Take this and drink it. Remember, only one drop!” The old mage timely tossed over a small object. A somewhat dazed Constantine caught it, then noticed it was a rather exquisite small crystal vial. Its capacity didn’t seem large, and that small volume was now almost half empty, leaving less than half a bottle of a kind of glimmering blue liquid.

The boy carefully poured one drop into his mouth. As soon as the cool liquid touched his tongue, it seemed to instantly vaporize. But that trace of refreshing feeling then flowed throughout his body. For a moment, the boy felt extremely comfortable—that drowsiness and nausea disappeared immediately. He even felt more energetic than when he first entered this laboratory.

But what made him even more excited were some other sensations… segments of mysterious words unknown to ordinary people were gradually arranging themselves neatly in his mind. It was a kind of sudden understanding, hard to express in words, as if someone in the unseen was directly making some adjustments to his memory.

“Try to raise your Magic Power, then focus your mind and coordinate with the incantation and the required casting posture to channel the Magic Power outside your body. But pay attention, Mental Power is the main part. The incantation can be seen as meaningless syllables; its function is to help you guide the Magic Power.” The old mage’s guidance always came very timely.

Constantine gently extended his hand. A faint chanting sound rose with his movement. Then, a layer of light shimmered over his body and subsequently vanished… But Constantine knew it wasn’t without effect—the boy reached out and forcefully knocked his hand against the edge of the low couch! But just before his palm touched the target, an invisible barrier had already separated the two. Although it made a clack sound, no pain came to the boy’s hand, not even the slight vibration from the impact!

“Excellent…” A joyful smile crept onto the boy’s lips… Although the Lich wasn’t here, after two days of repeated study, he had long known that what he just performed was the effect of a first-level spell, Mage Armor. This marked that Constantine had officially become a Sorcerer—although strictly speaking, his level was still only touching the most elementary Weave of Magic. While he could be called a formal Spellcaster, he typically still needed a teacher’s guidance.

“No need to be so tense. Your comprehension is good, but the growth of your Mental Power is even more surprising…”

At this time, the old mage’s experiment seemed to have reached its final stage. He poured some refined colorless liquid from the crucible into a bottle. Then he took out another, much smaller bottle from the side. He opened the cap and tried to pour its contents into the other bottle. But the hand holding the crystal vial seemed to tremble slightly. Clearly, he was extremely cautious about this final step. In the end, the potions failed to mix—the old mage sighed deeply and put down the crystal vial in his hand.

“As long as the dosage can be precisely controlled, the brewing time can maximize the potion’s effect. If the flow of the potion can be controlled to about a dram, it could delay the duration of the invisibility potion by one or two Hourglass marks… But how can the dosage be controlled precisely? Also, to filter out impurities, no matter how fine the mesh, it can’t meet the requirements… and spells can’t be used for filtering either…” Annoyed, the old mage shook his head and spoke again.

This sentence was clearly not directed at Constantine but was just the old mage’s hesitant muttering to himself. But undoubtedly, it caught the boy’s interest—even farmers had probably heard of the great name of the Invisibility Potion. It was one of the most advanced types among potions!

“If it’s about filtering impurities… could powdered charcoal be considered?” After hesitating, Constantine spoke up.

“Powdered charcoal?” The old mage clearly hadn’t expected this answer. Of course, if possible, Constantine would have suggested he try activated charcoal, but this Plane obviously didn’t have that.

“It’s like this. Using layers of crushed stone, borax, fine sand, gauze, and charcoal to filter should completely remove impurities… It’s a method to purify dirty water. Also, …”

Casually picking up a piece of Parchment nearby, Constantine began to use his greatest talent. In less than ten minutes, a set of simplified chemical experiment tools—dropper, beaker, measuring cup, reagent bottle, and clamp—were already vividly drawn on the paper. For the dropper, which the old mage needed most, he even made a relatively detailed drawing.

A dropper wasn’t actually a complicated experimental tool. It’s just that before glass and rubber appeared, such a thing wasn’t easily thought of. Of course, finding some substitutes wasn’t difficult either, especially in this magical Plane where Magic could be used.

From the old mage’s collection, they found some sea creature remains, seemingly fragments of an organ from an octopus. These things had quite good elasticity and corrosion resistance. Combined with a slender tube made of Crystal, an experimental tool for precisely controlling dosage was complete. Sounds simple, doesn’t it?

Actually, it could be even simpler—just a Crystal tube, blocking or releasing one end with a finger, using the principle of air pressure would also be sufficient… if one didn’t mind the finger getting hurt when handling corrosive liquids.

But it was these two simple tools that made the old mage treat them like treasures—in fact, every potion master had their own unique potion-making tools. It’s just that knowledge inheritance in this Plane wasn’t as developed as in the Plane the boy remembered. Those Archmages who guarded their secrets closely, though capable of driving trends, often fell into the depths of history… Therefore, their knowledge often became lost. After more than twenty wars large and small, like the Undead War, the Violet War, the Northwest Campaign, etc., magical potion-making had actually taken a rather skewed path. Every potion master had their own unique set of equipment, each suited to their own experiments. Even simple tools like crucibles lacked a unified standard. Various experimental apparatuses were treated as top secrets, rarely leaking out.

“Very good… Constantine, very good. As a reward, I now grant you the permissions of a formal member of the Mage Tower… the right to access most facilities. You can also attend the mages’ gatherings.” The old mage, who had obtained treasures, thought for a moment and gave Constantine a huge benefit: “Low-level spellcasting techniques can be found in the library. If you have questions, you can ask any Formal Mage. Some judicial techniques are recorded in the middle level of the library. They might be rigid, but very practical. You can go and browse them when you have time.”

“What a shame there’s no Invisibility Potion…” the boy whispered, bowed in salute, and the next moment, he was standing at the entrance of the Mage Tower.

Just a few minutes later, from the highest floor of the Mage Tower came a sharp, but unheard by anyone, Curse.

“Damn it! My Restoration Potion! That little brat!”

…

Gently shaking the exquisite crystal vial, watching the small half-bottle of blue potion inside, Constantine slightly narrowed his eyes.

His mood was clearly quite good now—although the Invisibility Potion might have been out of his reach, this small bottle of potion seemed sufficient to match the value of his two little inventions.

But the things worth being happy about didn’t seem to be just this… Deeply buried in the boy’s mind now, besides Magic Missile and Mage Armor, were two new incantations.

One of them should be Feather Fall, and the other, from memory, seemed to be Earth Claw?

Earth Claw was a second-level spell. Being able to use this spell proved he had completely left the category of apprentice… but… Constantine frowned. He seemed to feel that he could still use some kind of ability. It should count as a spell, but his memory held no impression of this spell… Yet, it carried a familiar feeling…

The boy closed his eyes, trying hard to sense it. But this strange feeling was very odd. He searched almost all his senses but found nothing… until Constantine, thinking hard, tried to recite that only second-level spell, Earth Claw, again. Then that feeling became clear once more!… In that instant, he had completely grasped that feeling!

It was actually a clump of… black flame?

Constantine’s eyes snapped open! He felt fine, dense beads of sweat seem to be breaking out on his back…