Chapter 167: Deep Sea (2)
The airship's cabin door opened, and a rather young-looking figure stepped out.
"It's him!?"
Unable to contain his emotions, one of the apprentices cried out in shock.
Lynn looked almost exactly as he had back then, and the things he had done on Registration Island had left a profound impression.
"You know Wizard Lynn?" the wizard standing in front of the middle-aged man asked in surprise. He hadn't expected his junior to actually know the man. Perhaps they could use this connection to their advantage.
"Wizard Lynn was in the same batch that disembarked with me," the apprentice replied.
Hearing the apprentice, Lynn followed the voice and spotted a red-haired, middle-aged man standing behind a wizard who shared a few of his facial features.
The man's face was somewhat unfamiliar, but after searching his memory, Lynn managed to match it with a name.
"I believe you're Bimti Buxton," Lynn said.
Bimti had introduced himself back then, though they hadn't interacted much after that.
Honestly, almost all the apprentices who had interacted with him closely on Registration Island had died. Only those with shallow connections were still alive.
Buxton's eyes lit up. Wizard Lynn actually still remembered his name!
After a brief greeting, Lynn turned to converse with the other wizards present.
Between wizards and apprentices lay an invisible, insurmountable chasm.
Even though they all stood in the same place, the apprentices simply couldn't blend into the wizards' social circle.
Watching the high-spirited Lynn a short distance away, Buxton's gaze dimmed.
He thought of his own situation. If only he had that kind of talent, he wouldn't have to return to his hometown from the Wizard Continent as pathetic as a dog with a severed tail.
After joining a wizard faction, he had accidentally contracted a toxin during a resource-gathering adventure. Lacking money, he had delayed his treatment. Even though he later spent a massive sum on magic potions to heal the initial injury, the ordeal had left irreparable damage in his body, severely crippling his future prospects. At his current level, he simply had no access to the kind of potions that could cure him completely.
This setback had birthed the thought of returning home. Even though he was merely a second-level wizard apprentice, he would immediately become a superior existence upon returning to his hometown. That had to be better than cowering in the academy's damp, cold basements, living like a slave.
Perhaps someone among his descendants could one day finish the path he had failed to walk.
Suddenly, Buxton understood the meaning behind the look his family's ancestor—a man said to have lived for over two hundred years—had given him when he first left home.
Lynn boarded the ship.
Rumble—
A towering storm churned across the sea.
Lightning covered the sky as the ship violently pitched and rolled.
The wizard apprentices standing on the deck paled, scrambling back into the cabins in fear. To them, the mighty power of this natural disaster commanded absolute awe.
To Lynn, however, this disaster posed little threat.
While nature remained extremely dangerous to wizard apprentices, it could no longer harm him at his current level. Unless it was a disaster fueled by supernatural power, a normal storm could not hurt him.
Lynn stood calmly on the deck, watching the surging waves. To his surprise, the sight sparked a flash of new inspiration.
These natural disasters were terrifying to ordinary people, but their threat to wizards was limited. However, if a massive amount of energy was mixed into this disaster, things would be completely different.
For example, lightning infused with intense energy became Interlaced Lightning. If it could hold even more abundant, higher-tier energy, it would become an advanced spell.
Essentially, spells were just the manipulation of natural energy. However, controlling this energy and forcing it to change according to one's will still required specific methods and effort.
At this thought, Lynn's mind began to race.
If the essence of a spell was controlling energy, and he could perceive the structural arrangement of that energy, wouldn't that push his control over spells to a much higher level?
A surge of excitement rose in Lynn's heart.
The fundamental principles behind spell creation had to be based on this exact line of thought!
If he could perceive the mechanics of a spell, grasp the laws governing natural energy, and understand the rules behind energy structures, he could directly utilize these raw energies!
A wave of ecstasy washed over him. He felt like he finally understood.
It seemed Magic Studies and Energy Structural Studies were the next subjects he needed to tackle.
As expected, there were no useless subjects for a wizard. Every single discipline held its own value.
Lynn retrieved an introductory book on Energetics from his Ring. In truth, he had purchased a wide variety of introductory texts and stored them in the Ring. He had bought them both for Kathryn to study and for himself to read when he found the time.
Regardless, they hadn't been expensive for someone at his level; it was mere pocket change.
Perhaps the spark of inspiration was truly doing its work. Sitting on the deck, Lynn became completely absorbed in his reading. Content that would normally take a wizard apprentice several months to digest, he finished reading in a mere few hours.
The ship pitched violently as a massive wave crashed toward the deck.
However, a transparent film shimmered into existence around Lynn, completely blocking the raging water.
This was his newly acquired talent, an ability born from his bloodline awakening. It was a bloodline spell that functioned like a passive skill: the Fiendgod Force Field.
As a growth-type bloodline talent, it automatically generated a force field around him that could block energy, mental energy, and physical attacks.
Lynn sat at the bow and lowered the book. A light of wisdom flashed in his eyes. Without him noticing, a new discipline had appeared on his talent panel: Energetics.
As his comprehension of Energetics deepened, Lynn noticed his casting speed had improved. However, with the enhancement of his bloodline, all the spells he currently knew could already be cast instantaneously.
In truth, casting spells also proved a theory he had formed earlier.
Casting speed!
Casting speed was of the utmost importance for any spellcaster!
Even if a spell was weaker in power, as long as it was cast faster than the opponent's, it would still kill them all the same.
Almost all spellcasting professions shared one common trait: high attack, high defense, but low vitality.
And for wizards, casting speed was a critical factor.
As for why some cast quickly while others cast slowly, his studies in Energetics gave him a rough understanding of the mechanics.
A spell's structural framework was fixed, but its capacity to draw upon natural energy was limited.
Consuming mental energy to cast a spell essentially acted as lighting a fuse. The mental energy had to travel through the entire structural framework of the spell to activate it.
Through long-term practice, a caster became more proficient. As they gained proficiency, their casting speed naturally increased. However, this was merely a deeper memorization of the spell's framework; the fundamental structure remained entirely unchanged.
To use a simpler analogy: it was like a race car driver on a track. If they were extremely familiar with the course, they could naturally drive fast. Knowing exactly when to turn and when to accelerate, the entire track would be ingrained in their mind like a living map.
This allowed them to push top speeds. But if that same driver was placed on a completely unfamiliar track, would they dare drive with that same reckless abandon?
Driving at high speeds on an unknown track meant a single mistake could end in a fatal crash.
Understanding Energetics, however, allowed the caster to fully comprehend the spell's framework during the casting process, fundamentally increasing their speed.
It was the equivalent of lowering the track's difficulty! It turned a course filled with winding hairpin turns into a straight line.
Being fast on a straightaway was easy; true speed was shown on the curves.
Anyone could accelerate on a straight line. All they had to do was slam the accelerator to the floor and charge straight ahead.
As Lynn pondered this, the Ghost Captain suddenly appeared on the deck. He hadn't shown himself during the storm because he knew the weather wouldn't affect his ghost ship, but now, he stared into the distance with a grave expression.
The sea churned violently as a monster hidden beneath the waves roamed the deep sea.
A dense, shifting shadow grew larger within the turbulent waters.
Ahead, massive whirlpools formed on the surface of the deep sea. At the center of the largest maelstrom, the black shadow turned pitch-dark. The ocean violently split open. Towering waves peeled back like reversed waterfalls as hundreds of millions of tons of seawater roared and crashed down. The surface bulged upward before breaking apart, revealing an immense spine that stretched endlessly across the ocean as a back as broad as an island breached the waves.