Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion
Late in the night, after Lucien finished separating the three rays and managed to figure out some of their characteristics, his cognition world changed again: two brand new light spots representing the two new elements showed up, and following the periodicity, the two light spots joined the trajectory of how the previously existing elements were operating.
With no special feature, one of the two elements did not have color and seemed to be rather “lazy”, while there were three different rays shooting out from the other silver-colored spot—one ray had no color or smell, one had mixed colors that were hard to describe, and the third one had some special connection with the electrons surrounding the elements. The rays contained many missing magic symbols in them and together they constructed a rather weird model.
From the incomplete model, Lucien felt the power of cursing—the power to kill when one had no idea of what was going on.
Lucien was not good at using curses, and so it would take him at least half a year to complete the model and turn it into a real magic spell. Experienced as he was, he made the conclusion very quickly. So, if he wanted to improve an existing curse spell, it was going to take him at least five years as there was no guidance from his own cognition world to help him.
It seemed to him that this curse spell was of a quite high level, probably around the sixth circle, as its structure was more complex than that of Elemental Order. If Lucien had some radioactive elements as the reagent, as a senior-rank-mage-to-be, he should be able to cast it two to three times before his spiritual power was drained up.
Before the discovery of the electron, Elemental Order was a third circle spell. Now, Lucien had improved the spell to the standard of the fifth circle, and its power had been strengthened by twenty percent.
Although the structure of this cursing spell was complicated, with the help of the reagents and proper casting, Lucien should be able to use it with his outstanding mathematical knowledge and magic analysis ability, but the cost was great.
Lucien started to consider how to name the cursing spell: Invisible Death? Arcana Curse? Evans’s Shadow? Lucien’s Stare? Professor’s Solicitude? Knowing that in a year or even half that he would obtain a new cursing spell, he was in a pretty good mood.
Later, Lucien started to use the element of helium as the reagent for casting. He was trying to get helium from the air. Lucien was doing so by using the fifth-circle spell called Hathaway’s Collecting Spell, which was a must-have for most advanced magic labs. However, its magic circle was too expensive for the common labs.
After casting the spell, Lucien did not sense any gas gathering. Frowning, he guessed that it was because the proportion of helium in the air was too low. Fortunately, Lucien’s lab was equipped with the fancy magic circles. So Lucien turned them on and finally collected a few tubes of helium.
This made Lucien think of his future methods for collecting his casting materials. Maybe in the future, Lucien could gather adequate materials in the space, but the radiation there was too terrible. So far, Lucien could only turn to Mr. Fernando for help.
The Eye of Curse, Atlant, was studying the cursed vase. Although he did not have a specific target like Lucien, and he was not an expert in arcana, it was also just a matter of time for Atlant to find the fact that a certain kind of ray was actually from the atomic nucleus of helium and create the new cursing spell.
Therefore, Lucien was planning on developing the paper about the new cursing spell as soon as possible and waited for the proper chance to publish it, so hopefully, he could get a few more years of the exclusive right of the new magic spell.
The Congress had developed its mature way of thinking to come up with new spells once a new theory or finding was put forward, no matter it was for constructing a new cursing spell or the improvement of a new ice and snow spell. Therefore, it totally made sense that Lucien could come up with these two new spells within such a short period of time.
Staying focused, Lucien started to use the magic circles to liquefy helium.
…
It was close to the early morning. In an advanced magic circle, there were drops of colorless liquid in front of Lucien.
Suddenly, in Lucien’s half-substantialized cognition world, part of the colorless light spots turned into a light drizzle and then ice and snow followed. The mysterious, crystal-like magic symbols showed up. Although the symbols were complex, they were still not complete.
Following the Congress’ mature way of thinking, and according to what he had learned from his fellow students, Lucien made a quick evaluation that he could complete the magic structure within three days. However, the magic spell was going to be very dangerous and complex, and it required a more powerful pressure magic spell than Pressure Cage to be completed.
To maximize the power, the ultimate version of the spell should be of the ninth circle. At the ninth circle, the temperature created by the spell would be one degree above absolute zero!
If to make it more practical, Lucien did not have to use a very powerful pressure, the temperature created by the spell would be about three or four degrees Celsius above absolute zero, and the level of the spell should be about the seventh circle.
It was a very powerful and terrifying ice and snow magic spell! Even Lucien himself was very surprised. The temperature created by most of the spells owned by Ashikana, the senior-rank mage who specialized in snow and ice magic, was still about fifteen degrees above absolute zero. Lucien started to wonder whether that was the limit for ice and snow magic.
However, he was never an expert in this field, and he had never studied the legendary snow and ice magic spells. Maybe the temperature created by some of the legendary level magic spells had already got very close to the absolute zero, but they cost too much to cast.
What made Lucien’s upcoming ice and snow magic spells more terrifying was its practicality. The most challenging part of the spell—the construction of the structure of helium, its liquidation, or even solidification—could all be prepared in advance using the casting reagents, which could bring the degree of difficulty for casting the spell to about the sixth circle.
Right now, however, Lucien still had to solve one problem—how could he cast the spell without freezing himself to death?
Lucien carefully collected a tube of liquefied helium in an expensive tube, inside of which there were vacuum layers and heat shields.
One single tube like this was worth a level five magic item. After the discovery of the electron, the Congress had finally approved the institution’s application and gave the institution five of the tubes. To make further progress in developing this ice and snow spell, Lucien needed a lot of money!
Lucien had some clues to solve the biggest problem: first of all, it should be a ray spell instead of range attack; Also, Lucien had to activate a vacuum shield to protect himself. But no matter how Lucien designed the magic, using the magic was still going to be dangerous for him. Lucien than started to consider how to name this spell. After a while, he had decided to name the seventh -circle version Evans’ Freezing Ray, and its ninth-circle version Snow Goddess’ Whip.
After putting forward laser and magnetic trap, Lucien thought to himself that he would be able to construct a legendary spell probably named Snow Goddess’ Forgiveness… or maybe Professor’s Forgiveness. Lucien amused himself when thinking of this. When he became more capable and was ready to enter the upper air or the starry sky, Lucien would find the existence of positive electron, and then possibly he could create the magic spells such as Substance Demolishment or Positive Electron Artillery…
…
Although he had been working for the whole night, Lucien was super excited. Because he was going to carry around the tube in which the liquefied helium was stored, he was quite concerned that once the tube somehow got broken, that would be the very end of him.
“So, your experiment is done?” A familiar and childish voice came into Lucien’s ears.
Lucien was taken aback. When he looked back, he was amused. Alferris, the little crystal dragon, was wearing a white apron and holding a plate on which there was a bloody steak. The little crystal dragon was right now looking at Lucien in an ingratiatory manner.
“What’s this, Alferris?” Lucien asked, trying not to laugh.
“Your breakfast!” said Alferris as if it was too obvious for Lucien to ask, “I can cook well!”
Looking at Alferris’ crystal scales, and the rare steak on the plate, Lucien rubbed his forehead, “Where did you learn how to cook… Wait, why are you cooking breakfast for me?”
“I learned it from a book called A Cannibal’s Secret Recipe. Many dragons have told me that I’m a good chef!” Alferris did not answer Lucien’s second question.
Lucien asked, “What’s the recipe…?”
“Tear it, roast, eat.” Alferris tried hard to recall what was on the booklet.
Lucien cleared his throat a bit, “So… Why are you following me, then?”
Alferris suddenly jumped forward and licked Lucien with its red tongue, “Boss, please keep me!”
“Don’t!” Lucien was scared, “I don’t want to die with you!”
He was still carrying the tube!
When Lucien was considering whether he should spend a barrel of money to have the little dragon be his guard for the following few years, Bellak came back with the first-round investigation report.
