Ethan raised his right hand, palm facing upward.
A fist-sized fireball condensed in his palm.
The fireball glowed a blazing white, its heat so intense that the surrounding air warped violently.
He tossed the fireball into the air, where it split into three, then those three split into nine, and those nine split into twenty-seven.
Twenty-seven fireballs swirled above his head, their paths crossing without colliding, weaving a seamless net of fire.
With a flick of his finger, all twenty-seven fireballs vanished simultaneously.
Next, a ball of water condensed in his palm.
The sphere was a deep blue, with countless tiny motes of light swirling within.
He crushed the water ball, and the shattered droplets coalesced in midair into twenty-seven hair-thin needles of water, their tips aimed at a target dummy on the other side of the laboratory.
The water needles shot forward in unison, all twenty-seven striking the dummy's vital points: between the eyes, the throat, the heart, and the joints.
The target dummy, crafted from ironwood and reinforced with a layer of Stone Skin, was pierced clean through, leaving behind twenty-seven tiny holes.
The corner of Ethan's mouth twitched into a faint smile.
“Not bad. At least I didn't waste all those magic crystals over the last two years. With this level of energy control, I could easily pass as a fire wizard. It's time to look into composite elemental spells.”
Composite elemental spells.
This was yet another watershed dividing Official Wizards from apprentices.
Apprentices could only manipulate a single element of energy particles. Because their mental power was not strong enough, they could not govern two different elemental particles simultaneously.
Even if they forced themselves to mobilize two at once, the elemental conflict would cause the spell model to collapse. At best, the spell would fail; at worst, it would cause a severe backlash in their mental sea.
An Official Wizard's mental power, tempered by the fusion of their mental crystal, possessed strength and resilience far exceeding an apprentice's. In theory, they could control multiple elements at once.
But theory was one thing, and actual practice was entirely another.
The model of a single-element spell only required considering the arrangement and flow of one type of energy particle.
With two elements combined, the model's complexity multiplied several times over.
With three elements, it multiplied even more.
And this was not a simple matter of addition. The energy conflicts between different elements, mismatched frequencies, and unsynchronized flow speeds—any of these issues could cause a composite model to collapse instantly.
Consequently, the vast majority of Official Wizards still chose to specialize.
Perfecting a single element was far more effective than dabbling in everything.
Generally speaking, a wood-attribute genius like Ethan, whose affinity was over ninety percent wood, was practically born to specialize.
But Ethan was different.
He had the Elemental Affinity passive, which gave him a ten-thousand-percent affinity for all elements.
While others faced severe efficiency penalties when channeling opposing elements, he did not.
While others had to spend years or even decades adapting to and reconciling elemental conflicts, he had no such need.
Fire-element particles were just as obedient in his hands as water-element ones, and light-element particles were as docile as dark-element ones.
With talent like this, not pursuing the path of composite elements would be an absolute waste.
Ethan stepped out of his laboratory and pushed open the tower doors.
In the jungle within the thorn wall, several blood vines sensed his presence. Their vines trembled slightly, and their leaves turned toward him.
A ghost-face flower had its fanged maw wide open, clamping down on half a rabbit it had scavenged from somewhere.
The rabbit was still twitching as the ghost-face flower chewed a couple of times, swallowing it whole. It then let out a loud burp, spitting out a cloud of green smoke mixed with rabbit fur.
Ethan walked along the narrow path through the jungle until he reached the thorn wall.
Sensing his presence, the thorn wall's vines automatically parted to both sides, revealing a gap just wide enough for one person to pass through.
He stepped through the opening and made his way down the stone path leading toward the core area of the academy.
The wizard-only window in the Logistics Hall was empty as usual.
Ethan walked up to the window. Sitting behind it was still Lina, the middle-aged witch with graying hair.
She looked up, her gaze sweeping over Ethan's face, and set down the ledger in her hands.
“Oh, Ethan! What do you need today?”
It was no wonder she was so warm.
Over the past two years, Ethan had spent money like water at her window, earning her a commission of several magic crystals.
With a VIP customer like this, who wouldn't have a stellar attitude?
“I want to buy one copy of every single cantrip and spell currently for sale.”
Lina's hand froze in midair.
She stared at Ethan, her lips twitching.
“All of them?”
“All of them.”
“Including all elements? Metal, wood, water, fire, earth, wind, lightning, light, dark... absolutely every element?”
“Every single one.”
Lina swallowed hard.
She looked down at the catalog in her hand, then looked back up at Ethan, her expression indicating she was double-checking if she had misheard.
She had been working the window in the Logistics Department for decades and had handled at least hundreds of thousands of exchange requests. Never had a First-Tier Wizard come to her window and said, “I'll buy a copy of every single spell.”
Official Wizards always chose to specialize.
Those with wood attributes only bought wood spells, those with fire attributes only bought fire spells, and at most, they might buy a few utility cantrips for support.
Buying across elements did happen, but only after spending decades thoroughly mastering one's primary element.
Yet this young man before her wanted to buy the entire catalog in one go.
Lina took a deep breath and flipped the catalog to the cantrip index.
Her finger slid rapidly across the page as she mumbled to herself.
“Fire cantrips, four hundred and seventy-three types. Water, four hundred and eleven. Earth, three hundred and ninety-eight. Wind, four hundred and thirty-six. Lightning, three hundred and eighty-seven. Light, three hundred and fifty-four. Dark, three hundred and sixty-six. Wood, four hundred and ninety-two. Metal, three hundred and twelve. Mind, two hundred and seven. Space, eighty-nine. Summoning, one hundred and fifty-six. Curse, one hundred and thirty-four. Flesh, one hundred and seventy-seven. Other minor and utility types, six hundred and thirty-three.”
She flipped to the spell index, her finger pausing on the page.
“First-Tier spells... Fire, forty-two types. Water, thirty-eight. Earth, thirty-five. Wind, forty. Lightning, thirty-three. Light, thirty. Dark, thirty-one. Wood, forty-five. Metal, twenty-eight. Mind, fifteen. Space, seven. Summoning, thirteen. Curse, eleven. Flesh, fourteen. Other minor and utility types, twenty-six.”
“That's a total of seven thousand two hundred and sixteen cantrips. Individual prices range from ten to several hundred magic stones. The cantrip portion totals about twelve magic crystals.”
“As for the First-Tier spells, there are four hundred and eight in total. The cheapest starts at one magic crystal, and the expensive ones cost seven or eight. The spell portion totals about nine hundred and eighty-seven magic crystals.”
She tapped the stone tablet again, and all the numbers instantly jumped, stacked, and tallied up.
“Cantrips plus spells, bundled together, comes to a total of nine hundred and ninety-nine magic crystals. I've already rounded down the change for you.”
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