Chapter 13: Exploration

In Gray's eyes, the world around him had already become a digital one. After experiencing the initial chaos, Gray had begun to learn how to utilize these numbers. For instance, with his True Talent, he could accurately perceive the total amount of magical power possessed by a regular first-level mage, which he defined as 10. Using this as a reference, his own current magical power was equivalent to 8. However, at this moment, he was unaware that this unintentional action would later become the beginning of the digitization of the magic system.

The magical power requirement for Fireball was 15, while the requirement for most third-level magic was around 20. Gray now understood that lower magical power requirements, greater potency, and a simpler casting method were the key factors that made Fireball stand out among many low-level magics. However, during the casting process, there would inevitably be a small amount of magical power loss and waste, and a mage could not expend all their magical power at once, as it would cause severe harm to their body. Therefore, Gray instinctively realized that there was still much room for improvement in the standard Fireball. After several nights of tireless research, Gray discovered that after several improvements, the magical power consumption of Fireball could actually be reduced to 8, assuming the entire casting process was perfect and none of the three-second casting time was omitted. Reducing magical power consumption would also decrease the potency of Fireball, but when the magical power consumption was reduced to 8, the original potency of 15 energy levels would only drop to 10 energy levels. In terms of magical killing power per unit of magical power, this Fireball was obviously more superior. Moreover, compared to other first-level magics with a maximum potency of 5 energy levels, Fireball still had an overwhelming advantage.

Curiosity was a devil. On the second night, Gray began trying to cast Fireball, and he succeeded on the first attempt. Watching the noticeably smaller and much brighter red fireball slowly fly towards the steel golem 25 meters away, Gray was so tense that his heart almost stopped beating!

The fireball exploded with a loud bang, and flames splashed outwards in a ring. Even Gray felt a burst of hot air rushing towards him. Under the dual impact of the explosion and the high temperature, the steel golem directly hit by the fireball was somewhat deformed, with magical flames still clinging to it. This steel golem was made with reference to the defensive power of half-plate armor and also had the function of detecting the potency of magic. It could be imagined that if a warrior wearing half-plate armor stood there, this fireball would definitely have killed him.

Success!!

This was the first level magic Gray had ever cast in his life, and immense joy instantly overwhelmed him. He wanted to jump up and cheer, but his legs gave way, and he leaned against the wall and slowly collapsed. His body felt empty in an instant, as if every part was no longer obeying his commands, and he couldn't even lift a finger.

As the price for successfully casting the spell, Gray spent the rest of the night on the cold floor. While completing the first real magic of his life, Gray also experienced the feeling of being completely drained of magical power for the first time. With all his magical power exhausted, Gray couldn't even meditate and had to wait passively for his magical power to recover.

As long as he lay down for three hours and six minutes, his magical power would automatically recover to 1. His "Precise" talent once again gave an accurate answer based on the speed of magical power recovery. At that time, Gray would be able to stand up and start meditating.

During the more than three hours of waiting for his magical power and physical strength to recover, Gray felt very bored and began to carefully contemplate the magical knowledge he had learned. He discovered that higher mental strength could indeed reduce the magical power consumption of the same magic. This was because higher mental strength allowed for more precise control over magical power, thereby enabling improvements to a magic in many aspects. Those supermagic skills all required a certain amount of mental strength to use. For example, Gray felt that there were still many areas that could be improved in the casting process of Fireball, at least... 16 places. Among them, 4 could save magical power, 3 could increase potency, and so on. After thinking, Gray chose to first consider the parts that could save magical power consumption. Next came the long and tedious calculations. At this moment, Gray realized the importance of mathematics. After a full half-hour of calculations, Gray finally succeeded in finding an improvement point. Now, the magical power consumption of his Fireball had been reduced to 7, but its potency had not decreased correspondingly.

This meant that after casting the Fireball spell, he would still be able to stand, even jog a few steps, instead of collapsing like he did now. The "Precision" talent also brought another benefit, which was that Gray could accurately grasp his own various conditions and even quantify his mental power if he found enough reference standards.

At this moment, Gray's heart was filled with joy for the first time. He was eager to restore his full magic power and try whether the improvement to the Fireball spell was successful. The joy of exploration and discovery was so great that it was like the first ray of sunshine for Gray, who had always been surrounded by gloom. Gray also discovered for the first time that the world of magic was so magical, complex, and vast that it was impossible to explore even a corner of it in a lifetime.

Magic power slowly accumulated and finally reached 1. Gray struggled to enter the meditation room, drank a bottle of magic power recovery potion, and then began to meditate. A few hours passed, and just as his magic power was about to be fully restored, Gray impatiently rushed out of the meditation room and launched another fireball at the broken iron doll.

As the fireball formed between his hands, the magic power in Gray's body quickly decreased and was sucked dry in an instant. The fireball trembled and flickered uncertainly, but finally left Gray's hands and flew towards the iron doll. The experiment was successful again. The improvement method Gray found was effective. It was just that due to his excitement during the spell casting process, there were slight flaws, which increased magic power consumption a little. So when the fireball was launched, Gray collapsed again. Fortunately, the bottle of magic power recovery potion was long-lasting and could accelerate the recovery of magic power within a day, so now Gray only needed to sit on the ground for an hour.

Gray spent this hour constantly calculating. When he stood up, it was already dawn.

Today's class was Magic Mathematics. Gray listened so attentively for the first time that he even saw beauty in countless boring numbers. Gray was not a freak like Fujia, nor was he a paranoid, but he truly experienced the role of mathematics. Moreover, he lived in a world of numbers.

Throughout the day's classes, Gray's brain was constantly running at high speed, completely tireless. The content of the course was not difficult to understand, but seeing the state of other students who were either confused or struggling to think, it seemed that it was not as simple as Gray felt. It seemed that the wisdom granted by the Moon Goddess Elucia was effective.

It was already the end of the month. When Gray returned to his area, the young female magic apprentice who had taken him on a tour of Deep Blue was already waiting for him at the door. Seeing Gray, she came forward, smiling sweetly and handing a light silver metal badge to Gray, saying that it was Gray's income and expenditure for this month. He could check it on the laboratory's alchemy table or use magic power to activate it to see the content inside.

The girl had a sweet appearance and a unique charm. Just standing there quietly, she naturally exuded a gentle temperament. Gray took the badge, looked at her, said thank you, and then walked into the area gate on his own.

Watching the two thick doors with metal luster slowly close in front of him, the girl angrily stamped her foot. She had the urge to blast open the two doors with magic, but she knew that the doors cast with anti-magic metal were also protected by magic arrays. Not to mention her mere second-level Acid Arrow, even a sixth-level Disintegration spell couldn't do anything to this door. Just these two metal doors were valuable, let alone the area behind them. Even if it was just an empty land inside, given the high land prices in Deep Blue, the empty land was also invaluable.

"You guy, we've met twice already, how come you didn't even ask my name?" the girl angrily muttered. She then remembered that according to the information, Aiden Gray seemed to be just ten years old. This age was too old for just starting a magic career but too young for a man. So she could only helplessly shake her head and leave angrily. But what could she do? If Aiden Gray truly possessed the abilities of a man, it would be too late to act then, and she wouldn't have a chance.

In Deep Blue, competition was everywhere.