Chapter 16: In-Depth Experimentation

"Professor Lin, you... you have such a good relationship with His Excellency the Dean?" As soon as Lin Yuan sat back down in his class's spot, Natasha timidly asked beside him.

"Ah... relationship..." Seeing the students around him looking at him as if he were a monster, Lin Yuan couldn't help but feel a bit awkward. "It's fine, haha, it's fine."

The students' eyes immediately lit up. If Teacher Lin had such a good relationship with the Dean, wouldn't Class 3, Grade 1 have it much easier than other classes? At the very least, through the teacher's connection, they should be able to see the Dean more often.

Some students wanted to ask more, but just then the host came out to speak, so they had to stop.

"...Now, please welcome His Excellency the Dean to address us."

"Whoosh..."

The applause erupted like a storm, instantly sweeping across the entire field with a crackling sound.

It was then that Lin Yuan truly realized the status of a Grand Mage in the hearts of ordinary mages. Just his appearance alone was so powerful.

"Hello, everyone. First of all, I must apologize to you all," Old Man Hawk, standing on the stage with an unremarkable appearance, surprised the students below with his opening words. "I was supposed to be back a month ago, but I was delayed by some matters and only had the time to meet all of you today. I suppose this must have hurt many people's feelings. Fortunately, I am already too old. If I were as young as you, causing so many beautiful young ladies heartache at once would be unforgivable even by the gods."

"Haha..."

Hawk's self-deprecation immediately caused a burst of laughter from the crowd. Lin Yuan couldn't help but smile as well. With Hawk's status, his words only came across as witty; if it had been Lin Yuan, he would have probably been scolded as a rascal and sent packing.

After his opening remarks, Hawk's speech gradually shifted to introducing Finor Academy to the first-year students and encouraging all students to study hard and make progress every day... The general message was not much different from the countless school assemblies Lin Yuan had attended before.

After listening for a while, Lin Yuan suddenly yawned.

These past few days, taking the students on mercenary tasks seemed easy on the surface, but to ensure the students' safety, Lin Yuan had actually expended a lot of energy. At the same time, he had to research mixed magic, so he hadn't had a good rest for the entire month. Now, with Old Man Hawk's monotonous speech acting like a sleeping pill, he could no longer resist.

His eyelids struggled for a moment, but eventually, his eyes closed and did not open again. Lin Yuan's head tilted to the side, and he fell asleep just like that.

※※※

When Lin Yuan opened his eyes again, he found that he had somehow returned to his dormitory. Looking at himself, he was even surprised to see that his outer coat had been taken off.

He turned on the magical lamp, and the room was illuminated once again.

To his surprise, the room was unexpectedly tidy. Even the few dirty clothes he had left in the basin were now hanging on the balcony outside. The evening breeze blew, causing the black robes to flutter, resembling a ghost swaying on the balcony.

"Did the students bring me back here?" Lin Yuan rubbed his head and got up.

Sure enough, there was a note on the table, signed by Fasno.

The note basically said that the academy gathering had ended, and since Lin Yuan hadn't woken up yet, the students had carried him back to the dormitory. Then Teacher Katusha had stayed behind to take care of him, and Fasno had left with the other students.

"So Katusha washed these clothes," Lin Yuan looked at the clothes hanging on the balcony and couldn't help but sigh. "It would be great if she were a beauty..."

After eating something at the academy's cafeteria to fill his stomach, Lin Yuan went to the river outside the academy again.

In the afternoon, in Hawk's lab, there hadn't been enough time to delve deeper into the mixed magic. Now, with the quiet of the night and no one to disturb him, Lin Yuan naturally wanted to get to the bottom of this.

This time, instead of hastily summoning water and fire balls, he sat down, closed his eyes, and began to meditate.

When Professor Hawk taught him magic, he had mentioned that a mage's magical power is easiest to build a foundation through meditation when one is young. As one grows older, it becomes more difficult to concentrate one's spiritual energy. Moreover, without the long-term training from a young age, the effect of meditation would be very poor.

During those two months, Lin Yuan had conducted countless experiments on this. Each time he meditated, he could indeed feel his magical power growing, but the increase was extremely minimal. According to Hawk's evaluation, even if Lin Yuan meditated for 100 years, the magical elements he would absorb would not be as much as he could absorb in one day of meditation, and it would not even be as effective as a magic apprentice. The idea of increasing one's magical power through meditation alone was almost impossible.

If it weren't for Lin Yuan's special physique and his already "adequate" magical power, he wouldn't even be able to master all the Level 2 and below spells, let alone successfully learn and cast magic.

After numerous meditation experiments, Lin Yuan had to admit that Hawk was right; his meditation effect was indeed very weak. So, in the end, he simply gave up on this approach and focused on studying the application of his magic, which was also the reason he could teach the students.

However, this did not mean that meditation was entirely useless for Lin Yuan. In a meditative state, a mage's perception of magical elements is much clearer than in a normal state, and casting spells becomes much smoother. The problem is that entering a meditative state takes time, and in battle, there is no time for that. Therefore, generally speaking, mages cannot meditate while fighting.

Of course, it is excellent for studying magic.

After spending some time entering a meditative state, Lin Yuan began to gather a small portion of water and fire elements from the surrounding magical elements. He did not directly create a fire-and-ice ball this time, because now he wanted to figure out under what circumstances the fire-and-ice ball would be generated.

This time, he simply gathered the elements without a specific target. As expected, when the two magical elements approached each other, they were much more active than in a normal state, and thus more dangerous. When Lin Yuan controlled them to separate slightly, this phenomenon weakened significantly, and even disappeared.

This once again proved Lin Yuan's conjecture that magical elements have a form of consciousness.

Then Lin Yuan simulated a target in his mind and gathered the two types of magical elements again. However, contrary to his expectations, the fireball and waterball showed no intention of merging. If Lin Yuan had not reacted quickly, he would have faced another explosion.

"Strange..." According to the experiment with Hawk this afternoon, when magical elements have the same target, they should temporarily unite, but that was not the case now.

"Could it be that they know this target is fake?" Lin Yuan was shocked by his own thought. Do magical elements have such a high level of intelligence? That would be too incredible.

The proof is in the pudding. Lin Yuan opened his eyes, aimed at a stone by the river, and gathered the two types of magical elements again. As expected, the two magical elements merged without much resistance.

Looking at the fire-and-ice ball in his hand, which flickered with red and blue light, Lin Yuan couldn't help but smile. These two types of magical elements were like two mischievous children. They usually bickered and fought with each other, but once they had a common enemy, they would unite and face it together.

Thinking of facing a common enemy, Lin Yuan suddenly remembered the moment when he killed the Gale Slaughter. At that time, he clearly felt how precisely the two types of magical elements in the fire-and-ice ball cooperated. The fire element was mainly for attack, while the water element was mainly for defense. Not only did it ensure Lin Yuan's own safety, but it also unleashed such a powerful force.

Thinking of this, a dangerous idea suddenly sprouted in Lin Yuan's mind.

Let them collide inside his body and see what happens?

If other mages knew the thought that was going through Lin Yuan's mind, they would surely think he had gone mad.

Magic is a very precise and dangerous subject. This is especially evident during meditation.

When a mage meditates, the main purpose is to absorb magical elements and then, by retaining a small part of the magical elements during the absorption process, gradually convert them into one's own magical power. Eventually, this magical power is used to control the external magical elements to cast spells. However, the external magical elements are not stable. Although different types of magical elements can maintain balance outside the human body, once they are separated, they become very dangerous.

Therefore, generally speaking, a mage cannot absorb two different types of magical elements at the same time. This is why most mages can only practice one type of magic, and at most, they can practice another type as a supplement.

After all, human energy and time are limited.

In general, allowing two different types of magical elements, especially completely conflicting ones like fire and water, to enter one's body is an extremely dangerous thing. Even Lin Yuan, who possessed the rare ability to handle all types of magic, had to proceed with extreme caution.

He first drew a minuscule amount of fire element into his body, allowing it to settle in his left arm. The choice of location was deliberate; even if the two elemental forces conflicted and exploded, the impact on his future life would be minimal if it happened in his left arm.

After stabilizing the fire element, Lin Yuan introduced an equally small amount of water element into his body, guiding it toward the fire element. As the two elemental forces neared each other, Lin Yuan paused them, took a moment to focus his mind, and then slowly brought the water element closer.

Under his full concentration, the two elemental forces remained stable as they drew nearer, showing no signs of conflict. This reassured Lin Yuan significantly.

Finally, the two elemental forces touched.