Chapter 6 Three and Five

Winters remained silent as he watched Ike struggling.

Given the army's thirst for spellcasters, it is unlikely that they would miss a potential cadet.

But it is very immoral to arbitrarily deny someone's dream, even if it is true.

Ike tried hard to "use magic", his face gradually got closer and closer to the stone bench, his expression gradually became ferocious, and his eyeballs were almost sticking to the water droplets.

Considering the temperature today, whether Ike has spellcasting ability or not, the water on the stone slab will vaporize sooner or later.

"Do you feel anything special?" Winters asked.

"Yes, my eyes are very dry."

"I just like your sense of humor."

"Water cannot be used to test potential people, otherwise there would be no need for special equipment to screen spellcasters." Winters explained why water testing is not possible: "General Antoine Laurent once mentioned that the magic power required to vaporize a drop of water is more than the magic power consumed by accelerating an arrow with a 100-pound hard bow."

"But the general just mentioned it casually without detailed proof." Winters added: "But I can also feel from my training that water is the most difficult liquid to vaporize. Do you understand now why acceleration spells are recognized as the most lethal?"

"It seems that vaporizing water is of no use, but accelerating an arrow can kill people?" Axel answered tentatively.

"That's right. The difficulty of casting a spell is not linked to the power of the spell." Winters thought of the embarrassing situation of the fire spell and shook his head: "Magic does not exist for killing. Humans are just picking the most suitable magic for killing."

"What's there to say? After practicing swordsmanship for ten years, being shot dead on the battlefield, isn't it more aggrieved?" Ike accepted it very easily. He drew inferences from one example: "The Lord did not create steel and gunpowder for killing, right? Aren't they used for killing?"

"Yeah."

The water droplets on the stone bench have completely disappeared, and Ike has no feeling of using magic. He is a little frustrated: "I really don't have a talent for spells."

"Not necessarily, anyway, it can't be measured with water."

Winters comforted Ike: "If you want to test, I will take you to see Teacher Christian tomorrow. He should have a way."

"Which teacher Christian?

[Christian] means believer. There are too many people with this name in Lu Academy.

"Head of the Spellcaster Teaching and Research Department, he should be the most powerful spellcaster in Lu Academy. Don't worry, he's very kind, and it's okay to ask him for help. "

"Forget it, just try it casually, I don't think I'm really a spellcaster." Winters volunteered to help Ike find someone to test, but Ike became timid.

It's one thing for the two of them to take a few drops of water and test it casually, but it's another thing to go to the head of the teaching and research department and use special instruments.

"You should tell me what it feels like to use magic." Ike was very curious.

"I can't describe it accurately in words." No matter how Winters organized his language, he couldn't describe it properly: "Let me give you an example, can you describe colors to a person who is born blind?"

This question also stumped Ike. He was stunned for a while, thinking of various ways to describe it, and finally admitted: "No, how can people who have never known what color is understand color?"

"The feeling of using magic is the same. How can you describe the feeling of using magic to people who have never experienced magic?" Winters told the truth, and then he quickly added: "I'm just making an analogy, not saying that you are a disabled person. "

"Of course I understand what you mean." Ike smiled gently and said, "It depends on the standard of normal people. If the caster is a normal person, then we are indeed disabled."

"You are a normal person, and the caster is the exception." Winters quickly stopped the topic: "I will try my best to describe the feeling of using magic, but it is not very accurate, and it is limited to my feelings."

"Okay."

"Sometimes there will be a very strong squeezing feeling, as if the whole space is pressing towards me; sometimes there will be a very strong tingling feeling, like being stabbed by a knife; sometimes it is very cold, and sometimes it is very hot." Winters frowned and recalled the feeling of using magic.

He continued: "The point is that these feelings do not come from any part of my body, just like others are being beaten but I am in pain. Do you know phantom pain?"

"After the amputation, the soldier feels that his severed limbs are still there, and there is still pain?"

"Yes, it's like phantom pain. "Winters nodded: "But for me, it's not because a part of the body is cut off that causes phantom pain, but it's like a part of the body that I never had.

The part of the body that causes pain has no flesh and blood, but it feels real. It's not accurate to say it's a limb, but I don't know how to describe it accurately. Just like what I said just now, you can't describe colors to a blind person. "

"I understand a little bit of what you said."

"So the Alliance spellcasters call magical talents the invisible 'third hand' and the 'fifth limb' besides the limbs. The numbers three and five have important symbolic meanings to the Alliance spellcasters, so the Alliance Spellcasters Association is also called the Three-Five Association. "

Winters dipped his hand in water and drew a symbol on the stone bench. He first drew a regular pentagon, then connected one vertex of the pentagon to the other two vertices, dividing the pentagon into three triangles.

"This is the symbol of the Alliance spellcaster. Look at its shape. A regular pentagon is divided into three triangles. It can represent the third hand, the fifth limb, and the three triangles can also represent the three major types of magic." Winters explained the meaning of the symbol to Ike while drawing.

"So this is the symbol of the spellcaster? I was wondering why you wear this badge every day. I always thought it was the symbol of the Hailan Hometown Association!"

"Don't you know this is the symbol of the spellcaster?"

"You didn't say."

"You didn't ask."

This chicken/egg cycle continues and there is no end.

Winters quickly remembered something: "Didn't we take a tactical class on countering magic?"

"It was because of the description of the anti-magician class instructor that I felt that the caster could kill me with just a snap of his fingers." Ike said with a smile: "The magic he talked about in class is different from what you told me."

"I think the anti-magic class should be talking about Richard IV's official thugs during the War of Sovereignty - the court wizards." Winters understood what was going on: "The number of court wizards is very small and extremely mysterious. Outsiders don't know what their training content and spell implementation methods are."

Winters recalled what he had learned about court mages in literature class: "Fremen scholars recorded that the emperor of the ancient Silk Country had summoned a meteor shower, destroying hundreds of thousands of rebels. A spellcaster like me who can only light a candle cannot understand how to achieve such a super spell."

"Summoning a meteor shower? If the court mages were really that powerful, how could Mad Richard not conquer Guitu City?"

"So I think this part of the content in the ancient books is mostly bragging. Anyway, it's all bragging, so it must be exaggerated." Winters laughed.

"Book of the Later Han Dynasty·The Chronicle of Emperor Guangwu": At night, a meteor fell into the camp, and during the day, there were clouds like broken mountains, falling in the camp, and dispersing before reaching the ground. The officials and soldiers were all tired and lay down.

"Book of Jin·The Chronicle of Emperor Xuan": He met with Liang at Jishi and fought on the plain. Liang could not advance and returned to Wuzhangyuan. There was a long star that fell on Liang's camp. The emperor knew that he would be defeated, so he sent a special force to attack Liang from behind, killing more than 500 people, capturing more than 1,000 prisoners, and more than 600 surrendered.

"Book of Jin: Chronicle of Emperor Xuan": At that time, there was a long star, white in color, with a mane, flowing from the southwest of Xiangping City to the northeast, and falling into Liangshui, shocking the people in the city. Wen Yi was very frightened, so he asked his appointed prime minister Wang Jian and Imperial Censor Liu Fu to surrender and ask for the siege to be lifted.