Meteor Fall Master in the 'Starry Abyss'
Chapter 367 - 013. Magic Aptitude Test

Chapter 367: 013. Magic Aptitude Test

Learning magic couldn’t be considered an easy task.

Even though Li Aozi had raised his "Intelligence" to 84 points, facing so much knowledge, he couldn’t fully digest it all at once.

Magic is a practical discipline, which must be understood from the nature of magic itself. Constructing a spell is not what laymen might think of as "chanting magic," but rather like programming, where models are built, instructions inputted, and results outputted.

Chanting is actually meant for the caster’s own ears.

How laypeople imagine spellcasting: Ah, fiery Fire Element, please gather into a fireball and burn my enemies!—Failure to release, magical backlash, spitting blood.

How magicians actually cast spells: [Add: Fire Element—Gather/Set—Hover over palm=5cm] Event-driven—Fill factor [while range exceeds 500 yards=burst]—Auto-correct error=0]————Release failed—Restart—hello world!

For example, the widely acclaimed high-rank spell "Fireball Technique," which requires "Shaping Magic Studies" and "Elemental Advanced Theory" as its basis, involves not just constructing the spell, but also how to launch, aim, and adjust the trajectory of the shot.

For this reason, to release a fireball with precise lethality and stable controllability, you would also need to study "Ballistics," "Calculus," "Experimental Aerodynamics," "Nuclear Physics," and other auxiliary subjects.

This is actually easy to understand, as a mage’s real battlefield lies in outer space, high-energy ray bombarded war zones, or desolate asteroid belts, and every combat spell is designed to adapt to the vast cosmic environment.

However, there is one good thing about spells: combat spells, by merely removing a few formulas, can be directly converted from military to civilian use. This is the greatest advantage of Magic Side civilization. By heavily focusing on military magic, one can reap efficient civilian magic.

Because of this, Magic Side civilization hardly has any corporate companies, replaced instead by various magic workshops and academic syndicates controlled by military and academic bureaucrats, using these as replacements for job positions.

Li Aozi’s main focus is on "Universal Magic," which is the foundation of everything, addressing the objective exploration and summarization of the laws of everything in the magic civilization.

The practicability of "Universal Magic" is very poor, with almost no spells available for learning in the early stages, but Li Aozi still chose to specialize in it unequivocally because the theory is just too classical. He can wholly base it on this to unearth a worldview of "Objective Materialism"—which is also his goal.

Studying magic and science is all about embracing Materialism, or why even bother?

"Objective Materialism" and "Objective Idealism" are the two most mainstream worldviews in the universe. Choosing "Objective Materialism" naturally includes "Thought Deconstruction," which offers a 50% learning adjustment for any extraordinary knowledge, making it easier to transition between different worldviews later on.

Moreover, "Objective Materialism" in itself provides an advantage that neither Li Aozi nor any spellcaster can refuse:

Trait·"Stern Heaven" — Units possessing ’Divinity’ cannot exempt any of your spell’s effects.

This trait is famously known as ’God Slayer.’ For this reason, magicians and martial artists who follow Objective Materialism make up the group with the most deicide.

By the way, Lord Entropy is a unit with ’Divinity’.

"With the talent of the Tanas people, I can master ’Objective Materialism’ within four years. This way, when confronting Lord Entropy, I can also contribute."

Azure Star is Li Aozi’s main base, where he has friends and power; he could not give up such an important place. Moreover, Li Aozi does not intend to let the Forged Society go.

He planned to find an opportunity to deal with both Lord Entropy and the Forged Society at once.

On the other hand, Li Aozi discovered something interesting.

As he achieved breakthroughs in his understanding and depth in magical theory, Li Aozi had mastered a specialty called "Broad Knowledge and Strong Memory," which could increase proficiency improvement speed by 10%.

This wasn’t anything special; after all, gaining a specialty through practice and in-depth learning is quite normal.

Until Li Aozi was checking the status of his implant gear, he glanced at the specialty section.

—— "Broad Knowledge and Strong Memory" was prominently listed!

"The specialties and knowledge I have acquired through my own studies will stay with me for life, and won’t disappear with the changing of bodies... This is different from in the game, the system did not show it, but it truly exists," he said.

Li Aozi was even more convinced of his previous deduction—the Qiqiao Network was indeed concealing and blocking many things, especially in terms of understanding the knowledge information within the game.

Why would they do this?

Is it to maintain the stability of the Terra Federation (real world), or could it be... they are afraid of knowledge itself?

After all, the knowledge possessed by the players was no longer just cutting-edge; a few players had even gathered fantasy-level knowledge.

Considering the essence of ’knowledge technology,’ in fact, one of the Destroyers, the "Eye of Discernment," looked at this setting; perhaps... in reality, they feared the ’Eye of Discernment’ more.

Li Aozi did not ponder deeply; continuing this way, he felt he was getting deeper and deeper, and soon he would be eroded and corrupted by society.

The boundary between reality and game had become blurred, but the ever mischievous Li Aozi still knew what was more urgent; he began to bury his head in his studies, dedicating his energy to serious research into magic.

In addition to studying textbooks, Li Aozi did not forget to memorize rigorously, using the tactic of repetitive problem-solving to strengthen his exam skills, which came easily for him. After all, solving problems didn’t cost much, but this spiral of internal competition.

It proved that practice required a threshold, problem-solving did not, and it indeed brought substantial benefits.

Two weeks later, Li Aozi closed his books and walked out of his house.

"Done studying, it’s time to venture out," he said.

Li Aozi arrived at the village’s public flying carpet stand. Today was the exam day in the city, the magical aptitude test held biweekly. For rural folks, it was still a significant expense, so everyone prepared very seriously, only deciding to take the exam when they felt almost certain of passing.

While it was not uncommon, the exam lasted a full five days, so there were many people offering well-wishes; relatives of the examinees grabbed onto them, repeatedly confirming that they hadn’t forgotten anything right before boarding the flying carpet, their packages filled with treats and food they wouldn’t normally indulge in, as well as spare clothes.

While comforting their children saying, "Don’t be nervous, if not this year, we can come again next year," they simultaneously murmured with a hopeful expression, "If you pass, it would bring glory to our ancestors."

Luther’s figure was also among the many candidates, and Li Aozi spotted him immediately.

Primarily because those seeing him off were indeed conspicuous:

Apart from a cute, caring childhood friend, there was also a voluptuous mature beauty who resembled Luther’s facial structure; probably his sister or someone similar, cheerfully reassuring, "Don’t worry, your sister believes in you."

Beside the beauty stood a round-faced, big-eyed, golden twin-tailed rich loli, who always turned her face away when speaking to Luther, her cheeks scarlet, and deliberately putting on airs as she said, "I just happened to be passing by, I—I didn’t come specifically to see you off, I don’t care whether you pass or not."

There was also a cold-tempered black-haired literary girl wearing glasses, who gently adjusted her glasses and indifferently said upon farewell, "It doesn’t matter where you get admitted, I can make it there too."

The lad’s parents hadn’t come, but his harem did in full force, occupying three seats with their farewell gifts.

——Li Aozi suddenly felt that he had gone a bit easy on him before.