That night, Constantine slept exceptionally soundly.

In the early morning, the sound of the bell from the bell tower of the college knocked away the sleepiness of the students.

Constantine had not experienced this kind of life in the morning and at dusk for many years, and the rough and tumble experience of his early years made him extremely vigilant even when he was sleeping, and he would not fall asleep easily.

So when he crawled out of the quilt with his loose sleepy eyes, he felt a little surprised, how long had he not slept like this?

But when he got the schedule for the new semester, the tiredness in his head suddenly disappeared.

This list is full of several courses, in addition to the regular courses of arithmetic, history, geography, music, etc., there are also courses in the theory of magic, history of magic, mathematics of magic, fundamentals of alchemy, spells, astrology, and biology of magic.

Not to mention anything else, there are no less than ten types of magic theories alone, which are required to be fully mastered in the first semester.

This is only the basic stage, and in the second semester, the academy will implement a stream, requiring students to choose one or two of the six major factions of magic for in-depth study.

It would be inconceivable that such a timetable could be placed in a magic school in many parts of the continent, but for hundreds of years, the Royal Academy of Magic has followed precisely such an absolute elitist training model.

This may explain why the Holy Empire's group of high-level mages is generally much stronger than the rest of the nations.

Unlike the Magical Guilds, which were increasingly reduced to the bureaucracy of the Empire, the Rectors of the Royal Academy have maintained their independence for centuries, remaining outside the center of imperial power and focusing on magic and academic research. In addition to the fact that the name can show some respect for the imperial family, most of the time, the relationship between the academy and the imperial family can be said to be inseparable.

It was not without ministers that they had raised objections, and the emperors of all dynasties had more or less moved the idea of formally incorporating the most famous magic academy on the continent into the imperial power system. More than 400 years ago, some of the Empire's most important ministers even had a famous debate with the first president of the Royal Academy.

The dean was not a powerful magician, or even a complete master of magic, but a pure scholar who was known for his profound knowledge of the empire, for which he was highly regarded by the emperor and appointed as the first president of the Royal Academy of Magic.

The debate stemmed from a decision by the dean that shocked the continent's magical community: the Royal Academy of Magic would not be limited to the Holy Empire, and magicians from any country could participate in the academy's assessment.

This meant that even the sworn enemies of the Empire, the magicians of the Dragon Lance Dynasty, could enter this supreme institution and enjoy the best magical education of that era.

This decision caused an uproar in the entire Imperial magical community, resulting in a favorite story that many old people living in the imperial capital loved to tell their children and grandchildren: a certain year and month, a large group of Holy Imperial magicians gathered at the gate of the Royal Academy, and the crowd was agitated to protest against the dean's actions, and many magicians even spit on the newly erected statue of St. Angel at the entrance of the courtyard, which happened at least five times a day.

However, the turmoil eventually subsided, as the master of the Empire, His Majesty the Emperor, took a stand in favor of the Dean's approach, and issued a very famous edict in history: no one in the Empire, including royalty and nobles, should interfere in the internal affairs of the Royal Academy of Magic.

On the day of the end of the debate, the dean uttered a famous sentence that would later be praised on the mainland:

Today, the Empire defends us with swords and iron horses, and tomorrow, we defend the Empire with pens and staffs.

Two hundred years later, the armies of the Holy Empire defeated the invincible Dragonlance Legion on the continent for the first time in the Sunset Plains, and in this epic war that established the supremacy of the continent, the strength of the Holy Empire mages was vividly displayed, verifying the accuracy of this famous saying.

An archmage of the Duchy of France, who participated in this heart-wrenching battle, later wrote in his memoirs: "Compared with the high-ranking magicians of the Holy Empire, the mages of other kingdoms are like harlequins who recite poems on the battlefield." ”

At this point, no one questioned the Academy's transcendent position in the Empire.

But for the mages who are fortunate enough to be admitted to this academy, the three years spent in this academy are almost the busiest and most painful period of their lives.

Many young mages who had just recovered from their ecstasy were petrified on the spot when they saw this timetable, and said in shock: Have we all learned all the magic from dogs for so many years?

In this regard, the teachers of the academy collectively told them with practical actions: Yes.

In the first class, the teacher who taught the theory of magic gave them a unique lesson.

The lecture is held in an open-air hall, and the clear sunlight shines into the hall through the glass of the dome and falls right on the podium, which adds a touch of dust to the teacher.

A hundred or so students sat on chairs in the hall, their expressions serious, and at the same time looked at the middle-aged mage standing in the sunlight with a little awe.

The middle-aged mage has a handsome and rigid face, the scythe of the years does not seem to have left many traces on his face, and his gestures are full of the demeanor and wisdom of a high-level mage, and many of the girl magicians in the audience have stars in their eyes.

But what really made everyone feel heartfelt awe was the blue-gold badge in the shape of a crown on the chest of this middle-aged mage, and being able to have this badge meant that the old-fashioned middle-aged mage in front of him was a crown-level great mage.

The crown mage, the existence second only to the great mage in the magic pyramid, is qualified to be the chief mage of the palace in any principality on the mainland, even if it is a holy empire rich in high-level mages, there are only one high-level mage who can wear this badge.

Considering the age of this mage, it was even more terrifying, like the old mage who fought Rommel on the academy lawn, so old, he was just a high-level mage wearing a golden scale.

And this mage became a crown mage before he was fifty years old, fifty years old, for the profession of magician, whose life span is particularly favored by the god of radiance, fifty years old has just completed less than one-third of the journey of life, and it is not news that a high-level mage lives for one or two hundred years, and it is not uncommon for old monsters with a life length of more than three centuries in the magic guild.

Most of the geniuses here asked themselves, that is, they had been meditating and practicing diligently for decades without eating or drinking, and if they were lucky, they were favored by the God of Radiance, and the final achievements were nothing more than that, which shows what a genius this middle-aged mage was when he was young.

Such a character would actually come to teach him a lesson, and while all the beings present were shocked, they couldn't help but quietly restrain a little arrogance on weekdays.

"Let me introduce myself, my name is Emmanuel Kant, my gender is male, I am a crown magician by profession, from the Duchy of Carroli, majoring in arcane and elemental magic, my academic expertise is the study of the nature of magic and the theory of elemental contracts, and my hobby is the study of the philosophy of magic, for example, the textbook "Critique of Arcane Reason" that you used in your second year was written by me. The middle-aged mage stated meticulously, emphasizing even the obvious information of gender, which shows that his style is rigorous and harsh.

Constantine didn't react when he heard this, after all, his understanding of the magic circle of the Holy Empire was infinitely close to zero, but when he heard the sound of exclamation and cold air around the middle-aged mage after reporting to his home, he still couldn't help but ask Julils, who was sitting next to him, in confusion: "Is this Mr. Kant very famous in the wizarding world?"

Julils was in awe and said, "Quite famous, Master Kant can be said to be one of the greatest pioneers in the field of magic philosophy, and is one of the very few great magicians who studied the philosophy of magic to the extreme. ”

Constantine couldn't help but be dumbfounded, remembering that the magician seemed to be very modest in his self-introduction, saying that the philosophy of magic was just a hobby.

However, he had no interest in this kind of mystical stuff, and as a bounty hunter, he had a very simple credo about learning magic: learning any magic that could not be used in battle was fed.

"Before I start this class, I need to ask all the magicians here, what is magic?"

The trainees stared wide-eyed, and a few mages hesitantly raised their hands, but then put them down.

"Every mage has to deal with magic all their lives, just as it is normal for ordinary people to nibble on bread and drink water every day, but what magic is is not a very easy question to answer, just like everyone knows '1+1=2', but if you are asked to answer why, you can't help but find it a little difficult, even if you know that it is an indisputable fact. ”

"Although mages are one of the users of magic, they don't necessarily know more about magic than ordinary people, and if you ask an ordinary person what ingredients are in the apples and bread he eats every day, he probably can't answer it. ”

"Of course, in the eyes of many magicians, magic is like food in the eyes of ordinary people, as long as it can be used, it may be a very boring practice to bother to find out what it is. ”

"But I will say that magic is a very serious thing here, and perhaps you are still complacent about being able to make a few more fireballs than your peers. I have to tell you very seriously that I will not teach you any useful magic skills in this class, let alone condone you to use this power unbridledly, after you have passed the mage examination, if I find out that one of you accidentally made a sun flame in my class, sorry, please swallow it. After saying this, Master Kant glanced sharply at Rommel, who was sitting in the front row, with a sharp gaze.

Rommel just smiled coldly.

"Finally, I want to emphasize that magic is a law, not a power, and it is not a great mage who can become a great mage by reciting a spell thousands of times, it is the training method of swordsmen, and it is only a war machine that wields a sword mechanically.

"Next, I want to talk about my understanding of magic. ”

"There is a very old and useful concept in physics, called 'force', using this concept to build a model and analyze, you can explain a lot of phenomena in daily life, force is defined as the interaction between objects, but to explain what is interaction? You have to go back to the concept of 'force', which is equivalent to saying nothing, so I am going to use an analogy to tell you what magic is. ”

"Many magicians in the early days also thought that magic was something similar to 'force', and later magicians discovered that magic can act on 'force' itself, so it must be a deeper existence. Kant seemed to be teaching to himself, "There are dozens of definitions of its text, but it seems to me that magic, if you have to use an analogy, is essentially a lever." ”

The students in the seats were intently breathing, and the more diligent ones had already taken out their pen and paper and began to record.

"As I said earlier, magicians are only one of the users of magic, which may be beyond the perception of some of you here, who have the inherent impression that magicians are the only group that uses magic, in fact, this perception is very one-sided. ”

"Some races are born with the ability to perceive and use magic, such as the High Elves, Dragons, and even some high-level magical beasts. ”

"Even in the human group, there are people who use magic power other than magicians, such as some swordsmen and knights with amazing martial arts, who can also use magic power, you should have heard of many legends of sword saints and dragon knights who are famous in the continent, these powerful warriors can cast their own sword energy, and can even attach certain attributes to the sword energy, thus causing terrible lethality, in fact, this is one of the ways to use magic power, those so-called sword energy, this is a kind of magic power, characterized by being extremely aggressive. ”

Constantine's mind couldn't help but think of the battle in the valley, the knight named Stewart, with the help of an ordinary long sword, swung his sword qi and beat Diderot, a high-ranking knight, to the ground.

If it weren't for Mordred, armed with the legendary spear, who appeared at the critical moment, Constantine had no doubt that Stewart alone would have been enough to wipe out the entire Guard.

This kind of power is really fascinating.

"Magic is almost an omnipotent lever, with which human magicians can change the magnitude and direction of force, control various elements of nature, create a variety of magical weapons, explore the fate and starry sky overhead, and even interfere with time and space to manipulate the body and spirit of living beings. Kant said in the tone of a lyric poet.

"But, as common sense tells us, any type of leverage, it needs a fulcrum, and so does magic. ”

"And the different choices of the fulcrum create different careers. ”

"The fulcrum of the magician's use of this lever is our spiritual power that is far beyond ordinary people, and through meditation practice, we can make our spiritual power more focused and powerful, so as to mobilize the omnipresent magic power. ”

"The fulcrum chosen by the warriors is their strong physique, when their bodies and wills are strong to a certain level, they can use magic power to a certain extent, such as the powerful sword qi released by the Sword Saint level powerhouse, which can directly dismember the hall in front of you that is protected by the magic enchantment. ”

An excellent student does not always passively wait for the teacher's explanation, and at this moment, a young mage in the audience dared to ask, "So, Mr. Kant, those clergy in the church, how do they use their magical powers? Is it true that their power is directly given by the Lord of Radiance, as the canon says?"

Kant said lightly: "That is a rare case, the priests and priests still use the same magic power as the magicians, but the fulcrum of their exercise of this lever is not spiritual power, but faith. ”

"Faith?"

"Yes, faith itself can also be a kind of fulcrum, and I guess this power should originate from the soul as much as spiritual power. Kant hesitated for a moment and added: "However, regarding the soul, there are still many blind spots to be explored in the human magic system, and I cannot elaborate on its principle, as for what the soul is, I think only God knows the answer." ”

"The magic performed by ordinary clerics on the fulcrum of faith is called divine magic, and the power they exert at this stage is no different from that of the rest of the magicians. "However, some powerful priests, their beliefs can give them direct access to the power of the God of Light, which is a higher level of power than ordinary magic. At that time, the spells they cast would be called divine magic, and its effect was far more powerful than ordinary magic, and the previous Pope Sects were the most amazing magicians in the continent, and their divine skills were difficult for even the ten major magisters to compete. ”