It is an elegant tea room with light blue wallpaper on the walls, and although it is not large, it looks very warm. Outside the tea room is an elaborate terrace covered with verdant ivy. Under the clear blue sky, the warm light shines through the lattice-shaped window edges and spills into the quiet tea room.

A young girl in the prime of her life sat on a white rattan chair, holding a large book with a black cover, and a cup of steaming tea was placed on the small round table next to her.

A calm afternoon is like a painting.

The girl looked at the book in her hand seriously, and before she knew it, her white fingers turned another page, and at this moment, there was a faint thunder in the clear and cloudless sky, and the girl put down the book in her hand.

She came to the terrace, and a magnificent city appeared before the girl's eyes.

From the bustling street at your feet to the distant horizon, semi-circular arched buildings are lined up, and the vaults made of white stone and jade stretch to the end of the line of sight like buds that have not yet bloomed. On the terraces and walls of these buildings, most of them are growing climbing plants like ivy, and these green and resilient lives bring a natural breath to the whole city.

Here, is the capital of Sophion, an ancient city that also bears the name of Sophion, ancient, but full of life.

Among the "sea of flowers" composed of buildings, the most striking thing is the seven towering trees standing in the sea of flowers, which are seven tall towers.

The girl's gaze was on the tallest of the six towers in the center.

There, it is the mage tower that belongs to the president of the Arcane Federation, the Lord of the Seven Towers, the Guardian of Sophion, the Master of the Sculpting Department, the Lord of the Storm, and the legendary mage Stone Sylder.

The faint thunder lasted for more than ten seconds, and when the thunder died down, the girl had already left the tea room. Only the large black cover that was still spread out and the lingering fragrance in the air proved that the owner of the house had just left.

Ten minutes later, the girl in the carriage came to the door of the mage tower, and after casting a magic mark on the steel golem at the door, she teleported into the tower through the magic array.

Looking at the tall figure standing in front of the desk, the girl bowed her head respectfully: "Teacher, you're back." ”

The red-robed mage was frowning and thinking about something, when he saw his student come in, he spoke: "You came just in time, I need information from Xiya, has the royal family received any new news recently?"

The girl pondered for a few seconds, and then began to recount fluently the dossier she had recently seen.

"Stop!" Like a bolt of thunder, the legendary mage interrupted the girl, shook his head and said, "I don't need these one-sided, outdated, cookie-cutter reports! I need to know the situation of the country as a whole! I wonder if they are capable of resisting the attacks of those religious lunatics in the north?"

"It's too difficult to get a safe and secure identity in Thea that allows you to move around. The girl smiled bitterly, defended the intelligence officer in Thea a little, and then said: "However, after the news came from the Northland a few months ago, I asked Lawrence to go to Thea in person, and calculated the time, he should be back soon." ”

"Lawrence? I remember the lad. The red-robed mage nodded with satisfaction: "He's very good, but it's a pity that he doesn't have the talent to learn magic." ”

He looked at the girl in front of him—the most gifted disciple he had seen in hundreds of years—and his expression became serious: "So, Alice, cherish everything you have. ”

The teacher's faint admonition with the sound of wind and thunder still echoed in her ears, and the girl who had left the magic tower looked up at the blue sky, her jewel-blue eyes revealing an unconcealable confusion - even so, what is magic?

......

What exactly is magic?

As the carriage pulled out of the gate on the other side of the Ailay Pass, Enid in the carriage was also thinking about this question.

Even in such a special place, at a moment of special significance, she still sat in her carriage, holding the silver magic book in her hand, reading calmly and intently.

The silvery-white cover of this three-foot-thick book reflects the mysterious specks of light that flow through Enid every time she turns the pages.

She was immersed in her own world, no matter what kind of snow and wind it was outside.

Spellcasters measure their level by the spells they can cast, and with Enid's current level, magic is no stranger to her.

However, without the practical parts of building spell models and infusing magic power, there are also some difficult doubts that come to mind, such as when she learns to cast spells without materials.

It's ridiculous to say, how exactly did she learn to cast spells and avoid materials, in fact, even she didn't know very well.

Here's the thing: First, she knew from her previous reading that there was a spell-casting technique called Spell Casting Material, which could help spellcasters avoid the trouble of scrambling to find spell materials from their bosoms in case of emergency.

The little girl then began to look for clues about this spell-casting technique in the family library, as well as in the various notes and books of the magic tower.

In fact, in the end, she didn't find the kind of foolish spell-casting tutorial that explicitly said "what to do in the first step, how to do it in the second step".

She found only one story.

It was an old mage's note, in which he wrote: Once, he was attacked by a small group of bear goblins in the field, and in a hurry, he pulled out a small piece of fur - which was needed to cast a lightning-bolt - and began to cast a spell, just when an enemy arrow came and took the fur from his hands......

"I was scared, desperate, almost insane, 'It's a boring piece of skin,' and I said to myself, 'I don't need it!' I can cast spells without it!'" - the old mage wrote in his notes, and he did.

Is this okay? Enid was very suspicious of this, because it violated some of her knowledge of magic, and violated some of the "rules" of magic that she thought she should follow. Then, she was ready to throw away the notebook and look for other clues.

Is it magic that controls you, or are you the magic?, however, the last sentence on the note touched her, and Enid muttered to it, randomly constructing a spell model of a magic alarm in her mind, rubbing her fingers and looking out the window. "I don't need any copper bells, and I don't need any silver wires, I can cast this spell. She said to herself.

The spell succeeded, and the rules were broken.

Also shattered is Enid's confidence in using the scientific methods of another world to thoroughly analyze magic.

So now, Enid looked intently at the silver magic book, which was not a high-level spell, but like an old mage's notes, it was written a lot of such rule-breaking whims. Enid could feel that the path of magic, which she thought had come to an end and had no direction, had become deep again......